We're leisurely sauntering towards the finish line this year. Will we make it to the end? Maybe. But, as for today, here are the best/worst characters of 2013.

Best Characters

Chris - Yutaka Hasebe (Servant x Service) When I first started watching Servant x Service, I honestly expected the characters to be set in stone in the first episode, staying as largely unchanged archetypes as the show progressed. This largely holds true for most of the characters, but there is an exception - Yutaka Hasebe.

His character starts out relatively one-dimensional, seemingly just a persistently happy, lazy bum with a penchant for collecting girls phone numbers. A pleasant enough bloke, as it stands. However, during the show's progression, you see that there is more to him than meets the eye, especially as you see him attempt to open up to Lucy about his feelings for her.

This blew my mind, as here we had a really fun, likable character with believable development, something that's almost unheard of in these sorts of slice of life shows. It really makes me want a second season just so I can see how he continues to develop as a character.

Jeff - Mako Mankanshoku (Kill la Kill)/Yutaka Hasebe (Servant x Service) After several visions, and revisions, of this writing, I can find no better explanation for these two characters being the best than: They are my favorites. Sometimes I can write down my feelings, other times I can't. Negativity seems to be one I can always voice, though...

Matt - Tomoko Kuroki (Watamote) Tomoko is a broken person, there's no two ways about that. She's socially inept to the point that it might actually be diagnosable. But, there's a certain charm about her over the top delusions and awkwardness that keep her in the realm of likeable character. Her rampant imagination of how she predicts a social situation will play out versus her inability to actually say two words to a stranger, even a cashier, is pitiably lovable. Perhaps there's a bit of self-identification there; lord knows that I've got my share of social anxieties from cenversating to my appearance. Tomoko, her awkward antics and highly cynical world view, get the knowing nod of approval and my vote for best character of last year.

Worst Character

Chris - Kaga Kouko (Golden Time) I like to think that I'm pretty good at withholding judgement on characters until I've had a few episodes to evaluate them, but boy shit did Kaga Kouko shatter that image. From her very first appearance in the very first episode I knew she was going to be a bitch deluxe. However, that's not all. In addition to being the queen of bitches, she' the needy and possessive empress of all bitches. This is really a problem, especially as far as the main character Tada Banri is concerned, given that not only does he put up with her fucking shit, he appears to be charmed by it. This blows my goddamn mind. That such a relationship could be considered satisfying, let alone healthy, by any of the characters caught up in the whole shit storm indicates that anybody going along with it is clearly brain dead. This leads me to the hypothesis that Banri didn't lose his memories, he just lost his whole goddamn brain, and it's still sitting there under that fucking bridge, projecting it's angst in his general direction. Oh shit, did I forget to mention that she’s also crazy rich, talentless, and completely entitled? I’m just glad Yana - her former "boyfriend" (read: possession) - had the balls to stand up and say, "Bitch, you cray cray!" Perhaps that makes Yana the runner up for character of the year.

Matt - Kaga Kouko (Golden Time) You know the phrase "don't stick your dick in crazy"? Kaga Kouko, female lead in a series brought to us by the writer of Toradora!, is essentially the poster girl for the phrase. When she's first introduced, she's infatuated with her childhood friend and is not discrete about showing it. She's possessive, controlling, and has a jealous streak beyond all reason. Once said friend finally gets it through her thick skull that he hates her very existence, she replaces him with the show's lead, Tada Banri. During the brief transitional period, we find out that she's not really a bitch on purpose; she has a codependency problem larger than the Burj Khalifa. By her own admission, she simply cannot live unless she has a man to fawn over. That's all annoying in and of itself, but the fact that everybody enables her in this is what's really maddening. She's going to win the day (over better, stable, more personable girls) without any of her core problems being resolved when, in the end, all she really needs is a fuck ton of therapy. This show has only finished it's first cour, but I'm not hopeful for the end or any redemption of Ms. Clingy Psychobitch.

Jeff - Nase Izumi (Beyond the Boundary) Typically, this spot is reserved for Kirino Kosaka. But she's such an awful character that she could get this every year and never be in danger of losing it, which makes for boring reading and is a tad cliche. So, in the spirit of keeping this different/fair, I went with Izumi Nase from" Beyond the Boundary". Don't worry, she's still a bitch, just in different ways. She doesn't explain herself, ever, waltzs around following orders blindly for some douchebag in a wheelchair, and generally holds herself above everyone else in such a way as to come off as being elitist. And she's ice cold to everyone around her, including family. Spoiler alert: She put a hit on Akihito and treated him like he wasn't even a sentient being just because he had a youmu inside him. Guess what? More spoilers: she also has a youmu inside her, and she was aware of it the entire time. What a bitch.

That's all for today. Maybe we'll have the last installment up before the month is out. Maybe we won't...