Spy X Family might have "spy" in the title, but all positions of the underground appear. Informants, handlers, and undercover agents of all kinds appear in the happy and joyful show. Assassins are repped by the wife of the Forger household, Yor. While she may be a little airheaded as a civilian, she's a ruthless and bloodthirsty assassin as the "Thorn Princess."
Yor is a professional, and while she is a kind soul, she only seeks professionalism in the art of killing. She didn't get to be a top assassin by tolerating mistakes, and she didn't get to be a great mother without love and kindness. There are plenty of other assassins in anime. Only a few meet the standards of the "Thorn Princess," though, and it's the best anime has to offer.
Reiji / Zwei (Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom)
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom is essentially the anime version of John Wick. Violence and fight scenes erupt constantly in a world of assassins. Main character Reiji is one of the best when it comes to the assassination. He’s a deadly assassin for the organization Inferno that goes by the name Zwei.
Originally he was a simple tourist visiting America, but he was conscripted against his will and turned into an assassin. His memory is wiped and becomes one of Inferno’s best. Yor would sympathize with his plight. Thankfully, he eventually becomes wise and turns against Inferno.
Risotto Nero (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5 is a mafia story. As such, assassins do appear as part of the nebulous Hitman Team. While all of them are excellent assassins, special mention goes to the leader, Risotto Nero. He’s a stoic and consummate professional killer.
His ability, Metallica, allows him to manipulate iron to turn invisible and kill people from the inside. This is a terrifying ability, but Risotto is a comionate leader. He cares deeply for his subordinates and even got into the business to avenge his cousin’s death. The Thorn princess would approve of his brutality and comion.
Alucard (Hellsing)
Assassins are weapons, or at least, Yor seems to think so. a version of the legendary Dracula, is only deployed for the strongest supernatural threats. Despite his love of violence, he’s a troubled guy deep down.
Alucard is deeply lonely and depressed despite all his power. He desperately searches for a worthy human to kill him one day. He would probably welcome Yor if she were to try. Although his healing factor, an army of familiars, and impressive weapon mastery would make it a hard fight even for her.
Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
Samurai stories often feature redemption as a common theme and Rurouni Kenshin isn’t different. The former assassin Himura Kenshin wanders a fictional version of Japan’s Meiji period. He used to be a formidable warrior called Hitokiri Battosai. He even had a unique weapon, a curved katana, to match his unique title.
Of course, he was leaving that life behind him. He instead begins living with and teaching in the dojo of a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru. A flourishing of relationships with new friends and old enemies follows, with him eventually being able to settle down. Yor would appreciate his pragmatism for sure.
Levi Ackermann (Attack on Titan)
Being able to make the tough calls is important in all military work, whether in espionage or infantry. Levi Ackerman, leader of a scout platoon in Attack on Titan, knows those hardships. He’s not a very warm person, often cold and detached. Just like Yor, he was trained from a young age to kill.
Levi never knew his surname for a long time, but as an Ackerman, he was supposed to be a secret policeman for the government. He had even been genetically modified to kill. He had a terrible childhood, bouncing from vagrant to vagrant. Attack on Titan's Levi is a tragic hero, but he’s still known as the world’s strongest human soldier.
Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost In The Shell)
Motoko Kusanagi, also known as The Major, is a loaded gun. As a cyborg, she is the property of the police and scientists that constructed the body. There are a lot of thematic similarities between Ghost In The Shell franchise. Unlike Robocop though, her body is fully mechanical and her soul was placed in it.
She’s a police commander but also goes on elimination missions on her own. She considers herself an assassin or even a weapon. This becomes additionally muddled when multiple copies of the Motoko personality appear at once. Whatever the truth is, Motoko Kusanagi is an agent the government calls on when they need a threat eliminated, just like Yor.
Akame (Akame ga Kill)
An assassin since childhood and main love interest may sound like Yor, but this is Akame from Akame ga Kill. She’s the second lead of the story and a deadly killer in the service of the empire. She does have emotions but pushes them down in both her missions and civilian life. Again, that sounds a lot like Yor.
Eventually, Akame s up with the assassin group Night Raid to overthrow the empire. There she meets the protagonist Tatsumi, and they form a relationship. The will-they won’t-they of their relationship is part of the anime’s appeal. The other part is Akame’s deadly swordsmanship, leaving almost nothing in her wake.
Killua Zoldyk (Hunter x Hunter)
Ironically, the series this kind of assassin hails from also has an “X” in its title. Killua Zoldyck from Hunter X Hunter was raised in a family of assassins to be like them. They put him through harsh training, abused him, and forbade emotional expression. This caused him to run away from home, though his father Silva implied this too was part of his training.
Killua ran away to do the Hunter Exam and met his new best friend Gon, the protagonist of Hunter X Hunter, there. Hanging out and becoming friends with Gon caused him to train and ironically, become a more talented assassin. This is similar to Yor honing her craft to protect Anya. Both “X” assassins may be meticulous murderers, but they both care a lot.
Thorfinn (Vinland Saga)
Vinland Saga is a TV show about real-life Viking explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni. Thorfinn was accidentally abducted by the mercenary company that killed his father. They were planning on killing him, but Thorfinn was too stubborn. Eventually, he found a role there as a strategic assassin,
Thorfinn, being small and fast, could work his way through enemy lines and take out commanders. He was quite good at this and kept at it with the expectation he would eventually get his revenge. He never did and ended up turning his assassin skills toward other pursuits. Unlike Yor, he has a lot of rage inside him, but she would care for him due to his young age.
Korosensei (Assassination Classroom)
In recent episodes of Spy X Family, Yor begins teaching Anya some of her fighting techniques. This is just for self-defense but she isn’t the only assassin to become a teacher. Perhaps the best assassin in anime took to teaching; the bizarre octopus-like create Korosensei from Assassination Classroom. He may look strange now, but in the past, he was a human assassin called The Reaper.
He grew up homeless and nameless and became an assassin with a kill count of 1000 to survive. After getting an apprentice and learning more from others, he discovered that kindness was his true calling. Unfortunately, he was transformed into his current form and was indirectly responsible for a massive explosion on the moon. Feeling guilty for his role in the events, he becomes heaster of a class of students and begins teaching them to finally kill him for good in one of the anime’s strangest but most satisfying character arcs.
