Tokiya's Hair: A Vow

Up until yesterday, I never really thought of the importance of Tokiya's hair. Having long, silky hair has always been a stereotypical bishonen/pretty boy thing, right? I mean, look at the other bishounen types...Hotohori, Kakyo, Kurama...they all have long hair. But the thing is, none of them ever really mentioned anything about their hair having any significance or sentimental value to them. They just had long hair, that's it.

When I read the scanlations for Volume 23 of Flame of Recca, Tokiya proved me wrong. He said that his hair was "one requirement of a vow I've made." I began to wonder what this vow might be. I'm not really too sure, but as far as I know, the only vow Tokiya made was to avenge his sister's death. This process of making a vow or an oath can actually be traced way, way back, even into the Holy Bible, however, in those days, the main idea was to make a vow, and leave one's hair uncut for a certain amount of time. Tokiya, on the other hand, seems to have promised not to cut his hair until he achieves his goal.

Color

Tokiya's hair in the Anime is a greyish- brown, although it appears to be of a richer brown color in some artwork.

Surprise, surprise! Tokiya's hair in the manga is an odd shade of light bluish-green! The the first two images above is from the At first I thought that most of the manga cover images were just stylized, meaning they were colored differently that they should be. It was only when I saw the covers of volumes 25 (not shown) and 31 (shown above) that I realized that this was not stylized coloration at all. O_o; But then again, I think it's a bit more appropriate for him to have bluish hair, although he looks good with brown hair too. <3

Hairstyles

Here's my little corner where I've documented the different hairstyles Tokiya has donned throughout the Flame of Recca manga (am I a geek or what? XP).

	Low Ponytail The low ponytail is the very first hairstyle Tokiya had when he appeared in Volume 2. It also reappears intermittently, like in Hokage's battle against Uruha Oto, and when they first entered the cave where Tendo Jigoku was.
	High Ponytail Probably the most abused Tokiya hairstyle in the entire series, it appears so many times that I've lost count. The first time he showed up with a high ponytail, however, was before the Ura Buto Satsujin.
	Braided This is one hairstyle that we don't see much in the series. This is only shown when Tokiya has a flashback about a discussion with Meguri Kyoza.
	Short Tokiya has had long hair throughout the series, but as a kid, he had short hair. Remember what I said about the vow? He only started growing it when his sister died and he was training under Meguri Kyoza.
	Loose The first time he had his hair down was the night after Hokage's fight against Uruha Maboroshii. He often ends up with this hairstyle accidentally, such as when his hair tie broke during his battle with Kai, and when his ponytail came loose after swimming in a river.
	Loose with spikes This is Tokiya's hairstyle in the last part of Flame of Recca. Kind of like his normal loose hair, but the hair on the top of his head is more spiky and short. My personal favorite. XD

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