In previous posts over the past year, I’ve assembled lists of my favorite anime titles and characters, discussed the differences between how likable they are versus how good they are, whether to adore or to analyze anime, and many other aspects of the fandom. Today I’m going to do something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while – organize my favorites into “tiers”…
I once again got this inspiration from fellow blogger digitalboy via his favorites page (though for some reason he’s since taken down his list of tiers). Simply listing one’s favorites in order can offer a good idea of what a fan likes, but I think you can get even more specific and group each series on the list to show how your feelings for certain titles or characters compare to others without having to use lengthy descriptions. So, when I first got the tier idea from digitalboy, I thought it would be fun to see what kind of tiers I could come up with and how I’d organize my favorites with them.
Below are the tiers I’ve come up with, a description of each, and my favorite anime and characters I would put into each one, listed in order (with the first being the highest in that group). I chose to use these tiers just for my favorite anime titles and characters here, but they could easily be used for other lists of favorites such as favorite OPs or EDs, seiyuu, genres, animation studios, etc,. This is only my current list of favorites as it’s prone to change at any time as I watch new anime and rewatch old anime (also, I chose not to include any pokemon on the list since their sheer number would require a list of their own).
Ultimate tier
Anime/characters in the ultimate tier are my absolute favorites – my obsessions. They’re the ones I think about the most and the ones that I have the most motivation to spend my money on. My ultimate anime/characters are the fewest at any one time and also the ones that have changed the most during my ten years as a fan (except for Pokemon =P)
Pokemon (video games and anime)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (novels and anime)
Characters
Haruhi (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
Chopper (One Piece)
Kagami (Lucky Star)
Nagi (Kannagi)
Yuri (Angel Beats!)
Borderline-ultimate tier
Anime/characters in the borderline-ultimate tier are also absolute favorites, I’m just not quite as obsessed with them as the ones in the ultimate tier. Like the ultimate ones, I could watch my borderline favorites many times and they’ve touched me in unforgettable ways that other anime/characters have not.
Lucky Star
Kannagi (manga and anime)
Wolf’s Rain
Noir
Angel Beats!
Inuyasha (manga and anime)
Characters
Shana (Shakugan no Shana)
Chi (Chi’s Sweet Home)
Taiga (Toradora!)
Vash (Trigun)
Shikamaru (Naruto)
Osaka (Azumanga Daioh)
Sakaki (Azumanga Daioh)
Asuka (Evangelion)
High tier
Anime/characters in the high tier are also ones that have a special place in my heart. I could have fangasms for them from time to time, but not as much as previous tiers.
Cardcaptor Sakura
Azumanga Daioh (manga and anime)
Evangelion
One Piece
Naruto
Toradora!
Chi’s Sweet Home
Kemono no Souja Erin
Death Note
K-ON
Characters
Chad (Bleach)
C.C. (Code Geass)
Kirika (Noir)
Mireille (Noir)
Toboe (Wolf’s Rain)
Medium tier
Anime/characters in the medium tier are ones that I really like, but don’t tend to engage in or rewatch as much as previous tiers.
Fullmetal Alchemist (both anime series)
Fruits Basket
Eureka 7
Code Geass
Hayate no Gotoku
Air
Slayers (original three series)
Digimon (original three series)
Characters
Kyon (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
Kagome (Inuyasha)
Inuyasha (Inuyasha)
Gaara (Naruto)
Misuzu (Air)
Maria (Hayate no Gotoku)
Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku)
Nagi (Hayate no Gotoku)
Low tier
And lastly, anime/characters in the low tier are ones that I like better than my average likable anime or character, but they only rank a little above my general likes that I wouldn’t consider favorites.
Ichigo Mashimaro
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Chobits (manga and anime)
Princess Mononoke
Nasuicaa
Macross Frontier
Clannad After Story
Shakugan no Shana
Tenchi Muyo! (manga and original two OVAs)
Characters
Robin (One Piece)
Kero (Cardcaptor Sakura)
Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura)
Umagon (Konjiki no Gash Bell!!)
Luffy (One Piece)
Sango (Inuyasha)
Makina (Shikabane Hime)
Anime I would rank below my low tier are ones I simply like but would not stand out to me as favorites, so I’m going to stop the list here. But if someone wanted to, they could keep on making tiers all the way down to their most detestable anime. A few ways I can tell if an anime/character should be in any of these tiers is if I find myself buying merchandise for them, thinking about them for a long time after I’ve watched them, or engaging in related activities outside of just watching them (looking up pictures, videos, info, etc.,) Feeling a connection to an anime/character like this outside of just watching them is a sign that they should be among my favorites.
So, do you find the tiers a good way to organize your favorites even further? You think they could be even more specific? And feel free to share some of the anime/characters you would put into these tiers.
Great selections – I definitely see a lot of c. 1999-2001 Toonami influence.
I kind of use my MAL to tier my favorite series and movies – scores of 10, 9 and 8 roughly match into three categories, though I’d divided my 10 further into two. That said, my top tier would contain the following:
Kanon
Love Hina
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal
Tenchi Muyo!
Whisper of the Heart
I can cut down my character list to fewer individuals:
Ayu Tsukimiya (Kanon)
Vash the Stampede
Thanks for the entry – it’s always fun to reminisce about my favorites :)
Actually, I didn’t have access to Toonami or Adult Swim until mid-2005 when I finally got cable TV. But my friends let me borrow tapes and fansubs of shows that were on at the time, so that’s how I was able to see them initially.
The problem with determining my favorites by how highly I rate anime on MAL is that, if you recall my post about heart scores and head scores, I give certain titles a high rating even if it’s just for head score and not heart score. For example, I think Mushishi is a masterpiece, thus I gave it a 10 on MAL, but it’s not one of my favorite series, as in, one that’s always on my mind or that I like to rewatch again and again. But MAL can give you a good idea of my taste in anime, just not favorites =)
I see an InuYasha representative and a Rie Kugimiya representative. You pass.
Actually I have three Inuyasha representatives (Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sango) and three Rie Kugimiya ones (Shana, Nagi, and Taiga) so that means I pass with an A+++ XD
The demolishing of the short-lived tier system (which I didn’t like anyway because it came out pretty ugly the way I did it) happened as a result of a long arguement with myself over whether or not Eureka Seven was allowed to keep it’s spot in my Almighty Top 3.
You see, anime have a natural tendency to fade in specialness on a curve directly proportional to the last time that the anime has been watched. If I haven’t seen a show in 5 years, and I only saw it once or twice, chances are I’m not going to be able to think about it or call it to mind as much.
Of course, therein lies the point of rewatches – a reminder and rejuvenation of love. There are a select few anime that I’ve come far enough with not to need rewatches to know that I still love them (Manabi Straight, Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, End of Evangelion), but for others, there’s usually that certain point where I start saying ‘its about time I rewatched this’ and then try to get around to it.
And there’s the key phrase—try to get around to it. How much effort does that actually take? If I get it in my head to rewatch Lucky Star, that shit *happens*. If I want to rewatch Baccano!, it *happens*. But what about when I want to rewatch Eureka Seven? I can’t convince myself to do it. It’s a long series that doesn’t lend itself well to rewatches.
So here’s the conversation I was having with myself. If I were to watch Eureka Seven tomorrow, would I probably still think of it as one of my top anime? Yeah. But will I watch it tomorrow? Signs point to no. The last time I watched Eureka Seven was at the end of 2008, and I’d planned to watch it again about 5 months later. Then I planned to have my third annual rewatch at the end of 09. Then I found myself wanting to rewatch it when it’s #1 spot was finally taken by Kara no Kyoukai. Then I wanted to watch it when I started questioning its place in my top 5. Did I ever rewatch it? No.
The fact of the matter is, if I made a ‘favorite anime of all time’ list, I’d feel obligated to put E7 on it because I still know that I’d love it if I watched it again—however, I haven’t watched it, so right now, I still don’t feel as strongly about it, and won’t unless I finally manage to watch it. This is unsettling because there are shows like Baccano and Hidamari Sketch that are muscling in on its territory and I don’t know what to do, because I care about those shows more than E7 right now, and if E7 can only keep its spot through a rewatch, but doesn’t get that rewatch, then how can it be in that spot on the list?
So I decided that instead of any sort of all-time favorites list, I’d make a list just of the anime I care about most at this very moment and change that list at every point that it becomes necessary. So if I do finally rewatch E7 and love it again, it can come back onto the list, and if I spend 2 years forgetting about it again, it can fall back off.
My ranking of favorite characters tends to change more often, but for anime titles, the ones that I’ve placed in the ultimate and borderline-ultimate tiers (as well as a few in the high tier) are the ones that are, as you described, “a select few anime that I’ve come far enough with not to need rewatches to know that I still love them.” For most of these, I’ve already rewatched them four or five times.
The situation you have with Eureka 7 is what I, and I’m sure many fans, have when it comes to loving a series upon watching it, but the love tending to fade the longer you don’t rewatch it. I remember when I first watched E7 (earlier than you, back in late ’06/early ’07), Code Geass, Macross Frontier, and others, I put them alongside Wolf’s Rain and Inuyasha as major favorites, but took them off as time went by and my initial connection with them started to fade. Also like you, I know that they’d shoot up on my list again if I were to rewatch them, but I don’t love them quite enough to find the motivation to do so (only ultimate and some borderline-ultimate shows can do that to me). So where they’re ranked now is how I feel about them at this moment. That’s just the best I can do. Angel Beats! is actually the opposite – being a newer series, I still haven’t gotten over my initial love for it, but I feel like it’s one of those series that, given time, may end up being demoted to low tier.
I guess it’s not possible to make one list of favorites that will be forever accurate. I don’t think it’s likely for a list to completely change, for example, most of these titles and characters will probably always be somewhere on my list of favorites, but which tier they’re in will likely change as new anime/characters bump them down or my feelings for them fade over time or reignite with a rewatch. So even a favorites list that hasn’t been updated in a while can still give you a good idea of a person’s taste. I just try to make it clear at some point when I’m writing these kinds of lists that they’re subject to change at any time as I watch new anime and rewatch old anime =)
What your post made me realize is that I don’t rank my anime according to upper, middle, or lower tiers. I rank them according how they would match or complement a certain mood I’m in when I want to watch anime. So on my comedy list would be Ouran High School Host Club, 2×2 Shinobuden, or K-ON. When I’m craving something shounen, or some sci-fi and action-oriented anime, I’d look at Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop and Planetes and Seven Samurai. And when I need some soothing, relaxing slice of life, nothing beats ARIA, and I can’t really think of anything else I’d include in that category right now. I realize now that I don’t have any favorites in the supernatural / horror category, mainly because I’m never in the mood to watch horror movies or anime. Vampires just don’t do it for me! =)
That’s definitely another good way to organize one’s favorites list – by genres that match whatever mood you’re in =) I’m usually in the mood for any anime at any time, which is probably why I didn’t think of this XD
My choices for comedy would be AzuDai, Lucky Star, and select episodes of Slayers and K-ON!!. Shonen would be Naruto and One Piece, and for relaxing slice-of-life, perhaps Chi’s Sweet Home? =^.^= Other genres like drama, romance, adventure, etc., are kind of broad and can be broken down further (the kind of drama in Noir versus drama in Toradora! for example). And then there are the series that offer “a little bit of everything.” I always thought Inuyasha was more like that as opposed to just a shonen series.
Hmm, I have a file called ‘tiers’ sitting on my hard drive, full of anime sorted into, well, tiers. Temptation, temptation. Well, people can always just scroll past it, so:
— Untierable —
Now and Then, Here and There
— Tier 1 — near-obsession
Serial Experiments Lain;
— Tier 2 — legendary
Evangelion; Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; Princess Tutu; Revolutionary Girl Utena;
— Tier 3 — really special
His and Her Circumstances; Air (TV); Clannad After Story; Code Geass; Death Note; Ef; Kodocha; Narutaru; Simoun;
— Tier 4 — special
Angel’s Egg; Cardcaptor Sakura; Dennou Coil; Elfen Lied; FLCL; Fruits Basket; Gunbuster; Gunslinger Girl; Gurren Lagann; Haibane Renmei; Kanon 2006; Mobile Battleship Nadesico; Perfect Blue; ROD OVA; Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei; Seirei no Moribito;
— Tier 5 — loved
Alien Nine; Aoi Hana; Azumanga Daioh; Gokujou Seitokai; Blazing Transfer Student; Boogiepop Phantom; Clannad; Crest of the Stars; Dragon Half; Excel Saga; Gunbuster 2; Haruhi S2; Higurashi no Naku Koro ni; Patlabor OVAs; Requiem for the Phantom; Scrapped Princess; St. Luminous Mission High School; Toradora!; Vampire Princess Miyu (OAV); Welcome to the NHK; Dullalala; K-ON!;
— Tier 6 — rewatchable
Abenobashi Mahoh Shotengai; Angel Beats!; Tweeny Witches; Bottle Fairy; Brother, Dear Brother; Dai Mahou Touge; Dance in the Vampire Bund; Figure 17; Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu; Gakkou no Kaidan; Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!; Hanamaru Kindergarten; Hayate no Gotoku!!; Kannagi; Kanon 2002; Key the Metal Idol; Kure-nai; Lucky Star; Mahou Tsukai Tai! (OAV); Maria Holic; Mnemosyne; Munto OVAs; Nadia; Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind; Noein; Paranoia Agent; Please Save My Earth; Potemayo; Puchi Puri Yuushi; Puni Puni Poemy; ROD TV; Saber Marionette; SaiKano; Saki; So-Ra-No-Wo-To; Space Battleship Yamato; Spice and Wolf; Tokyo Magnitude 8.0; Tsukuyomi; Urotsukidoji; Eden of The East;
— Tier 7 — sought out
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon; Blood: The Last Vampire; Chu-Bra!!; Galaxy Angel; Ghost Hound; Ghost Hunt; Grave of the Fireflies; Hell Girl; Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai; Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou; Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu; Jin-Roh – The Wolf Brigade; Kiki’s Delivery Service; Kimi ga Nozomu Eien; Kino no Tabi; Kite; Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora; Magic Knight Rayearth; Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha; Mahoromatic; Maria-sama ga Miteru; Metropolis; Miyuki-chan In Wonderland; Mononoke Hime; My Neighbor Totoro; Omamori Himari; Rozen Maiden; Shakugan no Shana; Shuffle!; Someday’s Dreamers; Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi; Street Fighter II: The Movie; KonoMimi; Trigun; Vampire Princess Miyu (TV); Wings of Honneamise; Zipang;
— Tier 8 — no objection
Animation Runner Kuromi; CANAAN; Cat Returns; A Certain Magical Index; Chaos.,HEAd; Daughter of Twenty Faces; Fantastic Children; Fate/stay night; Full Metal Panic!; Hatsukoi Limited; Hellsing; Karin; Moyashimon; Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu; Nyan Koi!; Ocean Waves; Popotan; Porco Rosso; Pretear; Rideback; Seitokai no Ichizon; Shingetsutan Tsukihime; Soukou no Strain; Sora no Otoshimono; Steel Angel Kurumi; Stellvia; Escaflowne; Laputa; Today In Class 5-2; A Wind Named Amnesia; Wolf’s Rain; X (TV); Zero no Tsukaima; Highschool of the Dead;
— drifted off —
Aishiteruze Baby; Allison & Lillia; Arakawa under the bridge; Asatte no Houkou; Blood+; Bokurano; Boys Over Flowers; A Certain Scientific Railgun; Chobits; Chocolate Underground; Earth Defender Mao-chan; Ebichu; Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid; Gakuen Alice; Galaxy Angel Rune; Gantz; Genshiken; Goldfish Warning!; Great Teacher Onizuka; .Hack//SIGN; Hell Girl Season 2; Hetalia – Axis Powers; Hyakko; I, My, Me – Strawberry Eggs; Ichigo Mashimaro; Ideon; IDOLM@STER: XENOGLOSSIA; Infinite Ryvius; Kamichu!; Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar; Macross Plus; Magic Knight Rayearth 2; Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo!; Patlabor (TV); Monster; Munto (TV); Natsu no Arashi!; Planetes; School Days; School Rumble; Shikabane Hime: Aka; Shigofumi; Sora; Strike Witches; The Book of Bantorra; To Love-Ru; True Tears; Uninhabited Planet Survive; Utawarerumono; Uta~Kata; Windy Tales; XXXHOLiC; Yawara!;
— Don’t enjoy —
Amagami SS; Ayakashi – Samurai Horror Tales; Ayashi no Ceres; Cowboy Bebop; Daphne in the Brilliant Blue; Dark Myth; Ergo Proxy; Gate Keepers; Gilgamesh; Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino; He is my Master; House of Five Leaves; Ikki Tousen; Innocent Venus; Kaiba; Kurau: Phantom Memory; Kyouran Kazoku Nikki; Last Exile; Love Hina; Madlax; Mermaid Forest; Mushishi; Ninja Scroll (TV); Ninja Scroll (movie); Noir; Occult Academy; Portrait de Petit Cossette; RahXephon; Red Garden; Romeo à Juliet; Senkou no Night Raid; Tatami Galaxy; Texhnolyze; ToHeart2; Trinity Blood; Umineko no Naku Koro ni; Moyashimon;
By contrast, I don’t really ever rate characters at all. I don’t really see them as independent units, well, if you’ve got a mediocre show that’s livened up only when a certain character is on screen, I might think of them independently, but for anything sufficiently good, the whole anime gains a sense of unity, and I can’t separate any given character from the show they’re a part of.
Separating the bad into tiers of badness never appeals; I only care how good a show is if I actually like it. Strangely, I find it impossible to compare drama and comedy in live-action, but easy in anime. Probably because there’s not really a clear divide there. But comparing entertainment with Now and Then, Here and There is impossible.
Cool, thanks for sharing your full list of tiers. What I have here on my post is only my tiers of favorite anime/characters, which would be my equivalent of about Tier 5 or 6 on your list. But if I wanted to organize all the anime I’ve seen into tiers, regardless of whether I enjoyed them or not, it would probably look something like yours.
Nice to see some of my favorites rated highly on your list, especially Haruhi XD (but surprising that Noir, Mushishi, and Cowboy Bebop were ranked so low). Guess you must really like Now and Then Here and There. I watched it about five years ago – it was good but very painful to watch.
And one way a character becomes my favorite is precisely because I find myself liking them independently of the show they come from. There are actually more anime series than not where I don’t have a favorite character or don’t particularly care for the characters individually or outside the show. But for the special ones that I do, they’re on this list =)
Now and Then Here and There – that load of stuff is a list of ‘heart ratings’. Now and Then Here and There can’t appear because it just doesn’t _have_ a ‘heart rating’. (Just a huge head rating.) You ask me how much I like it, I can’t figure out what that means. It’s just not the sort of thing to which a concept of ‘liking’ makes sense to me.
Hmm…my ultimate tier has a few in common with yours, Yumeka ^^
Anime – Hetalia (manga & anime), Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (manga, anime, & novels :D ), Clannad, Sora no Woto, and Baccano!
Characters – Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu), Shana (Shakugan no Shana), Nagi (Kannagi), Fuko Ibuki (Clannad), and Japan (Hetalia)
Some others that I would add in the lower categories that you have as well are Yuri Nakamura (Angel Beats!), Taiga Aisaka (Toradora!), Chobits (manga & anime), Clannad ~After Story,~ Angel Beats!, Code Geass, Air, Fruits Basket (manga & anime), Full Metal Alchemist, Evangelion, Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, Kannagi (manga & anime) + my other favorites of course ;D
Nice! We do have quite a few in common =D Thanks for sharing.
I had watched many shows and most of them sucks.
my favorites animes would be :
1. CLANNAD ~after story
2. GA Geijutsuka arts design class
3. K-on!
4. D Gray man
5. Sora no manimani
6. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
7. ARIA (all seasons)[haven’t watched origination]
8. Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
9. Runouni Kenshin
10. Naruto (feels like I’ve missed them, but I dare nt watching it due to money issues.)
Favorite Characters:
1. Okazaki Tomoya of CLANNAD ~after story
2. Yui Hirasawa of K-on!
3. Tsukasa Hiiragi of Lucky Star
4. Ichijo of Pani Poni Dash
5. Minori Kushieda of Toradora
6. Jiraiya of Naruto
7. Hitagi Senjougahara of Bakemonogatari
8. Yu Kanada of D gray man
9. Mihoshi Akeno of Sora no manimani
10. Nozomu Itoshiki of Zan Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei
missed entries:
1. Azumanga Daioh
2. Shakugan no Shana
3. Taisho Yakyuu musume
4. Code Geass
5. Kare kano
missed characters:
1. Osaka [Ayumu Kasuga]
2. Hecate (I’m a Hecate fan)
3. Yukino Miyazawa
4. Lelouch Lamperouge (evil laugh sounds fun)
5. Koume Suzukawa
Unenjoyed:
1. Kanamemo (have fun at last episode, the rest sunk)
2. Sora no woto (like ep 1 2 and 3) also liked when they showed guns to the goons and that’s all
3. Kannagi (sorta serious to me [have fun when Jin’s friends inserted in the story])
4. *still finding*
Hmm, sounds like you don’t enjoy most of the anime you watch, but I’m glad you were able to find at least some favorites =P
I don’t like using a ‘tier system’ to rank my favourite characters and show. Although a tier system sounds like it helps to cultivate interest in our supposed favourite characters, it defeats the purpose of having favourites to begin with. What is a favourite character? Nothing can stay a favourite forever. Favourites are a matter of opinion and perhaps, a tinge of bias. So why do I feel the tier system defeat the purpose?
Favourites change, or are subject to change. A tier system makes it sound like you will like something forever. For me, I don’t like the idea of having one favourite above the others. If I do have any favourites, they are all the same – subject to change as long as I deem it to be fit. A tier system keeps you narrow-minded, while having none keeps you open to new possibilities and perhaps, finding an anime you truly like.
I get your points, but I guess I just like to “organize” parts of my fandom. I know that favorites change over time, which is why I state that the lists are subject to change as I watch/rewatch anime. Also, I have trouble picking just one favorite and ignoring others I like almost as much. For example, I love Kagami and Asuka, but I love Kagami a little more. Should I only count Kagami as a favorite even though I love Asuka almost as much, and certainly a lot more than most other characters? Hence placing them in tiers, or at least a list. Another thing is that my favorites haven’t changed drastically over the years – after 11 years, pokemon is still among my highest, and though I’ve lost interest in Inuyasha and Tenchi, they’re still among my favorites. Even though my favorites do change, I like keeping track of the changes through lists like this so I can see how my fandom develops over time.
Have to put the list as anime/manga in there because some series such as Berserk and One Piece I have only read a manga version and I need to find a way to add them into the list:) I can only think of ultimate and borderline tier at the moment. Any other tiers get a bit more difficult to fill…
Ultimate tier
Anime/manga: Twelve Kingdoms, Azumanga Daioh, Planetes, Spirited Away, Whisper of the Heart, Berserk, One Piece, Cowboy Bebop, Doraemon
Character: Doraemon, Osaka (Azumanga Daioh), Spike (Cowboy Bebop), Guts (Berserk), Chihiro (Spirited Away)
Borderline Ultimate tier
Anime/manga: Naruto, GITS: SAC, Baccano!, Fruits Basket, Genshiken, BECK, Saint Seiya
Character: Sasahara (Genshiken), Pegasus Seiya, Kakashi (Naruto)
Tier system are an interesting way to bucket animes since it is by nature less precise than putting it on the 0-10 score and ranking favourite series, as anyone knows, is never an exact science. I probably prefer to rank my favourites in this way since I would not be able to decide whether I like Planetes or Twelve Kindoms more, so it is easier to rank them at the same level!
Thanks for sharing your list! And wow, you’re the first English-speaking anime/manga fan I’ve encountered who has Doraemon among their list of favorites =P Its popularity in Japan compared to the West is quite different.
I agree that making a straight list of favorites using numbering only can cause problems when you’re faced with series/characters that you like the same, such as your case with Planetes and Twelve Kingdoms. I would have the same dilemma with Haruhi and Pokemon – I love them both but in different ways.
I rank my characters by Archetype and shows by Genre.
A large part of this comes down to the voice actor and how much their personal contribution has made the character grow. For male characters, it often equated to how epic sounding their speeches are. Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch, Leopard) has a great laugh and the way he gets really excited is awesome. I think his role as Leopard in Sora o Kakeru Shoujo shows this best. The two seiyuu that make great speeches are Jouji Nakata (Kirie Kotomine, Souren Araya) and Fumihiko Tachiki (the one and only Gendo Ikari). That also comes from having Type Moon and GAINAX being my favorite design teams.
On the female side, I find myself choosing a favorite from each show. This usually ends up with one of two options; either the character really stands out as a result of good design (Rinda from Guin Saga, Rin from Mnemosyne) or a favorite seiyuu (Rie Kugumiya, Satomi Arai). If those methods fall through I usually end up choosing the tsundere type.
It comes down to how strong the character moves me, whether epically like Kamina from Gurren Lagann or more subtly like Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke.
As I said, I take each genre and rank the show within it by how well it satisfies the requirements of that genre and if it successfully pushes the envelope.
[Action/Alternate History]
The Skull Man*
Eden of the East
Mnemosyne*
CANAAN
Sengoku Basara
Needless
[Mecha]
Bokurano*
Gurren Lagann*
Jinki:Extend
[Science Fiction]
Tytania
Blassreiter
Chaos;HEAd
Sora o Kakeru Shoujo*
Akira
Nadesico
Shangri-La
[Comedy]
School Rumble
Hyakko
K-ON!
[Romance/Drama]
Kimi ni Todoke*
Toradora*
Clannad
Durarara!*
Hatsukoi Limited
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu
Nanatsuiro Drops
Kaichou wa Maid-sama
[Fantasy]
Kara no Kyoukai*
Fate/stay Night*
Guin Saga*
Chrome Shelled Regios*
Utawarerumono
To aru Majutsu no Index
Ga-Rei Zero
Pandora Hearts
Zero no Tsukaima
Some of these don’t quite fit but you get the picture. The most important two questions to ask are these; what if? and why should I care? The shows that come out the best are the ones that question the state of the world and wonder about how it could be different. The ones that do that the best are marked with *.
One thing I left out; Higurashi and Umineko. The original games are at the top but their translation to the screen was less than stellar. Ryukishi07 just writes in such a beautiful way that is nigh impossible to migrate outside the realm of visual novels.
Interesting points. Having a good seiyuu or a design I like can influence me a little when it comes to favorite characters, but for me it mostly comes down to your other point – how the character moves me =)
The one problem I see in listing anime by genre alone is that there are many series that have attributes from a bunch of different genres. For example, you classified Haruhi as “Romance/Drama” but I would place it in “Sci-fi” or “Comedy.” Inuyasha and Naruto are both classified as “Shonen” but how do you show that Inuyasha also has a lot of romance and Naruto does not? My post about anime genres explains more if you’re interested =)
I read it afterwords, and I do agree; I just chose what I popped into my head at the time of the post. I could draw a comparison to printed books; some of them fall under specific genres and are published as such, others skirt the lines and press the boundaries. And then we have literary fiction. The argument could be made for a small selection of shows that they be filed under this label. The only one I would be able to argue definitively for would be Bokurano.
One thing I should have added as well is the pedigree of the source the material comes from. Type Moon’s Kinoku Nasu and 07th Expansion’s Ryukishi07 are amazing writers and nearly everything they touch becomes magical, both figuratively and literally. I also cannot leave out my favorite graphic/character designer, NIΘ of Nitro+. Also of Nitro+, writer Gen Urobuchi.
My list is probably something like:
Absolute Ultimate Tier:
To Aru Majutsu no Index
Masterpiece Tier:
CLANNAD
Baccano!
Black Lagoon
Wolf’s Rain
Kara no Kyoukai
Code Geass
Borderline-masterpiece Tier:
Arakawa Under the Bridge
Higashi no Eden
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Death Note
Nodame Cantabile
Durarara!!
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
AIR
High Tier:
Macross Frontier
Pandora Hearts
ef
Kiddy Grade
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Azumanga Daioh
Sky Girls
Seitokai no Ichizon
Spice and Wolf
Haibane Renmei
Angel Beats!
Medium Tier:
Saki
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Toradora!
Katanagatari
Bakemonogatari
Jigoku Shoujo
WORKING!!
5 Centimeters Per Second
Low Tier:
Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
Kino no Tabi
Sora no Woto
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi
I’d add a favorite characters list but I wouldn’t want to make it too long.