My Favorite Anime Villain/Antagonist

Welcome to day 6! I did a 30-day anime challenge last year and had a blast with it. It would be fun to do it again this year. Let’s see if my tastes have changed at all in a year.

Here is day 5 in case you missed it.

The purpose of these challenges is to post a picture, but I, being the extra person I am, will write a blog about each topic.

This differs from what I am used to blogging, which excites me to test my creativity and go back to find the answers to these writing prompts.

Feel free to join me in the comments below! I’d love to hear your answers too!!

I can’t confidently say that I understand what antagonist means. For a long time, I thought that it just meant the villain of the story but it’s deeper than that. To sum up, the difference between antagonist and villain should be clear: villains are evil characters that don’t change throughout the story, while antagonists may change their ways over time. This can make for a more complex character who is more realistic and compelling than an outright evil person would.

This got me thinking, there are some great anime villains out there but who are some great anime antagonists? I am not sure if I can really explain why I picked them but I will try my best.

With that in mind let’s get into the best anime antagonists.

Shigaraki — My Hero Academia

Here is where I don’t know if he is just a villain or an antagonist. I do not understand what he is trying to accomplish by destroying the world, but I do understand his fear and hate for the world are integrated deep into his soul.

The story hasn’t ended so I am not sure how his story will play out. But from what we have seen he is under heavy evil influences. We have seen those influences turn him from a misunderstood to a powerful evil force. He does have the power of destruction which seems like it could only be used for bad. Who knows maybe Deku might be able to save Shigaraki from himself in the end.

Asura — Soul Eater

Fear is an extremely powerful emotion. If we don’t overcome our fears they can lead us to do some extreme things. That is the case for Asura, he wasn’t a villain from birth, he was full of fear. When the fear became too much he did everything he could to relieve some of the pain which turned him into a psychopath and he lost all control of himself by the end.

Unfortunately, he was beyond saving by the end. But his story makes me wonder what would have happened if he had a better support system to help him cope with his fears. Maybe he wouldn’t have taken such drastic measures if he had friends who helped him. I guess we will never know.

Mother — The Promised Neverland

I thought mothers journey through this storyline was the deepest of any of the characters. In season 1 we just see her as the villain, but by the end of the season, we come to see how she has been broken down into submission. She genuinely believes she is helping these kids have a wonderful life before the inevitable happens. She has seen and experienced so many horrors and wants to protect the children from the life she was forced to have.

In season 2 she is in fight or flight mode. She is just trying to survive another day and has learned that she has to do whatever she can to make sure she can live. I loved her and the other mother’s ending. They got the opportunity to redeem their actions and ended up with the happy ending they all wished they had.

There is so much depth that I don’t want to spoil but her story makes me think about what I would do if I was put in her situation. Would I make the same choices she did? would I continue to fight? or would I rather die than keep living in that world?

Light Yagami — Death Note

You can be on his side or you could be against him, but we can all agree that the Light Yagami from finding the death note was not the same as the Light Yagami by the end of the story. The great debate is if he was right in his actions or not. Personally, at first, I understood what he was trying to accomplish. To rid the world of evil would be a great thing. But the power he received from the notebook gave him a god complex.

Some people think of Light as the protagonist and L as the antagonist, and some think of Light as the antagonist and L as the protagonist. Either way, when L came into the picture I think Light just enjoyed the game. He is extremely intelligent and to find someone just as intelligent intrigued him. You can tell a change in his character when he finally wins the game of cat and mouse. He got lazy and sloppy and bored, Which I believe was the reason he ended up getting caught. He might have started with the intention of saving the world but he ended as an egocentric person.

I could probably write a novel on the psychology behind this story, but I’ll summarize, Power changes people.

Ryo Asuka (Satan) — Devileman Crybaby

This is the only character on the list that I can say is a straight villain. I didn’t trust his character from the first episode and my gut instinct was correct. Without him, we would have had a normal world, but with him, we see everyone's souls crushed and the world ended in tragedy.

He made it on this list because he is a background villain, He was pulling all of the strings and we didn’t know it. He had every move calculated and no one even knew what was about to hit them. This wasn’t an anime I can say I enjoyed however I thought Ryo was an incredible villain.

I have no idea if I wrote this right but either way, I hope you enjoyed some of my insight on these characters, who aren’t evil but also aren’t good.

I am very excited about tomorrow! Not only will I be listing out my most recent anime, but I am also going to be starting a new weekly series.

Who is your favorite anime antagonist? Do you agree with any of the ones I listed below?

Thanks for reading!!

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