My Updated Favorite Sentai Villains List

What makes a good villain? Is it their plan and schemes? Is it their presence and personality? Does the mere mention of their name send a chill down your spine? Throughout the years, Sentai has created an amazingly diverse cast of villains. Yeah there will be some duds in the mix but a good challenge for the heroes can really help the perception of a show. There are quite a few new additions to this list and some of the old ones have been removed for one reason or another. So with that being said, lets see which villains made the cut this time.

8. Basco:

Of course he'd still make the list. This dude is hands down the best villain in Gokaiger and a major obstacle for the Gokaigers. He is one of those villains that manages to get under my skin really well. He can even use the ranger keys against the Gokaigers. He even plays the Zangyack Empire for fools so he can hunt the Sentai's grand powers as well. His rivalry with Marvelous is excellent and really adds some nice tension to the show. He is one of those villains that keeps pushing the heroes and makes it really awesome when you see him get beaten in the end.

7. Bandora:

Bandora is actually rather deceptively threatening and creepy. On the surface, she really doesn't seem all that threatening but her plans actually have this disturbingly subtle edge to them. The sneezing powder plot is a nice example of that. Granted some are outright dangerous at first glance like her having Dora Sphinx trap kids in trees that are about to be cut down. In one episode, she even synchs up kid's nerves to a Dora Monster. Her reason for being evil is actually a rather tragic one. She actually gets a happy-ish ending and well given the finale, she kinda needed that. Overall, I find her to be really fun.

6. Rio and Mele:

I like the dynamic these two have so they share the same spot on this list. I'm going to talk more about them in a later post so I'll keep it brief here. I'll talk about Rio first. He leads the Rinjyuken school and is obsessed with being the strongest. Its kind of generic as far as a villain motivation is concerned but it works out nicely in my opinion. His desire for strength comes from seeing his family slaughtered in front of him. His rivalry with Jan was fun and it leads to some really tense moments. It also makes it kind of sad once everything gets revealed near the end of the show.

Mele is probably my favorite out of the two of them. Most of it is due to her loyalty to Rio and her drive to help him become stronger. She is so loyal to Rio that even when she was offered a chance to live again, she threw it away simply because Rio was her reason for living now. She does however worry about Rio's safety as well. She even revives another Kenma because she is so worried that Rio's training at the time was too dangerous. She is actually the reason Rio turns against Long. She is also rather honorable as villain which I usually tend to like. The fates of both her and Rio at the end of series managed to steal a tear from me.

5. Dr. Man:

After seeing only 11 episodes of Bioman this dude is already one of my favorites. He absolutely does not mess around. Early on in the series he identified BioRobo as the biggest threat and immediately came up with a plan to try and disable it. He even engineered a situation where the Biomen had no choice but to fall for his trap because otherwise he'd have wiped out an entire region. He is also rather smart because when he had one of them trapped, he opted to study them as opposed to outright killing them. He has a ton of presence and I was actually kind of scared of him in the very first episode. I can already tell that I'm going to enjoy what this dude has in store for the rest of the series.

4. Abrella:

This guy is pretty cool imo. The dude is pretty much a weapons dealer and his entire reason for fighting against the Dekarangers is because they're getting in the way of his business. He has this constant calm demeanor and manages to keep himself under control even when he is angry. Yeah he doesn't fight them directly that much but he manages to keep up the tension by giving his clients new weapons and mecha when he shows up. The suit actor's performance is great and it adds even more to the character. He is also actually rather smart. He essentially does an entire season's worth of planning just for the final few episodes.

3. AbareKiller:

This dude kinda scares me. Everything he does is to get rid of his boredom and man that makes him a big threat. The dude doesn't even care for his own safety. He tried to crash a planet into the Earth while he was still on it simply because he thought it would be interesting. He adds a nice bit of tension to the show and I enjoyed his rivalry with Ryouga a lot. The man just loves to push people's buttons and he particularly likes to mess with Ryouga's faith in humanity. This usually results in Ryouga giving speeches about his belief in humanity and leads to a righteous butt-kicking. He isn't above cheating if he thinks it will make his games more exciting.

2. Jeanne:

It took me a while to be figure out who I liked more out of the Abaranger villains, her or AbareKiller. She beats out AbareKiller but it was a really close call. She is definitely my favorite villain out of the Evolians. The actress really sells the role. She makes a great rival for Asuka and the drama of her being Mahoro makes her fighting him all the more heart-wrenching. She goes through just as much during the show as Asuka. Its some heavy stuff and it really makes you hope for a happy ending for them both.

1. Long:

Yeah this dude is still my all time favorite Sentai villain. Just the mere mention of his name sends a chill down my spine. He cranks up the creep factor but popping up out of nowhere and getting uncomfortably close to people. The actor just eats the role up. He is a cold, calm, and calculating villain. It makes sense because the dude is basically immortal so he has nothing but time on his hands. That adds another level to the threat because it becomes a question of what he is going to do after you stop his current plan. I have yet to see a post-Gekiranger Sentai villain who inspires the same type of fear in me or one that has the same level of presence Long exudes.