Top Popular Anime With the Weakest Main Characters.
People tend to love anime for varying reasons. Some like them because they’re a great escape from reality. Others, because they’re jam-packed with lessons to be learned. Another reason why some like anime, and in turn, the characters, is because they’re relatable. We all have that one character whom we always think of as being strikingly similar to ourselves. Maybe because they are super-smart, or very popular, or even because they are weaker than the rest. Sometimes, being weak can be quite endearing, especially when the weakling strives for change. Hence, in today’s course, we’ll be exploring popular anime with the weakest main characters.
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17. Naruto (Sakura Haruno)
. Sakura is one of the weakest main characters in Naruto. One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen was Sakura in the first season of Naruto. She does receive several accomplishments in Shippuden and a respectable powerup in Boruto, but she was initially a damp blanket.
For instance, I believe we can all recall her fabled attack on the Sound Ninja, in which she bit a chick after chopping off her own hair. Not to mention her fight with Ino, which was just one “Worldstar” cry from being a genuine match between two amateurs.
16. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable (Okuyasu Nijimura)
Okuyasu will be the first character I discuss because he easily could have been the most powerful one in the entire program. That’s what I’m saying because his Stand is just too strong.
It is not only incredibly adaptable (having the power to alter space itself), but it also essentially has the best offensive and defense ever. And if it were in the hands of anyone else, they’d probably be a formidable force.
However, Okuyasu just doesn’t seem to be able to use his hand at all. In practically every battle he participates in, he feels like dead weight and only infrequently uses it to aid someone else. In spite of the fact that he is objectively quite strong, he appears to be very frail.
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15. Log Horizon (Shiroe)
Another Popular anime with the weakest main character is Log Horizon specifically Shiroe. He is as important as in terms of squad composition. In fact, it seems as though he bears the brunt of every conflict the group finds itself in.
But he does not use power in doing so. Instead, he manages everyone’s resources, assists them in moving, alerts his party members to potentially dangerous attacks, etc.
And he’s perhaps the weakest character in the entire show in a one-on-one conflict. He doesn’t have many destructive powers, and it would be an understatement to suggest that he isn’t all that strong physically.
14. Tower of God (Twenty-Fifth Bam)
The anime has finished airing it’s first season and a second season is on the way. However, as things are, Bam simply gets a free pass in each episode.
He lacks Rachel’s cruelty, Khun’s intelligence, and Rak’s strength in comparison. And yet, he serves as the protagonist and, in a sense. At least he doesn’t fit the standard description of an “MC that just cries the entire time.”
13. Leorio Paladiknight (Hunter x Hunter – 2011)
Leorio is the most sympathetic and accessible character in the whole series, and his reunion with Gon still makes me cry. But when contrasted to literally any other character, he feels so out of place.
Leorio joins Killua in tearing people’s hearts out in the blink of an eye, Kurapika brings a shovel to a death battle, and Gon practically reaches sicko mode. Only one sucker punch was actually landed by him.
Leorio won’t ever be able to compete with the rest of the group because he prefers to exercise his head rather than his body.
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12. Blood Blockade Battlefront (Leonardo Watch)
Leonardo is not your typical protagonist because of his “All-seeing Eyes of God” ocular abilities. He is able to anticipate the future, manipulate other people’s eyesight, read minds, induce hallucinations, and see the “truth” of the world thanks to his strong anime eyes. What is he doing on this list with such a lethal set of skills?
His lack of expertise with his skills causes him to damage himself when employing them, which is where his ocular strength is weakest. Leo is a pacifist, which means he makes every effort to stay out of conflict. This is where Leo excels, whether it’s learning about someone’s goals or just being watchful.
11. To Love-Ru (Rito Yuki)
Rito Yuki, the main character in the harem, is a regular boy with no special talents of any type. His side interests are sports, gardening, and drawing manga. Rito, like the majority of aggressively uninteresting harem heroes, is a sweet boy who keeps accidentally grabbing girls’ privates.
In addition to practically living the life of a predator, Rito is engaged to Lala Satalin Deviluke, a princess from another planet. Lala, one of the strongest members of any race known to exist, serves as Rito’s protector on their planet, guarding him like a shield.
10. Future Diary (Yukiteru Amano)
What could be more sad than a character who has the capacity to see the future but yet has to be saved by a crazy obsessed girl? Despite not being the strongest, wisest, or most skilled character in the series, Yukiteru Amano nonetheless has the Future Diary, which is the most priceless thing.
Although the diary allows Yuki to foresee what will happen around him, it does not endow him with any other survival skills, such as physical prowess or battle expertise. Yuno steps in to handle the heavy lifting in such a situation, doing everything she can to safeguard.
9. Witch Craft Works (Honoka Takamiya)
Not every story needs a strong hero; many excellent works would rather focus on a character’s flaws than their virtues. The narrative of Honoka Takamiya fits this situation quite nicely. Honoka is a bad student, lacks athletic prowess or speed, and possesses no discernible talents in a world populated with witches.
Ayaka Kagari, a fire witch, is his only hope for survival. Every time Honoka is in danger, she intervenes like a badass woman to shield him. He would not have made the list of the weakest anime main characters if it weren’t for Honoka’s sealed powers.
8. Deadman Wonderland (Ganta Igarashi)
One of those unfortunate persons who gets accused of a crime they didn’t do is Ganta. He’s put in the same prison as trained killers who have been convicted and are kept there, which just makes his situation worse.
For a newbie like Ganta, the only option to survive in this prison is by killing someone or getting yourself killed, and this work appears agonizing. However, there is scarcely any need to be powerful if the series’ strongest creature and storyline armor are both on your side!
7. Monogatari (Koyomi Araragi)
Koyomi Araragi has both the advantages and disadvantages of being a vampire, including immortality and regeneration, but he is not wholly a human or a vampire. He has been fairly strong for a while, but that is untrue!
Considering all the peculiarities he encounters, Koyomi is incredibly frail. He has endured innumerable humiliations throughout the series from characters like Suruga’s monkey form and Nadeko’s serpent. Koyomi is the kind of person who, even with a power-up, will get into trouble.
6. Durarara!! (Mikado Ryūgamine)
Mikado Ryugamine, the protagonist of the urban fantasy Durarara!, is another weakest protagonists in anime. He is a natural leader who upholds fairness and order in Ikebukuro, the city where the story is set. But that’s the only thing he has, which is a problem.
Mikado is only able to influence people over the internet, which makes him appear weak in the presence of the talented and strong supporting cast. He is competent in his own right, but in the criminal underworld, you need more than just connections. To be fair, Durarara’s main character could be anyone besides him!
Related: Durarara! Real-life Locations in Ikebukuro
5. My Hero Academia. (Izuku Midoriya)
My Hero Academia is a relatively simple story, although very engaging. It is “ the story of how a young, weak boy became the greatest hero”. My Hero Academia is centred around Midoriya, a boy born with no superpower in a world where superpowers are commonplace.
He is an honest boy with a heart of gold and is very endearing. He looks up to the greatest hero, All Might, and continues to hope for the day a miracle will happen, and he too can be a hero to help others.
All Might, after witnessing one of Midoriya’s heroic deeds, scouts him and decides to pass his superpower onto him. From this point on, we watch as he faces the trials and tribulations of evil and the many nuances of so-called “evil”.
Midoriya sure does start off weak, but in the long run, it becomes a force to be reckoned with. As far as anime with the weakest main characters go, everyone can acknowledge that his beginnings truly reflected weakness.
His superpower was so strong for him that even using it harmed his body, and could even kill him. One thing so fascinating about this case, however, is that it gives viewers hope that if they too put in the work, and add just a bit of miracle sprinkles in their lives, they may grow in the same way Midoriya did. He serves as an inspiration to many.
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4. Dr. Stone (Senku Ishigami).
Dr. Stone is an anime with quite an interesting premise. The series follows Senku, a high-schooler in his quest to rebuild civilization with the power of science. The story starts off with the world being enveloped by a flash of green light, which ends up petrifying close to all life forms. After 3,700 years, Senku awakes, breaking out of his petrification to a world in which all traces of advancement have eroded over time.
He then begins to work on finding the cause of this event, and a cure for the petrification. In the long run, after a couple of his friends are awake, he takes on the goal of rebuilding civilisation from scratch, all through science.
Contrary to many anime protagonists, Senku isn’t particularly strong. In fact, his weakness can sometimes be embarrassing. As much as he tries, compared to the rest in this almost barbaric world he lives in, he’s only a midget. His sole saving grace is his incredible intellect. With that alone, he can craft tools and plots that enable him to face deadly foes.
Although this technically compensates for his lack of strength, it still earns him a spot among anime with the weakest main characters. (Sorry Senku!) As a side note, Dr. Stone is equally an educational anime where you can learn lots of science-orientated things!
3. KoNoSuBa! (Kazuma Satou)
Similar to Dr. Stone, our hero, Kazuma, also wakes up in a world. This time, it’s in a different world from his own, which makes it an isekai anime, which is popular these days. Kazuma, a shut-in gamer NEET, goes to his local convenience store to get supplies to stash himself away again.
Little did he know, he would meet his end right there. Following his embarrassing death, he meets a goddess; Aqua, who proposes to reincarnate him in a parallel world. Being a gamer, he obviously jumps at the opportunity.
He is also given a chance to pick one thing to take along to this world, so he chooses Aqua to accompany him. Once in the new world, Kazuma is tasked with taking out the Devil King and his army, restoring peace to the world.
Kazuma is objectively a big goofball. Despite being the big clown in his circus, he shows great intelligence when push comes to shove. As for physical aptitude, you really can’t expect much from a shut-in, and he proves us right 100%. All of his flaws aside, where Kazuma really scores an S-rank is that he has a very high Luck stat.
This enables him, despite all other bad stats to really reel it in against all the odds, and makes him a somewhat reliable protagonist. That luck, however, isn’t saving him from being ranked in our list of anime with the weakest main characters.
Related: 15 Famous Isekai Anime You NEED to check out.
2. Re: Zero-Starting Life in Another World (Subaru Natsuki).
Much like KoNoSuBa, this is an isekai. Subaru, a NEET and hikikomori gamer, is “summoned” to another world after his late-night snack run to a corner shop. He gains consciousness in the Kingdom of Lugunica and eventually meets the lady whom he thinks summoned him; a half-elf named Emilia.
She is a candidate to become the next ruler of the kingdom. In this world, Subaru is endowed with power (or curse) that enables him to turn back time through death. Everyone and everything that happened before the time travel is forgotten by everyone except him, each time. With this power, he devotes himself to the service of Emilia (mostly because he loves her) and to his friends in the kingdom.
Subaru, other than his infamous return by death power, doesn’t have much that raises him over the other characters. With remarkable fighters like Ram and magicians like Beatrice, Subaru seems more like a fish out of water. Coupled with his ability is the fact that he always has to go through excruciating pain. Death isn’t usually very smooth in a fantasy world, so unlike other abilities, his comes at a pricey cost.
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1. Tokyo Revengers (Takemichi Hanagaki)
Tokyo Revengers follows the trail of Takemichi, a 26-year-old freeter, living a rather uneventful life. While watching the news one day, he learns that his girlfriend and her brother were killed in a Tokyo Manji Gang conflict. This is a tragic moment in the anime which leaves him chronically depressed as he goes about his day.
Later on, while boarding a train at Shinjuku station (now the real-life location in the anime), he gets pushed onto the train tracks and just upon impact, he leaps 12 years into his past. He gains consciousness in his middle school body. With this newfound power (or stroke of luck) Takemichi decides to alter events to improve his life and the lives of others and prevent terrible happenings.
Takemichi earns the top spot in popular anime with the weakest main characters. While going on his adventures, he meets individuals of all sorts. Such include members of other tough gangs, who of course, are ready to rumble. He absolutely doesn’t have the strength to help him in such interactions, but he makes up for his lack of willpower and resilience.
Fun fact, Takemichi roughly translates to “strong in temperament and will” in English. This is a nice reminder that although he’s a weak crybaby, he will do whatever it takes to make things right as they should be. As an aside, who would’ve guessed that Takemichi’s voice actor equally voiced Natsuo Todoroki from My Hero Academia?
The anime recently wrapped up its second season and is planning a third one. Tokyo Revengers was nominated in many categories of the 6th Crunchyroll Anime Awards edition. It equally received many live-action movies and many mobile games you could download on the App Store or Play Store.
Ending Note.
And there you have it. Popular anime with the weakest main characters is at your service. Just remember, weak doesn’t always mean ‘lacks strength’. We evaluated these characters’ weaknesses purely based on the sort of anime they are from. Did we do well? Is there any other character you think deserves a slice of this cake? Speaking of strengths, Intelligence should count as one, right? Check out our list of Smartest My Hero Academia Villains.
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