Sara Talks Anime

In lieu of a Secrets of the Silent Witch episode due to the fact that the series delayed the 13th episode to October 4th instead of airing it on October 3rd (the day that I’m writing this), and because I can’t think of anything to rant about that’s connected to anime, I figured that to fill the space that should’ve been a Secrets of the Silent Witch writeup will instead be filled by a Top 5 list. Because why not.

Now, as a friendly reminder: this is my opinion. As long as you don’t bash my favorite characters, I won’t bash yours. This list also won’t be in order of how much I like them, but rather in alphabetical order based on series. If a series starts with the words A, An, or The, however, I’ll use the second word for my sorting.

Also, I shall limit myself to one character per series, just so that this list isn’t mostly populated by characters of one series.

Shiho Miyano/Sherry/Ai Haibara – Detective Conan

Originally, my Detective Conan rep was going to be Shinichi/Conan himself. Because of course I’d find a way to get Detective Conan in here somehow. However, as I feel that would’ve been too basic of an answer (especially considering he’s the titular character!), I decided to go with my second favorite Detective Conan character, Ai, instead.

As Funimation only brought over the first 123 episodes (as well as the first six movies, but I didn’t watch the movies during my original watch through of Detective Conan in middle school), I hadn’t gotten her introduction episode, so if I had chosen to look over my mom’s shoulder to see what was happening in the Detective Conan simulcasts back then, I would’ve just seen Ai as another one of Conan’s classmates. Nothing more, nothing less.

That all changed when TMS decided to begin trying to get Detective Conan more out there by doing the curated episode selections. While people who had watched the movies knew the gist of Ai’s backstory, I was going into it blind to Ai’s backstory, so once the details of it were revealed, Ai went from “oh, another one of Conan’s classmates, okay” to “holy shit she is such a well written character, I want her to be happy”.

And, since I’ve been reading the manga (or, at the very least, VIZ Media’s English translation, which localizes some names), I can see a much clearer growth in her character than I’ve seen in the Conan vs the Black Organization selection, mainly due to the fact that TMS chose to only bring specific plot-important episodes over, which does ultimately frame the selections as being for pre-existing fans of the series instead of newcomers, which just makes me hope and pray that the remaining episodes of Detective Conan (yes, even the anime originals!) legally come to America in some shape, way, or form.

Nana Hoshi – Food for the Soul

The reason I picked up Food for the Soul as a simulcast during the Spring 2025 season was because the main character (Mako Kawai) was more on the introverted side, and I’ve recently been digging shows that have introverted protagonists, as they’re just like me for real. When I first saw Nana’s design, I completely thought she was going to be a flavor of outgoing genki girl that Shinon wasn’t already hitting.

So color me surprised when Nana gets introduced, and she appears to struggle with social anxiety! While Mako also had her troubles speaking, she was more soft spoken instead of socially anxious, from my memories of the show. However, I think Nana is great representation of social anxiety, even if she’s not the main character.

And how Mako and Nana interact in Nana’s introduction episode shows that you shouldn’t force someone like Nana to come out of their shell too early. Let them warm up to you first. That could take forever, but everyone should be allowed to go at their own pace.

Ah, makes me feel like all of my impatient waiting for Nana to get introduced in Food for the Soul was worth it.

Tony Tony Chopper – One Piece

Believe it or not, Tony Tony Chopper was how I got into One Piece. In fact, I think I had the most atypical way to get into One Piece known to mankind. While I think I knew it existed because of the physical collections my parents bought (specifically the ones that bundle two of the Season X Voyage X sets together), the reason I even began checking it out was because of the video game One Piece: Grand Battle (known in Japan as One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush) and playing as Chopper and wondering “hm, what’s the context behind this?”, leading me to eventually check out the anime.

Was it worth it for me to sit through 80 episodes pre-Chopper before I finally got to see the boy that caused me to get into One Piece in the first place? Yes. Yes it was. But, hey, I needed the context!

I felt so bad for him during his backstory, man. I wanna give the little guy a big hug, because he deserves it. He’s gone through so much in his life both before and after joining the Straw Hats, let the little guy have some love.

Speaking about how Chopper got me into One Piece, while it was good enough to get me into the anime and the manga, I think I’m gonna steer clear of the live action version of One Piece. I’m sorry, I know they want to be accurate to real life, due to this being live action, but I don’t think that works for Chopper.

Ruri Tanigawa – Ruri Rocks

Ruri Rocks was a joy to watch every Sunday as it was simulcasting on Crunchyroll during the Summer 2025 season. It was a guaranteed time every day that I could sit down and chill out in a world that’s the closest to reality out of all the shows I chose to watch that season. It formed a nice, calming atmosphere that, even if just for 23 or so minutes, let me forget my troubles in the real world and chill out while still learning new information about something. Mineralogy, in this case.

Now, you may think an energetic character like Ruri would absolutely ruin this atmosphere. However, I believe she’s the best protagonist a series like Ruri Rocks could ask for. She’s gotten interested in mineralogy due to finding out that she can find the same pretty rocks she can find as part of jewelry out in nature. A character like this is exactly what’s needed for one of these shows that’s just girls doing things while also adding an educational aspect to it.

In a way, Ruri is a stand-in for what the series determined to be the typical audience member. Someone who only really knows minerals as “pretty rocks”, and wants to learn more about what makes those “pretty rocks” so pretty.

Each episode of Ruri Rocks has a lot to learn about, and with as infectious of a main character as Ruri herself, the series is made that much more fun.

Umika Konohoshi – Stardust Telepath

Stardust Telepath holds a special place in my heart. Not only is it the first simulcast that I reviewed from Episode 1, it’s also the first show I watched where I felt like the main character was just like me for real. And that protagonist is none other than Umika Konohoshi.

Due to feeling like she doesn’t belong on Earth, Umika wants to go to outer space. But instead of Umika going to space, space goes to Umika when she meets an alien that can understand Umika’s thoughts by doing a little forehead bonk.

Umika herself is a soft-spoken girl who suffers from social anxiety due to being previously bullied by classmates. However, through Yu, the alien that she befriends, she meets more people, and ends up gaining more confidence.

I especially love how we got to see Umika at what appeared to be both her highest highs and her lowest lows during the one cour we got of Stardust Telepath. I would 100% watch more if we got more due to how fun Umika is as a character, and the fact that her source material is still ongoing.

Were there any characters in here that you also liked? Were there any characters that you know I proclaimed as my favorite that you felt were robbed of the opportunity of being on this list? What are your favorite anime characters? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to get to know my readers better! I may make other “top X” lists in the future, so also feel free to let me know what topics you’d like to see done in one of these kinds of lists!