The one where I gush over fictional characters
Hello everyone! Turns out even for someone whose been living out of a suitcase for the past 4-5 years of their life, moving halfway across the country, finding a new job and settling down some semblance of roots is a time eating endeavor, but I'm glad to finally have the worst of it in the past and get back to into it.
One of my biggest flaws as a person is that I am dreadful at remembering people's names. I remember faces well, but legit 20 seconds after being introduced to someone I will draw a complete blank and will have to pray someone says it again. I feel doubly awful about this because my own name is relatively unique and I don't typically see the receiving end of this much (What do you think is worse, people butchering your name or not remembering it at all?). Two things usually help me overcome this hurdle in either repeated interaction or if they make a really strong initial impression on me. This very much applies in the fictional space as well, and thus we reach the meat of this post!
If you've ever seen/heard the "Villains" podcast from the great Shea Serrano you can understand how fun just shooting the shit about characters can be (It's also why I set the number at 8 for each entry!). These are just a small handful of characters that have made an enjoyable, sizable impression on me and will almost certainly never forget them. If you know me I'm definitely more of a villain guy but today I'll humor the heroes just this once and introduce them first. Just some ground rules
This is explicitly just TV/Movies/Anime/Manga. Video Games are excluded for this because the interactive/gameplay portion is a significant part of the experience with them and lord knows I've played so many it could power a section all its own and so it shall, one day
These are specifically in no real order or ranking, just off the dome. Feel free to send me angry messages about my shit tastes though!
Cyborg (Teen Titans)
I didn't realize it growing up, but looking back I was pretty lucky to grow up in an era where black superheroes were actually a somewhat common occurrence. John Stewart as Green Lantern from Justice League, Virgil Hawkins AKA Static Shock, Wesley Snipes as Blade (Then there's Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z but that's a hot take for another day). My personal favorite of these late 90s/early 00s bunch is definitely Cyborg. His appearance is pretty self explanatory but his personality as a jovial, tech and toys obsessed geek is definitely the most relatable aspect to me. Between him, Mega Man, and Samus Aran I loved putting my arms into empty paper tower rolls and pretending it was a buster cannon.
I think it's important for kids to grow up seeing people like themselves doing these incredible things, challenging long standing stereotypes of what they can and can't be,on top of just being good for their own self image. Also because you can have powerful moments like these that very much translate to what they'll experience in real life.
Does this remind you of anything?
Senku Ishigami (Dr. Stone)
While I enjoy the common Shounen himbo protagonist with more brawn than brains *coughGokucough* I have a great I respect for shows with leads that are complete ****ing nerds and it's pretty hard to top the 10 billion IQ teen genius dragging humanity back from a 2nd stone age kicking and screaming. I debated a lot on this one, it was a three way between Lelouch from Code Geass and Midoriya/Deku from My Hero Academia. I picked Senku over them mostly because he isn't backed up by supernatural abilities, he is just pure brain and holy moly does he know how to use it. (and has to because it's all he has, he's a total physical weakling whose friends gotta pick up the slack in that regard). That's a large part of what makes him intriguing to me at least. Bonus points for many of his crazy MacGuyver-esque inventions being grounded and applicable in actual real world science.
Sypha Belnades (Castlevania)
Media based on video games has a pretty strained track record if you look at the overarching history of them over the years. Thus I was pretty nervous seeing how Netflix would handle one of my personal favorite guilty pleasure series in Castlevania (I beat basically the entire numbered series of games in a single summer back in college, plus all of the Nintendo DS handheld games). I have never been more happy to be wrong and I think Sypha is an encapsulation of how much good can come from quality adaptations fleshing out formerly flat characters across media. Someone who's basically nothing more than a gameplay option and a sudden endgame surprise gender reveal in the original game she hails from in Castlevania III is now a charming, incredibly badass female lead that isn't simply a token female damsel in distress (Okay, yes she is initially saved from being a statue in her debut but that's the only time AND it's faithful to the game!) who probably has the highest kill count of any of the heroes in the entire show. I especially like how her movements look inspired from its western animation predecessors in Avatar:The Last Airbender. Between Castlevania and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie there may yet be future hope for Video Game adaptations and you absolutely love to see it.
Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes/Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows.)
Yes zoomers, Robert Downey Jr. actually played roles other than Iron Man, shocking! Funnily enough the Sherlock Holmes duology he starred in were the very last movies he worked on before he became the foundational piece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The eccentric and at times comedic sociopathy of his Sherlock performance is a treat and actually decently faithful to the original Doyle novellas, but my single favorite part of these movies is the slo-mo fore-sighting of fights in his head with the ongoing monologue (and then the killer subversion of this the 2nd movie does with Moriarty).
"Discombobulate"
Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin)
Kenshin's story is one I've really grown to appreciate as I've gotten older. For starters. considering the mediums of Manga/Anime are typically stuffed to the brim with teenage heroes, Kenshin kicks off the story at the tender age of 28. A former ace assassin known as the "Battosai", he seeks to atone for his past sins by swearing off killing and helping those in need. A large portion of conflict comes not only just from external forces such as opposing swordsmen seeking to draw out his killer alter ego , but his own internal doubts over whether someone like him is worthy of redemption and a new start. The past year or so has made me resonate with this strongly, whereas as a kid it kind of just flew over my head and really only cared for the really flashy battle scenes.. Also before you ask, yes, he's a dude, really!
Mikazuki Augus (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans)
If you follow me on social media and/or are a regular Ogre Chronicle reader you'd know I am not exactly shy about my love for the Gundam series. Just as much as I enjoy the spectacle of giant robots armed to the teeth duking it out, the political and personal drama driving the aforementioned conflict is thoroughly engrossing. Mika's (and by proxy the entirety of Tekkadan, the central protagonist group) story is special to me in that it explicitly takes cues and inspiration from the plight of child soldiers, a long standing issue in Africa and other places in the real world. A bunch of "Human Debris" from years upon years of conflict, callously repurposed and cybernetically enhanced without a care for their future rise up and try to make a place for themselves in the world. Yet at the same time you witness just how important perspective in a narrative is as well as how genuinely unnerving and tragic the fallout can be from such traumatic upbringings. Mika has an almost suicidal devotion his best friend Orga whom he is largely dependent on from anything not concerning combat, and is wholly self-aware and even embraces the fact he sees himself as nothing more than a weapon despite how self-destructive a belief that can be to hold (Mild Spoiler Warning: Not even having two girlfriends who get along with each other fixes this!).
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa (Black Panther)
I'm not sure if it was just a mental backlog of all the grief and suffering of the past year, but I found myself tearing up a bit typing this section. I talked about it earlier with Cyborg in how representation in media matters, but Black Panther is unique in the sheer scale of its success. One of the long standing typical retorts to calls for representation and diversity in casting/directing is that it "doesn't sell well". Black Panther's unprecedented worldwide success as a solo superhero film with its immense focus and inspiration from African culture shattered that argument forever. Chadwick was no stranger to a film like this seeing as he portrayed Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall, but the sheer scale of success transcends even those amazing performances. I talked about how challenging stereotypes is important, Wakanda as a highly advanced isolationist nation compared to typical portrayals of Africa as a "shithole" and a central tenet of the story about not being a slave to tradition accomplishes that. It absolutely kills me inside not only to know that he'll never be able to reprise his role, but that he was enduring so much battling colon cancer in the process just because he himself certainly knew how culturally important such a film would be to the world. RIP Chadwick, Wakanda Forever!
Satoru Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen)
Lemme tell you about this dude Satoru Gojo man. It is very rare I feel a genuine sense of glee whenever a character is on screen because I know I am about to be thoroughly entertained one way or another. Mentor/Sensei characters tend to consistently be some of the better characters in manga/anime in my mind. Gojo is no exception to the rule and is fully confident in his ability as the baddest motherf***er on the planet, acting like you probably do on a New Game Plus run of a game you've already beaten, taking almost absolutely nothing seriously and steamrolling everything in his path with a flair for the dramatic. You're probably familiar with the term "plot armor" aka characters living through near impossible situations simply because the story demands it and it'd be horribly anticlimactic if the heroes keeled over before their stories were fully fleshed out. Gojo completely flips this on its head. You witness the villains of the story either foolishly attack him head on and get stunted on for their troubles or have to meticulously plan around his presence just to achieve their objectives. You might be wondering "Wouldn't that make the story boring if there was so little tension regarding the heroes winning in the end?" which is a totally fair complaint (Think some of the worse incarnations of Superman)! I personally think if you make enough of a spectacle of it and have a few narrative curveballs here and there it absolutely can work and it's a large part of why JJK is one of my ongoing favorites. Also, how could you not love a dude with swag like this??
The vibes are IMMACULATE
That wraps up this entry of CoM! Like I said this was a bitch to narrow down to only 8, and hopefully some of these short snippets encourage you to check out the series they hail from for yourself. Here's a short honorable mention list in the meantime, other than some i may have mentioned in the posts proper .
Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost (Pacific Rim)
Tormund Giantsbane (Game of Thrones)
Decim (Death Parade)
Killer Bee (Naruto:Shippuden)
Simon (Gurren Lagann)
Domon Kasshu (G-Gundam)