11 Worst Anime Dads of All Time

This is a fun one to discuss, so let’s take a look at the worst anime dads of all time. Why are horrible dads such a recurring theme in anime, it’s hilarious. I’ve compiled a list of my personal worst anime dads of all time. Strap yourself in while we scrutinize the ones who went for a pack of smokes and never returned, or even worse. This list is in order of the least horrible to the most horrible, so yea, the order of the list matters.

11. Son Goku

While Goku isn’t exactly the worst anime dad of all time, he’s got his priorities all messed up. Humans from our reality are always picking on the man for his parenting practices. He leaves for literally years at a time to go train his body without so much as a hug or goodbye.

Goku has one thing to lean on that makes his behavior more acceptable. He’s an actual alien, and let’s not forget that. Saiyans are a warrior race, as Vegeta likes to repeat many times throughout the series. They don’t have time to be dads, and Goku’s no different, even after being dropped on his head as a baby. He still has that strong desire to get stronger, and he can’t do that if he’s changing diapers and taking them out on fishing trips. That’s how his mind works.

But could he squeeze in some deep sea fishing trips and stargazing sessions between his heroic ventures and muscle training, yes. That’s the reason why he makes the worst anime dads of all time list.

When he does parent, he parents. I recall multiple times of Goku telling Gohan that he was proud of him and giving him the dad shoulder squeeze. It’s too bad that Gohan couldn’t keep living up to our standards, but that’s a post for another day.

The time that he spent with Gohan in the hyperbolic time chamber really showed us how great of a parent Goku can be, if placed in the same vicinity as one of his children for a decently long period of time. He was quelling Gohan’s anxieties, training him, and doing all the right things.

I still love the guy but just think that Goku is just slightly selfish and that’s what it comes down to.

10. Monkey D Dragon

Dragon is among the worst anime dads of all time, albeit he’s definitely not up there with the very worst of them. But I think it says quite a bit when in the anime Luffy said “I have a dad?, I’ve never seen him before”. Luffy didn’t even know he had a dad (LOL). That’s different from Ging or Goku in the sense that they just had a dad who wasn’t around much.

Honestly, that could also be because Luffy’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. Maybe he isn’t aware that yes, in fact, everyone is required to have a biological father.

Dragon dipped before Luffy could even speak, in order to accomplish his mission of overthrowing the world government. His mission is extremely noble, so he has that going for him. If his goal was world domination or something like that, he’d be moving up a couple spots in the worst anime dads of all time list. It’s funny though, he had no time to be a father for Luffy, but saw fit to be somewhat of a father figure to Luffy’s brother, Sabo.

Dragon’s lucky that Luffy found father figures in other people. Aside from Garp and Shanks, Dadan is pretty much a father herself.

9. Yasopp

The worst thing about Usopp’s father, Yassop, is that he wasn’t there when Usopp really needed him the most. He didn’t even come back to see Usopp’s mother before she died from her sickness (that we know of). Subsequently, Usopp would run around his village daily, yelling that pirates were here, wishing his own lies were true and that his dad had actually returned.

Yasopp’s reasoning for leaving in the first place is shaky at best. Yeah, good on him for wanting to follow his dreams and be a cool pirate. But his leave of absence is even longer than Goku’s. At least Goku comes back sometimes.

Usopp is the type of person who needs a dad, not that Yasopp would’ve known that since he wasn’t ever there. He’s also strong in his own way though and one day will have climbed up to be even a greater pirate than Yasopp.

8. Isshin Kurosaki

Ichigo’s dad is actually isn’t as bad as I initially thought when I really sat down and thought about it. At least he was there for Ichigo and acted as a real father figure. But the amount of information that he withheld from Ichigo for the longest time is what gets me. He just sat by and watched all of these things happen to Ichigo without even trying to intervene. It’s like your kid is going through puberty but you don’t tell them about tampons or shaving.

I remember while watching Bleach there were so many times when I was just thinking of Ishhin as a horrible dad because he wouldn’t just tell Ichigo the truth about himself and everything.

7. Charles zi Britannia

In a way, Charles is a good dad. But he is mostly a really bad dad. He’s a complex guy, he seems to love his kids and wants them to succeed, but he is extremely abusive towards them. His expectations are ridiculously high and he’s a super controlling and unfair parent. He has anger issues and is controlling, everything always has to go his way in regards to his children and everything else in life. Otherwise, he’ll resort to cruel methods to get what he wants. There really is nothing good about Charles zi Britannia; except his yo-yo skills.

Nunnally is flat out traumatized by her father’s parenting style. Lelouch went the other way and is rebellious and wants to tear his father off the throne. You gotta love Lelouch.

6. Endeavor

Besides being a horrendous father, Endeavor abused his own wife and is a bad human being all around. Today we’ll only be talking about why Endeavor is one of the worst anime dads of all time. He’s a very bad father, and the worst thing is that karma hasn’t caught up with the man yet. He hasn’t faced very many consequences for his actions other than very well deserved resentment from the ones he has hurt.

He’s desperate for one of his children to surpass All Might to a point where he puts immense amounts of strain and pressure on them. His eldest son died after putting himself in great amounts of danger due to the way Endeavor treated him. Endeavor’s beliefs go way past cringe worthy, and are damnable as heck. His son dying STILL didn’t change his ways, and now all of the pressure goes Shoto.

When Todoroki’s quirk started to burn him of course Endeavor didn’t give a crap about that either. I just don’t like the guy! I’m also not a fan of the BNHA anime at all, Deku specifically. Onto the next horrid anime father.

5. Ging Freeccs

He’s not cool. The anime tries to make him cool, mysterious, and likable. I’m like NAH, JUST SEE YOUR DANG KID. He’s literally searching across the entire planet for you and you’re treating it like a game of cat and mouse. It’s bad to the point where it’s actually pretty funny.

Like, I get that you want your son to learn lessons, get stronger, and learn the harsh ways of the world, but he’s 12. C’mon Ging, get your act together. Even the other characters in the show agree with me, when Leorio socked him in the face I was so satisfied. Even when Gon was right next to him, he still didn’t make an attempt to see him.

He didn’t even seem phased after Gon’s life was hanging on by a thread and his body was in a state that even Killua had a hard time looking at. There aren’t any circumstances that we know of that are keeping Ging away from Gon, so why are you just allowing yourself to make this list of the worst anime dads?

4. Gambino

If you’ve read Berserk, you’ll know exactly why Gambino ranks high on my list of the worst anime dads. The things (one in particular) that he put young Guts through are some of the worst things that anyone might have to experience.

He raised Guts, taught him how to fight, fed him, and Guts actually looked up to him for a long time. But Gambino never really cared for Guts at all since he sold his booty to Donovan for a few silver coins one night. Guts found out about this later and killed him in a battle and it was a good old time. After he lost his leg, Gambino lost his ability to father. He became a depressed, bitter old man who no longer deserved to be the father of Guts.

3. Judge Vinsmoke

Judge from One Piece is one of the most hate-able dads in anime. There are no redeeming qualities about this man, and he doesn’t deserve any forgiveness no matter how much he “changes” in the future.

How could someone look at that cute young Sanji in the face (with his metal helmet on no less) and call him useless and a failure of a human? To Judge, Sanji was literally just a failed science experiment. The only reason for him having children was to experiment with them and turn them into human weapons. It worked for all of them except Sanji, and the cringe old man wasn’t happy about that. He completely disregards human emotions and is a complete sociopath and psychopath.

He deserves spot three on the worst anime dads of all time because of his prolonged physical and mental torture of Sanji while showing no signs or empathy or sympathy whatsoever. He locked the kid in a freaking jail cell for six months and only removed his heavy metal helmet during meal times. He treated Sanji worse than rats, and as if he was absolute scum. So yeah, Judge is an absolute scumbag and deserves the worst.

2. Shou Tucker

Remember Shou Tucker from Full Metal Alchemist? The guy who fused his own daughter with a dog and created a terrifying looking thing. I was like sixteen when I saw this and it was freakin’ disturbing! What kind of dad could do this? A really bad one, I guess.

One of the sickest things about Shou is how he pretends to be a caring and doting father, it gives you the heebie jeebies. The way he speaks calmly and manipulates his daughter Nina is chilling. He’s one of those scientific types who looks at everything, even humans, as tools for his research. Empathy is a foreign concept to him, all of these things easily make Shou Tucker one of the worst anime dads of all time.

1. Yoshihisa Kira

When thinking of the worst anime dads of all time, this man definitely comes to mind. But you wouldn’t have heard of him if you hadn’t seen the anime, Btooom!. It’s a bit of an underrated anime in my opinion, it’s like hunger games. Think a bunch of different types of people released onto a remote island that have to do whatever it takes to survive.

Well, one of the people in Btooom! happens to be a father, and a very disgusting one at that. He straight up despises his son (who is also in the Btoooom! game). Kira would mentally and sexually abuse his son all of the time back at home. To sexually abuse your own child takes some kind of malfunctioning brain that I could never comprehend. That’s why this piece of dirt ranks number one on the list of worst anime dads of all time.

That’s it for today, I hope you guys liked the article and if you have anything to say then comment below, alright.

-Cross