The Dragon/Anime and Manga

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  • In 07-Ghost, the Dragons have Dragons. (If Kuroyuri is a Dragon to Ayanami, and Haruse is a Dragon to Kuroyuri...?)
  • Daimos: Richter was Olban's Dragon... much to his endless grief and chagrin.
  • Digimon does this often enough.
    • Season 1: The first Big Bad, Devimon, has Ogremon as his Dragon, or as a co-dragon if you count the Brainwashed and Crazy Leomon.
      • The third Big Bad, Vamdemon/Myotismon, has Tailmon/Gatomon until her Heel Face Turn.
      • The leader of the fourth Big Bads has a LadyDevimon as his bodyguard.
    • Season 2: The Digimon Emperor has Kimeramon.
    • Season 4: Duskmon to Cherubimon.
      • Then we have Dynasmon and Crusadermon, Co-Dragons to Lucemon, who had previously possessed Cherubimon.
  • Captain Ginyu is Frieza's Dragon in Dragonball Z. He's even Genre Savvy enough to know that he's the Dragon when he correctly assumes that Goku's ultimate goal is to take on Frieza, though apparently he's not savvy enough to predict his own inevitable defeat.
  • Escaflowne has Dilandau as Folken's Dragon, who in turn is Dornkirk's Dragon. (While Folken doesn't fight, he is the tactician, and fills a very Vader-esque role)
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has Pride, the oldest and most indispensable of Father's homunculi. An Enfante Terrible with a sadistic streak and a Lack of Empathy that's truly staggering, Pride's ability to utilize shadows as weapons makes him all but indestructible, and he seems to take the heroes' interference in Father's affairs very personally. Despite that, he's loyal to Father to the point of mortally injuring himself to ensure that the latter's plan to become God will succeed.
  • While The Empire in Legend of the Galactic Heroes is not necessarily evil, Seigfried Kircheis fits this trope rather well to Reinhard's Big Bad.
    • And after Kircheis' death, it becomes Paul von Oberstein.
  • Mazinger Z and Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen: Baron Ashura was Big Bad Dr. Hell's first and best known Dragon. (He was the only one in the Mazinkaiser OAV series) Later Dragons were Count Brocken, Viscount Pygman and Archduke Gorgon. Usually, Hell's Dragons were severely incompetent... or too competent to his liking.
    • Great Mazinger: The Great General of Darkness was the first Dragon of The Emperor of Darkness. After his death he was replaced with the Grand Marshall of Hell who is none other than a resurrected Dr. Hell now as giant cybrog.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: Great King Vega had several Dragons throughout the series, but the main ones were Commander Blackie for as long as he was alive, General/Lady Gandal and Science Minister Zuril.
  • In every Sailor Moon season except the last one, the first villain whom the audience believed to be the Big Bad was not, and was paving the way for an even more powerful Big Bad.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! and its various spin-offs have Rafael, Rishid/Odion, Manjoume, and Trueman acting as Dragons to Dartz, Marik, Saiou and Darkness respectively.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, it could be argued that Rudger/Roman Goodwin was his younger brother Rex's Dragon. Also, the Three Emperors of Yliaster, a.k.a. the Infinity Trio, whilst first appearing to be the Big Bads of season two, are Dragons to ZONE. Actually, make that "Dragon" since they've combined into their true form, Aporia.
    • Noah Kaiba, who appears to be The Big Bad of the Virtual World filler arc is actually The Dragon to his father, Gozaburo. Within Noah's Quirky Miniboss Squad, The Big Five, Lector is The Dragon to Big Bad Ganzley. He holds all The Big Five's best cards, and unlike most of them, has the makings of a solid competitive duelist. During their 5 on 2 duel against Yugi and Joey, his takeover of The Big Five's strategy is foreshadowed heavily and played as a very bad thing.
  • Soukou no Strain puts a twist on the situation. At first, it sets Medlock up as Ralph's superior; we're almost certain that he's going to overtake her as The Man Behind the Man because of Sara's personal motivation, and he does, but then he holds her hostage; she does a Heel Face Turn and suffers for it.
  • Legato Bluesummers to Knives Millions in Trigun. Oddly, his physical strength is in fact below average, and his primary strength is his mind-control ability.
  • NORA: The Last Chronicle of Devildom uses Fall as the Big Bad with Deuce serving as The Dragon
  • In Monster Rancher, the evil overlord Moo had General Durahan as his Dragon.
  • Debonair/Kiishim in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle serves as The Dragon during one of the first missions though in a triple subversion of the trope, she is both smarter than her boss, is being made to serve him via mind control, and is in the end the one who gives him what's coming to him.
    • In a slightly more series-wide capacity, Kyle Rondart, who you actually meet very early in the series, turns out to be The Dragon for Fei Wang Reed, the series' Big Bad.
  • Chloe in Noir can be seen as The Dragon to her mother figure/boss Altena, and whether this was in fact part of Altena's plan is hotly debated among fans.
  • Psycho for Hire Roberto in Monster is Johan Liebert's dragon and Battle Butler.
  • The Big Bad of Code Geass, Charles zi Brittania, has Sir Bismark Waldstein, the Knight of One. And in episode 21 of R2, Suzaku (Meaningful Name as Suzaku means "Vermillion Phoenix" The Four Gods! One wonders why they didn't give him the name Seiryuu instead!) has become Emperor Lelouch's Knight of Zero aka his Dragon and thus likely to be remembered for ending up as this, since he also faked his death whilst acting as Emperor Lelouch's second-in-command.
  • Amshel in Blood Plus can be seen as The Dragon for the Big Bad, Diva. At the same time, he exudes The Man Behind the Man qualities. Which is fitting, as Diva is not exactly the plotting type.
  • Fate Testarossa in the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is The Dragon to her mother, Mad Scientist Precia. Her status as The Woobie, Love Martyr, and Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter didn't stop her from being a formidable threat.
    • Signum from A's hits most of the benchmarks for a common variant: Leader of the Big Bad's personal forces, check. Stoic swordswoman demonstrating as much honor as her duties permit, check. Considerably more fearsome close-quarters combatant than the Big Bad, check. Personally commanding the hunt for the energies needed to grant her master Ultimate Power via an Artifact of Doom, check. Doing so in secret from her master (who in fact explicitly ordered her not to do this) in a desperate effort to save said crippled nine year old orphan's life, che- wait, what?
    • Following that is Tre who has a dragon of her own aka Sette. Both were fanatical to Doctor Scaglietti. Needlessly to say, their loyalty did not help their popularity very well
      • Quattro is quite possibly the best example of The Dragon in StrikerS. While Uno is technically Jail's "second brain", Quattro has a lot more screen-time, is loyal to Jail until the end and also has the most notable defeat of all the Numbers.
  • Mouri Kouran of Flame of Recca has two, arranged neatly along the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, with Kurei serving for the first two story arcs, until his Heel Face Turn to Noble Demon and replacement by Psychopathic Manchild Renge.
  • The Espada from Bleach are somewhere between a Quirky Miniboss Squad and an ensemble of Dragons. Ichigo invokes this one during his first battle with Ulquiorra: "You're the top Espada, right? So if I beat you, it's the same as winning this war!" It's subverted when Ulquiorra reveals to Ichigo (and the audience) that he's only the fourth most powerful Espada. Then it's Double Subverted when Aizen leaves Ulquiorra in charge of Las Noches while he goes to destroy Karakura Town.
    • Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tousen are Co-Dragons to Aizen.
    • In the Bount arc, Maki Ichinose is Jin Kariya's Dragon.
    • In the Shusuke Amagai arc, Hanza Nukui serves as Kumoi's Dragon, until he falls in battle against Ichigo and is replaced by Makoto Kifune. Then again, Amagai himself is the real Big Bad.
    • And during the Fullbringer arc, Tsukishima to, of all people, Ginjo.
  • Kinnikuman has several official Dragons and several de-facto ones. The Throne arc upped the ante by having the six teams having their own Dragons in the form of second-in-commands.
    • Kinnikuman Team: Initially Terryman, then Robin Mask took his place
    • Flight Team: King 100 Ton
    • Strength Team: Cannonballer
    • Technique Team: Parthenon
    • Brutality Team: Buffaloman
    • Intelligence Team: Mammothman, demoted by the Omegaman during the finals.
  • Younger Toguro is Tarukane's Dragon in the Yukina arc of Yu Yu Hakusho. To some degree, he is a Dragon for Sakyo, but while Sakyo's plan threatens the world, Yusuke and his team are more concerned with Toguro.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, Aoshi Shinomori is Kanryuu's Dragon.
  • Zabuza is Gato's Dragon in Naruto. In the third movie, Ishidate is Shabadaba's Dragon.
    • As is Kabuto to Orochimaru. He's also a textbook example of a Bastard Understudy. One could argue that the resurrected Madara Uchiha is Kabuto's Dragon.
    • Recently it was revealed that Pain, the apparent leader of the Akatsuki is actually the Dragon to "Madara Uchiha"/Tobi, the series Big Bad
    • And now that Pain/Nagato is dead, Zetsu can probably be considered Tobi's Dragon.
  • Nosferatu Zodd of Berserk becomes Griffith's Dragon some time after the Eclipse.
    • Another great example is Grunbeld, who actually turns into a giant dragon in his full Apostle form.
    • During the Golden Age arc, Guts himself can count as Griffith's Dragon, especially if you consider Griffith's overall goal.
  • The Gundam franchise has numerous examples:
  • The members of Cipher Pol 9, especially Rob Lucci, could count as being Dragons to Big Bad Spandam, who ends up becoming a Anticlimax Boss in the long run.
  • There are plenty of cases in Gash Bell. For starters, you could consider that every single demon is a human's Dragon, or vice versa, depending on who has the brains of the operation. Other than that, there's a classic example in the huge, hulking monstrosity known as Demoruto as Zophise's Dragon. Brago even states at one point, "If it's just about power, the power I sense over there is greater than Zophise's."
    • One could also say that Faudo is Riou's Dragon, what with him planning to use its power to win the fight for the Demon King while hiding safe and sound inside his brain.
    • And depending on how you look at it, Clear Note and Goomu could be a Dragon to the other; which role suits who is up for question, though.
  • Fate Averruncus of Mahou Sensei Negima was once the Dragon of the Mage of Beginnings, the Big Bad during the time of Ala Rubia. Though with his boss out of the count, he has now taken the role of Big Bad. It eventually turns out that he's still The Dragon to Dynamis, who took over for the Mage of Beginnings.
  • In S-Cry-ed Ryuuhou is the Dragon to Martin Jigmarl. Slight subversion in that Jigmarl is actually much stronger than Ryuuhou, but using his alter power would cause him to age insanely fast and kill him after one battle.
    • ...At least, that's how it starts out. In the endgame, it turns out to be A Brainwashed and Crazy Biff (the very first opponent Kazuma faced) and Jigmarl himself acting as * snrk* Double Dragons to the show's true Big Bad, Kyouji Mutou.
      • The real kicker? Ryuuhou winds up being the one to defeat Jigmarl.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
    • Wham serves as Cars' Dragon in Part 2.
    • Vanilla Ice serves as Dio's Dragon in Part 3.
  • Mr. Heart serves the role of Shin's Dragon in the Fist of the North Star manga. In the anime, this role is filled by Filler Villain Joker after Heart is killed early in the Southern Cross arc. The closest thing Raoh has to a Dragon in the original manga and anime series is Ryuga of Sirius (in The Movie, this role is perfectly filled by Uighur the Warden).
    • In the Legends of the Dark King spinoff, Souga was Raoh's main right-hand man until his position is usurped by Ryuga's arrival.
  • Soul Eater
    • Crona is the Dragon to Medusa prior to changing sides.
    • Given his position in relation to Noah/The Table of Contents, Gopher might end up counting as one. So far he's terribly inefficient.
    • Giriko or Mosquito would be The Dragon for Arachne. Giriko was less efficient, at least in the manga.
    • Justin Law after changing sides to Asura
  • In Legendz, Ranshiin is The Dragon of the local Eldritch Abomination. He also happens to be a dragon.
  • In the Backstory of Chrono Crusade, Chrono was actually The Dragon to Aion's Big Bad. Once he leaves the Sinners, the role seems to fall to Genai instead.
  • Fang of the Sun Dougram gives the Designated Villain Donan Cassim not one, but two Dragons - one for the war effort against the heroes and their La Résistance friends, and the other for his political maneuvers back on Earth. Surprisingly, his political Dragon is colonel von Stein - the highest ranking officer in Cassim's army, while his military Dragon is actually his secretary Le Coque, who later usurps his role as the Big Bad.
  • In Umineko no Naku Koro ni we have Kinzo as The Dragon in multiple games, and in the showdown in EP 4, Kinzo actually becomes a dragon.
  • In Death Note, Light Yagami ultimately acquires one in the form of Teru Mikami (who even gets nicknamed the Hand of Kira).
  • Tatsumi from the horror manga Shiki is the one to convert the citizens of Sotoba to vampirism when his superiors, the Kirishiki family, just hang around in their mansion.
  • Figuring out who The Dragon is can be pain in the manga series Kagerou Nostalgia. There's Co-Dragons Rikimaru and Ranmaru who serve as Gessho's bodyguards, as well as Bastard Understudy Kuroda who's his Number Two and public face. Even Goki could lay a claim on Dragon status.
  • Shiki is Dragon with an Agenda to Creed in Black Cat. He's the deputy leader of The Apostles Of The Stars, issues orders in Creed's absence, and is the one that Train has to fight before he can get to Creed.
  • Fairy Tail has one for almost every Big Bad. Kageyama is Eligor's. Zalty is Reitei Lyon's. Gajeel is Master Jose's, in addition to being the Iron Dragon Slayer. Ultear is Jellal's, or so it seems, she's really the one making him Brainwashed and Crazy. "Darkness" Fried is the dragon for Laxus Dreyar. Cobra or Midnight is Brain's, depending on who you ask. And finally, Ultear returns as Master Hades' right hand woman in the latest arc.
  • Gendo Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion is arguably this to SEELE and Lorenz Keel.
    • He's only working with them out of convenience, and he betrays them once his plans no longer coincide with theirs, which makes him a Dragon with an Agenda.
  • Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Kirika is this to The Big Bad behind the magical girl killings Oriko. And she's craaazy.
  • Sengoku Youko has a dragon in the shape of Jinun, who acts as the Big Bad's strong right-hand and can shift into a dragon form.
  • Kasumi Kenshirou, the uncle of the original Kenshirou, to Pang Kuang-Lin, the lord of the drug-dealing gang Qing Bang.
  • Cassius from Kimba the White Lion is this towards Claw. He doubles as an Evil Genius.
  • Tomo from the Fushigi Yuugi: we don't see as much of him in the anime, but in the manga he's the closest thing Nakago has to a confidant as well as a lieutenant, and his ability to kill large groups of opponents without them realizing he's even present makes him quite dangerous.
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