Anime contains some of the most powerful and impressive heroes in fiction – but few of them would have gotten anywhere without loyal teachers pushing them to improve. The guidance of such capable teachers has allowed iconic anime heroes to thrive and reach their full potential, even to the point of surpassing their mentors. These relationships have also created many memorable emotional moments.
Especially in anime, teaching goes beyond a purely academic setting. While some of anime’s most iconic teachers have come from entirely mundane and normal school settings, others have taught their students in more fantastical settings – often with survival on the line. Given the sheer number of popular action-oriented anime, fighting teachers are almost as common as schoolteachers.
10 Kaede & Inuyasha’s Team – Inuyasha
Kaede Is a Font of History Who’s Seen Way Too Much
An older woman during a time where life is often short and violent, Kaede serves as both a mentor figure to Inuyasha and his companion during the classic Historical Fantasy series. Kaede specifically guides Kagome in developing her spiritual powers and trains her as a shrine maiden. However, their affinity goes deeper than that, as Kagome is actually the reincarnation of Kaede’s older sister Kikyo.
Though kindly, Kaede has seen a lot of darkness, giving her particular gravitas as a teacher. Kaede also serves several important narrative functions, explaining much of the history of Inuyasha, Kikyo, Naraku, and the Shikon Jewel, as well as the time period in general, in addition to providing the enchanted necklace that allows Kagome to immobilize Inuyasha with a word.
9 Koro-sensei & Class 3-E – Assassination Classroom
Can You Grow to Respect Someone You’re Trying to Kill?
The grinning, octopus-like creature known to have blown up most of the Moon, Koro-sensei gives his students in Class 3-E a year to successfully assassinate him before he goes on to destroy the Earth. However, in addition to teaching the kids ways to try and take him out, Koro-sensei also acts as a normal teacher, offering knowledge and encouragement. Despite the series’ grim premise and darkly humorous tone, the relationship between Koro-sensei and his students creates an unexpectedly sincere emotional core to the series. As the students learn more about Koro-sensei’s history, the concept lends the series a growing sense of tragedy as the students come to care for their teacher despite the inevitable requirement to successfully assassinate him.
8 All Might & Deku – My Hero Academia
All Might Is the Reason Deku Even Has a Quirk
While Deku and the other students of Class 1-A are officially taught by Eraser Head, Deku’s relationship with All Might is way more crucial to his individual character arc. My Hero Academia would likely be more interesting if Deku never got a Quirk, but inheriting One For All from All Might creates a major student/teacher bond, especially after Deku trains with All Might to use it. Deku’s upgrade is one of the most consequential events in the entire series, as it upends the entire premise and turns Deku into a gamechanging powerhouse. Deku owes everything that happens in the series after the third episode to All Might’s mentorship, while also carrying his legacy forward.
7 Machio & the Main Cast – How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?
In an Anime All About Training, the Mentor Role Couldn’t Be More Important
The wackiness inherent in this series can distract from the fact that How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? is actually a very informative series when it comes to sports and fitness. Both of these aspects of the series are embodied by Machio, the main cast’s gym coach. Thanks to main character Hibiki being completely new to working out at a gym, Machio’s primary function is to explain the mechanics of various exercise techniques and the best way to approach working out.
Machio is a well-informed, patient, non-judgmental trainer who provides genuinely good advice to both the characters and the audience. In fact, every episode contains at least one explanation of a simple home exercise the audience can easily replicate. But that’s not to say that Machio isn’t also a fun character. Machio has a compulsive need to flex, causing him to go through at least three tracksuits every episode as his impressive physique shreds his clothes when fully unleashed.
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6 Urahara & Ichigo – Bleach
A Sarcastic But Caring Mentor
An exiled Soul Reaper masquerading as a simple shopkeeper in the human world, Urahara is actually one of the strongest and most important characters in the series. Although he remains inscrutable and manipulative throughout the series, he is nevertheless solidly on the heroes’ side, if consistently pragmatic and self-interested. His most notable contribution is serving as Ichigo’s first real teacher after Ichigo unlocks his Soul Reaper powers. Crucially, Urahara’s training allows Ichigo to learn the name of his Zanpakuto, a major aspect of achieving the weapon’s full potential. Urahara also trains Orihime and Chad when they first unlock their own powers, and his sarcastic personality provides many moments of humor and levity during this training.
5 Professor Friede & Liko and Roy – Pokémon Horizons
A Pokémon Professor Who Actually Walks the Walk
While the Pokémon Professors have a long history of being valuable guides and mentors to the protagonists, Professor Friede is notable for taking a much more active role in the plot. Accompanied by Captain Pikachu, Horizons‘ best new character, Professor Friede actively travels with Liko and Roy, hired by Liko’s mother to protect Liko and her mysterious pendant. In addition to being more than capable of defending Liko and Roy from the villainous Explorers and hostile wild Pokémon, Professor Friede also proves himself to be a caring and compassionate mentor to Liko and Roy
4 Miss Yukari & Her Class – Azumanga Daioh
Not Every Mentor Is Wise, But They All Care
Miss Yukari’s personality is made clear in her very first scene of the Azumanga Daioh anime adaptation. Running late for school, she encounters one of her students who is also running late, and promptly steals his bike to get to class. While Yukari does multiple things that would get a real teacher fired, her bombastic personality fits in well with the colorful cast of Azumanga Daioh‘s unique take on slice of life. Yukari is consistently depicted as popular with her students, likely in part because she’s about as mature as they are. Her relationship with her students, especially with the main group of girls, is the source of both hilarious and heartwarming moments and the group’s goodbye to Yukari upon graduating is the series’ most emotionally powerful moment.
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3 Ursula & Akko – Little Witch Academia
Ursula Is Akko’s Biggest Supporter
Throughout Little Witch Academia, Akko’s character arc is defined by two things: her sheer amount of heart, and her utter ineptitude at most kinds of magic, due in part to being a fish out of water in the series’ setting at a magic school in rural England. As Akko’s teacher, Ursula plays a major role in addressing both of those things, helping Akko openly and in secret to improve her magical abilities and never give up in the face of difficulty. Thanks to Ursula’s mentorship and constant encouragement, Akko is able to succeed both as a student at Luna Nova and as the next bearer of the legendary Shiny Rod.
2 Kakashi & Team 7 – Naruto
When No-One Else Believed in Naruto, Kakashi Was There
A major aspect of Naruto’s backstory is growing up as a friendless orphan written off by just about everyone. The two notable exceptions to this are his surrogate parent-figure Iruka and his first teacher Kakashi. Although Kakashi is a strict teacher to the members of Team 7, he never gives up on them and Kakashi’s guidance plays a crucial factor in turning Team 7 from three individuals into one of the most famous and successful ninja teams not only in their own series, but in all anime. Kakashi’s stoic and deadpan personality also provides a fantastic storytelling counterpoint to Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke’s clashing personalities
1 Master Roshi & The Turtle School – Dragon Ball
The Most Famous Anime Mentor Deserves His Throne
Goku’s quest to become stronger is one of the Dragon Ball franchise’s most enduring elements. One of Goku’s early milestones in that journey was training under Master Roshi as a student of the Turtle School. Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha all trained as Master Roshi’s students, learning the fighting style they would use for the entire series. Despite Master Roshi’s eccentricities, his students clearly continue to value his training. Even as far into the series as the Tournament of Power, Goku has never forgotten his time as a student of the Turtle School and the Japanese Dragon Ball fanbase voted for Goku’s speech to Jiren in defence of the reputation of the Turtle School as one of Goku’s ten best quotes in franchise history.
With so many anime following young characters as they grow into world-changing heroes, it takes some truly special teachers to send them on their way, with each of the entries on this list changing the life of their students, and therefore deciding the fate of the world.
