Anime villains have a wide variety of motivations for the horrible and antagonistic things they do. While some are unsympathetic or are evil simply for the sake of being evil, others have causes and reasons that are understandable and tragic if not justifiable.
Moreover, even villains that the viewer cannot sympathize with are capable of expressing regret and remorse for events they could not prevent or immoral actions they committed in the past. While it does not ensure their redemption, it humanizes the villains to an extent and reminds the viewer they are still capable of experiencing human emotion.
10 Lord Darcia III Cannot Save His Wife (Wolf's Rain)
Lord Darcia III of Wolf's Rain (2003) is an antagonist to the wolf protagonists as a Noble who attempts to steal Cheza the Flower Maiden. His motivations are not evil at the start; he merely wants to use Cheza's healing ability to cure his adored wife Lady Hamona of her Paradise Sickness, which has left her comatose and on life support.
When he finally returns with Cheza to find Hamona already dead, Darcia goes off the deep end in his quest to locate Paradise although it is not meant for humans, mortally injuring the wolves and telling them they will lose everything just as he has.
9 Meruem Fails To Become Gungi Champion (Hunter x Hunter)
In his quest for proved racial superiority, Hunter x Hunter's King Meruem of the Chimera Ants seeks out human champions of various games to compulsively beat and then execute. However, he meets his match in Komugi, the 14-year-old blind World Champion in Gungi, who repeatedly bests him, despite his efforts.
As their competition continues, Meruem develops an emotional attachment to Komugi and becomes protective of her, effectively humanizing him and showing him that humans have more worthy qualities than he first believed. In the end, he even chooses to die with her at his side, having found someone who cares for him as an individual.
8 Zeref Accidentally Kills The Love Of His Life (Fairy Tale)
Fairy Tail villain Zeref Dragneel was cursed by the Black Magic Ankhselam, which causes him to kill anything alive when he is near. This haunts Zeref and makes him push away everything and everyone in order to keep them safe, apologizing all the while.
However, he does not become a villain until his love Mavis dies, in spite of hoping that they can be together due to their mutual immortality; this ends Zeref's one chance at happiness with the person who understands him. Even more crushing is the fact that Zeref's own love for her is responsible for her death, thanks to his curse.
7 Asano Lost One Of His Students (Assassination Classroom)
Assassination Classroom's Gakuho Asano is an antagonist for the first half of the story. He pressures his son Gakushu to an extreme degree in regards to his performance and education, prioritizing the standards and rightfulness of his learning system over all else, and can be unfair, like when he excludes Class E from a particular lesson to prevent their passing.
Asano was much kinder and more ideal in his backstory, encouraging his students to be good people. However, one of his star students committed suicide due to bullying, causing Asano to change his teaching methods out of the belief he failed to teach his students to be strong.
6 Sae Kashiwagi Bullies Her Best Friend (Peach Girl)
Sae Kashiwagi of Peach Girl is the manipulative and toxic best friend to protagonist Momo Adachi, spreading rumors and lies behind her back and sabotaging her. Having been bullied when she was younger, Sae developed similar behavior to help her cope in school and sees Momo's wholesome reputation as a challenge since, in her opinion, no one could be that perfect.
Sae is especially good at playing victim, pretending to be wounded to ruin people socially. After being humbled by Ryo, Sae undergoes a realization and resolves to be a better person, genuinely helping Momo for no personal benefit.
5 Twice Felt He Was A Freak But Only Wanted Friends (My Hero Academia)
My Hero Academia's Jin Bubaigawara, known by the moniker Twice, faces severe mental damage because of his Quirk called Double, which creates multiple clones with the same personality and belief that they are each the original person. This leads him to doubt whether he himself is even the original or just another clone.
While a thug belonging to the League of Villains founded by All For One, Twice has deep loyalty to the group since they are the only ones who accept him in society, compounded by his physical appearance making people fear him on principle; he even dies happily in the act of protecting them.
4 Helbram's Friends Were Cruelly Murdered By Humans (The Seven Deadly Sins)
The Seven Deadly Sins's Helbram is a fairy who despises humans and travels the land killing them while in human form as a Liones Holy Knight as they prepare for the upcoming Holy War. However, this fairy's past provides a sympathetic reason: as a young fairy who trusted and admired humans, his friends were tricked and attacked by a group of human merchants who proceeded to kill them and rip off their wings to sell for money.
The senseless violence destroyed Helbram's faith in humans and is what drives him on his perpetual quest to eradicate every human before his old friend King kills him to end it.
3 Peter Ratri Was Heartbroken At Killing His Brother (The Promised Neverland)
The Promised Neverland's Peter Ratri runs the farm system that sells orphan children as food for demons, upholding the Promise made between the demons and the Ratri Clan when the two were separated to prevent warring. He sincerely believes his actions are for the greater good despite his role in the murders of children and believes it to be a necessary evil.
However, Peter does have one regret: his betrayal of his brother James who wanted to help the children escape their fates. Informing their superiors of James' beliefs led to the death of the brother he admired, an event which Peter sees as necessary, but wishes hadn't been.
2 Hama Watched The Decimation Of Her Nation's Waterbenders (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Hama of Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of many Southern Water Tribe waterbenders forcibly removed from their home by the Fire Nation and isolated in degrading prisons. Through bloodbending, Hama escaped the prison and became a recluse in a Fire Nation town.
Throughout her life in this town, Hama terrorizes the citizens every full moon by manipulating their bodies and trapping them underground as a way to enact vengeance on the Fire Nation for the trauma they brought upon her and her people. Team Avatar recognizes the innocence of the missing people despite their Fire Nation status, with Katara stopping her at last by learning bloodbending herself.
1 Light Laments Finding The Death Note In The End (Death Note)
Death Note's protagonist Light Yagami starts out the story as a normal, but bored and intelligent high school student. Acquiring the supernatural Death Note from the Shinigami realm ignites his God complex and he begins scribbling names in the notebook to take the lives of those he considers unworthy and only to be contributing evil in the world.
When Light's identity as Kira is finally discovered by Mello and Near, he flees wounded from them and Ryuk finally kills him using the Death Note. As he lies dying in a warehouse, Light remembers the way he was before the Death Note appeared.