My lists are always entirely my opinion and highly subjective (which is why I’m always happy for people to comment on who they would have added to the list). This week is no exception as I look at boring title characters (as in characters named in the title who end up being the least interesting thing in the anime).
As always, feel free to add your own views in the comments.
Please Note – There are spoilers below. You have been warned.
Honourable mention this week goes to Astarotte from Astarotte no Omocha.
Boring Title Character Number 5: Akame (Akame Ga Kill)
Other than the fact that she survives until the end, why is the show named after her? Okay, first episode she pulls a very cool and scary assassination entrance and looks completely amazing and then… well then we watch her hunt for food, wring her hands over her friends and generally not ever change her facial expression.
Even when Akame is dealing with her sister being part of the team hunting them down she barely bats an eye and while stoic can be a good character trait Akame doesn’t have anything to really make her interesting. You can count the things we learn about her as a person (not things she’s done but what she’s actually like) on one hand and in honesty if they’d killed Akame off I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.
Boring Title Character Number 4: Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
Haruhi suffers from an excess of personality but she’s still actually kind of boring. The characters around her are fascinating and the set up of the show is interesting, but Haruhi is just a bully who nobody ever slaps sense into. Frantically running from one thing to the next, Haruhi is bored with her own existence because she has nothing inside of her that defines her. She seeks external events to find a reason to exist and as such is always empty and that pretty much sums up who and what Haruhi is and its the driving force behind everything that happens in the show.
So, Haruhi is an excellent plot point and as the force that gets Kyon moving and actually paying attention to anything (given he’s the narrator and kind of needs to pay attention) Haruhi works. As a character, she’s still number 4 on my list of most boring title characters.
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Boring Title Character Number 3: Nozaki (Gekkan Shojo Nozaki Kun)
I know I’ve said this on other people’s posts but my least favourite character in this comedy is Nozaki. He’s just so bland. And I know it is deliberate. He’s the observer of human nature. He internalizes things for use in his writing. But it means that everyone around him is vibrant and dynamic and he’s just this stagnant rock around which events revolve.
Boring Title Character Number 2: Aria (Aria the Scarlet Ammo)
Aria, how I wish you had a personality above and beyond the cliché angry girl with trust issues. I actually really liked the concept of the world crafted in this anime and some of the side characters are quite entertaining (if you can deal with fan service and violence), but mostly I just disliked Aria and kept wanting her to stop snarling and shrieking and insisting on having everything her way and then acting like it didn’t matter one bit to her. She was an irritating character and one we’ve seen before.
Boring Title Character Number 1: Tatsuya Shiba (The Irregular at Magic High School)
Here I’m cheating a bit because his name isn’t actually in the title but he is the irregular so I’m going with this. And while I actually really like Tatsuya and the anime, I couldn’t honestly say that he isn’t boring. Why? Because Tatsuya defines overpowered protagonist. Normally I don’t mind overpowered characters and as I said, I quite liked Tatsuya, but there is never even vague tension in this show because you know that Tatsuya will solve the problem.
Even more so once you realise he can effectively undo life-threatening damage to himself or others (at a cost but not enough of a cost that it puts him out of commission or allows his enemies any chance to win). So other than taking tests for the school, Tatsuya is pretty much perfect at everything and while that makes him awesome it also makes him boring and that is why he took out the number one spot.
I will point out that when it comes to Tatsuya I’m a little bit up and down. One minute I think he’s incredibly dull the next I think he’s the most amazing person ever. Objectively I know he’s boring. Emotionally I can’t get enough of watching him in action.
That’s my list done. Who would you have put on yours?
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
You cheated on your own list… how dreadful. Nah, Im just kidding. My most hated character on your list is Haruhi. I just hate her personality and the whole disaster that happens whenever she gets depressed, bored, or jealous. Sheesh, why was this character even made in the first place?
Hi Karandi, I liked this idea of top five lists and I was hoping if you could let me posts my Top Five of random things as well (on my blog). Thought I should ask permission since I got the idea from you. I’ll make it Friday instead. 😊
Waiting for your kind response. 😁
-Jill
Hardly my idea. Feel free and I look forward to seeing your lists.
Thank you! 😁
“Because Tatsuya defines overpowered protagonist.” that’s so true!
Sorry, for some weird reason I missed this post yesterday. But am scrolling backwards when I still came across it. Great subject for a post! It will probably come as no big surprise that I haven’t seen any of these yet (I am sorry, I am doing my best to catch up on things). A character that I found not very interesting in any case is Eren from Attack on Titan. Being the hero of the show I just did not find him that interesting. There were way more interesting characters, including a few who were not even main characters. Maybe I am in the minority with this choice, don’t know about that, but I definitely would have added him to my list 😀
Eden us just a shouty, dull character. I left him out because he isn’t a title character but when I do my list. Of least favourite protagonists Eden will definitely get at least an honourable mention.
Of the anime listed, I’m only familiar with Akame ga Kill and I agree that she’s one of the dullest characters in the show. Why is she the titular character in any case? The only reason I can think of is that it sounded cool. Even the scenes with her sister, which should have been rife with dramatic tension and angst, came off as pretty bland.
Ah, man. Nozaki-kun is such a *necessary* rock around which events revolve, you know? I love his character precisely because he’s so in-touch with shoujo manga and so out of touch with how his actions come across to real girls. He’s so oblivious and yet so knowledgeable. Boring he is not, just…stable. Stable and out of touch. And I love it. I absolutely love the show. I’m almost cracking up just thinking about it.
Anyway, I’ve never seen the other shows, but I just had to put in my two cents there.
(ノﾟ∀ﾟ)ノ⌒･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*☆
Agree with Akame and Tatsuya.. Yet to see the others 😁😂
I dunno. I always found Nozaki kinda funny. An observer, yes, but also as a character who has no idea how to really relate to others, and struggles to form even the most normal of friendships, he frequently did and said some pretty funny stuff as part of his ever clumsy attempts to be a normal person.
Granted, everyone around him was way more interesting, but he had his moments.
Yeah, yeah, okay, I’ll stop defending Nozaki now.
Defend away. I know most people like him more than I did.
The rest of the cast was definitely more interesting, but I liked him well enough.
Unlike some characters I’ve seen, at any rate.
I think with nozaki (series), even though their personalities are fairly static their relationships are amusing and continue to develop; on the other hand nozaki (character) also has the most static relationships out of the entire cast, which makes him less interesting though still quite amusing
Though I like Nozaki as well, I can see where he would be a boring character. I never labeled him as my favorite, since the other characters ARE more interesting. So in in a way, I agree and disagree at the same time, since he has some interesting moments that made me like him.
That’s kinda the weirdness of Nozaki, really. He is a boring character, but he’s interesting at the same time.
I don’t like picking on this anime, but my choice would be Red Data Girl. The character it refers to, Izumiko, has some of the slowest development I’ve ever seen and even at the end is little more than the timid country girl she started as.
Great call. I completely forgot that she was the title character.
I love Akame ga kill
One punch man, imo; the gag is good but in return the entire series has pretty half-baked development somewhere between a real shounen and a slice of life
Yeah, Saitama probably should have ended up on this list somewhere or at least gotten an honourable mention. Good call.
Tatsuya was pretty darn boring.
I enjoyed the show for its action scenes and cool pseudo science, but I disliked how he evaporated all tension immediately whenever he appeared (which was all the time!). It just made things a little bit stale and not as exciting as it should have been.
Great list of choices!
It would have been nice to see Tatsuya sidelined a couple of times and unable to ‘fix’ everything. Would also be nice for a sequel.
That is a funny list. I would put hinata from Naruto. I do find her boring. 😐
Agree with Haruhi. I remember when I was watching the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan spin off series, and without Haruhi in it I was like “Ilove this show, it’s awesome! I hope we don’t get Haruhi” then a fewepisodes later she had to show up and ruin things lol. Overall I like the spin off series way better than the original though, season 2 of Haruhi lost me after that eight episode stretch of hell rotfl.
I actually really liked the movie with it disappearing Haruhi for a bit. I still love this story but as a character she’s a bit hard to take.
I’ve always liked Haruhi in this series but when it was put that way I can agree that she’s pretty boring. Kyon has always been my number one, since he changes throughout the series whereas Haruhi and the other remain somewhat the same. Though I do like the other characters a lot.