Forum

HaruhiToy wrote:

My vote is for Kenichi in Kenichi Mightiest Disciple.

Seriously what's up with this thread? It seems as pointless as all those endless arguments in other spaces like "who would win the fight, the Death Star or the Enterprise?"

Someone seems to not have read what it's about. Have you seen any tournaments around?

MrVince wrote:

1. Who do you think is the strongest female character, lead or supporting?

It's kind of hard to pick just one. A recent favourite of mine is Mirai from Mobile Suit Gundam. She's a civilian who becomes the navigator for a space-ship in difficult circumstances, stepping up to the plate even though she isn't trained for the task when a lot of her compatriots can't or won't (*coughAmurocough*). Despite not actually being part of the military, she stands up to the captain when she thinks he's making the wrong decision and keeps a cool head in life or death situations.

Quote:

2. "Strong" and "strongest" may have different meanings to us all. What qualities make a female character strong? Physical strength? Will power?

Neither. To me a strong character is simply one that isn't passive and who takes control of their own destiny as best they can. Under that criteria, a character could have no fighting ability and be weak-willed, but if they at least try to stand up for themselves and solve their own problems, they're strong.

Quote:

3. Does "badass" necessarily equate to strength in the context of a strong female lead? Why?

No, and in fact I prefer female characters who aren't bad-asses. It seems like when a lot of (mostly male) writers decide they're going to write a strong female character who totally doesn't fit the gender stereotypes they do it by making her a total bad-ass who shoots people and spouts one liners and totally doesn't care about her looks because she's a hard-ass.

To me that's not a strong character, it's a violent sociopath. It's also become so common that all you're really doing is trading one stereotype for another.

Quote:

4. Are qualities which would describe a female character as strong different than qualities within a strong male character? Must a female be a "tomboy" or a "girl in boy's pants with a sword (or gun)" in order to be considered strong?

To me there isn't really any difference between strong male or female characters. In fact I think the best way to write a good female character is to just write a good character, period, without taking their sex into the equation too much.

As for the second part, as indicated above I don't like the idea that strong woman have to be hard-ass action heroes. In fact the idea (seemingly quite common) that strong women are ones who act stereotypically male is kind of misogynistic (keeping in mind here that by "stereotypically male" I don't mean "good at fighting", I'm referring to the tomboy thing).

[/i]

Dorcas_Aurelia wrote:

So... a joke to display your opinion on the how not worthwhile this thread is?

Got it in one.

Really, wouldn't it make more sense to have a thread as to what your favorite strong female lead is? Or perhaps what makes a good strong female lead?

We already had a "who have you fallen for" thread so there would not be much point in suggesting "strong female lead I'd like to do it with." Although with the posters here I suspect many of them couldn't pare it down to the top 10.

For now, I would say that Galatea from Claymore is the strongest character for me. There are two reasons:

the first one is that she has a great physical strength,
the second is that she can sense her enemies from far away, which allows her to build a certain strategy to win them.

And I think that a female character should not be with enormous muscles or wear too heavy armour. Because this way she isn't a female, she is more like a crazy guy without...e-e-e....you'll understand without what Wink

(don't want to post inappropriate words).

Marlene Angel a.k.a. Code #2805 from Blue Gender. This girl is tough. When she was 10, both of her parents were killed by the Blue. She managed to get taken to Second Earth and spent the next several years training to fight the Blue, eventually becoming an Elite rated soldier.

When we first meet her, she seems cold and distant, the ideal result of the training process she underwent. As the series progresses, she begins to warm up to the main character and eventually realizes she has feelings for him. She disobeys orders and does some bad-assitry to try to help the main character, showing in one episode in particular just how much she's changed from the person she was at the beginning of the series.

But wait, there's more. When the main character goes off the deep end, she does everything she can to help him, standing firm even when he shoots at her, and this after pummelling her in a mecha.

And at the end, when he tells her that she can't follow him where he is going, and she understands his explaination, she agrees to stay behind, even though she loves him and is carrying his child. You have to be super-tough to let go of someone you love when you aren't sure you'll ever see him again.

This doesn't really cover everything. But Marlene does all this just as a regular human with no special abilities, no magic or psi powers, no superhuman abilities. Just determination, guts, and skill.

I think Marlene is a *very* strong anime woman.

Ifurita, the deamon Godess from El Hazard, can destroy an entire city with one strike from her power staff.
Saber from Fate/stay night. May not be physically so strong but she has such strong will power.

[quote="Penguin_Factory"]

MrVince wrote:

It's kind of hard to pick just one. A recent favourite of mine is Mirai from Mobile Suit Gundam. She's a civilian who becomes the navigator for a space-ship in difficult circumstances, stepping up to the plate even though she isn't trained for the task when a lot of her compatriots can't or won't (*coughAmurocough*). Despite not actually being part of the military, she stands up to the captain when she thinks he's making the wrong decision and keeps a cool head in life or death situations.
[/i]

Great to see classic Gundam recognized, but you missed two others who deserve notice: Sayla Maas who could pilot and fight as well as Amuro, and who had the integrity to hold to her beliefs when her long lost big brother tried to get her to sit things out with one hell of an attractive bribe. And my favorite Gundam girl: Hamon Crowley, as manly and awe inspiring as Ramba Ral is attacking the White Base with mainly small arms, she goes one better and almost destroys it with bare bones equipment he left behind. She knows it's probably a suicidal attack, but that's the intensity and purity of her love.

Also, have to mention Hikaru from Rayearth. Isn't she being raised in a single parent home because her father had to go on a journey to get stronger when she beat him at age 5?

Forum - View topic
Strongest female character in an anime.

Japanese TV Special Ranks Top Anime Songs, as Chosen by Foreign Fans

This Week in Anime - So, Is Sound Euphonium Queerbaiting or Not?

Wonderful Precure! Episodes 1-12 Anime Review

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Ways of Monster Nation Manga Ends Due to Artist's Health

Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction Part 1 Anime Film Review

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Game Review

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Page 5 of 5

Forum - View topicStrongest female character in an anime.

Forum

Forum - View topic
Strongest female character in an anime.