Ah, immortality. To have the immunity from death and aging to explore the world, amass knowledge, and watch as humanity evolved. Or…You could just be like most immortal anime characters and walk around picking fights and generally being a dick. Immortality is the ultimate unachievable fantasy and while anime tends to squander the true potential of these characters, they are undeniably cool. So if you are looking for some timeless old school cool, here are our favorite immortal anime characters.
Best Anime Immortals
Manji from Blade of the Immortal
Manji used to be just your standard killer. However, after he killed 100 innocent men simply because he was told to, he was cursed with immortality. Turns out, he doesn’t enjoy that so much, so he does the only thing he can to break it – journey and kill 1000 evil men so he can be human again and die. The most interesting thing here is how many scars an immortal warrior can accumulate. He basically looks like ground beef with his shirt off.
CC From Code Geass
While CC has the power of Code to imbue powers to humans, this power also makes her ageless, immune to disease, and grants her healing powers, effectively making her immortal. While the explanation of her powers is somewhat unclear, what is clear is that even complete vaporization would not kill her. Yet, there is one flaw in her immortal status, and that is if a human masters the power she grants, they strip her of her immortal status.
Millennium Earl from D. Gray Man
The Millennium Earl is the big bad of the D. Gray Man series. He and his Noah Family of villains go around raising the dead as Akuma in order to destroy humanity for hereto unknown reasons. Like many of the Noah members, Millennium Earl appears to be immortal and very much invincible, but as the villain in a shounen series, only time will tell!
Ban from Seven Deadly Sins
While Ban is not the only immortal character in Seven Deadly Sins, he is the most immediately apparent right from his introduction. I mean, he basically is introduced naked and chained to a wall, where he has been for some time since the Sins split up. Only when he hears that Meliodas is active again does he make a break for it, making it clear he could have freed himself at any time since he possesses impressive Wolverine-level instant healing abilities.
Kars From Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Kars is from an ancient race known as Pillar Men, and while they are not particularly immortal, having several notable weaknesses, the goal of the Pillar Men is to strengthen humans with stone masks. These turn them into vampires that the Pillar Men hoped to consume for power to become fully immortal. Let’s just say that Kars manages to succeed in this goal.
Zombieman from One Punch Man
If you want to be renowned as a powerful hero in the One Punch Man world, you gain tremendous might, unless you are Zombieman. Instead, his specialty is defense. While he is an okay offensive fighter, his immortality is his real specialty. Even being reduced to a pile of atoms only slowed him down a touch.
Celty from Durarara
As Celty is missing her head and still riding around looking for it, you immediately have to assume she has a fair bit of immortality. Her immortality stems from her true nature being that of the mythical creature, a Dullahan. While it is never discussed if they can be killed, it is clear she is ageless, but generally controlled by whoever controls her head.
The Ajin in Ajin
The defining ability of the Ajin race in this anime is that they cannot die in any way, shape, or form, not even from starvation. However, unlike other immortal beings, their injuries don’t heal until they die and the Ajin matter in their body resets them. This has, as you can imagine, made them feared by the public and of great interest to war-minded governments.
Hidan from Naruto
As a worshipper of Jashin, Hidan has achieved extensive immunity that is very close to immortality, but not quite. He can survive almost any injury, including having his head lopped right off, but his immortality isn’t quite as perfect as some others on this list. The one way he can die is from starvation, which is unfortunate considering how he is eventually defeated.
Elder Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho
Initially the elder Toguro brother was a human, but he requested to be turned into a demon after winning a fighting tournament. Afterwards, he was able to shape shift, moving his limbs and turning them into weapons. Later, survival of a near death experience made him truly immortal, removing his weakness to piercing of the heart or brain. Unfortunately, you learn the true problem with immortality when he was defeated and essentially condemned to an everlasting life of torture since he cannot die to escape it.
Rin From Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne
Daughters of Mnemosyne is one of the few series that actually features an immortal main character. She and others like her were infected with a time fruit. Of course, it only results in immortality in women, while turning men into horrible monsters. Aside from being long-lived, she doesn’t have great super powers, though has had 1000 years to hone her physical capabilities. The interesting aspect of the immortals in this show is that it focuses on how lonely immortality is.
Alucard from Hellsing Ultimate
Alucard, despite being bound to Integra, is undoubtedly the most powerful vampire in the Hellsing Universe. No matter how many times he is shot, stabbed, or beheaded, he simply becomes a shadow entity and returns to his original form. Of course, this immortality as a vampire is innate, but his invulnerability is powered by blood. What is interesting is that Alucard himself says there is no such thing as true immortality, so there is a way to kill him, but no one seems to know it.
Kaido of the Beasts from One Piece
Unlike the other immortals on this list, Kaido’s immortality comes from sheer toughness and durability, something that you realistically need to be able to send a normal person flying like a shooting star with just one swing of your weapon. However, the fact that it has been attempted multiple times to execute him with swords and strangle him with chains, only to have both swords and chains shatter is quite the testament to his immortality through sheer toughness. In fact, besides ol’ Blackbeard himself, Kaido may be the toughest pirate in the entire One Piece world.
The Skull Knight from Berserk
Skull Knight is perhaps the most mysterious character in all Berserk. While there are several allusions as to who he used to be (the great conqueror Gaiseric being the most popular and likely), there has yet to be any confirmation. What is clear is that it will take quite a fair amount to kill him. It is believed he used the Berserker armor until he became the husk that he is today, cursed with immortality and hunting down the God Hand forever more.
Most Characters in Baccano
Baccano is very much an anime series about immortals, so thus, there are many in the series. The immortals in Baccano are all those whole drank either the Grand Panacea or the Cure-All Elixir. The neat thing here is that they have to abide by certain rules, such as using false identity to meet mortals and it is physically impossible for them to give a fake name when talking with other immortals. The other interesting bit is that they can actually be killed, but only if another immortal devours them, which is done not quite in the way you would imagine.
Do you have any other favorite immortals that didn’t make the list? Let us know in the comments section below.
