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Sandbox / Big Bad Anime And Manga

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"The ultimate villain of the story, who's causing the problem the heroes must solve."

Note that Big Bad is not a catch-all trope for the biggest and ugliest villain of any given story. The Big Bad is the one who turns out to be behind several other seemingly independent threats.

  • Agent Aika:
    • Aika 16 has Risako, Aika's teacher, who turns out to be an agent for a secret organization, who tries to stop Aika's expedition.
    • Aika Zero has Miyu Shiratori, the leader of the White Knights that terrorize the school.
  • Air Gear: Sora Takeuchi; the over-arching plot of the series is their attempt to claim the Sky Regalia and become Sky King, and it's kicked into motion the second they get up off their ass and take personal control of Genesis.
  • Akame ga Kill! has two. Prime Minister Honest is the source of all that is rotten within The Empire, manipulating the boy emperor to create a brutal and corrupt regime whose sole purpose is to preserve his power and pleasure. However, despite being more dangerous than he appears, his rule would not be possible without the cooperation of General Esdeath, the Empire's best general and a One-Woman Army. She helps maintain Honest's rule because its sheer brutality places the Empire in a state of almost constant internal rebellion and war with its neighbors, creating her ideal world where the weak are killed and the strong rule.
  • Assassination Classroom: Shiro is the most recurrent antagonist Koro-Sensei and his students face over the course of the series, earning this spot by default. Then it's solidified when it's revealed that he's really Yanagisawa, the Mad Scientist who transformed Koro-Sensei from a human into what he now is, making him responsible for the whole series in the first place. Then he and the God of Death, who he makes his Dragon, jointly serve as the Final Boss at the series' climax.
  • Attack on Titan has the iconic Colossal Titan, a Kaiju-like Titan that quite literally kicked off the series by ending a century of peace. Revealed not to be true once his Secret Identity is revealed. He's merely a guilt-ridden Tyke Bomb serving an even greater threat. That threat is revealed to be the Kingdom of Marley, a nation subjugating the Eldians and are using the power of seven out of the nine Titan powers they've gained in an attempt to acquire the resources of Paradis Island and later seek the genocide of the Eldians living there..
  • Aura Battler Dunbine: Lord Drake Luft is responsible for the war in the setting, seeking to conquer all of Biston Well and rule supreme.
  • Beasts of Abigaile: Aaron, the sinister headmaster of Abigaile Island, a correctional "school" where lugas are conditioned to become slaves. He's also responsible for revealing the existence of the lugas to the government, which in turn led to their country of Ruberia being conquered and them being enslaved in the first place.
  • Black Clover: Licht, the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, leads a group of rogue mages whose goal is to destroy the Clover Kingdom, putting him at odds with the kingdom's Magic Knights.
  • Bleach:
    • Sosuke Aizen is behind almost everything that's happened in this manga right down to even being responsible for Ichigo and Uryuu being born. His hollowfication experiments bring Masaki and Isshin together, in the process destroying her planned Arranged Marriage to Ryuuken and freeing them both to Marry for Love. In the final arc, Aizen manages to manipulate Yhwach with his power despite being imprisoned.
    • In the final arc, Yhwach, The Emperor of the Vandenreich, is revealed to be involved in almost everything Aizen isn't and it's hinted that Yhwach may be the reason why Aizen became a villain in the first place. Yhwach is responsible for the existence of the Quincies and the Great Offscreen War with the Shinigami. Shutara claims he's more evil than Aizen. He also caused the deaths of Yamamoto, Ichigo's mother and Uryuu's mother, and is the reason why Uryuu was denied Quincy training after Souken's death.
  • In Brave10, Tokugawa Ieyasu is responsible for the political machinations threatening Isanami, Yukimura, and Ueda's independence. Although he's portrayed as ineffectual and always at a distance, both Hattori Hanzō and Date Masamune are working for or through him to attack the Braves on all sides.
  • In Chrono Crusade, Aion's behind a huge chunk of the bad things that happen and is the final foe Chrono and Rosette have to face—although in the manga his morality is a little more gray than his anime counterpart.
  • In Claymore Priscilla looks like the most logical pick for this role, until you find out that the Organization has used the island Claymore is set in as a giant-sized research lab for the whole time as a mean to produce controllable Awakened beings, they created the Yoma and every single nasty thing that inhabits Claymore's Crapsack World ultimately exists only because of them, Abyssal ones and Priscilla included.
  • Vicious from Cowboy Bebop. Due to the episodic nature of the show, he's only in 5 episodes, but he's not only the central threat of those episodes, he also plays a huge role in Spike's past.
  • Daimos: Olban was the real puppet master caused the conflict in the story, manipulating everybody to achieve power.
  • Sir Isaac Ray Peram Westcott from Date A Live, managing director of Deus Ex Machina Industries, and creator of the Spirits who caused the war between them and mankind. He plans to use their power to become a god and create a new world in his image, purely For the Evulz. While he was relatively out of the picture for the first four volumes or so (the entirety of the anime's first season minus his involvement with Mana and Origami's new weapons), once he makes his appearance, it's made clear that he harbours ill intent towards the Spirits, and slowly overrides the story's initial Excuse Plot.
  • Delicious in Dungeon has the Lunatic Magician set up as us this in the first couple of pages, being the one who created the dungeon by sinking a whole kingdom into the ground, but seems to simply be a myth or legend, with the Red Dragon taking the spotlight after eating Falin alive, forcing the party to go save her. However, after its revealed the Magician (aka Thistle) very much exists and is behind the Red Dragon, she solidly takes this role in the story. She cursed the residents of the Golden Kingdom with immortality, executes any who try to escape, attacked Team Touden with the monsters she controls, stole away Falin and mutated her into her chimera form, and is just murderously insane in general. Even the people she's "protecting" hate her.
  • Doubt Trilogy by Yoshiki Tonogai:
    • Doubt: The Wolf, who uses her hypnotic abilities to trap people in a mafia-esque game called “Rabbit Doubt”, with one of them as the murderer. At first thought to be ???? (the bald man found in the surveillance room.), it's then revealed to be Mitsuki Houyama, who’s actually under the control of Rei Hazama, all because she was falsely accused of being a fraud and her parents killed themselves out of shame.
    • In the sequel Judge, the titular Deadly Game is overseen by what appears to be a talking doll resembling some sort of fox-like animal. It calls itself the Judge, and it becomes clear that it’s a proxy for someone amongst the participants. In the end, the mastermind behind the Judge game is actually two people, Hikari and Hiro, as Revenge by Proxy for a court case in which Hiro’s brother and Hikari’s lover, Atsuya, died and the perpetrator got off scot-free. Though, of the two, Hikari’s more dominant, as seen when she kills Hiro at the end for indirectly being responsible for Atsuya’s death.
    • In Secret, the mastermind is Shinichi Mitomo, the school’s guidance counselor who consults the students after a tragic bus accident. However, it’s subverted in that this game is not lethal- he simply claims that three of them are murderers and that he has the evidence, and encourages them to confess. The real Big Bad would be the murderer who Mitomo suspects caused the “accident”. It’s then double subverted when it’s revealed that the crash really was an accident, and Mitomo made it look intentional to pin it on two of the students and get another thrown in jail. Said person’s motive for doing this was to kill everyone who he suspects got his beloved sister pregnant- he wanted her for himself.
  • The sequel anime, Dragon Ball Z has a Big Bad for each saga. The Saiyajin saga's main menace was Vegeta, who led the attack of the title alien race (which Goku is also a member of) on earth. He gets better.
  • Dragon Ball Super:
  • The Demon King Azatodeth is the main Big Bad of the Dragon Half manga, as the one ordering the monsters to cause havoc, and Mink’s goal is to defeat him; but she must also deal with Princess Vina, who wants Dick Saucer all to herself and often clashes with Mink, and is the main Big Bad of the OVA in which Azatodeth does not appear.
  • In the manga adaptation of Dragonar Academy, which covers the first seven light novels in the series, there are two Big Bads. The first seven volumes of the manga has the dragon Mordred, or more specifically Mordred's evil soul (he had two). The heir to the Dark Dragon house of Nehalennia, Mordred's plan is ultimately to force Eco, the heir to the rival Imperial House of Avalon, to unlock her extremely powerful dragon form so that he might possess her. From volumes 11 to 13, the Big Bad is Prince Uriel, third-in-line to the throne of Chevron, who orchestrates a plot to surreptitiously off his father and replace him as king, the first step in his goal to conquer the entire continent.
  • Dream Eater Merry has "Pharos" Hercules, a powerful Dream Demon who seeks to supplant the human population and alter it so Dream Demons can exist human hosts. However, it turns out he was the pawn of Kyou Shiragi, who loaned his power to him and seeks to make people's dreams come true by sacrificing Dream Demons after planting them inside the hosts. Anyone with short-term goals no longer have anything to strive for, making them just as lost those whose Dream Demons have killed. Others have come out of it intact, but at the cost of losing the Dream Demons accompanying them, friendly or not.
  • Izaya Orihara in the Durarara!! anime. In the light novels, the Big Bad is revealed to be Yodogiri Jinnai, who is apparently even worse than Izaya. However it's soon revealed that Jinnei is dead, and it's actually Kasane Kujiragi who is using his identity.
  • Elfen Lied: Director Kakuzawa runs the research facility and is responsible for all the horrific experiments the Diclonii suffer through. He plans to capture Lucy and use her to Kill All Humans then replace them with a new Diclonii race that he will rule over as a god. As such, he is essentially the living distillation of the cruelty of humans (though he believes himself to be a diclonus, this is proven false). Once he is killed, however, the Diclonius DNA voice takes over the role. She was the one manipulating Lucy and the one implied to be behind the Diclonii’s madness, and could be considered the true antagonist, especially when she nearly destroys the world.
  • Eureka Seven: Dewey Novak.
  • Fairy Tail tends to follow the Arc Villain formula, though the most proactive villain thus far has been Hades (even though he was regulated to Disc-One Final Boss status). As of right now, there are two candidates for the role of Big Bad:
    • The Black Mage Zeref, the strongest and most evil mage in history. He created the Etherious, demons from the Book of Zeref, who have caused trouble throughout the series, and the Dark Guilds of the series are often more than not Zeref worshipers. Interestingly, while he has been behind most of the villains in the series, the man himself has generally been presented as more of an Anti-Villain who wants nobody to die but himself, and hates humanity only to stop himself from killing by accident.
    • Acnologia: The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse. He is a being that even Zeref fears. He is also a strong candidate, further supported after he killed Igneel, permanently putting him on the top of Natsu's shit list and making him his Arch-Enemy.
    • There is a third possible option for this position the Guild Master of Tartaros and the most powerful Etherious made by Zeref E.N.D or Etherious Natsu Dragneel. Despite being sealed away in his Book Of Zeref he can provide a threat in the current times should he be released, and Gray has made it clear he still intends to destroy this demon.
  • Feng Shen Ji: Shen Yen.
  • Final Fantasy: Unlimited gives us Earl Tyrant, who is succeeded by Solijashy for FFU: After. A strong case could actually be made for Oscha being the true villain, as well.
  • Fist of the North Star has Shin at the beginning, the man who engraved the seven scars on Kenshiro chest and took his woman away. However, he only lasts 10 chapters in the manga (a bit longer in the TV series) and his role as Kenshiro's greatest rival is eventually taken over by Raoh, who serves as the main antagonist for most of the manga (being supplanted only by Souther at one point). The later half of the manga has Governor Jakoh, a Dirty Coward, followed by Kaioh, Raoh's long-lost brother.
  • Flame of Recca: Kouran Mori.
  • Flowering Heart has Cannabis, the Queen of Despair who's behind all of the problems the girls face.
  • Whether you believe him to be truly evil or not, Shigure provokes most of the conflict in Fruits Basket in his attempt to break the curse. He pushes everybody's buttons (including Akito), fully intending for them to lash out (just not at him, if he can help it).
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Fushigi Yuugi has the infamous Nakago. In the OVAs, Tenkou takes the throne. He's a demonic king.
  • Kazuhiro Mitogawa in Ga-Rei, virtually kick-starting the entire series as of Ga-Rei -Zero- by giving a Sesshouseki to Mei, and then to Yomi, and is also implied to have been the spirit which killed Kagura's mother.
  • Emperor Darius in Gaiking.
  • The 17th Emperor of Darius in Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu, until The Dragon Proist murders him by accident, at which point she fully assumes her role as the Big Bad.
  • Gamaran: Jinsuke Kurogane.
  • The Garden of Sinners has Araya Souren, who is responsible for everything before and after Ryougi Shiki, the main character, woke from her coma. Strangely enough, he is finished off in the fifth movie in a series of seven movies.
  • GeGeGe no Kitarō has a sort of a Big Bad Ensemble with Nurarihyon, who in adaptations starting with the third anime he appears in various non-consecutive episodes and in some can even get some Yokai work for him, and Backbeard, the leader of the Western Yokai, appearing most notably in several The Great Yokai War and Yokai Rally adaptations. Uniquely, the 2018 anime adds new villain Nanashi as the most recurring threat from the very first episode. Nezumi-Otoko can sometimes be seen as this as his greed and backstabbing disorder can either instigate the plot of an episode or giving an advantage to the Villain of the Week.
  • Getter Robo Go: Professor Rando.
  • Gintama being a episodic Gag Manga with the occasional serious arc here and there, had only Arc Villain and no Big Bad for the longest time. Good candidates for the role where the Tendoshu, who have been rulling Japan since the amanto invasion, the Harusame, a massive fleet of Space Pirates, and Takasugi, who seemed to be shaping up to become the manga main vilain. Then Utsuro appeared and hijacked most of the others factions involved. He quickly turned out to be the show biggest Knight of Cerebus, strongly tied to Gintoki's past, and having a massive impact on the plot, he clearly took the Big Bad position.
  • GoLion: Emperor Daibazaal.
  • Green Blood: Edward King
  • Guilty Crown: GHQ.
  • Most Gundam series have one.
  • Gun×Clover: Sayuri Higuchi.
  • The Claw from GUN×SWORD is a sweet old man, with a track record of crimes agains the protagonists as long as his artificial right arm. Every single bad thing in the series ultimately traces back to him.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • The series doesn't really have a Big Bad, but The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, based on the novel of the same name, ultimately has Yuki Nagato as the one responsible for the disruption of spacetime. An excellent example of a non-evil main antagonist, the poor girl just wanted a world where she could live as a normal human being.
    • Within Dissociation and both volumes of Surprise, Fujiwara, a newly introduced time-traveler and Mikuru's Evil Counterpart, fulfills this role as the head of a faction believing Haruhi was not meant to be the true recipient of her God-like powers.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler: While the manga has a Myth Arc, there isn't really an overarching Big Bad, except during the "End of the World," Mykonos, and Finale arcs.
  • Heaven's Lost Property: Minos
  • The Major in the Hellsing manga and OVA series.
    • The TV anime series has Incognito, and by extension his mysterious employer who may or may not be the Major.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry:
    • The original main antagonist was the nurse Miyo Takano. She was the one who would murder Rika and destroy the village of Hinamizawa as a means of validating her grandfather's research and acquiring godhood.
    • Her superior, Nomura, functions as the main antagonist in the Outbreak OVA being indirectly responsible for a killer virus leaking into Hinamizawa, and then has the village quarantined to further study the effects.
    • Gou and Sotsu has Satoko take the mantle due to deliberately trapping Rika in the endless loop of June 1983 to force her into staying in Hinamizawa. Her witch half then steals the title once she started to feel remorse.
    • Eua, or "Oyashiro-sama," is the one who granted Satoko the ability to loop thus making her the true main antagonist of the sequel series, but also the overarching threat that needs to be vanquished.
  • High School D×D
    • Volume 1 has Raynare, a fallen angel who murders Issei and Asia.
    • Volume 2 has Riser Phenex
    • Volume 3 has Kokabiel
    • Volume 4 has Katerea Leviathan, a member of the Old Satan Faction who attacks the club at the peace conference.
    • Volume 6 has Diodora Astaroth, the strange heir of the Astaroth clan who's obsessed with Asia and has been coordinating an Evil Plan to kidnap her since the very beginning, with Shalba Beelzebub acting as the Greater-Scope Villain.
    • Volume 7 has Loki
    • Volume 11-12 and 24 has Hades.
    • Volume 18-20 has Rizevem Lucifer, leader of the Qlippoth Faction and the Khaos Brigade's most powerful member.
    • Volume 21 has the Trihexa.
  • Hiuri: Soujin.
  • Hyouka: Fuyumi Irisu "The Empress" is the closest character this show has to one as main antagonist. She manipulated Oreki during the mystery of the unfinished film, after all.
  • In Inuyasha, Naraku was behind almost everything that happened in the story from generational family curses to destroying an entire clan of youkai-slayers, to destroying tribes of youkai to pissing off technically neutral youkai, destroying the lives of the titular hero and his first love, and even being behind the heroine travelling through time. He's behind most of the major destruction of towns, villages, noble clans and even the destruction of entire sacred mountains. There's almost nothing he hasn't been responsible for... including ensuring the release of the ultimate evil and the near-success of the true plan of the Artifact of Doom.
  • Sekidousai in Inukami!, whose inventions form the basis of early plots and those Evil Plan drives the second half of the show.
  • Jewelpet:
    • Jewelpet (2009): Dian. He takes over from Diana, who was always acting on his behalf, midway through the show. Aims to prove the supremacy of Jewelpets by stealing the Jewel Stick from the heroine and turning all humans into stone. Uses his powers to control Jewelpets to accomplish his goals and devises schemes to ruin the heroes' lives, which are usually carried out by his underlings, though he does it himself when it comes to the main heroine specifically.
    • Jewelpet Twinkle☆: Alma Jinnai. Wants to kill Big Good Jewelina out of revenge and stops at nothing to accomplish it. Gets herself possessed by Dark Magic and nearly destroys Jewel Land.
    • Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!: the Dark General, leader of the Decoranain, who aim to cover Earth and Jewel Land in eternal darkness.
    • Jewelpet Happiness: the Red Moon, which wants to contaminate everyone with Unhappiness out of spite, and possesses many people to further its plans.
    • Lady Jewelpet: Joker. It's trying to undermine the Lady system, and, through it, bring chaos to Jewel Land. Is the cause of Luea's troubles and the creator of Lillian.
  • Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Every arc that doesn't feature him as the main villain features one who is connected to him, however small. The Pillar Men (Part 2) created the Stone Mask that turned Dio into a vampire, Yoshikage Kira (Part 4) got his Stand abilities from one of the arrows that Dio once owned, Diavolo (Part 5) was directly responsible for Dio getting his hands on the arrow in the first place, and Enrico Pucci (Part 6) was Dio's closest confidante.
    • Kira's role as Big Bad of part 4 is noticeably downplayed, as despite being considered the official main villain he has no connection to the enemy Stand users encountered in the first half of the series, and spends the majority of the storyline just wanting to be left alone and live his quiet serial killer life while his father is the one creating new Stand users in the second half and doing all the scheming in trying to kill Josuke and friends.
    • Part 7 breaks away from the trend of a main villain connected to Dio with President Funny Valentine, who holds the Steel Ball Run for his own agenda.
  • K: The Colorless King.
  • The little known manga Kagerou-Nostalgia has Lord Gessho Kuki, Shadow, who is responsible for every horrific thing to occur in series. May actually be the host of an even Greater-Scope Villain to boot.
  • Kaiji: Kazutaka Hyo(u)do(u)
  • Karas has Eko, the former Karas of Shenjuki, who doubles as a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • Karin: While the bulk of the manga deals with Karin Maaka's relationship with Kenta Usui and her family, and the strain her unique vampire nature has on them (she's a vampire that produces and injects blood into others), the latter half of the manga reveals that the vampire Glark has a sinister interest in Karin. He's working for Cecilia Brownlick, scion of the powerful Brownlick vampire clan. Karin is actually the Psyche, a host for the being Sophia Pistis, whose blood is capable of turning vampires, many of whom are barren, fertile. Cecilia's goal is to hold Karin captive for the rest of her life, providing her blood to the Brownlicks until her sanguinary ability eventually killed her. Even more twisted, she intends to have Karin impregnated to ensure the bloodline of the Psyche will continue after her death.
  • While The Ceruleans could be considered the overall main antagonists of the Kemono Friends anime, the Black Cerulean particularly stands out, as its mere existence, invulnerability and threat is the reason Japari Park is abandoned, decaying and complete ruin.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple presents us with Saiga Furinji, the eponymous One Shadow in the Yami organization's One Shadow Nine Fists group—essentially, the strongest martial artist in the organization—who is also the son of the series' Big Good, Hayato Furinji, and the Disappeared Dad to Hayato's granddaughter Miu. However, it seems Saiga may be a complicated case of this, as he's been shown to still be a Martial Pacifist despite being the leader of a group that advocates murderous martial arts.
  • Kill la Kill: Student Council President Satsuki Kiryuin runs Honnouji Academy as a dictatorship. Her mother, Ragyo Kiryuin, is the ruler of the world, as the head of REVOCS, but she doesn’t directly antagonize Ryuko until it turns out Ragyo is indeed the true Big Bad, as Satsuki’s actually been preparing Ryuko to help her defeat their mother, and the Primordial Life Fiber. Satsuki is actually the Big Good, just one willing to be utterly ruthless in her quest to save humanity.
  • Kinnikuman has had, in terms of Big Bads that were actually dangerous, Robin Mask for the 20th Choujin Olympics arc, Warsman for the 21st Choujin Olympics arc, Buffaloman for the Devil Choujin arc, Akuma Shogun for the Golden Mask arc, the tag-team of Neptuneman and Big the Budo for the Golden Mask arc, and lastly Kinnikuman Super Phoenix for the Throne arc.
  • Kite (1998): Akai.
  • Kotetsu Jeeg: Queen Himika for the first half, Emperor Dragon for the second.
  • Kurohime: Yashahime.
  • Last Exile: Maestro Delphine Eraclea.
  • The second half of Little Witch Academia (2017) establishes Professor Croix Meridies as this. Notably, she's responsible for everything bad that ended up happening to Akko and Ursula both in present and past.
  • A rare work where the "villain behind everything" isn't even a character is Lupin III: Dead or Alive. The Nanomachines are the ultimate source of conflict, providing an initial challenge, and defeating the Protagonists several times early on. The main plot for Lupin's gang is to discover the secrets of Drifting Island, which is protected by the nanomachines. Even General Headhunter is subordinate to the nanomachines, because he is a robot constructed by them.
  • Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine: Count Luis Yu Almeida.
  • Macross Frontier: The Vajra, who seek to assimilate humanity into their Hive Mind, are led by the Vajra Queen, who turns out to be Sheryl’s manager, Grace O'Connor.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth: Lady Debonair from the anime’s second season.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha likes using Mad Scientists for their Big Bads, what with Precia Testarossa in season 1 and Jail Scaglietti in season 3.
    • The Automatic Defence System of the Book of Darkness, also known as the Darkness of the Book of Darkness, also known as NachtWal, is the Big Bad in season 2.
    • The sequel manga Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force has Curren Hückebein of the Hückebein family.
  • Magical Girl Raising Project: Pythie Frederica for the series itself. Princess Deluge also becomes one after the QUEENS Arc.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Fate Averruncus’s boss Dynamis, leader of Cosmo Entelecheia. The plan he's trying to carry out, to trap each inhabitant of Mundus Magicus in their own personal paradise to save them from the world's inevitable collapse, is actually the Mage of the Beginning's (aka the Lifemaker), Cosmo Entelecheia's founder and Mundus Magicus' creator. When the Mage of the Beginning is unsealed she resumes her past position of Big Bad.
  • Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Sicks (Jody Tubulik).
  • In MÄR, it's the Caldean Orb, the swirling mass of all of Earth's evil energy that formed a consciousness. It's behind the entire plot, manipulating everyone.
  • Mazinger Z, Mazinkaiser, and Shin Mazinger: Dr. Hell, Mad Scientist and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
  • Dr. Shiro Makinoha in Midori Days often tries to kidnap the protagonist so he can research his hand-girlfriend and become famous in the scientific community; that is, if a Big Bad can be henpecked by his daughter... via Hyperspace Mallet...
  • Apos in Mnemosyne.
  • Mon Colle Knights: Redda.
  • Johan Liebert, the titular Monster. For a while, it looked like Franz Bonaparta was The Man Behind the Man. However, he turned out to be The Atoner.
  • The series Monster Rancher has the evil Moo.
  • Enchu in Muhyo and Roji.
  • MW has Michio Yuki.
  • My Hero Academia initially has All For One, founder and leader of the League of Villains. Once he is defeated by All Might and incarcerated, the role goes to his protege and successor, Tomura Shigaraki.
  • Nabari no Ou: The Mysterious Cloaked Guy (Inasa/Fuuma Kotarou).
  • Naruto:
    • The series initially presents Orochimaru as the Big Bad. The series becomes a Big Bad Ensemble in Part II, featuring Orochimaru, Pain, Danzo, Kabuto, Madara Uchiha, and Tobi as contenders for the title. However, the series appears to have settled on a Big Bad Duumvirate with Tobi, aka Obito Uchiha, the true leader of Akatsuki and the one who instigated the events of the series and the resurrected Madara Uchiha, his Predecessor Villain who came up with the Evil Plan and left it for Tobi to carry out after he died. Later on, Obito makes a Heel–Face Turn and Madara, after being fully revived and becoming the next Sage of the Six Paths, is (literally) backstabbed by Black Zetsu, who reveals that he is not the manifestation of Madara's will, but Princess Kaguya's will. The next chapter has Madara forced to absorb Black Zetsu and a ton of chakra, transforming him into Kaguya herself, becoming the penultimate villain of the series. And after Kaguya had been taken care of, the villain train finally stops at none other than Sasuke Uchiha himself.
    • The Canon movies, The Last and Boruto, have two final villains for Naruto to help defeat before passing on the torch; Toneri Otsutsuki, a descendent of the before-mentioned Kaguya, and Momoshiki Otsutsuki, whom even Kaguya feared (her entire Evil Plan was so she could gain enough power to fight him off).
  • Keel Lorenz of Neon Genesis Evangelion is the head of the mysterious SEELE organization, and its even more exclusive inner circle, the Human Instrumentality Committee. As such, he is the leading force behind the strings being pulled within the United Nations and NERV, and is later revealed to have had a direct hand in the Second Impact.
  • Ninja Scroll: Gemma Himuro.
  • Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan initially has Hagoromo Gitsune, before her child Nue, aka Abe no Seimei, supplants her and drops her into hell upon his rebirth.
  • Omamori Himari: Tamamo-no-Mae, the Fair-faced Nine-tailed Fox. Reduced to a fragment of herself after being slain hundreds of years ago, she seeks to regain her full powers by devouring other ayakashi. She wants Himari Noihara, a particularly powerful ayakashi, as her main course and attempts to goad Himari into using her demonic powers to make her especially "filling."
  • One Piece follows the Arc Villain example to the very bone. It's an ongoing discussion over who'll end up as the Big Bad of the entire series, but it looks like Blackbeard, Akainu, and Imu are potential contenders for the title.
  • Ōkami-san: Shiro Hisujikai.
  • Outlaw Star: Lord Hazanko.
  • Parasyte: Mayor Takeshi Hirokawa leads the parasite organization. He uses his position as mayor to create feeding zones for the parasites and increase support for them. His plan and position of power are the cause of all the problems Shinichi and Migi face. When he’s killed, Gotou takes over for him.
  • Pokémon Adventures:
    • Red, Green & Blue chapter/FireRed & LeafGreen chapter: Giovanni, The Don of Team Rocket.
    • Yellow chapter: Lance, who aims to destroy humanity for the sake of Pokemon.
    • Gold, Silver & Crystal chapter: The new leader of Team Rocket, the Masked Man/Mask of Ice A.K.A. Pryce.
    • Ruby & Sapphire chapter: Archie and Maxie, the leaders of Team Aqua and Magma respectively.
    • Emerald chapter: Mysterious knight Guile Hideout, A.K.A. Archie.
    • Diamond & Pearl chapter: Cyrus, leader of Team Galactic, who aims to create a new, perfect universe.
    • Platinum chapter: Charon, who takes over from Cyrus.
    • HeartGold & SoulSilver chapter: Archer, who takes over Team Rocket from Giovanni.
    • Black & White chapter: Team Plasma’s King N, except Ghetsis is controlling him.
    • Black 2 & White 2 chapter: The leader of Neo Team Plasma is Mad Scientist Colress, except he’s working for Ghetsis.
    • X & Y chapter: Lysandre, leader of Team Flare, who wants to cleanse the world of it’s ugliness.
    • Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire chapter: Zinnia actively gets in the way of the protagonists and goes to extreme lengths to achieve her goals, but she ultimately turns out to be a stubborn Well-Intentioned Extremist who is trying to stop a meteorite from destroying the planet, which was caused by a Deoxys known as Organism No. 1.
  • Giovanni, boss of Team Rocket, started out playing this role in Pokémon: The Series before being phased out. He returned to the role for two-thirds of the Black and White series, however, and is shaping up to reclaim the title again in the Sun and Moon series.
    • The XY series had Lysandre, boss of Team Flare, who appeared throughout the Mega Evolution side-specials until becoming the outright Arc Villain of the show's final year.
  • All the Pokémon movies except the seventh, eighth, tenth, seventeenth and twentieth have a (usually human) Big Bad.
  • The Pretty Cure franchise has currently nine Big Bads for ten seasons and also many Big Bads for the respective movies.
  • Psycho-Pass: Shogo Makishima.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht is effectively the head witch, and will destroy the world if not stopped. However, it is the adorable but duplicitous and secretive little Hive Mind Weasel Mascot Kyubey/Incubator who created her and the other witches. It doesn't tell the Magical Girls it creates certain key facts, including that Magical Girls are essentially liches, that the wishes they make with it frequently turn out badly for them because they're not wishing for the right things, that every Witch that the Magical Girls fight (aside from those born from familiars) was once a Magical Girl herself — and that they're ultimately doomed to become Witches themselves. Not only that, but it doesn't care one whit about humans as long as the universe itself continues to exist. Also played with, since while Kyubey does not directly oppose or antagonize the girls, it is the reason why the bad events of the show happen.
  • Ranma ½ has Pantyhose Taro, Herb, and Saffron (manga only).
  • Record of Lodoss War: Wagnard.
  • Akio Ohtori of Revolutionary Girl Utena. He loses Anthy but it could be rightly said that otherwise, he got away with everything, including being responsible for probably hundreds of deaths, if not thousands.
  • Robot Romance Trilogy:
  • Ronin Warriors: Lord Talpa (Arago).
  • Rosario + Vampire has three:
    • In the first season, Hokuto Kaneshiro is the President of the student festival committee, but also the leader of Anti-Thesis and a leader of Fairy Tale who plots to destroy Yokai Academy.
    • The second season has Gyokuro Shuzen, the commander of Fairy Tale and the biological mother of Kahlua and Kokoa. Her plan is to revive Alucard and destroy the human world.
    • Finally, Gyokuro’s and Hokuto’s boss is a mysterious figure known as the Masked King. The revelation that Hokuto's organization Anti-Thesis is a "student branch" of Fairy Tale means that the Masked King is the Greater-Scope Villain for the first season as well. A further reveal is that the Masked King is Miyabi Fujisaki, who is in actuality Alucard.
  • Rurouni Kenshin had Makoto Shishio and Enishi Yukishiro:
    • Shishio was the Big Bad of the Kyoto arc by virtue of being Kenshin's replacement as the Ishin Shishi's top assassin, a Social Darwinist whose views clashed with Kenshin's pacifistic ideals, and his desire to overthrow the Japanese government that both his and Kenshin's swords helped to set up. He had the strength, connections, manpower and weaponry to start and maintain his campaign, plus being a magnificently Manipulative Bastard for a lot of people, both within his private army and on a wider scale; plus his aptitude for planning and executing strategies to keep himself two steps ahead of his enemies. What made him especially effective was that he was willing to cop to his faults whenever any aspect of his planning did fail such as underestimating Sanosuke and not anticipating he'd have portable bombs powerful enough to destroy the Rengoku battleship, he actually respected his underlings to a degree, and he proved powerful enough to stave off four of the strongest opponents he could have—while being physically impaired himself (his burns from the government's assassination attempt meant he couldn't fight longer than 15 minutes at a time or else he'd risk death by overheating).
    • By contrast, Enishi, the Big Bad of the Jinchu arc, has a much closer tie to Kenshin than Shishio did (both Kenshin and Enishi had Tomoe in common, and both got lasting marks from her death — Kenshin got the second half of his scar, with the first half coming from Tomoe's slain fiance; Enishi, meanwhile, had his hair turn white from the shock of seeing Tomoe die in front of him), being the only one to both physically defeat Kenshin in combat and psychologically break him.
  • The Sacred Blacksmith: Siegfried and Augustus Arthur. Augustus Arthur is commander of the military of the Empire (later the Imperial Crowd Powers) who desires to harness Valbanill to conquer the entire Continent. Siegfried, who's motive is to simply to cause as much untold misery and death as possible, is technically his subordinate, but he conceived of the plan to control Valbanill and it's clear that the two are partners.
  • Sacred Seven: Dr. Kenmi.
  • Sailor Moon was no stranger to this concept, but it was even more fond of setting up the season's Dragon as the Big Bad, only to do a big reveal at the end.
    • First season: Queen Beryl and Metallia.
    • Sailor Moon R: Ail and En in Part One, and Prince Diamond’s advisor Wiseman/Death Phantom in Part Two.
    • Sailor Moon S: Pharaoh 90.
    • Sailor Moon SuperS: Queen Nehellenia.
    • Sailor Stars: Sailor Galaxia except she’s working for Chaos (who is the original source of all the aforementioned except Ail and En).
      • Codename: Sailor V, the manga that began before Sailor Moon but that ended after it, has Danburite as its Big Bad. Though in the scheme of things he's a small fry, being an underling of the leader of the very first Quirky Miniboss Squad.
  • Saint Seiya:
    • The Pope, a.k.a. Gemini Saga, in the Sanctuary Arc.
    • Hilda in the Asgard Arc, and the respective titular villains of the Poseidon and Hades Arcs.
    • The movies have their own Big Bads as well.
    • Saint Seiya Omega has Mars, God of War.
  • Samurai 7: Ukyo.
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has Sosai (Leader) X.
  • School-Live!!:
    • The Zombies in general serve as this trope for a large chunk of the manga and the entirity of the anime, as their precense is what's caused the emotional and psychological turmoil that the girls go through, including killing many of their loved ones. Even with the manga later introducing other antagonists the zombies are still an important part of the story,
    • The University arc has Takahito Tougo, the leader of the Melee Fight Crew. He's the biggest obsticle that the girls face throughout the arc and ends up causing them all sorts of trouble before he eventually meets his demise in Chapter 54. With his death, it remains to be seen if his 2nd in command Ayaka Kamji will claim this role later down the line.
    • The series has heavily implied that the Randall Corperation is behind the zombie virus and outbreak in Japan, and they also just so happen to be an Expy of The Umbrella Corperation while also sharing the same name as Stephen King's most famous antagonist Randall Flagg. So far the corperation has been more of a Greater-Scope Villain, but with the girls planning on going to one of the company's buildings, they may end up taking a far more active roll soon.
  • Seraph of the End: Shikama Doji, the First Progenitor. He's responsible for virtually all evils plaguing the world: the creation of vampires, the creation of demons and Demon Weapons, and the experiments on the Seraph of the End, the last of which caused the near extinction of humanity. He also the possesses each head of the Hiragi family, rulers of Japan's occult community for centuries and leaders of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. Virtually every faction in the post-apocalyptic conflict between vampires and humans is his unwitting pawn.
  • Serial Experiments Lain: The God of the Wired A.K.A. Masami Eiri, who is trying to merge everyone's consciousness with The Wired and rule above them as a God.
  • The Seven Deadly Sins: Great Holy Knight Hendricksen, though he is just a pawn for the unseen Demon King.
  • Sgt. Frog: Shurara.
  • In the first two seasons of Shakugan no Shana, the Snake of the Festival is the ruler of the Crimson Denizens but sealed away prior to Yuji merging with the Snake of the Festival and becoming the Big Bad, so the acting Big Bad is the Trinity- Bel Peol, Sydonay, and Hecate, interim leaders of the enemy organization Bal Masqué working on freeing their master and carrying out the Grand Order. Bel Peol serves as The Strategist, Sydonay as The Heavy, and Hecate the Evil Sorceress.
  • Shangri-La: Ryoko Naruse.
  • Shin Angyo Onshi (Blade of the Phantom Master)): Aji Tae
  • Shinzo: Lanancuras
  • Show by Rock!!: Dagger Morse, the CEO of Unicorn Virtual Music, Inc., a record label hell-bent on conquering Sound World. The second season has the Queen of Darkness.
  • Silent Möbius: Ganossa Maximillian
  • Slayers has at least one or two per season:
    • Slayers: Rezo-Shabranigdo and Copy Rezo.
    • Slayers NEXT: Chaos Dragon Gaav and Hellmaster Phibrizo.
    • Slayers TRY: Valgaav and Dark Star Dugradigdu
    • Slayers Revolution: Zanaffar (revived by Dulcis)
    • Slayers Evolution-R: The ghost of Rezo-Shabranigdo.
      • And in the final original light novel, another piece of Shabranigdo, held within the soul of a mercenary named Luke, was a Big Bad.
  • Sonic X has Dr. Eggman in the first two seasons and Dark Oak in the final season.
  • Soul Eater has one for every major story arc. In the first one, it's Medusa, the second, Arachnae, and the third, Noah (The Greed Incarnation) but actually it's the Book of Eibon's Table of Contents as the Noahs are artificial constructs created by it.. Although Medusa is notable, in that she wakes up Kishin Ashura and wasn't killed in her arc, continuing to be an active villain until she was killed by Crona at the beginning of the Moon Arc (which was even part of her plan). While Kishin Asura could be interpreted as the Big Bad of the entire series (given that Soul Eater is about preventing Kishins from being born just like Asura, and that everybody is after him), for most of the story he qualifies better as the Greater-Scope Villain. While he did make a few recurring appearances in the story arcs, unlike Medusa and the other major villians most of his influence was indirect. It's only until the Moon Arc that he takes center role as the Big Bad.
    • In chapter 104, it seemed that Crona was going to take the role of the Big Bad by by hijacking Asura but that was inverted in chapter 106 when it was revealed that the Greater-Scope Villain, Asura, was Sharing a Body with Crona.
    • In Soul Eater Not!, Medusa's and Arachne's younger sister Shaula Gorgon can be qualified as the Big Bad in this arc.
  • Sword Art Online:
    • For the Aincrad arc (light novel volumes 1, 2, and 8, though only volume 1 focuses on the main plot), the Big Bad is Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the VRMMORPG Sword Art Online who traps 10,000 players in a virtual reality where death inside means death in real life, all to turn a world he conceived of in his imagination into reality. Kayaba also serves as the Greater-Scope Villain behind most of the subsequent conflicts and antagonists. Strangely, an AI copy of him serves a more benevolent role, despite maintaining his predecessor's Blue-and-Orange Morality.
    • For the Alfheim arc (volumes 3 and 4), the Big Bad is Nobuyuki "Oberon" Sugou, director of the RECTO corporation's research institute who acquires the SAO engine and servers and creates his own game, ALFHeim Online, and, after Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya frees those trapped in SAO, imprisons the minds of 300 SAO players before they can awaken. Among them in Asuna Yuuki, Kirito's girlfriend, whom Sugou is engaged to and obsessed with. The other 299 poor souls are subjected to torturous experiments to research the extent one can manipulate memories and emotions through VR technology.
    • For the Phantom Bullet arc, Death Gun is the Big Bad, a Serial Killer player in the game Gun Gale Online with the ability to kill simultaneously in real life and the game. Death Gun, however, is a Collective Identity shared between Shouichi "Red-Eyed XaXa" Shinkawa, Atsushi "Johnny Black" Kanamoto, and Shouichi's brother, Kyouji. Both Shouichi and Atsushi are SAO survivors and PKers obsessed with continuing the game of death, while Kyouji is a deeply mentally-ill young man who was fascinated by the other two's exploits in SAO and enraged at high-level GGO players who recommended a character build that ended up being unbalanced and useless. Kyouji and Atsushi also have a grudge against Kirito, one of the players responsible for the capture and dismantling of the their PK guild Laughing Coffin in SAO. Kyouji in particular is incensed by Kirito's pretending he can just move on and forget about the trauma he both experienced and caused in SAO.
    • The Alicization arc has two Big Bads, one for the first half of the story, the other for the second half.
    • The Big Bad of Sword Art Online Progressive, a spin-off light novel series taking place during the Aincrad arc and focusing on Kirito and Asuna's exploits floor-by-floor, appears to be Vassago "PoH" Casals, the leader of Laughing Coffin. While he has yet to appear in person and is operating mainly through proxies, he's trying to manipulate the SAO players to turn to Player Killing. The main series' light novels reveal that his reason for doing this is his pathological hatred for East Asians, the result of his Korean father abandoning his mother after knocking her up and his and his mother's being bought and shipped to Japan by a Japanese CEO.
    • The Big Bad of Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale is Shigemura Yuuna, the designer of the Augmented Reality device Augma and game Ordinal Scale. Having lost his daughter in SAO, Yuuna is using Augma and Ordinal Scale to steal the memories of SAO from SAO survivors to create an AI copy of his daughter. Not only does the theft erase the original memories, but his final step, performing a massive brain scan on thousands of survivors invited to an AR concert, threatens to kill the majority.
    • In Sword Art Online: Girls Ops, a spin-off manga that focuses on Suguha "Leafa" Kirigaya, Keiko "Silica" Ayano, Rika "Lisbeth" Shinozaki, and Hiyori "Lux" Kashiwazaka, the Big Bad is Gwen, Lux's former friend from Sword Art Online and an ex-member of Laughing Coffin. Believing that humans are naturally selfish, she seeks to turn the game community of AINcrad Online to one where "do-as-you-please" becomes the code everyone lives by, regardless of how one's actions impact other players. She also seeks Revenge on Lux, also a former Laughing Coffin member, albeit a coerced one, who chose to deny her membership and her friendship with Gwen when Laughing Coffin fell.
  • Symphogear:
    • Finé is responsible for the events in season 1. She is also founded the villain organization F.I.S. that appears in G.
    • Dr. John Wayne Vercingetorix, known as Dr. Ver, in G. The F.I.S. are dependable from him, and he's leading them into a darker direction than they originally expected.
    • Carol Malus Dienheim in GX, who is leading the Auto-Scorers she created, and she created the Alca-Noise as well.
  • Tales from Earthsea: Lord Cob
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Lordgenome, ruler of the underground who seeks to keep the humans trapped inside for the first half of the series. In the second half it's revealed he was provoked into his villainy by the Anti-Spirals.
  • Tenjho Tenge: Sohaku Kago.
  • Lord Vilius from Tenkai Knights.
  • Tiger & Bunny: Albert Maverick.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew: Deep Blue.
  • Tokyo Ghoul series:
    • The original manga and anime have the mysterious One-Eyed Owl/King, leader of the ghoul supremacist organization Aogiri Tree. The finale reveals that he is actually Eto Yoshimura/Sen Takatsuki, Kaneki’s favorite author and the Half-Human Hybrid daughter of Big Good Kuzen Yoshimura.
    • Also introduced as major antagonists are Rize Kamishiro, a Femme Fatale who serves as Ken Kaneki’s Enemy Within (after trying to attack him and dying as a result) and Dr. Akihiro Kanou, the Mad Scientist who turned Kaneki into a ghoul.
    • In :re, the One-Eyed Owl continues to be the central antagonist until she is detained post-Tsukiyama Extermination, by which Souta/Nimuru Furuta/Kichimura Washuu takes over after it is revealed that he was the one who sprung the steel beam incident which got Kaneki turned into a one-eyed ghoul all the way in the beginning, and gets himself involved in much more.
    • The prequel JACK has the titular ghoul, mainly known as Lantern, who kills Taishi’s friends, setting off his journey of revenge. It turns out that he is Uruka Minami, a high school girl and friend who Taishi had a crush on.
    • The side story JOKER has the unnamed leader of the skull mask gang, as Juuzou is trying to track him down- and finds out that he is a girl (again) whom Juuzou saved on a train from a molester.
    • The game JAIL has Jail, the mysterious ghoul sought by Rio and Kaneki. It turns out Jail is Rio, who doesn’t remember. As such, the real Big Bad is Shiki Kijima, the investigator who killed Rio’s brother and provoked Rio into becoming Jail.
  • Tomie: Tomie
  • Toilet-bound Hanako-kun: Tsukasa Yugi, a sociopathic ghost and Hanako's twin brother and murder victim. He's responsible for the rumors transforming the School Mysteries and other supernaturals into dangerous beings, horrifically twisting wishes, and utterly disrupting the relationship between the living world (Near Shore) and supernatural world (Far Shore). His overall plan and goals are still unknown, but his philosophy hints at a rejection of any constraints or inhibitions on one's desires or actions.
  • Millions Knives in Trigun.
  • Towa no Quon: Genji Kamishiro.
  • Fei Wong Reed in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-. For a long time he appears to be doing nothing at all, apart from watching the heroes on magic TV and remarking about how all is going according to his plan; he appears to be a remarkably useless villain. However, that's because we're actually coming in halfway through his plan. As it turns out, three of the four original main characters were his servants.
    • In the last arc, there's also the Platina Company.
  • The Japanese continuations of The Transformers:
  • Umi Monogatari: Sedna, the being of Darkness that Urin accidentally frees. She then starts corrupting the sea creatures and everyone around her. However, possibly subverted- she is at least a non-evil Big Bad, as she is revealed to be the sorrow that the islanders cast away, rather than a truly evil being. The characters accept it rather than defeat it.
  • In Umineko: When They Cry, Beatrice is this at first, until she is usurped by Bernkastel and Lambdadelta. Because of this, Bernkastel is now a Rogue Protagonist and Fallen Hero, since she was the amalgamation of all the dead Rika Furudes from Higurashi.
  • Ushio and Tora has Hakumen no Mono, an Eldritch Abomination that not only was behind a majority of events, was revealed to behind even things that originally didn't seem connected, like a few arc villains. And it almost wins.
  • Vampire Hunter D: Count Magnus Lee.
    • Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust: Carmilla the Blood Countess.
  • Violinist of Hameln: Great Demon King Chestra.
  • Rain Devila in Wedding Peach is behind all the demons who attack Momoko and her friends until her own Heel–Face Turn in the end.
  • Windaria The king of the Shadowland appears to be this but its actually Lagado.
  • Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest: Haguro Dou.
  • Wolfsmund: Lord Magistrate Wolfram, the bailiff of the titular Wolfsmund ("Wolf's Maw"). But only for the first 3/4s of the story; after Wolfram's defeat and execution, his boss Duke Leopold I takes over the role.
  • Lord Darcia in Wolf's Rain is not only a Big Bad, his entire family line is responsible for anything evil involved in the story... even in its "happy ending," which is anything but because of him.
    • Oddly enough, the original ending (the version that stops at episode 26) seems to present Lady Jaguara as the real villain, especially after Darcia's apparent death. In the OVA, Darcia takes that position back hard.
  • The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Akinari Kato.
  • Onimaru Takeshi in Yaiba, your typical overlord. Also Kaguya and, during the Pyramid and Underworld arcs, Boss.
  • In Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches:
    • Because he wishes to keep up the witch masquerade, Yamazaki is behind a lot of the problems encountered by the main character in the manga's first witch war as well the entire live-action drama and anime.
    • Ushio fills the role for most of the manga's second witch war. His wish of winning Odagiri back makes him oppose the student council, gather students in the Japanese chess club, and drive the plot. Yuri later takes over the role.
    • Amamiya fills the role in both Yamada's and Leona's flashbacks, given that she was the one who noticed that Yamada, Himekawa, Nancy, Leona, and Yamazaki all were trying to start a ceremony, and sent Rika to wipe their memories.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: The manga and second series anime have an overall Big Bad, Dark Bakura (a.k.a "the Spirit of the Millennium Ring"), who works on his scheme the whole series. In terms of individual arcs:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL
    • Season 1: Dr. Faker, [with Vector behind him.
    • Season 2: When we are led to believe that Durbe is leading the other Barian Emperors, Vector returns and takes the role of the leadership again and their plan is to revive their deity Don Thousand. But then, the true leader of the Seven Barian Emperors comes back to them, Nasch. However, Vector is still working behind the back of the other emperors; back-stabbing them and becoming the vessel of Don Thousand, so he can use his power. After Vector is defeated and consumed by Don Thousand, the deity himself takes this role, who was responsible of the events behind Seven Barian Emperors in the first place.
    • Manga version: Mr. Heartland, usurped by Kyoji Yagumo, usurped at the last second by Despair Goddess E-Rah.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Professor Leo Akaba is the leader of Academia from the Fusion Dimension and is responsible of the invasion of Heartland in the Xyz Dimension, and he ordered Yuri to can capture one of the bracelet girls, Ruri Kurosaki. He has also sent his agents and soldiers to Maiami City in Standard and to the City in the Synchro Dimension to capture the other bracelet girls: Yuzu Hiiragi from Standard, Rin from the Synchro Dimension, and the refugee Serena from the Fusion Dimension. It is later revealed that Leo is attempting to restore his daughter, Ray Akaba, by fusing her 4 soul fragments in the form of the bracelet girls back together, as well working to destroy Zarc, an even greater threat who serves as the original incarnation of the Dragon Boys, including our hero Yuya.
  • YuYu Hakusho breaks these up by season as well (except the first, where the villain in turn depends on the case Yusuke is in):
    • Sakyo in Season 2. Although Younger Toguro looks like this as well, he's more the Dragon-in-Chief.
    • Sensui in Season 3.
    • The three main rulers of the Makai world. One of them is revealed to be Yusuke's ancestor.
    • In the manga, it's revealed that alot of the early villains had been pawns in an enormously elaborate publicity stunt overseen by King Enma, the true villain.
    • Yakumo in Poltergeist Report.
  • Zashiki Onna: The unnamed woman stalking Hiroshi.

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