In my opinion, the most sickening fake friendly smiles of anime/manga villains I've ever seen
Well, here are the winners of my vote, some of the most hated and horrible villains in the Akame ga Kill franchise (my first and favorite anime). I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority voted for this universe and these characters, which we are currently "praising".
What's the work?[]
Akame ga Kill! is a Japanese manga series written by Takahiro and illustrated by Tetsuya Tashiro. It was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Gangan Joker from March 2010 to December 2016, with its chapters collected in 15 tankōbon volumes. The story focuses on Tatsumi, a young villager who travels to the Capital to raise money for his home only to discover strong corruption in the area. The assassin group known as Night Raid recruits the young man to help them in their fight against the corrupt Empire.
A 24-episode anime television series adaptation, animated by White Fox, was broadcast from July to December 2014. A prequel manga series, titled Akame ga Kill! Zero, illustrated by Kei Toru, was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan from October 2013 to January 2019, with its chapters collected in ten tankōbon volumes. A spin-off manga series, titled Hinowa ga Crush!, illustrated by Strelka, was serialized in Monthly Big Gangan from June 2017 to June 2022, with its chapters collected in eight tankōbon volumes. In North America, the three manga series were licensed by Yen Press. The anime series was licensed by Sentai Filmworks.
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Merraid Oarburgh[]
Who is she?[]
| “ | My, my. Such intimate confidants. Could they be a couple...? If so, how sad. She's just my type. Girls really ought to go out only with girls. Don't charge down the wrong path. | „ |
| ~ The most infamous, worst and disgusting words of this character. |
Merraid Oarburgh is the secondary antagonist of the prequel manga series Akame Ga Kill! Zero.
She is an assassin and the leader of the Oarburgh Clan. She goes around trying to make all girls see "the light" by molesting and raping them, eventually converting them into lesbians.
What makes her pathetic?[]
Let's start with whether this "woman" has a justification for her misandry (hatred of men)... NO! This "woman" has no justification for hating men, because throughout the entire story we are not given any information about it. She hates men for no reason. She has no tragic story about having a father who brutally beat and abused her, no explanation for why she chose women, what the turning point was for the decision, you will not find out any of this. She is simply a creepy and terrible pervert, committing her disgusting crimes out of unquenchable lust. The only moment that can give us a hint about the reason for her hatred towards men is a moment from the past where she fought with one of them, but even this moment is not the reason for her mypsandry, since this man was an opponent in a tournament in which she participated, and where they had an equal fight, why build hatred towards men only because you put in enough effort to defeat a man is ridiculous.
Then, at the tournament, she meets Esdeath (hello to all her fans). During the battle with Esdeath, Merraid is impressed by her skills and "falls in love". After the tournament, pay attention, Merraid approaches Esdeath and starts sexually harassing her, thinking that she will enjoy it. Obviously, she doesn't, and Esdeath, in justified disgust, tries to kill Merraid for this, but she manages to escape thanks to a smoke bomb. And here it is worth considering that all this happened in the past, when Merraid and Esdeath were children... Do you see what I'm getting at? If not, then I'll tell you briefly that Merraid, deep inside her filthy "soul", is a pedophile, since she tried to try out rape on Esdeath (who I assume was a bit younger, due to the main events of the anime and manga, where Esdeath was only 20 years old) since she was a child. It is absolutely abnormal when a child already shows something like this, because at this age a child can at most flirt with another child when they are attracted to each other. At worst, they can kiss each other when the relationship is fixed (remember the Simpsons or Kick Buttowski). This is a different case. Here we are shown more unhealthy lust than "love", and here another child is trying to rape another child already at this age. Damn, this is insanity, dude! And in fact, such rotten growth is shown later.
Later, as an adult, when she, Gilberta, and Chelsea go to spy on Gene and Natalia, they run into a random girl and her boyfriend. She later rapes the girl and turns her into a lesbian before getting Gilberta and Chelsea involved. This is taking into account that Chelsea initially did not want to take part in this, but Merraid forced her to, and raped her in the process too. She kills Gin in a battle and attempts to kill Gozuki, but he is able to flee from the battle. Later she kidnapped Akame and her sister Kurome, when trying to learn about them and teach them about the evils of the Empire. But that doesn't make her some kind of extremist, since she herself doesn't care about the suffering of the people in the Empire and the only reason she talks about it at all is to get Akame and Kurome to stay with her and make herself look better, which is very hypocritical, since she is no better than many criminals in the Empire and, moreover, she sexually harassed Akame and Kurome during her speech about the evil of the Imperium, already letting them know what a devil she is. Next, she confiscated Kurome's medication, which causes her to nearly die. She gave Akame the medication and made her give it to Kurome mouth-to-mouth. While she claims to Akame this had to be done so Kurome would survive, it's revealed later on they didn't need to give the medicine through mouth-to-mouth at all, and that Merraid just wanted to see "something wonderful" (in simpler terms, she forced the sisters to do a forced incest kiss. I'll also note that the sisters were at most 13 years old at the time of the events of the prequel, which makes Merraid's move even more disgusting). She kills her butler, whom she had tolerated until then, and rapes him just because he is a man. When she and Gilberda find the Empire's spies, she forces Gilberda to deal with the man while she "takes care" of the girl, forcibly giving her a "special kind of sex" to extract information and turn the girl into a lesbian. During Akame's training, she would forcibly kiss and molest her to try to get Akame to see the "light". While Akame distracts the clan so Kurome can get the cure for the bugs Merraid planted in the two of them, it is implied that Merraid and her girls sexually assaulted Akame, making her even worse. While Merraid shows great misandry, hatred, and disgust towards men, yet an insane love for women, her actions towards women are just as, if not worse, than the very crimes she sees in men. Making her a hypocrite.
Merraid's crimes are made even worse by the franchise's setting, where rape is portrayed as the worst and most terrifying crime, which, if committed, will turn a person into a heartless monster (and this is literally true in this franchise). And given Merraid's numerous sexual crimes and the sickening way they are carried out, she easily stands out as one of the worst villains in the franchise, along with Esdeath, Honest, Syura, and Champ.
Redeeming qualities?[]
Honestly, I found it funny to watch the NPE wiki point out that a devil like Merraid has a redeeming quality (even though it's insignificant, as the wiki itself says). Well, anyway, I'll take her only "redeeming" quality now. "While her crimes towards women are absolutely awful, she does actually show a genuine albeit twisted care for the girls she has brainwashed, such as her clan, Akame and even Esdeath. After the rapes, she is genuinely nice and tries to treat them well. Before her death, she says that she truly did love Akame". You ask, what's wrong with that? I'll tell you. The thing is, her "love" and "care" for girls is nothing more than manipulative and lustful. You want proof that her redeeming quality is invalid? Here you go!
- Ever since she was a child, she showed a high degree of creepy perverted lust, trying to rape Esdeath under the pretext of "love", but in reality she was more impressed by her skills than by her. In addition, there is a possibility that she could try to get Esdeath for herself as a very useful resource, rather than as a "girlfriend". Well, and I also said that her "love" for her was not sincere, but pedophilic.
- The fact that she is "nice" to the girls in her clan is nothing more than a pragmatic facade, as Merraid knows that if she treats them differently, she will not be able to manipulate them and take advantage of the opportunity to rape them, because then she will be turned away. Furthermore, the moment that clearly demonstrates this is when she forces Chelsea to rape another girl against her will, and then Chelsea herself is raped. What does this lead to? That's right, Chelsea realizes what a monster Merraid is and leaves her clan.
- Her "love" for Akame, like Esdeath, is also simple lust, as if her love for her was even remotely real, she would not have sexually assaulted her without her word, impliedly raped her and planted insects in her, threatened to kill her sister, and almost killed Akame to death, forgetting any "love" for her. She also, during training, tried to manipulate Akame into raping her and ranting about the evil Empire.
- Ultimately, she abandons her clan and her women to escape and avoid being killed/captured by the Empire, not caring what happens to them, ultimately showing that she used all the girls only to satisfy her relentless lust.
- Unlike, say, Kano from Mortal Kombat, whose relationship with Kabal, while toxic and also manipulative, nevertheless showed that on some level he respects Kabal as a friend, since he saved him after he was disfigured and on the verge of death, given that Kabal had already left his clan and became a police officer, which is comparable to betrayal, and Kano even prematurely congratulated Kabal on returning to the old business. Merraid does not have a single moment where she shows real concern for her women, not just nominal.
She also had a moment when Akame was graving her alive after she killed her and felt guilty about it. But, this does not make Merraid sympathetic in any way, but to Akame for watching and wondering if she did the right thing by killing her (even though what she did was an correct act). Moreover, Akame before her death decided to let Merraid look at her naked body, not so much because Merraid herself asked for it, but to mock Merraid for not being able to rape women's bodies anymore. So her death is not portrayed sympathetically at all.
Saving graces?[]
Her cool bug-related abilities and good looks aren't saving graces, they're just nice-to-have character factors. Other than that, she has nothing else. She doesn't have any "Evil is cool" moments, as Merraid herself is a very flat villain with zero reason to do anything and a one-dimensional behavior. She has no charisma, no quirks, nothing else to hook her in, and her design is very lame and tasteless. Not to mention she's a dead ringer for Esdeath in every way, but done worse.
Hateful?[]
The fact that most fans and casual readers consider her the worst character in Akame ga Kill speaks volumes. Hell, she could be considered both Hate Sink and Scrappy at the same time, as she is hated for all the right reasons: intentional and unintentional. Furthermore, people were disgusted and ashamed that Merraid's rape was made into a black comedy, which was not really funny to anyone.
Incompetence and competence[]
Despite her ability to manipulate women, Merraid is far from being intelligent, as she is very reckless, allowing herself to make the most critical mistakes that led to her ignominious death. Not to mention that she could only manipulate women after raping them, brainwashing them.
What makes her pinhead?[]
I won't be too original and will list what was in my voting in the comments, but I will add two more points that I forgot to mention.
- When she was a child, she tried to harass Esdeath, with whom she fought, hoping that she would reciprocate, despite the fact that she saw and knew that she was far from being someone to be "coddled". Esdeath, understandably and even justifiably, tried to kill her, but she was only able to escape with the help of a smoke bomb. If it weren't for the smoke bomb, Merraid would have died almost immediately, and this step clearly shows her recklessness and naive stupidity.
- Her opinion that girls are "holy" and men are "rotten" is ironically stupid and hypocritical against her, since she herself could see very well since childhood that not all girls "want to see the light" to become like that, as in the case of Esdeath, who tried to kill her. Or she herself, committing rapes against the will of other girls, causing them mental and psychological harm, which is not a show of how holy she is, but how rotten she is. Even Akame herself correctly noticed and understood this.
- Her plan to expose Akame and Kurome to the true nature of the Empire and get them to stay with her is ironically poorly thought out, as she literally, in a speech about how evil Empire is, also sexually harasses both Akame and Kurome, to the point of raping them, already showing them that she is no better than many of the criminals in the Empire, and Akame immediately realizes this. Furthermore, she would have failed to convince them both to stay with her anyway, as Akame and Kurome immediately recognized her vile nature and were only waiting for the right moment to escape and save themselves.
- Because of her abuse of Chelsea, whom she raped, Chelsea, realizing how terrible the Oarburgh clan really is, decided to leave and betray Merraid, thus, Merraid lost a valuable ally who would later stand on the righteous path.
- It is unclear why she tolerated her butler for so long, despite the fact that he was a man whom Merraid hated, and killed him only after a long time. Moreover, it becomes hypocritically stupid that she rapes him before his death, despite her misandry.
- Because of her endless lust and recklessness, her clan was easily hunted down and destroyed, all her women perished, as did she herself, which could have been escaped if she had been a more intelligent and cunning killer.
Bach[]
There's less analysis here than with Merraid, as that character is an easier candidate for PP, as he's universally hated, has no saving grace, and is directly shown to be an incompetent idiot, unlike Merraid.
Who is he?[]
| “ | How lucky that you won't have anything broken. Well, besides your human dignity. | „ |
| ~ Which he also doesn’t have, just like he doesn’t have a soul. |
Bach is a minor antagonist in the Manga series Akame ga Kill!.
He is a young slaver who is the leader of "The Enthusiasts" who brutally murder, torture and rape people that are kidnapped by him, with notable victims including Fall, Luna and Air, whom he deceived with his "nice personality" facade.
What makes him pathetic?[]
Is the leader of "The Enthusiasts", a group of slavers with sick fetishes who torture, murder and rape any person kidnapped by Bach himself via his facade of being a "nice guy". Lures Luna, Fall and Air, who are three young girls from an overtaxed village, into gaining his trust by giving them decent clothes, food and money, so that he can get them slaved easily. After revealing his true identity to the three girls, he has them be slaved to his Enthusiasts, whom give them awful methods of rape and torture to satiate their lustful fetishes, which involve:
- Suka, one of the slavers, breaking the legs of Fall as part of his fetish, so he can further break her and presumably rape her.
- Luna getting licked by one the slavers and then having her eyes gouged out due to the slaver in question having a kink to it.
- In what is arguably the worst of the three methods, Air gets stripped and then raped by one of the slavers' dogs, which makes Bach responsible for zoophilia, a crime that no other Akame ga Kill! villain has committed on-screen or even implicately.
Due to the horrific fates he has the three condemned to, it has resulted in Luna committing suicide via jumping off of a roof, Fall having her teeth and finger mutilated before dying after being used by the slaver for a week, and Air losing her will to live, even having to snitch out his crimes to Leone. Was shown to have plans on slaving more people in a meeting with his employees, only for the group to be ambushed by the Night Raid. Cowardly escapes the attack on his group before being confronted by Akame, where he tries to use his backstory of being subjected to slavery as a child in order for Akame to spare him. This of course fails and Bach gets his well-deserved death. But even after his death, he still was responsible for Air's suicide via poisoning herself as a means of escaping her trauma and joining her deceased friends.
Redeeming qualities?[]
While he has a "Freudian Excuse" of being sold out to be slaved by his mother, this does not justify his actions towards even children that also makes him hypocritical considering what he did to them is technically slavery. Not to mention that this is in no way played for sympathy (and shouldn't be for a bastard like him), and what's more, he spilled his backstory when his life was in danger of death, which leaves a strong question about whether he made up his backstory or not. Also, as you can tell, his friendly nature is not sincere, and his concern for the members of the "Enthusiasts" is based on mutual perversions.
The only thing I'll say is that he's not as disgusting as Champ, who with similar resources had a higher confirmed rape count on children, due to the fact that Bach's victim count of 3 is too low for a series where rape is frequent. Additionally, it is made clear the three girls are not the only victims of Bach, but are the only ones shown, making him also suffer from off-screen villainy. However, he does not fail too hard considering his crimes of subjecting children to sex slavery and zoophilia are still enough to somewhat pass even the insanely high Heinous Standards, so this is only a very minor prevention.
What makes him pinhead?[]
- In fact, he is bad at holding meetings and hiding, as Akame and her team easily tracked down his meeting place without spending too much time. Not to mention, he didn't even think to get a weapon in case they were discovered, which shows that he has a woeful lack of self-preservation.
- His attempt to have Akame spare his life by telling her about his story was a very stupid idea and a mistake, since Akame already knew very well what kind of person he was and his hope that Akame would believe his story was also stupid, since not only would she not be able to verify it, but in any case she would not spare him, because of what he did to her close friends.
- The only reason he was able to manipulate people and successfully make them be their slaves was because they were people who had no resources at all, and in this regard he was no different from Aria, who manipulated in exactly the same way, but was more skilled at covering her tracks, unlike Bach.
Verdict[]
Easy yes to them, the most pathetic villains in that series.