#sports animanga can be

[sebfreak]

#MorningHair

[curestardust]

[blue-thief]

i love the sports anime genre

[chaztalk]

Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers

Studio: J.C. Staff (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.)

Summary: Banaza, a humble merchant, is summoned to another world as a hero candidate, in the hopes that he has what it takes to defeat the demon army. When his summoners discover that he possesses no special skills, Banaza is summarily dismissed…but something goes wrong, and he can’t go back home. Now he must find a way to survive in this new kingdom. Luckily, Banaza might be more powerful than anyone–including Banaza himself–realized!

Where Does the Doomsday Train Go?

Studio: EMT Squared (Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear)

Summary: In a not-so-ordinary countryside, a big and strange occurrence is happening to its residents. But a young girl named Shizuru Chikura has a strong desire to see her lost friend again. Shizuru and three other girls board an abandoned train, and they set out to the outside world, where survival is not certain. What awaits them at the last stop of the "Doomsday Train?"

God’s Game We Play

Studio: LIDEN FILMS (Tokyo Revengers)

Summary: Supreme gods who have too much time on their hands create the ultimate "intellectual game" titled "Kamigami no Asobi." Reche, a former goddess, declares that she will find the most skilled human in this age to bring with her to challenge the gods in this game. She chooses a young man and rookie named Fey.

The Fable

Studio: Tezuka Productions (Dororo)

Summary: When you're the infamous prodigy hitman known only as "Fable," many things come easy. Being a normal person, however, isn't one of them. In fact, being told that he can't kill anyone for a while may just be the hardest job Fable's ever taken...

Boukyaku Battery

Studio: Mappa (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Summary: During the senior league days of a genius pitcher Kiyomine Haruka and skilled catcher Kaname Kei, they were talented enough to not only win, but also crushed the hopes and dreams of many junior high school players that they played against. However, Kaname lost his memory and the two entered Kotesashi High School, a no-name public high school. In the same school, they meet several talented players who had quitted baseball after playing against them in junior high.

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magic

Studio: Tsumugi Akita Anime Lab

Summary: Prince Lloyd wasn't always a prince...in fact, his previous life is one he remembers perfectly: he was a sorcerer, of sorts. So when he was forced to reincarnate, he decided to continue his studies, prince of the realm or no! But his new life has its own sets of challenges...including being a 10-year-old! What's the 7th prince/sorcerer to do?!

An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride

Studio: Brain’s Base (Natsume’s Book of Friends)

Summary: Zagan is feared by the masses as an evil sorcerer. Both socially awkward and foulmouthed, he spends his days studying sorcery while beating down any trespassers within his domain. One day he's invited to a dark auction, and what he finds there is an elven slave girl of peerless beauty, Nephy. Having fallen in love at first sight, Zagan uses up his entire fortune to purchase her, but being a poor conversationalist, he has no idea how to properly interact with her. Thus, the awkward cohabitation of a sorcerer who has no idea how to convey his love and his slave who yearns for her master but has no idea how to appeal to him begins.

[iidsch]

its crazy that if you look up sports animes about guys they are all normal* but if you look up sports animes about girls most of them immediately scream sexualization and incredibly weird ass vibes

[enbyboiwonder]

Wasn’t there that theory that the more exclamations marks are in its title, the gayer a sports animanga is? I wonder if that’ll hold true with Attack!!

[catonatrain]

hi guys oikawa and iwaizumi fundamentally changed my brain chemistry 9 years ago so here i am to talk abt them!! we grew up together... i got into haikyuu when i was just a few years younger than them.... and now... well they're older than me still...!!

so oikawa and iwaizumi have played volleyball together since childhood!! here is when they were kids!!

[Image ID: Picture of Oikawa and Iwaizumi as young children. Oikawa tosses a volleyball in the air with wonder in his eyes. Iwaizumi, who is holding a bug catching net, watches on. End ID]

oikawa is the captain and iwaizumi is the vice captain!! oikawa is the setter and iwaizumi is a wing spiker– for those who don’t know volleyball its kind of like this: oikawa’s position acts as the conductor whereas iwaizumi’s position acts as the main instrumentalist in a section

its very important to note that oikawa affectionately calls iwaizumi “iwa-chan” (though the author has mentioned that they thought of name iwa-chan before iwaizumi's full name -- iwaizumi hajime-- so essentially he was iwa-chan before iwaizumi hajime....)

in fact, when oikawa is in a tough position, he will trust iwaizumi to make the point, and set (or essentially pass) the volleyball to him

this absolute trust in each other was noticed by kageyama, one of the protagonists of the series, who used this knowledge to outplay to the two!! that’s how confident he was in their bond!!

you can see it here!!

its okay if u choose not to watch this, essentially it shows that oikawa would set to iwaizumi even if it wasn’t the choice most other setters would do in this situation!! wow!!

a little fun fact… all other childhood friends in haikyuu had their backstories shown… we got to see how they met… this was not the case for them, they’ve just always been together!!

[Image ID: Oikawa and Iwaizumi as children watching a volleyball match on TV together jumping around and cheering. End ID]

volleyball is their life and they've shared in that joy since their very beginning :>

thats what i have for now!! there's a lot more i could talk about, like their middle school days (the image shown in the poll picture!), their more of their high school days, and their adulthood :] but for now ill end it here!!

Round 1b #2

[ Image Id. An image of the Haikyuu!! manga, it has Oikawa on the right of the image, she has his eyes closes and is laughing, and Iwaizumi is on the left of the image, he is looking at Oikawa and looks slighty disinterested, and an image of Sakura and Syaoran from the cardcaptor Sakura anime, Sakura is on the left of the screen and Syaoran is on the right, they are both clinging on to each other. Sakura has a surprised face and Syaoran looks angry. End ID]

[o-sachi]

⚾ Sports Animanga 3x3 tag game !!

I think I like dark haired guys but I’m not entirely sure… (other than that I can't really figure out a pattern lol)

Let’s make it a tag game!! (Idk which of my moots have watched a lot of sports ani but ig u can choose charas from the same show)

tagging: @i-am-so-strange @strawchocoberry @lumiambrose @ryescapades @katsutora

@choccorin @littleplantfreak @mangostarjam + anyone else who wants to join !!

charas & their series under the cut

from left to right, top to bottom

Karasu Tabito - Blue Lock

Miyagi Ryota - Slam Dunk

Fujiwara Shuu - Tsurune

Takao Kazunari - Kuroko no Basket

Kiyose Haiji - Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Miyuki Kazuya - Daiya no A

Ibuki Kengo - Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru

Iwaizumi Hajime - Haikyuu

Aoba Suzuki - Red Blue

[quieteclipse]

bae sejin has the energy of those class prez characters in animanga where you think they're a hardass, when in reality, they're just awkward/anxious and they wanna make friends so bad 😭

and now i wanna give everyone school life animanga roles

baese: awkward class prez. how he got voted as class prez....no one knows, not even him 😭 (he has a lot of fangirls. like an insane amount) he hates being class prez if we're being honest, but he does his best when and where he can.

chungwoo: cool & sweet, but strangely intimidating vice prez (that acts way more like class prez). always places 1st in exams and is always doing some kind of sport or helping some teacher out.

ahyeon: class prince. he's exactly what you would expect of a princely character, but he has a lot more determination and gusto than you'd think. he doesn't brush injustices off with a smile and a soft "pls dont do that 🥺"

keunse: class jock (#2 bc you know...chungwoo, ever multifaceted). gets along with (almost) everyone, but not really close to anyone. except he bothers moondae a lot.

moondae: so desperately wants to be the class loner, but he attracts everyone's attention by getting himself into strange situations 😭 also always places 2nd in exams despite studying the most & trying the hardest

raebin: class bad boy except he's a really good boy 🥺 always has his headphones on or around his neck despite it being against school rules, so i guess he technically is a bad boy. he sucks at being cool & mysterious tho, boy is a supreme yapper.

eugene: class jock #3 and lowkey class clown #2 (moondae is #1). just like keunse, he gets along well with everyone, but he more or less considers himself friends with everyone too. his best friend is irreplaceably raebin, though, that's something everyone acknowledges.

[snaillock]

this fandom dry as shitttttt cause why am i barely seeing anyone talk about the new trailer? i know there are people talking about it if you scroll enough through the blue lock tag but for an animanga fan base that just had a season 2 of it’s anime drop? it’s a whole damn desert up in here.

anyways here are my thoughts on the trailer and the upcoming season:

good god blue lock deserved a better studio if i’m being completely honest here.

i really really don’t like the harsh look of the dominant and completely black shadows. i feel like it just does not at all fit with the art style and just clashes weirdly. it just gives off the vibe of them trying something and just going too far with it.

ofc a lot of stuff about the art direction is pretty subjective and everyone can have their own thoughts about it. personally, i don’t enjoy it that much and a lot of the screencaps are pretty unappealing to look at.

also not sure if this is just me but i have always hated is how absurdly lean the characters’ bodies looked in the anime. not completely sure if this is a thing unique to this anime or not. in the manga, they obviously looked fit and athletic but it was still believable that they were teenage athletes that have only really played on a high school/local level. meanwhile the adaptation made it appear like they have 0% body fat and are completely dehydrated. they looked like they were on steroids or some shit. is ego over there sneaking tren into their bloodstreams when they’re sleeping? and it certainly does not look this pet peeve of mine will get any better in season 2.

anyways onto the more positive stuff i’m looking forward to:

one thing i am excited for is isagis final goal in the u-20 match. i love that specific chapter in the series and i do feel like they’ll put a lot of effort into that part since it’s a pretty significant moment. so yeah i do have hopes for that. same with rin’s backstory. based on the little clip of it in the trailer, it does seem promising and i bet they’ll do a good job on that as well since it is a defining moment for his character.

another thing im quite happy about is my pookie sae’s new design. i’m so happy they changed his look to reflect the manga art style improve post-second selection arc. he looks soooo goodddd!

i’m also hella excited for the additional times. i really enjoyed those the first time i watched the anime and definitely was a little sad when i found out they weren’t canon in the actual manga. so i can’t wait to see what they’ll add to the characters this round.

even if the new season does inevitably its noticeable flaws, i bet i still will be extremely hyped when watching just like with season one. this series doesn’t fail to make me feel like a typical sports bro in a bar whenever someone makes a goal. and you bet my ass will be tuning in (🏴‍☠️) each and every week.

[boinin]

Blue Lock: AO3 statistics and fanfiction meta

Blue Lock (Manga) has more than 13,000 works on AO3! 🎉 The corresponding figure for Blue Lock (Anime) is about 7,900 or so.

Just under 230 works are tagged exclusively as Blue Lock (Anime), while there are just under 5,500 works tagged exclusively as Blue Lock (Manga). As expected, around 7,700 works are tagged under both fandoms.

I'm procrastinating today, so here's a high level analysis of the Blue Lock works on the platform. Given the low number of Blue Lock (Anime) exclusive works, I excluded these and reviewed only works that included the Blue Lock (Manga) tag. I didn't exclude crossovers, due to the aforementioned dual-tagging.

Firstly, here's the lowdown on pairings:

On the left: Works tagged under Blue Lock (Manga), without any additional filtering. NagiReo, KaiSagi and RinSagi nab the top three pairing placements, with NagiReo comfortably leading.

On the right: Same fandom tag, but inputting the search term "otp: true" into the "Search within results" field. This returns works with no more than one pairings tagged (i.e. excluding any works that have two or more pairings tagged). This includes any fics with no pairings tagged, platonic (&) or romantic/sexual (/). This filter yields approx. 8,600 works.

This doesn't affect the top three most-tagged pairings, but it reshuffles the other parings more significantly. For example: we can see that 55% of BachIsagi-tagged works feature other pairings, and it drops a ranking. KuniGiri-tagged works fare similarly, and the split is even more pronounced for RyuSae and NagiSagi.

KaiNess jump from 9th most tagged pairing overall to 5th most tagged amongst fics that only tag one pairing—lapping Kunigiri, and potentially an indicator of a recent boom in works for this pairing. The controversial RinSae goes up one place in the rankings under this filter.

The two searches show that nine pairings remain on top, regardless of whether works tag them in tandem with other pairings or tag them as solo. However, Isagi Yoichi/Everyone falls out of the rankings when the otp: true is applied. This is logical, given this pairing is frequently tagged alongside other Isagi slash tags. Filtering this way reveals that RyuRin is the tenth most tagged pairing in single-pairing works.

More discussion on pairings, ratings and tags, plus a comparison to others sports animanga under the cut!

It's also possible to use "otp: false" to show only fics with multiple (2+) relationship tags, which yields about 4,500 works. The results of this search are below:

Here, BachiSagi just about pips KaiSagi to round out the top three—but if trends persist, the number of KaiSagi works will soon grow at a higher rate, leaving the top three ships in the manga fandom undisputed.

Meanwhile, KaiNess and RinSae drop from the top ten, displaced by Nagi&Reo and Rin&Sae (platonic pairing tags). Not too surprising for the latter—due to taboo, works featuring RinSae tend to be standalone.

With KaiNess, it's simply that the two platonic tags are used more often in multi-pairing works, which makes sense given the relative recency of Kaiser and Ness's introduction, and the fact that they're still manga-only characters. A related search revealed KaiNess would most likely be the eleventh most-tagged pairing in multi-pairing works (296), followed by Bachira&Isagi (platonic pairing).

What about ratings, and the most popular non-pairing tags?

On the left: results for all Blue Lock (Manga) fandom works.

In the middle: results for Blue Lock (Manga) fandom works filtered by "otp: true".

On the right: results for Blue Lock (Manga) fandom works filtered by"otp: false".

To reiterate, the search feature just reports the most frequently occurring tags. Even the most common tag, Fluff, features on only around 15% of works.

There's not too much divergence caused by filtering. One observation is that filtering by "otp: true" returns a higher ratio of explicit works—this is supported by the tags that appear in that respective top ten.

Overall, the most popular tags in Blue Lock works are Fluff, Angst, "No Blue Lock" and "Canon Divergent" AUs, and Established Relationship... not to mention, good ol' reliable buttsecs.

Although not a rigorous (read: percentage tested) exercise, I compared these results to the most frequently occurring tags in other sports animanga fandoms in AO3 with the following observations:

Free! works have higher incidences of Romance, Smut, PWP and Friendship tags than Blue Lock does 🏊‍♂️

Haikyuu!! didn't have any sex-adjacent tags in its top 10, but otherwise reported similar trends to Blue Lock. One exception is a notably high incidence of the "Friends to Lovers" tag 🏐

Yuri!!! on Ice has a frequently occurring fandom specific tag ("Character's Name Spelled as Viktor"), and in additions featured "A/B/O dynamics" among its top 10 most common tags. Otherwise, it most resembles Free! in tagging trends ⛸️

SK8 the Infinity meanwhile mirrors Haikyuu!! in terms of frequently occurring tags, although with more common incidences of "Anal Sex" and "Post Canon" 🛹

In short, nearly all sports animanga including Blue Lock report high incidences of the following tags:

Fluff (and/or) Angst

Established Relationship

Alternative Universe (various)

Hurt/Comfort.

This doesn't tell us a whole lot, given these are popular tags for nearly every fandom. However, they are trailed in popularity by the tags Getting Together, Romance, Smut, PWP, and Friends to Lovers. These are more indicative of the shipping culture in sports animanga, including the fact that character relationships in these fandoms are generally pre-established.

As for ratings, It's hard to make a judgement on whether Blue Lock (Manga) works lean more towards a universal or teen readership, or towards being more mature/explicit in nature. This is due to a high incidence of "Not rated" works. Works may be categorised as "Not rated" for any number of reasons: authors avoiding spoilers, authors relying on tags for identification, or authors not knowing how to categorise their own work, or even opting not to categorise an ongoing fic because they are yet to decide the direction of the work.

That said, filtering by "Not rated" alone didn't yield a higher incidence of explicit tags, like filtering by "otp: true" did. So there's limited evidence that "Not rated" fics trend towards mature or explicit content in excess of general trends. All the same, where in doubt, it's best to refer to a work's additional tags to assess its content, as the rating may not always make this clear.

A long read, catering to a niche audience (read: my nerdy ass) but if you've made it this far, I hope you found it of interest!

[couldtransitionsaveher]

ONODA SAKAMICHI from YOWAMUSHI PEDAL

JUSTIFICATION:

"the protagonist of yowamushi pedal was originally supposed to be a girl until the author's editor said that a story with a boy protagonist would sell better, but he still kept a lot of his character concept for the original protagonist in creating onoda.

onoda is really obsessed with a magical girl anime, love hime, and throughout the series she often sings a song from that show singing about the transforming magic princess protagonist to encourage herself to pedal faster during cycling races. i feel like this can be seen as her finding power in femininity. even outside of singing the song there are multiple times while pushing herself during races that she shouts "i'm a princess!!!"

for an additional argument that requires a segue into making the case for another character's lgbt-ness for a bit: onoda's senior mentor is makishima yuusuke. makishima has a sense of style that other people often find weird and effeminate. makishima has a background story about how they were always bullied growing up for not fitting in regardless of what they did, and for quite literally not doing things "straight" (having weird posture/writing crooked/riding a bike with an unconventional style, etc.) makishima is also probably the character involved with the most gaybaiting in all of the animanga

despite all the people who find makishima to be weird, onoda greatly admires makishima, insisting that they're one of the coolest people she's ever met, and looking up to her as a role model. everything that other people find weird that makishima does, onoda admires and tries to imitate, from their cycling style to their fashion sense. in one cute scene, onoda sees makishima put their long hair in a hair turban after washing it, and as soon as she is alone she tries to imitate this despite not needing to wrap her short hair like that herself.

before getting roped into joining her school's cycling club (despite initially being intimidated by people who played sports), onoda was pretty shy and awkward and didn't have many friends. but after gaining a community in the cycling club, she begins to blossom into her warm and determined personality. some of the moments where that shines the most is when she is relating herself to the protagonist of love hime. i think there is a strong argument to be made for her being a closeted trans girl who is just starting to discover herself now that she is in a supportive environment with an older gender nonconforming role model giving her a small glimpse of what is possible for the first time, taking her first steps with experimenting and letting herself be excited about the idea of being a girl through the confidence-building outlet of her cycling.

i've not been able to see onoda as anything but a trans girl since i first watched yowamushi pedal 10 years ago and i hope after reading this you think so too!" - Anonymous

Reminder: Submissions are always open! Submit here!

Did you make your daily click today?

[lamnwar]

seeing some of the discourse happening in the jjk fandom rn over the last chapter as someone who's mainly a knb girlie is funny bc like... I'm working with a sports anime there right??? seemingly not that deep compared to a shōnen like jjk bc it's just silly boys playing basketball

BUT THEN!! the character analysis and all the content we got from reading between the lines and diving in the psychology of the characters (heavy on aomine, akashi and murasakibara) is just so insane and I got used to it to the point where I feel like it's standard for everyone to have this kind of reading of (any) media text

and then I see the whole debate on the jjk ending and I realise that the way I've seen knb fans analyse their fav animanga is, in fact, not the norm. Or maybe it is, but it's very clear to me that a lot of jjk is to be read between the lines and it can get easily confusing bc of how much is implicit and when all I see is people getting pass something that is to me obvious, it just feels frustrating

[blue-thief]

Ok so. I really like seeing your takes on Kaiser and Isagi, so I wanted to pick your brains about this, if it's ok?? What do you think about Kaiser's current idea of redefining himself and his proof of existence, and his rivalry with Isagi?

Hope you have a good day!

I'M GLAD YOU LIKE MY TAKES 🫡🫡

but ooohhh boy, yeah. i have a lot of thoughts about kaiser and this new chapter :3

the big question right now is, will kaiser actually make a comeback in this match? it's hard to tell. if this were a regular sports animanga, i would say, "without a doubt, yes." but we have to remember that this is blue lock. this is the same manga that eliminated kira ryosuke, and it's the same one that gave us this beautiful sequence of panels

a character hitting rock bottom and unlocking a flow state is not a guarantee that they will score as we saw with rin at the end of the jpn u20 vs blue lock 11 game. the same can be said about a similar awakening bachira went through at the end of the second selection. both times, isagi picked up on their evolution and used that to his advantage.

isagi is aiming to do the exact same thing with kaiser in this current match.

in the case of both bachira and rin, their awakenings were brought about by the realization that they needed to stop being so dependent on others. bachira had to free himself from isagi and the monster while rin had to free himself from the support of the blue lock 11.

the formula for these past few chapters has followed the same beats as what bachira and rin went through (rock bottom, backstory, flow state, interruption by isagi), but kaiser's current state is more similar to another character.

kaiser and barou are both positioned as monarchs who (at least initially) viewed themselves as the protagonist until they were challenged by isagi. unlike bachira and rin, barou was able to claw back up and score a goal by redefining what it means to be a king.

it seems kaiser is trying to do the same thing. however, he isn't necessarily trying to redefine the title of "emperor". instead, he is taking the title his father gave him, "piece of shit", and reclaiming it.

the best way i can explain what's going on here is that クソ物, "piece of shit", is written to be pronounced as "michael". kaiser's father calling him a "piece of shit" and refusing him to call him "michael" was his way of refusing kaiser's humanity. with how kaiser doesn't go by his first name, "michael" is the human he was never allowed to become.

as a child, kaiser equated himself with an object - his ball.

"when you throw a ball, it flies away. and when it hits a wall, it comes back. even if i got angry and hit it, or kicked it with all i had, it wouldn't get angry or cry. always, it would be there without saying anything. it's a piece of shit like me."

this was from a time in kaiser's life when he considered himself to be "mentally weak". however, the moment he discovered his identity was when he fought against his father and the police in order to protect said ball. this moment led to him discovering his identity. however, he misinterpreted this event as him finding his identity through hurting others like his father rather him defending himself.

now, we are at a point where kaiser isn't trying to destroy others. instead, he is doing the best he can to defend his position on a team he had no intentions of sticking with in the first place. earlier on in the series, when ego explained turning zero into one, he also said that being a striker is equivalent to being a destroyer. i'm not sure if this is actually what's going to happen but imagine how crazy it would be if KAISER was one of the characters who abandoned being a striker in favour of another position. even if that turns out to not be the case, there is no doubt that kaiser is going through a major shift in identity. he is discovering a way to feel human, to feel like the boy "michael", in a way that does not involve tearing other people down.

he is returning to a point in his life when he was at one with his ball, but now, he may realize that "not getting angry" is not necessarily a sign of weakness, but instead, resilience. he has hit a wall, but he still has a chance to bounce back from it.

however, i would like to point out that while kaiser has Been Going Through It, he is not at a point i would call rock bottom just yet. kaiser initially grew attached to his ball in the first place because he identified with its "weakness", and like how many people pointed out before, this is what drew kaiser to ness as well. he still hasn't lost ness yet. at this point, he easily could with how he dismissed ness's help in the most recent chapter. the question now is, will the final step in kaiser's evolution come before or after ness deserts him? or, will kaiser's evolution lead to ness developing on his own?

[koushuwu]

in the spirit of halloween where the vampires hunt and the werewolves are on the prowl. where the ghosts and ghouls get wicked, and the skeletons dance in the night, i took it upon myself (with the help of some lovely mutuals) to host and encourage a little collaborative event. an event in which we, together, will celebrate treasured sports animanga through the spooky veil of halloween.

across every sports animanga, i welcome creators of all medias to participate in making this halloween a little spookier. whether you write (fics, imagines, hcs, drabbles etc.), make gifs, graphics, manga colorings, moodboards or fanart (drawing, painting, digital art etc.), you're welcomed to join, so long as it's for a sports animanga and related to the spooky season.

𝔫𝔞𝔪𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔤𝔞𝔪𝔢:

all participants must be above the age of 18. otherwise, everyone is free to join. you don't have to follow me to join.

NSFW and DC content is welcome, but please do make sure to tag your submissions appropriately.

open to all sports animanga fandoms and across all creative medias.

works of all types of pairings (x reader, character x character, character x oc etc) are welcome as well as works with no pairings!

down below i've included a link to a list of spooky prompts. you don't have to use them, they're simply there for inspiration if you need any.

please consider sharing this post so more people can join. however it is not a must.

be kind, respect and support others, and just have fun with it!

when you post your submissions, make sure to tag them with #spookysports, and i'll add them to the masterlist.

works can be submitted at any time, but no later than the 31st of october.

𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔨𝔰:

spooky prompts list

masterlist

any questions about the event can be directed here!

©koushuwu 2023 - a big thanks to @tenkoushimura and @superbattrash. thanks to the house of daiya server; with a special thanks to @prettyiwa @icythot-bakubitch @auslanderka @no1frogfan

[crehador]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

ahh this is such a fun question, thanks so much for the ask! a difficult question as well lol, i am very indecisive so a top 10 anything is... tough

i'll limit myself to animanga only, aaand lump some characters in under the same banner so there's definitely going to be more than 10 here. i'm also prohibiting myself from giving more than one slot to hpmi characters or that would just be the whole list

anyway:

ICHISAMA (package deal, do not separate)

this is probably obvious (or should be obvious) from my pinned but in first place are of course my forever blorbos (and forever otp) ichiro and samatoki of hypnosis mic

it's hard to say what i like about them besides "literally everything" which is kind of funny because for like the first year-ish of me being into hpmi neither of them were my top favorites lol

and now i genuinely have to say i like them both equally, and like them both the most. out of any characters of anything ever. i typed a bunch of paragraphs after this but think i'll actually just stop here because nothing really does justice to how they make me feel (unwell, in a good way)

this post is already getting long so everything else will go under a cut! and besides ichisama in first, none of the other characters will be strictly ranked in order. mostly just listed as i think of them

2. bon my beloved, of showa genroku rakugo shinju

this is my favorite anime of all time, and what i would personally consider the best anime of all time, and bon is perhaps the single most beautiful character with the single most beautiful story i've consumed ever. i never feel any urge to make or consume fanworks of this series because it's just so mind-blowingly perfect and complete to me

i won't spoil too much about the series, but it's a tragedy, and that's something i don't read or watch much of. so it's truly exception for this to be my favorite, but it was just that good

bon is in so many ways a tragic character, and the series allows you to see him through his whole life. he's tragic in such a hauntingly beautiful way, though, and i left the series feeling like he now lives in my bones

this is probably also my favorite ishida akira role ever, which is saying a lot because he's always great. i love the anime because it gives such life to the rakugo performed in the series, and though i'm not an expert on rakugo, i felt like the performances were top-tier. and it always impresses me when voice actors take on roles that require them to perform a whole ass other art form (like rakugo or rap)

3. aomine (knb) AND grimmjow (bleach)

these are the same goddamn man i'm putting them together no one can stop me. they are a) blue b) panther-coded c) very aggro d) very aggro at a ginger mc specifically e) DEPRESSED and f) voiced by suwabe

(though honestly grimmjow's just here because they're too similar to separate, aomine's the real favorite here)

the thing with aomine is basically—

—and that paired with his tough guy/badass/fuckface manner is very appealing to me. i don't think it's even remotely possible for me to be brief in why he's so dear to me, but the short version is he's a deeply traumatized asshole and i'm into that

4. KIYOSE HAIJI RUN WITH THE WIND GUY OF ALL TIME (and various other sports guys who are single mothers)

i may have a lot of guys of all times but haiji is for real. before ichiro he was my favorite character of anything ever for a while, and he is definitely my favorite type of sports guy (so a lot of other sports guys are going to be lumped into this category with him lol)

he has an infectious passion for running and he will infect you. whether you let him or not. it's not negotiable. you will run. no matter what

i think he brings out the best in those around him, sometimes at a detrimental cost to himself. he pushes his team hard but pushes himself even harder. we stan a self-destructive king

and i'm putting natsusa number24 right in this rank with him

because while number24 is objectively Not a good anime, it's easily one of my favorite sports series and i sincerely love natsusa just as much as i love haiji. natsusa is like if someone made haiji but cranked the bitch factor up to one billion, he is the most gaslit gatekeep girlboss guy in all of sports anime and i love him for that

bonus shoutout to iura kei of shakunetsu kabaddi, usui yuuta of days, and sugawara koushi of haikyuu. gotta be my favorite flavor of sports guy

(ok this is not even fully true because i think my days favorite did ultimately end up being mizuki because he's just so fucking stupid BUT usui i still love you.........)

5. kaworu and all his ridiculously many expies (aka the "and then a weird guy appear" category)

basically i'm talking about these fucks

they show up, sometimes not even for very long, and all they do is cause problems (ok victor probably doesn't really belong here but he honestly does fit the mold and i'm too lazy to crop him out from this old graphic i made lol) and love another weird guy so catastrophically that it alters the course of the story

the way kaworu loves shinji the way komaeda loves hinata the way zashunina…… obsesses over shindo. like fine wine to me, chef's kiss. tbh that's why victor fits the mold for me, his and yuuri's love is less the "People Will Die" type of catastrophic but it's still life-changing, life-saving, for them both

ironically even though kaworu is a ryo expy himself i'm not. i'm not that big on ryo, i'll be honest. maybe it's because i wasn't the biggest of netflix devilman in general. i should probably read the manga sometime, might change my mind

6. SOFT BOYS natsume and rei

putting them together in part because lol look at them making the same pose on their anime covers even

these are both (natumse's book of friends and march comes in like a lion) two of my favorite series, and two of my favorite protagonists. they're soft but not weak, hurt but not broken. it just feels comfortable to spend time with them, to follow them even when they're hurting

7. CELTY MY BELOVED, of durarara

honestly celty is just cool as fuck. there are lots and lots of reasons to love her but i get so incoherent about it. it's really strange because i feel like the way narita writes women is not great in many ways, and yet... he always fucking... writes the hottest fucking women goddamn, i can't be mad about that

i always liked shinra too. because of how relatable he was lmao. i would be a weird little man about celty too i'm sorry

8. sir integra fairbrook wingates hellsing, of hellsing

god. yet another. she's just so fucking cool. massively obsessed with her. it's been too long since i've watched hellsing (and durarara for that matter) for me to remember a ton of details but her whole personality is just so appealing to me

you know the way people like fma olivier armstrong. sir integra's my armstrong

9. hei, of darker than black

once again he's just cool as fuck, also i'm chinese and it's rare to see a really good chinese character in anime, much less as a main character. darker than black is an older series at this point, but it remains one of my old favorites. second season was a bit questionable but honestly i didn't hate it. my boy got fuucked uuupppppp (said with delight)

funny story about hei is when i first started watching the show there was this moment where i thought "this is a weird detail to notice but something about his collarbones look really nice to me? they're just two lines but idk they're lovely"

THEN LATER IN THE SERIES on at least two other occasions that i can remember, maybe more, actual characters in canon commented on THIS SPECIFIC THING. HIS COLLARBONES. so what do i like about hei? what does anyone like about hei? apparently it's his collarbones lmao

10. nooooo i'm running out of space now and there are so many more blorbso i would talk about i can't choose who to put here but but but closing my eyes and picking the first name that comes to mind MIKOTO SUOH K PROJECT

part of me thinks i shouldn't actually put him here because he's, like, red samatoki lmao but no he deserves a spot. i think. idk. that's what i'm going with for now but, you know, indecisive

anyway. love a tragic mfer with one dead boyfriend who haunts the narrative and another ex who [redacted idk if anyone is going to be reading this far but just in case no one wants k spoilers i want say anything but you know this show is old as balls by now]

i actually love both of the factions in k (there are more factions later but i'm focusing on red and blue) because they're both families in different ways, and mikoto and munakata both care about their families in different ways (yes i love that bitch munakata too)

and the way they care for their people while failing to fully let their people care for them in return is sooooo delicious as a character trait to me

so that's the end of this enormous post i guess! there are approximately a billion other characters i love that i didn't get to mention but i will do my best to shut up now lmao

thank you again for the ask, very fun exercise to think about!