Big Bad/Anime and Manga

"The ultimate villain of the story, who's causing the problem the heroes must solve."

Remember, "Big Bad" is not a catch-all trope for the biggest and ugliest villain of any given story. The Big Bad is the one who turns out to be behind several other seemingly independent threats.


 * Berserk mainly has the Godhand, and Griffith post-Face Heel Turn in particular, as Big Bads, but several arcs of the manga have seen Guts going against other servants of the Godhand. The Lost Children arc had Rosine, and the Conviction arc had Bishop Mozgus, with the most recent arc focusing on Emperor Ganishka.
 * However,
 * For most of Bleach, Sosuke Aizen was firmly entrenched as the source of almost every major conflict within the series, gleefully establishing himself as the scourge of nearly the entire cast (sans the Five-Man Band and the Big Good). That particular reveal came as a Wham! Episode, even though his villainous status was almost a Shocking Swerve, though it does make sense in hindsight. Upon his defeat, however, he seems to have been regulated to Disc One Final Boss status.
 * While Ichigo was recovering his lost powers after losing them to defeat Aizen, Shukuro Tsukishima.
 * The latest Big Bad, and newest one on the block, is The Emperor of the Vandenreich.
 * Combattler V: Empress Janera, even though she was working through pawns for the first half of story.
 * Vicious from Cowboy Bebop. Due to the episodic nature of the show, he's only in 5 episodes, but he's not only the central threat of those episodes, he also plays a huge role in Spike's past.
 * In Chrono Crusade, Aion's behind a huge chunk of the bad things that happen and is the final foe Chrono and Rosette have to face--although in the manga his morality is a little more gray than his anime counterpart.
 * In NORA: The Last Chronicle of Devildom, Kneel is orginally the Big Bad until Fall shows up, offically taking the role soon after Knell becomes The Starscream. With Knell driving Nora to achieve his full strength, he can be considered the Bigger Bad.
 * The same is true for D Gray Man's Millennium Earl. Just look at how his foot soldiers are created...
 * Though in more recent chapters, The Fourteenth and Apocryphos have been challenging him for the position, making it more of a Big Bad Ensemble.
 * Charles zi Britannia is the Big Bad of Code Geass.
 * At least until
 * Daimos: was the real Puppet Master caused the conflict in the story, manipulating everybody to achieve power.
 * Death Note takes an unusual approach to this trope by making the main character himself the Big Bad.
 * Ryuk is the Bigger Bad, since he's the one who dropped the Death Note in the first place, causing all of the events in the series. Not much would've changed if he left Light alone after dropping the notebook.
 * The notebook itself could be considered this as well.
 * Digimon has the following, by series:
 * Digimon Adventure has Devimon, Etemon, Myostimon, Piedmon, and finally Apocalymon
 * Digimon Adventure 02 has the Digimon Emperor, then Yukio Oikawa, and finally.
 * Digimon Tamers first had HYPNOS, then Zhuqiaomon, and after this the D-Reaper. Impmon was originally intended to be this (which is why he's portrayed in typical Big Bad fashion in the early promotional material), but Konaka later changed his mind.
 * Digimon Frontier have Cherubimon and Lucemon.
 * Digimon X Evolution had Yggdrasil.
 * Digimon Savers/Data Squad had Akihiro Kurata and finally.
 * Digimon Xros Wars has Baguramon.
 * The Digimon manga has the following:
 * C Mon Digimon Shin and Desmon
 * Digimon V-Tamer 01 has Daemon
 * Digimon Chronicles has the first incarnation of Yggdrasil.
 * Digimon D-Cyber has Metal Phantomon, who got taken over by Dexmon.
 * Digimon Next has Barbamon.
 * Dragon Ball has Piccolo, both senior and junior.
 * The sequel, Dragonball Z has Vegeta, Frieza, Cell and Buu.
 * Dragon Ball GT has Baby, a Big Bad Duumvirate of Dr. Gero and Dr. Myu, and finally the Shadow Dragons.
 * The Most popular is Frieza because he is the most recurring and the one who started the Dragon ball franchise.
 * Final Fantasy Unlimited gives us Earl Tyrant, who is  A strong case could actually be made for   being the true villain, as well.
 * Fist of the North Star has Shin at the beginning, the man who engraved the seven scars on Kenshiro chest and took his woman away. However, he only lasts 10 chapters in the manga (a bit longer in the TV series) and his role as Kenshiro's greatest rival is eventually taken over by Raoh, who serves as the main antagonist for most of the manga (being supplanted only by Souther at one point). The later half of the manga has Governor Jakoh, a Dirty Coward, followed by Kaioh, Raoh's long-lost brother.
 * Fairy Tail has at least one Big Bad per arc as is typical. Most of them are usually connected to the Bigger Bad Zeref who could be also the big bad for the entire series however Hades, whether trying to unseal him or are indirectly connected to others trying to unseal him.
 * Daybreak: Duke Everlue
 * Lullaby: Erigor
 * Galuna Island: Cold Emperor Lyon Bastia
 * Phantom Lord: Master Jose
 * Tower of Heaven: Jellal
 * Fighting Festival: Laxus
 * Oracion Seis: Brain
 * Edolas: Faust
 * Tenrou Island: Hades,
 * Father in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime.
 * in the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime.
 * Fushigi Yuugi has the infamous Nakago.
 * Most Gundam series have one.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam: The Zabi family as a whole counts, though Gihren is The Heavy, the Dragon-in-Chief, and the de facto Big Bad.
 * Zeta Gundam: Jamitov Hymem is the Big Bad for most of the show, but loses the position to Paptimus Scirocco in the last five episodes.
 * Gundam ZZ: Haman Khan, with Glemmy Toto making a play for this status in the last few episodes.
 * Chars Counterattack: Char Aznable, of course.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam F91: Carozzo "Iron Mask" Ronah.
 * Victory Gundam: Fonse Kagatie.
 * G Gundam: The Devil Gundam.
 * Gundam Wing: Duke Dermail is the Big Bad at first; after his exit the role is split between Treize Khushreneda, Miliardo Peacecrat, and Quinze.
 * Gundam X: Shagia and Olba Frost, with Shagia as the more senior of the two.
 * Turn a Gundam: Gym Ghingnham.
 * Gundam SEED:
 * Gundam SEED Destiny:
 * Gundam 00:
 *  Gundam Unicorn: Full Frontal.
 * The Claw from Gun X Sword with a track record of crimes agains the protagonists as long as his artificial right arm. Every single bad thing in the series ultimately traces back to him.
 * In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the Big Bad is
 * Naraku from Inuyasha.
 * An even better example might be
 * In Hellsing
 * Manga and OVA:The Major
 * tv anime: Incognito.
 * Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Every arc that doesn't feature him as the main villain features one who is connected to him, however small. The Pillar Men (Part 2) created the Stone Mask that turned Dio into a vampire, Yoshikage Kira (Part 4) got his Stand abilities from one of the arrows that Dio once owned, Diavolo (Part 5) was directly responsible for Dio getting his hands on the arrow in the first place, and Enrico Pucci (Part 6) was Dio's closest confidante.
 * Kara no Kyoukai has Araya Souren, who is responsible for pretty much everything before and after Shiki, the main charfacter, woke from her coma. Strangely enough, he is finished off in the fifth movie in a series of seven movies.
 * Karas has Eko, the former Karas of Shenjuki, who doubles as a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
 * Kinnikuman has had, in terms of Big Bads that were actually dangerous, Robin Mask for the 20th Choujin Olympics arc, Warsman for the 21st Choujin Olympics arc, Buffaloman for the Devil Choujin arc, Akuma Shogun for the Golden Mask arc, the tag-team of Neptuneman and Big the Budo for the Golden Mask arc, and lastly Kinnikuman Super Phoenix for the Throne arc.
 * Kotetsu Jeeg: Queen Himika for the first half, Emperor Dragon for the second.
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha likes using Mad Scientists for their Big Bads, what with Precia Testarossa in season 1 and Jail Scaglietti in season 3.
 * The sequel manga Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force has the Huckebein family.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima has Fate, Although it's later revealed that
 * In the past, the Lifemaker was undeniably the Big Bad.
 * Mazinger Z, Mazinkaiser and Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen: Dr. Hell, Mad Scientist and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
 * Great Mazinger: The Emperor of Darkness, ruler of the Mykene Empire.
 * UFO Robo Grendizer: Great King Vega, ruler of the Vegans.
 * Dr. Shiro Makinoha in Midori Days; that is, if a Big Bad can be henpecked by his daughter...via Hyperspace Mallet...
 * Apos in Mnemosyne.
 * Johan Liebert from Monster.
 * For a while, it looked like Franz Bonaparta was The Man Behind the Man.
 * The series Monster Rancher has the evil Moo.
 * Enchu in Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation.
 * MW has Michio Yuki.
 * Naruto initially presents Orochimaru as the Big Bad. The series becomes a Big Bad Ensemble in Part II, featuring  as contenders for the title. However, the series appears to have settled on the true Big Bad:
 * One Piece follows this example as well through its story arcs, sit back - this take some doing.
 * Captain Morgan arc: Captain Morgan, a dirty Navy official with an axe for an arm.
 * Buggy the Clown arc: Buggy the Clown.
 * Captain Kuro arc: Kuro of the Thousand Plans, a retired pirate who gets his crew back together for one last pillage.
 * Baratie arc: Sneak Attack Don Krieg, self-proclaimed "pirate admiral".
 * Arlong arc: Arlong the Saw.
 * Laboon arc: Mister 9, an agent of Baroque Works. Eventually redeems himself in an apparent Heroic Sacrifice.
 * Whiskey Peak arc: At first, Mister 8 seems to be in charge, but he actually answers to Mister Five, who in turn reports to Miss All Sunday who is never fought directly, though she is confronted.
 * Little Garden arc: Mister 3.
 * Drum Island arc: Wapol, the former king of Drum Island, attempting to reclaim his kingdom after previously abandoning it when the Black Beard Pirates attacked.
 * Alabasta arc: Sir Crocodile.
 * Jaya arc: Bellamy the Hyena.
 * Skypeia arc: Enel
 * Davy Back Fight arc: Foxy the Silver Fox.
 * Water 7 arc: At first, the mysterious ship-scrapper Franky seems to have the role, but the real villains are a group of carpenters-cum-secret police.
 * Enies Lobby arc: Rob Lucci is the True Final Boss, but the main villain role falls squarely on the incompetent shoulders of Spandam.
 * Thriller Bark arc: Gecko Moria
 * Sabaody Archipelago arc: At first it seems to be the slaver Duval, but he's redeemed fairly quickly. The real villain turns out to be the pathetically weak Saint Roswald, though his Dragons-in-Chief, Bartholomew Kuma, Admiral Kizaru, and Science Captain Sentoumaru, are the real threat, handing the Straw Hats their first complete and utter failure.
 * Amazon Lily arc: None! Though Boa Hancock might count at first
 * Impel Down arc: Chief Warden Magellan.
 * Marineford arc: A tie between Akainu and Blackbeard, both of which committed the unforgivable taboo of
 * Hody Jones for the Fishman Island arc.
 * Punk Hazard seems to have Caesar Crown as its top antagonist.
 * Fans generally speculate that an overall Big Bad for the entire series will eventually be revealed, and as of now most foreshadowing is pointing to.
 * In the Pokémon Special manga, Giovanni (or Sakaki, if you're going by the Japanese) pulls this off just like his anime counterpart should be doing in the first and fifth arcs.
 * The other Big Bads are Lance (second arc), Mask of Ice (third arc), Archie and Maxie (fourth arc), Guile Hideout (sixth arc), Cyrus (seventh arc), Charon (eigth arc) and Archer (ninth arc). The mysterious Sird, however, seems to be a series-spanning Big Bad, with a plan spanning several arcs.
 * All the Pokémon movies except the seventh, eighth, and tenth have a (usually a human) Big Bad.
 * Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo (the only Pokémon movie villain to be a Pokémon himself; it takes a heroic role later in the anime)
 * Pokémon 2000: Lawrence III
 * Pokémon 3: Molly Hale
 * Technically, Molly got her Reality Warper abilities from a swarm of minor Eldritch Abominations that moved into her house, but as there's no indication they're even sentient, she remains the Big Bad (for a given value of "bad," anyway, as she's really just motivated by childish desires).
 * Pokémon 4 Ever: The Iron Masked Marauder
 * Pokémon Heroes: Annie and Oakley
 * Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker: Butler
 * Pokémon Ranger and The Temple of The Sea: The Phantom
 * Pokémon: Giratina and The Sky Warrior: Zero
 * Pokémon Arceus and The Jewel of Life:
 * Pokémon Zoroark Master of Illusions: Kodai
 * Pokémon the Movie Black And White: Damon
 * The closest thing Puella Magi Madoka Magica has to a main villain is adorable but duplicitous and secretive little Weasel Mascot Kyubey, who doesn't tell the Magical Girls he creates certain key facts, including that, and doesn't care one whit about humans.
 * Ranma ½ has Pantyhose Taro, Herb, and Saffron.
 * Pokémon Zoroark Master of Illusions: Kodai
 * Pokémon the Movie Black And White: Damon
 * The closest thing Puella Magi Madoka Magica has to a main villain is adorable but duplicitous and secretive little Weasel Mascot Kyubey, who doesn't tell the Magical Girls he creates certain key facts, including that, and doesn't care one whit about humans.
 * Ranma ½ has Pantyhose Taro, Herb, and Saffron.


 * Akio Ohtori of Revolutionary Girl Utena. He  but it could be rightly said that otherwise, he got away with everything, including being responsible for probably hundreds of deaths, if not thousands.
 * The first season of Rosario + Vampire had Hokuto. The second season has Gyokuro.
 * Rurouni Kenshin had Makoto Shishio and Enishi Yukishiro. To expand on this:
 * Shishio was the Big Bad of the Kyoto arc by virtue of being Kenshin's replacement as the Ishin Shishi's top assassin, a Social Darwinist whose views clashed with Kenshin's pacifistic ideals, and his desire to overthrow the Japanese government that both his and Kenshin's swords helped to set up. He had the strength, connections, manpower and weaponry to start and maintain his campaign, plus being a magnificently Manipulative Bastard for a lot of people, both within his private army and on a wider scale; not to mention his aptitude for planning and executing strategies to keep himself two steps ahead of his enemies. What made him especially effective was that he was willing to cop to his faults whenever any aspect of his planning did fail, he actually respected his underlings to a degree, and he proved powerful enough to stave off four of the strongest opponents he could have--while being physically impaired himself (his burns from the government's assassination attempt meant he couldn't fight longer than 15 minutes at a time or else he'd risk death by overheating).
 * By contrast, Enishi,the Big Bad of the Jinchu arc, has a much closer tie to Kenshin than Shishio did, being the only one to both physically defeat Kenshin in combat and psychologically break him.
 * Sailor Moon was no stranger to this concept, but it was even more fond of setting up the seasons Dragon as the Big Bad, only to do a big reveal at the end.
 * First season: Queen Metaria
 * Sailor Moon R: Ail and En in Part One, and  in Part Two
 * Sailor Moon S:
 * Sailor Moon SuperS: Queen Nehellenia
 * Sailor Stars: Chaos (who is the original source of all the aforementioned except Ail and En)
 * Codename: Sailor V, the manga that began before Sailor Moon but that ended after it has Danburite as its Big Bad. Though in the scheme of things he's a small fry, being an underling of the leader of the very first Quirky Miniboss Squad.
 * Saint Seiya the first Big Bad is Ares.
 * Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has Sosai (Leader) X.
 * Slayers has at least one or two per season:
 * Slayers: Rezo-Shabranigdo and Copy Rezo.
 * Slayers NEXT: Chaos Dragon Gaav and Hellmaster Phibrizo.
 * Slayers TRY: Valgaav and Dark Star Dugradigdu
 * Slayers Revolution: Zanaffar (revived by Dulcis)
 * Slayers Evolution-R:
 * And in the final original light novel, another piece of Shabranigdo, held within the soul of a mercenary named Luke, was a Big Bad.
 * Sonic X has Dr. Eggman in the first two seasons and Dark Oak in the final season.
 * Soul Eater has one for every major story arc. In the first one, it's Medusa, the second, Arachnae, and the third, Noahbut . Although Medusa is notable.In that   Kishin Asura is often mistaken for one, but he more qualifies as a Bigger Bad.However he did make a few recurring appearances in the story arcs and like medusa is still as active villain.Now the next arc is about Asura and him as the Big Bad this time.Also Soul eater is about preventing Kishins from being born just like Asura since everybody is after him,so Asura does qualify as a big bad to the entire series.
 * in Soul Eater Not! Medusa's and Arachne's younger sister Shaula Gorgon can be qualified as the Big Bad in this arc.
 * In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the Big Bad is Lordgenome.
 * Friend from 20th Century Boys.
 * In Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Beatrice is this at first, until
 * Lord Darcia in Wolf's Rain is not only a Big Bad, his entire family line is responsible for anything evil involved in the story... even in its "happy ending," which is anything but because of him.
 * Oddly enough, the original ending (the version that stops at episode 26) seems to present Lady Jaguara as the real villain, especially after . In the OVA, Darcia takes that position back hard.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh!!:
 * First Arc (Manga and Season 0): Shadi (though he's not evil, he just subscribes to Ancient Egyptian standards of morality).
 * Death-T (Manga and Season 0): Seto Kaiba.
 * Monster World (Manga and Season 0): Dark Bakura.
 * Duelist Kingdom (Season 1): Pegasus.
 * Battle City (Seasons 2-3): Marik then Dark Marik.
 * Virtual Nightmare Arc: Gozaburo Kaiba
 * Doma/Waking The Dragons (Season 4): Dartz
 * KC Grand Prix (Season 5 part 1): Ziegfried von Schroeder.
 * Memory World (Season 5 part 2): Dark Bakura/Zorc.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
 * Season 1: Kagemaru
 * Season 2: The Light of Ruin
 * Season 3: Yubel,
 * Season 4: Darkness
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's:
 * Season 1: Rex Godwin starts off looking like one, but turns out to be more of a Stealth Mentor. In the second half of the season, Rudger (Rex's brother and leader of The Psycho Rangers) seems to take over, but is soon abruptly killed off halfway through his arc, leaving the rest of it to his followers who had been Dragon Their Feet. The final three episodes of the season, however, reveal the guy behind everything:
 * Season 2:.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal
 * Season 1: Dr. Faker so far, but now that the World Duel Carnival has started it's ambiguous as to whether it'll be him or, who'll turn out to be Eviler Than Thou.
 * Generally, it can be argued that the biggest bad of the original series is Bakura/Zorc, the biggest bad of GX is the Light of Ruin (while not the final adversary, and in fact beaten offscreen, it is Judai's Arch Nemesis Because Destiny Says So and responsible for two seasons worth of strife, the other two villains only getting one), and the biggest bad of 5D's is
 * And, in the world portrayed in the cards themselves, it seems that Invader of Darkness fits the Big Bad role pretty well. He even has a Badass Cape. However, close seconds would seem to go to Dark Lucius, who one could argue crossed the Moral Event Horizon in Sakuretsu Armor.
 * Note that the giant monster from Sakuretsu Armor is the same from the equip spell Falling Down, who is actually, tainted by the dark power of the Archfiends. And yes, he later becomes Dark Lucius as he gains control over his new power.
 * Yu Yu Hakusho breaks these up by season as well (except the first, where the villain in turn depends on the case Yusuke is in):
 * Sakyo in Season 2. Although Younger Toguro looks like this as well, he's more the Dragon-in-Chief.
 * Sensui in Season 3. He is the leader of the villains, but another Big Bad could be
 * The three main rulers of the Makai world.
 * In the manga, it's revealed that alot of the early villains had been pawns in
 * Yakumo in Poltergeist Report.
 * The little known manga Kagerou Nostalgia has Lord Gessho Kuki, Shadow, who is responsible for pretty much every horrific thing to occur in series. May actually be the host of an even Bigger Bad to boot.
 * Fei Wong Reed in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. For a long time he appears to be doing nothing at all, apart from watching the heroes on magic TV and remarking about how all is going according to his plan; he appears to be a remarkably useless villain.
 * Onimaru Takeshi in Yaiba, your typical Dark Overlord. Also Kaguya and, during the Pyramid and Underworld arcs, Boss.
 * In the last arc, there's also the Platina Company.
 * In the most recent arc of Shakugan no Shana becomes the Big Bad after.
 * Windaria The king of the Shadowland appears to be this but its actually
 * Sekidousai in Inukami! whose inventions form the basis of early plots and those Evil Plan drives the second half of the show.
 * The Pope, a.k.a., in the Sanctuary Arc of Saint Seiya , Hilda in the Asgard Arc, and the respective titular villains of the Poseidon and Hades Arcs. The movies have their own Big Bads as well.
 * Millions Knives in Trigun.
 * Voltes V: Emperor Zu Zambojil, Dirty Coward extraordinaire.
 * Rain Devila in Wedding Peach is behind all the demons who attack Momoko and her friends
 * Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple presents us with Saiga Furinji, the eponymous One Shadow in the Yami organization's One Shadow Nine Fists group--essentially, the strongest martial artist in the organization--who is also the son of the series' Big Good, Hayato Furinji, and the Disappeared Dad to Hayato's granddaughter Miu..
 * Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple presents us with Saiga Furinji, the eponymous One Shadow in the Yami organization's One Shadow Nine Fists group--essentially, the strongest martial artist in the organization--who is also the son of the series' Big Good, Hayato Furinji, and the Disappeared Dad to Hayato's granddaughter Miu..