The world of anime is chock-full of ridiculously powerful characters. That’s often the point, a power fantasy cranked to the absolute maximum of believability. Many of these characters are the protagonist of their story - such as Naruto, Goku, Saitama, and so on - but all too often that character’s father is revealed to bejust as powerful as they are.
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Frequently neglected in this regard are the mothers. Mothers in anime areoften presented as noncombatants,due in large part to norms in both Japanese culture and anime storytelling. There are exceptions to this rule, however, and they are ridiculously awesome. Here are the most powerful mums across all of anime.
10Android 18 (Dragon Ball Z)
Android 18 came onto the scene as a deadly warrior created to hunt and kill Goku. However, whenAndroid 17 is defeatedand absorbed by Cell, Android 18’s resolve began to waver. When she eventually met Krillin, although she initially found him insufferable, she was wooed by his resolve and straightforwardness.
Seven years after the Cell Games, Krillin and Android 18 are married and have a 3-year-old daughter named Marron. She and Krillin’s lives are unusually normal, although Android 18 is still terrifying when she gets angry. Outside the World Tournament arc, Android 18 doesn’t really fight again untilDragon Ball Super, but no one doubts that she is more than capable of doing so.
9Suyin Beifong (The Legend Of Korra)
The youngest daughter ofthe OG metalbender Toph Beifong,Suyin spent her early years traveling the world to gain knowledge. She is an established dancer and performer and is skilled in both metal and earthbending. Her combat skills are at least on par with her half-sister Lin, who is the Chief of Police in Republic City, but Suyin’s influence extends far beyond that of her sister.
Suyin used her worldly knowledge and gift of metalbending to found the city of Zaofu, the home of the Metal Clan, of whom she is the matriarch. Zaofu is known as one of the safest cities in the world and was able to repel an invasion by the United Republic of Nations. Yet even with all this on her plate, Suyin considers her husband Baatar and their five children to be her first priority.
8Moro (Princess Mononoke)
Power comes in many forms. In the case of the God of the Wolves, Moro, her power comes in large part through her superior intelligence. She is over 300 years old and is the guardian of the Forest Spirit. She has a deep-seated hatred for humans, but when she encounters San as a baby abandoned by her parents, rather than kill her, Moro adopts San as her own.
When the corrupted Forest Spirit drains the life from Moro, the Wolf God nearly dies. However, when the Forest Spirit is shot by Lady Eboshi, Moro’s disembodied head comes back to life and is still strong enough to not only bite off Lady Eboshi’s arm but engage in battle with the Forest Spirit as well.
7Izumi Curtis (Fullmetal Alchemist)
One of the saddest stories on this list, Izumi Curtis was only a mother for a few minutes before her baby died in childbirth. Ravaged by grief, she committed a cardinal sin and tried using alchemy to resurrect her child, but what she brought back was an abomination.
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Her self-taught alchemy and combat skills eventually become essential, as she accepts Edward and Alphonse Elric as her apprentices. Despite her skill in alchemy, Izumi prefers to do as much work as possible with her hands, using alchemy only as a last resort. When she does, however, she’s one of the strongest characters in the series, able to take on Greed and Sloth and defeat them both with little trouble.
6Kushina Uzumaki (Naruto Shippuden)
While Naruto never meets his mother in real life, he eventually encounters her as a spirit and realizes how alike they both are. Nicknamed the “Red Hot-Blooded Habanero” by her classmates due to her fiery temper, Kushina possessed an exceptionally strong life force, which granted her a massive amount of chakra reserves.
Her chakra was so powerful that she was eventually chosen to be the nextjinchurikiof the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. The power of the Nine-Tails lured kidnapers to Kushina, and she was stolen away only to be rescued by Minato Namikaze, Naruto’s father. The two fell in love, and eventually, Kushina became pregnant. The seal that kept the Nine-Tails trapped in her body was weakest during childbirth, and a masked thief took advantage and released the Demon. Kushina not only survived thisandgave birth, but she aided Minato on the battlefield only moments later.
5Lisa Lisa (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)
ThoughJoseph Joestar didn’t know itat the time, he met his mother, Lisa Lisa, during the Battle Tendency arc. Lisa Lisa is a master martial artist as well as a master of the Ripple technique, allowing her to channel massive amounts of energy and use it to destroy the undead. She uses this technique to single-handedly hold off the Pillar Men, a group of vampire-like beings.
Prior to this, Lisa Lisa takes Joseph as her apprentice, crafting for him a brutal training regime that nearly kills him on several occasions. Following their battle with the Pillar Men, Lisa Lisa reveals herself to be Joseph’s mother, before moving to Hollywood where she marries a screenwriter.
4Dina Fritz (Attack On Titan)
Dina was the last surviving member of the royal family when she arrived at the Eldian Restorationists, and she brought with her crucial information about the location of the Founding Titan. She soon met Grisha, and the two had a son named Zeke Yaeger, further extending the royal bloodline.
Upon discovering that the Marley government wished to breach the walls of King Fritz’s land to steal the Founding Titan, Grisha proposes entering Zeke into the Titan program to be a mole for the Eldian Restorationists. However, Zeke betrays his parents to the Marley government, and both Grisha and Dina are sent to Heaven as prisoners. There, Dina is sentenced to become a man-eating Titan. While Dina may not have been the most powerful human, as a Titanher power is virtually unmatched.
3Nana Shimura (My Hero Academia)
One of the more complicated mothers on this list, Nana was a kind, empathetic figure who believed that heroes should always smile no matter the situation. This attitude influenced All Might to adopt his trademark smile, which he used to put others at ease. Nana also received the One For All Quirk, transferred to her from En, which could significantly enhance all her physical abilities.
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Nana’s relationship with her son, Kotaro, was a troubled one. By all accounts, she was a kind and loving mother when he was a child. However, the task of being a Hero became too dangerous, and Nana eventually put Kotaro into foster care to protect him, which caused sadness and resentment to take hold. As an adult, Kotaro forbade any mention of heroes or his mother in his household, going so far as physically abusing his children for breaking those rules.
2Ragyo Kiryuin (Kill La Kill)
Mother to the two series protagonists, Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin, Ragyo is an absurdly powerful character whose body is made up of an enormous amount of Life Fibers. She possesses superhuman speed, strength, and durability, as well as the ability to control minds. She is even capable of breaking a sword designed to sever Life Fibers with her bare hands.
Ragyo’s disdain for human life is due to her deliberately giving her soul to the Life Fibers. As a result, sheboth sexually assaulted and experimentedon her daughters with zero regards for the consequences. In the end, her daughters aren’t even the ones to defeat her. Instead, they kill all the Life Fibres on Earth, and Ragyo responds by ripping out her own heart and crushing it in her hands.
1Kaguya Otsutsuki (Naruto Shippuden)
Kaguya is the most powerful character in all ofNaruto, and it wouldn’t be right to leave her off this list given that she is also the mother of twin boys: Hagoromo and Hamura. Kaguya arrived on Earth to protect the God Tree for its eventual harvest by her clan, which would also result in the planet’s destruction. However, she grew fond of humanity, and instead consumed the fruit of the God Tree herself, becoming the first human endowed with chakra.
After the birth of her sons, Kaguya found herself consumed by the idea of controlling the world’s chakra, and she integrated herself with the God Tree, becoming the Ten-Tails. Her sons eventually devised a way to seal her power within Hagoromo’s body, making him the firstjinchuriki. However, with a being as strong as Kaguya, such powercannot be sealed away forever.
