The Anti-Hero

I've notice something in the 15 some years of watching anime that I simply could not let just go. I will officially say that I love the brooding anti-hero and why wouldn't you, they usually are bad-a$$'s that don't take any crap from anyone. This article I'd like to recognize and discuss what makes an awesome anti-hero and why we love them more than the happy go lucky protagonists. The background, the look, the attitude, and the end of the anti-hero are just some of the things I'm going to cover.

The first thing that has to be established is a dark back story. There is no reason for someone to because the brooding anti-hero if they come from a perfectly normal background. Let's take Sasuke Uchiha for this example. A perfectly normal life that is suddenly turned up side down in the worst way. I think that seeing your entire family dead and knowing that your brother did it is enough to drive anyone to the edge and so that is a good start for any anti-hero. I find that most anti-hero's don't have their mothers more ofter than they don't have their fathers. This is because the believability that living a life with your mother raised you into a stone cold hero isn't very for story purposes. There are some anime's that take exception to this and did so in a great way. The anime that really stands out to me in this respect is Yu Yu Hakusho in the form of Yusuke Urameshi's mother, a drinking, emotionally difficult woman. Though Yusuke isn't a very good kid regardless his mother not really showing any sign of caring about him really helps towards the viewer see that he must be really messed up if his mom can't even care for him. Now for the first assessment, I believe the first reason for people loving the anti-hero is their backstory. This may be because we all have had less than a perfect childhood and though it is probably way short of your family getting slaughtered by your brother it is something that was sever enough to allow the anti-hero and you to have a small similarity.

The second thing to develop a good anti-hero is his look. The anti-hero can truly become unpleasant to us all if he looks like someone who is perfectly fine. The first thing most anti-hero's have is a unique hair cut to their world, in that Ichigo has a hair color that alone gets him into fights. The first anti-hero I've ever known the green power ranger had the same suit as the rest of the rangers except he had armor. What I'm trying to get across is that the hero and the anti-hero can look the same or everything feels just out of whack. 

The final point I'm going to make is the anti-hero needs the right attitude. If Vegeta acted like Goku than there would be no point in having Vegeta be a "good guy" in the first place. The anti-hero needs the cold and unattached attitude. The kind of attitude that would make the viewer almost hate him for his coldness but then redeem the character by having him do something unusually heroic and then deny, deny, deny. While the technique of making the anti-hero warm up to the group is a time tested and proved to work move, it is also true that the character has to be distant and even hate the main hero at least a little for a while first. The reason why this attracts people to the character is because the first thing they will think is, "Wow that guy is cool!" Most of the time I'd have to agree, who doesn't love Roronoa Zoro, or Heero Yuy. 

As a closing I will list one more thing that will truly make people love the anti-hero more than hero every time. The selfless sacrifice. I honestly didn't like Vegeta very much until late in the series when he sacrifices himself in the classic bad boy fashion, "You are a fool, I'm going to crush you, and throw you into the wind." This is followed shortly by him self destructing and destroying himself in the ensuing blast. That made the character for me. True is the same with Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho basically allowing himself to be killed so that his friends will become so furious that they become much stronger than they were before. While both of these character eventually come back from the grave they instantly gained more love from me and I'm sure many of you who saw what I did. The anti-hero is the reason why I continue to watch anime and I hope that you enjoyed reading.