HUBB
ARDIAN
There's a point in Timeranger where Sion's hair changes to a normal color...
It's still a let down to me now, and when I was a kid,
I was so shocked that I actually thought that the blonde Sion was a different character than the blue-haired Sion.
Even now I can easily remember that day as a strange event that changed my life.
It may not make sense to anyone why it was shocking to me, but please hear me out.
It's actually never explained in the show itself why Sion's hair color changed. The bad guys were explicitly identifying him as a "kid with blue hair," so there's an implication that he changed his hair color to better blend into the fashion of the year 2000. The actual reason that they had to change the character's image partway through the show is that the actor who plays Sion, Kuranuki Masahiro's hair was getting really fried after so much high bleaching, so he was unable to continue doing so. That means that if his hair had been stronger Sion would have had blue hair for the whole year, but as early as Chapter 4 it's mentioned that he dyes his hair, so I think we can assume that he was already having trouble bleaching at that point. With that info, the creators must have thought that the viewers would simply accept that Sion changed his hair color. One may think that he could have just worn a wig, but like Hikasa Jun mentioned in an interview, I think they didn't want him to wear a wig so as not to erase the actor's individuality. However, there's no way that they could fool me.
After all, Sion's hair color was my WHOLE reason for watching Timeranger!
Like I've talked about on this site many times, when I was a kid I didn't realize that Sion's hair color was artificial,
and crazily thought it was the actor's natural color,
which was why he had been chosen to play an alien. Even though the show mentioned that the character dyed his hair,
I ignored that information and insisted on believing that this person had been born with this hair color unnatural for humans.
Until then I had only seen such colorful hair in wigs, but there was no mistaking that his blue or white hair was growing from his head.
While it may sound over-dramatic, as a kid unable to distinguish between the character and the actor,
seeing Sion / Kuranuki Masahiro as a real person with such a stunning hair color was my first sensation of the beautiful and ideal,
something transcending humanity, like an angel, and was the reflection of my deep thirst for such a being to exist.
In such a delusional state, seeing Sion's hair color abruptly become so human and normal,
I couldn't understand that he was still the same character.
Or maybe it's closer to the truth to say that I could understand that,
but deliberately didn't want to and avoided doing so. Who is this blonde boy being called Sion?
Is it a different actor? Is it a different show? ...could it be the same person?
...ah, so there is no one born with blue hair.
Something strange happened within me when I realized that.
Sion simultaneously showed me a glimpse of some beauty beyond humanity,
as well as the limits that come with being an imperfect human,
and therefore became a transcendent figure that taught me about this duality of the world.
Sion's hair color had seemed holy to me, like an angel in a Western painting,
and to me it was almost like he was fulfilling the original role of an angel,
a messenger between the divine and human realms.
Our real world is different from the 2d one in that it's full of restrictions and impossibilities.
For humans to pursue their ideal despite these limitations is a sign of respect and longing for the perfection that we can't reach,
forcing us to come to terms with our limitations as humans,
therefore being a way to know something like providence.
Sion's hair color was the messenger by which this sense of something greater than myself,
which has solidified in me now, reached me as a single-digit child. (； ･`д･´)
20 years later, my life in search of the unrealistic dreams and ideals that I felt through Sion's blue hair,
while still compromising with the limitations of reality forced onto me by Sion's blonde hair,
began with this weirdly occult experience.
I've often remembered this strange event and wondered what he meant to me,
and I think the answer is something like a light coming from some distant place.
Chasing that light has led to me to realize many things I may otherwise have died without knowing.
I'm sure this value-system based on the fictional character Sion seems silly to others,
since it relies on seeing him as something unique,
but I can't deny how mystical the experience seemed to me at the time,
which is why I'm boldly running this cultish fansite now.
Kuranuki Masahiro himself would probably be weirded out by this.
I hope he doesn't come across this site...
I don't feel like I've fully expressed what I wanted to, but put simply,
a character's hair color changed my life. I'm sure everyone longed for something beyond their world when they were a kid,
so in that sense I think it's something we can all relate to.
