Karma Akabane

Karma is pale-skinned with cropped red hair and piercing golden eyes, his lean frame hardened by fighting experience and Karasuma's grueling PE regimen. Whenever he is scheming or tormenting a classmate, artists frequently give him cartoon devil horns and a wide grin, yet the girls of Class E still count him among the best-looking boys around. He tends to sling a black cardigan over his uniform shirt and skips the tie entirely, appearing in the complete uniform only once, at graduation. Seven years on he stands over six feet tall, wears his hair a little longer and parted to one side, and carries a softer, less menacing gaze.

The whole school knows Karma for his aggression and trouble-making. He is cunning, mischievous, and streaked with cruelty, happy to trick, humiliate, or manipulate whoever crosses him. Most of the time he stays loose and bored, skipping anything dull, and after the embarrassment of the exam arc he began studying hard while pretending to slack. He is also, unexpectedly, a fan of superhero films.

Behind the malice sits a genuine moral core and real empathy. He landed in Class E precisely because he defended a Class E senior from bullies, and unlike his former peers he holds no prejudice against the class, insisting each member has their own gift and defending them fiercely. A betrayal by his most trusted teacher left him despising anyone claiming that title, though meeting Korosensei taught him to respect an opponent's strengths again. He cares deeply for Nagisa and his classmates, forms a real bond with Korosensei, and weeps at his death, yet his impulsiveness can still turn genuinely brutal when someone threatens the people he values.

Karma comes from money; his parents are globe-trotting financial traders who spend little time at home. He spent years as a rebellious student, propped up by a homeroom teacher who vowed to back him as long as he stayed in the right. In his first two years at Kunugigaoka he grew close to Nagisa after inviting him to a film, dropping his guard around him until Nagisa unintentionally snuck up on him at a fast-food spot. The sensation of being caught defenseless unnerved Karma, who was used to solving problems with his fists, and he pulled away until they were merely classmates again. His suspension came after he badly injured a main-building third-year to save a bullied Class E senior, only for his teacher to side against him, killing his respect for teachers wholesale.

Returning from suspension, Karma greets the new octopus teacher by concealing anti-sensei material in his handshake, becoming the first person to injure Korosensei. His pranks backfire as Korosensei stays perpetually on guard, and a staged suicide leap meant to trap the teacher instead earns Karma a rescue that wins him over. He ranks fourth on the tampered midterms, refuses to leave Class E, and later grows overconfident, bombing the finals against Gakushu Asano before snapping back into form. On the island resort he psychologically torments the crystallized Korosensei, fights the assassin Grip to a standstill, and helps corner the traitor Takaoka.

Karma later scores a perfect 500 on the second-term finals to seize the top rank from Asano. When Nagisa proposes saving Korosensei rather than killing him, Karma becomes the loudest opponent, and their clash is settled by a paintball civil war in which he commands the red team and duels Nagisa one-on-one, ultimately surrendering to reconcile their friendship. He and Nagisa hijack the space station to retrieve the data that could save their teacher, and during the final battle he leads the class against mercenaries before Shiro and the tentacled monster interrupt. After the graduation and Korosensei's death, Karma stays at Kunugigaoka to keep dueling Asano, and seven years later passes his civil-service exams to begin a career as a bureaucrat.