15-year-old Aotsuki Ushio is the energetic and stubborn son of an eccentric temple priest. His father had often told him stories about the monsters known as youkai, but Ushio took them to be mere fable. However, when Ushio’s father is away on work, Ushio discovers a terrifying youkai impaled by the legendary Beast Spear, pinned to the wall in their basement for the past five centuries. The beast tries to coax Ushio into setting him free and a reluctant Ushio grants that wish but a sudden youkai outbreak threatens the lives of Ushio’s friends. With no one else to rely on for help, Ushio elicits the help of the basement youkai, Tora, with the Beast Spear as his only insurance that Tora won’t get out of hand. Thus, begins the journey of an unlikely duo through the scary supernatural world.

Inasa Kirio is one of the few people on the planet who could have wielded the Beast Spear. He is an experimental human, subject to various experiments and modifications which created a prime youkai-killing machine. He wields a weapon known as the Elzar Scythe; however, he is also deadly when it comes to fighting up close and personal.

Katsuragi Keima, known online as the legendary “God of Conquest”, is capable of conquering any girl’s heart – provided they are in dating sim games. His obsession with the two-dimensional world of gaming has rendered him unable to appreciate much else. When he arrogantly accepts an anonymous offer to prove his ability at conquering dating sims, Keima is misled into helping a naïve demon named Elucia “Elsie” de Lute Ima with her mission – to retrieve runaway evil spirits that have escaped into the human world and scattered themselves. The only way for Keima to capture these spirits is to conquer what he hates the most: the unpredictable hearts of three-dimensional girls! Shackled to Elsie with a deadly collar, Keima has no choice but to put his title of “God of Conquest” to the ultimate test, navigating the heats of several real-life girls!

Haqua du Lot Herminium is a demon who is best friends with Elsie (contrary to whatever she says). She was one of the most intelligent students in her grade, graduating top of the class. She wields a scythe dangerously well; in fact, she is capable of making the weapon emit azure flames that could also be used as projectiles! Scythe aside, Haqua is adept at using spells too.

Unbeknownst to many, creatures of darkness and evil lurk in the shadows, ready to pounce on unsuspecting humans. The Hellsing organisation is dedicated to getting rid of these unholy forces and at the top of the organisation is Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who commands a powerful military dedicated to fighting the undead. Her army; however, is nothing in comparison to her trump card: Alucard, the vampire. With his new vampire servant, Seras Victoria, Alucard battles all that opposes Hellsing in order to ensure the survival of humankind.

First Lieutenant Zorin Blitz is a vampirina with short, spiky hair, a muscular body and a bit of a mean streak! Her sadistic personality seems to be leagues beyond the various emissaries of Hell. She leaps into battle possessing powers of illusion, superhuman speed and strength, mind reading and the ability to wield an incredibly heavy scythe with ease!

The fantasy world of Remnant is filled with dangerous monsters and treacherous terrain that makes living a day-to-day struggle. However, Beacon Academy is an institution dedicated to training Huntsmen and Huntresses for battle against these evils. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang are four students at Beacon Academy preparing to go in for their first day of school – what awaits them at their new place of learning?

The main protagonist of the RWBY series, Ruby Rose is also known as “Crescent Rose”, which is the name of her weapon. The Crescent Rose is a High-Calibre Sniper-Scythe that she designed herself and it is capable of transforming from a scythe into a sniper rifle. She uses the recoil from when she fires rounds to aid her movement in combat, allowing her to swiftly deal with scores of enemies while gracefully pirouetting through the chaos.

In the Kingdom of Fiore, magic is a regular part of everyday life. As a result, like-minded wizards and mages banded together to form magic guilds, where they can take on job requests and find companionship. Fairy Tail is an infamous guild known for its sense of family and strength. 17-year-old Lucy Heartfilia is a young mage dreaming of joining Fairy Tail and sets out to find the guild. On her way, she bumps into Natsu Dragneel and his partner Happy, who are looking for Natsu’s foster father, the dragon Igneel. When Lucy is tricked by a strange man and abducted, Natsu shows up to save the day, revealing himself to be the Salamander… the fabled Salamander of Fairy Tail! Natsu offers to take Lucy back to the Fairy Tail guild, where she meets several interesting characters and becomes one of them. Together with Fairy Tail, Lucy battles the forces of evil and goes on several exciting adventures, adventures that never end.

Erigor is a minor antagonist in the Fairy Tail anime who uses wind magic. He was a member of the Dark Guild known as Eisenwald, and his epithet was “Shinigami” (God of Death), a reference to the fact that he only accepted assassination jobs. His possession of a scythe further pushes this image to the fore. After the time skip, Erigor joined Oracion Seis under the moniker “Grim Reaper”.

13-year-old Rachel wakes up and finds herself trapped in the basement of an abandoned building. With her memories missing, she has no idea where she is and wanders the building hoping to figure something out. She comes across a man covered in bandages, who goes by the name Zack and wields a scythe. They form a strange bond, working together to find their way out of this strange building, as well as the reason why they were there in the first place.

Isaac Foster, better known to us as “Zack” is the first person Rachel runs into while stuck in the building. He is a serial killer on the run because of his involvement in several cases. Wrapped in bandages and forever under the “visor” of his hoodie, Zack is a quintessential “bad guy”, using a massive scythe in combat; which only makes him look all the more menacing.

The Four Cardinal Heroes are a group of ordinary guys from modern-day Japan who find themselves summoned to the Kingdom of Melromarc in order to save it from the Waves of Catastrophe. The Waves have repeatedly brought death and destruction in their wake. The heroes are each bestowed a special weapon – one wields a spear, one a sword, one a bow; however, Iwatani Naofumi is not impressed when he realises that he has to wield a measly shield. Lacking the offensive capabilities associated with heroes, Naofumi is ridiculed by the other heroes and the citizens of Melromarc. Each hero is given resources and a party of comrades and Naofumi sets out with just one person – Myne Sophia. Things seem to be going well with Myne until she betrays him and accuses him of taking advantage of her. The entire kingdom turns its back on Naofumi and he is forced to journey on his own, with a terrible reputation following him wherever he goes. Despite his predicament, Naofumi is still a hero and does his best to protect the Kingdom of Melromarc from the Waves.

Just like Melromarc summoned its set of heroes from various alternate versions of Japan, other countries in this fantasy world have their set of heroes as well. That’s where L’arc comes in, being the Scythe Hero who wields a weapon known as the Vassal Scythe. He is an incredibly powerful ally, but an incredibly tough time to have as a foe. He briefly befriends Naofumi because he never once believed that Naofumi was the fabled Shield Hero… or Devil.

A mysterious virus kills off everyone older than 13 years. After that, mankind is enslaved by a race of vampires that had remained hidden until that point. In exchange for blood, they control and “protect” what remains of human society. Hyakuya Yuuichirou and Mikaela are taken along with other children from their orphanage and are treated like livestock. Unhappy with their situation, the children plot an escape; however, they are quickly caught and slaughtered, with Yuuichirou being the only survivor. He escapes and is found by the Moon Demon Company, a sect devoted to exterminating the vampires in Japan. Years later, Yuuichirou vows to take revenge against the beings who murdered his family and friends, but vengeance isn’t that easy to obtain in a world that has long been ruined.

One of the sergeants and squad leaders of the Moon Demon Company, Shinoa is a sarcastic teenage girl who wields an incredible weapon. Her Demon Weapon is Shikama Douji, a scythe which she can condense into the shape of a mere pen. She is capable of inciting the demon which resides in her weapon to attack her enemies and she can detect anything that comes into the attack radius of her scythe.

Tokyo’s district of Ikebukuro is characterised by strange occurrences, rumours and even anonymous gangs and shady characters, but in the mix, the legend that stands above the rest is that of the headless “Black Rider”, who can be seen cruising the streets on a jet-black motorcycle. Ryuugamine Mikado has always wanted to live in the city, and his childhood friend, Kida Masaomi, convinces him to move to Tokyo. On his first day, Mikado witnesses the Black Rider, kicking off the first of several supernatural events to happen in Ikebukuro.

The Headless Rider of Ikebukuro. Celty is perhaps one of the most interesting characters on this list for several reasons. We’ll start with the fact that she is actually a type of Irish faerie – a Dullahan, to be precise. Despite her otherworldly being, Celty is one of the more normal characters in the Durarara cast. Her clothing, bike and pretty much the various parts of her body seem to be made up of, and connected by a shadow-like substance. Sometimes, Celty moulds this substance into a black scythe, which is quite fitting given the fact that scythes are tools used to behead and Celty… well, Celty is trying to find her own head. Literally.

A strange duo appears in Soul Society and attacks Kuchiki Rukia. Memories of Rukia disappear, but Ichigo is reminded of Rukia when Kon asks about her. He decides to head over to the Seireitei but to his horror, everyone in Soul Society no longer knows who Ichigo is. Ichigo and Kon are forced to hop into combat against their friends in Soul Society in order to get to the bottom of the strange circumstances and return everyone’s memories to normal, but will it be that easy?

Rukia loses her own memories and her very form changes after being forcibly merged with Homura and Shizuku. Her hair and eyes lean towards a lavender colour, her kimono becomes white and tattered, and her fighting ability is greatly augmented. This particular appearance of Rukia lends itself towards the first ever design of Rukia that Tite Kubo envisioned: she wields a large scythe. This malicious, Hollowfied form of Rukia is a treat for Rukia fans and BLEACH fans in general; however, there is something oddly heart-warming about seeing character concepts that were once scrapped come to life in other ways.