The Unfettered / Anime & Manga

---

• As stated in the theme song, Afro of Afro Samurai only lives for revenge. Most of the drama in the series stems from the consequences of his willingness to give up or destroy anything else in pursuit of it.
• Akagi will do whatever it takes to win, whether cheating a blind opponent, throwing a friend into a high-stakes game just to see how the opponent reacts, or handicapping himself by throwing away a significant fraction of his blood. Even his allies describe him as a monster and a demon.
• Mikasa from Attack on Titan. Her goal is simple: protect Eren at all costs, from any threat, be they Titan... or human.
  • This is also the motivation of the Survey Corps Commander Erwin Smith. His aim is to defeat the Titans. No sacrifice is too big if it furthers that goal. Later on in the manga, Armin starts coming over to that line of thinking too.
  • It appears that now, Eren himself is becoming this. Almost 10 years after the beginning of the series, he still wants to wipe out the Titans, even though he himself is a Titan, and he knows that the other Titans are/were humans, too. He's even willing to be seen as a threat to humanity to do it. Turns out he is completely the unfettered as he personally massacres civilians including children while fighting the Warhammer Titan, launches a coup of the Government he and rest of his friends installed behind the scenes, cuts all ties with Mikasa and Armin after telling Armin he's an idiot and telling Mikasa she was a slave all along and he had always hated her, using his brother to order his father into murdering the Reiss Family minus Rod, everything of which is a lead up to his true goal of annihilating life outside his home.
  • The Beast Titan, Zeke Yeager, also counts. He's willing to betray everyone important to him multiple times (including his own parents, although his feelings towards them are complicated to say the least), fake his own death, kill innocent civilians (and turn them into titans), all to achieve his goal of making Eldians unable to reproduce. In Zeke's mind, he's doing Eldians a favour by killing them.
  • A minor example is Kruger, the man who gave Grisha Yeager the powers of the Attack Titan. He was more than willing to send innocent Eldians to their deaths, along with torturing them, in order to achieve his goal. Grisha asks him if he feels any remorse for what he did, and his reply is "I believe I did it all to save Eldia".
• Baccano!:
  • The only moral question Huey Laforet considers dwelling upon is the question of "Is this action For Science!?".
  • Claire Stanfield, on the other hand, is thoroughly convinced that he's the king of the world and thus just does whatever he damn well wants to at the moment.
  • Ironically, Huey himself considers Elmer to be this. He might actually be right.
    Elmer: I'd sell the souls of all humanity to the devil if I thought it'd get us a happy ending.
• Hanma Yujiro from Baki the Grappler will go to any lengths to have a good fight. His worst action by far is the sheer hell he has put his son through just to have someone even potentially equal to him. He even states to his son Baki that if he fails to live up to his expectations, he will repeat the whole process with his son.
• Berserk:
  • Griffith fits this to a tee, but nowhere more completely than when the Eclipse goes down and he sacrifices his entire band of mercenaries, people who stood by him and believed in him and fought and bled for him, to the demon gods of the Godhand in order to join them as their fifth member because he'd plateaued while attempting to achieve his dream of having his own country.
  • Guts himself qualified when he was Walking the Earth alone as the vengeance-driven Black Swordsman. When Rosine and her Apostle Spawn tried to put an innocent girl named Jill between him and themselves, he didn't even blink before cleaving the Spawn in half and almost taking her with them (he just missed her by a tiny inch). Since then, he's gained another group of True Companions and has softened up considerably, thanks largely to him realizing that he'd forsaken the one person he should never have let go of for the sake of pursuing vengeance against Griffith for the above betrayal.
• Patry from Black Clover. Patry is willing to do anything to resurrect his murdered race. He amasses a group of loyal followers, whom he actually hates because they're humans but puts up a mask of care for them out of pragmatism, that he later sacrifices, reincarnates the souls of the elves in the bodies of humans throughout the kingdom, fights the Wizard King and tries to kill the entire kingdom, and taking the opportunity of Julius using the entirety of his magic to stop his spell to mortally stab him to obtain the needed magic stone. When he learns that Zagred was actually the one behind the elf massacre, Patry has a mental breakdown which requires Asta to snap him out of it and convince him to atone for his crimes.
• Roberta from the Black Lagoon OVA Roberta's Blood Trail will kill those who killed her master then return to the young master. And she's not particular about what it does to her, anyone else, or the long-term consequences. Move or die.
• Bleach:
  • Dordonii Alessandro Del Socacchio admits feeling ashamed of striking at the childlike Nel in order to draw out Ichigo's full strength, but points out that "If your objective is to 'protect my friends' and my objective is to 'defeat you at full strength', then what I am going to aim for is not you, but that one little baby, nothing more."
  • Gin Ichimaru is also a candidate of this trope. His main objective for following Aizen was to avenge what was done to Rangiku when they were kids. He was relentless in achieving this goal; he killed people and threw away Soul Society's trust, his captaincy, his friendship with Kira, and even his friendship with Rangiku in order to get close enough to Aizen to kill him.
  • On the heroes' side, we have Mayuri Kurotsuchi. He shows no hesitation in committing atrocities to further his understanding of the soul. Unlike Gin, he never hid this personality trait, which is likely why he ended up being "resigned."
  • One of Yhwach's defining character traits is his complete and utter ruthlessness and his almost unemotional determination to overcome any obstactle that gets in his way, both physical and moral. In the state of being very weak? Just conduct The Purge and regain power and extend your lifespan, of "unnecessary" and "impure" Quincy, regardless of age. Team Killing from his soldiers? It doesn't matter. Power ups from the heroes? It doesn't matter. Barriers keeping you from walking further? It doesn't matter. Squad Zero itself meeting up with you head-on? Fuck off. All four of your Schutzstaffel Elites falling to one guy? Conduct The Purge on your own soldiers so you can simultaneously revive and strengthen the elites. Destroying the world? A necessary sacrifice. No single thing can and will keep him from undoing the original sin by recreating a world without death, and there's not a single thing he will not do to further his goal of creating said perfect world. It takes the Shinigami breaking their own rules just to even the odds.
• Amshel Goldsmith of Blood+. Everything he does is so he can find out everything he possibly can about the chiropteran race, and he'll do whatever it takes to do so, be it performing twisted genetic experiments on helpless children or starting a biological apocalypse by turning the people of New York City into chiropterans.
• Fami/The Famine Devil from Chainsaw Man. She has no lines she won't cross to strengthen Chainsaw Man and Yoru to stop the prophecy. She's racked up a body count of thousands alone by unleashing the Falling Devil, then turns another 350,000 into mindless devils as part of her plans.
• Code Geass:
  • Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku Kururugi achieve this mentality at the end of the series. Lelouch in particular forces another character to back down by threatening suicide, as he'd rather die than not achieve his goals. In general, while he might talk the talk, his ties to his friends (and especially sister) do act as fetters — for most of the series. It's only after Lelouch loses most of them that he's really willing to do anything for his goals. At which point he conquers half the world in about an hour.
  • On a more temporary basis, Lelouch's Geass turns its victims into this whilst they're under its effects. They'll stop at nothing to fulfill the command given to them, no matter how many of their usual principles (be they self-preservation or not going on genocidal massacres) it violates.
• Aino Minako evolves into this over the course of Codename: Sailor V, going from trying to stop a youma peacefully because he was her first crush only to shoot him with the Crescent Beam by reflex when he attacked her in the first chapter to willingly kill her one true love after she asked him to not make her kill him once and he tried to attack her in the finale. By the time she appears in Sailor Moon, there's very little she won't do for the mission.
• Vicious from Cowboy Bebop. All Vicious wants is to control the Red Dragons and kill Spike. Everything else can burn and he happily ignores the sacrifices of loyal minions and even blows up his own pet, to see his ambitions through.
• Cross Ange:
  • Nothing will stop Lord Embryo in his efforts to destroy all life on Earth, whether it's manipulating humans to discriminate against the Norma, initiating multiple genocides in different universes, using the space-time convergence to merge both worlds together, letting the Diamond Rose Knights die, etc.
  • Jill, as well. Manipulating her subordinates, killing DRAGONs and her own friends alike, having Ange kill Embryo... Jill proved that nothing was beyond her in her attempt to end Embryo's tyranny.
• The Contractors in Darker than Black prioritize their own survival to this level and have absolutely no shame and restraint in doing anything as long as it ensures their long-term survival, although as we eventually learn there are a few exceptions.
• Death Note:
  • Though it's tempting to say Light Yagami qualifies, he kills people he would normally consider good (threatening his goal), because they hurt his pride (example: Lind L Tailor). Both L and Light sacrifice many things that seem important to them in pursuit of their goals, such as Light's family and L's privacy and safety, but neither are particularly expressive about what exactly they aim for or value In Light of this, the series' best candidate for this trope is Misa. She is willing to kill innocents in order to find her idol, Kira, and give half her life to make herself more useful to him. When she achieves this, she changes her goal to winning Light's affection. It is the threat of his displeasure rather than execution that prevents her from following him continually, she kills for him, she refuses to name him under mild torture, she is willing to help him catch Kira (when she doesn't know he is Kira) and she is pleased when he tricks her long-time companion, Rem, into dying to protect her, freeing him of suspicion.
  • Mello absolutely qualifies, as he's willing to to anything to accomplish his one unchangeable goal, defeat Near. Near even says in the manga that Mello would rather die than be or live with defeat.
  • Beyond Birthday from Another Note has only one goal: "get L's attention/surpass L". He will do anything to further that goal.
• The Lunatic Magician from Delicious in Dungeon is going to protect the royal family and the sunken kingdom from invaders, and anyone who gets in the way will get brutally murdered. She has no other priorities apart from this due to being murderously insane.
• Though practically all Demons from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba have zero to no qualms in taking the lives of others. Muzan Kibutsuji is by far the worst offender here. Cruel, underhanded and heartless, Muzan would kill anyone who'd pose a threat to his plans, be it Human or even a fellow Demon.
• Olba Mayer of The Devil is a Part-Timer! is willing to go to some pretty heinous lengths to kill Maou and Emi, up to and including making an entire underground mall filled will innocent civilians collapse simply to take them out. Needless to say, after seeing Olba for the scumbag he is firsthand, Emi no longer trusts the Church of Ente Isla.
• The Black Order of D.Gray-Man is probably an entire organization of these people. Established with the sole purpose of averting the Apocalypse, no sacrifice is too great, no experiment too hideous, or no line too sacred to cross when it comes to defeating the Millennium Earl. Individuals within the organization do deviate from this goal, but the organization at large has a single-minded purpose.
• Dragon Ball Z: This is the reason why Kid Buu is considered the most dangerous form of Majin Buu, despite not necessarily being the strongest form. Fat Buu was persuaded not to kill and destroy anymore since he didn't understand that what he was doing was wrong, and Super Buu was (barely) reasoned with by appealing to his desire to fight strong opponents. Kid Buu, however, literally doesn't care about anything beyond destruction, and the first thing he does is destroy the Earth. Then the neighboring planets. Then he set his sights on the afterlife.
• Lucy, Kurama, Bando, and Director Kakuzawa from Elfen Lied. Lucy has no reservations about doing anything in her considerable amount of power to kill all the humans and replace them with her species. Kurama's goal is to save the human race, even if it involves terminating innocent children and women alike. Bando's goal is to kill Lucy no matter what the cost is. Director Kakuzawa's goal is to wipe out the human race, replace it with the Diclonius, and be worshiped by them as their new "God."
• Dewey Novak from Eureka Seven. There is nothing he will not do in pursuit of his goal of wiping out the scub coral and be remembered as a hero.
• Kiritsugu Emiya from Fate/Zero. For him, anything is permissible so long as the net lives saved is greater than those lost. He will cheat in the Holy Grail war and kill magus enemies in ways considered dishonorable and cowardly, using deceit and sniping, and even betraying those he loves. Also heavily deconstructed in that the series demonstrates the intense emotional and psychological consequences of trying to live this way if you aren't actually a sociopath: Kiritsugu is powerful, unstoppable, and miserable, because he knows his ability to coldly sacrifice others in pursuit of his goal makes him not that far removed from a monster himself. Guilt and grief don't do any more to stop him than honor or pride.
• Eishi Tsukasa in Food Wars! is always striving to improve his cooking. If he needs to help his subordinates grow so he has sous-chefs who can keep up with him, he'll be the kindliest and most patient mentor in the world. If he needs to compete with a challenger who is angling for his seat on The Council of Ten Masters, he'll crush the hapless bugger so thoroughly he'll never pick up a kitchen knife again.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Father is an exceptional case of this. He's probably the only one on this page to literally remove his fetters and give them physical bodies.
  • Then there's Shou Tucker, the man who was willing to experiment on his wife and daughter (and even himself in the 2003 anime version) to turn them into mutated chimeras if it meant furthering his research.
  • Scar will stop at nothing to find a means to destroy the empire of blue-eyed devils who killed his people — and in a way, he actually succeeds.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Kimblee is too misanthropic and sociopathic to know the meaning of 'restraint': by all good fortune, he doesn't have a higher goal, but if he wants to do something, he will do it without thought for the consequences. His backstory claims he blew up his own commanding officer and squadmates simply because he wanted to.
• By the standards of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (but not the main series, where he's shown as part of a military structure), Sousuke is an example of The Unfettered in that he is utterly unbound by (and indeed incapable of understanding) the fetters, norms and standards of modern society. Instead, he operates on soldier logic. He isn't entirely there (mostly due to Kaname and her Paper Fan of Doom), but generally has absolutely no concept of 'Fair Play' and 'Proportionate Response'. The results are... interesting, to say the least. One interesting example is when he holds a knife to the throat of an innocent old lady, threatening her "well-being" if Kaname and the others come closer. Kaname defuses it with her Paper Fan of Doom, and proceeds to attack him.
  • Later on in the manga/novels, while he is searching the world for Kaname, he truly does become The Unfettered. Finding her becomes his purpose in life. All of his decisions come back to how he has to find her.
• Shigi from Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden. After Prince Hakei rescued Shigi from a harem, he became completely devoted to his new boss; his obsession with killing the Genbu Warriors initially begins because of his loyalty to Hakei and the Kutou army. When Hakei changes his mind about killing the warriors after Genbu's summoning, Shigi cannot handle this fact since his entire life revolved around the warriors' demise.
• Yuno Gasai and Minene Uryu from Future Diary. Yuno's goal is to do anything for Yukiteru, even going as far as to keep the universe in an eternal time loop, forever replaying the Diary game. Minene's goal is even simpler: to destroy religion.
• Gundam:
  • Paptimus Scirocco from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Scirocco is wholly given to his goals (whatever they may be) and coldly uses, manipulates and murders any he needs to during the {{Mêlée à Trois}} during the Gryps Conflict so he can take absolute power over the world.
  • Heero Yuy from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing starts off like this in the very beginning of the series, not caring if or how he dies so long as he can complete his mission, but it fades as he begins to give a crap about human life.
  • The Rett Team in ∀ Gundam are the descendants of Moonrace scouts whom Dianna sent to Earth to prepare for resettlement. Despite their New-Age Retro Hippie look, they will do anything so long as they think it will advance Dianna's goals. Their lack of any battlefield norms or protocols earns them the disgust of Dianna's regular forces, who will respect typical battlefield codes. The Rett team, meanwhile, has no qualms conducting a nighttime assault on a militia hospital. After nuclear weapons are rediscovered (and several detonate), their leader Cancer wants to find the remaining two and set them off somewhere on Earth so that there's no possibility they'll harm Dianna. They only come under control once they actually find Dianna herself and she's able to give them direct orders — which happen to be to advance her new goals of finding a peaceful settlement. Had she ordered them to continue attacking the Earthers indiscriminately, they would have cheerfully done that, too.
  • Several characters from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.
    • Rau Le Creuset will do anything, even die in the process, to complete his goal of annihilating the human race that he hates so much as revenge for what they did to him.
    • There is nothing Muruta Azrael won't do. He will start wars against countries populated by Naturals if he thinks it will aid his goals.
    • Nothing will stop Ulen Hibiki from getting things done, even if it's repulsive.
  • Rustal Elion from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. Rustal does not care about consistent moral principles, and takes a very big-picture view of costs and benefits. He'll do what he thinks helps him, he'll do what he thinks helps the solar system, and he'll preferably do both at once. If that means committing war crimes, sacrificing his own loyal subordinates, and/or spending silly amounts of money, then he'll do it, even if he regrets it.
• The Major from Hellsing, his only goal is to wage war, he doesn't care who wins, loses or dies so long as the war is waged.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Dio Brando, Kars, Kira Yoshikage, and every other every primary antagonist. Meanwhile Johnny Joestar is a usually civil (if sulky) heroic example, a major part of his character development being his finding out how far he's willing to go to get what he wants.
  • In the Golden Wind spin-off Purple Haze Feedback, colony-type Stand users such as Cannolo Murolo and Rissoto Nero are said to have a hollowness in their soul that makes them willing to do anything to complete their goals, even betraying their comrades.
• Yuriko Mifune of Kotoura-san admits this about herself. She's most certainly goal-devoted and takes an unapprehensive approach; however, and thankfully, she's never truly ruthless nor immoral — just a Plucky Girl who challenges the Untrusting Community's Fantastic Racism against those with Psychic Powers.
• Paul von Oberstein from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. In his own words, "The Galactic Empire... no, the Goldenbaum Dynasty must fall" — and he will do anything to accomplish it.
• Maria no Danzai: Maria has very few scruples about what she's willing to do in order to get even one step closer to killing each and every one of the bullies in Okaya's gang. If she has to discard her former identity, manipulate people or even do sexual favors to get her revenge, then that's exactly what she will do. The only line she won't cross is that she can't bring herself to kill anyone who wasn't directly responsible for the death of her son.
• Monster:
  • Johan Liebert kills anyone who gets in his way without any feeling about what he's doing. One character that he's about to execute tells another character, "He doesn't even blink when he kills people."
  • Inspector Lunge is convinced that Tenma is responsible for the deaths and that Johan doesn't exist, so he devotes every waking second of his life to tracking down Tenma and capturing him. Lunge even accepts a divorce from his wife without any second thoughts and made it absolutely clear to her that his investigation always comes first. Lunge finally encounters Johan himself near the end of the series and does a Heel–Face Turn, at least after his world comes crashing down around him.
• Moriarty the Patriot:
  • William hates his murders, hates what he does, and thinks of himself as evil because of it—and absolutely none of that stops him from relentlessly pursuing his goals of a better, more equal world through the plan he made himself. Even when Sherlock tempts him with the reminder of his own humanity and the potential for a fun, enjoyable life, he refuses to abandon his own principles.
  • Sherlock is so totally single-minded when pursuing a mystery and its solution that he kills Milverton without hesitation or regret and even jumps off a bridge to save William without a second thought.
• My Hero Academia:
  • The League of Villains are very much what you'd expect, serving as a contrast to The Fettered Hero Society in both methods and beliefs. Some of the league members do have standards (such as Kurogiri), but overall a free society for them should only be ruled by those powerful enough. Heroes, in their eyes, restrict and abuse their Quirks by naively believing that they can save everyone. With how some Heroes act, the League is not entirely unjustified.
  • Of special note is Dabi. Dabi will do anything to achieve his goal of breaking his father's spirit and heroic legacy. He doesn't even care about his own family anymore; not even Natsuo, whom he relied on for emotional comfort as a child, is spared from his quest for revenge against Endeavor, as shown when he lamented how it's a shame Natsuo didn't die so Endeavor could suffer another emotional loss. This is even visually shown in Chpater 351 by the way he uses Endeavor's Hell Spider Super Move. When Endeavor uses the move, he fires thin, precise beams of flame to limit collateral damage and avoid casualties. But as noted by Idia, Dabi's use of the move has him release thicker beams of fire in a more haphazard way, showing how little Dabi cares about collateral damage. Even his own allies aren't safe, as his final gambit, compressing so much thermal energy inside him that he'll explode and take everything in 5 kilometers with him, would have all of them in the blast radius.
• In Naruto, the titular character is an example of The Fettered. In contrast, his main enemies largely fall under this trope.
  • At his introduction, Gaara was solely driven by his desire to face and kill strong opponents, thus proving his own strength. Naruto was absolutely terrified by this as he couldn't understand how somebody could survive the loneliness and grow strong.
  • Speaking of Gaara, the Hidden Sand (Suna) was also quite merciless, especially in the past. Rasa would even sacrifice his own brother-in-law and his youngest son just to test Gaara's control over Shukaku. Luckily, after gaining allies, the village abandoned such cruel ways.
  • Orochimaru dedicated his entire being to living forever, performing gruesome experiments on himself and countless victims in pursuit of a perfect host. He sacrificed his four elite bodyguards and most prized subordinate to ensure Sasuke could defect and barely batted an eye.
  • Kabuto, as well, was mutually ambitious as his Lord. For the majority of his story, Kabuto did every heinous, underhanded thing merely to achieve some form of identity. Eventually, he found meaning in just being himself and not another clone of his twisted master. A lesson he had to learn, the hard way.
  • This a trope is part of Sasuke's Character Development. His Face–Heel Turn was largely driven by his conclusion that the strength of his bonds with his comrades was so great, that by breaking them he would become even stronger which would allow him to achieve his goal: to kill Itachi. But even after that, he continued to have standards such as not to kill innocent people and was against Orochimaru's methods, even describing them as stupid and selfish. However, after his battle with Itachi, he slowly goes more and more insane, which results in this trope, though his dedication to Team Taka prevents him from truly becoming this. It is only after he kills Danzo and abandons them that he really becomes The Unfettered.
  • Sasuke's brother, Itachi, should be counted as well. He will do anything to protect Sasuke and Konoha even if it means to murder his own parents and cause the potential genocide of his entire clan. However, this is subverted later in regard to Sasuke, as Itachi considers his free will an acceptable sacrifice after realizing that his brother may have fallen too far to save.
  • Also, most Akatsuki members fall under this, such as Pain, Hidan and Kakuzu. None of them could care less about who gets in their way as long as their objectives are completed (for Hidan, it's slaughter for his god Jashin; for Kakuzu, it's profit; for Pain, it's achieving peace).
  • One word: Tobi. Or, to be more exact, Obito. Nothing will stop him from achieving his goals, the world be damned. Murdering his entire clan, his mentor, attacking his village, his closest friend and plunging the entire world in a war with them against an army of white Zetsus and Edo Tensei Zombies mean nothing. It is revealed that he plans to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi with the power of the Ten-Tails to rewrite reality to include everyone important to him being alive and to pretend that these events never occurred, which in his mind is absolutely justified. He still keeps going even when the Ten Tails is ripped from him and he is on the verge of death (although with a changed goal). And even his death сould not stop him from continuing to follow his new goal.
  • Madara Uchiha also falls under this. He chose to abandon his clan and his friendship with Hashirama to pursue the Assimilation Plot, which he later handed down to Obito so that he could complete it in his place. During the Fourth Shinobi World War he reaches a new low when he fatally stabs Sasuke, his own kinsman, after the latter tries to stop him, something even Tobirama calls him out on. Madara later reveals to Obito that he manipulated his Start of Darkness to mold him into the perfect Unwitting Pawn, being aware of how kind Obito was in his childhood and knowing his kindness would be replaced by equally strong hatred after losing Rin.
  • Topping the sheer evil of every villain in the series, Danzo Shimura is unforgivably this. That's right: the most selfish and unashamably determined character in the show isn't an Uchiha. Danzo spent his entire life stepping-over and manipulating even children just to become Hokage and protect Konoha. How he used people and twisted critical disasters in his favor would no doubt make Madara himself smile. Danzo has simply no redemption given to him, which is why he died a failure and a morally bankrupt coward.
  • The Hidden Cloud village, collectively.
    • The Cloud Shinobi will cross almost any line to protect their village and have gained a reputation for being incorrigible in their attempts to amass power for themselves, something which Onoki states at the Kage Summit is the reason the other Great Nations were forced to employ similar tactics to protect themselves. This includes a lot of immoral behavior, like kidnapping children from other villages with special abilities to use for themselves or demanding blood sacrifices after the fact. When a peace treaty was formed between all the villages to cut back on military budget and reduce the sizes of their forces during times of peace, Kumo secretly reneged on the agreement, seeing this as a chance to ensure that no other village can ever have an upper hand should hostilities later resume.
    • The Fourth Raikage (A), himself qualifies. He will do anything to achieve victory at all costs. When Naruto and Killer Bee escape their confinement and can't be persuaded to stay hidden during the Fourth Ninja World War, he considers killing them both to prevent Tobi from capturing all the Tailed Beasts. He eventually reconsiders and decides to believe in their strength instead.
• The titular Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind spends most of the manga without hesitation making decisions which tear at her heart in pursuit of her goal: to get as few living creatures as possible killed.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Gendo Ikari wants to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, both to merge all human souls into one so they will be liberated of misunderstandings and suffering and to be reunited with his wife, whose soul is currently trapped in a mecha. To achieve this, he's willing to use his own son and surrogate daughter (Both of which he actually cares about, even if it's all but apparent at first) as tools and guinea pigs, makes them fight monsters, does his fair share of large-scale scheming and manipulation, and goes even as far as offering his body to a pair of Yandere scientists whom he found annoying at best to keep them placated and thus useful for his plans. He's generally a very pragmatic person who's not above sacrificing the life of a 14-year-old kid for the greater good (or what he sees as such), but will do the dirty work himself if he should be forced to (for example, pulling ropes amongst some random technicians when there's a blackout).
  • Gendo's wife, Yui Ikari, as well. Feasts on the corpses of Angels, emotionally manipulates her husband and son for years, and allows Asuka to die in pursuit of foiling SEELE and Gendo's plans.
• Several characters in One Piece definitely qualify, as their dreams take them to horrific extremes:
  • Donquixote Doflamingo. Doflamingo has done nearly anything to achieve his goals. He considers the crew he loves like a family sacrificial if need be, like when he asked Monet to blow up the island and herself to kill the enemy. He brought his father's head to Mariejois in a failed attempt to become a World Noble again. When he gained an interest in the Op-Op Fruit, he was prepared to force his brother, Rosinante, to eat it (unaware that Rosinante had already eaten a Devil Fruit) and then order Rosinante to give up his life in exchange for giving Doflamingo eternal life, knowing that even though Rosinante is a traitor, he still could not reject his orders. However he ended murdering his brother when he confirmed he was a Marine spy and that the Op-Op Fruit was already consumed by Law.
  • Jack "The Drought". He's absolutely impossible to reason with and will stop at nothing and refuse no measure to accomplish his goals. He doesn't know or care what you want to tell him, he just wants to get his job done and doesn't really care about how he does it so long as he gets a chance to smash things and kill people.
• Lord Hazanko from Outlaw Star. The low-level minions know he will stop at nothing to have his missions complete, and he proves it with his sheer determination to reach the Leyline before anyone else. He doesn't care who has to die, even if his own minions die in the process, as long as he gets his ultimate prize.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Pokémon Hunter J. No matter what deadly chaos is going on around her, she will not stop pursuing her target until either she captures it or her client cancels the deal. She once used her Salamence's Flamethrower to light an entire forest on fire in order to smoke out a Riolu she was pursuing. It backfires when she goes after Regigigas, as she underestimates what it's capable of, and things get so out of control that her client calls off the deal.
  • Paul from Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl is a chillingly accurate portrayal. While he is not incapable of showing respect for his elders, such as Professor Rowan, he is a ruthless and cruel Trainer who trains his Pokémon harshly, treats weak Pokémon and even other Trainers with utter contempt and has released no less than six Pokémon on screen for poor performance in battle and feels no remorse for his actions, seeing his actions as the only way to make an efficient team. He also shows little to no emotions apart from his ever present scowl (and occasionally a condescending smirk, usually for Ash), is quick and firm in his choices, sees nothing morally wrong in his abuse of both people and Pokémon, and has no qualms about using borderline illegal moves in battle (repeatedly attacking his own partner's Pokemon during a Tag Battle), and is by far one of Ash's most powerful rivals, serving almost as a living antithesis to his entire philosophy on Pokémon. Unlike his other rivals Gary and Trip, who were simply at odds with Ash, Paul is a full-blown antagonist.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Akemi Homura characterises this trope as the ideal state of being for a magical girl, due to the nature of their contract. Fittingly enough, she is one herself, being willing to do absolutely anything in order to save Madoka. Just check out this exchange between her and Madoka in episode 5:
    Homura: That contract forces you to give up on everything in exchange for a single desire.
    Madoka: So you've given up too? You've given up on yourself and the other girls? On everything?
    Homura: That's right. I won't make excuses and say I'll try to atone. I must continue my fight, no matter what sin I must commit to do so.
  • The Big Bad, Homura’s Arch-Enemy, is one as well. For Kyubey, no sacrifice is too great if it means saving the universe from heat death. Effecitevly enslaving humanity, torturing teenage girls and turning them into witches are all in a day’s work, and it can’t even comprehend the value of individual life. When given a more humane system, it tries to bring the old one back just because the alternative isn’t as efficient.
• Record of Ragnarok: The valkyrie Brunhilde wants to save humanity from the gods' judgement, and will gamble the very souls of her thirteen champions, the few gods she does love and respect, her sisters, and even herself to pull it off. She privately mourns every life lost to Ragnarok, but carries on anyway because the stakes are simply too high for her to give up.
• Rosario + Vampire:
  • Nagare Kano, a sicko pervert who stalks Kurumu and is perfectly willing to stoop to such lengths as blackmail and theft to get his way.
  • Fairy Tale leader Gyokuro Shuzen is a pristine example. She is determined to acquire power and dominance for herself and will do whatever it takes to do so, up to and including throwing her own daughters to the wolves.
• Aoshi in Rurouni Kenshin, for a time. The goal: bring honor to fallen comrades (by defeating Kenshin, naturally). The sacrifices: working for the omnicidal Big Bad, attempted murder of his Old Master, tossing out all morals, and (would have included) his own life. He got better.
• Saint Seiya has two examples among the Gold Saints:
  • Gemini Saga has shown that he won't stop at anything short of outright betraying Athena to protect Earth and further her cause. It goes to the point that the only meaningful difference between him and his "evil" split personality is that the latter thinks he can do a better job than Athena at protecting humanity, and acts accordingly.
  • Pisces Aphrodite, who just doesn't care in the slightest about what happens to his enemies. He demonstrates by casually mind-raping an opponent that knew something he wanted to know, poisoning anyone who tries to cross his temple without permission, and reacting to the threat of being hit by a sure-kill attack by unleashing his own sure-kill attack out of curiosity over who'll die first. He's first introduced by Saga's evil side mentioning that Aphrodite unnerves him.
• In Saiyuki, Ukoku Sanzo aka Nii Jiyeni is the Zen philosophical version of this trope: he's come out the other side of Nietzsche Wannabe and fully embraced his own interpretation of the concept of "hold nothing", which is one of the series' main themes. He's one of the series' most frightening villains as a result.
• Mugen from Samurai Champloo. He gives his all into everything he does. Even coming back from the dead a few times through sheer determination.
• Yuji Sakai from Shakugan no Shana becomes this after merging with the Snake of the Festival. He will do anything to create a world where Crimson Denizens no longer have to consume humans to survive, and will sacrifice as many humans, Flame Hazes, and even Crimson Denizens as he feels he needs to. And in the end, it pays off.
• Ryo Narushima from Shamo doesn't just live this trope, he practically is this trope. There is absolutely nothing he is not willing to do to win a fight and survive. This includes: various acts of sometimes completely unprovoked assault, maiming opponents, calling up a rival on the phone while raping his girlfriend, murdering his own parents with a knife, taking dangerous illegal steroids, and even biting off a man's penis.
• Lalaco Godspeed from Space Patrol Luluco refers to herself as "the very incarnation of true, unfettered freedom" and does not let anything get in her way once she decides she wants something. This is best demonstrated during the finale when she puts in the same amount of effort to helping her daughter confess to the boy she likes as she does beating that same daughter to steal a city.
• Several villains from Sword Art Online:
  • Akihiko Kayaba. The game will continue for Kayaba's amusement. What the players think of him is irrelevant.
  • Vassage Casals. He can't be reasoned with and he'll do whatever it takes to get what he wants. This is also his "double-edged sword".
  • Gabriel Miller. Gabriel sees everyone around him as mere stepping stones to accomplish his goal of understanding the human soul.
• Jomy in Toward the Terra turns into one after the destruction of Nazca. He leads the Mu to war, gives Tony the okay to kill surrendering soldiers and is ready to abandon a station full of Mu hostages. Many Mu feel disgusted by these actions. Fortunately, he gets better.
• Two examples from Trigun, Millions Knives and Legato Bluesummers. Knives has no reservations about doing anything in his considerable amount of power and influence to wipe out humanity, while Legato is slavishly devoted to Knives and will even kill himself to help Knives accomplish his goals.
• Voltes V: Prince Heinel's goal is to "save" Boazania by eliminating all that resist the Royal Family's rule, and he doesn't care if the whole world is his enemy. In the Grand Finale, even though all his friends are dead and he has no backup, he willingly challenges Kenichi to a duel even though he knows it could be fatal.
  Heinel: Don't worry, Katherine. I will not die until Voltes V is defeated.
• Lord Darcia III from Wolf's Rain. Nothing will stop him from kidnapping Cheza to heal his beloved Hamona, and after Hamona dies he throws that same tenacity into accelorating the apocalypse and preventing everyone but himself from reaching Paradise.
• Zero from Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. Zero will let nothing stop her from "being who she is". Including sealing away her own emotions, synchronizing her life with Rin's as a safety mechanism...etc.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • For his beloved Cyndia, Maximillion Pegasus will steal souls, buy whole companies and crush anyone he needs to.
  • Shadi commits himself to his mission of assembling the Millennium Items. He kills Kanekura and the man who intended to buy the Millennium Puzzle, temporarily brainwashes Yoshimori and Anzu in order to get Dark Yugi out from the Millennium Puzzle and somewhat manipulates Pegasus.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
    • Post-Freak Out, Zane Truesdale becomes obsessed with winning regardless of the cost. He claims that he abandoned honor and respect for his opponents because they are absolutely meaningless in the face of achieving victory.
    • Yubel. There is no boundary Yubel won't cross to hurt Jaden and mold him into the Supreme King, whether it involves emotionally crushing him, killing his friends, possessing his best friend or playing endless mind games with him.
    • Jaden Yuki as the Supreme King; his cruelty has no bounds as he is willing to sacrifice as many people as he has to in order to accomplish his goals along with his lack of remorse after defeating someone himself.
    • Adrian Gecko as well, if killing the ones he loves wasn't already a big indication of this trope.
• Shinobu Sensui from YuYu Hakusho. Even when he was a good guy, he used the absolute extremes to deal with demons. As a villain, there wasn't anything too low for him to stoop to in his quest to destroy humanity.

---