To have honor is to know your ideals and be stalwart in upholding them. It may be easier to claim a victory through underhanded means, but to these characters, that is a path they simply won’t walk. If you are looking for anime characters that are stalwart in their ideals and never stray from the honorable path, anime has plenty.
Best Honorable Anime Characters
Jin From Samurai Champloo
One of the major themes in Samurai Champloo is that Jin and Mugen are diametrically opposed as people. Jin is stiff and honorable while Mugen is a flexible scoundrel. It is even reflected immediately in their fighting styles before you even know them as people. However, as you learn more about Jin, you find that he is even more honorable than his rigid and precise sword style reflect. His whole arc could have been cleared up with one revelation about his former master to the sword school students that hunt him, yet he kept silent.
Jonathan Joestar from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
As the first “Jojo” in this bizarre lineage, Jonathan was quite the man. He believed that he needed to be the ultimate gentleman, even when Dio was undermining him at every turn. It is weird to think that Jonathan was such a man of honor and his next shown descendant, Joseph, was… not. Perhaps it was the American influence on him.
Thors From Vinland Saga
We typically don’t associate honor with vikings, but then again the anime series featuring vikings are few. In Vinland Saga, we are introduced early to Thors, the father of the main character. He is a battle-hardened warrior that grew to believe that real warriors do not need a sword. This meaning that peace is often the more difficult, but worthwhile option. It is his desire to protect his family and his village from warfare. He would even surrender himself to the battlefield in order to keep them safe.
Kenshin From Rurouni Kenshin
While Kenshin wasn’t always an honorable man, his life as a man-slaying assassin turned around and he ended up walking the path of non-violence. Oh, how easy it would have been to turn that reverse-bladed sword around and take an evil life. However, as a new man of honor, Kenshin has dedicated himself to never taking another life.
Mumen Rider From One Punch Man
Of all the heroes in all the superhero series, Mumen Rider is a man of honor above the rest. He is not a powerful hero or a popular one, but he keeps his ideals. His duty is to create a safe world for people to live in. Even if he doesn’t stand a chance at winning a fight, he is not going to back down from his duty to the public.
Saber From Fate / Stay
As with all servants, Saber wants to win the Holy Grail War. However, she isn’t willing to compromise her honor in order to do it. Even if it means a higher chance of losing, she would prefer to fight an enemy head on. It actually becomes a source of conflict when Emiya in the Fourth War is not quite on her tier of honor.
Takeo From My Love Story
Takeo is a cut above your standard gentleman. He looks like a big gorilla and has the strength of one too. He knows how he looks and knows that getting a girl is pretty unlikely. However, for the girl that does fall for him, she is drawn to his sense of honor. He uses his strength to protect others without question.
Sanji From One Piece
There are a few fine examples of stalwart honor in One Piece, but Sanji has quite a few moments where his adherence to his personal code is much more difficult than breaking it. Most notable is the fact that this ladies man will never strike a woman – ever. It makes fighting women rather difficult. As he also almost starved to death as a child, Sanji also makes sure that no one ever goes hungry, something that has resulted in getting himself and his fellow crew mates into trouble in the past.
Emma From The Promised Neverland
The Promised Neverland would have been over pretty quickly if Emma didn’t have her unwavering sense of honor. She loved the children that she was growing up with so much that she did not want to leave even a single one behind in that situation. She endeavored to escape, but refused to leave even the babies behind. Really, in this case, her honor is a source of many of her problems.
Kuwabara From Yu Yu Hakusho
Although Kuwabara is a thug, he is a man with a code. His loyalty to his friends is unwavering, and like a true man of honor, he will never fight a woman. Anyone that comes at him, he is ready to fight to his fullest, even if he doesn’t stand a chance against them.
Okabe From Steins; Gate
Throughout Steins;Gate you watch Okabe try desperately to fix his various messes with time travel. A less honorable mad scientist might just pick an okay result from time travel and say, “Good enough!” However, Okabe is dedicated to saving all of his friends and it forces him to endure a number of traumatic situations.
Vash From Trigun
Vash has a number of reasons to be angry as you find out throughout the show. And yet, he is just a big goofball. While Vash’s nature allows him to have some fun, he is strongly against killing. After the July Incident, Vash was changed fundamentally and it cemented his sense of honor.
Do you know more anime characters with an impenetrable sense of honor? Let fans know in the comments section below.
