Mohsin Lag
The Top 10 Best Anime Anti Hero Characters
10. Gary Oak – Pokemon
“If you showed up on time, you would’ve seen that I got the best Pokémon from Professor Oak! It pays to have a grandfather in the Pokémon business, isn’t it?”
We need to start noticing Pokemon on this blog. And here to make us remember that it is an anime for all ages is Gary Oak, the infamous rival of Ash Ketchum and grandson of Professor Oak who, in the video games, seems to have his name forgotten by his grandfather. Starting off with the pokemon starter Squirtle, which Ash originally wanted, he went on through the series to become the best pokemon trainer while being a bit of a prick about it.
I think what most attracts us to Gary is how much he is like a typical person who plays the games. Where Ash talked about how he wants to bond with the pokemon, Gary doesn’t say any such crap and instead gets the strongest pokemon around to fight against the Gym Leaders, one after another until he can become the Pokemon Master. He has his own group of cheerleaders who literally cheered him on during every battle, and we all had a small inkling of understanding when we saw them. Who wouldn’t cheer for a guy who can annihilate almost every Gym Leader without following Ash’s silly and hypocritical rules?
Looking back on my childhood, it’s amazing that Gary wasn’t around more. Other than Giovanni cheating using Mewtwo, Gary beat every Gym Leader before Ash did and he always went against Ash’s goody-two-shoes ways to do it. Tragically, Gary is no longer a part of the series and spends his days as a proper friend of Ash now and works as a researcher for his grandfather. And due to his lack of proper time, this anti-hero only makes it to the 10th spot.
9. Seto Kaiba – Yu-Gi-Oh
“Do you ever shut up? I know what it means. Now you can summon your strongest monsters to the field more easily. Please, what do you take me for, some kind of rookie?”
Yu-Gi-Oh has many characters that you will forget without a moment’s notice. Like Tristan. However, Seto Kaiba is something very special. Why? Well, it’s because he is one of the biggest examples of anti-heroes ever. He’s self-involved, selfish, arrogant and obsessed with that card game that the entire world of Yu-Gi-Oh takes far too seriously. Kaiba is the CEO of the multi-national gaming company known as KaibaCorp and is the proud wielder of the infamous Blue-Eyes White Dragon card.
What makes this anime character an anti hero is that there are some positive qualities to him. He’s a talented orphan and tactician who looks out for his little brother Mokuba (who gets kidnapped literally every season of the anime), and Mokuba always comes first for Seto. During the series, Kaiba has fought many foes and heroes, including the main protagonist Yugi Motou several times. And just in case you’re wondering, he lost every time, I think.
Whenever a villain of the series is wreaking havoc, chances are that Mokuba will get kidnapped and this will cause Seto to jump into action and maybe pair up with his rival. Whether it’s jumping out windows, flying jets shaped like his dragon or hosting an entire tournament based around a children’s card game, he’ll do whatever he wants, when he wants. And damn it, we’re going to let him.
8. Ciel Phantomhive – Black Butler
“Pain tends to heal as time passes, but personally, I don’t want time to heal my wounds.”Speaking of rich people, we now come to the young head and only survivor of the Phantomhive family, Ciel. After his family and home were wiped out by a fire, Ciel was kidnapped and sold to people that even the manga has yet to explain.
The Anime will gets better When he finally made a deal with a demon to help him avenge his family, he escaped and began his life as an anti-hero who worked for the queen and carried out tasks that many would consider cruel, dark or unnecessary.
Many would say that the true anti-hero of this series is Sebastian, Ciel’s butler. However, I personally disagree for one reason. Everything that Sebastian does in the series is by Ciel’s orders. Ciel is ruthless, selfish and shrewd, doing whatever he wants because it’s justified by his status and his desire for revenge. In many ways, he’s like a little brat who got smacked once and thinks that lets him have power over the non-smacked.
So what makes Ciel a high ranked anti-hero character on this anime list? It’s because he is a lot more complicated and unusual than people give him credit for. He might not be as hot or as brutal as Sebastian is (although many would disagree), but Ciel is in charge and makes harsh decisions. I don’t want to give too much away because trust me, he does some really dark stuff in the series, but Ciel’s willingness to not show mercy and make questionable decisions is what earns him such notice on this list.
7. Itachi Uchiha – Naruto
“You said that you see me dead at you feet. But you cannot possibly win against me. Unfortunately your goal will end as mere fantasy. Vanish like a dream upon waking.”
Everybody knows about Itachi Uchiha. He’s the older brother of the annoying Sasuke Uchiha and the one who slaughtered the entire Uchiha Clan, leaving only his little brother alive who would then go on to seek revenge against him in an angry rage. Chances are you already know this and are sick of hearing about it, since it gets talked about so much, but it turns out Itachi wasn’t the cold, ruthless villain we all thought he was, and he wanted Sasuke to be strong enough to kill him one day.
I know many naruto anime and manga franchise fans have different opinions of him, but I enjoyed his anti hero character. Itachi made a lot of mistakes during his time as an anti-hero, when let’s face it, there were so many other ways he could have solved his problems. (Maybe teach Sasuke a jutsu or two instead of making him turn evil and insane?). However, his decision to sacrifice everything and take on the “evil villain” role is one we can never forget.
Along with his partner Kisame, Itachi was one of the most notable members of the Akatsuki and made some of the biggest impacts on the entire series. He’s had his redemption now but we’ll always remember the times he spent as the false-villain, acting as dark and cool as possible with those red eyes that so many have come to love and loathe. And personally, I enjoyed how much he did and how much he gave up for it. He was a good man who made a lot of bad mistakes.
6. Scar – Fullmetal Alchemist
“I am walking down a path of no return, so I will leave behind me every gift I’ve received from God.”
When anime characters goals are constantly justified because of God, it’s a good chance they are an anti hero. I know some would call Greed a better anti-hero than Scar, but since Scar was in the series first and has a more tragic and justified background story, I give this spot to him. One of the few Ishvalans to survive a horrible civil war, Scar has a pure hatred for state alchemists, who work for the government and were ordered to participate in the war. Of course, one of the victims of the war was Scar’s alchemy-loving brother which started Scar’s path to killing as many state alchemists as he could.
In typical story-telling style, this makes Scar end up chasing after and trying to kill the man protagonist Edward Elric. At times, it’s hard to remember he’s an anti-hero because along the journey, he kills quite a lot of characters including what looks like the Monopoly man and one whom I nicknamed Mustachio Furioso (Google Basque Grand to see why.)
Scar is not a bad man but in anime nor in reality, you can never call a mass murderer a hero, hence the title anti hero. He has discarded his name due to walking away from the “path of God” and it’s hard not to love how he actually lost his arm and got his own dead brother’s arm sewn on to replace it. Of course, it’s a bit silly how he also turned out to be the killer of a specific character’s parents but fiction loves stuff like that. If you aren’t convinced he’s a good anti-hero yet, you should see how awesome his fighting is when he has no other choice but to work with Edward Elric.
5. Alucard – Hellsing
“How beautiful. Nights like this make me want a bite to drink. Yes… I couldn’t imagine a more… perfect evening.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is the greatest anime vampire ever put to fiction. Alucard is Dracula himself, but even more than that because he lives in the modern age and spends his time hunting other insignificant vampires and ghouls, all for his master Integra Hellsing. Arguably one of the most sadistic anime characters ever, Alucard enjoys the death, slaughter and blood of his opponents to a twisted level that shows he is definitely not a good person.
He’s got the guns, the knowledge and the bloodlust needed to be a complete villain, but the fact he’s on the size that are against the nazis just show how everything is not how it seems. Alucard is easily the most terrifying character in the series, and everyone who faces him becomes fully aware of why you shouldn’t mess with him. He tears people apart and decorates flagpoles with their corpses, and you support him because he’s on the side of the good guys.
He does have some semblance of a backstory which could be considered tragic, but that was so long ago and he’s done so much that the story nowhere near justifies his mass murdering psychotic reign of terror. And yet, we love him. We do, because he is so much fun. He can do whatever he wants and kill every character and even use the souls of those he has drank as pawns in his massive destruction, and we will still love hellsing anime tv shows due to his disturbing anti hero ways.
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