Another recommendation I'd add: the anime/manga Fruits Basket! The main character reminds me a lot of Aerith in that she has experienced a lot of hardship, but continues to push through with an optimistic attitude and helps others around her heal. She's got a similar ratio of sweetness to sass and is another effective example of a character who could have been a manic pixie dream girl but ends up having a lot of depth.
I have no knowledge of FF, but I’ve been watching my sister play through the remake, and Aerith was one of the most surprisingly interesting characters to me! A lot of the time the optimistic character can come off a bit shallow, so I was really impressed to see the amount of depth she has!
Aerith has always been a really great and interesting character, who has much more depth than she first appears to. One thing I really appreciate about Remake and especially Rebirth is that it gives Aerith more moments where you see that the manic pixie dream girl side of her, while not entirely fake, is something of a front. When she drops it, you see that beneath it all is a very introspective, reflective, sincere, and deeply lonely person. It made her feel very real and human. Highlighting those more hidden aspects of her character really gave her more depth in my eyes and made me appreciate her a lot more over the course of the two Remake games. I know he's probably far down on your list for videos (if he's on it at all) but I'd love one on Rufus Shinra eventually, as I think he's a really underrated character (same for Reeve and the Turks as well). Looking forward to hearing your book and media recommendations on more of the characters too.
Ah, loved your thoughtful reflection on this character! The loneliness component actually really breaks my heart 💔 Idk that I’d do a dedicated video for Rufus (maybe, who knows!) but I’d like to do an FFVII specific character tier ranking at some point, and maybe a separate video ranking villains across FF. I think that’d be a lot of fun ☺️
@@fullmetaanalysis That would be interesting to hear. How about perhaps also a side character round-up video that could cover (and give book/media recommendations for) the characters who don't get dedicated videos? Once you've done the major ones you want to get to, of course. I've really enjoyed hearing your takes and recommendations for the characters so far!
