Best Revenge Anime

Key Takeaways

• Viewers of revenge anime witness characters consumed by hatred turn into villains, warriors, and ghosts seeking retribution for past wrongs.
• These dark and adrenaline-boosting anime explore the consequences of obsessive revenge, showcasing human emotions in raw and unique ways.
• From samurai sagas to modern classics, revenge anime delve into multifaceted narratives that provide entertainment and insight into the high cost of seeking vengeance.

Revenge anime are some of the most thrilling and darkest series around. They can take their viewers on epic adventures and terrifying rides, introducing anime lovers to some of the most tortured characters in the genre. From there, they can examine the nature of revenge, the will to avenge the horrible things that happened to them and their loved ones, and whether it’s worth the carnage.

There are anime heroes fueled by hatred who go too far and become villains and warriors who simply seek vengeance against the sickest bad guys and provide the thrill of getting one’s own back. Whether they become obsessive about their desire for satisfaction or draw back from its allure, they capture human emotions in raw and unique ways, which is why these series became some of the best and most iconic examples of revenge anime.

Updated October 19, 2024 by David Heath: Revenge is a common theme in media in general, let alone manga and anime. Even if it’s not the main focus of the plot, it can be a key subplot, like Ermes avenging her sister’s death on Sports Maxx in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean or Gon and Kurapika taking murderous turns in Hunter X Hunter. Still, they’re not purely about revenge. At least not compared to Berserk or Black Butler, where the lead’s need for vengeance is the main motivator.

But plenty of anime out there still put revenge at the center of their plot, including some of the medium’s biggest hitters. So, this list has received a few more notable entries about wronged protagonists seeking satisfaction, and whether it led them to become better people, or down a dark path.

1 Hell Girl

Cursed Spirit Shows Humans The Downsides of Revenge

Hell Girl follows a ghost girl named Ai, who helps(?) people via her ‘Hell Correspondence’ website. If they access the site at exactly midnight, they can submit their grievance and meet Ai herself. As the titular ‘Hell Girl,’ she’ll torment their targets before dragging them to the underworld alive. However, in return, the person who made the request will be reunited with their target when they die, as they’ll be damned to hell as well.

Ai is essentially one of the scariest magical girls, with a grim backstory to illustrate how her need for revenge turned her into Hell’s vengeance vendor and how high the cost of her services are. Because not everyone who uses her website has a good reason for revenge. Many of them use it for petty reasons or damn the wrong person (and thus themselves) for someone/something else’s deeds. Hell Girl shows that, without proper judgment, seeking satisfaction isn’t often worth the cost.

2 Basilisk

Centuries-Long Family Feud Dooms Ninja Lovers

Basilisk is essentially Romeo & Juliet, but with ninjas. Based on the novel The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, it follows two ninja clans, the Kouga and Iga, who have been feuding with each other for centuries. It reaches a peak when Ieyasu Tokugawa, the shogun of Japan, steps down, leading to a succession crisis. To fix this and the feud at the same time, Ieyasu orders the 10 best members of each clan to represent his grandsons. Whoever manages to slaughter all 10 of their opponents first wins the side for their candidate.

Unfortunately, this makes the clans’ previous plan to pacify their feud null and void. Gennosuke and Oboro, heirs to the Kouga and Iga, respectively, were lovers and meant to marry each other. Now they’ll be forced to kill each other or lead their clan into ruin. Revenge may sound simple and fun on paper, but Basilisk shows how it can be a neverending cycle that damns the innocent just as much, if not more so, than the wrongdoers responsible for its need in the first place.

3 Gun X Sword

Sword-Slinger Searches The Planet For The Clawed Man Who Killed His Fiancée

With Basilisk and Hell Girl being fairly complex about revenge, Gun X Sword is refreshingly simple. On the planet of “Endless Illusion,” a swordsman called Van wanders the land in search of the man who killed his wife-to-be, Elena. All he knows about him is that he was armed with a claw, so he refers to him as the Claw Man. Along the way, he bumps into more people who were hurt by the Claw Man. Some even join him on his journey, like Wendy Garret, a girl searching for her kidnapped brother.

It resembles other sci-fi westerns like Trigun, with Fist of the North Star‘s wandering warrior and kid sidekick setup. But those aren’t the only series in the mix. It also has mechs called the Original Seven, who were made to keep peace on the planet until they were sealed away. One of them, Dann of Thursday, was brought back for Van to learn how to pilot it. After the Claw Man killed Elena and left him for dead, Van tied his life force to Dann’s to recover and used the mech to combat the other six Originals. If Dann goes down, so does Van, and vice versa.

4 91 Days

Protagonist Is Made To Choose Between Friendship And Family

91 Days is set during a period that doesn’t turn up often in anime: America’s Prohibition Era. Following a dispute, the Lagusa family is killed by the ruling Vanetti mafia family, leaving Angelo as the only survivor. With nothing left, he leaves his hometown and takes a new name: Avilio Bruno. But when he’s invited back to his hometown seven years later to aid the Vanetti don’s son, Nero, Avilio has the opportunity to get revenge.

Aside from its beautiful art style, 91 Days has rich character development, as Avilio and Nero do become friends. However, he’s still after the men who killed his family, and that friendship can’t bring back the family he lost. So, he takes his time settling in among the Vanettis, learns how they operate their illicit liquor business, and how he can use that knowledge to strike back. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Avilio does his best to serve it.

5 Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Classic French Novel Gets A Sci-Fi Update

In another universe, Gankutsuou would’ve been an anime adaptation of The Stars My Destination, where a humble man gets turned into a vengeance-seeking monster when he’s left for dead in the middle of space. But the rights holders to the novel refused, leading creator Mahiro Maeda to use Alexandre Dumas’ swashbuckling novel The Count of Monte Cristo as the basis of his sci-fi revenge tale. This time, in the year 5053, the titular Count helps Baron Franz save his childhood friend, Viscount Albert, from kidnappers.

In turn, they introduce him to Parisian high society, little knowing it’s the first step in his plan to get revenge on the people who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Motivated by Gankutsuou, an alien being he meets in the prison of Château d’Ilf, the Count manipulates every one around him into ruin, until it threatens to increase tensions between Earth and the Eastern Empire, let alone rip Paris apart. Starting as unwitting pawns, Albert and Franz could be the only people capable of stopping the Count.

6 Kill La Kill

Secrets And Lies Sit At The Heart Of Fanservice Action Show

Kill La Kill was popular for a good while, becoming one of the most energetic action anime shows around with its combination of humor, action, and lead character Ryuko’s deep-seated quest for revenge. Her father, Isshin, was killed by someone within the prestigious Honnouji Academy, and she wants to find out who it is before she finishes them off with the weapons Isshin left her: Senketsu, a sentient kamui or Goku Uniform in the form of a schoolgirl outfit that Ryuko wears, and the Scissor Blade, a sword capable of rending other Goku Uniforms asunder.

In other words, Ryuko wears a skimpy outfit to fight girls in skimpy outfits, cutting them up to get what she wants (making their outfits even skimpier in the process). The ultimate villains of the series are REVOCS, a corporation that makes Goku Uniforms by abusing their Life Fibers, and the force Isshin set up to stop them is called Nudist Beach. Nonetheless, through the fanservice, the series does go into the effects of revenge on friendships and families, as Isshin had his own secrets that, once uncovered, make Ryuko’s quest trickier than she thought.

7 Blade Of The Immortal

Immortal Samurai Seeks Redemption By Aiding A Young Girl’s Revenge

One of the most famous samurai vengeance stories in manga was Blade of the Immortal. It combined the gothic anti-heroism seen in comics like The Crow with classical samurai dramas and folklore. However, it’s more famous in print than as an anime. Its 2008 anime adaptation got a so-so reception, and its 2017 live-action adaptation was one of Takashi Miike’s better anime/manga-based works. But if fans fancy an animated look, the 2019 ONA series Mugen no Tanin -IMMORTAL- is arguably the best adaptation of the story.

It follows Manji, a notorious samurai whose actions led to the deaths of 100 people. He meets a girl called Rin, who requests his services to help avenge her parents’ murder by killing the master swordsman, Kagehisa. Manji is reluctant at first, but seeing a resemblance between her and his deceased younger sister, he accepts. For one, it could help him in his quest to kill 100 bad men to make up for his personal death toll and convince the nun Yaobikuni to cure him of his immortality. For another, he could atone for his sibling’s death and find solace again.

8 Tokyo Ghoul

A Man’s Self-Hatred and Need for Revenge Turns Him into a Literal Monster

Tokyo Ghoul does have some direct revenge subplots within it (investigator Kureo becomes obsessed with ghoul weapons like quinques and kagunes after his wife dies), but it’s not solely about one protagonist wanting to avenge themselves or others over one antagonist. Rize, the first ghoul Ken Kaneki meets, isn’t even the main villain. She just left him so maimed that Dr. Kanou had to use her organs in transplant surgery to save his life, turning him into a half-human, half-ghoul hybrid that humanity wants to kill and ghouls want to dissect for study.

Instead, the anime shows how Ken’s struggle for survival drives his hatred for ghouls and desire to remain human and what happens when he starts getting used to his new nature. His revenge on torturers like Yamori is satisfying to see on-screen, but it also makes him more of a monster, adopting their habits as well as their powers. Hatred and vengeance make him more like a ghoul than anything else, with only his feelings for his friends keeping him somewhat human. The anime is truncated compared to the manga, but it still tells an intriguing tale.

9 Black Butler

Boy Sells His Soul to a Demon for Revenge

Set in a fictional version of Victorian-era London, Black Butler follows a young boy, Ciel Phantomhive, and his faithful butler, Sebastian. On the surface, they seem like an ordinary pairing of an aristocratic child and his guardian, aiding Queen Victoria herself in sorting out anomalies and ‘unsettling events,’ but looks can be deceiving. They’re actually a vicious demon and his client looking for a murderer. When Ciel was tortured and his family killed, he was desperate to avenge their fates, which the demon, Sebastian Michaelis, was all too willing to help with.

He forms a contract with the boy: he’ll help Ciel find his family’s killers and finish them off. In return, he’ll get Ciel’s soul. Ciel agrees, leading to their partnership. It soon became one of anime’s most popular gothic series, with one of its most iconic butlers. Aside from Sebastian’s dark charm, his dynamic with Ciel pulls viewers in as, he does genuinely seem to care for him over time, though he’s bound to take his soul once Ciel’s revenge is fulfilled. Whether he’d eventually do so despite their growing friendship became part of the show’s most intriguing conundrums.

10 Afro Samurai

Samurai Fights Cowboy To Avenge His Father And Become No.1

Afro Samurai is a neat example of how a niche strip can result in a cult classic anime. The original manga combined a samurai movie plot with a hip-hop style that found a keen audience. Particularly when studio Gonzo took notice of it and joined forces with creator Takashi Okazaki and Samuel L. Jackson as producer to animate it, with actual hip-hop artist RZA on soundtrack duties. It hit Spike TV with Jackson as the title lead and became the coolest thing on TV, albeit also one of the briefest with just 5 episodes and a movie, Afro Samurai: Resurrection.

Taking place in a futuristic version of feudal Japan, it sees the samurai Afro seek out Justice, the gunslinger who killed his father to claim his No.1 Headband. It’s a famous artifact said to grant its wearer godlike powers, and only those wearing the No.2 Headband can challenge them. Wearing said headband, Afro cuts his way through a horde of would-be challengers to stop Justice. All while facing the consequences of his actions via his estranged childhood friend Jinno.

11 Demon Slayer

Boy Gets Caught Between Slaying Or Saving Demons

Samurai stories, or chambara, are no stranger to tales of revenge, as Blade of the Immortal and Afro Samurai showed. Demon Slayer just happens to be one of the most recent examples. It started as a manga, then it became a 3-season anime, with a 4th due to debut in May, and received a movie in Mugen Train. Yet its premise is one of the more straightforward ones around, as Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps in his quest to get revenge on the demons who killed his family.

There are still some twists in its tale. Tanjiro isn’t an anti-hero or a hero-turned-villain like Attack on Titan‘s Eren or Code Geass‘ Lelouch. Yet he still faces moral conundrums. His sister, Nezuko, was the only survivor of the attack but was turned into a demon. She still shows signs of humanity, so Tanjiro is seeking a way to cure her, too. Yet it tempers his willingness to slay other demons as, like Nezuko, they were once people too. If she can be cured, maybe they can too.

12 Vinland Saga

Boy Becomes a Viking Mercenary for Revenge

Despite the anime being relatively new, debuting in 2019, Vinland Saga’s Thorfinn has become one of anime’s most popular vengeance-seekers. When he was young, his family was caught in the growing conflict between Denmark and England until his father sacrificed himself to save Thorfinn from being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Now grown up, he seeks revenge against his father’s killer, Askeladd.

During his journey, he not only becomes one of the strongest but also one of the smartest characters in Vinland Saga, as he ends up getting close enough to his target by joining Askeladd’s group of mercenaries. From there, things get more complicated when he learns more about Askeladd and the political machinations behind the scenes. Aside from being a strong historical tale in its own right, it’s a great choice for viewers who want more from revenge anime than just one hero chasing one baddie.

13 Claymore

Boy Joins Forces With Hybrid Warrior To Get Mutual Revenge On Man-Eating Monsters

Berserk is the most iconic dark fantasy series in manga, and its 1997 anime became a cult classic in its own right. However, its content is pretty extreme, and even its late creator Kentaro Miura regretted making its assault scenes, particularly against women. Luckily, there is another series like it that has the same kind of dark fantasy drama without leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths. Namely, Claymore, where humans fight off people-eating shapeshifters called Yoma with the help of Human-Yoma hybrids called Claymores.

One such Claymore, or ‘Silver-Eyed Witch’, called Clare, saves Raki from a horde of Yoma but isn’t able to save his family. Banished from what’s left of his village, Raki joins Clare on her journey. Along the way, he learns more about the Organization that created her and why she has her reasons for revenge on the Yoma. It’s not quite as heavy as Berserk, but it hits a bittersweet spot that really endears viewers to Clare’s plight, which may make it a more effective story for some than Guts’ tale of blood and regret.

14 Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin

Silver-Coated Hunting Dog Avenges His Father’s Fate At The Claws Of A Bear

Can animals feel the need for revenge? It’s not uncommon for creatures to recognize someone/something that hurts them or their pack and become more aggressive than usual towards them. Dogs are particularly famous for being protective of their packs or found families. So, it’s little wonder Silver Fang: The Shooting Star Gin caught on as perhaps the most iconic animal-based revenge tale, even if its Toei anime got heavily censored in the West, removing key story scenes for its violence.

Nonetheless, the full tale became a classic, if only because it was more dramatic and brutal compared to other cuddly dog stories. Born a silver pup to brindle-coated dogs, Gin seemed destined to become a hunting dog for his master, a boy called Daisuke. But when Akakabuto, a giant Kodiak bear, kills his father, Gin is chosen to succeed him and is tasked with finishing Akakabuto once and for all. To do that, he’ll have to leave Daisuke and build up a pack of wild dogs to overcome Akakabuto’s army of bears.

15 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin

The Rise Of Char Aznable

The original Mobile Suit Gundam series practically became the premier mecha anime series, with the RX-78-2 Gundam becoming the mascot for the whole genre. Even when it expanded to newer protagonists, alternate timelines, and even other universes, the mech, its pilot Amuro Ray, and his rival Char Aznable, still stand out as the most iconic figures in Gundam. Char in particular became a fan favorite for his complex character, where he fought against the Earth Federation, but aimed to bring the Principality of Zeon down from the inside.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and its TV series expansion, Advent of the Red Comet, retells the first MSG story from the perspective of Casval Rem Deikun, the future Char Aznable. It shows how he contends with his late father’s ideology, who sought civil rights for people who live outside the Earth, and his desire for revenge against his father’s betrayers, the Zabi Family. Avenging his death means killing all of them, but in doing so, he could end up destroying the principality his father set up.

16 Code Geass

Man Gives Up His Humanity To Tear Down His Family’s Empire

Code Geass combines a twisting revenge anime story with a calculating and intelligent lead. As Lelouch vi Britannia, exiled prince of the Holy Britannian Empire (not actually British, surprisingly enough), seeks to strike back against his father, Emperor Charles, who he blames for the murder of his mother and the trauma-induced disabling of his sister. Once Britannia defeats and annexes Japan, Lelouch vows to tear apart what his father built, and he’ll do so with the newfound ‘Power of Kings’, or ‘Geass’.

Even though Lelouch starts as a brave leader of a righteous rebellion, he eventually becomes so blinded by hatred and revenge that he commits some truly dreadful acts. He goes from being a potential hero to an unequivocal villain, as the merciless brutality of Lelouch’s various means didn’t justify the end. After all, not everyone who seeks revenge is good, and they don’t necessarily have everyone else’s best interests in mind.

17 Dororo

Disabled Warrior Uses Prosthetic Limbs to Get Revenge on His Father

Technically, as far as the term ‘iconic’ goes, this should go to the original 1969 series Dororo and Hyakkimaru. Just as the original manga was one of the first chambara revenge strips, its cartoon adaptation was one of the first chambara revenge anime. It’s where Demon Slayer, Blade of the Immortal, Samurai Champloo, and many more tales of katana-wielding fighters can trace their origins. However, it’s much easier to track down the stellar 2019 adaptation, simply titled Dororo.

Despite being the title character, the story is about the tomboy thief Dororo’s partner, Hyakkimaru. He was born without limbs, skin, or facial features, as these were claimed by demons in recompense for his father’s desire for power. Saved from abandonment by a medicine man, Hyakkimaru survives with prosthetic limbs and a deadly arrangement of weapons. To regain his lost features, he must kill the demons who claimed them and eventually slay his father too.

18 Attack On Titan

Broken Boy’s Desire For Revenge Turns Him Into A Literal Monster

Speaking of complex revenge stories following morally gray protagonists, Attack On Titan has become the textbook example of such tales in anime. It takes viewers on a journey via Eren Yeager from his youth onward as he seeks to avenge his mother’s death at the hands of the giant, cannibalistic Titans. Outside humanity’s few walled enclaves, these giants dominate the earth. To tip the balance back toward humanity’s favor, Eren joins his city’s Survey Corps with his friends to find a way to finish them off.

It sounds straightforward, as Eren only wanted to protect his loved ones, but once he learns more about the city walls and the Titans, he ends up causing more pain, suffering, and death than the giants themselves as he turns his aim toward the Subjects of Ymir, a racial group who could become the titular Titans. Eren gets so blinded by hatred and his desire for revenge that he eventually becomes a monster himself, figuratively and literally.

19 Berserk

How One Wandering Knight Became One of Anime’s Most Tortured Figures

While it’s not as in-depth as the original manga, and its animation has aged, Berserk is one of the best anime by OLM. It transports its viewers into a dark medieval Europe-inspired fantasy world and follows the manga’s ‘Golden Age’ arc, detailing how Guts became part of the Band of the Hawk, befriended its leader, Griffith, fell in love with its captain Casca, and how Griffith betrayed them all to achieve his ambition.

That sounds fairly direct, though it’s just the tip of the iceberg, and not just because most of Guts’ revenge story was left behind in the original manga (or the lesser 2016 anime). It shows how complex Guts and Griffith’s pairing becomes as, while friends, Guts can’t abide by the measures Griffith takes to achieve his ambitions. In turn, Griffith’s betrayal becomes a form of revenge in turn, as he uses his downfall to hurt Guts back. It’s a brutal story that’s not suited for the squeamish.

20 Fist Of The North Star

Lethal Assassin Kills Murderers In The Name Of Love

With all that said, when it comes to iconic revenge anime, it’s hard to outdo Fist of the North Star. It was one of the most famous and influential anime around during the 1980s, inspiring similar tales like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Vinland Saga, Berserk, Baki the Grappler, and the buff boy brawler Sakigake!! Otokojuku (and its parody Cromartie High School). The show is also about vengeance, as its lead needs little reason to right wrongs.

The main plot sees Kenshiro, master of the deadly martial art of Hokuto Shinken, try to save his fiancée Yuria from Shin, his best friend-turned-enemy, who left him for dead in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. On top of wanting revenge on Shin, Kenshiro would go on to avenge the murder of innocents by the bandits who killed them, killing them horribly with his techniques to bring peace. It’s not as in-depth as its successors, but it isn’t some basic bloodfest either, as Kenshiro’s quest isn’t shown as some ideal to live up to. He’s just making the best of his lonely fate.