10 Minor Anime Villains That Failed Terribly

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Posted 3 hours ago by inuno.ai

Any proper anime villain will pose a credible threat to the heroes with their intelligence, strength, and most of all, their successes. The stakes will always be raised when a villain claims victory, forcing the heroes to try plan B and win against even steeper odds later in the story. That, or a successful villain may succeed in the sense they have gained the lifestyle they want, such as running a nation or destroying the world. But not all villains actually make it that far.

There are some villains who actually haven’t made it anywhere, and they all faced defeat before they could realize their ambitions or accomplish anything of note. Some of the least successful villains in anime history failed to win any battles, physical or otherwise, and they never achieved the lifestyle they wanted. These villains were totally unfulfilled by the time they got written out of the story, and many of them found it terribly frustrating or embarrassing.

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10

Lara Tybur Lost Her Only Battle in AOT

Lara’s War Hammer Titan Couldn’t Handle Eren’s Power (Attack on Titan)

Warhammer Titan manifests a weapon out of bone in Attack on Titan. — Image via MAPPA

Based on what Attack on Titan fans saw in the final season, Lara Tybur was not used to combat, so fans can’t easily blame her for losing to Eren Yeager’s Attack Titan during their battle in Liberio. That said, Lara dropped the ball in a big way, unable to pacify Eren even with the aid of the Jaw Titan. In fact, Eren turned the Jaw Titan against Lara to defeat her once and for all.

Lara did land some nasty blows on Eren with her Titan’s power, but she still lost when Eren used the Jaw’s trademark jaws to break open Lara’s protective shell. Lara was gobbled right up, and that meant her powers transferred to Eren, who became nearly unstoppable among the mighty Titan shifters.

Attack on Titan

Genre: Action, Dark Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic
Language: English, Japanese
Number of Seasons: 3
Debut Date: April 7, 2013

9

Gluttony Lost Multiple Times and Died in Ironic Fashion

Gluttony Died More Often Than Any Other Homunculus (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

All of the homunculi in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood got killed off in the end, but at least some of them accomplished more than others. Gluttony was the least successful of them, seeing how he was a failed Portal of Truth, and he never scored any meaningful fights even with allies like Lust and Pride around.

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Instead, Gluttony was a punching bag for the heroes, and even after Father revived him with a new Philosopher’s Stone, Gluttony was simply incapable of making a major difference on any battlefield. Gluttony was only indirectly helpful when Pride consumed him to gain the power of his sharp nose, sniffing out Ed and the others in the darkness. As Pride put it, though, the homunculi were effectively one being, and merging their bodies like that was no real loss.

8

Vaccine Man Didn’t “Save the Planet” From The Disease Known as Humans

Vaccine Man Couldn’t Beat Saitama, Let Alone an Entire Species (One Punch Man)

vaccine man speaks amid the rubble — Image by Studio Madhouse.

The very first villain whom Saitama ever fought in the One-Punch Man anime was a tall, purple-skinned humanoid monster calling himself Vaccine Man. That monster declared humanity a sickness and virus on the face of the Earth, a disease that needed a vaccine to protect the natural world. Unimpressed, Saitama slugged Vaccine Man and defeated him with one blow.

Vaccine Man accomplished next to nothing on-screen and stood no chance against Saitama, making him a classic “jobber” who served one purpose: lose to someone else to prove that other party’s power. But even if Vaccine Man never crossed paths with Saitama, he couldn’t have possibly destroyed the entire human race as intended, and other fighters from the Hero Association would have taken him down.

7

Akito Lost the Zodiac Members One by One

Akito’s Tight Grip Just Pushed the Sohmas Away (Fruits Basket)

Akito Sohma from Fruits Basket stares forward.

At a glance, the antagonist Akito Sohma may seem successful in the shojo story of Fruits Basket, seeing how she is the uncontested head of the entire Sohma clan. However, that wasn’t Akito’s idea of success and glory, because she needed more than authority — Akito craved the unconditional love and loyalty of all Sohmas. On that personal front, Akito’s arc was riddled with failures.

Akito used all kinds of verbal and sometimes physical abuse to try and keep the cursed Sohmas in line, but it was no good, and they broke away from her one by one. Even Kureno, the ultra-loyal rooster of the zodiac, eventually decided to carve out his own path, and Akito was definitely panicking by then. Fortunately for her, Akito later found a way to accept her new life without the Sohmas attached to her as their “god,” giving her humility and peace.

Fruits Basket

Release Date: April 6, 2019
Directors: Yoshihide Ibata
Writers: Natsuki Takaya
Franchise(s): Fruits Basket

6

Marie Fou Lafan Couldn’t Take Down Her Brother

Her Harem Mattered Less Than Humiliating Leon (Trapped in a Dating Sim)

For the sake of humor, the isekai anime series Trapped in a Dating Sim made the villain Marie Fou Lafan a total failure, to the point she was no threat to protagonist Leon Bartfort whatsoever. Fans might wonder whether the petty, ineffective Marie even counts as a proper anime villain or just an obnoxious side character.

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Marie followed her older brother into the otome game world, intending to take him down, but Marie utterly failed each time, much to her fury. While Marie did succeed in building a reverse harem around herself, that was not her end goal, so that doesn’t count as a major success of hers. Instead, Marie is cursing her smug, modestly successful brother and still hopes to foil him someday, somehow.

Trapped in a Dating Sim

Genre: Anime
Number of Seasons: 1
Debut Date: April 3, 2022
Studio: Crunchyroll

5

Don Krieg Got Demolished in the Grand Line and Lost to Luffy

Don Krieg Wasn’t Grand Line Material After All (One Piece)

don krieg bares his teeth in anger — Image by Toei Animation.

One Piece is home to plenty of anime villains who had it all, such as Kurozumi Orochi ruling Wano and Donquixote Doflamingo capturing all of Dressrosa, but the same can’t be said of Don Krieg. He was Luffy’s first major preview of the Grand Line’s islands, with Don Krieg and his many crewmates returning from the Grand Line in tatters.

Don Krieg failed to make any serious inroads in the Grand Line no matter the size of his fleet, so Don Krieg tried to pick on the Baratie instead. That was where Don Krieg crossed Monkey D. Luffy, who defeated him in battle without needing any Gears or Haki. Don Krieg thought he could make it big, but he failed in everything, and having a huge fleet under his command couldn’t change that.

One Piece

Release Date: October 20, 1999
Network: Fuji TV
Directors: Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
Writers: Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

4

Magne Lost a Few Fights, Then Died at Overhaul’s Hands

Magne Didn’t Live Up to Her Reputation (My Hero Academia)

Magne uses her Magnetism Quirk in My Hero Academia. — Image by Studio Bones.

Plenty of villains in My Hero Academia lost the only fight they ever took part in, but a few managed to lose multiple fights and get written out in disgrace. That was what happened to the minor villain Magne, who was written to be a deadly killer with a cool Quirk, but she failed to make any progress when fighting the Wild, Wild Pussycats in the forest training camp.

Later, Magne got knocked out during the Kamino Ward, prompting the supervillain All For One to use a Quirk to force the activation of Magne’s own Quirk. That was another mishap on Magne’s part, and the end soon arrived when Overhaul confronted the League and casually killed Magne, an anticlimactic end for what was supposed to be a tough, scary criminal.

My Hero Academia

Release Date: April 3, 2016

3

Kin Was Just Fodder For Edo Tensei

Kin Couldn’t Defeat Anyone in the Chunin Exam (Naruto)

kin tsuchi makes a mean grin — Image by Studio Pierrot.

With so many villains to its name, the Naruto anime was bound to have at least a few antagonists who failed to accomplish anything, and Kin Tsuchi is one of them. She, Zaku Abumi, and Dosu Kinuta all took part in the Chunin Exam to test Sasuke’s power, but they didn’t perform that well. Kin, for her part, didn’t do much and swiftly lost to Shikamaru Nara during their duel.

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Zaku also lost badly, but at least he was a substantial threat to the heroes in the Chunin Exam, while Kin settled for a supporting role in her team and accomplished little. Then, before Kin and her teammates got a chance to reverse their fortunes, Orochimaru sacrificed the three of them to perform Edo Tensei and revive three deceased Hokage.

Naruto

Release Date: September 10, 2002

2

Gyokko Lost His Only Battle in His Ultimate Form to Muichiro

Gyokko Couldn’t Defeat the Youngest Hashira (Demon Slayer)

Plenty of demons in the Demon Slayer anime lost the only fight they took part in, but the case for Gyokko was the most disgraceful of all. Gyokko was hyped as the Upper Moon 5, meaning he was even stronger than Daki and Gyutaro, but his battlefield performance didn’t live up to those lofty expectations. Fans might even say he was a disappointment who dropped the ball.

Gyokko assaulted the swordsmith village with Hantengu and ended up facing Muichiro Tokito, the Mist Hashira. Incredibly, Muichiro defeated Gyokko all alone, even though Gyokko had assumed his ultimate form by then, and Muichiro recovered in due time. While Akaza killed a Hashira and Gyutaro forced Tengen to retire, Gyokko couldn’t even seriously threaten a 14-year-old swordsman.

1

Loly Aivirrne Suffered Many Defeats and Envied Orihime

Loly Spent the Entire Story Angry and Frustrated (Bleach)

Bleach is another anime with a huge variety of villains who existed just to lose fights, but even then, the Arrancar named Loly Aivirrne did terribly. She was a petty bully along with her friend Menoly Mallia, and Loly’s only goal was to get rid of Orihime so she could get all of Sosuke Aizen’s affection for herself. Loly’s quest was doomed, however, because Aizen had no love to give for any Arrancar, no matter how loyal they are.

Loly attacked Orihime, only for Grimmjow to beat her up, and then Loly tried once again to take down Orihime, with Uryu and Yammy getting in her way that time. After the time skip, in the Thousand-Year Blood War story arc, Loly and Menoly defied Quilge Opie and swiftly lost, the last of Loly’s three major defeats. In the end, Loly accomplished nothing at all, and there wasn’t anything worthwhile for her to accomplish anyhow.