[Pu the Owl]

That's a really good question Mena...

Having to choose one character from each gender, I'd say Legato Bluesummers and Asuka Langley Sohryu. I think they have some aspects in common, and that's why I've picked the two of them instead of choosing someone else.

Legato is truely a complex and powerful character. I say character, not simply villain, even if that is the role he plays in Trigun. His "epiphanies" are limited to few episodes, but in these episodes you can really see the magnificence of this series. First of all, Legato is a really troubled man. He's not simply a psycologically disturbed individual as many like to think IMO

Spoiler: show

The fact of being human is his greatest trouble, to tell the truth. His struggle is not simply against Vash the Stampede as an enemy, but against the fact Vash shares with Knives a supernatural nature, that he will never be able to achieve. He's not simply forced by Knives to haunt Vash. He's jealous of him for being the object of Knives' attention and love, while he, being human (and for this reason inferior to both Vash and Knives) will never be able to deserve Knives' affection. Legato knows Knives wouldn't save him from destruction because he's human, while he's willing to bring Vash back to his side. For this reason Legato seems to hate Vash so much (from here the common idea he's a mere psycho): because Vash loves the humans and refuses to embrace Knives' views on how mankind must be destroyed because of its imperfection and misery.

I find in this whole Legato-Knives-Vash question a lot of religious symbolism, starting from the fact Legato's name in Latin means "messenger" (messenger is the translation from Greek word anghelos, translated as angel in english) and in fact Legato brings and spreads Knives' message of destruction. He's in the middle, between humans and God (Knives).

In brief, Legato's personality represents a continuous struggle between his ego (his superiority complex) and his nature (his inferiority complex). That's a quite deep and fascinating issue for an anime character...


Asuka somewhat suffers from the same troubles but her situation is easier to understand: she finds herself compelled to always be "perfect", to always be "better than others", and she hides hes uncertainties behind her arrogance. Her experience (her troubled and unhappy childhood) taught her that she has to stand out to receive some kind of attention and love. But the fact she's learnt to appear as a perfect, clever, indipendent young girl is not in the end the ultimate weapon against self-hatred. Whenever she fails, all her perfection disappears, revealing the real Asuka as a weak and fragile human being.

Hope my brief analysis was clear enough