Heroes tend to look at most situations as a glass being half full, while villains view situations as a glass half empty. In other words, optimistic people have a positive outlook on life, which allows them to live in modern society. On the opposite end, pessimistic people find the negative in everything and can’t adapt to everyone else’s reality.
This causes a disconnect, which forces both sides to align with other positive or negative people. Many anime villains made rational points to explain how they acted and why it was society’s fault. While heroes try to combat their way of thinking, when everything’s said and done, some anime heroes prove their enemies right.
10 Baki Hanma (Baki)
When talking about bad fathers, Yujiro Hanma is a notable mention. As the strongest man in the world, he has zero tolerance for weakness in his family. From killing his wife to abusing his kids, Yujiro’s infamous for brutal training methods when raising his family. As a result, his son Baki has a very strained relationship with him, and he doesn’t like acknowledging their familial ties.
Despite trying to separate himself from his lineage, Yujiro acknowledges that Baki is subconsciously a mirror image of him. Baki shows his father’s influence in the heat of battle when he mercilessly beats down his opponents.
9 Bell Cranel (Danmachi)
Danmachi’s third season highlighted many first experiences for Bell. This season, he encountered unique beasts in the dungeon known as “Xenos” that showed vast intelligence and the ability to speak. While Bell made friends with the Xenos, their presence created an existential crisis in him. Dix Perdix, a level 5 adventurer who poached the Xenos, called him out for his hypocrisy.
Dix proved to be a formidable combatant and a masterful manipulator. He pointed out how Bell usually kills monsters without delay yet wanted to save monsters like the Xenos that could communicate. While his argument is somewhat flawed, Dix’s point still rang true.
8 Medaka Kurokami (Medaka Box)
Unzen was the first person to call out Medaka Kurokami. As perfect as Medaka portrayed herself, she acknowledged that her inability to fail makes her imperfect. This is because it’s abnormal for any person to be good at everything they do. Unzen realized Medaka’s urge to have everything go her way was so potent she forced her will on others regardless of what they wanted.
To Medaka, her opponent losing a fight against her doesn’t give her a victory. She only considers herself the victor if her opponent bends to her will. As Unzen said, despite how strong she was, her failure to warp his and Kumagawa’s ideals to match her own meant that she lost.
7 Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)
Naruto‘s goal of becoming Hokage has become a meme due to how frequently he says it. Initially, Naruto believed that becoming the Hokage would force others to embrace him. This belief stems from others ignoring him as a child, causing him to secretly grow resentment toward his village for not acknowledging him.
It wasn’t until Naruto‘s third encounter with Itachi Uchiha that he learned what it meant to become the Hokage. Itachi told him that the position of Hokage could only be held by the person whose already been accepted by those around him. As it turned out, it took Naruto being recognized by everyone to achieve his dream.
6 Saitama (One-Punch Man)
Despite his simplistic goal, Garou’s willingness to carry it out went unrivaled. As a child, Garou sympathized with villains losing to heroes. Growing tired of heroes defeating villains, he became a villain who could beat any hero. His mission was going well until he came across Saitama. Saitama was a massive roadblock to his plan, with Garou unable to defeat him no matter what he tried.
While Garou succeeded in defeating several elite heroes, Saitama noticed he never killed any of them. This meant that, subconsciously, Garou never wanted to harm anyone. The heroes proved his point that villains could beat them if they persevered.
5 Akame (Akame Ga Kill)
It’d be fair to assume that General Esdeath was a Darwinist. She believed the weak deserved to die to the strong. In her mind, people only die if they are too weak to survive, regardless of their strength. Due to being strong at every point in her life, she could never relate to the feelings of the weak. With her abnormal personality, she was no exception to her logic.
After losing to Akame during the final battle, Esdeath chalked up her loss as being too weak, despite being stronger than Akame. In the end, Esdeath’s logic contradicted itself and somehow made sense. If she were more powerful, Akame would’ve lost, yet her power was still superior regardless.
4 Deku (My Hero Academia)
Shigaraki has given many speeches about society in My Hero Academia, yet, his speech about what separates heroes from villains might have been the most accurate. According to Tomura, the inability to understand why heroes save people makes a person a villain.
Similarly, the inability to understand why villains harm the innocent makes a person a hero. This couldn’t be more true as MHA progressed. A pure person like Deku doesn’t understand why Shigaraki and his group commit heinous acts. As Tomura said, this ignorance of a villain’s mindset automatically makes him a hero.
3 Netero (Hunter X Hunter)
Meruem’s character development was unlike any other character in Hunter x Hunter. Initially, Meruem wanted to treat humanity like livestock to feed on. As he played more games of Gungi with Komugi, he began to acknowledge mankind’s potential as a species. Having an epiphany, Meruem decided to become their savior instead of their enemy.
When he encountered Isaac Netero, Meruem discussed how he wished to destroy the metaphoric borders that separated society’s elite and poor. Through his influence, he would unite everyone regardless of social standing or status. Netero had agreed with his proposal discreetly, noticing his heart was about to sway.
2 Luffy (One Piece)
The final battle Luffy faced before the time skip was a significant wake-up call. During the Marineford War, Luffy was constantly outmatched by most of the World Government’s top officials while on his way to rescue his brother Ace.
Unlike Luffy, the officials protecting Navy Headquarters already had access to haki and more experience in combat. This combination would have sealed Luffy’s fate if he hadn’t received help from Whitebeard’s commanders. Admiral Kizaru made this clear when he told Luffy he needed the power to move forward with his resolve. Luffy’s failure to rescue Ace was evidence of that.
1 Goku (Dragon Ball GT)
Goku and the Z-Fighters’ over-reliance on the Dragon Balls is a constant topic of discussion in Dragon Ball Z. Due to the convenience of having them grant any wish, DBZ’s cast grew accustomed to using them however they wanted. This eventually came with a heavy price in Dragon Ball GT when the malice from the Dragon Balls took physical form and created the Shadow Dragons.
Following the long adventure to defeat the Shadow Dragons, Goku realized Omega Shenron had a valid argument. The Shadow Dragons spawned from the cast’s carelessness with the Dragon Balls. After coming to that realization, Goku took away the Dragon Balls forever.