This Season’s Anime Villains May Not Understand What Villains Are

by Kara Dennison
November 26, 2024

We love (and love to hate!) good anime villains. Whether they’re genuinely misunderstood or downright evil, well-written baddies serve as an excellent foil to our favorite heroes. And this season’s antagonists are no exception… except when they are. Because it seems some of this season’s most vehement villains don’t actually know what villains do! Funnily enough, though, that just makes us love them more.

Meet this season’s villainous characters who are fully committed to the baddie bit. Even if their version of villainy isn’t quite the norm…

Torame and Zakuro

It took half the series for the anime villains of Wonderful Precure! to appear, but they’re here at last. Torame and Zakuro are servants of the wolf spirit Gaou. Their boss resents humans and wants animals to stay away from people, and for understandable reasons. Despite the residents of Animal Town changing for the better, Gaou still despises them. His underlings… well, sort of.

Zakuro is a little more into the whole evil plan thing, but she’s mostly in love with Gaou. Torame, meanwhile, just wants to play. This is something the magical girl team notices during a recent fight. Could Precure potentially win them over before the season is out? We’ll see!

Chrome

Lots of our favorite anime villains show up in magical girl series, and that’s the case again this season. Meet Chrome, the recurring baddie of Acro Trip. He does constant battle with local heroine Berry Blossom, aided by bear monsters know as Kuma Kaijin. But his goals aren’t the usual villainous fare. Like series protagonist Chizuko, he wants Berry Blossom to shine in combat—and that means giving her a good fight.

While he may once have had aspirations to be an evil mastermind, his true goal is to enable awesome magical girl battles. In fact, that’s one of the few things he and Chizuko see eye to eye on. It’s also why she’s consented to be part of Fossa Magna, conspiring against her favorite magical girl. Thanks to the two of them, Berry Blossom shows her true heroism on the local news. So what do you think: has he got villainy all wrong, or exactly right?

Alicia Williams

We can’t talk about this season’s anime villains without mentioning the self-professed villainess! I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History follows Alicia Williams, reincarnated into her favorite dating sim. But she’s determined to make the most of her new life as the romantic lead’s #1 anti. She always found the player character very childish and passive. Now she can revel in her flashy, take-no-prisoners villainy.

Except that Alicia is doing great things. She calls Liz out on important ethical issues, helps the poor, and actively wants to dismantle the aristocracy. She does all she can to give advantages to those who don’t have them. And while she’s willing to be a magnet for drama and hate—which can happen—she’s actually making the world around her a better place. But if she takes pride in her alleged villainy, who are we to tell her otherwise?