Smokey Brown feels like a sidekick who never got the memo that sidekicks should help. He’s clearly meant to be the moral anchor or a next-gen Speedwagon, except Speedwagon is right there, making Smokey look like pure dead weight. Sorry, man, you end up more tagalong than teammate, basically Poco 2.0, even if the epilogue tries to throw you a bone. | © Netflix
Hathaway Noa has every reason to rise to the occasion, especially with Bright Noa as his father. Instead of stepping up while Char makes his final move, Hathaway spends the movie arguing, sulking, and orbiting Quess like that’s his main mission. He even manages to kill Amuro’s new love interest, turning what should’ve been a legacy moment into a showcase of wasted potential and terrible decisions. | © Bandai Namco Entertainment
Lucy Heartfilia has the right attitude, the right heart, and somehow still ends up being one of the least effective people in the room. She tries hard and genuinely cares about her guild, but her track record collapses the moment you compare her wins to Erza, Mirajane, Wendy, Juvia, or even her own celestial spirits. Credit for sticking it out, but when the bar is “competent mage,” Lucy spends most arcs just clearing it emotionally, not practically. | © Crunchyroll
Yasutora Sado, better known as Chad, feels like a walking what-if. He’s built up as this gentle powerhouse, then spends most of the series losing fights and getting sidelined right when things matter. Outside of one decent win, his role never evolves beyond punching things for his friends, turning a character with real promise into a massive missed opportunity. | © Viz Media
Tristan Taylor has become the fandom’s punchline for a reason. In a world where dueling decides everything, he barely participates, usually standing off to the side while Yugi (and sometimes Joey) actually solve the problem. Add in his comic energy and total lack of growth compared to the rest of the group, and it’s easy to see why he’s remembered more as a meme than a meaningful teammate. | © Viz Media
Magikarp sits at the absolute peak of uselessness. All it does is flop around and Splash, forcing trainers to babysit this miserable fish through an exhausting grind that feels more like punishment than progress. The only reason anyone puts up with it is the promise that, one day, it might finally become Gyarados, which means Magikarp is only tolerable because of what it isn’t yet. | © TXN
Kon is basically what would happen if a plush toy wandered into a life-or-death supernatural war. Trapped in a stuffed lion body, he’s less a fighter and more a liability who needs rescuing the moment things get serious. He’s also not interested in helping anyone’s mission, unless that mission involves ogling other characters and congratulating himself for it. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
Max shows up as the unwanted fourth wheel nobody needed. He isn’t a Pokémon trainer, isn’t supportive, and somehow manages to be loud and annoying without contributing a single useful skill. Instead of adding anything to Ash, May, and Brock’s dynamic, he drags it down, earning his reputation as the Scrappy-Doo of the Pokémon universe. | © Viz Media
Yukiteru Amano somehow manages to be completely useless while holding the main character slot. He spends most of the series panicking, crying, and stressing about the fact that people keep trying to kill him, without ever stepping up in a meaningful way. The only reason he survives at all is because Yuno is busy violently deleting anyone who gets too close, so honestly, he should count his blessings and stay out of her way. | © Crunchyroll
In Dragon Ball Z, Yamcha starts with real promise, then gets left in the dust almost immediately. Goku, Vegeta, and eventually just about everyone else leap past him so hard that even literal children end up stronger. To really drive the point home, Yamcha dies three separate times and has to be brought back by heroes far more capable than he ever becomes. | © Crunchyroll
In Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask mostly exists to strike a pose and remind everyone that he’s handsome. He usually shows up late to fights he already knew were happening, tosses a single rose, and somehow acts like that counts as turning the tide. Then comes the dramatic speech about saving the day, which Sailor Moon fully buys into, proving that pretty privilege is doing most of the work here. | © Viz Media
In Mob Psycho 100, Reigen Arataka is apparently beloved for reasons that remain deeply confusing. He’s a lazy con artist who pretends to have psychic powers, leans on an actual psychic child to pay the bills, and happily profits off people dealing with real supernatural problems. Yes, he occasionally gives Mob a motivational speech, but outside of that one redeeming trait, he’s pure confidence with nothing useful behind it. | © Crunchyroll
The Seven Deadly Sins tries to sell Hawk as comic relief, but he mostly exists to get almost eaten and complain about food. His entire personality boils down to begging for scraps, which might be charming if he weren’t a full-grown pig acting like a toddler. The only genuinely useful thing about Hawk is his mom letting everyone live on her back, which really just means he’s a mascot who still lives with his mother and contributes nothing else. | © Netflix
Neon Genesis Evangelion hands Shinji Ikari a nightmare setup from the start: an absent mother, a brutally distant father, and the responsibility of piloting a living war machine to stop the end of the world. He does manage to fight for a while, but the constant trauma and emotional pressure slowly hollow him out. By the time he shuts down completely, he’s functionally useless, but in a way that feels painfully human and hard to blame. | © TXN
In the original Naruto, Sakura Haruno barely feels like part of the team at all. She never wins a real fight, never shifts the plot, and her biggest moment is a Chunin Exam match that ends in a draw. What makes it worse is that she knows she’s dead weight, spends half her screen time saying it out loud, and still waits for Naruto or Sasuke to clean up the mess. | © Viz Media
Some anime characters save the world. Others just… show up, complain, and wait for someone stronger to fix things. This gallery is for the characters who had screen time, potential, or even main-character status, and still managed to contribute almost nothing.
