It's funny that I couldn't bring myself to hate any male character in NANA, despite how jerky most of them were. Even Shouji and Sachiko had my blessings. And sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who didn't want to cut Takumi's head off after finding just how many ways he had wronged Hachi. He even hurt my precious Reira, and I ended up forgiving him, because fuck if he isn't the most believable rockstar in the series.

I'm not sure what my jerk list would be... Ruka would have to show up, but so would most of the SKU cast. The school children from Elfen Lied cause fist-shaking as well, even though none of the actual characters really rubbed me the wrong way. Well, Bandou. I guess Chief Kurama is a jerk to some degree, but he makes up for it. I'll second Evangelion, but not Shinji. Even though my favorite character is Asuka, I can admit that Shinji does not stir the image of a jerk, not for me. Selfish, naive, and more than a little emotionally disturbed, but not a jerk.

...And the entire cast of Death Note. Even the creators said that Soichiro Yagami was the only good character in the series. I would say that Sayu and Sachiko could fit the bill as well.

Last edited by dollface (07-15-2008 07:05:41 PM)

Hey, you. Mello is my favorite character.

Well, the way we'd been talked about the term 'jerk' in this thread didn't seem to apply to people who were just bad through and through-- if that were the case, SKU could never top the list. It sounded to me like we were just talking about people who did some things to make them seem a little less likeable. I love the cast of Death Note, but I'm just saying-- each of them had their jerky moments.

Edit: If Evangelion can get multiple mentions, DN can, too.

Last edited by dollface (07-15-2008 07:25:36 PM)

What was that Tennessee Williams said?  The theatre is a place where one has time for the problems of people whom one would show the door if they came to one's office looking for a job.

The well-adjusted, healthy individual is generally disinteresting, as we learn nothing from their competence, and the truly innocent and saccharine only earn our scorn after prolonged exposure.  On the whole, it's almost a truism, an audience responds best to its own sins* grown large.  Selfless acts have even less place in entertainment than they do in reality, and we anticipate the pretense so that the cackling villain is really only the kind, suggestive schoolgirl given an extra seven minutes of narrative.


*Sins, here, being what we'd like have or to have done, not necessarily actions we have managed.

dollface wrote:

It's funny that I couldn't bring myself to hate any male character in NANA, despite how jerky most of them were. Even Shouji and Sachiko had my blessings.

Don't get me wrong. Cheating on Hachi is an entirely natural reaction. But he still shouldnta done it. As for Hachi herself, she's not a jerk, she's just ditzy and makes bad decisions OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

And sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who didn't want to cut Takumi's head off after finding just how many ways he had wronged Hachi. He even hurt my precious Reira, and I ended up forgiving him, because fuck if he isn't the most believable rockstar in the series.

Well I suppose that's the point. Most rockstars are douchebags.

ugh. I try not to remember Akira...but you're definitely right. Tetsuo's a complete kneebiter.

satyreyes wrote:

I guess the guy Light gives his Death Note to temporarily -- the "eliminate!" guy -- might be called a jerk.  Really, though, it's Mello and that's it.

Nah, Mikami's just a nutter.

To me, a jerk is someone who uses their power for petty, selfish reasons deliberately to hurt someone in a fashion far out of proportion to their own injuries.

Like Shiori "stealing Juri's boyfriend" because Shiori has DECIDED that Juri looks down on her and pities her. (because that was really all in her head, and she chose to believe it rather than realize it was just a paranoid suspicion. I wonder how close and how solid their friendship actually was if she could throw it away like that.)

Or Nanami orchestrating humiliating incidents for Anthy because she DECIDED that Anthy was stealing away her brother, when really Anthy was just going about her regular Rose Bride business, and Touga coudn't care less about Anthy, except as the Rose Bride, and certainly not as an object of his affection.

I can't call most villains jerks because either they do things SO BIG, and I tend to consider jerks as being small-minded, petty, mean-spirited, the kind of low-grade evil that comes from just being people, rather than being evil. Willful cruelty as an end rather than a means, and incidental cruelty as a means only if the jerk KNOWS his means are cruel and just doesn't care.

Also, small villains like Team Rocket or Jinnai don't make the grade either, because they're so loveably bumbling that you can only like them or laugh at them.

I'm not surprised Hamel from Violinist of Hameln didn't make the list, because he's only a jerk in the manga and no one knows about it, but he's got this habit of casual cruelty which is pretty amazingly overlooked by his love interest and prime victim.

Last edited by Mishi (07-16-2008 11:24:44 AM)

satyreyes wrote:

I can't think of a single major character I'd really call a jerk, with the sole exception of Mello.

I keep telling myself "This is a thread for SKU, if you start talking about Mello, you'll look like the REAL jerk here!", but I can't help myself. I think Mello does more to redeem himself at the end than most characters did. Death Note 13: How To Read states that Mello wants the 'Note for himself so that he may have absolute power. Pretty jerk-like, I'll agree. But when things come neck and neck, he knowingly sacrifices his life so that Near, his rival, can have the information he needed. He pushed aside all his anger and emotions because this time, there was something more important than being the best. They had to catch Kira. In fact, if Mello had not died for this cause, Light would have won, and everyone in the Yellowbox Warehouse that day would have died. And Near has the audacity to take credit, saying that together they were able to surpass L-- you didn't do anything, you jerk. All your information came from the things L left behind, and the important facts that Mello gave you. But, that aside, even the creators said in DN13 that "Mello isn't really a bad guy."

Plus, on a smaller scale, when Mello goes to retrieve his photograph from Near, he could have just taken it and left. But even he himself says "That wouldn't be right", and gives some important information he had discovered to his sworn enemy-- information that Near could not have solved the case without.

TL;DRMello is a hero, dammit!

Hedgehogey wrote:

dollface wrote:

It's funny that I couldn't bring myself to hate any male character in NANA, despite how jerky most of them were. Even Shouji and Sachiko had my blessings.

Don't get me wrong. Cheating on Hachi is an entirely natural reaction. But he still shouldnta done it. As for Hachi herself, she's not a jerk, she's just ditzy and makes bad decisions OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

And sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who didn't want to cut Takumi's head off after finding just how many ways he had wronged Hachi. He even hurt my precious Reira, and I ended up forgiving him, because fuck if he isn't the most believable rockstar in the series.

Well I suppose that's the point. Most rockstars are douchebags.

Oh, I'm not disagreeing with you. Cheating on a girl (or guy) will always be the jerky thing to do, no matter why it happned. I just recall playing a character elimination game in a NANA group, and Shouji was out by the end of the day. Takumi came right afterwards, which surprised me, because I assumed he would be the first to go.

Exactly. For me, it's hard to hate Takumi for cheating on Hachi or acting like a dick, because he's a rockstar. That's what they do. Not saying all famous people are douchebags, but if we didn't have at least one, I couldn't have believed NANA. It would have been too much to ask for me to accept that all 8 members of two rival bands would be nice people.

Raven, I agree, Near is the biggest jerk in DN for me. Being such a big fan of Light and Mello, it's hard for me to accept that the obvious flaws could really make you a bad guy, as backwards as that sounds. When I name "bad guys" in DN, my first thoughts are Near and L, quite frankly, because they are painted as being justice, being the righteous characters, which simply isn't the case. They are just as wrong as Light and Mello, but the fact that they can hide behind the law... it just makes them seem like bigger jerks to me.

Not that I'm bashing the two. I love L, and... alright, I don't like Near. But he isn't my least favorite character.