Redheads-are they being made too often?

[Summoned Skrull]

I've noticed that there are a lot more Redheaded characters in animation nowadays. Are too many animators making characters redheads as a means of automatically making them more interesting?

Name some redheads and tell whether or not they would be more interesting with a different hair color.

[I.R Joey]

Truth be told I never stop to think about it. And I don't think there are more than any other period in time.

[Freedom Fighter]

Maybe you're in my boat and just noticing it now. After all, I am watching a whole lot more cartoons now than I did 10 years ago, when I was actually in the key demographic. You can base that on a lot of things... freedom to watch a lot more now than before, a whole lot more variety, too much free time...

In my personal opinion, redheads have become more commonplace because more people have found it adds variety. Before, you only had characters mostly with black, blonde, or brown hair. Redheads were around, they just weren't as plentiful. Nowadays, it's a wide open option for character designers, who now have 4 basic hair colors (and all the blends you can think of between them) to fiddle around with.

Of course, you could hop over to Japanese anime and note they go so far as to give characters hair colors like blue, pink, and purple, that aren't natural.

As for your question about any redheads that would be more interesting with a different hair color? Hmmm... I'll have to get back to you on that one.

[Andrew T. Hingson]

I don't think they'd be more interesting. If they aren't red head then I'd like them as brunettes. I've always found brunettes and red heads the most attractive and the most interesting people. Animated or otherwise.

[ktoriyama]

The only time I actually noticed redheads becoming more popular are in girls shows, ie TS, AB, and Kim Possible. The only other redhead I can think of is Hawkgirl, who would not be the same without her firey red hair which gives her the "fire."

[Rover_Wow]

For the record, I was the first to notice this:

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=126154&highlight=redheads

[SirLemming]

Yes, redheads are being made too often. We must put a stop to this now!



Wait, you were talking about cartoons?

[The Weed Of Cri]

Redheads gives the animators a chance to expand their color palette on human figures, giving the show a richer look. I think that's why a lot of anime characters have hair that is a color not found in the human gene pool (pink, blue, green, etc.)

[ktoriyama]

In the ancient manga, the inker had to annoying color and fill in each hair with black. Then the lazy guy got a brilliant idea, don't fill in the hair leave it be. When people say this they imagined what sort of hair to fill in. When anime came around, animators carried on this tradition and created characters with a multitude of hair colors, though with some stereotypes, ie pink is the cute one. However this is sorta of an outdated stereotype as a lot of anime, esp the more serious one have adopted a more American approach to hair color, ie, using natural colors.

[Vale]

I noticed this too when I found out in WITCH and Winx Club, both groups are led by a redheaded girl. Are they implying that redheads have better leadership skills, I guess? I definitely agree that they're over-represented in cartoons, since they only make up a small fraction of the population.