It's the last day of this year so I will finish off with a list. This is the top 10 most surprising talents from popular characters. This list also has a bonus of five non anime entries at the end.
10. Miss Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh
The shy tall girl from the cast of Azumanga Daioh, celebrated for her athletic ability, her American measurements and her aloof personality. While it's not that surprising in her character design to like everything cute but what comes as a real surprise is how well she can sing when with the others at karaoke. This is played with in AMVs when she sings Colors of Wind from Pocahontas.
9. Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann
While she can take down a Beastmen with just her large rifle, she retires from active duty to become a teacher, and an awesome teacher at that, she even hides guns in her Blackboard.
8. Sunako Nakahara from The Wallflower
An anti-social girl who can't stand bright shiny people is able to cook as well as a house wife, in fact it's her most defining talent as a character which ultimately wins the approval of her aunt.
7. Konata Izumi from Lucky Star
Unfit, over weight otaku are considered an out dated stereotype but Konata is so small in build that you wonder how on earth she could be so athletic.
6. Apachai from Kenichi Mightiest Disciple
Apachai is tough, he can talk to animals and he can somehow defeat everyone at Othello or Go if you want to stay Japanese. It's supposed to show how a non skilled person can learn anything with practice but Apachai gets so good he nearly beats resident genius Akisame.
5. Ami Mizuno from Sailor Moon
It was going to be Makoto Kino but her skills don't really surprise me. As for Ami, it comes as a big surprise that the resident genius who claims to have no interest whatsoever in romance can apparently dance like an elegant princess. She may give Belle a run for her money.
4. Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina
Keitaro is pretty useless at most things but seems to have the skills of a master patisserie chef during Valentines Day when he makes a cake so amazing it would fool anyone into thinking he had a girlfriend. Good thing he has those skills as you need something to fall back on if he failed University again.
3. Hinata Hyuuga from Naruto
The timid ninja who really doesn't belong in the anime up against all the male ninja in an eating contest where usually the defining trait of Shonen lead males is that they eat a lot. Hinata defeated all of them, no defeat is the wrong word, she thrashed them.
2. Lizzy from Black Butler
I started with Meyrin but it's not such a big shock for a Phantomhive servant to be a mercenary. Lizzy on the other hand is the shows only girly girl, and seems out of place throughout, until a defining point in the manga when Ciel ends up in danger, she picks up the nearest swords and slices the Zombie horde to ribbons. In fact just look at the picture, that's really Lizzy being a bad ass after spending so long being annoying.
1. Tenma Tsukamoto from School Rumble
But I don't think anyone can top Tenma, a hopeless romantic, scatterbrained idiot with no physical or academic skills with the attention spam of a Schizophrenic Goldfish. and yet she has deadly Archery skills, can Judo throw someone twice her size, has a deadly baseball throw, can cycle really fast and to top off just her physical strengths she can Ski so well she teaches everyone else. And depending on how you interpret the ending she becomes a Doctor Overseas in the States
Now for five Western Examples
Eric Cartman from South Park
Is very talented at Photography when you take into account all his schemes. He is Peter Parker good.
Doctor Robotnik from Sonic
While only brushed on briefly by the Doctor at the end of Generations, Robotnik apparently was at university studying to be a teacher, I would love to see that expanded on. Next project Sega "Sonic Origins"
Buford from Phineas & Ferb
The bully from Phineas & Ferb can speak fluent French and quotes Voltaire, proving to be more sophisticated than the rest of the cast.
Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons
While having extra skills is not really a surprise in a series this long it always comes as a surprise when it happens especially with Lisa who has no skills outside academics yet she has the hand-eye coordination to stop a Hockey Puck bare-handed fired by an adult. The same Lisa who earlier in the same episode burst a Volleyball with her hair.
Sabrina from the Pokemon Games
It comes as no surprise that Gym Leaders have hobbies & jobs outside Gym Leading but when Gen 5 came along, Sabrina came back as a Movie Star; okay playing a Movie villain is less surprising but in the games she's depicted as a psychic master over dedicated to her training which expands to the anime; I would never picture her as a Movie Star. This also backs up a theory that suggests that Sabrina doesn't come from Kanto.
Well that's everyone, I'll be in 2014 before the majority of you so Happy New Year to all my viewers and I'll see you in 2014.
I'm back after my break and of course over the festive period there have been a metric ton of Christmas Specials as per usual, in this feature I'll cover my favorites along with a few I'm not so fond of, as a bonus anything I mention whether it be...
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I'll be going on break over Christmas, I apologize that I couldn't get more done but between work and preparing for the Holiday Season I've had no time to write anything.
I wish everyone a happy Christmas and I'll see you after Christmas.
As a request for Kyra-Chan my next entry shall cover Code Lyoko and I've certainly found some interesting facts beyond watching the show so lets see what we can uncover.
A computer maniac named Jeremy joins the Boarding School of Kadic Academy when one day he finds a super computer in an abandoned factory. This super computer contains Lyoko, a Virtual World in dire need of saving due to a malevolent AI named X.A.N.A who after activating also causes destruction in the real world, also in this virtual world is Aelita, a pink haired girl who is stuck in Lyoko. Joined by Ulrich, Odd & Yumi, the gang attempt to stop X.A.N.A and save both worlds while retrieving Aelita in this hybrid CGI Anime like series.
Code Lyoko's roots go much deeper than just your standard cartoon; you see the French like to first release their cartoons as short films before applying for a contract for serialization and Code Lyoko was no exception.
It started as a short film called "Les enfants font leur cinéma" ("The children make their movies") then after gaining enough interest it became a pilot short called Garage Kids in 2001, this would later evolve into Code Lyoko two years later but minus it's creator Thomas Romain who would leave the project to help with Oban Star Racers, I'll come back to him later, how about the characters and cartoon itself.
The characters follow a standard cookie cutter group; the geek, the delinquent, the crazy one, the mature female and the soft spoken damsel. Despite the fact Jeremy never fights himself he still manages to stand out as a main character being the one who directs the combat members of the team who when entering the Virtual World turn into Japanese Warrior types such as the Samurai, the Fan Blade User and the Cat creature. (Well you call someone Odd he needs an odd form)
The animation is top quality as is typical of modern French cartoons and I like the hybrid of CGI & traditional. As for the quality of the show, it's okay, it follows an easy formula, there's a problem in the real world, they enter the virtual world, fix problem, everything is reset, rinse and repeat until plot happens, in fact Gormiti uses practically the same plot so Code Lyoko is also a huge influence on other Euro shows.
As of this year Code Lyoko returned to French screens but this time in a live-action/CGI hybrid, I don't know yet if this is any good, we'll wait to see if it gets exported.
One thing I take from this show which I've always been proud of is that I can sing the full theme song in perfect French despite never learning French.
And before I finish this Cartoon Vault review lets return to creator Thomas Romain. It's unusual to see western talent go to Japan to work on big anime projects but Thomas Romain would later lend his art talents to Aria the Natural and the recent anime powerhouse Senki Zessho Symphogear.
So why is a good show axed when bad shows still get season after season?
Well these examples may put a few things to rest.
1. Invader Zim
Everyone's favorite psychotic alien in one of Nicktoons darkest & funniest shows of all time.
Why Cancel?: Nickelodeon claimed it was low ratings, the real reason was that Invader Zim frequently broke its budget and became too expensive for the Network to make.
Aftermath: It's staff would later be hired for Avatar the Last Airbender.
2. Class of 3000
A performance arts college led by Andre 3000 of OutKast. Decent animation and decent music.
Why Cancel?: Cartoon Network claimed it was too expensive to make, the real reason came when Andre 3000 was sued for plagiarism which ultimately sealed it's fate.
Aftermath: It was the last cartoon to be made under the old Cartoon Network banner which led up to the events of the 2007 Boston Bomb Scare which cost former head Jim Samples his job, what followed was a few years of crap Cartoon Network.
3. Warner Bros 90s Cartoons
Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Pinky & the Brain, Hysteria, all of Warner's finest from that era.
Why Cancel?: Some guy named Jamie Kellner decided to scrap the range claiming it wasn't right for the channel's image to have cartoons appealing to grown ups. Ironically this also happened to the Avengers cartoon.
Aftermath: Warner Bros have not been the same since.
4. Cancelled without reason
Danny Phantom, El Tigre, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, Juniper Lee, American Dragon, Young Justice, Megas XLR, Swat Kats & Samurai Jack.
Why Cancel?: In some cases poor time slots, in others it simply dropped off the channel for no reason. For Swat Kats, Ted Turner claimed it was too violent. Samurai Jack's chances look slim for a comeback following Mako's death and because Samurai Jack needs his voice but not other voices it poses quite a problem.
5. Gargoyles
Core of Disney's epic run of tv cartoons in the 90s.
Why Cancel?: Fell out of Disney's favor and ended up being drawn by a different animation house.
Aftermath: Disney seem to do this a lot with these kinds of shows, the same fate befell many of the shows I've mentioned along with the likes of WITCH & PB & J Otter.
6. Adult Swim Cartoons
Anything not Venture Bros or Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Why Cancel?: Adult Swim is too poorly run to sustain cartoons properly, some never made it pass episode one. In the case of Titan Maximum which had better ratings than many of it's staple shows, creator Seth Green felt that Robot Chicken was more important.
7. Classic British Cartoons
It's worthy of note that many of our classic cartoons, mostly stop motion shows like Postman Pat, Bagpuss & Camberwick Green are notoriously short.
Why Cancel?: They were never cancelled, the shows were really that short.
Wallace & Gromit our best cartoon has only had four episodes, one movie and numerous shorts in 24 years and it frequently wins awards no problem.
Explain: We British don't do filler, also helps that British shows tend to have all episodes filmed in a series before broadcast.
8. And an Anime Example
The original Gundam Series
Why Cancel?: Surprisingly poor ratings cut the show to 39 episodes forcing creator Yoshiyuki Tomino to improvise an ending.
Aftermath: Rerun figures were better and with new editing and cuts was redone into a film trilogy before Zeta Gundam's release.
