Bullies are everywhere, from schools to the workplace and beyond. They’re pests that can’t be beat with one single solution. No matter how many punishments are doled out, some bullied may still be victimized until either they or the bullies leave.
At least through fiction, like in anime, people can get some joy in seeing these brutes get what they deserve. Though sometimes the bullied can cross a line and go too far, like Lucy in Elfen Lied, or the kids in Flowers of Evil. So, here are some anime characters who fought back against their bullies without spilling blood or becoming super villains.
6 Fruits Basket
In the 2019 adaptation of Fruits Basket, Saki Hanajima doesn’t have a great time at school. Her quiet personality and gloomy looks scared her female classmates, and the male ones taunted her. They’d mock her to her face, trip her up, smack her, and be vile all around. Unbeknownst to them, she’s a psychic who can sense people’s auras.
One bully goes too far and shoves her and her lunch off onto the ground. This brought her to a rage, and she inadvertently made her bully collapse with her powers. He survived, though it was a close call. While this didn’t do Saki any favors in the long run, it kept her from being bullied again at school, and would lead to her making some true friends in series’ leads Tōru and Arisa.
5 Mob Psycho 100
For something a little less ambiguous, Mob is another psychic student. In fact, he’s one of the strongest espers around, but he’d rather live a normal life. However, if he’s stressed to 100%, they’ll end up like Koyama. He was a thug with telekinetic powers who’d gladly attack kids for fun and brutalize surrendering victims. He was ordered by the terrorist organization Claw to beat up Mob but ended up attacking his younger brother Ritsu instead.
Mob stepped in, only to get pummeled into the ground himself. This, combined with his cruel, careless attitude, drove Mob to 100%. The boy took him down to the point where he had to flee, taking Ritsu with him. Mob would eventually rescue his brother, and Koyama would become his telekinetic punching bag until he started using his head and straightened his act out.
4 Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
The first part of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Phantom Blood, doesn’t get much notice compared to the rest of the series. It’s pretty short, doesn’t have Stands, and feels basic when placed next to the metrosexual Twin Peaks action of Diamond is Unbreakable or the Gucci-style Goodfellas events of Vento Aureo. But it has a nice arc between hero and villain Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando as they constantly one-up each other.
Jonathan’s first snapping point was his stepbrother forcing a kiss on his friend Erina before beating her up and spreading rumors. Driven to avenge her honor, he overpowers Dio for the first time, reducing him to what he truly is: a bully who can’t take what he dishes out. This didn’t solve things for Jonathan in the short run, but he set him on the path to outwit and out-muscle Dio at each turn.
3 Great Teacher Onizuka
Still, is violence really the only way to stop bullies? Not necessarily. The animated adaptation of Great Teacher Onizuka would throw in some tit-for-tat treatment too. One of the titular teacher’s students, Noboru, was being bullied by a girl called Anko and her friends. They’d beat him up and write insults on him in permanent marker. It got bad enough that he attempted suicide but was stopped by Onizuka. Noboru told him what Anko was doing, so he began to form a plan.
For example, Anko and her friends blackmailed Noboru into keeping away from Onizuka by making him strip for her camera. In response, Onizuka and his friend Yoshito gave them the same treatment. When Anko’s mother, the President of the PTA, brought action against him, he had Yoshito play a secret recording of Anko planning to bully Noboru over the school's PA system. Faced with all the evidence, Anko’s mother accepted Onizuka’s version of events and his unique punishment for her daughter’s bullying.
2 Hajime no Ippo
George Morikawa’s boxing manga and subsequent anime adaptations have been running for over 30 years now. As such, it might be hard to remember that series’ lead Ippo Makunōchi was a victim of bullying. But at the start of the series, he was a shy kid getting pushed around by Masahiko Umezawa and his friends. He gets saved once by Mamoru Takamura, a professional boxer who brings Ippo to his coach’s gym to treat his wounds.
It’s here that Ippo gets his first taste of boxing training, showing his natural talent alongside some basic exercises. He gets more and more into the sport, proving himself enough at the gym to rise through the ranks. Umezawa tries to confront him, only for Ippo to outclass him and his goons without throwing a single punch. Eventually, he’d apologize to Ippo, and become his best friend outside the gym. While it’s not as viscerally thrilling as a beat down, Ippo winning over his former bully is a nice example of a moral victory.
1 A Silent Voice
Speaking of moral victories, Naoko Yamada and Reiko Yoshida’s film didn’t have its victim Shōko Nishimiya do anything to her bully. Not physically anyway. Being deaf, she was an easy target for her classmate Shōya Ishida. He gets called out by the elementary school principal and faculty, turning the tables as he becomes the bullying victim instead. He blames Shōko for it, only to become an outcast as she leaves for another school, and he’s left with her old notebook.
By high school, Shōya is left as a depressed loner. He tries to reconnect with Shōko and give her back her book, only for events and other people to get in the way. He has to face his past, then make things right with his old classmates and Shōko’s family to truly get redemption. In other words, karma gets to the bully instead of Shōko. While it’s not violent or humiliating, it is a testing path Shōya has to take to prove he’s no longer the bully everyone thinks he is. It makes for a more touching and satisfying film as a result.