Works:
The Adventures Of Kotetsu/The Adventures Of Kotetsu/Kotetsu No Daiboken/Kotetsu No Daiboken
Complete Monster:
What's the work?
The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a 1976 docudrama based on a series of real murders. To quote the trope page:
"In 1946, the town of Texarkana, Arkansas is plagued with a series of assaults and slayings committed by "the Phantom Killer". Investigating deputy Norman Ramsey (Andrew Prine) is baffled by the first attack on a couple, and when the assailant kills his next two victims, Texas Ranger J.D. Morales (Ben Johnson) is brought in to investigate the crimes. Unfortunately, finding the killer proves difficult..."
Who's the candidate?
The Phantom Killer, a mysterious psychopath stalking Texarkana.
What does he do?
Heinousness?
Mitigating factors?
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
- ''Film/
What's the work?
The Adventures Of Kotetsu is an 1996 OVA based on the manga of the same name. To quote the trope page:
"
Who's the candidate?
What does he do?
Heinousness?
Mitigating factors?
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
- ''Film/
What's the work?
Hazbin Hotel is a 2024 adult animated series from Amazon. To quote the trope page:
"You know that old line of "when Hell is full" and all that? Well, Heaven has a solution to that little problem: annual cullings of the population to keep the Sinners in line. It's not pretty (then again, nothing in Hell usually is), but it gets the job done. That is until one day when Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), the princess of Hell, proposes an alternative: sick and tired of losing so many of her people, she has set up a project to prevent the unneeded bloodshed by reforming damned souls and sending them to Heaven.
Of course, this plan gets mocked as a pipe dream, but with a little support from a mysterious and extremely powerful demon named Alastor (Amir Talai), known throughout Hell as the "Radio Demon", her dream may yet become a reality. The show is centered on the exploits and misadventures of Charlie, her girlfriend Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), and their first client — a spider-like drag-queen mobster/pornstar named Angel Dust (Blake Roman) — as they try to reform the various types of demons that come into their hotel."
Who's the candidate?
Valentino, a demonic pimp.
What does he do?
A powerful businessman, Valentino controls the sex industry of half the pride ring, with spidery porn star Angel Dust as his crown jewel. Unfortunately, Val is an absolute nightmare of a boss, forcing Angel to participate in degrading sex acts, including bestiality, and personally raping him. Meanwhile, he controls the spider's housing and finances so he'll never be able to escape. Ultimately, Angel finds an escape in the Hazbin Hotel, an attempt at redeeming sinners run by Hell's princess Charlie Morningstar. This enrages Val so much that he spams Angel with calls and texts, fluctuating between loving language and violent threats, and decides to massacre the entire Hotel and take him back by force. Vox, a technology demon Valentino air is with, talks him into not doing so to protect his image and offers to give him some low-level employees to kill instead. Val agrees, but still threatens to kill the family if a rando he sees Angel flirting with.
Some time later, Charlie ends up following Angel to Val's studio to try and convince him to give him some time off. Val responds by perving on the princess, licking her arm and trying to convince her to become one of this actors. Her refusal and other shenanigans end up enraging Val to the point he verbally and physically assaults Angel until he makes Charlie leave. When she does exit, the pimp orders the spider to work all night, consent be damned, starting with a gang shoot. Valentino ends up escalating his abuse, regularly forcing Angel to work sixteen hour days and forcing him to endure even more sadistic sex acts, culminating in waterboarding. Angel ends up running into Val in a club after work, where he's trying to rope even more girls into his clutches. When he tries to do so with Nifty, the hotel's housekeeper, Angel finally stands up to him, making it clear that he only has control in the studio. This enrages the moth, who declares that he'll punish Angel the next day.
Heinousness?
Mitigating factors?
So let's start with the big one: Seriousness. This show is full of Black Comedy, with things like murder and drug abuse Played for Laughs on the regular. Valentino, on the other hand, is dead fucking serious. While he is The Comically Serious on occasion, his abuse of Angel is given the gravitas it deserves. Not only are all their interactions completely joke-free, it's made abundantly clear that his treatment has caused Angel Dust deep psychological trauma. The poor guy's so desperate to escape Val's grasp that he's choosing to be as self-destructive as possible, up to and including willingly drinking drugged drinks and getting date raped, in the hopes that he'll be seen as damaged goods and thrown away. Needless to say, seriousness is not the issue here.
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
What's the work?
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024), a remake of the classic animated series. We all know the drill: Four nations, each can bend an element, Avatar can bend all four, vanishes for 100 years, wakes up to the Fire Nation trying to Take Over the World. This EP concerns the mad dictator responsible for this mess, who is...
Not Ozai.
Who's the candidate?
Fire Lord Sozin, grandfather of Big Bad Ozai and progenitor of the 100 Years War.
What does he do?
We're introduced to Sozin after an Earthbending spy steals his plans to invade the Earth Kingdom. As it turns out, this was part of a far greater plan. You see, he doesn't plan to start with the Earth Kingdom at all. Instead, he intends to attack the Air Nomads, who currently have the child Avatar amongst them. After Sozin burns the spy alive, one of his generals asks how he intends to figure out who the Avatar is when he hasn't been discovered yet, to which the Fire Lord simply states he intends to slaughter them all.
Soon after, all the Air Nomads gather in the Southern Air Temple on the same night a comet flies in the sky and supercharges all Firebending. Naturally, this is the night Sozin chooses to attack. Personally leading the charge, the Fire Lord turns the Comet Festival into a fucking massacre. Men, women and children all fall to the might of the Fire Nation. Sozin personally breaks into a room full of children, only to be confronted by a monk named Gyatso. The two engage in combat, but the Fire Lord prevails, successfully slaughtering every Air Nomad in the Temple.
Sozin continues to wage war on the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, starting a bloody conflict that extends past his death by unknown causes. However, Aang, the boy who would become the Avatar, ended up escaping and freezing in an iceberg, eventually being woken up to end the war once and for all.
Heinousness?
Mitigating factors?
His character sheet claims he has Villain Respect for Gyatso, but the scene simply has him stating matter-of-factly that the monk could have beaten him if it weren't for the comet.
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
- ''Series/
Magnificent Bastard:
What's the work?
The Adventures Of Kotetsu is an 1996 OVA based on the manga of the same name. To quote the trope page:
"
Who's the candidate?
What does he do?
Intelligence? Charm?
Thinking on his feet?
How bastard is he?
Competition?
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
- ''Film/
What's the work?
Amazing Nuts is a 2006 anthology of anime shorts. To quote the trope page:
"
Who's the candidate?
What does he do?
Intelligence? Charm?
Thinking on his feet?
How bastard is he?
Competition?
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
- ''Film/
What's the work?
Hazbin Hotel is a 2024 adult animated series from Amazon. To quote the trope page:
"You know that old line of "when Hell is full" and all that? Well, Heaven has a solution to that little problem: annual cullings of the population to keep the Sinners in line. It's not pretty (then again, nothing in Hell usually is), but it gets the job done. That is until one day when Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), the princess of Hell, proposes an alternative: sick and tired of losing so many of her people, she has set up a project to prevent the unneeded bloodshed by reforming damned souls and sending them to Heaven.
Of course, this plan gets mocked as a pipe dream, but with a little support from a mysterious and extremely powerful demon named Alastor (Amir Talai), known throughout Hell as the "Radio Demon", her dream may yet become a reality. The show is centered on the exploits and misadventures of Charlie, her girlfriend Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), and their first client — a spider-like drag-queen mobster/pornstar named Angel Dust (Blake Roman) — as they try to reform the various types of demons that come into their hotel."
Quick note: While the part style and vice cast are different, the events of the pilot are still canon to the main series so I am including them.
Who's the candidate?
Alastor, the Radio Demon.
What does he do?
A radio host and Serial Killer in life, Alastor naturally went to Hell when he died. However, when he arrived there was something different about him. He was the most powerful Sinner the realm had ever seen. Employing this power, Al quickly became an Overlord, slaughtering demons who'd been in power for centuries and airing their screams on his nightly broadcasts. The also becomes a master deal maker, eventually exploiting fellow Overlord Husk's gambling debts to make him his thrall. At some point, the technology demon Vox tried to enter an alliance with the Radio Demon, but he refused due to loathing modern technology, and roundly beat Vox when he tried to kill him in response.
Seven years before the start of the show, Alastor left Pride City to parts unknown for seven years. Soon after her returns, he learns that Lucifer's daughter Charlie Morningstar is trying to open a hotel to rehabilitate sinners. Having grown bored with simply killing his fellow sinners, he arrived at the hotel to offer his assistance. Not because he believes in redemption, but because he wants to watch people fight and struggle and claw their way to an unattainable goal so he can bask in their miserable failure. Al is able to talk Charlie into letting him on, even trying to make it an official deal, which she rejects. After she agrees, the strawberry pimp notes how understaffed the place is and summons Husk and a maid named Nifty to assist him, plying the former with cheap booze.
A weak later, Charlie and her girlfriend Vaggie are trying to make a commercial for the hotel. Alastor loathes television, and actively hinders the filming for his own amusement until Vaggie points out that if nobody joins the hotel he won't get to watch their suffering. Al concedes her point, and conjures up an elaborate film set to make the commercial properly. Soon after, Vox learns his nemesis has returned, and tries to broadcast a smear campaign against him, but Al notices and immediately broadcasts a rebuttal, enraging Vox so much that he literally short circuits.
A few days later, Al is invited to a meeting of Overlords, where he finds out somebody managed to kill an angel, which was previously thought impossible. Noticing meeting chair Carmilla Carbine's reaction to fellow Overlord Velvette presenting the angel's severed head, Al sends a spy after her when everybody leaves. Said spy finds out that Carmilla killed the angel, but wishes to keep this hidden to prevent a bloody war between Heaven and Hell.
Next episode, Charlie invites Lucifer himself to see the hotel. Him and Al immediately dislike each other, getting in a Quarreling Song where the Radio Demon manages to get under Lu's skin by insinuating he's become Charlie's real father figure. This song is interrupted by the arrival of Mimzy, a "friend" of Al's who only shows up when she needs him for something. Afterwards, Al and Charlie give Lucifer a tour of the place, and Husk confronts him about the fact that his soul is bound to another demon as well. Al responds by absolutely terrorizing Husk into keeping quiet, before the hotel is attacked by loan sharks looking for Mimzy. Alastor slaughters the sharks, before cutting Mimzy out of his afterlife for good.
Some time later, it's revealed that Vaggie is a fallen angel and Heaven plans on massacring the sinners in retaliation for killing one of them, starting with the hotel. This information absolutely devastates Charlie, which Al takes full advantage of. He pokes and prods at every wound this has opened, ultimately leveraging his knowledge that angels are mortal to get Charlie to make a deal with him for a future favour. Taking the princess to Cannibal Town, Al introduces her to his good friend Rosie, who arranges a meeting with the townspeople. The Radio Demon holds back and lets Charlie convince the cannibals to fight the angels with her, only chiming in to mention the cannibals can eat the angels' flesh if they fight. As Charlie manages to rally the flesh eaters behind her, Alastor explains to Rosie that he's spent this entire time trying to pull her out of her shell so she can grow into a proper leader for him to guide. When the angels do attack, Al promptly generates a shield even they have trouble with until Adam, the first man and field leader of the angels, shows up. He meets Adam in single combat, doing remarkably well until Adam manages to get a shot in. Adam prepares to kill him, but Al manages to vanish in the shadows for the rest of the battle. Eventually, Adam is killed and then angels are fought off, and Al reveals to them audience that he's plotting to sever the deal he's bound to and conquer Hell himself before returning to help rebuild the hotel.
Intelligence? Charm?
Alastor is a master deal maker, cleverly exploiting people's flaws and desperate situations to get them under his thumb via inescapable contracts. Meanwhile, he acts like the perfect Southern Gentleman and exciting radio announcer, being genuinely Affably Evil in a world full of assholes. The one time he does something Stupid Evil, he corrects himself as soon as it's pointed out, and while Mimzy does take advantage of him, this is never to his detriment and he does wise up.
Thinking on his feet?
Alastor is constantly looking for opportunities to further his goals, even being unfazed when learning of the dead angel and concocting a plan to gather more data with a minion he was told to get rid of that morning. While he can get annoyed at times, he never loses his cool, at worst briefly showing his true colours to intimidate people or simply trolling them. The closest he comes is when he threatens Husk into keeping quiet about Al's own contract, and even then he snaps back as soon as he makes his point. Even nearly being killed by any actual angel only causes momentary surprise before he escapes with his dignity.
How bastard is he?
The Radio Demon has an immense body count, among the highest in the show. Meanwhile, he is a legitimate sadist and consummate troll. However, his butchery is mostly Offscreen Villainy, and what he does onscreen is nowhere near too heinous, especially given that this is a world with genocidal fanatics like Adam and abusive rapists like Valentino. Additionally, he may or may not genuinely care about Charlie and takes care of those he considers friends, even telling Mimzy that he'll welcome her back into his life if she genuinely wants to seek redemption.
Competition?
Virtually unmatched. Al ends the season still pursuing his agenda, with everybody none the wiser. The only Overlord he comes into conflict with, Vox, ends their fight so enraged it literally blows the city's power grid, and then only time he doesn't come out on top is against an actual angel, who defeats him with brute force. In fact, the only reason I'm holding off till next season is because of Al's contract with... whoever, which seems to be his only sore spot but could be disqualifying in the future.
Anything else?
Al is immensely powerful, to the point of being a borderline Reality Warper and outright Humanoid Abomination. He absolutely employs his power when he feels like it, but primarily to enjoy himself or intimidate others. When he's aiming for higher goals, he relies on brains far more than brawn and is very good at it.
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
What's the work?
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024), a remake of the classic animated series. We all know the drill: Four nations, each can bend an element, Avatar can bend all four, vanishes for 100 years, wakes up to the Fire Nation trying to Take Over the World.
This EP concerns an incarnation of my favourite fictional character of all time.
Who's the candidate?
Azula, princess of the Fire Nation.
What does she do?
Intelligence? Charm?
Thinking on her feet?
How bastard is she?
Competition?
Verdict?
Yes:No:Unsure/abstain:
- ''Series/
