I haven't seen much activity in the Manga & Anime thread, so I though I'll post a new topic ^^.
When a story doesn't grip your interest, a few well-developed characters can! What an interesting phenomenon of emotional connection human beings have with fictional characters. A character we connected with can cause us to cry from sadness or jump up with excitement
.
So, what characters have you connected with that can cause you to be emotional and why?
I'll give two examples from myself:
1) Alexander Volg Zangief from Hajime no Ippo
Alexander Volg Zangief, who goes by the name Volg, is a Russian boxer who moved to Japan to work on his career in becoming a professional boxer. At first, Volg didn't enjoy boxer at all. The only reason he box was to help his sick mother get better. However, he perception of boxing changes upon fighting Ippo, the main character.
Volg has only made 4 appearance in the manga. But each of those appearance had has made a huge impact on Ippo. The reason I feel emotionally connected to Volg is because of his ambition. Volg has usually fought in enemy territory and never had an audiences cheering for him. But despite of lack of encouragement from the audiences, he presses on and usually wins.
. Heck, Volg even accomplished one of his goals that Ippo and others have yet to achieve.
Volg is one of my favourite characters and I hope to see more of him in the future!
2) Nina Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist
Nina Tucker is the daughter of Shou Tucker, a Major rank State Alchemist. She lives her father and the family dog, Alexander. Nina story has a unique path that differentiating from most child characters. She plays a role in the development of Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric early in the story to a point where Edward made one of his recognizable quotes:
Spoiler
Edward Elric - "When I was certain he was going to kill me, my mind went blank, and I didn't have any hope anymore. All I could do was scream my lungs out. I felt so helpless, I couldn't even bring myself to believe someone might save me. And then you showed up Al, and I realized that if we don't take care of each other then no one else will. So I'll do anything in my power to get our bodies back, even if it means being the militaries lap dog. And we'll just have to hope our powers are good enough to help us rise above our own limits. Because we're not Gods, we're humans, tiny insignificant humans. Who couldn't even save a little girl".
As an individual who is studying Early Childhood Education, Nina story
REALLY tugs on my emotional strings. For those who haven't read the manga or seen the 2 anime versions. I highly recommended you put Fullmetal Alchemist on your list to read/watch.