The Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters villains sure are a wild bunch, aren't they? Some of them are trying to revive loved ones, some of them can't stop making penguin puns, and some are... well, you know what, we'll get to the rest.
Today, we'll be ranking 10 Yu-Gi-Oh! villains to decide who is the best (and worst) of the bunch. There's certainly a lot to say about this cast of characters. Without any further ado, let's get right into it.
10 Anubis
Anubis is the equivalent of a CGI-fest monster villain, if such an underwhelming threat could exist in anime. His backstory barely exists, the Pyramid of Light is pointless (we're talking about the object and the movie itself, honestly). He just isn't necessary.
The movie really could have just been a massive, hour-long duel between Yugi and Kaiba, but they instead decided to throw Anubis into the mix who, spoiler alert, added nothing of interest to the plot. He's truly the worst villain that the original series had to offer, especially of the (kind of) canon crew.
9 The Big Five
The Big Five is literally just a group of five idiots who think they're great while simultaneously engaging in a string of failures. The five of them only manage to beat one duelist between them, Tristan... who isn't even a duelist. Additionally, the same member who bested Tristan gets taken out by Serenity. Yes, you heard right, SERENITY. Also, Tea wipes the floor with one of them.
They truly don't get anything done. They appear in two different arcs and fail miserably both times. Well, now they're stuck in cyberspace forever so who won in the end? Not them, that's for sure.
8 Zigfried
Zigfried is a pretty okay villain! His entire plan of diverting all attention to him by being flamboyant as possible throughout the KC Grand Championship does wonders, as Leon is able to make his way to the championship duel. And his plan of using the Golden Castle card in order to infect Kaiba's systems is an interesting plot device.
As a villain, though, his outlook is nearsighted. A stunt like this wouldn't make Schroder Corp loved in the eyes of the public, only hated. This hurts his logic a bit, which puts him lower on the list.
7 Gozaburo
Gozaburo is an alright villain. One of the villains of the Virtual World arc, Gozaburo plans on taking Kaiba's body to enter the real world and take his company back. The arc does a lot of work filling in the Kaiba brothers' backstories living with him. A LOT.
It gets to a point of annoyance that bogs down the arc a bit. If some of this backstory had been done in the past, Gozaburo might have been a bit higher on the list. But by the time he finally gets onscreen in present time, he's already been done to death, which puts him on the lower end of the list.
6 Noah Kaiba
The main antagonist of the Virtual World arc, Noah is a much better villain than his father. Trapped in the Virtual World due to an accident, Noah wants nothing more than to get to the real world and take the company that he believes he deserves, KaibaCorp. Unfortunately, he's had everything handed to him in the virtual world, so he's a spoiled brat who thinks he's entitled to the world.
He spends his duel with Kaiba torturing the gang and using Mokuba as a meat shield so Kaiba couldn't win. He's a complete trashcan of a person, but a pretty good villain for the arc he was featured in.
5 Dartz
You know, Dartz might have been a great villain if his arc wasn't 39 episodes too long. He basically plans on wiping out the world, which is pretty typical for this series. However, his soulless ways of manipulating his followers and destroying people's lives in order to achieve his nefarious goals are pretty messed up.
He shows absolutely no mercy in getting what he wants, and he also has one of the most powerful decks in the entire show. Is he incredibly stupid? Yes. But he's incredibly powerful, too.
4 Diva
With the threat of the Atem coming back from Kaiba's actions, Diva knows that will cause the plane of existence that he and his friends live to come to an end. This world, built by Shadi, is paradise, which causes Diva to stop at nothing to destroy both Yugi and Kaiba to stop this from happening.
Despite doing evil things to everyone in the group (especially poor Joey), his intentions are what he believes to be pure. All-in-all, Diva is simply a flawed villain doing his best to save his homeworld.
3 Bakura
An overarching threat throughout the show, Yami Bakura is the definition of evil. He will stop at nothing to gain the Millenium Items in order to resurrect Zorc and become complete (Yami Bakura is a fusion between part of Zorc and a bandit, so he's big bad basically).
Bakura is always present throughout the anime, ready to strike and take his shot at the puzzle. No matter how many times he is defeated, he comes back, even joining forces with some villains to further his goals.
2 Pegasus
Pegasus will stop at nothing to revive his long lost love, Cecilia. To do this, he needs to gain Millenium Items and capture souls.
He does this brutally without any thought for the harm he causes. He puts hundreds of people in danger during Duelist Kingdom, and steals the souls of Kaiba, Mokuba and Grandpa. He does so simply to fulfill a selfish wish, making him a great villain overall.
1 Marik
Marik Ishtar is a truly malevolent force that wants nothing more than to destroy the Pharaoh. While Atem is eventually able to subdue the evil inside of him, Marik is brutal toward the people who love him the most, and even ends the lives of some of them. He also has no problem destroying anyone who comes in his way.
While he is actually kind of a bad duelist (Mai and Joey both should have beaten him, that was bad writing), every other aspect of him makes him a great villain.