Favorite animales: Dangermousie's Top 10
Oct. 13th, 2006 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieBecause I love lists, and I have been neglecting anime for a bit, here is a list of my Top 10 animales. In no particular order. With reasons why.
1. Vash the Stampede (Trigun): probably my favorite anime character ever, Vash is everything I love in a hero: he is funny, and self-deprecating, and incredibly angsty (though he hides it incredibly well). Trigun is a scifi Western and Vash is a billion dollar man: someone who is supposed to have incredible power for destruction but when we first meet him, comes across as a goofball donut-loving pacifist. He is a truly good guy who’s been dealt some horrible cards in life and his struggle against it all is riveting. You start out thinking he is a funny dork, and end up thinking of him as one of the most noble and tragic characters I’ve come across. I just love him.
2. Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi): if I had an anime boyfriend, Tamahome would be IT. Tamahome is one of the seven warriors of Suzaku, whose mission is to protect the Priestess, Miaka, while she fulfills the quest to summon Suzaku and save the kingdom. He is scarily AWESOME. He is hot-headed, money-crazy, and a bit opportunistic, but also unyielding, and steadfast, and noble. And oh boy, can he fight! And he gets tortured, and he helps the heroine through rape trauma, and he overcomes literally being from different worlds to be with her. He and Miaka are probably my Number 1 anime OTP. And his devotion to her is almost as hot as his relentless inability to break in the face of the Bad Guy’s psycho obsession with him (yup, he’s so cool the bad guy fixates on him instead of the heroine) and the loss of everything he finds worth living for.
3. Okayasu Kairi (Peach Girl): in most other anime and manga, the funny, cheeky Kairi would be a secondary character who might like the heroine but would never ever get her because she’d hook up with the noble, stoic heroic type. But not here. Kairi and Momo (the heroine) start out as friends, as he helps her through her various travails with the regular alpha hero type, Touji (who is tall, dark, handsome and as bright as a brick). And they end up falling in love through that friendship. Kairi possesses that rare quality in an animale: an abundance of common sense. When a misunderstanding happens, he will talk and clear it out. But never fear, there is plenty of angst for the boy, whose first meeting (unbeknownst to both of them) with Momo happened when she rescued him after a suicide attempt. He is adorable, and funny, and messed-up, and clever and wicked hot. If it wasn’t for Tamahome, he’d be my anime boyfriend for sure.
4. Suoh Tamaki (Ouran High School Host Club): talk about characters who would be secondary in normal manga or anime. Tamaki would be the comic relief elsewhere. Tamaki is gorgeous, very sweet and a bit dim. Or maybe scatterbrained and unworldly would be better descriptions. He is the ‘King’ of the Host Club the heroine joins (dressed as a boy, long story) and he won me over through sheer sweetness of character. The boy doesn’t have a mean bone in his body and has a wonderful heart and it’s impossible not to fall for someone who cares so much about the others’ happiness. Oh, and he looks hot rescuing Haruhi from watery grave. Twice.
5. Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin): How can one not like Kenshin? That would be unnatural. An amazing sword-fighter who was an assassin during the Bakumatsu but has sworn never to kill again and thus uses a reverse blade sword, Kenshin starts out likeable but amiably vague, but as the series progresses, you discover both the extent of his inner demons and just how quietly heroic and unflinchingly noble he is. Somehow between the beginning of the series to seeing his impossible desire to save everyone, even if it cannot be done, to his utter disregard for his own safety to his desperate wish to atone to his beginning to trust in permanency of peace and his deserving of happiness, I fell madly in love with him. Oh, and Kenshin/Kaoru are the ones in my icon. And a huge OTP.
6. Shinomori Aoshi (Rurouni Kenshin): I almost never go for secondary characters. Ever. Taciturn, tortured, and incredibly hot Aoshi is the exception. Aristocratic to his fingertips, Aoshi is a man of honor who’s been cut loose from his moorings because his followers died to save him. He takes a little trip to the Dark Side but manages to come back hotter and nobler than ever. And hey, Misao/Aoshi totally rock.
7. Allen Schezar (Escaflowne): Oh Allen. Probably my first anime crush, as Escaflowne was the first series I watched. I am a sucker for the perfect knight who is actually a mess archetype, and gorgeous blonde Allen, with his impossible battle skills, fits this to a T. Allen is a mess, messed up by his family history, by his romantic history, by his own nature. He is also incredibly cool, incredibly heroic, can do dark and desperate things when necessary and ends up finding peace. Love him.
8. Spike (Cowboy Beebop): Oh come on. How could I not? Spike is funny, and laid-back, and sweet, and deadly. And horrifically messed-up and totally in love with an unavailable woman. How could you not love him?
9. Midou Ban (GetBackers): Ban and Ginji are protagonists of GB, two guys who run a finding agency in an anime that is part adventure, part scifi, part superhero story. Trust me to pick the snarky, angry one. Ban is someone who is the hard-headed one, to Ginji’s idealist. He has trauma, and issues, and buried nobility. And looks good with his shirt off. Basically, think Dean Winchester in anime form.
10. Sagara Sousuke (Full Metal Panic): Oh Sousuke. Sousuke is that character not seen too often in fiction. A genuinely good guy. Someone who’s been with a mercenary outfit since he was a small boy, Sousuke has yet to discover who he really is and what he, as a person, wants, and one of the biggest pleasures of FMP is watching him learn to want and to decide for himself. His interactions with Chidori, and their love for each other, even if unspoken, is the mainstay of his character, and FMP: The Second Raid is painful to watch because he’s been forbidden to be with her and his character discovery and meltdown become total. He is straightforward, and sweet, and horribly unequipped for real world, but he is learning. And is so endearing and wonderful and capable you just want to...never mind. Chidori would kill me.
1. Vash the Stampede (Trigun): probably my favorite anime character ever, Vash is everything I love in a hero: he is funny, and self-deprecating, and incredibly angsty (though he hides it incredibly well). Trigun is a scifi Western and Vash is a billion dollar man: someone who is supposed to have incredible power for destruction but when we first meet him, comes across as a goofball donut-loving pacifist. He is a truly good guy who’s been dealt some horrible cards in life and his struggle against it all is riveting. You start out thinking he is a funny dork, and end up thinking of him as one of the most noble and tragic characters I’ve come across. I just love him.
2. Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi): if I had an anime boyfriend, Tamahome would be IT. Tamahome is one of the seven warriors of Suzaku, whose mission is to protect the Priestess, Miaka, while she fulfills the quest to summon Suzaku and save the kingdom. He is scarily AWESOME. He is hot-headed, money-crazy, and a bit opportunistic, but also unyielding, and steadfast, and noble. And oh boy, can he fight! And he gets tortured, and he helps the heroine through rape trauma, and he overcomes literally being from different worlds to be with her. He and Miaka are probably my Number 1 anime OTP. And his devotion to her is almost as hot as his relentless inability to break in the face of the Bad Guy’s psycho obsession with him (yup, he’s so cool the bad guy fixates on him instead of the heroine) and the loss of everything he finds worth living for.
3. Okayasu Kairi (Peach Girl): in most other anime and manga, the funny, cheeky Kairi would be a secondary character who might like the heroine but would never ever get her because she’d hook up with the noble, stoic heroic type. But not here. Kairi and Momo (the heroine) start out as friends, as he helps her through her various travails with the regular alpha hero type, Touji (who is tall, dark, handsome and as bright as a brick). And they end up falling in love through that friendship. Kairi possesses that rare quality in an animale: an abundance of common sense. When a misunderstanding happens, he will talk and clear it out. But never fear, there is plenty of angst for the boy, whose first meeting (unbeknownst to both of them) with Momo happened when she rescued him after a suicide attempt. He is adorable, and funny, and messed-up, and clever and wicked hot. If it wasn’t for Tamahome, he’d be my anime boyfriend for sure.
4. Suoh Tamaki (Ouran High School Host Club): talk about characters who would be secondary in normal manga or anime. Tamaki would be the comic relief elsewhere. Tamaki is gorgeous, very sweet and a bit dim. Or maybe scatterbrained and unworldly would be better descriptions. He is the ‘King’ of the Host Club the heroine joins (dressed as a boy, long story) and he won me over through sheer sweetness of character. The boy doesn’t have a mean bone in his body and has a wonderful heart and it’s impossible not to fall for someone who cares so much about the others’ happiness. Oh, and he looks hot rescuing Haruhi from watery grave. Twice.
5. Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin): How can one not like Kenshin? That would be unnatural. An amazing sword-fighter who was an assassin during the Bakumatsu but has sworn never to kill again and thus uses a reverse blade sword, Kenshin starts out likeable but amiably vague, but as the series progresses, you discover both the extent of his inner demons and just how quietly heroic and unflinchingly noble he is. Somehow between the beginning of the series to seeing his impossible desire to save everyone, even if it cannot be done, to his utter disregard for his own safety to his desperate wish to atone to his beginning to trust in permanency of peace and his deserving of happiness, I fell madly in love with him. Oh, and Kenshin/Kaoru are the ones in my icon. And a huge OTP.
6. Shinomori Aoshi (Rurouni Kenshin): I almost never go for secondary characters. Ever. Taciturn, tortured, and incredibly hot Aoshi is the exception. Aristocratic to his fingertips, Aoshi is a man of honor who’s been cut loose from his moorings because his followers died to save him. He takes a little trip to the Dark Side but manages to come back hotter and nobler than ever. And hey, Misao/Aoshi totally rock.
7. Allen Schezar (Escaflowne): Oh Allen. Probably my first anime crush, as Escaflowne was the first series I watched. I am a sucker for the perfect knight who is actually a mess archetype, and gorgeous blonde Allen, with his impossible battle skills, fits this to a T. Allen is a mess, messed up by his family history, by his romantic history, by his own nature. He is also incredibly cool, incredibly heroic, can do dark and desperate things when necessary and ends up finding peace. Love him.
8. Spike (Cowboy Beebop): Oh come on. How could I not? Spike is funny, and laid-back, and sweet, and deadly. And horrifically messed-up and totally in love with an unavailable woman. How could you not love him?
9. Midou Ban (GetBackers): Ban and Ginji are protagonists of GB, two guys who run a finding agency in an anime that is part adventure, part scifi, part superhero story. Trust me to pick the snarky, angry one. Ban is someone who is the hard-headed one, to Ginji’s idealist. He has trauma, and issues, and buried nobility. And looks good with his shirt off. Basically, think Dean Winchester in anime form.
10. Sagara Sousuke (Full Metal Panic): Oh Sousuke. Sousuke is that character not seen too often in fiction. A genuinely good guy. Someone who’s been with a mercenary outfit since he was a small boy, Sousuke has yet to discover who he really is and what he, as a person, wants, and one of the biggest pleasures of FMP is watching him learn to want and to decide for himself. His interactions with Chidori, and their love for each other, even if unspoken, is the mainstay of his character, and FMP: The Second Raid is painful to watch because he’s been forbidden to be with her and his character discovery and meltdown become total. He is straightforward, and sweet, and horribly unequipped for real world, but he is learning. And is so endearing and wonderful and capable you just want to...never mind. Chidori would kill me.
