In the world of anime and manga, some protagonists play fast and loose with the rules of being a hero, with some being gritty seinen antiheroes or even blurring the line between hero and villain. This can lead to a dark but refreshing narrative, especially if the antagonist has some sympathetic traits to them. Good and evil can be rather fluid at times.
Antiheroes and heroes gone rogue can really shake things up, and their former friends might become their enemies, leading to all-new conflicts. And even if that doesn't happen, some heroes act or think like villains, often being selfish, abrasive, or dishonest, or even exploiting and using other people.
10 Light Yagami Became The World's Greatest Criminal (Death Note)
Death Note's brilliant schemer, Light Yagami, is a classic example of a well-meaning protagonist who quickly loses himself to the same darkness he's trying to destroy. Light wished to rid the world of crime for the sake of peace and security, but tragically, he became the world's worst criminal himself.
Light did it all — he used people, betrayed them, abandoned them, tricked them, didn't care about his family members dying or getting hurt, and of course, he killed many thousands of people, some of whom were 100% innocent. He's an antihero and then some.
9 Eren Yeager Is The Titan Light Yagami (Attack On Titan)
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The aggressive Eren Yeager is the Light Yagami of the Attack On Titan world, an ambitious and well-meaning hero who paradoxically became the thing he hated most to achieve his goals. Eren was determined to protect Paradis Island from the Titans, but he couldn't do it as a noble hero.
So, Eren resorted to extreme measures to get the job done, and he didn't care who died or what got destroyed if it meant wiping out the enemies of the Eldian restorationist movement. He soon launched the apocalyptic Rumbling, which drove his enemies and former friends to unite against him.
8 Lupin III Steals Things For Fun (Lupin III)
The titular Lupin III from Lupin III isn't nearly as dark or brutal as Light or Eren, though on paper, he is still more of a villain than a hero, being the slick, charming antihero of his own story. Lupin III is a master thief who will swipe just about any treasure that interests him, and he can break into any castle or vault to get the goods.
Only a villain would steal other people's stuff for their own amusement and clash with the legal authorities that much, yet Lupin III does it all the same. He sometimes returns the treasures and refuses to take lives, but even so, he's borrowing ideas from the anime villain handbook here.
7 Alucard Walks & Talks Like A Villain (Hellsing)
Vampires are usually villains, though some comedy series depict cute, sanitized vampire girls as a novelty. Then there's the dreaded Alucard from Hellsing, a vicious vampire antihero who is more villain than hero much of the time. He is only barely fighting for the side of good.
Alucard is massively powerful and needs to have his true strength restrained. Only with authorization can he unlock tiers of his power to defeat the Hellsing Organization's enemies. That said, this strong warrior is still capable of compassion or even grief from time to time. His humanity is minimal, but not absent.
6 Ken Kaneki Went Berserk At Times (Tokyo Ghoul)
Tokyo Ghoul's Ken Kaneki is the seinen hero who never went totally bad, but when he embraced his ghoul side, he definitely had villain vibes, ranging from his brutal attitude to his scary leather face mask to intimidate his foes. He even chomped down on his friend, Hideyoshi, to boost his power and fought like a monster against Kisho Arima.
Ken Kaneki went in too deep, and he ended up paying the price in more ways than one. It's tragic, too, considering how he used to be an innocent lover of books and a gentle dandere before becoming a ghoul.
5 Revy Commits Every Crime There Is (Black Lagoon)
The impoverished rogue Revy is loyal to her crewmates, but otherwise, anything goes where this wild antihero is concerned. Revy fully embraces her dark side in Black Lagoon as a brutal and foul-mouthed mercenary who holds absolutely nothing sacred, not even her own life.
Revy even makes a sport of shooting her enemies at times, and not even the worst horrors of the criminal underworld can make her flinch. She even threatened to injure or kill Rock if he continued to pester her with questions she didn't like.
4 Naofumi Iwatani Went Dark For Awhile There (The Rising Of The Shield Hero)
In Season 2 of The Rising Of The Shield Hero, protagonist Naofumi Iwatani shaped up as an isekai hero, but before then, he felt more like a villain, though he felt like circumstances were forcing his hand. He had been betrayed and had his reputation ruined, so he got desperate and resorted to iffy measures to succeed as the Shield Hero.
Naofumi even patronized the local slave trade to acquire Raphtalia as an ally, and he once used the slave crest curse to encourage her to fight despite her fear. Naofumi also refuses to help the townsfolk without being compensated first, even if the townsfolk have little to offer.
3 Guts Has Said & Done Dark Things (Berserk)
The seinen antihero Guts from Berserk fights for good, but he rarely acts like it. Guts isn't fighting to save the world or uphold justice — instead, his quest is a personal one, fighting to get revenge on the traitorous Griffith. It's usually antiheroes or villains who fight for personal reasons like that.
What is more, Guts tends to be abrasive, distant and even cold to the people whom he meets, often refusing to fight for their sake or mocking them. An extreme example was when he brutally suggested that Theresia should take her own life if she can't stand to live like this any longer.
2 Thorfinn Karlsefni Is The Viking Guts (Vinland Saga)
In many regards, the Viking warrior Thorfinn Karlsefni from Vinland Saga is like Guts. He, too, is on a bitter personal quest for vengeance, with the Viking commander Askeladd being the target. After all, Askeladd is the one who killed Thorfinn's father Thors in cold blood at the Faroe Islands.
Thorfinn is abrasive, self-centered and unhelpful, and he barely cooperates with anyone. He makes everything about himself and his desires, and he cares nothing for other people, not even the vulnerable prince Canute. Proper heroes would have shown some compassion, but not Thorfinn.
1 Lelouch Lamperouge Was A Dark Mastermind (Code Geass)
Ultimately, everything Lelouch Lamperouge did in Code Geass was for the sake of Area 11/Japan. However, he was a total villain about it, which meant he kept alienating everyone around him, including his little sister Nunnally, among others. Lelouch's scary Zero costume even made him look like a bad guy.
Lelouch played both sides of the rebellion and temporarily betrayed his trusting comrades for the sake of his grand plan. He made a lot of enemies that way, but in the end, he achieved what he and all the Japanese wanted — true freedom.