Sword Art Online: Asuna

Commission from the Grand Rapids Comic Con 2015; Pencil

I really enjoyed this series, even if I felt like they sometimes weren't making the most of their concept. In particular, I liked that they didn't dink around with the romantic leads spending forever pretending they didn't like each other, or having Kirito be embarrassingly awkward or stand-offish about the idea of romance. There are a handfull of anime/manga tropes I'm getting painfully tired of, and the guy who is terrified of girls or physical contact or the idea of people thinking he likes girls is just above killing one half of a romantic coupling just after you let them get together.

And Asuna was a great female lead. The show suffered a lot in its second half for her absence. She was a great grounding force, and her cool competence was such a nice change of pace.