My Top 10 favourite anime characters list:
Ash Ketchum: Pokemon has been always the show which I loved from my childhood, that show has always been a big part of my life, my love since childhood, and I don't really think I'll ever be able to quit watching this anime as long as Ash is the protagonist in this show. Ash has been the protagonist of the Pokemon anime since the start, and I'm always been a lot invested emotionally in his quest as a Pokemon trainer. The raven haired hero binds all his companion his friends, and more so, his Pokemon in an unbreakable bond of love and friendship, by giving them unconditional love. He has travelled through 6 whole regions, been over 1000 episodes, and has saved the world from destruction countless times. He might be a protagonist who has never been allowed to achieve his primary goal or make a giant stride towards it, but given his legacy so far in the entire Pokemon anime, like bonding by heart with so many Pokemon, saving the world from destruction so many times, how can we just not like him as a character? Ash is the best!!!
Ash's Pikachu: Ash's lifelong partner, who has been along with Ash since he had started his journey as a Pokemon trainer, has travelled everywhere with Ash during his journey as a Pokemon trainer, every adventure Ash has had so far in his journey as a Pokemon trainer, Pikachu has always been alongside him. Their relationship is pretty much brotherly at this point rather than being of a Pokemon trainer and his Pokemon. Since Ash is my most favourite anime character overall, it's pretty much a no-brainer that his Pikachu, a.k.a. his lifelong partner and a brotherly figure for him, is my second best anime character. Plus it's one of the cutest characters ever created in the anime history, just try listening at Pikachu's super cute voice when it squeals 'Pi...kachuuu".
Yami Yugi: The main protagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime alongside Yugi Muto, Yugi's other self, the sprit of a 5000 year old Egyptian Pharaoh named Atem. I genuinely loved him as a character always since I started watching the show. His display of emotions were so genuine and heart touching, whether be it the display of anger, sorrow, grief or concern for his close friends. His yelling always seemed so manly.
As a duelist he easily impressed me the most, the way he managed to keep his composure and pull of wins from some crazy jams and high-stakes/tough situations, believing in ''the heart of the cards". He was a total badass when he faced notoriously evil forces/villains in over to save the world, like when he confronted Dartz and Yami Bakura. All hail Yami Yugi(Pharaoh Atem), the son of King Aknamkanon, the King of Games!!!
Ash's Greninja: This was a Pokemon of Ash I genuinely loved from the get go, from when it was a Froakie. I couldn't really say that there was another Pokemon owned by Ash that shared so much of mutual trust between it and Ash. There wasn't even a single moment where they actually opposed each other or actually acted indifferent towards each other, there wasn't even a single moment of conflict!!!!
Even s a wild Froakie, Greninja saved Ash from Team Rocket, from where they started to form a connection, and afterwards, it willingly let itself captured. Ash and Greninja's relationship was all about mutual trust. And when it gained the amazing special synchro form named Ash-Greninja, it for a few months it even started to rival Ash's Pikachu as my most favourite Pokemon of Ash. The transformation was so freaking cool and awesome!!
I just loved the Ash-Greninja concept, the way Ash and Greninja became synchronized in body and mind during the transformation, sharing each others feelings/senses, the way they shared each other pain. I loved the entire Ash-Greninja arc, the way Ash and Greninja, despite facing many hardships and difficulties, managed to masted the Ash-Greninja form. I was really disappointed when it was released, I strongly hope it somday returns and reunites with Ash.
Kari Kamiya: One of the 8 original Digidestined in the Digimon anime, a major character in the series' Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02 and Digimon Tri. She is the only Digidestined among the original 8 who wasn't present in the series right from get go, she joins the series much later on....but man, despite joining the series so late, what a tremendous impact does she leaves upon the mind with her sweetness, her charmingness and her self-sacrificing nature!
The most admirable trait of her character is easily her self-sacrificing nature, the way she tends sacrifices her own safety for the sake of her near and dear ones, she thinks about others first, her close ones like her friends and only after that considers her own safety as a secondary issue: what can be more heart touching?
Even as an young little girl, she led herself to be captured by Myotismon's henchmen Digimon just because she was worried about Matt and Sora getting hurt. The way she displayed her emotions for her close one was always heart-touching....the way she cried and wailed after Wizardmon's death still brings tears to my eyes even till date. And her admirable character traits doesn't only stop here. Her connection to light and darkness is another very intruiging aspect of her character, which is expressed more in the second series of Digimon: she basically is the manifestation of light, someone who possesses all the traits of light but on the other hand can get weakened by overwhelming darkness. It is this conflict within her which leads to her strong development in the second saga of Digimon, via her growing friendship with T.K. and Yolei she grows a strong willpower which helped overcome her weak points towards darkness and protect her protect her pure soul from dark influence. It's also impressive further that how she developed into a braver, more self-dependent and courageous girl as the second series of Digimon progressed compared to the initial timidness and less self expressiveness in the first saga. How can one not like a pure, selfless character like Kari? No wonder why so many boys crush upon her.
Yugi Muto: One of the 2 main protagonists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime alongside his other self, Yami Yugi. While intially I didn't like him as much as he was mostly overshadowed by Yami Yugi during times of crisis. But as the series progressed his character development really impressed me, as for how he gradually managed to come out of Yami's shadow, how we went from a timid, weak-looking and gentle boy to someone who hold his own more than well in tough situations in Yami's absence. Also the gentleness and selfless care he sometimes displayed for his friends was really heart-touching, like in the duel with (Marik controlled)Joey in the Battle City arc. It was really admirable how he managed to prove himself worthy enough of the 'King of Games' title, that he wasn't always bound to be overdependent and overshadowed by Yami Yugi, by beating him in a duel in the final duel of the series, it really was fitting to his character IMO.
Tai's Agumon: The Digimon partnered with the known leader of the original Digidestined Tai Kamiya. Being the Digimon paired up with Digidestined who was portrayed as the leader of the original Digidestined, Agumon easily carried the bulk of the load in the confrontations with the evil Digimon. Agumon's digivolutions are easily the coolest in my view: Greymon, Metalgreymon and Wargreymon; and Wargreymon is my most favourite Digimon of all, it's design is freaking cool, and its overall feats fighting the evil Digimon in the first series of Digimon really impressed me, like playing a huge/integral part in taking down Venommyotismon, defeating 2 of the Dark Masters by itself named Metalseadrason and Machinedramon, and making a important contribution in taking down the strongest Dark Master named Piedmon. Fusing with Matt's Metalgarurumon it becomes Omnimon, which is another really cool Digimon, which has some godly and insane feats to its name. Its cool and awesome fights as Wargreymon is the main reason I like Tai's Agumon so much, but hey, I also found the Tai-Agumon friendship bonding moments quite adorable and nice.
Seto Kaiba: One of the main characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, the primary anti-hero in the the whole anime series, Yugi/Atem's primary and rival. Kaiba is probably the ultimate manifestation of the word 'anti-hero' if we straightforwardly go by the meaning the word. He is the total opposite of the main protagonists of the show, a.k.a., Yugi/Atem, in every possible manner. Unlike Yugi/Atem, who are caring, respectful for every one of their opponents, believes in the heart of the cards, puts a great deal of faith in the power of bond and friendship, Kaiba is sarcastic, rude, power lusting, no-nonsense, condescending and scathing to everyone, displays a displaying a conservative, ruthless, and abrasive demeanor, especially looking down towards people whom he considers incompetent or throwing blunt insults and wisecracks towards rival duelists. He never really bothers to treat his opponents with honour, but one thing, most importantly he shares with the Pharaoh, he always respects the game of dueling and never tries to adopt unfair means and plays fair and square. Despite all the seemingly loathful and negative qualities Kaiba has, it's always very hard to genuinely dislike him as a character, he is the opposite of the 2 main protgonists of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, their fierce rival who challenges Yugi/Atem in all aspects. He, via challenging the protaginists of the show from every aspect, is an huge an integral part of their development throughout the series: how far does Yugi/Atem's character development does even go without Kaiba. Adding to all this, some of his character traits are admirable beyond doubt, the brotherly care he always shows for his brother Mokuba, the way he joins forces with Yugi and co. during confrontations with ferocious evil forces putting aside all their differences to save the world. Not to mention that he has a very interesting and deep backstory with his stepfather Gozuburo Kaiba. I find it hard to remember a more intense rival and anti-hero than Seto Kaiba who had more of an impact on me in these two particular aspects.
Serena: Ash's main female companion in the XY series, the main female lead in that saga. Now before I go into detail about her, let me make it clear that Amourshipping is a major reason why I like her so much, though that's not the only reason. I always found the shipping thing to be really cute and unique, it brought a completely new different trend in the usual boring formula Pokemon followed regarding female companions until her. The moment I found out that she had a backstory with Ash in their childhood and she even recognized Ash instantly after seeing him on TV, I instantly became really interested in her character. As for her relationship with Ash, it started off a sort of a blind infatuation, but as the series progressed it developed into something far more genuinely substantial. She later on genuinely showed deep care for Ash as a close friend, as manifested in the episode XY&Z28. Ash was throwing him into an ugly bout of depression after his hard loss to Wulfric, Serena went to talk to Ash as a friend to relieve him from his depression. Ash, being blinded by depression at that point, acted rude and indifferent towards her. In return, Serena's reaction was....throwing snowballs at Ash's face and running away wailing that Ash is not being himself. People could argue that it showed that Serena saw Ash as a messiah and couldn't accept that Ash has a flawed side. But I strongly disagree with that point of view...I genuinely believe that it showed that how much Serena indeed cared for Ash as a friend. Ash was truly not being himself, he was basically being a negative bundle of energy for hours, he didn't seems to remember who is the person he actually used to be, being bogged down by depression. Serena had to make Ash realize that hard truth, in the hard way she did, because Ash wasn't realizing it the easy way...and she did exactly that. And it's actually Serena's words "you're not the Ash I know": which shook Ash and made him realize that he wasn't being himself and go for a more deep soul search which helped Ash rediscover his true self. And Serena wasn't really happy in the slightest that she had to make Ash realize it in the hard way, she was shedding tears for it later in the episode. In my view, that episode showed how much Serena did actually care for Ash as a true friend and genuinely made me love her as a character.
Her kiss to Ash is the final episode was a fitting way of telling Ash goodbye and more importantly, thank you, after Ash has been an inspiration and admiration for her in many ways. Amour aside, I also liked her development and characterization throughout the saga, how she managed to defy her mother's imposing desire of making her a Rhyhorn racer and found a new goal which she liked herself, how she, despite initially having problems/setbacks in her late-found goal, managed to excel wonderfully in the end in the goal. I really hope she does get a return in a future Pokemon saga sometime.
Kari's Gatomon: The Digimon partnered up to the 8th original Digidestined, Kari Kamiya. She belonging to Kari is an important reason for me putting her in my Top 10 list, but another important reason too is her touching and intruiging backstory. She was meant to be a Digimon paired up with the Digidestined, got accidentally separated, from where Myotismon found her, and tortured her mercilessly causing her to forget about her past and purpuse, and become a obedient and malicious servant of him. But I found it really touching how she, with the help of her true and dear friend Wizardmon, managed to remember her true past, and instantly throw away all her evilness, befriending Kari and turning against Myotismon. Her display of emotions at Wizardmon's death looked really genuine and heart-touching, and her defeating Myotismon immediately afterwards by transforming into Angewomon was a really fitting end to her backstory. Her digivolutions: Angewomon, Magnadramon, Ophanimon/Ophanimon Falldown Mode are easily the second most coolest after Agumon's in my view, I really enjoyed her fights throughout the series' of Digimon she's in, and in Digimon Tri, she's involved in really intruiging stuff with Dark Digivolutions to Ophanimon/Ophanimon Falldown Mode.
