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To each their own, haha.
Yes, like maybe if Yami no Yuugi had never showed up, Anzu may've began having feelings for Yuugi after a bit more time, maybe when he matured a little, but from the way events progressed, she didn't seem to see him as anything more than a friend until Yami no Yuugi showed up and showed 'a different side of Yuugi.'
Haha, I wish they didn't become 'brother sister' to me, because I did quite like that pairing. XD I don't even know how it happened. Just the more I watched, the more it seemed that way to me. I like a lot of other het pairings though. :3

Yeah, though from the little bits we have seen of Yuugi when he's older, like in Genex, he seems to have matured even more, even though Yami no Yuugi was then gone from him. So I dunno, you're right, we just can't predict how he would've turned out.
I think I see the Jounouchi/Shizuka relationship as a big brother/little sister dynamic, where's Mai and Jounouchi feels more like big sister/little brother. Like I could totally also see Mai as Shizuka's older sister, so I guess I could imagine the three of them as siblings? XD;; Weird, I know.

Like an endless loop of awesome...

This is an edit but it's at the beginning because Holy mother of tl;dr

I'll summarise:
Boring
Not enough personality for me to care
A bit of pandering to distinguish self from Anzu bashers

Edit finished
I think I haven't posted on this one, so even though it's months and months late, I'll chip in now. And bear in mind, my manga is at home and I am not at home, so this won't be very well informed, but I'll try.

I didn't like Anzu back when I was mostly familiar with the dub, but unlike many others, I don't even really have reasons. I think I just joined the fandom and parroted tbh. Then I loved her as backlash against people who hated her just because, and then I stopped caring. She isn't one of my favourite characters, but I don't dislike her. I think she has her place in the group, it's just not a place I'm going to latch on to.

She is bossy, but I quite like that. I think it's because deep down, I'm quite bossy too, so I can identify with that. I respect that she says what she thinks. And though she can overdo it, she is a teenager, and they can be bloody sanctimonious when they want to be, so it makes her more real. (Actually, how does that work in this thing? Do you make allowances for lack of maturity in people of that age group, or do you assume a higher level of maturity because they're swanning off around the world on their own?)

She's not the world's deepest character. Really, she feels like the bare minimum for a female character. She's there, she provides team spirit, she provides love triangles. Anything super original? Not really. But she's okay. Okay, the working jobs to save up thing demonstrates her independence, but that's dropped once we move past the first series.

She might've been more compelling if her role wasn't so often for the sake of other people. Yes she does have her ambition, but it's not integral to the story. What else does she want? Why does she even want what she does? What's her background? I don't feel like I know who this character is. It's like a building with no obvious foundation (and so it topples onto the ground of my interest and... analogy dead). Your personality generally informs how you interact with others, but with Anzu, we don't really know what informs it, save for the stereotypical "She's nice, she's thoughtful, she don't take no crap!" stuff. Hard to explain, so it might make no sense, and it's not a set in stone thing as opposed to a random thought I just halfarsed, but there you go.

I just want her to stop worrying about other people's needs and worry about her own. I know YGO is about friendship, but, come on girl. It doesn't have to be a big dramatic monologue, you can complain about the fridge breaking for all I care, just something beyond "I feel this way about thing that isn't about me," or "I think I want to attach myself to this person". And while people might say that's missing the point, it isn't because if you're not interesting, your relationships definitely aren't.

And the whole love triangle thing... being torn between Mystery Hero Guy! who has a deep voice and cute meek little friend who isn't really your first choice but you're probably going to end up with him anyway ;_; is a pretty universal story, and while the two guys being in the same body is a nice twist, that still doesn't tells us anything about Anzu.

Her role is definitely an important one, and yes she's not the main character, so we don't desperately need to know her in great detail, but it's pretty disappointing in a show with such good characterisation elsewhere.

Btw, I wrote this weeks ago, realised I had reading to do and I'd prat around editing it too much to get anything done if I posted it and forgot about it. So there's a chance I won't know what I've written.

I did! I've spent the past few months going on wacky adventures with my new friend who is a talking penguin. But I'm back now. Hi. How have you been lately?

I agree with that stuff, but it took me being in fandom for a few years before I was that interested in any of the heroes, so it wasn't just Anzu. After all, for all my talk of her blahness, I don't have anything at all to post in the Honda thread. =p Everyone seems to have hated the moralising, but I don't really remember noticing. I think I must've just tuned it out.

Sorry this reply's so late. First I was ill and stuck in bed, and as soon as I was well again, my Internet breaks. So am now sat in the library posting on Gaia, I feel so cool.

I'm glad you're mostly ok then. I would ask for details about which instructors you don't like, but you're not doing the same subject as me, so I wouldn't have a clue who they are. Also, it would be a bit immature I guess. How are you finding the weather? =p

And I got that. I think I was watching what I thought it could be and not what it actually was. Because I'd be like "this stuff is dark and mature and scary!" and yeeeahh...

Anyway, must stop going on and instead go and bash my laptop with a hammer. See you when I see you. ^^

Heeeey, Morgey! Good to see you again. Sorry it took me so long to notice this thread was active again; I've been too busy to check the guild subforums. XD;;

Anyway, just wanna say I probably agree with your assessment of Anzu more than with my own. You seem to always just take the words my mouth is unable to form and put them into meaningful sentences. Yay! So yeah, I totally agree. Anzu just doesn't have enough development, and everything she does is for other people. That's why she's just a like status for me; I do appreciate that she's there and some of the things she does for other characters, but she just lacks the development so many of them do. The whole having an against-the-rules part time job to go to New York and all that other early manga stuff involving her was a great start, but it all just died when the series got an actual plot. I feel like all of the characters had a setback once the series started focusing on Pegasus' island and Duel Monsters, where they just didn't have as much development anymore (we never heard about Honda's nephew or Jounouchi's dad again), but Anzu seemed to get the worst of it. She went from probably third or fourth-main character to waaaaay down the list. I am not fond of the Yuugi/Anzu/Yuugi love triangle though. As you said, too cliche. Not enough actual feelings in it. It all seems to be just teenage crushes, you know?

I was original on the hate Anzu bandwagon too, until I started reading the manga and realized I found her super awesome and sexy in the early volumes. XD After that I took a step back and decided to really focus on my own feelings for her, rather than what the crowd said, and realized I actually liked her... just not a lot.

By the way, have you and JK ended up meeting up yet? =D That would be pretty sweet.

@JK: I'd die in that kind of weather. I literally have the same wardrobe all year 'round; shorts, t-shirt, socks and shoes. When it gets cold enough I put on a trench coat, then take it off when it gets warm enough. I don't have the patience to change my wardrobe for weather. XD

JK: Naughty. =0 -Smack- Except not, because I should be writing dissertation instead of not writing it, so yay hypocrisy.

Hope you enjoy your concert. I had a load of societies I meant to join, and I only ended up going to AngSoc consistently. Because they're scary and don't let you just stop bothering.

It's the wind that gets on my nerves. I've had things go flying off benches. Sucks. But that sounds not fun as well. My wardrobe's pretty slight, but most of my stuff is winter stuff. I hope you're still getting to go trekking despite it.

Thank you. I had to buy an adaptor, but hey, it's working now. I can only focus on one thing at a time, so it's good to not be focusing on that problem anymore.

Kitsune: Hello there! Understandable, busy is the order of the day for me too.

Aww, you're sweet. But your assessment is backed up by actual things, so I like yours better and if you don't agree, I'll fight you.

And I agree with the other stuff you said. Probably if we'd known more about her to begin with, that could have informed her behaviour later on in the series, and then she wouldn't have seemed so generic. The 'scant background but good characterisation' thing was working well until it stopped. It sucks that we can't talk about how it's all because daddy never hugged her like we can ... pretty much everyone else. And yes, I know. =]

She was awesome in the earlier volumes. I don't know why she gets so much hate, she's not terrible or anything. Well, we could probably hazard some guesses as to why she gets hated, lolz.

And no, we haven't. ='[ Silly woman, surely we'd have discussed the weather in person if we had. =p

Gotta run off for a lecture now. Be back in ten minutes when it turns out I got the venue wrong.


JK, Ack, sorry. Caught your next post just as I'm about to run off. This is why I shouldn't spend so long typing. I would very much like to meet up with you, I'm free whenever, so it depends on when you're available. I'll answer you properly when I get back

EDIT: Kk, I'm back, and I think I answered you quite adequately so I'll just leave what I put. Ha.