Fictional characters tend to exist in extremes. With blissful naivete and steely cynicism being the most common personality types seen on screen. The former can be grating at times as they are often getting themselves into trouble due to their overly trusting natures but the latter run into their own issues as well. Some people find them grating even a bit bleak.

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As bleak as these characters can be, they still attract a lot of attention and even praise from fans. Whether they're heroic or villainous, these cynics' trust issues are just that hard to ignore or - in some rare cases - even sympathize with.

10 Redo Of Healer — Keyaruga Was Broken By Years Of Torture & Worse

Keyaruga Enjoys His Success In Redo Of Healer

As the prophesized Healing Hero, Keyaruga thought his life was going to improve drastically when he joined Jioral Kingdom's elite hero party. Instead, he was abused and brutalized for four long years by heroes drunk on power. After using the Sorcerer's Stone to rewind time, Keyaruga set out to exact unholy yet deserved vengeance.

Thanks to what he experienced, Keyaruga became so cynical that he remade himself into a detestable villain. To achieve his revenge, Keyaruga manipulates everyone he meets into either joining him or acting impulsively in the way he predicted. Keyaruga even gloats about this, relishing every moment he gets to show off how much better he is than everyone else.

9 The Saga Of Tanya The Evil — Tanya Von Degurechaff Has A Purely Utilitarian Worldview

Tanya barely controls her rage in The Saga Of Tanya The Evil.

Before his reincarnation, the man who became the villainous yet unintimidating Tanya was a sociopathic HR representative who reveled in the power his meager position gave. Accepting that he may one day be fired by someone more merciless than him, the unnamed employee did anything and everything for his company because that's just how the world works.

It's because of this work ethic that the salaryman thrived in his second life as Tanya, since he was allowed to be more ruthlessly efficient than before. Tanya's only goal was to win the war and make it out alive. To that end, she viewed everyone (ally or foe) as disposable, focused on her promotions, and only fostered relationships for practicality's sake.

8 Mobile Suit Gundam SEED — Rau Le Creuset Hated All Of Mankind & What It Represented

Rau Le Creuset Sits Bides His Time In Gundam SEED

The villains of the quintessential franchise Mobile Suit Gundam (especially the Char Aznable clones) are all cynical, but Rau Le Creuset is easily the most extreme of the lot. Rau may be the masked ace pilot of ZAFT, but he's not a Coordinator (i.e. genetically enhanced people); he's actually a clone of Mu La Flaga's father, Al Da Flaga.

Despite excelling in everything, Rau was deemed a failure because of his short lifespan. This fueled his hatred for humanity, which was worsened by his self-loathing as he saw himself to be the embodiment of hubris. For its sins and endless wars, Rau sought to end all mankind by manipulating ZAFT and Earth's war to the point of mutual annihilation.

7 My Hero Academia — Stain Lost Faith In All Heroes Who Weren't All Might

Stain Stalks The City In My Hero Academia

In My Hero Academia's world, the hero and celebrity lifestyles are practically intertwined. As a result, heroes who are only in it for fame and fortune are unfortunately more commonplace than anyone cares to admit. Enter Hero Killer: Stain, a sword-wielding anti-hero who brutally maims or kills heroes he deems unworthy of such a title.

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Stain has a simplistic black-and-white view of justice, and he wasn't able to reconcile with a morally grey reality. Bitter about this, Stain made it his mission to kill those who weren't as infallible and perfect as his idealized image of All Might. So far, the only ones he spared were the truly heroic All Might and Deku (aka Izuku Midoriya).

6 Black Lagoon — Revy's Terrible Childhood Influenced Her Dark Worldview

Revy Loses Herself To Whitman Fever In Black Lagoon

Revy didn't have it easy growing up. Not only was she stuck with an abusive alcoholic father for most of her childhood, but she was the victim of police brutality before she even got out of her teens. Things only got worse from there, so much so that the only place she could find any solace was the lawless cesspool of Roanapur.

Because she doesn't care for morals, spirituality or basic decency, Revy lives a shortsighted lifestyle where alcohol and murder-for-hire are the norm. That said, her cynicism has been slowly cracking over the course of the deceptively simple Black Lagoon thanks to Fabiola calling out her narrowmindedness or just by witnessing how childish her nihilism is when compared to Rock's Machiavellian side.

5 Blue Gender — Marlene Angel Grew Up In A Fatalistic Culture

Marlene Holds A Gun In Blue Gender

Since humanity is close to extinction in Blue Gender, everybody pretty much gave up any hope for the future. Human life has been so devalued that everyone is regarded as expendable and intimacy has lost all meaning. Marlene was born into this apathetic environment, so it's unsurprising she grew up into a cold cynic.

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Before meeting Yuji, all Marlene cared about was exterminating the Blues; even her own life didn't mean a thing to her. By the anime's halfway point, though, Marlene's worldview was slowly falling apart thanks to Yuji. She regained her humanity and reawakened her long-suppressed emotions when she finally left Second Earth for the real planet.

4 Baccano! — Czeslaw Meyer Never Recovered From Fermet's Betrayal

Czeslaw Waits In The Train In Baccano

Immortality is usually seen as a blessing, but what happened to Czeslaw was the complete opposite. Czeslaw was the youngest member aboard the Advena Avis in 1711, making him the youngest known immortal in Baccano! Shortly after freezing his age at ten, Czeslaw was tortured endlessly by his supposed older brother figure, Fermet.

Fermet was also immortal, and he "tested" the condition's limits via torture. Czeslaw devoured Fermet, but this made things worse since he absorbed Fermet's memories, where he took sadistic joy in the torture. Czeslaw never recovered from this, and he swore to never trust anyone again. It was only in the 1930s when his faith in others was restored.

3 Attack On Titan — Ymir Just Wanted To Live The Rest Of Her Life In Peace

Ymir Acts Aloof In Attack On Titan

Given the nightmarish world of Attack On Titan, people adopting a cynical point of view isn't all that surprising. That said, Ymir went through so much hell that her cynicism isn't just understandable, but sympathetic. After suffering oppression in Marley and spending almost 60 years as a Titan, Ymir wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

Ymir joined the Survey Corps not to save humanity, but to keep a low profile while enjoying whatever fringe benefits that membership entailed. Ymir kept everyone else at a distance but as time wore on, she grew attached to the other members of the 104th Trainee Corps - especially Krista/Historia, who she was romantically attracted to.

2 Sword Art Online — Kayaba Akihiko Only Cared For The World Of His Dreams

Kayaba Meets Kirito In The Void Of Sword Art Online

Devoid of his empowered persona Heathcliff, Kayaba is actually one of the most realistic cynics in anime. For clarity's sake, everything he did was based on ego and selfishness more than megalomania. Kayaba was the introverted creator of Sword Art Online: a VRMMORPG for the iconic NerveGear that was so lifelike because he was so disinterested in reality that he made up his own.

Kayaba only wanted to perfect his escapist fantasy and bring the castle of his dreams to life, and this is why he trapped more than 10,000 gamers in the world of Castle Aincrad. As years passed in-game, though, Kayaba forgot his original motivations. In fact, he was more than relieved when Kirito defeated him.

1 Bleach — Ulquiorra Cifer Was Nihilism Made Flesh

Ulquiorra Meets Ichigo In Bleach

The ten sharp-dressed Espada embody different aspects of death, and the elite's fourth-ranked member Ulquiorra represented emptiness (read: nihilism). As such, Ulquiorra believes in nobody and nothing, not even himself. Since death is inevitable, Ulquiorra never bothered with feelings and socializing, both of which he saw as a waste of time.

Ulquiorra was already cynical before he met Sosuke Aizen, but he became nihilism incarnate when he was turned into an Arrancar. Ichigo defeating Ulquiorra didn't just mean saving Inoue, but conquering the hopelessness he experienced when he first fought the Espada. Since Ichigo was his foil, Ulquiorra only understood the value of emotions in his final moments.

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