Best Anime With Criminal Protagonists

Fiction has long upheld the idea of the "hero" as the protagonist - someone who is noble, selfless, and stops at nothing to put an end to the villain's evil plans. However, many stories like to subvert this common formula by making the main character less-than-scrupulous.

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By  Gauri Raj

These anime series feature protagonists who are, at best, petty crooks, or at worst, outright reprehensible. Sometimes they have good intentions or sympathetic backstories, and other times they engage in evil for the sake of it. After all, who says the main character has to be a goody-goody to be entertaining?

10 Afro Samurai

MyAnimeList Score: 7.36

The titular character of Afro Samurai is a revenge-hungry anti-hero. After seeing his father murdered before his very eyes by a swordsman named Justice, he becomes blinded by revenge and is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. In the manga, he's even more ruthless and unsympathetic.

Voiced by none other than Samuel L. Jackson, Afro's motivations are understandable, but his actions are far from it. He cares about nothing and no one other than himself and his revenge and ends up becoming just as evil as the man who killed his father.

9 Gangsta.

MyAnimeList Score: 7.41

Gangsta. Follows the adventures of the "Handymen" - a couple of gangsters consisting of a gigolo named Worick and a "Twilight" mercenary named Nicolas. Together, they offer various services for gangs and cops alike, from bodyguard work to murder.

Set in the gritty underworld of Ergastulum, the series presents Worick and Nicolas as gangsters who work for the betterment of their community. Along with adding a former prostitute named Alex to their ranks, the two get entangled in the complicated relationship between superhumans known as "Twilights" and regular, non-Twilights.

8 Lupin III

MyAnimeList Score: 7.63

From a manga that has too many adaptations to count, Arsène Lupin III from the Lupin III series has become one of the most iconic and recognizable characters in Japanese pop culture. The grandson of a famous gentleman thief, Lupin III fully intends to live up to his grandfather's reputation, becoming an internationally wanted criminal himself.

Along with his friend Daisuke Jigen, master swordsman Goemon Ishikawa XIII, and femme fatale Fujiko Mine, Lupin III gets involved in daring heists and outwits both his pursuer, Inspector Zenigata, and rival criminals.

7 Gungrave

MyAnimeList Score: 7.82

• Release Date: October 6, 2003
• Studio: Madhouse
• Number of Episodes: 26

Gungrave tells the story of Brandon Heat, a low-level criminal at the bottom ranks of a mafia organization called Millenion. After being betrayed and killed by his best friend Harry MacDowell, Brandon gets resurrected as a powerful gunman named Beyond the Grave and is now out for blood.

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The anime unfolds through a mix of present-day events with Brandon as Beyond the Grave and flashbacks revealing Brandon and Harry's backstory and the events leading to Harry's betrayal and Brandon's rebirth as a revenge-crazed gunman.

6 91 Days

MyAnimeList Score: 7.83

• Release Date: July 9, 2016
• Studio: Shuka
• Number of Episodes: 12

91 Days is a gritty revenge story set in America's Prohibition era. The protagonist, Angelo Lagusa, after witnessing the murder of his parents by the Vanetti mafia family, is out for vengeance. Going by the name Avilio Bruno, he befriends the son of the Vanetti family's don, deciding to infiltrate the organization and bring them down from within.

Avilio, to win the trust of the mafia members, does their dirty work, and just like Afro from Afro Samurai, he is not above killing and betraying the trust of other people to achieve his goals.

5 Michiko & Hatchin

MyAnimeList Score: 7.83

• Release Date: October 16, 2008
• Studio: Manglobe
• Number of Episodes: 22

Michiko & Hatchin opens with the protagonist, Michiko Malandro, breaking out of a high-security prison. She kidnaps a girl named Hana Morenos from her abusive foster family, believing her to be the daughter of her former lover, and nicknames her Hatchin.

The unlikely duo embarks on a journey to find Hiroshi Morenos (Michiko's ex and Hatchin's biological father), fighting against criminal gangs and the police in the fictional South American country of Diamandra. While Michiko is a wanted criminal, she does have her nicer moments, especially when she warms up to Hatchin.

4 Black Lagoon

MyAnimeList Score: 8.03

Black Lagoon tells the story of a group of mercenaries called the Lagoon Delivery Company in the fictional city of Roanapur in Thailand. Salaryman Rokuro "Rock" Okajima gets embroiled in the world of organized crime after being taken hostage by the Company and joining them.

Together with the fierce leader Dutch, mechanic Benny, and gunslinger Revy, Rock finds out quickly that the Company is deep in the waters of the criminal underworld, taking on smuggling jobs, engaging in firefights, and confronting various criminal organizations. Rock is perhaps the nicest member of the crew at first, but even his morality degrades the more time he spends with the Lagoon Company.

3 Terror In Resonance

MyAnimeList Score: 8.09

Set in an alternate version of modern Tokyo, Terror in Resonance revolves around two teenage boys, known only as Nine and Twelve, who carry out a series of terrorist attacks under the alias "Sphinx." They upload a video to the internet, challenging law enforcement to solve their riddle, or they'll destroy Tokyo.

A police force, led by Detective Kenjorou Shibazaki, is launched to uncover the motives of Sphinx and put a stop to their reign of terror. As the series unfolds, Nine and Twelve's motives are gradually revealed, involving a large government conspiracy and human weapons.

2 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

MyAnimeList Score: 8.60

Based on the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners follows a boy named David Martinez, who, after nearly losing everything in a drive-by shooting, runs into a netrunner named Lucy Kushinada. Lucy, having a special hatred for the city they're living in, introduces David to the world of Edgerunners - a group of cyborg outlaws.

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After implanting a prosthetic that grants him superspeed, Martinez decides his best option to survive in the corrupt, dystopian Night City is to become an Edgerunner. Given the kind of setting he and Lucy are living in, their choice to become criminals may be justified.

1 Death Note

MyAnimeList Score: 8.62

Death Note is perhaps the most well-known anime about a criminal protagonist and a detective doing all that he can to take him down. It follows a brilliant high-school student named Light Yagami who finds a notebook that allows him to kill anyone he wants. Driven by a desire to rid the world of criminals and create a society under his warped view of justice, Light vows to use his new power to become the God of the new world.

Light's actions catch the attention of an international law enforcement agency and, through the efforts of a highly intelligent detective known as "L," begin their investigation into "Kira" - a nickname given to Light by the media. And thus begins a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game between L and Light as they try to uncover each other's identities.

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