Summary
Contrary to popular belief, children in anime aren’t always adorable, beaming balls of sunshine. Indeed, they can often be just as evil and callous as the adults in their lives.Anime villains come in all stripes and shapes, and the cute but sadistic kid is just one of the many flavors.
Often, these children have traumatic pasts that explain the way they are, while others are inherently evil. Regardless of what their motivations may be, these children all share the same chilling capacities for acts of cruelty and violence, and their young age and harmless appearance make it all the more disturbing.
Hailing from the noble Einzbern clan, Illyasviel a.k.a. Illya appears as a young girl due to the way homunculi age. Her personality varies differently across the many adaptations of theFateseries, but her most cruel portrayal comes fromFate/stay night, where she is driven by revenge against Shirou Emiya.
She has quite a dark past, being manipulated by the Einzbern family to be a participant in the Holy Grail War. Along with being Master to thepowerful and uncontrollable Berserker, she ends up capturing and torturing Shirou, believing him to be responsible for taking her father away from her.
9Myouri Unzen (Medaka Box)
Child Prodigy Who Frequently Abuses His Authority
Anyone with the nickname ‘Monster Child’ is bound to not be the kindest individual. Already a high school junior at the age of 10, Myouri Unzen is head of the Public Morals Committee at Hakoniwa Academy and the main antagonist of the Student Council Executive arc ofMedaka Box.
Unlike Medaka, Myouri believes humans are inherently evil. He tends to go berserk over minor annoyances, as evidenced by his massacre of the entire Orchestra Club after receiving noise complaints.
As anUndertaker in theDeadman Wonderlandprison, Hibana Daida is tasked with punishing inmates who violate the prison’s rules. She enjoys inflicting pain and suffering onto others, often using extremely brutal methods to torture the Deadmen, and the fact that she’s only 7 years old just adds to the disturbing and horrific nature of the series.
Hibana’s sadistic tendencies stem from the abuse she received from her mother who instilled a warped sense of justice in her. As a result, she doesn’t know what proportional punishment is, and genuinely believes that torturing others is the only way to make them ‘good’.
Pride a.k.a Selim Bradleyis a homunculus createdbyFullmetal Alchemist’s main antagonist Father. In his Selim Bradley form, he appears as a young boy to deceive others of his true identity, a shadowy creature who’s the personification of pride and arrogance.
Pride is cold, and calculating, and views himself as superior to humans. He is completely on board with Father’s plans to achieve God-like power. His severe lack of empathy and narcissism means he has no problem killing anyone who gets in the way of his goals.
V.V. is chronologically older than his brother, the tyrannical Emperor Charles zi Britannia, but since he got his Code when he was 10 years old, he would perpetually remain that age. When he and Charles were young, they made a pact to create a world without lies, leading them to seek the power of the Gods andresearch the Geass.
V.V. is arguably the most manipulative and calculating character in the entire series. He kidnaps Lelouch’s sister Nunnally and plays a major role in killing his mother Marianne, believing that she was leading Charles away from him.
Black Butlerhas numerousmorally questionable charactersbut the 13-year-old protagonist Ciel Phantomhive is the one most worth discussing. A descendant from the noble Phantomhive family, he watched his parents get murdered in front of his eyes and afterward, formed a contract with the demon Sebastian Michaelis to find the murderers and avenge his parents' deaths.
Despite his age, Ciel is extremely cunning and deceitful. He enters into a Faustian contract with a demon to fulfill his desires with no regard for the consequences and believes that the ends justify the means, even if it means crossing several moral boundaries. Now, Ciel can be a force for good if the situation calls for it, but he mostly works as a dog for the queen, and he is ready to cross most lines if the situation requires it. Using just one example from the Spring 2024 anime season, Ciel orders Sebastian to burn a building filled with students to try and smoke out one person, a decision he makes rather gleefully.
Reisuke Houjou may be only 4 years old, but that doesn’t prevent him from being chosen as a participant in the survival game orchestrated by Deus Ex Machina. His Hyper Vision diary is a coloring book that can predict his actions three times a day - morning, afternoon, and night.
Reisuke is wise beyond his years, being able to interpret his diary entries creatively and using his knowledge of chemistry and physics to set up elaborate traps to eliminate the other Diary Holders. He is also not above using hiscute appearance to manipulate others, which is how he managed to infiltrate the Amano household.
While the Diclonii inElfen Liedare portrayed as inherently violent due to their horrific mistreatment by humans, 5-year-old Mariko takes the cake. Her isolation and traumatic upbringing have warped her view of the world, and her idea of fun is gleefully torturing and dismembering people like they were toys.
Like most of the characters inElfen Lied, however,she does have a sympathetic side. She genuinely loves her father, Dr Kurama of the Diclonii Research Facility, and would do anything to protect him, even if her love borders on obsession.
There’s a reason Tanya von Degurechaff ofThe Saga of Tanya the Evilmanaged to climb the ranks of the military so quickly at the age of 11. It’s because she’s the reincarnation of a cynical and jaded salaryman who challenged a God. Keeping her adult brain, Tanya’s only goal in her new world is self-preservation.
Tanya uses her extraordinary strategic skills to reach the top of the military hierarchy so she can avoid fighting in the war and live a comfortable life. She sees the people around her as mere pawns in her ambition, and knows how to manipulate her public image to keep her subordinates loyal.
Identical twins Hansel and Gretel fromBlack Lagoonare perhaps two of themost disturbing characters in the entire series. They delight in murder and torture as a result of being desensitized to violence from an extremely young age. Being forced to participate in snuff films somehow led them to believe that killing people would extend their lifespans.
They were hired as assassins by a mafia head named Verrochio to kill Balalaika, but they ended up massacring random people in the town and Verrochio himself instead. While they genuinely love each other, they are driven purely by bloodlust, committing atrocities for the sake of it with no empathy to be found.
