Favorite reformed villain--spoilers permissible!

[rocklobster]

One thing I've always loved about anime is that sometimes the villains can actually see the error of their ways. So, who are your favorite reformed villains?
Here are some of mine:

• Anubis/The Ancient One in Ronin Warriors
• Piccolo in Dragonball Z
• Ryuho in Scryed
• Scherise in Scryed
• Angel in Big O

[Stiletto]

Seeing the bridge between the first Gatekeepers and Gatekeepers 21, Reiji Kageyama would have to be my favorite reformed villain. He is just as cool as the bad guy as he was later as the good guy.

[Fish and Chips]

I'll give it a shot, but most of my favorite villians tend to be stubbornly evil to the end.

• Alexander Anderson, Hellsing - More of an aggressive antagonist than an actual villain, per se, but certainly fits the bill for the seeing the "Error of his ways." A tad late, but what are you going to do? Don't fall to pieces on me now.
• Sara, Samurai Champloo - Wha, Sara? Fish, are you serious? Well, yes. Alright, so Sara isn't particularly villainous, but the attempted assassination of the main characters probably counts for something. In her defense, she was being used, her son being threatened and all. The scene when she realizes she's never going to have him back is just as sad as when she lets herself fall in battle.
• Razo, The Slayers - You don't strive to create miracles to cure your own blindness only to destroy the world you longed to see. That's just silly. You should probably also find some less dependant assistants.

[Radical Dreamer]

One would HAVE to be Saitou, from Rurouni Kenshin. I guess he never really TRULY reformed, but he was still considered somewhat of an ally, and he was cool. XD Same goes for Aoshi, except he did fully reform. XD

The only other one I could think of would be Layla Hamilton of Kaleido Star, but...she's not really a villain, more of an antagonistic rival-ish thingsortof. But that's all I can think of for now. XD

[Rocketshipper]

Seto Kaiba!! He was most definitly evil at the start of the series. He tried to kill Yugi and friends multiple times with his "Death-T" tournament. But after Yugi beat him a second time he stopped being so psycho and became more of just a rival type character.

[mitsuki lover]

Katsumi Liqueur on Silent Mobius had an interesting career,for most of the series she's the main heroine but toward the final couple episodes she turns and replaces
Rosa as the main villianness and then in the very end returns to being a heroine.
On the other hand Rosa is more of a traditional villianness in that she begins the
show opposed to her sister Rally and the rest of the AMP.It's only after Katsumi's
fall from grace that she starts on the road to redemption.

[Tommy]

I saw no Vegeta, Rock.
Where's the Vegeta?

[Shao Feng-Li]

Shinomori Aoshi I think. Ruroken volume 14 is still one of my favorite books.

[rocklobster]

I saw no Vegeta, Rock.
Where's the Vegeta?

I never liked him as a hero or a villain. I did like his kid though. Sorry.

[Azier the Swordsman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8_BDgy7s3c

It's rather amusing how much Vegeta changes way down the road since his first appearance.

[Tommy]

See, DBGT did have it's moments! XD

Vegeta's the man.
Get over it.

[Majic]

Villains Need Love, Too!

I the anime concept that "everybody has their reasons".

My favorite "villains" come from my two most favorite animes, but admittedly they're "lightweights" in the villainy department because they're not really all that bad to begin with.

Still, they're my picks and I'm sticking with them.

First up:

Midori of Haibane Renmei

I'm sure it's fairly obvious that I absolutely love Haibane Renmei, so I hope I can be forgiven for dragging it into pretty much every topic. Yeah, I do that in Real Life, too.

Midori isn't introduced until late in the series, and when she is, she comes across as a real bi... er, um well... not-so-nice person.



As the show progresses, however...

[spoiler]We find out that she had good reason to be so angry. In her mind, Reki almost got Hyouko killed, and Hyouko was like a big brother to Midori whom she positively idolized. In the end, Midori forgave Reki, and when she did, the burden of anger she carried vanished. Such is the power of Forgiveness, and Love.[/spoiler]
And that's what I love about Midori.

Next up, the stuffy but adorable:

Greta of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar

Again, not a villain with a huge body count or reputation for hideous evil, but Greta gets cast early on as an antagonist for Saga (the leading lady).

Greta -- as Saga's formally self-declared rival -- is always badgering Saga and challenging her in contests, seemingly desperate to prove herself superior to Saga in every way.



The rivalry is more comedic than anything, however, especially due to Greta's delightfully overdone nervous laugh.

Even more importantly, though...

[spoiler]Greta redeems herself in a major way toward the end when she goes to truly heroic lengths to help ease Saga's sorrow. Though she still maintains a facade of arrogance and bluster, it's absolutely impossible not to love Greta by the end of the series. Greta proves the adage that Love Conquers All.[/spoiler]
And that's what I love about Greta.

Laugh if you want, those are my favorite reformed anime "villains".

[Shao Feng-Li]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8_BDgy7s3c

It's rather amusing how much Vegeta changes way down the road since his first appearance.

That was pretty funny XD He's gone native.

[KBMaster]

SESSHY~!
Coolest bad guy --> good guy.I mean, he never becomes REALLY good, but good enough to be called reformed.

Aoshi is another good one. Again, only good enough to be considered reformed.

[MasterDias]

I never considered Hajime Saito to be villain particularly or an antagonist past his initial appearance. At worst, he was an anti-hero.

But, anyway, I guess I'll say Tao Ren & Jun from Shaman King and Gaara from Naruto. I suppose Nico Robin from One Piece counts as well.

[mitsuki lover]

I would only consider Sesshomaru a villian up to the point when Naraku is introduced.It should also be pointed out that with Sesshomaru it's more a reaction to his younger half-brother than anything else.

[Radical Dreamer]

I never considered Hajime Saito to be villain particularly or an antagonist past his initial appearance. At worst, he was an anti-hero.

Well, I thought he was introduced as a villainous type, although once you learned his true motives, he was more of the anti-hero, like you suggested. XD He was still cool, though. XD

[rocklobster]

I like to think Rin is part of the reason Sesshomaru turned somewhat better. I think he secretly loves her (in a fatherly way), although he'd never admit it. But how can you not love someone so cute?

[Myoti]

One would HAVE to be Saitou, from Rurouni Kenshin. I guess he never really TRULY reformed, but he was still considered somewhat of an ally, and he was cool. XD Same goes for Aoshi, except he did fully reform. XD

I say the same as MasterDias, though yes, Saitou rules.

From One Piece, I'll also go with Robin, and probably Jango. Depending on how the current mini-story ends up, I may have to say Enel, as well.

[mitsuki lover]

Actually from what I read of Robin wasn't she supposed to be working undercover?

Ok so they're not really villians per se but I always liked it when the Raraettes
defected to the EDF in Dual and later Mitsuki Rara defected as well.

[uc pseudonym]

Actually, no one comes to mind. The villains that reform have not happened to be ones that I particularly liked, though I would find it cool if one of the best villains turned good but maintained what I liked about them while evil. So far this thread hasn't reminded me of anyone either, though if Saitou counted he would be on my list.

[mitsuki lover]

From what I have read of the spoilers for the Inuyasha manga both Kagura and Kanna seem to reform just before dying.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

No one's mentioned Ken from Digimon 02? For shame!

[rocklobster]

Kanna too? I can see the potential in Kagura, since she doesn't like Naraku controlling her heart, but Kanna doesn't seem to have any sort of independence.

[mitsuki lover]

The last time I read the spoilers for the manga it hinted that in the end Kanna gave Kagome some essentially vital information on defeating Naraku.

[Mave]

Hiei (Yu Yu Hakusho) started off as an villian but he eventually joined Yuusuke's team, kicked a lot of evil youkai/human butt and remained cool while doing it. <3

[mitsuki lover]

Ryoko in episode 1 of Tenchi Moyu...but then she softens toward the end of the episode,except someone didn't tell Ayeka in episode 2 that little factoid!

[Ingemar]

[CAA oldtimer joke]My favorite mysterious reformed villain is UC pseudonym[/CAA oldtimer joke]

[mitsuki lover]

Speaking of Digimon,the Five Evil Warriors after their spirits are purified end up
helping the Digidestined fight Luciemon.And certainly Koichi starts out as a villian.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

No one's mentioned Ken from Digimon 02? For shame!

Even worse--NOBODY MENTIONED GATOMON FROM DIGIMON 01!

She went from being Myotismon's henchman...(er...woman...er...neko) to being the angel of light! How reformed can you get?