On Sunday, October 8, 2023, @NORBOLOGY (Jyv) shared the results of their Best Anime Villain poll, declaring Toru Oikawa from Haikyu as the winner. However, fans are now debating on Twitter whether Oikawa can truly be considered a "villain" in the series, given his later role.
It's worth noting that the victory for Oikawa in this Haikyu poll comes with a caveat. Jyv allowed users to employ AI bots, which significantly inflated the number of votes. This explains why Jyv received nearly eight million votes in total, despite having less than 14 thousand followers on Twitter.
Haikyu’s Oikawa defeats major anime characters for title of Best Anime Villain, but with a major caveat
Additionally, the initial post that initiated the poll only garnered approximately 610 thousand impressions on Twitter at the time of composing this content. Considering these significant statistics, it becomes evident that the triumph of Oikawa, a character from Haikyu, was primarily achieved through the concerted efforts of his supporters flooding the poll with automated votes, rather than the natural progression of the poll itself.Expand Tweet
Fans of Haikyu are understandably surprised by the results of Jyv's poll, which crowned Oikawa as the unofficial Best Anime Villain. Jyv even acknowledges that Oikawa is not really a villain compared to other characters in the poll, highlighting the fact that he does not commit any crimes throughout the series.
This brings up a valid point, as while Oikawa is initially portrayed as an antagonist, it can be argued that he is not truly a villain in the show. This is especially evident when considering his evolving relationship with his Karasuno rivals and how it develops beyond mere acquaintanceship as the series progresses.
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Oikawa emerged as the top-ranking anime villain, surpassing popular adversaries such as Sukuna from Jujutsu Kaisen, Madara Uchiha from Naruto, and Makima from Chainsaw Man. Light Yagami from Death Note, Sosuke Aizen from Bleach, Chrollo and Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, and Kaido from One Piece were also contenders but fell short in the competition against the high school volleyball athlete.
Although many fans are confused by Oikawa's victory in the poll, those who voted for him and used bots to support him are ecstatic with the outcome. Some enthusiasts have gone to the extent of sharing edits where Oikawa is depicted shooting another character from the series, using these obviously non-canonical incidents to justify his first-place triumph.
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With that being said, it's understandable why the dedicated fanbase of Haruichi Furudate's Haikyu series would go to great lengths to ensure Oikawa's victory, even in this particular situation. Oikawa has undoubtedly captured the hearts of fans, making him just as popular as the series' main character, Shoyo Hinata, and his rival, Tobio Kageyama.
Regardless of the outcome, the victory holds little significance in the larger context due to the unofficial nature of the poll and the manipulation of votes through bots. Despite this, supporters of Oikawa are celebrating their proclaimed triumph over well-known anime villains like Sukuna and Madara Uchiha.
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