First came the fashion, then the anime

"Gyaru" is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "gal." In the early '90s, it became the name for high school and college girls who hung out in Tokyo's Shibuya district and dressed to defy every rule. Japanese schools demanded modesty, dark hair and a neat uniform. Gyaru answered with shortened skirts, bleached streaks, tanning-bed tans and makeup you could see from across the intersection.

The fashion lived on the pages of magazines like Egg and Popteen, with its own stars and its own slang. By the late 2000s the wave had passed: magazines folded, and fewer and fewer real gyaru walked the streets. But the image had already moved into manga, anime and games, and it settled in for the long haul.

Types of gyaru

The fashion had lots of branches. You don't need to know them all, but the names come up a lot in character descriptions.

  • GanguroA very dark tan, white lipstick and white eyeshadow. The loudest version, and the one that made the fashion famous.
  • YamanbaGanguro pushed to the limit: even darker skin, even brighter colors, near-white hair. The name refers to a mountain witch from Japanese folklore.