Anime is known for having some of the strongest characters out there; shows seem to even get ridiculous at times with the kind of feats of power people will make. That’s just part of the joy when you decide to watch it! It’s about breaking boundaries and seeing what’s possible when anything can happen. A lot of these works have to deal with characters going on a journey to become stronger. It’s one of the biggest motivations, especially for those who are supposed to be heroes. Many characters grow both in terms of personality and physically. Some have incredible powers that need to be tested whereas others have simple traits they need to work on.

While it’s easier to see how some of these characters get stronger over time, especially with shows like Dragon Ball or Naruto, there are other characters that don’t get to go on quite the same journey. As with what happens in real life, people lose strength over time. There are plenty of characters from various series that can relate to this. Shows like My Hero Academia and Soul Eater showcase characters that have difficulty protecting those they care about purely because they can no longer fight the way they used to. We’ve looked at dozens of different characters from different series to see who’s gained plenty of strength over time and who hasn’t. Here are 10 characters who’ve continued to gain strength since we’ve first met them and 10 who have lost it as time went on.

20 STRONGER: SAILOR MOON

Sailor Moon is an absolute classic in the anime community; there’s not a single anime fan out there that doesn’t know her name. Despite some of the cute themes the original series would often put in, the new revamped Crystal saga, which follows the original manga much closer, has a more serious tone.

Usagi has always been an incredibly relatable character. From her lack of school discipline to her cry-baby nature, everyone has been her at some point. Yet, despite her nature, she’s still incredibly powerful and has certainly grown since she first realized her powers. As Sailor Moon we’ve seen her grown a lot!

19 WEAKER: ALL MIGHT

all might old form from my hero academia

We hate to put this one on the list, but it’s something we all have to come to terms with. If you’ve been keeping up with the current anime scene, you’ve probably heard of My Hero Academia and if you’ve already watched it, you’re probably in love with it. All Might is probably everyone’s favorite dad character and superhero, as he tends to be a little dopey but also incredibly cool, but we have to admit, he’s gotten weaker.

Of course, this is a huge part of the series. All Might no longer being able to use One For All is a huge reason why our main character goes on this journey in the first place.

18 STRONGER: GOKU

You shouldn’t be surprised to see Goku on this list; as one of the most powerful anime characters out there, this overpowered Saiyan fighter does nothing but get stronger. The Dragon Ball series is known for having beefy fighters duke it out every episode, so it’s only natural that they continue to grow with power.

Goku is particularly powerful and is usually considered the strongest character to come out of the series. Ever since he was a child, we’ve continued to see him break through power caps we didn’t think were possible. He’s sort of an obvious choice when it comes to power.

17 WEAKER: DEATH

If you haven’t seen Soul Eater, you’re probably confused -- Death should be one of the strongest characters out there right? Well, yes and no. In this particular anime series, Death is often depicted as a cartoonish, happy character that only wants to see his students succeed into becoming powerful weapons and meisters.

However, Death has certainly been nerfed since his younger days. Before his academy was built, he would roam around being one of the strongest creatures in the world. But, after the academy was created, he tethered his soul to Death City, making him far less stronger and immobile.

16 STRONGER: CHIBI MOON

If Sailor Moon is on this list, you know her daughter will be following right along. While Chibi Usa doesn’t grow significantly throughout the series, we do see her age when she becomes the Black Lady. During this arc, Chibi Usa turns into a much darker character and shows us just how scared we should be.

Seeing as she’s the daughter of Usagi in the future, it only makes sense that she’d already be a powerful character. But to see what could happen when she’s older and if she turned to darkness? That’s a huge “no thank you” on our end.

15 WEAKER: OLD KAI

Old Kai meditates on his planet in Dragon Ball Z

Old Kai is one of the side characters we don’t often get to talk about in the Dragon Ball series. When you’re surrounded by a bunch of fighting characters that are significantly stronger, it’s easy to get pushed to the side in terms of popularity. That being said, Old Kai is a pretty interesting character that we see kind of get weak throughout the series.

For starters, he’s a Kai that’s fused with Old Witch. Since he’s also just an advisor, he’s a lot weaker than the other Supreme Kais. His fuse with Old Witch never really did him any good, but at least he still has his wisdom to make him a useful character!

14 STRONGER: NARUTO

As another incredibly popular shounen show, it’s obvious why Naruto is also on this list. Naruto has been one of the more inspiring Shounen characters to bless our television screens with a story about overcoming circumstance in order to make your dreams come true.

From being the scrappy kid in his village that no one took seriously to suddenly becoming the Hokage with more than just a few tricks up his sleeve, it’s no wonder why Naruto is one of the OGs of anime. The whole point of his show was for him to get stronger in order to achieve his dreams.

13 WEAKER: LIGHT

Death Note is one of those creepy anime series that you just have to watch. Light is a very interesting main character because, right off the bat, you see how a good guy could possibly be a bad guy if they go too far. Holding the power of a god in his notebook, he really jumped off the deep end.

Part of Light’s flaw is that his power really only comes from one object; once that object is gone, he’s just a regular man. While he doesn’t lose his notebook, he does get found out by the police and ends up losing his long battle for “justice”.

12 STRONGER: LELOUCH

Lelouch, Code Geass

Lelouch is a very beloved character in the anime genre -- he’s handsome and honestly a little scary. After losing his power as the prince of Britannia, he knew he needed to gain revenge by any means possible. The witch C.C. gave him the “Geass” in hopes of helping him achieve his goals.

The Geass can manifest differently to different people, but make no mistake, it’s almost always an incredible power to have. For Lelouch, he gains the power of “absolute obedience” which allows him to say a command to anyone and having them follow, without question. It’s incredibly scary when someone is trying to destroy Britannia.

11 WEAKER: MEDUSA

Medusa is another Soul Eater character that we watch get weaker over time. The witch is regarded as being incredibly powerful, even among others like her. The only difference between her and her fellow witches is that she significantly lost a lot of power after her body passed.

Unlike many others on this list, she’s one of the only people we see actually regress in age. After ending her body, she possesses one of a very young girl. It takes her a long time to gain back some of her strength, especially in this form, but luckily our heroes stopped her before she could even get close.

10 STRONGER: SAITAMA

It can be really hard for a lot of newer anime characters to gain immense power; there are a lot of classics that seem to always hold the champion titles. Saitama, on the other hand, is a huge exception to this rule. Coming from a series titled One Punch Man you already know that he’s going to be a strong character.

Saitama was known to be a weakling until he found the perfect workout was to do a hundred different exercises everyday until he was able to gain immense strength. Now he can fight almost anything and defeat it in one punch.

9 WEAKER: QUEEN BERYL

There are plenty of villains from Sailor Moon that slowly lost their powers over time. While they don’t exactly age the same way your average human does, we still see how time has significantly stolen their once-mighty strength. Queen Beryl is certainly one of those villains.

We know that the queen used to be an incredible foe that no one would really want to take on. Honestly, if you weren’t a Sailor Scout, you probably wouldn’t want to at her weakest. But years later, the queen is a mere shadow of what she once was, desperately trying to gain back her powers.

8 STRONGER: SASUKE

Naturally, if Naruto has made great strides in his career as a shinobi, it only makes sense that Sasuke would also be on this list. As the bad boy of the series, you probably remember your 13-year-old self swooning over his odd, rebellious decisions. In this particular case, it actually worked out for him!

Sasuke didn’t really have that much to begin with. A lot of his decisions caused a bunch of drama, but if you really look into the character, there’s a reason for it. He’s now one of the more powerful characters towards the end of the series.

7 WEAKER: DEUS

Future Diary has a relatively creepy concept with diaries that hold future entries, telling its owners what will happen in a battle royale to determine who will take a god’s place. Deus, a god of time and space, is incredibly powerful, but not powerful enough to escape his demise.

Naturally, as a deity, Deus has a lot of power; more than anyone can imagine. And certainly, by the time we see him, he’s still a very intimidating creature. However, he’s still dying and still not what he once was. Without this plot, there wouldn’t even be an anime series to watch.

6 STRONGER: LUFFY

Luffy is one of the greatest characters to ever come out of the shounen genre. One of the great things about the One Piece is that the characters continue to grow with a constant power cap that allows you to see where they’re at compared to others.

The cool thing about Luffy is that there are still characters he’s not able to beat yet, hence why the series is so long. Luffy started out with just a measly boat and a basic devil fruit power. Now that he’s gone through plenty of battles, he’s learned how to best use his rubber powers and beat down opponents with his sheer strength.

5 WEAKER: ITONA HORIBE

Itona is one of the younger characters on this list, but even in his young life we’ve seen him lose a lot. Originally created in order to be more of a weapon rather than a person, Itona was given plenty of strengths that made him incredibly formidable. However, after he lost some of his tentacles, he’s certainly changed in both personality and strength.

Itona is incredibly weird even for an anime character, we get to see just how much he’s changed in such a short period of time. Assassination Classroom is a very interesting series because it’s about a monster that teaches students about life and some peculiar extracurricular activites. So now we’re on a journey to watch Itona learn how to confront his weaknesses.

4 STRONGER: YUSUKE

If you love classic anime, you probably remember Yu Yu Hakusho -- the '80s themed anime was absolutely perfect from music to storyline. Yusuke may have been forced into being a detective for the Underworld, he certainly took care to do a good job.

Over dozens of episodes, we saw how Yusuke’s second chance at life turned into a secret adventure most people would never dream of. Since he has to take on supernatural cases, it’s only natural that he continues to grow both physically and spiritually in order to take down some of the biggest baddies out there. Honestly, to see how much he’d grown at the end was amazing.

3 WEAKER: OROCHIMARU

Orochimaru With The Akatsuki

Orochimaru is one of the creepier-looking villains in the Naruto series, but at the very least he was nerfed pretty hard. In his prime, he was incredibly powerful and feared. However, after he lost his ninjutsu when part of his soul was sealed, he became totally different. Now he was just a fraction of what he used to be.

Eventually we do see Orochimaru get his powers back, but by this point he’s not even the strongest around. There’s plenty of other characters that have powered up to the point that they can handle him with or without his ninjutsu.

2 STRONGER: NATSU

natsu dragneel Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail has certainly changed over the years, but there’s no denying that Natsu Dragneel is one of the craziest, overpowered characters in the entire series. When we’re introduced to him, he’s already fairly strong -- characters know who he is and are nervous to see him in action.

Like many anime series, the show does go further into more serious topics and the challenges tend to get more and more difficult. Natsu also finds out a lot about where he came from and the powers he holds. By the time we get to the end of the series, he’s grown a lot.

1 WEAKER: BATMAN

We bet you didn’t see this one coming! Unsurprisingly, Batman did have his own anime showcase at one point. However, the edgy savior of Gotham city isn’t exactly as powerful as his comic, movie or video game counterparts would have you believe.

In the anime, he’s transported to feudal Japan where he decides to get rid of all his advanced tech in order to fight opponents fairly. While Batman is super strong on his own, he felt that it was important to match the time period he’d been placed so that he could honor his values. It’s exceptionally strange, but it definitely made Bruce just a little weaker than normal.