ThePokemonanime has seen a whole host of villains over the years ofAsh’s adventures. Many were one-offs while others were recurring, but all of them had some nefarious intentions in mind. That means that finding the truly detestable is no easy feat. This is a world full of people using Pokemon for their own gain, be it wealth, power, or pure destruction.
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Some ofPokemon’svillains are far too lovable to be considered truly evil. Try as Jessie, James & Meowth might, their bumbling stooge antics andan endless cascade of disguisesare just too entertaining (and not nearly successful enough) to earn them a place amongst the evilest of the evil.
10Colress
When it comes to the main villains in the games, Colress is arguably one of the least evil. He does some pretty nasty things, but he identifies the failures of Team Plasma and eventually earns a real redemption in Generation 7. Unfortunately, his anime counterpart is far less redeemable.
While he does still subvert Team Plasma’s ambitions to some extent, it’s for personal gain rather than for moral reasons. His desire to control the hearts of Pokemon is an unpleasant concept, turning them into slaves rather than companions. Ironically, it’s the exact opposite of Team Plasma’s original goal.
9Faba
TheSun & Moonanime was interesting story-wise because, for the most part, the main villains were Pokemon, not humans. While Lusamine undoubtedly does some evil things, Nihilego possesses her during her worst acts. Plus, most of the Aether Foundation eventually gets redeemed.
Faba does become an ally by the end, too, but the things he does in the meantime are far worse than Lusamine’s direct actions. His dislike for children is apparent early on and his attempts to protect his reputation lead to significant harm to Ash, Gladion, and Lillie. Even once he becomes friendly, his power-hungry nature is clearly still lurking below the surface.
8Butch & Cassidy
Naturally, when part of a crime syndicate, even the longest-serving members need to be wary of rivals. For the beloved trio ofJessie, James, and Meowth, this is Butch and Cassidy. These Team Rocket grunts didn’t show up very often, but they always caused plenty of trouble for the heroes and the Team Rocket regulars.
They were consistently shown to be far more competent at their jobs than the regular trio, successfully capturing the heroes' Pokemon on several occasions before being ultimately foiled. At the end of the day, though, they almost always end up suffering the same fate as the other Team Rocket members.
7Pokemon Hunter J
It’s not often a character in thePokemonfranchise is presented as so genuinely nasty. Even the biggest villains have a bit of a cartoony edge to them that takes the sting out of their tail. Hunter J didn’t have that, though. She was just an out-and-out bad person who did some horrible things.
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Appearing exclusively in theDiamond & Pearlarc, Hunter J used advanced technology to capture and steal Pokemon to turn around and sell them on the Black Market. She was surprisingly good at this, too, capturing even Legendary Pokemon with ruthless efficiency, doing nasty things like burning down a forest as she went. She even got a rather shocking death for thePokemonanime, seeing her iconic visor sinking to the bottom of the ocean as it is implied she drowned.
6Giovanni
The big bad of Generation 1,Giovanni has had plenty of time to shine in the anime. It’s hard to say precisely how many of Team Rocket’s evil deeds can be reasonably attributed to the man. While he is undoubtedly the boss who oversees it all, when viewers get to see him, he’s just sitting in his chair, commenting on the situation.
Amazingly, Giovanni and Ash didn’t do battle until theBlack & Whitearc of the anime, when Persian defeated Pikachu in short order. Later in that story, Giovanni would get his most significant role in the show, becoming possessed by the Reveal Glass and using the Forces of Nature to attempt to destroy the world. After that, he got back in his chair and has remained there to this day.
5Lysandre
Lysandre saw arguably the best improvement from the games to the anime. His character in the games had all of the key points there, but none of them were fleshed out much, and in the end, he became a somewhat generic villain. The anime was able to take that story and significantly expand on it ina fan-favorite arc of the show.
The Mega-Evolution specials helped give us some background on Lysandre and make him into a more well-rounded character, which made the impact of his evil deeds feel truly powerful. When he finally seized power at the end of the Kalos League, his desire for destruction very nearly succeeded. All of Kalos' Gym Leaders, the Champion,Ash’s full team, and Alain struggled to stop him, even with their powers combined. In the end, Lysandre only failed due to the power of 100% form Zygarde.
4Ghetsis
In the Generation 5 games, Ghetsis has an incredible story spanning two games that makes him one of the franchise’s greatest villains. Unfortunately, his anime counterpart didn’t get nearly as extensive a story. However, his evil deeds are still there for all to see.
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His manipulation of N and the false creation of Team Plasma make him pretty detestable alone, but it goes deeper than that. The fact that he poses as someone taking the moral high ground on Pokemon, claiming people shouldn’t be capturing them with Pokeballs, only to use other means to enslave other Pokemon, is insane.
3Paul
Paul’s evil is on a much smaller scale than someone like Lysandre, but that arguably makes it feel more despicable to the viewers. Paul isn’t trying to destroy the world or control everyone around him. He simply treats Pokemon like mere tools rather than friends.
From his very first appearance, the way he cares only for the ability of his Pokemon makes him unlikable. The fact that he’d do such heartless things as abandoning his Starter Pokemon, Chimchar, makes him one of the worst characters but also one of Ash’s best rivals.
2Cyrus
What makes Cyrus so evil is his lack of emotion. While many would see that as a life not worth living, Cyrus uses it almost like a superpower, allowing him to fill any role he needs and manipulate even those closest to him without giving them a second thought. The way he lies to his legions of followers without a care in the world is disturbing to watch.
What’s more, he comes within fingertips of achieving his goal. Using Hunter J’s services, he captures Uxie, Mesprit, and Azlef to create the Red Chain, and it successfully subdues Dialga and Palkia. He is even able to step through into the portal of his “perfect world” before the Pokemon of Time and Space were freed, foiling him.
1Marcus
Looking into the realm of thePokemonanime movies, these are where some of the evilest villains can be found. As the stakes are always high, centering around Legendary and Mythical Pokemon, some over-the-top villainy is often required to make things go off with a bang.
Marcus is by far the most horrible of these. He tore apart the utopian society his friend, Damos, created alongside Arceus out of selfish fear. Even when confronted by people from the future, telling him that his actions would lead to Arceus attempting to destroy the world, he doesn’t flinch at his plans, instead going one step further and very nearly killing Arceus. As far as evil acts go, killing thePokemonworld’s equivalent of God and erasing the future is about as evil as it gets.
