Coloring Games for Girls and Kids
In 2006, MSNBC reported that Japanese animation, including anime and manga, was gaining a in popularity among young American women. Young girls who like showing such as “Pokemon” and “Sailor Moon” will enjoy playing anime coloring games with their friends or alone. Keep girls occupied on a slow afternoon and ask them to color in images from their favorite anime. Turn the coloring sessions into a game and award prizes, such as anime stickers.
Fashion Design
Every girl takes a printout or cutout image of an anime character wearing a bathing suit with no hair. Use the characters from online anime dress up games if you like. The girls design the character’s clothing and hairstyle with their markers, crayons or colored pencils. They each vote on their favorite design and the winner is the player who gets the most votes. If the girls are especially creative, they can name their characters and come up with a story in which all of their characters play a part.
Online Coloring Games
Girls without anyone with whom to play need only a computer and Internet access in order to play online coloring games. Online anime coloring games feature generic anime-style characters as well as characters from popular girl-oriented anime series such as “Sailor Moon.” In order to digitally color the image, the player clicks on a color from the digital palette and then clicks in the area she wants shaded. If the player makes a mistake, she clicks on the other color she wants and re-colors the area. Players can print out the images when they are finished.
Creative Colors
Play a decorating game. With black and white anime printouts or old manga volumes, have the girls use colors that don’t usually appear on the characters. Girls can use glitter, stickers and other embellishments to add to their coloring. Have everyone vote on her favorite finished design, other than her own. The girl who receives the most votes from everyone else wins.
Match the Colors
To play a simple “match the colors” game, simply print out black and white anime coloring pages. You can also use any pages you have from manga volumes you no longer want, as most manga is published in black and white. Girls color in the pages of the manga or the print-outs with the goal of matching the colors of the original anime as closely as possible. Since many anime characters wear the same clothing, such as a superhero costume, this is possible for anyone who has seen the anime. You can also use an anime series the girls haven’t seen and have them guess the colors. The girl who matches the original colors the closest wins a prize.
Holiday Themed Coloring
Teach young girls about the important colors that identify different holidays. Ask them to color a Cinderella picture using the colors of Christmas and winter. They should go for the red, green and white crayons or markers. If a child chooses other colors, have her explain why. While it may be a mistake, the girl may also have found a different color to represent Christmas. Other color combinations include green, yellow and purple for Easter, for example.