Best Anime Villains Of All Time (2023)

The universe of anime characters is enormous, and so are the anime villains in it. It is hard to map an anime character’s personality with just one episode.

Usually, anime fans develop an engagement with a protagonist or an antagonist.

The liking is usually based on the story plot, relatability with a character’s backstory, and intent of actions.

While sorting amongst numerous anime villains in the anime world who suit the description of the most popular anime villain, we curated a list of incredible anime villains.

These anime characters gave the protagonists a hard time with not just their powers but wits too.

Without any further ado, let’s have a look at popular anime villains of who have earned their reputation as exceptional villains in the whole anime community.

30. Touichirou Suzuki

• Anime: Mob Psycho II
• IMDb Rating: 7.1/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll

“Fantastic people seem to be nearly invariably dangerous men…” is indeed a fantastic fit for Touichirou Suzuki from Mob-Psycho-II.

The above tremendous Esper prospered with whatever he undertook throughout high school, according to his inherent magical abilities.

Those same psychic abilities only became greater and greater over time, enabling Suzuki to depend upon them and become more, providing him assurance all along the process.

29. Rachel

• Anime: Tower of God
• IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Netflix, HBO MAX, Crunchyroll

Rachel is a main antagonist in the anime series Tower of God Universe.

She is literally the epitome of a ‘hypocrite’ with deep-rooted psychological issues.

Rachel’s storyline is as bizarre as her personality, which is reflected throughout the anime where she trains Bam (protagonist) to do something but goes ahead to do the very opposite of her teachings and ideals.

28. Garou

• Anime: One Punch Man
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Amazon Pirime Video, Crunchyroll

Garou seems to be a typical representation of what happens whenever civilization becomes harsh towards youngsters, prompting them eventually become evil creatures.

In Garou’s instance, that’s somewhat true.

Garou, as time progressed, developed his martial arts capabilities towards the position where he would be virtually unstoppable and then used these to become the perfect evil.

Like many of the great anime villain on this list, Garou is indeed not exclusively a horrible guy.

Due to his complexity, he is one of the most interesting characters inside One Punch Man.

27. Yano

• Anime: Odd Taxi
• IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Crunchyroll

Yano, the great villain, is by far the most eccentric creature in Odd Taxi.

Although Yano might very well pretend to be a petty villain once again in Odd Taxi, there is no doubt that he dominates the scene towards the end.

The above 27-year-old anime villain would be both cunning and brutal, not caring who he needs to harm in efforts to progress inside the Yakuza.

Among many, his abilities throughout the first season of the series include organizing badger games, kidnapped, & murdering, to mention a few.

26. En

• Anime: Dorohedoro
• IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
• Platforms Available: Netflix

Dorohedoro is indeed an odd premise on theory because it is a series about a lizard-man, Caiman, striving to discover the wizard who plagued him throughout order to reclaim his previous body.

To do so, he should stick them in his mouth and have the person who lives in there examine them to determine whether they would be the people that did it.

Upon first sight, you would not really anticipate appreciating the villain of Dorohedoro, like that of the leader of both the En Family and a man who could magically transform people into mushrooms.

25. Washijo Tanji

• Anime: Haikyuu!!
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video

Washijo Tanji should unquestionably fill the character of amazing villains inside the program in Haikyuu!

His attitude towards short volleyball players somehow doesn’t alter even when he witnesses Shoyo Hinata and instead demands him to function as a ball boy for opponents he already defeated.

Washijo, despite being a great coach, fails at displaying a healthy competitive spirit.

His bias towards “tall volleyball players” causes him to overlook short players with mass potential and demotivate them.

24. Crocodile

• Anime: One Piece
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll

Crocodile is indeed a terrific One Piece villain.

He possesses elegant sophistication, which can be highly intimidating whenever he chooses to be. Unlike so many other villains on this ranking.

During the Marineford narrative, he has often been chuckling, is not wholly vicious, and sometimes even rescues Luffy & Ace from eventual doom.

He is undoubtedly clearly inadequate, continuously fighting Luffy & his pals, but he’s not the greatest cliched villain that wants to control the globe.

He’s continued to remain important throughout practically the entire miniseries, providing him with another outstanding selection again for top villains ranking.

23. Walter C. Dornez

• Anime: Hellsing
• IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 38%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video

Fans learned to admire Walter Dornez through the Hellsing saga, as even the butler’s humor alongside Alucard & commitment towards Integra created them a wonderful protagonist.

Nevertheless, as the series progresses, we discover that now the vampire’s jealousy has become extremely intense, leading him towards millennia and a road towards wickedness.

His betrayal remains one of the hardest to swallow in anime history, even when he was a sympathetic protagonist.

He basically played dirty after power overtook him, converting him from such an anime hero to a great anime villain.

22. Bryan Hawk

• Anime: Hajime no Ippo: Rising
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Crunchyroll

Hawk rejoices in disrespecting his enemy and the sport at every moment because he is represented as Takamura’s obstacle towards admittance into the championship.

He neglects his teaching, strikes bystanders’ own will, & takes great pleasure from upsetting everyone else around himself.

Furthermore, he possesses the talent to back up that claim.

Whenever someone is irritated with his actions, he immediately smashes them down, utilizing his physical capabilities & abilities while giggling like a maniac.

21. Ryô Asuka

• Anime: Devilman Crybaby
• IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
• Platforms Available: Netflix

Ryô, who only worries about Akira and therefore is determined from his personality, relishes controlling, poisoning, and hurting other people because that is what he desires & considers is acceptable.

For the majority of the narrative, strategy comprises dragging Akira and indeed the rest of the human race towards their incomprehensible desire that would expose that presence of demonic.

The explanation why this would be disclosed immediately after Ryô, unknowing either Akira or oneself, represents Satan, who wishes nothing other than the extermination of humankind.

20. Gendo Ikari

• Anime: Evangelion Series
• IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 89%
• Platforms Available: Netflix

Gendo Ikari, having left his child Shinji just after the death of his wife, Gendo approaches him again.

When he believes Shinji is indeed the secret for controlling an EVA Units 01 & confronting gigantic interplanetary creatures described and called as Angels.

Notwithstanding Shinji’s reluctance towards the proposition and the risk he would have been throwing oneself inside by controlling it, Gendo proceeds the pressure to him; eventually, he concedes.

From that day, he continued to constantly subject Shinji through emotional abuse in order to maintain him inside the cockpit, progressively eroding the child’s mentality.

19. Kyubey

• Anime: Madoka Magica
• IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll

Anybody who has witnessed Madoka Magica understands how Kyubey was everything except charming and that this is a manipulating, self-centered bad person.

Their civilization, the incubator, effectively treats humans, unlike farm animals, collecting the minds as just a supply of energy.

The dilemma would be that Kyubey prioritizes the preservation of such existence there at the expense of the public who dwell inside it.

18. All for One

• Anime: My Hero Academia
• IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video

Ultimate power leads to corruption totally, or thereabouts My Hero Academia’s All for One learned.

All for One, bestowed well with the ability to grab anyone else child’s superpowers & wield it to be his own, utilizing his abilities to take over through the globe and build a relatively close tyranny.

Using his strong brain, he subsequently stayed that way and plays dirty, outsmarting the main characters using ingenious ideas and grand scheme.

17. Mahito

• Anime: JuJutsu Kaisen
• IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 83%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Crunchyroll

Even though it’s understood because accursed souls, including humans, aspire to live a whole & healthy life according to their own convictions, it doesn’t excuse Mahito’s horrible crimes throughout Jujutsu Kaisen.

He places his Sukuna fingers outside Junpei’s apartment during a few brief episodes, prompting another evil force to murder his mother.

Mahito knows how to manipulate Junpei to attack Yuuji, ruining a friendship that could have blossomed amazingly.

Mahito was proving just to be deadliest villains of all time, as well as further seasons were sure to flesh him out much more.

16. Johan Liebert

• Anime: Monster
• IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 83%
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

The great villain seems to be the sort of show which lulls audiences’ comfortable confidence beforehand, unleashing its sledgehammer, so it was no surprise that one’s antagonist, Johan Liebert, accomplishes the very same.

Johan seems modest in practically every way, and he is usually overlooked and disregarded by just about everyone he contacts.

Sure, certain people may have a momentary recollection of just seeing him every now and then, though he’s generally competent to merge inside and vanish freely.

15. Frieza

• Anime: Dragon Ball Z
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 89%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

Frieza, the space dictator that epitomizes that notion called Shonen Power Creep, has consistently positioned himself as that of the Dragon Ball Z villains.

This vicious alien ruler rejoices in showing his dominance, equipped with armies, great enemy, more warriors, and a virtually unmatched opportunity to expand in entire series.

With fun, he murders another planet’s strongest army and eliminates empires on such a regular basis.

Regrettably, no one has a chance against him. Unless he confronts the Dragon Ball Z Warriors. After and then, he was assassinated constantly, engaged in the never battle with them just to regain his supremacy amid villains.

14. Sōsuke Aizen

• Anime: Bleach
• IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Sasuke Aizen seems to be the embodiment of just a plotting mastermind: cunning, methodical, and would always be armed with such a contingency option.

Although posing as one of Bleach’s more isolationist Soul Reapers, the above diabolical brilliance preserved his aspirations for conquering its soul society organization & extending his immense capabilities concealed for nearly twenty years.

13. Char Aznable

• Anime: Gundam
• IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Char Aznable encompasses everything that an anime villain can and should be and that it has accomplished since for practically the entire duration of the Gundam franchise.

He enables individuals surrounding him with a somewhat supernatural influence like a renowned mech pilot having near-superhuman capabilities.

Everyone underneath him is already in terror with reverence, so those he approached were flabbergasted with their fearlessness & competence.

12. Younger Toguro

• Anime: Yu Yu Hakusho
• IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix

Toguro was indeed an unparalleled combative artist turned demon slayer throughout his youth, but then he was possessed with his worry about getting old and feeble any longer he stayed.

This motivated his impulse to renounce humankind and seek everlasting & everlasting youth among villains, subsequently following in the footsteps of those he formerly loathed & persecuted.

Everything adds it enhances his attractiveness as a villain. His goals seem straightforward, his aspirations seem comprehensible, and his threatening seems unambiguous among anime villains.

11. Muzan Kibutsuji

• Anime: Demon Slayer
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Muzan Kibutsuji, the nemesis from Demon Slayer, is more than just an antagonist.

Before we even encounter that character, we understand that he has been directly responsible for the deaths of Tanjiro’s complete household and indeed the transforming of Nezuko together into demonic.

His countless deaths as well as homicidal vengeance, unfortunately, is just not isolated just humans.

He has indeed been reported to slaughter as well as afflict demonic purely by mentioning their names.

10. Zeke Yeager

• Anime: Attack on Titan
• IMDb Rating: 9.1/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Whenever Attack on Titan originally debuted, it must have been impossible to despise somebody more than Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner, the three troopers of a 104th Survey Corp battalion who have been the Titans accountable for all of the other terrible things.

That seems to be till Zeke Yeager, one of the best anime villains, emerges.

9. Dio Brando

• Anime: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
• IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Dio Brando, the child of such a ruthless gangster, has been brainwashed, including one central belief: Doing whatever it takes to defend his livelihood.

He exists solely about himself, thieving, murdering, and will do whatever it takes to get the title of best anime villains of all time.

He uses his unique powers and resources, which he embraced for hundreds of years and unleashed the influence and control of standing on the universe almost a hundred years later.

Still, while he appears as the main villain, it is pretty difficult not to have been hypnotized by his exploitative nature and the ridiculous perception of goal.

8. King Bradley

• Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
• IMDb Rating: 9.1/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 82%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Bradley has been nurtured before infancy either by Homunculus Father again for the role of Amestria’s emperor, and his capacities subsequently augmented almost superhuman proportions by pumping him also with Philosopher’s Stone.

That benediction imparted upon him by the all-seeing vision, permitting him to observe everything element surrounding him, regardless of whether to bargain alongside political adversaries or avoid gunshots just on the battlefield.

The above, unfortunately, came at the expense. Just about every feeling within him had fled except rage that he had used to govern the country and increase its influence.

7. Madara Uchiha

• Anime: Naruto Shippuden
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 75%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video

Madara Uchiha, this same idea of a shinobi combatant, represents the enthusiasm from his culture but also the disobedience of outdated attitudes stubbornly refused to go completely.

Conceived at a war situation and struggle, Madara exemplified everyone he required to have been to stay alive as one villain.

He decimated essentially everyone, and anyone who managed to come up opposed him even though he was nimble, cunning, and commanded god-like ninjutsu.

Madara distinguished himself as an anime villain on par with the likes of them, setting the highest possible level throughout Naruto’s lengthy line of antagonists.

6. Hisoka

• Anime: Hunter X Hunter
• IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll, HBO MAX

Everyone here in Hunter X Hunter was indeed hunting with something, but also Hisoka is nothing like that, notwithstanding the perverse ambitions.

Hisoka, a shrewd executioner and expert Nen user was primarily motivated by his goal of discovering and exterminating formidable opponents.

He’ll follow individuals to the end of the World, whether they’re small children or master villains, with only a desire for revenge on par with such a natural predator.

Similarly, he does not at all care about what happens about himself or everyone else as a condition of the quest, marking him among other anime villains.

5. Gilgamesh

• Anime: Fate Series
• IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix

Gilgamesh, an ancient king who’s intended to capture something he could hang his hat on, is based on greed as well as his own ambitions anywhere at a particular time.

This included whenever he is recruited to participate in the Holy Grail War, regardless of the fact that his “master” can only command himself in some of the most basic meanings of the phrase.

He seems to have the ability to summon weaponry within his repository of goods, empowering him the rain death downwards inside an instantaneous, gory whirlwind of devastation.

Consequently, the life-or-death combat that everybody else witnesses is nothing other than a momentary amusement to him.

Nevertheless, he stands his ground and impresses himself by combat, believing that he could prevail popular villains.

4. Bondrewd

• Anime: Made in Abyss
• IMDb Rating: 8.4/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Made in Abyss contains a pack of Lovecraft beasts searching demanding blood and flesh, but nothing compares to this impulsive monstrosity.

Bondrewd hailed as being among the Abyss’ greatest known adventurers, exemplifies those extremes to which someone would plunge through order to succeed the Abyss.

For instance, he employs humans to become research subjects during his studies into the Abyss’ curse and repercussions, rendering young youngsters in and out of pain-ridden lumps on flesh through his journey to discover the pit’s intricacies.

3. Shogo Makishima

• Anime: Psycho-Pass
• IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Shogo Makishima seems to be the supreme menace in Psycho-Pass in some kind of a dystopian future wherein offenses are recognized before they are committed.

Makishima recognizes the loophole of the community, helping him become capable of conducting atrocities undiscovered.

This encompasses thievery, scheming an assault, and sometimes even cold-blooded homicide.

With his reasoning, he permanently disables digital law enforcement technologies, plunging all of Japan together into a frenzy and terror.

2. Light Yagami

• Anime: Death Note
• IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Peacock, HBO MAX, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Light Yagami, a young guy with such a sharp intellect, discovers the Death Note at such a young age and rapidly understands its potential to destroy everyone seems to be no joke anymore.

He’ll slaughter whoever he regards a delinquent in the attempt to become the ruler and the god of both the nearby planet he’s constructed in death note.

In theory, it was an excellent concept – at least in the context of finally getting rid of violence and agony – although in actuality, this ambition eventually subverts him and becomes him terrible than what he was beforehand.

In contrast to criminals, Light manipulates ultimately eliminates practically everybody within his pathway, whomever he perceives a challenge in the death note.

Police officers, investigators, and his household eventually succumbs to his plots, while he continues to conspire as one of the best anime villains of all time.

1. Griffith

• Anime: Berserk
• IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
• Platforms Available: Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Griffith, a self-driven person who followed his objectives with remarkable precision as a peasant and ascended and became the commander of his own mercenaries group.

Through this whole period, he acquired a following of fans and acquaintances who could accompany him through hell and back, caring about himself even more than they loved for themselves.

Whenever provided the chance to become a villain and pursue his ambitions, he wholeheartedly embraced it, even though it meant compromising the souls of every one of his friends and partners.

Almost everyone, on either hand, saw him as one of the best anime villains of any time, as well as he is continuing to do that with every breath he pulls.