Japanese Fans Rank the Bad Guys They Just Can’t Help But Love

“I know I’m supposed to hate this guy… but I can’t!”

So howled (or so we’d like to imagine, anyway) the fans who filled out the latest poll from data wizards Charapedia, who, for the latest round of anime polling, have asked their followers, “who’re the bad guys you can’t help but love?”

Without further ado, anime and manga’s 20 most lovable baddies:

20. Toru Oikawa

Haikyu!

19. Annie Leonhart

Attack on Titan

18. Sosuke Aizen

Bleach 17. Deishu Kaiki

Monogatari 16. Dio

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

15. Shu Tsukiyama

Tokyo Ghoul

14. Itachi Uchiha

Naruto 13. Ferid Bathory

Seraph of the End

12. Vermouth

Detective Conan

11. Kayaba “Heathcliff” Akihiko

Sword Art Online

10. Izaya Orihara

Durarara!!

9. Frieza

Dragon Ball

8. Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti

Re:Zero

7. Kamui

Gintama 6. Buggy

One Piece

And the top five… 5. Makoto Hanamiya

Kuroko’s Basketball

4. Doronjo

Yatterman 3. Shinsuke Takasugi

Gintama 2. Team Rocket

Pokemon 1. Baikinman

Anpanman

An interesting list – and not just because it ends with Anpanman’s eternal foe Baikinman, a character familiar to just about every Japanese person on the planet but not so much to us ‘merican folk. On the other hand, there’s likely not a Millennial around who doesn’t have fond memories of Pokemon‘s most lovable villains, Team Rocket.

How about you, folks? What baddies do you love to love?

Source: Charapedia