Fashion in Shounen Anime 

"...needs his girlfriend to dress him for the anime awards." Geoff, your girlfriend is literally an anime fashion outfit maker. The phase you're looking for is "fortunate enough to be dressed by his girlfriend".

Not gonna lie, I'd kill for an anime fashion magazine called Shonen Drip.

Killua: a fashion icon, stylish af Gon: a literal gnome

fun fact: the writing on Izuku’s shirt says somethings like “dress shirt” “flannel shirt”, etc, despite it always being a plain white shirt. I love this man

Jeff sounds like a man who knows nothing about fashion, but just appreciates it.

"To loop back to JoJo" *Commences Breakdown*

While jojo characters have drip, their outfits are more runway than something I would be comfortable wearing around town. Bleach have drip that I can see myself wearing comfortably.

Jojo's by far is the most stylish anime in the shounen genre. But if we look outside of shounen. I think Josei has been serving up looks for quite sometime Nana, Paradise Kiss, Princess Jellyfish. Maybe it goes hand in hand that the genre meant for adult women is more on trend but for such a small genre it would be a shame to overlook the character design they've been throwing out for decades.

“Stain is just a psychotic All Might nerd wearing all of the Ninja Turtles’ laundry at the same time” - Geoff Thew 2021

"Most of the characters just look dorky" that's because a majority of 15/16-year-olds can't dress for shit, it's ironically the most realistic element of My Hero Academia if you think about it. Adolescence is the age of terrible, hormone-fueled decisions and the sort of edginess that makes us look in horror at our past once we grow out of it.

Yugioh Fashion: Belts, lots and lots of belts

Soul Eater's entire design for EVERYTHING was awesome. It wasn't content with going "Yeah, our characters all have this cool hip-hop/goth/shonen anime pastiche", the BUILDINGS and CLOUDS and MOON carried the look over too.

Fun Fact: Kubo chooses drip for his characters based off what he sees in malls, magazines commercials etc. Usually picking clothes he couldn’t afford as a teen

JoJo is just an excuse for Araki to draw supermodel adventure death match fanfic

I have to make as stand as a girl who grew up in the 90's; Yu Yu Hakusho has HANDS DOWN some of the best dressed men ever drawn. Not only did the boys regularly change clothes, they changed into stylish ones. Kurama's outfits ran a cultural gamut; Western styles, Chinese martial arts, Japanese school uniform, Japanese gis...... his clothing encompassed a huge variety of colors, tones, styles, and fits. But he always, ALWAYS looked incredibly sharp, dressed like a mature, classy, upperscale young man. Yusuke was the epitome of a fashion-forward street fighter. His outfits were always nicely assembled (heck, he even refused to wear the uniform for his own school because he didn't like it), but they let him move freely and would never look out of place for a brawl. Kuwabara, while not as attractive, had a very distinct and flashy style that was as expressive as he was. Hiei, on the reverse, was very attractive but wore incredibly toned down clothing. The most elaborate thing we see him wear is his blue overcoat with the gold trimming and red lining outfit. He didn't wear as many diverse things, but they were full of saturated color and designed to accentuate the movements of his attacks. And then of course... Koenma. In his teen form, this guy is a one-man fashion show. Heck, Naoko Takeuchi (creator of Sailor Moon and Togashi's wife) let Koenma wear the ever famous Tuxedo Mask outfit in one of the arcs. Koenma's wardrobe OOZED drama, with scarfs, capes, and snappy shoes. But the boys weren't just dressing up in the show; promotional artwork, OPs and EDs, art especially for character songs, their movie fashions.... if Togashi hadn't become a manga-ka, he would have made a fortune as a costume/fashion designer. The man has a gift.

Yusuke: a fashion icon possibly the epitome of drip in his Era His GF: wears her mom's clothes

I love how he avoids using cuss words so he doesn't get demonetized but with Satoru Gojo he just has to say "he fucks" because we all know you can't hold back with Gojo

"Honey, i think the faucet is dripping" "No that's just Araki"

The respect YuYu Hakusho is getting is much appreciated- swagoo off the charts

Cowboy bebop has very little costumes but they're all perfect. Retro, fashionable and represent the characters personality perfectly. Spike and Faye have some serious drip.

I’m an art history major, and I wrote an entire final paper on sailor moon’s skirt. Needless to say, I’m so excited to see more people talking about anime fashion!

*"BIOLOGISTS HATE HIM"* Scientists yet to discern where young boy's hat ends and hair begins!

I think I heard somewhere that Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach, originally wanted to be a fashion designer, which explains why the Bleach cast usually look hella nice on the chapter title pages

You can’t reference Deku’s drip w/o acknowledging his legendary casual shirts

I remember an article about jojo and how you could look at it as a world where wild fashion isn't only for the rich and every can express themselves in style without backlash. In real life a guy celebrity wears a skirt or dress and can get away with it but your average guy can't. Jojo is a world that says you can wear what makes you happy, rock your style, anyone can dress like a model because not one is gatekeeping fashion.

We can all agree that Vegeta's pink shirt is peak fashion

okay but Killua shocked me with every new look, my son's got style for days.

Yu Yu Hakusho has some of the cutest outfits I've seen whenever the cast wears casual. It's like something you'd actually wear or see in a magazine i love them

Can we get an episode on anime hair? Is it natural or styled? If the latter, how many gallons of coloring and style gel do they go through?

I remember after bleach did a color spread for the best bout poll, people just agreed bleach is just supermodels acting in a fight themed show

Atem will ALWAYS be the crown jewel of all style. It’s simple yet is so drastic in its design.

Megumi isn't boring, his just a more subtle character than the others. Like introverts and extroverts. It's refreshing compare to the other overhyper trope characters

If you’re gonna mention Soul Eater we gotta talk about the witches, I love how each of them have a style that incorporates their animal motif. I mean, look at Medusa with that black sleeveless hooded dress and the snake tattoos on her arms aaah

It makes sense for Jujutsu Kaisen characters to have taste considering the Manga artist has gone on record to say that Tite Kubo work inspired him.

Yu Yu Hakusho still to this day has my absolute favorite fashion aesthetic in anime. It actually makes them feel like real people and not just characters.

"Nanami rockin that salaryman chic dotted tie" Yesss, he has style

You can say whatever you like about Dekus fashion, boy dresses like a teenager- he wears a shirt that literally says shirt on it- but his shoes are ICONIC

Most stylish anime: Yu Yu Hakusho Most Stylish anime world: Jo jo

I just love this guys speech pattern😂

Araki’s fashion an character designs are what made me get into Jojo more than anything else. Drippy as FUCK.

“This guy...” ** two unskippable ads play ** “...fucks.”

Just Killua, just him. The boy is fashionable as fuck than I am.

Personally I love Dabi's stapled clothes. Like this man COMMITS to the aesthetic and said "i'm gonna staple my jacket and pants so ALL of me match". And shoutout to Hawks casual looks, few they may be. His hero uniform is a bit of a letdown colour-wise(brown? really?) but when the first time we see him in casual clothes he's wearing a leather jacket and fingerless biker gloves, you gotta give him props. His hero look also looks infinitely better when you remove the jacket, but he'd probably get cold flying without it

I think that Hero Aca's rather lackluster fashion could be a way of reminding the audience that these are young teenagers. They dress like their parents still pick out their clothes, possibly because they do, at least partially.

Gintoki's half kimono is so simple but it's so fitting for his character. He manages to look both lazy and handsome at the same time :V

As someone who is going to fashion design school because of anime this video speaks to me personally

I think sasuke’s iconic shippuden outfit, you know the one grey shirt and the orochimaru rope and skirt thing, is one of the greatest designs in anime. It was especially cool in combination with the akatsuki cloak

Jojo's def Goated, especially with all of araki's collabs. Almost got me to buy some balenciaga lmao

my hot takes on naruto's outfit that no one asked for: naruto's outfit although ugly as sin is actually pretty genius. his outfit fits him terribly, it's far too big for him, it also seems to be a lot older in fashion than the clothes of all the other kids. not only that, but it looks a little dirty. these elements make his outfit so genius because they tell you about his character right off the bat. he's a scrappy, grungey kid who mostly buys his clothes at thrift stores probably and can't afford anything that will actually fit him. he probably found this in a thrift store, thought it was sick as hell, and bought it for 8 bucks. what makes this outfit even more compelling though is the redesign of it. the redesign in shippuden also tells you a lot about his character if you compare it back to naruto's original jumpsuit. now instead of being baggy it fits him much better, it doesn't seem as dirty either and the color combination is more mature. he's taking better care of himself, has more money to spend on himself, and is a bit more mature. and yet he's still the same scrappy naruto we know and love. this was longer than expected lmao. EDIT: HOLY COW?? OVER 700 LIKES???? THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! :D I'M LOVING ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND DEBATING ON HIS OUTFIT AND HOT TAKES ON HIS OTHER OUTFITS!! AAAAAAAA THANK YOU ALL

Also, props to Jujutsu Kaisen's first ED for exposing Yuji as not having natural anime hair, he just uses too much hair gel.

One of the things I love about One Piece fashion is how Oda uses it to unite groups of people! Whether that's helping to distinguish locations via people of certain islands dressing for the weather (like Punk Hazard, Alabasta, and Drum) and different cultures having different styles (like the Shandorans and the Skypieans, or the people of Dressrosa), or groups having a united style or theme (like the Newkama, Moria's crew, the Revolutionary Army, and even Foxy's and Buggy's crews). One Piece is wild with its character design but it still works in a way that feels logical and I love it for that.

So glad to hear someone praising Bleach’s fashion - I’ve been a fan for years and always loved browsing through Kubo’s art books.

Drip Tier List: 1: Lelouch fuck you fight me, his main outfit ROCKS the mysterious villain vibe while also combining an almost super-hero fit

Yami: You look like a bondage slave. Yugi: Perfect. Chicks dig bondage slaves, right?

He said “this guy...f**ks” I am dead 😂☠️

He didn't talk about SK8 The infinity's god-tier drip 😭

Something I really like about the clothing design in Demon Slayer is that it’s used to illustrate bonds between certain characters. Tanjiro’s haori and Nezuko’s obi both have a checkered pattern found on at least one piece of clothing their deceased family wears, Zenitsu’s haori is the same pattern as his mentor’s, everyone at the Butterfly Estate wears a butterfly hairpin, and the patterned half of Giyuu’s haori matching Sabito’s clothes foreshadows their connection.

Tbh Sailor Moon has some of THE most iconic outfits of all time.

The early seasons of bleach have my fashion style life. That street fashion in the first op is iconic

The anime that made me more conscious about fashion was Hitman Reborn. Every character had some really good outfits. The author then went and made the character designs for Psycho-Pass, another anime with very fashionable characters. I think she deserves a mention for her work on making anime characters extra stylish.

Honorable mention: Teru’s iconic pink sweater in Mob Psycho 100

Still want to thank Bleach for starting the trend of "everyone has to wear a uniform but you can accessorize it a bit to give it your own character"

When thinking about stylish manga characters, Bleach always is the first that comes to mind.

“...his only competition is himself, and he’s never stopped trying to one-up that jerk.” 5:55

Togashi: My manga’s about a punk kid... ...who works as a spirit cop... ...and they all have drip for literal years. Kubo: *furiously taking notes*

as someone that recently marathoned the original run of Sailor Moon (we don't talk of Crystal in this house) can confirm it has drip for years. it covers basically every facet and trend of 90's fashion you could possibly want or need, like I'm convinced that half the reason there's so much filler is just to contrive new reasons to put the girls in new outfits

Thank you for highlighting the absolute buffet of fashion plates that is Yu Yu Hakusho, my most treasured nostalgic Shonen anime.

Aight, when we getting "Shonen hair: a guide to maintaining those spiky locks"

Most Shonen are "Ready to wear", JoJo is "couture"

"God she's cute, but not as cute as Gojo Satoru" YOU GET IT. YOUUUUU GETT ITTTTTT

It’s already been said but Gintoki Sakata’s fit is top tier. Somewhere between lazy bum and distinguished samurai. It perfectly matches his character.

Gilgamesh from Fate looks fantastic especially when he's in casual clothes with his hair down. When he wears the golden armor he quite literally shines. His appearance in Babylon was nothing short of amazing with the more laid-back open vest and pants showing his maturity compared to his Zero counterpart. When the archer version did show up it was without a shirt showing off the blood-red tattoos that only served to highlight the color of his eyes. The child version of Gilgamesh in Fate/Kaleid was terrifying in the way no kid should when he pushed back his hair yet until then his hoodie made him look adorable. In Babylon, the contrast of colors between Gilgamesh and Enkidu (with Enkidu's green hair and white outfit) only made their relationship more noticeable. Siduri's relationship with both of them was also more noticeable since she wore both their colors with her green dress having gold trim while the white hood and see-through face cover gave off a different feel from them both. It was clear that all three were connected (suddenly I want to go cry in my Siduri x Gilgamesh x Enkidu corner. I shipped it and it ended in tragedy). Most of the Fate characters look amazing although I dislike Shingi on principle. Rin's red coat matches great with Archer's everything, while also being reminiscent of the suit her father wore. Sakura's outfits are muted in just the right ways while the white dress that she wears is a great contrast to the black dress that she gets later in Heaven's Feel. Chu Culain (lancer fate/stay night) looks incredible with his blue skin-tight outfit that brings out his muscles, highlights his hair, and draws attention to his eyes - especially during his fight with Archer (the one where an explosion goes off behind him. Arturia looks amazing too although I like her casual outfit more than her other one. Kotomine pulls off a creepy priest outfit very well and looks hilarious as a chief. Kiritsugu's rugged appearance (it was mostly the hair) paired with the dark colors makes him look desolate while also giving off the feeling that he's only fighting because he has no other choice. Irisviel is adorable with her white coat while the red shirt she wears highlights her eyes (all together she look innocent). Ilya pulls off the innocent look a lot better than her mom but also has a sense of maturity with the purple colors that are her signature. Shirou is just Shirou there is no other way to describe his appearance although it's cute when he wears aprons (fate/Kaleid Shirou is a whole different version that has a certain darkness to his character and clothing during the movie but looks defeated in his first reappearance during the series.) Iskandar pulls off an outfit that almost screams 'hey look at me' especially the fur on his cloak collar. Like the fur seems like it would be too much but it contrasts with his bright hair nicely and breaks up the overflow of red from his cloak. Waver is adorable with his vest and sweater while looking... um different when he reappears in case files (it's not just the long hair either). Speaking of case files Grey is cute although she looks like Arturia, the little splash of fur on her cloak always reminded me of Iskandar while her having the hood up makes her eyes shine. Caster (fate/Zero) is creepy, way more creepy than he needs to be since the shape of his collar just makes you notice his face. Medea has a far more elegant appearance especially when the hem of her cloak moves on it's own. Medusa (Fate/Stay night) is honestly hot with her skin tight short dress (the chains! oh gods the chains!) while her stint as Anna in Babylon shows a child like innocence (thank god they gave that character a different name for a while) mainly due to the cloak and hood although her boots were designed to kick people and everyone knew it. Assassin (fate/stay night) had a kimono garb that made him stand out especially when he was fighting Arturia with her England style dress. Jack the Ripper in Apcropha does an amazing job tugging at heartstrings with her ripped oversized shirt that matches the homeless vibe yet is so different than her introductory outfit while her Master clearly embraced the whole prostitute appearance with the short green dress and heels. Atalanta and Achillies clearly show their connection through the use of greens in their outfits while never stating they're both from the same mythology on that note Chiron rocks the Greece skirt thing and thigh bracers. Also, Atalanta's second form is feral in appearance with the claws and fur not to mention heartbreaking and terrifying all in one. Hercules certainly looks like a greek hero contrasting with Illya's modern attire. Fate/Kaleid is adorable with all the Illya transformations especially her assassin attire that honestly makes her look cute and cuddly rather than frightening. I'm going to stop now... moral of the story Gilgamesh looks amazing in everything and sometimes in nothing. Bye, have a nice day loved the video.

Bro take responsibility, you just flooded my house with all this drip.

Right before the midpoint ad, I was asking myself, "how has he not even mentioned all the streetwear in BLEACH yet?", and then right on cue, the instant the ad ended, Bleach took the stage.

In naruto the last movie naurto had drip omo, the red scarf one sleeve rolled up and one down covering his fake hand, and the red arm band, it was low-key drip.

I'm gonna go ahead ahead and say Mugen and Faye Valentine are top tier drip gods. I mean Mugen's character design goes crazy. He's wearing 19th century Japanese garms but like over-sized to match the early 2000's hip-hop aesthetic. And Faye speaks for herself...damn

Say what you will about the fashion sense in Naruto, you can’t deny the ramen guy’s drip while holding the strainer

“Without that gangsta fit how are we supposed to know not to fuck with Soul?”

My Model/Influencer Friends: You're a massive nerd? Why are you so good at dressing yourself. Me:

Killiua drips SO HARD, I honestly look to him for outfit inspo lmao

Let’s definitely not sleep on the mad drip Bleach characters had. Chad a straight up Latino chad with his blouse choices and the squad captain knew how to accessorize during both work and down time

Part 5 has so much good clothing that there is a whole fashion line for it. This is what needs more attention.

This might actually be my favorite of your videos. I didn’t know I needed a fashion review of shounen but here we are.

I will always think Vash from Trigun is the coolest character from any anime. But I do gotta say Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho's characters drip so damn hard in their casual outfits!

"This guy...... *FUCKS* " Omg I was NOT ready for that. You had me dead 🤣

"No shonen drips harder than Jojo." Speaking true facts over here.

We need a video of the fashion in Akira. The holy grail of fashion in anime.

Love that you made this video, it just made me appreciate almost every anime on there even more. Everything you said about Soul Eater was gospel

For April fools day, Geoff should publish a “what’s in an OP?” vid, but instead of it covering a opening, it instead talks about One Piece since OP=One Piece

Can’t believe you didn’t mention the DIVINE EMPEROR OF FASHION HIMSELF, Edward “you guys have a problem with my sense of style??” Elric. There’s even a running joke in the fandom that he would have spent all of his State Alchemist wages on ‘90s-era Hot Topic apparel and I can’t say I disagree.

"No shonen drips harder than JoJo!" Period

We need an updated version of this vid with newer anime titles especially Tokyo Revengers like seriously Wakui-Sensei definitely enjoys designing clothes it’s amazing how always stylish the characters look

imagine not taking about killuas constantly changing drip

"The only competition that Araki has is himself" Araki: Well yes Araki Act 69: But actually yes Me: *Nobody knows which version of Araki is the current Araki, maybe that's why he doesn't seem to age*

I like the style of Fairy Tail. The fashion which is a mix of modern and historical styles with some characters dressing like samurai while others wear renaissance outfits or medieval mixed with others characters who dress in clearly modern fashion was always fascinating to me. Natsu, Gray, Lucie and Erza each had multiple outfits and some quite cool, though the most fashionable was Loki once he was restored to full power. He wore a suit and tie with blue sunglasses and rings on some but not all of his fingers. Even sides characters and background characters had unique styles.

personally i think enricho pucci drips swagger like no one else does, he was to me the most enjoyable part of stone ocean

The exaggerated swagger of a young shounen protagonist

Naruto's fit only looks dorky because he wears it fully zipped up, lol. When he had it unzipped like a normal jacket and has his mesh top and necklace on display? Drip for days. I always thought Temari had the best fashion choices of anyone in Naruto though. The Akatsuki robes are iconic af. And SAI is a fuckin legend.

I feel like a lot of the outfits in One Piece are ahead of their time, the bold patterns, unique colors...

For all the praise you gave the character design - not mentioning Soul Eaters Casual/off-day drip leaves out nearly half of the drippiness of the show. Black Star in a casual tank top, Soul with a circlet instead of his headband and the orange tee + black shirt jacket combo and DTK in a black open short sleeve shirt over a red henley were all quite stylish in their own right