Good Scars Evil Scars / Anime & Manga

#-K

• Yukito in AIR has a sword slash across his back from his past life, which is always hidden. Good guy.
• Kaoru in Ai Yori Aoshi has some rather unsightly scars coming from his grandfather's physical abuse. As with most Good Scars though, you can't see them unless he takes off his shirt.
• Nice Holystone of Baccano! has burn scars all over her arms and part of her face following an explosives accident when she was little. The reason why her childhood friend Jacuzzi Splot prominently tattooed his face was to draw attention away from her scars. Before you think this is a subversion, remember that no one in Baccano! is 100% good.
• Guts from Berserk has a small scar across the bridge of his nose, given to him by adoptive father Gambino when he tried to kill him.
  • He's gained progressively more all over his face and entire body over the course of the story from numerous fights against demons. And he's missing an arm which he hacked off himself, and eye (which is depicted as permanently closed).
    • The eye is probably always closed because it's still in the socket, but being punctured by a demon's claw makes it completely useless.
  • Casca also gains a number of small scars from her battles in the series. During her sex scene with Guts, he spots them, and she feels ashamed of them at first, given the situation, but he's unfazed and finds her all the more admirable for it.
• Played straight with Betrayal Knows My Name's Giou Takashiro who has a scar on his left cheek, which he got from his former friend Reiga.
  • Subverted with Usui Shuusei who is most definitely a very good guy (though a slightly broken one). He has some very nasty, discolored and badly-healed burn marks on his upper body from when he interrupted Hotsuma's suicide attempt.
• Hinako Aikawa, female lead of Bitter Virgin has a scar on her stomach which is the result of a C-section. Hinako was a victim of sexual abuse to the extent that she got pregnant twice before the age of 16. We see it only twice in the course of the series.
• In Black Jack Dr. Kuroo Hazama aka Black Jack is a good guy who sometimes poses as a bad guy to keep his reputation... and is massively scarred all over his body and face, to the point his skin has some different colored spots. He actually got these scars as a child, when a bomb exploded and almost killed him and his mother; he decided to become a doctor after finishing his rehab.
• Balalaika, Black Lagoon's resident Magnificent Bastard, has a huge scar down the right side of her face (and body) from having survived a point-blank frag grenade in the Afghanistan war. The scar has given her the derisive nickname "Fry-face" amongst the Roanapur gangster community, which is only spoken in her presence by people with a death wish. Although a villain by anyone's standard, she never actively antagonizes the villain protagonists and indeed hires them on several occasions.
  • Her Dragon, Boris, has what looks like a knife scar across his nose.
• Manji from Blade of the Immortal has three separate scars traveling the length of his face. One goes horizontal through his forehead, one horizontal through the bridge of his nose, and the last vertical through his right eye, which actually blinded him in that eye.
• Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach has a scar straight down the left side of his face, going from his hairline down to his jaw. Hisagi Shuuhei has three vertical parallel scars on one side of his face (from a Hollow attack fifty years before), apart from a tattooed horizontal line across nose and cheeks and a number 69.
  • One character who has scars purely for the cool factor is Tsubaki, one of Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka. He springs into existence with a cool-looking facial scar down the side of his face, despite never having fought before.
  • Old Soldier Yamamoto is also covered in scars, which is expected considering that he has been alive and in battle for thousands of years. While he isn't evil, he isn't exactly what you would call good either.
  • Mad Scientist Mayuri Kurotsuchi is shown to have what appear to be surgical scars criss-crossing his entire body in the brief scene he is shown without his creepy make-up on.
  • Nel has a scar on her forehead from when Nnoitra broke her mask and kicked her out of Las Noches.
  • Kenpachi also has two more scars on his chest, courtesy of Nnoitra.
  • Grimmjow has one on his chest after he got hit with Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou in their first fight.
• In Brave10, Kakei has a fashionable scar on his jaw, which Okatsu tries to recreate on the other side while assaulting him. Okatsu has scars, too, but they aren't obvious until she gets comfortable.
• Buso Renkin: Tokiko Tsumura, the protagonist's Action Girlfriend, has a long scar stretching from cheek to cheek across the bridge of her nose. This scar is very noticeable, representing her status as an Anti-Hero, but it's clean and even, showing her inherently good nature. Interestingly, the author has stated this comes from her design originally being intended for a female professional wrestler.
• Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock has a large horizontal scar across his left cheek ending at a missing right eye. His female counterpart Emeraldas has an identical scar but retains both eyes.
• A Case Closed case is named "The Scar that Evolves Into Love". It's about a pretty and blind rich woman named Kurumi Shoudou who hires Kogoro to find her first love, a man who is supposed to have a scar on his chest coming from the time he saved her life years ago: there are three men who hit this profile... but one of them may be a Serial Killer who's on the loose. It turns out that the Shoudou's butler Taisuke Houya was said man... and that Kurumi already knew it, but staged a Batman Gambit so he would stop putting her needs over his own and aknoeledge their mutual love. So of course, it's a Good Scar from his part. (The Serial Killer? Neither of the three guys was him. But don't worry, he's caught in the next case.)
• Claymores are all hideously disfigured with scars beneath their armor, presumably as a result of becoming half-yokai. Regardless of their character, they all have potential evil under their skins, and evil was certainly done to them.
• C.C. from Code Geass has a scar of the Geass sigil placed beneath and partially on her left breast and completely covered if she wears even a midriff-baring top. Particularly relevant as she's got a Healing Factor that lets her come back from the dead, yet this one scar never fades, probably because it was inflicted just before she was tricked into becoming an immortal, and appropriately enough seems to heal when she loses her powers most of the way through the series.
  • Asahina of the Four Holy Swords has a nice, neat scar going vertically down his face, above and below his eye.
• Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop has a large vertical scar running overtop his right eye. Typical good guy scar, and Jet is one of the nicest people in the series.
• Wei in Darker than Black is something of a Psycho for Hire and has a nasty burn over half of his face (and likely the rest of his body) following an encounter with electric-powered Anti-Hero Hei. Also, Wei's power is a form of Bloody Murder and so his arms are covered with scars from his constant cutting of himself, although those scars are usually hidden under clothing.
  • Amagiri, a morally ambiguous Anti-Villain generally kept one eye shut, suggesting some kind of injury there (although he did open it occasionally), and at the end of the first season, was seemingly killed in a fire. When he reappears in the interquels, he wears a large patch over that eye/general area and has lost all of the hair on his head, and has visible scars on his head and face.
  • And if you were paying attention during Hei's Shirtless Scene in the second season, he has quite a few scars on his back. Definitely falls into the category of Anti-Hero scars.
  • Mr. Smith, a villainous CIA agent in the second season generally wears sunglasses which cover the fact that while one his eyes is normal, and is blue, the other is milky white and probably nonfunctional, and has a nasty-looking scar running across it.
• Mello (bad guy... well, sort of) from Death Note gets a particularly nasty burn scar over half of his face from blowing up his own hideout to escape capture by the police. (In the manga, the burn scar not only covers the left side of his face, but extends down to his shoulder.)
  • Also in the companion novel Another Note, Beyond Birthday gets an even worse burn scar (presumably covering all or most of his body) as a result of a failed suicide attempt.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, several characters in the series have scars, and only the good ones at that since their enemies are demonic beings with regenerative abilities as one of their core powers. The hatred-fueled Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa, has a freaky collection of them, making him look somewhat evil; but those are there to show how committed he is in eradicating the actual evil beings destroying human lives. The most positive example is the protagonist himself, Tanjiro Kamado, who gets some scars along the way on the chest, neck, and arms, places where his beauty is not compromised, preserving his sweet nature and appearance. The greatest demon, Muzan Kibutsuji, is later shown to have several scars he got in a legendary battle before that could not be healed, just concealed, being the actual evil scars example in the series.
• Allen Walker, protagonist of D.Gray-Man has a scar through his left eye. He also has a pentagram-shaped scar above that, both gotten from his father when young Allen accidentally had his deceased father turned into a demon. Justified in that the scar is a curse that lets him see the souls of Akuma.
  • And as of recently, he has some huge scars going across his chest from accidentally impaling himself with his own akuma-purifying sword, which wasn't supposed to hurt him, but... ended up causing him massive injuries and horrible agony. Because, yes, he's actually a Noah.
  • Tyki has similar scars for very similar reasons; Allen tried to remove the Noah from him, but only succeeded in waking it up.
• MachGaogamon (good guy) from Digimon (specifically, Digimon Data Squad) has one across his snout, but his previous forms (Gaomon, Gaogamon) don't. How that works is fodder for Wild Mass Guessing.
  • Gatomon's paw gloves conceal "X"-shaped scars from when Myotismon disciplined her. Similar to the MachGaogamon example, these scars are not visible in her other forms. Gatomon was introduced as one of Myotismon's flunkies, only to perform a Heel–Face Turn when she is revealed to be the eighth DigiDestined's partner.
    • Theoretically, she could still have these scars in her other forms; we've just never seen them. Angewomon has gloves that automatically cover almost all of her arms, Nefertimon has gauntlet-like armor on her arms, and we never canonically see her Mega forms. There is also Silphymon, but that's actually a combination of her and another Digimon so that could be the reason.
  • Also Leomon as well as his evolved form Panjyamon, are covered in scars, although they look less like scars and more like slightly darker patches of skin/fur.
• Divergence Eve gives us Luxandra Frail, a woman who is literally covered in scars as part of her backstory. And unlike most characters with a scar across the eye, who seem to have perfectly functioning, intact eyeballs, hers is revealed to have a matching scar on it when she looks off to the side, in what has to be one of the more disturbing scenes in anime. Granted, she is about as good a character as it gets, so maybe it's a subversion?
• Yamcha (good guy) in Dragon Ball Z has 2 scars on his face. One over his eye and an "X" on his cheek. He didn't have them during the earlier sagas, though; they were gained sometime between Goku's defeat of King Piccolo and the start of the 23rd World's Martial Arts Tournament, and it's never explained how he got them.
  • Future Gohan has similar scarring on his face and looks a lot like Yamcha.
  • We actually see Tenshinhan (former bad guy) get his scar (a large cut mark from his upper right torso to his lower left) at the hands of his former idol, Murderer/Mercenary Tao.
  • Although rarely seen, Vegeta's body is covered with scars. We get a good look at them during the Frieza saga while he is changing into his uniform, with his most recent scar up to that point being Yajirobe's sword slash to his back.
  • Goku's father Bardock has a large x-shaped scar on his cheek.
  • The rebooted version of Broly in Dragon Ball Super: Broly is covered in scars around his whole body from his harsh upbringing on Vampa, including a prominent x-shaped scar on his chest and one going up his cheek.
• In Dragon Drive the good-but-disreputable character Rockaku has an eye blinded by a scar (and his dragon has a matching scar). This scar represents the character's grief, anger, and thirst for vengeance for his best friend's death, and it is these emotions that make the character disreputable (getting drunk, lying to friends, diving into battle without strategy).
  • Anti-Villain-turned-Anti-Hero Hikaru Himuro is Covered with Scars after spending the ten-year Time Skip in Rikyu. His arms appear to have more scarring than intact skin, and two long scars run parallel across his face. They're a result of intense training and battles, and are more a sign of his Determinator nature and being a total badass than anything negative.
• Eureka, from Eureka Seven, suffers "vein" scars which cover half of her left body (including her face) after an incident in Episode 19 and remains that way until the final episode whereby her scars are no longer visible on her.
• Juumonji, one of a trio of delinquents turned American football linemen from Eyeshield 21, has a cross-shaped scar on his face. His father has a similar scar. Mamoru Banba also got several facial scars after his mysterious summer training.
• Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor Soushi, good guy, has a scar on his left eye. Which is actually plot relevant when they were both children his best friend Kazuki had to claw at said eye to keep Soushi from being assimilated by the Festum. As a result there is a lot of bad blood between the two since Soushi cannot pilot Fafner due to the injury and Kazuki is in a state of self-denial mixed with guilt over the whole issue.
• Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star has seven scars that form the shape of the Big Dipper, which were given to him by his rival Shin. The villain Jagi was so badly scarred by Ken that he wears a helmet to conceal it (and to help keep his head from exploding); he also gave himself matching scars on his chest to masquerade as Kenshiro.
• In Franken Fran, Fran Madaraki has a number of scars across her body, the most notable being a Glasgow smile; they're actually still stitched, because she's a Frankenstein's Monster. Despite certain Literal Genie tendencies, she is committed to saving lives like a good doctor should. It's best not to ask what kind of life — what matters to her is that you're alive.
  • Both Veronica and Gavrill have similar scars.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, the zealous, Ishvalan serial killer Scar has, you guessed it, a scar on his face, in the shape of an "X". He is a morally ambiguous character, however, since he actually helps Ed and Al on a few occasions when he could just as easily have killed them.
  • On the other hand, Ed has artificial limbs, which are listed above as evil, and Al not only has, but is a giant suit of armor.
    • Ed has another scar on his forehead, gained from a small injury early on in the story. It's usually covered by his hair and it's only purpose is to leak blood comically whenever he gets whacked. It eventually heals over time. Word of God is that it took so long to heal because Ed kept getting hit there.
  • Dr Marcoh has his face basically blown up. It scars as gruesomely as that implies, but despite an iffy past he is pretty much the most unambiguously good character of all. Very much a subversion (though he feels that after his past that he deserves his disfigurement.)
  • Riza Hawkeye has a burn scar of traumatic character development on her back.
  • Not to mention the scar on Roy's hand from when he had to cut a transmutation circle into it to kill Lust. This scar also heals during the course of the series.
• Sousuke Sagara of Full Metal Panic! has an X-shaped scar on his cheek. Good guy. The scar actually plays a semi-important role in the final novel: When Sophia suggests that Kaname change history so Sousuke was a normal boy instead of a child soldier, she almost goes along with it... but when she sees his unscarred cheek, she realizes that however good a person as he might be, he's not the Sousuke she fell in love with, and rejects the offer.
  • Also, the Big Bad of the first season, Gauron, has a deep gash of a scar down one side of his face.
  • Leonard Testarossa, the Big Bad for the overall plotline, gains a vertical scar between the eyes when he's struggling with Kaname over a gun and she accidentally pulls the trigger. After recovering, he drops his Affably Evil "gentlemanly act" and becomes more of a Jerkass.
• Hayato Jin from Getter Robo receives a number of scars on his face — three on his chin, one across his nose and a couple around his eyes — which are normally invisible unless he's especially stressed, as well as countless, always-present ones on the rest of his body (which are almost always covered). He's a Sociopathic Hero, so these are Antihero Scars.
• Kazundo Gouda, the main villain of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Second Gig has a horribly scarred face and bizarrely egg-shaped head. He deliberately kept the scars in spite of being a Cyborg because he thought that it made him distinctive: when picture of him from before the injury is shown in one episode, most of Section Nine comments on how utterly boring and forgettable he looked. He's got a horrible Inferiority Superiority Complex that drives much of his villainy.
• Glass Mask plays with the trope. Maya's mentor Chigusa Tsukikage has half her face horribly scarred after the accident that ended her brilliant acting career (bad scar), but aside of looking creepy with her hair covering the burned half of her face and being the acting version of a Drill Sergeant Nasty, isn't actually a bad person per se.
• In his first appearance, Duke Togo, aka Golgo 13, had no scars. Over the course of the series, he's collected a great deal of them on his body. They're covered by clothing much of the time. As for morality, he's best described as neutral (you pay him, he does the job, no moral issues involved unless you double-cross him).
• Great Mazinger: Kenzo Kabuto has a scar runs along of the left side of his head, stopping right above his eyebrow. It is not elegant or unnoticeable, even though he is one of the good guys.
• Gundam UC's famous Char Aznable has a scar on his forehead received in a duel with Amuro. Though, Char's intentions are pretty ambiguous, and it's not really an indication for his alignment. In-universe, it was rumored among the troops that Char wore his famous mask to hide a horribly scarred face, when it was really just to conceal his true identity; the mask actually kept Amuro's sword strike from being a fatal one.
  • The hulking Dozle Zabi, one of Zeon's top naval commanders, has a heavily scarred face. This came from the same car bomb assassination that killed his younger brother Sasro before the start of the series. Despite the scars adding to his already ogre-like appearance, Dozle is (along with his naive youngest brother Garma) the nicest of the Zabi clan, being a devoted husband and father, A Father to His Men, and completely uninvolved in the shady dealings that brought his family to power.
• Gunsmith Cats has Bean Bandit, mercenary driver, who helps criminals, bank robbers and so with his badass car, The Buff, which could put KITT into self-pity tears. He starts as a respectful antagonist who occasionally can be an ally. A bit of a hero, a bit of antihero, but the crossed scar between his eyes tells us he truly has a Hidden Heart of Gold. And as it was stated on his own OVA, he watches hero movies twice a week.
• Father Alexander Anderson of Hellsing across his cheek. Odd, considering his Healing Factor (probably gained before his genetic upgrade to ultimate monster-killer).^note Kohta Hirano eventually explained that, yes, if a Regenerator gained a scar before becoming a Regenerator, it would stay as such
  • Above example confirmed by another Regenerator, Heinkel Wolfe. Calling it a scar is debatable, considering that his/her left cheek and face was blown open Jonah Hex-style by The Captain and has stayed like that for 30 years, but it's still a permanent wound, so I suppose that it counts.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • There's a strip known "Liet's scars". Three guesses as to what it's about. And since Lithuania is a good guy, he's able to hide them under his clothes. It's believed that at least some of these scars (which look like whipping marks) come from Russia's abuse, which has been somewhat hinted yet never confirmed in canon.
  • China has a single but very large scar on his back, apparently given to him by Japan.
  • Netherlands has a currently unexplained scar over his right eye.
• Kakihara in Ichi the Killer. He has a horizontal scar running across his cheeks and nose, a horizontal scar across his forehead, and a vertical scar that connects both over his left eye. In addition to a glasgow smile held together by piercings at the edge of his lips. He is arguably the villain even though the good guy isn't any better than him and Kakihara gets more screen time (about 75% of the manga and film).
• Naraku (bad guy) from Inuyasha has a large spider-shaped scar on his back. This dates back to his days as a human (despite Naraku technically being a Hive Mind...) and extends to all his "incarnations", parts of his body given will and intelligence. (This includes Kagura, one of the incarnations. Though Kagura herself evolves more into an Anti-Hero than a proper villain, she is still forced to reluctantly serve Naraku out of self-preservation).
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 3's Kakyoin has vertical scars in both his eyes from being attacked by N'Doul, in the very beginning of the Egypt Hen story arc. After his eyesight is mostly recovered, he has to wear sunglasses to cope with the damage.
  • Also in Part 3, Avdol has apparent scars beneath his eyes, that have a sinuous pattern. He also gets a scar on his forehead from his "death" at the hands of Hol Horse.
  • In Part 4, Okuyasu has an X-scar on his face, reminiscent of being attacked by Crazy Diamond, but while he is strong and can erase things with a swing of his right hand, he also is rather... lacking in the thinking department.
  • Resident Big Bad DIO has a noticeable scar all across his neck, that is the product of his head being attached to Jonathan Joestar's body. As the scar heals, his powers grow stronger.
  • From Parts 1 and 2, Speedwagon has a scar that goes from beneath his left eye and across his cheek, mirroring his backstory as a thug. Though, it's ultimately a good scar, since he's a kind-hearted man who's devoted to help the Joestar family.
  • And, in Part 7, President Valentine has scars on his back that come from past torture; they resemble the American flag. Probably the main reason for him being a Villain with Good Publicity despite being an evil lunatic who (among many other things) forced himself onto a 14-year-old girl.
• Yasuri Shichika, protagonist of Katanagatari, had his body scarred horribly in the last episode; though he covers most of them up, the one on his face is very prominent. He's virtually the only character in the series to receive such wounds.
• Tokine from Kekkaishi has a scar on her hand and arm that is almost covered by her clothing, but not quite. This is still a good scar, as it's shown that she received it while saving Yoshimori's life.
  • And let's not forget Yoshimori himself, whose body is COVERED in little scars all over from his constant physical training and getting tossed around by demons all the time until Tokine can bail him out. All good scars that are generally covered up by his clothes, unless he's wearing shorts or a short-sleeved shirt anyway.
  • Kekkaishi is actually something of a subversion: Tokine and Yoshimori's scars look more realistic, not cool.
• Greater-Scope Villain Ragyo Kiryuin from Kill la Kill has seven star shaped scars that cover all of her back.
• Claw from Kimba the White Lion has a scar over his left eye and unlike other characters with an eye scar, he always keeps his left eye closed.

M-Z

• Shiro Takamachi of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has numerous scars all over his body from his bodyguard days which we only catch a glimpse of when he takes a bath. He's also the kind and open minded father of Nanoha, a very Happily Married man, and definitely a good guy.
• Subverted somewhat in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 by Sergei Smirnov, a Russian lieutenant colonel with a facial scar fit for a Bond villain...who turns out to be one of the most sensible, intelligent, and humane characters in the show.
  • Also, Worthy Opponent Graham "Mr. Bushido" Aker gets several burn scars on the left side of his face and body during the first season finale, which is why he uses a mask. We see them clearly in Episode 21◊.
• Domon Kasshu from Mobile Fighter G Gundam has a cross-shaped scar on his face. Jerk in several shades that go from Jerkass to Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but mostly good.
  • Domon's boss Urube Ishikawa has a scar on his face thanks to the Devil Gundam. Wears a metallic mask over it. Looks like a good guy, but turns out to be a Magnificent Bastard and very dang EVIL.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Inverted by All Might. Despite being a hero, he has horrendous scars on his chest from a fight he got in five years ago with All For One that resulted in him losing several of his internal organs. They serve as a bit of a Red Right Hand for him and wouldn't look out of place on a villain.
  • Todoroki has a prominent scald burn over the upper left side of his face, that looks not unlike Zuko's, but he's ultimately a good, if troubled guy.
  • Played straight by Aizawa, Izuku, and Iida, who all gain neat and attractive scars. Aizawa gets one under his right eye during the attack on USJ, Izuku gets two on his right hand during the Sports Festival, and Iida gets one on his left arm during the fight with Stain.
  • Kirishima also has a classic good guy scar in the form of a small cut over his right eye. He received it when his Quirk first manifested as a small child and he accidentally cut himself with his hardening ability while rubbing his eye.
  • Principal Nezu has a large, rugged scar across his right eye, possibly from when he was experimented on by humans in the past. Though he is a Pro Hero and undeniably on the side of good, he does have a sadistic streak and enjoys "toying" with humans when given the opportunity, as he still holds a massive grudge over the abuse he endured from them.
  • Big Bad All for One has an eyeless face full of scar tissue. Fitting for a guy who's into villainy For the Evulz.
• In Naruto, Hatake Kakashi has a scar over his left eye, but it is usually covered by his forehead protector. It is the result of an injury to his eye that led to an eye transplant. Umino Iruka has the horizontal scar through the nose, and a large chunk of the adult population of Leaf Village has some scar or other, generally quite unobtrusive. Morino Ibiki, on the other hand, was very badly scarred in the past during an interrogation, but he is still one of the good guys (well, mostly), though he does cover the worst ones up with his bandana.
• The main character of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Negi Springfield, received a small horizontal scar on his cheek during his fight with Setsuna during the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament.
  • He also received a scar fighting a recreation of his father in the final match of the tournament. He could have had it magically healed, but he decided to keep the scar for sentimental reasons.
  • Jack Rakan has a scar on each arm. We find out in a flashback that he got these when the Lifemaker attacked Ala Rubra and cut his arms off. Obviously, they have since been reattached. Negi may also have a similar scar after his fight with Kagetarou.
  • Ako has a large scar on her back of the more "evil" variety of scars, even though she's anything but. It's a large part of her character background that she is ashamed by it, has a phobia of blood from the accident when she received it, and freaks out when Negi sees it.
• Misato of Neon Genesis Evangelion has a huge scar from between her breasts to her abdomen from the Second Impact that is rarely seen and Gendo has horrible burn scars on his hands, which is possibly why he wears those creepy little white gloves all the time.
  • It isn't. At the very beginning, it probably was, but after "Asuka Strikes!", there's something far more gruesome under his right glove...
  • The doujinshi RE-TAKE has Future!Asuka discarding her plugsuit in the first issue. We're not shown what is underneath but her reflection in Shinji's eye shows numerous scars crisscrossing her torso.
• One Piece:
  • Luffy, The Hero, has a small scar under his eye; the manga originally began with him cutting his face to prove himself to be a man, but this was cut out of the anime. His grandfather (good guy but reluctant villain) has a similar scar over his eye. Also, Coby, another good guy, received an X-shaped scar. X-shaped scars tend to pop out in the series, possibly as a tribute to Rurouni Kenshin, on which Eiichiro Oda (the author) worked as an assistant.
  • Roronoa Zoro (Anti-Hero) possesses a huge scar across his chest from his first bout with Mihawk (which he tried to poorly patch up by himself at first). Later on, he gains scars on his ankles from his attempt to cut his feet off to escape a villain's trap.
  • Curiously, one of the major villains in the Enies Lobby arc, Rob Lucci, has a scar on his back in the shape of the World Government's flag. It's usually hidden by his shirt, though. Lucci is an interesting case-he has a Good Guy-type scar, and is a legally licensed agent of the One Piece world's governing body, but he is portrayed as a murderous sort who greatly enjoys the killing and spying that he does in his role as a government agent.
  • After the timeskip, Luffy has an X burn scar on his chest from Akainu's attack and Zoro has lost an eye and has a thin scar from his forehead to his cheek.
  • Crocodile (villain) also has the huge stitches spreading across his face mid-way down his nose.
  • Shanks has three vertical scars over his left eye from a fight with a Wolverine Claws-toting Blackbeard.
  • Brook's old head wound is, pre-skeleton, a bit more messy-looking and disfiguring than the usual Good Guy scar. This may well fall into "hard life" or "Every Scar Has a Story" territory, though at the moment all we know is he was formerly part of a kingdom's military.
• Gene Starwind of Outlaw Star is another example of a good guy with evil scars. Including two rather jagged ones running across his cheek and countless others on the rest of his body. Unlike most heroic body scars, his shirt doesn't cover all of them. It might if he has sleeves, but...
• Gilbert in PandoraHearts has a scar across his chest from when Oz accidentally slashed him with a sword at the beginning of the series. This is, in fact, what tips Oz off to his identity.
• The main hero Tetsunosuke in Peacemaker Kurogane received a scar under his right eye following his battle with Yoshida.
• Ruby from Pokémon Adventures has a pair of scars above an eye conveniently covered by his Signature Headgear. He has these because he took a claw from a frenzied Salamence in Sapphire's place. Surprisingly, the scars have less of an impact on his Character Development than they did on hers.
• Fakir in Princess Tutu has a birth mark that is supposed to be the scar of the Knight in a fairytale that was torn in two by a monster Raven — whom he is the reincarnation of. Of course, it's always hidden underneath his shirt. Good guy, although the main heroine doesn't know that in the beginning.
• In Pumpkin Scissors, the male lead Randel Oland has his entire body covered by horrific scars, some of which (if this was reality, or if he weren't Made of Iron) would have resulted in his immediate death. They serve as a physical mark of the horrors he's endured as a member of the Invisible 9, the nonexistent (on paper, anyway) terror troops of the Empire. They're Good Scars, though, as Randel himself is a Broken Hero. The scars across his nose make him resemble a giant woobie teddy bear when he's not in the influence of the lamp. When the lamp is working, though...
• In Reborn! (2004), Xanxus has scars all over his body that appear when his anger reaches its apex. He's the Big Bad for the second arc, and somewhat of a Wild Card / Aloof Ally in the new arc.
• In Romeo × Juliet, the axe fighter Curio got a nice one across his left eye by protecting a pre-teen Odin (or better said, Juliet) from abusive guards. Also a subversion: unlike many other cases, his eye was permanently damaged. And finally, Curio's Eye Scream incident is what prompts Juliet to become the Red Whirlwind.
• Tsukune of Rosario + Vampire has scars all over his body from several very close brushes with death. His clothes cover all of them, making him a good guy.
• Himura Kenshin, the hero of Rurouni Kenshin, has a single X-shaped scar on one cheek (hence the alternate title for some North American versions of the show, Samurai X). By contrast, one of the series' chief antagonists, Makoto Shishio, is so heavily burned that his body is kept wrapped and bandaged at all times, save for his eyes and mouth.
• Cho Hakkai in Saiyuki has a scar on his belly. He got it during his Heroic BSoD in his Backstory.
  • In a later Backstory arc we see that Sanzo's body's been covered in scars since his teenage years. Thankfully they're all below his neckline and covered up by his abundant robes, so his handsome face can resume charming fangirls like before.
  • Gojyo has two small scars under one of his eyes, from when his stepmother tried to kill him. His hair is usually long enough to hide them if he tilts his head a certain way, but he doesn't always.
• In Sakura Gari, Masataka isn't scarred at the start, but gains many scars across his back thanks to Katsuragi whipping him in "punishment" for being his strongest rival for Souma's love. (Among several other things.)
• Good guy Mugen receives a scar (well, three parallel ones) on his cheek from an enemy with knuckle claws in the three-part finale of Samurai Champloo.
  • Bad guy Umanosuke, leader of the three brothers antagonizing Mugen, however, has a lidless left eye, apparently the inadvertent result of his encounter with Mugen. When his eyepatch comes off, revealing it, he becomes even more unbalanced than before.
• Samurai Deeper Kyo both subverts this and plays it straight. We have Yuya, the heroine, who has a hideous scar on her stomach (it gets de-hideoused later on, but still counts as a subversion). Then there's Akira (good guy), who is covered in scars, but they are mostly on his back and almost always covered by clothes. And finally, we get Hishigi (a rather dark Anti-Villain), who is covered in nasty scars after the Devil Eyes that have been keeping him alive are destroyed.
• Gorobei in Samurai 7 has a large upside down Y-shaped scar on his left cheek, but it's never explained how he got it.
• Giroro in Sgt. Frog has a long straight scar diagonally over his left eye. His eye is perfectly fine though.
• There are characters with scars in Soul Eater, but these are 'good guys'. However, their scars are not all attractive. Soul has a massive scar right down his chest after being struck by Ragnarok (the black blood infection this gives him is plot-relevant), though it has not been referred to or seen recently. Stein is covered in scars due to experimenting on himself. Black Star obtains a clean scar bisecting the star tattoo on his shoulder that symbolizes his Character Development in the manga. In contrast, most of the main antagonists are not only unscarred but rather good-looking (Medusa, Arachne, Noah isn't exactly ugly in spite of his dress sense and Asura's face is 'pretty-boy' material even if the rest of him is skeletal, skin-stretching squick).
• Ralph in Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry has a classic Evil Scar, right across his eye. Said blind eye turns pink when he's in a murderous rage, accentuating the point.
• Takaya "D-Boy" Aiba of Tekkaman Blade was stabbed in the eye by the first villain. The eye got better, since he was made of Powered Armor at the time, but he still got a scar. When the real Dragon showed up, he made a comment on how D-Boy's scar made it look like he was crying.
• Vash (good guy) in Trigun is horribly, unbelievably scarred, and has a missing arm, but his shirt (and an Artificial Limb) covers it up.
  • His body is so heavily damaged that some parts of it are riveted together with pieces of metal. Figure that out.
    • Not so disturbing once it's revealed that he's closer to a plant than a human.
    • Yeah. Because that means that he's keeping them voluntarily. That's a lot less disturbing.
• In Until Death Do Us Part, the Anti-Hero protagonist has a scar (technically multiple small scars) covering half his face from the explosion that blinded him.
• Vinland Saga has multiple examples, as often played straight as not.
  • While Thorfinn's body is Covered in Scars, his first (and so far only) facial scar is gained during a Threshold Guardian fight against Snake that cements him firmly as a good person. The scar is a straight vertical one on his left jaw and cheek, which makes him look more rugged than anything else.
  • Canute receives a straight horizontal scar on his left cheek from Thorfinn at the climax of the first arc. Subverted in that the next time he shows up he is sliding down the slippery slope and becoming a much worse person.
  • Averted with Floki, who has a rugged straight scar over his right eye (with the eye fully intact) and is a Smug Snake per excellence and a recurring secondary bad guy for the first third arcs.
  • Thorgil has a split lip. True to this trope, he is just as menacing as it makes him look.
  • Ulf has some clean scarring on his brow, and is Canute's Noble Top Enforcer during the second arc.
• Balgus (good guy) in The Vision of Escaflowne has numerous scars, including one dominating the left side of his face.
  • In the same series, getting a scar on his face from Van causes Dilandau (bad guy) to go crazy(er). And it was very neat, good-guy looking scar, by the way.
• Reiji Takayama from Witchblade has a badass scar. While he's working for a company not very moralistic at best, it serves as a hint that he's not just an armchair arms-trader, but was in some action personally; later he turns out to be a good guy as much as practical — when the responsibility (and the fact he fell head over heels for the heroine) comes to the fore, he kicks a fair share of bottom for a Badass Normal.
• Tsume in Wolf's Rain has a large cross-shaped scar on his chest, which is seen in both his true wolf form and his human disguise. The younger wolf Toboe says it looks cool, but it is not until near the end of the series (in Episode 29, one of the OVA bonus episodes) that we learn the reason he carries it. After Toboe dies, Tsume spends some time alone with his friend's body, and confesses to it (and the audience) that the other wolves of his pack scarred him for cowardice when he tried to run away instead of saving his companions from hunters.
• In xxxHoLiC, Himawari receives a nasty set of scars on her back and neck in place of Watanuki, who fell from the second story of the school building and onto a shattered pane of glass.
• In YuYu Hakusho Sensui's scars are multiple, as you'd expect of a villain; however, they are entirely covered by his shirt, as you'd expect of a good guy (because he used to be one). Itsuki becomes scarred over his eye from taking Kuwabara's Rei-ken: a simple heroic scar. Mukuro's scars are also "bad guy" scars that cover half of her body; however, seeing as how she got them (by pouring acid over herself to prevent her "father" from raping her as a child), as well as her usual hiding of them, makes them "good guy" markings. Kurama temporarily gets a heroic X on his cheek as well (giving him a strong resemblance to Kenshin).
• Thief King Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh! has an evil scar — a vertical slash down from his eye with two horizontal slashes intersecting it. We're never given a story behind it, but given his backstory, it's probably meant to hint at his difficult past.

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