The List

7 Goofy Anime Super Heroes

Not every super hero gets an awesome robot, elemental powers to summon lightning, or can fly through the air due to sheer psychic will. No, some personalities probably aren't suited for the super hero role, but it's thrust upon them anyway, strange powers and all. The entries on this week's list have some of the strangest alter egos or the least useful powers in anime to date.

7. Moldiver (Moldiver) Mirai Ozora becomes Moldiver mostly by accident. After discovering her brother's alter ego as Captain Tokyo, she decides to fiddle with the super suit in favor of something more stylish. In doing so, she permanently alters the suit's configuration and ends up controlling it herself. She ends up abusing the suit's powers for her own wishes, like going on a vacation to Florida and run into her crush at superhuman speeds.

6. The Great Saiyaman/woman (Dragon Ball Z/GT) When Gohan enters high school he decides to hide is half-Saiyan lineage by taking on the ridiculous alter ego "The Great Saiyaman" to keep the citizens of Satan City safe. His costume, panned by fellow Z Fighter Trunks for being dorky includes sunglasses, a cape, and a tunic. He also has a dorky M pose that he likes to strike before battle. After Videl gets Gohan to confess to his other identity, she begins taking the mantle and Saiyawoman, with her own heart emblem helmet.

5. Tuxedo Melvin/Umino (Sailor Moon) Umino takes up the mantle as "Tuxedo Umino" to impress classmate Naru after some misleading advice from Usagi. Umino attempts to "save" Naru from a bunch of harmless situations, like a barking dog and entering a gaming arcade. He does get his moment to shine later when he promises to protect her from a monster, although Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask end up pulling most of the weight.

4. Suppaman (Dr. Slump) Akira Toriyama's Suppaman character was originally planned for his own comic but was rejected by Toriyama's editor. Instead, he was revived in Dr. Slump as Kenta Kuraaku/Suppaman (both a parody on Superman and a pun for his powers "Sour" + "man"). Suppaman eats umeboshi (pickled plums) while changing in a phone booth to transform. He doesn't have any real powers per se, he mostly rides ("flies") around on his belly on a skateboard throwing grenades. He has a brother, Syoppaman ("salty" + "man"), too.

3. Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman (Shinesman) The special effects show parody features characters named after their own voice actors and attacks based on the exciting job of business management! Characters throw deadly business cards and shout "Business Card Cutters!" or "Tie Clip Bombs" with great confidence. The entire anime is tongue in cheek to the war for Earth being fought through "Big Business" to the sentai team's colors like sepia and salmon pink.

2. Justice Buurin (Ai to Yūki no Pig Girl Tonde Būrin) Karin Kokubu was an average girl until she found a talking, flying pig on her way to school one day. Like many magical girls before her, Karin's mascot animal gives her a magical item to transform into a super cute...pig girl! The magical item happens to be a pig nose and Karin transforms into Justice Buurin, a piglet who must collect 108 pearls for good deeds. This show actually got its own English dub in South America under the name "Super Pig" but the episodes are supposed to be pretty hard to come by.

1. Kekko Kamen (Kekko Kamen) It was really difficult to find a remotely SFW image of the coy and always nude Kekko Kamen. Gō Nagai's 1974 manga about a super heroine attending the Toenail of Satan's Spartan Institute of Higher Education ran in Monthly Shonen Jump for about four years. The story follows her exploits rescuing students from evil teachers has gotten multiple adaptations, including OAVs and a whole bunch of live-action films. Kekko Kamen wears a red rabbit mask and long scarf and uses ninja-style weapons to weaken her foes before closing in with a thigh-grip of death.

The new poll: Which of the heroines by anime director Junichi Satō is your favorite?

The old poll: Last week's poll asked which fantasy world would you want to be transported to Sword Art Online's Aincrad took first place, showing that most of you have some kind of death wish. Here's the full results:

1. Aincrad (Sword Art Online) 27.9%
2. Digital World (Digimon franchise) 24.3%
3. Gaea (Escaflowne) 12.2%
4. Halkeginia (Zero no Tsukaima) 8.5%
5. Little Garden (Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they?) 8.4%
6. Fronaldo (Dog Days) 7.6%
7. El Hazard (El Hazard) 5.2%
8. Álfheimr (Astarotte's Toy) 2.5%
9. Amawakuni (Arata The Legend) 1.3%
10. Arezard (Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero) 1.0%
11. Kyō (Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time) 1.0%

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Alright everybody, see you all next week! I look forward to your input in the comments and feel free to follow me on Twitter @ANN_Lynzee or e-mail me at [email protected].