It goes without saying that some of the funniest and most endearing anime characters can also be the most annoying. This isn’t because they’re the kind of villains viewers love to hate, but because they’re mischievous tricksters who are always up to no good.
Whether it’s because jokes are just in their nature or something else drives them, these characters’ definition of a good time can be fun at best and mildly insufferable at worst. Either way, none of these jokers mean any harm or ill.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
10 Lucky Star — Konata Izumi Enjoys Messing With Her Friends
Konata stands out in her friend group not just because she’s an otaku but because she’s the group’s biggest troll. Whenever she has the chance, Konata irritates the usually composed and serious Kagami just to see how she would react. Despite her best efforts, Kagami always falls for Konata’s shenanigans and makes herself look silly.
Kagami isn’t the only one subjected to this, as Konata also messes with Tsukasa and Miyuki, but to a lesser degree. That being said, Konata and Kagami really are friends, even if Kagami often gets annoyed at Konata’s mere presence. Lucky Star not-too subtly hinted that there could be more to this friendship, and fans ran with it.
9 Asobi Asobase — Hanako Honda Accounts For Most Of The Pastimers’ Club’s Wacky Escapades
To be fair, everyone in the underrated Asobi Asobase was up to no good. That being said, Hanako was undoubtedly the main trio’s top offender. Whenever Hanako had the chance to mess with Olivia and/or Kasumi, she struck as quickly as she could. Problem is, almost all of Hanako’s pranks and tricks backfired horribly.
Take her high-stakes board game, for example. Each square had an embarrassing dare, and Hanako was forced to subject herself to some of her own most humiliating punishments. Whenever the Pastimers’ Club (a club dedicated to doing nothing) found itself in another wacky escapade, it was either Hanako’s fault or her idea in the first place.
8 Aho Girl — Yoshiko Hanabatake Is Bumbling Beyond Belief
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Yoshiko is one of (if not) the dumbest girls in anime history. While she may look like a hyperactive but otherwise normal teenage girl, Yoshiko is incredibly dense. The only things Yoshiko has in mind are bananas and her childhood friend A-kun, who she has a massive crush on and wants to marry in the future.
Yoshiko is always up to some mischief, which usually boils down to throwing herself at A-kun or bananas. Though he does care for her, A-kun is still annoyed by Yoshiko’s mere existence and wishes she’d grow up already. Unfortunately for him, the two are practically inseparable and Yoshiko’s affection for A-kun isn’t decreasing any time soon.
7 Teasing Master Takagi-San — Takagi Flirts Through Teasing
Nishikata and Takagi are best friends, but they have an odd dynamic. Takagi relentlessly teases Nishikata about anything she could think of, and he constantly fails to pay her back in kind. The reason Takagi does this is because this is the best way she can communicate her affection for Nishikata – something that is obvious to everyone but him.
Nishikata, meanwhile, denies his feelings for Takagi, which only gives her more ammunition. While Nishikata knows that Takagi always has some new joke ready, he always fails to counter them. Whenever the two hang out in the hit romantic anime Teasing Master Takagi-San, Nishikata always falls for Takagi’s hijinks, much to the latter’s amusement.
6 A Certain Scientific Railgun — Shirai Kuroko Has An Aggressive Way Of Showing Affection
As a member of Judgment, Kuroko is a dedicated peacekeeper. Outside of her part-time job, though, Kuroko is both Mikoto Misaka’s closest friend and most annoying love interest. Kuroko’s crush on the Level 5 Esper borders on obsession, and she was always plotting ways to get some alone time with Mikoto – whether the latter wanted it or not.
Kuroko’s way of flirting was very brash and forward, and she would throw herself at Mikoto whenever the opportune moment arose. Some of Kuroko’s schemes included setting up a surprise dinner date for Mikoto in their dorm room or spiking her thermos with aphrodisiacs. Mikoto always retaliated with electric force, sometimes to Kuroko’s delight.
5 Sayonara, Zetsubo Sensei — Kafuka Fuura Always Ruins Her Teacher’s Plans
In brief, the melancholic teacher Nozomu Itoshiki really, really wants to die (or so he claims). In every episode of Sayonara, Zetsubo Sensei, he tries to take his own life whenever things go slightly awry. But in every suicide attempt, his annoyingly optimistic and boundlessly happy student Kafuka was there to save his life – much to his chagrin (or relief).
Kafuka was always happy but, as far as the pessimistic Nozomu was concerned, she was up to no good. However, Kafuka had a dark side, as her seemingly cheerful actions oftentimes almost killed Nozomu and his class. The anime never really clarified if Kafuka was malicious or not, but it was obvious that her bubbliness hid an inner darkness.
4 The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya — Haruhi Always Has A Wacky Plan
Upon making it to high school, Haruhi was determined to live out the best school life memories that she could. To this end, she conscripted her classmate Kyon and others into The SOS Brigade: an org made specifically to make her impulsive ideas a reality. Failure to satisfy Haruhi would lead to the end of the world and reality itself.
Because her bad moods could literally end the world, the brigade indulged Haruhi’s increasingly annoying and selfish wishes. But even without the fate of reality at stake, things always got crazy whenever Haruhi barged into the SOS Brigade’s headquarters with another off-the-wall idea, as she didn’t need her subconscious godhood to be eccentric and excitable.
3 My Hero Academia — Gentle Criminal & La Brava Will Do Everything For Online Infamy
The supervillains of My Hero Academia are mostly dangerous delinquents and superpowered terrorists, which is what makes Gentle Criminal and La Brava stand out. Instead of achieving grand goals like ending world peace or throwing Japan into anarchy, this outlaw duo’s only motive was to become famous online.
Gentle Criminal and La Brava were basically Silver Age supervillains, or petty criminals with colorful gimmicks. Though the two were villains, Gentle Criminal and La Brava were known for committing relatively harmless crimes and broadcasting them online. Their most ambitious plot was to interrupt the UA school festival, but Izuku Midoriya stopped them.
2 Pokémon — The Team Rocket Trio Are Always Out To Capture Pikachu
After the bumbling Team Rocket agents Jesse and James (and their talking Pokémon, Meowth) lost to Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, they were convinced that the electric rat was the most powerful Pokémon they ever saw. Hoping to impress their boss, Giovanni, the three chased Ash and Pikachu for the better part of more than a thousand episodes.
The Team Rocket Trio showed up in nearly every episode with a new scheme to kidnap Pikachu and whichever new Pokémon also appeared. At every turn, the three comically failed and were blasted off into the sky just when they came close to victory. That being said, Jesse, James, and Meowth were really more annoying than evil.
1 Pop Team Epic — Popuku & Pipimi Are Anime’s Biggest Trolls
Based on their unmoving smirks alone, it’s obvious that Popuku and Pipimi always have something up their sleeves. Whether Popuku or Pipimi subjected the other to slapstick violence or they did the same to some poor stranger, the pair spent the entirety of Pop Team Epic making life hilariously difficult for everyone around them.
If Popuku was the more aggressive and short-tempered of the two, Pipimi was the more restrained one. However, this doesn’t mean that Pipimi was above trolling. More often than not, Pipimi either egged Popuku into exploding or she messed with her friend for the fun of it. Either way, nothing good ever came of the two joining forces.
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