Not all villains remember how bad they were, but rather how good they seemed, even when they were bad. Anime has a special way of drawing the moral line and making the antagonist of the story whose suffering, ideal or desperation touches the viewer's heart so that he begins to silently hope that they will win. Not because their actions are right, but because their arguments are disturbingly human.
These are the characters that pushed the audience into the realm of moral conflict. Those whose purposes betrayed the flawed mechanism or empty heroism or cold ugliness that the story itself had been unable to ignore. Whether it's love, ideology, survival, or despair, each villain on this list made fans wonder who they should really be rooting for. This list covers eight anime that not only gave us memorable villains, but made us empathize with them, even when it was painful to do so.
Saddest Anime Character Deaths, Ranked
Here's a look at some heartbreaking deaths in anime, along with reasons why fans will never forget them.
Hunter x Hunter
Meruem
Meruem begins as a monster in the most literal sense of the word. Having been born as the Chimera Ant King, he sees humans as cattle, useless mechanisms used to keep him in power. In the beginning he has nothing to sympathize with, he is cruel, arrogant and overwhelming. But something comes up along the way as the story unfolds. Meruem begins to develop not in the form of grand confrontations, but in the form of quiet moments of reflection and closeness, especially with Komugi.
Yet it is not redemption through heroism but evolution through understanding that made fans root for Meruem. He wonders about his own purpose and worth, and the meaning of the judgment. As his arc ends, Meruem is no longer at war over who will dominate, but rather what he will claim. His end was sad, as it shows us a being who may have become something greater, not exactly a hero, but no longer a monster either.
Psycho-Pass
Shogo Makishima
Makishima is not a villain motivated by taking over the world or gaining power; he is a villain motivated by ideology. Makishima is a terrifying outsider in a society governed by the Sibyl system where morality is quantified and mental status is constantly monitored. The system for him is not a protection, he sees it as a cage, because it denies humanity, their free will and individuality. His crimes are not accidental, but allegations.
The fans sided with Makishima because his requests were not comfortable and they were legitimate. Is a world free of war something to live in when it is created based on control and coercion? There is no denying that Makishima was brutal in his ways, but his philosophy revealed the cracks in a perfect society. Although he crossed unforgivable boundaries, it could not escape the attention of many viewers that he was the only one who had the courage to stand up to a broken world.
Death Note's unsatisfying conclusion shows us how important it is to nail your ending
Death Note's ending falls victim to the earlier parts of the show being too good, leaving viewers sour with the change in quality.
Death Note
Easy Yagami
Light Yagami is the perfect example of good intentions but poor execution. While Light isn't exactly a villain, his way of achieving his goals, regardless of the sacrifices he has to make, is what makes him a bad guy in almost anyone's book. His desire to clean up the underworld sounds close at first; a world free of murderers and inequality sounds almost perfect. With the Death Note in his possession, Light turns into a judge, a jury and an executioner as he believes that absolute power will bring absolute peace.
Fans did not support Light because of his morals but because of his beliefs. As he became more and more brutal and indulgent in his demeanor, his wit, his determination and his unwillingness to give way and above all to escape made him more and more fascinating to watch. The audience realized he was the bad guy and still wanted him to succeed, at least to see how far his god complex could actually go before it collapsed.
Chainsaw man
Reze
The introduction of Reze is a blessing of sorts for Denji. There is warmth, love and hope to have a normal life. Her false identity is revealed in the most brutal way possible, as she turns out to be the bomb devil who kills innocent people and destroys entire streets in her quest to get Denji. And even when she causes destruction, the fans never really turn against her because they still sympathize with her because of her tragic background of being an orphan forced to grow up in difficult situations.
Reze symbolizes what Denji might have had: freedom, love and non-exploitation. She is impossible to despise because of her tragic duality: an assassin and a child who had never known true emotion until now. It says a lot that even after everything, viewers still hoped she and Denji would reunite. Reze has not been forgiven for her transgressions, but she was empathized with, and the empathy made fans want her to be spared.
My Hero Academia
Spot
It is so frightening that the stain is not due to the power of his character, but to the degree to which he exposes the hypocrisy of the hero's society. He does not despise heroes; he despises imitation heroes. People who seek fame, fortune and prestige without upholding the ideals they profess to believe in. His way out is drastic, bloody and unforgiving, and the issue he points to is real.
Stain had fans who believed in his ideology that shook the premise of the series itself. Even professional heroes had to deal with their motives after meeting him. Stain didn't just fight characters, he challenged the system. And his words would linger long after his defeat. Deep down, Stain wanted nothing but heroes to be what they were meant to be, he even reasoned with All Might when he was almost giving up on being a hero.
The most iconic revenge anime
These highly entertaining stories capture human emotions in a unique way and show viewers how obsessed one can become when blindly seeking revenge.
Devil May Cry
White rabbit
White Rabbit is a villain with painful motives and is not ambitious. The actions he performs are inhuman, calculating and destructive, but these are based on the world that rejected him. When villains need power or dominance, the White Rabbit pursues their deeds, fueled by loss and grief, and the urgent desire to make their misery count. Him telling Lady that he was a product of her creation really cemented how fans loved him more than anyone else on the show.
His reasons were not abstract but much more personal and grounded compared to most villains. Every confrontation was emotional and it was hard to tell he was a different antagonist. In a series where demons take up most of the limelight, White Rabbit was agonizingly human, and fans really wanted peace for him, peace even if redemption was unattainable.
Attack on TItan
Eren Yeager
Eren's story throughout the series can be described as one of the most tragic stories in recent history, from a child yearning for freedom to becoming the thing he hated the most. While Eren is by no means a villain, it is the circumstances of his world that made him do what he had to do. Season 4 sees Eren Yeager turn into the world's worst nightmare. He is the greatest hero to many but also the greatest villain to most of the characters in the story. He is a machine of destruction who is about to destroy the world. But still, despite all the horror of his actions, he had thousands of fans supporting him.
Eren did not make this decision out of any malice; it was out of desperation. He only wanted to follow the path that would save his friends and his country, even though he turned out to be the greatest monster in history. Viewers sympathized with Eren because they knew the unattainable burden of his responsibility. The betrayal was not his downfall, but a sacrifice, and this made his journey devastatingly compelling.
Naruto Shippuden
Madara Uchiha
Madara Uchiha is not only a powerful person, but also a tragic one. The endless warrior, betrayer and loser, Madara truly felt that the world was a hopeless case. The concept of peace in the form of the infinite Tsukuyomi was not an idea of cruelty, but the idea of eternal freedom. He wished the world to be free from suffering, even at the cost of depriving humanity of free will.
People were fans of Madara because he was the representation of what happens when hope is gradually lost. He was memorable for his charisma, power, and relatable ideals, not to mention one of the best quotes in anime. Madara might have been the best ninja and protector of not only Konoh, but the entire ninja world if circumstances had been different. Rather, he was transformed into its ultimate threat, and there's the irony that breaks hearts, which is why fans liked him more than almost anyone else on the show.
Naruto
- Release date
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2002 – 2007-00-00
- Showrunner
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Masashi Kishimoto
- Directors
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Hayato date
- Author
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Masashi Kishimoto
