Being a non-fan of shounen animes, I don't really focus on its archetypal characters. Well, out of sight, out of mind. In actual fact, other than tsundere and moe there are many archetypal anime characters out there and one of the most prominent ones is GAR.
Actually GAR character is the exact opposite of moe character. Nonetheless both of these characters serve same purpose: to evoke the emotion of the target audience. Moe is created in order evoke the feeling of love and protectiveness towards the characters among men and on the other hand GAR is to inspire the feeling of extreme awe and worship towards the characters among adolescent boys.
What on earth is GAR?
The word GAR is actually created by English-speaking audience. A GAR character usually a male character although, there are cases where female character can be GAR as well. In addition, a GAR exhibits intense masculinity and extreme strength. This is to ensure that the audience admire and worship him.
More often than not, GAR character always appears in shounen animes as well as mangas. Series such as Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, Naruto, Inuyasha, and etc are chock-full with GAR characters. It is seldom to see a GAR character in a seinen series because, GAR characters only appeal to the adolescents. the A good example of a GAR character is none other than Kurosaki Ichigo from anime / manga BLEACH. I believe he is the GARest character to date!
Another prominent GAR character is Edward Elric from FULL METAL ALCHEMIST. Despite is chibi state, Ed has proven himself that he is worthy of being admired and worshiped by the fans and non-fans alike.
However, there are cases where GAR characters are female. Anime such as CLAYMORE exudes GAR theme even though the protagonist is a female: Claire. She is portrayed as a half-breed who is extremely strong and masculine.
Well, I guess that's it! This all I can say about GAR anime. I am not a GAR anime fan so this is just my two cents.
[Note]
In my previous post, I have discussed on moe characters. Based on my reading and observation, I realised that moe characters only exist in seinen animes or mangas. As I can see both CLANNAD and SUZUMIYA HARUHI NO YUUTSU are seinen anime and the existence of moe-fied characters are agreeable. So, does it mean that K-ON! is a seinen too? Or maybe it is NOT a moe anime?
