Anime mages represent one of the most common type of characters in the medium, given just how popular fantasy worlds of sword and sorcery are. Yet even among the numerous wizards and witches that lead the stories beloved by anime fans, some stand clearly above the others in terms of raw power and expertise over magic.
Magic is one of the more versatile sources of power, as it can take any form and make use of any element, whether natural or not. Some mages prefer to specialize in a certain type of magic, devoting themselves to mastering their craft, while others are more keen on learning a large variety of spells, ensuring their arsenal is equipped with a solution to every issue they could possibly encounter.
20 Howl Jenkins Pendragon
Howl’s Moving Castle, Studio Ghibli, 2004
Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle‘s titular protagonist Howl Jenkins Pendragon is a highly talented and respected wizard, known under many different names. He is quite different when compared to some other powerful anime mages, as Howl’s power does not manifest itself in the form of highly-destructive spells, capable of turning the tides of battles in his favor. Instead, what magical talent and skill Howl possesses a range of skills that are far more fitting for his mercurial and free-spirited nature.
Despite his frequently bombastic persona though, Howl’s magical talents are seriously powerful. While he does participate in the ongoing war, and he is noted for being Madame Suliman’s best pupil, he instead prefers using his magic to fly and transform into different beings, getting out of unpleasant situations. He also has a contract with Calcifer, the Fire Demon, which further boosts his magic capabilities.
19 Anos Voldigoad
The Misfit of Demon King Academy, Silver Link, 2020
As the reincarnation of the Demon King of Tyranny, Anos Voldigoad is quickly branded as the titular misfit of Demon King Academy, because Anos not only possesses magical power so high that it cannot be assessed by normal means, but he is also capable of spells thought to be either impossible, such as resurrection, or lost over time, such as teleportation magic. Yet, as the founding ancestor, using impossibly powerful magic from the Mythical Age is as natural as breathing for him.
Even beyond his immense magical power, he is equally gifted in terms of strength, speed, and intelligence, with some considering him the most powerful character in anime. Part of Anos’ power lies in the fact that he retains much of what made him so feared in his previous life. While magical power had dwindled in the 2000 years since Anos’ reign, the former Demon King himself remain a major threat that should never be underestimated under any circumstances.
18 Thistle The Lunatic Magician
Delicious In Dungeon, Studio Trigger, 2024
Thistle the Lunatic Magician is the main antagonist of Studio Trigger’s Delicious in Dungeon and the lord of the dungeon the story takes place in. Anyone who defeats Thistle is said to inherit the right to rule over the mythical Golden Kingdom, and as the one responsible for turning Falin into a chimera, Laios and his party have a personal stake in seeing him defeated, as hard a task as that may be.
Not only does being the dungeon lord allow Thistle to create an army of monsters seemingly indefinitely, but thanks to his advanced age, he’s far more skilled in magic than the average mage and even has a mastery of powerful dark magic. Thistle defeated Laios’ entire party singlehandedly, and there was no better way to properly establish him as the biggest threat in Delicious in Dungeon.
17 Natsu Dragneel
Fairy Tail, A-1 Pictures, 2009
With the world of Fairy Tail being full of powerful mages, it is nearly impossible to determine who is superior to all others. For instance, as the Ace of the Fairy Tail Guild, some may consider Gildarts Clive to be stronger. Unfortunately for Gildarts though, it is the role of the master to eventually be surpassed, which is why one other Fairy Tail Guild member would eventually grow to surpass him.
As the protagonist of the story, Natsu Dragneel’s journey takes him from a point where he wields nothing but his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, which is already strong enough and further boosted by his emotions, to a stage where he can enter the Fire Dragon King Mode at will. Even that is not his most powerful form, as he later obtains godlike demonic abilities through his E.N.D. Power.
16 Julius Novachrono
Black Clover, Studio Pierrot, 2017
In the world of Black Clover, the title of Wizard King has nothing to do with noble birthrights; instead, it is a title that can be bestowed upon anyone within the Magic Knights organization, if they prove themselves to be powerful enough through merits and achievements. Many characters aspire to the rank of Wizard King throughout the series, including Asta despite his lack of magic, but the Wizard King Julius shows just how much of a gap there is between a standard wizard and the King himself.
It should be no surprise that, as the most recent Wizard King, Julius Novachrono, is also the most powerful mage of the series, using his time magic to easily control the flow of battles, accelerating, stopping, and even reversing time to heal wounds. In spite of his proven mastery over magic, he always continues to search for new types of magic.
15 Ainz Ooal Gown
Overlord, Madhouse, 2015
After getting stuck in the world of a DMMO-RPG planned to shut down, Overlord‘s protagonist resolves to live as his character, Ainz Ooal Gown, and use his knowledge and experience with the game to conquer it. Though Ainz commands many powerful forces throughout the series, this is one leader who is more than capable of defending himself when the situation calls for it.
Widely regarded as the most powerful magic caster in the world, Ainz has achieved multiple feats thought to be impossible, especially when it comes to magic. For instance, while even players who reached the highest level could learn no more than 300 spells, he managed to use his special ability to learn no less than 718 different spells. Not only is he able to use high-tier magic, but he can also summon powerful beings at will.
14 Megumin
KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, Studio Deen, 2016
As KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! is not a particularly serious title, instead taking the comedy-parody route, its characters often tend to be underestimated in terms of raw strength. Moreover, with Megumin being obsessed with Explosion Magic and refusing to learn any other spell, it may seem that she is actually quite weak. That couldn’t be further from the case though, as Megumin is an incredibly gifted mage who is much more dangerous than initial appearances would suggest.
Megumin is still an Arch Wizard and a member of the Crimson Demons, and her potential is unrivaled, thanks to her naturally high mana reserves and magical power. Even with her downside of being overly specialized, she remains a force to be reckoned with, especially when certain conditions are met.
13 Frieren
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End; Studio Madhouse; 2023
Frieren is the titular hero of Studio Madhouse’s Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Frieren joined the adventuring party of Himmel the Hero to defeat the Demon King and save the world, and after Himmel’s death, Frieren began a new journey with a new party of adventurers to try and better understand people, the three of them fighting demons and monsters whenever they come across them all the while.
One of the key elements of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is how it constantly emphasizes Frieren’s status as one of the strongest characters in the series. Thanks to having over 1000 years of experience, Frieren’s abilities as a mage allow her to cast some of the most destructive magic in the series with some of the highest precision, and it’s to the point that only the absolute strongest characters in the series can even so much as touch her. In-universe, Frieren is often treated as something of a legend, and with how powerful she is, it’s easy to see why.
12 Innocent Zero
Mashle: Magic And Muscles, A-1 Pictures, 2023
Innocent Zero is the main antagonist of A-1 Pictures’ Mashle: Magic and Muscles and the leader of the terrorist organization of the same name. Innocent Zero is the former apprentice of Adam Jobs, the father of modern magic, and while his fellow apprentice, Wahlberg Baigan, devoted his life to improving society, Innocent Zero instead seeks to take over the world and use Mash for a ritual to gain immortality and ultimate power.
Not only does Innocent Zero possess powerful time magic, but he can also copy the magical abilities of other mages, and with both abilities in tandem, Innocent Zero easily defeated Wahlberg Baigan, despite the latter being regarded as the world’s strongest mage. With all the ways Mashle: Magic and Muscles references and parodies Harry Potter, Innocent Zero is a clear analog to Voldemort, and the series does a great job of depicting him as that level of threat.
11 Hayate Yagami
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s, Seven Arcs, 2005
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s introduced Hayate Yagami, a young girl who had unknowingly become the latest wielder of the Book of Darkness, an ancient magical weapon that could destroy the universe if left unchecked. With help from Nanoha and Fate, Hayate purified and tamed the Book of Darkness, and she would eventually use its power to fight for justice alongside the Time-Space Administration Bureau.
Thanks to the immense power of the Book of Darkness, Hayate is the strongest mage in all of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha in terms of raw power, and by Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers, Hayate is such a powerful mage that she’s only allowed to fight when there’s no risk of collateral damage. The long casting time of her spells means fast mages can give her trouble, but there are few situations in which Hayate hasn’t been regarded as a win condition for the heroes.
10 Shirou Emiya
Fate/stay night, Ufotable, 2014
Shirou Emiya is the main character of the Fate/stay night visual novel and its primary anime adaptations. In all versions of the story, Shirou is a fledgling magus who ends up involved in the Holy Grail War, a battle between seven magi and the historical and mythological warriors they summon to fight for them, and his once mediocre abilities always see a tremendous amount of growth thanks to the experiences he’s forced to go through.
Perfectly complementing Shirou’s character arc is always his tremendous growth in power. No matter the version of events, Shirou’s use of Tracing magic gradually evolves to let him replicate increasingly powerful weapons, and in the Heaven’s Feel and Prisma Illya continuities, specifically, Shirou’s growth in power allows him to easily outclass some of the strongest characters in the entire Fate franchise. Shirou’s power level might not be consistent across continuities, but when he’s at his best, there are few characters who can match his power.
9 Satoru Gojo
Jujutsu Kaisen; Studio MAPPA; 2020
The main person in charge of teaching Yuji and his friends how to be sorcerers in Studio MAPPA’s Jujutsu Kaisen is none other than Satoru Gojo. While Gojo typically acts like an arrogant and eccentric goof, heroes and villains alike routinely acknowledge him as the strongest sorcerer in modern day, and most of the schemes of the villains are centered around keeping Gojo as removed from everything as possible to ensure they have anything of a fighting chance.
Gojo is constantly hailed as the strongest sorcerer in Jujutsu Kaisen, and the series never fails to justify that. Gojo’s cursed technique, Limitless, gives him complete mastery over the gravitational forces of attraction and repulsion, including a barrier that’s always active and can only be broken through a small number of ways, and when those opposing forces are combined, they create the devastating Hollow Purple technique that can destroy nearly anything it comes into contact with. Add in how Gojo’s Six Eyes allows him to use Limitless nearly indefinitely, and it’s easy to see why he’s considered so dangerous.
8 Aladdin
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, A-1 Pictures, 2012
Aladdin is the protagonist of the Arabian Nights-themed series Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. As one of the four Magi of the current era, magicians loved by Solomon’s Rukh, Aladdin can manipulate Magoi, the energy created from Rukh, to easily overpower even the strongest of enemies. In addition, Alladin possesses a few interesting twists on gifts that his mythic counterpart is famous for such as a genie (trapped in a flute as opposed to a lamp) and a magic carpet that he wears on his head as his turban.
Even though Alladin is supposedly classified as a “Red Magician”, who should specialize in flame magic, he ends up learning different types of magic and even reaches a point where he can use them simultaneously and combine them. By the end of his journey, he becomes such a proficient magic user that few would dare go against him.
7 Merlin
The Seven Deadly Sins, A-1 Pictures, 2014
As a member of the Seven Deadly Sins, Merlin, the Boar’s Sin of Gluttony, is known as the greatest mage in Britannia, and for good reason. Not only does Merlin possess the unique power of Infinity, which allows her to keep her spells active endlessly, but she also makes use of a Sacred Treasure known as the Morning Star Aldan, a versatile crystal orb through which Merlin often channels her spells, and sometimes even transfers her soul into, to avoid lethal physical damage.
Even without her unique abilities and weapons, Merlin has mastered a large variety of spells, which she uses to gain the upper hand effortlessly in any situation. All of these abilities are more than enough to make Merlin The Seven Deadly Sins’ strongest woman, which is truly an impressive accomplishment considering just how much competition she has.
6 Ryner Lute
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Zexcs, 2010
As the protagonist of The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Ryner Lute has a naturally high aptitude for magic, which is taken to new levels by the power of his magic eyes, Alpha Stigma, also known as “The Eyes of Destruction”. The Eyes of Destruction are an incredibly powerful ability that comes with a big drawback. Luckily for Ryner, it’s one he doesn’t need to worry about.
While bearers of this curse tend to lose control of themselves and go on an indiscriminate rampage after experiencing extreme negative emotions, Ryner is the only one who has been noted to return to his senses even after going berserk. Due to possessing the essence of a powerful demon lord, Ryner can keep his emotions in check and remain devastating in combat. As such, Ryner can make full use of his cursed eyes, which allow him to instantly analyze, learn, and duplicate any magic, with almost no drawbacks, having unlimited potential.
5 Rimuru Tempest
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Eight Bit, 2018
Classifying Rimuru Tempest from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is not exactly straightforward, as they tend to combine magic with swords when engaging in combat. Regardless, the majority of Rimuru’s most powerful abilities are within the realm of magic, with their magical power further being boosted after awakening as a Demon Lord.
Simply put, Rimuru’s best strength is their potential to evolve, as proven by their journey from their humble origins as a Slime. After combining the Raphael and Beelzebuth skills to create Azathoth, a unique ultimate skill, Rimuru can not only duplicate and create virtually any ability but also devour souls and create boundless chaos, all of which makes Rimuru an undeniable force to be reckoned with. Isekai is famous for its incredibly powerful protagonists, which is why it’s so surprising that even among them, Rimuru is a cut above the rest.
4 Lina Inverse
Slayers; E&G Films & JC Staff; 1995
Slayers (1989)
- Writers
- Hajime Kanzaka
- Penciler(s)
- Rui Araizumi
- Colorist(s)
- Rui Araizumi
- Publisher(s)
- Tokyopop , J-Novel Club
The classic fantasy anime Slayers and its subsequent sequels and spinoffs star Lina Inverse, a traveling sorceress who’s famous for both her immense power and for her short temper that typically costs her any money she would be making on jobs. Lina and the friends she occasionally travels with tend to only do things under the promise of a reward, but more often than not, Lina ends up involved in conflicts that put the entire world at stake that, much to her annoyance, leave her as the only one who can do something about it.
Lina Inverse is explicitly not the chosen one in Slayers, that role would go to her older sister, but that doesn’t make her any less powerful. Lina more than earns her reputation with incredibly powerful magic and fighting sense, and she’s so talented that Giga Slave, a spell Lina invented as a child, can destroy the entire universe if used at full power, and even in a weakened state, it’s still capable of destroying the all-powerful demon lord Ruby Eye Shabranigdu. Overall, there are few magical characters comparable to Lina, whether it’s in Slayers or across anime, in general.
3 Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, Toei Animation, 1992
Toei Animation’s Sailor Moon stars Usagi Tsukino, a seemingly ordinary girl given the power to fight evil as the titular Sailor Moon. With her fellow magical girls that make up the Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon is constantly finding herself at the center of ever-escalating conflicts, many of which end up putting the entire universe in danger.
While fighting isn’t usually the focus of Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon is still shown to get more and more powerful with every arc, and by the end of the series, Sailor Moon becomes so powerful that she could potentially destroy things on a universal scale at a minimum. The powerscaling of Sailor Moon is easily up there with other classic anime like Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya, if not outright surpassing it, and Sailor Moon, herself, stands out as one of the strongest characters out of the three stories, if not the strongest.
2 Homura Akemi
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Studio Shaft, 2011
One of the major characters in Studio Shaft’s Puella Magi Madoka Magica is Homura Akemi, an aloof magical girl going to great lengths to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl. It’s eventually revealed that Homura had good intentions all along, however, as Homura has been using time travel to stop Madoka from turning into an unstoppable witch, even with her constant failures pushing her to near insanity.
Homura is already powerful as a magical girl thanks to how she combines her time magic with a ludicrously large arsenal of weapons, but Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie Rebellion took things even further when Homura usurped Madoka’s place as the Law of Cycles to become a devil with all the same godlike powers. Few characters can match Homura in her current form, and the next film will likely give a proper look into what she’s capable of.
1 Bernkastel
Umineko When They Cry; Studio Deen; 2009
Witches are at the center of Studio Deen’s Umineko When They Cry, and one of the most important of those witches is Bernkastel, the Witch of Miracles. Bernkastel is introduced as Battler’s supporter in his battle against Beatrice, but it soon becomes apparent that Bernkastel is acting entirely out of self-interest and sadism, the latter of which she has no problem redirecting toward Battler.
Befitting her prominent role in Umineko When They Cry, Bernkastel is one of the strongest witches in the series, if not the strongest. While the anime didn’t get to show off her abilities, Bernkastel’s witch powers are strong enough to both destroy and weaponize entire universes, with her ultimate defeat only coming about from very specific rules unique to the setting. Add in her ability to make the virtually impossible possible, and Bernkastel easily ranks as the most powerful mage in all of anime.
