Since the death of his father, Kamado Tanjiro has had the heavy burden of supporting his family. They live on a mountain, enjoying a fairly peaceful life. When Tanjiro goes to a nearby village to sell charcoal, he is late in getting home and decides to take shelter in the home of a strange man who mentions the existence of man-eating demons that live in the woods. Returning the next day, Tanjiro is met with the unsightly view of his entire family slaughtered, with his little sister Nezuko being the only survivor. Unfortunately, Nezuko has been turned into a bloodthirsty demon herself. Overcome with grief, rage and a desire for revenge, Tanjiro swears to avenge his family and take care of his sister, putting his body on the line to join the ranks of the Demon Slayer Corps to gain the power to achieve his goal.

The resident Sleeping Beauty of this list, Kamado Nezuko is our top demon on this list for so many reasons. Forget the fact that she spends most of her time in a wooden box on her brother’s back, Nezuko’s most redeeming feature is her indelible desire to protect the one thing that is the most important to her – her older brother. Having undergone a transformation into a demon, Nezuko is an outlier within the Demon Slayer universe for being a demon that does not feed on human flesh. Despite this, Nezuko is incredibly strong and is unafraid to display her strength for her brother’s sake. She is also one of the most adorable characters – especially when she emerges slightly from her little box; or when she retires back into its safety.

The land of Ente Isla falls under attack from the Demon Lord Satan and his armies. His brutal conquest of the continent is foiled by the hero Emilia, who forces him to retreat but the inter-dimensional portal he opens sends Satan and his aide, Alsiel, tumbling down into the streets of modern-day Tokyo. Powerless in this world without magic, Satan attempts to blend in with human society by becoming Maou Sadou and working at the local MgRonald’s fast food restaurant to earn a living. His conquering of Ente Isla takes a backseat to his desire to climb the corporate ladder and eventually become ruler of Earth! Now living a mundane life as a human being (and enjoying it), the vicious Demon Lord learns more about human life.

Finding his calling in the fast food world, Spongebob Squarepants – uh – we mean, “Maou Sadao” seems to be enjoying his life. However, he is the vicious Demon Lord of another realm and we come to understand his immense power in moments spread sparsely across the episode list. Be that as it may, Maou is one of our top demons because he has everything we never thought a demon would need: wit, humour, incredible power and finally, a kind heart, which goes against the rep he set for set for himself in Ente Isla. Looks like even Satan has a lot going on in his life, too!

In an era akin to the European Middle Ages, the Holy Knights of the Britannia of the Kingdom of Liones use powerful magic to maintain order and protect the region. Despite this, a small squadron of Knights turned their blades towards the kingdom in an attempt to overthrow the ruler of their country, Liones. This treason was subdued by the Holy Knights, but rumours of their, of the “Seven Deadly Sins”’ survival. Ten years later, the Holy Knights staged an insurgence of their own, becoming the new tyrannical rulers of Britannia. Elizabeth, the third princess of Britannia embarks on a personal mission to find the Seven Deadly Sins and ask for their help in order to take back her kingdom from the Holy Knights.

The leader of the Seven Deadly Sins had quite the grave secret hidden from most people – he is one of the legendary Demon Clan that had been sealed away for up to 3000 years. There have been times when his demon power burst through in combat – moments which explain why he is the Dragon’s Sin of Wrath. With his demonic powers, Meliodas is an incredibly scary opponent and it feels like he is a different person entirely. Within that tiny body resides an insurmountable level of rage.

The once-popular online virtual reality game, Yggdrasil, is in its final hour. Momonga, a powerful wizard and master of the dark guild Ainz Ooal Gown decides to spend the final moments in the game as servers begin to shut down. However, to his surprise, he finds himself still logged into the game despite the servers being shut down and even more surprising is how he has become fully conscious as his character while non-player characters have seemingly developed personalities of their own! Stuck in this strange situation, Momonga commands his loyal servants to help him investigate and assume control of this new world in hopes of someday figuring out what happened and if there are others experiencing what he is.

Albedo is the highest-ranked NPC in Nazarick who is also known as the “Pure-White Devil”. She is a succubus who bears a high level of loyalty to Ainz Ooal Gown, to the point of it being an obsession. Due to the fact that she is a succubus, she was initially meant to be wholly in touch with her sensual side; which is quite apparent in the way in which she often tries to seduce Ainz. Ainz; however, reprogrammed Albedo’s lusty wiles into what seems to have become lusty wiles for Ainz and Ainz alone.

Ishiyama High is a school made up of delinquents. These delinquents run the show; however, everyone at that school knows not to mess with first year student Oga Tatsumi – also known as “the Rampaging Ogre”. One day, Oga finds a man floating down the river and decides to fish him out. While on the bank, the man splits in half and out emerges a baby, which quickly attaches itself to Oga’s back. It turns out that the baby is none other than Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV – the son of the Demon Lord! Now juggling his newfound parenthood, Oga also has to deal with confrontations from all manner of demons, including Baby Beel’s demon maidservant, Hildegard. In this world of demons and delinquent high schoolers, raising the next demon lord is every bit the challenge that one expects it to be!

What could be better than being 16 and raising the son of Satan? For Oga Tatsumi, probably anything else! However, he soon finds himself warming up to the little tyrant who, for some reason, is always naked. Baby Beel is a child with lots of attitude and spunk, not to mention a never-ending supply of demonic energy! Baby Beel is a child who grows attached to only the strongest, most evil tyrant the human world can produce – so Oga’s status as one not to mess with is solidified by the presence of one powerful green-haired baby.

37-year-old Mikami Satoru’s life ends abruptly and violently when he is killed by a passing robber one day. In a strange turn of events, Satoru finds himself reincarnated in a fantasy world as a slime known as Rimuru Tempest. In this world, Satoru has access to a plethora of strange abilities, abilities which break him away from his old ordinary life and augment his adventures in a whole new world.

Fun-loving Lilim seems like a peppy kid at first, but don’t be fooled – this strawberry-haired ray of sunshine is one of the powerful Demon Lords of the Slimeverse! She joins Rimuru on a whim because it definitely seemed a whole lot better than what she was up to before. Her happy-go-lucky demeanour seems to be antithetical to the sheer strength she possesses and anyone who incurs Lilim’s wrath ought to say every prayer they can think of.

Dale Reki is an 18-year-old respected traveller known to many in the city of Kreuz as one of the best adventurers out. While hunting for magical beasts in the forest, he finds a little girl of the demon race named Latina. She is hungry and alone after her father dies, so Dale decides to take her in as his own. Her sweet compassionate nature renders Dale a doting parent, enjoying the various challenges of parenthood while juggling his life as an adventurer. However, various mysteries surrounding Latina concern Dale and the people around him. Latina herself grows as she is exposed to a somewhat human life.

The cutest demon on this list, little Latina has a certain charm that makes everyone around her very fond of her. Her cheery smile aside, she is incredibly smart and managed to learn about her surroundings through sheer observation. She is also multilingual, first stumbling through the language of the humans before gaining mastery of it with relative ease. If it’s for Latina, we’d defeat all the monsters in all closets and under beds everywhere!

Hell is running very smoothly mainly because of the hard work and efficiency of Lord Enma’s chief deputy, Houzuki. Regardless of the mission, the King of Hell’s loyal aide runs the show from the shadows and works through any challenges in his way. The sadistic Houzuki’s level-headedness allows him to manage the various other employees of Hell with, well, hellish efficiency.

Like the scary teacher you used to have at school, or the supervisor at work who always seems to be giving you scary looks, Houzuki is the type of individual who can get others to get things done. He’s a micromanaging phenom and even scarier is his total lack of empathy or remorse. He’d do amazingly on wall street and perhaps that’s one reason he’s on this list – who else is capable of running all of Hell without even breaking a sweat?

One night, high school shut-in Natsuki Subaru decides to head over to the nearby convenience store in order to buy a few things, but when he steps out, he finds himself in the market district of a town in an alternate world. Modelled on the fantasy worlds he’s familiar with in the games that he plays, Subaru quickly takes to the hero role he believes he is there to fulfil, but not much longer after his arrival, he is attacked by bandits and subsequently killed. To his surprise, Subaru finds himself back in that same market and he’s attacked by the same bandits, but this time around, he is saved by a white-haired beauty named Satella. Satella is travelling in search of the thief who stole her family insignia, and out of gratitude for her help, Subaru decides to join her in her search. When they finally find the individual responsible, Subaru and Satella are both brutally murdered. Subaru awakens to the same sight: the same market, the same bandits attack him again and yet again Satella comes to his aid as history inexplicably repeats itself.

Rem is one of the best characters on this list – we’re first shown how she quietly mirrors her slightly mouthier older sister, but she goes on her own growth journey, soon even coming to understand the bliss and pain of romance. Lest we forget her beautiful confession of love; one filled with many ideas about a future, a cute little patch of happiness she intended to grow for as long as they remained alive. Her character aside, Rem has proven to be extremely powerful in combat, with adamantine loyalty, cursed with a love who will never really see the glittering brilliance that is Rem.

Devils are immensely powerful beings that are hindered by one fact: they cannot take form without a living host. Fudou Akira is an intensely empathetic high school student who decides to help his childhood friend Asuka Ryou in his quest to uncover some devils. When they arrive at the scene of Sabbath, a party characterised by high levels of degeneracy, they witness demons turning people into monsters and spilling the blood of innumerable people. In an attempt to save Ryou from one such monster, Akira unwittingly merges with a devil known as Amon and becomes a Devilman. The new power changes Akira physically but with the same empathy he has always had, Akira must navigate his newfound strength and use it to protect the people he loves.

Perhaps Akira may not count as a recent demon character in anime, given the fact that Devilman as a concept goes all the way back to the 1970s. Be that as it may; however, the Crybaby rendition of Akira breathed new life into the Devilman concept. Akira’s kindness and selflessness remaining despite becoming an “evil” that threatened the very world makes him the type of character who remains in memory for a very long time. Boys (and demons) do cry.

Elsie is a terrible demon. She can barely capture any souls, and has to enlist the help of a human in order to properly do her work. That’s how this show begins and how Keima finds himself needing to romance different women or die. Good work, Elsie.

Now Elsie might seem like a strange addition to this list, as she never really seems particularly dangerous. However, isn’t that what makes her so amazing. She is just so sweet and funny and ridiculous in spite of the fact that she’s a demon. She reminds us that we always need to be ourselves and not take things too seriously. She also reminds us that failing is completely okay sometimes.

Tomoe is a fox demon with a particularly mean mien. Who can blame the guy though? The priest who had been working beside him at a shrine just decided to leave and use a young girl as a replacement. That would put most people in a bad mood as well.

Now Tomoe is a fun demon to watch. His wit is extremely sharp and he will basically give a thorough tongue lashing to any character that even slightly annoys him. Thankfully, the creators made sure to make him more than just talk. He knows how to fight, as his abilities are quite powerful, and he is not afraid to knock heads with other demons.

Decim is the host of Quindecim. He brings the recently deceased into his domain in order for them to play a parlor game. These games range from darts to billiards over the series, and he ensures that the characters play fair in order for the game to properly decide who will be reincarnated and who will go to the abyss.

Decim is one of the most intriguing and unique demons in anime history. Part of this is because the character doesn’t have an extremely strong personality, like so many other demons in anime. He is stoic and completely in control of what happens within his room. However, his nature becomes compromised as well as every event that occurred throughout the series with his last participant who makes his judgments seem impractical.

Rikuo is the protagonist of Nura: Rise of the Yoka Clan, and he is quite an interesting character. Despite being the next in line to rule the Nura Clan, he does not want anything to do with his yokai family. He just wants to live a normal life and enjoy his middle school years. Sadly for him, other clans know that he is next in line and are more than willing to kill him off while he’s young. These tactics basically force Rikuo to accept his demonic side in order to protect both his classmate and yokai family.

The premise of the show immediately gives you insight into why Rikuo Nura is such an interesting demon to watch. He’s reluctant to even engage with his awesome powers because he wants normalcy. This adds a lot of tension and emotional impact each time he is forced to use his powers. It also helps that his demon side is a confident badass who is ready to take on anyone who gets in his way. The split between his normal personality and demon personality creates an interesting dynamic to the show.

Rias is the main female hero of Highschool DxD and she is next in line to rule the Gremory Clan. Her care for others and tremendous power basically create the main cast of characters as she reanimated a good chunk of them.

In a show with a lot of lovable characters, Rias has always been the top fan favorite. Why? Well, she is an exhilarating character to watch. She is kind and yet extremely strong-willed and will not back down to anyone. The range of emotions that she displays on an episodic basis is impressive and keeps everyone laughing to boot. To put it plainly, she is a lively character with a lot of awesome quirks and abilities.

It took a long time for the second season to finally come out and it was well worth the wait. Through both seasons of Blue Exorcist we follow the life of Rin, a prince from hell, who has decided to spend his life fighting against his father, his fate, and the demonic forces that wish to use him.

Rin’s internal struggle is one of the more powerful aspects of the show. It is riveting to watch him grapple with his demonic roots and overwhelming power. This part of his identity also creates such a beautiful and dynamic relationship with his twin brother who, despite being too weak to receive Satan’s demonic energy, has known the truth of Rin and has been training to protect him.

Ai is the main character of Hell Girl. She acts as the demon behind the Hell Correspondence and personally handles the deliverance of people’s souls to Hell.

Ai is a powerful demon character for two obvious reasons. The first is that she has the ability to manipulate reality and send people to hell. It’s this power that really sets the stage for the show as we get mesmerized by the terrifying fashion in which she ferries souls to hell. The second is that her character is shrouded in mystery. We learn about her in little bits, which forces us to not only contemplate why the Hell Correspondence exists but how she has found such a devoted team.

Sebastian is the demon that was summoned forth to grant Cecil Phantomhive’s wish for vengeance. In exchange for helping Cecil, Sebastian will get to eat his soul. To properly serve the young master without drawing too many eyes, Sebastian acts as one hell of a butler.

Sebastian not only attacks the enemies of the Phantomhive family, but also the hormones of basically anyone who watches the show. As a demon, Sebastian shows just how entertaining the bad boy is. Though he obeys everything that Cecil says, you can feel the amount of control he has. You know he is pulling the strings. Things do bite him at the end of the second season, but in general he has a knack for mind games and an extremely quick wit.

Clare is our hero of the series. She is part of an organization that employs half-demons to kill full demons. The danger of this work is that if these warriors release too much of their demonic powers then they will turn into an insanely powerful demon. Clare became a part of this organization because her mentor and savior was part of the organization and was betrayed by another member. Clare thinks that her best chances of coming face-to-face with this backstabber will be from joining the organization.

Clare is an exceptionally thrilling demon to watch on screen. Okay, technically she’s only quarter demon, but let’s not start splitting hairs at this point. Her backstory and resolve for vengeance is quite powerful and on the par with badass characters like Guts from Berserk. Also, she holds a lot of emotional nuance, which is displayed with her relationship with the young boy Raki.

Inuyasha came to us in 2000 and the series and its titular character have become timeless in the anime world. If you are even slightly acquainted with anime then chances are you’re familiar with this giant sword wielding dog demon who wears a simple red robe and has white hair. His mission is one of recovering the shards of the Shikon Jewel in order to stop Naraku from becoming too powerful. Though Kagome does somewhat force him into the mission, he also has several reasons for chasing Naraku. One reason is simply to prevent one demon from becoming too powerful. Another is to protect Kagome. There is also the fact that Naraku played Inuyasha and his past lover, Kikyo, like a fiddle. Part of the reason why this anime is so good is because each character has many things motivating them.

Inuyasha is number one on this list because he was one of the earliest bad boy heroes. Though powerful and ultimately good-hearted; he could be petulant, conceited, cocky, and a host of other problematic personality traits. The range of emotions his character could convey was extremely powerful and made the series one of the greatest of all time, as his personality helped form extremely complex and deep relationships with those around him.