Electrifying characters and items in Anime & Manga.
- Agni's Philosophy: The acolytes seem to specialize in lightning magic and use it to defend themselves and their leader.
- Ah! My Goddess: Urd does this. She can also use fire.
- In Bastard!! (1988), Arshes Nei is called the Thunder Empress for obvious reasons.
- Berserk: Emperor Ganishka turns into what's essentially a giant, living thundercloud to fight.
- Birdy the Mighty: In the original manga and OVA, the titular character is able to grab people and electrocute them; this is how she fatally wounds Tsutomu in those incarnations.
- Black Clover: Luck Voltia uses Lightning Magic. He's able to shoot condensed bolts as an attack or equip them to his feet and hands to increase his speed dramatically and allow him to bounce off walls to come at his opponent from various angles. After training for six months in magic arrays, he can use True Lightning Magic to become a piercing lightning bolt.
- Bleach:
- Jin Kariya, the main antagonist of the Bount filler arc. He has wind powers to start, but by coalescing static electricity in the air, he can manipulate lightning as well.
- Choujirou's zanpakutou is named Gonryōmaru, a name that focuses on lightning. In the anime's filler Zanpakutō arc, his zanpakutō is given lightning powers. The final arc confirms that the zanpakutō controls the weather to produce very powerful lightning storms and strikes in Bankai.
- Ulquiorra's power can be harnessed in a form called Lanza del Relampago (Lance of the Lightning) which is a lance of solidified energy that causes tremendous electrical explosions.
- Candice's schrift is "The Thunderbolt". Not only can she fire massive blasts of electricity from her hands but she's also incredibly fast, able to combine speed blitzing and lightning strikes to deadly effect.
- Yoruichi's Shunko technique gives her powerful lightning-based abilities, up to and including a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that amps up her electric powers even further at the cost of temporarily becoming like a feral cat in terms of intellect.
- Cardcaptor Sakura: The Thunder Card.
- A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun:
- Misaka "Railgun" Mikoto, a Level 5 esper, can generate and manipulate electricity in very inventive and intimidating ways. She can accelerate a ferromagnetic object to Mach 3, with range limited by the projectile tending to dissolve from air friction, she can also throw blasts of electricity and call down lightning in a very Kill Sat-esque manner, and has also been shown to use her power to manipulate magnetic fields, giving her pseudo-telekinetics that go as far as throwing a block of reinforced concrete by manipulating the steel bars inside of it, magnetically attaching herself to walls, and using electricity to align her brain with someone else's, allowing her to see that person's memories. She even uses her powers to materialize a Whip Chainsaw out of nearby iron dust. Later, similar technique in a form of cloud and protection field are seen. She can also use electricity to turn oxygen into ozone, effectively suffocating the enemy. Her clones are less powerful and less skilled in using electricity.
- Her rival and fellow Level 5, Mugino "Meltdowner" Shizuri, has a similar ability based on converting electrons into what is for all intents and purposes beams and constructs of antimatter. While she cannot fire electricity like Mikoto can, she can control it, so she can redirect Mikoto's electric attacks, but at the same time, Mikoto can redirect her blasts.
- Lightning is used in a different way in Charger Girl Rather than hurting people, it's used mostly to help people cheer up when they're depressed.
- Rai from Chibi☆Devi! uses lightning based magic while wearing his oni costume, which is fitting since he's named after the Japanese thunder god, Raijin. Also, he has blond hair to boot.
- In Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou, Judas is a superhuman with the ability to generate and control electricity.
- Kannon Ozu in Coppelion, due to having electric eel genes spliced with her own. She's capable of shooting bolts of electricity at anyone she likes. It also acts as a radar, allowing her to pinpoint the locations of people by using their bio-electricity, and stops her from feeling any pain (although she laments the latter deeply, as it is implied she can't feel anything).
- Digimon: A few Digimon who are machine or cyborg types, especially insectoid ones, have lightning attacks.
- In Digimon Adventure, Koshiro/Izzy's partner Tentomon can shoot electricity from his antennae and his evolution Kabuterimon uses an electrical beam attack.
- Digimon Adventure 02 adds Raidramon, a quadruped beast with the moniker "the Storm of Friendship." He shoots lightning from his horns.
- In Digimon Tamers, Sinduramon the Rooster Deva uses electrical attacks and grows stronger from absorbing electricity.
- In Digimon Frontier, the Legendary Warrior of Thunder is Blitzmon/Beetlemon. His Beast Spirit is Bolgmon/MetalKabuterimon, which is a beetle-shaped tank.
- In the same episode where Beetlemon debuted, we also got Kokuwamon, Child-level beetle-shaped machine Digimon.
- In Digimon Xros Wars, Ballistamon evolves to AtlurBallistamon, a form that keeps his mechanical beetle theme but trades in his sound-based attacks for electrical ones.
- Tentomon returns in Digimon Adventure: (2020), which also introduces BlitzGreymon, a cybernetic alternate Mega for Agumon that exclusively uses lightning attacks and has arm-mounted Lightning Guns.
- Darker than Black has Hei, Bai, and Nick. Hei can't shoot lightning, he can merely give off electric discharges, meaning he has to conduct the electricity to the enemy. Enter the metallic choke-wire. But he used that even before he could zap people. Hei's abilities have been stated to be the manipulation of molecular and sub-atomic particles. Generating electricity is just a by-product of that (presumably by manipulating electron flow). He seems able to do this only through touch. He could probably generate lightning bolts but creating electricity through air molecules is quite complicated. They probably didn't delve into his other abilities because they are even more complicated.
- In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Thunder Breathing adepts have lightning sparks all over their techniques, Zenitsu is given more fanfare due how much he overexerts his usage of the Thunderclap Flash; however, all the lightning is just a visual effect to portray elemental affinity to the technique’s main aspect, speed. That said the times where Zenitsu used his technique to its fullest potential at given points in the story it was noted a sound “like thunder” could be heard coming from his actions, implying Zenitsu is actually breaking speed barriers when he goes all out. Kaigaku, Zenitsu's fellow disciple and a rival who betrayed the Demon Slayer Corps to become a demon, was given actual electrokinetic powers as his Blood Demon Art, which he combines with his Thunder Breathing techniques to shoot out actual black lightnings to sear his enemies' flesh.
- Dragon Ball:
- Master Roshi/Jackie Chun uses a technique called Bankoku Bikkuri Shou, which supposedly uses his ki to create an electric charge and use it as an Agony Beam.
- Piccolo Daimaou's son Cymbal can also shoot electricity from his hands.
- Tambourine also electrocutes Bacterian to death in the anime.
- Buyon and Piccolo can shoot electricity from their antennae.
- Rage Shenron and Omega Shenron's Dragon Thunder from Dragon Ball GT.
- Kishime one of Dr Wheelo's Bio Warriors from The World's Strongest can produce electricity from his body and uses it to torture Gohan and Krillin but it fails against Goku.
- Neiz from Cooler's Revenge can do this and tried to use it on Piccolo, only for Piccolo to kill him with the same electric shock.
- Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai has "raiden/Zapple", which is a lightning attack.
- Fairy Tail
- Laxus is originally introduced as a skilled user of Lightning Magic, which allows him to create electric-based attacks and even turn into lightning for travel and quick attacks, but the climax of the Fighting Festival Arc reveals he's also the Thunder/Lightning Dragon Slayer due to a Dragon Lacrima implanted into his body at a young age by his father Ivan, which gives him immunity to most lightning attacks and even lets him eat them to recover his strength and power up. He also has the blond hair and was briefly a Psycho Electro when he turned against the guild in the aforementioned arc (but he became a good guy again afterwards). Near the end of the manga and expanded on in the sequel, he can also empower his lightning with his blood to create "red lightning", which is more powerful than even his standard Dragon Slayer electricity and can even defeat enemies completely immune to electricity.
- Olga is the Thunder/Lightning God Slayer, which is basically the same as Laxus except his lightning is colored black.
- Erza in her Lightning Empress armor, which also grants her immunity to lightning attacks.
- Natsu gains access to Laxus's Thunder/Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic after eating it during the fight against Master Hades during the Tenrou Island Arc and combines it with his fire to use "Lightning-Flame Dragon Mode". 100 Years Quest reveals that Natsu can harness and use the Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic on its own, but he never had a need to do so until his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic was temporarily stolen from him.
- Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest: The Dark Dragon Slayer Knight of Diabolos known as "Yellow Dragon" Kirin uses lightning so powerful it can harm even Laxus. Kirin gained this power by devouring the Yellow Dragon Elexion, who was also known as the Thunder/Lightning Dragon King (and thus implicitly the most powerful electric-type Dragon of his time). He also reveals that the Dragon Lacrima that was implanted inside of Laxus is in fact made from Elexion's heart, meaning they're using the same magic in a very literal sense.
- Fate/Apocrypha:
- Saber of Red/Mordred has the Skill Mana Burst: Lightning, which lets her generate electricity around her body to augment her attacks or release it as an explosion.
- Berserker of Black/Frankenstein's Monster has Bridal Crest, which allows her to charge her mace with lightning and either swing the electrified mace around or fire it off in powerful blasts, and Blasted Tree lets her release all that power at once in a massive explosion of lightning at the cost of her own life.
- Eventually, it is revealed that Sieg inherited Berserker of Black's powers after she accidentally revived him with her electricity.
- Fate/Zero: Rider/Iskandar has power over lightning because he is supposedly a descendant of Zeus.
- Raiha of Flame of Recca uses the lightning counterpart of Fuujin, Raijin. It's powerful, but the usage is nastier than you think and Raiha mostly uses his Badass Normal strength in general anyway.
- Soi from Fushigi Yuugi
- The titular heroines of Futari wa Pretty Cure. Cure Peace in Smile Pretty Cure!, too.
- The lightning oni from the oni mission of the Gantz manga is the royal type.
- GaoGaiGar: RaiRyu, and naturally, GekiRyuJin and GenRyuJin, which RaiRyu helps form, also have access to his abilities.
- Ginji Amano of Get Backers.
- Great Mazinger has the "Thunder Break" attack, which causes a lighting storm in sky, channels lighting from said storm into receptors on robot's neck, and is then redirected out of a pointed index finger.
- Once Mazinkaiser SKL gets its wings, it can perform the "Thor Hammer Breaker" attack, where it calls down/shoots lightning to/from its sword.
- GunBuster:
- Judging from the attack's effects, the Buster Collider seems to be electricity-based.
- And then there's the Super Inazuma Kick...
- Gundam has a few instances of electrified whip/wire weapons, including Gouf series of MS (seen in the original series, The 08th MS Team, and Gundam SEED Destiny)' Heat Rod, Zeta's Hambrabi and its Sea Serpent, many Zanscare MS' Beam Strings, and several 00 machines' Egner Whips. Though it shares a name with the Gouf's weapon, Epyon's Heat Rod doesn't qualify since it's a superheated Whip Sword that has no electrical component.
- G Gundam's Zeus Gundam uses its Lightning Hammer to fire off its finishing move, the Lightning of Judgment.
- Killua from Hunter × Hunter uses mostly lightning or lighting-related abilities. He's also an Invoked example: he chose to use his Nen for lightning abilities because he was trained to be resistant to Electric Torture.
- Morimura Tenma of Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (and his "successors" from later games in the franchise) has lightning-based powers.
- Akeno Himejima from High School Dx D.
- Shinkohyo from Hoshin Engi wields the Super Paope Raikoben (Thunder Lord's Whip), which allows him to char people and the landscape alike with colossal bolts of lightning, and is widely considered the strongest Paopei ever seen, to the point that its mere presence makes people too scared to fight Shinkohyo in the first place.
- In the final episode of Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation, Rei Rights—in addition to firing a giant laser cannon, calls down lightning bolts from the sky.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- From Diamond is Unbreakable, Akira Otoishi's Stand, Red Hot Chili Pepper, absorbs electricity to gain power, augmenting its strength and speed, as well as healing any wounds it takes. It can also travel through and inhabit any electrical device, such as a motorcycle's battery or a model airplane.
- A flashback in Vento Aureo mentions an unnamed "natural resources worker" who was infected with a concentrated, near-lethal dose of the Stand virus. The Stand (also unnamed) that he developed while comatose electrocuted the doctor who was working on him.
- Survivor, a Stand from Stone Ocean, uses miniscule electrical shocks to the brain to send anyone nearby into a murderous rage.
- Nurakami from Kamisama Kiss is able to summon lighting.
- In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby can shoot electricity out of his umbrella if he has the Parasol ability.
- Fate Testarossa-Harlaown of Lyrical Nanoha. Her squad is called "Lightning" for a reason. Other Lightning mages include her adopted son Erio, her psychotic and abusive mother Precia, and (in A's Portable continuity) her Doppelgänger Material-L/Levi the Slasher. In fact, some fluff contains the term "Mana Conversion Affinity", an ability to spontaneously convert one's mana into a specific form of energy without the use of spells, etc.. Fate and Erio have Lightning (that is, electricity) affinity, whereas Signum is attuned to fire. Rio on the other hand, has both lightning and fire, which is really rare.
- Hikaru Shidou in Magic Knight Rayearth. Despite being called the Magic Knight of Fire, she has one lightning spell: Ruby Lightning. The spell "Lightning Strike" is also one basic spell used by most people of Cephiro that can use magic. Especially Lantis.
- Denki Kaminari from My Hero Academia has this power, although his control over it is . . . questionable. He also has orange-ish hair, which is probably close enough to blond to count.
- Naruto:
- A number of characters have this as their primary element, including deuteragonist Sasuke Uchiha, mentor figure Kakashi Hatake, and a number of other characters including Raiga and several ninja in the Ninja Guardians arc.
- The Hidden Cloud Village of the Land of Lightning tends to produce ninja with an affinity for lightning-style jutsus. Some of the most powerful ninja in the world hail from there, like the Raikages and Killer Bee.
- In its spin-off series Boruto, the entire new team 7 has affinity for lighting release, and each one of them have their own signature lightning jutsus.
- Negi Springfield of Negima! Magister Negi Magi uses this as one of his elements. Setsuna wields this as one of her Shinmeiryuu elements. Negi takes it up to the next level when he begins using Black Magic: he turns himself into lightning.
- One Piece:
- "God" Enel, a complete psychopath. Unlike most examples, who can simply control lightning, he's a Logia user who ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, meaning that he's made of lightning itself and cannot be touched. And in the One Piece world, not even some of the strongest characters and beasts, such as Wiper, Sanji, Zoro, and Nola (the giant snake) can tank more than a couple of blasts from him. Also of note is that when Wiper managed to use a Power Nullifier on him and strike a fatal blow, his powers kicked in when the nullifier was removed and restarted his heart. If it hadn't been for Luffy's powers leaving him immune to electricity, there might not have been a way out.
- At least as glaring an example is Nami, navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates, whose most frequent method of attack is using her weather-manipulating staff to create lightning.
- "Thunder Lord" Makugai is able to channel lightning through his sword, though how he does it hasn't been explained yet.
- As a species-wide ability known as "Electro", members of the Mink Tribe can channel electricity through their bodies for close combat.
- Sanji's brother Niji can also charge his punches and kicks with electricity, thanks to DNA manipulation he got as a child (at the cost of humanity).
- Finally, the main character Luffy himself can, in addition to being immune (as Enel above found out) to electricity—completely inexplicably—produce electricity with some of his attacks (such as the Thor Elephant Gun).
- Pokémon: The Series:
- "Pikachu, use Thundershock/Thunderbolt/Volt Tackle!"
- Dawn has a Pachirisu, Iris has an Emolga, and Cilan has a Stunfisk.
- Electric Pokémon, in general, do at least one type of big electric attack. On some rare occasions in the past, Pikachu has used thunderclouds to enhance the attack, including the episode where he used thunder for the first time.
- Shakuei Amano from Popcorn Avatar, as the incarnation of the deva (god) of lightning Indra, gives her avatar Kai access to lightning-based skills.
- Princess Resurrection: Hime plugs a defibrillator into Flandre's power supply to up the voltage, and then uses it to fry a few of the vampires working at Sasanaki Hospital.
- Reborn! (2004):
- Levi A Than, one of the Varia, who always carries eight umbrellas with him. They shoot lightning. Appropriately enough, this attack is called Levi Volta.
- Also, Lambo (well, his 10 and 20 years older self) and, more generally, any Thunder Flame user fit this trope.
- Anyone with Lightning Attribute Flames qualifies.
- Mikan from Rising × Rydeen also known as the Lightning God because of her very power electric based powers. She turns her arms and legs into lightning to shoot powerful blasts of lightning, and preform teleportation-like dashes. She can also create orbs of electricity that surround her and most of the area and electrocute anyone they touch.
- Asura mode Rouge from Ranma ½ can already shoot fireballs, breathe fire, create tornados, and combine them into flaming tornados, but when empowered by a shoulder massage, the pain of having six arms goes away and she starts tossing bolts of lightning at Pantyhose Tarou, culminating in a gigantic sphere of electricity that all but fries the flying minotaur. In the video games for the series, Tatewaki Kuno's Dramatic Thunder and title of Blue Thunder is upgraded to outright thunder control!
- Ronin Warriors: Sage/Seiji Date's elemental power is lightning, which he invokes with his Thunder Bolt Cut (Rai Kou Zan). Cale (Anubis) also has this power with black lightning.
- From Rosario + Vampire, there's Raika, leader of Fairy Tale's fifth subdivision. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was Ruby.
- Sailor Jupiter of Sailor Moon. Given that Jupiter is the Roman god of lightning, this shouldn't be surprising. The anime actually exaggerated her thunder powers to the point they were the only powers she had (even Jupiter Oak Evolution was somewhat tied to them since the oak was Jupiter's sacred tree and was gained very late in the anime). In the manga, she had plant powers in addition to her lightning and the former were actually more prominent than the latter; in this context it makes Jupiter Oak Evolution seem less out-of-place. It also explains why she neither looks nor acts like a typical thunder user. Also, her color on the Five-Man Band is one not associated with the trope: green.
- Saint Seiya examples:
- Ophiuchus Shaina's signature attack is Thunder Claw, which consists in her raising her arm in the likeness of a cobra, and charge her nails with electricity to attack her foes.
- Pandora in Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas.
- Saint Seiya: Episode.G has Koios, who uses Black Lightning. Also, it explains that Keraunos, that is actual lightning, has the power to kill most gods and seal away the few tough enough to survive that with only Keraunos itself being able to remove the seal. The only ones who can wield it are Koios, who figured it out and sealed away this knowledge due its power, Zeus, who got Koios' knowledge and used his new weapon to slaughter the Titans and seal away Kronos, and Aiolia, who figured it out but didn't know its power until a dying Koios remembered and told him.
- 3×3 Eyes, some of the demons have power over electricity and thunder. Notable examples that come to mind include the gigantic elder Hyoma Pael, who can shoot deadly lightning from its tentacles, and the Juuma Lei She, which takes the form of a snake made of living electricity.
- Hibari and Hibiki in Sekirei use this as their standard attack and their Ashikabi Seo can power them up to deal massive damage by making out with them.
- Cure Peace of Smile Pre Cure is the first Cure in the Pretty Cure franchise to use lightning as an attack. Interestingly, when she's struck charging up, she'll yelp in pain, something that doesn't happen to other elemental-using Cures.
- Soul Eater:
- Though it's not actual electricity, when Dr. Franken Stein and Black Star physically manifest their Soul Wavelengths with the intent of attack, it appears like crackling electricity.
- Harvar D. Eclair is a lance weapon with lightning powers. His meister, Ox Ford, likes to be known as the Lightning General King for his prowess in using lightning when wielding Harvar, though it helps if they're outdoors. Harvar's an odd example personality-wise in that he's The Stoic.
- Marie Mjolnir's "Izuna" ability uses electricity to heighten the reflexes of her meister; it allowed Stein to attack powerful Death Scythe Justin Law without breaking a sweat.
- The third weapon to have lightning-related abilities is the "shaman" Pot of Thunder, one of Kirikou's two weapons.
- In Tokkô, Mayu can shoot electricity from her hands.
- In Tokyo Ghoul, this is the signature ability of Arima's quinque, Narukami. The sequel shows that this ability is shared by the relatives of the ghoul it was made from — her younger brother, Renji Yomo, and her daughter, Touka Kirishima.
- Tengu Brunch from Toriko. He has an electric organ like an electric eel and his cells act as amplifier circuits, allowing him to generate enough electricity to burn a beast down to the cellular level. He uses batteries in his neck to recharge if need be.
- UFO Robo Grendizer: Similar to Great Mazinger, the titular robot has a lightning-generating attack called 'Space Thunder', though in this case, Grendizer doesn't need to direct with pointer finger, the thunder just gathers in a spot between the robot's horns and then gets shot from there.
- All of the oni of Urusei Yatsura can fly and have at least one other power. Chick Magnet and Big Eater Rei can transform into a giant ushiotora ("bulltiger" and it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin). Jariten can breath fire. Meanwhile, Lum and her mom can generate electricity, both shocking whoever they touch and launching lightning bolts from their fingers. Lum routinely uses this to punish Ataru Moroboshi for angering her, but she can't entirely control it, resulting in the obvious implication that Ataru's hesitance to get near her is partially due to her tendency to shock him accidentally when she hugs him or tries to sleep in his bed.
- The youkai Tora from Ushio and Tora can, among various things, release electricity from his forehead to attack and fittingly enough was also known as "Raijuu" (Thunder Beast) in the past. Oddly enough, his lightning is repealed by the Taoist element of "Metal" because, according to Nagare, Tora is aligned with the element of "Wood", which loses to Metal.
- Yaiba has Raijin, the god of thunder. The protagonist learns to use this power, albeit sometimes he gets possessed by Raijin and becomes a lightning-tossing oni.
- YuYu Hakusho has Suzaku, the leader of the Saint Beasts. As a villain, he's definitely psycho (he treats killing protagonist Yusuke Urameshi's girlfriend like a horror movie). His hair isn't quite blond, being a mix of red and orange (he's themed after the Vermilion Bird), but it's probably close enough to count.
- Zatch Bell!:
- Main protagonist Zatch (Gash) Bell uses lightning spells. It's no coincidence that Zatch Bell's creator, Makoto Raiku, has the kanji for thunder in his name.
- Also Zatch's Evil Twin Zeno (Zeon).
