There is no denying that most villains in anime, especially the shonen genre, are poorly written. They are evil for the sake of being evil, with little to no genuine motivation to do what they are doing. Yet, every once in a while, fans are blessed with great villains.
These characters not only have a reason behind their actions, but a reason that would logically seem justifiable and makes a lot of sense. This article will not attempt to justify the actions or deaths caused by the villains. Instead, it will lay focus on how noble, pure, logical their intentions were behind their actions. Be aware that there are some spoilers ahead.
10 Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)
Honestly, all that Lelouch wanted was for his empire to be free of the evil clutches of the Britannian empire. It wasn’t as if he was suffering from grand delusions – the anime repeatedly showed how inhumane the Britannians could truly be.
From his point of view, killing those evil people so that his own people could live free and dignified lives, was a justifiable purpose.
9 Dr Genus (One Punch Man)
He was by far the most intelligent character in the series. He saw the future of cyborg creatures when other people merely laughed at how outrageous his ideas were. As a victim of incessant bullying, he became a shut-in and came up with some of his best creations ever, including human cloning.
A lot of his works could have easily been used to protect and save humanity —such as the science behind cloning—but he chose to go down the wrong path instead.
8 Crona (Soul Eater)
This androgynous character has the best reason for doing what they did – genuine mental health problems. As a child, they suffered through years of abuse by Medusa Gorgon. Imagine being forced to torture and kill animals; anybody would lose their mind.
As an adult, they definitely did not enjoy defeating or killing people—like in their battle with Soul and Maka. They only craved to be treated as a human being.
7 Sphinx (Terror In Resonance)
This one contains spoilers. Two teenage boys are responsible for a string of bomb blasts all across Japan, with zero casualties. They get Japan’s top-most authorities in Japan involved, which is what they wanted all along.
In the end, it was revealed they did all of this to throw light on the inhuman conditions and illegal experiments that used to occur in the orphanage where they grew up as kids and this was the only way they could do just that.
6 Krul Tepes (Seraph Of The End)
Krul is shown to be a very strong and very strict vampire. The anime shows she has her motives to do what she does, betraying her own kind in order to do so.
While she is responsible for the killing of many humans herself, she does all of this in order to gain control of the Seraph, just so that she could be reunited with her long-lost brother. While not justifiable, her actions were certainly understandable.
5 Vaccine Man (One Punch Man)
He wasn’t wrong – humanity truly is killing the planet it is living on. To make things worse, overpopulation, and shrinking natural resources will lead to an inevitable war.
It is not a belief or a mere statement, it is a fact that has been consistently validated by scientists the world over. From his point of view, killing humanity was the easiest and best solution. From the perspective of humans, obviously that was the worst possible conclusion.
4 The Aliens (Parasyte)
This alien and his species show up on earth to feed on humans, treating them as mere prey. Their perspective can be summed up in two quotes that they said in the series, which explain that humans are incredibly contradictory when it comes to eating animals.
"Such a shallow breed. They grind cows and pigs into feed, and then act so surprised when it happens to them"
"It's natural for life forms to feed on other life forms. You just find it unpleasant that it's your own kind that is being eaten."
3 Soo-Won (Yona Of The Dawn)
Soo-Won killed Yona’s father out of revenge – because her father had killed his own father when he was a child. Yona's father was also an inept and corrupt king whose people and kingdom languished right under his nose, while his own daughter lived a life of luxury.
Soo-Won took over his kingdom, ruled as a much better and just king, and aimed to unite all broken kingdoms under one banner.
2 Bishamon (Noragami)
Bishamon wasn’t exactly a villain, but she had it out for Yato since day one. In fact, she did not hesitate to kill Yato every chance she got. The reason behind her undying hatred was explained in one of the later episodes.
At Kazuma’s request, Yato had killed all of Bishamon’s blighted shinki. However, from Bishamon’s perspective, death would have been better than sacrificing the life of her shinki in order for her to survive.
1 Yaha-kui zaShunina (KADO: The Right Answer)
zaShunina’s one and only goal is to learn. For this, he offers the protagonist of the series a chance to leave behind his planet and come with him to a different dimension. He refuses, leading to the alien becoming enraged.
From zaShunina’s point of view, all he did was bless humanity with gifts centuries ahead of their time. All he wanted was to observe and learn from them, and one human being was unable to let go of his ties with the earth as a thank-you for everything this alien had done. So in his eyes, destroying the human was nothing but an acceptable loss.