Partly inspired by one of the entries, these are the characters who can wear absolutely anything, these characters never stick to one outfit for very long, they always change clothing frequently and have plenty to choose from, so without further delay lets begin.
Honorable Mentions
Elizabeth Midford from Black Butler
Always appears in a different dress each time she appears, if it weren't for restrictions in the time period she'd wear every type of dress going.
Isaac & Miria from Baccano
They wear a different costume on every heist but the series is too short compared to the other entries who come from longer series.
Any Idol or Precure Anime
Because naming them all would not make this list very interesting.
10. Toru Kouno, Yuujirou Shihodani and Mikoto Yutaka from Princess Princess
Our first entries are the only male entries on this list, saying that these pretty boys can pull off absolutely anything whether it be male or female clothing, a testament to the art design this anime has.
9. Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina
As the artist's favorite, Naru gets the pick of pretty much every costume going including anime only, manga covers and promotional art exclusives. It helps that Ken Akamatsu is a cosplay otaku and that his wife is the inspiration for Naru.
8. Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon
While all the Sailor Scouts go through a decent wardrobe of clothes, Usagi gets bonuses for using disguises and battle costume upgrades, heck she even pulls off a very convincing male in the manga.
7. Lum from Urusei Yatsura
The only entry on this list to have more costumes in promotional art than her actual anime, it's something which Rumiko Takahashi did alot of which would transfer into Ranma 1/2, in fact for a long time Lum was the face of anime itself.
6. Honey Kisaragi from Cutey Honey
Honey is a master of disguise and will show case any costume when the situation calls for it, in fact her trademark catchphrase often involves her showcasing her disguises before becoming Cutey Honey.
5. Yuri from Dirty Pair Franchise
Yuri is an interesting case because a good majority of her wardrobe appears in one episode of the Flash series if only to spoof how many outfits she's had over all series in the franchise even those outside of Japan with the Adam Warren comics.
4. Rebecca Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash
Appears in a different outfit every episode and some of her DVD cover costumes are spoofs of other anime characters like Gendou Ikari or cultural icons like Bruce Lee and the Terminator.
3. Sakura Kinomoto from Card Captor Sakura
This is the only entry to actually have her own personal fashion designer in Tomoyo, not by choice and Tomoyo is a little too eager to dress up Sakura for all her battles. Saying that, this is the most diverse set of Magical Girl costumes ever assembled in one show.
2. Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail
She has an armor for every occasion and battle, she even uses her magic to change into regular clothes, she even has special outfits she only gets out when the situation calls for it such as her legendary bikini and her wedding dress. I hate this word but Erza is a real fashionista.
1. Fujiko Mine from Lupin III
This women has appeared in disguises so often that one wonders what she really looks like normally, this even became the subject of her own TV Series spinoff. While previous entries have multiple clothing and one trademark outfit, Fujiko Mine just wears everything and anything, even her trademark catsuits are diverse.
Having watched this movie recently, I think a review is in order.
Fairy Tail is one of my favorite anime series about the exploits of the Wizards Guild bearing the same name but traditionally anime movies don't quite live up to the same standard as the tv series, so here's how this movie went.
Before the movie even starts, it's worth looking over the first morning short beforehand where the title character Phoenix Priestess Eclair accidentally brings to life a stuffed toy made like a bird called Momon whom she doesn't like, it shows a normal day where Eclair works as a fortune teller but after an altercation where she loses the Phoenix Stone she has to shelter away from attacking wolves, the next morning Momon is beat up and the stone has returned safe and sound and they become friends, so now we can begin the film proper.
The movie starts off in great fashion as we see Eclair run away from an assault of people who want her dead, after this rather silent scene we see Team Natsu fail to capture a bandit but since Eclair is the main focus she inevitably ends up meeting up with Lucy who takes her back to the Fairy Tail Guild.
Eclair who is traveling to a dangerous region of the world is guarded by the Fairy Tail Guild despite her hatred of magic but with this being the Fairy Tail guild, Team Natsu has no problem helping.
So after a day of shopping including Gray's streaking, Natsu pigging out on food and Erza buying a wedding dress (don't ask her why) the plot finally gets going when a mercenary attacks Lucy & Eclair leading to a hilarious scene where Lucy ends up butt naked. A quick trip to see Eclair's father later and we return to the guild hall only for it to be demolished by the Carbuncle mercenaries who are working for a stuck up King. They succeed in capturing the Phoenix Stone as well as Eclair and promptly fit it together to summon a great evil monster which destroys everything insight which Natsu and co defeat as well as the Carbuncle Mercenaries and so ends the film. (Non Spoiler Version)
For a film it runs quite well, characters don't feel weakened to accommodate an obvious filler story and many of the best moments come from the comedy and the drama. The fight scenes have poor pacing as we don't stay long enough in some battles to really grasp what's going on, particularly the fight between Natsu and Dist seemed very lacking compared to Gray and Erza's fights and this was meant to be the main villain vs the main character.
Dubbing is top notch as always and I'm happy to see Jessica Calvello return to voice acting especially after almost destroying her vocal cords doing Excel Excel. Her voice work as Eclair was one of her best performances to date.
So that's the Fairy Tail movie, maybe I'll review the main series at some point.
Final Verdict: It's definitely worth a watch if you enjoy a decent story but if you've come for action, there's not really enough to satisfy.
This has been on my to do list for a while but after careful consideration I have now picked my top ten guilty pleasure anime.
Dishonorable Mentions
Digimon, Pokemon & Sailor Moon
They all used to be guilty pleasures but are now appreciated classics, Sailor Moon as of it's new series has gone all contemporary, while the other two still run on decent money despite being over 15 years old.
10. Cutey Honey
Better known as the mother of all transformation sequences, Cutey Honey is on here for it's shameless attempts at adult fanservice, it's cheesy dialogue and sentai background, yet it still looks better than most Magical Girl shows in the last ten years.
9. Ultimate Girls & Hyperdoll
Sticking with sentai heritage, Ultimate Girls was an attempt to spoof the Ultraman series and make fun of ecchi shows in general, it never misses a moment to constantly rip off the girls clothes and make them fight the most dodgy looking monsters. Hyperdoll is an older series but follows a similar concept of skimpy clothes and crappy monsters. However both have amazingly catchy theme songs and the whole premise is so laughable that you can't help but enjoy it.
8. Debutante Detective Corps
Anyone who has followed me from day one knows that this show was the first series I ever reviewed, a minor OVA series about five stupidly rich girls forming a detective group to try and stop bad guys wanting to kidnap them and demand their money. It's laughable the amount of effort that went into this OVA and stands the test of time as a heckle worthy anime for the lazy afternoons.
7. Fighting Video Game Anime
Fighting Games have terrible stories and not one of them has ever managed to be good in anime form despite having enough of a diverse cast to allow it to be good. Anime like Powerstone, Virtua Fighter, Fatal Fury, Street Fighter II, Tekken, Variable Geo and Darkstalkers all have to share this position on this list, but say what you like about it, it's still very entertaining to watch these failures.
6. Angelic Layer
It's interesting to see CLAMP try a shonen series but ultimately still feels like a shojo, nevertheless the fighting dollies of Angelic Layer is still a million times better than some of the rubbish CLAMP have dug up over the years.
5. Those Who Hunt Elves
Anyone using the tagline, "Stripping Elves for Fun & Profit" will get serious looks of confusion from so many people, made even more weirder when the characters are a school girl, a martial artist, a Hollywood actress and a T74 Tank that later gets possessed by a cat spirit, all of whom are led by an elf woman who ends up turning into a dog. Despite all that it's wonderfully good fun to watch.
4. Love Hina
It's become a popular bashing subject between anime fans and I can see why but read much closely it still manages to be a decent love story, this is made more clear in the Manga whereas the anime feels cheap in comparison and lets face it, everyone always cheers when watching Naru get punched.
3. Rio Rainbow Gate
This show was written to be completely bashed by anime fans but it's attempts at being serious when Rio herself does her best by using the heart of the cards setup makes this such an enjoyment to watch if only to see how absurd the premise can get, the fact that this was made by Tecmo of Dead or Alive fame is plain to see as its never shy with it's fanservice.
2. Wedding Peach
The term "Sailor Moon ripoff" was common place in the 90s when many Magical Girl shows wanted to claim some of it's popularity, the most high profile being Wedding Peach, about a group of three girls who transform into their Wedding Gowns before going into their mini-skirts of power during a fight scene. It's a cheesy ripoff, the dub is one of the worst in anime history and feels like something Precure would come up with (which surprisingly they haven't). Saying that, it had a decent soundtrack, it ran at a higher quality than Sailor Moon and you just can't help but appreciate the ambitious attempt this anime tried to accomplish that it so nearly became a worthy rival.
1. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
Oh god, oh god, oh god. Yes another terrible magical girl show but it's so laughably stupid that it's become a hidden cult classic, it's also the only anime that manages to use it's whole color palette for both it's villains and mermaids and finally we have the songs. Even shows about Magical Pop Idols such as Aikatsu and the Pretty Rhythm franchise could never compete with Mermaid Melody's cheesy pop, for a long time it served the internet's meme community until the next bad anime took over.
Last year I did my Top Ten list on Worst dubbed anime performances, this sort of follows on from that but this time lets look at the character performances that really sucked. I'll also name the Voice Actor behind each character.
Please note that this list isn't a reflection of the Voice Actor themselves as most of them would have done better work.
Now lets begin.
Dishonorable Mentions
James from Pokemon voiced by Ted Lewis
Ted Lewis is better known for Giovanni and Tracey, however he didn't get a very good shot at James in the first few episodes of the original series as his acting range doesn't suit comic relief too well but seeing as the casting was replaced quickly he misses this list.
Hikaru Shidou from Magic Knight Rayearth voiced by Julie Maddalena
I just found the voice irritating, which thankfully was resolved in the OVA through change of casting. Saying that it's not a big enough criticism to go on the list.
Gourry Gabriev from Slayers voiced by Eric Stuart
Eric Stuart didn't start his portrayal of Gourry very well but because he improved over time he's escaped this list.
10. Italy from Hetalia voiced by Todd Haberkorn
Pulling off an accent is tough especially when you have to cover such a broad range of them and poor Todd Haberkorn cannot do Italian.
9. Tenma Tsukamoto from School Rumble voiced by Luci Christian
Luci Christian has done loads of voices really well, so what does she bring to Tenma from School Rumble, her Kaname Chidori voice. This does not suit Tenma seeing as her Japanese voice is much lighter in tone, I usually don't mind a change in tone between translations but Tenma's voice put me off the dub.
8. Kintaro Oe from Golden Boy voiced by Doug Smith
Another case of change for the worst, as Kintaro's voice became stupid for the dub, a poor direction to go for the character. I've already mentioned how bad the dub was anyway, I won't go through it anymore.
7. Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo OVA voiced by Mona Marshall
When Tenchi Muyo's cast returned, Ryoko's original dub voice didn't and instead they picked Mona Marshall, a voice better suited for tomboys and young boys rather than a sassy space pirate. That was not a smart choice, this led to Tenchi Muyo's downfall and since then the series has not been popular in the west.
6. Anthy Himemiya from Utena voiced by Sharon Becker
Utena is a notoriously bad dub to begin with but made worst when you come to an important character like Anthy. In short, she's too quiet and too flat sounding yet her design is meant to be striking enough to be backed up by an equally thought inspiring voice and yet it didn't happen and like the rest of the series, fell flat.
5. Angel Daisy from Wedding Peach voiced by Heather Kafka
Wedding Peach sadly was another train wreck of a dub and poor Angel Daisy suffered as a result, completely wrong voice casting was the blame for this one. If the dub is going to be bad anyway at least make the characters sound right.
4. Canal Volfield from Lost Universe voiced by Jessica Schwartz
Lost Universe is part of ADV Films forgotten dubs series, which remain forgotten for a reason but by virtue of Nozomi entertainment some of them came back. Sadly the old dub remained and Canal's voice is not only irritating but the entire performance is flat. Made even worst when you consider that Jessica Schwartz does have good range when putting on an accent.
3. Sai Nanohana from Jubei-Chan voiced by Byron Close
The Jubei-Chan dub lacked emotion which is something a lot of actors failed to accomplish in this series but nothing could top Sai Nanohana's voice, the performance was so bad that the series stopped being threatening and just became laughable.
2. Yuma Tsukumo from Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal voiced by Eli Jay
I've not known any performance to be the epiphany of failure like Yuma Tsukumo, this is the lowest Yu-Gi-Oh have ever sunk.
1. Miaka Yuuki from Fushigi Yugi voiced by Bridget Hoffman
Bridget Hoffman is a veteran actress and is really good at some roles but all it took to ruin Miaka Yuuki was the very first lines of dialogue, that took 40 seconds, it doesn't get any better from there. Just goes to show that there are just some roles you can't always get right.
After a break from reviewing, lets dive into something popular; time for Fruits Basket.
Fruits Basket is about Tohru Honda who starts the series off homeless thanks to a combination of her mother dying and her grandfather not being able to look after her due to renovation work on his house, less than five minutes in and it's not looking good but she seems to have boundless optimism despite her situation.
Anyway, it's during this homeless period that she meets up with Yuki Sohma who lives in a big house nearby with relatives Shigure and later Kyo; unfortunately due to a series of clumsy moments, Tohru accidentally discovers the secrets of the Sohma family, which is that they transform into animals from the Chinese Zodiac when hugged by members of the opposite gender.
This actually works in Tohru's favor as she gets to stay in the big house in order to not let out the secret she's just found out and the rest of the series is meeting up with the rest of the family, along with some raw emotional family feuds along the way.
I actually enjoyed watching Fruits Basket because the anime kept it's balance of heavy drama and comedy fairly equal, the manga that continues til the story's end is a different problem.
When the manga continued, it introduced a load of characters that either made the story more complicated or had no business being created to begin with, not helped by the art style that makes these characters look so similar to the Sohma family.
Another problem is that the plot is stupid and the motives and actions of one Akito Sohma are unjustified and selfish to the point of wishing the character would die. Equally Tohru Honda comes across as the Mary Sue type, which is a much hated character archetype, but thankfully escapes it thanks to a well done ending.
So while Fruits Basket is a sweet series, it's actually better in it's anime format as it doesn't bombard you with angst heavy scenarios.
Dub is top notch and is frequently listed in a top ten dubs throughout the internet.
Final Verdict: It's a decent series but needs some fine tuning to be better. Cutting half the cast and ridding some of the angsty subplots would benefit this series greatly.
