In general, villain machines tend to have a strong following in Humongous Mecha shows. Apart from the inherent cool factor of 'evil giant robot', the reasons for this are simple - since these shows are near-always Merchandise-Driven, every mecha needs to be appealing enough to be at least theoretically sellable, and the villains' designs tend to be more numerous, diverse, and adventurous than the same few classic, conventional hero machines that blow them up week after week.
- Attack on Titan:
- Kenny Ackerman for his antipersonnel 3D maneuvering gear skills and overall Clint Eastwood-like appearance, though he's not entirely without some hammy qualities.
- After Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and becoming a full-on villain, Eren himself falls into this for some, as his newfound cold, collected demeanor has made him a very different kind of badass from his more familiar berserker self and seems to have won over those who were not fond of his arguably more generic Shonen Hero-esque origins.
- Femto a.k.a. Griffith in demon mode from Berserk. He is, considered by most of the fanbase, the most despised villain for what he has done over the course of the story (and particularly for doing one very heinous deed to a lovable character). Surely, his actions are unforgivable!... But DAMMIT! Why does he have to look so friggin' awesome in that quasi- evil costume (since he's technically naked)?! And dude - he has the power to bend reality at his will! How awesome can you get??
- From Black Clover:
- Zenon Zogratis has gotten this after his design was revealed and he was shown to be a ruthless, pragmatic villain, with his introduction having him curb-stomp an entire Diamond Kingdom army. In his next appearance, he easily defeats Yuno, captures Vangeance, and massacres the Golden Dawn, cementing him as this for many fans. Later, his implied-to-be-more-powerful older brother Dante's arrogance gets him defeated at the hands of Yami and Asta...and Zenon once again shows ruthless pragmatism by teleporting in to rescue Dante and capture Yami when the exhausted heroes were celebrating their win. Zenon isn't as much of a Blood Knight like his siblings, he just gets the job done. His popularity amongst fans increased more with the reveal of his 100% devil power form
◊, regarded as one of the best designs in the series, and his backstory in Chapter 306, which many fans loved for portraying him as a more nuanced, tragic villain and dark counterpart to Yuno. - Lucius Zogratis gets this hard after The Reveal. He's the true soul of Julius and a total Chessmaster whose ulterior motives as Julius are revealed to have influenced so much of the plot. His entrance has him hijack Julius's body, reveal he was working with Adrammelech to have the heroes kill Lucifero themselves, saving him all the dirty work, and steal Lucifero's heart, and subtly controlled time throughout the raid to achieve his endgame. When he finally appears, he ages up from Julius's child form with his hair now black, incapacitates Damnatio, shows his gorgeous, detailed Spade grimoire design, and states the "The time has come", cementing him as the Big Bad and villain of the final arc.
- Zenon Zogratis has gotten this after his design was revealed and he was shown to be a ruthless, pragmatic villain, with his introduction having him curb-stomp an entire Diamond Kingdom army. In his next appearance, he easily defeats Yuno, captures Vangeance, and massacres the Golden Dawn, cementing him as this for many fans. Later, his implied-to-be-more-powerful older brother Dante's arrogance gets him defeated at the hands of Yami and Asta...and Zenon once again shows ruthless pragmatism by teleporting in to rescue Dante and capture Yami when the exhausted heroes were celebrating their win. Zenon isn't as much of a Blood Knight like his siblings, he just gets the job done. His popularity amongst fans increased more with the reveal of his 100% devil power form
- Bleach:
- The bad guys tend to be more popular than the good guys. Just look at how Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and Ulquiorra Cifer scored higher on the popularity polls than Ichigo Kurosaki's True Companions, and their allies.
- Sosuke Aizen is also well liked due to his genius intellect, charisma, and his ability to steamroll over anyone not named Yamamoto.
- Played straight with the Vandenreich Quincies who have pretty much dominated all of Soul Society with their powers, while looking awesome in their Quincy outfits. Especially their leader Yhwach, who has managed to kill the previously mentioned Yamamoto in a way that makes the latter look like a complete amateur.
- Alan Sylvasta from BNA: Brand New Animal. He's a stylish Faux Affably Evil chessmaster who has striking good looks, a Sharp-Dressed Man and a massive kaiju-style final form.
- Adam Smasher from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The show goes a long way in rehabilitating Adam Smasher’s lackluster reputation as an Anti-Climax Boss in Cyberpunk 2077, here by having him mop the floor with David in the final episode, showcasing why he is one of the most feared and deadliest characters in the source material’s lore.
- Light Yagami from Death Note clearly fits for being one of the most beloved Villain Protagonists ever. A deranged, brilliant, manipulative, and narcissistic high-schooler who uses the titular Artifact of Doom to kill criminals and those he deems unworthy of his utopia, Light brings a delightfully hammy performance and pulls off complicated plans with wits and charisma.
- Negishi from Detroit Metal City is hated for his music, and generally considered to be a spineless douche by virtually anyone...until he becomes Krauser II in Detroit Metal City, a Death Metal band. And once there, he embodies this trope.
- Quite a few of the demons from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba:
- Akaza is an Affably Evil Blood Knight who gets some of the best fight scenes in the entire series. His tragic backstory also helps.
- Kokushibo is The Dragon to Muzan Kibutsuji and a Master Swordsman with a Creepy Awesome design, as well as an interesting past with his brother, Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
- Doma gets this as well due to his Laughably Evil moments in contrast to other demons in the series and cheerful personality that serves to conceal his true lack of emotion.
- Muzan Kibutsuji himself, despite clearly being written as a monstrous Hate Sink, has some fans thanks to being an extremely powerful and mysterious Evil Overlord with a tendency to wear nice suits.
- Really any moon is guaranteed to have their fans who think they're cool thanks to their unique looks and powers, such as Gyutaro, Gyokko, Hantengu’s clones, Rui, and Enmu.
- Vamdemon/Myotismon from Digimon Adventure certainly fits the mold. Despite being a sadistic, abusive, and manipulative vampire, these end up working in his favor as he made his appearance when the anime was just Growing the Beard. His design also helps, as does Richard Epcar's performance in the dub. He then goes on to have not one, but two One-Winged Angel forms, the latter of which ends up hijacking the plot of the sequel series and continuing right on with his sadistic streak. Nowhere since has there been such a brilliant manipulator within the series.
- The 2020 reboot series carries over a lot of Myotismon's coolness and formidability and carries it over to their version of Devimon instead. In contrast to the original's Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, the Reboot Devimon is a charismatic and powerful figure and proves to be a formidable foe for the Chosen Children long after they unlock their Perfect Levels.
- Kotomine Kirei from Fate/stay night and its prequel Fate/Zero. Badass Normal priest, with bullet-proof vestments, extreme skill in Baji quan and insanely accurate and deadly knife skills. Also Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, with a largest sense of entitlement/ego. And in Fate/Zero, they team up.
- Fullmetal Alchemist has two crowning examples of this:
- Fuhrer King Bradley, who's supposed to be the living incarnation of Wrath, but is more like the living incarnation of badass, complete with Eye Patch Of Power, Implausible Fencing Powers, and a really cool name.
- Solf J. Kimblee: Mad Bomber meets Breaking Speech and The Philosopher, all wrapped up in the height of 1920s fashion. That's without mentioning his appearance, distinct fedora, badassery, and epic sendoff.
- The Laughing Man from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is one In-Universe. He has tons of copycat supporters, and in one episode, Motoko visits a chat room devoted to discussing how cool and rebellious the participants think he is.
- Hellsing: The Major. He's a Non-Action Big Bad in a series that basically runs on badass characters pulling off Rule of Cool, but he manages to pull this off regardless by being smarter than everyone. Also, the reveal why he's not a vampire like the rest of Millennium, he took too much pride in being human to surrender to the power of monsters.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Dio Brando, the handsome and charismatic time-stopping vampire, with enough memorable quotes to fit a book. The World Is Just Awesome.
- While Dio is the most prominent example, this trope applies to every main villain in the series. All of them are handsome, and even more so as the series goes on and have blatantly overpowering and impossibly cool abilities, with most being able to alter the flow of time and space. For some examples:
- Kars/Cars/Kaazu from part 2 is a nigh-invincible transcendent vampire who becomes a Physical God by the climax.
- Yoshikage Kira's stand can turn anything into a bomb. So as long as he can touch it, it will die. And let's not even begin with Bites The Dust.
- Diavolo, the Don of the Passione gang in part 5, can see ten seconds into the future and cut out any amount of that future he wants. The details of this ability are... unspecified. His stand is also one of the physically strongest Stands in the entire reality.
- In part 6, Father Enrico Pucci, one of Dio's dragons. He's so loyal to the latter that he is determined to finish their plan decades after Dio's death. Combined with an Affably Evil personality, Pucci has the ability to remove the Stands from their users, ending the battle then and there. Pucci then goes on to unlock gravity-warping powers, making it insanely difficult for the heroes to get around him. As the heroes manage to figure it out, Pucci unlocks Made in Heaven, a Stand that speeds up time, which he uses to utterly destroy the heroes.
- And in part 7, we have Funny Valentine: The President of the United States and the one chosen by Jesus Himself with scars on his back in the shape of the American Flag. The only problem is the question of whether or not he is actually Evil.
- Ju Jutsu Kaisen has quite a few examples:
- Ryomen Sukuna, a narcissistic, condescending, Ax-Crazy sociopath who manages to own his status as the so-called "King of Curses" with skill, power, and sheer charisma. Any scene with him has him basking in his own power and destruction, making him look cool as all hell because of it.
- The Disaster Curses are human hating, monstrous beings who each have intimidating appearances, usages of power and being a major threat to anyone that isn't Gojo. Mahito in particular, is an enjoyable hateable sociopath with a nightmarish power.
- Toji Fushiguro is a professional assassin ruthless enough to target a teenage girl, but the fact he's a non-sorcerer whose complete lack of cursed energy gave him superhuman physical abilities that turned him into an unstoppable Mage Killer that allows him to fight the most powerful Jujutsu sorcerers who ever lived on equal footing, gives him serious cool points. He also displays impressive cunning in how he outsmarts and nearly kills Gojo in their first fight, successfully carries out his assassination and defeats Suguru Geto as well, sparing the last only out of pragmatism.
- The sheer length of Kenjaku's machinations elevates him above the level of all the previous villains in the story, with him manipulating world governments to serve his ends and taking over Jujutsu society with barely a struggle. On the whole, he's played the part of The Chessmaster without flaw, perpetually calm and collected.
- Ryu Ishigori and Kashimo Hajime, two main antagonists of Sendai and Tokyo 2 respectively are fan favorites for their blood knight characters and confident and boisterous personalities when they faced Yuta and Hakari, who were both hyped up to become as good as Gojo in the future.
- The Kerberos Saga is most widely known for the badass, deeply imposing Powered Armor worn by the eponymous Kerberos Unit. Interestingly, they aren't nearly as bad as their appearances would suggest, but they're still firmly positioned as bad guys, in a world of worse people.
- When Mariquitaman fights Kinnikuman Zebra in the 2011 Kinnikuman series, Mariquitaman prefers Kinnikuman Zebra's Brutal Chojin personality over his Justice Chojin personality. Mariquita even forces the transformation onto Kinnikuman Zebra with the Rorschach Influence technique. As it turns out, Kinnikuman Zebra's Brutal Chojin personality's fighting style is easier to predict than the fighting style of Kinnikuman Zebra's Justice Chojin personality.
- Kichikujima: The Family especially Kaoru,Yoshikazu,Mari,and Satoru.
- Mobile Suit Gundam:
- The first series introduced the Principality of Zeon, the original villain faction of the Gundam franchise. Zeon's leaders have the fancy uniforms and scary Cyber Cyclops Mecha-Mooks, and gained huge legions of fans in Japan and everywhere.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has two examples of this. While Patrick Zala is too close to a real dictator to be cool, the other two main villains are quite charismatic.
- Muruta Azrael is the leader of a terrorist organization who enjoys nuking whole cities based on nothing but racial hatred... yet Azrael still manages to be awesome, with his stylish suit, wonderfully dark sense of humor, and the fact that he's named after the angel of death. While he nukes the shit out of a ZAFT base, his reaction is such that you expect him to pull out a bag of popcorn and a soda to enjoy the show with.
- Rau Le Creuset is the show's masked man, so fans know he's going to be cool from the start. But toward the end of the show, when he gets to show what's Beneath the Mask, he reveals himself not only to be an Ace Pilot and total badass, but to also be an impossible-seeming combination of Char Aznable, Hannibal Lecter, and Shinobu Sensui. A Straw Nihilist steeped in the idea that Humans Are Bastards due to his horrible upbringing, Rau is an Omnicidal Maniac bent on destroying the human race to end its collective suffering, all in a worldwide case of Taking You with Me through a single, apocalyptic war. As he flaunts his piloting skills with his incredibly forboding Providence Gundam, he hits the protagonists with every possible number of Breaking Speech he can, making him sound scarily right as he makes his case that humanity is too corrupt and ambitious to live. And given how he orchestrated the Earth Alliance and ZAFT into trying to commit genocide on one another out of sheer bigotry, he's not exactly wrong.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has Ali Al-Saachez, who is incredibly popular with the fans. Why? Well, for the girls, there's his rugged good looks, and for the guys, Ali is horribly evil, even by the show's standards... and he's a Laughably Evil Badass Normal who revels in how awful he is, making him just so invigorating to watch.
- In Monster, Johan Liebert is a loathsome human being and an obvious Satanic Archetype, but he is so sophisticated, cunning, physically attractive, classy and intelligent that sometimes you can forget that HE IS the monster.
- Moriarty the Patriot: As is commonly the case with a Villain Protagonist, much less a Magnificent Bastard like William, he's fun, he has great friends, and he's a dramatic theatre kid who knows exactly how to create a thrill, and his bucketload of murders are can almost be overlooked by fans.
- My Hero Academia:
- Everything about "Hero Killer" Stain is basically the embodiment of a '90s Anti-Hero, except he's a villain. He's a vicious Knight Templar who's convinced that none of the current group of Heroes barring All Might (and later, the main character Deku) are "real heroes" and need to be purged. He's also a complete psychopath with a warped view on what being a hero is and has no compunctions against murdering children. However, because of his design, weapons and powers as well as the ludicrous degree, he'll keep on fighting (after being defeated, he still continues trying to fight against the other heroes with a punctured lung and scared them enough to make them flinch before he passed out, while standing up) earned him admires in-universe and out. The League of Villains take advantage of this and recruit a plethora of new members who wished to follow in Stain's footsteps.
- Stain in this case did a lot to help the League of Villains more than he realized, as the League of Villains truly got some really badass fighters like Spinner, Dabi, and Toga, who all agreed with his ideals to purge Japan from the 'fake heroes' festering the hero society, gaining them a lot of fans. Even post- Character Development Shigaraki managed to climb out of the scrappy heap after his tragic backstory and his steps to rise behind the scenes. Even more so during the Meta Liberation Army Arc, where his horrific past comes to light, giving a Freudian Excuse about why he hated heroes to a suicidal level, and finally becomes the Villain Deuteragonist of this manga.
- All For One, as the opposite of All Might, also has his own fan following, as he was the only one who could devastate All Might so much that All Might actually became the Handicapped Badass in the start of the series, and he lost his Quirk during his second fight, even though it ended on All For One's defeat. His Establishing Character Moment where he appeared as a synonym of Death itself also didn't hurt.
- In the Bad Future of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Negi's students capture Takane D. Goodman and her posse, and (painlessly) Mind Probe them to know where Negi is imprisoned. This leads to the following exchange:Asuna: Don't we look like the bad-guys here?Haruna: Bad-guys are cool.
- Gendo Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the most famous and memorable villains in anime. His voice is cool, he's a Sharp-Dressed Man, his Scary Shiny Glasses and Finger-Tenting are iconic, he's so much of a Magnificent Bastard that he manipulates the Big Bad committee and comes dangerously close to achieving his own personal victory, and his backstory and the explanation for his personality even make him a little sympathetic.
- One Piece:
- Sir Crocodile pulls this off almost too well. A list of atrocities that he has or plans to commit can fill a book. However, he commits his evil acts while dressed like a blinged-out mafia don, complete with a ring on almost every finger and a pimpin' green fur coat. Not only that, but he controls an organization made up of World of Badass, owns a casino, trots around with a scantily-clad hot chick as his #2, keeps incredibly dangerous predators as pets, and is also made of and can control sand, and he has a hook for a hand. That's just darn cool. But he's such a bastard...
- You can't one up a bastard-8 foot plus tall-knight-marine-Godfather-insanely choking-pirate who kills people by touching them named Crocodile...unless you are a silent-8 foot plus tall-gangster-pirate-superstrong-hetero-ninja who is also a sword named DAZ BONES. He's like Raven from Tekken, only bigger, stronger, a pirate, has no need for weapons, and has the greatest name ever hands down. His loss, or, actually, both of their losses, lost the strawhats fans.
- Eneru the tyrannical god of Skypiea whose power allowed him to rule over Skypiea and allow him to validate his claims of being a god, and could only at the time be countered by Luffy’s power.
- Rob Lucci along with his fellow CP9 assassins for being brilliant and badass fighters whose skills have made them into the governments best assassins and pushing the Straw Hats to their limits.
- Admiral Akainu for being a Manipulative Bastard, Determinator, and unstoppable Hero Killer, whose actions in Marineford showed off his overall badassness and control over the power of the magma Devil Fruit have labeled him to being one of the prime candidates for being Luffy’s most personal enemy.
- Donquixote Doflamingo, in addition to being one of Luffy’s most monstrous enemies, the unique abilities of his String Devil Fruit, whose actions being similar to Crocodile but far more successful in his plan to take over a kingdom and spent years secretly oppressing his people without anyone noticing for years.
- Big Mom's strongest child, Charlotte Katakuri who in addition to being a badass-designed powerhouse; for the ladies, Katakuri is a sympathetic protective Hunk (if you can look past his fangs) who cares deeply for his siblings and has a tragic back story. Above all, Katakuri flips the rulebook on how antagonists should act as he does the unthinkable and gives Luffy a fighting chance out of pure Villain Respect.
- One of the four pirate emperors, Kaido king of the beasts, whose willpower, strength and intellect have led him to carve out a pirate empire that led to him taking over Wano as his own weapons factory. A Respect to will and strength to both ally and enemy, Kaido kills those who dishonorably intervene in his fights with worthy opponents, clashing with Luffy proving himself to be one of the most difficult enemies of his career and comes to see Luffy as a true and worthy rival.
- Kaido’s right Hand King the Wildfire, In addition to his full mastery of his Pteranodon Devil Fruit, he also possesses the natural abilities of his race the Lunarians. Who was able to keep Roronoa Zoro on his toes at every turn giving him the first serious fight in the New World.*
- Most of the villains are incredibly awesome in their own singular ways. Though the best way to put it is...
- Y: Ruler of Time: on One Piece's villains How is it possible that these guys are so awesome I want to root against the Straw Hats?!
- Outlaw Star has several examples:
- Ron MacDougal puts the swag in villainy, whether wearing his longcoat, or a snazzy three-piece suit and shades. And he's got the demeanor to sell the image, by being the calm collected one, with good business sense to boot.
- Hazanko, in spite of having one physical appearance during the Anten Seven mini-arc and three more dedicated to the finale, spending most of it offscreen leaves a lasting impression in those last three episodes due to the sheer brutality of his relentless ambition, nigh-reality warping powers that allow him to come back from non-existence in one instance, and monstrous personality. He also provides the show's final battle with an epic final Grappler fight between two existence-altering ships as a part of its most iconic moments.
- The Anten Seven, the majority possessing unique and creepy designs in combination with their powers and all except Tobigera manage to push the crew to a corner each time with their powers. Shimi and Hanmyo manage to be very popular due to their uniquely Affably Evil personalities compared to their allies, especially Shimi.
- The Kei Pirates in general. The group have intimidating foot soldiers, uniquely creepy designs and each has a powerful set of skills that make them each unique.
- Gotou from Parasyte. Gotou is by far the most dangerous being in the story, being comprised of five different parasites working in near-perfect unison in a single body. His overwhelming strength and creative use of his parasite powers give him some of the most tense and memorable scenes in the series.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Jessie, James, and Meowth can't do anything evil right, but are highly useful when they're working with Ash. However, in the Unova saga, they have new black costumes, gliders, jet packs, a bunch of spy gadgets, and effectively kick ass.
- Some of the villains in the movies qualify - especially the ones from Takeshi Shudo's earlier movies, which tend to be both badass and justifiably sympathetic and relatable. Examples include Mewtwo (especially in the Japanese version due to much of its character being Lost in Translation) and Entei.
- Shogo Makishima from Psycho-Pass. Shōgo Makishima is quite the baddie but is such a charismatic and Wicked Cultured villain and a genius planner to boot, Makishima is quite the awesome baddie which as First Installment Wins tells below, gives a legacy that no other villain from the series lives up to.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
- Kyoko Sakura, a badass Ax-Crazy Blood Knight Fiery Redhead whose callous and selfish personality contrasts sharply with the four other main girls introduced up to that point. In short, while the series' main villains are some mindless Eldritch Abominations and a somewhat passive manipulative cat-rabbit thing, Kyoko is the first weapon-wielding Magical Girl to show an evil streak. To elaborate: when she first introduces herself to the two protagonists (at the time), she uses her very cool chain-spear-whip weapon to utterly trounce one of them around in, as the English dub calls it, "a bona fide fight to the death, for reals", all while giving a big "The Reason You Suck" Speech to them and munching on a taiyaki. Then we find out about her Dark and Troubled Past that shows her depth as a character, and she gets better. Much, much better.
- Of course, the witches themselves are beloved by fans for being a genuinely terrifying and memorable take on the Monster of the Week concept in contrast to the usually forgettable examples found in your average Magical Girl show. Thier Tragic Monster angle also makes them Woobies among fans.
- Kyubey, too, for being a creepy and very alien Magnificent Bastard fans Love to Hate.
- Sailor Galaxia from ''Sailor Moon". She's a Galactic Conqueror extraordinaire and Curb-Stomp Battle enthusiast, with a fully justified Awesome Ego. Between her terrifying power, gorgeous character design, and eleventh hour redemption, Galaxia is a triumphant villainess.
- Berg Katse from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has his fans. The messed-up childhood and cool new toy nearly every episode probably have something to do with it, even with the silly ears.
- Shaman King has a few examples:.
- Luchist Lasso, in the manga version. He's a genuinely polite fellow in spite of his alliance to Hao, one of the few members of Hao's followers able to back up his boasts with competent fighting skills, and possesses a legitimately intimidating Guardian Ghost in the form of Lucifer himself.
- Early villain, Tao En/Yuan- Ren's father or uncle in the 4-Kids dub, manages to be a legitimately intimidating villain during his stay, coming across as a nigh-immortal monster before the truth of his powers were revealed and even then, he manages to pull out a a Chinese dragon with his head on it when cornered. Some fans preferred him as a major villain over Hao due to the latter's invincibility getting tiresome after a while, especially given the atrocities he manages to pull through his appearances, without ever getting properly punished in the manga at least.
- While Hao himself, manages to be a controversial character overall, The Spirit of Fire manages to be a truly terrifying menace in both raw power and surprising nightmarish qualities such as being able to open a wide maw to eat souls alive. Its uniquely inhuman design helps it to stand out in comparison to the rest of the Guardian Ghosts before the other Elemental Spirits are introduced later on. It manages to be so awesome that even being in the hands of Lyserg later on, does little to diminish its threat level.
- In-Universe, Panda from Shirokuma Cafe once showed up dressed wearing a Darth Vader mask and cape because he thinks bad guys are cool. Unfortunately, Panda doesn't really understand how to be evil or cool.
- Space Battleship Yamato 2199 has many notable characters from Garmillas, including Elk Domel, who is introduced in the series during his Curb-Stomp Battle against the Comet Empire; and Wolf Frakken, captain of a subspace submarine.
- Sword Art Online. Typically villains in this series fall under Hate Sink categories. But, a few manage to be legitimately cool.
- Death Gun seems to run on this. Being a Cold Ham serial killer with a cool mask and being a man who can One-Hit Kill players and give them heart attacks in the real world. He's also an Implacable Man who never stops hunting his targets, and then it's revealed he's an SAO survivor like Kirito and a member of the Laughing Coffin.
- Quinella is this as well, being the closest thing SAO has to the Devil.
- PoH/Vassago Cassals, along with his Guild, got this treatment due to being Creepy Awesome, but his screentime during the War of Underworld made him extremely popular due to how threatening and effective he was.
- While he's not universally loved like the other examples, many did enjoy Gabriel Miller for his complexity and his sheer power.
- Lordgenome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. On the one hand, he is a ruthless tyrant and Anti-Villain who doesn't care if his daughters live or die...on the other hand, he has rugged good looks and a cool-looking and powerful Humongous Mecha, and he can fight Mini-Mecha with zero weaponry whatsoever; by which we mean his bare hands, and almost tank a Big Bang-level attack with a scaled-up version of his mech.
- Mentioned in 20th Century Boys."I always found those justice-defending heroes in manga and on tv to be so stupid... the villains were always so much cooler."
- YuYu Hakusho, Younger Toguro. Compare with villains before, he's only power being Hulking Out might seem lame at a glance, but he gets so much power from sheer brute strength that he can render flashy techniques utterly useless (and the fights with him are still damn cool to watch), and has force extremely powerful youkai into working for him without even fighting at full strength.
- From Yu-Gi-Oh!: Rafael, Alister and Valon. While Dartz is an unpopular Big Bad, his three henchmen, Rafael, Amelda/Alister and Valon are popular antagonists for their distinct decks, sympathetic backstories and the challenge they pose to their counterparts. Amelda nearly defeats Kaiba in their initial duel without cheating and still manages a draw when Kaiba gains the Fang of Critias, and Rafael stands out as handing Yugi one of his few defeats in the manga or the anime, and he does it cleanly.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Alexander the Great is an Evil Brit, has a cool design, and gives the heroes quite a fight. It helps that, like fan favorite Yami Bakura, he's someone's Superpowered Evil Side. He also gets to perform Grand Theft Me on his descendent, Alex Brisbane.
- Kyosuke Kiriyu/Kalin Kessler from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. He's the most Ax-Crazy villain in the series with a genuinely sympathetic backstory and is the only villain to actually defeat (technically) Yusei.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has plenty of villains that are popular.
- Yuri is very popular due to being Yuya's fusion counterpart and the only one of the eight counterparts to be evil. Add that to his power and personality, he steals the show each time he appears.
- Awakened Yuya is mind numbingly popular due to being Yuya's Superpowered Evil Side who is a perfect mix of cool and scary. The reveal that it's Zarc only boosted his popularity. After a dip of popularity for a time, Zarc's popularity jumped again with the reveal of his face and the more tragic parts of his past.
- Jean Michel Roget is the best Love to Hate villain. He's a Soft-Spoken Sadist, Manipulative Bastard who's manipulates the cast as puppets for most of the Synchro Arc. His Villainous Breakdown only added to his popularity due to how hilarious it was to see him screaming like a madman.
