With the wide range of subject matter anime covers, it can be likened to a kaleidoscope that features and discusses several topics through unique art styles. Some of these unique stories feature worlds where a straight moral compass is somewhat hard to establish, and good and evil are not merely defined by black and white but by nuanced shades of grey.

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The characters featured in these shows constantly challenge the conventional notions of heroism and villainy, showing the true complexity of human nature. Here are some of the few anime that reflect on the intricacies of human nature and make people ponder what truly defines a hero or a villain.

10 The Saga Of Tanya The Evil

Doing Anything To Survive

• Studio: NUT
• Genre: Isekai, Dark Fantasy, Military
• Number Of Episodes: 12

The Saga Of Tanya The Evil follows the adventures of an atheist salaryman who dies and is reincarnated into a war-torn world as a little girl by Being X, To teach him a lesson.

To survive, Tanya had to discard all emotions and take on the persona of Tanya The Evil, a cold and ruthless soldier whose sole aim is to climb up the army ranks, no matter who she has to trample on the way up. This sometimes makes it hard to root for her, as sometimes she appears as the antagonist of the story.

9 Terror In Resonance

Terrorism In The Name Of Good

• Studio: MAPPA
• Genre: Psychological Thriller
• Number Of Episodes: 11

The protagonists of Terror In Resonance are a pair of highly intelligent and resourceful individuals who aim to destroy the entirety of Tokyo for reasons that are extensively explored in the series.

These teenage protagonists with shoddy backgrounds are deemed terrorists for the majority of the series until it is explained why the protagonists of the story appear like antagonists. They drop hints after every explosion, promoting an investigator named Shibazaki to discover some previously hidden truths.

8 Overlord

Disregard For NPC Life

• Studio: Madhouse
• Genre: Dark Fantasy, Isekai
• Number Of Episodes: 52

When Suzuki Satoru is transported into the world of YGGDRASIL, he takes the form of his in-game avatar which is a skeleton. He takes up the name of his former guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, in an attempt to draw the attention of fellow players who were transported if any.

In this new world, Ainz’s sense of mortality is now warped because he believes that NPCs are not real humans. He rules over them with power and has no problems killing or doing other non-ethical things to them.

7 Black Lagoon

Indulgence In Criminal Activity

• Studio: Madhouse
• Genre: Crime, Girls With Guns, Thriller
• Number Of Episodes: 24

When the protagonist of Black Lagoon, a salaryman, is kidnapped and introduced to the underworld by the Lagoon Company, a pirate mercenary organization, he discovers a side to himself that was previously buried deep down.

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Rokuro Okajima takes up the alias of Rock, and teams up with Dutch, Benny, and Revy to do whatever it takes to survive in the city of Ronoapur, which is overrun by lowlives and outlaws. The company deals in shady business, spanning from smuggling to several high-stakes operations and rival group conflicts challenging the personality of Rokuro.

6 Fate/Zero

Unique Motivation Which Can Neither Be Classified As Right Or Wrong

• Studio: Ufotable
• Genre: Action Dark Fantasy, Tragedy
• Number Of Episodes: 25

Fate/Zero is one of the best anime to ever portray grey areas in morality as there is no clear good side. The premise features a great battle where mages get to select legends from the past to represent them and compete for the Holy Grail, an ancient artifact that can grant wishes.

The protagonist, Emiya Kiritsugu, is a former freelance assassin who hunted down heretical magus, and as a result, is skilled at tracking and using several weapons. There is no clear concept of black and white in this series, all mages have their justified reasons for competing in the Holy Grail war.

5 Psycho-Pass

Aims To Break The System Holding Society In Place For Good Reasons

• Studio: Production I.G
• Genre: Crime, Cyberpunk, Psychological Thriller
• Number Of Episodes: 22

Makishima Shogo, one of the main protagonists of Psycho-Pass, can also pass for the main antagonist because he aims to break the system that holds their society in place. However, the system is a flawed one that condemns humans based on their likelihood to commit a crime, and not after they commit it.

The other protagonist, Akane Tsunemori, a recruit in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Public Safety Bureau reflects more on the true nature of the system after taking on several cases and starts to question its morality.

4 Death Note

Aims To Make The World A Better Place Through Twisted Means

• Studio: Madhouse
• Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller
• Number Of Episodes: 37

Yagami Light is an incredibly intelligent and deductive student who was bestowed with the power of the Death Note, which allows him to kill anyone whose full name and face he knows. With this power, he vowed to rid the world of criminals under the alias of Kira, and despite having good intentions, he has no right to be a judge, jury, and executioner in a world with an established justice system.

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In a bid to secure his true identity, he also kills several other innocents, making people doubt if he is truly the protagonist of the series.

3 Code Geass

Using Any Means Necessary To Topple The Oppressive Empire

• Studio: Sunrise
• Genre: Mecha, Military, Alternate History
• Number Of Episodes: 25

Lelouch Lamparouge, the protagonist of Code Geass, is one of the most intelligent and manipulative anime characters of all time. With the power of his Geass which allows him to influence the thoughts of other people, he orchestrates a mass rebellion against the Holy Britannian Empire that oppresses the people of Area 11, formerly known as Japan.

Assuming the identity of Zero, he crosses the ethical line several times and without remorse to protect the people he loves.

2 Berserk

Guided Only By Self-Motivation And Not A Moral Compass

• Studio: GEMBA
• Genre: Dark Fantasy
• Number Of Episodes: 24

This dark fantasy series centers around Guts, a lone wolf with a traumatic past, and Griffith, the head of a mercenary group known as the Band of The Hawk. Guts spends most of the series hunting down Griffith who betrayed him and his comrades to ascend and become a powerful demon.

Guts is deeply conflicted and depicted as an antihero who does not act within the regular standards of right or wrong, and only follows his motivations. As a result, he might incidentally protect the weak and simultaneously feel nothing when he kills a person.

1 Attack On Titan

Mass Genocide To Protect The Lives Of A People

• Studio: WIT Studio, MAPPA
• Genre: Action, Dark Fantasy, Post Apocalyptic
• Number Of Episodes: 90 + 2 Special Episodes

Hajime Isayama’s masterpiece features some of the most morally vague characters in history, with the protagonist, Eren Yeager, winning Antagonist of the Year in the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

Eren, after losing his mother to a titan attack, vowed to rid the world of titans and joined the Survey Corps to do so. As the story unravels, the Survey Corps discovers a much bigger story that involves another civilization and a cycle of hatred, which Eren decides to resolve it using the most insane way possible.

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