why I like Sasuke better than Naruto

It’s not just about the looks (though admittedly I’d call Sasuke ‘hot’ any time of the day while I’d settle for ‘queer’ for Naruto), nor their tragic past (because, really, I can never decide which is worse — losing your entire clan because of your brother or having the whole village hate you because of a monster living inside your body), nor their abilities (which is better anyway — chidori or rasengan? sharingan or the kyuubi?). It’s more like the reason why I prefer Rukawa over Sakuragi (Slam Dunk), Ren Tao over Yoh (Shaman King), Vincent over Eugene (Ghostfighters), Byakuya over Kenpachi and Ishida over Ichigo (Bleach), Takenaga over Kyohei (Wallflower), Killua over Gon (HunterxHunter) and Rei Otohata over Yuuya Asou (Super Gals!). Heck, I might as well include in the list Lei over Dao from the infamous Meteor Garden saga.

What do these bozos… er…. hotties have in common? Except their pretty faces, of course (though I’d have to reconsider including Ren Tao in the list). Exactly! They’re a bunch of dark, angsty, mysterious idiots who seem to lack any social skills whatsoever. Oh, they call them EMO nowadays. Though I refuse to call them that. That’s too low even for my taste.

Maybe I have a fetish for cold, silent guys who are gifted with a capacity to speak a maximum of five words in five minutes, and who’d prefer to sulk/sleep/stare in a corner than socialize with the rest of the group. They prefer not to get any attention, which is crazy because most of them attract the most fan girls (remember the Ru-Ka-Wa cheerleaders and the mob of crazy fangirls of Otohata?). And it’s not like they ask for them, heck, why do you think Rukawa sleeps on the roof so often? They lack the social skills to be even the least amicable, and yet they draw in crowds of people because of that annoying “I-am-mysterious-and-cold-so-stay-away-from-me” aura.

And I guess I’m a sucker for that as well.

Come real life, my fetish for annoying ’social-skills-lacking’ (I refuse to call them EMO) guys is apparent since high school. Almost all my crushes were kawaii to a point of exasperation, but like my anime loves, none of them even bother to mingle with girls! Not that I ever took the initiative to talk to them (I do believe in the ‘girls should at least pretend to be discreet’ rule) nor was I very friendly with boys in general back in my school years, but that’s that and maybe I did scare them off a bit and okay… never mind.

But anyway.

HE was anti-social (was because over the years he finally developed social skills and actually learned how to talk to girls) and apathetic (until now) and plain annoying, but I loved him with all my little heart could take, even when he prefers staring into space while I tell him a weird story or anything he deems unimportant, even when he’d rather hold my hand silently and wait when I’m angry instead of bugging me with his apologies, even when he’d sit still and hold me close on the way home rather than talk to me. I still chose him over his cousin, who was the epitome of Naruto in so many ways but can be a total charmer as well (heck, I spent three years crushing over him!)

So I guess the ’social-skills-lacking’ guys do get the girl after all. (*My love story is far from over, but let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that it is.)

Totally random, I know. Gomen. ^_^

Update:

I forgot to include another reason why I like them better, other than their blank faces and cold stares: they’re secondary characters. Naruto is named after Naruto and not Sasuke, Gon’s story is the focus of HunterxHunter, even when there was an arc about getting Killua back, and no matter how much kawaii Vincent is (IMO), he can never be the lead character in Ghostfighters. I usually find primary characters overrated, and so I end up crushing on the next best guy instead. The only exceptions to the rule would probably be Kenshin Himura of Samurai X and Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece, but that’s another story.

I also forgot to mention the only anime character which doesn’t belong to the group but whom I *heart* so much: Sanji from One Piece. I guess it should have been Zoro, because he’s sarcastic and anti-social and oh-so-achingly serious, but surprisingly I don’t find my self charmed by the bushido. Sanji, the ero-cook, managed to attract my attention and made me vow eternal devotion to his curly eyebrows and nicotine-smelling breath (if you could smell anime, that is). And that’s it. Aside from liking Luffy (without crushing because he’s too cute to be crushed upon), I found a hyperactive, overly-social extrovert in the midst of my “anti-social guy” hunting. I guess there are always exceptions to the rule after all.