Protagonists come in all sorts and styles, across every storytelling medium there is.Animetouts just as eclectic a blend of heroic (and not-so-heroic) figures as any of its peers, and while there’s a certain charm to be found when a show’s lead character is absolutely outrageous, it’s often the more relatable leads who stick with us in the long run.
We’ve compiled our list of favorite relatable anime protagonists for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s fun to write about! Beyond that, we’re also curious whether our picks resonate with a wider audience. Do you, too, harbor some real empathy for these characters? Or our own empathies, well, not especially relatable here?
8Denji - Chainsaw Man
Make no mistake:Denjiendures just as wild a set of circumstances as any other shonen hero. He cantransform into the “Chainsaw Man”, a human-devil hybrid, and wields this power in pursuit of the nefariousGun Devilwhile working as, naturally, the Public Safety Devil Hunter.
That’s a lot. Yet despite, or perhaps because of, his peculiar situation, our starring lad shines through in all his relatable essence. As anyone who hasgrown up in povertycan understand, day-to-day hardships galore can prompta degree of masochismand a broadly cynical outlook.
The brilliance in Denji rests with hislack of high-strung ideals. This isn’t to say that ideologically-driven shonen leads can’t be compelling, or indeed, relatable in their own right, butDenji calls it like it is. He has more clear-cut goals, and he uses them to, well, quite literally cut through his foes en route to a measure of happiness.
7Saku Fukuzawa - The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today
We werejustcurious enough as to whetherSaku Fukuzawawould be a commonplace pick to brave the internet before typing this entry. Has anyone else out there found themselves deeply empathetic toward thisyoung salarywoman, with herday-to-day struggles galore?
The answer, as it happens, is yes. It seems we’re not alone, after all, in identifying some close-to-home tidbits alongside Saku, whomight be nigh-hopeless without the human-sized cat, Yukichi, who assists her in getting things in order.
While we can’t proclaim to have life-sized cats of our own, wecanconfirm thatpets can be fantastic motivators when life throws us curveballs. As for Saku herself, herhoarding tendenciescan be echoed amongplenty of gaming and anime enthusiasts, ourselves included.
Saku Fukuzawa frequently finds herself embroiled in the consequences of utter carelessness, and those “foot-in-mouth” moments can be relatable in their own right. Shefinds solace in vices, though thankfully, Yukichi helps her to snap out of all that. We’d like to think we’re doing pretty OK these days, ourselves.
6Bocchi Hitori - Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
Goodness, butsocial anxietysure can be crippling, no?Bocchi Hitorisure knows the score on that front. Hers is hefty, and that’s bad enough for a kidheading into middle school- oh, the banal years of middle school - withouther best friend heading to a different school.
What’s worse,the friend, Kai Yawara, challenges Bocchi to befriend everyone in her class. The penalty for failure?Their own friendship is off the tableuntil she somehow makes that happen.
Against all odds,Bocchi does begin her quest to fulfill Kai’s demand. In a lesser story, it’d feel forced; butHitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu admirably depicts its protagonist’s trials and tribulationsas she believably overcomes her anxiousness one step at a time.
It’s not just relatable. It’s downright admirable. Go, Bocchi, go. (A shame we’ll seemingly never get a second season, butthe manga is finished, at least.)
5Yuri Katsuki - Yuri On Ice
There are some undeniable jokes to be made about the fact that an anime would treat a 23-year-old as ancient. YetYuri Katsuki, the star ofYuri on Ice, is a rare example of such silliness making perfect sense. After all,at 23, it’s pretty hard to break into figure skating.It’s not unreasonable for Yuri to have assumed such desires were effectively past his prime.
As anyone who has ever felt the bitter forward thrust of age’s inexorable march will know, therearethings that just can’t be done - or, at least, it’ll be far harder to do - once we hit certain milestones.
Whether it’s bodily wear and tear, or (and this is what resonates with us the most here),a demoralization towardfulfilling long-desired goals, there are few things quite so disappointing as feeling like you’re too late in life to do something grand.
Through his captivating relationship with Victor,Yuri learns never to say never. It’s downright inspiring, but for the purposes of our list, it’s his age-based trials and tribulations that stick with us the most.
4Kyon - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
We never even learnKyon’s real name, which is a heck of a thing given the massive popularity ofThe Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Instead, he’s addressed by his nickname. Between that and his utterly “everyman” presence, a passive onlooker who hasn’t engaged with the anime (or its ongoing series of light novels) might assume that Kyon is eitherbarely presentor the sort ofself-insertwe see in some shows.
Thankfully, neither could be further from the truth.Kyon is indisputably the perspective characterin the story, which encircles the titular Haruhi and her supernatural antics. But he’s more than that -he’s deeply relatable. You see, Kyon is just…Kyon.
He’s doing his best to make it through high school. If Haruhi had never met him,Kyon would not stand out in the slightest, and yet it’s precisely this straightforwardness, this somewhat browbeaten, entirely “normal”, personality of his which can be hard not to appreciate.
Of course, if Kyon were nothing more than a walked-over carpet, we might not relate quite so keenly. (Thankfully!)Kyon hits upon many personal realizationsover the course of the series, growing into an appreciation for hisneed to grow, and his desire for Haruhi and their shared friends to help him to do so.
3Kagome Higurashi - InuYasha
Stop us if you’ve heard this anime protagonist description before, butKagome Higurashi is an ordinary high school student. The irony in us listing this is that this particular author, penning this precise article, barely even went to high school. Yet here we are.
The thing about Kagome is that, despitebeing transported back in time to a version of Feudal Japan which is rife with mythological demonsand stars a half-demon hybridnamedInuYasha(with whom she falls madly in love),Kagome never really loses sight of life’s simpler and more intenselyhumanelements.
Whether she’sfilling evildoers with arrows,orcramming hard in last-minute preparation for an upcoming exam, Kagome is just…Kagome. And that’s twice now, in a row, even, that we’ve described a relatable protagonist as being “just” themselves.
One of the things that makes these heroes and heroines so approachable is that their writers never press them into the sorts of sweeping characterization transformations that wouldn’t feel well-suited to them.
Sure, they change -Kagome isn’t a static character by any means- buther cares and concerns, her core beliefs, her personal strengths and weaknesses, are always there, guiding her, or occasionally holding her back, as she discovers that latent heroism nestled deep within.
2Setsuna F. Seiei - Mobile Suit Gundam 00
And now for someone completely different.Setsuna F. Seiei, real nameSoran Ibrahim, is the protagonist ofMobile Suit Gundam 00.He grew up as anindoctrinated war orphan. When we’re introduced to him some years later,he can seem blunt to the point of hollowness, and so devoted to his mission as a member of the radical militant group Celestial Being that he could not fathom anything else.
Given his origins, it’s an understandable demeanor. But Setsuna, in fact,harbors a deep love for the prospect of peace, and his unerring determination to enact peace might have resulted in villainy had it not been for his steadfast allies in the bid for freedom.
Setsuna develops a great deal over the course of Mobile Suit Gundam 00’s 50 episodes and sequel film, to the point that hemightfeel troublingly unrecognizable between the story’s bookends. But every step of his journey is marked by justifiable progress.
That’s all well and good, butwhat makes Setsuna so relatable?It is, in fact, that unflinching, almost bull-headed, ambition. We all havememories from our childhoods so deeply engraved in our minds as to have become core to our growth, be they positive, negative, or (as is likely the case), a mixture of both.
While Setsuna’s foundational moments are undeniably negative across the board, he learns to wield them as a force for positive change. And, as plenty of us have experienced,it’s that psychological push to turn a bum-luck hand of cards in life into something beneficialthat speaks volumes to our souls.
1Tomoya Okazaki - Clannad
Clannadhas its origins as avisual novel. A verylongvisual novel. It’ssplit into two parts, both starring Tomoya Okazaki: his time in high school, and his early adulthood.The anime follows suit.
It’s the second part,After Story, that puts Tomoya Okazaki so firmly on our list as to reach the number one spot. But without that first part, none of it would truly matter. When we’re introduced to Tomoya,he’s a selfish delinquent with an earnest desire to change his ways. He soon meetsNagisa, a shy, kindhearted, fellow student, as well as several other key characters.
There are plenty of customary ups and downs throughout the first season and the first half of the second, culminating inTomoya’s graduation. But the time skip, which presentsTomoya and Nagisa as a married couple with a child on the way, whereClannad cements itself as an all-timer.
The following is a massive spoiler. Look away now if you’d prefer to enjoy Clannad (in any of its forms) unspoiled. But we can’t do this without tackling it, so read on if you’re familiar, or if you simply don’t care to learn without experiencing Clannad firsthand.
Everything goes terribly wrong for Tomoya, terribly fast. Nagisa dies shortly after giving birth to their daughter. Tomoya is wracked with grief, and his life quickly falls apart. He descends into bitter self-loathing, which worsens dramatically when the daughter, Ushio, also dies of the same illness which claimed her mother.
Clannad does sport a wonderfully happy ending, butit’s this breathtakingly tragic string of episodes that makes Tomoya so utterly empathetic. Sometimes, you get the best outcome to close out your high school graduation. But sometimes,that doesn’t translate to a happily-ever-after.
In challenging Tomoya Okazaki in the most harrowing ways, Clannad creates a protagonist who it is virtually impossible not to root for, and whose struggles are universally appreciable. There’s no one like Tomoya - and yet, in a real way, we’re all Tomoya just the same.
