Manba (マンバ) is one of the many sub-styles of Gyaru fashion. It is, alongside Yamanba, a style that developed from the original Ganguro style of gyaru.
The Manba boom took place around 2003-2004, taking off from where the original Ganguro and Yamanba styles left off; while Ganguro featured many earthy tones with the objective of looking cool and confident, Manba placed a focus on "kawaii culture" and incorporated cat elements and pastel colours [1].
Manba shares many similarities to Yamanba, the most obvious difference is that where Yamanba wear white eyemakeup above their eye, Manba Gyaru will wear white eye makeup both above and below. The line between Yamanba and Manba gyaru is very blurred and the two styles coexist with one another as almost one. Yamanba often includes darker tans and bleached hair, however a Tsuyome Manba may still incorporate these elements too.
Heavy white makeup around eyes, on nose and around lips
Hair is often bleached blonde, or dyed unnatural colours
Long nails, often with heavy deco
Bright colourful clothing
Stickers and decorations on the face as a part of makeup
this is a boy gal(gyaruo)
Heavy deco on accessories such as cell phones
Modern Manba[]
Japanese MANBA GYARU MAKEUP by Harutam★マンバメイク
Just as Yamanba, Manba is widely considered to be a dead gyaru style but this is not entirely true. Just like with Yamanba, there are still Gyaru who wear Manba, and particularly the style can be seen alive and well within the Gal-Unit Black Diamond.
The style itself has not evolved massively, and still retains the bright hair colours, heavy makeup and bright clothes. The focus does tend to be more on the hair, makeup and accessories than the clothing however, and the style, just as Yamanba, can be mixed with other Gyaru styles in terms of clothing and still remain true to the style.
