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.

Christina Was Wasted Potential

In Loran's article, I mentioned that Gundam will finally have it's first female protagonist but I can imagine anyone who reads this with high Gundam knowledge will bring up Christina Mackenzie. Kind of a poor example and I'll tell you why.

In the War in the Pocket OVA, Christina is the test pilot for the prototype Gundam Alex intended to be a replacement for Amuro Ray's OG Gundam, while Christina's history indicates a pretty good background in the military, she's not really there for combat purposes, and she's also not really the lead character, that honour is either Bernard Wiseman the Zeon pilot sent to destroy the Alex or Alfred, the kid who takes in Bernard.
Christina is also a girl next door type, nice and pleasant but not really screaming main character material although she ranked better than Emma Sheen, Roux Louka and Elle Vianno among women who actually pilot Gundams but loses out to non pilots, villains and anyone with the name Elpeo Ple, her potential was there but ultimately she never did anything afterwards as the project was scrapped and was never brought on board for other projects within the Universal Century.
It wasn't until Gundam Seed that female characters in Gundam could reach the heights of other big time female characters in the medium.
I won't forget Christina but the majority probably will which is a shame.

Loran Should've Been a Girl

Our current run on this world is a look at things which may have improved the anime they were in if they had happened, this time we look at Gundam pilot Loran Cehack.

The story of Loran's creation has conflicting accounts but the most popular one is that Yoshiyuki Tomino wanted a female protagonist for the latest Gundam series, since he was going to be more involved in Turn A and the fact that Gundam X didn't nearly do as well as Wing.
He was however over ruled so Loran's design made him look more androgynous in the gender department giving him quite a skinny build and almost always wearing a hairband, in fact it became a major plot point that he was mistaken for a girl named Laura Rolla, so when he had to present himself for a party, he donned a full elegant ball gown and given full etiquette lessons to get through the event, again depending who you ask, this was either Tomino's revenge or a homage to Judau Ashta's crossdressing.
The ball scene in Turn A is the best moment of an otherwise underwhelming season, so much so that Tieria Erde of Gundam 00 would later repeat as a homage to Loran.
As for the whole Gundam Female Protagonist, we are finally getting one in the next Gundam series, the Witch from Mercury slated for October this year.

Luna Should've Been Usagi's Mom

Parents in Sailor Moon is really only seen with Usagi in regards to both her Earth and Moon families, I have nothing against Queen Serenity but her roles are pretty limited to establishing the plot and occasionally messaging her daughter from beyond the grave, that's it; Luna by definition is Usagi's advisor but she should be her real mother.

I have my reasons, the obvious one is well look at her human form, her appearance fits the part of a high ranking figure and wouldn't feel out of place in a crown or royal dress, in fact her dress from the S Movie was made into a real life Wedding dress.
Luna does most of the things that Queen Serenity should do, provide the magical items, advise the scouts and provide them with missions.
She's way more of a motherly figure than even Usagi's Earth mother, it also helps that Luna's original dub voice made her sound like an older lady of nobility.
By extension, Artemis would fit the same role as a father figure but we spend more time with Luna.
Jupiter might be my favourite Sailor Scout but my favourite character has always been Luna.

Sumire's Retirement Helped Revive the Franchise

Sometimes real world decisions can make a change for the better.

Sumire Kanzaki even before her retirement played one of the biggest roles in Sakura Wars, she was an established top star in the theatre group, her company designed the Koubu armour mech used for killing the demons and played important roles in story building and character development.
Things were going strong until 2002 when actress Michie Tomisawa announced her retirement from voice acting to focus on her marriage, unable to replace her for all the extended media, an OVA was setup to give Sumire an official retirement, the actual OVA details Sumire losing her powers.
Sakura Wars as a franchise faded out after the lacklustre performance of the American Sakura Wars and went dormamt for over a decade until the series got revived in 2019 with Sumire leading the new Imperial Floral Assault Unit as General with the original actress playing her.
With none of the other original cast members or characters returning, Sumire's OVA actually gave her the most important role in the franchise.
Whether Sakura Wars keeps going is debatable but Sumire has managed to save a formerly dead franchise by keeping the canon alive.

Alfred's Back Story is More Tragic Than Any Shonen Protagonist

Sometimes I wonder how we get certain things in anime.

This cute little duck is Alfred, he's the star of the Japanese and Dutch made Alfred J Kwak, now on first glance, it looks like nothing more than a friendly kids show and the first episode certainly sets the tone for what looks like a rather joyful series of adventures with a curious little duck.
Then episode 2 happens and Alfred loses his entire family in a car accident leaving him completely orphaned, the shock and awe of such a massive whiplash in tone likely did it's fair share in upsetting alot of kids, heck even adults.
I didn't watch alot of this series as my memory of it from the late 80s and early 90s is pretty vague but I'm kind of glad I missed that episode.
So how is the series in comparison? Oh lord we aren't even touching the service, it's going to need it's own article just to describe the amount of heavy themes this series tackles.