Anime:

Oi! This is How You Introduce Yourself

“Just who the hell do you think I am?”

— Kamina of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

First impressions are everything. You only get to do it once. How we meet a character can shape how we feel about them throughout story. So this is a countdown of the seven most interesting ways anime characters have shown up on the screen. Why seven? Well, it’s an anime thing (dragon balls, warlords, Nanatsu no Taizai’s Deadly Sins and Naruto’s ninja teams). Let’s go:

7.) The Man, The Myth, The Legend

At the beginning of the list we’ve got the age old trope of where the characters’ reputation precedes them. The long awaited reveal: they’ve been talked about, pursued, despised, feared to the point of legend. This is Frieza in “Dragon Ball Z”. It is Alucard in “Hellsing Ultimate”. And then there is the monologue build up to Haruhi in “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”.

One of the greatest character introductions in this style is Kaido, King of the Beast, in “One Piece”.

All we see is his back to us, his pelt coat and horns. He’s standing on the clouds. The narrator’s calm says, “He was looking for a place to die”. He is just a shadowy figure while the narrators describes his legendary status. We find out he had been defeated seven times as a pirate, captured by the navy or enemies 18 times, tortured repeatedly, lived as a criminal, sentenced to death 40 times, hung but the chain broke, guillotined yet the blade broke, and sank nine giant prison ships all before his face was revealed.

He comes spiraling from the heavens to the earth, and survives, emerging from a crater only to say, “Damn. My head hurts. I guess it’s hard to die”. Ominous and triumphant music plays as Kaido stands up. He is a giant with long locks looming over the pirates. It is clear, you’re dealing with a mythical terror in Kaido.

6.) We’re Here to…

Sometimes it isn’t about the characters story but how they come in with a bang. Sometimes a character comes in fleshed out and blasting onto the screen. Think of animes like “Drifters” where Shimazu explodes onto the battlefield cutting enemies apart. When we see his face and he gives the us a smirk. Or, you might know Ragyo Kiryuin’s grand festival introduction in “Kill La Kill”, Nobunaga Oda in “Sengoku Basara”, and Hilda in “Outlaw Star”. They came in and rocked the show right off the bat.

One of the most memorable is the female titan in “Attack of Titans”. Three squad members are riding horseback. They’d just took down a titan. They are riding away back into the forest and they hear something from afar. Over their shoulder a distant figure approaches. Within a blink the distance is cut. We can see this is another titan tall as a building..and it’s a woman. She is faster than the others. She is more agile. She is more deadly. She comes barreling at us full speed. The squads wants to slow her down. They can’t. What worked before is meaningless with her; she is no brainless zombie like the others. She knows her weak spots and covers them. She is a trained giant. Her very existence changes the complexion of the show forever, and you know this from the very start.

The lasting image of her is a black and blue sky barely above her gigantic body. The sun is setting behind her and the squad looks at her in complete terror as she runs away in search of Eren.

5.) Snapshots of a Personality

A good introduction can be suspenseful. Tension builds. One of the most classic ways of building tension is revealing a character piece by piece, part by part. We may see their feet, their fist, anything but their face as it builds a sense of anticipation. We get all the visual details of what makes this character important before we even get to meet the character.

You’ve seen it done repeatedly in “Dragon Ball Z”, “Naruto”, “Inu Yasha” but never more beautifully than the credit scene of the iconic “Ghost in a Shell”. We watch computers create her. In between credits her body is pieced together into a fully-formed human female fit for battle. An eerie choir sings in the background. Drums accompany. Submerged in fluids, she stands nude and shameless to start one of the most legendary movies of the anime genre. Good job, Masamune Shirow. A lot better than your erotic art.

4.) Picture a Thousand Words

One of anime’s greatest strengths is telling a story visually. In this way, one of the greatest techniques is capturing a character in a singular image that manages to put a thousand words into one look so that we know their very essence. This is Naruto desecrating the Hokage monument in the Hidden Leaf Village with a big grin on his face. It’s Detective Conan waltzing into the crime scene in his signature blue suit and red bow-tie, hand in pocket, calm, cool, collected, running through the details of the murderer like the winner of Clue. Or San in “Princess Mononoke”, as she nurses Moro’s wound.

Yet one of the best reveals of personality is the femme fatale Faye Valentine in “Cowboy Bebop”. There is so much we learn about this Honky Tonk woman in her first moments. She is seductive, a wanted woman, armed, in need of cash, and unlucky. The seduction is in the shots. We hear the shop door open. We see her white heel boots first. Then we see her legs. Then a shot on her butt. Then her fingers as she grabs the store owner’s cigars. Throw in some cleavage and three thugs in suits lining up outside the shop with a smirk, and we see she’s going to be a problem. She knows she is a problem too. Before we see the thugs grab for their guns, she is already digging into her grocery bag to pull out something a little more dangerous than groceries She pulls out a machine gun and points it at the front door. The shop owner wants to stop her, but can’t before she places the clip in. She goes on to drop a quote that captures her character’s distrust throughout the series:

“You know the first rule of combat? Shoot them before they shoot you.”

Bang! What a way to say hello…

3.) Say Action!

Actions speak louder than words. Whether it is an act of bravery, generosity, deception or an act of an absolute idiot, this is one of the most clear-cut introductions. If you’ve ever seen “Tokyo Godfathers”, you know what I mean. Before we even see Miyuki’s face we watch a loogie come out her mouth. It drops from a building onto some random guy’s head. Good aim scumbag, right? Or, there is another example of action speaking volumes with Rock Lee. He goes from looking pathetic in “Naruto” to stopping a scuffle without breaking a sweat. Those are just some honorable mentions, but I can’t remember a better case of this than Haruko Haruhara nearly killing our main character with a Vespa in “FLCL”.

The Vespa accident was a brief foray takes a peek into the mania that is Haruko. She literally turns Naoto’s life upside-down and then revives him. The scene combines her bluntness, disorientation and violence to quickly give us insight and reason to like/fear her. And, it takes less than 2 minutes.

2.) Not What You Expected

Now let’s look at a reversal of expectations. Maybe rumors about a person made us think one thing or we anticipated something else, but the person we meet is entirely different than expected. Often this is all done for comedic effect: Gintoki in “Gintama”, Sogeking in “One Piece”, or Space Dandy in…”Space Dandy”. “See, if you’re enlightened like I am… the real show is down below. The booty, baby. Nothing trumps the rump, my friend.” Still the best choice goes to the one and only Saitama in “One Punch Man”.

There was a build up. Pandemonium overcame the city. A super powered alien brought down the land’s great heroes. Their bodies were mangled across the scorched city. All we had to save us was the lone, bald, unassuming man in a stupid yellow jumpsuit and sillier white cape. The alien looked down on him like Goliath. He was big, bad and blue with horns and spikes. But he got even bigger and badder. He transforms. He became this monster that overtook the sky and swore to obliterate all of humankind. Scary stuff. Saitama balls up his fist in red kitchen gloves. Then swings and blows the alien mid-speech to pieces.

“Not again…All it took was one punch!”

Saitama falls to his knees, distraught, and one of the funniest shows on heroism begins; a man so powerful he’s bored. He saves the day because what else is he going to do? Not just a great introduction to a series, but a character who flips the genre on it’s head.

1.) Check Your Tone

And, finally, sometimes a character introduction comes with a serious sense of doom or tone change. More often than not these are usually reserved for the big and bad or a reveal that exclaims from the mountain tops, “Look out! You don’t want any smoke with this one.” Remember Levi of “Attack on Titan”, Escanor in “Nanatsu no Taizai”, or the Mad Pierrot from “Cowboy Bebop”. Be honest though, what was better than Akira Toriyama’s reveal of Trunks?

One of the most iconic villains in anime history brought down by a kid with purple hair, a cool jacket, and a sword. Not to mention he was a mystery. Trunks splashed onto the anime scene as a teenage god of Super Saiyan magnitude, destroying the most feared foe known to the Dragon Ball Z universe without a sweat. There aren’t many cooler shots than a half-cyborg Freiza being sliced down the middle in mid-air.

So what do you think? Do you disagree with the picks? Did we miss any of your favorite intros? Let us know in the comments.