Welcome to the Anime Walk of Fame, a series of retrospectives on the many characters of the anime world. You'll see all your favorites along with a few that deserve more than their reputations give.

So sit back relax and enjoy the show.

There's Something About Relena

So what exactly is the deal with Relena? Well you are about to learn about some early Western Otaku culture.

Relena is the lead female character of Gundam Wing acting as a lonely rich girl, self insert love interest of Heero, pacifist politician to a royal lineage she never knew she had and later Queen of the entire planet, even beyond the series she was holding high positions of power.
So what's her deal?
My opinion is that she kinda forces the plot to follow her script despite the fact that she is in Heero's words "In over her head" as her character has the most awkward transition up to her final role as politician.
The other issue is that the five Gundam pilots awakened the inner yaoi fangirl of the late 90s early 00s.
The boys of Gundam Wing were the anime equivalent of a boy band, the official art pushing that belief strongly with fans at the time, you had the bad boy, the fun boy, the quiet boy, the sensitive boy and the one who keeps leaving because of creative differences.
It's not really surprising considering scenes between Heero and Duo along with Trowa and Quatre could easily be interpreted as more than friends.
The Gundam boys were paired off with their own female characters but while most were at friend, sister or colleague levels of respect, Relena was the only one who was a threat to the yaoi fantasy, if Twitter existed back then, there would be a petition to get rid of Relena and make the Gundam boys canon gay, I wish I was joking, they live on through My Hero Academia instead.
But I find myself weirdly agreeing with them on at least Heero Yuy, because I think his character would've developed better without Relena.
My final thoughts on Relena is that she's a character that really didn't need to be that involved in the plot of Gundam Wing.

Amelia is the Justice Princess Done Right

In stark contrast to previous entrant Rosalie, we have the same type of character with better execution.

Amelia is the justice loving princess of Saillune, raised by her father who instilled in her the righteous path of justice.
What that means in laymans terms is that the King and by extension Amelia, are the main defence for their kingdom.
While Rosalie's troops come down with a bad case of death, Amelia actively makes sure that all her troops survive any ordeal that comes their way even if it's sometimes from her own ally Lina Inverse herself.
Having returned to playing Dynasty Warriors recently where these fancy buzz words are thrown around all the time, it's refreshing to find a character who can live up to their boasting for once, even if you do get sick of it by the end of her debut episode.

Rosalie is a Terrible Ruler

Mistress 9 is going to be a while writing so for a mini special let us look at a wide range of princesses and see how well they rule starting with the most recent anime I watched, Cautious Hero.

I'm being very generous with Rosalie's picture as this is her at her best, she doesn't really deserve it though.
Rosalie is Gaeabrande's princess, daughter of the veteran king dubbed the Warmaster. Growing up with such a known hero gave young Rosalie a strong sense of justice which she uses to motivate her army in defeating the legions of the Demon King, only problem is her head strong determination gets most of her army butchered, it's a trait that I expect from a poorly written Dynasty Warriors character not a monarch in a fantasy anime.
And while yes, doing nothing just prolongs the bloodshed on innocent people but blindly going into battle without a strategy wastes soldiers lives, call Seiya unheroic as much as you want, but his actions saved way more lives and took out way more enemies than Rosalie ever did. It's any wonder she got slapped so many times before stepping back.
After all "What can you protect when feelings are the only weapons you have?" - Kira Yamato

We Only Tolerate Chibi Usa Because of Black Lady

Everyone has their own favourite Sailor Moon character but it's almost never Chibi Usa but when you really dive into it, she never really gets any out right hate and that might because of her darker older form of Black Lady.

Black Lady was created when Wiseman preyed on Chibi Usa's negative emotions caused by a time space rift transforming her into the dark form of Black Lady, serving as a major antagonist for the Black Moon Arc;
The result was an effective villain who took out Tuxedo Mask and proved to be the best villain for Sailor Moon and her friends until the summoning of Neo Queen Serenity set her free along with Sailor Pluto's help.
Three reasons why this saves Chibi Usa as a character.
1. It gives more weight to her original introduction back in Sailor Moon R removing much of her tagalong kid status.
2. It would later give inspiration to another infamous Sailor Moon villain, Mistress 9.
3. It more than makes up for her god awful arc in the SuperS seasons.
But also for a bonus fourth reason, evil is just way sexier and both Black Lady and Mistress 9 personify that well and feel right at home during the early hot topic goth era.
But the biggest take away from Black Lady's appearance was that Sailor Moon was growing up, stakes were higher, more adult themes were being explored and it gave the series a much grander appeal than it had originally with it's first seasons.
Mistress 9 will follow this post, but her creation didn't quite have the same effect on Saturn.

Why Isn't Chio More Popular?

So having finished the anime Chio's School Road (review coming soon) I found myself supporting the lead Chio Miyamo and with the internet declaring best girl in pretty much every anime, I wonder why she isn't more popular?

So let's break her down first, Chio is a gamer with a rare interest in Western gaming, which for us lot doesn't bat an eyelid but in Japan, it's quite rare with Chio even referencing the difference in one episode.
Along with her gaming prowess, she possesses out of the box thinking in situations which can only exist from gamer logic, the whole punchline of the series is Chio travelling to school, how do we make this more fun?
Chio is also what she describes herself as below average, her relationship with her best friend is more inline with a bromance, I guess you can call that a womance.
And finally her quirky nature resonates with much of the audience this anime is aimed at.
She's pretty much a western vtuber before vshojo was a thing so why isn't she more popular?
Might be because by her own omission she hates standing out and that kinda translates into real life as well sadly.
And while it is her anime, she tends to be competing with her friend Manana who is equally as quirky, sometimes more extreme.
Chio is plain looking for a female anime character and her personality while unique, over laps with other members of the cast.
The key to female character design, standout and be unique, Chio isn't unique enough amongst the cast and her whole deal is not standing out.
It's a pity really as I had a lot of fun watching her.