20 Most Overrated Anime Characters

There are many well-known anime characters, but not all of them are deserving of our admiration. Actually, some of the protagonists are extremely overrated. So here are the 20 Most Overrated Anime Characters. Before You jump in

DISCLAIMER. Let me clear it up. Being overrated doesn’t always imply being as bad. It’s just that some of these characters are actually really cool, But they don’t deserve the hype the fans shower them with. So we cool?

If your favourite character is on this list, it doesn’t mean I or you shouldn’t like them or love them; it only means there are valid reasons why other people might not share your opinion.

Some most overrated anime heroes cling to known clichés without giving them a fresh or intriguing twist. Others are simply tainted figures who committed terrible crimes but were ultimately disregarded by the fandom.

Read Also: 20 Most Underrated Anime Characters

1. Ash Ketchum (Pokémon)

Everyone is familiar with Ash Ketchum, even though few people would list him as one of their favourite anime characters. He may be the star of a franchise that made an entire generation interested in anime, but he isn’t really interested in and of himself. Ash is so infamous for his lack of character growth that he essentially never ages; however, he also hardly has a personality at all.

How would one characterize Ash? A cheerful lad? These characteristics describe someone his age more generally and less specifically than he does as an individual. He is incredibly uninteresting, which is nice if you want to forget about him and envision yourself on your own Pokémon adventure, but not so great from a character standpoint.

2. Himiko Toga (My Hero Academia)

Another fan favourite, but most overrated anime. She’s a decent character. But she has a fandom out there who admires her, the admiration she doesn’t deserve. That is why she made the list of the Most Overrated Anime Characters. I mean what’s special about her? (I mean this in the nicest way possible)

Maybe it’s her ability to change into anyone by drinking their blood, but Himiko Toga strikes me as somewhat of a boring character. Although it may seem strange, she can use that person’s quirk until the energy in their blood runs out thanks to another aspect of her quirk. But overall she has a cool quirk.

3. Goku (Dragon Ball Z)

Again, Goku fans don’t come at me. I know what you’re thinking. Goku is the adored lead character of the Dragon Ball series, a nostalgic animation. Goku isn’t a bad character, but he doesn’t have the same appeal as some of the other Z-Fighters.

His character doesn’t undergo much development in the series, okay.. and his personality doesn’t change much. This might not be a problem for people who are interested in his more fierce and powerful fighting skills, even though they might think he is pointlessly overpowered. Those who anticipated seeing him develop emotionally will be let down.

4. Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Edward Elric is not like other Shonen heroes. But occasionally, certain facets of his character serve as a reminder that he still is. Even though Ed Elric was a breath of fresh air in the Shonen universe, there are still aspects of his personality that define him as a standard Shonen hero. He may be somewhat annoying.

The eldest Elric brother can be seen as a loudmouth, a bully, and talking back to his superiors in some of the episodes. I mean he has a younger brother who is smarter at times.

5. Light Yagami (Death Note)

Death Note shows Light Yagami’s actions as legitimate yet misguided, and some fans consider him a tragic hero. Light Yagami is a beloved character whose demise causes some serious reflection. They first agree with his decisions, but they believe he loses focus as he becomes more and more overcome with power. This is untrue.

Light reveals a lack of comprehension of the motivations behind criminal behaviour (one major cause is poverty). He views those with criminal histories not as flawed humans who can learn from their mistakes, but rather as terrible monsters who are beyond redemption. Additionally, he is unaware of the guilt or innocence of those he kills. He even betrays people who help him out. Big old Red Flag.

6. Hinata Hyuga (Naruto)

Hinata’s original series was merely obnoxious. She was a walking stutter who always thought about Naruto and who always managed to lose battles.

Moving on to Shippuden, I sincerely hoped that she would have developed some character by this stage. But aside from that single instance during the Pain arc, Hinata made no other significant contributions to the show. Unless you consider adoring Naruto even more to be character development.

Even Boruto doesn’t really impress me (although some improvement has been made). Overall, just a mid-tier waifu who receives unrelenting acclaim since there isn’t much else to compare her against.

7. Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a hugely successful anime, stars Haruhi Suzumiya as the lead character. When it first came out, it was praised almost universally, and cosplayers of the characters were common at anime festivals. In any case, the show’s main character and the entire production are overrated.

Because of her excessive egotism and preoccupation with the paranormal, Haruhi poses a perpetual threat to the rest of the world. She might restart the world if she isn’t amused enough. Like Girl? Well, Haruhi might be endearing at times, but she can also sometimes be perceived as a drowsy young child.

8. Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket)

I know this is an unpopular opinion. but Tohru Honda is one of those most overrated anime characters. The further the series progresses, the more the hyper-sweet nature of Tohru might truly be perceived as a problem. It might seem a little strange at first to think that Tohru Honda’s enormous compassion could be a bad thing.

After all, it is this spirit of love and charity that characterizes her and moves the plot forward. However, there may be too much of a good thing, and the Fruits Basket plot strives to turn Tohru into an endless stream of knowledge that the Sohmas can tap into at any time. There are only so many things one can give to a family of strangers.

9. Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)

Being the main character in a popular Shonen title is challenging. It’s challenging to be as wonderful as the job requires unless you’re bringing something unique to the table. Natsu Dragneel isn’t a terrible character, but he’s also not particularly fascinating.

Even bread, according to a user from The Top Tens, “has more personality than Natsu.” Although impulsive and easily enraged, he is completely loyal to his pals. These have all been overdone, yet none of them is fundamentally evil. Natsu merely duplicates the Shonen hero cliche, making tiny additions to it.

10. Ken Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul)

The Anime itself is overrated. Like seriously what was going on? and then Re. The writers had a lot of potential with Ken, but it kept getting worse as you moved on into the franchise. All his flaws are overlooked as he gets strong.

Most of the time, his character is a complete mess, and aside from his challenges, he has very little real growth. Despite this, his supporters like him, largely because he transforms from a weak geek into a strong badass who can compete with even the toughest ghouls. The fact that Kaneki is a far more flawed protagonist than fans typically acknowledge doesn’t diminish the reality that this change is quite amazing.

11. Victor Nikiforov (Yuri!!! on ICE)

The adored Yuri!!! on ICE’s deuteragonist is Victor Nikiforov. He’s really a fantastic character; in this instance, the term “overrated” doesn’t necessarily imply something negative. Nevertheless, he has a number of shortcomings that the fandom prefers to overlook.

Victor is really harsh to Yuri at first, but they end up developing a wonderful relationship. He criticizes Yuri’s weight and skating skills, becomes grumpy, sulky, and uncommunicative, and at the beginning of their relationship, it’s debatable whether he overstepped his boundaries as Yuri’s coach.

Victor doesn’t have to be flawless to be a wonderful character; imperfections can occasionally add to a person’s appeal. The issue is that the fandom frequently overlooks his flaws in favour of idealizing him.

12. Yuno (Black Clover)

Yuno doesn’t feel right. I thought he would be charismatic. But he actually, turned out to be boring. He does have potential, you never know. He might change later in the anime. But the reason he’s one of the most overrated anime characters is he has no defining traits.

I am aware of his ambition to succeed Asta as wizard king and his rivalry with Asta, but other than that, I have nothing on him. Since I started watching the show, I’ve seen Asta and Noelle struggle, and I’ve learnt the backstories of Magna, Luck, and Yami, all of whom were satisfying in their own ways. However, Yuno is nothing.

13. Saitama (One Punch Man)

One of the most well-known anime series to appear in recent years is called One-Punch Man. While it is by no means a bad show, its protagonist isn’t quite as fantastic as everyone claims he is.

Saitama is a regular, easygoing person who has the power to knock anyone out with a single blow. Saitama is a parody character since One-Punch Man is a parody anime. But character development and mockery can coexist: Gintoki Sakata, who is still amusing in Gintama, has a complicated history and a range of motivations for his actions.

Sadly, Saitama is quite one-dimensional. To get a sense of his personality, you only need to watch one episode. He’s entertaining, but the genuinely outstanding anime characters go above and beyond that.

14. Kirito (Sword Art Online)

Kirito is one of those peculiar characters who are both overrated and undervalued; he has detractors who dismiss him as absolutely pointless as well as ardent supporters who believe he is perfect. Actually, Kirito is just your average shonen hero—neither particularly fascinating nor appallingly awful.

In Sword Art Online II, he goes through some intriguing development where he genuinely starts to deal with the trauma of being imprisoned in an online world and required to kill others. Nevertheless, he has a contradictory personality and is so powerful that it seems improbable. Not to add that he is an ordinary person in general.

15. Rem and Ram (Re Zero)

We saw everyone go through the Rem and Ram phase, but it died soon too. Don’t get me wrong the sisters are really lovely, but they don’t deserve the hype fans shower them with. Rem and Ram are intriguing characters, but fans start talking about them as if they are the only things going on in the show.

The sisters get compared a lot as well, which kinda gets toxic on who’s the better girl. Plus Rem needs to level up her game and have proper ambition rather than just following Subaru.

16. Yuno Gasai (Future Diary)

The yandere trope—innocent-looking girls who turn out to be possessive, envious, and violent—can be entertaining and has a sizable fan base. She basically defines the typology because Yuno is such a well-known exemplar of it. This is a problem because she doesn’t have much of a personality beyond being a yandere.

She is the first instance of the trope that might have made it acceptable; at the very least, it would have been creative. Yuno, however, is not the first. The Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar is one of the first known examples of the archetype, and anime had been using it for a long time before Future Diary was released in 2011.

17. Kazuya Kinoshita (Rent A Girlfriend)

The most serious shortcoming of Kazuya Kinoshita as a main character is unquestionably his lack of character development. Kazuya is frequently characterized as very trashy, occasionally overly trashy, and dysfunctional. Not only is Kazuya Kinoshita the protagonist of a harem anime uninteresting, but he is also conflicted.

He decides to rent Chizuru as a girlfriend after splitting up with his lover Mami. But as the anime progressed, viewers grew to dislike him to the point where they dubbed him the worst male character of the year 2020.

It’s understandable why Kazuya has angered many fans given how he alternates between the girlfriend who dumped him for fun and the fictitious girlfriend who genuinely claims to care about him.

18. Dabi (My Hero Academia)

Before the Fan girls come at me, Listen to me, you have a better line of villains to simp over. This man doesn’t deserve it. Okay first of all, where’s the character development? I mean you need something, right?

He is intelligent but not as powerful as people make him up to be. Many people now believe that Dabi is more powerful than Endeavor. Up until he got a hold of Shoto. Although his firepower is incredible, his technique, endurance, durability, and speed are all terrible.

He twice got Hawks pinned (just catching him off guard each time), but he was unable to kill him. He can essentially stand still and unleash powerful attacks, but if you can dodge him quickly, Dabi is pretty much toast.

19. Elizabeth Liones (The Seven Deadly Sins)

I honestly can’t recall a single action or statement she has ever made. Every few episodes, she simply serves as the damsel in distress who needs to be rescued. She is a princess and an angel, but Meliodas is the centre of her entire persona. I genuinely believe that the writers purposefully withheld from her any feelings that don’t support Meliodas in some way.

Has she ever been restless, enquiring, or (oh, God forbid) irate? Sincerely, I don’t believe she has. She is either content to have Meliodas around or unhappy that he isn’t. Elizabeth is killing me, even by wet blanket standards. Particularly when you contrast her with somebody like Merlin.

20. C.C (Code Geass)

C.C. is still a fan favourite even though she isn’t as popular as she was when Code Geass initially came out. She is enigmatic, gorgeous, and seductive, and her alliance with Lelouch and her sad past make her all the more appealing. However, C.C. also did something bad that the fandom completely ignored.

Mao, an orphan boy, received the Geass power once from her. It gave him the ability to read people’s minds, but he soon lost control and was unable to stop hearing people’s thoughts, which led to a crippling illness that ultimately drove him wild. Despite the fact that she had been rearing him for years and was responsible for his decline into lunacy, C.C.’s response to this was to depart.

So, what do you think, which are most overrated anime characters? Let us know win the comments. Click here for more anime and manga–related content.

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