Summary
- My Hero Academia has complex villains with gray morality, each driven by different motives and actions.
- Villains like Stain and Dabi have tragic backgrounds, making them more than just "pure evil" characters.
- Characters like Muscular and All For One embody pure evil, with no redeeming qualities or sympathetic backgrounds.
It's no secret that the My Hero Academia anime has been hugely successful since it launched in 2016. From good animation to excellent writing, there are plenty of reasons the show has done so well. Its secret sauce, however, has always been how well-written its characters are. Both the heroes and villains.
My Hero Academia is easily one of the best shonen anime with the best villain galleries. Not only does it have a ton of villains, but many of them have an impressive amount of depth. The show has tended to paint many of its villains in a sympathetic light, meaning very few of them can be described as being "pure evil." However, a good few of them are still plenty evil, and they've been ranked here based on their actions, motives, and how irredeemable they are.
Warning: Minor Manga Spoilers Ahead!
8 Chizome Akaguro - Hero Killer Stain
An Extremist And A Killer
Stain is a classic example of how My Hero Academia has always avoided one-dimensional villains. Stain is a cruel and unforgiving extremist who killed seventeen Pro Heroes and permanently disabled twenty-four others. He might have had his reasons, and some people might agree with those reasons, but his methods alone are enough to get him mentioned here.
My Hero Academia: Strongest Villains Who Have Died, Ranked
Not all villains in My Hero Academia live to see the credits roll. Here are some of the strongest ones who have died.
However, he's at the bottom of the list. Stain might be cruel at times, but he has morals. He believes that heroes have become corrupt, motivated by greed rather than a wish to help people. He only targets heroes he thinks are guilty of this and doesn't kill indiscriminately. He admits that what he does is morally wrong but believes that it's also in society's best interests. Is someone who does evil things for good reasons an evil person? Stain straddles that line. My Hero Academia has several heroes who could have been villains. Stain is a villain who could have been a hero.
7 Toya Todoroki - Dabi
Twisted By Major Daddy Issues
Dabi has been around since Season 2 of the anime, and he's become one of the show's best villains. Dabi committed some heinous crimes, including orchestrating the attack on the training camp and killing more than thirty innocent people during a killing spree. He has also turned his flames on fellow villains in the past, cremating several thugs while recruiting for the League of Villains.
Dabi has shown he has no problem killing indiscriminately, yet the show has tried hard in recent seasons to paint him in a sympathetic light. Dabi was once a good person, twisted into a merciless villain by the cruel acts of his father, Endeavor. He's a strong believer in Stain's ideals and believes the heroes and the society that worships them are hypocrites. Originally, he fought only for revenge (and still does) but he also fights for societal change. Dabi might be evil, but his tragic background and the fact that he believes he's fighting for good land him a low ranking.
6 Moonfish
A Psychotic Cannibal
Moonfish played a major role during the attack on the training camp, during which he brutally attacked several U.A. Students, but since then he's become one of My Hero Academia's forgotten villains. Fans shouldn't feel too bad for him though. Moonfish is a psychotic cannibal seemingly driven by a need to inflict pain and suffering, and consume as much flesh as possible.
My Hero Academia's Most Underrated Villain Quirk
Despite providing immense support and utility, one villain quirk has remained in the shadows, making it the most underrated villain quirk.
Unlike most villains here, Moonfish serves no higher purpose; he only joins the other villains as a way to get access to more victims. However, Moonfish is more like a rabid dog than a purely evil villain. Viewers saw this during his escape from Tartarus when he killed anyone he came across, whether they be a fellow villain or a prison guard. He has no real goals or grand plan and is driven more by an unending hunger than anything else.
5 Kai Chisaki - Overhaul
Tortured A Little Girl
When talking about My Hero Academia's most evil villains, fans tend to talk about how many people they've killed or their ultimate goal. Overhaul has certainly killed plenty of people. He ascribes no value to human life, and he does have a villainous end goal. But what makes him truly evil, and one of My Hero Academia's ultimate villains, is his heinous treatment of Eri.
Overhaul tortures the young girl, both physically and mentally. Physically, he repeatedly uses his quirk, overhaul, on her so that he can use her to produce his quirk-destroying bullets. Mentally, he constantly demeans, abuses, and guilt-trips her to make her subservient. Overhaul claims he wants to get rid of all quirks but relies heavily on his own. His true goal is to rise to the top of the Yakuza and make it the number one crime organization. Overhaul is a cruel, sadistic sociopath driven by a desire for power. However, his limited ambition compared to others gives him a mid-tier ranking. He's evil, but not "end of the world" evil.
4 Tomura Shigaraki
Wants To Destroy The World
There's a strong argument that he's My Hero Academia's best villain, but there's an equally strong argument that he's a man-child whose temper tantrums would put Kylo Ren to shame. Shigaraki is an extreme nihilist who spent most of his life wanting to destroy the world because his father was mean to him.
My Hero Academia: 9 Villains Who Have Killed The Most Heroes
The heroes of My Hero Academia don't go down easily, but these villains can match them in skill -- and come out tragically victorious.
All For One has used Shigaraki's deep-seated insecurities and daddy issues to mold him into the ultimate villain. It's been revealed that All For One has been manipulating and grooming Shigaraki since day one. He's even the reason Shigaraki's father was so cruel. Eventually, Shigaraki went from wanting to destroy the world to wishing to reshape it by eliminating Hero Society and killing All Might. By expanding his backstory, My Hero Academia has proven that Shigaraki isn't pure evil, he's just in need of some serious help.
3 Dr. Kyudai Garaki
Turned His Grandson Into A Nomu
Dr. Kyudai is like an evil version of Frankenstein. As All For One's most loyal ally, he has spent his life carrying out inhumane experiments on his victims to further his friend's evil goals. Like All For One, Garaki believes in a world where only the strong will prevail.
Garaki has been shown to have no morals. As one of My Hero Academia's smartest villains, he created the Nomu, bioengineered beings stripped of their humanity and designed to serve All For One. If the creation of Nomus in and of itself wasn't evil enough, it was revealed in the manga that Garaki carried out the process on his grandson, Tsubasa. This vile act highlights just how evil and irredeemable the doctor is.
2 Goto Imasuji - Muscular
Just Wants To Kill
Goto Imasuji doesn't have a tragic background that pushes him to do evil things. He doesn't have a noble, if misguided, wish to reshape society. He's not driven to hurt people by a belief in a higher purpose. Instead, he maims and kills people because it's fun, and he enjoys doing it.
My Hero Academia: 8 Villains Who Don't Deserve Redemption
The goal is frequently to provide villains with a second opportunity at redemption. Unfortunately, that seems improbable with these individuals in MHA
He's not even comparable to the likes of Moonfish. Whereas his evil actions seem to be the result of a mental compulsion, Muscular's actions are reasoned. He doesn't do them because he has to, he does them because he wants to. He explains during his attack on the training camp that he kills because he likes it and that he knows that if he can kill as many people as possible, he'll die with no regrets. His only ideal is that people should always do what they promise, which in his case is causing as much death and suffering as he can. His total lack of morals and humanity earns him second place.
1 All For One
The Demon Lord
It's hard to know where to start with All For One. He's spent over a century killing heroes and massacring civilians in his attempt to take over the world and become its "Demon Lord." To All For One, other humans are little more than pawns, and he's never been seen to show anyone any genuine affection. He saw his little brother, Yoichi, as a possession and only pretended to care about Shigaraki so that he could steal his body.
7 Ways All For One Is My Hero Academia's Best Villain
My Hero Academia has an absolute ton of villains to choose from. Out of all of them, the biggest and baddest is arguably still All For One.
All For One is a classic comic book villain - evil in a way that most of My Hero Academia's villains aren't. He's defined by his god complex and ruthless ambition and there's no one he won't kill to achieve his goal - including children. He's also a sadist who delights in the pain he causes, especially to All Might. All For One is evil on a global scale, and no other character in the anime can compare to him. His malevolence is calm and calculated, and, in the world of My Hero Academia, All For One is the very embodiment of evil.
My Hero Academia
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2016 - 2025-00-00
- Studio
- Bones
- Japanese Title
- Boku no Hero Academia
- Number of Episodes
- 159
