[leokiko]

Originally Posted by Dagger

What I love about Senritsu (and a lot of other HxH characters, actually--she's just a good example of this) is what a unique character she is, taken as a complete package.

It's sort of hard to describe what I mean... a lot of side characters--and sometimes even main characters--in anime/manga are basically defined by a single standout trait or at most a handful of traits associated with a particular archetype. A character with Melody's design who appeared in a different series would, I think, be defined primarily by her looks. HxH doesn't completely ignore her unconventional appearance--there's that moment when Kurapika gets her gender wrong, for instance--but she reacts in her usual calm fashion, and the moment simply passes. She isn't the butt of the joke. She isn't just the ugly woman we're supposed to laugh at.

And then she has that lovely distinctive voice and manner of speaking--yet she isn't merely a soothing motherly type. She's intelligent and quite sly. She has an intriguing ability. And still, she doesn't come across as an awkward bundle of random character traits. All these facets fit together quite smoothly. HxH, with its enormous supporting cast, has a ton of characters like this. I love that we get such a wide variety of character designs and personalities, and that they give us such a rich sense of being people with their own lives separate from the main story, not just one-note paper dolls.

+1 couldn't have said it better