I was surprised to read on the BBC website this week that the bizarre Japanese fashion ‘manba‘ has recently become popular in England!
Manba is an extreme branch of the fashion known as ‘ganguro‘, where young people (usually women) make their skin really dark (with self-tanning products from Afro-Caribbean stores) and paint white circles around their eyes. In this fashion, bright clothes, glitter and coloured hair are also popular. As with many fashions, there is also a particular kind of music known as ‘eurobeat’ which is popular among follows of ganguro. There is a kind of dancing which goes with the music (called ‘para-para’), which mostly involves side-stepping and moving your arms and hands (remember dancing to Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’ when you were a kid? Yeah, it’s a bit like that but without the jumping!). Apparently the ‘eurobeat’ music is made in Italy, but only available online or in Japan.
The ganguro fashion is not so common in Japan these days, so I was really surprised to hear that ganguro’s most extreme form, manba, had somehow made its way to England! The BBC website has an interesting page about the new trend here, including videos and a report by BBC’s Nina Robinson, where she interviews the UK’s Eilish and Declan, who are manba followers. They say that they keep up with the fashion by talking to other fans, including Japanese people, who they speak to using Mixi (like Facebook in Japan), which they have to use with a translator as they don’t speak Japanese.
I first heard about this fashion when I watched the wonderful Jonathan Ross on his BBC Japanorama show. Here’s a clip:
Another clip worth watching on this subject is this wonderful “How to: Manba make-up!”:
One girl, Toni, observed on the BBC website, “We’re Western girls trying to be Japanese girls, trying to be Western – it seems like a funny circle to go around.”. Well, I have to say I agree, but hey, it’s fashion, and fashion never did like to follow the rules! 
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Oh … WHAT? I just don’t believe it?
I like the para para on “High School Teacher”, it looks like so much fun
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/para-para-dance-videos/
Hmm… it’s interesting, but personally I think it looks a little dull! Sorry! I like dancing to have a bit more movement…
Becoming popular?
I’m a regular on ganguro forums and these two are probably the only people in the UK who wear this look.
They wanted to talk about their style so they got an interviewer to to talk with them but for some reason all these sites are saying that Manba is becoming really popular when in reality, it’s not. Yes there are alot of fans of manba (me included) but nobody wears it on a daily basis like those two.
Much love to Dec and Eilish, they’re adorable.
Hi there Emmie – thanks for your comment. It’s interesting to hear your point of view. I was surprised to hear on the BBC that Manba was becomming popular, so I’m not surprised to hear that perhaps this isn’t really true!
Still, I fully support anyone for expressing themselves through fashion – why not!:)