Rules are meant to be broken, and this is something that anime characters embrace wholeheartedly. That said, some characters take this adage a bit too literally, defying all logic in the process.
A good example of such a character is Yugi Muto from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, an aspiring Duel Monsters card player who wins most of his matches not through luck and tactics but with the Heart Of The Cards.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
10 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters — Yugi Muto Had The Heart Of The Cards & The King Of Games On His Side
When it comes to this anime's titular children's card game, Yugi is a decent duelist. But thanks to the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi became the best Duel Monsters player around not because he was suddenly imbued with card strategies but because an ancient Egyptian pharaoh possessed him. That, and said pharaoh's powers are a literal Deus Ex Machina.
Pharaoh Atem (or Yami Yugi) can tap into the Heart Of The Cards, allowing him to change the duel's rules on the fly. Instances include Yami convincing his opponent's Monster card to defect, or him believing in his deck so hard that it rewards his faith by giving him the exact card he needed when it's his turn to draw.
9 Redo Of Healer — Keyaruga Healed Everything & Everyone Into Submission
Keyaruga is the fated Healing Hero and, as his name states, has the power to undo injuries and sicknesses. However, Redo Of Healer took this simple ability to hilariously illogical extremes by giving Keyaruga the power to heal literally everything, from physical objects to abstract concepts. Case in point, he rewound time by healing it.
After resetting the timeline by four years, Keyaruga undid every rule and trope that got in his way by "healing" it. Some examples include brainwashing Princess Flare by "healing" her mind into a suggestive blank slate, "healing" enemies so hard that they explode into geysers of blood, giving himself cosmetic surgery by "healing" his face, and more.
8 The Fate Series — Medea's Noble Phantasm Is A Literal Rule Breaker
After humanity and reality were nearly wiped out during the Fate series' tournament, the Holy Grail Wars, the governing bodies and participating factions agreed upon a set of rules. The most basic is that the war can only be fought by chosen Masters and their contracted Servants, which is a guideline that Medea's Noble Phantasm spits in the face of.
Medea's blessed weapon is Rule Breaker, a dagger that dispels and nullifies any kind of magic present in whoever gets stabbed. For example, stabbing a Servant would break their contract with their Master and transfer control to Medea. She even stabbed herself to break free of her first Master and fight on her own accord.
7 Bleach — Sosuke Aizen Always Had An Ace Up His Sleeve
Aizen is simultaneously Bleach's best and worst villain because of his uncanny ability to be ten steps ahead of everyone else at any given opportunity. His master plans to achieve godhood were already in motion long before Ichigo Kurosaki met a weakened Rukia Kuchiki, meaning that he was in control of everything before the story even began.
Aizen was at his best during the Soul Society arc, where he orchestrated Ichigo's raid on Seireitei and a Shinigami civil war without moving a finger. In contrast, Aizen was at his worst during the Arancarc arc, where his having a counter for literally every attack thrown his way came across as cheating to both the Shinigami and viewers.
6 The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya — Haruhi (Unknowingly) Rewrote Reality To Her Liking
The last thing anyone expected from the quintessential slice-of-life anime The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya was for the titular character to be a reality-warping goddess, but that's what viewers got. The eccentric but otherwise normal high school student Haruhi can actually warp reality, but she's unaware of it.
Without realizing it, Haruhi would rewrite reality so that everything went her way. For example, Haruhi can master any new hobby she picks up not because she's a prodigy but because the laws of reality conspired to make her the best there is. Additionally, she unwittingly fulfilled her own wish for an exciting life thanks to her powers.
5 One Piece — Donquixote Doflamingo Blackmailed The World Nobles To Give Him Impunity
Donquixote Doflamingo is one of the most powerful Warlords in One Piece, but his real power comes from his political capital. Not only is Doflamingo the self-made king of Dressrosa, but he rules the black market and basically has carte blanche to do whatever he wanted because he blackmailed the World Nobles into ignorance.
All of this is thanks to the fact that Doflamingo is a former World Noble since the Donquixote family was a former aristocratic power. With his family's remaining noble influence and connections, Doflamingo made himself such an uncontrollable yet irreplaceable asset for the World Government that they had no choice but to give him technical immunity.
4 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters — Seto Kaiba Bought The Rules
Seto's rule-breaking tendencies may have been immortalized with the quote "Screw the rules, I have money!" from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, but he was doing this even before the iconic parody series hit YouTube. Whenever the arrogant and often difficult Seto was faced with a problem or a mild inconvenience, his go-to solution was to throw money at it.
As Kaiba Corporation's CEO, Seto buying his way to do or get whatever he wanted shouldn't be too surprising. With his enormous wealth, Seto turned his favorite children's card game into a sporting phenomenon, funding tournaments while also setting their rules. Surprisingly, Seto refused to buy his wins, demanding a fair fight instead.
3 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure — Jotaro Kujo & Star Platinum's Might Is Beyond Doubt
Because Stands have unique powers and weaknesses, a Stand User duel would theoretically be more cerebral than it seems. This was taken to ridiculous extremes in the third series, Stardust Crusaders, where Jotaro's unbelievably great foresight combined with Star Platinum's brute strength made them impossibly unbeatable.
Every fight Jotaro and Star Platinum got into was a foregone conclusion thanks to Jotaro's ability to predict his opponents' every move and Star Platinum's logic-defying power-ups like suddenly stopping time during the fight with Dio. Fans never cried foul because they were too caught up in the hype whenever Jotaro's signature theme kicked in.
2 Pokémon — Pikachu Won & Lost Whenever He Felt Like It
On paper, Pokémon's power system should be straightforward: Basic Pokémon are the weakest, but they can evolve into stronger forms. Additionally, each Pokémon's type determines what attacks it would be resistant and weak to. Despite that, Ash Ketchum's Pikachu constantly broke these defined rules because the plot demanded it.
Pikachu is a basic electric Pokémon who somehow beat the likes of an electric-resistant Rhydon or a fully evolved Gyarados. Despite inexplicably taking down Legendary Pokémon like Regice and Tapu Koko, Pikachu still somehow lost to other basic Pokémon like Snivy, who he technically surpassed in raw power and experience.
1 Sword Art Online — Kirito Is The Greatest Gamer Of All Time, No Questions Asked
There are a lot of things wrong with Sword Art Online, and Kirito's ability to break every in-universe rule and even his own anime's internal logic is what drives many of his biggest critics mad. Without prior build-up or justification, Kirito can basically win every fight he gets into because he's automatically better than even the game's strongest bosses.
In fact, Kirito is such a god-tier gamer that he can master any game in a heartbeat despite his specialization supposedly being limited to MMORPGs. That said, Kirito's most egregious rule-breaking was when he hacked into Sword Art Online's operating system in seconds to resurrect the deleted AI Yui, breaking all dramatic tension and logic.