GAR

Oddly enough though, Nanoha was a contestant in the 2007 SaiGar tournament

About

GAR is an anime-related terminology that is associated with “manly” and “badass” characters. Though once a popular and widely used slang, in recent years it’s usage has died down. The term is more or less inspired by the character Archer from the visual novel Fate/Stay Night.

Origin

An /a/nonymous user who meant to post “I am Gay for Archer” accidentally posted “I am Gar for Archer”. The typo quickly caught on in popularity and was widely used on /a/ and other anime-related internet forums. The term also became popular on /m/ (Mecha board) due to the popularity of the series GaoGaiGar.^[1]

Manime

Though this term has a different meaning from GAR, it has sprung up occasionally on /a/. However, this term is rarely taken seriously and it is mostly seen as buzzword that’s meant to insight trolling.

The term very loosely refers to shows that are aimed for a primarily male demographic. It is in fact very similar if not identical to the term shounen (shows that are created to aim for a young male demographic).

The irony is that many shows that fit under this category also largely appeal to fujoshi (Japanese slang term for nerdy/rotten girl) which is more or less counteractive towards the “manime movement”.

Different Meanings

It has different uses and meanings on /a/ and /m/. On /a/ the term refers to strong, manly, and badass characters. On /m/ it generally refers to hot-blooded characters.

Examples of popular GAR characters are Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kenpachi from Bleach, Toki from Hokuto no Ken, and Guts from Berserk.

SaiGAR

Due to GAR never having any sort of real definition, over time the usage of the term became more vague. It got to the point where characters like Kyon (a ordinary high school boy) from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Revy (a female character) from Black Lagoon were also included. Debates on it’s meaning was also one of the reasons behind the creation of the SaiGar tournament. ^[1]

The SaiGAR tournament was hosted in 2007 and 2008. Voting took place on the creator’s own personal site, though it was advertised on a variety of forums including 4chan’s /a/ board. ^[3] It was made as a counterpart to the 2ch annual Saimoe tournament for a variety of reasons, one of them being 4chan was not satisfied with the 2007 Saimoe tournament winners. 2008 was prematurely cancelled due to abuse of proxies by voters, though it was speculated that the creator (known as SaiGar guy) cancelled it because the character he wanted to win wasn’t going to win. ^[2]

Unfortunately, in 2009 it did not garner that much popularity and it has been suspended ever since.

Recently, there have been similar tournaments hosted on /a/ branded as Prince of /a/ and Princess of /a/ which were hosted in a very similar fashion to SaiGAR.

External References

^[1]Lurkmore Wiki – GAR

^[2]4chan /a/ – Saigar Suspended

^[3]Arlong Park Forums- Saigar 2007