Forum - View topicThe most iconic anime character?
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5292 |
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I had a random shower thought recently: if I had to pick a single anime character that I considered the most iconic, the most representative of the medium as a whole, whom would I choose? If there was such a thing as a single "objective" answer, it'd almost certainly have to be Goku, given Dragon Ball's decades-long massive international popularity and influence. Or maybe you could make an argument for Luffy as Goku's successor, as the protagonist of the best-selling single comic series in history. Hell, you could go even further into the present and pick Tanjiro given Demon Slayer's box office domination. Or you could go in the other direction all the way back to the beginning and choose Atom/Astro Boy, the very first anime star from the God of Manga, without whom most of what we enjoy today wouldn't even be possible. There are other solid choices you could go with too, from Kenshiro to Usagi to Doraemon to Amuro/Char. I don't think there's a single "correct" answer to this question.
But the character that first came to mind for me was a bit of a dark horse: Lupin the 3rd. I can't think of another character who has shown the sort of continuous production longevity and versatility that Lupin and his crew have. It's incredible that a manga series starting in the 60s that saw its first anime production in 1971 is still getting new specials or movies or TV projects announced every couple of years to this day, and his animated history includes some of the most talented creators to ever work in the medium. There's a timeless quality to Lupin, and he's been able to slide effortlessly between heartwarming family-friendly cinema, zany slapstick comedy, sexually-charged psychological drama, gritty hard-boiled violence, surreal fantasy, or just about any other tone you could throw at him. In particular the Part V series is one of the most brilliant pieces of metafiction I've ever seen, since it not only asks the obvious question of how a character born in the Space Age would cope with modern technology, but a much more fundamental one as well: "Can a character as old as Lupin still be at all relevant in the present day?" Fortunately for all of us, the answer was a resounding yes. As long as anime keeps being made, I can almost guarantee that Lupin's crew will be along for the ride, getting into new trouble. That's what I call a true icon. Oh, and let's not forget that Lupin has THE greatest character theme of all time. Yuji Ohno created an absolute banger for Lupin almost 50 years ago, and it's stuck with him ever since. Admit it, just reading this made you start humming it. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1828 Location: South America |
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I think that Pikachu is the "biggest" character that the Japanese 2D pop culture complex has created. The "Japanese 2D pop culture complex" includes videogames, anime, manga, and illustrated novels. By biggest I mean the most recognizable.
Among "otaku anime culture," so the culture of (adult) anime fans, the biggest characters are from Evangelion, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei. Among 21st century characters, Konata from Lucky Star is the biggest meme character, and Frieren is the biggest recent character from the current decade. |
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Sab3r_Cr0p
 Posts: 5 |
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to me the most "iconic" are goku, lupin III, haruhi suzumiya, ranma, char aznable, kaneda, luffy and, depending on where you live, a lot of characters from the "world masterpiece theatre" series
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