The Scariest Anime Villains Of All Time

 Some of the cutest characters in pop culture history came from the world of anime, but for every Pikachu and Totoro, there's a terrifying villain that would sooner kill you than cuddle you. Animation allows storytellers the freedom to create the most frightening villains that they can imagine, and — unlike in the West, where animation aimed at adults is usually of the comedy variety — they tend to take full advantage of that in Japan. The term "nightmare fuel" has become synonymous with anime in recent years, and that's the perfect way to describe the characters we're about to examine.

We've gone on a journey through anime history to handpick the most horrifying and utterly abominable antagonists of all time. From insane warmongers and psychotic stalkers to demon ninjas and alien parasites, here's a rundown of the scariest anime villains ever.

Note: This article contains spoilers for anime, both old and new.

All For One from "My Hero Academia" is a faceless supervillain

Every great superhero needs an equally memorable supervillain, and for Toshinori Yagi — better known by his hero moniker All Might — that villain is All For One. The overarching antagonist of the "My Hero Academia" series (which takes place in a world where the majority of people are born with powers known as "quirks"), All For One founded the League of Supervillains and terrorized Japan until All Might stepped in to stop him. The pair engaged in a legendary scrap that almost entirely destroyed the villain's face: he was left with no nose, no ears, and no eyes.

All For One makes up for that lack of vital features via his quirk, which allows him to steal the powers of others and use them as his own. He's a formidable foe willing to kill anyone who stands in the way of his search for One For All, the only quirk that truly poses him a threat (the villain murdered All Might's former mentor Nana Shimura, the seventh One For All user, in an emotional battle scene). He looks equally as terrifying in his black, skull-like mask, complete with a Darth Vader-style life-support system.

Gotou from "Parasyte: The Maxim" is an experiment gone wrong

 The anime adaptation of Hitoshi Iwaaki's hit horror manga "Parasyte" boasts an array of scary villains, but the story's big bad, Gotou, is by far the most frightening. He ends up being the arch-nemesis of Shinichi Izumi, a high school student who gets very lucky during an alien invasion. When a race of parasitic extraterrestrial worms arrive on Earth overnight, the majority of the human population are nothing but host bodies by the morning, though the worm that tried to hijack Shinichi's body panicked when he woke up and buried into his right hand, instead.

The alien takes control over Shinichi's hand (his name, Migi, means "right" in Japanese), but not his brain. The teen is able to maintain his free will as everyone around him transforms (though only at will) into vicious, contorted creatures with bladed appendages and teeth for days. What sets Gotou apart is that he's an experiment gone wrong: this super strong and super scary villain has five parasites in his body, not one. Even in human form, he's absolutely terrifying. In one of the show's most memorable scenes, he brutally dispatches dozens of yakuza as a form of practice, smiling politely as he turns their hideout into a bloodbath.

 

Petelgeuse from "Re:Zero" is the Joker on acid

Petelgeuse from "Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World" has been compared to DC's Joker, both in terms of his appearance and his absolute lack of sanity. Full name Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, he's a co-founder of the Witch Cult and acts as one of the organization's seven "Sin Archbishops," representing the deadly sin, Sloth. He cranks up the crazy over the course of the series (which is adapted from Tappei Nagatsuki's light novels of the same name), licking the eyeballs of his captives and forever ranting about his "brain trembles" when he gets excited.

Petelguese is a contender for the scariest villain to appear in a non-horror anime. "Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World" is the story of a prospectless young man named Natsuki Subaru, who is suddenly transported to a fantasy world during a routine trip to a convenience store. It's a common theme in anime nowadays, but rarely are these fantasy worlds inhabited by such terrifying villains. With his pallid complexion and his green, bowl-cut hair, Petelguese adds some much needed unpredictability to the anime, and his wild antics stick with you long after the credits have rolled.

The Colossal Titan from "Attack on Titan" gives new meaning to "big bad"

Based on Hajime Isayama's acclaimed manga of the same name, "Attack on Titan" wastes no time in introducing viewers to its terrifying villains, brutally killing off the protagonist's mother in the first episode. In Isayama's world, humans survive inside a giant walled city that keeps them safe from the Titans, massive humanoid monsters. A boy named Eren Yeager vows to bring the beasts down after they breach the outermost wall and leave him (and us) totally traumatized — a Titan eats his mother alive, right in front of him. He enlists in the military soon after and works his way up to the Survey Corps, an elite unit trained to tackle the Titans head-on.

What we later discover is that Eren's father secretly injected him with Titan serum, which allows him to take the form of a Titan himself. He takes part in some epic Titan battles, but the most terrifying of all his foes has to be the Colossal Titan, the primary antagonist of the first three seasons and the stuff of nightmares. The Colossal Titan is essentially a 200-foot tall man with incredible strength and no skin — and if that doesn't scare you, we're not sure what will. All those exposed tendons and muscles make for a truly terrifying villain.

 

Ryuk from "Death Note" is a spirit from Japanese folklore

Another classic anime that Hollywood got way wrong, "Death Note" follows a hyper-intelligent high school student who comes into possession of a book that allows the user to murder a person simply by writing their name in it. To begin with, Light Yagami uses the Death Note for good, taking out prominent criminals in Japan and further afield. As the deaths mount, the media starts to speculate that they are the work of an international vigilante. A cult following soon springs up around "Kira" (the name given to him by the press), but Light's handy work has caught the attention of Interpol, too.

Light's status as the hero of the story becomes blurry when he turns his attention to the equally intelligent detective that's hunting him, but the true villain of "Death Note" is Ryuk, to whom the titular book belongs. Ryuk is an apple-loving Shinigami, spirits of death from Japanese folklore that aren't too far removed from the Grim Reaper in their purpose. He decided to drop his Death Note in the human world simply because he was bored, and the results of his little experiment amuse him greatly. He watches on as Light grapples with the immense power at his fingertips, unable to be seen by anyone who hasn't touched the Death Note.

Thank You for visting this page . . .