The Dreaded / Anime & Manga

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A-C

• Afro Samurai: Afro. The Number Two Headband, and the right to challenge the Number One, the equivalent of God in the setting, has traded hands many time, but only the Afro Samurai is the one who has kept it the longest, to the point people are alarmed such a person actually exists. Best exemplified in the extended version of episode one, where half the audience are foolhardy Mooks thinking they can grab the prize, and the other half recognize they are in the presence of a "demon" traveling to kill God himself.
• Angel Densetsu: Seiichirou Kitano has this sort of rep. He really doesn't deserve it.
• Attack on Titan:
  • The Colossal Titan and Armored Titan, and for good reason. Their appearance brought a century of peace and safety to an end, and resulted in the loss of 20% of the human population. Humanity lives in constant fear of them, aware that should they make another appearance there will be almost nothing the military can do to stop them. Extinction of the human race is a very real possibility, and everyone knows it.
  • Levi, with being the World's Strongest Man. If even the Female Titan aka Annie was terrified of him after he tells the latter he wanted revenge, then so should you.
  • Reaching levels past even those three is the mysterious Beast Titan. He's enormous, only second in height to the Wall sized Colossal Titan. He's intelligent and capable of speech and strategy, leading Titans in coordinated assaults on humanity. The heroes acknowledge he's probably the biggest threat in the series.
  • By Chapter 100, both Levi and Mikasa are this to literally everyone in the Kingdom of Marley and the Warrior program. They're referred to as The Ackerman or Demons of Paradis by enemies, and Levi in particular has become infamous for absolutely eviscerating the Beast Titan and his Mindless Titan hordes on two occasions.
  • By the time the final arc involving the war between Marley and Paradis Island rolls around, Eren has absolutely become this by pretty much everyone save for his own faction and much of Paradis who follows him and reveres him. He is treated as a god by the Yeagerist faction, by much of the Paradisians who approve of his actions, and by Zeke's followers. He is so intimidating at this point that his old friends and allies from the 104th and Survey Corps alike have trouble and fear talking to him. Marleyans fear him and believe him to be the devil with the Tybur family even painting him as such. One of the best examples of his status as The Dreaded is Gabi who displays nothing but Tranquil Fury normally at Paradisians is paralyzed in fear and unable to move when confronted by Eren despite the fact that he should supposedly be the Final Boss for Marley and her prior war experience where she was always extremely confident of herself.
• Baccano!:
  • Claire Stanfield, an eccentric assassin who terrifies the crap out of just about everyone who knows his name due to his unpredictability, unsurpassed skill, and his penchant for rendering his targets into unrecognizable mounds of bloody flesh.
  • The only man on par with him is Ronnie Schiatto of the Martillo Family, who, while less known in the criminal underworld, scares anyone who's met him so much that they question whether or not he's even human. They would be correct in that suspicion.
• Baki the Grappler: Yujiro Hanma makes even strongest characters in the series poop their pants in fear. His presence alone has made polar bears and lions run away like puppies. The average human reaction to him ranges from wetting your pants in fear to instinctively punching yourself in the face so he won't do it himself.
• Beelzebub:
  • Many, many examples. First, we have "Devil" Oga Tatsumi who in his opening scene is shown to be making local delinquents fear him. As the manga progresses only the suicidal, stupid or people who are using the powers of demons (or high ranking demons themselves) don't run from him in terror. It becomes an almost running gag with thugs giving him grief only to realize who they're dealing with and turn to jelly. His reputation only grew after he defeated the Tohoshinki and united Ishiyama under his name — something previously thought to be impossible until Oga showed up. ^note Though, it's implied that Tojou could've managed it much sooner, but hadn't done so due to a lack of interest and being distracted by his numerous side jobs.
  • Each of the 4 members of the Tohoshinki (especially Tojou) to the point that a school that has been imitating them craps themselves when they realize they're dealing with the real Tohoshinki and not another group of imposters. Their counterparts the Rokkisei (6 Knights) also count (especially their head Izuma who makes his subordinates crap their pants).
  • Jabberwock and Behemoth. Behemoth makes Satome, Isugugi and Ittosai Kunieda (the previous generations of bad ass) nervous and even he can't control Jabberwock. Of course none of this stops Oga from beating him half to death.
• Berserk:
  • Guts is this when he was known as the Hundred-Man Slayer before the Eclipse, and post-Eclipse when he is now known as The Black Swordsman. Even people who don't know his reputation tend to be frightened of him... since he is a walking armored hulk carrying a sword bigger than some people. Clearly not someone you want to mess with.
  • Nosferatu Zodd is well-respected/feared by mercenaries as the "god of the battlefield". And they don't even know that he's a powerful demonic Apostle.
• Black Cat: Train Heartnet. Used to be the XIII member of Chronos, even after quitting the title he still makes people shit their pants just by revealing who he is. It's saying something when even the Ax-Crazy Creed, who is a psychopath that isn't afraid of anyone, respect Train and doesn't want to deal with him when he's angry.
• Black Clover: Zenon. If Luck, who loves fighting strong enemies, doesn't want to fight him out of feeling pure fear for the first time, you know he is this. He terrifies Sylph, an ancient elemental spirit, when she sees him, with her urging Yuno to use Spirit Dive immediately to stand a chance against him.
• Black Lagoon: Roberta is practically a boogeyman for Roanapur: the Wretched Hive home to powerful criminal organizations and various other ne'er-do-wells was brought to its knees by a former guerrilla soldier turned maid who can outrun cars and kill the most hardened of murderers in her relentless pursuit of her master's son. When she returned to Roanapur in Roberta's Blood Trail on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for her master, the power structure in the city is thrown into complete disarray.
• Bleach:
  • Kenpachi Zaraki is such an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight that he ends up becoming the one person Ichigo absolutely never wants to fight again.
  • This was originally Played for Laughs with Retsu Unohana, captain of the 4th Division. Then it's revealed she was the original Kenpachi, Yachiru Unohana. She has mastered every sword style and was the worst criminal in Soul Society history (even Aizen doesn't have that reputation).
  • The original Gotei 13 generation that Unohana and Yamamoto used to be part of also had this reputation when they were still active. They were so feared and ruthless in fact that Yhwach himself considers them, who he sees as less than "defenders" and more like a bunch of deranged killers, as the strongest version of Gotei 13 even when compared to the already badass current generation.
  • Yhwach has labelled five individuals as Special War Powers: Ichigo, Kenpachi, Aizen, Ichibei and Urahara. All of them are considered people with the potential to determine the outcome of the Wandenreich's war against Soul Society. Ichigo's guaranteed absence during his fight with Quilge was enough to motivate Yhwach to invade early, and he goes out of his way to attempt to recruit Aizen to his side, aware that he might become an obstacle otherwise.
• Blood+: Diva is this to the Red Shield to the extent that, when directly confronted by her in Episode 24, Lewis is so thoroughly intimidated that he falls back on his ass, and is extremely relieved that she is more concerned with fighting Saya than eating him.
• Bungo Stray Dogs:
  • Akutagawa is initially treated this way due to his ruthless nature; this mostly goes away once the bigger threats start coming in.
  • Q has this reputation not with the other side, but with his own side. After an incident in which he slaughtered countless Port Mafia Mooks, he was regarded as such a threat that he had to be sealed away.
  • Dazai was once known as the "demonic prodigy of the Port Mafia", and on top of his individual reputation he was one half of the infamous Double Black along with Chuya. Unfortunately, Chuya doesn't seem to have that sort of reputation on his own.
  • Fyodor seems to be garnering this sort of reputation as well. When captured by the Port Mafia, his captor described him as a "soulless vampire" and expressed a degree of discomfort being around him, and the aforementioned demonic prodigy has referred to him in similar terms.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • The Tokiwadai Dorm Manager in A Certain Scientific Railgun. No one dares cross her, not even the Level 5 espers. Even Gunha Sogiita is scared of her. If any of the girls under her charge step out of line, she will put them out of commission by nonlethally snapping their necks.
  • Accelerator in Index has this effect as well, just his arrival can scare the hell out of anyone who might have pissed him off.
  • Touma Kamijou has this effect to the Magic Side, to the point many magical organizations start sending assassins after him. All fail. The Kiharas of the Science Side also have this reaction to him. Ironically, while he is hated and feared by most of the magic side, most of the science side has no clue who he is. At one point, villain Rensa severely underestimates him because she thinks he's just some street punk, though she starts to fear him after he curb-stomps her. Later, Touma finds out that the local street punks have been telling fearful rumors about him, grossly exaggerating his feats but keeping the overall message that he's not someone to mess with.
• Chainsaw Man:
  • The Gun Devil, the embodiment of the fear of guns. It's capable of killing hundreds of people in mere seconds. Its existence lead to super strict gun laws being enacted all over the world. Anyone with a gun clearly got it from the Gun Devil.
  • The Darkness Devil, the emboidment of the fear of darkness. Being a primal fear, Darkness Devil has immense power and made quick work of everyone that ended up in his realm. Killing most of them and crippling a few others. Considering the work and sacrifices the Doll Devil made just to get a sample of his power shows that Darkness is not to be messed with.
  • The titular Chainsaw Man qualifies. Referred to as the "Devil that other Devils fear", he is immensely powerful, able to cut up the Hell Devil in a Single-Stroke Battle. But that's not the only reason. Whenever he eats a Devil, the idea or concept that spawned it vanishes from the world, and from everyone's memory. This has inclded Nazis, nuclear weapons, and AIDS. As well as concepts made for the story like a star that drove children mad, and an alternative to death.
• City Hunter:
  • Ryo and Umibozu are quite feared among other sweepers and criminal groups in general. So far we've seen yakuzas and thugs running when they realize they're facing the goddamn City Hunter (the list includes a yakuza boss who switched from being very sure of victory to begging for forgiveness as soon as he realized who his son had provoked and a hitman who didn't fear Umibozu (as he knew his one weak spot) almos shitting himself when he realized he was facing City Hunter too), Kaori plainly admitting she's terrified of Umibozu (that was even before she found out who he was), and people being terrified of Umibozu due his sheer size and tendency to bring down trees with a punch when he's pissed.
  • Kaibara, boss of Union Teope and Ryo's stepfather, is so feared that Ryo and Umibozu are terrified of him, and Mick Angel accepted the job of killing Ryo only out of fear of him.
• The Curse of Kazuo Umezu: Rima, a transfer student from Mexico in "What Will the Video Camera Reveal?". Despite her beautiful looks, Masami gets easily scared of her and causes great agitation into her life.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners:
  • MaxTac and Trauma Team are particularly feared due to them being elite paramilitary units that are better off avoided. MaxTac in particular are specifically tasked with taking down cyberpsychos and rogue cyborgs. Edgerunners are also wary of taking jobs against the megacorps like Arasaka and Militech, since they have the money and resources to easily retaliate against edgerunners if they prove to be a large enough nuisance.
  • Then there's Adam Smasher, who's referred to explicitly as a boogeyman to all cyberpunks everywhere, and fills graveyards with incredible ease. No points on guessing he'd make an actual appearance in the finale to do just that. By the final battle, only three members of David's crew are still alive; by the time Adam Smasher is done with them, only one is left.

D-F

• Daimos: The Alien Prince of the Baam-seijin, Richter, is feared amongst a good number of the Undersea Castle because of his bloodlust and how he's nothing like his peaceful father. One episode focuses on a group of rebels trying to save a prisoner of his from Execution, and they all constantly go through Oh, Crap! moments because they fear if they're caught he'll kill them and hang them in public.
• Daltanious: After Supreme Commander Kloppen murdered one of his own Generals for "showing weakness", the rest of the Zaal view him as a madman and try to stay in his good graces. Once he's disgraced, they all eagerly try to take his position.
• Deadman Wonderland:
  • The Wretched Egg (a.k.a. the 'Red Man') is probably the reason guards in the prison might actually have a lower survival rate than Red Shirts. There's a collective panic every time the Mother Goose System shuts off for any reason, and about the best you can hope for when crossing the Red Man's path is the opinion that you're more fun alive than dead, as was the case with Ganta and Hagire Rinichiro. So, of course, you can imagine Ganta's shock when he finds out that the same person who massacred his entire classroom, killed his best friend, gave him his Branch of Sin, and was responsible for everything in his life sucking was actually his childhood friend Shiro's Superpowered Evil Side, born from hellish, torturous experiments performed on her to unlock her full powers, and its awakening and subsequent gory slaughter of the scientists who experimented on her traumatized Ganta so much that he made himself forget Shiro even existed.
  • To a lesser degree, Toto held a reputation as the undefeated champion of Carnival Corpse. It really says something that Senji, who's much bigger than him in terms of both height and muscle mass, is visibly frightened by him.
• Death Note: By the second half of the series, Kira has become such a terrifying entity that merely the presence of Kira has changed the world on a global scale. Crime rates have dropped significantly, simply out of the fear of being murdered by a judge outside of the legal system. When Near corners Light at the end of the series, he even notes that he's not the judge of good and evil, and that Kira may have changed the world for the better with fear.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, the main villain himself, Muzan Kibutsuji, has one in a heroic figure of old that still torments him over the centuries, as Yoriichi was the demon slayer who almost killed him. Even as an old man on death's door, Kokushibo knew he stood no chance of defeating him. Muzan's sheer terror of the man is such that when Tanjiro ends up resembling him through a combination of his Sun Breathing technique and his sheer rage towards demons who disrespect the sanctity of life, the cells he implanted in the 12 Kizuki cause them to experience vivid flashbacks of Muzan's encounter with him— to repeat, Muzan's very cells carry his deep terror for the man who came closest to inflicting death upon him despite all his precautions and abilities. Muzan even went out of his way to destroy any record of the Sun Breathing style and killed most of the inheritors of the technique himself, despite his usual paranoia with being identified, out of fear of another like Yoriichi appearing before him again—which lead to Tanjiro's family massacre and him embarking on the role of a demon hunter.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure: While he didn't even know her name at first, Myotismon was so terrified of Kari Kamiya, the eighth DigiDestined, that he invaded the real world and conducted a city-wide search to find her.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: BlackWarGreymon, being a Mega-level Digimon with all the destructive power that comes with it, quickly became feared throughout the Digital World, destroying every foe who came across him while he was in search of a Worthy Opponent, only to leave no survivors. In one instance, a Kuwagamon was seen hiding and hoping he'd ignore it. Bare in mind, Kuwagamon are usually this trope because they're hostile and will attack even when unprovoked. The fact that one was terrified out of its mind and hoped BlackWarGreymon would ignore it only shows how feared he was.
• Dirty Pair: If there is an understandable reason why Kei and Yuri hate their titular nickname, it's because almost everybody who says it around them looks like they are expecting the world to end right after they recognize them (and considering the Pair's luck, that's not far off. Part of the reason why such shit happens is because the bad guys escalate like crazy when they find out that they are after them).
• Dragon Ball:
  • Frieza, who oversaw galaxies with fear and tyranny. Even the gods were terrified of him. When King Kai finds out that Frieza is also searching for Namek's Dragon Balls, he basically tells Goku to grab the Dragon Balls and run for his life, because if Frieza finds out he will hunt him down and kill everyone on Earth.
  • The Saiyan race as a whole are widely feared across the universe as the strongest warrior race. Even Frieza fears them, which is part of the reason he chose to wipe them out before they grew in numbers and strength. The Galactic Patrol sends their patrolmen to find and kill Saiyan babies that invade planets. If killing them isn't an option, they Mercy Kill the population so they won't suffer.
  • Majin Buu. An entity with a penchant for wanton destruction so feared that King Cold told Frieza to never mess with him. He also terrifies the heavens since he murdered all the Supreme Kais except one and had the power to destroy the universe. When Buu is released, he had everyone crossing the Godzilla Threshold just to stop him.
  • For Vegeta it was the Ginyu Force. Just hearing that they would soon arrive on Namek made him willing to team up with Gohan and Krillin.
  • Broly, in his first movie. Vegeta goes into a near-vegetative state after learning that he's the Legendary Super Saiyan.
  • Beerus, in the movie Battle Of Gods. Again, Vegeta is terrified of him, as are the Kais, and pretty much everyone else who knows who he is, including Shenron! Even Frieza (after attaining a new level of power!) is scared, and humbly asks if Lord Beerus intends to interfere with his revenge. This even rubs off on Goku, who while very friendly tends to be rude and informal even with authority figures. In the dub he is also the only person that Goku addresses formally as "Lord Beerus".
  • Vegeta qualified in the Namek arc before the aforementioned Enemy Mine. None of the heroes were in his league until Goku arrived, he was actively searching for the same thing they were, and he was the kind of guy who would (and did) kill an entire village just because.
  • The Saiyans at the start of DBZ were the dreaded after it took Goku and Piccolo teaming up just to beat Raditz, who was far weaker than the two Saiyans coming to Earth. To further emphasise how outclassed the fighters of Earth were, Goku had to sacrifice himself to win against his brother.
  • In the alternative timeline, the androids, specifically 17 and 18. They single-handedly turned the Earth into a Death World for almost twenty years.
  • King Piccolo was the original dreaded of the series. Everyone who knew him was terrified and Master Roshi, one of the biggest badasses at the time, absolutely refused to even consider fighting him. Three years after his demise, the reveal that Piccolo Jr. is essentially King Piccolo reincarnated is enough to get all of the World Tournament spectators, sans Goku's friends and the announcer, to flee the stadium en masse.
  • In the original series, Tao Pai Pai was feared by everyone since he was the world's greatest assassin, capable of killing someone who is Immune to Bullets. Goku defeating him was so outstanding that Master Roshi initially didn't believe that Goku had done so. One of the guides states that Mr. Satan became the coward he is because Tao came to his master's dojo, and brutally beat up everybody including himself and his master. From then on, Satan swore only to challenge people he knows he can beat, and is still deathly afraid of Tao.
    • Amusingly, Goku ends up becoming Tao's Dreaded after defeating him. An arc of Filler episodes during the Cell Saga has Tao working as hired muscle for a wannabe warlord, with Gohan defending the poor villagers. When Tao realizes that this blond kid is Goku's son, he gets the hell outta there, abandoning his erstwhile boss. Even worse for him, Goku himself turns up in a subsequent episode when Tao is gathering the Dragon Balls for a man who wants to Take Over the World after Cell leaves.
  • The Red Ribbon Army was feared as the most evil and powerful army in the world, with Bulma stating that they have such vast resources and influence that the real military is no match for them. Goku's friends were fearful for his life once they learned he was going to storm the Red Ribbon Army Base.
  • Cell. After he appeared on national television to announce the Cell Games, destroyed half a city to demonstrate his power, and warned that he would kill every human on Earth one by one if he won, the entire human race developed an intense fear of him that lasted seven years after his demise. Ironically, he isn't known to the rest of the universe since he was killed before he could leave Earth.
  • Goku was this to the Red Ribbon Army. He inspired fear in all the soldiers and the commanders, except for General Blue. When he came to the Red Ribbon base to take their Dragon Balls you can see the collective Oh, Crap! from everyone.
  • Goku also becomes this for Pilaf and his goons, as demonstrated in Battle of Gods when his son Goten scares the living crap out of them.
  • From the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' movie, Goku is this to Frieza's entire empire for not only defeating their boss, but also killing Majin Buu, someone that Frieza was told to stay away from along with Beerus, to the extent that one of his men suggested that Frieza just forget about Goku and focus on running his empire. It's actually noted that Frieza's empire actually searched for New Namek for years rather than use Earth's Dragon Balls to bring Frieza back simply because they didn't want to risk a run-in with Goku; when they hit the Godzilla Threshold, they went to Earth just long enough to find the Dragon Balls and wish Frieza back before running like buggery.
  • For Frieza, the legendary Super Saiyan. He feared one so much that he destroyed the Saiyans' home planet to keep one from raising up against him. After fighting Goku on Namek, he develops a deep seeded fear of Super Saiyans to the point he has PTSD whenever he thinks about Goku and freaks out when Trunks and Gohan transform in front of him. In Frieza's case, his pride overrides his fear.
  • Every character introduced feared Beerus and Champa, the gods of destruction for Universes 7 and 6, respectively. When Zen'o merely shows up, they're the ones panicking. Zen'o is powerful enough to destroy the multiverse on his own, and that's not an Informed Attribute; he actually does so to Future Trunks' timeline to stop Zamasu. There used to be 18 universes, but Zen'o apparently destroyed six. The only person who doesn't treat him with a mix of absolute respect and pants-wetting terror is Goku.
• Durarara!!:
  • Shizuo Heiwajima is this to all of Ikebukuro, having a well-deserved reputation as super strong berserker who no one in their right mind should cross (unless it's Izaya). He's recognizable by his bartender clothes (even if he isn't one anymore), and Tom thinks that anyone who lives in Ikebukuro but doesn't know him are probably public school dropouts. His feats are so great that it's enough for him to garner the moniker of Ikebukuro's "God of Destruction (in a Bartender Suit)."
  • Izaya Orihara himself is somewhat of a lesser example, seeing as the only people who are really at risk are those he deals with most of the time, usually gangs. All the gangs are perfectly aware that pissing off Izaya is a stupid idea; as an Information Broker of the highest caliber, Izaya can screw you over the worst way possible at any time he so wishes. Attacking him is no good either, as Izaya is also famed as one of the strongest men in Ikebukuro (despite technically residing in Shinjuku), and one of the two people capable of fighting Shizuo Heiwajima without suffering grievous bodily harm. The fact that he regularly pisses off Shizuo for kicks should be an indicator of how dangerous he is.
• Eyeshield 21:
  • During the final arc, Donald "Mr. Don" Obermann of the American Pentagram takes on this role. A seven-foot Genius Bruiser and Juggernaut, Mr. Don plows through the cream of the Japanese team as if they were so many bowling pins, a fact that leaves most of the other characters shaking. He terrifies Sena, Monta, and the rest of the Deimon players, manages to put the fear of God into Agon, and leaves everyone with the impression that he cannot be stopped; the only one who doesn't fear him is Gaou. During the Kantou Regionals Arc, Agon and Gaou themselves had this status, terrifying both opposing players and their own teammates.
  • Hiruma Yoichi (his name is basically "Devil in broad daylight") pretty much has dirt on everyone in Japan and some part of the United States making him the blackmail god. One of his lineman is actually shocked to see he bleeds red. And technically he is the Big Good.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Erza Scarlet is a rare heroic example. The entire guild freaks when it's announced she's returned from a mission, and nobody dares step out of line when she's around. Even Natsu and Gray stop bickering and pretend to be best friends.
  • Mirajane used to be this, as she lost control of her Take Over: Demon Magic upon attaining it, and she was, alongside Erza, the youngest S-class mage from Fairy Tail, to the point they got along like Natsu and Gray. She was rightfully nicknamed "the Devil" because of this.
  • Mystogan is more of a neutral version, but by god can he be dark at times....ask anyone from Fairy Tail.
  • A villainous example is Bluenote, who is the analogue of Gildarts in Grimoire Heart, and he instilled fear on several Fairy Tail wizards (such as Cana, even after she got the Fairy Glitter spell) until Gildarts came to the rescue and defeated him-
  • Black Mage Zeref to the Magic Council. The mere mention of his possible return is enough to convince the first Magic Council to authorize a Kill Sat strike.
  • Acnologia, the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse. A former Dragon Slayer who slayed who countless dragons and bathed in their blood, he eventually gained the ability to turn into a dragon himself, and proclaimed himself to be the Dragon King. Representatives from the second council immediately flee Tenrou Island when they hear Zeref mention Acnologia and when he appears the whole Fairy Tail pulls a Mass "Oh, Crap!". It's bluntly stated that he is a threat on the same level of Zeref, and one of the few with the power to kill the Black Mage. Even Zeref is terrified of him.
  • E.N.D., the first guild master of Tartaros, and the strongest of the Etherious, the demons from the Book of Zeref. A part of this fear stems from the fact that he is one of the only beings in existence capable of killing Zeref (Zeref's purpose for creating him and the Etherious in the first place), putting him on par with both his creator and Acnologia. This becomes very justified in-universe when it's revealed (to the audience) that E.N.D. is actually the amnesiac Natsu Dragneel, who is a monster in his own right, one noted with the potential to reach those levels of strength in the not-far-off future.
  • The Four Gods of Ishgar, the four strongest members of the Ten Wizard Saints. When it was noted that Jura was the fifth strongest Wizard Saint, it was established that he was the strongest human wizard on the continent, as those four are so strong, they can't even be called "human" anymore. One of the main reasons why the Alvarez Empire is such a high-priority threat is because God Serena, the strongest member of the Four Gods Ishgar, and therefore the strongest of the Ten Wizards Saints and the strongest legitimate mage on the eastern continent, has defected to Alvarez.
  • The Alvarez Empire of the western continent, which has access to the combined might of at least 730 guilds. They have a group of wizards called the Spriggan Twelve, all of whom are on par with God Serena, the strongest of the Ten Wizard Saints (who is now one of the twelve). Markarov disbanded Fairy Tail in order to travel to Alvarez and start negotiations with them, in order to buy time for Mest/Doranbolt to reform the Magic Council and figure out a way to deal with this threat, as a war will surely have them annihilated.
  • Emperor Spriggan is feared in Ishgar as the tyrant who united the 730 guilds of the western continent into an empire by force all by himself. He turns out to be Zeref himself.
• Fist of the North Star: Kenshiro is known to most of his enemies as "the Man with the Seven Scars", and mentioning this nickname is sometimes enough to make the mooks run in terror. And given what generally happens to those who mess with him or piss him off, this fear is very, very justified.
• Food Wars!: Played for comedy by Roland Chapelle. Roland Chapelle teaches French Cuisine at the cooking school of the setting, and is known for his incredibly high standards (In his classes, anything that doesn't deserve an A gets an E). However, the comedy comes in when it turns out that several of his former students, some of whom graduated over a decade earlier and all of whom are world-renowned chefs in their own right, are still scared shitless by the thought of Chapelle finding out about their shenanigans.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Izumi Curtis. Due to the Training from Hell they endured while under her tutelage, as well as her Hair-Trigger Temper, Ed and Al are understandably scared shitless of her and make it a point to avoid making her mad. In fact, they often use this as a motivator, saying they can beat a villain because said villain isn't as scary as Izumi.
  • Also, Barry the Chopper used to be this. Scar too.
  • King Bradley is so renowned for his sheer battle talent and commanding presence that near the end of the story, after the heroes already think they've won, the mere fact that Bradley steps up and announces "I'll take care of this" completely turns the situation around.
  • Pride is the oldest, cruelest and most powerful of the homunculi and is widely feared by all his siblings - with the sole exception of Wrath, who is not only the second most powerful homonculus but also likely has a deeper understanding of Pride than either would care to admit.

G-K

• GaoGaiGar: Implied with King J-Der, who the Primevals refer to as 'the Disaster Left By Abel' and gave a threat level of 100 when he arrived.
• Kuromorimine Women's College and Pravda High School from Girls und Panzer; the former is renowned for its success in Sensha-do and is led by the heir of the Nishizumi style of tankery (Maho, Miho's older sister), while the latter is the current reigning champion that defeated Kuromorimine and ended their nine-year winning streak. Both provide the toughest fights for Ōarai during the tournament, and are only defeated through a combination of unconventional tactics and sheer blind luck.
• Averted in Goblin Slayer, since the titular adventurer goes out of his way to completely wipe out any and all goblin nests he can find, and as such there is no goblin left alive to dread him.
• Golgo 13 is known throughout the world as possibly the greatest assassin alive. When his name (either his codename or his most common alias of Duke Togo) comes up, someone is about to panic. In one story, he doesn't actually show up at all; a man uses Duke's reputation to gaslight his enemy into giving up.
• Gundam:
  • "IT'S A GUNDAM!!!" - inspiring this reaction in enemy Mooks since 1979.
  • Char Aznable, for the Federation. Witness the sheer panic that ensues in the original series whenever a red mobile suit shows up among the attacking forces.
    • Such is Char's reputation that any sight of a red mobile suit (save mass production types like the Marasai and the Rick Dias) will cause people to automatically assume Char's the pilot. As a side note, one of the more comical side effects of this pertains to fellow Zeon ace Johnny Ridden; as Johnny also pilots red mobile suits (such that his ace nickname is the "Crimson Lightning"), he's pretty much forced to live under Char's shadow (much to Johnny's detriment) as Federation pilots can't tell the difference between their machines^note Johnny's MS tend to be painted in a crimson red with black trim, whereas Char's are either straight red or have accompanying pink...er, salmon trim.
    • After Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, the Federation was so afraid of Char possibly returning from the dead that Neo Zeon created Full Frontal, a Cyber Newtype modeled after Char's likeness and artificially indued with Char's memories, which were salvaged from the Sazabi's remains. While it was never made publicly clear in universe whether Full Frontal was Char or not, his presence was enough that he was dubbed the Second Coming of the Red Comet, and the Federation feared him as much as they feared the original.
  • Amuro Ray (the original Gundam pilot) was equally feared by both the Federation and Zeon remnants, if only for his raw Newtype powers and combat prowess; generally, whereas red mobile suits were automatically assumed to be piloted by Char, Gundams were automatically assumed to be piloted by Amuro (for a time anyway). In fact, the Federation was so afraid of the mere possibility of Amuro turning against them that they placed him under permanent house arrest in Wyoming; naturally, this did nothing to keep Amuro from escaping and joining the Karaba later on.
  • Kira Yamato has this reputation in Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny. Very few people actually know his identity, but whenever "the Freedom" appears on the battlefield, expect a Mass "Oh, Crap!" He's even more feared because his ideology makes him a Wild Card from the rest of the world's perspective: he's a scarily good pilot in a superpowered mobile suit that seems to attack both sides indiscriminately, with most unaware of his true motives.
• Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • Both versions of Mikuru are terrified of Yuki, and avoid interacting with her directly as much as possible. When forced to, even future Mikuru gets very quiet and withdrawn. It's implied that, unlike Kyon and Koizumi, Mikuru knows exactly what Yuki is capable of.
  • Ryoko Asakura is easily the person who scares Kyon the most, due in no small part to being the only character who tried to kill him specifically (and came pretty damn close, too). Disappearance does an excellent job of underlying just how pants-wettingly terrified he is when she walks through the door.
• Hellsing:
  • Even the nastiest vampires and monsters are terrified of Father Alexander Anderson. While Alucard isn't quite as well-known in the beginning of the series due to his years as a Sealed Badass in a Can, Anderson has an infamous reputation both among monster-hunting organizations like Hellsing and the bloodthirsty creatures that he enjoys filleting at every turn. He essentially functions as The Juggernaut for Iscariot and doesn't hesitate to destroy anyone or thing that gets on the wrong side of the Vatican or his moral beliefs. In the OVA, Integra even uses this to her advantage on two occasions, manipulating Anderson's strict moral code to utterly terrify and destroy a large chunk of the Nazi vampires while also convincing him and his subordinates to escort her home through hostile territory.
  • He also takes I Have Many Names to a whole new level. Paladin Anderson. Executioner Anderson. Bayonet Anderson. Angel Dust Anderson. Dust To Dust Anderson. Off With Its Head Anderson. Assassin Anderson. Regenerator Anderson. Killing Judge Anderson. Judas Priest. Monster of God. Iscariot's Trump Card. And those are just the names given in the main series.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • There are a few characters who are "seen" as this. Russia gets treated like a scary Big Guy mostly due to his content personality towards almost everything, which scare others at times.
  • Belarus however deserves this title more, Russia himself would agree.
  • Prussia the born conqueror and bully of Hetalia, has the sheer balls to humiliate even Germany and Austria plus harassing Hungary without a care in the world. Interestingly, though, Prussia manages to be this and a Butt-Monkey at the same time, and gets his ass kicked by Poland and, of all people, Lithuania at one point.
  • Sweden, who terrifies people just by looking at them.
• High School D×D: After the events of Volume 12, the protagonist Issei becomes this in the eyes of the Anti-Lord of Hell faction. The reason being that they've tried all sorts of possibilities of killing the current Red Dragon Emperor to the point that they had to resort using Samael, the dragon eater, and he still lived through that made them fear him.
• Holyland: Yuu wants to become this so that the bullies and gangsters will stop making trouble for him. It not working is a recurring theme of the series.
• Hori from Horimiya ends up developing this reputation among Miyamura's old classmates when they were stupid enough to try and bully him in front of her.
• Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere: P.A. ODA's Five Great Peaks; aka the Six Demon Army. As in, each one of the six is worth an entire army.
• A number of antagonists across Hunter × Hunter are treated this way.
  • The Zoldyck family of assassins are both feared and widely sought for their skill and make others in the same profession nervous.
  • The Phantom Troupe, the worlds most deadly gang of robbers, strike fear into all who know of them and their handiwork. Even the head of the Zoldyck family admits that they're too dangerous to target after facing some of them and orders his relatives to turn down jobs that involve them.
  • Genthru, the Bomber, is widely feared by other players on Greed Island due to his anonymity and kill count that exceeds any other player in the game.
  • Chimera Ants start out as an extremely dangerous invasive species of insect that can quickly and easily destroy an ecosystem due to their ravenous appetites and ability to pass on the traits of their prey to subsequent generations. When it's discovered that a colony have eaten humans and gained sentience, the full might of the Hunters Association is called in to prevent their spread. When a King is born the governments of the world hand the association carte blanche to take whatever actions necessary to exterminate them up to and including sacrificing the entire population of a country and using nuclear weapons.
• InuYasha: Out of all of his various enemies and pursuers, Kikyo is the only one that Naraku actually fears and considers any serious threat.
  • Props also goes to Sesshomaru.
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?:
  • Minotaurs appear to be some of the more powerful and dangerous creatures in the dungeon, hence why when Bell runs into one at the beginning of the show, it was considered extremely unusual to see one at the floor he was at. In episode 8, some of Aiz's companions mention that the creatures often require a coordinated attack by multiple members to defeat. Then they see Bell taking one on by himself...
  • Hilariously enough, Loki's familia is this for the monsters! When they're romping in the dungeons all of the monsters from the upper to the middle floors with at least average intelligence (including the aforementioned minotaurs) run in terror at the sight of them.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Dio Brando, who inspires fear in those around him after becoming a vampire. Even Speedwagon is afraid! Things only got worse come Stardust Crusaders: Joseph Joestar is well aware of the danger he poses, and Mohammad Avdol was nearly petrified with fear when he first saw him and, thanks in part to a heads-up from Joseph, ran like the hounds of hell were nipping at his ankles.
  • Starting from Diamond is Unbreakable, Jotaro Kujo becomes one. In every Part he appears in from then on, he's has a reputation among other Stand Users not only for the raw power of Star Platinum, but also his high intelligence and great deductive powers, letting him coolly track down his enemies and dismantle their plans before they even begin.
  • Purple Haze, the Stand of Pannacotta Fugo from Golden Wind, is feared by every member of Team Bucciarati, including Fugo himself, for its dangerous and uncontrollable ability. It's for this reason that Fugo will only use his Stand if there's no other option.
  • Diavolo, the boss of Passione and Big Bad of Part 5, is feared by just about very other member of the gang, and for good reason. On top of his unknown Stand ability, he's also extremely paranoid, leading to him being very brutal towards those who try to unmask or betray him.
  • Diavolo's Psycho for Hire, Cioccolata, is heavily implied to be this. As the boss puts him on hold until there's no other option, since he is said to be too dangerous to interact with. Even Diavolo, who is also The Dreaded among Passione, is creeped out by him. The anime even reinforces this notion, as he is shown as a Torture Technician in silhouette as the one who chopped up Sorbet and Gelato for trying to expose the boss.
  • Leone Abbacchio is this for the boss, of all people. His Stand, Moody Blues, allows him to rewind to a certain point in time and replay a person's actions from that point on. This puts the boss on edge, as his identity could easily be figured out. This singles Abbacchio out as the first on Diavolo's kill list.
• Jujutsu Kaisen:
  • There is no sorcerer or curse user, living or dead, who has not heard of Ryomen Sukuna. In life, the man was considered a natural disaster in human form, and his legend only grew with the centuries. Sukuna is so overwhelmingly evil that his very presence strikes fear into anyone who sees him. The moment he shows himself during the Culling Game, sorcerers from ages past, who themselves were incredibly powerful in their prime, instinctively become terrified of the King of Curses, whose sheer malice can be felt from miles away.
  • His modern times counterpart, Satoru Gojo, became a symbol of fear for curse users across the globe the day he was born. Having inherited his clan's Limitless technique and the Six Eyes, his very existence upturned the balance of power between humanity and curses, forcing curse users to lay low for years after realizing he was untouchable. For the first half of the story, the efforts of the Big Bad Ensemble are focused on removing Gojo from the proverbial playing field, because their own plans simply stand no chance at succeeding as long as he is around.
  • There's also Toji Fushiguro, an Outside-Context Problem to the jujutsu world who earned his reputation as the Sorcerer Killer through ruthless assassination, combining blinding speed and his complete lack of cursed energy to tear through sorcerers before they even knew they were in his sights. Although he's long dead by the present day, the very memory of his capabilities still haunts everyone who remembers him. And then he came back, and the only person who could stop his unholy rampage was himself.
• Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear gives an especially adorable but still frighteningly terrifying and violent example in Yuna. She was just another normal 15-year-old shut-in in Japan until she was transported to another world and given a set of cute, insanely embarrassing, but insanely overpowered bear armor. Her strength so vastly outweighs all but the most legendary creatures and warriors of the land, leading to several Curb Stomp Battles, her being called the "Bloody Bear", and the "Apex of the Apex Predators". For extra irony, Yuna doesn't actually want to fight or literally bloody her hands, the universe and her own desires just keep throwing her into combat with ever stronger threats.

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• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War has national hero of The Empire, Rean Schwarzer and his Humongous Mecha Valimar who is capable of destroying multiple Calvardian airships and tanks by himself. Due to the Perspective Flip where the North Ambrian characters have the point of view, he's the Hero Antagonist and is a major threat to their country. A significant part of the story in the anime is that Lavian Winslet and her team have to inflitrate Erebonia to gather any information about him before he starts destroying North Ambria.
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes:
  • Walter von Schönkopf and his Rosen Ritter often rout their opponents simply by announcing themselves (or, even more often, by mowing them down until someone noticed the regimental shoulder badges, at which point they would lose all heart and run for it).
  • His commander, Yang Wenli, was such a fearsome tactician that his enemies started to refuse to pursue his fleet or take the most obvious (and often, correct) action lest they fell into a trap.
    • This once worked against him, when the Imperial Representative refused to believe that such a man could possibly have really retired to live peacefully, and accepted fabricated malicious hearsay as damning evidence that Yang was planning a rebellion (which indeed he was).
• Loveless:
  • Seimei is definitely the most feared of the series. Usually used with a pretty little topping of Oh, Crap!. What makes him even more creepy is that just about this entire trope applies to him. The Fearless Fool does indeed cry in fear, and The Pollyanna does indeed despair over The Stoic being defeated, who also lost his cool. In fact, his appearance alone isn't the only way he causes genuine fear - he uses words to, effectively, freak. People. Out.
• Lyrical Nanoha: Nanoha "Ace of Aces" Takamachi. Teana and Subaru are still afraid from her if they disobey orders ever again. Those two even admit that they are feared themselves by other people because they are trained by Nanoha, and that people are terrified of Yuuno when they just learn that he trained her. Hayate also gets this treatment in Force where the Grendel Family is afraid of her despite the fact that they're immune to magic.
• Maria no Danzai: While Nozomu Okaya is rather affable to his friends, who are a gang of sadistic bullies, they are terrified of incurring his wrath by stepping out of line. It also implies that he’s using the fear of what he can do to them to keep them in line and under his control.
  • Kinugawa becomes paralyzed with fear when, after he kicks Kiritaka in the face, Okaya approaches him from behind to remind him how he specifically told him not to do that.
  • Kowase has a similar reaction when he mentions Kiritaka two years later while unaware that Okaya, for whom Kiritaka's name has become a Berserk Button, is standing right behind him.
  • When his friends start arguing amongst themselves, Okaya needs only to tap a railing with his fingernail once to get their attention and shut them up.
• Dragons as a whole appears to be this in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. This doesn't apply on Earth, since the number of ordinary humans aware that dragons actually exist can literally be counted on one hand. Tohru seems to have this reputation even among other dragons, as seen by Clemene freaking out when she shows up.
• Monster:
  • Johan Liebert is this, and FOR GOOD REASON!!! Anyone who has any knowledge of him (who's still alive that is) will generally begin to shake uncontrollably even thinking about him.
  • A psychopathic serial killer even kills himself when he's shown a picture of him.
  • When Anna, his own flesh and blood, confronts him with the intent on killing him, she falls to pieces as soon as he says hello and tries to kill herself.
  • Nina/Anna herself, insofar as the Baby is left with a sense of permanent terror at her memory after an earlier encounter with her.
• Played for Laughs in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. Because of Seo's violent playstyle, the male basketball club is terrified of her, so much so that when she has the ball, everybody is seen scrambling in fear to get out of her way.
• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: Rujierd is known as the "Dead End" on the Magic Continent. He's literally the bogeyman for the Magic Races, as parents tell their children that if they don't behave the "Dead End" will get them. Towns have been known to send every available guard and adventurer to drive him off if he approaches them.
• Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Retired Monster and protagonist Lorem was known as the "Flame of Extermination" in her heyday, and incinerated entire military squadrons coming after her and Merii in the past. She also did the same to demons who tried to recruit her to fight the demons, as they would only keep her around until she became inconvenient. This garnered her quite the reputation, such that when she makes her presence known in a battle, everyone involved, enemy and ally alike, have a Mass "Oh, Crap!"; the younger ones didn't know how powerful she was while the older ones knew exactly how powerful she was. When Lorem makes it clear she wants to talk rather than fight, everyone is ready to hear her out.
• My Hero Academia:
  • All Might is a heroic version; he's so good at his job that all but the most powerful or Ax-Crazy villains will visibly soil themselves and run in terror whenever he shows up (not that it helps), and he won so many fights over the course of his career he single-handedly caused crime in Japan to drop to a two-decades long low.
  • All For One, leader of the League of Villains and the one who has controlled the criminal underworld since Quirks first arose. He has the power to steal other people's Quirks (and stole immortality early on), which he used to amass an arsenal of powers that makes him more than a match for even All Might. When All For One first appeared during the Hideout Raid arc, everyone seeing him was instantly paralyzed with fear. Midoriya, the only one who had any context for who he was, described him as like witnessing death itself.
  • The villain Muscular, while only appearing briefly in one arc, made quite an impression. He murdered two powerful pro heroes, seemingly killed quite a few more, and is the first person to take one of Midoriya's 100% punches and survive. When Magne realizes that Midoriya defeated Muscular, she immediately disengages from her current fight to attack him, realizing that anyone who can take out Muscular needs to be killed as fast as possible while he's injured.
• My Monster Secret: Parodied. Kuromine is terrified of Shirayuki, the former principal of Morobare High, simply because she's the only character in the story who's not a complete idiot. Admittedly, she is a genuinely dangerous opponent with some disturbing plans, but the main reason Kuromine is scared is because he's never had to deal with someone who doesn't sabotage themselves every five seconds.
• Naruto:
  • Orochimaru has this effect on people, freaking out even the likes of Ibiki Morino.
  • Pain. Jiraiya nearly shat himself when he heard that Pain had defeated Hanzo, who a younger Jiraiya had failed to defeat even with the support of his team. He goes to his Super Mode to counter Pain's power but sadly it's not enough, as he didn't have enough information on it. Sometime later Pain makes the whole of Konoha wet their pants when he effortlessly destroys the village.
  • Madara Uchiha remains such a boogeyman that even decades after his death, the mere possibility that he might still be alive is enough to unite the entire Ninja World, which had been at odds with one another for decades, against him.
  • Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage and Naruto's dad. Nicknamed "The Yellow Flash," he was so feared by his enemies during the third war that a flee-on-sight order was issued the very second he appeared on the battlefield.
  • The Tailed-Beasts only fear one thing — the revival of the Ten-Tails, and for good reason. It is literally God of the Naruto World, and its mere existence caused complete and utter devastation. In fact, the Sage of the Six Paths, its Jinchuriki and the strongest shinobi to have ever existed, the founder of ninjutsu himself, feared that its revival would cause The End of the World as We Know It. Kurama's description of its power tells just how dangerous the Ten-Tails is.
  Kurama: "...it swallows oceans, splits the land, carries mountains, and is the progenitor of all that exists in this world."
  • Hanzo is insanely feared. How feared, you ask? So feared that the reason The Sannin are revered worldwide is because they fought him and survived. They didn't win, mind you - they fought him to a draw, and that alone is worthy of the title "legendary". It should also be noted that he wasn't as powerful as he used to be when Pain killed him.
  • Princess Kaguya, the first chakra user, and, according to her son, the Sage of Six Paths, the most powerful person to have ever lived. She was initially worshipped as a goddess for ending all wars, but the violent tactics she used in order to keep the peace during her time made her feared as a demoness. When Madara transforms into her in Chapter 679 after being (literally) backstabbed by Black Zetsu, Naruto and Sasuke have major Oh, Crap! faces, indicating just how screwed Team 7 is.
  • Post-series, Naruto and Sasuke are known as the two most powerful ninja in the world, and similarly feared as such. More than once during the light novels and even during Boruto's time, an enemy ninja ends up crapping their pants at the mere possibility of having to take one of those two on.
  • Boruto: Naruto the Movie, introduces Momoshiki Otsutsuki, a member of the Otsutsuki Clan who was even feared by Kaguya herself, and one of the reasons she wanted to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to create an army of White Zetsus.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Evangeline A. K. McDowell qualifies. She has a bounty of millions upon her head, and most people are terrified by her to the point that she's treated as the boogieman in the Magical World. An example can be seen in Anya's reaction to discovering that Evangeline, the Queen of the Night, the Doll Master, the Maga Nosferatu, the Apostle of Destruction, is teaching Negi magic. "She's gonna eat me alive!" And Evangeline greatly enjoys the fact that people are so terrified of her.
  • The Lifemaker also counts. Even the most badass people in a World of Badass such as Jack Rakan and the aforementioned Evangeline fear him.

O-Q

• One Piece:
  • The Admirals are this for most pirates; only the strongest of them don't immediately run screaming at the mere sight of an Admiral. And with good reason, considering all seen so far qualify as a Person of Mass Destruction: Aokiji (real name Kuzan) is An Ice Person and can freeze oceans, tsunamis, and enormous sea monsters solid within a few seconds; Kizaru (Borsalino) can move at light speed and launch Frickin' Laser Beams capable of effortlessly leveling trees the size of buildings; and Akainu (Sakazuki) is a Magma Man, with a Devil Fruit that turns him into a freaking walking volcano. And the newest Admiral, Fujitora (Issho), does not disappoint the Admiral legacy: he has a Devil Fruit that controls gravity, which allows him to throw meteors at his enemies. It's also been stated that the other new Admiral, Ryokugyu (real name Aramaki), is in the same league as Fujitora, and while not much has been seen of his plant-based abilities, he has been shown to have a ludicrously powerful Touch of Death, as he vampirically drained King and Queen to husks in seconds, both of whom are more than capable of giving an Admiral a significant amount of trouble.
    • Akainu in particular stands out as, on top of his formidable powers, he has a few doses of batshit insanity. In his book, it's better to kill a thousand innocent people than to allow the slightest possibility of a dangerous person's escape to exist, and expressing your opinion of caring more about surviving to return to your family or the lives of your comrades than killing every pirate in sight is punishable by death. And he's the executioner.
  • Other high-ranking Marines with a sufficient reputation can also become this, such as Vice-Admiral Smoker.
    • Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp is understandably feared by many a pirate due to the fact that he cornered the Pirate King Gold Roger numerous times when the man was still alive. But Garp is also feared by his grandchildren — Luffy, Ace, and Sabo — due to the Training from Hell he subjected them to during their Hilariously Abusive Childhood. Due to this, he may be the only person that genuinely scares Luffy.
  • The Shichibukai, dubbed the Seven Warlords of the Sea, rely on this to instill fear in other pirates. Despite being derided as "government dogs," they are nonetheless insanely powerful and feared, and their reputation is what the World Government relies on to help keep the pirate population down; pissing one of them off could be as bad as pissing off one of the Four Emperors, depending on which one.
    • Let's see who we have in the original seven: Dracule "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman, one of the few characters in the entire story that has remained completely unscathed in any battle that he appears in. Crocodile, a master tactician empowered by the Logia-type Suna Suna no Mi (Sand-Sand Fruit). Gekko Moria, who commanded an army of zombies and was capable of going toe to toe with Kaido of the Four Emperors in his prime. Bartholomew Kuma, an insanely powerful cyborg who was renowned for his legendary cruelty while he was a pirate, and possesses one of the single most broken Fruit powers in the series. Donquixote Doflamingo, involved in practically anything shady and wicked in the world and empowered with the Ito Ito no Mi (String-String Fruit), and superhuman besides. Boa Hancock, the strongest Action Girl in the world, capable of petrifying her opponents and, like Mihawk, has yet to be injured in the present story. And last but not least, Jimbei, insanely powerful Fish-man with the power to command whale sharks and water, and masterful in Fish-man martial arts besides. Post-timeskip newcomer Edward "Whitebeard Jr." Weevil keeps the tradition going; it's telling when, in spite of his idiosyncrasies, even Kizaru treads lightly around him, and Marco specifically refuses to enter the Wano Country with Weevil hunting him because he knows that if Weevil stops pursuing him, he will instead go into Whitebeard's hometown and demolish it.
  • The Yonko, otherwise known as the Four Emperors, also fall under this category, especially Whitebeard. His declaration of ownership of an island is enough to keep it out of harm’s way, and people with his mark on their back are deemed untouchable, because he is famed for going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against anyone who has laid even one finger on his crewmen. Many characters have an Oh, Crap! moment when they hear that the World Government decided to publicly execute one of his top commanders, Portgas D. Ace, which meant an open declaration of war against the World's Strongest Man.
    • To clarify, Whitebeard is THE Dreaded, and for very good reason. World's Strongest Man, you say? This guy so deserves his title that the World Government busts out their entire military might, including all three Admirals, just so that they even have a smidgen of hope of actually competing in a battle, let alone a prolonged war, against this guy. And he's an elderly man in his seventies, far out of his prime, and to top it off is in the advanced stages of a terminal illness and during any of his fights, has to take breathers because his heart's giving out on him, and he still easily holds that title until his death.
  • Out of all of the current members of the Four Emperors, the one that stands out the most as this trope is the one who took the longest to make an official appearance: Kaido. It's stated that he was responsible for massacring Gekko Moria's original crew, which is implied to have been composed of One-Man Armies, and he managed to scare the hell out of Donquixote Doflamingo, to the point that when forced to choose between facing Kaido's wrath or the wrath of the aforementioned Admirals, he chose the Admirals. When you make them look like the friendlier option, you are an exaggerated form of this trope, never mind that Doflamingo Took a Third Option to not have to face either of them. And when he does show up, we find out he has a reputation for surviving dozens of his own executions without a scratch, breaking out of prison in the bloodiest ways possible, and taking up suicide attempts for fun because he's just that Nigh-Invulnerable. Also, while abovementioned Whitebeard was dubbed the World's Strongest Man, Kaido is known as a strongest creature. To hammer home how scary Kaido is, it was heavily implied that if he and Whitebeard ever got a chance to throw down, Kaido would have a very real shot at winning.
    • Kaido's terrifying reputation is not limited to him, either. Jack, one of the Three Calamities who rank directly below Kaido in the Beasts Pirates, is known by the epithet of "The Drought". This is because he causes so much devastation wherever he goes that any inhabited areas that are lucky enough to survive his depredations are left in such a pitiful state that they appear to have gone through a prolonged period of famine. Mokomo Dukedom withstood an attack from him better than anyone else ever has, and that's because their leaders could actually fight toe-to-toe with him; they lost because he used one of Caesar Clown's gas bombs on them. Not because he had defeated them, but because they couldn't exhaust his stamina and he lost patience. Insatiably bloodthirsty, horrifically sadistic and cruel, and utterly impossible to reason with or daunt, Jack is more of a force of nature than a man and has more than earned his 1,000,000,000 Berry bounty and reputation as a country-destroying scourge. And the worst part is that Jack is the weakest of the three Calamities, to the point Queen and King (the other two) treat him like an idiot at all turns, and all Jack can do is apologize for being incompetent.
  • Shanks is another of the Four Emperors who commands utter respect. All we know about his past is that he served on Gold Roger's crew. Even having lost his arm and with no on-screen fights to his name, his appearance at the battle of Marineford and his threat to turn it into a free for all between the Red-Haired Pirates, other pirates and the Marines immediately causes the war to end. Even Akainu agrees out of apparent fear of going against Red-Haired Shanks, and this was after he had forced Kaido to back off and abandon his plan to intercept Whitebeard on his way to Marineford. In the follow-up of the Wano arc, Admiral Ryokugyu, who up to that point had been confident in taking on the entire Wano Alliance who toppled Kaido and Big Mom at the same time, to get to the Straw Hats, immediately freezes up in terror and leaves when Shanks - from islands away - uses his haki to threaten to come after him and the Marines for trying to pick the Straw Hats off while they're weak. That's the level of respect Shanks demands when you get on his bad side, and even a vicious person like Ryokugyu knows that. His "battle" with Eustass Kid and his men demonstrated exactly what happens when someone calls Shanks' bluff - Shanks initially tried to talk Kid out of fighting him, but the minute that Kid decided to use Shanks' men as collateral to provoke him, Shanks annihilated Kid in one attack before ordering his ship destroyed.
  • Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin certainly deserves a place on this list. As one of the Four Emperors, she earns this title by default, but she gets special points for the following: 1) having a massive, planet-spanning information network 2) punishing people by delivering their loved ones heads in a box 3) having connections to other feared entities, such as the Firetank Pirates and especially Germa 66 4) her vicious, relentless personality, where she will destroy countries for failing to deliver candy and eating her own subordinates on a whim. Words cannot describe the pure, overwhelming fear on Caesar Clown's face when he saw her ship.
    • This actually played a part into Luffy's own ascension to Emperor status. For decades, especially during the Golden Age of Piracy, the might of the Four Emperors has essentially gone unchallenged, with any and all interlopers either killed, driven off, or forcibly press-ganged into one of the crews. The Straw Hats getting away with as much as they did, virtually unscathed and only half of their crew present, is so unprecedented that it only takes a bit of embellishment and some extra information for Luffy to be declared the "Fifth Emperor".
  • Silvers Rayleigh, Roger's former second-in-command, also has this reputation. When the aforementioned Garp received word that he was in the area, he ordered his men to not engage him and to keep hush-hush about it with Sengoku, with the reasoning being that the prospect of dealing with Whitebeard was terrifying enough, and that having to deal with him AND Rayleigh was simply not something that they could even hope to manage. Sure enough, when Rayleigh finally does come into contact with Admiral Kizaru, he not only manages to fight evenly with him, but actually WOUNDS him, despite him being a Logia, even as he admits that he hasn't seen combat in over twenty years and is a tad rusty.
  • Other pirates of sufficient power can be this trope. The Marines of G-5 (a Marine branch full of jerkasses that love to torture pirates and refuse to obey headquarters) panic at seeing Trafalgar Law, who sent the World Government a hundred pirates' hearts to join the Seven Warlords and is widely known as the Surgeon of Death. Back in the East Blue, people are scared of the idea of pirates like Krieg and Arlong coming. And the Eleven Supernovas are feared due to their willingness to challenge the Emperors and the status quo and for their chaotic nature, along with their potential. When they first entered the New World, they caused so much chaos and destruction that they got lumped with the moniker "The Worst Generation."
    • In fact, Luffy himself (and by extension, his crew) has achieved this status, especially if you account in his bounty. He would be feared in every sea in the world except the New World, and even then he's already made an impression there. Case in point: Luffy's at Corrida Colosseum for a Tournament Arc while wearing a ridiculous Paper-Thin Disguise that manages to fool (almost) everybody. There, while speaking with one of the other competitors, Luffy (being Luffy), forgets that he's incognito and proceeds to give out his real name. Everybody immediately freaks out, and only calm down when they see the sign on the back of his shirt say 'Lucy'... along with remembering rumors about him being an eight-meter tall giant. Luffy's become so infamous that practically anybody who isn't at the strength level of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (who are notable New World veterans) instantly fears him. He is even more this after being deemed the "Fifth Emperor"... and then, the Five Elder Stars confirm his Gum-Gum fruit is not what it seems, but actually a "different fruit": Human-Human, model: Nika. The fruit itself is one they fear because it has a will of its own to seek freedom and liberation for all, which is anathema to the World Government's authority. Upon finding out it's Luffy who has it, knowing the man's goals and behavior align perfectly with it, he becomes target priority number one. By the end of Wano Arc, there's no longer any doubts to Luffy's feared status with him becoming a new recognized Emperor who even fanatics like Sakazuki above are wary to have a direct engagement with.
    • Zoro had to hunt pirates to get the bounties to pay for food, which caused him to be well-known long before his captain. Because of this, and before Luffy and the crew itself becomes well-known, characters often comment that it's weird for someone of his fame to be following someone like Luffy (truth is he never wanted to join, Luffy blackmailed him). However, after Luffy starts growing in infamy, it serves to enhance Luffy's status as this trope, because now people wonder what kind of man Luffy is to have gotten someone like Zoro to follow him.
  • Luffy's father, Dragon. He hasn't done much of anything in the series proper yet, and he's still known as the "World's Most Wanted Criminal", which is fully justified due to him attempting to take down the World Government. He's considered a threat equal to Whitebeard when Whitebeard was still alive, perhaps even more of a threat due to the fact that he's far more active, and his purpose is to outright collapse the World Government.
    • It also applies to those subordinate to him with significant power to warrant a threat. For example, his second-in-command, Sabo, was enough to freak out nearly every single person on Dressrosa once they realized who he was, the sole exceptions being Fujitora, an Admiral, and Doflamingo, a Warlord.
  • More or less anyone that has a D. in their name is guaranteed to terrify anyone within the World Government, especially the World Nobles. This is due to as-of-yet unrevealed prophecies and legends, and the reputation-setting individuals we actually have seen, including plenty of examples already mentioned, such as Gol D. Roger himself, who was a horrifically strong One-Man Army that was only brought down by an incurable disease and managed to turn his execution into the start of the Golden Age of Piracy. Either way, just about every D. is a sort of boogeyman for the World Government, as they are practically guaranteed to raise some major chaos when they decide to act up.
    Trafalgar D. Water Law: "The D. will surely bring forth another storm!"
  • The Germa 66, and especially the Vinsmoke Family, are notorious for being a "mythical evil army." Just the mention of them caused Brook to go cold with fear, and the mere prospect of their retaliation prevented the Firetank Pirates from even thinking about harming their third son, Sanji.
  • Brook became this for the zombies of Thriller Bark after he worked out their vulnerability to salt. He purified a massive number of zombies searching for his shadow, all while singing to keep himself calm. The "Humming Swordsman" became a boogieman to the zombies and a major headache for the Thriller Bark pirates.
• Pokémon: The Series: Whenever Ash and friends are travelling through forests, Beedrill swarms and Ursaring mobs are always a cause for serious alarm. In another episode, Petalburg Woods is eerily quiet, and the only inhabitants are a massive flock of Taillow who Ash and friends learn firsthand are not so easily driven off, even by electric attacks. Brock speculates that all other Pokémon residing in the woods have gone into hiding because of the flock. Oddly, none of these Pokemon are particularly threatening or impressive in the games, being quite weak, but the anime never was faithful to the games anyway and they all come in swarms. Beedrill and Ursaring's ferocity in the anime seems to just be because the real life animals they are based on are feared.
  • In the main series Jigglypuff is this, everyone not familiar with it reacts to the pink puff ball with Cuteness Proximity or confusion. Ash, Misty, Brock or Team Rocket? Epic level Freak Out mainly because it always sings when it shows up and the singing always causes everyone to fall asleep, even at the most inconvenient of times. Then there's Jigglypuff's Face Doodling which always follows this up. Its singing is so far the only thing that has stopped the Bewear that keeps kidnapping Team Rocket.
  • Downplayed example but later seasons add Mimikyu, who is generally disregarded by everyone as just another mon, albeit a pretty strong one — held back only by the fact that it only cares to fight Pikachus... Meowth, however, is positively terrified of the thing. And this isn't just because its Brown Note nature has rendered him almost dead several times, but just the things it says are, according to Meowth, one of the only characters who can understand it and the one who most often serves as a translator, so seriously creepy that he outright refuses to repeat what it says.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht, although only Homura (and, in some timelines, Mami) knows how terrifying it is. Despite having apparently won the Superpower Lottery, Homura recruits Kyouko to help fight it. She tells us very little about it—only that it's some kind of super-witch, so powerful it doesn't need to hide behind a barrier, and the muggles will think it's some sort of natural disaster. It finally appears in episode 10, in a flashback to an earlier timeline where it killed Mami and Madoka. It turns out the "dream" in the beginning of the series was Walpurgis clobbering Homura in another timeline. She loses to it yet again in the current time, and it's only destroyed when Madoka remakes the entire universe to get rid of witches entirely. Tellingly, for its battle in the series' official mobile game, it took almost the entire cast introduced up to that point to kill it, and even then, without a blessing from Madoka, they wouldn't have pulled it off.
• Pumpkin Scissors: The anti-tank troop known as Gespenst Jager (roughly translating to "Ghost Hunters") are heavily implied to be this to all who are aware of their existence. A troop of genetically altered foot soldiers designed to take out enemy tanks in close-quarters combat, they have each been programmed with a hypnotic trigger that turns them into single-minded, unstoppable killing machines when activated. There's even a motto regarding them that basically amounts to "they are not your allies, and God help you if you make them your enemies".

R-T

• Ramen Fighter Miki: Parodied: to hear Kayahara sensei’s name is enough for the students of her school to scream and run in panic... she tries to be a Save Our Students teacher, but she is so depressed, she constantly spoofs Sadako Yamamura, stringy hair and all.
• Ranma ½:
  • Happosai is a pervert, so evil he actually had a near stroke when he tried to think about good things, and the strongest character in the series, only matched by Cologne. Pretty much everyone aside for Cologne fears the moment he decides to actually dedicate himself to hurt someone, and Genma and Soun just flat-out fear him the whole time.
  • Shampoo is a sweet, sweet girl with Super-Strength, incredibly fast hands, and a bizarre set of morals that allows her to murder. The mere idea of her wrath terrifies even Cologne-thankfully, the one time she appeared she had gotten really mad at someone was a misunderstanding, but it says a lot that they believed she was going to stage harmful and near-lethal (and potentially just plain lethal) accidents for Mousse for three years straight.
• Raideen: Barao the Demon Emperor is this to Prince Charkin. Every time Charkin loses a battle he punishes him, and in one episode, Velston literally begs for him to show mercy for his failures. Eventually Charkin is Driven to Suicide while trying to retain his honour in Barao's eyes.
• Rave Master: Crush Cookie. Don't let the funny name fool you, he's a mass murderer who can make anything he touches disintegrate. Even Let, the badass Blood Knight, is terrified of him. Let claims that dragons tell stories of Crush Cookie to their children the same way humans tell stories of the Boogeyman.
• Remy: Nobody's Girl: Gaspard runs an Orphanage of Fear and abuses the children if they don't steal enough to fulfill the daily quotas. They all hate him, but Remy's arrival inspires them to keep their heads held high.
• Rising × Rydeen:
  • Mikan, also known as the "lightning god". Most of the bad guys are aware of her reputation and are smart enough to try to run away from her but she can move as fast as lightning so they're usually forced to fight her anyway.
• Rosario + Vampire:
  • This is a significant part of why Kuyou got away with his abuse of authority while part of the Security Committee; the other students were just that scared of him. In fact, when Tsukune and the Newspaper Club tried to convince the other students to help expose the Security Committee's corruption, they all refused to do so out of fear.
  • Kokoa is terrified of her big sister Kahlua, and after seeing just what Kahlua is capable of, Tsukune and the others are less than eager to fight her as well. Inner Moka, a well-known badass herself, openly admitted that she didn't stand a chance against Kahlua.
• Rurouni Kenshin:
  • This is a common reaction to finding out the title character was once the legendary Hitokiri Battousai (this title, by the way, translates loosely as "Slays Men Just by Drawing His Sword").
• Sailor Moon:
  • Implied in the case of Sailor Venus. When the Dark Kingdom's forces manage to do her in in the penultimate finale of season one, they actually start to believe their whole victory is a Foregone Conclusion. As she is immensely powerful and athletic and the most dedicated of all the Sailor Soldiers, this line of thought isn't too surprising.
  • The first anime implies that her own companions are scared of her getting mad, as shown by Artemis' reaction when he realized Hawk's Eye and Tiger's Eye had pissed her off being to whisper "Scary...!" (and she hadn't transformed yet) and how fast Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibimoon dove for cover when they saw her appearing angry. And again with good reasons, as she just started spamming her Crescent Beam without caring for collateral damage.
  • Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Silence who appears only to destroy the world. The Outer Guardians are so terrified of her that outright attempted to kill her before she could be awakened. When she awakens in the original magna and Sailor Moon Crystal, everyone present is more afraid of her than they are of the Eldritch Abomination that's eating the planet. One Death Reborn Revolution and it's obvious that they're right to be.
• Saint Seiya has a few among the Gold Saints:
  • Cancer Deathmask is walking Nightmare Fuel, thanks to his combination of the godlike powers of a Gold Saint, his love for combat, the complete disregard for collateral damage (when called out on having killed children he replies that he had not noticed), and the habit of trapping the souls of his victims in his Temple in the guise of wailing faces covering all the walls and the floor as trophies. It gets to the point that in Saint Seiya: Episode.G a Giant (that is, a low-level god bent on destroying humanity) once invaded his Temple and recoiled in horror when he realized what the faces were, before being added to the collection.
  • Virgo Shaka is called "the man closest to god", and anyone who knows who they're dealing with is terrified at the idea of fighting him. Ikki at first did not fear him... Then Shaka made him remember their previous encounter, and Ikki started trembling in fear. Then, late in the series, Hades learns that Shaka has invaded the afterlife... And he too is terrified.
  • Pisces Aphrodite is described by Saga (the first Big Bad) as the most terrifying of the Gold Saints. He doesn't show much in the original series, but in Episode G a group of powerful enemies is terrified at the idea of fighting him, and what he does in Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold to the enemy starts with mind-raping one of them into submission and gets more terrible from there.
  • Ophiuchus Shaina is a mere Silver Saint, but is also the strongest Silver Saint that has not unlocked the Seventh Sense and has a justified fame as Ax-Crazy. People unfortunate enough quickly learn to fear her when she inflicts on them a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that would end in her clawing their faces out if she didn't keep getting interrupted right as she's trying that.
• Shigurui: Deconstructed and Played for Drama with Lady Iku. Unlike most examples, she isn't feared because of any damage she may inflict, she's feared because she's Kogan's Dark Mistress and the man is a ruthless, malevolent and downright Ax-Crazy Old Master who personally murdered her two previous fiancés so he could claim her for himself, even though she herself was less than thrilled with the idea of becoming his concubine. Sure, nobody will dare to hurt Iku and people do fear her... at the price of being Hated by All in town, even by other women, being ostracized, shunned and left with nobody to talk to since no one wants to interact with her unless necessary. People immediately leave any place she shows up at, children made a ditty about her calling her life "pointless" since she's the "mistress of a tiger" and, for added benefits, Kogan treats her like a whore.
• Slayers:
  • Lina Inverse nicknamed "the Dragon-Spooker", "the Bandit-Killer", and "the Natural Enemy of All Who Live". Pretty justified, considering the trail of destruction she leaves behind her and her questionable motivations.
    • Lina is especially terrifying to (non-sapient) dragons, as shown in one of the non-serial movies when a villain with an army of dragons asked her who she was, she answered, and as the villain gloated about how his dragons would soon annihilate her the dragons exchanged looks of horror before flying for their lives.
    • On the other hand, Lina herself is absolutely terrified of her elder sister Luna.
  • The one whose presence does disconcert the (sapient) Golden Dragons visibly is Xellos, though — after the carnage they suffered from him in their last war. He even used this status, though only to cut short their tendency to muck around and get things Golden Dragons themselves could see as desirable eventually done right now. He also seem to perceive Filia's meandering between haughty disregard and sheer horror as either amusing or refreshing.
• Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online:
  • Pito isn't particularly well-known, but the few people who do know her are terrified of her. Not just for insane skills but for her ruthless demeanor and shameless team-killing. In the first tournament she participates in, seven teams gang up to take her out, when that doesn't work another team tries to take advantage, and two more teams ally to try to kill her first.
  • LLENN as well. She became one of the most infamous player-killers simply by staying in the desert and killing anyone who got close, and she won the first Squad Jam with ruthless tactics that got everyone's attention. In the second Squad Jam (the same one Pito participated in), three teams allied to kill her, in what would have been the largest alliance in tournament history if not for the attempt on Pito at the same time. LLENN managed to kill all three teams without trouble, and complained they made her waste ammo.
  • By the Third Squad Jam LLENN and Pito, along with Teams SHINC and MMTM (aka Memento Mori) have become such odds on favourites that someone successfully manages to get all but one other team to co-operate in taking them down (along with Team T-S who technically won the Second Squad Jam). It didn't work.
• Tokyo Ghoul: This trope comes up quite a bit.
  • First we have the protagonist, Ken Kaneki, who goes from a shy, Nice Guy bookworm to a ruthless anti-hero who terrifies even Tokyo's most hardened fighters after he is turned into a artificially created half-ghoul and then repeatedly (and brutally) tortured until his mind snaps like a brittle twig. When he is using his Kakuja kagune (which he got from cannibalizing other ghouls), he is rated as an SS level ghoul by the CCG, and is noted by veteran Special Class Investigator Shinohara to be the most unstable ghoul he's ever encountered. In the sequel, Tokyo Ghoul: Re, he has become a CCG investigator himself under the name 'Haise Sasaki' and becomes known as the Black Reaper, and one of the most feared investigators in the series, and becomes the first investigator since Arima to deal the One-Eyed Owl a decisive defeat. That's not even getting into the fact that the one time he put on his old mask in Tokyo Ghoul: Re that it immediately sent any ghouls who recognized that it was Centipede's (his old CCG designation name) running in terror....
  • The One-Eyed Owl is a legendary figure in Tokyo, known to be the most dangerous ghoul the CCG has ever seen with a reputation for having brutally killed most every investigator who ever encountered it. As far the CCG is concerned, it simply appeared one day and managed to kill off an a horrifying number of investigators before being driven off, even cutting down the CCG's best combatants with ease. Fast, strong, and deceptively intelligent, it required someone to die holding it off just so the other investigators could get away simply because its speed made it impossible to escape. The slightest possibility of its return is enough to have the CCG lock down the Twentieth Ward and call in everything it has to face it.
  • Finally, there's Special Class Investigator Kishou Arima, the prodigy CCG investigator who is the youngest special class in history, has been hunting ghouls since he was sixteen, and is the one person even the Owl can't best in battle, having, as a Rank 2 Investigator, at the age nineteen, managed to defeat the (not the original) One-Eyed Owl when it had managed to kill all the Special Class Investigators on his team. Nobody is the series even comes close to matching him, and when the real One-Eyed Owl finally shows up during battle for the Twentieth Ward, it can't even so much manage to land a hit on him before he wounds it several times, even though the combined efforts of every other high class investigator there failed to even so much as slow it down, forcing it to retreat. And before that, he effortlessly curb stomps Kaneki, stabbing him in the skull twice with his lance. Run or Die is the only option ghouls have when squaring off against him, as he outclasses everyone else in the series without much effort at all. It turns out to be part of a Zero-Approval Gambit, making himself into a boogeyman so that the person that kills him will become a Hope Bringer for ghouls.
• Toradora!: Ryūji Takasu terrifies practically everyone he comes across due to his unnaturally menacing eyes that he inherited from his father, alienating him from a good majority of his peers. Thing is, he's actually a really Nice Guy.
• Toriko:
  • Zebra. The entire world panics when he is released from prison. Just the news of his release causes massive economic and social upheaval. And he hasn't even done anything yet.
    • What he DID do to get him into prison was cause the extinction of 26 SPECIES. Said species were damaging the ecosystem, but still!
  • The Four Beasts — four vicious Gourmet World creatures that prey exclusively on humans — are so terrifying that news of their return causes a panic that dwarfs the upheaval caused by Zebra's release.
  • Granny Setsuno is a tiny old lady with pink hair, who terrifies both high ranking memebers of the gourmet corp and rampaging monsters into fleeing without a fight - and for a very good reason.
  • Joie the Dark Chef. Even Setsuno is afraid of this monster of a chef!
  • Midora is so terrifying, that even Joa tries to keep him calm.
  • The Eight Kings are terrifying by nature. They're the eight strongest beasts of their respective families in a world where some species under them can single-handedly topple civilizations. Just the hoofprint of the Horse King is enough to scare an entire crew of veteran hunters, and just his breath can affect the other side of the planet. Monkey King Bambina takes it up to eleven. Not only does he keep his entire continent-sized zone in order, because the other super-powered monkeys are too scared of him to disobey, but he causes the main character to see his entire life flash before his eyes just by losing temper for one second. From several kilometers away. The reveal of his true form not only scares away almost every creature in the vicinity, but also makes every creature in the world eat like it's their last meal. Just by using his full power, he makes the entire world subconsciously ready to die. He also literally cuts mountains in half and sends the tops skipping like rocks along the water until eventually they come back around the world and are now hand-sized polished stones.
  • Anyone who sees Acacia's gourmet demon gets so scared that their hair whitens. Even remembering it can lead to that effect. Nakaume, after seeing it, was completely convinced that escaping is pointless, since the monster will eat them, no matter when they hide.
  • Coco, despite being the most calm and mild-mannered of the Four Kings, scares a lot of people, and rightfully so, being the most poisonous creature in human world.

U-Z

• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle has Yoruka, formerly a legendary assassin known as the Empire's Assassin Blade. She decides to demonstrate her strength by defeating the elite knights of the New Kingdom in the tournament, and not only curbstomps them all, she considers them too weak to properly show her strength. Later on in the light novels, she's singled out as one of the most dangerous enemies by the Lords, and proves this to be justified when she singlehandedly distracts all seven Ragnarok for several minutes, while exhausted and injured from previous fighting.
• Violinist of Hameln: Great Demon King Chestra, the Big Bad, inspires this reaction both through his reputation and his magical power. The entire armies are literally frozen in terror by his mere presence, implacably courageous characters doubt aloud whether they have a slightest chance against him, and greatest heroes of humanity see him in nightmares even after he is defeated.
• Genkai from YuYu Hakusho, a legendary human psychic. Nearly every demon at the Dark Tournament had heard of her name. As Karasu put it, she was the subject of their bedtime stories.
  • All of the Three Kings are this to the demon world, being the most powerful demons alive and Physical Gods by the standards of their universe, but special mention goes to Raizen, whose power keeps Yomi and Mukuro in check even after centuries of starvation. Raizen's old friends speak of his power with both reverence and fear, and Enki states the other two kings would piss themselves if they could have fought Raizen in his prime.
• Yuri of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V actively enjoys spreading misery and fear. Yuzu Hiragi was reduced to crying and running away from him after an off-screen duel. Even Jean-Michel Roget—who orchestrates his schemes with a cool head, a calm smile, and a tranquil confidence that he can plan around everyone, even armies, that dares to oppose him—sees just the arrival of Yuri as a ticking clock before his plans go up in smoke. It's to the point that his allies (who are just as terrified of Yuri as everyone else) will go from careful planning and strategy to "Well, the opponents are just done for" upon his arrival.

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