Anime released in 2021 had awesome heroes and some gruesome villains! Was there an antagonist who touched the viewers’ hearts with their backstory or the pain they went through? Top-notch anime like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, and My Hero Academy had some of the best plots, which would have never been this interesting if there was no antagonist. Villains like Dabi have a tragic past, whereas some people with a tragic past choose to make their life better, like his brother Shoto, who, despite not being able to forgive his father for his past actions, became a young hero saving the masses and defeating pro villains. It’s all about how a person decides to cope up with their problems.
However, there are some villains like Mahito and Sukuna, who are so popular because of their personalities that often the viewers forget that they’re mass murderers. There are villains like Muzan who can change their age and looks. He might seem like a small kid or your friendly neighbor, well, just before he devours you! The best villains are those who have dual versions, they might seem like fun, but when they show their true nature, it’s already too late to escape! Let us look into the best anime villains of 2021.
10. Mahito : Jujutsu Kaisen
Mahito is a crazy and fun character from Jujutsu Kaisen whom you’ll totally love, well, till you actually see him fight. He kills Junpei’s mother and manipulates him to think that it is the ‘humans’ who killed her. Pure-minded Junpei falls into his trap. When Jujutsu Kaisen’s investigation began, Nanami Kento finds Mahito in an underground sewer tunnel and challenges him in battle. Mahito asks Nanami about what he thinks is more innate to human existence: the body or the soul?
Nanami replies that he thinks the body is more inherent than the soul. To this, Mahito answers that in his opinion, the soul is more innate since his ability ‘Idle Transfiguration’ can reshape the soul of anyone, even himself, thus disfiguring its attached body. When Itadori Yuuji fought Mahito, he tried to convince Junpei that Mahito was the one killing innocent people. By the time Junpei understood this, he was disfigured and transformed into a weak curse. This scene was one of the most heartbreaking moments in Jujutsu Kaisen.
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9. Akito Sohma: Fruits Basket
She is the main antagonist of the anime. Akito is the head of the Sohma family and is feared by most. She has no empathy and is a misogynist. Akito is very insecure due to her upbringing too. Her mother’s treatment of her made her feel intimidated and still haunts her. Her mother felt insecure upon discovering that her child would be female and demanded that her daughter should be raised male because she was afraid that a female child would steal her place in her husband’s heart. She even threatened to abort the baby unless her demands were met. After Akito’s birth, she was presented as a male, and only the four eldest of the cursed Sohmas knew about her real gender.
Her father died early, and eventually, Akito was made the head of the Sohma family, acting as a male in addition to her role as the God of the Zodiac animals. Akito is possessed of the Zodiac’s God-Spirit, which forces all the cursed Sohmas to obey her every word. She loathes Tohru till the end because she’s afraid that everyone will leave her. Akito is short-tempered and has abused and scarred many of the Sohmas for life, like Hatori, Kyo, Rin, Hiro, Kisa, Yuki. In the end, the curse was broken, Akito and Shigure finally confessed their feelings and reconciled. Akito begins living and dressing as a woman and visits every zodiac sign.
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8. Tetta Kisaki: Tokyo Revengers
Tetta Kisaki is an evil man who is a manipulative gangster and the leader of Valhalla. He is obsessed with becoming a powerful leader of the Tokyo Manji Gang in the future. He wants to rise to power by manipulating Mikey and then make Toman the largest crime syndicate. In the beginning, he seems like a puny thug, but slowly he starts to show off his true colors. He murders Hinata for rejecting him and hates her ex-boyfriend and the protagonist of the anime, Takemichi. Kisaki killed off Mikey’s loved ones secretly in order to manipulate and corrupt him. He even killed Draken’s girlfriend, aka Mikey’s sister, Emma. Kisaki may not have great fighting skills, but his high intellect, techniques to manipulate and gain power have always made him stay at the top of every gang he was in.
7. En: Dorohedoro
The En family keeps on torturing Kaimen and Nikaido in the anime. They are full of maniacs, and En sits on a cloud that can make anything turn into fungi. En is an intimating authority, but his obsession with mushrooms makes his comical side visible. He even has a garden of mushrooms and eats lots of mushrooms all the time. His magical skills include lots of special moves, including mushrooms as well!
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6. Echidna : Re:ZERO – Starting Life in Another World
Echidna is the Witch of Greed. She was previously destroyed by the Witch of Envy 400 years ago. She kept only her spirit in the world. Echidna invited Subaru several times to her tea party in his dream to consult about Subaru’s struggles with “return by death”. Finally, Subaru was able to talk to someone else about his return by death for the first time and cried, unable to stop the feelings he had been holding back. She is more of an anti-hero than a villain. If her powers weren’t used, the whole plot would change!
5. Dabi: My Hero Academia
Dabi is a villain in BNHA who originally appears in Season 2. His bits have been shown all over the anime. The viewers are very curious about the character because he is very mysterious as well as even more powerful than the Number 1 hero, Endeavor! Originally, Dabi is Toya Todoroki, the eldest son of Endeavor and Rei Todoroki. He is a major antagonist in the anime and a member of the League of Villains. He has a quirk called ‘Cremation’ which engulfs everything in the hottest ‘blue’ fire. However, Dabi’s body has a low tolerance for his own flames because not always quirks are compatible with one’s body. This is due to the fact that he inherited his mother’s resistance to freezing temperatures.
Endeavor abandoned training him once he came to know about this and hence the cheerful boy turned obsessive towards achieving his father’s goals and ended up burning his body severely. Unable to live in an abusive environment, he faked his death and left before renaming himself as ‘Dabi’. He’s one of the strongest Villains and also one of the nine lieutenants of the Paranormal Liberation Front.
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4. Daki: Demon Slayer Entertainment Arc
Daki is one of the main antagonists of the Entertainment Arc. She hid in the Entertainment District and consumed tons of women, in the excuse of ‘they ran away with their lovers’. She’s in the Upper Moon 6th position with a horrendous power. Her flesh in the form of an Obi sash that is worn around the kimono is strong enough to hold off the combined efforts of Zenitsu Agatsuma, Inosuke Hashibira, Makio and Suma, who are thoroughly trained in ninja arts. Previously, Daki has killed and eaten 7 Hashiras too! Her main power is her sash that can cut through anything, store people whom she eats whenever required and easily pull the sash back in. She can regenerate in a few seconds, and has immunity from Nichirin Swords, because her brother, Gyuutaro’s body is embedded in her. Both the siblings share the Upper Moon 6th position.
3. Overhaul: My Hero Academia
Overhaul is an extremely powerful hero in BNHA. He is mysophobic and antisocial, who is obsessed with returning the world to the way it was before the development of Quirks. Due to his mysophobia, Overhaul or Kai believes that Quirks are actually like a plague on humanity, and have infected people with “syndromes” such as ‘heroism’ and ‘villainy’. He is extremely determined to eradicate all the Quirks.
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2. Muzan: Demon Slayer Entertainment Arc
Eons ago, Muzan was turned into a demon while he was trying to cure his terminal illness. Thereafter, his goal is to live without the fear of death. He wants to achieve Nirvana or in layman terms, he wants to become truly eternal. He plans to make his mission successful in 2 ways: first is by finding the Blue Spider Lily, by which the doctor had cured him (the medicine was just a prototype, and out of impatience Muzan killed the Doctor because he had left his hopes that he would survive) or by creating more demons so that one-day evolution would make the demons resistant to sunlight.
Muzan is the strongest demon in the world and possesses massive powers and abilities that are far better than all the 12 moons. He is able to fight against five Hashiras, Tanjiro, Inosuke, Zenitsu and Kanao simultaneously. Muzan can control all the demons, as seen when he could take control of Nakime’s body. He’s not able to some exceptions like Nezuko as well.
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1. Sukuna : Jujutsu Kaisen
Ryomen Sukuna is a heavily cursed spirit also known as the ‘King of Curses’. He is one of the main antagonists of the series. A thousand years ago, during the golden age of jujutsu Sukuna used to be a human sorcerer who was cannibalistic in nature. After his death, turned into a cursed spirit. When he was defeated, his curse was way strong so his body couldn’t be fully destroyed. Therefore, his 20 indestructible fingers were preserved in grave wax.
Hence, they traversed the ages as cursed objects and were ever-growing in power. In the anime, Sukuna is incarnated into Yuuji Itadori since he ate one of Sukuna’s fingers in a desperate situation. Sukuna has immense curse energy, strength, intellect, the best reflexes and he can use barrier techniques as well.
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