Family drama is often at the source of every conflict, which is why almost all anime, regardless of genre, has some kind of family dynamic as part of the backstory. Even an orphan searching for a lost family or seeking a way to avenge their deaths is driven by a family-related trauma.Plenty of anime uses the trope of the overbearing, absent, drunk, or abusive father to motivate important characters to be either heroes or villains. Some of the worst fathers in anime have been the driving force behind some of the most compelling and famous stories — like the following examples.
10 Gendo Ikari – Neon Genesis Evangelion
Probably the most notorious absentee father, Gendo is a heartless villain from the moment he appears. Throughout the show, he abuses everyone in his path including his son, Shinji.
As the show unfolds, viewers find out more about him, including that he was partly responsible for the Second Impact, among other secretive deeds and grotesque experiments. Although he has some redemptive qualities at the end, nobody is sad when Gendo Ikari gets what he deserves.
9 Dario Brando – JoJo's Bizzarre Adventure
This show is truly is a bizarre adventure, complete with some of anime's most compelling characters and intriguing plotlines. And it all started with an abusive, drunken patriarch that twisted his son into a literal monster. Dario Brando is introduced to the audience when he's trying to rob a dead body and leave a helpless child to die. It is not a good start by any means, and things only go downhill from there.
Making Dario a terrible person is one thing, but it's even worse to see him juxtaposed against the loving Joestar family. The comparison of the different childhoods of the protagonist, Jonathan Joestar, who grows up in a happy family, with the chaotic mess that formed Dio Brando as a child, is actually a heartbreaking story.
8 Goku – Dragonball Z
Here's a situation where Dad's heart might be in the right place, but his execution is disappointing. Plenty of fans who watched this show also saw the predecessor, where sweet Goku was little more than a child himself. However, in Dragon Ball Z, his parenting skills leave a lot to be desired.
Goku actually has two sons, Gohan and Goten, and he spends so much time training them to fight that he forgets to actually raise them. They're both tenderhearted kids by nature and don't understand their father's obsession with fighting, and when he's gone, they only know him as a harsh trainer and Saiyan avenger as opposed to a father. At least they eventually get a chance to get normal lives, and that's all Goku wanted anyway.
7 Kazekage Rasa – Naruto
Some bad anime fathers might be a matter of opinion, but Rasa is objectively a terrible person all around, never mind just a terrible father. He abused all of his children, but he was doing horrible things to his son, Gaara, before the child was even born.
In Naruto, Kazekage forced the spirit of a demon into Gaara when he was still in the womb, an act that killed his mother and caused Gaara to be born prematurely. The point of this heinous crime was to imbue a child with supernatural fighting powers to protect the village. It worked, but so well that Kazekage then tried to kill his son several times because he thought Gaara was too dangerous.
6 Gambino – Berserk
Gambino is a good example of why it's sometimes better to be an orphan. Some people adopt children because they can't have their own, or they want to give someone a chance at a better life, but that isn't the case here.
Gambino, the adoptive father of the main character, only appears in flashbacks in the original Berserk series. He took in Guts to be the subject of a variety of different kinds of horrific abuse. To describe it any further might warrant a trigger warning, but suffice to say nobody feels bad when Guts reveals the story of killing him and running away.
5 Grisha Yeager – Attack On Titan
Despite his subdued introduction, there's a lot going on with Grisha Yeager, and that builds up to a fever pitch by the time this series comes to a close. He's one of the most important characters in the Attack on Titan anime storyline, with a detailed backstory and arc. Part of that involves his two sons, Zeke and Eren.
By the time the whole story unfolds, and there are a few wild twists, Grisha has sacrificed not only his own life but those of his sons as well. They were always intended to be vessels for his ultimate medical experiment, and the debate rages on as to whether or not his choice was a necessary one.
4 Rokutaro – Afro Samurai
He's never named in the film and has only one bitterly ironic line, so viewers don't know how bad of a person he is. However, given his lack of planning for his son's future should he lose the headband, he's certainly a bad father. The plot of Afro Samurai revolves around the coveted Number 1 headband, sought after by many fearsome warriors. Rokutaru has it at first, but after he loses to a mysterious fighter known only as Justice, his son Afro is left abandoned and has nowhere to go.
Afro suffers a brutal attack at the hands of some muggers before being rescued and accepted into an orphanage overseen, conveniently enough, by a swordmaster who happens to hold the Number 2 headband. Afro needs that headband to challenge Justice, so it's easy to see where this cycle of violence is going.
3 Van Hohenheim – Full Metal Alchemist
At best, he's a lovable, bumbling oaf of a man who's lost part of his mind from jumping between too many bodies. At worst, he's a heartless alchemist who is willing to sacrifice any human being, friend or stranger, to get what he wants.
Also known as Hohenheim of Light, this character is the ultimate absentee father. He lost part of his memory, but through his own doing. After he abandoned his oldest son after turning him into a monster that would eventually become the homunculus Envy, he started a new family that he must have known he would also have to abandon. No matter how likable Van Hohenheim is, he's still oblivious, selfish, and a horrible father.
2 Charles zi Britannia – Code Geass
Charles zi Britannia is the 98th Emporer of the Holy Brittania Empire, and he didn't get there by being a nice guy. He has fifteen children, at least officially, and he manages to be a miserable father to all of them.
As an Emporer, Charles endorses every kind of civil rights violation imaginable and remains the main antagonist throughout the series. He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he could care less for his children as human beings and sees them only as extensions of his own will. When his end comes, one of his own children betrays him in a flourish of poetic justice.
1 Fire Lord Ozai – Avatar: The Last Airbender
If any anime fans out there want to see a perfect example of what a narcissistic parent can do to a family, specifically siblings, there's Fire Lord Ozai. Even his own father knew he was no good, decalring just before his death that he was glad the crown would pass to Iroh, Ozai's older brother, instead.
Ozai had plans, however, and his brother's sudden choice to abdicate after the Battle of Bah Sing Sae might have saved the older man's life. Ozai took his father's throne, then started to set the stage for his golden child, Azula, to ascend the throne in place of her older brother Zuko. This tore the family apart and eventually ended the reign of the Fire Nation over the realm of the Avatar.