Forum - View topicYour Most Memorable Anime Villain
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JaggedAuthor
 Posts: 981 |
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I'm just thrilled to discover that someone else remembers Tenshi ni Narumon.
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SejinPK
Posts: 129 |
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Really great list by the ANN critics!
I had the exact same feelings about Sesshoumaru. I also thought Naraku was a pretty good villain. He was kinda a mishmash of a bunch of "scheming villain" characteristics, but I thought it was done really well (though I thought spoiler[the attempt at making him somewhat sympathetic at the end of The Final Act] was misguided). I also liked how, when the protagonists would find him, much of the time he wouldn't come out of the fight unscathed. It didn't always end with Naraku having the last laugh with a, "Better luck next time! Mwahahaha!" He would actually be hurt (often seriously), sometimes barely escaping with his life, and would be forced to come up with new ways to out-maneuver the heroes, or at least bolster his defenses against their attacks. Despite how untouchable Naraku often seems, when it got down to it, I thought the show really got you to feel how much of a threat the protagonists were to Naraku's life. I'd also second other villains I've seen mentioned, such as Frieza, Kyuubey, Johan from Monster, and Master Asia from G Gundam. With Frieza in particular, I think his design and voice (in English; I haven't seen it in Japanese) really helped make a strong impression on me. A couple others that I find memorable or interesting are Lio Shirazumi from Kara no Kyoukai and Kaiki from the Monogatari Series. With Lio, it's primarily because of what he represents and the effect he has on Shiki's already-precarious state of mind. With Kaiki, it's just...well, he's Kaiki. He's fascinating. |
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Paul D. Atreides
 Posts: 128 |
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I love lists like this! Let's see what memorable villains I can come up with, you critics took all the good ones
The Gauna from Knights of Sidonia Granted this is not a character but an alien life form that for some reason is hellbent on destroying humanity. But they're too terrifying and angering to ignore. With every battle they keep evolving into more powerful and dangerous forms, on a few occasions they come close to achieving their goal, and the tension almost made me yell at the screen. Maybe not a fascinating character per-se, but I still think they count as villains. Embryo from Cross Ange He is the Biggest Bastard of 2015 for a reason. It's interesting that in an anime often criticised for being misogynistic the main villain is like the epitome of misogyny. Seducing women only to crush them over and over again for seemingly forever, creating a whole universe around it, only to choose Ange as his bride because she's strong. Probably so he could get more satisfaction from breaking her. That was all I could come up with for anime. The next ones are from manga. Arlong from One Piece I really hate this guy. What he did to Nami and her village haunts me to this day, and his misanthropic ideology led me to call him Fish-Nazi. Sure he looks cool and he is fittingly diabolical, but I still want to turn his ass into shark fin soup and stir him with his own nose (guess I leave that to Luffy). He was given a backstory later on that explained more about his origins, but it didn't make him look sympathetic at all. If anything it just showed that he was always a scumbag who believed himself to be a superior species. Pain from Naruto The leader and strongest member of the Akatsuki. Pain has cool powers, a great backstory, and an awesome theme song. He's also the one villain responsible for causing the greatest suffering Naruto went through and his conflict with Pain was a significant step in his character development as well the development of the story, as he was also the first villain to hint at bigger things to come. Much more than a temporary threat like most villains up to that point, Pain may not have been a god but at the time he might as well have been. Wolfram from Wolfsmund What if Ichimaru Gin was a full-blown psychopath? Then you get one of the most diabolical villains I've seen in any manga. This medieval story all revolves around a fortress guarding the only pass that leads out of Switzerland, it's know and feared as the Wolf's Maw and it's all because of Wolfram. If you aren't legally allowed to cross the border he will notice it before you even realise, then he will torture you for information, then torture you just for the sake of it, and then kill you. Seriously, just get yourself a passport! Satō from Ajin: Demi-Human This man is a real piece of work. An immortal war veteran turned terrorist who exploits his immortality to perform some of the craziest stunts I've seen in a manga. But as the story progresses it becomes clear that he isn't motivated by something like honour or compassion. To him, war and violence is simply a game. But like all good villains he's given a thorough backstory that shows you that he wasn't born evil after all. Or was he 
Well, there you have it. |
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Cynical Bibliophile
Posts: 7 Location: United States of America |
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So this villain isn't one that is talked about all that often, at least not around my friends, but he's definitely one that left a lasting impression on me. That villain would be the mad King Hamdo from Now and Then, Here and There. This man will stop at nothing to get water to his kingdom of Hellywood, even going so far as to spoiler[kidnap a young girl who he thought was La La Ru, but was really just an ordinary American girl named Sarah. When he finds out that she's not the girl he's looking for, he imprisons her and later gives her over to his soldiers to be raped and eventually impregnated by one of them.] He also has an army of child soldiers and basically abuses his poor assistant Abelia, spoiler[who later turns on him because she just can't deal with him anymore.] When La La Ru refuses to comply with his demands, spoiler[he beats the shit out of her to let out his frustrations with her despite the fact that she's his only hope for water. Seriously, this dude's temper tantrums would give Kylo Ren's temper tantrums a run for their money. ]
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amagee
 Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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If I had to pick an immediately memorable villian, it would be Gihren Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. He's certainly not the "worst" or "best" villian but for me, when I got old enough to understand the political machinations going on in the various Gundam series, Gihren just stuck out to me. He commits war crimes and patricide without so much as a whisper of doubt or guilt. It's especially telling to me when his father tells him about Hitler and his response is something to the effect of: I can do better!
This guy certainly is memorable. I think for me it's the fact that, at first glance, he seems like the type of character design relegated to the back-stabbing prime minister or something as opposed to the crazy bastard in charge himself. |
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Saffire
 Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
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Squealer and Akio are pretty strong choices for me. Though since the subject is "memorable" rather than "strongest", I think I need to shout out The Laughing Man from GitS: SAC. The Laughing Man icon is bar none one of the most iconic images to come out of anime, and that arc really cemented my interest in the franchise.
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JoeQ
 Posts: 77 |
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I'll throw my hat in for Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter. A flamboyant, flaky and vicious killer who takes
Last edited by JoeQ on Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:42 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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redcar
 Posts: 172 Location: Texas |
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I'm going to have to give this one to Drosselmeyer from Princess Tutu. No other antagonist is more memorable to me than the grand puppet master himself; his shadow pervades every aspect of the entire series, and his will drives the events until the very end. There were plenty of other good ones that came to mind though:
Sensui from Yu Yu Hakusho: This guy gets major villain points for spoiler[being so good and just that he looped back around to pure evil insanity. He spent so long protecting humanity from the monsters, only to discover that humanity was equally monstrous and seek its destruction]. It was also interesting how spoiler[he was defined at first by calculated and efficient ruthlessness, but the more you got to know him the more you realized how utterly broken he really was]. Valgaav from Slayers Try: Slayers as a series was a bit hit-or-miss, but I feel like Try worked really hard (perhaps a bit too hard) to make this guy interesting and sympathetic. Over the course of Try he graduated from former underling to spoiler[head of a reality-crushing entity of pure destruction, pursuing the sole objective of annihilating the world so that suffering would no longer exist]. He and Sensui are great examples of the villain archetype of spoiler[trying to "save" the world in the best way they know possible, which just so happens to be destroying it]. Nui Harime from Kill la Kill: I enjoyed every moment of seeing her on screen; the pure joy she took in her destructive revelry was charming. I find antagonists like her intriguing: those whose sense of morality operates on an entirely different axis altogether, for whom the morals of humanity as a whole have utterly no meaning (spoiler[Kyubey from Madoka] seemingly being the primary example of this). Schwarzwald from The Big O: For all the second season went a little deep into its own philosophy, I always liked Schwarzwald. He began as a recurring antagonist and slowly grew to become spoiler[the personification of the concept "the search for the truth", more of an idea than an actual man. I feel like his metamorphosis fits well with the overarching theme of existential uncertainty that pervades the later parts of the series]. Also, he got the best speeches. |
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WatchforMoons7
 Posts: 529 |
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I liked Dilandau and Vicious (well, he was a bit straight. He has the same cool factor as Spike but that's it. He's cool for being...vicious) too!
I have to look back at my ani/mag list to figure out my most memorable. Kiss my butt, Dio. |
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meruru
Posts: 475 |
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I'm going to have to plus one Legato Bluesummers from Trigun also, for the horrible twist in the anime, spoiler[ where he deliberately tortures Vash, who abhors killing to the point of severely injuring himself to prevent death, by forcing Vash to kill him. It's a brilliant, if absolutely horrible, move. ]
I think Kyubey, Dilandau, and Light are all great picks. |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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I have a soft spot for Vicious, simply because I think while he may seem like a two-dimensional villain, his characterization is a lot more subtle than that. I always thought that Jupiter Jazz was, in the end, about Vicious and what happened between him and Spike way back, and it explains a lot about him.
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louis6578
 Posts: 1875 |
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Most memorable? Probably Dio from JoJo or Frieza from DBZ. Ah! Maybe even Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho!
I dunno really. I've seen too many anime in my day, but if I had to pick from childhood, it'd be either Team Rocket or Emperor Pilaf's gang for a silly but memorable villain, or Toguro for a serious badass villain |
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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Well to me Dilandau was memorable for a lot more than just that, and one of the biggest things that stood out to me was the way he was total loose cannon. Even his superiors like Folken couldn't trust him; they'd give him specific orders to restrain himself and stick to the mission objectives, and then the second they left him on his own he'd go off on sprees of torching buildings and killing civilians and offer only the flimsiest excuses to justify it. Combine that reckless and callous disregard for others with his vanity ("You damaged my beautiful face!"), mental instability, and tragic backstory, and you have a villain who managed to be dangerous, loathsome, funny, and sympathetic, all at the same time. That's what makes him my most memorable villain. My runners-up (though it's not a very close race): Precia Testarossa from Lyrical Nanoha, Orochimaru from Naruto, and Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin. |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1233 Location: Covington, KY |
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Vicious is the first one that came to mind, but really, it's Akio...what a bastard. I wish Rightstuf would get those blu-rays out as I'm quite desperate to re-watch it.
Too one-dimensional to ever really be considered the best, but special mention must be made to Hamdo from Now and Then, Here and There for being one of the best examples of the completely evil, bat-shit crazy variety of antagonist. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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What struck me most about that scene is that Gihren doesn't know who Hitler was or understand the implications of the comparison (offered by his own father). His reaction is just "if I'm like Hitler then Hitler must have been great, but I'll be better!" The raw, cheap egotism is overpowering. Coincidentally, I'd like to mention Anavel Gato from Gundam 0083, which isn't even a very good show. I find him memorable because he comes off to me as very human without a hint of self-conscious unbelievable villainy and has positive qualities like courage and commitment to principle but I find him contemptible because of what he's fighting for and the consequences of his actions. Gundam had arrived at its obnoxious fetishism of the Zeon villains from the original series so I'm not sure if this is what was intended, but I'll take it. Similarly, Sunako Kirishiki from Shiki is sometimes pretty sympathetic, not least due to her frail appearance spoiler[and moments like when she wondered if stake could be driven through her small chest in one blow, limiting the pain of being killed by humans] and is basically motivated by loneliness but all the horror that happens in that series is due to her and she's more or less a warmonger because of that. I wanted her to die. |
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