It’s difficult to believe, but we’ve already made it through the second decade of this century. The world of anime has only grown more popular, with major series coming out of nearly every year this decade featuring some of the strongest characters we’ve ever seen. But which one of them is the strongest?
This list takes a look at some of the most powerful anime heroes of the decade, ranking them according to their feats within their shows. The only rule? They have to have actually been a hero for most/all of their series, and they have to have come from anime series which originated in this decade. This means no Goku from Dragon Ball Super, or this list would just have a bunch of DBZ characters in it.
10 KIRITO
Does it count as being powerful if it’s only true inside of a video game? Considering how video games have taken over popular culture, why not? Kirito is the lead character in Sword Art Online, someone who gets trapped inside of Aincrad when the creator goes nuts and forces them to beat the game or be stuck forever. While there, Kirito builds his already impressive skills enough to eventually defeat Heathcliff/Kayaba Akihiko. Since then, he’s transposed his skills into no less than three different games and proven great in all of them.
9 JOTARO KUJO
The third protagonist of the JoJo series, Jotaro was certainly the most powerful member of the Joestar line up to that point. He developed the Stand Star Platinum, which seemingly had a fairly simple ability—it punched his opponents really hard, and really fast. But what’s an anime hero without some power-ups? Eventually, Jotaro gained the ability to stop time. And while that can only work for up to five seconds for a human being, Star Platinum’s speed means five seconds is plenty of time to get the job done.
8 MEDAKA KUROKAMI
It was a shame not many people watched Medaka Box, a fantastic action series that masterfully poked fun at the storytelling and character tropes of a battle shonen. Medaka’s unique power is The End, an Abnormality that allows her to use another person’s skill to one hundred and twenty percent of their capability, essentially surpassing the person she learned it from.
She also has superhuman strength, speed, and durability, which allows her to adapt to the abilities of even some of the most powerful people around her. All of this is without including her various power-up modes, at least one of which allows her to move at the speed of sound and create shadow clones of herself.
7 KORO-SENSEI
The lead protagonist from Assassination Classroom, Koro-chan started out as a legendary assassin known as The Reaper. He spent years working in the shadows before being experimented on and given a body made up of pure anti-matter. With this body, he’s capable of regenerating from nearly any attack that could be launched on him, and has even proven capable of turning invisible. But most frightening about his abilities is that he possesses incredible speed, capable of moving at Mach 20.
6 SINBAD
Sinbad was easily one of the strongest characters in Magi. Where most characters became noteworthy for conquering a single dungeon and gaining the treasure and power of one Djinn, Sinbad gained the powers and treasure of seven. This is so egregious, the dungeons won’t even allow him in to solve them anymore. Each new Djinn gave him a new metal vessel, which granted him access to their powers and elements—this gives him control over lightning, ice, and wind, the ability to force people to obey his commands, and more. He’s the rare shonen character that’s so powerful the story usually has to explain why he can’t help because he’d solve everything.
5 ALL MIGHT
The Symbol of Peace himself, All Might was the #1 Hero in his world thanks to his heroic nature and the power of his quirk, One for All. Since his successor, Midoriya, isn’t quite able to use the power to its fullest yet, all we have to go off is what All Might was able to show us. We saw him beat a monster designed specifically to beat him by refusing to give up and using a flurry of blows in one of the best fight scenes of the decade. We’ve seen him punch so hard he could change the weather itself. And the most absurd part is everything we’ve seen isn’t quite what he was capable of doing before his injury.
4 RIMURU TEMPEST
Who would have thought one of the most powerful characters created this decade would be a...slime? Certainly, not the people in Rimuru’s series, Reincarnated as a Slime, which is why people continue to underestimate him. This power comes from two different sources. One is the skill Predator, which allows him to absorb the abilities and power of anything he consumed.
The other is the Storm Dragon Veldora Tempest which is inside him, vastly increasing his magical abilities beyond what they would have been. This gives him infinite regeneration, and a level of magic power and control that’s far beyond anything even higher level monsters and humans have ever encountered.
3 HIBIKI TACHIBANA
The lead character of Symphogear has definitely earned her spot. The series she comes from is all about achieving the impossible, and with every subsequent season, that’s precisely what she does. She starts out by defeating aliens which can dissolve humans with a simple touch, works her way up into defeating an eternally reincarnating sorceress with designs on ruling the world...and that’s just in the first season. Season 2 sees her literally punch through a mountain and suplex a spacecraft, and by Season 5 she’s throwing down with God.
2 SHIGEO KAGEYAMA
Also known as Mob, Shigeo is a psychic with powers that seem to have surpassed any other. He can absorb the psychic energy of others, storing it for use later, which already places him above most challengers. But he’s also capable of using that energy and giving it to others, or infusing it into plants causing them to grow. We’ve even seen him disassemble and reassemble matter itself. And all of that is merely what Mob is capable of at 100 percent. At ???, he seems to be a psychic with limitless power.
1 SAITAMA
Could it really have been anyone else? The entire point of Saitama is that he’s the most powerful person in his own universe. The whole first season built up to an alien invasion that happened primarily because another being was incredibly, absurdly powerful and looking for a challenge. He thought he found one in Saitama and still got turned into dust by a single Serious Punch. The second season was about a dude hunting down and destroying upper-class heroes while Saitama looked for him...without realizing he’d stomped him twice in incidental encounters. With no clear upper limit or proper challenge to his strength, he can't be anything less than the most powerful hero of the decade.