Top 20 Anime Where The Villain Wins

Despite Saiga’s best efforts, his last stand quite literally goes up in flames. In his defense, the plan was pretty straightforward: capture the mischievous Suitengu, dismantle his evil club, and walk off into the sunset. But, Saiga didn’t fully grasp how much of a selfish prick Suitengu really is. Instead of going down quietly, the villain decided to bring the whole building down with him. Including the rest of the club’s members, and the absurd amount of money they were hoarding. Suitengu’s actions left Saiga blind, and the rest of the world in complete financial ruin. Sure, Suitengu died in the process, but it’s hard to consider this anything less than a crushing defeat.

The Anarchy sisters spend most of this finale beating up the big-bad, Corset. Eventually, they win, and the screen fades to black. Or, so it seems. In an after-credit scene, Stocking suddenly takes out her blades and turns Panty into human sushi. Apparently, she’s a demon. Corset’s back, too, and they have an ultimatum: either Briefs unlocks Hell’s Gate, or Panty remains a pile of sliced remains. Then, the episode ends. This time, for good. Look, we get it, this show isn’t exactly known for playing it safe. But, ending the season with Stocking going to the dark side is a different level of bonkers. It’s no wonder she got kicked out of heaven.

He may have gotten a knife in the back, but all things considered, the Professor had a pretty successful day. He fulfilled his wish of creating more psychic-powered espers. Unfortunately, the jury’s still out on whether the Professor will be around long enough to see it. On paper, it almost sounds like the end of a tragedy. The only issue is that the Professor isn’t the hero of “Tokyo ESP.” No, he’s a sadistic radical with no regard for the consequences of his actions. The only sad part of his otherworldly-capture is that he doesn’t have to live through the societal collapse he ushered in.

Saving the world with your beloved sounds like the recipe for a happily-ever-after, right? Well, that’s not quite how things turned out. In order to foil Aion’s evil plans, Chrono and Rosette had to give up their own lives. Don’t let the sappy goodbye fool you, though. This ending is all bitter, no sweet. As it turns out, Aion didn’t actually perish during the final battle. Instead, he went into hiding and continued his schemes from the shadows. In the end, all Chrono and Rosette’s sacrifice did was delay the inevitable. Now, Aion’s back, and there’s no one left to stop him from ruling the world as he sees fit.

Goku has a pretty great track record when it comes to saving the Earth. But, not even Super Saiyans can bat a hundred. Especially when actual Gods are involved. Beerus the Destroyer was simply on a different level, and no amount of last-minute power-ups could change that. Trust us, Goku tried. While his efforts couldn’t get him on the board, they did earn Beerus' respect. In return, the God spared Earth from destruction. At least, for the day. Anything that keeps the planet spinning is a win in our book. But, that doesn’t change the fact that the final score is still Beerus - one, Goku - nill.

When the world ends, legends say that wolves will find a doorway into a so-called Paradise. You’d think that most people would hear that and start protecting the furry canines. Not Lord Darcia III, though. Alternatively, he lies, cheats, and kills in order to claim Paradise for himself. Even worse, his path to the promised land is littered with the bodies of almost every main character in “Wolf’s Rain.” Then, when Darcia finally touches Paradise, his corrupt ideals end up poisoning the oasis for everyone. So, not only is he a cold-blooded wolf-killer, but he made the whole of humanity pay the price for his selfishness.

As if the first two weren’t bad enough, the shady organization SEELE decides to hit humanity with a third angelic impact. As it turns out, the third time really is the charm. The ritual finally succeeds in activating Human Instrumentality. Then, by using Shinji’s contorted desires as a basis, it begins to meld all of humanity’s consciousness into a single entity. In layman’s terms, it’s the end of everything. Luckily, Instrumentality came with a backspace button courtesy of one Shinji Ikari. Once he realized the error of his ways, the EVA Pilot was able to turn everything back to its proper form. Seele’s third impact may ultimately be a pointless victory. But, it’s still a victory nonetheless.

Even in a world of monsters and mayhem, there may not be a more despicable person than The Major. All of his sinister motivations can be boiled down to one word: war. To put it bluntly, he wanted people to fight. Since he lacked even the tiniest shred of human empathy, there was no stopping him from turning that dream into a reality. Major’s actions caused untold horror onto the world, and even Alucard felt the repercussions. If there’s any justice, it’s that The Major got a bullet in the head before he could do any more damage. But, the bastard still died happy knowing he accomplished everything he ever wanted.

He had to wait until his third life, but Hao eventually got every single one of his wishes. Becoming Shaman King? Yep. Uniting with the all-powerful Great Spirit? Absolutely. Using his newfound power to make a fool of everyone around him? Yes, yes, and yes. But, in doing all that, Hao also remembered the real reason he wanted to become Shaman King in the first place. To see his dead mother again. Thankfully, the first thing she does is slap some sense into him. Hao takes his mother’s words to heart and decides to show mercy to mankind. Given his vengeful tendencies, that’s the best outcome anyone could’ve hoped for.

In order to protect what he thought was right, David Martinez pushed his cybernetic spine to its absolute limits. And none of it mattered. Against the ruthless jobber, Adam Smasher, David was nothing more than a glorified toothpick. The Edgerunner didn’t go down quietly, but all it did was prolong his suffering. The most heartbreaking part is realizing how little David’s death mattered. He bought his allies a little time to escape, but that’s just a band-aid fix on the real issues. The Arasuka corporation is still after Lucy. Communities are still rampant with debt and corruption. The only real difference in the world is that David isn’t in it anymore.

The original Persona 4 animated series had a few pitfalls but for the most part it was an enjoyable watch. Persona 4 Golden on the other hand…er…not so much, mainly due to the whole thing being a rushed rehash with the addition of the unnecessary Marie. Then there’s this OVA, where Yu…helps the culprit get way with his crimes? In what boils down to the “bad ending”, this alternative take on the series sees Adachi escape his crimes scot-free while the mysterious fog continues to consume the town. Um…why?

It’s sad to think about it, but if you really look at how things ended for Jonathan Joestar, you’ll see that the victor was none other than Dio! Just as he was about to go on his honeymoon with his beloved Erina, Dio’s disembodied yet still living head manages to kill JoJo. His final moments may be that of a true gentleman, and he does manage to save Erina from suffering the same fate, but that doesn’t change the fact the series ended with JoJo dying and Dio going on to take his body for himself. Talk about ‘muda’.

Where’s the villain you ask? It’s Kirino of course; that closet otaku who’s abusive to everyone she meets while secretly pining for her brother’s man-meat. You can debate all you want how she learns humility by the end of the series, but she still succeeds in her goal of ensuring that her brother Kyousuke abandons any chances to be with other girls and instead falls for her. They even tie the knot! Yeah, Kyousuke is an idiot for wanting to take his sister to the boneyard, but she’s still the devious mastermind who started it all. We miss Kuroneko.

In case you hadn’t heard, Yusuke Urameshi is something of a badass. A juvenile delinquent turned spirit detective who happens to have a demon lineage, it’s no wonder he was able to overcome absolute monsters like Toguro and Sensui. Then came the final arc, and unlike the Dark Tournament, this is one bout that Yusuke actually ended up losing. Don’t get us wrong, Yomi was a powerful foe and ends up changing his mind about eating humans at the last minute, but this is Yusuke we’re talking about! This is the kind of crap we expect to see happen to Kuwabara.

Ah, alternative timelines. The ultimate excuse for messing with characters and lore without any fear of consequences. As it happens, this one is home to a much more malicious version of Goku, one who thrives on the slaughter of innocents. Sure, Zeno manages to use his divine power to essentially retcon the entire timeline, but before he met his demise, Zamasu still succeededs in his Zero Mortals Plan. A mission that saw him massacre basically all of mankind. Wow, now that’s some Frieza level villainy right there.

You just had to give into greed, didn’t you Kaiji? You nearly met your end a dozen times and even got your ear cut off, but it still wasn’t enough. After managing to defeat Tonegawa in the deadliest card game of all time, Kaiji gives up his one chance to walk away rich in order to try and defeat the perverse Chairman for an even greater fortune. Unfortunately, he had no idea that he was facing off against an expert cheater who saw through his game-plan. As a result, Kaiji ends up getting his fingers chopped off – guillotine style!

So many sacrifices, so many dead dreams, all for nothing. As the Fourth Holy Grail War comes to a close, the only ones who manage to walk away unpunished are the heartless Kotomine and egotistical Gilgamesh. Doesn’t help that the chaos of Fuyuki city was exactly what they wanted. Given how Kiritsugu lost literally everything, Saber was denied her wish and Kairya…well…Kariya just got fucked over, seeing the dastardly duo get off scot-free was beyond disheartening.

Though he was initially fighting alongside Akira against the demon forces, when Ryo’s true self was revealed to him amidst the chaos, he quickly fell back into old habits... Fucking up humanity and whatnot. In the concluding episode, as Satan, he commanded the demonic legions against the last of humanity and Akira’s Devilman army. Not today sata-Oh wait he won. This one is a little more complicated than the rest though. Since despite ultimately winning the battle against his best friend, he soon came to see the error of his ways. Oh and then nuked by god.

You haven’t seen betrayal until you witness the douchebaggery that is Griffith. After being crippled beyond recognition, the former leader of the Band of the Hawk is offered a deal by the demonic entities known as the God Hand. With the promise of having his dream fulfilled, all Griffith needs to do in return is sacrifice his comrades. Spoilers, he does. If that wasn’t horrific enough, after assuming his new guise of Femto, he goes on to spite his once closest ally Guts by violating his love interest Casca before his eyes. Not hard to see why Guts might have a bone to pick with him after all that.

After watching these child soldiers suffer such hardships and fight against all manner of hostilities, we were desperate to see Tekkadan make it through this last stand. And yet by the end of it all, Gjallarhorn was the one that claimed victory, and that scumbag Rustal Elion became their new leader. The only silver linings being that some of Tekkadan’s members managed to escape and eventually Kudelia did succeed in giving Mars the independence and freedom it deserved. However, that doesn’t take away the pain of watching both Mikazuki and Orga die! Especially when Mikazuki was defeated by, Julieta, the worst anime character in history.