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“The strongest one” trope is one of the hardest tropes in anime, but it creates some of the best anime of the common era.
The strongest one refers to the trope where the story has a “strongest” character that gets close to winning but does not due to outside circumstances. This is usually the catalyst that motivates the main character or the reason the main character is needed in general.
According to a study that deep dives into this topic on Reddit, this character is normally an ancestor, predecessor or mentor to the main character, and follows a criterion to fit the title. The criteria are that they are not the protagonist, but much stronger than the main character, cannot lose a fair one-versus-one interaction and are sidelined in some way within the story.
The trope is often difficult to portray because this character makes the villain feel non-intimidating or requires something unrealistic to happen to the hero or villain.
Three anime that portray this trope very well are My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen.
My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is a shonen anime that first appeared July 7, 2014, and later received an anime adaptation in April 2016. The story follows the journey of the main protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, as he becomes the world’s greatest hero.
This trope is shown excellently through Toshinori Yagi, more commonly known as All Might. All Might is significantly stronger than everyone else at the start of the series and, in his prime, stronger than everyone up until the end of the series.
When he is on screen, every hero around knows that everything will be all right, and every villain goes running away. He is seen as the Symbol of Peace throughout the story and is the inspiration for the main character and a large majority of the supporting protagonists to become heroes.
The reason he is such a great example of this trope is that he has a believable reason not to solve every problem instantly. The other reason is that he doesn’t outshine the main protagonist.
The anime explains that All Might was injured in a past fight against the main villain, where he won. Due to this injury, he has a time limit on when he can be in his hero form. This is a believable reason because the story showed that the main villain is crazy strong. This also gave time for other characters to shine and gave actual stakes to the story.
This is the No. 1 reason why this works with My Hero Academia and why this is probably the best example of the strongest being within the story.
Demon slayer
Demon Slayer is another anime that does this trope well. Demon Slayer was first introduced Feb. 15, 2016, and received its anime adaptation in April 2019. This anime follows Tanjiro Kamado, the main character of the anime, as he tries to find a cure for his demon sister and put an end to the one responsible for turning her into a demon.
The difference between this and My Hero Academia is that the character isn’t actually in the story. The character in question is Yoriichi Tsugikuni. Yoriichi is the spiritual ancestor of Tanjiro; they are not related by blood, but their spirits are linked. Yoriichi fought the main villain of the series, Muzan Kibutsuji, about 500 years before the start of the series and badly wounded him before Muzan ran for his life. Yoriichi spent the rest of his life hunting Muzan, eventually meeting Tanjuro’s ancestor and passing on his teaching and fighting spirit. Sadly, or thankfully for those who love the show, he would succumb to old age before he could accomplish his goal.
This is a good example of the trope because the character died in the past, never lost a fight and weakened the main villain so that the protagonist had a chance at winning. He was the reason for the main character being needed, and he does not outshine the main character.
Jujutsu Kaisen
The final anime on this list is Jujutsu Kaisen. The Jujutsu Kaisen manga was released March 5, 2018, with its adaptation anime premiering Oct. 3, 2020. This story follows the story of high school student Yuji Itadori as he battles supernatural curses and is the only one of the three that I would say doesn’t portray the trope well. The strongest in question is Satoru.
Now, I’m not saying this anime is bad; I’m saying that the addition of Gojo adds nothing to the story, and when he is there, it takes away a large majority of the stakes in the story. Except that he is never actually there, and when he is, he doesn’t actually do anything. He basically one-shots the first villain, then does nothing impactful afterward.
He accomplished nothing major in his time in the story except teaching his students. That is specifically one of the hardest parts of the trope, however. When you have a character that is so overwhelmingly powerful compared to everyone else, it’s hard to put them in any fights. The problem with Gojo is that he is taken out of so many fights that he does not do anything in the story.
These three are not the only anime that carry this trope; they are just some of the most notable and talked about. They aren’t even the best to do it. But when the strongest one is done right, it makes some of the best manga or anime you can experience.
