Villain Song / Anime & Manga

Villain Songs in Anime and Manga.

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• In Rock Musical Bleach, Aizen, Ichimaru and Tosen have one, spoken in Japanese with a mix of Gratuitous English, "Catharsis of Eternity."
  • There's also the Bleach Beat Collections, three of which (at least) have the voice actor for the character singing two songs pertaining to their character. "Kyouka Suigetsu" by Aizen's is particularly haunting, while Ulquiorra's song is apt to his personality by title; "Crush the World DowN". Grimmjow also has two songs, one titled "BrEaK" and the other as "Six Feelings".
• As Misa Amane (like her crush/master Kira) is a Knight Templar extremist with genuine "good guys" as enemies, her song in the Death Note episode "Silence" is technically a Villain Song of sorts - it focuses on hers and fellow villain Kira's support for each other (Kira is even mentioned as "God" in the song). Since Misa is no Card-Carrying Villain, the song is a soft, sentimental, simple ballad, and sounds like the thing that would normally be sung by a non-evil character (both Misa and Light genuinely believe that they are doing the right thing for the world). Not to mention the fact that she's singing it while killing people.
  • Since "Mr. Grinch" counts, one may submit that the entire first opening theme to Death Note is, in fact, a villain song. When the lyrics are translated, they are essentially Light's philosophy and goal touted out for the world to see as the show begins. The difference, though, is that "Mr. Grinch" is sung by the Grinch himself.
  • The spinoff stage musical (if it counts) has Light singing 'Where Is The Justice?' as a rally cry for supporters to his cause, followed by 'The Name Is Kira!', sung by Ryuk ABOUT Kira and his actions.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure: The first season features numerous songs for the villains, most notably first Big Bad Devimon's "Dark Wing" and the Not-So-Harmless Villain second Big Bad Etemon's "Love Serenade". Note that these were also the name of their main attacks. Being a Musical Assassin, the Gag Dub gave Etemon a pair of songs in the English translation as well: "Yeah! (The Coolest Cat There Is)" in Episode 17 and "Big-Time Digi-Destined Blues" when he comes Back from the Dead in Episode 46.
  • Ken Ichijouji, Beelzebumon, and Duskmon had villain songs too. Beelzebumon's is weird because he seems to be singing as Blast Mode (he talks about having wings), but he's not a villain anymore by the time he reaches that form.
  • Digimon Fusion gives us "Dark Knight - Immortal Lord", a song where DarkKnightmon boasts about how he's the only real badass in town and that he's gonna show the good guys how far beneath him they are.
• Dr. Mashiritio was given one in the second Doctor Slump movie, Hoyoyo Space Adventure. It starts ominous at first, but it changes to a very cheesy 80's rock song.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Red Ribbon Army from the first Dragon Ball anime had its own theme.
  • And when Dragon Ball Z Kai came around, its Song Collection CD had songs for Vegeta, Freeza, and the Ginyu Force.
  • The second CD then followed this up by giving ones for #18 and Cell as well.
  • The Japanese band Maximum the Hormone wrote this song about Freeza. It went on to become the inspiration for, and be featured in, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'.
• Jinnai Katsuhiko's very martial-sounding Image Song from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World is "Seifukuou Jinnai Katsuhiko", AKA "The Conqueror Jinnai".
• Fushigi Yuugi:
  • Soi's image song "Kooritachi no Pride"
    What do you want? I'll snatch it from you
    What is precious to you? I'll shatter it completely
    Where are you going? I'll block your way
  • Yui's image song, "Aoi Arashi", wherein she sings of her desire to take revenge on Miaka and Tamahome:
    I'll make it so / you alone will never be happy.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) features "Trance to Homunculus" for the Homunculi. It's mostly a creepy techno beat set to quotes from the titular villains from the show.
• Guardian Fairy Michel's end credits song is the Black Hammer Gang's theme, sung by cute chibi-versions of themselves. With the fairies watching, of course.
• Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • Though she doesn't sing it in the context of the series, one of Ryouko Asakura's image songs is a rock/techno villain song about the inferiority of humans and their emotions, her inability to feel kindness and joy and her being left out of the end credits.
  • She also sings a slightly modified version of "Hare Hare Yukai" in which she sings that even if she knew everything she'd never be able to change her fate. And of course, if you don't speak Japanese, this sounds exactly like the optimistic original version.
• Rip Van Winkle from the fourth Hellsing OVA was fond of singing the German opera Der Freischütz. The YouTube clips seem to have her singing the hero's part — O diese Sonne!. And when Alucard attacks her in the manga, he sings the demon's part.
• Big Bad Miyo Takano of Higurashi: When They Cry has a rather fitting Villain song in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai ~Character Case Book~ Vol. 2, Bon~Karma, with evil laughing, death threats and all.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • The song "Voodoo Kingdom" performed by the rap group SOUL'd OUT for the Phantom Blood movie is this to Dio Brando.
  • "Oingo Boingo Ending" from Stardust Crusaders is sung by the duo during their debut's credits. It's delightfully quirky as expected.
    • It gets a reprise by Boingo and Hol Horse.
• "Blumenkranz", from Kill la Kill, is Ragyo Kiryuin's theme, and certainly fits. While not sung by her, the Ominous German Chanting describes her worldview and her motives very well.
  • Although it doesn't have lyrics, Nui Harime's leitmotif counts. It's comprised of creepy chimes, eerie choral stings, and oppressive beats, perfectly underlining her unsettling presence.
• The Black Four from Kimba the White Lion have a catchy and somewhat surreal number about "doin' dirty business in style".
• While there are no villains singing in Kinnikuman itself, EVERY villain has a villain song released on soundtrack. The villains themselves don't sing them admittedly, but it IS written as if they were the ones singing them, and they do give intros to the song, and sometimes even have spoken lines in them.
• Another example from JAM Project: "The Gate of the Hell", the opening song for the Mazinkaiser movie. The song starts to appear just after Lori and Loru gives their lives to ensure Koji's survival. After a mourning and a This Is Unforgivable! kind-of phrase from Koji's part, cue opening sequence, which displays how the other mechas are unable to deal with the new threat, while Koji, Sayaka and the Professor Morimori are trying to return to Japan for the eponymous mecha.
• Plenty in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
  • The first season only had two. "Kuro no Kyousokyoku ~concerto~" was a dark rock revelry filled with Minion Shipping and singing about breaking the bonds between the mermaids; appropriately enough, it's introduced around the same time as Caren, who threatens to tear the group apart, and it's eventually defeated by a song called "Kizuna" (Bonds). "Return to the Sea" hinted at Sara's motivations and got a Triumphant Reprise near the end. The second season gave the Black Beauty Sisters another song, "Yami no Baroque", much like their previous song, and gave each of the new villains their own songs where they sing about their powers (Lady Bat about hypnotism and vampirism, Lanhua about her instant minions, Alala about her Lotus-Eater Machine stars) or their loneliness (Michel's "Tsubasa wo Daite", which also hinted at his connection with Michal because her "Ashita wa Mienakute" used some of the same music).
  • Look at the Lyrical Dissonance in "Yami no Baroque". An upbeat, pop karaoke tune about crushing, nihilistic despair.
    • Lady Bat's "Ankoku no Tsubasa". A very evil song (with a seductive beginning) about losing your love and sacrificing yourself to the world of darkness (and to Lady Bat's kiss) with a catchy tune and a badass guitar solo.
• In Mini Moni The Movie: Okashi na Daibōken! Queen Nakajalinu gets a song boasting about her beauty and how much she hates cake and sweets.
• The Mobile Suit Gundam main rival, Char Aznable is given "Char ga Kuru" as his theme music. In episode 13, "Coming Home", the Federation soldiers occupying Amuro's mom's house are listening to the song on the radio. In the 2000 Japanese redub of the first movie, the scene where the White Base crew are vacationing on a beach while Amuro is off visiting his mom also has them listening to the same song on the radio.
• Nerima Daikon Brothers, being a musical anime, a villain song was bound to pop up. You have two songs from the corrupt fortune teller set to the same tune and a lot of reappearing tunes are fit onto the villain of the week, from abusive host boys to a corrupt nurse. In the final few episodes the Prime Minister gets his own about his political ideals playing in his floating fortress, but it wasn't translated in English because of how the audio was recorded. They lampshade this in the dub.
• Big Mom's Establishing Character Moment in One Piece is the song "Bloody Party", a carnivalesque tune about her subordinates committing mass slaughter for the sake of wedding cake ingredients.
• In Overlord (2012), Renner delivers a glorious one in "Fallen". This song perfectly illustrates just how total her victory was over her own kingdom and, as many viewers have pointed out, it gives Renner the vibe of an evil Disney Princess.
• Adachi gets one in Persona 4: The Golden Animation entitled "Ying Yang". It is divided into 2 portions. One is a rap battle between himself and Yu performed by Lotus Juice. The other is a melancholy ballad about how he's "become so numb".
• Pretty Cure albums tend to give each season’s Quirky Miniboss Squad a song to sing. This doesn’t happen with every season, however.
• Pokémon:
  • Team Rocket from Pokémon: The Series had their own self-sung theme, at least on one of the American soundtrack albums: "Double Trouble". Though, like some examples above, this also falls into the Quirky Miniboss Squad territory (though "The Boss" does chip in a few lines, too).
  • They get their own song in the Japanese version, too. Two of them, in fact: the bombastic "Rokketo-Dan yo Eien Ni" (Team Rocket Forever) and the more comical and fast-paced "Maemuki, Roketto-dan!" (Look Ahead, Team Rocket!)
  • "Team Rocket Forever" actually got a dubbed version in which they decide one day that they're tired of doing their motto over and over again. Ironically, the song is only ever heard again once, and then only in part.
  • One of the Japanese soundtracks had the song "Ware wa Collector / I am a collector" for Lawrence III AKA the collector from Pokémon 2000.
  • Japanese ending theme for XYZ Rocket-dan Danka (Team Rocket Theme).
• Revolutionary Girl Utena has very fitting music indeed for Akio. His theme song sounds like it's from a porn.
• Sailor Moon doesn't usually give the villains image songs, but they did for Galaxia. Her song, Golden Queen Galaxia is equal parts bitchin' guitar solo, jazz-tempo piano and evil harpsichord. Pretty badass overall.
  • Queen Beryl also got a song as well (albeit it wasn't sung by her voice actress) but it is nevertheless meant to be Beryl's song about stealing energy.
• Reo and Mabu from Sarazanmai sing "Kawausoiya" ("Otterly Sexy" in the dub), a homoerotic musical number every time they perform a desire extraction.
• Utau Hoshina from Shugo Chara!, an Idol Singer employed by the easter company, has two. "Meikyuu Butterfly" (Labyrinth Butterfly) which has lyrics which actually describe her situation, and "BLACK DIAMOND" in which she calls out to children asking them to reveal their hearts desires - in a song in which the playing of destroys and poisons these dreams in an attempt to find The Embryo.
  • Odd example within the fact that, heard singularly, neither song is particularly villainous: Meikyuu Butterfly tells of both her love for Ikuto (and also has some lines referring towards the fact that it's incest), and, upon a related note, how the easter company has trapped her by making threats to harm Ikuto to force her to cooperate (them both leaving results within the same being done to their mother), whereas Black Diamond is something that only relates to the topic with the above mentioned question, otherwise not relating towards anything involving Utau her - self at all.
• Symphogear:
  • GX has Big Bad Carol's Image Song, Senkin - Daurdabla, which serves as a combined Motive Rant, Badass Boast and perfectly encapsulates her desires and plans. Note the title means Genocide Harp. Fitting, for someone whose goal is "Kill all the miracles."
  • In G, Miku's Symphogear battle song Waikyou - Shenshou Jing, is technically a villain song because it is sung when she got Brainwashed and Crazy; it's one part semi-yandere song telling about her misguided desire to protect her object of affection from running off to danger, and one part Anguished Declaration of Love from someone who is actually in mutual relationship but often difficult to spill those three little words.
• The Decepticons (or Destrons) get a pretty badass one in Transformers: ★Headmasters, sung by Mr Hironobu Kageyama, no less.
  • He does it again, this time with the whole JAM Project, for Transformers: Animated's "Praise be to Decepticon".
• Manga example: Makube Rokuro has one in the second volume of Osamu Tezuka's Vampires, a devilish Disney Acid Sequence on paper.
• In Yatterman, the Doronbo Skull Gang usually sings while building their new robots. Most well known of these numbers is "Tensai Doronbo", where they sing about how they love crime, are determined to grab the Skull Stones first, and how everybody loves them more. It pops up in the 2008 remake, and even the live-action movie.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • The dub soundtrack has "Face Up, Face Down" sung by Pegasus.
  • And in the filler Doma Arc (a.k.a. Waking the Dragons), the main tool of the villains is a Field Spell card called the Seal of Orichalcos, which makes it so the loser of the Duel loses their soul. The same music plays every time it's activated; the original Japanese version is a primarily string piece epitomizing the ancient power that's being invoked, while in the 4Kids Entertainment dub, it's a far more bombastic and ominous primarily brass piece.
• Zatch Bell! villains have the occasional habit of breaking into song... songs that are quirky but usually made of awesome. For examples, watch Koral Q act like a tokusatsu hero. Kiees mangles Beethoven wonderfully. Patty's creepy stalker has the rare song that's good in both Japanese and English. And, of course, this trope would be horrendously incomplete without a certain V-shaped 1000-year-old melon-eating badass.

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