Newtype's Top 30 Anime Characters of Decade and Gender

[BrikHaus]

She's tactless, socially inept, controlling, overimpulsive, and, for lack of a better word, crazy. She doesn't care about other people (so much that when she acts contrary to that, it feels extremely OOC) and she doesn't care about the effects of her actions. All that matters to her is that she has the best time possible, and screw what the rest of the world thinks.

These are all traits of someone who is manic. Guess what? She's fucking manic all the time. It's not that she's a bitch, it's that she suffers from a severe psychological disorder. Also, it isn't like normal people don't act like this, too. Because of these traits, she's probably a more realistic representation of a human being than 99% of other anime characters.

Yuki's just a more likable character all around, IMO.

Yuki is only a more likable character if you are into submissive girls. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Most of Japan would agree with you. Personally, she seems awfully two-dimensional and boring. Without Haruhi or everyone else acting awesome, she would be even more boring and have even less to do.

[ZapX]

Someone hasn't read the novels. Actually, it looks like most of you haven't.

[Allemann]

These are all traits of someone who is manic. Guess what? She's fucking manic all the time. It's not that she's a bitch, it's that she suffers from a severe psychological disorder. Also, it isn't like normal people don't act like this, too. Because of these traits, she's probably a more realistic representation of a human being than 99% of other anime characters.

Most people aren't mentally ill. She's not less of an unrealistic example. Just from a different position.

[Gamer_2k4]

Someone hasn't read the novels. Actually, it looks like most of you haven't.

I have no desire to, either, because Season 2 shows what happens when you take away everything that made the series good (humor, innovation, diverse situations, and just general over-the-topness) and focus on plot instead. It's awful, just awful, and I'm not even saying that because of Endless Eight. Watching them make their silly movie was boring. Watching how Haruhi originally met Kyon was interesting, but nothing special. And watching them do normal summer activities for EIGHT EPISODES just to prove the point that time can loop if Haruhi is bored was just horrible. They took what was an intriguing and original concept that felt great with good pacing, and they just tacked details on. Who cares?

[BrikHaus]

^ Agree that Endless Eight was a waste of time.

[ZapX]

You do realize your avatar is from book 4, which a movie was just made about and what most fans consider the best story of all of them, right? Shit, bro, that's a shame. Especially being a Yuki fan as you seem to be. Endless eight was just some bullshit Kadokawa pulled. The actual story is a single chapter.

[Gamer_2k4]

You do realize your avatar is from book 4, which a movie was just made about and what most fans consider the best story of all of them, right? Shit, bro, that's a shame. Especially being a Yuki fan as you seem to be. Endless eight was just some bullshit Kadokawa pulled. The actual story is a single chapter.

Oh, I'm totally going to watch Disappearance when I figure out where I can get it. But I've been very disillusioned by the second season, where my thoughts were something like

SPOILER: Show

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody: "Okay, so Haruhi was still a jerk back then. Great."
Endless Eight: "Okay, so Haruhi's a god that can control time. Great."
Sigh: "Okay, so Haruhi's a god that can alter reality. Great."

With the exception of the first episode, none of the additional information that the second season provided mattered one bit to me. It didn't increase my understanding of the series, and it honestly felt like the sort of thing I should be reading on Wikipedia rather than seeing as a video.

[Defectron]

I have no desire to, either, because Season 2 shows what happens when you take away everything that made the series good (humor, innovation, diverse situations, and just general over-the-topness) and focus on plot instead. It's awful, just awful, and I'm not even saying that because of Endless Eight.

Eh aside from that endless eight nonsense I liked it about as well as the old series on an episode by episode basis. Though the old series would win due to how it was structured if you were to compare it that way.

Someone hasn't read the novels. Actually, it looks like most of you haven't.

I read most of them

Her face looks is if it was hit with a frying pan.

Still the best looking female on the show though.

[Merridian]

Eh aside from that endless eight nonsense I liked it about as well as the old series on an episode by episode basis. Though the old series would win due to how it was structured if you were to compare it that way.

I thought Endless Eight was the best part of the "second season", TBH. The rest of the episodes just didn't do it for me. Aside from its structure, I thought the first season just had better writing on a per-ep basis.

Anyway, king of character designs still is Haruhiko Mikimoto (excluding Yoshiyuki Sadamoto that is. And ABe. Meh, let's just make it holy trinity and be done with it)

Needs more Matsumoto.

[Gamer_2k4]

something about Sadamoto being awesome at character design

While I agree with you for the most part, I think he really dropped the ball when it came to the female pilots in NGE. Sure, they have different personalities, but you can swap their heads and they'll look no different. (See this picture for reference.)

To me, that says "sex appeal is more important than physical diversity," which bugs me in a work as complex as NGE.

[Defectron]

I thought Endless Eight was the best part of the "second season", TBH. The rest of the episodes just didn't do it for me. Aside from its structure, I thought the first season just had better writing on a per-ep basis.

Actually aside from 8, both series followed the novels pretty closely, if you thought the writing was worse in one season, it's because maybe the original story didn't mesh as well with you?

[Gamer_2k4]

Actually aside from 8, both series followed the novels pretty closely, if you thought the writing was worse in one season, it's because maybe the original story didn't mesh as well with you?

For me, Season 2 was substantially less interesting because they only showed three distinct events. Compare that to the first season, where they had baseball, computer games, murder mysteries, culture fests, student movies, and so on. It helped that the constant addition of characters was there to keep things fresh (another thing completely missing from the second season), and putting the episodes out of order kept the viewers on their toes so things never felt tedious. Finally, the first season told what could have easily been a stand-alone story in just 14 episodes, while the second season took the same amount of screen time and used it only to add a depressingly low amount of supplementary detail. That's why Season 2 pales so drastically compared to Season 1 (IMO, anyway).

[LeoXiao]

Where is Yagami Light on the male list? I thought he was popular.

[Defectron]

Yeah if you compare the seasons as a whole, 1 is clearly better for several reasons, I was comparing it more in terms of an episode by episode basis though, and on average imo, most of the episodes are about just as good as each other. Though there are a few from season 1 that do stand out above the others.

Where is Yagami Light on the male list? I thought he was popular.

Poor light, a knockoff of his character takes #1 and he doesnt even make the list.

[Taekmkm]

Knock off doesn't make sense.

Lelouch was chaotic good.

Light is a focking psychotic.

[Defectron]

Knock off doesn't make sense.

No, both of them are pretty much the same sort of person with just a few small differences. One is that lelouch was portrayed in a much more sympathetic way, the other is that on a few occasions lelouch felt sorry about his actions, wheras light pretty much always felt he was in the right.

But they both are good looking ammoral geniuses who think the ends justify the means when it comes to making a better world. Hell lelouch may be responsible for more deaths then light was given how many people died in the final battle alone.

Aside from character similarities, both of them also got a special ability from a paranormal source that allowed them to quickly gain the power nessecery to challenge the world. In lights case the deathnote and in lelouches case the geass.

Clearly his character was inspired by light, there's too many similarities for it to be coincidence. They even both have the same sort of evil laugh.

[Taekmkm]

That's like saying Shinji Ikari and Amuro are similar. Yes, they're whiny brats but Shinji is awkward because of his social retardation while Amuro is whiny because he's a civilian in a war.

Lelouch wants a better world because he knows the evil of his father and wants his sister to be able to live in peace.

Light wants to be God because he feels like it.

[Defectron]

Light wants to be God because he feels like it.

Well while being a god is part of lights motivation, at the same time he did genuinly want to make the world a better place. So that part of their motivation is still the same, it's just a bit more personal in lelouches case.

[BrikHaus]

The bottom line is that Lelouch was more of a standard "I want my side (the good guys) to prevail" character. Light, on the other hand, was a crazy motherfucker who wanted to become god. The reason why Light is more interesting is that he was the villain of the story, and there are no other anime where the villain is the main character. Lelouch, while a bastard, was still considered a hero.

[Gamer_2k4]

...anime where the villain is the main character.

How nice of you to tie in to our previous Haruhi discussion. =P