Is The (Non-)Reaction To Rei's Appearance Unrealistic?

[Warren Peace]

Why is it that nobody in NGE finds Rei's appearance the slightest bit odd? Should this have been dealt with more directly? I mean, we the audience know (vaguely) why she looks the way she does, but is it "unrealistic" that none of the characters question it?

Anime fans have come to accept much more extreme-looking characters in the past, so it's not so odd that we'd overlook it. But there's no reason for the characters to. At first I tried to reason the issue away... maybe the other characters had dealt with Rei's appearance prior to episode one, with it becoming enough of a fact of life that they're unfazed. And Shinji IS the type of person who would outwardly ignore it.

But there's one problem with that: Asuka. In "real life", no way would a teenage girl so mean not comment. If anything, the blue hair/red eyes would become the focal point of her attacks. But Asuka is not only as blind as anyone, her barbs go the opposite direction, targeting Rei's "perfection".

So how about it? Am I being too anal here, and should just accept it as "an anime thing"? Would explaining it early on in some B.S. way ("radiation exposure") just muddy the waters? One thing's for sure: if a live action adaptation stuck to the anime's design, they'd HAVE to rationalize it more than the show did. Audiences wouldn't accept it as easily as we do.

[Xeroko]

Misato has purple hair

[Warren Peace]

Well, not really, it's more of a "stylized brunette". The other characters don't see it as purple. But Rei should look as odd to them as she does to us.

[esselfortium]

I think it's odd, yeah. I've actually gotten into arguments on IRC about exactly this. :P

Misato has purple hair

But there seems to be a pattern to the hair colors of "normal" Japanese human characters in NGE: they're all either a shade of tan/brown, or a dark color (Misato's dark purple, and Naoko's/young Ritsuko's dark reddish-mauve). Ritsuko's is dyed. Everyone seems to fit into this pattern.

Rei and Kaworu are the only characters with an unusual and bright hair color. (I would say that silver hair is unusual enough for a teenager.)

[Warren Peace]

I think it's odd, yeah. I've actually gotten into arguments on IRC about exactly this. :P


But there seems to be a pattern to the hair colors of "normal" Japanese human characters in NGE: they're all either a shade of tan/brown, or a dark color (Misato's dark purple, and Naoko's/young Ritsuko's dark reddish-mauve). Ritsuko's is dyed. Everyone seems to fit into this pattern.

Rei and Kaworu are the only characters with an unusual and bright hair color. (I would say that silver hair is unusual enough for a teenager.)

Exactly... obviously her hair's not purple. Misato's not going for some punk rock thing, and it's the same color as when she was a child. Black hair can look boring artistically, so the purple is just a representation of light bouncing off it to make things more interesting. It's a pretty common thing in animation.

Kaworu's similarity to Rei would be a plot hole if he stuck around longer. Since it's only an episode, I guess it's OK to let it slide, but it would be nice if Misato acknowledged it or something.

[Baz]

Everyone in NGE has black or dark brown hair except for Ritsuko (bleach-blond), Fuyutski (grey), and Asuka (strawberry). Maybe even Asuka has black hair, since no-one in NGE actually states that her hair is red.

It's an anime, folks. Hair color is just there to indicate personality, or to make it easier to tell characters apart. And yes, I believe this also holds true for Rei and Kaworu.

My question is why Ritsuko went blond. Because she doesn't want to look like her mother?

[skikes]

So how about it? Am I being too anal here, and should just accept it as "an anime thing"? Would explaining it early on in some B.S. way ("radiation exposure") just muddy the waters? One thing's for sure: if a live action adaptation stuck to the anime's design, they'd HAVE to rationalize it more than the show did. Audiences wouldn't accept it as easily as we do.

Your being too anal. They have to do it in Anime. If you went the realistic route every character would look the same. Brown/black hair with brown eyes. I had to stop watching Jonjou Romantica because I couldn't tell the characters apart... and it was a terrible show.

Take for example the way everyone seems to think there is a connection between Mari, Mana and Mayumi because they all kind of look the same. You can't put any real detail in the faces. All you have to differentiate between characters are their clothes, hair and eyes.

[Azathoth]

My question is why Ritsuko went blond. Because she doesn't want to look like her mother?

Why else, given her self-consciousness of the fact that she's turning into the mother she loathes?

As to Rei and Kaworu's hair and eye color, I think that it's primarily for our benefit as an audience - certainly so that we don't have to look at ninety characters with the exact same color hair, but also to obtain an immediate consciousness of their otherness and inhumanity - but given that the characters are also conscious of this otherness, I doubt it could or should be argued that it's anything as simple as "they really have black hair". It's a level of abstraction that works in very few media, but anime is one of them. Their hair color is what it is, and their world doesn't mandate that that difference be remarked upon, because the difference is symbolic of other differences which are actually important.

[Warren Peace]

The problem with the "it's just a stylistic choice" argument is that everyone else in NGE looks more or less realistic -- they have recognizably human hair color, and look like people you could conceivably meet. Rei is the only one who stands apart (with maybe the exception of Kaworu, who looks "odd" for the same reason Rei does). If every character had some extreme characteristic in their appearance, it would be fair to write it off as surrealism. But that's not what NGE is going for. Rei is the only one, and it's fair to ask why the other (normal looking) characters don't recognize the otherness that we're supposed to.

My question is why Ritsuko went blond. Because she doesn't want to look like her mother?

That's the popular theory... I'm wondering if it was so she doesn't look like Misato, too.

[Baz]

The problem with the "it's just a stylistic choice" argument is that everyone else in NGE looks more or less realistic -- they have recognizably human hair color, and look like people you could conceivably meet.

Azazoth explained that. Rei has to look different so that we, the audience, see her as different. If all the characters had weird hair, the audience would miss the point.

That's the popular theory... I'm wondering if it was so she doesn't look like Misato, too.

Except she was already blond the first time she met Misato (episode 21).

[Azathoth]

Rei is the only one, and it's fair to ask why the other (normal looking) characters don't recognize the otherness that we're supposed to.

But they do recognize it; simply on a different level. Asuka realizes that Rei is different because Rei hardly speaks and has even less social aptitude than her. We realize this because of the same reasons, but we also get an extremely obvious visual reminder that also serves to provide a little diversity in visuals; Sadamoto himself said that Rei has red eyes because the people making the Eva game complained about her lack of distinguishing features.

Back when she was Ichijo Yui, Rei had eyes the same color as Shinji's and black hair. It got changed. Whether it was to make her look more marketable or to point out the innate otherness that she gives off to her peers is ultimately a pointless distinction to make. She looks different because she is different. That's one of the perks of animated film.

[Allemann]

Everyone in NGE has black or dark brown hair except for Ritsuko (bleach-blond), Fuyutski (grey), and Asuka (strawberry). Maybe even Asuka has black hair, since no-one in NGE actually states that her hair is red.

Kensuke has light brown hair and all physical features of a Caucasian.

The internal logic in the show dictates the characters must notice Rei's idiosyncratic physical features. Gendo, Ritsuko, and Fuyutsuki can feign obliviousness due to deeper secrets behind her, but others cannot but not not be at least inquisitive or perturbed, and you can't explain it as a case of extreme politeness. This could have been addressed in the show e.g. Rei officially having a rare disease. If the true reason for the Second Impact can be covered up, then Rei, connected to all of this, must have similar treatment.

[esselfortium]

I think Rei's appearance is just another one of those obvious questions that would almost certainly have come up in the approximate 23 hours a day that we didn't get to see, along with "What are your parents like?" And Other Assorted Short Stories, many of which could easily send NGE's universe tumbling down like a deck of cards.

[Warren Peace]

The internal logic in the show dictates the characters must notice Rei's idiosyncratic physical features. Gendo, Ritsuko, and Fuyutsuki can feign obliviousness due to deeper secrets behind her, but others cannot but not not be at least inquisitive or perturbed, and you can't explain it as a case of extreme politeness. This could have been addressed in the show e.g. Rei officially having a rare disease. If the true reason for the Second Impact can be covered up, then Rei, connected to all of this, must have similar treatment.

Absolutely. In a series that tells us appearances DO matter, the nonchalance about Rei's appearance seems out of place. They can't push how much Misato's appearance matters to her identity, and then ask us to accept the invisibility of Rei's attributes.

[Jayfive]

The only reference i know of is AU-Misato introducing AU-Rei as 'a new blue-haired babe' in 26. But 1) its in the dub and its blatantly obvious that the voice actors are mucking about at this stage *cough*baloney pony*cough* and 2) its in an alternate universe.

Is Rei's appearance (or indeed anyone else's) mentioned in any other continunity like maybe Angelic Days or something?

Jonjou Romantica because I couldn't tell the characters apart...

*googles*

Holy moses, you're not kidding. Im looking at a several results on a google image search and I cant tell if the pics are montages of the same characters or the full cast.

[Baz]

Kensuke has light brown hair and all physical features of a Caucasian.

Um... anime fellas that are meant to look Caucasian are given big, Caucasian noses. The artists didn't intend for Kensuke to look like anything but a Japanese schoolboy. They also needed to make him and Toji look different.

[TheLobe]

Um... anime fellas that are meant to look Caucasian are given big, Caucasian noses. The artists didn't intend for Kensuke to look like anything but a Japanese schoolboy. They also needed to make him and Toji look different.

thankyou. I hate how many people go around saying that animei characters are all designed as white caucasians because the Japanese like americans. they look Japanese to them, and their eyes are designed after asian eyes. sorry off topic.

[Azathoth]

The internal logic in the show dictates the characters must notice Rei's idiosyncratic physical features.

But they notice her idiosyncratic behavior, which is what's important and what the hair and eyes represent. How would "I hate the First, she's a doll and she never says anything and also her hair is weird" sound to you? Because the meaning of the symbol is recognized, the symbol itself winds up being inconsequential.

[Galaxy News Reidio]

One possibility: It is assumed that Rei's pale complexion, red eyes, blue hair, etc. are the result of some disease, genetic condition, disability, etc. Asuka may be a massive bitch, but even she draws the line at mocking a cripple.

[Great Genius Shinji-Sama]

It's anime. Where people have purple, gold, blue, green, orange, and pink hair. Even for a more "realistic" one like NGE.