The Best Anime Protagonists Who Became Villains

Summary

• Not all anime protagonists remain heroes, some spiral into darkness due to tragic events or a thirst for power.
• Iconic characters like Artoria Pendragon, Light Yagami, and Lelouch Lamperouge shift from hero to villain dramatically.
• From twisted versions of themselves to quests for revenge, these heroes turn into ruthless antagonists.

Anime protagonists are not always perfect heroes, and there are times when regular and flawed humans turn to the dark side forever. Even if they were at some point the stars of the show, they quickly devolve into antagonists and ruin their stellar performance.

Or perhaps, that’s what the authors intended from the get-go: to show us that even the brightest stars can fall to darkness. This list showcases the most radical shifts from the main character to the villain of the series. From the perfect knight becoming a ruthless dark paladin, to a victim of circumstances who turned to evil under the influence of his father.

6

Artoria Pendragon – Saber Alter (Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel)

When The Most Righteous Of Heroines Fall

The Alter version of the Heroic Spirit Artoria (or Arturia) Pendragon is a twisted and hopeless version of the noble King of Knights. All the feelings of regret were empowered by the corrupted Grail and she turned into the darkest version of the ruler of Camelot.

Her formerly glorious Excalibur is now inked with the corrupting energy of Morgan LeFey, and the healing light of the Avalon Sheat has been turned into a powerful force of corruption, that makes everything surrounding her decay and rot. She is the perfect example of an exemplary heroine turned into a villain, abandoning her honor in a ruthless pursuit of power to change the fate of her fallen kingdom.

5

Light Yagami (Death Note)

Started As A Vigilante, But Turned Into A Drunk With Power Psycho

When Light Yagami got the Death Note and started to taste the thrilling sensation of having power over the life (and death) of the people, something broke inside of him. As the plot progresses, we can see him mutate into a dark avenger, and ultimately a ruthless and deranged psycho who will stop at nothing to accomplish his goals.

Scheming, dangerous, and a formidable hero turned antagonist, Light is the prime example of how power corrupts to the point of no return. There’s a critical point in the story where we can see Kira (his alter-ego) overtake him, and it is related to his masterful plan to defeat L once and for all. Once he defeated the one who represented a threat to him, Light felt unstoppable, and this led him to take the final leap into becoming a deranged psycho where the Kira persona took total control.

4

Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

A Revolutionary Leader Turned Into A Dark Avenger

A master tactician who leads by example, Lelouch revolts against those who wrongfully tried to bring doom to his lineage and trap her sister into a cycle of violence and political captivity. As the story progresses, Lelouch loses all moral high ground as the power of the Geass slowly overtakes him.

His downfall into moral ambiguity marks the end of his career as a revolutionary hero and turns him into a ruthless dark avenger who will stop at nothing to punish those who conspired against his family. He is the perfect hero-turned-villain; he had a glimpse of the abyss and came back changed forever.

3

Griffith (Berserk)

A Coward Who Gave Away His Humanity For Power

Formerly a paragon of knighthood and a great leader, Griffith’s descent into darkness is one of the most shocking hero-turned-villain tropes of all anime history. Griffith’s folly begins when Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk in pursuit of his path. This leaves the leader of the mercenaries without one of his best men, an event that is followed by Griffith being captured and brutally tortured for an entire year before he is finally rescued by his friends.

A shadow of his former self, Griffith became ready for the reaping when an Eclipse that occurs every two centuries opened a path through an ancient relic that was in his possession: the Behelit of the God Hand. At that moment, Griffith is left with the choice to succumb to darkness and sacrifice all his friends for power, or remain crippled and weak. His transformation into the obnoxious, vicious, and monstrous Femto is the epitome of villainy.

2

Eren Jaeger (Attack On Titan)

Saw No Way Out But To Make Humanity Unite Against Him

Eren’s path from a helpless villager, to the hero of Eldia, and ultimately to the enemy of the world is a brutal and bloody transformation that has shocked thousands of fans of Attack On Titan. Though the plot itself obfuscates most of the motivations behind this degeneration from hero to villain, it is made clear that Eren’s objective was always for the betterment of the world.

At some point, when he discovered the truth of the origins of the Titan’s power and the implications of Eldia in the Great Titan War, he saw that the only way to put an end to the eternal cycle of violence was to destroy this wretched power forever. His methods might be questionable, but his results were what he expected. In the end, this villain turned out to be a sacrificial hero, though the ending of the series was one of the greatest disappointments in the history of anime.

1

Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto & Naruto: Shippuden)

A Rogue Ninja Who Spent His Life Burning Bridges

Sasuke was a good and happy child until a fateful night when his brother decided to kill his whole family. This event marked his life forever and set him on a path of revenge that would eventually lead him to become one of the main antagonists of the series. Sasuke’s warpath into the darkness is one hell of a ride, and proof that even the best of the class can become a murderous enemy if given the chance.

Until Naruto finally manages to get some sense into him (through the power of friendship), he is determined to destroy everything and everyone who cares for him just to accomplish his revenge on his older brother. Unbeknownst to him, this was also another mistake, and once he killed his brother he ended up killing the last person of his family who loved him.