Anthony LaRusso is a major character in the Netflix series Cobra Kai. He's the son of Daniel and Amanda LaRusso and the younger brother of Samantha LaRusso.
He is portrayed by Griffin Santopietro.
Biography[]
Season 1[]
Anthony spends a lot of his free time playing video games and pays no attention to karate. He has no problem reminding Roland Zarkarian that while his father, Armand Zarkarian, makes more money than Daniel LaRusso, that Daniel could beat Armand in a karate fight. While cheering for his father at the All Valley Karate Tournament, Anthony seems to take a mild interest.
Season 2[]
In the months since the tournament, Daniel asks Anthony if he wants to join Miyagi-Do Karate instead of going to summer camp, but he refuses as he doesn't want to do the chores associated with training. The morning after the party at Moon's house, Daniel goes to Samantha's room and notices she is not there. When Anthony walks by, Daniel asks if he has seen Sam, to which Anthony says not since he only got back from camp yesterday. However, Anthony looks unconcerned, and asks Daniel to make him waffles.
Season 3[]
Anthony arrives at Miyagi-Do Karate alongside his mother, when they walk in on Sam teaching karate. While Amanda is confronting Sam, Anthony is shown eating a popsicle. He repeats little things that his mother says, almost enjoying the reprimand that Sam is getting. When his mother finishes speaking, he tells Sam that he is disappointed in her, mocking her.
Season 4[]
Anthony is a student at West Valley Middle School, and his unsupervised lifestyle has led him to become friends with a group of bullies. They watch the new kid, Kenny Payne, dancing as he waits for the bus stop. They make fun of him with Anthony calling it the "trying-not-to-shit-in-my-pants dance". Their attempts to humiliate the kid further during gym class backfires, as Kenny is a decent basketball player. He accidentally checks the ball into Anthony's face. Though Kenny apologizes, Anthony doesn't believe it was an accident and tries to intimidate the student. Lia intervenes and stops Anthony, telling him to take it easy on the new kid. He obliges but watches her be friendly with Kenny and he gets jealous. His friends urge him to use karate on Kenny, but Anthony lies that the moves cause "brain damage". He is agitated when Zack slurs his name as 'LaPusso'.
That night, Anthony and his friends catfish Kenny into believing that Lia wants to meet him at Balboa Park in his Dungeon Lord cosplay. They record Kenny in the park. He tries to stop Anthony from recording and accidentally breaks his phone, apologizes, but calls them assholes. Anthony's friends restrain Kenny and beat him up, encouraging Anthony to use his karate moves. Anthony hesitates, but readies himself to attack when he is called 'LaPusso'. It is then that Kenny escapes. They chase him to no avail as he hides from them in a dumpster. The bullying doesn't stop there, as they continue to chase the kid, beat him up, and fill his locker with milk in the coming school days. The cyberbullying and harassment continues, with Anthony stealing Kenny's clothes from the locker room so he'll be embarrassed in front of the entire class.
Daniel finds the stolen Cobra Kai sweatshirt and confronts Anthony over the attire. He explains that a kid from Cobra Kai is bullying him at school so he stole it. Daniel decides it's time to begin Anthony's training in Miyagi-Do. He shows him the dojo and explains the rich history behind everything. He tasks Anthony with cleaning Mr. Miyagi's old cars. When he returns, he's shocked that Anthony actually cleaned them. His excitement turns into annoyance when he learns Anthony hired a man to clean the cars for him. Daniel decides Anthony isn't mature enough to handle karate after all. Despite this, Anthony discovers a karate scroll inside that he finds interesting. Daniel merely calls it an extreme measure he hopes no one has to use. After that, his interest in karate seems to grow from that moment. At one point, Anthony and Lia have a conversation, where they reflect that they used to be close in kindergarten, but have grown apart over the years. Lia invites Anthony to an upcoming carnival and Anthony is excited about this, but this sours when Lia announces she is going with Kenny primarily. This seems to be the reason why Anthony has been bullying Kenny.
Back at school, Anthony tries to apologize and reconcile with Kenny but Kenny doesn't forgive him. After he calls Anthony "LaPusso", his friends chase Kenny through the halls of WVMS until they reach the library. Their confidence in cornering the boy evaporates when the lights in the room go out. They split up to find him but one-by-one, Kenny picks off the students using the techniques he's learned from Cobra Kai dojo. He leaves Anthony for last and easily takes his bully down. He is about to beat him up, only for him and Anthony to look up when the lights suddenly turn on and a librarian appears. The students are taken to the principal's office where the LaRusso's arrive, expecting swift action against Kenny for the bullying being done to their son. However, it turns out that Anthony lied when the principal calmly explains that Anthony is also being suspended, as he and his friends have been bullying Kenny for quite some time; he shows the Instagram video of Kenny's locker being filled with milk, followed by security footage of Anthony and his friends chasing Kenny into the library, and then reveals that Anthony has become a bully. From outside, Anthony is suspended, but Kenny is off the hook. He whispers "got ya" to Anthony, knowing that he's won this battle.
Now grounded, Anthony loses his electronic privileges and is sent to his bedroom as a result. While his sister Samantha LaRusso goes to the West Valley High School Junior Prom with Miguel Diaz, Daniel goes to Anthony's bedroom and tries to make amends with his son for his actions by banning him from playing video games. Anthony then later wishes Daniel good luck at the All Valley Karate Tournament in which he agrees. Unbeknownst to Daniel, Anthony had been secretly hiding an iPad all along in his room, in which he hears due to a notification chime while playing Dungeon Lord. Daniel begins to get angry at him for not taking it seriously and demands Anthony to give his iPad to him. Anthony protests to Daniel that it isn't an iPad even though it is one but Daniel breaks it using karate techniques with his knee regardless. Daniel warns Anthony to follow and listen to his rules or face a much worse punishment since he is "done playing games with him", which Anthony reluctantly agrees.
Anthony and the rest of his family went to the All Valley Karate Tournament to cheer for Sam and Miyagi-Do. He then saw how Kenny was brutally beaten by Robby in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Realizing his mistakes, Anthony followed Kenny to the locker room to try and cheer him up with his loss by saying that Robby was one of the best and also tried to apologize again to Kenny for everything he did to him. Unfortunately, Kenny at this point was convinced that he doesn't know how it feels to be bullied as he never experienced it so he started brutally punching him until he was stopped by Robby. Kenny then grabbed Anthony and told him that next year he would be in a world of pain. Robby then tried to talk to Anthony but he left while claiming that he should leave him alone. After the All Valley, Anthony and the rest of his family returned to their home in disappointment that Cobra Kai won.
Season 5[]
Anthony officially joins Miyagi-Do Karate, though he continues to be bullied by Kenny and the other Cobra Kai's. They harass him at the water park by covering him in pool tubes, and then kicking him into the pool, but not before Anthony reprimands Kenny for being mean to him and not accepting his apology.
Anthony tries to continue his life, but the expansion of Cobra Kai interferes as the members hand out t-shirts. Anthony turns down the t-shirt, but throws it on the ground, which is noticed by Kenny and his friends; Kenny picks up the shirt and sarcastically tells him he dropped something. The Cobra Kais give him a swirlie in an un-flushed toilet as retaliation, which earns him a cruel nickname and new trauma.
Amanda, finally reaching her breaking point with the karate tensions, takes the kids to Ohio to see her mom and cousin, Jessica. Sam and Anthony have some time together as he struggles to play a classic video game. She sees the video of him being kicked into the pool, asking if that was him; he admits it is, so she asks why he didn't come get her as she would have helped. Anthony says he doesn't think his sister standing up for him would leave a good impression and admits he's a bully; she's surprised by the reveal, though she decides to help him learn to defend himself now that he's no longer a bully. He joins Sam and the rest of the Miyagi-Do's in training, as the family stays united. Later, he and his classmates train under Chozen. During the exercise, he uses his Dungeon Lord knowledge and suggests they "protect the egg" by working together as a team instead of as individuals. In the end, Chozen surrenders, and the plan is successful.
Later, Anthony goes to the Cobra Kai dojo to fight against them in order to qualify for the Sekai Taikai tournament. During the girls match, Sam wins her match and because the organizers are impressed with the dojo, Miyagi-Do qualifies.
Anthony meets with his sister at the Cobra Kai dojo. She explains to her classmates and the Eagle Fangs that they are taking down Cobra Kai. With the help of Tory Nichols, the Miyagi-Do students enter the dojo and hack into the computer to find evidence. Later, the Cobra Kai students arrive and Anthony gets into a brief confrontation with Kenny, who kicks him onto the ground. Much to Anthony and the rest of the Miyagi-Fang's surprise, they were betrayed by Mitch, who switched back to Cobra Kai as their mole and warned Kyler and the others of the group's plan to break into the dojo. After, the Cobra Kais fight the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students. When Anthony recovers Demetri's tablet, he checks the upload progress, while the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students protect him from the Cobra Kais. After the video uploads, Anthony plays it on the TV to show to the entire dojo, successfully ending the fight and making all the Cobra Kais see the truth. After the video, he, his family, his classmates, the Cobra Kais, Eagle Fangs and his fellow students witnessed Daniel defeating Terry Silver, and he and his family embraced his dad afterwards. Thanks to Anthony, Kenny and the rest of the Cobra Kai students quit the dojo when they throw their gear at Silver. Later, he is seen sitting between Hawk and Demetri on a firetruck, resting from a long fought battle.
Season 6[]
Anthony and Samantha walk down the stairs to greet Daniel and Amanda before they leave to go to school. Anthony steals Daniel's croissant, Daniel attempts to grab it off him but Anthony blocks it, leaving Daniel and Amanda shocked and impressed. Anthony arrives at West Valley High School for his first day, looking overwhelmed. Kenny walks by, Anthony gives Kenny a slight nod but Kenny is unphased and walks off.
Anthony is seen training at Miyagi-Do with other students until Mitch arrives to rejoin the dojo. When Kenny finally agrees to join Miyagi-Do, he gives a nod to Anthony who nods him back. Anthony is with all the other students bowing to Daniel, Johnny and Chozen.
Later, he participates in the Sekai Taikai qualifiers to see which six students will represent Miyagi-Do in the tournament. Much to his and his father's happiness, he is one of the twelve to advance to the next round during Mike Barnes' challenges. Unfortunately, he gets eliminated after the battle royale when Kenny punches him and gives him a bloody nose, though Kenny does apologize. Daniel tries to cheer Anthony up to no avail.
When Kenny gets constipated during the tiebreaker and has an incident after not being able to use the port-a-potty, leading to him being eliminated from going to Barcelona to participate in the Sekai Taikai, Anthony laughs and later claims that his bloody nose no longer feels bad. He also comforts Eli after losing to Demetri.
Anthony shows a "#SHITBUTT" video of Kenny's incident during the tiebreaker, but Amanda berates him for constantly bullying him and says he should be ashamed of himself. He defends himself saying it wasn't him. Despite his pleas, Amanda insists he still owes Kenny an apology and was forced to go to Kenny's house to apologize. Anthony then knocks on Kenny's door and does an insincere apology, which triggers both of them to fight until Amanda stops the fight. Later, the two reconcile after Kenny learned the truth about Devon spiking his water, with Kenny showing some regret on his face when he sees Anthony drinking laxatives and Gatorade as a way to make amends for the past bullying he has done to Kenny.
Later, he, Amanda, Bert, Nate, and several Miyagi-Do students watch the Sekai Taikai semi-finals that turned into an all-out brawl between all dojos. He gets shocked when he sees Kwon's unfortunate death.
Anthony later watches the Sekai Taikai finals at the All Valley Sports Arena and helps to train Miguel and Tory for the finals. Anthony sees his sister off to Okinawa along with the rest of the family. Alongside Kenny, Devon and a new class, Anthony attends the reopening of Cobra Kai and trains at Miyagi-Do, continuing his karate. While discussing the next All Valley Karate Tournament, Daniel and Johnny mention that Anthony has come a long way and Daniel suggests having him fight for Cobra Kai in the tournament rather than Miyagi-Do as Johnny would be a neutral sensei. Johnny agrees and suggests Devon taking Anthony's place in Miyagi-Do in turn.