Random Anime Heroes Were Guilty Of Awful Things (16 items)

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  (#1) Shinji Ikari

  • Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth, The End of Evangelion, Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

  No matter how nuanced and well-developed Shinji Ikari becomes over the course of Evangelion, it's hard to overlook the moment he pleasures himself over Asuka's comatose body. Yes, you read that right; meek, little Shinji actually does that.

  Though he's motivated less by total depravity and more by profound loneliness and desperation, he still totally disrespects his friend in one of the most disgusting ways possible. 
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  (#2) Guts

  • Berserk Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey, Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the King

  Guts often uses his formidable strength to save others from various dangers including despotic power-hungry priests to literal demons, but his rap sheet is long and horrible. First of all, he slays hundreds, if not thousands, of people, including children, under a staggering variety of circumstances. Though he doesn't enjoy it, he'll do it out of necessity, and in the world of Berserk, necessity is often observed. 

  Though technically a hero, Guts will unleash his cruelty on the ones he loves. One of the worst things he ever does is sexually assault Casca, the love of his life. Thanks to traumatic events, including repeated rapes, Casca's mind is already nearly destroyed, and she can no longer speak, reason, or look after herself. Though Guts wants desperately to protect her, he still assaults her. He immediately begins feeling remorse and self-loathing, but nothing ever erases what he's done. 
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  (#3) Lelouch Lamperouge

  • Code Geass

  Lelouch Lamperouge's ultimate goal involves taking down the Holy Britannian Empire and freeing the Japanese people from its tyranny. To do this, he must take out a lot of people. None of the slayings are exactly good, but one of the saddest is when he must end the life of Euphemia, his half-sister. Despite being part of the royal family, Euphemia supports the Japanese people and wants to create a safe zone where they may live without being oppressed by Britannia. However, Lelouch accidentally uses his Geass power to set her on a path which would end in the Japanese people being slain en masse.

  The only way to prevent that outcome is to end her, so he does exactly that. It's a particularly tragic moment because Euphemia wants to do the right thing, and Lelouch is the one who accidentally sets her on the wrong path through mind control. 
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  (#4) Katsuki Bakugo Horribly Mistreats His Friends In 'My Hero Academia'

  Katsuki Bakugo may attend a high school for training would-be heroes, but his behavior often falls short of what you might all heroic. Bakugo torments his childhood friend Izuku for years, publicly insulting, screaming at, and even fighting poor Izuku. Motivated by directionless rage, Katsuki constantly misinterprets Izuku genuine care for his well-being as a form of belittlement. 

  If Katsuki actually wants to be a professional hero, a person worth looking up to, he needs to go about refining more than just his powers.
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  (#5) Itachi Uchiha

  • Naruto Shippūden, Naruto, Ninja World

  Itachi Uchiha's misdeeds are simultaneously the most reprehensible and the most understandable in all of Naruto. He slays every single member of the Uchiha clan except for his younger brother, Sasuke, then uses genjutsu to force Sasuke to re-watch every moment of the event that he'd missed. He tells the 8-year-old that he did it to test his own abilities, and for most of the series, that remains the only explanation.

  Later in the series, it is eventually revealed the city government manipulated Itachi into taking out his family. The government says Itachi must slay them all (except Sasuke) or else they will come and mow down his family themselves. For a 13-year-old boy who already suffered PTSD thanks to a conflict-torn childhood, Itachi isn't exactly in a state to refuse, or even understand his actions. He commits terrible acts, but the reasoning behind them makes it difficult to hold it against him.
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  (#6) Koyomi Araragi

  • Bakemonogatari, Monogatari Series

  Koyomi Araragi is a complicated dude. Even if he barely knows a person, Koyomi will happily go through absurd amounts of physical and emotional trauma to assist them. However, that hardly makes up for some of his seriously inappropriate acts, and he needs to be taken to task for them.

  In Bakemonogatari, he repeatedly gropes, only to start physical fights, with an elementary school student named Mayoi. The fact that Mayoi is actually an Oddity doesn't make it any better - she still has the appearance and demeanor of a little girl, and Koyomi initiates these assaults before he knows anything about her. In Nisemonogatari, he holds his sister down and... erotically brushes her teeth? As has already been said, Koyomi is complicated. 
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  (#7) Berserk Mode Makes Haruto Tokishima Assault His Friend In 'Valrave The Liberator'

  Thanks to acquiring an immortal vampire body, Haruto Tokishima sometimes loses control of his own behavior when he goes into a berserk state known as "Possessed Parastica Vampire." While in this state, he sexually assaults Saki Rukino, one of his friends. Knowing Haruto would never do something so terrible intentionally, Saki forgives him, but it drives a wedge between the two nevertheless.
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  (#8) Yugo

  • Battle Angel

  When the title character in Battle Angel Alita first runs into Yugo, both she and the audience get the sense of his heart - his earnestness and courage - as he attempts to protect Alita while facing insurmountable odds. She takes an immediate shine to Yugo, unrepentantly crushing on him and even working to help him reach his goal of 10 million chips, which he almost delusionally believes will buy his way out of Scrapyard, up into the rarefied air of Zalem.

  His profound desire to reach Zalem is the crux of Yugo's problem and the motivation for his least savory actions. For one thing, he takes advantage of Alita's naivete, accepting her assistance while ignoring her feelings, blinded by his quest. For another thing, before meeting Alita, he racked up credits by aggressively fighting and paralyzing unsuspecting cyborgs, stealing their spinal columns, and selling them to the highest bidder.
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  (#9) Takeo Gouda Doesn't Care If His Friend Wants To Kiss Him In 'My Love Story'

  Most of the time, Takeo Gouda is a big cuddly sweetheart who would never do anything to hurt anyone, unless of course, they do something to hurt his beloved girlfriend, Yamato. A kind and respectful boyfriend, Takeo loves his mom and is just an all-around great guy... except when it comes to his best friend, Sunao. 

  In one scene, Takeo wants to get some experience with kissing to prepare himself for the big moment with Yamato, so he asks Sunao for a practice kiss. When Sunao says no, Takeo responds by covering his face with Saran wrap and forces a kiss on him. Not only could Sunao actually suffocate, but Takeo's blatant disregard for his friend's consent is just gross. This scene is played for laughs, but that doesn't make it any less unsettling.
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  (#10) Endeavor Abuses His Wife And Children In 'My Hero Academia'

  As the new No. 1 Pro Hero, Endeavor isn't exactly the best role model to represent the Hero society. He marries Rei, an Ice Quirk user, in order to breed a child with the perfect quirk combination. When Shoto Todoroki is born, he neglects all his other children and relentlessly trains Todoroki for his own selfish ambitions. He often resorts to violence against his own wife and kids if they get in his way. It all becomes too much for Rei to handle as she becomes mentally unstable and mistakes Todoroki for Endeavor, pouring hot water on his face. 

  While Endeavor is trying to redeem himself and own up to his terrible deeds, it still doesn't erase the pain he caused his family. 
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  (#11) L

  • Death Note, Death Note, Death Note: The Last Name, L: Change the World

  Great detective or not, L's ethics remain questionable, to say the least, and some of what he does is straight-up immoral. To test whether or not Light Yagami and Misa will save their own lives and reveal themselves as Kira, L tricks them into believing Light's father, Soichiro, is about to shoot him in the head. His methods include more than just psychological torment - he locks Light in a cell with his hands behind his back for weeks on end, and keeps Misa straight-jacketed and tied to a cart.

  No matter what the ultimate outcome, ignoring human rights is a serious problem, even in the moral gray area that is the world of this show.
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  (#12) Ishida Relentlessly Bullies Nishimiya For Being Deaf In 'A Silent Voice'

  A Silent Voice is perhaps one of the most moving and tear-inducing anime films ever. And it has to do with its portrayal of bullying and discrimination towards people with disabilities. Back in elementary school, Shoya Ishida targeted Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl who just transferred to his class. Because of her disability, he ruthlessly bullies her and gets everyone in the class to join him. It becomes so bad that she's forced to move schools again. 

  Eventually, Ishida gets a taste of his own medicine and experiences alienation and bullying at school. He owns up to his mistakes and vows to make Nishimiya happy again. And while the film ends on a hopeful and positive note where both Ishida and Nishimiya become friends, it doesn't shy away from exploring Ishida's past mistakes.
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  (#13) Handa Seishuu Punches An Old Guy In The Face In 'Barakamon'

  Barakamon opens with Handa Seishuu punching an old man in the face. Unless the old man happens to be a martial arts master training you to fight, you probably will have a hard time defending that act. Handa gets infuriated by the old man's critique of his calligraphy, a skill he cannot take even the lightest of criticisms for - even though this man is a calligraphy expert who is supposed to appraise Handa's work. 

  After spending the whole series reflecting on his past mistakes, Handa ultimately apologizes for the whole punching thing. Since the old man ends up okay, all's well that ends well, but it is a terrible way to make a first impression.
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  (#14) Yuri Plisetsky Is Super Rude In 'Yuri!!! on ICE'

  Yuri Plisetsky, one of the three protagonists of Yuri!!! on ICE, takes "bratty teenager" to a whole new level. In the opening scene, Yuri kicks down the door of the bathroom stall where Yuuri Katsuki is actively having a nervous breakdown and screams at him about how he's a fat, pathetic loser who doesn't deserve to live.

  While this is likely his most unsettling outburst, it isn't the last. When Yuri gets into a conflict with JJ Leroy, he calls his girlfriend Isabella a b*tch for basically no reason. Cool sexism, kid. For all his grace on the ice, Yuri lacks such decorum when it comes to speaking with others.
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  (#15) Katsuya Jonouchi

  • Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, Yu-Gi-Oh!

  For an anime focusing so heavily on the power of friendship, Katsuya Jonouchi, known as Joey Wheeler in the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub, fails to be a very good friend quite a lot. In fact, when he first starts talking to Yugi Muto, it's because he's tormenting him. He insults him, then takes his possessions and throws them in the school fountain.

  Jonouchi's behavior is somewhat understandable in that his home life is a mess; his father beats him, his mother has basically abandoned him, and his little sister is going blind. The behavior also stops completely when he and Yugi become friends. But because their past is never addressed, it's hard to take their friendship seriously. 
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  (#16) Himura Kenshin

  • Rurouni Kenshin

  The whole premise of Rurouni Kenshin involves a hero guilty of terrible, unforgivable things, who wishes to make up for them. Himura Kenshin used to be known as Hitokiri Battōsai, a talented hitman who reached legendary status for his slaying prowess.

  At the time, Kenshin truly believed his actions were justified - he thought taking lives was the right way to help the weak and downtrodden. But when he realized that bloodshed only begets more bloodshed, Kenshin became a guilt-stricken wandering swordsman whose goal is to atone for his previous deeds by helping those in need. As a form of repentance, he carries an inverted katana nearly incapable of causing serious harm. 

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