Character Wardrobe Design

Today while watching Karneval, I began to notice something odd. It was something I hadn’t noticed before in anime, or at least not in a negative way, but while watching more and more episodes of Karneval, I noticed it. A lot. The “thing” that I’m talking about is character, or more specifically costume/wardrobe, design. Normally you don’t especially notice it, unless it’s a special interest of yours, since there’s not much attention drawn to it in most anime. Yet. When you notice it, you really, really notice it. Now for school anime there’s a reason you don’t notice what the characters are wearing and that’s because they’re generally wearing school uniforms. It says it in the name itself – uniform – that they’re less likely to draw attention because everyone is uniform– that is, the same. Of course there are details here and there that can be changed to fit a character’s personality, like rolling up a skirt or leaving it knee length, having the neck tie done perfectly or sloppily loose, socks or stockings that can be worn, accessories; for the most part though, they’re all the same in what they’re wearing. Notice the small details of their outfits, despite being uniforms. The socks that are worn, differences in the uniform itself. For other shows, though, it stands out. Like in Kobato the main character wears a green dress for most of the show, and various other pastel colored dresses when she’s not. The dresses aren’t flashy or garishly elaborate, they’re pastel in color, modest in length and cut, flowing, and yet can be worn easily while working on daily errands or being around children. This is a good design choice. The dresses that Kobato wears reflect her character and what she, as a character, is trying to show herself. It gives her a spring-like appearance as if she herself is a pastel colored flower. This brings me back to my initial show of choosing, Karneval. Karneval is not a particularly bad show, in itself, although it is clearly targeting a specific audience if I can say so without being harsh. That audience would be females who watch anime, simple as that. Now, one might say, “If it’s targeting girls, then what’s the problem? Of course the colors are going to be bright! Women can see more colors than men!” Well, unfortunately for your rock-solid argument, I’m not talking about color. Of course, Karneval is a very bright and colorful show, like the name suggests, but the wardrobe designs themselves are pretty levelheaded (for the men) when it comes to color. Gareki often wears a red jacket with a black shirt underneath, and Yogi wears a sage green shirt with a long-sleeved black shirt underneath. These are both sensible color pallets for the two characters, as men are much less likely to pick bright colors for clothing than women are as far as I’ve seen. Of course that doesn’t mean that all men wear brown, black, or gray – if a fad that he or his friends are following has bright colors (like bright orange jeans, or some other such nonsense) he’d of course wear that if he wanted to. But for normal attire like sweaters, shirts, jeans, business pants, etc, the common male would be far more likely to pick dark reds, browns, black, greens, or whatever else – not neon yellow. So, if it’s not the color that I noticed, then what about the wardrobe styles bother me? Take a look and see if you can see what I did. Yogi is on the right in the second picture Their pants both seem pretty normal, though Yogi is sporting a two-times-too-large belt that’s wrapped around him twice which is pretty normal considering the anime world of zippers and belts. But how about the shirts they’re wearing? Before, Gareki was wearing a red jacket that pretty much covered him up and would keep him warm fairly well. But, now, with it off he’s wearing a black shirt that has one long sleeve and the other, short, off the shoulder sleeve. This is a weird style of shirt for any male to pick, especially considering that Gareki is the lone wolf of the group. He’s been alone for years, and considering his background of the teenage-fashion-design choice of the shirt doesn’t make much sense. This brings the main point of the entire blog post to a head. Character designs and wardrobe choices should reflect the character and personality of said character. This is something that Karneval does not do. Obviously the shirt is this way because showing collar bone and shoulder is pretty lewd, so it’s a form of fanservice (erotic or not) that’s being put into play here. Much like short skirts and midriff showing shirts for girls in male targeted anime, this is a form of showing the boys off for girls who are watching. However, there is a difference here. Gareki’s outfit does not reflect something he, personally, would buy. The anime hasn’t finished yet, and I haven’t read the source material, but going by the tsundere/kuudere archetype of Gareki and what we know of his past it’s safe to say he wouldn’t be wearing a tight shirt that shows off his shoulder other than to look pretty. This isn’t to say that fanservice won’t work for female targeted anime, because men wouldn’t choose more revealing clothing like teenage girls might, but it does mean the type of fanservice does have to be changed to fit the character. Perhaps there’s another character in Karneval, that I haven’t seen yet, that Gareki’s shirt would fit much better. The easiest way to pick an outfit for a character is simply go through a thought experiment. Imagine that character walking into a store that has every single clothing choice available, for men and women, and try to figure out which style the character would go towards. Factor in their personality and financial situation, their past, their personal taste in other things as well, including speech patterns. If the character is more reserved, they’ll be less likely to head toward the racks with shoulder baring/lace/tight leather/effeminate shirts and other clothing similar to that. Imagine this with Gareki, or another character if you haven’t seen Karneval. Gareki walks into a store, so what’s the first thing on his mind? Get in, get out is the first, whatever costs the least is the second. So what type of shirt do I see Gareki wearing normally? I can see a button down black shirt, cotton or otherwise, that fits fairly well (maybe a bit loose as he didn’t check carefully at the size due to lack of caring) or a cotton tight fitting undershirt. Either black, red, or otherwise for those. Simple, but to the point. Within his budget, nothing too complicated, easy to wash. The fanservice that could be used for this as, with the button down shirt, leave a few of the buttons undone (at top or bottom) to show off some skin or for the undershirt have it rip here and there after he wears it a while. These are two tasteful ways for both showing the personality of the character and getting in your fanservice. Yogi’s outfit, which is mostly just a normal, long-sleeved undershirt, is fine except for the overshirt which has long tendrils of extra fabric flowing down from the sides. Without these, it would be a reasonable outfit for Yogi, but with them… well, the only thing that keeps coming to mind when I see his outfit is, “Where did he even buy that?” So, this is important to note for those who write, or draw as well. When picking outfits, always take into consideration the type of character you’re drawing for. Always take in to consideration what they would want to wear, what they’d be most likely to wear, why they’d wear it, along with what looks good on them. This doesn’t mean you can’t have fanciful outfits (on guys or girls) it just means you need to consider the character, and the setting the character is in. If you want to draw over the top outfits with tons of details, imagine a universe where this is the norm. It’ll not only be fun for you, but it’ll also add character to the world your character lives in. Of course this means you have to think of a reason why they’d wear such fanciful clothes, but that should be just another fun project to do. This obviously doesn’t take into consideration one shot drawings or anything like that, nor am I saying what people should draw. It’s just something to consider if you want to have the upper hand at characterization as well as visuals. You can also create the fun effect of putting your character in something they wouldn’t normally wear and imagine how they got into that outfit, why they’re wearing it, and how they’d react. Anime is a visual medium, and it should make sure to pay attention to that visual part to make in impact on those that are watching it. If it’s just a show that’s fanservice for sake of fanservice then perhaps they don’t need to closely consider what their characters are wearing. Perhaps it really is just me who notices this, but clothes do say a lot about a group as well as an individual person. Some materials cost more, and that reflects on your financial background; sometimes you wear clothes for a certain hobby, which reflects on your interests; sometimes clothes are just what you like, and that reflects your personal taste. Try to look at the clothes you pick out for yourself, and try to figure out why they picked them. Did you just grab something at random at the store? Did your favorite anime character wear the same type of shirt? Does it say something you support? What do your clothes say about you, and what do clothes say about the character that wears them? Try and find out next time you watch your favorite show. [1]Yuri Yuri fan art, artist unknown. [2]From Ben-To ED [3]From Kobato episode 2 [4]Women seeing more colors than men: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/health/some-women-may-see-100-million-colors-thanks-to-their-genes-450179/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2197888/Men-women-really-DO-things-differently-Our-brains-process-colours-different-ways.html [5]From Karneval episode 5 [6]From Karneval episode 4