Trends between Personality and Body Type in (female) Anime characters

[Issun]

I'm curious as to what everyone has noticed as far as major trends (you can mention specific character examples, but there should be at least two) between personality traits and physical character design in females across Anime. Particularly, I'm interested in the dichotomy of introversion and extraversion, and classical archetypes, such as Red Oni / Blue Oni, the shrinking violet, the stoic, the boisterous one, the tomboy, the emotionless girl, ect. What physical traits and general body types have you noticed that tend to be associated with certain personality traits / archetypes?

In particular:
Hair (color / length)
Breast size
Athleticism
ect.

Finally, what reasons could you think of for each trend you've noticed?

[Tenzen12]

I don't think there is realy need think too deeply about that.

1)There are colours, common association, pink and blonde is girly, cold colours are rational/emotionalless, warm colours for more open. Case of Red/Blue Oni is Self Demonstratory. White is sign of purity and innocence.

2)Hair styles doesn't follow rules that much, but short hairs and pony tails are for active characters (because it's practical obviously) same goes for spiky ones (it's proof their appearence is not priority), loose hair for more girly characters, but long dark hairs tend to be for strong villed and dangerous girls . Twin tails are almost always tsunderes, just because.


3)breast size on it's own aren't related to any psychical feature, but breasted lolis - girly, flat loli - tsundere (because Shana). Well maybe flat chest can be considered as implication of tsunderesness in general. Tall characters tend to be dignified (they can have either) .

4) Glasses - inteligence of course.
5) Skin: white - girly, dignified ect, tanned - active

It's mostly just metter of common sense and widespread conventions

[Triple_R]

Red-haired girls tend to be a bit saucy, and pretty frequently tsunderes. How extroverted they are seems to be inversely proportional to how tsundere they are (i.e. the more extroverted, the less tsundere).

Examples - Shana, Maki Nishikino, Sana Inui, Kyouko Sakura, Yuiko Enomoto, Hisa Takei


Blonde-haired girls with fancy hair (i.e. more than just basic pony-tail or twin-tails or just long) tend to have a "high-class" rich person vibe to them. They can, however, run the full gamut from very nice/friendly/warm to elitist/snobbish. How tsundere they are seems to be proportional to how snobbish they are.

Examples - Mami Tomoe, Darjeeling, Airi Sena, Takahi Ninomiya, Luviagelita Edelfelt


Long, dark-haired girls tend to be kuuderes in modern times, maybe with a light sprinkling of yamato nadeshiko. They often tend to be elegant badasses. This might be inspired by Rei Hino (Sailor Mars).

Examples - Satsuki Kiryuin, Saki Rukino, Homura Akemi, Chiaki Kurihara, Kuroyukihime (Accel World)

[SPARTAN 119]

In addition to broad stereotypes, there are often character architypes that are clearly all based on one character.

Among the more prolific is the Rei/Nagato, influenced by Rei Ayanami and Yuki Nagato. Distinguishing characteristics include short silver hair, small bust size and a kuudere personality. May also be meganekko. Sometimes, the character is skilled with computers or technology, a trait likely stemming from Nagato. Examples: Rei Ayanami (obviously), Yuki Nagato (Also obvious), Noel (Sora no Woto), Tobiichi Origami (Date A Live), Furano Yukino (NouCome), probably more i'm forgetting.

[Ithekro]

From what I understand, the Rei/Nagato type was a misfire in making a character that went entirely the other way from the intended results. Rei Ayanami was suppose to be creepy or something, but the audiance reacted differently than expected. Yuki Nagato, on the other hand, was designed based on the reaction to what Rei Ayanami's character became seen as. Thus Nagato works really well for minimal movement and speaking most of the time. Also the character somehow manages to give off a lot of emotions with very, very subtile moments (that might be the audiance looking more closely than they would with other character types, or it might be a mix of Kyon's narration and the careful touches in animation and music for some scenes).

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

2)Hair styles doesn't follow rules that much, but short hairs and pony tails are for active characters (because it's practical obviously)

And then there's the obvious subversion with Homura who wore her hair loose and kept having to flip it back.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Long, dark-haired girls tend to be kuuderes in modern times, maybe with a light sprinkling of yamato nadeshiko. They often tend to be elegant badasses. This might be inspired by Rei Hino (Sailor Mars).

And odds are their father is either a Shinto priest (in which case they have magic powers) or a martial arts master (in which case they're an expert swordswoman). The likelihood of this being the case increases if they have a hime-cut.

[iSuckAtWriting]

I've noticed pink-haired girls tend to be candidates for TNA (Total Nonstop Airhead), while braided twintails almost always go with an elegant lady of class.

[Archon_Wing]

Blond females that aren't lolis seem to have to have bigger boobs and are bossier or louder (Sena from Haganai being the example that sticks out and there's also Margery Daw). Bonus points if they're some fraction Japanese and something else. Multiply it if they're any part American. This may be a relic of old anime when the blond dude was always evil (MD Geist, Char) and/or more aggressive (Super Saiyans). Err I mean the more aggressive part, not the boob part.

Girls with red hair are often action girls, or else completely irrelevant to the story.

[Darthtabby]

You say its "bonus points" if a blonde anime girl who is busty, loud and bossy is also part foreign, but isn't the fact that so many blonde girls in anime are western or part western probably one of the major reasons why so many of them are busty, loud and bossy? That makes more sense to me then them being loud and bossy because of evil blonde guys in older anime.

[Archon_Wing]

I was hoping the super saiyan part would reveal that I was being facetious, but regardless, it's clear that they certainly do view westerners in a certain hillarious way much like how westerners portray asians in their medium.

[Darthtabby]

Did you edit the Super-Saiyan bit in later? It didn't register as much in my mind for some reason. At any rate sorry I missed the joke.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, I guess it wasn't a very good joke anyways. =p

[Eragon]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Girls with red hair are often action girls, or else completely irrelevant to the story.

Why you hating on gingers, bruh ? (Unless you are shitting on Shana. Then, idc)


The long and dark haired ojousamas with regal body proportions are a mainstay in yuri anime/manga.

[SPARTAN 119]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

And odds are their father is either a Shinto priest (in which case they have magic powers) or a martial arts master (in which case they're an expert swordswoman). The likelihood of this being the case increases if they have a hime-cut.

That said, I suspect we might see more long-dark haired girls who prefer firearms and explosives to blades or (directly offensive anyway) magic. Vividred had Rei Kuroki, and I wouldn't be surprised if "The Homura" becomes a character type similar to "The Rei/Nagato".

Also, in terms of character design and personality, there is the short, poorly endowed tsundere, also known as the "Shana clone" or the "Kugimiya character" because so many of the (Shana, Louise, Taiga, Aria) were voiced by Rie Kugimiya.