The world of Japanese animation is home to an incredible variety of villains and antagonists, some of whom are tragic figures who were twisted or broken by the world around them. Others are fallen heroes who are striking back at a corrupt world, or they are simply creatures attuned to their killer instincts.
Many anime villains, while certainly evil, still have some depth to them, and viewers can at least understand why they say and do the things they do. They might even the partially justified. Then there are villains who have no clear motivation or goal aside from "hurt people" or "conquer the world," and even if they have cool powers or memorable dialogue, such shallow villains are less satisfying to watch. It's like they're evil just because the story needed a villain for the heroes to fight.
10 Demon Lord Clayman Is Simply A Creep (That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime)
The colorful Demon Lord Clayman is a stylish and smooth villain for the hero, Rimuru Tempest, to face. He has a vampiric aesthetic and a puppetmaster theme. He even tried to control Demon Lord Milim Nava and worked with Yuuki Kagarazaka for a time.
Clayman hated Rimuru and wanted to see him dead, but that was his only real motivation, and little else is known of his worldview and personality. Even for an isekai villain, Clayman was stylish but shallow.
9 Diavolo Is A Sadistic Crime Boss (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Other villains in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure have clearer motivations and might even be halfway sympathetic deep down. Dio Brando, for example, couldn't stand living in an impoverished household with a drunken father, and he longed to make something of himself by any means necessary.
Diavolo, the ultimate villain of the Golden Wind story arc, was nothing like that. He was a cruel and paranoid mob boss to the end, and he was brutal to his friends, family, and enemies alike simply because he loved power. That's not much to go on.
8 Muscular Simply Loves Bloodshed (My Hero Academia)
The League of Villains has recruited thousands of petty criminals and frustrated outlaws and outcasts to its cause, and some of them are fairly sympathetic or deep while others are not. Twice is suffering from a personality disorder and Himiko Toga is frustrated that no one will let her simply be herself. Then there's Muscular.
Muscular has no lofty ambitions or tragic backstory to his name. He is simply a bloodthirsty thug who loves killing, and he ranks among My Hero Academia's simplest and shallowest villains of all. Good thing Izuku defeated him in the end.
7 Hidan Is An Immortal Cultist (Naruto)
The members of the small Akatsuki organization vary not just in their jutsu and village of origin, but also in their personalities and backstories. Itachi Uchiha is a complex hero turned villain turned hero, and even Pain has his sympathetic side, since he once tried so hard to end the cycle of hatred and vengeance in the world.
Hidan the cultist is nothing like that. He is sadistic and cruel inside and out, and he loves tormenting his victims with his ritual-like jutsu. He was simply there to give the Akatsuki a scary cultist member, and in that sense, he succeed. But, in the end, he's just evil for the sake of it.
6 Admiral Zhao Embodies The Worst Of All Firebenders (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Admiral Zhao commanded an entire fleet in the Fire Nation navy, and he was a fairly skilled but arrogant commander. However, he was also a sloppy Firebender. He longed to earn his place in the history books as an invincible conqueror, which is a shallow motivation even compared to Azula and Zuko's own.
Admiral Zhao had no sympathetic backstory or deep philosophy. His character's role in the story was to be a super-Zuko with a whole fleet at his command and bring the fight to the Avatar and the Northern Water Tribe.
5 Nnoitora Gilga Was Yet Another Arrancar Brute (Bleach)
A few of the deadly Espadas have sympathetic and interesting backstories, such as Coyote Starrk, who simply wanted friends to ease his loneliness. Barragan Luisenbarn embodied the futility of a Hollow's life, but Nnoitora, the 5th Espada, was nothing more than a brutish warrior for Aizen's cause.
Nnoitora was redundant with the more compelling Grimmjow around, and he hated strong female warriors just because. He also wanted to be the strongest warrior of all time, but that's not saying much. Nnoitora had exactly one role in the story: to give Ichigo and Kenpachi Zaraki a challenging opponent to fight.
4 Sarge Was An Evil Chef Just Because (Food Wars!)
Several villains in the culinary shonen series Food Wars! had clear and interesting motivations beyond simply being a villain, even including the egomaniacal Azami Nakiri or the vengeful Asahi Saiba. Near the story's end, though, some truly shallow villains came along, most of them being so-called Noir chefs.
The entire concept of Noir chefs existed solely to give the heroes a new opponent to fight, and sure enough, Noir chefs such as Sarge were villainous simply because such characters were needed to move the story along and create new cooking scenes. Sarge cooked for evil simply because.
3 Jiemma Orland Was Totally Makarov's Opposite (Fairy Tail)
The villains of Fairy Tail are a mixed bag. Some of them, such as Ultear, have clear and interesting backstories to explain why they became antagonists, and this can especially be said of Zeref Dragneel the dark wizard. In contrast, Jiemma Orland is only there to be an anti-Makarov character.
Jiemma Orland runs the fearsome Sabertooth guild, and he favors "might makes right" and culling the weak instead of deriving strength from friendship and trust among comrades. There's no real in-universe explanation for his cruel personality. He is simply like that to contrast with his rival, Makarov Dreyar.
2 Hyoga Is There To Be One More Obstacle For Senku (Dr. Stone)
Senku, the brilliant adolescent scientist, already had his hands full battling Tsukasa Shishio and his Empire of Might. Then, Tsukasa hired some extra thugs to enforce his will, and a few of them had clear motivations for this while others, like Hyoga, were just there to be shonen villains.
Hyoga isn't necessarily superfluous or irrelevant in the story of Dr. Stone, but then again, being Senku's enemy seemed to be his only real job in the Stone Wars arc and nothing more. He's just a second Tsukasa for Senku to fight.
1 Galand Is Just A Brute Warrior (The Seven Deadly Sins)
Some of the demons and Ten Commandment members in The Seven Deadly Sins are really just there to give the heroes powerful villains to fight, and on that front, Galand delivers. He is a tall, armored humanoid creature with a bloodthirsty and reckless personality, and he was one of the first Commandments that the heroes fought.
There's not much else to say about Galand besides that, however. He was necessary to give the heroes a taste of the Ten Commandments, and when his time came, he was killed off to make room for more Commandments to challenge Meliodas and his allies.
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