A Lighter Shade of Black in Anime and Manga.
- Akame ga Kill!: The Jaegars can be very ruthless, but they are not barbarians. They don't indiscriminately kill the Empire's citizens unless they suspect them of working with La Résistance. Every member has their own share of Pet the Dog moments. This is very stark contrast to Wild Hunt, who are willing to kill the Empire's citizens for any reason (even for fun). In fact, considering the state of the Empire's government, the Jaegars come across as the the best possible hope of protection for the Empire's citizens.
- Area 88: In both the manga and the OVA, Asran's pro-monarchy forces are not the good guys. The Asran monarchy lives in luxury while Asran struggles with poverty and a poor educational system. Saki is willing to use nuclear weapons in the country's civil war. Many of the mercenaries at Area 88 are amoral or outright sociopathic. However, members of Asran's monarchy have sympathetic moments, as do many of the mercenaries. To boot, the anti-government forces are depicted as much worse, committing atrocities against civilians and allying with Farina's mafia. However, the manga shifts this to Black-and-Gray Morality when boththe pro- and anti-government forces both turn on Project 4, a ruthless arms syndicate.
- Most of the villains in Black Butler are worse than Ciel.
- Black Lagoon: The protagonists are pirates and smugglers who are quite willing to do all manner of immoral acts if the pay is right. They're still much better than most of their opponents, who include neo-Nazis, bloodthirsty cartels, and the other inhabitants of Roanapor.
- Death Note: Even Rem agrees, while Light Yagami may be a bastard he isn't as bad as Kyosuke Higuchi. Not that that excuses any of Light's own depravity. This ends up getting subverted when Light eventually becomes far worse than Higuchi ever was.
- Dragon Ball:
- There's no denying that Nappa is a ruthless villain, but he seems to care for his comrades, as shown in Dragon Ball Z when he suggested the Dragon Balls be used to wish their fallen fellow Saiyan, Raditz, back to life; a suggestion Vegeta shoots down in favor of his own desire for immortality.
- Vegeta himself serves as the lesser evil to Frieza during the Namek Saga. Both are truly evil with plans on conquering the galaxy, with Dende even remarking Vegeta isn't so different from Frieza, but Vegeta nonetheless has a warrior's sense of pride, Villainous Valor, and is willing to work with the Z-Fighters against a common threat, while Frieza at his best is far more sadistic and cutthroat than Vegeta at his worst, and a Dirty Coward to boot. In fact, this is the entire reason Krillin agrees to make Vegeta immortal using the Dragon Balls, because while Vegeta is undoubtedly a monster, Frieza is just that much worse.
- Beerus, the God of Destruction and the villain of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods stands out amongst the Z-Fighters' Rogues Gallery. Most other Dragon Ball villains, especially Frieza and Cell, are utterly sadistic, depraved monsters who kill and destroy whoever and whenever they want For the Evulz. Beerus, on the other hand, only destroys because it's his job (though he is prone to destroying planets for petty reasons) and is quite sociable and friendly when off the clock. He'll keep on delaying the clock, too, as long as you keep his stomach full of good food and keep him of the opinion that blowing up your planet will rob him of said food.
- To a certain extent, Cooler to Frieza. They're both ruthless galactic conquerors that like pummeling their opponent, but Cooler's less sadistic and more focused on just finishing off his opponent. Plus he respects his men as opposed to ruling them through fear like Frieza.
- In Dragon Ball Super, Frost from Universe 6 plays a similar role to Frieza. While Frost may be a crime lord and con-artist who profiteers off war like Frieza used to do, he isn't a sadist. He is motivated mostly by money and respect, which although hardly noble, is a very "human" desire and leads him to cultivate a Villain with Good Publicity in order to get the most benefit out of his crimes and even when found out he keeps his head about himself, unlike Frieza who gladly slaughters anyone he comes across for kicks and revels in being the most feared being in the universe. It's how Frost achieves it that makes him evil. To his credit, however, he could have easily strong-armed a city into giving him a new base of power once he lost everything and/or tried to wage an universal war using what was left of his empire, but he instead lives on the streets and tries not to harm anyone despite his great power, even hiding from patrolling police officers when he could easily obliterate them with a flick of a wrist. When caught by the assassin Hit with no chance to escape (though not realizing Hit came with a different purpose than killing him), he chooses to silently accept his fate after a brief battle instead of blowing up the planet like Frieza whenever he is forced against the ropes.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Greed is still an antagonist and kind of a jerk, but he's leagues better than his fellow homunculi/siblings/former allies. He treats his underlings well and has their genuine respect and is not especially malicious.
- The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?): The Earthworld Empire has its share of corrupt nobles and a glass ceiling for women, which is a continent-wide issue, but it's presented more positively than other countries due to being relatively better about racial equality.
- Godzilla: The Planet Eater: Godzilla is outright malevolent to humanity and seeks to wipe them out, going against Ghidorah, the titular Planet Eater who devours worlds at the behest of the cultist alien race, the Exif. As such, Godzilla ends up as the lesser of the two evils and ultimately saves the planet from Ghidorah, though he does kill the main protagonist Haruo in the finale.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Suit Gundam's Kycilia Zabi is a fascist dictator who holds that We Have Reserves and once left a group of her own men buried alive in a collapsing mine. That said, she's not quite as awful as her older brother, Gihren, a psychopath who aims to reduce the population of Earth to less than a billion and who murders their father with a Wave-Motion Gun. This makes it possible, if just, to root for her as the two of them manouvere for position in the Zeon hierarchy.
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ spoiler: Invoked by Haman Khan as she tries to convince Judau to ally with her against Glemmy Toto. Haman explains that she's just a conqueror who doesn't believe in the Zabi name she's using as a flag, but Glemmy does, and Glemmy will drown the Earth Sphere in blood because of it. Judau doesn't buy it; as far as he can tell, Haman and Glemmy are exactly the same, and he's not going to pick one above the other.
- My Hero Academia: The villains of the setting are typically Card Carrying Villains with no qualms about causing harm and destruction wherever they go, and few redeeming qualities. The main outliers are the Arc Villains of the Culture Festival Arc, Gentle Criminal and his sidekick La Brava. Gentle makes it clear that he has no desire to cause harm and simply desires one thing: to make his mark on history. He originally wanted to be a hero to accomplish this goal, but when that dream crashed and burned, he resorted to villainy, his brand of which being very petty in comparison to others like the League of Villains or the Shie Hassaikai: holding up stores and committing B&E's. His sidekick, La Brava, was ostracized for her awkward and stalkerish behavior and would've been Driven to Suicide had she not discovered Gentle's videotaped exploits online, leading her to seek him out and become his partner in crime. While some of the other villains in the series have camaraderie and friendship with each other, Gentle and La Brava are dedicated to each other on a whole different level, such that when Midoriya defeats them and they are taken into custody, Gentle goes the extra mile to protect La Brava by claiming he forced her into villainy so that she could receive leniency.
- Pokémon: The Series: Team Rocket are a bunch of unscrupulous thieves that have spent the entire series trying (and failing) to steal Ash's Pikachu and/or the wide variety of other trainers' Pokémon or random wild ones they encounter. The trio always revel in their villainy — but they're actually much nicer than other villains they face off against. Team Aqua, Team Magma, Team Galactic, Team Plasma, etc.; they're all a bunch of unsympathetic criminal scumbags who will not hesitate to cross every line possible — including and up to The End of the World as We Know It — to achieve their goals, whereas Team Rocket consists of Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains who are as incompetent as they come, get their asses handed to them almost every time they encounter Ash and co., and spend every waking moment barely managing to scrape by. Not only that, but they have some standards compared to the aforementioned teams.
