13 Well-Written Anime Villains Who Are Extremely Compelling
Vote up the best anime villains who you think are well-written.
What makes an anime villain truly memorable? While their power, design, plans, and role in the plot are certainly important, one of the most crucial elements is the writing.
What does it mean to be a well-written villain? Everyone has a slightly different answer to that question, but most people will cite character growth over time, a solid motivation, a clear personality, and complexity and depth. For this list, we've assembled some of the most compelling, well-written anime characters out there, from classics like Monster and Berserk to more recent series like The Promised Neverland and Vinland Saga.
Who knows, maybe one of them will inspire you to write your own villain.
- 1342 VOTESPhoto: Monster / Madhouse
Johan Liebert is among the most intricately described villains in anime history. While he does experience trauma - some of which he caused himself - that trauma does not fully explain his behavior. All possible explanations fit somewhat, but none of them are perfect explanations. This encourages viewers to try to understand him - a goal that can never be fully achieved.
Johan was born from a eugenics experiment to create the perfect human. While this made him extremely intelligent, it also created a lot of problems. His sister was taken away to be experimented on at the Red Rose Mansion, leaving him alone. He ended up confusing her experiences with his own, fragmenting his sense of self. Later, he ended up killing his adoptive parents in order to prevent him and his sister from being taken back to the Red Rose Mansion. Many of his crimes later in life were intended to force others to experience the same isolation that he felt.
There's a lot more to say about Johan, and that's what makes him so great - he's so complex that he feels like a real person, although not necessarily one most people would want to know.
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- 2390 VOTESPhoto: Berserk / OLM
Griffith committed one of the “Top 10 Anime Betrayals of All Time,” but there's more to him than just his spectacular act of treachery.
He grew up in extreme poverty, but had goals beyond his station - specifically, he wanted to create his own kingdom. Through the efforts of his allies in the Band of the Hawk, it seemed like his dream might someday come true. But when his best friend and closest comrade Guts leaves the group, he ends up sleeping with a princess to drown his sorrows. This results in nearly a year of confinement and torture. By the time he's rescued, he's in excruciating pain and can barely move.
In order to regain the possibility of achieving his dream and protect himself from further harm, he decides that he needs the power of the God Hand - but to do that, he has to sacrifice the people he cares about the most. This is a great story because it fully explains why he made the choices he did. Viewers don't approve of his actions, but they get why he made those decisions.
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- 3402 VOTES
Askeladd - 'Vinland Saga'
Photo: Vinland Saga / Wit StudioAt first, we see Askeladd from Thorfinn's point of view. According to Thorfinn, he's just about the most evil person imaginable - he's the person who assassinated his father, so fair enough. But Askeladd proves that he isn't pure evil by tolerating Thorfinn following him around and even teaching him how to defend himself.
Askeladd might be willing to end lives when necessary, but unlike most of the other Vikings around him, he doesn't do them for the sheer joy of destruction. He has a specific goal that he wants to achieve - to protect the people of Wales from invasion, war, and other dangers. He wanted this because of the severe discrimination and suffering his Welsh mother endured.
In a world where people are constantly trying to destroy each other over much less, he stands out as someone who not only has a good reason, but has no desire to cause unnecessary harm.
- 4410 VOTES
Meruem - 'Hunter x Hunter'
Photo: Hunter x Hunter / MadhouseWhat is truly important in life? That's a question that everyone has to answer for themselves, even if their purpose is defined for them at birth. Meruem is the Chimera Ant King, created in order to be the all-powerful leader of their species. He never had to work for anything or care about anyone besides himself. But he was dissatisfied - something important was missing.
He found out what that was by getting close to Komugi, a young blind girl who is an expert at a game called Gungi. The two start playing Gungi together. Initially, Meruem is interested because this is the only real challenge he's ever faced. She's physically weak and has been rejected by human society, and at first Meruem feels disdain for her - but he ends up developing a bond with her as he continues to try and defeat her. This opens up his world - he realizes that life is about more than just a relentless quest for power.
It's an incredible transformation with a tragic ending, making him one of the most memorable villains in shonen history.
- 5192 VOTES
Shogo Makishima - 'Psycho-Pass'
Photo: Psycho-Pass / Production I.GIf you learned that someone was trying to take down a system that labeled people as potential criminals before they'd ever done anything wrong, and then arrests them or even destroys them to prevent that alleged future crime, you'd probably think they were the good guy, right?
Well, things aren't quite that simple. Shogo Makishima is fighting to destroy a corrupt system, but his methods involve things like slashing an innocent girl's throat and trying to destroy Japan's food supply, causing mass starvation. It's hard for the other characters to reconcile the fact that they sort of agree with him with the fact that they can't allow him to continue.
Another thing that makes Makishima interesting is that he can't be read by the Sybil System. This opens up fascinating questions about how or whether humankind can actually be interpreted in such a standardized way.
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- 6197 VOTESPhoto: Princess Mononoke / Studio Ghibli
Lady Eboshi is a great villain because she fully believes that what she's doing is right - and in some ways, it's hard to argue with her. She's the leader of Irontown, a community that takes in a lot of people who are down on their luck. Specifically, she buys out women's contracts in brothels and gives the women work afterward, and she takes in lepers and provides them with food, medical care, and paid work. The people of Irontown absolutely adore her, so why is she a villain?
The reason is that the products Irontown creates are devastating to the local environment. Also, she's producing weapons that are used to enslave or annihilate innocent people. She stands in opposition to the protagonists, but her actions don't paint her as fully good or fully evil - instead, they raise ethical questions that the viewer can apply to the real world around them.
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Reiko Tamura - 'Parasyte: The Maxim'
Photo: Parasyte: The Maxim / MadhouseReiko Tamura isn't exactly human - but she isn't exactly not human, either. She's an alien parasite who took over the body of a human woman, and then used that body to try and understand her species' ultimate purpose. She does this through a wide range of experiments, including giving birth to a human child.
Originally, she planned to experiment on the child as part of her attempts to understand the meaning of life, but instead she ends up taking care of it. In fact, she grows so attached to it that she lets herself be shot in order to protect the baby. This sort of attachment wasn't something she ever thought herself capable of. It's not only a moving character arc, but it also sheds light on the true nature of the alien parasites who the series focuses on.
- 8207 VOTES
Isabella - 'The Promised Neverland'
Photo: The Promised Neverland / CloverWorksWhen viewers first learn that Isabella is sending off the children she cared for to demons to be used as meat, it's kind of hard to root for her. She seems straightforwardly evil, which makes her an excellent starter villain. She soon becomes more complex.
We learn that Isabella isn't doing this because she wants to - it's because she was given a choice between being a “Mama” and being eaten by demons herself. While the heroic thing to do is what Emma and her friends did, the vast majority of people would see this as an impossible situation and would take the deal that let them preserve their own lives. Despite her selfish but human decision, she does care deeply for the children - especially Ray, who she gave birth to.
Once Emma and the other kids show her that rebellion is possible, she changes her mind and helps them escape despite the risk this poses to her own well-being. So she's not a static character, but a dynamic one.
- 9149 VOTESPhoto: Fruits Basket / TMS Entertainment
Akito Sohma starts off the series as an abusive, controlling person who is a source of terror for the entire Sohma family. As the “God” of the Zodiac curse, Akito was supposedly entitled to eternal love and devotion from the other Cursed Sohmas. Akito became obsessed with this idea because that was the only thing Akito had.
Despite being born female, Akito's mother raised her as a boy. Why? Because she was jealous of the attention her daughter got from her father - she wanted to be the only woman in Akira's life. She also went out of her way to tear down Akito's self-esteem and make sure she was isolated and unable to form bonds with anyone. So she became more and more obsessed with her family to the point where she physically assaulted them and verbally abused them for showing any signs of wanting to connect with people who aren't her.
Eventually, she changes her behavior, but it's a long and painful process that requires a lot of help from multiple people. That makes the whole story feel a lot more real. Another thing that's great about Akito's story is that it doesn't end with everyone forgiving her - or with everyone repudiating her. Some people need to separate from her for their own mental health, while others want to reconcile with her or support her. She's presented as a flawed human being who has made some serious mistakes and needs to make up for them while also building a life for herself and moving on.
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- 10106 VOTES
Joseph - 'The Ancient Magus' Bride'
Photo: The Ancient Magus' Bride / Studio KafkaJoseph, the main villain of the first season of The Ancient Magus' Bride, seems pretty despicable at first. He randomly appears to cause suffering for seemingly no reason, doing things like manipulating a man into slaying cats for an experiment and ripping off somebody's arm.
It turns out that his reasoning is not only sympathetic, it's also a perfect foil for the protagonist's issues. 1,000 years ago, Joseph was a grave digger who found an injured man and tried to nurse him back to health. When none of his efforts produced results, he ended up fusing with the man, taking on his curse of immortality.
In this world, immortality doesn't just mean eternal life. It also means that the body doesn't heal, and will eventually decay completely. Joseph desperately wants to avoid this fate and is doing everything he can think of to find a solution through science. At this point, he's been alive for so long that he no longer cares about hurting others - a stark contrast to the person he was when he got into this mess.
This makes him a great foil for Chise, who is constantly risking her own life to help others, just like Joseph used to. Through his predicament, she's able to see the flaws in her own behavior - and he's able to gain new perspective on the person he once was. Despite being enemies at the start, the two are able to help and support each other because they have so much in common.
- 11113 VOTESPhoto: Trigun Stampede / Orange
Knives and his twin brother Vash represent two different responses to trauma. The two of them are Plants - extra-dimensional beings who are used by humans as a power source. Both of them witnessed other Plants being severely mistreated. Both of them are terrified, but Vash sympathizes with the humans who have no other choice but to use the Plants if they want to survive. He's had positive experiences with humans and wants desperately to protect them. Meanwhile, Knives sympathizes with his own people, the Plants. He believes that the only way to create a world where Plants aren't abused is to eliminate humans.
You can understand where both of them are coming from, even if as a human and also as someone who has been watching things from Vash's POV, it's hard to root for Knives' success. The two are perfect foils for one another, which is not an easy move for a writer to pull off.
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Sato - 'Ajin'
Photo: Ajin / Polygon PicturesSato is the opposite of many of the villains on this list. Instead of having a worthy goal and being willing to make sacrifices that others wouldn't to achieve it, Sato uses his worthy goal as an excuse to enjoy himself causing pain and destruction. That worthy goal is fighting for liberation and civil rights for Ajin, a species of immortal humans who are routinely executed for merely existing.
He's an impulsive person who lives for the dopamine rush he gets from ending lives - that is, when he isn't getting a different sort of dopamine rush from arcade games. He is genuinely evil, but he isn't mindless about it - he places his impulses in a socially acceptable box. This is a unique approach that not many characters have.
- 1366 VOTESPhoto: From The New World / A-1 Pictures
In a lot of other stories, Squealer and the other Monster Rats would be the heroes. Despite being sentient beings, they're forced to be subservient to the “gods” - psychic humans. They aren't allowed to make decisions about their own communities, and they have to do whatever a “god” asks them to do, and do it graciously.
This would be unfair no matter what, but it's doubly so because they are also human. Sure, they look like mole rats, but that's because their DNA was altered to make them harmless. Why were they so dangerous? Because psychic humans once nearly destroyed the world, and so were genetically altered to be unable to take human lives without perishing themselves. This gave non-psychics a huge advantage, and created yet another dangerous power imbalance. The Monster Rats were created from non-psychic humans.
It's only natural that the Monster Rats want more than their lowly position. Squealer not only teaches his fellow Monster Rats to think for themselves, he overthrows their colony's queen and organizes a violent rebellion against the psychic settlement of Kamisu 66. Viewers don't exactly want them to win - the protagonists are desperately trying to defend their lives against their onslaught - but you can't really blame them, either. You don't get that level of complexity every day.
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