There’s something truly exciting about anime series that make it feel like their stories can literally do anything. Anime isn’t afraid to tackle any topic or genre and it’s resulted in an extremely wide variety of anime content that’s available. Anime can accentuate immense physical strength or deadly monsters, but there are also lots of series that highlight he importance of intelligence and put geniuses in the spotlight.
Anime often produces series that leans into a mentor and pupil relationship and there are ample opportunities for unconventional teachers to show up in series. Some of anime’s educators are legitimately inspirational, but there are also plenty that give their profession a bad name.
10 Danganronpa’s Monokuma Is An Unconventional Headmaster Who Forces Students To Participate In Death Games
Danganronpa is an especially eccentric series that mashes together a lot of disparate elements in a school setting to create quite the tense murder mystery. Danganronpa has been able to build a rich universe through both anime series and video games and the series’ giant robotic bear, Monokuma, has quickly become Danganronpa’s mascot.
Monokuma is the sinister Headmaster of Hope’s Peak Academy and seems to prioritize morbid social experiments and death games over a conventional lesson plan. Monokuma is shown teaching, but it’s unlikely any of his lessons actually help or prepare the students.
9 Franken Stein From Soul Eater Can’t Separate People From Experiments
Soul Eater dabbles in some fun and mystical concepts, but there are also some twisted individuals that act as a reminder of the darkness that’s still prevalent in this world. There are many geniuses that get driven to unhealthy places because of their commitment to their work, and Franken Stein is a tragic case of this.
Franken Stein has such respect for and interest in sciences and anatomy that he puts experimentation over common sense. His lessons to his students heavily revolve around misguided dissections and his sanity progressively slips as time goes on.
8 Ginpachi-Sensei Treats His Role With Disdain In Gintama
Gintama is such a glorious comedy anime series that’s able to break the fourth wall and deconstruct the medium like no other series. The show frequently resorts to short segments in which Gintoki adopts the alter ego, Ginpachi-Sensei, and answers questions regarding some of the series’ broader aspects or specific details.
Ginpachi-Sensei educates his class, but his responses are often sarcastic and exhausted. He’s more put out by his class than inspired to make them more intelligent. He’s also very quick to dismiss anyone that questions his weird ways.
7 Vellian Crowler Gives Education A Bad Name In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Tough love can sometimes be an effective teaching tool and it comes down to how extreme the methods of the teacher are and what the students are able to handle. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX presents a somewhat more mature version of the card battle anime serie,s and the bond between Vellian Crowler and his students is seriously regrettable.
Vellian is willing to put the lives of his pupils in jeopardy, Jaden Yuki in particular, as the ultimate form of education. A modified version of this approach could maybe work, but Vellian is more focused on the traumatic journey than the results.
6 Bleach’s Kisuke Urahara Doesn’t Care If His Students Get Corrupted
Bleach focuses on Ichigo’s development as a warrior and it’s an anime where characters are willing to go to particularly extreme lengths to acquire greater power. Kisuke Urahara has a notorious reputation since he’s a shinigami that’s been exiled, but he still takes on people as students, with Ichigo being a prime example.
Kisuke does genuinely want to make Ichigo stronger and attempts to teach him lessons, but he also puts the purity of his soul at risk and isn’t afraid to jeopardize Ichigo’s life if the end can justify the means. His methods seriously mess with his pupils’ heads.
5 Gakuho Asano Holds A Bitter Bias Against The Heroes In Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom’s main teacher, Koro-Sensei, seems like he’d be a poor teacher because of how he jeopardizes the lives of his students and the safety of the planet. However, Koro-Sensei legitimately teaches and strengthens his class and turns them into their best selves.
The opposite is true for Gakuho Asano, Kunugigaoka Junior High School’s Board Chairman and the principal of the Cram School, who consistently holds a grudge against Class 3-E. A true educator shouldn’t gatekeep their knowledge or discriminate against those that want to learn. He’s a disgrace to the profession and one of Assassination Classroom’s greatest obstacles.
4 Aikuro Mikisugi Utterly Fails To Take Control In Kill La Kill
Kill la Kill is a dazzling mix of anime tropes and Studio TRIGGER makes sure that every frame is a visual extravaganza. Many of Kill la Kill‘s most prominent characters like Ryuko and Satsuki are female, but there are still some interesting power dynamics in play when it comes to the male faculty.
Aikuro Mikisugi is Ryuko’s awkward homeroom teacher and it doesn’t seem like a single student benefits from his supposed teaching style. Aikuro’s tactic to invade personal boundaries and treat his students like chess pieces doesn’t work out well for anybody.
3 Souichi Nishimura Turns Educational Excellence Into A Deathwish In Baka And Test!
Baka and Test! is a wildly inventive anime that combines the stress of education with the pressures of a deadly battle. The anime is set in an exaggerated universe where a student’s performance in school and their test scores directly affect the kind of equipment and support they’ll have to survive.
A lower score means a more apathetic teacher and the worst of the worst is Souichi Nishimura, Baka and Test!‘s remedial teacher, who is also known as “The Demon.” Souichi is the worst of the worst and he’ll make sure that a remedial student never falls behind again.
2 Gaku Yashiro’s Lesson Plan Takes A Backseat To Serial Killings In Erased
Erased is quite a trip of an anime series that weaves an addictive murder mystery saga that also elegantly incorporates fantastical science fiction elements that feel natural to the strange story at hand. Erased looks at Satoru’s efforts to prevent tragic events in history from repeating themselves, but it makes himself a target when he enters the reach of Gaku Yashiro.
Gaku Yashiro is technically a competent teacher, but he educates young kids and uses their vulnerability and naivety to his advantage. Gaku’s teaching is more of a smokescreen to acquire his victims and carry on his evil acts.
1 Fullmetal Alchemist’s Izumi Curtis Doesn’t Care If Her Students Become Corpses In The Process
Izumi Curtis is definitely an aggressive teacher who could stand to consider her target audience a little more, but since she’s new to the profession it’s a little easier to forgive her intense attitude towards education.
Edward and Alphonse Elric study under Izumi for six grueling months and by the end of it they’re both legitimately better in both martial arts as well as alchemy. However, Izumi’s methods can use a little finesse. Izumi leaves Ed and Al stranded on an island for a month and she’s quick to turn to violence as a motivator for her lessons.
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