There's nothing more satisfying in anime than seeing a much-despised villain finally bite the dust. But sometimes, death isn't enough. This is where the concept of karmic justice comes in, and it can be one of the most satisfying things to see unfold.
At times, this is just execution with some extra steps. In others, it's a humiliating fate worse than death. Either way, these anime villains couldn't have been defeated in a more cathartic manner.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
10 Hell Girl — Hell Correspondence's Victims All Suffered An Ironic Nightmare Before Damnation
To be fair, not everyone who was targeted by Hell Correspondence was a villain. That said, a good number of the ominous website's victims deserved their fates. Before Ai Enma and her co-workers dragged someone to Hell as stipulated in the contract, they first tormented the offender with a nightmare based on their transgressions.
For example, a stalker found himself in a hospital populated by his victim's relatives. In another case, a bully was trapped in a twisted school with her on the receiving end of her own abuses. While Hell Girl examines the complex grey areas of morality and what counts as "justice," it's hard not to deny that some of those sent to Ai deserved eternal damnation.
9 Dragon Ball Z — Frieza's Cheap Shot & Ego Came Back To Kill Him
Frieza was a merciless tyrant who had the right to declare himself as the strongest being in the universe... until he met Son Goku. After a grueling fight, Frieza was finally defeated not by Goku, but by himself. This all started when Frieza was so distracted after Goku bested him that he failed to notice his own Death Saucer until it sliced him in half.
Goku granted Frieza mercy and gave him enough ki to survive, which Frieza then used to fire an attack. Enraged, Goku retaliated with an Angry Kamehameha that didn't just nullify Frieza's cheap shot but obliterated him. If only Frieza tempered his pride a few seconds earlier, he could've escaped with his life.
8 Bleach — Szayelaporro Granz Found Out He Wasn't As Crazy As He Thought
Szayelaporro Granz, the eighth-ranked Espada, had a reputation for being sadistically crazy, and he was proud of it. As the Espada's resident mad scientist, Szayelaporro took pride in his penchant for dragging out his enemies' deaths for science's and pleasure's sake. Unsurprisingly, he met his match in Capt. Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
Their battle of unhinged wits ended when Mayuri poisoned Szayelaporro with a toxin that slowed his senses so much that a minute felt like a century. Szayelaporro found himself at a madman's mercy and was begging for death by the end. Szayelaporro would die of blood loss in an hour or so, but it was a hellish eternity to him.
7 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure — Yoshikage Kira Was Dragged To Hell By The One Thing He Loved Most
Of the many enemy Stand users Josuke and friends faced in Diamond Is Unbreakable, Kira was the most formidable and demented. Not only did he possess a powerful Stand, Killer Queen, but he was an elusive serial killer. After years of escaping justice, Kira finally met his poetic end shortly after a humiliating defeat.
During his escape, Kira bumped into Reimi, his third victim's ghost, on a haunted street. The street was actually Reimi's trap, and she opened a doorway to Hell that unleashed a horde of hands that dragged Kira in. What made this doubly karmic is that Kira's life goal was to live peacefully (which Hell won't allow), and severed hands were his sick fetish.
6 The End Of Evangelion — Gendo Ikari Was Devoured By An Enraged Eva Unit-01
Neon Genesis Evangelion's original cinematic finale was an ironic ride for Gendo, as it was both the culmination of his lifelong plans and their almost immediate failure. Shortly after he started the Third Impact where he'd use Human Instrumentality to reunite with his dead wife Yui, Rei (Yui's clone) betrayed Gendo and left him to die alone.
During the Third Impact, mankind was returned to the Primordial Soup by visions of people they loved. Gendo, instead, got specters of Yui and Rei chastising him for manipulating and torturing his son Shinji for his own ends. Gendo owned his sins and was devoured by a monstrous Eva Unit-01 - the same robot he forced Shinji to pilot.
5 My Hero Academia — Overhaul Lost His Quirk The Hard & Painful Way
When he debuted in My Hero Academia, one of the first things that the Shie Hassaikai leader, Overhaul, did was violently murder Magne. After that, he obliterated Mr. Compress' left arm and went on to wreak havoc with the Quirk-Destroying Bullets. All of these came full circle in the most morbid ways possible.
After the Shie Hassaikai's fall, Shigaraki and Mr. Compress got ahold of Overhaul. Both villains amputated his hands but left him alive. Now, Overhaul had no way of using his Quirk or restoring his beloved father figure's health. He's left screaming impotently on the highway, crushed by the realization that his downfall was his own fault.
4 Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion — Kyubey Was Driven Mad By The Universe's Emotions & Suffering
In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Kyubey revealed itself to be a sociopathic extra-dimensional being that saw Magical Girls as raw material. Because it and its fellow Incubators couldn't feel or fathom emotions, they didn't care for the Magical Girls when they were dying or getting crushed by the realization that they'll become Witches.
This changed in Rebellion, when Homura Akemi rewrote reality and made the Incubators pay for their sins. In this new world, the Incubators carried the universe's despair and suffering in place of the girls they once tempted. When Kyubey reappeared in the epilogue, the once emotionless Incubator was a broken shell of itself.
3 Perfect Blue — Rumi Became Mima In Her Own World
In Perfect Blue, Mima Kirigoe was stalked by what seemed to be her old innocent idol self, which she left behind when she became a professional actress. This ideal Mima was actually her manager Rumi, who believed herself to be the idol. Worse, Rumi wanted to kill the real Mima to preserve the idol's purity forever.
Rumi was only stopped when a truck ran into her, and she was institutionalized in a hospital for the criminally insane. There, Rumi's twisted fantasies took over and she really believed herself to be the idol. At the cost of her true self, Rumi got what she wanted: Mima's idealized idol persona will live forever in her delusions.
2 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood — Father Got Exactly What He Wanted At The Cost Of His Individuality
Father's one goal was to become immortal not to rule the world but to avoid death and returning to whence he came from. Father is the first Homunculus and originally wanted to experience humanity out of excited curiosity. However, as the centuries passed, Father became arrogant and bitter about his existence.
Now, Father demanded the freedom to hoard knowledge and prove his superiority over humans. After failing to usurp God, Father was reduced to his Dwarf state when he's returned to The Gate. Here, The Truth mocked him with his own words and stripped him of his individuality when he was cast back into The Gate's deathless void.
1 The Rising Of The Shield Hero — Princess Malty S. Melromarc Became A Pariah To Escape Execution
With her family name backing her up, the spoiled Princess Malty made the life of anyone she wanted hell for fun. Her latest victim was the Shield Hero, Naofumi Iwatani, who she claimed sexually assaulted her and thus should be punished. Naofumi was treated as a pariah and Princess Malty got away with it... until her mother Queen Mirellia stepped in.
In a public trial, Princess Malty was outed as a treasonous liar and sentenced to death. Naofumi suggested an alternative: Malty would live, but she'd be stripped of her rank and dignity like what he experienced, and her name would be legally changed to a slur. Malty was so humiliated that she realized that the death sentence was actually the easy way out too late.