FRIDAY FEATURE

In this week’s Friday feature, we bring you AnimeCentral.com’s top 10 Villains. We’ve got aliens, ninjas, planet-sized robots, and everything in between! We’re sure our list will encourage some heated debate, so continue downwards and feast your eyes on our list!

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10: Orochimaru (Naruto)
Most of us can probably relate to Orochimaru’s motivations. Who wouldn’t want to live forever and learn every jutsu in existence, becoming the baddest ninja of them all?
But whether you’d become a good ninja or a bad ninja is another question entirely and Orochimaru made the difficult decision to become the latter.

This guy will do whatever it takes to come out on top, and when even self-styled badass Sasuke trembles before him, you know you’ve got yourself one hell of a great villain.

9: Vicious (Cowboy Bebop)

He would’ve made the list with that name alone, but the fact that this guy chooses to wield a sword when everyone else has guns is definitely worthy of inclusion in our rogues gallery.

Not even Spike, with his bionic eye, could shoot Vicious without the bullets being deflected by his trusty Katana.

This guy’s got skills!

8: Gaara (Naruto)
Another bad guy gone good, Gaara of the Sand is way more than initially meets the eye.
Initially nothing more special that your typical bad guy, but through the cunning use of flashbacks, we get a glimpse into the tragic events that led Gaara to become the villain he became.

In many ways a similar childhood to Naruto, Garaa was ‘cursed’ with the protection of the ‘One-Tailed Shukaku’ which defends his body with sand whether he wants to or not.
Often acting against his will, the One-Tailed Shukaku attacked and killed those closest to him, making Gaara a heavily isolated and unstable individual.

After a member of his own family tried to assassinate him, Gaara turned bad and arguably anime’s finest.

7: Raoh (Fist of the North Star)
In the Fist of the North star movie, viewers enjoyed seeing Kenshiro dispatch his horrible enemies in a variety of cool and gruesome ways. Whether it be exploding heads with a swift punch combo, or turning a fat guy’s belly into a fleshy whirlpool before detonating it; our man Kenshiro had it well and truly sorted.

Then came the fight with his older brother King Raoh, who, before battling Kenshiro, destroyed an entire army and who, along with their leader, just happened to be made out of metal.

You’d think he’d be a bit tired, but no! Not only did he beat the crap out of Kenshiro (while sat comfortably on a horse) he realised he was so bad that he spared the poor guy’s life after a little pink haired girl entered and pleaded for him to stop.

Not totally evil then, but yeah, completely badass!

6: Tetsuo (Akira)
The story of Tetsuo is certainly a tragic one. Bullied as an orphan child and the runt of the litter amongst his biker gang, he suffers no end of unfortunate events.

A victim of a bike crash that leaves him with psychic powers, Tetsuo is captured by the Japanese government and fed medication, slowly making him go insane.

After suffering hallucinations -- attacked by giant cuddly toys, internal organs falling out of his stomach -- Tetsuo does what any of us would likely do in that situation and attempt to destroy the world.

By the end of this wholesome fable, Tetsuo goes through what is arguably the most horrific death sequence in anime history, mutating into a huge, grotesque foetus-like creature.

Poor guy. Classic Villain.

5: Vegeta (Dragonball Z)
Even though Vegeta eventually fights alongside Goku against the forces of evil, he’s not really a ‘good’ guy given that he’s only looking to serve his own interests.

There are loads of reasons why Vegeta deserves to be in the list, but here’s our favourite. In his debut DBZ episode, he and his partner Nappa are taken prisoner on the planet Arlia. They manage to escape the prison, freeing all the others who were wrongly incarcerated in the process.

Vegeta is treated to a hero’s farewell after overthrowing Arlia’s evil king, only to turn around at the end and blast the entire planet from orbit – all in the name of shits and giggles!
It doesn’t get more evil than that folks!

4: Unicron (Transformers: The Movie)
The main antagonist of Transformers: The Movie, Unicron spends most of his time devouring planets to generate fuel in order to devour more planets.

As if this wasn’t cool enough, Unicron transforms from a planet to a giant planet sized robot, arguably the most fearsome Transformer of them all.
Unicron was voiced by the late Orson Welles. The same Orson Welles who directed one of the “greatest films ever made”, Citizen Kane.

Unicron was Welles’ final role. Discuss.

3: Akuma (Street Fighter II: The Movie)
Akuma, the demon god himself, first appeared in Capcom’s arcade game Super Streetfighter II Turbo as a secret character.

The brother of Ryu and Ken’s sensei Gouken, Akuma embraced the dark side and sought to master the Ansatsuken (Assassin Fist).
Akuma went on a rampage, killing his teacher Goutetsu (who taught him the Assassin Fist technique) and most shockingly his own brother whom he trained with as a child. Akuma travels the world searching for worthy opponents to fight, often unleashing his unblockable Raging Demon attack.

The undisputed badass of the Streetfighter universe, Akuma undoubtably deserves a place on our list.

2: Freiza (Dragonball Z)
Remember the first appearance of Freiza in Dragonball Z?

A skinny, child-like, pink and purple alien type-thing with a voice like your grandmother, Frieza initially had us all ROFLing and wondering whether he was a guy or a girl.

After revealing that he is indeed of the male persuasion, he soon lives up to the image of the baddest gangster in the universe, first demonstrated by his torture of the Sayian Prince, Vegeta.

1: Sephiroth (Final Fantasy IIV/ Advent Children)
The introduction of Sephiroth in Square’s Playstation classic Final Fantasy VII stands as one of the finest in the history of the franchise.

Like Frieza in Dragonball Z, Sephiroth is referred to in conversation before actually being seen. His reputation as the world’s most powerful soldier is built up time and time again by which point you just want to see what all the fuss is about.

It doesn’t occur that he might be a bad guy until the infiltration of the Shinra HQ. Somebody got there first, and quite litrally left a bloody mess!
From then on it is quite clear that this guys is not one to be messed with, and is gradually revealed to be a complete nut-job as the story goes on.

Sephiroth also commits the unspeakable act of killing off one the key characters of the story in an event that shocked gamers everywhere, especially those that spent ages levelling up this particular character, spending their hard earned Gil on shiny new weapons and armour.

With so many great villains out there, we’re sure you’ll disagree with some of our top 10. If that’s the case, get down to our forums and let us know about it!

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