It could be a cheeky little screw to the audience in the first episode, it could be a shocking death mid-way through the series. Regardless of which avenue they pursue, there are a few anime series where the main characters you think you will get is not actually the main character at all. In a few cases, they may not even be major characters. If that sort of cheek is something you are looking for, we have anime recommendations for that.
Best Anime That Switches Main Characters
Higurashi: When They Cry
While on the exterior, it seems like Keichii is the main character of the show. Higurashi really focuses in on him being the new guy in town and becoming friends with local girls. However, as the series goes on, the focus from Keichii begins to shift. It is slow at first. For a few brutal arcs, the focus shifts to some of his friends. Ultimately, by the end of the series, you understand that Keichii wasn’t the main character. It was Rika. Except in Gou, where it was more the Satoko show.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Kamina has everything you want in a main character. He was brave, adventurous, as well as endlessly optimistic and idealistic. However, his one major flaw that should have been a major giveaway that he wouldn’t last long was his absolute perfection as a character. After his exit, you are left with the more relatably flawed Simon as the main character. Not every anime series is the story of the main character’s journey, but Gurren Lagann was indeed the story of Simon’s journey.
Dr. Stone
Dr. Stone is a pretty quick switch. From its marketing and posters, you know Senku is the main character. However, it did a real quick screw by following Taiju in the initial episode and gradually switching to Senku, even going so far as to send Taiju away on a mission so he is entirely missing for awhile, just to make things clear.
The purpose of Taiju is that he isn’t a super genius who is perfectly comfortable in his world. Instead, he is the more “every man” style character who has desires and flaws, introducing you to a world in a more relatable skin.
Goblin Slayer
Goblin Slayer’s first episode main character screw was certainly an attention getter. It started off with the basic fantasy anime adventure of an adventuring party going to kill some goblins. Underestimating these low level monsters, it ends with most of them dead, one raped, and another one saved by the actual main character of the series.
Since the actual main character is a touch lacking in the actual personality department, the girl he saves stays on as a more likable sidekick to him.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Every season of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure features a new main character who is part of the Joestar family. While that might suggest that they are all similar sorts of main characters, each Joestar is wildly different in personality, which actually goes a long way to keep this series feeling fresh. Not that it really needs much help staying fresh since the plots are everything from globe-trotting road trip stories to female prison intrigue.
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
It was comical the way this series was received. Despite the title and the marketed main characters, the series started off with your average bland isekai protagonist going to another world and discovering his magic. He was then promptly killed by the actual main character of the series. Her job is executioner for a group executing isekai’d individuals whose powers always cause havoc in their world.
The “comical” part of its reception is that isekai fans were legitimately upset that the bland male character died in the first episode and was replaced with two female characters. Isekai fans are occasionally preciously terrible.
Bokurano
This series where the pilot of a giant mech dies after each use essentially means that each episode or each few episodes has a new main character from the group of characters. It started off particularly clever by having the first pilot being your traditional hot-blooded, youthful mech anime protagonist. If you didn’t already know what was going to happen, his end was jarring and uncommon for a protagonist death.
Dragon Ball Z
I thought about leaving this one off because Goku never truly relinquishes his role as the main character of the series. There are bits and pieces where Goku is dead or otherwise busy elsewhere and his son Gohan takes up his role as the main character. However, even while dead, the show often switches to show what Goku is doing in the afterlife. This starts during the Cell Saga and continues through the Buu Saga. It has been stated that the creator had meant for Gohan to take up his father’s role as the strongest, but Goku proved too popular to write off.
Black Butler II
With the main character of the first Black Butler dead and his demon servant missing, Black Butler II put a lot of effort into making it seem like Alois and Faustus would be the stars of the sequel series. Then it resurrects Ciel in the first episode.
Durarara
Durarara is a series without a clear-cut main character. It it rather unique in the way it utilizes multiple characters to tell a rather grand and interwoven story. To this day, there is some debate as to who is actually the main character since the focus shifts to multiple characters throughout the show.
Baccano
Made by the same author as Durarara, Baccano has the same sort of shifting focus with its characters. The story also takes place at multiple points in time as all those disjointed stories and characters are woven together by the plot in the end, making the shift more jarring.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
This sequel to Gundam SEED had an interesting start by having a new main character who has his family killed supposedly by the main character of the original Gundam SEED. In the typical protagonist way, he is fueled by revenge and we follow that journey for the first half of the sequel before it flips characters once again. A particularly interesting thing about this series is the first half is essentially the origin story of the antagonist of the the second half.
Shiki
In a Dr. Stone-like scenario, Shiki quickly established Megumi as a main character who wants to leave the countryside and live in the city. She is even enamored with the new city boy that just moved there. By the end of the first episode, she is now mysteriously murdered, but not necessarily gone…
After that first murder which sets the mystery, the actual main character of Shiki is unclear. It splits focus between the city boy that just moved to town and the doctor that is disturbed by the sudden deaths in his rural town.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
You wouldn’t be wrong to think that for being the titular character of her show, Madoka has surprisingly little focus on her as the main character. In fact, her friend Sayaka has more the temperament and story set up as a main character. Even after Sayaka’s exit, Homura becomes a more prominent character than Madoka.
If you require a more prominent example of a main character switch in this series, Rebellion is fully about Homura.
Tokyo Ghoul:Re
This final one is an interesting case. Tokyo Ghoul put all its focus on Ken Kaneki and suggested pretty conclusively that he died in the end. As such, it wasn’t particularly surprising when Tokyo Ghoul: Re had a new protagonist leading a squad of ghoul hybrids for the government. You might even have thought they would run into Kaneki sometime later. However, it turns out this new protagonist was Kaneki all along who had forgotten his previous self after an intense bout of governmental brainwashing.
Do you know more anime series that switch main characters? Let fans know in the comments section below.
