Anime Mentors Who Are Actually Terrible Teachers

Anime is replete with powerful figures who take young protagonists under their wings to teach them the ways of combat and life. These sensei figures are often beloved for their immense strength or quirky personalities that mask a tragic past. However, looking closer at their teaching methods reveals a disturbing pattern of negligence and child endangerment. Some of these mentors abandon their students for long periods while others throw them into life-threatening situations without preparation.

Goku

Goku is often celebrated as a hero in ‘Dragon Ball Z’ but his track record as a mentor and father is questionable at best. He frequently leaves his family behind to train in other dimensions or afterlife scenarios rather than guiding his son Gohan. His decision to give Cell a Senzu Bean before the villain fought Gohan remains one of the most controversial moments in anime history. He gambled the fate of the Earth on the hidden rage of a pacifist child who did not want to fight.

Piccolo

The introduction of Piccolo as a mentor in ‘Dragon Ball Z’ involves him kidnapping a four-year-old Gohan after killing the boy’s father. He leaves the toddler alone in a wilderness filled with dinosaurs for six months to toughen him up for the Saiyan invasion. This survivalist approach forces a gentle child to fend for himself with zero emotional support or explanation. While they eventually bond, the initial methodology involves traumatizing a preschooler through abandonment and physical violence.

Kakashi Hatake

Kakashi is the leader of Team 7 in ‘Naruto’ yet he displays blatant favoritism throughout the early stages of their development. He focuses almost exclusively on training Sasuke Uchiha while leaving Naruto and Sakura to figure things out largely on their own. His teaching style involves reading adult novels during survival exercises and arriving late to important meetings. He often allows his students to enter life-threatening battles against high-level ninja without adequate preparation or oversight.

Jiraiya

The Toad Sage takes Naruto under his wing but spends a significant amount of their training time peeping on women and stealing Naruto’s money. One of his primary training methods involves throwing his student off a cliff to force him to summon a toad or die trying. Jiraiya frequently prioritizes his questionable research over the safety and structured education of his godson. His sporadic presence in Naruto’s life leaves the young ninja vulnerable to the Akatsuki for years.

Satoru Gojo

Gojo possesses immense power in ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ but his teaching philosophy relies heavily on throwing students into dangerous situations. He sends first-year students on missions classified for higher-grade sorcerers just to test their limits or provoke the higher-ups. His arrogance often leads him to withhold crucial information from his pupils regarding the political dangers they face. He prioritizes his own agenda of resetting the jujutsu world over the immediate safety and mental well-being of Itadori and his peers.

Reigen Arataka

Reigen presents himself as a powerful psychic in ‘Mob Psycho 100’ while actually possessing no spiritual abilities whatsoever. He exploits the immense powers of the middle schooler Mob to run his exorcism business for profit. He pays the boy a pittance while taking credit for exorcisms that he could never perform himself. This relationship is built entirely on a lie that takes advantage of a socially awkward child’s desire for guidance.

Saitama

Genos seeks out Saitama in ‘One Punch Man’ hoping to learn the secret behind his overwhelming strength. Saitama accepts the role of master mainly for rent money and has absolutely nothing of value to teach the cyborg. He offers vague advice about basic exercise routines that do not apply to a mechanical body like Genos possesses. The bald hero frequently ignores his disciple or makes up lessons on the spot to maintain the charade of being a wise teacher.

Ging Freecss

Ging is the driving force behind the plot of ‘Hunter x Hunter’ because he abandoned his son Gon as an infant to pursue his career. He designs a deadly video game and sets up dangerous trials rather than simply meeting or raising his child. When they finally meet he is dismissive and shows little interest in the hardships Gon endured to find him. His entire philosophy centers on the idea that a child should risk death repeatedly just to earn the right to see their father.

Izumi Curtis

The Elric brothers seek alchemy training from Izumi in ‘Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’ and are immediately subjected to brutal survivalism. She dumps the young boys on an uninhabited island for a month with only a knife and no food. Her philosophy is that death is a constant reality so she forces children to kill or be killed by nature. This traumatic experience is her prerequisite before she even begins to teach them the actual science of alchemy.

All Might

All Might gives his quirk to a quirkless teenager in ‘My Hero Academia’ without fully explaining the physical toll it will take. He encourages Midoriya to enter a prestigious hero academy before the boy can use his power without shattering his own bones. His mentorship often consists of vague encouragement rather than technical instruction on how to manage the dangerous energy. He hides the dark history of One For All from his successor until it becomes unavoidable.

Lisa Lisa

Lisa Lisa is a master of Ripple energy in ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’ but her training methods are potentially lethal. She forces Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli to climb a pillar covered in oil for days over a pit of spikes. She withholds her true identity as Joseph’s mother to maintain a professional distance during this torture. Her stoicism remains unbreakable even as her students face death from starvation and exhaustion during her rigorous exams.

Kisuke Urahara

Urahara trains Ichigo Kurosaki in ‘Bleach’ by severing his soul chain and throwing him into a pit of despair. This process forces Ichigo to regain his soul reaper powers within seventy-two hours or permanently turn into a monster. He sends the teenagers into the Soul Society to fight captains with centuries of experience while withholding key information about his own exile. His methodology consistently gambles the lives of children on high-stakes outcomes that benefit his long-term strategies.

Tell us which anime mentor you think has the worst teaching methods in the comments.