I should really have called this post top 5 Anime CHARACTERS with pompadours. But you know, the pompadour is such an imposing hairstyle that it almost has a life of its own
I have been watching Space Dandy lately, baby. And I find myself quite taken by his luscious hairstyle. This is what got me thinking about other great anime characters that have sported the DO throughout the years.
5. Takamura – Hajime no Ippo
Some of you may know this already, Hajime no Ippo is one of the earliest anime I watched while knowing exactly what anime is. And I really like it. A lot. I credit it in part for my ongoing love of the medium and completely for my fondness of Sports! anime in particular.
And it features a main character with a very impressive pompadour indeed. Takamura is an odd character, he serves partly as the comedic relief, being a crass goofball who may have taken a few too many hits to the head, an overpowered macho man with all the tropes that entails and at times, a surprisingly caring ersatz father figure for the main character who is desperately seeking one.
Naturally, a character that wears so many hats has to have one heck of a hairdo!
4. Grévil – Gosick
Grévil isn’t that important a character, all things considered. I hadn’t told you, but I was sticking to main or main supporting characters for this list. If I was to just go by every random character with a pompadour, this would have been unending.
As such, Grévil is sort of at the limit for this list. But he does have one thing that makes him stand apart. That pompadour is unmistakable. I’m not entirely sure if it’s still a pompadour at this point but I don’t know what else to call it.
Pompadours are usually shorthand for thugs and delinquents in anime yet here, Grévil is supposed to be both prim, proper and quite fancy. He uses that hairstyle as a distinction of class if you can believe it. Just that alone makes him worthy of the list. Also, there are slightly fewer blonde pompadours…
3. Kuwabara – Yu Yu Hakusho
Blonde is one thing but what about Ginger! I love Kuwabara. Against all my expectations, he turned out to be the arm heart of Yu Yu Hashuko and one of my favourite characters. He just livened up every single scene he was in.
At the start of the series, he’s presented as the usual violent delinquent, complete with the signature hairstyle of anime thugs, but he quickly develops into so much more than meets the eye. However, that hair remained the same all the way to the end. I wonder how long it takes to style in the morning?
2 Dandy – Space Dandy
He was the reason I thought of this list, he really should be on it!
I think it’s safe to say that Dandy is one of those high school delinquents that just never grew up. And his character design certainly drives the point home, if you somehow missed all his dialogue and actions. And the most obvious part of that character design is the lovingly coiffed pompadour. We actually see the guy preening from time to time and it’s adorable.
Also, I’m fairly certain that to anyone who has watched the show or even just seen bits of it, when you mention Dandy, the hair is the first thing that comes to mind. A hairstyle that leaves an impression can go either way. But it does land you a spot on this list.
Honourable Mention – Mondo – Danganronpa
The only reason Mondo is an honourable mention is that I remembered him only after completing the list. But I just couldn’t leave him out. That pompadour is epic!
In my defence, I still only think of Danganronpa as games rather than anime so sometimes, I will overlook the franchise unless it’s my starting point. Everything in Danganronpa tends to be extreme, including the characters. And that pompadour certainly fits the bill.
1. Josuke – Jojo
Considering JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as a whole, I would say the leading men often have the least impressive hair in the series. There are some pretty extravagant hairstyles past season 1. So when I really think about it, Josuke’s pompadour is kind of plain. Kouichi has silver super Saiyan hair and I still can’t quite figure out what’s going on with Rohan’s hair but still, when I think of that season, I think of Josuke’s very stiff looking pompadour.
That thing looks like it could withstand a tornado. I wonder how much pomade is in there!
I have a figurine of Josuke on my selves, wait a minute, let me show you guys.
See, somehow, that hair just draws your eye it was the first pompadour that came to mind when I thought of making this list.
Unlike mullets, the pompadour seems much more exclusive to male characters. I’m not sure why. The style seems plenty feminine to me. If I ever manage to find enough ladies with pompadours, I’ll make another list.
As soon as I saw the title I knew there had to be a YuYu Hakusho mention in there. I’m rewatching the Dark Tournament arc right now, but the whole series has some S-tier pompadours
Nothing beats a classic pompadour
My pick goes to the ridiculous Rudol von Stroheim, from my favorite JoJo arc. I’ve often wondered how his blonde pompadour fits inside that tiny Nazi cap. But as he likes to say — or more precisely, scream — German science is the world’s finest!
A marvel of engineering
The pompadour became pretty heavily associated with Japanese male delinquents, junior yakuza-types, motorbike gang guys, and general street thugs and hoodlums back in the late 70s to 80s. So guys who rock this hairstyle, especially in older anime and manga, tend to have that kind of connotation to them.
It’s not an anime, but my favorite pompadour-rocking character has to be this dude: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Kamikaze-Girls/images/Kamikaze-Girls-175.jpg (from the live-action film Kamikaze Girls – great movie if you’re ever in the mood for something fun and quirky and related to Japanese street fashion).
I’m not a fan of anime pompadours, but I quite often like characters who sport them. I think the most frequent stereotype is the emotional delinquent who sticks to his friends. There’s one of those in Ao Ashi, currently (a pretty good sports show, actually), but his character hasn’t yet had his focus episode (and might not get one until the end of cour two).
I didn’t get that far with Yu Yu Hakusho, but as far as I got Kuwabara must have been my favourite character. Really liked him.
Interestingly, the only show on this list I finished is Gossick. I’ve never even started Jojo and Hajime no Ippo, and I dropped the rest. Space Dandy was very uneven for me; some episodes were genius level, others weren’t my thing – and back then availability was a little confused, with the dub coming out first, and I thought it wasn’t worth the bother to sort through that confusion. I remember very little.
I had the same experience with Dandy. It sounds like you’re quoting my unpublished post! Kuwabara stays great till the end
The pompadour became pretty heavily associated with Japanese male delinquents, junior yakuza-types, motorbike gang guys, and general street thugs and hoodlums back in the late 70s to 80s. So guys who rock this hairstyle, especially in older anime and manga, tend to have that kind of connotation to them.
It’s not an anime, but my favorite pompadour-rocking character has to be this dude: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Kamikaze-Girls/images/Kamikaze-Girls-175.jpg (from the live-action film Kamikaze Girls – great movie if you’re ever in the mood for something fun and quirky and related to Japanese street fashion).
I remember Kamikaze Girls but barely. I think I saw it at some festival years ago
hahaha fantastic! The article I didn’t know I needed.
We aim to please
Until you pointed out all the pompadour characters, I hadn’t noticed that they are usually my favorite character in whatever series they’re in! Oh, and I’m surprised you didn’t include Ryu from Shaman King. The anime series might have some problems, but Ryu and his pompadour were certainly fun and memorable!
I haven’t watched it yet… But it is on my watch list
Grevile immediately came to mind when I read the title of this post, so I’m gratified to see he made the list. Probably showing my age, but to me pompadour will always read as Elvis wannabe, which I guess is sort of a “bad boy” character now that I think about it. Do any real humans still wear this hairstyle? (Other than Elvis imitators) I can sort of see Grevile making it a class thing if you think about how the incredibly long fingernails used to be a class thing – because they indicated the person who had them did not do any manual labor. I can totally imagine Grevile refusing to do things that might muss his hair. Which would be just about anything requiring him to do more than strut and sneer.
But that’s why he’s so good at strutting and sneering!