Greatest Hero character in any anime, game, manga, etc.

[Flare]

The greatest hero character I've seen seen in ____ would be:

Anime: Taishi (Comic Party)
Games: Kratos (Tales of Symphonia)
Manga: Balmung (.hack//Legend of the Twilight)

What's yours? :fighter:

[senfood]

Anime: Major Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)
Games: Solid Snake because he doesn't let a goofy haircut keep him from saving the world
Manga:...what the hell, Naruto. The kid's got spunk.

[TheReturnOfTheAceofSpades]

Anime: Edward from Full Metal Alchemist
Game: Vivi From FF9
Magna: Alucard from Hellsing

[MasterOfMagic]

Anime: Inuyasha! ...just kidding. I'll go with Gatsu from Berserk.
Game: Gerrr....errr.... Samus. (badass hot chick in cool armor with a cooler gun... yeah. Who else could I pick?)
Manga: Edward from FMA ( I like the manga better! So there!)

[Bob The Mercenary]

Anime: Kirika (Noir) - She makes murder an art.
or
Haruko (FLCL) - Rides a Vespa and fights with a Rickenbacker. What's not to like?
or
Ashitaka (Princess Mononoke) - Sorry, I just had to add a guy who can shoot people's arms off with a bow and arrow to my list.

Game: Sargeant Johnson (Halo) - Just plain good ol' badass.
Gah! Almost forgot.
HK47 (KOTOR)

Manga: Millie (Trigun) - Big. Gun.

[Cloud Strife]

Anime: Alucard (Hellsing)
Game: Cloud Strife (FFVII, but I'm a bit biased. :p)
Manga: ...I've never read one. T_T

[Toastburner B]

Anime: I haven't seen a great many, but I got to give kudos to Kenshin.

Videogame: Err...grr...argh. For the moment, I'll say Kain...even though he isn't technically a good guy, but he isn't technically a bad guy, either. He's just Kain...and he's cool like that.

Magna: See Cloud's response.

[DragonDaimyo]

Anime: Hmmm. Gotta go with Ed Elric from Full Metal Alchemist, mostly cause alchemists can do just about anything.

Game: Much harder choice. I'll have to say either Solid Snake (do I really have to explain?) or everyone's favorite plumber, Mario (cause he's old school and that's cool and it lets me rhyme, fool ;) ).

Manga: Kenshin Himura, but he didn't have a lot of competition in this catagory.

[Kahkau]

Anime: Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist... the last 3 Episodes make him a great hero)
Game: A tie. Hero Genkaku (Suikoden 2) and Alucard (Hells... wait. Castlevania: SotN)
Manga: Vash the Stampede (Trigun)

[P-Sleazy]

anime- Nami. shes hot...and dresses fairly revealing at times...and shes just so cool and stuff.

video game- im gonna have to go with masterofmagic and say samus for the same reasons.

manga- dont read.

[Intern Nin]

Anime: Naruto (duh)
Video Game: tie, Link and Mario
Manga: tie, Naruto and Sena from Eyeshield 21

[Kahkau]

does anyone else find it odd that there's two of the same thing?

[phil_]

That is rather frightening.

Anime: Kenshin. Surprisingly christian morals (redemtion, forgiveness, mercy) for a Japanese character.

Videogame: Ness. He fights for the world against an enemy that he'll never be strong enough to defeat. Think about it. Who's really responsible for the final victory?

Manga: Not sure why this gets it's own category. Every manga worth reading eventually becomes an anime.

[BlackMageGirl!]

Anime: Vash the Stampede.
Videogame: Laguna Loire
Manga: Kenshin Himura.

[MasterOfMagic]

Manga: Not sure why this gets it's own category. Every manga worth reading eventually becomes an anime.
*twitch* Not every one. Most, okay. But not every single one. And they do screw up when transfering to anime... so lets leave it alone, eh?

[Living Bobbeh]

Anime: Out of the two I've seen (The part from Kill Bill and The Street Fighter movie) I'll go with the girl from kill bill.

Game: Gorden Freeman. 1 scientist against an alien race. what are the odds?

Manga: I don't even read normal comics (aside web ones)

[Cybren]

Anime: I don't really watch anime. I think i'll say Kenshin.
Game: That's a three way tie between Solid Snake, JC Denton, and Ramza Beoulve.
Manga; don't read
I'll add my own catagory too, given the "etc"
Ancient Hero: Akhilleus. There's something great about a man who's own reason for being a hero is personal gain, and fights because of anger and vengence!
Shakesperean: Ooh! Iago! what a cool guy. he so should have been the main character.

[sasuto]

Anime: Al Elric FMA what's not cool about a suit of armor transforming stuff

Game: Aeris, get's major points for death, and i'm really cliche'

Manga: Kimimaru from Naruto, come on this guy pulls his own bones out of his body and uses them as weapons

[Sato]

Anime- Naruto.

Game- Mario, for crying out loud, a plumber fighting large dinosaurs? What's not to like?

Manga- Naruto again, mostly since he has the spunk, studpidty and strength blended nicely.

[Viktor Von Russia]

Anime: Spike from Cowboy Bebop

Game: It's a toss-up between Locke Cole (I likes thieves) and Shadow (a ninja who controls Interceptor the Wonder Dog has to be bad ass) from FFVI.

Manga: Haven't really read enough to get a good competition, but I'll say Kurogane from Tsubasa. He makes me laugh.

[P-Sleazy]

Game: It's a toss-up between Locke Cole (I likes thieves) and Shadow (a ninja who controls Interceptor the Wonder Dog has to be bad ass) from FFVI.

btw FFVI is also known as FFIII on the snes...just without the fmvs.

[Nikkoru]

Anime: Amuro Ray, not nearly enough have seen Mobile Suit Gundam, nor know of the kind and interesting character that is Amuro.

Video Game: Commander Keen, for nothing beats commander keen.

Manga: Kino from Kino's Journey, because I love Keiichi Sigsawa - among other things.

http://www.armchairempire.com/images/anime/kinos-journey/kinos-journey-vol1-1.jpg

[Flare]

Anime: Ed and Al cool, but I also like Hakkai. But Hakuryu is also awesome, but then again everyone from Saiyuki is.

Game: Snake, but otherwise Maverick Hunter Zero.

Manga: Gonna stick with Balmung.

BTW: Nikkoru thou ist awesome for say Commander Keen. :fighter:

[Ivellios]

Anime: Kaze from Final Fantasy Unlimited

Game: Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII

Manga: Most definately Alucard from Hellsing. Who doesn't like vampires?

[Viktor Von Russia]

btw FFVI is also known as FFIII on the snes...just without the fmvs.

Actually, FFVI is the original Japanese designation. I used FFVI to avoid confusion, since FFIII could refer to either the Japanese or American FFIII.

[Elminster_Amaur]

Anime: Hmm...it appears BMG! has beat me to it. I say Vash.
Game: Obviously Link. Could there be any other?
Manga: Well, this is tough since I don't read much manga, how about: Vash
Book: Nuke! Why would no one say this?

[Dante]

Anime: Any of the four guys from Saiyuki. I know, I'm cheating, but they're all cool!
Game: Dante. Half-man. Half-Demon. Totally badass. Make no mistake - Dante's your man.
Manga: Dark Schneider. The mage who lets his opponents kill him and then comes back just to show that there's NOTHING they can do to stop him.

[Regulus Tera]

Anime: Shinji Ikari. Maybe I'm a little biased, but he actually saved the world many times although he didn't wanted to do it.

Games: Tie between Ramza Beoulve & Solid Snake. Period.

Manga: I'll go with the others and say Kenshin Himura.

[tazz31406]

Anime: Vash the Stampede! He has a really cool gun.

Games: Alucard from SotN because he has the best way in the world to pick up chicks:
Al: Oh, I had to kill my father! Woe is me!
Maria: Make love to me, Alucard! Please!

Manga: Don't read to much Manga either.

[The SSB Intern]

Ok this post is actually done by me, the SSB Intern. the other two I deleted because they were done by my brother.

Anime: Teh Monkey king Son Goku (DB and DBZ. Not DBGT for it is pure crap.)

Video Game: :fighter:, Link, and Mario

Manga: Naruto. It's cause the manga is more violent the anime. :bmage:: "Yay, violence!"

[Witness1]

Sense I dont really watch that much anime and I dont read manga. I'll leave them out and add Cartoons and Comics.

Cartoons:Optimus Prime. (the 80's G1 Optimus Prime) The reason that I like him so much, is because he is not an "Invincible hero." Whenever he goes up against Megatron, your never 100% sure he is going to win. And sometimes he has to make touch decieson. Like in one episode where he has to chose between destorying Cypertron or possibly destorying and full filling Megatrons plan. Thats pretty deep for a 80's cartoon. Plus, useally he was just called "Prime" thats awesome.

Video Game: Citan from Xenogears. He's the only RPG character that I know of that actively uses his intellegence. Plus he had crazy kung-fu moves and a cool sword.

Comics: Batman, hands down. (but with Captain America as a close second) Espically the comics where Batman plays the dective role.

Books:Bannor from the 1st Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Great series with alot of great characters. But with a setting that is so depressing, and with dought everywere. Its nice to have a character who is all "I know what is good, I know what is evil and I know what I am doing".

[MasterOfMagic]

Cartoons: Timmy. From the fairly odd parents. He so stupid.

Comics: Never read 'em. Boo. Unless Webcomics count...... Then I'd go with Radd Spencer. From Attack of the Flying Spud. (http://steampowered.net/) Don't ask why.... I really don't know.

Books: Corran Horn. From the Star Wars books. He's a awesome pilot, and a better Jedi (even if he can't use telekinesis...). *shrug*

[Flare]

Anime: Hakkai
Game: Kratos
Manga:Thatz

Yeah, this is probably my final list. And as far as Books, Comics, and Cartoons go:

Cartoon: Roy Fokker
Comic: Roy Fokker
Book: Wedge Antillies

Yeah, thanks for bringing that up BTW. :fighter:

[Kikuichimonji]

Are we talking stereotypical hero (i.e. no internal conflicts, no problems that can't be resolved by just keeping at it, absolutely perfect person)? If so:

Anime: Goku
Video Game: Link

If a hero as in a person trying their hardest and generally succeeding:

Anime: Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist
Video Game: Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia

[Cybren]

The stereotypical hero is closer to Moses than Goku.

[Vicious]

Anime: Quagmire

Videogame: Quagmire

Magna: Quagmire




Ohhhh right! Gigiddy gigiddy gig-id-dy!!

[Cloud Strife]

Well, I have a change to make, because I finally read a manga, yay!

Manga: Nausicaa

Anime: Still Alucard, because he rocks.

Video Game: Obviously, still Cloud. :p

[Flare]

it can be just about any hero character in any game, anime, manga, comic, cartoon, book, etc. I made that error when I started the thread. I mean, I said Hakkai, and look at him, he's got problems coming out the wazoo (Sorry about giving you that image.). He's commited crimes, but he's repented, and he has a past that haunts him. Y'know, that kind of character. Or to make things easier, say whoever you think of as a hero. :fighter:

[scipio the sword master]

cartoons- Inu-yasha, He'll kill all of the people you suggest with the giant fangy sword of his.
comics- Superman better than the fantastic four and the Original Justice League put together.

[Nikkoru]

Superman was in the original justice league, how could he be better than an organization he is in?

Also, along with Commander Keen for best video game character I would like to add Daxter from the Jak trilogy.

[rightwhatwasidoing?]

Anime: Shinomouri Aoshi. Yeah, so he's an anti-hero hero, he still owns. Not to mention the man is F'ing Crazy. that's gotta count for something.

Video Game: This one is tough for me, it'll probably change, but I'm going with Frog from CT on this one.

Manga: kakashi. The guy is simply the best. No other words needed. except those saying no other words needed. And those following explaining that no other words were needed after no other words needed was originally stated.

That about sums it up

[scipio the sword master]

sorry, Nikkoru, but I think the original justice league, according to my knowledge, was comprised of Black Canary, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman.

[Wario of Gaming]

Guess I'll join in on this..

Anime: Major Makoto Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)
Game: KOS-MOS (Xenosaga Series)
Manga: Arucard / Alucard (Both spellings from Hellsing)

Those three are just people you don't want to regularly mess with, I mean Major Kusanagi's normal enough if you can call her that, but messing with Arcuard is like touching death, he'll just rip you a new one and laugh about it.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Hrm...

Anime: It's got to be Spike Spiegel. Let's face it, nobody kicks ass with more style than he does.
Game: What? Nobody remembers Black Mage from Final Fantasy 1? Come on now....
Manga: Hatake Kakashi, hands down... not that I'm biased or anything >.>

[OmniShadow]

I dont know if anyone agrees on this but...

Game: Sephiroth (Final fantasy7) He is a hero! A hero I tell you! *Freaks out*

Anime: It stands between: Chrno (Chrno crusade) Edward Elric (FMA) Demon eyes Kyo/Mibu Kyoshiro (Samurai deeper kyo) And Naruto.

Manga: I have just read the Naruto, FMA and OOC ones, so I can just say Link.

[Outbounder]

Anime: Vash the Stampede.

Game: Very tough. But if I had to choose one it would be...Vyse from Skies of Arcadia.

Manga: Haven't read much manga, so at the moment I'd have to say Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho.

Books: Belgarath from the Belgariad and Mallorean series.

Movies: Luke Skywalker

[Nikkoru]

sorry, Nikkoru, but I think the original justice league, according to my knowledge, was comprised of Black Canary, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman.

You may be right, I was thinking of the Superfriends.


Manga: Arucard / Alucard (Both spellings from Hellsing)

Those three are just people you don't want to regularly mess with, I mean Major Kusanagi's normal enough if you can call her that, but messing with Arcuard is like touching death, he'll just rip you a new one and laugh about it.

Although r and l are interchangable in many romanji words, Alucard is Dracula spelt backwards - so I don't think it works very well.

[Overcast]

Anyone remeber forever ago when they had the "What can kill the unnaturaly invincible DBZ characters" thread yeah that was cool.

Anime: Spike
Game: KOS-MOS
Manga: Osaka you worship t3h Osaka

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

Story-wise, I'd say the best characters in my opinion are either Yakumo from 3x3 Eyes or Ippo from Hajime no Ippo.

Yakumo is a normal guy in every sense of the word who has his soul devoured and turns into a living-undread protector of Pai. He get's his arm cut off, he get's his head cut off and he even blows up from time to time. But he cannot die unless Pai dies. But wih all that, he becomes an Amazing Hero os the show and its what I think is the best merging of 'coolness' with 'character' I have seen in any character.

And Ippo is much the same way except he's a Boxer. He's got a good character (in both senses of the word) but unlike most characters, we hear what is going on in his mind all the time and we get so much more into him than most other characters. He performs both by doing, but also shows how much he is like a real person. He thinks things are funny, he thinks to himself when he sees a hot girl go by and he tells the watcher everything he's feeling or doing in great detail. Add that to him being amazingly strong and powerful at boxing and a perfect character to be placed in fights, he's just a damn good character. And for once I like the main character to win at something rather than one or more of his opponents.

Yeah, I took a while to post here cuz I didn't know who to pick. But thinking hrd, I'd say these two over-all. But I can't just say my 'favorite' character cuz then I have about 10 characters. So I choose which ones I think fit the 'hero' the best.

[Elmer J.]

Beowulf and Samwise Gamgee.
Both literary, but they're pretty awesome.
Beowulf spent his life accomplishing great deeds, so that he would be sung of after death.
And Samwisewas a gardener who saved all of Middle Earth.
Second placers are as follows.
Anime: Wolfwood or Spike.
Video Game: Link
Manga:woefully inexperienced here, but as for comics...Spiderman.

[BitVyper]

I've been watching a lot of Dekarangers lately, and I like Doggie Krueger (AKA Dekamaster, Jigoku no Banken) a lot. He takes part in what I believe is right up there with the best sword fights in history. He completely owned one hundred combat droids by himself in around one minute. Some really nice effects in that scene, considering that it's a sentai series. I just wish I could find out the name of the song that was playing in it.

Then there's another scene later on where he deflects a bunch of bullets to form a perfect, "deletion approved," symbol on the ground. And come on, he's got baddass shades.

[Sesshoumaru]

Anime: Vash (it would be Sesshoumaru, but he doesn't really count as a hero)
Video game: It's a toss up between Link, Shadow, and Frog (Magus isn't a hero either, otherwise I would've pucked him).
Manga: never read any, so I can't comment on this one.

[Red Mage Black]

Anime: (Tough call)
Video Game: Kratos (most definately)
Manga: Never read any.

[DFA]

The Triumvirate is definitely Bugs Bunny, Mario, and Iron Man

[ganon]

Anime: I would have to go with Vash, 'cause he kicks ass without going overbord.
Manga: I haven't read much manga...
Video Game: That's a toughie....but I'm gonna go with Ramza Beoulve from Final Fantasy Tactics. Even after he was branded a heratic and hunted by just about everyone he went on and did the right thing, even though he received no credit for anything he ever did.

[OmniShadow]

Sesshoumaru magus IS a playable character you know, so he cxan be counted as a hero as well. (Although I doubt anyone actualy agreed about my favorite game hero...)

[Palidin]

Anime:I can't stop thinking about Captian planet..
So ill go with Edward Elric (very popluar anit he)

Game: Link... I need to learn to talk like him...

Magna: I dont read much.. But my dad want to overdose me with them T-T

[Roland]

Anime: Ed Elric...

Game: It changes a lot... but I'd say Lloyd Irving, just for being the hero who's endboss didn't become godly and (plotwise) impossible to defeat... and he kicked ass, too.

Manga: Don't read a l ot of manga... in fact, I haven't read any. I feel so bad (not good bad, bad feeling bad) now.

Comic: The original Wolverine, from X-Men.

Cartoon: Optimus Prime, for reasons previously stated. In Armad, they soldified his "greatest hero" position by having a villain scan the autobots to see who they thought was the strongest, and then cloned that one... giving birth to Nemesis Prime.

[The Flame Alchemist]

Anime: Roy Mustang (fma)

Game: Cid Highwind ( who could disagree with that, the highwind saved everyones butts!)

Manga:Kakhashi (Naruto)

[jfreedan]

Choosing one is hard.

Games: Alucard of Castlevania:SoTN, Maxiumm of Lufia II, Cloud of FF7, Red of Saga Frontier, Gustav of Saga Frontier II, Frog of Chrono Trigger.

Anime/Manga: Naruto of Naruto, Ichigo of Bleach, Yusuke and Kuwabara of Yu Yu Hakushu, and Roland of Turn A Gundam. Vash the Stampede of Trigun is worth mentioning too.

Beet of Beet the Vandel Buster and Inyuasha of Inyuasha isnt too bad either, though I wish they hadnt censored Inyuasha so much in the US dub. He was a more interesting character when he cursed without remorse.

I dont particularly like the character, but Roan's introduction when he is a Crusader in Ragnarok the Animation IS worth mentioning, because it's the first time we had a really decent scene with a character's inner turmoil reaching the boiling point and making them develop into something more.

I thought that was the best episode in the entire series and I got disapointed with every episode after that one, because I thought that was the end of the crappy Roan days and he was finally developing as a character. I was wrong. He became an even worse one-dimensional character.

As for movies......American movies really havent done heroes very well in recent years. Peter Park in Spiderman was good, but Spiderman was also created decades ago. Indiana Jones was a good one, and I liked Luke Skywalker and Han Solo of Star Wars (imagine that). I also like Rocky, but I think Rambo is a rather stale one-dimensional character.

Finding a good heroine is rather difficult in any medium. The majority of them fall into three categories:

1) The "oops did I do this" innoccent girl types (one dimensional characters)
2) The "I'm a feminist man eater but not a lesbian" types (one dimensional characters)
3) The "I seduce both men and women but I have guns" types (one dimensional characters)

They just dont act like real people. Real people are not one-dimensional and have a lot going on under their skin. You just dont get that impression with a lot of characters in movies today.

I can only think of one decent heroine in movies and that'd be Ripley of the Alien and Aliens movies. They ruined her completely in Alien 3 and Ressurection. Recently there has been a surge of "Action heroines" like Elektra, Catwoman, Tomb Raider etc but they have all been horribly unrealistic characters that fit into one of the above stereotypes.

There is Lina Inverse from The Slayers too, but she was a novel character before she was turned into an anime character which shows a lot.

Stereotypes are meant for humorous or "support" characters. They arent really meant for the leading role.

[Kima Azure]

Anime: Hm... that's hard. Mostly because several of my favorite characters are my own creations (and they are from anime, games, and manga). If anyone wants to know more, PM me!

Anime: Okay, no made-by-me chars... Sanosuke Sagara, Rurouni Kenshin. The guy can break a wall with a hand, man!

Game: Eh... too bad I haven't played Disgaea, so I can't say whether Laharl should be here. So my vote goes to Fayt from Star Ocean 3. He fought against a gamer and won. That's good enough for me.

Manga: Yoh Asakura from Shaman King. He rules.

[Great Cartoonist]

Fave Anime character: Umm... None.
Fave Game Character: The ninja guy in the Shinobi series. Wicked ninja skills.
Fave Manga Character: Ummm... None.

[Inu-luvr]

Anime: I had to think about this one but I'm going to say.. Kenshin

Game: There's so many of them here. *brain melts* Ugg.... Garret from Thief: Deadly Shadows becasue he's the kind of hero that wasn't expected, yet in a way you thought he could be... ?

Manga: Jing, King of Bandits (with some help from Kir)

[wilysword]

Anime: Inuyasha; I know it's kind of weird, but how can you not like someone who's so overconfident that it's a good thing?

Videogame: Link

Book: Mat Cauthon. He's lucky, funny, and smarter than any other character in the books ('cept maybe Bashere).

[Madcap Minstrel]

Anime: Kenshin.
Game: Aeris. Heroic without being all stupid angsty.
Manga: Rosette of Chrono Crusade. She's brave, outspoken, and she totally cracks me up!

[Red Fighter 1073]

anime:yusuke urameshi(yu yu hakusho)
game:mario or link(super mario 64) (legend of zelda: ocarina of time)
manga:havent read one :( / :) but im still gonna say this 1 anyway..spaceman spiff(calvin and hobbes) yes..ponder about that one

[Flare]

Red Fighter Idiot Guy, thou ist awesome. :fighter:

[Meister]

.timil tsop rof gnisolC.

No one will figure out my code!