10 Most Evil Anime Villains To Ever Exist

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Anime is home to a wide variety of villains, but there’s a special category of antagonists who stand out as extraordinarily evil. These villains don’t just stand in the hero’s way—they leave scars on the entire story with their cruelty, manipulations, and often sadistic tendencies. In this volume of evil anime villains, we revisit some of the most notorious figures in anime history. The anime on this list feature some of the cruelest and most sinister villains the medium has ever seen, including All for One from My Hero Academia, Dio Brando from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Shou Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist, Hiro Shishigami from Inuyashiki, and Johan Liebert from Monster. These characters have been etched into the memories of anime fans not just for their strength or intelligence, but for their utterly ruthless nature.

Whether you’re a seasoned anime fan or new to the genre, these villains will leave a lasting impression. Some of the anime mentioned here, like My Hero Academia and One Piece, are widely available on mainstream platforms like Crunchyroll and Netflix, but others, especially titles like Monster and Inuyashiki, might require a bit of digging. That’s where alternative streaming sites come in handy—check out my list of top anime streaming platforms. For region-locked content, I highly recommend using NordVPN to unlock these series, ensuring secure access to some of the greatest anime villains the genre has to offer.

And, if you’re in the mood for something different after these dark characters, don’t miss our underrated anime blog post or our roundup of top anime streaming platforms to discover more hidden gems. 2024 has some incredible releases lined up, and I’m excited to see how these new antagonists will compare with the most iconic evil villains in anime history.

My Hero Academia

Boku no Hero Academia

Synopsis:
In a world where almost everyone has superpowers, or “quirks,” Izuku Midoriya, born powerless, dreams of becoming the greatest hero. With the help of his mentor All Might, he fights villains and navigates a high-stakes hero training academy.
Length: 157 Episodes

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

“All For One” is the symbol of evil, the complete opposite of “All Might” the symbol of Good. That already implies he has committed some serious crimes to achieve that status. His presence alone was enough to paralyse the young heroes in absolute fear. He doesn’t care about world domination, he doesn’t care about power, all he wants is to make All Might despair. For that purpose alone, he spent years specifically raising the grandchild of All Might’s mentor and made him the leader of the league of villains. All for the sake a momentary satisfaction of seeing All Might’s expression of despair. Perfect example of a sick sense of humour!

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Synopsis:
Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric use forbidden alchemy to resurrect their mother, but their attempt costs Edward an arm and leg and traps Al’s soul in a suit of armor. They embark on a quest to restore their bodies and uncover dark government secrets involving the Philosopher’s Stone.
Length: 64 Episodes

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

There are many excellent anime villains in F.M.A Brotherhood, who are all far more powerful than Tucker, but I still chose him as the worst villain from F.M.A Brotherhood. He had very little screen time compared to other characters, and yet he managed to leave behind a bigger impression. He was so obsessed with being a state alchemist he was willing to sacrifice his own family to achieve this goal. He appears kind and loving on the surface, but we realise his true nature when we discover that his latest chimera is a merge of his own daughter and pet dog. Turns out he had performed similar experiments using his wife in the past. Worst of all, he had no regret or remorse, even when the remnants of his daughter in this chimera attempts to protect him from Edward.

Inuyashiki: Last Hero

Inuyashiki

Synopsis:
Ichiro Inuyashiki, an elderly man overlooked by society, is transformed into a powerful cyborg after a strange encounter. Using his newfound powers, he must battle a similarly enhanced, but far more dangerous, young man on a path of destruction.
Length: 11 Episodes

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

Anime can often show the bright side of a teen getting superpowers and not what could really happen. This is the excelling point of this anime, because it shows us the reality of what a teen would, and could do when overwhelmed with near omnipotent power. The ability to kill anyone instantly, ability to heal, extreme durability and many other superior abilities compared to the average human. This teen is so drowned in his own power, that killing is just an entertainment for him to make him feel that fleeting moment of being alive. He doesn’t have any targets or any goals, which makes him a horrifying villain. His after-school hobby is simply to pick a random house, and kill whoever is in it.

Made in Abyss:

Made in Abyss:

Synopsis
Young Riko and her robot friend Reg descend into the Abyss, a vast, mysterious chasm filled with ancient relics and deadly creatures. As they search for Riko’s lost mother, they uncover horrifying truths about the Abyss and its curse.
Length: 13 Episodes + 3 movies

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

Some people can go to extremes to pursue and satisfy their curiosity, and if this curiosity overall leads to a greater good then it is often justified. However, this also results in the birth of some of the cruellest anime villains that justify their actions in the name of science. This guy is a prime example, using orphans as guinea pigs for various forms of experimentation. Even though the purpose of his experiments is to find ways to overcome the curse, it’s almost as if he has lost all sense of emotions in the process of his research. He had no guilt towards destroying the lives of those children, reducing them to just slime. The real cruelty is the continued experimentation on Meetea, testing the limits of her immortality with various killing strategies.

Hellsing Ultimate

Hellsing Ultimate

Synopsis:
Alucard, an ancient vampire, serves the Hellsing Organization, which protects England from supernatural threats. As war breaks out between humans, vampires, and Nazi remnants, Alucard unleashes his monstrous power to defend the realm.
Length: 10 OVA

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

“Major” is first of all leading a Nazi army, which already sets up an evil atmosphere. However, his speech was the highlight here. Not only does he describe in detail the many forms of deaths and wars he enjoys, but he goes onto explain the methods of killing that gives him the greatest pleasure. What distinguishes him from the other villains on this list is that the chaos he desires is not limited to just the enemies, but includes his own army and himself. He explains that he wants massive amounts of death on both sides and he himself enjoys being trampled on. His enthusiasm for chaos manages to rile up his entire army so that the greatest war in history can me created.

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One Piece

One Piece

Synopsis:
Monkey D. Luffy, a boy with rubber powers, sets out to find the legendary One Piece treasure and become the Pirate King. Alongside his misfit crew, he navigates dangerous seas, corrupt governments, and powerful enemies.
Length: ∞

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

One Piece has probably the highest number of anime villains in all of anime simply because it’s so long. Out of them all, this man is to be remembered. He is not necessarily the strongest, but definitely evil. He may have had a traumatic childhood, which probably contributed to his personality defects. However, it still isn’t enough to justify his twisted personality. First of all, He kills his own brother mercilessly, but his worst characteristics is his enjoyment in manipulating others and destroying their lives. He made a king kill his own citizens, frames him, then causes the king’s entire lineage to suffer the consequence for over 20 years. This is possibly the longest torture that any anime villain has inflicted on others.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Synopsis:
Across generations, members of the Joestar family battle various supernatural threats, from vampires to malevolent entities called Stands. With flamboyant characters and eccentric battles, JoJo’s saga spans epic confrontations and bizarre adventures.
Length: 194 Episodes

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

Dio is almost like a protagonist with the amount of plot armour he has. He is one of the few villains who gets stronger every season, acquiring new skills and powers over time. In his early human days, he was mainly just a douche wanting to take out his pent-up anger on others who seemed well off. However, he is completely emotionless to the extent of burning a dog alive who does absolutely no harm to him. Killing people, I can understand, but killing a dog after kneeing it in the face makes no sense. To make things worse, it turns out that he wasn’t evil to his full extent until he was told that he was born evil. Until that point, he had to make justifications for his evil actions, but once he realised that he was born evil, he is now released from these constraints and can be fully evil.

Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z

Synopsis:
Goku and his friends defend Earth from increasingly powerful alien threats, beginning with Saiyans and escalating to universe-ending villains like Frieza and Majin Buu. Packed with intense battles and transformations, DBZ sets the gold standard for action anime.
Length: 291 + prequel and sequels

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

This anime isn’t exactly a psychological thriller and Frieza doesn’t seem to be that cruel on the surface, relative to others on this list. However, if you look deeper into his actions, you start to discover how malicious he truly is. He has singlehandedly taken millions of lives – highest kill count on this list. Biggest slave driver in the universe, he has millions under his control working under pure fear of death. He watched a planet explode along with millions of its inhabitant, as if he was watching fireworks. Killing people is like doing fireworks for him. He forced a boy, belonging to a race he annihilated, to work for him for years. He loves to manipulate, he kills Broly’s father only to provoke a Super Saiyan transformation. He was able to induce fear even in a God of Destruction.

Berserk

Berserk

Synopsis:
Guts, a lone mercenary with a cursed brand, seeks revenge against his former friend Griffith, who betrayed their comrades to ascend as a god-like being. In a dark medieval world filled with demons, Guts battles his inner rage and monstrous foes.
Length: 25 Episodes + Movies

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

Griffith, the most surprising villain that left many viewers speechless. He sacrificed his own men to obtain kinsmanship with the God Hand as their fifth member, Femto. In this process he has lost all humanity and became a truly demonic being. To showcase his evilness, he wasn’t satisfied with just the sacrifices of his own men, he went after Gut’s girlfriend. Raped her right in front of him while he was held down by other demons, purely for his own amusement and petty sense of revenge.

Monster

Monster

Synopsis:
Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon, saves the life of a boy who grows up to become a sociopathic killer. Wracked with guilt, Tenma embarks on a journey to stop the “monster” he once saved, diving into a moral battle of good versus evil.
Length: 74 Episodes

What Makes This Anime Villain Evil

Johan is one of the weakest villain on this list, but one of the most horrifying. He loves to manipulate, kill and destroy everything in his path. Most of the time you have no idea what is going on in his head. He manipulates others into becoming serial killers, and even though these serial killers are not scared of killing, they still fear his name. He is insensitive to deaths he has caused, and leaves behind chaos, and yet his existence is still not known to many. One of the most difficult decisions for a person to make is suicide, and yet he can convince people to do just that. The portrayal of how a completely sane looking human could achieve this level of cruelty makes him, arguably, one of the best and cruellest villains in existence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 10 most evil anime villains have left an unforgettable mark on the anime world through their ruthless actions, chilling motives, and shocking betrayals. Each of these evil anime villains showcases the dark side of humanity (or the supernatural), embodying the worst traits that make them iconic antagonists. Whether driven by power, revenge, or sheer madness, these characters push our heroes to their limits, making their defeat all the more satisfying. Their legacy as ultimate anime villains continues to haunt fans and redefine villainy in storytelling.

Looking to watch any of these anime? Check out my blog post on where to stream anime for the best platforms to catch all the latest episodes. And if you’re dealing with region restrictions, I highly recommend using NordVPN to unlock region-locked content and enhance your online security.

Stay tuned for more anime recommendations and enjoy exploring the incredible anime landscape of 2024! For anime fans looking to unlock even more hidden treasures, be sure to check out my other anime blog posts:

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