Blood-drinking and bloodlust are common tropes within anime. Villains are made more threatening by their obsession with blood or their taste for it. Even besides the obvious suspects for blood-drinking — the vampires— there are plenty of anime characters who also consume blood. For many of them, it is not a nutrition-based behavior, but rather a behavior based on their powers or their villainous eccentricity.
Sometimes drinking blood powers a character’s special abilities and magical powers. Other times, their affinity for blood consumption is solely a product of their bloodlust. From quirk-wielding villains to blood-loving heroes, these non-vampiric characters are sanguivorous.
9 Toga Himiko’s Quirk Relies On Blood In My Hero Academia
Himiko Toga’s quirk allows her to take on someone else’s appearance. However, to do this the My Hero Academia character must consume the blood of whoever she wants to transform into. Toga must drink blood to use her powers, but she takes it further — she sees violence and the gathering of blood as a game.
Toga has a machine that can also gather and store blood. It feeds the blood to her when she needs it. Plus, she gets obsessed with some of her adversaries to the point of stalking them and coveting them.
8 Gatenmaru Is A Blood-Drinking Yokai From Inuyasha
There were plenty of monsters and villains in Inuyasha, many of which feasted on humans. Gatenmaru was a moth demon who paraded around as a human, even acting as bandit leader. He would drain the blood from his victims with his tongue and this was primarily for his nutrition.
While there were plenty of other yokai and demons in the Inuyasha universe, something about Gatenmaru felt particularly creepy to viewers — perhaps it is the idea of a bug-like monster draining humans of all their blood with its proboscis-like tongue.
7 The Demons Of Kimetsu No Yaiba Have Bloodlust
The demons of Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) are reliant on consuming humans and have a hankering for the smell of human blood, which was why Nezuko was tested with the smell of blood. On top of eating humans for the nutrition they get from their blood, demons from this universe use the nutrition to power their bodies and Demon Blood Arts.
Many demons can use their blood like magical weapons. Even Nezuko Kamado, who has not eaten human blood, has this ability. Blood is important to demons both for consumption and for power.
6 Boris Tepes Dracula Is A Descendant Of Dracula In Shaman King
Boris Tepes Dracula was not a true vampire in Shaman King, but desired to be one. So, he tried his best to pass as a vampire, and he would even get enraged if someone said he did not resemble a vampire (or someone else looked more vampiric than him). His Guardian Ghost was Blamuro, the Vampire Hunter.
Boris Tepes Dracula would also drain people of their blood as a method of killing them. Boris was supposedly a descendant of Dracula’s line, and he took this so seriously that he used his powers to try and make himself a true vampire.
5 Hidan’s Jutsu Is Also Tied To Blood In Naruto: Shippuden
Hidan was a particularly tough Akatsuki member to face and he even led to the death of one of the Hidden Leaf’s most famous and respected Jonin. His preferred jutsu allowed him to inflict any wound he got on his opponents. The catch was that he had to ingest their blood, make the symbol of Jashin in blood, and stand within that circle while the damage was dealt.
Because of this, Hidan had a unique kind of blood lust. In the end, he was bested when he was tricked into drinking a different person’s blood, leaving his opponent open to neutralize him.
4 Arystar Krory III Is An Exorcist With Blood Powers In D. Gray-Man
Arystar Krory III from D. Gray-Man was one of the most vampiric non-vampires — he looked like a vampire, hailed from Romania, and had fangs. However, those fangs were due to his Innocence. He also drank blood, but that was almost exclusively Akuma blood. The only “human” he had a hankering for was an Akuma in disguise.
D. Gray-Man’s Krory was so vampire-like that everyone around him thought he was a vampire, but he constantly denied this fact. In the end, he became an exorcist and was not killed for suspected vampirism.
3 Dragon Ball Z’s Frieza Has Been Known to Drink Blood For Fear Factor
Frieza was one of Dragon Ball Z’s most iconic villains. He was also one of the toughest — he had an army and he had a lot of power on his own. Frieza gave Goku and his compatriots a run for their money. He also had a strong blood lust and was even known to consume whatever blood was spattered on him in battle.
Unlike a lot of other anime characters, Freiza gained nothing from blood consumption. Rather, it was simply due to his desire to fight and kill, which is not an uncommon theme, especially for anime villains.
2 Stain Also Has Blood-Reliant Quirk In My Hero Academia
Stain (Chizome Akaguro) was the infamous “hero killer” who hated Pro Heroes for their hypocrisy. Like Himiko Toga, he is a villain from the My Hero Academia universe who needs blood to activate his quirk, Bloodcurdle. If he consumed someone else’s blood, he could paralyze them.
This is why Stain was able to kill so many heroes who were unable to use their quirks or even defend themselves if caught alone. In the end, Stain was captured, but not before wreaking havoc on the hero world and killing a record number of heroes.
1 Orochimaru & Some Of His Followers Also Have A Blood Obsession In Naruto
Naruto’s Orochimaru is infamous for his long, snake-like tongue and his penchant for stealing the bodies of young shinobi to prolong his own life. He experimented on many — and many of those who worked under him took on the same oddities. Orochimaru was guilty of biting Sasuke Uchiha on the neck vampire-style.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru’s former subordinates could be caught doing all kinds of weird things as a result of their bloodlust. Anko Mitarashi even licked the blood off Naruto Uzumaki’s face at one point.
About The Author