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.

Rosalie is a Terrible Ruler

Mistress 9 is going to be a while writing so for a mini special let us look at a wide range of princesses and see how well they rule starting with the most recent anime I watched, Cautious Hero.

I'm being very generous with Rosalie's picture as this is her at her best, she doesn't really deserve it though.
Rosalie is Gaeabrande's princess, daughter of the veteran king dubbed the Warmaster. Growing up with such a known hero gave young Rosalie a strong sense of justice which she uses to motivate her army in defeating the legions of the Demon King, only problem is her head strong determination gets most of her army butchered, it's a trait that I expect from a poorly written Dynasty Warriors character not a monarch in a fantasy anime.
And while yes, doing nothing just prolongs the bloodshed on innocent people but blindly going into battle without a strategy wastes soldiers lives, call Seiya unheroic as much as you want, but his actions saved way more lives and took out way more enemies than Rosalie ever did. It's any wonder she got slapped so many times before stepping back.
After all "What can you protect when feelings are the only weapons you have?" - Kira Yamato

We Only Tolerate Chibi Usa Because of Black Lady

Everyone has their own favourite Sailor Moon character but it's almost never Chibi Usa but when you really dive into it, she never really gets any out right hate and that might because of her darker older form of Black Lady.

Black Lady was created when Wiseman preyed on Chibi Usa's negative emotions caused by a time space rift transforming her into the dark form of Black Lady, serving as a major antagonist for the Black Moon Arc;
The result was an effective villain who took out Tuxedo Mask and proved to be the best villain for Sailor Moon and her friends until the summoning of Neo Queen Serenity set her free along with Sailor Pluto's help.
Three reasons why this saves Chibi Usa as a character.
1. It gives more weight to her original introduction back in Sailor Moon R removing much of her tagalong kid status.
2. It would later give inspiration to another infamous Sailor Moon villain, Mistress 9.
3. It more than makes up for her god awful arc in the SuperS seasons.
But also for a bonus fourth reason, evil is just way sexier and both Black Lady and Mistress 9 personify that well and feel right at home during the early hot topic goth era.
But the biggest take away from Black Lady's appearance was that Sailor Moon was growing up, stakes were higher, more adult themes were being explored and it gave the series a much grander appeal than it had originally with it's first seasons.
Mistress 9 will follow this post, but her creation didn't quite have the same effect on Saturn.

Why Isn't Chio More Popular?

So having finished the anime Chio's School Road (review coming soon) I found myself supporting the lead Chio Miyamo and with the internet declaring best girl in pretty much every anime, I wonder why she isn't more popular?

So let's break her down first, Chio is a gamer with a rare interest in Western gaming, which for us lot doesn't bat an eyelid but in Japan, it's quite rare with Chio even referencing the difference in one episode.
Along with her gaming prowess, she possesses out of the box thinking in situations which can only exist from gamer logic, the whole punchline of the series is Chio travelling to school, how do we make this more fun?
Chio is also what she describes herself as below average, her relationship with her best friend is more inline with a bromance, I guess you can call that a womance.
And finally her quirky nature resonates with much of the audience this anime is aimed at.
She's pretty much a western vtuber before vshojo was a thing so why isn't she more popular?
Might be because by her own omission she hates standing out and that kinda translates into real life as well sadly.
And while it is her anime, she tends to be competing with her friend Manana who is equally as quirky, sometimes more extreme.
Chio is plain looking for a female anime character and her personality while unique, over laps with other members of the cast.
The key to female character design, standout and be unique, Chio isn't unique enough amongst the cast and her whole deal is not standing out.
It's a pity really as I had a lot of fun watching her.

Sartorius Was Dio Before It Was Cool

A fun one for you now and everyone knows the JoJo reference "Za Warudo" but this massive memeable phrase didn't originate from JoJo.

Satorius or Takuma Saio is a major antagonist from Yu-Gi-Oh GX in the Society of Light arc looking way less deranged in the picture but I assure you that he sported some trademark psychotic eyes as so shows in Yu-Gi-Oh villains.
A brief description of his deck showcases cards inspired by Tarot Cards, Saio being a fortune teller himself, so a tarot deck suits him.
If you know your tarot cards, one of the cards is called "The World" which he plays against Judai.
Now Saio here is voiced by Dio Brando voice actor Takehito Koyasu and he does indeed utter the words "Za Warudo" predating his appearance as Dio Brando by quite a margin, meaning that Za Warudo is a Yu-Gi-Oh reference not a JoJo reference.
If you want to be technical, it's a trademark of Takehito Koyasu's acting.
So a nice little fun fact for you.

Disney Wishes it had Cleopatra

I hated Disney Channel when it was around and I'm glad it's been buried by Disney+ but once again it is anime that trumps the tween channel, long before it was conceived as a horrid channel with nothing but cringy sitcoms, anime produced one of the most unique main characters, allow me to introduce Cleopatra Corns.

Cleopatra is the teenage CEO of the Corns group, a super rich conglomerate that owns pretty much everything and moonlights as a vigilante group for taking down international terrorists, Cleopatra is a party girl by nature who hates stuffy office environments and business dealings but can also call upon powerful friends, make calls to massive organisations such as OPEC, and actively join in combat, she's basically an 80s retro anime fashionable Kim Possible as her cornucopia of dresses and uniforms is anything to go by from the picture.
And to top it all off, she's African American, yeah the colour palette doesn't make it obvious but this was released in 1986, the idea of an African American woman even leading a franchise is a miracle in Japan in those days.
With all her accomplishments as a character and the fact that her good and bad traits are well balanced, she would be a dream adaption for Disney who are all about these kinds of female characters.
The impact she can bring is incredible to imagine.