More Hateable Minor Villains in Anime and Manga.
Examples:
- Attack on Titan has grey morality overall, and the titular Titans are sympathetic antagonists, with even their employers, the Kingdom of Marley, being complex antagonists. However, there are a few minor villains who prove to be exceptions:
- Floch Forster is an out-and-out fanatic betraying former allies and friends left and right in blind support of a cause in which he is no longer capable of accepting or processing the many risks that come with it. Fully devoted to an imperialist agenda in which Eren would rise as the leader of Eldia and destroy its enemies, even if that means destroying the rest of the world to do it, he's clearly no better than those who themselves tried to destroy his people.
- For the most part, Marleyans are portrayed as complex characters who are antagonistic because of the poisonous anti-Eldian propaganda they've been raised with... and then there's Sergeant Major Gross, who's basically all the worst traits of Marley wearing a hat. He's a sadist who tortures and murders Eldians, including a young girl, and feels justified because they're 'subhuman'. Don't feel too bad that he only lasts a few chapters before his gruesome demise.
- Karina Braun is an incredibly petty and delusional woman, manipulating her son down a path that destroyed his life and eager to do the same to her niece. Even her moments of affection towards Reiner are tainted by her constant lies, and inability to comprehend her son's pain. She's one of the few characters in the story not involved in any position in the military or the authorities, that has absolutely no redemptive qualities, save for realizing what a terrible person she's been too late to make a real difference. What makes it worse is that she cannot even be called "crazy"; she's just a terrible person altogether.
- Grior is unrepentantly racist and fully committed to the belief that the islanders are devils to be slaughtered; turns out not even Yelena has the patience for his hateful sentiments.
- Despite only appearing in a single chapter, King Fritz manages to establish himself as a brutal warlord, rapist, Domestic Abuser, abusive parent, butcher, and very easily the evilest character in the entire manga.
- Code Geass has Black-and-Gray Morality; Lelouch, Suzaku, and even members of the Britannian Royal Family, like Emperor Charles and his son Schneizel, do terrible things do so with the best intentions. But these characters are okay to hate:
- Diethard Reid is the Token Evil Teammate of Lelouch's Black Knights who only wants bloodshed. He uses his media connections to stoke the flames of war, urges Lelouch to wage global war, and even has the gall to betray Lelouch in favor of Schneizel and his super weapon apocalypse plot, showing that while Lelouch wants to free the world from Britannian tyranny, Diethard only wants to see people die.
- Alicia Lohmeyer, Nunnally's aide, despises the Japanese and tries to use her position to subvert the compassionate Nunnally to make life as hard for them as possible. Her crowning moment comes when she orders a massacre of one million Japanese to punish them for trying to secede from Britannia, only stopped by Suzaku.
- Luciano Bradley is a psychotic and sadistic murderer who gleefully admits that he serves Britannia in order to be respected for killing people.
- The High Eunuchs sell out their land and their empress, and even betray their comrades just for personal gain.
- V. V., brother of Charles, does anything and everything to make life hell for Lelouch for being the son of Charles' beloved Marianne, who he murdered because he suspected she was getting in the way of the contract, and then lied about it, going against what he says about eliminating lies. Even Charles, who is pretty far on the evil scale in this series, is pissed off by the lie and betrayal, and at one point kills him for it by taking his code.
- Mrs. Stadtfeld, Kallen's stepmother, only appeared in one episode, but is racist towards Elevens, especially toward Kallen's mother (who's working as a maid for the Mrs. Stadtfeld) and abuses her verbally and physically.
- The main villain of Doraemon: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi is Blizarga, an ancient Eldritch Abomination who cursed entire worlds into an Endless Winter, but being a non-sentient elemental acting on instincts (and that it exists to provide an exciting, 15-minute long final battle) Blizarga's nowhere as hateable as the other villain: Yamitem, the shapeshifting robot psychopath who ambushed and tortures Doraemon, before tricking the others into a deathtrap and trying to manipulate the other heroes into attacking Doraemon when the latter tries saving his friends. Yamitem gets defeated before the climax can begin, but he's easily more despicable than Blizarga.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Big Bad Father is too cool to hate, while his Homunculi all have their own sympathetic qualities and quirks. These villains do not:
- Shou Tucker only appears in one episode/few chapters before being killed off and has no connection to Father or the bigger conspiracies surrounding Amestris, but what he does do, namely using his alchemy to forcibly fuse and convert his daughter and pet dog into a tortured chimera, and having done the same thing to his wife years ago is up there as one of the most heinous and despicable acts committed in the series, as shown by Ed and Al's pained reactions to seeing Nina and Alexander's chimeric state. Shou's refusal to own up to his actions, refusing any responsibility, and desiring to be respected and rewarded for what he's done further cement him as an irredeemable scumbag despite his short tenure in the series.
- The Gold-Toothed Doctor also lacks the coolness of the Homunculi. He is the only one of their human allies who knows Father's plans to cause The End of the World as We Know It, something he doesn't seem to care about. Responsible for the creation of Wrath, he killed the first eleven candidates in painful experiments before turning the remaining men into expendable mindless Elite Mooks. He not only slits Riza's throat in an attempt to force a Sadistic Choice on Roy but also disgusts both Roy and Zampano with his smug belief that the candidates must have been grateful to him for taking them in, feeding them, educating them and giving them the meaning of existence. No tear is shed when Pride and Wrath use him as an alchemic resource, leaving him a hideous ball of flesh.
- General Raven and his associates in Central Command are a corrupt group of military officials who aid the Homunculi's plans to usurp humanity in a bid to grant themselves immortality. These include instigating multiple civil wars to complete Father's Transmutation circle, such as the Ishvalan genocide. When Raven arrives at Fort Briggs to cover up Sloth's attack, he tries to persuade Major General Armstrong to join them while leaving several of her troops for dead. Much later, during Roy Mustang's coup of Central City, General Clemin callously writes off the Fuhrer's wife as expendable when she's taken hostage. Central Command oversees the creation of the Immortal Legion, an army of tormented monstrosities created from Philosopher's Stones. While claiming to be making a new, better world, the Central Commanders' utter lack of remorse for their crimes makes it abundantly clear they only care about their own supposed entitlement to eternal life. It is incredibly satisfying when the Major General gets done playing tit-for-tat with Raven's vile seductions and promptly reduces him to foundation via sword stab into cement.
- Fushigi Yuugi: The Emperor of Kutou is a vile, sleazy, Smug Snake who commits genocide on peaceful tribes. Also a rapist and pedophile, he violates the youthful Nakago, causing his Start of Darkness. While most other villains are given levels of tragedy and catharsis, there is no individual who stands more loathed by everyone who knows him than the emperor, with Nakago plotting his death for years.
- Hellsing: Zorin is an incompetent, vile military commander in contrast to the despicable but brilliant Major and cements her loathsomeness in her callous mistreatment of her men and use of her psychic abilities to leave her enemies in mental anguish and helpless as she slashes through swathes of the Wild Geese, completely lacking in any intelligence or admirable traits to offset her nature. Her brutal death at the hands of Seras is very well-deserved.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable: The Starter Villain Angelo stands out as the most evil character of the Part, even though the actual Big Bad, Yoshikage Kira, has a higher on-screen body count. Kira's a serial killer, but does have a few small redeeming moments, whilst Angelo's a serial killer, serial rapist, and pedophile with no humanizing aspects.
- Lyrical Nanoha: Quattro, a Smug Snake who serves Jail Scaglietti. At her best, she enjoys making fun of her younger sisters and at her worst, has absolutely no regard for human life and thinks those who do so are foolish, and this in a series with only a couple actually evil characters out of a massive cast. She gets even more hate points with everything she does to Vivio. That she is such a rat bastard definitely makes her Villainous Breakdown all the sweeter when Nanoha blasts the crap out of her from across an entire space ship. Yes, even through the walls.
- In Majestic Prince, we have Captain Komine. The Walgaru are hard to hate, since they have a serious case of Blue-and-Orange Morality, and there is a certain nobility to them, despite (or perhaps, because of) them being a race of social Darwinists. Komine is an incompetent fool who spends pretty much his whole time onscreen making things difficult for the young heroes and the rest of the military, being a Jerkass and pointing fingers at his underlings for his own screw-ups.
- Michiko & Hatchin: Hacchin's foster family from the very first episode are singularly awful in their abuse and bullying of Hatchin. The stepsiblings bully her near on all the time, and the stepmother makes her do all the chores and even makes life harder for her by making her clean up messes she herself makes. And when Michiko, the other half of this Badass and Child Duo, kidnaps Hatchin, the foster father assumes she did this to hurt him and decides to try to collect on Hatchin's life insurance by trying to murder her. Not exactly Parents of the Year.
- Moriarty the Patriot: Since the nominal villain of the series is the much-beloved protagonist, and the antagonist of the series is the villain's heroic counterpart and friend, once the series progresses beyond the Monster of the Week format, there's few people to hate. Enter Milverton, who has absolutely no redeeming qualities of any sort and whose narrative role is fulfilled by being unobjectionable enough for Sherlock to murder and still keep the audience's support.
- Monster: Johan Liebert, the titular monster, commits many atrocities over the course of the series, but possesses charisma, a Freudian Excuse, and a true friend, Karl Neuman. There are a few characters who do not have the same presence he does but also are more loathsome:
- Director Heinemann lacks any of Johan's charm or complexity, and is simply a greedy, amoral doctor who cares nothing for his patients and steals the credit for his subordinates' accomplishments. He only cares about saving rich and influential patients, even negligently letting other patients die, and gleefully tries to ruin Tenma's career for saving Johan against orders. There's also Dr. Oppenheim and Dr. Boyer, who are equally corrupt and gladly go along with Heinemann's schemes in the hope of boosting their own careers.
- Professor Günther Goedelitz is a rabid Neo-Nazi who wants to make Johan Liebert into the dictator for his new Reich. Epitomizing the most contemptible traits of political extremism and fanaticism, there is nothing remotely pleasant, sympathetic, or likable about him—nothing you might expect from an unrelenting psychopathic zealot devoid of redeeming qualities, whose actions and interests could place him right alongside Johan in terms of depravity (the monster himself). And unlike the complex Johan, he doesn't even have a tragic childhood or his genuine friendship with Karl Neuman.
- The primary antagonist of PandoraHearts is Glen Baskerville, who slaughtered the entire city of Sablier. Despite his horrific actions, his sympathetic motives and backstory prevents him from being utterly despicable. And Jack Vessalius, the other villain, is just as sympathetic, being motivated by his love for Lacie. On the other hand, Isla Yura is a repulsive cult leader who plans to repeat the Tragedy of Sablier and drag the entire world into the Abyss for his amusement. He doesn't actually have the means to pull it off and is a minor, forgettable villain in the grand scheme of things, but proves to be far more repulsive than the main antagonists.
- My Hero Academia's villain, All For One, is too cool to hate, but these two villains are not:
- Muscular is a villain who joins the League of Villains and helps them attack the training camp, endangering the lives of teenage heroes in training. As if this wasn't bad enough, he also murdered the Water Hose heroes (Kota's parents), For the Evulz, and tries to kill Kota before Midoriya intervenes. While some of the other League of Villains members have sympathetic traits, Muscular is nothing more than a psychotic murderer.
- Overhaul is a ruthless Yakuza boss who abuses his young ward, Eri, draining her blood to make Quirk-destroying bullets, reassembling her body when she runs out of blood to give, and calling her a cursed being born to destroy people. The ordeal has traumatized her so much that even after his defeat, she doesn't know how to smile. He treats his subordinates no better, using one as a meat shield against Shigaraki, killing another for failure, and forcing two to become part of his One-Winged Angel forms. He has Nemoto use a Quirk-destroying bullet on Mirio, destroying the Nice Guy's promising career as a hero. Later chapters somewhat downplay this, as they reveal that he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants his syndicate back to power in hopes of repaying his old boss, but even then, he put his boss in a coma in order to do so because his boss was against his methods. The Laser-Guided Karma hits him when Shigaraki and Mr. Compress destroy his arms to avenge Magne's death and the loss of Compress' left arm.
- Naruto likes to give every one of the main villains some sympathetic quality or tragic backstory. However, there are a few minor villains who are given no such sympathy:
- Mizuki is the opening villain of the series. He takes advantage of Naruto's goal to be a ninja and reveals he's the container for the Kyuubi, while trying to kill fan-favorite Iruka. Brought back in a filler arc, he reveals that he had always been The Sociopath, hated his "friend" Iruka all along and was just using him, was secretly working for the then-Big Bad Orochimaru the whole time, abused his Love Martyr fiance, has outright killed comrades in the past when convenient, and hates ramen.
- Hidan is a cruel psychopath and member of a Religion of Evil, who worships violence and death, and sees mercy as a sin. He slaughtered his village simply because he was disgusted with their pacifistic way of life, and performed gruesome rituals to attain immortality for himself. Unlike the rest of the Akatsuki, he has no real Freudian Excuse for his actions.
- Yashiro Uchiha, a minor member of the Uchiha clan who showed up in the flashback arc leading up to the massacre, becomes this in Itachi's Story. He's a Jerkass who has little patience for Itachi's idealism, and while not the mastermind of the Uchiha plot for a coup, he was one of the members pushing Fugaku to rebel, despite warnings that it couldn't possibly end well for the clan or the village. When Itachi carries out the massacre, Yashiro begs for his life, and even dishonestly claims he'll call off the coup if he's spared. While Itachi is broken by slaughtering the clan, particularly killing his girlfriend, his parents (who Face Death with Dignity) and one of Danzo's subordinatesnote he loathes Yashiro and feels no guilt about subjecting the man to a Cruel and Unusual Death by torturing him with Tsukuyomi, then decapitating him.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Takeda Kanryu. In the grand scheme of things, he's a small time villain compared to Shishio, Enishi, and even Raijuta. But whereas some of those major Arc Villain characters at least have some kind of more sympathetic backstory involving great loss, have more noble, romantic goals in mind for the country, or at least display great strength or Villainous Valor, Kanryu displays none of those qualities and revels in every vice of being a Hate Sink character who's ruined lives with his drug trade, a Dirty Coward who murders the more sympathetic mercenaries he's hired, and a huge Jerkass who beat Megumi senseless.
