Favorite Anime

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I haven't seen nearly enough anime films to make a good list for it, I'll put down my current top 5 just for the hell of it:

1. Summer Wars
2. Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal
3. Wolf Children: Ame & Yumi
4. Ninja Scroll
5. Redline

[talonmalon333]

I couldn't make a hero list but I'm pretty sure that, if I did, Yusuke would be #1 on it.

Now I can't stop thinking about friggin' top 10 lists for some reason.

That's just what this forum needs: another me.

[Rynnec]

Great list!

Speaking of which, anyone remember these? Back when Adult Swim got (most of) the cream of the crop.

I'd love to hear that Dangermouse instrumental.

Those promo's are great, makes me sad I was too young to watch AS back in the day.

[VLordGTZ]

I couldn't make a hero list but I'm pretty sure that, if I did, Yusuke would be #1 on it.

Same with me!!! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I like Yusuke and all (after all, he's still in my top 10), but man, Kurama gets no love from any of the YYH fan-base anymore. Desensitized already covered what makes Yusuke such an endearing hero, but as for Kurama, while you could argue that he's not a true hero, I'd argue back that you're full of shit. He's someone who was originally one of the worst villains among demons, but through circumstances ended up having his spirit inhabit the body of a human boy who had not yet been born, and then he grew up being raised by a human mother and really learned the value of humanity through her. I think that he's a great character because out of all of the characters among the main group, he is the one who is the most willing to do the things that nobody else wants to do (including himself) for the sake of what's right. The best example comes in when he had to be the one to defeat Game Master knowing that by winning he would essentially be sentencing the kid to his death (and he had no idea that Koenma could revive him at the time). It wasn't something he did for the sake of being edgy or dark, but something that he did because Yusuke and the others needed to get through to Sensui in order to stop his plans and save the world. However doing what he had to do really tore him up inside, and to me I think some of the greatest heroes are the ones who are willing to make the sacrifices that nobody else had the courage to. On that end, if the kid hadn't been revived, it would have tortured Kurama for the rest of his life, but he was prepared to live with that for the sake of saving the world.

[talonmalon333]

I like Yusuke and all (after all, he's still in my top 10), but man, Kurama gets no love from any of the YYH fan-base anymore. Desensitized already covered what makes Yusuke such an endearing hero, but as for Kurama, while you could argue that he's not a true hero, I'd argue back that you're full of shit. He's someone who was originally one of the worst villains among demons, but through circumstances ended up having his spirit inhabit the body of a human boy who had not yet been born, and then he grew up being raised by a human mother and really learned the value of humanity through her. I think that he's a great character because out of all of the characters among the main group, he is the one who is the most willing to do the things that nobody else wants to do (including himself) for the sake of what's right. The best example comes in when he had to be the one to defeat Game Master knowing that by winning he would essentially be sentencing the kid to his death (and he had no idea that Koenma could revive him at the time). It wasn't something he did for the sake of being edgy or dark, but something that he did because Yusuke and the others needed to get through to Sensui in order to stop his plans and save the world. However doing what he had to do really tore him up inside, and to me I think some of the greatest heroes are the ones who are willing to make the sacrifices that nobody else had the courage to. On that end, if the kid hadn't been revived, it would have tortured Kurama for the rest of his life, but he was prepared to live with that for the sake of saving the world.

I agree with everything you just said. Really, I could've easily chosen Kurama over Yusuke. I like they both that much.

Actually, you know what? Take my last post and change "Yusuke" into a "all of the main four in YYH" tie. I love that team so much.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Kurama's rebirth as a hero literally came from being born. He had a family to give him what he never had as a demon and a true understanding and value for life that he had never considered before. While he retained his keen intellect, he grew stronger as a person for understanding where true strength came from not just his fists (or whip) but his value of life over all. He didn't want to kill Game Master, but he had no choice since the world was at stake and the game had to end or they would all die. He's only really killed twice out of necessity in the story and the other time gets blown up to make Kurama some heartless killer like he was as Yoko Kurama.

But I think the Roto thing gets taken out of context. Kurama is a very forgiving person and grows to have compassion even for demons who wish to kill him. Here's the difference. Roto had no compassion for life and would very clearly have killed innocents for nothing more than glory. Kurama killed him because he knew that Roto would do it again (either to him or someone else) as he had already shown he had absolutely no intention of changing but only of slithering out of situations. He had to stop him, and he did it the only way he could.

That said I actually like all four of the main heroes of YYH a lot.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The main four characters in YYH make up my favorite team in any fictional series ever.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Speaking of which, anyone remember these? Back when Adult Swim got (most of) the cream of the crop.

I fucking love the Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Lupin the Third promos. Makes me wish I watched those shows back in 2002-2003...rather than 2011-2012, ten years later. 

The only one of those promos I actually remember, though, is the InuYasha one. The one I remember the most vividly was the promo where they had InuYasha and Kagome keep yelling each others names for 30 seconds. I remember that trailer being hilarious because as a kid I thought the show was basically 22-minutes of that episode to episode. Ironic that I love series now as an adult (the manga and Final Act only though. The anime and movies are still bad to me for a variety of reasons...).

The main four characters in YYH make up my favorite team in any fictional series ever.

Ditto.   

Well, actually, for me...it's a really, really tough choice between them, the Strawhat Pirates, Vash, Wolfwood, Mille, and Meryl, the Bebop crew, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo's party of misfits and rebels, Excel Saga's ACROSS (well, Excel and Elgala mainly, but still), and Lum, Benten, Ran, and Oyuki's "gang" in Urusei Yatsura. I know there's a list in here, but honestly, I love them too equally to want to rank them...

Those promo's are great, makes me sad I was too young to watch AS back in the day.

Heh, I've been watching [adult swim] since I was six.  8) ASA...not until 2010, when I got into Bleach (an unfortunate decision) and Fullmetal Alcehmist Brotherhood.

I kick myself for not getting to watch [adult swim] action when it was good. I blame the Nina episode of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime for scaring me off from sticking around for it after Toonami. I didn't help that, as a kid I had a general disinterest in action-animation until I was around 8 years old (I though superheroes were stupid and ridiculous as a kid, and didn't warm up to them until I watched Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker), so I completely avoided action blocks like Toonami and [adult swim] action, and even Kid's WB and FOX BOX. The Dragonball franchise was really the series that got me into trying action-animation of all sorts, and non-toyetic anime as well, but that didn't happen until 2005. So before that...boy did I miss out...

Anyway, I might as well update my favorite anime films list, if only because it's just a teeny bit different now:
11. Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love
10. Ghost in the Shell
9. Princess Mononoke
8. Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagilostro
7. Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
6. Urusei Yatsura 5: The Final Chapter
5. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
4. Spirited Away
3. Urusei Yatsura 4: Lum the Forever
2. Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
1. End of Evangelion

I love Beautiful Dreamer and End of Evangelion so much that their places on my list switch between 1 and 2 depending on what mood I'm in. I freaking love all the Urusei Yatsura movies, but I don't feel stronger about Only You than the other movies here, so I left it off. Really, though, I still have the same problem of not seeing several highly acclaimed anime movies yet. On top of my priority list: the films of Satoshi Kon, the films of Isao Takahata, the Mamorou Oishii stuff I haven't seen yet, the Miyazaki films I haven't seen yet (like, I really need to watch Naussica, seriously), the films of Hosoda, Redline, Akira, Royal Space Force, One Piece: Strong World, One Piece: Film Z, and Space Adventure Cobra. I should be spending my Friday nights better...

[VLordGTZ]

I blame the Nina episode of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime for scaring me off from sticking around for it after Toonami.

That episode gave me nightmares for a month when I was a little kid.

[talonmalon333]

The YYH main 4 is one of my favorite teams in fiction. Probably top 3 or top 5.

[Foggle]

I dunno if I could make a list of favorite anime heroes. I think I'm more drawn to protagonists who aren't exactly "good." Except Tenma of course.

[Rynnec]

I dunno if I could make a list of favorite anime heroes. I think I'm more drawn to protagonists who aren't exactly "good." Except Tenma of course.

Same, minus the part about Tenma.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, that depends on if you are looking at it just by the alignment of these characters as good guys, which doesn't sound as interesting as a list of villains. As for my own list, though, that's not really the way I look at it, myself, as I don't like any of these characters because of their alignment, but rather because they happen to be well-written and interesting characters that just happen to be good (and for the record, quite a few of them are "not exactly good").

If you read one of my reasons for why Togashi is my favorite shounen mangaka ever (on the thread by that name), I said that he doesn't write villains, but that he writes characters that just happen to be the antagonists relative to the main characters in his stories. What I value most about a character is the character him/her/itself and what makes them tick when you get down to it. If the character is interesting and written in a relatively believable way, then it's a good character. Personally, I find the notion of finding a character more or less appealing just based on their alignment of being downright good, not exactly good, not exactly bad, or just downright bad to be kind of silly, myself.

Also, while speaking on that subject, I would have included Killua in my list but decided against it because he skewed the lines a bit too much between being a hero and just being a character that did his mix of good and bad things (which explains why he's one of my favorite manga/anime characters). If nothing else, though, he is proof that you can write a good child character, have him be really interesting and have complexities to his psyche, and yet at the same time he can still believably come off as a kid with some of his general mannerisms and attitude relative to the world that he inhabits.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think Killua is a hero, actually. I think he really proved it in Chimera Ant.

He's much more of a hero than Gon is, anyway.