Illjwamh

And now, 2009. An odd year, as you'll see shortly. Characters Introduced This Year Carol Characters Returning After a Year or More Principal V. (2007) Pandora (2007) This Year's Count Nanase: 39 Abraham: 32 Ellen: 29 Mr. Raven: 17 Grace: 12 Pandora: 12 Justin: 6 Agent Cranium: 6 Susan: 5 Agent Wolf: 5 Catalina: 5 Magus: 6 Fox: 6 Elliot: 4 Carol: 4 Mr. Verres: 3 Principal V.: 2 Mrs. Kitsune: 2 Mr. Alephnull: 2 Demitrius: 1 Helena: 1 Bloodgrem: 1 *This is the first time that one of the eight main characters has not appeared at all. (Actually two - Tedd AND Sarah) **At #14, this is Elliot's lowest ever ranking. ***This is only the second time Grace has gone as low as #4 (the first time being 2003) ****Nanase becomes the fourth character, after Elliot, Grace, and Ellen, to take the #1 spot. *****At #2, Abraham is the highest ever ranked character not among the main cast ******At only 22 characters, this year has the smallest cast so far, including the first year, which had a cast of 36, and 2006 (the "bottle episode" of Grace's birthday party), which had a cast of 40. Full Count

2008! Characters Introduced This Year Mr. Raven Principal W. Victor Von Hip Abraham Fox Sandi Bloodgrem Dick Inner Tiffany Inner Susan Liz's Ex Characters Returning After a Year or More Screaming Girl (2003) Lord Tedd (2003) Damien (2004) Goo (2005) "Ronin" (2005) Amanda (2006) Jeremy (2006) Tony (2006) Lisa (2006) This Year's Count Elliot: 34 Ellen: 34 Grace: 30 Tedd: 26 Sarah: 24 Susan: 22 Nanase: 12 Mr. Raven: 13 Mr. Verres: 9 Catalina: 8 Abraham: 7 Bloodgrem: 7 Justin: 5 Tony: 5 Rhoda: 4 Principal W.: 4 Sandi: 4 Diane: 3 Lavender: 3 Fox: 3 Dick: 3 Goo: 2 "Ronin": 2 Helena: 2 Magus: 2 Mr. Alephnull: 2 Amanda: 1 Damien: 1 Jeremy: 1 Liz: 1 Screaming Girl: 1 Lord Tedd: 1 Brownie: 1 Lucy: 1 Demitrius: 1 Matt Cohen: 1 Lisa: 1 Agent Wolf: 1 Agent Cranium: 1 Mrs. Kitsune: 1 Victor Von Hip: 1 Inner Tiffany: 1 Inner Susan: 1 Liz's Ex: 1 Full Count:

2007 was a short year in terms of the archives. There were a lot of delays and missed days and gaps. It was so sparse, in fact, that tallying it up took well under an hour, though putting it all in here will likely take a little longer... Characters Introduced This Year Terra Agent Wolf Agent Cranium Mrs. Kitsune Akiko Mr. Kitsune Lavender Catalina Mr. Alephnull Characters Returning After a Year or More Liz (2002) Duck (2003) Bill (2003) Drake (2003) "The Woman" (2004) Lucy (2004) Principal V. (2005) Magus (2005) This Year's Count Ellen: 24 Nanase: 22 Grace: 20 Elliot: 19 Tedd: 17 Susan: 16 Sarah: 12 Justin: 11 Mr. Verres: 8 Magus: 7 Agent Wolf: 7 Agent Cranium: 7 Pandora: 6 Catalina: 5 Diane: 4 Matt Cohen: 3 Mrs. Kitsune: 3 Lavender: 3 Principal V.: 2 Bill: 2 Mr. Pompoms: 2 "The Woman": 2 Rhoda: 2 Lucy: 2 Terra: 2 Akiko: 2 Mr. Alephnull: 2 Liz: 1 Brownie: 1 Duck: 1 Drake: 1 Helena: 1 Mr. Kitsune: 1 *This is the first year that neither Elliot nor Grace took the top spot. Amazingly, neither of them even hit #2. Full Count:

If you'll notice, this thread was actually created in March of last year. Regardless, he and I have both been doing this for years and years, completely independent of each other. I first started mine over six years ago, and this is merely a reboot of that after the original was lost when the old forum crashed. I typically update on a daily or semi-daily basis (as I plan to again once I'm caught up), whereas Ookii, when it's maintained regularly, usually waits until the end of each storyline. Now, on to 2006! Characters Introduced This Year Kaoli Pandora (silhouette only) Alice (Q&A only) Characters Returning After a Year or More Minion (2003) William (2003) Gillian (2003) Mrs. Pompoms (2004) Nioi (2004) Mr. Pompoms (2004) Noah (2004) Diane (2004) Rhoda (2004) This Year's Count Grace: 47 Tedd: 46 Susan: 43 Elliot: 42 Sarah: 42 Nanase: 39 Justin: 38 Ellen: 31 Amanda: 9 Lisa: 9 Jeremy: 6 Demonic Duck: 6 Second Life Ellen: 5 Second Life Archie: 4 Dan: 3 Mrs. Pompoms: 3 Nioi: 3 Second Life Kaoli: 3 Matt Cohen: 3 Hedge: 2 Melissa: 2 Second Life Tedd: 2 Diane: 2 Rhoda: 2 Helena: 2 Alice: 2 Dr. Germahn: 1 Mr. Verres: 1 Vlad: 1 Greg: 1 Brownie: 1 Minion: 1 William: 1 Gillian: 1 Mr. Pompoms: 1 Noah: 1 Susan's Logic: 1 Demitrius: 1 Kaoli: 1 Pandora: 1 *Kaoli is marked as a distinct character separate from her Second Life counterpart, just like Ellen and Tedd. This was an oversight on the original count that has been corrected. **Pandora was not originally credited for her one appearance here, as it was in silhouette during a Q&A segment before her character was introduced. ***This is the second year (the first being 2004) that Elliot has not had the most appearances. As with that year, he placed fourth, and as with that year, it was Grace who took the top spot. This is the first time either Tedd or Susan have outranked him. ****This is the first time Justin has not had the fewest appearances out of the main cast. *****This year is notable for having almost no appearances outside of the main cast, as is evidenced by the fact that no one aside from the eight of them broke out of the single digits. This is due to the bottle episode nature of the Grace's Birthday Part story arc, wherein most of the action is contained to a single evening in Tedd's house. Most of the other characters who did make appearances did so in flashbacks, fantasy sequences, or else during the brief Q&A segment and short series of guest strips at the end of the year. Full Count:

One more before I go to bed for the night. 2005: New Characters Introduced Susan's Curiosity Susan's Logic Demitrius Helena Magus Matt Cohen Mr. Bleuel Lisa Characters Returning After Not Appearing for More than a Year Dr. Germahn (2003) Goo (2002) Tony (2003) "Ronin" (2002) This Year's Count Elliot: 65 Tedd: 63 Grace: 59 Susan: 54 Sarah: 47 Nanase: 44 Justin: 42 Ellen: 40 Jeremy: 13 Hedge: 10 Vlad: 9 Demitrius: 8 Guineas: 7 Helena: 7 Magus: 6 Principal V.: 4 Greg: 4 Demonic Duck: 3 Dr. Sciuridae: 3 Susan's Curiosity: 3 Matt Cohen: 3 Mr. Verres: 2 Second Life Ellen: 2 Second Life Kaoli: 2 Second Life Archie: 2 Second Life Tedd: 2 Susan's Logic: 2 Dr. Germahn: 1 Amanda: 1 Goo: 1 TC: 1 Tony: 1 "Ronin": 1 Brownie: 1 Melissa: 1 Mr. Bleuel: 1 Lisa: 1 Full Count:

I always did have fun doing this. Might I be so bold as to request a sticky? Anyway, 2004! New Characters Introduced: Specialist Steve Commander Jaguar Mr. Pompoms "The Woman" Second-Life Ellen Second-Life Mrs. Dunkel Second-Life Kaoli Second-Life Archie Second-Life Tony Second-Life Tedd Noah Diane Rhoda Lucy Returning Characters Who Did Not Appear Last Year Principal V Greg Demonic Duck This Year's Count: Grace: 78 Ellen: 56 Nanase: 45 Elliot: 42 Damien: 32 Vlad: 30 Hedge: 30 Guineas: 27 Tedd: 22 Dr. Sciuridae: 19 Susan: 15 Sarah: 13 Justin: 11 Mr. Verres: 9 Nioi: 9 Second-Life Ellen: 7 Second-Life Kaoli: 6 Jeremy: 5 Commander Jaguar: 5 Second-Life Tedd: 4 Noah: 4 Brownie: 3 Specialist Steve: 3 Diane: 3 Mr. Pompoms: 2 Principal V: 2 TC: 2 Mr. Guyur: 2 Second-Life Archie: 2 Rhoda: 2 Lucy: 2 Amanda: 1 Greg: 1 Demonic Duck: 1 Gen. Shade Tail: 1 Melissa: 1 Mrs. Pompoms: 1 "The Woman": 1 Second-Life Mrs. D.: 1 Second-Life Tony: 1 Full Count:

2003! New Characters introduced: Brownie Duck Bill Drake Melissa Dan Minion Mr. Tensaided Mrs. Pompoms Dr. Sciuridae Mr. Brown William Gillian Mr. Guyur Original Grace Nioi This year's count: Elliot: 102 Tedd: 88 Ellen: 85 Grace: 79 Nanase: 73 Sarah: 71 Susan: 61 Justin: 48 Mr. Verres: 29 William: 25 Gillian: 25 Hedge: 19 Damien: 13 Brownie: 12 Jeremy: 11 Dan: 8 Mrs. Dunkel: 7 TC: 6 Guineas: 6 Duck: 6 Mr. Dunkel: 5 Dr. Germahn: 4 Amanda: 4 Bill: 4 Dr. Sciuridae: 4 Nioi: 4 Tony: 3 Melissa: 3 Vlad: 2 Gen. Shade Tail: 2 Lord Tedd: 2 Mr. Tensaided: 2 Drake: 2 Minion: 2 Mr. Brown: 2 Screaming Girl: 1 Mrs. Pompoms: 1 Mr. Guyur: 1 Original Grace: 1 Full count:

I'm back, ladies and gentlemen. When the thread was lost after the forum reboot and an old version was recovered, the amount of re-calculating that would have taken me was somewhat demoralizing, and I kept putting it off. Long story short, I ended up moving, losing the original count entirely, and never got around to starting up again. Well, I'm currently sitting around with nothing to do, have acquired some fancy new pens, and thought I'd try them out with a new-and-improved version of the character count. Improved for me, at least. Now each year's worth of appearances in my notebook will be color-coded. Neat! That does sort of mean I have to start over, which is actually more work than trying to pick up where I left off, but whatever. I'll be posting the counts one year at a time until I catch up. Here's 2002: Elliot: 136 (1st to 50, 1st to 100) Tedd: 127 (3rd to 50, 2nd to 100) Grace: 102 (4th to 50, 3rd to 100) Sarah: 91 (2nd to 50) Ellen: 52 (5th to 50) Greg: 41 Nanase: 37 Goo: 30 Susan: 28 Justin: 21 Mr. Verres: 16 Jeremy: 12 Tony: 9 Dr. Germahn: 6 Amanda: 5 MN Science Teacher: 5 Principal V: 5 TC: 4 Hedge: 4 Rat: 4 Matt: 4 Vlad: 3 Unusagi: 3 Travis-san: 3 Demonic Duck: 3 Beta Tedd: 3 Liz: 3 Damien: 2 Beta Ellen: 2 Guineas: 1 Mr. Dunkel: 1 Mrs. Dunkel: 1 "Ronin": 1 Screaming Girl: 1 Gen. Shade Tail: 1 Lord Tedd: 1 Bold denotes a member of the main cast. Obviously I don't need to indicate which characters made their debuts this year, as that would be all of them. That feature will begin in 2003.

Reading it again, I think the funniest thing about this strip is not that this works, but that it occurred to Nanase to try it in the first place.

He just has to make sure he has his phone on him whenever he transforms, I guess. Does this also mean he could start his car just by thinking about it, provided he had his keys? The possibilities are endless. Also, Dan's commentary immediately made me think of Louis C.K.'s routine, "Everything is amazing and nobody's happy." (Might be NSFW, depending on how your boss feels about certain words, and about you watching YouTube videos when you're supposed to be working.) Seriously though, language. Don't watch it if that's going to bother you.

That's brilliant! It means I'll still have to go back a little bit, but better a month or so than fourteen years. Thanks!