Top Five Favorite Anime Characters

[bewize]

haruka asked me this question. For this one, I must use pics. I also have to say this was really hard to narrow down and I decided that I should use more than one character from any given anime to broaden the spectrum.

1. By far my most favorite anime character ever - and I'm sure anyone who knows me isn't surprised - Yagami Light from Death Note.



I absolutely got sucked into this story. It was the single best thing I read in all of 2007 and one of the best things I've read in my entire life. The story was filled with twists and intrigue and the characters were so fucking complex.

Light is the perfect example. He's a hardworking teenager disillusioned by the violent world he lives in. I could relate so very much to his perspective. Then, he finds a Death Note and everything goes horribly, horribly wrong.



I had a very hard time not making L my second favorite anime character, because honestly it's hard to look at Light without looking at L. They are the Batman and Joker of "you complete me." In the end, though, and I don't know what this says about me, I landed harder on Light's side. Don't get me wrong - he was a mass murderer, a criminal, delusional, and more than a little insane by the end, but somehow, somehow, I never quit rooting for him.

The end absolutely broke me, but I think that's why I like it so much. And I ship L/Light so hard it'll hurt anyone not expecting it. Together they were a nightmare and a disaster, but apart they were incomplete.



2. Son Gohan from Dragon Ball Z. This kid is the reason I started watching anime. He's the reason I started buying stuff from Ebay and he's the reason I signed up on Netflix. He brought me hardcore into fandom and he remains, always and forever, one of my absolute favorite characters.



I watched all 300 something episdoes of DB, DBZ, DBGT and anything I can find. I devoured fanfiction, wrote it myself, and never ever outgrew him. He was a wimpy, ridiculous, frightened kid who was afraid of everything and stood up to it anyway. He did it to make his father proud. He did it to make his mentor proud.



In the end, the whole series became utterly ridiculous, but the Cell Saga remains one of my all time ever favorite stories. Evil v. innocence. And the cost of it was high, for everyone. I loved that it didn't downplay that.



3. Sohma Kyo from Fruits Basket. I'll confess. I debated for a while here between him and Sohma Hatsuharu. I love them both, but I finally came down on the side of Kyo. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what I love about him, though. He's fiesty and fiery and very often completely wrong. But he's also genuine.



The love story between him and Tohru didn't hold much OTPness for me, but I did watch with held breath to see what changes it made in Kyo. I really felt like we had the chance to watch him mature from a real brat of a kid into someone that one day will be a good and honorable man.



And there is no doubt about it - this kid had the shaft. Everyone was predisposed to hate him. Everyone went out of their way, initially, to keep him "outside," but he found the strength to stand up to it, to stand up for himself, and eventually, he realized he might be fighting a lot of the wrong fights. Fruits Basket was absolutely beautiful and it definitely enriched my life.



4. Otanashi Saya from Blood +. Finally, a girl character that I could really sink my teeth into. She starts out sweet and innocent and soon enough it is revealed that all is not as is believed.



So, she's not really human. But she sets out to learn how to be human and she loves her human family. This is another character that it's hard to single out. I'd like to say Saya and Hagi, because where she goes, he follows. Their relationship is complicated, complex, beautiful and epically fucked up. But, God, I loved watching it unfold.

And Saya is a complete bad ass.



She is a truly tragic character and I bled for her, metaphorically speaking.



5. Shimada Kambei from Samurai 7. This is the picture that drew me in:



The art work from this anime was incredible. All of the characters were very distinct, but something about the way Kambei was drawn really appealed to me. The character appealed to me as well. He was calm and unexciteable. He had a distinct honor that he never breeched. He knew what he asked of his friends, knew that it was unlikely that they would all survive, and allowed them to make their own decisions.



Kambei also really knew who he was. The time period put him on the brink of extinction, but he never wavered from what he thought he should be, especially when it was hard. This whole story kept me riveted on the edge of my seat.

Comments

[branchandroot]

*sparkles* Ah, so many of my favorites too. Especially Light. *rueful* What can you say, he's delusional but he also admits what he's doing. He knows it's evil in the cause of 'good' (where L never quite seems to admit that this is also what he's doing). I like that in a character.

[haruka]

Wow, thanks for answering so quickly!

And I was right about Light and Kyo, but I could kick myself for not thinking of Gohan (you'd think I'd at least remember all the ones you'd RPed with me. XD)

[st_aurafina]

I would have picked Light, definitely, with L fast behind that choice. *chokesob*

But it makes a lot of sense to see Kyo there, too!