the meaning the colour pink holds is obvious: since pink is only used in alnst as mizi's hair colour, it represents the fantasy she creates and lives in, and by extension, the fantasy people see in her.
in round 1, a pink bubble surrounds mizisua as they perform. this stage performance is the one they've dreamed of since they were young, and both of them play the part of the fantasy until it inevitably ends, when the bubble pops for good. sua dies, and mizi's unable to keep up her innocent facade, as represented by the pink tint disappearing.
of course, this doesn't mean pink disappears entirely. mizi's facade is broken down slowly over the course of the series, as this life long act is not just something that can be instantly resolved.
hair length represents attachments: her hair gets shot off as she resolves herself to move on past her grief for sua and take action - just like hyuna does (note the fallacy here). till still holds onto her as his only comfort, and it's represented by just her hair because he's only attached to the fantasy of her that he's constructed for himself, not for who mizi actually is. similarly, pink tints his scenes when he uses fantasy and the image of her to cope.
in the end, even with her hair cut off, mizi still chooses to play dumb. in other words, she's not facing a full picture of reality, but escaping to the fantasy that her own facade provides - a comforting naive innocence, where she doesn't need to confront the consequences to her own inaction. she still pretends to be a naive girl, because it's her only coping mechanism and how she navigates the world. but a lifetime of guilt catches up to her, catalysed by the death of the last of her friends, and famously she crashes the fuck out.
as she faces reality, her pink grows washed out against the red of her crisis. the moment she saves till is arguably one of the moments where she is most "herself" - there's no pretence or motive to her actions other than needing to save the last remaining member of her family.
the last traces of mizi's pink hair are then hidden by a long, black wig, as she essentially becomes a widow, living life in continous mourning. but some of it still shows through, and it becomes the only colour other than black and red that defines her after she's made into Witch.
isn't solely blaming herself for everything, tying herself to it, and not allowing herself to move on just as juvenile as pretending she doesn't know anything? isn't she just refusing to face the full truth again? she escapes one fantasy just to live in another, but this one is of an ugly nightmare instead of a beautiful dream.
until the very end, she's still living in perpetual performance, acting her assigned part, wilfully playing pretend. from girl to bride to witch, there is no respite. to be a woman - to embody pink - is to be what others want from you.
Hyde’s main colour used continuously in TGS is green and this mainly links to the stereotypical views of an ‘evil’ character having green eyes and/or a green colour palette within classic stories and other medias having constantly portrayed villains as being ‘green’ characters (e.g. Maleficent, Dr. Doom, The Riddler etc…).
However, green as a colour also largely represents envy. This shows Hyde’s envy for both Jekyll’s freedom — which he craves for himself — and also the envy of Robert. Both Jekyll’s closeness with him after their breakup and the fact that they can’t be together which got passed onto Hyde during the split.
During the later chapters — ‘Just a Song at Twilight’ onwards once they have Robert back — Hyde doesn’t wear green again. Instead he wears Henry’s red vest rather than his usual green one to show some of that envy towards Robert disappearing once they are back together. (Could just be because Jekyll was in control at the time they got dressed but still)
(Disclaimer: wear whatever colours you want, this is mostly what I think would work well for fanart colour schemes.)
Henry: True Winter
It's no surprise that he's a winter, it's literally in his name (as well as the fact that he's high contrast and cool toned). As far as which subtype, his eyes are too light for a deep winter and I think he wouldn't suit the bright winter colour palette at all, so he's there in the middle. Easy.
Bunny: Soft Autumn
I feel like he has a warmer tone, which serves as a nice contrast to Henry, and muted but still variant colours suit his whole thing with not wanting to seem gay while still being expressive. Also I love the idea of him being more of a bronze blond.
Francis: Bright Spring
I was surprised by this one, but having very red hair (warm + bright) and needing to look good in black (any winter subtype, bright spring, or dark autumn) kind of means he has to be there. I guess if you made him more auburn he could fit into dark autumn, but Francis 'he had the reddest hair I'd ever seen' Abernathy wouldn't be auburn in my opinion.
Charles and Camilla: Light Summer
I love the idea of these two being cooler toned. For Camilla, it's mostly because it matches her better with Henry, as well as giving her a generally almost-dead look that Richard emphasises a lot. I think Charles would have a warmer vibe, almost on the cusp with light spring, but his grey eyes and hair that gets darker over the story wouldn't suit a fully different season. Also, they look good in lighter, muted colours, which is important, and I think Camilla looking a little washed out in Charles' clothes adds to the vibe.
Richard: Dark Autumn
Richard hates describing himself so I'm working based partially on headcanon. He's got a tan, which I've always associated with warmer skin tones, and I think he says somewhere that he has dark hair? Whatever, works for me.
Colour analysis has always been a pivotal aspect of Daredevil be it the show or the comics and while the reboot did lack the depth and the vibrancy in the first season, there was a common thread of brown that showed up sporadically and what seems to be, more regularly, now that we approach season 2.
I feel like it’s only fair to start with the best and that has to be the warm amber tones that’s dare I say, DDBA’s version of Yellow which they consistently employ whenever Karen and Matt are happy and connected.🫠
In comparison, the brown literally fades out where you only see traces of it in the very next scene of them together in the courthouse. I will definitely be delving into the muted shading that’s been used in s1 as a plot driver in a future post but the absence of Foggy alongside the limbo that these two were suspended in after his passing-drifting apart and yet still tethered together,however delicately - was quite prominent in the barely there brown tones….much cooler tints as a sad echo of the past.
One might argue that the season finale which showed the most interaction between the two was all splashed in the bleakest of blues and to that I’d respond that the entire episode was building towards them attempting to reestablish broken bonds. We essentially see Matt and Karen make a dent in the avalanche of hurt and insecurities between them only to finally get to a fragile point of understanding where they’ve both placed their cards down on the table. Whether this attempt at peace finds flight or crashes is a question that we’re left to ponder on with the culmination of the season.
Season 2 opens up with them on a unified journey to heal their relationship and finally work together as a team so no surprises, the warm ambers seem to be back for good!
Last but not least, there is one exception to the above rule and that is the Heather and Matt scene. Frankly, I could split hairs talking about how the shades differ a teeny tiny bit but I’ll just place the blame on the entire mess that the show went through before setting up the present team. The lack of intimacy and connection is well portrayed by other storytelling devices be it Matt’s wildly affected facade or the manipulative tactics by way of expressing interest when he was essentially trying to listen in on Fisk’s electoral win all of which translates to a quite gritty and grim tone despite the similar colour schemes.
P.S. All credits to @kdheaven for this wonderfully astute outlook on the Heather and Matt scene and why the lighting does in fact make more sense than what meets the eye: “I even think you could make a case that the Matt and Heather scene was a deliberate choice. Just in the same way that the scene echoes Matt and Karen kissing on her front stoop. Matt is trying to recreate a connection, and there's a spark there, but it clearly isn't the same and it fizzles quickly.”
P.P.S Atp, this is just a collective fandom thread that I’m putting together with takes far more astute than mine. As @alizelavasseur points out: “There’s another sepia scene where Matt screams “Fuck” when the song “Get Free” blares, with lyrics like “she never loved me, why should anybody?” and “You really need to come home from California” the Karedevil signs were there all along!”
Firstly I am not hating on the Prada look, it’s fun and playful and wacky and I guess meant to make the CLOTHES stand out more than the ethereal dude wearing them.
Buttttt being autistic as fuck with colour analysis as one of my longterm special interests, I couldn’t help shitly on my phone trying to edit what it could have looked like if he’d had colours that allowed him to glow more than the clothes.
Because that’s the whole point of colour analysis - do you want the clothes to stand out? Ok then go against your colouring, and expect people to notice what you’re wearing more than you (and at worst if they do notice you they may say you look tired or unwell - this happens to me if I wear anything bluer than teal 😭). But if you want YOU to be noticed first, you want you to glow, you want people to say you look well/have you been on holiday/cut your hair/lost weight etc etc etc, then you wear colours that harmonise with your complexion.
Have I got Woo 100% right, no I don’t think so, but it’s hard to make perfect on a phone, and hard to judge someone’s best colours purely from photos. I have a feeling he’s neutral (maaaaybe) and high contrast and deep, so by the old seasonal system some kind of deep autumn/winter, but I could very easily be wrong, it’s just guesswork from the colours I’ve seen him in (which lbr is mostly black 🖤). I just knew I wanted to swap the electric blue for a marine navy, and the mint trousers for teal - still fun and colourful but more harmonious - and the brown was okaaay but felt better a little deeper and slightly more neutral purple-toned brown than warm chocolate brown. And I feel like we notice HIS BEAUTIFUL CARVED BY THE GODS FACE more in the deeper more neutral colours, whereas the first thing I see on the actual look is wow that’s a blue shirt and mint trousers; I only notice Woo after.
Anyhoo like I said, fashion week cares more about how the fashion looks than the people in it, so I get it, they want us to notice the clothes first 🤷 It just irritates my inner colour analysis nerd 🤣
Yellow is usually meant to create warmth and a feeling of cosiness and calmness. But in this case, the yellow is very strong and uncomfortable to look at. It reflects the faked warmth and intimacy Kai had experienced in his relationship with Kurosaki. Its mix with red signals the danger and threat coming from Kurosaki.
There is also lots of yellow light in Kai's scene with Fuma. The yellow light is minimal however, it is mixed with purple and blue. The blue and purple light was heavily used in the Thai version to underline the sexual passion. But Kai and Fuma had no quick and passionate one-night-stand. It was actually rather soft and slow. Kai's colour is usually blue to reflect his sadness and loneliness, ocassionally mixed by the flashes of red to indicate flashbacks of his trauma. In this scene the yellow that mingles with the blue light, is actual warmth and intimacy. It is a soft yellow because Fuma is very gentle with Kai, he actually likes Kai. It shines into the sad blue light of Kai's character.
OMORI is a colourful game - including its characters. This will be the first of a small series of analysis posts, with the focus here being on a select few characters within Sunny’s dream world. Those characters are the ones who break the mold (and are the reasons for mold). This means Mari, Basil, Stranger, Spirit Mari, and Omori himself.
To preface, purple is a colour used within the vast majority of the characters of headspace, including all of the main gang. The in-game explanation is that Mari’s favourite colour was purple, she had even planned to dye her hair with purple after the recital with Aubrey, who had planned to dye her own hair pink. Being that the world of dreams is centered around Mari as a terrible attempt to help Sunny cope with the loss of his older sister, it makes sense that the main colour is her favourite colour, and that very few characters break this mold.
But - what does the colour purple itself actually symbolize? Purple has a few different meanings such as wisdom, royalty, power and spirituality. The use of purple makes more sense when looking at the meaning - after all, Mari is only ever haunting the narrative, seen only as a reimagined version of herself through memories and other’s words. What we, the players, learn about Mari leads us to seeing the traits that purple hints at. She’s shown to be the fun older sister and is someone Sunny looked up to and adored. She isn’t literal royalty, but she is given the respect and adoration from everyone around her that can be compared to royalty. She’s the ruler of their hearts. She doesn’t only follow the purple symbolism of royalty, but also wisdom. Mari is portrayed as a bright girl and a prodigal piano player. She was happy to be the one to help others resolve conflicts and to give out advice on the missions within Headspace. Finally, she has the spiritual aspect down thanks to her haunting the narrative. She’s near worshipped within Sunny’s mind, seen with how she’s one of the pillars of headspace, and how perfect she’s shown to be. Mari is represented thoroughly through the colour purple. While the other characters within headspace may be purple because it’s her favourite colour, the reason it was chosen was likely because of how it represents her.
Of course - purple isn’t used for every character. Rather the headspace version of Basil is done with the main colour of teal instead. Teal is often used to represent things like connection, openness, stability and calmness. The use of this colour for Basil of all characters feels like it shows how Sunny uses his dream world to hold onto the past. After all, it’s said that they were best friends and whenever Basil is seen in a photo it’s him and Sunny together. They were each other's safe person, the quiet ones compared to every other teasing and chaotic force surrounding them. The colour teal represents their old bond, how close they were and how they were able to trust each other. Which is why the teal feels ironic now - as the bond was shattered in a way that will never be fully repaired, not even in the ‘good’ ending. The connection and openness are where to start, as the two are no longer in contact in the real world. They used to be together often and could confide in each other, but that bond is no longer there due to the Mari Incident. While implied that Basil may have visited a few times after Mari’s death, it doesn’t change that their bond really only existed in Sunny’s mind. Then there’s the stability and calmness, which came with them being the quiet ones. That was destroyed as their mental stability became nonexistent after the day of the recietal. So the teal is meant to represent the past good times between Sunny and Basil through Omori and Basil, even if that relationship doesn’t exist within the real world any longer.
Another Basil variant to talk about is Stranger, who exists within a few areas of headspace. He, Omori, and Spirit Mari are the only three characters to ever appear in black and white within the dreams. Yet, they all seem to represent different means of black and white. Stranger seems to represent the mystery and antagonistic qualities of black as well as the honesty of white. He’s the mysterious Basil-adjacent figure who is more akin to Sunny’s own self-loathing and regret in terms of his relationship and what he’s done to Basil than actually being Basil. The black represents the mystery and intrigue behind his character, as Stranger is the complete opposite to everything Basil is thought to be. He’s also antagonistic towards the Dreamer - not being a fan of the way he hides behind the mask that is Omori. Stranger is also one of the only characters who knows the Truth, which adds to the mystery behind him as well as the honesty element. The pure white eyes is a clever way to tell that Stranger simply wants the Dreamer, needs Sunny, to see the truth of what happened - as that’s the only way he could ever be freed from his prison of deciet. His shadowy form in black and white represents his dark nature with good intentions.
The next character in black and white to discuss is Spirit Mari. The white in Mari could represent hope and honesty. This is because Spirit Mari also wants Sunny to remember what happened that day, she wanted him to know so he could come clean. She was hope that the future could be better if Sunny reconnected to their old group and told them what happened that day. She was hope for forgiveness from them if he would just let himself face the truth. The black within her design can be seen as symbolizing protection and spirituality, as she wants to protect Sunny from the depths and darkness of his own mind. She’s almost like a guardian angel whenever she visits him, always having his best interests at heart. Spirit Mari’s black and white theme shares traits with both Stranger and Omori, but she’s the most gentle and well-intentioned of the group. She wants what’s best for everyone, and she’s kind in how she tries to guide Sunny to the best path.
Finally, there’s Omori himself - the first and most seen black and white character within headspace. For him, the black symbolizes protection, darkness, power, death and mourning. The white represents purity and innocence, new beginnings, peace, and simplicity. The black shows that Omori was created and given power in Sunny’s darkest moments. He’s given control over the Headspace, which he then uses to try to protect Sunny from his trauma. The black of Omori represents Sunny’s trauma and coping mechanism as he’s a trying to protect Sunny from Mari’s death and his grief, he just does it in a fucked up way. The white then represents what Sunny is supposed to feel thanks to his dream world. Sunny is supposed to be at peace within his dreams, Omori wants Sunny to still believe that his life is what it once was. The world is simple, each day a new adventure in a world that is completely safe. There’s no real risk within the world (unless you’re Basil). It’s a reminder for Sunny of days that were easy from his childhood, the days of his innocence. The black and white colours used for Omori tell the player his role as a protector who does want good, even though he goes about it the completely wrong way. He’s a twisted character even if he was almost definitely created by Sunny’s mind to be a protector.
Overall, colour holds power over people's perception, whether it’s realised or not. OMORI is a game that uses colour to subtly influence the perception of different characters, and these five are just scratching the surface. After all, while Mari, Basil, Stranger, Spirit Mari, and Omori are the pillars of headspace, they’re by no means the only ones who’s colours influence our perception of them. This is just within a handful of headspace characters, not mentioning the colours of the locations or any of the real world, which also have a lot to explore when it comes to colour.
