One thing that keeps bringing fans back to anime is the memorable characters, which doesn't always mean the hero. The figure we all love to hate, the villain, plays an important part in the story. They're often more compelling and entertaining to watch than the hero, which makes it all the more satisfying when they fail or are defeated.
There are all kinds of villains, but the best ones are the evil geniuses with complicated or nefarious plans. It's often their own self-satisfied attitude, gained as a result of their heightened intelligence, resulting in their ultimate downfall. We've collected a few anime villains who ended up being too smart for their own good.
10 She Misunderestimates Her Minions - Yubaba, Spirited Away
Yubaba is a character that seems to have control over everything. Besides being a powerful witch, she's the overseer of a massive spirit bathhouse and the surrounding shops and restaurants meant to serve the visiting gods. As the story progresses, we find out that Yubaba has an insidious hold on her employees, binding them to her service using tricks and magic spells.
This all seems very clever until the honest and stubborn Chihiro shows up and lifts the veil off her trickery. Instead of turning into just another mindless employee, Chihiro helps to free Yubaba's most trusted servants and enlists the help of the witch's twin sister Zeniba to defeat the boss of the bathhouse.
9 Her Emotional Manipulation Bites Back - Medusa Gorgon, Soul Eater
The most deadly enemies are the ones that appear to us first as friends, and this is Medusa's favorite trick. She tries to seduce Dr. Stein into taking her side and looks like a regular caregiver. Her professional background is a scientific one, which helps her masquerade as a caring nurse and doctor while working at the Death Weapon Meister Academy.
However, it's also why she's such a cold and methodical planner, using even her own child, Crona, for devastating experiments. It seems like a smart move at first, since she succeeds in making Crona a deadly killer who was her aim in the first place, but in the end, he sides with the Mizune family against her.
8 He Lets Personal Feelings Into His Professional Life - Yurimaru, Ninja Scroll
Genma might have been the leader of the Eight Devils of Kimon, but the clever and deadly Yurimari was his first lieutenant. Yurimari's unique talent revolved around his ability to create and conduct electricity through a simple line of thread. It was elegant, deadly, and allowed him to keep tabs on the other devils along with making short work of his victims.
Unfortunately, Yurimari wasn't smart enough to keep his professional talents out of his personal life. He dispatches one of his own allies out of petty jealousy and is totally unprepared when another does the same thing to him.
7 She Thinks It's All About Strength - Sailor Galaxia, Sailor Moon
She was the most powerful soldier in the whole universe, and she thought she was strong enough to contain Chaos within her own body. As the darkness took over, it might have occurred to Galaxia that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.
Galaxia wasn't just a powerful fighter. She was also a methodical planner and effective leader, so she almost succeeded in subjugating the entire galaxy. In the course of all this meticulous planning, she forgot about the essence of her own soul, which had taken on the form of a child named Chibi-chibi and had traveled to earth to seek out the protection of Sailor Moon.
6 The Ghost Knows The Truth, Despite Politics - Nakamura, Ghost in the Shell
Here's one that's easy to miss because the movie deliberately tricks the viewer into thinking the villain is elsewhere. Most of the story leads us to believe that the Puppet Master is the bad guy and the characters that represent the police, specifically Section 9, are the good guys.
When the Puppet Master identifies themselves as a sentient life form that the government created, the tables turn. The Major concludes that the government's political arm, Section 6, headed by a shady representative called Nakamura, was not only the brains behind the Puppet Master's creation but also had been playing Section 9 to do their dirty work and cover it up. The worst that happens to him is a forced resignation, typical for a political power play gone wrong.
5 Ultimate Power And Ultimate Corruption - Frieza, Dragonball Z
Frieza might not be the most intelligent villain on this list, but he certainly thinks he is. Granted, most of Freiza's brains come from his own superiority complex, but you don't exactly get to be master of the universe if you're a bumbling oaf. He's well-spoken and obviously has some complex thought processes. He's one of the new bad guys in Dragonball Z that isn't just killing machines of pure evil, and he's instrumental to Goku's backstory, which makes him this series' primary villain.
The conceit this character has in his own prowess is overstated, as Frieza boasts and lashes out in fear and creates his own enemies. He destroyed Planet Vegeta because of the Super Saiyan legend, almost as a flippant gesture to soothe his own paranoia. The result was the survivors swearing revenge, most notably the hero of the series, Goku.
4 She Thinks She's A God - Dante, Full Metal Alchemist
The manga is slightly different, but in the original Full Metal Alchemist anime from 2003, we found out that kindly old shut-in Dante was the ultimate villain the whole time. She created most of the homunculi and others created; she cultivated to do her bidding.
At the height of her power, she had several powerful created-humans doing her bidding, which seems like a great plan, but that's exactly how things went wrong. She changes Gluttony to his basest instincts so he will consume Eduard and the Philosopher's Stone he's carrying with him, but the monster turns on her, and she gets eaten instead.
3 He Wasn't Smart Enough To See Through The Demons - Naraku, Inuyasha
It's a sordid tale of murder, betrayal, and greed that resulted in the creation of Naraku, a half-human half-demon who's the main antagonist of the Inuyasha franchise. His rivalry with the titular main character goes back to before he gave his body and soul to a spider demon to obtain a sacred jewel and win the heart of a young priestess, a priestess that Inuyasha was protecting.
In his new demon form, Naraku forms a plot that makes them hate each other and turns the local people against Inuyasha. As smart as Naraku thought he was, in the end, it was revealed that he was being manipulated by a more powerful demon the whole time to ensure the continued existence of the sacred gem that Naraku had been after the whole time.
2 When The Person You Hate The Most Is Yourself - Gendo Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
We don't see Gendo in Evangelion very often. Part of the story's drama is that he can't have relationships with other human beings, particularly his son. Although he's always an unsavory character, the viewer is tricked into thinking that he's an aloof genius at worst and that the Angels are the real enemies.
It's not until the end of the series that we find out Gendo was the ultimate puppet master the whole time, pulling all the strings from the beginning 15 years ago after the First Impact. It's his brains that get the better of him eventually. He thinks he's engineered his human-angel clone perfectly in the form of Ayanami Rei until she declares that "she doesn't belong to him," nor does the power of creation.
1 Intelligence Doesn't Come With Wisdom Or Goodness - Yagami Light, Death Note
Yagami Light is notorious as one of the most intelligent anime characters ever created. He's also one of the medium's deadliest villains, and as Death Note reaches its 15th anniversary, he's still on every list for the smartest, most manipulative, and darkest of them all.
He's introduced as the perfect youth at first. He's his mother's pride and joy, bright, disciplined, and thoughtful. Until the Death Note falls into his hands. This brilliant anime's chilling undertone is how power corrupts and how much of it can make even the best person go very bad very quickly. When it seems like Light is invincible, it's one of his own minions that turns on him.