15 Anime Characters Who Are Morally Ambiguous

L is a world-class detective who's been solving seemingly impossible cases since he was eight. One of the keys to his success is his reliance on unethical deduction tactics — such as torture — to get suspects to divulge information. Perhaps the most extreme example of L's methods comes when he makes Light Yagami's father pretend like he's going to murder Light and Misa, just to see if they'd use Light's power over life and death to save themselves.

On the one hand, L gets results, and his work saves lives. On the other hand, he disregards human rights to achieve his goals. It's hard to know what to make of L, and that's part of what makes Death Note so interesting.

Death Parade is a series about people who believe in objective morality. Decim is an arbiter, which means it's his job to decide which souls are reincarnated, and which are condemned to oblivion. He discerns this by watching how the recently deceased react to elaborate, sadistic games.

As the series progresses, Decim realizes he cannot accurately judge human behavior using crass and violent methods, which means he can no longer properly do his job. Watching Decim struggle with moral ambiguity both within himself and within the souls he judges is fascinating. 

Elias Ainsworth of The Ancient Magus' Bride is a part human, part fae mage who often uses his powers to helps others. He's kind to Chise, and gives her a home where she can learn magic from him. However, Elias also has a dark side. He only becomes involved in Chise's life after he buys her at an auction.

On top of that, he often obscures his intentions and his violent past, which involves consuming human flesh. Can Chise trust him? Should she love him as much as he does? It's hard to know.

The titular character of Princess Mononoke is Lady Eboshi's mortal enemy, but that doesn't mean the leader of Irontown is bad to her core. She's definitely power-hungry, and is willing to destroy the environment and turn gods into demons to maintain her grip on her settlement. However, she also dedicates her life to helping the less fortunate. Before she gained power, she was enslaved, so she's deeply empathetic to the poor and downtrodden.

She's specifically invested in helping women, and provides femmes in need with employment and shelter. Eventually, she even agrees to stop destroying the forest. If your loyalty lies with the Forest Spirit (who Eboshi shoots dead), then the head of Irontown is the film's main antagonist. However, if you empathize with the humans, she's a paragon of virtue. 

Gakuhō Asano, the board chairmen of Kunugigaoka Junior High School in Assassination Classroom, appears to be straight up evil. He runs his school using cruelty and emotional abuse, and forces most of his students to look down on a small group of rejects, Class 3-E. Desperate to maintain the school's structure, he even tries to sabotage Class 3-E from improving their grades and entering into more advanced classes.

However, Asano didn't always teach this way. At the start of his career, he was a kind man who cared deeply about his students, and his primary goal was to teach them to be good people. That changed when one of his students was bullied into suicide. Instead of being good, Asano now wants his students to be strong, which is why he created a painful educational gauntlet. When his students survive, they'll come out powerful enough to take on anything. 

Sasuke Uchiha is one of the most controversial characters in Naruto. His family was murdered by his older brother, Itachi, and he dedicates his life to exacting revenge. Once he kills his brother, he realizes Danzo — a particularly nefarious member of the Konoha government — forced Itachi to commit the atrocity. When he recovers from shock, he becomes an enemy of Konoha, hellbent on taking down the state that took his family away, even if he has to kill innocent people to do so. 

Sasuke ultimately overcomes his desire for revenge, and spends his adulthood traveling the region on various missions. His work causes him to leave his daughter alone for so long that she can only recall his face with the help of a photograph. 

Is it wrong for Sasuke to be consumed with revenge? Is it wrong for him to try and dismantle an obviously corrupt government? Considering his own trauma, is it realistic to expect him to be there for his daughter?