Hmm.. good question.
I was also wondering why the anime makers gave Kagome the brown eyes to make her more real. Well, the girl is traveling through time, she has a jewel in her body and she meets half-demons and demons in her travels. It doesn't sound very realistic to me-sorry.

Beside in other anime characters has not only diffrent eye color but also hairs. Why it doesn't bother them in that stories? Look at Sailor Moon-the only one girl that really look as Japanese is that girl from the shrine. Rest of them could be as well from the other country.
It's just doesn't make sense for me.

Wouldn't be strange to me. Mine do that. Though, perhaps it would be just an extra flare many would like to add to her. Perhaps it's becoming just normal to see, like Sesshomaru having a castle to come home to. Never know.

From what I understand of CURRENT cultural trends in Asia (this includes Japan, China, and India, etc) Kids, especially girls, go out of their way to wear blue or green colored contacts because blue or green eyes are considered a sign of beauty and being exotic.

You actually can see clear examples of this in movies like Bend it Like Beckham (I think the older sister had a hissy over the fact a rival bride had gotten blue contact lenses)

On America's Next Top model there was an Indian woman on there who wore blue contacts and when the judge asked her about it she explained to him that Blue eyes were a sign of beauty where she came form because everyone has brown eyes.

And lastly, I worked with a guy from Malaysia and he had a little sister that he and his family spoiled rotten. At one point he asked me to sit down with him so he could compare eye-color shades with contacts he was trying to order for his little sister as a gift. (For those who care, I have green blue eyes) When I asked him why he was getting her contacts he said it was because it would make her stand out and be considered "exotic" and "beautiful".

So it could be a trend thing that Rumiko had picked up on but never felt the need to comment on in the manga. No offense, but Japanese girls (very much like American girls) have some CRAZY trends when it comes to fashion.

I definitely agree that it was probably done MORESO because she wanted to distinguish between Kagome and Kikiyo. I'm just saying, in this day and age its not that uncommon for Japanese girls to appear to have blue, gray, green, yellow, red, whatever colored eyes.

Smittee wrote:
Wouldn't be strange to me. Mine do that. Though, perhaps it would be just an extra flare many would like to add to her. Perhaps it's becoming just normal to see, like Sesshomaru having a castle to come home to. Never know.

Well... I guess it makes some sort of sense for Sesshomaru to have a house to live in if Kouga has a cave. He has to live somewhere... although... it'd be funny if he lived like a street dog, eating out of trash cans and what not xD

The only time my eyes even seem to change color is if I wear green or something. I guess that's the curse of dominant traits

I have never given much stock to recessive and dominant genes. I have a family member who is dark blonde and blue eyes, his ex-wife is brown haired and eyes. Their children both received blue eyes and dark blonde hair. And my nieces received their fathers blue eyes instead of my sisters eye color (can't remember hers, it that bad?)

But I always think of Kagome's eye color being an artistic take on the human body. I have always noticed that all anime and manga show characters with different hair and eye colors than the culture that they are suppose to be part of. I think it is our nature human desire to be different than we are. People with straight hair want curly and curly haired people want straight. So the change in her eye color is possibly that artists desire to be different than the norm.

Hm... Blue does help make her unique, and I don't really have a preference. Brown is nice because it's so common, but with Kagome being so normal anyway, it might just add a splash of color.

Noacat wrote:
They're written as blue because in the manga, there were some color panels where the colorist gave her blue eyes. I believe it was an attempt to distinguish her from Kikyou, because in the manga, they really look more alike.

But if we want to get technical. Kagome is Japanese, and no matter what Arthur Golden might say -- most people of Japanese descent have brown eyes and it irritates me somewhat when people don't give her brown eyes as I feel it to be culturally insensitive. That's just my opinion, though. And opinions are like bung holes. We all have them. The only time I saw the blue eyed thing done well was in the story Cultural Differences because the Kagome in that story wasn't really Japanese, she was a German who was raised by her adopted Japanese parents.

I dont think its culturally insensitive at all. In the manga she had bluish gray eyes. Authors writing her with blue eyes, are just sticking with that. Besides how many anime and manga do you see with japanese characters who have purple or teal hair and eyes? Its just creative license. There is no point in getting too politically correct about things, especially about something as harmless and fun as writing fanfics. I have Japanese blood running through my viens and dont find it offensive at all. JMO

It doesn't matter in the slightest to me. I have her with blue eyes in some of my stories, and brown in others. I don't think that authors give her blue eyes to be insulting or anything of the sort, that's just the way they prefer to work with her character.

When I write a story and give her blue eyes I don't do it because I find brown eyes unappealing or anything like that, it's just what I feel like writing at the time. And, honestly, I don't see why anyone should get upset. Rumiko Takahashi gave her blue eyes in the manga, so does that mean everyone should be mad at her for being 'disrespectful to the culture?'

Also, since she's portrayed both ways, couldn't others turn the arguement around and just as easily say that you're being discriminitive to people with blue eyes? I know it isn't common, but some people with Japanese background have different eye color. I have a friend who is Japanese and her grandmother was European. She inherited green eyes from her grandma.

And, like you've all said, to each his own, so don't get worked up about it. No one means any harm by it, so don't take it the wrong way. If you love her with brown eyes, write her with brown eyes and don't bother getting irritated with people who write her with blue. It is anime, after all... Miroku has violet eyes for goodness sake... which just doesn't exist in any culture...

It's fiction people, fanfiction. Let the authors do as they please.

However, that one comment about the story with heavy Christian pressing kinda bothered me. I don't think people should incorporate religious preaching in their stories. Religion is like politics. Believe and think what you want, but don't bother trying to tell people they're wrong, because there is no such thing as a 'wrong' opinion or belief.

in bothe the manga and the anime they ARE brown (look at the covers of the mangas) her eye's are green brown (if people think her eyes are blue because of that one close up while she was crying almost every ones eyes turn blue(grey)some time colors are distorted by other colors: illusion if you will.

fofafie wrote:
in bothe the manga and the anime they ARE brown (look at the covers of the mangas) her eye's are green brown (if people think her eyes are blue because of that one close up while she was crying almost every ones eyes turn blue(grey)some time colors are distorted by other colors: illusion if you will.

I'll have to say that I disagree with some of what you have said-In the anime her eyes are brown, yes. However in the manga they are gray/blue. Even in the image you posted her eyes are colored a gray tone. c:

Then again as I mentioned earlier- I don't think it really matters what color someone writes her eyes to be. Because they do not make her character, as long as they write her personality and character correctly-I don't think eye color should be such a big deal c:

Well, I think the safest bet is always gray. Gray-brown, gray-blue, gray-green. They're all viable and accurate.

Takahashi has always liked different eye colors for her characters. Ranma had gray-blue eyes too, so it's not an unusual event for her next main character to share the same attribute. Heck, Miroku has violet eyes and he was born just an average monk. Eye color is eye color.

According to my art book, Rumiko changes Kagomes eyes depending on the tone of the scene. For one shot, she even has her eyes as red. Though most depictions show her as Grey. Ones that show her with blue eyes also tend to show her with blue hair, or in a scene where blue is the only color. Her eyes have been brown, red, green, blue and grey all in one art book here. That's just rumiko's way. She likes to accent colors, just like how she makes Ranma [Ranma1/2] have red hair in one shot and black hair in another shot, with the same form.

Please. Kagome is anything but normal. She's a miko, travels through time, and had the Shikon no Tama inside of her. If that's normal for you, I want to go where you live.

I don't really think it matters what color her eyes are. In fact, I've read a few fan fictions where her eyes are green, or hazel. I think it was back on a Single Spark.
She's beautiful all the same, and unique. Plus, she's also from the future, and more people have diluted blood from different races. So her blue eyes could have come from a non-Asian parent. Possibly her father, since he is never mentioned. Anyone ever wondered what happened to him?
Her brown eyes could have come from her mother. I don't think it matters. Either way, blue eyes or brown, she's beautiful.

i agree that what ever color her eyes are it doesnt really matter to me, i mean miroku has blue/purple eyes, anyone notice that. it just one thing that helps to add to the fact that she is different from your average normal girl. and i dont see how its a big culture shock. i can name three straight from africa with no mixing of races and cultures and any possible reasons to explain why they have the color eyes they do, black people that i know who have blue and green eyes,, and they are so dark skin they blend in with the shadows(no racist puns intended lol). and i can name four other people who have really dark parents like they have been laying next to the sun for twenty years and slowly cooking to death or atleast getting really burnt like chicken left on the stove to long and getting all balck and nasty tasting, black and their kids are whiter then snow(slight exageration, one is creamy with a slight tan and the others you would think was of anglo-saxon decent). but the point is her eye color is what makes her different and we should embrace these differences when we are reading the fanfics and just see from the authors point of view why she has these attributes and how they make her stand out and show who she is. people us big brown doe eyes to make her seem innocent while others use firery blue ones to show she not the one you want to mess with, but whether her eyes are brown, blue, green, or even pink what should it matter, it makes her different and unique and special, and we like to show that in the way she dresses, and her other many attributes.

I get that everyone has their preferences, so do I. I'll even admit that I use to get agitated that people would say her eyes were blue until I found out they were in the Manga. To me, the Manga is the true original, which means that's how the characters are truly meant to be portrayed. Therefore, they should remain blue, though I don't mind them being brown.

What I don't get, is why people are claiming that her blue eyes go against her being Japanese, or that they are disrespecting her Japanese heritage. Blue eyes scientifically speaking, is a "mutation". Originally, everyone had brown eyes, so while very uncommon, it does not mean that a Japanese person can not have blue eyes. Besides, it is also a recessive trait, and not much about Kagome's dad is known, so how are we sure that the trait hasn't been passed on.

Eye color does not define someone, nor does the lack of a certain eye color show disrespect. What I see as disrespectful is criticizing someone for their own, original creations. Whether Kagome was given blue eyes purely to differentiate from Kikyo, or simply because the author of the manga deemed it so, it doesn't bring any disrespect to the Japanese, their heritage, or their culture.

It's that kind of thinking that puts others down. You aren't a certain "race" because of how you look, but because of where you were born and how you were raised. 'nuff said.

*Personally, I think Kagome looks pretty with blue eyes. Take it as you will.