IGN decided to throw together a list of the top 25 anime characters of all time for the 50 year anniversary of anime hitting the airways, which I’m not sure where they got this number from, but hey a celebration is a celebration. They decided to come up with a list of 25 top classic anime characters. To be part of this list each character had to have lasting fame, made an impact on the medium, quality of character, and “personal taste” (mostly personal taste.) Well, let’s not beat around their bush, you can check out the full list
here with their reasonings, or spoil yourself below.
1. Goku (DragonBall Z)
2. Astro Boy (Astro Boy)
3. Speed Racer (Speed Racer)
4. Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)
5. Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
6. Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)
7. Edward Elric (FullMetal Alchemist)
8. Pikachu (Pokemon)
9. Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)
10. Rei Ayanami (Evangelion)
11. Shotaro Kaneda (Akira)
12. L (Death Note)
13. Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)
14. D (Vampire Hunter D)
15. Arsene Lupin III (Lupin III)
16. Jubei Kibagami (Ninja Scroll)
17. Vash the Stampede (Trigun)
18. Light Yagami (Death Note)
19. Haruhi Suzumiya (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
20. Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)
21. Vegeta (DragonBall Z)
22. Monkey D Luffy (One Piece)
23. Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)
24. Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
25. Shinji Ikari (Evangelion)
With that said, this is IGN’s opinion on what they believe are the top 25 classic anime characters of all time, but in my opinion, they are totally wrong. Let me put it this way, it would be as if I made a top 25 list of greatest sports stars, there would be Michael Jordan, Tony Hawk, Tiger Woods--so on and so forth, but I only named the most popular figures, and not some of the more influential people who may not be spoken about in everyday conversation. This list is insulting. They put
Lelouch on the list but don’t even mention
Amuro or
Char? I mean seriously 90% of the characters on this list are from shows 1990s and newer, I guess they missed the “of all time” part.
Another reason why this list really grinds my gears is that there are too many criteria to be on this list. Is it listed by most popular, most powerful, most influential, characters you want to bang? Of course you are probably asking then, “God Len, if you are so smart, why don’t you make your own god damn list, you fat head?” I would, but then I believe I would make the same mistakes as this crazy list. It needs to be more specific I believe, but also a lot more detailed. But hell, I’m tempted.
All I know is that
Kenshiro and
Golgo 13 are not going to be happy when they read this monstrosity.
Come on, let's be honest here: Aren't most of these "Top 10, Most Influential, etc" lists popularity contests? I mean, look at the last Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Of course you are probably asking then, “God Len, if you are so smart, why don’t you make your own god damn list, you fat head?” I would, but then I believe I would make the same mistakes as this crazy list.
That does not sound like a bad idea. If people feel that IGN's opinion is "wrong", I'd be curious to see what the "right" list would be that everyone would agree with. I don't think that's possible though. I'd probably make a list but anime isn't my specialty.
I'll just go ahead and say I like that list.
2. Lists which include the phrase "of all time" BLOW because they have little to no sense of history.
3. Lists seem to only be objective once in a blue moon. A very, very blue moon.
I know all of these characters, but that's because most of these characters were created in my lifetime. I will say that this is a list written in English in the year 2009, so what is so wrong with this list?
The first Gundam , for example, is no longer popular. There have been umpteen Gundams since then. The Wing boys are more popular now.
I don't think that IGN's criteria for choosing what has been hot in anime is just about as faulty as the reason for people liking these characters to begin with.
It's a tough thing to come up with a top list, because this sort of ranking is highly unscientific, which is why response to the damned top lists is so crazy.
I've seen the first Gundam, and while it's cool, I also like other Gundams, and the old animation doesn't sing as well to me as the new stuff.
It's kids vs their parents, traditionalists vs. young rebels, etc. You see why you shouldn't read lists?
It's not even a question of traditionalists versus new-age, I mean, if you ask someone who the more famous bad guy in Star Wars is, Darth Vader or Boba Fett, I garauntee you they will choose Darth Vader every time. Gundam is at least as popular and iconic in Japan as Star Wars is here, and Char is too, so if this list is to have any claim at all to credibility, Char "Casval Rem Deikun/Edward Mass/Quattro Bajeena" Aznable better be on that list.
Well, OK, we're probably talking The West, to put it in a way that includes the readers of IGN and Vice.
Utena -- at the very least -- deserves to be on this list. Sakura (the titular Cardcaptor) likely needs a slot as well.
(aside: And would Astro Boy have made IGN's list if it weren't for the new CG movie? Let's be honest.)
So what you're saying is we need to nominate all of the very coolest characters from every show we can think of, set them up in 'fields' for voting -- and eventually a championship bracket -- so that we can apply some science and democracy to the problem and come up with our own top 25 (or 100, or 500). The exact criteria wouldn't matter; a character could be considered cool for whatever reason fans might choose (and it might be a different reason for different characters). If it were a strait-up tournament (with mechanisms for 'losers' to compete in their own brackets, maybe with the possibility of a comeback) then we could cite a list as being authoritative, or at least agreed upon by a consensus of fans.
It'd be like saimoe -- but with much broader criteria for inclusion. (let me know if you want to run this. I'll give you the Friends&Family discount on my math)
However, just because there are women in anime doesn't mean it has to be equal representation. Rei's on there, though.
2. Kamina
Fix'd