Guys, today I push my luck by not only being too lazy to stick to my schedule but also asking you for help. I know, I’m spoiled! I’m very grateful for it too!
I’ve said it before. Character studies are for me the most challenging posts to put together. I don’t know if any of you remember this, when I started this series the point wasn’t simply to highlight characters I was particularly fond of or those I could elaborate on, it was to shine a spotlight on characters I felt had been hard done and underappreciated by the narrative, the audience or both.
And this is even more true now that other bloggers have started to regularly publish posts dedicated to specific characters. We don’t really need dozens of posts saying the same things about the same people (unless it’s Natsume of course). But having tightened up a bit on the tragic and underrated aspects of my case studies has made it even harder to find worthy candidates.
In my desperation I even turned to Twitter where unfortunately most people where not familiar with my series and promptly suggested hugely popular lead characters with expansive encyclopedias written on them. And they were good ideas, don’t get me wrong, I would love to read any one of those posts. But they don’t really fit my theme.
Aside from the novelty of it, the reason I tend to choose supporting and occasionally minor characters with a few exceptions, is that I tend to relate to them better. I don’t really see myself as a hero. More specifically, I don’t see myself as a leader. The role is occasionally thrust on me and I try to execute it to the best of my abilities but I find it cumbersome. I would rather be a consiglieri to a don. Went straight to mafia talk, huh?.. no reason…
Ok then, why am I telling you all this. Well twitter did still manage to provide a few great ideas. Other less popular characters in the same series for instance. And Kyubei. I’ve been meaning to explore what makes Kyubei so effective when compared to other similar characters.
But that bit of inspiration is going to run out fairly quickly.
And this is why we’re here today! I would love for a little bit of help folks. If there are any characters you think fit my theme and you would like me to write about, please let me know!
I can’t guarantee I will get to all of your suggestions. Obviously if I haven’t seen the anime, or don’t remember it well enough, I won’t be able to put a post together. There’s also my lack of creativity as a barrier. Often I will like a character very much but not have enough material to write an entire post.
But even if I don’t end up using the exact suggestion, all of them are a source of inspiration and I greatly appreciate it.
If I would just add one more main-side character that is underappreciated into your list – Daiki Tasaki from Anthem of the Heart ( Kokoro ga Sakebittegaterunda ).
I’m not sure if you have seen this anime movie before but it’s got an ending that is not appealing for some but I think it’s just perfect. And as the story progresses, I actually see that Daiki has more character development compared to the real male protagonist as with the change of attitude and whatnot.
But anyway, I apologise if this doesn’t really match your theme because to be frank, I’ve only seen your recent posts upon writing this suggestion. Umm, I’ll try to keep up.
I have not seen anthem of te heart – I didn’t know what it was about until yo suggested it ut it looks very interesting. I’m going to try to hunt it down
Oh, it’s an anime movie on expressing oneself and acceptance of others. You could watch it if you’ve got some free time.
I will if I find it
How about trying out some manga reviews or analysis of manga without an anime adaptation yet?
That seems like a niche well for writing, and I tend to do it too. Not as popular as my anime posts,but they are very fun.
I’m afraid most of the non adapted mang I’ve read is either super mainstream stuff like PunPun or NSFW stuff that I don’t have much to say about.
I do follow a few awesome Manga blogs that have me eying some titles though.
You’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions here. You could also make this series as a sort of challenge for yourself once in a while. Like putting names of series or characters from a series in a list and using a random number generator to pick one. That way, you could focus less on deciding who to pick and using that time and energy to look at them more deeply.
That’s a really interesting concept. I might just try that
I have some suggestions that I hope will help:
1. Felli Loss from Chrome Shelled Regios
2. Minori Koganuma from Outbreak Company
3. Claudia Enfield from The Asterisk War
4. Rika Shiguma from Haganai
5. Ryu Lion from DanMachi
Are those the kinds of characters you’re looking for?
I do love Rika! A LOT.
How ’bout the ladies from Monogatari? There are some nice growth arcs there.
Unfortunately, I hardly remember Monogatari. It sort of instantly slipped out of my brain.
After looking at your MAL list, I have a few suggestions. I don’t know if they fit perfectly with what you’re looking for, but hopefully I’m at least in the right ballpark, or might inspire you to think of someone else. Please don’t feel obligated if you’re not feeling ’em, though.
Rurouni Kenshin – Shinomori Aoshi and/or Takani Megumi (the latter in particular often feels to me like she gets overlooked because she’s a non-fighter in a fighting series)
Bungo Stray Dogs – Akutagawa (I was a bit surprised that he seems to rank relatively low in popularity polls despite his prominence in the series)
Perfect Blue – Rumi (despite her role in the story I feel like she’s ultimately a tragic character, but maybe that’s just me)
Interesting. Good choices. (Fyi my MAL is very out of date…)
That’s okay, mine’s even more out of date!
Not sure if you’ve seen it, but I find all of the Sound! Euphonium characters to be worthy of a little analysis (I can’t mention any specific names because my goodness, it’s been too long, but I do remember enjoying what I saw).
I have. You can boil down my entire review to: lovely. I think it’s the anime embodiment o
Hm…
Yajiro from the Eccentric family? Oikawa from Haikyuu?
I have been turning an Eccentric Family post in my mind. I was actually drawn ti Yaichiro since he seems to get little respect despite taking everything on. He’s the least popular brother both in story and among fans. But I also think Benten is an incredably sad character that’s rarely framed that way… I mean I could write on all of them really.
I adore Haikyuu but never write about it for some reason…
Benten is an awesome character, and I’d love to read about her, but I think, since she’s one of the main characters, the key to character has not yet been fully revealed. Meanwhile Yajiro, being a minor character, is further along in his own arc after only two season.
Ah, I certainly don’t want this post to be read as discouraging a Benten post. She’s perhaps the most essential character in the entire show. And the third (and prospectively final) novel in the trilogy hasn’t even been published yet (written? I don’t know), so it’s going to be a while (if ever). Like 2025? All this time and not writing about Benten? No, definitely, no. People should write about her.
(I could go on and on about the The Eccentric Family. Nearly every character is interesting.)
Agreed! Im extremely intrigued by Kureichirō Ebisugawa. I know next to nothing about the character but I wouldn’t mind making it up!
Junko from Nana. I don’t know if my sugguestion really fits the topic but she’s a side character that seems to be worth analysing
Interesting! Good pull
I sure everyone is probably jumping all over this series, but Ray from The Promised Neverland?
How about Irina from Assassination Classroom?
I did an Assassination classroom chara study in the past. I could add to it. AC is one of the only shows I actually ship two characters together. I might elaborate on that since it’s so rare
That would definitely be a lot of fun 🙂
Seconding this.
Since you already did Ginoza, maybe you could do more from Psycho-Pass. Ou tu écris un paquet de nom sur des petits papiers et tu piges.
En fait c’est le paquet de noms qui me manques en ce moment….
Je vais travailler dessus ce soir… Nino et Jean sont les seules que je peux dire maintenant
Any of the characters from Hinomaru Sumo or Harukana Receive. I’ve not seen much about them and I know you enjoy the sports anime.
I still haven’t seen Hinomaru Sumo but I’m really looking forward to it.
I don’tknow that I would call anyone from Harukana Receive a tragic character. Maybe grandpa… Poor guy seems to get ignored a lot
Sumo is excellent. I have 4 episodes left. As for Harukana, what about the poor twins that tragically lost in the final, or the shorter of the central characters who tragically gave up, abandoning her old partner because she blamed herself for the loss only to get a second chance. Or grandpa, they just left him out except for his knees.
You know lynn, i think you got this!
And just think of search results…
I already have my episode reviews of Harukana. I know how frightening those search results are
i can understand the frustration of trying to stick to a theme and running out of ideas. ive done music posts and manga posts in the past, and mostly let those fizzle out. so if you have to take a step back, i think that’s reasonable. character studies are an interesting concept too, and reading them from bloggers like you has made me wonder if i could do them myself. not actually sure if i can be much help for you, though lol
I would like to read your take. You do touch on them occasionally but a full post would be really interesting
dont do this to me…
I believe I owe you one…
Hmm that’s tough. Maybe rather than a comprehensive character study, just do posts about a few things you really liked about the characters? Also I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing about minor characters.
Good idea. I’ll keep that in mind
I’ll be thinking for you. Do they have to be from well-known series, hon? I could recommend some not as known but still awesome anime for you to find those characters!
No they don’t. It may take a while if I haven’t seen the series but otherwise not at all. My tastes seem rather “acquired” in general
I think sports anime are sometimes a nice options, but again they may be too popular. Or maybe Chihayafuru it is coming out soon and it might be nice to have some character studies on the first few season characters as a build up to season 3… Or the World Only God Knows it is a harem too so maybe it could expand on your last week blog entry on harems and then you can go indepth on the girls or the mc. haha I don’t know if any of this helps but I do enjoy characters and writing about them too :D.
It helps! I actually haven’t dipped into sports yet