Bishounen is the Japanese word for pretty boys or beautiful boys. It is not a derogatory term by any means. We mostly hear it to describe the beautiful boys of anime, because most of them are beautiful. Almost too beautiful to be men and way too beautiful to be real. But God they make for some heavenly eye candy and dreams that make you never want to wake up.

You can see some of the one's that I like on the series pages and on the adoption page.

Okay if I stop here this will be one of the smallest webpages in history. So instead of making another page to talk about the different kind of Bishounen men you can find in Anime I think I'll just do it right here.

To me the Anime bishounen are broken up into about 5 groups. The reasons for these splits are mainly the attitude of the particular bishounen and whether they are: a good guy, a bad guy or they just can't make up their minds. Actually you tend to see that a lot in Anime.

The first category of the bishounen is the Hero. The strong and normally silent type. They may even seem cold, unfeeling and rude the first, oh, 5 or 10 times you meet them. ~LOL~ But then suddenly that little chink in their armor shows after 'they've' had time to get to know 'you'. You'll never get the whole emotional gushing 'I love the world' spiel from them. But the caring and the protectiveness for the ones they love begins to show and you start to get glimpses of the pain that made them seem so distant. These are the kind most of us would sigh over, chase and they'd barely give us a second glance unless they had already fallen head over heels in love with us.

Aya from Weiß Kreuz is one of these. Now that I've finally gotten to see the episodes for this anime, I can do this guy so much more justice. He is very controlled, almost cold seeming at times, then all of a sudden he'll unbend to comfort or support some innocent they are trying to protect. He rarely smiles and I don't think he laughs once through the whole series. His entire life revolves around revenge for the wrongs done to his family. Though he cares about his teammates it doesn't always show and at one point he dumps them completely when he feels that they are actually holding him back from his revenge. Then turns around and risks his life to save them when they are caught and about to die in a trap. He is the strength in their group and once he undertakes a mission his resolve never sways.

Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing is another. The perfect soldier, he fights on through pain never questioning orders or his missions. Right down to calmly self detonating himself in his Gundam. But he does it to save the colonies he's fighting for and keep his Gundam from the hands of the enemy. When he was first approaching earth from outerspace he almost shot down a civilian shuttle because it was in his way. But later protects and saves a girl he respects even though he knows he should kill her himself. His comment is 'What is wrong with me!' Later he guides and comforts Quatre through a crisis of faith after the other boy's Father is basically murdered by the people the Gundams are trying to protect. But the only time he cracks a smile or laughs is when he has completed a mission successfully and the one time he dupes Duo by stealing parts off of Deathscythe to repair his own.

D from Vampire Hunter D is another of those that falls into this category. Silent and withdrawn, never staying in one place for too long. He travels the world in search of Vampires to slay. But behind the cold exterior hides a man who is lonely and longs for a comfort he can't trust himself to take. He can't trust himself because he is the offspring of a mating between a village girl and 'the' Count Dracula. He constantly has to fight the cravings of his vampire side and so the control he forces on himself shows forth as coldness towards others.

Dante would have been one of these in Bast's series when he first arrived in America. In mine as well, but you can see how distance from the initial pain or hurt has dulled and he has begun to emerge from his shell.

The second type of Bishounen that you'll run into in anime, again a beautiful boy. Is the free spirit, often times a ladies man, the one who will get on the hero's nerves the fastest. Often times they talk almost constantly. We would swarm around him like bees to honey, knowing eventually he'd probably get to us, but that it wouldn't last long. heehee Think Blair ladies.

Yohji from Weiß is definitely the free spirit in that anime. He flirts nonstop and teases his teammates especially Aya and Omi. He does seem to have a sixth sense about just how far he can go with Aya, but really makes Omi squirm. Even when he's serious he's still trying to be lighthearted for the others. But he uses his happy go lucky mask to hide the inner pain and despair that is eating away at him. He is rarely still even if it's just the constant smoking while staring out a window. He doesn't talk quite as much as our next character in this category but could easily hold his own in contest of talkers. ~LOL~

Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing is another of these. He talks almost nonstop to point of driving Heero stir crazy at times when they aren't on missions. He teases, he has fun and pretends not to understand why his silent and sombre friend, Heero, won't as he courageously ignores the cold stares and outright glares in an attempt to draw the other boy out. He feels deeply and sometimes has to struggle with despair, but he never quite succumbs to it.

I think Enjoji from Kizuna is another one like this. He's a ladies man, often comes home drunk to his roommate and lover Ranmaru looking for a little night nookie. A free spirit on the outside, but on the inside constantly battling the pain and guilt he feels. Guilt over the fact that a debilitating injury to his lover was caused when an attack was made on 'his' life. Again if you need him and he's around he'll do what ever he has to to help as shown when he helped his half brother that he barely knows to fight off a group of thugs that have come to kill or at least badly injure him.

I think the third type of Bishounen found in Anime tends to get a bum wrap. This particular person gets nailed with everything from being a cold fish to being naive. The problem is that they are neither. Normally this is the group member who holds honor and justice and strength of character over all else. The problem is that a lot of the time they are so wrapped up in whether they and others are actually living up to these standards that they get lost in them. These are the bishounen that we would feel perfectly safe with no matter where we were or what we were doing. And half the time we'd want to slug them and the other half we'd want to hug them. This is probably where Jim Ellison would fit the best.

Ken Hidaka of Weiß Kreuz could fit in this category or he could fit in my fifth category also which is interesting since I tend to see that happen more often in groups of five. Now that I've seen the episodes I do see where people get the idea that Ken is naive. But he's not really. He just hasn't been as jaded as Aya or Yohji. Ken tends to give the benefit of the doubt when he thinks it's warranted which is a form of fairness to him. But once culpability has been established his strong sense of justice will give him the strength to do what is necessary even if the person he must kill is a life long friend. Ken has a more even few of honor, justice and integrity than our next character in this category.

Wufei of Gundam Wing is almost the epitome of this. He tends to get both lables, naive and cold. He deplores a weak enemy, staunchly holding to the idea that only the strong can truly fight and win the fight for justice. That it is useless and illogical for the weak to fight a battle they know they can't win. The flaw in this truly shows after he is bested in a sword fight with his enemy Treize. He withdraws from the fighting and will not even answer the calls when he is summoned for missions, telling his Gundam, Nataku, to denounce as unworthy. He ignores the fact that Treize is bigger, older, more seasoned. In his eyes he was suddenly no longer fit to call him self one of the strong. Gradually over the course of the anime series he learns to have a bit more balance in these thoughts.

Heehee This is the bishounen that I love the most. This fourth type is the one that most people might consider almost to girly or soft to be a boy. They cry easily, you wouldn't be surprised to peek in on them at night and see that they still sleep with a teddy bear. All you want to do is cuddle them and make sure they are happy. They like everybody and short of the major villians everybody tends to like them back and usually wants nothing more than to protect them. But when it comes time for a fight, you'd be perfectly happy to have them at your back because you know they will get the job done. They are usually also the ones that will be considered the brains of the outfit. Remember I said usually. ~grin~ Okay everyone can we say Kix and Skip. My Skip probably fits this discription the best. Anime may even be where I picked up writing this particular characterization.

To me Quatre from Gundam Wing fits this to an absolute tee! When confronted with another Gundam for the very first time, instead of fighting it even though it might be an enemy. He steps out onto his little off loading platform and tells the other pilot (Trowa) We shouldn't be fighting each other. Then when Trowa comes out he kind of smiles a little and say's "Put your hands down, I was the first to come out and surrender remember?" Even though he's got a fresh almost fully loaded Gundam to Trowa's no bullets, no missles, no dang nothing and 40 soldiers right behind him ready to lay down their lives for him too boot. LOL In a later mission Duo actually puts his beloved Gundam Deathscythe (also called Shinigami) on the line to save Quatre who's down and stunned. Even Quatre's own Gundam seems to be sentient and "tells" the boy in it's own way to 'get off' when he elects to help the other pilots escape to outerspace by self detonating. He apologizes to enemy soldiers before killing them and manages to even get them willing to die so that he can live, without even opening his dang mouth or eyes for that matter. Even Heero isn't immune to the blonde pilots gentle charms allowing himself to be coaxed and coerced into going to a place where there is no fighting when all he wants to do is fight.

Omi Tsukiyono of Weiß Kreuz also fits this to a T. Outside of a mission he is gentle, caring, always looking out for his teammates. He is just a tad on the shy side around girls, but pushes himself to overcome it. He does cry a lot, but as far as I'm concerned he had the right. Unlike Quatre he doesn't inspire the enemy to go gentle with him. In fact his innocent strength and outrage towards what he considers evil or wrong tends to make their treatment and anger towards him worse. But for those that care about him, it's these very things that draw them to him. Like Quatre, Omi's team will try to protect him when they can but in their situation it's harder.

The last group is the one I call the forgotten man and basically happens in situations where there are 5 instead of only 4. For one reason or another even though we may see the character lots and in many situations. It's almost as if a key element is left out so that you are constantly guessing.

Trowa Barton of Gundam Wing falls into this category. For all we know about him, he is still a bit of a mystery. He's intellegent, brave, like Heero almost a perfect soldier. But to me one of his most telling moments is after he's had to eliminate a group of enemy fighters. He is literally having to peal his hand from the controls and he asks the world in general "Why? Why do I have to keep fighting like this?" To him fighting is meaningless in most cases, yet he volunteered to be a Gundam Pilot. When he had the chance to leave the fighting behind, with no blame or centure from the other pilots, he still struggled on. A mystery, there are definite depths that still needed to be plumed in this guy. Oh well I guess it's up to the fic writers to decide what they are.

Anyway that's my take on the different beautiful boys that can be found in most Japanese animiation. I'm sure there are others out their with differing opinions but that is the wonderful thing about stuff like this. Everyone can get a different view while watching the same thing. I'll see about working on the flipside now that I've had the chance to see Weiß Kreuz. I'm looking forward to seeing where the characters, good and bad, from Ronin Warriors fall in these categories. I've a feeling that I'm only going to be right about one character. ~grin~