Everyone loves a bit of a rogue. Or perhaps more specifically, people love the type of rogue you often see used in anime. What you see in anime are typically rogues that represent the people we wish we could be. The people that play by their own rules and kowtow to absolutely no one. They are full of snark and their sheer way of life leads them on their many adventures. While not every anime hero classifies as an outlaw, there are a lot of great series out there carried by them.
Best Outlaw Anime Hero Anime
Great Pretender
This is one of the newest entries into the super specific genre of outlaw heroes, and it does it great. The whole series is focused around a small time con man that gets pulled into an international group of thieves by an even more charismatic con man. Everyone has their own unique and often sad past lives, but they are bound together by the thought of that next big score – and taking away riches from those that don’t deserve to have them.
Lupin III
Like Great Pretender above, but older and generation-spanning in length, Lupin III also follows a group of thieves. However, this time you will find that the group isn’t so much friends as they tolerate each other. All bound under the charismatic titular Lupin, the characters steal around the world not so much because people deserve it, but because they want those dollar-dollar bills.
Rage of Bahamut
This series tells the classic tale of the very bottom of the barrel being pulled into an adventure larger than themselves and basically saving the world. Favaro, the man who is ostensibly the main character or Genesis, is a bounty hunter that makes his livings in order to fuel his lust of liquor and ladies. He gets pulled into Amira’s great purpose and things spiral onwards and upwards from there.
Outlaw Star
I mean, “outlaw” is right there in the title. Good news is that Outlaw Star lives up to it too. Gene lives for his ladies and liquor, but he is mostly small time at the beginning of the series. Outlaw Star essentially follows him as he makes it big as a true outlaw instead of spunky street punk.
Trigun
Trigun, with all those wild west vibes, needed to have itself an outlaw hero, but Vash isn’t the same as some other outlaws here. He’s actually quite the hero with only the reputation of an outlaw. Essentially his wildly violent reputation is really more of a series of misunderstandings. However, he still lives on the fringes of society for various reason and lives that outlaw life in order to track down his brother.
Michiko & Hatchin
In the world of Michiko and Hatchin, there really isn’t any law that isn’t wildly corrupt, so in a way everyone is an outlaw. Michiko fits the bill in every respect. She is a woman that does whatever she wants, when she wants, and does so wildly. The little girl that is Hatchin serves as a tempering influence at times, but mostly Michiko’s behavior just corrupts her as well.
Gangsta
Gangsta takes place in a hard city. You know the type. A city where everyone struggles and they have to take car of themselves. Enter the two main characters, two people that act as fixers to complete jobs for people that pay them or just to help their handful of friends. As you follow them on the dubious tasks, you learn about the sad backstory that pushed these two to the fringes and into outlawhood.
Coyote Ragtime Show
Like a true outlaw series, Coyote Ragtime Show stars with a jail break. From there, it seems like everyone in the universe is after the main character Mister as he helps a little kid find her dead father’s treasure. It’s jazzy, it’s crazy, and it embodies the pure chaos of an outlaw’s life.
Great Teacher Onizuka
This is a bit different from the other series on the list. Onizuka is a criminal, being an ex-biker and all. However, he is looking to go straight by being a teacher in order to pick up high school chicks. Despite that dubious desire, Onizuka and his outlaw nature actually ends up helping the class of problem children he was put in charge of. He helps them and solves their problems in the most brute force way possible.
Akame ga Kill
As Akame ga Kill follows a group of revolutionaries and assassins, it does classify them all as outlaws. You will find all the brave and “honorable” knights of the empire are all terrible people while all the “evil” revolutionaries are really fighting for the small people of the kingdom in a brutal shadow war.
Dorohedoro
As the city of Hole is a place purely for those that don’t matter to be experimented on by magic users, there is not a whole lot of law and order go around. This is pretty much what allows the main character to go around killing magic users to find out who disfigured his head. While Kaiman’s brutality towards mages knows no bounds, he is a pretty stand up guy to his friends, like a true outlaw should be.
Do you know more anime series that feature outlaw heroes? Let fans know in the comments section below.
