Do You Like Anime Girls with Fangs?

Do You Like Anime Girls with Fangs? How About “Skinfang”?

How is your week going? We’re hard at work finalizing the master for our upcoming Sweet Home: My Sexy Roommates game. We have a write-up on our blog, if you want to know more about the story and characters. Read it here!

I like to analyze visual themes in anime and see how they evolve and change over time. It’s funny to see how, whenever an influential anime creates some new moe visual trope, it gets picked up by other creators who copy it and pass it along. Here are a few recent trends I’ve followed, including the always-cute anime girls with fangs…

• Ahoge, literally meaning “idiot hair,” the strand of hair that sticks up, like Saber from Fate.
• Shokkaku or “insect antenna hair,” like Nagisa from Clannad.
• Various trends in hair decorations, like ribbons, hair bands, even unique hair clips shaped like fried eggs or Pocky
• That weird “haircut boom” of a few years ago. Several series experimented with having beloved character get haircuts, undergoing major visual shifts before fans’ eyes. Tsuruko from AnoHana, Yozora from Haganai and Hitagi from Nisemonogatari were three examples.
• Forehead characters who sport brows you could park spaceships on. Ritsu Tainaka, Riko from Kobayashi Dragon Maid and Takagi-san come to mind…
• Double fangs, to show a cute fiery spirit, pioneered by Urusei Yatsura based on the face that Lum is an ogre from the planet Oniboshi (“ogre planet”).
• A single fang, which represents yaeba, the chronically crooked teeth which are often thought to be devilishly cute and charming, especially in idols.

Recently we’ve witnessed a new variant of the last example emerge, sporting a single yaeba fang, but one that’s uncolored, due to a stylistic choice by the creators. This trend has been dubbed “skinfang” by fandom, who find it adorable. Currently the most popular skinfang is Aoi from the cute-girls-doing-cute-camping-things anime Yuru Camp (Laid-Back Camp). Her popularity exploded after a certain hot springs episode that aired a few weeks ago…

We love to carry awesome artbooks from Japan, which highlight the amazing works of Japan’s best artists. This week we’ve been posting more than usual, including saitom (Saotou Masatsugu), a very special photobook for One Piece fans, and more. Browse the new artbooks we’ve posted to the site here!