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Usually, we are accustomed to watching anime characters live their life in their own world. However, proceedings get quite exciting when they act out of this norm and interact with the audience. When this imaginary wall that separates anime from reality gets breached, the situation can get hilarious or at times peculiar.
There have been several anime that seem to have done the same and it has definitely made its mark on the audience. Anime characters who can comprehend this boundary and exploit it like Gintama are precious to the community.
So follow along as we list the eight anime characters who broke the fourth wall.
These anime characters stepped beyond the fourth wall
1) Hatsuharu, Fruits Basket
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Hatsuharu is the Ox of the Chinese Zodiac in the anime, Fruits Basket. His calm, cool and collected demeanor makes him somewhat of a fan-favourite. While Fruits Basket doesn't really mess with the fourth wall that much, it's a different ballgame when it comes to Haru.
When Hatsuharu trips Kyo in a school race, he glances back at the audience and warns them about the dangers of his recent actions. Meanwhile, the latter looks like he is genuinely confused about what's going on. It was a quick and short display of breaking the fourth wall for a bit of light-hearted comedy.
2) Popuko and Pipimi, Pop Team Epic
When an anime is adapted from a four-panel web manga with quick and absurd humor, breaking the fourth wall is quite natural and expected. Pop Team Epic follows the tale of two friends, Pipimi, the calm and collected one, and Popuko, the diminutive hot-head.
Their infamous first episode showcases a fake opening song for a completely fake anime and soon the cute Chibi main characters drop by to let them know who they are really dealing with.
3) Gin, Bleach
Manga readers of the popular shounen anime Bleach would not find any breaches on the fourth wall. However, the animation studio really take matters into their own hands when they make fillers, enabling characters to toy with the trope frequently enough.
Gin Ichimaru, one of the most mysterious characters in Bleach, remains notorious for breaking the fourth wall several times.
4) Characters, Ghost Stories
While the original version of Ghost Stories is quite straightforward with its theme, the dubbed version is absolutely hilarious as the characters seem to know they are in an animation and complain about it very often.
This is a case where meddling with the fourth wall causes the audience to be better engaged in the story and not be distracted from it.
5) Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon
Usagi would introduce herself to the audience in the 90s. It wasn't quite as strange to the targeted audience at the time, to watch the cute, cheerful and dramatic anime character introduce herself.
This stuck to the audience when Usagi introduced herself for the final time in the last episode. She would seldom take the responsibility of introducing other characters to the audience.
6) Tamaki Suoh, Ouran highschool host club
Tamaki is hilarious in Ouran HighSchool Host Club as he wholeheartedly believes that he is the hero of the story, and acts as such. He thinks that he's the lead of the "rom-com" and acts smug about it as well.
In fact, he asked Mori if he was upset for not being the main focus of the story. This is another extraordinary way to keep the audience engaged in the story when characters are tampering with the fourth wall.
7) Gintoki Sakata and others, Gintama
In this hilarious interaction between Gintoki, Shinpachi and Kagura, they analyze how fillers work and how their own show can incorporate such methods to increase showtime.
In the end, these small and hilarious clips where the fan-favourite characters interact with fans leave behind an imprint of nostalgia which makes Gintama catchy and unique.
8) Bo-bobo, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Bobobo-bo Bo-boo takes pride in being goofy and weird. The plot surrounds a weird protagonist and even weirder allies and enemies. However, in their early episodes, the characters acknowledged themselves as actors and even showed dissatisfaction with their pay.
Leaving the characters alone, the dubbed narrator does a terrific job of breaking the fourth wall and often shares his personal problems with the audience and fellow characters.
Final thoughts
Some people don't take kindly to breaking the fourth wall, as it makes them feel uncomfortable. However, it's quite an escape from mainstream, generic stories and provides a quick comical break from the narrative.
