Anime Winter 2017 Part 2- The Best And Worst Characters

Instead of having one giant end-of-the-season post like I’ve had in the past, I decided to split into two (sorry this is so late!). Here I am going to discuss my favorite and least favorite characters from the 2017 winter anime season. You can read my overall reviews and impressions of the season in Part 1. I will also write mini reviews in this post for any show I didn’t cover in the first part.

All of the anime series I watched for winter 2017 were:

Urara Meirochou
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Gabriel Dropout
Interviews With Monster Girls
Schoolgirl Strikers
Konosuba 2
Idol Incidents
Masamune-kun’s Revenge
Blue Exorcist Season 2
Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club
Chaos; Child

Best Female Character- Satania (Gabriel Dropout)

ALL HAIL SATANIA! I absolutely adore her. I have a weak spot for chuunibyou characters and Satania has many traits that make her chuuni (I plan to discuss this more in an analysis post). She is obsessed with being evil and demonic, and yet she is always failing at it in the cutest way possible. Satania makes this series, in my opinion.

My favorite part of Gabriel Dropout was seeing Satania come to life through animation. I laughed whenever she made an appearance and the demonic music played in the background. Perfection.

Although it had some iffy spots, I give Gabriel Dropout a 8.5/10. Satania is what makes it so great 😛

Runner Up- Toru (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid)

Toru is life. She is enthusiastic, hardworking, and quirky. Not mention very queer. The way she dotes on Kobayashi and says “Kobayashi-san!” are endearing. Seeing all of her antics, whether based on her dragon lineage or her love for Kobayashi, were funny and heartfelt.

Worst Female- Hiromi (Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club)

A typical trope in anime is the girl who is a scatterbrain, but has other good qualities. Hiromi from Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club was an example of this. However, unlike other noteworthy and lovable scatterbrains like Usagi from Sailor Moon or Honoka from Love Live, Hiromi doesn’t have any qualities that make up for her clumsiness and other flaws. Yes, she is hardworking when it comes to improving her bicycle riding… But it isn’t really believable or admirable.

Altogether, I liked learning about bicycles in this anime and I enjoyed seeing famous sites near and around Kamakura, such as the giant Buddha statue. However, the anime didn’t really offer anything that impressed me. Overall, I give it a 7/10.

Runner Up- Lucoa (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid)

I know she is very popular, so please don’t hate me. The truth is I like Lucoa. Quetzalcoatl is one of my favorite myths, and I am glad that it got some exposure, considering it is so unknown. It’s just… Lucoa is just too much sometimes. I can laugh at giant breasts jokes for a little bit, but I feel that it got old pretty quickly. I also didn’t like how she was all over the little boy all of the time. It was borderline molestation. Lucoa has a great personality- the fan service just needs to be turned down.

Best Male Character- Rin (Blue Exorcist Season 2)

Halfway through the season, I mentioned that Rin reminds me of my fiance. And I adore him because of it. I like how he is rough around the edges, but is genuinely a good person on the inside. Despite his good qualities, he is always facing some kind of discrimination because of his temper or his personal background. And yet, he manages to keep being a goofball and make those around him laugh, including me. I mean, who doesn’t find this face adorable?

At times, the new season of Blue Exorcist felt a little over-dramatic and drawn out. However, they did a good job overall and I loved watching Rin’s antics. Altogether, the second season of Blue Exorcist gets a 8/10 from me.

If you would like to read a more in-depth character analysis of Rin, check out my piece where I compare him to Hyakuya Yuu from Seraph of the End.

Runner Up- Masamune (Masamune-kun’s Revenge)

He is such an idiot and that is why I like Masamune. He made me laugh. His desperate need to be a cool guy was so over-the-top that it made me giggle. At the same time, he was a nice person deep down, which made his failures all the more funny and relatable, in my opinion. The sad truth is that many of the stupid things he did were based on how masculinity is perceived in society. So I can’t hate him for acting the way he did, especially after how he was bullied as a child.

Masamune-kun’s Revenge is a harem anime, but its dynamic is a little different than most anime in that genre. As I said, watching Masamune’s idiocy was fun. I also liked the cast of female characters. The series isn’t innovative, but it is much better than other generic harem anime that are all fan service with no heart. Masamune-kun’s Revenge does have a message in the end. Overall, I give it a 8/10.

Worst Male- Yukio (Blue Exorcist)

This may be surprising considering Yukio’s brother Rin is my favorite male character of the season, but I really can’t stand him. He is too uptight. He never takes any time to take a breath or have some fun. He is always hating on Rin. I try to be understanding, though. Even though he acts like he is 35, Yukio is only 15 and is probably going through a rough emotional stage. He lost his father, his brother may be persecuted the rest of his life, and he has a lot of pressure on him (he is a student, teacher, and exorcist all at the same time). And according to his character bio in the manga, he only gets an average of four hours of sleep a night. That is not healthy for anyone. So yeah, I try to be understanding, but I am still not a fan of his in the end.

Runner Up- Fake Masamune (Masamune-kun’s Revenge)

Say what? I thought you liked Masamune!

I do. However, I want to point out that if he was really the kind of stuck-up, narcissistic jerk he tries to be, then I would utterly hate him. There were times when I did angry at him, like when he tried the infamous “wall slam.” But as I said, he was a fail most at it of the time, and he is a good guy on the inside.

Best Loli- Kanna (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid)

Precious. Adorable. Little horns, droopy tail, pretty wings. Friends with a yuri girl; doesn’t care that Toru is a yuri girl. A phenomenon in memes. Kanna is the greatest.