Types of common protagonists in anime

January 5, 2024 Shiki 0 Comments 6 min read

You, otaku who have a large bag of animes watched under your belt, have certainly come across that character who is an introvert and sits near the window in the classroom, or that character who is a hero or that guy who is so noisy to the point of being irritating.

There are some types of common protagonists in anime that are very successful with the public, they are so successful that you see these types of characters in more than a dozen animes!

Types of common protagonists in anime

There is a whole pattern to be followed when writing a character for a certain anime genre, if it is a shounen, generally the protagonist is a hero and has a dream to be fulfilled, when the anime is a school anime, the protagonist is usually a quiet guy with no friends. There are few anime that break this standard. Without further ado, let’s get started!

1 – The guy who always sits near the window in the classroom

We’ve already talked about this here: artists usually draw characters near the windows to save time and not have to draw other chairs.

Generally characters who sit by the window are introverted, intelligent and bored with the world around them, a cliché to be followed in many school-themed anime.

2 – The protagonist you can’t hate

Another type of protagonists are those who are bitchy, arrogant, full of themselves and authoritarian, but they are written so well that you simply can’t hate them.

3 – Cliché protagonists

Shido Itsuka is an example of a cliché protagonist who doesn’t stand out much compared to the other characters in the Date a Live series. We have tsunderes, yanderes, danderes, extroverted characters and other clichés that are common in the types of protagonists.

4 – Basic protagonists

In romances there are those basic characters who don’t put much on the table, but who end up being improved by the main heroine who is their love interest.

5 – Useless protagonist

Konosuba is an anime whose one of the protagonists is a girl called Aqua, the Goddess of Water. Generally powerful, but useless in a comedic sense.

6 – Noisy protagonists

Those protagonists who talk too much and try their best to achieve their goals. Naruto and Asta from Black Clover are two perfect examples.

7 – Good protagonist

A good example of a good character is Tanjiro Kamado from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Even though he has to face demons, he still has enormous compassion for them.

8 – Waifu Material

The super popular type within the otaku community. The female protagonist you would like to marry in real life, or be your romantic interest.

9 – The ”distracted” protagonist

Loid is the protagonist of the popular SPYxFAMILY franchise, the man has already witnessed his fake wife’s abilities and never questioned her about it. It’s the category of those characters who never realize what’s right in front of them.

10 – The harem guy

The type of protagonist who is surrounded by beautiful girls and lives in a harem as if he were in paradise. An example of this, but somewhat hated, is Kirito from Sword Art Online.

11 – The perfect student

These are those protagonists who shine in all school activities. A cliché that is not hated by the public, and a type of character that people tend to like or aspire to be like.

12 – The anti-hero

The kind of character that some people hate, some love, and some are torn about. Lelouch Lamperouge is a good example of this type of character.

13 – The villain

Those characters who do things that people cannot appreciate, that are unacceptable and cannot be ignored, and that end up being seen as a villain in the story.

14 – Superhero protagonists

These are characters considered the hero of the people, heroes in general who strive to be a source of inspiration for others. We have as examples Saitama from One Punch Man, Deku from Boku no Hero Academia and even Goku from Dragon Ball. These are common types of protagonists in anime.

via AnimeMotivation

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