It's hard being an anime hero. Typically the villains are coming after everyone they know since most don't have a secret identity. Most protagonists also have a backstory filled with problems that have damaged them for life, or that they've blocked out just to live an ordinary life.
But some heroes have it even worse: they can't even get through the first few episodes without dying. Often, this is meant to demonstrate just how dangerous and gritty the universe is — even the main character has trouble surviving! But in most cases, protagonists are revived with special powers that make them enough of a threat to hopefully make some changes in their universe.
8 UQ Holder! Kills Its Lead To Turn Him Immortal
Touta Konoe is living a normal life with his guardian Yukihime as a high school student when he's thrown into an impossible world of magic and mayhem. That's a fairly standard set-up, but in Touta's case, he learns his guardian is being pursued by a bounty hunter.
Touta tries to save her, but is hit with a blow that would literally have killed him if not for Yukihime offering her immortal blood...which turns Touta into a vampire. With that incredible power, Touta's able to protect Yukihime, and is left both ageless and unkillable.
7 Valvrave The Liberator Turns Its Protagonist Into A Deathless Vampire
Every teenager wants to pilot a giant robot at least once, but none of them plan to get killed immediately afterwards. That's what happens to Haruto, who hops into the Valvrave and successfully stops the Dorssia. But the moment he emerges, he's stabbed and shot to death. Unfortunately, the Valvrave AI has completely changed Haruto's body via nano-machines, transforming him into a vampire who can survive any injury. He makes a complete recovery — and bites the person who tried to kill him in the first place.
6 Jujutsu Kaisen Sentences Yuji Itadori To An Early Death
Yuji Itadori is in a unique spot because he's "dead" once the story starts in earnest. To save the people around him, Yuji eats a cursed object that will grant him enough power to fight a monster. The item has a high chance of killing him, but when he survives instead, it turns out he has an even bigger problem: a group of sorcerers have now decided he can't live anymore. They agree to kill him, but when Yuji proves he can control his new abilities, they decide to put that on hold until he can consume what's left of Ryomen Sukuna.
5 Tokyo Revengers Sends Takemichi Back To The Past After Being Hit By A Train
The idea of going back in time and essentially getting a "do-over" has been done before, but generally the protagonist doesn't have to be run over to do it. That's where Takemichi Hanagaki gets his ability to travel back in time. As a twentysomething living a fairly miserable life, one day he's nearly hit by a train and travels back in time 12 years.
There, he gets the opportunity to save his middle school girlfriend from the Tokyo Manji Gang. With the power to travel back and forward through time, Takemichi aims to save everyone from his past.
4 Hellsing Transforms Its Protagonist Into A Vampire In The First Episode
Seras is a police officer who gets sent to check out the village of Cheddar, only to find it's been taken over by a horde of zombies and a monstrous vampire. To Seras' credit, she does a decent job at fighting back...but in the end, she's caught by the vampire, who uses her as a hostage against Alucard.
Rather than hold back, Alucard kills her by shooting her through the chest to take the vampire out, then saves her life by allowing her to come back as a vampire. With this, she's brought into the fold working under Alucard and becomes one of the most powerful vampires in existence.
3 Buso Renkin's Kazuki Muto Is Killed Protecting An Alchemist And Revived For His Trouble
Kazuki is an example of what happens when someone doesn't mind their own business. He tries to protect Tokiko Tsumura from a dangerous homunculus, but he dies for his trouble. Of course, Tokiko was more than capable of protecting herself from it, and out of guilt, she revives Kazuki with the power of the Kakugane, a special alchemy device. The device not only allows Kazuki to come back, but it grants him the ability to fight alongside Tokiko as well.
2 High School DxD's Issei Hyoudou Has A Killer First Date
Everyone's had an awkward first date, but Issei Hyoudou's first date literally killed him. Not realizing he was on a date with Fallen Angel Raynare, Issei gets brutally murdered before the show can even start.
But fortunately for him, he's revived shortly afterwards by Rias Gremory, only to be stuck as her servant afterwards. Still, it's not such a bad life, as he gained some pretty impressive powers and gets to hang out with a ton of gorgeous women...when he's not fighting for his life in this new world of angels and devils, that is.
1 Yu Yu Hakusho's Yusuke Urameshi Spends The First Five Episodes Dead Before Being Revived As A Spirit Detective
Yu Yu Hakusho had one of the best twists in '90s anime, with the first episode focused on protagonist Yusuke Urameshi gradually figuring out that he recently died in a car accident. Normally, that's where the story would end, but Yusuke is given a chance to come back to life because no one in the afterlife can decide what to do with him.
As such, he spends the next few episodes doing good deeds until he figures out a way to reunite his soul with his body. What makes Yu Yu Hakusho so fascinating early on is that the story doesn't linger on the protagonist figuring out how to come back, but instead revives him in the first five episodes before moving on to tell the rest of its story.