Unappealing characters

[Spike 558]

One common assessment that goes against Gasaraki's favour is that the charcters are dull. In the terms of critical assessment, appealing charatcers can really make or break a series. One only needs to see shows like Cowboy Bebop or Kenshin to really see how much an appealing protagonist works.

What do the rest of you think?
Is Yoshiro a boring protagonist?
Is the tension between himself and Miharu bland?
Is Gasaraki's 'central character' not properly defined?
Did the writers of Gasaraki spend too much time with the plot and not enough time on anything else?
Is it hard to determine who is "good" and who is "bad"?

You know, considering all the mud that has been slung at Gasaraki, it make me wonder if we who like Gasaraki (and spend so much time defending it against less than praising comments) really have a convincing argument.

[Nokari]

Is Yoshiro a boring protagonist? I haven't seen all of the series, but I think on a scale of 1-5 (1 being outright lame/boring, 5 being immensly entertaining) he would be a 2. There are moments when he seems more like a real human than some boring character.

Is the tension between himself and Miharu bland? It's kind of one of those natural tensions between a man/woman, but it's still pretty bland. I think their relationship lacks due to the involvement with the focus being more on the plot than the character relationships.

Is Gasaraki's 'central character' not properly defined? I don't know about anyone else but it was clear to me that Yoshiro and Miharu were the 2 "central characters".

Did the writers of Gasaraki spend too much time with the plot and not enough

time on anything else? They could have developed the relationships and emotions of the characters better.

Is it hard to determine who is "good" and who is "bad"? Well this part is kinda why I like Gasaraki. There are times when I get so sick of those Good guy vs. Bad guy stereotypes. I think it's good to watch an anime, once in a while, that doesn't really have a defined good or bad. That the characters live within a sort of grey area, sometimes passing between good and bad. I think It gives some of the characters a more realistic role.

[Wolfpac]

Whoo-Hoo, a Gasaraki Topic

Is Yoshiro a boring protagonist? - Well yes and no. While his character might be a little on the boring side with Yushiro showing little to no emotion throughout most of the series, there was enough to keep things interesting. It's just that he wasn't one of these typical anime characters that yelled out his attack before doing it. He was a solider. He did what he was told and he did it. The thing with Gasaraki is that it's more like a live action drama not an Anime. From a Drama point of view he is a good character. But from an Anime's point of view he's a boring character.

Is the tension between himself and Miharu bland? - Now this I agree on. While Yushiro and Miharu may be Soul Mates, there is barely any Sexual Tension between them. Heck, when Miharu decides not to speak when the come back from Kyoto, it's almost like they are an old married couple. It's almost like they had been married for years not just newly together.

Is Gasaraki's 'central character' not properly defined? - While there wasn't really any doubt of who the two main characters were there was just too much going on to shine the spotlight on them. With Mr. Nishida and the Gowa family taking up so much time, there just wasn't that much time spent on the two main characters.

Did the writers of Gasaraki spend too much time with the plot and not enough time on anything else? - Well yes. There are so many characters in this show that have important parts to the story and plot that they almost forgot about character development. Now apart from Miharu, Misuzu and Mr. Nishida, just about every character are icemen. They show no emotion. They are just soldiers doing there job. So while the story may be interesting, you just can't relate to them.

Is it hard to determine who is "good" and who is "bad"? - Well it sort of is but that's what I like about Gasaraki. You are not really sure who you should go for. Look at Mr. Nishida. His ideals were wrong, but you knew where he came from so you weren’t sure weather to hate him or respect him. So I think that it's good that it isn't a Good Vs Evil thing.