Love to Hate Him

Some bad guys do their thing so well you can't help but hope they'd win sometimes. Some villains are so good at it you sort of root for them the whole time, and when they lose (as they eventually must) you tend to feel for them. Let's just say that some antagonists are so bad they're good, and that they're sometimes better than the good guys.

For the purposes of this category, we define "villain" as anyone who goes up against the main characters, regardless of motivation. That way I can include some guys that wouldn't actually fit the classic "bad guy" definition.

If you came in through the Anti-Heroes & Anime Villians Webring below, please take the time to browse the rest of The Leading Men of Anime to see some of the more fantastic *male* characters anime has to offer... If you don't like the plain table format, try the frames version!

Not Quite Standard Disclaimer:
The images here were gleaned from many different sites--wherever I happened to see a good picture of the Leading Man in question...In some cases I had to chop him out of a bigger picture, brighten the image itself--anything to get HIS solo mug up there. If I'm using your image and you don't like what I've done to it, tell me about it and I'll take it out. Remember: all images here belong solely to their creators.

All guys are plugged in ALPHABETICALLY per page, and in the order I received the suggestions, to avoid the reams of hate-mail I can imagine for inadvertently maligning *your* Leading Man.

CLAMP's X has some beautiful animation! The story was a bit compressed, judging from the X sites I visited. The characters really stood out though--this best-friend-gone-bad more than the others. He started out as such a great guy, then he was "twisted" (or fated to be twisted?) by the Dragons of Earth and betrays everyone. Including those on his own side!

As a bad guy, Fuuma was excellent! He was the perfect adversary--especially when you remeber what he used to be like--and, coupled with his explosive superiority makes him a winner. I felt bad about all the Dragons he finished off, but I still found him more fascinating than Kamui.

Chilly-Chan and Neko-Chan say:
          There´s only one man, you´ve forgotten: what about Hermes (or Hirumes), the bad (?), but super-cute villain of the Heroic Legend of Arislan? I like him so much and I think, he´s definitely one of the coolest, but also sympathic guys in anime. He´s not only bad, he´s also in love with that blind princess (I forgot her name) and in his opinion, Pulsa is his and he is a tragic figure. Yes, and he is still human enough if you look at his fear of fire...

I did a little research while looking for this image (let me tell you it took a long time) and boy is this OAV series complicated. I don't know much about it (haven't seen it yet) but the Arslan Senki/Heroic Legend of Arislan site has the best collection of information and images around (only one of Hermes, but that was more than anyone else did!)

SeishirouXdk says:
     He's from another of CLAMP's great works, a cold-blooded assasin who's so two faced and so diabolical it chills you to the bone watching him. He's the perfect gentleman yet also the perfect bastard - and he's a damn good looker!

kestrel adds:
     ...the care and loyalty he has for Subaru makes your heart ache sometimes.

Hey, what can I add to this? CLAMP rules!
The image is from this site. Thanks to Ami for pointing it out!

Lord Ashura says:
          ...you need Taishakuten (who is also from RG Veda) in the "Love To Hate Him" section.

I haven't seen this anime yet, but everyone tells me I ought to. Lord Ashura also suggested the image for him, from this site.
 
 

When I think about his motivations, I almost couldn't put Zagato in here--but since he was almost completely evil throughout the series, I couldn't not put him here either! His complex reasons blew me away--he was protecting Emeraude from the Knights she called to kill HER!

What a sad life though--doomed through his love for the Princess and caught between that love and his duty. He has an almost inhuman loyalty--it was touching, very very "sniff, sniff, pass the tissue box please..." I like to think of how happy he was that it was all over in the end.

This image courtesy of Mark Neidengerd's A/M Image Archives. His archive is amazing--a complete set of screen shots for almost every major anime or manga series out there--I don't know how he does it, honest!