10.Joseph Joestar (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2: Battle Tendency)![]()
Oh man, as far "non-realistic" shounen fighting series go this guy is BY FAR my favorite. He mixes being fabulous and being buff/manly at the same time very well.
Before I continue just keep in mind I've only seen the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure anime series that aired last year. Part 2 was so good but Part 1 was somewhere between alright/decent and kinda held back the series from getting into the Top 10.
That said, Joseph was so great right from the begining of his saga. The stunts he plays are so over-the-top and awesome that he's always really entertaining to watch. Starting from his coke bottle trick to the various times he predicts that next line will be ___ is so amazing (he should have done it more often to be quite honest).
He has a decent amount of character development so he's not just some boring shallow/douchey main character from beginning to end.
I hear in Part 3 his personality isn't near as over-the-top/emotional as it was in Part 2 but I'm still expecting him to be pretty bad ass regardless.
I'm most likely not gonna read the manga since I enjoyed the pacing and animation and voice acting and stuff of the anime too much. Part 3 is bound to come sometime soon with how popular Part 3 is in Japan.
9.Keima Katsuragi (The World God Only Knows)![]()
Note that this ranking is only based on what the first two seasons of the anime covered. I have not watched the third since I want to read the stuff in the manga that was skipped (I still wonder why it even was)
The World God Only Knows has an amazing concept: Keima is able to get girls by using cliches done in dating sims. It's really great since because of the full circle it brings: dating sims were made to (assumingly) kinda probably give you an idea how to get girls with a certain type of personality.
And with the way it's set up Keima is able to get all different kinds of girls with them not even remembering after he gets the "kiss" he needs. The tactics and planning he uses to get the girls is so great to watch. Any time he can SEE THE ENDING he gets a plan that's usually entertaining to watch.
And the best part is that he vastly prefers 2D girls but he still gets all the 3D girls anyway since he's so ALPHA. Obviously the way he does things isn't necessarily a way a guy in real life should work to get a girl but it's always great to watch regardless.
8.Goro Honda (Major)![]()
As said in my Major write-up, a main reason why I love Major because of how much an inspiring series along with actually increasing my respect for baseball as a non-sports guy. Goro is a very big reason for both of these things.
Even as a little kid he was able to get at least 4 people to really like baseball just by how awesome he is at it. Seeing him grow up and continuing to inspire other characters in the series is really cool to see.
Goro's not perfect and he tends to be way overconfident and even pretty douche-y/insensitive a lot of the time. However he actually improves a bit in every season and I thought S3 was his biggest jump to where he went from being a douche like 1/4 the time to a douche like 1/8 of the time.
It's also really cool to see his own personal growth. He works HARD to stay good at baseball and doesn't ever give up on anything. He usually learns a few new tricks every season so while he still loves his fastballs it's cool to see his style changing up a bit every season.
7.Ririchiyo Shirakiin (Inu x Boku SS)![]()
A lot of people gave up on Inu x Boku after 1-3 episodes in, and I admit that I cannot blame them. Most of the cast was pretty bad/forgettable, the humor wasn't always the best, and complaints people have for Angel Beats were ones I had for a while for Inu x Boku (what was it trying to be? a slice of life in a mansion? A comedy? A romance? Why are there randomly moments when they have to beat up things?) On top of that is was fairly slow-paced in a not-good way.
Outside Karuta Roromiya (who was a consistently fairly entertaining comedy character) Ririchiyo was the only thing I was really interested in from the beginning of the series and the only reason I didn't give up on it.
From the beginning she's established as a tsundere, the type of one that tends to be very abrasive. HOWEVER, unlike many other tsunderes she is self-aware of her faults, dislikes it when she does make abrasive comments and actually is trying to be a better person which already puts her way above the majority of tsunderes out there.
Her development around this is... kinda slow but it's the thought (lolol literally in this case) that counts and she does make efforts to apologize and be more honest throughout the series.
These traits alone probably would have put her in the top 50, maybe even top 30. However the reason she's this high is because of the development relationship with Miketsukami.
Part of the whole "being nicer" thing was especially apparent and developed with Miketsukami and it culminates ![]()
My personal favorite character of the Kazama Family. Like most Kazama Family members who personality is somewhat archetypal: being quiet, inexpressive, shy and kinda snarky.
However, the best and most unique part of her personality is her ridiculous obsession and perversion she has for Yamato.
Almost half her dialogue are random perverted comments for Yamato and almost all of them are downright hilarious. Perverted female characters aren't too rare but how over-the-top Miyako goes (like many jokes in the VN are) makes it way better than most pervert jokes I've ever seen.
She has a fairly interesting backstory too, explaining why she's so devoted to Yamato and the original Kazama Family members. Even if she was kinda close-minded/defensive at first it was cool for her to finally accept the newer members in.
Unfortunately, her route is STILL not translated (and it's been 8 months since the last update) and I've been lazy/slow with in the Japanese learning phase (still memorizing katakana).
That said based on what I hear about her route, I'm expecting her to at least make the top 5 when I read, if not top 3.
5.Alice Carroll (ARIA)![]()
In terms of most developed character in ARIA, Alice probably beats out the other 2 main characters by a bit.
She starts off incredibly anti-social but thanks to the influence of Akari (and maybe Aika kinda) she warms up to them really fast (span of 2 episodes/chapters) but even seeing small development for her that early in the stage was cool.
Even though she’s clearly the best rower out of the main 3 she’s still the most childish and snarky of the group which usually ends up bringing a bunch of good humor in a series where comedy’s not really the main genres of the series. She still also has the problem of projecting while giving a tour so it was good to see her develop in that regard.
By the end of the series you get to see how much she’s changed. Her relationship with Akari and Aika, her relationship with Athena, her personality in general, and her rowing and projecting skills have improved and it really shows in one of my favorite anime episodes ever in Origination when she double promotes and it shows the flashback while she’s singing.
4.Suguru Oogushi (Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!)![]()
My favorite character from MajiKoi, and is not even one of the main characters (Just a side character who appears somewhat often).
His personality is a great over-the-top parody of anti-social anime fans.
More than half of his dialogue is insulting 3D girls to their face or talking about how superior 2D girls are or how much he stays at home playing games and that’s pretty great on its own.
But I think he has some of the most amazing comedy moments ever including: ![]()
Note that I have only watched the first two seasons + the OVAs of the Hajime no IPpo anime so I have no idea what Ippo goes (or doesn’t go through) in the manga.
That said, Ippo is overall my favorite shounen protagonist ever.
Seeing him start from humble beginnings and getting bullied to getting far in his boxing career was really cool to see.
Like Major, Hajime no Ippo is an inspiring series due to being able to see even a guy like Ippo get into boxing and pretty good at it is really cool. People might disagree, but I thought every single fight he had in the anime was really good (even the clinching guy and Barfmichi). With the way the series goes you really root a lot for Ippo in every fight and it’s cool to see him find that one strategy he needs to win mid-fight.
Although Hajime no Ippo is more realistic than most, it definitely still has all that shounen-y feel. Seeing go through Ippo go through those training montages, learning new moves and seeing the great animation of his fights are what made Hajime no Ippo S1 probably my favorite single season in anime.
I’m very excited for Season 3 and I hope the complaints I’ve been hearing about the manga are overblown.
2.Yuno (Hidamari Sketch)![]()
Hidamari Sketch is a great slice of life that’s slow-paced, upbeat and just a really feel-good series in general. While I like just about every character (except Yoshinoya who’s kinda annoying and Sae who’s just alright) Yuno was definitely my favorite.
While every character gets focus you almost always start with Yuno’s perspective whenever she wakes up every day to when she decides to take her evening bath at the end of the day.
Yuno’s personality overall isn’t too original, she’s pretty friendly, upbeat yet naïve and quite shy/indecisive/unconfident.
That said her flaws are something that’s actually addressed and developed throughout the 4+ seasons of Hidamari. Although the development is about as “slow” as the series is overall, it’s very natural and something you start to see around the middle/end of Hidamari x365. I especially like how she starts to change when Nazuna and Nori join the group, trying as hard as she can to be a good older classman when she was one of the younger ones for a while.
Outside her development her friendly, fun and upbeat personality makes watching her life really fun, even if her life is just a simple slice of life story that details her life in the Hidamari apartments and an art school.
I'm hoping she still gets even more development in the upcoming Hiro/Sae graduation season.
1.Akari Mizunashi (ARIA)![]()
I loved ARIA for many reasons but my favorite thing about ARIA by far was Akari.
She may not have as development as the other two main character but she more than makes up for it with her excellent personality. You might be tired of hearing the word inspiring but to me her personality defines it, albeit in a different way than others.
Akari’s personality is very, very positive at least 95% of the time. She almost always legitimately finds some enjoyment in even the smallest things in life. Cooking, cleaning, walking around the town, seeing the sights, giving a tour on a gondola, hanging out with friends, making new friends with random people on the street or even animals are just a few of the many things she does and has lots of fun doing.
Unlike many overly upbeat/optimistic characters like her she’s not really overly preachy about what she likes and believes in. Just seeing how much she enjoys doing what she does is a really fun and positive influence to me.
While her personality is great, she still has a decent amount of development as well, though mostly in regards to her rowing skills.
I’m someone who can be a bit negative/unconfident/close-minded at times but Akari’s mindset and personality is somewhat of an influence on me since she’s very positive, happy, open-minded, curious, idealistic and just always finds a way to make everything she does fun and/or enjoyable. It probably helps that her world is probably one of the happiest settings an anime character could be, but regardless the way Akari is the reason she is my #1 Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/Light Novel character.
Oh man, as far "non-realistic" shounen fighting series go this guy is BY FAR my favorite. He mixes being fabulous and being buff/manly at the same time very well.
Before I continue just keep in mind I've only seen the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure anime series that aired last year. Part 2 was so good but Part 1 was somewhere between alright/decent and kinda held back the series from getting into the Top 10.
That said, Joseph was so great right from the begining of his saga. The stunts he plays are so over-the-top and awesome that he's always really entertaining to watch. Starting from his coke bottle trick to the various times he predicts that next line will be ___ is so amazing (he should have done it more often to be quite honest).
He has a decent amount of character development so he's not just some boring shallow/douchey main character from beginning to end.
I hear in Part 3 his personality isn't near as over-the-top/emotional as it was in Part 2 but I'm still expecting him to be pretty bad ass regardless.
I'm most likely not gonna read the manga since I enjoyed the pacing and animation and voice acting and stuff of the anime too much. Part 3 is bound to come sometime soon with how popular Part 3 is in Japan.
9.Keima Katsuragi (The World God Only Knows)
Note that this ranking is only based on what the first two seasons of the anime covered. I have not watched the third since I want to read the stuff in the manga that was skipped (I still wonder why it even was)
The World God Only Knows has an amazing concept: Keima is able to get girls by using cliches done in dating sims. It's really great since because of the full circle it brings: dating sims were made to (assumingly) kinda probably give you an idea how to get girls with a certain type of personality.
And with the way it's set up Keima is able to get all different kinds of girls with them not even remembering after he gets the "kiss" he needs. The tactics and planning he uses to get the girls is so great to watch. Any time he can SEE THE ENDING he gets a plan that's usually entertaining to watch.
And the best part is that he vastly prefers 2D girls but he still gets all the 3D girls anyway since he's so ALPHA. Obviously the way he does things isn't necessarily a way a guy in real life should work to get a girl but it's always great to watch regardless.
8.Goro Honda (Major)
As said in my Major write-up, a main reason why I love Major because of how much an inspiring series along with actually increasing my respect for baseball as a non-sports guy. Goro is a very big reason for both of these things.
Even as a little kid he was able to get at least 4 people to really like baseball just by how awesome he is at it. Seeing him grow up and continuing to inspire other characters in the series is really cool to see.
Goro's not perfect and he tends to be way overconfident and even pretty douche-y/insensitive a lot of the time. However he actually improves a bit in every season and I thought S3 was his biggest jump to where he went from being a douche like 1/4 the time to a douche like 1/8 of the time.
It's also really cool to see his own personal growth. He works HARD to stay good at baseball and doesn't ever give up on anything. He usually learns a few new tricks every season so while he still loves his fastballs it's cool to see his style changing up a bit every season.
7.Ririchiyo Shirakiin (Inu x Boku SS)
A lot of people gave up on Inu x Boku after 1-3 episodes in, and I admit that I cannot blame them. Most of the cast was pretty bad/forgettable, the humor wasn't always the best, and complaints people have for Angel Beats were ones I had for a while for Inu x Boku (what was it trying to be? a slice of life in a mansion? A comedy? A romance? Why are there randomly moments when they have to beat up things?) On top of that is was fairly slow-paced in a not-good way.
Outside Karuta Roromiya (who was a consistently fairly entertaining comedy character) Ririchiyo was the only thing I was really interested in from the beginning of the series and the only reason I didn't give up on it.
From the beginning she's established as a tsundere, the type of one that tends to be very abrasive. HOWEVER, unlike many other tsunderes she is self-aware of her faults, dislikes it when she does make abrasive comments and actually is trying to be a better person which already puts her way above the majority of tsunderes out there.
Her development around this is... kinda slow but it's the thought (lolol literally in this case) that counts and she does make efforts to apologize and be more honest throughout the series.
These traits alone probably would have put her in the top 50, maybe even top 30. However the reason she's this high is because of the development relationship with Miketsukami.
Part of the whole "being nicer" thing was especially apparent and developed with Miketsukami and it culminates
I'm kinda hoping another season comes out to see if she develops even more.
6.Miyako Shiina (Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!)
My personal favorite character of the Kazama Family. Like most Kazama Family members who personality is somewhat archetypal: being quiet, inexpressive, shy and kinda snarky.
However, the best and most unique part of her personality is her ridiculous obsession and perversion she has for Yamato.
Almost half her dialogue are random perverted comments for Yamato and almost all of them are downright hilarious. Perverted female characters aren't too rare but how over-the-top Miyako goes (like many jokes in the VN are) makes it way better than most pervert jokes I've ever seen.
She has a fairly interesting backstory too, explaining why she's so devoted to Yamato and the original Kazama Family members. Even if she was kinda close-minded/defensive at first it was cool for her to finally accept the newer members in.
Unfortunately, her route is STILL not translated (and it's been 8 months since the last update) and I've been lazy/slow with in the Japanese learning phase (still memorizing katakana).
That said based on what I hear about her route, I'm expecting her to at least make the top 5 when I read, if not top 3.
5.Alice Carroll (ARIA)
In terms of most developed character in ARIA, Alice probably beats out the other 2 main characters by a bit.
She starts off incredibly anti-social but thanks to the influence of Akari (and maybe Aika kinda) she warms up to them really fast (span of 2 episodes/chapters) but even seeing small development for her that early in the stage was cool.
Even though she’s clearly the best rower out of the main 3 she’s still the most childish and snarky of the group which usually ends up bringing a bunch of good humor in a series where comedy’s not really the main genres of the series. She still also has the problem of projecting while giving a tour so it was good to see her develop in that regard.
By the end of the series you get to see how much she’s changed. Her relationship with Akari and Aika, her relationship with Athena, her personality in general, and her rowing and projecting skills have improved and it really shows in one of my favorite anime episodes ever in Origination when she double promotes and it shows the flashback while she’s singing.
4.Suguru Oogushi (Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!)
My favorite character from MajiKoi, and is not even one of the main characters (Just a side character who appears somewhat often).
His personality is a great over-the-top parody of anti-social anime fans.
More than half of his dialogue is insulting 3D girls to their face or talking about how superior 2D girls are or how much he stays at home playing games and that’s pretty great on its own.
But I think he has some of the most amazing comedy moments ever including:
If there’s one comedy character that ALWAYS has something great to do or say, it’s Suguru. I’m still excited in reading the rest of Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! and seeing more of this guy is one of the reasons I still am.
3.Ippo Makunouchi (Hajime no Ippo)
Note that I have only watched the first two seasons + the OVAs of the Hajime no IPpo anime so I have no idea what Ippo goes (or doesn’t go through) in the manga.
That said, Ippo is overall my favorite shounen protagonist ever.
Seeing him start from humble beginnings and getting bullied to getting far in his boxing career was really cool to see.
Like Major, Hajime no Ippo is an inspiring series due to being able to see even a guy like Ippo get into boxing and pretty good at it is really cool. People might disagree, but I thought every single fight he had in the anime was really good (even the clinching guy and Barfmichi). With the way the series goes you really root a lot for Ippo in every fight and it’s cool to see him find that one strategy he needs to win mid-fight.
Although Hajime no Ippo is more realistic than most, it definitely still has all that shounen-y feel. Seeing go through Ippo go through those training montages, learning new moves and seeing the great animation of his fights are what made Hajime no Ippo S1 probably my favorite single season in anime.
I’m very excited for Season 3 and I hope the complaints I’ve been hearing about the manga are overblown.
2.Yuno (Hidamari Sketch)
Hidamari Sketch is a great slice of life that’s slow-paced, upbeat and just a really feel-good series in general. While I like just about every character (except Yoshinoya who’s kinda annoying and Sae who’s just alright) Yuno was definitely my favorite.
While every character gets focus you almost always start with Yuno’s perspective whenever she wakes up every day to when she decides to take her evening bath at the end of the day.
Yuno’s personality overall isn’t too original, she’s pretty friendly, upbeat yet naïve and quite shy/indecisive/unconfident.
That said her flaws are something that’s actually addressed and developed throughout the 4+ seasons of Hidamari. Although the development is about as “slow” as the series is overall, it’s very natural and something you start to see around the middle/end of Hidamari x365. I especially like how she starts to change when Nazuna and Nori join the group, trying as hard as she can to be a good older classman when she was one of the younger ones for a while.
Outside her development her friendly, fun and upbeat personality makes watching her life really fun, even if her life is just a simple slice of life story that details her life in the Hidamari apartments and an art school.
I'm hoping she still gets even more development in the upcoming Hiro/Sae graduation season.
1.Akari Mizunashi (ARIA)
I loved ARIA for many reasons but my favorite thing about ARIA by far was Akari.
She may not have as development as the other two main character but she more than makes up for it with her excellent personality. You might be tired of hearing the word inspiring but to me her personality defines it, albeit in a different way than others.
Akari’s personality is very, very positive at least 95% of the time. She almost always legitimately finds some enjoyment in even the smallest things in life. Cooking, cleaning, walking around the town, seeing the sights, giving a tour on a gondola, hanging out with friends, making new friends with random people on the street or even animals are just a few of the many things she does and has lots of fun doing.
Unlike many overly upbeat/optimistic characters like her she’s not really overly preachy about what she likes and believes in. Just seeing how much she enjoys doing what she does is a really fun and positive influence to me.
While her personality is great, she still has a decent amount of development as well, though mostly in regards to her rowing skills.
I’m someone who can be a bit negative/unconfident/close-minded at times but Akari’s mindset and personality is somewhat of an influence on me since she’s very positive, happy, open-minded, curious, idealistic and just always finds a way to make everything she does fun and/or enjoyable. It probably helps that her world is probably one of the happiest settings an anime character could be, but regardless the way Akari is the reason she is my #1 Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/Light Novel character.