Anime · Anime challenge

Anime Challenge #9 – Best Anime Villain

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Hey everyone!

Today I’ll be talking about my favourite anime villain who is Light Yagami. Now,  before you say anything about him not being a “proper” villain, I should just mention that even the protagonist of the story CAN be the villain. Guess we can call him an antagonistprotagonist.

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The entire story of Death note revolves around Light’s journey from an innocent student to an evil genius, and I have to say it’s nicely portrayed. With every step, his greed gets the best of him and we see him getting corrupt and insidious as the story progresses. He is a very realistic villain as well. It’s the only anime where we see everything from the villain’s perspective. Every good villain has a reason or story behind their actions,  and Light’s story is absolutely mind blowing. Guess it can be called a villain’s origin story.

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With every new step and every new choice his darkness manifests itself more strongly until it takes total control of him. Trying to escape from the consequences of his actions, he becomes desperate and also a little crazy in his ways. Losing everything to his insatiable greed and self-glorification, he becomes his worst enemy. Manipulating anyone and everyone who crossed his path, being relentless and unforgivable and conspiring, he destroyed the lives of many, including his own.  He had a great mind and potential, but it was wasted on his delusions to become the God of the universe.

Still,  we enjoyed his story more than the stories of great but clichéd heroes.  Because, this was something totally different and new and realistic. One of the best anime I’ve ever seen. And one of the greatest villains I’ve come across.

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39 thoughts on “Anime Challenge #9 – Best Anime Villain”

  2. Light is most definitely a villain.

    He may be the protagonist, and we may root for him, but he’s an undeniable psychopath deluded into thinking he’s “doing what’s right”. It’s the whole message of Death Note and I’m glad you agree with me on that (nobody seems to haha)

    But enough on that rant… Nice choice! Light was a great character and watching him slowly lose his grip on his sanity over the course of the series was great!

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    1. Exactly! It’s not very often that we see a protagonist such as Light, who is dark, sombre, ambitious and self righteous. And I’m so glad to see someone agree with me on this. He loses himself to his demons and his entire journey is portrayed in such a realistic way that I can’t help but be impressed by it. There are so many times when I just nod my head in excitement. This anime has a great message for everyone to see.
      Thanks for reading. 🙂

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  3. Light is a great choice. It’s hard not to respect him as a character and being the protagonist of the story we get far more insight into his actions than most villains. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. According to TV tropes, the term is villain protagonist. Sounds apt.

    Light is a great choice of villains. As someone who prefers morally dubious characters over the ‘good and kind’ ones, Death Note and Light were a special treat. I was actually rooting for him for a good half of the show before his actions escalated to the point of madness. One thing I find particularly interesting (in a rather tragic way) is how the Light without his memories is a genuinely nice person with a strong sense of justice. Contrasting that side of himself and what he may have been with the version that got corrupted by power adds depth to both character and the show.

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    1. Ooh villain protagonist is an apt term.
      You’re right, when he loses his memory he goes back to being the innocent and nice person he used to be and the prospect of him becoming good and “light” certainly adds more to the complexity of both his character as well as the show.
      I had never imagined Light to become as insane as he did when I first started watching the show. It was something unpredictable and unprecedented.
      Thanks for reading!

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  8. Light is one of my favorite characters.
    In spite of all the stuff he did, I don’t think of him as a 100% negative character. It was said that all the major wars in the world had ended because of him, and that’s millions of lives saved.
    His fatal flaw was pride. If he was not so prideful, he could have actually done a lot of good in the world, although in a twisted manner.

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    1. He was never 100% negative. Even at the end we see him reflecting upon his actions and realising all that he did. He simply had a very bad luck, as mentioned by ryuk. The death note was the thing that corrupted him and as you said, his pride and ambitions added fuel to it.
      Thanks for reading!

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  9. My first completed anime series was Death Note and when I first saw Light, I was like WHOA! It’s pretty rare to find the protagonist who has a dark, twisted side but in the same time is logical and doesn’t just goes it in a random rampage. It’s a really wise choice to choose him as the best anime villain, as his impact is too good.

    But just for info, I really liked Light and wanted him to become successful in his mission. He didn’t succeeded but for me, Light, YOU REALLY ARE THE GOD OF THE NEW WORLD!

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    1. I think my reaction to Light was quite similar to yours. I had been rooting for him only till L’s death, though, because after it, I was too furious at him for killing off my favourite character. I guess that part was the turning point, when Light’s transition to the dark side was complete and there was no saving him. In his own mind, he did become the Lord of the universe.
      Thanks for reading!

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  11. Light is easily my favourite villain/protagonist I’ve seen (Probably with Dexter a close #2), so cunning, smart but also a little psychopathic which makes it so interesting!

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  12. In my opinion, the best anime villain would be Johan Liebert from ‎Naoki Urasawa’s Monster.

    He achieve similar results as Light, but without a magical notebook. All he used to manipulate with people was his charisma.
    Also, Johan had the most bad-ass villain motivation, that I have ever seen. His ‘evil’ goal was to erase himself from existence(basically, do a damnatio memoriae), that made him find and kill every single person who ever knew him, throughout his life, starting with his foster parents who raised and ending with himself.

    Both Johan and Light are sociopaths who manipulate other people, to get what they want. But comparing both characters – Light is a naive kid who does bad things and justifies them by his childish motivations. Johan is someone who can be called “true evil” who has relay smart and complex motivations, without being over the top puppy killing caricature.

    🙂

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    1. I’ve heard so much about monster! Really have to see this anime as soon as I can. Johan sounds like an interesting villain, and also quite intimidating. Thanks for reading.

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      1. Monster is one of those shows, that I would recommend to watch not only to anime fans, but people who like good serials in general.

        A bit more about Johan:
        One of the most fascinating things about Johar as villain was, that he was not really evil, although he did ‘evil’ things to others. It is really hard to explain in words, but when it comes to him, a quote comes to mind: “The opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference”.
        The evilness of Johan can be explained similarly, because he is a sociopath. Johan can’t really be called ‘evil’, just like hurricanes and floods can’t be called evil. All you can do is blame scociety for global warming, when it comes to hurricanes. And all you can blame are bad circumstances and time period, that were reflected in actions of a sociopath.
        …if that makes any sense. :/

        That’s why Johan is such a frightening villain. It’s not because he is ‘evil’ as a person, but because he is a product of circumstance, who can’t realy control what he is…
        😀

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      2. Oh my, I guess you can write an entire essay about his character! It does make sense, so Johan is a natural calamity. But seriously, he does seem quite intriguing. Thanks for enlightening me about the anime and more importantly, Johan. This makes me want to see it even more.
        Thanks!

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  14. Love this!
    I haven’t personally seen many anime or tv where the “bad guy” is the main character and I honestly love it , watching death note I honestly couldn’t choose who I was routing for ! Amazing ! And the 3rd anime I ever watched

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  15. I’m glad to see someone else who thinks of Light as a villain, rather than anti-hero. To me, wanting to become a God of the new world seems very villainous, and like a dictatorship. But I like how you described the first part of Death Note as a villain’s origin story; I never thought about it that way, and it makes perfect sense! To be honest, I never totally supported him, even in the beginning; by the end of the first episode, he wanted to be God of the new world. He was seventeen. No matter how smart he was, no teenager/young adult who lacks a certain moral code should become that. But I think it was around the time he killed all of the FBI agents and Misora that I firmly rooted against him. He was a good actor, he could’ve fooled the agents easily. And with Misora; her conclusions were based purely on newspapers and what her fiancé told her. Light could’ve defused his theory quite easily, as she was never physically present at those moments. Despite this, I think he’s an interesting and well-written character. Whew! I’m ranting now. I’m sorry!

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    1. Glad you agree with me! I hadn’t really expected Light to become a villain when I had first started watching the anime and I was quite surprised by the turn of events. But I also never totally supported him. The FBI agent killing was surely the turning point! That was the moment he gave in to the dark side! There were more peaceful ways through which he could have avoided the situation and yet his violence goes about to show how corrupt he had become.
      Thanks for reading! I love discussing anime.

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  16. Instead of a villain shouldn’t the word antihero be more proper cause if he’s a villain then deadpool should be called an overlord as he has murdered more people than light can think of(good and bad included)

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      1. Yeah it’d be just wrong to call him a villain cause he didn’t kill to rule the world but to purge the world from evil although it’s right but not justice so yeah he’s a antihero type ,an hero who does wrong to correct wrong

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      2. I don’t think it’s downright wrong to call him a villain though. His intentions in the beginning may not have been evil but he did become corrupted and became a particular kind of villain. Not all villains are evil, anyway. Although anti hero is still the better term, I don’t see why he cannot fall into the category of villains.

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