Best Cartoon Character Introductionsfeatured

One of the most lost art forms in animation is the art of the quality character introduction. This is mostly due to characterizations being very subverted early in most series particularly in Western animation. Additionally, series with longer narratives tend to put more emphasis on the overall plot line vice a particular character’s introduction. Well recently I watched a series that the way they handled the main character’s introduction was so amazing that it got me thinking about other great cartoon character introductions. So I decided to make my personal list of best cartoon character introductions of all time. There is a couple things: 1.) I do not count non-speaking one-off scenes as a character’s introduction 2.) I’ve only included one introduction per franchise. Additionally, I have an even split of introductions from both anime and Western animation for variety. As always this is my personal list and you’re open to your own opinion. Without a further ado, I bring you the best cartoon character introductions. Also spoilers…maybe.

Honorable Mentions

Obviously with so many characters introductions available there would be some that would just miss my personal cut. So I’ve decided to give a short list of Honorable Mentions.

Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty)– If you want to see all of Rick’s character in a short couple minute span watch the opening scene of the pilot of Rick and Morty. He is completely drunk, tries to be a bro to Morty, and is about to the destroy the world. It’s a classic scene.

Korra (Legend of Korra)– As flawed of a characterization Korra has at times throughout her series, her introduction is really good. It shows her as a kid having some skill with 3 elements already. Then it skips to her beating some firebending teacher butt. It also shows how her personality is completely different from Aang’s. I would say her introduction is one of the few things that is generally better for her in comparison to Aang.

Jotaro Kujo (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders)– Jojo’s has a lot of good introductions. Joseph or Lisa Lisa for example could easily be here as well, but Jotaro’s introduction is just amazing. He’s in jail for beating 4 armed guys barehanded and crushing their balls. His first line is “Shut up!!! Get out of my face you stupid bitch!” to his own mother. He then proceeds to say he has a evil spirit over him and to prove it’s there he steals a cop’s gun and fires at near point blank range at his head. The scene is badass incarnate.

Tomoko Kuroki (WataMote)– This admittedly is kind of a weird one. I could watch the opening scene from WataMote a million times and still laugh at it. Tomoko’s entire personality and struggle is in that introduction. She tries to justify how she is not unpopular because guys talked to her 6 times in middle school and because guys picked up her eraser one out of every three times she dropped it. Then she goes on to say that she’s already logged 50 years as a high school girl on games so she’s ready for the real deal. Time-skip to 2 months later she hasn’t spoken to anyone in that time frame. It’s both pretty sad and really at the same time. It defines both her and the series in so many ways.

Legoshi (Beastars)

This was the particular character introduction that led me to want to make this list. His introduction is basically perfect for setting up both his mindset along with the overall lay of his world. The opening scene of the series is him in the shadows chasing after Haru trying to eat her. The statement he makes is that that is moment he met two things that rabbit and his instincts. Basically, this sets up his ultimate struggle within himself to fight his natural instinct to hunt and kill weaker animals. Jump back to a flashback that establishes the absolute fear mentality of the herbivores. Justifiably so given the events of the previous evening. At this point your viewpoint character effectively is the goat, Els. You see Legoshi in the shadows. Later, you see him eyeing her from the lighting balcony. All this is to establish what rest of the world sees when they see Legoshi. All they see is this monstrous wolf led purely by his instinct to kill. Later, that evening after walking with her friend home, Els is caught up to by Legoshi. In her fear she basically calls him out for only seeing her as food and tries to attack him with a pair of scissors. Being a much more powerful animal he grabs the scissors and proceeds to hand her the love letter left by his dead friend, Tem. Els then apologizes and says that she has to make it right. Legoshi in his infinite wisdom says that Tem wouldn’t want his secret love to be broadcast to everyone. Els doesn’t particularly want to hear any of this and says that everyone should know Legoshi is a kind wolf. Legoshi then makes the point that it won’t matter anyway and he’s already used to being feared and hated. He has already reserved himself to the understanding that people will always fear and hate him. This is the first 8 minutes of the series. At this point we haven’t even met Haru or Louis or anyone else. Yet, we have Legoshi’s entire life struggle placed in front of us. The depth of Legoshi as a character is so fascinating and all of it is immediately prevalent in his introduction.

Bojack Horseman (Bojack Horseman)

So I had a debate between Bojack and Rick from Rick and Morty for this list. Both of their introductions are absolutely amazing. What ended up winning out for Bojack ultimately was how definitive the introductory scene is for Bojack’s character. Mind you Rick’s is very definitive for his character as well, but you lose some of the Rick and Morty dynamic in that first scene. In other words, it’s a perfect scene for Rick not so much for Morty. Now onto the Bojack Horseman introduction. It starts with a brief description of Bojack’s previous life as a TV star. It then cuts to an interview with Bojack. What you begin to see at this point is his personality. He starts by apologizing for being late and says he parked in Handicap spot. What this immediately shows is his honest belief that celebrities are above everyone else and therefore the rules do not apply to them. Next, he says he’s drunk, which he’s pretty much always drunk at this point. Basically, this portrays his self-disastrous behavior. Then the interviewer brings up Horsin’ Around and he immediately becomes defensive of the series. This obviously stems the fact that he puts all of his own value into what he perceives as his only good life accomplishment. Finally, the interviewer asks the ultimate question, “What have you been doing for last 18 years?” and Bojack does not have an answer. The reason being he really hasn’t done anything worthwhile since the show ended. Every aspect of Bojack’s personality comes out in this 2 minute interview before the series even starts. You know exactly who he is by the end of this short interview. It is actually almost astonishing the amount of character content in this one throwaway scene.

Dracule Mihawk (One Piece)

This one may come as more of a surprise. This is for twofold reasons 1.) He’s not a main character at all, and 2.) The sheer amount of great introductions in One Piece. I could’ve easily included Boa Hancock, Crocodile, Whitebeard, or even Luffy himself in this list, however, I personally think this introduction changes your viewpoint of the world of One Piece. Mihawk’s introduction is early enough in the series that you haven’t met too many of the uber tiered characters yet, however, it’s far enough into the series that you believe you have some semblance of power-scaling. Well his introduction completely throws that off. The first mention of Mihawk is a little bit before his actually appearance. Gin talks about how the great Don Krieg pirates were defeated by a single man after being on the Grand Line for only 7 days. The man having his only definitive characteristics being a master swordsman with the eyes of a hawk. Immediately, Zoro recognizes this as the man he is trying to defeat to be the world’s greatest swordsman. Zeff then basically says that it’s probable that the reasoning behind the attack could be something as simple as waking him up from his nap. All this is to basically establish some semblance of legendary status to the character. Often times authors will build a character up so that when the hero character defeats them it’s even more impressive. This was not the case for Mihawk. It was to prepare you to understand his place and by extension the Strawhats in the world order. Shortly thereafter you actually meet Mihawk. Before he says anything Mihawk slices Don Krieg’s massive galleon in two. He then redirects bullets around his blade. Never attempted to dodge just redirected. Zoro then challenges him. Mihawk accepts the challenge to quell his boredom. He then pulls out a small hunting knife and tells Zoro this should be sufficient and sadly I don’t have a smaller blade on me. Zoro then attacks with all of his being and can’t land a single strike against Mihawk and his hunting knife. I’ll remind you of this Zoro is a legendary swordsman in the East Blue and he is being thoroughly embarrassed by Mihawk fighting with basically a toothpick. What is so impactful about this is that prior to this all the power-scaling basically said that Zoro and Luffy were extremely powerful within the world of One Piece. This one fight completely ruined that image. Zoro faces complete defeat to Mihawk. Now you do get one of the most badass early Zoro moments in this fight where he would rather die than face defeat and receives Mihawk’s recognition. Mihawk then decides to honor Zoro’s spirit to fight him with his actual sword. Zoro still thoroughly loses and accepts defeat, but Mihawk chooses to let him live with a horrifically bad scar. Then we get the only instance in the modern timeline of Zoro crying. This was due to his realization of his own ineptitude and his failure as a member of Luffy’s crew. It’s an amazing scene directly caused by Mihawk revealing Zoro’s true place in the world. Then prior to leaving Mihawk asks Luffy what his goal is. Luffy responses with “King of the Pirates.” Mihawk says that your goal even surpasses me. This statement taken at face value means that for the power-scaling of the world Mihawk’s not even a near Pirate King level. This dude that just wiped the floor with our second strongest crew member and is not even on the Pirate King level. Just for the development of the One Piece world this is just an absolutely amazing introduction. The level of badassery of Mihawk within the scene is just great. It’s probably the most underrated character introduction I’ve ever seen.

Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls)

I’ve made it rather well known that Bill Cipher is my favorite cartoon character of all time. So it really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that I love his introduction. He’s a character that is in the opening for the series and yet prior to his introduction you would never recognize his existence within the world. Basically he’s never even hinted to on the surface level at all. So given how they tried to subvert him for so long one would assume his introduction would also be subverted, right? The answer to that was a resounding, no. His introduction is so over-the-top and strange yet fits him so well as a character. Bill’s first line is him making fun of Gideon for looking like ventriloquist’s dummy. Taken alone this would mean nothing, but prior to this Gideon honestly believes Bill is the minion and he is master. Given the way Gideon acts towards his parents he believes that those sub-servant should not speak idly to their superiors. Bill immediately does this. After that, Bill shows Gideon multiple cryptic images just to prove that he completely all-seeing. And after that Bill provides Gideon with his infamous gift of deer teeth ripped straight from a deer in front of him. This was meant to do two things, show Bill’s insanity and also his power. Such an act was at most a joke for Bill. Gideon then immediately refers to Bill as insane which not only does Bill not refute, he actually agrees with it and says what’s your point. Obviously, from this you get that he is aware he is insane, he just doesn’t care. In fact it almost comes off that he believes his insanity makes him superior. Gideon then offers him up a deal which Bill only accepts because it involves Stan Pines. Bill when he accepts the deal says that he’ll help, but Gideon is going to have to help him with something he’s been working on. This and the end of the episode basically establish that there is something much bigger going on with Bill. It also establishes that Gideon has no idea how badly he’s already being played. I mean Bill only accepted the deal because it further his own goals. This relatively short scene along with the rest of the episode, obviously, establish so much of the underlying plot coming from Bill. The most interesting thing is how easy some of it is to miss. Part of the reason I highly recommend re-watching Gravity Falls, aside from it being a great series, is finding these hidden clues throughout. Knowing Bill’s motivations makes this introduction all the more better.

Escanor (Seven Deadly Sins)

What do you have to do knock Jotaro Kujo’s badass introduction from a list of best character introductions? The simple answer is have an even more badass introduction. The Seven Deadly Sins as a series opens itself up to amazing introductions already. This is because every one of the Sins are already considered very overpowered within their own world. The fighting is very much an afterthought in the series. Thus you could argue for Meliodas, Ban, or Merlin on this list, but they are not Escanor. I know you briefly see Escanor a couple episodes earlier, but you don’t even know who he is so I’m talking about his first full appearance. Escanor prior to his introduction is given a minor legendary buildup. Basically, after Meliodas gets his original power back he says that Escanor is still the most powerful Sin. Well the first time you see Escanor he’s in his meek nighttime form. At that point it felt like he was built up for no reason. He agrees to a game with Galand where each person gets a free swing at the other and the point is to kill your opponent. Galand then inadvertently knocks Escanor out. Hours later Galand and Melascula are discussing Escanor’s axe. They say that it is short for a two-handed axe and Galand attempts to pick it up and can’t. Escanor in daytime mode picks up the axe and says of course that’s because it’s a one-handed axe. So the first badass moment for Escanor is the flex on Galand for picking the axe up let alone with one hand. Next, Escanor formally introduces himself as the one above all clans. Escanor and Galand start the game with Escanor in the midst of laughing with Galand slices him in half. There was no preempt to it, he just cuts him in half. In fact, his body language and facial expression don’t even change. Basically, Escanor slicing Galand in half was nothing to him. Galand puts himself together with Escanor saying the game wouldn’t be fun if Galand would die so easily. Galand bulks up to Critical Over which puts his power level to 40,000 which Meliodas’s was only 32,500 at the time. You see Galand swing his spear which destroys several mountains in the immediate area. Then you see a cut to Merlin talking to Meliodas and saying it 50,055, 50,060 and still climbing it’s Escanor. The shot then cuts to Escanor with a hairline cut saying is this the best you can do. Melascula tells Galand he should leave which Galand refuses because his own Commandment will turn him to stone if he leaves. Escanor preps his attack and you see an image of a goliath version of Escanor and the shot cuts to Escanor stopping his attack with Galand having started running away. In other words, his instincts made him more afraid of Escanor than his own Commandment. He was going to die either way and still choose petrification over fighting Escanor. I’ll admit to something here. I read the Seven Deadly Sins manga prior to watching the series. This scene in the manga was so epic to me that I was taken out for a solid 30 minutes just to comprehend what I just saw. Thankfully, the anime continues with the next epic scene where Melascula tries to eat Escanor’s soul. Escanor then activates his power Sunshine and burns her from the inside out. Just to spark some memories effectively the only way to “kill” Ban is to eat his soul. Escanor has his soul eaten and his soul alone beats Melascula. I have never seen a more badass way to introduce a character.

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

I’ll start this by saying that Avatar features so amazing characters with a personal admission that Azula is my favorite. With that said the character introductions in Book 1 of Avatar were for the most part very subverted. What my assumption is that the writers were more concerned with building the world first and the characters came second. We got more of the characterization for most of the characters a few episodes in. In Book 2, however, there were really 3 amazing character introductions: Toph, Long Feng, and finally Azula. Azula was another mythical character. We had seen a couple shots of her and heard about her from Zuko. However, none of that really prepared you completely for her actual introduction. Her very first scene is her telling her entourage if you hesitate to bring down Zuko and Iroh I won’t hesitate to bring you down. Next, she is talking to a captain, who is the commanding officer of the ship she’s on, who is voicing a concern over the tides making it so they can’t bring the ship in. She responses by making the statement, “Captain do the tides command this ship?” which he responds no she then says ” Would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore?” again he responds no which her retort is “Well maybe you should think less about the tides who have already made up their mind about killing you, and worry more about me, who’s still mulling it over.” This interaction shows so much about her character. She honestly believes she is better than everyone else and that she knows better than everyone else. She has this fleet captain almost cowering in fear over her words alone. The awesomeness yet simplicity of the scene is so amazing. Later in the episode we see her practicing her lightningbending. Which in itself was badass and never seen before. She gets personally upset when one of her hairs is out of place. At this point lightningbending is a barely more than once in a generation skill and she’s 14 and upset at herself for a single hair. This just shows her personal drive the be the absolute best at everything she does. Finally, at the end of the episode after lying to Zuko and Iroh, you get to see her fight. Zuko is coming at her with the most that he’s got and she toys with him. He fights with firebending daggers and to prove how much more powerful she is she chooses to fight Zuko without bending. She only used bending at the very end to try to end it. If not for a very timely interruption by Iroh from her blindside, she might have killed Zuko. Basically, Azula’s first appearance was to establish that she was actual threat. That she was the genius that Zuko described her as. The best part of this introduction is that it truly was only a small taste of her potential as character in the series. That’s really the ultimate goal of an introduction to give you the smallest bit of what is to come from the character.