So characters you point to and say, that's so relatable, whether it be life luck or just embodying certain traits you share, it's in these characters.
10. Ryoga Hibiki from Ranma 1/2
Ryoga can never catch a break, he's eternally the unluckiest character in Ranma 1/2 either constantly being turned into a little pig at the worse time or his horrid sense of direction sending him on an unintentional world tour.
Weeks of constantly being unlucky is something very easy to relate to and Ryoga is the one who embodies it.
9. Ruri Hoshino from Nadesico
There are plenty of characters who fit the bill of smartest person in the room but the majority are ass holes, Ruri isn't one of those, in fact she just wants to do her job in peace without idiots constantly annoying her, something my job never stops being at times.
8. Miss Kobayashi from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
Kobayashi is the adult protagonist for the adult viewer, she plays the role of the straight woman so well it's hard not to put yourself in her position.
7. Saitama from One Punch Man
Eternally bored after becoming the most powerful being in the series, Saitama when not fighting lives a fairly normal single persons life, everything from just keeping an apartment running to this below.
6. Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara
You try and do a job but you get constantly pissed off by the presence of ass holes who always want to provoke, every punch from Shizuo is oh so satisfying.
5. Harima Kenji from School Rumble
The struggle to confess to the girl you like, the struggle to become a writer, the struggle to shake off a troubled reputation, Harima Kenji can't catch a break but we all root for him to succeed.
4. Nenene Sumerigawa from Read or Die
My dream was to always be a writer but even when trying for so long, I can easily channel Nenene of being soooo done with everything especially in a world surrounded by extraordinary people who make you feel more empty inside.
3. Ryo Kurakiba from Shokugeki no Soma
Ryo is two personalities, fiery when he's invested, tired and unmotivated when he's not, my mind can fire on all cylinders but after a long period of social interaction and trying, I just want to lie about for the next day.
2. Shikamaru Nara from Naruto
Shikamaru embodies the type of mantra that should be the most basic wants and needs of men. A reasonable job, a solid married life and a chilled existence is what Shikamaru always wanted and he's smart enough to achieve that on his own.
1. Kiyone Makibi from Tenchi Muyo
Everyone has been in this position at least once, you are stuck with that one particular friend who is to put it nicely stupid and said stupidity is the reason why you aren't progressing in your life, add another batch of chaos from the rest of the cast and you get Kiyone, someone who just wants to succeed but never can, the rare moments she does succeed, can be such a special moment of happiness that you grasp in your hands and keep for a long time.
While researching, I've come across anime that never followed the trends at the time of their release, this could be a number of reasons, they were ahead of their time, they missed their time, can't be described as matching any trend or missed the point entirely.
10. Sakura Wars
The Steampunk genre never actually caught on as an anime trend despite many fans liking the aesthetic for costume design. Period piece anime often covered drama, romance or popular masterpiece stories and even those stories set in Britain were more based on British myths and legends. Sakura Wars was popular but didn't last.
9. Saiyuki
Journey to the West has been covered dozens of times but not in the way Kazuya Minekura did, the band of four males led by a disgruntled priest more resembling Final Fantasy 15 than anime. Way ahead of it's time.
8. Fancy Lala
Adapted from the prototype Fashion Lala, Fancy Lala is a magical girl series where the lead character uses a magical item to become a young adult to either solve problems or become a star, they were very popular in the 80s but died off thanks to Sailor Moon, Fancy Lala missed the boat by a decade.
7. Yokai Watch
Much like Fancy Lala, it arrived a decade after it's trend had passed, for Yokai Watch it's the Pokemon clones, although it had reasonable popularity, it was really short lived.
6. G Gundam
While every Gundam series is an epic war space opera, G Gundam is a testosterone fueled robot battle tournament, as I consider Gundam it's own trend, this one really feels out of place.
5. Angelic Layer
You make an anime about fighting toy dolls but don't make it an actual toyline at a time where toy anime was in fashion. Another poor decision from Clamp.
4. Stop Hibari Kun
The anime itself was trendy as a romantic comedy in the early 80s when Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku were king. It's themes on Gender Identity were 40 years ahead of it's time.
3. Tenchi Muyo
More of a Western perspective on this one, why introduce a sci-fi romcom that popularised the harem genre on Toonami among shows like Gundam Wing and Dragonballz? Yeah it had action but not that much, most episodes of Tenchi were very sitcom like in presentation, it's alternate name No Need For Tenchi is a quip on lead character Tenchi's lack of presence despite being the lead.
2. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an 80s manga franchise that took 20 years to see an anime adaption that came in as a force of nature no one saw coming that ignored all the trends and could never be imitated, only one older series surpasses it.
1. Lupin the 3rd
Lupin the 3rd has been in every era of anime since 1967 and has never had to change anything, it's never been imitated, it's never followed trends, it's the most original IP in all of Anime next to only Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
As part of theotaku discussion I'll be reviewing three anime, a spinoff, a reboot and a sequel, this is the spinoff Tenchi in Tokyo.
At the beginning, the female cast of Tenchi Universe crash land on Earth following an incident in which Ryoko and Washu steal a powerful crystal from Jurai in which Ayeka, Sasami and the Galaxy Police duo of Mihoshi and Kiyone pursue the space pirates. After getting stuck on Earth when an heirloom of Tenchi's defeats monster Ryoko, the regular Tenchi scenario begins, only two years later Tenchi moves to Tokyo to study being a Shinto priest. There he meets Sakuya who later would become his girlfriend making the girls back home jealous and suspicious. These suspicions are realized when a Juraian mutant named Yugi becomes fascinated with the power Tenchi possesses making his meeting with Sakuya all the more coincidental.
I applaud the removal of Tenchi's link to Jurai as it clears up so much baggage that the plot relies on to function but Jurai still has far too much influence on the plot as a whole and it still doesn't make for interesting villains.
Also for the first time since the movies has the plot of Tenchi being with a girl outside the six been explored longer and thankfully it doesn't make the regular cast unbearable especially Ryoko who really pushes the clingy jealous girl trope.
Finally there is different animation which feels less in quality but more expressive very much like the transition between Pokemon Kalos and Alola seasons.
The dub cast is the same as previous seasons so the quality is still very high.
To compare to previous seasons this is the best structured story but lacks the impact of the previous seasons even though they have way more flaws than the Tokyo series. I think it's because by time of release it already felt like Tenchi Muyo ended on the 3rd movie and anymore seasons of different retellings were starting to become stale which were already showing signs of in the Universe series. It's not a bad series just Tenchi Muyo passed it's sell by date.
Final Verdict: Tenchi in Tokyo is good but it had the unfortunate task of following two very successful seasons making this one stale before it even began.
Insert witty/insightful opening sentence here.
Taking place 15 years after the GXP saga, Kenshi Masaki finds himself in Geminar, a world at war involving mechanoids. With his other world physiology being far superior to Geminars, he starts off on the wrong side but after he fails to assassinate Princess Lashara, he gets captured but instead of putting him to death, the crafty princess uses him as an attendant as she feels making him an ally would turn the tide of war in her favour especially when his nice guy persona coupled with his superior abilities makes him the perfect worker but this being a Tenchi Muyo anime, it's clear all the girls fall for him.
I'll just come out and say this, this isn't my Tenchi Muyo. In Tenchi Muyo the series' broken sci fi setting was saved by some really well designed characters, War on Geminar has really poor substitutes for those characters and it's lengthy run time per episode is packed full of filler that serves only to remind you of the franchise it's from. In the end you feel duped because you feel like you got something trying to copy Tenchi Muyo instead of it being a new season of Tenchi Muyo and it's not the first time this has happened.
All that aside can it stand up on it's own without the franchise tag? ummm kinda? It's hit or miss. Kenshi lacks a personality beyond being too nice while many of the girls can easily be pigeon holed into harem types, it's only real saving grace is the universe of Geminar beyond the huge spaceship is much more interesting but rarely gets explored.
A dub exists, I've not seen it but harem dubs rarely produce decent dubs anyway without hearing some very stock voices from the female cast.
Final Verdict: War on Geminar struggles with the Tenchi formula it inherited through being part of the same franchise. The characters are bland, the world outside the ship is way more interesting and the episodes are way too long to stay focussed on.
Considering the voice acting business can often draw from a number of pools of talent, it's rare to see any role go to a one off actor who maybe turned up in the office at the right time.
This is a tribute to them.
Some ground rules, the entries on the list have to have been main characters and not had any other named anime character on their resume, background characters are exempt as are American cartoon roles.
No hentai roles.
Honorable Mention: Maile Flanagan as Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto
I so wanted to put her down but she plays a named character in Astroboy, pretty good to net Naruto after only one other role though
10. Purva Bedi as Rion Aida from Agent Aika
The persistent assistant of Agent Aika, the performance lacks some emotion but Purva did a good job with what was otherwise a unique script.
9. Lindsay Doleshal and Shana McClendon as Nina Kirov and Miyuki Ayanokouji from Debutante Detective Corp
ADVfilms had to dig deep to make up numbers for bigger casts in their earliest runs but it is surprising these two didn't get any more roles especially when there were worst actors who did get more roles.
8. Lori Young as Lorna Endou from Ex-Driver
Lorna is one of favourite characters and Lori did a solid job working off the actress behind Lisa.
7. Sarah Strange as Ranma Saotome from Ranma 1/2
Sarah played Ranma for the movies, OVA episodes and half the TV series, at times you wouldn't even guess Ranma to have a female voice actor.
6. Julia Reyna Kato as Mirai Ozora from Moldiver
My inspiration for this list having just reviewed this. While l often call this performance very Nickelodeon, I couldn't ask for a better choice.
5. David Thund as Signal from Twin Signal
I have no idea where this guy came from but in one OVA he owned his whole performance and yet he's nowhere to be found afterwards.
4. Jessica Nigri as Super Sonico from SoniAmi Super Sonico The Animation
Better known for Cosplay and playing Cinder in RWBY, Jessica was a surprise pick for Sonico considering the character is to Nitroplus what Miku is to Vocaloid, so to see Sonico be voiced well in English is welcome.
3. Brennan MacKenzie and J.Patrick Lawlor as Rally Vincent and Bean Bandit from Riding Bean
Riding Bean is my highest rated OVA so to see two unknowns pull off a pleasant Rally Vincent and an Elvis like Bean Bandit is quite a feat.
2. Ellen Gerstell as Mihoshi Kuramitsu from Tenchi Muyo
Tenchi Muyo's cast had some big 80s and 90s names of cartoons among it's books with Ellen having previously been cast in JEM and the Dragon's Lair cartoon. Out of all the one off roles, Mihoshi is the best.
1. Pretty Much the Entire Cast of Miami Guns
All but two actors in this anime have never done any voice works, not before or after. Considering that the ambitious Anime Nation were hoping to ride the success of Excel Saga with this title, what we got was actually surprisingly well acted for a cast of nobodies, Yao's actress is having a ball in this. Miami Guns is a pretty terrible anime but it's fun trash anime at it's finest.
