Men of Power

What, exactly, makes an anime guy a "man of power"? These Leading Men are the strongest characters, the fighters extraordinaire, always ready for a fight (to save the universe, or their girl, lucky, lucky!)---but that's not all they do. These guys light up the screen with their unbelievable confidence, strength, determination and, yes, looks. They're what my sister terms "to die for."

If you came in through The Original Rurouni Kenshin Webring below, then please take the time to browse through the other categories of the Leading Men of Anime.

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.

Rose Argent says:
      One of the many kick-ass men from Rurouni Kenshin. He's not a bad guy at heart, really, he just went kind of a little insane for a while there. He is very loyal to his Oni Wa Banshu, and does seem to really care about them. He's an incredible fighter, almost as good as Kenshin. Plus, he's got that tall, dark and dangerous thing going on that I like so much. Aoshi is an all-around sexy guy... all he needs is a set of fangs, and he'd be perfect!

This image was stolen from somewhere in Rose Argent's website. Still haven't seen Ruruoni Kenshin, so I can't add anything--but I want to see it!

Vicki suggested Kamui, and said:
          He is TOTALLY COOL!!!!!!!

He is indeed. A more depressing life I cannot imagine! He certainly puts the "tortured hero" convention through its paces! I've never read the manga (which people tell me makes the movie more palatable) so I didn't really understand X, but I liked it. Poor Kamui, with his whole future doomed, yet determined to keep on. You have to wonder at his ability to deny despair. I really pitied him in the end, even if I didn't like that sister of Fuuma.

We'd been watching Rayearth for a while, and it was fun, good, interesting--that is, until we got to the second "season" and caught sight of Lantis. ta-ching! My sister was in love. CLAMP rules when it comes to guys! Leading Men were crawling out of the woodwork!

Lantis is the quintessential strong, silent type. I'd also like to add: TALL (damned tall!) and emphasize that silent. He's the brooding kind of guy, but at the same time you can see that he genuinely cares about everything happening around Cefiro. The original Tragic Hero...we were biting our nails, praying something would come of the Lantis-Hikaru-Eagle triangle :::sniff, sniff!:::

Helen describes Sanosuke this way:
     ...Kenshin's best friend. He's an ex-gangster that tried to kill Kenshin originally because he knew the Hitokiri Batto-sai had sided with the revolutionaries that betrayed and murdered his friends and his master. Sano became a gangster after that, they were very good people that the Meiji government killed). Anyway, he's real cool, fights mainly with his fists (he had this monster sword called a Zanba-to that Kenshin broke in Sano's second episode -- thankfully he's never replaced the silly thing!), is always broke, but has a really good heart and I doubt you could find a better friend. He's not always too swift on the uptake, though! :)

Helen is also responsible for the image you see...