There are a plethora of interesting anime characters that suffered from childhood trauma. In fact, there were so many to choose from that I divided the post idea into two halves: female characters and male characters. Today’s article is about the male characters. This post was supposed to be completed and published last week, but hey, better late than never! Quick disclaimer: I couldn’t narrow down the number of characters to just 7 after all, so I included a runner-up and a special mention, for a total of 9 characters. So, sue me.

Content Warning: The following article deals with different kinds of trauma, including violent deaths and child abuse. Skip this post if the topic negatively affects you.

Spoiler Warning: This list contains spoilers for the following anime series: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Bungo Stray Dogs, Black Butler, Attack on Titan, Code Geass, Beastars, Evangelion, Fruits Basket, and Monster.

---

1) Alphonse and Edward Elric
(Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)

Alphonse and Edward – or Al and Ed – are the sibling main characters of the iconic shounen anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I decided to include them as one entry since both are main characters and suffered from the same traumatic events. First there was the emotional trauma of being left by their father. Then their mother died young. But the real trauma was what happened after that.

Ed and Al dabbled in alchemy – a magic power system controlled by certain rules and natural laws. The greatest taboo of alchemy is to resurrect someone. The young brothers tried to bring back their dead mother, leading to brutal feedback from the magic system and the godlike figure that controls it. Alphonse lost his entire body, leaving only his soul, which Edward bound to a suit of armor. As for Ed, he lost an arm and a leg. The trauma of Ed and Al was intense and left an entire generation of viewers shocked.

---

2) Atsushi Nakajima (Bungo Stray Dogs)

Atsushi is a boy who can use the strength and supernatural abilities of a fearsome white tiger spirit. He can even transform fully into a tiger. This boy is an orphan who was never adopted, running away from the orphanage at seventeen. For most of his childhood, Atsushi was abused at the hands of the headmaster of the orphanage where he lived.

The exact extent of the abuse is unknown, but it included solitary confinement, being chained up, and constantly being told he was horrible and worthless. This was the headmaster’s way of trying to control Atsushi’s dangerous tiger abilities so he would not hurt any other children, nor be taken away or targeted by those who would use his ability for violence. Regardless of this “reasoning,” what Atsushi went through was definitely abuse, and it left him traumatized.

---

3) Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler)

Ciel is the memorable young protagonist of Black Butler, whose traumatic backstory is the opening premise of the series. A group of people who hated the Phantomhive family attacked the mansion and slaughtered Ciel’s parents. These people also tortured and humiliated Ciel, who was but a small child. We do not know what the harm entailed precisely, but many fans have speculated that it included both physical and sexual violence.

In order to avoid being killed or indefinitely tormented, Ciel made a deal with a demon named Sebastion. This demon would act as his butler and bodyguard until he had avenged his parents and his honor. After that, Ciel would surrender his soul for Sebastian to lustfully devour. It was terrible trauma that began the story Black Butler.

---

4) Eren Yeager (Attack on Titan)

Eren is the widely known protagonist of Attack on Titan, one of the world’s most popular anime series. There are many complex and diverse opinions about Eren in the ongoing final season, but today’s entry is only about his childhood trauma.

When Eren was about ten years old, the monstrous titans broke through the great walls and invaded his home district. The chaos was immense. Being a survivor of that hell-scape would be enough trauma in itself, but Eren went through even more. He witnessed a titan killing and eating his mother whole. That sight would stay with him forever and fuel his rabid hatred of titans for years to come.

---

5) Lelouch vi Britannia (Code Geass)

A famous antihero in the world of anime, Lelouch is the star of Code Geass and the banished Prince of Britannia. Fans debate over how much Lelouch is motivated by personal hatred of Britannia versus a genuine desire to create a better world. I believe it’s mostly the latter – but the former also plays a definite role. Lelouch’s hatred toward Britannia and his father Charles stems from his childhood trauma.

One day, after hearing gunshots, Lelouch saw his mother dead in a pool of blood. His little sister was also hit, and her legs were rendered useless. Lelouch was devastated. But when he went to confront King Charles to ask why nothing was being done, his father brushed him off callously. Though Lelouch protested, this only made the King angry. He disowned Lelouch and sent him to Japan as a political exile. Lelouch’s trauma would continue as, soon after, Britannia invaded Japan and created a violent warzone rife with racism and imperialism from the cruel Britannians.

---

6) Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Another famous character, Shinji was also one of the first anime memes on the internet. If you recognize that image of him agonizing in the chair over the globe, that’s why. Within the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji goes through many instances of severe trauma. Since he is at most fourteen, all the events of the series can be called childhood trauma. This boy suffers through physical pain, emotional distress, fear for his life and the lives of his friends, and much more.

Some think Shinji’s childhood trauma began well before the starting point of the series. I tend to think so, too. Shinji’s first emotional trauma was losing his mother, and shortly afterward, being physically and emotionally abandoned by his father. This early life event predisposed Shinji to fear of abandonment and other deep-running insecurities.

---

7) Tanjiro Kamado (Demon Slayer)

As Demon Slayer is now one of the most popular anime series in the world, most people are probably familiar with Tanjiro. I’m not a big fan of Demon Slayer, and early on, I even dropped it from boredom and frustration. I enjoy Demon Slayer now, but even back when I disliked it, there was one thing I couldn’t deny – Tanjiro is a great main character for a shonen anime. I love him for his empathetic nature, loving heart, courage, and determination.

Tanjiro was somehow able to keep his warm soul even after terrible childhood trauma. Most of his family members were brutally murdered by a demon. The only survivor was his younger sister Nezuko, who had turned into a demon herself. Tanjiro refused to abandon Nezuko, taking care of her and making sure she never touched human blood. As he trained and became a Demon Slayer, Tanjiro never forgot the pain of losing his loved ones. Nevertheless, more than revenge, his motivation is to find a way to cure Nezuko

---

Runner up:
Yuki Sohma (Fruits Basket)

Now we have Yuki, my favorite boy from the cast of Fruits Basket. Yuki’s trauma was emotional in nature. The main sources of the trauma were Yuki’s mother and his relative Akito. Since he was born cursed with the spirit of the Zodiac Rat, Yuki wasn’t quite human, and would transform into a rat under certain circumstances. This was part of why his mother despised him. Unfit to be a mother, she emotionally abused Yuki and told him she regretted giving birth to him.

As if that wasn’t already enough for a kid to deal with, Yuki also suffered from psychological abuse and bullying at the hands of his relative, Akito. Yuki’s family forced him to live with Akito, who in turn prevented Yuki from having any meaningful friendships or healthy life experiences. Everyone knew that Akito was toxic, but since he was the head of the Sohma clan and the God of the Zodiac spirits, nobody could defy him. Yuki didn’t escape until he was high-school age, when he went to live with a more stable adult relative. Poor little rat-boy!

---

Special Mention:
Wolfgang Grimmer (Monster)

I want to quickly mention my favorite supporting character in Monster, the wonderful Wolfgang Grimmer. Although Grimmer’s childhood trauma was not actually shown in animation, it was talked about a lot in the series. It’s why he wants to protect children and bring legal action against child abusers.

Grimmer grew up in an orphanage in East Germany. There, he was intensely psychologically manipulated and brainwashed as part of a military experiment. As a result of having his identity and emotions erased, Grimmer developed a dissociative disorder, giving rise to an alter who would take over for him in times of great danger and terror. In addition, as an adult, Grimmer cannot feel most emotions genuinely. He is an extremely interesting character who wants nothing more than to experience the life that was robbed from him as a child.

Thank you for reading~

---

PATREON