#raionmimi

　🐾🌈 【kemonomimi treehouse】☆！

Queen Akasha Symmetra by raionmimi (twitter)

that sounds like a lot of work that would grow outdated the moment a new banner drops so instead I'm going to explain some of the design patterns around hairstyle in fate so that you can use your own brain to determine when slicked hair is the best choice (because no matter how horny i may be, the answer is not "always")

first of all there's a difference between base design and alternate outfits for ce's, costumes, fanart, etc. if it's an alternate outfit you should always consider slicked hair because alt outfits have much more leeway in how they should fit into the overall design patterns and depending on the context the look being somewhat out of character will actually be its charm point. you should consider different hairstyles just in general actually, not just slicked, because anime characters tend to rely a lot on the shape of their hair to be recognisable so changing the shape of the hair without accidentally turning them into someone else (especially with how many characters already intentionally look similar) is a good design challenge. pako changes karna and arjuna's hair around a lot for example, but my favourite case is actually mephy's ce's. it's a complete image change every time but you can still see it's the same clown

now as I've explained in the other post slicked hair is a style that takes active effort to achieve, so it signifies someone who does not care that they are seen but they do care how they are seen. slicked hair is a display of competence, confidence, authority, and the desire to inform others of these qualities (regardless of the truth of this claim). there are simpler ways to get your hair out of your face without actually slicking it so slicked hair conveys a degree of vanity, a concern with appearances. a slicked hair character either thinks they're hot shit, or they want other people to think they're hot shit. tightly pushed back hair conveys propriety rather than the boisterous confidence of spiky hair, but either way what it says is "I know what I'm doing". not everyone is confident and not everyone who is confident will also be concerned with appearances enough to slick their hair about it, so while slicked hair is universal as sex appeal it's not always appropriate as character design element.

also since we're talking female characters and those tend to have long hair i have to make the distinction between pushing your hair back and having it pulled back in a ponytail, these are very different flavours and I'm talking about the former (although they can overlap in the case of someone with bangs pushing them back while also having a ponytail). ponytails have a practical element to them that slicked hair lacks by virtue of the effort required. hairbands on the other hand will subtly enhance the flavour of slicked hair if used in the right context.

slicked hair Does also carry connotations of masculinity because of how aforementioned traits are designated masculine in type moon (but also anime design in general) so that is still something to consider in how you apply it, not to dissuade you from applying slicked hair to female characters but to do so with intent and purpose. drake, musashi, kiichi, kagetora, these all would have their hotness enhanced immensely if their standard design had slicked hair because that touch of masculinity is already part of their sex appeal. quetzalcoatl, medb, jing ke, the likes of these have the benefit of hair accessories to get the intentional display of confidence while maintaining the more feminine appeal they also have to get the best of both worlds. koyanskaya's ideal secretary + head of an interdimensional weapon dealing empire image begs for a slicked hair look. atalante should honestly have her hair back just because it makes her look faster + resembles lion's mane. the list goes on.

there's a bit of muddled water when it comes to hair like achilles or protocu or saber lancelot have, where part of it is pushed back but they still have that bang. i don't really count those as slicked hair but they're often still designed with the intent of dipping into that confident slicked hair image and whenever I do see a female character with her hair back it's usually like this. it's not nearly as sexy though so fuck em, don't do this, commit to the hairline or face my eternal curse

now to really identify where it's appropriate to slick a character's hair it's important to identify when type moon does the complete opposite and has a character's hair cover one or both of their eyes, because it gives context on how hair is used for characterisation. a lot of characters in fate hide (part of) their face as a clue that there is something shaky about their identity. eyes are the windows to the soul, so covering the eyes makes the soul ambiguous. mashu's hair covers one eye because she was barely human for the longest time and is still figuring out her place in the world. robin's hair covers one eye because he's one of many robin hoods and isn't eager to be their sole representative. kippoushi and maou nobu cover one eye because they share their saint graph with tons of different nobus and you're only ever seeing a small part of the whole. fran covers her eyes because she's artificial and was denied even her own name let alone identity, and she shows one of her eyes in her summer version because she's building her own life with her new dads now. kotarou covers his eyes because he's one of many generations of fuuma kotarou working from the shadows. kariya gets half his face fucked up including his eye because he's losing himself to his grudges the further the 4th war goes on. anastasia actually does it because mashu does it which is a whole other post i probably won't make so don't even worry about it

if a character doesn't HAVE a face (identity) then they can't slick their hair back to put that face on full display because there's just nothing there. conversely, slicking their hair means they know exactly who they are. this does not however mean that these characters should never slick their hair back, it just means that you need to think carefully about what it would mean for them. maou nobu can't have slicked hair even though she ticks all the boxes for the character traits associated with it because her character concept leans into the ambiguity of not knowing what the rest of her face looks like, but if mashu were to push her hair back it would signify her casting aside all doubts and forming an identity she takes pride in. for arjuna, slicking his hair every now and then even though he's got such a complex about wanting to hide his "true face" is a hint that there's actually nothing fundamentally wrong with him at all, he's just really concerned with his image.

finally since this is fate you also have to consider what other characters they look like because this is a kaleidoscopic spider web and we're all just bugs stuck in it. mordred wants to portray an image of competence but he can't have his hair back as part of any of his default looks because it's important to the story that he looks like arturia, and it's also important to him that he looks like arturia as proof that they're related. if he then slicks it back in his suit it's a sign that he's moving away from clinging to this identity as "king arthur's son" and figuring out his own sense of self. koyanskaya meanwhile has tons of different looks and makes a point of hiding the shape of her tamamo bangs in a bunch of them because she doesn't want to associate with the tamamo nine, so it makes sense for her to have a look where she pushes her bangs back while she's #girlbossing. saber can't have alt costumes where her bangs are significantly different because her hair is such a cornerstone of fate design and then she wouldn't be saber anymore, but nero can pull it off because she's gilgamesh flavoured saber so it won't destroy her character image if her default casual look has slicked hair. for kama she may not have the actual confidence but especially as a beast she has the false bravado for it and occasionally slicking her hair to play with the masculine flavouring it gives can work miracles regarding kama originally being a male figure without losing the link to sakura's character themes.

@ranger-paladinikoe said: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!!! I hope you have an AWESOME day!!!!! 🎉🎂🎉💖🎉🎉

@nomisupernova said: happy birthday!!!!

@raionmimi said: 🎂 🧁 Happy birthday!!!! 🧁 🎂

@heroheart121 said: you are amazing <3