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I’ve only watched a handful of anime, so trying to pick a favorite seiyuu (voice actor) is kind of like choosing a favorite singer when you’ve only ever heard five songs. What it comes down to is: whose performance actually made me sit up in my chair take notice?

Nana Mizuki caught my ear when she was the voice of Alois Trancy in Kuroshitsuji II. To be honest, this is the only performance of hers I’ve heard. I enjoyed her acting because she really knows how to expressing suffering and crying. And if you know me well, you know I’m a sucker for tears and crying.

Here’s a good episode to check out her emotiveness:

http://www.animecrazy.net/kuroshitsuji-2-episode-8/

Just to be clear it is the blond boy with blue eyes she is voicing.

To the degree that it is possible to have a crush on an imaginary character who is drawn, I would nominate Xerxes Break from Pandora Hearts as my crush. He’s a trickster figure, wizard, clown, court jester and parasol & cane-wielding girly man all rolled into one. He’s sadomasochistic, cunning, goofy, and wears some seriously stylin’ threads.  You would never guess that his fey exterior would hide such strength and power, or that his obfuscating stupidity would hide a nearly psychic level of intelligence, and that tension puts him high on the scale of smexy.

This is a tough question, because I have really enjoyed all the anime I’ve watched so far, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. In the end I had to go with Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler). Even though it deviates from the manga, it does so in an entertaining way, and becomes its own crazy story with a fairly satisfying ending. 

It’s the show I would recommend to a person just starting out with anime, and best of all, it made me laugh…loudly and often…which is not easy to do as I’m one of those Spock-types.

One of the challenges of writing characters who have names that are not commonly found in your culture is that you don’t usually have a clear idea what those names connote for people. For example, in the United States, certain names bring certain stereotypical images to mind, and when a mangaka uses one of those names for a character and it does not fit, the result can be rather disconcerting.
 

15-year old Oz Vessalius is apparently the “key” to obtaining the Will of Abyss and has already contracted with one of the most powerful and feared chains of the Abyss, the dreaded B-Rabbit. If you haven’t read or seen Pandora Hearts, you have no idea what I just said.

14-year old Miharu Rokujou’s body contains the text of the Shinra Bansho…the most powerful of the ninja forbidden arts. Miharu is trying to fight his destiny with apathy, but that tactic is doomed to failure. He’s got to start caring at some point…and what he eventually learns to care about and why forms the emotional heart of the story of Nabari No Ou.