Battle of the Anime Anti-Heroes

[homunculi7]

Welcome one and all, this is Homunculi7 speaking (in case ya didn't know), and here hosting the Battle of the Anime Anti-Heroes thread. Some of you may remember my "Battle of the Anime Heroes" and "Battle of the Anime Villains" threads, well here I am again with another one.

This thread is to give props and vote for your favorite among the greatest anime anti-heroes of all time. You know who I'm talking about. The anti-heroes, the ones who, for the most part, are cold and emotionless. The ones who destroy their opponents with killer moves and a badass attitude. The ones who don't take s*** from no one. The ones that make you think "Dang, why can't the hero be more like that?" Well, now you can vote for your favorite.

I've compiled my own list of anti-heroes to start us out with, and for the record, these characters will be in the contest (unless anyone objects to it). And they are...

Vegeta, from Dragonball Z
Sesshomaru, from Inuyasha
Hiei, from Yu Yu Hakusho
Gary, from Pokemon
Seto Kaiba, from Yu-Gi-Oh
Tao Ren, from Shaman King
Ryuho, from S-CRY-ed
Saito, from Rurouni Kenshin
Athrun Zala, from Gundam SEED
Uchiha Sasuke, from Naruto

Not much of a list I must admit (compared to my previous ones). But now, hopefully, you'll have an idea of the kinds of characters I'm looking for. So please, in addition to this list I need at least six more "anti-heroes" so we can start the contest, so feel free to make any suggestions as long as they are within the rule guidelines, which are as follows:

1. You are free to nominate as many characters as you want, as long as you nominate only one character per show

2. Please do not nominate characters from shows I, or other people, have already posted, unless you can think of a better character and/or tell me why he/she's better.

3. Make sure that all nominated characters could be described with at least ONE of these word: Anti-Hero, Badass, Rival, Stoic, Committed/Obsessed, or Serious.

4. Do not nominate characters who are completely "evil". Remember, while Anti-Heroes usually have a bit of a mean streak they are not necessarily evil, and do tend to have a bit of good in them.

5. Lastly, please post all nominations with the utmost haste, but not so much that you haven't thought your nominations through and truly do think they should be in this contest.

6. Do not post any nominations after the contest starts as they will not be accepted.

And I guess that's about it. So, there's no time limit on the nominations (I just need six more to make 16) so everyone get to it, and once we have enough we'll begin our contest ;D

[SAVE_US.WBTC]

Jin from Samurai Champloo (Mugen is more fitting, but he was already used).
Wolfwood from Trigun.

[poppyseeds]

Kyou from furuba(fruits basket)

[numbuheightbitstar]

Excuse me if I'm missing something, but I was under the impression that an "Anti-Hero" was a good guy who has traits generally more common in bad guys, or at least a good guy who doesn't behave in typical "good guy" fashion.

I don't think Tao Ren counts as an Anti-Hero--from what I read of the manga, he's a pretty clear-cut villain, who shows no heroic traits whatsoever.

I also kinda question Gary. He's not evil, but I don't remember him ever having actually done anything heroic, either.

[SAVE_US.WBTC]

Zolo from One Piece.

[poppyseeds]

Tao Ren does start out as a evil-to-the-max dude, but later he teams up with Yoh and Horohoro in the Shaman fights. and before that, we actually kinda see why Tao Ren is so corrupted and stuff...alot of it has to do with him being the scion of his family.

[dragonman]

hey, what about Red X from Teen Titans? Didn't he say he didn't like ebing the hero? I want him to win! He was cool....

[poppyseeds]

is teen titans considered anime?
i mean it looks enough like it...well, maybe it a little....?_?

[numbuheightbitstar]

Teen Titans was not made in Japan, so no, it isn't anime (unless Homunculi wants to count it for the purposes of this poll).

[homunculi7]

numbuheightbitstar said:

Excuse me if I'm missing something, but I was under the impression that an "Anti-Hero" was a good guy who has traits generally more common in bad guys, or at least a good guy who doesn't behave in typical "good guy" fashion.

I don't think Tao Ren counts as an Anti-Hero--from what I read of the manga, he's a pretty clear-cut villain, who shows no heroic traits whatsoever.

I also kinda question Gary. He's not evil, but I don't remember him ever having actually done anything heroic, either.

Yes, what Poppyseeds said was accurate. At the the beginning of Shaman King, Ren does appear to be a clear-cut villain, but it is later revealed that he is just a victim of his abusive family (or something to that extent). He soon begins to take on more postivie characteristics, but still keeps is "badass" attitude. If you'd like to read more about it, I believe Shonen Jump is currently at the stage in the story where Ren battles his family and starts to develop his good traits.

Oh, and about Gary. Yes, I do admit I'm stretching it a bit by nominating him, but I needed characters. Also, towards the end of the third season (or fifth who can keep it all straight?) he starts to become more of a good guy, but still has a bit of his attitude and still rivals Ash, so that's why he's on my list.

Lastly, sorry Uzumaki, but I won't be accepting Red X, as he is not officially an "anime" character. Anime literally means Japanese animation, and of course Teen Titans is not a Japanese show, but it can be classified as "pseudo-anime" (or pseudo-manga) because a lot of its animation style is derived from anime. But unfortunately that's not close enough.

[numbuheightbitstar]

Hmmm... While I'm at it, would Racer X (from Speed Racer) count as an anti-hero?

I can understand Teen Titans counting as "pseudo-anime," but I'm not so sure about "pseudo-manga," since as far as I know the TT comic books don't use an anime-esque artstyle (the originals didn't anyway, though I guess that could've changed recently).

[catastrophe8]

Would Inuyasha count since he has a "badass attitude" too?

[homunculi7]

numbuheightbitstar said:

Hmmm... While I'm at it, would Racer X (from Speed Racer) count as an anti-hero?

I can understand Teen Titans counting as "pseudo-anime," but I'm not so sure about "pseudo-manga," since as far as I know the TT comic books don't use an anime-esque artstyle (the originals didn't anyway, though I guess that could've changed recently).

Actually, I was thinking about adding Racer X to my list, but I haven't seen Speed Racer in a long time, and I couldn't remember if Racer X was "badass" enough to make the list. But since you've mentioned it, yes I will add him to the list.

Oh, and about the Teen Titans, pseudo-anime/manga thing. The reason I said pseudo-manga was because I am actually very new to the term (I just learned it like yesterday if you can believe it). I read it in a book, but the book only said pseudo-manga, but not pseudo-anime, and I wasn't sure if that term even existed so I put pseudo-manga as a side note. But yes, I only speek for the Teen Titans TV show (I know the comic book is VERY western).

Oh, and Catastrophe. Please read the rules that I posted (particularly rule 2)

[catastrophe8]

Ok I have somebody

Akito from Kodocha.

[numbuheightbitstar]

homunculi7 said:

Actually, I was thinking about adding Racer X to my list, but I haven't seen Speed Racer in a long time, and I couldn't remember if Racer X was "badass" enough to make the list. But since you've mentioned it, yes I will add him to the list.

That's why I asked. There's three Speed Racer shows, each with a different take on the character. In the origina 1960s one, he was a kinda stoic secret agent--all-business, but he would occasionally go out of his way to help Speed. In the 1990s there was an American-made cartoon called "The New Adventures of Speed Racer," which made him just a generic good guy.

Then there was "Speed Racer X," which played on Nickelodeon sometime back, which introduced a Batman-esque Racer X...