Rin Tohsaka (Fate)

Rin Tohsaka is a character in the multimedia franchise Fate, which consists of anime, manga, light novels, visual novels, and video games. Her biggest role is in Fate/stay night, in which she is the Master of the Archer Class Servant during the Fifth Holy Grail War. In the Unlimited Blade Works route she's the love interest of the main protagonist Shirou Emiya, while in the Fate and Heaven's Feel routes she's just a supporting character. She has a minor role in Fate/Zero, as she is only 8 years old, and is a supporting character in the magical girl spinoff series Fate/kaleid liner prisma Illya, where she's responsible for giving her magical girl powers to Illyasviel von Einzbern. She's the daughter of the deceased Tokiomi Tohsaka and Aoi Tohsaka, the niece of the deceased Kariya Matou, the sister of Sakura Matou, and, in the Unlimited Blade Works route becomes the girlfriend, (and probably hte wife in the future), of Shirou Emiya. After Fate/stay night she becomes the head of the Tohsaka Family, one of the greatest Mage families, and is one of the greatest mages in the world, ranked in the top 10 according to the Mages Association.

Why She Rocks

 * 1) Incredibly cute AND sexy character design. Her long, slender, stocking covered legs are notable for being very memorable and memeable in the internet's anime community. Especially as Ishtar and Ereshkigal.
 * 2) Unique, interesting personality.
 * 3) * She's a tsundere, but she isn't as angsty as most tsunderes from anime and manga, she's actually very likeable. Her Tsundere personality only comes out once in awhile, and most of the time Shirou, in his obliviousness, kind of has it coming.
 * 4) Great voice acting in both sub and dub.
 * 5) Rin has interesting relationships with several characters in the series. Most notable example is Shirou.
 * 6) She didn't get along with Shirou very much at first.
 * 7) * They were just classmates initially, and while she did have a slight crush on him, her upbringing forced her to shove that to the back of her mind. When he became a master in the Fifth Holy Grail War, she was saddened, but ultimately accepted that they would be enemies. However, she eventually grows closer with him as friends, and they even team up briefly. In the Unlimited Blade Works route,  she and Shirou even fall in love and start dating.
 * 8) *She has hated Kirei Kotomine, for unknown reasons, ever since she was 7 years old in Fate/Zero. In Fate/stay night he becomes her legal guardian, which makes things even worse for her.
 * 9) *When she was young in Fate/Zero, both she and Sakura loved Kariya, their uncle, dearly. They looked up to him, which made him want to help them even more. It's unknown how she feels about him now, or if she ever discovered his fate.
 * 10) *In Fate/Zero, she loved, looked up to, and admired her father greatly. Even 10 years later in Fate/stay night, she loves hearing praise for her father, and gets angry whenever someone insults him.
 * 11) *In Fate/stay night she had a bit of a rocky relationship with her Servant, Archer. Archer was always incredibly cocky and sarcastic, which seemed to annoy Rin a lot.  However, the two eventually grow closer, and become an incredibly effecient team during combat.
 * 12) She's very skilled in martial arts and magic.

Trivia
In response to what Gen said Nasu stated that "It's true that Rin is different from Saber. Rin is written as a completely different gender. She also has a sort of pride in the fact that she's a beautiful girl. With a girl like that by his side, even an unsociable person like Shirou loses his presence of mind."
 * Kinoko Nasu's original story of Fate, Rin's original archetype was Misaya Reiroukan, she was designed to be a villainess and original master of Lancer in the novel. When Takashi Takeuchi convinced Nasu to change the setting of the story, Rin's role as a villain was eventually changed to one of the selectable heroines of Fate/stay night. Both Takashi Takeuchi and Kinoko Nasu thought Kana Ueda's voice is too cute and they thought "Should we look for another possibility for Rin's voice? How about making Rin act overly proud with a cute voice? However it could be risky." In the end they dared to make Rin's voice cute.
 * Kana Ueda figured out how to play Rin in the Studio Deen anime adaptation when she played the original Fate/stay night game, she understood Rin had to put away her feelings a long time ago. When Kana was recording the radio show for Fate /stay night, Takeuchi made illustrations of Rin on colored paper for her. Even though Kana had been selected for the part, when it came to voicing the character for the real thing, she could not imagine Rin coming out of her voice. For a long time she had this sense of incompatibility. She normally don't feel that sense of incompatibility when she play characters from other works. *Kana was half in doubt so she ended up asking Nasu if it was really okay for her to play Rin. He said it was fine, but she wondered if it was all right. Kana also thought maybe she should not say that in front of the scenario writer. While playing Rin in Fate/stay night, several other spinoff and related products. She tries to make her match the pace of the story she is in. There are a lot of very delicate, minor changes. In the Studio Deen adaptation TV series, Rin decided to watch over Shirou and Saber. When they recorded the voices for the PS2 game Realta Nua, Rin was a lot more emotional than she was in the show. Kana has to adjust her acting carefully within that kind of field.
 * Gen Urobuchi thinks the true heroine of Fate/stay night is Rin because in the Unlimited Blade Works route, it was an equal relationship with a woman who's become stronger than most men is depicted. Rin and Shirou mend each other's weaknesses with their own unique strengths, and he think it makes it a very nice relationship.
 * Takeuchi commented how impressed he was with how Rin turned out. Stating that the idea of making a villainous character that everybody had a low opinion of into a major heroine was initially largely frowned upon by the staff and it was a huge risk. However, after successfully finishing the game, the character became a success, and was greatly well liked.
 * Kana Ueda (Voice Actress of Rin) thought of her as a commanding and imperious young girl, like her name implies. Although hidden within that image of a girl who always tries hard is someone who is also childish and playful. Rin has both of these aspects, and she's charming because of it. Kana Ueda has played the role of Rin for such a long time that she really like the Master and Servant pairing of Rin and Archer now. Kana compared herself to Rin, she think she's a little more excitable than Rin, and she make more mistakes. Kana tries not to let it show, but she doesn't mind if you see them because she's a clumsy girl. Personally speaking, she wanted to continue with another story set in the Fate main timeline. She thinks it'd be great if she gets to play Rin again.
 * Rin Tohsaka is one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise.
 * In the Fourth character popularity poll in 2003, Rin was ranked 93rd.
 * In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Rin was ranked 2nd. Tsuku Rin (Tiger Dojo) was ranked 33rd. Loli Rin was ranked 55th.
 * In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Rin was ranked 2nd. Kaleidoscope & Magical Ruby was ranked 14th. Zhuge Rin was ranked 40th. Rin Tohsaka of a parallel world is ranked 46th. Hetare Rin was ranked 68th.
 * In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Rin from Fate/stay night was ranked 4th and the third most voted female character. Rin from Fate/Zero was ranked 130th.