Best Anime Soldiers

War, what is it good for? If anime is anything to go by, especially anime of the shonen genre, the answer is entertaining audiences with the greatest on-screen fights carried out by some of the greatest on-screen fighters.

Plenty of anime, by the nature of being typically associated with fantasy and sci-fi elements, feature characters who find themselves in the role of a soldier, one part of a great army for a great (or, sometimes, not-so-great) cause. But the best soldiers in anime stand out more than others, and this is due to various reasons.

5 Eren Yeager

The Attack Titan Himself

• Greatest Soldier Trait: Forceful Will

If there’s one combination that’s needed to make a great soldier, it’s the combination of boundless energy and sheer force of will. Eren Yeager has both in spades. From a very young age, Eren was a fighter with more gusto at ten than most had as grown adults. He was ready and willing to kill the men who murdered the Ackermans and attempted to attack and capture Mikasa, rationalizing that they deserved to die and having no qualms about it.

This attitude wasn’t a one-off incident either; Eren was simply born ready to fight. He wasn’t manipulated, brainwashed, or even pushed to fight for his people in any way. From the moment Eren learned of the titans and how they stood in the way of his freedom, he had already decided he wanted to kill them all.

Eren might not be as good a fighter as the likes of Mikasa, who was the best of the Survey Corps in terms of skill, but he’s no slouch in a fight either. And the traits Mikasa lacks for most of the series, Eren possesses in great parts, such as his aggressive form of charisma that inspires others to fight for the Survey Corps and never give up. Fans who have finished the series will be fully aware of what a soldier with Eren’s level of willpower is capable of.

4 Shin

The Future’s Greatest Commander

• Greatest Soldier Trait: Aggressive Ambition

A boy who had ambitions of being a commanding general from the moment he could talk was always going to be a brilliant soldier when he was big and strong enough to fight for those dreams to become a reality. In the world of Kingdom, where the Ancient Chinese armies are constantly battling it out with the finest of tactics and the bloodiest of battles, Shin manages to constantly stand out time and time again due to his skill as a warrior and the fact he possessed the will of a commander before he was ever able to be one.

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In Kingdom, viewers see the world through the eyes of this violent and gregarious character as he puts every ounce of effort into becoming remembered as the greatest combat commander in history. He started off training against his equally skilled friend who shared his high aspirations. Sadly, this friend is murdered in a scheme to protect a king through a body double. Fortunately, Shin’s path to achieving his goals officially begins here, as he teams up with a youthful monarch who seeks to bring many countries together. He carries the will of both himself and his lost friend to achieve all that a warrior can.

3 Suzaku Kururugi

Serves As Lelouch’s Foil

• Greatest Soldier Trait: Determination and Loyalty

When most hear of Code Geass, they’re likely to think of its top tactician rather than its top soldier. They will think about the astonishingly intelligent Lelouch vi Britannia, who uses his Geass power and bright mind to change the world. But a character who is just as impressive in the physical realm as Lelouch is in the intellectual is Suzaku, who acts as Lelouch’s foil in the series.

The disgraced son of the Japanese Prime Minister who killed his own father and joined the Britannian Empire in order to attempt to change things from the inside is quite the origin story. And Suzaku has all the skills that a person with such a past is likely to possess. At multiple points throughout the series, viewers see Suzaku able to perform effortless feats of physicality, such as his brilliant Knightmare maneuvers and his skill at avoiding gunfire with fast reflexes and faster feet.

Not to mention the fact that Suzaku is loyal to a fault, ready to carry out the will of whoever commands him to the letter if need be. This and a little Geass-meddling comes in handy for Lelouch near the end of the series.

2 Griffith

The White Hawk

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• Greatest Soldier Trait: Inspiring Charisma

The charismatic leader of the Band of the Hawks does not look like the type of person who would be a highly skilled soldier. With his long hair, pale skin, and staggering beauty, Griffith resembles the fantasy archetype of the sheltered prince much more than he does of a war hero who leads his people into battle. But, nevertheless, he does. Griffith shows himself to be one of the best when it comes to battle-plans and sword-play itself.

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Guts, who is absolutely prodigious when it comes to physical strength and fighting capability, is beaten by Griffith with embarrassing ease upon their first encounter, an encounter where he cheekily leaps atop Gut’s master sword and makes quips about how he’ll own him if he wins all throughout. His shocking amounts of skill and charisma are what allow Griffith to go from being a no-name peasant, to leading the best mercenary band in the land, to becoming knighted with his dreams of owning a kingdom looking more plausible with each battle.

1 Levi Ackerman

The Greatest Soldier There Is

• Series: Attack on Titan
• Greatest Soldier Trait: Boundless Strength, Speed, and Deadliness

Just like Mikasa, another member of the same clan, Levi has abilities far beyond even the best soldiers of humanity. But even Mikasa hardly compares to the master of ODM-maneuvering and nape-cutting that is Levi Ackerman. Directly referred to as humanity’s strongest, Levi deserves this title more than anyone else. Erwin knew he would be a great asset when he first recruited him and had his hunches paid back tenfold, as Levi became the people within the walls’ greatest hope when it came to fighting off the titans.

Levi is such a good soldier that he can be trusted to kill multiple scores of titans on his own without any aid. He’s deadly enough that Reiner and Bertholdt warn Zeke that he alone could give him more of an issue than a full regiment of normal Eldian soldiers. He’s so fierce that he easily defeats Zeke in every single one of the encounters they have, with luck and circumstances stopping him from ending the Beast Titan until the very last arc of the series. Levi is the very definition of a pint-sized powerhouse and the best warrior one could ask to have in their ranks.

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