30. Nanase Kitsune (El Goonish Shive)
With Nanase being the last EGS character to appear on this countdown, I figure it's now safe to post my EGS inequality to let people know exactly where certain characters fit.
Nanase > Susan >> Grace > Justin >>>> Ellen > Tedd >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Elliot >>>>> Sarah
The top four are awesome, the next two are good, but a bit one-note, and the bottom two are bland as hell. Anyway, why Nanase rocks. For starters, she's azn, which is made of win and love. Second, she's been extremely well-developed, like Susan, as someone who started out as just a minor character, outside of the core cast of Elliot/Sarah/Tedd. She started as a rival for Elliot at his martial arts dojo who was extremely good at kicking his ass, and then it turns out that she's also dating Elliot (a fact he doesn't tell Sarah, who also likes him that way). This leads to teen angst and drama, with Nanase breaking up with Elliot so he can be with Sarah, as well as the start of the "Justin jokes about Nanase being a lesbian" storyline. She's out of the picture for a while and shows up again to help defend Ellen from a goo monster using her magic martial arts powers, and she is, on multiple occasions in the early going of Ellen coming into being, the voice of reason who helps Ellen get through the tough time of having essentially been born just a few days earlier.
Anyway, Nanase is attracted to Ellen (who is essentially the female version of Elliot), but believes it to be the result of pheromones due to Ellen being some scientifically modified supergirl. Anyway, she talks to Susan about this, who tells her that there are no pheromones and that her feelings are real...which leads to a minor mental breakdown for Nanase, who realizes that Justin is right, she IS a lesbian, and her ultra-conservative mother is probably gonna crucify her for being that way. Anyway, she skirts the issue, thinking her secret is safe with Susan (and Elliot, who she told during her angst attack), although Susan accidentally told both Justin AND Ellen, and then Grace/Sarah overhear her talking about it with Susan, resulting in the entire cast, minus Tedd, being in on the secret. They go to war together against Damien (seriously, you guys MUST read the entire comic) with Ellen saving Nanase's life by catching her when she falls from a hypersonic sound blast. But then everyone is okay, everyone wins. Happy times.
This all leads to Grace's birthday party in which everyone switches genders (except Ellen) and Nanase takes the opportunity to dress Ellen a wee bit slutty before turning into a guy and acting like "Oh! I like you and want to be around you because I'm a dude now! Totally normal!" No one's buying this, of course, and after hiding from her feelings all night, Nanase finally breaks down and tells Ellen everything, and they share a tender moment on the porch before spending the night together (not THAT way. All they did was sleep and cuddle.) Since then, it's basically been relationship drama from those two, with Nanase wanting to stop hiding herself from the world, and eventually changing her outfits to ones she enjoys, rather than what her mother finds acceptable. She and Ellen get into a fight over her new hairstyle and then a wizard attacks the school in an effort to kill Ellen. This results in Nanase nearly killing herself to defend her girlfriend and even gaining the ability to turn into an angel because of just how much she cares. And even recent developments have been interesting, and honestly, the relationship is more dynamic from Nanase's part than Ellen's so yeah, she makes the list.