Word of the Week: Ganguro

This post is pretty late, since I failed to make a post in advance. I was too busy playing Tetris. DARN YOU ADDICTIVE LITTLE BLOCKS!


This week's word is~ "ganguro"!

Ganguro (顔黒) was pretty confusing for me to write. It's written using the characters gao (顔), meaning "face", and kuro (黒), meaning "black" or "dark".

 

Ganguro is a subset of Japanese fashion, that was really popular in the 2000's, but I hear that it's on the decline. Ganguro girls have deeply tanned or bronzed skin, bleached blond hair (or crazily colored wigs) and heavy makeup. There are other types of ganguro, but this isn't a fashion blog.

The result is usually pretty ...shocking. I've heard it's actually a form of rebellion against the idea of beauty in Japan (pale skin and black/dark hair). To be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It looks rather tacky.

Over here in the US, I've seen a few ganguro cosplay at anime cons, but it isn't very popular here. Likewise, I haven't seen many ganguro in anime aside from the popular anime and manga series Durarara!!

Also, in the manga Peach Girl part of the sterotyping Momo undergoes is because she looks similar to a ganguro.