We all have our reasons for why we love certain anime more than others. But what about that very important component that often determines whether we’ll even like an anime or not – the characters. Just as we have our specific tastes when it comes to our favorite anime, we all have our character preferences. But how exactly do we describe the love we feel for certain characters?…
After contemplating my list of favorite anime characters, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are a few particular, reoccurring ways to describe how I love anime characters. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve narrowed it down to three alliterated words – Affection, Adoration, and Admiration.
The main traits that would bring out these feelings from me would be that the character has a cute appearance and/or an innocent, unoffending personality. In this sense, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that I’m “moe” for such characters. I kawaii-plode over them and smile (on the inside if not the outside XD) whenever I see them.
For the record, the majority of characters in this category for me are animal (or animal-like) rather than human. I guess my love for animals in real life, with their bountiful innocence and lack of human malice and pettiness, are things that I personally can’t help but love affectionately, and that’s simply reflected in how I love certain anime characters. My strongest Affection character would be Chopper.
My feelings: I want to hug him~
As silly as it sounds, I just want to hug him and “awww~” at the cute, funny things he does. The fact that he was graced with a wide range of emotions and an interesting, sympathetic backstory only increases my moe XD Even though he acts human-like, his animal naivety and cuteness overpowers.
Another example of one of my favorite characters that I love in this way is Chi (Chi’s Sweet Home).
My feelings: it should be illegal to be this cute~
Again, cuteness, innocence, and lack of malevolence are the key factors for why I get fangasms every time I see her. She doesn’t have the character development that Chopper has, but instead her realistic kitty innocence and adorable expressions get me every time.
The Affection category would also describe how I love all the pokemon – again it goes back to how I’m moe for animal innocence and cuteness (and majesty and beauty, in the case of the larger, less cute pokemon). Often times, wish-fulfillment plays a role in my feelings here, as I would wish Chopper, Chi, and many of the pokemon to be real in a heart beat. I could love certain human characters in this way as well. My best example would be Osaka (Azumanga Daioh). Again, my affection comes from her naivety and her transcending, if not bizarre, view of the world that seems to make her free of typical human negativity.
My feelings: Ahhh…more people should be able to chill out like this~
My love for these characters is more complex and harder to explain. It’s a mix of Affection feelings together with the below Admiration feelings. I could fangasm about the cuteness of these characters as well, but usually it’s more “deep” – rather than innocence, I’m moe for the beauty, expressions, and specific blend of traits and relationships with others that these characters have. There’s really no rhyme or reason for why I develop these feelings for certain characters and not others – it often starts with appearance and goes from there.
Haruhi, who’s constantly vying with Chopper as my most favorite character of all, would be a prime example.
My feelings: goddess of my heart~
I love her character design first of all, but that’s just the beginning. I find her personality to be quite unique and interesting, but mostly, the way her character is written provides a wealth of subtleties that reveal sides of her that only those taking the time to look will find. I love finding these hidden subtleties and, combined with her more obvious traits, create my own unique interpretation of who she is that’s more extensive than the casual fan. Not sure if that makes any sense, but it’s the best I can explain it.
Other examples of favorite characters I love in this way are Kagami (Lucky Star), Nagi (Kannagi), and Yuri (Angel Beats!).
My feelings: she gets the brunt of it but she’s such a good girl~
Besides a character design that’s very appealing to me, what they share is that there’s an average way that most fans view them, and often dismiss them for it, while I find much more to them in the subtleties of their interactions and expressions, which I put together like a jigsaw puzzle to form my own unique “picture” of them. Strangely, the majority of characters that do this to me are female. Even if they’re not particularly lovable, uplifting characters, for reasons I can’t always comprehend, they give me no small amount of happiness.
Also, I usually like tsundere characters in this way, Shana and Taiga being two of my favorites.
My feelings: the perfect blend of tsun and dere~
And lastly, these are characters that I love firstly for how they’re written and developed as a character, with designs, hidden traits, and moe feelings aside. These are characters that most fans of their respective shows would consider good, well written, solid characters. Fans who dislike the cute, “moe” side of anime would probably mostly have this kind of love for characters.
My love for many of the characters from Naruto, my favorites being Shikamaru, Gaara, and Rock Lee, can be described this way. I don’t find their character designs particularly cute or pretty, but the depth and intensity of their backstories and consistent character development are enough. Basically, they’re characters that I admire for becoming respectable, good-hearted, unique individuals, often after overcoming hardships in their complex pasts. They’re characters with traits I would like to see in real people. As my Adoration characters are mostly female, my Admiration characters are mostly male.
My feelings: if he asked me out on a date I wouldn’t refuse~
———
What I can conclude from all this is that I’m one of those fans who loves anime more from the “heart” rather than the “head,” not too unlike what I discussed in a previous post about how my heart score anime are more likely to be my favorites compared to my head score ones. I know some cynical fans will scoff at having blind affection for “depth-less” characters like Chi and Kagami, believing that the only characters worth liking are the non-generic, well developed ones. But as I’ve mentioned many times before, it all comes down to taste and whether you enjoy anime because of how it makes you feel, whether you like the designs or not, if it stimulates your intellect, whether it’s unique or generic, or whatever your preference is.
So, what determines your love for anime characters? Moe feelings you can’t explain? Good development? An attractive design? Do you have additional ways of loving characters that I don’t, such as only loving them in a purely wish-fulfilling, sexual way, or only as a pairing or group?
Haven’t thought about this myself, but wow… Good topic.
I tend to like characters that grow – that’s a given. That growth, hopefully will be beyond the restrictions given them from the start. Such as with Taiga, she is Tsundere, but she is MORE than that. Noda Megume (Nodame Cantabile) is one of my favorites yet. Both of these examples are of course flawed characters. A perfect character can be hard to like, unless the perfection itself can be seen as an intentional flaw – from the same anime as Nodame, is Chiaki, who is a good example of that type of character.
I love victims of tragedy. I don’t know why. Ein and Zwei from Requiem for Phantom will forever have a place in my heart.
Some characters though are flawed. Haruhi is incomplete – we’re still waiting on Disappearance to hit English and the Lite Novels are way ahead. I feel like Haruhi can only earn my “love” once she overcomes her current limitations. I sat throug the Endless Eight, so I’m hoping she will continue to improve and grow as a person in future productions.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to: Are they LIKABLE and REAL? While I love Taiga, a similar character in many comparisons is Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. While that is one of my favorite shows, I really don’t love Louise. Her temperment is over the top, and she doesn’t grow. Cuteness is good, but alone it doesn’t cut it.
Currently I’m watching School Rumble. I find it interesting how different every character in this show is, without falling too closely in line with established tropes. For a comedy/parody it is surprising. Probably the only character I will remember for a long time is Harima Kenji. At first I thought Tenma was the main character, but Harima is where the change is at. That growth is what draws me to liking or loving a character. That I can see them suffer and grow and learn and change and become better – or in a few cases worse. If I don’t get that, I feel like I didn’t get the “money shot”.
Forgive any extensive rambling, btw… it could be the Sake talking… lol.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I could also love characters who grow and seem real, but it’s not always the case. Obviously Chopper is rather unrealistic and Kagami doesn’t “grow through hardships.” Personality and interactions with other characters are more important to me. If many sides of their character are revealed over time, that to me is just as good as having development in a chronological order.
I’ll tell you that Haruhi’s character develops a lot post-Disappearance in the novels beyond what happens in “Live a Live” and “The Sigh” if you’ve seen those episodes. Like I said, it’s subtle but it’s definitely there.
I’ve only seen the first season of School Rumble a few years ago, but I remember it had very likable characters. Yakumo is my favorite, and Harima is great too. Didn’t take much of a liking to Tenma.
The Haruhi books are one of the reasons I’ve started studying Japanese! I could watch anime with subs the rest of my life and be happy, but the popular novels and even literature of Japan is something I feel locked out of, and that just frustrates me.
Btw, I really like the discussions here on anime. You bring up topics that go beyond just what’s the hottest new anime and go into the meta-discussion that really promotes and defines the art. Very interesting.
Hmm, so characters you might want as your child, your friend, and your parent, respectively?
I wouldn’t say “child” – more like “pet” XD
For my Adoration characters equaling “friend,” some would and some wouldn’t, it depends. My Admiration characters would definitely be friends though, or at least people I’d like to know. I wouldn’t mind seeing their good traits in parents, or people in general actually.
I need to sit and think about this, and possibly writes a post about it because it would be too lengthy.
You don’t have any idea how happy I am when I saw that picture of Haruhi. Most people find her offending and such. I happened to adore and love everything about her. So yeah, you’re my new favorite person now ^_^
Cool, glad I inspired you =)
And it’s always nice to know another Haruhi fan. It’s unfortunate that she has the kind of subtle character development that can only be seen by people willing to take the time to find it (and it’s more explicit in the novels than the anime). Her unusual personality on the surface deters many people from trying to examine her further.
I guess because I’m a male otaku who happened to be an undergraduate media engineer, my love for anime characters is literally a battle between emotional and logical reasoning. Emotional reasoning is mostly based on the characters’ personalities, for male characters is how much do I wish to have buddies like them, and for female characters is how much do I wish to have girlfriends like them.
On the other hand, logical reasoning is generally based on the moral qualities, character design, animation, story development, possible spin-off products… of the characters. Usually, whichever side of reasoning wins in my mind, I follow its path to decide my love for the character.
Some examples:
+ Konata Izumi: I would put all of my pride away and do my best to make her my girlfriend. She sure has one heck of a personality. And I simply prefer her uniqueness over the so-called common sense of the casual pretty girls (emotional reasoning won, and I really fell in love Konata). So if there’s any logical reasoning that goes against Konata, I’d just ignore them.
Other characters that I love emotionally: Saito in “Familiar of Zero”; Katsuragi Keima in “The World God only knows”; Sakaki in “Azumanga Daioh”, Kyoko Mogami in “Skip Beat”, Haruhi Suzumiya, Naruto… I sipmly love them because of their unique and head-strong personalities.
+ Sasuke Uchiha: I hate emo guys like this guy. He is strong but has a weak heart. He’s the type that attracts gals because he “looks cool” and “seems like a bad boy who needs a caring (female) savior that can understand him”. Worst thing is that he treats girls like dirt (emotional reasoning won, and I really hate Sasuke). So no matter how cool the character design, let alone protective reasonings from fan-girls, I still hate his guts.
Other characters that I hate emotionally: most of the male protagonists in echi series that take no decisive action after they have got more than 1 girl following them (like Manaka in “Ichigo 100%”), or characters who fall in the categories of emo-guys like Sasuke (not emo-girls), blinded-justice-man like Suzaku Kururugi in “Code Geass”, bullying-bastards and sluts.
+ Lelouch: from the beginning until end, I’ve never like him emotionally. I don’t wish for a buddy like him. However, the character development has been so intriguingly good, that I have to admit he’s a perfect anti-hero of all anime. I’d say that I hate his personality, but without such personality, the story wouldn’t be that interesting. So logical reasoning wins.
Other characters that I like logically: anti-hero characters like Light in “Death Note”, bratty-cocky characters like Minami-ke’s Chiaki or Toradora’s Taiga, or Yandere girls. I don’t wish to have friends or girlfriends like them, but they are amusing and play vital roles for the whole anime series that I like.
However, there is rarely any character that I like emotionally, but because of logical reasoning, I consider “hating” them… one case would be Excel in Excel Saga. She’s unique alright, but the quality of animation and story development is so poor that I gave up on her.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing your examples =)
As I’ve stated, for me emotion is more important than logic and intellect when it comes to liking anime characters, since anime is something to be enjoyed for whatever reason instead of analyzed and nitpicked. For your categorization, most of my favorites would be like how you love Konata. There are also many characters I like the way you like Lelouch (they fall into my Admiration category): I respect them for being an intriguing, well written character, but I wouldn’t necessarily want them to be real or have them as a friend.
Heh, I was never a Sasuke fangirl but I think he’s a good character. It’s kinda like how I feel about Lelouch – they’re good characters even if they’re personalities and ideals are distasteful.
And I loved how you mentioned Sakaki ^.^ She’s such a special character.
True. I’ve got the chill of my life seeing Sakaki with Maya. I can never get enough of those 2. In fact, that is the main reason why I keep watching Azumanga Daioh over and over every 3 days. Mostly the episodes where Sakaki met Maya the first time and the 2 of them reunite again.
It sounds to me like Affection, Adoration and Admiration are three different degrees to which you give of yourself, from lowest to highest. It doesn’t take a lot of personal investment to find something huggably cute– but to really like a character on a personal level, or to find them more ideal than you in key ways. That’s a lot of soul going into it. Which isn’t necessarily bad. ;)
I was thinking it was the opposite of that actually, since my absolute favorites are in the Affection and Adoration categories, and my lesser favorites are in Admiration (for example, my top 5 anime characters are all in Affection and Adoration). My heart is strictly used for Affection, Adoration uses a little heart and a little intellect, and Admiration is mostly intellect. Or maybe I’m just the kind of person who considers kawaii-ploding a form of personal investment in a character XD
Wow. I never thought of this in this way before but you’re right. I do have the three different categories. Affection for me is for the cute characters as well. Chi from Chi’s Sweet Home is on that list along with Yotsuba from Yotsuba&. The character can be annoying in context(both are if I think about it) but they are just so cute.
Adoration for me can be both genders but it’s usually a character with a pretty good well devolped backgrond. One of mine would be Sora from Kaleido Star since she never gave up on her dream at all even through all the stuff she had to deal with.
Admiration, well this is where I would put all of my anime crushes in because for some reason I just like them. Sesshomaru would have to be one of my top ones because even though he’s pretty much a jerk I still love him. One that I like and also has very good devolpement has to be Akihiko from Persona 3.(it’s a game but he does appear in trinity soul so i guess he would count…). He has pretty good backstory, adorable personality and pretty good looking to.
I guess overall I usually like characters with good character devolpment or just something in them that I like. (TK from Angel Beats is an example). However, unlike most people, I don’t usually like tsundere characters. The first season of Shana was torterous for me and the one episode of Toradora I watched I was turned off by the main girl’s personality. However for some reason Ookami from Ookami-san was alright. I liked her.
Thanks for sharing your examples =)
Sesshoumaru is rather slow to show his good side (since Inuyasha is such a long series), but it’s there and Takahashi does a great job making it extremely subtle at first until it finally comes out towards the end.
And if I may implore you, watch Toradora! at least up to the second episode. From what I’ve heard, everyone agrees that it takes the second episode for the show to reveal its potential. I promise you you won’t be disappointed if you decide to watch the series.
I’m still a bit confused on some parts (like Haruhi’s), since the hidden traits aren’t specifically specified and detailed out. But I guess you don’t really need to be that hardcore enough to be able to describe the intimacy you have harbored for a character, so I’ll simply tip my hat off to you. There are many who can like the characters, but only a few can tell the world how they love them, and that’s a good thing.
Well, I could list specific instances of hidden character development for Haruhi or any of the characters I mentioned, but that would be too long and take away from the main topic of this post. Ultimatemegax’s post about Haruhi here could help you out though XD
Thanks for reading.
i think it would be interesting if you wrote a post about the subtleties of how haruhi’s character is developed…i would like to read that actually =)
I may write a post about it someday. But the post I linked in my reply to Shance directly above does a good job of that already =)
I love them with my penis.
Well, not really, but some people do.
Well, that’s actually physically impossible, but some people try to.
I could try and make a serious response to this, but like klux said, that would take way too long, and I like this answer.
LOL, I don’t doubt some people try to.
A very nice mental exploration indeed. I think I often love certain characters out of admiration. Thus, I can easily love the villains. Nevertheless, so many times I like the character for the most superficial reason; their looks, their clothes or their super powers. :)
A design that appeals to me also plays a role when choosing my favorites, but I’ve never particularly liked villainous characters (unless they later become good). I’ve “admired” some of them for being well-written characters, but I can’t think of one I especially liked…
I love those characters that are full of life (I.E. Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya/Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu), and are also strong about their ideas. (I.E. Kamijou Touma from To Aru Majutsu no Index/ A Certain Magical Index and Kyon from TMOHS). You can really take inspiration to those characters on how to behave in life and socialize, and how to reason with people at times of need. I also admire those quiet characters that seem to have hidden identities and then in the end, they are very sensitive and emotional inside (I.E. Nagato Yuki from TMOHS), and I don’t know why. They’re personalities for some reason drag me in…
Heh, sounds like there are particular anime archetypes that you like, which isn’t a bad thing :) Haruhi’s one of the few “brimming with energy” characters that I like actually – other than (well-written) tsunderes and cute animals, I can’t tell by archetype alone when a character may become a favorite of mine.
I am a male otaku. I really don’t know what it is when it comes down to girls. Yuki Nagato, I developed a major crush on her. I don’t know if I could love any other girl the same way. She just has that mystery to her that lures you in. Her history just draws me in so deep that I would and will try all I can to understand her and if I could, help her. Other than that, I think that she’s just so dang cute (sexy in my deep opinion). I can sometimes try to see out her obscured emotions. I would gladly sacrafice my life for her in a dier situation. She has truly captured my heart and soul.
This post got me thinking about my favorite anime characters and I appreciate that (it’s what blogs should do so thank you). Anyway after thinking about it, I really don’t like any characters for their Affection. It just doesn’t get me I guess, but that doesn’t mean I hate those characters or that I believe they shouldn’t exist, just that I don’t really relate to them or adore them.
Most of the female characters I like fall into the category of Adoration, for lack of a better description. These characters for me are few and far between and are each unique enough in the reasons I like them, that it’s hard to put them all into one category. I guess I desire strong and not annoying characters with a softer side and decent back story. My prime examples are Shizuka Hanekura aka Akatsuki (LH), Misaki Tokura (CFV), Kourin Tatsunagi (CFV), Akiza Izinski (YGO5D).
And finally Admiration which is where I tend to find most of the characters I like. The also all tend to fit a certain character role . It fits the role as a strong dynamic evil protagonist of some sorts that I refer to as a Kaiba character because YGO tends to love adding these type of characters and those were my first anime where I realized I drifted toward those characters (ex. Kaiba, Zane, Kite, Reginald), but is probably best represented by Toshiki Kai. Not to be confused with rich boy arrogant characters (continuing YGO ex. Chazz, Jack). The confusion stems from the fact that both have miscued morals, fight on the good side for a majority of the time, and are arrogant. Most Kaiba characters also possess money too to further blurry the difference. That being said Kaiba characters tend to earn their money through hard work and don’t brag about (so much that it becomes annoying), they tend to be dynamic because they don’t have to retain the character role of being rich, and are in general stronger characters because they aren’t reliant on money to make them strong. The other role many mistake it with is the evil side of the main protagonist that is common is so many animes (Yami/Atem, Supreme King Jaden), but they tend to be transformations into evil through an event of some sort (supernatural or not) and therefore this dynamic part in mostly temporary.
So those are the characters that I tend to relate to and like the most.