And Shogo Makishima?

Ran out of room... my bad.

I love Frieza, Esdeath, Light and All For One, but Johan is so complex and so mysterious to the point that it's not a competition.

Liebert is a very complex character himself. He deserves to be headlined.

Frieza, by far. He manages to be so absolutely despicable that it's awesome to watch. I haven't seen Monster or A Date Live yet, so I'm not really aware of its two villains. Light Yagami I think is overrated. A lot of his plans work when they honestly really shouldn't and he kind of gave me annoying Anakin Skywalker vibes. Esdeath is cool and a well-rounded character (way better than Prime Minster Honest), but she's far from the best anime villain. All For One, although I think he's cool, is somewhat of a generic evil overlord compared to the other more sympathetic and interesting villains in My Hero Academia.

I would personally say Light's my favorite. Frieza and Johan are up there as well in their own ways, but I'm simply not quite as familiar with the latter (though I suspect it would be very close if I were), and Frieza's mostly just fun to watch for being so unapologetically despicable. Light, however, to me, is a very realistic example of someone young with both idealistic ambitions and good intentions, but for all his intelligence and potential, still has a very black and white concept of morality like many people his age, and has them twisted by the ability to play God. Because of that, his whole character just makes for great social commentary. I think Brad Swaile's performance in the English dub also helped a lot, with immortalized lines like a certain one relating to a potato chip (everyone knows the one).

On a side note, it's a huge shame that Squealer/Yakomaru from Shinsekai Yori/From the New World isn't on here, as well as doesn't have a page on this wiki altogether for that matter, because boy, he's right up there with Light as one of my all-time favorites.

Of those presented in the list, the best is Johan. But I would add Griffith here.