Why Kirara’s Hair Color Matters: The Green vs. Pink Debate in Jujutsu Kaisen’s Culling Game Anime

When the Culling Game arc finally hit the anime, fans didn’t just analyze the fights, the animation, or the pacing—many zeroed in on something much more specific: Kirara Hoshi’s hair color.

In the new Jujutsu Kaisen anime material, Kirara’s hair reads as green, and that single design choice has ignited a surprisingly intense debate. For a lot of fans, this isn’t just nitpicking: they argue that Kirara’s hair should be pink or purple, in line with early materials and Gege Akutami’s original intent.

Let’s break down why this color choice matters so much, what the source material suggests, and how the anime’s decision reshapes how we read Kirara’s character.

Who Is Kirara Hoshi, and Why the Design Matters

Kirara Hoshi is one of the most visually striking characters introduced around the Culling Game setup. Kirara appears alongside Hakari at the Gachinko Fight Club and quickly stands out due to:

Androgynous, gender-nonconforming presentation
Star-themed motif (name, technique, accessories)
Sharp personality that’s equal parts wary, loyal, and chaotic

Kirara’s design isn’t just “cool”: it’s symbolic and intentional. Gege Akutami uses visual cues—piercings, clothes, hair color—to communicate queerness, punk energy, and that in-between space where Kirara exists socially and thematically.

That’s why the exact hair color isn’t a trivial detail for many fans. It directly shapes how Kirara’s entire vibe is perceived.

Green vs. Pink/Purple: Where the Confusion Started

The core of the debate is simple:

Some anime key visuals, adaptation shots, and promotional materials shade Kirara’s hair as green.
Many fans point to earlier references, covers, and design interpretations that depict pink or purple tones as closer to Gege Akutami’s intention.

From the start, Kirara’s design felt more aligned with that pink/purple family—the kind of color that matches:

The star/space motif (more cosmic than earthy)
Kirara’s punk, glam-coded style
The character’s role as someone who breaks gender norms and expectations

The shift to green in the Culling Game anime has therefore been read by many as off-key, if not outright wrong.

What Gege Akutami’s Original Design Suggests

When fans talk about the “correct” color, they’re usually pointing back to Gege Akutami’s original character design sensibilities. While Jujutsu Kaisen’s manga is black-and-white, there are:

Official art and cover illustrations
Character sheets and guides
Color spreads that hint at intended palettes

Kirara’s aesthetic language—earrings, clothing, star motifs, make-up style—leans heavily into a neon, nightlife, glam, and cosmic direction, which naturally pairs with:

Pink/purple hair → evokes club lights, city neon, and a playful but sharp personality
Rather than green hair → which can read more as earthy, toxic, or plant-coded depending on the shade

Fans arguing that green is “wrong” aren’t usually saying the anime is incompetent; they’re saying it clashes with the character language Akutami built. The pink/purple interpretation feels far more in line with the manga’s emotional and symbolic intent.

How Color Shapes Our Perception of Kirara

Color is one of the fastest ways we form an impression of a character. With Kirara, the distinction between green and pink/purple changes the perceived vibe significantly.

With Green Hair, Kirara Feels:

Slightly more alien or detached
Less "club scene" and more eccentric outsider
Toned down in terms of queer-coded glam aesthetics

Depending on the exact shade, green can lean into:

Toxicity or danger
Nature or energy
Slime/poison tropes in anime

None of those are inherently wrong for Kirara, but they dilute the starry, neon nightlife feeling Akutami’s design points toward.

With Pink/Purple Hair, Kirara Feels:

Glam, loud, and unapologetic
Strongly connected to queer, club, and alt-fashion culture
More in sync with the star motif, evoking cosmic, night-sky energy

Pink and purple are heavily associated in anime and pop culture with:

Nonconforming gender expression
Spiritual or cosmic themes
Stylish, attention-grabbing side characters with memorable arcs

For fans invested in Kirara’s representation and vibe, the pink/purple palette is not just prettier; it’s truer. It mirrors how the character reads on the page.

The Culling Game Anime: Why the Debate Reignited

The Culling Game arc is a turning point for Jujutsu Kaisen’s anime. It’s more sprawling, more chaotic, and more ensemble-driven than earlier arcs. As soon as Kirara got anime screentime and updated visuals, fans began comparing:

Anime Kirara (green hair) vs.
Fan-colored manga Kirara (pink/purple) and various official art interpretations

Social media and forums, especially Reddit, filled with side-by-side screencaps, color pick analysis, and commentary like:

“Why is Kirara green now?”
“This should have been pink or purple, it fits their whole vibe.”
“The anime made Kirara look less like themselves.”

The Culling Game is also when the anime pushes further away from the early horror tone and deeper into high-energy shonen action, and that context matters.

Jujutsu Kaisen’s Tone Shift and Why Visual Changes Hit Harder

Early Jujutsu Kaisen leaned heavily on:

Horror imagery
Oppressive atmosphere
Bleak curse designs

As the story progresses—especially by the time of the Culling Game—the series becomes more:

Action-heavy
Power-system focused
Spectacle-driven

When the tone of a series shifts like this, design details become anchors. Fans cling to elements that still embody the original edge, weirdness, and specificity of Akutami’s world.

Kirara, with their nonconforming style and sharp, distinct presence, is one such anchor. So when a key part of that design—the hair color tied to their identity and vibe—is altered, it feels to many like another step away from the raw, strange, intensely curated vision of the manga.

In other words, it’s not “just hair”; it’s part of how fans hang on to what makes Jujutsu Kaisen feel unique in the middle of big, blockbuster-style arcs.

Online Discourse: Reddit, Fan Theories, and Color Politics

Online communities like Reddit, Twitter/X, and Discord have turned Kirara’s hair into a micro–case study in adaptation choices. The discussions usually fall into a few camps:

The Purists
- Argue that pink/purple is correct and that green contradicts Gege’s design language.
- See the change as part of a broader trend of the anime smoothing out the manga’s harsh, idiosyncratic edges.
The Defenders
- Say color is flexible and that green is a valid, stylish choice.
- Argue the anime team has leeway in interpreting grayscale source material.
The Meta-Theorists
- Speculate whether the change was driven by palette balance, background contrast, or marketing.
- Wonder if green was chosen to make Kirara pop in certain lighting setups or group shots.

Regardless of stance, the sheer volume of debate proves something important: fans are deeply invested in Kirara as a character and symbol. You don’t get this kind of discourse over a throwaway design choice.

Why Pink/Purple Still Makes the Most Sense

Even acknowledging that adaptations can reinterpret details, there are strong reasons many fans believe Kirara’s hair needed to stay in the pink/purple range:

Alignment with Akutami’s Aesthetic
The punk-glam, queer-coded, star-themed presentation fits a neon pink/purple palette far better than green. It’s cohesive design language.
Character Vibe and Readability
Color is shorthand. Pink/purple instantly signals the kind of character Kirara is meant to be: bold, liminal, cosmic, and stylish.
Representation and Coding
For nonbinary and gender-nonconforming fans, details like hair color are part of how they see themselves reflected. Pink/purple Kirara reads as more aligned with queer aesthetic traditions than the anime’s greener take.
Consistency Across Media
When early materials and fan consensus lean strongly one way, a sudden shift feels dissonant. It breaks the continuity of how Kirara has been visually understood.

From that perspective, the anime’s green hair isn’t just different—it’s a misstep that undercuts a carefully built character image.

Conclusion: It’s Not Just Hair—It’s Identity, Tone, and Intent

Kirara Hoshi’s green hair in the Jujutsu Kaisen Culling Game anime might seem like a minor aesthetic tweak, but for many viewers it lands wrong. Pink or purple doesn’t just look better—it feels more authentic to:

Gege Akutami’s original design sensibilities
Kirara’s personality, role, and queer-coded expression
The starry, neon, punk energy the character embodies

As Jujutsu Kaisen’s anime speeds deeper into large-scale, action-heavy arcs, details like Kirara’s color palette become a battleground over how faithfully the adaptation preserves the manga’s unique texture.

In the end, the debate over Kirara’s hair is a reminder that in a visual medium like anime, color is storytelling. And for a lot of fans, the story Kirara’s hair should be telling is written in pink and purple—not green.