Anime Characters by Series: A Ranker Collection of 85 Lists

If you’ve ever paused an episode to yell “There’s no way this side character is ranked below that guy,”
congratulations you are exactly the target audience for massive fan-voted anime rankings.
Online lists have turned anime fandom into one long popularity contest in the best way:
everyone gets a vote, everyone has an opinion, and nobody will ever agree completely.

One of the most entertaining examples is a Ranker-style collection of
anime characters by series dozens of separate lists where fans upvote and downvote
their favorites from specific shows. Instead of one giant “best anime characters ever” ranking,
you get focused battles like “Which Naruto character really carries the show?” or
“Is Levi actually the best person in Attack on Titan or just the one with the best haircut?”

This article breaks down how a big “85 lists” collection like that works, what it tells us about
anime fandom, and how you can use those rankings to discover new series, settle friendly arguments,
or just validate your long-standing belief that the mascot character really is the soul of the show.

What Is an “Anime Characters by Series” Collection?

A Ranker-style collection groups together many separate, fan-voted lists focused on different shows.
Instead of ranking every anime character under the sun in one chaotic mega-poll, each list sticks
to a single series or franchise. Think:

• Best characters in Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden
• Favorite Straw Hats and villains in One Piece
• Most beloved heroes and villains in My Hero Academia
• Most unforgettable soldiers and Titans in Attack on Titan
• Iconic Z-Fighters and rivals in Dragon Ball
• Key players in Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more

Ranker’s actual Anime Characters by Series collection organizes 80+ such lists in one place,
each one powered by votes from thousands of fans around the world.
Because these lists are live and constantly updated, they reflect how a fandom’s mood shifts over time
especially when new seasons, movies, or award wins drop.

Why Fans Love Ranking Anime Characters by Series

1. It Feels Fairer Than One Giant “Best Characters Ever” List

When you cram every anime character into a single ranking, old legends and brand-new favorites
get thrown into the same blender. Long-running series like Dragon Ball, One Piece,
and Naruto naturally soak up a huge chunk of the votes because they’ve been around for decades
and have massive global fanbases. Sites like Ranker and other pop culture outlets routinely show
just how dominant characters such as Goku, Kakashi, and Levi can be in all-time lists.

By splitting rankings by series, you level the playing field inside each universe. Instead of asking,
“Is Goku better than Luffy?” you ask, “Who is the most beloved in Dragon Ball?” That’s a much cleaner,
more interesting question and it lets every fandom celebrate its own internal favorites.

2. It Sparks Very Specific, Very Passionate Debates

A giant cross-anime list usually leads to broad arguments about who is strongest, smartest,
or most influential. Fun, yes but series-specific lists unlock laser-focused chaos:

• “Is Itachi really more popular than Kakashi, or are we just all weak for tragic backstories?”
• “How is a Titan with five minutes of screen time ranked above Sasha, the potato queen?”
• “Why is the talking animal sidekick climbing the rankings again?”

Fan-driven platforms like Ranker thrive on this kind of micro-debate. There are lists for
“strongest characters,” “most popular characters,” and even extremely niche categories like
“characters who deserve their own show,” where people debate whether side characters like Levi
or Killua could carry a spin-off.

3. Rankings Reflect What’s Happening in Anime Right Now

Because votes keep flowing in, rankings tend to move in step with the wider anime world:

• New seasons and movies re-ignite love for older characters.
• A big plot twist can send a character soaring or plummeting.
• Award wins, like Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards, shine a spotlight on new series and casts.

When shows like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Solo Leveling, or Dandadan get
multiple award nominations, their casts start showing up more often in fan polls and character lists,
rubbing shoulders with icons from older franchises.

Series That Dominate Anime Character Lists

While every series-focused list lives in its own little bubble, some franchises pop up again and again
across all sorts of rankings. Here are a few repeat offenders and why their characters stay near the top.

Naruto: A Village Full of Fan Favorites

Naruto is almost unfair in how many memorable characters it throws at you:
Naruto himself, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the entire Uchiha clan.
Pop culture outlets frequently call out Uchiha members as some of the strongest and
most compelling characters in the series, thanks to the Sharingan and their tragic,
rivalry-filled history.

In a “Naruto characters by series” list, you’ll usually see:

• Kakashi ranked near the top for being the cool teacher everyone wishes they had.
• Itachi voted up by fans who love morally gray, quietly suffering geniuses.
• Hinata rising steadily as people re-appreciate her growth and loyalty.
• Villains like Pain or Madara getting tons of votes for their ideology and power.

The beauty of a series-only list is that even “minor” favorites like Shikamaru or Rock Lee
have plenty of room to shine instead of being buried under world-famous shonen leads.

Dragon Ball: From Goku to the Deep Bench of Z-Fighters

Goku is one of the most recognizable anime characters on the planet even people who have never
watched a full episode can usually identify the spiky-haired Saiyan. Articles on popular culture
and entertainment regularly highlight Goku as a symbol of anime’s global impact and one of
the most popular anime characters of all time.

But zoom in on a Dragon Ball character list and you’ll see just how deep the bench goes:

• Vegeta, the eternal rival, topping “best character in the series” polls for his growth.
• Piccolo, quietly ranking high as the world’s most overqualified stepdad.
• Future Trunks, loved for his design, backstory, and time-travel angst.
• Villains like Frieza or Cell, scoring high on both menace and memorability.

When fans rank only within the Dragon Ball universe, it becomes less about “Who can beat whom?”
and more about which character’s journey, personality, and iconic moments hit the hardest.

Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, and Modern Ensemble Casts

Series like Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia have such large ensembles that you can build
entire lists just for supporting characters. In all-time popularity rankings, names like Levi, Eren,
Mikasa, and Erwin appear frequently, and fan polls on multiple sites consistently show My Hero characters
such as Deku, Bakugo, and Todoroki fighting for top spots.

A series-specific list lets fans rally around:

• “Must protect” characters who might not be the strongest, but are emotionally crucial.
• Morally ambiguous leaders whose decisions split the fandom down the middle.
• Newcomers introduced in later seasons who still manage to climb the rankings fast.

How 85 Lists Help You Discover New Anime (and New Favorites)

A big collection of “anime characters by series” lists isn’t just a playground for people who
already watch everything it’s a surprisingly useful discovery tool.

1. Follow the Characters, Then Watch the Show

Let’s say you keep seeing the same character names show up in multiple “best character” articles:
Levi, Kakashi, Goku, Luffy, Gojo, Anya, Tanjiro.
With a collection of series-specific lists, you can:

1. Click into the list for their series.
2. See who else fans rank highly alongside them.
3. Get a feel for the show’s tone (serious, chaotic, cozy, horrifying) based on which characters are loved.

If you like strategic masterminds, you might be drawn to lists full of characters like Lelouch or Light.
If you love chaotic gremlins (no shame), you’ll quickly find series where those characters dominate
the top 10 spots.

2. Use Lists as a Watch Order Shortcut

Not sure where to start with a long-running series? Look at which characters fans adore the most
and note:

• Which arcs they shine in
• Which seasons or movies they’re heavily involved in
• Which spin-offs or OVAs people recommend in the comments

This works especially well for franchises like Fate, Gundam, or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,
where seeing which protagonists rank highest can gently nudge you toward a good entry point.

3. Track Trends Across Different Sites

One of the fun parts of exploring an 85-list collection is comparing it to what other outlets are saying:

• Fan-voted lists on Ranker and similar platforms show where the wider community’s heart lies
  right now.
• Editorial lists from sites like CBR, ScreenRant, and others often highlight the most
  “objectively” powerful or influential characters.
• Community-driven databases such as MyAnimeList and IMDB rankings reveal which shows
  are trending overall and which characters are fan darlings in specific years.

When you see the same character dominating across all of these, you know you’re looking at someone
who’s not just popular in one corner of the internet they’re on their way to “all-time icon” status.

How to Build Your Own “Characters by Series” Lists

You don’t need a giant voting platform to start ranking anime characters by series.
You just need a spreadsheet, a notes app, or a group chat full of equally opinionated friends.

Step 1: Pick Your Series and Criteria

Decide which series you’re ranking and what “best” means to you:

• Most compelling character arc?
• Most emotionally devastating moments?
• Most quotable?
• Most likely to be your ideal roommate?

Being honest about your criteria helps explain why the world’s strongest character
might rank below the world’s best comedic relief in your personal top 10.

Step 2: Make a Shortlist, Then Rank

List every character who genuinely left an impression on you hero, villain, sidekick,
talking animal, mysterious bartender, whoever. Then:

1. Sort them into tiers (S, A, B, chaos tier, etc.).
2. Within each tier, sort again by personal preference.
3. Turn your tiers into a clean, numbered list.

The tier approach keeps you from overthinking whether someone should be 14th or 15th
and focuses on which characters feel like they belong in the same league.

Step 3: Compare Your List with Fan Rankings

Once you’ve built your own series-specific ranking, compare it to big fan-voted lists:

• Where are you in sync with the fandom?
• Which characters are you “too high” or “too low” on compared to everyone else?
• Which underappreciated characters seem to be fan favorites elsewhere?

This mix of personal taste and community sentiment is what makes anime rankings fun:
you can keep your hot takes and still appreciate why other people love who they love.

What an 85-List Collection Tells Us About Anime Fandom

Put all these series-specific rankings together, and a pattern emerges:
modern anime fandom is:

• Highly character-driven people follow characters across seasons, movies, and spin-offs.
• Very social rankings double as conversation starters on social media and forums.
• Constantly evolving new shows, awards, and streaming releases tilt the rankings every year.

Whether it’s a long article explaining the “most powerful anime characters,” a fan-voted list
of “most popular anime characters of all time,” or a deep dive into the smartest or strongest
heroes, characters are the backbone of how we talk about anime online.

A Ranker-style collection of 85 lists simply acknowledges what fans have known for years:
we don’t just watch shows; we adopt fictional people and argue about them like they owe us rent.

Experiences from Diving into “Anime Characters by Series” Lists

Spending time with a huge “anime characters by series” collection is a very specific kind of journey.
It’s not like reading one editorial piece and calling it a day it’s more like falling down a rabbit hole
where each click leads to a new set of emotional attachments and hot takes.

It usually starts innocently. Maybe you’re curious where your favorite character ranks in their own series.
You look up a list for Naruto characters and feel pretty satisfied that Kakashi is comfortably near the top.
You nod, maybe upvote a few picks, and think, “Okay, that makes sense.” Then you scroll further, see Rock Lee too low,
and suddenly it’s personal. How dare the internet undervalue the man who turned a bowl cut into a symbol of greatness?

From there, you start hopping series. You check Attack on Titan and realize how divided people are over certain
leaders and morally gray characters. One person’s “brave strategist” is another person’s “absolutely unhinged.”
Those votes tell a story: not just about who’s cool in a fight, but about what fans value loyalty, sacrifice,
honesty, or just impeccable drip.

Then you wander into a list for a series you haven’t even watched yet. The names mean nothing,
but the vote counts and comments are loud and clear. One character is miles ahead of everyone else.
Another has a suspiciously passionate mini-fandom that talks like they discovered a hidden gem.
You start thinking, “Maybe I should watch this show just to find out what the hype is about.”
That’s the quiet power of these lists: they sell you on characters first and trust that the story will follow.

The more lists you browse, the more you notice patterns in your own taste. You might realize you always gravitate
toward:

• The tired mentor who looks done with everyone’s nonsense but would die for their kids.
• The villain who talks too much but is low-key right about society being broken.
• The cheerful side character who keeps the whole cast emotionally functional.

Seeing those patterns reflected in rankings from thousands of other fans feels oddly comforting.
You’re not just shouting into the void; you’re part of a big, messy conversation where no one
is completely right, but everyone is having fun trying to convince each other.

There’s also a special joy in spotting quiet success stories: characters who didn’t seem like
obvious favorites at first but slowly climb the rankings over time. Maybe they had a late-series
character arc that resonated with people. Maybe a new season or movie fleshed them out.
Maybe someone made a viral edit set to dramatic music and now the entire internet is obsessed.
Watching those characters rise feels a little like cheering for an underdog sports team.

On the flip side, you’ll sometimes see formerly beloved characters slip in the rankings.
Maybe the story took them in a controversial direction. Maybe their flaws became more obvious on rewatch.
That doesn’t erase their earlier impact if anything, it proves how deeply people engage with these stories.
You don’t lose votes for being boring; you lose votes because people care enough to feel disappointed.

By the time you’ve explored dozens of lists, you’re left with something more than just a sense of who’s “number one.”
You get a snapshot of fandom itself: its tastes, its arguments, its soft spots. The rankings become less about
objective truth and more about shared experience a constantly updating record of who made us laugh,
cry, scream at the screen, or stare at the ceiling thinking about one line of dialogue at 3 a.m.

That’s the real charm of an 85-list collection of anime characters by series. It’s not just a database;
it’s a living, breathing map of what we love in anime, and how our favorites change as new stories arrive.
You might show up just to check where your number-one character sits, but you’ll stay because every list,
every vote, and every comment reminds you that you’re part of a much larger anime conversation
one that never really ends, it just queues up the next episode.