Top 10 Anime Hackers

#10: Akira Renbokoji

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Top 10 Akira Toriyama Creations

"Valvrave the Liberator" (2013) School life can be difficult for anyone, but it can be especially brutal for someone who’s prone to extreme anxiety attacks like Akira. Her timid nature confines her to a makeshift fort in the corner of a classroom with nothing but stuffed animals and a computer to keep her company. Of course in typical hacker fashion, this self-seclusion allows her to hone her skill with technology by keeping an eye on the students via security cameras in the school. She also utilizes the multinational network call WIRED to circumvent government censorship and stream Haruto’s first battle to the public, effectively making him out as a hero of the people.

"The Devil is a Part-Timer!" (2013) We bet you wouldn’t expect someone as powerful as “Lucifer” to actually be a lazy purple-haired computer expert. Hanzo is the Demon King’s general who show’s off his power level immediately by destroying a part of the city. In an ironic twist it turns out that he actually prefers to browse the internet, play games and do anything but clean the apartment. His skill with technology matches his prowess in battle, mastering the ways of the keyboard in no time flat. He even puts it to good use by prank calling Emilia at work and sending the team on a mission to reclaim a game console.

"Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS" (2017-) It’s a rare thing to get a main character that’s also an anti-social hacker. While his hairstyle might suggest otherwise, Yusaku is a high school student that prefers to blend in with the crowd and go unnoticed. Though he might seem lazy and cold, his aversion to attention is due to his secret life as a hacker who fights against the evil group known as the Knights of Hanoi. Burdened with a troubled past, Yusaku takes on the identity of “Playmaker” a ‘charisma duelist’ that battles the Knights in the cyberspace known as the LINK VRAINS. Using an AI he stole in order to tip the odds in his favor, he engages in high risk speed duels to take revenge on those who’ve wronged him.

"Guilty Crown" (2011-12) Boasting some impressive strategic skills, this cute operator is the main support for “Funeral Parlor”, a guerilla group that dedicates itself to liberating the country from a corrupt government. From inside her hologram cyberspace she’s able to analyze enemy movements and hack systems with ease, all while playing a few games on the side. She also possess a useful void, a special power encoded in a person’s DNA, called Hacker’s Interface that allows her to make an exact duplicate of anything, even herself, and control it remotely making her an all-around ideal support unit that any resistance would be happy to have.

"Digimon Adventure" (1999-2000) Now if you ever get transported to a digital world out of the blue, having a computer expert on your side will definitely be helpful. Izzy Izumi is one of the DigiDestined, a group of kids called upon to protect the Digital World from all sorts of nasty threats. Like all hackers, Izzy has a need to know anything and everything about the situation he’s in and he works together with his partner, Tentomon to piece together the circumstances. His love for gathering information ties directly into his power as he is bestowed the Crest of Knowledge, the physical form of a DigiDestined’s best attribute and just the thing he needs to digivolve his partner into his most powerful form.

“Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” (2002-03) In a world where everything, even brains, are enhanced or outright replaced by technology, a hacker is the worst thing you can deal with. Luckily Section 9 has Ishikawa to help combat these unseen threats as the team’s expert on technological warfare. He supports the team during missions by diving into the web and gathering as much information as possible to tilt the odds in their favor while also hacking a few mainframes along the way. We don’t know if he’s as augmented as Batou or the Major—considering how easily he gets captured but as a support specialist he’s second-to-none.

"Steins;Gate" (2011) Every mad scientist needs two things: a cute assistant and a down-to-earth side-kick. Daru certainly isn’t cute but he makes up for it as the hacker of the lab. Designated Lab Member 003, he is responsible for bringing to life all the Future Gadgets that Okabe comes up with. While most of them might not be very impressive, he is partially responsible for perfecting the D-Mail system. He’s not just a script kiddie either as he is able to hack into SERN’s database by himself in an attempt to dig up some information on just what they were doing. He may be a perverted otaku, but he’s certainly damn lovable.

“The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” (2006-09) The SOS Brigade is filled with eccentric characters: an esper, a time traveler… God. But the most mysterious is the quiet Yuki Nagato whom you wouldn’t expect to be an artificial human created by an alien. As a result, she’s bestowed with a slew of superhuman powers that would make even the strongest anime characters green with envy. However it’s her ability to analyze and manipulate information that makes her arguably the most useful character in the group. In one instance, she modifies a bat so that it only hits home-runs, and in another she hacks a game and reveals that the other team is cheating. We’d recruit her to our club any day of the week.

"Kill la Kill" (2013-14) Hoka is a member of the student council, a small group of elites that answers directly to student council president, Satsuki. He is mainly responsible for analyzing life fibers developing new Goku Uniforms so that every new enemy that Ryuko faces is stronger than the last. As you might expect, Hoka is not as powerful in battle as his comrades and he relies entirely on his skills as a hacker, boosted by his slick keyboard uniform, to analyze his enemies on the fly. This allows him to anticipate attacks from any angle and counter immediately, making him a nerd you definitely don’t want to mess with.

"Cowboy Bebop" (1998-99) Got a rogue AI shooting lasers at earth from space? Radical Edward will help you out, whether you want her to or not. While a lot of characters on this list are anti-social, shut-ins, or both Edward is the complete opposite with a unique personality that can put a smile on anyone’s face. When it comes to technology this hyperactive hacker is nothing short of a prodigy; navigating her way through the complicated web of cyberspace to gain access to anything from police aircrafts to satellites circling the planet—all in real time and with frightening speed. Thankfully her soft heart means her skills will never be used for evil.