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Affably Evil / Anime & Manga

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Tick was a kind man. He was a supremely innocent person, one who had no business associating with the mafia. But he had one talent: He was very, very good at hurting and torturing people.
— Baccano!
  • Hild from Ah! My Goddess. She is a goddess' mother, very playful, very powerful, likes to hug people...and the queen of Hell. Her affability is more potent than most on this list. It's also heavily implied that she performs some notable..."good" in her role — she effectively keeps Hell's more aggressive and (self-)destructive tendencies under wraps, and negotiated a cease-fire with Heaven. She prefers a much more subtle Deal with the Devil means of furthering her goals than the open warfare some of her underlings seem to favor.
  • Assassination Classroom: Koro-sensei initially seems like this, since he's a tentacled monster who shows up in Class 3-E and gleefully claims responsibility for destroying the moon and declares his intention to do the same to Earth, but not before spending a year as the class's Cool Teacher. However, it's eventually revealed that not only is he not the one who blew up the moon, he doesn't actually want to destroy the Earth either. As a former human turned superpowered monster via unethical experimentation, he's essentially a living antimatter bomb who's going to destroy humanity and himself whether he wants to or not.
  • Reiner Braun from Attack on Titan is a justified case. If his side weren't bent on wiping out mankind, he'd probably be a hero and is hinted to have always wanted to be one in the past. Just because he's The Mole and a mass murderer doesn't mean his kind and selfless personality is fake. He's a genuinely nice guy, who happens to be working for the bad guys since a young age, and crushed by guilt over what he's had to do for his mission.
  • Around half the cast of Baccano! falls under this, Lovable Rogue, or a combination of the two.
    • Luck Gandor particularly exemplifies it, as he's generally an intelligent, amicable, and interesting bloke who is unfailingly polite even when he's telling someone he has no use for them whatsoever, and just happens to associate with absolute psychos and do horribly nasty things to guys who cross him.
    • Claire Stanfield is another great example; he's perfectly friendly, charming, and polite to people who he isn't currently trying to turn into bloody messes of gore.
  • Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, although less so in the anime than in the manga. He maintains a sweet, polite demeanor 90% of the time, and often remains warm and patient even when he's being insulted or disrespected. The other servants all adore him. He's so good at it it's easy for some fans to forget or overlook that he's a soul devouring demon after a young child's soul and will commit some of the most heinous deeds if ordered to or if he sees necessary.
  • Kyoko Kirasaki from Black Cat is a Genki Girl and Cloudcuckoolander who is surprisingly friendly for someone who kills people by burning them alive from the inside out. She seems to have a genuine Villainous Friendship with some of her fellow Apostles Of The Stars. After Train "saves" her from a thug that was threatening her (she was seconds away from killing said thug so he really didn't save her, she just thought it was the thought that counted and that he was really cute) she develops a crush on him, which leads to her making a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Most of the cast from Black Lagoon. A few stand out though.
    • Balalaika is a former Soviet special forces commander turned mob queen who's generally calm, collected, funny, has only lost her temper once in the entire series, will occasionally spare people's lives on the grounds that they amuse her, and is usually willing to negotiate before resorting to violence. If said negotiations don't go her way, she won't even blink before casually gunning down everyone in the room. And their families. And their little dogs, too.
    • Dutch, leader of the Black Lagoon Company. A Benevolent Boss who, while showing no qualms about mass murder and human trafficking, takes good care of his employees, is usually calm and polite to everyone around him, and frowns on collateral damage.
    • Benny, Dutch's electronics guy. Pretty decent guy, would probably be great to have a beer and a few laughs with. His day job involves murder, drug running and grave robbing.
    • Also of note is Sir Alfred, a former Nazi bigwig who sent both a group of neo-Nazis and the Lagoon company against one another to find an old painting. When he and Dutch talk, they manage to keep things fairly civil with one another, even though Alfred does nothing to hide the fact that he's racist against Dutch and Dutch doesn't hide the fact that he'd like to stick it to the old goose-stepping codger.
    • Takenaka, the Arc Villain of the "Goat, Jihad and Rock n' Roll" arc. Despite being a terrorist revolutionary who's made it his life's purpose to be an enemy of the state he seems genuine in being 'good cop' towards Rock when interrogating him, asking him how Japan is doing in his absence and trying to convince Rock that they're similar. He later calls off the pursuit of the protagonists because too many of his own allies would be put at risk over it.
  • Starrk and Harribel from Bleach may be the elite killers of an undead army, but they're softly spoken, respect their opponents and genuinely care about their subordinates.
    • Dordonii and Gantenbaine also count, giving Ichigo and Chad a free pass when they were fairly beaten, even encouraging them to not hold back.
    • Askin Nakk Le Varr of the Vandenreich is is a pretty chill, laid back person you wouldn't mind having a cup of tea with...for someone who works for an army of genocidal maniacs who are pretty much Nazis in all but name, and whose boss is even more cruel and morally depraved than all of them put together.
  • Most Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo villains tend to be this and oddballs who often join afro-ed hero in silly antics. Those who aren't this are usually more serious and Faux Affably Evil.
  • Claymore: Isley acts incredibly nice. He helps people out on the road, offers them shelter from the cold, teaches them how to defend themselves, and orders his massive demon army to kill every living thing they see. Wonderful sort of guy.
  • Schneizel from Code Geass. You don't realize he's evil until he leads an emotionally unstable Nina to believe that building FLEIJA was what her idol and Schneizel's own half-sister Euphemia would want, and later manipulates an even more conflicted than usual Suzaku, after fooling him into apparently betraying Lelouch, into carrying it into combat - and firing it, destroying the Tokyo Settlement. To top it all off, he undoes Lelouch's work of forty-something episodes in less than fifteen minutes - by convincing the Black Knights to betray Lelouch. The fact that they're both Magnificent Bastards doesn't help. Schneizel has the advantage of hiding his manipulative nature well under his layer of Dissonant Serenity.
    • Lelouch himself as Zero gives this impression, being highly charismatic and polite even while being utterly ruthless to his enemies and (from the outside) uncaring of innocent civilians getting involved and harmed in the process. He really plays it up as the Demon Emperor being surprisingly polite while conquering the world and doing various other atrocities.
  • Almost all Contractors in Darker than Black are quite affable, when not on the job. To give a few examples:
    • November 11 can be a smug bastard and has a warped sense of humor, but is kind and protective of his partners, and brings a sort of amusing style to his job. Equally friendly and likable is his Hard-Drinking Party Girl partner, April.
    • Amber, the seeming Big Bad of the first season, is a Magnificent Bitch in the body of a Deliberately Cute Child and does some pretty ruthless things while being quite cheerful and moe
    • Amagiri, Amber's Dragon, is the quiet type of the Big Guy in personality, is really quite likable, and gets an amusing Please Put Some Clothes On scene with a hot female Contractor with no nudity taboo. He also participated in blowing up a series of embassy buildings.
    • The series also has human examples in Dr. Schraeder and Youko in the second season. He's a miniature senior citizen and she's a moe nerd, and both are friendly people, but both are completely devoted to the mantra of For Science!, and are utterly amoral in this respect.
  • Dazzle: Kiara fits this trope pretty well; he gives Rahzel useful advice, has tea with her on several occasions and even has the decency to announce that he is her enemy and that she should get stronger so she won't die. This makes it even more creepy when he does finally fulfill his promise to hurt her.
  • From Death Note:
  • From Dragon Ball:
    • Both Mai and Shu from the original Dragon Ball are decent enough and only do bad things under Pilaf's orders.
    • Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon Army is calm, professional, does not immediately resort to violence, and bears Goku no personal grudge.
    • The Ginyu Force in the Namek Saga of Dragon Ball Z are Frieza's top henchmen. Cold and ruthless in battle, yet when you look past that they all seem like a fun bunch of guys. Goku considered letting them all go on the basis that they don't seem so bad, but Vegeta had other ideas.
    • Majin Buu as well. So cheerful and childlike that he doesn't seem to bear ill will towards anyone: he's just trying to have some fun; in fact, the moment it's pointed out to him that, you know, killing people by the millions isn't a nice thing to do, he (genuinely) promises to stop. At least at first... then his truly evil side takes over and he becomes an Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac who is a legitimate threat to the universe at large.
    • Dragon Ball GT: The Shadow Dragons are created from the negative energy that built up in the Dragon Balls every time a selfless wish was made, and the more selfless the wish was, the more evil the Shadow Dragon spawned by the wish is. note  Nuova Shenron was created by King Piccolo's wish for his youth to be restored, the most selfish wish made, so he's hardly a villain at all.
    • There's also the robot worker in Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler.
      Robot: Excuse me. Your attention please. If you'd all be so kind as to follow me. We'll begin chopping you up. (Everyone gets scared) No no. It's not what you think. We don't want to hurt you. We only want the energy from your bodies to power the Big Gete Star. So we just have to chop you up.
    • Also, Frieza's henchman, Zarbon, who is hinted to be a prince in the game Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team. In Raging Blast, he still calls Frieza "lord" when matched up against him in a fight, even though it's clear he's rebelling against him.
      Zarbon (base form): Lord Frieza, your day is done.
      Zarbon (transformed): Lord Frieza, I will take your life!
    • Goku's father, Bardock, falls into this trope in his own movie. He has a surprisingly relaxed personality for a Saiyan, and he visibly gets along well with his teammates, going as far to avenge them when Frieza's henchmen kills them. Oh, and he commits mass genocide for a living. He becomes more affable in Dragon Ball Minus where he's a caring family man and treats planet extermination like a 9-5 job. One he does enjoy, granted.
    • Androids 17 and 18 are probably the friendliest robotic killers you'll ever meet. At least, the ones in the main timeline are — the ones in Trunks' timeline are a different story.
    • Android 16 barely counts as a villain at all beyond his programmed desire to kill Goku. He loves nature and wants to protect the Earth from Cell. He’s also a large reason 17 and 18 aren’t as evil as their future counterparts. This is intentional as Dr. Gero programmed him with a gentle, pacifistic personality, since he is essentially a robot duplicate of his dead son.
    • The Demon King Dabura even under Babidi's control remains polite, regal and gentlemanly. Quite literally a Noble Demon. The very picture of demon nobility.
    • In Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Super, Beerus is feared throughout the cosmos as he is the God of Destruction and even more powerful than Majin Buu. He can not only stand up to Goku's Super Saiyan 3 form, but can kick his ass in such a fight. Despite this, he's really only a threat when he's annoyed. The rest of the time he's quite pleasant, to the point where he apologies for spoiling Bulma's birthday party.
  • Mononobe from Eden of the East. When he fails to recruit Takizawa Akira into his Evil Plan to attack Japan with missiles, he simply lets him go. When Takizawa beats him, he simply gives up and has a nice chat with Takizawa. This is mostly because he is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who actually believes his plans are the best for the country. Takizawa himself never actually blames him or calls him out on his extremist views; instead, he asks Mononobe for advice, and agrees with his Evil Plan, but amends it so that nobody dies.
  • Charles and Ray from Eureka Seven. They're friendly, worldly, nice mercenaries for hire, who just happened to have a grudge against the good guys and were paid to take advantage of that. They honestly treat Renton better than most of the main characters, and they even plan on adopting him as their own son. Their deaths are some of the saddest moments in the show.
  • The Hakushuu Dinosaurs as a whole, a football team in Eyeshield 21. While you can't really be "evil" in football, they try their damnedest, using very dirty tactics.
    • Marco, the quarterback, is a polite guy, drinks soda, offers under-the-table deals to other teams for the best of everyone, sends flowers to the enemy before a game, and is fighting for the love of his life, the team manager, Maria. However, he doesn't care if he's crushing other people's dreams. Or bones. Of all the team members, Marco best personifies this trope: Nice Guy off the field, but on the field, he uses completely brutal tactics, relying on Gaou and Kisiragi to injure the other teams' players.
    • Kisiragi is Delicate and Sickly, prone to frequent fevers and illnesses. He has loads of respect for Marco, a huge man-crush on Gaou, and is self-deprecating about his own abilities while lauding those of his opponents. He also suffers from a bad case of Blood Knight and In Love with Your Carnage, and plays with the intent of dislocating the arms of other receivers.
    • And King Evil himself, Gaou. He respects the rules and other players, and is pretty harmless off the field (unless you pick a fight deliberately). On the field, he raises his strength and deliberately tries to smash everyone in his way.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Greed, one of the homunculi who are collectively the antagonists of the series, will never hit a woman, has a policy for always saying the truth, is respected and loyally followed by his comrades, and can even be nice if he wants to. That's not stopping him from being a pompous, greedy bastard and performing dubious acts for his own sake. He ends up doubling as a Noble Demon, especially the second Greed, who ultimately ends up an Anti-Hero. It's probably because he's Greed. He is greedy for everything, which includes as many comrades/subordinates/friends as possible, as he explains in the Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), though in the manga and second anime, he is much more reluctant to admit this. He's quite protective of anyone or anything he considers his "property", and would rather admit defeat or run from battle than risk losing any of them to death or injury. Being a big humanity-hating jerk like the other Homunculi won't get him anywhere with that goal.
    • Barry the Chopper is a notorious serial killer who murdered dozens of people for fun. After leaving the Fifth Laboratory, he starts working for Roy Mustang and is surprisingly cooperative and even friendly at times.
    • Father, the Big Bad, is seen as an Affably Evil Cloudcuckoolander when he first meets the Elric brothers, but this doesn't last long.
    • Solf J. Kimblee rarely drops his oily polite demeanor, even as he's blowing people up. This would seem to put him in another category, but his respect for those who have earned it is genuine. In the anime however, this is changed to Faux Affably Evil.
    • Fuhrer King Bradley is a military dictator responsible for genocide in Ishbal, as well as the homunculus Wrath, but he's surprisingly polite and pleasant to others, and has a certain amount of respect for humanity.
  • The Garden of Sinners: Fujino Asagami is very kind and polite, and doesn't want to cause any trouble. She also happens to be a very dangerous psychic and a mass murderer at the same time. Also shown in Fate/Grand Order where she happens to be very polite to the protagonist when she is summoned as an Archer servant.
  • Get Backers has two: Kagami Kyogi and Kuroudo Akabane. Both act like perfectly normal, polite people — even while they're cutting people into bloody bits as a hobby (Akabane), or "observing" a 14 year old build WMDs and doing nothing to stop him (Kyogi).
  • Old Super Robot Genre shows usually has a villain like these. The most standout example are Getter Robo and Great Mazinger, whose their motif for what they do in the show can be simply put as "They are not human." Otherwise, they are just as honorable and heroic as the heroes.
  • Gintama: Abuto is a Space Pirate, and as a Yato who don't see anything wrong with his species ways, have nothing against violently crushing his enemies, he even don't hesitate to fight seriously against Kagura. But on the other hand, he is very laid back about it, is generally far more polite and diplomate than some others space pirates, and sincerely loyal to Kamui. Even after Kagura go berserk during their fight and brutally curbstomp him, he is later shown with the same relaxed attitude when Kamui find him, and don't hold a grudge over it, if anything he is just impressed to see that Kagura have so much potential.
  • Many of the main Gundam villains are more or less affably evil. It'd be easier to list the utterly evil ones. Some of them are also Punch Clock Villains since they only fight because they are soldiers. Thinking about it...it's hard to come up with a straight example, as Gundam mostly lacks really evil people and many of its villains (and sometimes protagonists!) are mostly Well Intentioned Extremists.
  • Some villains in GUN×SWORD are like this.
    • First, there's Gadved, an actually kind pastor who saved Van's life previously, and who still tries, in the most affable way possible, to convert Van to the other side, but he kinda goes a bit batshit when he enters the battlefield...
    • Then, there's Fasalina, an ex-prostitute. Her speech is considerably kind and soft-spoken (it doesn't hide her malicious intents), and she doesn't lose her cool for the most of time...well, until The Claw got killed, but even then, unlike the others whose Villainous Breakdown is going batshit, her breakdown is the 'affable' version of it: crossing the Despair Event Horizon. There's a really good illustration of Fasalina's affability in one scene. She and Carmen 99 are both seeking the services of the same electronics expert. While Carmen 99, one of the heroes, stiffs him of his full payment, Fasalina is a good tipper and thinks it terrible that someone would behave like that.
    • Also, in the same episode, contrast the Claw being a Friend to All Living Things and the behavior of the ruthless Jerkass hero, Ray. Despite the fact that at one point we see him murder a man, it is still impossible to see him as anything but a kind (maybe a little senile) old man.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Most major villains in Kaze no Stigma are very composed and polite even while making their destructive intentions clear.
  • From Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, we have Agaard Jum Sai of Yami. Unlike his disciple, Tirawit Koukin (who is by far the coldest bastard in Yomi), Agaard is almost always smiling and cheerful, and in Chapter 397, he actually thanks Kenichi for being such a good disciple to his nemesis Apachai.
  • A recurring theme with the villain Sunshine in the Kinnikuman series. At first portrayed as just a standard member of his Quirky Miniboss Squad, in a later arc, Sunshine is genuinely moved by the displays of friendship between two of the heroes, because it turns out he feels the same way about his own friends. He even goes so far as to declare "Friendship exists even amongst demons!" at one point.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!'s Customer Service/NME Salesman is so polite and funny at times that it's easy to forget that he wants Kirby dead, like Nightmare.
    • King Dedede is a bigger Jerkass than his games' counterpart, but still leans as something of a redeemable Manchild, most of his actions too ineffectual to be seen as monstrous and he still has a few friendly moments with Kirby and his usually abused minion Escargon.
  • Moguro Fukuzou from Laughing Salesman is always cheerful and friendly, even when he's screwing his clients over.
  • Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero has the Demon Lord, a friendly individual whose reaction to the Hero Party coming to his castle after killing untold numbers of his underlings was to offer them a job (Demons having seven lives and coming back after a few years of slumber played a part), offering to turn them into Demons and thus gaining the same disease-resistant body, seven lives, and non senility as him and the other Demons, plus benefits he didn't get to explain at the time. The Demon Lord then revives after ten years, much too early to regain more than a fraction of his power, just to check on Max... then when he finds out his life is in shambles and he lives as a depressed slacker in a one room apartment after scandals and Gold Diggers ruined his wealth and reputation, he moves in to improve his life. He later asks him again to become a Demon, only this time explaining the benefits: amazing pay, working conditions, and benefits, that are only slightly better than what everyone in the Demon Army gets.
  • Fortis of Huckebein from Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force, who is quite the cheerful, charming, and polite fellow, even when he's talking about the atrocities the Huckebein commit while trying to convince Tohma to join their criminal group.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth: Tatra and Tarta, the twin princesses of Chizeta. They're quite pleasant and polite, and when they capture Umi, they give her tea and explain to her their reasons for invading Cephiro. Umi even forms a genuine friendship with them.
  • In Mega Man Megamix, Dr. Wily makes it abundantly clear just how much he looks down on humanity. However, when it comes to robots and Robot Masters, he can be remarkably polite and respectful. Not only did he give Shade Man a serious talking to for endangering Roll once when she had nothing to do with his scheme, but in the Grand Finale series Gigamix, when Wily City was being destroyed, he entered Papa Wolf territory towards his robots. It's clear he would have fought and died alongside them had Shade Man not put him to sleep so Shadow Man and he could escape.
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid has Kimun Kamui. Yes, he's a warmongering Chaos Dragon and is neglectful to Kanna to the point that it qualifies as abuse, but he is shown to be friendly and jovial to complete strangers. In his first appearance, he invites Kobayashi to drink some expensive sake with him even before he knew who she was, and then offers to give her compensation for looking after his daughter. It's only when Kobayashi curses him out for his failure as a parent that he becomes belligerent.
  • William of Moriarty the Patriot might be the murderous mastermind behind the Lord of Crime terrorizing London, but he's genuinely well-liked by his students, much of the upper class, his coworkers, and the people of Durham, as a very kind, polite, and charming young man. Even his antagonist, Sherlock Holmes, likes him.
  • The Villain Protagonist of Mr Villain's Day Off is perfectly willing to be polite and even helpful to the Rookie Red Ranger of the team that opposes him when he's not working, even though they know each other's identities. He even gives the kid an umbrella when it's raining out. He also loves pandas, and bonds with a kid at the zoo who also loves them.
  • Muhyo and Roji:
    • Enchu was a Nice Guy when he was younger, and remains soft-spoken and polite after his Heel–Face Turn, especially in contrast to Muhyo, who's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
    • Rio Kurotori, after being outed as The Mole, still remains rather affable, and has a soft spot for her old student, Biko.
    • Julio Nil is a cheerful and laid-back forbidden magical law user who doesn't see like much of a threat... but Rio immediately realizes that he's extremely dangerous.
  • My Bride is a Mermaid: Ren Seto, Sun's mother, is so nice and pleasant that she's only "evil" in the sense that she's one of the heads of a yakuza gang. In fact, at the beginning of the series, instead of having either Nagasumi or Sun Killed to Uphold the Masquerade, she decided to Take a Third Option by getting them engaged so both of them could live.
  • My Hero Academia: Himiko Toga is very cheerful and friendly as well as charismatic, often trying to make friends with people even as she's trying to murder them. She has Blue-and-Orange Morality and sees absolutely nothing wrong with murder and believes she can be genuine friends with the people she murders. She thinks that Ochaco is her friend even though she tried to kill her and Ochaco sees her as an enemy.
    • Gentle Criminal is a polite Gentleman Thief who wants to be a famous supervillain but dislikes violence and only steals from the rich and/or corrupt. He was the primary antagonist of the U.A. School Festival Arc, but unlike the League of Villains he didn't want to sneak into U.A. to hurt anyone; he just wanted the Villain Cred that would result from doing so.
  • Nagi from the My-HiME anime speaks in a relaxed tone and tends to address the heroines with polite words instead of taunting them. Naturally, a few of them suspect rather quickly that he's up to no good.
  • Naruto has Akatsuki member Kisame Hoshigaki, an affable and genteel sharkman who will rip your face off...but there's no reason to be rude about it. He's also arguably the Akatsuki's Only Sane Man.
    • Kabuto, Orochimaru's former Second-in-Command, commits crimes against humanity with hardly a blink and casually tortures people not only with acts but also with words but is also one of the politest characters the show has to offer, always addresses people with proper honorifics and sometimes even goes out of his way to help the heroes... At least, before he integrated Orochimaru's cells into his body and completely lost it.
  • From the Negima! Magister Negi Magi manga:
    • Fate Averrancus is leading a group which is trying to carry out the destruction of his world. Despite this, he's actually a very sociable and polite young man, and Nodoka Miyazaki's mind reading artifact reveals that he would have rather preferred not harming anyone from her world, but the fact that she CAN read minds made her a liability enough to his plans that he has to eliminate her. However, he also can be very petty as well, although in a rather small scale, as proved by his treatment of Negi's students once he becomes his teacher, doing things like punishing the cheerleading trio over surpassing the curfew time while on a date he allowed to go on without ever saying a warning word. Before that, he also slaps a powerless Nodoka completely in his power only because her defiant attitude angered him.
    • Earlier, there was Chao Lingshen, who gave the main hero the item of her eventual defeat as a simple thanks for his help. She was also more than willing to deliver a short, cheerful advertisement for her dim sum cart after a long pronouncement of evil towards the opposing army.
  • Altena from Noir is perpetually calm, soft-spoken, motherly, and absolutely sincere, even while discussing mass murder, which makes her creepy.
  • Omamori Himari: Shuten Douji. In his first introduction to the main characters, he has a casual conversation with them...while putting everyone else in sight to sleep, and fighting the heroes with the intent to eat them.
  • From One Piece:
    • Despite that fact that he's a Dirty Coward and that he wins most of his crew members through Davy Back Fights, Foxy is probably the nicest pirate the Straw Hats have ever faced, he genuinely cares for all of his crew and is genuinely appalled at Nami when she considers the peanut tactic of taking him from one of their victories. He also gets upset easily.
    • Former Admiral Aokiji is incredibly relaxed and when he first appears, is able to have a polite conversation with the Straw Hats, even coming off as laid back if not lazy, not at all what they expected from one of the three great powers. He even gives the Straw Hats a chance to get away in exchange for him capturing Nico Robin, mostly as a favor from Luffy's grandfather Monkey D. Garp, though when the need arises he's quite the Chilling Opponent.
    • Admiral Kizaru is incredibly polite, as when he asked a pirate who shot a bullet at him, as it was passing through his head, where his subordinate was. When they replied by running away, he saw no choice but to kick a mangrove tree down in a light-based explosion. Light Is Not Good, indeed.
    • Kaku of CP9 is equally polite and very honest. Before his identity as a villain was revealed, many fans speculated that he would be the shipwright to join the crew.
    • Friendly Punch-Clock Villain Mr. Two Bon Clay was a total asshole when acting as an enemy, cheerfully exploiting Sanji's weaknesses while mocking him about them and so on. Still one of the nicest entries under Creepy Crossdresser, even before his Heel–Face Turn. He is also completely bananas.
    • Trafalgar Law, one of the Eleven Supernovas and now former Warlord of the Sea is incredibly laid back and very calm and collected, he can come off as a pretty nice guy, he can also rip your still beating heart clean out of your chest and you'll still live, among many, many, many other things. It's worth noting he ripped the hearts out of 100 pirates to obtain his Warlord status, and they were still beating. Though despite all this potential cruelty, there are things that disgust even HIM!
    • Blackbeard is cheerful, idealistic, caring towards his henchmen, and generally comes off like a pretty cool guy. He also happens to be a ruthless thief and murderer who’s willing to do anything to put himself on top. The friendliness isn’t faked; he’s always like that and seems to genuinely like Luffy, even when trying to kill him. It’s implied that he doesn’t really understand that what he’s doing is evil or that people would hold grudges about it; when Ace hunts him down to avenge Thatch, Blackbeard acknowledges that he did indeed commit the murder in question, but brushes it off as something that was fated to happen before casually offering Ace a job, seemingly not realizing that he’s there for revenge.
    • Kaido, one of the Four Emperors is a ruthless, bloodthirsty, Darwinistic warmonger that would happily enslave an entire country, and abuse his own child. But he also knows how to show genuine respect to his crew and opponents that can impress him. This is best shown when he's fighting Luffy, going from bemoaning what an upstart he is to genuinely respecting him as they fight. Even going so far as to apologize to him when a CP 0 agent gets in their way and interrupts the battle. It helps immensely that he follows a warrior's code of honor and ensures both he and his opponents have a fair fight.
  • Otherside Picnic has Runa Urimi, whose Compelling voice has given her access to her own personal cult. But she averts You Have Failed Me when her people abduct Sorawo instead of Toriko, loves her Mother, and is generally personable.
  • Ainz Ooal Gown from Overlord (2012) is unfailingly polite, loves all his subordinates like his own children, keeps any Deal with the Devil he offers, and wants to create a utilitarian utopia where all races can live peacefully together. But he still has a complete Lack of Empathy for anyone who's not a part of his kingdom or in an agreement with him, and has no problem killing even millions of those outside his protection if it means keeping those on his side even slightly more safe.
  • Patlabor:
    • Patlabor: The Mobile Police/The New Files: Richard Wong's eccentric, happy-go-lucky, demeanor isn't an act. At least, not entirely. It's just the way he is, as seen in his introductory appearance when he first meets Noa and Asuma. Underneath, however, he's manipulative and cunning enough that he even managed to briefly outwit their captain, Gotoh, who's known for being pretty damn manipulative himself.
    • Patlabor 2: The Movie: Shigeki Arakawa was a co-conspirator with Yukihito Tsuge, but when Tsuge decided to alter their plan and start a limited war to topple the Japanese government, Arakawa attempts to rein him in by using Kiichi Gotoh. In a later scene, Gotoh agrees with Arakawa's observations on the reality of peace, war, and how political leaders exploit chaos instead of using a measured response.
  • As much of a dick as he was pre-Heel–Face Turn, Mewtwo from Pokémon: The First Movie was, for the most part, pretty well mannered, despite the whole kill all humans and Pokémon and replace them with clones thing. The English dub makes it a bit more apparent where Mewtwo basically acts like a Pokémon version of Dr. No.
    • Speaking of Pokémon: The Series, Meowth, Jessie, and James have become this in large degrees in the later seasons to the point where James and Meowth in particular come off as more of the anti-hero than actual villains. This could explain why their "attempt" at becoming threatening led them to take a small absence from the series and come back as their former affable selves.
  • Kirito Kamui from Psycho-Pass does seem to actually be as kind as he is to his supporters, apologizing to inspector Shisui after he takes her eye. His kindness does play in favor for him creating devotion from his followers that cruelty would likely not.
  • Fin Kruder of Rental Magica is so affably evil that Itsuki and Honami eventually comment about how, though he can terrify them, they don't really hate him, despite what he puts them through. Either that, or he's well-meaning, but just that crazy. It's hard to tell in his case.
  • In R.O.D the TV, Joker is a perfect example of this. He is, for the most part, polite, well educated, and very civil. Except for the part about wanting to brainwash the entire planet and how he will manipulate anyone to reach his goal, he would be a rather nice person. He is even willing to have his personality obliterated for the sake of his ideal.
  • Miss Reiko Aya in the anime version of Sailor Moon is a sweet, ditzy, very well-mannered girl who works as a music producer. She's also Sailor Aluminium Seiren, Dark Action Girl, and a member of the Sailor Anima Mates under the leadership of Sailor Galaxia.
    • Also, after his first brainwashing session at Beryl's hands, Tuxedo Mask/Prince Endymion still retained many of his noble qualities.
  • A couple of the antagonists in Saiyuki fit this. Homura may want to completely destroy and recreate heaven and earth, but he's genial and charismatic, and would rather Goku joined him than have to take him and his abilities by force. Ditto Hazel, only switch 'and recreate heaven and earth' with 'youkai' and 'Goku' with 'Sanzo.'
  • Angol Mois from Sgt. Frog is a sweet and naïve girl who's always there to help her "Uncle" Keroro, as well as being the only person to stop Kululu with nothing but her innocence. She also happens to be the Lord of Terror sent to destroy Pekopon (The Earth) with the Lucifer Staff, which she is willing to do with a tip of a hat.
  • Hao Asakura of Shaman King is easily the friendliest Omnicidal Maniac you will ever meet. In spite of all the terrible things he does to win the title of Shaman King and his desire to wipe out all humanity? He truly believes humanities extinction is for the greater good. When he isn't fighting, Hao is a genuinely pleasant guy to be around, to the point where he and Yoh share a hot spring together! Helping immensely is that he has a very tragic backstory that helps you better understand why he believes the things he does and why he wants to destroy the world. The 2001 anime opts to make him more Faux Affably Evil, dropping most of his amiable traits; making it less of a moral quandary when Yoh defeats him in this continuity.
  • Slayers:
    • Xellos is so calm, friendly, cheerful, polite, and oftentimes funny that it's sometimes hard to believe that he's part of a race that's Always Chaotic Evil — his kind feeds on the people's anger and suffering. But instead of hunting down and slowly killing humans, Xellos just tricks them and plays embarrassing or painful pranks while otherwise remaining so nice and helpful that his regular victims sometimes groan when he appears, but never tell him to get lost. This guy once wiped out a flock of dragons with but a gesture, and we see him shaken like a doll by some mortal he thoroughly frustrated...and smiling. He even saved some humans.
    • Red Priest Rezo is polite, well-mannered, and spends a lot of his time traveling from village to village, performing miracles as one of the world's best healers. He would also stop at nothing to heal his eyes which have a fragment of the Lord of Darkness sealed in them, even disfiguring his own great-grandson as an experiment and putting the lives of thousands at risk.
  • Akihiko Kayaba of Sword Art Online is kind, if a little distant, and congratulates the players when they finally beat the game. He also trapped ten thousand people in a death game, and almost four thousand of them die before the end. Contrast the villain of the second arc, Nobuyuki Sugou, who only trapped (trapped, not killed) the lives of three hundred or so people, but is seen as far worse by the audience due to his malicious and selfish motivations, not to mention that he captures Asuna and only holds off raping her because he thinks invoking a Hope Spot will break her more.
  • Yoshii, the first villain from Texhnolyze, could fall into this category. He's polite and agreeable to just about everyone he meets in person (and he even saves the life of another character at one point) but that doesn't stop him from killing people and trying to start a civil war in Lux for reasons that make so little sense they might as well be no reason at all.
  • Tokyo Babylon and X/1999, amongst their body of work, highlight CLAMP's apparent love for beautiful, charismatic, fashionable men doing good, honest work in the service of others with secret homicidal tendencies.
  • Many of the Demons/Supernaturals in Umineko: When They Cry qualify. Ronove, Gaap, Sisters of Purgatory, Dlanor, Zepar/Furfur and Featherine all demonstrate on a few occasions that they are much more human than they let on. Most of the Witches play with this trope at points (when they aren't cackling at murder) ...and then there's Erika.
    • She swoops in to save Ange in the last chapter and gives her some advice because of her pride as a "detective" (which is also why she accepted a possible fatal challenge from Beatrice). Then again, there are more Face-Heel Turns, Heel-Face Turns, Hidden Heart Of Golds, and personality twists and turns in this game than you can shake a stick at.
  • Mister Wiseman from Until Death Do Us Part is very courteous towards his enemies. He's also a college professor and criminologist when he's not plotting against people.
  • Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond has the Yoshioka clan, who seem to be one big happy group of True Companions who just have a penchant for cutting down or maiming those who besmirch the name of Yoshioka (and in the case of clan head Seijurou, ambushing those who could be an actual threat to them). The clan heads Seijurou, Denshichirou, and their right-hand man, Ueda Ryouhei, all get arguably sympathetic backstories, and they genuinely care about their followers and vice versa. Finally, when the first duel between Denshichirou and Miyamoto Musashi is interrupted by a fire breaking out and eventually consuming the dojo, Denshichirou tells Musashi to improve and then face him again in a year. (Unfortunately, Musashi ends up making far better use of that year than he does, leading him to cut down both brothers Seijurou and Denshichirou, one after the other, in their respective duels.) After Ryouhei decides to have Musashi ambushed rather than let him leave Kyoto, during the ambush, one of the minor henchmen of the Yoshioka actually gets a flashback scene where Denshichirou is giving the henchman's younger self a good luck eel, since his wife was going to give birth soon! (Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a seventy-on-one killing ends up with him, Ryouhei, and the rest of the seventy swordsmen of the Yoshioka school all being slaughtered by a single-katana-wielding Musashi.)
  • Askeladd from Vinland Saga is a nice enough guy, despite being a vicious murderer and raider.
  • Goemon in Yaiba, who, after all, enjoys drinking sake, and wouldn't hurt animals no matter what. Also, Kaguya, who flirted with Onimaru...before parrying his wind slash with her fan and tossing a huge ki blast at him.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Maximillion Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Although he mixes in enough Gentleman Snarker even when being affable that he's quite easy to hate (until his anime-exclusive Heel–Face Turn, that is). He's genuinely touched that Joey entered Duelist Kingdom to get enough money for the eye surgery his sister needs, since he has a similar goal to revive his late wife.
    • Odion, adoptive brother and second-in-command to Battle City's Big Bad, Marik. He enters the Battle City finals posing as Marik and duels Joey under this disguise. The entire time, he treats Joey with respect and plays fairly, and even when he's about to deliver a fatal blow to Joey, he compliments his skills as a duelist. Since the real Marik had repeatedly proven himself to be more than willing to cheat and set up unfair games, this clues Joey in to Odion's ruse.
    • Satorious from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was like this too throughout most of the second season, until near the Season Finale when the Light of Ruin took over him completely, turning him into a monster.
    • Professor Lyman Banner fits it even moreso. Even after he’s revealed as the Shadow Rider Amnael his politeness doesn’t go away. In fact he became a Shadow Rider specifically to stop their plan to release the Sacred Beasts by nurturing a strong duelist to defeat them.
  • Sakyo from YuYu Hakusho is this. He's polite and quite a gentleman, especially to Shizuru. When it comes to gambling, he's also shown to be honorable and fair, especially when he lived up to the agreement to take his own life if Team Toguro lost to Team Urameshi, which they did. Despite these traits, he's sadistic, cruel, and sociopathic to his victims, not to mention, he performed his wager by first blocking the exits of the stadium everyone was in while Toguro was in the process of draining everyone's life energy, then setting it to self-destruct.

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