War for Fun and Profit in Anime & Manga.
- Remove the "Profit" and the twisted individual that is Sir Isaac Ray Peram Westcott from Date A Live will make more sense. He has no reasons, objectives or even logical goals that can justify what he does. He loves any kind of atrocity; from murder, to omnicide, to torture, to chaos and destruction. War is not an exception in his agenda. He transformed the center of Tenguu City into a battlefield and almost caused the destruction a entire city just for a "simple" end.
- Lighthearted literal example from Dog Days, war in Flognarde is a large scale gladiatorial sporting game that is mostly harmless and totally nonlethal. Countries involved place equal stakes and the winner takes the major portion. Individual participants are also rewarded based on their accomplishments.
- The Major from Hellsing doesn't care who wins, loses, or even why people are fighting. He just absolutely loves conflict for its own sake, as he explains during an inspirational speech
to his men before launching his assault on London. Further, the Major believes that War Is Glorious as well and is gleeful in waging war against Britain, or rather the Hellsing Organization, specifically Alucard. His animosity toward Alucard is because the Major views the vampire as anathema to him. The Major was, in his own eyes, a man with the trappings of a monster, while Alucard was a monster with the trappings of a man. - Cyborg 009:
- Black Ghost sent a group of mass produced cyborg men to help try to spark a war in 008's home country in Africa and proceeded to sell his advanced weaponry to both sides.
- In the original manga version it was in 'Nam during The Vietnam War. This happens a few more times, as well. The Black Ghost Organization is pretty much the king of this trope, being run by a consortium of arms manufacturers.
- In Lupin III: Missed by a Dollar, the villainess, Cynthia, arranges for a third-world military junta to stage attacks on oil-rich areas throughout the world, at the same time buying as much oil as she can. The desired result is perpetual warfare, giving her an eternal market.
- Madlax did this as some kind of bizarre magic ritual for a Nietzsche Wannabe. In fact, a lot of people were expecting this to be the reason of Enfant backing the civil war in Gazth-Sonika, only to be surprised to learn that there was no immediately obvious profit—Enfant was arming both sides for free.
- Gundam series:
- The Romefeller Foundation from Gundam Wing is the classic greedy military-industrial complex that manipulates warfare in order to line its own pockets, going so far as to create entirely unpiloted war machines, turning war into a game for anyone rich enough to afford their own army. Later, it gets defied when Relena is forced to become their figurehead leader and pulls an epic Reassignment Backfire by convincing most of the Foundation to move in more peaceful directions — or it would, if her reign as "Queen of the World", to use the Foundation's parlance, wasn't promptly ended by the professional military under OZ by Treize Khushrenada — the very split of which from the Foundation was what Relena was appointed to address in the first place.
- In the radio drama-slash-manga Blind Target, the Big Bad is an arms manufacturer who's trying to start another war so he can make more money (and wants to steal the Gundams so he'll have the best products to sell). When the Gundam Pilots engineer a public confession, the rebels he had been manipulating instantly revolt and administer some karmic justice.
- Gundam X has the Frost Brothers, who want a gigantic war because they're Artificial Newtypes (Category Fs) whose creators rejected them for being unable to use the Flash System and now want to kill off anybody who is a real Newtype or believes in them.
- ∀ Gundam's Big Bad Gym Ghingnham is a violent social darwinist who wants eternal war to cull humanity and leave only those strong enough to survive, whom he considers "true" humans. In games featuring both Turn A and X, the Frost Brothers often willingly and gladly work for Gym despite being backstabbers extraordinaire in their home series.
- Logos from Gundam SEED Destiny is in the same vein as Romefeller, and have done this all throughout history if Chairman Durandal can be taken at face value. What is true is that they turned a simple environmentalist group into frothing anti-Coordinator terrorist group who pull the strings of The Federation.
- This is the motivation of Gundam 00's Ali al-Saachez, but more for the fun part (the money does help though; keeping up to date on military equipment is expensive after all).
- Desil Galette from Gundam AGE somehow manages to outdo the above examples. An Ace Pilot for the UE, this monstrous brat views war as a game and the soldiers as toys at his disposal.
- Decil and Ali are both modeled on Yazan Gable of Zeta Gundam, who joined the Titans solely for the chance to kill AEUG supporters. Jamitov Hymen, who's using the war to move himself into a position of power over the Earth Federation, and Paptimus Scirocco, who manipulates the conflict so that he can seize control of the Titans from Jamitov, are no better (Yazan ultimately signs on with Scirocco, who as a Mad Scientist can also provide Yazan with all the latest high-tech weaponry to kill people with).
- Anaheim Electronics had done this for quite a bit, from selling weapons to all sides, building a Mobile Suit with nuclear strike capability just because they can, to concealing documents that could have prevented the One Year War so they could make more weapons. AE was able to get away with it for a long time because the winners of each war were so reliant on AE-provided weaponry that they failed to notice how most of the wars never would've even happened if not for AE's manipulations. And that's just the First Universal Century; in the F91 era, after losing favor to the Federation's in-house think tank SNRI, Anaheim responds by outright stealing SNRI's tech (Silhouette Formula 91) and helping Zeon remnants try to invade Earth (Gundam F90: Formula Wars 0122 Super Famicom game).
- Nobliss Gordon of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans does this with Gjallarhorn and other parties in a vicious cycle of greed. First find the agitated masses looking for Independence and economic rights, then get someone to band around their cause and arm the people involved and hire Teiwaz to run the weapon shipments to the activists involved and watch as it all crumbles apart after the rebels fail at the hands of Gjallarhorn. This song and dance goes on until Ride kills Nobliss in response for killing Orga.
- While always a part of the franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury makes this its core focus with the Benerit Group, a conglomerate of mobile suit manufacturers who use their vast wealth to keep the situation on Earth unstable with an unending series of proxy-wars, which they can then profit off of with the sale of their mobile suits used in the conflicts. In the Grand Finale, Miorine, as president of the group, completely dissolves it and sells the collective monetary assets to Earth-based interests to help rebuild and gain independence from Space-based exploitation.
- The Romefeller Foundation from Gundam Wing is the classic greedy military-industrial complex that manipulates warfare in order to line its own pockets, going so far as to create entirely unpiloted war machines, turning war into a game for anyone rich enough to afford their own army. Later, it gets defied when Relena is forced to become their figurehead leader and pulls an epic Reassignment Backfire by convincing most of the Foundation to move in more peaceful directions — or it would, if her reign as "Queen of the World", to use the Foundation's parlance, wasn't promptly ended by the professional military under OZ by Treize Khushrenada — the very split of which from the Foundation was what Relena was appointed to address in the first place.
- The Atreide Company from Noir is in this line of work - with the front of being an International Security Service, they sell complete coup d'etat packages to interested factions in unstable regions, toppling governments in return for resource rights. From training the soldiers and providing the weapons, right down to planning the actual takeover, all you need to do is provide a charismatic face for the Revolution!
- One Piece:
- Sir Crocodile inspires a rebellion in the kingdom of Alabasta by framing the King for stealing the rain, as well as some other villainous deeds. He does all this to force the king into telling him the location of an ancient superweapon.
- Don Quixote Doflamingo runs a massive underground weapons running business from Dressrosa. He uses weapons he buys / trades from Caesar Clown and Kaido and sells them to nations at war. It's implied that he's even been going as far as to interfere in the affairs of other nations provoke wars just to have a market.
- Orochimaru, the Big Bad of Naruto, loves doing this. He seems to consider it an art-form (but only if he is responsible — he thinks any other war is pointless).
- This was also Akatsuki's stated aim initially: They would start a bunch of wars, and Akatsuki would offer their services cheaper than that of the ninja villages to one side, quickly quelling them and monopolizing the shinobi market across the globe, and the ninja villages will gradually diminish, giving them military control over the world. The real aims of Akatsuki actually turn out to be even more insidious...
- Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid. Amalgam starts wars in order to test, demonstrate, and create a market for its Black Technology.
- The villain from one of the Dirty Pair OVA episodes is a military contractor who has helped to incite (and finance) a rebellion against his own country in order to sell weapons to the guerrillas. He keeps upping the stakes by gradually selling each side better weapons.
- In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, the war that split the Magic World twenty years ago was due to Fate Averruncus's group Kosmo Entelecheia, who wanted everyone else off their backs while they kidnapped a princess and used her to power their massive ritual (it's easier if the princess's home country thinks the enemy did it).
- This is the main plot of Maoyu, with the reason being that the war has benefited both humans and demons and if the war ends, there will be civil war which would be a lot worse. Thus, even though the heroes include all of the most powerful fighters on the human side and the leader of the demons, they have to slowly and carefully end the war so that the war-based economies that have gone on for centuries won't collapse. It's later revealed that the Central Church and Blue Demon Tribe, the driving force behind the human war effort and the most militant of the demons, respectively, have been conspiring together all along to maintain an eternal war.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Father incited wars with Amestris's neighbors just so there would be a lot of human souls released at certain points along the massive nation-spanning transmutation circle he needed to open the Gate.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) was no better; instead, the wars were all incited by Dante in order to cause enough despair in order for philosopher stones to be made. Then she would take those stones for herself.
- Sword Princess Altina has not one, but two (if not more) groups of nobility who are all about this. The title character's own oldest brother, and crown prince, wants Belgaria to be in a constant state of war to justify constantly building up army infrastructure, and tries to convince himself, and anyone who will listen, that this is Necessarily Evil for the country's continued existence and prosperity. The court of High Britannia in volume 4 is no better. Second in line to the throne, Margaret, tries to assassinate her own sister, Elizabeth, and despite failing that, seizes the crown, and orders war with the nation of Belgaria, without cause or provocation, all because she was bored. Her attendant, deliberately enraged a mortally ill Queen into a heart-attack to speed up the need for a coronation, and furtively supports a Forever War purely for its own sake, and his own amusement.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has the Duel Academy teach it's students to commit mass genocide as part of a twisted series of "hunting games," producing sadistic Child Soldiers and unleashing them in another dimension. However considering the franchise (and the giant glowing machine in the Big Bad's lair that seems to contain a bunch of human souls trapped in cards) this is probably just a cover for a mass Human Sacrifice plot.
- Ajin: Sato, leader of the Ajin resistance, claims to be fighting for the freedom of his species, but he's actually a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist who simply wants to start a war with humanity for his own amusement.
- Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045: After "The Great Default" bankrupted the global economy the major powers have adopted a policy of AI-regulated sustainable war in order to prop up the military-industrial complex that is now the only functional sector of the economy.
