My top 10 characters

As promised, a (fairly) concise list of my favourite anime/manga characters, written (mostly) for my entertainment and reference. This is a list that’s constantly changing- I mean, two of these characters I had the pleasure meeting only this year– so I will update it as necessary.

Anyway, these are all characters that have had a profound impact, not just on their respective shows and fellow characters, but on me. Some have made me laugh, some have made me cry, some I have fallen in love with, one I find particularly terrifying, all are completely awesome and fascinating and if you’ve met them, I’m sure you’ll agree!

Ace Railgun’s 50 questions

Ha, ha, ha, yeah. Thought I’d totally hop on the bandwagon and write out my own responses to AceRailgun’s 50 questions. It seemed like an interesting way to spend half an hour and, as you all know, I freakin’ love lists so, I couldn’t resist!

Why Yotsuba& is hilarious and everyone should read it

Because my last post was so freakin’ negative and critical, (sorry Bakuman but, you deserved it!) I thought I’d write up a more positive post about a little manga I’m thoroughly enjoying right now! It’s so easy to get into this pattern of hating upon shows, you neglect to give the creations that are truly worthy any attention, and that’s not something I want to happen. So, without any further ado, here’s my next, more positive rant!

Yotsuba&, the manga is a wonderful creation- nothing else makes me titter quite as much as Yotsuba& does. I’m not one for kids, I don’t plan to have any myself, I’d much rather buy a cat, or a goldfish but, little Yotsuba, for which the manga is named, really warms the cockles of my heart!

Artist named

Yotsuba& consists of short little stories that revolve around Yotsuba as she goes about her daily life, discovering the world around her. Yotsuba& is the second creation of mangaka Kiyohiko Azuma, the original creator of Azumanga Daioh, and it really shows! It has the same simplistic art-style and humour where characters don’t need to rant and rave; yelling REALLY LOUDLY to make something seem funny- a quaint expression, exaggerated action of even a funny face here and there is enough to have you in hysterics.

Now, the reason I love Yotsuba, the character, is that she reminds me how things used to be when I was a kid. Small, everyday events are made to seem practically wondrous through Yotsuba’s lack of understanding and overactive imagination. At some point during your life, the world seems to lose all of its mystery and wonder, so to see that again through this little girl’s eyes is truly lovely.

Yotsuba’s energy is only amplified by those around her- instead of chastising her for her curiosity or complete and utter ignorance, her father and neighbours often go along with her antics, making her misadventures seem all that more ridiculous and rip-roarious!

For whatever reason, Azuma does not wish for Yotsuba& to get an anime adaptation. I heard this was because he was unsatisfied with Azumanga’s adaptation but, I was unable to verify this myself. I, personally, am not altogether sure that this is a terrible thing- I have a hard time imagining a show capturing Yotsuba’s energy without resorting to being excessively loud- a less than charming technique used by many comedies. Fancy animation quirks and music may also take away from the manga’s sublime simplicity so, for now, the manga is more than enough to entertain me!