10 Incredible Anime Villains Who Only Got Worse With Time

Evil in anime isn’t just about threats and destruction. It’s about challenging the good guys and crossing limits that scar fans and the heroes alike. Some villains go beyond even the imagination — starting from simple antagonists to nightmare transformations that embody cruelty, power, and manipulation. They’re the ones who don’t just make every story interesting, but redefine what it means to be terrifying.

Throughout anime history, villains have come in many shapes and sizes. Some are driven by tragic pasts like Grifith from Berserk, while others have warped visions of a perfect world, such as Light Yagami in Death Note. And then there are the characters who embody pure malice with no excuse beyond their nature. Some of these villains mask their cruelty behind charm, while others flaunt it — but all of them become unforgettable with their malevolence. Which is why this article covers the 10 most evil anime villains who are still talked about years later.

10) Father (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Father is the main villain of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and is responsible for almost every injustice that occurs in the series. Once a being trapped in a flask, he developed a hatred for humanity and put together a centuries-long plan to become more powerful than God. To do this, he promised the king of the city of Xerxes immortality in exchange for sacrificing some of his people. Instead, he tricked him into absorbing the entire city’s souls and gaining immortality himself. 

Later, he created the seven Homunculi as pawns to further his plan to repeat what he did in Xerxes in Amestris and achieve his perfect form. For this, he tried to absorb The Gate of Truth, performing a massive ritual to open it. But he was defeated and forced into it, becoming a prisoner of the Truth he sought to control. Despite all this, he had no sense of guilt or remorse for the lives he had taken, considering himself superior to others and even failing to see how his overconfidence and desire to become God caused his downfall. 

9) Dio Brando (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)  

Consumed by pride, Dio left devastation wherever he went. This all-powerful vampire began his descent into greater evil in Phantom Blood, showing no gratitude towards even the Joestar family who took him in. Instead, he poisoned his adoptive father, George Joestar, and after transforming into a vampire, waged war against Jonathan Joestar, setting the stage for one of the most infamous villains ever. Yet, this was all just the beginning. 

In Stardust Crusaders, he fully embraced his evil nature and wielded The World, one of the strongest stands in the series. His obsession with world domination drove him to manipulate his loyal followers and mercilessly kill anyone in his path. As Dio’s atrocities reached their peak, he plotted to rewrite reality itself and make his Stand, The World, unstoppable. Luckily, Jotaro Kujo’s Stand, Star Platinum, delivered the final blow that completely shattered Dio’s body, resulting in his permanent annihilation and bringing an end to his reign of terror.

8) Envy (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

If Father was cold ambition, Envy was pure malice. As the name suggests, this cruel villain was jealous of the people around him. He repeatedly boasted about starting the Ishvalan Civil War by killing a child, showing no remorse for the action. Additionally, he was an effective shapeshifter, which allowed him to manipulate people and kill them. The most infamous example of this was when he transformed into Hughes’s wife to make him unable to harm him and deal the killing blow.

But while this sadistic monster wasn’t shy about his hatred for humans and his glee in their suffering, deep down he craved to understand and possess the human bonds of love. In the end, Roy Mustang reduced Envy to his true parasite form, where Edward Elric forced him to confront that longing. Unable to bear the revelation, Envy then destroyed himself by crushing his own Philosopher’s Stone.

7) All for One (My Hero Academia) 

All For One spent centuries becoming the living embodiment of true evil. He didn’t just want to become a super villain; he aimed to rule the world as a demon lord. With the power to steal and stockpile Quirks, he turned himself into a one-man army, hoarding abilities like super strength, air cannons, decay, and damage reversal.

But what truly defined him were his actions. He intentionally targeted the family of All Might’s mentor, Nana Shimura, giving her grandson Tenko Shimura an extremely destructive Decay Quirk and then orchestrating a situation where he would trigger it and lead to his family’s death and his own subsequent grooming by the villain himself. He did all this as part of his plan to acquire the ideal vessel to steal One For All and to be able to emotionally torture All Might by tarnishing his beloved mentor’s legacy.

But Tenko was far from the only vulnerable child All For One targeted. He built an orphanage of these children, had doctor Garaki experiment on humans to create Nomu’s, and committed countless other atrocities. My Hero Academia repeatedly shows that villains are made, not born. But All For One is the one exception to this rule, earning him his place on this list of the most evil anime villains of all time.

6) Kyubey (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) 

Despite looking like a cute cat plushie, Kyubey hid a twisted truth. This antagonist lured middle school girls with promises to turn them into Magical Girls so they can fight Witches. The only problem: he intentionally leaves out the part where this involves having your soul taken out of body and how all Magical Girls are destined to eventually turn into the very Witches they seek to destroy. 

Whether or not Kyubey feels the same emotions as humans, he seemingly understood his victims’ emotions to tailor his manipulations individually and preyed on their vulnerability. Every contract seemed like a miracle, but it was really a death sentence wrapped in false promises. What made Kyubey frightening is his cold logic. He deceived without guilt, justified as a sacrifice to prevent the Heat Death of the universe. That lack of empathy, paired with his calm demeanor, makes him one of the most unsettling villains in anime history.

5) The Major (Hellsing Ultimate) 

There is nothing else that defines The Major better than his infatuation with wars and bloodshed. Having served under Hitler in the SS, he was assigned to create artificial vampires to be used during World War II. But his ambition went far beyond serving the Reich; he wanted to send the entire world into darkness.

Aside from being a standard Nazi maniac, Major thrived on chaos. Over time, his plans shifted from simply creating vampires to starting a war that would engulf humanity itself. Hence, he orchestrated a massive attack on London to create a devastating conflict between humans and supernatural creatures.

In his infamous “I love war” speech, he openly exclaimed his obsessive love for genocide, including holocaust, massive amounts of destruction, every subtype of war, and his plan to create endless conflict so the world would be destroyed. He also tells his army to eat to their hearts’ content, even having his Nazi soldiers eat an officer of the German Wehrmacht alive. This shows how irredeemable he was to even enforce cannibalism on his own soldiers. 

4) Frieza (Dragon Ball Z) 

From the moment Frieza appeared in Dragon Ball Z, he cemented himself as one of the anime’s most iconic villains. Unlike other villains, he doesn’t just lash out without any reason. Frieza was calculated, wanting to rule over the galaxy and destroying anyone who stood in his way. 

He wiped out the entirety of Planet Vegeta only because he no longer found the Saiyaans useful. He later proved this cold heartedness again by slaughtering innocent Namekians just to steal their Dragon Balls. But his ruthlessness was important to the franchise since it was his killing of Krillin that led to the first Super Saiyan transformation ever.

Nonetheless, what sets Frieza apart from other villains is the contrast in ideals. While some others on this list inflict death and chaos because that’s the only thing they know, Frieza does so to have more power than anyone else. This awareness mixed with a hunger for power and dominance is what makes him truly frightening.

3) Mahito (Jujutsu Kaisen) 

Born out of humans’ hatred of each other, Mahito is the embodiment of the evil in humanity. With a childlike curiosity and a sadistic streak, he experiments on humans like toys, using his idle transfiguration to turn them into grotesque monsters without remorse. What makes Mahito especially terrifying is his glee. While other villains commit atrocities to seek power or fulfil their goals, he does it solely for the fun of it. He finds joy in people’s suffering, laughing as he warps humans beyond recognition. 

His casual disregard for life was so cruel, it shook even a Grade 1 Sorcerer like Nanami Kento. In the end, Mahito’s arrogance led to his downfall when Kenjaku devoured him to take his cursed technique and further his own evil plans. Still, his cruel laughter left scars on Yuji and fans alike, cementing him as one of the most hated characters in the franchise.

2) Johan Liebert (Monster) 

Johan Liebert isn’t just a villain, he’s the titular Monster of Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece. What makes Johan so chilling is that his evil isn’t born from a single event or suffering a clear trauma. While Johan tells the story of being abandoned by his mother in favor of his twin sister and being sent to the Red Rose Mansion, we later learn none of those things actually ever happened to him. The true victim of those atrocities was his twin sister Anna. 

Instead, we see how Johan displayed clear psychopathic traits even as a child; killing all the people who were kind to him and his sister and even enjoying triggering a massacre at 511 Kinderheim. Despite this, he rarely killed with his own hands. He planted seeds of despair, manipulating others until they ended their own lives. His evil wasn’t driven by power or ambition but pure malice. 

1) Shou Tucker (Fullmetal Alchemist) 

Although he only appeared in two episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist and a single episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Shou Tucker managed to be one of the most hated characters in the community and for good reason. Known as the Sewing-Life Alchemist, he initially appeared as a gentlemanly State Alchemist acclaimed for his work in creating a talking chimera. But the truth was much darker. 

The first talking chimera that secured his State license had spoken only one phrase—“I want to die”—before starving itself to death. The reason? Tucker had secretly fused an unknown animal with his own wife after which he falsified records saying she left him and their daughter due to “stress from his work”.  

Two years later, desperate to renew his license and terrified of losing his research privileges, Tucker repeated the same atrocity. But this time he used his innocent 4-year-old daughter Nina and her beloved dog Alexander to create a grotesque talking chimera whose existence was only pain. He may not have killed as many as other villains, but his seeming normalcy is what makes Shou so monstrous. Even when the truth was uncovered, he coldly dismissed the outrage, showing no remorse and calling human experimentation a “necessary step” for scientific progress. 

Which of these evil anime villains chilled you the most? Did we miss anyone who deserves a spot on this list? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!