Best anime villain

S

sanji no 1

Vampire Ninja
Im suprised no one has done this. Well maybe someone has. but ohwell.

My top 5 anime villains are:

Majin Buu-Dragonball z: Man this guy was tough! He was so childish which i think made him a good foe. But later became a good guy.

Mr 0/Crocodile-One Piece: He looked like a pimp lol. But he was strong and had some cool moves. He was very evil.

legato bluesummers-Trigun: He was so mysterious and there was so many things i didnt understand about this guy. He was very evil indeed.

Jan Valintine-Hellsing: Who doesnt like this guy? hes rude and crude and swears like theres no tomorow.

Scar-Full Metal Alchemist: Im not sure if he counts as a villain but he is a bad guy at the beginning. Anyway, This guy is the real O.G. An arm that can make things explode is badass.

Well this is my opinion so lets hear who you think are the best anime villains.
 
I had real trouble coming up with a list because when I thought of a character, I couldn't decide if they were really a villain or not. I decided not to bother about if they're an antagonist or a protagonist and just go for whether they have "Villain" status.

Ei'ichi Hoba: Patlabor 1 - Having a villain who dies in the first scene but still causes so much chaos is brilliant.

Light Yagami: Death Note - Because you're never quite sure which side of the Genius / Insanity divide he's on.

Revy: Black Lagoon - Despite being a protagonist, she certainly ain't no saint.

Shonen Bat: Paranoia Agent - Roller blades were never so sinister.

Char Aznable: Gundam - Was there ever another villain who had so much of the audience rooting for him?
 
Hmm a quick of the top of me head list, will add more later

Aizen, Bleach- because i want to se him dead so very much
Agito Mikishima, Guyver - like Ayase's list i wasn't sure what side he fell on but taking everything into consideration, he's not hero.
 
Johan was a a great villain. He's too cool for villain school!

My suggestions would also include:
Vicious - Cowboy Bebop : Anyone who can make Spike run for their money deserves to be in there.
Annapuma & Unipuma - Dominion Tank Police : That ones for me :p

Harry - Gungrave : Don't care what you say, he's a clssic villain.

That's all for now.
 
Shockwave Alberto from Giant Robo, obviously. Aboshi from The Hakkenden is a close second.

Gungrave's Harry is a good call. He's a fantastic, multi-dimensional character.
 
Hmm so many different types of villain!

You have the absolutely evil ones (Johan in Monster, Hamdo in NTHT), the ones who divide fans and stimulate debate (Light in DN, most Gundam antagonists), and the villains who do terrible things but you secretly love (Xellos in Slayers, Mitaka in MI, Sora in .hack//sign). Then there's the comedy type you love to watch but are never terrifically scared of - Team Rocket, Gintama's Shinsengumi (sometimes) etc.

My favourites are usually the ambiguous type, but a good truly evil character now and again keeps things interesting. So long as they're well written. The disgust I feel seeing Hamdo in NTHT is a world away from the disgust I feel for the average Saturday morning cartoon type of villain with no apparent motives.

R

Edit: That Falcoon picture is traumatising me each time I see it now. Thanks a bunch :p
 
The one that leapt to mind was the evil butterfly guy in Buso Renkin. I watched most of the show just for his weirdness. hehe!
 
I find that anime villains tend to be quite generic and boring.

Also I don't think japanese culture has the same dualistic view of good and evil that western Christian culture does. So villains tend to be either portrayed as insane (King Hamdo), not that much worse than the heroes (Macross) or totally non-human supernatural beings (Evangelion, Full Metal Alchemist).

However if I'm really forced to choose I guess Vicious from Cowboy Bebop and Hokashin from the Nadesico Movie.
 
Ark said:
I find that anime villains tend to be quite generic and boring.
Click to expand...
Are you familiar with the characters in my list Ark? If not, I'd suggest you check out some of those series'. I don't think you could say that any of them are generic or even very similar to one another.
 
ayase said:
Ark said:
I find that anime villains tend to be quite generic and boring.
Click to expand...
Are you familiar with the characters in my list Ark? If not, I'd suggest you check out some of those series'. I don't think you could say that any of them are generic or even very similar to one another.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen all of those but Shonen Bat doesn't even exist and Char Aznable isn't very interesting or even very villainous.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ark said:
ayase said:
Ark said:
I find that anime villains tend to be quite generic and boring.
Click to expand...
Are you familiar with the characters in my list Ark? If not, I'd suggest you check out some of those series'. I don't think you could say that any of them are generic or even very similar to one another.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen all of those but Shonen Bat doesn't even exist
Click to expand...
I don't think that makes him any less of a sinister prescence though. Plus it's a Kon anime, the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred beyond any real meaning anyway.

And as for Char not being that villainous... that was partly why I chose him, he was one of the first Anime villains who was to some degree sympathetic, though I don't think you would have seen Amuro blow Kycillia Zabi's head off like that, or try to make Earth uninhabitable killing anyone left on it in the process. And I think that warrants him being classed as a "Great Villain". If they're all one dimensional, you're right, they get boring fast.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ayase said:
I don't think that makes him any less of a sinister prescence though.
Click to expand...

Sure it does. Hell, in the episode with the gossiping women his presence was more humourous than threatening. Also add to that the fact he has fairly little screen time in the series as a whole.

Plus it's a Kon anime, the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred beyond any real meaning anyway.
Click to expand...

I think in Paranoia Agent it's more obvious what is and isn't real (if you're rewatching it at least) compared to Paprika lets say.

And as for Char not being that villainous... that was partly why I chose him, he was one of the first Anime villains who was to some degree sympathetic, though I don't think you would have seen Amuro blow Kycillia Zabi's head off like that, or try to make Earth uninhabitable killing anyone left on it in the process. And I think that warrants him being classed as a "Great Villain". If they're all one dimensional, you're right, they get boring fast.
Click to expand...

Well he never left much of an impression on me either in the original movies or in Zeta.[/quote]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ark said:
I think in Paranoia Agent it's more obvious what is and isn't real (if you're rewatching it at least) compared to Paprika lets say.
Click to expand...
But... some of the stuff which should rightly have been fantasy had to be real for the plot to work, didn't it? I know a lot of situations / characters were used as allegories for psychologicial states, but if you're looking on the series as a narrative it becomes very hard to separate the two.

If you find most Anime villains boring I'd be interested to know which villains in any medium you consider to be good characters? (not trying to bait you here, as a fan of good characterisation I'd be genuinely interested to know).
 
ayase said:
Ark said:
I think in Paranoia Agent it's more obvious what is and isn't real (if you're rewatching it at least) compared to Paprika lets say.
Click to expand...
But... some of the stuff which should rightly have been fantasy had to be real for the plot to work, didn't it? I know a lot of situations / characters were used as allegories for psychologicial states, but if you're looking on the series as a narrative it becomes very hard to separate the two.

If you find most Anime villains boring I'd be interested to know which villains in any medium you consider to be good characters? (not trying to bait you here, as a fan of good characterisation I'd be genuinely interested to know).
Click to expand...

I don't know if you've read the edits I made to my original post where I outlined the differences between Japanese and western culture in regards to how villains are portrayed.

My point is it's hard to really talk about villains within the Japanese context because they have a view of life that's much less moralistic.

There are well developed antagonists in anime but they aren't necessarily good villains. For example I'd say that the protagonist of Jin-Roh is as much a villain as the antagonists if not a actually a better villain.
 
Ark said:
My point is it's hard to really talk about villains within the Japanese context because they have a view of life that's much less moralistic.

There are well developed antagonists in anime but they aren't necessarily good villains. For example I'd say that the protagonist of Jin-Roh is as much a villain as the antagonists if not a actually a better villain.
Click to expand...
I'll agree with you on the less moralistic stance taken WRT both heroes and villains in Anime (hence my decision to include protagonists in my choices, and Fuse from Jin-Roh is an excellent example of this) but I would go on to say that it makes the villains better characters when you can understand them to some degree - ie: they're not just "baddies".

The best characters are always those who's morals are shades of grey, not black and white (because that's most realistic) and while this does make it hard to differentiate, it's not impossible. Things such as killing innocent civilians, or using force where diplomacy would work are classic villainous attributes which most people's moral compasses (regardless of factors such as religious belief) wouldn't be able to justify.
 
Back
Top