Ah the bliss of being in school…blah, who am I kidding school was wack. While your experience in school may vary, we can all admit that it’s the people at school who help define our experience as students. It breaks down into 2 groups, friends and teachers.
Teachers are pretty much our 2nd parents due to us spending so much of our day with them. Some teachers are horrible with the amount of work we get from them on top of having bad personalities. However, sometimes we strike gold and find a teacher we can vibe and connect with.
In this article, we picked 15 anime characters who have held the title of a teacher or hold a teacher-like position. The world of anime lets us experience life with vast creativity, and from that many of the characters carry special attributes to their teaching careers.
- What is the appeal of teachers in anime?
- 1. Meisuke Nueno/Hell Teacher Nube
- 2. Eikichi Onizuka/Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)
- 3. Ms. Yoshinoya/Hidamari Sketch
- 4. Nozomu Itoshiki/Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
- 5. Sawako Yamanaka/K-ON!
- 6. Kazuichi Arai/Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You
- 7. Shota Aizawa/My Hero Academia
- 8. Hansuke Doi/Ninja Boy Rantaro
- 9. Koro-Sensei/Assassination Classroom
- 10. Komoe Tsukuyomi/A Certain Magical Index
- 11. Kakashi Hatake/Naruto
- 12. Master Roshi/Dragon Ball
- 13. Sakonji Urokodaki/Demon Slayer
- 14. Monkey D. Garp/One Piece
- 15. Satoru Gojo/Jujutsu Kaisen
- Summary
What is the appeal of teachers in anime?
Teachers are leaders of the new generation, and sometimes you wish for a leader who can guide you with more than school subjects, sometimes you’d want a teacher who can really change your life around. In anime, there are many teachers, and they all help change the lives of those around them one person at a time.
1. Meisuke Nueno/Hell Teacher Nube
Nube is a 25-year-old man with two jobs. First off, he’s a powerful exorcist who deals with the affairs between humans and youkai in his adopted home in Doumori. Second, and just as importantly, he’s the teacher of class 5-3 of Doumori Elementary, both guiding and protecting them from the spiritual encounters they face. Both jobs are equal and important to him in their own ways: he chooses to protect the innocent and punish the wicked, both human and youkai, focusing primarily on those still young and innocent enough to have the need for a guardian.
He is well versed in exorcism tools, but his main weapon is the “Oni no te,” a real oni that was sealed in Nube’s left arm (in the anime, his arm is possessed; in the manga, it’s completely merged).
2. Eikichi Onizuka/Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)
Eikichi Onizuka is the main protagonist of the Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) series. Together with his best friend, Ryuji Danma, they were once known as the Oni-Baku: Shonan’s strongest fighting duo. He decided to become a teacher after helping a troubled JK for good.
Onizuka is a very presumptuous and vulgar guy which often leads him into trouble. Although he is very hormonal when it comes to girls, he is still a virgin and seems to be unable to get a girlfriend. He likes sexy women to the point of even sexually tempting Nagisa Nagase (Ryuji Danma’s girlfriend) without caring that his friend was right behind him.
Despite all this, Onizuka can be very serious when the moment asks for it. To solve problems, he will surely take the weirdest and unexpected (and often the hardest) route, but also the most epic. Depending on your point of view, he could be considered a fool or a genius.
Onizuka teaches life lessons that even fans of the series apply to themselves.
3. Ms. Yoshinoya/Hidamari Sketch
Ms. Yoshinoya is Yuno’s and Miyako’s homeroom teacher and art instructor at the Yamabuki High School. She teaches art classes to the other students in the art department, including Hiro and Sae. Her eccentricity comes as a surprise to new students, including Nori.
She has an immense love of teaching and cares deeply about her students. She can become surprisingly serious when counselling her students about their futures and does her best to give advice that will help set them on the right path. She has expressed fears that she can be too harsh in doing so, but in reality, she is often quite perceptive.
Ms. Yoshinoya is often a klutz with how she dresses and carries herself. She can also be seen running away from the principal in fear despite her Princess complex.
4. Nozomu Itoshiki/Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
The main character and high school teacher, Nozomu Itoshiki is the embodiment of negative energy (his name is also a play on words for “despair”).
He is regularly an extremely negative and realistic person, going so far as to attempt to ruin his whole class’s dreams on a worksheet he designed on future jobs in one episode.
He also commonly and openly suggests death (An example being him giving Matoi and her Ex-Boyfriend a briefcase full of poisons and nooses and quoting it as “Suicide being the ultimate form of love.”) and committing suicide.
He has the tendency to attempt it himself for a number of bizarre recurring reasons, though he miraculously manages to survive every attempt; which is shown when he just comes back in the next episode/chapter. Other than that, he cares for his students and often hangs out with them like any other teacher, although being frequently confused by their methods and quirks.
5. Sawako Yamanaka/K-ON!
Sawako Yamanaka is the music teacher at Sakuragaoka High School and one of its alumni. During her high school career, she was a member of the Light Music Club and founded the rock band Death Devil with her friends Norimi Kawaguchi, Della and Jane, where she was a guitarist and also the main vocalist of the band.
Though she has a mature and gentle demeanour for the generality, Sawako (affectionately addressed as “Sawa-chan” or “Sawa-chan- the sensei” by both Ritsu Tainaka and Yui Hirasawa) displays a totally different, completely authentic character when she is alone with the light music club or really angered.
In reality, she is wild, lazy and quite an irresponsible teacher who enjoys dressing up the light music club in (sometimes embarrassing) cosplay costumes like French maid uniforms, much to the dislike of Mio Akiyama and Azusa Nakano.
6. Kazuichi Arai/Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You
The temporary homeroom teacher for Sawako’s class, took over when the previous homeroom teacher became sick during the summer holidays while Sawako was helping him. He is nicknamed Pin and always is called that way, except Sawako who obeys the formalities and still calls him Arai-sensei.
Pin is a great fan of baseball as well as the school baseball team’s coach. He used to be part of Kazehaya’s father’s league team, so he has known Shouta since when he was young. A loud and eccentric man prone to believing the silliest things, Pin apparently enjoys interrupting people.
7. Shota Aizawa/My Hero Academia
Shota Aizawa is the homeroom teacher of U.A. High School’s class 1-A. He is also known as the Erasure Hero: Erasure Head.
As a teacher with notoriously high expectations, Shota is known to expel students who he feels are not suited for U.A. High. However, it’s revealed that this high expulsion rate is only on paper and that he actually re-enrolls the students he expels: Shota does this so they can experience “death” once, giving them an experience that drives them to push even higher.
Despite his apathetic traits, Shota genuinely cares about his students and will go to great lengths to protect them as he saved Tsuyu Asui from Tomura Shigaraki, in spite of his grievous injuries.
8. Hansuke Doi/Ninja Boy Rantaro
The main classroom teacher for Rantarou and his classmates. The class causes him a lot of stomach aches and worry, and he often loses patience with his students due to their inability to pay attention or remember the theory he’s thought them. However, he’s very well-liked by his students, and he doesn’t take kindly to anyone else looking down on them.
Theoretically skilled with explosives and strategy, though in reality he often ends up taking down opponents using school supplies such as chalk, blackboard erasers or the attendance book instead of actual weapons.
9. Koro-Sensei/Assassination Classroom
Koro-sensei is a teacher for class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School and the main antihero of Assassination Classroom. He was responsible for carving out a large chunk of the moon to become a permanent crescent moon and plans to destroy the earth after teaching class 3-E for a year.
Koro-sensei deeply cared for his students’ emotional and physical well-being and would lose his temper whenever any of them were put in danger, even by one another. On the annual school trip to Kyoto, a few of his students were assaulted/kidnapped by a gang of high schoolers hidden in an alley. After searching the entire area painstakingly, he infiltrated the abandoned building where two of his students, Yukiko and Kaede, were being held and single-handedly beat up all of the high schoolers, scaring them away.
His name comes from Korosenai which means “cannot be killed” and sensei means “teacher”. Literally, his name means unkillable teacher.
10. Komoe Tsukuyomi/A Certain Magical Index
Komoe Tsukuyomi is the homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class 7 of A Certain High School.
She is a highly competent teacher, being a teacher of chemistry, an expert in pyrokinesis, as well as being knowledgeable in the area of the Power Curriculum Program, Personal Reality and Esper development. However, Komoe knows when to not pry into the affairs of others especially regarding her students if they choose not to talk it out with her even if it is her responsibility as a teacher and an adult.
Despite her childish and very short (135 cm) appearance, she is actually an adult and one of Toma’s teachers. This is proven by her apartment is littered with beer cans and cigarettes. She also contradicts her age by acting childish to her students and having a child-like crush on Toma.
This irony means that she is often regarded as one of the seven great mysteries of Academy City. She has a major interest in studying pyrokinesis and performs magic once when Index requires her to participate in a magical ritual to heal her wounds. The fact that she is able to do so indicates she has no esper abilities of her own.
11. Kakashi Hatake/Naruto
Kakashi Hatake is the leader of team seven consisting of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Kakashi is well known for creating the ninjutsu “Chidori”, a deadly technique that can pierce through one’s body.
As a leader, his focus was heavily on teamwork and not betraying your comrades. His lessons helped bridge the gap between his squad members and led to them being the first to pass his test. While he is super strong, his personality is a bit lacklustre at times. He can be seen reading Jiraiya’s Icha Icha Paradise, which is an erotic novel. He also can be seen lazing around too, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he’s some weak ninja.
Kakashi is 1 of 4 people in the naruto series to not be an Uchiha member, but have the ability to use a Sharingan. Kakashi was also one of 3 members outside of the Uchiha clan to use Perfect Susanoo.
12. Master Roshi/Dragon Ball
Master Roshi is one of the strongest teachers in the Dragon Ball series. He is also a perverted hermit and master of martial arts.
Despite his lecherous tendencies and his old age, Roshi is an extremely respected and capable warrior, serving as the master of Gohan, Ox-King, Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha. His drive to push his students to new heights and support them on their martial arts journeys makes him one of the most notable supporting characters in the series.
Roshi is over three hundred years old at the start of the series and provides various stories to explain his longevity. Roshi enjoys eating home-delivered pizza, which serves as a tongue-in-cheek joke because Roshi lives so far out into the ocean.
13. Sakonji Urokodaki/Demon Slayer
Sakonji Urokodaki is a retired member of the Demon Slayer Corps, having held the position of the previous Water Hashira. He is the main cultivator of the Water Breathing, having trained Giyu Tomioka, Tanjiro Kamado, Sabito and Makomo.
Sakonji at first appears to be a grumpy and stern old man. However, he’s revealed to be an extremely kind and passionate man, who cares deeply for others. During their training, he pushes the students really hard, as when he took Tanjiro under his wing, Urokodaki made the latter’s training increasingly difficult and dangerous.
The main reason he pushes them so hard is so that they can become as strong as possible. He sees his students as nothing short of family, as shown when he said he didn’t want to send Tanjiro to the final selection because he didn’t want any more children to die, and also when he burst into tears and hugged Tanjiro after he came back from the final selection.
14. Monkey D. Garp/One Piece
Monkey D. Garp, literally if you took the term OP and old man, you’d get him as your result. Monkey D. Garp is a Marine vice admiral, who is the supporting character of One Piece. He is the father of the revolutionary leader Monkey D. Dragon, the paternal grandfather of Monkey D. Luffy, and the adoptive grandfather of the late Portgas D. Ace.
Garp is responsible for training Luffy and making him the hardened person he is today. Garp tossed Luffy into ravines, left him in jungles, and fought with him to make him tough and able to stand on his own as any great-grandfather would.
Garp resigned as a marine but kept his title and record to instruct new recruits of young Marines. He’s also one of the very very VERY few pirates that could go hand to hand with Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard.
15. Satoru Gojo/Jujutsu Kaisen
Satoru Gojo is the teacher of Yuji Itadori, Nobara Kugisaki, and Megumi Fushiguro. He is also known as the world’s strongest sorcerer.
Satoru is extremely nonchalant and playful as seen from his interactions with his students, close friends and colleagues. However, he is extremely cruel towards unsympathetic and evil sorcerers. he is disrespectful to Principal Gakuganji as well, showing he hates those who power trip.
During intense battles, Satoru is seen to occasionally fall into a frenzied battle-hungry state. His fight scenes have him executing those he deems evil in the most amazing of ways. He only kills those who deserve it, he never harms the innocent or engages in insult to injury.
Summary
Whether you’re looking for a teacher, a life mentor, or a cute sensei, there are plenty of teachers in the world of anime that can fit your needs. Teachers should do more than teach a school subject, they should be able to connect with their students on a personal level to help bring out the best in them.
Please try to find your favourite character from among many characters.
Be sure to keep checking back on our site for more great anime recommendations!