Anime certainly doesn’t have a shortage of bad parental figures, so for this Father’s Day, we are taking a look at some of the worst anime dads. Not all of them are biological parents but they did take on the fatherly role, albeit unsuccessfully.
Seems like the bad father trope is especially present in the stories aimed at a shonen-style audience. Below are some of the worst anime dads we have picked, along with brief reasoning. And no, we will not talk about the Bunny Drop manga ending.
Endeavor is a great hero, but a bad father with abusive tendencies. He projects his ideals on his children and even pushes his wife to a mental breakdown. As he grows older, he tries to fix his mistakes and bond with his remaining children, but the apologies somehow pale in comparison to what he has done in the past.
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We literally can’t have a list of worst anime dads without Sho Tucker. One whole generation of anime fans grew up with burning hatred for this poor excuse of a human who sacrificed his own daughter and wife (and dog!) for his selfish cause. 10/10 would punch.
At first sight, Grisha doesn’t appear that bad. Yes, he left Eren all alone and disappeared, but as we learn the truth about titans his disappearance begins to make sense and it becomes difficult to blame him for the consequences. However, then we get to learn about his other family and his first son, whom he neglected and forced his ideals on and all excuses go out the window.
Without going into the success of Berserk’s adaptations – Gambino definitely deserves a place on this list. Although he took young Guts in, he abused him and even sold him to Donovan who assaulted him. Guts eventually takes his revenge but is left haunted by the events of his childhood.
Code Geass is somewhat of a classic and Charles definitely deserves a place among the worst anime dads. Although he fathered 15 children, he wasn’t exactly a good parent to any of them and often used them as sacrifices so that he could gain power.
While Ging is not as bad as some other names on this list, he is not exactly what you would consider a good father. He left Gon on his own and left to do his own thing. This led Gon on a dangerous adventure to find his father, which yes, was a good starting point, but his father did abandon him.
Although there are some amazing examples of anime/manga dads out there, there is also an abundance of just bad ones. From neglectful to abusive and outright psychotic, some of these characters just stick to your memory long after you’ve finished watching or reading the series in question.