Standard Evil Organization Squad

aka: Generic Evil Organization Squad

This is a generally villainous organization with mysterious goals and many distinct characters, usually wearing theme outfits. May start out as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness before getting more time in the spotlight. Unlike a Legion of Doom, they're generally introduced as a bunch of new characters, rather than being a new alliance of old foes. Larger than a Quirky Miniboss Squad, and treated much more seriously (less quirk, more Boss). While they may have access to or be associated with a Nebulous Evil Organisation, they are generally not nebulous, but rather have a set number of members, though they may qualify if their influence is nebulous or if they have numerous underlings who do not qualify as full members. They also tend to become a Spotlight-Stealing Squad.

The Standard Evil Organization Squad generally serves as either the Big Bad or Co-Dragons on a large scale (or both, since the leader is often the true Big Bad), and thus are generally a major threat. The Team is the vaguely-structured Good Counterpart.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Akame ga Kill! has the Jaegers, a team of The Empire's most elite warriors headed by General Esdeath.
• Berserk has the God Hand, a Big Bad Duumvirate of five (formerly four) godlike demonic beings who distribute the behelits to create Apostles.
• Black Clover:
  • The Eye of the Midnight Sun is a group of rogue mages with mysterious goals intent on destroying the Clover Kingdom, coming into conflict with the Magic Knights as a result.
  • After the first Time Skip, the Dark Triad takes the reigns as the next big threat to the heroes. Possessing powers from the alleged three highest ranking devils, they aim to plunge the world into chaos by opening the gates to the very home of the devils that they're hosts to, the Underworld.
  • The final act of the series has the Paladins. Humans both alive and once dead who were brainwashed and given devil power by the Big Bad Lucius Zogratis' Soul Magic, the Paladins act as the enforcers of his will in bringing about his Well-Intentioned Extremist goal of "True Peace".
• The Itto-Ryu in Blade of the Immortal is an dojo that practices Might Makes Right and Rape, Pillage, and Burn. As Manji helps Rin in her revenge against Anotsu, he has to deal with their members on regular basis.
• Bleach:
  • The Thirteen Court Guard Squads qualify as a version that pulled a Heel–Face Turn, having been a brutal mob of killers that mellowed out over centuries.
  • The Espada serve this role as the most powerful Arrancar in Aizen's army and main enemies of the Thirteen Court Guard Squad captains during the war against Soul Society.
  • Later, we have the Sternritter, though they are technically a rank comprised of the most powerful Quincy in Yhwach's army and not a group in their own right.
• The Black Organization in Case Closed is an enigmatic crime syndicate with members who are too dangerous for even Conan to take on. For the longest time, their MO is so unclear that even a genius detective like Conan can mistake anyone in a black coat for one of them, as all anyone knows about the organization is that members tend to wear distinctive black coats.
• Muzan Kibutsuji in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has created the Twelve Kizuki, a group of the most powerful demons which serve him, later downscaling it by killing four of the remaining the Lower Kizuki to his six most trustworthy and powerful members, the Upper Kizuki.
• The Noah family from D.Gray-Man. They are humans with an activated Noah gene who follow Noah and the Earl of Millennium.
• The Dark Army in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai consists of six generals, each with their own army and powers.
• The White-Clad in Fire Force is a Religion of Evil with each member coming with a themed uniform and unique abilities.
• The Homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist are the primary antagonists of the story, comprised of strange, scheming humanoid monsters led by their creator Father.
• Gundam:
  • The officers of the Titans high command in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and within them, Paptimus Scirocco and his inner circle, particularly once they usurp control.
  • The Innovators are portrayed this way in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, being a group of rogue Innovades working to enforce a tyrannical regime.
  • The second season of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans introduces the Arianrhod Fleet, with several distinct members who oppose Tekkadan and McGillis all throughout the season.
• The leadership of the Millennium Organization in Hellsing, each of whom possesses a specialized role and set of abilities in contrast the generic Nazi vampires who fill the organization's lower ranks.
• The Band of Seven in Inuyasha. A group of human mercenaries killed long ago, they are brought back to life undead and controlled by Naraku to hold off his enemies during his time at Mount Hakurei.
• The One Shadow Nine Fists from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, the ten strongest unarmed fighters of Yami, a villainous group of martial artists.
• The Numbers in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. They are a group of twelve female Combat Cyborgs created by Jail Scaglietti, the main antagonist, to collect all the Relics.
• My Hero Academia has the League of Villains, a group of competent villains led by Tomura Shigaraki and created by All Might's old nemesis All For One to work together against the heroes. Unlike many examples, after the League is re-branded thanks to the Stain incident, the group's numbers were reduced to a little over ten members. After defeating the Meta Liberation Army, the two groups merge to form the Paranormal Liberation Front with Shigaraki as its Grand Commander.
• Naruto:
  • The Akatsuki from Naruto are a group of S-ranked criminal ninja. Although they each have their own agendas, the group's goal is to Take Over the World by capturing the nine Tailed Beasts. Their members work in pairs and wear high-collared, black coats adorned with red clouds.
  • Boruto introduces Kara, a mysterious organization whose motives are largely unknown but carry sinister intent for the world at large. They are similar to, if not exactly like, the Akatsuki, starting as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness devoted to Jigen, before most of its members come out as Arc Villains. Each member has a Roman Numeral tattoo on their face.
• One Piece has two examples of this which also show shades of Quirky Miniboss Squad:
  • The Officer and Frontier Agents of Baroque Works are missing only standardized outfits. Like Akatsuki, they work in pairs, in each case a guy and a girl, with the guys numbered a la the Espada.
  • The Cipher Pol 9 of the Enies Lobby arc also qualify, as they're Government-employed assassins who operate in units of four and wear black formal clothing.
• The Juppongatana from Rurouni Kenshin, a special force of elite assassins led by Shishio Makoto to assassinate officials of the Meiji government to instigate a revolution.
• The Gourmet Corp and NEO in Toriko have an array of powerful fighters with each having rank and screentime corresponding to their strength.
• The Dark Signers of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. They're the Evil Counterparts to the Signers as a group of Duelists resurrected to serve Earthbound Immortals, evil monsters sealed away by the Crimson Dragon 5000 years ago.

Comic Books

• The DCU:
  • In the Bronze Age DC Comics, Marv Wolfman invented the Hive. They fought Superman a few times, but became much more associated with the Teen Titans.
  • The Justice League of America fights the playing card-themed Royal Flush Gang.
  • Red Robin finds himself fighting the newly introduced spider themed Council of Spiders.
• Marvel Universe:
  • The Avengers have a group of astrology-themed enemies called Zodiac.
  • The Hellfire Club from the famous Dark Phoenix Saga of X-Men, all with fabulous clothing.
• The Seven Evil Exes from Scott Pilgrim. Though they lack standardized uniforms or any sort of theme among them, they are introduced one-by-one, except for the Katayanagi twins. They even fall under The Smurfette Principle!

Fan Fiction

• Amazing Fantasy has the League of Villains, who are receiving technology from Mysterio to arm a new wave of upstart supervillains with advanced equipment from the Marvel Universe. This includes D-list villains like Stilt-Man, Big Wheel, and an entire Rocket Racer Gang.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Ami's minions start out as just another Keeper's band of thugs to the surface world. This changes following Ami's defeat of the Avatar of All Light. It is clear from the Spymaster's subplot that after this, the surface world is scrambling to discover the source of this incredibly powerful new keeper, uncover her motives and prepare countermeasures for her continued menace. They meet with limited success due to her origins. Of course, this is Sailor Mercury we're talking about, so it's an inversion.

Film — Animation

• The Devils of Kimon from Ninja Scroll, a group of ninjas with extremely varied and bizarre powers, all working for an immortal.

Literature

• The leadership of Scorpia from Alex Rider. They have hundreds if not thousands of members, but the leadership is a council of the world's most notorious spies, assassins, criminals and terrorists.
• In Discworld, would-be Dark Lord Evil Harry Dread surrounds himself with henchmen who represent all the stereotypes: skeletal warriors, Dark Dwarfs, a sniggering, none-too-bright jailer, and some of the dimmest Trolls on the Disc.
• Though framed as a Nebulous Evil Organisation in-story, the Death Eaters from Harry Potter (basically the Ku Klux Klan with magic powers) arguably qualify.
• The Witch Cult in Re:Zero consists of Archbishops of Sin with extremely powerful abilities and some having plenty of followers of their own. However, contrary to their initial introduction, they are less organized than they seem.
• The Rosenkreuz Orden in Trinity Blood is devoted to sparking the war between humans and vampires.
• The Forsaken from The Wheel of Time: thirteen exceptional channelers who swore service to the Dark One in the long-ago Age of Legends, were trapped outside reality, and eventually escape to plague the world with power and knowledge beyond the ken of the current Age. They would be more dangerous if their organization wasn't Teeth-Clenched Teamwork at best, and opportunistic backstabbing at worst. And sadly, they don't have themed costumes.

Live-Action TV

• Chousei Kantai Sazer X: The Neo Descal commanders (Garade, Grouza and Jackall) who arrive from the future to take command of the Descal invasion.
• In Kamen Rider, villains usually follow Super Sentai's Boss > General > Monster > Mooks structure, but after the Continuity Reboot, this got more flexible, with some villains not having Co-Dragons, minions or more fighting against other villains and monsters.
  • Kamen Rider Stronger: The Delza Army are introduced as one, although their executives spend more time sabotaging each other than actually working together to defeat Stronger.
  • Kamen Rider Super-1 gave us Jin Dogma in the second half, a group of five villains all with distinct motifs seeking to terrorize Japan, leading our titular protagonist into conflict with them.
  • The Three High Priests in Kamen Rider BLACK are the ones who lead Gorgom and enact plans to further their cause.
  • The Crisis Empire in Kamen Rider BLACK RX, whose top members each command a different division of the army.
  • While this was uncommon in the first phase of Heisei Kamen Rider, from Kamen Rider Double onward it became more prevalent for there to be a team of villains creating the Monsters of the Week.
  • The Horoscopes in Kamen Rider Fourze are a group of elite level Zodiarts who create the lesser ones. There's technically 12 Horoscopes, but they start the season with less than half and seek to find candidates to bring about the other ones so they can use all 12 to enact their plans.
  • The Greater Phantoms in Kamen Rider Wizard, whose responsibility it is to create Lesser Phantoms.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim has the inner circle of Yggdrasill, who transform into the New Generation Riders.
  • Kamen Rider Drive has the Roidmude executives, a group of Advanced Roidmudes who represent the closest the species has to actual organization.
  • Kamen Rider Build has Namba Heavy Industries and their network of associates, including CEO Juzaburo Namba, his assistant and head engineer Nariaki Utsumi, puppet head of state Masakuni Mido, chief enforcer Kamen Rider Rogue, Tyke Bombs Fu and Rai Washio, and Enigmatic Minion Blood Stalk.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O has the Time Jackers, a trio of time travelers who create the Another Riders the protagonists fight.
• Kikaider 01: Unlike DARK in the first series, which mostly had Professor Gill as its only member who wasn't a Monster of the Week, SHADOW had several different enforcers whom the heroes had to contend with.
• Metal Heroes:
  • Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion: Satan Gorth starts out with Mad Gallant as his only henchmen, but as the series goes on he gains more and more minions to the point of having a fairly colorful lineup of villains he and his son can call upon.
  • Jikuu Senshi Spielban has the Waller Empire, a group of Planet Looters led by a diverse lineup of Human Aliens, cyborgs and Killer Robots who worship the deity Waller.
  • The Neros Empire in Chōjinki Metalder is comprised of four different Armies, each with their own rotating lineups of villains who Metalder faces throughout.
  • The Sorcerers Clan in Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya are a colorful band of rogue ninjas with their hands in all sorts of criminal activity. Most episodes see them bringing in a new ninja into their group and either bribing him or tricking him into fighting Jiraiya.
• Seigi No Symbol Condorman has the Monster Clan's executive board, a group of nine monsters with unique themes and powers who sit around a table plotting ways to take over the world and supplant humankind.
• The villainous groups in Super Sentai frequently take this formation, presenting a lineup of villains who the Sentai team faces throughout. Usually they'll have one Evil Overlord, one villain who's duty is to hassle the heroes, one Evil Genius who creates the Monster of the Week each episode and one humanlike female member. Sometimes they might have a being whose only job is to make the monsters grow, though this varies by season.
  • The Armed Brain Army Volt in Choujuu Sentai Liveman are an elitist Academy of Evil mainly comprised of Great Professor Bias and his students, though his students aren't much of a unified force as they spend most of their time competing with each other to raise their IQs (which is exactly what Bias wants — it benefits his real plans that the underlings don't know about). There's also Gash (a robotic soldier who carried the monster-enlarging cannon) and a couple of aliens who join up midway through (who were in fact robots created by Bias to motivate his students).
  • Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger features one of the more colorful examples in the Bandora Gang, a band of monsters who serve the witch Bandora.
  • Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger has the Seven Dark Spears, a team of high-ranked alien ninjas who serve as the field commanders for Boss Tau Zant and his Jakanja.
  • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: In the final episodes, Rainian Agent Abrella gathers together several dangerous criminals to form one to attack DekaBase.
  • Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger has the Deboth Army, led by High-Priest Chaos and comprised of several colorful Debo Knights each themed after a different emotion. Each episode usually sees one of the knights trying to gather emotions from humans, all in the name of reviving their creator Deboth.
  • The Druidon Tribe in Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger start out with relatively few members other than dozens and dozens of Mooks, but eventually form into one as more of their generals come to Earth. The final arc sees Pricious try to form her own squad by creating more generals.
• VR Troopers takes the above mentioned villains from Metalder and adds in many of the Spielban villains to the mix; while many of them are still either robots or genetically-created mutant creatures, ultimately they're all virtual creations. Season 2 replaces almost all the Metalder-sourced villains with new ones taken from Space Sheriff Shaider (as the Metalder footage had run out). This leads to Grimlord having a lot of Co-Dragons all jostling for position and importance and taking different aspects of command, though because of the "two to three different shows" factor, they rarely ever interacted with each other (Grimlord would usually communicate with his Spielban underlings via an energy projection screen).

Mythology & Religion

• Satan is often depicted as ruling over Hell with the assistance of a host of arch-demons. Demons likely to show up as his Co-Dragons include Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Mammon, Lilith, and many more.

Toys

• BIONICLE tended to use these in its later years as the Arc Villains, with the Piraka (six superpowered gangsters angling to smash-and-grab the local Artifact of Doom), the Barraki (six warlords from prehistory recently escaped from The Alcatraz), and of course the Brotherhood of Makuta (a shadowy organization of super-beings bent on conquering the universe).

Video Games

• Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts. They were The Omniscient Council of Vagueness in their debut game, Chain of Memories (where not much was known about them aside from sharing the same coat), but in Kingdom Hearts II and 358/2 Days, they became this (particularly in the latter game, as they're featured as the protagonists and thus get much more screentime). Later games reveal that this Organization is essentially just a recruiting grounds for the Real Organization XIII AKA the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness, which acts more like a Legion of Doom.
• Nintendo Wars:
  • Advance Wars: Black Hole Rising has Sturm and his Elite Four COs, who are the ones helming Black Hole's invasion of the Wars World.
  • Dual Strike has the Bolt Guard, a quartet of new COs who've taken control of Black Hole.
  • Days of Ruin has Admiral Greyfield's inner circle, which includes his triggerman Waylon and Mad Scientist-for-hire Caulder. Caulder and his "children" could also be seen as this for IDS, especially once they step up as the true villains of the game.
• Pokémon has almost one per game, usually based off of a real-life organization. To name a few: Team Rocket, Team Aqua/Magma, Team Galactic, Team Plasma, Team Flare, Team Skull, the Aether Foundation...
• Secret of Mana has Emperor Vandole and the four generals of his empire.

Web Animation

• Salem's faction from RWBY, alluded to now and again throughout the show, then fully revealed during the first episode of Volume 4.

Webcomics

• Homestuck:
  • The first is the canonical Trolls, a group of twelve aliens (or so they claim) whose T-shirts follow an Astrological theme (each bears the symbol of one of the Astrological signs). Following the format of Homestuck, they are introduced one-by-one. Subverted in that most of them aren't really evil. They aren't particularly organized, either.
  • The second group is from the Show Within a Show The Midnight Crew. The primary antagonists of the series are The Felt, who are a group of 15 time-travelers with a billiard-ball theme (each character corresponds to a ball). They have recently been revealed, in a form of in-universe Defictionalization, to actually exist in continuity with the main story.
  • The Midnight Crew itself could count, if not for the fact that the group consists only of four people.
• The Order of the Stick: In the "Empire of Blood" arc, the Vector Legion is this. They're a relatively cohesive organization of primarily Lawful Evil, high-level adventurers, each of whom is a Foil / Evil Counterpart to a member of the Order of the Stick in some way. Unlike the equally matched Linear Guild, three of them are able to take on the titular Order and almost win. For bonus points, one of their number is Elan's father.

Western Animation

• The Pack from Generator Rex straddle the line between this and a serious Quirky Miniboss Squad.
• The Inquisitorius from Star Wars Rebels function as this; they serve as an organization dedicated to purging the galaxy of rogue Jedi who survived Order 66, while recruiting force-sensitive younglings to prevent them from becoming a threat. Though they all come from different species, they're easily identified by their matching black outfits and matching gimmicky lightsabers. They are also treated much more seriously than the show's other early villains (later surpassed by Darth Vader, Admiral Thrawn, Darth Maul, and Emperor Palpatine himself).
• The Decepticons aboard the Nemesis in Transformers: Prime eventually develop into this. At the start of the show, their roster only consists of Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave (and dozens and dozens of Vehicons), but as the show goes on and more Decepticons come to Earth, the amount of recurring Decepticons grows to the point where each member of Team Prime effectively has their own equivalent in the Nemesis crew.
• While the membership of Young Justice (2010)'s The Light would form a Legion of Doom in most other continuities, they way the overarching plot is structured makes them this trope, after half a season as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness.

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