A protagonist plays a huge part in deciding how good any story is. A lot of messages, feelings, and stories can be and is conveyed through the protagonist. Usually, a story wants us to relate to the protagonist so that we feel the story more so a lot of times the protagonist is an empathetic and an idealistic person.
But, a lot of anime don’t like this formula and decide to make a heartless protagonist for the sake of the story. I personally love an anime with a heartless protagonist when they get it right. You see there are 2 types of heartless protagonists, some do not possess emotions at all and some do have emotions but can completely suppress them when the time comes. I personally like the 2nd type more.
I will speak more about this in more detail as I lost out on my picks. Of course, these are my personal pick so feel free to tell me yours down in the comments. So without any further ado, let’s get started.
Death Note
Here’s an obvious one. Light isn’t originally heartless but he grows into the emotionless type as the story progresses. He becomes colder and colder as the story goes on. We all know what happens as the story goes on and what Light wants to achieve.
By the time the series enters the 2nd part, Light is willing to sacrifice just about anybody to protect his identity and save himself. He was somewhat heartless from the very beginning as he decided to commit mass homicide as a means of saving himself and achieve his goal of becoming a “god” but he becomes completely heartless towards the end.
MahoukaKokou no Rettosei
Another really obvious one. It may seem like Tatsuya is not heartless but, he is just good at acting normal. The only person he actually feels any attachment to is his sister of course. Tatsuya lost all of his emotion when he was experimented on the back when he was young. Sorry for the minor spoiler if you hadn’t figured that out already.
Tatsuya is an extremely rational person lacking any compassion whatsoever. He will only take the most efficient way to save/help his sister and only do something extra if his superiors in the military or his sister ask him to. Surprisingly enough though, he has no problem obeying orders from his superiors.
Darker Than Black
I don’t think I have mentioned this anime so far in any of the lists. I don’t think I have done any other lists in which this anime fits. Darker than Black is just so unique. The 2nd season was a bit divisive but it is a really good anime.
Hei is not heartless like he pretends to be. He acts like he is a cold-blooded killer incapable of feeling any emotion but, it is later revealed in the story that he fakes it all. This makes Darker than Black an even sadder and darker anime than it already is. Go check it out, guys. It may take some rewatches but it is a really good anime.
Hellsing Ultimate
Alucard is a crazy old vampire. So of course he is heartless right? Well not exactly. He does have emotions but he is someone who thoroughly enjoys fighting and killing. He likes to give his enemies a full chance to fight back before killing them so that he can enjoy the fight.
Hellsing Ultimate (not Hellsing) is a really good anime. If you like dark anime with a lot of fighting and blood, you will love Hellsing Ultimate. It has really cool animations and fights. Then there is Alucard himself with all of his crazy antics. The plot is somewhat simple so you should be able to enjoy it without much thought. It is just 10 episodes of 50-60 minutes.
Fate/Zero
I have said this a few times before and I will gladly say it again, EmiyaKiritsugu is one of my favorite anime characters. He is a very sensitive and idealistic person but this man is capable of shutting every single one of his emotions out to get his goal. He has a very noble goal but my man was naïve enough to believe that it was even possible to make his ideal into reality.
You see Kiritsugu is a broken man, revealing his true and insecure self to only a few people. He is so good at hiding his true personality that most people only look at him as nothing more than a cold-blooded killer. He goes all out in the Holy Grail war believing it will be the last war but that didn’t happen of course. Fate/Zero is really good. While the plot is not as complex as Fate/Stay Night, Urobuchi’s awesome character writing makes it really worthwhile.
Those were my picks for top 5 anime with a heatless MC. Let me know your picks down in the comments. As always stay tuned for more content and do not forget to check our awesome art section. With that being said, I will take my leave here. Seeya!!
