30 Days of Anime: Day 9

I love myself a villain. I often find myself claiming a villain as my favourite character, or at my weakest – sympathising with them. So this question was difficult, as I am definitely not short of choices. But do not despair, as hope is right around the corner.

DAY 9 – BEST ANIME VILLAIN

NAGITO KOMAEDA (SUPER DANGANRONPA/DANGANRONPA 3)

Please do not be fooled.

Oh, my God. I can’t stand Nagito. Just the thought of him, just the mere mention of his name gets my blood boiling. Now, if that isn’t the sign of a great villain. Don’t even come at me trying to tell me that Nagito isn’t a villain, don’t even TRY.

Nagito’s initial introduction is that of a care-free, happy go-lucky friend to our protagonist, Hajime. You figure ‘Hey, here’s our sidekick for the game/anime, awesome’. He helps you out for a while and then he just…

Nightmare material.

Yep, Nagito is absolutely batshit insane. And the scariest part of all of his actions is that he thinks he’s right in doing it in the name of ‘hope’. For whatever reason, causing despair to others is making Nagito believe that hope will prevail eventually, he just has to continue being a massive tool. I mean, what kind of gigantic catfish?!

I don’t even know where to begin with Nagito on my shitlist. He’s a master manipulator, manipulating anyone to get what he wants, whether it’s the best thing to do or not – because who cares as long as his twisted idea of hope can thrive? Kill a few people along the way? Who cares? The killing game STARTED just because Nagito manipulated someone into murder. Hell, most of the events in Nagito’s timeline occur because Nagito was screwing around in some way.

Some argue that Nagito isn’t evil so much as he’s both brainwashed and grew up in terrible conditions. And to an extent, I agree, really. It’s what makes his character so interesting, and why I rank him so highly as a villain (not as a likeable character, God no). Sure, his actions are mostly despicable, and everything he stands for is awful but if you take away Nagito’s twisted version of hope and instead consider he literally just wants actual hope to arise…can one really call him a villain? I still definitely am, regardless, because he’s worst boy and totally tried to ruin best boy’s execution.

To those who have played the Danganronpa games – how do you feel about the most divisive character in the series?

Until next time!