Types of Anime Characters
As a long-time anime fan, it's been interesting to see how the characters in anime and dating-sim games change and grow. Over the past decade or so there's been a huge increase in the genre known as moé (mo-EH), which is written with the kanji character for "sprout" and which could be translated as "the woozy, happy feeling you get when contemplating your favorite female anime character." It also seems that every character can be categorized neatly into one archetype or another, no matter how original the character might seem. Some of the most common types of anime/game characters include meganekko (meh-gan-NEH-ko), or Girl With Glasses, the often related dojikko (doh-JI-ko), or Clumsy-in-a-Cute-Way Girl, and osana-najimi (oh-sa-na na-ji-mee), the Childhood Friend that comes to wake you up every morning and who is secretly in love with you. One of the most common recent genres of anime characters is tsundere (TSOON-deh-reh), which comes from tsun tsun (angry) and dere dere (soft and tender) and which describes characters that give everyone the cold shoulder yet are actually very vulnerable inside (like Haruhi or Shana). There's just no end to these cute character categories. Some others include Rich Girl who is the Daughter of a Wealthy Zaibatsu Family; Girl Who Talks in the Third Person; Girl Who Works at her Family's Shinto Shrine as a Shrine Maiden, and a recent trend, Girl Who Is So Jealous She'd Kill Her Boyfriend Rather Than Let Him Go With Someone Else (known as yandere). Which anime character type is your favorite?
(I'm fond of the Class Representative myself -- they're so organized, so concerned about everyone else, I just love them.)
(Of course, everyone remembers the story of School Days, a rather violent anime based on a game. The day before the last episode was to be aired, some girl killed her grandmother, and the authorities were sure the two must be related, so they cancelled the last episode and showed pictures of a Nice Boat instead.)
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:06 PM
7 Comments:
yes, the class reps are great. a good example is the one in the anime series_kanokon.
8:42 PM
It's in my queue to watch. I'm in Geass now. I have a solemn promise to only watch things 2-3 years after they are on TV and popular ^_^
11:09 PM
I have to say that my favorite has to be the cute snarky characters that don't hesitate to put you in your place with a joke or jab. Only example I can really think of at the moment is Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night.
3:25 AM
Ah, that's Tsukkomi, the opposite of boke (the dumb person on the receiving end of the jabs). My own favorite is Kagami from Lucky Star.
12:14 AM
If I really, REALLY needed to pick out a favorite genre of moe, I would have to say either meganekko or tsundere. (It's nop conicidence that my favorite characters from Raki ¤ Suta are Miyuki and Kagami...)
6:19 AM
Although your post is completely oriented towards girl stereotypes, have you noticed some trends on the male side? Here's one I've noticed, although it applies to both male and female. The American Exchange Student. They're either of Japanese or American origins, but they always show up at key moments. They are tall, slender, mysterious and always better than everyone. I've noticed this pattern in FLCL, School Rumble, Battle Programmer Shirase, Eiken, ahh and a bunch more that I can't think of right now. Am I crazy?
Also I can't stand tsundere... it takes forever for these characters to develop. They always end up stalling the pace!!!
12:51 PM
Yes, there's even a male moe Soundrop series that nicely divides the types of characters, although I pay less attention since male characters seem more transparent to me, more invisible depending on the show (or maybe I'm watching too many harem shows). Yes, the foreigner or half foreigner who somehow speaks cute accented Japanese is a major category, and they show up in Da Capo SS, Genshiken and many others. Tsundere is cute, but it can be taken too far, like Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. JEEZ, I can't believe she's still calling him "Kono inu!" through the end of second season.
2:48 PM
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