In some anime, a hero is only deemed heroic because that’s how they’re framed. This is despite them being so bloodthirsty and murderous that in another world and perspective, they’d be the villains.

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Don’t get us wrong; the villains they go up against are capable of vile acts and wanton murder themselves. But somehow, even villains like Dragon Ball’s infamous Lord Frieza or Fullmetal Alchemist’s Father would tell these so-called heroes to chill.

10 Afro Samurai: Afro Defends The Number One Headband

Afro Samurai

Afro Samurai could be read as a typical tournament arc taken to its bloodiest extreme, with the vague quest to be titled “Number One” leaving many dead and more injured for life. Afro becomes the top warrior, but the road going there is paved with thousands of corpses and severed limbs.

Over the course of a mini-series and a sequel movie, Afro slaughters legions to achieve his narrow-minded goal of avenging his father and becoming number one. The cost is high as seen in Afro Samurai: Resurrection, where Afro is burdened by the immense guilt of taking countless lives for a piece of cloth. This doesn’t stop him from going back on the warpath, though.

9 Black Lagoon: Revy Shoots Everyone

Black Lagoon Revy

To be fair, literally everyone in Black Lagoon is a villain, with varying degrees of infamy. By default, the crew of the Lagoon Company are the story’s heroes, meaning that their on-call gunslinger Revy has a bodycount larger than that of any opponent she, Rock, Dutch, and Benny have ever faced.

Revy is Roanapur’s deadliest gunman, feared for her impossibly good aim when it comes to using her twin Berettas she refers to as “Cutlasses.” Whenever she’s sent on a job or is just exacting vengeance, she leaves no survivors. As of now, Revy has a confirmed kill count of 128, which includes hired thugs, ex-army mercenaries, psychotic assassins, legendary hitmen, and more.

8 Elfen Lied: Lucy Kills Everyone

Elfen Lied Lucy looking at her hand

By all accounts, Lucy should be sympathetic. A newly evolved human with supernatural powers, Lucy was tortured in the name of scientific experiments before she broke out of the laboratory. Thing is, she did so in the most murderous ways possible, turning an entire facility’s staff and security into piles of blood on her way out.

Even when free and even when her childlike persona Nyu takes over, Lucy still kills whoever annoys her. This includes hired assassins, kids who don’t know better, a loving family she was envious of, and more. Lucy isn’t above torture and mass murder as well, only backing out of global genocide when what shreds of humanity she has left kick in. Granted, some of her kills were well-deserved vengeance, but others were needlessly brutal.

7 Berserk: Guts Commits One-Man Genocide

Berserk Guts Hundred Man Slayer

Also known as the Black Swordsman, Guts is seen as both a villain and a monster by everyone around him. Fueled by vengeance and hatred for Griffith (now known as the God Hand’s figurehead Femto), Guts leaves mountains of corpses wherever he goes, to the point where even the Apostles (the physical embodiments of human sin) fear him.

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Thing is, Guts was already a walking massacre long before he donned the Berserker Armor. During his time with the Band of the Falcon (“Band of the Hawk” in English), Guts killed entire armies by himself, earning the moniker “Hundred Man Slayer” when he did just that during the clash with Tudor. Understandably, Guts became more murderous and bloodthirsty after the Eclipse.

6 Death Note: Kira Exacts Global Justice

Death Note's Light Yagami

Light Yagami—a smart highschool student with a lethal superiority complex—remains one of fictions’ greatest villainous protagonists, and it’s hard not to see why. With the power of the Death Note, Light assumes the identity of Kira, the God of the New World and justice incarnate, and begins exacting his merciless brand of justice on criminals and others he sees as unworthy.

At first, Kira’s wrath is confined to Japan. But following L’s death, Kira took his crusade worldwide with the help of the fallen detective’s resources. According to fan calculations, Kira killed upwards of 250,000 people during his six-year reign of terror. Many have used the Death Note, but few could match the sheer scale of Kira’s self-righteous genocide.

5 Overlord: Ainz Fulfills His Villainous Calling

Ainz Ooal Gown looks menacing

As far as audiences are concerned, Ainz is an anti-hero. But in the world of the game YGGDRASIL, Ainz is the dark lord and evil incarnate. At first, Ainz doesn’t really know what to do since he was a salaryman before becoming an all-powerful lich. But as time goes on, Ainz becomes disturbingly comfortable with his role as the de facto villain. In fact, he relishes it.

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Ainz has no issue with committing or enabling mass murder, torture, political corruption, and more just to keep his status quo as, well, overlord maintained. He may wrap these up in nice motivations like creating a utopia for New World’s underclasses but at the end of the day, Ainz is just another power-hungry despot with an insatiable ego. His evils were actually toned down for the anime, hence some fans’ shock to see Ainz go from anti-hero to flat out villain.

4 Hellsing Ultimate: Alucard Devours Entire Armies

Hellsing Ultimate Alucard

Even in the first lackluster anime, Alucard is practically death made flesh in Hellsing. No matter where he goes, swaths of people lose their lives and rivers of blood flow. That said, it’s a good thing that the “No Life King” is on the Hellsing Organization’s side since it’s the closest thing there is to the “good guys” in the story.

During the manga’s events, the original vampire kills Millennium’s Last Battalion and the Vatican’s Ninth Crusade before absorbing them as his familiars. Including those he killed before the battle for London, Alucard’s bodycount totals to 3,424,867. That number could possibly double or even triple since he had to kill everyone more than once before coming back to life in the epilogue.

3 Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Magical Girls Kill Magical Girls

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Girls

Just like every magical girl anime before it, Puella Magi Madoka Magica centers on the main magical girls—Madoka, Sayaka, Kyoko, Mami, and Homura—killing monsters called Witches. This is routine until they learn the macabre truth: the Witches are all former magical girls.

The magical girls are trapped in a nightmarish cycle, where newcomers are recruited by a deceitful Kyubey to kill old magical girls who’ve gone mad with despair. This means that Madoka and friends were tricked into killing their own, and this has been going on for generations before them. The murderous cycle only ends when Homura effectively becomes a god in the movie Rebellion and condemns Kyubey to eternal suffering.

2 Attack On Titan: Eren Ends The World

Attack On Titan Eren Angry Yell

In one of the best written yet horrifying villainous turns of recent memory, the once-heroic Survey Corps member Eren Yeager becomes the final villain of Attack on Titan. Motivated by his anger and that of persecuted Eldian generations living in him through the Attack Titan, Eren triggers the Titan Rumbling, unleashing untold millions of Colossal Titans on the world.

The Titans leave nothing in their path, crushing everything and everyone. Even if it could be stopped, the Rumbling has already destroyed most of human civilization while leaving almost nothing for a later resurgence. Since the story is currently nearing its conclusion, only time will tell if Eren will succeed in ending all life on the planet or not.

1 Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Triggers Multiple Impacts

The End Of Evangelion Shinji

To be fair, Shinji technically did nothing wrong since he was almost always manipulated and influenced by things beyond his control into doing something catastrophic. However, this doesn’t change the fact that he caused more death and destruction than even all of the Angels combined.

In The End of Evangelion, Shinji allows the Third Impact to occur to escape the endless suffering that is his existence. He does reverse his choice, but not before Earth is ravaged and all of humanity is returned to the Primordial Soup. In the Rebuild continuity, Shinji triggers the Near Third and Fourth Impacts himself, ending the world twice and endangering reality as well. It wouldn’t be surprising if he triggers another Impact in the upcoming finale Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Time.

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