Top Ten Anime Villains

10. Tomura Shigaraki

One of the main antagonist of My Hero Academia, along with All for One, Tomura Shigaraki, started of as a boring, cookie-cutter villain to me, a villain who just wants to destroy everything and everyone. 

What makes Shigaraki unique however, is that, He IS supposed to be a worthless villain at first, because that's what he is, a villain in training.

The first clue to this is when they commented how young he is. 

Unlike most anime villain, Shigaraki still has room to grow at the start of the series, he grows with the main character. While Izuku learns more what it means to be a hero, Tomura realizes his mistakes as a villain and as the series goes on, he becomes more dangerous and more careful with his plans.

Tomura went from street villain who has to wary of teachers to becoming a threat to the entire Hero Society and in the future will most likely surpass even All for One himself. becoming the symbol of fear and destruction

                  

9. Garou

Garou like Shigaraki is a villain who grows as the series went on, however unlike Shigaraki who grows along with the hero, the hero of One Punch Man Saitama, is already overpowered. so in this instance the villain is the one who has to get stronger to catch up to the heroes. Garou challenges several Dojos in the One Punch Man verse and eventually the Hero Association itself. this idea seems crazy considering there are many overpowered heroes in the series, and Garou when he first appeared seems to be just some thug with some martial arts skills. However he continues to grow and break through his limits beating several heroes even if they gang up on him. it even comes to a point that you want to route for Garou to win due to how disadvantage yet dedicated he is to destroy the heroes.

For most of the Monster Association Arc, we follow Garou rather than Saitama, and his character gets develop even further. it turns out Garou is a victim of bullying as a kid for feeling sorry for the monsters. Garou felt that the monsters who worked so hard easily gets beaten by the heroes. Garou felt an unfairness in the Hero Society, where heroes gets praised for beating villains, even though those villains put more effort than the heroes. It eventually becomes his goal to become the Ultimate Evil that no hero can beat. to simply put, Garou values those who works hard for their goals, hence why among heroes, the one he respects the most is his master Bang, who has no supernatural powers but achieve strength through training alone.

This part of Garou will eventually come into conflict with Saitama, Saitama pretty much has the ultimate plot armor "I'm strong that everybody and I don't know why", this will definitely clash with Garou who has been working hard all his life to become the strongest monster. The Strongest Monster and The Strongest Hero will clash. 

8. Lucious Artorius Castus a.k.a Azkeladd( AzkeChad)

Very tempting to put this man much higher in the list, love him very much. but in the end he is simply the foundation of the series, and at the end he really is no longer the villain, but becomes more like the mentor of the main character.

Azkeladd is a very interesting character, a man who kills for money yet considers people as slaves of money, his men kills and rapes women, kills children and old people. he doesn't mind mas murder yet hates wants people to have a goal in life. he is very well versed in history and always has a plan. Even though he is the one killed Thor, he shows his respect to him. In the end he even admits that had always hated his men, he abandons them to be killed and became the King's adviser. the odd thing that despite him being responsible for Canute and Thorfin falling into misery, he ultiamately made them into much stronger person. Canute became an actual King and Thorfinn became an actual warrior. 

The way Azkeladd controls Thorfinn is also interesting, everytime he orders Thorfinn, the prize that Thorfinn will get is that he gets a chance to kill Azkeladd in a duel. ultimately Azkeladd grew sick of this and told Thorfinn why he can't kill him. Also killing Azkeladd had becomes Thorfinn's goal most of his life that the moments he is gone, Thorfinn has no idea what else to do with his life.

There is so much more that can be said of Azkeladd but I'll stop here.

7.  Fuhrer King Bradley

Although not the actual main villain of the series, Fuhrer King Bradley is undoubtedly the greatest villain of the series. He is the sin of Wrath, one of the seven Homunculis, the Leader of the nation Amestris. unlike other Homuncilis though, Bradley has no regeneration and immortality. aside from his Ultimate Eye ability, he is simply a beastly warrior.

From the start of the series, Bradley was already suspicious and we get to see him do some things behind the scenes. among all the villains he and Kimblee are actually the one who gave the Elric brothers so much trouble due to his position as the Fuhrer. Bradley pretty much has his eyes everywhere.

Despite being loyal to Father, he does find the action human amusing, his entire life being planned out even before he was born, he find it amusing when things don't go according to plan. something that Pride, doesn't take too kindly.

Bradley is a better villain than father because he is an actual leader, he know his country and his men, when Bradley went missing, Father shows up to be in charge, however it is clear that Father has no idea how to lead the army. Father just couldn't lead them the same way Bradley did even with Homunculis and an undead army. When Bradley returns he pretty much turn the tables on the rebels. he simply decided to solo the army by walking into the front door.

Bradley is so nasty, that even after fighting an army, a tank, a cyborg, a master ninja and a homunculi. he still manage to capture Mustang and completes Father's plans despite the setbacks. A dying Bradley then fought Scar to the death, Scar is supposed to be reserve to assist in fighting against Father himself. Yet a dying Bradley nearly killed a freshly upgraded Scar who only manage to win with some sort of Divine Providence.

In the end Bradley died satisified, smiling, despite his crimes unlike most homunculis, who dies screaming. Truly one of the greatest.

6. Makoto Shishio

Makoto Shishio the Main Antagonist of the Kyoto Arc, considered by many as the best Rurouni Kenshin Story Arcs.

Makoto Shishio is pretty much the perfect villain, he has a plan, a backstory, an army, loyal elite groups, a secret lair, an ideology of his own and of course an evil laugh.

Makoto Shishio was Battousai's successor after the Tokugawa Era. However once peace was established, the government decided that he knew too much and decided to kill him, by stabbing him and burning him alive. he survived though, and now he is hellbent in turning the entire world into Hell itself. for years he plotted to take over the government and turn Japan into a land of killers where he rules supreme. pretty hardcore if you ask me.

Shishio is firm believer of the survival of the fittest, this is in contrast with Kenshin's belief that the strong must protect the weak. their belief ultimately clash at Kenshin's fight with Seta Soujiro, who believes Shishio's creed yet is puzzled by Kenshin's resolve not to kill.

True to his creed, Shishio proves that he is indead the strongest by beating the hell out of everybody. Shishio puts an interesting point of view in his fight, If he wins he is right and if he lose Kenshin is right. In the end Shishio died due to his burns and it is presumed that Kenshin is right all along. But Might is Right is not Kenshin's belief, that is Shishio's belief, it makes you wonder was he right?

In the end Shishio decides to take over hell itself in the afterlife. and laughs at how weak the land of the living is.

5. Johan Liebert

Johan Liebert the titular Monster of the series Monster, is aguably one of the best anime villains of all time. He is viewed as the Anti Christ itself. and he does deliver that expectation

His name isn't really Johan, that's one of the many names he's taken. an unknown monster set to devour everybody, that's what Johan is. In this list Johan is probably the best master manipulator, he manipulates people with just a few carefully placed words. either they work for him, kill themselves or to to become his unwitting pawn. this model looking man is a danger to society itself. The Mafia, the Nazis and other people with evil intentions try to outwit Johan only to fail miserably. 

He is so good with what he does, it makes you think if this man really is the Devil himself and has supernatural powers. But in reality he is jusy really good planning things.

The man known as Johan Liebert is a product of a Eugenic experiment by Franz Bonaparta, to create the future leaders. the experiment becomes too successful. Johan as a child went on a killing spree.

Despite being called a Monster by several individuals throughout the series, Johan is actually not a complete Monster, he does value Dr. Tenma and his sister. At the end of the series, when all his memories are finally intact and Nina forgives him for all his crimes, he does seem, for a moment, regrets his actions, before deciding to proceed with his plan to kill himself.

Though not a complete Monster Johan remains one of the greatest anime villain of all time.

4. Grifith

Grifith, the leader of the Band of Hawks, and Guts close friend at the start of the series.

There's much to be said about Grifith so I'll just try to summarize it.

Grifith is ambitious, smart, cunning and ruthless, a man willing to do anything to achieve his goal. he is very disturbed when things don't go according to his plan or when people don't follow his expectations. Nevertheless he is a master tactician, he would have gotten his way if it weren't for his relationship with Guts.

After being tortured, Grifith only gets worse, he sacrificed his men and friends to become one of the Godhand, becomes a demon overlord, rapes Casca and tortures Guts. Casca and Guts survives but they are scarred for life by the events.

However Grifith isn't done yet, after becoming the Godhand known as Femto, his actions lead to the merging of the two worlds. causing humanity to be nearly wiped out. Ironically it was Grifith who provided them safety so he cam create his own kingdom. which he now rules as a God.

You can argue that Grifith pretty much already won in the series.

3. Shinobu Sensui

Shinobu Sensui, the main  antagonist of Chapter Black.

Shinobu Sensui is Yusuke Urameshi's predecessor. He was the Spirit Detective before Yusuke and he took his job VERY seriously.

Unlike Yusuke, Sensui has a very strong sense of justice. However, there is a problem with his point view. He has a very black and white point of view in the world. Humans are good and demons are evil. And Koenma said one day it sprinkled with gray. 

In one of his missions. he encountered something that broke him. humans torturing demons for their selfish desires. this shattered Sensui's view. he ended up killing everyone both humans and demons. he then dissapeared.

Years went by and Sensui plans to open a hole from demon world to the human world. his goal is to exterminate humanity itself.

What makes Sensui such an interesting villain is that he has seven different personalities. which keeps him pure. when Sensui killed humans and demons for the first time. he created a new personality Kazuya, in effect, Sensui didn't kill anyone. hence he remains pure. His purity os solidified when he uses Sacred Energy. one requirement to use The Sacred Energy is you need a strond desire to correct the world, yet Sensui wants to destroy humanity.

So is Sensui correct in his goal?

Another achievement of Sensui, is he actually manages to kill the main character. he killed Yusuke. When the main cast gang up on him. Despite their power ups due to their anger at Yusuke's death, he still beats them. Even when Yusuke is revived as a powerfull demon, he still beating him. it requires the intervention of the strongest demon king to kill Sensui.

2. Meruem

Meruem, The King of Ants, destined to rule over all.

Unlike most Arc villains. Meruem only appeared at the second half of the Chimera Ant Arc. The Chimera Ant Queen is the central Antagonist of first half of the Chimera Ant Arc.

Despite that, Meruem is one of the, if not the greatest anime villain of all time. 

Despite his power, he seeks what it means to be King and to know what he is. he struggles between being the King of Ants and being a human. 

When he first appeared, he just kills anyone he deems an eyesore. he sees himself as superrior to everyone. But after experiencing defeat at the hands of komugi, he learns the potential of humans. he begins to change.

While he still sees himself the ultimate being to rule over all. he decides to let some humans live to see their potential. he said it himself "I will create a world so equal that the concept of inequality it self will dissappear".

While Meruem is a villain, he is so much more, he is pretty much humanity itself looking at the mirror. He wonders why they beg for mercy when the animals they kill and eat cry and beg for mercy as well. He thinks killing many and savng a few is mercy. basically Meruem is humanity's reflection and it turns out they don't like what they saw.

In the end Meruem found what completes him, and that is Komugi, in effect he beat humanity who cannot escape from their violent tendencies and squabble for power.Meruem spend his last moments happily.

1. Younger Toguro

My #1 villain is Younger Toguro. Years have went by and I saw many anime villains I still think he beats them all.

Toguro is a villain who pretty much planned the growth of the protagonist himself. he is responsible for Yusuke Urameshi turning into some troubled street punk into someone who actually cares about people. Yusuke entered the Dark Toutnament wanting to settle a score. But he came out of the tournament valuing his friends, family and even saving the world the threat of Toguro and Sakyo's plans.

Toguro in his desire to make sure that Yusuke doesn't end up like him. set up events that would not only strengten Yusuke physically and in terms of power. But also strengthen his resolve. For the first time Yusuke experienced grief.

 Toguro put them upnin an environment where they will grew their trust and bond with each other. Then he shows that he take any of them away, anytime he wants, by killing Genkai. This changes Yusuke

And by changing Yusuke he ends the curse of the Dark Tournament with the victor wanting a selfish wish. because in the end Yusuke's wish was have Genkai back. He even granted Hiei's wish as bonus. killing every administrator of the Dark Tournament.

Even then we still don't know the scope of what was going on in Toguro's mind. For some reason he decided to go to Hell without proper explanation with us and other chatacters just guessing why he did, what he did. 

Toguro a broken man and an eternal mystery. He is my #1 villain.