History FromNobodyToNightmare / AnimeAndManga

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Brilliant, yet disaffected high school student Light Yagami; incompetent, unpopular corporate drone [[spoiler:Kyosuke Higuchi]]; and [[spoiler:a CrusadingLawyer, Teru Mikami]] each come across a [[ArtifactOfDoom simple notebook]] leading each of them to become notorious mass murderers and, in the case of one of them -- Light -- [[AGodAmI GOD OF THE NEW WORLD]].

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' has the two leads [[GuileHero Lelouch]] [[FallenPrincess vi Britannia]] and [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Suzaku]] [[TheAtoner Kururugi]]. Lelouch starts as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent (minus DarkAndTroubledPast) and Suzaku as just another {{Mook}} in the Britannian Army. They quickly rise up, Lelouch becoming the masked rebellion leader and hero "Zero", and Suzaku becoming the AcePilot of the [[SuperPrototype Lancelot]]. By the end of the series [[spoiler: Lelouch has conquered the ''whole world'' and Suzaku is TheDragon to his BigBad.]]

** Luffy went from being a no-name rookie pirate (sure, his family is kind of important, but it wasn't common knowledge at the time) from the weakest sea in the world, to having a [[spoiler:3 Billion beli]] bounty, declaring war on the [[OneWorldOrder World Government]], and slapping down their elite privateers, The Warlords of the Sea, left and right (as well as being in good terms with some of them). Hell, [[spoiler:a former Warlord -one of the aforementioned pals- ends up joining his crew!]] He's even [[spoiler:the leader of his own ''fleet'', with 7 sizable pirate crews serving him after he and his crew rescued them in Dressrosa. After butting heads with ''one of the Four Emperors'' just to save a crewmate, his achievements (both real and coincidental) had him labeled as ''the Fifth Emperor'', and then after ''defeating'' another Emperor, he ''becomes one of the Four Emperors''! What makes Luffy such a notable example is that his pirate career was only a few months prior to the 2-year TimeSkip (a period of time where he went through TrainingFromHell and TookALevelInBadass), then a couple months more after that. Meanwhile, other infamous pirates gained their status after many years! And yet, Luffy (along with his crew) was able to accomplish so much in such a short time that the World Government makes it their top priority to capture him like the other big names.]]
** Among Luffy's crew, Nami, Chopper and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook served a kingdom in the past) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin's mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Chopper and Franky being abandoned by their families. Yet, they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and members of a Yonko crew]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Also worth noting Zoro, like Nami, Chopper and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo; but WordOfGod and the Wano arc revealed he's connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.
** Teach was just a GiantMook in Whitebeard's crew. Even when we first meet him in the story, he's just a random guy who nearly gets in a fight with Luffy over pie. Then we find out he acquired a "special" Devil Fruit... suddenly he joins the Seven Warlords of the Sea, [[spoiler: kills the strongest man in the world and steals his earthquake powers, and declares war on the entire planet. Fast forward [[TimeSkip two years]], and he's one of the Four Emperors, '''the''' most powerful pirates in existence.]]

** Another example is Eustass Kid, who [[spoiler:was originally a gang boss who ruled an unaffilated island in the South Blue, until he alongside three of his would-be crewmates avenged the death of his girlfriend together, and set to sea out of sickness of living in such a narrow world.]] This rookie managed to get his 470,000,000 Beli bounty by sheer quantity of criminal activities, rather than being regarded as a significant threat to the World Government. [[spoiler:Even more, his bounty jumped to 3 Billion as well for being able (alongside Trafalgar Law) to bring down Big Mom.]]

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' has the Chimera Ants, initially a species of small insects that take on traits of the animals they eat; other than that, they're garden variety bugs. They're even first mentioned by a character as a dining delicacy. That's until a rare six foot tall specimen starts eating literally everything from animals to Nen users, creating an army of animal hybrids capable of fighting and overpowering the elite officials of the Hunter Organization. And her heir offspring eventually gets so strong, that he's the closest thing to a PhysicalGod before [[spoiler: the strongest human nukes him to kill him off in order to prevent him from destroying humanity, and even then the blast didn't kill him, only the radiation sickness that followed it.]]

** Nagato started out as a CheerfulChild in a small village called the Hidden Rain Village, who soon was subjected to BreakTheCutie as he watched his parents being killed by Konoha forces, leading to awakening of his Rinnegan. Then Jiraiya taught him Ninjutsu alongside his friends Yahiko and Konan. Then he joins Yahiko's revolution, becoming his right hand. Soon after that, [[spoiler:Hanzo the Salamander, growing fearful of the revolution gaining power, had Yahiko commit suicide after subjecting Nagato to a SadisticChoice, which enraged him so much he summoned the Gedo Mazo and instantly massacred Hanzo's army, later crushing the government so thoroughly Hanzo's legacy was literally ''wiped out'' by Nagato, now calling himself Pain, which is more impressive as Hanzo the Salamander was the guy who defeated the Legendary Sannin at their prime. Soon he turns the Hidden Rain Village into a Akatsuki-favoring dictatorship for his ultimate plan of periodically nuking the world in regular intervals, handed Jiraiya his ass and ''[[HeroKiller killed him]]'' soon after. He then invades Konoha to capture Naruto, which leads in the total destruction of the village with countless lives lost, even named characters like Shizune, Fukasaku and ''Kakashi'' himself, and almost won his war against the ''Nine-Tails'' singlehandedly. Only a major DeusExMachina saved it from being TheBadGuyWins, and months after his passing, his repute was so feared Kabuto kept him as an ace in the hole during the Fourth Great Ninja War.]]

** [[spoiler:BigBad Tobi]], who turns out to be none other than [[spoiler: Obito Uchiha]]. That's right folks, the same kid that [[spoiler:spent his childhood [[EpicFail failing at everything]], [[AllLoveIsUnrequited pining for Rin]], [[TheRival feeling jealous of Kakashi]], and pretty much being the [[IdiotHero Naruto]] of his day]], is now the guy who [[spoiler:indirectly killed Naruto's parents (one of which was his own ''sensei'') by taking control of Kurama and unleashing him on Konoha, took part in the Uchiha massacre, corrupted Nagato and later Sasuke, co-led the aforementioned evil army against the five great powers of the ''Naruto'' universe, worked to unleash the universe's resident Satan (albeit depowered somewhat) and became the WorldsStrongestMan as the first Jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails since the Sage of Six Paths, to say nothing of a whole laundry list of additional heinous acts he committed between his "death" and the current story.]] Basically he's Naruto on Evil. In fact, the only reason he was defeated was [[spoiler: he was convinced by Naruto that there was still hope for the world, and was struggling with himself about the path he took.]]
** Gaara's somewhat of a lesser example. As a child, Gaara made many attempts to connect to the people of Sunagakure, all of whom feared him because of his connection with Shukaku. Then his uncle, the only person shown to have ever loved and cared for him at all attempted to murder him [[spoiler:under the orders of Gaara's father, the Fourth Kazekage.]] All of that was enough to turn Gaara into a sociopath by the age of ''six'', and a serial killer by the age of '''''twelve'''''. Naruto's intervention was what would finally set him straight and help reverse some of the damage.

** Luffy went from being a no-name rookie pirate (sure, his family is kind of important, but it wasn't common knowledge at the time) from the weakest sea in the world, to having a [[spoiler:3 Billion beli]] bounty, declaring war on the [[OneWorldOrder World Government]], and slapping down their elite privateers, The Warlords of the Sea, left and right (as well as being in good terms with some of them). Hell, [[spoiler:a former Warlord -one of the aforementioned pals- ends up joining his crew!]] He's even [[spoiler:the leader of his own ''fleet'', with 7 sizable pirate crews serving him after he and his crew rescued them in Dressrosa. After butting heads with ''one of the Four Emperors'' just to save a crewmate, his achievements (both real and coincidental) had him labeled as ''the Fifth Emperor'', and then after ''defeating'' another Emperor, he ''becomes one of the Four Emperors''!. What makes Luffy such a notable example is that his pirate career was only a few months prior to the 2 year TimeSkip (a period of time where he went through TrainingFromHell and TookALevelInBadass), then a couple months more after that. Meanwhile, other infamous pirates gained their status after many years! And yet, Luffy (along with his crew) was able to accomplish so much in such a short time that the World Government makes it their top priority to capture him like the other big names.]]
** Among Luffy's crew, Nami, Chopper and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook served a kingdom in the past) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin's mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Chopper and Franky being abandoned by their families. Yet, they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and crew members of a Yonko]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Also worth noting Zoro, like Nami, Chopper and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo; but WordOfGod and the Wano arc revealed he's connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.

** All Might himself is the heroic equivalent--he started out an emaciated weakling with [[UnSorcerer no Quirk]], but after receiving "One for All," he quickly became a [[BigGood virtually unstoppable force of justice]] and the most feared enemy of all villains, in addition to the only hero to ever defeat All for One (twice!). His own successor, the show's protagonist, was also born powerless and is on track to eventually become even more powerful than All Might.

** Yukio Oikawa started out almost the same way, having Iori's father, Hiroki, as his only friend. But after Hiroki was killed in line of duty, Oikawa promised himself that he'd make their dream visiting the Digital World one day real no matter what. With the help of [[spoiler:Vamdemon]], he becomes a ruthless and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] who almost brought both worlds -- and potentially the entire universe -- to ruins in chasing his mad dream.

* [[spoiler:Sun]] in ''Manga/FirePunch'' over time goes from ThePollyanna child, to a captain of LaResistance, to a [[KnightTemplar delusional cult leader]]. His Blessing powers [[TookALevelInBadass got incredibly strong]] during a TimeSkip as well, to the point where Agni has to take him down

* [[BigBad Gendo]] [[FinalBoss Ikari]] from ''Anime/RebuildofEvangelion''. 3.0+1.0 shows just where he came from, and compared to where he ended up, it turns out he was more pitiful than anything. [[spoiler:He went from just a depressed and socially-withdrawn young man unsure what to do with his life to one of the world's biggest monsters, all because he wanted to bring his wife back, and rule the world as a God.]]

** Among Luffy's crew, Nami, Chopper and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook who served a kingdom) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin's mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Chopper and Franky being abandoned by their families. Yet, they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and crew members of a Yonko]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Also worth noting Zoro, like Nami, Chopper and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo; but WordOfGod and the Wano arc revealed he's connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.

* ''Anime/RingingBell'' has Chirin, who starts out as a cute little lamb, grow up and become a ram who just looks demonic.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' brings us Paptimus Scirocco, a minor official from Jupiter recruited by the Titans. Over the course of the series he slowly gathers followers and influence, culminating in him supplanting [[BigBadDuumvirate Jamitov and Bosque]] and seizing control of the Titans. And did we mention he slowly reveals himself to be an amazingly skilled pilot, genius mobile suit designer and extremely powerful Newtype?

** Another example is Eustass Kid, who [[spoiler:was originally a gang boss who ruled an unaffilated island in said sea, until he alongside three of his would-be crewmates avenged the death of his girlfriend together, and set to sea out of sickness of living in such a narrow world.]] This rookie managed to get his 470,000,000 Beli bounty by sheer quantity of criminal activities, rather than being regarded as a significant threat to the World Government. [[spoiler:Even more, his bounty jumped to 3 Billion as well for being able (alongside Trafalgar Law) to bring down Big Mom.]]

** Garou went from a kid, who found it extremely unfair that the bad guys in his favourite cartoons never won despite their effort, and who always lost unfairly to his jerkass classmate when playing hero vs. villain, to a menace that wiped the floor with everyone that wasn't the protagonist in an effort to become the ultimate villain.

** Among Luffy's crew, Nami, Chopper and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook who served a kingdom) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin's mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Chopper and Franky being abandoned by their families. Yet, they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and crew members of a Yonko]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Also worth noting Zoro who, like Nami, Chopper and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo; but WordOfGod and the Wano arc revealed he's connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.

* Tongpu aka Mad Pierrot from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' was originally an average man who had volunteered for an experiment to become the ultimate super human, the resulting experiments drove him completely insane and he became a bulletproof, psychotic SerialKiller with the mind of a child.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'''s Naraku. A bandit fails in his attempt to take over his band and ends up a crippled, burnt wreck of a man destined to live out the rest of his life in constant agony. But his PerverseSexualLust for [[{{Miko}} Kikyo]] grows so strong he makes a contract with demons and is transformed into the BigBad.

** The man who would become All For One was one of the first people to develop a Quirk. With his limitless potential, he decided to become a villain, using his power to steal, manipulate, and amass an army of followers. By the time of the story (which takes place about a century later), he has ruled the criminal underworld with an iron fist that entire time, and even after being defeated [[IRegretNothing doesn't see a need to change]]. When All Might asks why, he just shrugs and says he wanted to.

** Among Luffy’s crew, Nami, Chopper and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook whom served a kingdom) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin’s mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Chopper and Franky being abandoned by their familes. Yet they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and crew members of a Yonko]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Worth noting Zoro like Nami, Chopper and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo but WordOfGod and Wano arc reveal he’s connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.

** Buggy the Clown is an interesting example. On his first appearance, he's the arc's BigBad. Shortly afterwards, he comes back to take revenge on Luffy, and the only thing that keeps him from succeeding is being struck by lightning. He doesn't appear again until a few hundred chapters later, when the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil has left him in the dust. But one thing leads to another, resulting in him amassing a powerful crew from [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down]] [[spoiler:and becoming a Warlord after the time-skip]] and later [[spoiler:joining the Four Emperors]] during the Wano arc. Yeah, he's a nightmare in the eyes of the general public, but the Straw Hats and everyone beyond the fourth wall knows that he's just a [[FakeUltimateHero Fake Ultimate Villain]]. On the other hand, WordOfGod confirmed once that Buggy falls under the BrilliantButLazy category; it is fully possible that he TookALevelInBadass during the time skip to become worthy of his position…but that's yet to be seen.
** Another example is Eustass Kid, who managed to get his 470,000,000 Beli bounty by sheer quantity of criminal activities, rather than being regarded as a significant threat to the World Government.

** Garou, who went from a kid who found it extremely unfair that the bad guys in his favourite cartoons never won despite their effort, to a menace that wiped the floor with everyone that wasn't the protagonist in an effort to become the ultimate villain.
** Saitama takes this to new heights. At the beginning of it all, he was just a recently-fired salaryman whose life felt rather meaningless. One battle against the aforementioned crab monster later, he decided he wanted to be a hero no matter what, and started training like hell to achieve it. Three years later, he's a super-bald, super-strong, super-fast, and super-durable engine of mass destruction that could punch a hole through the world on a very lazy day, and can't seem to hold back enough to make his fights last because he's so ridiculously overpowered.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Done in the [[{{Anime}} Gotei 13]] [[{{Filler}} Invasion Arc]]. [[ArcVillain Ouko Yushima]] began as a very weak and pathetic shinigami who didn't have the strength to fight in battle or master his [[EmpathicWeapon Zanpakuto]]. He therefore decided to split himself and his Zanpakuto apart into two mod-souls that could master his powers, the first mod-soul was the apparent Arcvillain Kageroza Inaba and the second mod-soul was the apparent heroine Nozomi Kujo. Kageroza could manipulate space-time, bring the dead back to life and was so powerful he could defeat Ichigo and Yamamoto at the same time. Nozomi could absorb reiatsu, steal the powers of others, combine them with her own power and use it as super-powerful attack, and heal better than even Orihime, and she was so powerful she could fight Kageroza even when Yamamoto himself could not. The origins of the powers of both mod-souls were never explained as none of them were abilities of the original Zanpakuto, but when the two were recombined back into Yushima, he was able to combine all these powers to become a threat to the very existence of Soul Society itself. Being an IneffectualLoner, he was defeated by both ThePowerOfFriendship and ThePowerOfLove.

** Ken started out as a lonely child who was always in the shadow of his older brother; however, after his death a series of events lead to him becoming the evil Digimon Emperor.

*** It bears noting that Goku's power level as a baby was rather weak by Saiyan standards. Which makes him becoming the greatest warrior on Earth all the more impressive.

** Jiren is a Goku’s EvilCounterpart when it comes to this, he was just some little [[TheGreys grey alien]] on a backwater planet whose parents were killed by a demon and he even found (and lost) an adoptive father like Goku but unlike Goku who was discovered by Bulma, Jiren’s life didn’t improve and he developed a MightMakesRight philosophy that soon fashioned him into TheDreaded strongest fighter in the multiverse.

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' has the Chimera Ants, initially a species of small insects that take on traits of the animals they eat; other than that, they're garden variety bugs. They're even first mentioned by a character as a dining delicacy. That's until a rare six foot tall specimen starts eating literally everything from animals to Nen users, creating an army of animal hybrids capable of fighting and overpowering the elite officials of the Hunter Organization. And her heir offspring eventually gets so strong, that he's the closest thing to a PhysicalGod before [[spoiler: the strongest human, Nukes him to kill him off in order to prevent him from destroying humanity, even then the blast didn't kill him, only the radiation sickness that followed it.]].

** Once upon a time, there was a young boy who dreamed of becoming a hero but his father rejected the notion because his own mother, gave him up for adoption to protect him from her enemies. The boy would never know the truth about his grandmother at that time. The boy would [[AbusiveParents suffer his father's wrath sunrise to sunset]]. [[UselessBystanderParent The mother and her family would do nothing lest they suffer too]]. The stress of this lifestyle would cause the boy's skin to itch. All it took was one really bad day for the boy to finally snap and [[SelfMadeOrphan kill his father]]. Unfortunately the rest of the family had the misfortune to get caught in the crossfire. [[FromBadToWorse Then the world's greatest villain of took the boy under his wing]]. The boy thought what's the point of saving this damaged world so I might as well destroy it completely. The boy's name? Tomura Shigaraki.

** Among Luffy’s crew, Nami and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook whom served a kingdom) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin’s mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Franky an abandoned child respectively. Yet they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and crew members of a Yonko]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Worth noting Zoro like Nami and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo but WordOfGod and Wano arc reveal he’s connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.

** Jiren is a Goku’s EvilCounterpart when it comes to this, he was just some little [[TheGreys grey alien]] on a backwater planet who’s parents were killed by a demon and even found (and lost) an adoptive father like Goku but unlike Goku who was discovered by Bulma, Jiren’s life didn’t improve and developed a MightMakesRight philosophy that soon fashioned him into TheDreaded strongest fighter in the multiverse.

** Among Luffy’s crew, Nami and Franky are definite examples of this. Unlike the rest of the crew (even Brook whom served a kingdom) they come from absolute nothing, having no great birthright nor relation to anyone important (e.g Luffy, Sanji and Usopp have famous fathers and Robin’s mother was an radical archaeologist hunted by the government) with Nami being an orphan of people killed by pirates and Franky an abandoned child respectively. Yet they have both still managed to become famous pirates [[spoiler:and crew members of a Yonko]] despite starting off as virtually nobodies in the grand scheme of the world. Worth noting Zoro like Nami and Franky used to count too, being some rural kid from East Blue who TookALevelInBadass upon joining the sword dojo but WordOfGod and Wano arc reveal he’s connected to the famous Shimotsuki Family.

** Once upon a time, there was a young boy who dreamed of becoming a hero but his father rejected the notion because his own mother, gave him up for adoption to protect him from her enemies. The boy would never know the truth about his grandmother at that time. The boy would [[AbusiveParents suffer his father's wrath sunrise to sunset]]. [[UselessBystanderParent The mother and her family would do nothing lest they suffer too]]. The stress of this lifestyle would cause the boy's skin to itch. All it took was one really bad day for the boy to finally snap and [[SelfMadeOrphan kill his father]]. Unfortunately the rest of the family had the misfortune to get caught in the crossfire. [[FromBadToWorse Then the greatest villain of the world took the boy under his wing]]. The boy thought what's the point of saving this damaged world so I might as well destroy it completely. The boy's name? Tomura Shigaraki.

** Once upon a time, there was a young boy who dreamed of becoming a hero but his father rejected the notion because his own mother, gave him up for adoption to protect him from her enemies. The boy would never know the truth about his grandmother at that time. The boy would [[AbusiveParents suffer his father's wrath sunrise to sunset]]. [[UselessBystanderParent The mother and her family would do nothing lest they suffer too]]. The stress of this lifestyle would cause the boy's skin to itch. All it took was one really bad day for the boy to finally snap and [[SelfMadeOrphan kill his father]]. Unfortunately the rest of the family to get caught in the crossfire. [[FromBadToWorse Then the greatest villain of the world took the boy under his wing]]. The boy thought what's the point of saving this damaged world so I might as well destroy it completely. The boy's name? Tomura Shigaraki.

** Once upon a time, there was a young boy who dreamed of becoming a hero but his father rejected the notion because his own mother, gave him up for adoption to protect him from her enemies. The boy would never know the truth about his grandmother at that timr. The boy would [[AbusiveParents suffer his father's wrath sunrise to sunset]]. [[UselessBystanderParent The mother and her family would do nothing lest they suffer too]]. The stress of this lifestyle would cause the boy's skin to itch. All it took was one really bad day for the boy to finally snap and [[SelfMadeOrphan kill his father]]. Unfortunately the rest of the family to get caught in the crossfire. [[FromBadToWorse Then the greatest villain of the world took the boy under his wing]]. The boy thought what's the point of saving this damaged world so I might as well destroy it completely. The boy's name? Tomura Shigaraki.