Some have evil laughs that successfully disrupt the narrative and send shivers down your spine, some have cold and complex master plans designed to overwhelm and awe our heroes, some like to sit in that complicated gray zone to make you question your stance on all matters moral. Whatever their bag, anime villains occupy a special space in both the anime they’re written for and the hearts of their frantic fans.
But which anime villain is the best? Which one do you sit down to think about with a smile, either because they were particularly compelling to watch or because they made you question something within yourself? This list delves into 5 of the most complicated and the most charismatic anime villains to differentiate between the best and the worst in history but as Anime villains often question the world order, so should you. Who do you think is missing from this list and why?
#1: Freiza – Dragon Ball Z
Freiza is the best anime villain and deserves to be in the Anime Villains list. Case closed. The end. Any arguments and we can simply stuff Dragon Balls in our ears and sing Cha-La Head Cha-La until any naysayers go away right? Or perhaps we can pull a classic Freiza move and blow up a planet in a fit of anxiety.
All immediate judgments aside though, Freiza really does present a strong candidate for the best anime villain. Introduced during the Namek saga, it’s a ‘his reputation precedes him’ moment when both Krillin and Gohan are rendered nearly immobile by the feel of his power alone as he shoots across the green sky in search of the Namekian Dragon Balls. Unlike Vegeta, the much beloved Saiyan prince, he gives no respect to his opponents and, as each monstrous transformation is revealed at the climax of the Namek saga, it seems that his power is absolutely bottomless.
Particularly noteworthy about this villain’s class A writing, is his reliance on his own arrogance. It’s his disbelief that he could be beaten by a low class monkey that leads to his eventual defeat, rather than being overwhelmed. Losing control of the situation, he is eventually cut in half by his own Ki disks and when Goku tries to show him mercy, Freiza rejects that kindness because he refuses to be anything other than the best of the best. The result is a one way trip to HFIL.
#2: Light Yagami – Death Note
Proof that the Devil makes work for idle thumbs, Light Yagami is the protagonist, and undoubted anime villain, of the series Death Note. Light has everything going for him as the story begins. A genius student in high school, he finds that he’s bored by the underwhelming day to day until he discovers the death note on the way home from school and learns, through meeting the absurd shinigami Ryuk, that this mysterious book has the power to kill anyone who’s name is written inside.
Light’s descent into anime villainy is one of the most profound in history. He starts off believing that he can be a benevolent unofficial shinigami, killing only those who have committed truly horrible crimes, but as various authorities get closer to discovering the true identity of his alias, Kira, Light has to dabble in the art of true murder to protect himself. In doing so, he opens the doors to true evil.
Light is expertly written. From his petulant rivalry with L reminding viewers that he is essentially still a child, to the smugness in his gait when he outfoxes an opponent, Light is painted not as anything special, despite what he’s been told about his IQ since childhood, but as someone inherently flawed and human.
#3: Eren Jaeger – Attack on Titan
Eren is a perfect example of an anime villain who straddles the definition for both villain and hero, so it makes sense that he would be smack bang in the middle of this list. At the beginning of Attack on Titan, Eren is defined by his near relentless will to rid the world of titans after his mother is brutally killed in the first attack on Shiganshina. This will is so strong that it defines his personality in titan form, where he is known as the abnormal titan that attacks other titans.
Everything changes in the final season of the anime. Having kissed Historia’s hand in a ceremony at the end of Season 3, and being subjected to a vision of the future, Eren seemingly forsakes his friends to join the enemy side in a complete 180 of character. This revelation left fans shocked after seasons of Eren’s vehemence against the titans but as his plan is slowly unravelled, it seems that Eren’s end goals have merely shifted. Instead of saving humanity, Eren has opted to preserve Paradis and his friends because this is now the only future that works well for him. The problem is that this rescue mission comes at the expense of unleashing an apocalypse.
Eren’s story of relentless will to bend the world to his design transforming into one of trying to make the best of a frightful future is truly heart-breaking. His eventual defeat is painted as a tragic affair designed to manipulate every sympathy you’ve ever had for the character. Never before has there been such an in depth look into how an anti-hero is shaped and for this muddy view on morals and manipulation, Eren deserves this place at #3 on the best to worst anime villains list.
#4: Rachel – Tower of God
Thank goodness this isn’t a most loved to most hated list anime villains list otherwise Rachel would have to occupy the bottom of the list in the most hated spot. She is introduced through the eyes of Baam, the young boy entering the tower to try and find her after she up and left him to climb the tower herself. As his journey progresses, the flashbacks detailing Baam’s life show Rachel as a patient, benign person willing to teach Baam and help him grow after he wakes up underground with no memory.
Her true colours reveal themselves at the end of the first season. To progress to the next level of the tower, as she wants to so badly, Rachel pushes Baam off of the platform she and him are riding on to escape the current administrator’s test. Until that point, she had been wheelchair bound but she drops that ruse to make sure that Baam will have no chance of recovery.
By the time Season 2 rolls in (available on Crunchyroll), we’ve seen her true selfish colours and are all but yelling at the screen every time Baam’s old teammates are anywhere in her presence, particularly Khun who has made it his mission to look after Rachel to honour Baam’s memory, though he is quick to pick up on her tells. Rachel is a great example of a character you love to hate.
#5: Madara Uchiha – Naruto Shippuden
Let me sum up this anime villain in a couple of very important words: ‘yadda yadda blah blah Uchiha family blah blah’. Technically, the actions he undertook as the main villain of Shippuden were in the interest of peace across the shinobi world. He wanted to end the conflict that had spawned across generations and the Infinite Tsukuyomi (a mass hallucination) would be the key to that. Big, grand things that masked what he really wanted, which was equality for his family.
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of this. Madara’s motivations are sound and, like Eren, he is designed to straddle the moral line. The reason he occupies the bottom spot on this list, or the spot of worst ranked anime villain, is because of the way those motivations don’t particularly spur our protagonists on a personal level. Nagato, wielder of the Rinnegan, was a personal antithesis for Naruto when he attacked Konoha and, in confronting him, Naruto was able to grow and change. Naruto is able to bombard Madara with his personal philosophies as per usual but the growth here is arbitrary without that personal connection and is, therefore, a little weak.
Far more interest is generated from the battle between Naruto and Sasuke that follows, particularly with Sasuke dropping the entirely mad bomb that he’s planning on taking Konoha for himself. When Naruto eventually manages to defeat Sasuke, it’s for them to have the heart felt conversation we’ve all been waking for since they parted at the end of the original Naruto. Seeing Sasuke’s tears is a much-needed catharsis, and if Madara’s vendettas hadn’t been so steeped in what had happened between himself and his brother years ago, it might have made for a more compelling conflict.
Come to The Dark Side…
…we have anime. We have this world absolutely littered with some of the best anime villains ever written. This list covers only a basic few that encompass a broad variety of the types of anime villains on offer and to varying degrees of success. Honourable mentions must be made to the white rabbit of Devil May Cry who brings new light to the concept of the moral gray, Sosuke Aizen of Bleach who does one of the most profound gradual reveals in anime history and Satella of Re:Zero who is responsible for putting Subaru through the trauma of ‘return by death’.
All anime villains pack a punch in their respective worlds. It’s always such a thrill when they’re on screen, when the stakes are suddenly amped up to 11 and you don’t know if the protagonist is going to come away with some horrifying wound that will change the game for them, a new soul crushing perspective on their adventure or one of their beloved companions is going to end up dead.
