One of the crucial factors that enriches the variegated world of anime is the existence of characters. Just like real-life people, anime characters mirror our societal patterns and leave an imprint on the viewers with their psychological complexities and behavior that may or may not be relatable to the fandom. Now, the change in characters is often guided by their immediate social environment, just like how real-life humans are social products. So viewers may come across characters who take the selfish approach to climb the ladder of ambition thinking that their experiences are the only thing that matters. Meanwhile, there may be anime characters who just like to help people even if it means at the cost of paying a price.
But their reception to the fandom is as different as our own personalities. While some fans may idealize characters like Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter because he is hot, there are a few who may hate anime characters like Naruto for being boisterous or just making it his primary goal to bring back Sasuke to Konoha. In some cases, characters do deserve the hate. A perfect example of that is Danzo Shimura from Naruto. However, it doesn’t mean that other characters like Juvia from Fairy Tail will face the wrath of the fandom for liking Grey. On that note, this listicle will discuss ten such characters from anime who get unnecessary hate from their fandom just because they exist.
10 anime characters, including Tanjiro, who are hated by fans
Orihime Inoue (Bleach)
The major charges against Orihime are that she loved the Bleach protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki, being in a relationship with him, and ended up marrying and starting a family with him. But where is the problem? The issue is that her existence is a hindrance for Rukia x Ichigo shippers, who think that the two shinigamis had the perfect chemistry that would land them together. However, their hopes were in vain when it was revealed that Ichigo ultimately chose to be with Orihime. On the other hand, she is hated by several fans for her general “uselessness” in the plot that they equate with Sakura (Naruto).
Bleach wasn’t a romance-centric anime, but many fans thought that they would see Rukia and Ichigo holding their hands against the sunset kind of picture. But many fans think that Tite Kubo’s decision to make Orihime Ichigo’s partner makes sense because the former had helped the latter find resolution with many issues, and her caring and kind nature proved to be a healing presence for the protagonist. Whatever might be the case, the two seem happy. Plus, the said fans who initially hated her have also accommodated her presence and reduced their hatred.
Tanjiro Kamado (Demon Slayer)
A cinnamon roll that could kill you, Tanjiro is just too precious for this world. The poor guy initially wanted to just undo his sister’s demonification and kill Muzan, but he ended up collecting several tiny aims in his long journey of avenging. It’s interesting to see him helping almost everyone in his reach within Demon Slayer.
However, the heart-of-gold and overtly empathetic nature gets redundant after some point, as claimed by a few fans of the series. While Naruto employs his Talk-no-Jutsu to turn antagonists like Obito to the side of goodness, Tanjiro’s ‘soothing eyes’ that make the demons or people he barely interacted with open up to him or the viewers through flashbacks. The Hand Demon, Upper Moon Six siblings, and Genya, among others have ‘fallen trap’ to his saintly nature. Also, some fans don’t like how quickly he gets upgrades in his abilities, but that’s just a shonen protagonist thing. Despite all that, Tanjiro is still an influential hero who continues to extend his empathy towards everyone in need, except for maybe Muzan.
Izuku Midoriya (My Hero Academia)
A character who faces almost the same charges as Tanjiro, except in Midoriya’s case, some fans of My Hero Academia think it’s even more boring. Now, shonen protagonists are either supposed to have a colorful and loud personality like Luffy (One Piece) or they are supposed to be boring so that viewers can at least find some semblance of relevance with them. Although MHA fans acknowledge his goody two shoe nature, intellect, battle acumen and strategies, courage when fighting villains, some people just hate his personality, which they think lacks strength.
On the other hand, some followers of the series think that in his quest to make a protagonist that is not “perfect,” mangaka Horikoshi ended up creating an anime character who firs the mold of “not like other heroes.” Yet, the charm and flair that some fans claimed that he lacked was reduced after the Dark Deku arc, where Midoriya’s change in personality was considered deep, complex, and wholesome. Excluding the ongoing arc involving the battle against Shigaraki and All For One, many think the Dark Deku arc is probably the best part of the series, and most of it is largely due to Midoriya’s portrayal, so maybe that’s a baby step towards a large win?
Boruto Uzumaki (Boruto)
Sadly, the son of Naruto Uzumaki doesn’t share the same love and popularity as his father. Studio Pierrot’s latest animation has butchered the quality of the series, and much of Boruto’s funny animated faces are now fodder for the meme community. Aside from that, some of the labels that are tagged with his name include “self-entitled,” “arrogant,” and takies things for granted. On top of that, he is often pitted against Naruto, who is seen as a yardstick to measure the good and bad points.
Naruto and Boruto have had different childhood because of their social situations. While Boruto was lucky enough to get a home, Naruto wasn’t. Moreover, he was ostracized by the Hidden Leaf people for a good amount of his childhood. But fans complain that Boruto’s uncare for his father’s past and focusing on his own home situation is “annoying.” However, the young Uzumaki does go through some major character development throughout the series. For example, when his mentor, Sasuke, briefed him on Naruto’s past, Boruto realized the value of having a father in his life. Similarly, the character became less reckless and more caring about his friends. And now that the aged-up arc of Boruto is yet to arrive, it remains to be seen how well he has developed as a character.
Gabi Braun (Attack on Titan)
Gabi’s major crime has been to shoot the fan-favorite character Sasha Blouse. Although one of the best fighters, she is arrogant and annoying, which many fans used to believe until she was exposed to the reality of the Paradis Island. On top of that, despite being an Eldian, she loathed her race and hoped to be a Marleyan instead.
But coming back to Sasha, Gabi’s stance in murdering Sasha was unforgivable for the majority of fans. RIP to Sasha, but several followers of Eren took it so seriously that they even threatened Gabi’s voice actress. However, the same people refused to see things from Gabi’s perspective as an oppressed Eldian living in Marley. However, whether or not fans’ perception changed, her’s surely did over the course of the series. This was especially seen when she lived with Sasha’s parents and the other orphan children they looked after.
Maka Albarn (Soul Eater)
Maka is primarily hated by the fandom for her treatment of her father, Spirit. While he is trying to do his best for his kid, Maka seems adamant about not looking at things from his perspective. Besides that, Maka is selfish, jealous, ignorant, engages in blame game, and, as perceived by the fans generally, useless. Some even think that Maka is undeserving of the credit she had received in the final battle in the anime series.
While she does get a more nuanced depiction in the manga rather than the anime, Maka still has a substantial number of people who dislike her. And those who don’t hate her, they don’t usually defend her because Maka wasn’t their favorite to begin with. The other side of the fandom redirect the anime-only fans to the manga, who state that there are a few admirable qualities about her, such as her determination. Some of them also suggest that her negative traits are a byproduct of her positive aspects, so they suggest it’s better to start by analyzing what’s good about her first than hopping straight to criticism.
Near (Death Note)
Near is more often than not seen as L’s reincarnated version or a “wannabe L.” Some even go to the extent of commenting that Death Note would’ve been much better if L had lived. While that is indeed true, the primary accusation charged by the fandom is that the shoes that L left behind was too big for Near to fill in. Moreover, fans think that he is generally an uninspired character who left to make an impression like his predecessor.
However, the counter-argument to this is – L made both Near and Mello his successors. They were the two halves that carried on his legacy to defeat Kira (Light), but in terms of general hatred, it is Near that often gets the wrath of the fandom for not being the perfect copy of L. In addition, the way he and his expressions sometimes had a reflection of L in them, which became all the more reason for fans to call him a “L rip-off”. But another point that needs to be considered is that Near couldn’t get ample of amount of characterization because of the fast-paced last few episodes, which is why his full potential in the anime remained unexplored.
Sakura Haruno (Naruto)
No other character has probably been called “useless” so many times except for Sakura. If one takes history into account, Sakura really didn’t get to have a good impression on the viewers with her obsession with Sasuke, being a bully to Naruto, and lacking in skill and abilities unlike the other two members of Team 7. On top of that, she fit the mold of being an ordinary female character who needed to be constantly saved by the protagonist. While these justifications are valid, it is not reason enough to project the hate even on her future self, which saw massive development.
From being a helpless kunoichi to becoming one of the strongest Hidden Leaf ninja and medical practicioner, Sakura has seen her fair share of fame. However, this all was achieved later. Her characterization and screen time in Boruto had been satisfactory, but one must not forget her contribution to the Fourth Great Ninja War, where she was equally contributing to defeat the main antagonists. Despite that, the “useless” tag on Sakura seems to be a timeless trait now. No matter how well she progresses as a character, the tag will continue to haunt her.
Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
The biggest offender of Neon Genesis Evangelion is Gendo Ikari, yet it’s his son who gets the hate from many people of the fandom for lacking personality and being vulnerable and insecure. Much like a few entries on this list, Shinji doesn’t fit into the ideal model of a shonen protagonist who isn’t supposed to be what Shinji represents. The problem here is that Shinji’s portrayal in the anime is way too raw, and many times, such a deep depiction of a character may divorce the viewers from the characters. This is largely because viewers often look for a gateway to find characters who are either similar to them or fantastically represent what they could’ve been.
Despite showing very real psychological problems, Shinji falls back on the scale of likeability for being unable to evoke the “nurture instinct” that shonen protagonists often do. Apart from the hospital scene in End of Evangelion, the anime also shows him as a nagging character who refuses to pilot the robot. As a result, Shinji’s emotional abuse by the adult peers around him often gets shadowed with his negative portrayal. So, when the audience thought that they would get an exciting new shonen character in a mecha setting, they didn’t want the hero to be this emotionally weak whose presence isn’t strong enough to generate sympathy from the anime’s viewers.
Atsushi Nakajima (Bungo Stray Dogs)
An selfless fighter with much potential on the battlefield, Atsushi is known to retain the blandness of his character to the point other characters like Osamu Dazai gain more fame than him. Interestingly, Atsushi has common grounds with characters like Sakura and Maka for being useless, but is he really deserving of the hate that some fans bestow upon him?
The answer is in ambivalence, because even though some BSD fans may think his existence in the narrative doesn’t make sense, it does, and even Dazai can vouch for that. As for why other characters like Chuuya or Ranpo get more attention is because they are attractive with colorful personalities, but Atsushi’s character is subdued and borders on the “boring” because of his need to help those in need. Therefore, Atsushi, in a sense has the same character value as Midroiya, whose good-hearted nature may be their unique point. Another point is, while Atsushi has got extraordinary updates in his abilities, his emotional state remains largely unexplored in the manga. So,maybe he will also get his own time to shine as a character in the upcoming seasons of Bungo Stray Dogs.
