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Naruto Uzumaki, main character of manga/anime Naruto and Naruto Shippuden by Masashi Kishimoto.

Naruto truly is the number one, hyperactive, knuckle-headed ninja. He will always be near and dear to my heart. The reason being, that he is one of my oldest friends. Any anime fan born in the 90s who watched a ton of Cartoon Network will recall this orange jacket wearing loser, and how he taught little kids across the world how to dream. Naruto is legendary not just because he defied all odds to become arguably the strongest Hokage, but for the kind of character that he is. Despite suffering from severe loneliness and rejection from his entire village for reasons he didn’t even understand, he still cared deeply for other people. Instead of giving into hatred (like Sasuke, Neiji, Gaara, etc.), he gave into hard work and set out to prove himself to everyone. He would blow everyone away with his successes that they would HAVE to acknowledge him. But the great thing about Naruto is that he didn’t succeed right away. Usually, the protagonist is some “chosen one” who easily gains ultimate power and saves the world with a flick of his pinky finger. Naruto struggled. Hard. He couldn’t perfect his jutsus, he couldn’t perform his hand signs right, and he couldn’t even throw a kunai straight! Even after graduation, Naruto still struggled to get stronger and had to practice his techniques twice as much as everyone else. He wasn’t especially smart, talented, or capable. But he definitely taught us exactly what hard work and dedication can do. He was like the friend that was always worst off in life than you, but who always smiled bigger than you. He taught us what it meant to never give up, no matter what stood in your way. He taught us the value of hard work, and doubled as our cheer leader. He also taught us the real meaning of friendship. Say what you will about Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship, but if one thing is clear, those guys are brothers. They beat each other up. They called each other names. And they pushed each other beyond the breaking point. Their friendship is truly epic, and that’s really all thanks to Naruto. When Naruto considers someone to be his friend, they are his friend regardless of who they turn out to be. He defined the meaning of loyalty and loving people through the pain. Many fans think that Naruto shouldn’t have gone so far for someone like Sasuke, but the fact that he did teaches a very important point. People make the wrong choices and sink into darkness because of their hard experiences and trauma. Shunning them and turning our backs on them isn’t going to snap them out of it. We need to be there for people who are going through a hard time, and let them know that we got their backs no matter what. No matter what they do, they will always have a home to come back to, when they’re ready. Naruto was that for Sasuke and so many other characters. He sacrificed himself for others and fostered peace in everyone around him. Personally, I also benefited from his friendship in a way. If you started watching when you were a kid, then you grew up along side him. Shippuden started around the time you became a teenager, and now Boruto comes along just when you’ve started to become an adult. He was always there every week to cheer you up and encourage you to never give up. He taught us that it’s okay to be silly and to mess up sometimes, and that you can achieve any dream as long as you put in the effort. During the fourth great ninja war, we saw a shift in Naruto’s character. Recall, that everyone was looking at Naruto as the same old kid they grew up with. Naruto had to verbally tell them that he’s older now, and more experienced. It was a little heartbreaking to see our silly, goofy friend become a mature and dependable character. From this point forward, Naruto truly was the hero we all knew he would be, signifying the effects of growing up. Now, as an adult, his personality is a bit different from what we’re used to. He’s finally the Hokage and trying to be a responsible adult. And just like any adult, he’s trying to balance having a family and a career. And just like any adult trying to have it all, he’s failing somewhat. But he is still Naruto. Not only will he never give up, but he will continue to teach us how to fail, learn, and rise again. Thus, Naruto will remain one of anime’s most beloved characters, if only for encouraging us all to eat more ramen.

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Monkey D. Luffy, main character of the manga/anime One Piece by Eiichiro Oda.

Luffy is absolutely an idiot of a character, but that is the very reason why we all love him so much! Luffy’s well timed, off-topic comments while picking his nose will have your sides splitting so much you’ll wonder how you could ever take him seriously. But Luffy’s silliness has less to do with unintelligence and more to do with simply a different way of thinking. A way of thinking that we all should seriously consider. Luffy is one of my most favorite characters not only because he is the main character of the first anime I’ve ever watched, but through his humor taught me some very important life lessons from a very early age. Luffy understood what was really important from the beginning: people. He knew that one of the worst pains a human being could go through was loneliness, and he would give up his life before suffering such a fate. And that is the reason why he ended up becoming brothers with Ace and Sabo, because of his stubbornness and refusal of their refusal. Luffy knew that he wouldn’t get very far in life without others, and understood that having others to share your life with was much more fun. Remember that Luffy came into this world virtually alone. Dragon (his father) was off with the Revolutionary Army and we still don’t know anything about his mom. What’s more, Garp (his grandfather) was still busy with the Marines and didn’t have time to care for him properly, so he was left to be raised by townsfolk and eventually rogue thieves! But we can learn from Luffy’s strength, for even at such a young age he didn’t just sit around waiting for things to happen. He went to the bar to talk to Shanks. He followed Ace and Sabo until they were thoroughly annoyed. He smacked around a bear or two so he wouldn’t get eaten. And this mindset paid dividends for all that he would experience in life. The first thing Luffy ever taught me was to go all out for your dream. He will find one piece one day or die trying. I think that we can be just as passionate about our pursuits in the real world. We have this tendency to give up and I think that’s because we don’t put enough importance on what we want to do. We get hung up on the obstacles in our way and the push back we get from the world. Not Luffy. Everything is simple for him. Tired? Sleep. Hungry? Eat. Lonely? Make friends. Enemies in your way? Beat them up. Obstacles on your path? Punch it into a million pieces. Have a dream? Fight for it. For him, this is living freely. Luffy’s philosophy of living freely is important. Set a goal for something you really want to do and go after it. It matters not what gets in your way or what you have to do to obtain it. If the obstacles are hard, then increase your strength accordingly. If you die before reaching your goal, that’s fine. At least you tried by giving everything you had in you. This mindset of not giving in is hard to understand from a responsible standpoint, because there has to be recognition of certain limitations. From Luffy’s mindset, there are no limitations. Something needs to be done? Do it. No ifs, ands, or buts. This is simplistic and makes him look like an idiot, but Luffy maybe smarter than us all. We complicate things way too much with rules, regulations, systems, traditions, and hearsay. We let preexisting norms affect the way we decide and go about things, that we never actually get anything done! Then we go through bouts of existential crises that lead up to a mid life crisis where we question what we are doing with our limited time. Instead of giving in, we need to take action. When his friends are in danger, Luffy goes into the danger to save them. When he lost to the enemy, he took two years off and got stronger. He actively does what he can in order to achieve his goals. Too often, we give in to our circumstances and shrug our shoulders in the claim that there’s nothing we can do. For Luffy, there’s always something you can do. Another big thing that Luffy taught me that might get overlooked is his big heart. Personally, I really respect him for this. He really appreciates people when they help him out. Even if it’s something as small as giving him lunch, he’ll put his life on the line to save their entire country in order to pay them back. He doesn’t do this because he feels like he owes them, but in order to return their kindness. To him it doesn’t matter what he has to do, as long as he can show them how much he appreciates it. Added to this is that Luffy really hates it when people oppress other people, especially for no reason. This goes along with his idea of living freely. He probably wants other people to at least have the opportunity to live freely. All those who try to take that away from others is his enemy, and they should be our enemy too. The only reason why he even wants to find the one piece is because whoever finds it gets to be the pirate king, and the pirate king gets to live freer than anyone else. He wouldn’t even be pursuing the one piece if this were not the case. Luffy serves as an example to us all on how to live life to its fullest, laugh when things get hard, the right way to treat people, and how to make dreams a reality. Live freely mates!