Why do people like villains?

[AnimeThief]

So, why do anime fans like villains? Personally I don't like them. Why should I like anyone (real or fictional) who commits genocide, rape, and just exists to cause pain to people?

 

I feel it would be hypocritical for me to dislike a real person like Ted Bundy or Hitler for the things they did and than turn around and like a fictional villain that by story standards is far worse. So for example, why should I be a fan to a villain who murders X amount of innocent people.

 

So subconsciously wouldn't I be condoning the acts of a real convict than by liking a villain who goes around committing the same particular brutal crimes?

 

After all, isn't the creation of a few fictional criminals inspired by the acts of some that actually exist in this world?

 

So for example. Frieza in DBZ is like Hitler. Frieza was racist towards saiyans and just about every other race and was a mass murderer. Do DBZ fans just like him because he's not real? If he were real would they still like him?

Edited December 10, 2016 by Guest

[ItsSammy]

I personally do enjoy the villains most of the time, for example ...

 

Light Yagami

He is one of my favorite Anime characters because their is so much development.

I enjoyed watching his descent into madness and I found his actions to be some what on the line of grey instead of fully black ... Light did have good intent and just wanted to make the world beautiful and perfect again, he only began to become the "Villain" when he felt forced to kill others just to hide what he'd done, which of course wasn't right but to Light it seemed like the only way to fix the world.

 

So, I do enjoy the villains in most things but only when they have great development. Any character with a good backstory, character development, and challenge you to figure out if they're truly evil or just confused as to how to actually fix the world without killing or crime committing are some of the best characters out there!

I personally enjoy the more dark and disturbing characters more than any others since they're always so complex and intriguing, but if a villain is full of plot holes, given a one dimensional personality, and is just meant to be liked 'cause their evil then that is something interlay different and not something I like.

[ssjup81]

People probably like villains more because they sometimes come across as being more complex or have different facets to their personalities. This goes for pretty much any medium, not jus "anime".

[Belgrade_assassin]

So, why do anime fans like villains? Personally I don't like them. Why should I like anyone (real or fictional) who commits genocide, rape, and just exists to cause pain to people?

That' the thing, I don't think that anyone (anyone I know at least) likes villains or ''good guys'' simply because they're ''good'' or ''bad''. Usually character's actions aren't as important as their traits and appearances.

Indeed Yagami Light is good example of this. He appears as though he's evil (which I'm not gonna lie he really is) but his actions aren't first thing the people think of when they think of him. Light is firstly a really smart guy, a bookworm in a way, he's also quite charming and charismatic and finally he's (I think he is, ladies??) good looking. And indeed as Sammy previously said:

 

...I found his actions to be some what on the line of grey instead of fully black ... Light did have good intent and just wanted to make the world beautiful and perfect again, he only began to become the "Villain" when he felt forced to kill others just to hide what he'd done, which of course wasn't right but to Light it seemed like the only way to fix the world.

...

I personally enjoy the more dark and disturbing characters more than any others since they're always so complex and intriguing, but if a villain is full of plot holes, given a one dimensional personality, and is just meant to be liked 'cause their evil then that is something interlay different and not something I like.

Best villains are justified villains, villains that probably wouldn't be villains if certain conditions and causes didn't make them the way they are. In Light's case he always had an idea of how a perfect world would look like but he never had means to execute his plans until he found Death Note. Lelouch also believed that he was doing the right thing all along and at times he was hailed as hero by some and considered a terrorist by others. His story perhaps illustrates that struggle between what's right and what's wrong, who's good and who's bad the best.

I understand the possible confusion since there are so many one-dimensional characters nowadays. It's easy to just sort people into ''good'' and ''bad'' and call it case closed, which is what they usually do in children's cartoons since they like to keep story as simplified as possible, but just like in all of good pieces of literature and real life there are always 2 points of view.

 

I feel it would be hypocritical for me to dislike a real person like Ted Bundy or Hitler for the things they did and than turn around and like a fictional villain that by story standards is far worse. So for example, why should I be a fan to a villain who murders X amount of innocent people.

For example it's easy to antagonize Hitler nowadays but what people often forget or disregard is the utter humiliation Germany suffered during and after WW1 being labeled as main cause of it (which it wasn't) and loose peace treaty of Versailles that only postponed another great conflict for the time being. Hitler was more a consequence of WW1 rather than cause and main villain of WW2.

 

So subconsciously wouldn't I be condoning the acts of a real convict than by liking a villain who goes around committing the same particular brutal crimes?

I don't think that you would. It's important for us to understand why certain things happen so we wouldn't end up repeating them. So I'd encourage you to study stories of those controversial people because if anything it's more dangerous to simply label them as taboo and leave them be.

 

After all, isn't the creation of a few fictional criminals inspired by the acts of some that actually exist in this world?

Not really since as we've established earlier most of good and likeable villains weren't made to be bad but rather ended up being bad. It's not like they've said ''Hey let's duplicate a mass-murderer and have him use a book to kill people'', Light is more than that.

 

So for example. Frieza in DBZ is like Hitler. Frieza was racist towards saiyans and just about every other race and was a mass murderer. Do DBZ fans just like him because he's not real? If he were real would they still like him?

Even good old Frieza had to try his hardest to impress his father and surpass his older brother. He wasn't really racist towards Saiyans, not in traditional way at least. I mean he kept 3 serving under him, but since destruction was only thing he knew (being brought up the way he was) of course he ended up the way he did. Too bad DBZ never really wanted you to know this because it's way easier antagonize someone and make it seem as a struggle between good and bad rather than leaving you conflicted on who to cheer for.

[HayHay]

myself i havent watched a anime yet where i liked the villen then again im usually wanting the good side to come out on top but i get what you mean ive heard people saying they like the villens over main characters, oh well ill find an anime like that eventually i suppose.