Favorite Anime

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Awesome choices and they're all so different from each other! Several of those are also my favorites as my earlier post on the subject attests. Unabashed good guys are harder to find these days, probably because they're harder to write without becoming Gary Stu characters. It seems it's easier to make them brainless or just as bad as the bad guys are.

Thanks! And yeah, while there's variety to all of my characters, none of them are unabashed good guys (they all have their intentional flaws and vices), but they all fit the essence of being good where it counts. Even Satsuki, who some may disagree with qualifying for this list, has many good qualities and despite opposing Ryuko for most of the series, she does in the end act on clearly good intentions, even if it doesn't always have good results. Joe by far is one of my favorites, though. His character arc is probably the best I've ever seen in a manga or anime. And as for Impmon, the guys is so underrated. His character arc is rather fascinating, IMO, and it goes beyond the nuance and scope that you'd expect from a Kim's show.

Killua is one I'd absolutely agree with. Togashi really pulled him through the hero's arc and far away from who he was at the beginning to be the best character overall. It's a shame certain other characters never got quite his focus, but that's what happens when you let one arc overlap your entire work.

I think Killua is one of the few really consistently good things about the series, very thing else fluctuates in quality, but his character arc is always a high point. Also, I think the WMR guys said it best in their podcast review for this series: Togashi is a great writer with great ideas, but his refusal to work with an editor is essentially only blocking him from his full potential. It's why YYH is better than HXH despite being th more conventional of the two. It has focused stories that use Togashi's great ideas effectively. Now, I LOVE HXH for all of the things that it does get right, but I won't deny that it has some serious flaws, and most of those can be attributed to Togashi not having a good editor to pair up with and channel his ideas through. He needs someone to be there and tell him when something is just flat-out NOT a good idea, how he can use some of his best ideas even better, and also just keep him mor focused so that he can shelve some ideas for a later time rather than brining them up in multiple plot points that never go anywhere or even get resolved. Mind you, MOST of these problems really only come into play in the Chimera Ant arc, but it really goes to show that if Togashi had accepted some professional assistance, HXH could go from being a really good series with some flaws to being one of the best manga of all time. Hell, if Togashi ever does another series and works through a good editor, he could very well write the greatest manga ever, because on a level of both having brilliant concepts and genius writing skills, there are no other modern shounen mangaka who I feel could compare to him, personally.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I would consider them mostly unabashed good guys since I don't think you can write a character without flaws and have him either be realistic or anything less than a badly written Gary Stu (or basically Aizen reversed). I also don't think you can write them always wanting to do the right thing because everyone sometimes has their own distractions or challenges keeping them from being 100% good at every moment, but it's that they get up and try harder when being beaten or stumped that makes them endearing to me. Being a good guy is harder than being a villain, in any case, so maybe that's why they're harder to write than the Aizen types.

Speaking of editors, I think either Watsuki needs a better one or his current one needs to sit down with him and concentrate harder, Bakuman-style. His ideas are either generic or over-thought and for someone who wrote Rurouni Kenshin it's clear that there is a balance out there for him.

[talonmalon333]

I seriously need to rewatch Hunter x Hunter as soon as I can. I remember thinking Killua was the best character.

[gunswordfist]

Killua is the best in both versions from what I've seen. And Yusuke is probably my favorite fictional character period.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Shit! How did I forget Kurama? Looks like I'll have to edit my list tomorrow. Sorry Anna, but that means you'll have to go, since I already have 2 other Monster representatives on my list.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Great list E-K! 

Here's mine (also in no particular order):




For those who can't recognize some of these characters:

Ussop (One Piece)
Jelly Jiggler (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo)
Yoshitsune (20th Century Boys)

Hyakkimaru (Dororo)
Yosuke Mikura (Barbara)
Father Garai (MW)

Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
Vash the Stampede (Trigun)
Wolfgang Grimmer (Monster)

Sesshomaru (InuYasha)
Joe Yabuki (Ashita no Joe)
Yusuke Urameshi (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Nicholas D. Wolfwood (Trigun)
Kenzo Tenma (Monster)
Yoko Shiraki (Ashita no Joe)

Killua (Hunter X Hunter)
Don Patch (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo)
Ai Haibara (Detective Conan)

I TRIED real hard to edit this down to 15, but I just couldn't. Going from 50 down to just these was hard enough. I left out characters from slice-of-life and comedy series like Onizuka and Korosensei because of this, and focused on characters only from series with a direct confrontation of "good" and "evil" forces. I think it's a pretty diverse list.

Like E-K's list these are good people, but very, very flawed ones as well. Some are even pretty fucked up (Mikura is mentally and sexually disturbed, Don Patch is a selfish narcissist, etc). The one thing they all have in common, aside from ultimately doing things for the good, is that they are hella interesting and well developed characters that I never tire of watching/reading. Some of these characters are my all time favorite characters period, though I won't tell you which ones. 

While the list is not in order, all three characters in a particular row are related to each other by a similarity they share. I dare someone to try and guess what those similarities are. If someone gets them all right I will tell you how I'd rank these characters in order.   

I'll make a villains list later, but with that one, I want to write out and explain my choices in detail, as I've really been in a mood to talk about/analyze some characters lately and my favorite anime/manga villains are quite some good ones to talk about. Look forward to that sometime next week. 

Shit! How did I forget Kurama? Looks like I'll have to edit my list tomorrow. Sorry Anna, but that means you'll have to go, since I already have 2 other Monster representatives on my list.

Heh, it was with a heavy heart that I didn't put Kurama in my own list. Know that I fucking love Kurama and he was one of the last I ended up cutting out of 50 characters I was considering. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Kenshin, Vash, and Grimmer, all share a past the still haunts them that they are struggling to leave behind.

Great list, by the way. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Great list, CX! It's late now so I'll comment on some of your choices tomorrow, but I'm glad to see that, not only Joe, but Yoko also made your list. Asaki Takamori (yes, that's his real name, so I'll have to edit my article tomorrow) really knows how to develop his characters. She starts out as a well meaning yet ultimately naive girl, but in part 2 she proves herself to be a shrewd businesswoman, and can outright outwit any of the sharks that run the boxing association of Japan, which the manga doesn't hide is a male-dominated business.

Spoiler

But, more than that I like her relationship with Joe. To put it simply, she knows how to "handle" Joe in a way that no one else does. She has learned to take all of his insults and rude behavior toward her with a grain of salt since he's a jerk and that's just in his nature. All the while she's really the one behind helping him grow as a boxer and organizing his fights. To put it imply, if it weren't for her, Joe's character never would have made a comeback in part 2, and he'd go nowhere toward getting title shots or anything of that nature. She's basically doing Danpei's job way better than he ever could.

[close]

[gunswordfist]

In no order:

[VLordGTZ]

In no specific order:

[gunswordfist]

Who's the first guy?

Looks like Killua is getting a lot of love around here.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Who's the first guy?

Looks like Killua is getting a lot of love around here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0miyPXfTszo

[gunswordfist]

Oh, one of those guys.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Cool lists guys! 

Joseph, Spike, Gene, Lupin, and Zenigatta are also favorites of mine.

[gunswordfist]

Cool lists guys! 

Joseph, Spike, Gene, Lupin, and Zenigatta are also favorites of mine.

I have to fix my list though. Left a really important one.