How do YOU define "Best Girl"?

So you're saying you can't dig it?

-sighs- Yes.

Hasnt any of you heard the word Hasubando? Sure, it only applies to gay guys but still...

Monogatari is weird, but good. Best Girl for me there is Black Hanekawa.

I thought it was just husbando, unless there's a difference...and Natsume Takashi is husbando.

Crab is best gatari Snake a shit, A SHIT!

The best Monogatari story is the one where Kaiki is the MC. He's a bastion of rationality adrift in a sea of crazy.

"Hasubando" is the correct transcription (in either Hepburn or K-S) but often Anglophone fans just take the English and add a vowel. "Daughteru" is another.

I noticed there's never a Best Boy analysis with fangirls.

I've seen several, from Inuyasha to Dragon Ball to Bleach to Free!

But in harem series and the like, the authors make aware efforts to paint a single boy as even halfway decent and paint all others as either complete loser perverts or evil creeps.

edited 9th Sep '15 7:40:25 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

Shu from Nisekoi and Kotaro in Negima are somewhat aversions to the roles typically given to supporting males.

Although Shu, while perverted, is never presented as being particularly pathetic.

A sarcastic label slapped on characters that don't fit the sugar-cute girl mold, because I am a smartass.

For example: Speedwagon is best girl.

edited 9th Sep '15 8:07:53 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

Napoleon, Boy is creepily pedophilic so I dont like it.

Boy also stands for 'young man'.

"Boy" is the counterpart to "girl" as in the thread's title.

Also Best Man is already a thing.

True. I dont know why Girl doesnt trigger my Pedo Warning Thing like Boy does.

Because "young man" is a real expression. Nobody says "young woman", we say girls all way to adulthood.

I don't know about best girl. It's the kind of expression that was disfigured so much from its original meaning until the only thing you can say is that the person is using it likes the character in question, be man, woman, or Eldritch Abomination.

As about "pedo" warning, I dunno. I pay attention to behavior that comes along with the words. Poe's Law.

edited 9th Sep '15 12:58:23 PM by MeetTheNewBoss

There's a place you can go!

LOOOOOOOOOL I love you.

Hmm... for the thread title, I usually define "Best Girl" as the one most likely to have a healthy relationship with the character that I'm potentially shipping with them. Thus, Best Girl for character A may or may not be Best Girl for character B.

I find that I end up rooting for a losing girl because of this, because healthy relationships aren't necessarily entertaining ones, particularly in harem series and/or comedy series. I think just about the only case where I ended up rooting for the canon couple lately was in Kotoura-san - of course, Manabe is the best anime boyfriend of all-time, and Kotoura has enough issues that relationship woes aren't necessary for drama, so that's probably an extreme outlier in all regards.

See, that's not the mindset behind "best girl", it's a shipping mindset based on couples making sense. The expression comes from fans of harem or all-girl shows made for attraction (sex appeal, but also the subtler waifu companionship) having their favourite and if they care about any boy at all it's as a self-insert. It's about attraction, not couples.

Then again, much of shipping has this. Zuko and Katara only makes sense for fangirls who identify with Katara and prefer the brooding, defiant Zuko over the happy-go-lucky Aang.

Simply put the best girl in an series. The term usually refers to harem anime, but it can go outside that territory (Such as these gems from Google Suggestions: "best girl in Skyrim", "best girl in Mass Effect", "best girl in Resident Evil", "best girl in Pokémon", "best girl in Game of Thrones", best girl in the world", "best girl in Mortal Kombat", etc.).

Best Girl is Best Girl.

edited 17th Sep '15 4:30:06 AM by Serocco