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Forum - View topicYour Most Memorable Anime Villain
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KutovoiAnton
 Posts: 942 Location: Vladimir, Russia |
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Most memorable villian for me is Shishio Makoto - everything about him is just perfect - his design, his voice and especially his theme. Kyoto arc of Rurouni Kenshin is a classic and fight against Shishio is still one of my favorite anime fights ever.
VERY close contender for is Raoh, but... does he counts as a villian? Antagonist, sure, but villian? Not to mention that for me he is a manga character, since I weren't able to watch HnK anime. On the third place is Dio Brando. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5427 Location: Iscandar |
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Ahh. Several of the villains discussed by the critics came to my mind when I started searching my memory for my most memorable villain in anime. I think that the best villains are master manipulators.
Squaler, Gendo Ikari Akio and Shogo Makishima are also memorable anime villains for me, but my top pick is Izaya from Durarara!!. Izaya is not necessarily the smartest or most evil villain, but his scheming often leads to amusing, chaotic, absurd and humorous situations. I love to hate Izaya. |
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Themaster20000
 Posts: 863 |
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Disappointed to see no mention of Griffith at all
 . Otherwise I agree with a lot of the choices
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I considered Griffith but I've only read maybe 18 volumes of the manga and didn't feel qualified to really write him up just based on the anime. |
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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Great choices all, especially Dio (even though i haven't seen every anime mentioned in this list).
Thinking back to the first few anime series i ever watched, there are many villains i still remember greatly; Ladd Russo from Baccano!, Legato from Trigun, and many more. In terms of being truly memorable to me, however, my choices would be: 1. Priscilla from Claymore. She's explored much more in the manga than in the anime, but in both versions she looms as this unbelievably powerful force that our hero can't hope to ever face. Her monstrous transformation, along with the devastating deaths it causes, are tragic enough to be memorable just for that alone. She doesn't have many minutes of screentime, but the shear impossibility of her power casts a shadow over the entire plot; the protagonist might as well have sworn vengeance against Mount Everest, or a hurricane, for all the chance she has of succeeding. 2. Krona from Soul Eater. More so in the manga than in the anime, Krona's character arc is a tragic one that stands out as strikingly unique in the otherwise rote, if stylistic, Soul Eater. From the intentionally androgynous character's first appearance, she(?) is simultaneously enormously powerful and pitiably pathetic, and emotionally stunted by years of meticulous psychological abuse from her mother and physical abuse by her sword Ragnarok. The anime formulates a happy ending for her, but the manga is much more poignant and resounding. In the end, spoiler[her mother manipulates Krona into matricide by giving her the only thing she can't emotionally accept; kindness.] 3. Aji Tae from Shin Angyo Onshi (manga only). This is the only villain from a manga or anime that i have found genuinely frightening. The fantastic art greatly helps this, but even beyond that, the contrast between his nearly omnipotent powers and his innocuous and deceptively benevolent facade is striking. My favorite series of moments with him have to be during the protagonist's months-long fever dream, when he tries his darnedest to destroy the hero's psyche with stunning and almost-believable plot twists; "I was your best friend this whole time!" "I never existed; i was a figment of your imagination!", etc. A great villain from a little-remembered series. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Touko Matsudaira.
Touko basically embodies the "perfect" ojou-sama antagonist. It takes ten seconds of air time for you to absolutely despise Touko, despite the fact that Touko never truly does anything evil, terrible, or morally wrong. She's the perfect example of a character who is a villain not due to anything she thinks or does, but because of the intense emotional disgust her mere existence produces in the Maria fanbase. |
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MarthaC
Posts: 35 Location: U.S.A. |
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Article had some great villains. My memorable villain is from "Princess Tutu" the writer Drosselmeyer who spoiler[ created the world of Princess Tutu leaving reality in a bit of a mess and had to be stopped by his own creations and real people ( and duck!) that were caught up in his web.].
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Before reading this Editorial, I would have gone with Kirei Kotomine, but man, looking back at Squealer, yeah, that guy is an incredible villain.
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Wingbeats
 Posts: 272 Location: Boise, Idaho |
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Kirei Kotomine of Fate/Zero was definitely up there for me. Watching spoiler[him become bros with Gilgamesh] was a great deal of fun, and he was absolutely threatening.
On the slightly lighter side, I will never forget Miyotismon of Digimon Adventure. He was the first Digimon villain who really felt scary or threatening to little kid me, and I remember worrying over my favorite protagonists and the world through the entire Miyotismon arc. The Count from Gankutsuou. Okay, maybe a little obvious and also inspired from classic lit, but still. He spoiler[killed my favorite character Franz] and I'm still really bitter and sad about it. Judar from Magi. Because he's sexy in a bellyshirt and fun to watch in his psychotic evilness. Sue me. |
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xchampion
 Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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Im one of those Light supporters that was mentioned and he might have been the villian technically, but as the protagonist I wanted him to come out on top. Without going into spoilers I do have one gripe with him. I have had this conversation with many people and most disagree with me. I just felt that Ohba made Light make some decisions and mistakes toward the end that were so out of character that they didn't make sense to me. I just feel he would never do them even if he was going a little crazy toward the end. Thats just my feeling on it and you can disagree with me, which most do in my experience. May his spirit live forever in all of us.
Now my most memorable villian who is actually the antagonist is Orochimaru in Naruto. He just made my skin crawl. He was just so wonderfully written by Kishimoto. He was evil to the core. Yet, he still had some humanity in him as long it fit his motives. He would do anything to stay alive, even helping the good guys for a period of time to do so. His whole character arc is very fulfilling in my opinion. Has to be one of the best written characters in the manga. Which is saying something when it comes to some of Kishimoto's less than stellar written characters. |
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Black Thunder 6
Posts: 128 |
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{Edit: If you can't post your opinion without directly insulting someone in the process than than don't bother posting it at all. ~ Psycho 101}
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I've never seen Psycho-Pass so I'm just imagining a mustache twirling version of Satoshi "Human Database" Fukube from Hyouka right now. |
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Parsifal24
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Mne would have to be Kirei Kotomine partially because of Joji Nakata's performance and secondly because Kotomine is not so much "evil" as morally ambivalent and simply enjoys evil because it's the least worst option.
Second would be Herr D. D. Drosselmeyer as he's more crazy than evil, Third would be Nakago as his entire motivation is ultimately a grand spoiler[suicidal gesture] Also have to say Zac's choice of Gendo made me happy as I've always thought of him as the real villain in the series. |
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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Oh man, I have to agree with adding Griffith to the list. As for the critics, I'd have to say I loved Makishima to the point where he's my favorite of the Urobuchi villainous triad. Light Yagami is also a good villain (I could write an entire essay on why I don't agree that Light should be considered a hero, but that's a whole 'nother can o' worms).
If I may so be inclined, I'd like to add Lord Darcia from Wolf's Rain as a perfect example of a tragic villain. SPOILERS. spoiler[Darcia's entire breaking point comes with the death of his beloved Hamona. Before, you could consider him a sort of anti-hero. After all, all he wants Cheza for is to cure his fiancee, who he loves dearly. It's not until she dies that Darcia goes off the deep end. You just have this feeling of what could have been when you watch this man spiral further into depravity and despair.] For a fun villain, I'd nominate the antagonist of Dangan Ronpa spoiler[Junko Enoshima. There's just something enjoyable about this deranged girl. Yet at the same time, you feel Enoshima's influence throughout the entirety of the franchise. You see why people would want to follow her, and by the end of the second game, you understand exactly where she's coming from. Despite her over-the-top nature, there's a real menace behind that teddy bear facade.] |
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jutsuri
Posts: 49 |
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I think for me Sesshoumaru is probably the most memorable villain, simply because he was the first antagonist I preferred over all of the protagonists in a story - not just anime but any type of story. There was something irresistible to me about the combination of his beauty, arrogance, and overwhelming strength.
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