So, this is a remix of an old post of the same name. I looked at it, and I realized that I didn’t really think it through in a substantial way. It was one of the first of these Top 10 posts, so I was new to it. But now, after putting in a lot of thought to this concept, I have come up with a new list. These are the ten anime characters who, when I first saw them, I thought to myself, “man, what a badass!” They have been in some pretty sweet shows (except for one), and I hope you enjoy.
10. Rika Nonaka
Digimon Tamers
A lot of you might be wondering – what the hell? Why is she on this list? Well, when I first saw her in the show that she hails from, she automatically appeared totally badass to me. Rika is a character who wants to be the best. Rather than try and capture Digimon, like most Tamers do, she chooses to simply have only one. She wants to train Renamon into the ultimate warrior. She doesn’t accept weakness, in either herself or her Digimon. She has a severe need to be the best, and she will do whatever it takes to get there. I really liked her personal journey. Even after she gets more in touch with her softer side, her need to kick ass and take names is still there. This was a really underrated series, and looking at her character, you can see why. Definitely the best of the bunch.
9. Lucy
Elfen Lied
Lucy isn’t like any of the characters on this list. For one thing, she’s one of the few female badasses in anime. I will admit that they have a ways to go in that department. But man, she is a total badass! Not only does she have no problem with killing and mutilating anyone that she doesn’t like, but she also has a very disturbing way about her. A head injury causes Lucy to become two people. The first is a mentally handicapped female who is kind of creepy, but very kind-hearted and nice. The second is a well-oiled killing machine, unafraid of anything. She can stop bullets. She can stop other Vectors (invisible hands that can totally destroy matter). She will fuck you up and find it all quite satisfying. The levels of satisfaction that she gets from carnage are profoundly disturbing. And her back-story is very tragic as well. All in all, a great character from probably one of the most disturbing shows that I have ever seen.
8. Alucard
Hellsing
Alucard is one of the most amusing badasses on this list. He is unique in that he doesn’t just fuck your shit up. He will fuck your shit up and mock you, endlessly. Who exactly Alucard is is a point of great contention among anime buffs. Myself, since those people annoy me, don’t look into it. Nor do I care. He comes and goes as he pleases, wields two giant guns, including one with the words, “Jesus Christ has died and is in Heaven now” written on the side in gorgeous lettering. The reason that he is so low on this list is that while he is a total badass, Alucard is also a rather shallow protagonist. They never gave him that much of a back-story, which is a bummer, because I would have loved to have known the reasons where his origins were. Sadly, they didn’t get into that. So, while he is an awesome badass, he is pretty low on the list.
7. Roy Mustang
Fullmetal Alchemist
Let me first say that I am focusing on the Mustang from the first series. I didn’t like Brotherhood. It moved WAY too fast and tried to pack in WAY too much into too short a time frame. But in the original, Mustang shined. He is a man with a past he tries to forget, and is forced to play within the rules of a system he despises. Eventually, he throws that all away, in order to finally get revenge for not only the people he had killed before, but for his best friend, who was killed because he got too close to the truth. Mustang is not only a guy with a badass history, he is just bad ASS! He can snap his fingers and make fire. He is a man who can make things explode with ease. Totally cool under pressure, nothing seems to phase him. He doesn’t get many fight sequences, but when he does, they own! Definitely made the first series better.
6. Mewtwo
Pokemon: The First Movie
So, I will say up front that I thought that this was a dumb movie. To be honest, this guy was the only redeeming quality of it. And man, what a redeeming quality he is! The same reason that I love Shere Khan, I love Mewtwo. Mewtwo is the biggest badass there is, and what’s more, he knows it. He knows that there is no legitimate challenge to his authority. And unlike Shere Khan, where you kind of have to take that on faith, and he does have a very commanding presence, in this, you get to see it. Mewtwo goes up against the best of them. He doesn’t just take on one Pokemon in one-on-one battles. He sometimes will go up against an entire horde of them. His power is undeniable, and eventually, he comes to realize that even humanity is lesser to him, and needs to be destroyed. How he talks is so badass, how he looks isn’t, but that is one of the things that is cool about him. Nobody takes him seriously at first, but they quickly realize that they can’t afford to do that. Oh yeah, and he isn’t afraid to kill people, either. He brutally murders all of the scientists and the criminals in two separate scenes where places are destroyed. Definitely was the only redeeming quality of these films.
5. Wufei Chang
Gundam Wing
Now, this one was difficult to choose. This series had a lot of badass characters. For me, it was a choice between Zechs Marquise and Wufei. I chose Wufei for a couple reasons. The first is that he is a warrior driven by integrity. He wants to prove his own strength. He looks down on people who don’t have strength. A lot of people say that he is sexist, because he has made sport of women from time to time. But he’s not. He doesn’t hate women. He hates weak women. Women who let their emotions get the better of them, or let personal insecurities hurt them. He respects women of strength, like Sally Poe. She is a soldier who will keep fighting, no matter how stacked the odds are against her. The second reason I picked him is because he mental fortitude that most of the others don’t. He was another of the pilots who was able to conquer the Zero System. That’s no mean feat. He was tough, strong, and didn’t accept weakness, in either himself or others. Oh, and he kicked a lot of ass too. That definitely helps.
4. Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Before I talk about this character, I think I should make a comparison to another similar character from the show Death Note, Yagami Light. Both are very similar. Both are incredibly intelligent young men who excel academically. Both are dissatisfied with the state of the world. Both want to change it. Yagami gets the Death Note, and uses it to kill the world’s criminals. Lelouch, on the other hands, gets a hold of a power called a Geass. His Geass allows him to take over the mind of anybody around him, so long as he has direct eye-contact. With this power, he starts a campaign to bring down the totalitarian dictatorship of the Britannian Empire. The difference between these two is that while there is some sense of twisted nobility to Light’s plan, most of it feels selfish and ego-maniacal. He immediately becomes consumed by his role with hardly a look back. Lelouch, on the other hand, is very slowly corrupted, by his power, and while he does use people in horribly awful ways, there are many times where he does look back and you can see that it causes him some inner turmoil. A character who pursues a selfish goal, even at the cost of his own soul is always going to be interesting, but it is more interesting when they have some awareness of it, and affects them on some level. Still, both are awesome characters. I just like this one a little bit more.
3. Sebastian Michaelis
Black Butler
What is so cool about Sebastian is that he is a character who never seems to let anything get to him. His only mission is to serve his master, and to be the best butler that he possibly can be. Sebastian is a demon. He made a pact with his master, Ciel Phantomhive. In exchange for helping him get revenge against the people who killed his family, Sebastian would then get the young man’s soul. Not only is this guy just too cool for school, but you get a lot of looks into how demented this obsession with getting a tasty soul is for him. There are a lot of points where you get to see just who this man dressed in black is, and it is both very cool and profoundly creepy at the same time. When the angel is torturing him, and offers him a whole buffet of souls instead of his, Sebastian turns her down, saying that he was tired of all the worthless souls. He wanted “ambrosia.” He has a very twisted dedication to Ciel, though you do see that it is all because he doesn’t want to lose out on his meal. Right up to the very end, he is loyal to him. Though the end of the entire series doesn’t play out just like he imagined. Still, he is poised, he is professional, and as he has said, he is “simply one Hell of a butler.”
2. Spike Spiegel
Cowboy Bebop
What sets Spike apart from all the other characters on this list is that his point of view is profoundly different than everybody else. He was a totally badass warrior, who used the same style of martial arts and Bruce Lee. He was also a really cool gunfighter, able to match up with the best of them. But what I loves most is that life seems to mean absolutely nothing to him. Whether he lives or dies is immaterial. He grew up in a life of crime, and is trying to leave it all behind. Unfortunately, he finds that the farther away he runs, the more his past runs to catch up to him. Not only one of my favorite anime characters, but also one of my favorite anti-heroes, there is something about his rather cold view on life that just clicks with me. In the end, he realizes that the only way that he can move on with life is to find out if he is still living or not. I won’t say what answer he comes to, if you haven’t seen the show.
And the top anime badass may just surprise you.
1. Zuko
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Say what you want, but man, was this guy badass! The fallen prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko is trying to reclaim his honor. As the series progresses, he realizes that the only way to get his honor back is to get it back from inside. It can’t be given to him. It has to be something that he finds for himself. Not only was this guy a totally awesome fire-bender, but he also was a pretty awesome swordsman. What’s cool about him is that he can use one without the other, but when both are combined, Zuko is a powerhouse like nobody else. Through the entire series, this is the character who goes through the most change. Lots of others have some personal transformations, but I think he was the one who grew the most. He accepts his past, embraces his future, and finds his honor again. What’s not to like?
Until next time, a quote,
“My father says that my sister was born lucky, and that I was lucky to be born.” -Zuko, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Peace out,
Maverick
