Oh, yeah. Right. Characters.
Ignoring the obvious (GTO = Onizuka, CCS = Sakura), here we go:
Bleach (Toshirou Hitsugaya (tough one))
One Piece (Crazy toss-up between Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro.)
Azumanga Daioh (Osaka)
Cowboy Bebop (Ed)
Fate/stay night (Archer)
Galaxy Angel (Mint)
Getbackers (Makubex would be if he weren't so emo. Ginji wins.)
Last Exile (Alvis)
My-Hime (Akira gogo)
Outlaw Star (Jim)
R.O.D -The TV- (Anita)
s-CRY-ed (Cougar)
Stellvia (Shipon (obvious. Oh well. I love this anime too much to not mention it.))
Trigun (Kuroneko. Anyone who says Vash and/or Wolfwood > Kuroneko is lying and must be shot.)
Yakitate!! Japan (Suwabara Kai)
The obvious winner of them all is Kuroneko.
Duh.
~Squeek
PS - Miyazaki. Again, Google is your friend. Also, he's probably the most famous Japanese anime figure known to man, so not knowing his name when even some non-anime viewers know it is... well, kinda sad. Not to say I've even seen all of his movies (check my list; I've seen one so far), but he's just the most well-known person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli