The Archetypal: How my characters represent anime archetypes

For long time viewers, it's been a while since I wrote anything. Newbies, on the other hand, welcome to the club. This is my blog for my novel and other stuff.

Anyways, I've been taking a while at finishing Noel's sidestory. Stuff unrelated to the novel's progress had impeded me some. So, to compensate, I'll make a post about the characters that represent the many archetypes of anime. Throughout my novel, the main characters--not the characters in the chapters that are based off of existing anime and manga or characters that only last a short while--were designed to represent anime's many archetypes. In no specific order:

Kirk - the hero; he's just a normal who gets caught in the middle of everything, and is forced to take part in a war that's been going on for ages. Usually adept in whatever skills he starts out with, getting more experience with time.

Tigercat - the sidekick; younger in age, but is friends with the hero. Sticks with him no matter what happens.

Miyu Kusanagi - the sexy tough gal; wears skin (or in Miyu's case, fur) revealing outfits akin to that of Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagen or Jura Basil Elden from Vandread, and is also very brave and willing to fight no matter what.

B.W. - the wise man; he knows a lot about the world around him, as well as how things work or why things happen the way they do.

Noel - the love interest and unique; she serves as the character the hero falls in love with--and vice versa--but is also special in that she comes with special powers that none of the other characters possess. Tragically, she's also the character with the troubled past.

Devil's Mistress - the classic villain/big bad; is the center of the hero's troubles as well as the world he gets caught in. She does anything in her power to defeat Kirk and his friends, even manipulating the world around them.

Mother Angel - the leader of an ancient group of beings; she is compassionate towards her people, but is also serious. Also willing to fight when she needs be.

Venus - the demigoddess warrior; her beauty is second to none, but is also very deadly in combat. Her heat-based attacks and the Room of Angel are the ultimate in her prowess; she also stands out as being immune to normal weapons.

Mars - the demigod warrior; like Venus, he is very powerful, but wields immense strength as opposed to heat attacks. Is also immune to normal weapons.

So there, those are the archetypes of the characters in my first novel.

Side story progress, and a dream anime cast list

Well, just want the world to know that the second side story chapter is almost completed. Now it's about the efforts of B.W. and Miyu Kusanagi as they momentarily split up from Kirk and Tigercat and take on the Germanians' training exercise while encountering two of the Germanian Empire's four elite IllusionCore pilots.

By the way, I've might have mentioned in an earlier blog post that this novel would feature an ambitious audio novel unique in that an industry veteran voice actor would voice it. However, a full cast is not practical for audiobooks; I'd only hire one industry veteran VA for such a project. I would, however, like to see my work turned into an anime film. So, here's my dream cast for this dream anime.

Personally, I want Cristina Valenzuela to do audiobook for this work, while Karen Strassman would do the sequel. Plans for a third and episode zero novel are still in the works.


Johnny Yong Bosch - Kirk/KFBAT/Kevin Redbeacon
(JYB is the classic hero/anti-hero type, which these characters are; he even prefers this character!)

Wendee Lee - Eloyse Floyd/Tigercat/Vulpecula/Canus Major/Canus Minor/Lyra/Cassiopeia
(Wendee Lee is a superb multirole voice artist, known for characters ranging from high school girls to young boys and older tough gal types. She would be suited for all of these characters as a result.)

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn - Melissa Williamson/Miyu Kusanagi/Venus/Anna Germania/Captain Atsuko Kurasagi
(Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is good with the sexy, tough as nails heroine characters.)

Cristina Valenzuela (or Cristina Vee, whichever she would prefer) - Noel/Vambrace/Suzumi Himoto
(Cristina Vee is good with young girls, but also great for the heroine characters, too. The characters that she would voice represent her in a variety of ways, but perhaps the most important aspect of Noel would be that she would be speaking Japanese. This is actually a part of the novel's theme and story, which will not be covered in this blog post. Cristina Vee can speak Japanese very fluently, and would be best suited for these characters.)

Richard Epcar - B.W./Mars/Pinnace
(Richard Epcar is good with the wise but strong characters, but perhaps the biggest trait is that he has a sort of relation with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in terms of career history. Basically, Miyu Kusanagi and B.W. are friends in my novel, Batou and Major Motoko Kusanagi are friends in Ghost in the Shell, and Richard Epcar and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn are friends in real life. It's a theme I'm following in this novel.)

Michelle Ruff - Georgette Germania/Mother Angel
(Michelle Ruff, like Wendee Lee, is a multirole type, but somewhat more condensed. She's most effective as a sort of commanding figure, though, so the roles of Georgette Germania and Mother Angel would go to her.)

Stephanie Sheh - Lepus/Devil's Mistress
(Stephanie is good with voicing young women, even though Lepus is more than just a young woman. Also, I wanted her to voice a villainess, so as to break out of her usual mold. [This role is a work in progress, as I want to draw a picture of, and have other female VAs to voice Devil's Mistress before I decide which one works best])

Lauren Landa - Zenaiva
(Lauren is good as the fanservice character, as well as young girls and boys, but this character would be the troubled sister who is forced to work for an evil army.)

Cindy Robinson - C.R./Circinus
(Cindy Robinson can not only voice young boys effectively (she's also the new official voice of Betty Boop), but also use a more natural voice for the more serious characters. That, and her Ordinance Quail character matches her initials.)

Kate Higgins - C.H./Hydra
(Kate recently got promoted to multirole voice artist status, but for the anime, she would be playing this Ordinance Quail character due to her initials matching Kate's.)

Yuri Lowenthal - Suzuki Roberts/Devil's Egotism/Crux
(Yuri is good with a variety of male characters, from Suzuki/Suzaku's Knight Templar style, to Devil's Egotism's maniacal and arrogant villain personality, and Crux's noble and heroic sense of humility. Also, Devil's Egotism and Crux can speak Japanese in addition to English, which is an important part of the novel's theme and story since Noel has some past with these devil characters [they are part of an organization called the Diablo's Darkness, by the way]. Yuri Lowenthal can speak Japanese fluently, which makes him best suited to these characters.)

Tara Platt - Lacerta
(Tara Platt is on par with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's warrior characters, but Tara has some compassion and kindness in her as well. Also, Crux and Lacerta are both husband and wife in my novel, just as Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt are married in real life. Yes, voice actor relations and parallels to fictional characters are a theme in this novel.)

Christopher Sabat - Feral Wolf
(Christopher is good with both the hammy and the aggressive villain types, but I wanted to match Feral Wolf's voice and personality with that of Wild Dog from Namco's Time Crisis series. The main goal is to try and emulate the old voice actor of Wild Dog in Time Crisis one and two, which I find Christopher Sabat to be best suited for the role.)

Crispin Freeman - McDougal Gottfried/Tokuso/Devil's Psycho/Pluto
(Crispin is good with a variety of male characters, but he is suited for Devil's Psycho because of his history of playing as psychotic characters like Albedo Piazzolla from Namco's Xenosaga and Alucard from Hellsing. He's also good for Pluto, a dark-themed hero, as he's played similar characters, too.)

Karen Strassman - Karen Strassfield/Devil's Seduction
(Karen, while achieving the status of multirole, would be voicing both an Ordinance Quail character and Devil's Seduction, since Karen is good with the seductive villainess voice. That, and her OQ character shares both her real name and a pen name.)

Steve Blum - Roger Smith/ORO
(While Steve Blum is a supreme special multirole, his character appearances are somewhat limited to that of a reporter based on a character from Big O and a ninja warrior like that of Time Crisis' MOZ but spelled out with the first three letters of Orochimaru from Naruto.)

Liam O'Brien - Sheruto Garra
(Liam can handle a variety of male characters, but I chose him to emulate the old voice of Sherudo Garo from Time Crisis. Also, the character design is a mixture of Sherudo, Gaara from Naruto and Liam O'Brien himself, which makes him suitable for this role.)

Sam Riegel - Samuel
(While having only a minor part, Sam Riegel would be best suited for Samuel due to his natural voice.)

John Kassir - Devil's Perversion
(He's mostly noted for Raymundo Rocket from Rocket Power and the crypt keeper from Tales from the Crypt and Tales from the Crypt Keeper, but his voice as Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance fits perfectly as Devil's Perversion)

Charles Forrest "Spike" Spencer - Devil's Maniac
(While Spike Spencer can voice a variety of male characters, I chose him for Devil's Maniac because of how the character is like that of Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion but has the personality of Arakune from BlazBlue. Spike really wants to play the psychotic characters, kind of like Mark Hamill and Joker from Batman.)

Patrick Seitz - Patrick Seitz
(He's Patrick Setiz. He's a voice actor. He's getting a small cameo in this novel. Need I say more?)

Rebecca Forstadt - Kiva Redbeacon
(Rebecca can voice sweet young girls, but is chosen for this role for reference reasons.)

Michael McConnohie - Michael Germania
(Michael can voice the in-charge and hammy characters greatly, making him a fit for Michael Germania.)

Julie Ann Taylor - Julie Samford
(This character role is minor, but it fits because Julie Ann Taylor is good with the compassionate women.)

Brina Palencia - Corona Borealis
(Brina is good with the young and older women, but would be suited for this role due to the character resembling Rei Ayanami, another NGE character. Of course, the big difference between Rei and C. Borealis would be that Brina would be using her natural voice.)

Tiffany Lynn Grant - Corona Austrina/Devil's Doppelganger
(Tiffany is basically Asuka Langley Soryu incarnate, which is what Corona Austrina is designed upon. Same thing with Devil's Doppelganger, but there's a secret involved with this character. Also, Tiffany would be using a natural voice and a deeper, more sultry voice for both C. Austrina and Devil's Doppelganger respectively.)

Kirk Thornton - Cygnus
(He can voice a variety of male characters, both lone wolf and wise, but in this case Kirk's character is in line with Gabumon from Digimon, voice wise, but design wise he's a mix of Bunshichi Tawara from Tenjho Tenge and Weregarurumon from Digimon.)

As you can see, the cast here consists of veteran voice actors that have experience in anime in one way or another, but some of the cast members don't get as big of a role as others. Nonetheless, as I have said before, this would be the perfect cast if this were made into an anime.