Dysfunctional heterosexual anime relationships are practically a staple in the genre, so it stands to reason the person often making everything terrible is a dude. While some anime men are inexplicably boring, the worst boyfriends in the medium are manipulative, neglectful, unfaithful, and abusive. Some, like Light Yagami, even straight-up kill their girlfriends. If you’re in search of healthy relationships, these are not the series you should watch.
Stay far, far away from these anime bad boys, no matter how hot they are. Men are not entirely to blame for bad relationships – there are plenty of terrible anime girlfriends who make everything awful, too. However, there’s little reason to excuse these boys’ flat-out abusive behaviors.
9. Koyomi Araragi Won’t Stop Kissing Other Girls In ‘Monogatari’
Life is complicated when you’re a semi-immortal vampire relentlessly driven to help people in need. It’s especially hard when all of those people are incredibly cute girls coincidentally in love with you, but you already have a girlfriend. Such is the reality for Koyomi Araragi.
While Koyomi is usually faithful to Hitagi Senjougahara, he doesn’t always stay on the straight and narrow. Over the course of Monogatari, the dude finds excuses to kiss at least five different girls besides Hitagi – two of whom are his sisters. Koyomi isn’t exactly a model boyfriend.
8. Ladd Russo Thinks Killing Is Romantic In ‘Baccano!’
You know what’s not romantic? Endlessly talking about your plans to kill your fiancée. To Ladd Russo, the most romantic thing he can think of is offing Lua Klein, the love of his life.
Lua appears to agree with him, even encouraging him to kill her sooner than he initially planned. Ladd is exactly the kind of awful person Lua is looking for, but this doesn’t make him any less terrible.
7. Eikichi Machimiya Dumps His Girlfriend To Show Off In ‘Yowamushi Pedal’
While viewers never learn exactly how Eikichi Machimiya behaved in his relationship with Kana, it’s clear he’s not a great dude. He abruptly dumps Kana to focus on preparing for a bike race, only to spend the whole race hitting on or groping decidedly uninterested people.
The breakup is less about wanting to actually spend time on his sport, and more about proving himself as a heartbreaker who could get any girl he wants.
6. Daisuke Aoki’s Girlfriend Is A Third Grader In ‘Kodomo No Jikan’
Daisuke Aoki first met his seven-year-old student, Rin Kokonoe, during the third grade class he taught. Rin exhibited inappropriately provocative behavior toward Daisuke, likely due to her abuse and other problems at home.
Any reasonable adult would understand a little girl making suggestive overtures is probably troubled and in need of appropriate help. Despite this, Daisuke decides to take her on as his secret lover instead, only finding out about her family stuff later. The two start “officially” dating when Rin is sixteen, but the relationship is distinctly romantic long before she hits puberty.
5. Ryo Okayasu Tricks Girls Into Joining His Pyramid Scheme In ‘Peach Girl’
Stealing most of your girlfriends from your brother is a low move, but this is exactly how Ryo Okayasu operates. Ryo cares little about pursuing meaningful relationships – he wants to pretend to love and care about his girlfriends, then trick them into participating in a pyramid scheme.
When the women end up completely broke, Ryo stops talking to them altogether. No wonder one of his exes, Morika, wants to physically hurt him.
4. Takumi Ichinose Is A Total Hypocrite In ‘NANA’
Possessive and controlling are hardly desirable traits in a boyfriend, but they certainly describe Takumi Ichinose. He expects his girlfriend (and eventual wife), Hachi, to stay at home and keep house for him while he goes off with his band, sleeping with whomever he wants.
While Takumi is occasionally sweet to Hachi, he also constantly yells at her to shut up, insults her intelligence, and generally makes her miserable. The fact they actually marry by the end of NANA comes as a true disappointment.
3. Masamune Gotou Cheats On His Hospitalized Wife With A Woman Half His Age In ‘March Comes In Like A Lion’
Masamune Gotou, a professional shogi player in his early 40s, has a wife in the hospital with a serious illness. He also carries out an affair with a 22-year-old girl, Kyouko. If this scenario sounds bad on its own, it gets worse.
Gotou treats Kyouko with shocking disrespect, regularly insulting and hitting her. He’s both a terrible husband and loathsome secret lover.
2. Light Yagami Kills One Of His Girlfriends In ‘Death Note’
One of the most basic prerequisites for being a decent boyfriend involves not offing your significant other. Light Yagami tricks Kiyomi Takada into thinking he loves her, then executes her to help mask his identity as a mass killer. Light’s initial relationship with Kiyomi in itself is another strike against his character – when he starts dating her, he’s already with Misa Amane, who never agrees to an open relationship.
Light’s priorities do not include being a good partner. Without loving either woman or anyone else, Light easily manipulates his targets into thinking he loves them. Consequently, the misled women end up willingly assisting him in becoming a god. He couldn’t be a worse boyfriend if he tried.
1. Makoto Itou Cheats Constantly In ‘School Days’
All Makoto Itou wants is to have as much sex as humanly possible, with as many consenting girls he can find. There’s nothing wrong with getting constant action if you’re honest about your intentions, but Makoto is really not.
Instead, he tells each girl about his exclusive devotion, then ghosts them when he loses interest in maintaining the facade. His four-timing behavior makes it hard not to sympathize at least a tiny bit with Sekai, especially when she kills him at the end of the series.