I love, love, love anime. It has been a giant staple in my life for as long as I can remember. Even though a lot of people I know grew out of anime and manga, I still read and watch as if I'm 10 years old. It's AMAZING! I'm pretty excited, especially since it's the beginning of the month so that means I get my monthly updates on a few soon.
Anywho, growing up I made a few of these characters role models in my head. Is this silly? Maybe. I don't really care. I can openly say that some of these characters or situations gave me hope in some dark moments. To this day, I'll still sing The Power of Love from Sailor Moon if I'm feeling down. It just gives me a boost. With that said, I'm just gonna ramble some of my all time favorites (and please add your own if you have them!).
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| This is Gasai Yuno. See that loving, deranged look in her eye <3 |
The show is packed full of girl powah! Women protecting women, falling in love, out of love, and most importantly, believing in love AND YOURSELF. I can't tell you how many times Sailor Moon saw her friends and loved one die in front of her but she still pressed on, with acceptable breakdowns here and there. She's not my favorite character (I have like...5) but you gotta give her props. She's pretty damn strong and opened my eyes to some damn delicious awesomeness.
Yoruichi from Bleach: I'm so much like her, my friends call me that. Or Teruichi. Either or. She's one of the first black female anime characters I've ever seen and she's bad-fucking-ass. And she can turn into a cat. Extra points for me! She's always cool, calm, collected, and STRONG. Really strong. And she's not afraid to stand up for what she feels is right. Before Bleach closes out, I need to know more about her past. Come on Tite Kubo. Give me more.
Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki: So. She shouldn't be a role model. She's crazy. Bat shit insane. Possessive. But does she know how to love. In a crazy way. I dunno why she's my role model but she's definitely my latest manga obsession and totally cosplay worthy. I love her.
My "One Day I'll Cosplay" list grows all the time full of awesome characters. Do you have anime/manga/comic book/cartoon role models too? = D
Bad-fucking-ass ? Now that's bad...lol
ReplyDeleteI have three: Sumire (from Kimi wa Petto); Sarasa (Basara); and Shurei (Saiunkoku Monogatari).
ReplyDeleteAll three women are smart, beautiful and a recurring theme in the stories for each series is the idea of gender roles. For example, Sumire is in her late 20s and feels the conflict about being an unmarried but successful woman. Shurei is trying to become a government official in a fantasy Chinese world that doesn't let women have such jobs. Sarasa takes on the role as her twin brother to encourage people to rebel against a vicious monarchy. Despite these issues, the woman often feel conflict about the ideas of what is means to be feminine (like Sumire taking cooking classes or Shurei wearing make-up). They also face romantic conflicts as well. All three woman are portrayed as smart and admirable in times that for them specifically it might not have been. Only one of these manga series has an anime version (Saikunkoku--there IS a live action version of Kimi wa Petto though), but these three series are probably the three I've read the most in my manga collection.
Whoa! I'm so glad to have stumbled upon this site. Sailor Moon was my gateway to discovering Japan and the original reason why I studied Japanese. To this day, "Sailor War" from the live action musical is my hype song when facing some sort of challenge, like a job interview, a taekwondo match, or a particularly difficult conversation :D
ReplyDeleteAnd I second the shout out to Sarasa! I wasn't familiar with the series Basara until a Japanese coworker introduced it to me. I'm only on Book 13, but it's pretty epic.