With shows like Naruto and One Piece, we see a lot of shows with good guys in the light. But what happens when they’re not so good? Here are 10 anime with evil mc.

Movies, TV, and other entertainment always shows us what happens in a story to the hero. The person who is destined to save the day according to the story. Hundreds of anime show good guys as the main characters and we always get to see character development of a good guy. Although it’s a safe way to make a great story, it gets boring. Seeing the same good guy fight the bad guy, watching from the perspective of good fighting evil gets repetitive for every story. Us anime fans need something different to spice up our viewing experience.

That’s where I come in for this article. Just like how some people love watching a morally-righteous good guy fighting to beat the villain, there are people who itch to see someone who constantly outsmarts the good guys, someone who doesn’t see things the way we see them and does things for unexplainable reasons. These are the villains, people who oppose the tradition of a good guy winning. We sometimes love seeing villains because it’s a breath of fresh air from the suffocating morals of the good guy.

Here are some of the best anime protagonists who challenge the status quo of an anime protagonist who thinks differently, someone who doesn’t ramble on inspirational speeches, someone who sees things from the other side, someone like a villain.

Anime with villain protagonist

10. Momonga (Overlord)

Starting off our list is one of the most famous isekai protagonists. Momonga is the profile name of this anime’s protagonist. Momonga is the top-ranked player of Yggdrasil, an MMORPG-game where he is a powerful mage and master of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown. As the game announces its end and the servers shut down, Momonga decides to stay until the end but when he wakes up, he’s still in the game and all the NPC’s are alive!

Momonga begins to rule over the land in the game as its dark king. As a player, Momonga isn’t used to compassion and other human emotions because he’s existing in a game so his actions could be seen like he’s a villain. He conquers other lands and the fact that he’s a dark guild leader, this pretty much sums up how much of a “villain” Momonga is.

9. Arsene Lupin III (Lupin III Series)

Lupin is the grandson of infamous gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. He works as a part of a two-man team with his marksman/right-hand man Daisuke Jigen and occasionally works with the master swordsman Goemon Ishikawa and femme fatale Fujiko Mine. Although Lupin is not necessarily an evil guy with malicious intentions like killing people or anything close, he is still a thief and technically a “villain.” However, his schemes and heists are nothing short of amazing, funny, and brilliant as he proves himself to really be one of the greatest thiefs in history. Lupin may always be scheming to rob someone or something which might make him a villain, but he still is a man of his word and will stand by his comrades.

8. Hei (Darker than Black)

He goes by many names: Black Reaper, Shinigami, Nanashi Kuroda, Li Shengshun, etc. But, he is still the same cold-blooded contractor-killing machine that fans know him as. His real name is never known but people who know of his past call him Hei. In the anime Darker then Black, inter-dimensional Gates were opened in Japan and South America (Hell’s and Heaven’s Gate), causing certain people to gain powers from sacrifice (breaking a finger, cutting themselves, etc.). Hei can manipulate electricity and he uses his conducting wire and steel blades to ruthlessly murder every contractor in order to rid the world of the Gates. Being the infamous cold-blooded killing machine, Hei is constantly hunted down by the Okinawa and Tokyo Police depending on the season.

7. Lucy (Elfen Lied)

One of the saddest backstories for any character on this list, Lucy proves to be one of the first and most morally-polarizing characters that fans have seen. One can even call her mental state to that of a yandere. Lucy is a Diclonius, a race of humans that can use telekinesis to manipulate invisible “arms.” The Japanese government experimented on Lucy and other Diclonius for medicine, war, infrastructure, etc. However, Lucy was fed up with the treatment and killed almost all the professors in the lab.

Prior to this, in her childhood, she was severely bullied for her horns and her bullies and her friend who accidentally ratted to the bullies traumatized her so much that she killed everyone there, sparking the beginning of her distaste in humans and murderous intent for most, except Kouta who she is obsessed with. Lucy is innately a good person that went through insanely twisted experience, causing her to do horrifying and murderous acts against her oppressors. A good girl that took only one day for her life to be turned upside down. She is one tragic and “villainous” main character.

6. Koro-Sensei (Assassination Classroom)

Now this entry will not make much sense for people who are fans of Assassination Classroom due to this guy’s compassion, sympathy, and maturity. Koro-Sensei is an enigmatic alien that has come to Earth after demolishing half of the Moon already and threatens to do so to Earth. There is only one way to save Earth and that is to kill Koro-Sensei. The thing is, there’s only around 20 people that are allowed to do so and they’re all students part of the lowest-ranking class (Class D). Not to mention on top of that, he can move at sonic speeds and carry weights tens of times heavier than him.

Koro-Sensei, being the kind man he is, wants to help the students get out of the cycle of being stepped on and discriminated against as the bottom of the school’s barrel. Although he is the person who is threatening to kill everyone on Earth by destroying it the same way he did with the Moon, he is a kind man that cares deeply for his students well-being and utilizes amazing teaching techniques while applying the superhuman skills he has. Nevertheless, he is a villain of mankind.

5. Haruko Haruhara (FLCL)

Here comes one of the more… eccentric… entries. Haruko Haruhara is the main protagonist of the popular anime/manga series FLCL. You might know Spike as a space cowboy but you’ll see a whole new level of crazy with this space pirate. Haruko Haruhara is an extraterrestrial investigator on the hunt for the infamously immensely-powerful space-pirate entity named Atomsk. Absorbing Atomsk would make Haruhara the most powerful being in the known Universe. To properly explain FLCL, a synopsis is better than this because the actions and behaviors that Haruhara shows portrays her as a complicated villain that has mixing sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies. Haruhara is one of the most clear-cut anime protagonists acting as a villain. Like stated before, Haruhara doesn’t feel emotions nor relationships/connections with other people, allowing her morally to use and abuse everyone she sees. This is what makes her a classic villain in a position like the protagonist’s.

4. Alucard (Hellsing/Hellsing: Ultimate)

Alucard is one of the most frightening main characters in any anime. Rude, arrogant, crass, brutish, cold-blooded, malicious, and taunting, Alucard possess the traits of every disliked anime villain for any generic setting. Alucard is an extremely strong vampire, if not one of the strongest vampires, in existence. He was made into a vampire after stabbing his heart with a nail and has lived over 50 years now killing vampires for the Hellsing Organization. Alucard is be a condescending and arrogant opponent for his opponents as he never goes for the instant kill but rather lets the battle flavor over time but he is not heartless. Alucard will show concern for his subordinates as well as other comrades he cares for, keeping them out of harm and showing genuine concern for their fate and health. His heart also holds envy for humans as he longs for a normal human life and even respects ones who struggle in sickness or age. Those polar opposite traits make Alucard a great anime protagonist that. isavillain.

3. Nine and Twelve (Terror in Resonance)

These two were put in this list so far up as a symbol for social commentary. Nine and Twelve are a group of genius intellect teenagers that devise schemes to plant bombs in certain government institutions, like the ones involved with the lab that tested their brainpower against the children’s will. To enact revenge against those scientists, Nine and Twelve blow up their prized facilities and halt the research and manipulation altogether. They get roped in with a girl who attends the high-school nearby and she gets “blackmailed” into assisting the boys. These two are regarded as the immature, hormonally-angry teenagers that want to get back at the world for using them as toys for scientific use.

They were portrayed as the bad guy to society but we saw someone who did these “crimes” for a reason. Breaking the law and exposing the studies that these lab knows the inner workings of the human mind. This duality allows for one of the best anime villain protagonists to come out in s did was the goal. These teenagers that had their freedom taken away from them at a young age. People who are only taught ways to survival will show ways to a survival in their personality. Nine and Twelve are two sides of the same coin. One is cold, calculating an logical while the other knows how to toy with the human mind

2. Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

Now reaching the final two, Code Geass just had to be one of the appearances on this list with such a brilliant character like Lelouch Lamperouge. It follows the story of an exiled prince of the new United Kingdom: Brittannia. Brittannia has conquered many nations, including Japan which was renamed “Area Eleven.” Lelouch escapes his royal bloodline and runs to Japan. He grows up there and even goes to school as a Brittanian. However, a deep hatred and revenge lies within him as he despises his father for plotting the murder of his mother, leaving his sister traumatized and paralyzed in the end of the entire scene. Lelouch gets roped into a battle between Brittanian forces and the Japanese resistance and he encounters a beautiful woman that grants him the power of the Geass, a king-owned power that allows Lelouch to control anyone he wants only once.

Manipulation, cheating, blackmail, and premeditated ambushes/massacres were necessary to beat the ruthless Brittannian forces but Lelouch wasn’t convinced. He has committed grave sins and his heart starts to not be able to handle all the death and guilt that he faces from his methods. I won’t spoil the ending but Lelouch’s ruthless mannerism to complete any goal contradicts his soft, friendly nature towards his peers and little sister. Lelouch’s transformation and development as a dissented character deepens his dynamic.

1. Light Yagami (Death Note)

This wouldn’t be a list about anime villain protagonists without mentioning the one and oly, Light (KIRA) Yagami. Death Note is an manga/anime series about a high-school genius son of the chief of police who is the idol of the school. One day, bored with his life, he stares out the window to see a notebook on the ground. He picks it up and when home, he finds out that any name he writes in this notebook dies. Collaborating with a Shinigami who dropped the book, Light Yagami starts to execute his master-plan to purge all evil from this world.

Light is not as complex as people may portray him to be but he is latent with complex psychological issues. Light Yagami develops a God Complex throughout the story, killing anyone who would “dare oppose the new world order” while coming u with ingenious ways of utilizing the Death note and his surroundings to erase any trace of his involvement. Light believed that he was the chosen one because he is the chief of police’s son, smart, handsome, and popular. He believed that he was the only one worthy of creating a new world with this book. His mind became twisted from a composed high-schooler looking forward towards the future and having a nice life. However, now he is someone who cannot tell the difference between what is too far, what is right and wrong, when it’s time to stop, what boundaries that should never be touched. Light’s mind warps into something of completely different for than what Light once was and that’s what makes him great. Watching a man crumble rom greatness to a psychopathic mind and hysteria due to the work of a single divine book.