Anime 1st thought from philospher and wiseman

[Guest animewiseman91]

what makes a good anime charachter. what emotions and characteristcs unique to humans work well in creating compelling charachters and give an example of an anime charachter with said emotions and charachteristics. :D

[Solo Tremaine]

[color=#503f86]I'm going to leave this thread open for the moment because I think it provides a more interesting question than the usual 'Who is your favourite character' threads, but if it turns into that sort of discussion I'll merge the two.

But please be mindful of your post quality, animewiseman. I was close to closing this because the post looked pretty spammy on first glance- a little consideration to spelling checks and adding a little more detail would work quite nicely, heh. You can check the [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/rules.php?"]Rules[/url] and [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/faq.php?"]FAQ[/url] pages if there's anything you're unsure of.

Anyway, I think good characters come in may forms, and usually it's in the delivery of the dialogue that the character comes across. I don't mean in terms of the voice-acting necessarily, but more interms of the actual dialogue itself. i tend to prefer characters who have more complex emtotional bases and histories- the more ambiguity and balance a certain character shows, the more I'm interested. Simple stereotyped characters can be just as effective if played off another stereotype, but they run the risk of being two-dimensional.

The emotions conveyed to make compelling characters will depend on the situation: a comedy can create characters as interesting to watch as a serious production, but generally it's the moments of tension that create the most interesting characters, for me- perhaps moments of rage, ambivalence, sadness- any emotion shown by the character should evoke an emotion from the audience, and if it's emotive enough we start feeling empathy towards the character and hence they become compelling to watch.

Although usually it's the rapport that you develop with the character that makes you want to follow their story through, not necessarily just follow their character for the sake of seeing them in a context.

In Trigun I found both Wolfwood and Vash compelling because of the way they acted together and alone- the writing of their characters and the arguments both of them presented I found incredibly interesting and very relevant to life in general. But at the same time, a more 'simple' character (in terms of his role) like Legato I found interesting t watch too, for the main reason that he was so brutally evil. So it works both ways, really.[/color]

[Dagger]

The characters I find most compelling are generally those with a lot of hidden depth--and no, I'm not really referring to the overly stoic bishounen-type. I'm drawn to characters who at first seem very simple and possibly stereotypical, yet who are in actuality rather difficult to understand. Sei Satou from Maria-sama ga Miteru is a perfect example of this: her flirtatiousness and easy-going charm won over hordes of fangirls and fanboys toward the beginning of the show. However, it's almost impossible for any viewer to help falling in love with her once the details of her emotionally tormented past are revealed.

Characters don't need a lot of screen time to be interesting or well-developed. Ruka (Revolutionary Girl Utena), Mikako (Voices of a Distant Star) and Fulle (Scrapped Princess) are all quite short-lived. Despite appearing for only one to three episodes, each of these characters captured my imagination and my heart. Episodic series like Samurai Champloo and Kino's Journey are rife with likeable characters who are given the spotlight for half an hour or so and then never show up again. That doesn't make characters of this type any less memorable. Jounouchi (a supporting character in Boogiepop Phantom) and the woman with multiple personalities featured in Paranoia Agent are two of my favorites.

I'll admit that I absolutely love watching characters break down, especially if they initially appeared rather stand-offish or aloof. When one scene has the ability to make you sympathize with or shed tears for someone who had previously been about as interesting as a cardboard cut-out, you know it's got to be good. While I liked Dio (Last Exile) and Susumu (Peacemaker Kurogane) from the beginning of their respective anime, seeing each of them just shatter and fall apart in response to circumstances beyond their control had an enormous impact on me. If a character never, ever cries until the unthinkable occurs, his grief will seem that much more important.

~Dagger~