Welcome to the Anime Walk of Fame, a series of retrospectives on the many characters of the anime world. You'll see all your favorites along with a few that deserve more than their reputations give.

So sit back relax and enjoy the show.

Domon is Surprisingly Capable

It has been a while but mental health is no joke, look after it, don't let yourself burn out. Today's subject is a good example of strong mentality.

It's easy to consider Domon Ishijima a dumb gorilla and in many cases you're not wrong, plenty of times he's been showcased as not being book smart and having monkey like instincts but over the course of Flame of Recca, he quickly evolves into one of the most mentally strong characters in the series even getting compliments from enemies about it.
Over coming odds that were designed to take down characters of his type, his showmanship surrounding his interest in wrestling gave him the edge in his first battle of the tournament, his monkey instincts allowed him to overcome a female opponent who was otherwise toying with him, his complete disregard for danger allowed him to overcome an opponent who had previously decimated a much stronger foe in one hit and finally he overcame a virus designed to kill and control his body through sheer desire to be with Fuko and defeat Recca. It's that kind of instinct that makes Domon one of the most mentally strong characters in anime, a trait shared with the most beloved shonen heroes.

Golgo is a Boring Character

Continuing my special on characters worse or better than they appear we look at a veteran character who is actually quite boring.

Duke Togo a.k.a Golgo 13 a.k.a the spitting image of my uncle, is a master assassin who never fails to miss a target and is often said in universe to be the perfect template of a sigma male, self reliant, could bed any woman, even his own targets and get himself out of any situation with nothing more than his well honed killing and survival skills all with an eternal stoic expression that so defines his character.
Yet he's a boring character who barely speaks and in some films barely in them until he needs to be but he doesn't need to be as he's only there to drive the plot forward, the most endearing feature about any Golgo 13 story is the target Golgo is going after, this is most apparent in the film Queen Bee, where the title character Queen Bee, a soldier in a South American liberation army wants to kill the United States presidential candidate for her own personal reasons and her journey is way more interesting than Golgo's; its why the franchise still goes on as one of Japan's longest running, 2nd place in the longest running manga list as of 2022 and has been going since 1968 for 54 years and is only two volumes off surpassing Dokaben the current record holder, One Piece wishes it could be that long.

Fuko is a Damsel in Distress

Anyone who has been reading my content for a while may have seen a feature I did on characters who were worse than their designs or popularity would suggest, the same would go for characters who were better than they look, so my special which will go on through February will be themed precisely on that starting with the one character I have most gripe with, Fuko Kirisawa from Flame of Recca.

Fuko is the wind user among Recca's team of elemental warriors and the lone female in a group of mixed male characters, while Recca and Tokiya are played straight as a fire and ice duo, Koganei and Domon who are little genius and large orge but are a little more well thought of in design I'll talk about another time.
Finally coming round to Fuko who if you stand next to Yanagi is supposed to be the strong capable female next to the damsel in distress, yet Yanagi is not the damsel here.
Fuko has a ridiculous track record of failures, for someone who can fight on par with Recca in a normal battle and should at least be smarter than him, she's really bloody stupid, so let's review.
1. She accepted a weapon from a stranger who mind controlled her into fighting Recca.
2. She was gullible enough to fall for two lies from bad guys faking tears, the second time nearly cost her, her life as well as the whole teams.
3. She wasted Fujin's powers without even bothering to find the weapon's power core.
4. She wandered off multiple times and found herself trapped in everything from alternate dimensions to temple ruins.
5. Is saved by Raiha on multiple occasions further cementing the fact that she is less damsel and more dumbass in distress.
6. Even in her backstory, her attempts to be a lone wolf are scuppered by the fact she's always in over her head and is upstaged by other female characters who don't even fight.
I really don't want to look like I'm hating on Fuko but all that makes it so difficult for me to really call her a good character, this isn't the author's fault, as he does have superbly designed female characters such as Kagero, Neon and Marchen's Dorothy who is easily top ten material.
I'm not demanding perfection from my female characters either, the Mulan live action showed just how boring a flawless character is, it's just that Fuko's design doesn't support her being a dumbass in distress, it's a flaw too big to ignore.

The Pokemon Anime Really Misses Dawn

I've been quite a fierce critic of the current Pokemon anime having seen opportunities missed and beloved characters done dirty, the harshest of which aimed at the removal of a regular female travelling companion and being stuck with Chloe, I don't hate Chloe, she's just wasted and this became more apparent when Dawn came back.

Dawn was the Sinnoh season's female travelling companion and one of very few to follow a complete story arc and have equal billing with Ash, I very much welcome her return and feel lucky that were seeing a four part special with her next week even if it is for promotional sake, it's frustrating to see Pokemon come in with these characters but stick with such lacklustre setups and story when spinoffs and specials are doing a much better job.
At this point I'm surprised it still holds an audience.

Maple's Game Breaking is No Different to Real Life

One of my favourite anime over the last year is Bofuri, an anime about a girl who becomes invincible in her online game through a desire not to get hurt essentially making her a walking tank.

Through her wide eyed discovery, she acquires an unbreakable shield, a monster she can call on command to devour enemies with poison, a rideable animal that is not only strong but can fly past most enemies along with additional abilities she picks up making her pretty much the god tier character.
But how anyone gets there in real life is basically the same way Maple did in Bofuri, you experiment until you perfect the game you're playing.
Any speedrunner will tell you that glitch exploiting is usually discovered by accident at first but then becomes the tool of choice for the runners; the reason why Street Fighter II has so many ports is because one clever gamer discovered a glitch that accidentally invented combos in fighting games and they ended up building on it further. Pokemon is no different as speedrunners can glitch the game to the end without even catching a Pokemon. You can also picture the look on the gamers face when the backwards long jump in Mario 64 was discovered.
So to all the gamers, Maple is your official waifu.