Audiences have seen a lot of anime characters who come from a tragic past. Most of these characters often happen to be the protagonists. However, protagonists aren’t the only ones with tragic pasts. It is quite common for villains in anime to have an emotional backstory. These tragic flashbacks do a great job of explaining why these characters became a villains in the first place. There are villains with depressing backstories that fans can’t help but sympathize with them.
1. Zeref Dragneel
The most evil and powerful character in Fairy Tail is Zeref Dragneel. He can use black magic and has summoned several demons upon the Earth. However, as the guild of the main character met this infamous mage, he appeared to be more dejected than evil.
His acts were completely unjustified which involved killing others. However, Zeref doesn’t act out of ill intentions. He was orphaned at a young age and was interested in learning magic. His only motivation was to bring his little brother, Natsu, back to life. However, he was cursed by the god Ankhseram. This curse kills those around the mage, often against his will.
2. Itachi Uchiha
Every Naruto fan is aware of Itachi Uchiha. He is one of the most skilled shinobi from the Hidden Leaf village. However, his image is tainted with the Uchiha clan massacre. He slaughtered his entire clan except for his little brother, Sasuke.
However, after Itachi died it was revealed that he wasn’t a villain as people considered him. His actual backstory was rather tragic. He was a capable and high-ranking ninja. However, he stumbles upon the plan of his clan to overthrow the Hokage. This resulted in him being tasked with the mission to eliminate all of them to protect the village.
3. Johan Liebert
The antagonist of Monster is one of the most enigmatic characters the anime industry has seen. Monster also featured one of the best sibling rivalries in anime. What he did was extremely deranged. His villainous actions included murdering several sets of foster parents to manipulating people of all ages into suicide. It has been depicted that anyone who comes in contact with him suffers, dies, or both.
Johan was the result of child experimentation which was intended to make him the most powerful cult leader in the world. He was separated from his twin sister which was quite traumatic for him. He was molded into several things which stopped him from being his person.
4. Isabella
She was depicted to be quite terrifying at the start of the series. Isabella takes care of the children at Grace only for them to be eaten by the demons. She has been shown ruthless enough that she breaks the leg of eleven-year-old Emma with her bare hands in the first episode.
It was revealed that Isabella was also a livestock on Grace Field. She had to watch the gruesome fate of her friends being taken away to be eaten alive. To survive from becoming a meal, she had to become a “Mom” on the farm.
5. Light Yagami
The protagonist of Death Note isn’t a conventional villain with a tragic backstory. However, it completely depends on the perspective of the viewer how sympathetic Light is. His story is quite tragic regardless of what the audiences think about him.
The protagonist spends the entire story trying to prove that he is a god of justice, something greater than humans and untouchable by human judgment. However, the final episode of the series proves him otherwise. He flees from the task force like a prey running for his life from a predator. Bleeding out, terrified, and ultimately dying alone as Ryuk’s Death Note stops his heart.
