Top 10 Anime Antiheroes, Ranked
Some of anime’s best leads are not good people, or are good people doing terrible things. The antihero is where the medium gets its most interesting writing. Here are the ten who define the type.
The rankings
- Guts, Berserk. A mercenary who becomes a monster hunter and has to decide, every day, not to become a monster himself.
- Lelouch vi Britannia, Code Geass. A terrorist, a liar, a mass murderer and, by the end, the most selfless character in his own story.
- Light Yagami, Death Note. The protagonist as villain, and the show never lets you forget he was once right.
- Eren Yeager, Attack on Titan. Started as the hero, ended as the apocalypse, and the story treats that journey seriously.
- Thorfinn, Vinland Saga. Spends a season as a revenge machine and the next one learning he has no enemies.
- Alucard, Hellsing. A vampire who works for the church because it lets him kill things.
- Spike Spiegel, Cowboy Bebop. A bounty hunter running from a past that eventually collects.
- Vegeta, Dragon Ball Z. The longest redemption arc in anime and one of the best.
- Kaneki Ken, Tokyo Ghoul. A boy who becomes the thing he feared to protect the people who hurt him.
- Revy, Black Lagoon. No redemption, no apology, and one of the most honest characters on this list.
What separates an antihero from a villain
The audience understands why they do it. Light and Lelouch commit similar crimes; only one of them is written to make you agree, and that is the whole difference.
My take: Guts is number one because Berserk never lets him off the hook. Lelouch is number two because Code Geass does, and somehow makes that feel earned.
