Best Anime Side Character: The Ones Who Stole the Show

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AniList tags every character in every anime as Main, Supporting or Background. This bracket starts from that tag. For each character we took the anime with the most AniList members among the ones they speak in, and if AniList calls them Supporting there, they qualified. A walk-on cameo did not count as an appearance. The last filter was 1,000 favorites, read in October 2026, and 552 characters cleared it.

That is how Levi and Erwin Smith end up here while Mikasa Ackerman does not, and why Kyoujurou Rengoku, Kento Nanami and Itachi Uchiha get their own cards. Satoru Gojou, Kakashi Hatake and Zoro Roronoa are listed as main cast in their shows, so they sit this one out.

Going by the biggest show cuts both ways. Mikoto Misaka leads A Certain Scientific Railgun, but A Certain Magical Index has more members on AniList and she is support there, so she is in. Sakura Matou comes in through Fate/Zero the same way.

Vote for the one you rewound the episode for.