10 Most Popular Anime Characters Of The 2000s (According To MyAnimeList) - CBR - Comic Book Resources

The 2000s were a major decade for the anime world. Though long-running, popular series like Gundam and Dragon Ball Z rose in popularity, anime continued to hit greater heights thanks to the appearance of new titans. Debuts like Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Death Note gave fans an entirely new wave of classic anime series to fall in love with.

Many of these series remain popular today with fans, largely because they contain compelling characters that viewers love to see win, or just interact with everyone around them. Whether they were tsundere looking for the right guy to pour all their attention on or sociopathic geniuses, the 2000s gave fans a wide variety of characters they could fall for.

10 Taiga Aisaka (Toradora!)

Referred to as the Palmtop Tiger because of her height and ferocious behavior, Taiga is another tsundere that’s beloved thanks to her complex, if slightly predictable, nature.

Despite her beauty, she’s such a flawed character— she’s clumsy, lacks manners, and is absolutely terrible at household chores. But there’s an earnestness and brutal honesty that makes her lovable.

9 Hitagi Senjougahara (Bakemonogatari)

It's somewhat surprising that Hitagi is one of the most popular characters of the 2000s, as Bakemonogatari isn't as well-known as some of the heavy-hitters of the decade.

The character’s big secret is the concern that people might find out she is weightless after her run-in with a giant crab that stole her weight. Probably one of the only characters to openly refer to herself as a tsundere, her sharp tongue and direct manner won over fans of the series everywhere.

8 Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)

“Those who break the rules are scum...but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.” From the moment Kakashi uttered those lines, he etched a place into the hearts of every true Naruto fan.

More than perhaps any other character on the show, Kakashi represents what it means to be a ninja— the way he keeps his identity secret, and the way he wins his fights through intelligence and combat skill. And the series never lets the character fade too far into the background, as he eventually becomes the Sixth Hokage, making him one of the most important characters at the end of the series.

7 Itachi Uchiha (Naruto)

Itachi is beloved by Naruto fans as the “perfect” ninja. He starts out with this story of being the ultimate enemy of Sasuke, but then the character’s backstory is explained, detailing decades of tension between one of the most powerful families in Konoha and the actual ruling members of Konoha village.

But aside from that, he’s also incredibly powerful— even with the limiters he has placed on him, he’s just a step ahead of seemingly everyone else in the show.

6 Sakata Gintoki (Gintama)

Gintoki is beloved for a number of reasons. As a comedic protagonist, there’s a sort of everyman appeal to him even though he’s not much of an everyman at all. His love life is trash, and most of the time he just wants to lay around and read the latest Shonen Jump.

But at the same time, he was one of the last samurai to go down, and when the series gets serious he proves himself to be an amazing swordsman time and again.

5 Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)

Naruto Uzumaki Has Large Reserves Of Chakra

Everyone’s favorite knuckle-head ninja coming in this low is more surprising than anything else. Naruto is the lead protagonist of one of the "Big Three," a collection of shonen series that were massively popular throughout the 2000s.

He represents the stereotypical aloof shonen protagonist, but he’s also got the heart of gold to go along with it. Viewers see over and over how he’s been mistreated by most of Konoha village, and how it doesn’t stop him from wanting to fight to protect them— perhaps one of the most admirable and selfless goals a protagonist could have.

4 Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Edward has a fairly simple goal when the series starts out— figure out a way to restore his brother’s lost body, and hopefully his arm and leg. Over the course of Fullmetal Alchemist, it’s shown just how far he’s willing to go to discover the truth behind what happened to him and his brother and what it would take to reverse what happened to them.

He never stops being driven, even as he learns the flaws behind the military he works for and the truth of the Philosopher’s Stone he’s been searching for.

3 Light (Death Note)

The protagonist of Death Note, there are few characters that are quite like Light. He’s a super-genius, which is rare enough for the genre he comes from, but what really made him stand out is he’s also a total sociopath.

He doesn’t care about anything other than his goals, but that’s what makes him compelling in the first place. His goal of eradicating evil from the world and having the means to do so makes people want to follow along to see if he can win.

2 Lawliet (Death Note)

Death Note stands out for things exactly like this: Lawliet is somehow both the good guy and the antagonist at the same time. A quirky character, he’s known as one of the best detectives in the world, and exactly that is needed to take on the main character of the series.

Meant to be the perfect foil to Light, he somehow managed to surpass Light in terms of popularity even though the character eventually loses his battle with the protagonist. This is likely due to him being so well-developed, to the point that most fans argue the series goes downhill once the character is written out of the series.

1 Lelouch (Code Geass)

Lelouch comes in not only as the most popular character from the 2000s, but the most popular character of all time. It’s easy to see why— the character represented a new archetype of character going forward.

He’s not someone trying to get through to people through the power of friendship, he relies on strategy and knowledge of human nature to come out on top even though the odds are stacked against him.

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