Not So Harmless Villain / Anime & Manga

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• Akame ga Kill! is a dark series with many gray based characters, but out of them all, Seryu seemed to be the most harmless of the villains the Night Raid had to fight against that isn't a Hero Antagonist like Wave. She is given a tragic backstory, which explains her obsession with justice and helping the innocent. When she unknowingly meets Tatsumi, both of them are friendly and get along. And it seems like she is being used by The Empire as a lab rat and is in over her head. But nothing can be further from the truth. As the series goes along, Seryu is revealed to be an Ax-Crazy psychopath who believes anyone who opposes the Empire is "evil" and must die. She kills Sheele and is shown enjoying every minute of it, and her weapon, which is a little dog that can transform into all kinds of powerful guns, is one of the most deadly weapons on the show (said dog is responsible for ripping Sheele in half and eating her). Lampshaded by Mine who calls Seryu out on her blood lust before their epic battle where she blows her in half to avenge Sheele's death... and even then, Seryu would have killed her with her final suicide bomb had Tatsumi not gotten her out of the blast radius in time.
  • Later on the series introduces Dorothea of Wild Hunt, who at first seems to be the typical Evil Genius, the scientist that stays in the lab and doesn't stand a chance in combat, much like Doctor Stylish of the Jaegers, especially thanks to her tiny build. Then, when she finally gets her chance courtesy of her leader and the Prime Minister's son Syura getting axed off by Lubbock, she does more damage than he ever did when their group was at full strength. She destroys entire revolutionary camps, with only Izou and a monstrous Cosmina (which, combined with herself, are only half of Wild Hunt's original manpower), and when Night Raid appears, her Crazy-Prepared tactics give them a tough fight and she nearly kills Leone in one-on-one combat. Even more impressive considering the fact that the members of Wild Hunt who died before this point were physically more imposing than her, but also fell rather anti-climatically against Night Raid or the Jaegers, which made it all the more shocking when she proved to be one of the most dangerous physical fighters.
• Tetsuo in AKIRA especially in flashback scenes from Kaneda's memories. He seems incompetent as a member of a biker gang who barely pulls his own weight and has to be saved by his best friend on several occasions. Then he gets superpowers.
• Bakugan has Rabeeder. She's a Hybrid Bakugan and servant of Naga. Compared to the other gatekeepers, she and her sister are quite ditzy and silly and seems like a pushover when the heroes first meet her, challenging the heroes to... a race? In fact, she's harmless and hits on the main character. Total joke, right? Nope. When Rabeeder arrives on earth, Alice, while inexperienced at fighting on her own, volunteers to go after her under the impression that she is weak and with a little help seems to be doing fine. But then Rabeeder overhears that her sister had been defeated. Believing her sister to be KIA, she goes on a total rampage where she flings around the up-until-that-point's main and secondary antagonists' Bakugan like rag dolls and is unstoppable. She is only stopped by a lucky break when she discovers her sister isn't dead. The two reunite and Rabeeder calms down. But if she hadn't...
  • Averted in the same episode, when Alpha Hydranoid one-shotted her, leaving her begging for a quick death (being nearly petrified is why he didn't do this, to begin with).
• In the 1997 Berserk anime, Adon Coborlwitz is given this treatment. His recurring role early in the series — fighting the Band of the Hawk but never directly confronting the main heroes — portrays him as an incompetent general who can't get anything done right, and he is shown comedically blundering everything he does. After two particularly embarrassing losses, he engages in a head to head confrontation with the Hawks where he meets Casca, the lead female. He then proceeds to kick her ass, unhorsing her and putting her on the defensive while telling her why she should never have tried to be a soldier in the first place. Sure, Casca was on period at the time, but then Adon shows off more points on how threatening he can be when several Hawks rush to her rescue, only for Adon to tear through them with his trident with ease, then going after Casca again and nearly killing her. He is still dealt several painful blows by Guts when he stops Adon from landing the death blow, but we still saw the general of the Blue Whale Knights make a point about his character. Sure, he's a Dirty Coward and a Butt-Monkey, but that's not to say he's no threat to the Band of the Hawk.
• Black Butler:
  • Ciel's goofy, incompetent staff weren't hired for their talents as servants (Sebastian's contract requires he be able to take care of everything himself anyway) but for their talents in defending the manor; the clumsy maid Mei-rin is a devastatingly skilled sniper, the groundskeeper Finny has superhuman strength, and the cook Baldo is an ex-soldier.
  • It also turns out that Ciel's fiancée Elizabeth, one of the only normal people he knows and the only child in the series that acts like one, is an extremely badass swordswoman who has been merely acting like a harmless little girl because she was afraid Ciel wouldn't like her otherwise.
  • The Undertaker, after seeming to be a quirky information broker for so long, turns out to be a renegade Shinigami who kicked off a small-scale Zombie Apocalypse For the Evulz, and goes on to effortlessly wipe the floor with Grelle, Ronald, and Sebastian at the same time.
• Eda qualifies as one in Black Lagoon, though she hasn't revealed exactly how far this goes. As an example, during Greenback Jane arc, the usually happy-go-lucky Eda gets serious for once when one American gangster identified her as a CIA agent, and shut his mouth for his trouble.
  • Villain Protagonist Rock becomes this trope as the series goes on. Just because he won't shoot you like everyone else in Roanapur will doesn't mean he's not dangerous.
• Bleach:
  • Yammy Llargo, rampaging idiot and Decima Espada zig-zags with this trope. At first, it seems he's incredibly weak, he reveals that he's actually the Cero (#0) Espada and technically above Starrk (who's ranked first). And he still gets his ass kicked. Then he reveals that he's not at full power, and he powers up. And he still gets his ass kicked. Adding insult to injury, Kenpachi called their fight "boring".
  • Dordonii is initially shown as a somewhat eccentric and comedic villain until he reveals to Ichigo that he used to be an Espada and proceeds to beat the shit out of him. While Ichigo had been reluctant to go all-out against an underling like him, he's forced to use his Bankai and his Hollow mask to defeat him.
  • Apacci, Mila-Rose and Sung-Sun, Harribel's three elite Fracción, count as well. They seemingly do nothing but argue with each other, very nearly coming to blows, which constantly leaves them open for attack. When Momo manages to seriously injure them, though, they sacrifice one arm each to create a giant chimera named Ayon, which utterly destroys four Vice-Captain Shinigami. Captain-Commander Yamamoto-Genryuusai himself had to personally get involved in that ordeal.
  • Sternritter Askin Nakk Le Vaar comes across as a cowardly, ineffectual fighter with no real offensive powers when compared to his fellow members of the Wandenreich, yet not only is he chosen to be among Yhwach's Elite Guard when invading the Soul King's Palace, his power is revealed to be one of the most broken abilities among their numbers. As a result, he manages to catch both Nimaiya of the Zero Squad and Grimmjow off-guard, defeats Ichigo after his most recent levelling into badass, smashes Yoruichi and her brother Yuushirou into paste without mercy, and gets the better of Kisuke Urahara, lampshading that he's been completely underestimated until it was too late.
• Code Geass:
  • Prince Schneizel. He seems very passive early on and is actively supportive of Euphemia's idea of the Special Administrative Zone in Japan. It's only near the end that we begin to see just how far he'll go to accomplish his goals, and just how little of a conscience he has.
  • Nina Einstein has this trope covered pretty well in her own right. Who would've thought that her handiwork killed more people in about ten seconds than any of the other characters killed? All series? Put together? Times a hundred? At least? Way to earn that last name. "Oops" doesn't even begin to cover it.
• Death Note: Although he's frightening to look at, it is easy to underestimate Ryuk. Villain Protagonist Light seems a lot worse, and with his addiction to apples and other humorous qualities, Ryuk tends to come across as Plucky Comic Relief and Light's "pet". Then comes the ending of the series where Ryuk fulfills his early promise that he will one day write Light's name in his notebook, and casually kills Light, who has just had a pathetic Villainous Breakdown. Truly, Light, like the audience, forgot that he was dealing with a death god. Even more, he can still drop the Death Note if he ever feels bored.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, first introduced as a decrepit old demonic man, Hantengu would make one wonder why he is the Upper Rank 4 at first, as he seemed rather weak and acted like a constantly shriveling old man, contrasting with other Kizuki demons who seem more battle ready than him. However, as the Swordsmith Village arc unfolds, Hantengu shows exactly why he is Upper-4: his Blood Demon Art is quite versatile in separating his body into living emotions who make it extremely hard to take him down for good, as they all easily regenerate, and even that is just the beginning of Hantengu's onslaught. The main four emotions aren't all that strong in the end; it is their fusion, Zohakuten (Hatred), that really contains all of Hantengu's physical might, and true to form he is actually never beaten straight in a fight; Tanjiro, Mitsuri, Nezuko and Genya had to work together to stall Hatred as long as possible to kill Fear instead, Hantengu's core emotion, which ends Hatred by proxy.
• Etemon from Digimon Adventure is a Large Ham showboater with a fondness for rock and roll. (The dub takes this a step further by giving him a voice and speech-style like Elvis Presley.) That said, he's also a Perfect-level^note called "Ultimate-level" in the dub Digimon, leagues more powerful than the previous antagonist Devimon, and before Agumon becomes MetalGreymon, he pounds the heroes silly in each encounter. His debut alone marks him as this type of villain, as he's shown to be a goofy-looking guy capable of destroying an entire village with a single attack while also de-powering the heroes and he has got a network that allows him to observe the entire continent Server. The only reason he never manages to kill the children and their Digimon is because of a series of very bad luck rather than incompetence. He's also one of the few enemies to come back from the dead and take a level in badass to become MetalEtemon…all while rocking' it out. And despite the main villain of the Dark Masters' second part is Pinocchimon^note Puppetmon in the dub, it's MetalEtemon who kills an ally (namely, Leomon).
• Archnemon and Mummymon^note The former is called Arukenimon in the dub are basically the Digimon Adventure 02's version of Team Rocket's Jessie and James, yet they are not as harmless as their goofiness would let on. Since both of them are Perfect-level Digimon, the heroes' Digimon are only able to fight them when they Jogress Evolve^note DNA Digivolve, but if they are any level below the duo, both will definitively dominate them. Archnemon is still capable of creating Digimon out of Dark Towers and is practically the mother of The Juggernaut BlackWarGreymon (who she can't control) and it is shown that her mere presence is enough to make Dark Towers prevent Digimon from evolving. They also manage to build Dark Towers across the entire Real World, resulting in Digimon travelling to the Real World and causing havoc. While that plan is ultimately foiled in the end thanks to a Next Tier Power-Up, both of them carry out their boss's other plan and kidnap children in Tokyo while the heroes are busy fighting Digimon outside Japan. When they show up with all those children, Ken is stuck with a Sadistic Choice: a) either he stays with his friends and ignores the threats of the two villainous parties, b) he goes with Demon^note Daemon whose minions have shown to be rather unimpressive except for SkullSatamon, or c) go with Archnemon and Mummymon who appear less serious than Demon, but have an established evil history and have actual hostages.
• Impmon is a deconstructed version of this trope. He was a pest to the Digimon Tamers cast instead of a villain, throwing fireballs and scaring their Digimon away. No one saw him as anything more than a nuisance. Then he made a Deal With a Deva, became Beelzebumon^note Beelzemon, stabbed an ally to death, and defeated the heroes one after another before losing to Dukemon^note Gallantmon (whom he would have beaten had Guardromon not interfered). Eventually, he did a Heel–Face Turn and became even more badass.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Red Ribbon Army in the original Dragon Ball, while capable of threatening Goku and his friends on occasion, were mostly pushovers even to a young Goku^notethe only member they had that was capable of fighting Goku head-on was General Blue and absolutely nothing compared to the later threats in both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Then in DBZ, the Red Ribbon cyborgs/androids created by Dr. Gero in order to exact revenge on Goku for taking down the army — and with it his funding — came along, who were all an order of magnitude more powerful than even Super Saiyans, and who exterminated all but one of the protagonists in an alternate future. And then there is Cell, who was also part of the Red Ribbon Cyborg project and prompted Goku to do an unsuccessful Heroic Sacrifice to try to stop him, technically fulfilling Dr. Gero's revenge.
  • When Babidi first resurrected Majin Buu, everyone was surprised that he was a childish fat pink alien, to the point where Babidi and Dabura doubted that the resurrection had worked correctly. And then he wipes out Dabura (who at this point was at least as strong as Perfect Cell) in one shot.
  • Dragon Ball GT.
    • Ryan Xing Long/Haze Shenron is the weakest of the Shadow Dragons and is seen as a weak klutz and a loud mouth, plus he can't transform or increase his strength. However, as the fight carried on, Pan and Goku realized that he was still a threat, the pollution he spread was weakening them, making them tire out and easier for him to fight. He then tries to throw them into the polluted lake, hoping to drown them and dissolve their bodies.
    • Qi Xing Long/Naturon Shenron initially appears to be a clown (a goofy looking giant mole to be exact) who is more interested in digging holes rather than fighting, but it turns out to be a case of Obfuscating Stupidity: as soon as he absorbs Pan, he shows his true colors and starts using Pan's powers to blow up numerous buildings and kill several innocents For the Evulz. If he hadn't fallen for Goku's Wounded Gazelle Gambit in the end, he could very well have won.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F': After Pilaf rightfully tells Mai and Shu that they shouldn't trust Sorbet, they think because he's no bigger than they are they'll be able to take him down easily. Sorbet sees through their plan and shoots their weapons out of their hands with his ring and tells them not to take him lightly because of his size; and later his ring's beam is able to pierce Goku's heart while he is distracted in Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form.
• Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia: The Jaguar Warrior is a ridiculous woman in a jaguar fursuit who looks suspiciously like Taiga and spends most of her time making random references to Taiga's life that make very little sense out of context. But the fact remains that she is a Divine Spirit, a true god who has descended to the mortal world by borrowing the body of a human. She curb-stomps Mash and Ana while making cat puns, and Merlin flat-out says that they have no chance without divine aid of their own.
• Goblins in Goblin Slayer. It is indicated early on that, while they are dangerous in large numbers, they have the size and strength of a small child, and are typically fodder for experienced adventurers. However, for a party of four inexperienced adventurers (that is to say, most starting adventurers), a nest of goblins turn out to be a terrifying force that easily overwhelms them exactly because they failed to take the threat they represented seriously. The adventurers' guild even mentions that this is pretty much standard procedure: Newbie adventurers take goblin quests because they don't seem that difficult, while more experienced ones don't do them because of the pitiful reward. The adventurers go in, manage to kill a few goblins and get slaughtered (and females are raped to breed more goblins), another group goes in and kills a few more goblins and gets slaughtered, and only when the third or fourth group come in are the goblins dead. Most of them, as those that survive might actually learn something and grow into a different, much more dangerous sort of goblin. It's little wonder why Goblin Slayer, the title character, who is specialized in wiping out goblins, makes it his rule to Leave No Survivors among the goblins of the nests he hits.
  • The light novel puts it this way: Goblins are only as intelligent, clever and strong as children. But they are just as intelligent and clever as children.
• Guardian Fairy Michel has the Black Hammer Gang. They're comedic, and almost seem like they're going to end up in Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain territory... until it turns out they're not that ineffectual. Even the trailer points out that Salome will lie, cheat, and steal to get her way, and might succeed. Some episodes' plots are kicked off because of an early-episode victory by the Black Hammers, and sometimes they do get away with a treasure.
• Lithuania in Hetalia: Axis Powers is a small country in Europe with a Kick the Dog history that resulted in him being seen as the number one woobie on the show. Then the strip/episodes concerning the Battle of Tannenberg shows that he can take a level in badass and make even Prussia swallow his ego.
• Miyo Takano from Higurashi: When They Cry was awfully suspicious and creepy in season 1 and 2, but seemed to be more of a joking mentor than a true threat. She is actually the mastermind behind the conspiracy, and is perfectly willing to personally murder children if it helps her plans.
• Holyland: Chapter 159 reveals that King, who appeared to be just a drug trafficking boss reliant on his two MMA fighter bodyguards, is quite skilled in Shorinji Kenpo and even managed to strike fear in Shougo's heart.
• Part 5 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind:
  • Pesci starts off as an incredibly weird-looking, cowardly sidekick to the more competent Prosciutto and has a seemingly weak Stand ability as well. Upon Prosciutto's defeat, however, he suddenly gains new resolve, comes up with lethal new ways to use his Stand and ends up becoming one of the most dangerous foes the gang faces during the part.
  • Vinegar Doppio is introduced as Passione's second-in-command, despite his cowardly and downright strange personality. However, in a one-on-one fight against Risotto Nero, Doppio manages to hold his own against him before his Split Personality Diavolo intervenes and kills him, and Risotto had quite possibly the most dangerous Stand ability in the series up to that point. He then significantly darkens the plot by killing Abbacchio soon afterwards.
• Kyuutarou Ooba from Kemonozume spends most of the show as a harmless if somewhat eccentric bureaucrat before revealing himself as the show's primary antagonist, a criminal mastermind, and a hyper-wealthy, nihilistic psychopath who masturbates with a girl's dismembered arms and markets a medicine that makes people eat each other. He's also revealed to have grafted monster arms onto himself that give his round little body incredible strength, and intentionally mutates himself to the point where he's just a constantly shifting mountain of flesh by the series's final episode - one that delivers monologues on the futility of existence.
• In Kero Kero Chime, Oroboros initially appears to be a pathetic gag villain who, at best, is destined for a hilarious failure of a Big Bad Wannabe. Then he turns out to be the real Big Bad, banishes everyone to another world, and only narrowly fails to pull off his evil scheme.
• Uzu Sanageyama from Kill la Kill is hardly harmless to start with, and gives Ryuko a run for her money the first time they fight. However, she figures out a way to shut off his super sight and defeats him. When he challenges her to a rematch, she is confident that she can easily defeat him again using the same tactic. But the Uzu she faces this time is different in a blood-chilling way. His laid-back cockiness is replaced by a grim and rather terrifying determination, and it is revealed that he has sewn his eyes shut and trained his other senses to such an extent that he is basically impossible to approach from any angle. Ryuko never gets a single hit on him, and the only reason she even gets away with her life is that Uzu's Goku Uniform overheats and fails. The sheer contrast with their previous battle and Uzu's earlier attitude makes this one of the most striking moments in the whole series.
  • Ragyo Kiryuin, Big Bad Satsuki's mother, is the Greater-Scope Villain of the series who runs the REVOCS corporation and rules the world, but the audience does not see her personally doing much, aside from wearing ridiculous outfits and molesting her daughter, so it appears that she will not really do anything important. This especially looks like the case when Satsuki rebels against her and decapitates her easily, making Ragyo seem like a Big Bad Wannabe usurped by a Dragon-in-Chief. Then she survives and dishes out the Curb-Stomp Battle of her life to Satsuki, Mind Controls Ryuko, causes the Darkest Hour of the series, and makes it clear that she is the true Big Bad who intends to Kill All Humans.
• An arc in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki introduces Gouyokuou. In the episode he is introduced, he seems to be a hilariously Fish out of Water alien looking for the woman he loves and so weak that Kyoka is able to punch him into the air with ease. Then it's revealed that he is so powerful, if even one of his Power Limiter rods is removed, he can level a city with no effort. If all of them are removed, it's Earth-Shattering Kaboom time. The end of the second episode of his arc hints at a darker side of his personality; a Stalker with a Crush willing to use his world-destroying powers to get the woman he wants.
• The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa): In the adaptation of Majora's Mask, the Deku Scrubs manage to outnumber, overrun, and capture Link despite being small wooden gnomes.
• Maken-ki!: Otohime Yamato initially comes across as comically inept, due to her cowardice. At least, that's what she lets her enemies think. But her "Dollhouse" ability proves otherwise, since it allows her to take control of their bodies and, if she chooses, she can break them with extremely minimal effort. Plus, she proved cunning enough to set a trap for someone as skilled as Yuuka, who's a full-fledged Ninja. Who's laughing now?
• Fuku-chan in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is The Small, Annoying Creature, also The Man Behind the Man: turns out to be controlling Micheal, manipulating the Great One and be Pure's Greater-Scope Villain.
• Due to the semi-serious nature of its first half, followed by the seriousness of the second half, Gundam ZZ does this to a few people. In the case of Chara, it was mainly her playing the Fanservice card with that whip. With Mashimar Cero though, the somewhat-bumbling but honorable and idealistic Neo Zeon officer returns as a brutal and cruel officer that oversees a Colony Drop. In the first half Glemmy Toto is a joke character in a joke squadron led by a joke commander, but by the end he's revealed himself as a clone of Gihren Zabi, the franchise's original Big Bad, and set himself up as a rival to Big Bad Haman Khan, sparking a devastating Enemy Civil War in the process and unleashing an army of clones.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: Zig-Zagged with Iok Kujan. He's a pompous braggart and General Failure who repeatedly falls flat on his face, but at the same time he's still the head of one of the most powerful aristocratic families in the solar system, a commander in the most powerful fleet in the solar system, and he has access to WMDs. Combine this with his reckless battle strategies, and you've got someone who's as much a threat to his own men as he is to the enemy.
• In My Hero Academia, Tomura Shigaraki is introduced as the embodiment of Saturday Morning Cartoon villainy. Despite putting the authorities on edge due to having successfully invaded (successful in that he got inside with a small army of villains and then was quickly driven out) UA, the characters in-universe and even the audience initially don't take him seriously, thinking he's just a front man for All For One, who was the true Big Bad of the story. By the beginning of the 3rd act, however, America is willing to nuke Japan just to give someone who is believed to have the strongest power in existence a chance of killing him.
• Naruto:
  • Kabuto Yakushi comes off as an amiable and somewhat less-than-competent fellow (flunking the Chūnin Exams seven times, no less). Before long, both his affiliations (The Dragon to Orochimaru) and his abilities (killing with medical Ninjutsu and instant regeneration) prove far more sinister. And that's before Orochimaru is dead and Kabuto gains a Sage Mode of his own and perfects the Edo Tensei jutsu...
  • Tobi was introduced to be nothing more than comic relief until he turns out to be Madara Uchiha, a legendary Diabolical Mastermind who is insanely resilient, Made of Air, and can teleport himself and anything he touches to anywhere, with his "good boy" act presumably to hide the fact that he was the real power behind Akatsuki. Even after it's revealed that he's actually Obito Uchiha, it doesn't keep him from holding his own against Killer B, Naruto, Kakashi, and Might Guy, four of the strongest ninja in the world, all at the same time until his intangibility's weakness is found out.
• Kurotowa in the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga pulls the switch from "harmless" to "one to watch out for" in record time, going from appearing to be arrogant, toadying buffoon to effortlessly deflecting an assassination attempt in the space of his first appearance. And then, in his second appearance, he took control of a Corvette and piloted it like an expert, even using the smoke from downed craft to cover his approach. It's even more jarring if you watched the anime first, as there all he manages is one of the most half-assed, pathetic Big Bad Wannabe attempts ever.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Kurt Godel manages to pull this off in the space of a single chapter. He's introduced as Manipulative Bastard and Consummate Liar with a lot of political power, but he has to be accompanied by a massive number of bodyguards because he's so frail. Then he kicks Negi's ass with one attack, even though Negi is made of lightning. Turns out that he's a master swordsman, and traveled with Ala Rubra in his youth. Oops.
• One Piece:
  • Foxy the Silver Fox. He's a flashy, fame-hogging, pudgy, strange looking, and a pigheaded fool and needs his crew to constantly buff his ego or he'll sink into depression. Oh, and he's also got a really powerful Devil Fruit ability that allows him to get the drop on anyone and pound them into oblivion before they know what's hit them. To be more specific, the ability of his Noro Noro Fruit slows everything down to the point of almost stopping it in place. Furthermore, whatever hits they receive while they're slowed down will be delayed until the fruit's effects wear off, causing all those attacks to hit all at once. Thanks to this ability, low blows, and cheap shots, he was able to beat the living daylights out of Luffy, and even came close to actually defeating him a few times. Unfortunately for him, he was Hoist by His Own Petard when Luffy used a mirror shard to reflect his ability back at him. Not to mention, thanks to rigging Davy Back Fights by having one of his crewmates acting as the referee, he has amassed one of the largest crews in the Grand Line by depriving other crews of crucial teammates.
  • Buggy and Mr. 3 found out the hard way that Impel Down's Vice-Warden Hannyabal is not so harmless despite not having a Devil Fruit or the reputation of his fearsome boss, Warden Magellan. The funny thing is he was going to allow them to get past him so his boss will get in trouble, but they had to go ahead with their suicidal idiotic somewhat predictable otherwise ingenious plan of taking him out, only to face an ass-kicking for it.
  • Buggy himself. He might not be skilled, serious or smart, but his power has saved his life several times, he has remarkable artillery and he has enough influence to become a Warlord and fool the Government into making him an Emperor.
  • Gin. When first introduced, the combination of nearly dying of starvation and him still being shell-shocked from his encounter with Hawkeye Mihawk left him seeming rather pathetic. Near the end, we get The Reveal that Gin is actually Don Krieg's right-hand guy, and he promptly takes down the heavily armored Pearl with one shot and then hands Sanji his ass (albeit partly because Sanji took a beating from Pearl). Not only that, it's implied that Gin is actually stronger than Krieg, and is only second-in-command because he's been too loyal to make a move against his boss.
  • The workers of Water 7, including a bartender named Blueno, a stern and hot-tempered secretary named Kalifa, a happy-go-lucky shipwright (as well as a possible new crew mate), and finally the aloof Rob Lucci, appear to be just that. Too bad all of them were actually undercover agents for a powerful assassination force for the government, proceeded to beat the crap of the Straw Hats and are total Blood Knight fighters. Everyone else in the CP9 counts as well, except maybe Jabra, who is a No-Nonsense Nemesis and hardly ever appears harmless, except when his childish competitive side surfaces. Fukuro and Kumadori have funny quirks, the former spilling out important secrets, which can make missions harder for his team as he keeps blowing his own cover, and the latter acting like an absolute drama queen, but are still competent assassins. Spandam is a double subversion. He is the chief, who is clumsy and spills coffee on himself, but has a powerful blade. Then it turns out he actually is incompetent and weak... but he is still a sadist who traumatized two of the toughest Straw Hats.
  • Wanze. When Sanji, Usopp, and Franky meet him on the Sea Train, he offers them noodles from his nose and has an equally wacky face to match. The three heroes immediately proceed to blow him off and try going to the next car to confront the actual Big Bads, only for Wanze to get serious and do everything in his power to stop them. He is an agent of Cipher Pol after all, and he later shows that most of his various silly expressions and quirks are actually just acts to mislead his opponents. While his main power is still making noodles from his nose, he manages to use it to great effect and even overpowers the strongest of the three, Sanji. Too bad he picked the wrong opponent for a one-on-one fight, as he's ultimately Hoist by His Own Petard as Sanji is a chef, and him using food as his weapon allows Sanji to use techniques he usually reserves for cooking and not fighting. As Sanji gets the upper hand, Wanze takes his danger progression up to eleven by throwing a poisoned knife at Sanji at relatively close range, though he ultimately misses and is defeated.
  • "Wet-Haired" Caribou mainly exists to show how strong the Straw Hat pirates got after the Time Skip. Nothing goes right for him in their presence, so he's basically a Butt-Monkey. But thing is, he's only a joke to people who are notoriously dangerous themselves. To everyone else he's a Serial Killer who buries his victims while they are still alive with a Logia Devil Fruit which allows him to transform into, create, and control a swamp-like substance and gives him a massive Hammerspace. And also he has the tendency to eavesdrop on conversations. Due to this and after the events of Wano, he knows the whereabouts of two of the three Ancient Weapons.
• While calling One Pound Gospel's Ryuusei Kurenai harmless is a bit of a stretch, he's first introduced as a host, and is taken as just a handsome man who happens to hold a debt over Sister Angela due her aunt's antics. The solution for her debts comes from the fact he's also the undefeated Asian-Pacific featherweight boxing champion, who's having a last fight with Hatanaka before challenging the world champion and feels so sure of his strength to bet her debt over the upcoming match. He ends up losing, but it's the first time ever he has to go the distance and had a large advantage on points before being knocked out at the last moment.
• Several executives of the Monster Association in One-Punch Man proved to be this despite their initial apperances, which makes their Break the Haughty on the S-Class all the more shocking:
  • Black Sperm might look like a rejected teletubby, but he is one of the Association's strongest members. He is deceptively fast and proves to be the perfect counter for Atomic Samurai's cut-until-it-dies tactic as he keeps multiplying infinitely each time the Samurai cuts him, and even when the hero develops a way to end him permanently, he still delivers a beatdown to him. And that's before he combines 43 trillion of his cells (10 trillion in the webcomic) and becomes Golden Sperm, who is strong enough to defeat Fuhrer Ugly and Superalloy Blackluster along; and goes even futher along in the manga when he becomes Platinum Sperm, who is fast enough to fight both Garou and Flashy Flash for a while before being obliterated by the former.
  • Fuhrer Ugly, despite his position and fighting style of breaking his opponents in both body and spirit, was Played for Laughs in his first fight with Amai Mask, where he is treated with much more silliness than the other executives who nearly kill their hero opponents. After Orochi's defeat, he reveals a much more cruel and sadistic side, brutally injuring several heroes in quick succession and even coinciding with an Art Evolution in the manga which makes him more outright grotesque than simply Gonk. And when he becomes Vomited Fuhrer Ugly by getting eaten by Gums, pretty much nobody on either side can finish him off for good as he kills even half of the Council of Swordsmen, until Monster Garou one-shots him.
  • Evil Natural Water might look like a RPG Mook, but he's actually quite powerful (able to shoot jet streams of water strong enough to pierce metal), surprisingly capable of reasoning, and nearly impossible to kill through pure physical force, as none of Atomic Samurai's Disciples could cut him and even Child Emperor ran out of tactics against him. Iairon notes that if it managed to assimilate the ocean it would be all but unstoppable. Sure enough, he becomes upgraded to Evil Ocean Water when he connects with the ocean itself and is now easily one of the greatest threats to humanity alongside Sage Centipede. Thankfully, Saitama takes care of him.
  • Despite looking like a humanoid house cat, Nyan^note who first appeared in the manga is frequently seen along side the rest of the Executives whenever they're mentioned or shown together. Despite faring poorly against Puri Puri Prisoner and running away from Saitama, he proves why he's Dragon-level when he runs into a group of lower-ranked Heroes on the surface and completely curbstomps them.
• Pokémon: The Series: Team Rocket, the bumbling Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain buffoons who stalked a ten-year-old for 13 years, had an occasional genuinely good plan that is foiled only due to Ash's sheer determination, and were extremely competent as good guys. But in Pokemon: Best Wishes, they took about a thousand levels in badass. There they took orders from Giovanni, tried not to go after random Pokémon, and if they were "blasting off again" they were escaping using Jet Packs. As of the XY series, they are back to their old bumbling selves, though still retain a more formidable streak compared to early on. During the Sun and Moon series, they collect a more formidable team of Pokemon (with Jessie's Mimikyu set up as a rival for Pikachu) and go on to actually win a battle against Ash fair and square. They quickly return to their bumbling ways afterward... until they collect a Z-Ring, with Ash and Pikachu once again just barely avoiding defeat.
• Pretty Cure:
  • Goyan from Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star is a fat guy with a pinecone on his head whose main purpose is to be annoyed by the Quirky Miniboss Squad in front of the Big Bad Akudaikhan. Then he turns out to be the real villain who created Akudaikhan, reveals his true form, which looks on par with a Dragon Ball Z villain, and destroys the world. Though the world is restored and he is destroyed, Goyan still puts up an impressive fight against the Cures before his demise.
  • Klein from Fresh Pretty Cure! is shown to be a little, elderly man serving as a secretary for the Big Bad Lord Moebius. Then he transforms into a large humanoid lizard with enourmous strength and high speed and is pretty much more powerful than Northa in her monstrous plant form, giving the heroines a hell of an ass-kicking. And then both of them fuse together to become an even more powerful being.
  • Butler from Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is very similar to Goyan. At first, he seems to be a simple right hand man who gets humiliated frequently. Then he actually goes into battle himself and turns out to be a scarily competent fighter who always makes the Cures have trouble. What’s more, even after his superior, the Witch of Delays, is peacefully dealt with, he decides to carry on with the plan to destroy the world anyway, and also assumes a stronger form for the final battle. Even after he loses, he still has enough energy to try to complete the plan.
• Charlotte the Dessert Witch, from episode 3 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, seems to be a complete and utter non-threat. She looks like a plush doll, and not even the creepy kind, and Mami utterly annihilates both her and her minions. And then the witch enters her second form. And off goes poor Mami's head. Sets the tone of the series pretty nicely, really.
• The Monster Clown Mr. Magic Pierrot in Sailor Moon (briefly) outright murders both Usagi and Hawk's Eye, which was a stark contrast to the Lemures being mostly ineffective comic relief.
  • The first two Daimon to appear in the season before that both qualify as well. Mikuji was able to incapacitate the Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Mask, and also broke Sailor Moon's transformation brooch, only being defeated because she was blindsided by Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Nekonerru was able to top her as she took the Senshi down while they were transformed and survived Uranus and Neptune attacking her. However, after this, Sailor Moon got a new transformation brooch and weapon, allowing her to defeat Nekonerru. From then on, the Daimon never really became as threatening as those two.
• Ukyo from Samurai 7 initially seems like a childish fop, who's only dangerous because of his daddy's men and money. Then, with nothing but an understanding of how to appear good (gained from being raised as a farmer), he kills the current emperor, rebuilds the Nobuseri into his personal playthings, and sets out to conquer the world —all under the guise of a benevolent ruler.
• Ogura Bunta of Samurai Champloo, who played the lackey to Harmless Villain and Dirty Coward Nagamitsu to facilitate his search for vengeance against Jin.
• Slayers:
  • Hellmaster Fibrizo. The first impression of him is just that of a young boy and a little girl in the manga. This impression fades quickly upon the revelation that he is one of the most powerful Mazoku Lords, a fact he proves by effortlessly killing the previous Big Bad Chaos Dragon Gaav, another Mazoku Lord. He plays merry hell with the protagonists as the rest of the season's Big Bad, and they are nearly helpless against him. It takes a literal Deus ex Machina to take him down for good.
  • In season 2 there's an unnamed Mazoku that looks like a giant tribal mask with arms and legs. The only thing Lina can think of is how stupid he looks, and he seems to get quickly dispatched almost immediately after appearing. He comes back later, though, and proves to be a surprisingly tough nut to crack, mostly because he can summon several smaller masks that do an excellent job of protecting him from Lina's magic (doesn't help when Lina decides to Dragon Slave the entire building, though).
• In Sonic X, Eggman alternates between being highly competent and not competent at all, so much so that it comes as quite a surprise for some when he talked Dark Sonic out of a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, while his even more harmless robot buddies held off a Metarex leader. In earlier episodes at least, Eggman was actually genuinely formidable against most human forces and the majority of the main protagonists. It is only against Sonic that he falls in a flash (and he did give him a run for his money a few odd times). He also seems to become incredibly more competent whenever he forced to team up with Sonic.
• In Swan Lake (1981), Rothbart is mostly played up as a lovesick buffoon, with Odile as his Hypercompetent Sidekick...until the ending, where he conjures tornadoes, uses his magic to separate Siegfried from Odette and forces Odette to agree to marry him by holding his sword at Siegfried’s neck. That said, Odette’s explanation of the circumstances behind her being captured by Rothbart does foreshadow his being very dangerous at the end.
• Florsheim in Tentai Senshi Sunred is presented as being an organization of nice guys, average Joes and all around friendly people despite the fact that they're monsters. They constantly lose to Sunred and are seen as nothing more than a joke. When a new villain group steps in, Sunred directs them to fight Florsheim first and they get beaten immediately. There's a reason Florsheim's held their territory for so long.
• In Tokyo Ghoul, this occurs more than once.
  • Naki initially seems to simply be a comical Psychopathic Manchild, crying over the death of his beloved "Big Bro" Yamori and or spawning memes with misheard or mispronounced words. He turns out to be strong enough to become The Rival to Tsukiyama and manages to seriously wound Akira in battle. By the time of the sequel, he's been promoted to the higher ranks of Aogiri, and commands a sizable force of Mooks that are completely devoted to him.
  • Nimura Furuta, the bumbling and cowardly sidekick of Evil Cripple Shiki Kijima. His primary skills are apparently doing paperwork for his superior and serving as The Bait during operations. Less a villain, and more of a lackey for one. Then he drops the bumbling act, swiftly killing two of his comrades and Matsumae. Afterward, he beats himself up to convincingly play the "sole survivor" of a massacre and uses the chaos to leak vital information to Aogiri. Furuta is actually a Tyke Bomb working for V, and has spent the last several years infiltrating various organizations and sowing chaos everywhere he goes. He's also Souta, the member of the Clowns Gang that dropped the steel beams on Rize and caused Kaneki's transformation into a Half-Human Hybrid. He winds up being the final Big Bad of the series when he takes over the CCG and uses it for his own plans. It isn't clear where his true loyalties lie, or what his real goals are, but he gleefully plays the harmless fool while playing for all the teams.
• Toriko: Uumen Umeda, the weird guy with the five-o-clock shadow and the funny hair, looks like he's just the Pointy-Haired Boss for part of IGO. He's a mole for NEO, and once he gets the order, he carves up most of IGO's senior staff.
• Toshiya from The World Is Mine starts out as Mon's weak-willed bitch, even wearing a female disguise and pretending to be Mon's girlfriend in public. Things begin to change after they're killed by "Hakumadon" and Mon can't stand to kill. In addition to becoming the primary murderer of the two, he's also considerably more tech- and social-savvy than Wild Child Mon and he becomes increasingly vicious and manipulative as the story goes on.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Otaki/Crump of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Big Five is a joke in his first appearance. His obsession with penguins makes him rather ludicrous, and he ultimately loses a match against Anzu/Téa, one of the hero's cheerleaders. He returns a few episodes later, and alongside the rest of the Big 5, engages Yugi and Jounouchi in a team duel—where he performs exceptionally well, using his Deck Master ability to power up Oshita's/Ganzley's WATER monsters, and maintaining control of the duel for the Big Five. It's not until the Big 5 move away from playing WATER creatures that he's forced to yield to Ooka/Johnson, and in terms of overall performance, he's just behind Daimon/Lector. Justified by the fact that Otaki doesn't lack dueling skill, but does suffer from a near-crippling obsession with penguins—left to his own devices he'll select a deck full of low-level Penguin cards who can't accomplish much, but when given the rest of the Big Five's cards to play with, he can realize his full potential.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds' second season, Carly Nagisa is an unsuccessful, clumsy reporter that seems to never be able to do her job and always end up in bad (but funny) situations. Then she turns out being one of the Dark Signers that will bring forth the end of the world as we know it. Oh whoooops.
  • Girag from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL serves as the vanguard to an alien invasion, whose goal is to destroy Astral's homeworld. His attempts to defeat the heroes involves creating a series of Villains of the Week, with him looking less impressive with each one. While here, he lives in a broom closet and is oddly fond of pop idols. Then his best friend Alito gets hurt and, Villainous Valour in full effect, he shows himself to be a strong duelist, and given the context worthy of respect. He then gets even more sympathetic when we learn his backstory... and then the full power of the Barians were released, and he killed a couple of minor characters.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • Shorin appears somewhat unimpressive to his opponents and having power levels only barely above what he needs to pass (although the opponent he defeated in the first round was even weaker). He turns out to be the demon Rando, who killed 99 martial arts masters after stealing their techniques, and Yusuke only realizes this by process of elimination - he keeps up the facade until he manages to shrink and brutally defeat Kuwabara using a technique he stole.
  • Zig-zagged with Onji in the Dark Tournament. He sports some moves in Team Uratogi's quarter-final match, but next to his teammates, he looks like a normal, friendly old man. Then he effortlessly beats Kuwabara and reveals himself to be the one who gave his members their powerful Items of Darkness. Then he reveals himself as "The Beautiful Demon Fighter Suzuki"...and gets thrashed by Genkai.
  • Elder Toguro is thought to be helpless without his younger brother until he volunteers to fight in a three-on-one match in the Dark Tournament and wins without so much as a scratch on him. In addition, he could have easily killed Kuwabara had he not chosen to Mind Rape him first by revealing that his friends had not told him that Genkai was dead, and then disrespecting her memory.
• Early on in the Faudo arc of Zatch Bell!, during the heroes' infiltration of the eponymous sleeping giant monster, they run into a strange creature named Unko Tin Tin growing out of the wall of Faudo's esophagus. He asks them a bunch of easy riddles and then lets them by without incident. They thereafter forget about him... until Faudo wakes up and he grows legs and starts coming after them. Turns out he's actually an extremely skilled fighter, and it ultimately required a Heroic Sacrifice by Wonrei, a character who'd been in the cast from nearly the beginning, to take him down.

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