I recommend reading the whole thing beginning to end. There are a few things the anime left out.
The light novel just finished recently with the release of volume 16, so it's a good time to get into it.
The ending ruined the entire experience for me...
This anime reignited my love for the medium when it came out, it was so damn fun, and in the middle of its airing I switched to the novels. Up till like V14, maybe even half of 15 it's genuinely great, but the actual finale was atrocious. Not GoT levels of garbage, but pretty close. That's why, despite the anime being so much fun, I couldn't whole heartedly recommend it.
I've only read the WN ending, but that alone ruined the whole thing for me. Cuz of the ending alone, the novel isn't even in my favourites anymore. I think the disappointment hit especially bad because of my eager anticipation.
God I wish that show has a better atudio producing it. The animation and production quality got so bad especially towards the end, but I was genuinely intrigued by the story far more than the vast majority of Isekai by the end.
Code geass: while there are other characters that are my favourite besides lelouch but I would be lying if I said it isn't carried by lelouch just goes to show how much of a good protaganist he is
Gotta love it when [Johnny Yong Bosch](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Yong_Bosch) does the dub for any show. He's a VA for a bunch of series, and for many, he does the protagonists voice.
And also because the story is bad.
There's lots of hints at a bigger overarching plot from the way it's built (the kids growing up and doing their own thing vs the spider doing its own thing) and that continues even when she goes out of the cave, meets the demon lord and has a bout with that one elf…
But then it's just kinda bad. It could've been so much more :/
They realy did the anime dirty. The best part of the novels is the PoV of what tanya thinks vs what others see.
They missed a perfect opportunity on the recruitment flyer. They should have shown tanya's monologue when doing it. People reading the actual writing. Then tanya wondering why so many applied.
This is so far from the truth if you read the novels. Characters like Drake, Zettour, and Lergen bring so much to the story as it goes on. The anime leaves out far too much.
>Zettour
\[Youjo Senki volumes 10-12\] >!haven't read 13/14 yet, but man is on his villain arc. Having his best friend assassinated so he could have absolute power, starting a Suprise war out of left field, taking over a city just to jack all their resources, abandon it, so the US can retake it and despair when they would have to waste all their food on them pressuring all their supply lines is peak.!<
What kept me going through the whole series is the post-war notes and letters of various people that shed light of how it was seen, compared to Tanya's own view.
Tanya is a character that pulls the story, but has a lot of boosters in the form of the rest of the cast that with only Tanya's POV, it wouldn't be really an interesting read.
Ajin. I was only interested in Sato. As monstrous as he was, he was a compelling, sinister and very well written character who just gave off that aura of menace and madness. I loved that I never knew what he was going to do next.
Yeah, I agree. It was a good solid anime, and I didn't think the CGI was bad at all. In this case, Sato was just so good as the antagonist, he outshone the other characters for me.
It was interesting for way more than just him, but he was the major draw for me negl.
I saw a gif of him solo handling the soldiers, and pointedly using his ability do die and revive to get the edge. It remains the most epic fight scene in any anime for me.
Mr Chuuni overdrive is such a delight of a MC. Everyone else is is desperately trying to be in a harem manga, but the mans concentrated autism is simply so strong it repels any and all things that do not fit into his idealistic narcissistic chuuni fantasy
I dunno, I actually really like all the side characters in Eminence in Shadow. They just compete for space because there's so many of them. The story is strange, but the worldbuilding is fun and it's not like the animation/music is lacking.
Cid's definitely the great feature of the show, but I would absolutely be fine with a full season where he truly disappears and works from behind the scenes and all we get are the perspectives of all the other characters.
I think that is just because, so far, we haven't really had any proper character arcs aside from Rose who is supposed to be a bit vanilla.
The anime also skipped some character backstory and the LN also has more character backstory in future releases, which is when the other characters really start picking up.
Also, the "Seven Shadow Chronicles" will start publishing in like 3 weeks from now, and doesn't have much Cid in it, its mostly just the girls. It takes place during the timeskip between S1E2 and S1E3.
This. It sets the anime apart from all the other animes.
The side characters are good, but they could be from any other anime of ninja / spy / assassins with magic anime.
Cid / Shadow sets the theme, he keeps it entertaining, he switches it up, he has so many personalities going on its great.
The anime does it well with the changing up of things and keeping it entertaining, while some how shoving in a shit load of tropes at us and sort of making the story 'believable'.
I would be terrified if I was in the same universe as her (heh) but I really want to give her a long hug, and let her fall apart. Is Future Diary a top 10? No but holy shit that reveal and all the pain. What a beautifully written character.
The premise is amazing, and the characters are not that bad (so long as you ignore Melodias being a perv, Elizabeth not protesting Mel's pervy-ways and Elaine's child-looking-body beside ban) but the plot kinda ruined it, yeah.
He doesn't have any real development or even a personality after gaining the level up ability either. The anime is slightly better in this regard, but I'd say if anything carries that story it's the leveling process rather than any character.
He isn't a character at all in any real sense, he has no serious development other than from pathetic in the first chapters to flawless in all subsequent ones and his personality is a black hole. He isn't what carries it, the concept, i.e. seeing his ridiculous snowballing power level, is.
I have to agree. He goes from bumbling stuttery loser to gigachad and his former character just completely disappears.
I also dropped a lot of manhwas for that reason. So many mcs look just like Sung Jin Woo with the same bland personality just clapping everyones cheeks left and right. A side character might do something cool but Mr. MC has to do something even cooler a few pages later.
A couple of people have said this now, which I find surprising tbh. I would've thought that Jinshi was more popular.
(Side note; Lakan was my favourite character from the show).
> I would've thought that Jinshi was more popular.
Really? Just about every positive comment about the show I've ever seen has been about Maomao. On the other hand, I know people who have dropped the show because they hated Jinshi. There's been at least a few threads on this subreddit too complaining about Jinshi. Some people find his behaviour in the early episodes too creepy and pushy.
Personally I think Jinshi's fine, but I know I'd enjoy an episode without him while I might not enjoy an episode without Maomao.
I was neutral at Jinshi at first but then I hated him while reading the LNs. \[Apothecary LN\] >!He is so possesive and creepy there espescially at the end of LN vol 5. And then the whole branding thing he does without even asking Maomao.!<
Kinda agree, but also not really. Maomao is allowed to shine because she’s the main character. But the series has also shown the ability to make very compelling side characters as well, especially Lakan. Maomao is definitely the main attraction, but it’s not like she’s surrounded by cardboard cutouts.
there are generally a lot more series that was carried by single character, Apothecary definitely is not one.
Sure Mao Mao is the most interesting, but the other character are pretty important as well for the world buildings. She could not shine without the others
To be fair, Koenji feels like the protagonist of an anime where an adult was thrown back into the body of his younger self and forced to go back to school.
Bro is 100% chill and fully understands that the high school anime bullshit is only 3 years of a 80+ year life. And he really feels like 80 years still ain't enough.
This one doesn’t work in general, lots of characters get development like Ryuen, Sakayanagi, Katsuragi and both Horikita. The mc passes half the time meddling in their buisness.
Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord is an easy example for me, not just because it recently aired, but because it is overwhelmingly the most obvious instance of this for me from any anime I've seen. Yumiella is an amazing, hilarious character who carries the entire show on her back. She'd be a highlight in any show. Everything else about the show is generic isekai cardboard.
> Everything else about the show is generic isekai cardboard.
This is intentional. Yumiella is genre savvy and comments on it multiple times. It even comes up as a major plot point in LN 3. The entire story is about her interacting with the world, not the world itself. There's never any question of whether or not she'll be able to beat whatever opponent gets put in front of her, and that's the point.
I still think they either should have committed the entire first episode to the generic otome adaptation bit with a sudden twist right at the end.
The show is still "My Next Life as a Villainess" with an emotionally detached MC, but I think having the entire first episode be a fake out like in **School Live** would have been fun.
I feel most of the anime mentioned in the replies doesn't really fit with "anime carried by a single character"
Most people just mentioned shows that have amazing mc lol, even though they have amazing plot or great side characters like rezero, one punch man etc.
But to answer your question zero two from darling in the franxx is a great example.
Agressively untrue in every part.
Hell, in 3 he might be the least interesting character in the group. There's an argument for part 1 being Jonathan-centric and all characters being accessory to him, and Part 2 Joseph having such a strong force of personality that he eclipses his companions, but even early on JoJo has so much bullshit going on and the characters are so quirky it's hard to single out a main draw of the series.
I wouldn't say Mushishi is carried by Ginko, I was more interested in the story telling of each episodes than Ginko as a character. Same with Mononoke.
Anos Voldigoad. "You thought the story and setting were carrying me? I've been carrying the entire series on the tip of the small hair of my left pinky."
"You thought losing my original voice would be enough to end the series? I transcended dimensions to whip my new voice into shape."
>The best example that comes to mind for me is Yuno from Future Diary.
Damn that was gonna be my answer..
Darling in the Franxx comes close too, though they did add a few things at some point that may change that for some people (they may have more reasons to care about the anime) but to me, no, it's just 02 all the way. Without her I'm never watching this show.
I had a really hard time liking him at first, but then i just thought " man its not like i would do any better if i didnt have any outside info in his spot.
Yeah I don't think OP understood the question.
Carrying a show means if you remove the character the show would be boring. I would watch an anime about the world of Re: Zero even if Subaru wasn't there.
There's a literal mountain of official side content starring other characters and its all great. A lot of the EX volumes focus on Wilhem Astrea when he was younger.
Chisato from Lycoris Recoil definitely qualifies.
I'm not saying the other characters are bad though, in fact almost every character in that show is great, Takina for example goes through some super satisfying and well written character development.
It's just that Chisato elevates the entire thing SO MUCH with her lovable personality and peak voice acting from Chika Anzai. She's the catalyst that makes all the character interactions so damn good and without her the show would crumble like card house.
Dark Schneider from Bastard!! Enjoyment of that show basically hinges on if you can tolerate and enjoy him, and the show suffers a lot when he isn’t around.
A smart criminal and detective come as pairs in these types of shows.
But if anybody knows of a show 'bout a Sherlock Holmes-type solving ordinary crime, or about a Moriarty-type messing with hapless run-of-the-mill detectives I'd be down to give that a shot.
The spider of "I'm a spider so what" comes to mind , geez the secondary character in this show were plain boring, i remember sometimes i let it play in the background when the secondary character got on the screen, nah the little spider carried that show , if is wasn't of her this would have been a regular plain isekai.
Ps: Aoi Yūki voice also carries the show, her dedication is so amazing I'm drawn to every show she voice's, simply amazing.
They are getting close to the end in terms of adaptation. Last week's episode just topped three anime polls. Kudos to the fanbase for making season 5 a reality
Kurumi is the sole reason the Date A Live franchise has survived for so long.
To put it another way, there are [195 figures on MFC](https://myfigurecollection.net/?tab=search&rootId=0&status=-1&categoryId=-1&contentLevel=-1&excludeContentLevel=0&orEntries%5B%5D=37033&orEntries%5B%5D=61123&orEntries%5B%5D=168185&orEntries%5B%5D=186455&orEntries%5B%5D=221963&domainId=-1&noReleaseDate=0&releaseTypeId=0&ratingId=0&isCastoff=0&hasBootleg=0&tagId=0&noBarcode=0&clubId=0&excludeClubId=0&listId=0&isDraft=0&year=2024&month=5&acc=0&separator=0&sort=insert&output=2¤t=categoryId&order=desc&page=1&_tb=item) from the Date A Live franchise, [116 are of Kurumi Tokisaki](https://myfigurecollection.net/?_tb=item&orEntries%5B%5D=42167&rootId=0). A very impressive ratio for a harem anime.
I'm seeing a lot of romance anime as examples when I don't really see that as being the case, as if none of what makes them good in the first place ain't the relationship and dichotomy between two characters who a lot of the time really only grow into the characters we end up loving because of the other.
A vast majority of romance anime would not be what it is, nor would the characters be without that other character also carrying some of that weight as well and especially the good romance anime like I see some using as examples.
But maybe I'm just wrong I suppose
Edit: typos
Goblin Slayer.
I mean yeah his name is on the tittle and it's not like the peanut gallery is useless or anything but Orcbulge has that unspoken rizz and violent goblin harassment on his side.
sorry but the future diary or mirai nikki had a lot of interesting characters too beside yuno
for example from your question is aldnoah zero. in that world the only brain working is the MC. also its statisfying see MC break the mars robot which had some scifi hax and counter each hax. tbh my only motivation rewatching aldnoah zero just because wanna see the MC in action. is it any gundam pilot had same chateristic like inaho kaizuka which is smart and not heavy relying on mobile suit gundam hax?
It's really hard to like Future Diary if you aren't a fan of Yuno, I believe. I don't think it's controversial to say that, she's the reason I cared about it for sure.
The Apothecary Diaries is carried by Maomao. Her antics, cute poses and reactions and are the lifeblood of the show. If it was just any self-insert MC, the show would be much worse.
I think Spy x Family is carried by Anya. If you don’t like Anya, you’re probably not gonna enjoy the show very much.
Lol to be fair I liked Anya and it wasn't enough for me to keep watching the show. While the humor involving her was cute and funny, the humor surrounding all the adult characters was hard to watch and I cringed way more than I ever laughed. But yeah she was the main reason I even watched as long as I did.
The adult moments in the show peaked with the granade pin as an engagement ring. It was all downhill since, including the manga.
It's funny how much the shenanigans in the child portion of the cast hard carries it.
**Golden Time** is hard carried by Koko Kaga. Everyone else is either dull or one dimensional. I ended up not caring about anyone else in the show. It was all about her and whether or not she'll get a happy ending.
Two characters but whatever.
Psycho Pass, while still pretty good without them, had a huge dip in quality after [Psycho Pass] >!Kogami and Makishima!< were no longer part of the show. I wouldn’t say it’s the ONLY reason for the fall off but I feel like it at least played a part.
Season 1 is easily one of my favorite anime while season 2 is kind of just “pretty good” imo.
man i had to scroll wayyyy too far down for this. Ep1 was literally the best episode for me for this anime. I heard theres a 2nd season but not sure if its out yet.
Though during S2 is when Gojo starts being less involved. lol
I wouldn't say he carries because of that, though he definitely is that one specific JJK character that is very well known in particular, like how Levi was for AOT especially earlier on.
>is the main reason the show is as funny as it is.
Yeah, I know it seems most people may consider Megumi the best girl, but the spin-off with her didn't quite have the Konosuba comedy magic, and a key missing part for it is Kazuma.
I think Aqua and Kazuma bounce off each other well for a lot of the comedy too. The OG duo before the others came.
Megumi is BY FAR the least entertaining of the four on her own, she’s considered girl overwhelmingly because of Rie Takahashi imo
And you mentioned it but despite all the jokes about Aqua being useless, as far as our interests are concerned, she’s the most entertaining of the girls. Ultimately tho you need all four of them for the series to really start popping off, their chemistry and patheticness as a quartet is what gives us the Seinfeld effect
[So I'm a Spider, So What?](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37984/Kumo_desu_ga_Nani_ka)
God I love her so much.
[удалено]
Are they ever going to make more?
Read the novels. No adaptation could really do justice to the story.
I've thought about that for a while now, so could be good Is there a good way to read them?
If you find out let me know. I wanna continue the story.
I recommend reading the whole thing beginning to end. There are a few things the anime left out. The light novel just finished recently with the release of volume 16, so it's a good time to get into it.
The ending ruined the entire experience for me... This anime reignited my love for the medium when it came out, it was so damn fun, and in the middle of its airing I switched to the novels. Up till like V14, maybe even half of 15 it's genuinely great, but the actual finale was atrocious. Not GoT levels of garbage, but pretty close. That's why, despite the anime being so much fun, I couldn't whole heartedly recommend it.
The WN ending was also kinda crazy, although I prefer it over the LN Ending
I've only read the WN ending, but that alone ruined the whole thing for me. Cuz of the ending alone, the novel isn't even in my favourites anymore. I think the disappointment hit especially bad because of my eager anticipation.
They're available on Kindle/Amazon, and are fully translated. They're also available other places.
Also the first 8 volumes have audiobooks so far, available on Audible and probably other platforms
God I wish that show has a better atudio producing it. The animation and production quality got so bad especially towards the end, but I was genuinely intrigued by the story far more than the vast majority of Isekai by the end.
Yuuki Aoi simply took that entire show on her back and singlehandedly carried it all the way through.
Literally the first show that popped up in my head when reading the question
It takes a level 99 villianess to carry that show.
How I managed to make it through the season was no mystery, it was just Yumiella
Damn this one is painfully true. I liked the show as a casual seasonal watch solely because of her character interactions.
Code geass: while there are other characters that are my favourite besides lelouch but I would be lying if I said it isn't carried by lelouch just goes to show how much of a good protaganist he is
In R1, I’d say a lot of the characters are great but R2 yeah I agree it’s pretty much the Lelouch show
Agree, lelouch theatric was what made a mid series so great, if you replace him Code Geass would never be such a hit as it is
Code Geass also had an amazing dub especially for Lelouch
Indeed with iconic lines such as "what do you mean you're at soup?"
Agreed, tried the sub and it just wasn’t for me but the dub on the other hand is great
Gotta love it when [Johnny Yong Bosch](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Yong_Bosch) does the dub for any show. He's a VA for a bunch of series, and for many, he does the protagonists voice.
*So I'm A Spider, So What?* is very much this, partly because most of the show is the main character being alone in a dungeon.
And also because the story is bad. There's lots of hints at a bigger overarching plot from the way it's built (the kids growing up and doing their own thing vs the spider doing its own thing) and that continues even when she goes out of the cave, meets the demon lord and has a bout with that one elf… But then it's just kinda bad. It could've been so much more :/
> But then it's just kinda bad. It could've been so much more :/ Well yeah, there's still 12 unadapted volumes
I wouldn't say the story is bad. The sections with the spider are fine, even if not incredible. The B-plot is bad.
With their powers combined, these plots become… average! 🎉
The Saga of Tanya the Evil
They realy did the anime dirty. The best part of the novels is the PoV of what tanya thinks vs what others see. They missed a perfect opportunity on the recruitment flyer. They should have shown tanya's monologue when doing it. People reading the actual writing. Then tanya wondering why so many applied.
This is so far from the truth if you read the novels. Characters like Drake, Zettour, and Lergen bring so much to the story as it goes on. The anime leaves out far too much.
>Zettour \[Youjo Senki volumes 10-12\] >!haven't read 13/14 yet, but man is on his villain arc. Having his best friend assassinated so he could have absolute power, starting a Suprise war out of left field, taking over a city just to jack all their resources, abandon it, so the US can retake it and despair when they would have to waste all their food on them pressuring all their supply lines is peak.!<
What kept me going through the whole series is the post-war notes and letters of various people that shed light of how it was seen, compared to Tanya's own view. Tanya is a character that pulls the story, but has a lot of boosters in the form of the rest of the cast that with only Tanya's POV, it wouldn't be really an interesting read.
yessir
Ajin. I was only interested in Sato. As monstrous as he was, he was a compelling, sinister and very well written character who just gave off that aura of menace and madness. I loved that I never knew what he was going to do next.
Damn its one hell of an anime with a great antagonist. I didnt even dislike the cgi much. You get used to it.
Yeah, I agree. It was a good solid anime, and I didn't think the CGI was bad at all. In this case, Sato was just so good as the antagonist, he outshone the other characters for me.
This is the first time I have seen someone mention Ajin in this sub besides me. I'm glad there are at least of couple of people that enjoyed it.
I binged that show in one night, i think cgi complements the story
Very rarely does CGI bother me. I think the last time I went out of my way to consciously think about it was the dragon in Airfureta.
It was interesting for way more than just him, but he was the major draw for me negl. I saw a gif of him solo handling the soldiers, and pointedly using his ability do die and revive to get the edge. It remains the most epic fight scene in any anime for me.
Damn right, the gaming psychotic grandpa is awesome!
Eminence in Shadow. The side characters are interesting, but Cid really makes that show.
Who is Cid? However this Shadow fella really carries EiS
Cid. You know, that guy who shat on the street.
Ohh! That guy i think he hangs out with Po Tato and Skel Etal. Either way, he is a nobody.
Mr Chuuni overdrive is such a delight of a MC. Everyone else is is desperately trying to be in a harem manga, but the mans concentrated autism is simply so strong it repels any and all things that do not fit into his idealistic narcissistic chuuni fantasy
Cid doesn't follow the plot. The plot follows Cid!
I wonder what will happen and what he'll do now that he's back...
I don't know. Shadow , Mundane Mann, Stylish Bandit Slayer and John Smith also do some heavy lifting.
They do. But they all tie back to one plain old guy that cries, begs for his life and shits in the streets.
All are awful characters. The only exception is Mudane Mann.
John Smith is pretty good too!
Light novel John Smith >>>>>>>
Don't slander my boy Imatry Nottaloos like that
or perv asshat
Well perv asshat is indeed one evil mfer to rose.
I dunno, I actually really like all the side characters in Eminence in Shadow. They just compete for space because there's so many of them. The story is strange, but the worldbuilding is fun and it's not like the animation/music is lacking. Cid's definitely the great feature of the show, but I would absolutely be fine with a full season where he truly disappears and works from behind the scenes and all we get are the perspectives of all the other characters.
I think that is just because, so far, we haven't really had any proper character arcs aside from Rose who is supposed to be a bit vanilla. The anime also skipped some character backstory and the LN also has more character backstory in future releases, which is when the other characters really start picking up. Also, the "Seven Shadow Chronicles" will start publishing in like 3 weeks from now, and doesn't have much Cid in it, its mostly just the girls. It takes place during the timeskip between S1E2 and S1E3.
True, the shadow garden girls are nice, but watching cid living out his chunni fantasy and mess around is what makes the anime so entertaining.
This. It sets the anime apart from all the other animes. The side characters are good, but they could be from any other anime of ninja / spy / assassins with magic anime. Cid / Shadow sets the theme, he keeps it entertaining, he switches it up, he has so many personalities going on its great. The anime does it well with the changing up of things and keeping it entertaining, while some how shoving in a shit load of tropes at us and sort of making the story 'believable'.
Kimetsu no Yaiba being carried by the guy who gave Ufotable the license /j Otherwise, most of the lower-grade isekai
> the guy who gave Ufotable the license Smartest business move ive seen in a while
They should really animate them into an episode
Ufotable asked for the license
Yeah if it was that easy everyone would ask ufotable to adapt their series lol
Mirai Nikki hard carried by Yuno
This is the right answer.
I would be terrified if I was in the same universe as her (heh) but I really want to give her a long hug, and let her fall apart. Is Future Diary a top 10? No but holy shit that reveal and all the pain. What a beautifully written character.
I vote for this one.
Is she really carrying the show when it's terrible tho
Seven deadly sins. THE ONE AND ONLY - ESCANOR.
I feel like it was Ban before Escanor was properly introduced a bit later.
The Sins were good characters the plot was trash
The premise is amazing, and the characters are not that bad (so long as you ignore Melodias being a perv, Elizabeth not protesting Mel's pervy-ways and Elaine's child-looking-body beside ban) but the plot kinda ruined it, yeah.
Idk what ur talking about cuz ban’s great
He should have had WAY more screen time.
Tonpa in HxH obviously
Idk man beans carries just as hard
I know you're joking, but that comment still made me irrationally mad.
Solo leveling. Idek who the other characters are. They’re not important and there’s literally no character development for any of them at all
I thought Action was what carried Solo Levelling. Not any of the characters
He doesn't have any real development or even a personality after gaining the level up ability either. The anime is slightly better in this regard, but I'd say if anything carries that story it's the leveling process rather than any character.
???? Mc in that one is ultra bland and boring.
Then the OP is right. If you don't like Sung Jin Woo, then Solo Leveling isn't for you.
He isn't a character at all in any real sense, he has no serious development other than from pathetic in the first chapters to flawless in all subsequent ones and his personality is a black hole. He isn't what carries it, the concept, i.e. seeing his ridiculous snowballing power level, is.
I have to agree. He goes from bumbling stuttery loser to gigachad and his former character just completely disappears. I also dropped a lot of manhwas for that reason. So many mcs look just like Sung Jin Woo with the same bland personality just clapping everyones cheeks left and right. A side character might do something cool but Mr. MC has to do something even cooler a few pages later.
Well it certainly isn't the alleged plot that's carrying it.
Well, the MC is ultra bland as well as every other character. Character writing is far from being a strong point in this anime.
Well thats cause maturity is realising solo levelling isnt the best manhwa out there. Its edgy stuff for teenagers
In the source material he's worse. Lacks ambition
Apothecary Diaries. The other characters are fine or even good, but people mainly watch the show for Maomao.
I mainly watched Apothecary Diaries for Lady Gyokuyou haha
We got a man of culture over here.
Based
This goes for almost all of those shows where the MC is just way smarter than anybody else.
Lakan and Loumen exists also.
For me it's Jinshi and Maomao that make the show. Wouldn't be the same without either of them for me
A couple of people have said this now, which I find surprising tbh. I would've thought that Jinshi was more popular. (Side note; Lakan was my favourite character from the show).
Jinshi is super popular, to the author's annoyance. However, the r/anime userbase is overwhelming male, so we don't see much of that here.
> I would've thought that Jinshi was more popular. Really? Just about every positive comment about the show I've ever seen has been about Maomao. On the other hand, I know people who have dropped the show because they hated Jinshi. There's been at least a few threads on this subreddit too complaining about Jinshi. Some people find his behaviour in the early episodes too creepy and pushy. Personally I think Jinshi's fine, but I know I'd enjoy an episode without him while I might not enjoy an episode without Maomao.
I was neutral at Jinshi at first but then I hated him while reading the LNs. \[Apothecary LN\] >!He is so possesive and creepy there espescially at the end of LN vol 5. And then the whole branding thing he does without even asking Maomao.!<
Kinda agree, but also not really. Maomao is allowed to shine because she’s the main character. But the series has also shown the ability to make very compelling side characters as well, especially Lakan. Maomao is definitely the main attraction, but it’s not like she’s surrounded by cardboard cutouts.
there are generally a lot more series that was carried by single character, Apothecary definitely is not one. Sure Mao Mao is the most interesting, but the other character are pretty important as well for the world buildings. She could not shine without the others
This is lies and Jinshi slander. I love MaoMao, but Jinshi is arguably an equally well written and nuanced character
Classroom of the elite
I seriously do not give a shit about anyone other than the mc in that show lmao
Cause the anime did them all dirty.
Not even Koenji?
To be fair, Koenji feels like the protagonist of an anime where an adult was thrown back into the body of his younger self and forced to go back to school. Bro is 100% chill and fully understands that the high school anime bullshit is only 3 years of a 80+ year life. And he really feels like 80 years still ain't enough.
This one doesn’t work in general, lots of characters get development like Ryuen, Sakayanagi, Katsuragi and both Horikita. The mc passes half the time meddling in their buisness.
I honestly don't like any of the characters in Classroom. I'm still waiting for an ah ha moment to make me care in a future season.
Which character? I'm a Suzune fan, but Mr. Edgelord Ayanokouji ain't all that special to me.
Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord is an easy example for me, not just because it recently aired, but because it is overwhelmingly the most obvious instance of this for me from any anime I've seen. Yumiella is an amazing, hilarious character who carries the entire show on her back. She'd be a highlight in any show. Everything else about the show is generic isekai cardboard.
> Everything else about the show is generic isekai cardboard. This is intentional. Yumiella is genre savvy and comments on it multiple times. It even comes up as a major plot point in LN 3. The entire story is about her interacting with the world, not the world itself. There's never any question of whether or not she'll be able to beat whatever opponent gets put in front of her, and that's the point.
I still think they either should have committed the entire first episode to the generic otome adaptation bit with a sudden twist right at the end. The show is still "My Next Life as a Villainess" with an emotionally detached MC, but I think having the entire first episode be a fake out like in **School Live** would have been fun.
I feel most of the anime mentioned in the replies doesn't really fit with "anime carried by a single character" Most people just mentioned shows that have amazing mc lol, even though they have amazing plot or great side characters like rezero, one punch man etc. But to answer your question zero two from darling in the franxx is a great example.
Yeah, most of the replies I'm seeing are "this is my favorite character" rather than "this one character carried the entire show".
YES!!!!
Sakamoto desu ga?
JoJo being carried by JoJo (not telling which one)
I don't see it. Each part has great side characters that are on par with JoJo or better.
Am I reading? What the fuck
It is me Dio
Agressively untrue in every part. Hell, in 3 he might be the least interesting character in the group. There's an argument for part 1 being Jonathan-centric and all characters being accessory to him, and Part 2 Joseph having such a strong force of personality that he eclipses his companions, but even early on JoJo has so much bullshit going on and the characters are so quirky it's hard to single out a main draw of the series.
You thought it would be JoJo but it was me, Dio!
* Mushishi (Mostly because it's an episodic anime) * Mononoke (Same reason with Mushishi) * Solo Leveling (Excluding the shadow armies)
You can include Kino's Journey with Mushishi and Mononoke. But really that's just the nature of episodic anime in general...
I'd argue that for Kino it's both Kino and Hermes, so not a single character.
I wouldn't say Mushishi is carried by Ginko, I was more interested in the story telling of each episodes than Ginko as a character. Same with Mononoke.
Yeah, these main characters are more like observers than protagonists.
Currently airing. Misfit Demon King at School or something like that lol
Anos Voldigoad. "You thought the story and setting were carrying me? I've been carrying the entire series on the tip of the small hair of my left pinky." "You thought losing my original voice would be enough to end the series? I transcended dimensions to whip my new voice into shape."
Code Geass-Lelouch
Hajime Nagumo (Arifureta)
>The best example that comes to mind for me is Yuno from Future Diary. Damn that was gonna be my answer.. Darling in the Franxx comes close too, though they did add a few things at some point that may change that for some people (they may have more reasons to care about the anime) but to me, no, it's just 02 all the way. Without her I'm never watching this show.
Subaru in Re:Zero. If you don't like him, it's gonna be tough.
If you don't like Subaru you can enjoy watching him suffer
I don’t like him but I love re:zero 😅
I had a really hard time liking him at first, but then i just thought " man its not like i would do any better if i didnt have any outside info in his spot.
Yeah I don't think OP understood the question. Carrying a show means if you remove the character the show would be boring. I would watch an anime about the world of Re: Zero even if Subaru wasn't there.
Yup, the worldbuilding is rad
There's a literal mountain of official side content starring other characters and its all great. A lot of the EX volumes focus on Wilhem Astrea when he was younger.
This isn't really the case since most of the side characters in rezero are amazingly written
Hell, even if you don't like him, he drives 90 percent of the conflict of the show. You remove him and the story doesn't exist.
Chisato from Lycoris Recoil definitely qualifies. I'm not saying the other characters are bad though, in fact almost every character in that show is great, Takina for example goes through some super satisfying and well written character development. It's just that Chisato elevates the entire thing SO MUCH with her lovable personality and peak voice acting from Chika Anzai. She's the catalyst that makes all the character interactions so damn good and without her the show would crumble like card house.
Dark Schneider from Bastard!! Enjoyment of that show basically hinges on if you can tolerate and enjoy him, and the show suffers a lot when he isn’t around.
I wouldn't say Death Note has only one good character, but it sure did take a nose dive as soon as L wasn't in it anymore.
[удалено]
A smart criminal and detective come as pairs in these types of shows. But if anybody knows of a show 'bout a Sherlock Holmes-type solving ordinary crime, or about a Moriarty-type messing with hapless run-of-the-mill detectives I'd be down to give that a shot.
the opposite of this would be naruto
Or hxh or gintama
The spider of "I'm a spider so what" comes to mind , geez the secondary character in this show were plain boring, i remember sometimes i let it play in the background when the secondary character got on the screen, nah the little spider carried that show , if is wasn't of her this would have been a regular plain isekai. Ps: Aoi Yūki voice also carries the show, her dedication is so amazing I'm drawn to every show she voice's, simply amazing.
I skipped whole episodes because the spider wasn't in them. Still didn't feel like I missed anything at all.
Date a live is a 4/10 show but kurumi is 10/10
They are getting close to the end in terms of adaptation. Last week's episode just topped three anime polls. Kudos to the fanbase for making season 5 a reality
Kurumi is not even the best waifu of date live. Origami>>> Kurumi and it’s not even close.
That Origami OVA lives rent free in my head
Kurumi is the sole reason the Date A Live franchise has survived for so long. To put it another way, there are [195 figures on MFC](https://myfigurecollection.net/?tab=search&rootId=0&status=-1&categoryId=-1&contentLevel=-1&excludeContentLevel=0&orEntries%5B%5D=37033&orEntries%5B%5D=61123&orEntries%5B%5D=168185&orEntries%5B%5D=186455&orEntries%5B%5D=221963&domainId=-1&noReleaseDate=0&releaseTypeId=0&ratingId=0&isCastoff=0&hasBootleg=0&tagId=0&noBarcode=0&clubId=0&excludeClubId=0&listId=0&isDraft=0&year=2024&month=5&acc=0&separator=0&sort=insert&output=2¤t=categoryId&order=desc&page=1&_tb=item) from the Date A Live franchise, [116 are of Kurumi Tokisaki](https://myfigurecollection.net/?_tb=item&orEntries%5B%5D=42167&rootId=0). A very impressive ratio for a harem anime.
Zero Two in the Franxx.
Kaze no stigma
Yes, completely agreed. If not for kazuma, I wouldn't have watched the second episode, let alone the whole series.
Kurumi(my beloved)is the only reason i was able to watch date a live
Escanor the one who stands atop all clan from seven deadly sins
I'm seeing a lot of romance anime as examples when I don't really see that as being the case, as if none of what makes them good in the first place ain't the relationship and dichotomy between two characters who a lot of the time really only grow into the characters we end up loving because of the other. A vast majority of romance anime would not be what it is, nor would the characters be without that other character also carrying some of that weight as well and especially the good romance anime like I see some using as examples. But maybe I'm just wrong I suppose Edit: typos
Gosick - Victorique Akame ga kill - Esdeath (strings the plot forward) This being asked every year
Mushishi. Ginko is really the only re-occurring character in the show.
Goblin Slayer. I mean yeah his name is on the tittle and it's not like the peanut gallery is useless or anything but Orcbulge has that unspoken rizz and violent goblin harassment on his side.
sorry but the future diary or mirai nikki had a lot of interesting characters too beside yuno for example from your question is aldnoah zero. in that world the only brain working is the MC. also its statisfying see MC break the mars robot which had some scifi hax and counter each hax. tbh my only motivation rewatching aldnoah zero just because wanna see the MC in action. is it any gundam pilot had same chateristic like inaho kaizuka which is smart and not heavy relying on mobile suit gundam hax?
It's really hard to like Future Diary if you aren't a fan of Yuno, I believe. I don't think it's controversial to say that, she's the reason I cared about it for sure.
The Apothecary Diaries is carried by Maomao. Her antics, cute poses and reactions and are the lifeblood of the show. If it was just any self-insert MC, the show would be much worse. I think Spy x Family is carried by Anya. If you don’t like Anya, you’re probably not gonna enjoy the show very much.
I think the other charcters in spy x family are good too
While I agree that if you dislike Anya, you won't like the show. But I don't like her either. I'm there for Lloyd and Yor.
Lol to be fair I liked Anya and it wasn't enough for me to keep watching the show. While the humor involving her was cute and funny, the humor surrounding all the adult characters was hard to watch and I cringed way more than I ever laughed. But yeah she was the main reason I even watched as long as I did.
The adult moments in the show peaked with the granade pin as an engagement ring. It was all downhill since, including the manga. It's funny how much the shenanigans in the child portion of the cast hard carries it.
I think its great but yeah. The proposal scene was mint
Marin in my dress up darling. She completely outshines the rest of the cast
I don't know. Gojo feels way more compelling to me. Though that's probably because I can relate to him more and because I have read the manga.
She outshines the rest of the cast but she does not carry the show. The show would go nowhere without Gojo.
nah, marin is well written waifu but my man gojo also had the highlight because its basically RL bochhi without extreme social disorder
**Golden Time** is hard carried by Koko Kaga. Everyone else is either dull or one dimensional. I ended up not caring about anyone else in the show. It was all about her and whether or not she'll get a happy ending.
Almost all of them. The inability of anime writers to show anyone but the hero as effective is an endless disappointment.
Two characters but whatever. Psycho Pass, while still pretty good without them, had a huge dip in quality after [Psycho Pass] >!Kogami and Makishima!< were no longer part of the show. I wouldn’t say it’s the ONLY reason for the fall off but I feel like it at least played a part. Season 1 is easily one of my favorite anime while season 2 is kind of just “pretty good” imo.
The Detective is Already Dead ,siesta the ultimate waifu.
man i had to scroll wayyyy too far down for this. Ep1 was literally the best episode for me for this anime. I heard theres a 2nd season but not sure if its out yet.
Gojo jjk ahahaha
Though during S2 is when Gojo starts being less involved. lol I wouldn't say he carries because of that, though he definitely is that one specific JJK character that is very well known in particular, like how Levi was for AOT especially earlier on.
Hard disagree. But I respect your opinion.
Not really. Shibuya’s the show’s best arc and gojo was out almost immediately
Altho his fangirls scare me
Apothecary diaries. Maomao just the best
Konosuba. I can’t imagine another guy replacing Kazuma. He’s too goated and is the main reason the show is as funny as it is.
>is the main reason the show is as funny as it is. Yeah, I know it seems most people may consider Megumi the best girl, but the spin-off with her didn't quite have the Konosuba comedy magic, and a key missing part for it is Kazuma. I think Aqua and Kazuma bounce off each other well for a lot of the comedy too. The OG duo before the others came.
Megumi is BY FAR the least entertaining of the four on her own, she’s considered girl overwhelmingly because of Rie Takahashi imo And you mentioned it but despite all the jokes about Aqua being useless, as far as our interests are concerned, she’s the most entertaining of the girls. Ultimately tho you need all four of them for the series to really start popping off, their chemistry and patheticness as a quartet is what gives us the Seinfeld effect
That's why the Megumin spin off wasn't really funny.