Most Inspirational Characters (anime)

The title should be: the anime characters who (in)directly affect Vien's life and personality, so this list is very personal and others may not agree with it so it's totally fine.

I dunno about you but I watch anime for more than just pure entertainment. And lately I realized that, while people argue about watching anime for the plot or watching it for the fanservice (moe, bishounen, bromance, mecha etc), I am more looking forward to character developments.

And this is all thanks to the characters I’ve encountered before. I wanted to list 10, but I can only think of 5 most significant ones. And these are the anime characters that inspire me most, which is one of the contributors to the fact that 50% of my life lessons is taken from anime.

So the list below does not follow chronology but i decided to rank them.

And do note that these characters are not necessarily my ultimate favourite characters. As in, the type I'd fangirl at

5. Fujiouka Haruhi (Ouran High School Host Club, 2006)

Ouran is the only reverse harem manga I love, and the best shoujo manga I’ve ever known whose anime adaptation saved me from entirely quitting the fandom... and Haruhi is the best reverse harem heroine I know. The reason is that she isn’t Mary Sue. Well, her grades are perfect and she’s cute, but she’s the type that doesn’t care much about what goes around her and how she portrays herself. She doesn’t care if people see her as a girl or a boy, doesn’t care if she’s being girlish or boyish as long as she doesn’t disturb others. She claims to only care about her studies, but in the end she does care about others. The best part is, when a misunderstanding happens, she doesn’t overreact (like how tsunderes often punch the main guy for accidentally being ecchi). She understands that it isn’t an accident, and is really calm most of the time and think things through without being overdramatic.

The thing is, she is neither an empty shell or an annoying bitch as the only girl in the group. You low self-esteemed ladies may not be able to relate with her (as empty shells could) but you could at least try being calm and motivated like her.

4. Kuronuma Sawako (Kimi ni Todoke, 2010)

When I watched this anime, I thought that this is going to be another shoujo where the guy is the one who saves the girl from being lonely. Or about a girl who yearns for someone to save her from being forever in despair, for someone to come to her and accept her. Turns out it’s not. Sawako herself was inspired by the boy she likes to become friendlier, in spite of people calling her bad names just because of her withdrawn personality. Seeing Sawako’s journey of improving her social life makes me wish that this show should’ve been aired while I was in school. Though I have friends in school, I am still pretty much socially awkward. I reject others who don’t have the same wavelength as I have, I am too damn selective of my friends. But when my circle of friends aren’t around, that is when I feel so bad about myself for not being able to talk to others.

So how does Sawako inspire me now? I dunno, I guess thanks to her I can continue doing how I do in improving my social interaction. Care less about how badly people think of you, if they think you’re trying too hard or being too arrogant, ignore them. You know what you’re doing. I may not like the idea of Sawako forcing herself to be accepted by others, but if that makes her happy then I have no comment. I have my own way of being accepted, while she has her own. Nonetheless, I like how she begins the first step. Her effort is a good example for those who are socially awkward out there.

3. Bishoujo Senshi (Sailor Moon, 1992)

Surprise, surprise! Trust me, Sailormoon is not just a childhood anime to me. But actually, I wasn’t into the anime much as I love the manga more. Though as an adult I think the characters deserve more development – because the characters are as many as the shounen manga ones. In the tenth volume, there’s a detailed character profile of each pretty soldiers. Such profile, is probably never can be found in other manga/anime series today. Not even in the recent mahou shoujos. Naoko Takeuchi listed their favourite foods, fave colour, fave subject, hobbies – it was the best way to get to know the character more. And even in special chapters the characters introduced themselves and tell us why they like such things (why Ami Mizuno likes Sandwiches is that they’re easier to eat while studying!).

And the most important part of those character profiles; the dreams and ambitions of the characters (the funniest is Usagi’s, she wants to become a bride). Which as a kid, lead me to believe that it is important to have dreams. And I make sure I have something to say at the end of “when I grow up…”, even if it changes every year or two. And it is sad when once I’ve grown up, taking a degree, I meet people my age who have no idea what they want to become. And some regrets taking a course which they think sounded cool or recommended to take, then they found something else a bit too late (maybe not too late but you’ve wasted money on fees already). I’ve set my goals to one path, but still, there are things I’m unsure of. But I have ambitions, I want to achieve it. And thanks to Sailormoon and her friends for teaching me how important it is to have dreams.

Hence this is why I'd get instantly bored whenever there's an anime with a main character who introduce himself as "nothing special" and "wanting to live a normal life".

2. Kobayakawa Miyuki & Tsujimoto Natsumi (You're Under Arrest, 1996)

I used to be a huge fan of Disney Princesses until I stumbled upon this anime (actually it started with Sailormoon first but the sailor scouts effect is merely a 'transition' phase). It breaks the mindset of “someday my prince will come” (while you laze around in your chambers singing with birds without putting much effort to improve your self-esteem because you’re already ultimately pretty, or when you desperately wish to get into the guys pants without much worry cos you’re so goddamn beautiful), and TAIHOU SHICHAUZO (title in Japanese) tells you that girls should NOT be damsels in distress. I love the bromantic relationship between Natsumi and Miyuki, and how strong they are as traffic policewomen, Natsumi gave me much bigger impact… but oh wait, I used to hate it while she’s being a bit too obsessed with the chief XD. And Miyuki, may be less tomboyish than her partner but she’s a really great mechanic. And these tough girls, hey, they found love too.

So there’s nothing to be afraid of, being a strong woman I mean. Being a weak lady is overrated! Miyuki and Natsumi are the first strong female characters that inspire me to become an independent woman :3
(side note: if you're new to anime and if you've seen Tiger & Bunny, do check this out. It has the same feel)

1. Kamina (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, 2007)

I'd say Simon and the whole of Dai Gurren Dan as well but if it wasn't for him the GAR-est character development evar wouldn't have happened. Kamina does not only inspire me, but in among those I mentioned in the list he's definitely one of my most favourite characters. There's no man as awesome as he is, those so-called 'perfect' prince/gentleman type male characters look plain standing next to him! And don't get me started with real life men!

Kamina is the most important guy that changed my life. And I mean it.
As a teen I used to be more emo and pointlessly feeling depressed (as an adult I think I am already aware of why I was depressed before), I give up easily. Everything around me is negative, I doubt things more than I do now. Watching Kamina being so damn annoyingly optimistic was an unexpected turning point in my life. At first I thought it was bad to have someone so perfectly MANLY, but when he talks about his inner fears made me understand why he is awesome. It's not because he's manly because he's naturally born that way, but he's manly because he believes in others. And when he believes in others, the people around him unconsciously believed in themselves while thinking it's all due to this guy.

Long story short because of him I supposed I had changed drastically into an optimistic person (but my negative thoughts linger still now and then). I had begin to believe in myself and love myself, and it was really important for I experienced heartbreak which i feared would destroy me. But the power of GAR-ness in TTGL taught me that there are more things in life to look forward to.

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So I guess that wraps it up. Let's see if I can think of video game characters next XD