As you may have already gathered
I fancy myself an anime fan. I, like anyone, enjoys a good bad guy. That guy you just love to hate. I've compiled a list of my own favorites. You may or may not agree, but to me, these guys are the best of the baddies. (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
8. Wei (Darker Than Black)
You gotta love this guy. He is a contractor, which means he can only use his powers after completing a payment. Every contractor has their own payment, but his is especially brutal. He has to cut himself but really, he's killing two birds with one stone, because his power is that he can disintegrate anything his blood touches. All it takes is the flick of the wrist and a snap of the fingers and BANG! You're dead.
This character fights Hei (the main character) a few different times and never does it disappoint. This is not a show that's heavy on action, but the action that's there is fast and awesome and Wei has the best fights of 'em all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH7VTC_szRw
7. Pride/King Bradley (Fullmetal Alchemist)
How can you go wrong with a guy who's name is one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Pride is one of the seven homunculi in Fullmetal Alchemist, and he's the most mysterious and surprising one of them all. It's a great plot twist and is completely unexpected. When Pride shows his true face, the first thing he does is kill someone and in a terrible way (sliding his sword into Alfonze's armor where a character is
hiding).
The oraborous, which is on every homunculi, is on his eye which he conceals with an eye-patch. Pride is charge of the entire military which makes it all the more terrible to find out that he's a villain, but it's even more surprising to find that he's not the man in charge, but I'm getting off subject, if you want that, I recommend watching the show.
6. The Kishin/Asura (Soul Eater)
I love The Kishin because of how much he's foreshadowed. He kind of reminds me of Buu from DBZ in the way that you know he's going to be revived. When he's finally alive he does not disappoint. The Kishin nearly destroys humanity by using his madness alone. That's right, in this show, madness is more of an element than an idea and The Kishin is the embodiment of madness.
Lord Death, seals The Kishin in a bag made out of The Kishin's skin, which is now all stretched and looks like cloth and it's all he ever wears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDNlSMU4LXk
Although, I don't really like the end of the fight, the last battle they have against him is pretty damn cool.
5. Gin Ichimaru (Bleach)
Now here's a guy you just love to hate. Gin Ichimaru is the greatest jerk around. He won't just beat the hell out of you but he'll ruin your hopes and dreams in the process. In one scene, he breaks Rukia's (who is soon to be executed) resolve by offering her a way of saving her own life and then, as soon as it sinks in that she might not die (she had previously thought that she was ready to die) he leans in and says, "I lied!" and he does this for no real reason at all and he just walks on by because it pleases him to no end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlLWYMzNGTE
I just love his face, he's got that "I'm better than you and we both know it" demeanor.
For a decent portion of the season 3, we're led to believe that he's behind all of this stuff… which is completely true although he's not exactly in charge. All in all, Ichimaru is that guy that lives to be an asshole.
4. Vegeta (DBZ)
Vegeta is a good guy, for the most part, which may confuse some of you as to why he is on this list, but allow me to explain.
When we first meet Vegeta he is already planning to destroy earth. Not simply out of pleasure (although he does enjoy it), but because he's after the Dragonballs and thus immortality. It's made clear that Vegeta is the most elite warrior of his race (the Saiyans), and Goku (or Kakarot as he calls him) is a third class nobody.
Vegeta is one of three remaining Saiyans. Goku is one and the other is Vegeta's partner Nappa and once Nappa is defeated by Goku, Vegeta wastes no time in finishing him off after he asks for his help. Now, it's commonplace for a Dragonball Z villain to kill their own men, but I think Vegeta may have been the first and he didn't just kill some underling, he killed his right hand and his only friend and besides that he just killed a third of his fucking species.
Vegeta remains a villain until he's forced to join with the Z-Fighters to combat Freiza. But that's not the last we see of his bad side. Over the duration of the show, Vegeta remains an arrogant bastard, churning out some of the best lines, that are always dramatic and overly-intense sounding. His moves are explosive and deadly. His goal is to become the strongest in the universe though he is constantly over-shadowed by Goku which drives him mad.
Towards the end of the show, Babidi uses his magic to reawaken the evil in Vegeta's heart (which Vegeta later admits was what he'd wanted Babidi to do all along), and now he's a bad guy again. He shows up at the world tournament and destroys a large portion of the stadium with ablast Goku failed to deflect. Vegeta suggests that it was deliberate and when Goku doubts that even he could be so cruel, Vegeta lifts his hand and blasts away another few hundred people, all with a twisted grin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7khrnZCQUog
His only motive is to fight Goku, to prove that he is the strongest, and despite the efforts of both Babidi and the Supreme Kai trying to stop them, the battle commences in what was known as The Long Awaited Fight. And damn, was it worth it.
3. Creature of the Abyss of the North/The Silver Eyed King/Easley (Claymore)
Here's a villain that's quite a bit different from the rest on this list. Easley is one of the three Creatures of the Abyss which may be the most foreboding title anyone has ever received. Throughout the third act of the show, he is watching over everyone and pulling all the strings. Nothing happens if Easley doesn't want it to happen.
You never do see him fight or even transform into his true form, but that's why he's so awesome. He's so mysterious and ominous for the duration of the show. He takes Raki under his wing for training although there's no discernable benefit for himself and he keeps Pricilla as his company who is an Awakened Being and is constantly flying off the handle and trying to kill people. Easley could do all that but he doesn't need to. If he wanted to, he could easily kill everyone without even trying.
In the last episode, we do see him release some of his power, but only as a threat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru7l9spiLl8
(Start around 4:20)
He has no need to waste time fighting, he let's others fight amongst themselves. His motives are never really made clear. His right hand Rigaldo: The Silver Eyed Lion King, is killed but Easley is neither amused nor distruaght but rather intrigued by the strength of the Claymores. After his invasion of Pieta fails, he simply leaves. In the final battle, he intervenes but only when it is over to ensure Pricilla is not harmed. He let's the characters have their fun but calmly puts an end to it before it get's out of hand like a parent. And that's why I love Easley. He's the mysterious overseer.
2. Kenpachi (Bleach)
Sure, he's not a villain for very long, but I'm going to focus on when he was. Kenpachi is the perfect kind of insane. Kenpachi lives to fight because anything else is simply not worth his time. Now, you may be thinking that he sounds an awful lot like Vegeta, but Kenpachi goes beyond that. He feels no pain and doesn't care if he's bleeding buckets. As long as he's still standing, he'll still be trying to kill you and he'll do it with a psychotic grin on his face.
In one scene, when he fights Tousen, Tousen uses his Bankai which makes Kenpachi blind and deaf as long as he's inside a barrier. But Tousen is stunned when Kenpachi can still fight. Kenpachi purposefully allows Tousen to stab him because he realizes that as long as he's in contact with him, he can see. If that doesn't spell badass, nothing does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRqg3XpLFY
The company he keeps is such a perfect contrast to his personality. Yachiru refers to Kenpachi as Kenny and can be found riding on his shoulder most of the time.
I don't know… this guy just makes me happy. Every time he's on screen, you can't take your eyes off him. He wears a specially made eye-patch to suck up his power because otherwise he wouldn't be able to stop himself from going overboard, his sword is corroded from use and is silent which proves to be his one weakness, he won't fight if the battle bores him, he occasionally allows his opponents chances just for sport when he could end it whenever he wanted and if he's beaten, all he wants is to come right back and try again.
Kenpachi was the first captain Ichigo ever defeated so the stakes were naturally high. The fight ends with one of the best cliffhangers I've ever seen.
So that's Kenpachi, the guy I think of when someone says badass. He should have a picture next to that word in the dictionary.
1. Cell (DBZ)
What could be worse than having to battle yourself? Having to fight your friends as well. Cell is delightfully, wrapped in mystery for several episodes before his plan is unveiled. He was created by combining the Cells of the greatest fighters in the universe and is the 'perfect' being and damn does he want to make sure you know that.
From the moment we meet Cell, it's made clear that he will get what he wants and he doesn't care who he has to kill to do it. He also gets some of the most brutal kills of the show. Painfully absorbing his victims into his being just makes him all the more powerful. Be you man, woman or child, to Cell you are food.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk8TV_Z5dZk
And it's even better when he's complete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9oqLmQJiRU
(Start around 2:00)
Those are the voice acting talents of Daemeon Clarke, which is my favorite voice in the show (in the role that got his career started) accompanied by Cell's theme which is debatably the best music in the show.
Unlike many of the other villains, Cell is cunning level-headed, for the most part. Never before had the stakes been so high and never before had the whole world been involved in a crisis. But besides all that, Cell's finale is too epic to be described and must be seen to be believed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWcgZZ_GRhM&feature=related
(You won't get the full effect without seeing the entire Cell saga)
This list is specific to anime, but Cell would make the top of this list even if it were of any genre. For those guys you just love to hate, Cell is the baddest of the bad.
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