Shamitako Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 So before we do anything else: Mami dies in episode three K, so that out of the way, I should probably warn you that this thread is going to be chock-full of spoilers. I'll have a note of where each character comes from, so you'll be able to discern whether or not you're worried about being spoiled or not. But to do this properly I'm going to have to make notes of significant events that occur Table of Contents Post #1 Rules Analysis Format Requests Post #2 Anylases (may be split into subgroups at a future date)Post #3 Wait List Pending Requests (requests that are not on the wait list yet) Rules Always voice your own opinion as yourself. Do not try to play devil's advocate or explain someone else's opinion for them Especially don't try to explain my opinion for me, this thread is about my opinion Keeping the above in mind, you may politely disagree with me on something, but if I feel something is moving too close to an argument I will put an end to the discussion Following from the above, arguing with others in the thread is also not allowed The Great Pumpkin is not up for discussion. When I inevitably rate your favorite character badly, you may not go full fangirl/boy and freak out at me. If you feel the need to defend a character as you would your own religious or political beliefs, please remove yourself from the thread until you're certain you won't make a scene Expect me to make a lot of typo's, don't bother notifying me unless it actually makes it too confusing for you to understand what I'm saying And finally, although it's more of a request than a rule, please give me feedback on my writing so that I can work to improve. This is essentially a form of journalism, something I've never tried before, so feedback is definitely welcome Analysis Format Before each analyses I'll list the character's name, the universe they're from, the medium I observed them in, and note their overall rating. I'll also have a short introduction to my experiences with the character and why I'm analyzing them Each character will be rated based on several aspects (to be covered shortly), the possible ratings are listed in the following spoiler 1. This aspect of the character is there, but total shit. The character would have been better without it 2. The aspect is here, and not the worst, but the character still would have been better without it 3. The aspect is here, bad, but not having it wouldn't have really helped 4. The aspect is bad and doesn't really add to the character, but losing it would be detrimental 5. The aspect is mediocre and adds to the character, but not much 6. The aspect is important to the character but could be portrayed better 7. The character makes good use of the aspect and it helps shape them, but lacks in several areas, keeping them from being truly amazing in this area 8. The aspect is used well to help improve the character overall, but lacks something big that prevents it from being perfect 9. The aspect is used well to help improve the character overall, but lacks something small that prevents it from being perfect 10. The aspect is portrayed nigh perfectly, it's central to the character and helps improve them as a whole Special ratings: 0. A score of zero means that this aspect is literally nonexistant for a character where it would have significantly improved the character as a whole. Will be counted as a 3 for the sake of overall score -. A score of nil (labeled as -) means that an aspect was nonexistant, but I don't feel is was necessary to the character, thus this element will not be counted in the overall score 11. The very best, like no one ever was. Only one character may hold this title in any area at a time. Should it be awarded to a new character, the previous one shall be dropped to a 10 (however the overall score for the previous holder shall not be changed) The following are the aspects that shall be rated, there may be slight differences between mediums but I've tried to make each aspect applicable in some way to all media forms Personality This should be self-explanatory, it's who the character is. This aspect is about who the character is designed to be, how well they portray who they're supposed to be, and how both of these things develop. A character who develops significantly is much better than one who starts out being perfect after all Design This is one of the main things that will be different across mediums. In a visual medium this will focus directly on the character's art and how fitting their design is to them. In a written medium it will focus more on how well the author describes them as well as how well these descriptions fit the character Voice This refers to the aspect of voice in writing and not the actual voice behind a character with a voice actor. It's how the character portrays themselves as unique from the other characters around them Backstory What the character's past is like. This will check how well it fits their character and motivations, how believable it is in the scenario, and how it is revealed across the story Balance Depending on the genre this may manifest in different ways. Balance refers to the character's relative usefulness compared to the rest of the cast. This is obvious how it works in something such as a fighting anime. But in other genres it's a bit tougher. I'll be looking at how often a character shows up to perform their duties in comparison to how necessary they are at the time as one of my main measurements for this aspect. Also note that characters that are intentionally over/underpowered/used with good reason besides the story needing it may still get good ratings here Overall Lastly the character's overall score. This will be the average of the previous scores, possibly with a +/- 1 (or less) at my digression. This slight change will usually be based on my personal enjoyment of a character and not a distinct concept. I'll be sure to make a note stating why I did it Requests Want my to go over a specific character, or even one of your own OCs? Here's a form for that. Note that I will only be accepting requests for anime, cartoons, live action TV, written media, and OCs due to availability and time Character Name: [Their name] Medium: [Anime, cartoon, live action TV, book, manga, roleplay, or short story/fanfic. I will only be going over one medium per character in most cases, so pick the one you think I'll get through quickest/have the easiest time getting access to] Universe: [Links for anime (MAL), manga (just wherever you're reading it), and OCs (wherever you're writing them). Otherwise just give the name] Length: [i won't do characters from anything that would take me longer than a month to get through. That's about 40 episodes of an anime or cartoon, or a trilogy of books with around 400 pages each. No idea on manga. A 40 page RP on Reborn is around two days... Oh, and I'll also cover anything from any of the anime series that I've finished, check my MAL to see those. Also for anime series, please make note of any sequel movies] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 Analyses And now that you're through all of that, let's get to the actual analyses. Tomoe Mami, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Anime I agonized for hours over which character to start with. I considered starting with someone controversial, someone decidedly amazing, someone I personally loved, someone nobody would have heard of, etc. But finally I decided on someone I considered fairly average, yet still very important to both her series and to me. Mami is the character that got me into the anime scene. I only watched Madoka Magica because I knew of her impending demise, and I only watch anime because I watched Madoka Magica As a little background for you scrubs who haven't watched Madoka Magica: Mami is killed off fairly early on to help introduce the show as a much darker take on the Mahou Shoujo genre. This significantly limits her development as a character. However this is slightly remedied by her increased screentime in the series's sequel movie, Rebellion Please try to keep an open mind as you read this and don't lose your head Personality (7) While Mami as a character has the potential to be fairly good, most of her personality got tossed down the Madoka Shock Bin right off the bat. In the series, her character development is essentially limited to her not getting along with Akemi Homura and two minutes of backstory shortly before her death in episode three. She's expanded on significantly in Rebellion, but even there she still feels lacking, with most of her character still just being her antagonistic relationship with Homura. She does have some development in a certain seen where she breaks down upon learning the truth behind a witch's origins, but that timeline ended up being deleted. Keep in mind that this isn't a bad rating, I just think she could have been a lot better Design (9) One thing to be loved about the whole of the Madoka series is the art. It's executed perfectly to fit the situation, and Mami is no exception. However when it comes to expressions, I feel she was a little off, especially when compared to the other characters. She would often feel like she had far to bland a look for the situation. Even her body language is a tad lacking at times, which leads to my struggling to give her the 10 the art wants me to give. Of note is that this feel to be remedied quite a bit in Rebellion, where I found her much more expressive compared to the original 12 episodes Voice (6) In a cast of very unique and interesting characters, Mami struggles to stand out quite a bit. This is largely due to the same reason her personality struggles, she just didn't get enough screentime. Instead of feeling like an interesting character she got tossed in the Madoka Shock Bin right off the bat. Once again, Rebellion helps a ton with this, allowing her to showcase herself as her own person instead of just helping further the plot. And thus lands her with a much more positiver score than she would otherwise get Backstory (3) As mentioned in the personality section, Mami gets about two minutes of backstory, and it's not even a very good backstory. Her story is essentially just an excuse to mention that the show isn't all-happy-go-lucky. However despite being terribly underdone, removing it wouldn't make her any better, thus she acquires the 3 rating Balance (6) Madoka does have some fighting; in fact the biggest fight scene in the series involves Mami. And outside of one fight, she comes off as being consistently a strong and reliable fighter who thinks things through and can back her plans up with heavy firepower. Compared to the other characters she's a bit overpowered, but this stems from her being the second most experienced character in the show and thus is justified. So then, why the lowish rating? Well, for once it isn't her lack of screentime, it's the fact that in several cases she badly utilized her screentime (keep in mind that this section deals with the usefulness/appearance ratio, not just fighting). There's a lot of times where she seemed to show up just to remind the viewer that's she's there and didn't actually get anything done Overall (7.2) For those of you who just did the math in your head faster that I could type the word overall, yes, this did get the full +1. My reasoning is simple: The Madoka Shock Bin is a huge part of what makes the show good, without Mami's death to set the tone, the show simply wouldn't have performed as well. By taking one for the team, Mami significantly helps the whole show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 Wait List This list is the next five things I'm going to cover Grand Admiral Thrawn, Thrawn Trilogy [star Wars EU] - Book Series Yukiteru Amano, Mirai Nikki - Future Diary - Anime Inobuzaki Itsuki, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru, Anime Guy Hamdon, SheZow, Western Cartoon Open Requests This is where requests that haven't yet made it onto the wait list go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support Squad Felicity Posted January 26, 2016 Support Squad Share Posted January 26, 2016 Do not try to play devil's advocate Well immediately this is flawed. Playing Devils advocate is a common way to expand a way of thinking on a subject. It's literally considering another perspective. What's wrong with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 I'm trying to minimize arguments. And someone attempting to say "you're wrong" just for the sake of saying it is going to cause arguments. End of story, moving on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Alright, here goes. This particular character is fresh on -my- mind because I've encountered a lot of "oh, wow, I suffer with that trait more than I think." as of late. Due to a surprising amount of relation, I want to see what someone else thinks about the character in general. Name: Yukiteru Amano (Mirai Nikki - Future Diary) - also known as "First" with regard to his identification in the survival game. Medium: Anime Universe: http://theanimeplace.co/watch/mirai-nikki-subbed ...(I think you asked where I was watching it, right?) Length: 26 Episodes; about 30 minutes in length. I hope I got the format right. I can't wait to see what you see! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted January 27, 2016 Author Share Posted January 27, 2016 I was asking for the MyAnimeList link, but that should be good enough I need to settle on the position of a couple personal things on the wait list, but I'll be sure to get you up there ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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