Poll: Which Key protagonist is your favourite and why?

Key Discussion
#1

This poll was closed on September 26, 2018 due the options being outdated. We will make a new one if there’s interest.

  • Yuichi Aizawa (Kanon)
  • Yukito Kunisaki (AIR)
  • Tomoya Okazaki (CLANNAD)
  • The Junker (Planetarian)
  • Riki Naoe (Little Busters!)
  • Hideki Hinata (Angel Beats!)
  • Yuzuru Otonashi (Angel Beats!)
  • Kotarou Tennouji (Rewrite)
  • Yuu Otosaka (Charlotte)
  • Rei (Harmonia)

0 voters

The poll hype train never ends!

Pretty self-explanatory, right? Remember not to bash on other people’s opinions and to use spoiler tags where they’re needed.

(Reposted because Link forgot to add Hinata)

Topic Proposals
#2

Who the hell is Yukito?

MY MAIN MAN Y-CHI AI-ZEE GOT DIS DOE. I adequately explained why in his own thread.

2 Likes
#3

Naoe Riki—because of his androgyny face----he’s adorb when blushing

Don’t know why–I really want to pat his head and hug him—

3 Likes
#4

Where is the Hinata (Angel Beats! Heaven’s Door) option? :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, as usual I can’t decide haha. I’ll think about it a bit and answer after I finish AIR, just to be fair to Tabuchi Yukito

3 Likes
#5

Definitely Tomoya with Yukito at a close second
Riki is pretty rad too
Same with the Junker

#6

Junker > Yuichi (certain reasons) > Yukito > Route/Refrain!Riki > Otonashi > Kotarou > Normal Riki > waaah my town sucks i hate my life waaah (Spoiler because fans of him should not read if you can be offended)

#7

Tomoya. In my humble opinion, his character development is well done. The bond between him and the main heroine is really deep, which is an important parameter. (And he’s the only one who gets to marry that said heroine)

The fact that he is a not-so badass delinquent also wins my vote for him.

For the same reason, my second place would be Tabuchi Yukito. His backstory is a sad one too. Which is nice

Third would be Otonashi.

Though this vote might be too early to pick because I haven’t read Rewrite and Planetarian

1 Like
#8

I went with Tomoya. He’s got enough character to be interesting, what with his whole delinquent prankster schtick, but he overall seems like a really nice guy.

Yuichi is probably my second favorite, and I’d attribute most of that to his deadpan snarker characterization in Kanon 2006. The voice acting there really sells it.

#9

As unfair as it is to answer- Riki is still my favorite as of this moment.
Simply ALL of the protagonists I really like as they all have their quirks about them and that something that makes them so specially written. Riki’s is #1 though. Tomoya is most likely second, then the rest are just all 3rd.

1 Like
#10

I’m going with Kotarou here but like others have said it is hard because there isn’t really a wrong answer. Kotarou is probably my favorite because I feel like I could level with and sympathize with him the most. Kotarou was very amorphous outside of Terra in that his personality would warp and form around the situations he found himself in, but with good reason. If you think about it your personality is grounded in your experiences and your past is basically your personalities bedrock, so without a past to lean back on Kotarou tended to change himself (rewrite) depending on where he found himself.

He was socially awkward to the point of becoming basically the class clown in order to gain recognition. He was willing to run the risk of alienating the rest of the class in order to protect his bonds that he had I’m thinking in particular when it talks about how it was just him and Kotori. His awkwardness comes out again in hyper mode around Yoshino. I could be wrong but it always felt like He was attempting to cling to Yoshino in the only way he knew how in order to try to keep him close as a friend…that way just happened to be picking fights with him which maintained their odd relationship.

Then Terra happens (gonna spoiler the rest of this just incasies) we finally get to see what Kotarou is like when he has a full set of memories to back up his personality. While it does change him somewhat he is still fundamentally the same as we see later on. He vigorously defends something once he latchs on and decides that it is important to him. I’m thinking in particular the plethora of times when he decided to continue rewriting himself despite knowing or in some cases not knowing the consequences.

TL;DR I like how Kotarou reminds me of myself in how he fights hard to establish relationships with people despite himself then defends them viciously.

5 Likes
#11

I think I like Kotarou the most because he’s really silly and funny. He can make very memorable hilarious scenes (BOOMERANG!) by himself. He’s also really badass sometimes.

Also just a heads up, you added (Heavy Spoilers) to the title incorrectly. Adding (Spoilers) to a thread is used when there are untagged spoilers in the thread, warning anyone who enters. This thread has tagged spoilers for everything so there’s no need for it. Just a consistency thing.

1 Like
#12

Definitly Tomoya. Reading CLANNAD and even Tomoyo After, he was a man, that was down to rock bottom at many points, but always made it back up. TA spoiler even at the end, when he had only a low chance of survival, he wanted to pull through, so he could stay with his loved one. He certainly did everything to make her happy.

CLANNAD and AFTER STORY spoiler he randomly started helping a girl, he has never seen before, which turned his life downside up (can you say it like that? I hope you get what I mean) he got closer to many people thanks to that and got his life back in the right order. He even got a job, that’s hard to do for him thanks to his shoulder. He was on the way to happyness again as reality suddenly pulled him down yet again. But again a certain meeting with his own daughter, made him get back to his feet again. This lasts a while before shit is pulling him down yet again, but this time it’s too much for even him.

Many blurry stuff, but it has to be done to avoid spoilers.

2 Likes
#13

Tomoya. I debated going with Kotarou for a while, but then I remembered Tomoyo-After-Tomoya and that was that.

One of my main reasons why I like Tomoya so much is how he develops completely differently depending on what route you take in CLANNAD. Most specifically the differences between Nagisa-Tomoya and Tomoyo-Tomoya. It’s not as extreme as with Kotarou, but while Kotarou was pretty awesome in some routes, Tomoya reached heights Kotarou never did. Especially in Tomoya After, where Tomoya ultimately became one of my favorite characters in all of Key’s works, and of course in After Story as well.

1 Like
#14

Requesting that you add Hinata as the protagonist of Heaven’s Door!

3 Likes
#15

He’s literally titled as the second protagonist. He is a protag to Angel Beats! 100%

He existed before Otonashi did.

1 Like
#16

I was thinking about Kotarou… but I think Tomoya wins for me. I would repeat after others, so Ill keep it short and just say that I have basically the same opinion as @EndOfRefrain.
But still… if I could vote both for kotarou and tomoya that would tbe the best, because i just cant decide… When I feel to vote for tomoya, something tells me Kotarou is better and vice versa… ugh the struggle ;w;. Lets just go with tomoya for now lol.

#17

More-or-less halfway into AIR and I can confirm, of the choices here, Yukito is definitely my favorite now. His sense of humor, his profound way of looking at things, his no-nonsense but quick to joke attitude. That’s just something you don’t see in any of the other Key protags. And I absolutely love him for it

(Hinata still muh MVP though)

#18

Yuichi. And that’s not just because Kanon! I have to agree with:

Tabuchi is my favorite antagonist second favorite protagonist. (I don’t particularly like him, but he’s extremely entertaining nonetheless.) I was thinking Kotarou, but I don’t feel like his character was particularly strong or consistent throughout all of the routes.

#19

The more and more my mind dips into the state it’s been in lately- The more and more I’m finding myself leaning towards Tomoya and CLANNAD in general being quite impactful on me. If I’m in this state I’m in now when I read that VN, it’s very possibly going to shake my world again in a whole new way, for better or for worse.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Tomoya, basically, and I mean he’s my CLOSE second for a reason- But I get a very strong message from him that I think is going to hit home quite hard. I feel like that kind of ‘pit’ is one that I’m finding myself more in each day. That relate-ability is going to highly bias my views and make me appreciate him that much more.

1 Like
#20

Damn, I understand your feeling now…
I’ll go for Kotarou though. [Kotarou Terra is really awesome. ^,^;

2 Likes