Have you ever watched an anime character suffer through something unimaginably dangerous then wondered how they could have possibly survived that? Anime characters don’t necessarily abide by human rules, which means that they can endure things that would destroy or at least permanently disable a person in real life. Sometimes, it’s fascinating to watch anime characters who survived impossible situations get on with life, but at other times it can strain plausibility or make the series feel less real.
The events that these characters endure vary. Some have chaotic lives full of dangerous experiences, while others endure a single catastrophic event that should have taken their life but somehow didn’t. Whether it’s Obito Uchiha of Naruto surviving having half his body being crushed and replaced with plant matter and then having six billion bombs lobbed at him for ten minutes straight, Hyakkimaru of Dororo surviving his father bartering away most of his body to demons, or Shota Aizawa of My Hero Academia living through getting slammed face-first into the ground by a giant monster, these characters are resilient.
1. Shota Aizawa Got Wrecked By A Nomu In ‘My Hero Academia’
While defending his students from an attack by the League of Villains, Shouta Aizawa gets caught by a Nomu. This giant monster not only crushes his entire arm and wrenches it behind his back, he also slams him face first into a concrete floor, smashing the concrete itself to bits.
Unlike some characters, Aizawa doesn’t possess super strength or exceptional defensive capabilities. He is no stronger than an average 30-year-old man who regularly works out. He does have access to Recovery Girl’s healing quirk, but the fact that he survived long enough to get to her is unbelievable.
2. Obito Uchiha Of ‘Naruto’ Survived Being Pelted With 600 Billion Paper Bombs
Obito Uchiha has survived a truly terrifying amount of physical damage. Not only did he somehow manage to stay alive after having half of his body crushed underneath a boulder, he survived being fused with plant matter – most people’s immune systems would simply reject the Zetsu, a process that can be fatal.
When Obito went up against Konan, it was already unbelievable enough that he was there at all. But the fact that he survived the encounter was even more incredible. Konan showers Obito with 600 billion paper bombs for a full ten minutes, overcoming the 5 minute limit of Obito’s impenetrable defense. The only way he was able to survive was by using his time-space jutsu to rewrite history so that he survived.
3. Hyakkimaru’s Father Traded His Body Parts To Demons In ‘Dororo’
Before Hyakkimaru was born, his father bartered away his organs, limbs, skin, eyes, and other body parts away to a group of demons in exchange for power for himself and prosperity for his village. As a result, he was born alive – but without most of the things that are required for survival. His father orders him to be destroyed, but the old woman put in charge of this abandons him instead. Instead of passing away within hours as one might expect, Hyakkimaru grows up to become a fierce warrior with multiple prosthetic parts, whose goal is to track down all the demons holding his body hostage and defeat them. How he survived to that point is an open question.
4. Team Rocket Blasted Off Far Too Often In ‘Pokémon’
How many times have Jessie and James been electrocuted, set on fire, or launched hundreds of feet into the air before landing into a body of water or neck first onto the ground? While this is technically slapstick violence that isn’t meant to be taken seriously, it’s still quite a lot of physical trauma to endure. Being burned to the point where your entire body is charred is not survivable without major medical intervention, and neither is landing on your neck after being shot into the air. The first time that Team Rocket ‘blasted off’ should have been the last.
5. Pell Appeared To Sacrifice His Life In ‘One Piece’
In the world of One Piece, characters often survive the unsurvivable. There are so many examples that you could probably have a whole list dedicated solely to One Piece alone, but for now let’s focus on Pell, a Royal Soldier of Alabasta. In order to save Alabasta from destruction, Pell grabs a gigantic bomb in his talons and flies so far into the stratosphere that the city is unharmed by the explosion. The same presumably can’t be said for Pell himself – everyone who sees him assumes that he heroically sacrificed his life.
But somehow, Pell survives the blast, and returns to Alabasta to bear witness to his own grave.
6. A Fire Isn’t The Only Thing Shishio Makoto Survived In ‘Rurouni Kenshin’
When you’re a truly awesome villain, you’re not phased by little things like the normal physical limitations of having a human body. Makoto Shishio was doused in oil and then set on fire, an event that left him injured but still, incredibly, alive. This isn’t the only grievous injury he’s survived, however. Shishio has also survived being shot in the head, having his head cleaved in half, and more. All of this suffering has only made him more dangerous, and more bloodthirsty.
7. Nezuko Kamado Of ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’ Survived A Demon Attack
Aside from her brother Tanjirou, who was out selling coal at the time, Nezuko Kamado is the sole survivor of a demon massacre. Though Nezuko is older and therefore slightly more physically capable than most of her siblings, she possesses no particular training or abilities that could have reasonably helped her survive the onslaught. Because she was transformed into a demon, it’s clear that she was actually attacked – she didn’t manage to survive by running away. It’s nothing short of a miracle that she survived an onslaught that took the lives of her whole family.
8. Chise Hatori Survived Two Curses In ‘The Ancient Magus’ Bride’
Chise Hatori has been through a truly exceptional level of hardship. Thanks to her status as a sleigh beggy – a person with high levels of magical prowess whose body is severely weakened because it can’t actually process that magic. Not only that, but she’s constantly attracting magical creatures, some of them malevolent, and being attacked by them. Because of the stress caused by her status, her mother once attempted to take her life – and she came close to taking her own before being purchased by Elias Ainsworth, a mage who promises to teach her to use her magic more effectively.
But the onslaughts from dangerous creatures continues, and at one point Chise ends up taking on a dragon’s curse that destroys her arm and will take her life unless it’s broken. How does she resolve it? By taking on yet another curse, this one from an enemy who has repeatedly tried to destroy her, that will grant her immortality. The fact that Chise has survived for more than five minutes is, frankly, astounding.
9. Goku Of ‘Dragon Ball Z’ Is Practically Immortal
Goku didn’t gain a reputation as one of the strongest anime characters in history for no reason. He’s been blasted straight through the torso with beams of energy, he’s escaped an exploding planet, endured a life-threatening heart virus, and more. Even if Goku’s life does end – which it did! – he can be brought back via Dragon Ball, and gets to hang around in the afterlife until that happens. Is Goku completely indestructible? No – but it’s going to take a hell of a lot to put even a scratch on him.