Black haired Ranma-chan

[wildeman]

Why is it that people write about a black haired Ranma-chan from the manga. She has red hair. They dont do color comics like we do.

[TerraEpon]

Is it EVER stated, in either the manga or the anime that she has red hair?

As far as I know, it it not.

Besides, manga-ranma has also had pink, blonde, and a couple other colors in various shots...

But perhaps the biggest problem with your argument is that there IS a color version of volume one, and she has black hair in it.

[wildeman]

Ms. Takahashi drew a color version of volume one?

[DarkFyre99]

There was indeed a color version of Chapter One, and Ranma-chan's hair is black in it. In addition, it's shown repeatedly in the manga that it's usually the height, voice, or chest that's the clue that Ranma's changed gender, not his hair color.

It is quite often implied in anime that the wild hair colors we see on screen aren't meant to be taken literally, but are there to aid the viewers in quickly identifying characters. In reality, their hair colors aren't red, blue, or green, but normal colors.

Sometimes, this "help" results in some rather odd behavior in the characters of a show. For example, the first season of the anime (which follows the manga canon more closely than the later seasons) gives you the somewhat silly scene of Ranma and Akane's arrival at school following Ranma's defeat of Kuno. Akane, obviously noticing something is "off" about Ranma after an embarrassed sprint (with Ranma in tow) past Doctor Tofu's clinic, opens up his shirt to confirm that yes, there are breasts under there again. If Ranma-chan's hair color really changed with her gender, then ripping open Ranma's shirt would've been completely unnecessary.

[antimatterenergy]

In the original Shonen Sunday releases 33 of the chapters included pages of color art (not counting covers or filler pictures). In those pages that were part of the story Ranma's hair was uniformly black. Here is a page from the original Shonen Sunday color pages:


On covers, in the memorial book, and in filler pictures the color frequently changed.
Here is a red haired Onna-Ranma from one of the covers of a Shounen Sunday:


Here is a blonde Onna-Ranma from a Viz comic cover of Ranma:

[Dumbledork]

Ranma changes constantly her hair color on the Japanese covers but on later covers she apparently always has red hair (at least that's what someone said on TFF).

And I doubt that it was Takahashi herself who colored the Ranma chapter.

[Cheb]

If Ranma-chan's hair color really changed with her gender, then ripping open Ranma's shirt would've been completely unnecessary.

I even have a page dedicated to that. Titled "Are they all color-blind?"
http://www.chebmaster.narod.ru/rm09/hairblack.html
This is only a tip of the iceberg, there are *tons* of scenes where you have to admit that either all the characters are color-blind, or Ranma's har is black.

One more point, when Ranma wears disguises they aren't "full" wigs. For example here http://ranmahentai.ranma.ws/RanmaManga/ ... 09-165.jpg only the hair falling back from the hat is a wig, the front bangs are Ranma's own. You can clearly see different textures, since the half-wig isn't shiny, it's rather dull.

If that's not enough, here
http://ranmahentai.ranma.ws/RanmaManga/ ... 36-145.gif
http://ranmahentai.ranma.ws/RanmaManga/ ... 36-146.gif
Ranma tries to impersonate Nodoka by *only* tucking her bangs and pigtail.

[Dumbledork]

I don't see any problem in people giving Ranma red hair. I think it suits her and generally ine anime you find all kinds of hair color.

[DarkFyre99]

I have no problem with people using either one. Both black hair and red hair for Ranma-chan have their advantages and disadvantages.

I usually reserve black-haired Ranma-chan for more serious stories, since a more realistic setting thens to lend itself for seriousness... but then a more subtle sex-change does have a greater potential for mischief.

[TerraEpon]

I don't see any problem in people giving Ranma red hair. I think it suits her and generally ine anime you find all kinds of hair color.

Sure, it's fine to give her red. Almost every fanfic does, even ones based only off the manga. I prefer it myself (I mean hell, I'm the one with the hot pink-haired avatar after all)...

Just that to say "zomg it's red not black because manga is in b/w!!" is, well, wrong.

[Drawde]

The biggest arguement against red hair in the manga is that it's never mentioned at all. No one says anything, not even if they don't know about the curse. During Ranma's first day in Furinkan, when he jumped out the window into the pool, no one says anything about his hair changing color, just Ranma seeming to be a little smaller. I think the anime mentioned in though (might be wrong).

[Zwzn]

http://www.furinkan.com/ranma/characters/nodoka.html

Doesn't Ranma's mother have lighter colored hair in the manga? Isn't Ranma's female form shown to have the same color hair as his mother? A bronwish color could be mistaken for black if you did not get a good look like when Ranma jumped into the pool at school on his first day.

In the anime Nodoka Saotome had a redish brown hair.

As for Akane ripping open Ranma's shirt... This is Akane we are talking about after all.

[Cheb]

I don't see any problem in people giving Ranma red hair.

I don't see it either. But it's always good to remember that in the manga canon it's technically black. The best way for a fanfic writher is to avoid mentioning hair color altogether, leaving it for the readers to imagine themselves.
Or, better, write it as if the characters don't see each other's hair color.

no one says anything about his hair changing color, just Ranma seeming to be a little smaller. I think the anime mentioned in though (might be wrong).

In the anime they say the same thing about "Saotome becoming a bit smaller", and it would be really, really stupid of them if we forget that the anime hair colors are a virtual symbols.

Anybody up to fishing for such examples? I could add them to my page, it now has the English version
http://www.chebmaster.narod.ru/rm09/hairblack_en.html
Please send me this info (or post here) with pointing the anime episode number and manga volume+chapter

[Cheb]

Doesn't Ranma's mother have lighter colored hair in the manga?

That was just an awfully-bleached scan. Somebody forgot to use the "levels" tool in Photoshop so that black is really black and white is really white. It's the basics of scanlation, it's called "cleaning".

Look here. Their hair is identical, black&shiny:
http://ranmahentai.ranma.ws/RanmaManga/ ... 22-028.gif

[Dumbledork]

Now that you've mentioned Nodoka, there's something that always surprises me in fanfics. A lot of writers mention that Ranma looks a lot like a younger Nodoka. Well, I don't think so. Just lok at the scan of their first meeting. I don't see any family resemblance.