Zeraph

They're almost always unkempt, spiky, and going every which way. And I don't count slicking back hair, because that's usually means he's the BBEG (big bad evil guy). Closest you get is some sort of samurai pony tail.

Oh I suppose I should say MALE anime characters. Females often have their hair done up nicely.

snowy

You mean like this guy?


Couldn't help myself; it's my favorite manga/anime hair. I think part of it just stems from it being a cartoon--it can be whatever the artist wants.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Willravel

You don't have three-foot spikes coming out of your head that occasionally turn blond when needed?

snowy

There's also:

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Zeraph

I love kenpachi <3

I think there could be an entire anime based just around him. Although i forget if it was in the manga or anime but the author put in a funny line about kenpachi complaining how long it took to do his hair everyday

Jetée

Short factual basis:
Because most manga/anime drawing styles do not allow for several characters' facial features to be actually all that distinctual, (save for the artist/author applying scars, making one character always wear sunglasses, this bad guy has a fu manchu, and this good guy, seemingly, has whiskers?) the hair de facto becomes part of a characters' overall personality and makeup.

Maybe somewhere along the line anime/manga influenced real life and that's why you can partially explain the likes of Shinjuku, or vice-versa, (art imitates life) but having some characters' wild-thing hairstyles makes them especially more recognizable as their entity, apart from the dozens of other characters that may be present within their own individual, storied universe. As to the outrageous hair colours present in anime, it's just taking the hair distinction to a further (perhaps more ridiculous) level of stating, this person is wholly different from this other person. (e.g. Character Ichigo has a name that literally means "strawberry" in Japanese, so, yes, indeed, it would make sense that his hair be "red/orange", given the name/hair distinction has already been set. Furthermore, regarding the Saiyan story line, the reason for the big hair is just as I stated previously, but when it grows longer or changes colour during certain battle scenes, this is just a quick visual indication to the readers that the relevant character has just amplified his/her powers by some upteenth degree, perhaps equals to how outrageous the hair follows his newfound strength?)


-- (to note: This is semi-common knowledge to anyone who reads manga, and especially to anyone actually in-tune to Japanese culture, as the vestige of "flowing hair makes the (wo-/)man" is evident even in woodblock paintings from several centuries earlier. However, if you are a Western wonderer, this next few topics could help you more readily understand, if you didn't follow me above: Expressive Hair - Expository Hairstyle Change - Good Hair Evil Hair - Power Makes Your Hair Grow - Hair Colors. Although I am linking the trope-o-pedia, what I wrote above was just taken off the dome as an explanation as to why Anime more visually incorporates "the hair as the person" than anything really comprable to Western Animation/cartoons.)

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Zeraph

I get it makes them more recognizable. But where's the normal parted business hair? (except on suits). The most common hair cut. I get that they need to be distinctive I really do. But I rarely see "normal" hairstyles amongst them. And there's no reason why not, kenpachi should have a right sided part. Well there are reasons but you get what I mean

Jetée

Well, most traditional manga editors try to shy their artists away from the "normal" hairstyles. Counting Chinese and Westerners, the typified Japanese haircuts, especially with the school-aged main characters in the stories, (shonen boys) it's basically 75% of the estimated populus therein have the dark hair, each side parted, "cut".

The thing to remember is that around 90% of anime begins as a popular manga serial first ;(weekly/monthly comic) with very few exceptions, these comics are based on simplicity and story. They are nearly always in black and white, save for a special commerative story cover every now and then, they are produced and consumed as an easy-to-digest, easy-to-pick up articles. If even a few characters have the more traditional "neat" haircut, it becomes that much harder to follow who is whom. Maybe it's this new ADHD generation? The hairstyles have definitely gotten wackier over the progression of the past two decades. With the exception of Toriyama and Fujimoto, in the early-to-mid eighties, if you picked up any 10 serials, you might have found what you were looking for, Zeraph, in about 7-8 of them, what with the "normal" hair drawn for the majority of characters.

Not that there's a correlation, but the only time nowadays I see the business/modern haircut in Japanese print, it is either manga for girls, (I forget what this genre is called - bi-j/shou?) or in ecchi-based stories that are inherently weird, involves businessmen, and some sort of demonic hoarde of lusty succubi. (-- to note: "nowadays" for me was back in 2005-07. I haven't onsumed manga in a few years.)

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi