Nothing is more satisfying than revenge. In anime, revenge seems to happen in a big and unexpected way. It brings out the worst in characters and often results in serious fights and tragic endings. The most epic anime revenge regularly takes the form of a hero who becomes a villain, or an innocent character who illuminates with new powers and goes on a rampage. It is fun to watch how larger-than-life characters react to one of them getting filled with vengeance.
Top 20 Best Revenge Anime
20. Masamune-kun no Revenge
Episodes: 12, Studio: SILVER LINK, English Title: Masamune-kun’s Revenge
This revenge anime has a great setup, a guy goes on a revenge mission against those who bullied him when he was a kid. As a child, Masamune Makabe was an overweight boy who was harassed by a rich and beautiful ice girl named Aki Adagaki. She called him “piglet”.
Over the years Masamune decides to work his ass and he gradually takes the fat off and becomes Mr. Popular. He hopes that one day he will be able to take revenge on Aki and break her heart. But as he tries to get closer to her, he begins to doubt his desire for revenge.
For the first six episodes, we get great comic moments, as Masamune tries to get Aki’s attention and romance her while being Mr. Cool. Sometimes it works, but other times it backfires. If you are a rom-com junkie, there are a lot of cute romantic scenes.
I loved the supporting characters sprinkled all over the anime, my favorite one was Yoshino, the ice girl’s slave. Wait what? Yep. She teams up with Masamune to get her (indirect) revenge. The premise was interesting, and the series started well but just lost it in the second half. And that ending!
20. Kami no Tou
Episodes: 13, Studio: Telecom Animation Film, English Title: Tower of God
Kaiji is probably a big anime in the revenge department. The main character Kaiji Itou is unemployed and financially unstable due to the resection that hits Japan. As a result, Kaiji is in a depressive slump, he feels powerless and looks down on himself for his inability to make money.
Things get worst and he finds himself in debt for gambling. But it was not his fault. A former co-worker betrayed him when he approached Kaiji for help. He convinced him to cosign a loan then defaulted on him and disappeared.
When faced with the possibility of paying monthly increments he can’t afford, Kaiji gets coerced by a loan shark to join a one-night gambling cruise that will allow him to erase his debt in one fell swoop. But soon he discovers that he will need to compete in death games with people from all over Japan to win big.
One of the most shocking elements of the series is how callous the rich ruling-class characters are. They refer to men like Kaiji as garbage and trash. I was hoping to see Kaiji get his revenge at some point.
It is full of extremely steep drops and triumph climbs. It defies our expectations, and the character falls further into despair, but hopelessness causes every little victory to pack as much punch as the hero finally blows with revenge against the ultimate villain.
19. Shingeki no Kyojin
Episodes: 25, Studio: Wit Studio, English Title: Attack On Titan
Eren is presented from the beginning as a generic shounen hero who set himself a bold goal to save humanity from the Titans and avenge his mother’s death – but he was placed in a cruel world that does not make concessions even for heroes like him, and instead gives them a cap that brings them back to reality.
In his first encounter with the Titans, Eren is eaten, then fails to protect his friends (and many times just by being helpful), and is forced to become the creature he hates and abandon his humanity to fight the Titans.
You can complain all you want about why such and such things are missing in AOT, and I know people like to criticize when it comes to such a successful series, but you can also let it develop at its own pace and convey the same ideas while not neglecting what AOT does best, a spectacular seinen revenge anime full of action and great characters.
I choose to enjoy it, and there is certainly no shortage of revenge stories to enjoy.
17. Btooom!
Episodes: 12, Studio: Madhouse, English Title: –
Btooom! isn’t exactly the most sophisticated revenge anime you’ll come across. On a positive note, I was surprised to find out that the person sitting in the director’s chair is a woman, her name is Kotono Watanabe, and she maintains a high testosterone level for a seinen anime.
Do you know someone you betrayed and hates you? You better be careful, because he can send you to hell. This is what happened to Ryota Sakamoto, an unemployed 22-year-old who lives with his mother and spends most of his time playing video games. More specifically, Btooom, a sort of Call of Duty only with smart bombs instead of guns.
In the real world, Ryota is a loser who doesn’t think about his future or his mother, he just wants to find a job and run away from home, except that the only job he’s willing to work for is at the game company that developed “Btooom”.
All is well and good until he wakes up in the jungle in the middle of a remote island. He has no memories of how he got there, but he doesn’t have too much time to investigate: someone is chasing him. That someone has a set of bombs, just like in Btooom, and Ryota must apply the tactics he knows from the game to survive.
16. Akatsuki no Yona
Episodes: 24, Studio: Pierrot, English Title: Yona of the Dawn
Yona is a 16-year-old princess in a pastoral kingdom. On top of that, she is a spoiled child with no brain who complains about a lot of things for a rich girl that has everything. Thank God that the man she is in love with (spoiler for the end of the episode, but who cares?) betrays her and murders her father to take over the throne.
With the help of her bodyguard and her childhood friend (someone who has no chance of being her future husband), Yona and Son Hak escape to the unknown. In this kind of series, I cheer for the bad guys, and for me, Yona of the Dawn is a series about a brave man who decided to put an end to an annoying royal dynasty.
15. Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo
Episodes: 25, Studio: Sunrise, English Title: Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
Here is another revenge anime with a spoiled princess, it takes place in a utopian future where everyone has mana. The heiress to the royal house, Princess Angelise, celebrates her sweet sixteen birthday in front of the whole nation, but then dragons, horrific abuse, and so on, get weird.
There is a scene of a coup in the royal palace that is carried out with the ease of peeling a banana. The royal girl is stripped of her rights and ranks, and sent to prison. And all this action happens in a mecha, only the enemies are dragons. Why? I’m not sure.
Of course, there is ecchi and lots of fan service, but it is not a good enough reason to go through such torture watching it. Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon wants you to take it seriously because it features adult themes, but all the main characters are one-dimensional.
However, the best part is watching Angelise’s character development taken from a very protective environment leaving her very ignorant and putting her in a military environment with all these people she hates. It leads her to become a cold-hearted warrior who seeks the ultimate revenge.
14. Shin Sekai Yori
Episodes: 25, Studio: A-1 Pictures, English Title: From the New World
Try to introduce a person who lived 1000 years ago to today’s reality. Most likely that poor guy will feel foreign and confused (and old). If you wake up in the world of Shin Sekai Yori whose plot takes place 1000 years from today, (not from today, but roughly from today), it will probably take you about a minute to acclimatize, a minute that will be wasted on awkward moments of silence because there are no common topics of conversation.
Still, it’s not a bad place to live: Japan is a utopia. The residents of the area live in a place full of joy and happiness. And they all have telekinetic powers. Twelve-year-old Saki Watanabe developed the powers in question. Together with her classmates, they experience fascinating lessons, go on adventures and… die, yeah most of the time they die and take revenge.
Shin Sekai Yori is not a series for children, I should emphasize that here and now. It has a lot of politics, brutality, revenge, and heroes falling behind at a rate that would make George R.R. Martin drool. You might hear from some people that Shin Sekai Yori is probably one of the greatest anime series ever made. It’s not, the plot potential is not 100% realized.
13. Vinland Saga
Episodes: 24, Studio: Wit Studio, English Title: –
We are in the 11th century AD, during the invasion of the Vikings from Denmark to England. One of these groups of Vikings who joined the Danish army is an agile young warrior named Thorfinn. While he is sent to carry out bold and far-reaching missions on the battlefield, in which he puts his best efforts and risks his life. Thorfinn is not at all interested in the war going on in the background and is loyal to no one.
The only reason for carrying out these missions is the reward that grants the right to fight in a duel against the leader of the Viking tribe he is a member of, a sophisticated and experienced warrior named Askeladd. Years earlier, when Thorfinn was still a small boy, Askeladd killed his father, (Prepare to die), since then he vowed to take revenge but to do so in a way that would honor his father’s memory, who was a great warrior and win a fair duel.
It is hard to say that Vinland is the kind of revenge anime that reinvents the wheel. There are quite a lot of characters in the anime medium, who, like Thorfinn, are motivated by betrayal and revenge, and the stories about how this is not a very healthy way to lead their lives. You have probably watched these shows before.
Thorfinn’s obsession with revenge is not very different from that of Eren mentioned earlier on this list (although he is much less of a loser than Eren).
See also: 10 Revenge Anime Like Vinland Saga12. Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
Episodes: 23, Studio: Wit Studio, English Title: Rising Of The Shield Hero
Four heroes fight the waves, the waves are something that happens out of nowhere and they carry a lot of monsters that come and attack the world until it is destroyed. In each wave, there are many losses, and these heroes are supposed to save the world. They are the hero of the shield, the spear, the sword, and the bow.
Four children from different periods come to this world as future heroes and that’s where the story of vengeance begins.
The protagonist is the shield hero and his name is Naofumi Iwatani, he has always been ridiculed that he can neither attack nor defend, and compared to the other heroes he is a joke. A certain sequence of events that includes accusations against the defender leads him to leave the city alone with nothing and start his vengeance journey.
11. Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
Episodes: 12, Studio: Wit Studio, English Title: Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress
At the time of the industrial revolution, a virus that spreads infects all of humanity and turns them into mindless beasts called “Kabane” or “corpses”, or you can just call them zombies. Anyways, most survivors can keep them at bay by building a wall around the cities connected by a railroad system. The trains carry supplies from one city to another, constantly being attacked by the Kabane.
Humanity deals with them by holding them off for as long as they can, and if someone gets bitten, they must sacrifice themselves. At some point, they make a stupid mistake, and the cities are run down by a horde of Kabane. The few survivors flee on a train to hell hoping to survive.
The revenge anime is full of conflicting characters, and so we get many betrayals, vengeance, and so on. On the train we get to meet Ikoma, he develops a unique weapon that can pierce the hearts of the Kabane. Mumei is the female lead, she does awesome things because she is awesome.
The biggest problem with this series is the second arc. But the first six episodes are really good.
10. Gun X Sword
Episodes: 26, Studio: Studio Tulip, English Title: –
A fairytale from the bottom of the universe overrun with violence. The protagonist rocks a mighty outfit, his name is Vaughn. A young girl tolerates the protagonist, her name is Wendy. There is a sword-wielding space robot named Dan of Thursday. Along the way there is danger, there is strife, but there is never a dull moment. It is a tale of revenge, galactic battles, and Western-inspired visuals.
Vaughn is seeking revenge for the murder of his wife, this is his sole mission in life, but he is lost in that mission. The only emotion we see him express is rage as he roams from one disserted wasteland to another.
It’s a fun revenge anime in an interesting fashion filled with action and suspense.
9. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a popular revenge anime from the late 80′ and ’90s with well-known themes of revenge. It takes place in the future where humans have established colonies in outer space and are now in the midst of a war between two camps – one is the “Galactic Empire” and the other is the “Free Planets Alliance” (FPA for short).
The young admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm from the first camp is sent to help one of the empire’s fortresses, where he is not exactly welcome. As someone who is seen as an unwelcome guest who only got his position because his sister is the emperor’s mistress, Reinhard is treated with disdain, and it seems that the fleet commander is looking to get rid of him and preferably as soon as possible.
Reinhard is sent one after another on impossible missions from which he is not destined to get out alive, but not only does he manage to survive to the chagrin of the senior echelon, he even reaches impressive achievements that earn him even greater fame than he had before.
On the other side of the battle is Yang Wen-Li, an operations consultant for the FPA who also doesn’t exactly get the credit he deserves. He tries to express his views regarding the desired military moves in battle and according to the different situations. He even manages to see through Reinhard’s moves and warns that if they continue to act against him with the same fixed mindset, they are likely to continue losing to the young admiral.
But every such attempt is met by his commander with silence and disdain, which leaves her in a situation where he has to force his way under the commander’s nose even if to keep the crew alive.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is an impressive and detailed world that revolves entirely around a clear conflict.
8. Kami no Tou
Episodes: 13, Studio: Telecom Animation Film, English Title: Tower Of God
Tower of God, also known as Kami no Tou, is one of the anime industry’s biggest successes. It has been running for more than a decade and has accumulated hundreds of episodes to date.
Twenty-Fifth Bam, a young and destitute boy, gains meaning in his life when he meets his best friend Rachel. She raises him, takes care of him, and tells him about the world and the stars in the sky, which can no longer be seen. One day she decides to leave Bam alone and make her way into the Tower of God, a tower that invites a selected number of people to it occasionally and allows them to compete with each other in their climb to the top.
Whoever reaches the top of the tower is expected to fulfill their deepest desires, whatever they may be. Twenty-Fifth Bam, who doesn’t understand why Rachel left him behind, follows her into the tower as well and goes on a journey to find her.
Kami no Tou tries to be a Shonen anime and tick every familiar element in the checklist that characterizes the revenge anime genre. A power system that divides the characters into different types of fighting styles? Check. An innocent main character who has more potential than everyone thinks? Check. Characters with a tragic past? Check. Are characters looking for revenge? Check. Characters looking to challenge themselves and fight strong warriors? Check. A tournament where the competitors become friends? Check.
The plot twists along the way add significantly to the enjoyment, and the final twist specifically allows the series to reset and regenerate.
7. Devilman: Crybaby
Episodes: 10, Studio: Science SARU, English Title: –
A lovable guy named Fudo meets his old friend the genius, Asuka Ryu. Ryu is excited to tell Akira about his discovery, demons threatening to take over the world. But before he pushes the panic button, Ryu reassures him that he has found a way to save humanity.
Ryo plans to help Akira by letting him merge with a demon since only demons have the power to fight other demons. For that reason, Akira absorbs the powerful “Amon” into him and thus becomes “Devilman” – a man with the powers of a demon who has not completely lost his humanity.
With the help of Akira’s new powers and Ryu’s wisdom, the two are now working to stop the other demons and save humanity.
It’s a revenge anime, but I’ll save the spoilers. Devilman is not a series suitable for the general public. It’s ridiculously brutal, insanely over-the-top, pushing boundaries, and its story is filled with plenty of moments that will make you raise an eyebrow or two.
6. Death Parade
Episodes: 12, Studio: Madhouse, English Title: –
A local pub is made up of the souls of dead people. More precisely: the souls of people who have just died. They can be related to each other (a husband and wife killed in an accident, for example) or two deaths with no common denominator. The beauty of the whole business is that we know nothing about them, just like the memoryless participants.
The memories come back during the game (a game that changes every time), although these are not dramatic moments of revelation, but pieces of information that complete a small part of the puzzle, parts that sometimes cause deception, since we only see part of the picture.
Winning or losing doesn’t matter (shhh, don’t tell the participants). It is the behavior of the people while playing that will determine which soul will be reincarnated into a new life, and which will find its end in an infinite Void.
Death Parade is a revenge anime that pits friends, lovers, etc. against each other in a game of vengeance. Not many anime series can criticize their premise, and whoever thinks that the idea of a game that determines fates is ridiculous – that’s fine, the creators of Death Parade are well aware of that.
5. 91 Days
Episodes: 12, Studio: Shuka, English Title: –
If you ask Angelo Lagusa, the bloodshed he initiated is for a noble cause: revenge. Angelo was only a child when his mother, father, and little brother were murdered before his eyes one winter evening. Only Angelo managed to escape underground.
Seven years later, he receives a mysterious letter from his hiding place, which lists the names of his family’s murderers, all of whom belong to the Vanetti crime family.
Angelo returns in disguise to the city. He recruits his childhood friend Coreto and the two join the Vanettis as the family soldiers, where Angelo bonds with Nero, the eldest son of the Family boss and the heir to the (completely legitimate) business.
Through Nero, Angelo hopes to reach the head of the family who shuts himself in his room. Angelo’s revenge takes a turn when the relationship between him and Nero tightens.
This is a top revenge anime about mafia families in a small town, so you can expect revenge and a body count that piles up in large quantities. No character is safe, except for the obvious two whose fate is in danger only in the last chapter. That’s fine, there are enough other characters to look after their well-being and demand at their waist.
4. Dororo
Episodes: 24, Studios: Tezuka Productions, MAPPA, English Title: –
A samurai sells his new son’s organs to forty-eight demons in exchange for control of the battlefield, but it turns out that the little miscreant survived thanks to the doctor who transplants him with artificial organs.
Now that he has grown up, the son goes on a quest to chase the demons to get his organs back, and his next vengeance destination is his father who betrayed him.
The plot makes Dororo an art piece because it is full of gray. It has great personal stories for one-episode characters. The action is excellent, and even when there were sometimes critical drops in the animation, it didn’t bother me. That’s not why I enjoyed watching Dororo so much. It is a straightforward revenge anime but a complex and great story, with great characters.
3. Gankutsuou
Episodes: 24, Studios: Gonzo, English Title: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
In a futuristic world where space travel is a completely normal thing, the central capital of Earth is Paris where all the nobility and the most important people are concentrated.
Our main character is Albert, the son of one of the greatest and most important generals. During a carnival under strange circumstances, he meets a mysterious man, the Count of Monte Cristo. The two become friends and when the Count comes to Paris, Albert connects him to the high society of Paris.
But the count has an ulterior motive, and from the moment he sets foot in Paris, strange things happen, and secrets from the past begin to be revealed.
The revenge anime is based on the novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” the classic revenge story, in which some people betray an innocent man and send him to prison. After many years, the man is released from prison, and he decides to embark on a journey of revenge and punishes everyone who betrayed him. The anime takes the general idea of the novel with small changes that are adapted to the genre, small changes like a world where there are many years of space exploration and advanced technology.
Of course, it’s clear from the start that the Count is the immediate suspect. But what’s interesting about Gankotusao is the mystery behind the Count. What is his purpose for all this? The whole plot ran in a great sequence when an episode revealed to us new information about him and the background behind it. The Count is indeed cunning, but there are elements in him that make him very interesting. On the one hand, he is charming, on the other hand, he does bad things, and all this is under a strategic network that he builds from the beginning of the anime. Thanks also to the excellent dubbing done by Jogi Nakata, it becomes even more interesting.
See also: Top 12 Best Anime Set In France2. Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch
Episodes: 25, Studios: Sunrise, English Title: Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch
The entire concept of Code Geass 1 and 2 is based on betrayals, the main character, Lelouch is betrayed by his father, and the Black Knights betrayed him when he betrayed his friends.
One of the most consistent themes in Code Geass is death. Death of people you love. Death ignites Leblouh’s desire for revenge. It has always been a series that deals with robot battles of multiplayer armies and put the fate of entire nations on the line, that’s part of its charm.
It’s an anime that deals with the ideological struggle about whether the end justifies the means, dealt with issues such as whether the common good comes before the personal good, presented justice as a concept that is not absolute and is reflected differently in the British kingdom, in the Japanese underground, and within the walls of the school
Code Geass is the last revenge anime that showed the world how to make real Mecha, is not remembered at all because it was a series with robots. It became phenomenal from the day it was born, this is due to the buzz made by Sunrise studio and Clamp’s character design. The plot, unlike other Mecha series, made viewers both think and enjoy. Almost the entire arsenal of characters became popular, and people devoured every episode of the series.
1. Kenpuu Denki Berserk
Episodes: 25, Studios: OLM, English Title: Berserk
My love affair with Berserk started a long time ago, I don’t even remember how many years have passed since I watched the 1997 anime for the first time. This was my first exposure to this kind of dark fantasy story intended for an adult audience (seinen), at least in anime form, and even though it was already showing its age, even the outdated animation did not prevent me from having a good impression of it. Without spoilers on how this whole thing ended, I’ll just say that her ending could not be satisfied.
The revenge anime follows Guts – two meters (and four centimeters) of muscles, with a sword bigger than him. Bad things happened to Guts. The film trilogy which continued the original 1997 tv show ended with the most painful betrayal that any human can experience. What happened to Theon Greyjoy is nothing compared to what Guts saw and experienced, and now he’s looking for revenge.
Berserk is not ashamed of being a fantasy, and every few episodes stretch the limit of brutality. It has blatant ideas against religion, and the world in which Guts walks is full of corruption and evil, and if he encounters a good person who does not join his growing group, you can be sure that that one will die in the most brutal way imaginable.