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Originally Posted by Shredder
I love Eri, but she's sort of fading from memory bc she hasn't had much action recently.
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The basketball section of SR S2 shifted the focus to the side characters in the story. Thankfully, Eri will be taking back the spotlight very shortly, and she's there to stay.
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Originally Posted by Shredder
What is it about her that makes her the most popular? The blonde hair, the mixed race, voice, personality? I tend to like hard to get characters, so that does the trick for me. Yakumo's pretty cool though...she's grown on me in this season. I guess basically Yakumo vs Eri chan...or Eri chan vs everyone. What does it for you?
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There are a multitude of reasons why the fans love Eri, so it's hard to come up with a comprehensive list. That being said, I'll see what I can come up with off of the top of my head.
Aesthetics
Eri's character design is very distinct. For starters, she's one of the few girls in the series who has an angular, "cat's eye" shape, as opposed to the standard round eye shape that KJ uses (other characters with this eye design are Itoko, Yakumo, and Saeko). In addition to this, she tends to recieve the most close-up shots out of all of the characters, so we often see her drawn in a higher level of detail. Some of the features that you see drawn in are features like "spoke-lines" on her irises and realistic eyelashes. You can also watch her role in the series evolve with the manner in which she is drawn. In the early manga volumes, she has a more silly look, to match her role as a supporting character. By the time that she has taken over the main focus of the story in the later volumes, she's the most beautifully drawn character in the series.
Character
Eri's greatest strength is in her personality. As a character, she is extremely versatile. At one moment, she might be in the middle of a serious, dramatic scene, and in the next, she might be pulling off a comedy routine with Harima. This balance of comedy and drama is an important part of SR, which is one of the reasons why much of the storyline is built around her character. Many of the other characters in the series, by contrast, tend to be pidgeonholed into a particular role, such as Tenma for comedy, and Yakumo for drama.
To aid in this task, Eri also has one of the largest arrays of facial expressions at her disposal. In anime, the eyes and face tends to be drawn out of proportion - drawing viewer focus and allowing them to pick up on subtle changes in expression. Eri makes full use of this to her advantage - in many scenes, these visual cues add a lot of depth to her character and her emotional response.
Eri also shines in terms of character development. Most of the major events and conflicts in the plot are tied in to her growth as a character, and she emerges from each trial stronger than before. If you stop and compare Eri in recent chapters with Eri when we first were introduced to her character, it's amazing to see how much she's changed.
Overall, I find Eri to be a superbly thought out and written character. Even if SR accomplishes nothing in terms of plot and relationships, I wouldn't mind - Eri is an achievement in herself.
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Originally Posted by Shredder
Another way of putting it is, why Flag FTW--I just didn't feel like posting this last part in the faction thread since it would be a little redundant
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Eri's character development throughout the story is closely linked to Flag. If you enjoy watching Eri grow as a character, if you love the chemistry between Harima and Eri that made SR S1 popular, or if you just love the "Fetch me some tea" routine, you're bound to be a Flagger, in some form or another. It's tricky to separate being a Flagger and an Eri fan, since Eri's interests are so closely tied to Flag's success. I'd like to see Harima grow more as a character before anything happens, though.
Graphic Designer
