Best Villain Origin Stories In Anime

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Some villains naturally embody wickedness, while others are shaped by adversity, pain, betrayal, and the tumultuous world around them. In the realm of anime, the most compelling villain origins aren’t merely narratives of evil; they are tales that explore human vulnerability, the erosion of hope, and the shattering of ideals.

Initially, these eight figures weren’t inherently wicked. Instead, they began as ordinary children with aspirations and possibilities for goodness. However, their metamorphoses into iconic adversaries offer a warning about the rapidity at which innocence can be tainted when the harsh reality of the world is revealed to them.

8.
Tomura Shigaraki

My Hero Academia

Initially, he was simply a frightened child named Tenko Shimura, not the emblem of destruction as we know him later. Unlike other villains in My Hero Academia, his background isn’t shaped by ambition or ideology; rather, it stems from neglect, trauma, and an unfulfilled longing for rescue that never materialized.

Tenko was actually the grandson of Nana Shimura, who trained All Might. However, he had never even met her because she was absent from his life. His father held a deep-seated hatred for heroes, stemming from his own abandonment by Nana. This resentment led to strict household rules that included prohibiting any hero-related discussions. Tenko’s aspirations of becoming a hero were consistently ridiculed and mocked. He often found himself unable to control twitching movements around his eyes, a manifestation of his stress and anxiety.

One day, his Quirk awakened. It was called Decay.

In a tragic turn of events, he inadvertently caused the dissolution of his beloved dog, followed by his sister, mother, and ultimately, his father. His hands shook, his eyes widened, and his face was drenched in tears as this unfolded. No one intervened to halt him. No hero emerged from the neighborhood. Instead, there was an unsettling hush.

And then came All For One.

He extended a hand to Tenko, both physically and symbolically. He bestowed upon him a new identity: Tomura Shigaraki. “Tomura” meaning ‘mourning’, and “Shigaraki” being All For One’s last name. From this point onwards, the boy who aspired to be a hero transformed into the embodiment of villainy, not only intended to demolish structures but also the society that overlooked him.

7.
Sho Kusakabe

Fire Force

It was believed that Sho Kusakabe perished in the devastating fire that consumed the Kusakabe household, yet the reality was much more ominous.

As a tiny infant, Sho miraculously survived the fire. He was then taken by the enigmatic White-Robed, a fanatic religious sect that reveres destruction and the impending Great Catastrophe. They perceived Sho as a special entity, a potential candidate to transform into a “Pillar,” capable of igniting another cataclysmic occurrence to redesign the world.

Instead of brainwashing him, they shaped his mind, conducted experiments on him, and honed his exceptional skill, which is manipulating time via thermal energy. Meanwhile, Shinra spent decades under the impression that Sho had perished, unaware that he was being transformed into a tool.

The worst part? Sho didn’t even realize he had lost himself.

Upon reunion, the brothers do not share a tearful hug. Sho fails to recognize Shinra. He’s unaware of his past identity. To him, Shinra merely appears as a danger – a threat that has been instilled in him since his earliest years due to his mission training.

6.
Griffith

Berserk

Initially, Griffith wasn’t a villain; this is what adds to the challenging aspect of watching his transition in Berserk.

He was captivating, striking, and fueled by a solitary ambition – to escape the grime of the streets and establish a domain under his rule. Born into destitution, he didn’t ascend the social hierarchy due to luck, but through relentless determination and immense self-sacrifice. He cultivated the Band of the Hawk from scratch and turned them into an army that claimed victories on battlefields.

But ambition that burns too bright eventually consumes.

In a moment of vulnerability, Griffith ended up imprisoned and tormented after a fateful encounter with the king’s daughter. At this point, he stood at a critical juncture, reduced to a shell of his former self – physically and emotionally battered, without any hope for the future. The God Hand then presented him with an option: to give up those dearest to him in order to realize his cherished dream.

He chose the dream.

Throughout the Eclipse, he put his companions – Guts, Casca, and the entire Band of the Hawk – forward as sacrifices. They cried out, they bled, and they perished, each for a vision that was the sole ambition of one man, who found it unbearable to be anything but extraordinary.

It’s the story of someone who looked at the people who loved him and saw stepping stones.

5.
Gyutaro

Demon Slayer

Gyutaro’s backstory isn’t just tragic, it’s grotesque in how real it feels.

Born within the grimy confines of the Amusement Quarter, he faced a challenging life due to his mother’s repeated attempts to end his existence amidst her hopelessness. From an early age, his body bore the scars of illness and deformity, making him a subject of ridicule whenever he tried to communicate with others.

In his world, Ume, his sister, was his sole source of light. She embodied all that he wasn’t, and she was in the process of becoming an oiran. His protective instincts were as fierce as those of a hungry wolf, safeguarding her at all costs.

But one day, he returned home to find her being burned alive by samurai.

That’s when he broke.

Stained with blood and cradling Ume’s fading form, Gyutaro encountered Doma, a high-ranking demon. Doma offered him an opportunity to grow powerful, which Gyutro accepted, not for personal gain, but to safeguard his beloved sister.

The two were reborn as monstrous killers.

Regardless of being demons, their bond remained unbreakable. In their last instant before dissolving in the afterlife, Ume attempts to push Gyutaro away out of embarrassment for leading him to this fate. However, Gyutaro seizes her hand, weeping, asserting that he was the one who led her into this hellish realm.

4.
Light Yagami

Death Note

Initially, when Light stumbles upon the Death Note in Death Note, he’s not driven by a thirst for power or delusions; instead, he’s merely feeling restless and seeking something to alleviate his boredom.

This individual is a brilliant high school student, boasting an unblemished academic background, a pristine family image, and minimal obstacles. To him, the world appears corrupt: criminals go unpunished, justice systems falter, and society tends to favor dishonesty.

When Ryuk lets go of the Death Note, a book that causes death by merely writing someone’s name within it, Light doesn’t regard it as a misfortune. Instead, he perceives it as an answer to his problems.

Initially, his focus is solely on apprehending criminals, particularly murderers and rapists, whom he views as societal waste. However, with passing time, his definition of a ‘criminal’ expands. Anyone who opposes him, including police officers, detectives, or even innocent bystanders, can potentially fall under his radar as acceptable targets.

At that instant when Light takes Lind L. Tailor’s life in full view of the world, seeking to lure out the true L, he has reached his downfall’s end. The quest for justice is no longer relevant. Now it’s all about triumphing, about becoming a deity.

3.
Johan Liebert

Monster

Johan is the kind of villain that doesn’t need a blade. His weapon is words.

In Monster, his story begins with an experiment. As a child, he underwent psychological conditioning at Kinderheim 511, a clandestine East German lab meant to produce the “ideal soldier.” However, what was produced wasn’t a soldier. Instead, it was a phantom, a boy devoid of a true identity, feelings, and humanity.

Johan’s trauma didn’t make him afraid of death. It made him fascinated by it.

Once upon a rooftop, I found myself standing next to my twin sibling, pondering a question that seemed beyond our years. “Who among us,” I whispered into the wind, “should meet an untimely end?” A child’s curiosity, tainted by the weight of existential dread.

He glides through life as if unseen, subtly speaking words that drive individuals to their limits of endurance. It’s not often he takes the lives of his victims personally; instead, he instills within them a desire for death.

In my gaming world, the scariest thing isn’t his desire for riches, prestige, or affection. It’s his chilling objective: to demonstrate an unsettling truth – that existence holds no purpose, and even the kindest soul can be transformed into a beast with a mere nudge in the right direction.

And he’s usually right.

2.
Nagato

Naruto

Nagato’s story in Naruto Shippuden is one of the most emotionally complex in anime.

Growing up amidst the chaos of war, I was born in the secluded village veiled by rain, known as the Hidden Rain Village. Tragedy struck when my beloved parents were taken from me by shinobi from the Leaf Village during a raid. Heartbroken and alone, it fell upon me to lay them to rest with my trembling hands.

Shortly thereafter, he encountered Yahiko and Konan, both of whom, like him, had lost their families. Under the tutelage of Jiraiya, they honed their skills in ninjutsu. Their shared aspiration was for tranquility amidst a land plagued by conflict.

But Yahiko died. And that broke Nagato.

He held the shinobi nations accountable for their perpetual conflicts, for taking Yahiko, and crushing hope. In response, he fashioned a new persona called Pain and established the Akatsuki as a group aimed at achieving peace through intimidation. Instead of terminating war, his approach made initiating one unbearably painful.

Instead of being wicked, Nagato was drained. Overwhelmed with tears. Overburdened by the loss of comrades. Although his reasoning seemed distorted, his suffering was authentic.

When he squared off against Naruto, the very pupil of Jiraiya, he glimpsed an alternate destiny and sacrificed himself to bring it into being.

1.
Donquixote Doflamingo

One Piece

Doflamingo, in many aspects, is a pirate, a tyrant, a manipulator, yet beneath it all, he once begged for mercy as a child.

In the world of One Piece, he was born royalty as a Celestial Dragon, residing in opulence atop the Red Line. However, his father, Homing, renounced this lavish lifestyle, convinced that they should share the life of ordinary people.

The world didn’t welcome them.

The family endured relentless persecution, suffering, and came close to death at the hands of enraged crowds who detested the Celestial Dragons. Doflamingo witnessed his mother’s demise, observed his father being disgraced, and struggled to survive in the streets.

He begged to return to Mariejois. They refused.

In essence, Doflamingo fatally shot his father using a gun he discovered, then presented his decapitated head as a grisly trophy to the Celestial Dragons. Remarkably, they rejected him nonetheless.

At that moment, there was a breaking point within him. He swore to annihilate everything – be it wealth or poverty, the concept of fairness itself. He established a criminal dynasty, ruled over a country, and provided armaments to ignite conflicts.

To Doflamingo, the world was already broken. He just wanted to be the one holding the hammer.

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2025-06-05 17:11