Every kind of nerdery imaginable.

Top six villains & Top six protagonists!

And, to think, the villains one was probably the easier half!  orz  I’m going to try to stick to central character protagonists, in the name of making this easier on myself.  XD

- Tsukino Usagi from Sailor Moon - Usagi is one of those Forever Girls for me, I will love her always and I only ever love her more as I go along in fandom.  I loved her in the anime, but I love her even more in the manga, for being this scared young girl who has to face all these horrible monsters and terrible problems and burden on her shoulders and is constantly threatened with losing her loved ones, the ones that she depends so fiercely on.  But I love her because she grows up with such grace.  Not perfectly, because who does?  But she keeps trying to think of other people, she keeps working hard to believe in herself and her friends, she keeps working hard to be more mature and caring towards others.  She’s so fragile in so many ways and I love that about her, I love it so fiercely, because being delicate isn’t the same thing as being easily broken.  Maybe she was easily broken once upon a time, but she grew up, and now she can be scared and worried and nervous, but she still stands up and she still fights on.  She trusts and loves with her whole heart and that is what saves the day time and again in Sailor Moon.  And that is why Usagi is my favorite protagonist ever, hands down.

- Honda Tohru from Fruits Basket - I love female characters who embrace their emotions and, in doing so, change the cast of people around them.  Tohru is the epitome of this, how her constant smiles and caring for others wins the Sohma family over, one by one.  You can’t help falling in love with someone who cares so much about people, who knows what an abusive family is, who has suffered so much loneliness, but still has a good heart and a good head and will still always reach out to everyone.  I love Tohru for her endless understanding and empathy, I love her for the way she fell in love with Kyou, I love her for her friendship with Kisa, I love her for how she kept reaching out to Rin, I love her for helping Momiji through his difficult times, I love everything about her.  And I love her for being the catalyst that changes everything because it’s not really about the physical curse in the Sohma family, it’s about what they do to each other and their dysfunction.  It’s about how Tohru breathes new life into their interactions and sparks these changes in everyone, that makes her an excellent protagonist.

- Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece - It’s hard to put my feelings for Luffy into words!  I’ll start with—Luffy is what I wish more WSJ protagonists would be and stay as, the kind of character who’s loud and cheerful and an idiot and doesn’t take too much very seriously (unless it’s something that needs to be taken seriously).  Luffy will still pick his nose in the middle of a fight, even 60+ volumes after the beginning and, yes, KT, I am looking at you right now.  But it’s also that Luffy is one of those catalyst characters that change the people around him, he sparks them into chasing after their dreams even harder, he is the center around which they all gravitate and you can see why.  Because Luffy’s a goofball through and through, but he’s goddamened scary levels of durable and powerful, he’s the most loyal captain you’ll ever meet, he listens to and trusts in his crew, and would literally go to the ends of the earth for each and every one of them.  He never doubts them and they never doubt him, he wins them all over because he just believes so strongly and he may not be book smart, but Luffy has a heck of an emotional IQ.  ….in certain circumstances.  Also, Luffy makes me SHRIEK WITH UNDIGNIFIED LAUGHTER constantly.

- Dick Grayson from DC Comics - Oh, my love for Dick is ridiculous.  Ridiculous.  He’s been my favorite fictional character for… christ, probably close to a decade now.  (Well, I’m not sure if he still is, my love for Usagi has rocketed up pretty high, but still!  My love for Dick is pretty much the only thing that’s keeping me even semi-into DC.  And that is NOT EASY.)  I love him for being brilliant and a hell of a fighter and the world’s second best detective and being raised by Bruce and having gone through so much shit in his life and still coming out sane and mostly emotionally healthy on the other side.  Sure, he’s got some father issues (even if Bruce isn’t really his dad, John Grayson was his dad, but Bruce sort of is, too) and that comes up every so often, but mostly?  Dick is pretty goddamned solid.  Not easy in that family!  And he’s an amazing leader, because he’s smart and he’s the most capable guy in the room 99% of the time, and yet he doesn’t see himself as better than others, he listens to them and really sees them and inspires people to trust him.  In comics, it’s not easy to find characters who are badasses but not assholes, but Dick manages that.  And, ugh, all the feelings for Dick’s love for his family—I am fascinated by his relationship with each and every single one of them.  Seriously, I will read Dick interacting with any of them and explode with how amazing it is.  (And I’m counting him as a central protagonist because he often has his own series.  So there.)

- Gon from Hunter x Hunter - I kind of surprised myself with this one, because I wouldn’t say I have a really obsessive love for Gon.  It’s just… when I was thinking of central characters that I thought did a fantastic job of being narratively interesting, Gon popped into my head and wouldn’t quite leave.  I have such a weakness for characters who are strong as hell, strong on a scary level, but are so open and cheerful that they just win everyone right over.  Sure, Gon’s not the brightest guy around, but he gets what he needs to and he’s adorably determined and, oh, his friendship with Killua is seriously the best thing in the manga.  I find myself not missing the other characters nearly as much as you’d think I would, because Gon is just the best.

- Lina Inverse from Slayers - I’ve talked before about how Lina is an amazing characters for not only having flaws but for being celebrated for those flaws, as they clearly make her just that much more amazing.  So, it’s more than just that a lady is the central character of the series, it’s that she’s got all these obnoxious qualities but everyone loves her, even as they grumble about her.  Lina is so many of the things that make a central character interesting—she’s got all this potential in her that she’s slowly unlocking (or not so slowly), she’s explosive (literally!), she has a very strong and intense personality, she moves the plot along, she has all these characters gravitating to her, she has fascinating interactions with all of them!  Seriously, I love reading about Lina with all of them, there’s not a single Lina/[character] interaction that I wouldn’t be interested in.

BONUS:  Oh my god so many that I can hardly contain myself.  Noelle from Tenshi ni Narumon! comes to mind immediately for being so darling and sweet and batshit off the wall, Subaru from Tokyo Babylon (ugh, I have to put my foot down right now or I will go back and edit this whole thing to include him) and Yuusuke from Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Kyouko from Skip Beat!, Sakura from CCS, and and and—