History QuirkyMiniBossSquad / AnimeAndManga

* ''Anime/SailorMoon'' had a set of these guys every season (in order of appearance: Shitennou, Ayakashi Sisters, Witches 5, Amazon Trio, Amazones Quartet, and Sailor Animamates). Many of these groups were made up of colour-coded [[ThePsychoRangers evil counterparts]] of the Four Guardians (Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako). In the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], the Witches 5 were even resurrected JUST to kill the Senshi they copied!
* ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'' (including the numerous spin-offs) has a cadre of mid-level badguys every plot line, one of which usually ends up becoming TheDragon or are led by the dragon. This series has the Dark Five, later the Seeds of Darkness, and then the Four Guardians in the sequel.
** ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'' has the seven henchmen of Dark Fall plus TheDragon Gohyan [[spoiler:who is later revealed as the BigBad]].
** ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' has two groups of employees of Nightmare, and then the employees of Eternal in the sequel.
** ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'' has the five Labyrinth agents.
** ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'' has the three Desert Apostle Generals plus two commanders.
** ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure'' has Trio the Minor plus Seiren.
** ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' has the Bad End Generals plus Joker. [[spoiler:During the final, Joker creates a MirrorMatch group of Precures, called the Bad End Precures. They last for one episode, though.]]
** ''Anime/DokiDokiPrettyCure'' has the Jikochu agents plus Regina.
** ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' has the Phantom Generals with Phantom as an independent force.
** ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'' has the Three Musketeers plus Twilight. After Twilight's HeelFaceTurn, Lock's defeat and Close's return as TheDragon, Stop and Freeze are added to the minions.
** ''Anime/MahouGirlsPrecure'' has two of four for both of the [[BigBad villains]].
** ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode'' has four for Noir. [[spoiler: Once Erisio backstabs him and takes control, it's just Glaive.]]
** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' starts out with Charalit, Ruru, and Pappuru. Once they're out of the picture, it becomes Jelos, Dr. Traum, and Bishin. Poor Daigan ends up as a BaitAndSwitchBoss, and Listol rarely gets involved.
** ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'' has the three generals for the Notraiders, plus Bakenyan if you want to count him as one. Galogre later joins them after Aiwarn goes AWOL.
** ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' has three demons for the Byogens. In episode 12, a nutria gets infected and joins them, naming himself as Batetemoda. After his defeat in Episode 21, the group begins having generals join and get defeated on an episodic basis.
** ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'' has the three servants of the Witch of Delays.
* ''Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden'' had the "Necks of Orochi", whose appearances parodied stock characters in anime. (As an aside, there were faceless mooks in the manga, but they never made an appearance in the anime.)

* ''Manga/SandLand'', one of Creator/AkiraToriyama's more obscure works, featured The Swimmers as a sort of nicer Ginyu Expy squad.
* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': The Old Man and Soi Lin were part of [[SpacePirate the Kei Pirates.]], who were in pursuit of [[LivingMacGuffin Melfina]] and [[CoolSpaceship the XGP.]] But wound up being [[EnigmaticMinion an oddball group]] of [[StarterVillain starter villains]], who were killed off by the end of the fourth episode.
* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': The Gung-Ho Guns are the enemies of Vash the Stampede in led by [[TheDragon Legato]], though in a twist in the original manga, some actually have humanizing connections with him.
* ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' features the various blocks and divisions of the Hair Hunters, which included in their ranks everything from robots to martial artists to {{Talking Animal}}s to animated objects. Sometimes the objects aren't animated at all. There was an ordinary stick of gum in their ranks at some point. Ironicaly the gum actually ''won'' its fight (by getting eaten, but it still counts).
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** Grimmjow's Fracción, who are completely loyal to him and prove to be extremely deadly to Hitsugaya's Advance Squad when they fight. Although the Shinigami do end up winning, victory is costly. It's even more costly for Grimmjow's group. Grimmjow is the only one who survives.
** Harribel's AmazonBrigade are a trio of quirky females who appear to be barely able to stand each other's presence. Nevertheless, they're incredibly dangerous and are capable of combining their power into a creature that manages to take out four lieutenants without effort and which needs to be defeated by Yamamoto-Genryuusai himself. [[spoiler:In the final arc of the story, they're less villains and more [[AloofAlly aloof allies]] to the protagonists as they and the protagonists find themselves sharing an enemy.]]
** Baraggan's Fracción are a strange mixture of beings, ranging from the dour and serious to downright kooky. None of them survive the conflict against the Shinigami, but they give the Shinigami a world of trouble before they're taken down.
** It turns the Sternritter are this... [[spoiler:not to Yhwach, but to ''Haschwalth''. Established as a BadBoss from the outset, Yhwach appears to command loyalty through fear whereas TheDragon Haschwalth appears to have the army's loyalty through respect and companionship. When the Sternritter feel Haschwalth has been snubbed by Yhwach in favour of [[UnexpectedSuccessor Ishida]], the personalities of the Sternritter begin to be explored. Quirky is is a mild description for some of them.]]
* The Fearsome Four in ''Anime/CorrectorYui'', serving as Grosser's most recurring enforcers: [[GeniusBruiser Jaggy]], [[TheEvilGenius Virus]], [[AnIcePerson Freezee]], and [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent War Wolf]] ([[spoiler:who turns out to be the last Corrector, Synchro]]). After the latter leaves the group, [[spoiler:Yui's older love interest, Shun, is brainwashed into the Four, though his tenure is short as this happens shortly before Grosser's defeat, being the last to fall.]] Come the next arc, Jaggy, Virus, and Freezee do a HeelFaceTurn (with the latter becoming a ButtMonkey).
%%* The Goth Loli sisters from ''Manga/TheWallflower''.
* The Hyper-Zoanoid Five in ''Manga/{{Guyver}}''. Of course, [[spoiler:they barely fought the Guyver himself, and instead were targets for Aptom, who took down four out of five and even was able to get a sample of Zxtole's genetics.]]

%%* The Dark Lovers and Michel's winged servants in ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch''.
* The Juppongatana in ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', almost all of whom have some underlying motive for helping Shishio and tragic backstories. The Six Comrades from later in the manga, however, are just [[PsychoForHire Psychos For Hire]].

* Ashram's followers (Groder, Gaberra, Smeddy, Gilram, and Astar) from ''Manga/RecordOfLodossWar''. They were also {{Evil Counterpart}}s to the heroes: Ashram for Parn, Groder for Slayn, Gaberra for Leylia, Smeddy and Gilram for Shiris and Orson, and Astar for Deedlit.

* The Four Divine Beast Kings (Thymilph, Adiane, Guame, Cytomander) from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''.
* Pasder's Four Machine Kings (Polonaise, Primada, Pizza, Penchinon) from ''Anime/GaoGaiGar''.
** The members of the 31 Primevals who possess human bodies become one for a short time. ''Final'' has the [[PSychoRangers 11 Masters]] [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad of Sol]], though half of them are arguably a subversion. While set up with the fanfare of a quirky miniboss squad, they never reveal a [[EmptyShell personality]], [[TheVoiceless voice]], or even [[TheFaceless a face]]. They are a [[spoiler:[[FightingAShadow shadow]] shaped like a [[ShapedLikeItself miniboss squad]].]]
* Diva's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent chevaliers]] from ''Anime/BloodPlus'' with Amshel as TheDragon. Being the heads of [[MegaCorp Cinq Fleshes]], they had a lot of presence in the story in various degrees: Karl was absent for most of their meetings and [[spoiler:was the first to die]], Solomon did a HeelFaceTurn out of his genuine love for Saya; James was the one with the most pronounced loyalty to Diva, considering her his "Mama" and being in charge of [[EvilKnockoff the Corpse Corps]]; Amshel was TheManInFrontOfTheMan as he was the mastermind of the whole plan to extinguish humanity and let Chiropterans rule the world and Diva was childlishly letting him do as he pleased; and Nathan [[spoiler:was so powerful could keep even Amshel in line, and he turned up to be a Chevalier before Saya and Diva were even born; plus he is the only one out of them to survive.]]

* Gon Jem and his Shitennou in ''Anime/MetalArmorDragonar''. You don't get any quirkier in a Real Robot anime. [[spoiler:Their weirdness does not keep them from being more than a match to the heroes in more than one occasion]].

* In a similar case to ''Kyo'', Dark Schneider of ''Manga/{{Bastard}}'' is also a protagonist with his own QuirkyMinibossSquad (The Four Riders of Havoc). In addition said minibosses have their own minibosses (Especially Kal Su, who commands 13 Generals with their own quirks). And there's also the various high ranking Angels and Demons.
%%* ''Manga/InuYasha'' arguably has a number of these, including The Band of Seven and Kanna and Kagura, sometimes with Kohaku, Hakudōshi, and / or Akago.
* The manga adaptation of ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' features Pierre and his sister, Kurin, [[http://mangapark.me/manga/star-ocean-till-the-end-of-time/s1/v3/c0/149 a pair of Meondix]] who're part of the Black Cats bounty hunting group. While only [[PluckyComicRelief minor nuisances, at best]], Pierre's ability to control beasts, Kurin's sharpshooting, and ''[[RecurringBoss their persistence]]'', [[http://mangapark.me/manga/star-ocean-till-the-end-of-time/s1/v3/c0/151 makes them a handful]] for Fayt, Nel, and Cliff to deal with.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has two: The Bakiraka from the Golden Age arc, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] who are ordered to stop the heroes and the group of deformed torturers from the Albion arc, who are [[ImprobableWeaponUser Improbable Weapon Users]] who receive demonic powers and are completely devoted to Mozgus, the BigBad of that arc. The Bakiraka are killed by Guts and co while Guts completely defeats the torturers by himself.
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' has the Eight Fists of Ragnarok. Or at least six of them, since the BigBad and TheDragon (Odin & Berserker) were the First and Second Fists respectively. Somewhat inverted, as each of the Fists were individually more developed overall than [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Berserker]] was. Also, five of the eight (excluding the BigBad, TheDragon, and TheStarscream) eventually pulled a HeelFaceTurn down the line.
** Actually around chapter 340 or so, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Nijima somehow got Loki to gather info for him, so it's currently 6 out of 8 fists now. And the jury's still out on whether Odin is still entirely loyal to his master]].
** Then, after the Ragnarok arc, we have Yami and YOMI, which both have Quirky Miniboss Squads. Yami has a leading group called "One Shadow Nine Fists", where "Shadow One" is TheFaceless BigBad and the "nine fists" are his QuirkyMinibossSquad. The organization of Yami's disciples, YOMI, also has its own QuirkyMinibossSquad which consists of those who are the disciples of "One Shadow Nine Fists".
* ''Manga/RaveMaster'' was chock full of these. Odds are if a main baddie is introduced, his squad wasn't too far behind.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'' has several Quirky Mid-Boss Squads. More correctly, every storyline from the Lullaby arc and forward actually has a QuirkyMinibossSquad.
** Karacke, Rayule, Byard and Kageyama from Eisenwald under Erigor in the "Lullaby" arc.
** Yuuka, Toby and Sherry from Lamia Scale under Lyon in the "Galuna Island" arc.
** Element Four (Juvia, Totomaru, Sol and Aria) under Jose Porla in the "Phantom Lord" arc.
** Firstly Erza's childhood friends (Wally, Millianna, Simon and Shou), then Trinity Raven (Fukurou, Ikaruga and Vivaldus) under Jellal in the "Tower of Heaven" arc.
** The Raijinshu/Lightning God Tribe/Thunder Legion (Evergreen, Bickslow and Frred) under Laxus in the "Fighting Festival" arc.
** Oracion Seis except for their leader Brain/[[SuperpoweredEvilSide Zero]] (Angel, Racer, Hoteye, Midnight, Cobra and Klodoa) in the "Nirvana" arc.
** The Royal Army (Pantherlily, Knightwalker, Hughes, Sugarboy and Byro) under King Faust in the "Edolas" arc.
** The Seven Kin of Purgatory (Ultear, Zancrow, Kain, Azuma, Rustyrose, Meredy and Zoldeo) along with Deputy Commander Blunote under Hades in the "S-Class Trial" arc.
** The Zentopia Church's Legion Corps (Bryo, Hughes, Sugarboy, Coco, Dan, Samuel and Guttman) under Lapointe and later the return of Oracion Seis (Racer, Angel, Cobra, Jackpot/Klodoa, Reaper/Erigor and Imitatia/Michelle) under Brain II/Midnight in the (now considered canon) anime "Keys to the Starry Heaven" arc.
** All the other guilds' teams against Fairy Tail, most notably Sabertooth (Sting, Rogue, Rufus, Orga and Minerva) under Jiemma and Raven Tail (Alexei, Obra, Flare, Kurohebi and Nalpudding) under Ivan/[[spoiler:Alexei]], in the [[TournamentArc "Grand Magic Games"]] arc.
** The Hungry Wolf Knights (Kama, Knepper, Uosuke, Cosmos & Kamika) from later in the same arc.
** The Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros (Kyouka, Silver, Jackal, Tempester, Franmalth, Torafuzar, Ezel, Seilah, Keyes) under Mard Geer in the "Tartaros" arc
** Jerome, Briar, Mary, Gomon, D-6 and Able from Avatar under Alok in the "Avatar" arc.
** [[spoiler: [[BigBad Zeref]]]] has the Spriggan Twelve ([[AntiVillain Brandish]], [[TheArchmage August]], [[LadyOfBlackMagic Irene]], [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Ajeel]], [[SmugSuper Dimaria]], [[KillerRobot Wahl]], [[WalkingDisasterArea Bloodman]], [[AGodAmI Serena]], [[TheDragon Invel]], [[BaldOfEvil Jacob]], [[SquishyWizard Neinhart]], and [[LightIsNotGood Larcade]]) in the [[WarArc "Alvarez" arc]].
* Bat, Buruge and Kite from ''Anime/GingaDensetsuWeed''.

* ''Anime/InnocentVenus'' has the Phantom unit, complete with a [[KnifeNut knife-]][[LickingTheBlade licker]] and a Chinese man who kills people with rather sharp tarot cards.
* ''Manga/MirumoDePon!'': The Warumo Dan become one of these to [[SealedEvilInACan Dark]] and [[TheDragon Akumi]].
* The Four Chief Vassals of the King organization in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', which consist of Spade, Diamond, Club, and Heart. Heart serves as TheDragon, being the only member of the group who provides a seemingly genuine threat to Kenshiro's martial art skills.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' has Fate's group of partners, who start popping up in the Magic World. Unfortunately for them, they have a rather nasty habit of running into [[GameBreaker Jack Rakan]].
%%* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', the Noah Family.
%%* The Barbarois in ''LightNovel/VampireHunterD: Bloodlust''.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' there is ZAFT's Le Creuset team consisting of, Athrun, Yzak, Dearka and Nicol, who take up much of the first half of the series. Although if they are on the good or bad side is a matter of perception. [[spoiler:One ends up dying, two join up with the 'good guys', and the last pulls an EleventhHourRanger.]]
** Following the Le Creuset team's disbanding and the escalation of the war, they're replaced in story by the "Druggies," Orga, Shani, and Clotho. OMNI [[SuperSoldier super soldiers]] enhanced by [[PsychoSerum drugs]] and augmentations, they're far more dangerous than their predecessors due to using superior machines and being [[SociopathicSoldier utterly psychotic]]. [[spoiler: Ironically, all of them are eventually killed by former Le Creuset team members, Yzak and Athrun.]]

* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' had this in the form of the Cyborgs and the Scorpions. Shinryuuji also had its own within their team who were shout outs to Journey of the West.
** This trope was also deconstructed with the Chameleons and the Guts, as both quirky teams trained incredibly hard only to be {{curb stomp| battle}}ed early in the tournament.
%%* Ayumi Mizuchi's Four Devas from ''Manga/SukebanDeka''.
%%* The bounty hunters in the "Greenback Jane" arc in ''Manga/BlackLagoon''.
* The officers of Millennium in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' are this, consisting of a ColdSniper, a {{Mind Rap|e}}ing MasterOfIllusion and a few {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. [[TheDragon The Captain]] is the FinalBoss and is not even a vampire like everyone else mentioned earlier.
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' has the Elite Four, an ensemble of Satsuki's top lieutenants. Due to having well-fleshed backgrounds and undergoing constant development in terms of both powers and character, they are also considered somewhat of a SpotlightStealingSquad.
** Spoofed in the Battlefield Trip episodes, where the Kyoto defenders pose themselves as this but end up defeated in a matter of seconds.
* ''Manga/PingPong'': Despite the team's skill, all of Kaiō Academy, excluding Kazuma and Sakuma [[spoiler: prior to the latter's departure]].
* In ''Anime/{{Endride}}'', the [[LesCollaborateurs Truculent]], start out as the main opponents of the [[LaResistance Ignauts]] up until Babylon, when [[spoiler: Louise defects properly and Ibelda slaughters their other teammates]]. They're all greatly different in appearance and have very different ideas about how to follow orders.
* In ''Manga/Brave10'', the Ishikawa gang take this place against the Braves in volume 4.
* ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'': Each of the five members from the Generation of Miracles serve as a boss [[TheTeam Seirin]] has to defeat. The four (and in one case, five) teammates of the respective [[TheAce GoM player]] can be viewed as this, since they are rather quirky and important enough to qualify as a miniboss squad, and generally, it's not uncommon that individual players are obstacles by themselves. However, while there's usually one player who is developed enough to serve as the TheAce's partner/best buddy, there tends to be at least one player who is rather the GenericGuy or FlatCharacter and doesn't stand out as much as the others. However, the team that fits this trope the most would definitively be Rakuzan, the final team Seirin has to face in the Winter Cup. All four players are quirkier than most other characters, have special skills that the other teams commonly lack, and each of them has enough interaction with individual Seirin players that would make them sort-of-rivals. The fact that three of them are "members" of the Five Uncrowned Kings makes Rakuzan even more threatening and quirkier[[note]]Like the Generation of Miracles, the Five Uncrowned Kings used to be [[TheAce aces]], and each of them had their own special skill and very eccentric personalities.[[/note]].
* The heroes of ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'' have two sets of these following them around, Commander Gomez and Gaspar, and Malinche and The Doctor (and their Dumb Muscle Teteola), trying to beat them to the treasure.

* ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' has this in the second film, ''The Rising'', with Johnny Wong, Kasha Graham, and Richard Max, a trio of supervillains working for the film's main antagonist.
* In ''Anime/MonsterRancher'', there is the Big Bad Four, the four strongest Baddies to serve Moo: Pixie, Gali, Grey Wolf, and Naga. After the Searchers [[HeelFaceTurn reform]] Pixie and defeat the other three, they deal with [[TheStarscream General Duraham]].

* Diva's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent chevaliers]] from ''Anime/BloodPlus'' with Amshel as TheDragon. Being the heads of [[MegaCorp Cinq Fleshes]], they had a lot of presence in the story in various degrees: Karl was absent for most of their meetings and [[spoiler:was the first to die]], Solomon did a HeelFaceTurn out of his genuine love for Saya; James was the one with the most pronounced loyalty to Diva, considering her his "Mama" and being in charge of [[EvilKnockoff the Corpse Corps]]; Amshel was TheManInFrontOfTheMan as he was the mastermind of the whole plan to extinguish humanity and let Chiropterans rule the world and Diva was childlishly letting him do as he pleased; and Nathan [[spoiler:was so powerful could keep even Amshel in line; and he turned up to be a Chevalier before Saya and Diva were even born; plus he is the only one out of them to survive.]]

* Diva's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent chevaliers]] from ''Anime/BloodPlus'' with Amshel as TheDragon. They had a lot of presence in the story in various degrees: Karl was absent for most of their meetings and [[spoiler:was the first to die]], Solomon did a HeelFaceTurn out of his genuine love for Saya; Amshel was TheManInFrontOfTheMan as he was the mastermind of the whole plan and Diva was childlishly letting him do as he pleased; and Nathan [[spoiler:was so powerful could keep even Amshel in line; and he turned up to be a Chevalier before Saya and Diva were even born; plus he is the only one out of them to survive.]]
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', almost every villain's named henchmen qualify as a quirky miniboss squad, with some Psycho Rangers thrown in. At first, they're always one miniboss to fight every crew member. As the crew has grown, this has been abandoned, and instead the minibosses have become so powerful than it may take two or three Strawhats just to beat one of them. In fact, ''One Piece'' villains as a whole rely on quirky miniboss squads more than mooks.

*** The Raijinshu/Lightning God Tribe/Thunder Legion (Evergreen, Bickslow and Frred) under Laxus in the "Fighting Festival" arc.

** Grimmjow's Fracción who are completely loyal to him and prove to be extremely deadly to Hitsugaya's Advance Squad when they fight. Although the Shinigami do end up winning, victory is costly. It's even more costly for Grimmjow's group. Grimmjow is the only one who survives.
** Harribel's AmazonBrigade are a trio of quirky females who appear to be barely able to stand each others presence. Nevertheless, they're incredibly dangerous and are capable of combining their power into a creature that manages to take out four lieutenants without effort and which needs to be defeated by Yamamoto-Genryuusai himself. [[spoiler:In the final arc of the story, they're less villains and more [[AloofAlly aloof allies]] to the protagonists as they and the protagonists find themselves sharing an enemy.]]

'''Goku''': Great, there goes the camping trip. '¡[goes into fighting stance]''

** ''Anime/TropicalRoguePrettyCure'' has the three servants of the Witch of Delays.

** The Ginyu Force get [[UpToEleven even quirkier]] in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. They pick opponents with a 'Wheel of Death', Recoome has the mannerisms of a professional wrestler (while Burter and Jeice do commentary), Jeice is [[SpaceX Space Australian]], Burter is obsessed with being the fastest in the universe ([[spoiler:because [[IJustWantToBeSpecial it's the only thing he has that makes him stand out]]]]), Guldo is a MemeticLoser, and while Ginyu is WickedCultured and dances after every successful mission (he's contractually obligated by King Cold to do the Dance of Joy, and by Cooler to do the Daddy's Little Princess Dance. He also has the Dance of Cheering You Up when Freeza gets upset, and the Dance of Solitude when he's alone).
*** [[NoIndoorVoice "And they're all INCREDIBLY FLAMBOYANT!"]]

--->'''Goku''': So who are you guys anyway?
--->'''Salza, Neiz and Dore''': We are... [they do their [[AssKickingPose Sentai Poses]]] COOLER’S ARMORED SQUADRON! [they rush towards Goku]
--->'''Goku''': Great there goes the camping trip [goes into fighting stance].
** Lampshaded and parodied in the ''Anime/DragonBallZLordSlug Abridged'' movie; when Piccolo comes face-to-face with Slug's three top henchmen, he casually asks them what their gimmick is, noting that the last bunch he fought (in ''Christmas Tree of Might'') were all misfit minions. His bored reaction as they list their gimmicks (the pretty one, the tough and stupid one, and the one with weird powers), makes it plain he's seen it ''all'' before. Then he comes across the aforementioned trio in Cooler Abridged, though the mooks didn't seem to get which one was which.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** The Ginyu Force, as seen in the page image on the main page. They're the most powerful mercenaries in [[BigBad Frieza's]] galaxy-spanning army...and they introduce themselves with a well-rehearsed SuperSentaiStance, pick their opponents via RockPaperScissors, and discuss dinner plans with each other mid-battle. They do a pretty good job beating up the good guys - and [[EnemyMine Vegeta]] - before Goku comes along and tears them a new one.

** The Ginyu Force get [[UpToEleven even quirkier]] in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. They pick opponents with a 'Wheel of Death', Recoome has the mannerisms of a professional wrestler (while Burter and Jeice do commentary), Jeice is [[SpaceX Space Australian]], Burter is obsessed with being the fastest in the universe ([[spoiler: because [[IJustWantToBeSpecial it's the only thing he has that makes him stand out]]]]), Guldo is a MemeticLoser, and while Ginyu is WickedCultured and dances after every successful mission (he's contractually obligated by King Cold to do the Dance of Joy, and by Cooler to do the Daddy's Little Princess Dance. He also has the Dance of Cheering You Up when Freeza gets upset, and the Dance of Solitude when he's alone).

-->'''Goku''': So who are you guys anyway?
-->'''Salza, Neiz and Dore''': We are... [they do their [[AssKickingPose Sentai Poses]]] COOLER’S ARMORED SQUADRON! [they rush towards Goku]
-->'''Goku''': Great there goes the camping trip [goes into fighting stance].

* ''Manga/SandLand'': One of Creator/AkiraToriyama's more obscure works. It featured The Swimmers as a sort of nicer Ginyu Expy squad.

* ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' features the various blocks and divisions of the Hair Hunters, which included in their ranks everything from robots to martial artists to {{Talking Animal}}s to animated objects. Sometimes the objects aren't animated at all. There was an ordinary stick of gum in their ranks at some point. Ironicaly the gum actually ''won'' its fight. (By getting eaten, but it still counts.)

%%* The Fearsome Four in ''Anime/CorrectorYui''.

** The Genei Ryodan are comprised of 13 powerful thiefs, with each of them having a unique personality and abilities, but most of them share the same or have a similar background, which is the reason why they have a strong sense of companionship for each other. Their individual uniqueness form the 12-legged Spider, a metaphoric entity which the leader Chrollo Lucilfer identify as himself.
** The Royal Guards who serve the Chimera Ant King. Each of them goes through drastic CharacterDevelopment in a short amount of time, they all have their own ideas of loyalty and they show more and more of humanity in them (including the bad side of humanity).

** Akatsuki tries to be this, giving each of its members a quirky personality, but few of them are considered expendable. Really they're more several pairs of ThoseTwoBadGuys (Deidara/Sasori, Kisame/Itachi and Kakuzu/Hidan) a BigBad and his [[TheDragon Dragon]].

* Diva's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent chevaliers]] from ''Anime/BloodPlus'' with Amshel as TheDragon.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', almost every villain's named henchmen qualify as a quirky miniboss squad, with some Psycho Rangers thrown in. At first, they're always one miniboss to fight every crew member. As the crew has grown, this has been abandoned, and instead the minibosses have become so powerful than it may take two or three Strawhats just to beat one of them.
%%** In fact, One Piece villains as a whole rely on quirky miniboss squads more than mooks.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' used this trope a bit in its early days, but the Ginyu Force was the last obvious demonstration of it. However, it has been used quite a bit in the non-canon movies, to the point where ''Creator/TeamFourStar'' lampoons it with classifications "Pretty One", "Stupid One", and "One with the Weird Powers".

* Athrun, Yzak, Dearka and Nicol in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''. Although if they are on the good or bad side is a matter of perception. [[spoiler:One ends up dying, and two join up with the 'good guys'.]]

* ''Manga/FairyTail'' has several Quirky Mid-Boss Squads. The Paradise Tower arc pulls a bait and switch which introduces one squad of baddies who are easily trounced -- but then brings out a much more serious bunch.
** Later we're given the Raijinshu ([[spoiler:Laxus]]'s team) and the Seven Kin of Purgatory from Grimmore Heart. Element Four of Phantom Lord would also qualify.
** More correctly, every storyline from the Lullaby arc and forward actually has a QuirkyMinibossSquad.
*** Karacke, Rayule, Byard and Kageyama from Eisenwald under Erigor in the "Lullaby" arc.
*** Yuuka, Toby and Sherry from Lamia Scale under Lyon in the "Galuna Island" arc.
*** Element Four (Juvia, Totomaru, Sol and Aria) under Jose Porla in the "Phantom Lord" arc.
*** Firstly Erza's childhood friends (Wally, Millianna, Simon and Shou), then Trinity Raven (Fukurou, Ikaruga and Vivaldus) under Jellal in the "Tower of Heaven" arc.
*** The aforementioned Raijinshu (Evergreen, Bickslow and Frred) under Laxus in the "Fighting Festival" arc.
*** Oracion Seis except for their leader Brain/[[SuperpoweredEvilSide Zero]] (Angel, Racer, Hoteye, Midnight, Cobra and Klodoa) in the "Nirvana" arc.
*** The Royal Army (Pantherlily, Knightwalker, Hughes, Sugarboy and Byro) under King Faust in the "Edolas" arc.
*** The Seven Kin of Purgatory (Ultear, Zancrow, Kain, Azuma, Rustyrose, Meredy and Zoldeo) along with Deputy Commander Blunote under Hades in the "S-Class Trial" arc.
*** The Zentopia Church's Legion Corps (Bryo, Hughes, Sugarboy, Coco, Dan, Samuel and Guttman) under Lapointe and later the return of Oracion Seis (Racer, Angel, Cobra, Jackpot/Klodoa, Reaper/Erigor and Imitatia/Michelle) under Brain II/Midnight in the (now considered canon) anime "Keys to the Starry Heaven" arc.
*** All the other guilds' teams against Fairy Tail, most notably Sabertooth (Sting, Rogue, Rufus, Orga and Minerva) under Jiemma and Raven Tail (Alexei, Obra, Flare, Kurohebi and Nalpudding) under Ivan/[[spoiler:Alexei]], in the [[TournamentArc "Grand Magic Games"]] arc.
*** The Hungry Wolf Knights (Kama, Knepper, Uosuke, Cosmos & Kamika) from later in the same arc.
*** The Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros (Kyouka, Silver, Jackal, Tempester, Franmalth, Torafuzar, Ezel, Seilah, Keyes) under Mard Geer in the "Tartaros" arc
*** Jerome, Briar, Mary, Gomon, D-6 and Able from Avatar under Alok in the "Avatar" arc.
*** [[spoiler: [[BigBad Zeref]]]] has the Spriggan Twelve ([[AntiVillain Brandish]], August, [[TheArchmage Eileen]], [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Ajeel]], [[PsychoLesbian Dimaria]], [[KillerRobot Wahl]], [[WalkingDisasterArea Bloodman]], [[AGodAmI Serena]], [[TheDragon Invel]], [[BaldOfEvil Jacob]], [[SquishyWizard Neinhart]], and [[LightIsNotGood Larcade]]) in the [[WarArc "Alvarez" arc]].

* ''Manga/KannazukiNoMiko'' had the "Necks of Orochi", whose appearances parodied stock characters in anime. (As an aside, there were faceless mooks in the manga, but they never made an appearance in the anime.)

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' has two: The Bakiraka from the Golden Age arc, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] who are ordered to stop the heroes and the group of deformed torturers from the Albion arc, who are [[ImprobableWeaponUser Improbable Weapon Users]] who receive demonic powers and are completely devoted to Mozgus, the BigBad of that arc. The Bakiraka are killed by Guts and co while Guts completely defeats the torturers by himself.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' has Fate's group of partners, who start popping up in the Magic World. Unfortunately for them, they have a rather nasty habit of running into [[GameBreaker Jack Rakan]].

%%* Ayumi Mizuchi's Four Devas from ''SukebanDeka''.

** Their ImageSong from ''Anime/DragonBallKai'' makes them even quirkier, since between BraggingThemeTune lyrics, Captain Ginyu croons "We're gonna have parfaits with lunch/And you can't have one!"

** The Ginyu Force, as seen in the page image. They're the most powerful mercenaries in [[BigBad Frieza's]] galaxy-spanning army...and they introduce themselves with a well-rehearsed SuperSentaiStance, pick their opponents via RockPaperScissors, and discuss dinner plans with each other mid-battle. They do a pretty good job beating up the good guys - and [[EnemyMine Vegeta]] - before Goku comes along and tears them a new one.

* ''Manga/KurokoNoBasuke'': Each of the five members from the Generation of Miracles serve as a boss [[TheTeam Seirin]] has to defeat. The four (and in one case, five) teammates of the respective [[TheAce GoM player]] can be viewed as this, since they are rather quirky and important enough to qualify as a miniboss squad, and generally, it's not uncommon that individual players are obstacles by themselves. However, while there's usually one player who is developed enough to serve as the TheAce's partner/best buddy, there tends to be at least one player who is rather the GenericGuy or FlatCharacter and doesn't stand out as much as the others. However, the team that fits this trope the most would definitively be Rakuzan, the final team Seirin has to face in the Winter Cup. All four players are quirkier than most other characters, have special skills that the other teams commonly lack, and each of them has enough interaction with individual Seirin players that would make them sort-of-rivals. The fact that three of them are "members" of the Five Uncrowned Kings makes Rakuzan even more threatening and quirkier[[note]]Like the Generation of Miracles, the Five Uncrowned Kings used to be [[TheAce aces]], and each of them had their own special skill and very eccentric personalities.[[/note]].

** ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' has three demons for the Byogens. In episode 12, a nutria gets infected and joins them, naming himself as Batetemoda.

*** Lampshaded and parodied in the ''Lord Slug Abridged'' movie; when Piccolo comes face-to-face with Slug's three top henchmen, he casually asks them what their gimmick is, noting that the last bunch he fought (in ''Christmas Tree of Might'') were all misfit minions. His bored reaction as they list their gimmicks (the pretty one, the tough and stupid one, and the one with weird powers), makes it plain he's seen it ''all'' before. Then he comes across similar trio in Cooler Abridged, though the mooks didn't seem to get which one was which.

** ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'' has the three generals for the Notraiders, plus Bakenyan if you want to count him as one.

* The "hounds" in ''Anime/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'', who hound Balsa and Chagum's steps for most of the story and serve as the main physical threat from the Emperor's Court. [[spoiler:Ultimately, as the story ends up with all human characters on the same side, they help Balsa defend Chagum in the climax and help shoot down the Emperor's plan to have Balsa assassinated.]]

** The Ginyu Force get [[UpToEleven even quirkier]] in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. They pick opponents with a 'Wheel of Death', Recoome has the mannerisms of a professional wrestler (while Burter and Jeice do commentary), Jeice is [[SpaceX Space Australian]], Burter is obsessed with being the fastest in the universe ([[spoiler: because [[IJustWantToBeSpecial it's the only thing he has that makes him stand out]]), Guldo is a MemeticLoser, and while Ginyu is WickedCultured and dances after every successful mission (he's contractually obligated by King Cold to do the Dance of Joy, and by Cooler to do the Daddy's Little Princess Dance. He also has the Dance of Cheering You Up when Freeza gets upset, and the Dance of Solitude when he's alone).

** The Ginyu Force get [[UpToEleven even quirkier]] in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''.

** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' starts out with Charalit, Ruru, and Pappuru. Once they're out of the picture, it becomes Jelos, Dr. Traum, and Bishin. Poor Daigan ends up as a BaitAndSwitchBoss, and the other villains rarely get involved.

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' has two: The Bakiraka from the Golden Age arc, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] who are ordered to stop the heroes and the group of deformed torturers from the Albion arc, who are [[ImprobableWeaponUser Improbable Weapon Users]] who receive demonic powers and are completely devoted to Mozgus, the BigBad of that arc. The Bakiraka are killed by Guts and co while Guts completely defeats the torturers [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome by himself.]]