Today, we will list down the 35 most popular anime with an overpowered lead. Anime is one of the most consumed story mediums in the world, among other mediums. Originating from Japan, anime is derived from the English word ‘animation’. The anime industry is a totally different world altogether. From the mangaka drawing the manga to the adaptation of the manga into animated episodes or films with state-of-the-art technology and video editing software and systems, it is not just the process and airing of content. It is about the storylines, the themes portrayed, how the characters’ lives influence those of the viewers, and much more. It is a significant part of Japanese culture.
The protagonists in any story are not always crazily strong. Some storylines develop the character in such a way that the protagonist awakens his true dormant power at the intended time. The protagonist will just have a good enough skill set all other times in the story. However, a large number of anime are based upon overpowered lead characters, and these types of anime are loved by many. Without further ado, let’s jump into the 35 most popular anime with an overpowered lead.
35. Beelzebub (Oga)
Tatsumi Oga is a troublesome student at a high school in Japan. He finds a floating man split in two in a river, and from the man’s body comes a baby. The baby sticks to Oga thereafter. When Oga and his friend come across a demon maid by the name of Hildegarde, the maid claims the baby to be Beelzebub, the son of the Devil King, and is here to find the evilest human to destroy humanity. Hence, the baby clings on to Oga, and the maid tells them that Oga is chosen for this job. When Oga refuses, the maid tries to kill him with a bird demon, but Oga easily defeats it. While fighting, Oga receives a cut on his face, Beelzebub goes into a tantrum, and only Oga is able to control the baby. Tatsumi is the overpowered lead in the anime Beelzebub.
34. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Satoru)
Satoru Mikami is a normal corporate worker in Tokyo. The 37-year-old is content with his mundane life, though. Once, when he meets a colleague, an assailant appears out of the blue and stabs Satoru. Satoru, while succumbing to his wounds, hears mysterious voices inside his head. When he comes back to his senses, he finds that he has been reincarnated as a slime in a different world. He also finds out that he has acquired new skills which allow him to devour anything and mimic its appearance and skills. Additionally, he encounters a dragon that was sealed for 300 years. Satoru promises the break the seal on the dragon, and in return, the dragon endows him with divine protection. This is one of the powers that make Satoru an overpowered main character in the anime.
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33. The Irregular at Magic High School (Tatsuya Shiba)
The storyline follows siblings Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba in the same year at the same high school. The two are candidates to succeed the Yotsuba clan, which is among the Ten Master Clans in Japan that preside over magicians. The high school divides the students according to their magical abilities. Miyuki is listed as a first-course student, while Tatsuya is listed as a second-course student. He is considered to be magically inept; however, his technical knowledge, combat skills, and unique magic techniques make him an irregular to the standardized rankings of the high school.
32. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad (Sinbad)
The overpowered lead character of this anime, Sinbad, is the one who will become the King of Sindria years later. He lives in the Parthevia Empire with his father, Badr, a war veteran, and his mother, Esra. In the war against the Reim empire, Sinbad loses his father. After the war, he passes his time helping local youth and tending to his ill mother when he encounters Yunan, not knowing that Yunan is a Magi.
Upon his mother’s request and Sinbad’s firm desire to change the world, Yunan guides Sinbad to challenge the Dungeon “Baal” that lies in the border between the Parthevia and Rem empires, whose treasures are unclaimed. Countless warriors challenged it, but none survived, except Sinbad and one Parthevian noble whom Sinbad calls “Drakon”. Sinbad defeats him in battle and becomes the first-ever “Dungeon Conqueror”. Thereafter, he returns home to meet his mother for one last time before setting out on a journey to change the world.
31. Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor (Glenn Radars)
Sistine Fibel and her bestie Rumia Tingel are students at a distinguished magical academy. When Sistine’s favorite instructor at the academy suddenly retires, he is replaced by Glenn Radars, the BMI. He comes across as lazy, incompetent, and not skilled in magic. Glenn is not a certified instructor, but the Sistine and Rumia are unaware of the fact that their new instructor has hidden powers, is a former assassin from the Imperial Court Mage Corps, and suffers from severe depression due to a regretful past. Radars reveal his true powers when there is an attack on the academy by the previous instructor.
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30. Overlord (Momonga)
After a successful twelve-year run, the game servers of the Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, YGGDRASIL, are going to shut down. Ainz Ooal Gown is a guild within the game, with 41 members, and is considered to be one of the strongest. When the remaining members quit, and only four remain, A character named Momonga continues as the guild leader. When the game servers are shut, Momonga remains logged in, and he finds out that the game is still there. He can’t log out! Momonga has been trapped in his game avatar, and he begins exploring the world to find out any more fellow players to learn the mystery behind all of this. This anime shows the path of a character without any ethical concerns and nearly limitless power.
29. Classroom of the Elite (Kiyotaka Ayanokoji)
In the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School, the students are given a very high level of freedom. Kiyotaka is a rather quiet student at the school and is socially inept. He likes to keep his distance from others, but he has unparalleled intelligence. Despite this, he is in the D class, which is the class with the most inferior students. However, Kiyotaka purposely performed poorly in the exams so that he would get listed in the lowest class. But he has his reasons for that. But soon, he meets two students in his class, and his idea of normal high school life remains just an idea.
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28. Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren’t they?
Three children named Sakamaki Iyazoi, Kudo Asuka, and Kasukabe Yo are bored all the time as no one can match their psychic powers. However, one day, the children get an envelope transporting them to a place called “Little Garden”. It is a place with supernatural powers (Gifts), and the residents there use these gifts to take part in high stake Gift Games to win money and name for their communities. The three join a fallen community called “No Name” and vow to help restore its prosperity. Later, they come to know about the Demon Lords and decide to bring them down. Sakamaki Iyazoi is the main protagonist in the anime and the overpowered lead.
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27. Sword Art Online (Kirito)
Sword Art Online is perhaps one of the most popular sci-fi in-game adventure anime out there. Out of the 10,000 initial entry players in the game, Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya is among the 1000 testers who have played the beta version of the game earlier. However, once the players enter the game, they realize that they cannot log out unless and until they complete the game by crossing all the 100 floors in the floating castle, Aincrad. One more thing, if a player dies in-game, he/she will die in real life too. Yet, somehow Kirito manages to get past the obstacles and threats he faces in the game. He is certainly the most overpowered character in the anime.
26. Aldnoah.Zero (Inaho)
Aldnoah.Zero shows the Vers Empire’s 37 clans of Orbital Knights’ attempt to reconquer Earth by the titular Aldnoah energy technology. Inaho Kaizuka, the overpowered lead in the anime, is a soldier of the United Earth Forces. An exceptional pilot and soldier with leadership in his genes, Inaho leads United Earth to many victories against the Vers Empire.
25. Yu-Gi-Oh! (Yugi)
The lead character, Yugi Muto, is initially shown as a teenager trying to solve an ancient Egyptian puzzle called the Millennium Puzzle. He hopes to grant his wish of forming bonds by solving the puzzle. Yugi then revives an archaic spirit named Atem, known as Dark Yugi, in the English translation of the manga. The anime shows Yugi forming friendships, interacting with Atem, and learning all about him.
24. Is This a Zombie (Ayumu)
Once a normal high school student, Ayumu Aikawa is now a zombie. A necromancer by the name, Eucliwood Hellscythe resurrects Ayumu after dying at the hands of a serial killer. He then encounters a girl named Haruna, who is a Maso Shojo, and takes her magic powers. Consequently, Ayumu is forced to turn into a Maso Shojo and has to crossdress. The anime shows the overpowered main character, Ayumu, along with Eucliwood, Haruna, and a vampire named Seraphim battles demons called Megalos. He also tries to find the enigma behind his death.
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23. Assassination Classroom (Koro-Sensei)
More than half of the moon is destroyed by a ridiculously powerful tentacled being known as Koro-sensei. Koro-sensei claims to obliterate the planet within a year from now but offers a chance to humanity to avoid this fate. If any human manages to kill Koro-sensei within the timeframe, they will manage to save their planet. The Japanese government has also placed a huge reward for whoever kills Koro-sensei. Meanwhile, Koro-sensei works as a homeroom teacher teaching the students regular subjects along with assassination techniques.
22. Mob Psycho 100 (Shigeo)
Shigeo Kageyama is the overpowered lead in this anime. Though a normal schoolboy at first glance, Shigeo is actually an esper (extrasensory perception) with tremendous psychic prowess. He lives a shackled life to not lose control of his power. He then works on controlling his abilities. Shigeo desires to live a normal life like others, but trouble keeps following him.
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21. Black Clover (Asta)
Asta is a young orphan in an orphanage who is raised along with another orphan Yuno. Everybody, there is born with the ability to use Mana in the form of Magical Power. Yuno is a prodigy with exceptional magic power and the skill to control wind magic. The main character in the anime, Asta, on the other hand, does not possess Mana and is not able to use magic. So, he focuses on building his physical strength. The series follows Asta’s journey to becoming the next Wizard King.
20. Akame Ga Kill (Tatsumi)
Tatsumi, the lead character in the anime, sets out with two of his friends to make a name for himself and money for the village. Later, when he witnesses the deaths of his friends and learns about the corruption of the Empire, Tatsumi is offered the role of an assassin at the heroic faction, Night Raid, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Army. Tatsumi is unbeatable when he is in his Final Incursio Evolution Form.
19. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (Saiki)
As the name suggests, this anime revolves around the life of Saiki Kusuo, the main character. Saiki is a high school student who, like other students, was born with powers. Saiki has a long list of powers he can use, some of which include interesting abilities like apport, astral projection, clairvoyance, levitation, invisibility, pyrokinesis, teleportation, hypnosis, time leaps, telepathy, and much more. He tries to hide his powers from everybody at school, though.
18. The Saga of Tanya the Evil (Tanya)
When an atheist Japanese salaryman is being killed by the subordinate whom the salaryman had fired for poor performance, an entity claiming to be God appears and criticizes the salaryman for not having faith. The salaryman outright denies the existence of God and names the entity as ‘Being X’. Being X then reincarnates the salaryman as an orphan girl named Tanya Degurechaff in an alternate reality of Imperial Germany of the 1920s during which WW1 occurred. By Being X’s conditions, if Tanya either does not die a natural death or refuses to have faith in it, her soul will be transported to hell for the numerous sins Tanya had committed in her previous life as a salaryman.
17. Charlotte (Yuu Otosaka)
A comet named Charlotte passes near Earth every 75 years, and every time it nears the planet, it spreads dust on Earth. A small number of preadolescent children who inhale this dust later develop superhuman abilities upon reaching puberty. Yuu Otasaka is the overpowered lead in this anime who develops the ability to possess another human’s spirit for five seconds. Later on in the series, Yuu learns how to steal abilities and begins stealing everybody’s powers. In other words, Yuu is a teenager with a vast number of superhuman abilities.
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16. Durarara!! (Shizuo)
A young boy named Mikado moves to a new city to the same academy as his childhood friend Masaomi. However, Masaomi tells him to be aware of certain people he does not want to run into. They include the violent and insanely strong Shizuo Heiwajima, information broker, Izaya Orihara, and the mysterious gang “The Dollars”. The series is shown from the perspective of eleven different characters with a new character’s view each episode. So it can be assumed that all eleven characters are in the lead. Shizuo is the overpowered character in the anime.
15. Hellsing (Alucard)
Abraham Van Helsing was the first leader of the Royal Order of Protestant Knights. The secret organization Hellsing gets its name from him, and its mission is to find and wipe out the undead and supernatural forces of evil that are a danger to the queen and the country. The current leader is Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, and she is protected by the Hellsing family butler Walter C. Dornez and Alucard, the most powerful vampire. Alucard swore loyalty to the Hellsing family after losing to Van Helsing about 100 years ago.
14. Trigun (Vash)
The story takes place in the 32nd century where a man known as “Vash the Stampede” has a sixty billion double-dollar bounty on his head. The reason for the bounty was that Vash had caused the destruction of a city called July. However, he has retrograde amnesia and cannot remember what happened during that time. He can only recall bits and parts about the destruction and his childhood. The anime shows more about Vash’s past as the story progresses.
13. The Garden of Sinners (Shiki)
Shiki Ryougi is a teenager who grew up as a demon hunter and has acquired the “Mystic Eyes of Death Perception”. This ability lets her see the inherent mortality of both living and non-living things in the form of lines. Shiki helps out the Garan no Do Agency, run by her boyfriend Mikiya and the magus, Touko, by using her combat skills to manage paranormal cases.
12. Berserk (Guts)
The “Black Swordsman” Guts is a former soldier who travels the world while being in an internal dilemma between achieving his ends and preserving his attachments to the ones dear to him. At a point in the story, Guts joins the Band of the Falcon and, as the captain of the band’s raiders, helps immensely in the faction’s triumphs during the Hundred Year War. His abilities include exceptional swordsmanship, superhuman conditioning, an indomitable will, death defiance, and the Brand of Sacrifice.
11. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! (Sadao Maou)
Satan seeks to conquer the world of Ente Isla but retreats through a gate that sends him to modern-day Tokyo when he encounters the Hero Emilia. Trying to find a way back to Ente Isla, Satan adopts the name Sadao Maou and works part-time at a fast-food eatery called MgRonald’s. He and other demons can change into their original forms when the people around them are in despair. Yet, he uses his devil form to perform good deeds, confusing the other characters as regards his identity as the Devil King.
10. Lelouch vi Britannia (Code Geass)
The Eleventh Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire and son of the 98th Emperor of Britannia, Charles zi Britannia, Lelouch vi Britannia, is the overpowered lead character in the anime. He is the leader and founder of the Black Knights, a group of vigilante rebels fighting against the Holy Britannian Empire. However, the ability that makes him overpowered Geass and his prodigious mind. Geass gives Lelouch “The Power of Absolute Obedience,” which allows him to place commands in a person’s mind by just having eye contact with the person. It is similar to hypnosis.
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9. Naruto (Naruto)
Naruto is one of those anime that has become a household name. The anime showcases the story of Naruto, a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village. His dream is to become the Hokage (leader) of the village. However, sealed inside of him are the nine tails, a tailed beast with the power to destroy a whole village in a few moments. As a result of the fear of the nine-tailed fox being let loose, the people of the village view Naruto as a monster, and hardly anyone ever interact with him, let alone acknowledging him. Naruto goes through a lonely childhood filled with despair.
The anime shows Naruto’s journey of becoming the Hokage along with a rollercoaster of emotional events and circumstances. He is certainly OP as he has beaten some of the most powerful characters in the story. Also, the guy has an insane amount of stamina for two reasons. One, he belongs to the Uzumaki Clan, renowned for the high levels of stamina their members have, and two, due to the nine tails inside of him.
8. Death Note (Light)
One of the highest-rated anime series of all time, Death Note follows the story of a genius third-year high schooler, Light Yagami. After discovering a diary labeled “Death Note,” he uses it to get rid of the criminals in the world. The Death Note’s instructions state that if a human’s name is written within it, that person shall die, but the user has to have the person’s face in mind when writing his/her name to avoid killing people with the same name. Also, if the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen. If not, the person shall simply die of a heart attack. Just imagine the kind of power Light has in the anime. This truly makes him overpowered.
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7. My Hero Academia (Izuku Midoriya)
Izuku is born without a quirk in a world where others have quirks giving them a unique ability. However, the legendary hero All Might is captivated by Izuku for some reason, maybe his innate heroism or sense of justice. Izuku becomes a pupil of All Might, and the Pro Hero hands down his quirk, One For All, to Izuku. Though Izuku might not seem to be physically strong or overpowered in any sense initially, one day, he is surely going to master the One For All, and then, nothing will stop him from being the strongest.
6. Seven Deadly Sins (Meliodas)
Meliodas is the overpowered lead character in the anime, Seven Deadly Sins. He is the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins and was once the supreme leader of the Ten Commandments, which consist of ten insanely mighty beings, each confined to a commandment. Meliodas was the worthy heir to the throne of the Demon King. He is the son of the Demon King and is considered to be the second most powerful demon after his father. He is shown to be so powerful that his betrayal to the Demon Clan to be with the Goddess clan alone tipped the odds in the Goddess Clan’s favor and allow them to wage the Holy War against the demons. Those who have watched the series will truly acknowledge the kind of power Meliodas possesses.
5. Fairy Tail (Natsu Dragneel)
A member of the magic guild, Fairy Tail, Natsu Dragneel is a dragon slayer. In addition to this, he was trained by Igneel, the second most powerful dragon in the series, a long time back. Natsu is the brother of Zeref Dragneel, who is considered to be the strongest mage of all time. Zeref is the founder of the Alvarez Empire and wields extremely dangerous and powerful dark magic. Towards the end of the series, Natsu is revealed to be E.N.D. and is the one who takes down Acnologia, the darkest and most powerful dragon in the anime.
4. Dragon Ball Z (Goku)
There is not much to say about this guy here. Even those who don’t watch anime know who Goku is. He gets stronger with every battle he fights. He possesses superhuman strength and a never-say-die attitude. Goku is a Saiyan male originally sent to Earth to destroy the planet. Yet, an injury to his head at a young age alters his memory and erases his destructive persona. Thus, Goku grows up to become one of Earth’s greatest defenders.
3. Attack on Titan (Levi)
Though many might think Eren should’ve been here in place of Levi, Levi Ackermann is way more experienced and skilled technically than Eren. Eren does have more brute strength when in his titan form, but those who’ve watched Levi’s mad rage against the Beast Titan know just how terrifying and overpowered the man is. He truly is in a league of his own, and due to his asocial and careless demeanor, fans have taken a strong liking to him.
2. Hunter x Hunter (Gon Freecs)
If ever there was an apt moment to state that one shouldn’t judge a person by their appearance, it is now. Gon Freecs isn’t your ordinary boy, and though he may look harmless and innocent at first sight, he isn’t. Hunter x Hunter features some tremendously powerful eccentric characters, but Gon stands out as an overpowered protagonist. The moment when viewers realize just how overpowered Gon is when he unleashed a form unlike any other seen in the anime against Neferpitou, one of the three Royal Guards of the Chimera Ant King, Meruem. The manner in which he battered Neferpitou like a toy, considered to be the third strongest chimera ant after Meruem and the Queen ant, leaves no doubt about Gon’s strength.
1. One Punch Man (Saitama)
There was never any doubt about this guy. Saitama is considered by many in the anime community as the most overpowered character across all anime. The amazing part is that there is nothing really special about this guy. He’s just trained his body to such an extent that no freaking villain can even come close to breaking his sweat. His unparalleled strength knows no limits. Yet, the anime shows Saitama defeating opponents with just a single punch. Hence, the name. If you don’t accept what you just read, just give the series a watch. You may reach a different conclusion, but you’ll not regret watching the series. This certainly makes One Punch Mab an anime with an overpowered lead.
This article was about the 35 most popular anime with an overpowered lead. That’s all, folks!
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