Within the various stories that have been told over the years in
anime, there are characters who have left their mark. Mainly, the most important are usually the protagonists, but they wouldn't exist without a counterpart: the villains. And while in the vast majority of cases we see how the heroes or heroines end up defeating them, there are also some bad guys who won, or almost. Today we bring you 10 of these latter, who are rightly considered some of the best villains in anime history and who came close to achieving victory.
WARNING! This article will contain spoilers for several anime series.
Madara Uchiha from the anime Naruto
Madara Uchiha, considered by many to be one of the strongest characters in all of
Naruto, some even placing him over the protagonist himself, was an unstoppable force. With his
Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, a perfect
Susanoo that rivaled any other beast and the
Rinnegan it seemed that no one was going to beat him. He tried to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to place people under a genjutsu and create a world of peace, but by force. And he almost succeeded, if he hadn't been betrayed by
Black Zetsu, who revived
Kaguya Ĺtsutsuki. Madara would have managed to impose his will without anyone else being able to intervene.
Father of the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The main antagonist of
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood,
Father, sacrificed the entire country of Xerxes to become a living Philosopher's Stone. With this he achieved a form of immortality that also allowed him to use any type of magic. But that was not all, his master plan was to absorb The Truth, known as the God of that anime, thus becoming the new God and he succeeded. Thus he became a being with the ability to do whatever he wanted, such as summoning natural disasters or manipulating the laws of physics.
But his plan failed due to his greed, as
Hohenheim released a large portion of the souls inside Father's body. In an attempt to resolve the issue, Father consumed the homunculus of Greed, but this turned him into the most fragile form of coal. With this,
Edward Elric managed to defeat Father, who was ultimately consumed by The Truth.
Muzan Kibutsuji from Demon Slayer
Muzan Kibutsuji is the original
Demon Slayer, and as expected, he possesses unbelievable powers. Superhuman strength, sonic speed, durability, and more were all part of Muzan's repertoire, making him the Demon to be defeated no matter what. His plan was to absorb
Nezuko, who, by then, had overcome Muzan's only weakness: the sun. And if it hadn't been for his patience, he would have succeeded, as he only needed
Nakime to find her, so he could go after her first and then finish off the Hashiras. But his ego won, and he ended up falling into the trap where
Shinobu placed the antidote that ended his life.
Meruem from Hunter x Hunter
Meruem was the main antagonist of the Chimera Ant Arc, considered one of the best in the
Hunter x Hunter anime. As King of the Chimera Ants, Meruem was born to dominate, having an out-of-this-world ability that allowed him to increase his power by devouring other Nen users. His plan was to eradicate humanity so that the Chimera Ants would control the world, and he almost succeeded. After battling
Isaac Netero and defeating him, it seemed that no one would stop him, but Netero had a plan B, as he detonated a mini nuclear bomb in his heart. Affected by the radiation, Meruem would perish shortly after, narrowly missing his victory.
Light Yagami from the anime Death Note
The man who started out as the main protagonist of the anime
Death Note, as the series progressed he increasingly transformed into a villain.
Light Yagami, with his new power in the form of the Death Note, gained the ability to end the life of anyone he wanted. At first he used it to eliminate Japan's biggest criminals, but little by little he escalated. Becoming
Kira, at one point, he began to kill solely to save himself from being caught by
L.
But defeating him was the first nail in his grave. He now felt like a god, and in that position, he began to make some mistakes. These eventually led to
Near, L's successor, catching him and, in a final attempt, losing his life. If
Light hadn't been so overconfident, he would have managed to get away with it and continue his killing spree.
Kars from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's
In the second part of the anime
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, we meet Joseph, considered one of the best protagonists in this story. And to prove how good he was, he had to defeat one of his toughest rivals,
Kars. He was a reborn vampire who sought to impose his race and, above all, become immune to sunlight, just as Muzan wanted in Demon Slayer. But Kars went a step further than the Demon Slayer villain, as he managed to evolve and withstand the sun.
Now, transformed into a perfect being, he adopted the DNA of all living beings, allowing him to transform into anything he wanted, whenever he wanted. But things didn't go as he'd hoped, at least in one detail. During the battle with Joseph in a volcano, he was thrown into space on a rock, where he ended up freezing. If they hadn't fought there,
Kars would have had the upper hand in any situation.
Kid Buu from the anime Dragon Ball Z
When Majin Buu became
Kid Buu, the Z Fighters felt true terror. And unlike his previous forms, this new Majin Buu had no other intention than to destroy everything. His evil was pure and he showed it by annihilating the Earth almost without saying a word, even leaving his body in the path that regenerated thanks to his ability. When battling on the planet of the Kaiosamas, he could have defeated both Vegeta and
Goku if the battle continued, but the
Spirit Bomb put an end to his plans. But this attack could have failed several times.
First,
Goku needed time to gather the energy to create the
Spirit Bomb, which, if it hadn't been for Kid Buu being busy torturing
Vegeta, he would have noticed. On the other hand, the Spirit Bomb needed humans to give their energy to Goku, but if it weren't for
Mr. Satan having survived until that moment, they wouldn't have been able to gather the necessary energy. Even when he saw the attack, Kid Buu tried to stop it with his hands instead of dodging it, so the succession of errors made the villain barely achieve victory.
All for One from the anime My Hero Academia
The ultimate villain in
My Hero Academia is undoubtedly
All for One, and his Quirk is the most fearsome of all. It allows him to steal other people's Quirks and use them as his own, or give them to others to use. With this, the villain could have obtained the necessary amount of Quirks to be truly invincible, but his greatest ambition was what led him to ruin. All for One was obsessed with acquiring
One for All and could have obtained it quickly. If he had ordered the villains to catch
Deku all together before he became so powerful, he would have obtained the power and thus consummated his victory.
Isshiki Otsutsuki from Boruto
Isshiki, of the
Otsutsuki Clan, was a parasitic extraterrestrial being who sought to devour the Earth Chakra Fruit in order to evolve and achieve divinity, even if it meant destroying all life on the planet. After centuries of regaining power and searching for a vessel for his Karma, he became the Ninja World's strongest enemy. He possessed superhuman strength and the Kokugan, which allowed him to shrink objects. He easily surpassed
Naruto and
Sasuke, considered near-gods, but his plan failed when Naruto activated Baryon Mode out of nowhere. This drained his life to the point of forcing him to use Kawaki, not noticing that he was a clone. Thus, Isshiki died with no way to return.
Yhwach from the anime Bleach
Yhwach is the leader of the Quincy and the son of the Spirit King, a god-like figure in the
Bleach universe. His purpose was to absorb the Spirit King to create a new world without the fear of death. However, to do so, he must unite the Human World, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo, causing massive destruction. Yhwach mastered all advanced Quincy abilities and used The Almighty, a Schrift that allowed him to see all possible futures. With this, he could understand any technique and become immune to it. Furthermore, he could alter the future in his favor. By absorbing the Spirit King, he controlled reality itself.
And although he seemed to be the most dominant force that would never be defeated, there was a small detail that ended his life.
Ichigo got help from
Aizen, who used hypnosis with his Zanpakuto, so the protagonist of the anime managed to cut Yhwach in half, who failed in his mission due to that small detail in the battle.
As you can see, the aforementioned villains are some of the most important in anime history, with series that have left an indelible mark.
Dragon Ball Z,
Naruto, and
Bleach can all be seen on the list, and their villains came close to achieving victory.
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