A good underdog is a hero any anime fan can root for. OP heroes like Frieren the slayer and Saitama the caped hero are exciting to watch, but it's the underdogs who are the most relatable. Any anime viewer knows what it feels like to be vulnerable and have everything to prove when the odds are against them. Underdog anime leads tap into those feelings, with Koichi Haimawari in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes being a recent example.
Koichi checks off many of the boxes as a scrappy little hero with everything to gain, from his modest yet useful Quirk to his humble dream of saving people without a hero license. Still, Koichi isn't even the best underdog in the My Hero Academia franchise, let alone in all of anime. Other underdogs have cooler powers, bigger brains, more compelling personal arcs, or more memorable designs.
My Hero Academia Vigilantes: Every Main Character's Age, Height, And Birthday
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has a great cast of core characters, so let's go through their ages, heights, and birthdays.
Ochaco Uraraka Fights to Support Her Family
Ochaco is MHA's Most Selfless Hero of All
The overall My Hero Academia franchise has plenty of great underdogs for fans to love. That includes Izuku Midoriya with the power of One For All, Koji Koda, and even Eijiro Kirishima. The best of them is Deku's classmate Ochaco Uraraka, who has come remarkably far with her Zero-Gravity Quirk.
Ochaco lacks Deku's plot armor with One For All, but she doesn't need it, impressively enough. She is a more traditional, straightforward underdog who relies on grit, willpower, and a worthwhile dream to keep moving forward. Aside from tapping into the power of friendship, fans love Ochaco the underdog because she fights for such a sympathetic reason: supporting her struggling parents with paychecks.
Tanjiro Kamado Worked Himself to the Bone While Training
Tanjiro's Losses Never Hardened His Heart
Tanjiro Kamado is the true heart of Demon Slayer as an underdog who never stopped caring for others, no matter his suffering. Even though demons are monsters and Tanjiro lost his family to them, he still found the humanity in his supernatural foes. He nearly died at Daki's and Gyutaro's hands as an underdog human, yet he still sympathized with them.
Gyutaro mocked Tanjiro as a fellow brother of a younger sister, but Tanjiro saw himself in Gyutaro in a more genuine way. It takes a truly outstanding personality for a vulnerable, demon-haunted slayer like Tanjiro to connect with Gyutaro and Daki like that. What is more, Tanjiro has very little plot armor and no "inner monster," so he earned it 100% when he mastered Water Breathing and unlocked Hinokami Kagura.
Yuji Itadori is Surrounded By Enemies as a Strange Sorcerer
Yuji Must Fight Just to Survive
Jujutsu Kaisen, aside from its fan-favorite character Satoru Gojo, is all about the heartbreaking struggles of underdogs. Maki Zenin impressed fans with her determination to defy her traditionalist clan as a female sorcerer with no innate powers. Yet Yuji Itadori's underdog narrative is even better, seeing how he has enemies on both sides of the conflict.
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The power of friendship and its inherent plot armor keep fading away, yet Yuji struggles on. Even after losing allies like Nobara, Kento, and Satoru, Yuji is hanging on with sheer stubborn determination. He must contend with hostile curses and sorcerers alike, such as Naoya Zenin, and that makes each of Yuji's victories count for that much more.
Simon Went From Zero to Hero as a Young Mech Pilot
Simon Overcame Grief to Save the World
Gurren Lagann kept itself grounded amid all the overblown mecha action with protagonist Simon. He may have unlocked powers greater than the universe itself with his giant drills, but he remained a vulnerable, sympathetic hero on the inside. First, Simon found himself thrust into a war against the Beastmen and had to learn on the fly. Then, he endured the staggering loss of his brotherly figure, Kamina.
Kamina's loss hit Simon and Yoko incredibly hard, and for a moment, it seemed Simon's heroic journey had hit a wall. To fans' relief, Simon rallied himself to fight in Kamina's name, proving that Kamina the man may die, but the dream for freedom won't. Simon became Kamina's successor both against the Beastmen and against the Anti-Spirals, even when his own allies doubted him.
Guts is the Legendary Struggler Haunted by Trauma
Guts Also Embraced the Power of Friendship
No seinen manga/anime hero is a bigger, better underdog than Guts of Berserk fame. The Skull Knight dubbed him the "Struggler" for good reason, with Guts bearing more mental and physical scars than most people could even imagine. Long before the Skull Knight met him, Guts was already a struggler, one who earned every day of survival by the sword.
Guts' full arc is a complex and highly layered one, with the persistent theme being humanity's tough will to survive in the face of endless horrors. Guts' lot in life may be nightmarish and unfair, but he fights on, and most critically, it never broke him. After his lowest moment as the Struggler, Guts started to believe in the power of friendship once again.
Ruby Hoshino is an Amateur Idol Who's Following Her Mother's Example
Ruby Will Either Shine Bright or Go Down in Flames
Oshi no Ko is a fantastic yet subversive seinen anime where the odds are stacked against characters like Akane Kurokawa and Ruby Hoshino. Both of them are sympathetic and flawed underdog heroines, but Ruby is the best of all. That's because Oshi no Ko created remarkable tension about whether Ruby will follow in her mother's footsteps or face her doom.
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Right now, it feels like a coin flip on whether or not Ruby will defy the odds as a musical heroine and realize all her dreams to make her arc worthwhile. Just as likely, Ruby will meet a sticky end to reinforce Oshi no Ko's dark themes and lessons about how predatory the entertainment industry is. That also raises the question about how far Ruby's twin brother Aqua will go to shield her from these dangers.
Edward Elric Won't Let His Disabilities or Past Mistakes Own Him
Ed and His Brother Learned a Hard Lesson in Humility
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of many shonen anime that celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit. This positive message is tempered by the anime's frank honesty about humanity's flaws and darker nature as well. Edward Elric the alchemist embodies all this as a well-meaning lead who must defy the odds to escape his past errors.
Ed and his brother Alphonse are underdogs since they lost part or all of their bodies. They may be skilled alchemist fighters, but the fact remains that Ed lost far too much getting there, and Al lost even more. That makes it all the more awe-inspiring how Ed survived fighting the likes of homunculi, Scar, and chimeras to protect Amestris from certain doom.
Kafka Hibino Never Asked to Be a Half-Kaiju Warrior
Kafka Proves it's Never Too Late to Pursue One's Dreams
Shonen action stars are typically teens, such as Deku and Ochaco, and college-aged Koichi Haimawari isn't much older than that. This makes it far more meaningful how Kaiju No. 8's own star is 32 years old. By shonen standards, he's far past his prime, and Kafka fears that just might be true as he aims to get into the Defense Force.
Kafka's increasing panic and insecurity about his age is what drove his arc early in Kaiju No. 8. It's delightful to see him fight so hard to achieve his dream just before it's too late. It may also resonate with anime fans who also fear they're now too old to pursue the dreams of their idealistic youth.
Iruma Suzuki Changed Everyone's Hearts With His Lovable Personality
Iruma Created a New Kind of Strength in Babyls
Some isekai action anime thrill fans with an entertainingly OP hero like Kirito or Rimuru Tempest, but Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun is about emotional strength instead. Iruma Suzuki is the sole human in the all-demon school Babyls, and that's why he is the best person to change everyone there for the better.
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Iruma couldn't match his classmates in raw power, and he even ran the risk of being their dinner. First, Iruma had to find clever ways to hide in plain sight, and then he began to influence everyone in ways they didn't expect. Young demons like Azazel Ameri and Asmodeus Alice thought they had themselves figured out, but then Iruma's gentle spirit awakened a new, more glorious side of them.
Anya Forger's Mission at School Will Protect the Peace in Ostania
Anya is Devoted to Her Foster Father's Mission
Both Loid and Yor Forger excel in their respective fields as a spy and assassin in Spy x Family. They do have vulnerabilities, but it's Anya Forger who steals the show as Berlint's #1 underdog. She needed Loid and Yor to come into her life just to have a stable daily existence, and then Anya faced her greatest challenges yet: befriending Damian while getting good grades.
For comedy's sake, the goofy telepath Anya isn't too great at either acing tests or turning rivals into friends. However, Anya secretly knows that world peace is on the line, so Anya pushes her wits and limited academic skills to get the job done like her father wants her to. Progress has been slow, though Anya did defy the odds with her recent Stella Stars and her heroics during the busjacking.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- April 7, 2025
- Network
- Tokyo MX, BS Nippon TV
Cast
-
Shuichiro UmedaKoichi Haimawari / The Crawler (voice) -
Ikumi HasegawaKazuho Haneyama / Pop☆Step (voice)
