Random Poorly Written Anime Characters (13 items)

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  (#2) Minoru Mineta - 'My Hero Academia'

  Minoru Mineta is a member of Class 1-A, and he's best known for lewd acts like trying to touch his female classmates, peeping on them while they're changing, and constantly making inappropriate comments. 

  Mineta's perverted personality isn't unrealistic: most people have met teenage boys who are like this. But it is alienating to a huge demographic of viewers. While some people find pervy characters to be light-hearted fun, others find them deeply upsetting. That's not necessarily bad writing - a character can be flawed or controversial and still be well-written. That's why other pervy characters like Sanji and Jiraiya aren't on this list: they are well developed, multi-faceted, interesting characters. 

  But Mineta is poorly written. Why? Because his existence creates a major plot hole. His behavior is distinctly unheroic, and his teacher is notoriously strict. The fact that he repeatedly gets away with behavior that not only upsets his classmates and disrupts lessons but would definitely make the people he's trying to save uneasy is ridiculous. It's especially weird because problematic personality traits in other characters are treated like impediments toward their chosen career: Bakugo is repeatedly warned that if he doesn't get his behavior under control, he won't make it as a hero. 
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  (#12) Myne & Motoyasu - 'The Rising Of The Shield Hero'

  Rising of the Shield Hero has a lot of good points, but these villains are not among them. Lets start with Myne. She begins the series by accusing Naofumi of a serious crime he didn't commit. Already, we're off to a bad start. While lies and manipulation are well within the purview of a good villain, false assault accusations are statistically rare compared to actual assaults, which makes this story choice socially irresponsible at best. 

  Could Myne still be an interesting villain despite this? Sure - a character doesn't have to be socially responsible to be well-written. But after that dramatic misdeed, she becomes far less intimidating and far more irritating. She shows up randomly to do everything from cheat during a race to try and eliminate her own sister. Why? Because a cult told her to. Why was she attracted to this cult? Unless Season 2 decides to pick up that storyline again, it will remain a mystery. 

  Her lackey, Motoyasu, isn't any better. He follows her around like a drooling dog and pretty much does whatever she says without question. The only time he acts on his own, it's to flirt with Filo, a child. So, that's pretty gross.

  The Filo thing aside, he can be kind of funny sometimes, but that's only before the same jokes have been repeated ten billion times.
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  (#7) Aizawa - 'Sukisyo'

  Hailing from a fully terrible series, Aizawa is one of the most poorly written villains in the anime world. Why? Because his motivation is completely missing from the anime itself, and is absolutely ridiculous in the game he originates from.

  Aizawa is a scientist who performed unethical experiments on Sora and Sunao, causing them to develop alternate personalities. In the anime, he wants to program Sora to take lives on command, but the purpose of this is never explained. Whose lives? Why? As far as the anime goes, we have no idea. 

  In the games, his experiments are supposed to eventually lead towards a cure for Dissociative Identity Disorder, a condition that impacts his friend Shinichiro. This could be seen as kind, if not for the fact that his research involves torturing children and assaulting people - including Shinichiro's boyfriend Nanami.

  Aizawa could do all the evil things he does and be a well-written, but as it is, none of them add up to a coherent whole. 
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  (#1) Sakura Haruno

  • Naruto, Naruto Shippūden, Naruto the Movie: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom, Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds, Naruto the Movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel, Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Will of Fire, Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, Naruto Shippuden the Movie, Ninja World

  As a member of Team 7, Sakura could and should have been written to be every bit as awesome as her male counterparts. Though she starts off with some serious potential, the series never capitalizes on it. Most of her arcs can be split into two categories: trying to measure up to her talented teammates, and pining over Sasuke.

  While her medical ninjutsu and physical strength are impressive, those things don't compare to Naruto and Sasuke's legendary abilities. While not every character has to be on that level, the fact that she's the only girl on the team and the only one whose skills aren't transcendent is kind of glaring. There's also nothing wrong with her having a crush, but there is something wrong with her having little development outside of that. 

  The writing around Sakura could be so much better. She - and all the other female characters in shonen anime who fall into this trap - deserve better. 
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  (#13) Ayumi Otosaka - 'Charlotte'

  Ayumi Otosaka is Yu's adorable little sister... and that's basically all she is. While not every character has to be an incredible warrior to be likeable, a character who the protagonist deeply cares for should have more than one or two traits.

  Here's what happens with Ayumi: she cooks everything using pizza sauce because she thinks her beloved older brother likes it, and he can't bring himself to tell her otherwise. This joke gets used over and over again, and never becomes more complex. Later in the series, a boy she's not interested in asks her out, and then a female classmate attacks her out of jealousy. This causes her power, Collapse, to activate, and she's buried under a building. Her brother gets depressed for a while, then uses time travel to bring her back. 

  Basically, Ayumi is an adorable, affectionate victim who exists for Yu to react to. This is pretty common in anime - Ayumi is far from the only example - but it definitely qualifies her as a poorly written character. 
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  (#3) Yuki Cross

  • Vampire Knight, Vampire Knight

  Vampire Knight isn't exactly known for being a great series, and one of the reasons is the protagonist, Yuki Cross. Yuki doesn't remember anything about her past before she was attacked by a vampire. After being adopted by Cross Academy's headmaster, she becomes a Guardian - that is, a person in charge of keeping the school's human and vampire populations separated. 

  The thing that's so frustrating about Yuki is how clueless she is about basically everything. It makes sense that she doesn't know about her own vampiric heritage - that's amnesia for you - but the amnesia is a clumsy plot device that keeps her ignorant and reliant on the male characters who surround her. She spends way, way too much time pining over her love interests and not nearly enough time engaging with the actual story. She didn't have to be a terrible character but the way she was executed made her into one.

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