Summer 2012: Favorite Characters

Totally NOT the 12 days of Christmas… I’m just catching up on blog posts I’ve been meaning to get to!

I realized I never did a favorite characters post for the summer. Actually, I don’t think I did one for spring either, but I wrote a ton of posts about the spring season already, so I think I’m covered there. But summer… Who were my favorite characters for summer 2012?

These characters, of course. Our protagonist Sensei was definitely my favorite of course, but I really found everyone in this crazy show to be quite fun and interesting. And hilarious! It seemed that just about everyone in this show made me laugh, and they all had their own way of doing it.

art by Pixiv ID 3344444

I’ll start with Sensei. The series just wouldn’t be the same without her, am I right? She’s the one observing all the unbelievable things going on, and her wit just can’t be matched. But she’s also a friendly and active protagonist, doing all she can to help the people (and fairies) she interacts with. She is an easy character to identify with, and I absolutely loved the two-parter the series ended with, which really made her one of the most dynamic characters I’ve seen in anime. The way she notes all the peculiar events of the show is a lot of fun, and really sets the tone well for Humanity Has Declined in general. Scathing and blunt? Yes. But not for the sake of being cruel, and I wouldn’t even say she’s really a negative person overall. She just has to put up with a lot of… difficult things! Or at the very least unusual things. Regardless, she still manages to persevere and move on, even when essentially everything goes wrong.

art by Pixiv ID 3158114

After Sensei, I couldn’t help but really like Assistant, whose dark humor came as a big surprise. It certainly contrasts with his sweet, unassuming nature, don’t you think? The two-parter that delved into his past was particularly clever and intriguing though, and I really loved the bond he had formed with Sensei over the course of this chronologically out-of-order series. He’s a sweet boy, but also a little… different. (But would we have it any other way in a series like this one??)

Grandfather was a pretty peculiar character! It seems Sensei has gotten some of her bluntness from him, though Grandfather seems much more laid-back and the type who doesn’t care what others think of him. His one-liners were pretty funny though, as was his matter-of-fact way of dealing with unusual things.

art by Pixiv ID 1951160

And then… how could we forget the fairies? These little fellows were absolutely hilarious, and worked well as a vehicle for the show’s many themes and bits of satire. Half the words that came out of their mouths were pretty awful when you stopped to think about it, but it’s amusing because they’re such small, adorable, squeaky-voiced, naive little troublemakers. They never mean any harm… But their magic almost always gets out of hand, doesn’t it? My favorite fairy, of course, was the one in the final two episodes who befriended Sensei in her time of need. One of the most heart-warming stories I’ve seen.

All the side characters were also very memorable. I mean, with a supporting cast composed of the likes of Y, Pion, Oyage, Loaf-kun, the headless chickens, and Sensei’s crazy schoolmates, you know you’re in for something really special. =D There were other characters I liked from other shows in the summer, but really, nothing can compare to what Humanity Has Declined had to offer. So I’ll leave this post at that, and perhaps get to a Fall Favorite Characters post some time in the next couple weeks.

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