poll results

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

1. sasuke 22
2. naruto 18
3. itachi 16
4. shikamaru 10
5. sakura 7
6. kakashi & gaara 6
7. deidara & jiraiya 5
8. neji, haku & tenten 4
9. iruka, lee, kankuro & kakuzu 3
10. sai, orochimaru, suigetsu, kiba, kisame & ino 2
11. hinata, genma, anko, zaku, zetsu, yamato, kimimaro, shino, temari, hidan, karin, udon, sasori & kabuto 1

Comments

[ah-anime18.livejournal.com]

Yamato has one?...How sad...
D:

[ultrasushi.livejournal.com]

Darn you, saucecakes! *shakes fist*

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

but it was close! he didnt totally dominate.

[aubreywitch.livejournal.com]

AGREED XD

[zanisa.livejournal.com]

Yay Sasuke! :3

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

you know i used to totally hate sasuke but i was recently persuaded by my friend that he dosnt suck as much i thought he did. so i guess go sasuke! ;3

[ligtness.livejournal.com]

Pedonin got so few votes.

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

sad. :[

[ligtness.livejournal.com]

He's fucking creepy and ruthless, not to mention an ace at manipulating vulnerable teenagers, but that is why he's a good villain. He can get to you.

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

(http://photobucket.com)

[ligtness.livejournal.com]

Go, Oro, go! If you do it right, you can make even regular fangirls squeal at your escapades! Word of advice: The snake thing is SO 1999.

[senior-witch.livejournal.com]

What about a second round, only with those who made it to the top ten, or the top five, or the top three, or only with Naruto and Sasuke?

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

be my guest. i hate counting. im done now. >_>

[senior-witch.livejournal.com]

You could do a regular poll with only three characters. (Hm. I might do it... But I will go on holidays soon.) With Sasuke, Naruto and Itachi, so that those who love dark mysterious morally ambivalent characters will split their votes.

[libraire.livejournal.com]

DAMN SAUCEGAY. 4 points. 4 POINTS!!!!

[sanee-ftw.livejournal.com]

Hooray for 4th place, you lovely Shika-deer! -fondles-

[jewel-song.livejournal.com]

Totally unrelated, but YAY for your Eyeshield 21 icon!
The series doesn't get enough love! :)

♥

[amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com]

Hinata gets only one?

Stupid Sasu-pants. :|

[zamkenobi.livejournal.com]

Hm...Neji deserves more votes. But much love for Sasuke. There's so much hate for him that I actually expected Naruto to win.

[hajhaj.livejournal.com]

wth. Sasuke. B:

[yasahi.livejournal.com]

And the winner is... The Sauce. ¬¬

Really, what a surprise *facepalm*

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

lol i know.

[karehiro.livejournal.com]

This only confirms what I've been suspecting all along - Sasuke's character is the one that causes the most controversy, however due to that, he also has the most devoted/passionate fan-base. This means that because he's such a controversial prominent character, you either have one opinion on him or another...and usually it's a strong one. A "love him or hate him" type of character, with rarely much compromise in the middle. Compared with other non-controversial characters such as Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji, etc., it may not seem as if Sasuke has as many fans since many times people list the aforementioned many times as "among" their favorites (or characters that they like), however that doesn't account for the broad swaths of people who aren't passionate about those characters, or simply have some luke-warm good "feeling"/lack of dislike towards them. These are what you can call "safe" characters.

To take an example, many people list Kakashi or Neji as one of their favorite characters. In fact, Kakashi was my favorite character at the beginning of the series and then became my second favorite in part 1, while Neji became my third favorite in part I after his back-story was explained so I have perspective on this. When all factors are considered however, Neji and Kakashi mean nothing to the story. They haven't made any meaningful contributions to the plot since Part 2 started (with Neji it ended after he was beat by Naruto), they've had no character growth, have shown no character complexity, have made no tough or controversial decisions, have shown no unique or distinct purpose in life, and as a result, they can be basically swapped in by another character with no effect to the plot (Kakashi's been relegated to Naruto trainer so he's already seen himself replaced by the likes of Yamato and Fukasaku while Neji can be replaced by any strong character in a team; i.e: Sai).

Because of this, you can see many people say they "like" those two, however when pressed, many are not able to explain why more than keeping an impression of who the character is as a reason (i.e: I like him cause I've always liked him) or because of some vague reasoning relating to their look, fighting style, attitude, or relation with another character (i.e: people liked the 4th Hokage because of his relation with Naruto). Not to say that there aren't valid reasons to like those characters or to speak as an elitist (since I myself have had Kakashi as my second favorite for a long time and have only recently begun to question why). I say all that because while being non-controversial and generally being "likable" as Kakashi and Neji are and as a consequence, making the list onto many people's favorites, it also has the consequence of not having many people as passionate about those characters or even being indifferent. They can be replaced by another character of the week on their favorites' list since there's always the chance of another character out there who strikes their fancy better for that particular moment.

I've seen people who list Naruto/Kakashi/Jiraiya/Yondaime/Neji as their top favorites change their lists to replacing Neji and Kakashi with someone like Pain and Yamato for example, because of their greater connection to Naruto. I myself have replaced Kakashi and Neji as among my favorites with Sasori, then with Kimimaro and Deidara.

This works to a greater and lesser degree with other characters, not just Kakashi and Neji.

continued

[karehiro.livejournal.com]

~continued~

Sasuke is a completely different situation altogether; he rocks the boat and makes his presence felt. He has a forceful personality, has his own distinct goals and identity separate from other characters, influences the plot in a major way, his character and complexity are at the forefront and among the most developed if not the most developed in the series, has been put in among the worst situations and had to make the most difficult decisions in the series from a character standpoint. Whether in real life or in fiction, the greatest of characters have always inspired the most debate and most controversy, and from this perspective, Sasuke has done well.

This is the reason why Sasuke became #1 in Japan. It was directly after the first Retrieve Sasuke arc in Part 1 and it was also incidentally the first time Sasuke became #1 in Japan (previous to that he was usually #3, or even #4). He used to be a "safe" character like Kakashi or Neji, however due to him realizing his distinctive identity as a character, his fans as a bloc felt more passionately about him being their #1 than other fans did about their favorites. Nothing had really changed to affect how much others like other characters, except that more people had Sasuke as their #1 and thus felt more passionately (even with more disliking him). Others were content with still putting characters like Kakashi, Neji, etc., as their 2nd or 3rd favorites, whereas that wasn't really possible with a character as polarizing as Sasuke. This was reaffirmed when Sasuke won the next character poll again even despite not being in the manga for over a year. Deidara became so popular as to even usurp Naruto, and Sasori beat out someone like Neji, yet a character who hadn't been in the manga for over a year retained #1 at the poll.

In short, you could say that more people may "like" other characters, but no one inspires more feeling in this series than Sasuke, and hence his supremacy in #1 favorite character polls such as this one. It wouldn't be the same however in a poll that would state "who would you prefer more" since it be Sasuke fans versus a coalition of both anti-Sasuke and other character fans.

[wings-on-fire.livejournal.com]

Nicely put;) I bet if there was a poll on 'Most Hated Character', Sasuke would still come out on top!!!

[illeatchu.livejournal.com]

he he :3 youre right!

[bisyanka.livejournal.com]

that was epic