Skip to main content

The Most Popular Male Anime Characters of All Time

You can’t sit with us. Seriously, this table is reserved for anime’s most popular male characters of all time. Get lost, loser. Go sit with the other rejects. The guys at this table are way more stylish and overpowered than anyone else, you included. What’s that? You wanna know who they are? How do you not know already? Everyone knows these characters. Everyone worth knowing that is.

Recommended Videos

Listen, I can tell that you’re new. So I’ll let you know who they are this one time as a favor. That way you can go tell all your weird little friends that you almost got to talk with the coolest, most popular characters in the whole school.

10. Satoru Goju

(image credit: MAPPA)

Satoru Goju is a new kid like you, but he’s way hotter. Srsly, he’s like beautiful. He transferred over from one of Jujutsu Kaisen‘s sorcery schools. He’s a really powerful sorcerer. Like totally overpowered. Being really ridiculously good at something is basically the number one criteria for being a popular character in the anime fandoms. He might have only been on the scene for like … a year or so, but he’s totally earned his place.

9. Guts

(OLM Inc.)

OMG Guts from Berserk could totally be on the football team. He’s built like a linebacker. That guy is like 6’8″ and 320 pounds of solid beef. He’s too busy killing demons though and getting revenge on some god that betrayed him? Idk I never really listen to the backstories. I just like to bask in the glory of who the popular kids are now. Guts is a total fan favorite because he’s really good at killing demons. He’s got a sword that’s basically just a 200 pound slab of solid iron, but he can swing it around like it’s a toothpick. So cool. He’s also had like a really hard life so he gets a lot of sympathy points.

8. Reigen Arataka

Reigen being the best in the season three trailer for Mob Psycho 100
(image: BONES)

OK so Reigen Arataka from Mob Pyscho 100 is only good at one thing: confidence. Making people believe he’s good at something is literally his only talent. That and making the entire Tumblr community inexplicably lust after him. I don’t get it either. But they love him. So I love him. He’s like the #1 Tumblr Sexyman right now. The Onceler could never.

7. Roronoa Zoro

Zoro napping
(credit: Toei Animation)

Roronoa Zoro from One Piece is popular because he’s really good at using his mouth. For carrying swords. He fights with three at the same time. Two in his hands, and one between his teeth? Who else from anime does that? He’s so original. But like in a cool way and not in a weird homeschooled kid way. Seriously Roronoa Zoro is more popular than Monkey D. Luffy, and Luffy is the main character. Don’t tell Luffy I said that though, I still think he’s pretty cool. Just not as cool.

6. L. Lawliet

L in Death Note ep 25
(Viz Media)

L from Death Note was so popular when he was *sniffle* still alive. That’s why we save an empty seat for him. We also leave candy on it sometimes, cause he loved sweets so much. L was one of the smartest characters in anime history, but he got killed by that loser Light Yagami. He was so cute and lovable, literally everyone had a crush on him. When he died he got even more popular, because his death was so tragic. He’s like Van Gogh, you know? A lost genius. Too good for this world.

5. Saitama

Screenshot of Saitama being cool
(MAPPA)

That’s Saitama over there, but don’t even look at him. He could kill you with one punch. That’s why he’s called One Punch Man. He’s the most powerful anime character in history. He could beat anyone sitting at this table. Except maybe Reigen, no one else is that confident. He’d be higher on this list, but he’s a little bit of a dork when he’s not being a total badass. I don’t make the rules! The fans do. If he wasn’t the most powerful anime character ever he’d probably be sitting with the gamer nerds. Sad, but true.

4. Spike Spiegel

(image credit: sunrise)

Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop is one of the cool kids because being cool is his entire personality. But not in a “omg I just wanna be cool” way, more like a “I know I’m cool and I don’t even care” way. Literally the coolest, right? And he flies a spaceship, fights amazingly well, and dresses immaculately. I mean look at him, that suit? He’s the best dressed one here. Reigen Arataka could never.

3. Itachi Uchiha

(image credit: Pierrot)

Itachi Uchiha is the it boy from Naruto. And there are a lot of it boys from Naruto. Kakashi Hatake, Sasuke Uchiha (his little brother) and even Naruto himself! But Itachi is the it boy of it boys. He’s the most talented ninja of his generation, and he has one of the best “villain” to hero arcs in anime history. Fans were into him when they thought he was just a stone cold badass, but after finding out just how much he loves his little brother the fans made him a literal anime god.

2. Levi Ackerman

(image credit: Wit Studio)

Levi Ackerman from Attack On Titan is the anime community’s undisputed husbando right now. Everyone has the hots for him, even more than they do for Reigan Arataka. Totally get why. He’s good-looking, talented, and really mean. That’s been the criteria for being popular for as long as the concept of popularity existed! Levi Ackerman is the greatest warrior in the entire Attack On Titan universe. Trying to kill a group of titans is one degree away from suicide for a battalion of regular soldiers, but to Levi it’s just a Tuesday afternoon. He’s also a neat freak, and that’s hot. Who doesn’t love a man who would clean your house for you?

1. Son Goku

Goku
(Toei Animation)

Goku from Dragon Ball Z is the most popular anime character in history. Case closed. Without Goku there would be no Naruto, there would be no Monkey D. Luffy, there would be no Ichigo from Bleach. Goku is a total trendsetter. He because invented the form of how to be a “popular anime character”. He was the original overpowered protagonist, and he’s still going. Goku has been around since the 1980s. he’s almost forty years old. He’s an absolute legend. He was one of the reasons why anime itself got popular in the first place. It’s kinda weird that he hasn’t graduated yet even though he’s so old, but I heard it’s because every year he fails ever class except P.E. He skips class to fight aliens. Honestly I would too, it’s what made him so popular in the first place.

(Featured image credit: MAPPA)

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

Author
Jack Doyle
Jack Doyle (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels in crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.

Filed Under:

Follow The Mary Sue: