My principal viewing the past few days has been the second season of Rocky and Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle. I wonder: has anime produced any magnificent idiots who stand comparison with Bill Scott’s immortal trio: Bullwinkle, George and Dudley Do-Right? We’ll probably never see the equal of the first, who is one of three great comic characters of the 20th century. ((The other two are Groucho Marx and Ignatius Reilly.)) But there have been some estimable nitwits in anime, which brings me to my next list.
Outstanding idiots
1. Tamaki Suou (Ouran High School Host Club)
2. Excel Excel (Excel Saga)
3. Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent (Baccano!) (Yeah, that’s two characters, but I think of them as a single unit.)
4. Bantaro Sanbonmatsu (Jubei-chan: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch)
5. Kankuro Nishiyama (Ramen Fighter Miki)
Notes:
• While I haven’t found a Japanese counterpart to Bill Scott, who was a writer and producer as well as a voice actor, ((Scott wrote all the “moose and squirrel” scripts, which episodes demonstrate that good writing can redeem crummy animation.)) Kotono Mitsuishi does have two major nitwits in her resumé, Excel and Usagi Tsukino.
• How many people watch Project A-ko for C-ko? How much Tomo Takino can you stand? It is not easy to create a stupid character who is nevertheless consistently entertaining, let alone sympathetic.
• Osaka is not an idiot. She just thinks very different.
• An idiot can be a ditz, but the terms are not synonyms. Yurika Misumaru and the early versions of Mihoshi Kuramitsu are ditzes of the highest order but not idiots.
Sora and Hajime from Magikano are wonderful idiots, and I think they approach Bullwinkle level. I know that’s amazing for me to claim, but you have to see them to understand why I say that. Harasawa Katsuhiro’s performance as Hajime is a masterpiece.