Light Is Not Good/Anime and Manga


 * In Neon Genesis Evangelion:
 * The angel Arael is a beautiful bright bird that looks somewhat like a bunch of wings or branched out lights/leaves. It is, however, one of the most horrifying angels. It's the Trope Namer for Mind Rape and launches a brutal assault on Asuka's mind, which ends up putting her in a catatonic depression. And yet it's regarded as the prettiest and brightest of the angels. It's engulfed in a glowing white light. It's chilling.
 * Armisael (a halo made out of pure white light) and Ramiel (a perfect blue crystal that attacks using a Wave Motion Gun) aren't much better. In fact, taking the name 'Angel' at face value, all of the Monsters Of The Week are this trope.
 * The first angel, Adam, is referred to as "The Giant of Light" occasionally. His form lived up to that name.
 * from Cyber Team in Akihabara
 * Byakuran in Katekyo Hitman Reborn wears all white, decorates his office with white flowers and apparently consists on a diet of marshmallows. At the end of the manga arc, he also.
 * Friday Monday from Madlax wears white clothes, has white hair, and a golden mask. His base even looks like a church.
 * Inuyasha has a few examples.
 * First, we have the priestess Kikyo, the antiheroine of the story. Her resurrection is clearly ungodly. She comes back to life with a mind full of hatred and vengeance and does both good (helping people in need, feeding the hungry, taking care of kids) and not-so-good deeds (antagonizing Inuyasha and Kagome, stealing the souls of girls to keep herself alive). Yet obviously, she retains her old holy powers. To her credit, she soon starts losing the hatred that poisoned her, and eventually gets better and becomes the local Dark Magical Girl, sealed by her . And in the end,
 * Even more strikingly, the Living Buddha Hakushin uses his holy powers consciously to erect a barrier to protect the Big Bad Naraku. This barrier prevents people who have demonic blood, like Inuyasha, Koga, Sesshomaru, from entering Mount Hakurei and attacking Naraku.
 * The Society of Light from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX,
 * One could argue that the Society of Light are a deconstruction of the idea that anyone who loses to the light sees their point of view, since anyone who loses a duel against them instantly defects to their side, just like is traditional for villains to do upon losing to the protagonist under the rules of Defeat Means Friendship.
 * The original Yu-Gi-Oh! had Seto Kaiba dressed in white with his Light-type Mons, the Blue Eyes White Dragon, pitted against a leather-clad spirit named Dark Yugi and his Dark Magician (with the rest of their decks tending to match the Light and Dark themes of their signature monsters). However, Kaiba was the Jerkass and Yami Yugi barely hit Anti-Hero.
 * And in The Movie, the Pyramid Of Light, used by Anubis in an attempt to take Kaiba and Yami's life forces to come back to life and destroy the world.
 * Two of the seasonal Big Bads in the original series, Noah and Dartz, were also light-aligned. Noah had a six-winged angel, Shinato, with regal robes and a halo as his deck master, who's name in Japan is Shinato, King of Heaven, and merges with it temporarily, and Dartz's whole deck was light-themed, meant to be around the Orichalchos.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, we have Rex Godwin, our heroic mentor to the The Chosen One(s), but also has some sort of counter-agenda planned. And then there's Divine, resident Jerkass (and a downright bastard).
 * This carries over to the cards themselves - the two cards linked on the page for Eldritch Abomination are both Light-type.
 * D.Gray-man: Despite being demons,  most closely resemble angels, complete with glowing white halos and wings. The Noah themselves avert this trope by gaining white skin when not in "horrifying evil" mode.
 * Lucemon from Digimon Frontier was most definitely a version of this; it also had Darkness-based powers, but started out pure Light. He uses both together in his second form. They combine to form Playstation, apparently (at the very least, circles, triangles x's and squares). Yeah.
 * The Royal Knights, being Holy Knights with light-oriented powers, also fit.
 * SlashAngemon would be another example.
 * The Bleach Filler Villain Maki Ichinose is a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose zanpakuto has the ability to manipulate light. He allies himself with Card-Carrying Villain Jin Kariya in an attempt to eliminate Soul Society, which he views as becoming increasingly corrupt. Unfortunately for him, neither his arch nemesis Zaraki nor Kariya himself care for such noble goals or even take him seriously. He does a Heel Face Turn after losing to Kenpachi and getting "The Reason You Suck" Speech,
 * The Gotei 13 captains started out as the antagonists, and their main trademark is that they... all wear white overcoats.
 * To a greater extent yet, Byakuya has a white reiatsu and his finishing move is a completely white sword overflowing with white reiatsu. And since reiatsu is thrown about a lot in the series, it becomes rather impossible to miss.
 * Hollows themselves are always a bright white color, despite usually being hideous monsters that eat human souls.
 * Light Yagami from Death Note. All of his symbolism in the opening credits, his speeches, and his ideals (his given name, for crying out loud) state that he is firmly Light-aligned. Yet his method for purifying society, and the way he deals with those around him, peg him clearly as the series' villain. His powers aren't directly Light-inspired -- though everything else about him is. For added melodrama, "Yagami" means "night god".
 * Word of God states that the reason Light became so evil was because he was so pure to begin with. Light was such a good person he was incapable of comprehending evil, and so evil's very existence in the real world threw him all the way off his axis and off the deep end. He couldn't think of any other method of dealing with evil other than pure, unrestrained destruction... no matter the cost.
 * Johan Liebert of Monster is so bright and beautiful looking that he could almost be mistaken for an angel, and indeed, the aura he gives off is one of almost unmistakable lightness. He's also the title character.
 * The Ineffectual Loner brigade "X Laws" in Shaman King all had angels as their spirits. And they did some pretty horrible stuff, being Knight Templars who beat and kill people just so they wouldn't join Hao. Also, in the manga, one of their  members defects to join Hao... and this defector used the angel Lucifer as his spirit.
 * Jakou in Fist of the North Star 2 is addicted to light, to the point where he captures slaves to operate his light-generating machinery. Justified by this being caused by his utter terror of Raoh and Hokuto Shinken practitioners in general, who (with the exception of Toki) are very much darkness-aligned and whose martial art is, according to Shin, the Yin (Dark) side of the art of killing.
 * Other examples come from the evil Nanto Seiken practitioners. Their martial art is stated early to be the Yang (Light) side of the art of killing, all but one of the known Nanto Seiken practitioners are clearly light aligned (Souther going so far to declare himself an holy emperor, and having the phoenix as his symbol), and Shin, Yuda and Souther are three massive jerks.
 * Krad from D.N.Angel fits. He's the villain, but he's got all the light-related imagery, white wings and all that, while the good guy, Dark, has... well, you can probably guess.
 * From Trigun Knives, a Bishonen decked out in white, who created the "Angel Arms" -- super-guns of highly destructive light-beams. The manga takes this to an extreme, when Knives starts, he is the center of a writhing mass of angel wings and limbs.
 * Kalutika Maybus, The God of Light in the Manhwa "Rebirth" wants to destroy the human race because his life as a human in the 1600s was very unpleasant. Prior to attaining (or growing into) godhood, he was . After Currently, he has
 * Trinity Blood is another classic example of this: The "Enemy of the World" is a blond Bishonen with six white wings, who dresses all in long white robes and is first seen standing atop the enormous cross which hovers over the Vatican. The hero, in contrast, is a White-Haired Pretty Boy with black wings who dresses all in black and wields a scythe made of his own blood.
 * One Piece has Marine Admiral Kizaru, whose abilities via the Pika-Pika Devil Fruit give him power over light. He can move/attack at the speed of light, focus light into lasers, and also use blinding flashes. This isn't also including the basic advantages of his type of Devil Fruit, which cause solid objects to pass right through him. Though whether this is an aversion, playing straight, or subversion depends on your point of view as One Piece has pirates as the protagonists, making Kizaru the enemy, even though he's on the side of "Good" as far as the OP-verse is concerned.
 * I don't think it's a question at all, it's definitely played straight, the World Government has committed more horrific acts than anyone else in the series. Also Kizaru himself while laid back, is pretty sadistic and aggressive unlike the more Antivillainesque Marines like Aokiji, Garp and Smoker. Actually a lot about the Marines and World Government play with this trope, from the white uniforms of the Marines themselves, to.
 * Kizaru at least appears to take his job somewhat seriously, and shows the best leadership qualities out of all the Admirals.
 * Another possible example is the Fleet Admiral Sengoku himself, what with how he apparently has the power to morph himself into a copy of the Buddha. He's still one of the few non-evil Admirals, alongside Monkey D. Garp and maybe Aokiji. He is damn pissed with the most recent decisions of the higher-ups, for example.
 * It seems that everybody in One Piece can be considered "bad" except for the few pirate crews who just want to sail the seas and explore the world (like the Straw Hats), and the few Marines who believe in leaving pirates alone unless they're actively causing trouble (like Admiral Aokiji).
 * In Berserk, Griffith is a godlike demon who would willingly offer his best friend's life for power and is said to bring about an "age of darkness" which definitely does not sound nice. He appears to people in dreams as a hawk surrounded by light and is appropriately called the Hawk of Light by the Pope of this world.
 * Also Inquisitor Mozgus. He is a Knight Templar to the book, who believes the absurd level of sadism (with good measures of masochism) he reaches brings him closer to (probably non-existent in Berserk) God. He's given Light Powers as well. Specifically, angelic wings and a Light Breath. Given by a ragtag false God who's a servant to the false God Griffith (who probably works for another False God... although it's possible it is the real "God").
 * In a chapter that was later stricken from the books and archives because it "reveals too much about the direction of the series", . You can find the original chapter online in some places.
 * The sinister White Prince of Code Geass, Schneizel.
 * Also
 * And then there's Mao, a White-Haired Pretty Boy whose power is Telepathy which enables him to "see through" the "shadowy personality" of Lelouch (and most of the other characters). Oh, and he's also one of the purest-hearted and most innocent characters in the entire show, who prides himself on using his mind-reading skills to Mind Rape and ultimately kill people he sees as "bad." He may not be the only other one, either, since most antagonists in Code Geass (including Mao and Schneizel) are Knights Templar, and thus in theory light-aligned by default.
 * Suzaku Kururugi has shades of this, as well. Known as the White Knight, and later as the "White Grim Reaper" in the places he helps conquer, he actually started out with noble morals and an honest belief in reforming the system. A few traumas later, and he was willing to do anything to maintain what he saw as peace and reform over violent revolution. This trope is played deliberately in his case, much like Scheizel and Mao, since he's an antagonist of Lelouch. Meanwhile, Lelouch's mother and father are both portrayed as Light in their own ways (his father is the Emperor, and while not overly white in the same vein as Schneizel, still has shades of it, his mother was treated by all who knew her as a saint, and nicknamed "The Flash"). In the end,.
 * In the series Yami no Matsuei, Muraki Kazutaka has a lot of "light" symbolism surrounding him. (In the anime, he was even first encountered in a church by the hero.) The manga takes this even further, in his final appearance he
 * In the prologue of one of the Baccano! books, a twelve-year-old runaway is found by a man. Said man is androgynously beautiful, dressed almost entirely in white and (thanks to a trick of the light) appears to even be glowing. Is it an angel? Nah, it's Huey Laforet -- terrorist and Mad Scientist who just so happened to be looking for "raw materials" for some very morally questionable experiments.
 * From the same series, we have Ladd Russo, who is very fond of wearing white suits, and is a child-killing Psycho for Hire. He likes wearing white because it makes the blood stand out...
 * The true villain of Yu Yu Hakusho in the manga?
 * Sensui, Big Bad of the Chapter Black Saga, is a former Spirit Detective who has the ability to use Holy Chi.
 * Jellal Fernandez from Fairy Tail used a wide variety of light and heaven themed magics.
 * You can't mention corrupt angels without pointing out Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan.
 * The same applies to Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, which has the evil angel Michel; in fact, given his six white wings, white clothing and constant glowing, its hard to know why did he missed being listed here for so long.
 * Spoofed in Slayers, when Amelia, right in the middle of a villain's grand appearance, declares that he can't possibly be the bad guy because he's wearing white, whereupon the other characters collectively facepalm.
 * Big Bad Paptimus Scirocco of Zeta Gundam wears an immaculate white uniform as a visual contrast to the black-and-red wearing jackbooted thugs he works beside. Say what you will about Scirocco, the man had standards.
 * Code Breaker:
 * Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Ooh, look, pretty shiny gold butterflies! That lady in the portrait can't be all ba... Dear God.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist, Father is a noble looking old man with white hair and who dresses all in white, and in the Brotherhood anime actually seems to glow with white light.
 * In the first anime, there is a man who for centuries murdered countless people to either steal their bodies or make philosopher's stones, before ultimately reforming.
 * This trope is also present in the form of certain religion related characters. For instance, the first villain faced is a priest, Father Cornello, who maintains the guise of a kind old man when his real intentions are quite megalomaniac. Scar probably fits as well, though he becomes an Anti-Hero.
 * Another example is that of the Affably Evil Mad Bomber, Zolf J. Kimbley. Kimbley wears a pure white suit, has a pair of alchemical circles drawn on his hands that involves the sun and moon, both symbols of light, and his fighting style creating quite a bit of light as a side-effect.
 * Father, reshaped his body into looking like a young Hohenheim, meaning that he became a long haired, angelic looking male teenager.
 * Interestingly, Hiromu Arakawa, the author of Fullmetal Alchemist, apparently used this trope in her older manga Stray Dog; the villainous bounty hunter mage makes use of light related powers in the very first fight scene.
 * Solomon from Blood Plus is an angelic blonde bishounen that more often than not wears a white suit. Needless to say that he's also one of Diva's chevaliers.
 * Diva as well. Pale pretty girl with blue eyes, wears white Victorian clothing, is a opera singer and often described as a angel. Bad side? She
 * Xargin of Blassreiter may look like a wandering evangelist...but his message is genocide, and he will disintegrate you in your own best interests, with that darn perty smile on his face.
 * Team Trinity are a group of Gundam meisters with biblical surnames and they wear white clothes. Guess what?
 * Well Johan is more of a Dark Is Evil since his Gundam looks more Dark Based.
 * The Alvaaron is bright, shiny gold, and is shaped like an angelic knight. It is also piloted by a guy who wants to destroy and recreate human society as he sees fit.
 * The Innovades also wear white... outfits. Their leader and Big Bad pilots a white Gundam.
 * Hellsing Ultimate
 * Alexander Anderson, a Catholic priest/paladin dressed in white who's kind to children and puppies. However, you even mention the word "Vampire" in front of him and he turns into a homicidal psychopath who won't hesitate to chop up normal humans in his path to purify the world of "evil".
 * The Crusade that was assembled when the Nazi Vampires . They not only looked like a cross between the historical Knight Templar and members of the Ku Klux Klan, but their mission wasn't to   it was to
 * The Major fits this trope along with Complete Monster; he wears White and has Blond Hair. This could be attributed to Phenotype Stereotype however. He is still ein Sturmbannfürer des dritten Reichs, despite having become one of the most solid examples of Exclusively Evil and Blood Knight existing in Anime.
 * Yashahime is a beautiful young woman who frequently wears long, stylized kimonos and flowers in her hair, is rather graceful with her White God Tree katana and is the High Goddess of Earth. She also has a rather obsessive crush on the Grim Reaper (who's not so nice himself) and is batshit crazy. Oh, and she's really a
 * One of the major themes of the manga Angel Sanctuary. God Is Evil, and many of the angels are fanatical, murderous, lunatics. And with which group does the hero side? The demons.
 * In Axis Powers Hetalia Russia manages to curse Japan using the power of the Orthodox Church. Apparently even White Magic is evil if Russia is involved on it. Somewhat subverted with England's "Brittania Angel" mode, which is merely creepy when he's not being hilarious.
 * Also in Roma Heta, with.
 * In Black Butler, is the main villain of season 1.
 * from Slayers. Slayers Try reveals that it is actually one of a set of five weapons from another dimension that are that dimension's equivalent of the Five Dark Lords.
 * In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Kuze has a cybernetic body with white skin and hair, and usually dresses completely in white. His followers see him as a savior, but he's also Japans most dangerous top terrorist.
 * Probably emphasized further by the fact that he becomes a lot more sympathetic character after he gets rid of his white getup permanently, and switches to brown leather jacket and blue jeans.
 * In Bastard!!, the only Angel willing to fight to protect humanity instead of wiping it out is the fallen angel Lucifer,.
 * This even exists in Dragon Ball. Case and point: FREEZA. His main colors? Pink, purple, and white. Especially in his final form; he's like a bastion of whiteness. In regular demeanor he's completely regal. And he is indeed the lord.
 * Broly, in terms of movie villains. Adorned in holy-looking clothing. Apparently mild-mannered and harmless.
 * In terms of Broly,  applies as well. Dressed in a white cape, sporting a damaged eye, introducing himself as a humble servant of Vegeta, and presenting Vegeta a new planet to rule over as its king and restart the Saiyan race - just as soon as he defeated a "Legendary Super Saiyan".
 * Kurei from Flame of Recca was made to believe he carried the cursed flame when he really carried the sacred Phoenix flame.
 * Dr. Butterfly from Busou Renkin.
 * The Hyuga clan of Naruto often dresses in white, and many of their names have to do with the sun or other sources of light. However, the leadership of the clan oppresses the branch house with a curse mark that can cause great pain or kill those with it when it's activated, and some members of the branch house possess resentment toward the head family that can be potentially murderous. Despite this, it is implied that Hiashi, current head of the clan, is rethinking the role of the main and branch families, especially after Hizashi sacrificed himself for the sake of his brother and village rather than the head family, and the current heiress, Hinata, is a kind individual who cares for the members of the branch family.
 * Raijin in Yaiba is the God of Thunder, but hinted to be quite evil. Kaguya is the Moon Princess, but is at least a Well-Intentioned Extremist and a Complete Monster at worst.
 * In Saint Seiya, Virgo Shaka fits. Whilst he's more of an Anti-Hero, he's very deceptive-he's an incarnation of Buddha, but in the first series has aligned himself with the very evil Pope and is only too willing to Mind Rape and maim the main characters. He also happens to be an angelic-looking blonde with bright blue eyes and very long hair. Who glows. In the dark. His Expy from Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas does a similar thing.
 * Aion of Chrono Crusade dresses in all white, and comes with White-Haired Pretty Boy. Underneath his disguise however is a total bastard. Prone of long winded speeches and making your life a total misery.
 * Love Machine, the big bad AI gone mad in Summer Wars might qualify. After it feeds on a few unsuspecting avatars he goes from rather ditzy looking to something that could only be described as a monk, who looks like he fights for good, with an evil mask. What drives the point home though is the bright white godlike aura he can activate at will in this form, making him look like a cyber-messiah.
 * Later when . What involves the trope in this form though are the bright white angelic wings he got from the  . Moreso, he now looks very dark, but he still has the ability to project his aura, which leads to
 * Saikano's Chise glows a bright white when she uses her abilities, which, along with the techno-wings that often sprout from her back, make her look downright angelic. Unfortunately, being "The Ultimate Weapon", this frequently ends in lots and lots of people dying and/or cities being reduced to dust.
 * The Qwaser of Gold in Seikon no Qwaser, appears in one beautiful form or another, and often glows with a golden aura. Sasha and Katja both play with this and the inversion; though Heroes in the series, both are extremely fair-skinned and fair-haired who wear black, both are battle-hardened, vicious and damaged individuals.
 * Da Capo and its sequels have the Giant Sakura Tree and its ever-blossoming kin. There are some truly terrifying scenes in the animes when everything is going horribly right we see beautiful cherry blossoms budding up and blossoming to life even as the characters beg for the trees to die.
 * In Gundam Seed we have Rau Le Creuset. Adorned in white from head to foot, he has blond hair, Blue Eyes, and pilots a mecha entitled the Providence. And is absolutely out of his mind. His Unwitting Pawn, Muruta Azrael wears a light-blue suit, and has a religious name...and is even worse.
 * Miaka and the Suzaku senshi are the main characters of Fushigi Yugi but it's not until Eikoden do we see how selfish and uncaring Suzaku and the other Beast Gods are, concerned only with maintaining their immortality by taking the souls of the girls who become their priestesses.
 * The Guild in Last Exile. Aside from the customary white clothing, Guild ships are very bright and full of sunlight, particularly in contrast to the Silvana.
 * In Gundam Seed we have Rau Le Creuset. Adorned in white from head to foot, he has blond hair, Blue Eyes, and pilots a mecha entitled the Providence. And is absolutely out of his mind. His Unwitting Pawn, Muruta Azrael wears a light-blue suit, and has a religious name...and is even worse.
 * Miaka and the Suzaku senshi are the main characters of Fushigi Yugi but it's not until Eikoden do we see how selfish and uncaring Suzaku and the other Beast Gods are, concerned only with maintaining their immortality by taking the souls of the girls who become their priestesses.
 * The Guild in Last Exile. Aside from the customary white clothing, Guild ships are very bright and full of sunlight, particularly in contrast to the Silvana.