Every great anime hero needs an equally compelling villain against whom they can measure themselves. It's no secret that iconic villains are what keep an anime series intriguing, and no villains come close to the 90's anime villains.
Some are cheesy, some are intimidating, some are psychopaths, and all are classics. These anime are famous for their 90s anime aesthetic, intriguing storyline, and iconic villains. Below, we've ranked these villains from weakest to strongest.
We at Night City have anime inspired makeup products named after some of these villains. The general idea of our makeup is to reminisce about your favorite anime/ character through inspired makeup looks.
Without further ado, let's get right into the ranking!
10. Queen Beryl (Sailor Moon)
Queen Beryl was a low-ranking Earth sorceress who fell in love with Prince Endymion, but her love was unrequited. After losing her beloved Prince to Princess Serenity, this sorceress turned to the dark side and, in her vengeance, destroyed the Moon Kingdom. She then set out to recreate the process on Earth by capturing the prince's reincarnation and killing Sailor Moon.
9. Treize Khushrenada (Gundam Wing)
Treize Khushrenada is the Chief Commander of the Organization of the Zodiac and Romefeller's Chief Representative. He's a pacifist at heart, yet he's willing to go to great lengths to achieve his peaceful ideals.
He professes a passion for war, thinking that it brings out the best in people when it is properly done. He believes that humans can only evolve through bleeding blood and battling. Although his goal is for the greater good of humanity, his execution process is villainous.
8. Gendo Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Gendo is a great scientist, NERV Commander, and the worst anime father ever. Gendo Ikari represents everything a father or individual should not aspire to be. He has greater plans than making his son, Shinji, sad - he wants to complete the Human Instrumentality Project and resurrect his wife, Yui. To be clear, this implies the merging of humanity into a single consciousness.
7. Hisoka Morrow (Hunter x Hunter)
Hisoka was many things: deceptive, psychopathic, unpredictable, sophisticated, and one of the series' best villains.
Hisoka is depicted as completely self-centered, doing whatever he wants as long as it benefits him in some manner. He is always searching for strong opponents, and he would spare those with tremendous potential, such as Gon and Killua, so that they may grow strong enough to fight him.
He enjoys the adrenaline rush of fighting strong opponents and doesn't stop until he gets whatever he desires. He may not be a villain with massive plans, but he's undeniably interesting to watch at work.
6. Shishio Makoto - Rurouni Kenshin
Shishio Makoto is a former Ishin Shishi Hitokiri, aiming to become the next Battousai. However, the Meiji government saw him as a threat and set him ablaze. This motivated him to form his army in order to get revenge.
Shishio is ruthless, sadistic, and cold-blooded. He strongly believed in the social concept of Darwinism, in which weak creatures were created only to be food for the strong. With the slogan "The strong eats the weak," Shishio always appears mercilessly throughout the Rurouni Kenshin series.
Fun fact: Makoto's character is based on a real-world figure, Serizawa Kamo, the leader of the Shinsengumi during Japan's Bakumatsu period.
5. Griffith (Berserk)
Griffith is a brilliant tactician and swordsman with near-unrivaled skill. He's also the Band of the Hawk's Leader until he betrays them by sacrificing virtually all of them in the Eclipse to be reborn as Femto, a super-powered entity who joins the God Hand. He gains abilities like telekinesis, gravity manipulation, and reality manipulation, but he loses his humanity.
4. Vicious (Cowboy Bebop)
As his name suggests, he is harsh, vicious, ruthless, inhuman, remorseless, and everything else negative. Vicious is a ruthless killer who has no respect for human life and solely exists to destroy. All he desires is absolute control of the Red Dragon Syndicate, and he won't hesitate to kill anyone that tries to stop him.
He only appears to be alive when he is making others scream. While he's not murdering people, he abducts them to lure stronger others to their deaths. It makes no difference whether they are friends, enemies, or innocent bystanders. This is not a man you want to mess with!
3. Younger Toguro (Yu Yu Hakusho)
Toguro was a demon slayer who was always calm and collected, as evidenced by his never taking off his signature sunglasses. All that mattered to the youthful Toguro was power and the fear of becoming old.
He's so concerned with youth and vigor that he sacrificed his humanity for a massive power boost, joining the ranks of those he formerly reviled and hunted. He has complete control over how much of his strength he uses at any given time, and he only intends to use it all for one person: Yusuke Urameshi.
2. Naraku (Inuyasha)
Naraku is such a great villain that you can't help but admire his ability to be heinously evil. He impacts many people's lives, both directly and indirectly, and appears to enjoy being cruel, destructive, feared, and despised. He is clever, intelligent, and sensible enough to represent a grave threat, uses people to further his purposes, and takes enormous sadistic pleasure in ruining others' ties and lives.
He is the master of manipulation and deception, effortlessly blackmailing, controlling, and manipulating for the most heinous causes. Above all, Naraku was power-hungry and self-obsessed, craving nothing more than power and absolute dominion over others. He had nothing but hatred and disgust for all other beings and thought himself superior in every way.
1. Frieza (DBZ)
Frieza is the literal incarnation of evil. He is undoubtedly the cruelest villain in the Dragon Ball Z universe, making him one of the most notable. He buys, sells, and destroys worlds teeming with people, forcing them to perform labor for him - in truth, he is responsible for the near-extinction of the Saiyan race and the destruction of Planet Vegeta. It is safe to say that Frieza is the strongest villain in all of Dragonball Z.
