Shonen anime is loaded with a stunning variety of fighting styles or elements, not to mention different attitudes about battle. Differing personalities or behaviors in combat anime add another fun layer of depth to how these characters operating, such as the cool, detached fighter whose power levels and icy attitude contrast sharply. There’s also the berserker archetype, which is familiar in shonen anime, seinen, and certainly comic books.
Comics have the Incredible Hulk, and seinen has Guts the mercenary in Berserk, so that leaves the question of who the awesome berserkers are in shonen anime. “Berserker” describes anyone who loves fighting and might even lose self-control once the bloodshed starts, and it’s no surprise these berserkers tend to be pretty strong, too. It takes a tough fighter to keep diving into the mayhem and survive, and they live for it. That’s how berserkers end up some of the most entertaining characters in all of shonen, whether they’re heroes, villains, or something in between.
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Kenpachi Zaraki Made Combat His Entire Personality
Kenpachi Learned From the Best to Get This Strong
The Bleach anime has some cold-blooded, in-control fighters like the traitor Sosuke Aizen, Ulquiorra Cifer, and Jugram Haschwalth, but it also has quite a few berserkers. That’s why Yammy Llargo’s zanpakuto is named Ira, Spanish for “anger” or “rage,” but it’s Kenpachi Zaraki of squad 11 who rises to the top of the berserker heap. He flies into a bloodthirsty frenzy just like Yammy, but is much tougher and has survived more battles.
Kenpachi owes his success to Yachiru Unohana, the woman who helped found the Gotei 13 alongside Yamamoto himself. For a time, Kenpachi thought he had reached the peak of his power even without knowing his zanpakuto’s name, but after defeating Unohana in battle, he powered up yet again. Interestingly, this improvement helped take the edge off Kenpachi’s reckless ways just a bit while giving him the clarity of thought needed to defeat the likes of Sternritter V, Gremmy Thoumeaux.
Eren Yeager is a Hothead With Three Titan Shifter Powers
The Attack Titan is Ideal For Berserker Types Like Eren
It’s uncommon for shonen anime protagonists to be outright berserkers, since fans want a more balanced hero who fights for noble reasons rather than to vent rage. Yet that’s what Attack on Titan fans got with Eren Yeager, the boy who’s been throwing hands like a true berserker since his boyhood. Eren often got himself into trouble that way, but it also helped him save Mikasa Ackerman’s life, for which Mikasa is immensely grateful.
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As a teenager and young man, Eren is even more of a berserker, this time with the power of the Attack Titan and even the War Hammer Titan to enable his hot-blooded rage. He’s not merely reckless or brave like many Goku clones are, because Eren also tends to lose control and dive deeper into battle than he’s ready for. It’s little wonder Eren often ends up captured and needing rescue, since he simply never knows when to stop.
Akaza Can’t Stop Hitting People Even After Decades of Fighting
Hakuji the Human Loved to Throw Down Every Chance He Got
Not unlike Eren Yeager, Demon Slayer‘s Akaza was a berserker human whose supernatural power-up merely enabled more reckless bloodshed. In this case, Hakuji the martial artist kept getting himself into trouble, since fighting was all he knew, and he often lost himself in the violence. He was almost redeemed, but his master’s demise set Hakuji on the path to becoming a villainous warrior once Muzan Kibutsuji showed up.
Muzan’s demonic gift turned Hakuji the martial artist into Akaza the berserker demon, a fearsome member of the Upper Moons. He can’t surpass Doma or Kokushibo, but Akaza is somehow even scarier thanks to his do-or-die attitude, never hesitating to leap into a fight and go into a frenzy to find victory. That brutal attitude was how Akaza got the better of Kyojuro Rengoku, and it was how he almost killed Tanjiro and Giyu as well.
Wrath Represents the Cold-Blooded Side of the Berserker Archetype
Wrath Also Died an Oddly Peaceful Death on the Promised Day
True to his name, the homunculus Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood represents the unstoppable rage and bloodthirst of humanity’s most violent side. All of Father’s homunculus children can fight, such as Lust with her Ultimate Spear or Sloth with his surprising speed, but Wrath is the one who’s actually designed to fight. He doesn’t even need any special forms, making do with a pair of sabers and his Ultimate Eye.
Find all 10 pairs
Find all 10 pairs
Wrath survived many clashes with the heroes, such as Lan Fan and Greed himself, and he didn’t require flesh regeneration to make it out of those fights alive, contrasting him with Gluttony. What’s funny is how Wrath is indeed as berserker as someone who loses himself in the glorious heat of battle, but he doesn’t laugh or gloat that much. He’s an ice-cold kind of fury, a streamlined berserker who sees battle as a fun mission, not a lifestyle.
Denji Flies Into a Berserker Rage Wen Motivated
Denji’s Berserker Attitude Helped Him Defeat the Eternity Devil
Denji is another anime lead who won’t hesitate to go berserk in a haze of wrath and bloodlust, similar to Eren Yeager. There are some key differences between them, however, with Denji being far less ambitious than Eren as Chainsaw Man‘s protagonist, and he doesn’t use anger to go berserk. Instead, Denji is a berserker because he’s partially feral and is determined to make the most of his devilish new powers.
Denji is simply a wild person, one who knows his three chainsaws lend themselves well to a berserker fighting style. Power the fiend is also brutal in a fight as the Blood Devil in a human body, but not even she can match Denji’s berserker ways. A good example was when Denji laughed with vicious glee as he tore into the Eternity Devil for days on end, torturing that massive devil until it gave up the fight to escape the torment.
Son Goku Becomes a Berserker in Great Ape Mode
Vegeta Has More Control in This Form
It’s true Son Goku loves a good fight in the expansive Dragon Ball franchise, to the point he might cause more problems than he solves while seeking a challenge. That said, Goku does have some restraint, favoring sportsmanship over savagery and preferring to fight where innocent people won’t get hurt in the crossfire. Goku is only a berserker when the full moon arrives, a trait found in all Saiyans.
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Early in the Dragon Ball franchise, Goku shocked everyone when he morphed into his Great Ape form, a sort of werewolf King Kong who showed no mercy to friend or foe in its berserker rage. Of all things, that was how Goku and his friends escaped Pilaf’s seemingly invincible trap during the hunt for the Dragon Balls. Goku’s berserker ape form is strong but dangerous, so Goku’s friends made sure to rob him of that form for good. It was a smart move, but as Vegeta later showed, Saiyans can learn to retain self-control in this form and even speak as apes.
Jugo is the Berserker Who Helped Inspire the Curse Seal
Jugo Prefers a Life of Peace
Berserkers aren’t that common in the Naruto anime universe, since most ninjas rely on clever tricks and precise moves to get the upper hand. The likes of Shikamaru Nara, Sasori, Kakashi Hatake, and even Sakura Haruno are a long way from being berserkers, but there are some exceptions. Jinchuriki like Naruto and Gaara may enter berserker modes while tapping into their tailed beast forms, and Jugo is even more of a berserker than that.
Jugo is Naruto‘s Bruce Banner, a mild-mannered man who can transform into a total berserker beast in his alternate mode. While the Hulk is a mean and green Avenger, Jugo is an antihero who is definitely more sympathetic than the other members of team Taka in Naruto Shippuden. He was actually exploited when Orochimaru the Sannin modified his abilities to form curse marks, making Jugo the unwilling progenitor of the Sound Village’s greatest weapon. On his own, Jugo is more like a nature-loving sage or hermit, a far cry from most anime berserkers.
