Anime Character List (V2)

Anime Character List (V2) is the sidekick node of the Azazeal Anime Characters pack. It doesn't output a prompt - it outputs a character name, from a dropdown, and it exists so you don't have to type "Holo" or "Makise Kurisu" from memory into the pack's main node. If you know the show but blank on the character, this is the node that saves you a tab to MyAnimeList.

It's a genuinely thin helper, so let's be honest about what it's for: the companion AnimeCharacterPromptSelectorV2 needs a character_name string, and this node exists to fill that field with a real name from the pack's catalog of ~15,800 anime and tens of thousands of characters. On its own it's a dead end. Wired into the selector, it's the difference between guessing a name and picking it.

How it works

The pack ships with an 88 MB directory of JSON files - one per anime, each listing {name, prompt, image_url} entries. This node's job is just to read names out of that data. It gets its dropdown lists from a cached .index.json that's built (and rebuilt when files change) on startup, so it stays fast even though it's scanning thousands of files.

Here's the one gotcha you'll actually hit. In the source, the character_name dropdown is populated from the first anime title in the sorted list, not from whatever you've selected in the anime_title widget above it. ComfyUI computes a node's dropdown choices when the node is created, not when you change a widget, so switching anime_title will not re-populate the character list. You get one anime's worth of characters to choose from. It's a real limitation of the V2 design, and the honest workaround is to use the free-text character_name on the Prompt Selector instead - or to treat this node purely as a name picker whose output you wire forward.

The inputs and output that matter

• anime_title - dropdown, ~15,804 choices. Pick the show.
• character_name - dropdown of characters for that anime (see the gotcha above).
• Output character_name (STRING) - the only output. Wire it into the character_name input of AnimeCharacterPromptSelectorV2, or into any node that accepts prompt text.

That's the whole node. Two inputs, one output, and its entire reason to exist is to feed its sibling.

Installing it

Same install as the rest of the pack - this is one package, so you get both V2 nodes at once:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/azazeal04/Azazeal_Anime_Characters_ComfyUI

Then restart ComfyUI. Or skip the terminal: open ComfyUI Manager → Install Custom Nodes and search for anime_character_selector (that's the pack's display name), then restart.

The pack has zero Python dependencies - no requirements.txt, nothing but the standard library and the bundled data files. There are no model downloads and no API key. The only "heavy" thing is that 88 MB of JSON data that comes with the clone.

Common issues

• Character dropdown looks empty or shows one anime's characters. That's the static-choices gotcha above, not a broken install. Restart won't fix it because it's by design.
• Nothing appears in the search. Make sure you restarted ComfyUI after cloning, and that you're searching Manager for anime_character_selector, not "Anime Character List".

If all you need is a prompt string, you can honestly skip this node and use the Prompt Selector's free-text field. Reach for List V2 when you want the catalog - with ~15,800 anime and tens of thousands of named characters, it's the difference between knowing a name and finding it.