Anime is filled with cliche character archetypes. One of the biggest shown throughout many series is the childhood rival. Deku and Bakugo are great examples from My Hero Academia. Sometimes both characters “hate” each other but care deep down. Sometimes it is a one-sided dislike too. Deku looks up to Bakugo but Bakugo despises Deku for a good chunk of the series.
Another common archetype is the anime stalker. These are the characters that are obsessed with something. It could be played for comedic effect or it could be something more serious. The following examples will look at many varieties and there will be spoilers.
8 Unhinged Fan (Aggretsuko)
Aggretsuko is a lighthearted anime that not a lot of anime fans know about. It may look like a children’s show but it explores deep issues in adulthood such as being happy with your job and trying to find love. The third season finds the main character, Retsuko, joining a small underground pop band: OTMGirls. She eventually builds up a following and when one fan goes too far, he tries to stab her. This stalker doesn’t get an official name in the anime except for Unhinged Fan which is fitting for this guy’s general aura.
7 Jigglypuff (Pokemon)
There is a lot of stalker Pokemon in the anime but the OG example is Jigglypuff in the first season. Ash and the gang happen upon a New York City/New Vegas area wherein no one can sleep. They discover Jigglypuff and Misty tries to catch it, fails, and incurs its wrath. All Jigglypuff wants to do is travel the works and sing to people without them falling asleep. If they do, it’ll draw on their faces with a marker. Jigglypuff appears off and on throughout the early years of the anime. It’s a funny concept but creepy all the same.
6 Yuno (Future Diary)
Future Diary is a battle royale scenario wherein a dying god elects a handful of humans to compete to take his place. Each player has a cellphone that predicts the future differently. Yuki is the main character who reluctantly plays the game only because an obsessed girl, Yuno, kills people for him.
A big question in the series is why she is so obsessed with Yuki. It turns out that she fell in love in a different universe, lost her Yuki, and so she traveled to a new universe to get him back. Also, she kills herself in this new universe to take her place. If that doesn’t say creepy anime stalker than nothing does.
5 Yoshikage (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable)
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is the third series of the anime. It follows a new hero, Josuke, who lives in the seemingly innocent town of Morioh. Eventually, people start coming after him which leads Josuke and his new allies on the case to find out who’s behind a string of murders. A murderer is close enough to a stalker to count this. This season overall plays out like a murder mystery. The killer is eventually found, Yoshikage, who uses bombs to blow up his victims. The creepiest part about his murder spree is his love of female hands which he keeps as trophies.
4 Knives (Trigun)
Now is as good a time as any to talk about Trigun since a reboot series is coming in 2023. The original anime was about a group of colonizers crash landing on a desert planet after Knives, a child sabotages the ship. Eventually, society blossoms after the crash and recreates society in an Old West fashion. The main character, Vash, is trying to help society as best he can before his brother Knives can screw things up again. Knives appears off and on to make Vash’s life a living hell either in person or through another soldier. It’s like a game of cat and mouse except both brothers are trying to follow, or stalk, the other.
3 Sora (.hack//Sign)
There is nothing worse in an MMO than some random player coming up from behind and killing you. The anime of .hack//Sign follows that horror through a Twin Blade named Sora. The anime overall takes place in an MMO and it is more interested in exploring philosophical issues rather than presenting huge action set pieces.
Sora pops up to torment the main cast now and again, feeding little tidbits of information. Sometimes it seems like he is being friendly while other times he appears to create chaos through player killing. He is an unstoppable storm that does get his karma in the end.
2 Mitsuo Kubo (Persona 4 The Animation)
Mitsuo Kubo is a false lead in both the Persona 4 video game and anime. The plot of both revolves around a string of murders, just like the third series in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Eventually, players will figure out that a student may be behind all of this via Mitsuo Kubo. People around the school have reported him stalking others which sounds suspicious. They follow him into his dungeon, which is presented like an 8-Bit video game, only to find out he was just a pawn for the true villain of the plot. The real villain could be considered a stalker too but let’s not spoil that today.
1 Toga (My Hero Academia)
My Hero Academia has a few typical stalker archetypes in its series. The first one fans might consider is Stain. He is hunting heroes who he doesn’t think deserve their jobs. That would be a great choice but the better one, who is still around being creepy as heck, is Toga. This seemingly innocent school girl is obsessed with both Deku and Uraraka. She steals Uraraka’s blood and transforms into her, hoping to get close to Deku. That’s only one of her wild schemes but this fan girl goes to some dark places in the anime.