Fans may be surprised to find the names of some excessively popular shonen heroes, like Naruto, Luffy, and Goku, missing from this list, but that is because their respective anime aired in the '90s, whereas this list goes as far back as 2011 only.
The term “heroes” includes important male deuteragonists from shonen series, who are as essential to their anime’s plots (if not more) as the main leads. Also, a well-deserved honorary shoutout goes to Jujutsu Kaisen’s Satoru Gojo, who managed to get 22,765 member favorites within a matter of months, something that took the other characters from this list a few years to achieve.
10 Katsuki Bakugou From 2016’s My Hero Academia (23,162 Favorites)
Despite being one of the most important characters from the show, Katsuki is shown to be a bully who’s excessively cruel, rude, aggressive, and arrogant. Not even his classmates tolerated him at the beginning of the series.
However, he gradually changed his attitude towards being a hero, going so far as to become good friends with his classmates. As a result of this change, Bakugo soon became one of the most popular characters from the series, among the show's fans.
9 Zenitsu Agatsuma From 2019’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba (24,559 Favorites)
Zenitsu cleared his exams and became a Demon Slayer, but he was still shown to be a coward at heart, who could often be seen taking decisions that put his safety above those of this friends.
Despite that, the company of the ever-optimistic Tanjiro and always-angry Inosuke seemed to have a positive effect on him, wherein he not only saved innocent victims of demons out of pure altruism but also managed to slay said demons all by himself.
8 Izuku Midoriya From 2016’s My Hero Academia (26,121 Favorites)
Born as a Quirkless human, Izuku’s dream of becoming a superhero becomes a reality when his idol, All Might, chooses him as his successor and transfers his powers to the wide-eyed boy.
After he’s accepted into a special school for superheroes, Izuku realizes his life is going to be a lot harder than he’d anticipated, seeing how his childhood bully Katsuki had not only made it to the same school, but was also in the same class as him!
7 Tanjiro Kamado From 2019’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba (31,945 Favorites)
After his family was slaughtered and his sister Nezuko was turned into a demon, Tanjiro was consumed with the desire for revenge against the one demon responsible for everything that happened – Muzan.
Otherwise, Tanjiro is a calm, naïve and friendly young boy who always goes out of his way to help people in trouble, especially if their troubles involve being troubled by demons. With his strong demon sister by his side, he believes there’s nothing the two can’t achieve if they put their minds together.
6 Yato From 2014’s Noragami (43,363 Favorites)
Yato calls himself the God of Fortune, and accordingly, he’s is shown to possess a cheery disposition, almost bordering on stupidity. He wants everybody to worship him so he does odd jobs for random people just for a small amount of 5 Yen, in order to buy their goodwill.
Fans are introduced to the other two protagonists, Hiyori and Yukine, early on in the series, and it is only much later that Yato’s dark and murderous past is shared on screen.
5 Shoto Todoroki From 2016’s My Hero Academia (46,681 Favorites)
Undeniably, Shoto is the most popular character from the My Hero Academia series. Right from his stunning appearance to his awe-inspiring powers, down to his tragic past that was filled with abuse – Shoto stole the hearts of fans with every passing episode he appeared in.
Like Katsuki, he’s shown to be a little stand-offish at the beginning of the series, but he later on mellows down to the point of being able to maintain a professional relationship with his father, Endeavor, who he previously hated with every fiber of his being.
4 Saitama From 2015’s One-Punch Man (50,496 Favorites)
As the protagonist of the parody superhero series, One-Punch Man, Saitama took the anime world by a storm when he made his debut in 2015. While he was the strongest hero in the universe, he constantly struggled with gaining fame and earning the respect of his superhero peers.
Much to his chagrin, not only does he have to fight monsters and aliens on a daily basis, but he has to be a sensei to a young cyborg named Genos, all the while carrying his superhero nickname, Caped Baldy, on his defeated shoulders.
3 Eren From 2014’s Attack On Titan (62,486 Favorites)
Eren started off as a typical hot-headed, think-first-and-act-later shonen protagonist, but over the period of 4 seasons, he perhaps became the only character from this list who underwent the most drastic changes – mentally, physically, and psychologically.
By the end of the 1st part of The Final Season, Eren had convinced himself and his followers that the only way for Eldians to achieve peace was by the annihilation of the Marleyans.
2 Killua Zoldyck From 2011’s Hunter X Hunter (82,750 Favorites)
Killua is the youngest, and also the most ruthless character on this list. Part of his ruthlessness stems from the horrific manner in which his family trained him, due to which he often finds it difficult to ignore his thirst for blood.
Even so, the presence of the cheerful Gon managed to calm him down a lot, with one of the most endearing aspects about this young boy being his love for everything that tastes sweet.
1 Levi From 2014’s Attack On Titan (147,995 Favorites)
Not only is Levi the most popular character from the Attack on Titan series, but he also holds rank 4 as MyAnimeList’s most popular characters of all time. Despite being cold, insulting, and sometimes heartless, Levi is shown to earn the respect of his subordinates (and his superiors), thanks to his killer instincts and Titan slaying skills on the battlefield.
While there are certain aspects about Levi that the manga never covered (like his dry sense of humor), his fixation with cleanliness was something that translated extremely well on-screen, instantly becoming one of the best things about his character.
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