Scene stealers in manga

silverdiamond5.jpgThis week marked the return of Shiho Sugiura’s Silver Diamond to Tokyopop’s publication schedule, and that is a reason for much rejoicing. It has been almost a full year since US readers got a new volume of this underappreciated shōjo gem, which combines an interesting fantasy premise with warm, funny character moments. I wrote a review of volume 3 for Manga Life a while back; pretty much everything I said there applies to this volume as well, so I will skip writing up a full review.

One of my favorite things about Silver Diamond is Koh, the talking snake who is also sometimes a sword. (It’s sort of a long story.) Koh manages to steal the scene almost every time he shows upon the page. I laughed out loud a lot while reading volume 5 of Silver Diamond, and much of that was because of Koh. He’s even funny when he is being a mostly inanimate sword. (The flinch!)

Anyway, it occurred to me that several of my favorite manga series have supporting characters who tend to run away with any scene they appear in. Here are a few of the best that I’ve encountered:

(Note: I generally don’t think of main characters as scene stealers: they’re supposed to attract your attention. For example, Yuko in xxxHOLiC is pretty hard to resist, but that’s only fitting for such a central character. In contrast, Koh is not a main character in Silver Diamond. He is part of the main ensemble, yes, but the overall story focuses most on Rakan and Rakan’s odd relationship with Chigusa.)

Who are your favorite scene stealers in manga? Share in the comments, though do try to avoid giving away entire plots. (If you must include spoilers, please use rot13 to hide them.)

By Joy on March 4, 2010 · Posted in Shōjo Manga, Shōnen Manga, Shōnen-Ai Manga

6 Comments | Post Comment

Five years and counting « MangaBlog says:

[…] Kim writes about scene stealers, second bananas who run away with the show, at her […]

Posted on March 4th, 2010

Michelle Smith says:

The one that comes to my mind is Hanajima Saki in Fruits Basket – Protective of Tohru and scary in the eyes of others, Hanajima steals many a scene, particularly in her starring turn as Cinderella in the school play.

I also really like Ryoma’s dad, Nanjirou, in Prince of Tennis, and his cat, Karupin (or Kalpin, in VIZ’s translation).

Posted on March 4th, 2010

Joy says:

@Michelle – I found Ryoma’s dad a little too annoying to think of him as a scene stealer, but I agree about Kalpin!

And yes to Hanajima! She and Mamoru of VB Rose are very much the same character type.

Posted on March 4th, 2010

Michelle Smith says:

I think Saito in Rurouni Kenshin probably counts, too. He’s is unrelentingly cool, and I was always happy when he appeared. During the “Kyoto” arc he’s part of a team with the regulars and definitely stole some scenes.

Posted on March 4th, 2010

Joy says:

@Michelle – I like Saito a lot too, though I think the biggest scene stealer in _Kenshin_ is probably Kenshin’s teacher. Mentors, like pets, seem to have a tendency to be unfairly cool or amusing. See also: Izumi Curtis in FMA.

Posted on March 4th, 2010

Joy Kim | Puppets and pirates says:

[…] also Kere Ellis, Yata’s puppet, who I totally should have included in my list of scene stealers in manga. Kere Ellis is a classic example of the demonic dummy trope in fiction, and he has plenty of […]

Posted on March 31st, 2010