YMMV / Hero Tales

• Complete Monster: Shimei is a sinister monster in both the manga and the anime.
  • Manga: Shimei is the living blade, Banshoushimei, who possesses the living and dead in order to gain more knowledge of bloodshed and horror. In his past guise, Shimei was responsible for the slaughter of Keiro's village of refugees in order to shape Keiro into a vengeful figure hell-bent on destroying the Ken Empire and all its people. In the present, Shimei introduces himself to the heroes by torturing the hero Taito's sister to make Taito awaken his powers and later murders the mentor of the hero Hosei. Leading attacks on civilians, Shimei also painfully brainwashes innocents into becoming his attack drones before seemingly being killed at the cost of Hosei's life. Instead, Shimei takes Hosei's body and tries to kill Hosei's Love Interest Laila, mocking her the whole time about using the body of the man who loved her to kill her.
  • Anime: Shimei is explicitly named as a demon in the form of the sword. After murdering Hosei's mentor, Shimei turns her into a zombie and forces Hosei to destroy her or die. Shimei routinely kills people and revives their corpses as his puppets, eventually destroying a civilian area that also kills Taito's adopted father before mocking Taito about it. When Keiro tries to destroy the empire, Shimei gleefully participates in massacring and zombifying every civilian he can.