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.
I'm here today to give you a challenge, can you criticise your favourite anime?
This test is designed to see if you can accept flaws in your personal top 10 anime.
I'll attempt it with mine and we'll see how I get on.
10. Nisekoi
I often refer to Nisekoi as a better written Love Hina but still like Love Hina, Nisekoi's biggest sin is how crowded the cast gets and how pointless many of the late arrivals get.
9. Jing King of Bandits
There are a couple of stories that took more than one episode, Jing as a concept works better as a situation of the week show. Jing as a character is not suited to long stories, it's a similar problem found in Kino's Journey.
8. Fairy Tail
This one is easy, it gets away with far too much Power of Love and Friendship bullshit.
7. Cowboy Bebop
Within the last couple of years it's showing it's age more and more with less grace, Evangelion suffered the same thing.
6. Ranma 1/2
Is it the length? Nope, just Happosai. This anime would be so much higher if not for Happosai. That and you realise how terrible some of the supporting cast is.
5. Precure
Precure was clearly influenced by many of the Magical Girl shows that came before and during it's 16 years of broadcast to very different returns, Precure at it's worst looks like a pale imitation of a better show, it also has a habit of following it's best seasons with weak seasons. It's current problem is that it's running out of ideas.
4. Lupin the 3rd
Screw it, it's Lupin. That's the logic you need for Lupin the 3rd. It can't be anything else, it's design doesn't support it, so when it tried to do more art house style with practically no gags, it falls flat.
3. Dirty Pair
Dirty Pair has so many iterations that it's hard to keep consistent quality control, there's always going to be one you like and one you hate.
2. Slayers
Has the weakest dub of the top 10 and can easily have stories that do absolutely nothing for the franchise and that's not just the filler talking.
1. Black Lagoon
It's world building is compromised by it's inability to work with it's languages. When needing to use more than one language it can break the story. The Japanese sub draws attention to a character that is bad at English while speaking in Japanese, meanwhile some of Revy's best moments are when actress Megumi Toyoguchi uses English which ultimately gets lost in the dub. I'm also a little bitter about Roberta's ending.
That's my little list, now I challenge you to try and criticise your own top ten. I'm curious to know what you would say about them.
End
