CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Okay, I just was wondering if anyone knows or can guess the reason Himura has red hair and blue eyes and fair skin? This question has been plagueing me for, well ever since I have watched the show.

Because that's the way he was drawn. ^_~

There's really no other explanation. That's a general rule in anime: The character may have been born in Japan to a Japanese family and thus be full-blooded Japanese, but that doesn't mean they have to look Japanese. Often they don't.

Rai

You know... I honestly have no idea. And I never really thought that much about him. It kinda gives him a fox-ish look. (speaking in terms of the animal, of course. ^^)

Red hair is extremely rare, but I hear it has been known to occur in Japan.

I read somewhere that he is drawn as the visual antithesis of another famous manga character, if I can find the info. again, I'll report back.

I agree with Rai on this one.

Anime characters have typical been drawn with bright, colorful hairstyles and eye colors, but often for no reason other than to distinguish between characters (as a friend of mine said about Sailor Moon, "All of the characters look the same except their hairstyles!").

This has been toned down in recent anime, but for the most part stands true. I think that hair/eye color is only important if a character draws attention to it. I can think of two instances in which that occurs:

Fushigi Yugi: Miaka makes a comment when she first sees Nakago that he has blond hair and blue eyes.

Fruits Basket: Numerous times, people refer to characters hair colors, and (I think) Momiji even states that bizarre hair/eye colors are part of the Sohma curse.

<<Okay, I just was wondering if anyone knows or can guess the reason Himura has red hair and blue eyes and fair skin? This question has been plagueing me for, well ever since I have watched the show. >>
Umm...because he's cool?

from what i understand, in one of the oriental cultures the color red is the color of good luck, i have a feeling that it holds some kind of significance other than that for the japanese 'cus kenshin has red hair, both vash the stampede and inuyasha are dressed almost completely in red, and even in the gundam anime, there is almost always a completely red gundam, perhaps it is the warrior's color or somethin' like that

Well first, his eyes are purple. (I know, I know, you're probably going to hound me about that, but...

He might not be full-blooded Japanese, because in the OAV, he was in a slave caravan. (???)

Maybe he has Ainu blood?

It's pretty interesting considering that Watsuki-sama, based many of RK characters off real life people.

1) Quoting off "DarkLuther" from Gamehub Forums,

"Red is a sign of someone who's crazy in japan, someone without feeling or a mindless killer. Higen Obata was once a samurai of the Iga province, who hired himself out as an assasin. As is common with people who build up a reputation in infamy, rumors beagn that he's hair turned red after being soaked in blood so many times. In this case rumor turned to truth as he began to die his hair with red powder. He would kill his targets in broad daylight and as he would then show his hair to prove it was him. My info on him then gets kind of sketchy but it ends at somewhat of an anti-climax as he was eventualy just caught."

2) I've also heard ppl discussing the possibility that Kenshin could have been a half Japanese, half Dutch.

This is what I've heard so far, regarding the reason Kenshin's hair is red. Thought I'll post them here just for fun even if they're quite bizarre. hehe

But like what others have said earlier, I think the red hair and purple eyes are just used to make the main character stand out among the rest, considering that all the other characters had black hair. Wow, I've just realized that almost everyone else has black hair in RK.

A little OT: Kenshin might be also based off a real-life hitokiri that existed.

"Kawakami Gensai, one of the four great Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu, could be mistaken for a girl at first glance, but his nature was the complete opposite of his appearance; he was a cold, calculating man said to be the most terrible of the four."

Heart of Sword wrote:Well first, his eyes are purple. (I know, I know, you're probably going to hound me about that, but...

Um, Heart of Sword, are you blind or am I?
AngelSakura, yeah it's been bothering me because he's cool and I think too much( in the opinion of some friends)]
These are some interesting theories and explanations. COOL! If you have any more expalanations post away!!

Yeshua-Knight wrote:both vash the stampede and inuyasha are dressed almost completely in red

Vash dresses in red to because it represents courage and it's the color of Rem's favorite flower.