Thread: Is it just me, or the blonde females are exceptionally tall?

Originally Posted by YamiiDenryuu

Also, blondes in anime tend to be associated with stereotypical foreigners, who also tend to be taller than the asian-by-default characters, so that might also play a part.

It's because of this my fiance is convinced that Cynthia is supposed to be "American" for how bubbly she is along with how she looks.

Bianca is more tall than Ash because is clearly older than Ash. It's stated in the dialogue that Bianca start her journey at later age.
About Cynthia, is tall but this can't ge said of all blonde woman.

If you ask me that one with Bianca in it is all messed up in terms of the character's proportions. It's like they took Bianca and re-sized her to make her larger than everyone else. Not only is she sized incorrectly but Ash is looking like a stick figure there.

I know this is super late...but I disagree with the premise of the thread because I disagree that these characters are even "blonde" in the first place.

In Western animation, we've always used the color yellow to depict people with blonde hair. Nobody's hair is actually the bright yellows that we end up using, of course, but we use them anyway for simplicity's sake. Similarly, we use the color red to depict redheads even though nobody's hair is actually that color.

But who's to say that Japanese animation has to follow those same conventions? If they can have characters with blue hair and green hair and purple hair and pink hair, then why can't they have characters with yellow hair? Why does yellow have to mean blonde, 100% of the time? Because American animators say so?

I think Game Freak gave characters like Jun and Shirona yellow hair because they thought yellow was a nice color, end of story. I don't think they see these characters as "blondes" or are trying to say that Shirona is American or anything like that.


As for the topic at hand...the animators can't even keep the sizes of the Pocket Monsters for whom this show is named after consistent. What makes us think they pay any attention to the humans' height?

BW height Settei:


Looks like Cilan and Cynthia are the same height, so I wouldn't say she's exceptionally tall. You can see Alder in the back and it looks like he's slightly taller than those two, but the screencap you showed is probably more of a fixed angle. Not sure about Bianca though... Either that was an animation error, or she's taller than Cynthia(!)

I know this is super late...but I disagree with the premise of the thread because I disagree that these characters are even "blonde" in the first place.

Does it matter? I think the point is they have the same color hair, not that it necessarily corresponds to bleach blonde IRL. This is kind of a silly thread to begin with, though XD

Originally Posted by Dogasu

I know this is super late...but I disagree with the premise of the thread because I disagree that these characters are even "blonde" in the first place.

In Western animation, we've always used the color yellow to depict people with blonde hair. Nobody's hair is actually the bright yellows that we end up using, of course, but we use them anyway for simplicity's sake. Similarly, we use the color red to depict redheads even though nobody's hair is actually that color.

But who's to say that Japanese animation has to follow those same conventions? If they can have characters with blue hair and green hair and purple hair and pink hair, then why can't they have characters with yellow hair? Why does yellow have to mean blonde, 100% of the time? Because American animators say so?

I think Game Freak gave characters like Jun and Shirona yellow hair because they thought yellow was a nice color, end of story.

That doesn't mean it wasn't meant to be blonde. Otherwise, you could argue that there are no blondes in anime.

As for the topic at hand...the animators can't even keep the sizes of the Pocket Monsters for whom this show is named after consistent. What makes us think they pay any attention to the humans' height?

Can't argue with that.

Originally Posted by Joshpho

Does it matter?...This is kind of a silly thread to begin with, though XD

It kind of does, because it's not a long walk to go from "these characters have blonde hair" to "these characters are therefore not Japanese" and then to "they're taller because they're foreigners." Which is a statement that has absolutely no evidence to back it up.

Originally Posted by Satoshi-kun

That doesn't mean it wasn't meant to be blonde. Otherwise, you could argue that there are no blondes in anime.

What? I don't think that characters like Jun and Shirona are blonde because I don't subscribe to this notion that yellow hair = blonde hair 100% of the time, so that therefore means that I think there are no blonde characters in Japanese animation at all? That's quite a leap you've made there.

Originally Posted by Satoshi-kun

That doesn't mean it wasn't meant to be blonde. Otherwise, you could argue that there are no blondes in anime.

What? I don't think that characters like Jun and Shirona are blonde because I don't subscribe to this notion that yellow hair = blonde hair 100% of the time, so that therefore means that I think there are no blonde characters in Japanese animation at all? That's quite a leap you've made there.[/QUOTE]

What I was trying to say is that someone could make that argument. Since we can't tell whether they're blonde or yellow, I don't think we should assume it's yellow unless it's specifically indicated. Because it would be more likely for them to use a real color than a fictional one.

I've noticed that the anime has a long standing problem with drawing proportionately. This may not be intentional. It could be, but as I haven't plundered all the way through watching the series this is the conclusion I would draw.

Originally Posted by SatoshiKun

Since we can't tell whether they're blonde or yellow, I don't think we should assume it's yellow unless it's specifically indicated. Because it would be more likely for them to use a real color than a fictional one.

Why? They use "fictional" hair colors all the freaking time. Bright red, blue, pink, green, purple...the list goes on.

I say that, since this is a Japanese cartoon that doesn't care about showing "realistic" hair colors (or hair styles, for that matter), we shouldn't assume characters are blonde unless it's specifically indicated.

Bianca is quite likely older than Ash. She's probably a teenager instead of a kid, so of course she'd be taller! Also, Hilbert and Hilda (and possibly Nate and Rosa as well) are older than 10, and they are about the same height as Bianca. I think the 10-year-old protagonist thing is becoming discredited in the games, since I think the company realises that the audience has expanded a lot since the first games. Most of the protagonists now look 13 or 14. Look at Hilda - she actually has breasts.

What about the other blond characters? I remember Morty being kind of tall as well - even taller than Bianca. He's definitely older than Ash. (They did use his original design, though - I think his remake design makes him look younger, but still older than the protagonist.)

Greta wasn't that tall, iirc.

Agatha is blonde in the anime, and she's not tall, but she doesn't count since she's very old. Then again, she probably wasn't much taller when she was young - Japanese people tended to be a bit smaller 60-70 years ago than today.

The lack of height I can understand for many of the characters. Japanese people are usually shorter than Americans and Europeans. Actually, that's how it is in most East Asian countries - I've known grown Asian women who only went up to my shoulders.

(Ironically, my drawings of the characters usually depict Cilan as taller than Bianca. But my drawings are based on the games.)