I understand the value of artistic liberties but what exactly is Yugio's haircut supposed to be. I've wondered this since childhood
Yes yes yes its just supposed to look interesting and cool, it's not supposed to translate into the 3D space, but if it did what would it be
As we can see above, this haircut:
- Is dark in the back, blached in the front
- split into minimum two groupings: Body and Bangs
- Spiked in the back, likely with the use of gel or styling mousse
Obviously this is an anime, and as other features such as eyes, ears, and legs are exaggerated I feel it is safe to interpret the length of hair as exagerrated as well.
This is a convenient assumption because otherwise, spiking shoulder-lrngth hair into seven (minimum) rigid vertical spikes would be impossible to maintain.
Assuming a real-life Yugio haircut could exist as inspiration got this style, I imagine a haircut that is either short and spiked in the back with natural bangs, or long in the back and textured with shorter bangs to frame the face. Either way, either the front is bleached, or the additional blond spikes in the back could be interpreted as highlights throughout the darker, perhaps natural hair.
Given these criteria, I have narrowed the possibilities dow to these three hair styles:
For research purposes please enter your interpretations to the poll attached below
No fourth option because I'm right
So there is a definitive answer for this, according to the people I know who Cosplay Yugi/Yami of Yugioh and style wigs for it: They start with No-Bangs Bobcut , Dye it the appropriate colors but in the same pattern as "That Thing" (AKA 'White bangs") above, usually by applying sucessive layers of warm colors (yellows, then reds, then warm blacks), and then Gel into a Hyper-Karen Bob.
So it's a Red-shift-White-Bangs-Hyper-Karen-Bob cut-and-color, and that's one hell of a mouthful, so it's fine to just call it a Yugioh for short.
I think I may have a guess for this
Yugi and Atem have slightly different hair, with Atem having a more extreme version of Yugi's hair. However, it is important to note that there is likely no actual physical difference in Yugi and Atem's appearances. His close friends, before finding out Atem existed, simply noticed that Yugi seemed more confident, not that he got taller, voice changed or hair changed. So that might not be diegetic, but a difference for the audience's sake.
It's also worth noting that anime tends to exaggerate things, particularly hairstyles. So in reality, Yugi's hair may be less like this:
But more like this:
This is a bonkers haircut for a shy, quiet, goody two shoes Japanese schoolboy to have
That's cus he's goth!
He wears chokers and stuff. He's shy cus nobody talks to the weird goth kid who loves gaming.
It's actually Visual Kei, though there was definitely overlap between the goth/punk subcultures and the Visual Kei world! The author was pretty openly inspired by the Visual Kei culture of the 80's and 90's, which has many many hairstyle examples that are similar to what Yugi wears:
The show itself had many collaborations with Visual Kei performers and bands, too, so it's pretty obvious how the series takes inspiration from the culture aesthetically as well. You can see it in some of the fashion choices, too, not just the hairstyles, as well as how visual kei took cues from and overlapped with goth and punk styles as well:
It's the costume designer in me, but I always think it's important to remember and reference the period and location something was made when you're trying to figure out why it was designed the way it was, and how to realistically recreate it.
Yugioh is very obviously of its time, and that's a good thing! Take a dive into learning about the period subcultures and you'll find lots of cool things there, and a lot of insight into why your favorite things were made the way they were, too. :)
