

I specifically want to know which manga or anime started the trend, so I can
reason from there to the how question, in order to not make general
assumptions.

There was a time in manga/anime where blue hair was abnormal. For example,
from the short clips I've seen of the anime "アタックNo.1", it contains mostly
black-haired girls, a couple of brunettes and a sparse blonde. No one there is
pink/red/blue-haired. Same with Princess Knight.


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2016-01-18T21:34:35.783
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question
anime-history manga-history
When & where did the unnatural hair color aka "You gotta have blue hair trope" originate?


Urusei Yatsura had characters with weird hair colors as far back as 1981 and
is generally the originator of a lot of things that make anime anime.

But then three years earlier **Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Harlock (1978)** already
featured someone with a blue hair color.

That character was an alien, though.

[![Uchuu Kaizoku Captain
Harlock](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xemNem.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xemNem.jpg)

Truth be told,... the characters with weird hair colors in Urusei Yatsura were
also all aliens.

Similarly, **Kidou Senshi Gundam 0079 (1979)** had characters with blue hair:

[![M'Quve](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4eD0G.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4eD0G.png)
[![Lalah
Sune](https://files.catbox.moe/mx6pd0.webp)](https://files.catbox.moe/mx6pd0.webp)

Even earlier, **Majokko Meg-chan (1974)** :

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/o5UQb.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/o5UQb.jpg)
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mScfl.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mScfl.jpg)

And I guess the following could also be interesting in general:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1gPfi.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1gPfi.jpg)

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kQrKm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kQrKm.jpg)


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answer