Arle Nadja (Puyo Puyo)

Arle Nadja (アルル・ナジャ Aruru Naja) is a main character that appears in Puyo Puyo. Born on July 22nd, she is a young girl with magical powers and first appeared in Madou Monogatari. In the Madou Monogatari series, she was only 5 years old, but grew up around 16 years old in Puyo Puyo.

Why She Rocks

 * 1) Just by looking at her, she's adorable and cute no matter what appearance she takes in whether it be her Madou Monogatari incarnation or the Puyo Puyo incarnation.
 * 2) She does changes characteristics that are rather minor, but she's overall just a cheery girl that has a bit of tomboy spice in her blood.
 * 3) Don't be fooled by her because she may be just an optimistic girl, but she does express her other feelings as well which makes her not feel like that she doesn't only have one emotion. Like when she would scold at the Dark Prince.
 * 4) She's is described as the "straight man" (or should we say straight lady) cast who is often being bewildered by the many weirdos and jerks she encounters like when she would get annoyed by the Dark Prince who always attempts to marry her.
 * 5) Normally, she doesn't hold personal grudges towards anyone, even for her many enemies and rivals.
 * 6) *For example, Rulue and Arle are shown to be rivals yet Arle is more neutral towards Rulue and they have rarely teamed up together for a similar goal.
 * 7) *Despite the Dark Prince being seen as an antagonist of the franchise, Arle actually does not really hate him since she would rather show concerned when he's in peril. But that does not mean that Arle mostly expresses her embarrassment or disappointment to the Dark Prince most of the time.
 * 8) She does get this character development in Puyo Puyo Fever and onwards where her mean attitude is mostly downplayed or ignored which shows more of her peppy and cute personality.
 * 9) She has a strong relationship with Carbuncle which should be just as similar as a person taking good care for a pet. Basically, she and Carbuncle are just best buddies just like what you would expect from characters like Ratchet & Clank, Banjo & Kazooie, Crash & Aku Aku, Ralph & Vanellope, Spyro & Sparx, Judy & Nick, Donkey Kong & Diddy Kong, Arthur & Buster, McQueen & Mater, SpongeBob & Patrick, the list goes on. Heck, she even went on a quest to look for Carbuncle in Puyo Puyo~n.
 * 10) Even if Arle is a character that could be accepted as the main legit character in the Puyo Puyo series, she is shown to not be afraid to let Amitie and Ringo take the spotlight. She even develops a strong relationship with the two characters which would classify them as a trio that's often serves as the focus of Puyo Puyo material.
 * 11) You could say she would be brave enough to go on various quests as tasks like what she did in Puyo Puyo Tsu (for taking on a tower filled with Puyo Puyo foes) and Puyo Puyo Sun (for attempting to reverse the climate changes caused by Dark Prince).
 * 12) She taught Ringo on how to play Puyo after a busload of Puyos went into Ringo's world. So you could say that she does good at helping others.
 * 13) Has some funny moments like when she often calls Schezo a pervert, intentionally ignores his boasts to tick him off, or sometimes correcting his sentences for him
 * 14) *Speaking of Schezo, she can still tolerate him and still let's him join him in foiling the Dark Prince's schemes. In fact, she sometimes friends with him later on. Also, she doesn't hate him to the point that she portrays him as an enemy.
 * 15) She is considered a video game version of Dora the Explorer in some ways.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) In Puyo Puyo Tetris, it's been stated she hates hygienic things such as hand sanitation and not to play with your food.
 * 2) *Not to mention she wears the same outfit all year long. (Does she even wash it?)
 * 3) She can sometimes come off as surprisingly mean-spirited. Though her anger is now being downplayed since Puyo Puyo Fever.
 * 4) Her voice(s) in the English versions of Puyo Puyo Fever and Puyo Puyo (1992 arcade) aren't as good.
 * 5) To make things ironic for WSR #11's sub-pointer, she mercilessly decapitated Schezo in the PC98 version of Madou Monogatari 1-2-3, which results in a continuity error.

Trivia

 * Arle is named after Arles, a city in France, via the music "The Girl from Arles" by Georges Bizet.
 * Nadja is named after the titular femme fatale from the novel "Nadja" by André Breton.
 * Arle is the first and one of the few character with an asymmetrical design (though it's her clothing rather than a physical feature). She is also one of the only asymmetrical characters not to have a second set of art.
 * In the English version of Puyo Pop Fever, her name is pronounced "Are-lee". The English version of Puyo Puyo Tetris changed to "Are-ll" (as in "R"), which is similar pronounciation with Arles above, make sounds more accurate than "Are-lee". However, Satan exclusively uses "Are-lee" as the pronunciation of his pet name for her, "Arly" in the English version of Puyo Puyo Tetris.
 * Her favorite color is blue.
 * Despite her design changing through out the series, Arle states that she wears the same clothes 365 days a year.
 * In the English version of the original Puyo Puyo, she is named Silvana.
 * Being the most important character in the series, Arle has appeared in nearly every Puyo Puyo game in the series with the exception for some spin-offs.