Top Ten Most Memorable Anime Characters

Initially, I thought to call this my “Top Ten Favorite Characters” list, but then I thought: how does one define one’s “favorite” anything? There are a lot of reasons why certain characters would be my “favorites.” If I did a list of my favorite cute characters in anime, it would include Pikachu, Chi the kitten, Honey-senpai from Ouran, etc. A list of favorite heroes would be okay, but a little boring maybe. And my list of favorite bishonen characters would be a mile long – and pointless – since I doubt any reader of this blog really cares which anime characters I find attractive. ;) Again – the reasons why a character might constitute a “favorite” are many, and so the word feels almost useless to me as a category.

So this list is going to be the ten anime characters that I find most memorable. Some of them are also favorites of mine, but they’re on this list because something about them made me keep thinking about them after watching the series. Where I’ve watched the anime in both Japanese and English, I’ve listed both voice actors, in order of which version I’ve mainly watched.

10. Suzaku Kururugi – Code Geass

Seiyuu: Takahiro Sakurai/English Dub Actor: Yuri Lowenthal

Suzaku is by far the least popular of the main characters in Code Geass. Fangirls hate him because he keeps thwarting Lelouch’s plans (even though Lelouch’s plans are usually evil). ;) Suzaku makes mistakes, but he always comes from his conscience and tries to do what he thinks is the right thing. When I was working on the first Code Geass novel, Entrance, I found out that Suzaku killed his father because he was about to assassinate Lelouch and Nunnally. This fact was never made clear in the anime, and I think that omission did a disservice to Suzaku.

What strikes me the most about Suzaku is how horribly alone he is through the entire story of Code Geass. Lelouch has C.C. to confide in, but Suzaku has no one. Suzaku and his lonely quest to do what is right make him the one character that I still think about from the Code Geass universe.

9. Major Motoko Kusanagi – Ghost in the Shell

English Dub Actor: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn/Original Seiyuu: Atsuko Tanaka

I realize she’s a man’s wet dream, and that she basically wears a G-string as part of her everyday work outfit, but I admire Motoko for her freedom. With a woman’s soul in an android’s body, Motoko is what a woman could be – if she had no physical vulnerabilities and was free to be completely, absolutely fearless.

8. Tsunade – Naruto

Seiyuu: Masako Katsuki/English Dub Actor: Debi Mae West

Just when I was beginning to think Masashi Kishimoto had no respect for females whatsoever, Tsunade made her appearance in Naruto. She is one of the legendary fighting ninjas of Konoha, a top medic, and has a punch that can knock down a building. Now fifty years old, she spent many years wandering, playing pachinko and gambling, before returning to Konoha to become the leader of the village.

In anime, where I’ve often found female characters to be a little thin on characterization – Tsunade is a full-blooded character with strengths, faults, joys and regrets. And best of all, she becomes the mentor to Sakura, passing on her medical arts and knockout punch; thus fulfilling her role as elder of the community beautifully.

7. Conrad Weller – Kyo Kara Maoh!

Seiyuu: Toshiyuki Morikawa

He’s the perfect gentleman: handsome, mannered, kind, courtly, protective of his liege – the Maoh – always putting the Maoh’s needs first and defending him with his life. Conrad is on this list, because I’ve never seen a male character who more perfectly embodied what every girl dreamed of at least at some point in her life – and because I am happy to know the ideal man exists somewhere – even if it’s only in animeland. ;)

6. Izuru Kira – Bleach

Seiyuu: Takahiro Sakurai

Kira is the Vice Captain of Soul Society’s 3rd Division in Bleach. He is a gloomy young man who usually looks either mildly or moderately depressed.

What makes Kira stand out for me, among all of the characters in the vast universe of Bleach, is his integrity, and his complete lack of enjoyment in what is the main activity of this shonen series: fighting. All of the characters in Bleach either relish fighting or at least take pride in their abilities – except for Kira. Kira is good at fighting: he just doesn’t enjoy it. And there’s a reason behind that. In a recent episode, Kira stated his philosophy: “Fights aren’t supposed to be heroic… fights must be filled with despair. That way people will fear fighting.”

As someone who despairs of fighting, Kira serves as Ichigo Kurosaki’s mirror opposite. If Bleach were a serious drama instead of a shonen adventure story, Izuru Kira would be its hero, and not Ichigo.

5. Akira Touya – Hikaru no Go

Seiyuu: Sanae Kobayashi

He’s a serious, somewhat humorless boy with bad fashion sense and a one-track mind about playing competitive Go. His father is the highest-ranked Go champion in Japan, so he has a lot to live up to. Obsessed with the game, he keeps to himself and has no friends and no outside interests – until Hikaru Shindou beats him in a game – at which point Akira Touya becomes obsessed with discovering the secret of Shindou’s amazing success.

I’ll admit it – one of the joys of Hikaru no Go is watching Touya suffer, because he suffers so beautifully. Every time Shindou pulls another one or does something inexplicable, Touya’s furious and/or confounded reaction is so entertaining that it makes 75 episodes of watching people playing a board game go by like a dream. Touya’s Go-nerd earnestness and bishonen-who-doesn’t-realize-he’s-a-bishonen obliviousness are very endearing. ;)

4. Hakkai Cho - Saiyuki

Seiyuu: Akira Ishida

He’s the pleasant, well-mannered one of the four young men traveling West in Saiyuki. He speaks in a soft voice. Women think he’s nice. He does the cooking and cleaning and takes care of the other three men. Altogether, he seems the most normal of all of them – that is, if you don’t count that: 1) he had a long-term sexual relationship with his sister; 2) when his sister was kidnapped, he killed a thousand youkai (demons) – armed only with a single knife – and hundreds of humans in his own village in order to avenge her, thus; 3) turning into a youkai himself, the thing he hated most, as punishment. He also once gouged out his own eye just to intimidate somebody.

Hakkai is a reminder that anime characters don’t have to be Boy Scouts, but can have amazingly dark backgrounds and still be protagonists. In an American story, Hakkai would be the villain. In Japanese anime, he’s simply another human being – with a past.

3. Gaara - Naruto

Seiyuu: Akira Ishida/English Dub Actor: Liam O’Brien

I wrote extensively about Gaara in my October 15 post. To me, he’s the best example of a villain who redeems himself and goes on to become an authentic hero in his own right.

2. Sasuke Uchiha – Naruto

Seiyuu: Noriaki Sugiyama/English Dub Actor: Yuri Lowenthal

By now, Sasuke has gotten on my last nerve and yours as well, probably. His continuing focus on revenge in Naruto has gone beyond the point where it even makes sense.

But Sasuke remains one of the most compelling and memorable characters in anime. When you consider that he’s been absent from the main storyline for years, it’s a testament to Kishimoto’s writing and art and Noriaki Sugiyama and Yuri Lowenthal’s excellent voice portrayals that we still can’t forget Sasuke. And that when Naruto gets that look in his eye when he misses Sasuke, we believe him. Because – against all reason – we miss him, too.

1. Nobutsuna Naoe - Mirage of Blaze

Seiyuu: Sho Hayami/English Dub Actor: Jamieson Price aka James Lyon

When I first came across Mirage of Blaze, I was a longtime slash fan and curious new viewer of anime. I hadn’t heard the terms “shonen-ai” or “yaoi” yet and was completely unprepared for what I was about to see.

I wasn’t expecting to see a series about two men reincarnating multiple times and having a twisted obsession with each other for 400 years. Having only seen anime where the characters were cute and had big eyes and silly things happened, I wasn’t expecting to see realistically-drawn men and serious drama involving samurai and Japanese history and the paranormal. Since then, I’ve seen other series that contained similar elements, but nothing can match my experience of seeing it for the first time.

Naoe has been victor and victim, a hero, a rapist, a redeemer of souls, and a lost soul himself. (I guess you can cover a lot of ground in 400 years. ;)) The scene in the boat where Naoe embraces Takaya’s lifeless body, agonizing over whether to bring him back to life or to die with him forever, was one of those moments when time seemed to stop around me and I realized that I had come upon something that I couldn’t ignore. In that moment, I could not turn away from the screen.

That moment has lasted four years and counting. If anything, my addiction to anime and manga has only grown stronger as time has passed; and it all began with Mirage of Blaze and its terrible, beautiful antihero – Nobutsuna Naoe.

"I Have Something I Need to Protect"

The first time I heard the following phrase in an anime it sounded odd to my ears, almost as if the syntax was off. The phrase was:

“I have something I need to protect.”

I began hearing this phrase so often that I soon realized it was a trope of sorts, a theme that was significant to the Japanese audience. This phrase (also often stated as, “I have someone I need to protect”) carried the ring of something profound, and the character saying this (almost always the hero) would proclaim it at a moment of high drama. It always signified a turning point for the character.

I noticed that, often, the hero wouldn’t come into his full powers until this moment arrived in the story. Naruto, for example, brings forth his kage no bunshin jutsu for the first time at the moment when his teacher Iruka is threatened with death. To defend his teacher, Naruto, in the act of protecting someone else, becomes what he really is – a powerful ninja. Becoming a powerful ninja was what Naruto wanted more than anything else. But he only becomes one when he uses his power for the benefit of someone other than himself.

Another example of this is Yuri, the clueless but lovable protagonist of Kyo Kara Maoh! Yuri, an ordinary 15-year-old Japanese schoolboy, has his head pushed down a toilet by bullies. Unexpectedly, he falls into the toilet and goes through a black hole (?? but why even ask – this is anime), winding up on another planet that resembles medieval Germany. He soon discovers to his dismay that the people there think he is their Demon King, or Maoh.

Yuri immediately has supporters in Conrad Weller and royal adviser Gunter, but Conrad's older brother Gwendel and younger brother Wolfram doubt Yuri's claim to the throne. At dinner, Wolfram insults Yuri's mother for being a human (as opposed to a demon), and Yuri slaps Wolfram across the left cheek.

Unfortunately for Yuri, in the Demon Kingdom a slap across the left cheek means he just asked for Wolfram’s hand in marriage. (The next bit of dialogue is great. Yuri: “But - but - we’re both guys.” Gunter: “That’s not really unusual here.” We’re in luck, girls – it’s the Land of Shonen-Ai!) Wolfram, now really incensed, sweeps the dinnerware off the table, and Yuri bends down to pick up a knife. Oops – now he just accepted Wolfram’s challenge to a duel.

The next day, Yuri declares that their duel will consist of a sumo match. He easily beats Wolfram at sumo, but Wolfram won’t let it go at that, and draws his sword.

He begins to swordfight with the inexperienced Yuri. Yuri manages to beat him, using a creative move from his baseball practice, but Wolfram still isn’t satisfied. (Wolfram is actually one of the good characters and proves himself later on, but in these first few episodes he’s an awful brat.)

Wolfram finally unleashes his magic demon powers and launches fireballs at Yuri. Yuri ducks, and one fireball heads straight for Doria, one of the maids in the castle. Believing Doria to have been killed (Gwendel actually protected her at the last moment with an energy shield), Yuri then – for the first time – transforms into the Demon King.

Noting that not only is Wolfram a sore loser, but that his pride has caused him to harm innocent others, the Demon King proclaims that while he is ordinarily opposed to bloodshed, Wolfram’s transgression gives rise to an exception.

Before he can go further, however, Yuri/the Demon King collapses.

Kyo Kara Maoh! is a comedy, but even in a humorous story this trope has enormous significance. Before the moment he turns into the Maoh, not only does everyone around Yuri have doubts that he is the Maoh, Yuri himself doubts that he is the Maoh. Wolfram fights Yuri with a sword, and then magical fireballs, basically trying to kill him; but until the moment he believes Wolfram has harmed somebody else Yuri’s powers remain unawakened.

I'm guessing that the importance of this idea is rooted in the Japanese way of seeing the individual primarily within the context of his place in a group. In America - while we focus on teamwork as being important - we do tend to glorify the individual who stands alone and wins the day on his own. In Japan, seemingly, the hero can only do the things he does because it's for others and not his own glory. And only then is he allowed to shine, to come forth with the best that is in him.

Or something like that. I don't want to attribute national characteristics simply from an anime trope, certainly, tempting though it is at times. I do find it interesting however that being exceptional in Japan seems to be tempered by the need to connect it to something larger than the individual himself.

Cigarette Kisses - Now Available

I'm surprised - and delighted - to announce that Cigarette Kisses, a yaoi manga that I worked on last year, has been released.

A brief background: Cigarette Kisses was originally going to be published by Broccoli International. Broccoli International went out of business at the end of 2008, but Aurora Publishing picked up Cigarette Kisses earlier this year. I was unaware that it had been published until I stumbled across it at Borders this past weekend. I am especially proud to have been the English adaptation writer for this manga, for the following reasons.

Cigarette Kisses is about a love triangle. Yusuke, the protagonist, has followed after the dashing and confident Soji ever since their school days, and now as a young man in his twenties he has gone to work at Soji’s family’s company. Masahito, a childhood friend of both, also works there. Yusuke and Soji have unresolved feelings for each other; and as it turns out, Masahito has secretly been in love with Yusuke for years.

This story differs significantly from many other yaoi manga in that all of the characters are young men in their twenties, as opposed to being schoolboys or teenagers, and face difficult real-life adult situations. Each young man longs for another, but each also tries to act responsibly and to consider the other parties involved.

Cigarette Kisses is several levels deeper and more mature than most yaoi manga that we see here in the U.S. As a yaoi fan who is older, I was happy to work on a story that centered on adult relationships. It is a well-constructed story, with beautiful art and believable conflict scenes. All of the characters have development arcs that leave them changed by the end of the story, which makes Cigarette Kisses one of the most satisfying reading experiences I’ve had in yaoi manga.

Although it has only been out for a few weeks, Cigarette Kisses is already getting positive reviews on Amazon.com and elsewhere. I’d like to think this means that more stories of this quality and type will be licensed for the American reading public in future.

Cigarette Kisses is available at Amazon.com, your local bookstore, or at my website: www.jansuzukawa.com.

Everyone Can Be Redeemed - Part II

Warning: Some spoilers for Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden.

I’m sort of able to see it coming now, but when I first started watching anime I was always caught unawares when the story would get into the villain’s background. In American stories we’re not supposed to care about the villain: the villain is a jerk, or evil, or a scary killer and we want to see him defeated, and the complete lack of any explanation for why the villain is the way he is implies that it’s not important to the story. The hero has a history and we sympathize with him; but the villain is the way he is – just because.

In anime and manga, it's, well, a different story. The villain is allowed to have humanity just like the hero, meaning: a childhood, a personal history, a life that at least at some point he wanted to live differently.

One of the most compelling examples of a villain who redeems himself is Gaara in Naruto. Gaara, the son of the leader of the Sand Village is – when we first encounter him – a cold-eyed killer. When he arrives in Konoha for the Chuunin exam, he severely wounds Rock Lee in their match and, not satisfied with this, later goes to the hospital to try to finish Lee off. At the hospital he tells Naruto that like him, he too has a monster inside – Shukaku, implanted in him at birth, an event which killed his mother. “I only feel alive when I kill others,” he says to a shocked Naruto.

Gaara sounds pretty irredeemable at this point, doesn't he? But Gaara was a child once, too.

Although he was the son of the Kazekage, or leader of the Sand Village, Gaara was hated and feared by everyone. As a little boy we see him unintentionally hurt a little girl, and later when he tries to give her medicine she calls him a monster and slams the door on him. Alone, he turns to the only person who cares: Yashamaru, his mother’s brother. Yashamaru gently tells him that love can heal wounds of the heart, and Gaara is grateful for his kind words.

Later, when a masked ninja assassin tries to kill Gaara, Gaara’s automatic sand defense reacts and delivers a death blow. When Gaara unmasks the ninja, to his horror he sees that it is Yashamaru. Dying, Yashamaru tells him that Gaara’s father, the Kazekage, ordered him to kill Gaara because Gaara couldn’t control Shukaku and this made him too dangerous to live.

Gaara, grasping at straws, asks if Yashamaru had done this unwillingly. Yashamaru says no—that he has always hated Gaara. He goes on to say that Gaara’s mother had died cursing the village and that Gaara’s automatic sand defense was her last act of hatred against the villagers. He then adds, in a final bit of gratuitous cruelty: “You were never loved.”

After Yashamaru blows himself up, hoping to take little Gaara with him (he doesn’t: the sand protects him), we can almost see Gaara’s psyche ripping to shreds. The kanji for “love” then forms on Gaara’s forehead, as Gaara proclaims his new credo:

I fight only for myself, I love only myself. I exist to kill.

This, then, is what Gaara came from. It’s impossible not to see him in a different light, once you see the pain he’s suffered and how alone he’s been his whole life.

The turning point for Gaara comes when Sasuke pursues him into the forest during Orochimaru’s invasion of Konoha, and Naruto follows after them. During their huge battle scene, Gaara tells Naruto his story. Naruto, no stranger to pain and feeling abandoned, realizes:

I see… He’s like me… I thought he was strong because he was alone and fought only for himself.

But that’s not what being strong means. You can’t become truly strong if you only fight for yourself.

Towards the end of the battle, Naruto tells Gaara that he feels his pain, but that he will stop Gaara before he can hurt the people who are important to him.

The other shoe drops for Gaara upon hearing this.

Gaara: (thinks) Love… is that why he’s so strong?

Gaara, with this realization, begins to change, never again to return to the ‘monster’ that he was.

Gaara shows up later at a crucial moment to save Rock Lee, the same Konoha opponent he so badly wounded in the Chuunin exam; and much later in the story, now as the Kazekage of his village, he saves the entire village before being kidnapped by Deidara. When Naruto returns with Gaara, Gaara is given a huge hero’s welcome by the same Sand Village that once despised him.

As the storyline of Naruto/Naruto Shippuuden continues on, Gaara still reflects on what Naruto unintentionally taught him, as shown in this speech to his brother Kankuro:

“Bonds with others… Seeing him fight so hard made me wonder what a bond really is. Now I think I understand, even if only a little. Pain, sadness… joy. These feelings allow you to understand others. Naruto Uzumaki… I feel like my fight with him taught me that… In order to escape a road of solitude, one has to work hard, and forge a new path with their own power. If I do that, then someday I can be like him.

“He experienced the same type of suffering as me. And he taught me that you can change how you live your life.”

As Naruto said, "You can't become truly strong if you only fight for yourself." Which leads to another common anime and manga trope: the hero who comes into his own power only when he needs to protect or defend others. I'll discuss that topic in next week's post.