Top 10 Favorite Male Anime Characters

Characters are what make every show even better. When it comes to anime, we are presented by stereotypes and hugely different characters, whether it’s a protagonist or an antagonist, we love all the same. Maybe sometimes we can’t help but love the villain, perhaps he’s too hot for our minds to register hate, or the villain is simply another version of The Joker. Nobody can hate The Joker, can they?

Characters alone can make us adore the plot or just throw it away in the trash, because let’s face it, sometimes they can get really under our nerves. Today, we bring you the best male characters. There can never be a page long enough for all the anime characters out there that deserve a place in our hearts and our minds; there always been a debate to which should make the cut and which should not, but here are our top ten favorites.

10. Levi Ackerman (Shingeki No Kyojin)

In a broken, shattered world, exist Humanity’s Strongest, also called Levi Ackerman. Levi is presumed to be one of everyone’s favorite character and for good reasons. Levi, Captain of the Survey Corps, is the strongest soldier they have as a human. His striking personality can deter people into thinking he is stone-cold, heartless. Mostly due to his expressionless face, or by just being a grumpy cat. This Ackerman is highly respected by his fellow soldiers to his great achievements, and not even once bragged about it. Levi’s personality is very tricky indeed, for he seems heartless and cold-blooded. But he’s just not a man to show his emotions; he deeply cares for his comrades and would do anything for them.

Levi’s background, according to the OVA, holds a small piece of the puzzle of his life. Him being an underground thug is the reason Erwin found him, and took it upon himself to recruit such a short man with great power that could possibly save humanity from Titans. Erwin was right that time. Levi has a great record when it comes to how many Titans he killed over the time.

9. Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)

Bullied, heartbroken, lost, parentless Naruto never ceases to stop believing in himself or pursuing his dreams till the last bit of the puzzle is all fit and making a perfect portrait. Naruto is the symbol of a kid who never stops smiling no matter how many misfortunes come his way, and there were plenty. He was born in Konoha, the hidden village of leaves with a very powerful nine-tailed fox residing in him as well. That never made it easy for Naruto. As a kid, he always had to deal with people calling him a monster, giving him the stinky-eye, but he never knew why until he grew up.

Despite every mishappening in his life, Naruto’s smile never ceased to exist and he is always the sunshine whenever there was something ugly and dark out there in the world of ninjas; he could be awfully comedic. He could be a knuckle-head, but Naruto always knew the right speech to give and the right thing to do. Simply put, he is the yin and yang.

8. Sakata Gintoki (Gintama)

Yin and Yang are probably the best words to describe the white-haired samurai. Gintoki is a lazy guy who loves cake, manga, and the weather girl Ketsuno. He is the funniest character in the anime alongside his friends Kagura and Shinpachi, who work with him in Gin’s odd jobs. Till now, Gintoki is a mystery yet to unravel for anyone. His past, though a bit on the dark side to people, seems to be quite eventful. He was a samurai ever since he was a little kid, meaning he barely even knew kindness until he met his sensei, which later on loses.

Gintoki is described as Shiroyasha or the White Demon due to his white hair and clothes in the Joui war; his impressive abilities as a swordsman are what made him famous among everyone else especially the Amanto. Gintoki has a huge respect and pride towards old bushido code. Although he may seem a bit out of it, Gintoki proved, many times, that he is kind-hearted and caring, especially towards those he holds dearly to his heart. He can turn from just a white-haired young man into the Shiroyasha with dark, crimson eyes that lust for revenge of the fallen.

7. Johan Liebert (Monster)

Hitler, Devil, step aside and make room for Johan Liebert, the greatest villain of all time. The monster Johan Liebert shows us how much human nature can change and be twisted in his own way. Monster, the name of the anime, shows us that humans can turn into monstrous, dangerously intelligent sociopaths with obsessions to manipulate people with no means to an end through the character Johan. Johan, a twisted sociopath, didn’t have enough when it came to killing people. That wasn’t always fun as turning them into monsters like him.

Unlike Light Yagami, Johan welcomed death with open arms and resulted to playing with people’s minds to get what he wants. Johan’s personality, from childhood, was always challenging, tricky, and a sucker for chaos and destruction just like a nogitsune, he feeds on those things.

6. Rintarou Okabe (Steins Gate)

Rintarou is a young melodramatic, eccentric and often tsundere man. He can be quite odd when it comes to his personality as he has shown traits of Chunibyou syndrome, where he acts like 12-year-old often. He likes to claim he is a mad scientist and act like a villain. Okarin—a nickname of his—is presumed to be a delusional, dreamy, paranoid man. His has a weird behavior, which is accepted by some of his friends, like engaging in a phone conversation with himself and often throwing off a maniacal laughter to complete his act of a mad scientist.

Later on, it is revealed that his Chunibyou syndrome is an act to remind his dear friend Mayuri of their interesting childhood together. Rintarou’s personality is a stereotype in real life, as he is viewed to be this arrogant portrait of a man, but the real reason is he is just socially awkward.

5. Light Yagami (Death Note)

Intelligent, wicked, and adamant Light Yagami has a vision of the world in the future. Light, a prodigy student, finds himself with a Death Note, which creates his vision of the world without any criminal record, or anything that resembles that.

Light Yagami is a complicated character throughout the whole series. He wants to have a clean place to live in, so he takes it upon himself, with the Death Note, to become a new god and cleanse everything from madness and crime, not realizing he is to become the next serial killer without getting his hands dirty, unless it was by ink of the pen he held. Light is portrayed as a character who has too much power, which consumed him completely, making him egoistic and hated. That’s what happened to Light taking a huge responsibility of being a judge, jury, and executioner all at once. Eventually, his ego becomes his biggest downfall.

4. Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Fullmetal Alchemist, or just Edward Elric is a wildly ambitious young man, highly intelligent, and wiser than anyone at his young age. Edward is not a typical anime character that is presented as an idiot who is rather smart, in fact, it shows, from the start the huge, attracting personality he has. Edward is rather arrogant, smart and calculating, but there is just one tiny bit of a problem with him—he’s rather short for such a smarty-pants.

Edward’s background is show in the start, especially to what his love and arrogance led him to. He became handicapped, losing two of his limbs and the life of his brother, which he bound to a giant armor. Edward, though, never learned from his first mistakes well enough to not pursue another artifact that will inevitably help him regain everything to normal—him without the metallic limbs and his brother’s life. Yet, he is portrayed as multidimensional character, providing comedy, anguish, drama and much more in just one person.

3. Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)

Energetic, funny, bubbly Luffy is one hell of a person that nobody can hate him just for being him in the anime. With an unstoppable dreamland, Luffy proves to be such a dream catcher during the anime, showing off his multiple personality traits, even if it’s an itsy bitsy out of character from him, such as a rare hardcore glare that sends the other person receiving ablaze, or just make another hole in him.

Luffy seems quite odd and unintelligent at first, sent to fascination just by the simplest object that gets in his eye vision; rather childish very often, but he proves to be otherwise, as he can analyze a situation and what must be done due to him being straightforward in his way of seeing the world. The characteristic of having a stomach that never ceases to stop but take all there is edible. On the other hand, Luffy’s adorable optimism and sense of determination never changes throughout the anime, especially the trait he owns of never killing his opponents or enemies no matter how cold, evil, wicked they are.

2. L Lawliet (Death Note)

Languid, disheveled L. Lawliet can be quite confusing and if he were to be seen outside the real world. Nobody would dare to think he is very brilliant and one of the best detectives in the world. L comes off as a weird, creepy guy with strange habits. Habits like crouching or having no shoes at all, and a plate of cake in the palms of his hands. As well as being rather secretive and lacks, badly, communication.

L is a perfect contrast to the sociopath Light. For he seeks only what helps humanity in a way that wouldn’t hurt anyone, and he was the good guy. Simply put, he was truly light unlike Yagami, who resembles darkness. Quite ironic, isn’t it? This tension between L and Light created quite a drama between these two equally intelligent characters. Keeping the viewer entertained on the edge of his seat.

1. Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

A hero or an antihero, presumably the same in the anime world. But there was just the slightest difference when it comes to Lelouch. Any hero can get sick of doing good with damage, but getting fried just because he caused that damage. Lelouch represents a perfect image of a hero gone astray, floating away in the abyss. Lelouch always had good intentions in his mind, much like any evil mastermind. Yet his heroic way of viewing things soon crumbled away and was left of it was debris.

The end justify the means were his mantra. However, much to his dismay, he became one of those maniacs he tried to fight against. All due to his love for his sister and wanting her to have a better life. Lelouch rises and downfalls were like Picasso’s pink and blue periods. His went to a darker shade of blue each time he took action. Each time clouding his action, making it worse. His other persona he took Zero, an antihero with a cape and mask to cover his face. But that persona he took slowly merged with Lelouch and they became one. His plans were far greater than anyone would’ve thought. He succeeded, but the price was high.