Most influential characters

[DanielSong39]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Tenchi the "the first modern i can't decide harem Male lead"

Keitaro the hapless loser harem male lead.

Godai (Maison Ikkoku) predates them both, and is much more developed a character to boot...

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by DanielSong39

Godai (Maison Ikkoku) predates them both, and is much more developed a character to boot...

I said MODERN who besides old school fans know who Godai is? or even remember MI?

Originally Posted by Demongod86

Lacus Clyne. Most popular gal for several years on end, and takes down all sorts of diabolical villains. What's not to love?

You are missing the point. the original poster is asking most INFLUENTIAL characters. We are not talking Saimoe here we are talking about anime characters whose influence is beyond it shows fanbase or the show itself.

Lacus Clyne is influnetial in the gs universe NOT the REAL LIFE anime world.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Char Aznable (U.C Gundam):

Before this villains were mostly underdeveloped and irredemiable evil. You could also tell a villain instantly because they looked more demonic than the other characters, even within the same race of beings. Then came Char Aznable, a handsome charismatic character who wasn't really evil at all, but just had his own goals. He also had a well-developed backstory and we got to spend just as much time with him as we did with the heroes. He continued to develop and change his opinions as the Universal Century progressed and ultimately followed through with his convictions right through to the end, yet we never saw him as some generic evil villain like those from Golion. After Char, villains have for the most part seen better writing and attention as well as character development, to the point where sometimes we are even rooting for them to succeed in their goals.

[DawnEmperor]

Goku of course, for the idiot hero. The naive, stupid guy who makes for it in heart. And fighting ability.

Kenshin and Vash seem to form this duo of non-killing which has permeated many protagonists to this day. I can see elements of them in Luffy(One Piece), Train Heartnet(Black Cat), Rushuna(Grenadier), and many others.

[Guernsey]

While Asuka may not had started the archetyype, she did more or less had an influence on modern tsunderes, both in personality and traits. Forgive me if this is not accurate.

Originally Posted by kayos

The Sailor Scouts from Sailormoon. Don't ask me why I just felt like saying it. The influence is somewhere.

I think it is that the Sailor scouts are probably the first magical girl sentai team although this may not be accurate. If Dragon Ball influenced shounen teams, I believe that Sailor Moon had influence on modern mahou shoujo sentai teams. I could be inaccurate but that is my thoughts

[Archon_Wing]

You can tell by how many clones and wannabes they have.

Char Aznable is most famous; even non-anime watchers know him. He has a certain grace to him that most wannabes in anime would love to emulate but never come close. His eternal on and off rival Amuro Ray is almost as notable. (Though, Char stole both Kamille and Amuro's shows. )

Love it or hate them, Shinji Ikari, Asuka Langley Soryu , and especially Rei Ayanami are very much so. They probably exist in an anime you're watching right now as inferior copies.

Motoko Kusanagi. She was there before the Matrix and her series was an inspiration for it.

Possibly Haruhi Suzumiya, who's become almost a mascot of modern anime even to those not so familiar with it. Time will tell if it sticks.

[Kyuu]

How dare none of you mention Haruhi. For shame. It's because of Endless Eight, wasn't it?!

Usage of the "light novel" as a source for anime really kicked in after season 1.

EDIT: I just looked @ the most previous post. XD

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

I said MODERN who besides old school fans know who Godai is? or even remember MI?

I do.

In fact Maison Ikkoku is one of the most influential anime around. Romantic comedies keep on mining it for plots.

In fact Love Hina (and Keitaro, the individual you sight) is very much a kiddie version of Masion Ikkoku. Just with extra girls, and fewer men.

[Guernsey]

Whether you like it or not but Kugimin tsunderes do have some influence on modern tsunderes. That is not to say that she is a bad actress but the Shana clones are all over the place in anime.

I wonder if Osaka from Azumanga Daioh counts.........

Originally Posted by Kyuu

How dare none of you mention Haruhi. For shame. It's because of Endless Eight, wasn't it?!

Usage of the "light novel" as a source for anime really kicked in after season 1.

EDIT: I just looked @ the most previous post. XD

Sorry about that although I do admit I was going to mention her but I just wish I knew how she was an influence. Can someone elaborate how our goddess incognito is an influential character?

[RandySyler]

Originally Posted by Guernsey

Sorry about that although I do admit I was going to mention her but I just wish I knew how she was an influence. Can someone elaborate how our goddess incognito is an influential character?

Haruhi isn't so much of an influence as an uninfluence. Her character simply can't be placed into any other show without being instantly recognized as Haruhi. If you removed the Goddness(?) from her all you get is an energetic tsundere (still pretty much Haruhi anyway), and if either of those is removed you just get an archetypical tsundere or energetic girl, which has already been used many times in the past. So Haruhi simply cannot be influential due to her very specific uniqueness.

[Soliloquy]

Originally Posted by Guernsey

I wonder if Osaka from Azumanga Daioh counts.........

I was waiting for someone to mention that considering she was the first to be moe and she pulled it off naturally without even trying to be. After her, that's when more female characters like her appeared more predominantly.

[Shinji01]

yeah, Sailor Moon spawned all the magical fighting girls.
Though looking back I see Gunbuster a bit similar to Sailor Moon and it can be argued that Sailor Moon is not the first of teenage girls fighting to save the earth.

Eva character clones are so over done too. Rei= Nagato , Asuka= Haruhi etc.
And the mutitude of something-lions. Aquarion, Evangelion....

I think as Anno said himself, present day animation is nothing more than a copy of what has been done in the past (hugely paraphrased, sorry) Eva has been copied even more.

But what culture is not a cloning of itself anyways?

[wontaek]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

I said MODERN who besides old school fans know who Godai is? or even remember MI?




You are missing the point. the original poster is asking most INFLUENTIAL characters. We are not talking Saimoe here we are talking about anime characters whose influence is beyond it shows fanbase or the show itself.

Lacus Clyne is influnetial in the gs universe NOT the REAL LIFE anime world.

You can't split the modern and old school when discussing influence, unless there is very serious discontinuity in the anime production between 1980s and 1990s. In addition to Godai, there were numerous examples of male lead characters having difficulty choosing between multiple heroines before 1990. Many of Rumiko's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumiko_Takahashi ) work has such heroine. You can go and say Akari Shinji also had some difficulty in choosing the girl.

Also, if you really want work animated after 1990 that came before Tenchi, we are forgetting the male lead from the following series : http://myanimelist.net/manga/446/Ah!_My_Goddess

[Sheba]

Would Madoka Ayukawa count as the ur example of the "Tall, Dark and Bishoujo" type?

[wontaek]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Would Madoka Ayukawa count as the ur example of the "Tall, Dark and Bishoujo" type?

There are plenty of examples of Tall, dark, mysterious bishoujous that came before Ayukawa Madoka, but few has enjoyed as much popularity as Madoka.

[kk2extreme]

Originally Posted by Cloudy

Kenshin(rurouni kenshin) influenced anime directors to create a character with no-kill policy for example Kira(gundam seed).

He killed

Spoiler for GSD:

Stellar

Shinji Ikari (EVA) - all the emo main characters are model after him...

Sailor Moon - transformation sequences

[LC]

Shana. Almost every loli tsundere is considered a clone of her, whether it be warranted or not.

[Guernsey]

Originally Posted by kk2extreme

He killed

Spoiler for GSD:

Stellar

Shinji Ikari (EVA) - all the emo main characters are model after him...

Sailor Moon - transformation sequences

To be fair to Shinji while he did contribute to the 'emo' archetype, he mostly reminds me of the spineless harem lead types that I see in anime and manga.

Agreed on Sailor Moon but DBZ did it as well.

[Deconstructor]

I have to say, Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop has definitely influenced what being "cool" means in anime.

[Demi.]

Originally Posted by LC

Shana. Almost every loli tsundere is considered a clone of her, whether it be warranted or not.

Correction. Every Rie Kugimiya loli tsundere. Which are all JC Staff, and they do all have a lot of similarities. Well, she gave a reason for JC Staff to milk Rie lolis to their logical extreme, I suppose.

Not that there are many loli tsunderes outside of the ones Rie voices...