Sometimes, it's not the character being annoying or pathetic that's the problem, but it's how they eventually end up in the story that makes it painful to look at them or go back to the good old days. I'll always respect a writer's choice to do what they want with their own characters, but the ones on this list got me angry, embarrassed or just plain depressed, and so I wanted to share them with you today. And if there's some you believe are missing from this list, don't hesitate to tell me!
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| I don't know Photoshop, okay?! This is the best I can do! |
Chad (Bleach)
Is there any downgrade in anime history more noticeable than poor Chad? Maybe if the series had stuck to it's high school roots and not introduced a thousand new characters during the Soul Society Arc, Chad could have done nothing but prosper. This big lug has managed to remain a cult favourite thanks to his design, motivation and interesting backstory, but damn, the series does not care for you!
During the slice-of-life style series of the first arc, Yasutora "Chad" Sado is Ichigo's biggest, strongest and quietest friend who chooses to only fight for the sake of protecting others. He has a great rapport with Rukia and Ichigo, and his unlocked power of super punching is pretty damn cool. Chad looks set to be a huge character moving forward, but that was quickly put a stop to as the Soul Reapers began to invade the story, and abilities like Bankai and Resurrección make his fisting look laughable by comparison.
By the end of the series, Chad has been beaten constantly to build up others, like Shunsui Kyōraku, Nnoitra Gilga (an extremely underrated villain in my eyes) and more. He keeps getting himself stronger after the beatdown and saying "let me fight alongside you, Ichigo", but it's just pitiful by the third time he's done this because nothing ever changes and he ends up fodder once more. Even the Fullbring arc, which should have focused heavily on him considering everything going on, turns him into yet another forgotten stepping stone. And as for his final fate in the series, I won't spoil it here for the anime-only viewers, but let's just say it goes massively against everything we know about Chad as a character, and only further serves to show just how little thought anyone really gave him by the end of it, including his own writers.
Videl (Dragon Ball Super)
I've bitched about this one before, but since it is still happening to her, I am still going to complain about it. Easily one of the best parts of the Son Gohan side of the Buu Saga, Videl is the tomboy daughter of Hercule Satan and the love interest of Gohan himself. She's dynamic, she's motivated, she's so different from the others in the series because she's a badass fighter in her own right who fights against criminals despite not having even met anyone from the superpowered side of the franchise. And her connection to Gohan, distrusting him to befriending him then outright falling in love with him, is charming and is heavily reminiscent of the best stuff Spider-Man stories were once capable of.
Then Dragon Ball Super happened. If you're a reader of my work, you know I actually enjoy DBS a lot, putting it third behind Z and OG, but I hate what they did to Videl in it. She got married, had a baby, all the happy stuff she wanted, but everything else she did or learned or cared for? Gone. Forgotten. She doesn't fight crime (although I do like that DBS: Super Hero mentioned she teaches martial arts to kids now. That's actually clever), she doesn't fly, she doesn't even get involved with anything anymore.
The sad part is that whenever the anime does give her some time, usually non-canon, I enjoy it a lot! I enjoy her scenes with Gohan, they make a much more believable couple than Goku and Chi-Chi, and her refusing to buy the lies of Barry Khan during that filler arc was such a relief. I like when Videl fought the shitty version of Broly in Second Coming, but now we don't even let her know her daughter has been kidnapped! Wouldn't it have been amazing to see Videl and Gohan side-by-side in DBS: Super Hero, teaming up for their kid, maybe even giving us a Husband-Wife Masenko reminiscent of the Father-Son Kamehameha?
Jericho (Nanatsu no Taizai)
I think I like Nanatsu no Taizai more than most, willing to deal with some of it's weaker aspects because of how much I enjoy the good side of things. Ban, Escanor, Gowther, the character designs, the majority of action scenes, stuff like that. And one character who I felt was heavily underrated was Jericho, a Holy Knight from the Kingdom of Liones who went on quite a big arc from a minor underling to a full-blown supervillain, to redeeming herself thanks to the power of love, loyalty and determination. She was great.
Well, she's not great anymore! You see, the franchise refused to end after it got to it's final chapter, and in the spirit of Naruto, it decided to make up a sequel that nobody asked for or needed. Some of the characters in the sequel are kinda fun, like Meliodas' kid Tristan, but Jericho.... Jericho is now pathetic. To make a long story very short, Jericho used to be in love with Ban but knew it would forever go unrequited, but she did end up his friend and one of the few people in the world he trusted with his life. She even went on to mentor his son who was born during the epilogue of the series, and... and now she's in love with the boy.
Jericho's motivation for Ban made sense. They had a great banter and connection, but seeing her go all gooey and betray literally everyone, yes she actually did that, because she's in love with someone she's literally known as a newborn, someone who is currently half her age, and the son of someone she was once in love with, is heart-breaking enough to make me stop wanting to read it at all. Jericho went from a strong and caring character with flaws and motivations, to a creep that's trying to kill all her former friends and allies so she can have a happy dreamworld with a 16 year old. And crap like this is why I am growing to hate manga sequels.
Izumi Miyamura (Horimiya)
The one who inspired me to make this list, funnily enough. Horimiya is one of those series which everyone praised to the stars and back, so I was a bit underwhelmed after I read it myself. That said, there's a lot to love in it and I can see why some people love it. The main couple are quite adorable to watch as they overcome their issues together, but Miyamaru's attempts to fix himself went too far!
When we first meet Miyamura, or should I be calling him Izumi(?), he's quite the unique character. He stands out in public by keeping his hair long, he enjoys wearing piercings, he has tattoos that he hides from his classmates, and this edgy rebellious look gives a great contrast to the caring and silly boy underneath.
Then he gets a haircut and a change of clothes, and just like that, all his wonderful visual personality is gone. Not only has he lost what made him sexy in the first place, don't judge me, but he now looks like the absolute most generic protagonist you could possibly get. If you put this version of Miyamura alongside 85% of the isekai protagonists out there, you would not be able to tell him apart and that is distinctly not good!
Naruto Uzumaki (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)
I know it's popular these days to pretend it's not actually good, alongside Doom Eternal and non-Maguire Spider-Man films, but Naruto the series was one of the best manga of all time and I still reread it to this day because of how much it stands the test of time. That being said, my enjoyment of the current reread is sometimes made awkward when I remember... Oh yeah, Naruto Uzumaki sucks now.
Naruto is an iconic character, who fought loneliness and betrayal to begin a new life with friends, start a family, and complete his dream of becoming Hokage. When he stood at the top of that mountain, his dreams achieved and himself accepted by all, I don't think any of us were asking for a sequel. But a sequel is what we got, and Naruto wasn't the main character this time. His son was, and his son needed conflict in his family life. So despite it being against his character in every way, Naruto was rewritten to become neglectful and cold, focusing more on his job and even refusing to go to his own daughter's birthday.
I've never seen a character so clearly changed for the plot in my entire life, due to how unnatural this one feels and how painfully wrong it is from the start. The one character in the franchise who knows what it's like to be alone most of all, who knows the power of a father figure, who spent birthdays all by himself, picks his job over his family? Hokage was always his dream, yes, but more than that, he craved acceptance, friendship, love. And now, he acts towards his own son's needs with annoyance and sighs, he demands the kind of respect from his son that he himself never gave to higher-ups when he was the protagonist, and he just... he's just not Naruto anymore. Does he get better as the series go on? Well, I was going to check that out but the anime is huge and the manga is ugly. Also I heard Naruto adopted another son and now Boruto has an edgy design and... ugh. No thanks.
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