Anime Evil Characteristics?

[bellpickle]

[SIZE=1]Which characteristic of a villain would you find most dangerous? Would it be a villain's intelligence or resourcefulness? Or their cruelty, perhaps? Maybe their strength and abilities?

While resourcefulness is a close one for me, I'd have to say that apathy and disillusionment would be the most dangerous aspect of a villain. Those sorts of villains are much less restrained, and are able to think more clearly and freely because of it. (Often, villains who are passionate over something end up doing something stupid to protect that precious something.) Throw in a good amount of intelligence and a goal of some kind, and you have a potentially dangerous person on your hands.

I think a couple good examples of this villain are Itachi from Naruto, Light from Death Note, maybe one or two characters from Utena.

So, what's everyone else's opinion on this?[/SIZE]

[Dagger]

Hm... interesting topic. I guess I'd put intelligence and lack of honor pretty high up on the list. Villains handicap themselves when they start playing by the rules (and half the time, those who do so aren't real villains to begin with).

Unpretentiousness could be a very potent characteristic, now that I think about it. Only people who are full of themselves will fail to make a back-up plan or will go around telling the hero their evil schemes before killing him. [b]Kuroro[/b] from Hunter x Hunter fits into the doesn't-take-himself-too-seriously category pretty well, if I remember correctly.

[b]Johan[/b] from Monster is very close to being the ideal villain--the only thing holding him back is his penchant for theatricality, really. He could wipe the floor with Light, in terms of intellect and everything else. So could Banana Fish's Ash, for that matter (who, unluckily for the world, is not a bad guy). It's fun to think of Light getting a taste of his own medicine...

Out of curiosity, which Utena characters were you thinking of?

~Dagger~

[Judgement]

For me it is how smart they are. Ever hear of brains over brawn? I say that if you can outsmart an opponent, you'll easily win the fight. It's like my signiture say's " Those who are skilled in warfare move the enemy, and are not moved by the enemy." A good example of this are the homunculi from Full Metal Alchemist. [spoiler][B]They[/B] controlled Ed and Al's movements throughout the series. In fact they pretty much controlled everything, including the military(the Fuhrer or Pride).[/spoiler] They did have cool abilities too, but that is not what really made them cool to me. How they
"kept the ball rolling," was just awesome and very well in the plot. They're smart, dangerous, and beautiful( well, Lust at least). I think that one of the most evil characteristics is being female. Women have, in reality too, the ability to manipulate men. That's why Lust is a great example. She is smart, deadly( which is something guys in anime seem to miss often, though you can't blame them :D ), manipulative, and beautiful(which is something guys in anime never will miss). She the worst type of enemy, but you just have to love Bust...I mean Lust. :animeblus

[bankotsu10]

I think a dangerous characteritic would be having no emotion because then they would carry out each task with no thoughts of caring or loving that would get in there way.

[bellpickle]

[QUOTE]I think that one of the most evil characteristics is being female. Women have, in reality too, the ability to manipulate men.[/QUOTE]
[SIZE=1]I think this extends to males too. A charming, attractive man can easily toy with most girls he comes across with hardly any effort. I think Akio "Smooth Operator" Ohtori and Touga Kiryuu from Utena are excellent examples of this.

To Dagger: Thank you for giving me another incentive to get ahold of Monster. ^_^

As for the Utena character, Mikage Souji was mainly who I had in mind, his only real weakness being whatever feelings remained for that one woman he loved. I'm sure there are more examples within Utena, though I honestly don't understand many Utena characters well enough to make those sorts of assumptions.

And while we're on the topic of evil geniuses, I just stumbled upon a post discussing whether or not Light could survive hardcore prison, and LOL'd throughout its entirety. So much for comeuppance. XD[/SIZE]

[Veritas]

[size=1][color=DarkRed][font=Arial]There are just so many characteristics that go into making a villian evil. One of the biggest for me is, their mental stability. Some one that isn't in the right state of mind, is unpredictable, and a lot of the time the lengths they will go to succeed are greater. Intelligence is a big piece of the pie in my book too. I think that with that comes alot of things, such as resoucefulness.

Being manipulative and charismatic are also very useful. IF you can turn someone on someone else, you eliminate a lot of work you might have to do. To me the most dangerous villian is a mastermind bearing, good instincts, street smart, intelligent, resourceful, and insane. To me sanity is just a tie to humanity when someone is crazy, the are something vaugly human, but still something else.
[/font][/color][/size]

[2010DigitalBoy]

I don't care how evil they are, if the villain isn't deep, he comes across as uninteresting, and an uninteresting villain, to me, comes across as just... stupid. Usually when I see villains like Freeza (DBZ) or Toguro (Yu Yu Hakusho) or Naraku (Inuyasha) who seems simply to be evil for the sake of being evil, I find them to be boring and anyone who is kiled by them sucks for dying to such a crappy villain.

A villain with a deep mental complew andlots of backstory, expecially one who gets a lot of showtime instead of lying unseen until the end of the game would capture my heart. For example, someone like Uchiha Itachi (Naruto) or Mithos Yggdrassil (Tales of Symphonia) who you are introduced to and learn about over a course of time and watch them go through with their story are far more compelling, and a good villain is a truly evil villain. THAT IS! Unless they make you feel bad for them. Then they are just pansies.

If the villain was picked on his whole life and now turned evil, that's no fun because now he has justification. The things the villain has done have to be overbearingly evil beyond repentance. If they killed their own family or burned their village down, they are evil. If they want to destroy the world because "those ungrateful humans took everything away from them" the suck.

Of course, backstabbers and betrayers are evil as well, unless theor the kind who run away when the going gets tough.

And, of course, there are those villains who just breath coolness. You know who they are... the ruthless badasses who are nearly indestructable and do as they please. Not to mention the halfgood-halfbad all around lunatics like Haruko (FLCL)

My two cents.

Great Villains:

Just about anyone from Naruto
Sesshomaru (Inuyasha)
Skurai the Cursed Prosecuter (Ragnarok)
Haruhara Haruko (FLCL)
Ansem (Kingdom Hearts)
Just about any Final Fantasy villain (Sephiroth, Seymore, Kuja)
Hajime Saito (Rurouni Kenshin)
Shishiou (Rurouni Kenshin)
Souta (Rurouni Kenshin)
Fuma (X)

And many more...

[bellpickle]

[quote name='? Nomad Tical ?']...expecially one who gets a lot of showtime instead of lying unseen until the end of the game...[/quote]
[SIZE=1]Ultimecia comes to mind. :animeangr

Villains with direct involvement in the story usually end up more interesting and memorable than a villain who watches and controls everything from afar. [/SIZE]

[quote name='? Nomad Tical ?']If the villain was picked on his whole life and now turned evil, that's no fun because now he has justification.[/quote]
[SIZE=1]I completely agree. A sympathetic villain can be well-done, but more often than not, the creators beat the villain's tRaGiCaL!1!11! backstory into the viewers' head, and cheapen the character's actions. I think a good backstory only aims to explain the villain's actions, not validate it. [/SIZE]

[Dagger]

[quote name='bellpickle][SIZE=1']I think this extends to males too. A charming, attractive man can easily toy with most girls he comes across with hardly any effort. I think Akio "Smooth Operator" Ohtori and Touga Kiryuu from Utena are excellent examples of this.[/size][/quote]
As is Light (speaking of Death Note, and all that). Although frankly, [spoiler]I think he overdoes it, and it's probably going to get him into big trouble at some point. He was incredibly lucky to have found Misa, whose rather unique personality makes her a safe tool for him to use. It was stupid of him to play the romance card with Takaya, even if he had few other options left... jealousy is the one thing that could push Misa into actively working to undermine him.[/spoiler]

[quote][size=1]To Dagger: Thank you for giving me another incentive to get ahold of Monster. ^_^[/size][/quote]
Yes! Watch Monster, it's awesome. :)

~Dagger~

[Anime Elf]

My top qualities would be
1. Genius
2. Apathy
3. Not too much talking
4. Actually getting rid of the hero (no leaving while the hero "dies", Austin Powers and Bond come to mind)

Aside from anime/manga, in comics (sort of the same meduim) Mr. Sinister and Dr. Doom are two of the best villians (I mean, just look at the names! oh, and the destruction). But the homunculi are some of the best villians. Always present, but not always on your mind. Their influence is so great for such a small group of rejects.