Gia's List: 7 Luckiest Ladies & Gents of Anime

In stark contrast to our last list, which featured characters with terrible karma (not quite the same thing as bad luck— but related), this week we're taking a look at the luckiest ladies and gents. And we're not just talking about all those doofy guys who somehow wind up with a harem of colorful characters...we're talking real luck.

7. Akane Tendo (Ranma 1/2)
We all know how Ranma arcs tend to go: something incites a competition between male or female Ranma versus an outraaaaageous competitor, the twist being that it's a "martial arts" version of some random, generally not-martial-arts related activity (such as cooking, flower arranging, or tea ceremonies). Many times, though, the inciting act involves Akane Tendo winning something that plants the characters in a situation: trips to hot springs, health spas, etc. Even she admits that she just has an unnatural luck at these things. Whether it's good or bad luck depends on how much you think she enjoys the constant cycle of watching Ranma participate in ridiculous competitions.

6.Millefeuille Sakuraba (Galaxy Angel)
You've seen this character before: wide-eyed, pink-haired, well-meaning, kind, gentle...but oblivious. In this particular version, that obliviousness also comes with a major upside: a hefty dose of love from Lady Luck herself. Unfortunately there's a serious downside as well, because the Galaxy Angel writers cleverly decided that while Lady Luck plays favorites, she still has a sense of fair play in this universe. After all of Millefeuille's good luck piles up over time, eventually it has to be paid back out, in the form of some epically bad luck. Fortunately for her, it's not always bad luck that hurts her. Unfortunately, it's bad luck like, y'know, blowing up a planet. But hey, that takes a LOT of good luck build-up first, so...

5.Saki Miyanaga (Saki)
Like Akane, protagonist Saki has a specialized, focused kind of luck. True to the subject of her titular series, Saki Miyanaga gets ridiculously lucky when she's playing mahjong. The first-year high school student has a poor past with mahjong: as a child, she always intentionally scored zero when playing with her family so as not to upset any of her family members. As it turns out, this means that she has immense skill at the game when it can be turned to winning instead of losing- and she has an awful lot of luck at the table. Sure, she can "read" the flow of the game and her opponent's killing intent, that sort of thing. But what it really comes down to is her luck with the tiles, and Saki has a lot of that, frequently flipping over just the right hand at just the right time.

4.Akagi Shigeru (Akagi)
Saki Miyanaga is a mahjong neophyte compared to the protagonist of another eponymous manga series, Akagi. This also puts him in stark contrast with creator Nobuyuki Fukumoto's other well-known manga protagonist, the incredibly unlucky Kaiji (featured in the aforementioned "terrible karma" list). Akagi is an older-looking teenager who is also a "genius" gambler, especially in (but not limited to) mahjong. Akagi mostly manages to psych out his opponents, but the reality is that they often call his bluffs, and every time they do, he still has a winning hand. Even against other players who cheat. It's a good thing, too, because Akagi has a complete disregard for the stakes of his actions, betting just about anything of value...even his own life.

3. Mihoshi Kuramitsu (Tenchi Muyo)
Our second wide-eyed, well-meaning, and oblivious lucky character is Mihoshi, the ditzy Galaxy Police officer. Now, depending on your willingness to research (and deal with spoilers), it turns out that there's a not-very-happy reason behind Mihoshi's general incompetence. But in general, you can't deny the woman's luck. For example, early in the series she avoids getting sucked into a black hole, instead landing at protagonist Tenchi Masaki's home where, let's face it, she lives a pretty chill life for the most part. It also turns out that she basically can't be harmed at all. Oh, and (spoiler alert...depending on your preferred canon): she was born into one of the most wealthy and powerful families in the universe, next to the royal Jurai family, of course. Lucky!

2. Justy Ueki Tylor (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor)
The only reason that Justy Ueki Tylor doesn't top this list is because it's not entirely clear whether Tylor is, in fact, lucky...or whether his stupidity is just an act to cloak his excessive genius. If it is luck, then Tylor is the luck master: he manages to land a job in the pensions department of the United Planets Space Force (UPSF), finagles his way into a hostage situation, unwittingly appears to resolve it, is promoted to captain of a ship (the Soyokaze), stumbles into resolving the conflicts on board, and then accidentally becomes very close to Azalyn— the young empress of Raalgon, who is the mortal enemy of the UPSF. There's a lot more to Tylor's story, but the long and short of it is: fortune favors fools.

1. Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)
It takes more than guts, superpowers, and (arguably) an overzealous obliviousness to reality to become the king of the pirates. It also takes an oversized dose of luck, and scars notwithstanding, Luffy has that in spades. Luffy's luck is so insane that various other members of the cast (friend and enemy alike) attribute it to miracles or divine intervention. Luffy's luck has gotten him out unscathed from executions, explosions, poison (multiple times), and wars. And he also managed to make the notoriously man-hating Boa Hancock fall in love with him, and she has offered particularly strong support throughout his adventures, leaving Monkey D. Luffy one lucky pirate.

The new poll: Whether because of the world's general fascination with computers or because anime is generally considered a "nerd" thing, there are tons of hackers and computer geniuses in anime and manga. We want to know which one you think would win in some kind of hacking competition, so vote here, come back and tell us your thoughts in detail in the comments if you'd like, and check back next time for the results!

The previous poll: When last we left our heroes, they were starting up a whole new anime season, and I can't help but notice that these rankings may coincide somewhat with our winter preview guide's view. Well, some of them, anyway. Here's the complete list:

1. Bodacious Space Pirates - 15.8%
2. Nisemonogatari - 14.4%
3. Natsume Yujin-Cho 4 - 11.7%
4. Another - 10.4%
5. Black Rock Shooter - 6.8%
6. Daily Lives of High School Boys - 6.2%
7. Brave10 - 5.1%
8. Prince of Tennis II - 4%
9. The Familiar of Zero F - 3.6%
10. Ano Natsu de Matteru - 3.6%
11. Inuboku Secret Service - 3.4%
12. Amagami SS+ - 3%
13. Area no Kishi - 1.9%
14. High School DxD - 1.6%
15. Listen To Me Girls, I'm Your Father - 1.6%
16. Aquarion Evol - 1.2%
17. Thermae Romae - 1.2%
18. Kill Me Baby - 1%
19. Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki - 0.7%
20. Rinne no Lagrange: Flower Declaration Of Your Heart - 0.7%
21. Senhime Zessho Symphogear - 0.6%
22. Recorder to Randoseru - 0.5%
23. Smile Precure! - 0.5%
24. Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 - 0.4%