Love the Character, not the Anime

[Buckeye]

With another thread about liking the music, but not so much the anime series itself, it gave me another idea for a new thread. In what series do you love the characters so much, but don't really care about the anime itself? I know that there are several instances of this where you continue to watch a series you are not really interested in because there is a particular character that you have fallen love with and just can't stop watching.

[lesterf1020]

This has happened to me in 3 animes that I can think of.

Gilgamesh.The Countess Werdenberg and Kiyoko were the characters that kept me watching. I loved the Countess' presence, ambiguous morality and her subtle battles with Kiyoko. I loved Kiyoko's fierce independent spirit and her willingness to engage the Countess when she felt it necessary. While initially intriguing I found the anime itself dull and I really didn't like the ending.

fate/stay night. I loved Saber and Rin but I could not handle the awkward story telling and the inconsistencies in rules, motivations and characters in this anime drove me nuts.

Princess Resurrection. Hime was fun. How could you not love a dual chainsaw wielding princess as ruthless as this girl? I loved her younger sister Sherwood and the two robot maids. Otherwise this was really quite dull despite introducing some interesting ideas like partial immortality and the reason why everyone is fighting. Maybe if it had focused more on that instead of silly episodic escapades I might have liked it more.

[bci110]

Luna from Gravion. She was an awesome and fun character to watch and I loved her spunkiness. Too bad the rest of the characters and the series itself were regrettable.

[pathos]

To Love Ru - everyone in the show is ok, but I specifically liked Lala, Yui, and Yami. Show itself kind of sucked tho.

[Kyon]

Karin from DNA^2. Mega-hottie!

[Suwako Moriya]

In all honesty, I find more often than not it's loving the character(s) in a given show that makes love an anime. Thus they're kind of connected and it can be hard to separate them. It's just that how much of a factor the characters are tend to vary. Ie the difference between making a meh show good vs making a good show great.

Still there are times I do end up liking select characters in a series, but find they're not enough to save the show. A recent example would be White Album which I dropped after nine episodes. Rina and Mana were awesome, but neither could make up for the show ruining character of Touya. Yes, I'm too lazy to give other examples right now.

[Nemo_N]

Burst Angel.- Dumb, dumb series. Not worth any money. But God, I love Jo. Yes, she is the typical quiet girl with added thougness, but her taste for bad, midnight movies is perhaps what pushed me to love her.

Cyberteam in Akihabara.- Loved the girls, but I didn't enjoy the show overall; it felt like it couldn't choose between being serious or silly. I enjoyed the movie more.

I'll see if I can think of more later on.

[Spirit Of The Stage]

Still there are times I do end up liking select characters in a series, but find they're not enough to save the show. A recent example would be White Album which I dropped after nine episodes. Rina and Mana were awesome, but neither could make up for the show ruining character of Touya. Yes, I'm too lazy to give other examples right now.

White Album was the first series I immediately thought of as well - Rina love - Touya ruins the series for simply breathing...

Suzuka is the other series I thought of - Yamato and Suzuka I absolutely despise, but Miki and Honoka are absolute love. Shame they are the also-rans considering they are way, WAY better than the two leads...

[The Great Bear]

Suzuka is the other series I thought of - Yamato and Suzuka I absolutely despise, but Miki and Honoka are absolute love. Shame they are the also-rans considering they are way, WAY better than the two leads...

From what I've seen of the show (about the first 6 or so episodes), I can see that. Definitely.

[Suwako Moriya]

Suzuka is the other series I thought of - Yamato and Suzuka I absolutely despise, but Miki and Honoka are absolute love.

First, I'll say I can see why people would like Miki and Honoka. Second, I was trying to forget that series existed.:cry: Yes, Yamato the idiot and Suzuka the bitch are just that bad.

[djanss]

This header virtually screams "Konata from Lucky*Star" from the very rooftops. :sd:

(And I repeat, seeing her cosplay-waitress, there should, by rights, be some way we could mix-match her with "Love the anime, not the character" Haruhi Suzumiya...)

[Dack Ralter]

Comic Party (the first one). I really liked all the characters, but the ostensible plot put me to sleep.

School Rumble, if it can be said to have a plot.

Shuffle, even though I like the show too. I'd like it a whole lot less without certain character quirks.

[Dizzon]

Elfen Lied. All-in-all, I didn't really care for it much. The story didn't work for me; nor did most of the characters. Except for Nana, she might be one of my all time favorite characters. If not for Nana I would have traded this series in a while ago.

[davesimmons]

Burst Angel.- Dumb, dumb series. Not worth any money. But God, I love Jo. Yes, she is the typical quiet girl with added thougness, but her taste for bad, midnight movies is perhaps what pushed me to love her.
I'm renting these now. As you say: dumb, dumb series but still mindlessly fun to watch once.

Meg: Please let me come with you Jo, I don't always get captured!
30 seconds later: Giant robot crow kidnaps Meg.

[Betenoire]

Burst Angel.- Dumb, dumb series. Not worth any money. But God, I love Jo. Yes, she is the typical quiet girl with added thougness, but her taste for bad, midnight movies is perhaps what pushed me to love her.
I'm renting these now. As you say: dumb, dumb series but still mindlessly fun to watch once.

Meg: Please let me come with you Jo, I don't always get captured!
30 seconds later: Giant robot crow kidnaps Meg.

And 30 sec is her new record before being captured. She's aiming for that 45 sec mark.

[Buckeye]

Shuffle, even though I like the show too. I'd like it a whole lot less without certain character quirks.
Pretty much, Shuffle is a series that is too heavy on fanservice. But I just love Primula and Asa.

[bctaris]

Karin from DNA^2. Mega-hottie!

Good one. Dumb show, and literally every other character is annoying, but Karin? Masakazu Katsura's blue-haired, slightly ditzy version of Iria? She's the only reason I sat through the whole thing.

[something]

To-Love Ru - A few, but particularly Haruna and Yami. The show itself is just such a infuriating waste of awesome potential, but these two were amazing. Sadly the former suffers from "not being lead female"-itis and Yami was just utterly sidelined after a great introduction.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - Is a depressing, crushing disappointment, but the cast is, of course, utterly epic. This is probably the best example I've seen of a show managing to collapse even with incredible characters. I don't even need to explain the wonders of the returning cast, but with Vivio, Rein Zwei, Teana, Caro, Elio, Vice and a few of the Numbers and Agito and Lutecia and Carim/Schach (and even Subaru, if under different circumstances) and more besides, it should have been impossible to fail. Nonetheless...

Kimikiss - Like most of the females, some quite a lot, HAAAAAATE how they were handled. How I feel towards this show is more negative than any other TV series I have ever finished. That should not be possible for a show with Yuumi and Mao and the rest. Oh well.

Blue Drop - Same idea as above, love Marie and Hagino and Tsubael, but just thinking about the show makes me angry.

Special A - Same idea as above again, only less extreme. But I dropped it 22 episodes in, and I don't think I've ever dropped something that late before. But despite loving Megumi and Akira, the show pissed me off enough to make me drop it.

Asu no Yoichi - Eh, it's waaaay premature to say I "don't like" this show yet, but I am very behind on it because I lack motivation to catch up. I just really would love to see what this series would be like if it were about Ayame or Tsubasa instead. I love Ayame but she's not getting enough screen time to motivate me right now. Well, I'll catch up eventually I'm sure.

White Album - Same as above, another ongoing series. Rina and Yuki and Mana are just lovelovelovelovelove, but I'm sooooo bleh on the show right now. Fuck Touya, fuck him to hell. I intend to catch up though.

Gigantic Formula - I remember really liking Mana and the little genius girl but just could not stomach watching the show anymore, and not just for the awful awful 3dcg.

Might look like a lot but generally, if I watch any show for more than 1-2 episodes, it's because there's a character I really like. They won't necessarily save the show or be enough to make me finish it, but I'll like the character nonetheless. There are also plenty of instances where I like a character more than the show, but don't necessarily dislike the show (and I don't even necessarily dislike Yoichi or W.A. either, as noted).

[Njr Scrawl]

GiTS:SAC I like Motoko & would love a spinoff show about her doing her own thing. Section 9 & the rest can take a hike!

[Suwako Moriya]

Asu no Yoichi -I love Ayame but she's not getting enough screen time to motivate me right now. Well, I'll catch up eventually I'm sure.

I'm not sure how much screen time you want Ayame to have exactly, so I can't say if the amount she's been getting is enough to matter. Heck, I'm not sure if it's possible to give someone like her enough screen time.

However for me, at the very least there's been enough of Ayame to keep me motivated. Granted it also helps that Asu no Yoichi at the very least manages to be decent on occasion. It could be a lot better, but then again it could be a lot worse.

[pi8you]

GiTS:SAC I like Motoko & would love a spinoff show about her doing her own thing. Section 9 & the rest can take a hike!
Heresy! Boma and Paz sure, and you could maybe convince me that you don't like Saitou, but not Batou, Togusa, Aramaki, or Ishikawa (or the Tachikomas!), they rank among the few male characters in anime that I love.

As for my own-

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue/Burst Angel - For Yuu and Sei (respectively) and their delicious costumes, while the latter was a little more serious, they both fall in pretty much the same vein.

One Piece - The overall cast is great; the writing, plotting, and art direction(stylized, etc), not so much :(

D.Gray-man - Picked this up entirely for Lenalee after discovering her in Jump Ultimate Stars, mostly enjoyed it, but I became frustrated at her loss of Innocence/sidelining. I held out hope though and was finally rewarded with her triumphant return and evolution. Only to then be out of show to watch. Argh.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones that come to mind right off.

[Blackthornhiei]

Cluster Edge: 23 episodes, half of them where repacs, and there was an instance of three recap episodes in a row, with the exact same scenes with different narrations from different characters, that added nothing to the series itself (and you though Gundam SEED Destiny' recaps were bad...). The show could have easily been 13 episodes with no loss. Not to mention that the story was crappy.

The only reason I watched it until the end was Chrome's little band of unnamed Artificial Soldiers. I hated Chrome himself, his little band played an important role and the poor chaps never got named! I loved the eye-patched Artificial Soldier only to have him be only one in the main and secondary cast to die in the end

[Buckeye]

As for myself, the one that sticks out the most would be Aoba Tsuzaki in Jinki Extend. The characters were great, but the series itself, nothing but the usual cliched mecha anime series.

[Helschadenfreude]

Cluster Edge: 23 episodes, half of them where repacs, and there was an instance of three recap episodes in a row, with the exact same scenes with different narrations from different characters, that added nothing to the series itself (and you though Gundam SEED Destiny' recaps were bad...). The show could have easily been 13 episodes with no loss. Not to mention that the story was crappy.

The only reason I watched it until the end was Chrome's little band of unnamed Artificial Soldiers. I hated Chrome himself, his little band played an important role and the poor chaps never got named! I loved the eye-patched Artificial Soldier only to have him be only one in the main and secondary cast to die in the end

I agree with the cluster edge comment, I was waiting for the plot to get sensible.. and it just doesn't. I dropped it about 17 episodes in... I liked most of the characters though(Except the weird annoying short blond kid)

[Nosredna]

I have to agree with the people who said Rina from White Album. I love her character, but the main guy is so awful he ruins the whole show for me.

[Njr Scrawl]

There are nice girls in Suzuka I like, such as the long haired brunette.
Hate the show, Suzuka herself & the dork fixated on her though.

More generally, I dislike "tsundere" characters, even if they are the main character driving a show, & tend to like the softer, kinder supporting characters.

[Zalis]

E's Otherwise - predictable/generic shounen psychic fighter anime with a dreadfully incomplete ending. But Asuka Tokugawa is cute/adorable/moe enough to rival the girls of KEY.

[DJ_72]

Mashiro da Windbloom of My Otome.

Mashiro is one of the most compelling characters I've seen. She just seemed shallow and bratty (but entertaining) at first. But after learning about her past and watching her try to be a better person I sympathized and wanted her to do well. She kept me watching through some terribly tasteless fanservice, but I couldn't go on after Sergey started making out with his adopted daughter (15 years old!:puke:)