Who is your favourite Key character and why?

Key Discussion
#1

Use this topic as your chance to argue why your favourite Key character is the best! Please be civil, don’t let this turn into a flame war~

If you can’t decide on one, feel free to mention more than one, but you might want to consider splitting it into Favourite Male and Favourite Female.

This topic may end up being a jumpstart to further specific discussions of “who is your favourite of X work”. A lot of people have already thrown up lists of their per-work favourites, but we’d prefer that the discussion stick to the overall favourite(s) for now. Happy posting! -@Aspirety

I haven’t experienced all of Key’s works yet, but I think Little Busters will always be on top for me so my opinion very likely won’t change.
My favourite Key character is Rin. At first, I just liked her because she’s cute (brown hair, red eyes and a ponytail is too OP) and loves cats (Be prepared - most of my reasoning are massive weeaboo reasons). She was the first route that I went down and I grew more attached to her in the more extended common route. (Rin1)I really love the confession scene (possibly my favourite cg) in how bold she is and then the previously rarely seen super-shy Rin is really cute.
(Rin2)Since I was already unnecessarily attached to Rin at this point, seeing her be forced into despair was brutal for me. I actually skipped the Rin2 credits because I was like WHAT at the ending (Too bad, Regret is an awesome track).
(Refrain)There’s not much to say about Rin in refrain as it is about the boys mostly after all. Broken-Rin made me feel sad amidst the “wtf is going on”. The scene at the end in the classroom once you replay is pretty great.
That’s probably the best I can think about and write without being prompted by questions, never really thought I’d be able to put it to words too well.

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Kazamatsuri.org Podcast: The Monthly Terra December 2014 (And an announcement!)
Key Pairings Topic
#2

I can say that, undoubtedly, my favorite Key character is Hinata. I always looked up to him in the anime because, well, I really love that scene in episode 10. It could have been any other guy to take on Yui’s request, but Hinata went in there like a man and even reassured her of all her doubts (really that imaginary broken hospital window scene was just too sweet). Adding in everything that happened after that and how he voluntarily helped Otonashi, well, showed that he was a bro.

But anybody who has read Heaven’s Door can agree with me that he brings bro level to the max. There are many instances, but I think Shiina arc in HD shows it best. Sure he was funny and idiotic at the beginning but man, the lengths he would go is just… Well you have to read it yourself to find out :stuck_out_tongue:

Well since he is my favorite character, he would be my favorite male character as well. Female character is something I kind of can’t decide on (and don’t think I ever will).

Per game… I guess I’ll choose both male and female (except kanon and air because there are only like 1 or 2 choices haha)
Kanon: Nayuki
Air: Kano
Clannad: Kappei & Ryou ( :wink: )
Little Busters: Komari & Kyousuke
Angel Beats: Hinata & Yui
Rewrite: Yoshino and Kotori, with Lucia in a very close second

…and this made me realize how my favorite male and female per series are all potential shipping pairs x.x

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Angel Beats! - Hideki Hinata Character Discussion
#3

Wow, actually it’s really hard to describe why I like Saya so much So, this is hard to back up, since I didnt read the VN yet, since it is, as you might know, not yet translated. I first learned about Saya, when I looked up where Rin is from after getting a fig of her. One of the characters was Saya. I didnt read much into her story, since I didnt want to spoil myself, but reading her personality, it had many things, I liked. After that I started Little Busters and was disappointed to find out, that Saya is not in it (I only found that out a bit later, since I didnt want to look up to much). I decided to still finish it and look more into it later. By then I also looked into Saya’s story and really liked it, especially the part about how she met Riki and what happened to her after that. Also I found the “treasure hunt” and what she wanted from it and what she wanted it for really cute. She truely fell in love back then and her soul found back to him and she made him fall for her in this imaginary world. After that, there wasnt much, since I was really busy for a while. Then the anime got announced and I immediatly recognized Saya in that first trailer and was really hyped. Of course I was disappointed later, since she wasnt really in it (I still loved the anime though). Then about one year later, the OVAs came out and I could finally watch it and read a bit more into Saya’s story (I was only reading really short summaries before) and it made me really fall for her. And that’s about it, since I am lazy to tag the inbetween stuff, I’ll just blur out the whole thing. If ya got still any questions after that, feel free to ask me, best with DMs on twitter or just on skype.

as for the favs per game
Kanon: Shiori
Air: Kano
Clannad: Ryou
Little Busters: Saya and Kengo
Angel Beats: Yui
Rewrite: Kotori and Esaka (LET’S BE SERIOUS HERE, Esaka is best dude in Rewrite)

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#4

I’ll dig into this at a later date, but I’ll do some listing for now.

Favorite character: Iwasawa Masami

Favorite overall female: Same
Favorite overall male: Natsume Kyousuke

Current favorites and honorable mentions for VNs I’ve not fully digested or finished if you see a bunch of names.

Kanon: Misaka Shiori, Kurata Sayuri, Amano Mishio.
Air: Potato, Kirishima Hijiri, Tohno Minagi, Kamio Haruko.
Clannad: This is impossible. Sagara Misae, Miyazawa Yukine, Sakagami Tomoyo, Fujibayashi Kyou, inhale AKIOOOOO
Little Busters!: Same, Kurugaya Yuiko
Rewrite: Senri Akane, Nishikujou Touka, Esaka Sougen, Tennouji Kotarou.
Angel Beats!: Same, Hideki Hinata.

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#5

My favorite Key character is of course Mai Kawasumi, although Sayuri comes very close. They would be amazing best friends. Before I was old enough to go to a secondary school (or whatever the foreign equivalents are) I always imagined that a school life like the one Mai, Sayuri and Yuuichi led would be what I aim for. Unfortunately it turned out to be more like Litbus, which is fun and all, but it’s not too memorable… The nostalgia of having a picnic every lunchtime with Mai, Sayuri and Yuuichi is always number one~ I’d totally be BFFs with them if they actually existed.

Favorite character for each Key story.
Kanon: Mai
Air: Hijiri
Clannad: Yukine
Tomoyo After: Kanako
Little Busters: Yuiko
Rewrite: Lucia
Angel Beats: Yusa

I think, taking the size of the cast into consideration, the story with the best main cast is Tomoyo After (of which I liked all of the characters) and the one with the worst is Little Busters (of which I liked very few of the characters.) Angel Beats and Clannad have a lot of bad/undeveloped characters that water down the overall quality of the cast.

[spoiler][/spoiler]
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Kanon - Mai Kawasumi Route & Character Discussion
#6

I’m at school on my phone so I’ll probably revise this later.

My favorite Key characters are probably the Junker and Yoshino.

The Junker is, to me, one of the most enjoyable Key characters, simply because he fits his role so well. Although you could easily argue Yumemi gives planetarian the most color, I feel like the Junker truly shines in the story. The amount of character development he undergoes in such a short span of time is pretty staggering, and we know just enough about him to make him interesting without getting bogged down in detail. He doesn’t get into the trap of uselessly floundering like many protagonists, instead being a fully competent character (also he’s not a kid, which is a nice change of pace). His beliefs and morals are all reasonable and I can relate strongly to him. That’s why he may be my favorite Key character. He just does what he needs to do and does it perfectly (from a story sense).

Not enough love for Junker.

And then we have Yoshino, who for most of Rewrite serves the role of comic relief. I personally enjoyed most of the comedy moments with him, but I get that it’s not for everyone. Where Yoshino truly shines as a character, though, are the momdnts when he breaks out of his comic relief role, and shows himself to be so much more. The most notable example of this in my opinion is in Akane’s route where he and Kotarou are able to set aside their differences and have some really bro moments. You can feel that they’ve both matured, but Yoshino’s personality was more geared towards that maturity from the start, Kotarou just had to catch up. It’s really touching and added a lot more impact to the route for me, as well as bumping his character up several notches in my heart.

I guess my biggest problem with his character is he doesn’t get quite as much serious time as I’d like. A shame, really.

Edit: If I were to pick a character from each Key story I’ve seen it’d be something like this
Kanon: Don’t remember well enough
Clannad: Don’t remember well enough
planetarium: Junk man
Little Busters: Kyousuke
Rewrite: Broshino
Angel Beats: Nobody jumped out at me but I guess I’d say TK

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#7

I’ll do some listing for now, I may write something to each character, but all of that would be like 5 freakin paragprahs, so I’ll do that later (maybe).

Ill start with a male character first, idk why but no homo srsly.

  • I freaking, absolutely love Sakuya. I mean he is just perfect… I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM. His past, being a familiar of Chihaya while also having a power to rewrite himself as a predecessor of Kotarou… (I knew there has to be somene like him, and I somehow knew he would be that guy), also his personality AND HIS LOOK GOD DAMN HES SO SE- (but srsly no homo)

Fav female char is just way too hard to choose from all Key’s work.

As for each Key project it goes like this:
Air: Yukito (the MC guy)
Kanon: hmmm Shiori or Nayuki
Clannad: Definitely Tomoyo … okay and Tomoya… aaaaand akio aaand… (plz this is impossible)
Little busters!: Kyousuke (hmmm but something is telling me to say Yuiko. WHY IS THIS SO HARD?!)
Angel beats!: Yui or Otonashi (I wanted to pick one of them but i just cant)
Rewrite: Lucia <3 (and Sakuya obv. as I mentioned above)

Seems like I cant decide but I think those that are written first are my fav… its just I love them all and not mentioning them feels kind of wrong to me ;w; but for now it just goes like this. Sorry if I should have chosen only one char of each project… but I just cant for some reason xd.

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#8

I’m not going to say what those who know me from twitter think I’m going to say

Kanon: Yuuichi
Air: Misuzu
Clannad: Akio
Planetarian: Yumemi
Little Busters: Kyousuke, Masato, and Kengo.
Angel Beats: I can jack off to Irie’s booty all I like, truth of the matter is she barely has any depth, so I’d like to call this one inconclusive.
Rewrite: Inoue

Yuuichi is my fucking role model, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I crafted myself in that mans image, that was the person I wanted to be. Before Kanon I was a weeby dweeby meek quiet shy guy, now I’m an asshole, just like Yuuichi senpai. I genuinely idolize the man,

Misuzu is just, JUST, Misuzu. Everyone knows what I mean.

Akio is part of my ongoing ‘I don’t want to talk about Clannad too much because I’m waiting for the VN before I truely define my opinion on it’ festival. But shit man, such a bro, and such a parent.

Yumemi please. Similar to the Misuzu thing.

My boys, MY BOYS. I, on the day of completing Refrain, REFUSED to pick a favorite, and I still do, all these boys are so amazing I will not place any above the other, these boys are the dearest friends I ever had, even being fictional doesn’t change that.
Little Busters Saikyo.

Irie booty be phat and shit and she’s cute and what I see of her I like but seriously.

Inoue’s part of Kotori’s route is the best part of Rewrite outside Sakuya’s Chihaya’s route, that shit was SO good.

oh and gender otherwise it’s Ayu, only Yukito even exists, Nagisa, only Junker even exists, That purple girl what’s her name, fucking Angel Beats I dunno, Sakuya~

#BanTaka

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#9

This is going to be a hard question to answer cause I didn’t experience all of Key’s works and I like a lot of the characters from the works that I have experienced.

For favorite male character I would say Tomoya cause not only did I like him as a character but I could relate with some of the problems he went through. Additionally, I liked how he developed throughout the series. In the beggining, he pretty much hated life due to losing his mom at a young age and his father neglecting him. But after meeting Nagisa, he realized that life was full of both happiness and sadness and he has to cherish them. He may be angsty at times but he has right to be especially given how all the hardships he had to face after marrying Nagisa and witnessing her death due to childbirth. Additionally while he can be angsty, he’s also quite the snarker and I laughed quite a bit towards the commentary he provides for the characters. Not to mention the moment where he reconciles with his father in After Story .

For favorite female character, I would definetely say Kotomi. Not only is she adorable and innocent but at times I can relate to her because I’m also quite socially awkward when it comes to making real life friends and I tend to read books in the library during my free time in college. Not to mention her story arc along with her backstory is really good and I nearly teared up at the end. Especially when this quote was said: “Even if your life is full of tears and sorrow, this world is still a beautiful place. Open your eyes and see it for yourself. Do what you want to do. Be who you want to be. Find friends to share the good and the bad with you. Enjoy life. Don’t be in a hurry to grow up” .

Favorite character per game/anime
Kanon: Shiori and Sayuri with an honorable mention going to Mai
Air: Misuzu and Haruko with an honorable mention going to Yukito and Potato
Clannad: *This is really hard. Um…the aforementioned Tomoya and Kotomi, Nagisa, Sanae, Sunohara, Akio, Ryou…GAH! THIS IS HARD CAUSE I LIKE ALMOST EVERYBODY. :tired_face:
Planetarian (thanks @Kanon): Yumemi Hoshino/Reverie
Angel Beats: Hinata
Little Busters: Another hard one…um I would say Komari, Haruka, Saya, Kyousuke, Masato, Rin, Riki with an honorable mention going to Kengo, Mio and Kud.

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#10

It’s kinda hard to say who’s my favorite Key character overall. There’s no character I would call my 100% favorite, but when I think about it, Kyousuke comes to mind first… therefore:

Favorite male character: Kyousuke (I guess)
Favorite female character: Mio, with about 10% going to Komari (I don’t even know why)
Which automatically sums up the Little Busters part.

Rewrite: Tennouji Kotarou (minus Terra-Kotarou, plus common route Kotarou),
Shizuru being favorite heroine, closely followed by Akane
Clannad: Okazaki Tomoya (Never seen a protag with so much personality before watching Clannad),
Tomoyo being favorite heroine
Kanon: Kawasumi Mai
Angel Beats: TK, Kanade being favorite heroine
Planetarian: It seems silly picking one out of two available characters to me, so I won’t

also,
#BanTaka
People need to appreciate their past more. I had an LB-like group of friends back in the day, then I got separated from them for good at the age of 10 after moving to a foreign country. Not having a single childhood friend around really stings, man…

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#11

But… Yuuichi is funny ._.

The Little Busters group is very normal. They are practically carbon copies of most groups I hung out with at school. There is nothing memorable about that to me. At my age, you can find such a group after half-an-hour of searching. I prefer to appreciate the rare moments rather than the everyday stuff.

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#12

My favorite character is Kotori and the reason is quite simple, she makes me smile. What separates Kotori from the rest is that she is damn good at making me smile. When I read Kanata’s back story in LB! EX I got really pissed, but after some Kotori-therapy I was okay. I finished Amane in Grisaia no Kajitsu at 3am, and I would not have gotten any sleep that night if it wasn’t for Kotori. There is literally nothing about her characterization that I don’t like( her route is a different issue); her design, dialogue and voice are all amazing. I have spent an obscene amount of time listening to lines like this, and I will continue doing so; because why not? So yeah everything about Kotori makes me happier than any other character so she couldn’t not be my favorite.

I once rated all heroines; there are no reasons included, but it gives a general idea.

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#13

Favorite female character: Misuzu
Favorite male character: Sakuya

Per story (female/male, except Kanon and Air):

Kanon: Mai
Air: Misuzu
Clannad: Kyou/Tomoya
Little Busters!: Kurugaya/Kyousuke
Rewrite: Chihaya/Sakuya
Angel Beats!: Yusa/Takamatsu

I’m lazy to explain why but in general I don’t have a great explanation. I just like them.

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#14

LOL LMAO Go ahead VJ, you only got three more! Just go ahead and name Yuiko, Kanata and Sasami too! Might as well! :laughing:

Ok in all seriousness now, I’m gonna have to skip out on most of the discussion here until later when I’ve read a ton more.

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#15

Well my favorite overall character is Kyousuke. I’ve already posted my reasons extensively in his character discussion topic, I think. But in a nutshell, LB easily has my favorite cast of characters and Kyousuke is just great in so many ways, both in context of the Little Busters! plot and just as a person. He’s an admirable person in my eyes.

Who is your favourite female character?
Tomoyo, easily. Tomoyo After (After) Tomoyo is just too damn lovable.

Favourite character from a certain game?
I’ll hold back on visual novels I haven’t read yet.

CLANNAD - Tomoyo, second Akio
Tomoyo After - Tomoyo, second Tomoya
Planetarian - Junker
Little Busters! - Kyousuke, second a four-way tie between Kengo, Masato, Haruka and Kurugaya.
Rewrite - Lucia

#16

Maaaaan kanon, seeing your post is just wrong. You gotta let the world know of your love!

I’m really trying to find that artwork you made of him but looks like you didn’t upload it here. Dang.

But yeah, interesting choice! The junker really needs some more love. :smiley:

Healing punch!! >3< Yeah it’s just that quirky personality of hers that’s so endearing~ Do you remember the in-game name of the stores she goes crazy over? Jasco, was it? I always get amused by the way she pronounces it.

Actually, sidenote, no love for the pets? I didn’t mention, but (as shown by my avatar) chibimoth is one of my favorite characters in Rewrite. I think we can all agree that he has a personality of his own and that he was instrumental in Kotori’s route by showing that he isn’t just some familiar that does her every bidding. He was simply, a true friend to Kotori when she needed one most

#17

I never ended up finishing it due to being swamped in school work. I have an unfinished version lying around, but my motivation has kinda died. There’s a decent chance I’ll try to remake it one day, but I haven’t done any art in forever and I’m like super bad so I dunno.

As for pets, I dunno, the only one that’s stood out to me (in what little I’ve played) is Chibimoth. And while he’s great, it’s not enough for me to give 'em Rewrite’s best.

#18

My overall favorite character is Kyousuke, because… Why not? HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE IT!?
I just like the way how he’s always so happy-go-lucky, and his manchild quality is actually pretty charming. Even when he’s actually struggling so hard, putting his life on the line, he keeps going with his fun-filled missions until Refrain hits. Dang

For the female, I tend to like girls with long black hair, so let’s just say that:
Kanon - Mai
Little Busters! - Yuiko
Rewrite - Lucia
Angel Beats! - Shiina
And you know that all of them are very good in sword fight. Woohoo! My overall favorite girl would be Yuiko. I just love her tendency to tease people… erotically (albeit whatever happened in her route).

Other than those, AIR - Misuzu , planetarian - Yumemi (duh - if it’s not Miss Jena). From CLANNAD, it’s Tomoyo and Sanae. Kotori also has a special place in my heart. I don’t really understand why, but I really love Kotori. Also, Rin. I love Rin

For the male category, from Kanon there’s only Yuuichi (and the almost non-existent Kitagawa) so I’ll pick Yuuichi. AIR would be Yukito. CLANNAD, Akio for sure (Yuusuke too). AB! would be Hinata, and Rewrite, Sakuya (and Esaka). And Junker from planetarian.

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#19

^ I like this guy. His opinions are good.

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#20

Favorite Character: Shiina-cchi
Favorite Female: ^
Favorite Male: Sakuya
Favorite character from game: Shizuru
I love how badass and deadly Shiina actually is while at the same time being stupid and susceptible to cute things. It’s so hilarious and that combination of aspects makes her my all time favorite. Not to mention, her words of wisdom in the manga have stuck with me and will forever change my life.
With Sakuya, ill be honest, at first I thought he was a huge and major jerk. And I really couldn’t stand him because he made the beginning of the Chihaya route painful to read since Tennouji was getting bullied. But near the end and how he basically taught Tennouji and showed his super badass side where he is the ultimate familiar just made me love him.
Shizuru is so funny and silly, I honestly love her position in Rewrite. She visualizes every situation into a stupid form like all the saurymen or the starfish people. She, in my opinion, was the most funniest character in Rewrite.