Even Evil Has Loved Ones / Anime & Manga

Examples of Even Evil Has Loved Ones in anime and manga.

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• Aggretsuko: Director Ton is Retsuko's Jerkass Mean Boss, but halfway through Season 2 it's revealed he has a wife and twin daughters who are his pride and joy (even if they do drive him nuts on most occasions).
• Attack on Titan repeatedly explores this trope, primarily as a Justified Trope.
  • Kenny is a brutal killer that enjoys his work, but he also cares deeply for his family and Only Friend. He agreed to work for the royal family to protect the surviving members of the Ackerman Clan, and still cares for Levi even while trying to kill him. He also developed a close friendship with Uri Reiss, and continued to honor his memory after his friend's death.
  • The Warriors are not only capable of deep attachment to others, but driven by it and ultimately defeated by it. The entire program was created with the intention of exploiting their love for the families, using it to ensure their loyalty through a Carrot-and-Stick approach. Obedience means their families being given a better life, while failure or betrayal will result in their families being punished. As a result, Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie remain loyal to their cause even as they form bonds with the other members of the 104th. Their attachment leads to them making costly mistakes, allowing the more ruthless heroes to exploit romantic and platonic love as psychological warfare.
  • Gabi Braun, Reiner's cousin is realising that the people she sees as evil (namely Paradis Eldians, which include all the main characters sans Mikasa) have families and loved ones they care about. She learns this first hand while being in the walls and being exposed to Sasha's family as the person responsible for Sasha's death. Gabi sees all Paradis Eldians as devils incapable of such a thing as love, so the concept is extremely bewildering to her.
• In the world of Baccano!, being an unrepentant murderous bastard doesn't mean you can't fall in love. As Ladd Russo, who really cares for his fiancée Lua in his own Mad Love way, put it:
  Ladd Russo: What, is a mass murderer not allowed to fall in love like a regular person?
• This trope drives the plot of Basilisk. Two clans of bloodthirsty killers, with their loyalties held close to their hearts, spiral the Cycle of Revenge to tragedy.
• Berserk:
  • This is what makes the demonic Apostles truly and horrifically evil: to become an Apostle, a human must sacrifice the person or persons they care for most to an eternity in damnation. One such example of the horror this entails comes in the form of an early Apostle, the Count, who clearly still cares for his human daughter (who is unaware of his true nature). This reaches the point that he willingly allows himself to be dragged off to hell rather than sacrifice her to extend his own life after his Behelit activates during his fight against Guts.
  • The demonic fetus that occasionally appears before Guts is also a case of this: the fetus is Guts' and Casca's unborn child, corrupted by Femto's rape of Casca. The Skull Knight notes that while it may be a demon, it still recognizes its parents and still possesses a child's natural love for them. It even saves Casca's life multiple times in the Conviction Arc, driving demons and evil spirits away from her while she's too far gone mentally to defend herself.
• Ciel Phantomhive of Black Butler is a full-on Villain Protagonist who is primarily motivated by revenge and doesn't mind killing people who get in his way, but he clearly cares very much for his fiancée Elizabeth. Though he'll huff about how it's a waste of time, he'll go out of his way to please her— letting her throw parties in his house, having an Easter egg hunt because she wanted to, and throwing himself in front of a bear for her. He also tries to protect her from the gruesomeness of what he does, even now that he knows she's secretly a Little Miss Badass.
• Roberta, of Black Lagoon fame, dotes heavily on the young master of the Lovelace family, Garcia. When he gets kidnapped and taken to Roanapur, her Mama Wolf instincts, combined with her experience as a dangerous soldier and enough weapons to fight World War III, result in a bloody swath being cut through the city, such that her reputation instills fear in every person living in Roanapur.
  • Revy Two-Hands is one of the most murderous people around...but she comes to care about Rock. Hit Rock, hurt Rock, kidnap Rock...and Revy will come for you. If you're lucky, she'll kill you quickly. Otherwise...
  • She's not the only one. Balalaika cares about each of her Vysotniki. Kill a Hotel Moscow man, and Balalaika will take it very personally.
  • Even Hansel and Gretel qualify.
• Bleach: Gin Ichimaru appears to be evil to the core, but at least somewhere amidst the many, many things he did For the Evulz was a long and subtle plot to kill his boss Sōsuke Aizen for hurting his only friend, Rangiku Matsumoto, when they were both kids.
  • Several of the Arrancar also demonstrate this tendency, most pointedly Tier Harribel and Coyote Starrk, who are both very attached to their Fracción. When Harribel thinks hers have been killed, she becomes furious and would have killed Tōshirō Hitsugaya if he hadn't been quick enough to set up a decoy maneuver he'd been saving for Aizen, while Starrk in the anime seems to lose his will to keep fighting when Lilynette Gingerbuck dies protecting him, and is soon slain by Shunsui Kyōraku. Even Loly Aivirrne and Menoly Mallia, two Arrancar girls who are noted mostly for their psychotic grudge against Orihime, appear to have genuinely loved each other, as Menoly supported Loly despite her massive and justified doubts about attacking Orihime a second time and Loly went berserk when Menoly was seemingly killed.
  • The Fracciones also share such feelings, as Lilynette's last words in the anime are her calling out to Starrk in anguish, and the novels show that the three girls from Harribel's group would rather ask a human like Orihime for help than let their leader die. One of them even refuses to have her own considerable injuries healed first (and the three had barely survived being torched alive on top of mutilating themselves to create a Chimera), so anxious for Harribel's recovery she was.
  • Played straight and subverted in the Vandereich arc. Royd Lloyd plays it straight, as while he was disguised as his leader Yhwach, he reacted with genuine grief and horror when Yamamoto summoned a Quincy Army of the Dead (which surprised Yamamoto himself). Subverted when the real Yhwach appeared: as the mortally injured Royd smiled as he bled to death, he briefly congratulated the guy for his work... and then gave him a "You Have Outlived Your Usefulness".
• In Brave10, Ishikawa Goemon is an unrepentant thief and murderer who does enjoy the thrill and glory of it, but also acts heavily out of love for Katakura Kojuro, who gave him shelter when he was being hunted and then a purpose for living.
• Brynhildr in the Darkness has a twisted example with the Big Bad, Chisato Ichijiku, who is willing to commit any number of atrocities, up to and including killing the rest of humanity, if it means he can resurrect his dead sister.
• Chainsaw Man: Though she's willing to let them kill civilians for no reason, Quanxi genuinely cares for her girlfriends, agreeing to talk when their lives are threatened. Her payment for taking out Denji is even requesting to the Chinese authorities that her harem of fiends be given human rights and an education.
• They may be monsters that live by devouring humans, but more than one Awakened Being from Claymore turns out to be capable of genuine love for others.
  • Riful of the West and her consort Dauf are fairly dysfunctional, with her constantly berating him and threatening to leave him. But when both are seriously injured in battle, they refuse to abandon each other.
  • Isley ends up taking an amnesic Priscilla and the human Raki under his wing, and realizes that their years spent together were a happy time for him, referring to them as his family. As he's being devoured by the Abyss Eaters, he thinks of how he would give anything for that time with them to have lasted longer.
  • And the third Abyssal One, Luciela of the South, is overjoyed upon being reunited with her younger sister, Rafaela.
  • Hilda, who was a friend of Miria as a warriorness, is hunted by her and the other warriornesses when she is an Awakened Being. It is implied that she is reticent in the fight, and rather tries to flee because she does not want to hurt the warriornesses, especially Miria.
  • When Ophelia becomes an Awakened Being, she is not a completely psychopath, but she is the one she was, because she had to watch as her brother was killed by Priscilla.
  • Cassandra also remembered her friend, who had been killed by Roxanne, and avenged her.
  • The anime also shows that Priscilla is crying and calling for her family who was killed by a youma when she kills a human and eats his entrails.
  • Chronos and Lars were numbers four and six from the generation of the male warriors. And both are true friends who stand for each other. When they notice Raki, they are very polite with him and seem to have no intention of attacking him and eating them after they realize that his fighting style is very similar to Isley's.
• Though it takes a long time for it be revealed in the last few cases, this turns out to be the case for quite a few enemies in Code Geass.
  • The first case is Mao who in his twisted way deeply loves C.C. and wants to make her happy.
  • Later, this is revealed to be true of Social Darwinist Emperor, Charles zi Britannia. He was Happily Married to Marianne and even is in an Unholy Matrimony set up with her considering her true self. He also dearly loves Lelouch and Nunnally, as well as hinted to care for Euphemia and Clovis. None of which stopped him from being an abusive prick, and Lelouch even calls him out for actually being selfish and not caring as much as he tries to claim to.
  • V.V. turns out to be similar as though he's an Evil Uncle to Lelouch, there is no one he loves more than his younger brother Charles. Unfortunately he acts on it in increasingly twisted ways to the point even Charles is disgusted by him.
• Daltanious: Dr. Namil is an Evil Genius who desired to be one of the high-ranking scientists of the Zaal Empire, so he brought to Grand Emperor Dolmen the clone of Prince Harlin of Helios - Kloppen. Namil was ordered to raise Kloppen so that he could become a subserviant servant to Dolmen and conquer many planets. Namil did so, he began to develop fatherly feelings for Kloppen and began loving him as if he were his real son. After seeing Kloppen become a monster who killed scores of innocents as a Conquering Alien Prince, Namil willingly died just so that Kloppen could learn the Awful Truth behind his creation.
• Danganronpa 3:
  • Even as he's slaughtering his mentor, his best friend, and everyone who gets in his way, Kyosuke Munakata truly loves Chisa Yukizome and rationalizes everything he does as being to bring justice to her murderer and achieve their dream of a peaceful world. His redemption arc actually starts with Makoto Naegi forcing Kyosuke to acknowledge his loss (and the horrific things he's done because of it) instead of distracting himself from it from it with revenge and self-hatred for loving someone 'weak' enough to fall to despair.
  • In Side:Despair, Big Bad Junko Enoshima and The Dragon Mukuro Ikusaba are a pair of sisters who really do love each other, in their own twisted way. Junko's attempts to kill Mukuro are because Junko is a sadomasochist and wants to feel the despair that would come with her death, and Mukuro is undyingly loyal despite this and the Domestic Abuse lavished onto her. Junko has also had genuine feelings for Yasuke Matsuda since childhood, as seen in Danganronpa Zero, and eventually succeeds in killing both to feel the despair. As such, this is actually a rare case where the Big Bad having genuine loves ones actually makes them more evil, because of their willingness to sacrifice those loved ones for sick pleasure.
• Played with in Death Note where Light seems to care less and less about his family as he sinks himself depeer and deeper into his quest to become the god of the new world. When his sister Sayu is kidnapped by Mello and his goons to get one of the notebooks, Light seriously considers writing her name in the notebook and killing her just so Mello can't get the upper hand; he ultimately decides not to at the crucial moment, saying out loud that he "can't do it," but it's more like killing Sayu wouldn't really help him as opposed to him loving her too much to murder her. But we do see that he at least clung onto his familial love a little bit through his father; when Soichiro is on his deathbed after a huge explosion, Light can only think about getting him to give up Mello's real name so he can write it in the notebook and eliminate him; it's only when Soichiro finally flatlines does Light snap out of it and desperately sob in earnest for him to come back. But come the final episode, he's so singularly self-centered that when Matsuda angrily asks Light what Soichiro even died for, Light just calls his father a fool and tries to use his death to goad Matsuda into "avenging" him and take Light's side by killing everyone else in the room. He doesn't even call him "dad" anymore, instead using his full name. Matsuda doesn't like fall for it.
  • Fully averted in the film The Last Name, in which he writes his father's name into the Death Note in order to stop it being analyzed. It doesn't work—and what's worse, Soichiro gets to watch while he does it. Even Misa is horrified and breaks down in tears. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, Light ultimately dies in his father's arms, begging him to believe that he acted as Kira to put justice into effect.
  • Played straight with Matt and Mello. Matt seems to be the only person Mello actually cares about besides himself, and Mello expresses genuine sorrow when Matt gets killed by Takada's bodyguards.
• The Noah from D.Gray-Man genuinely care for each other. When one of them was killed (Skinn), they held a funeral for him and cried for his death.
  • Among the Noah the twins stand out. While it gets overshadowed by their silliness a lot they are shown to be incredibly close and even affectionate toward each other. Road even states that while their bond is their greatest strength it's also their greatest weakness because it is too strong to think rationally.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Though he's only mentioned in one of the Dragon Ball Full Color Volumes, Dr. Gero in Dragon Ball Z had a son who was felled in battle by an enemy bullet. Out of affection Gero created the Gentle Giant Android 16, who is identical to his son, and programmed him to be non-violent out of fear he would otherwise go into battle and be destroyed.
  • In Neko Majin Z, a spin-off manga of Dragon Ball Z, we find out that Frieza of all people has a kid Kuriza...who, apart from having a tendency to be Affably Evil (when he's not playing soccer with the protagonists), seems pretty well-adjusted.
    • It should be noted, however, that Neko Majin Z is not canon to the series proper. In fact, we learn in Dragon Ball Super that Frieza entirely averts this; When he is recruited for the Tournament of Power, Frieza considers defecting to Universe 9 while speaking to the Kaioshin and Hakaishin of that universe, who had sent assassins specifically to kill him and Goku. The two of them are utterly shocked that Frieza has absolutely nothing to care for if he were to lose his entire home universe.
  • Played straight in Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission, where it turns out Cooler does genuinely care for his nephew Kuriza, as he helps him fight against the heroes Beat and Note. While still tyrannical space conquers, it's nice to know there's at least some familial care in that evil family.
    Cooler: Although I'm MORE than enough to crush these pathetic lice... fine. Don't say Uncle Cooler never gave you anything!
    • This attitude from Cooler is not too surprising if you remember, he’s one of the few Dragon Ball villains who actually treats his henchmen well.
  • Raditz might be barbaric and a Dirty Coward, but it appears he did really care for his mother Gine who in turn loved him and was so proud he’d been accepted into Prince Vegeta’s squad. Raditz in Dragon Ball Super: Broly even refers to Gine as “Mom” even though lower class Saiyans supposedly having no sense of family. It’s even stated Raditz went to Earth to collect his little brother Kakarot/Goku on his mother’s orders (although she didn’t specify to Raditz that his brother had been sent to Earth for his safety, not the usual genocide mission), which puts a tragic spin on the beginning of Z.
  • Towa and Mira in Dragon Ball Online and Dragon Ball Heroes do genuinely love each other and both love their son Fu as well. Subverted in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 as Towa sees Mira as a tool rather than her husband and considers him a failure when he betrays her, although Mira does explicitly regret his betrayal upon getting defeated. Towa does also care for her brother Dabura and hates Goku and Vegeta for their part in Majin Buu’s awakening which resulted in Dabura’s death at Buu’s hands. In the Xenoverse 2 DLC Towa even managed to prevent Dabura getting killed by Buu and he spends the campaign swearing to avenge her.
• A really weird example in Durarara!!. Izaya states very often that he loves the human race, minus Shizuo. He also goes out of his way to manipulate pretty much everyone just so he can look on and laugh at the chaos and suffering he creates. However, he does genuinely care for Shinra, who is his only friend, even going so far as to forever torment Nakura for stabbing him. Shockingly enough, the mere thought of betraying Shinra was enough to send Izaya into an OOC moment and punch a telephone pole, which was probably one of the few if not the only time he displays unfeigned emotion.
• Fairy Tail: Though the evil part didn't come along until later, Zeref dearly loves his younger brother Natsu and his student/lover Mavis Vermilion. He wears a locket around his neck that has picture of him and Natsu as children, and his hunt for Lumen Histoire/Fairy Heart is implied to be partially motivated by his love for Mavis. Zeref's feelings for them are so strong that they are directly affected by his curse of contradictions, causing him to transition between loving them and hating them in equal measure.
• Honoo No Alpen Rose: Renaud Dubois seems to genuinely care for Count Gourmant, in spite of being a mere henchman to hin. When he insists on capturing Jeudi, Renaud begs him to reconsider his love for her since she's affiliated with La Résistance while Gourmant is a Nazi Nobleman. In return, the Count scoffs and reprimands Renaud for interfering in his personal life. As the Count moves on, Renaud has an expression of sadness that his master is walking headfirst into danger.
• Flame of Recca does this. Despite being a sadistic bastard of an assassin, it's made pretty clear Kurei has underlings who care for him. He clearly returns their loyalty, although in his own way, mourning them if they die and swearing revenge on their killers. Neon even falls in love with him, and they become a couple. As it turns out, he intends to take revenge on Kouran Mori because Mori murdered Kurei's first love.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Scar's plan is to get revenge on the State Alchemists that annihilated his people. Once he meets his master and other surviving Ishvalans, it's clear that he still cares for his people.
  • Fuhrer King Bradley, a.k.a. Wrath, is one of the most powerful homunculi. But he shows affection for his wife in the manga and the Brotherhood anime, noting that although everything else he has done has been to fulfill his superior's evil plan, "my wife I have chosen myself."
  • Another homunculus, Pride, also shows affection for one person: his "mother", Mrs. Bradley. This is surprising, as Pride is by far the most evil of all the homunculi, and in fact he himself seems a bit confused by his own feelings.
  • One more example with the homunculi: Envy and Gluttony (especially Gluttony) seem to be pretty fond of their "sister," Lust. They take her death the hardest, with Envy being pissed off about it, while Gluttony is extremely depressed and then goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when he finds out Roy is responsible.
  • There's also Jerso and Zampano, two chimera henchmen who turn to the path of righteousness when they find out their families will likely become victims of the Evil Plan.
  • Also implied with Van Hohenheim, but it's a Red Herring. He's not evil at all, but for a while viewers are given the false impression that he and Father (who doesn't have loved ones at all) are the same person.
  • Pride seems to have one of these with his son Selim and his wife in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003). However, it's ultimately subverted when he shows no issue strangling Selim to death in the finale.
• Suboshi from Fushigi Yuugi had a twin older brother named Amiboshi, and when he had jumped off the slippery slope after thinking the kid was dead (as in, he killed Tamahome's family as revenge for supposedly killing Amiboshi, he still cared for his twin. Tomo learnt it the hard way, indeed.
  • Also, Nakago and Soi, though it doesn't seem so at first. After Soi is killed, Nakago is obviously very pained to lose her, and keeps her body with him
• Kurojaki from Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin. He's one of the strongest and most ruthless villains in the manga, but he cares deeply about his son. When he thinks the little pup has been killed, he's devastated and goes into a berserk rage as he takes on the entire pack of dogs at once.
  • Hougen from the Sequel Series Ginga Densetsu Weed may be a murderous Jerkass, but the only dog he cares about is his brother Genba. It turns into a Tearjerker later on when it's revealed that they made a promise to each other. And that was if one brother was to die, his brother would be the one to kill him. So Hougen did the only honorable thing we see him do: fulfill that promise.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: With the exception of eldest son Gihren, who is incapable of caring about anyone, the fascist Zabi siblings all love and respect their father Degwin, one another, and in the case of Dozle and Garma, their significant others (wife Zena and girlfriend Iselina, respectively). It's particularly notable in the case of Kycilia, as without that humanizing aspect, she'd come off as badly as her oldest brother. She herself loves her family enough that she even kills Gihren for murdering Degwin.
  • Olba Frost from After War Gundam X adores his older brother Shagia and holds an Undying Loyalty to him. Which doesn't stop him from being a total Psycho Supporter and Smug Snake.
  • They may have been sociopathic assholes, but the three Trinity siblings of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 did really love and protect each other. And Nena genuinely cried and mourned when Michael and Johann got killed in front of her by Ali Al-Saachez.
  • Yark Dore from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE might have no regrets whatsoever for being the mastermind behind "The Day the Angel Fell," but he is shown to be a genuinely kind and caring father to his son Arabel.
    • Similarly, the Big Bad, Lord Ezelcant, began his whole campaign of war in part due to losing his son Romy to the Mars Rays disease.
• This backfires badly in Hunter × Hunter. Gon assumes the Ryodan don't have emotional connections. When he discovers that they, too, suffer from the loss of loved ones, he becomes furious at their hypocrisy for inflicting that pain on other people.
  • It's not just emotional connections. They're perfectly willing to kill everyone in the vicinity just to avenge one of their members. The place they come from, the Falling Star continent, is even worse. The bonds they hold for their fellow brethren are so strong, they were willing to kill themselves to blow up 31 people who were responsible for 1 of their own simply being falsely imprisoned. What makes it so chilling is that despite being the "bad" guys, they possibly treasure each other just as much or even more than the heroes do their own friends.
  • Backfires again when Neferpitou begs Gon to let them heal Komugi, the Chimera Ant King's Morality Pet, after she is injured during the Hunters' attack. Gon is furious, refusing to believe that the same person who made Kaito into a puppet who Gon doesn't know is already dead is begging for the life of another.
• Inuyasha:
  • Jakotsu is a massive He-Man Woman Hater and Combat Sadomasochist, yeah. However, he is honestly loyal to Bankotsu. In the anime, is shown that they were together even before forming the Band of Seven, and when he gets Suikotsu's Shikon shard he hands it to Bankotsu without hesitation instead of taking it and its powers for himself.
  • Similarly, Bankotsu is a trigger-happy killer Blood Knight but genuinely cares for his fellow Seven members and does NOT tolerate any harm made to them. He's seen mourning Mukotsu, Kyoukotsu and Ginkotsu after their deaths, and the reason why he was pissed enough to kill Renkotsu in a duel was because he killed Jakotsu. Inuyasha even tries to point out to Bankotsu that Naraku was only using him and planned to betray him, and that since they have no real reason to fight he won't stop him if he just takes off. Bankotsu's response is a firm "I'm not going anywhere until I avenge my friends".
• The Big Bad of Inuyashiki, Hiro Shishigami, was a Cyborg Serial Killer who used his powers to murder people indiscriminately for his own amusement (including small children and infants). Yet in spite of this, he cared deeply for his mother and Best Friend to the point that he doesn't even hold it against the latter for abandoning him once he reveals his true nature. He used his powers to cure his mother's cancer and steal enough money to move her into a nicer home, and crosses the Despair Event Horizon once she's Driven to Suicide by his actions becoming national news, massacring those he deemed responsible.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Phantom Blood:
    • Jonathan invokes this while explaining why he spared the Ogre Street thugs, claiming that at the last moment he realized that they must have loved ones too and he didn't want to bring their families sorrow by killing them. This line earns him the respect of the thugs' ringleader, Speedwagon, who ends up changing his ways and becoming one of the most important allied characters in the entire series.
    • While Dio is most certainly a heartless monster, it appears he did genuinely love his late mother and actually cried when his drunkard father sold her dress. Dio also gained a soft spot for his arch enemy Jonathan and in All-Star Battle he's actually delighted to meet his dear rival again in their pre-fight dialogue, giving Jonathan heartfelt Villain Respect. He also thanks Jonathan for his powerful body, which Dio took as his own after Jonathan decapitated him.
  • Battle Tendency: Kars does value the lives of his fellow Pillar Men. Esidisi's death pisses him off, seeing Joseph as his Arch-Enemy from then on. He's hurt by Wamuu's death, even if he'll lie about following his honor code.
  • Stardust Crusaders: J. Geil is a serial rapist and murderer. His mother, Enya Geil, loves him dearly and when he is killed by the brother of one of his victims, she is devastated and declares her intent to avenge him.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: Yoshikage Kira is a serial killer with a hand fetish who kills women and saves their hands as "girlfriends". His father Yoshihiro Kira loves him so much that after dying, he stuck around as a ghost and will go to any means necessary to get rid of anyone who could threaten his son. Aside from that, it's implied that Kira did have feelings towards Shinobu.
  • Golden Wind: While Diavolo treats most of the Passione members as disposable pawns, he does seem to care greatly for Doppio as he's the only one who Diavolo treats with any sort of affability despite his usual mistrust of people. He often acts as a mentor figure for Doppio, giving him advice, stepping in to protect him when he's in trouble, and even letting him use King Crimson's sub Stand Epitaph.
  • Stone Ocean: Enrico Pucci's entire Freudian Excuse is how he is responsible for his little sister's death, and the reason he's adamant on killing Jotaro is to avenge DIO's death.
  • Steel Ball Run: In his final confrontation with Johnny, Funny Valentine confesses that he tried using D4C's power to find an alternate version of his father, only to be disappointed in failing to do so.
  • JoJolion: Jobin is a sharp, competent, mature businessman as long as he thinks there's even the remotest possibility of curing Tsurugi's curse. Even as he manipulates both his family and enemies, he claims that it is all for ending the family curse.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Kaguya's father Gan'an is built up over the course of the series as a cold-hearted and ruthless businessman who has basically neglected her her entire life. Despite all that, it's made clear that he deeply loved her late mother Nayotake, and her early death pretty much broke him. That said, it's also spelt out that it doesn't excuse any of his actions.
• In Kamisama Kiss, Kirihito doesn't hesitate to smash a magical artifact which is spewing poison when he hears his mother's voice.
• This appears to hold true throughout the various arcs of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Some Ragnarok members were True Companions such as Thor and Siegfried. YOMI has Rachael and Ethan who are loyal siblings. This is however ironically most apparent in YAMI. There are various masters sharing an almost paternal bond with their disciples such as Alexandar and Boris or Agaard and Koukin. Some of them are even an out and out Parental Substitute like Akira and Shou or Mikumo and Chikage. The last part cuts both ways, some YOMI disciples faithfully search for their missing mentors when their defeated masters are thrown in a secret jail.
• Jail Scaglietti of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is an unrepentant Mad Scientist who has no problem torturing children for his schemes, but he views all of his combat cyborgs as his daughters even the ones who perform Heel-Face Turns.
• In the Horror manga series Kichikujima we have the family who are deranged cultists who sacrifice people either as food or turning them into monsters. The family comprised of Kaoru, his sister Mari, their parents Yoshikazu and Mariko Glaccias, as well as their grandma Otoki and their younger siblings Anna, Kanna, and Satoru all dearly love each other at the end of the day despite their infightning, however warped it is.
  • Despite being hostile towards Ami at first, Kaoru eventually comes to take her as his wife. He is also fond of Alice; in spite of all he put her through as a child he came to see her as a surrogate mother even when he got older.
  • Mari also had her first love Michiru in the prequel series and was devastated with her death. As a teenager/young adult she would eventually fall in love with Takahisa as her second love.
• Maria no Danzai: Tsuyoshi Kinugawa appears to be the only one in his group of thugs and bullies that actually cares about each member. Kinugawa was generally concerned when Kowase disappeared when his friends were apathetic to his disappearance, even arguing that he was their friend. Later, when Shikimi disappeared, and he and the rest of his friends guessed that both she and Kowase were dead, he was devastated by both of their deaths. Despite parting with Shikimi on bad terms, he is genuinely devastated by her death and wants to avenge both Kowase and Shikimi. Unlike other examples however, rather than making him sympathetic it's meant to make him look like a massive hypocrite in that he's only kind to his fellow reprobates with whom he bonds over torturing Kiritaka, as shown in a flashback where he "gifted" Kowase a video game that he stole from Kiritaka and proceeds to beat the shit out of the latter for asking for his game back.
• In Medaka Box, Kumagawa Misogi, the antagonist leader of Class -13, presents himself as a person without even any visible heart, and his class "proudly" proclaims that theirs is a group of horrible people with weak and destructive relationships. So everyone, possibly even himself, is shocked by his reaction to one of his followers, Emukae Mukae, getting herself greviously injured to protect him and his opponent from a bomb. An act that he was quick to point out was pointless, since he can use "All Fiction" to undo his own death anyway. He desperately tries to get her to let him do so for her injuries, only for her to turn this down out of actually being proud of what caused these injuries. What follows is practically a panic attack on his part, and among the heroes, Medaka notes that Kumagawa is actually someone who values his companions in his own twisted and negative way (which is part of her problem with his ways), though even she wasn't expecting this sort of reaction. This is the incident that pushes Kumagawa to stop treating the tournament-style "Election Battles" as merely a way to make everyone miserable with his defeat and start to seriously pursue a proper victory, thus making it possible for him to, for the first time, experience a proper defeat.
• Mob Psycho 100: Touichirou Suzuki experiences a Heel Realization as he's about to self-destruct and expressed his wish to see his wife one last time and apologize to her.
• In My-HiME, Alyssa and Miyu are willing to destroy the school to advance the Searrs' plan, but they deeply care for one another (albeit in Alyssa's case, not quite as much as for her father), even though they are not considered as human by the rest of Searrs (Alyssa for being an artificially created Hime and Miyu for being a robot). Similarly, Nao, one of the more antagonisic Hime who did not become so out of love, considers her mother her most important person and is devastated when Shizuru destroys her Child, killing her.
• Johan Liebert in Monster has loved ones, too, but it makes him more, not less, disturbing. The only two people he refuses to kill are his estranged twin sister Anna and Dr. Kenzo Tenma who saved his life. To find and reunite with his Anna, he actually kills her adoptive parents. To repay Tenma for saving his life he murders his most hated co-workers. These are "iffy" cases, because it's hard to tell if Johan actually loves them, or if they simply his favorite experiments, as he may be incapable of love at this point. It's also possible he does actually love Anna but only because he views her as his "other half" or an extension of himself.
• William and his crew of Moriarty the Patriot might be designating themselves the greatest criminal in the British Empire, but they care about each other so deeply their plan is nearly jeapordized, esepcially the Moriarty brothers. William's affection for Sherlock Holmes also nearly interferes.
• In Muhyo and Roji, the Cortlaw siblings vary in alignment (Mick is definitely evil while Kid is more innocent and a victim of manipulation), but they all care for each other, and seek to bring their parents back to life.
• My Hero Academia has some members of the League of Villains and later, the Paranormal Liberation Front who consider each other to be True Companions: in particular, Mr. Compress, Twice, and Himiko Toga. Outside of their loyalty to Tomura Shigaraki and All For One, they are loyal to one another and willing to lay down life and limb for each other. When Twice is killed by Hawks during a raid on the Paranormal Liberation Front's complex, Toga goes ballistic and starts slaughtering heroes left, right, and center in retribution.
• The Mysterious Cities of Gold: Although the exact nature of their relationship is never clarified, Malinche is visibly concerned for Tetiola's welfare when he's briefly enslaved by the Olmecs and is very relieved when he's released.
• Naruto:
  • Before The Reveal, Itachi seemed completely evil and heartless. Then we found out how much he cared about his little brother. He was supposed to wipe out the entire clan, Sasuke included, but he couldn't do it. There's no denying that Itachi worked for the bad side and did horrible things but he had Big Brother Instinct. This example is harder to see then most cases because he Mind Rapes Sasuke on two occasions. There was also his loyalty to Konoha. Everything Itachi's ever done was ultimately to protect his home, and his Undying Loyalty to his village has not faded at all, regardless of how much time has passed and how much they made him suffer. In fact, Sasuke's the only one Itachi's ever loved more than Konoha. It was Itachi's devotion to the village that ultimately fuels Sasuke's decision to side with Naruto against Madara.
  • Kinkaku and Ginkaku are 2 criminals of Kumogakure. Started as heroes, but fell from grace. They are cold, brutal, and have no problem lying in battle or sacrificing comrades. However, they love each other, and work well together. Ginkaku's most said word in his life was his brother's name. And Kinkaku's berserk button is his brother being harmed.
  • Obito Uchiha genuinely loved his teammate Rin; when she died at Kakashi's hand it broke him and lead him to accept Madara's plan, beginning his Start of Darkness. Ultimately, he enacted Madara's Eye of the Moon scheme because he wanted to live in an illusion where he and Rin were living happily together just as much as he wanted to put everyone else into a mind-controlled paradise.
    • Later chapters reveal that Obito's entire world ultimately revolves around his team, not just Rin. His ideal world is a reality where not only was Rin alive but one where Kakashi and Minato were together with them, living up to the ideals that drove Obito during his youth.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gendo Ikari is really an evil bastard but he definitely loved his wife Yui, and, in the movie, is shown to love his son but not know how to take care of him, which is why he makes such a piss poor parent to poor Shinji. Note that in the manga, he only loves Yui and hates Shinji for stealing her love.
• One Piece
  • One of Arlong's few redeeming qualities is his genuine love for his fellow fishmen, which is a stark contrast to his racism towards humans. He becomes visibly upset when his lieutenants are defeated by the Straw Hats, and does not take kindly to Luffy using one of his men to defend himself. Meanwhile, his self-appointed successor, Hody Jones, freely uses his subordinates as meat shields, and his crew cracks down on and terrorizes any fishmen or merfolk who are friendly towards humans or support Queen Otohime's dream of peaceful coexistence in the surface.
  • Doflamingo is shown to have a soft spot for his most loyal, reliable crewmates. When Monet prepares to blow up Punk Hazard, he is visibly saddened and later when Monet didn't respond (having her heart incidentally squeezed by Caesar), he directly goes to the place himself to find out the reason why. At one point, he even apologizes to Vergo, calling the latter a companion and in other words a friend. An Alternative Character Interpretation of him, by another henchman's account, killing all of Baby 5's fiances was because he was concerned for her, seeing how she tended to accept proposals from swindlers and sleazes, his actions might be seen as an extreme Big Brother Instinct. Later chapters reveal that his relationship with that of his highest executives are akin to those of a family; they have shared both joy and sorrow with him, so he will not tolerate any disrespect towards them.
    • Let's keep in mind that Doflamingo is a terrible person, shooting his father after he apologized for how difficult he had made his sons' lives, and eventually shooting his own brother when he tried to get the World Government to stop Doflamingo's descent towards evil.
    • Trafalgar Law believes that Doflamingo's "love" for his crew is complete self-serving bullcrap. According to him, Doflamingo only values them as long as they are convenient and useful to him. Case in point: he enabled Baby 5's Extreme Doormat personality because it was convenient. It's almost sad, considering their love for him is genuine, at least among the top executives. Though given that Doflamingo is a very twisted person, it's possible that he really does love his executives like a family while also using them because they're convenient to him.
  • Pekoms of the Big Mom pirates may be absolutely ruthless when dealing with people who don't pay Big Mom's Candy tribute. But he burst into tears when he saw his friend and family were alright after seeing what Jack did to Zo. Afterward, he's extremely conflicted afterwards since he's still 100% loyal to Big Mom and as ruthless as ever, but Big Mom's enemies the Straw Hat Pirates are the ones who saved his people from Jack.
  • Out of Big Mom's sons and daughters, several of them at least care for their siblings. i.e., her sons Opera and Mont-d'Or and their sister Galette cared greatly for their brother Moscato and were greatly saddened and shaken when they witnessed Big Mom rip out their brother's soul in one of her hunger-induced rampages. The closest to an exception is the Creepy Child Anana, who bullies the little twins Dragee and Dolce to the point that they call her sadistic. Katakuri in particular cares deeply about his siblings, shown multiple times intercepting attacks against them. In fact, his Start of Darkness took place after his sister Brulee was scarred just to spite him. Before this, Katakuri contented himself with beating up the bullies who insulted him; after Brulee's face was cut, Katakuri went on a murderous rampage against the ones responsible, and swore that he would become strong enough that no one would dare hurt his siblings again.
  • Big Mom herself adored her late foster mother Carmel, and kept a picture of her at her side at all formal events. When she registered it had been shattered, she let out a Conqueror's Haki infused scream so powerful that not only was the entire structure she was on at the time leveled, it knocked out everyone in earshot who wasn't sufficiently prepared.
  • Capone Bege is a member of the Worst Generation, and as such, is a very brutal mafioso and pirate. But he sincerely loves his wife Chiffon and is a rather doting dad to their infant son Pez.
  • Eustass Kid may be one of the crueler ones out of the Eleven Supernova, but he genuinely cares for his first mate Killer, to the point he got himself recaptured by Kaido's lackeys, after initially escaping from the prison, because he followed after Killer who was force-fed a SMILE fruit and became Kamazo the Manslayer. He also, knowing from prior experience Killer hated his laugh, had his entire crew, Kid included, laugh exactly the same way to show solidarity.
• The denizens of The Great Tomb of Nazarick in Overlord (2012) are for the most part, a bunch of sadistic monsters with varying degrees of evilness, who with few exceptions, consider humans as little more than insects. But it is also made clear, that most of them are like family to each other, especially their leader.
• Pokémon Adventures: Like in the video games, Giovanni is a ruthless crime boss. However, he does genuinely love his son, Silver.
• Pretty Cure:
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart, the Four Guardians care for the golden-haired boy, also considering that he's the 'Life' of the Dark King.
  • In Doki Doki! PreCure, King Jikochu truly cares for his daughter Regina. It also makes more sense after The Reveal.
  • Queen Mirage from HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! loves Blue very much. She just can't accept it. Once she does...
  • The most obvious one comes from HuGtto! Pretty Cure with George, whose atrocious acts were done so he could be reunited with his lover, Hana.
• Oriko and Kirika, of Puella Magi Oriko Magica, have this as their main motivation. Though Kirika's feelings are obvious from the outset, Oriko initially seems to be only using her for a greater purpose of saving the human race. However, when questioned as to why she killed dozens of innocent people, she looks at Kirika's corpse and says "To protect my world."
• Rosario + Vampire: Despite being members of Fairy Tale, Aqua and Kahlua Shuzen deeply love and care for their little sisters, Moka and Kokoa, though this won't necessarily spare said little sisters from their wrath. In fact, when their mother, Gyokuro, ordered her to kill Kokoa, Kahlua literally begged her to reconsider. Furthermore, Akua is fiercely protective of Moka, to the extent that she made a Heel–Face Turn and attacked Alucard himself in Moka's defense.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Shishio Makoto, despite being the Darwinian, totalitarian, Big Bad of the Kyoto arc, and for being the subsequent cause of her death, truly loved his consort Yumi and was the only person who really valued her as a human being. In fact, Shishio became very offended when Kenshin implied that he didn't love Yumi for taking advantage of her position by stabbing her in order to stab Kenshin. As it turns out, it was what Yumi wanted all along (she'd always felt inadequate for lacking the skills to fight alongside her lover), and Shishio honored such an action via holding her in his arms as she died. They're eventually reunited in the afterlife, which for them, is hell. Which they promptly set out to conquer.
• In both the manga and the first anime adaptation of Sailor Moon Prince Dimande of the Black Moon Clan tries to ruthlessly conquer the Earth and has a creepy obsession with Usagi/Sailor Moon/Queen Serenity to the point that he even tries to sexually assault her. Despite this he is clearly shown to love his younger brother Saphir and his motivation for taking over the earth is partly because he promised his brother that they would one day live happy lifes there, away from the desolation of Nemesis. In both continuities he is incredibly shaken over Saphir's death. Especially in the manga, where he is forced to kill him after he is brainwashed into attacking Dimande by the real Big Bad of the season, Wiseman. In the anime Saphir is instead directly executed by Wiseman who claims he was a traitor, when Saphir was only trying to warn his older brother of Wiseman's treachery. This causes Dimande to eventually turn on Wiseman and is one of the things that inspires him to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save Usagi, thereby redeeming himself somewhat.
• Sengoku Youko: Yazen, an Evilutionary Biologist who serves as the main antagonist of Part 1, is significantly more evil than his subordinates Jinun and Douren... but the three were apprentices in the Dangaishu together before Yazen's takeover, and when around them Yazen drops his usual sinister air to laugh and goof off. When a dying Jinun and Douren ask for Yazen to be temporarily freed so that he can transplant the demons in their hearts into Senya, he complies and then escapes in the confusion... but as he flees he takes an intense look back at his friends' corpses, and while his smugness never breaks his wife comments that he's probably looking for some place quiet to cry.
• Dark Oak of Sonic X deep down inside, is actually not all that bad. That's because he actually cares for Hertia/Earthia, and was worried that he might never see her again after she abandoned him on his former homeplanet with many other dying males and only a few surviving ones.
• Lalaco Godspeed of Space Patrol Luluco is proud to admit that she's a cruel Space Pirate and is by no means a model parent, but she does care for her daughter, and it's implied that she might still have feelings for her ex-husband (in her own weird way).
• Kotarou Amon from Tokyo Ghoul struggles to accept the reality of this trope, and it is at the very core of his Dark and Troubled Past. After losing his parents, he was sent to a Catholic Orphanage run by an old Russian priest that became a second father to him. Then, one day he walked in on his father eating one of the children and learned he was actually a Ghoul using the children as his personal livestock. Donato Porpora should have simply killed Amon to avoid exposure, but instead asked the boy to continue staying with him even after he abandoned the orphanage. That his foster father, twisted and evil as he might be, had come to view Amon as his beloved son, is simply beyond Amon's ability to comprehend.
  • In the finale of the sequel, Tokyo Ghoul re, Amon finally acknowledges that he loved Donato back, and says so after killing him. Donato's decapitated head begins cry-laughing, and doesn't stop until he dies.
• Trigun:
  • Knives for all his cruelty, mass murder and megalomania still genuinely loves his brother Vash. He’s appalled and angry at the scars Vash has gotten thanks to humans and when his mooks the Gun-Ho Guns are ordered to all fire on Vash by The Dragon Legato, Knives crushes him on the spot. Subverted though as while Knives cares for Vash, he has no qualms abusing him and disregarding his brother’s sentimentality to humans, only wanting Vash to join him in wiping out humanity for their treatment of Plants.
  • The Nebraskas, a family of outlaws responsible for widespread destruction and taking pride in their work, nevertheless seem to care greatly for each other. "Professor" Nebraska, the patriarch, gets angry with people leaving their cars around after his giant son Gofsef stubs his toe on one, and the family's motivation in their second appearance is gathering bail money for incarcerated family members.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: After Death-T. Even in his moments of biggest Jerkassery, Seto Kaiba still cares deeply for his brother Mokuba and would never do anything to hurt him.
  • This is not even to count his adoration for Blue Eyes White Dragon who turned out to be the spiritual form of the lover of his past life thousands of years ago as priest Seth back in ancient Egypt.
• Calling Jeagar, one of Rex Godwin's most important henchmen from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, evil might be a stretch (selfish and arrogant, maybe, but probably not evil). Still, he does have a wife and son that he cares deeply for and tries his hardest to protect, so he still fits this trope.

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