The Great Geek Manual

Are the girls above escaped mental patients? Are they protesting some breach of their civil liberties with a distasteful attempt at blackface? Do they suffer from some form of mental retardation? No. Unfortunately for the proud nation of Japan, these photos portray two formerly popular trends in Japanese fashion, “Ganguro” and “Yamanba.” … and my little brother is too embarrassed to be seen wearing matching Harry Potter costumes to the theater. Shhhesh!

Ganguro, literally “face-black,” is a fashion trend among Japanese girls, which has evolved from the earlier trend of “Chapatsu,” or hair dyeing. Chapatsu, which literally means “brown hair” was a trend which involved bleaching (or dyeing) the hair. While the style itself showed up in Tokyo in the in the early 90s, the word did not appear in Kojien (the Japanese equivalent of the Cambridge dictionary) until 1998. The style first gained popularity among teenage girls, who were seeking to accentuate their tanned skin (which in itself rebelled against traditional Japanese definitions of beauty), but quickly grew to be accepted in the mainstream.

Having become accepted by the mainstream, Chapatsu girls upped the ante. From Chapatsu, came “Kogals,” (an amalgam of either the Japanese word for “high school”, kōkō, or the Japanese word for “girl,” ko, and the English word “gal”), a subculture of girls and young women in urban Japan, whose look and behavior roughly approximates sun-tanned California Valley girls. Kogals are known for wearing platform boots, miniskirts, copious amounts of makeup, hair coloring (usually blond), artificial suntans, and designer accessories. Many vocal critics have decried the materialism that goes hand-in-hand with the Kogal subculture. Indeed, many Westerners mistake the term Kogal for “prostitute” due to the widespread practice of enjo kōsai, or “compensated dating,” that many times bankrolls such high priced fashion trends.

Ganguro girls are the next step in the spiraling insanity, and don’t confuse them with others. Evidently each step of this fashion evolution has a distinct subculture and each group is extremely sensitive about the distinctions. (Interestingly, some have described the Gothic Lolita fashion movement a reaction to all the Kogal craziness. Sort of like anti-kogals.)

The Ganguro look consists of: expensive bleach blond perms, hair dyed pink, blue, white, or yellow, deep tans, heavy black and white eyeliner, false eyelashes, platform shoes, brightly-colored outfits, and cellphones covered with purikura stickers, tie-dyed sarongs, mini-skirts, flower hairpins, and lots of jewelry. In school, Ganguro is abbreviated to pinned up skirts and “rusu-sokusu” (loose socks).

Extreme trend followers further bleach their hair to a bright platinum blond shade, get even deeper tans, wear white lipstick, brightly colored contacts, plastic or neon-colored clothing, and tiny metallic or glittery adhesives below their eyes. They also surround their eyes with multicolored pastel eyeshadow, to resemble a panda or raccoon. This is a fashion trend known as Yamanba, because, evidently, “Super Ganguro” just didn’t catch on. The term Yamanba comes the mythological Yama-uba, or mountain hag, whom the fashion is thought to resemble. In addition to their visual affectations, they also talk with a slurred speech and a loud, gregarious way of laughing.

… And that is officially more than you ever wanted to know about Japanese fashion …