Moments of Glory

These guys we originally did not think of as being particularly hot in any special way, but they grew on us. At first glance, they're fairly ordinary--or so you'd think. Then the character starts to unfold the deeper you get into the anime, till at the end you wonder why you didn't like him to begin with! There's more to these guys than meets the eye. Then there are other guys wouldn't have been considered eliglible for the ranks of the Leading Men at all if it weren't for one shining moment that catapulted their otherwise average looks, skills and personality onto the level of WOW!

That's why this category is called "Moments of Glory"--there was one moment of clarity, a flash of intuition that hit you at some point in the anime, making you realize, "Hey, he isn't half bad..." That one redeeming quality led to the appreciation of these Leading Men. I just couldn't leave them out.

Not Quite Standard Disclaimer:
The images here were gleaned from many different sites--wherever I happened to see a good picture of the Leading Man in question...In some cases I had to chop him out of a bigger picture, brighten the image itself--anything to get HIS solo mug up there. If I'm using your image and you don't like what I've done to it, tell me about it and I'll take it out. Remember: all images here belong solely to their creators.

All guys are plugged in ALPHABETICALLY per page, and in the order I received the suggestions, to avoid the reams of hate-mail I can imagine for inadvertently maligning *your* Leading Man.

You might be wondering: eh? Since when was a shrimp with a jewelled headdress considered desirable? You've obviously never seen Clif in action! He may be--ah, horizontally challenged ^__^ but he's a giant in everything else that counts! Just imagine: he organized the salvation of Cefiro and protected the world while the Knights were off saving it. With all that stress and strain, he still had a heart big enough to put in the human interest aspect of his guardianship.

"Eternally chibi" my friend called him, and I simply HAD to agree. We four sisters were glued to the TV week after week, praying for something to develop--between him and Umi, him and Precia, him and anyone, because of all people, he deserved to be with someone. Alas...

I decided to change the image, since I just found out that in the OAV, there is a grown-up version of Clef...drool baby! He is even cuter (if a bit careworn) and I found it in Kailu Lantis' Rayearth OAV and Info Page.

Another from the CLAMP stables, Eagle is the quintessential leader-person: he sticks to his duty and responsibilities, regardless of personal convictions OR risk. He also doesn't ask anyone to do something he wouldn't do first...In fact, he wants all consequences to hit him and spare his faithful men, despite the effect all this risk-taking had on his health. WAAAAHHHH!

But he's not all grim and duty-bound (look to Lantis for that!) Instead, he's got a playful streak and a sense of humor that has us grinning at each other. His predilection for face-cracking smiles turns him chibi-cute in an instant!

This image courtesy of Mark Neidengerd's A/M Image Archives.

He's one of the more pitiable--and hence likeable--of the seven reincarnations. Of course it helps that he's the spitting image of Shion, who rates as a major babe. = ) Besides, the tragedy of his life (and former life) is just sad enough to earn him brownie points. And really--when you compare him to the others (Jinpachi and Diasuke, particularly) who seem rather dense--well it's understandable why anyone'd prefer Haruhiko.

One pet peeve though--I have only seen the dubbed version, and boy, does it SUCK! I mean really, the voice actors are incredibly bad. This version of PSME stinks bigtime. When I was watching it, I was on the verge of muting the TV because the voices were so badly done. Does anyone have a subbed edition I can borrow? :::sigh:::

Erin says:
          Just wanted to agree about "Mako-chan", although I like him for a pretty unconventional reason. Makoto could have so easily been one of the fifty thousand "boring guys surrounded by tons 'o gorgeous chicks so that the men in the audience can imagine they're in the guy's place" that I see in nearly every anime produced nowadays, but he isn't. (I've met tuna fish sandwiches with more personality then some of those characters..even if they are cute, sometimes.:) There's something so cute and naive about him. Some of my friends say "stupid", and I've gotta say, while the kid gets good grades he can be pretty clueless at times..which is why he's so darn funny and adorable. =) Who else would think to *HUG* a Demon-God to defeat her?:) I think that Makoto's honest "simpleness" is why Ifurita falls in love with him, and that's the only reason I buy this particular "normal guy with drop-dead gorgeous fantasy girl" combination. AND...he's cute ta boot! =)

You'd think a guy in drag couldn't possibly be considered a Leading Man, but the way he pulled it off was one of his strengths--of course, I only picked up on that the second time through the story. Originally, I didn't think much of ANY character in the OAV, except perhaps Fujisawa-sensei. Anyway, Makoto very nearly qualified for the Momma boys, but at the last moment I decided that he fit in better here, considering that it was the very last episode that revised my opinion. I'm just a sucker for stuff like that, I guess.

Yet another CLAMP baby! He had a brief appearance in the first set of MKR, but didn't reappear until the second. In the first, he was possessed by Zagato's evil, only to be "cured" by Hikaru. When we saw him, my sisters and I were placing bets that he would be paired up with Umi--after all, they both wore blue, right? Grrr...nothing! Caldina got him. Must have been those stupid bells...

He was pretty cool though, handy with a sword and sworn to protect the Princess--honor bound and a consummate fighter to the end. I guess we can forgive him for not giving Umi (our fave character in MKR after Clif) the time of day...