The Ace Attorney anime, while keeping the same story as the games, turns Morgan Fey into even more of a villain than she was in the games. In the "Reunion, then Turnabout" case in the game, Morgan is partnered with Ini Miney, cooperating with her to get Maya arrested for murder, while Ini Miney simply wants to kill Dr. Grey to protect the secret that she is, in fact, Mimi Miney. However, in the anime, Mimi doesn't want to kill Doctor Grey, but just wants to fake the channeling so he doesn't find out that secret. Morgan, however, comes up with the plan to kill Doctor Grey and frame Maya for it. When Mimi refuses, Morgan threatens to reveal Ini's secret identity.
In the original Art of Fighting game, King was a reluctant Punch-Clock Villain who gave Ryo and Robert information needed to rescue Yuri after being defeated, with her later appearances firmly establishing her as one of the good guys. In the anime film, she's an unambiguous villain and the one who actually kidnaps Yuri (at Mr. Big's behest) in the first place.
Annie Leonhart from Attack on Titan is a ruthless killer in both anime and manga, but the manga goes further to portray her Anti-Villain status, giving her more humanizing moments such as genuinely smiling at one point, mentoring Eren Jeager in hand-to-hand combat, and also looking visibly shaken when she accidentally kills civilians. All of these moments are removed from the anime while also increasing the number of people she kills. It's not unusual to hear people say they hate her after watching the anime, then they read the manga and start sympathizing with her.
Jeanne gets in this in Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, in the game she’s only in a villainous role due to being brainwashed by Father Balder (Bayonetta’s dad) and the Angels of Paradiso. The anime makes no mention of this and implies she’s doing it totally of her own free will, making Jeanne pretty monstrously evil especially when she shoots up a train full of civilians, before eventually undergoing a rather cheap Heel–Face Turn right at the very end. Although to be fair, a lot of the cast get Adaptational Jerkass in this film.
The first anime of Black Butler does this with Queen Victoria, of all people. In the manga she's a straight Cool Old Lady though she seems to like the idea of a Zombie army, while in the anime she's responsible for Ciel's parents' deaths, and planning to start a world war to "cleanse" the world with her angelic accomplice, Ash. It is, at least, implied that she's not at all stable, in part due to Ash's machnations.
In the Bokurano manga, Koyemshi/Dung Beetle is quite a jerk throughout, but he has a few Pet the Dog moments, such as performing a Mercy Kill on his sister, Youko, and giving Ushiro reasons to fight. In the anime, he's significantly more vicious, including mocking one of the dead kids, was quite a Dirty Cowardwhile he was a human and ultimately gets killed by his aforementioned sister when he tries to force the youngest of the group into the game.
In The Caligula Effect for Vita, Kotono is unambiguously on the protagonist's side as one of the original members of the Go-Home Club. In the anime version, her role is very different — she's a Digihead who works to seduce and brainwash people in Mobius. She's also working under Mirei, the Musician she fought against in the game. However, she eventually does a Heel–Face Turn courtesy of Ritsu and Aria breaking her out of her own brainwashing.
In the manga version of Chrono Crusade, Big Bad Aion is portrayed as misguided and possibly insane, but sympathetic, having turned to evil deeds in a desperate attempt to fix what he felt was a corrupted system after learning an Awful Truth. In the anime, he was turned into the literal Anti-Christ.
Cross Marian of D.Gray-Man. In the manga, he was just pretending to be a jerk at best, or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at worst. But the anime, done by TMS Entertainment, decided that they wanted him to be a complete Jerkass.
Episode 27: My Master, General Cross is infamous for the villainization of Cross' character — when Allen begins to tell Lenalee tales of how horrible his master is, so she'll know what to expect when they find him. The includes things from Cross that actually contradicted his manga characterization and Word of God. In the episode, Cross is shown forcing Allen into slave labor to make money, whereas in the manga, Allen only gambled to make money. Also, in canon Allen mentioned he only gambled if he and Cross were very broke. But in the episode, Cross forces Allen to gamble and steals his money when he's living off of a rich lover at the time. Allen mentions that his master was lover to a Maharajah's widow because he has a thing for rich women. Word of God however, has stated that Cross likes good women, not rich women. We also see Cross telling Allen to bring him a lion, which almost gets Allen killed, in addition to throwing Allen to legions of Akuma without training him. And Allen mentions that given Cross' treatment of him, he battled with depression as a result, only finding happiness with Narain, a friend he met in India.
Filler episode 25: Allen is shown to have a severe mistrust of all Exorcist Generals — saying that due to his bad experience with Cross, he didn't believe Generals were good people. There was also a scene where Yeegar speaks to Allen about Cross, saying that he is the best at destroying Akuma, but isn't good at human interaction. Neither of these scenes were in the manga, and contradicted the canon of General Yeegar already being dead before Allen and Lenalee are sent to find Cross.
Changes were made to canon scenes where Cross is shown doing things in them that weren't in the manga. Such as the guards dragging Allen out of Cross' room at HQ. In the manga, Cross just watches as Allen is taken away. However in the anime, he smirks and hums mockingly while waving Allen off. In addition to stealing food from the cart of the vendor he spoke to in Krory's village — which he wasn't shown doing in the manga.
In Hallow, there were cases of scenes and lines being cut. In the manga, Cross hugs Allen, saying he wishes Nea had chosen another host as his vessel. Then he says he can't laugh at Tiedoll's open affection for his students in longer. He's also shown wondering is sacrificing one thing always has to be done to protect something else, which hints he sees it as a case of I Did What I Had to Do. In the anime, Cross just tells Allen he's going to kill someone he loves when he becomes the 14th. Hie 2 lines about Tiedoll and Dirty Business are complete skipped over.
Both anime adaptations have a habit of changing Cross' facial expressions to include him smirking or scowling when he wasn't in the manga. One such example includes Hallow's episode 13, which adapts the flashback chapter 206, with Cross caring for young Allen. In the manga, toward the end, we see Cross sitting with Allen in the bedroom, and he has a sad expression on his face as he watches the traumatized Allen. In the anime's episode, Cross is shown watching Allen with a scowl on his face instead.◊
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School does this to Mukuro Ikusaba. Danganronpa Zero and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF had her portrayed more sympathetically and she ended up performing a Heel–Face Turn in the latter work. Here, this show seems to downplay her sympathetic qualities and instead focuses a lot on the thoroughly reprehensible actions she committed as an accomplice in her sister's schemes. It is extremely noteworthy that she stated that Makoto Naegi (aka her crush and the person who was responsible for her Heel–Face Turn in IF) is a loser that is better off dead.
In the manga of Deadman Wonderland, the staff of the titular prison Hand Wave the prisoner deaths in the dog races by claiming that they are done with special effects. In the anime, the special effects angle is done away with; and the prison openly admits that many of the competitors do not survive and die brutal deaths.
While Light Yagami was always a Villain Protagonist in the anime and manga, he started out sympathetic and well-intentioned. In the live-action films, he ends up Jumping Off the Slippery Slope much sooner than in the anime and manga, to the extent that unlike his anime/manga counterpart, he's perfectly willing to personally kill his own father to prevent the Death Note from being analyzed.
While Ryuk could hardly be considered a hero in the anime or manga, he's much more monstrous in the live-action TV drama. In the anime/manga, he just randomly dropped the Death Note and Light picked it up by chance, with Ryuk just kicking back and watching as Light carried out his plans. In the TV drama, he deliberately drops the notebook near Light and serves as The Corrupter, goading Light into killing more people when he hesitates, effectively making him responsible for Kira's existence.
Shen aka Crane Hermit was already a nasty piece of work, but in the manga he didn’t attempt to assassinate Goku in the dead of night to avenge his brother Mercenary Tao, like he did in the anime adaptation. He also creeps on Bulma and Launch in a scene not in the original.
Vegeta gets this in some post-Namek Filler, while a previous villainous character and still unpleasant, Vegeta in the manga didn’t hurt anyone after getting resurrected. In the anime he cruelly mocks Gohan over Goku’s supposed death before beating the shit of the kid to Bulma’s terror before being stopped by Piccolo.
Android 17 is a complicated case as he is evil in Trunks’ Bad Future but in the present timeline he’s a nicer person who sees fighting as a game, gives up on trying to kill Goku and by the time of Dragon Ball Super becomes a real hero. Z portrayed 17 as a more nasty character, having added scenes of him taking enjoyment out of killing members of a rowdy biker gang and in the Buu Saga he points a rifle at two hunters who were casually walking, tricking them into putting up their hands to give Goku energy (in the manga, 17 just holds his hands up and the hunters don’t appear). Dragon Ball GT would (in)famously nudge 17 much further into this trope making him a villain who kills Krillin and tries to kill Goku after becoming Super 17 albeit due to him being Brainwashed and Crazy.
In his debut in Battle of Gods, Beerus was goofy and likable, though he did have moments of being a Jerkass God. Here, his more sympathetic qualities are toned down while his Jerkass God aspects are ramped up, doing such things as actively destroying planets after eating all their food, outright saying he never gets tired of watching planets explode after he blows them up, and going out of his way to be a dick to Vegeta and intimidate him after crashing Bulma's birthday party. Most notably, unlike in Battle of Gods where his slapping Bulma was more reflexive than anything, in Dragon Ball Super, after Bulma slaps him, he actually turns towards her and outright backhands her across the face, all with a Slasher Smile and a glint in his eye. After the Battle of Gods adaptation, Beerus is made more in line with his film counterpart.
In Resurrection 'F', while Tagoma was definitely a villain, being a member of Frieza's army, he showed signs of being a Noble Demon, valuing his commander, sparing the Pilaf Trio even after stealing one of their wishes (two in Super), and showing a reluctance to revive Frieza due to how evil he was. While he's initially much the same in Super, unlike the film, where Frieza had him Thrown Out the Airlock for daring to speak out against his revenge plan against Goku, he survives this suggestion, only to be forced into becoming Frieza's personal training dummy; after spending the next four months being beaten within an inch of his life by Frieza every single day, Tagoma not only becomes the strongest member of Frieza's army, but a psychopathic monster on par with Frieza himself, to the extent that he unhesitatingly shoots through Shisami to get to Gohan.
In the anime, Zamasu wants to murder his master Gowasu, steal Goku's body before killing him and his family, then travel to Future Trunks' timeline to kill all the gods and mortals all because Goku defeated him in a sparring match. His reasons to do this are even pettier in the manga; He watched the match between Goku and Hit and becomes enraged that a mortal Saiyan like him managed to attain so much power.
Jiren in the anime gets many gratuitous Kick the Dog moments added on that were not present in the manga (and, presumably, not in Toriyama's original draft either). The most notable one was probably trying to kill the audience in a fit of rage when Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku starts matching him. His character's premise as champion of justice and Hero Antagonist is also really downplayed in the anime from the beginning. For example, while the manga introduces Jiren as saving his teammates from a monster before devoting his time to helping evacuate innocent civilians, the anime introduces Jiren as meditating menacingly while his teammates are afraid to even ask for his help, even to deal with a galactic threat.
Paragus gets this in Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Now in the original movie Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, Paragus was no saint planning to kill Z-Fighters and putting a Mind-Control Device on his son Broly, but his backstory made him very sympathetic. Paragus tried to stop King Vegeta from executing Broly as a infant for his incredibly high power level and was blasted through the chest for his effort and chucked in the trash with his own son, when Broly grew up and proved to be Ax-Crazy Paragus desperately tried to curb his son’s actions and the mind control crown was a necessity. In the retelling, King Vegeta just sends Broly to the remote planet Vampa where he won’t harm anyone, but Paragus takes it as an insult and swears revenge and chases Broly to Vampa where his ship crashes and kills Beats (the non-violent Saiyan who helped him get there), so there’ll be one less mouth to feed. If that wasn’t enough Paragus instead of restricting Broly’s violence like the original, brutally trains him as a weapon of revenge and the mind control crown is replaced with a Shock Collar which he readily uses causing poor Broly to tremble whenever he sees the remote in his father’s hand. Paragus even joins Frieza to form a Big Bad Duumvirate.
Bandou was a victim of this in Elfen Lied: He was more a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the manga and humanized through his relationship with Mayu and Nana. Mayu brings him food on the beach, they are shown eating together and later Bandou saves Mayu from being raped by The Unknown Man. Then he sees Nana has been injured by one of the Unknown Man's spiked balls; since she is a Diclonius, he knows it would be troublesome for her to go to a hospital, so he treats her wound instead. He also risks his life to save Mayu from Lucy, giving up his chance for revenge against Lucy. In the anime, his part is drastically shortened, and any sympathetic or good moments were omitted, while adding in filler to make him seem more cruel. He still lets Mayu go in return for saving his life, but the anime version of that scene is more tense, with Mayu seemingly agreeing to stay away from him in the future.
The Elusive Samurai: A contemporary Buddhist scholar described the real Takauji as being "merciful, tolerant, and generous" (though said scholar was a favored associate of Takauji so make of that what you will), and it's not entirely clear why exactly he turned on the Kamakura shogunate in the first place. In the series, Takauji is depicted as an Affably Evil betrayer who doesn't bat an eyelash at committing brutal atrocities and whose courteous exterior masks a malicious bloodthirst, to the point where other characters literally see him as demon possessed.
Fatal Fury: Devil Street of Horror: Geese Howard is devoid of any redeeming traits he had from the games and is a more murderous character.
Basque Grand's backstory in the manga showed him as a Reasonable Authority Figure who killed his commander Brigadier General Fessler and took his place as commander in order to prevent further slaughter of the Ishvalan people. His anime version, not having any backstory, is a Colonel Kilgore who wants to expand Amestris' military might and does some extremely unethical things to accomplish it.
Solf J. Kimblee, who had only shown up in a single manga panel when the anime caught up, ended up being a completely different person. The manga version turned out to be an Affably Evil sociopath with a very odd (but very consistent) moral philosophy, while the anime version became a Misanthrope Supreme and a Straw Nihilist who just wanted to kill people because life was inherently meaningless.
Even Van Hohenheim, the Big Good in the manga, became a Retired Monster; instead of being tricked into helping Father turn the nation of Xerxes into a Philosopher's Stone, and only becoming aware of the plan once it was too late to stop it, the anime's backstory has him willingly helping Dante turn people into Philosopher's Stones to prolong their own lives.
Envy and King Bradley were already horrible monsters in the manga, but the anime made them worse. Bradley (now the Homunculus Pride instead of Wrath) loses all of his Noble Demon qualities and his last scene involves him strangling his Morality Pet (his own son, at that), Envy had his sadism cranked to maximum, and both lose their Alas, Poor Villain moments.
Barry the Chopper, while Ax-Crazy in both the manga and first anime, was more of a neutral character in the former and even joins forces with the good guys before his death after realizing that he's going to be hunted down for his connection to the Fifth Lab anyway. The 2003 anime's Barry unrepentantly sides with anyone who can help him kill as many innocent people as possible, joining up on a mission to slaughter a settlement of Ishvalans which forces Scar to step in and put him down.
Yoki in both versions starts out as a small-time villain who ends up disgraced by the Elrics, which leads him to rat out Scar in an attempt to reclaim his status. There the similarities end — the manga ultimately has him becoming a reluctant and (generally) not very helpful good guy, while the anime has him killed by Lust to incite a riot between the military and the Ishbalan refugees.
In the manga, Scar's long-dead brother was an idealist whose alchemical research was motivated in large part by his desire for peace. In the 2003 anime, he became something of a Mad Scientist willing to sacrifice his own people in order to revive his dead lover, though he retained his genuine love for his brother.
Roy Mustang is ultimately a good guy in all versions, but in the 2003 anime, his crimes in Ishbal and his guilt over them are made more pointed when he turns out to be the one who murdered Winry's parents.
An odd example comes with Anchovy, since the manga was released before the anime showed her match with Oarai. In the anime, Anchovy's competitive but fairly good-spirited, and after losing, invites the Oarai crew to eat with her and the people who set up the match. In the manga, she starts off by accusing Miho of having a "weak" way of tankery, and at the end, accuses Miho of costing her old school the championship by abandoning the flag tank.
Erika is a Jerkass in the anime, but mainly to the extent of being snide and condescending toward Miho (for example, in the finals, saying that Oarai must be weak if she became its commander). In the manga, between the semifinals and the finals, Erika flies over to Oarai, confronts Miho, and angrily accuses her of not just costing them the victory, but abandoning them in their time of crisis, and vaguely insinuates that Miho traded her vice-captaincy of her old school for captaincy of her new school. She's significantly more vicious and angry in that scene from the manga, and leaves Miho in tears at the end of it.
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters: Whereas most incarnations of Godzilla are anti-heroes or Tragic Monsters, this Godzilla is the most vile and malevolent incarnation since GMK Godzilla. In the flashback scenes, Godzilla intentionally killed humans and destroyed evacuation shuttles full of refugees even when he isn't attacked or provoked. His only saving grace is that he genuinely cares about his son. Speaking of Godzilla's son, unlike Minilla and Godzilla Jr., this version of a Godzilla offspring lacks sympathy towards humans.
Heavy Object: Flide's novel counterpart wasn't anything special, but the anime shows him at his worst, most notably in the anime-only final arc where he tries to start a war by using a brainwashed Milinda to wipe out the 37th Mechanized Maintenance Battalion along with Klondike.
Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation: Zig-Zagged with The Seven Sages. In Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, they were a criminal organization ruled by Rei Ryghts who attempted to get rid of the goddesses and specialized in turning children into monsters, but were overall Affably EvilNoble Demons who had their Pet the Dog moments note Rei was a Benevolent Boss to the other Sages despite her meekness, Mr. Badd's reasoning to turn the children into untrained beasts was that he wanted a family of his own, and Anonydeath, despite being a troll, didn't actually hate the CPUs, only joining the agency because he found it interesting or weren't really bad guys at all note Abnes was merely misled, Copypaste was a mindless brute but still had a heart and became a friendly Gentle Giant after being rebuilt, and Warechu was a Harmless Villain at best who only wanted others to respect him , especially when compared to the CPUs. Near the end of the game, they were able to redeem themselves into a group dedicated to supporting goddesses in general. In the anime, likely due to the CPUs themselves being leagues more likable here (especially Iris Heart), the Seven Sages are conversely made more threatening, antagonistic, and hostile to the goddesses. At the same time, Abnes is revealed to not be apart of the Seven Sages while Arfoire, who is portrayed as a legit bad guy instead of The Chew Toy she was in Victory, gets a dose of Adaptational Heroism by taking away Rei's powers and admits to the goddesses that even though she hates them, she doesn't want the world to be destroyed.
Inuyasha: Izumo/Gyu-oh of episodes 94 and 95. The English dub of those episodes makes him a full-fledged villain, whereas the original Japanese made it clear that he was a Tragic Monster who was just driven by his madness.
In the original story, the first of the tigers unintentionally brought disaster to the jungle, but he initially wanted to kill Fear (man) to restore peace among the animals, then later out of grief for finding that all those who once looked up to him would now run away in terror. In the anime, he simply believed that killing Fear would grant him supreme power over all. The Arabic dub has the tiger attempting to frame a man for a murder he himself committed; not as aspiring a goal as the former but no less despicable.
The human owner that cared for Bagheera when he was a kitten. In the novel, Bagheera was part of a collection of exotic animals belonging to a rich rajah where he lived in luxury before escaping on his own. In the anime, the owner planned to kill Bagheera for his pelt when he grew bigger as he abused the panther along the way, the owner's daughter named Linda took care of him at that time. Later she frees Bagheera before her father can shoot him. She took the bullet, and it was unknown is she survived or not.
Kingdom Hearts: The Cheshire Cat in the manga adaptation of the Kingdom Hearts series is outright villainous, compared to his more neutral role in his origin book and in the game. Maleficent even offered him a place in her group, but he declined. He's at his worst in the manga adaptation for Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: Roxas wished to be let out of a cage he was imprisoned in for trespassing the White Rabbit's house and pretending to be his servant, Mary Ann. The Cheshire Cat granted his wish by throwing a hedgehog at the Queen of Hearts and framing Roxas for the crime, causing her to order the young Nobody's execution by guillotine.
The Happy Mask Salesman from Majora's Mask gives the player some creepy vibes but genuinely wants to retreve the titular mask before it destroys Termina. In the manga adaptation he's heavily implied to be behind the events of the story.
While Tingle did try to steal Force Gems in Four Swords Adventures, his manga counterpart outright leaves Green to die at the hands of a Hinox to get away with a Force Gem.
In Phantom Hourglass, Bellum is a mindless Eldritch Abomination that feeds on people the way a predator feeds on prey. In the manga adaptation, he is intelligent and fully aware of the pain he puts his victims through.
Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: While Fatima is a ruthless slave trader in both the anime and the manga, both of which show him choosing to feed a Delicate and Sickly potential slave to a pack of hyenas rather than simply give her medical treatment because it's "not worth the money," the manga also shows that he himself was once a slave who was broken down and made loyal to his mistress Umm Madaura, who, among other things, sold him as a Sex Slave to a male client. The anime completely edits out his rather horrific backstory, making him an utterly unsympathetic Jerkass.
Mega Man Megamix: Rather then a Noble Demon, Bass is a cruel Jerkass who brutalizes Auto to send a message to Rock and regularly attempts to murder people. Also, while Proto Man and Duo aren’t made into straight up villains, they’re much more morally grey than in the games, with the former being a coldblooded Anti-Hero and the latter being a violent Knight Templar who ruthlessly murders most of the Wilybots.
Mega Man X: The manga adaptation of Mega Man X4 turns Frost Walrus from a generic brutish Maverick into an utter psychopath. While his game backstory paints him as an ill-tempered brute who was nearly scrapped for his violent tendencies, here he's a sadist who not only keeps the frozen bodies of his victims as trophies, but also releases a bunch of Reploid prisoners and forces them to run for their lives so he can gleefully hunt and slaughter them later.
The Metroid (Manga) does to this Ridley the Space Pirate to an extreme degree. In the Metroid games Ridley is already a horrible creature but since there’s no dialogue, he isn’t much more than a snarling space dragon. The manga gives him the ability to speak, along with a personality and that personality being a complete sadist who takes immense pleasure out of killing and gloating about it. In his first appearance attacking Samus’s homeworld, he orders his Space Pirate henchmen to “KILL AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! HAVE FUN!” and when Samus as a little girl approaches him and tries to befriend him, Ridley has a Bait the Dog moment before attacking Samus and killing her mother who gets in the way. If that wasn’t enough, later Ridley reveals to Samus in a massive Kick the Dog scene that he ate her mother’s corpse along with other colonists to heal himself after her dad injured him in a Heroic Sacrifice. Nintendo surprisingly would actually incorporate this psychotic take on Ridley into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where in his reveal trailer he sadistically kills Mario and Mega Man and proceeds to taunt Samus about it.
All of the Zeon figures except Ramba Ral are shown to be much more vile and cruel in Origin. Ramba's biological father and Char's mentor, Jimba Ral, was vaguely described as a loving father figure in the original anime. In Origin, Jimba is a borderline Conspiracy Theorist who may have shaped Char into a sociopathic Tyke Bomb. Likewise, Kycillia Zabi went from a commander who acts out of loyalty to her family to a violence-lovingManipulative Bitch who happily backstabs her own family members without a care in the world. Even Garma and Dolze were given more Kick the Dog moments though they are still considered the nicer Zabis.
Rather than making Garma a villain, Origin takes away his positive traits. In the anime he was shown to be a good person in general, being A Father to His Men, having a fiancée who loved him, was legitimately friends with Char (hence his shock when Char betrays him), and wants very much to prove that he deserves his command post and didn't just get promoted because his father is Zeon's leader. In Origin, he's the exact opposite of all this: a whiny Spoiled Brat who got jealous over Char's promotion, threw a literal stompy-foot temper tantrum to Daddy, got promoted (mainly because Degwin wanted him to shut up), and immediately went to Char to brag; on top of that, once he's in command he hurls wave after wave of his men into battle to earn himself glory.
To contrast Professor Moriarty's Adaptational Heroism in Moriarty the Patriot, the series also makes his brothers villains, despite having no suggestion in the original canon that they were involed in the professor's criminal schemes at all.
In the My-HiME manga, the main antagonists of the first arc are Haruka and Yukino, the latter of whom is friends with Mai and Mikoto in the anime, and the otherwise heroic Akira assists them. By contrast, Shizuru never turns Psycho Lesbian, and Nao (reluctantly) helps the heroes after the teams merge.
In the My-Otome manga, Tomoe is Demoted to Extra and does not attempt to plot against Arika, and Nina never does a Face–Heel Turn. On the opposite end, Sergey goes from a Punch-Clock Villain who betrays the Big Bad Nagi for his daughter's sake to a Big Bad who is not related to Nina, biologically or otherwise. Downplayed with True Mashiro, who was morally ambiguous in My-HiME, but not quite evil. In here she’s also a Big Bad behind Nagi, and has been manipulating and planning to betray him from the start.
Kushana in the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga is introduced as an antagonist, but it's more a case of her goals not aligning with the protagonists, and when circumstances change she ends up an ally to Nausicaä. In The Movie, she's the main villain.
Gendo Ikari: In the anime, he is Ambiguously Evil, he sincerely praises Shinji for his combat performance at one occasion, and with his last words he regrets having been a bad father to him. In the manga adaptation, he is unquestionably evil, has a massiveGod-complex, and outright hates Shinji. In the manga, he's also implied to have personally killed Kaji, whereas it was unknown if he had anything to do with it in the anime, even though he was hinted at being involved somehow. He's somehow even worse in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse. By the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie, he manages to be more of a Manipulative Bastard than usual by having everyone act the way they do as part of his own plans, which results in him being able to do things such as overthrow SEELE, and have Shinji unknowingly cause the start of a Fourth Impact.
To a smaller extent, Kaworu. In the original anime, he was pretty nice (outside of, you know, being the seventeenth Angel). In the manga, he strangles an abandoned kitten and has a much stronger case of Blue-and-Orange Morality.
Wapol is already a humongous prick in the manga but his goal was simply to bring Drum Kingdom under his terrible rule again. In Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura Wapol causes avalanche that endangers villagers to show he’s returned and in the climax he actually eats his Canon Foreigner brother Musshuru and tries to use Musshuru’s Poisonous Person powers to poison the whole kingdom and kill everybody. Additionally Wapol’s silly moments from the original telling are either significantly toned down or removed completely.
The Vinsmoke Family namely Judge and his sons Ichji, Niji and Yonji are already utterly vile people. But the anime somehow makes them even worse adding a flash back scene where Ichji, Niji and Yonji literally beat up their brother Sanjiover the grave of their mother Sora while Judge looks on approvingly — none of which happened in the manga.
Hatchan was only a villain for one arc and was very much a Token Good Teammate among Arlong’s crew. Yet the Boss Luffy specials and the Soccer and Baseball featurettes have Hatchan be on the villains' side unapologetically and don’t show his better nature at any point.
Played for Laughs but the Mugiwara Theatre Omakes have members of the usual heroic Straw Hats be villainous characters. In “Chopper Man” Usopp is a moustache twirling Mad Scientist and Zoro, Sanji and Robin are his henchmen, Luffy (who’s a Humongous Mecha) is his Secret Weapon but joins Chopper Man’s side. In “Space Time” Sanji and Zoro are evil aliens conquerors based off The Empire from Star Wars and are trying to take over the moon. In “Detective Loomes” Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, Robin and Franky are murder suspects all based on different serial killers. In “RPG Time” Brook, Chopper, Franky, Nami and Sanji are villains all based on different RPG monsters.
A few Gym Leaders aren't as nice as their game counterparts. Creepy Good Sabrina is converted into something of an antagonist while many others, most notably Lt. Surge, Erika, and Skyla, are egotistical Jerkasses with a condescending demeanor towards their challengers (or, in Erika's case, towards those who don't appreciate the perfume her gym makes, though this attitude is more seen in her employees than her herself). Giovanni lacks his honorable Noble Demon qualities and doesn't even take on challengers himself before abandoning the Gym entirely once Mewtwo betrays him. Pryce is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is cold towards Pokémon due to a misunderstanding with his Piloswine long ago, where he thought it abandoned him, although he does get better when the Piloswine is found and the situation explained (it was frozen while trying to heal him). In particular, Sabrina in the games is implied to be a good-natured person who happens to have frightening powers, Pryce is a perfectly pleasant and decent man, and Lt. Surge, while cocky in the games, isn't nearly as mean about it as he is in the anime. All of them make friends with the heroes in the end. However, others, like Brock, Misty, Cilan, Iris, and Clemont, join Ash as protagonists and are more openly heroic characters.
In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Colress, while still a scientist in the employ of Team Plasma, does encourage the player and even gives them a device needed to progress further in the game. He is involved with Team Plasma For Science! and is not particularly interested in their goals, expressing distaste for Ghetsis. After his defeat, he encourages the player to stop Ghetsis' plans. In Episode N, Colress is a true Mad Scientist who experiments on Pokémon to the point of torture, uses mind control on the Pokémon in his introductory episode (including those of the main characters), and is more than willing to hurt Ash and his friends to prove his theories. He is also more appreciative of Ghetsis due to Plasma's "providing" increasingly more difficult "subjects" pushing the theories further. Colress in the game has a Heel–Face Turn, willingly disbands Team Plasma, and becomes The Atoner after Ghetsis is defeated, while his anime counterpart is arrested by Looker. In future games, he cameos as a helpful NPC and ally. In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, he is instrumental in stopping Team Rainbow Rocket (his old boss Ghetsis included) — he's actually working with the Aether Foundation to help send its members back to their own dimensions, and his intervention at one point saves Lillie from Ghetsis. The anime counterpart does come up with the idea for a Pokémon translator, but after he's arrested and in a way emphasising his Blue-and-Orange Morality.
Team Plasma as a whole is subject to this in Episode N. While not a pleasant group in the games, Plasma is often engaged in moral debates about their intentions under Ghetsis, sometimes questioning their motives, and eventually splitting into two factions: one genuinely concerned for Pokémon wellbeing and N's ideals, and the other being more self-centered and devoted to Ghetsis. In the anime; Plasma are outright villains with none of the moral conflicts they have in the games, fully supportive of Ghetsis' goals and posing avery large threat to Ash and his friends throughout their arc. Uniquely, this was deliberate by the writers as their initial appearance ended up being indefinitely postponed by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
In Arceus and the Jewel of Life, while Marcus attempts to betray and kill Arceus using extremely heinous methods which have serious consequences in the future, he seems to genuinely believe that returning the Jewel of Life to Arceus will cause Michina Town to turn back into a wasteland and that his actions are necessary to prevent this. As it turns out, this is the case, but the inhabitants are able to restore the valley on their own. In the tie-in manga, his motivations are purely selfish — he wants to kill Arceus to become a god himself.
In Pokémon X and Y, Yveltal, despite being the Destruction Pokémon, teams up with the player to stop Team Flare's genocidal plans, just as its life-giving counterpart Xerneas does. In addition, its destruction powers are only referred to in the context of being part of its lifecycle. In Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, it is the Big Bad of the movie who seems to take joy from deliberately sucking the life out of everything around it, and is more clearly a Dark Is Evil foil to the Light Is Good Xerneas.
In the games, Mimikyu is a mischievous but Dark Is Not Evil Pokémon who imitates Pikachu because it's lonely and just wants to be loved like Pikachu. In the anime, the first Mimikyu seen is much more bitter and jealous towards Pikachu to the point of being an Evil Counterpart, even going so far as to willingly join Team Rocket. However, this is exclusive to Jessie's Mimikyu; Acerola's Mimikyu, nicknamed Mimikins, is much friendlier and holds no ill will towards Pikachu. The Grand Finale of the series has Jessie's Mimikyu soften after seeing its true form reflected in the water, accepting Pikachu as a worthy opponent.
The Spearow line in the anime are, with one or two exceptions, generally owned by villains or are malicious of their own accord, to the point of holding grudges (most famously against Ash in the first episode and the incident which led to Pidgeotto's evolution into Pidgeot). In the games, there's nothing to indicate this level of malice — while a wild Spearow flock attacks Nebby in Sun/Moon, many other Spearow and Fearow are seen living and working with people, even as affectionate house pets, with no problem, and their Pokedex entries don't portray them in a negative light compared to other bird Pokémon. Spearow in the games may be protective of their territory, but that's about it; Fearow is actually said to be a more tactical Pokémon, even avoiding danger if it senses any.
Faba, in Pokémon Sun and Moon, wasn't a good guy to begin with. He's a Smug Snake who believes himself to be more important than he actually is, hates children (which he states upon losing), refuses to fight Team Skull to save a Slowpoke, and acts very condescending towards both Wicke and the player's character, but ultimately pulls a Heel–Face Turn (in the original games, at least; he sells out the Aether Foundation in favor of joining Team Rainbow Rocket in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon). But when he's first introduced in the anime, he's even worse, even going so far as to try to abduct Lillie and try to erase her memory for no reason other than to save his reputation. Afterwards, he is the one who almost kills Nebby in order to open an Ultra Wormhole, whereas in the games it's Lusamine who does this. Strangely enough, after this arc is over with Faba goes the opposite direction into Adaptational Heroism, truly working to atone for his crimes and becoming the most outright heroic version of the character.
Many of the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members. While most of them (with the exception of Giovanni and Malva) are good guys in the games — Lance and Lorelei even helping the player fight Team Rocket — many of them are hit with this trope. Lt. Surge, Koga, and Sabrina, three Kanto gym leaders, are a Terrible Trio of lieutenants serving directly under Giovanni (and Blaine, another Kanto gym leader, was a former Team Rocket operative involved in Mewtwo's creation who had a Heel–Face Turn during the first arc), Agatha, Bruno, Lorelei, and Lance, all four members of the Kanto Elite Four, are Well-Intentioned Extremists part of a plot to kill all other humans in favor of Pokemon (though Bruno's involvement was more forced, as he had controlling cuffs on his body similar to those on Agatha's Pokemon), Karen and Will, the two new characters introduced for the Johto Elite Four, are members of Neo Team Rocket, and Pryce, a Johto gym leader, kidnapped many children, including Green and Silver, raising them to do bad, and was the founder of Neo Team Rocket, who wanted to use Lugia, Ho-Oh, and Celebi to eventually travel back in time and save his two Lapras from being killed by a collapsing ice formation. They and and most of the other characters listed reform later on, with the exception of Agatha.
In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Archie and/or Maxie are Obliviously EvilWell-Intentioned Extremists, and they are probably the least evil villainous team leaders in terms of concern for their subordinates and sincere, if misguided, intentions as opposed to more manipulative and darker characters like Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre. Both of them have a Heel Realization once they see the true effects of their plans and quickly Heel–Face Turn. This characterization is followed up in the anime and in the remakes. In Adventures, neither one reforms—they go into Sanity Slippage and are both seemingly Killed Off for Real. Maxie even outright kills Norman (although he gets better). However, both return and ultimately redeem themselves in the later Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire chapters, assisting the protagonists in saving the world.
In Pokémon Black and White, N is a very sympathetic Anti-Villain with good intentions. He eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn in the sequel games, helping the player against Ghetsis, his much more evil adoptive father. However, N has fewer redeeming qualities here, manages to convince White's Tepig to leave her, and delivers cruel"the reason you suck" speeches to Professor Juniper and Black. By the end of the arc, however, he still does see the error of his ways, and it's hinted that much of his darker characteristics were thanks to Ghetsis through use of Colress' Beeheeyem.
The manga's version of Colress is portrayed along the same lines as in the anime; being a more wicked Mad Scientist than his morally grey game counterpart. He even seems to take delight in freezing all of Unova.
Team Flare in the games are largely an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain team, with the exception of Big Bad Lysandre. In the XY arc, Team Flare ends up having their more malicious elements increased and their campier ones suppressed, to the point of burning Vaniville Town to the ground in order to obtain X's Key Stone and Kanghaskhanite.
In Pokémon Sun and Moon, and even more so in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Gladion is an Anti-Villain at worst, and never actually threatens the main characters. While he works as an enforcer for Team Skull, he warns the player about them and does things counter to Skull's purposes, such as asking the player to protect Nebby. He sincerely cares about his Pokemon, especially his partner Type: Null, and the main reason he wants to grow stronger is so he can more effectively protect his sister Lillie. Once he learns Team Skull kidnapped Lillie, he immediately defects. In the manga, while he does have the noble goal of wanting to protect Alola from the invading Ultra Beasts, he is considerably more ruthless — he orders Type: Null to directly attack Kiawe and wants to capture the Island Guardians, and displays a sexist streak (especially towards Plumeria, likely a result of his mother's abuse) that wasn't present in the games.
The manga's version of Faba is far more vile than the one present in the games or anime at their worst, as he is actually responsible for Mohn's disappearance through an Ultra Wormhole because he desired Lusamine's love for himself, and when she still rejected him he made sure she was led down a path of self-destructive behavior so that he can have the Aether Foundation for himself as revenge. As the arc goes on, he ultimately resorts to trying to have Lusamine outright killed when it looks like she might recover her sanity.
The Old Chateau ghosts and Rotom were creepy, but ultimately made little to no effort to harm the player in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. This iteration of them, however, are much more sinister and openly terrify Cheryl.
Boy, Colress just has no luck in adaptations, huh? This version, while closer to the original in terms of motives, is still outright villainous as he is completely apathetic both to Kyurem's suffering and to the entire population of Opelucid City, whom he decides to test the dragon's power on. On the other hand, this was an event from the game, we just never saw it from Colress' POV, so it's entirely possible this was how he acted then and that he only mellowed out later. This is certainly suggested by a line of dialogue he says in the game when confronted.
Colress: "What I desire is to bring out the entirety in Pokémon potential! If I can accomplish that, I don't care what it takes! If it means you have to use a merciless approach, like Team Plasma's, and force out all of the Pokémon's power, then so be it!"
Prétear: In the manga version, one of the Leafe Knights (Sasame, the Knight of Sound) is strongly hinted to have been in love with the villain in the backstory, but he's definitively a good guy and remains that way for the entire story. In the anime, where Fenrir plays a bigger role, he eventually breaks down and becomes her minion because of his Mad Love. Though both him and Takako are redeemed and turn back to the side of good in the end.
Rayearth OVA turned several sympathetic allies into antagonistic villains:
Eagle Vision, in the original anime/manga, was a sympathetic Anti-Villain that invaded Cephiro because his homeland Autozam is dying and he needed a new energy source to keep it afloat. And then he eventually pulled a Heel–Face Turn. In the OVA, he's turned into Princess Emeraude's little brother and a cold, ruthless Big Bad that staged the invasion to Earth and has a tendency to execute those who failed him.
Meanwhile, Ferio in the original anime was by default Emeraude's little brother, but otherwise, he's a solid ally to the Magic Knights and is the Official Couple to Fuu. In the OVA, he's part of the invasion force and carried out the wrecking of Earth with no hard feelings. However, he managed to pull a Heel–Face Turn after fighting Fuu, as a nod to their original romance.
Ascot, while starting out as an Enfante Terrible, only did bad things because he wanted his beast friends to have a good place to live after being ostracized everywhere, and was redeemed by his crush on Umi (who slapped him when he went out of line). In the OVA, he stayed as an Enfante Terrible without any beast friends to mention, and his goal was just to destroy everything for fun, and he didn't even grow any crush on Umi, he got suddenly killed after being beaten by her.
The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Tanya Degurechaff, and the HR manager she reincarnated from, become more callous and heartless with each adaptation. In the first scene alone, the light novel depicts the HR manager as doing everything to help salvage the career of the employee he would fire, but said employee is a belligerent drug addict. In the manga, he is stated to not enjoy firing his employees, but has a quota to meet to keep his company aloft, and the employee he is firing is perpetually tardy or absent and a drain on company morale due to his poor work ethic. In the anime, he is shown as selfish and only interested in advancing his own career, and thus has no qualms in firing anyone who would be an obstacle in his upward mobility in the company.
Sailor Moon: Many villains were hit by this trope in the 90s anime.
Queen Beryl was a villain in the manga, but an ultimately tragic figure who was manipulated by Metallia into her crimes in her past and current incarnations and ultimately doomed not by her villainy, but her own belief that she was beyond redemption at that point. She also genuinely loved Prince Endymion and was heartbroken when he chose Princess Serenity over her, making it easy for Metallia to prey on her. In the 90s anime, she's just an evil witch who willingly and loyally serves Metallia, and her unrequited love for Endymion is only shown as a Villainous Crush.
The Shitennou as well. In the manga, they're Endymion's Brainwashed and Crazy bodyguards who save his life after the Silver Crystal restores them to their senses and try to heal him when Nehellenia curses him. In the anime, they're Beryl's loyal, evil henchmen who serve her for unexplained reasons. Nephrite took advantage of Naru's love for him to try to get the Silver Crystal and back-talked Beryl (though his death is treated tragically). Zoisite hated Nephrite enough to kill him. Kunzite was much like Nephrite in that it was obvious he was an arrogant creeper taking advantage of a younger person who was in love with him. In the manga, Jadeite, Nephrite, and Zoisite cared about each other in a brotherly way and never once acted spiteful to one another. Kunzite was arrogant and uncaring, until he suddenly changed after Zoisite's death and then gave a damn about his fellow Shitennou dying.
The Black Moon Clan. Rubeus was kind of a jerk in the manga, but is a Hate Sink in the anime. Wiseman was made into more of a Bad Boss than he was in the manga and had his backstory cut. Esmeraude is made much more vain. This is zig-zagged with the Ayakashi Sisters: on one hand, they are much nastier and overall pettier towards each other than they ever were in the manga, often vying for Rubeus' attention and bickering constantly, but they later undergo Adaptational Heroismand are Spared by the Adaptation by becoming redeemed humans after losing their powers (which never happened in the manga).
The Amazons Quartet were the hit squad sent by Zirconia to kill the Trio when she tired of their uselessness. In the manga, the Quartet were in charge of the Trio, who were kind of like their pets. No attempted murder of the Trio took place in this continuity. It was also revealed that the Quartet were Good All Along and were just Brainwashed and Crazy. Since this is cut out of the anime, the Quartet were simply talked into serving Nehellenia of their own free will and were even planning on stealing Pegasus for themselves and told Zirconia as much.
Tin Nyanko was a typical anime Quirky Miniboss Squad member who was petty and killed her colleagues for no reason. She convinced Galaxia to kill Aluminum Siren and then got Lead Crow killed when she made her drop a container that had a black hole inside of it, which sucked her in. She also only had doubts about serving Galaxia when Sailor Moon purified half of her. In the manga, she had no part in either Crow or Siren's deaths (the three didn't even interact) and it was implied she wasn't completely evil even under Galaxia's control, willingly returning to her boss but being killed for insubordination (she didn't kill Luna and Artemis, only damaged their ability to speak human).
Zigzagged with Sailor Galaxia. She's more of a Bad Boss than in the manga and the anime at first portrayed her as very menacing. Then it pulled Adaptational Heroism on her by revealing everything evil she did was because she was possessed by Chaos, the true villain, though a very vague one. In the manga, everything she did was of her own free will, but her reasoning puts her in Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territory and she was planning on betraying Chaos.
In the anime adaptation of Saint Seiya, a lot of the Saints coming from Sanctuary are depicted as more evil than they are (such as Shaina), mainly in filler episodes. While there are a few exceptions that are fully aware of the Pope's evil intentions, most of the Sanctuary's Saints go fight under the impression that they're fighting for Athena on the side of justice against the "rebel" Bronze Saints, but the anime depicts many of them enjoying the pain and suffering they cause.
The Secret Garden: In the original novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Archibald Craven was simply a neglectful father to Colin. In the anime, he's extremely abusive to his employees to the point it drives one to get Revenge for all the years of abuse and humiliation. It's implied the death of his wife caused him to become a cold, bitter person.
Kaede Fuyou from SHUFFLE!. While not exactly a villainess, she did, in both versions, believe that Rin was responsible for her mother's death (a misconception he encouraged to prevent her from losing the will to live), and abused him for years until learning the truth, at which point she devoted herself to him in order to atone. In the anime, in which Rin canonically goes out with their mutual friend and senpai, Asa, resulting in him spending less time with Kaede (in part not wanting her to be consumed with him), she snaps and attacks Asa, causing her to collapse, but comes to regret this later. In the visual novel, after finding out that Rin and Asa are a couple, Asa apologizes, but Kaede sadly accepts their relationship, albeit with the scene being somewhat similar to Kaede and Asa's reconciliation from the anime.
Naoka Ueno in the anime adaptation of A Silent Voice. While she is still an Alpha Bitch in the manga who has numerous Kick the Dog moments towards Shouko Nishimiya (who’s deaf) the anime due to being a Compressed Adaptation doesn’t explain Ueno‘s Freudian Excuse from the manga. That being she has been helplessly in love with the protagonist Shoya Ishida for years and is dreadfullyjealous of his blooming relationship with Shouko whom she perceives as having stolen Shoya from her. This ties into the manga’s overarching themes about love redeeming, forgiveness and how even the cruelest people having to capacity for good and change. However since the anime cuts out Ueno’s perspective and only vaguely hints towards her crush for Shoya, it just seemed like Ueno was just being a bullying bitch to Shouko, because she blamed her for the events which split up her friendship group in elementary school. On the other hand, the anime does give Ueno some Adaptational Nice Girl as she actually learns sign language to talk to Shouko, which she refused to do in the manga. Also the bit where Ueno makes out with Shoya while he’s comatose is removed from the anime.
Shadow the Hedgehog in the Sonic X anime. In the games, Shadow started off a vengeful weapon ready to destroy Earth's population in honor of his murdered friend. Throughout his story however, he is portrayed with a palpable sense of doubt and emotional conflict, before ultimately pulling a full Heel–Face Turn two games later. In the anime, he roughly follows his games counterpart's story, but maintains his more sinister neutral alliance and is The Unfettered to the highest scale (at least once perfectly willing to kill a child in cold blood, along with anyone who defended her, if it meant stopping a villain).
Swan Lake (1981): Rothbart is made even worse than he is in the ballet, where his motives are left vague and undefined. In this anime, he destroyed Odette's kingdom in addition to kidnapping her and turning her into a swan.
In the anime adaptation of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Garrard and Valentine are Marauders infiltrating the Bee Hive, whereas in the manga, they're on the side of the heroes, even if they're not exactly nice. In the manga, they fight alongside the heroes against the Cabernet, while in the anime, they try to impede the heroes' efforts by summoning Gaichuu.
In Tenchi Muyo!, Princess Ayeka is a quite haughty figure who ends up coming back down to Earth as she spends time with Tenchi and while there's a rivalry with the space pirate Ryoko, the two do have something of a friendly relationship as time goes on. While Tenchi Universe and Tenchi in Tokyo tends to ramp up these aspects, Pretty Sammy ends up turning her into an Alpha Bitch flanked by her own entourage and willing to hunt down Ryoko just because she's with Tenchi. It gets worse in Magical Project S as Ayeka is recast as a third goddess who was removed from the election to become protector of Earth and she seeks to destroy Earth because of it.
Tekken: Bloodline gives this treatment to Heihachi. Now rest assured Heihachi is a despicable old asswipe in the games as well but in the original Tekken 3 storyline, he at least bothered to put up the act of being a caring grandfather to Jin, to the extent that Jin legitimately thought he was a good man up until Heihachi tried to dispose of him. Here Heihachi horrifically abuses Jin as a Gruesome Grandparent and Evil Mentor and actively spites any sentimentality or compassion Jin exhibits. It’s also strongly hinted that Heihachi deliberately released Ancient Evil Ogre in order to bring him under his control, killing many fighters and causing Jun’s disappearance in the process, unlike the games where Ogre came out of nowhere.
Played with, concerning Lee Chaolan. In first two Tekken games he did have a fairly antagonistic role as Kazuya’s adoptive brother and rival before becoming a more lighthearted and goofy Large Ham character in later games. But even in the earlier instalments Lee was a much lesser evil than Heihachi or Kazuya and not nearly as cruel. In the anime, Lee is a one-note Smug Snake (unrecognisable compared to his modern characterisation) who after being humiliated by his brother and father he kills all his underlings and triggers a Catastrophic Countdown on the island the Iron Fist tournament is being held on in an attempt to kill everyone.
Anna Williams get this, especially compared to her rival and sister Nina. In the games while conceited and trigger happy, Anna isn’t truly evil and has genuinely attempted to bury to hatchet with her sister — only to be cruelly rebuffed and abused by Nina every time. In the anime, Nina shows care for her sister whilst Anna is just craven and pathetic only wanting to kill Nina out of spite for being their father’s favourite daughter. Unfortunately this Adaptational Villainy unlike with Lee, would stick with Anna, as the next animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance portrays Anna as even more villainous with her even attempting to strangle Xiaoyu at one point.
In Trigun Knives gets this in the anime version of the Flash Back. In the manga Knives Used to Be a Sweet Kid who after seeing what the humans had done to a previous Plant Tesla and falls into a coma out of shock and then pretends to have Easy Amnesia before trying to kill all the humans. In the anime Knives is a presented as a sociopathic child from the start. Although he is given some Freudian Excuse as a SEED crewmember Steve abused him, when his adoptive mother Rem wasn’t around to protect him, instilling Knives with a disgusted hatred of humans.
In Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle, Fugil Arcadia is the main antagonist who manipulates various world powers and factions to explore the Ruins, but believes these actions are necessary to save the world. The anime adaptation does not provide any hints of his motivations despite adapting light novel volumes that have these hints, making Fugil seem like a standard villain who is only out for his own amusement.
Variable Geo does this with Ayako's character. In the game series which the OVA is based on, she protects women by luring out would-be muggers and rapist and brining them to justice. By contrast, the anime practically makes Ayako a rapist, herself, by having her sexually harass Satomi during their fight. She not only shreds Satomi's uniform, using a hidden blade, she even gropes Satomi and pecks her on the cheek. For Satomi, thatwas the last straw.
Thanks to the Venus Versus Virus anime coming out while the manga was still ongoing it has a different plot and a Gecko Ending. Lucia's father Lucif is the Big Bad of the anime but is a far more neutral character in the manga.
This occurs in-series in Yo-kai Watch. When Komasan reveals to a mangaka that he is really a Yōkai she uses him as inspiration for her manga. Sadly it is a horror manga where he is a big, scary monster instead of the cute Cartoon Creature he really is.
Seto Kaiba in the Toei anime lacks the Freudian Excuse he had in the manga and does most of the murderous things manga-Kaiba does as well as additional kill-Yugi schemes. Also, since in the anime he didn't get a Penalty Game in his first duel with Yugi, it's implied he creates the Experience of Death punishment on his own. Since this anime ends after the Monster World arc, we don't get to see Kaiba's more noble moments after recovering from Yami Yugi's Mind Crush.
In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, Dinosaur Ryuzaki/Rex Raptor, while a bit of a jerk, doesn't cheat and he did have a more helpful and honorable side. The anime's version of Ryuzaki is closer to the manga version's characterization at first, but eventually associates with more villainous characters like Dartz and Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood in a way that Manga Ryuzaki never did, and he eventually tries to steal Jonouchi's soul under the influence of the Seal of Orichalcos.
Ghost Kozuka/Bonz in the manga is a Punch-Clock Villain working with Bandit Keith, feeling that Keith trapping Yugi, Jonouchi/Joey and the others in a cave to get them out of the Duelist Kingdom tournament was going overboard and getting an Alas, Poor Villain death when he ends up having the misfortune to duel Yami Bakura in the Battle City tournament. In the anime, Ghost Kotsuzuka has no problems with Keith trapping the others in the cave and tries to cheat by stealing everyone else's duel cards during the Battle City arc, turning him into an Asshole Victim when Bakura runs across him.
In both the original and dub version, Daitokuji-sensei (Lyman Banner in the dub) is an Anti-Villain using a façade to hide his true intentions, but the façade is much, much nastier in the dub. While in the original, he spends his duel with Judai/Jaden giving a "Not So Different" Remark in which he compares Judai's Fusion Monsters with the ancient practice of alchemy, in the dub he goads Jaden and tells Blatant Lies about his previous victories at the Academy being the result of rigged duels. (Which he admits was untrue after losing.)
Chosaku Manjoume, or Slade Princeton in the dub has a minor case of this. In the original Japanese version, after he loses to Jun Manjoume (Chazz Princeton in the dub), he tells Shoji/Jagger that their little brother has grown up more than they thought and grows respect for him. None of this occurs in the dub, and he's more annoyed that he lost if anything.
The Dark World Fiends were presented as villains in the third season, which contradicts the flavor text of some of their cards in the game and the Master Guide 2, which claims they are not evil. In fact, the flavor text on Zure, Knight of Dark World's card claims that he "never oppresses the commoners", while that's probably what he's most notorious for doing in the anime.
In the manga version, Jim Crocodile Cook is an antagonist who is far more malicious than his lighthearted and benign anime counterpart. In addition, unlike the other American students, he's well aware of Tragoedia and is working for him willingly.
Yubel was subjected to this in the dub. While she was still a terrifying villain in the original with many horrible deeds under her belt, she was ultimately motivated by her love for Judaiand her desire for him toremember her. The dub turned her into a straight-up psychopath who wanted to "play" with him, and because it cut out Season 4, she never had her Heel–Face Turn.
In the manga version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, pretty much every character has a different background and personality, but Lua and Luka more so than any other. They start off as villains in this version (and rather sadistic ones at that) very unlike the kind and innocent children they are in the anime. It is later revealed that Lua underwent a Duel Dragon ceremony to save Ruka from an illness, only for Luka to become enslaved by the spirit of one of the Duel Dragons and for Lua to become Brainwashed by her. Eventually, Yusei is able to use his more benevolent Duel Dragon to break the spell.
As the series is all about Alternate Universe versions of the previous series, this shows up more with cultures and societies than it does with individual characters. The forefront example is Duel Academia, which basically took the Duel Academy from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and turned it from an Academy of Adventure that trains kids to be skilled duelists into an Academy of Evil that trains kids to be merciless Child Soldierswho commit genocide for fun and act as The Professor's personal army. In regards to members (and former members) of the school, folks like Asuka still have morals (she defected after they started using Human Sealing Technology), but are still darker than previous versions.
The Synchro dimension is modeled on the situation in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, but the counterparts for Neo-Domino and Satellite, the Tops and the Commons respectively, are both worse than the originals. The Tops instigated the economic inequality themselves and are proportionally a much smaller group than their original versions (they make up 1% of the population, whereas the populations of Neo-Domino and Satellite were implied to be more even). The Commons buy into the Bread and Circuses act so thoroughly they not only support the worst aspects of their world, they insult and mock Yuya for speaking out against institutionalized slavery.
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