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.

Why Kim Possible Works As a Girl Boss

Girl Boss is a term thrown around in a negative sense to describe the over use of strong independent female characters who always get the job done no matter the scenario.
So why does Kim Possible get a pass when others in the Disney camp often get heavily criticised for existing?

First off we need to understand that like any term hijacked by the internet, it's misused and twisted by critics.
Girl boss by definition is a young woman who acts as a boss by leading or owning a business.
Kim is the boss of her own job as a secret agent and is presented as the perfect child of a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist, frequently she is depicted as having an extensive list of clients who are seen thanking her for a mission that took place off screen.
She's a cheerleader, naturally attractive and even those who do bully her never win.
So if she's written like Captain Marvel, why do we like Kim but not Captain Marvel?
Quite a few reasons.
1. She actually has to be the boss of someone, Wade and Ron come to mind.
2. She's allowed to fall in love.
3. She has foils in her brothers.
4. Shego is always presented as Kim's equal.
5. Silly villains play off Kim much better than anyone in Marvel's rogues gallery.
That last one is important as it's better for world building and works well with the Powerpuff Girls as well.
Having someone like Dr Drakkon as your main villain means you have something that perfect characters fear, unpredictability, the sillier the scheme, the more Kim has to work around it, it makes for a more compelling episode, when Kim has to work to save the world, this isn't even restricted to villains, Ron Stoppable has proven to be more of a problem to Kim at times as well, its also proven she struggles handling her brothers as well as they are just as smart as she is and there are two of them.
In fact the times she beats Shego, is when Shego stops caring about the current evil scheme.
So what have we learned?
If you want to create a girl boss character, make sure she actually has to work for it and earn it.
People get tired of supporting a hero that has no flaws and wins without effort and male characters aren't exempt from this, looking at you Isekai and harem leads.

Utena Walked So Jessie & Misty Could Run

One last role to bring out on Rachael Lillis and it's a role that kick started her two legendary characters Misty and Jessie. The Revolutionary Girl Utena.

The dub for Utena is rough and that's the nice version, but Lillis brought a lot to Utena that would become staples of her later characters, quick wit, snarky comebacks, tomboy persona and an ability to play off other characters best traits, the performance is a little rough but it was Lillis' 3rd role, 1st lead role and last role before Pokemon and she was already way better than most of the other voice talent on offer.
The Misty and Jessie we got is thanks to Utena and is one that mustn't be forgotten amongst Lillis' roles.
Thank you for this little trip down memory lane, I'll be happy to cover Jessie and Misty next if that's something people want.

Martina is a Perfect Foil

Another Racheal Lillis character that can be easily mistaken for Jessie.

Martina is the princess of Zoana and self proclaimed antagonist of Lina Inverse and party, while far from being a villain, she's more of an annoyance demanding attention, especially when Lina surrounds herself with cute male companions to flirt with; adding to her unique character, she's named after a famous female tennis player and made up a majin to worship called Zoamelgustar to try and play the villain but is too pathetic to do so and she only bothers Lina to begin with because Lina accidentally destroyed her kingdom in a misfire, but the fact that Lillis chose her Jessie voice for the role just makes her sympathetic enough that she makes for Lina's perfect foil, especially when you consider in OVAs that Naga the Serpent exists.
Lina having to deal with Martina on a regular basis gives the actual villain more weight when they get revealed.
Lina Inverse is so powerful that the only way to nerf her is surrounding her with friends and rivals too silly to be taken seriously but just competent enough that she can't do her job, Martina is the perfect example of this.

Reese is Really Underrated

Earlier this week, we were given the sad news that voice actress Racheal Lillis had past away from cancer; Racheal had some of the best range for a dub actress everything from sassy villains to tomboys, valiant prince like maidens to sweet ditzy android girls, but one role went under the radar was her role as Dr Reese Drake from Dinosaur King.

Dinosaur King felt like a Pokemon clone trying too hard, made even more obvious when the lead is pretty much Ash Ketchum with a Dinosaur (same voice).
Reese in the games was sweet and caring, but her anime counterpart is serious and looks like she's always so done with this shit, game purists may not like it but making this personality change made Reese the best character, she's a great foil for manchild Dr Spike Taylor, she plays off equally well with the kids particularly her little sister Zoe and some of the best one-liners and moments come from Racheal Lillis delivering her best performance.
Dinosaur King could've been insufferable but Reese gives us the perfect audience surrogate straight woman and we have Racheal Lillis to thank for bringing her A game to an anime that didn't deserve it.

Amy Rose is the Perfect Feminine Heroine

With her classic debut happening near 30 years after being introduced in Sonic CD, Amy Rose has become as well knowm as the rest of the cast with very little changing bar just getting older.

In her debut she was introduced in a green blouse with orange skirt looking closer to the default Sonic design, this is a far cry from the prototype eras where Sonic had a human girlfriend with a curvy figure and red dress akin to Betty Boop with a blonde wig; her role was to play damsel and I've said this before, there's nothing wrong with being a damsel character if it's proven that the one who kidnapped you is shown as very threatening, this of course was Metal Sonic, this is why I usually give Princess Peach a pass going up against Bowser. From there, Amy shows up in racing titles with her own car and Sonic the Fighters with her Piko Piko Hammer, Sonic Adventure was the breakthrough game sporting an older look that gave her a retro red dress and a new hair style which still acts as her design today.
She starts out running from a robot pursuer only to fight back at the end perhaps being inspired by Sonic's constant heroics, from there she was a frequently playable character.
Her personality started as a hopeless tween romantic, becoming a more active romantic when she decided to simply get what she wants, some of my other favourite iterations includes Fleetway Sonic as a more committed Freedom Fighter dressed in a plaid skirt or combat pants, this version is closer to Sonic's more heroic traits complete with her own sidekick; Sonic X as a more fleshed out version from the games and Sonic Boom where she develops a more peace keeper mentality akin to a therapist.
At no point does she ever sacrifice her feminine persona to follow other female protagonists in the recent trend of action girls with no colour palette, Amy has evolved in the right way to remain as popular as her Nintendo counterpart Princess Peach and that popularity has made her playable in the classic games as of this Friday.