In mainstream film and TV there are a huge range of different characters however these characters usually function in generic roles such as heroic, evil, confident etc.
In anime and manga there are several more sub sections of personality that further develop the character. There are so many of these sub sections that it would take me ages to write about them all, so today I will just focus on five. These are idol, onee-san, imouto, tsundere and sadistic.
Idol – A passionate popstar that is usually female. They tend to be cute and cherish their fans, therefore providing a lot of fanservice. Fanservice can include interaction on social media with fans and giving away special edition images, often of themselves, to fans that attend a concert. Examples include: Love Live! School Idol Project and PriPara.
Onee-san – Older sister. Onee-san characters are mature, caring and loyal. They will often guide and give advice to others. Onee-san do not have to be related by blood to the other characters. Examples include: Emma in The Promised Neverland and Amano Miu in Blend S.
Imouto – Little sister. Imouto are very affectionate towards their onee-san (onii-san for big brother). They are often clingy, possessive and definitely don’t like other characters forming a relationship with their onee-san. Imouto characters also don’t have to be related by blood. Examples include: Filo in Rise of the Shield Hero and Chibiusa (Chibimoon) in Sailor Moon.
Tsundere – A cold and hostile character. They tend to verbally and physically abuse their love interest in order to create distance between them. However, a tsundere character will also defend their love interest either secretly or pretend that they only defended them for their own benefit. Examples include: Noelle in Black Clover and Lucy in Fairy Tail.
Sadistic – A personality that likes to watch someone in pain, suffering or being humiliated. These characters enjoy manipulating anybody, however, when they have a specific target they turn their full attention to them and a ‘cat and mouse’ game begins. Examples include: Shuu Tsukishima in Tokyo Ghoul and Toga in My Hero Academia.
I chose these five sub sections of character as they also appear in the opening sequence to the anime Blend S, which is a slice of life, comedic anime that takes place in a café. Each ‘maid’* character is given a personality trait from the list above and must act in this way as they work, even if they are totally different in their real lives. This attracts customers from far and wide wanting a unique experience resulting in the café becoming extremely busy. You can watch the opening sequence to Blend S on YouTube. It has no BBFC rating yet, but I would guess it would be a 15.
If you like Blend S then you may like Kamisama Kiss which is available as both a manga rated T, Teen and anime rated 12.
*In Japan it is quite normal to have people dressed up in maid or butler outfits serving at cafés.
Published: 2019-03-29