It's not a top five. It's just a five. Five. That's it.
Here's KChasm's list, in no particular order, of five characters he would be interested in RPing as (though it would probably be a bad idea, maybe):
Souji Seta (Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4)
Souji Seta is the "canon" name (going by the manga) of the protagonist of Persona 4. With his parents traveling often because of their job, Souji's more than used to picking up and losing contact with the few friends he's managed to make--something that's made it difficult for him to grow close to people at all. When his parents send him to a lonely little town called Inaba to live with his Uncle Doujima over the next school year, Souji knows that this'll be no different. And it isn't, really, except for the serial murders.
But really, murders? That sort of stuff's none of his business. He's better off leaving that to his police officer uncle and sticking to schoolwork. And so Souji continues with the beginning of his year, already anticipating his departure--
--up to the point when he falls into the television set and discovered some sort of alternate reality on the other side. It's filled with monsters, but that's alright, because it seems that Souji's somehow suddenly developed magical powers that involve calling on something called a Persona to help him fight said monsters.
And by the way, apparently this alternate magicland is what the murderers using to carry out his nefarious deeds, which makes the down-to-earth police utterly useless. They haven't got magic Persona powers, after all. Ultimately, it's up to Souji to confront the darkness on the other side of the screen and put evil to rest! Or something.
Pros: He's pretty quiet and emotionally distant. A man of few words. Which means that, as an RPer, I'd be typing few words, and that appeals to my laziness.
Cons: A consequence of being a man of few words is that those few words count all the more. Could I handle that pressure? Probably. But I'd also probably mess up once or twice.
Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs (Airplane!, Airplane II: The Sequel)
You know, I originally thought this was two distinct characters--Johnny in the first movie and Jacobs in the second, just played by the same actor--but Wikipedia says the character's full name is "Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs", and I trust Wikipedia. Wikipedia's completely infallible. I know this because I read it on Wikipedia.
The first line Johnny gets in the Airplane! is rather short. As in two words short. Chicago control tower supervisor Steve McCroskey is tossing orders left and right to the workers underneath him. Casually, a balding, dopey-looking man walks through the nearby door. McCroskey turns towards him:
"How 'bout some coffee, Johnny?"
And Johnny smiles, points his finger into the air, and responds in his high-pitched, cheerful voice:
"No thanks~!"
Johnny's sheer...well, Johnny-ness quickly becomes a much-enjoyed staple of the two Airplane! movies. What else can I say, really? The guy's wacky, but not in a random way. There is method to his madness. Or maybe there isn't. I don't know.
Pros: "And Leon's getting la-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-arger!"
Cons: Let's face it--he's a one-trick pony with a nonexistent personality, as far as being an actual character is concerned. And do you honestly think you could write more than three lines for his character history?
Walter Mitty (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
Say a prayer for poor Mr. Mitty. Meek, mild-mannered Mr. Mitty.
Who is Walter Mitty? Absolutely nobody, that's who. Walter Mitty is the man you see at the side of the hallway, the man who has inadvertently screwed up and who is now waist-deep in his own mistakes. Perhaps you ignore him. Perhaps you chuckle at him. Either way, you immediately forget his face...and Walter Mitty knows.
If he lived the life of a thriller antagonist, Walter Mitty would remember. He would remember every wrong done to him, and he would bear each one like a cross. And then, one day, the strain would become just a little too much--and then--and then--
But Walter Mitty doesn't live in a thriller. He lives in Real Life, and in Real Life this sort of behavior is to be expected. So he doesn't mind, really. And besides, he'd rather be the heroic protagonist. You pass him covered in oil and trying futilely to fit a spare tire, and Walter Mitty sees--and it's okay, because Walter Mitty can pretend, just for a moment, that this is not a car at all, but a bomb. And he is not Walter Mitty, Nobody, but Walter Mitty of the OCD, and he must defuse this bomb, quickly, quickly, because even if they are evacuating the building they will surely not be able to get out in time--it's all hanging on you, Mitty--it's all hanging on you--and his fingers work nimbly, screwdriver turning in his hand as the numbers tick down--tick--tick--tick--tick--
And then somebody interrupts and it is over, and Walter Mitty is Nobody again, back to his clumsy hands and his suffocating marriage and his dead-end life.
Pros: He's pretty quiet. Not Souji quiet, but pretty quiet. As in--he tends to let most things roll over him. And yet, underneath the surface, there's a terribly complicated man...
Cons: ...who might be an absolute pain to RP. Also, how do you RP daydreams?
Fumio Kirisaki (Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo)
Fumio Kirisaki is plain. That's an accurate word to use to describe her: plain.
She's one-quarter American--but contrary to what you might expect from a Japanese manga character, you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her (her hair is black, and she's just about the shortest student at school).
She doesn't particularly stand out in class, either, though she's often caught sneaking a light novel in front of her textbook.
But it's not like she's lonely or anything. She's got her best friend Kaoruko, a tall, eccentric girl who was her comrade even in a past life (or so she says, anyway). More importantly, she's got Takumi, her boyfriend, whom she loves.
A lot.
A lot a lot a lot.
So when a mysterious transfer student suddenly appears and effortlessly wins over the hearts and minds of the student body--
And when this mysterious transfer student steals Takumi away from Fumio and turns even Kaoruko against her--
Fumio breaks down, in more ways than one.
Fumio Kirisaki is plain, terribly plain. That's already been acknowledged. But--her grandfather was from Texas, and he took great care to teach her the chainsaw-based martial arts developed by the Confederate foresters that lived generations before him.
And now, Fumio's going to be able to put his lessons to good use.
Pros: Once she snaps, she's basically the Terminator, only with a chainsaw. That's awesome.
Cons: She's only interesting once she snaps--only displaying yandere traits after her boyfriend is taken. Without Takumi as a character crutch, she's almost exactly as plain as she looks.
Maki (Arcana Soul)
Bluntness is a quality I admire, so I'm going to be blunt, okay?
Arcana Soul isn't a very well-drawn manga.
Or well-written, either.
But for some reason, I had fun reading it. I'm not sure why. There's no accounting for taste, I suppose.
Anyway, the story: a mysterious but accurate bomb warning sends detectives Murakami and Nakabayashi to a mental clinic, where they confront the doctor who made the call. Apparently, though, the warning didn't originate from the doctor, but from a nameless (literally) patient who's managed to convince the doctor that she can see spirits.
The spirits of the children who died in previous explosions came to tell her, you see.
Amazingly, it seems that the girl isn't completely batty--the moment Murakami steps through the door, she very straightforwardly rattles off his name and suspicions, claiming that "the people behind him" told her.
With the help of this girl, Murakami is able to solve the case. It's pretty easy, actually. First she leads them--literally leads them--to the location of the next bomb. And then she leads them to the guy who set the bombs ("Instead of finding out when the explosion is, wouldn't it be better to just find the person behind it directly?" "Ehh? You know where he is?" "Walk this way." "This is re...really convenient...").
And so, Murakami ends up befriending this girl--and buying her clothes, too, because traipsing about the place in clinic duds is kind of weird, right? The name of the store he gets her clothes from is "Maki", and thus, the girl is affectionately nicknamed "Maki" as well.
Pros: I really like characters that are calm and straightforwards, even in the strangest of situations. Add that to her abilities, and...
Cons: Speaking of her abilities, she's pretty much a short hop away from being one hundred percent Mary Sue. I mean, she can see ghosts, she can get other people to see these ghosts temporarily, she can follow her ghost friends across the city and into a police station even when she's supposed to be locked up tighter than a headband--it's only the fact that she's a little strange in the head that saves her.
Souji Seta (Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4)
Souji Seta is the "canon" name (going by the manga) of the protagonist of Persona 4. With his parents traveling often because of their job, Souji's more than used to picking up and losing contact with the few friends he's managed to make--something that's made it difficult for him to grow close to people at all. When his parents send him to a lonely little town called Inaba to live with his Uncle Doujima over the next school year, Souji knows that this'll be no different. And it isn't, really, except for the serial murders.
But really, murders? That sort of stuff's none of his business. He's better off leaving that to his police officer uncle and sticking to schoolwork. And so Souji continues with the beginning of his year, already anticipating his departure--
--up to the point when he falls into the television set and discovered some sort of alternate reality on the other side. It's filled with monsters, but that's alright, because it seems that Souji's somehow suddenly developed magical powers that involve calling on something called a Persona to help him fight said monsters.
And by the way, apparently this alternate magicland is what the murderers using to carry out his nefarious deeds, which makes the down-to-earth police utterly useless. They haven't got magic Persona powers, after all. Ultimately, it's up to Souji to confront the darkness on the other side of the screen and put evil to rest! Or something.
Pros: He's pretty quiet and emotionally distant. A man of few words. Which means that, as an RPer, I'd be typing few words, and that appeals to my laziness.
Cons: A consequence of being a man of few words is that those few words count all the more. Could I handle that pressure? Probably. But I'd also probably mess up once or twice.
Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs (Airplane!, Airplane II: The Sequel)
You know, I originally thought this was two distinct characters--Johnny in the first movie and Jacobs in the second, just played by the same actor--but Wikipedia says the character's full name is "Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs", and I trust Wikipedia. Wikipedia's completely infallible. I know this because I read it on Wikipedia.
The first line Johnny gets in the Airplane! is rather short. As in two words short. Chicago control tower supervisor Steve McCroskey is tossing orders left and right to the workers underneath him. Casually, a balding, dopey-looking man walks through the nearby door. McCroskey turns towards him:
"How 'bout some coffee, Johnny?"
And Johnny smiles, points his finger into the air, and responds in his high-pitched, cheerful voice:
"No thanks~!"
Johnny's sheer...well, Johnny-ness quickly becomes a much-enjoyed staple of the two Airplane! movies. What else can I say, really? The guy's wacky, but not in a random way. There is method to his madness. Or maybe there isn't. I don't know.
Pros: "And Leon's getting la-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-arger!"
Cons: Let's face it--he's a one-trick pony with a nonexistent personality, as far as being an actual character is concerned. And do you honestly think you could write more than three lines for his character history?
Walter Mitty (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
Say a prayer for poor Mr. Mitty. Meek, mild-mannered Mr. Mitty.
Who is Walter Mitty? Absolutely nobody, that's who. Walter Mitty is the man you see at the side of the hallway, the man who has inadvertently screwed up and who is now waist-deep in his own mistakes. Perhaps you ignore him. Perhaps you chuckle at him. Either way, you immediately forget his face...and Walter Mitty knows.
If he lived the life of a thriller antagonist, Walter Mitty would remember. He would remember every wrong done to him, and he would bear each one like a cross. And then, one day, the strain would become just a little too much--and then--and then--
But Walter Mitty doesn't live in a thriller. He lives in Real Life, and in Real Life this sort of behavior is to be expected. So he doesn't mind, really. And besides, he'd rather be the heroic protagonist. You pass him covered in oil and trying futilely to fit a spare tire, and Walter Mitty sees--and it's okay, because Walter Mitty can pretend, just for a moment, that this is not a car at all, but a bomb. And he is not Walter Mitty, Nobody, but Walter Mitty of the OCD, and he must defuse this bomb, quickly, quickly, because even if they are evacuating the building they will surely not be able to get out in time--it's all hanging on you, Mitty--it's all hanging on you--and his fingers work nimbly, screwdriver turning in his hand as the numbers tick down--tick--tick--tick--tick--
And then somebody interrupts and it is over, and Walter Mitty is Nobody again, back to his clumsy hands and his suffocating marriage and his dead-end life.
Pros: He's pretty quiet. Not Souji quiet, but pretty quiet. As in--he tends to let most things roll over him. And yet, underneath the surface, there's a terribly complicated man...
Cons: ...who might be an absolute pain to RP. Also, how do you RP daydreams?
Fumio Kirisaki (Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo)
Fumio Kirisaki is plain. That's an accurate word to use to describe her: plain.
She's one-quarter American--but contrary to what you might expect from a Japanese manga character, you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her (her hair is black, and she's just about the shortest student at school).
She doesn't particularly stand out in class, either, though she's often caught sneaking a light novel in front of her textbook.
But it's not like she's lonely or anything. She's got her best friend Kaoruko, a tall, eccentric girl who was her comrade even in a past life (or so she says, anyway). More importantly, she's got Takumi, her boyfriend, whom she loves.
A lot.
A lot a lot a lot.
So when a mysterious transfer student suddenly appears and effortlessly wins over the hearts and minds of the student body--
And when this mysterious transfer student steals Takumi away from Fumio and turns even Kaoruko against her--
Fumio breaks down, in more ways than one.
Fumio Kirisaki is plain, terribly plain. That's already been acknowledged. But--her grandfather was from Texas, and he took great care to teach her the chainsaw-based martial arts developed by the Confederate foresters that lived generations before him.
And now, Fumio's going to be able to put his lessons to good use.
Pros: Once she snaps, she's basically the Terminator, only with a chainsaw. That's awesome.
Cons: She's only interesting once she snaps--only displaying yandere traits after her boyfriend is taken. Without Takumi as a character crutch, she's almost exactly as plain as she looks.
Maki (Arcana Soul)
Bluntness is a quality I admire, so I'm going to be blunt, okay?
Arcana Soul isn't a very well-drawn manga.
Or well-written, either.
But for some reason, I had fun reading it. I'm not sure why. There's no accounting for taste, I suppose.
Anyway, the story: a mysterious but accurate bomb warning sends detectives Murakami and Nakabayashi to a mental clinic, where they confront the doctor who made the call. Apparently, though, the warning didn't originate from the doctor, but from a nameless (literally) patient who's managed to convince the doctor that she can see spirits.
The spirits of the children who died in previous explosions came to tell her, you see.
Amazingly, it seems that the girl isn't completely batty--the moment Murakami steps through the door, she very straightforwardly rattles off his name and suspicions, claiming that "the people behind him" told her.
With the help of this girl, Murakami is able to solve the case. It's pretty easy, actually. First she leads them--literally leads them--to the location of the next bomb. And then she leads them to the guy who set the bombs ("Instead of finding out when the explosion is, wouldn't it be better to just find the person behind it directly?" "Ehh? You know where he is?" "Walk this way." "This is re...really convenient...").
And so, Murakami ends up befriending this girl--and buying her clothes, too, because traipsing about the place in clinic duds is kind of weird, right? The name of the store he gets her clothes from is "Maki", and thus, the girl is affectionately nicknamed "Maki" as well.
Pros: I really like characters that are calm and straightforwards, even in the strangest of situations. Add that to her abilities, and...
Cons: Speaking of her abilities, she's pretty much a short hop away from being one hundred percent Mary Sue. I mean, she can see ghosts, she can get other people to see these ghosts temporarily, she can follow her ghost friends across the city and into a police station even when she's supposed to be locked up tighter than a headband--it's only the fact that she's a little strange in the head that saves her.