Redemption is a frequent plot point for anime villains, and upon reaching their redemption, they often retreat or even join the heroes on whatever mission they find themselves on. However, sometimes these are not good results for the villain or the viewers. Sometimes villains are nerfed, killed, humiliated, or failed.
Often the villain has to be nerfed so that he doesn’t help the heroes to a cheap and undeserved victory, but when this happens, the audience feels cheated too. This choice in character development is especially disappointing when there are ways the writers could have pulled it off without weakening the villains. Many villains in anime have been completely ruined by their redemption.
9 Orochimaru should never have been redeemed in Boruto
While Orochimaru is a better person in borutohis personality change feels incredible to a lot of fans, mainly because he didn’t have an actual redemption arc, nor did fans get to see much of his inner change between naruto shippuden and boruto. He just went from being a war criminal who kidnapped, killed many, and performed human experiments to a kind father and ally of the Hidden Leaf (which he tried to destroy).
Orochimaru’s character was ruined simply because his entire personality and all of his character traits changed without warning or reason.
8 Vegeta was never as threatening as a Dragon Ball hero
On Dragon Ball, Vegeta was a rival and enemy who posed a much greater threat when he was a villain than when he was a hero. Even though he was an invaluable member of Dragon Team when he switched sides, fans can’t help but feel that this switch wasn’t done well enough.
Vegeta didn’t earn his redemption and continued to be an idiot the entire time. Dragon Balleven as a hero. On top of that, he lost a lot of power which added to the fear factor of him as a villain.
7 Seto Kaiba also did not pose much of a threat after changing in the Yu-Gi-Oh!
the first impression Yu-Gi-Oh! Fans understand that Seto Kaiba was an evil, spoiled rich kid who would do anything to win, including blackmail, bribery, and the threat of violence. He was on a misguided quest to gather Blue-Eyes White Dragon Cards and left a bad reputation behind him as he went.
After dueling with Yugi Muto and being defeated when Yugi summoned Exodia, Kaiba began to change. He became something of an antihero or deuteragonist who helped Yugi and his friends on occasion. However, he was never that powerful or intimidating. Still, KaibaCorp’s impact lasted for many of Yu-Gi-Oh! adaptations
6 Pain died as a result of being redeemed in Naruto Shippuden.
Pain, or Nagato, as his true identity was shown to be, was a villain in naruto shippuden who was so strong that he killed many notable shinobi in the Hidden Leaf Village and destroyed vast tracts of land in the village at the same time. However, he did it in the name of peace, even if his efforts were in vain.
Naruto Uzumaki was eventually able to talk Nagato out of this plan, and as a result, Nagato gave his life to undo the death and destruction he had caused. In the end, Pain/Nagato not only died, but also became inconsequential.
5 Noragami’s Ebisu tried to make his divine power work forever, but was killed anyway
On Noragami, Ebisu was a god and thus could never truly die as he would always be reborn. Unfortunately, he couldn’t retain the old memories of him. When one of Ebisu’s incarnations wanted to save Ayakashi, the rest of the gods saw him as a traitor and sentenced him to death.
Ebisu was redeemed in the eyes of by Noragami protagonists because they could see a god struggling to be his own person and live his life as an individual, not as the product of constant reincarnations and manipulations by other deities. Upon claiming the power from him, Ebisu was executed.
4 Prince Zuko was broken down as a person and even lost his powers in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Prince Zuko’s Redemption Arc avatar the last airbender he was incredibly compelling and interesting and as much as fans wouldn’t have wanted him any other way, his redemption ripped him to shreds only to piece him back together as a new person. Zuko was exiled, then lost all of his followers, was spared as a result of betraying his uncle, and then completely shattered.
However, at Zuko’s breaking point, during which he officially betrayed his father, he joined Team Avatar. Unfortunately, Team Avatar didn’t want him and once they finally began to accept him, Zuko lost control of him for a time. It took Zuko a long time to get out of the wreckage of him.
3 Suzaku Kururugi’s full identity was shaken up in Code Geass
Like many characters in Code Geass, Suzaku Kururugi was left deeply traumatized, manipulated and forced to endure tragedy after tragedy. It’s understandable how a character would be broken or ruined by so much of this. Suzaku and his best friend Lelouch were separated by political complications after Suzaku had to kill his father and later joined the British Army. This put him at odds with Lelouch, who was acting as the terrorist Zero.
When Suzaku was forced to oppose Lelouch, he could no longer live with his crisis of conscience. He also ended up killing Zero/Lelouch, no matter how plotted he was. Some Code Geass fans think that Suzaku did not get redeemed, but there are those who think that he did get redemption, but it was not worth it.
two Isabella’s character seemed less believable when she was redeemed in The Promised Neverland
Isabella, often called Mama by the children of The Promised NeverlandHe didn’t earn his redemption and ruined his characterization. She was jailed for letting the children escape after going to great lengths to stop them. She returned at the end of the series to save the children from Ratri and the demons and help them get to the other world.
Unfortunately, this change was not won and The Promised Neverland fans never got to see Isabella learn from her mistakes or change internally. I like of naruto Orochimaru, your change of heart doesn’t seem sincere to many fans.
1 Endeavor lost the most fights as the number one hero in My Hero Academia
Despite being a professional hero, from my hero academia Endeavor was a villain. He was a villain to his family and he was a villain to those heroes who knew him too well. His harshness and his crimes at home were enough to solidify him in infamy. However, he began to make a change after earning the position of Hero #1.
While it’s debatable whether Endeavor’s character is completely ruined by this, it’s easy to trace Endeavor’s loss of power after taking the top spot in the hero rankings.
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