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Satanic Archetype / Anime & Manga

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"I am your ordained ruler with absolute power over your very existence. You will serve me as you were born to do. You will give me my every desire, even yourself."

Examples of Satanic Archetype in anime and manga.


  • The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure: Aaron was originally one of the eight pillar gods. The God of Amusement, Aaron would corrupt humans into fighting in death games for his pleasure before being sealed away by Yuuya. However, his prison gradually weakened over the years.
  • Berserk:
    • Griffith is the clear devil figure, and fits the "Fallen Angel" criteria nicely. Like how Bible claims Lucifer can appear as "an angel of light", Griffith is angelical, gentle, and beautiful but only to hide the pure malevolence underneath, as Griffith is a megalomaniacal backstabbing rapist who sacrifices all his friends to ascend (descend) as the final "angel" of The God Hand aka becoming a scary winged bat/hawk creature known as Femto. And the worst part is afterward where despite all the vile evil he has done especially to Guts and Casca, Griffith is welcomed back to the mortal plane as the Messiah with only a handful of people knowing his true nature.
    • As revealed in the lost chapter, Griffith isn't the ultimate evil Devil figure, The God Hand worships the Ideal of Evil which is created by all the subconscious hatred and malice of humanity. Hence, technically speaking, it is the true "Satan" of Berserk, and, unlike Griffith, cannot be destroyed by any physical or metaphysical means, being the The Dark Side of all people.
  • Black Clover:
    • Zagred is a high-ranking devil who is the true mastermind of the conflict between the humans and elves, convincing the royals to massacre the elves by telling them that the elves wanted to harm them and taking advantage of their greed. His desire for a body comes from an urge to wreak destruction wherever he goes, and he takes great pleasure in Patry's despair once he finds out the truth. He even uses a trident, which is traditionally wielded by the Devil.
    • Lucifero is widely acknowledged as the King of Devils and the undisputed ruler of the Underworld, and it shows; filled with immense pride, his first act upon manifesting himself in the human world is to use his Gravity Magic to force everyone into the ground since "their heads are raised far too high". He becomes easily aggravated whenever the humans slight him or dare to assume that they can fight against him, and swears to exterminate all of humanity once he finds people capable of injuring him. As if to further drive the point home, he's later revealed to also be known as Satan.
    • Lucius Zogratis. "Lucius" is a Latin name meaning "light" and is related to the name Lucifer, the first name of Satan. He initially presents himself as the good Wizard King Julius Novachrono, a benevolent figure associated with light, but his true identity isn't revealed until much later. He manipulated many events in the story, guiding Yami and Vengeance to become powerful mages so that he could eventually use them to form the Tree of Qliphoth and bring devils into the human world, and corrupted his youngest brother Zenon into becoming a devil host. He plans the downfall of the king of devils Lucifero and has the magic knights he mentored kill him, all for his underling the supreme devil Adrammelech to steal the devil king's heart for him. When in "humanity's true form" he appears as an angelic being similar to how Lucifer was an angel of light before his fall from grace.
  • Death Note: Light Yagami has a very Luciferian element to his character. Spurred by his own Pride and selfish desires, he sacrifices all notions of goodness in his heart and consigns himself to evil (while ironically insisting he is a force for good eliminating evil). As Christian tradition describes it, Lucifer represents a Fallen Angel, an example of beauty, talent, and intelligence, but his own fatal flaws caused him to lose heaven, eventually giving himself up to evil. All this context is related to Light: an attractive, intelligent, talented young man who was born in the light (he was raised by Good Parents, after all), but blinded by his arrogance, pride, selfishness, and thirst for power, he ended up being a threat to humanity. Lucifer's name can be intercepted as "Light Bearer" in Latin and/or "Morning Star" in Hebrew. Like how the Bible claims Lucifer can appear as an angel of light, the context can be related to Light, he can use his great looks, his angelic voice, and his seemingly polite, innocent, and understanding personality to earn everyone's trust, especially those who get in his way. Light's hair can be changed from brown to red, especially in the fiery embers of Hell. If Light Yagami is analogous to The Devil, then that would make L analogous to Christ.
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Muzan Kibutsuji began his life as a sickly human before becoming the first demon. He established a system of killing and consuming humans as a means of creating a demon strong enough to withstand the sunlight. When dealing with targets, he offers them power in return for their servitude.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Dragon Ball (original series):
      • Count Lucifer from the second movie, Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, is unashamedly meant to be Satan and doesn't just share his name; DB's Lucifer has vampiric tendencies as he plans to drink Bulma dry at his victory banquet. Lucifer's ultimate goal is to use the Sleeping Princess (a powerful jewel) to blow up the sun so there can be infinite night for all demon-kind. Lucifer can fight off kid Goku with ease, and is only destroyed when Goku redirects the sun-destroying cannon with his own Kamehameha so that the cannon vaporizes Lucifer instead.
      • Spike the Devil Man (also known as just Devilman), the fourth fighter of Fortuneteller Baba, looks very Satanic and even fights with a pitchfork. Subverted, since Spike isn't evil and at worst is just a dick. Spike's greatest power is his Devilmite beam which locks onto any negative emotion inside a person and causes the target to explode when fired. In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Spike recognizes Dabura as the Demon King and plans to overthrow him.
      • King Piccolo was also placed in the role of Satan for a while after his introduction. Specifically, the first Piccolo went by the title of "Demon King". The better-known second Piccolo, his son, also initially considered himself the Demon King, but was never actually as evil as his father and eventually made a full Heel–Face Turn.
    • Dragon Ball Z:
      • Turles of Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might... possibly. According to Elder Kai in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Turles' heart is essentially a "ball of pure evil" which makes sense as he is essentially Goku's Evil Counterpart as Goku (a Messianic Archetype) is known to possess a heart that is pure good.
      • Dabura is heavily based on Satan, being the ruler of a demon world and otherwise looking demonic. He is incredibly powerful, and faces off against Goku's son Gohan, which is fitting since Gohan plays the Messianic Archetype for much of the series. Despite his Demon King status Dabura is still bound to the smaller-of-stature Babidi, though he seems very willing to help the evil wizard's goals. When he was killed by Buu, King Yemma was faced with a hard decision, since sending Dabura to Hell would be exactly what Dabura wants. On a whim, he sent Dabura to Heaven which Dabura would hate, meaning it was a better punishment, but hilariously being in Heaven completely reforms Dabura to an extreme degree. Dabura also appears in Sand Land as Lucifer, the father of the main protagonist.
      • Broly refers to himself as this trope in Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan; he may be the Saiyan equivalent as he is a berserker instead of a Proud Warrior Race Guy.
      • Janemba from Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn is literally the Devil equivalent in Dragon Ball, or the closest thing considering the many different demon races and demonic worlds. Janemba is born from all the evil in world when an Oni slacked off during the routine maintenance of hell's evil cleansing device. While he first appears as an idiotic bulbous baby-like creature, his second form after Goku gets serious using goddamn Super Saiyan 3 is no joke. Goku and Vegeta have to fuse to defeat him and use a attack known as "Stardust Breaker", also known as "Soul Punisher", so the haloed Gogeta was literally destroying the evil soul of Janemba. Even Dabura is afraid of Janemba, and Deimgra from Dragon Ball Xenoverse is implied to have the same status as Janemba, as "The Demon God".
    • Mira and Towa are also close as Hell's couple. In Dragon Ball Online Towa is a scientist so brilliant she's mistaken her for a witch, who was cast into the mortal realm for a nebulous betrayal against the demon world. Dragon Ball Xenoverse adds that she is the setting's most beautiful woman and reveals her goal is to be break a seal between the demon world and the rest of universe seven, similar to Satan opening up the Bottomless Pit. Xenoverse also gives her the ability to increase the power of villains doomed by history, similar to how Satan healed vanquished beast. Towa's "son", Mira, is the face of her gang, "The Time Breakers". In Online, Mira has an unhealthy obsession with all things Goku but in Xenoverse he is instead pitted opposite of your Player Character, who was born when Trunks wished to Shenron for a warrior that could protect time itself. Xenoverse also states Towa is the sister of Dabura, for whatever that's worth.
    • Dragon Ball Super: Zamasu is an extremely talented Kai who's in the process of being promoted to Supreme Kai, having the potential to be the strongest one ever. However, his Pride causes him to view himself as knowing better than the Gods that are higher on the cosmic hierarchy than he is and having a very low opinion of humanity. He also eventually falls completely to evil at some point in the future and tries to destroy all mortals to make his own idea of a paradise. His future self also shows even more pride than his present self. This also applies to Goku Black, who is an alternate timeline version of Zamasu who succeeded in his plans. Exaggerated by Merged Zamasu, the fusion of Future Zamasu and Goku Black. His first act upon coming into existence is to give a huge Blasphemous Boast about being the most beautiful and supreme god, and even taking on the "angel of light" motif often used for the Devil.
  • The Digimon franchise likes naming species of mons after Satan.
    • Devimon, the very first Big Bad of Digimon Adventure and thus the franchise as a whole, is an obvious example, though it's entirely possible that he was merely based on a generic demon given his mere Adult-level status. The Devimon species is also the basis for a sizable range of counterparts and variants, including PicoDevimon, IceDevimon, MarineDevimon, LadyDevimon, and Devidramon. Evil Is Cool, so he's got a big family, and the video and card games tend to treat Devimon's line as the evolutionary basis for every other Digimon listed here.
    • Lucemon, the Big Bad of Digimon Frontier, may be the example which plays as the straightest analogue to the most common Western interpretation of Satan, being specifically named for Lucifer. He starts off as a benevolent ruler before being completely corrupted by his significant power, banished to the core of the Digital World, and undergoing several instances of One-Winged Angel in his (successful) quest to destroy the entire Digital World, ending up as Lucemon "Satan" Mode. He reappears in Digimon Fusion as a minor villain.
    • SkullSatamon, one of the minions of the generic demon lord Daemon.
    • Daemon himself counts, as he predates Lucemon by several years and is stated to be a fallen Seraphimon, the original greatest angel in the Digimon Expanded Universe. Digimon V-Tamer 01 plays with this a bit. The broader canon lists both Daemon and Lucemon as members of the Seven Great Demon Lords, who are based on the Seven Deadly Sins and the demons said to represent them. Lucemon, naturally, represents Pride, while Daemon is based on Satan and represents Wrath. Lucemon's One-Winged Angel form takes this a step further, being one of the two Super Demon Lords and being based on The Dragon from the Book of Revelations.
  • Elfen Lied: Lucy was considered a social outcast, having been abandoned by her parents since birth and born a diclonius and subsequently ostracized by many because of it, not unlike Lucifer being cast from the heavens. She is also the first and the Queen of her species, further strengthening her association with Satan. She even has the Biblical Motifs to go with it, such as being shot in the head but surviving parallelling the mortal wound to the head the Beast survived in the Book of Revelation. Aside from that, she has the pink hair, her name is Lucy, and she wants to rebel and destroy humanity. Even her Animal Motif goes hand-in-hand, as her representative animal (bovines) are used in contemporary depictions of Satan, and the bull is the representative animal of the Deadly Sin of Wrath, whose patron demon is Satan. And of course, we can't forget about the DNA Voice who has everything Lucy does and is The Corrupter of not only her but also the other Diclonii, and having the Devil's incorporeal Unseen Evil and Greater-Scope Villain status.
  • Fairy Tail has the Dark Guild known as Tartaros, whose most powerful members are made up of demons from the Books of Zeref. While most appear humanoid, they are capable of transforming into their Etherious form, which is their true demonic appearance. Fittingly enough, their leader (well, acting leader), Mard Geer's true form looks just like one would expect of a demon lord from Hell, complete with wings, horns, and a tail. According to him, it's why he's called the "Underworld King"; the 'definitive demon.' In this form, he refers to himself as "Mard Geer Tartaros". The only thing that keeps him from being essentially the equivalent version of Satan in this setting is that the true leader of Tartaros, Master E.N.D., is supposedly even more this trope than him. Then it turns out that E.N.D's full name is Etherious Natsu Dragneel, and Natsu himself is actually Zeref's revived younger brother created to kill him by Zeref himself. Considering the story of Lucifer in Paradise Lost, it's almost as if Zeref was intentionally making Natsu with this trope in mind...
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Satou Matsuzaka from Happy Sugar Life exhibits several traits pertaining to a satanic figure. Much like with descriptions where Satan is described taking the appearance as an angel of light, Satou outwardly appears bubbly and friendly to mask her true personality that being a psychotic, obsessed young lady. She is manipulative and makes several deals with other characters to serve her purposes. Alternatively, her aunt could fall more under the trope because of her being a corrupting influence and her burning the upper room of the apartment can be seen as her bringing Hell to Earth.
  • In Higurashi: Gou, there is the enigmatic deity nicknamed "Eua." She grants Satoko the power to loop through fragments in return for her entertaining her. She is also the main reason as to why Satoko's mental illness worsened, further sending her down a dark path. She also has "horns" on the back of her head, although they're actually a device floating around her head.
  • Naraku, the Big Bad from Inuyasha. Originally a human, he forsake his humanity to become a demon after giving in to his jealousy over Kikyo. He spends much of his time manipulating the demons to terrorize feudal Japan, being responsible for virtually everything bad happening in the series. Even his name reflects it, as it means Abyss or even Hell.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Dio Brando is the clear devil figure, as he seeks to become god and tempts people to evil to further his deeds. Further adding to his satanic qualities are his forsaking of humanity to pursuit power paralleling the Fallen Angel archetype, and his Stardust Crusaders design having light-based motifs, with his Stand, The World, evoking the image of a god. To further drive the point home, Dio means God, which adds further to his god complex.
    • A blatant example in the form of Golden Wind's Big Bad, Diavolo, whose name is quite literally the Italian word for "Devil". When he first reveals himself to Polnareff, he appears at the bottom of a set of steps, mirroring DIO appearing to Polnareff at the top of a set of steps back in Stardust Crusaders, joining his gang is presented like that of a Deal with the Devil, and his Fate Worse than Death at the end of the Part mirrors the Devil's own fate of being cast out of heaven.
  • Ragyo Kiryuuin from Kill la Kill was originally a human who cast away her own humanity and sided with the Life Fibers, and her goal is to have humanity enslaved and eradicated in favor of the Life Fibers. Further adding to her Satanic traits are her strong connections with the light, much like Lucifer.
  • Monster: Even though he's (most likely) just a man, Johan Liebert is regularly compared to the Beast from the Book of Revelations. Like how the Bible claims Lucifer can appear as a "an angel of light", Johan is angelical, gentle and beautiful but only to hide the pure malevolence underneath, that of a twisted, sadistic Serial Killer who uses everyone as his own tools to advance him.
  • Moriarty the Patriot: While William may have a Devil Complex and think of himself as a Satanic Archetype, Charles Augustus Milverton is the one who actually fits. Milverton corrupts people for the fun of watching them desperately turn to evil and self-loathing, and refers to himself as "evil itself."
  • My Hero Academia: In the past, All For One amassed loyal followers by presenting them what they desired the most. He would cast people away once they became useless. If anyone dared to oppose his will, they would be purged. All For One goes out of his way to commit evil acts and for no apparent reason. One of his principles is to overwhelm his enemy with misery before killing them. Just as All Might is this brilliant savior figure, he is the opposite, a shadowy threat.
  • Naruto has at least two examples:
    • Orochimaru, the ex-Shinobi and third member of the Legendary Sannin, is the anime equivalent to Voldemort. Since Snakes are considered Satanic, Orochimaru is incredibly sinister for most of the series and has an unhealthy interest in young boys into whom he can transfer his body to avoid aging. He does mellow out at the end of the series, but was still one of its most devilish figures. He also acts as a corrupting figure for many characters, particularly Sasuke and Anko.
    • Black Zetsu is a pitch-black shadow which was born from the local God of Evil with a view to reviving her in the future. In order to do this he convinced Haguromo's son Indra to turn against his own family after his brother Ashura was declared the successor and was already a large influence on him beforehand. Subsequently, this led to many other conflicts and the suffering for others throughout ninja history. He also was continue to do the same to Indra's descendants, the Uchiha clan in order to bring The End of the World as We Know It and to revive a God of Evil.
  • One Piece: Magellan, the Chief Warden of Impel Down — the ultimate Hellhole Prison — is the most demonic figure of One Piece. Not only does he look the part, but he also possesses one of the most devastating powers in the series, the ability to produce hazardous amounts of poison, which almost killed protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and many more prisoners who got in his way. Downplayed, as despite being clearly a demon figure with his evil appearance and horrific powers, Magellan was legitimately disgusted at his subordinate Shiryu for killing prisoners for fun and had him imprisoned on Level 6, the bottom most level of the prison, which makes Magellan more of a Noble Demon. He's also not that bad of a guy. He's just doing his job and avoids torturing his prisoners whenever possible unless things get really out of hand.
  • Shogo Makishima in Psycho-Pass tempts and manipulates people to give in to their worst impulses, as a form of rebellion against the Sibyl System. Additionally, Sibyl is often compared to a God, so Makishima's rebellion does parallel Lucifer.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Gendo Ikari from Rebuild of Evangelion. He tempts and manipulates people (especially Shinji, and even Kaworu) to get what he wants while they suffer. He brings the Apocalypse, reduces the entire world into a Hellish landscape, and wants to kill/become God in order to take His place. Kaworu even calls him the "Lilim King" and from Jewish mythology, Lilim were demons (Although in the original series, Lilim referred to humanity)
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena: After Anthy's Heroic Sacrifice for Prince Dios, Akio Ohtori was born as the corrupt half of Prince Dios called the End of the World. Like how The Bible claims Lucifer can appear as "an angel of light," Akio is gentle, charming and beautiful but only to hide the pure malevolence underneath, that of a selfish manipulator who uses everyone as his own tools to advance him. As the End of the World, he tempts a bunch of insecure teenagers to the dueling game that gives his own sister as the Rose Bride to whoever wins. He wants the power of Dios for himself after he fell in despair and selfishness, abandoned the people whom he used to protect, and became the Big Bad and the person behind Anthy's painful, cruel situation. Furthermore, his name even roughly translates as "Lucifer."
  • Re:Zero has Satella, the Witch of Envy who takes the form of a silver-haired half-elf woman, and considered by everyone in the setting to be everything evil and taboo, to the point that even saying her name out loud will cause heads to turn. In myth, she supposedly absorbed every other Witch of Sin and became an unkillable evil. She even has an entire satanic Religion of Evil dedicated to her unconditionally. She's also the one that grants Subaru the power of Return By Death.
  • Ronin Warriors presented a Satan equivalent in the form of Arago (Talpa in the American dub), absolute Emperor of the demonic nether-realms, and Adversary of all mortals.
  • Lanancuras, the ultimate villain of Shinzo, was a member of the cosmic race of Celestial Guardians and given the duty to protect the Milky Way Galaxy. He was eventually corrupted by his power and turned into a Satanic figure, so the other Guardians responded by sealing him inside a meteorite to protect the mortal beings from him. The lingering influence of his evil on the world caused the Human-Enterran War and he isn't released until the second season. Mushra eventually transforms back into his angelic celestial form to defeat him.
  • Symphogear XV introduces Shem-Ha Mephorash, a member of the Custodians. She's the misanthropic enemy of the creator of Earthly life, calls herself "the god of this world", brands her mark upon the foreheads of her followers, and is associated with card XV of the Major Arcana, i.e. The Devil. Additionally, while her name is derived from a Kabbalistic name for God, that same name is also used as the LaVeyan Satanism equivalent of 'hallelujah', and considering the context...
  • Tokyo Ghoul:
  • Millions Knives from Trigun Stampede. Of the twins, Knives comes across as the more traditionally angelic, with his flawless good looks, chiselled physique, platinum blond hair and "wings" of feathery blades that emerge from his back. He's even shown to be likely sexless, as angels are usually represented. But if he is an angel, he's undoubtedly a fallen one: instigating the crash that stranded everyone on No Man's Land, forming a cult that worships him as a god and offers him human sacrifices, brokering contracts in blood for people's lives to further his efforts to wipe out humankind, and plunging his brother into an emotional hell so he can open his Gate and enter the "higher plane". At the end of the first season he plummets from the sky to his fiery destruction, his pale skin peeling away to reveal a demonic and fanged visage, vowing he'll build paradise for them both right to the moment he physically disintegrates.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! has Zorc Necrophades, who is the equivalent of the setting and the ancient evil Yami Yugi, also known as Pharoah Atem, fought in the past. He is an ancient Eldritch Abomination God of Evil whose power created the Millenium Items and, in the anime, he also created and rules the Shadow Realm. He appears as a titanic, dark-purple demon with a rather unfortunately-placed dragon head between his legs and two large, demonic wings. His future self is Yami Bakura, a scheming figure that manipulates people to carry out his will and appears to people as a white haired prettyboy.
  • YuYu Hakusho: Yakumo, the Big Bad of Yu Yu Hakusho: Meikai Shito Hen - Hono no Kizuna / Yu Yu Hakusho: Bonds of Fire / Poltergeist Report, is the former ruler of the Netherworld who seeks to resurrect the destroyed realm in the Human world, and also has the ambitious goal of displacing Emperor Enma, ruler of the spirit world and father of Koenma, as the ruler of all existence. His Makai god armor that he acquires shortly after regaining the Power Sphere of the Netherworld certainly emphasizes this.

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