Magnificent Bastard/Anime

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The face of inevitable triumph.

"Just As Planned." —Light Yagami, upon getting his memories back

"Don't you recall? The two of us used to play chess together as boys. Of course, I would always win." —Lelouch Lamperouge

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Other Examples

• The most impressive and villainous character in Ashita no Nadja? A 13-year-old girl. Yes, a teen Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and Nadja's Forgotten Childhood Friend: Rosemary. Said character steals the spotlight brilliantly by kicking puppies so well and hard that even the local Smug Snake, who thought the kid would be an easy-to-manipulate puppet at first, in the end utterly fears them. And for all that, the punishment amounts to nothing more than a slap in her face and willingly leaving the mansion. Karma Houdini, indeed.
• Balalaika from Black Lagoon. Ruthless, cool, very dignified ex-special forces commander, now the queen of the mafia. Her huge facial scars can't completely tarnish her incredible beauty, and her fighting skills and intelligence keep her on top of the crime control of Roanapur.
  • Series protaganist Rock seems to be turning into a anti-heroic Magnificent Bastard as he becomes steadily more jaded. Whilst he's manipulating everyone around him and with a Slasher Smile that tells you he's thoroughly enjoying himself, is that his goal is ultimately to save as many lives as possible.
    • He talked back at Balalaika and lived. That alone shows how much of a Magnificent Bastard he is.
  • Let's not forget Balalaika's biggest Rival and pretty much the only mafia leader in Roanapur who can more or less constantly keep up with her: Mr. Chang from the Sun-Yee On Triad.
    • With the latest OVA series it is clear that Chan and Balalaika are equals. Balalaika might have her absolute lead in provess and wit, but Chan makes it up with his great influence and far superior contacts, with CIA for example.
• Bleach's Sosuke Aizen. The man caused the exile of six Gotei 13 captains, multiple vice-captains, and both the Kidou Corps captain and vice-captain in a single move, while pinning it all on one of the exiled captains. He got away with this for over a century then had the entire governing body of the Soul Society slaughtered and replaced by him and his henchman without anyone noticing. He then manipulated everyone with ease in a great, long-running Gambit Roulette to steal the Hogyoku trapped in Rukia's soul, take over the Hollow world, create a new army of soul-eating supersoldiers, and then take over... pretty much everything else. He had backup plan upon backup plan, faked his own death, nearly stabbed to death his fiercely-loyal lieutenant (who remained fiercely loyal for a while afterward), took out the fighting strength of the Gotei 13 including Yamamoto himself, and very nearly succeeded in obliterating Ichigo's hometown to fuel his ambitions. He was brought down by his own Villainous BSOD upon realising both that Ichigo had grown more powerful than he had anticipated and that enormously intelligent Urahara doesn't agree with his view on how the world should work.
  • One arc is pretty much the struggle between two Magnificent Bastard candidates: Shujuro Tsukishima and Ginjo Kugo. Then it's revealed they're working together.
  • Tsukishima manages to become the only other person besides Ichigo to outgambit Byakuya Kuchiki by using his power to insert himself into Byakuya's memories as his fighting mentor, allowing him to learn all of Byakuya's abilities in a single sword strike. Unfortunately, Tsukishima didn't bank on Byakuya's Pillars of Moral Character nature hiding both an Undying Loyalty to Ichigo and such a secret inner Blood Knight instinct that even Byakuya didn't know he possessed one.
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is full of these, with the Anti Hero Or Villain Protagonist Lelouch being one of the best examples. He turns a weak regional rebellion into a massive world war against his father, all while under the guise of the fabulously theatrical masked persona, Zero. His older brother Schneizel lacks the theatrics, but more than makes up for it in sheer competence, managing to wipe out all the progress that Lelouch made in over forty episodes in less than four minutes - though admittedly only through Lelouch's inability to kill an unarmed enemy soldier 40 episodes prior, and his unwillingness to use his Geass to erase knowledge of the Geass Research Facility. Without that, Schneizel's words would have just been hot air.
  • Considering both Charles and Marianne, it's In the Blood, after all.
  • Even when Schneizel separates Lelouch from the Black Knights he manages to go and take over THE OTHER HALF of the world as from the half he captured last time He then goes on to finish taking over the rest of the world. His Magnificent Bastardness REALLY shines through, however, when you realize that taking over the world was really just part of a bigger plan to create a peaceful world for his precious sister Nunnally.
  • That entire sequence is even more awesome when you realize: He could have done this from the start. This is what Lelouch becomes after you take away his friends and love interest.
  • C.C. is one of these as well, seeing as she helps Lelouch with almost everything he does. She may be Lelouch's right-hand woman, but she's never outshined by him.
• Light Yagami of Death Note zig-zags this trope, only to end up being a deconstruction of this trope. Yeah, he employs Memory Gambits, Batman Gambits and Gambit Roulettes left, right and center while eating potato chips and wielding his pen like a sword to Ominous Latin Chanting. But he's also an arrogant, thin-skinned manchild whose overly inflated ego leads to him making stupid mistake after stupid mistake, ultimately setting the events that culminate in his downfall in place by nearly blowing his cover over an insult. And when he's ultimately cornered and marked for death by Ryuk, he doesn't die with dignity. He cries and screams like a little bitch, begging for help before dying the same way most of his victims did: a fatal heart attack. While he may have been crafty enough to run circles around the police, build up a cult following, and kill many of his enemies through manipulation and mind games, his surprisingly frequent moments of self-sabotaging stupidity keep him from fully making the mark.
  • Mello might be more of a true example since his death sets the final piece in place for Light's downfall; it all depends whether or not he knew what he was doing with this, which is purposely left ambiguous.
  • L and Near also qualify, as they match Light gambit for gambit. This series is an excellent example of what happens when a Magnificent Bastard and a Smug Snake that borders on being a Magnificent Bastard are pitted against each other.
  • Donald Trump. Yes, you read that right. Appearing in the one-shot sequel chapter as the current president of the United States, Trump wins the Death Note through an auction, only to learn that thanks to a new rule added by the Shinigami King, he'll die if he accepts it. Instead of letting Ryuk butter him up into taking it for the sake of empowering the United States, he decides that his life is more important than his country and declines... only to lie to the public about having the power of Kira anyway, ensuring that he can remain president, keep threats to his country at bay, keep his promise to the world that he would never use the Death Note for evil, and give himself a PR boost in the process. He does what Light failed to do and pulls a fast one on Ryuk, leaving the Shinigami genuinely impressed by Trump's shrewdness.
• Jean-Luc LeBlanc, Nietzsche Wannabe and Evilutionary Biologist, of Divergence Eve.
• Proxy One in Ergo Proxy, who is even referenced to be "the winner at the end of the world" (with good reason). Not only is he the master manipulator of nearly everything that happens in the course of the series, but he wins.
• Hiruma, the team captain and quarterback for the Devil Bats, of Eyeshield 21. Scarily enough, he's also the Team Dad.
• The Count from Gankutsuou- holy shit. Perhaps even more so than he was in the original story.
• Katekyo Hitman Reborn has Byakuran the third major Big Bad of the series.
  • But the true mastermind of the whole Future Arc was TYL!Tsuna. Yes, that Tsuna.
  • The Inheritance Ceremony Arc Big Bad, Daemon Spade, is showing signs of this.
• Saralegui from Kyo Kara Maoh. In one move, he made sure that Yuuri's crew all trusted him and wiped out Large Shimaron's army by by having his own servant shoot him in the chest with an arrow, making it appear as if the arrow was aimed for Yuuri and that he had thrown himself in the way to protect Yuuri, causing Yuuri to go into Maoh mode and destroy all of Saralegui's enemies for him. He then followed that up by hypnotizing Yuuri into wiping out Large Shimaron's navy for him. Remarkably, he still managed to finish up the series with Yuuri trusting him completely until the very end.
• Johan Liebert - the Monster. He manipulates everyone he encounters as they were puppets on a string and then disposes of them without a second thought, subverts every Pet the Dog moment he's given in chilling ways, and never loses that Dissonant Serenity permanently affixed to his face. The problem is, the straight treatment the series gives his activities also makes him freaking scary to behold. A perfect example of a character who manages to be both this trope and a Complete Monster.
• Tobi from Naruto fits this trope. He's got the plans, the style, and the nerve for it. He even manages to win over Sasuke, despite having a hand in the slaughter of his clan and not even denying it, while his use of Madara Uchiha's name was enough to instill fear in the five leading countries of the world.
  • Arguably, the closest to Magnificent Bastard in Naruto is Kabuto Yakushi. Yes, THAT Kabuto, who has raised the most powerful zombie army in the history of that world... including the aforementioned real Madara Uchiha among his sort-of members. Holy CRAP!
• Neon Genesis Evangelion has Gendo Ikari, the leader of the NERV organization. While far from his only ploy, the greatest reason he is on this page is for his involvement in the Human Instrumentality Project, even though he wasn't the one in charge. He was enough of a key factor to be considered the one most responsible for it, and he even had his own motive for manipulating its execution: to be reunited with his dead wife Yui.
  • Rebuild of Evangelion took his badassery to new heights. If you think back to it, it's obvious he scheduled Unit 03's activation test onto the same day as Rei's meal party on purpose so that Asuka would volunteer for Shinji and Rei's sake. Once Unit 03 was overtaken by Bardiel and Shinji refuses to fight out of fear, Unit 01's dummy plug was activated so that Asuka will be severely injured (putting her away for a while) and Shinji necessarily traumatized for him to resign from NERV and leave the city. Cue Zeruel's arrival to abort his departure, him emerging from the shelter just in time to see Unit 00 get eaten by Zeruel and finally getting the motivation to grab Unit 01 and kick Zeruel's ass, saving Rei and infusing the Angel into Unit 01, "awakening" it without thinking about the consequences. Cue Gendo remarking that "just a little more until our project is complete". Hoo-lee shit, is this guy awesome or what?!
  • Recommend studying of his entry on the Memetic Badass page as well.
• Manning from Orguss 02 is a perfect example of the trope. Perfect quote, when he's on a plane with two others that's under attack by an enemy Giant Robot:

Manning: "When I give you the signal I want you to push that button. That's not so hard." Lean: "That's the hatch release. If I open the hatch, then what?" Manning: "I'll escape in the Decimator." Lean: "You mean the only person who's going to get out of this alive is you?" Manning: <Shrugs> "Beats everyone dying, doesn't it?"

• Several characters from Ouran High School Host Club:
  • Everything Kyouya did had a purpose that would benefit him in the long run (with one or two notable exceptions). He even used the Host Club profit to buy out his father's company unbeknownst to his dad, who thought of him as a loser because of the Club itself.
    • Considering that many of his manipulations turn out to be more or less benevolent and that he comes to really care for the Host Club people ( i.e., in the manga he searches for Tamaki's Missing Mom all over the French countryside), Kyouya might belong more in Guile Hero.
• Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena. He seduces multiple women including Utena, his sister Anthy, and his fiancee's mother as well as some guys Touga. He also: rigs the entire series of duels; creates a false timeline; convinces his own sister to stab Utena; and runs a private school in his spare time. And he gets away with all of that. ( Well, almost all. Anthy does shake off his mind control in the end and leaves him to find Utena.
• Lord Laertes Van Di Montague from Romeo X Juliet, who pretty much rose from the slums after the death of his prostitute mother, infiltrated himself in the Montague clan as a kid, killed its leader when he was of age, slaughtered the rival clan of the Capulets both to gain power and as revenge for his destitute origins, and ruled Neo Verona with a hand of steel for almost 15 years. And that's just the beginning...
• Kunzite from Sailor Moon. After over a season of Monsters Of The Week, most of the Shitennou repeatedly showing themselves to be incompetent, and Usagi continuing to win and even gain ground against the Dark Kingdom, it was a breath of fresh air to see Beryl's Dragon set clever traps, catch the entire team and almost finish them off (and only fail because of a scout he didn't know about), tear through Usagi's obvious Out Gambitted ploy like it was made of wet paper, and finally go down fighting against Sailor Moon instead of getting the You Have Failed Me treatment. Even if he's not as awesome as some of the examples on this page and went through a five episode period of Badass Decay, the series could have used more like him.
  • Also, Sailor Galaxia. Her super effective manipulations of all of her soldiers (and Queen Nehelenia, in the anime) as well as her sheer power puts her squarely here in this trope.
• Xellos for The Slayers fits this bill quite nicely, even moreso in the original novels.
  • Jillas from Slayers TRY, likewise. You would normally think a Goldfish Poop Gang member would be unable to manipulate the entire party against their actions. Think again.
• Medusa the Witch in Soul Eater. Manipulates her daughter... son... child into becoming a Dark Magical Child... but subverts the usual Heel Face Turn so that "s/he" would be The Mole instead. Blackmails other witches, like Eruka, into working for her by planting parts of her body in them that explode whenever she wills it. Matches the best Technician and Death Scythe in Shibusen in battle, resurrects the monster, gives The Corruption to the main heroine/hero duo, comes Back From the Dead by stealing the body of a little girl with the promise of returning it later (a promise she actually keeps but only when she finds a better body, as mentioned below) but still fully using said little girl's body as an advantage so no one can attack her, drives the best tech crazy, frames him for murder, drives out a good witch who wanted to defect, and convinces Shibusen to let her lead them in an assault against her Rival Older Sister.
  • Then she proves herself to be an Uber Magnificent Bitch when she reveals that she had lied about Arachnaphobia kidnapping Chrona, gets Maka to defeat her sister Arachne, then leaves Rache's body as she promises and then steals Arachne's body exactly as planned.
    • The last point is arguable, as she only manages to fool Maka, while Shinigami sees her scheme from the beginning, and in turn using Medusa to completely destroy seemingly-invulnerable Arachnophobia, then countering her predictable backstabbing attempt. Let's see how it works out...
  • In the manga, Medusa may be even more of a Magnificent Bitch, via using her own death at the hands of a Crona whom she drove even more Ax Crazy, to fully make him/her a slave to the Black Blood. What would normally be a Kick the Son of A Bitch and Crowning Moment of Awesome for Crona... becomes a nightmarish Thanatos Gambit in Medusa's hands. Hoooo Leee Sheeeeet.
• Askeladd Olafson from Vinland Saga has pulled off damn near every gambit there is, kicked the dog, and kicked ass all with style. It's very easy to forget how much of a bastard he can be.
  • There is actually quite a suprising number of Magnificent Bastards for a manga about blood thirsty vikings.
• Sakyou from Yu Yu Hakusho. Even before his main role in the Dark Tournament arc, he effortlessly used Yusuke's team to cause the downfall of one of his rivals.
  • And later, we have the only living being able to Out Gambit Kurama and get away with it: King Yomi. Not only he did that, but he forced Kurama to work with and for him! Fucking awesome.
  • There's also Shinobu Sensui, who expertly manipulated disadvantaged superpowered youths into heinous acts in an attempt to stall the good guys, forced Kurama into a situation where he would have to kill a young child in order to proceed, tricked Makihara/Gourmet into eating Elder Toguro, who took control of him and killed him, and kidnapped Kuwabara so that Gourmet/Toguro could eat him and absorb his newfound dimension cutting powers in order to destroy a powerful barrier. Later, after killing Yusuke, Sensui manipulates Kuwabara into cutting down the Kekkai barrier, which is the only thing preventing not only Sensui's plan, but also preventing Kurama and Hiei from crossing over to try and exact revenge.
• Although she is one of the good guys, Haruna Saotome herself is this in regards to pactios, or anything involving magic. Ships everyone with Negi, DRAGS Negi to Comiket, and makes plans to conquer the entire Magic World.
• A ton of characters in Mirai Nikki count. It looks like the biggest one of all is Yuno Gasai
• Dr. Grace O'Connor from Macross Frontier is slowly revealed to be a shining example of this trope.
  • For most of the first half of the series, we are only given very subtle hints at her role in the grand scheme of things. Even the first time we actually see her working towards her goals, it's with a disguise so well done that fans were arguing if it even was her. Even the choice voice actor playing the role was seemingly meant to mislead.
  • It's only around halfway when she singlehandedly sets up the destruction of an the planet Gallia IV where here her ward, Sheryl is scheduled to perform, in the hopes of killing the latter, as a means to win public support for the oncoming war with the Vajra at the same time destroying the only major piece of evidence that would link her to everything.
    • It's also revealed at this point that she's a Cyborg with the ability to transplant her consciousness over multiple bodies. Which is why it was okay for her to personally detonate the bomb that took out the planet.
  • Later on we learn that she was the one behind Sheryl's rise to fame, giving her the V-Type infection that had the capability of summoning the Vajra to attack whenever she sang, as revenge to the latter's grandmother who was her former professor. The act of having Sheryl die on Gallia IV was simply due to her not living up to Grace's expectations as well as Grace discovering, Ranka Lee, the daughter of another of her former colleagues who had better potential than Sheryl as well as making her revenge even sweeter.
  • All the while she had put Ranka's long lost brother Brera under her control via neural implants and was using him to control her. Even when Ranka rebels and glees from her duties, it's because Grace allowed it and was using her brother to manipulate her into finding the Vajra homeworld and her target, the Vajra Queen.
  • And the reason for all this, so that she could hijack the Vajra Queen once she had learned how Ranka was able to communicate with them, and use the Vajra to take out any opposing fleets. Once this was done, she'd used the Vajra's fold communication network as a way to implement a galaxy wide neural network with her at the top controlling everyone. And all this was simply a way at getting back at her old mentor and colleague who were pretty much against the idea of such a network, for obvious reasons.
    • And she had already succeeded somewhat by having the entire Macross Galaxy fleet under her control. Sure there were the other voices that she consulted with, but in the end, it was clear that it was her that was in control.
• Legend of Galactic Heroes has quite a few, but one that really stands out is Adrian Rubinsky, who manipulates both sides of a massive intergalactic war to increase his own profit, and eventually even outsmarts and kills his own son, who had been studying from him too well and was looking to replace him.
• Most of the enemies in Fullmetal Alchemist are either outright monsters or have a very tragic element to their existence. However, Zolf J. Kimbley walks the fine line between Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard. Despite his psychopathic tendencies, he has a very strong (if completely alien) moral and warrior code that he follows, one that he is aware of being at odds with society (which is why he takes great lengths to mask it). But his Crowning Moment of Awesome for this trope was when, in the manga, he came back from a disembodied spirit state to help Ed destroy Pride...and that was just because he thought Pride was being a hypocrite!
  • Perhaps the earliest sign that he had tendencies toward this was during the Ishbalan massacre. Even though he delighted in the genocide, he was one of the very few soldiers present willing to acknowledge the full weight of his actions and remember those he cut down while others chose to look away.

"Do not look away from each new death. Look straight ahead, and never forget them. Because they certainly won't."

• Amusingly, Hayate the Combat Butler has a character who straddles the line between this and Guile Hero. Miki Hanabishi is known for her plots to make trouble for Hinagiku, in fact it's clearly stated in her profile that she enjoys it, but generally seems to be using such tactics to push Hina to the forefront of the competition for Hayate's affection. While at the same time pursuing Hinagiku with her own romantic interest.
  • A possible example is Mikado Sanzennin, Nagi's grandfather. A pretty much fearless Tsundere like Nagi is terrified of him, and with good reason.
• Durarara!! has Orihara Izaya. Everything that happens in Ikebukuro is a result of his massive game of Xanatos Speed Chess. Except in book four, but he makes up for it in five and six because he felt left out.
• Black Butler has Lau in the anime and Claude
  • Even more of a worthy choice is Hannah. She OutGambitted everyone in the show by having Alois take over Ciel's body and then she took Ciel's soul. Beating both Claude and Sebastian to the punch.
    • Ciel Phantomhive himself is basically a Magnificent Bastard in training (if he's not already one). He's a Badass Adorable Deadpan Snarker Chessmaster who's arguably even more dangerous than his demonic Battle Butler.
• Souichi of Challengers and The Tyrant Falls in Love is a relatively down-to-earth version of this. When a professor attempts to rape him, Souichi attempts to murder the guy. Morinaga stops him, but Souichi still manages to stab the guy deep in the ass with a pair of scissors. When Soichi and Morinaga witness a guy on his cellphone ignoring the pleas of a woman who has an assistive device in her heart, Soichi gets fed up when the woman collapses and snatches the phone out of the guy's hand then snaps it in half. Soichi is not a supervillain and he hasn't got the world under his thumb, but he's a damned terrifying force when his protectiveness of his brother, his sense of justice or his hatred of gays is crossed, which is often.
• Vincent Nightray from Pandora Hearts also fits this title pretty well.
  • Xerxes Break too; he and Vincent each appear to have the upper hand on the other at points, and it's unclear who is actually the master manipulator between them.
  • TONS of characters are getting in on the game. Isla Yura (though there's nothing admirable about him), Duke Barma, and even Oz have had their moments. But the most jarring example: Jack Holy crap.
• Souma Saiki from Sakura Gari is mostly a Broken Ace, but shows shades of this -- specially when he deals a spectacular and fatal Humiliation Conga to his ex-lover Katsuragi for raping/torturing Masataka, his Morality Pet.
• Kanako from Star Driver, you are fighting against the Ginga Bishounen who has beaten everyone else and you are ineveitably next on the chopping block? Why you betray your call to be "professional" (Splitting real life from your life in the Crux) and steal the first kiss of the Ginga Bishounen (without using a glass wall to make it innocent).
• Kyuubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica seems to be the kind of person who walks the line between Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard. So far his plans are very cruel and have had huge consequences (like tricking young girls with deep wishes into becoming pretty much liches, then withdrawing info about the tremendous disadvantages of the Magical Girl job, and watching as they become witches and end up killing or being killed), but except for Madoka (the girl with the most potential) not making the contract (and once only becaue Homura stopped her from doing so), it has all gone just as planned. It's even better/worse when you see that his goals aren't 100% self-serving... but very akin to those of the Anti-Spiral: sacrificing some... to save everyone. And for that, he had Sayaka become a witch, then Kyoko to pretty much join her in death... and thus, he left Madoka and Homura in such a position that if Madoka doesn't become a Puella Magi, the universe will die.
  • However, he gets screwed over by someone else at the last moment... Turns out you can turn Madoka into a mixture of Physical Goddess and Guile Heroine by giving her so many awful truths to work with. Suck on that, Kyuubey.
    • Even then, he doesn't exactly 'lose.' Madoka recreates the world and eliminates all witches. So instead Puellae Magi fight demons, and harvest energy from them. It's not as efficient a method of harvesting energy, but it still allows Kyuubey to accomplish his mission, just in a somewhat more modest way.
    • Some fans take this further, speculating that Madoka's final wish was in fact All According to Plan; indeed, some ascribe everything that happened in the series to his machinations, even the parts that seemed to go against his intentions.
• Kenneth Yamaoka from Eagle: The Making Of An Asian American President.
• Rurouni Kenshin's Shishio Makoto came up with the plan to burn Kyoto right to the ground as a DISTRACTION while he and his minions sailed a warship into Tokyo and let sheer panic rip the government apart. This is just his biggest, most expensive example though. He practically lives for this trope.
• Ukyo, the Big Bad of Samurai 7.
• The main point of Iason Mink's character in Ai no Kusabi is that he is both magnificent...and a complete and utter bastard. Only his high status in society let's him get away with it.
• Kokujo, of Duel Masters, uses his phenomenal skills in psychological warfare to completely destroy the hero in their first duel. The dub furthers his status by having him shamelessly call himself "an evil genius."
• Toua Tokuchi, the protagonist of One Outs, definitely qualifies.
• Well Intentioned Extremist Choji Suitengu of Speed Grapher.
• Knight Templar Lieutenant Colonel Dewey Novak of Eureka Seven.
• The latest Bakugan Big Bad Mag Mel. The guy managed to effortlessly trick the heroes into giving him the power to free himself from his prison before they even know he existed. He proves to be a Manipulative Bastard and Chessmaster so cunning that he's always several steps ahead of the group and even the one time thus far he's lost, he still got half of what he wanted and the Brawlers find out while they were fighting his forces on one of their ally's homeworlds, Mag Mel had utterly demolished Bakugan Interspace with another attack that cripples the transporters so no one can get out except his minions, who are free to get in and out at will. While he's not exactly charming, he realized this and made (literally) his Co Dragons extremely charismatic and planted them in Bakugan Interspace to raise followers and generally cause chaos.
• Millions Knives from the Trigun manga. A frighteningly superpowered Badass Abnormal with charisma to spare and the flaws of a Shakespearean character.
  • Legato Bluesummers from the anime. An utterly terrifying, nihilistic, relentless agent of death with the ability to mentally control any villager--man, woman, or child--to their deaths. His first appearance absolutely terrifies Vash, whom he makes his mission to completely break. And by forcing Vash to kill him, as far as he knows, he wins.
  • Or the manga for that matter. And in that version, he actually spent most of it crippled and still managed to remain nightmare-inducing for its entire run.
• Yuto Kigai and Seishiro Sakurazuka from X 1999. Yuto is polite, softspoken, a little snarky, very caring towards Satsuki and yet is able to carry out Kanoe's instructions without even getting his suit dirty. Seishirou is a charismatic murderer with a charming smile, a Star-Crossed Lovers bond with Subaru Sumeragi, very cruel and very stylish puppy-kicking acts under his belt, and in the end he manages to play one Hell of a Thanatos Gambit to die exactly in the way he wanted to, also ensuring that his killer will be the only person he ever sort-of cared for, Subaru...who will end up as the next Sakurazukamori as well..
• While it's still a little earlier, it looks like Masako Natsume from Mawaru Penguindrum is heading towards this. Her method of erasing people's memories is a little... odd, but the rest of her actions are very efective. Kidnapping a boy to blackmail his brother and friend/prospect girlfriend? Not good. Kidnapping a boy to get the attention of his brother, staging a whole chase so said brother will remember her from his past, and then letting the kidnapped guy go... but not before giving his rescuer a Forceful Kiss, which was her intention all along? Fucking awesome.
  • Sanetoshi Watase has some inklings of this too. In his quest to regain contact with his lost "soulmate", he has managed to stylishly appear to Himari in a dream, give her a new Penguin Hat, and almost get away with giving her a kiss. Later he brings Himari Back From the Dead with a mysterious serum, managing to rope her protector/brother/possible love interest Kanba into a Deal With the Devil to keep her alive. And later it's revealed that some time ago he actually forced Masako into the same Deal With the Devil so she could keep her young brother Mario alive as well. Thus, he has almost completely outgambitted both Kanba and Masako to different degrees, all while looking fabulous in that coat and pink hair of his, and specially in now hospital-confined Himari's eyes. Hmmmm!
• Semmerling from Riding Bean. She does begin to lose her cool somewhat when Bean survives a point-blank shot to his forehead (good thing he wears that Kevlar headband) and proceeds to tear the door off of her car with his bare hands but then, who wouldn't?
• Meowth of Team Rocket, of all people, attempts to be this in the Best Wishes series of the Pokémon anime. During the journey to Nimbasa City, he played the gang like a fiddle by pretending to be fired from Team Rocket and wanting to join with them instead, and nearly got away with their Pokemon along with the other members of Team Rocket, who were operating a surprisingly well thought out plan. Unfortunately for them, it's another situation where Failure Is the Only Option.
• Michio Yuki from MW. He kidnaps his victims in order to extract money from the corrupt politicians who covered up the titular chemical warfare that took away his conscience. He even impersonates the women he killed as part of his plan.
• Miyo Takano from Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni certainly counts. She masterminded the events of the first six arcs, and loves frightening people with tales of Hinamizawa's past. Definitely a Magnificent Bitch. Also manages to be COMPLETELY EVIL (but mostly because of what the orphanage leader, Nomura, and Tokyo did to her).
  • Interestingly, Takano's magnificence is heavily influenced by a Bigger Bad and fellow Magnificent Bitch, her employer, Nomura, who, like Takano, also manages to be a Complete Monster at the same time. She demonstrated a plan to close up a company by tricking Takano into helping her and manipulating everything in order to cause the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, and nobody even seemed to notice that she was behind it all (which makes her a Karma Houdini as well). Another perfect example. Helps that she has a great evil voice provided by Rie Tanaka.
  • Similarly, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni gives us Beatrice, an Anti Villain with standards who, as a Game Master, often clashes with Battler and uses magic to elegantly commit a series of bizarre murders on Rokkenjima. She's truly impressed by Battler's performance, and often looks for ways to make him surrender as best as possible. Oh, and she's also a Laughably Evil Large Ham.
  • Bernkastel counts as well. Using Ange, Erika, and most other people as pawns for her plans, and planning to keep Beatrice in the game and torture her for all eternity? She definitely deserves a praise for those. Notably, Bern manages to be a Complete Monster at the same time.
  • And what about Lambdadelta? Her plan is to "trap" Bernkastel by making the battle between Battler and Beatrice last for eternity. Another perfect example of a Magnificent Bitch that can also be considered very likely to be truly evil.
  • Higanbana of her self-titled series counts as well. Offering Marie a chance to become Mesomeso and acting as a villain against heroic characters or an Anti Hero against villainous characters is definitely saying something.
• Perhaps the most impressive and villainous character in Mon Colle Knights happens to be Redda, the Big Bad and final villain. He has a deviously cruel sense of chessmastery and mastery of manipulation, is Bishounen in appearance (especially behind that scary mask of his), and shows a nice Xanatos Gambit starting with the part where he uses Rockna as bait to lure Mondo and all his monster friends to him, forcing him to give up all of his collected Monster Items so far and handing over to him a fake Rockna that was actually a rat in disguise. Then he summons Dread Dragon and traps Rockna within its neck, and tells Mondo that he can either destroy it and Rockna with it, or get killed himself while trying to save her without harming Dread Dragon, and orders Dread Dragon to create a wormhole that sucks up all of Mondo's monster friends. And, even when Gabriolis shows up and helps him save her so the two can fuse with him to destroy Dread Dragon, this still provides enough of a distraction so Redda can get the last Monster Item, and he succeeds in collecting it so he can finally summon Oroboros to destroy everything and create in their place a world made of nothingness, which was his ultimate goal all along. And if that's not enough, since Oroboros needs a new body in order to be resurrected, Redda revives Dread Dragon and fuses Oroboros with it to create Doomsday Dragon. Another perfect example of a villain that happens to be both this and a Complete Monster, so much that even the Laughably Evil Terrible Trio of Villains Out Shopping fear him.
  • Now, had he focused his attention on Gabriolis siding with the heroes and the darkness monsters stepping in to help them and give their power to them and the Golden Dragon so they can destroy Doomsday Dragon, and had Gabriolis not killed him in order to stop him from interrupting their Power of Friendship moment by killing them, Redda would've succeeded with his plot to destroy all worlds and make his own plane of empty souls and nothingness in their place.

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