In Japanese, gyaru ギャル are generally sociable young women of flashy, showy appearance, specially those following certain fashion trends, wearing gaudy accessories and makeup.
In anime, gyaru characters are normally portrayed as having unnatural dark skin and blond hair, and are associated with a number of tropes.
Characters: Aiura Mikoto 相ト命
Anime: Saiki-Kusuo no Psi Nan 2 斉木楠雄のΨ難 2 (Episode 8)
Anime: Saiki-Kusuo no Psi Nan 2 斉木楠雄のΨ難 2 (Episode 8)
Types
There are various types of gyaru, all similarly showy. Here are some of them:黒ギャル
A kuro-gyaru 黒ギャル, or "black gyaru," is a gyaru that has artificial"dark skin," ganguro ガングロ. The ganguro is normally attained through tanning at a beach or at an artificial tanning salon.The ganguro can be partial: by wearing black foundation (cosmetic), the girl's face becomes black, leaving the rest of the body in the natural white color.
Character: Sumiyoshi Kanako 住吉加奈子
Anime: Nyan Koi! にゃんこい！ (Episode 2)
Anime: Nyan Koi! にゃんこい！ (Episode 2)
- Note that her face is black from makeup, not from tanning, as the rest of her body is white.
In Japan, most people have white skin, so, by turning their skin black, the kuro-gyaru stands out in the crowd. The term ganguro isn't applied to natural dark skin, but a kuro-gyaru can be a gyaru that has natural dark skin.
There are terms for three levels of ganguro according to how dark the kuro-gyaru's skin becomes:
- ganguro ガングロ
Dark skin. - gonguro ゴングロ
Darker skin. - bachiguro バチグロ
Darkest skin.
白ギャル
A shiro-gyaru 白ギャル, or "white gyaru," is the opposite: a gyaru with white skin. Or, most likely, a gyaru without ganguro.Basically, kuro-gyaru was such a popular style t a time that gyaru was practically synonymous with ganguro. Some gyaru got sick of it: all this dark skin stuff. So the shiro-gyaru style was their attempt at breaking free of the ganguro thing.
Another key difference between kuro-gyaru and shiro-gyaru is that kuro-gyaru tends to use heavier makeup than shiro-gyaru. The dark skin helps contrast more vivid colors.
The shiro-gyaru uses "bleach," buriichi ブリーチ (not the shounen manga, I'm talking about cosmetics here), to make their hair lose color and make it approach blonde.
ヤマンバ
A yamanba マンバ is a kuro-gyaru with white makeup, mascara, and white hair, or, more likely, bleached blond hair.The style is supposed to mimic the monster spirit yamauba 山姥, which takes form of an "old woman," babaa ババァ, and lives in a "mountain," yama 山. Since it's an old woman, it has white hair.
Anime: Asobi Asobase あそびあそばせ (Episode 4)
マンバ
A manba マンバ is a kuro-gyaru derived from yamanba which has colored hair instead of white.
Character: Sumiyoshi Kanako 住吉加奈子
Anime: Nyan Koi! にゃんこい！ (Episode 2)
Anime: Nyan Koi! にゃんこい！ (Episode 2)
コギャル
A kogyaru コギャル is a gyaru that's a "high-school student," a koukousei gyaru 高校生ギャル.Many anime take place in high school, so, sooner or later, you'll end up seeing one of these kogyaru somewhere.
Something that kogyaru usually wear in anime is:
- ruuzu sokkusu ルーズソックス
"Loose socks." (wasei eigo)
Socks that are "loose" in the sense they're baggy. They look like you haven't worn them right, like you're supposed to pull them up and stretch them.
姫ロリ
The term hime-rori 姫ロリ is an abbreviation of "princess lolita," in the sense of "lolita fashion," roriitaa fasshon ロリータ・ファッション, you know, like "gothic & lolita," gosshiku ando roriita ゴシック・アンド・ロリータ.Anyway, a hime-rori gyaru, or just hime-gyaru 姫ギャル, "princess gyaru," dresses like a princess, but, like, in a romantic sense. Wearing dresses with ribbons, lace, frills, in light pink or light blue, that sort of stuff. Basically, imagine one of those traditional cutesy princess dolls made as toys for little girls. That's the look.
It seems in the past this was called romanthikku-kei ロマンティック系, "romantic-class." I suppose fashion is a fleeting thing.
The gyaru are generically stylish, social girls into fashion and stuff. If in one year a certain look is popular, you'll see a lot of gyaru wearing that look. However, if in the next decade that look is no longer popular, then that sort of gyaru disappears. But gyaru... gyaru never changes. So they'll still exist in that decade, even if they look like something else entirely.
In fact, you'll see that yamanba, for example, is a fashion style that was popular in the 90's, until around the year 2000, when it died out, only to be reincarnated as manba, which, also, isn't as popular today as it was decades ago.
Tropes
In anime targeted at otaku オタク, specially those with an anti-social protagonist, gyaru characters are considered to beAnti-social characters are often depicted monologuing awful things, and seeing a gyaru, they'll probably call her a "slut," bitch ビッチ, or a "female (animal)," mesu メス, simply for socially hanging around with guys or having a kareshi 彼氏, "boyfriend."
The gyaru characters tend to be more romantically assertive (nikushokukei) compared to the average female character, but that is by no means required.
Slangs
In anime, gyaru characters often speak in a way different from the average character, despite very likely being just a normal high school student like everybody else.For reference, a list of non-prescript words they use:
- ssho っしょ？
Is it? [Isn't it?] - Relaxed pronunciation of desho でしょ.
- jan じゃん
jane じゃね
Isn't it? - From janai じゃない.
- Often used to ask if something "isn't it?" In the sense of asking the listener to agree.
- kawaii jan 可愛いじゃん
It's cute, isn't it? (say it's cute!) - ttsu no っつの
(used when asserting the previous statement as true.) - From tte iu no っていうの.
- The tte iu is used to quote what she just said, the no ending particle is assertive. E.g.
- muri ttsu no 無理っつの
It's impossible. (is what I'm telling you!) - ttsu ka っつか
I mean... Or rather... - From tte iu ka っていうか.
- Same thing as above, but with the doubt particle ka. E.g.
- muri ttsu ka 無理っつか
I mean, it's impossible. - ttsu ka sore muri ssho?
っつかそれ無理っしょ？
Or rather, that's impossible, isn't it? - ttsu ka sa っつかさ
I mean, you know... - Same as above, but with sa さ added to it, which asks the listener to consider what's being said.
- ttsu ka sa, sore muri jane?
っつかさ、それ無理じゃね？
I mean, you know, isn't that impossible? - sunna すんな.
Don't do. - From suru na するな.
- kunna くんな
Don't come. - From kuru na くるな.
- saasen さーせん
Sorry. - From sumimasen すみません.
- chiissu ちーっす
Good day. (greeting expression.) - From konchiwa desu こんにちはです
- azaasu あざーす
Thanks. - From arigatou gozaimasu ありがとうございます
- kimo キモ
Gross. Cringe. Disturbing. - Or kimoi キモイ, from kimochi warui 気持ち悪い.
- Often used to call someone "gross" for being a nerd or for hitting on her.
- otsu 乙
Good job. Thank you for your work.
(used at the end of the day, after someone finishes their job.) - From otsukaresama お疲れ様.
- uzai ウザい
Annoying. - From uzattai うざったい, but means the same thing as urusai 煩い.
- maji uzai desu kedo マジウザイですけど
[You're being] seriously annoying, though.
Go away. Get lost.
Some slangs:
- gachi ガチ
Serious. Seriously. Really. - As opposed to joking around. Someone is serious about it. Synonymous with:
- honki 本気
Serious. - gachi-koi ガチ恋
Serious love. (they're for real.) - maji マジ
Seriously. Really. - Used when something is unbelievable.
- Seriously? That happened? Really?
- That guy is seriously cool!
- But also used as a generic intensifier before literally anything.
- chou 超
Super. - Used as intensifier.
- yabai やばい
Dangerous.
Terribly.
Amazing. - Originally, it meant "dangerous," like something you should stay away from.
- Somehow, it became synonymous with sugoi すごい, which is an intensifier and can mean something is incredibly so, or terribly so, or amazingly so, etc.
- maji yabaku ne?
マジやばくね？
"Isn't it seriously yabai?" - The phrase above is basically an intensifying adverb plus an intensifying adjective. It just means something is intense somehow, but it doesn't mean good or bad. Thus, it's become a generic way to agree with someone, lacking any actual meaning whatsoever.
- ukeru ウケる
To make [me] laugh. - This is verb is often used when mocking something or someone. It essentially calls the thing funny, but it's a verb, so the grammar is kind of weird. Basically, it comes from:
- ukeru 受ける
To receive. - In the sense of you received it well, it's well-received by you, the joke made you laugh, the person (who's a joke) made you laugh, and so on.
- It can also mean something is impressive is a non-mocking sense. That you approve of it.
- The reason it's often used mockingly is because, in anime, a gyaru is in a group, someone in the group starts making fun of a third character, and the gyaru says ukeru expressing she approves of the mockery, she thinks it's funny.
- maji ukeru マジウケる
chou ukeru 超ウケる
"Super funny." (or something like that.)
Some slangs used on the internet:
- JK
Short for joshi kousei 女子高生, "high school girl." - wwww
lol. rofl. (used when laughing at a joke, etc.) - maji manji マジ卍
Seriously "manji." - The "swastika," manji 卍, was originally used as a tag (like, graphite) by delinquents, so it became associated with bad guys, and then, just like yabai, what's dangerous became amazing.
- Long story short: maji manji doesn't really mean anything. It's an intensifier like yabai. It can be "wow" or "amazing" or "horrible" depending on the situation.
Some words that aren't exactly slangs but you may end up seeing them anyway:
- asobi 遊び
Play. - Any activity that's about having fun. Hanging out, etc.
- asobu 遊ぶ
To play. - nanpa ナンパ
Hitting on [girls]. Flirting. - Abbreviated nan ナン.
- nanpa sareta ナンパされた
To be hit on. - gyaku-nanpa 逆ナンパ
Reverse nanpa. Girls hitting on guys. - dekoru デコる
To decorate. - With stickers and stuff like that.
- meiku メイク
Makeup. - suppin 素っぴん
Not wearing makeup. - For example, if a kuro-gyaru has ganguro on her face alone—she wears a black foundation—then you'd see her natural, white face if she was suppin.
- piasu ピアス
Piercing. - Refers only to a piercing, the thing.
- akeru 開ける
To open. (a hole, a piercing.) - It's abbreviated pi ピ, often comes after body parts.
- shita-pi 舌ピ
Tongue piercing. - tatwuu タトゥー
irezumi 入れ墨
irezumi 刺青
Tattoo.
