Anime fans love to discuss and debate the minutia of their favorite shows, and given how many incredible shows and characters there are, there's no limit to the number of spirited discussions that can be had. A popular topic is who is the strongest anime character of all time, but others may also be wondering which character is the fastest.

Shonen anime contains ninjas, aliens, pirates, assassins, superheroes, and other characters capable of incredible movements. The shows themselves are often vague about how these powers work, but some characters are inarguably faster than others. Some of the fastest shonen anime characters around do a great job of wowing fans with their immense speeds, which are breathtaking to witness firsthand.

Updated November 2, 2023 by Ritwik Mitra: Speed is something that can be hard to convey in any medium. Failing to show just how swift someone or something is can be quite unsatisfying. Thankfully, there are many iconic scenes where a sense of speed is palpable across movies, TV shows, video games...and anime. When speed is key, these beloved characters are ready to step up. What's more, their respective shows do a great job of showing their speed onscreen.

19 Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic X

It's only a given that a character known for reaching supersonic speeds would be the first thing people bring up when they talk about the fastest characters in anime. Sonic X is an underrated anime series that places this beloved hedgehog in the lead role, exploring the adventures he has with both old and new friends.

Sonic is obviously very fast and can reach extremely high speeds that will leave most people in the dust. In both anime and video games, his swiftness and agility are his strongest traits.

18 Enrico Pucci

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has absolutely exploded in popularity. While the series didn't receive an anime adaptation for a long time, David Production wowed everyone with its dazzling animation. They've slowly and surely adapted Araki's masterpiece, with Stone Ocean being their most recent adaptation.

The antagonist of this tale, Enrico Pucci, is a fascinating character whose Stand reaches new heights of power over time. Whitesnake is his initial Stand that switches to form C-moon after he merges with the green baby. Finally, after the new moon, his stand reaches its final evolution and becomes Made in Heaven. This lets him control the very flow of time itself, making him, by default, the fastest being in the universe.

17 Izuku Midoriya

My Hero Academia

Izuku Midoriya, also known as Deku, possesses immense speed and agility, particularly when he uses One For All. He can move at blinding speeds, allowing him to dodge attacks and close the distance between himself and his opponents with ease.

Additionally, he can use his newly acquired Quirk, Fa Jin, to store kinetic energy before unleashing it to enhance his speed even more. Combining this Quirk with One For All at its maximum power allows him to move so quickly that his movements appear as a blur to those who watch him. In later instances, it even lets him surpass All Might's speed as well.

16 Speed-o'-Sound Sonic

One-Punch Man

Speed-o'-Sound Sonic is a skilled ninja and a recurring character in One-Punch Man. He is incredibly fast and agile, able to move at speeds that are nearly impossible to follow with the naked eye.

Sonic is so fast that he can create afterimages of himself, making it difficult for opponents to discern his true location. However, this achievement is downplayed quite a bit after Saitama trumps his technique using his Serious Sideway Jumps. Still, that shouldn't take away from how impressive Sonic's speed is.

15 Might Guy

Naruto

Might Guy, Konoha's Noble Green Beast, is a master of taijutsu in Naruto. His physical abilities are beyond compare and allow him to move at speeds that even other skilled ninja cannot match.

On top of this, he can also use the Eight Gates technique, which allows him to temporarily increase his physical abilities to their absolute limits. When he activates the Eighth Gate in his fight against Madara, he becomes so fast that he can even bypass space-time itself, making it nearly impossible for opponents to react to his attacks.

14 Shinra Kusakabe

Fire Force

Shinra Kusakabe, the protagonist of Fire Force, uses his mastery over pyrokinesis (controlling fire with his mind) to move at lightning-quick speed in battle. He is the fastest character in Fire Force and uses this speed to make up for his lack of pure power.

Shinra's speed and agility, combined with his powerful pyrokinetic abilities, make him a formidable force on the battlefield and a crucial member of the Fire Force team. Fans can't wait to see how the powers of this promising character will develop further over time.

13 Ichigo Kurosaki

Bleach

A legendary shonen character in every way, Bleach's Ichigo Kurosaki learned Shunpo, a technique that allows its user to move faster than the human eye can follow. With each of the various transformations that Ichigo undergoes throughout the series, making him faster and more powerful, he's a true monster in battle.

Landing blows and dodging those of the opponent comes as second nature to him, and only the most powerful or foolish characters dare face off against him in a fight. Fans can't wait to see the full extent of his powers with his new dual-blade Shikai in the next cour of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.

12 Azusa

I've Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years...

Azusa is a Witch of the Highlands and rose to god-tier supernatural power through three centuries of slime-killing. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years... is full of powerful characters, but Azusa simply outclasses all of them when it comes to speed.

In addition to being immortal and possessing supernatural strength, agility, and durability, Azusa can use her witchcraft to grant herself invisibility, flight, and teleportation. She can be wherever she wants, more or less whenever she wants, and her host of other magical abilities ensure that she'll be able to accomplish her mission once she arrives.

11 Koro Sensei

Assassination Classroom

This bright yellow, smiley-faced squid alien has pledged to destroy Earth unless one of his teenage students can assassinate him. Koro Sensei is quite unlike any other shonen character. The homeroom teacher of Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High School is capable of speeds of at least Mach 20, traveling the world for lunch on a whim.

Combined with his immunity to poison and ability to regenerate, Koro Sensei is one of the most difficult shonen characters to kill, which makes his students' mission truly unfortunate.

10 Jojiro Takajo

Charlotte

A boarding school student may seem out of place in the company of aliens and superheroes, but Jojiro from Charlotte proves that he's more than deserving of his spot. Jojiro moves fast enough that time slows down, a sign that he is approaching the speed of light.

Given his incredible movements, his academic ability and leadership on the student council pale in comparison. Unfortunately, Jojiro's speed comes with a serious drawback: he can't control when or where he stops. This flaw in his power has led to considerable destruction as well as Jojiro almost dying on more than one occasion.

9 Saitama

One-Punch Man

The Caped Baldy himself, Saitama is the hero of One-Punch Man, a gag manga character running around a shonen world. Like other characters from gag manga, Saitama is grossly overpowered in every way. He's capable of performing completely over-the-top and unjustified feats, including moving at ridiculous speeds, letting him return to earth from the moon in just a second and a half.

The biggest limit of Saitama's ability is his unwillingness to actually push himself to discover the full potential of his powers. Of course, Saitama doesn't take anything seriously enough to worry about that kind of thing, which is part of the reason why people love One-Punch Man and why they can't wait to see what the new season has in store for them.

8 Minato Namikaze

Naruto

The Fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, Minato Namikaze, was known as the Yellow Flash for his unrivaled speed. The inventor of the Rasengan technique outclassed every other ninja in his village when it came to movement.

Capable of summoning Gamabunta and performing other incredible feats, Minato will always be known for his speed, first and foremost. He can cross the battlefield in an instant using his Body Flicker Technique, seeming to actually teleport, which would make his speed faster than the speed of light.

7 Goku

Dragon Ball

The further into Dragon Ball the viewer gets, the faster and more powerful Goku becomes. Even early on, he's capable of moving so quickly that he appears to disappear altogether, only trackable across the battlefield thanks to the explosions of concussive force that his punches and kicks leave in his wake.

Add to that his Instant Transmission ability, which allows him to teleport without needing to actually move, and Goku is easily one of the fastest shonen characters in existence. With a variety of Super Saiyan power levels to bolster his abilities, Goku is only likely to get faster.

6 Jotaro Kujo

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is full of oddball characters with wild powers known as Stands, but one of the strongest of all belongs to series protagonist Jotaro Kujo. Jotaro's Stand Star Platinum grants him the ability to punch at the speed of light.

In addition, Star Platinum allows Jotaro to stop time for several seconds. Time manipulation is itself a product of faster-than-light speeds, so there are at least two good arguments for Jotaro being one of the fastest shonen characters around. It's a good thing that Jotaro is as fast as he is, given the grief that his family goes through throughout the series.

5 Borsalino

One Piece

The fastest character in One Piece, Borsalino is the user of the Devil Fruit known as the Glint-Glint Fruit, allowing him to transform into light. As a result, Borsalino can, by definition, travel at light speed, allowing him to perform instantaneous shifts of position across the battlefield.

That speed in itself would make him nigh unstoppable, but he's also capable of creating beams of charged light that cause massive destruction and using his light powers to give his kicks explosive force. It's no wonder he became an Admiral of the Marines.

4 Whis

Dragon Ball

Whis is the Guide Angel Attendant of Beerus, God of Destruction, and anyone in the direct service of a god had better be bringing something special to the table. Whis, as it happens, is one of the most grossly overpowered shonen characters around, and his speed is just one manifestation of that.

Using Autonomous Ultra Instinct, Whis can travel at roughly 5 septillion times the speed of light, a power that by itself makes him absolutely godlike in comparison to almost any other shonen character. It's truly fortunate that despite working for a God of Destruction, Whis is one of the good guys in Dragon Ball.

3 Zeus

Record Of Ragnarok

Record of Ragnarok has plenty of overpowered characters, which is no surprise given that its cast is made up of actual gods. Zeus is referred to as the Chairman of the Gods, indicating his position of power and importance even relative to the divine beings around him. This title, it turns out, is well-deserved.

One of Zeus's techniques, The Fist that Surpassed Time, is imbued with the essence of his father, Kronos. As its name suggests, the Fist that Surpassed Time allows Zeus to move so fast that time itself bends to his well, seeming to stop time as he throws a punch with all the force his godly body can muster. Once one gets to the level of fighting gods, a little excess isn't surprising, and Zeus's potentially infinite speed is just one example.

2 Wolfgang Schreiber

Shinza Bansho

Another character with infinite speed, Wolfgang Schreiber from Shinza Bansho is somehow even more unfair. Thanks to his power Nilfheimr Fenriswolf, he is literally always faster than his opponent. It makes no difference how fast his opponent is, Wolfgang will automatically be fast enough to avoid their blows, a manifestation of his desire not to be touched.

Though abilities that stop time and invalidate speed altogether may be a workaround, Wolfgang will automatically win any conventional test of speed, regardless of his opponent. This ability may seem cheap, but the abilities of shonen characters aren't necessarily known for being fair and balanced. Wolfgang Schreiber is, by definition, one of the fastest shonen characters, if not the fastest of them all.

1 Anti-Spiral

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

When having complete control over an entire universe isn't a character's strongest ability, they're probably OP. The being known as Anti-Spiral is the manifested collective consciousness of the race of Anti-Spiral beings in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. When within its own universe, Anti-Spiral has infinite speed with few real qualifiers or restrictions.

Omnipresent in its own universe and unbound by time in general, Anti-Spiral is the definition of an unfair opponent when it comes to speed. It's easy to see why this shadowy monster was able to successfully serve as the series antagonist for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. In all of shonen anime, there's nothing quite like this villain.

MORE: BL Anime To Watch If You Love Sasaki And Miyano