Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
What weapon is the best?
Who will win in this Death Battle?
Is this costume practical?
You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
When it comes to anime, other nations don't tend to feature too prominently and when they do, the usual suspects show up be it Chinese, Russian, British, American, French or even German.
They also tend to run the well dry of Egyptian, Greek and Italian due to their ancient cultures, so this list celebrates the countries that don't get a look in.
Few rules
1. Fighting Game anime is cheating.
2. Doesn't count if the anime is set in a certain country, for example I can't use a Mexican character in an anime set in Mexico, kind of cheating there as well.
3. Sports anime with international arcs or international casts is cheating as well with only a couple of exceptions.
This is in no set order.
Honourable Mention
Iron Mouse from VShojo
Puerto Rican
While not an actual anime character, she has put her country on the map with how much she contributes to the internet.
1. Celty Sturluson from Durarara
Irish
Irish folklore speaks of a headless horseman known as a Dullahan, in the world of Durarara, Celty is the motorcycle riding Dullahan working as a transporter in the shady underworlds of Durarara. Might feel a bit cheap using a folklore character but unlike the Fate series, Celty gives the Irish some positive representation.
2. Rosarita Cisneros from Black Lagoon
Colombian
Better known as Roberta, she's the most terrifying of Black Lagoon's trio of scary women, the world of Black Lagoon takes the world's most notorious crime syndicates and puts them in Thailand for an uneasy alliance. The cartels of South America aren't normally a threat as they usually get the blunt end of rage from Revy and Balalaika but then Roberta shows up and all you can do, is pray that she doesn't find you.
3. Victor from Medabots
Kenyan
Stoic, imposing and a little terrifying, Victor raised the stakes in the Medabots World Tournament, with justified goals, he's one of the earliest instances of a complex villain in the realm of toy anime. War Bandit as well is a beast.
4. Azmaria Hendric from Chrono Crusade
Portuguese
A miracle healer in the guise of a weak willed girl who tries her best to help out Rosette and Chrono, a little frustrating to watch but does pay off at the finale.
5. Aila Jyrkiainen from Gundam Build Fighters
Finnish
Gundam Build Fighters is what happens when Bandai tell you that there isn't enough money in model kits and tells you to make an anime out of it.
Aila passes for the Cyber Newtype character having been conditioned to use her abilities to gain the upper hand in battle with the personality to match. Speaking of which.
6. Allenby Beardsley from G Gundam
Swedish
G Gundam doesn't have the best history with portraying countries, Sweden is one of the only countries to avoid this stereotype with Allenby being everything Domon is in female form and has Gundam Sailor Moon.
7. Irina Jelavic from Assassination Classroom
Serbian
Ah yes Bitch Sensei, could've quite easily been Russian but they went for Serbian instead since the surname is Serbian in origin. She's one of many tasked to eliminate Koro-Sensei but really is terrible at the job.
8. Negi Springfield from Negima
Welsh
Poor Wales never seems to get any respect as England and Scotland normally take the honours but people forget that wizardry is founded in Welsh folklore, that's the mindset Ken Akamatsu went with Negi, going as far as visiting Wales himself for inspiration. Honourable mention for CDawgVA for being the internet's most prolific Welsh Youtuber.
9. Elza Forte from Aikatsu Stars
Monégasque
French wasn't high class enough for Elza Forte, so she's from Monaco instead, a principality known for glamour, wealth, gambling and motor racing, every bit of Elza's design is ultra Ojou-Sama right down to her presence and her dress, just look at that picture.
10. Amuro Ray from Gundam
Canadian
That's right, one of anime's most famous characters is a Canadian, the Newtype that stumbled onto a Gundam and became a legend. That's a massive character to have for a country often overlooked because of America.
For this character ranking I'm doing something completely different, I'll be using tier grades for each score S-D rank.
I'll be marking in four different criteria due to the unique nature of the anime, I'll be marking on their Personality, Talent, Compatibility with the other cast members and Design.
Aine Yuki
Personality - A
Talent - C
Compatibility - A
Design - B
Being the lead in an Anime like this is easy for Aine as she adapts so well with other characters and slips into roles with ease but needs carrying alot as she's argubly the least talented of the cast.
Mio Minato
Personality - C
Talent - S
Compatibility - D
Design - B
Mio is the most enterprising character in the show but it comes at the cost of not only having the weakest personality but being compatible with no one, not even Aine.
Maika Chono
Personality - A
Talent - A
Compatibility - C
Design - B
Maika's ability to pick herself up from the worst situations is an admirable trait but is wholly dependent on Ema to actually show off her best traits.
Ema Hinata
Personality - A
Talent - B
Compatibility - B
Design - C
Sporty characters don't get enough credit in idol anime and I'm glad to see it get more coverage, Ema fairs better with other cast members but is let down by a design that easily makes her forgettable.
Karen Kamishiro
Personality - A
Talent - S
Compatibility - C
Design - B
Karen is the type of character the word princess was made for, she holds a presence only equalled by a few but is only compatible with Mirai, she'd be out of place with the others.
Mirai Asuka
Personality - S
Talent - S
Compatibility - S
Design - A
Mirai has every great trait you can ask for, she matches up well with every cast member, acts the big sister and the fun character and pretty much commands respect from everyone.
Sakuya Shirayuri
Personality - B
Talent - S
Compatibility - C
Design - A
Goth characters are seriously OP in Aikatsu, as the bulk of her talent comes from just the songs alone but her personality traits make her a poor match up with everyone except her sister Kaguya.
Kaguya Shirayuri
Personality - B
Talent - A
Compatibility - B
Design - A
It would be too easy for her to act the same as her sister, while not as talented as Sakuya, she makes up for it by being more compatible with the rest of the cast.
Hibiki Tensho
Personality - S
Talent - S
Compatibility - C
Design - S
Hibiki just oozes charisma, it's hard not to get sucked in by her character but maybe she's too strong a character as so far only Mirai can compete with her on equal footing.
More to come.
As a little side project following up to Easter weekend I'm going to discuss some anime toys. Today's subject will discuss Virtual Pets with the next few episodes discussing Card Games, Models, Classic Toys and ending the week with Mini cars followed by a review of Dash Yonkuro.
So let's begin.
Raising a Japanese Alien Blob
The Tamagotchi craze began in 1996 invented by Aki Maita. The design being an egg shaped electronic toy smaller than a pager. The concept has always been the same, an alien drops an egg onto Earth and you have to raise it to adulthood through a number of tasks such as feeding, exercise, studying, playing, cleaning poop, pretty much anything you would do with an infant. How your Tamagotchi looks all depends on how well you raise them, although judging by the basic shapes of these creatures, there was alot of limits in what you can get.
I had a Black Tamagotchi myself.
Tamagotchi is still around but it doesn't pull as bigger sale as it used to, even with the advances in technology, but most point to what happened the following year and our next entry as the beginning of the end.
The Birth of Pokemon's most worthy Rival
A year on from the Tamagotchi craze came Digimon. While the concept was pretty much the same, the difference came in the fact that you could battle each other by connecting two together, also the smarter use of pixels meant more unique creatures could be produced on screen. The first generation Digimon only used the Agumon line along with a few select creatures from the early series with future models sporting more characters using all the Digi Destined monsters, this would continue through much of the anime seasons that followed.
I owned an original Digimon and a first gen Digivice.
Most people would know that the anime far outlived the original toy.
Your Very Own Super Fighting Robot
A brief mention on this, during the run of Megaman NT Warrior they actually made the Net Navi device used by the characters along with the battlechips used to power them up. It didn't sell as well as the video game but did okay enough but it was partially inspired the next innovation.
Raising Bugs and Dinosaurs with Cards
Sega took the idea further with Mushiking which takes everything learned from the early days of virtual pets and combining it with trading cards of insects, this would also lead to the later Dinosaur King which uses Dinosaurs instead. It had a fair go at it but it's what this turned into that still exists today.
Raising a Kawaii Pop Idol by Collecting Cute Outfits
Sega clicked further with the idea of cards with Hime Otogi Lilpri which led to the creation of franchises such as Aikatsu, Pretty Rhythm and PriPara. It was the most natural transition of the idol franchise who had struggled to claim back it's popularity following a slump in the 90s and 00s. In these games you collect and match cute outfits for your idol to wear. This is still going on today with no signs of stopping.
We started with Alien Blobs now were at Kawaii Pop Idols going through Monsters, Robots, Insects and Dinosaurs along the way.
End
