Dark Schneider of Bastard!! (1988) is a protagonist with his own Quirky Miniboss Squad (the Four Riders of Havoc). In addition, said minibosses have their own minibosses (especially Kal Su, who commands 13 Generals with their own quirks). And there's also the various high ranking Angels and Demons.
Berserk has two: The Bakiraka from the Golden Age arc, Proud Warrior Race Guys who are ordered to stop the heroes and the group of deformed torturers from the Albion arc, who are Improbable Weapon Users who receive demonic powers and are completely devoted to Mozgus, the Big Bad of that arc. The Bakiraka are killed by Guts and co while Guts completely defeats the torturers by himself.
The Dark Disciples in Black Clover. They all have colorful personalities and serve the Dark Triad to fight against the Magic Knights. Unlike the Dark Triad, who fight the main characters Asta, Yuno, and Noelle, the Dark Disciples mostly face off against supporting characters like Klaus, Luck, Charmy, Leopold, Mimosa, and Gaja.
Grimmjow's Fracción, who are completely loyal to him and prove to be extremely deadly to Hitsugaya's Advance Squad when they fight. Although the Shinigami do end up winning, victory is costly. It's even more costly for Grimmjow's group. Grimmjow is the only one who survives.
Harribel's Amazon Brigade are a trio of quirky females who appear to be barely able to stand each other's presence. Nevertheless, they're incredibly dangerous and are capable of combining their power into a creature that manages to take out four lieutenants without effort and which needs to be defeated by Yamamoto-Genryuusai himself. In the final arc of the story, they're less villains and more aloof allies to the protagonists as they and the protagonists find themselves sharing an enemy.
Baraggan's Fracción are a strange mixture of beings, ranging from the dour and serious to downright kooky. None of them survive the conflict against the Shinigami, but they give the Shinigami a world of trouble before they're taken down.
It turns the Sternritter are this... not to Yhwach, but to Haschwalth. Established as a Bad Boss from the outset, Yhwach appears to command loyalty through fear whereas The Dragon Haschwalth appears to have the army's loyalty through respect and companionship. When the Sternritter feel Haschwalth has been snubbed by Yhwach in favour of Ishida, the personalities of the Sternritter begin to be explored. Quirky is a mild description for some of them.
Diva's chevaliers from Blood+, with Amshel as The Dragon. Being the heads of Cinq Fleshes, they had a lot of presence in the story in various degrees: Karl was absent for most of their meetings, was mostly driven for his obsession with Saya and was the first to die; Solomon did a Heel–Face Turn out of his genuine love for Saya; James was the one with the most pronounced loyalty to Diva, considering her his "Mama" and being in command of the Corpse Corps; Amshel was the Dragon-in-Chief as he was the one who masterminded the events made Diva the threat she is, as well as the whole plan to extinguish humanity and allow Chiropterans rule the world, and Diva was childlishly allowing him to do this; and Nathan was so powerful he could keep even Amshel in line, and he turned up to be a Chevalier before Saya and Diva were even born; plus he is the only one out of them to survive.
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo features the various blocks and divisions of the Hair Hunters, which included in their ranks everything from robots to martial artists to Talking Animals to animated objects. Sometimes the objects aren't animated at all. There was an ordinary stick of gum in their ranks at some point. Ironicaly the gum actually won its fight (by getting eaten, but it still counts).
In Brave10, the Ishikawa gang take this place against the Braves in volume 4.
The Fearsome Four in Corrector Yui, serving as Grosser's most recurring enforcers: Jaggy, Virus, Freezee, and War Wolf (who turns out to be the last Corrector, Synchro). After the latter leaves the group, Yui's older love interest, Shun, is brainwashed into the Four, though his tenure is short as this happens shortly before Grosser's defeat, being the last to fall. Come the next arc, Jaggy, Virus, and Freezee do a Heel–Face Turn (with the latter becoming a Butt-Monkey).
The Lower-5 Rui from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, unlike the other Twelve Kizuki, has his own minions in the form of the Spider Family, who are weak and bickering demons he gathered into a Big, Screwed-Up Family. And by "family" he means using them to keep Demon Slayers away from him at the cost of their lives so he doesn't have to fight himself. Naturally, they're defeated in quick succession while Tanjiro was fighting Rui.
Destiny of the Shrine Maiden had the "Necks of Orochi", whose appearances parodied stock characters in anime. (As an aside, there were faceless mooks in the manga, but they never made an appearance in the anime.)
The Ginyu Force, prominently featured in Dragon Ball Z. They're the most powerful mercenaries in Frieza's galaxy-spanning army...and they introduce themselves with a well-rehearsed "Super Sentai" Stance, pick their opponents via Rock–Paper–Scissors, and discuss dinner plans with each other mid-battle. They do a pretty good job beating up the good guys — and Vegeta — before Goku comes along and tears them a new one.
The fifth Non-Serial MovieDragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge reveals that Cooler has his own version of The Ginyu Force: Salza, Neiz and Dore, collectively known as Cooler’s Armored Squadron, who partake in their own poses and gimmicks. Although unlike The Ginyu Force, they aren’t mercenaries and are instead the personal Elite Mooks of the titular Cooler who is surprisingly a Benevolent Boss to them. The Squadron even give Goku some trouble when they first appear.
Goku: So who are you guys anyway? Salza, Neiz and Dore: We are... [they do their Sentai Poses] COOLER’S ARMORED SQUADRON! [they rush towards Goku] Goku: Great, there goes the camping trip.[goes into a fighting stance]
The franchise used this trope a bit in its early days, but the Ginyu Force was the last obvious demonstration of it. It has been used more frequently in the non-canon movies, to the point where Team Four Star lampoons it with Piccolo's classifications of the team such as "Pretty One" (Jeice), "Stupid One" (Recoome), and "One with the Weird Powers" (Guldo).
In Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, once most of the Dark Army's generals are out of commission, Hadlar is given Orichalcum Royal Guards for personal use. Baran also comes with Dragon Riders who are defeated soon after they are introduced.
In Dr. STONE, Senku and his followers have to deal with Tsukasa's Empire Of Might, Ibara's Petrification Kingdom and Xeno's American Colony.
In Endride, the Truculent, start out as the main opponents of the Ignauts up until Babylon, when Louise defects properly and Ibelda slaughters their other teammates. They're all greatly different in appearance and have very different ideas about how to follow orders.
Eyeshield 21 had this in the form of the Cyborgs and the Scorpions. Shinryuuji also had its own within their team who were shout outs to Journey of the West.
This trope was also deconstructed with the Chameleons and the Guts, as both quirky teams trained incredibly hard only to be curb stomped early in the tournament.
Karacke, Rayule, Byard and Kageyama from Eisenwald under Erigor in the "Lullaby" arc.
Yuuka, Toby and Sherry from Lamia Scale under Lyon in the "Galuna Island" arc.
Element Four (Juvia, Totomaru, Sol and Aria) under Jose Porla in the "Phantom Lord" arc.
Firstly Erza's childhood friends (Wally, Millianna, Simon and Shou), then Trinity Raven (Fukurou, Ikaruga and Vivaldus) under Jellal in the "Tower of Heaven" arc.
The Raijinshu/Lightning God Tribe/Thunder Legion (Evergreen, Bickslow and Freed) under Laxus in the "Fighting Festival" arc.
Oracion Seis except for their leader Brain/Zero (Angel, Racer, Hoteye, Midnight, Cobra and Klodoa) in the "Nirvana" arc.
The Royal Army (Pantherlily, Knightwalker, Hughes, Sugarboy and Byro) under King Faust in the "Edolas" arc.
The Seven Kin of Purgatory (Ultear, Zancrow, Kain, Azuma, Rustyrose, Meredy and Zoldeo) along with Deputy Commander Blunote under Hades in the "S-Class Trial" arc.
The Zentopia Church's Legion Corps (Bryo, Hughes, Sugarboy, Coco, Dan, Samuel and Guttman) under Lapointe and later the return of Oracion Seis (Racer, Angel, Cobra, Jackpot/Klodoa, Reaper/Erigor and Imitatia/Michelle) under Brain II/Midnight in the (now considered canon) anime "Keys to the Starry Heaven" arc.
All the other guilds' teams against Fairy Tail, most notably Sabertooth (Sting, Rogue, Rufus, Orga and Minerva) under Jiemma and Raven Tail (Alexei, Obra, Flare, Kurohebi and Nalpudding) under Ivan/Alexei, in the "Grand Magic Games" arc.
The Hungry Wolf Knights (Kama, Knepper, Uosuke, Cosmos & Kamika) from later in the same arc.
The Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros (Kyouka, Silver, Jackal, Tempester, Franmalth, Torafuzar, Ezel, Seilah, Keyes) under Mard Geer in the "Tartaros" arc
Jerome, Briar, Mary, Gomon, D-6 and Able from Avatar under Alok in the "Avatar" arc.
The Four Chief Vassals of the King organization in Fist of the North Star, which consist of Spade, Diamond, Club, and Heart. Heart serves as The Dragon, being the only member of the group who provides a seemingly genuine threat to Kenshiro's martial art skills.
The Homunculi in Fullmetal Alchemist beneath "Father" (in the manga) or Dante (in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)), appearing as the most prominent villains in most of the story, as every single one of them is competent in some form or another, especially as near-invincible Hero Killers. Going a step below that, one of the Homunculi, Greed, has his very own mini-miniboss squad with his chimera henchmen (and henchwoman).
Pasder's Four Machine Kings (Polonaise, Primada, Pizza, Penchinon) from GaoGaiGar.
The members of the 31 Primevals who possess human bodies become one for a short time. Final has the 11 Mastersof Sol, though half of them are arguably a subversion. While set up with the fanfare of a quirky miniboss squad, they never reveal a personality, voice, or even a face. They are a shadow shaped like a miniboss squad.
The Hyper-Zoanoid Five in Guyver. Of course, they barely fought the Guyver himself, and instead were targets for Aptom, who took down four out of five and even was able to get a sample of Zxtole's genetics.
The Genei Ryodan are comprised of 13 powerful thieves, with each of them having a unique personality and abilities, but most of them share the same or have a similar background, which is the reason why they have a strong sense of companionship for each other. Their individual uniqueness form the 12-legged Spider, a metaphoric entity which the leader Chrollo Lucilfer identify as himself.
The Royal Guards who serve the Chimera Ant King. A rather unique example, as each of them goes through drastic Character Development in a short amount of time, they all have their own ideas of loyalty, and they show more and more of humanity in them (including the bad side of humanity).
Innocent Venus has the Phantom unit, complete with a knife-licker and a Chinese man who kills people with rather sharp tarot cards.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable: Keicho Nijimura gave random people Stand powers hoping they would help him, though only his brother stayed with him. Later, Yoshikage Kira got a set of Stand Users created by his father specifically to get rid of Josuke and his friends.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: Bucciarati's gang has to deal with the rebellion of La Squadra di Esecuzioni, and after that the boss of Passione sends his Unità Speciale after Bucciarati and his crew.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run: Every antagonistic racer besides the Boom Boom Family turns out to be working for Valentine to help him find the Saint's Corpse Parts.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: JoJolion: The Higashikata Family is targeted by two sets of Rock Men, Damo's smuggling group and Akefu's research group, with both answering to the same mastermind.
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has the Eight Fists of Ragnarok. Or at least six of them, since the Big Bad and The Dragon (Odin & Berserker) were the First and Second Fists respectively. Somewhat inverted, as each of the Fists were individually more developed overall than Berserker was. Also, five of the eight (excluding the Big Bad, The Dragon, and The Starscream) eventually pulled a Heel–Face Turn down the line.
Actually around chapter 340 or so, it's revealed that Nijima somehow got Loki to gather info for him, so it's currently 6 out of 8 fists now. And the jury's still out on whether Odin is still entirely loyal to his master.
Then, after the Ragnarok arc, we have Yami and YOMI, which both have Quirky Miniboss Squads. Yami has a leading group called "One Shadow Nine Fists", where "Shadow One" is The FacelessBig Bad and the "nine fists" are his Quirky Miniboss Squad. The organization of Yami's disciples, YOMI, also has its own Quirky Miniboss Squad which consists of those who are the disciples of "One Shadow Nine Fists".
Kill la Kill has the Elite Four, an ensemble of Satsuki's top lieutenants. Due to having well-fleshed backgrounds and undergoing constant development in terms of both powers and character, they are also considered somewhat of a Spotlight-Stealing Squad.
Spoofed in the Battlefield Trip episodes, where the Kyoto defenders pose themselves as this but end up defeated in a matter of seconds.
Kuroko's Basketball: Each of the five members from the Generation of Miracles serve as a boss Seirin has to defeat. The four (and in one case, five) teammates of the respective GoM player can be viewed as this, since they are rather quirky and important enough to qualify as a miniboss squad, and generally, it's not uncommon that individual players are obstacles by themselves. However, while there's usually one player who is developed enough to serve as the The Ace's partner/best buddy, there tends to be at least one player who is rather the Generic Guy or Flat Character and doesn't stand out as much as the others. However, the team that fits this trope the most would definitively be Rakuzan, the final team Seirin has to face in the Winter Cup. All four players are quirkier than most other characters, have special skills that the other teams commonly lack, and each of them has enough interaction with individual Seirin players that would make them sort-of-rivals. The fact that three of them are "members" of the Five Uncrowned Kings makes Rakuzan even more threatening and quirkiernote Like the Generation of Miracles, the Five Uncrowned Kings used to be aces, and each of them had their own special skill and very eccentric personalities..
The Wolkenritter before them, in A's. Although the boss in this equation (Hayate) wasn't even aware of what was going on until the climax.
The Inherent Type Iris Units fill this role in Detonation, being more powerful than the Mass Production Types and having unique appearances and weapons. All of them go unnamed and they don't appear to have individual personalities.
The True Bloodline introduced late in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro consist of Sicks and his Five Fingers with their skills in physics and chemisty bordering on Elemental Powers.
Gon Jem and his Shitennou in Metal Armor Dragonar. You don't get any quirkier in a Real Robot anime. Their weirdness does not keep them from being more than a match to the heroes in more than one occasion.
In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED there is ZAFT's Le Creuset team consisting of, Athrun, Yzak, Dearka and Nicol, who take up much of the first half of the series. Although if they are on the good or bad side is a matter of perception. One ends up dying, two join up with the 'good guys', and the last pulls an 11th-Hour Ranger.
Following the Le Creuset team's disbanding and the escalation of the war, they're replaced in story by the "Druggies," Orga, Shani, and Clotho. OMNI super soldiers enhanced by drugs and augmentations, they're far more dangerous than their predecessors due to using superior machines and being utterly psychotic. Ironically, all of them are eventually killed by former Le Creuset team members, Yzak and Athrun.
In Mob Psycho 100 the esper terrorist group Claw is fought twice, first against the Scar branch, and later against the Super 5. With most of them being Chuunibyou, they come with varying powers and personality.
In Monster Rancher, there is the Big Bad Four, the four strongest Baddies to serve Moo: Pixie, Gali, Grey Wolf, and Naga. After the Searchers reform Pixie and defeat the other three, they deal with General Duraham.
The heroes of The Mysterious Cities of Gold have two sets of these following them around, Commander Gomez and Gaspar, and Malinche and The Doctor (and their Dumb Muscle Teteola), trying to beat them to the treasure.
Akatsuki tries to be this, giving each of its members a quirky personality, but few of them are considered expendable. Really, they're more several pairs of goons (Deidara/Sasori, Kisame/Itachi and Kakuzu/Hidan) as well as a Big Bad and his Dragon.
The resurrected Jinchuuriki and their Bijuus — the Bijuus have their own quirky personalities, their Jinchuurikis followed the Big Bad into the battlefield, and they perform a group Heel–Face Turn once released from the Edo Tensei.
Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Fate's group of partners, who start popping up in the Magic World. Unfortunately for them, they have a rather nasty habit of running into Jack Rakan.
In Noblesse the The Union utilizes small squads to check on their activities in Korea, and once they run out of cannon fodder, the Elders themselves start to get killed in increasing groups. The Nobles were also this for Raskreia until her Heel–Face Turn.
In One Piece, almost every villain's named henchmen qualify as a quirky miniboss squad, with some Psycho Rangers thrown in. At first, there's always one miniboss to fight every crew member. As the crew has grown, this has been abandoned, and instead the minibosses have become so powerful than it may take two or three Strawhats just to beat one of them. In fact, One Piece villains as a whole rely on quirky miniboss squads more than mooks.
Overlord (2012): In-Universe, this was the intended role of the Floor Guardians, Area Guardians, and Pleiades for The Grand Tomb of Nazarick — while each of them is a One-Man Army and a boss in their own right, they don't compare to the actual owner of Nazarick, Ainz Ooal Gown, due to being NPCs. They only really come into the quirky part after being transported into the New World and coming alive, though, and they are a very dark example, as their creators made many of them unrepentantly evil out of amusement.
Ping Pong: Despite the team's skill, all of Kaiō Academy, excluding Kazuma and Sakuma prior to the latter's departure.
Pretty Cure (including the numerous spin-offs) has a cadre of mid-level badguys every plot line, one of which usually ends up becoming The Dragon or are led by The Dragon.
Futari wa Pretty Cure has the Dark Five, later the Seeds of Darkness, and then the Four Guardians in the sequel.
Smile PreCure! has the Bad End Generals plus Joker. During the final, Joker creates a Mirror Match group of Precures, called the Bad End Precures. They last for one episode, though.
HuGtto! Pretty Cure starts out with Charalit, Ruru, and Pappuru. Once they're out of the picture, it becomes Jelos, Dr. Traum, and Bishin. Poor Daigan ends up as a Bait-and-Switch Boss, and Listol rarely gets involved.
Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has the three generals for the Notraiders, plus Bakenyan if you want to count him as one. Galogre later joins them after Aiwarn goes AWOL.
Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure has three demons for the Byogens. In episode 12, a nutria gets infected and joins them, naming himself as Batetemoda. After his defeat in Episode 21, the group makes two more generals who live only for an episode.
Rave Master was chock full of these. Odds are if a main baddie was introduced, be it the leader(s) of Demon Card King or Lucia, or even Pumpking Doryu, his squad wasn't too far behind, like Oración Six for the formers.
In Reborn! (2004), each arc introduces a gang of The Psycho Rangers that Tsuna and his friends need to take down: The Kokuyo Gang, the Varia executives, The Six Funeral Wreaths of the Millefiore Family, The Simon Family guardians, and the Vindice.
The Juppongatana in Rurouni Kenshin, almost all of whom have some underlying motive for helping Shishio and tragic backstories. The Six Comrades from later in the manga, however, are just Psychos For Hire.
Sailor Moon had a set of these guys every season (in order of appearance: Shitennou, Ayakashi Sisters, Witches 5, Amazon Trio, Amazones Quartet, and Sailor Animamates). Many of these groups were made up of colour-coded evil counterparts of the Four Guardians (Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako). In the manga, the Witches 5 were even resurrected JUST to kill the Senshi they copied!
In Saint Seiya, after the Sanctuary ran out of Silver Saints to throw at the heroes, the Gold Saints acts like this to the Pope (who turns out to be Gemini Saga in disguise). Later arcs and other media have each villain using a team of themed counterparts to the Saints, like God Warriros, Marines, Specters and etc.
Samurai Deeper Kyo has several such groups. Perhaps most stunning is the fact that the protagonist and title character, Kyo himself has his own Quirky Miniboss Squad, the Shiseiten (translated as the Four Emperors in the american release). Also present are Sanada Yukimura's Sanada Ten and Nobunaga's Twelve God Shoguns. The primary villains of the series, the Mibu clan have several of squads of their own, the primary two being the Five Stars and the Four Elders. It gets even more complicated, however, when it is revealed that each of the four elders has his/her own Quirky Miniboss Squad, referred to as the Imperial Guards. Finally, the Crimson King has his own secret miniboss squad in the form of the Red Cross Knights, who serve as his secret assassins.
Sand Land, one of Akira Toriyama's more obscure works, featured The Swimmers as a sort of nicer Ginyu Expy squad.
Shaman King's Lily Five team (but only in the 2001 anime), though they turned out to be good guys. There were also Hao's minions (who appear in both anime series and the manga). Despite having such members as a mariachi and a football player, they were all legitimately dangerous, as well as having a larger role in the manga and the 2021 anime. It ends up being quite surprising when members who were closer to mook status turn out to have been Hero Killers who had been holding back. Especially the mariachi.
The manga adaptation of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time features Pierre and his sister, Kurin, a pair of Meondix who're part of the Black Cats bounty hunting group. While only minor nuisances, at best, Pierre's ability to control beasts, Kurin's sharpshooting, and their persistence, makes them a handful for Fayt, Nel, and Cliff to deal with.
Every season of Symphogear after the first one has a new Arc Villain with a set of minions: F.I.S., Auto-Scorers, The Illuminati, Noble Red.
Tiger & Bunny has this in the second film, The Rising, with Johnny Wong, Kasha Graham, and Richard Max, a trio of supervillains working for the film's main antagonist.
Trigun: The Gung-Ho Guns are the enemies of Vash the Stampede and are led by Legato, though in a twist in the original manga, some actually have humanizing connections with him.
Folken: He's been slipping in and out of an Angst Coma ever since his underlings were killed. Turns out he did care about those guys; who knew? Zonghi's dead....
The Player Killers hired by Pegasus J. Crawford are given the task to reduce the numbers of participants as well as halting Yugi's process within the tournament. Each of them has their own unique gimmick, with the Ventriloquist of the Dead (in the manga) or the Mimic of Doom (in the anime) using Kaiba's stolen deck and likeness, the Player Killer of Darkness covering his side of the field in complete darkness, and the Meikyu Brothers engaging the opponents in a Labyrinth Tag Duel.
While Marik has numerous Ghouls, apart from the Rare Hunter with the fake Exodia cards, the ones he sends after Yugi are specialized to either kill him with death traps or to slow him down or both. Pandora uses a deck that serves as an Evil Counterpart to Yugi's (specifically both of them use Black Magician) and he's the only one with a flesh-out backstory. The Silent Doll is a mime who simply act as a remote body for Marik to control and uses a deck that's based on Marik's personal strategy. The Masks of Light and Darkness are another tag team who carry out specific roles during a Tag Duel and narratively serve as a Dual Boss that forces Yugi and Kaiba to become Fire-Forged Friends.
The Big Five in the Virtual World arc. Each of them has his own backstory and they all have different personalities, motivations, decks and playstyles. While they are middle-aged or old men, they are often presented as their Deck Masters, which gives them a clear visual distinction from each other.
And also the Three Swordsmen from the Doma arc who all act as Foils and rivals to the three main wielder of the Dragon cards, with each henchmen having their own backstory and and motivations. Their decks are a reflection of their personalities.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters has the five dragons of the fifth trial, who act as evil counterparts to the heroes, with each dragon representing a different Attribute. The final trial has Alexander and his vassals, who also correspond to the heroes.
The Seven Stars Assassins are seven individuals who are given the task to steal the keys protected by Duel Academia. The Seven Stars have a severe lack of a group dynamic and are a bunch of random people or creatures who simply have the same job, with various levels of effectiveness. Darkness is very threatening and serves as a Knight of Cerebus. Camula is a vampire who is not only competent, but also a cheater. Tania is an amazon who is also competent like Camula, but she distinguishes herself for looking for a groom and lacks the dark and creepiness of the former two. Abidos is an Fake Ultimate Hero, Don Zaloog is a comedic relief villain with his own gang. Titan is fraud-turned genuine villain who has been given actual dark powers. Amnael is The Dragon who also doubles as a Reverse Mole. The group as a whole don't even qualify as Psycho Rangers, due to how largely disconnected they are to the opponent's they're facing, and five out of the seven ended up being defeated by The Hero.
The Society of Light is mostly comprised of brainwashed students from the Obelisk Blue dorm and Ra Yellow dorm, with Manjoume (Osiris Red), Asuka (Obelisk Blue) and Misawa (Ra Yellow) being the three strongest duelists of that Society. Manjoume and Asuka gradually change while being brainwashed and need to be snapped out of it by Judai, whereas Misawa is the Token Good Teammate and The Unfought who disappears on his own. Notably, Manjoume and Asuka use different cards and decks the more severe their brainwashing is.
Mizuchi Saiou has her own Elite Four, but ultimately they are nothing more than some Elite Mooks who all run a different Monarch as their Signature Mon and have distinct personalities.
Dornkirk: 'Oi! Folken! Have you found the dragon yet?Folken: No, my lord, and I seem to be running out of flamboyant lackeys to send after him.Dornkirk: Why? What's wrong with Dilandau?Folken: He's been slipping in and out of an Angst Coma ever since his underlings were killed. Turns out he did care about those guys; who knew? Zonghi's dead....Dornkirk: Have we used the gecko ninjas?Folken: We've used the gecko ninjas.Dornkirk: How about that snake guy?Folken: We've used the snake guy.