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.

Sartorius Was Dio Before It Was Cool

A fun one for you now and everyone knows the JoJo reference "Za Warudo" but this massive memeable phrase didn't originate from JoJo.

Satorius or Takuma Saio is a major antagonist from Yu-Gi-Oh GX in the Society of Light arc looking way less deranged in the picture but I assure you that he sported some trademark psychotic eyes as so shows in Yu-Gi-Oh villains.
A brief description of his deck showcases cards inspired by Tarot Cards, Saio being a fortune teller himself, so a tarot deck suits him.
If you know your tarot cards, one of the cards is called "The World" which he plays against Judai.
Now Saio here is voiced by Dio Brando voice actor Takehito Koyasu and he does indeed utter the words "Za Warudo" predating his appearance as Dio Brando by quite a margin, meaning that Za Warudo is a Yu-Gi-Oh reference not a JoJo reference.
If you want to be technical, it's a trademark of Takehito Koyasu's acting.
So a nice little fun fact for you.

Disney Wishes it had Cleopatra

I hated Disney Channel when it was around and I'm glad it's been buried by Disney+ but once again it is anime that trumps the tween channel, long before it was conceived as a horrid channel with nothing but cringy sitcoms, anime produced one of the most unique main characters, allow me to introduce Cleopatra Corns.

Cleopatra is the teenage CEO of the Corns group, a super rich conglomerate that owns pretty much everything and moonlights as a vigilante group for taking down international terrorists, Cleopatra is a party girl by nature who hates stuffy office environments and business dealings but can also call upon powerful friends, make calls to massive organisations such as OPEC, and actively join in combat, she's basically an 80s retro anime fashionable Kim Possible as her cornucopia of dresses and uniforms is anything to go by from the picture.
And to top it all off, she's African American, yeah the colour palette doesn't make it obvious but this was released in 1986, the idea of an African American woman even leading a franchise is a miracle in Japan in those days.
With all her accomplishments as a character and the fact that her good and bad traits are well balanced, she would be a dream adaption for Disney who are all about these kinds of female characters.
The impact she can bring is incredible to imagine.

Sakura Proves You Can't Change Careers on a Whim

A silly anime can often showcase the most embarrassing parts of anime but you can see some thought out character moments and Sakura is no exception.

The plot goes that Sakura is part of an idol group but a wrestler insults them during a concert at a wrestling venue and it drives Sakura to wrestle the one who insults her, this dumbass determination drives her to train to become a full time wrestler and enjoy it way more than idol singing.
But unlike other anime where this type of character gets a free pass to the top, she loses so many times that she needed a reality check just to take it seriously enough to fight on a decent level, it's still cheesy enough to be a guilty pleasure but it goes to show you that even in the anime most desperate for cheap views you can write a character that follows proper in-universe rules.

Domon is Surprisingly Capable

It has been a while but mental health is no joke, look after it, don't let yourself burn out. Today's subject is a good example of strong mentality.

It's easy to consider Domon Ishijima a dumb gorilla and in many cases you're not wrong, plenty of times he's been showcased as not being book smart and having monkey like instincts but over the course of Flame of Recca, he quickly evolves into one of the most mentally strong characters in the series even getting compliments from enemies about it.
Over coming odds that were designed to take down characters of his type, his showmanship surrounding his interest in wrestling gave him the edge in his first battle of the tournament, his monkey instincts allowed him to overcome a female opponent who was otherwise toying with him, his complete disregard for danger allowed him to overcome an opponent who had previously decimated a much stronger foe in one hit and finally he overcame a virus designed to kill and control his body through sheer desire to be with Fuko and defeat Recca. It's that kind of instinct that makes Domon one of the most mentally strong characters in anime, a trait shared with the most beloved shonen heroes.

Golgo is a Boring Character

Continuing my special on characters worse or better than they appear we look at a veteran character who is actually quite boring.

Duke Togo a.k.a Golgo 13 a.k.a the spitting image of my uncle, is a master assassin who never fails to miss a target and is often said in universe to be the perfect template of a sigma male, self reliant, could bed any woman, even his own targets and get himself out of any situation with nothing more than his well honed killing and survival skills all with an eternal stoic expression that so defines his character.
Yet he's a boring character who barely speaks and in some films barely in them until he needs to be but he doesn't need to be as he's only there to drive the plot forward, the most endearing feature about any Golgo 13 story is the target Golgo is going after, this is most apparent in the film Queen Bee, where the title character Queen Bee, a soldier in a South American liberation army wants to kill the United States presidential candidate for her own personal reasons and her journey is way more interesting than Golgo's; its why the franchise still goes on as one of Japan's longest running, 2nd place in the longest running manga list as of 2022 and has been going since 1968 for 54 years and is only two volumes off surpassing Dokaben the current record holder, One Piece wishes it could be that long.