Villain Protagonist / Anime & Manga

• Afro from Afro Samurai practically embodies this trope; while he is always motivated by some narrow view of "justice," nearly every interaction he has with other characters including his own conscience makes it exceedingly clear that he is flat-out in the wrong when it comes to his killing sprees, which only serve to further throw off the balance of an already Crapsack World.
• While Kurosu in Ana Satsujin may not be a perfect example of this, he does count solely because of who his girlfriend is: Miyaichi, a not only unrepentant but proud serial killer, who definitely does count. He counts because he finds this out before he decides to start dating her, and while not agreeing with her activities, doesn't do much to stop her and sticks with her after she starts roping him into helping her with her kills.
• Korosensei from Assassination Classroom is an Affably Evil artificial octopus who encourages the students of E-Class to kill him before he destroys the world, while he is teaching them some valuable lessons as their teacher. Then it's revealed later on that he didn't actually reduce the moon to the way it is, and that he wanted his students to kill him before the same structure that made him finishes the job in destroying the world.
• Attack on Titan uses this trope to full drama after the Time Skip. Anti-Villain Reiner Braun serves as the protagonist throughout much of the initial arc before series protagonist Eren Yeager makes his brutal re-entrance into the narrative. Labeled the "Enemy of Peace" by the rest of humanity, Eren slaughters military officials and civilians alike in the nation of Marley and forces his old friends to rescue him. After returning to Paradis, he turns against the government and is appointed as the leader of the "Yeagerist" faction devoted to installing him as the supreme leader of humanity. The group assists in poisoning important members of the military, uses a bomb to assassinate Commander Zackley, and even take Eren's former comrades prisoner on his orders. The lack of insight into Eren's actual mindset or goals leaves considerable ambiguity, but his actions are definitely villainous. As the story progresses, Eren is also revealed to be The Chessmaster and a Greater-Scope Villain, especially as the mastermind behind the Reiss Family massacre. He commanded Grisha to give the Founding Titan to him. Later, Eren establishes himself as the Big Bad by ordering the Wall Titans to raze the world outside Paradis.
• Griffith of Berserk was at best, a Nominal Hero, being only one step short from a true villain as his actions inspired awe from people. Even after the Eclipse, specifically within the context of the chapters focusing on his war against the Kushan Empire, Griffith assumes the role of the protagonist with Emperor Ganishka as the antagonist.
• Black Butler: In most stories, the amoral demon and his bitter, driven master would be undeniable antagonists, especially given how little they hesitate about killing people who get in their way, seducing people for information, etc.
• In Black Lagoon almost all the main characters are villainous, and some arcs (like the first arc, and the initial Roberta arc) sees them take the actual villain's role by doing stuff like kidnapping, or doing stuff like supporting Balalaika, who is the Big Bad of the Yakuza arc (with the Washimine clan and Yukio being the closest thing to 'the hero', up until the point where The Bad Guy Wins).
• In Canaan the main character Canaan is a gun-for-hire that kills mercilessly, even when her innocent soul mate Maria lays witness to her line of work. Albeit, her cold personality is softened in Maria's presence, and her enemy Alphard is much worse.
• Code Geass
  • Zigzagged. By the end. Lelouch Lamperouge's the lesser of two evils when compared to his half-brother's nuke the world plan and he ultimately is pretending to be pure evil and still trying to create world peace, which involves brainwashing countless soldiers to be his slaves and carrying out a global deception, along with oppressing and presumably massacring an innumerable amount of people to make himself the most hated man in history.
  • Code Geass: Akito the Exiled: Suzaku Kururugi is this one in Episode 3 of Akito the Exiled as lamp shaded by Episode 2 trailer and most of his development dealt him throwing his grief and hate towards Lelouch after Euphie's death with the screen time of him in the Lancelot massacring Shin's goons talking foreshadowing R2 particularly the destruction of the Tokyo Settlement and his descent into commencing Zero Requiem with Lelouch with the title 'White Death of Britannia' something that would carry on and be told to the E.U. as the worst enemy in history upon the second invasion with Schneizel starting Lancelot & Guren towards R2.
• Death Note:
  • Light Yagami. He kills people using the eponymous notebook for his Knight Templar dreams of a better world, and believes himself to be a god. Light consistently sees himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and is either ignorant or apathetic to the fact that he's committing atrocities left and right. During his Motive Rant at the end of the series, he still legitimately believes that he's doing the right thing. Light is a purer example of this trope than most, as he is explicitly the Big Bad of his series (something backed up by Word of God), rather than a Nominal Hero fighting a greater menace.
  • Minoru Tanaka is a downplayed example, at least compared to Light. As the last Kira, Minoru becomes a massive fearmonger and doesn't really care much about whether or not the Death Note will be abused by the buyer. Although his plan is selfish and self-centered, it somehow benefited the Japanese population after the economic boom it caused, at least in the short term. However, none of this exempts him from the fact that he is still Kira's successor. Some people, especially those who have never met Light personally, may see him as a continuation of Kira's legacy of twisted justice.
• In Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta starts as a regular villain, but becomes a viewpoint character at the start of the Namek Saga, with a good chunk of the story following his travails on Namek, though he's still thoroughly villainous, making him this trope. By the time he fights Frieza, he's slowly shifted into Antihero territory, on his way to becoming a a full-fledged hero.
• In Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku, Bardock may be trying to save his race from Frieza, but he's still an unrepentant member of a genocidal race, making the conflict Evil Versus Evil.
• Lucy from Elfen Lied is a cold-blooded killer. She has killed armed men and innocent children, for reasons ranging from "trying to kill me" to "You killed my dog" to "I envy your happy, normal life, and I need a place to crash." She kicks people quite sadistically when they are down. She hears voices and tries to infest humans with her diclonius genes, which will lead to the extinction of mankind. No effort is spared to let the viewer feel sympathy for her plight, not even after sacrificing herself at the end, where it was only to save the one guy she liked - without ever learning that being a sadistic mass-murderer is wrong.
• Excel♡Saga is a humorous take on this that can be argued to be an outright parody. The eponymous Excel willingly serves Il Palazzo and his "ideological" organization ACROSS, whose express goal is to Take Over the World, but is in ACROSS because of Il Palazzo. Excel's services to ACROSS are marked by her Genki Girl status mixing with her cheerful and often loud proclamations that ACROSS will subjugate the ignorant masses under their will, alongside her incompetence usually preventing ACROSS from achieving anything substantial towards reaching their goal, all the while showcasing its incredibly quirky humor consisting of attempting to fit in Il Palazzo's plans amidst her and her partner Hyatt's part-time jobs due to living in Perpetual Poverty. The humor is, however, toned down quite a lot during the last episodes of the anime, and is in lower quantity in general in the manga (compared to the anime, which is even titled 'Quack Experimental Anime: Excel Saga'). In the anime, however, it's more the fact that Excel was kicked out of ACROSS without her knowing then shot by Il Palazzo, then lost her memory than her becoming truly evil. It doesn't stop Excel from totting a large blade down the middle of a street in plain sight in the night while cheerfully singing about murdering the author.
• The main character of Fire Punch, Agni, straddles the line between this and antihero for much of the story. There are multiple arguable points where he crosses over the line into straight-up villain, but the most definitive moment would be when he murders a repentant Doma and all the children Doma is taking care of in the frozen wasteland that is the setting. Even though he is hit with a massive Heel Realization moments afterward, his slipping sanity causes him to do other terrible things as well.
• Haruko Haruhara is very much the face and Big Bad of FLCL, acting as one of the premier Manic Pixie Dream Girls in all of media. Energetic, spontaneous, and hammy as hell, but manipulative, selfish and ruthless, to the point where there's a distinct Lack of Empathy. Haruko cements it by trying to feed Naota into the Terminal Core and endangering the Earth's existence out of her desire to absorb Amtosk's infinite power. By the end, however, Haruko has mellowed out considerably, or at least acknowledged defeat this round. By FLCL Progressive the more heroic (initially trying to kill Hidomi not-withstanding) Jinyu's taken the protagonist role while Haruko becomes more of a proper Big Bad.
• Mayo Sasaki in Fushigi Yuugi: Eikoden. While she's not truly evil, she is extremely selfish and unsympathetic, and her obsession with stealing Miaka's beloved husband Taka/Tamahome, coupled with her irresponsible behavior, causes a lot of trouble for the warriors of Suzaku.
• Future Diary is interesting as the true protagonist is reasonably moral (though not truly heroic), but all of his allies seem to have rather questionable morals. One is a terrorist who thinks nothing of blowing up a school while it's occupied, while his closest ally and potential girlfriend is dangerous. Over the course of the series, he does eventually become more immoral and becomes as nutty as his girlfriend. Many characters call him out on his villainous behaviour as he gets worse and worse.
• The Count of Monte Cristo aka Edmond Dantes from Gankutsuou. Especially when the title monster is in control of him.
• Good Luck Girl!: Ichiko Sakura, while not quite a full blown villain, has multiple undesirable personality traits at the start of the series, which leads her to fight back against Momiji's efforts to remove her excess happiness energy and restore balance to the universe. The story that follows is her gradually learning to be a nicer person as she comes to terms with how people are affected by her excess happiness energy.
• Played With Hiiragi Utena from Gushing Over Magical Girls. She is a true Tres Magia fangirl who was forced to become a villain and is by all intents a good girl at heart. However, since the story is narrated mostly from her point of view, the villainous team is given more focus than the heroines.
• Alucard from Hellsing. The first anime leans towards Anti-Hero, but the manga and OVA series depict him as more of a self-declared monster: terrifying, vicious, and wholly in the business because he loves killing people (and because he would have no one to feed upon if humanity went extinct).
  • This is especially prominent in the first four episodes, with Alucard's vicious slaughtering of both Millennium vampires AND an unfortunate Brazilian SWAT team that effectively got thrown at his mercy by corrupt police officials who were bribed by one of those vampires. However, to be fair, in the later episodes, Alucard's more sympathetic and redeeming qualities do come to light.
• Yoshitaka, the male lead of He Is My Master is a sociopathic pervert with little to no redeeming qualities.
• The main protagonists in the WWII comedy Hetalia: Axis Powers are Germany, Italy, and Japan.
• As it turns out, Judge has this with Hiro and Hikari, too. He and Hikari created the Judge game as a sadistic Revenge by Proxy towards the jury and judge, who gave the drunk driver who ran over and killed Atsuya a milder sentence.
• Kasane's title character starts out as just a very desperate girl who wants to escape her crappy life by using the face of another woman to become an actress, but as her fame rises, and with Habuta's "help", she undergoes some serious Sanity Slippage. She completely breaks after her last Morality Chain, her little sister Nogiku, tries to betray her by exposing her secret.
• In Living As I Please As A Loli Demon King, the protagonist Milla, Demon Lord of Insanity, has noble goals and motives but has no issue with any and all forms of atrocity in order to realize them.
• Yuuhi and Sami, the main duo of The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. Sami has vowed to destroy the Earth herself after saving it from the eponymous hammer, and Yuuhi is extremely loyal to her for that end. The other Knights besides Yuuhi don't know about Sami's intention; Yuuhi and Sami plot to turn against them as soon as the world is saved. After much Character Development for both of them, they get better. Yuuhi eventually 'defeats' Sami, who didn't really want to destroy the Earth at that point, and the two go on to live Happily Ever After.
• The eponymous Lupin III and his gang are the longest-running, most successful, and still one of the most popular examples of the trope. Whether it's the television series or the annual Made-for-TV movies, the plot always centers on Lupin's pursuit of his next big score, with Inspector Zenigata always hot on his trail to slap the cuffs on 'em.
  • In the first anime series, Masaaki Osumi, the original director, made Lupin a cynical and morally ambiguous character that wouldn't hesitate to kill those who stand in his way, but tries to kill as little as possible to keep his family name reputation to the best. The first seven episodes reflect this as well, as the atmosphere is dark and mature with sometimes a melancholic tone that hide a strong message. He murders a group of rival gang members by flooding their base with water, then throwing high tension cables into the water, causing them a slow, painful death. In the second episode, he smirks while his rival in love Pycal burns to death. These darker elements of Lupin's personality were largely excised after Hayao Miyazaki took over the series, however, with Lupin from then on mostly killing in self-defense and rarely taking glee in it. Miyazaki also made sure to give Lupin and his pals Pet the Dog moments (usually by having them save innocent victims from even WORSE criminals), a trope that the franchise has steadily relied on in the decades since.
  • In the original manga, not only does Lupin murder people left and right (whereas in most animated adaptations, he most often kills in self-defense), but he's also a rapist, something that is used as almost a Running Gag of sorts. Needless to say, this specific character trait has been left out of every adaptation (he's usually a Handsome Lech or a Chivalrous Pervert instead).
• Princess Punie Tanaka of Magical Witch Punie-chan is definitely not as good as her "princess of Magical Land" persona makes her appear to be. Her incantation says it all: "Lyrical Tokarev, kill them all!"
• MD Geist is revealed to be a Villain Protagonist (or Sociopathic Hero) when it turns out he's such a Blood Knight that he's willing to start the Robot War he was sent to prevent, just to ensured he'll always have strong opponents to fight. The second OAV gives strong implications he's still following orders from the Earth Government, who have decided to wipe out the colonists on Jerra and start over.
• Michiko & Hatchin is about a woman who breaks out of jail and kidnaps the daughter of her old lover so she can lead them to him. Michiko and Hana develop a strong familial bond over the story but she still took her from her (abusive) foster parents and is on the run.
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED CE.73: Stargazer does this with the pilot of the Strike Noir, Sven Cal Vayan. He is the character with the most focus and the only one that (due to the length of the story) got any degree of backstory. He's also shown to be extremely cold, more than willing to gun down entire crowds of refugees on the off-chance that one is a terrorist, and shows no trace of remorse or grief when a wingman gets killed. He does eventually get better, but not before getting into a Chained Heat situation with the Hero Antagonist of the series and the pilot of the Stargazer.
• Michio Yuki from MW. He is the main focus in the manga as he spends his time committing murder, not to mention collecting ransom money on his victims. He also crossdresses women in his plot. His goal is to find MW and use it to end the world in vengeance for his own mortality.
• My Bride is a Mermaid: It's quite easy to forget that Sun and the rest of her family are Yakuza, albeit Yakuza who aren't seen doing any villainy aside from trying to ruin Nagasumi's life.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Tomura Shigaraki becomes the main protagonist for the "Meta Liberation Army" arc, which focuses on his and the League of Villains' conflict with the eponymous organization, while also shedding light on his past, motives, and struggles to succeed All For One as the ruler of the criminal underworld.
  • It's eventually revealed All For One himself invokes this trope: he genuinely sees the world as being his story with him as the Villain Protagonist, emulating his the Evil Overlord of a manga he read as a kid.
• Sasuke Uchiha of Naruto was this for a majority of the series after the first Time Skip. Despite abandoning and turning against his fellow protagonist Naruto, half the story would still dedicate entire arcs solely about him and his endeavors.
• Mireille Bouquet from Noir who never questions her job of killing people (although she's more Nominal Hero).
• "Golden Lion" Shiki, the main antagonist of One Piece Film: Strong World, is the main protagonist of the prequel to the original manga/anime, One Piece: Chapter 0.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion elevates Akemi Homura into the position of a God of Evil, due to her belief that Utopia Justifies the Means partly due to her love for her friends. She's also the most proactive character in the movie and the one with the most focus. As Puella is well-known for its deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre, Homura's promotion to protagonist... unfortunately means that she actually succeeds in her goal and has to brainwash her friends to get it to work. Even she's not happy over it, even though she fully believes it was justified and necessary.
  • The Pleiades Saints from Puella Magi Kazumi Magica are out to stop the witches... by kidnapping and cryogenically freezing them when they’re still magical girls. Also, many of the members of this organization end up turning against each other as well. Special mention goes to Kanna Hijiri, who ends up being the Final Boss.
  • Though fairly brutal Well-Intentioned Extremists (to the point of being Serial Killers), Oriko Mikuni and Kirika Kure of Puella Magi Oriko Magica get by far the most focus and development of any character, are involved in a conflict where Grey-and-Grey Morality is the order of the day, and eventually win. This is particularly the case in Sadness Prayer—while the original manga had something of a Third Line, Some Waiting plot and initially cloaks them in mystery, Sadness Prayer takes place entirely from their point of view. They're considered the villains due largely to being Canon Foreigners who opposes the original characters. Spinoff Extra Story drops the "Villain" part, with the duo being entirely heroic in that story due to a different timeline.
  • Puella Magi Suzune Magica has Suzune Amano, a Magical Girl Serial Killer who wants to stop her targets from becoming witches. Though in this case, she’s being manipulated by Kagari and Kyubey.

• Keyaru from Redo of Healer, after being put through absolute hell and getting another shot at life, becomes a Serial Rapist and a truly vicious bastard whose first and foremost motivation is revenge for himself and those he gathers for his party, and the way that he carries out this revenge is just as vile as what was initially done to him. He murders, rapes, and steals, rampaging across the land, seeing the law as little more than a "guideline", and the fact that this revenge actually helps the helpless and protects the innocent is a happy byproduct.

• The Rise of Scourge focuses on bloodthirsty murderer Scourge, as he commits murder, murderously.

• Pumpkin Night: The masked serial killer, Kirino Naoko is shown off as the Big Bad at first but that gets subverted, as she becomes more prominent after the first chapter.
• RABUKOMEQUEST concerns a 400-year-old witch named Milia reaching the pinnacle of evil. When she learns that the chosen hero would kill her three years in the future, Milia resolves to hunt down him down and kill him only to fall in love with him.
• Crimson, from Ragna Crimson. Ragna himself agrees, exasperatedly so, with the Argentum Corps' sentiment that Crimson is a sadistic, cold-hearted piece of shit and a "persistent stain on the toilet bowl of the world", stating that he's going to eventually kill him after cleansing the world of the Dragon bloodlines. But for now, they're partners because A) Crimson also hates the dragons and B) he's genuinely competent.
• Sgt. Frog: Keroro half the time, though he's not a very effective one.
• The protagonist, Ryo Narushima, in Shamo. He murders his parents in the first 3 pages of the book, and throughout the series commits (or at least attempts to commit) multiple acts of murder and rape.
• Yes she's adorable, but Ika Musume from Squid Girl is trying to conquer the surface world. She's just really, really bad at it.
• Sheila of Superior wants to achieve a future where humans will never again slaughter demons. However, she believes that the war will never end so long as both humans and demons continue to exist. Naturally, her solution is a bit . . . final. (Exa's near-absolute pacifism provides the jolt she needs to stop killing, at least temporarily, but matters aren't helped by the fact that she's the one person Exa wants to kill, as vengeance for slaughtering his entire village.)
• Talentless Nana is all about the eponymous Nana Hiiragi, a sociopathic serial killer who's made it her life's mission to murder all superpowered "Talented" individuals. Eventually she starts on her path to a Heel–Face Turn once she discovers the truth about her past.
• Ling Xiaoyu from Tekken: Blood Vengeance is probably the most heroic example of this trope ever, seeing that she was only in it because her target is Alisa. After her opponent goes out of her way to save her life following a showdown, she pulls a Heel–Face Turn and allies herself with her so they can get to the bottom of what their superiors are really up to.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred focuses mainly on day-to-day life of the title character's Arch-Enemy Vamp of Florsheim and all his Evil Minions. Vamp is a Harmless Villain (and his minions moreso) and obeys Contractual Genre Blindness, and the whole thing is one long string of Villains Out Shopping. It's very much Played for Laughs.
• Natsuo of Teppu definitely qualifies. The realistic high school setting of the manga means that she's probably not going to be murdering anyone, but she has demonstrated herself to be ruthless, selfish, arrogant, and frequently sadistic. For example, she initiates a fight with her future rival just because she's bored, and her rival's cheerfulness and self-confidence pisses her off. Natsuo has gotten a little less arrogant over the course of the series so far, but otherwise she's still just as much of a bitch as she was at the start.
• Two of the protagonists in Terror in Resonance are terrorists who are planting bombs all over Tokyo. Granted they aren't trying to actually kill anyone .
• Utaite no Ballad is the story of Seiji Kotani, better known as SEIYA; a rising star in the Japanese music industry — who is also a Serial Rapist of underage girls that forms a bonafide cult around himself.
• Wolfsmund begins as a series of tragic stories only connected by the presence of sadistic bailiff Wolfram and the eponymous border pass that he oversees. Virtually no one has gotten past Wolfsmund alive or unscathed thanks to him. However, it eventually becomes clear that the story is really about the formation of the Old Swiss Confederacy; Wolfram himself is merely an embodiment of why the Swiss hate Habsburg rule so much, and ends up being a Decoy Protagonist who is executed 3/4s of the way through the story.

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