The Twelve Kingdoms Forum

For characters in a long-running series, they normally have some kind of character growth. In a lot of series, this is often about becoming "stronger" - skill, determination, power and so on. But it's pretty rare for a character to change fundamentally.

Across the novels, Youko does become mentally stronger, but that's more like a side-effect of becoming a different person. This is particularly obvious in the first story with her, when she defeats the monkey. Not only does she get out of her slide into darkness but realises all the mistakes she made in the past and wants to do better in the future. And her character growth doesn't stop there either. Kyouko also does this for her own sake, not for someone else or because she's in love or something like that.

Some other characters in Juuni Kokki change quite a lot (notably Suzu and Shoukei) but we don't really see enough to have a good idea of the long term effects.

So I thought I'd start a topic about characters who get a somewhat similar character growth to Youko, even if the situation is very different. I'd also particularly like to focus on main characters from a series, since it's easier to make minor characters change a lot.

One possible example would be Yukino from "Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou". However, it's more like her private personality and public personality merge. I'm not sure if she changes much apart from that since I haven't read that much of the manga. She also does it more as a result of falling in love than her own sake.

Another example would be Tatsuya from "Touch", who finally starts taking things seriously after his twin brother dies. However, a lot of the story is about baseball, so there's not much room for more natural character interaction.


However, the best example I can think of is Kyouko from "Skip Beat!". Even in the first chapter, she changes quite a lot - in particularly getting furiously angry and being determined to get "revenge". However, by volume 3 she realises that (rather like Youko), what she did in the past and why was only because of others - she was trying to be a "good girl". She realises she's a "karappo ningen" (empty-shell of a human being). After that, she resolves to do things and learn things for her own sake, and re-create herself. Like Juuni Kokki, there's also not much of a romantic aspect to the series, though the latest chapters have had some interesting development. Still, some aspects of Kyouko haven't changed that much, but certainly she has changed fundamentally.


So, can anyone else suggest other main characters from series who have changed fundamentally, and for their own sake?

I often use Berserk as a counter-point to The Twelve Kingdoms, but Guts is such a character that changes fundamentally for his own sake. He starts as a sword-swinging maniac fighting for other people to a, well, sword-swinging maniac in search of his own dream, his own destiny. Of course, you'd have to look past the insane amounts of blood and gore to see just how complicated the relationship between Guts and Griffith actually is and how they change each other. Griffith is who I use as a counter-point to Youko's development in that he lets his demons, his ambitions, take over and destroy him.

Tenma Kenzo from Monster undergoes a Youko-like transformation. He starts out as a brilliant neurosurgeon who follows the orders of the hospital director (despite how morally and ethically wrong those orders are). He makes one choice and events happen that slowly transforms him into a doctor who only saves lives to a hunter who is willing to shoot to kill to save innocents. Rather fascinating 78-episode series; it is still being fansubbed.

Tsume in "Wolf's Rain" is another. He starts off as a coward who is driven from his pack. He moves to a city and starts a gang of bandits. He doesn't care who is killed or how many are killed in his robberies. He is trying prove he isn't a coward by being more and more daring in his robberies. Along comes 3 boys who are searching for Paradise. They talk him into going with them. At first he is the critic "Are you sure this paradise is real" and "are you sure you kow where we are going". After they meet another group of wolfs in another city he has a change of heart. The other group was searching for paradise a long time ago. They are now pack animals for the humans, and even gang together to capture one of Tsume's new friends and turn him over to the humans. Tsume becomes a full supporter of their quest and even urges the others on when they falter. When they meet a couple humans stealing food in another city later in the story, Tsume has to smile and say "yeah, that used to me".

This is from the manga, I don't know about the anime. Kurono in GantZ shows a lot of the same kind of character growth, starting out as a selfish misanthrope and ending up a much better person.

A word of warning. GantZ is in the running for the most bloody, horrific and gory anime/manga there is, with excess sex and nudity as well. I'd say it's worse than Beserk.