Smug Snake / Anime & Manga

Smug Snakes in Anime and Manga.

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• Prime Minister Honest from Akame ga Kill! always sports a cocky grin, but his only method of dealing with people who oppose him is to send General Esdeath to get rid of them, and his so-called contingency plans leave a lot to be desired. This is especially apparent in the anime, where he tries to flee after his final plan fails, and screams desperately for help when confronted by his soon-to-be killer. The manga shows he's a Not-So-Harmless Villain who can fight, but in the end it just means he lasts longer than a one-sided beatdown.
  • His son, Syura, also manages to be this due to his perceived strength and prowess, as well as family connections.
• Baccano!:
  • Goose is so incredibly arrogant that he goes so far as to say that the police would be stupid to try and stop him from murdering the senator's daughter and leaving her body on the side of the road just to scare him into releasing his boss from prison. Not only that, but he says all of this, right in front of the senator's wife and daughter. Really this (paraphrased) exchange sums it right up.
    Goose: [to Mrs. Beriam] Our plan is to get Master Huey out of jail. The police would be stupid to try and stop the train and arrest us. Once we reach the city border we're going to kill your daughter and leave her body on the side of the tracks. Don't be stupid enough to offer yourself as a sacrifice. This way, Senator Beriam will have no choice but to give in to our demands. I know this isn't going to be much comfort but I'll shoot her myself.
  • His "boss", Huey, isn't exactly innocent of this, either.
• Tenzen in Basilisk sees himself as a Magnificent Bastard but doesn't live up to it, making a number of embarrassing mistakes as well as horrifying atrocities. He gets himself killed several times over. Granted, some of his plans are pretty solid, but his own arrogance and sadism is his undoing.
• Minister Foss from Berserk. But oddly enough the reveal that he wasn't a Magnificent Bastard is something of a Pet the Dog moment as he wasn't willing to sacrifice his daughter to further his plans.
  • A straighter example would be Corkus.
• Shyamalan from the first season of Birdy the Mighty: Decode is a slimy television personality who plans to unleash a super weapon that can destroy whole planets because he thinks he can control it. He can't.
• Bleach:
  • Luppi, the replacement Sixth Espada, was a Smug Snake in a big way; convinced of his indisputable superiority to his predecessor (Grimmjow), overestimating his skills in his fight with Hitsugaya, leering on Matsumoto as they fight and threatening to kill Orihime because he was injured in a diversion to cover for her abduction. Eventually, he gets killed in one shot by Grimmjow.
  • Eighth Espada Szayelaporro Granz is also a Smug Snake; he considers himself an infallible genius and the "perfect being" despite the fact he only managed to get the advantage he had over Renji and Ishida by studying both of them and setting things up in advance to put the odds drastically in his favor when they fought. His arrogance takes a major blow when Mayuri Kurotsuchi reveals he completely outmaneuvered him scientifically, and Szayelaporro to swearing, stomping, and screaming like a spoiled child when nothing is working. When he tries crossing his final and most heinous Moral Event Horizon (forcibly impregnating Mayuri's "daughter" and liutenant, Nemu, with himself so he can come back to life, which kills her), he winds up suffering a horrific Karmic Death because he underestimated the depth of Mayuri's own preparations (he gave Nemu a strange poison that took effect when Szayelsporro used her to revive himself). Rather tellingly, despite Mayuri's own rampant sociopathy, Szayelaporro disgusts him.
  • Gin Ichimaru actually refers to himself as a Smug Snake, and seems to play the part rather well as he is all smiles and screws around with people. As of chapter 416, though, he graduated to a full-blooded Magnificent Bastard, despite having lost his fight against Aizen.
  • Big Bad Aizen himself also qualifies, despite being introduced as a Magnificent Bastard. Despite his impressive introduction, it soon becomes clear that Aizen's smooth talking and Gambit Roulette fetish are covering up his use of a godlike power as a crutch; once he truly takes the stage as Big Bad, instead of manipulating from the shadows, his Evil Plans end up getting his army killed for a fleeting to nonexistent tactical advantage, forcing him to do the job himself. This results in Yamamoto, Urahara (thrice, and once alongside Isshin and Yoruichi), and Gin all outmaneuvering him, which he only overcomes through having literal Plot Armor saving him from numerous life-ending attacks, including being disintegrated on the molecular level by The Dragon. Finally, when he's achieved his ultimate form and refuses to shut up about how powerful he is, Ichigo shows up and defeats him easily because Aizen underestimated him. As Aizen's power level increases, his ego increases even more, leading him to for no apparent reason stop using his incredibly effective powers of illusion because he thinks his sheer strength has become so great he no longer needs them.
• Jonathan Glenn from Brain Powerd probably thinks himself a Magnificent Bastard... and that's just his first failing! A combination of overconfidence, Kick the Dog moments, and the fact his manipulations never really go anywhere (plus, he later allows himself to become Baron Maximillian's pawn) gets him a place in this trope and makes him one of the most unsympathetic characters in the series.
• In Brave10, Kanetsugu Naoe is disdainful with a smile. In fact, his design is so smug it's almost a surprise he's not evil.
• All of the Chinese high eunuchs from Code Geass, who possess practically zero merits or skills of any kind and sell out practically everyone in their own country for their own benefit, while planning to either kill or marry off a lonely girl for exactly the same reason. Their deaths in particular are oh-so-satisfying to watch.
  • There's also Mao, who is played as a Smug Snake at first... until you learn what his deal is.
  • Most of the Britannia nobility is this as well. Britannia society constantly preaches Social Darwinism to justify their policies of conquest and oppression, with their nobility naturally believing themselves superior to everyone. However, the average Britannia noble that we see is never shown to be particularly more competent than anyone else if not outright incompetent, and is constantly outwitted by Lelouch. Britannia’s so-called superiority is mostly maintained by either having an overwhelming technological advantage against their enemies, or due to the very few actually exceptional leaders like Schneizel and Cornelia.
• In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Faraday is a fixer who assigns work to Maine and David's crew on behalf of Arasaka. All the while, he is an ambitious man whose every move and choice is in the service of advancing his station. When it comes down to it, however, he is a bit player in Arasaka's grand design, and every bit as expendable as he realizes when he finds himself backed into a corner, only for his orders to Arasaka's top enforcer Adam Smasher to be met with an indifferent "Who the fuck are you?".
• Death Note:
  • Unlike many Smug Snakes, Light Yagami is (supposedly) intelligent, but his massive god complex, pathetic Freak Outs ("he got me!"), borderline sociopathy, and tendency towards kicking dogs can and do cost him the sympathy of many, while his sheer ego, and tendency towards underestimating his opponents (and the incompetence of his own allies) can sometimes derail his plans and ultimately do get him killed. His arrogance gets in the way of him giving some of his opponents as much credit as he should.
  • Kyousuke Higuchi the Third Kira, is a more traditional example, being arrogant without reason, none-too bright, unsympathetic and fully convinced that he is the Big Bad, despite being Light's puppet.
• The Devil is a Part-Timer!: In his first appearance, Lucifer keeps playing around and gloating over the seemingly powerless Maou and Emi... and ends up filling the citizens with enough fear and despair to power Maou up. The minute he finds himself staring a fully-powered Maou down, Lucifer is left sniveling and shaking in fear before Maou hits him with a Megaton Punch.
• Akihiko Kurata, the Mad Scientist from Digimon Data Squad, is incredibly manipulative, condescending, and selfish, and his habit of situating himself well out of harm's way until he's absolutely sure of success makes him even more infuriating. This is somewhat made up for by his extreme cowardice, which makes the times when things actually go against him very satisfying indeed.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Raditz acts smug and cocky when in control of a fight, but as soon as the tables are turned, he becomes a Dirty Coward who begs for his life.
  • Despite being very smart and cunning AND with the power to back it all up, Frieza firmly falls into this thanks to his arrogance. He relies on his raw power so much that he has nothing to fall back on once that proves to be ineffective outside of destroying the planet he's standing on since he can survive in space. He is also lazy, using his men to do all the work for him and literally doing nothing until they were all dead. On top of all of that, his genocide of the Saiyans largely backfired because he didn't kill the few survivors and toyed with Goku instead of killing him outright. In Resurrection 'F, he's reduced even further into this territory once Goku and Vegeta beat him. He throws a tantrum and whines about how he couldn't lose again.
  • Though he is actually quite smart, Vegeta typically falls into this due to his ego. While undoubtedly powerful, he has a very bad tendency to overestimate himself, which often leads to an epic Break the Haughty moment. The most notable example of this is during the Cell Saga, when he becomes so confident that he's stronger than Cell no matter what that he deliberately allows Cell to absorb Android 18 and become perfect purely for the sake of a more challenging fight. He got one, all right.
  • Android 19 and Dr. Gero act like big shots and only have the upper hand because Goku was afflicted with the heart virus. This leads to a big Break the Haughty moment where Vegeta beats 19 so thoroughly that he flips out and tries to make a break for it.
  • Hercule/Mr. Satan comes off as such during the Cell Games. The Z-Fighters all end up so irritated by his loudmouth, overbearing, braggart attitude and his constant underestimation of Cell's ability that they end up taking Cell's side during the Single-Stroke Battle between them; Piccolo in particular is vocally disappointed that Cell didn't kill him.
  • Babidi is a particularly egregious example of this. While other Smug Snakes are at the very least combat capable, Babidi is a Non Action Big Bad Wannabe who uses goons to fight for him. Even when he became playable in Tenkaichi 3, his supers were just his Mooks using their techniques. Unfortunately for Babidi, Evil Is Not a Toy, and he gets offed by the real Big Bad rather unceremoniously.
  • To say nothing of Pui Pui, one of Babidi's alien minions. Boasting that he's one of the most powerful beings in the entire universe and that he's from a planet with ten times Earth's normal gravity, he completely underestimates Vegeta (who's native to a planet with that same level of gravity and has been training to be comfortable in five hundred times Earth's normal gravity) and dies a completely humiliating death where Vegeta casually kicks him into a boulder and then blows him away with a single ki blast, and didn't even need to go Super Saiyan to do the job.
  • Dragon Ball GT
    • Naturon Shenron hits this full-stop after managing to absorb Pan for a power-up, taunting Goku and trying to egg him on into killing him all because he's convinced Goku wouldn't hurt Pan in the cross-fire. The second it looks like Goku really will, he's reduced to panicked begging, only regaining his cool when Goku subconsciously holds back the attack from being fatal. Then he makes the mistake of getting too close while taunting a seemingly beaten Goku and gets Pan ripped out, upon which he can only beg again before Goku kills him.
    • Eis Shenron. While undeniably powerful and far more so than Naturon, he only manages to inflict any real damage to Goku by using dirty tactics, and he snivels and begs for his life the minute Goku has him at his mercy. Even after blinding Goku and, in his words, cutting his power in half, Eis is easily killed by Goku, who remarks his other senses are just as keen as his sight.
  • Ro in Super is incredibly arrogant about Universe 9, the one he manages, despite the fact that it's the worst-handled universe of all the twelve (the runner-down, Universe 7, has twice the mortal level of Universe 9), and is eliminated first in the Tournament of Power.
• Agon of Eyeshield 21, the living embodiment of Jerk Jock and a one-man Opposing Sports Team. Brilliant, but Lazy meets It's All About Me meets The Gift meets Really Gets Around and Would Hit a Girl. It isn't pretty.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Jose Porla, the leader of rival guild Phantom Lord. Sneeringly arrogant, condescending, self-centered and, above all, incredibly petty, thinks himself a lot smarter than he actually is and is utterly unable to keep his massive ego in check - the whole reason for his attacks on Fairy Tail and the whole mess that ensued was simply the fact that he was jealous of Fairy Tail's popularity. Despite trying to keep up an Affably Evil facade when things go his way, he quickly loses his cool and throws childish temper tantrums as soon as his plans get even slightly derailed. It is telling that, while he's obviously the strongest member of Phantom Lord, his badass Dragon Gajeel comes across as a much more credible threat. Since Jose is such a lowlife, his Villainous Breakdown Humiliation Conga at the hands of Makarov are a wonder to see.
  • From the same arc, we have Monsieur Sol of Jose's Element Four, who was sure he could get the upper hand on Elfman by psychologically torturing him, first by reminding him of his dead sister Lisanna (okay, she wasn't dead, but nobody knew that...) and then by forcing him to watch as Elfman's other sister Mirajane was getting the life squeezed out of her. Oh, how wrong he was.
  • Minerva from the Sabertooth guild claims to be the strongest mage in the country, yet in a contest to determine the country's top guild, she only targets the weakest members of each guild, and when she encounters someone who's on her level or stronger than her, she takes a hostage and runs away. Future appearances establish this further - she claims that Erza is her arch-rival, yet she only fights Erza when the Fairy Tail mage has been turned into a child or otherwise weakened, and in their final fight, Erza doesn't even need to use swords to defeat her.
• Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]: Despite Shinji being the weakest Master in the Grail War (who only got his Servant because his sister was forced to give her to him), despite him being humiliated whenever he faces literally anyone, he still believes that he is going to win, and all his failures are the result of a weak Servant or people having it out for him specifically. When he becomes the Master of Gilgamesh, he thinks he's entered into an alliance with the most powerful people in the War, but he gets abandoned without a second thought when he needs help. When he tries to torture and/or rape Rin, she points out repeatedly that he is stuck in a mansion with a lot of powerful people who hate him, and he needs to run for his life. He ignores her, and suffers three separate humiliating defeats at the hands of Lancer.
• Fate/Zero:
  • Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi is a rather powerful mage, but he considers himself an unrivaled genius. In reality, his tactics invariably favor brute force, he's bad at thinking about alternative possibilities, he's needlessly aggressive and opportunistic, and his power frequently veers into Smug Super territory. In particular, he just can't stop picking fights with a guy literally named "the Magus Killer," which leads to his Humiliation Conga. By contrast, his student Waver Velvet, who was a much weaker mage and dismissed by Kayneth himself as a naive and incompetent schoolboy, found much more success in the War and ended up being one of the few survivors.
  • Tokiomi, upon successfully summoning the overpowered Gilgamesh, proudly proclaimed that "we have won this war!", and spent nearly the entire run of the Fourth War hanging out in his mansion, planning to win without ever leading his Servant in battle. He ignores the very clear signs that Gilgamesh is not a good match for him, even while the King of Heroes disobeys his orders pretty much constantly and insults him as an unworthy Master. He really has nobody but himself to blame for Gilgamesh hooking up with Kirei instead.
• Mikoto from Flame of Recca. Her fight with Fuuko cements her as a true Smug Snake, starting from the usage of crocodile tears, slow poisoning (while gloating on how she likes seeing life fading away), and finally, scoring a default victory through silencing the referee (who was about to declare KO), knocking Fuuko out and won over a ten count. As Raiha coined, it's not her physical strength that makes her a Jyuushinshu, it's her slyness. Even Joker noted that he is really doubtful about how Mikoto ends up in the Jyuushinshu ranks. While still smuggy, she starts softening up when she got into a relationship with Mokuren. But that ends very pitifully for her.
• in Freezing, Ganessa Roland kicks off her first major role as a character beating the protagonist offscreen, bragging about her new status as top student even though she claims not to care, eventually goads said protagonist into fighting her again, claims she brought her near-defeat on herself which is followed be her getting a beatdown, then attempts to not take any punishment for when they both get in trouble for having an unauthorized fight (which fortunately fails). This is all from episode two, mind you.
• Ren Sohma from Fruits Basket. She's beautiful, sly, manipulative...and not just despicable, but in the end, very incompetent. She has to manipulate Rin to get her late husband Akira's box (and Rin then fails and is horrifyingly punished by its owner, Ren's much hated and abused daughter Akito). In her pursuit in making Akito miserable Ren sleeps with Akito's boyfriend but is humiliated by Shigure when he tells her he only had sex with her because she looks like an older Akito. Ren's realization she destroyed the eternal bond she gloats only exists between her and Akira, with a knife, Ren stumbles deliriously towards Akito's room to demand the box. Akito all too willingly relinquishes it, only to discover that not only is it empty but it wasn't truly her husband's to begin with, it was prepared as a consolation by the head maid. Once her plans crumble, she's left as an Empty Shell of her former self.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Pride takes this trope and runs with it. He's a condescending little prick (literally) with all the ego you'd expect from the living embodiment of arrogance, and almost no redeeming qualities.
  • Just like Pride, Envy is a relentlessly and gleefully cruel and sadistic little shit who never wastes an opportunity to gloat about how stupid someone is, how futile trying to get in the way of the Homunculi is, and how much they enjoyed committing one of their innumerable heinous acts. They also have a bad habit of not knowing when to shut the fuck up and stop antagonizing someone who they really should not be trying to piss off, and with their love of bragging about all the awful things they've done and the great enjoyment they derive from making things personal, those sorts of situations are a regular occurrence.
  • There's also Father Cornello. Quite arrogant despite being a mere puppet of the homunculi, and not impressive psychically compared to the rest of the cast, it's quite satisfying watching his scam fall apart right before his death.
  • Frank Archer from Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) is the epitome of a Smug Snake; a ruthless sociopath who orchestrates heinous catastrophes for the sake of bettering his own image and publicity.
  • Dante from the first anime is no better, being an egotistical, bodysnatching bitch who while quite intelligent, fails to earn the audience's respect or admiration due to her selfishness, pettiness, willingness to destroy countries just so she can live a little longer, and attempts at taking over one of The Hero's two Love Interests (who had already gone through lots of crap with her baby).
• Gauron from Full Metal Panic!. Treating both allies and enemies with disdain? Check. Always speaking in a sarcastic tone, ending it with a smirk? Check. Loves to bug the protagonist and take advantage of his moral insecurity? Check. Overconfident that his plans will go exactly the way he wants? Check.
  • The novels reveal that he did know quite a bit more about what was going on than most people in Amalgam and Mithril thought, and that sort of justified his disdain for their ignorance. Also, his overall plan did go exactly the way he wanted it — he's the Death Seeker of the series, remember?
  • Leonard Testarossa also qualifies. While his smarts and charisma should, theoretically, allow him to avoid this trope, he's got too much of a superiority complex and kicks a few dogs too many for his own good. (Specially poor Kaname, considering how he beat her up when she and Sosuke aknowledged their feelings for each other)
    • Lampshaded in the later novels by Kaname herself (despite her Damsel in Distress status), who points out that sad and tragic past experiences do not give you an excuse to "play with the fates of other people, and flaunt a smile while you do it."
• Jean Gedoo from Geneshaft has all the ego of being the valedictorian in his class (and Yugi hair), with the "best genes" for leadership. Granted, he wasn't bad tactically, but he was far too obsessed with asserting and proving his worthiness, to the point that he would do very cruel things simply because he felt that someone - anyone - did not acknowledge his perfection...or simply because he was perfect and thus beyond judgment. That he had a problem with Mario Musicanova really grated.
• The condescending jerk Haraguchi from Genshiken. This is especially displayed in the manga, where he picks up one of the Genshiken's new comic releases, thumbs through it, and gives it back. When he could have gotten it for free.
• Gouda of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a quite intelligent man, but he has a massive inferiority complex which makes him quite a Smug Snake. He really likes to grate on people and put them down, and the protagonists get an idea of his plan fairly early on precisely because he's the kind of person that wants recognition of his cleverness.
• Kazamatsuri Hayato from Gilgamesh, perhaps portrayed as a complete asshole in an attempt to make Evil Matriarch Kageyama Hiroko look more sympathetic in comparison.
• The Gundam franchise has numerous Smug Snakes in it including:
  • Gihren Zabi and M'Quve of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Despite their arrogance (and in Gihren's case, his truly repellent personality) neither one is a dunce;
  • Jamaican Danigan, Gady Kinsey, Jerid Mesa, and Jamitov Hymem from Zeta Gundam;
  • Chronicle Asher and Tassilo Vago of Victory Gundam;
  • Duke Dermail, Quinze, and Chief Engineer Tsubarov of Gundam Wing; Dekim Barton from the OVA also qualifies, as do Victor Gaintz and Kratz Shelby from the novels. Suffice it to say, Gundam Wing had a higher concentration of Smug Snakes than any other Gundam series before or since.
  • The Frost Brothers of Gundam X.
  • Agrippa Maintainer in ∀ Gundam.
  • Neo Hong Kong's Prime Minister Wong Yufat from Mobile Fighter G Gundam Seeks to make his rule of the Federation permanent by using the Devil Gundam. Domon Kasshu and Master Asia subvert his plans and Wong himself is done in by a scheme of his own that went bad.
  • Muruta Azrael, Patrick Zala and William Sutherland of Gundam SEED. Al Da Flaga from the backstory is a highly narcissistic Jerkass and Smug Snake in contrast to his sons, who are respectively The Ace and a Magnificent Bastard.
  • Lord Djibril and Yuna Roma Seiran of Gundam SEED Destiny;
  • Alejandro Corner, Wang Liu Mei and Arba Lindt of Gundam 00.
    • Ribbons Almark is an interesting case of a character starting out as a straight Magnificent Bastard... but being unable to keep up with the rest of the field as the characters evolved, he began to rely almost exclusively on a supercomputer to counter everything his opponents had. Effectively, this led to his degenerating into a nasty Smug Snake towards the end, with some geniunely horrible moments (Anew Returner, anyone?).
  • Decil Galette of Gundam AGE is a revoltingly evil, smugly superior Enfante Terrible who nicely hits every stereotype associated with this trope. He's like a kindergarten bully given a Humongous Mecha.
• Yang Yishan is this in Haou Airen, as the extremely smug rival to Hakuron. For worse, he has Kurumi kidnapped more than once to provoke Hakuron, and in the past he had Reilan gangraped and forced into prostitution, which completely broke her.
• Katsuhiko Jinnai from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World certainly counts. Being a brilliant strategist and successful conqueror isn't enough to make up for his monumental ego and laugh; traits that make him both hateable and/or hilarious to the audience.
  • To be fair though, this is much less true in the Magnificent World OVAs. In that continuity, he may have a big ego, but he can easily back it up with tactical genius and sheer will power. While still not as magnificent as he sees himself, it makes him seem less like this trope than he does in the Wanderers anime series, which exaggerates his ego and severely downgrades his strategic abilities so that he looks more like an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Joke Character.
• Clair Leonelli from Heat Guy J shows some signs of being this, at least at first. Somewhat unusually for this trope, he fits the bill not because he's unsympathetic per se, but because he spends most of the early part of the show trying unconvincingly to come across as a Bad Boss to cover his own thinly-veiled inadequacies, rather than because he actually has what it takes to be a Magnificent Bastard.
• Hello! Sandybell: In the first episode, Kitty is certain that Sandybell will get punished for rescuing an injured bird, and later, punished for "stealing" the Countess's painting, and smirks as she tells on her. To her surprise, both times not only does Sandybell not get punished, but the Countess takes a shine to her and gifts her a white lily. Throughout the series, Kitty tries time and time to ruin Sandybell's image, only for it to repeatedly fail.
• Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing is a massive jackass who enjoys forcing Integra Hellsing to say "please" to hand her over an important file - even when his direct superior -the Pope- ordered him to give her the file in compensation for a massive gaffe one of his men (Alexander Anderson) committed. He later becomes a full Knight Templar and tries to have his army kill all Protestants in London for the sin of not being Catholics.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers: Prussia is a more humourous version of this trope. He dreams of conquering and enslaving the world, but if he comes close he's often cut back down to size. Right now, he's nothing more than a Basement-Dweller who lives in the house of his brother Germany. The fans tend to love him for it, though.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • While Dio Brando may be a Genius Bruiser with fantastic manipulation skills, he also has quite the ego, something that tends to get him in a lot of trouble.
  • Most of the villains in Stardust Crusaders are this, notable examples being:
    • Rubber Soul, who, despite his Stand, Yellow Temperance, having an ability perfectly suited for infiltration and sabotage, is so confident in his abilities that he instead chooses to goad Jotaro into battle.
    • J. Geil, already shown to be one of the most despicable characters in the series, shows himself as this when he brags about the power of his Stand, Hanged Man, while Polnareff and Kakyoin are left helpless to do anything against him.
    • Steely Dan debuts just after completing his assigned mission and confronts the Joestar Group for no other reason than the staunch belief that he could easily dispose of them all with his Stand. While this claim does have some justification, given his Stand's ability is to transfer any damage done to him to the victim, Dan's sheer smugness is undeniable. But when he loses the advantage, he is prone to groveling and begging, yet will quickly reassert his snide self when he thinks he's gotten it back. Unfortunately for him, he chose Jotaro Kujo to pick on. The end result is immensely satisfying.
    • Terence T. D'Arby is this, most likely stemming for his Inferiority Complex against his brother, Daniel J. D'Arby. While he proves himself skilled at video games, his over-reliance on his Stand, Atum, and its Telepathy results in him being beaten by a trick Daniel would have easily seen through.
  • Yuya Fungami from Diamond is Unbreakable is this, something that extends to his Stand, Highway Star, who mocks both Rohan and Josuke throughout their battle. Sadly for them, they eventually realize that Crazy Diamond's speed is a lot faster than 60 km/h.
  • Golden Wind:
    • Illuso acts all high and mighty to his opponents, bragging about the invincible ability of his Stand, Man in the Mirror, up until he cornered by Purple Haze.
    • Diavolo seems to believe he's a lot smarter than he actually is, seemingly not realizing that most of the time, he's just lucky and too strong for his foes. And when his luck and strength are surpassed by someone, he very quickly gets a fate nobody deserves.
  • In JoJolion, there's Tamaki Damo, who's bravado completely falls apart when Hato turns the tables on him.
• Yuri Killian became one of these toward the end of the first season of Kaleido Star, enacting a complicated revenge plot against Kalos Eido, his former boss, for the death of his father Aaron several years ago. While he succeeds in buying out Kaleido Stage and forcing most of its stars out (all the while taunting them about how they'll never make it big without him), attendance under Yuri's management dwindles rapidly because of people complaining the shows aren't as fun as they used to be. As a final insult, his ex-partner Layla Hamilton sees what he's done, attempts to fight back and finally gives him a hard slap to the face for assuming everything was Kalos' fault even after he learned that Aaron's death was genuinely accidental, and Kalos had been trying to make up for it ever since. And then, he has a Heel–Face Turn...
• Kaze no Shōjo Emily: Rhoda Stewart, Blair Waters' Academic Alpha Bitch, is always condescending to Emily and Ilse. She's also confident that she can get one over Emily again after pranking her for the first time, only to be Bitch Slapped by her.
• Haruo from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, a fair weather friend with an ever-present arrogant smirk on his face who enjoys getting Kenichi into trouble (for example, by spreading the news of his victory over Tsukuba, which made Kenichi a target for Ragnarok). A lot of readers would like nothing better than crossing the pages of the manga and punch his teeth in...
  • And he actually has snake tongue!
  • He really is a Manipulative Bastard, and Kenichi's masters admit that he has genuine strategic talent, and eventually he does become an asset to the team (kind of). He still has no fighting skill and an ego the size of a zeppelin, but still...
  • As the series progresses, Haruo does start to demonstrate some honest dedication to his "minions" — even going so far as refusing to abandon them even in desperate situations and making decisions with the welfare of his group as a whole, leading even many of the masters of the series to observe that he has some very real leadership qualities. To top it off, he is slowly but surely sliding into Magnificent Bastard territory, even if his sense of style is...unique.
• Job Trunicht from Legend of the Galactic Heroes is particularly notorious for throwing an interstellar nation under the bus for personal gain, multiple times. In an unusual example, he's actually aware of what a slimy scumbag he is:
  Trunicht: Democracy isn't really all that remarkable. You can just look at me, Fleet Admiral. Someone like me can hold power and make others live and die as he likes. If that isn't a flaw of democracy, then what is?
• Quattro from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS enjoys manipulating and controlling people, belittles both enemies and allies, and does this all with a sickeningly cutesy appearance. The fact that her role as support means she's usually hiding somewhere safe from her enemies while she's condescending to them doesn't help her case. Her eventual (non-fatal) fate at the business end of the titular character's staff was a very satisfying scene.
  • And now from Force, we have Cypha, who exaggerates this trope. The few times she doesn't have a smug look on her face, it's almost completely impassive.
  • Most of the Huckebein are like that, really (except Deville who is all business all the time). Big Bad Curren seems to think she's a step above that, but the jury's still out.
    • The jury is in, she's not. During her Evil Versus Evil battle with Hades Vandein, he treats her with the tolerant amusement of an adult watching a rampaging child while kicking the the stuffing out of her and two of her comrades with insulting ease. What really sells it is that it's clear from Currens attitude that she expected this to be another Curbstomp Battle in her favor, and she's obviously thrown off balance by Hades' increasingly obvious superiority.
• Dorchenov from Metal Armor Dragonar is this, combined with The Starscream. A petty, arrogant and cowardly militaristic bully with an It's All About Me attitude who sacrifices his own soldiers without a care in the world, but nevertheless seems to think he's an incredibly badass Magnificent Bastard. Unfortunately for him, it is pretty clear that he's a simpleton who is only dangerous because he's in a position of power - it is telling that even when his plans go the way he wants, it is only through brute strength or a stroke of dumb luck.
• In Monster, most of the villains who aren't Johan or in some way redeemable. Kristof, Dr. Heinemann and Blue Sophie are the better examples.
• Goryo of Muhyo and Roji prides himself on his tactics, even though his grasp of magical law is inferior to Muhyo's. Despite (technically) winning the contest against Muhyo, Goryo's plan to corner Ark fails miserably, forcing Muhyo to come to his aid. Goryo is also largely unlikable because his business model frequently involves Kick the Dog moments.
• The manga incarnations of Nagi in both My-HiME and My-Otome are far less Affably Evil and manipulative than his anime counterparts, though he is much more proactive in opposing the heroines, rather than plotting from the background. In both cases, he gets beaten pretty badly (twice in the former).
  
  Nagi from the My-Otome manga partially subverts the trope by being the only version of Nagi in the mangas or animes to make a Heel–Face Turn and actually reveal himself to be a semi-decent human being. He actually dies in a Heroic Sacrifice defending the main hero! It is, however, only a partial subversion, because for most of the series, he was a complete ass.
• Tomoe Marguerite from the anime version of My-Otome spends a lot of her time plotting against Arika and her friends (and eventually the whole of Garderobe Academy), attempting to bump them all off in an effort to get Shizuru to notice her. Her inability to control her pride and keep her hatred for Arika in check prevent her from succeeding with anything bigger than small-time crimes, though she still winds up as a Karma Houdini in the end, mainly due to her accomplice taking full responsibility for everything Tomoe did in the first half of the series (and nobody keeping close tabs on either of them).
• Naruto:
  • Orochimaru is a high-functioning example and, as a snake-themed villain, a literal one. He is a genuine badass ninja and a war hero who also happens to be a Mad Scientist, Evil Sorceror, cult leader and terrorist, but he is far too arrogant and sadistic for his own good and he has been guilty of Bond Villain Stupidity since as far back as the Chuunin Exam arc, which ultimately cost him his arms. Furthermore, he's prone to doing things that are counter-productive to his goals purely because he can; this is best shown when he kills the Kazekage... after the Kazekage had agreed to help him attack Konoha. So Orochimaru killed off a powerful ally, pretty much just because he could. On the other hand, once he eventually Took a Level in Kindness and becomes less evil (though not exactly "good"), he becomes much more effective and the heroes even allow him to live in peace once the manga is over!
  • His assistant Kabuto is no different. He becomes legitimately powerful (even stronger than Orochimaru himself even!) and can overpower an undead Itachi -who possesses unlimited chakra-, but considers himself an Invincible Villain and during his fight against the Uchiha brothers he constantly gloats about how far he has evolved and is supposedly undefeatable. Also, loudly declaring that "Edo Tensei has no risks" when in fact there are quite a few ways for the reanimated soul to break free.
  • Madara Uchiha can be classified as well. He considers himself the greatest Chessmaster and Manipulative Bastard in the series when in fact, a large part of his plan relied on Obito, who ultimately took control of his plan for himself once Madara died. If not for Black Zetsu, Madara would never have even appeared in the war at all. But even his appearance at the war does not change the situation since his back-up plan was Out-Gambitted by Obito, who became the Jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails instead of him. And even then, Madara claims that he has everything under control when all he can do is wait for the Alliance to do everything for him.
  • Despite being very smart and cunning, Black Zetsu firmly falls under this trope at the moment of Kaguya's revival. Due to its tendency towards underestimating his opponents, constant gloating even in the moments when it is more logical to keep silent and his arrogance, Kaguya gets re-sealed about ten chapters after she is released, only this time he is sealed together with her in order to make sure that he never revives her again.
  • Gato of the Land of Waves arc loudly complains when Zabuza and his followers fail to kill Tazuna, despite them being stronger than him or any of the other men he has in his employ, and tries to kill both Zabuza and Team 7 after their battle in order to save money, showing considerable arrogance, overconfidence and disdain for his allies. Unfortunately, he doesn't count on the injured and Heel Face Turned Zabuza having enough strength and skill to kill him.
• Kurotowa in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Actor Chris Sarandon, who provided his voice in the English dub, even says he based his whole performance around the character's persistent sneer.
• Chigusa Tsukikage, the Big Bad during the Kyoto arc of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. She acted all superior despite the fact that she's a Dirty Coward who hid behind a Human Shield (Konoka, her captive) whenever an enemy got near. In fact, when the inevitable happened and all her plans came crashing down around her in a spectacular manner, Chachazero, the Ax-Crazy Perverse Puppet of Evangeline, appeared before her and called her out for all of her cowardly actions before giving her an ignoble defeat: Scaring her so badly that she fainted. And as though emphasizing her "feels a lot more important than she actually is" nature, the three minions she hired and lorded over in the Kyoto arc ( Koutarou, Tsukuyomi, and Fate) all turned out to both be stronger and a lot more plot relevant that Chigusa herself was in the grand scheme of things.
  • Much, much later on, Kurt Godel, Governor General of Ostia seems to be like this. Subverted as he's actually powerful enough to take on Negi, and might actually be (or not) an ally of the Big Bad. It turns out Kurt thinks he's a lot better at manipulation than he actually is, sending him right back into this trope, if only because he underestimated the Nakama's surveillance capabilities and didn't account for their informant from the future, although to be fair, he really had no possible way of knowing about that last one. As such, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and joins Negi's group, and then he re-joins Ala Rubra.
• Nyatenshi from◊ The Gothic World of Nyanpire loves making this expression around Masamunya. Usually to make him jealous around Nyanpire.
• One Piece both plays it straight and subverts it. There are plenty of Smug Snakes who rather satisfyingly get their asses handed to them by the Straw Hats, which makes them lose everything. The subversion comes from the fact that said snakes end up better off from said asskicking. Look no further than Wapol, who, after he was defeated by the Straw Hats and blown away from Drum island, ended up starting a toy company, became a multi-millionaire, married a model, and even got his own kingdom from the Government: the Black Drum Kingdom.
  • Some end up better off, but many do not. Kuro ended up forced to be a pirate again, the last thing in the world he wanted to be. Arlong lost his empire and was caught by the Marines. On the other hand, Eneru got exactly what he wanted (his own moon kingdom, meaning he's the only major One Piece villain who actually won), and then there's the ones who win a little and lose a little, like Moria, who lost his ship and his zombies but got to keep his position and had his defeat covered-up by the government (at least until he got told "You Have Outlived Your Usefulness" by Doflamingo). It seems that the ultimate fate of a One Piece villain is left up to fate (and the whim of Oda), and being evil is no guarantee of comeuppance.
    • Eneru also wanted to annihilate Skypiea, which he only managed to do partially before he got beaten down. So...3/4 victory?
  • Mr. 3 is probably the best example, primarily because he constantly harps about his tactics, when he's weaker than Mr. 4, chronically overconfident and cowardly, and not even as smart as Crocodile. He'd like to be a Magnificent Bastard, but he's far too arrogant and not as clever as he thinks.
  • Helmeppo's fate isn't particularly grating, though, due to a Heel–Face Turn (he's trying to clean up his act, and he wants to restore his family's good name... by recapturing his fugitive dad).
    • It also helps that he wasn't actually evil, just spoiled. It's shown that while he had no issues killing adults who defied him, he himself drew a line at killing children. That's probably why he got a Heel–Face Turn, and became Coby's most loyal friend and trusted partner in the Marines, eventually rising to a rank that's just below his father's, at Marine Headquarters (meaning that he is now stronger than his father, as officers stationed at Marine HQ -or the Grand Line in general- are stated to have strength three ranks ahead compared to those stationed at the Blue seas). Quite a bit of Character Development for a former Smug Snake.
  • Another example is Bellamy. He boasts a fifty-five million beri bounty to Luffy, who, at the time, had a bounty that was almost double that. While Luffy didn't know about his new bounty at the time, he still saw how much weaker Bellamy was than both he and Zoro, and thus did not bother fighting him. Then he stole from Luffy's friends. Luffy beat his ass with one unstretched punch. The bounty in itself is not very impressive, barely notable in the first half of the Grand Line, and nothing in the New World.
    • When Bellamy returns years later, while still a villain, he's embarrassed at what an unjustifiably-arrogant loser he was in those days. And oddly enough, he and Luffy now respect each other.
  • Don Krieg. The guy likes to think that he's got a fleet of ships strong enough to take on the world, and even declares himself to be the World's Strongest Man. In reality, he's nothing but a bully that's hopelessly outclassed by everyone who calls his bluff. Mihawk of the Seven Warlords barely considered Krieg an afterthought, and once Luffy started fighting him, it was clear that Krieg wasn't fit to even get close to the Grand Line.
  • Demaro Black, also known as Fake Luffy. He really thought impersonating Luffy was a good idea and his biggest feat is fooling several decently skilled pirates into serving him, despite his bad disguise. He is arrogant, uses his fake indentity to throw his weight around and is one of the weakest villains in One Piece.
• Kashmir from Overman King Gainer is a pompous ass who uses underhanded tricks to try to defeat the Yapan Exodus. He succeeds once making it so that a Dome that the Exodus stopped at is damaged forcing them to join the Exodus which causes distrust and hatred which is the main source of Kashmir's plans (it also backfires when several of them form a second squad under former Siberian Railroad member Adette). All other plans fails at which point Kashmir who is the worst recurring mecha pilot in the series than gets his ass kicked.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • This seems to be a key reason why the Team Rocket trio always loses; they never once consider the possibility that their plans might fail or their inventions might be destroyed, and they're way too prone to Evil Gloating. Even when they were turned into serious and focused villains during the Best Wishes saga, this remains true.
    • It's evident in the BW049/BW050 two-parter, where the best plan they'd built to date might have succeeded if Meowth hadn't arrogantly assumed Pikachu and Axew could do nothing while caged. Otherwise, Dr. Zager would probably have picked up the train carriage with none of the Poké Ball-bound Pokémon any wiser until it was too late. And if Meowth had just taken care of the Pokémon when they escaped rather than gloating to Pikachu's face and disconnecting their car from the train, Zager wouldn't have needed to even involve himself the way he did (having to pick up a car with uncontained Pokémon on it, which wouldn't have given the heroes time to catch up with them!).
    • It's even more evident in the Kami Trio two-parter, in which they showed that they hadn't learned from their past defeat and failed to capture the legendary Pokémon because their getaway vehicle still wasn't secure enough.
  • The anime also contains a couple of non-villainous examples with some of the rivals. Harley from Advanced Generation is a devious bully who constantly plots to deceive or otherwise humiliate May, but is always foiled by the end. Trip from Best Wishes is also an incredibly arrogant Jerkass (even owning a literal Smug Snake in his starter Serperior), but his ego always leads him to wildly underestimate his foes, leading to an easy defeat.
• Makoto Isshiki in RahXephon, for whom this trope is partly named after (he's nicknamed "White Snake" because of his albinism and scheming). At first he's a typical Smug Snake, but in the second half of the story turns into a madman.
  • It runs in his family, judging from Babhem.
• Rosario + Vampire:
  • Keito acts quite smug and arrogant, grossly underestimating Inner Moka by outright telling her to her face that she's a weak joke. When Inner Moka proves her wrong by effortlessly dragging her forward by her own web, Keito is promptly reduced to begging for mercy.
  • While Gyokuro is quite powerful and a legitimate threat to Tsukune and his friends, her own arrogance is a big drawback; refusing to see Tsukune as any significant threat bites her in the ass big time.
• Rurouni Kenshin:
  • Kanryu takes the time to boast about how having so much money makes him more powerful than warriors like Kenshin and Aoshi while attacking them with a gatling gun. However, when Kenshin manages to get past the gatling gun, Kanryu is reduced to pathetically begging for mercy before Kenshin breaks his jaw.
  • Usui of the Juppongatana. During his time in the series, Usui always seemed to have the one-up on his fellow Juppon Gatana members, and most definitely fit the smug part of the Smug Snake, more than willing to mock and belittle his foes by pointing out how he could see through them with his "Mind's Eye". His apparent reason for joining the Juppon Gatana was to be able to kill Shishio if he ever had the chance. But in his fight with Saito, he was faced with the fact that his true reason was to put up the appearance of still trying to defeat Shishio, and hiding his dishonor. Usui became even angrier when Saito pointed out that Shishio knew this and was playing him like an instrument. And then, when Usui tried to hold on to the shred of dignity he had left, Saito mopped the floor with him.
  • Sameo Ichigase from the To Rule Flame prequel is an Affably Evil Blood Knight who's also very prone to killing people for mere details (like Yumi's best friend Hanabi), very fond of using others for his plans (like Yumi's other friends Akari and Kogari, whom he wants to sell into slavery) and, despite being a genuinely strong fighter, in the end he has an overinflated sense of his own might. And Shishio is more than happy to slay him down when Yumi's Please, I Will Do Anything! gives him the chance.
• Sword Art Online
  • Nobuyuki Sugou constantly acts smug and arrogant, and tends to speak in a sarcastic tone... but that's only because he has the powers of a Game Master; the second the tables turn on him, he loses it and throws a temper tantrum.
  • Gabriel Miller fancies himself as a Magnificent Bastard, but his overuse of risky strategies ends up getting his army killed for a fleeting to nonexistent tactical advantage, forcing him or his proxies such as PoH to to do the job himself. He's also very dismissive of all of his opponents and underestimates them greatly, which gets his Vecta account killed by Bercouli, gets him held up by Sinon long enough for Alice to reach the World's End Alter, and he even Dies Laughing out of arrogance when Kirito deals the final blow against him. His arrogance disappears the minute he realizes he's being Dragged Off to Hell, replaced by a coward who screams and begs for mercy.
• The Tenchi Muyo! franchise has several examples.
  • Dr Clay from the OVA. The contrast to Kagato, the previous arc's villain, is quite stark.
  • Ramia from Pretty Sammy.
  • Yugi from Tenchi in Tokyo.
  • Tarant Shank from Tenchi Muyo! GXP.
• Hajime Mizuki from The Prince of Tennis starts this way, being an extremely quirky Strategist who wasn't above of using one of his player's insecurities to his advantage, despite the risks it'd bring to the kid. After a memorable Humiliation Conga dealt to him by said player's overprotective older brother, he gets a slightly more sympathetic role and becomes a sort of Ensemble Dark Horse making him one of the very rare Snakes who's a bit popular in fandom. Mainly since he's the epithome of Always Camp and therefore it's easy to put him in Ho Yay situations.
• Touga Kiryuu is very handsome, charming and manipulative — but ultimately, he's a horrendous Jerkass even to his sister Nanami, and he can't hold a candle to the real Magnificent Bastard of the series, Akio Ohtori.
• Millions Knives from Trigun. Missing throughout the anime except for a few scenes, we're expected to take him seriously when we see him sitting down in a field sipping a glass of wine? Even though his Dragon had nearly mentally crippled Vash, Knives lost to him in the span of an episode!
  • This is mainly due to the anime overtaking the manga. In the manga, he has much, much more of the trappings of a terrifying superpowered Magnificent Bastard with the grandeur (and tragic flaw) of a Shakespearean villain.
• Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid: Charlotte Scharsen is absolutely convinced that she's the prettiest, most popular, smartest, and after the events of episode 9, strongest woman on Mermaid, and can do whatever she wants whenever she wants to whomever she wants without question. She is completely wrong on all counts, but Momoka lets her believe she's right because it's much easier to manipulate her that way. In episode 11, when she tries to demand an explanation, Momoka literally slaps the arrogance right out of her and makes sure to let Charlotte know she was never anything more than her pawn.
  Momoka: If you ever wanna make it off this island, then shut your mouth and do as you're told.
  Charlotte: [genuinely shocked] I don't understand. I thought I was...
  Momoka: Aw, you forgot the "shut your mouth" part already!
• Masaya Wadou is this in Witchblade, on top of being a Corrupt Corporate Executive. This is his undoing because he tries so hard to be a Magnificent Bastard, but he keeps fucking up royally because as Badass Normal Reiji Takayama puts it, "He's always looking for shortcuts." This winds up biting him on the ass in an cruelly ironic way.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Seto Kaiba was a classic example during his time as Arc Villain. After his Heel–Face Turn he becomes a better person, but his Jerkass behaviours and unbelievable arrogance keep him as an Antiheroic take on this trope. His stepbrother, Noah Kaiba, stepfather Gozaburo Kaiba, and former business associates, The Big Five play the trope to the hilt, as do Bandit Keith Howard, Weevil Underwood, Siegfried von Schroeder, and Marik Ishtar. The latter's Superpowered Evil Side averts the trope, as he's far too psychopathic to really have an opinion of himself
  • The bigger Smug Snake during Kaiba's time as the Arc Villain wasn't even him—it was Mokuba. He challenges Yugi three times, each time extremely smug, despite him being nowhere near Yugi or Kaiba's skills, and prone to freaking out any time things seemed to go wrong for him. Then again, considering it's implied that he acted like that so his brother would like him again, he might be considered a sympathetic Deconstruction.
  • All of the one-shot villains from the beginning of the manga are this trope, being arrogant bullies who inconceivably overestimate their ability and lose the minute their mistakes come back to bite them, which they never see coming until it’s too late. The only variation in their personalities is how far they are willing to go to satisfy their cruelty. This makes the Penalty Games they experience cathartic instead of Karmic Overkill. The first antagonist not to be this is Shadi, who as a result has Yugi on the ropes for almost the whole arc since his Flaw Exploitation strategy doesn’t work.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Jack Atlas was a lot like Kaiba at first. However, his first loss to Yusei hurt him much more than usual than such a case would for such a person, making his eventual Heel–Face Turn a very slow and painful process.
• Iwamoto and Akashi from YuYu Hakusho are what happen when you combine this with Sadist Teacher. They're always cooking up schemes to get Yusuke and Kuwabara expelled, but in the end always get thwarted by Yusuke and Mr. Takanaka.
  • To a greater extent, Gonzou Tarukane, the hideous crimelord who imprisoned and tortured poor Yukina. He thought he had everything under control but in truth, he never even remotely stood a chance against Sakyou's plan. Gonzou was doomed from the start because he thought the Toguro brothers were working for him when they really worked for Sakyou. The Oh, Crap! when he realizes he's been Out-Gambitted has this trope all over it.
  • Rishu in the Dark Tournament arc. He thought his match against Kuwabara was in the bag due to the manipulations (read:bribery) his sponsor carried out. Oh, how wrong he was.
    • His boss Butajiri, responsible for said bribery, also suffers this when Younger Toguro finds out what he's been doing and tells Sakyo about it. Turns out he blamed Yusuke (and his team by proxy) for killing Tarukune and has been enjoying the beating they've been getting due to his cheating, then he's surprised when Sakyo informs him it was Toguro who killed him, and who promptly does the same to Butajiri with a flick of his finger, causing his head to explode into Ludicrous Gibs.
  • There's also Dr. Ichigaki and Elder Toguro, both particularly loathsome examples. The latter gets a truly wonderful comeuppance; first Younger Toguro punches him so hard he practically disintegrates, then when he shows up in the next arc (still alive and fully regenerated by his immortality), Kurama subjects him to a Fate Worse than Death.

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