History FromNobodyToNightmare / AnimeAndManga

* Suitengu, the BigBad of ''SpeedGrapher'' started out as a nice (possibly SpoiledSweet) Japanese teenager who loved his little sister. Then, {{Evil Debt Collector}}s [[DrivenToSuicide drove]] [[ParentalAbandonment his parents]] [[DrivenToSuicide to suicide]], and he and his sister were taken as slaves- she was sold into prostitution and he was made into a ChildSoldier immediately after some rich guy paid to rape him. After surviving a bunch of battles, he was badly injured, and some scientists decide to do a bit of PlayingWithSyringes and make him into a PersonOfMassDestruction (he also gets a BloodbathVillainOrigin when he slaughters the soldiers who tried to cover up the experiment by killing him). After returning to Japan, within a period of about a decade, he goes from "some guy" to knowing (and knowing the dirt on) the most powerful people in Japanese society.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', both hero of the show Monkey D. Luffy and his EvilCounterpart Marshall D. Teach/Blackbeard have amassed great infamy in just under a year, from being some no-named rookie on the East Blue, the weakest sea in the world, to having a 400 Million beli bounty, and pegged as a future threat with no end in sight for Luffy, and from being a random GiantMook for Whitebeard's 2nd Division to killing a high-ranking commander and becoming one of the Shichibukai, the World Government's group of PsychoForHire pirates, by beating the man formerly in charge of him, and Luffy's NighInvulnerable brother for Blackbeard, also still growing too. The rest of the Eleven Supernovas, a group Luffy is sort-of part of with TheLancer Zoro, also counts as well. [[spoiler:Granted, this depends on your definition of 'nobody', as Luffy is 1) the grandson of a military hero, 2) the son of a dangerous rebel leader, and 3) the adoptive brother of the former Pirate King's son.]]

*** And at the end of the 2-year TimeSkip, [[spoiler:we find out he's no longer part of the Shichibukai... because in that time he's become Whitebeard's replacement among the Yonkou, ''the'' mightiest pirates in the world, each of them powerful enough to make the Marines and the World Government crap their pants.]]
** 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 Shichibukai after the time-skip.]] 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]]…that is, unless he's [[TookALevelInBadass Taken a Level in Badass]] during the time skip, but that's yet to be seen.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Kaneki slowly becomes an AntiHero version of this trope. He begins the story as a meek college student, but his life takes a ''very'' different turn when he's transformed into a HalfHumanHybrid. After Yamori tortures him, he decides that he will "[[KillEmAll remove]] [[PayEvilUntoEvil all the weeds]]" and spends six months becoming one of the most feared Ghouls in Tokyo. Between [[spoiler: satisfying his HorrorHunger through cannibalism and slaughtering the members of the Ghoul Restaurant]], he becomes something of a mythological figure feared by Ghouls and [[TheHunter CCG]] alike. Our first glimpse of him after the TimeSkip is an ominous figure in shadows with one glowing eye, as imagined by a group discussing the infamous "One-Eye".

* [[{{NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast}} General Esdeath]] from [[{{Manga/AkamegaKiru}} Akame ga Kill]], who started out as a normal, [[{{LackofEmpathy}} if slightly maladjusted]], little girl living in an Arctic tribe with her single father. Fifteen years, the death of her father, and a few mass slaughters later, she's the most feared woman in the entire Empire, a {{One Man Army}} that can create glaciers out of thin air, [[spoiler: freeze space and time]], defeat entire armies of men twenty thousand strong, and knows a lot more about torture than any normal person should. Oh, and did we mention that somewhere along the way she got a demon in her head that (figuratively) tells her to burn things? When Najenda said she was the scariest person in the Empire, ''she wasn't lying.''

* Ken from Digimon 02 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.

** Also played straight with Naraku as well, originally a manipulator hiding in the shadows, after gaining more and more pieces of the Shikon Jewel, he becomes able to spawn overpowered demons and even becomes a powerful great demon after a gambit in the Mt. Hakurei arc.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', both hero of the show Monkey D. Luffy and his EvilCounterpart Marshall D. Teach/Blackbeard have amassed great infamy in just under a year, from being some no-named rookie on the East Blue, the weakest sea in the world, to having a 400 Million beli bounty, and pegged as a future threat with no end in sight for Luffy, and from being a random GiantMook for Whitebeard's 2nd Division to killing a high-ranking commander and becoming one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the World Government's group of PsychoForHire pirates, by beating the man formerly in charge of him, and Luffy's NighInvulnerable brother for Blackbeard, also still growing too. The rest of the Eleven Supernovas, a group Luffy is sort-of part of with TheLancer Zoro, also counts as well. [[spoiler:Granted, this depends on your definition of 'nobody', as Luffy is 1) the grandson of a military hero, 2) the son of a dangerous rebel leader, and 3) the adoptive brother of the former Pirate King's son.]]

*** And at the end of the 2-year TimeSkip, [[spoiler:we find out he's no longer part of the Seven Warlords... because in that time he's become Whitebeard's replacement among the Four Emperors, ''the'' mightiest pirates in the world, each of them powerful enough to make the Marines and the World Government crap their pants.]]
** 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.]] 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]]…that is, unless he's [[TookALevelInBadass Taken a Level in Badass]] during the time skip, but that's yet to be seen.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Done in the [[{{Anime}} Gotei 13]] [[{{Filler}} Invasion Arc]]. [[ArcVillain Ouka Yushima]] began as a very weak and pathetic shinigami who didn't have the strength to fight in battle or master his [[EmpathicWeapon zanpakutou]]. He therefore decided to split himself and his zanpakutou apart into two modsoul beings that could master his powers. The one modsoul was the apparent villain Kageroga and the second modsoul was the apparent heroine Nozomi. Kageroga 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, she was so powerful she could fight Kageroza even when Yamamoto himself could not. Where the modsoul powers came from is never explained as none of them were abilities of the original zanpakutou, but when the two were recombined back into Yushima, he was able to combine all these powers to destroy the very existence of Soul Society itself. Being an IneffectualLoner, he was defeated by both ThePowerOfFriendship and ThePowerOfLove.

* Pretty much any Puella Magi in any version of ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' could qualify; most of them were ordinary girls upon making their [[DealWithTheDevil contract]], and many of those were so desperate they needed the wish. Upon making the contract, they become powerful magical warriors who tend to treat the rest of humanity as livestock. [[spoiler: When they [[TheCorruption become Witches]], they almost universally qualify; particularly the apocalyptically powerful Kreimhild Gretchen, born from someone who described herself as [[HeroicSelfDeprecation not having any real talents.]]]] Homura is a particular example; as we learn, before the series, she was a meek and flustered IllGirl who seemed fairly weak even after contracting. [[spoiler: By the end of TheMovie, she's a GodOfEvil.]]

* [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Hell]] from ''MazingerZ'' started like an unwanted son born in a pauper, ordinary family was -psychologically and physically- [[AbusiveParents abused by his mother]], berated by his teachers and bullied by his classmates. Thirty years later he was designing {{Doomsday Device}}s for AdolfHitler and experimenting with human beings in Auschwitz. Forty years later he was trying to TakeOverTheWorld and enslaving humankind with an army of HumongousMecha. [[spoiler:And in ''GreatMazinger'' he was handed over the command of the entire army of the Mykene Empire.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Done in the [[{{Anime}} Gotei 13]] [[{{Filler}} Invasion Arc]]. [[ArcVillain Ouka Yushima]] began as a very weak and pathetic shinigami who didn't have the strength to fight in battle or master his [[EmpathicWeapon zanpakutou]]. He therefore decided to split himself and his zanpakutou apart into two modsoul beings that could master his powers. The one modsoul was the [[VillainSue apparent villain]] Kageroga and the second modsoul was the [[CreatorsPet apparent heroine]] Nozomi. Kageroga 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, she was so powerful she could fight Kageroza even when Yamamoto himself could not. Where the modsoul powers came from is never explained as none of them were abilities of the original zanpakutou, but when the two were recombined back into Yushima, he was able to combine all these powers to destroy the very existence of Soul Society itself. Being an IneffectualLoner, he was defeated by both ThePowerOfFriendship and ThePowerOfLove.

* Seto Kaiba from the original ''Anime/YuGiOh'' was, along with his brother, a penniless orphan until he won a bet with billionaire Gozaburo Kaiba and was adopted by him. He then proceeded to take over [=KaibaCorp=] in a hostile takeover, remake it as a totally different company, and before his first birthday, become, along with Pegasus, one of the two biggest names in Duel Monsters. Of course the "nightmare" part comes in with how ruthless and cruel he could be early on, being almost as bad a corporate tycoon as his father (and in the manga version, trying to ''murder'' Yugi and his friends in the "Death-T" complex). He toned down a little later, but was still a man to be feared.

** ''Every one'' of the android villains from the BadFuture of season two - Aporia, Paradox, Bruno, and Z-One himself - were nothing but four common soldiers in the ragtag army of civilians who were brave enough to try fight the horde of Meklords; they were simply the only ones lucky enough to survive. Unfortunately, their attempt to MakeRightWhatOnceWentWrong turned them into {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who caused Zero Reverse and almost made it worse.

** 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.]] 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]].

* In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn]],'' Buch Concern, the salvage firm Banagher Links works a part-time job at, is run by the business-oriented Ronah family. The only real notable thing about them at that point in the UC timeline is that they had taken (and bought) their last name from an impoverished line of European nobles. In less than 30 years, that same family would have enough manpower, resources and influence to forge their own realm almost overnight: Cosmo Babylonia from ''GundamF91''.

** From England's perspective, America could be seen as this. He went from a young child of a colony to declaring independence as as a strong country to being a global superpower.

** Buggy the Clown is an interesting example. Last time he appeared, he wasn't much stronger than he was back at the start of the series, but thanks to his growing [[FakeUltimateHero Fake Ultimate Villain]] status, he's amassed a powerful crew from Impel Down [[spoiler: and was made a Warlord after the time-skip.]]

* Dio Brando of ''JoJosBizarreAdventure'' began life as an intelligent, but frustrated (and nigh psychotically [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]]) son of a petty thief in England, 1800s. From there, he quickly became a ''vampire'', a [[spoiler:HeroKiller]], attempted to raise a zombie army to take over the world, gained the psychic power to [[spoiler:[[TimeStandsStill freeze time]]]], and even after his death, continues to weigh heavily on the setting. It gets to the point that Dio mentored a FromNobodyToNightmare villain of his ''own'', [[spoiler:Father Enrico Pucci]], who through him, [[spoiler:''succeeded in rewriting the entire universe!'']]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', both hero of the show Monkey D. Luffy and his EvilCounterpart Marshall D. Teach/Blackbeard have amassed great infamy in just under a year, from being some no-named rookie on the East Blue, the weakest sea in the world, to having a 400 Million beli bounty, and pegged as a future threat with no end in sight for Luffy, and from being a random GiantMook for Whitebeard's 2nd Division to killing a high-ranking commander and becoming one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the World Government's group of PsychoForHire pirates, by beating the man formerly in charge of him, and Luffy's NighInvulnerable brother for Blackbeard, also still growing too. The rest of the Eleven Supernovas, a group Luffy is sort-of part of with TheLancer Zoro, also counts as well.