Have you ever watched an anime that you thought was bad? I have. But even with anime I dislike,
there was always something I thought was a redeeming factor, and usually, that’s a character. These
characters who are so well-written or well-conceived that they feel almost out of place when compared
to the bad that’s everywhere here. Hell, this even happens in good anime, with characters that are just
so great it makes everything else look like crap. So this post is going to be dedicated to those
characters, the ones that stand above the rest.
there was always something I thought was a redeeming factor, and usually, that’s a character. These
characters who are so well-written or well-conceived that they feel almost out of place when compared
to the bad that’s everywhere here. Hell, this even happens in good anime, with characters that are just
so great it makes everything else look like crap. So this post is going to be dedicated to those
characters, the ones that stand above the rest.
The first character I want to pay homage to is Tsubasa Katsuki from Comic Girls. I know that I’ve talked
about Comic Girls extensively already, so I’m not gonna get too far into it, but suffice to say my overall
opinion is...mixed. I think Kaos is a terrible character, and most of the side characters feel completely
pointless. Koyume and Ruki are solid characters, but nobody can hold a candle to best girl Tsubasa.
She’s cute, she’s supportive, she’s passionate, it’s no wonder why Koyume has a thing for her. I love
how she cosplays as her own manga characters as she draws her manga, the way she compares her
life to high fantasy is adorable, and on top of being cute and hilarious, she has the best conflict in the
anime. It’s still nothing amazing, but having to deal with a family that doesn’t support you is a real thing
that a lot of creative people deal with, and the final scene where she writes “There is nothing else” on
the career form is quite effective. I know that when I proposed a fix for Comic Girls’s story I cast
Koyume as a protagonist, and I stand by that, but I really think that Tsubasa could carry her own
anime as a protagonist as well.
about Comic Girls extensively already, so I’m not gonna get too far into it, but suffice to say my overall
opinion is...mixed. I think Kaos is a terrible character, and most of the side characters feel completely
pointless. Koyume and Ruki are solid characters, but nobody can hold a candle to best girl Tsubasa.
She’s cute, she’s supportive, she’s passionate, it’s no wonder why Koyume has a thing for her. I love
how she cosplays as her own manga characters as she draws her manga, the way she compares her
life to high fantasy is adorable, and on top of being cute and hilarious, she has the best conflict in the
anime. It’s still nothing amazing, but having to deal with a family that doesn’t support you is a real thing
that a lot of creative people deal with, and the final scene where she writes “There is nothing else” on
the career form is quite effective. I know that when I proposed a fix for Comic Girls’s story I cast
Koyume as a protagonist, and I stand by that, but I really think that Tsubasa could carry her own
anime as a protagonist as well.
And speaking of protagonists, can we take a moment to talk about Aihara Yuzu from Citrus? Citrus is
pretty bad. The animation is pretty meh, the music is forgettable, and the story is just bad. Yuzu and
Mei meet, someone gets sexually assaulted, a new romantic rival shows up, there’s some angst,
someone gets sexually assaulted, another romantic rival shows up, someone gets sexually assaulted,
lather, rinse, repeat. It really was a slow-motion train wreck, and appropriately, I just couldn’t look away.
At least I had Yuzu to keep me company. I love that when she realizes that she’s attracted to Mei, she
doesn’t really dwell on the fact that she’s a girl. It’s less, “Wait, am I gay?” and more “Why does it have
to be this bitch?” Even when she comes to grips with her quasi-incestuous yuri fantasies, she doesn’t
let Mei push her around. My favorite example of this is when Mei starts putting the moves on her and
Yuzu is rolling with it, but the second Mei implies that she’s doing this as a way to thank Yuzu for
standing up for her, Yuzu pushes her off, rightly deciding that sex isn’t worth it if her partner isn’t 100
percent enthusiastic about it. And even better than this, she even makes the decision to stop pursuing
Mei when she comes to the realization that Mei needs people who are there for her without expecting
anything of her in return. Everything about Yuzu’s character seems designed to explore what it means
to be a good partner in a healthy relationship, which would make a great foil to Mei as a personification
of unhealthy relationships if Mei had any personality or emotion whatsoever (Even with character
development, there is no personality here.). Also, the fact that she reads yuri manga and changes her
hairstyle so often during the series is amazing. And shout out to Harumin. She’s also too good for this
trainwreck.
pretty bad. The animation is pretty meh, the music is forgettable, and the story is just bad. Yuzu and
Mei meet, someone gets sexually assaulted, a new romantic rival shows up, there’s some angst,
someone gets sexually assaulted, another romantic rival shows up, someone gets sexually assaulted,
lather, rinse, repeat. It really was a slow-motion train wreck, and appropriately, I just couldn’t look away.
At least I had Yuzu to keep me company. I love that when she realizes that she’s attracted to Mei, she
doesn’t really dwell on the fact that she’s a girl. It’s less, “Wait, am I gay?” and more “Why does it have
to be this bitch?” Even when she comes to grips with her quasi-incestuous yuri fantasies, she doesn’t
let Mei push her around. My favorite example of this is when Mei starts putting the moves on her and
Yuzu is rolling with it, but the second Mei implies that she’s doing this as a way to thank Yuzu for
standing up for her, Yuzu pushes her off, rightly deciding that sex isn’t worth it if her partner isn’t 100
percent enthusiastic about it. And even better than this, she even makes the decision to stop pursuing
Mei when she comes to the realization that Mei needs people who are there for her without expecting
anything of her in return. Everything about Yuzu’s character seems designed to explore what it means
to be a good partner in a healthy relationship, which would make a great foil to Mei as a personification
of unhealthy relationships if Mei had any personality or emotion whatsoever (Even with character
development, there is no personality here.). Also, the fact that she reads yuri manga and changes her
hairstyle so often during the series is amazing. And shout out to Harumin. She’s also too good for this
trainwreck.
 |
| Citrus would have been three times better if this were the main pairing, is all I'm saying. |
He’s a dreamer, he’s a tourist, he’s a fighter, he’s a leader...I dunno, something about him feels like Monkey D. Luffy, only less complex. Or maybe I just like that he’s a character who ends up in a fantasy world and is just like “Sweet, let’s explore!” It feels like a true representation of childhood. I mean, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody (God, that's a stupid title) tried to do something similar, but I try not to think about Death March.
Another 2018 anime I try not to think about is Caligula. What is it with me and bashing 2018 anime today? I mean, overall I think 2018 has been a strong year for anime, but I’ve been watching more anime at once this year than I ever have before, so I guess that odds are higher that I find some stinkers. Anyway, I might have gone into Death March expecting to hate it, but I was actually pretty interested in Caligula when it first came out. All I saw was a page on MAL and I saw some neat character designs and a four sentence synopsis that spoiled the mystery that the first episode was building up. So, going in, I knew that all the characters were trapped in a virtual world even though most of the characters take a few episodes to figure that out, and everything was unnecessarily drawn out and just kinda shit. Why was a character’s (I can’t remember her name) turning point framed around fat-shaming again? But I’m getting off topic. The creator of this virtual world, Mu, is an interesting character who feels wasted in this disappointment of a series.
 |
| And I think this image is enough to explain why I try not to think about Death March. |
A virtual idol who just wants everyone to be happy, Mu is manipulated by who I assume to be the
villains (I don’t know, I dropped this show.) into trapping depressed people in a high school AU of the
Matrix. And look, I know the whole childlike character with the power of God being manipulated by
villainous characters isn’t a super original idea, but Mu’s design is neat, standing out even among
other unique character designs, I like her voice actor, and the songs she sings are easily the highlight
of the lackluster series.
villains (I don’t know, I dropped this show.) into trapping depressed people in a high school AU of the
Matrix. And look, I know the whole childlike character with the power of God being manipulated by
villainous characters isn’t a super original idea, but Mu’s design is neat, standing out even among
other unique character designs, I like her voice actor, and the songs she sings are easily the highlight
of the lackluster series.
But enough about 2018. There were anime that existed before 2018! Like Naruto. Naruto...certainly
exists, doesn’t it? I have very mixed feelings about Naruto. I enjoyed Part 1, but after the timeskip, I
found that there was a massive drop in quality. And I never particularly felt a huge attachment to the
main trio of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. Instead, what always kept me coming back to the manga (I
lost patience with the anime’s pacing eventually) was the imaginative world and the excellently written
supporting cast. There are so many characters from Naruto that feel like they are wasted in this story,
like Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Jiraiya, but my pick for the best of them would be Rock Lee.
exists, doesn’t it? I have very mixed feelings about Naruto. I enjoyed Part 1, but after the timeskip, I
found that there was a massive drop in quality. And I never particularly felt a huge attachment to the
main trio of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. Instead, what always kept me coming back to the manga (I
lost patience with the anime’s pacing eventually) was the imaginative world and the excellently written
supporting cast. There are so many characters from Naruto that feel like they are wasted in this story,
like Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Jiraiya, but my pick for the best of them would be Rock Lee.
Lee is a microcosm of everything that once made Naruto great. He has a memorable design, with his
jumpsuit, his bowl cut, and his magnificent eyebrows; he has a quirky personality, what with his
earnest, polite speech and his hero worship of Guy; and he has a unique fighting style that ties into his
backstory and his motivation. Early Naruto fights were distinct from other shonen anime of its time in
that the characters were all rookies. No matter how powerful they were, they were raw and unpolished,
and the battles were small-scale because they just aren’t capable of insane, world changing effects
like the Z-Fighters or the Soul Reapers. With the exception of prodigies like Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara,
characters didn’t have great techniques or powers to fall back on, thus being forced to think creatively
to cover their weaknesses and play to their strengths. Lee cannot use the ninja magic that the rest of
the characters can, so all of this is emphasized for him. And even though he couldn’t use the fancy
ninja magic, Lee still defeats Naruto, would have defeated Sasuke if Guy hadn’t stopped him, defeated
and nearly killed Dosu in the Forest of Death, and, most memorably, nearly defeated the powerhouses
that were Gaara of the Sand and Kimimaro. It sounds cliche, but if the anime instead focused on Lee,
a magically-impaired character struggling in a magic-dominated world, I might have enjoyed the series
that much more. Or, you know, just let Lee keep up with Naruto and the others instead of fading and
becoming a background character.
jumpsuit, his bowl cut, and his magnificent eyebrows; he has a quirky personality, what with his
earnest, polite speech and his hero worship of Guy; and he has a unique fighting style that ties into his
backstory and his motivation. Early Naruto fights were distinct from other shonen anime of its time in
that the characters were all rookies. No matter how powerful they were, they were raw and unpolished,
and the battles were small-scale because they just aren’t capable of insane, world changing effects
like the Z-Fighters or the Soul Reapers. With the exception of prodigies like Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara,
characters didn’t have great techniques or powers to fall back on, thus being forced to think creatively
to cover their weaknesses and play to their strengths. Lee cannot use the ninja magic that the rest of
the characters can, so all of this is emphasized for him. And even though he couldn’t use the fancy
ninja magic, Lee still defeats Naruto, would have defeated Sasuke if Guy hadn’t stopped him, defeated
and nearly killed Dosu in the Forest of Death, and, most memorably, nearly defeated the powerhouses
that were Gaara of the Sand and Kimimaro. It sounds cliche, but if the anime instead focused on Lee,
a magically-impaired character struggling in a magic-dominated world, I might have enjoyed the series
that much more. Or, you know, just let Lee keep up with Naruto and the others instead of fading and
becoming a background character.
But there is no point in wondering about what anime might have been. Today is about what anime is.
And anime is a mistake. The great Hayao Miyazaki said so. Which is why from now on, this blog will
be dedicated to Fortnite or something else that’s trendy and slowly corrupting our culture, and yes,
this joke is here just because I can’t think of a better way to conclude my incoherent ramblings about
cartoon characters!
And anime is a mistake. The great Hayao Miyazaki said so. Which is why from now on, this blog will
be dedicated to Fortnite or something else that’s trendy and slowly corrupting our culture, and yes,
this joke is here just because I can’t think of a better way to conclude my incoherent ramblings about
cartoon characters!
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