Sometimes an actor will be building a reputation and portfolio of work, gaining fans but not setting the world on fire - until that one role in which they hit it big.
Actors call these "breakout roles." It's the role they become known for.
I think of these as signature roles. It's like the perfect marriage of actor to role - when an actor plays a character that jibes perfectly with: a) their voice; and b) their talent as an interpreter of a character.
Ryota Kise in Kuroko's Basketball is Ryohei Kimura's (the names even have the same initials!) signature role. Before Kise, Kimura played the protagonist in Eden of the East, Kids on the Slope and last year's Valvrave the Liberator, and I literally never remembered him from one starring role to the next.
As Ryota Kise, Kimura is completely unforgettable. Kise is the charmer of the Generation of Miracles, the nicest and most accessible of the five GoM players. Drama queen and flamboyantly emotional one minute, dead serious the next, Kimura as Kise makes you laugh and roll your eyes and then suddenly realize how smart and perceptive he actually is. Ryota Kise is a complex character and Kimura makes him someone you can't take your eyes off of whenever he's on screen.
Kise attaches the end tag "-cchi" to the names of those he respects and changes moods by the second. Here (until Uncle You Tube eventually takes it down, of course) is a clip with Kise talking to Kuroko that shows the many moods of Ryota Kise:
Even Kimura's voice, which never stood out for me in any of his other roles, is highly distinctive as Kise. Kise has a verbal tic in that he frequently ends his sentences with a lispy "-ssu." And in the role of Kise, Kimura seems freed to use every bit of his voice to give us a character that goes all over the place with his thoughts and feelings from moment to moment.
For me anyway, Ryota Kise is Ryohei Kimura's signature role. It's a role that uses everything he has, the full range of his voice and his acting talents, to the extent that you couldn't possibly imagine any other seiyuu playing him.
I've recognized a signature role for another seiyuu recently.
In K - Missing Kings, the Red King appears in a dream sequence. Both times I saw the film I thought the theater's roof would cave in when the fans saw the Red King, there was so much screaming and cheering.
Kenjirou Tsuda labored for years playing Inui in the never-ending Prince of Tennis series, but it's Mikoto Suoh, the badass Red King in K that's clearly his breakout role. His deep voice and deadly delivery made the character unforgettable.
A marker of the signature role is that after that role, the seiyuu starts getting cast in more important parts. I read a few weeks ago that Tsuda will be starring with Junichi Suwabe in an upcoming series. Tsuda has always played supporting roles up to now, so I see the influence of his Red King performance all over this news. ;-)
And finally, the most obvious example of a signature role in recent years:
Jun Fukuyama played side characters like Yumichika in Bleach before hitting it big with his Lelouch role in Code Geass. Fukuyama made an indelible impression as Lelouch and you couldn't imagine anyone else playing that role.
And for the next few years after Code Geass, Fukuyama was everywhere. He was in every anime series. You couldn't watch anime and not hear him.
Only recently has that slowed down. I guess even voice actors can get overexposed. =D
Sometimes there are just too many bishonen in an anime series.
Bishonen characters are part of the fun for this anime fan. But the best ones don't always get enough screen time (in my view). Here are a few who deserved to be featured more.
Did you see Code Geass? Remember this man?
Gilbert G.P. Guilford was the commander of the Glaston Knights of Brittania. He was also Princess Cornelia's personal knight.
It doesn't get much more romantic than a handsome knight swearing to defend his Princess, at all costs.
Ah, lovely. I haven't checked, but there has to be a ton of m/f fan fiction featuring Guilford and Cornelia. I know I perked up every time he made an appearance in Code Geass and I can't be the only girl who reacted this way.
And then there are the boys of Meine Liebe.
Meine Liebe is an odd anime. Set in the fictional Northern European country of Kuchen (which I understand means "kissing") between the First and Second World Wars, it's a tale of indolent European nobles, pretty boys with names like Orpheus von Marmalade and Ludwig Herzog von Liechtenstein. Into the mix comes a Japanese exchange student, Naoji Ishizuki.
Naoji's Kuchen grandmother eloped with Naoji's Japanese grandfather to Japan years before. Naoji's family has sent him to Kuchen to protect him from the rise of imperialism at home.
Nothing much happens in Meine Liebe or in its sequel series, Meine Liebe Weider, but the scenery (of the human male variety) is certainly, well, scenic.
Did I mention that Naoji does archery?
Finally, there's that bishonen fest, Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru, or, its less-of-a-mouthful shorter name, Uraboku:
Uraboku featured a large cast and a complicated plot, centering on a Duras - a kind of evil supernatural being - named Luka (he's a good Duras, of course) and Yuki, the (now male) reincarnation of Luka's former (female) love. Fighting alongside Luka and Yuki are a host of "Zweilt Guardians," humans with paranormal powers. One of them is Hotsuma Renjou.
Hotsuma is the tsundere of the group, always yelling and getting hot under the collar. So he gets all the good manga-face shots:
For some reason, all the characters in Uraboku are paired up as if on Noah's Ark. Hotsuma's Zweilt partner and "other half" is his childhood friend, Shuusei Usui:
At one point, Shuusei is kidnapped and tortured by an evil female Duras, and naturally Hotsuma is the one to rescue him. As you can see, there is no yaoi subtext at all between them - none.
There was no real reason for this post (lol). I just enjoy feasting my eyes on these pictures. I could post some more, actually. Oh wait, the latest episode of The New Prince of Tennis just came out on Crunchyroll. Later!
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.
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.
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.
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'm pleased to announce that the third light novel in Bandai Entertainment's Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion series has been released.
I've been the English adaptation writer for the first three Code Geass light novels: Stage 0 - Entrance, Stage 1 - Shadow, and now Stage 2 - Knight. These three Code Geass light novels are available at Amazon.com, your local bookstore, or at my website: www.jansuzukawa.com.
