History ManBehindTheMan / AnimeAndManga

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Zeref is doing the manipulating to bring himself back to life (although he seems to not ''technically'' be dead). Ultear also plays this role both for Lyon and Jellal. Although, in reality that was Ultear pretending to be Zeref. Zeref himself doesn't seem to be aware of any of this stuff happening. Also, her actions are actually done on Hades' commands.

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', at first it seems like the homunculi are simply manipulating the country of Amestris because the Fuhrer, King Bradley, is the homunculus Wrath. Then we find out that Bradley himself is simply the result of an experiment by Father, and that Father has been controlling the entire country behind the scenes since the very day it was established 400 years prior. Most of the military's upper command is fully aware of this fact.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': [[CardCarryingVillain All For One]] is revealed to be the real leader of League of Villain, with [[OmnicidalManiac Tomura Shigaraki]] as the figurehead and AFO's [[TheDragon Dragon]].

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': In manipulating both Misa and Higuchi; Mikami and Takada both count, too. [[Characters/DeathNoteLightYagami Light Yagami]] is the original Kira, functioning through a series of proxies and decoys throughout the series.

** In [[{{Filler}} the New Captain Shusuke Amagai arc]], it's presumed that Kumoi wants to kill Rurichiyo and control the Kasumioji clan, but then when the confrontation comes, Kymoi, Amagai appears out of nowhere, kills him, kidnaps Rurichiyo, and then proceeds to let everyone know his plans to kill Yamamoto, and he used Kumoi and the entire Kasumioji clan to get his hands on a weapon that [[PowerNullifier somehow disables all but his Zanpakutou so he could kill Yamamoto with it]].

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' does this several times in a row in the manga and the anime. After Raditz is defeated, Nappa and Vegeta are revealed to be the Saiyans behind the Saiyan. After they are defeated, King Kai mentions the "root" of the problem, which is shortly afterwards introduced as the Saiyans' (ex-)boss, Frieza. Even later in the series, Frieza's father, King Cold, is introduced and revealed as the secret leader of the Planet Trade Organization, which Frieza supposedly ruled.

** A brief chain of these can be found with the World Government. Behind the mighty Admirals and the Fleet Admiral, who command the actual fleets in the field and [[PersonOfMassDestruction do their own fighting when there's big hitters involved]], are the Gorosei, or Five Elders: Five old men at the head of the Entire World Government, taking decisions even the Admirals find distasteful. And behind these five, standing against the most important principle under which the World Government was founded -- that there wouldn't be a single king to rule over all -- is the enigmatic figure known as Imu, who calls the biggest shots such as what bits of history need to be completely erased.

** In the [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 second season]], we started off with the Digimon Emperor, who later did a HeelFaceTurn and who it was revealed was the pawn of two other villains. They in turn were working for another, who was actually ''possessed'' by still another. It gets even weirder when you realize that some of the Fake Bosses' plans didn't jive well with those of the big man ([=MaloMyotismon=]). So, either Malo had one extremely bizarre GambitRoulette going that he never bothered to explain, or the writers simply decided to fall back on HijackedByGanon.
** The [[Anime/DigimonFrontier fourth season]] had Cherubimon who went corrupt, but it turned out that Lucemon corrupted him and two other Digimon called the Royal Knights into collecting data so he could return.

** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'', it's revealed that the [[NebulousEvilOrganization Red Ribbon Army]] was still active all along under [[TheRemnant Commander Red's son Magenta]], and Dr. Gero was under his payroll the entire time.

** Donquixote Doflamingo is a major underworld figure, supplying weapons left and right, having moles here and there, and even have enough political leverage to get the [[AristocratsAreEvil World Nobles]] to do him favors now and then. He also ate the Ito Ito no Mi, allowing him to produce threads which can be used as RazorFloss and play PeoplePuppets. [[VisualPun He's the man pulling the strings, figuratively and literally.]]
** A brief chain of these can be found with the World Government. Behind the mighty Admirals and the Fleet Admiral, who command the actual fleets in the field and [[PersonOfMassDestruction do their own fighting when there's big hitters involved]], are the Gorosei, or Five Elder Stars: Five old men at the head of the Entire World Government, taking decisions even the Admirals find distasteful. And behind these five, standing against the most important principle under which the World Government was founded -- that there wouldn't be a single king to rule over all -- is the enigmatic figure known as Im, who calls the biggest shots such as what bits of history need to be completely erased.

* ''Anime/BloodPlus'' does this fairly often. In early episodes, Van Argeno is set up as the BigBad; however, after about ten episodes, he's revealed to be working to Solomon. Later, Solomon is shown to actually be the lowest-ranking of five Chevaliers. Then, for a time, their progenitor Diva is expected to be the mastermind, but she turns out to be too crazy to be the leader. By the end, it's become apparent that Amshel is calling the shots, whereas Argeno is reduced to cowering in fear and begging for his life. The final episode also implies that Nathan had been pulling the strings all along.

* ''Manga/GiantRobo'' has Johnny Soccor, the producer of the BF tv network manipulated both GRO and UNISOM into fighting the GR units to sow fear and panic among the people to boost ratings.

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': Late in the manga, it's revealed that Dakki is working for Jouka, one of the [[{{Precursors}} First People who was sealed away for wanting to wipe out everything on Earth and make it into their old homeworld]]. Dakki agreed to help her in exchange for great power, but planned to take over Jyoka's body and use its power to merge with the Earth like the other First People did. Also in turn, Jouka's brother Fukki, along with Genshi Tenson, conspired to prepare the Hoshin plan in order to defeat Jouka once and for all and free the world from History's Signal. Fukki was controlling both sides of the conflict by splicing his soul to create Taikoubou and Ohtenkun.

** [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist The first anime]] has a similar scenario, although it differs in key areas. Dante is the mastermind of this conspiracy and controls the government through Bradley, her ultimate creation. Once the Philosopher Stone that Hohenheim left her began to diminish, she infiltrated the government in order to facilitate the creation of a new one. Unlike in the manga, only Bradley and Tucker seem to be aware of her existence.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' has Naraku, the puppeteer behind just about EVERY conflict in the show, past and present, having manipulated Inu Yasha and Kikyou into fighting each other in order to taint the Shikon no Tama further, who only surfaced after a while in the manga. At the end of the series, Naraku proves to have a man behind ''him'' as well -- the Jewel of Four Souls itself, which actually has a will on his own.

* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'': An unintentional example: Demiurge is the guy who comes up with plans-within-plans, but he thinks his lord and master Ainz already knows of them and in fact already came up with a far better one (because of various coincidences and Ainz doing the wrong thing at the right time, Demiurge is always shocked and amazed to learn that his plans unfolded ahead of schedule, and takes it as Ainz showing Demiurge how it's done). Meanwhile, Ainz is completely at sea about what Demiurge is doing (it took him two seasons to cotton on that Demiurge took his "take over the world" joke at face value) and has to resort to increasingly obvious AsYouKnow instances to get Demiurge to explain the plan to everyone so he can have some idea of what's going on.

* ''Anime/WeissKreuz'': In Season 1, Reiji Takatori is the man behind criminal organizations like the Creeper gang and the Liott prostitution ring, and [[AncientConspiracy Essett]] is behind Takatori. In Season 2, Mayumi Tsujii is behind [[EnfantTerrible Todou]] and [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil S Class]], and Epitaph (and by extension Essett again) is behind Tsujii. Rampant ChronicBackstabbingDisorder -- particularly on the parts of [[ThePsychoRangers Schwarz]], who start out as one of the groups that Reijia Takatori is behind and end up backstabbing their way right out of Essett altogether -- muddies the exact order in both cases.

** A brief chain of these can be found with the World Government. Behind the mighty Admirals and the Fleet Admiral, who command the actual fleets in the field and [[PersonOfMassDestruction do their own fighting when there's big hitters involved]], are the Gorosei, or Five Elder Stars: Five old men at the head of the Entire World Government, taking decisions even the Admirals find distasteful. And behind these five, standing against the most important principle under which the World Government was founded -- that there wouldn't be a single king to rule over all --, is the enigmatic figure known as Im, who calls the biggest shots such as what bits of history need to be completely erased.

** In the [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 second season]], we started off with the Digimon Emperor, who later did a HeelFaceTurn and who it was revealed was the pawn of two other villains. They in turn were working for another, who was actually ''possessed'' by still another. It gets even weirder when you realize that some of the Fake Bosses' plans didn't jive well with those of the big man (Malo Myotismon). So, either Malo had one extremely bizarre GambitRoulette going that he never bothered to explain, or the writers simply decided to fall back on HijackedByGanon.
** The fourth season had Cherubimon who went corrupt, but it turned out that Lucemon corrupted him and two other Digimon called the Royal Knights into collecting data so he could return.

** Donquixote Doflamingo is a major underworld figure, supplying weapons left and right, having moles here and there, and even have enough political leverage to get the [[AristocratsAreEvil World Nobles]] to do him favors now and then. He also ate Ito Ito no Mi, allowing him to produce threads which can be used as RazorFloss and play PeoplePuppets. [[VisualPun He's the man pulling the strings, figuratively and literally.]]
** A brief chain of these can be found with the World Government. Behind the mighty Admirals and the Fleet Admiral, who command the actual fleets in the field and [[PersonOfMassDestruction do their own fighting when there's big hitters involved]], are the Gorosei, or Five Elder Stars: Five old men at the head of the Entire World Government, taking decisions even the Admirals find distasteful. And behind these five, standing against the most important principle under which the World Government was founded, that there wouldn't be a single king to rule over all, is the enigmatic figure known as Im, who calls the biggest shots such as what bits of history need to be completely erased.
* ''Mange/Overlord2012'': An unintentional example: Demiurge is the guy who comes up with plans-within-plans, but he thinks his lord and master Ainz already knows of them and in fact already came up with a far better one (because of various coincidences and Ainz doing the wrong thing at the right time, Demiurge is always shocked and amazed to learn that his plans unfolded ahead of schedule, and takes it as Ainz showing Demiurge how it's done). Meanwhile Ainz is completely at sea about what Demiurge is doing (it took him two seasons to cotton on that Demiurge took his "take over the world" joke at face value) and has to resort to increasingly obvious AsYouKnow to get Demiurge to explain the plan to everyone so he can have some idea of what's going on.

* Shishio is set up as the BigBad of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', but behind him is Enishi, the final villain of the series. Shishio has at his disposal an ultra-modern (for the setting) gunship, which he got through Enishi, who owns a fleet of them, and Enishi's [[TheDragon Dragon]]/ EvilGenius hides among Shishio's group, pretending to be DumbMuscle.

** It goes even further than ''that''. Orochimaru was originally set up as the BigBad, but Itachi seemed to be the GreaterScopeVillain. Then it seemed that Danzo was one to Itachi, but then it was revealed that ''he'' was being manipulated by Tobi and so on and so on.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' exaggerates this trope to absurd extremes. It's first revealed that [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad Akatsuki]] is lead by a mysterious figure known as Pain. Some chapters and an important character death later, we find out that "Pain" is actually a [[PeoplePuppets collection of dead bodies controlled]] by a man named [[DarkMessiah Nagato]], who [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil once studied under the same sensei]] as Naruto. Then Nagato is actually being manipulated by a masked man known by the alias "Tobi" who claims to actually be the legendary shinobi known as [[TheDreaded Madara Uchiha]]. Later on, Tobi [[DeadPersonImpersonation isn't the real Madara Uchiha]], but is actually a former leaf shinobi named [[FallenHero Obito Uchiha]] who used to be a student of Naruto's father and later turned evil. Then, it turns out Obito's [[AssimilationPlot "Moon's Eye Plan"]] was actually the real Madara's plan, and Obito was also supposed to bring Madara back to life to he become the jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails. [[GambitPileup But later we learn that Obito never had any intention of reviving Madara and himself using him in order to become the jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails]]. But then, [[TheSymbiote Black Zetsu]], a mysterious member of Akatsuki and a being that Madara thought he himself had created to carry out his will, is actually carrying out the will of [[AncientAstronauts Princess Kaguya]], an ancient [[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]] whom the current shinobi clans are descended from and who created Black Zetsu centuries ago right before she was [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]] to ensure that she would be revived. And then {{The Movie}}s happened...

** All hints pointed to Gin being the BigBad, but after Aizen is revealed to be alive, he [[BreakTheCutie impales his loving vice captain]] and walks away with Gin following him obediently. It's made even more shocking by the prior implication that they were enemies, and that the former had killed the latter. [[UpToEleven It gets even deeper than that]]. Aizen claims he's basically the man behind the entire series. Ichigo (and Uryu, for that matter), wouldn't have been ''conceived'' if not for Aizen, because he's the reason why Isshin and Masaki even met in the first place.

* ''Anime/TheBraveExpressMightGaine'': The series setups up Exeve as the BigBad, being the catalyst of the events to start the brave express but it's eventually revealed he was just a puppet used by Black Noir. [[UpToEleven It's even implied that there was a higher power behind Black Noir's actions.]]

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' does this several times in a row in the manga and the anime. After Raditz is defeated Nappa and Vegeta are revealed to be the Saiyans behind the Saiyan. After they are defeated, King Kai mentions the "root" of the problem, which is shortly afterwards introduced as the Saiyans' (ex-)boss, Frieza. Even later in the series, Frieza's father, King Cold, is introduced and revealed as the secret leader of the Planet Trade Organization, which Frieza supposedly ruled.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Zeref is doing the manipulating to bring himself back to life (although he seems to not ''technically'' be dead). Ultear also plays this role both for Lyon and Jellal. Although in reality that was Ultear pretending to be Zeref. Zeref himself doesn't seem to be aware of any of this stuff happening. Also, her actions are actually done on Hades' commands.

** A brief chain of these can be found with the World Government. Behind the mighty Admirals, who command the actual fleets in the field and [[PersonOfMassDestruction do their own fighting when there's big hitters involved]], are the Gorosei, or Five Elder Stars: Five old men at the head of the Entire World Government, taking the decisions even the Admirals find distasteful. And behind these five, standing against the most important principle under which the World Government was founded, that there wouldn't be a single king to rule over all, is the enigmatic figure known as Im, who calls the biggest shots such as what bits of history need to be completely erased.

* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'': The main forces on the field seems to be the I.G.O. and the Gourmet Corps led by the villainous Midora. However, the Cooking Festival arc finally introduces a third party, NEO, which masterminded the conflict and is shown to have manipulated both parties in the conflict in order to get their hands on the ultimate food GOD, and whose leader is Dark Chef Joie. Later on, during the final arc, Acacia, the supposed BigGood and Gourmet God, is revealed to be behind NEO and Joie along with the Gourmet Nobles, though the very end reveals that Acacia was GoodAllAlong and teamed up with [[TokenGoodTeammate PAIR]] to concoct an [[TheLongGame extremely long-timed plan]] to free his apocalyptic Appetite Devil Neo and release all the food it ate, which would release countless ingredients and revive the Blue Nitro.

* ''Anime/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' did this every season. In fact, in both seasons, we had a DoubleSubversion of this trope. Season one had Gaito (Gakuto and Gackto in the manga), who was working for Sara, who did a HeelFaceTurn, leaving Gaito as a worse BigBad than Sara was. Season two had Michel's sidekick Fuku appear to be above him but below "That Man", but in the end, That Man was also manipulated by Fuku.

* ''Anime/WeissKreuz'': In season 1, Reiji Takatori is the man behind criminal organizations like the Creeper gang and the Liott prostitution ring, and [[AncientConspiracy Essett]] is behind Takatori. In Season 2, Mayumi Tsujii is behind [[EnfantTerrible Todou]] and [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil S Class]], and Epitaph (and by extension Essett again) is behind Tsujii. Rampant ChronicBackstabbingDisorder -- particularly on the parts of [[ThePsychoRangers Schwarz]], who start out as one of the groups that Reijia Takatori is behind and end up backstabbing their way right out of Essett altogether -- muddies the exact order in both cases.

** Donquixote Doflamingo is a major underworld figure, supplying weapons left and right, having moles here and there, and even have enough political leverage to get the [[AristocratsAreEvil World Nobles]] to do him favors now and then. He also ate Ito Ito no Mi, allowing him to produce threads which can be used as RazorFloss and play PeoplePuppets. [[spoiler:[[VisualPun He's the man pulling the strings, figuratively and literally.]]]]
** A brief chain of these can be found with the World Government. Behind the mighty Admirals, who command the actual fleets in the field and [[PersonOfMassDestruction do their own fighting when there's big hitters involved]], are the Gorosei, or Five Elder Stars: Five old men at the head of the Entire World Government, taking the decisions even the Admirals find distasteful. [[spoiler:And behind these five, standing against the most important principle under which the World Government was founded, that there wouldn't be a single king to rule over all, is the enigmatic figure known as Im, who calls the biggest shots such as what bits of history need to be completely erased]].

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': Late in the manga, it's revealed that Dakki is working for Jouka, one of the [[{{Precursors}} First People who was sealed away for wanting to wipe out everything on Earth and make it into their old homeworld]]. Dakki agreed to help her in exchange for great power, but planned to take over Jyoka's body and use its power to merge with the Earth like the other First People did. Also in turn, [[spoiler:Jouka's brother Fukki, along with Genshi Tenson, conspired to prepare the Hoshin plan in order to defeat Jouka once and for all and free the world from History's Signal. Fukki was controlling both sides of the conflict by splicing his soul to create Taikoubou and Ohtenkun.]]

** The various Titan Shifters are all part of a single unit led by Zeke [[spoiler:Yeager]] aka the Beast Titan. They were sent by the Kingdom of Marley, along with the other mindless, man-eating Titans, to exterminate the population of Paradis so Marley could seize the rich fossil fuel deposits of the island.

** The biggest one though is [[spoiler:[[VillainProtagonist Eren Yeager]] himself, who used the MentalTimeTravel abilities of the Attack Titan to influence events all throughout the series in order to set himself up to acquire the power of the Founding Titan so he could use it to [[OmnicidalManiac exterminate all life outside Paradis]].]]

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Zeref is doing the manipulating to bring himself back to life (although he seems to not ''technically'' be dead). Ultear also plays this role both for Lyon and Jellal. Although in reality that was [[spoiler:Ultear pretending to be Zeref]]. Zeref himself doesn't seem to be aware of any of this stuff happening. Also, her actions are actually done on Hades' commands.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' has Naraku, the puppeteer behind just about EVERY conflict in the show, past and present, having manipulated Inu Yasha and Kikyou into fighting each other in order to taint the Shikon no Tama further, who only surfaced after a while in the manga. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Naraku proves to have a man behind ''him'' as well -- the Jewel of Four Souls itself, which actually has a will on his own.]]

** Big Mom is one of the four strongest pirates in ''Manga/OnePiece'', a tyrant in the New World who, along with her children and other allies, can eliminate the armies of entire countries and get them to submit to her. She was not always like this though -- she was always incredibly strong, but she was once kind-hearted. Who made her that way? It's [[spoiler:Streusen, a no-name cook]] who decided he would use her raw strength to achieve his own goals of being in control of people. [[spoiler:He met Big Mom when she was still a child and has since effortlessly manipulated her actions so that she would become the conqueror she is at the present while he stays free of suspicion as her head chef.]]

* ''Manga/SamuraiDeeperKyo'' starts with Genma, leader of the Three-Color Gang, mention a "certain person" who ordered him to find and kill Kyo, and later the mysterious Twelve Heavenly Generals, who appears to work for the same person and with the same objective. Said lord is later revealed to be a revived [[DemonKingNobunaga Oda Nobunaga]], who was killed by Kyo in the past and know wants revenge. Later on, it's revealed that Nobunaga and the Twelve Generals were actually supplied and supported from the shadows by the Mibu clan, a legendary clan of divine-like figures who have secretly controlled Japan from the shadows since ancient times. The Mibu proves to be the origins of the troubles for pretty much every single character: Sasuke (an ArtificialHuman made by them), Yuya ([[spoiler:her missing dead brother was a Mibu Shaman who figured out their secret]]), Benitora (The Mibu want to eradicate the Tokugawa for usurping Nobunaga's place as the Shogun), Kyoshiro ([[spoiler:former Mibu higher up]]) and Kyo himself, [[spoiler:who's actually a true-blooded Mibu.]]

* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'': The main forces on the field seems to be the I.G.O. and the Gourmet Corps led by the villainous Midora. However, the Cooking Festival arc finally introduces a third party, NEO, which masterminded the conflict and is shown to have manipulated both parties in the conflict in order to get their hands on the ultimate food GOD, and whose leader is [[spoiler:Dark Chef Joie]]. Later on, during the final arc, [[spoiler:Acacia, the supposed BigGood and Gourmet God, is revealed to be behind NEO and Joie along with the Gourmet Nobles, though the very end reveals that Acacia was GoodAllAlong and teamed up with [[TokenGoodTeammate PAIR]] to concoct an [[TheLongGame extremely long-timed plan]] to free his apocalyptic Appetite Devil Neo and release all the food it ate, which would release countless ingredients and revive the Blue Nitro.]]

* ''Anime/WeissKreuz'': In season 1, Reiji Takatori is the man behind criminal organizations like the Creeper gang and the Liott prostitution ring, and [[AncientConspiracy Essett]] is behind Takatori. In Season 2, Mayumi Tsujii is behind [[EnfanteTerrible Todou]] and [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil S Class]], and Epitaph (and by extension Essett again) is behind Tsujii. Rampant ChronicBackstabbingDisorder -- particularly on the parts of [[ThePsychoRangers Schwarz]], who start out as one of the groups that Reijia Takatori is behind and end up backstabbing their way right out of Essett altogether -- muddies the exact order in both cases.