Top 10 Anime Backstabs (Ft. Todd Haberkorn)

“Revolutionary Girl Utena” (1997)
Anthy’s head must not be a pretty place. After all, she’s indoctrinated into a system that ensures any prince can win her hand in marriage as long as they prove their sword skills, leading her to be tossed around from one suitor to the next. Still, she had one ray of hope - Utena. The one prince who seems to genuinely care about her well-being and feelings. Plus, you know, she’s a girl as well. This happiness is slowly quashed due to her brother Akio, who by this point has mentally abused and physical defiled her to such an extent that he can even get her to stab the one person she cherishes more than any other.

“Akame Ga Kill” (2014)
These two should have brushed up on their Assassin’s Creed skills, since they got caught pretty quickly by the Empire’s goons, and as such yet another one of Night Raid’s most beloved members bit the dust. While Lubbock’s skills ensured that he took down plenty of scummy soldiers with him, that doesn’t change the fact he got teleported into the air and ended up colliding on a bunch of raised swords. Wait, did those go through his groin?! Oh damn! That is a not a pleasant way to go!

“Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” (2009-10)
Poor, poor Havoc. If only he had fallen for a lady a little flatter in the chest, then he wouldn’t have had to deal with getting paralysed due to two demon nails piercing his body like a pincushion. With her Ultimate Spear and regeneration powers in hand, it was pretty easy for the Homonculus to get one over on the lovestruck soldier and put him out of commission for the rest of the series. Look at this way Havoc, in some weird, twisted way, doesn’t this count as getting to third base?

“Naruto Shippuden” (2007-17)
While there have been countless arguments on why this little act of betrayal is beyond stupid, fans everywhere still wore the same shocked expression as Madara when one of his loyal servants ripped him a new one like his body was made of cheesecake. A super powered, new Sage of the Six Paths cheesecake. As it happens, Black Zetsu was the shadow of the series’ true antagonist, and was more than happy with doing away with the ultimate Uchiha just so his dear leader could make her entrance. Bet you feel pretty stupid right now, huh Madara?

“One Piece” (1999)
An unmatched display of brotherly love, Ace’s fate hits us hard to this very day…though probably not as hard as the magma fist that tore his body apart. Despite his flames, Luffy’s brother proved no match for Akainu’s superior Devil Fruit, burning its way through his defences, and snatching the life out him almost instantly. Fight back the Habertears all you want, the only solace you’ll get from this is knowing the murderous Admiral gets his ass handed to him by Pops soon after!

“The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” (2010)
Turns out there are some things that will remain constant no matter how times the universe resets itself; Kyon with his cynicism, Yuki with her adorability, and Asakura with her complete psychosis - please put down the knife! In his efforts to fix the timeline and get the SOS Brigade back together again, Kyon ends up bringing back the digital devil’s murderous tendencies, only this time she manages to get her mark and drive it in deep! You can imagine at this point the dude was probably contemplating whether this whole adventure was such a good idea…

“Mobile Suit Gundam” (1979-80)
You mean to tell me the over-privileged family of space Nazis aren’t afraid to kill off each other for their own gain? Shock, horror! Yeah, Gihren really should have been more cautious when it came to bragging about the assassination of his father, that he caused, especially around his trigger-happy sister. Kycillia may act like she has the moral high ground, but she sure didn’t hesitate to blast her brother’s brains out with a laser rifle before assuming control of the Zeon fleet. Yeah ok, this is less of a back-stab and more of a back-of-head-shot – but I make the rules here.

“Fate/Zero” (2011-12)
Kotomine Kirei might look like an unfeeling killer in service to the Church, but over the course of the Fourth Holy Grail War, he finally discovered what made him truly happy…starting with the time he drove a dagger into the back of his closest confidant. Apparently all it took was some wise words from Gilgamesh to make him realize that he was Chaotic Neutral and he should just roll with it. And roll he did, since he then proceeded to mess up a lot of people’s lives for nothing more than his own personal vindication.

“Bleach” (2004-12)
Whelp, there goes Hitsugaya’s chance of ever getting lucky with Hinamori. Then again, she does tend to fall for the men in her life who stab her, so maybe there’s a still a chance. Despite their united front, the captains and lieutenants of the Gotei 13 remained trapped under the effects of Aizen’s Shikai. As such, it proved pretty easy for him to cast an illusion that makes his old subordinate look identical him, thus causing everyone else to stab her silly while he got off scot-free.

“Kill la Kill” (2013-14)
Granted if there ever was a mother who deserved to get run through with a sword, it would be Ragyo. Not only is she an uber-powerful CEO who planned to sacrifice all of humanity to the Life Fibers, but she’s also known for both discarding one daughter like garbage and then molesting the other. So yeah, Satsuki had more than enough reason to impale her and her billion-dollar dress. The fact everything went south from there and Ragyo flattened her ass out doesn’t take away from the impact of the initial betrayal. A for effort!