Every anime needs a good villain or antagonist. After all, it wouldn’t be much of a story if the main character achieved their goal right away (except maybe in some postmodern stories, but we digress).

Every villain is an antagonist, but not all antagonists are villains. Villains are bad people who do bad things. But the only requirement for being an antagonist is standing between the protagonist and their goal. Today, we’ve rounded up 10 of our favorite anime villains (and antagonists) from shows you could watch right now on HIDIVE.

Bondrewd - MADE IN ABYSS

Bondrewd from MADE IN ABYSS greets the off-screen main characters.

We’ll start with Best Dad Bondrewd, who is THE iconic villain of MADE IN ABYSS. Riko, Reg and Nanachi have faced the dangers of the titular Abyss before, but you can’t blame an orb piercer for its actions; it’s acting according to its nature.

But Bondrewd is different.

Bondrewd is a person and thus capable of both rational thought and making choices; he is a man driven by discovery and science. Which would be admirable if he wasn’t willing to sacrifice everything in the name of research.

But what makes him truly chilling is that he’s just so... polite. He’d gladly have you over for tea and discuss the finer points of philosophy with you...

… all while planning how to dissect you to further his latest research project.

The Jaegers - Akame Ga Kill!

The Jaegers from Akame ga Kill! pose in suits.

What makes the Jaegers so fascinating is that morality varies between teammembers.

Esdeath is evil, there’s no question about that. Seryu? She’s a walking cautionary tale about the dangers of cognitive biases. But then you have others like Bols, who’s a pleasant person and a dedicated family man. There’s also Wave, who is a genuinely heroic character who is simply on the wrong side of the conflict.

But what makes them stand out is that they truly see each other as irreplaceable comrades despite their moral differences.

Tiamat - Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia

The most important thing you need to know about Tiamat is that she’s classified as a Beast. In the Fate franchise, that’s a terrible thing.

Tiamat and those like her (yes, there’s more than one Beast) are the setting’s equivalent of Cthulhu and are thus an apocalyptic threat to everyone in the near vicinity. Canceled weekend plans will be the least of your worries if you ever encounter her.

Tiamat loves all her children and, while that sounds good, her status as a Beast means she's driven by the primordial instinct to exterminate all of humanity.

She doesn't owe you an explination either. At the end of the day, she’s not so much a villain/antagonist so much as she is beyond the concept of human morality itself.

Squealer - From The New World

Look at him. Would you trust a face like that? Of course you wouldn’t, and for good reason. Squealer is not a pleasant person and everything about him oozes, “weasel.” (OK, he’s actually a “Monster Rat,” but the analogy is valid.)

When he first shows up, you can’t help but feel like he has an ulterior motive and that the protagonists are somehow playing right into his hands.

It’s also very hard to say anything else about him without spoiling the ENTIRE series, so let’s just say there’s a good reason why he’s on this list.

Keyarga - Redo of Healer

Keyarga from Redo of Healer has an evil and smug expression.

Let’s not mince words or try our hand at mental gymnastics: Keyarga is MOST DEFINITELY A VILLAIN and is a terrible person who does terrible things to terrible people. He’s what’s known as a villain protagonist where, you guessed it, the main character is one of the bad guys.

So instead of a story where a hero heroically fights against corruption and the forces of evil, Redo of Healer is about a villain who takes revenge on everyone who has ever wronged him.

So it is a vast understatement to say that things get dark really fast.

Nearly Everyone - When They Cry

It says a lot about When They Cry when the main villain isn’t as memorable as everyone else’s stints at villainy.

Yes, that’s right: When They Cry actually has a main villain, but you’d be forgiven if you forgot that. When you think of this series, you think of Rena and her murder-hatchet, Shion’s psychotic laughing face, Satoko’s latest antics in When They Cry Sotsu, or some combination of all three. And that doesn't even address what the other characters do.

Thanks to how the story unfolds, pretty much everyone gets their turn to play both psychopath and victim.

Enzo Bron - LUPIN THE 3rd PART 5

Has anyone noticed a growing trend in various media to portray Big Tech as misguided at best these days?

Enzo Bron is no exception.

Oh sure, he had a noble goal at first. He created PeopleLog after losing his family so that what happened to them wouldn’t happen to others. But remember what we said about Big Tech at the beginning of this section?

Turns out all that power went to his head, and now he wants to use his invention against the world’s greatest thief as a proof-of-concept.

Which pits Lupin against one of the greatest threats he’s ever known: the distributive and crowdsourced power of social media.

Sachiko - Corpse Party Tortured Souls

Japanese cinema has conditioned our primordial lizard brains to associate creepy ghost girls with “DANGER!” and Sachiko does absolutely nothing to dissuade us of that notion.

Sachiko is what’s known in Japan as an “onryo,” which is an incredibly dangerous vengeful spirit. Why? It’s because they know how to hold a grudge and do not discriminate in that regard.

In the West, vengeful spirits are usually only a danger to the ones responsible for their current unliving state. But an onryo? Everyone is a target, even innocents who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Which goes a long way in explaining why Sachiko tormented a group of friends whose only crime was performing an urban legend ritual for good luck. (So stay away from anything related to urban legends.)

Gabriel Miller - Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld

Hoo boy, where should we even start with Gabriel? True, unempathetic villains who don’t care about anyone are a dime a dozen, so what makes Gabriel stand out from the psychopath crowd?

Probably because, unlike other main bad guys, he doesn’t have any kind of connection to the main character. That’s right: He and Kirito don’t really have anything to do with each other and treat each other like… obstacles in each other’s way.

And that should tell you just how much of a threat Gabriel really is. Usually, villains that have personal connections to the hero are the ones who stand out, not the opposite.

Jibril - No Game No Life

Jibril from No Game No Life stares smugly.

If you were to play a game of cat and mouse, Jibril would be a tiger. That’s not hyperbole, that’s how big of a threat she actually is. Fortunately for Shiro and Sora, she’s content to play games...

… all while reminiscing on the good ol’ days where you could simply kill your enemies. Again, that’s not hyperbole. She shows up as an antagonist in the prequel movie before Tet rose to power, and she is absolutely ruthless. And to make matters worse?

We know for a fact that she has to survive the movie. Which does NOT bode well for our protagonists.

Discover Even More Anime Villains and Antagonists on HIDIVE

Now, the Captain Obvious statement is that we have more than just these 10 on HIDIVE (nearly every story in existence has a villain or an antagonist), and they’re all truly unforgettable and interesting.

But we’ll let you discover that for yourself. We don’t want to spoil things more than we already have, after all. So sign up for your FREE HIDIVE trial today and find your new favorite villain (or antagonist).

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