I hope this thread doesn't get too nasty.

Obviously, Ruka rubs me the wrong way, but I don't see him as the ultimate evil. If Shiori is misunderstood, I think that Ruka gets a bit of undeserved understanding. [That makes.... no sense at all.] It's not that Ruka himself really bothers me, but he is on pretty equal terms with Shiori, yet she gets all the blame while he gets all the praise. Originally, I didn't really dislike Ruka, and I'm trying to go back to that state of mind. But I think it's all just unfair. But hey, no one said that life was fair. I'm pushy and annoying, but I can't always get my way.

When I was an early fan, I really had a grudge against Touga. I hated the guy. This is no longer the case, but on the right day, I can get easily fed up with him. I still think he's pretty cruel, and I still don't see him as anyone's prince, but I have a better understanding of him, and I'm not keeping any negative feelings.

I find Tokiko rather pointless and bland.

Annnnnd... I think that's about it. None of these characters are "bad", and I don't consider them villains. But they aren't the highest on my list.

As of lately, I don't really have a least favorite character. I used to hate Ruka, but since my opinion on everything seems to change at least once a month, I actually kind of like him right now. He's my beloved pet goldfish, after all. Of course, that he still does have a pretty long list of doing things that piss me off, but every character has something I dislike about them, with the exception of Shiori, Kozue, Kanae... And I think that's all.

I guess that it's not really a matter of who my least favorite character is, it's more of what they do to piss me off.

Ruka: Self explanatory. He slept with Shiori, broke her heart, molested Juri. That doesn't win him a lot of points for me, but I still stand by my theory that he was trying to help their relationship (which would be making Juri's miracle come true, whereas convincing her that Shiori was no good would be more along the lines of trying to convince her that miracles don't exist,) so that wins him some points in my book.

Juri: I love Juri, but she does an amazing job at rubbing me the wrong way. Half the time, she gets on my nerves because she reminds me of people that I dislike in real life, and the other half she annoys me because she reminds me of images in the media. But I both love and hate those qualities in her.

Touga and Akio: I have issues with playboys, plain and simple. But eventually, I got used to them.

This list could go on and on, because like I said, the only characters that I have nothing against are Shiori, Kozue, and Touga.

Edit: I just noticed that on that last sentence, I accidentally wrote "Touga" instead of "Kanae..."

Last edited by Razara (10-03-2007 05:59:00 PM)

One of the things I appreciate about SKU is that I love all of the characters. I'm not sure why this is, exactly, because a lot of them should annoy me, at least at certain parts. The first time I saw Unfulfilled Juri I didn't have a very high opinion of Shiori, but Thorns of Death changed that. Likewise Saionji could have been hatable before watching Wakaba Hath Flourished, after which I could never stay angry with him.

As to the thread title: In my opinion, the greatest evil is be a toss up between Anthy and Akio. Pretty much every character can be accused of at least one 'evil' action, so it's important to look at intent as well as the act itself. No one is more aware of the consequences to their actions that Akio and Anthy, nor is anyone else more mature in their motivation.

Akio can be described as an adult with a child's mentality, but it's not that he isn't mature. He's so old and jaded (for lack of a better word) that he's gone completely through moral adulthood and come out the other side. He's not immature because he's incapable of maturity, he's immature because it's fun. Most of his cruel acts are simply to amuse himself, how much more evil can you get? His justification, if he has any, is Anthy's torture by an uncaring world who would otherwise have demanded his sacrifice.

Speaking of which, Anthy as a result has far greater cause for her vengefulness; at the same time she's possibly more cruel. Akio plays within broad confines of social acceptability, he coerces and screws with people, but they're always willing participants on some level. Anthy does the same sort of thing with her passive-aggressive behavior, but she's also aggressive-aggresive (albeit subtly) to certain targets. She messes with Nanami constantly, far more than deserved, especially since Nanami's cruelty is probably by Anthy's own design.

... I think I trailed off into ranting territory two paragraphs ago, so I'm shutting up on character by character analysis.

Most evil characters:

Akio/Anthy > Mikage > Touga > Tsuwabuki > most everyone else.

Giovanna wrote:

For me, the 'worst' character is definitely Touga. He's worse than Akio. Why? Because he is human, and it makes him capable of a redemption Akio isn't, and yet he still doesn't do it.

Whether or not Akio is human, there's no reason he's incapable of redemption. If Anthy can escape her coffin so can he. The fact that he'd never, ever do that isn't because of a physical barrier, just pure selfishness. There's a happy medium between Dios and Akio. That's my take, anyway!

Don't let him fool you, Tsuwabuki is quite evil! The only reason he's not higher on the list is the excuse of immaturity. He's young and naive, he's also pretty clever and ruthless. His ideal is to be cool like Touga, as defined by being Nanami's older brother, so his solution is to risk Nanami's life for the purpose of saving her and usurping Touga's position. It's a child's reasoning, similar to a young Nanami solving her kitten problem with a cardboard box and a drainage ditch. Nanami immediatly regrets her action, while Mitsuru is ready to repeat the process when it seems to have failed.

He spies, lies and plots contingency plans for any disastor befalling Nanami, to make it a stepping stone for his own gain. Keiko, Aiko and Yuuko follow Nanami because they want to be close to Touga. Their motivation is somewhat deceitful, but they're at least loyal. Mitsuru doesn't assist Nanami because he just wants to be near her or to please her on that virtue alone. His motivation is that Nanami is the object through which he can become what he desires: her cool older brother. He doesn't show her any genuine affection nor does he go out of his way to make her life easier unless it's to further his own ambition. His devoution to her is based only on what she can do for him, no different than the general concept which the seitokai have for the Rose Bride.

For me? Anthy. I think that her manipulations doesn't have end - she's witch even in the very last episode, last scene. I know that her stabbing was similiar to the Brutus's action (he did this for his country and he killed himself after stabbing his friend) but I still don't like her. She took Utena's hand because it was positive for her. The cleverest puppet master ever.

The only reason I consider Akio to be more evil than Anthy is that in the end Anthy chooses to redeem herself while Akio does not.

Anthy is by far the most disturbing character in my book, but Akio is infinitely worse. Why? He's not a victim. His sister made sure of that. True, he's sealed into his world, but he doesn't seem to have any honest intentions of escaping. Rather, he seems to enjoy his position immensely. What's not to enjoy? For a man who pursues sensual and material gain above all else, Ohtori is all he really needs. He thinks his subjects simple for seeking anything more abstract - hence the world of illusions.

Yet he does not even know what he is trying to acquire with his manipulations. For all we know, he plays the same game again and again, with always the same results. So either he is too blind to his own situation to realize that the supposed illusions are the only thing that would allow his escape, or he just enjoys playing the game too much to care what the result is. Simply put, he's either an idiot or a sadist. So those who say that at least he manipulates for a cause...what cause? He doesn't even know what he's working for, and yet everyone around him suffers for it.

Especially Anthy. Anthy realized that one person couldn't exist as the world's sacrifice forever. Because he wasn't strong enough to step out of his cage himself, she tried to do it for him. She may have robbed the world of its prince, but then the world (symbolic of Ohtori) has to realize that it cannot rely on a prince to save them. So she takes Dios's punishment for his cowardice and suffers for it. Akio, far from rewarding her, trusses her up as a slave and tosses her around as a piece of property in an open mockey of a princess. That's what she always wanted, wasn't it?

Some gratitude there. Meanwhile, like Road Runner, Akio jumps into his car and flees trouble off into the sunset with a merry "Meep! Meep!"

You and I seem to see Akio and Touga the same way, we just differ on what we take out of it.

Not too sure about that, at least for Akio. Even realizing what an asshole Akio is, fully and completely, I still find him a rather addictive and attractive character. Touga not so much.

And you can't really seriously argue Akio has any emotional attachment to any of the people he turns inside out, but somewhere in the heart Touga's carefully choking to death, he really does care about Saionji and Nanami. It just...doesn't stop him.

I would argue that Touga sees those people as fully and completely 'his'. Mainly because they remain near him even after he has played some of his cruelest mindgames. He considers them mainly property, to be played with but never let out of his power. Notably, he keeps Nanami from transferring out of the school and he takes over manipulation of Saionji personally. Both of them he initiates a degree of sexuality towards, though with Nanami I perceive it as more of an attempt to be like Akio.

That part where he tries to kiss Nanami, but almost rather reluctantly, shows me that he really does care. He wants to show Akio he is ruthless and can take advantage of his sibling's dependence and adoration, but he has difficulty forcing himself to do it. When Nanami pushes him away, his anger comes from confusion as to what she wants, but he doesn't push the matter any further.

Whoa. Randomly analyzed both of the stuck-up perv boys there in one sitting. I feel rather delightfully dirty.

Last edited by Jellineck (10-04-2007 04:29:33 PM)

I want you all to know that you are wrong. That frog is the greatest evil ever.

THAT. DAMN. FROG.

Tamago wrote:

This is the true mastermind of the whole story. 

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o50/ … amtaro.jpg

Just because you didn't see this guy in the show doesn't change the fact that he is PURE EVVVVIL!

HAMTARO KILLED RUKA!

He probably transmitted the virus to Ruka because he tried to play with Hamtaro while his cage was dirty, just like on The Sims. Then he must have gotten the virus and died. He probably got Mr. Ohtori, too.

Truly that is an evil hamster!

Razara wrote:

HAMTARO KILLED RUKA!

He probably transmitted the virus to Ruka because he tried to play with Hamtaro while his cage was dirty, just like on The Sims. Then he must have gotten the virus and died. He probably got Mr. Ohtori, too.

Truly that is an evil hamster!

I think you've got it! That's why Ruka died!

I don't like Ruka much, really. He hits far too close to home for my liking. But for that same reason I can't condemn him.

Do you really need any more evidence that Chu-Chu is truly the EVIL one than this disturbing revelation?



I REST MY CASE!

Last edited by Tamago (10-06-2007 05:43:28 AM)

Tamago, that picture made me spit out my drink all over the keyboard and burst my guts right through my stomach. I hope you're happy.