15 Anime Series Where the Main Character is the Villain

Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon focuses on a group of mercenaries as its main characters, and as mercenaries, well, they don’t always do good things. While the sheer level of villainy per character in the group changes from arc to arc, all of them have their moments. They are mercenaries, so if their job calls for kidnapping a nice person, they are going to kidnap that sumbitch.

Terror in Resonance

In this series, the main characters are terrorists who bomb various locations throughout Japan. There is some debate on if these main characters are actually villainous. They are terrorists because of a corrupt and distinctly villainous system, and they actively go out of their way not to kill people. That is a distinctly hero quality, but what everyone needs to remember is they are still bombing things and that is still causing damage. Blowing up buildings and the collateral damage that it causes ruins lives.

Overlord

Throughout most of Overlord, the main character is in conflict. He is a human in the real world and wants to be governed by human emotions, but has neutral Lich tendencies because of his avatar. He is almost the very definition of neutral-ness. He saves people, sure, but he also makes distinctly evil decisions too. In fact, as he only saves people and does good deeds for his own personal gain, can those deeds really be called “good” at all? Many regard him as the villain of the story, and in some respects, this is true.

The Devil is a Part-Timer

As a comedy series, you can’t expect a lot of heinous villainy, but they pull it off well. The main character was once Satan, but while on the brink of conquering his own world, he is transported to our modern one. With his powers severely weakened, he has no choice but to try and conquer our world through other means. His first step is to get a part-timer job in fast food and work his way up from there. This series is unique as throughout the series he is transformed from villain protagonist to an actual good guy.

91 Days

This series is a mafia story, but Mafioso’s aren’t always evil. However, Angelo, the protagonist, displays so many villainous traits for a protagonist. He is out to kill the Canetti family after they killed his parents and brother. However, revenge is one thing, but his desire to make them suffer as much as possible is distinctly another. It is something that goes above and beyond simple revenge and straight to sadism.

Lupin The III

Lupin is a complicated series because it has so many different portrayals of Lupin and his associates. Originally, he was portrayed more black than morally gray, willing to do whatever it took to get to his goal, including killing his rivals. Later, he became more of the neutral-ish gentleman thief that most people know him as. However, make no mistake, a thief is a thief, and he is very much a villain in most portrayals.

Excel Saga

Excel Saga is a parody series in the finest regards, and one of the things they are parodying is the protagonists. Excel is energetic and bubbly, but most of all, she is dedicated to installing her master and the ACROSS organization as the dictator of the world. Unfortunately, this organization is all about oppression of the people. Yet, because Excel is terrible at her job, they never truly win. Its comedy, but she is still very much the villain of their world.

We probably missed a few, but there is an important distinction between “villain” and “literal piece of human shit” when it comes to villainous protagonists. However, if you know of a villain protagonist that deserves to be here, let us know in the comments section below.