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.

Akito Doesn't Deserve Redemption

Rant incoming and maybe spoilers.

Akito is the defacto head of the Sohma family, abused constantly by her mother who accused her of stealing her husband's affections, was raised as a male and brought up to believe that all the members of the Sohma family Zodiac would love her no matter what she did which she took literally when she abused every member of the zodiac both physically and mentally, with only Shigure getting off lightly but he made no effort to change Akito's behaviour.
Even when Tohru opened up her mind to the possibility that unconditional love does it exist which eventually leads to the curse being broken, there was no apologies or remorse for any of the actions she has done to the family, all she does is free the family.
No amount of tragic backstory can ever forgive Akito for the things she's done, it pisses me off how lightly she got off when most people in her position would see a lengthy prison sentence.

Dutch is a Badass

A character sadly overlooked in favour of Black Lagoon's terrifying female cast.

Dutch, unlikely to be his real name, is a former US marine who went AWOL following the Vietnam War, he now captains the Lagoon Company and the titular Black Lagoon in the lawless area of Roanapur Thailand.
Level headed, calm and the first to react to calm the situation should Benny and Rock freakout or Revy goes on a rampage, Dutch is one of the best written black characters in anime history.
The fact that anyone can stop Revy from rampaging is unheard of but Dutch does it as if he's done it so many times before, he's also respected enough to not be a constant target for the many groups residing in Roanapur.

Mireille Makes Everyone Feel Old

A re-visit to my childhood manga, Dot Hack Legend of the Twilight reminded me of this character.

Mireille is a Wavemaster and rare treasure hunter but for someone so young, four years old outside the game, her level of knowledge on gaming and The World is surprisingly high, this is because her mother is Dot Hacker member Mistral and other than a slight name change, the character is exactly the same in level and ability, we've gone far enough in gaming that our children are starting to pick up controllers and game like we did back then, Dot Hack's players from the original game have moved on whether it be into real life careers or admin for The World, whereas Mistral bonds with her young daughter over her favourite game.
Whether or not Mireille really is that smart or Mistral is helping is debatable.

Isla Doesn't Give Me Any Feels

Android girls are nothing new especially with emotions but Isla doesn't do anything for me.

Giftias are androids with human emotions with a strict lifespan of 81,920 hours, which roughly translates to about 9 years and 4 months, after which they lose their memories, breakdown in personality and go rogue leading to a potentially life threatening scenario. (Spoilers it rarely happens)
The lead characters work for the Terminal Services that retrieve Giftias nearing the end of their lifespan. Isla is a Giftia who eventually falls in love with lead character Tsukasa but is nearing the end of her own lifespan and inevitably this is how it ends, hardly a spoiler as it's the only logical end to a story like this as in keeping with the Anime's Universal Law.
Where I lose attachment to the character of Isla is for four reasons.
1. For the most part particularly early on, Isla still acts like an android, other androids with emotions like in Mahoromatic and Saber Marionette act human.
2. Even when she does start acting more human over the course of the story, her voice and cute actions fail to win me over, there's way too many comparisons between her and characters like Rei Ayanami and Ruri Hoshino.
3. The ending depending on your interpretation essentially retcons the whole anime, making her deactivation kind of meaningless.
4. You'd think a company like SAI Corp would improve the lifespan of their androids over the span of a minimum of at least a decade.
I mentioned Mahoromatic earlier that shares the same plot, Mahoro also has a limited lifespan which is more emotional for two reasons.
1. You always see a countdown no matter if the episode is comedic or serious.
2. The tragedy is way more impactful when it does happen and completely changes Suguru's destiny, something that Tsukasa never suffers from, he got his job by good connections rather than being qualified for the job and while it is sad to see Isla go, his whole job is essentially recreating the same painful scenario of losing a loved one with every Giftia they retrieve, Tsukasa will not be any different when he returns to work apart from being a little bit wiser.
A better ending for Plastic Memories would be seeing Isla go rogue and Tsukasa having to destroy her, this isn't me being cruel, I just want a better ending.

Aqua is Actually Brilliant, She's Just Lazy

Time to put to bed an old trope.

Aqua is the one who redeploys Kazuma into the new world but her arrogance and teasing get turned against her and she's dragged into the world to play the Isekai game, she still has her powers though which make her more useful than you think.
As her name suggests her affinity is water and her powers are mostly support and healing, in every world she's a useful asset but having been brought up in a domain that ultimately looks down on humanity, the goddess is too lazy to be useful and knows next to nothing about how RPGs work.
Aqua is far from useless but may as well be for her lack of empathy, any wonder she barely has any worshippers.