Summary
Revenge anime are some of the most thrilling anddarkest 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 areanime heroes fueled by hatredwho 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 andmost iconic examples of revenge anime.
Updated January 25th, 2025, by David Heath:Revenge is a common theme in media in general, but especially so in 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, those series are not purely about revenge. At least not compared to Berserk or Black Butler, where the lead’s need for vengeance is the main motivator.
However, plenty of anime out there puts revenge at the center of their plot, including some of the medium’s biggest hitters. As such, this list has received a few more notable entries that involve revenge, be they protagonists seeking to right an old wrong, or how the pursuit of vengeance affects them in the long run.
Hell Girlfollows 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 ofthe 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 Girlshows that, without proper judgment, seeking satisfaction isn’t often worth the cost.
Basiliskis essentiallyRomeo & Juliet,but with ninjas. Based on the novelThe 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, butBasiliskshows 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.
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Where to Stream
Crunchyroll
WithBasiliskandHell Girlbeing fairly complex about revenge,Gun X Swordis 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 likeTrigun, withFist 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.
Canaanhas an interesting backstory to it. It’s an anime sequel to a specific scenario made by Type-Moon for the Wii visual novel428: Shibuya Scramble, which involved a rivalry between the assassins Canaan and Alphard. They used to be comrades, working missions for their leader, a mercenary named Siam. Siam was like a father to Canaan, but Alphard shot him and left him for dead during a joint mission.
Since then, Canaan has yearned to avenge Siam, and stop Alphard any way she can. Keeping her from releasing the Ua virus in428: Shibuya Scramblewas just the start of things. The anime takes them, and novel leads Maria and Minoru, across Shanghai and into Western China, as they try to stop another Ua virus outbreak and put a permanent end to Alphard’s plans.
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91 Daysis 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 Dayshas 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.
Gankutsuou (The Prince of the Cavern)
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In another universe,Gankutsuouwould’ve been an anime adaptation ofThe 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 novelThe Count of Monte Cristoas 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.
Kill La Killwas popular for a good while, becoming one of the most energeticaction anime showsaround 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.
Blast of Tempesthas a tricky mystical conspiracy at its heart, as the Kusaribe Clan aims to awaken the ‘Tree of Exodus’ and use its power for their own gains, even if it threatens the world. Yet it has a straightforward revenge plot leading into its tangled web of intrigue, as best friends Yoshino and Mahiro get their lives turned upside down when Mahiro’s parents and sister, Aika, are killed by an unknown assailant. Mahiro vows to get revenge and disappears, while Yoshino mourns, having not told Mahiro he had been dating Aika all this time.
By the time Mahiro returns, he reveals he’s made a deal with Hakaze Kusaribe, a witch banished to a desert island, who can help them find Aika’s killer in return for them stopping her clan’s plans for the Tree of Exodus. As tall of an order as it is, Yoshino agrees to take part in it, having found himself unable to get past Aika’s death in the way Mahiro was. However, in the process of taking on the clan, they get to learn more about Aika’s connections to the Tree of Exodus, and who killed her and her parents that night.
One of the most famous samurai vengeance stories in manga wasBlade of the Immortal. It combined the gothic anti-heroism seen in comics likeThe Crowwith 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 seriesMugen 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.
Tokyo Ghouldoes 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.
