I Am Your Opponent

"Omae no aite wa ore da!"

"I am your opponent!"

A stock phrase that is a form of Throwing Down the Gauntlet. Very common in Shonen action series, as one would expect. Sometimes used when the speaker wants their opposition to disengage from a fight with someone else, and engage the speaker instead (for example, a Big Damn Heroes moment, to foiling a You Shall Not Pass).

Sometimes translated literally, sometimes the translator will go for idiomatic phrases which fit the context, such as "Let's dance" or "You're facing me now." Similar to Go Through Me, except with the implication that the user may go through you first. Compare This Is Unforgivable!. Heavily related to Bait and Switch Boss.

Examples of I Am Your Opponent include:

Anime and Manga

• Attempted by Wajima in Rokudenashi Blues. Maeda gives him an Offhand Backhand for his trouble.
• Gundam is keen on this, especially as most stories given the protagonist a (usually masked) rival who over time becomes obsessed with beating the lead Gundam. Possibly the most extreme example of this occurs in Mobile Suit Gundam 00s second season with the character of Mr. Bushido (Graham Acre), who uses his One-Man Army License to completely ignore orders and standard military structure so he can fight Setsuna; he even says this phrase a couple of times when Setsuna tries to break off their duels.
  • Setsuna says this to Hilling Care after destroying her BFG when the latter attempted to shoot down the Ptolemaios during the assault on Memento Mori.
• Bleach
  • Ichigo to Jin Kariya during the Bount arc, while Yoruichi and Byakuya are also present.
  • Ulquiorra does this to Ichigo when he leaves in the middle of their fight to try to stop Loly and Menoly from beating Orihime.
• Dragonball Z
  • Used in the OVA movie Tree of Might. Piccolo shouts this in the Japanese version as he attacks the Big Bad Turlis as he's watching his minions in combat. In the English dub, he shouts out, "This isn't a spectator sport!"
  • And during the main series, while Captain Ginyu is fighting Krillin and Gohan, Jeice is about to help him, but is stopped by Vegeta.
• Happens all the time in Naruto (episode 115 is titled after this phrase). Bad guys (and, less often, good guys) find it difficult to complete their primary mission when facing an imminent duel to the death.
  • Lampshaded/parodied in a flashback to Madara making Minato fight him instead of defending his village, where he says this even after he thinks he's got an opponent that will let him win instantly, amending "And... we're done!" to his declaration.
• Inuyasha uses it several times, Sango a couple of times. It's also frequently inverted by Naraku, who prefers, "He is your opponent."
• Mahou Sensei Negima: Used frequently, to the point of almost being Arc Words. For example, it was used by Yue during the "Negi lip-capture contest" in the trip to Nara and Kyoto. Said to Setsuna during the battle vs 150 summoned monsters. Said by Fate Averruncus to Negi and Asuna. Chachamaru said it, in preparation to confront Chisame. Yue used it again, when facing the griffin-dragon.
• Night Wizard: Bell Zephyr says this to get the Big Bad to attack her rather then attacking Hiragii Renji, thus buying him time.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yami Yugi uses it a few times.
• Even mentioned once in Wedding Peach, between Limone and Pluie.
• Used with a twist in One Piece. When Luffy is lying on the ground during his fight with Lucci, too exhausted to move, Usopp suddenly takes off his mask and yells at Lucci that he'll be his opponent. Luffy immediately tells Usopp that he's not strong enough to take on Lucci, and he'll finish off Lucci. Usopp replies:

Usopp: Then stand up! And don't act like you're about to die! It's not like you! Even if there are billows of smoke, we can still see the sky! We can still see the ocean! IT AIN'T LIKE IT'S HELL HERE! Don't act like you're about to die! Don't make me worry so much damnit!

• • This is also done in a straighter manner from the Franky Family to Baskerville.
  • Also in an early arc, when Buggy the Clown ignores his fight with Luffy to pursue Nami, Luffy reminds him of who his opponent is by kicking him in the groin.
• Ginrai in Transformers Super God Masterforce says this so often it qualifies as a Catch Phrase. Grand Maximus also gets in on the action once in a while.
  • He also said the same phrase when he came to Star Saber's rescue in Transformers Victory.
• Arf of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha may not have used the exact words when she faced Zafira in the second season, but it had the same intent.

Arf: Our masters are going to fight one on one. We'll do the same.

• • While she is referring to Fate fighting Signum, she's incorrect; Zafila considers only the master of the Book of Darkness his master.
• Katekyo Hitman Reborn Usually it's Tsuna saying that
  • In his fight against Xanxus, when they are watching the Guardians do some action, Tsuna reminds Xanxus that he is the opponent.
  • When Uni is temporarily held hostage by the Funeral Wreaths, and... Gamma, Tazuru, and Nosaru come to save the day, but are about to lose... Tsuna comes in Hyper Dying Will Mode and with his incredibly cute and adorable Box weapon Nuts and says the near-same line.
• In Shakugan no Shana, this is a favourite phrase of the Ninja Maid, Wilhelmina, de arimasu~.
• in the beginning of Naruto: Shippuden, Akatsuki Sasori to Kankuro, to stop him from interfering with Deidara leaving with the unconcious Gaara. Sasori had to say it twice to make it take.
  • Also, Kakashi to one of Pain's bodies in order to save Iruka.
• In an episode of Transformers Armada, Starscream says this to Optimus Prime.
• Naoe Kanetsugu tries this line on Honda Tadakatsu in Sengoku Basara's anime adaptation. It works about as well as can be expected.
• Pretty much all the time in Saint Seiya, where the heroes' standard operating procedure is to run through the enemy's stronghold and face each one of his lieutenants individually. Typically, one or more of Athena's Saints will arrive at a new battleground, he'll be faced with the guardian du jour, and an ally will come along or stay behind to fight the guardian instead, letting the original Saint (mostly Seiya) continue on the mission. Sometimes with these exact words.
  • And parodied in Ranma ½ The Movie, Big Trouble In Nekonron, China, where Shampoo does this exact thing to save Ranma from the lute-wielding Monron, and indeed says that she's "[Monron's] only opponent now" while Ranma and Lychee escape. But then, the entire Seven Lucky Gods sequence was a parody of Saint Seiya's Sanctuary arc.
• As if Code Geass wasn't full of Wham Moments already, a once thought to be dead Nunnally shows up and declares herself enemy to Lelouch and Suzaku, who are in the middle of the Zero Requiem. Even better: she's a wheelchaired little girl with the remote control to an arsenal of nukes.
• This is spoken word-for-word by Alita in Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, when trying to redirect the attention of the attacking Giant Mecha from innocent bystanders to herself.
• Expect to hear this often in Ginga Densetsu Weed.
• "Great Mazinger will be your opponent!"

Film

• The phrase, if not the context, was used by the Klingon Captain Kruge to Kirk in Star Trek III the Search For Spock
• Liu Kang's challenge to Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat movie came off Shang Tsung's challenge to Johnny Cage, who had beaten Goro in the last major fight in the Earth Realm. "Do you accept, or yield?"
• "I'm Batman."
• The final battle of the Transformers film trilogy, starts with Optimus demanding the Big Bad come and duel him. Sort of subverted though in that said big bad proceeds to order the Decepticon troopers to fire at him a few seconds in, which causes Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Sideswipe to rush the big bad in turn, cause the battle to become rather chaotic.
• "The old man is mine!" Subverted, because Peter immediately gets distracted by his kids, leaving Rufio to fight Hook.

Literature

• Happens often in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In a particularly memorable battle, Zhang Fei issues one to Lu Bu.

Live Action Television

• Invoked by the Doctor in Victory of the Daleks, while beating a Dalek (feigning ignorance of him) with a giant wrench.

Doctor: You! Are! MY! Enemy! And I am YOURS!

Religion and Mythology

• Happens often in the epic of Mahabharata.

Video Game

• Odin Sphere. Cornelius is fond of this one, but it's also in his character.
• In one of Karin's prefight openings in Street Fighter Alpha 3, her gargantuan butler pounds his fists together as if he's about to fight and Karin is nowhere to be seen... until she tosses his serving platter at him from offscreen and he sheepishly lets her take center stage.
• This is Duke's introduction against a non-central character in The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact.

Duke: "The plan is that I am to be your opponent. And I promise you... heh, heh... you'll enjoy it. But... you will pay the price... with your blood."

• King's special introduction against fellow Muay Thai fighters Joe and Sagat in Capcom vs. SNK: "Aite ni naru wa." (I'll be your opponent)
• Happens a couple of times in the main storyline of Dissidia Final Fantasy, generally between characters that didn't feature in the same game, such as Warrior of Light fighting Sephiroth, Zidane versus Garland, or Ultimecia against Firion.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), after Amy stands infront of Sonic the Hedgehog against Silver, Silver takes a break before going after Sonic again. This trope comes into play when Silver catches and almost kills Sonic, only to be stopped by Shadow the Hedgehog, who takes on Silver while Sonic runs ahead.
• While not spoken, this occurs many times in Mass Effect 3, where Shepard will literally charge down a Reaper, on foot, causing the Reaper to immediately focus their main gun entirely on him/her. Then Shepard kills them.

Webcomics

• Used in Circumstances of the Revenant Braves by both Sol and Pyrus.
• Used here in Goblins.

Western Animation

• Done with a roar in Lion King, where the hyenas had chased Simba and Nala into a corner. Simba tried to challenge them with an ineffective roar, to which they laughed. The second roar was much more startling.
• Tygra from ThunderCats (2011) made it awwwwesome!

Tygra: You better be sure you want to do this. Because I've got his back.