Anime Resurrections

[Zaleria]

The Webster dictionary defines resurrection as a rising again from the dead, a coming back into use or notice. Oftentimes, this word is connected with Jesus' resurrection when on the third day, he came back from the dead and showed himself to his disciples. In my opinion, resurrection can also be used when you make a 180 degree turn from your life. I mean, when you turned from a bad sadistic man to a very loving and helpful man. I can cite some anime characters that have undergone the process of "resurrection":

Rurouni Kenshin: He was the most infamous slasher of the Tokugawa era, Kenshin Himura. The X shaped scar on his left cheek was a constant reminder of his dead wife and his decision to start a new life. His scar never faded. He changed his sword into a reversed-edged one. He became a wanderer and dedicated his life to atoning for his sins as a notorious slasher.

Another Rurouni Kenshin: Sanosuke Sagara considered himself bad. He even wore a shirt proclaiming this fact. But when he crossed swords with Kenshin Himura, he began to realize that maybe his way of fighting had been wrong. It took him several tries, and even when he had become friends with Kenshin and the gang, he still managed to go back to the ideal that one ust commit some kind of mass destruction, particularly on the government, just to be able to achieve changes. Fortunately for Sanosuke, Kenshin and his friends are always able to help him up when he is about to fall.

The Juppon Gatana: after the fall of Shishio and his armies, the surviving forces of the Juppon Gatana turned their back on their habit of mass killing and destruction. Some Juppon Gatana members went to other places and started their quiet lives there while the others chose to work in the Japanese army, probably trying to atone for their mistakes.

As all of you can see, I'm a huge fan of Rurouni Kenshin. I have some more in my mind but maybe I'll just post it later. :D what do you guys and gals think? Do you think it is really pssible for men ,for example, ex-convicts, to start a fresh new life and completely turn their bavck on the things that have put them in jail in the first place?
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[Benit149]

I have to admit, that's not a very broad range of anime to describe 'ressurections'. But I digress, since Kenshin is ripe with examples. I have a few examples of my own:

KO BEAST: V-Darn and V-Sion began as villains who fought constantly against the Beasts. By the end, their villainous status didn't change MUCH, but after being kicked out and humiliated by everyone, these two stayed together and experienced the shame. Once the anime is done, you see the two on an abandoned island where they have a child together... actually, you hear the baby crying. Very funny scene. I'm sure that having a baby is enough to humble V-Darn and V-Sion further, thus defining a 'resurrection' for them.

SAILOR MOON: Fisheye is the best example I can think of without the heroines healing the villain or the head baddie betraying them. He managed to figure out Sailor Moon's identity and questioned Ziroconia about the true nature of the Trio after discovering that there was no dream mirror in Tigereye. After that, Fisheye didn't want Usagi's dream mirror to be taken out by Hawkeye, and basically Fisheye was the beginning of the Trio's 'resurrection'.

SONIC X: Shadow began as a vessel carrying out Gerald Robonik's orders to destroy the world, fighting against Sonic numerous times. But on the ARK when it's descending towards Earth, Chris' pleas and Shadow's memories of Maria changed him, for he realized that Maria's wish for love was stronger than Gerald's wish for destruction, as he witnessed this with Sonic helping everyone. Spoiler - Too bad this 'resurrection' is short-lived because, as Sonic fans know, Shadow dies after helping Sonic stop Final Lizard and the ARK.
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"Luca Blight, patron saint of population decrease." -- Benit, MST149

Benit149: First Lady of Addervon, Princess of Slight Fever, defender of the Nameless.

[Exile]

[Zaleria]

To answer PF's question, I wanted to ask both things. Sorry if it is quite confusing. Since Benit149, wants more examples, I'll post more right now...

Cardcaptor Sakura: Yue, the Judge Clow Reed created became a man named Yukito. He was given this chance because the new mistress of the cards (Sakura Kinomoto) had been born and he was needed to decide whether Sakura was worthy of being given the power of the Clow cards and the responsibility of the cards.

Slam Dunk: Coach Anzai was regarded as the "white-haired devil" when he was still coachingfor college basketball. He would drive his players to exhaustion if he thought they deserved it. Most of the time, he thought so....But then one of his best players went against his wishes and entered the National Basketball Associations. There, the player was ostracised and became so depressed that he committed suicide. Coach Anzai didn't relly show how worried he was for the player kid and when he learned about the boy's death, he took it very hard. Although Slam Dunk didn't specify this as the cause of th coach's change in personality, it would surely made a difference. From the white haired devil rose a very gentle coach.

Another Slam Dunk: Hisashi Mitsui(the three pointer of the group) won the MVP for the junior basketball division and led his team to victory. Seconds before that fateful game ended, he had wanted to give up before he met coach anzai who encouraged him not to give up and continue the game until the end. In high school, he declared that he would take the Shohoku High to the Nationals. But unfortunately, he broke his knee during a practice game and this time, he chose to give up. He gave up his dreams and his ambitions because he thought that he would never be able to play basketball ever again. He became a brawler with a deep hatred for basketball and all things related to it or to be specific, all things that would remind him of the game known to all as Basketball. His second chance came when he decided to thrash the new Shohoku basketball team. He met heavy resistance and when he saw coach anzai, the one man who had given him the chance and hope, he broke down and asked to be given another chance to play the game he loved so much. The coach, being the kind man that he is, gave Mitsui another chance and from then on, Mitsui the brawler died and Mitsui the Most valuable player has been resurrected.

Tell me if you want more :wink: ....Should be enough examples for now... :wink:
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[Celes Tilly]

[Dynast]

Interesting topic. Let's see the characters whom I can think of:

Chrno {Chrno Crusade} - First of all, no, this has nothing to do with the Chrono series (so don't ask me about that, please). Chrno is considered one of the most powerful demons in Pandemonium (also known as the demon world), but after he goes beserk and kills 100 of his kin, he becomes a hunted outlaw, or rather known as a 'Sinner'. During this time, he learns to work with humans (Rosette, in this case, and Magdalene) and uses his powers to help Rosette find her brother as well as help destroy the other Sinners who wish to create a new world, regardless of the cost to the human world.

Yagami Raito {Death Note}- Now this one is really interesting. Raito (also known as Light) find a notebook in which if you write someone's name in it, they will die after six minutes and forty seconds in the method that you have specified- or if no method has been given, simply of a heart attack. This notebook is actually possession of a death reaper, Ryuuku, who dropped the notebook so that he may witness how the owner of the Death Note acts (in short, he was bored). Raito tries to 'create a new world' by killing off criminals, but this does not go unnoticed by the police force and he is given the alias 'Kira'/Killer. He is hunted down by a genius detective who goes by the name of 'L', and when he is finally caught in a pinch, he forfeits his ownership of the note, and his memory of the entire events are gone. However, Raito then teams up with L to capture 'Kira' (there is more than one person who has the note in this story). In short, from being the famous criminal-killer (who was also considered a criminal himself), Raito became someone on the side of good- the police force, to be exact.

[Celes Tilly]

[Zaleria]

Oh, sorry, my bad on the Cardcaptor sakura yue part. So how about these then:

He was the most evil magician of the land. He had the charisma, skill and power to dominate the world. His name was Dark Schneider. He was on his way to achieve this goal and yet a simple priest from a small kingdom defeated him and managed to seal him into the body of a young boy. Years later, the small kingdom called Metallicana came under attack and only the power of Dark Scneider can help them.
It could be because the boy's purity rubbed off him or maybe because of the act of being sealed and helpless was just too much for him, Dark Schneider helped the kingdom. He even went so far as to go against his former minions, who were the ones attacking the kingdom, just to achieve his goal of protecting the kingdom he once sought to conquer...

Ran Fujimiya was just your average teenage boy with an average family, with a mother, a father and a younger sister named Aya. All this changed when his parents were murdered and his sister was ran over by a car resulting in her comatose. Ran vowed to seek revenge. He took on his sister's name, joined an assassin group called Weiss Kreuz, and became a totally different person with the codename Abyssinian. He lost his ability to smile, started loving money, and became obsessed with his sole purpose in life, to ind the person who killed his family nd destroyed his life, Reiji Takatori, and kill him. (A 180 degree turn from a good guy to a vengeful bad guy sort of person...)

The Digimon emperor tried to rule the land of digimons through the use of his Balck towers and his digimon minions. Unfortunately for him, he was stopped and defeated by the chosen children. After the event, he changed his life and became friends and ally with the chosen ones.

Hunter X Hunter: No one can really tell what Kurapika was like before his Kuruta tribe was massacred. But judging from how strongly he became obsessed with hunting down all the members of the Spider clan, we can surmise that he has changed a lot from the days when his tribesmen were alive. Although sometimes, we can get a glimpse of what me may be like before the massacre and his big change. He would sometimes laugh, play and generally act like a kid of his age when either of his three companions do something stupid or silly.

whew!... that's all I can think of for now... :wink:
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[Celes Tilly]

[Ashley Riot]

I guess we're talking about resurrection as reform, then? All right, I can do that.

I'm not sure whether or not to call Kenshin's a resurrection. Obviously he bit off more than he could chew as the Battousai, heedless of Hiko's warnings at such a tender age and confident that he could change the world he lived in by killing, confident that he could handle that burden. As it was, he could, but only by drowning himself in his own mistakes. He took sides in a political faction, something completely against the philosophy of Hiten Mitsurugi. He killed many people who were not evil, simply fighting for the other side, or worse, fighting to shield their weak or their loved ones- which identifies totally with the philosophy behind Hiten Mitsurugi. Kenshin also produced a part of himself devoted to killing and it ends up staying with him for the next ten, eleven, twelve years, possibly the rest of his life. With all that in mind, he was going down a dark path, until Tomoe showed him the depth of it; her life and her death brought him to a way he ultimately decided was better than killing endlessly. But despite that, Kenshin was never trying to be bad. The problem with saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" is that it completely limits your perspective on what it means to do good. Kenshin had and has always wanted to help people. At the end of the series he vows to do it for the rest of his life, sakabatou or not.

What I think ends up happening to him is not a resurrection, but an awakening. There's a distinction between the two, and I think it makes itself much clearer in the manga than the OAV, with a scene that the manga has but the OAV does not- where Kenshin is playing with children. People argue all the time that he's schizophrenic, has these two minds warring in him of the wanderer and the assassin- I think they're just two different mindsets. And deep down he's always been the kind and good man that the series shows you more of. The other half is a result of him not knowing how to reconcile that man with the needs of the age, a reconciliation he only reaches after accepting that to honor his vow, he must respect all life, even one as worthless as he may think his is. It took two wonderful women and a circle of great friends to show him that, but he was never "dead," even during that whole escapade with Enishi where he thought *SPOILER* was real. He's a lot stronger than he thinks he is and than most of his enemies give him credit for. That, combined with his utter selflessness, is why he comes out on top.

Weird. My three favorite leads in anime/manga have never had to go through a resurrection...well, not yet, at least.

A character I would say went through one is this one guy in Hajime no Ippo...man, I can't remember his name, I'm really bad with Japanese ones. But anyway, when the series starts out, he's scum. He's an ugly, moronic bully picking on someone weaker than him (Ippo, the series' lead). He derides Ippo's ability and finally crosses the line by insulting Ippo's mother, but even when Ippo fights back he just has his goons come in and rush him. Later, though, after a local boxer named Takamura saves Ippo and recruits him as a boxer, this bully backs off...and as Ippo starts training for fights, he actually shows up to some of them, at first wanting to see Ippo get beat, but gradually being impressed with Ippo's string of victories. It's much later in the series that he finally resurfaces, and you can tell something's different right off the bat- new character model, new eyes, new everything. This is a point where Ippo's mother has collapsed from overwork, and his boxing career is in danger because his mother needs him. And out of everyone who could've stepped up to help, it's this bully who tormented Ippo so ruthlessly earlier in the series. He shows up to help Ippo's mother run the family business so Ippo won't have to quit, and in a very touching scene, he bows and apologizes sincerely for ever hurting Ippo like he did. And afteward, he becomes Ippo's Number-One fan, showing up to every fight, leading the whole audience in cheers, even decking himself out with headbands and fans holding Ippo's name on them. And this guy, at the start, was some throwaway punk torturing the guy who became his best friend. It's a complete turnaround, and something I've never seen happen in a story like that.

Now if I could only remember his name, er...
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"I've been shown a lifetime of oddities in a day." -- Ashley Riot

[Esra]

:? Ok, this thread caught me off-guard. I was expecting it to be about animes that were ended that were then started up again or being redone. Like I've gotten word that a new Trigun series is being made called Trigun Maximum (or something close), and that a new Hellsing OAV is in the making that is based off of the Manga where they're fighting Nazis. Cant Wait.

[Celes Tilly]

Trigun Maximum is part of the manga series. It was orignally called Trigun, but switched to a different serialization company (yes, my wording is that awesome). To avoid copyright problems or whatever, the continuation of the manga was called Trigun Maximum.

You could always hope for a movie, though.
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