Bad, wicked, immoral.
Spoilers ahead!
Summary:
- In the long shonen, the villains are devoid of personality.
- A lot depends on the character design.
- The scariest villains are those who were originally good.
Shonen and seinen are undoubtedly series that are first and foremost about characters, their trials and triumphs. But can there be a good hero without a well-designed villain? Probably not. Heroes and villains complement each other. We seem to know everything about heroes, but we rarely talk about villains. Let's try to speculate on who can be called a truly great anime villain.
Classic Villains
In long shonen series like Naruto, Bleach or One Piece, there are a lot of villains. Unfortunately, many of them are only needed for the hero to defeat. They often have no self-sufficiency. Take Nagato from Naruto Shippuden, for example. He is driven by idealistic dreams of a bright future and a just world order. To achieve his goals, he is willing to disregard the lives of those who stand in his way. Great setup for a villain, right? The only problem is that after meeting Naruto, he becomes a good hero.
The same can be seen in the early One Piece, where the villains were more of a comic character. They were more ridiculous than scary. Something changed with the arrival of Crocodile, who became the definition of villainous charisma.The same can be said of villains in other series: Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken) or Hisoka Morow from Hunter x Hunter. These are cool characters, but there is no particular philosophy or great trauma behind their villainy. So what makes villains great?
Recipe for pure evil
We have three possible answers. The first is to show the true villain's cruelty. Not the flashy, largely mannered antics, but the ruthlessness towards humans and other creatures. An example of such a villain is Bondrewd in Made in Abyss. He conducts experiments on children, but we don't know much about his true motivation. He may appear generous, but this contrasts with his actions. Such understatement leaves space for the imagination, and makes the character even more frightening.
Another possibility is a mismatch between the character and his design. Griffith from Berserk looks like an innocent young man. This is in stark contrast to his cold, calculating, and cruel nature. Johan Liebert from Monster looks similar. He appears to be a handsome young man, but is actually a manipulative psychopath who uses his intelligence to hurt others.
Worst of all, a good guy becomes a villain. We all initially sympathized with Light Yagami from Death Note and Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin), but it's hard not to notice how they lose their humanity over time and turn into pure evil. Some viewers might argue that they are not villains, but merely anti-heroes. However, by the end of both series, they are defeated to save the world. Perhaps such villains can be considered truly great.