The 14 Greatest Anime Villains of All Time

Charismatic masterminds, cosmic tyrants and quiet manipulators who never throw a punch, from franchise-defining monsters to cult picks. Where do you stand?

1

Sosuke Aizen

Bleach's soft-spoken captain whose betrayal recontextualises everything that came before it.

1000pts

2

Pain

Naruto's Akatsuki leader, whose argument about cycles of violence is hard to simply dismiss.

840pts

3

Donquixote Doflamingo

One Piece's Warlord and Dressrosa's smiling dictator, built on generational cruelty.

800pts

4

Dio Brando

JoJo's immortal vampire aristocrat, the family curse that spans a century of the series.

800pts

5

Ryomen Sukuna

Jujutsu Kaisen's King of Curses, sealed in fingers and utterly indifferent to everyone around him.

692pts

6

Light Yagami

Death Note's protagonist, who is also its villain — a student who kills by writing names in a notebook.

692pts

7

Madara Uchiha

Naruto's resurrected Uchiha patriarch, who takes on an entire allied army by himself.

491pts

8

Johan Liebert

Monster's antagonist, a man with no powers at all who ruins lives purely by talking to people.

491pts

9

Meruem

Hunter x Hunter's Chimera Ant King, an antagonist who becomes more human the longer he lives.

491pts

10

Frieza

Dragon Ball Z's galactic tyrant, the benchmark every later shonen villain is measured against.

360pts

11

Muzan Kibutsuji

Demon Slayer's first demon, a petty and vain tyrant who created every monster in the series.

360pts

12

Hisoka Morow

Hunter x Hunter's magician, dangerous less for his power than for his total unpredictability.

360pts

13

Shogo Makishima

Psycho-Pass's criminally asymptomatic antagonist, invisible to the system built to catch him.

360pts

14

Makima

Chainsaw Man's Control Devil, who runs the whole story from behind a kind expression.

200pts