Bearable Male Protagonists
Posted on | April 21, 2009 | 10 Comments |
As a follow up to last week’s post on male protagonists whose personalities are so contrived that the fact that anyone even acknowledges them let alone falls for them is amazing in itself, I thought I would compile a short list of the ones I thought were not so bad…
1. Okazaki Tomoya (Clannad)
| So not cool here though…
Well, it was because I’ve only just watched Clannad 24, but isn’t Tomoya cool? Not just because he’s a delinquent who has the heart of gold (stereotypical male protagonist 2a), but he’s pretty realistic in his goals and pursuing love (whatever route you choose – I’m more of a Tomoyo fan, of course, since she satisfies the criteria of cool girl who is surprisingly delicate). And MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL – he can deal with love and its ups and downs without dissolving into an introspective gibbering moron.
Golden moment: When he lied about his feelings to Tomoyo so that she wouldn’t be distracted in pursuing her dream…then ate a crepe and cried.
2. Negi Springfield (Mahou Sensei Negima!)
| Just fsking awesome…
Lets face it, Negi would so own you. In every respect. He learned Japanese in a month and he shoots enough magical energy out of his body to light the New York Christmas lights. Not to mention he’s only 10. Though surely he must be at least 11 by now, Akamatsu-sensei? And thankfully, although he gets introspective about love, he doesn’t break down and go all soppy like he probably will do when he turns teenager…
Golden moment: Owning Rakan with, like 50 billion new techniques he learned in like, a day. Yay shounen!
3. Madarame (Genshiken)
| In your dreams matey…
One of the most important stereotypes is the one which was thought up to reflect the typical otaku – hopeless, clumsy guy, usually getting caught up in extraordinary situations and suddenly finding out he’s awesome after all.
Madarame is possibly the most accurately portrayed otaku (although all the Genshiken reflect your common or garden anime society) and thankfully, he remains hopeless and aimless throughout the anime and the manga and his love of doujinshi and ero-hon doesn’t wane one bit.
Golden moment: His one-sided crush on Saki – possibly my favourite relationship in the manga. The development of the relationship from pure hatred to something resembling friendship with Madarame’s never-to-be-said feelings is kinda sad and very very real.
4. Lelouch (Code Geass)
| Even better in drag.
Mad as a hatter and so unbelievably overconfident though he sucks at fighting. You can’t help but to think that the size of his army is compensating for something…
5. Jin (Samurai Champloo)
| Yep, exactly like me, but with glasses. And not as cool.
I’ve not actually watched Samurai Champloo, but I’ve put Jin in because apparently he looks like me.
6. Yoshitaka (He is My Master)
Yoshitaka takes a special place on this list. Despite being in a position to get girls if he tried, he chooses instead to scheme up radical plots and plans to get them in skimpier and skimpier clothing to fulfil his rich boy/otaku desire. Now if that’s not a man, then I don’t know who is…
7. Keitaro Urashima (Love Hina)
Yeah, he is the stereotypical wimp/accidental pervert type. But until you see how awesome cool he gets over the course of the last few volumes, suddenly the whole thing feels like a “coming of age”/growing up kind of affair, and you can almost forgive Akamatsu-sensei for being so boring with the character in the beginning.
Golden Moment: Beating Motoko with only a shinai (though she had a cold)
8. Suguru Misato (Mahoromatic)
Another along the same lines, Suguru is pretty lame throughout most of the manga. In fact almost all of the manga. But with Mahoro gone, he’s free to grow up to become the disillusioned cyborg mercenary that we all know Mahoro was training him to be in the beginning. What else were the panty flashes and breast enlarging machines for?
9. Mizuho Miyanokouji (OtoBoku)
| Admit it – you’d hit it.
He makes cross-dressing look GOOD.
Oh Japan, you and your unisex given-names. You make it soo easy…
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April 21st, 2009 @ 8:32 pm
Hahaha, man, that last one got me. I havent seen OtoBoku and dont know the characters but when I saw the two girls in the last image and read the words “Admit it, youd hit it”, I automatically let out a “Hells yeah”… and then I read the rest of the article. Noooooooo! Hahahahah!
April 21st, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
You should watch Samurai Champloo. Jin is basically the cool, calm, master killing machine.
April 22nd, 2009 @ 7:30 am
Loll at the last one. Yes, I admit I would hit it. As much as I speak out against fake yuri, I still get turned on by Otoboku…
You look like Jin? You must be quite a good looking man.
April 22nd, 2009 @ 2:45 pm
Where’s number ten?
April 22nd, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
I’m not sure if he qualifies as a protagonist, but hikkikomori Satou-san from Welcome to N.H.K. is one of my favourite lead male characters of any series.
April 23rd, 2009 @ 2:24 am
zOMG, you didn’t watch SamuraiChamploo yet? That is a must-see. Very different from the crap that’s being broadcast lately. ;)
I agree with Jin as being ‘bearable’, if not outright cool. Didn’t see Clannad so can’t say a word on that. Urashima gets cool in the manga, yes – needs to live up to a Toudaisei level ;)
I totally disagree however with pussy male leads as being ‘bearable’. Pussy male leads are just a comfort for pussy males that watch that kind of show. Not in the least appealing nor inspiring. And where is what’s-his-name-Kamina(?) from Guren-Lagann? Or the dudes from Tenjo Tenge, for example? Badass is cool. Definitely.
April 23rd, 2009 @ 7:01 pm
You gotta say something about AIR’s Kunisaki Yukito. He’s no whiny schoolboy. He’s a freakin’ telekenetic puppeteer! AIR was right between Kanon and Clannad release-wise. And I think that for each one Key started giving their male protagonists MUCH more likability, male supporting characters included(FUCK YEAH SUNOHARA, AKIO!).
I can wholeheartedly agree that O-KA-ZA-KI[!] is a good character. Hell, I cried too when ****** died when he tried as hard as he could to hold on to them… but ********ly ***********************************************************************.
********** END
And Lelouch was the greatest bad good guy ever.
April 24th, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
Heaven: I didn’t say there were ten
Asuka: I thought my point was that pussy male leads WEREN’T bearable – was that point not put across strongly enough? ^^
Also I got squeamish with Tenjho Tenge b/c of the guy who’s insecure about his penis size. Haven’t seen Gurenn – should probably
Tye: I thought Yukito was neither here nor there – he was kinda grey personality wise. Cool, but boring. Sunohara could have him in a fight…
April 24th, 2009 @ 6:56 pm
You forgot to mention Madarame’s greatest trait, the fact that he has no normal porn. Also I think we can blame the likes Mizuho for declining birth rates in Japan
@Asuka: See Clannad, it is heartwarming and touching.
@Yuribou: You can probably skip Gurren Lagann, it works best if you like and get Super Robots. If you don’t it is serviceable, but then it is really just 27 episodes of bright colors, fight scenes and enemy taunting. As a rule of thumb for Super Robot shows if the intro doesn’t make you want to punch something you can probably skip it.
April 25th, 2009 @ 8:52 am
@Yuribou – yeah, I didn’t get the point as strongly, probably because exactly for those shows I didn’t watch, the pictures were ??. So I had a mixed image, hence my comment. :)
As Jaden said, don’t bother with Gurren Lagann too much, but DO watch Samurai Champloo.
@Jaden – I’ll look into it sometime ;)