Evil Counterpart/Anime and Manga

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Examples of Evil Counterparts in Anime and Manga include:

Bleach

  • Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez would be the Evil Counterpart to Ichigo Kurosaki. An Arrancar (Hollow with Shinigami powers), he serves as a foil to the Visored, Ichigo (A Shinigami with Hollow powers). He also has the same love of fighting shared by Kenpachi, Ichigo, and Nnoitra. Unlike Ichigo, he doesn't have a cause apart from pride and strength; Ichigo addresses this somewhat.
  • There's also Sosuke Aizen and Kisuke Urahara. Sometimes, it's hard to tell which one's the real villain, but "Turn Back the Pendulum" kind of closed the book on that one. Both are super genius Chessmasters who constantly Troll everyone, even their allies. But while Urahara cares about his allies in the end, Aizen doesn't care about anybody and will terminate his allies as soon as he's finished with them.
    • Aizen is also an evil counterpart to Toshiro Hitsugaya and eviler counterpart to fellow villain Coyote Starrk. All three grew up mostly alone due to their incredible power (Aizen and Hitsugaya scared everyone away, Starrk accidentally killed anything that approached him due to Power Incontinence). Hitsugaya was able to work through his misfortune and form attachments to his friends and adopted family. Starrk formed attachments to Aizen and their fellow villains (the only reason he's a villain is to stay with his newfound friends). Aizen, despite being respected by the exact same people as Hitsugaya and Starrk, and even winning the heart of Momo Hinamori (Hitsugaya's Unlucky Childhood Friend), did not form any attachments to them and again, does not care about anybody.
  • Subverted with Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Szayelaporro Granz. To paraphrase Stimpy: "It's the Evil Counterpart... and the really Evil Counterpart!"
  • Nnoitra is what Kenpachi would turn into if he just gave up on life. Kenpachi loves to fight, puts handicaps on himself to make the fight last longer and give his opponents a chance, and typically leaves his enemies alive so that they can come after him again; he's crazy, but in a fun kind of way. Nnoitra on the other hand, is completely Axe Crazy, hates everybody, has a misogynistic streak that's definitely absent from Kenpachi, uses dirty tricks, leaves a mile-wide trail of dead bodies behind him, and is looking to die. Their battle (and twin eyepatches) nicely emphasise their similarities and differences.
  • In fact, 2/3 of the Arrancar seem to be evil counterparts of one member of the Gotei 13 or another: Ggio Vega and Shaolin "Soifon" Fon are both agile, fast and athletic melee fighters, who are generally calm, loyal and firm, and seem to have a fairly low view on their comrades. They even look similar, but where Soifon is a mostly cold and professional Tsundere that seriously fangirls over her female idol, Ggio is a cocky and sarcastic taunter with a short fuse and 'bit of a boastful air to him, and the respect he harbors for his male commander appears to be more platonic. Furthermore, Soifon's antagonism towards her subordinates is mainly a pseudo-facade, her way of toughening them up, while Ggio appeared genuinely indifferent to his fellow Fraccion, barely reacting - if at all to their deaths.
    • Yumichika Ayasegawa and Charlotte Cuuhlhourne initially appear to share similar vain, narcissistic tendencies with Yumichika as fightloving as any other Blood Knight and Charlotte an even more flamboyant drag queen. However, the superficial similarity falls away as the fight progresses to reveal Charlotte believes that beauty is derived from physical strength which is a philosophy echoed by the 11th division. Yumichika, however, ends up revealing that his adherence to 11th division philosophy (and the "beauty" of it) is only skin-deep, indicating he's proud of his zanpakutou and its power even though his division's philosophy means he's not supposed to be, and also revealing that his strength doesn't lie with the physical as it does for both Charlotte and the 11th division, but with the spiritual (kido) instead. The depth of what he's sacrificing for the sake of his division, friend and captain also reveals Yumichika's narcissism doesn't run as deeply as he seems to want people to think and that he certainly doesn't want anyone to realise how self-sacrificing he really is. In the end, the fight reveals only superficial similarities between the two by highlighting that Charlotte is everything the 11th division philosophy stands for and everything that Yumichika personally - when allowed to admit it - does not.
    • Nirgge Parduoc and Marechiyo Omaeda are both large and fat, boastful and demeaning, though Omaeda is more vain and cowardly, while Nirgge is at least patient and relatively calmer.
  • Coyote Starrk is kind of a subversion. He's clearly the lazy and apathetic counterpart to the easy-going and carefree Shunsui Kyoraku, but the only "bad" thing he's done so far is lazily fight against Kyoraku, and then, he offered to back out of. Come to think of it, between offering to pretend-fight him and taking one of the weakest arrancar in Aizen's army as his underling (or so we think, she's actually his zanpakuto), the only reason he's evil at all is because he's on the villains' side. He's Neutral Lazy to Kyoraku's Neutral Good, until he releases. The annoyance of having to go all-out turned lazy into pissed, though apparently not pissed enough to use his stronger attacks yet.
    • That Starrk decided to join Aizen simply because he wanted comrades, seemingly irrespective of what said companions got up to, could be seen as bad enough. The 'evil' aspect specifically is harder to argue for when he's driven not by malice but by loneliness; it does not justify his actions/association, but his motivation is an odd one for a supposed villain. His reason for fighting is one any number of Heroes adhere to—to protect his friends. Kyoraku has similar motivations and is unscrupulous about what he needs to do to achieve them. Starrk's internal monologue makes it painfully obvious that his reluctance was genuine and he'd sooner be friends with the captain, but no such insight is given into Kyoraku's thoughts on the matter, leaving the extent of their similarities ambiguous.
  • Ichigo gains another evil counterpart in Kugo Ginjo, a warrior with very similar powers and origin. They even have similar personalities, through Ginjo is revealed to have been faking and has no qualms over using and betraying allies, while Ichigo's main motivation is to protect his True Companions.

A Certain Magical Index

  • ACCELERATOR AND FLIPPING TOUMA KAMIYAN!!!
  • Following Accelerator's Heel Face Turn, Teitoku Kakine becomes his evil counterpart. Both have won the Superpower Lottery and their powers are somewhat related, both are extremely sadistic, and both were on an A God Am I journey. But even when Accelerator was evil, he adhered to Even Evil Has Standards, while Kakine gleefully tortures anyone in his path. Also, Accelerator wanted to become a god to get people to leave him alone, while Kakine wanted to be one because of his incredible ego.
  • Umidori Kuroyoru is an evil counterpart to both Saiai Kinuhata and Accelerator. She has the same power as Saiai, but uses it more aggressively and is a jerk compared to the more cheerful Saiai. Accelerator notes that Umidori's personality and fighting style is identical to his prior to his Heel Face Turn.
  • Fiamma of the Right is another counterpart to Touma, who even compares their powers and draws attention to their similarities. Both use their Right Hands to shatter something that someone worked desperately to obtain, except Touma uses his to solve the problems around him and Fiamma his own personal problems — selflessness versus selfishness. In their final battle, Touma points out the biggest difference between them: Fiamma observed the world and was disgusted by what he saw, so he wanted to "save the world" by wiping out the human race. Touma observed the world and saw evil people to fight and good people to protect.
  • The author's notes explain that Aureolus Izzard is what Touma would have become if he had failed to save Index.

Code Geass

  • Code Geass has Schneizel vi Britannia, who sometimes seems like a good Counterpart when compared to his Magnificent Bastard of a little brother, Lelouch, a fact mirrored by their color preference in chess.
  • It's possibly a closer match with Charles, Lelouch's father. Once he takes the spotlight, we see that his past and personality are surprisingly similar to Lelouch's, except that Lelouch never reaches the point where he'd marry his buxom subordinate.
    • Speaking of buxom subordinates, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Marianne is Kallen's Evil Counterpart. Both are highly capable insanely hot Action Girl Knightmare Frame pilots that are completely devoted to their Non-Action Guy men. The crucial difference is that Marianne is a Lady Macbeth with no moral compass while Kallen's moral framework is so strong that she chooses her belief in what's right over the man she loves.
    • According to Word of God, Kallen might have actually done the same thing as Marianne if Lelouch had actually came out and said that he loved her. That's why he doesn't say it—he doesn't want to drag her down with him as he enacts his Thanatos Gambit.
  • The Geass video game introduces twin princes Castor and Pollux, who are more directly Evil Counterparts; like Lelouch, they're amoral Chessmasters with Evil Eye powers, but unlike him, they have absolutely no problem using their Geass to make people their slaves.
  • Mao is another Evil Counterpart to Lelouch. He's not only the same age as Lelouch (even though he looks older than 17), but he also represents what would happen if Lelouch lets his geass drive him mad.

Fullmetal Alchemist

  • In the manga, Father is Hohenheim's Evil Counterpart. He's also even weirder than him. This means that in both the anime and manga version, the Elric brothers eventually have to fight the Doppelganger of one of their parents. Toward the end of the manga, Father becomes more like an evil counterpart to Ed, as his bishonen "God" form looks like young Hohenheim/Ed except with Father's cruel eyes, and Father's arrogance and obsession with gaining knowledge at all costs is a dark reflection of Ed's tendency toward Pride.
  • Wrath is an Evil Counterpart of Ling. Both cover Charles Atlas Superpowers and impressive swordsmanship with a front of Obfuscating Stupidity, and Ling's actual Papa Wolf attitude toward his friends and subjects is mirrored in Wrath's pretensions to being a Father to His Men- in reality, he really couldn't give a damn about his subjects. Also, just as Wrath is a human-turned hommunculus, Ling gets turned into the second Greed. However, while Wrath lost his human identity in his transformation, Ling manages to maintain his consciousness and serves as The Conscience to Greed. Wrath started life as the 12th candidate for Fuhrer and Ling is the 12th son of the Emperor.
  • Kimblee in the manga comes across as something of an evil counterpart to Scar. Both have destruction-based powers and invoke Light Is Not Good (although Scar is at worst an Anti-Villain). Also, Kimblee "created" Scar, delivering the injury that gave him his nickname, and the role of Kimblee and other State Alchemists in carrying out genocide against Scar and his people is the motivation for Scar's revenge.
    • To support this argument, look at the scene where Scar is standing on the roof with Kimblee on the ground, with Scar himself pointing how their situations were reversed from in Ishval. Also, Scar moved on past his focus on revenge while Kimblee's obsession towards completing his job never waned.
    • A recent{{when} chapter seems to give Scar another evil counterpart in Bradley, who describes both of them as nameless warriors, and again, you have the perpetrator of genocide versus the victim of genocide.

Gundam

  • Gundam SEED introduces Mu La Flaga and Rau Le Creuset. Rau isn't just an Evil Counterpart, he's a faulty clone of Mu's father. Le Creuset actually manages to be the Evil Counterpart to 3 characters. As a cold-blooded subversion of The Obi-Wan, he's a counterpart to Big Brother Mentor La Flaga. He also however, is the counterpart to Born Winner Kira Yamato, demonstrating how badly the kid could have turned out if he hadn't had decent parents. Finally, he's the philisophical opposite of Lacus Clyne, preaching a gospel of nihilism, misanthropy and Omnicidal Mania in contrast to her Technical Pacifism and humanism.
    • The Evil Counterpart trope doesn't just apply to characters; the Archangel, the cool battleship of the main characters, gets an Evil Counterpart in the Dominion which is identical to Archangel in every way except for one: it's black instead of white.
  • Gundam Wing is none too subtle in setting up the Epyon to be Wing Zero's evil counterpart. Wing Zero's back mounted thrusters make it resemble an angel (made ridiculously blatant by the Wing Zero Custom), while the Epyon resembles a devil. The 2 suits are similar in their construction: they both can transform into a jet mode, and they both contain a Zero System. However, they are also opposites: Wing Zero has a super-powerful gun, Epyon has a super-powerful sword. Also, the two Zero Systems are hinted to work in different ways, with Wing's "showing you the future", and Epyon's "showing you your death".
    • Interestingly though, the "On the Next..." narration for Epyon's introduction episode says it's evil "just like Zero"; presumably this refers to the ZERO System rather than Wing Zero itself.
  • Both Commander Sazabi and Professor Gerbera are this to Captain Gundam from SD Gundam Force, Gerbera more explicitly so.

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

  • One of the earliest examples is an Evil Counterpart for Kenichi—Odin, the First Fist of Ragnarok otherwise known as Ryuto Asamiya. They were inspired by the same childhood incident (seeing a then-5-year-old Miu beating up adult thugs all by herself), but while Kenichi was motivated to fight for justice (something he wouldn't remember until years later in the present day), Odin was motivated to gain power. Shortly after the aforementioned incident, the two had a fight for a yin-yang pin Miu had given Kenichi in exchange for a cat pin she wanted; Kenichi won the fight, but then offered the pin to Ryuto anyway and suggested to pretend that Ryuto had won--which only wound up offending Ryuto's pride and sparked his Start of Darkness.
  • Natsu Tanimoto, a.k.a. Loki the Fifth Fist of Ragnarok, had a brief Evil Counterpart in Berserker, the Second Fist, after Tanimoto defected from Ragnarok; while Tanimoto advocated hard work and training, Berserker was a naturally-gifted fighter with no formal training who could nevertheless give Tanimoto a sound thrashing during their clash. (It's played with, however, in that Tanimoto is currently going through the Heel Face Revolving Door.)
  • Kisara Nanjo was originally touted as an Evil Counterpart to Miu back when she was Ragnarok's Eighth Fist, Valkyrie. Following her Heel Face Turn, she got her own Evil Counterpart in Freya, the Third Fist, due to the fact that she used to be one of Freya's underlings and also concerning their differing views on the use of weapons (Kisara, while not begrudging Freya for using weapons, simply didn't feel she herself should resort to weapons in order to stand alongside men as a fighter); eventually though, Freya had her own Heel Face Turn and the two remain friends (maybe).
  • Since Yami is the organizational Evil Counterpart to Ryozanpaku, by default the members of YOMI (all disciples of the One Shadow Nine Fist members of Yami) become Evil Counterparts to Kenichi. One of the more notable counterparts in this regard would be Sho Kanou; both he and Kenichi were motivated by affection for Miu and Kanou even pulled a Redemption Equals Death because of her. As well, Kajima Satomi (the disciple of the One Shadow) may eventually turn out to be this for Kenichi as well.
  • The earliest master-class example would be Kensei Ma's older brother Sougetsu Ma—both men are well-known fighters from China, but Sougetsu is considered a disgrace on the family name due to his embracing of the killing-fist philosophy and his turning to crime. And now Sougetsu is a member of the Nine Fists, making him an even greater counterpart to Kensei.
  • Two members of the One Shadow Nine Fists group are Evil Counterparts for two members of Ryozanpaku--"God Fist" Akira Hongo for Sakaki Shio and Agaard Jum Sai for Apachai Hopachai. In both cases they're childhood friends of their respective good counterparts and fighting partners who turned to the dark side. However, in Agaard's case, he turned to the killing-fist philosophy out of pure instinct, a fact Apachai understands and respects; while Sakaki's and Hongo's differing philosophies came out of the same incident that tore apart their comradeship--the death of their mutual friend at Hongo's hand during a fight to apply for a position with Yami, which prompted Sakaki to utterly reject the killing-fist philosophy. Both Nine Fists members are an interesting case, however, in that Agaard is an Affably Evil Friendly Enemy and Hongo is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who will Pet the Dog occasionally and has high moral footing.
  • Yet another master-class example: Alexander Gaidar, the One Shadow Nine Fists' resident Command Sambo master, is an Evil Counterpart to Ryozanpaku's judo master Akisame Koetsuji where appreciation of artwork is concerned. Both men are extremely talented sculptors, and are capable of making impressive pieces of artwork out of the steel and stone of their surroundings even while they're fighting each other.
  • The One Shadow himself is an Evil Counterpart to three different people on different levels: to his father Hayato Furinji, since they're respectively the leaders of Yami and Ryouzanpaku; to his former best friend Koetsuji, since both are skilled in combat and medicinal applications; and quite possibly to Kenichi, who wears Saiga's former arm-guards and represents the kind of character Saiga used to have before his Face Heel Turn, whereas Saiga represents what Kenichi could potentially become if he had a Face Heel Turn for the sake of a loved one.

One Piece

  • Buggy the Clown seemed to be introduced as an Evil Counterpart to Luffy; Indeed, their devil fruits are practically opposite in several ways, but similar in others (allow for long range attacking, provide invulnerability to certain kinds of attacks). While Luffy is irrepressibly cheerful, Buggy is constantly aggravated, etc.
  • It looks like[please verify] Blackbeard is shaping up to be Luffy's Evil Counterpart in addition to the Big Bad. He's initially introduced as someone who has similar dreams to Luffy and similar ambitions, as well as the same Big Eater nature (though with completely different tastes in food). Then it turns out he takes things a bit further and will actually betray his True Companions and kill them to fulfill his ambitions. He even subtly points this out when he and Luffy reunite in Impel Down and hints that they're Not So Different. It helps that his crew mimics Luffy's as well, with Van Augur as counterpart to Usopp, Shiliew to Zoro, etc.
    • The Blackbeard pirates except perhaps the original members[please verify] don't think of each other as nakama and some members has expressed an interest in dethroning Blackbeard as leader. Some of them stated that if Blackbeard wasn't able to steal Whitebeard's powers, they would have just abandoned him to the Marines. Also, many of the members are Gonk in contrast with the Straw Hats who are good-looking, cool or cute.
  • Frankly you could say that most every Big Bad Luffy's encountered along the way was something of an Evil Counterpart with Crocodile being an embittered ruthless Chessmaster that gave up on dreams and Moria revealing that he lost his beloved True Companions in the New World. They seem to act as chilling reminders of what Luffy may become if he didn't hold onto his dreams or his friends.
  • Interestingly, Admiral Akainu could serve as one for Ace. Along with the heat powers, they're both devoted to their own sense of justice; Akainu adheres to absolute justice, hunting down any criminal, while Ace was determined to take down Blackbeard for his murder of a crewmate. These codes even go beyond those of their superiors/captain, as Sengoku and Whitebeard both have their limits. What separates them is that Ace genuine cares for others, while Akainu murders them if they oppose him.
  • Lately,[when?] Hyouzou, the New Fishman Pirates' assassin, is this to Zoro. Both of them are powerful swordsmen, enjoy drinking and have a calm demeanor. However, Zoro was never shown drunk while Hyouzou became drunk and blindly attacked anyone around him. Hyouzou only works with people who offer him the most money while Zoro has no interest for money and fights for his True Companions.

Lyrical Nanoha

Rurouni Kenshin

  • Whereas Kenshin wants a peaceful Japan in which war will no longer be necessary, Shishio, the man who replaced him as hitokiri is The Social Darwinist and wants to create a Japan that is a proud warrior race. Also, while Kenshin has neat X Marks the Hero scars, Shishio was badly burned and wraps himself in bandages.
  • Shishio's follower Soujirou is also one to Kenshin. Kenshin endured a sad childhood and was orphaned before being adopted by a master who trained him in swordsmanship. In personality, Kenshin didn't start out all that happy but eventually took on a cheerful Obfuscating Stupidity. As a dark mirror to Kenshin, Soujirou grew up in an abusive family and found an Evil Mentor in Shishio, who gave him the encouragement to become a Self-Made Orphan. In terms of personality, Soujirou has a more extreme version of Kenshin's forced cheerfuless, being a Stepford Smiler who is incapable of showing (and to an extent feeling) any emotion.
  • To complement this, Shishio serves as one for Kenshin's master Hiko Sejuro. Both are powerful and influential mentors who inspire ideologies in their pupils. While they're both hardened in some way, Hiko holds some optimism towards Kenshin's path. Shishio, while he does care about him, brainwashes Sojiro into his ideology. Hiko comically abuses Kenshin but respects his pupil's decisions.
  • Sanosuke has evil counterparts in Cho, one of Shishio's men, and later, Banjin, a follower of Enishi. Both of these characters have dress and hair styles clearly similar to Sanosuke's, and while Sanosuke is a Boisterous Bruiser with a code, Cho and Banjin take a love of fighting to Blood Knight levels and have no real morals.
    • Monk Anji is also one of Sanosuke. They're both fist-fighters who suffered a the loss of loved ones; Sanosuke with Captain Sagara and Anji with all of his adoptive children. To deal with this pain, they turned to violence. When they meet Kenshin and Shishio respectively, the dynamic is also reflected. Sanosuke, while vitriolic to Kenshin, trusts him completely. Anji is merely siding with Shishio for his own reasons.
    • Earlier then that, there's Shikijou. Like Sano, he enjoys fighting and has immense loyalty to the one who defeated him (Aoshi), but the depths to which he's willing to go for strength disgusts Sano (this is played up more in the manga).
  • Enishi Yukishiro, mentioned two points above, is an Evil Counterpart to Kenshin on an even more personal level than Shishio. Both he and Kenshin received lasting physical marks from the same incident (the accidental death of Tomoe, Kenshin's wife and Enishi's sister, at Kenshin's hand)—Kenshin got the second part of his famous cross-scar, while Enishi got Locked Into Strangeness via his hair turning white from the shock. However, while that same incident motivated Kenshin's future Thou Shalt Not Kill and The Atoner mentality, Enishi turned Ax Crazy and hell-bent on revenge. To further the counterpart theme further, their animal motifs are traditional opposites (Kenshin's fighting style is reminiscent of the dragon, while Enishi's is akin to the tiger) and Enishi's Watou-jutsu sword techniques are coincidentally perfectly able to counter Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi techniques.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Whenever someone turns evil, 9 times out of 10 they'll acquire an evil version of whatever cards they usually play:

  • Yuuki Juudai: Elemental Heroes/Evil Heroes (after becoming Haou)
  • Marufuji Ryou: Cyber Dragons/Cyberdark Dragons (when he becomes Hell Kaiser Ryou)
  • Johan Andersen: Gem Beasts/Advanced Gem Beasts after he becomes possessed by Yubel)
  • There's also the Sangenma (Sacred Beasts) and Wicked Gods, direct counterparts to the Egyptian God Cards in the anime and Yu-Gi-Oh R manga.

Other examples

  • Naruto
    • Gaara of the Desert started out as an Evil Counterpart to Naruto, since he's also a young ninja with a demon sealed inside him, an interpretation of what would've happened to Naruto if not for the presence of his True Companions.
    • Sasuke. Naruto, himself even lampshaded it. Face it Naruto has plenty of these.
    • Kabuto too, in an inversion. Realizing that Naruto is practically a good counterpart to himself, decides to take on Orochimaru's cells to mimic being a jinchuriki like Naruto. He also undergoes training under the White Snake Sage to become a Sage just like Naruto.
    • A lot of the antagonists have aspects of this to the point you could call this a theme. Every arc showing how Naruto or another of the good guys could have gone horribly wrong.
  • Tsubasa in Kannazuki no Miko is Souma's evil counterpart as well as his older brother.
  • Vicious is Spike's Evil Counterpart in Cowboy Bebop. They share identical histories as crime syndicate assassins, and once worked together. Spike gave up his killing life after a near-death experience, but Vicious never did, and holds Spike in contempt for betraying his "true nature".
  • The anime Gate Keepers features a Dark Gate Keeper known as "Shadow", who it turns out became embittered with humanity by a family tragedy that he tried (and failed) to avert.
  • Tullece from the third Dragonball Z movie, Tree of Might. His entire character was based on the idea of what kind of person Goku would have grown up to become if he had never cracked his skull and gotten amnesia.
    • Yajirobe meanwhile was never a villain, but was a short, dim-witted and spiky-haired man who lived alone in the middle of nowhere, phenomonally strong and obsessed with food, mirroring Goku at the start of Dragonball. The contrast here was that Yajirobe was lazy, cowardly and generally much less pure compared to Goku's much more earnest demeanor. A kind of Chaotic Neutral Counterpart.
  • Rave Master:
  • This trope appears in Season 2 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. (Warning: major spoilers.)
    • Kuze is really similar to the Major, the series protagonist. They both were the 2 only survivors of a plane crash as children of about the same age who became friends in the hospital until they both got their first cybernetic bodies and lost contact. While the Major became a police officer working for the government, Kuze became a terrorist opposing the state. Both share the same goals of helping and protecting the people from corruption and crime, their only differences being which side of the law they chose to stand on.
  • This happens to Optimus Prime from Transformers quite a bit, most especially in the Japanese series. In Robots in Disguise, this takes the form of Scourge, who mirrors Optimus's appearance and strength. The fact that he's not outright identical to Optimus keeps him from being an Evil Twin.
    • However, Nemesis Prime from Transformers Armada IS an Evil Twin, with his coloration being the only difference, as is the one that crops up in the backstory for Alternators/Binaltech.
    • Motormaster from the Generation 1 cartoon could be considered the original Evil Counterpart for Optimus Prime. He had the same alternate mode and was built to be just below Megatron in power.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya In the later novels, the whole SOS-Brigade is revealed to have an Evil Counterpart group—alien interface, esper, time traveler, and "god" (whose powers had for some reason transferred to Haruhi). They aren't really evil; they just have opposing goals. The only one not represented in this dysfunctional group is Kyon, who they try to win over in the latest novel.
    • Well, not all of them are evil. Kyouko seems to have bitten off more than she can chew, Kuyou is much more ambiguous but seems to run on Blue and Orange Morality, and Sasaki is actually not evil at all, and is secretly on Kyon's side, but Fujiwara goes completely insane and tries to kill Haruhi in order to remake the timeline in his own image. He also claims to be related to his counterpart, but we don't know if that's true or not.
    • Also, Ryoko Asakura for Yuki Nagato.
  • Aion in Chrono Crusade is clearly Chrono's evil counterpart; even their time manipulation skills are opposed or complementary in the anime. In the manga their powers don't seem to be quite as related, but instead it takes the For Want of a Nail path if you think about it—as revealed near the end of the manga, Aion became bent on his path for remaking the world and Pandaemonium when he received visions of Pandaemonium's memories on his coming-of-age day. If Chrono is his twin brother, that means that he probably was lined up to have the ceremony, as well. He never had a chance because of the hubbub Aion caused, but if Chrono had gone first instead of Aion, Chrono probably would've been the one to go crazy, and Aion would've been the "good" twin. The fact that Aion refuses to tell Chrono the truth and says it's "better this way" probably shows that he, himself, is aware of how close Chrono came to being like him.
  • Vash in Trigun has his Evil Twin Knives, who gives a good idea of what Vash would've become if he hadn't been a mama's boy.
  • In Chiko: Heiress Of The Phantom Thief, the titular Chiko has something of an evil counterpart in Angie, who started off as a sweet happy-go-lucky girl befriended Chiko. She just happened to be the daughter of the head of security of the museum Chiko and her fellow thieves were casing. Chiko willingly betrays her and conducts the theft, leaving her behind. One Wham! Episode later, she's stuck on the top of a moving train with an Ax Crazy Angie trying to drive an axe into her skull. Smooth, Chiko, smooth.
  • Like Vampire Hunter D, Rei-Ginsei is a weirdly beautiful Hunter with supernatural powers. Unlike D, he's egotistical, completely amoral, only helps beautiful women and doesn't hesitate to try to torture a child to death to get what he wants.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Lordgenome, the Spiral King, a Spiral Knight who might be considered what Simon would have become if he hadn't had Nia to find the Anti-Spiral homeworld and therefore end the war in his favor.

Lordgenome: There once was a man who fought like you, not realizing his actions would bring about the destruction of humanity.

    • Guame the Steady is Boota's Evil Counterpart. Guame is shown as a small critter accompanying a young Lordgenome exactly the way Boota does Simon.
    • Another candidate for Simon's Evil Counterpart is Rossiu, although not so much evil as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is very Wrong Genre Savvy.
  • Sensui from Yu Yu Hakusho is the protagonist's Evil Counterpart. Sensui was the spirit detective for Earth before Yusuke was and both had a strong binary belief of good/evil and human/demon. The main difference is that after Sensui accidentally witnesses the "Feast of Human Vices" those beliefs were shattered. Another 'more fragile and idealistic equals turning to the Dark Side.'
    • A better and lampshaped example would be Younger Toguro, who Yusuke would be if he gave into his Blood Knight tendencies, and stopped caring for his Nakama.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima has Setsuna and Tsukiyomi, the mad Shinmeiryuu swordswoman to match Setsuna in every major battle. Unlike Setsuna, Tsukiyomi is bloodthirsty, direct and wins by any means necessary. Setsuna is quiet, humble and rarely fights for anything other than her charge, Konoka. Plus they're both lesbians, but Setsuna's innocent and taciturn while Tsukiyomi likes to speak in Double Entendre and Subtext and is willing to do anything at all, at anytime she can (ironically, to Setsuna herself).
    • Kotaro seemed to be an Evil Counterpart to Negi during the Kyoto arc, although he has since done a Heel Face Turn and become The Rival. Currently, Big Bad Fate Averruncus appears to be an Evil Counterpart to Negi, as each is a cute boy with a group of female partners backing them up.
    • Fate's entire team is made up of Evil Counterparts, some obvious and some not. Anya's mirror is an Emotionless Girl who looks quite similar to Anya and likes the same element. Yue and Nodoka's opposites are the panty-less Emotionless Girl and the panther girl, respectively, although the only similarity between Nodoka and panther seems to be hair color and they hang out with their version of Yue. Haruna is vaguely connected to the girl with the lute, in that they are both artists (music vs drawing). Finally, as stated above, Fate is Negi's opposite. They both have female followers.
  • In Death Note Light is the Evil Counterpart of L.
    • And Mello the Evil Counterpart to Near.
    • And Beyond Birthday is L's other Evil Counterpart.
  • GaoGaiGar: Each of the 11 Planetary Masters of Sol is an Evil Counterpart for a member of the main GGG crew, even though it's not immediately apparent which is which.
  • Back when Kinnikuman was a superhero, Kinkotsuman was introduced as his villainous counterpart; He was just as bad at what he did as Kinnikuman was. Unlike Kinnikuman, he was unable to eventually find a more fitting profession and slowly became less prominent as more serious villains started showing up.
  • In Full Metal Panic!, there's the Creepy Twins Yu Fan and Yu Lan, who are shown to have been through extremely similar wars and circumstances as Sousuke. Just like Sousuke, they're rather emotionless, extremely loyal to the person that took care of them, and their occupations are very alike. Main difference? Sousuke was adopted by Kalinin and the twins were adopted by Gauron. Funnily enough, Gauron (as elaborated on in the novels) is revealed to have actually tried to take Sousuke when Sousuke was young, but Sousuke refused. 5 years later, and Gauron is still fantasizing and obsessing over "beautiful" Sousuke. If there's anything Sousuke did right when he was young, it was knowing who to accept as his father figure.
  • In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, the whole Varia is meant to be tailored as being Evil Counterparts to the Vongola family. Xanxus is Tsuna's counterpart, both having Dying Will flame powers and both competing for the same position as the boss. The only one that is unclear exactly which is the Evil Counterpart is Mukuro to Marmon - especially since Marmon is mainly motivated by money and isn't nearly as cynical or scary.
  • Every major robot villain in Astro Boy is an evil, or at least morally ambiguous counterpart to some extent. What makes them interesting is how each one completely inverts a major aspect of Astro's personality or show what he'd be like if things had happened differently, or to underscore the fact that who he is rather than what he is makes him a hero, for example:
    • Atlas, who has become Astro's biggest rival over the years. Though he was little more than a violent thug in his first appearance, he was later updated in the 80s anime as a Composite Character of Atlas, Astro's "brother" Cobalt & the Blue Knight. In the 2003 series, with the Blue Knight retained as a separate character, though, their conflict was more personal than political. Both had terrible relationships with the men they called "father", but had very different ways of dealing with it; Atlas' involving kidnapping, industrial sabotage & attempted murder. What makes it more poignant is the fact that they were both based on the same technology, adding a layer of "there but for the grace of god go I" for Astro, that an advanced AI can choose between good & evil.
    • Astro II, a "more human" version of Astro, including human vices such as lust & sloth.
  • Nearly every season of Sailor Moon has a set of villain counterparts to the Inner Senshi. R has the Akayashi Sisters (Koan-Mars, Bertier-Mercury, Petz-Jupiter, Calaveras-Venus), S has the Witches 5 (Eudial-Mars, Mimete-Venus, Tellu-Jupiter, Villuy-Mercury), SuperS has the Amazoness Quartet (Cere Cere-Venus, Palla Palla-Mercury, Jun Jun-Jupiter, Ves Ves-Mars).
    • This carried over to at least one video game adaptation, Sailor Moon: Another Story. In that game, while it brought back all their old foes to that point as bosses, the main villains (other than the Big Bad) were the Oppositio Senshi, 5 teenage girls with powers mirroring the Inner Sehshi, and names based on Babylonian gods and goddesses: Sin (god of the moon), Nabu (god of Wisdom), Nergal (god of war), Marduk (god of thunder and leader of the gods), and Ishtar (goddess of love).
    • In the manga, Queen Nehellenia of the Dead Moon Circus was seen as a shadowy, mirror reflection of Queen Serenity. Likewise, Nehellenia's kingdom of the Dead Moon was hidden inside the shadow of the moon's center.
  • In Inuyasha, this is the Big Bad's motivation. Naraku seems to hate InuYasha specifically due to their similarities: they have the same half-demon nature, causing loneliness to both, but InuYasha forms bonds to soothe his loneliness, while Naraku destroys the bonds of other people to make himself feel better. Naraku's frustration over this is the reason why he never really does anything but try to power himself up or ruin InuYasha's life (symbolically destroying his own half-breed nature).
  • Jagi from Fist of the North Star was initially built up as an evil counterpart to Kenshiro, having the same 7 scars and everything. Whereas Kenshiro uses his skills to protect the weak and punish villains, Jagi uses Hokuto Shinken to terrorize villagers. Subverted as it is revealed that Jagi never truly mastered Hokuto Shinken and that he's not the only other student to learn Hokuto Shinken from Master Ryuken.
  • Arcade Gamer Fubuki has a rival, who has her OWN version of the Passion Panties except hers are black. Also, she wears rollerblades so she can twirl around and activate her passion panties herself rather than waiting for a friend with a fan.
  • Anemone is the Evil Counterpart to the titular character of Eureka Seven. Though it turns out she's not so evil after all, at least not by the end of the series.
  • Hei in Darker than Black has a couple of characters who qualify as evil counterparts: There is Wei, a fellow Chinese Badass whose psychopathy contrasts with Hei's relative restraint. Like Hei, Wei is also one of the few contractors shown to be capable of emotion, but his are all negative to Hei's positive ones. Another character Nick has the same power as Hei, the same nice guy persona, and has the same goal of finding his Dead Little Sister, but he wants to achieve it through murdering people; Harvest, the Big Bad of the interquel manga has the opposite power to Hei- while Hei's power involves creating material on an atomic level, Harvest's involves destroying it; Mina in season 2 wears a similar costume/shares similar weaponry to Hei and is also The Stoic, but is also a dark reflection of Kirihara, sharing a similar background of being The Ojou.
  • Much of season 2 of Cardcaptor Sakura (at least the first third to half) was spent seemingly building up Eriol, Ruby Moon, and Spinel Sun as Evil Counterparts to Sakura, Yue, and Kero, respectively. However, this was all or mostly a sham. Not only is Ruby Moon hardly as dangerous and ruthless as Yue is (usually) described as, at best coming off as merely annoying and hate-worthy, but Spinel Sun is often adorable and harmless, acting more as a bored Greek Chorus to the events. As for Eriol himself... opinions are divided on if he or his actions were "evil", but he's certainly not as different from Sakura as might have been supposed.
  • In X 1999 Fuuma is evil counterpart to Kamui and Seishiro is Evil Counterpart to Subaru.
  • In Girls Bravo, the main character Yukinari and the Big Bad Yukina, as if the similar names weren't a big enough clue. While in some ways they are complete opposites—he's a powerless Non-Action Guy who is allergic to women but generally doesn't hold a grudge against them ,and she's an Extraordinarily Empowered Girl who is allergic to men and wants to kill all of them—both of them have dealt with a great deal of pain in their lives that led to them both being Allergic to Love with the opposite gender. In the end Yukinari is able to stop her from committing gendercide simply by gently talking her down and helping her deal with the insecurities that created the situation in the first place. Unfortunately for Yukinari, his former Evil Counterpart falls in love with him and becomes a Yandere Stalker with a Crush with a bad habit of sneaking into his bed (naked) while he's sleeping. Also, while she isn't allergic to him, he is still allergic to her.
  • The main characters of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt have ones in the demons Scanty and Kneesocks. Unlike the hedonistic Chaotic Neutral protagonists concerned either with sex and sweets, the demons are strictly Lawful Evil, obsessed with Rrrrrrrrrules and evil schemes. Their Team Pet Chuck even gets one with Fastener, who's much less of a Butt Monkey.
  • Fairy Tail throws this trope at us a few times. Reitei Lyon (an ice mage trained by the same master) is this to Gray, in addition to Rival Turned Evil. Gajeel, the Iron Dragon Slayer, is introduced as this to Natsu, the Fire Dragon Slayer, but after a Heel Face Turn he becomes Natsu's rival. Currently, Zancrow of Grimmore Heart is Natsu's, being a psychotic fire mage who can also eat flames like Natsu.
    • Angel of the Oracion Seis seems to be a pretty blatant one of the protagonist Lucy; they're both celestial spirit mages that possess Golden keys. While Angel is overwhelmingly powerful, Lucy is still relatively naive and relies more on skill. The biggest difference seems to be in the treatment of their spirits. Lucy treasures all of them and treats them well, while Angel is willing to deliberately injure them to achieve victory.
    • Master Jose of Phantom Lord was one for Makarov, before it became painfully apparent that Jose couldn't stand up to him in a fight. Most of his magic was darkness based, while Makarov's spells (other than his size increase) are light based. The next one is Master Hades of Grimore Heart. In addition to being the previous guildmaster of Fairy Tail, and Makarov's former mentor, he's the only one in the entire series to have beaten Makarov in a fair fight.
    • It seems like they're building Bluenote Stinger, Master Hades' dragon, into one for Gildarts Clive.
    • Erza Scarlett has one with Erza Knightwalker
  • Devimon and Ladydevimon to Angemon and Angewomon in Digimon Adventure.
  • In Eyeshield 21 Clifford D. Louis of The Pentagram is a pretty obvious Evil Counterpart to Hiruma of the Deimon Devil-Bats. They're both talented poker players and Evil Genius quarterbacks, who invoke Blond Guys Are Evil and love a good challenge. They even both where #1 jerseys. The only real differences are Hiruma's preference for trick plays, and Clifford's greater speed. Before Clifford arrived, Marco of the Hakushuu Dinosaurs was a slightly less obvious one: he's a Manipulative Bastard to Hiruma's Trickster Archetype, and unlike Hiruma, prefers to avoid facing strong teams. At the same time, though, they both favour using any tactics necessary to win, use intelligent plays to compensate for a lack of natural talent, Determinator their way through crippling injuries, and get the very best out of their team. You could arguably throw in the Ojou White Knights' Takami as a Good Counterpart to the both of them, as he shares almost all of those same qualities, but without the penchant for brutality.
  • Suitengu's motives in Speed Grapher reveal him to be an Anti-Villain counterpart to Saiga. They have more shared history than they know.
  • Medaka Box: Besides obvious parallels between the protagonist, Kumagawa is also a dark mirror of Zenkichi, sharing similar traits while sitll appearing to be complete opposites. While Zenkichi is a tsundere, Kumagawa is a compulsive liar. Similarly, they're both attached to some of the most powerful figures in the story; Zenkichi to Medaka, Kumagawa to Ajimu. While Zenkichi doesn't think much his abilities, Kumagawa claims to be epitome of weakness, yet both are some of the most determined people in the series.
  • Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Oriko and Kirika are either Evil or Extreme Counterpart to Madoka and Homura, respectively. Both Madoka and Oriko have angelic magical appearance, both aim to save the world. Homura can stop time, Kirika can slow down time. Homura will do anything to save Madoka, Kirika will do anything including mass murder for Oriko's vision. Homura's and Kirika's obsession has to do with Madoka and Oriko respectively being nice to them.
  • The tragedy of the Count in Gankutsuou centers around Fernand's betrayal of Edmond out of love for Mercedes. Skip forward one generation, and Albert has many of the traits Edmond did (most obviously an amazing ability to attract friends and followers), with Franz as his Fernand and Eugenie as his Mercedes. The difference is that Franz is too loyal to Albert to do anything to harm him and it is due to this that Albert retains his kind heart and life even after all the crap the Count puts Albert through and becomes The Messiah who saves Edmond Dantes' soul at the end.
  • In Pokémon, Paul is this to Ash more than any other Rival character. Ash is kind, helps others, respects his opponents, sees the true potential in all Pokemon, and travels with True Companions, also treating his Pokemon as such. Paul is mean, out for himself, mocks those he beats as "weak" (including Maylene), tosses away Pokemon who don't immediately measure up, travels alone, and puts his Pokemon through Training from Hell.
    • New Rival Trip is kind of a provincial dick, but has never been shown to mistreat his Pokemon.
  • Zelda and Ange in Princess Principal, at least as much as two characters in a world of Gray and Grey Morality can be "good" and "evil" - they're both Teen Superspies working for the same organization, but Zelda is much more willing to accept collateral damage than Ange is.
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