Tamahome

access: Lion Heart
adopted in Jan. 2007
anime/manga character
in bad need of a facelift

Tamahome is the hero of Fushigi Yuugi (Mysterious Play), a Japanese anime/manga series by Yuu Watase.

Before a certain bean-sized gentleman intruded my world of fandom, Tamahome was my favorite male character in the anime/manga universe. I might have been too young to notice the surreal aspect of his character, but I find it bizarre when people criticize his devotion to Miaka just because the latter isn't whom you'd call a perfect heroine. To be sure, I'm not a big Miaka fan myself, but she must be attractive in some way that Tamahome is willing to travel between two worlds just for her sake.

Tamahome is also the reason I can no longer associate Hikaru Midorikawa's voice with anyone else these days. Talk about voice fetish.

Critic's choice

All tracks are placed in random orders

There are 3 types of soundtracks in Tamahome's private jukebox: a character single sang by his Japanese voice talent, the SMAP single that gave his fanlisting its name, and a group of songs performed by Japanese rock band GLAY.

The first two are self-explanatory, but why GLAY? I usually rely on the mood of a melody and its background arrangements to interpret a song rather than lyrics, and I chose GLAY's works for Tamahome because they make a beautiful presentation of his character: trendy but not gaudy, always faithful to the origin.