Top 20 Anime Heroes Who Gave Into Darkness

“Tower of God” (2020-)

One glance at little Bam over here and you wouldn’t think butter would melt in his mouth. He’s got a smile that’ll soothe your heart and a fierce loyalty to his friends. But what happens when that loyalty is betrayed? Well he falls down to the depths of despair and has to claw his way back up. Approached by the members of FUG, Bam is given an ultimatum - join them and kill Jahad or each of his friends will be picked off one by one. With this, he embraces his role as Viole, and is willing to brutalize any other tower climbers that may get in the way of his mission. FUG has given him terrifying new powers, and he’s no longer too nicey-nicey to use them!

“Sailor Moon” (1992-97)

Despite being a cheeky little brat at times to Usagi, Chibiusa is a sweet and kind girl. Unfortunately, the main antagonist of the season, Wiseman manipulates her by claiming that no one loves her. This leads to Chibiusa becoming his perfect pawn, absorbing the Black Crystal and transforming into a grown-up form known as Black Lady. As you’d expect, it’s up to Usagi as always to set things right, but that isn’t before Black Lady does some serious damage to each member of the Sailor Scouts.

“Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters” (2000-04)

For the most part, this spirit of a bygone pharaoh has always been about using the heart of the cards in order to defeat ancient evils. Unfortunately, he somewhat shit the bed when he decided that in order to best motorcycle lackey No. 1, aka Rafael, he should use the one card that can seal away the soul of the user should they lose a duel. Blinded by hate, the pharaoh still goes ahead and plays it, which of course results in him eventually being defeated, with Little Yugi offering up his own soul in exchange for his friend’s. Dammit Yami, you went full-Kaiba. You never go full-Kaiba.

“Inuyasha” (2000-10)

Love can make us do crazy things. It seems that even a pure-hearted maiden like Kagome harbors some darkness within her heart, a darkness that is utilized upon by the demon child known as the infant. As one of Naraku’s vessels, this bastard of a baby utilized Kagome’s jealousy towards Inuyasha and Kikyo’s relationship in an attempt to utterly crush her spirit and take control of her mind. And hey, it worked too as Kagome gave into said envy entirely, until of course Mr. Demon dog himself turned up to the scene, breaking Kagome out of her spell and making her realize she actually loves the dude - See, silver linings.

“Beyblade” (2001)

Let’s be honest, any one of us would turn to the dark side to get our hands on this badass Beyblade. When Kai and the gang head to Russia, he’s approached by his old tutor Boris. He’s given the opportunity to gain the strength he craves by utilizing the insanely powerful and evil “Black Dranzer”. He embraces this opportunity and uses the Bey the way it was intended - by smashing up all his oppositions. It ultimately leads to him taking on the combined force of his Bladebreaker teammates who really don’t fare that well against his might.

“Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou” (2020-21)

Satoko went through a lot throughout the original Higurashi series. After everything that happened with her uncle and the ol’ Hinamizawa syndrome, it’s no wonder she came to rely on her best friend Rika. But when their friendship took a turn in the private girls’ academy, Satoko snapped. She was approached by Eua with a means of once again starting a time loop in order to get Rika to change her mind about going to school. However, she didn’t go about it in the friendliest of ways. With these new time manipulating abilities, Satoko got more and more violent with each loop in her quest to dissuade Rika from living her dream. That means a whole lot of mindbreaking and a whole lot of violence!

“Digimon Tamers” (2003)


In the conversation of sweetest Digimon around, Guilmon is definitely a high ranking contender. But he would do absolutely anything Takato told him, even if he was blinded by rage. After Leomon is slain at the hands of Beelzemon, Takato becomes irate. Incensed by Jeri’s despair and fueled by his desire to get strong enough to beat the former Impmon, he demands Guilmon ascends to the next level - and when he does, the consequences are severe. The newly named Megidramon is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with his opponent, but he’s also a mindless killing machine. Watching this once adorable little fella turn into such a hellish beast breaks not only Takato, but all of us watching at home too!

“Sonic X” (2003-05)

The story in Sonic X’s third season takes a much darker turn, and this scene in particular reflects that greatly. After seeing an unconscious Chris and terrified Cosmo, the combination of the Dark Chaos emeralds negative energy and Sonic’s rage cause him to undergo a transformation into a new Dark form. Black Narcissus proceeds to unleash two powerful robots against him, but they’re absolutely no match for Dark Sonic. Even though Sonic’s sudden turn to the dark side was very brief, it’s a moment that’s still remembered fondly within the fandom.

“Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” (2009-10)

Nothing will come between this guy and his ambition to become the next Emperor of Xing. That being said, allowing your body to become a home for a Homonculus might be a bridge too far. Regardless, Ling’s blind avarice for power allows the newly resurrected Greed to bond with his soul, creating a hybrid that eventually turned into one of the show’s most awesome anti-heroes. Of course, there was also a lot of murder and other wicked deeds between Point A and Point B for Greedling over here.

“Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel I. presage flower” (2017)

Yeah, we know, this route is all about Sakura, but did it have to involve everyone’s favorite Servant becoming corrupted in the process? Unlike the events of the Fate route or Unlimited Blade Works, Saber doesn’t exactly emerge as a triumphant heroine unphased by her own inner demons. After Assassin tries to take her heart for himself, the former King of Camelot instead chooses to face her own darkness, and as a result ends up becoming Alter-Saber. While black certainly looks good on her, it’s clear that this iteration of the character has decided to stray from the path of gallantry.

“The Seven Deadly Sins” (2014-21)

As the Dragon Sin of Wrath and the original leader of the Ten Commandments, Meliodas’ sins are greater than most. Despite his chipper personality and laid-back approach to life, the Captain certainly isn’t immune to falling into his old habits. Whether it’s letting his darkness run wild, going berserk and destroying an entire kingdom in the process, or when he mercilessly killed Fraudlin, we’d say that it’s only a matter of time before Meliodas once again lets the demon out of the back and goes on a rampage.

“Tokyo Ghoul” series (2014-18)

To be fair, getting your body parts pulled off and having a centipede shoved in your ear is bound to ruin anyone’s day, so it’s not like we can blame Kaneki for giving into his Ghoul half. After Yamori tortures him to the point where his hair changes color, the One Eyed Wonder finally relents, letting his hunger take hold, before proceeding to slaughter the Jason wannabe with ease. He may have had no choice in the matter, but our boy went from innocent youth to unrelenting savage.

“Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion” (2013)

Out of all the magical girls, it’s fair to say that Homura had the worst time. Sure, she never turned into a witch or had her head bitten off, but she did have to witness her friends dying over and over and over again. After traveling to the past numerous times in order to prevent Madoka from signing a contract with Kyubey, and often failing, you can see how so much trauma could lead to Homura…lashing out. Just when she was moments away with uniting with beloved companion, Homura decided now would be a great time to steal Madoka’s God powers, rewrite the universe, and turn into a psycho devil.

“Berserk” (1997-98)

You can always count on the White Hawk to get everything wrong. While he’d never hesitated when it came to killing in order to achieve his goals, we still held the belief that deep down Griffith was still ultimately a good person who would always do right by his comrades. At least until Guts left, wherein he suffered the mother of all meltdowns. He shagged a teenage princess, got himself imprisoned, left the Band of the Hawk to be branded as criminals, and that’s all before he submitted to the God Hand. After you sacrifice all your friends, become a demon and violate your bestie’s lover, there’s really no coming back.

“Bleach” (2004-12)

Who doesn’t love Hollow Ichigo? Ever since the twisted reflection of our favorite Shinigami made itself known, we always knew that there was a risk of Ichigo’s literal demon coming out to play. This eventually came to a head after Ulquiorra blew a hole in his chest and threatened Orihime. Fuelled by the determination to protect his future baby mama, Ichigo ended up transforming into a beast stronger than any Espada, who then proceeded to rip Ulquiorra to pieces like it was going out of style. Sure, he eventually snapped out of it, but not before he had hacked off a limb or two.

“Yu-Gi-Oh! GX” (2005-11)

When Jaden Yuki told us to “get our game on” we’re pretty sure he didn’t mean this! After losing his friends one by one, Jaden breaks down and gives in to the darkside, unlocking his dormant powers and becoming the Supreme King. With his ability to wield Gentle Darkness and a vast Army under his command, Jaden absolutely wrecks house for the following episodes. Jaden is only freed from his dark side once his friend Axel manages to use the Eye of Orichalcum after drawing in a duel against the Supreme King.

“Hunter x Hunter” (2011-14)

Throughout most of the Chimera Ant arc, Gon searches for Kite, who bravely fought against Pitou so that his student could get away. Unfortunately for Gon, Pitou reveals to him that his teacher has been long since dead, and has been reanimated as a training dummy. The dark emotions that suddenly overwhelm Gon leads him to sacrifice all of his nen, obtaining all the power he’ll ever have known with Limitation Transformation. In this new form the once kind Gon has absolutely no qualms as he devastates Pitou into a bloodied mess.

“Dragon Ball Z” (1989-96)

Turns out that the Prince of Saiyans can only keep his asshole switch off for so long. Despite being a pretty chill husband and father for a number of years, Vegeta just couldn’t resist the opportunity to turn back to his old villainous ways, letting Babidi take control of him in order to harness the Majin’s powers for himself. It’s a bitter decision, but thankfully it gave way to one hell of a rematch with Goku, not to mention one of the most iconic moments in the franchise when Vegeta chose to redeem himself via explosion.

“Naruto” series (2002-)

Turning criminal may not have made this ninja any friends, but it sure made for one hell of a character arc. In order to gain the strength needed to kill his brother, Sasuke abandoned his old life, hopped aboard the revenge train and never looked back. From nearly murdering Naruto and Sakura, joining forces with Orochimaru and then the Akatsuki, all the way to plotting to destroy the Leaf Village, Sasuke got himself quite the rap sheet during his antagonist phase. No worries though, considering he made amends with both his bro and Naruto, we’d say he came out the other side with only a minor slap on the wrist.

“Attack on Titan” (2013-23)

How far would you go to protect your friends? Give up all your money? Take a bullet? How about kill 80% of the human race? Too far? Well not for Eren Yeager who, after learning of what would happen in the future with his Titan abilities, orchestrated the most devastating event in human history - The Rumbling. In his own words, he’s an idiot. He was unable to find a peaceful resolution with access to his foresight and instead turned down one of the darkest paths imaginable. Even though his intentions were pure in protecting his loved ones, he’ll always be remembered as a monster.

Which hero do you think should give into Darkness? Let us know in the comments below!