Best Anime Antagonist

We are in the last week of this challenge. Although I did start very strong, these past few days have been the hardest. I enjoyed this challenge but also I am ready for it to be over. I can see now why it is called a challenge.

Whether you have read 1 of my blogs or all of them I appreciate it and hope I have been entertaining you. I am wondering if I can keep up with this schedule of posting every day. What would you like to read about if I were to keep posting daily? Anime reviews? Lists of anime recommendations? Another anime challenge? Blogs like these? I'd love some ideas! Let me know in the comments below.

I discovered the idea for the 30-day anime challenge because I saw this post on Pinterest and thought it was a fun little challenge to do for the first month of the New Year. I did a challenge similar to this back in 2013 so I am curious to see if my tastes have changed much in the past 10 years.

Since I found it too hard to pick 1 answer, I have been picking 5 answers for each. I would love for you to hear your answer in the comments below

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Day 24 Best anime antagonist

I can't confidently say that I understand what antagonist means. For a long time, I thought that it just meant the villain of the story but it's deeper than that. To sum up, the difference between antagonist and villain should be clear: villains are evil characters that don’t change throughout the story, while antagonists may change their ways over time. This can make for a more complex character who is more realistic and compelling than an outright evil person would.

This got me thinking, there are some great anime villains out there but who are some great anime antagonists? I went through every anime I have seen and come up with these 5. I am not sure if I can really explain why I picked them but I will try my best.

With that in mind let's get into the best anime antagonists.

Adam - Sk8 the Infinity

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Adam. He both annoys me and understands me. If you have ever gotten really good at something, and I mean really good, it stops becoming a challenge and so you create a challenge. If you look at his life that is the case in every area, he has mastered keeping his family happy, built a thriving business and has mastered the business world, and mastered skating. So he creates problems to see out the thrill he once had.

That's what happened to Adam. It's not that he is a bad guy he has just forgotten why he started to skate because he got too good, and no one challenged him anymore. I loved the ending, he was able to turn his perspective back around to having fun and he stopped being a pain for everyone.

Shigaraki - My Hero Academia

Here is where I don't know if he is just a villain or an antagonist. I do not understand what he is trying to accomplish by destroying the world, but I do understand his fear and hate for the world are integrated deep into his soul.

The story hasn't ended so I am not sure how his story will play out. But from what we have seen he is under heavy evil influences. We have seen those influences turn him from misunderstood to a powerful evil force. He does have the power of destruction which seems like it could only be used for bad. Who knows maybe Deku might be able to save Shigaraki from himself in the end.

Asura - Soul Eater

Fear is an extremely powerful emotion. If we don't overcome our fears they can lead us to do some extreme things. That is the case for Asura, he wasn't a villain from birth, he was full of fear. When the fear became too much he did everything he could to relieve some of the pain which turned him into a psychopath and he lost all control of himself by the end.

Unfortunately, he was beyond saving by the end. But his story makes me wonder what would have happened if he had a better support system to help him cope with his fears. Maybe he wouldn't have taken such drastic measures if he had friends who helped him. I guess we will never know.

Mother - The Promised Neverland

I thought mothers journey through this storyline was the deepest of any of the characters. In season 1 we just see her as the villain, but by the end of the season, we come to see how she has been broken down into submission. She genuinely believes she is helping these kids have a wonderful life before the inevitable happens. She has seen and experienced so many horrors and wants to protect the children from the life she was forced to have.

In season 2 she is in fight or flight mode. She is just trying to survive another day and has learned that she has to do whatever she can to make sure she can live. I loved her and the other mother's ending. They got the opportunity to redeem their actions and ended up with the happy ending they all wish they had.

There is so much depth that I don't want to spoil but her story makes me think about what I would do if I was put in her situation. Would I make the same choices she did? would I continue to fight? or would I rather die than keep living in that world?

Light Yagami - Death Note

You can be on his side or you could be against him, but we can all agree on the Light Yagami from finding the death note was not the same as the Light Yagami by the end of the story. The great debate is if he was right in his actions or not. Personally, at first, I understood what he was trying to accomplish. To rid the world of evil would be a great thing. But the power he received from the notebook gave him a god complex.

Some people think of Light as the protagonist and L as the antagonist, and some think of Light as the antagonist and L as the protagonist. Either way, when L came into the picture I think Light just enjoyed the game. He is extremely intelligent and to find someone just as intelligent intrigued him. You can tell a change in his character when he finally won the game of cat and mouse. He got lazy and sloppy and bored, Which I believe was the reason he ended up getting caught. He might have started with the intention of saving the world but he ended as an egocentric person.

I could probably write a novel on the psychology behind this story, but I'll summarize, Power changes people.

I have no idea if I wrote this right but either way, I hope you enjoyed some of my insight on these characters, who aren't evil but also aren't good.

I am very excited about tomorrow! It will be on my favorite female protagonists and I might have to pick more than just 5. It will also be my 50th blog post! So make sure to come back tomorrow!

Who is your favorite anime antagonist? Do you agree with any of the ones I listed below?

I'd love to hear in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!!

Click to check out the most hated anime character

See you back tomorrow!!