Red vs. Blue – Research and Ideation

There is no refuting that this assignment will challenge my story telling skills, so have to go beyond them. For me creativity is not thinnking outside the box. I believe that creativity burts out when you are limited, constrained to a certain limit. I knew it from the start that there has to be more symbloic ways to show red vs. blue. Lets just get the generic ideas out first.

The phrase red vs. blue instanty gives a vibe of conflict, the most common examples are when two similar characters are used, who have the same traits but are just the polar opposites of each other.

Shawn Frost- Inazuma Eleven

In this example, we see the that the character suffers from a dual personality disorder. When his brother passed away Shawn Frost adopted his personality.

This drastic change in his personality can be seen when his eyes change from blue to red, where blue portrays Shawn as a calm, depressed, shy boy who plays football at defense and red portrays Shawn as his twin brother’s personality who is aggressive, arrogant, playful, cheeky, mischievous and plays football at offense. Just like the colors blue and red, both of his personalities contrast one another.

Uzumaki clan and the Uchiha clan- Naruto

The uzumakis are considered to be healers through their immense chakras. Its members are renowned for having bright, red hair, possessing incredibly strong life-forces and chakra, and their sealing prowess. They are also considered to be extremely passionate, loving and caring of others. Red is the signature color of the Uzumaki clan in Asian culture red is an important color symbolizing prosperity and a long life which the Uzumaki clan is renowned for.

The Uchihas have black hair with blue tint. They are strong, clever, strategic and arrogant. Uchihas are subject to powerful emotions: these emotions typically start as love for a friend or family member that then become overpowering hatred when the object of their love is lost and they gain power from these emotions. The clan grew isolated and began plotting a coup d’état to overthrow the leader of the village and his administration. This shows how selfish and disloyal they were.

Karin Uzumaki (Red) was in love with Sasuke Uchiha (Blue) and despite knowing about her unrequited love, he used her to regain his powers. Whenever he ran out of chakra he would bite her arm to take some of her chakra and heal himself. Despite being a tough, smart and independent woman Karin’s passion and selfless (red) love for Sasuke made her weak who was just selfishly (Blue) using her.

Naruto Uzumaki, the protagonist of the show, has a rivalry with sasuke Uchiha. The two have completely different personalities and this is symbolically portrayed through the contrasting colors and shades of red/yellow/ orange and Blue/purple/grey.

Naruto: he uses warm colors such as yellow, orange and red, it is the representation of the sun and yang. In Japan these colors mean: -Yellow: sun, light, heat, knowledge and fear –Orange: eternity, happiness, protection, kindness, envy and resentment. there is a transition from the less use of red in “Naruto” to a more use red in “Naruto Shippuden” which portrays character development and maturity of the character as he grows older. It also portrays motivations, responsibility, weaknesses and loss.

Sasuke: cold colors such as blue and purple,sometimes with gray undertones and Its the representation of the moon and the ying. In Japan colors have these meanings- Blue:Hope,respect,remoteness and coldness -Purple:honor, recognition, wisdom,knowledge,suffering and death

This is also consistent with the character’s personality, ailments and goals, including the transition from blue to purple resentment from “Naruto” to “Naruto Shippuden” representing the quest for knowledge, loss and despair

However, both of these characters share somepersonality traits which is pottrayed in their eye colours. Here, Sasuke Uchiha’s eyes are red (representing the Uzumaki clan/ their hair color) and Naruto Uzumaki’s eyes are Blue (representing the Uchiha clans/ their hair color)

Another example would be of Dexter’s Laboratory, where the most common trope is they have distingushed the male and female characters in blue and pink ( the generic way of distingishing two genders).

Dexter’s Lab is showcased in hues of blue. While Dee dee’s room is shown in hues of pink. The rival however Mandark is highlighted in Red.