Even the worst of villains have underlying reasons for their actions, and they’re not always so black and white. Many bad guys and girls in anime suffer unimaginable misfortune, which is quite often the catalyst that sends them on their path of murder, evil, and destruction.
Whether it’s loss of family, abuse, abandonment, or extreme trauma, plenty of villains didn’t start out bad or intend to become monsters. They only turned to the dark side as a coping mechanism for their suffering. From vengeance, retribution, and correcting past wrongs by any means necessary to being evil for no apparent reason, these villains have their own personal stories that lead them down the wrong path.
Trigger Warning: This list deals with topics such as depression, abuse, and trauma.
10 Lifelong Abuse Led Lucy Down A Very Dark Path (Elfen Lied)
In Elfen Lied, an evolutionary species of humans called Diclonius exists, and they possess superhuman psychokinetic powers. Lucy, a Diclonius, was forced to undergo brutal scientific experiments at the hands of cruel scientists. Combined with the severe discrimination and persecution she faced throughout her daily life, she ends up traumatized and out of control.
Throughout the series, her volatile Diclonious side takes over as a means to protect herself from humans who show her nothing but contempt, persecution, and evil... all because she’s different. Massacres become a natural way for her to protect herself, and, unfortunately, she cannot tell who is a threat, who is a friend, or who is an innocent bystander who means her no harm.
9 Mao Suffers From Extreme Mother Issues (Code Geass)
Found as a vulnerable orphan, Mao in Code Geass was saved and raised by C.C., an immortal woman who gives him the Geass power for the purpose of ending her life one day. However, tormented by its power and constantly being able to read people’s minds, he is driven to insanity. As Mao’s mother figure and also the only one whose mind he cannot read, Mao clings to C.C. and becomes unwilling to fulfill what she raised him for - her death.
Uncomfortable with having to mother such an unstable child, she leaves him, which is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Mao. He ends up full of pent-up anger and trauma, which Nunnally and Shirley, unfortunately, bear the brunt of.
8 Tomura Shigaraki's Vulnerability Left Him Open To Manipulation (My Hero Academia)
My Hero Academia's Tomura Shigaraki is the League of Villain’s leader. While he seems to be hell-bent on evil and destruction, he does have a sad backstory that explains how and why he descended down such a dark path. His father was cold, abusive, and beat him on a regular basis – which is heart-breakingly brutal for any child to be subjected to. But it’s not solely his father’s mistreatment that sends him off the edge.
When Tomura’s Quirk activates, he discovers that anything he touches melts to dust. Without meaning to, he kills his whole family with this uncontrollable power, which causes him more trauma than he can bear. While in a delicate and vulnerable state, Tomura was taken in by All For One, who gradually morphs the traumatized boy into a being of destruction capable of truly terrible acts.
7 Tsubaki Kasugano Endured Unimaginable Abuse After Her Parents Were Murdered (Future Diary)
Future Diary's dark and dangerous Tsubaki Kasugano's parents founded the Omekata Cult, which was launched with good intentions of helping people but soon turned into exploitation. One of the cult’s leaders did not want to close it down, so, to keep his position and power, he murdered Tsubaki’s parents by planting a bomb under their car.
Even worse, after he took over the cult, he and the other cult members forced themselves onto the orphaned Tsubaki to “purify” themselves. After years of such abhorrent abuse, it’s no wonder Tsubaki desires to destroy everything and everyone.
6 Isabella's Only Chance At Survival Was To Become The Very Evil That Threatened Her (The Promised Neverland)
Isabella in The Promised Neverland is an unsettling character who takes care of orphans and prepares them for adoption. However, she actually raises children to become food for demons. Whilst it’s natural to want to hate her, she never wanted to end up in this business.
Isabella was once one of the orphaned children herself and was to become another victim. However, she was one of the lucky ones who was offered training and a job as a "mama," taking care of and readying children for their demise in return for her prolonged life.
5 Shiro Was A Victim Of Torturous Human Experimentation (Deadman Wonderland)
Deadman Wonderland's wacky and childish Shiro had a very unfortunate start to life. She was adopted as a young child and had to endure painful scientific experiments as part of secret research into the human immune system.
Throughout her excruciating childhood, she suffered the loss of limbs time after time, and to cope with all the pain and torture, she developed an alter ego which she names “the Wretched Egg” - a tough, unpredictable, and violent side that thinks nothing of gory, bloody and gruesome mass murder.
4 Juuzou Suzuya Was Stripped Of Everything And Rebuilt As A Killer (Tokyo Ghoul)
Kidnapped as a child and trained to be a brainless killer, Juuzou Suzuya in Tokyo Ghoul knew nothing but suffering and evil throughout his life. His captor, Big Madam, broke him down, essentially reducing him to nothing so that she could wipe everything clean and build the perfect killing machine.
Lacking any sense of morality as a result of his trauma and training, Juuzou became the ideal and most dangerous murderer because he asks no questions. But that’s not all that’s twisted. Big Madam was obsessed with his beauty, so to keep his good looks intact as he grew up, she castrated him.
3 Akito Sohma's Deepest Fears Of Abandonment Bring Out Her Worst (Fruits Basket)
Born female but raised as a boy, Fruits Basket's Akito Sohma is the head of the Sohma clan and seems to cause nothing but trouble for the rest of the family. Her mother was a deeply disturbed and jealous individual who raised Akito as a boy because she could not cope with her husband loving any other woman more than herself, even her own daughter.
Her father did love her and treated her well, but he passed away from an illness that Akito seems to have inherited too. The combination of her abusive mother, her sickness, and the grief of losing her father causes her to take her emotions out on her family in the form of emotional and physical abuse.
2 Vegeta Is Dead Set On Avenging His Father's And Home Planet's Demise (Dragon Ball Z)
It’s hard to believe that Vegeta, one of Dragonball Z’s most infamous villains, redeems himself to become one of the good guys, which leaves viewers questioning if he did want to be a bad guy all along. During his childhood, he was left with no choice but to undertake extremely difficult work for Frieza under duress to protect his father’s life.
Then, after his father and his entire race were eliminated when Frieza destroys his home planet, he takes a turn for the worst and embarks on his tirade of evil. His mission? Get the Dragon Balls by any means necessary so that he can become strong enough to defeat Frieza and avenge his father and home planet.
1 Nine And Twelve Escaped Horrific Human Experimentation (Terror In Resonance)
Terror in Resonance's Nine and Twelve are victims of an experiment involving testing dangerous drugs under the guise of educating gifted and talented children. They only managed to escape by setting the place on fire.
With a questionable drug comes terrible side effects, and sufferers of Savant Syndrome endure butchered minds and bodies beyond repair. Though never confirmed, it’s implied that the wrongdoings of Nine and Twelve are to raise awareness of the Athena Project and the suffering it caused so many people.