History HarmlessVillain / AnimeAndManga

* The [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]] trio from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', who are actually much better at being ''good'' than they are at being ''bad''.
** It is worth mentioning that they were rather more competent and dangerous [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in the early episodes]], to the point of actually being quite intimidating in their first appearance. By the Johto arc, however, they had gone through complete VillainDecay and reached their current status as comic relief. The original creator of the characters, Creator/TakeshiShudo, had by that point lost control of them, and [[CreatorBacklash stated his dissatisfaction with how the characters have devolved]] on his blog.

** Come ''X and Y'', they had once more completely devolved back to the jokes they were, but have moments of competence such as in ''Sun and Moon'' ''where they actually beat Ash for once'' in one episode! Of course, Bewear showed up and dragged them away, but still.

** Come ''X and Y'', they had once more completely devolved back to the jokes they were.

** Speaking of Meta Knight, some of Dedede's Demon Beasts / monsters actually managed to hurt him - which was not what Dedede wanted.

* Clawdia from ''Manga/FightingFoodons''is another example, being incapable of even stealing a certain item such as Chef Crock Pop's scroll (which she ended up replacing with an empty fake scroll) or even the ultimate recipe held at Hamsterdam (in fact, what she got instead, to her embarrassment, was a pair of underpants), and can't even come anywhere near beating Chase and/or any of the other good chefs. One of the times she actually came close to winning for once was siccing a seemingly-indestructible [[MonsterOfTheWeek Bearafooda]] on the good guys in Episode 10 (who of course gained back the upper hand when they used a power topping). [[spoiler:She finally got one more chance to impress King Gorge in the third-to-last episode and she blew it, of course ([[YouHaveFailedMe which in turn leads to Gorge to attempt to kill her as punishment]] only for Chase to stop him, after which she later redeems when Chase and the others break Gorge's spell on her with their food).]]

* Cait Sith Cheshire, from ''Anime/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas'', who is mostly a PluckyComicRelief character who acts more like a servant than a combatant.

* In ''LightNovel/KyoKaraMaoh'', Stoffel is an interesting example, in that he was an EvilChancellor in the past, manipulating the previous Maoh (his sister!) to some pretty extreme ends and generally causing a lot of damage and sorrow to a lot of people. But his villainy is all about politics and manipulation: in the current timeline, the new Maoh's advisors keep a close eye on him, and Yuuri himself is TooDumbToFool into being politically manipulated, so after spending his first appearance trying and failing to win Yuuri's favor and nearly starting a civil war, Stoffel becomes a comically inept sycophantic toady in short order.

* [[DirtyOldMan Happosai]] of Manga/RanmaOneHalf may be this. [[InvokedTrope Invoking]] panty shots, [[PantyThief stealing underwear]], scaring girls, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and overeating]] hardly makes him [[InformedAttribute the demon-in-human-form Soun and Genma claim him to be]], although there's no denying he's a huge JerkAss. Happosai is also a very powerful martial artist, but Ranma can defeat him with ease through [[DistractedByTheSexy distraction]], with only a bucket of [[WeaksauceWeakness cold water]] and the [[BlessedWithSuck Jusenkyo curse]], or even just an item of ladies' underwear.

* [[DirtyOldMan Happosai]] of Manga/RanmaOneHalf may be this. [[InvokedTrope Invoking]] {{Panty Shot}}s, [[PantyThief stealing underwear]], scaring girls, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and overeating]] hardly makes him [[InformedAttribute the demon-in-human-form Soun and Genma claim him to be]], although there's no denying he's a huge JerkAss. Happosai is also a very powerful martial artist, but Ranma can defeat him with ease through [[DistractedByTheSexy distraction]], with only a bucket of [[WeaksauceWeakness cold water]] and the [[BlessedWithSuck Jusenkyo curse]], or even just an item of ladies' underwear.

* The [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]] trio from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', who are actually much better at being ''good'' than they are at being ''bad''.