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Whether some dads are more of The Simpsons and King of the Hill fans like my dad or fans of series like Dragon Ball, Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Cowboy Bebop like my father-in-law, so many dads out there have an appreciation for animation. And even if they don’t, they’re probably too busy with their fatherly duties and still deserve recognition. So what better way to celebrate Father’s Day than to pay homage to dads everywhere with a list of the Best Anime Dads?
While not all dads in anime are the greatest just as can unfortunately be the case in real life sometimes, there are plenty of dads in either the real and animated worlds who are absolute gems; Be they step-dads, adoptive dads, or grandparents, there are also those who are willing to step up to fill a fatherly role to those who need it most. Regardless of any actual biological connection, there’s one thing that all these dad’s have that no Kamehameha nor punch from Saitama can destroy: their absolute, unwavering love for their child(ren).
1) Loid Forger from Spy x Family
As the neighboring countries Ostania and Westalis quietly plot against each other, spy Twilight takes on the alias of psychiatrist Loid Forger in the Ostanian city of Berlint to conduct intel. His target: the politician Donovan Desmond. The problem is Donovan only rarely appears at his son’s school, Eden Academy. In order to get closer to his target, Loid enlists Yor Briar, an unmarried city hall clerk, and Anya, his newly adopted daughter, who he enrolls at Eden Academy, to act as a normal, happy family. Unbeknownst to the spy, Loid’s new family hides their own secrets — Yor is actually an assassin known as “Thorn Princess” and Anya is a telepath secretly able to read others’ minds.
Although Loid starts a family as a farce to further his mission, there’s no doubt that his love for his faux family grows to be true, especially when it comes to the care and nurture of his adoptive daughter, Anya. Parenthood may be a learning experience to the otherwise very experienced spy, but, like his professional work, he never fails to get the job done. Anya, being pretty precocious with her own set of abilities, may be a bit more to handle than a typical kid, but Loid nonetheless dotes upon the daughter he’s grown to love to the utmost as one of anime’s best and most lovable dads.
Spy x Family can be streamed on Hulu and Crunchyroll where available.
2) Rei and Kazuki from Buddy Daddies
As four-year-old Miri Unasaka searches for her father alone in Tokyo, she ends up at a large hotel following a man with a tasty-looking cake. Unfortunately, this lands her right in the midst of a Christmas Eve mafia boss assassination scheme by skilled assassins Kazuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa. Fortunately for Miri, Kazuki and Rei take it upon themselves to take her in and try to return Miri to her mother. Although the cold-hearted assassins mutually live together and try to avoid any emotional connections with anyone, they eventually find their hearts melting as they dote upon the little girl as stand-in father figures, even Miri taking to calling each of them “Papa”.
What’s better than one assassin parent? Two assassin parents! Although their jobs may be difficult, Kazuki and Rei find the one thing that rivals the challenges of their work: the challenges of being parents. It takes Rei a bit longer than Kazuki to warm up to Miri, but when he does, he takes to doting upon her just as much. Though the two struggle at first to try to create a normal childhood for their little girl amidst being assassins, they eventually find their footing and become a great dad team.
Buddy Daddies can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
The Elric brothers, in their endeavor to bring their mother back from the dead, ignored the ban on human transmutation and ended up paying a hefty price. While trespassing the taboo cost Edward an arm and a leg, Alphonse lost his entire body. With their bio-mechanical engineer neighbor and friend Winry able to fit Edward with advanced automail prosthetic limbs, Alphonse had his soul bound to an entire suit of armor in Edward’s attempt to save him. Determined to restore their bodies, they set out to find the Philosopher’s Stone, an item said to allow an alchemist to defy the traditional laws of Equivalent Exchange, and become caught in the middle of a conspiracy along the way.
When Edward becomes a State Alchemist for the military, working alongside him as an officer is one Maes Hughes. Reminding me of my own father, Maes Hughes is such a jovial, devoted family man, bragging about and offering to show photos of his beloved wife and child could practically be considered a sort of hobby of his. Hughes is a man who both shows an overwhelming love for his family as a father and a certain amicability and perseverance for his fellow man in a difficult line of work.
While the original Fullmetal Alchemist series isn’t widely available, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood can be streamed on Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Hulu where available.
4) Kun’s Father from Mirai
In their quaint, modern home in the city, Kun Oota has gotten used to being doted upon as the only child of his family consisting of him, his mother, his father, and the family dog, Yukko. When his parents bring home his new baby sister Mirai, four-year-old Kun finds difficulty in adjusting to this new way of life living with a new member of the family. With Mirai now the center of his parents’ attention, Kun lashes out with tantrums in order to try to be heard, his nagging landing on his parents’ seemingly deaf ears. But as Kun experiences a myriad of adventures meeting his family’s past, present, and future selves, he comes to realize what it means to be a big brother and be part of a family.
As Kun’s mother works outside the home as the main breadwinner, Kun’s father, an architect, is a domestic dad. As my own father has experienced in the past and as my brother-in-law is currently experiencing, though some may assume being a stay-at-home parent would be a walk in the park, it’s anything but (…except when they literally take their kids to the park). In fact, being a stay-at-home parent may as well be a full-time job in itself. But even with a lot of work being put in to the home and family, it definitely seems to be worth every ounce of effort. And whether it’s Kun’s father or my brother-in-law, they certainly give it their all.
5) Ryouji “Ranka” Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club
After accidentally wandering into the wrong place at the wrong time, Haruhi Fujioka ends up being slapped with a debt to the school’s Host Club and must pay it back by becoming a host. The problem? She’s a girl. But that doesn’t stop her from disguising herself as a boy in order to pay off her debt. With the boys assisting in keeping her secret, she becomes close friends with them and ends up truly enjoying her time at the Host Club.
You may be wondering why there’s a mom featured on a list of dads… Well, the answer is “how dare you, Ryouji ‘Ranka’ Fujioka is a great dad-mom to Haruhi”. You see, when Haruhi’s mother passed away, a certain void was left in their home. So, since her father already knew what it’s like to parent Haruhi, who better to step up to fill both parental roles? Ranka is a hardworking parent who doesn’t shy away from being genuine and always prioritizes Haruhi’s happiness and well-being — an absolute gem of a parent, whatever the preferred gender.
Ouran High School Host Club can be streamed on Hulu and Netflix.
6) Byakuya Ishigami from Dr. Stone
The year is 5738. The future, right? Not exactly. After a mysterious flash of green light turned the entirety of humanity on Earth to stone, Senku Ishigami, upon recovering from his own petrification, finds the new world plunged into the stone age. Upon discovering the cure to humanity’s petrification, he and his old friends, Taiju Oki and Yuzuriha Ogawa, also discover more questions than answers. What made humanity turn to stone? How is there a small society of people who were unaffected by the petrification yet are ignorant of what humanity’s progress once was? How can they go about reviving humanity while preventing disastrous consequences such as skewed idealization threatening the endeavor?
Brave astronaut. Certified genius. Devoted father. Byakuya Ishigami is one hell of an intelligent dad, absolutely dedicated to developing and nurturing Senku’s insatiable appetite for scientific knowledge and progress. The father and son may have been separated by several millennia, but, with Byakuya having had the foresight to both support and develop his son’s curiosity for knowledge and preserve the resources for Senku’s later use, even time couldn’t separate their mutual aptitude for scientific prowess. The result is one of the best, most loving anime dads of all time, whose care for and faith in his son reaches across millennia.
Dr. Stone can be streamed on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or Crunchyroll where available.
7) Tatsuo Kusakabe from My Neighbor Totoro
Tatsuo Kusakabe and his daughters Satsuki and Mei are on their way to move to a house in the countryside to live closer to the hospital where their mother receives treatment for her chronic illness. As they settle into their new home, an elderly lady takes it upon herself to help her new neighbors, telling the girls of the possibility of spirits living in the rural area, like soot sprites — small, black, fuzzy soot creatures that live in the cracks and crevasses of their home. One day, while out exploring in the yard, Mei finds a small, rabbit-like creature and chases it into the forest where she meets and befriends the giant, fluffy forest spirit, Totoro. Although she doesn’t believe Mei at first, Satsuki also eventually meets Totoro. With their new forest friend, the two girls find adventure as they settle into their new home.
Moving to a new home or worrying about a loved one in the hospital can be difficult on top of trying to care for one’s own kids, and having all three going on at the same time can be assumed to be extremely stressful. Some kids might be bored moving to the country, but Satsuki and Mei’s father manages to make it magical. Tatsuo Kusakabe not only keeps a cool head, but manages to care and provide for his ill wife and rambunctious daughters with a sense of optimism and whimsy as a truly iconic anime movie dad.
My Neighbor Totoro can be streamed on Max.
8) Luomen from The Apothecary Diaries
When Maomao, an apothecary’s daughter from the red-light district, gets kidnapped and sold to be a servant of the imperial palace, she’s thrust into a world of mysterious disturbances within bureaucratic disputes. Trying to hide her literacy and medicinal knowledge, when the emperor’s children begin falling gravely ill, she can’t help herself but to quietly solve the “curse” anonymously. When the beautiful eunuch Jinshi manages to single her out, she’s promoted to concubine Gyokuyou’s lady-in-waiting and poison taster. But as Maomao’s skills prove her indispensable, she begins facing risks that go beyond the hazards of tasting for poisons.
Kind and humble, Luomen, a eunuch apothecary of the red-light district, is Maomao’s adoptive father who taught her just about everything he knows. Though passive to the point of under or even forgoing charging for his services much to Maomao’s distress, his skills as a proficient physician who studied in the west are not to be overlooked. Luomen hadn’t just mentored Maomao in herbs, medicines, and poisons, but also other practical wisdom such as staying silent on half-baked conjectures until substantial evidence supports a hypothesis.
The Apothecary Diaries can be streamed on Netflix, Hulu, or Cruchyroll where available.
9) Sōjirō Izumi from Lucky Star
With lazy otaku Konata Izumi, twins Tsukasa and Kagami Hiiragi, and smart Miyuki Takara, the daily lives of these high school girls turn the mundane into fundane. Whether it’s musing on Japanese tradition, the intricacies of otaku culture, academics, or the correct way of preparing and eating various foods, the friends, through each of their own eccentricities, never have a dull moment. Or at least, when the moment is dull, they are sure to turn it into something memorable instead.
After her mother passed away, Konata’s father, Sōjirō Izumi, was left to raise her on his own. Even so, Sōjirō managed to both be a caring, providing parent and able to indulge in his hobbies. So, Sōjirō and my own late father-in-law had something in common: being an awesome otaku dad. Akin to how my husband picked up an interest in anime from his father, so too had Konata from Sōjirō. Supposedly, since he’d managed to live the dream of being a cool otaku parent and spouse, Sōjirō had even been dubbed “Awesome-kun” by fans.
Lucky Star can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
10) Spirit Albarn from Soul Eater
The Death Weapon Meister Academy in Death City, founded and headed by the Shinigami Lord Death, was created in order to fashion Death Scythes to fight against the evils of the world. But in order for these students who can transform into Demon Weapons to reach the ranks of full-fledged Death Scythes alongside their partner wielders, or meisters, they must work together to obtain and consume the souls of 99 evil beings and one witch’s soul. One such Demon Weapon, the Demon Scythe Soul Eater Evans, and his meister Maka Albarn work as a team to do just that. Alongside fellow novice weapon and meister teams, the students face many challenges ahead as they conduct missions to collect souls, protect the city, and become sounder in mind, body, and soul.
Reminding me a bit of my other brother-in-law, Maka’s father, Spirit Albarn, may be a bit misguided, but is truly a loving and devoted parent. Although Spirit tries to act cool and often provides comic relief, there’s more to him as an even more enigmatic character than meets the eye. He’s Lord Death’s Death Scythe, after all. Though his first-born, teenage daughter tends to feel a certain level of angst towards her goofy father, there’s no denying that Spirit takes both his job and his daughter’s well-being very seriously.
Soul Eater can be streamed on Hulu or Crunchyroll where available.
What parental figure in anime do you think deserves recognition? Let us know in the comments!
