Anime Villains that Can Induce Nightmare Fuel in Fans

There can be no good without evil, and that means that a great hero needs a great villain. Batman has the Joker, Cloud has Sephiroth, Spider-Man has the Green Goblin. The best heroes have the best villains, and the best villains can be as popular as the heroes. However, no matter how much people may like them (or like to hate them), that doesn’t change the fact that they’re evil. If people were to somehow encounter them in real life, they’ll generally have three choices.

1. Run for your life and pray that they don’t come after you.
2. Bow down to them and pray that they spare.
3. Make peace with your impending death.

Since Halloween is about scaring ourselves, here are some of the villains in Shonen anime that are the stuff of nightmares. Villain’s that, if encountered by someone unprepared, should be run away from as fast as you can.

DIO, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

There’s hatred, and then there’s the concentrated malice that is known as DIO. As the overarching antagonist of most of Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, DIO is one of the most vile beings to ever walk upon God’s green earth. Which is ironic because his name means “God” in Italian!

Despite starting out as nothing more than an extremely cruel bully to Jonathan Joestar, Dio graduated from that and humanity when he used an ancient mask to become an immortal vampire. After that, Dio slaughtered his way through Victorian England before the OG JoJo took him down, sacrificing his own life in the process. Unfortunately for the world, it didn’t stick.

DIO (now all caps) returned a hundred years with JoJo’s body and a Stand power that let him stop time, and even then, he wasn’t satisfied. Had JoJo’s descendant, Jotaro Kujo, not slain him, he would’ve eventually evolved his Stand into one that could rewrite reality itself. The worst part, though, is that even in death, DIO remained a threat thanks to his followers, one of whom would find a way to end and restart the universe.

DIO is like Dracula on steroids. He’s brilliant, has almost no regard for humanity, and worst of all, incredibly charismatic. Even if someone manages to resist his charisma, it won’t matter since he can implant a parasite in their brains and force them to serve him. Anyone unlucky enough to cross his path should run, lest he devours you mind, body, and soul.

Frieza, Dragon Ball Franchise

There are a lot of villains in the Dragon Ball franchise that would terrify even the bravest people. However, even when stacked against beings like Cell, Majin Buu, and Goku Black, Frieza stands as the biggest villain in Dragon Ball for good reason. Series mangaka Akira Toriyama based him off his own worst nightmares fused with real estate speculators that, at the time of his creation, were raking in dough at countless other’s expense. As a result, unlike most villains in the franchise, Frieza has an unthreatening appearance and eloquent way of speaking one might expect from Hannibal Lecter, which only makes him all the more terrifying.

While he was eventually surpassed by stronger villains like Cell and Majin Buu, Frieza remained the most popular villain in the franchise. That popularity would eventually see him not only come back from the dead (twice), but gave him a power-up that put him back on top. At the time of this writing, Frieza’s gotten to the point where he’s stronger than Goku and Vegeta. The only reason they’re still alive is because he let them live just to prove a point. Unless you’re a Super Saiyan or a god of destruction, then Frieza is the last person that you want to anger. He will not kill you but your entire species in the process.

Also, he’s got his own heavy-metal theme song.

Akainu, One Piece

There are plenty of villains and monsters in One Piece that make ordinary people tremble in fear, but few of them can get away with their actions by being one of the “good guys.” That’s different for Navy Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, AKA Akainu (“Red Dog.”) Akainu is everything wrong with the Marines personified. If you step out of line with his extreme views on justice, he will not hesitate to kill you. And with his Magma Magma Fruit powers letting him turn his body into magma, there’s little anyone can do to stop him. 

Many of the actions that Akainu has committed over the course of the series would, in a fairer world, likely constitute as war crimes. From blowing up a refugee ship on the off-chance a single fugitive would be on board to killing his own men for getting in his way or losing their nerve, this is someone that shouldn’t be put in charge of anything. For fans of One Piece, though, his biggest crime was murdering Luffy’s brother, Ace, right before him. This monster needs to be stopped, and many fans would love to see Luffy beat him into the ground before the series ends.

No, really. Luffy needs to beat him to a pulp and avenge his brother’s death. 

Muzan Kibutsuji, Demon Slayer : Kimetsu no Yaiba

He may look like Michael Jackson, but Muzan is a complete and utter monster. The centuries old progenitor of all Demons, Muzan is less of a person and more of a plague upon the world. Born a sickly human a thousand years ago, he took an incomplete medicine to survive, only to have it turn him into the first Demon. Since then, he has plagued Japan from the shadows, spawning countless Demons. His ultimate goal is to attain true immortality and conquer the light of the sun.

Even with his weakness to sunlight, Muzan is a terrifying, nigh-immortal foe. With a healing factor that rivals the likes of Cell or Majin Buu and an insatiable will to live, Muzan is the stuff of nightmares. Not even his fellow Demons are safe from him, as he’ll kill them for no reason. Any unlucky soul who finds themselves facing him shouldn’t even bother running. Just pray to God to let you into Heaven when you die.

WARNING: This Final Entry Provides MAJOR SPOILERS for Chainsaw Man. Anime-only fans and those who haven’t read the manga, stop reading!

Makima, Chainsaw Man

This blog’s review for the 9th episode of the Chainsaw Man anime called Makima a dangerous and, indeed, scary person. That had been written with little knowledge about what happens in the manga. That assessment turned out to be accurate to the extreme. Makima isn’t just a dangerous woman. She’s a menace!

While the anime has dropped hints that Makima isn’t a normal person, the manga eventually reveals that she’s actually the Control Devil. AKA, the embodiment of humanity’s fear of control, oppression, and the loss of free will. As such, her ability to control those she sees beneath her is so broken it puts Lelouch Vi Britannia’s Geass to shame. She’s a manipulative, cruel, and sociopathic villain whose idea of a perfect world is one without Devils and everyone under her heels. In other words, she’s the stuff of nightmares.

The worst part is the fact that she’s almost impossible to kill. Any damage done to her gets sent to some random person instead. With nigh-immortality and the ability to manipulate almost anyone she meets, she’s an enemy to everyone who loves free will. It doesn’t matter if she’s called a waifu; she’s a monster.