Top 10 List: Element-Users

Ever since I was a little kid I've always liked elemental powers for whatever reason, so I figured I should do a Top 10 List of my favorite characters in anime that use them. For the purposes of this list I'm considering elements Water/Ice, Fire, Earth, Air and Electricity. No Darkness, Light or Gravity, no particular reason, I just don't consider gravity an element and there aren't many characters that I like very much that uses Darkness or Light plus they're just not really elements in my mind. Not much else to say so let's get right into it.

Number 10: Gaara (Naruto)

I can't say I particularly like Gaara as a character...actually he quite annoys me as a character because, especially in part 1, he's an emo cry-baby and it pisses me off. However, for the purposes of this list, he's cool.

He's one of the only characters I can think of besides Gajeel of Fairy Tail that uses the earth element, and unlike Gajeel, Gaara

uses it in its natural true form. That and

he's completely beast with it, no pun intended.

Not only can he crush a human body using his sand with little to no effort, he can turn into a sand beast, the One-Tailed Shukaku, to be even stronger with his sand. Hell, he did enough damage to Lee, the master of determination, that he was put out of comm

ission for most of part one (not counting fillers), and for Gaara that was like an every day task of swatting a fly, it was nothing.

That and his sand is in essence alive, I can't say that of many of the other elemental users...sept for maybe any of the Bleach characters that have elemental Zanpaku-to. Gaara freaking talks to his sand ok?! Sure it's a little weird...ok a lot weird, but it makes him strong as hell so who cares? Essentially Gaara gets this spot for originallity.

Number 9: Takahisa Tajima (11Eyes)

I seem to be using 11Eyes a lot, just goes to show how

awesome that anime is. Anyway though, Takahisa is not only a bad-ass fire-user, but he's got a decent amount of personality is developed pretty well for a semi-minor character. Fire-users are generally stereotyped as either evil or dickish, and he's not really either. A tad standoffish at times and overconfident but he genuinely cares for those around him, surprisingly. That and he actually has a backstory which is always cool for characters.

I must say I wonder something though, what is the legal age to smoke in Japan? Cuz he definitely looks too young to be smoking. Maybe it's a strange attempt at a pun, given his ability. (Insert corny fake laugh here)

Quite honestly I don't know what else to say about him, especially without being repetetive of my last list with him in it. What to say what to say....no idea, may as well just go on to the next person and hope I can think of a decent rant about them. And might I just point out that his picture has decided to delete itself 4 times along with some of the text, very annoying.

Number 8: Juvia Loxar (Fairy Tail)

Quite honestly I hated Juvia when she first

appeared in the anime cuz she looked and acted

so freaking depressing. It was always "Shin Shin To" (Drip Drip Drop) in this monotoned voice with a straight face, surrounded by rain and in this

strangely depressing looking outfit that I cant really

explain. She also spoke in 3rd person which she thankfully grew out of a little. Ever since she changed her outfit, joined Fairy Tail and became happier, she's not so bad.

Her power is water, her body is made of water, she can control water, make water and make it downpour. I must say she gave me a new appreciation for water elementalists, never really

thought they were particularly powerful before her. She also has this really strange fetish (and I mean fetish) for Gray and it's kind of creepy, but humorous at the same time. And is it just me or

does that picture of her look pretty freakish?

Number 7: Rei Oogami (Code:Breaker)

A cookie to whoever knows who this guy is, and if not, you might wanna read on cuz he's pretty bad-ass.

So he can create a blue flame from his hand and this blue flame is the most epic blue flame ever because it can burn anything except the obnoxious female lead, damn it lol, and not only

does it completely burn it, but it doesn't leave any sort of evidence, no ash, no charring, nothing.

Not only that, but he uses this power in a Death Note-esq fashion, to kill all the worlds criminals or those he judges to be evil...or the Code:Breaker organization sees as evil. Thus effectively getting rid of a lot of evil in the world. It's essentially a Death Note in fire form, and since nobody sees and there's no evidence, it's impossible for Oogami to be caught by the law, unlike Light. Though he does meet resistance from the annoying female lead who thinks you can make criminals good by simply giving them a hug, yeah right, unless you wanna get stabbed through the heart while hugging them 'Oh this man is a serial killer who cuts up living people, Oogami you don't have to kill him I'll hug him and make it all better' no, just no, that's ridiculous. Blue Flame>Hug in this situation.

Number 6: Kaito Himuro (Psycho Busters)

I seem to be using a lot of fire-users huh? And I think there's still like 2 more after him. But anyway, Kaito's power is Pyrokinesis, meaning he has the power to create and control fire, as if that's not obvious enough.

I actually just finished reading Psycho Busters today and I must say it was very good, and Kaito's character gets developed a lot towards the end. At first he's the stereotypical 'tough guy' trying to act all cool and like he can take on anything, and he does a pretty good job of it, but later on it's revealed that he had a little sister whose

death he feels very guilty about because he couldn't protect her like he promised and he really cares about her. For anybody who knows me I have a soft-spot for characters with that kind of relationship, it's sweet and adorable and very special. Not only his little sister either, but he grows to truly care about his friends and goes against anyone who talks shit about them.

I know it sounds like I'm describing Ichigo or somebody else cliche, but Kaito does all this in such a way that it doesn't seem cliche because right up to the end he still keeps a bit of that 'tough guy' attitude to keep him original. I only wish he got a few more chances to use his awesome fire-power, he really doesn't get enough good fight scenes throughout the series.

Number 5: Daichi (Blazer Drive)

Huh, third manga-only character in a row, go figure. Anyw

ay, for those of you who aren't familiar with Blazer Drive it's by the twin brother of the creator of Naruto, Seishi Kishimoto (hence the similar art) and see that thing on Daichi's arm? Thats a mysticker, which are stickers that create any effect from elements (ie. fire intended to heat water) to summoning, to weapons to complete body transformation. Blazers such as

Daichi are a select few who can put mystickers on their arms and use their powers.

That mysticker you see on Daichi is Kandachi, and it gives him an immense power of Lightning. It's crazy strong, sadly I couldn't find a picture of him using it, but it releases lightning that fills up an entire huge room or any large space frying anything it hits. However since it's hard to control, Daichi [surprisingly] does the smart thing and uses Tamamayu (another mysticker giving him a massive clawed glove with tons of wire) to direct the flow of electricity to what he wants, which also makes it near impossible to get away from which is awesome. As a character I can't say I like him very much but his power is off the charts cool as far as electricity goes, he beat out the human rail-gun Mikoto Misaka of A Certain Scientific Railgun here as well.

Number 4: Roy Mustang (FullMetal Alchemist)

Yet another fire-user, but seriously, I'm not a pyromaniac I swear! Lol it just so happens that fire-users are most common in anime and they're generally cool characters.

Sure Mustang can be a bit of a pervert at times, but not a lecher like say Jiraiyah, so he's not that bad. Plus Mustang is absolutely hillarious, referring especially to his miniskirt and "I Love Dogs" speeches. That and his constant picking on Ed was pretty humorous, however he does have a serious side.

He has a definite goal, a noble goal and will stop at nothing to get it. I personally think he'd make a good Fuhrer. Back to his power though, it's not so much that he has the power of fire, it's simply that he can use Alchemy that allows him to create fire, either way it still counts him as an element-user. Plus you find me another character that can create instant flame with the snap of a finger, literally. Though he doesn't seem to understand that he's useless in the rain.

Side story: I actually made myself a pair of his gloves one time, but my mom washed them and they shrunk to the size of baby gloves and became completely unstretchable O.o

Number 3: Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)

Huh, never knew I could do animated GIF files here, go figure O.o thats a first. Anyway I had a really hard time with this one trying to decide weather or not to put him higher on the list. Not only cuz he's my favorite Naruto character (until later Shippuuden when he

becomes an ass, then I like Kakashi) but because he's a dual element user, the only one on this list. He can use both fire and electricity. Sadly though this is really as high on the list as I can justify placing him...hell I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for putting him this high but oh well, hence the picture is from part 1 when he's still awesome. Strangely, I dunno much else to say about Sasuke though other than that he's a ninja, IMO he's still not bad looking, he can use 2 elements, he's awesome and kick-ass and...yeah the last two kind of sum it up.

Number 2: Kazuma Yagami (Kaze no Stigma)

Yaaaay! Finally a wind-user and a damn good one at that. Basically it was between him and Rumina of Tokyo Underground if I wanted a wind user and Kazuma is a bajillion times better. He has a contract with wind spirits for crying out loud! You don't get much more awesome than that!

Not only because of his awesome power, but quite honestly I really like him as a character, his love story with Ayano is adorable (aren't they cousins though? O.o) and later on in the series his past comes back to haunt him which gives a nice tie up. I also have a lot of pity for him since his girlfriend Tsui Ling was killed right in front of him. And at the same time I give him credit because that experience is what made him want to become a contractor (super-powerful element user) in the first place, because he saw himself as too weak to protect Tsui Ling.

This coupled with the fact that he's pretty-much fearless, facing his own father at one point and winning, despite major odds against him is just completely awesome. And ever since I was younger, I've always liked wind-users for whatever reason.

Number 1: Gray Fullbuster (Fairy Tail)

One of the few Ice-users in anime besides Lyon and Ul also of Fairy Tail and Toshiro of Bleach, Gray is most definitely my favorite element user in originality, his power, and especially his character.

IMO best character in Fairy Tail, he cares for his friends, is an amazing fighter and gets really fired up (go figure) but at the same time he's a great comic relief, constantly stripping for no real reason other than force of habbit. While he goofs off a lot of the time along with most of the members of Fairy Tail, when he gets serious his fights are absolutely amazing. Especially the one with Lyon on the island to stop Lyon from resurrecting a super-powerful demon, Deliora, who killed their teacher essentially.

He's also your stereotypical shounen style rival (like Sasuke or Renji) but with something about him that keeps him original, I can't quite place my finger on it though. Anywho, his Ice power is amazing, he can create pretty-much anything out of Ice, most commonly spears and unlike his fellow Ice Wizard Lyon, he actually takes the time to use both of his hands and do it right instead of being a lazy, power-hungry freak. Between him and Lyon he's also much more level-headed of the two.

In short, the Number One Elemental user in anime is by far, Gray Fullbuster, if you disagree, fine, no flaming, simply leave a comment. With that I'll shut up about how awesome Gray is and leave you with a picture and some closing commentary.

Now for the closing commentary I promised XD As per usual this is my list, not yours, if you disagree (or just have anything to say) please do not hesitate to leave a comment, I like comments. And thank you to the 2nd Anonymous commenter on my 'Pansy Male Leads' post for your input. Also, for anyone who cares, I'll be attending Zenkaikon in King of Prussia Pennsylvania on March 19th, so expect a post on that (with more pictures than of Comic Con I promise) within a few days to a week from then. Also coming I should have up my 'First Impressions: Winter 2010/2011 Anime I've Tried' post by next weekend.