Eviler Than Thou / Anime & Manga

• Baccano! finishes off the Flying Pussyfoot incident with a train-top show-off between the Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire Ladd Russo and the Ax-Crazy Awesome Sociopathic Hero Claire Stanfield. In this case it's not so much Eviler than Thou as Crazier Than Thou (especially since Claire is actually fairly heroic and virtuous compared to Ladd)
  • In addition, in the DVD bonus episodes, Ladd and Claire both separately have Crazier-Than-Thou showdowns with Talkative Loon Graham Spector.
    • And then Claire gets into a Crazier-Than-Thou match with Psychopathic Manchild Christopher Shouldered in the Light Novels. (For those wondering, by the way: nobody is crazier than Claire.)
  • There's also a strange, ongoing Eviler Than Thou competition going on between Fermet and Elmer. Fermet considers Elmer his nemesis, and has tried long and hard to break him through tormenting his loved ones and tearing down any faith in the world he might have - something that's entirely ineffective, because Elmer's a genuine sociopath, only sees his "loved ones" as tools, doesn't give a damn about the world beyond what he can get out of it, and couldn't care less about how vile his self-proclaimed "nemesis" may be. While Fermet may be an awful human being, as far as he's concerned, Elmer is far worse.
    Fermet: Your existence itself is a world-destroying evil.
• The current battle between the newly-reincarnated Griffith and Emperor Ganishka in Berserk.
• Black Lagoon: caps off its Hansel and Gretel arc with a confrontation between insane child-mercenary Hansel and charismatic mafia queen Balalaika. Balalaika uses snipers to effortlessly fell the psychopath and then delivers a crushing Breaking Speech to him as he bleeds to death on the floor in front of her.
• Mayuri Kurotsuchi VS Szayelaporro Granz in Bleach, though it is less an "Eviler Than Thou" moment so much as "More Crazy-Prepared Than Thou".
  • Though Mayuri's "The Reason You Suck" Speech is all about what he sees as the unscientific nature of Szayelaporro's way of thinking. "More Mad Scientific Than Thou"?
• This isn't really touched by the actual villains in Death Note, but in the manga, Rem really starts to see Light Yagami's good points when a Corrupt Corporate Executive obtains his Artifact of Doom.
• Dragon Ball:
  • In Dragon Ball Z, Frieza proves to be this to Vegeta, even to the point of making the latter cry and beg Goku to defeat him, claiming that Frieza is the reason why he and most of his race ended up the way they did.
  • Dragon Ball Super reinforces this trope with Frieza. Whenever he shows up, the story goes out of its way to portray him as more evil than any other villains who happen to be around. King Yemma even states that most other villains that Goku has fought over the years have had their souls purified in Hell and been reincarnated, but Frieza's soul is still intact because he's actively resisting being purified, simply out of pure spite. Particularly in the Tournament of Power, wherein Universe 9, ruled by incompetent gods with a smarmy, greedy Supreme Kai, are horrified by Frieza's willingness to betray his own Universe if it meant an advantage, and he betrays his Universe 6 counterpart, Frost, while cruelly mocking him for being too soft and trusting (for the record, Frost has deliberately engineered genocides and profiteered off the ensuing wars).
• El-Hazard: The Magnificent World: Jinnai joins the heroes at the last possible moment due to an Enemy Mine situation — whereas the Phantom Tribe want to destroy the world, he wants to save the world so that he still has a chance of ruling it someday.
• From Chapters 75 to 77 of the Manga Elfen Lied, we have a three-way portrayal of this trope, showing the three most dangerously psychotic characters from the whole Manga fighting one another: Lucy, Bando, and The Unknown Man.
• Played with in Fairy Tail. Master Hades, leader of Grimoire Heart, had his entire Evil Plan revolve around using Zeref to create a utopia ruled by mages. Despite the fact that Zeref had been built up throughout the entire series as the Greater-Scope Villain, when he finally appears on screen, it turns out he's a self-loathing Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who wants absolutely nothing to do with Hades or his Evil Plan, and kills Hades on the spot.
  • Played straight when Minerva, a notorious Jerkass and all around psycho from previous chapters who joined a Dark Guild for entirely Sore Loser related reasons, comes face to face with Kyouka, and is immediately horrified at Kyouka's merciless slaughter of her entire guild, with the dismissive reasoning behind it being "They were weak." When someone like Minerva is shitting herself in terror, you know this person is bad news.
    • And then we have Kyouka cowering in fear of MARD GEER!!! She acted like a battered housewife right in front of him! For good reason to, as he proceeds to torture her and callously wipe out his own Mooks in order to defeat Fairy Tail, which horrified even her.
  • And Mard Geer himself finds in this position when Zeref shows off his new malevolent turn by killing Mard while he's helpless and begging Zeref for another chance.
  • Worst of all, Zeref states that using the Fairy Heart to go One-Winged Angel is the only way for him to defeat Acnologia, the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, and without it even he is absolutely helpless. Sure enough, Acnologia is the True Final Boss of the series, requiring more power to stop than even Fairy Heart Zeref.
• The epic match between Ryo Mashiba vs. Ryuuhei Sawamura in Hajime no Ippo. They even let off lines like "If Mashiba is a demon, then Sawamura is the devil himself". Naturally, the match involves lots of brutal cheating on both sides. In the match however, Mashiba practically loses the veneer of humanity he had and proceeds to lay down a savage beating on Sawamura, gloating over the fact that his bloodlust is back and that he silenced his own fandom with his cruel actions. Mashiba gets disqualified for it, making Sawamura the winner, but technically Mashiba was the better boxer.
• Inuyasha:
  • Done all the time by Naraku. He's constantly employing lesser villains to help him out and ultimately they die, sometimes due to his direct influence. Seemingly subverted when Naraku is absorbed and seemingly killed by Moryumaru, but later on we find out Naraku let Moryumaru absorb him so he (Naraku) could absorb Moryumaru from the inside-out, proving anew Naraku is Eviler than Thou.
  • In the second movie, Naraku is killed during the opening credits, but it turns out it's a ploy to lure the film's main villain out of hiding so Naraku can kill her and steal her powers, and thus he returns at the climax alive and well. Nonetheless, Kaguya proves the greater evil than Naraku this round and sends him packing. When he appears yet again to absorb her while she's distracted, InuYasha blasts him with a Wind Scar, and he calls it quits... for that movie.
• Jujutsu Kaisen:
  • Ryomen Sukuna, period.
    • After Yuji forces Sukuna to take his place as the Finger Bearer is about to kill him, Sukuna reluctantly curbstomps the cursed spirit with the same ease one would swat a fly. This, while letting it know exactly how weak he thinks it is.
    • The Disaster Curses spend a lot of time plotting and scheming to have cursed spirits take humanity's place as Earth's dominant lifeform, and attempt to recruit Sukuna to their cause; the King of Curses quickly makes it clear thta not only does he have no interest in working with them, he's offended that they think they can stand on equal ground.
      • When Mahito attempts to force him to come out during his fight with Yuji, Sukuna drags Mahito to his Mental World and warns him not to touch his soul again. When Mahito does so again by accident after Yuji forces his way into his Domain, Sukuna effortlessly slashes Mahito and injures him to the point he has to retreat before Yuji and Nanami can kill him.
      • When Jogo forces Sukuna to come out by force-feeding his fingers to Yuji, Sukuna slashes the top of his head off for only getting on one knee, and threatens to kill him if he speaks out of turn. Once Sukuna deigns to give him his attention, Jogo counsels him to form a Binding Vow with Yuji so that he's permanently in control; Sukuna ignores his counsel in favor of his own plans and challenges him to a fight, promising to join him if Jogo can land a single hit on him. Needless to say, Sukuna spends the entire fight toying with Jogo, who can't so much as scratch him even with his strongest techniques. That being said, Sukuna enjoys their fight enough to commend Jogo's strength in his final moments, which makes the Disaster Curse cry.
    • After stealing Megumi's body for himself, Sukuna fights and kills Yorozu, who has taken the body of Megumi's sister Tsumiki, using nothing but Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique, solely so that he can crush Megumi's spirit by indirectly forcing him to kill Tsumiki, not giving a damn that Yorozu is attempting to display her affection for him in her own psychotic way.
  • Kenjaku shows that he's a bigger threat than even Mahito when he shows up at the end of the Shibuya Incident to harvest the latter and steal his cursed technique.
• Goes along with the Sorting Algorithm of Evil in Kinnikuman and its sequel Ultimate Muscle. At first, there's the Zangyaku/Brutal Choujin, who have no shame in fighting dirty. They don't kill unless they absolutely have to. Then we get the Akuma/Demon Choujin, who fight to kill but have a strong sense of friendship and morals. Then we get the Perfect Choujin, who feel they can do whatever they want provided their "rules" such as "Never lose, use weapons, or show emotion" don't forbid it. Then we now have the Jikan/Time Choujin, who don't even care if they mess up history to achieve their nefarious goals.
• Lone Wolf and Cub has Abe-no-Kaii making a pretty good try at this trope, what with his willingness to poison a whole river just to kill Itto, or leaves poisoned spikes on the ground to kill Itto, plus his tendency to drink urine for no particular reason. Culminates in his accidentally flooding all of Edo, probably killing thousands. The regular evil, Retsudo Yagyu, eventually sets him up for suicide after Kaii betrays Yagyu.
• Magic Knight Rayearth II has the girls fending off three invading nations that are all plotting against each other. But when Lady Debonair starts showing up, she ends up coming off as a far more imposing threat.
• In Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, the mercenary Black Beauty Sisters agree to work for both Gackto and Michel so that they can gain powerful humanoid forms. Both times, they plot against their superiors as soon as they get enough power (although in the second season of the anime, their betrayal comes out of a Heel–Face Turn rather than greed, as opposed to the manga). They're quickly found out both times before they can do anything. Gackto is nice enough just to turn them back into fish. Michel, however, absorbs their souls in the anime; he has a much worse punishment in the manga.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the Trinity Siblings are despicable mass murderers who commit atrocities under the faulty belief that they will stop wars from happening... when all they do is kill good people and ruin lives as a result. Then they have the misfortune of running into Ali Al-Saachez, a man who absolutely loves war, mass murder, and battle for no other reason than he lives and dies for it. Tricking them into thinking he's their ally, Ali kills Michael by shooting him without warning, then mercilessly kills Johann by stealing Michael's Throme Zwei and blowing the Throne Eins to smithereens. Had not Setsuna arrived, Nena would've also been killed right there (though she does end up dying, it's much later and at the hands of someone else).
• In Monster, many have tried to manipulate Johan Liebert for their own means. Johan shows these people that Evil Is Not a Toy. He follows along with them to achieve his own plans but as soon as they have served their purpose, he disposes of them without a second thought. There are also quite a few insane serial killers who meet him and instantly realize that they are way out of their league and become awed by him. For example, one who believed he was a vampire, later claimed he was a mere baby bat compared to him.
• Tobi and Kabuto spent most of the Fourth Shinobi World War Arc competing for the Big Bad position of Naruto. Tobi was presented as the traditional Big Bad and had far more influence over the story than Kabuto, but Kabuto had a trump card over him, along with the Story-Breaker Power of Edo Tensei. Their goal was to gain the power of the Sage of Six Paths but each went to do it in their own way. Kabuto planned to achieve this by getting Sasuke's body and developing his Sharingan into a Rinnegan. Tobi planned to achieve this by resurrecting the Ten-Tails in order to become its Jinchuuriki and advance his plan known as Infinite Tsukuyomi. The conflict has been resolved with Kabuto being defeated by Sasuke and one of his resurrected pawns Itachi, his trump card (the real Madara Uchiha) breaking free of Edo Tensei, and Tobi having used two resurrected shinobi who owned Nine-Tails chakra to resurrect the Ten-Tails in any case.
• In One Piece, Capone Bege thinks he can take on Big Mom. He is wrong. And Big Mom also pulls it on Vinsmoke Judge simultaneously.
• Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns: Domino proves herself to be q greater evil than Jessie, James, and Meowth; after revealing herself as a Team Rocket Elite, she pops the trio's balloon while expressing disgust at their bumbling natures and declaring them a disgrace to Team Rocket. Later, she frees them from a cage simply to force them to work as cleaning staff.
  • Jessie, James, and Meowth also often got this from Butch and Cassidy in the early seasons, at least before the latter were Flanderized to become just as incompetent as them.
• Shinzo: Queen Rusephine uses her time travel powers to summon a past version of the Dark King Mushrambo so that he'll take care of Mushra, Sago, and Kutal. He immediately kills her instead to absorb her power.
• Parodied in Tentai Senshi Sunred: A new and up-and-coming Evil Organization moves into Kanzaki city and demands to become Sunred's Arch-Enemy. Sunred points out he already has an Evil Organization Arch Enemy, Harmless Villains Florsheim, and tells them to go beat up Florsheim if they want the spot. Kayoko, his girlfriend, then scolds Sunred for being mean to his Arch Enemies by forcing them into actually fighting people. Sunred then reveals that Florsheim are actually very powerful as Evil Organizations go, they're just not anywhere near his level. Que Gilligan Cut of the up-and-coming Evil Organization being beaten up by a single one of Florsheim's boss monsters and Vamp scolding them for looking like no-good punks who make his monsters look bad.
• Not exactly evil, but in the last Tomie story, a male model eventually develops immunity to Tomie's seductive power by being even vainer than she is. To put this into perspective, Tomie is so vain that seeing any less than perfect depiction of herself gives her a brain aneurysm. His actions upon losing his beauty are also even pettier than Tomie's. Instead of just taking revenge on pre-existing Tomie, he intentionally creates new Tomies from innocent children to strip away their regenerative powers and watch them grow old.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!
  • Pegasus and Bandit Keith Howard in the Duelist Kingdom arc. Pegasus is the Big Bad of the arc, a Corrupt Corporate Executive, Gentleman Snarker, and Squishy Wizard who desires to see his deceased loved one again. Keith's a thug who infiltrated the tournament and beats people up to take their Star Chips and advance to the finals; his goal is to defeat Pegasus, who once beat him in an exhibition match. After Keith is beaten by Jonouchi/Joey in the semi-finals, he confronts Pegasus and is disposed of (whether or not he lives varies between adaptation).
  • And then Pegasus ends up on the receiving end of this trope after he's defeated by Yugi, as Bakura tracks him down and takes his Millennium Eye.
  • The duel between Dark (Yami) Bakura and Dark (Yami) Marik. Marik wants to kill Yugi (or to rule the world in the dub), but Bakura is after the Millennium Items for his own purposes, and Marik has the Millennium Rod which he is willing to give up once he achieves his goal. They try to work together, but when Marik's evil alter-ego takes over his body, Bakura teams up with Marik's good half to defeat his evil half with the rod as his reward. Unfortunately for Bakura, Dark Marik turns out to be Eviler Than Thou.
  • Subverted in that it turns out later on that Dark Bakura was Eviler than everyone, it just took about "another two hundred bloody episodes" before he got his chance to show it ...or, as the case would be, even remembered it.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has Yubel vs Amon. Considering this is the first time in the franchise since the above Bakura vs Marik example that two villains turned on each other, it's a great Moment of Awesome - the gimmick of the two, the Sacred Beasts vs Exodia, doesn't hurt either. Yubel turns out to be Eviler than Amon, but we find out during the duel Amon is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes Utopia Justifies the Means, which includes double-crossing his girlfriend and killing her in order to gain power after she showed Undying Loyalty to him.

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