Strength tends to be subjective, especially among the many overpowered anime heroes and villains. From Dragon Ball’s Son Goku to Yusuke Urameshi in YuYu Hakusho, the strongest are those who manage to stand out, rise to the occasion, and leave a memorable mark on their world. Whether they are main protagonists or supporting characters, the truly powerful among anime’s best characters vary from one fan to another.
Some characters clearly stand out among their peers, but when it comes to assessing power, there are a lot of factors that come into play. Different fictional universes play by different rules, which makes comparisons tough. Thanks to the common genre tropes and story beats across anime, certain characters rise to the top like cream. They not only become the strongest in their respective series but reign supreme as some of the most powerful anime characters of all time.
Updated on November 11, 2025 by Kennedy Michael King: The anime medium is constantly introducing new overpowered characters, meaning the rankings of its strongest characters are constantly in flux. As a result, this list has been updated to reflect the most up-to-date information regarding each character.
30] Kenshin Himura Is a Powerhouse Samurai Like No Other
Despite his small stature, Kenshin Himura is one of the most powerful and legendary swordsmen to exist. After slaughtering countless people during the Meiji Revolution, Kenshin hung up his blade, vowing to never kill again. He travels around Japan as a rurouni — a wandering, masterless samurai seeking redemption for the lives he’s taken. His skill makes him easily one of the strongest anime characters, or at least one of the most talented.
Kenshin inherits the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu sword style from his master, a form of kenjutsu meant to allow a single samurai to defeat multiple enemies at once. The fact he can take out so many enemies while refusing to kill shows just how skilled he truly is. It’s a nice sentiment, but that kind of mercy and his lack of superhuman feats mean Kenshin is a far cry from the strongest anime characters.
29]. Kenshiro Uses Deadly Martial Arts with Incredible Precision
As the hero of Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro is the successor to the Hokuto Shinken, a deadly martial arts fighting style based on striking the opponent’s various pressure points to disable or destroy their body in many ways. Kenshiro is incredibly precise with those attacks, and he also has extreme strength, speed, and endurance to match.
Kenshiro spends much of the time in the dour, dystopian Fist of the North Star wandering the series’ post-apocalyptic wasteland, fighting villainous gang leaders and feuding with other martial arts masters who represent their own schools. Kenshiro may not have magic or weapons, but his fists are enough to win any fight and destroy his enemies from the inside out. Despite his brutality, however, Kenshiro also shows himself to be a gentle and kind person, shattering many stereotypes associated with male anime characters. Thus, one of the strongest anime characters is also one of the nicest.
28]. Deku Has the Overwhelming Power of One For All
Izuku “Deku” Midoriya is the protagonist of the recently concluded My Hero Academia manga. Just before he enters high school, Deku’s dream of becoming a Pro Hero becomes a reality after receiving a Quirk from his idol All Might. However, One For All turns out to be more powerful than Deku could have imagined. Even so, Deku handles his immense power with superhuman strength and concentration, becoming one of the strongest anime characters in the series.
Deku’s Quirk is so great that it regularly shatters his bones in the beginning. He can use that same force against his enemies, and he rarely loses his battles, all thanks to the immense inherited powers of those before him. Deku even has access to several other Quirks and is still growing as a hero. He may still be figuring out his powers as he goes, so he ranks rather low among the strongest anime characters ever.
27]. Eren Yeager Wielded Multiple Titans & Destroyed the World
When Attack on Titan fans first meet series protagonist Eren Yeager, he is a member of the Survey Corps, a team of soldiers dedicated to protecting the populace from the threat of Titans. While he is a skilled soldier, Eren earns his title as one of the strongest anime characters thanks to his ability to transform into the Attack Titan.
When Eren transforms, he retains his intelligence and military training. The reason he can’t compete with some of the other strongest anime characters is that he can’t always rely on his Titan form. Attack on Titan characters have taken advantage of this weakness by tying his hands together and gagging him, reducing him to a skilled but mundane soldier. However, with his Founding Titan abilities, Eren becomes powerful enough to decimate 80% of the innocent human population.
26]. Guts Wields the Dragonslayer Sword with Extraordinary Skill
Few anime are sadder than Berserk, though some fans wish the various anime handled the source material better. Tragedy can give way to great strength, and Guts is a great example of this. Also referred to as the Black Swordsman, Guts is an ex-mercenary and one of the unlucky humans to be branded with the Brand of Sacrifice, which causes him to be hunted by flesh-craving monsters. All things considered, however, Guts has been a soldier on the battlefield since he was nine.
During his mercenary days, Guts single-handedly defeated a troop of 100 soldiers. He is even strong enough to take out numerous apostles — former humans who have ascended to join the ranks of demonkind. He also took part in several missions along with the Band of the Falcon, where he grew particularly close to Griffith.
25]. Sung Jinwoo Hasn’t Even Reached His Upper Limits
Solo Leveling’s recent spike in popularity has made protagonist Sung Jinwoo the hottest buzzword among anime fandoms. He begins his Hunter career as a pathetically weak nobody, relegated to E-Rank where he was expected to spend the rest of his days. As it happens, Jinwoo is mysteriously selected by an outside observer and given the chance to level his strength and skills up indefinitely. Desperate to save his mother, Jinwoo leaps at the chance for glory.
What he doesn’t expect, however, is how powerful he’s going to get. As of Season 2, Jinwoo has effectively eclipsed the most powerful Hunters in Solo Leveling. And it’s not going to stop there, as the chosen hero has far more dangerous opponents coming his way. No matter the odds, Jinwoo will continue to accumulate more Shadow Soldiers as he levels his way up to the top. And when he gets there, Jinwoo goes through the entire process all over again — a lot faster this time.
24]. Makima Has Immeasurable Power as the Control Devil
When Makima first appeared in Chainsaw Man, she seemed like a friendly and polite leader who gave Denji a second chance at life. He even begins to place his trust in her until she betrays him. The truth is that Makima is the Control Devil, a vastly powerful being with fearsome powers that work both up close and across great distances.
Makima is widely feared, which boosts her strength even further. In turn, that makes everyone even more afraid of her, creating a vicious cycle that she maintains quite successfully. Makima can also use sheer telekinetic force to demolish her foes, and she can also assume control of anyone whom she deems inferior to her. Makima even has overwhelming physical combat strength, able to break Pochita’s chainsaws with her unarmed strikes. Denji definitely has his work cut out for him.
23]. Frieren Is the Top Spellcaster in Her World
While there are some truly talented wizards in the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, none can top the nigh-immortal elf spellcaster Frieren herself. She was in the legendary party that defeated the demon king decades ago, and Frieren still wanders the world, seeking new spells and grimoire as a hobby. Frieren is overpowered, but she is still compelling to watch.
Frieren knows relatively few spells for her age, but she does have enormous magical power that easily allows her to overwhelm a dangerous demon like Aura the Guillotine, and her knowledge of the arcane is truly vast. In the first class mage exam, the clay double of Frieren was widely feared as an unbeatable boss battle even for a whole group of wizards, a testament to Frieren’s bottomless magical power.
22]. Tetsuo Shima Reshaped His Life with Psionic Abilities
When Tetsuo nearly runs over a young boy on the cyberpunk streets of Neo-Tokyo in Akira, he’s taken to a military hospital against his wishes. There, doctors discover his massive latent psionic abilities and begin subjecting him to nightmarish experiments. After unlocking his powers, however, Tetsuo could fly, generate force fields, bend light, levitate objects, and channel his telekinesis into powerful energy blasts. These and other abilities make Tetsuo one of the most powerful anime characters.
Even when an orbital laser blasts off Tetsuo’s arm, he simply replaces it with a mechanical one and keeps going. Unfortunately, Tetsuo’s violent search for more power causes him to overstep his bounds. Unable to control his newfound abilities, he transforms into a giant fleshy mass that threatens to engulf the entire city if left unchecked. Despite (or maybe because of) this grotesque sight, Akira is one of the most viscerally stunning animated features of all time.
