Anime fans love to discuss and debate the minutia of their favorite shows, and given how many incredible shows and characters there are, there’s no limit to the number of spirited discussions that can be had. A popular topic is who is the strongest anime character of all time, but others may also be wondering which character is the fastest.
Shonen anime contains ninjas, aliens, pirates, assassins, superheroes, and other characters capable of incredible movements. The shows themselves are often vague about how these powers work, but some characters are inarguably faster than others. Here are some of the absolute fastest shonen anime characters.
Updated on October 7th, 2022, by Patrick Armstrong: The more one thinks about the fastest anime characters, the trickier the question of speed becomes. Should teleportation count? What about omnipresence? What about the ability to stop time altogether? It doesn’t help that every anime has a different power scale, making comparisons between characters from different series difficult, if not impossible. Those caveats aside, shonen series are full of characters who are indisputably fast, even if one can’t set up a foot race to settle the debate once and for all. From witches and aliens to literal gods, these are some of the quickest that the genre has ever seen.
13/13 Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)
A legendary shonen character in every way, Bleach‘s Ichigo Kurosaki learned Shunpo, a technique that allows its user to move faster than the human eye can follow. With each of the various transformations that Ichigo undergoes throughout the series, making him faster and more powerful, he’s a true monster in battle.
Landing blows and dodging those of the opponent comes as second nature to him, and only the most powerful or foolish characters dare face off against him in a fight.
12/13 Azusa (I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years…)
Azusa is a Witch of the Highlands and rose to god-tier supernatural power through three centuries of slime-killing. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years… is full of powerful characters, but Azusa simply outclasses all of them when it comes to speed.
In addition to being immortal and possessing supernatural strength, agility, and durability, Azusa can use her witchcraft to grant herself invisibility, flight, and teleportation. She can be wherever she wants, more or less whenever she wants, and her host of other magical abilities ensure that she’ll be able to accomplish her mission once she arrives.
11/13 Koro Sensei (Assassination Classroom)
A bright yellow, smiley-faced squid alien who has pledged to destroy earth unless one of his teenage students can assassinate him, Koro Sensei is quite unlike any other shonen character. The homeroom teacher of Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High School is capable of speeds of at least Mach 20, traveling the world for lunch on a whim.
Combined with his immunity to poison and ability to regenerate, Koro Sensei is one of the most difficult shonen characters to kill, which makes his students’ mission truly unfortunate.
10/13 Jojiro Takajo (Charlotte)
A boarding school student may seem out of place in the company of aliens and superheroes, but Jojiro from Charolotte proves that he’s more than deserving of his spot. Jojiro moves fast enough that time slows down, a sign that he is approaching the speed of light.
Given his incredible movements, his academic ability and leadership on the student council pale in comparison. Unfortunately, Jojiro’s speed comes with a serious drawback: he can’t control when or where he stops. This flaw in his power has led to considerable destruction as well as Jojiro almost dying on more than one occasion.
9/13 Saitama (One-Punch Man)
The Caped Baldy himself, Saitama is the hero of One-Punch Man, a gag manga character running around a shonen world. Like other characters from gag manga, Saitama is grossly overpowered in every way, capable of performing completely over-the-top and unjustified feats, including moving at ridiculous speeds, letting him return to earth from the moon in just a second and a half.
The biggest limit of Saitama’s ability is his unwillingness to actually push himself to discover the full potential of his powers. Of course, Saitama doesn’t take anything seriously enough to worry about that kind of thing.
8/13 Minato Namikaze (Naruto)
The Fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, Minato Namikaze, was known as the Yellow Flash for his unrivaled speed. The inventor of the Rasengan technique outclassed every other ninja in his village when it came to movement.
Capable of summoning Gamabunta and performing other incredible feats, Minato will always be known for his speed, first and foremost. He can cross the battlefield in an instant using his Body Flicker Technique, seeming to actually teleport, which would make his speed faster than the speed of light.
7/13 Goku (Dragon Ball)
The further into Dragon Ball the viewer gets, the faster and more powerful Goku becomes. Even early on, he’s capable of moving so quickly that he appears to disappear altogether, only trackable across the battlefield thanks to the explosions of concussive force that his punches and kicks leave in his wake.
Add to that his Instant Transmission ability, which allows him to teleport without needing to actually move, and Goku is easily one of the fastest shonen characters in existence. With a variety of Super Saiyan power levels to bolster his abilities, Goku is only likely to get faster.
6/13 Jotaro Kujo (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is full of oddball characters with wild powers known as Stands, but one of the strongest of all belongs to series protagonist Jotaro Kujo. Jotaro’s Stand Star Platinum grants him the ability to punch at the speed of light.
In addition, Star Platinum allows Jotaro to stop time for several seconds. Time manipulation is itself a product of faster-than-light speeds, so there are at least two good arguments for Jotaro being one of the fastest shonen characters around. It’s a good thing that Jotaro is as fast as he is, given the grief that his family goes through throughout the series.
5/13 Borsalino (One Piece)
The fastest character in One Piece, Borsalino is the user of the Devil Fruit known as the Glint-Glint Fruit, allowing him to transform into light. As a result, Borsalino can – by definition – travel at light speed, allowing him to perform instantaneous shifts of position across the battlefield.
That speed in itself would make him nigh unstoppable, but he’s also capable of creating beams of charged light that cause massive destruction and using his light powers to give his kicks explosive force. It’s no wonder he became an Admiral of the Marines.
4/13 Whis (Dragon Ball)
Whis is the Guide Angel Attendant of Beerus, God of Destruction, and anyone in the direct service of a god had better be bringing something special to the table. Whis, as it happens, is one of the most grossly overpowered shonen characters around, and his speed is just one manifestation of that.
Using Autonomous Ultra Instinct, Whis can travel at roughly 5 septillion times the speed of light, a power that by itself makes him absolutely godlike in comparison to almost any other shonen character. It’s truly fortunate that despite working for a God of Destruction, Whis is one of the good guys in Dragon Ball.
3/13 Zeus
Record of Ragnarok has plenty of overpowered characters, which is no surprise given that its cast is made up of actual gods. Zeus is referred to as the Chairman of the Gods, indicating his position of power and importance even relative to the divine beings around him. This title, it turns out, is well-deserved.
One of Zeus’s techniques, The Fist that Surpassed Time, is imbued with the essence of his father, Kronos. As its name suggests, the Fist that Surpassed Time allows Zeus to move so fast that time itself bends to his well, seeming to stop time as he throws a punch with all the force his godly body can muster. Once one gets to the level of fighting gods, a little excess isn’t surprising, and Zeus’s potentially infinite speed is just one example.
2/13 Wolfgang Schreiber
Another character with infinite speed, Wolfgang Schreiber from Shinza Bansho is somehow even more unfair. Thanks to his power Nilfheimr Fenriswolf, he is literally always faster than his opponent. It makes no difference how fast his opponent is, Wolfgang will automatically be fast enough to avoid their blows, a manifestation of his desire not to be touched.
Though abilities that stop time and invalidate speed altogether may be a workaround, Wolfgang will automatically win any conventional test of speed, regardless of his opponent. This ability may seem cheap, but the abilities of shonen characters aren’t necessarily known for being fair and balanced. Wolfgang Schreiber is, by definition, one of the fastest shonen characters, if not the fastest of them all.
1/13 Anti-Spiral
When having complete control over an entire universe isn’t a character’s strongest ability, they’re probably OP. The being known as Anti-Spiral is the manifested collective consciousness of the race of Anti-Spiral beings in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. When within its own universe, Anti-Spiral has infinite speed with few real qualifiers or restrictions.
Omnipresent in its own universe and unbound by time in general, Anti-Spiral is the definition of an unfair opponent when it comes to speed. It’s easy to see why this shadowy monster was able to successfully serve as the series antagonist for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. In all of shonen anime, there’s nothing quite like this villain.