I miss my pink hair but I can’t deny that my boring human-coloured hair is way healthier so I’m going to let it thrive just a bit longer. I’m trying to manage my hair-dying urges in the meantime by living vicariously through anime characters. And today, specifically through anime boys with pink hair.
I love pink hair and I think more people should try it. I also think that gendering colours is the silliest thing. Like honestly. In any case, I was just going to make a list of pink-haired characters but all the ones I could think of off the top of my head were girls. And then eventually I remembered Saiki. In my defence, I was hung up on a pastel pink colour. So I decided to add an extra challenge to my list and make it a Top 5 Anime Boys with pink hair.
Not really on the list: Shima – Blue Exorcist
A lot of people think Shima has pink hair. And I assume they think that because he does have pink hair. I looked at a whole bunch of pictures and it’s clearly pink. But for some reason, I always tend to read that colour as a light opalescent brown or something. It’s the same for Mirai from Beyond the Boundary. Maybe it’s because it’s a colour I see a lot in shows that stick to more or less natural hair colours.
Admittedly this sounds a lot like a me problem, and it is. But on the up side it did make this list way harder to compile…wait…
5. Hikaru from Kenka Bancho Otome
Now you may be thinking, wait the main character of Kenka Bancho Otome is actually a girl pretending to be a boy so that doesn’t count. And you would be right. But her twin brother is a boy, until further notice, and he has that same beautiful very pink hair.
Now, this is an undeniable pink. It’s like the no qualifier pink because you don’t need to further define this colour. That’s how pink it is. And I think it suits him perfectly. I mean he does have those lovely pink eyes as well so maybe that’s why.
4. Natsu from Fairy Tail
Natsu sports that shade of pink that falls dangerously close to my brain not picking it up as pink but perhaps because Fairy Tail is so colourful in general and has a lot of crazy-haired characters, I still think he makes the list. Ok, part of the reason may also have been that I had a tough time filling the spots.
You would think that Natsu would be a natural fit for flaming red hair but I actually think this washed-out colour suits him way better. It softens his look and goes with the rest of his palette. It also speaks to his warm and mushy heart. Awwwww.
And I personally think it’s kind of fun seeing a very popular shonen protagonist with pink hair. It may start a trend. Because we need more pink hair out there!
3. Ringo from Uta no Prince Sama
You may think I’m trying to trick you again. We all know that’s a wig! I don’t think we ever got a chance to see Ringo in casual clothes on the anime series but we do see him in the games. And that’s how we know that his natural hair is way shorter but the exact same colour as the wig. YAY!
Ringo is my favourite character in Uta no Prince Sama and I wish he would have gotten a larger role but he is not one of the main routes so I understand. This said, even with his reduced presence his hair stole every scene it was in, and that’s entirely because of the gorgeous colour. Cough!
2. Ryu – Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!
Ok, so this show is a parody of classical magical girl shows and at times, it’s pretty great. And at other times, it’s kind of boring. Anyways the point is that one of the elements they parody is the traditional magical girl colour coding. So many maho shoujo shows have a group of girls who each have a specific colour associated with them (which in itself is a nod to super sentai shows) and it’s the same for Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!
And Ryu happens to be the pink ranger, magical boy. Surprisingly, his eyes aren’t also pink! But his costume is. And that is an unambiguous pink. It’s not supposed to be any other colour! That earns Ryu some high points on my list.
1. Saiki – The disastrous life of Saiki K.
Like I said, Saiki was the only character that just came to me off the top of my head and I didn’t have to sit down and think about it. That’s why he gets number 1. Fore being memorable… to me.
But Saki’s pink hair is sort of awesome. First, it’s a shade of electric hot pink that’s sort of unusual in itself. Second, it’s a big part of the design and I honestly couldn’t ever imagine Saiki without it. It’s weirdly powerful on him!
That hair also makes him an instantly recognizable cosplay. I can spot a Saiki at a convention from across the room.
It took me a while to put this list together. Mostly because I decided a particular shade of pink wasn’t pink for arbitrary reasons. Still, compared to how many pink-haired anime characters there are in general, the boys seem underrepresented.
Do you have a favourited pink-haired anime boy? Who is it? Are they in a pretty boy show?
I’m sad Mitsuba from tbhk wasn’t on here
Oh good choice! I think I hadn’t seen Hanako-kun when I wrote that list but he should have a spot!
If we’re talking Boueibu, aside from Ryuu, you have Akoya, Maasa and Ichiro. The former two have a pearly pink kind of hair, but Ichiro has that same kind of hot pink hair Saiki does. (…and then in Fairy Ranmaru, you have Takara, which is actually yellow in element and pink in some senses, but he only has pink hair when transformed.)
Outside magical boys, you have Shizuma Mayuzumi from Prince of Stride Alternative.
Of course you had my favorite pink haired boy , Seiki K 💕💕💕 But who can forget Vinegar Doppio ( Jojo’s Bizarre Adeventure) a totally unhinged dude who takes calls with an icecream 🤣
I haven’t gotten to that arc yet. He looks awesome
It’s a great arc 💕I can’t speak too much more about it as I don’t want to spoil it for you .
Gendering colours really is silly. I read once that, here in the UK, link ended up gendered for girls due the Royal family. Allegedly, blue was for horns because it’s calming and pink was for boys because it’s close to red. So, the family were expecting a boy and painted the room pink. They had a girl, and rather than repaint, just flipped the gendering, and it stuck. Or so the story goes. Really, colours are simply for everyone.
Interesting. I do know that pink was considered a masculine colour for a long time but I had no clue why it changed
That’s assuming it’s true. You get a lot of odd little stories like that, and they aren’t always entirely factual.
I’ve always seen Shima as pink, but Mirai as brown.
I didn’t watch Saiki precily because of those Neon colours. They give me a headache after a while. That’s why I’m not so fond of his hair colour. I really do want to watch the show, but I’m not risking it.
Hmmm, can you set your screen to greyscale? It’s a very fun show
Now that’s something I never considered. That might actually work. Thanks for the tip.
Definitely not something I run into very often. I know about most of these shows but haven’t watched any of them. And when I tried to think of any others, the only guys I could come up with from shows I have seen are Sha Gojyo from Saiyuki and Tiramie from Amagi Brilliant Park. Both of whom are total ladies’ men, funnily enough.
I’m not sure if he counts but I like Hisoka from the most recent HxH. I’d consider his hair to lie on the boundary between red and neon pink especially when he’s wigging out in battle. He rocks the crazy jester aesthetic at any rate!
Hmmm you know now that I think of it I agree, its red/pink. OK, so he’s my no1 now
I totally spaced Hisoka to be honest . One of my faves too ✨
Natsu is interesting coz I never I think his character would suit a spiky orange or blond hair because he reminds me at times of other happy go lucky hype anime characters like Hinata, Naruto etc. Truth be told Dunno why I’m commenting on him because I actually don’t like him very much especially who he choose for his love interest. But that’s just me being petty
I like petty!
When I saw your post the first pink haired boy that came to mind was Liontari from children of the whales… He is one of my favorite characters!
I have not seen Children of Whales. I was afraid it would make me sad.