In anime, as with everything, villains are the ones you love to hate. Some can be bad, but then some can be really bad. From cunning and charismatic to unstable and psychotic, there are many different levels of villainy.
A hero can sometimes be nobody, if not for their opposite, and a true villain is like a guilty pleasure that fans enjoy sometimes more so than the heroes themselves. Here is a list of five of the best and five of the worst villains within a selection of five anime series from the 2010s, each with very different genres and subject matters.
10 Best: Yut-Lung (Banana Fish)
The beautiful and androgynous British Hong Konger, Yut-Lung, due to his childhood trauma involving his mother's murder, is ruthless and unfeeling, with little to no empathy towards others. He has continually tried to murder protagonists Ash Lynx and Eiji Nomura since he simply cannot comprehend their strong bond with one another. He also aided in the kidnapping of Ash's childhood friend, Shorter Wong, who, after being injected with the Banana Fish drug, hallucinates and tries to kill Eiji in front of him.
The only way to stop this is to kill Shorter, which is done by Ash's hand. Yut-Lung did not know this was going to happen and seemed to be a bit saddened by Shorter's death, however.
9 Worst: Dino Golzine (Banana Fish)
Dino Golzine, boss of the Corsican Mafia, is one disturbing individual that acts on his attraction for young boys and has proceeded to sexually abuse the main character, Ash Lynx, many times over many years, and he has also made him his adopted son and successor. He constantly tries to cripple Ash's spirit to have him submit, physically and mentally, using his wealth and power, and to threaten him with death if he refuses.
8 Best: Reiner Braun/Armored Titan (Attack On Titan)
One of the original members of the Survey Corps, Reiner Braun, turned out to be an undercover soldier working against them to capture Eren, one with the "pure Titan" powers needed by Zeke Yeager, also known as "The Beast Titan." With his judgment being clouded and his views of right and wrong conflicted, he is plagued by the choices he made to betray his comrades and ultimately became a split personality; one being a protector, and the other a coward.
He is seen as more of a tragic hero. However, his betrayal with his involvement in the murder of comrade Marco Bodt was too much.
7 Worst: The Marleyans (Attack On Titan)
For one, the Marleyans are the ones behind the creation of the infamous "Smiling Titan" who, at the beginning of the series, crushed and ate Eren Jeager's mother. This titan was, in fact, Grisha Yeager (Eren's father's) first wife, Dina Fritz, a descendent of the Fritz Family, royalty who lived in Marley, that was turned into a Titan by Marylan soldiers and thrown to roam Paradis Island for all eternity.
Also, two soldiers of Marley were responsible for the brutal murder of Grisha's younger sister by feeding her to a pack of hungry dogs of which they showed no remorse in doing so whatsoever, even when they were confronted about it.
6 Best: Mom Isabella (The Promised Neverland)
'Mom' Isabella was the sole motherly figure to many defenseless orphaned children at Grace Field House. Her deception would not have been discovered if not for the curious trio of childhood friends Emma, Ray, and Norman, who upon following her and an 'adopted' child leaving the orphanage, found what she had been hiding all along: the demise of each child that she cared for by leading them to slaughter to a race of man-eating monsters. Isabella was once an orphaned child herself, destined for the same fate, and yet, she would become the very thing that she feared.
5 Worst: Sister Krone (The Promised Neverland)
Sister Krone was introduced to keep a better eye on things and to help in stopping Emma, Ray, and Norman from escaping Grace Field House. With Krone's large, intimidating physique, and a goofy, childlike demeanor, most of the children did not see her as a threat and befriended her.
Behind the scenes, she wished to usurp Isabella as Mom of the House, and, in the end, decides to help the children execute their plans of escape. Later she is found out and killed, but she leaves a helpful clue for the children which would prove extremely helpful to their resolve.
4 BestT: Masazo Kinoto/Cheap Trick (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable)
Masazo Kinoto, a weird-looking, red-headed architect, appears at Rohan Kishibe's door for hire after part of his home was destroyed in a fire. Masazo displays some very peculiar behavior, one being that he hid his back from Rohan at all times. This intrigued Rohan, and he constantly tried to get him to turn around.
A strange stand "Cheap Trick" has made Masazo quite paranoid, and, even though he warned Rohan that, if he were to look at his back, he would die, he did so anyway. Upon doing this, he dies, and then "Cheap Trick" is transferred to Rohan where it constantly bickers in his ear and tries to take control by driving him mad. In the end, Rohan tricks the stand in a fit of near lunacy and defeats it.
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When it comes to the bizarre, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure does it best and the character Yoshikage Kira is no exception. He is both a Stand user as well as a serial killer who terrorized Morioh City and its civilians for close to twenty years.
His mantra of wanting to "just live an ordinary life" being a salaryman by day, then harboring an unhealthy erotic obsession with female hands by night, leads him to date unsuspecting women and severing and keeping their hands for his own personal sick and twisted enjoyment. His Stand, "Killer Queen's" power is to destroy anything it touches by turning it into a time activated bomb that leaves no trace when it goes off, so the bodies of the countless women he kills would vanish, and no evidence would remain, which was how he managed to evade the police for so many years.
2 Best: Tomura Shigaraki (My Hero Academia)
The Leader of the League of Villains with his one goal in life to kill All Might, see as a 'Hero of Peace' is a good example of a true supervillain. However, has time went on, his goal went from killing just one individual to destroying the order of the entire world and to mold this new world into his twisted version of society.
His quirk, "Decay," turns any living object he touches to dust, and it has changed his appearance similar to that of the walking dead. The many severed hands that are on his head, face, neck, and shoulders are actually ones of others that he has killed, most being those of his family members.
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Father of Shoto Todoroki, also known as 'Flame Hero: Endeavor,' is one overcome by immense pride that controls his every move, even his marriage and the creation of his son. His ultimate goal is to surpass All Might and become the No. 1 hero, which proves time and time again to be a hopeless dream.
With this realization, he turned to his successor, his son, to act as an extension of himself and achieve his dream. However, this abuse of his son as well as the mental and psychical abuse of his wife, driving her to insanity, proves to show his disconnection from reality and his intensely cruel nature.