My Loves!

So, it seems I've been devoting a lot of time to Bleach lately. I tend to fall in love quickly with things, but I'm know to fall out of love quickly too. While Bleach has a great cast, I found myself not really liking any of them; or rather, the characters I really liked were so minor that I'd see them maybe once every 10 episodes. It's a little hard to describe my criteria for picking a favorite character. I love the characters I have emotional responses to. And while I may like watching the stories and battles of Byakuya Kuchiki and the others, I have no emotional response or attachment to them. So, against the other series I've read and watched, Bleach is relatively low on the impact level; HOWEVER, Bleach does have the most kick ass battles of any series I've watched!

Renji Abarai and Ichigo Kurosaki | Bleach | Copyright Tite Kubo

But to bibliophiles like me, that emotional attachment is vitally important to liking/loving/obsessing over a book. Emotional attachments easily change a mainstream fan of a genre into a fanatic. Often die-hard fans describe feeling like they "know" a character and in a way it's true. In series like Fruits Basket, for instance, you follow the characters so intimately for years that you almost feel integral to the series yourself. It's very hard to remain detached from a series that takes hold of you like that.

Of course, I have other "favorites" in the more traditional sense, i.e. characters I like to follow, but may not have a connection to. Those include Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha and Edward "Shrimp" Elric from FullMetal Alchemist, among others I am failing to recall. (There are a lot.)

So, here's a brief run-down of the two characters who have permanently lodged themselves in my heart.

Hatori Sohma | Fruits Basket | Copyright Natsuki Takaya

My first real emotional attachment to a fictional character was Hatori Sohma from Fruits Basket. Hatori is a variation of the character epitomized by Jane Austen's Fitzwilliam Darcy. At the beginning of Fruits Basket, Hatori comes across much like Mr. Darcy did in Pride and Prejudice--disagreeable, arrogant and bitter. However, it becomes apparent that his true nature is that of a warm, gentle man driven by a deep undercurrent of passion who is still healing from the tragic loss of his lover. I also "played" Hatori as part of a serious Fruits Basket writer's circle for nearly two years, which allowed me to breathe a bit of myself into him. In many ways, I fell in love with him through that experience. I felt in many ways that I was Hatori (or that I became him); he soon became an extension of me (oddly, it didn't view myself as being crazy until just now!). But, I discovered a lot about myself as a creative writer through the process, and because of that, dear Hatori remains my favorite.

Nuriko | Fushigi Yuugi | Copyright Yuu Watase

The series that took me on the most drastic emotional roller coaster was Fushigi Yuugi (The Mysterious Play). Oh my God...I knew going in that the series would play on my emotions and use cheap tactics to pull at my heartstrings...and they did. Nuriko became my favorite character the moment he "entered" the adventure. I BAWLED when Nuriko was killed. Yes, there I was, alone in my room at 3:00am, hunkered over my laptop, sobbing as Nuriko collapsed onto the harsh, frozen ground of the northern Chinese mountains. The drama! I didn't even realize how attached to Nuriko I'd become. The combination of character history, growth and development and amazing voice acting compounded the ultimate emotional deluge. There was real grief there. Real, I tell you! Yes, Nuriko remains one of my favorite characters of all time.

"Folks line up just to see him flex! Mmmm...my man!"