Anime/Manga psychopaths
Hi there! So, for this post, I’ll present you 10 anime/manga characters who are showing psychopathic traits. Maybe some of them weren’t intended by the authors to be a psychopath, but they still possessed lots of psychopathic traits. Before you begin your reading, there is something I need to clarify first. I had seen many lists made by other people about psychopath characters, but I had noticed that most of them didn’t seem to know what exactly psychopathy is. They seemed to think that a murderous and crazy character, as well as sadistic, was necessarily a psychopath. It’s false. Even if psychopathy is a mental disorder, psychopaths aren’t crazy. They understand what they are doing and doesn’t care if it’s wrong. They aren’t always killers either. Crazy characters who are killing for insane reasons are most likely psychotic, which isn’t the same thing.
I’ll give you a quick definition of a typical psychopath: Charismatic, manipulative, can easily gain people trust, can easily fake normal emotion and looks normal, seem like a nice and friendly person, lack of empathy, remorse and fear, unable to forme real bond with others, dubious morality, narcissistic, selfish, liar, like to have control over others, view others as object, easily bored so they always search for excitement, feal pleasure over others’ pain, often really smart.
Do not mix them with sociopaths. Both psychopathy and sociopathy are part of the same disorder, which is anti-social personality disorder. Even if there are similarities between those two, they are also different. Both lack empathy and remorse and are often charismatic and selfish, as well as liars. But when it comes to murder, a psychopath is able to plan it meticulously, while sociopaths often kill by impulsion. Their motives are also different. Psychopaths kill usually for pleasure, while sociopaths it’s usually by anger or revenge. Psychopaths enjoy causing harm, while sociopaths simply are indifferent to others pain. Psychopaths can more easily control their emotions then sociopaths.
Without further ado, here’s my list of 10 psychopathic characters from anime/manga I had seen (warning: spoilers):
Hisoka (Hunter x Hunter)
The murderous clown of HxH. He’s charming in a way (pretty sure Biscuit would agree), but also really eccentric. Hisoka’s main interest (or even only interest) his to fight powerful people (nen users) and kill them. He even gets sexual pleasure by doing so. He killed a lot of people in the series, and never show any kind of remorse or empathy towards others. He’s only sparing those he knows would become strong later, so he’s not really sparing them, more saving them for later, with the intend of eventually killing them. Gon is one of those he is waiting to kill, despite his young age, showing that he’s patient and able to control is murderous pulsions. He’s also able to look sympathetic, just as he did in Greed Island.
Takechi Otoya (Akuma no Riddle, shojo-ai)
One of the psychopaths on this list that I don’t think it was intentional from the author. For this one, I think the author simply based her on real serial killers, and most of them are psychopaths, and some sociopaths or psychotics. That’s probably why Otoya has traits from those three disorders, such as careless when she kills (sociopath) and insane behaviour when she’s about to kill (psychotic). But overall, she fits the psychopath type: she charismatic, charming, she’s able to charm and trick her prey in a really manipulative way and pretends to be a friendly person. She’s also a serial killer who had killed 29 people (women) for sexual pleasure and show no remorse or empathy for her victims. Her motivation is only for her own pleasure and doesn’t seem to have any hatred towards her victim. If you’re interested, I made a more complex analysis about her, you can click here.
Yagami Raito (Death Note)
Or Yagami Light if you prefer. This one his a good example of a psychopath who is hungry for power, since he also has a God complex. Raito is a model student, really intelligent, and able to look nice and reliable to others. while in reality, he has no real attachment to those people, views them as disposable, almost as if they were tools for him. He has no problem killing innocents or even allies to get what he wants. He’s manipulative and charismatic, and even if he claims to want to make the world a better place, his true goal is to become the new God of the world, because he thinks only him could have this position, which is kind of narcissistic. He seems to feel pleasure when he’s able to trick people and kill them and has no real bond with anyone, not even his family or his girlfriend.
Towa Monaca (Danganronpa)
Ah, the mini-Junko, also known among the fans as Satan. Even if I doubt the author really intend to make her a psychopath, she does fit pretty much all the criteria. She seems to be an innocent little girl, she’s charismatic and can easily gain her “friends” trust, but in reality, she’s manipulating them, she doesn’t care about them and is absolutely not sad when some “died”. She’s a genius who enjoy others’ misery and pain, and has no remorse for those she hurt, she doesn’t seem to have any empathy. She toying with others and use their weaknesses to make them do what she wants and have no regret for the pain she causes them. All she wants is to create more chaos and is ready to sacrifice a lot of life for that (including kids). And her behaviour is not because of Junko, even before meeting Junko, Monaca tried to make her friends commit suicide just for fun. Monaca’s psychopathic nature is probably because of her childhood, since she was abandoned by her mother and abused in her father’s family. Psychopathy can be a mix of genetic and environment, which could be the case with her.
Oh Sangwoo (Killing Stalking, yaoi)
Okay, he’s not from a manga, but from a manhwa, but close enough (those are even called Korean manga these days so…). Sangwoo looks really friendly and charming to others, he’s charismatic, smart, popular and can easily gain others trust. But in reality, he’s a serial killer, he’s sadistic, manipulative, and can plan his murder. He likes to have control over others and show no remorse for his crimes. He toys with his victims and is able to manipulate almost everyone, including the police. He also has a bad childhood, with an abusive father, and a strange obsession towards his mother. According to some studies, an unhealthy relationship with the mother can be what triggered psychopathy in those who have this gene.
Baek Yeonhwa (White Angel Have no Wings, yuri)
Another manhwa, but this time a girl. She’s a good example of a non-murderous psychopath. But it’s not because she isn’t killing that she’s less psychopathic than the others. She most likely isn’t interested in killing because of the risks and because she has other ways to satisfy her sadistic desires. Yeonhwa is acting as a frail and sickly girl, using her albinism, but in reality, other than the fact she has a bad sight and is weak under the sun, she’s far from being frail and is, in fact, a strong fighter. She’s playing the innocent a nice girl with others, a model student, and even stands against bullies to befriend the main character. But in reality, despite her charming look, she’s manipulative and cruel, she’s treating others as her toys and enjoy mistreating them, hurting them, bullying them and even sexually assaulting them. Even her sister admitted that she enjoys others’ pain. Her sister is one of her “toys” and Yeonhwa showed no regret for what she did to her, even when her sister ran away from home. Even when other people show worries towards her victims (without knowing Yeonhwa is responsible for that), she has no remorse and even uses them to torment her victims even more.
Makishima Shogo (Psycho-Pass)
What to be expected from a series where the name is literally a pun with the word psychopath? In the Psycho-Pass universe, they are people known as criminally asymptomatic, people that can commit crimes without being spotted by Sybil (who is able to spot criminals or potential criminals). Those people are most likely psychopaths. Shogo is a good example. He’s a charming man who can easily gain people’s trust to do his bidding and highly manipulative. He treats others almost as toys for his own amusement, and toss them away when they are not useful to him. He has no hesitation to kill and no remorse, he even enjoys it. His pastime is to make others kill, and toying with the police. He was ready to cause the death of a lot of people simply to change the country to his own taste, which is chaos and violence.
Orihara Izaya (Durarara)
Yeah, that guy. I heard that in the novels there is more depth for that characters, but I’m basing my analysis on how he his in the anime only. And in the anime, he fits the psychopath type. He’s a rather charismatic man who can easily gain others trust, but he’s usually manipulating them for his own enjoyment. He claims to love humans (even if he’s technically one, it’s almost like he doesn’t view himself as one), what he likes about them is their unpredictiveness. He likes to put them into chaotic situations just to see them struggle and observe them. He never seems to feel regret for his actions and can hardly bond with others. He’s messing and toying with others for his own pleasure and even tried to make someone commit suicide.
Kamishiro Rize (Tokyo Ghoul)
A beautiful and charming woman who easily charm men in order to trick them an eventually eat them, taking her time to play with them and even torturing them. Lovely. She has no regards for human lives (and it’s not only because she’s a ghoul, many ghouls do have respect for human lives). She remorsefully manipulates men by playing the nice girl, just to sadistically eat them and enjoying the pain she inflicts them. I must admit that I didn’t read all Tokyo Ghoul:re, so maybe there are some elements I’m missing.
Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji)
Okay, let me beings by saying this: no, I don’t think Sebastian is a psychopath. Then why is he on that list? Well, I know his behaviour is because he’s a demon, but still, most of his actions and personality fit the psychopath type, and he does have psychopathic traits. He’s charismatic and charming and can easily make others trust and even like him. But in reality, he is a sadistic being who doesn’t care about others, he only cares about himself. The only reason he takes care of Ciel is because he wants to eat his soul, otherwise he doesn’t care about Ciel, he enjoys to see him struggling and even tried to eat him when he thought Ciel had given up on his revenge. Sebastian is enjoying killing and clearly have no empathy towards others. So he may not be clinically a psychopath since he doesn’t have a human brain, but he sure does act like a psychopath.
So those were 10 potential psychopaths. As you can see, they aren’t all the same, even if they share similar traits (lack of empathy and remorse, charisma, sadistic). They all have a desire for dominance over others, and some use murder to achieve it, other by positions of power, and some by control over others. If there are other characters you think are psychopaths, or if you think that those I view as psychopath aren’t, don’t hesitate to comment this post or send me a message and I’ll analyze your opinions to see if I may be wrong about some of them. If you liked it, I may make another post about psychopath characters with your suggestions, or about other mental disorder (such as autism/asperger syndrome). Thanks for your reading!
