Science is one of the most underrated abilities in anime. In many regards, it excels far beyond what physical training and even innate gifts can provide, though most characters aren’t proficient at using it. After all, superhuman powers require equally impressive knowledge.
For a select few, science has made them who they are. In some instances, they were even literally created from another person’s tireless research and experimentation. By identifying such individuals, it becomes easier to gauge the effect science has on their life and whether or not they have been maligned because of it.
10/10 Cindry Was Made Through A Combination Of Science & Devil Fruit
One Piece
Cindry is among One Piece‘s most tragic characters. In life, she was a popular actress who unfortunately attracted the obsessive Doctor Hogback. Shortly after a fatal accident, he seized her body and used Gecko Moria’s Devil Fruit to reanimate her.
With another person’s shadow forcibly stuffed into her body, Cindry has become a hollow shell of who she used to be. The aberration will make futile attempts to attack Hogback on occasion, though she’s designed never to take things too far.
9/10 Ryuko Was Ragyo’s “Failed” Experiment
Kill La Kill
Shortly after being born, Kill La Kill‘s Ryuko was used as a test subject in Ragyo’s experiment. The evil villainess tried to splice humans and life fibers into a single entity. Since the results didn’t take, she presumed to have failed and cast Ryuko away.
Many years later, Ragyo realized that her plan had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. At first, she managed to exploit Ryuko’s life-fiber condition and rage in order to make her a powerful minion. However, Ryuko’s humanity eventually won over, and she became a hero again before the final battle.
8/10 Koro Was Seryu’s Imperial Arms
Akame Ga Kill!
Koro was unlike any other imperial arms in Akame Ga Kill!. It had been scientifically modified into a living weapon and further enhanced through the augmentations of Doctor Stylish.
Although appearing as a benign and adorable puppy, Koro was capable of transforming itself into a savage beast that could rend flesh and bone alike with a single motion of its jaws. Ultimately, Koro and Seryu were responsible for killing Mine, which deprived Night Raid of its most talented sniper. Perhaps more importantly, Tatsumi lost his soulmate.
7/10 Kurogiri Was Once An Ordinary Person
My Hero Academia
Kurogiri suffers a more tortured existence than any other character in My Hero Academia. Although born and raised as a hero, All For One helped to transform him into the nomu he is today. Worse yet, his Quirk enabled the League’s escapes and ensured that no one could free him from his own morbid condition.
When detained in Tartarus, Present Mic and Aizawa both recognized Kurogiri as their former friend, Oboro. This further illustrates how Doctor Garaki’s science can malign a person’s body and spirit irrevocably toward the forces of evil.
6/10 Yui Was Artificial Intelligence Created In Aincrad
Sword Art Online
When Kayaba first designed Sword Art Online, he spared no expense. His AI were extremely sophisticated, as proven through Yui. She was an advanced program that took upon its own sentience and identity. Shortly after meeting Kirito and Asuna, Yui behaved as if they were her adoptive “parents.”
Her sense of loyalty would come in handy since she could access the game’s files much easier than either of them could. Yui remained a persistent ally when helping Kirito through subsequent adventures, such as Alfheim online.
5/10 Mad Pierrot Was Reborn Through Dark Experiments
Cowboy Bebop
Mad Pierrot was easily the strongest villain in Cowboy Bebop. Captured and experimented on by scientists, his body became augmented beyond mortal comprehension while his mind deteriorated into that of a child.
After murdering his abductors and escaping, Pierrot roamed the night in search of new victims. He made it a principle to kill anyone who crossed his path, which crystallized him as more of an urban legend than a definitive fugitive. Bulletproof and able to fly, he was the first opponent to make Spike run away.
4/10 Kabuto Was Nothing Before Meeting Orochimaru
Naruto
Having suffered from amnesia and lost his adoptive mother to Danzo, Kabuto didn’t have much of an identity. After meeting Orochimaru, he became transfixed with his research and rebranded himself through science.
Over time, Kabuto spliced his own genes with those of dead shinobi and used snake sage jutsu until he was unrecognizable to other Naruto characters. Science has addled Kabuto’s body so drastically that he resembles a serpent more than he does a human. If Kabuto regrets transforming himself into a horned monster, he has yet to say so.
3/10 Kariya Was The Leader Of Bounts
Bleach
Bleach‘s Bounts were experiments that escaped the Soul Society’s research and development department. Hunted as mistakes and aberrations, they initially had a good reason to revile the shinigami. Due to his strength and charisma, Kariya quickly became the Bounts’ leader.
He intended on a plan so extreme that it’d wipe out all the Soul Society, including innocent people as well as the shinigami themselves. This horrified Ichigo and even some of Kariya’s own men, which gave them no other choice but to violently put him down.
2/10 The Major Created A Robotic Replacement For Himself
Hellsing
The Major was a nazi and the main antagonist in Hellsing. Realizing the Axis’ doom near the end of World War II, he created a robotic replica of himself before dying.
Resembling him in every way, this replica led the Millennium Organization’s forces when wreaking havoc across all of London. Despite the many similarities it shared with the original Major, Integra Hellsing found only metal and wires when filling the construct full of bullets. Consequently, she couldn’t relish inflicting a fraction of the pain he’d unleashed on others.
1/10 Smiley Was Caesar Clown’s Secret Weapon
One Piece
Smiley was a colossal, sentient blob that Caesar Clown once prized as a pet. Virtually nothing could harm it, and those who touched its viscous surface risked being swallowed whole.
Only growing when exposed to Devil Fruits, Smiley proved the first real challenge that the Straw Hats faced in the New World. After being fed candies, its body erupted into a torrent of noxious gas that rapidly proliferated across the island. At that point, the fight to take Clown out became a race against time.