Highlights
- Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is considered the best anime of 2023, with impeccable storytelling and characters.
- Abel from Easton Magic Academy is a remarkable character, apathetic towards others and able to turn humans into puppets.
- Thorgil from Vinland Saga stands out with his immense bloodlust and love for war, willing to cause chaos for his own desires.
2023 was a great year for anime fans. It saw the return of many famous anime and the debut of some outstanding ones. Throughout the year, fans saw new characters going on an adventure that would change their lives forever. The heroes encountered many troublesome foes who stood between their goals.
These anime villains left their mark on the story with their compelling backstories and ridiculous powers. While there were many interesting villains on display, only a few of them were competent enough to compete for the title of best anime antagonist.
8 Aura
Many fans consider Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End to be the best anime of 2023, and there is very good reason for them to believe so. The story and the cast of characters are impeccable, which makes it difficult to look away from the screen. Among the many villains in Frieren, the name of Aura stands out a lot.
She could control the body of her opponent with the help of magic. She would summon a scale that would measure the mana of the target, and if her mana was stronger, Aura would gain complete control of their bodies. She was a wicked individual and had no redeeming qualities, which made her a great villain.
7 Abel
Abel studies at the Easton Magic Academy while leading the Magia Lupus. Abel is a truly remarkable character because of his personality. He strongly believed that humanity is inherently evil, so he is not held back by feelings of empathy. Able is apathetic towards other people, as he considers himself superior to the rest.
His magic allows him to turn humans into puppets and absorb their power to strengthen his own. If the need arises, he can also rely on the services of regular puppets to defeat his opponents.
6 Arthur
Arthur Pendragon was among the more important side characters in Seven Deadly Sins. He has since been elevated to the role of villain in Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse. Arthur’s mindset was affected by the destruction of his kingdom at the hands of demons and other races. This shaped his outlook, and he decided to exterminate all the other races so that humankind could live in peace.
Arthur has not revealed every bit of his power yet, but those who have watched Seven Deadly Sins know what his chaos is capable of achieving. With a solid debut, Arthur finds himself among the best villains of 2023.
5 Thorgil
Thorgil is the son of Ketil and the brother of Einar. He was very fond of war, as it was the only time he could let out his federal nature. Thorgil was nothing like his father or brother, who were rather meek and weak. He was responsible for killing the king’s men, which resulted in a full-on siege on his father’s farm.
While everyone else was busy fighting and defending Ketil’s farm, Thorgil snuck out from the back in an attempt to kill Canute. If he had succeeded, there would have been chaos throughout all the territories under Canute’s control. What made Thorgil stand out was his immense bloodlust. He did not care about titles; all he wanted was war.
4 Hantengu
Demon Slayer was once again fantastic as it returned with the Swordsmith Village arc. Following the defeat of Gyutaro, Muzan got serious and wanted something to be done about the problem. So two upper-rank demons made their way to the Swordsmith Village. These were Gyokko and Hantengu.
Out of the two, Hantengu was more interesting. Not only did he display a variety of different techniques, but he was also clever enough to conceal his weaknesses. His abilities pushed the demon slayers to their limit, and he would have succeeded in killing them if he had been more knowledgeable.
3 Rien
Rein is one of the most terrifying and dangerous characters in Hell’s Paradise. She has spent the majority of her life killing people, due to which she has outgrown valuing human lives. All she wants is to revive her dead husband in order to be with him again.
When it comes to power, there are only a handful of characters who can hold their own against Rein. She is proficient in close-range combat and can easily pummel her opponents. Rien is also intelligent and an excellent researcher.
2 Mahito
Very few anime characters have earned the same amount of hatred as Mahito in such a short span. He is a Special Grade Cursed Spirit who participated in the Shibuya incident. Mahito was responsible for killing an immeasurable number of people.
He turned many innocent humans into weapons and used them to fight Jujutsu sorcerers. Mahito also killed Nanami and Nobara, two of the main characters in the series. He truly believed that humans were dispensable trash and that the cursed spirits would be the ones to take over the world.
1 Kaido
Kaido was one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. He took control of Wano Country many years prior to the current timeline. Kaido was a ruthless man who only respected people with a great deal of strength. Under his rule, the country fell into a state of despair.
Many regions of Wano were turned into complete wastelands. Kaido built many armament factories where he manufactured tons of weapons for his crew. In 2023, fans finally saw Luffy take down Kaido and bring his dominion over Wano to an end. However, it took a lot of effort on the protagonist’s part to defeat a villain as powerful as Kaido.
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