In anime, power levels rise fast, but real character growth takes time. It’s easy to get swept up inflashy transformationsand overpowered abilities, but the most unforgettable characters are the ones who change, emotionally, psychologically, and philosophically.
10 Anime With The Best Character Development
Some anime exhibit exceptional character development, and these are among the best.
This list isn’t about who gotstrongeror who unlocked the flashiest new move. It’s about those rare characters whose arcs feel earned. Characters who started as one version of themselves and ended up somewhere completely different.
Here are 7 Characters with Great Development.
7Hinata Shoyo
When Haikyuu!! begins, Hinata Shoyo is nothing more than a middle schooler with a dream far bigger than his height. He idolizes “The Little Giant”, a legendary Karasuno player known for defying expectations through sheer tenacity and athleticism. But at first glance, Hinata’s obsession with volleyball seems like wishful thinking more than anything else.
What makes his development so compelling is that it’s built entirely on hard work, constant failure, and a refusal to settle. He starts as a raw talent with no formal training, no team, and no understanding of strategy. But by the time Haikyuu!! To The Top wraps up, he’s one of the most dynamic and versatile players on the court, not just because he can jump high, but because he’s learned how to read the game, anticipate plays, and think like a true athlete.
The anime doesn’t give him any shortcuts. His rivalry with Kageyama turns into a partnership built on mutual respect and struggle. His time spent training in Brazil, learning beach volleyball to improve his balance and ball control, is a standout arc that shows how serious he is about growth. In a sports genre flooded with natural geniuses, Hinata’s journey remains one of the most grounded and inspiring.
Parasyte: The Maxim
In Parasyte: The Maxim, Shinichi starts off as a soft-spokenhigh school student, the kind of guy who can barely raise his voice, let alone his fists. But when a parasitic alien fails to fully take over his body and instead merges with his right hand, everything changes.
What unfolds isn’t just a sci-fi survival story. It’s a slow psychological transformation where Shinichi’s human emotions begin to dull, replaced by cold logic and detachment. But what’s masterful is that this numbness isn’t portrayed as a superpower, it’s shown as a cost. As his strength grows, his ability to relate to others fades. His mother’s death marks a major turning point, forcing him to confront the very thing he’s becoming.
By the second half of the series, he’s no longer a scared boy but a quiet warrior who still clings to the last threads of his humanity. His connection with Migi evolves into something that goes beyond mere survival. Their bond becomes a mirror of what it means to coexist and accept the duality of self.
5Ken Kaneki
Tokyo Ghoul
Few anime characters go through as many transformations, both literal and emotional, as Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul. The story begins with a mild-mannered bookworm who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But after a fateful date turns into a nightmare and leaves him with the organs of a ghoul inside his body, Kaneki’s descent into the world of flesh-eating monsters begins.
Kaneki’s development is not a straight line. It’s a spiral of trauma, identity crisis, and forced reinvention. He starts off resisting his ghoul instincts, clinging to his humanity. But as the violence escalates, so does his need to become something that can survive it. His famous scene in the white-haired transformation isn’t just about power, it’s a full psychological collapse. He embraces the persona of someone willing to endure torture and pain, all to protect others.
But Tokyo Ghoul:re takes things even further. Kaneki’s fractured identity is explored in detail, from Haise Sasaki, the investigator who doesn’t remember his past, to the one-eyed king burdened with the hopes of both humans and ghouls. Each version of Kaneki isn’t a reset. It’s another layer added to the broken foundation of who he is.
Sui Ishida wrote Kaneki with the rawness of a survivor, someone who didn’t grow stronger for the sake of being cool, but because the alternative was death. His development is a story of resilience wrapped in tragedy
My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia opens with one of the most straightforward underdog premises in anime: a boy born quirkless in a world where 80% of the population has powers. But Izuku Midoriya isn’t content with just admiring heroes from the sidelines. He wants to become one himself, even if it kills him.
What sets Midoriya apart is how quickly he’s forced to evolve. When All Might sees his selfless bravery and chooses him as the next successor of One For All, it seems like a fairytale. But the truth is much harsher. The power Midoriya inherits isn’t a gift, it’s a burden that breaks his bones and tests his will every time he uses it.
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His growth is marked by meticulous analysis and constant self-reflection. He studies his opponents mid-battle, learns from his losses, and builds an ever-expanding arsenal of strategies. By Season 6, the wide-eyed kid crying over his acceptance letter is replaced by a hardened hero willing to fight alone in the rain to protect others.
And yet, he never loses his core. Midoriya never becomes arrogant. He stays humble, emotionally aware, and compassionate, even to his enemies. Kohei Horikoshi didn’t just build a classic shonen protagonist. He built someone who changes every season without ever losing sight of why he started.
Hunter x Hunter
On the surface, Gon Freecss looks like your typical shonen hero, optimistic, energetic, and fiercely loyal. But Hunter x Hunter takes that mold and slowly, meticulously tears it apart.
Gon’s development isn’t about gaining new powers or unlocking secret forms. It’s about realizing that innocence doesn’t last forever. When he sets out to find his absentee father, the journey he embarks on doesn’t reward him with closure. Instead, it exposes him to a world of cruelty, moral ambiguity, and loss.
During the Chimera Ant arc, widely regarded as one of the most profound arcs in anime, Gon’s character takes a dark turn. Fueled by rage and grief, he makes a choice that costs him everything, including his own sense of self. It’s not just power that he taps into, it’s pain. And that moment, when he trades his future for a single act of revenge, is one of the most haunting scenes in the series.
Even after everything, he doesn’t end up with the answers he wanted. But he gains something else: the wisdom to stop chasing a dream that only hurt him.
2Eren Yeager
Attack On Titan
Eren’s journey in Attack on Titan is not just one of the best developments in anime, it might be the most divisive and talked-about character arc in the medium’s history.
At first, he’s driven by pure rage. After witnessing the death of his mother at the hands of Titans, Eren swears vengeance. His ideology is simple: destroy all Titans, reclaim freedom. But AoT’s narrative doesn’t let that mindset survive for long.
As Eren learns the truth about the Titans, Marley, the Founding Titan, and the cycle of hatred that spans generations, his development takes a radical turn. He becomes colder, more distant, and frighteningly pragmatic. His once fiery speeches become quiet threats. His desire for freedom mutates into something absolute, a resolve that leads to the Rumbling.
And what makes Eren’s arc so chilling is that it never breaks the logic of his character. Everything he does stems from who he was. It’s just that the more he saw, the more he was willing to do, no matter the cost.
By the final season, Eren is no longer the protagonist, he’s the catalyst. A friend. A villain. A victim. A monster. All at once. His arc is a masterclass in long-term character writing, and Hajime Isayama deserves credit for crafting a character who’s so hard to love, but impossible to ignore.
Vinland Saga
There are few character journeys in anime as profound as Thorfinn’s in Vinland Saga.
Season 1 shows us a young boy obsessed with avenging his father’s death. Raised on the battlefield, mentored by the man who killed his father, Thorfinn grows into a bitter, angry, and hollow warrior. His life becomes defined by one goal: kill Askeladd. Nothing else matters.
But then, everything changes.
After losing the only purpose he clung to, Season 2 begins with Thorfinn as a slave. No weapons, no war, just farmland and silence. And that’s where his real development begins. Free from vengeance, he begins to understand the value of life, not just his own, but others’.
Conversations with Einar, dreams of his past victims, and reflections on his father’s ideals reshape him. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. He wants to build. Not destroy. His entire philosophy flips, and by the time the second season ends, Thorfinn is no longer the angry boy who wanted revenge. He’s a man searching for peace.
Makoto Yukimura, the author of Vinland Saga, famously said he doesn’t want to write about war, but about what comes after. Thorfinn is the embodiment of that mission. His arc isn’t just good, it’s one of the best in all of anime. Not because he became stronger, but because he chose not to.
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