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Magnificent Bastard/Anime and Manga

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One of the common gestures of a mastermind.

One of the common gestures of a mastermind.

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"Just As Planned."
—Light Yagami, upon getting his memories back
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"Don't you recall? The two of us used to play chess together as boys. Of course, I would always win."
—Lelouch Lamperouge
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See also:

  • Afro Samurai:
    • Justice is the former Number 2 headband-bearer and a man who wishes to use the Number 1 headband to change the world that he will rule as God himself. Challenging Afro's father years ago, Justice concealed his third arm so he might outwit and behead Afro's father, telling the traumatized boy to challenge him one day when he is ready. Converting the world as its new messiah in his philosophy of using "absolute power to bring absolute peace", Justice acts through proxies against Afro before attempting to trap him as well, declaring the nobility of his purpose before Afro cuts him down. Even in the end, this is not enough to stop Justice permanently, who appears with a mysterious new scheme at the end of Resurrection.
    • Resurrection: Lady Sio is the younger sister of Jinnosuke who concocts a plan to get revenge on Afro. Enraged by the maiming of her beloved brother and the mass deaths caused by Afro, Sio steals the Number 1 headband and arranges for Afro's father to be resurrected as a battle android, intending to make Afro suffer before being killed. Manipulating the whole cast and even the betrayal of her subordinates to her advantage, Sio succeeds in temporarily having her android kill Afro, her plan ultimately only failing when Jinnosuke regains his humanity and tries to fight to save Afro.
    • Manga: Ninja Ninja is the "Collective Will of the Universe" guiding Afro to take up the mantle of saviour of the world. Overseeing Afro's journey, Ninja Ninja ruthlessly tests his mettle against thousands of opponents before leading him to the lair of his hated foe Justice. Forcing Afro to confront the reality of Justice having died long before he could take his revenge for his father, Ninja Ninja uses his loss of purpose to force him to take up Justice's mantle bringing the planet peace and prosperity.
  • The main point of Iason Mink's character in Ai no Kusabi is that he is both magnificent...and a complete and utter bastard. Only his high status in society let's him get away with it. Iason's actions are not good and he has a cruel streak, but at the same time he certainly isn't evil and has a few positive personality traits as well. He's the epitome of beauty and well aware of it, and Riki keeps coming back for more because Iason is just that hot and incredible in bed.
  • From Akame ga Kill!:
    • Esdeath fits this trope nicely with her tactical brilliance, overwhelming shows of power and skill, and charismatic leadership that makes her an inspiring figure that many choose to follow and lay down their lives for, all of this in spite of her monstrous sadism, love of torture, and active part in creating corruption within the empire and ensuring that the series' Crapsack World stays that way. She cares little for others yet knows how to play to the emotions of those others so that they don't even realize it. In the anime's finale, even after losing the final battle to Akame, it's Esdeath who has the last laugh when she uses the last of her strength to take out not just herself but Tatsumi along with her so that they may be Together in Death, leaving Akame utterly powerless to stop it and devastated as a result.
    • There's also Seryu Ubiquitous, who developed a backup strategy during her fight with Mine and Sheele in case she was in a jam, ordering Coro to enter Berserker mode and try to crush the life out of Mine, which forced Sheele to come to her rescue only to get shot from behind by her by surprise. And that's not all; she even called for backup from the Imperial guards beforehand. She truly proved herself to be one step ahead of the good guys in that fight, and from her laugh as Coro munched on Sheele in the aftermath of the fight, you could just tell that she was enjoying said victory. She was even able to beat down Mine during her second showdown with her with her own hands in a series of punches when her other weaponry failed against her. In fact, had it not been for the damage done to her body, she definitely would've killed Mine that way.
    • Even the main characters aren't exempt from having one, given they're Anti-Heroes. Namely, Esdeath's more heroic counterpart, Najenda. She's the brilliant leader of the Night Raid assassination squad and former General of The Empire, who charmed her forces into leaving alongside her when she defected out of disgust at their corruption. Coldly demanding payment for assassination services from the land's desperate peasants, Najenda proves instrumental in guiding her team and gathering resources for the planned rebellion. Convincing many members of the nobility into joining her cause, Najenda acts as a decoy in a plan of her own design and succeeds in crushing the Empire's armies and overthrowing the vile regime.
  • Akudama Drive: In this Crapsack World filled with violent criminals, these two manage to survive through their brilliance and charm.
    • Swindler starts off a Nice Girl who becomes ruthless and cunning upon joining a team of Akudama. Swindler would help them rescue the immortal children, Brother and Sister, from Shinkansen and escort them to Kansai, before escaping with Sister after Doctor sells them out to the Executioners. Swindler would change her appearance and incite chaos within Kansai by spouting claims of leading an Akudama army to it easier for her and Sister to escape, unconcerned if her manipulations lead to wide scale panic, death and destruction. Swindler would resort to murder those who would harm her and Sister, including group of criminals and Cutthroat whom she lures to a trap and convinces Hoodlum to turn against Doctor resulting in their deaths. Arriving in Kanto, Swindler convinces Hacker to rescue the children before goading the Executions to kill her, using the program Hacker gave her to edit the footage of her death resulting in the people of Kansai to revolt against their society and allowing Courier to escape with the children.
    • Hacker is a brilliant, thrill-seeking Akudama wanted for hacking into countless government and private banks in Kansai. Hired to rescue the mass murderer, Cutthroat, from death row, he, alongside several others are tasked with stealing cargo from the highly secured Shinkansen, with Hacker using his skills to fend off any opposition and get them to their destination. Once there, Hacker parts with the group to leave for Kanto, having already figured out how to remove the bomb collar that kept him under control. Arriving in Kanto and learning of its true nature, Hacker uses his genius to retain free will where he then frees Swindler and Courier from its hold before helping them rescue Brother and Sister. Dying in the process Hacker accepts his death, content to have found his most fun challenge, and gives Swindler a program that would be used to broadcast Swindler's death to the public resulting in mass riots and an eventual blackout, while allowing Courier to escape with the children.
  • Yuri "Yurippe" Nakamura of Angel Beats! is the tough and hot-tempered yet efficient and charismatic leader of the SSS Afterlife Battlefront, a group of dead students in purgatory who are rebelling against God, whom Yurippe blames for the unfairness of her life. Fighting opposition from Kanade Tachibana, who the Battlefront knows as "Angel", Yurippe fully acknowledges how inept her subordinates are and thinks up plans to work around this in order to gain advantages over the student council, being able to fight Angel to a standstill while ensuring important followers and resources aren't claimed by Angel, lead a stealth operation to hack Angel's computer in her dorm room and uncover crucial information from it, and sabotage Angel's performance on an exam so that her grades lower and she loses her status. Ever Crazy Prepared, Yurippe also knows how to make good use of her lackeys through intimidating them with twisted penalties to pay for failure, keeping them in the dark about key details she knows until the time is right to make them aware, and using their own idiocy as convenient distractions in operations. When threats emerge and come after Battlefront, Yurippe uses her quick wit, decisiveness and skill with combative weapons to counter them, even breaking a shadow's illusion over her with a heartfelt World of Cardboard Speech. As perceptive and caring as she is ruthless, Yurippe earns and keeps the loyalty of her troops through her raw charisma and being a fair and inspirational leader in spite of her frequent cruelties towards them.
    • Demonstrated particularly well in the special episode "Stairway to Heaven", which has Yurippe concocting "Operation High Tension" - the plan being to have everyone in Battlefront (except her and Yusa) act with high tension for an entire day in order to confuse Angel as to why they're not passing on despite seemingly having maximum joy and personal fulfillment, so that she'd go report the error to God and Battlefront could then find out about God and possibly defeat Him. This ends up going so well that Yurippe even gets in a moment of Evil Gloating and a ridiculously hammy Evil Laugh, with Yusa even telling Yurippe that she sounds like a villain. Unfortunately, the mission's success doesn't get the result Yurippe had hoped for - Angel just gets reminded of her secret garden where she tends to plants and vegetables grown there. In frustration, Yurippe declares that the other Battlefront members pay the penalty game for failure anyway, which is to go an entire week without eating or drinking. This leads to a final scene where everyone but Yurippe is dead of starvation and thirst all while Yurippe just drinks a bottle of water and remarks "it's not like they're gonna really die" with clear amusement. Yusa has the episode's final line before she too dies - "you really do make the best villain, Yurippe." To top it off, the end credits sequence has all of Battlefront except for Yurippe vanish no sooner then it had started, leaving Yurippe as the only one standing. Another special episode, "Hell's Kitchen", has Yurippe making all her followers in Battlefront try to kill one another in a dangerous picnic, with the plan being to summon a demon due to all the death and treachery, which would force Angel and God's hands against it. As expected, she concealed her actual intentions behind the death game from the rest of Battlefront as she made all of them unknowingly dance to her tune.
  • In Ao No Fuuin, we have Takao. His entire actions throughout the story were either orchestrated or predicted by him. Takao is the one who cloned Rago, bringing about the heroine Soko. His role as the Genbu has him work to protect Soko and he uses her to resurrect the Oni tribe, the reason she was cloned for to begin with. Despite Soko refusing to willingly do so, he either forces her to do it or brainwashes her with his Mind Manipulation. And even when it looks like Soko finally got away from him and can be happy with Akira, Takao isn't concerned. He knows Soko is too responsible and will return to his side. And even when he's about to be killed, he makes sure his final words will stop her from abandoning the Oni tribe and take up her duty as their leader. This guy is good!
  • Appleseed franchise:
    • Book 3: The Scales of Prometheus: Artemis Alpeia is a feral bioroid who, despite her savage brutality, displays quick thinking skills and acrobatic agility. Escaping from Olympus and hiding in New York, where she ate humans and dogs to survive, Artemis escapes ESWAT once they capture her, and makes a daring getaway, even shooting Briareos in the eye to stall him. Found afterwards residing in a jungle on the outskirts of Olympus, Artemis installed traps everywhere to protect herself from ESWAT members out to get her, killing one of them herself with a poison arrow. Although apprehended by ESWAT, Artemis is allowed to live in Olympus thanks to her all-important coding, happily residing with Hitomi and even giving birth to triplets of her own.
    • 1988 OVA: Charon Mautholos is a cop haunted by the death of his wife Fleia. After witnessing Fleia commit suicide thanks to feeling confined within Olympus’s utopian grip, Charon is taken in by a group of bioroid interrogators and hooked up to a mind reading machine against his will. Feeling violated and enraged towards Olympus as a result, Charon partners with terrorist A.J. Sebastian to destroy the city in a genuine effort to ensure humanity's freedom. Using his position and good reputation within the force to allow Sebastian to get away with his crimes, when the plan requires Charon to kidnap the bioroid Hitomi in order to shut down the Gaia supercomputer, Charon does so effortlessly, even killing the cops trailing him in one fell swoop. Charon ultimately dies ensuring Hitomi properly makes it to the last computer terminal, using his final breath to trick her into deactivating Gaia and ensuring Olympus's destruction.
      • Anime movie duology:
        • 2004 film: The Council of Elders are a faction of seven old men running Olympus who take orders from the supercomputer Gaia. In truth, the Elders have deactivated Gaia to accomplish their plans of eradicating human sterilization so that humanity can die out for the greater good, and despite their life support being tied to Gaia, they're willing to die for the sake of their plan. Needing the Appleseed in order for bioroids to become the world’s dominate race, the Elders murder Dr. Gilliam Knute for hiding it from them, while manipulating her daughter Deunan into locating it. Seeking to spread the D-Tank sterilization virus, the Elders allow the city's racist army to commence their bioroid genocide campaign in order to anger Gaia enough to justify unleashing the virus. Once Prime Minister Athena shuts their plan down, the Elders activate the city’s mobile defense mechas to unleash the virus themselves.
        • Ex Machina (2007): Dr. Richard F. Kestner is a scientist who wants to wipe out free will and unify every mind under his control in order to create the perfect utopia. Previously a member of the Poseidon Halcon Laboratories who discovered the key to mind control, after his partner Professor Xander was killed by Poseidon to cease the project, an enraged Kestner would revive Xander as the main AI for the Halcon mainframe. Using nanomachines to take control of several Poseidon cyborgs into launching terrorist attacks as a way to destroy the company’s business, Kestner would instigate an attack at a peace summit in order to get every world leader to reroute their satellites over Olympus. Planting a virus in the satellite's backup system that would allow him to control it to his liking, Kestner implants nanomachines in an injured Briareos, using him to cause the satellite’s system to crash and swap with the backup system. Ultimately using the satellites to control everybody wearing a Connexus into starting a massive riot to cull out non-conformers, after Kestner explains his plan to Briareos, he commits suicide so that the incoming ESWAT will arrest Briareos again.
      • XIII:
        • Dhianeira "Deia" Cides, daughter of Poseidon's prime minister, is Hitomi's friend and a helpful bioroid researcher. In truth an anti-bioroid terrorist, Deia seeks the downfall of Olympus and Poseidon for killing her husband Alcides and her unborn child. Looking to sabotage the Ark Project by killing all ten chosen bioroid subjects for sharing the same DNA as Alcides, Deia succeeds in killing them all through either clever manipulation, tactical destruction, or by putting on a trustworthy demeanor. Deia later kidnaps Deunan and wires her heartrate to a bomb set to destroy Olympus, all as a way to see if her teammates value her as a person or an asset to be tossed away. Eventually realizing that she herself is being used by the Poseidon government after they crowned her Goodwill Ambassador, Deia is able to kill those manipulating her and eventually commit suicide to escape Poseidon's command, but not before seeing the error of her anti-bioroid ways.
        • "The Cretan Bull": Erinyes is a mysterious apparition who seeks revenge on those who destroyed her once peaceful village. Having been the first one used for a bio-weapon experiment by a cabal of corrupt politicians, Erinyes’s spirit would infect them with their own virus that turns them into blood thirsty zombies. Allowing everyone else in the facility to become infected, including her new friend Deunan, once Erinyes's revenge has been completed, she decides to commit suicide after finding herself stooping to her enemies' level, but not before parting Deunan with words of wisdom. Though the politicians are cured, Erinyes's actions spark interest in her daughter, Eumenides, to expose the politicians of their corruption.
  • The most impressive and villainous character in Ashita no Nadja happens to be a 13-year-old girl, Nadja's Forgotten Childhood Friend: Rosemary Applefield. Rosemary, believing Nadja was stealing the princess life Rosemary had always dreamed of away from her and casting her aside, becomes a willing participant in Hermann Preminger's schemes and proves herself a deceptive, manipulative, and ruthless schemer in her own right at only age 13. Pretending to be the long lost Nadja Preminger to the Duke and to Nadja's mother Colette, Rosemary charms everyone with her elegance, courtesy, and seeming innocence, which proves useful when implicating the real Nadja, the Black Rose, and even the Applefield orphanage in alleged crimes against her. When Nadja catches her in this act, Rosemary feigns being a victim of Hermann's cruel plot before shredding Nadja's most cherished dress right before her eyes. In a later meeting, Rosemary emotionally agitates Nadja to where it looks like she's assaulting Rosemary, which gets the police to go after Nadja. Nadja returns to prove her identity, but Rosemary is able to counter her claims with quick thinking and skillful manipulation of others in the room. After getting what she'd wanted but finding Victory Is Boring, Rosemary is quick to denounce her alliance with Hermann, who himself has come to fear her. And after all her devious trickery, she only gets a slap in the face before showing herself to be a Graceful Loser and imparting words of advice to Nadja as she leaves the manor of her own accord, receiving no punishment for her actions and even earning Nadja's respect. Karma Houdini, indeed.
    • Rather than pay her Karma Houdini Warranty, she becomes a double Karma Houdini in the sequel light novel, "The Journey Begins at Age 16", where she, through an actor serving as her proxy, scams the Dandelion Troupe out of much of their money in order to buy her way to America to start up a business there, with Nadja and the Troupe never even learning that she was behind the scam.
  • Assassination Classroom:
  • The fourth season Bakugan Big Bad Mag Mel. The guy managed to effortlessly trick the heroes into giving him the power to free himself from his prison before they even know he existed. He proves to be a Manipulative Bastard and Chessmaster so cunning that he's always several steps ahead of the group and even the one time thus far he's lost, he still got half of what he wanted and the Brawlers find out while they were fighting his forces on one of their ally's homeworlds, Mag Mel had utterly demolished Bakugan Interspace with another attack that cripples the transporters so no one can get out except his minions, who are free to get in and out at will. While he's not exactly charming, he realized this and made (literally) his Co-Dragons extremely charismatic and planted them in Bakugan Interspace to raise followers and generally cause chaos.
  • In Banana Fish, the former KGB Lieutenant Blanca becomes The Mentor to Ash Lynx, making him into a merciless fighter. Hired by Dino Golzine, Blanca attacks and easily subdues Ash for Dino. When Ash manages to escape from Golzine's clutches, it is Blanca who hunts him down for them, using his knowledge of the New York City sewer system. Realizing the depths of the depravity of Yut-Lung, his current employer, Blanca betrays him and allies with Ash out of a show of his own beliefs of honor and human compassion, proving his status as Ash's most Worthy Opponent in the series.
  • Black Butler:
    • Ciel Phantomhive is basically a Magnificent Bastard in training (if he's not already one); a Badass Adorable Deadpan Snarker Chessmaster who's arguably even more dangerous than his demonic Battle Butler. Unfolding a plot that begins with drugs being placed in his company's toys, Ciel ends up infiltrating a zealous cult, brutally punishing criminals all along the way. Discovering a mad angel using the chaos to bring about the end and "purification" of London, Ciel has his demonic butler Sebastian kill it, calmly offering Sebastian his soul with their contract fulfilled. When the second season reveals Sebastian was unable to consume his soul he and Ciel join forces to dismantle the plots of the broken yet cruel Lord Alois Trancy and his own traitorous demonic butler Claude Faustas, outplaying their enemies once again before charging off after their next challenge.
    • The demon going by "Sebastian Michaelis" remains Ciel's near-perfect servant. Battling through the forces of the first season's evil angel and seducing or otherwise overcoming its legions of followers, Sebastian maintains his trademark snark even under the angel's sadistic torture. Unleashing his true demonic form, Sebastian horrifies and devours the angel, saving all of London in the process. After failing to consume Ciel's soul the two work together once more, with Sebastian tricking and outplaying Alois's servants and faces down and bests the wicked demon Claude, earning his spot back as the demon to own Ciel's soul once more.
    • Lau is Ciel's scheming ally who, though occasionally coming to blows, helps the young noble in his quest for justice and provides key insights into stopping the Angel's plan. In the second season Lau remains untouchable for the villains, mocking their attempts to use a melody to zombify him with ear plugs and keeping his ever jovial tone in spite of being a brutal drug dealer and crime lord.
    • Hannah Annafellows was a brutal demon until she made a contract with the child Luka Macken after slaughtering his village. Promising to make him happy, Hannah helps turn Luka's brother Jim into the noble "Alois Trancy" after Luka's death and stays by Alois' side even through his horrific abuses. Manipulating the entire cast and slowly revealing her true powers, Hannah tricks Claude into fighting Sebastian after killing Alois, getting Claude himself killed for Hannah to die with him and the two demons to reunite with the brothers in the afterlife as a family.
  • Black Clover: Rhya the Disloyal is the most powerful of the Third Eye, the elite force of the Eye of the Midnight Sun. One of the victims of the genocide of the elves from centuries ago, Rhya was summoned back by the elf Patoli pretending to be their former leader Licht. The most affable and charming of the group, Rhya is also their chief infiltrator, utilizing his Imitation Magic to impersonate William Vangeance in the Clover Kingdom while Patoli is borrowing Vangeance's body. Helping to manipulate the human members of the group to their eventual sacrifice and the revival of the elves, Rhya shows his strategic skill in fighting by ensuring he copies powerful Grimoires to use at opportune moments. After the reveal of the demon Zagred, Rhya is among the first to leap to the side of the humans in an effort to save the world.
  • From Black Lagoon:
    • Balalaika. Ruthless, cool, very dignified ex-special forces commander, now the queen of the mafia. Her huge facial scars can't completely tarnish her incredible beauty, and her fighting skills and intelligence keep her on top of the crime control of Roanapur. When she heads to Japan on business, Balalaika casually manipulates a gang war simply to enjoy the excitement with no side ever coming close to even touching her. Earlier, when two of her beloved soldiers are killed by the assassin twins, Hansel and Gretel, Balalaika lures Hansel out to his death and delivers an utterly chilling Breaking Speech as Hansel bleeds to death. Frequently displaying a tactical brilliance, Balalaika shows again and again why she is one of the single most powerful and dangerous people in the world.
    • Series protagonist Rokuro "Rock" Okajima himself seems to be turning into a anti-heroic Magnificent Bastard as he becomes steadily more jaded. Proving his tactical acumen in the first few episodes by coming up with a genius plan to wipe out a pursuing anti-tank aircraft, Rock later shows his skilled manipulative side by becoming a flawless negotiator to the point that all the most powerful players in Roanpur genuinely like and respect him. During Roberta's rampage, it is Rock who manipulates Roberta and her master Garcia into a deadly confrontation to end the bloodshed, nearly getting both killed, but ending in Roberta recovering her sanity and leaving in peace. Rock continues to demonstrate his ability to use and manipulate others, even if for ostensibly desirable ends, as possibly the single most dangerous and skilled player of the criminal game in the darkness that is Roanpur.
    • Let's not forget Balalaika's biggest Rival and pretty much the only mafia leader in Roanapur who can constantly keep up with her: Mr. Chang from the Sun-Yee On Triad.
      • With the latest OVA series it is clear that Chang and Balalaika are equals. Balalaika might have her absolute lead in prowess and wit, but Chang makes it up with his great influence and far superior contacts, with CIA for example.
    • Eda, supposedly a flirty criminal nun from the so-called Church of Violence smuggling operation, is actually a skilled major player in her own right. A CIA agent who also completely dominates the Triad boss Mr. Chang, Eda is in effect the true secret ruler of Roanpur. On the field, Eda also freely manipulates the hapless Janet Bhai into a safehouse that will be invaded, with enough instructions to escape so Eda can extort her for protection, and later shows that she casually plays all sides in Roanpur while setting up an end to the insane battle maid Roberta's rampage.
    • Even Revy has had her moments in this trope's territory. Perhaps hanging around Rock and Eda a lot rubs off on her and makes this natural.
  • In Blade of the Immortal:
    • Anotsu Kagehisa desires a world where "the sword excuses all". Creating the Itto-Ryu, Anotsu begins to hunt down dojos to eliminate them in order to abolish the stifling sword styles from the world in favor of a world of pure determination. Cleverly eluding his pursuers via having prostitutes disguise themselves as him and lead his hunters into ambushes, Anotsu's utter tenacity sees him through other attempts on his life and rallying the itto-Ryu against the shogunate, culminating in a dynamic assault on Edo castle itself. Even to the end, Anotsu remains a complex figure, stopping at nothing to achieve his dreams despite all the wrongs he has committed on his path.
    • Habaki Kagimura, secret master of the Mugai-Ryu and the shinbangashira—a major figure in the Shogunate—forms the Mugai-Ryu to secretly destroy the Itto-Ryu before luring the organization's strongest members into a trap and destroying them. Capturing series Protagonist, the immortal man Manji, Habaki subjects him to experiments to perfect immortality for the sake of the Shogun. When ordered to commit seppuku, Habaki uses his time to try to destroy the Itto-Ryu, dealing a series of decisive blows before engaging Anotsu himself with surprising good humor and mutual respect, with his only regrets at the end being the loss of the two loves of his life and his dead children.
  • Alex MacGregor is The Rival of Victor "Bloody Rain" Freeman in Blaster Knuckle. Raised in the beast-slaying organization Silven Kreuz, Alex befriends Victor during his time in the organization. Becoming a feared and cunning Bounty Hunter while remaining part of Silven Kreuz, Alex enjoys hunting both beasts and human criminals. Joining a police hunt of Victor while knowing that he isn't a murderer, Alex befriends a young Bounty Hunter and tries to convince him to return to his old life and has a duel against Victor that ends in a harsh tie with both injured. Later, Alex manages to survive unscratched by the traps of the beasts in the town of White Rock Valley and kill his attackers. Enraged at the death of his friend, Alex joins forces with Victor to kill as many beasts as they can. Killing the beast leader personally by using his own power against him, Alex reminds the good times and allows Victor to go away, warning him about other members of Silven Kreuz and showing why he's both Victor's enemy and friend.
  • Blood-C has Fumito Nanahara, the secret Big Bad of the story who orchestrated the entire Truman Show Plot, keeping Saya Kisaragi brainwashed and under his control by posing as a Nice Guy cafe owner and giving her coffee and pastries that hazed her mind, wiping her memory and keeping her in her false persona whenever she wasn't in contact with the blood of Elder Bairns. Not only did he effortlessly control Saya, Tadayoshi, the Elder Bairns and all the cast members, but he also predicted Kanako's betrayal and had her killed along with her co-conspirators. In the show's last episode, he casually shoots Saya in the face when she's going in for the kill, managing to escape the set totally scot-free until The Movie, where even then his death at Saya's hands is dictated according to his desires.
  • Blue Blood Gear: Kujou is a mysterious engineer who takes the position left for Prince Kodo, creating powerful machines to be used in the genocidal war against the Red Blood People and rising in power and prestige despite his peasant origins. In truth, Kujou is actually a Purple Blood who suffered violent discrimination from both sides until he was adopted for the exiled engineer Instein, Kodo's biological father. Enjoying life as Instein's pupil, Kujou's innocence is shattered when Instein is murdered while trying to protect him from a mob. Concluding that humanity is doomed to constant war and hatred, Kujou decides that the only way to stop hatred is the extinction of humanity. Disguising himself for years, Kujou drops his cover when both sides are on negociations, and infects the King of the Blue Blood with a Mystical Plague (after mocking the King's bigotry) and starts spreading it across the world. When Kujou is defeated for Kodo, Kujou reveals that he put his main station on space, forcing Kodo's animal partner to sacrifice himself to save the world. In the epilogue, Kujou shows some regret for his atrocities in his jail cell, realizing that Kodo was Instein's real heir.
  • Brain Powerd:
    • Winston Gaybridge is initially presented as a Reasonable Authority Figure before revealing himself as the Governor of the Reclaimers. Intending to control Orphan and awaken it, potentially causing The End of the World as We Know It in an attempt to make humans value nature, Gaybridge dislikes his own actions yet is willing to accept the guilt for causing the destruction of mankind. After the United States of America invades Orphan, Gaybridge shows his distaste towards American imperialism yet uses the Americans for his own purposes. Painting the crew of the Novice Noah as terrorists, Gaybridge fires nuclear weapons against the ship—uncaring about the thousands of refugees caught in the crossfire and inside the Novice Noah itself, and when the Novice Noah teleports the nukes elsewhere, Gaybridge orders multiple nuclear strikes to frame the Novice Noah for it, turning them into enemies of the world. Polite to both allies and enemies, Gaybridge's defeat was a product of his lack of understanding of Orphan's unexpected human-like nature.
    • Baron Maximilian is a mysterious man who becomes Jonathan Glenn's Evil Mentor, giving him the Baronz, a special and powerful antibody that damages the mind of their pilot. Showing a clear fondness for Jonathan, the Baron ensures the best for him, joining the Reclaimers with the eventual intention of synchronizing Jonathan's mind with Orphan. Realizing a coup against Winston Gaybridge and taking control of the Reclaimers, the Baron supports Quincy Isamu after she synchronizes with Orphan,due to knowing that Jonathan supports her as well. Knowing about Jonathan's grudge against Yu Isamu, the Baron pilots the Baronz, intending to kill Yu for Jonathan's well being. Revealed as Anoha McCormick, formerly the captain of the Novice Noah and Jonathan's regretful negligent mother, Anoha is defeated, dying at the hands of her son. A mysterious, powerful and intimidating persona, Baron Maximillian is able to overcome the odds in order to bring happiness to her son,and while her apocalyptic plans failed due to the collective efforts of the Novice Noah, Anoha died fulfilling her true goal of reconciling with her son
  • Brynhildr in the Darkness: Chisato Ichijiku is the director of the experiments performed by a mysterious organization known as Vingulf and the man responsible for the events in the first half of the manga. Initially appears as an apathetic person in his teenage years, Chisato is heartbroken after his sister's death and tries his best to revive her, even joining Vingulf to do so, and participates in their unethical experiments. He even implants a parasite capable of annihilating the human race in one of Vingulf's subjects, "1107", in order to revive his sister. Despite his seemingly failed attempts at bringing subject 1107 to Vingulf's higher ups, he manages to do so after persuading a Valkyria class witch, Mako Fujisaki, to capture the escaped test subject and raids the hero's hideout along with her. Encountering the soul of his sister in the final moments of 1107 after she got ejected, Chisato finally regains his humanity and spends his last moments protecting Mako from harm.
  • Isley, the Silver King in Claymore, was the first of the Creatures of the Abyss, the first Number 1 of the first and only male generation of Claymores. Upon meeting the powerful Priscilla and learning her power, Isley submits to her, intending on manipulating her to bring the world under his control. Bringing about a war in the North with his former comrades now as Awakened Beings, Isley splits his forces in half to sacrifice them against another Abyssal One and the Claymore Organization while he heads South to defeat the third Abyssal One and take her lands. Bonding with The Heroine Clare's former companion Raki, Isley truly grows to love him and Priscilla as family and even sends them away when the monstrous Abyssal Feeders come for him to save their lives. Even post-mortem, we learn Isley only ever Awakened to begin with voluntarily to stop his former comrades and instilled Raki with a plan to help stop Priscilla if she became a monster, a plan that Raki manages to pull off thanks to his teachings.
  • In the radioactive wasteland of Tokyo and its surroundings in Coppelion, Ibara Naruse faced some truly brilliant adversaries:
    • Doctor Coppelius, initially named Matasaburo Itami, was called to create the Coppelion after the nuclear outbreak that destroyed Tokyo. Using the alias Doctor Coppelius, he created Haruto Kurosawa by cloning himself and tried to revive his deceased daughter by cloning her. Exiled by the Three Professors, Coppelius kept himself hidden and managed to contact with some flawed Coppelion in Tokyo, promising them to fix their flaws if they help him. Stealing Aether that allows him to survive in radioactive areas and improving it before escaping to Tokyo to reunite with his allies, Coppelius captures the Ultimate Coppelion and analyzes her DNA to bargain it. Eventually captured for his creations and put in a jail, he writes a formula to turn Coppelion into regular humans to save them from a genetic flaw before escaping. Finding a clone of his own daughter as a member of the Lost Retrieval Unit, Coppelius liberates them to kill the Professors. Rediscovering his faith in humanity, Coppelius tries to stop his own apocalyptic plan, and as he dies, Coppelius gives his last Aether to Haruto to save Ibara. An eccentric old man proud of his creations, Coppelius dies as he lived, with a silly smile.
    • Ougai Masamune is the Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs. Initially helping the Coppelion program, Ougai is actually a nationalist intending to turn Japan into a world power. Side-stepping the Copellion and the Tokyo survivors, Ougai manipulates the First Minister and the jingoistic members of the E9 council into intervening in a foreign war with the intention of making them use nuclear power again after showing the radiation-resistant Coppelion. Intending to sell them to ensure the Japanese supremacy in a nuclear powered world, Ougai threatens the survivors of Tokyo and sends the Three Professors to capture the Ultimate Coppelion desired by the entire world. After the world is threatened by a new nuclear meltdown, Ougai eventually acknowledges his own mistakes and tries to atone for them, helping the Coppelion to save the world and helping to create a new law for a more responsible use of nuclear power. Abandoning his self-interested partners, Ougai creates a new magisterium, puts his former enemy Mishiba in charge of it and helps a depowered Ibara to reunite with her friends for a while, showing that despite everything, Ougai truly loved his country and wished for a better future.
    • JSDF Commander Kunikawa is the leader of the First Division, soldiers abandoned by their own government—including his politician best friend who would become the Japanese First Minister—in the toxic ruins of Tokyo. Developing a hatred towards mankind, Kunikawa manages to survive for years, planning his revenge. Working with the violent Ozu sisters, Kunikawa tries to cause a new nuclear meltdown in the Daiba nuclear plant, endangering Japan and even the world. He kidnaps a Coppelion for his plans and despite being captured, he manages to escape anyway, fooling even Teen Genius Haruto Kurosawa. Intending to succeed, Kunikawa is only stopped due to the combined efforts of the survivors of the Planet base and the heroic Coppelion. Having an honest talk with Haruto, who was almost as misanthropic as he is, about the actions of Ibara Naruse, Kunikawa recovers his faith in mankind, giving his own life to save both the survivors and his remaining soldiers, while giving his cape—accidentally causing the future redemption of the First Minister at seeing it—to Haruto to show his faith towards him before dying, smiling at having recovered his own humanity.
  • Cowboy Bebop gives us these examples:
    • Vicious is Spike Spiegel's former friend and partner in the Red Dragon Syndicate, who grew to despise personal relationships after the latter betrayed him by having an affair with Vicious' girlfriend Julia. After Spike and Julia fled the syndicate, Vicious grew dissatisfied with the management of its leadership, the council known as the Van, later killing his own mentor to prevent what he saw as a disadvantageous peace offering with another syndicate. Securing leadership of the Red Dragon during what was intended to be his own execution, Vicious manages to outplay the Van, bringing many of their followers to his side and personally cutting down the Van members to assume command himself. Forcing Spike into an open confrontation with himself in command of the Red Dragon, Vicious dies facing his rival, never straying from his twisted though genuine personal code.
    • In the episode "Bohemian Rhapsody", Chessmaster Hex was once a brilliant technological prodigy who designed the system behind the Astral Gates. Hex foresaw the dangers inherent in his system—a flaw that would later result in a cataclysm that cost over three billion human lives—only to be fired by the Gate Corporation. Hex concocted a revenge scheme to expose the Gate Corporation's corruption by exploiting the flaws in his own system to deposit countless amounts of the Gate Corporation's own funds into the hands of random bystanders. Hex's scheme is so meticulously plotted out it unfolds without a hitch fifty years after he had set it up, long after Hex has regressed into a senile old man who idles his days away playing chess. Completely untouchable in the end, Hex peacefully dies of old age with a final "checkmate," his vendetta long forgotten yet accomplished nonetheless.
    • Fad, Jet Black's former partner, is a veteran police officer who Jet had trusted time and time again with his life from Jet's time as the formidable "Black Dog" of the space police force. In truth a Dirty Cop, Fad lured Jet into a trap years ago with the criminal hitman Udai Taxim and shot him, causing the loss of Jet's arm. In the present, Fad manages to lure Jet back in and send him against Udai again, killing Udai himself when Jet has him cornered before tricking Jet into shooting him so he may atone for his betrayal, requesting only a final cigarette from his old partner at the end.
    • Vincent Volaju in The Movie is a Super Soldier who, due to horrible trauma and experiments performed upon him, has come to believe he is trapped in a nightmare, and seeks to escape to the "real world". Vincent conscripts others to his side through bribery and manipulation alike, never hesitating to eliminate those same allies if they endanger his plans. A very well-spoken man who often muses about the nature of Purgatory and life itself while pulling off terrorist attacks that throw Mars into a panic, Vincent's brain is matched with his brawn, as he is one of the few characters in the franchise capable of taking down Spike Spiegel. His plan to unleash a virus and wipe out all life on Mars nearly succeeding, Vincent nonetheless offers survival to a chosen few he believes have true willpower, and, even when laying dying when his plans are foiled, he accepts his death and spares the life of his former lover Electra Ovilo, earning the respect and sympathy of Spike himself in the process.
  • Cutie Honey (2004):
    • Seiji Hayami, a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily News, is actually an American NSA agent tasked by a mysterious client to detain Honey Kisaragi and acquire her Ai-System. Using his journalist disguise as way to secretly take photos of Honey and Panther Claw for his client, while attaining extensive knowledge of them, Seiji befriends Honey and Inspector Natsuko Aki in order to get more information on the both of them. Miraculously sneaking his way inside the Jill Tower, Seiji uses the anti-nanomachine serum meant for Honey to instead release the thousands of captive women used for Sister Jill’s fuel source. Assisting Natsuko and Honey in the defeat of Sister Jill, Seiji afterwards invites the two to join him in his new investigation service.
      • In Re: Cutie Honey, Seiji gets Honey and Inspector Natsuko Aki involved in his plot to stop Panther Claw. Keeping his true motives a secret from the two just to toy with them, Seiji isn’t afraid to coldly kill Honey after she goes haywire, while still congratulating Natsuko for saving her. Doing what he can to assist Honey and Natsuko, while willing to risk his and their lives for the sake of stopping Jill, Seiji ends the story both a hero and an ally in Honey and Natsuko’s new crime fighting business. Able to plan his moves several steps ahead of everybody, or at least create safety precautions in case of an emergency, Seiji proves himself a crafty intellect who never loses his playful charm even when caught in tough situations.
    • Butler is Sister Jill’s loyal servant who seeks to bring her true happiness. Having Honey's Uncle Uzuki effortlessly captured by Panther Claw, Butler gives Jill the idea to bring her Honey in order to obtain her Ai-System and use it to increase her lifespan. After Cobalt Claw fails to acquire Honey's device, Butler sends Honey and company an invitation to the Jill Tower, while making a deal with Natsuko to act as his hostage in return for letting Uzuki go, and then getting Honey to give herself up to Jill in return for Natsuko’s safety. After Honey reverts Jill back to a seed by giving her the gift of love, Butler thanks Honey for granting his mistress the gift of happiness, allowing her to leave while staying behind in the collapsing tower by his beloved Jill's side.
  • D Gray Man: Even though very little is known about him, the more we learn about NEA D Campbell, the more he appears as this. His desire to achieve his ambition, that is to kill the Millennium Earl and take his place is so fierce that he orchestrated a plan that involved his own death at the end of the earl to be reincarnated decades later with absolutely no guarantee that everything would to just as planned. He is charismatic enough to rally humans to his cause when he himself is a human hater and wishes to kill them all. He has also shown to be very manipulative, impersonating others to reach his ends.
  • In Dance in the Vampire Bund, Alphonse Medici de Borgiani is the Bund's master of intelligence who, for the sake of the Bund, will have a child kidnapped and bitten to blackmail the boy's politician grandfather. Constantly putting pressure on the hero Akira to better himself and become a strong companion for Princess Mina, Alphonse later orchestrates the betrayal and takeover of Mina's evil Doppleganger, before repenting and making plans to have Mina return to the throne via a series of clever contingencies. Finally, Alphonse allows himself to be destroyed and leaves a recording blaming himself for all of the Fake Mina's crimes so none of it will reflect upon the true Mina, protecting her, as Akira says, all the way to the end.
  • Dances With The Dragons: Cardinal Moldeen Ogus Gyunei is the mastermind behind the series events, seeking to unite the Alshok Territory with the Seven-Cities Alliance and prevent the catastrophic Holy War from occurring. Arranging for the assassination of his own decoy, Moldeen uses this to expose and then kill the traitor in his organization. Hiring two assassins to use as bait to lure out a defector, Moldeen is also revealed to be responsible for the failure of the first treaty, which he did to create favorable conditions for Alshok. Admitting to be willing to deceive, betray, spill blood and even support oppressive regimes in the name of his end goal, Moldeen will stop at nothing to create a world where future generations can live in happiness.
  • The elusive, mysterious Amber of Darker than Black betrayed MI-6 to work for The Syndicate, eventually leading the deadliest squad of Contractors in Heaven's War. Realizing the Syndicate's true intentions and using her powers to see and rewind the future countless times, Amber manipulated the Syndicate and her own side to seal off Heaven's Gate, which caused a massive disaster that rendered most of South America uninhabitable. Returning in modern day Japan, Amber orchestrates a series of bombings while kidnapping the scientist behind the Saturn Ring project, manipulating her former lover Hei and the world's intelligence agencies to place Hei close to Hell's Gate so he can seal it as well and prevent the Saturn Ring project from killing all the world's Contractors. After settling things with Hei, Amber sacrifices herself to rewind time and give him a chance to choose a third option, later revealing she had foreseen that possibility and left guidance in the new world Hei had made.
  • Date A Live:
    • Kurumi Tokisaki was once a normal, human girl. After being turned into a Spirit and lied to by the First Spirit after killing her best friend, Kurumi resolved to undo the First Spirit's existence no matter what it took. Introduced as a mysteriously charming transfer student, Kurumi stays one step ahead of Shido Itsuka and Ratatoskr, ultimately engineering a Sadistic Choice where either a spacequake destroys the city or her "City of Devouring Time" consumes Shido's entire school. After being saved from an Efreet by Shido, her next appearance sees her help Shido against Miku and DEM while trying to uncover Nia's location. Helping Origami go back in time to stop her parents' murder, Kurumi learns the horrible truth and uses her time powers to help Shido correct the mistake, including convincing her past self to offer aid. Against the overwhelming might of Mio Takamiya and Isaac Westcott, Kurumi put a clone back in time as a contingency to impart critical knowledge to Shido in case she's killed and steals back Nia's Qlipha Crystal from Westcott to even the odds. Brimming with self-confidence to match her enigmatic nature, Kurumi was both a deadly enemy and a pivotal ally.
    • Sir Isaac Ray Peram Westcott is seen developing a gambit to throw Tohka Yatogami over the edge of the Despair Event Horizon and invoke her Inverse Form that he's been trying to harness after thinking up several ways to get her to do so, including Cold-Blooded Torture. He subtly manipulates everyone to get what he wants. First, trying to murder Shido just to evaluate Inverse Form Tohka's power. Then, when Roger Murdoch and a few other DEM executives conspire to remove him by all means necessary, he indirectly forces Shido and the Spirits into foiling the assassination plan, given they had to prevent said plan from causing any harm to the city. Ironically, Westcott is also a Complete Monster who was meant to be so despicable that people would despise him with all their hearts, but hate or love him, it's impossible to deny that Westcott is one of the most brilliant villains to ever grace the series and the Light Novel genre in general. Rather than come off as some flat psychopath from beginning to end like most villains in these types of stories are, Westcott gradually reveals himself to a seductive, charming, charismatic Diabolical Mastermind and a well-composed man who never loses his posture, even in the worst situations of life and death. Westcott is absolutely a heartless monster to be rooted against, but while his inhuman acts push him into Hate Sink territory, Westcott repays it with a likable, seductive and badass persona.
  • Death Note:
    • Light Yagami of employs Memory Gambits, Batman Gambits and Gambit Roulettes left, right and centre while eating potato chips and wielding his pen like a sword to Ominous Latin Chanting. For a while he even manages to get most of the world on his side, whether it be as Serial Killer Kira, or as the facade of an investigator on the police task force looking to bring Kira down. Though as his Sanity Slippage sets in and his arrogance grows, he enters Smug Snake territory until he ends up losing all control in an epic Villainous Breakdown and ultimately dies a lonely, pathetic death.
    • L Lawliet is the world's best detective and the Arch Enemy and only intellectual equal of Light. Introducing himself by tricking Light into revealing his location by sacrificing a death row inmate, L goes on to pursue Light with unfettered ruthlessness. With only mundane resources at his disposal, L manages to constantly evade Light's supernaturally-backed attempts to kill him and becomes ever-closer to exposing Light for his crimes. Even when Light deliberately loses his memories of his work as a Serial Killer, L continues to close in on his enemy and is only finally killed when Light convinces a Shinigami to take out L by giving its own life. Having left a fail-safe to inform his successors of his passing, L's posthumous machination leaves Near and Mello the field to finally take down Light, leaving his rival to scream and plead for his life before his own death, during which he sees a vision of L standing before him as the truly triumphant party in their feud.
    • In the Special Chapter taking place after the events of the series proper, Minoru Tanaka is the second human chosen by Ryuk to own the Death Note. With the notebook, he crafts a scheme to take advantage of the Death Note without actually using it. By having Ryuk send out messages on live broadcasts, Tanaka auctions the Death Note to the highest bidder, opening it up for abuse and spreading panic around the world. After getting the governments of America and China involved, Tanaka pits the two against each other in a bidding war before selling the Death Note to America for a quadrillion yen. To ensure that he can't be traced by law enforcement through the transaction, he has the U.S government split the money across the bank accounts of countless Japanese citizen's, causing an economic boom in the country. Hiding his identity all the way through, Tanaka proved himself to be a more than worthy successor as Kira.
  • Detective Conan: In "The Moonlight Sonata Murders", Seiji Asoh, the son of Keiji Asoh, is the true identity of Doctor Narumi Asai and the culprit behind the murders on Tsukikage Island. Seeking to avenge the deaths of the Asoh family Seiji begins murdering those responsible, playing a recording of the Moonlight Sonata as a funeral piece for each of them. Seiji drowns Hideo Kawashima so the Japanese Police will have to examine the body on the mainland, leaving him as the only doctor on the island. Seiji then kills Tatsuji Kuroiwa, using the recording of the Sonata and his medical knowledge to create an alibi for himself. Seiji then murders Ken Nishimoto, making his death look like a suicide and writing a note saying that he's the real murderer. When his crimes are discovered, Seiji calmly either burns himself to death along with his father's beloved piano or plays said piano until he dies of asphixation due to the smoke, spending his last moments thanking Conan for his kindness... after having saved the boy from dying with him, trearfully saying that Conan still can live while he's too bloodstained to do so.
  • Ryo Asuka of Devilman, in truth the fallen angel Satan, is the one who connives to have Akira Fudo become Devilman by tricking him into being possessed by the demon Amon. Upon regaining his memories as Satan, Ryo exposes the existence of demons and sets the world into a full-blown panic to make humanity turn on itself while he sweeps in with his demons to eliminate them, eventually facing and killing Akira himself to his great sorrow. Even after God resets the world, forcing Ryo to relive losing Akira over and over, Ryo shows hints of subtly altering things to eventually change the fate forced on him, showing why he is both Akira's greatest friend and deadliest enemy.
  • The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Kusuke Saiki is Kusuo's inhumanly brilliant older brother. Obsessed with standing out from his godlike sibling, Kusuke invents a device to block Kusuo's telepathy, nearly catching him in a complex game of tag and even masochistically enjoying his defeat when beaten. Loving his brother enough to invent a time machine in an attempt to bring him back in a reality where Kusuo dies, Kusuke still takes any chance to test his powers, threatening to reveal his powers lest Kusuo complete his psychic ability tests.
  • Kokujo, of Duel Masters, uses his phenomenal skills in psychological warfare to completely destroy the hero in their first duel. The dub furthers his status by having him shamelessly call himself "an evil genius."
  • Durarara!!
    • Izaya Orihara, an information broker and one of the most dangerous men in Ikebukuro wanting to declare his "love" for humans by manipulating them for his own amusement. Introducing Masaomi Kida to his follower Saki Mikajima she would have Saki form a romantic relationship with Masaomi while Izaya instigates a gang war between Masaomi’s gang, The Yellow Scarves, and The Blue Square, leaving Masaomi vulnerable, endangering Saki, and dismantling both gangs in the process. Also a member of The Dollars, Izaya has recruited thousands into the Dollars before turning them against their leader by reveal to them his identity, Mikado Ryuugamine, allowing them to reek havoc throughout Ikebukuro. After being stabbed by "Jinnai Yodogiri", Izaya would allow himself to be capture, tricking his captors into revealing information on "Jinnai Yodogiri" before sending his newly formed group to defeat them afterwards. Also holding immense animosity for Shizuo Heiwajima for not being able to manipulate him, Izaya has provoke Shizuo constantly, cost him his job, frames him for murder, manipulates a girl to kill Shizuo, and tries to kill Shizuo himself. When Shizuo manages to beat Izaya, he attempt to goad Shizuo to kill him, content that the masses witnessing Shizuo will then view him as a monster.
    • Kasane Kujiragi is a Dhampyr who uses the name "Jinnai Yodogiri" to orchestrate the events of 2x. After Izaya Orihara ignores her warning to not interfere with her plans she has him stabbed and later interrogated for information, before allowing him to continue manipulating people to keep them distracted from her own scheming. Also a wielder of Saika, Kasane would hand over Saika to Shingen Kishitani having him spread Saika throughout Ikebukuro creating more Saika wielders and expand Saika influence to almost everyone in Ikebukuro giving Kasane complete control over masses minds and the city. She would also posses Shingen’s son Shinra to make Shinra’s Love Interest Celty Sturluson more vulnerable allowing Kasane to defeat her and give Celty her head to put her under Kasane’s control. Kasane would later save her half-niece, Ruri Hijiribe, from her stalker while taking full blame for the crimes Ruri committed as the Hollywood Serial Killer, so that Ruri can continue living a normal life.
  • Gaku Yashiro is the psychopathic mastermind in ERASED who brings excitement into his everyday life by murdering children and expertly framing innocents for the crimes. His genius extending all the way to childhood, where he effortlessly murdered his abusive older brother and made it look like a suicide, he carries his depraved intelligence into adulthood, where he spends years perfecting the art of charming and manipulating others, especially his preferred targets. Be it noticing signs of abuse or taking advantage of their innate naivety, he always gets his target, and in a notable instance, murdered one of his male students who resembled a girl, knowing it would eliminate him from suspicion as a killer who solely targeted females. Despite Satoru's time travel abilities, Yashiro one-ups and outwits him at every turn, never even knowing of the man's powers, just being so naturally adaptable that nothing slows him down. Yashiro is a truly terrifying killer, having not only the smarts and charms to kill whoever he wants with ease, but also the fast-thinking to ensure that he's never caught, no matter what opposition arises.
  • Proxy One in Ergo Proxy, who is even referenced to be "the winner at the end of the world" (with good reason). Not only is he the master manipulator of nearly everything that happens in the course of the series, but he wins.
  • Knight Templar Lieutenant Colonel Dewey Novak of Eureka Seven, a military commander and aspiring dictator who knows all there is to know about charisma, sophistication, power, influence, and exploitation. And genocide, too. A defining moment for him is when he tells his younger brother Holland that he knows how the masses who consume the various media outlets on which he's made his speeches think - they aren't interested in hearing the truth: if convenient lies resonate emotionally with them and tell them what they want to hear, they'll buy into them. That's why he feels justified in bending the truth or lying to suit his sinister purposes. And even when he appears defeated, he pulls off a My Death Is Just the Beginning suicide that almost ensures his goal's completion.
  • Hiruma, the team captain and quarterback for the Devil Bats, of Eyeshield 21. Scarily enough, he's also the Team Dad.
  • Fairy Tail has these three wizards:
    • Future Rogue. The guy manipulated the entire Fiore Royal Family into using an Artifact of Doom powered by Zeref's magic and Celestial Spirit Magic by telling them it would save their country from a swarm of dragons coming to destroy them. In reality, using the Artifact of Doom was what caused the dragons to appear, and he promptly used a Compelling Voice spell to force the dragons into becoming his submission, as part of a ploy to kill Acnologia and take his place as the Dragon King. The dragons he summons proceed to curb-stomp the very mages whose magic is designed to kill them, while Future Rogue wipes the floor with Natsu. The only reason his plan didn't succeed was due to The Power of Friendship causing one of his dragons to rebel against him.
    • Zeref the Dark Mage is known as the most evil wizard of all time. In truth, a tormented genius cursed with everlasting life after he tries to resurrect his beloved younger brother, Zeref plotted to send the future Dragon Slayers into the future to one day combat the evil dragon Acnologia. Upon surrendering to darkness, Zeref clandestinely founded the Alvarez empire as Emperor Spriggan and used them to wage war on Fairy Tail, seizing the ultimate magic Fairy Heart for himself, intending on using it to wipe out the current timeline and go back to correct all his mistakes in the hopes of forging a better world.
    • Ultear Milkovich is a manipulative, backstabbing, deeply angry sorceress who uses other wizards to further her Master, Hades', plans to bring back the aforementioned Zeref. Even after her Heel Face Turn, Ultear continues to show her ruthless nature, even trying to kill the heroic Rogue to prevent him from becoming a villain in the future and her honor by giving her youth to cast a spell to turn back time and save the heroes from death. Later returning as a magical projection, Ultear helps save Fiore from the Alvarez Empire's sorceress Dimaria.
  • Shirou Kotomine of the Fate/Apocrypha series is a Church minister presiding over the Red Faction and is the Master of Assassin Semiramis. In reality, he is Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, Ruler Servant summoned in a prior Grail War. Noble and benevolent, his methods are ruthless and cunning. Seeking humanity's redemption out of pure love for mankind, Kotomine bid his time, gathered items as catalysts to summon a Servant in the Middle East, and waited Yggdemillenia of the Black Faction to show themselves. Midway during the next Grail War, Kotomine launched an ambitious attack that sees him singlehandedly take over the Servants of the Red Faction, reclaim the lost Greater Grail, and out-gambit his enemy Darnic. He intends to invade Greater Grail's innards to access True Magic to begin humanity's salvation. Ever calm and collected, it is only when he is minutes close to achieving his dangerously alluring dream that Kotomine rants to Seig not to ruin humanity's salvation.
  • Tian of Feng Shen Jr., once known as Hei Long, wiped out the ancient gods when they betrayed him and nearly murdered his beloved wife. Recreating the world, humanity and gods, Tian has humanity enslaved so he may have blood crystals harvested in order to revive Bai Long. Upon Bai Long's imperfect revival, Tian tries to end hostilities via his sheer power, before being betrayed by the evil Shen Yen. Seemingly accepting his death, Tian fakes it and is revealed to have been manipulating everyone so he may judge their worth for himself, honoring his vow to spare humanity when hero Ah Gou proves himself to Tian in combat.
  • In Fist of the North Star, Raoh himself, Kenshiro's eldest brother disciple in Hokuto Shinken styles himself as Ken-Oh The Conqueror. In a series of brilliant and ruthless campaigns, Raoh carves out his own empire in the wasteland while defeating any martial artists who challenge him and sending them to the prison Cassandra while stealing their scrolls for his own usage and advancement. While sometimes at the disadvantage thanks to Kenshiro or rival forces, Raoh is infamous for pushing back to be stronger than ever through sheer force of will and tenacity. Possessing a strong form of honor, Raoh does not hesitate to execute any in his army who terrorize or violate his citizens and when he faces the warrior Fudoh, Raoh orders his own men to kill him should he take a step back, a request he is furious they ignore. When he finally faces Kenshiro and loses, Raoh embraces his brother with true affection and uses the last of his energy to purge the radioactive toxins from the atmosphere, declaring proudly that he lived his life without regrets as he dies standing proud.
  • In Flame of Recca, Kurei Mori, The Dragon to Kouran Mori is the string puller behind the events of the first 50+ chapters. Kidnapping Recca's "princess", Yanagi, Kurei baits Recca to his castle. Defeating Recca and the heroes' Team Hokage, Kurei forces them to participate in the lethal combat arena, Ura Butou Satsujin, where the wealthy gamble on the fights—including Kurei's adoptive father, the aforementioned Kouran. After witnessing the abilities of Team Hokage, Kurei prepares powerful fighters to challenge them and even uses the heroes to take down the traitorous Genjuro, along with his minions. Having removed all other opposition, Kurei challenges Recca to one-on-one combat and after being defeated, honors his promise not to attack Recca or his friends. Helping the heroes kill Kouran after he betrays Kurei, Kurei proved himself to plan one step ahead of everyone else and always remained a Noble Demon at heart, despite his brutal tendencies.
  • Fruits Basket, for a Shoujo series without fighting scenes, manages to have one of these... and it's one of the Cursed Zodiacs. Namely, Shigure Sohma aka the Dog of the Sohma Clan. Ever since pre-teenagehood, Shigure has had two Goals in Life: to break off the Hereditary Curse that had caused the Clan so much misfortune through centuries, and to be the husband of Akito Sohma alias the woman (raised as a man by force) who was this genereration's God of the Zodiac. And to pursue these two objectives and get them, the person was inmensely manipulative and more than a bit ruthless, even to people he loved and cared for...
  • A ton of characters in Future Diary take shots at exemplifying this trope:
    • Among the biggest one of all turns out to be Mur-Mur, seemingly the humorous minion of Deus Ex Machina, but schemes behind her master's back to continue the survival games for eternity to amuse herself. Convincing Yuno Gasai to travel to the 2nd World and take that Yuno's place so she can still be with Yukiteru Amano, Mur-Mur would also take her own 2nd world counterpart's place so she can manipulate the people in that world; She tells Keigo Kurusu that he can cure his son's illness if he wins causing him to turn against Yuki, and lies to Yuki that he can resurrect his dead parents if he becomes god. Mur-Mur also takes direct manners to those that interfere with her plans such as erasing all of Akise's actions in Paradox, abandoning Yuki in the 2nd world before traveling to the 3rd world with Yuno, and brutalizing Minene Uryu when she fights her; she would have won if Yuno had not killed herself out love for Yuki, leading Mur-Mur to unite Yuno's 3rd world counterpart with Yuki.
    • 4th (Keigo Kurusu), 9th (Minene Uryu), and 11th (John Balks) all try their hands at this and while they have varying degrees of success, there are two much younger players in the survival game that outdo them: Aru Akise and Yuno Gasai herself.
  • The Count from Gankutsuou- holy shit. Perhaps even more so than he was in the original story. Once an innocent man sentenced unjustly, Edmond Dantes returns as the ruthless, charming Count of Monte Cristo to destroy his enemies. Rescuing the son of his former best friend Fernand and his fiancee Mercedes, the young Albert Morcerf, it is later revealed the Count set up the kidnapping to begin with to gain Albert's trust. Manipulating his old enemies into trusting him with investments that ruin them, the Count also reveals he rescued a young alien girl named Haydee so she could expose Fernand as a traitor and the murderer of her father. Edmond also introduces one enemy, Villefort's, mentally unstable wife to poison so she will commit murders and further disgrace her husband while later having his ally, the bandit Andrea, reveal he is Villefort's illegitimate son to ruin him further. Finally, the Count plans to harden his own heart and kill Albert to destroy Fernand, not satisfied until he has given Fernand the same unending despair Fernand once gave him, before finally letting go of his hatred thanks to the love of Albert, ending his life with a final plea to remember that his name was Edmond Dantes. A charming, sophisticated manipulator, none around him ever saw the Count coming until he struck.
  • Master assassin Duke Togo, better known as Golgo 13, spends most of his stories coming up with a complex gambit to fool his target and get him in a position to take his shot. A master sniper, Togo has been active decades with incredibly few failures and a sterling reputation as a professional. In one instance, he tricked a CIA traitor into leading him to her boss while wearing a red coat against the snowy background to snipe them both in one shot. In another, knowing a mobster was faster on the draw than him, Golgo fooled him into being occupied with his dominant arm holding on to a woman so Golgo could outdraw him. Throughout every story, what characterizes Golgo 13 is cold charisma and unreadable expression, always having a plan to take out his target, no matter who it is.
  • Grimms Notes (2019 anime): Curly is a member of the religious cult known as Church of Fortrem and also a member of the Rogue Storytellers known as Chaos Tellers. Believing that people in their own Story Zones have accursed fates that were given to them from the Book of Fate, Curly teams up with another Chaos Teller, Loki, to manipulate the people in their Story Zones who had a horrible fate in their books by turning them into a Chaos Teller, which resulted in the Story Zone getting distorted and several innocent citizens turning into creatures known as "Villains". Eventually, Curly's plans culminate as she attempts to destroy all of the Story Zones and recreate them in their own image along with Loki in order to liberate people from their accursed fates as a last resort. Despite her beliefs being refuted by the heroes, she remains affable towards them, making her one of the most compelling enemies the heroes have faced.
  • Guilty Crown: Gai Tsutsugami is the mysterious and charming young man who leads La Résistance organization, Funeral Parlor, to rebel against the evil organization known as GHQ. To this end, he uses several extreme measures such as releasing a convinced bomber to destroy a Kill Sat, stopping a person who sold an illegal drug, saving innocent civilians from danger and attempting to negotiate with one of the most influential persons in Japan for support. After sacrificing himself in order to prevent the spread of the Apocalypse Virus and its embodiment, Mana Ouma, and gets revived by the GHQ for the second time to become the new Adam for Mana, Gai decides to play as a much more evil counterpart to Shu Ouma, such as working together with GHQ, severing Shu's arm, stealing his Void Genome weapon and butchering Shu's classmates, and attempts to instigate another Apocalypse Virus on a global scale so that Shu could kill both Gai and Mana in order to free the latter from her role as the harbinger of the Apocalypse Virus.
  • In Happy Sugar Life, Satou Matsuzaka is a high schooler who, after becoming enamored with the young Shio Kobe, would go to any length to protect her "happy sugar life" with her. While presenting herself as friendly in public, Satou is in truth a skilled manipulator who blackmails others into doing her dirty work under the threat of ruining their livelihoods. When Shio's brother Asahi comes into the equation, Satou ropes a despondent Taiyo Mitsuboshi into her scheme to lure Asahi into another district by exploiting his psychological trauma. After reluctantly killing her best friend Shouko Hida, Satou adjusts her scheme yet again by deciding to pass off Shouko's corpse as her own and tasking her aunt with burning the upper level of the apartment to cover her tracks. Satou realized as she was falling to her death the real meaning of love and selflessly shields Shio with her body, dying in her place. Even after she's dead and Shio is seemingly free of her, Satou still has the last laugh, as Shio firmly rejects Asahi's last offer to come live with him and their mother as a family again, reasoning that all the happiness in life that she'll ever need is in the love for Satou she still has inside her heart.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • Ryoko Asakura has some qualifications down. Not only is she intelligent, but her charismatic and cheerful personality makes it so easy for one to lower their guard around her. She had Kyon and the audience fooled twice. Even though we should know better by the second time, she has us fooled anyway.
    • Haruhi Suzumiya herself displays tendencies of this on occasion, particularly in the manga adaptation. She's at least got the ruthless, bold and charismatic part down.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler:
    • The first is a character who straddles the line between this and Guile Hero. Miki Hanabishi is known for her plots to make trouble for Hinagiku, in fact it's clearly stated in her profile that she enjoys it, but generally seems to be using such tactics to push Hina to the forefront of the competition for Hayate's affection. While at the same time pursuing Hinagiku with her own romantic interest.
    • A possible example is Mikado Sanzennin, Nagi's grandfather. A pretty much fearless Tsundere like Nagi is terrified of him, and with good reason.
  • In Howl's Moving Castle, Madame Suliman is a court wizard and the eccentric wizard Howl's former mentor. Knowing of Howl's cowardly and self-destructive path, Suliman utilizes a war to ensure he comes to her castle to speak to her, using her magic to turn the evil Witch of the Waste to her true age and immediately ending her threat. Upon meeting Sophie, Suliman effortlessly deduces that she and Howl are in love, before showing that she had already prepared for Howl's arrival and nearly trapping him then and there. When Howl escapes, Suliman launches a pursuit upon him. Even after Sophie and Howl's near escape, Suliman continues to put plans into action to catch the two, hoping to turn Howl back to a good path. Coercing Sophie's mother into delivering a Peeping Bug to the house, Suliman sends her minions after the group. When Sophie saves Howl and he changes his ways, Suliman decides to end the war, content that Howl's learned his lesson
  • In Jackals, Lee Mei Lang is so skilled and awesome in her villainy that you can't help but root for the total bitch she is.Even better, the reason she took over Tennouren to begin with was to destroy every gang in the city including her own. All in order to essentially gain an ARMY. To wit, she and her spider-whip henchgirl are the only people to walk away from the gang wars completely unscathed.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Satoru Gojo is the mentor of Jujutsu High's students and the strongest sorcerer of the modern era. Beginning as an arrogant Genius Bruiser who escapes certain doom by teaching himself how to heal the human body on the brink of death and kills his would-be assassin, Gojo evolves into the teacher of the present day who plots, schemes, and cheats his way to victory time and again, making cold and ruthless decisions while using a combination of overwhelming force and vicious brilliance to defeat Jujutsu Society's enemies while planning to reform the system from its corruption. Humiliating every foe he faces prior to Shibuya and killing the Forest Curse Hanami by deceiving him through his sense of honor, Gojo's sheer strength and intellect force the wicked Kenjaku to imprison him. Emerging as confident and smart as ever, Gojo kills the corrupt Jujutsu Society officials he's come to despise and sets up a final battle with the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna, nearly winning. Despite his loss, Gojo lays out a number of plans to secure his students' victory against Sukuna even after his death, as well as taking care of his affairs before dying, perishing without regret, knowing that his students will carry on his legacy.
  • Koko Hekmatyar of Jormungand is a brilliant young Arms Dealer who runs her organization with ruthless efficiency. Constantly making advantageous illegal deals and dictating the course of conflicts, Koko adopts the young former child soldier Jonah as a way to keep herself shackled to her humanity, frequently taking on those who attempt to undermine or kill her while leading them to their own demises in breathtakingly impressive fashion. Koko is revealed to despise the arms trade despite her skill with it, and puts Project Jormungand into play: a plan to use a satellite system to seal the skies from humanity, destroying all aircrafts in the sky at once to force world peace, believing herself to be the one to create a true peace for the world, even successfully pushing Jonah into agreeing with the plan at the end, declaring her personal soldiers will be the final soldiers left.
  • Kakegurui:
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn: The Inheritance Ceremony Arc Big Bad, Daemon Spade, held the belief that no matter what position people had in life, highly capable people should become the backbone of society, as power is necessary to control peace. Determined to make Vongola the strongest organization, he opted to act behind the scenes, arranging a complex chains of events by carefully deceiving or controlling all involved and waiting until he ensured that his plan had succeeded before taking action himself. He never contemplates surrender but finds no shame in retreat, for in his experience, one only advances in the mafia by saving their own skin rather than gamble with their life and the possibility of a meaningless death. While twisted, Daemon truly believed that only through the guidance of a single mob family at its strongest could peace be maintained.
  • From Kill la Kill:
    • Sōichirō Kiryuin is the brilliant father of Ryuko and husband of Ragyo, whose schemes to upend the latter's evil fall into place throughout the series. Originally an ally to Ragyo, Sōichirō betrayed his wife when she callously experimented on their daughters, Sōichirō convincing young Satsuki to rebel against her mother at an older age while he personally spirited infant Ryuko away to safety. Faking his death and expertly disguising himself as "Isshin Matoi", Sōichirō developed the Rending Scissors and the Kamui Senketsu, tricking Nui Harime into overlooking their potential when she assassinated him and leaving both for Ryuko to find and utilize. Long after his death, Sōichirō's intentions for Ryuko, Senketsu and the Scissors come to pass, as Nudist Beach—founded by Sōichirō himself—leads an insurrection against Ragyo alongside Ryuko and Satsuki, taking down Ragyo and the Life Fibers exactly as Sōichirō intended.
    • Satsuki Kiruyin herself takes advantage of Ryuko Matoi's arrival at Honouji Academy, using Ryuko's battles with her Absurdly Powerful Student Council to make the final adjustments to her Goku Uniforms to stage a full scale invasion of Japan, while also purging the system of any dissenters for good measure. Ryuko herself points it out!
    • Nui Harime, the Grand Couturier of REVOCS and Ragyo Kiryuin's most powerful agent, also gets this status by simple virtue of being a Magnificent Troll. In the back half of the series, she causes all sorts of mischief by turning Ryuko into a rampaging monster, playing a key role in her Mind Rape and brainwashing, and even after an attempt to force Ryuko and her allies to massacre each other fails, Nui willingly and gleefully merges her very essence with the Original Life Fiber in order to combine with Ragyo as the Final Boss.
  • Evilutionary Biologist Reiichi Shidoh of Killing Bites organizes the underground "Killing Bites" fights between the Half-Human Hybrid Therianthropes. Utterly unscrupulous, Shidoh uses shady tactics: tampering with the rules of the ring and manipulating the Zaibatu's conglomerates to allow for his experiments on Therianthropes. Betraying and arranging the murder of Mitsukado Zaibatsu's chairman, Yozan Mitsukado, Shidoh sets it up to look like an accident; then ordering his Therianthropes follower to murder her own investor to eliminate the witness to his crime. In spite of his unfettered nature, Shidoh truly believed his experiments on Therianthropes would fix the struggling Japanese economy and genuinely cares for Hitomi, even risking his own life to save her when he found her as a child.
  • Kindaichi Case Files: The Gentleman Thief is really a cunning woman and Master of Disguise with a penchant for stealing precious items and leaving notes to her next targets. Disguising herself as a young journalist, Diago Maki, the Thief targets Gamou Gouzou's residence to steal his painting, "My Beloved Daughter". Although almost outwitted by Kindaichi, the Thief disguises herself as and old woman and ties him to a basket of heavy rocks, leaving him stranded in the middle of a busy street. Later appearances show the Thief uses the same ploy to trick Kindaichi and get away with her stolen goods, saying she hopes to meet her challenging rival again.
  • King of Wolves: Yoshitsune Minamoto was a famed general who faked his death and alongside his battle brother Benkei fled Japan to eventually arrive in Mongolia. Becoming the titular "King of Wolves", Genghis Khan himself, with his desire to leave a legacy, the Khan conquers his way across all Asia with daring and brilliant strategies. When he realizes the time traveling warrior Iba is Japanese as well and a master warrior, the Khan makes him one of his greatest generals while allowing him to carry his beloved Kyoko. When they have a son, Genghis Khan orders Benkei to murder Iba so he may claim the boy as an heir. Even when bested by Iba, the Khan opts to kill himself honorably and be reunited with his own wife and child, having arranged it so Iba is forced to take up the identity of Genghis Khan and steer history down its proper path.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!:
    • Customer Service is the smooth-talking salesman of Nightmare Enterprises. The main man King Dedede turns to whenever he needs a Monster to clobber that there Kirby, Customer routines making a dupe out of Dedede while making as much profit as he can out of his crooked deals. Customer Service also excels in collecting debt from the greedy King, whether it be using a "ghost" to scare him out of his cash, to rigging his super-successful Waddle Dee vending machines to pay off NME instead. Not only the company's most successful salesman but The Dragon to Nightmare himself, Customer Service tricks Dedede one last time in the finale into revealing the location of the heroes before dispatching The Heavy Lobster to dispose of them, bidding farewell to Dedede with the remark he's been fond of "double-dealing" with him to the end.
    • "A Spice Odyssey": Monsieur Goan is a tiny but devilishly cunning Supreme Chef who wins all of Cappy Town to his side through his brilliant cooking. Actually a Monster from NME, Goan uses his rival Chef Kowalski's spicy recipes to his advantage, brewing up a soothing cold sorbet he's spiced with a chemical that makes anyone who eats it want to eat Kirby. Goan ends up rallying the entire town in the end in an attempt to devour Kirby himself.
    • "Ninja Binge": Yamikage is a powerful ninja warrior who once successfully betrayed the Star Warriors and one-upped Meta Knight himself. Summoned in the present by King Dedede, Yamikage showcases honor and skills alike as he tuckers out and takes down the young warrior Benikage while proving himself unable to be surprised even by a stealth Meta Knight. After putting Kirby through a harsh fight, Yamikage vanishes with a smoke bomb, escaping into the nearby forest and swearing to one day return for revenge on the hero.
    • "A Novel Approach": The Broom King disguises himself as Pappy Pottey author Rowlin to turn King Dedede's castle into a "magic school" and lure the entire populace of Dream Land to the school as students, using their obsession with Pappy Pottey to turn them into his puppets. After fooling the whole town with his Rowlin guise, the Broom King uses a harmless sport to enact a brainwashing curse that turns the whole town against Kirby, nearly destroying the pink hero. Even when exposed, the Broom King uses a variety of cleaning utensils to fight Kirby and nearly defeat him in combat.
  • Kyo Kara Maoh
    • Saralegui. In one move, he made sure that Yuuri's crew all trusted him and wiped out Large Shimaron's army by by having his own servant shoot him in the chest with an arrow, making it appear as if the arrow was aimed for Yuuri and that he had thrown himself in the way to protect Yuuri, causing Yuuri to go into Maoh mode and destroy all of Saralegui's enemies for him. He then followed that up by hypnotizing Yuuri into wiping out Large Shimaron's navy for him. Remarkably, he still managed to finish up the series with Yuuri trusting him completely until the very end.
    • Murata also was pretty sneaky, carrying out a 4000 year plan with Shinou in order to destroy the Originators by trapping them inside Shinou, and in turn trapping Shinou inside Yuuri to get Yuuri to destroy them both. He isn't the Great Wise Man for nothing.
  • Lone Wolf and Cub: Both the protagonist and antagonist are viciously efficient operators:
    • Series Anti-Hero Ogami Itto is a stoic, charismatic warrior unjustly framed by the Yagyu clan. On the run with his three year old son Daigoro, Itto constantly showcases his strategic genius in his assassinations. In one instance, he allows himself to be captured by the enemy to get close to a target, revealing that the warning they received was written by him. In another, he uses Daigoro drowning as bait to trick a target's bodyguard into trying to save him so Itto can kill him. Itto singlehandedly brings down the powerful Yagyu clan on his own, showing why he is a man who walks the road of demons, the Path of Meifumado.
    • Series Big Bad Yagyu Retsudo is a charismatic old man with the soul of a samurai that contrasts with the hard ruthlessness of an assassin. After the Yagyu lose the post of Shogun executioner to Itto, Retsudo uses a seemingly innocuous sparring match to trick Itto into knocking his staff into a man who could pose a threat to him, leading to the man's death. Later framing Itto for treason, Retsudo is revealed to be manipulating the entire Shogunate from the shadows and even when exposed for this, manages to connive his way back to power, having his rival, the poisoner Abe no Kaii, eliminated by setting a fire on a date that will force Kaii to commit seppuku. Retsudo then uses a legion of ninja to face Itto, having them focus on breaking Itto's infamous sword, so he has the advantage for their final battle. A ruthless genius, Retsudo continuously shows why he is Itto's greatest enemy.
  • Dr. Grace O'Connor from Macross Frontier is slowly revealed to be a shining example of this trope. For most of the first half of the series, we are only given very subtle hints at her role in the grand scheme of things. Even the first time we actually see her working towards her goals, it's with a disguise so well done that fans were arguing if it even was her. Even the choice voice actor playing the role was seemingly meant to mislead. It's only around halfway when she singlehandedly sets up the destruction of an the planet Gallia IV where here her ward, Sheryl is scheduled to perform, in the hopes of killing the latter, as a means to win public support for the oncoming war with the Vajra at the same time destroying the only major piece of evidence that would link her to everything. It's also revealed at this point that she's a Cyborg with the ability to transplant her consciousness over multiple bodies. Which is why it was okay for her to personally detonate the bomb that took out the planet. Later on we learn that she was the one behind Sheryl's rise to fame, giving her the V-Type infection that had the capability of summoning the Vajra to attack whenever she sang, as revenge to the latter's grandmother who was her former professor. The act of having Sheryl die on Gallia IV was simply due to her not living up to Grace's expectations as well as Grace discovering, Ranka Lee, the daughter of another of her former colleagues who had better potential than Sheryl as well as making her revenge even sweeter. All the while she had put Ranka's long lost brother Brera under her control via neural implants and was using him to control her. Even when Ranka rebels and glees from her duties, it's because Grace allowed it and was using her brother to manipulate her into finding the Vajra homeworld and her target, the Vajra Queen. And the reason for all this, so that she could hijack the Vajra Queen once she had learned how Ranka was able to communicate with them, and use the Vajra to take out any opposing fleets. Once this was done, she'd used the Vajra's fold communication network as a way to implement a galaxy wide neural network with her at the top controlling everyone. And all this was simply a way at getting back at her old mentor and colleague who were pretty much against the idea of such a network, for obvious reasons. And she had already succeeded somewhat by having the entire Macross Galaxy fleet under her control. Sure there were the other voices that she consulted with, but in the end, it was clear that it was her that was in control.
  • Made in Abyss: Bondrewd the Novel, Sovereign of Dawn and one of the legendary White Whistles, is also one of the most brilliant and ruthless among them. To research the Abyss and its Curse, Bondrewd experiments on orphan children while sacrificing his own humanity to create his White Whistle and creating complicated ways to navigate throughout the Abyss through his technology with no physically adverse effects to himself. Even in spite of his objectively monstrous actions, Bondrewd still sincerely loves and cares for the children under his care and takes pains to remember their identities even as he sacrifices them for his experiments, taking one of them as his own daughter and raising her to become genuinely well-adjusted and innocent. Though undoubtedly an amoral Humanoid Abomination dedicated above all else to scientific triumph regardless of the cost, Bondrewd still demonstrates he understands love and family in his own warped terms and operates with perpetual affability and style, comfortable to abandon even his own ambitions to see those with brighter aspiration succeed where he couldn't.
  • Sinbad, king of Sindria and leader of the Seven Seas Alliance from Magi Labyrinth of Magic is a heroic, charismatic ruler who wages war against the evil organization Al-Thamen. Unknown to most, Sinbad is halfway fallen into depravity and all his seeming benevolence is a front with alternative motives, cultivating allies and pawns alike to use against Al-Thamen, even using mind controlled sleeper agents in other nations to spy through and seize control of them at advantageous moments. Later taking over the world, Sinbad seeks to rewrite reality itself to make a perfect world, even plotting to return everything to raw energy and recreate it the right way. At the end, upon realizing his crimes, Sinbad opts to stand with Alibaba and Aladdin to save the world from the depraved King David, showing himself, whether the hero or villain, to be the best at what he sets his mind out to.
  • From Mawaru Penguindrum
    • Early in the series, Masako Natsume is heading towards this. Her method of erasing people's memories is a little... odd, but the rest of her actions are very efective. Kidnapping a boy to blackmail his brother and friend/prospect girlfriend? Not good. Kidnapping a boy to get the attention of his brother, staging a whole chase so said brother will remember her from his past, and then letting the kidnapped guy go... but not before giving his rescuer a Forceful Kiss, which was her intention all along? Fucking awesome.
    • Sanetoshi Watase has inklings of this too. In his quest to regain contact with his lost "soulmate", he has managed to stylishly appear to Himari in a dream, give her a new Penguin Hat, and almost get away with giving her a kiss. Later he brings Himari Back from the Dead with a mysterious serum, managing to rope her protector/brother/possible love interest Kanba into a Deal with the Devil to keep her alive. And later it's revealed that some time ago he actually forced Masako into the same Deal with the Devil so she could keep her young brother Mario alive as well. Thus, he has almost completely outgambitted both Kanba and Masako to different degrees, all while looking fabulous in that coat and pink hair of his, and specially in now hospital-confined Himari's eyes. Hmmmm!
  • Perhaps the most impressive and villainous character in Mon Colle Knights happens to be Redda, the Big Bad and final villain. He has a deviously cruel sense of chessmastery and mastery of manipulation, is Bishounen in appearance (especially behind that scary mask of his), and shows a nice Xanatos Gambit starting with the part where he uses Rockna as bait to lure Mondo and all his monster friends to him, forcing him to give up all of his collected Monster Items so far and handing over to him a fake Rockna that was actually a rat in disguise. Then he summons Dread Dragon and traps Rockna within its neck, and tells Mondo that he can either destroy it and Rockna with it, or get killed himself while trying to save her without harming Dread Dragon, and orders Dread Dragon to create a wormhole that sucks up all of Mondo's monster friends. And, even when Gabriolis shows up and helps him save her so the two can fuse with him to destroy Dread Dragon, this still provides enough of a distraction so Redda can get the last Monster Item, and he succeeds in collecting it so he can finally summon Oroboros to destroy everything and create in their place a world made of nothingness, which was his ultimate goal all along. And if that's not enough, since Oroboros needs a new body in order to be resurrected, Redda revives Dread Dragon and fuses Oroboros with it to create Doomsday Dragon. Another perfect example of a villain that happens to be both this and a Complete Monster, so much that even the Laughably Evil Terrible Trio of Villains Out Shopping fear him.
  • Johan Liebert - the Monster. He manipulates everyone he encounters as they were puppets on a string and then disposes of them without a second thought, subverts every Pet the Dog moment he's given in chilling ways, and never loses that Dissonant Serenity permanently affixed to his face. The problem is, the straight treatment the series gives his activities also makes him freaking scary to behold. A perfect example of a character who manages to be both this trope and a Complete Monster.
  • The Villain Protagonist of Moriarty the Patriot, William James Moriarty, is the ever notorious criminal mastermind behind The Lord of Crime terrorizing the British Empire. Even before he turned his hand to murder, he planned thefts in exchange for money, baked goods, any good turn someone could pass onto him, and cornered a noble in a court of law to threaten a man's life until William was promised all his worldly possessions, only to donate the money entirely to charity. As an adult, he is set on turning all of London into a stage for his great play to reveal the horrors rotting the aristocracy to show the abusive ruling class who the true devils in London are. He consults with those looking to plan a murder of their own if only it's interesting enough, serves his purposes, and they're willing to offer him their life in payment. He even charms The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes into his pawn, stringing him along like a puppet, all to save the country from its own corruption, and he won't be caught until his Failure Gambit comes to fruition and seals his victory.
  • Michio Yuki from MW. He kidnaps his victims in order to extract money from the corrupt politicians who covered up the titular chemical warfare that took away his conscience. He even impersonates the women he killed as part of his plan.
  • In The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Juan Carlos Mendoza is the eventual guardian of young hero Esteban, having saved him as a baby from the seas. Realizing Esteban's connection to the Cities of Gold, Mendoza makes himself a mentor figure to the boy and his companions, manipulating them to lead him to the gold and make himself rich. Growing to care for the kids, Mendoza also constantly outwits the forces of the Conquistadors and even the Olmecs, at one point flooding a village to save it from the evil Malinche's poisoning. Seemingly betraying the heroes to join the Conquistadors at the end, Mendoza in fact goes behind their backs to deliver Spanish weapons to the Inca and give them a fighting chance.
  • Although she is one of the good guys, Haruna Saotome herself is this in regards to pactios, or anything involving magic. Ships everyone with Negi, DRAGS Negi to Comiket, and makes plans to conquer the entire Magic World.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Pictured above: Gendo Ikari is the commander of the NERV organization. Born Gendo Rokubungi and falling in love with his future wife Yui Ikari in college, Gendō used her connections to the secret SEELE organization, learning the truth about the world and how mankind, born of the Fruit of Knowledge, are destined to battle the Angels, born of the Fruit of Life. Learning of SEELE's Human Instrumentality Project, Gendō seeks to retool it for his own ends and live out Yui's dream of merging all of humanity's minds before releasing them to their bodies to give them an enlightened perspective on life. Growing distant from his son Shinji after Yui's tragic death, Gendō calls him to Tokyo-3 to pilot an Evangelion to do battle with the Angels and creates an entire class full of potential Evangelion candidates as backups. Keeping himself indispensable to the ruling council of SEELE, Gendō performs flawlessly in his job defeating the Angels, at one point even personally overseeing their manual launch when NERV's power supply is cut. A man of endless contingencies, when the government tries to render the Evangelions defunct with their own robot, Gendō sabotages the demonstration and when Shinji refuses to fight an Angel that has taken over the Evangelion his friend was piloting, Gendō uses a remote control system to override him. Coming within mere moments of completing his goal, Gendō is only stopped by the betrayal of an eldritch being aiding him and still dies calmly, quietly apologizing to his son and showing his true affection for the boy.
    • Mari Illustrious Makinami, also introduced in Rebuild of Evangelion, is a confident, flirtatious Evangelion pilot. Introduced tricking NERV into allowing her to pilot the experimental Unit-05, Mari manages to use the flawed prototype's self-destruct mechanism to destroy an Angel. Casually ready to accept death during Near-Third Impact, when she survives Mari joins WILLE to help stop Gendo Ikari and NERV, fighting brutally but effectively to reclaim land "purified" with L Contamination for humanity to live on once again. Confronting her old mentor and having her true name "Mary/Maria (of) Iscariot" revealed, she sacrifices her combined Evangelion to allow hero Shinji Ikari a chance to reset and right the world.
  • Altena from Noir plays the Mama Bear role for the young saplings. However, she intentionally manipulates both the Sodats and the three saplings (Kirika, Chloe and Mireille), in order to achieve her master plan—which is to recreate the bloody history of the Sodats. She's completely dedicated and willing to die for her goal. And in the end, she does.
  • Odd Taxi: Shigeru Kuroda is a Yakuza lieutenant who oversees most of the illegal activities within Tokyo. Using criminals Dobu and Yano as his primary enforcers, Kuroda leisurely spends most of his time giving them orders while Kuroda avoids getting his own hands dirty to dispel police suspicion. He also donates millions of yen to a charity organization funding orphans to look good in the public eye; one of these orphans would grow up to repay Kuroda by becoming a Dirty Cop on his payroll, while another repaid Kuroda with 100 million yen for supporting him in his childhood. After Kuroda finds out that his boss's missing daughter was murdered and Yano helped dispose of the body, Kuroda decides to safely retire from his life of crime while his loyal subordinates take the fall for most of the crimes he ordered.
  • A good few characters from Ouran High School Host Club:
    • Everything Kyouya did had a purpose that would benefit him in the long run (with one or two notable exceptions). He even used the Host Club profit to buy out his father's company unbeknownst to his dad, who thought of him as a loser because of the Club itself. Character Development later turns him into a Guile Hero.
    • Benibara and the Zuka Club are also contenders, having seen right through Haruhi's masquerade and also matching the Host Club in style, charisma, and persuasiveness. Tamaki and the twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, get their moments as this too.
  • Pandora Hearts
    • Vincent Nightray and Xerxes Break fit this title well; both each appear to have the upper hand on the other at points, and it's unclear who is actually the master manipulator between them.
    • Glen Baskerville, real name Oswald, is the mysterious leader of the Baskerville family. Having ordered the slaughter of the population of Sablier to spare them the horrifying fate within the Abyss centuries in the past, Glen returns in the present time by taking over the body of his reincarnation and assumes direct leadership over the Baskerville clan once again. Able to force skilled schemers like Rufus Barma and even fellow Magnificent Bastard Jack Vessalius to the limits of their wits, Glen ultimately almost attains his goal of altering the timeline by killing his own sister to prevent the events of the series from occurring, only stopping when he realizes his own hypocrisies and hollowness of his goals hidden behind good intentions.
    • The aforementioned Jack Vessalius is the true mastermind behind the events of the work. The illegitimate son of a noble, Jack fled from his home, living on the streets until he met a girl from the Baskerville family. Wanting to meet her again, Jack uses his noble family's name to be able to see her. When the Baskerville girl was sacrificed to the Abyss, Jack obsesses over seeing her again, deciding to throw the whole world into the corrupted Abyss to bring it to her. Causing the catastrophic Tragedy of Sablier, Jack blames the Baskerville and Nightray families while painting himself as the hero, going on to seek a chance to recreate it. Manipulating Oz's entire life to fulfill what Jack believes is the wish of his beloved, he is an ultimately Tragic Villain, even finally redeeming himself after accepting the errors of his own acts.
  • Lady Eboshi of Princess Mononoke is the ruler of Irontown and a woman with a backbone of steel. Forging a mining community with nothing but her own will and strength, Eboshi made it a refuge for lepers, outcasts and the downtrodden, even buying the freedom of many women from brothels and giving them a new home, training them to work and fight. Coming into conflict with the gods of the forest and local warlords, Eboshi leads her people to fend them off and fight back, even luring out the Great Forest Spirit to destroy it, in hopes of reducing the forest animals to just normal beasts, claiming her trick to killing a god is to not fear it. Even after losing an arm to the bite of the decapitated wolf goddess Moro, Eboshi merely grins and reminds herself that a wolf's head still has a bite. Easily one of the most morally complex and strong-willed antagonists in a Miyazaki film.
  • Silvia von Phoenix, the ultimate Big Bad of Princess Resurrection is described by her youngest sister Sherwood as a "natural born swindler". Hellbent on winning the Royal battle, Silvia plays her own siblings endlessly, having spent her sister Hime's childhood toying with and testing her for fun and to strengthen her. Using her brilliance to stay a step ahead of her siblings and eliminating her strongest brother Emile by making him her enslaved Blood Warrior, Silvia defeats and absorbs their eldest brother Fuhito to gain his power before attempting to defeat Hime and claim victory for herself, with one Bad Future having her utterly victorious.
  • The Promised Neverland:
    • "Mama" Isabella was once a child raised in the Farm system, chosen to become the Farm matriarch to raise other children to be fed to the demons. Upon realizing that some of her charges have learned the truth, Isabella requests a helper in Sister Krone, before constantly outplaying the children and foiling their plans. Setting up Krone to take the fall and eliminating her when she proves too ambitious, Isabella initially defeats the kids, but manages to secure the life of Norman by giving him to a secret group. Gracefully acknowledging her later defeat, Isabella is put in charge of all other Mamas and eventually inspires them to rebel against the Farm system, overcoming and defeating their oppressors to seize the future.
    • Archduke Leuvis is a demon who lives for the thrill of combat. Latching on to Emma as his worthy adversary, Leuvis shows himself to be fully willing to offer up his own weaknesses and to arm his opponents to equal the playing field and once his comrades are dead, engages Emma and her friends with a shockingly display of combat instinct and battle tactics, completely seeing through everything Emma's team does while countering until he is finally cornered. Even upon dealing Emma a seemingly fatal wound, Leuvis is courteous and respectful to her, thinking how much he loves humans for their ingenuity, unlike his fellow demons who consider them lesser beings and only fit for food. A demon of shocking charm and charisma, Leuvis proves why he is the most deadly adversary yet encountered by Emma and her friends.
  • Shogo Makishima from the first season of Psycho Pass is Wicked Cultured and highly knowledgeable in literature, music, theater and ass-kicking (he at first seems like a Non-Action Big Bad, but turns out to be a Blood Knight who is simply bored of most fights because almost no one is good enough to land a hit on him). He desires to bring down the Sibyl System that controls the futuristic Dystopia he lives in, at any cost. He also enjoys getting people to submit to their worst impulses and then disposes of them once they've lost his interest. Despite being villainous for that last part, he does care for people in his own twisted way....he believes the Sibyl System has regressed humanity by suppressing humanity's darker instincts along with their freedom of expression and ability to make their own choices. Makishima is also a master of Xanatos Speed Chess, the Indy Ploy, making allusions to classic literature (especially Dystopian literature) and making "The Reason You Suck" Speech to anyone, double to underlings who do not provide him with any fun. To top that off, he is an Übermensch who is literally unable to be judged by the slave morality of his world (the Sibyl System), similar to how Nietzsche himself described the Übermensch. He also becomes a Hero Killer as well, murdering Akane's best friend Yuki in front of her as "punishment" for her not being able to outdo him and later forcing Team Dad Masaoka to sacrifice his life to save his son Ginoza's own, both in that the protagonists take extra caution when dealing with him and the literal sense. He can only be stopped by having Shinya shoot him dead execution style, and dies serenely after asking Shinya if he will seek a shadow of him in any of his future enemies.
    • Kirito Kamui ala the Big Bad from Season 2 is a man who was horrifyingly wronged (even if in an indirect manner) by the Sybil System in the past, and now desperately and fiercely wants revenge on it. He starts working towards said retribution via using his knowledge at psychotherapy to gather people with high criminal coefficients and lower them, making them untraceable by the System itself and able to slip under Sibyl's radars so he can force the System to let him get closer and then give him his biggest wish: to have said System, judge itself. . .
  • Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica seems to be the kind of person who walks the line between Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard. So far his plans are very cruel and have had huge consequences (like tricking young girls with deep wishes into becoming pretty much liches, then withdrawing info about the tremendous disadvantages of the Magical Girl job, and watching as they become witches and end up killing or being killed), but except for Madoka (the girl with the most potential) not making the contract (and once only becaue Homura stopped her from doing so), it has all gone just as planned. It's even better/worse when you see that his goals aren't 100% self-serving... but very akin to those of the Anti-Spiral: sacrificing some... to save everyone. And for that, he had Sayaka become a witch, then Kyoko to pretty much join her in death... and thus, he left Madoka and Homura in such a position that if Madoka doesn't become a Puella Magi, the universe will die.
    • However, he gets screwed over by someone else at the last moment... Turns out he turned Madoka into a mixture of Physical Goddess and Guile Heroine by giving her so many awful truths to work with. Suck on that, Kyubey. And even then he doesn't exactly 'lose.' Madoka recreates the world and eliminates all witches. So instead Puellae Magi fight demons, and harvest energy from them. It's not as efficient a method of harvesting energy, but it still allows Kyubey to accomplish his mission, just in a somewhat more modest way. Until The Rebellion Story, where Homura has a Face Heel Turn and upgrades to this, making te whole System and Kyuubey her bitches so she can steal Madoka's powers, become the Devil to her Goddess and bring her back so she can keep her for herself.
    • White Magical Girl Oriko Mikuni of the spin-off manga Puella Magi Oriko Magica uses a series of manipulations and distractions in order to murder Madoka Kaname to prevent her from inevitably becoming the witch Kriemhild Gretchen and destroying the world. Using the Black Magical Girl Kirika Kure to keep the heroines and even the cunning Kyubey busy, Oriko personally proves a match for the time-travelling Homura Akemi and manages to kill Madoka in one timeline while faking an attack at Kyubey. Wracked with guilt by what she must do, Oriko nevertheless stops at nothing, determined to save the world while outplaying everyone around her and even correctly predicting that Homura would eventually cross the point of no return in her efforts to protect Madoka.
  • Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena. He seduces multiple women including Utena, his sister Anthy (only not really), and his fiancee's mother as well as some guys Touga. He also: rigs the entire series of duels; creates a false timeline; convinces his own sister to stab Utena after Utena had realized her own role in the whole deal and was trying to fully release Anthy from hers; and runs a private school in his spare time. And he gets away with all of that. ( Well, almost all. Anthy does shake off his influence in the end, gives him a shockingly blunt yet simple "The Reason You Suck" Speech and leaves him to find the apparently Ret-Goned Utena - which is the worst thing that could ever happen to him.
  • Semmerling from Riding Bean. She does begin to lose her cool somewhat when Bean survives a point-blank shot to his forehead (good thing he wears that Kevlar headband) and proceeds to tear the door off of her car with his bare hands but then, who wouldn't?
  • Rookie Policewoman Kiruko-san: Seemingly respectable business director Jean Smith is really a powerful criminal trying to expand his operation by using the small town of Nagashima for smuggling. Knowing The Heroine Kiruko and her allies are infiltrating his cruise ship to capture him, Jean has his men prepare for the attack while he personally greets the police in a jovial and personable manner. Ordering his men to take Kiruko's senior officer hostage, Jean escapes the cruise ship along with his hostage before trying to sink the boat. Eventually captured by the police, Jean nevertheless remains cordial to the cops and calls a rescue jet as a backup plan to escape. Genuinely friendly to both his enemies and allies, Jean remains the suavest criminal Kiruko has faced.
  • Rosario + Vampire
    • As the principal of Yokai Academy, the Headmaster, Tenmei Mikogami, is the charismatic architect of the events of the series. Tenmei would later go on to clash with the terrorist organization Fairy Tale, seeking Alucard's revival. Tenmei manipulates Tsukune Aono into being enrolled into the academy and helps to transform the kind-hearted boy into his powerful successor. Tenmei secretly manipulates the transformation of vampire blood in Tsukune to instead have it turn him into the all-powerful Shinsho Vampire so Tsukune can eventually defeat Fairy Tale. In the meantime, he puts the members of the Newspaper Club through harsh and sometimes deadly training to make them far more powerful. When Alucard begins an attack on the city, Tenmei reveals to him that he predicted where Alucard would head and evacuated the city to prevent collateral damage, and later holds off Alucard while Tsukune powers up. At the end of his life, Tenmei sacrifices himself and his allies to destroy Alucard and leaves the academy to Tsukune as a worthy successor.
    • Hokuto Kaneshiro was once a human who left an abusive father to attend Yokai Academy. Finding only pain and suffering until he met Kiria Yoshii, Hokuto resolves to tear down the barrier between worlds and expose monsters to humanity. Playing at being Tsukune's friend, Hokuto reveals he is truly the leader of the rebellious group Anti-Thesis, letting himself be defeated so he will be placed in front of the headmaster in order to attempt an assassination attempt and steal a rosary to destroy the barrier. The only reason his plan fails is Hokuto deciding at the last moment to assist Tsukune instead. Even in part 2, Hokuto returns to help manipulate the end of Fairy Tale, aiding Tsukune one last time against even Kiria.
    • Alucard is the true Big Bad of the series, using multiple aliases to achieve his goals. As the Masked King, Alucard formed the Miao Triad family, bidding the evil vampire Gyokuro Shuzen to form the anti-human terrorist organization Fairy Tale while also joining it under the secret name of Miyabi Fujisaki. Manipulating the heroes into a confrontation with Gyokuro and her squadron leaders, Alucard reveals himself only after the fighting to hijack her plans and awaken his true body, easily overcoming the other heroes and setting to attack the human world. Upon his final destruction, it is revealed that Alucard's full intention was to make himself the villain and create a group that had to be opposed by an alliance of human and monster, exposing the monster world to humankind, even making provisions to ensure his final subordinates survived the fight.
  • Lord Laertes Van Di Montague from Romeo X Juliet, who pretty much rose from the slums after the death of his prostitute mother, infiltrated himself in the Montague clan as a kid, killed its leader when he was of age, slaughtered the rival clan of the Capulets both to gain power and as revenge for his destitute origins, and ruled Neo Verona with a hand of steel for almost 15 years. And that's just the beginning...
  • Rurouni Kenshin: Shishio Makoto came up with the plan to burn Kyoto right to the ground as a DISTRACTION while he and his minions sailed a warship into Tokyo and let sheer panic rip the government apart. This is just his biggest, most expensive example though. Despite being foiled there, Shishio proceeds to have the heroes fight his men in single matches, all for the purposes of weakening or eliminating them before they face Shishio himself when he gains greater understanding of their abilities through the fights. Even after his defeat and death, Shishio shows no sign of complaint and instantly sets off with his deceased lover and most loyal follower to begin conquering Hell itself. He practically lives for this trope.
  • In RWBY: The Official Manga, Cinder Fall, lacking her series counterpart's sadism or childishness, is a beautiful and enigmatic villainess who wields a grudge on Vale's Headmaster Ozpin. She comes up with a scheme to destroy the kingdom of Vale, using abandoned railroads to launch the attack on the capital, and the resulting negativity keeps Grimm coming. She has Roman Torchwick do the dirty work and steal Dust for the operation while she infiltrates Beacon Academy. As a skilled fighter, she is able to break into the CCT tower and implant an important virus, and is able to get out even after being caught by Ruby Rose.
  • Souma Saiki from Sakura Gari is mostly a Broken Ace, but shows shades of this -- especially when he deals a spectacular and fatal Humiliation Conga to his ex-lover Katsuragi for raping/torturing Masataka, his Morality Pet.
  • Sgt Frog: One manga had Momoka's father try to force her into another private school, causing Fuyuki and the others to stand up to him. The end reveals that Dark Momoka planned the whole thing. She told her dad that she wanted to go to a private school so he could meet and gain respect for Fuyuki.
  • Main character of Seven Mortal Sins, Lucifer, Fallen Angel turned Demon Lord of Pride, can achieve anything she sets her mind to. Deciding to take over hell, Lucifer has a policy of challenging the Demon Lords known as the Mortal Sins at their own games on their own turf, constantly getting the better of them and winning no matter what venue they choose, constantly coming up with new plans and strategies. It is later revealed that for all her haughtiness and deep pride in herself, Lucifer was the only angel to object to God's plan to wipe out hell and the earth, having been protecting humanity from the start, and manages to get the better of both her arch-rivals, the demon lord Belial and the new leader of the Seven Lively Virtues, her old partner Michael via a few clever gambits, culminating in Lucifer embracing her love for her human companion Maria and claiming her rightful throne as the ruler of hell and queen of pride itself.
  • Shakugan no Shana:
    • Bel Peol, known as the "Arbiter of Reverse Reasoning" and "The Strategist", lead Bel Masque in the first two seasons. In the past, Bel Peol sacrificed her right eye as part of a plan to retrieve her master's body; later convincing a Denizen into going for a dangerous mission, resulting in his death for her cause. Trying to destroy Misaki City, Bel Peol nearly succeeds in all her attempts thanks to her tactical brilliance and pushes the heroes to their limits. Joining her master, the Snake of the Festival upon his revival, Bel Peol acts as his Dragon and together they usher in the creation of Xanadu, a paradise for Denizens and humans alike, fighting fiercely for it. A ruthless, goal-driven woman, Bel Peol nevertheless showed fondness to her underlings and exceedingly intelligence thinking in the field of battle, proving herself a worthy leader of Bel Masque.
    • The aforementioned Snake of the Festival or "The God of Creation", is the original leader of Bel Masque. Summoned in ancient times by the Denizens of the past, the Snake tried to create a paradise for them before being sealed in the Abyss. In present convincing Protagonist Yuji Sakai to become his vessel, the Snake retakes leadership of Bel Masque, giving a speech so powerful it gains him the complete loyalty of all the present Denizens. Leading the Denizens in the devastating Second Great War, the Snake oversees the brutal combat to have his body recovered from the Abyss. Returning to Misaki City to create Xanadu, the Snake uses his own body and a member of the Trinity as sacrifices to create his new world. Realizing the Denizen's wish for peaceful coexistence, the Snake completes his mission despite massive opposition and returns to sleep, wishing his vessel success for the future.
  • Hao Asakura of Shaman King was once a shaman in heian-era Japan where he lost his beloved mother at the prejudices of humanity. Manipulating future events and even his own reincarnations to empower himself, Hao is reborn again in modern times as the twin brother of hero Yoh Asakura. Absurdly powerful and intelligent, Hao remains a step ahead of the heroes, defeating all challengers and enemies in an attempt to become the Shaman King and destroy humanity. At the end, Hao succeeds in his goal, becoming Shaman King, but proves open to reason and opts to watch the world for himself, being as brilliant a villain in victory as he was in the attempt to get there.
  • Shut Hell: The Dreaded, ruthless Khan; Genghis Khan himself. Born Temujin, and branded with the Tangut letters on his back marking him as a slave forever, the Khan seeks to destroy the Tangut script and the people of western Xia to forever remove knowledge of the brand on his skin. Utterly dominating the Mongol tribes through his dark charisma and power, the Khan sweeps through Western Xia and Jin, devastating all in his path with his brilliance and strength. Ever quick to turn any disadvantage back to his side, the Khan even handles the death of his son and commander Tolui by enslaving the young prince Yurul and forcing him to take Tolui's identity. A man who rose from nothing to become the greatest warlord the world had ever seen, the Khan decides he will burn all in his path, no matter how much fire it takes.
  • The Slayers
    • Xellos, the self proclaimed Trickster Priest, fits this bill quite nicely, even moreso in the original novels. Hiding his true self behind a veil of smiles and pleasantries, Xellos ruthlessly manipulates Lina and friends into carrying out his wishes and destroying his enemies. Frequently arranging situations to benefit himself no matter what the outcome, Xellos helps destroy his Mistress, the Grand Beast Zelas Metallium's rivals and other Mazoku should it benefit him. Xellos tends to change his schemes on the fly as well, making it impossible to tell what was part of his plans from the start, even if he admits he feels some affection for Lina and her team. Xellos is so charming and affable, it's very easy to forget that he is a demonic being under his friendliness.
    • Jillas from Slayers TRY. You would normally think a Goldfish Poop Gang member would be unable to manipulate the entire party against their actions. Think again.
    • Big Bads like Rezo the Red Priest, Hellmaster Phibrizzo, and Valgaav are all solid contenders as well for their charm, style, and effective gambits.
  • Medusa Gorgon in Soul Eater. Manipulates her daughter... son... child into becoming a Dark Magical Child... but subverts the usual Heel Face Turn so that "s/he" would be The Mole instead. Blackmails other witches, like Eruka, into working for her by planting parts of her body in them that explode whenever she wills it. Matches the best Technician and Death Scythe in Shibusen in battle, resurrects the monster, gives The Corruption to the main heroine/hero duo, comes Back from the Dead by stealing the body of a little girl with the promise of returning it later (a promise she actually keeps but only when she finds a better body, as mentioned below) but still fully using said little girl's body as an advantage so no one can attack her, drives the best tech crazy, frames him for murder, drives out a good witch who wanted to defect, and convinces Shibusen to let her lead them in an assault against her Rival Older Sister.
  • Soul Hunter
    • Though spending much of his time observing the major events, Shinkohyou proves himself to be one of the strongest and most compelling rivals of Taikoubou. Defeating Taikoubou for mocking his fashion sense, Shinkohyou leaves his Worthy Opponent ecstatic at facing challenging combat. Trying to stop the crown prince of the Yin Empire from fleeing, Shinkohyou gives him and his brother a Motive Rant so enlightening that they betray Taikoubou. Though seemingly villainous for much of the story, Shinkohyou is truthfully a neutral Trickster who switches sides based on which he finds more entertaining.
    • Chou Koumei is one of the strongest Kingo Island Sennin under Youkai Tsuten Kyoshu and the instigator behind a battle between the aforementioned and Kongrong Mountain to test his super paopei, destroying the relationship between the two groups. Teaming up with Dakki, Chou Koumei puts a series of maneuvers in play to stop the Zhou Empire from revolting against Choka. Kidnapping Taikoubou's companions to get him to fight, Chou Koumei takes advantage of the former fleeing from combat to turn his spirit beast into stone, forcing him to confront him. After seemingly defeating Taikoubou, Chou Koumei attempts to change the story by making another manga to replace it and when Taikoubou is resurrected, Chou Koumei turns himself into a plant and tries to drain the Earth of its nutrients. Even when finally defeated, Chou Koumei remains cordial, proving himself to be one of the most respectful and interesting opponents of the series.
  • Albelt Dessler of Space Battleship Yamato is the charming, sophisticated supreme ruler and dictator of Gamillas. Desiring a peace in the galaxy through ultimate control, Dessler has expanded the Gamillas empire but keeps new conquered races happy by allowing them to prove themselves equal citizens in the empire on pure merit. When earth proves more difficult to conquer, Dessler deals with the matter by assigning a failed commander to either give Dessler more knowledge of the earthlings' tactics, or removing an incompetent without him lifting a finger. Dessler also outplays any who attempt to usurp his authority and when defeated, he promptly reemerges to take the Yamato over to restore himself to glory, convinced that his success is the glory of Gamillas itself.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist Choji Suitengu of Speed Grapher, a sophisticated businessman who uses his wealth and power in his agenda to eliminate greed and power. Believing everything 'has its price,' especially human life, Suitengu is dedicated to overthrowing the social order of Japan, manipulating all the upper echelons of society with his Roppongi Club that caters to a variety of fetishes. Constantly planning ahead of series hero Saiga, Suitengu also manipulates his lover, Shinzen of the powerful Tennozou Group and later disposes of her when she attempts to betray and kill him.Revealing his tragic past to his arch enemy, the prime minister, when the man tries to kill Suitengu and take over the Roppongi Club, Suitengu kills him and enacts his master plan: completely erasing the corrupt upper class and causing a massive financial crisis to completely break their hold on Japan forever. Oh, and he smokes rolled up dollar bills.
  • Star Driver:
    • Reiji Miyabi/Head, real name Tokio Tsunashi, leads the Vanishing Age faction of the Glittering Crux Brigade, and serves as the group's de-facto director. Becoming a Galactic Pretty Boy after being denied a mark of inheritence, Reiji brought the Glittering Crux Brigade together in an effort to break all four seals on Southern Cross Isle so that Zero Time could break open and the King Cybody, Samekh, could be unleashed. He befriends the North Maiden in order to coax her into allowing him to break her seal, and forms a strategy to both capture the West Maiden while isolated and finally defeat Takuto Tsunashi and Tauburn, which would grant him leadership of the Glittering Crux. Even after defeat, Reiji initiates a coup that allows his Vanishing Age faction to anex all others and grant him more power. Anticipating the betrayal of Keito Nichi, who is also the East Maiden, Reiji is able to awaken a boy he'd seduced from his coma and be given his mark that enables his new Cybody to control all others, Samekh included. In the final battle of Zero Time, Reiji proclaims that his true agenda was to destroy the entire world while he gains the power of Time Travel and escapes into the past, where he can relive his best days as much as he pleases. While an absent father and a self-centered narcissist to the extreme, Reiji's easygoing personality, seductive charisma, artistic talent and dangerously keen intellect makes him a force whose gravitational pull is impossible for other characters, and many viewers, to withstand.
    • In a group full of Smug Snakes and Punch Clock Villains, Kanako Watanabe/the President stands out as easily the most competent, stylish and charismatic member of the Glittering Crux Brigade. In addition to leading Adult Bank, she runs her own business in her husband's absence, she married said husband to begin with for his wealth so that she could put all that money to good use, the things she does are done often for pragmatic reasons or just for her own amusement, she's much more intelligent than she frequently lets on, often monitoring her assistants/underlings and knowing what other people are planning or doing but not acting so long as she senses no threat for any possible outcome, she manages to steal Takuto's first kiss, and she proves to be Crazy Prepared when the reason she has her large ship to begin with comes to light towards the end of the series.
  • Sword Art Online:
    • Designer Akihiko Kayaba, a pioneer in the field of Virtual Reality (VR), traps 10,000 players inside his game, killing them in the real world if they die in the VR one. Disguising himself as Big Good Heathcliff and guiding the players through the dungeon floors of Aincrad, Kayaba intends to betray and kill them in the last dungeon, acting as the Final Boss of his own game. When Kirito is able to deduce "Heathcliff's" true identity, Kayaba praises the boy for his observance before challenging him to a duel, promising to end the game of Kirito wins. Keeping his word and freeing the players, Kayaba seemingly commits suicide, though actually copying his Fluctlight onto the internet to continue existing. Reappearing in the next arc, Kayaba helps Kirito defeat the Arc Villain, Sugou, whom even he finds repellent. Entrusting Kirito with his last invention, Kayaba encourages him to go on to share it with the world, leading to the creation of many innovative VR games. Though utterly sociopathic, Kayaba never strayed from his strict moral code and stood out as one of Kirito's most noble foes.
    • Initially presented as Kirito's eccentric and annoying benefactor, Seijirou Kikuoka is revealed to be much more. Actually a lieutenant in the JSDF, he leads RATH, creators of the virtual world Underworld, which is inhabited by highly developed AIs known as "Artificial Fluctlights". Convincing Kirito to work in the Project Alicization while hiding its morally dubious aspects from him, Kikuoka intends to use "complete Fluctlights" as combatants, hoping to avoid human casualties in warfare and showing Japan's potential to the world. After Kirito is hospitalized and suffers from brain damage, Kikuoka takes him from the hospital to the Ocean Turtle and connects him to the Underworld, hoping to save his mind out of genuine concern and affection. After the Ocean Turtle is attacked by Glowgen Defense Systems, Kikuoka helps to defend it, sends Asuna to the Underworld to save Kirito and stop the sociopathic Gabriel Miller, and is injured while trying to protect his companions. Initially willing to sacrifice infinite AIs for one single human, Kikuoka learns to value the Underworld and promises to protect it. Having helped Kirito and Asuna one last time, he successfully fakes his death after showing Japan's potential, completely avoiding any punishment.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Lordgenome, the Spiral King and initial Big Bad of the story, is the totalitarian ruler of the Beastman Empire who once challenged the Anti-Spirals as a great leader of mankind with his Spiral Powers. Defeated and faced with his race being wiped out, Lordgenome created the Beastmen to force humanity to live underground, sacrificing their freedom to keep them safe from the aforementioned Anti-Spirals. Successful for many centuries with his armies, Lordgenome's forces prove a near-match for the heroes at every turn before they manage to fight their way through to his fortress. Seemingly killed by Simon, Lordgenome warns him of the risks of Spiral Power to humanity and when resurrected to help stop the Anti-Spirals, gives his life to finally end the alien monsters' threat.
  • Tokyo ESP: The Professor, formerly Hokusai Azuma, was an archeologist who discovered the Holy Ark containing the Super Empowering Glowing Fishes. Becoming one of the first espers of the modern era, the Professor was betrayed and attacked by the General of his country and the Ares organization, which left his entire crew dead. Crafting his persona as "The Professor", he went back to Japan, adopting the son of one of his deceased crew-mates and begins plotting his vengeance against Ares, founding the terrorist group known as the Esper Liberation Front. Successfully opening the Ark atop the Tokyo Tower, the Professor causes a Mass Super-Empowering Event and despite his subsequent imprisonment, completes his revenge on Ares by leaving the heroes with instructions to take them down and free his beloved daughter. Driven to avenge his comrades, the Professor ruthlessly advances on his goals with care for none save his own child.
  • Tokyo Ghoul and its sequel has several of these running around.
    • The Clown Gang. In a Cruel Twist Ending to the original series, it turns out that they have been around the entire time and manipulating everyone. Uta and Itori have spent the series steering Kaneki along through various encounters, with Roma spying on Anteiku, Nico spying on Aogiri and later giving Kaneki information about them to steer him along, and Souta being the one that dropped the steel beams on Rize and started the whole thing. In the sequel, they begin messing with the heroes again for purposes still not fully understood.
    • The One-Eyed Owl, Eto / Sen Takatsuki. There since the very beginning, they've been quietly manipulating events. Even when they seemingly lose, they still manage to come out with some gain while further sowing seeds of discord and doubt in everyone involved. Along the way, they've managed to manipulate Hinami into her eventual Face–Heel Turn, plant seeds of doubt in Amon's mind about the CCG, made Kuro and Shiro realize they were being manipulated by Dr. Kanou, manipulated Takizawa and Kanae into fighting a mentally-unstable Sasaki, and (in the anime at least) exposed Anteiku in order to capture her father and create a power vacuum in Tokyo.
    • In the sequel, we have Nimura Furuta. Seemingly a minor background character, they turn out to be a sinister Red Herring Shirt that masterfully manipulates everyone around them. Mid-battle, he casually drops the meek and clumsy personality......by shoving a comrade into the path of a fatal blow, and using it to take down Matsumae. He reveals that he knows Tsukiyama from his days at the Ghoul Restaurant, and cheerfully kills Matsumae before using her kagune to finish off the only witness. By the time backup arrives, he's beaten himself up and tells a sob story about being the only survivor. This fools his superiors, and he pretends to become hysterical with grief over the death of his partner.....but is actually laughing over it all.
  • Trigun
    • Millions Knives from the manga. A frighteningly superpowered Badass Abnormal with charisma to spare and the flaws of a Shakespearean character.
    • Legato Bluesummers from the anime. An utterly terrifying, nihilistic, relentless agent of death with the ability to mentally control any villager--man, woman, or child--to their deaths. His first appearance absolutely terrifies Vash, whom he makes his mission to completely break. And by forcing Vash to kill him, as far as he knows, he wins..
    • Gasback Gallon Getaway is a roguish, boisterous criminal who, despite his brutish appearance, is in truth a calculating thief who views the act of robbery and thievery as "art" forms. After his initial bank heist is foiled by treacherous minions, Gasback spends decades plotting both revenge against the men for "sullying" the art of robbery with their dishonorable betrayal, and the greatest heist he's ever concocted. Laying waste to two of the men's prospering enterprises, Gasback repeats the process on his final betrayer, revealing at the same time that each of his before robberies were all to amass materials needed to steal a Plant, which he pulls off flawlessly before escaping. Giving Vash one of the hardest fought battles of his life through sheer determination to never lose, Gasback gains respect for the hero when beaten, and is revealed to have spent those decades of planning taking care of a woman he loved and even leaving her enough money to sustain her for the rest of her life.
  • Souichi of Challengers and The Tyrant Falls in Love is a relatively down-to-earth version of this. When a professor attempts to rape him, Souichi attempts to murder the guy. Morinaga stops him, but Souichi still manages to stab the guy deep in the ass with a pair of scissors. When Soichi and Morinaga witness a guy on his cellphone ignoring the pleas of a woman who has an assistive device in her heart, Souichi gets fed up when the woman collapses and snatches the phone out of the guy's hand then snaps it in half. Soichi is not a supervillain and he hasn't got the world under his thumb, but he's a damned terrifying force when his protectiveness of his brother, his sense of justice or his hatred of gays is crossed, which is often.
  • Askeladd Olafson from Vinland Saga introduces himself to the audience sacking a fort and robbing it of its riches with a series of clever schemes, barely shedding a drop of blood. Leader of a group of Viking raiders, Askeladd was born the son of a slave and a lord. Murdering his father years later after his mother's death, Askeladd framed one of his brothers after ingratiating himself to his family. Playing the cutthroat court of King Sweyn with clever gambits, Askeladd has the caretaker of the weak prince Canute murdered to build Canute into an ideal candidate for the throne. Also driven by his desire to protect his maternal homeland of Wales, Askeladd finds himself briefly outplayed by Sweyn who demands he kill Canute or see Wales invaded by the Danes. Askeladd instead chooses to kill Sweyn and allow Canute to kill him, achieving all his goals posthumously by making Canute a beloved, respected King and knowing the young man will forge Askeladd's ideal kingdom and defend Wales out of gratitude.
  • Keima from The World God Only Knows can be argued to be one when he is in "God of Conquest" Mode. Even when certain events happen that confuse other characters, he simply interprets them as "flags/events" and proceeds as planned. Even for something as inconsequential as Shiori quietly yelling at him for being a jerk. There's even a point in the manga where Haqua looks at a giant stack of notes Keima wrote as "The Demon of Conquest" and finds that he has written stage directions as well as lines for every single possibility that would occur during the event. All for a quick 5-minute chat.
  • Yuto Kigai and Seishiro Sakurazuka from X 1999. Yuto is polite, soft-spoken, a little snarky, very caring towards Satsuki and yet is able to carry out Kanoe's instructions without even getting his suit dirty. Seishirou is a charismatic murderer with a charming smile, a Star-Crossed Lovers bond with Subaru Sumeragi, very cruel and very stylish puppy-kicking acts under his belt, and in the end he manages to play one Hell of a Thanatos Gambit to die exactly in the way he wanted to, also ensuring that his killer will be the only person he ever sort-of cared for, Subaru...who will end up as the next Sakurazukamori as well.
  • From Your Lie in April, a notably less bastardly example who nonetheless exists on the borderline of this trope and Guile Hero would be Kaori Miyazono. Yes, THAT Kaori. A bright young girl who felt melancholic until the piano recitals of young musical prodigy Kousei Arima "brought color back into her life", Kousei's sudden retirement from playing spurred Kaori into scheming out a way to return the favor by bringing the genius pianist "back to the world of beauty where he belongs", which she set into motion when she and Kousei started attending middle school. Training herself to be a talented violinist, taking on the persona of the ideal Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and lying to Kousei about having romantic feelings for his friend Watari, Kaori inspires Kousei to work through his trauma and depression with her charisma, optimism and sunny disposition, and gets him to take up playing piano again even by resorting to cruel and manipulative means of doing so. Only falling further in love with Kousei as she simultaneously inspires and deceives him, Kaori becomes determined to do a violin/piano duet performance with Kousei even after she's hospitalized since, by the way, she's been doing all this while suffering from a terminal illness and knowing full well that her days will soon be numbered. Even when the risky surgery fails and she tragically passes away, Kaori's spirit and violin skill synchronizes with Kousei at his recital so that they have their duet before her soul Disappears Into Light, and she leaves a lasting impact on the boy she loved so much as an irreplacable part of his life.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho:
    • Sakyo is a charming, charismatic member of the Black Black Club who came up from nothing. A born sociopath who despised his honest, loving family, Sakyo graduated from torturing animals into high stakes gambling where he amassed a fortune to join the demon-trafficking and torturing Black Black Club. Deciding to advance even further, Sakyo plays the group's founder Gonzo Tarukane by secretly paying off the Toguro brothers when Tarukane hires them as bodyguards, rigging the gambles he makes with Tarukane by having the Toguro brothers take a dive against Team Urameshi. Setting up his team to fight in the Dark Tournament, Sakyo takes a curious liking to Shizuru Kuwabara and protects her during the events while also manipulating and eventually disposing of the rest of the Black Black Club, before gambling his own life on Toguro's victory in order to insure he can see a portal opened to the Demon World out of sheer morbid curiosity. When Toguro is defeated, Sakyo immediately offers his life without complaint, bidding a last fond farewell to Shizuru first.
    • The Younger Toguro brother sold his soul 50 years ago to become a powerful demon after winning the Dark Tournament in despair over the deaths of his students and the knowledge of his impending mortality. In present, having grown disillusioned with his life, he manipulates the events with Gonzo Tarukane to see if Yusuke Urameshi is a worthy adversary and forces him and team to join the Dark Tournament. Toguro manipulates Yusuke into becoming stronger while also keeping him from making Toguro's mistakes before the final match. After killing Yusuke's mentor, his former teammate and lover Genkai, Toguro is dissatisfied with Yusuke's strength and seemingly murders his friend Kuwabara to force him to fight all out, only to reveal he faked Kuwabara's death. Unlike his twisted elder brother, Toguro never sold his pride along with his soul and displays a true sense of honor, grateful to give his all against a final worthy adversary.
    • There's also the "Black Angel" himself, Shinobu Sensui, once a brilliant young Spirit Detective for Earth whose idealistic view of humans and demons were shattered by the Black Black Club's horrific actions. Years later, he obtained the Chapter Black video tape to use to expertly manipulate disadvantaged superpowered youths into heinous acts in an attempt to stall the good guys, forced Kurama into a situation where he would have to kill a young child in order to proceed (well aware that Kurama will do it, knowing it will shake him up too much to be of use in fighting Sensui at his best later, while also knowing a guilt-stricken Koenma will use up too much power restoring the boy to life), tricked Makihara/Gourmet into eating Elder Toguro, who took control of him and killed him, and kidnapped Kuwabara so that Gourmet/Toguro could eat him and absorb his newfound dimension cutting powers in order to destroy a powerful barrier. Later, after killing Yusuke, Sensui manipulates Kuwabara into cutting down the Kekkai barrier, which is the only thing preventing not only Sensui's plan, but also preventing Kurama and Hiei from crossing over to try and exact revenge. Sensui also uses his multiple personalities to bear the burdens of his crimes, only revealing his true self in time to defeat and even kill Yusuke before opening a path to the demon world. His true goal? An elaborate Suicide by Cop attempt to die at the hands of a powerful demon in demon world to atone for taking so many demon lives in the human world when he was a Spirit Detective. Passing as a dark mirror to Yusuke himself, Sensui remains one of his most sympathetic and fascinating enemies.
  • Zatch Bell: Zeno Bell is the Evil Twin brother of Zatch Bell who has come to resent Zatch and desires both the Mamodo World crown and to make his sibling's life miserable. Learning the existence of the ancient Mamodo weapon Faudo, Zeno strays to the shadows and uses a doll-like emissary to manipulate both Zatch's group of friends as well as Leo and the Faudo cult against one another. Upon Faudo's awakening, after Leo weakens the heroes, Zeno sneaks into the control room, sends Leo away, and takes over control of Faudo in one fell swoop. Earning the loyalty of the other cult members, Zeno still uses the power of Godafu as a contingency in the event one tries to betray him and shows flexibility as a fighter. Even so, Zeno is ruthless enough to make people submit to his ways through fear and pain. Upon the realization Zatch lived a horrible life himself and that their father hid the whole story from him, Zeno immediately changes his ways and, in his final moments in the Human World, provides the twin he now loves everything he needs for the tournament.
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