| Complex : Anything other than a generic or bland character! Or that's how things go here. IMO , I complex character will be easily relatable , has multiple traits and talents that stands out, and off course, has gone through well development. Or something like that... |
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| A character who has both likeable aspects and flaws, and goes through some sort of character development. It is not required for a character to be complex to be good, especially in anime, but it helps. |
| A complex character is a character that has multiple layers to him, he's doesn't have just one personality trait, he has flaws like normal human beings. |
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| Probably the best way for me to describe a complex character is: A character who isn't perfect. |
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| More than just a drawn body with a name that pwns others (fighting shounen main char) and it already is a bit complex. :D If they have a past and family and a lot is explained/described it makes it even better. (It is not uncommon to have male main chars where you never know anything about family or they - for some reason - live all by themselves because it saves the author time to "built" some family characters as well.) |
| 1) socializes poorly with others 2) attempts to preach deep philosophies of life 3) talks about schrodinger's box |
| I would say a complex character is one who has many facets to their personality. Also just because a character is complex does not necessarily make them a good character nor does a character being simple make them a bad character. |
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| a related group of emotionally significant ideas that are completely or partly repressed and that cause psychic conflict leading to abnormal mental states or behavior. |
lewd is love, lewd is life ! |
| A character who's body is build more complex than the average body. |
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On_the_Lam said: volt16 said: I agree with the rest of your points but easily relatable doesn't fit the description. Some of the most complex characters in anime are everything but relatable. Of course I have to give you some examples and before people rush to tell me that they indeed related to the following characters I have to set this caveat: "Because you personally related to a character this doesn't make them relatable". As for some characters I consider complex but not easily relatable there is Shiki from KnK, Kaneki Ken and Eto from TG (the manga obviously), Lain from Serial Experiments Lain, Rossiu from TTGL and the list goes on. I would even make a case for Kotominei Kirei from FSN. Shiki is honestly pretty straight forward in terms of character, or so I think at least. I love her character, but she really isn't complex. She has the "idgaf" attitude in her normal personality at first, which then changes from film to film and the murderous nature in her other one, and that's pretty much it. I would even consider Shiki and SHIKI two whole different characters. Kirei is indeed complex though. I disagree. I would actually say that Kirei is the straight forward here. You see, the complexity of Shiki's character is its growth throughout the series. We learn from her struggle with Fujoe(the flying chick) that she nor fly nor float, she has no desire to live nor the desire to die. This is true at the middle of the story( where movie 1 is). Then we learn that Shiki lost her second personality that was suppose to "kill" her to repress her worst desires. This makes her filled with void that she, after some help with Tokoe, manages to fill with her own new identity. An identity of Shiki with SHIKI's subconsciousness habits(like the masculine voice) that is also connected to her origin - Void. Asagami Fujino shows us her new identity pretty well since she is "the same kind" as Shiki. Shiki loves murder but respects the people that get killed while Asagami dislikes murder subconsciously yet respects no one(kills civilians). All of those "villains"(both Asagami and Fujoe and later on Lio) were set by Araya to us completely observe which morals, principals, priorities, behavior Shiki is leading till movie 5. Eventually when tested to the max with Lio who is the perfect Counter for Shiki's Origin, she defeats him and then fills her void with Mikiya and lives on. Mikiya himself states that he will be the one who "kills" her. To mean that he will be her "SHIKI", the one who will repress her from going over the edge. This growth is the complexity of her character. The KnK movies study her character (no matter how abnormal it is) and show us its growth. This is it complexity, and it is complex in if you compare it to characters like Kirei. The only way that I see Kirei's character is like this: He is a man without purpose in life. Or at least that's how he sees himself. He proceeds to fight in the Holy Grail until by the end he loses. After that the Holy Grail grants him a wish and he is burn a new. Kirei realizes that by looking for purpose in life from the Holy Grail is in it self a purpose in life, a purpose he will follow in the future. He is not a bad character, however he is far more straight forward than Shiki's character. Perhaps it is because of the lack of focus that was fated by the huge amount of the characters in F/Z or perhaps it was because of Gen Urobuchi's writing, either way he is just not on the same level as Shiki who got her own 8 movies of character study dedicated for her. |
LowOfSolipsismMay 2, 2016 2:56 PM
| Characters who have multiple layers to them, which makes it take awhile to truely understand them. |
My Queens  |
Dawn_Dove said: I was trying to come up with the most concise and inclusive way of answering the question, but I couldn't have said it any better.a related group of emotionally significant ideas that are completely or partly repressed and that cause psychic conflict leading to abnormal mental states or behavior. Relatability is a part of it, but I'm not necessarily going to relate to every complex character. However, if written well, I find that a characters various idiosyncrasies and psychological hangups can tell us something about human behavior, which can make them relatable, but in a less direct way. Ami Kawashima's elitism and Guts' aversion to being touched are good examples of these. The latter is explained by sexual abuse, but it wouldn't make the character more complex unless it had some effect on his personality. And Guts is pretty closed off as a person, at least at first, so in this case it does add to his character. Kawashima has been conditioned to think most people are immature idiots because, well, they are (and modeling in the "adult" world and all that). Call her a bitch or whatever else you want, but I understand why she thinks the way she does, and it's really hard for me to dislike a character I understand. Her facade leads to what are, in my opinion, the best moments of Toradora. |
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| I don't think somebody has to be a basket case to be "complex". To me complex just means there's more to them than what's on the surface. And it's portrayed in a way that's not obnoxiously shoved down our throat (i.e., the character's feelings aren't monologued to us in swaths of clunky terrible expository dialogue, where the character is literally narrating their own life). Bokura ga Ita's cast are what I'd consider complex characters. Especially Yano and Yuri. |
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| Basically a much more realistic character; A real human being has some pros and cons to his or her personality, they have their own way of reacting to situations, have complex thought processes, a set mentality & set of ideologies. If an anime character resembles someone like that then it can be said that they are complex characters.. |
| Character with several layers of emotions to them. They don't act in a linear way, and the more you watch/read the story the more their character unfold and become easier to empathize to. At least that's how I see it. Tbh it doesn't have to be a realistic character. Realism isn't always associated with complexity, nor is it a virtue. notsomacho said: 1) socializes poorly with others 2) attempts to preach deep philosophies of life 3) talks about schrodinger's box Sheldon? |
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| A multifaceted character which can be interpreted in several or many ways, whether by the other characters or the audience. I had a whole lot more to say but I was borderline going on a tangent, so there's my tl;dr. |
| You don't have to be batshit insane. In fact, Yuno from Future Diarrhea is probably one of the least complex characters I have ever seen. There's a reason why people call her a Yandere rather than a good character. |
| A character that has a lot of depth to them, typically from character development, that can be thought about from different angles, and isn't one-dimensional. Basically: not shit characters. |
| every single one of my forum posts is dumb and invalid except for 1, I don't claim them it was a different person it was all fake |
| A character that doesn't feel generic or one-dimensional, given considerate amount of fleshing and background. Basically, a character that goes beyond your first impressions. |
| complex => ± hard to understand On_the_Lam said: As for me., both of the charactes are complex. The degree of complexity is another matter. volt16 said: I agree with the rest of your points but easily relatable doesn't fit the description. Some of the most complex characters in anime are everything but relatable. Of course I have to give you some examples and before people rush to tell me that they indeed related to the following characters I have to set this caveat: "Because you personally related to a character this doesn't make them relatable". As for some characters I consider complex but not easily relatable there is Shiki from KnK, Kaneki Ken and Eto from TG (the manga obviously), Lain from Serial Experiments Lain, Rossiu from TTGL and the list goes on. I would even make a case for Kotominei Kirei from FSN. Shiki is honestly pretty straight forward in terms of character, or so I think at least. I love her character, but she really isn't complex. She has the "idgaf" attitude in her normal personality at first, which then changes from film to film and the murderous nature in her other one, and that's pretty much it. I would even consider Shiki and SHIKI two whole different characters. Kirei is indeed complex though. |
EsperMay 3, 2016 2:05 AM
| This salad is salty favored |
| Complex is when a character isn't made of one dimensional driving force. E.g Kiritsugu is complex, he want to save as much life as possible for the greater good but the more he try to save people the more people he need to kill and in the end he kill far more people than the one he save and what makes it worse is the fact that he didn't realize it until the very end. Kirei is not complex because his only driving force is his obsession toward himself, all he trying to do is to find out what kind of human he is, it's such a simple purpose. Simply put, complex =\= good. |
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| There are no complex characters in anime. They are all two-dimensional. |
| Complexity is when your character isn't good and perfect at everything. |
| “Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth. But the world isn't perfect, and the law is incomplete..." -Alphonse Elric "Then and now, what I protect has never changed!" -Sakata Gintoki I'll take anything like The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. Anything as good as that. |
On_the_Lam said: What is your definition of a complex character? Here's one! |
| Now you're wondering if there's white text in any of my other posts. Over there, I'm everywhere. I know that. |
| Being multi dimensional has nothing to do with complexity. A simple character can be three dimensional.. Saying a complex character is one that isn't one dimensional is not an actual definition.. |
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| Complex: the ones that becomes more confusing the further you are into the series. |
Tentology said: Can be describe by many words It's more like a character that can't be adequately described with a simple label or two. A counter-example is the MC of Boku no Hero - he's a simple character and not a complex one because he can be described fully with just: 'shounen MC with tragic past who perseveres through hard work'. Even just 'shounen MC' more or less gets that same point across. |
| Now you're wondering if there's white text in any of my other posts. Over there, I'm everywhere. I know that. |
| Not a one track personality. Constant scope for growth personality wise. Has flaws and is conscious about them. |
| A character with multiple layers, as someone already said. Whether it's to do with their motives or their overall agenda within the story. But again, what's complex to you might not be complex to someone else. I prefer to say 'well developed character' or something along the lines of that. |
| I'm not really sure how characters can be "complex". Where do we find these characters? If someone is easily understandable then how is he complex? Sure he might bring up a lot of points in a character study but most of the "complex" characters I know can be seen as straightforward when I examine their motives. @On_the_Lam How is Kirei complex? |
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On_the_Lam said: TheDeadApostle said: I'm not really sure how characters can be "complex". Where do we find these characters? If someone is easily understandable then how is he complex? Sure he might bring up a lot of points in a character study but most of the "complex" characters I know can be seen as straightforward when I examine their motives. @On_the_Lam How is Kirei complex? Just as you mentioned yourself, his lack of motivation. That's a fairly simple thing to understand. If I were to describe Kirei I wouldn't call him complex. I'd call him pleasurably distinctive from all other characters. What exactly about him is "hard/tricky to comprehend"? I can't think of anything. I see him more as a lovable bad guy than an actually "complex" character. In relation to certain others that i know of he even falls short. |
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On_the_Lam said: Milk_is_Special said: A character who's body is build more complex than the average body. ...................................................Cringe. Ok, sure they are wrong, but how the hell is that cringe exactly? |
| Characters from a story that delves with it's characters. Have a succinct characteristics, and somewhat uniqueness among others. |
| Complex can be used to describe a variety of characters really. It can be related to his/her personality, ideals, goals which are basically unique in their own way. The most common stereotype being the one with a fake personality. Most of them are unpredictable and yeah most of the time unstable. So basically every other anime antagonist ever created. |
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| A complex character is one that has a unique reaction to everything that happens. They never react ordinarily. Each of their reaction is uniquely theirs and if someone else reacted in the same way, it'd feel off. |
| WEAPONS - My blog, for reviews of music, anime, books, and other things |
| Someone who isn't a cardboard cutout trope, an individual with their own personalized set of beliefs, goals, strengths, weaknesses, internal conflicts, etc. They must have genuine interactions with other characters and towards situations. |
  behind these hills i'm reaching for the heights  |
| A character that has many facets in his/her personality, of which not all may be immediately revealed, and which all influence his/her decisions. Also a character who undergoes change/development reasonable for a "complex" human to go through (Because most humans are simpler than fictional characters--Heh). |
| Be thankful for the wisdom granted to you. |
| A complex character is a character that has a mix of traits that come from both nature and experience ,it is more realistic than non complex character. |
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| A complex character imo 1- More than one dimensional. Lelouch,Light, 2- Unique and complicated personality. Asuka NGE 3- Hard to classify as evil/good. Kiritsugu Emiya If all three together its more complex. |
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