While admittedly not without some controversy, ERASED’s villain Yashiro was a big part of what made the show work so well. Even after Yashiro is revealed to be the killer, Satoru’s ability to outsmart him is severely tested by his homeroom teacher. The mind games he has to play to try to hide his knowledge from Yashiro and eventual confrontation led to many memorable and intense moments in the series like when Yashiro tries to drown Satoru in his car.

Yashiro is also quite persistent, carefully monitoring Satoru in his comatose condition for 15 years until finally being brought to justice after Satoru foils his attempt to kill him disguised as a suicide. Yashiro’s obsession and disturbing ability to blend into society for years as a serial killer and kidnapper made him one of the best villains of recent years.

There must be something with time travel anime producing solid villains, as our next pick from Re:Zero is the unmistakable Archbishop of Sin representing Sloth: Petelgeuse, or was it Beteguelse? In any case, this guy is unquestionably insane in a very over-the-top and energetic way that belies his moniker as representing Sloth.

His constant bodily contortions and vigorous self-harm, often involving crushing or biting his own fingers, along with his creepy character design definitely leave a visceral impression immediately. Petelgeuse’s presence in the story was also memorable as the first Archbishop of the Witch Cult with some terrifying power with his Unseen Hands and ability to possess and travel between multiple bodies. Although ultimately defeated after several resets, Petelgeuse proved to be a worthy and distinctive villain.

The dark horse of this dark bunch, Hamdo from the somewhat obscure anime Now and Then, Here and There is perhaps the best example in the medium of the horrors that can be wrought by selfish, incompetent leaders in places of power. The “mad king” of Hellywood is totally despicable, engaging and enabling incredibly cruel acts of physical, mental, and sexual violence under the weak guise of “bringing peace”.

Hamdo's army, largely made up of child soldiers, pillage the few remaining villages for spoils and new “recruits” in a never-ending violent struggle. Hamdo also perhaps suffers from multiple personality disorder, erratically slipping from childish cowardice and paranoia to cunning megalomania, making him even more disturbing. Thankfully, Hamdo does eventually get his just deserts in one of the most cathartic moments in anime. He’s certainly a villain that’s easy to hate, easily earning him a spot on this list.

Speaking of villains particularly cruel to children, next up we have The Promised Neverland’s Isabella. While assuming the role of mother to the orphans of Grace Field House, Isabella is in fact running what amounts to a farm for premium human meat that is sold to mysterious and terrifying creatures known as demons once the children reach a certain age.

Isabella herself is no slouch when it comes to horror, casting a commanding presence in the series as she strictly monitors the kids and knowingly sends them off to be killed behind a mask of kindness. Isabella’s projection of that eerie feeling of always being watched and her sinister nature made her one of the most memorable villains of recent anime. While she was given some depth in her backstory and reaction to the escape of Emma’s group, arguably offering a bit of redemption, Isabella is most definitely still a villain and one of the best in our book.

You might have thought it was someone else, but it was me, Dio! Jokes aside, Dio Brando is unquestionably one of the most iconic anime villains of all time and, thanks to his series’ late-blooming popularity outside of Japan thanks largely to the 2012 anime adaptation, also one that still feels modern in our minds.

Dio is a tenacious bastard that takes advantage of the generosity of the Joestar family to further his own power, being inordinately dickish to Jonathan by constantly tearing him down, trying to make him look bad in front of his dad, spreading rumors to sully his reputation, and sabotaging his relationships. This escalates into killing his dog, poisoning and later stabbing his adoptive father, and becoming a freakin vampire. Even after decapitation, Dio gets his revenge and sets in motion many of the events of the series, making a formal return in Stardust Crusaders as the main villain once again. With raw ambition taken to the extreme, iconic lines, poses, and outfits, incredible abilities from Aztec mask-induced vampirism and the time-stopping power of The World, Dio’s menacing presence towers over his series and is our pick for the best villain in anime.

Inuyashiki focuses on the life of Ichirou Inuyashiki a 58-year-old man who finds himself the eyre of his wife and children, and struggling with the degrading nature of his body. Befriending a dog, Inuyashiki is then only to discover that he himself is afflicted with cancer and has only months to live. Shortly after receiving the news, he and a young man Hiro are caught in the explosion of a crashed extra-terrestrial ship. Having both seemingly been eviscerated, they are remade by strange technology. Each discovers incredible powers gifted to them as a result of this accident. While Ichirou may play the white knight in this story, all good tales have a foil and we find this villain in Hiro Shishigami.

Hiro was a relatively popular and attractive teenager. Yet despite this, he seemed to exhibit little to no care for other humans beyond his friend Naoyuki Ando. After the crash and his seeming destruction, Hiro becomes almost more robotic in his personality and only upon witnessing the demise of a jumper on subway tracks did he feel truly alive. What brings him to this list is not his indifference to human suffering but his active role in causing it. Hiro will go into random homes of family, shoot a mother and father and watch a child drown in a bathtub of his father’s blood and not show any remorse or care in the world.

Between our world and the soul society, a spirit world exists just outside the space of our reality. There stands elite forces of soul reapers who fight against hollows, corrupted souls of those who died, maintaining a relative peace between both realms. You may be well acquainted with the substitute soul reaper Ichigo Kurosaki and the powerful captains and lieutenants of the 13 court squads. Yet it is one in particular that earns a spot on this list. Among these powerful captains was one named Sosuke Aizen, captain of the 5th Division, a seemingly friendly and studious man.

Yet beneath this guise was a man who was revealed to be a traitor, caring little for the society he was sworn to protect nor for the welfare of his subordinates. His only aim was to unlock the power of a particular artifact that would grant him immense power. Upon faking his own death and framing another soul reaper for it, Aizen attempted to murder his own lieutenant whom he had worked at secretly manipulating to be dependent on him for many years. He is responsible for the death of countless souls and the kidnapping of Orihime Inoue, a friend of Ichigo Kurosaki.

If strange immortal beings lived among us, looked like us, talked like us, identical in nearly every way to humans, how would you react? These people who possess seeming immortality are called Ajin. Beyond immortality, they possess the ability to project strange dark figures from their body who fight on their behalf. Among these hidden individuals is a mysterious older man named Sato who is as dangerous as they come.

A former United States Marine, Samuel T. Owen A.K.A Sato was dishonourably discharged from the military after needlessly endangering his men. Upon arriving in Japan, Sato begun a string of terrorist operations under the guise of obtaining rights for Ajin under Japanese law. He even allowed for the capture and torture of a fellow Ajin named Kei Nagai so that he could attempt to turn him to his side of the fight between the government and Ajin. Yet even beneath his terrorism, which he claims to do for the sake of a cause, Sato is quite simply a homicidal individual who relishes in the suffering of human beings. The deception of others to justify mass murder is pretty dark stuff.

Berserk is an anime taking place sometime in the middle ages and follows the trials and tribulations of a mercenary named Guts who is known for carrying a large black sword. Depending on which series you have seen or if you have only tuned into the movies, you may find Guts a part of the Band of the Hawk led by a seemingly charismatic leader named Griffith who takes Guts into the group after defeating him in battle.

Griffith you will soon find is anything but your friend and no great leader. After suffering tremendous torture for over a year at the hands of a king, he seeks out and is imbued with godly power upon sacrificing his entire band of the hawk. To spite the early desertion of Guts, Griffith proceeds to rape Casca, Guts’ love interest, in front of him as Guts is held down by demons. He is not a good guy.

How would you react if you discovered that your imaginary friend turned out to be the real lord of time and space and that you were one of 11 candidates selected to fight to the death for a shot at becoming his successor? This was the absurd situation which Yukiteru Amano, an introverted 14-year-old high school student, found himself. Upon receiving the revelation of this battle to the death, Yukiteru was apprehensive and did not receive much comfort from a classmate with a crush, Yuno Gasai, a lonely girl who had been obsessively stalking him for a long period of time ever since he made a promise to see the stars with her.

While in the beginning, Yuno may simply seem like a shy and slightly unhinged protector of the protagonist, the viewer will soon discover how twisted Yuno is as an individual as the truth of her psyche and past deeds begin to unravel. Yuno has not only butchered her competitors and brutally murdered her own parents, she has even gone so far as to kidnap Yukiteru, threatening to dispose of any who seek to separate the two, be it friend or family. All of this in the name of love.

In 22nd century Japan, the rule of law and order has significantly altered under the watchful eyes of the Sybil system, a mysterious program created to measure and score the psychological stability and wellbeing of citizens. This score is referred to as a Psycho-Pass, which ultimately seeks to determine criminal intent or vulnerability before any crime is committed and thereby maintaining peace. Yet as Akane Tsunemori, a young police officer, and others will soon discover, the seemingly idealistic system that society has placed its trust in, is far from perfect.

The sibyl system is, in truth, a collective hive of over 200 real human brains regarded as criminally asymptomatic, otherwise strictly analytic and void of excessive pain or emotion. All of the brains are surgically removed to assimilate into the large system. In some ways, it is difficult to label the sibyl system as one villain as each brain technically maintains its personality. Yet the united operation of it as an all-seeing system gives it a spot on this list. Though seemingly genuine in its wish to maintain peace and allow society to prosper, the system’s methods to accomplish such a goal are void of all humanity. There very decisions act much like a prophecy in determining the fates, the jobs, the very futures of individuals, unilaterally shaping society to its preferences, thereby taking away democracy and freedom of choice from its people.

In a world appearing much like ours, there have emerged individual with powers called “quirks” who make up eighty percent of the world’s population, leaving the other twenty percent without any special ability. In this new society of super powered individuals, incredible forces of good such as All Might, his protégé Izuku Midoriya,other heroes and students training to be heroes seek to maintain order. Yet with every great light, there is an emergence of darkness that appears to fight against it. We find this great evil in a man named All-for-One.

All-for-One, leader of the League of Villains, is the complete antithesis of the hero: All Might who stands to protect all that is good and bright in the world. All-for-One, in a word, is a megalomaniac. While horribly disfigured from past encounters with All Might, he utilizes his ability to steal quirks to function without eyes and fuel his insatiable hunger for ultimate power and control. All-for-One believes power justifies rule and is guided by seemingly no other moral compass or line of ethics. He seeks to turn society inside out by inciting conflict between heroes and the rising class of villains. He will use and manipulate anyone if it means he can gain something from it.

Equivalent exchange— “to obtain something, something of equal importance must be lost”—this is an absolute law of alchemy. The Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse—both gifted for their age—attempt the dark alchemy of human transmutation and thereby break the core law and backfires on them. Edward is left missing an arm and a leg, and Alphonse is left with his soul. They become state alchemists to search for the philosopher's stone. As they begin to step closer to the truth they seek, they find the path blocked by homunculi, artificially created beings forged from the stone they seek by a strange man referred to as “Father”.

The first up in the top three of this list, is perhaps the most complex villain when it comes to his origins and his abilities. Father is in essence a near perfect manifestation of what seems to be a divine power or creation on earth, represented as an immortal alchemist similar in appearance to the Elric brothers’ father. What earns him a place as a villain is for his mass genocide of nearly an entire people for the sake of granting him further power to become as close to a deity as is possible and rule over the earth entirely by utilizing the power of the sacrificed souls. He is responsible for the death of countless others and the incitement of war and conflict across nations while seemingly apathetic to the plight of those who suffer. His actions seemingly justified for simply being a quest for all the knowledge that humanity possesses.

Many of you reading this are probably familiar with the tale of Naruto Uzumaki, an orphaned boy in the village hidden in the leaf who harbours the spirit of a demon fox. Naruto’s aspirations to be Hokage, leader of the village, and most skilled ninja drive him further and further towards his goal as the years pass and he must encounter ever increasing threats such as the rogue ninja gang referred to as the Akatsuki and its leader, the mysterious Pain.

Nagato A.K.A. Pain is a former resident of the village hidden in the rain and descendant of the same clan as Naruto Uzumaki. He experienced warfare and famine in his youth, watching his parents murdered by shinobi of the hidden leaf. He and his friends Yahiko and Konan, were taken in and trained in Ninjutsu by Jiraiya, one of the great legendary sannin. Nagato would later grow up only to watch his close friend Yahiko perish for their cause of achieving peace in their land. Following the death of his friend, Nagato adopted the moniker of “Pain.” Utilizing the power of the Rinnegan, eyes which allowed him to what normal ninja could not, he controlled six bodies all representing a different aspect of his power. Using his gifts, he refocused the aims of the Akatsuki, which his friend started, and sought to achieve peace no matter what the cost was to the rest of the world. This almost nihilistic goal drove him to destroying the entire village hidden in the leaf. While his actions were reversed following a confrontation with Naruto, Pain earns one of the top spots on this list for the impact he had on the entire series and development of its characters.

In the shadows of civilization, there is an ongoing war between the supernatural forces of evil and the organization Hellsing, tasked by her majesty the queen with eliminating these threats. The secret weapon of this organization is an immortal vampire named Alucard who works alongside humans to ensure that all evil forces are annihilated. Among these great evils is the Nazi organization Millenium and its leader The Major.

The Major is a seemingly immortal cyborg in a white suit who was handpicked by Hitler to lead a one-thousand-year army of vampires to be used in World War II. After the fall of the Nazis and Berlin where the Major was situated, he escaped with remnants of the millennium organization to the Vatican where he aimed to establish the army he dreamed of, eventually becoming the next major threat that the Hellsing organization must defeat. The Major earns the top spot on this list not only for being a Nazi but for his insatiable bloodlust and need to begin an endless war that would engulf the entire world in fire. He is the poster child of what villainy looks like. You really can’t get more villainous than this character.