My top 5 favorite (and least favorite) protagonists in anime and manga

These are mine:

1. Leina
2. Paladin
3. Prime Rose
4. Lemnear
5. Maris
6. Youko Asagiri
7. Kahm
8. Naga the Serpent
9. Princess Minerva

Top 5 favorite
Vivy
Frieren
Violet Evergarden
Lain Iwakura
Izumi Konata
Top 5 Least Favorite
Shinji
Eren
Denji
Itadori Yuuji
Tanjiro

@tchitchouan Female leads from classics, huh? Definitely not bad choices. I would like to see your least favorites, though.

My most loved protagonists:

1. Okabe Rintarou (Steins;Gate|Steins;Gate 0)
   
2. Yukihira Soma (Food Wars)
   
3. Simon (TTGL)
   
4. Violet Evergarden (Violet Evergarden)
   
5. Rudeus Greyrat (Mushoku Tensei)
   

My most hated protagonists (certainly more difficult to decide these ones):

1. Kintarou (Golden Boy)
   
2. Mirai Kakehashi (Platinum End)
   
3. Kazuya Kinoshita (Rent a Girlfriend)
   
4. Mob (Mob Psycho)
   
5. Gabimaru (Hell's Paradise)
   

Normally, the protagonist isn't my favourite character for various reasons. But I make an exception for her:

Kanon Shibuya is near perfect. She's like the archetypical fantasy loving nerd girl who gets swept up in this crazy adventure, except in a semi-realistic setting. She seems like a typical shy shoujo protagonist until her actions show she's actually way more capable than she says she is, and her big climactic moment is finally realizing that. She isn't some hyperactive ditz as per the YA anime norm, but is actually smart and perceptive. She's one of the most humble and sincere characters ever. And she's one of the few protagonists to genuinely surprise me and make me re-evaluate my life. Oh, and of course, she's a singer-songwriter. I'm one too.

Runners-up:

2. Nausicaa. Mostly her manga incarnation; her anime incarnation, though still cool, feels more sanitized in comparison.
3. Ran Kotobuki (Super GALS). I should hate her because she's vain and materialistic, but the Gals series mocks her enough times for that to be okay, and despite that, she's loud and outspoken. That's a huge blessing by anime girl standards.
4. Yusei Fudo (Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds). He's hot, and an ideal caring husbando.
5. Edward Falcon from Power Stone. He turns out to be a really nice person when it matters despite being a hothead teenager, and is pretty open and realistic about his emotions especially regarding a certain (albeit predictable) reveal about the villain.

Disliked protagonists:

1. Any harem lead. All these boring ass dudes who a bunch of girls inexplicably fall for are so interchangeable.
2. Hodaka Morishima (Weathering With You). Dooms Tokyo over some girl and acts like an ungrateful brat to those who supported him just because they opposed him going after some girl.
3. Madoka Kaname. Overhyped for someone who's like Charlie Bucket of Chocolate Factory fame and wins by doing nothing.
4. Yuya Sakaki (Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V). Simple-minded idiot who obsesses over smiles regardless of the situation around him, and sucks away gravity from his far more interesting supporting cast.
5. Naruto. Wasn't so bad at first, but Shippuden ruined his character by making him constantly cry for Sasuke like an abused boyfriend and giving him Mary Sue powers to magically cure people of cynicism without any real plan to solve the world's problems. Shippuden Naruto is one of the poster boys for battle shonen's bad reputation.

Most loved protagonist Mizunashi akari from aria the animation

In her eyes, small, seemingly insignificant things can make her happy, all her words and actions make others happy. She also known as " happiness expert "

Enjoy every moment seems easy but in practice it's actually pretty hard.
Example at real life, When I talking , i have a bad habit of forcing what I like without considering others.



Other character that I love
- kiriyama rei
Despite what happens to him at past , he focused to be the best at the shogi ( the only thing that he can do ).

And when he meet someone important later , he always there for that person.

- Emiya shiro
His dream may have been inspired by someone else, but no matter what happened, he didn't abandon it.

It cost his life , his beloved one , and his own happiness. He doubt it once but never leave his dream.

Normally, the protagonist isn't my favourite character for various reasons. But I make an exception for her:

Kanon Shibuya is near perfect. She's like the archetypical fantasy loving nerd girl who gets swept up in this crazy adventure, except in a semi-realistic setting. She seems like a typical shy shoujo protagonist until her actions show she's actually way more capable than she says she is, and her big climactic moment is finally realizing that. She isn't some hyperactive ditz as per the YA anime norm, but is actually smart and perceptive. She's one of the most humble and sincere characters ever. And she's one of the few protagonists to genuinely surprise me and make me re-evaluate my life. Oh, and of course, she's a singer-songwriter. I'm one too.

Runners-up:

2. Nausicaa. Mostly her manga incarnation; her anime incarnation, though still cool, feels more sanitized in comparison.
3. Ran Kotobuki (Super GALS). I should hate her because she's vain and materialistic, but the Gals series mocks her enough times for that to be okay, and despite that, she's loud and outspoken. That's a huge blessing by anime girl standards.
4. Yusei Fudo (Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds). He's hot, and an ideal caring husbando.
5. Edward Falcon from Power Stone. He turns out to be a really nice person when it matters despite being a hothead teenager, and is pretty open and realistic about his emotions especially regarding a certain (albeit predictable) reveal about the villain.

Disliked protagonists:

1. Any harem lead. All these boring ass dudes who a bunch of girls inexplicably fall for are so interchangeable.
2. Hodaka Morishima (Weathering With You). Dooms Tokyo over some girl and acts like an ungrateful brat to those who supported him just because they opposed him going after some girl.
3. Madoka Kaname. Overhyped for someone who's like Charlie Bucket of Chocolate Factory fame and wins by doing nothing.
4. Yuya Sakaki (Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V). Simple-minded idiot who obsesses over smiles regardless of the situation around him, and sucks away gravity from his far more interesting supporting cast.
5. Naruto. Wasn't so bad at first, but Shippuden ruined his character by making him constantly cry for Sasuke like an abused boyfriend and giving him Mary Sue powers to magically cure people of cynicism without any real plan to solve the world's problems. Shippuden Naruto is one of the poster boys for battle shonen's bad reputation.

I love TTGL so much and I do believe Simon's and TTGL's writing are both underrated. The show is pretty simple but it is executed to its utmost. And about Mob, he is a fine kid, it is just that I believe him to be the most boring protagonist ever. I hate Mob Psycho as a whole for various reasons (and my most hated character ever is by far Reigen, but he is not the MC of course) but Mob just bores me to my core.

@Frans001 I can't speak for the latter, but I do really love Akari and Rei for how much they taught me about personal lives overall. I still can't get over how Aria is labeled as a Shounen when, to me, it's more of a Shoujo. That wouldn't matter much, though.

love:
Kurosawa (strongest man kurosawa), Kurosawa (onani master kurosawa), joe yabuki, hanamichi sakuragi and nakoshi susumu

hate:

1. haruhi suzumiya
2. Anna (Makeine)
3. OnizuKa (GTO)
4. Dokuro (dokuro chan)
5. haruko (flcl)

Sayaka Saeki, in her novels, is more worthy of being on this list personally. As much as I love Yuu for her overall characterization and development, and deeply relate to her, Sayaka is just on another level for me. More context found here, here, and here (spoilers, though).