Villainous Breakdown/Anime and Manga

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Examples of Villainous Breakdowns in Anime and Manga include:

Bleach

  • Ulquiorra gets a brief one in his fight with Ichigo: after his first release and curbstomping Ichigo, he loses his usual composure when despite seeing the difference between their powers Ichigo refuses to give up.
  • In chapter 385 of Bleach, Tousen loses his composure and goes on a tirade explaining why he chose to betray Soul Society. To add to the effect, Tosen's blank Hollow mask cracks open in a manner that resembles teeth. And in the next chapter he goes completely insane after his Resurrecion grants him eyesight. This proves to be his undoing.
  • After being hit with a second Bankai from Soi Fon, Barragan Luisenbarn loses all composure and goes on a rant that covers every facet of this trope. He proclaims himself to be a god, orders his opponets to bow before his might, and keeps muttering "you insects!" over and over again. It only gets worse after he starts to evaporate, culminating in him throwing his axe at his own boss!
  • Sosuke Aizen spends most of his screen time being invincible, and talking about how invincible he is, while never raising his voice or getting mad. Once the Deicide Arc rolls around, he's defeated everyone that's fought him, and is on his way to create the King's Key and destroy Soul Society. Then Ichigo returns, having finished his training to use the Final Getsuga Tenshou. Ichigo manhandles Aizen with nothing but his physical strength, and Aizen loses some of his composure. Aizen transforms into monstrous form after monstrous form, yelling about how much better he is than Ichigo, and losing it more and more as they fight. Once Ichigo effortlessly destroys Aizen's perfectly chanted Black Coffin Kido spell, he cracks completely, and starts ranting at length about how he's the perfect existence, and that he can't be stopped by Ichigo. Then Ichigo blasts him with his Mugetsu technique, Aizen is rejected by the Hougyouku, and Urahara Kisuke's Sealing Kido activates, sealing him in an energy tree as he screams that he's the only one with the right to change the world. He's cut off mid sentence, and is next seen being sentenced to 20,000 years of imprisonment by the Central 46, since they can't execute him because he's immortal due to the Hougyouku. It's all very satisfying, as Aizen is a Complete Monster and The Scrappy to a vast number of Bleach readers.
  • Also, Szayel Aporro Granz, who starts out smug and confident in his superiority. When Mayuri starts messing with him, however, he throws a temper tantrum and starts swearing a lot. He's also breaking down shortly before his death, begging for Mayuri to hurry up and kill him, but then again from his perspective, he's been frozen in place with a sword slowly piercing him for an ETERNITY by then.
  • Zommari probably had the biggest one out of all the Espadas, he comes off as being the most composed of the group, going on long tangents on how his opponent cannot beat him, believing his powers is enough to stop him from moving. When he attempts to have that man's sister to be killed, he gets tired of this game and simply casts a Kido to paralyze her. Zommari, more explict in the anime, immediately loses it and demands his target to move; immediately following a 360 attack by his enemy, causing him to use his full power while proclaiming loudly, even though it fails miserably. The Next chapter has him in Madness Mantra mode, going on a speech about What Measure Is a Non-Human?, ending with a clear Villainous Breakdown of him praising the Big Bad as he dissolves.
  • Kenpachi's clear enjoyment of what appears to Nnoitra to be a losing battle starts to strongly unnerve Nnoitra. As Kenpachi continues to laugh and enjoy himself, Nnoitra descends into raving and swearing at him. Eventually, this psychological edge causes Nnoitra to be too shaken to think to defend himself when Kenpachi finally goes for a killing strike, crippling him in one blow.
  • In chapter 466 Xcution member Yukio drops his Dissonant Serenity and goes completely off the handle when Hitsugaya brings up his Parental Neglect issues.
  • In chapter 477 Tsukishima who's normally calm and composed has a Freak-Out moment following Riruka shielding Ichigo and Rukia from his attack that was meant to kill them. He gets this look on his face and screams at her to "MOVE!!!" In chapter 478 we see Tsukishima acting deeply upset over Ginjou's death and having another Freak-Out moment.

Code Geass

  • Lelouch degenerates into anger rather quickly during those few times when he is tactically outmaneuvered (typically when the white Knightmare shows up unexpectedly), in stark contrast to his usual smug and self-confident behavior.
    • When he discovers the identity of the Lancelot pilot. Lelouch was in position to terminate him at the time, but ordered a retreat when he was torn about what to do.
    • His reaction to the Euphinator incident. Once he gets back to somewhere private he ends up sitting around crying about the fact that he accidentally made his second-favorite sister commit genocide, had to shoot her to stop the rampage, and then turned it to his political advantage.
    • The above instances could alternatively be Heroic BSOD 's depending on your interpretation of Lelouch.
  • Jeremiah Gottwald started this after he was stripped of his rank in the wake of the supposed "Orange-kun" incident. At the Battle of Narita he nearly lets himself get killed while trying to kill Zero, and is seen after the battle gibbering crazily and fainting in the middle of a road.
  • Rolo goes through this in Episode 4 of R2. After Lelouch takes a bullet meant for his Knightmare, Rolo inadvertently joins the Black Knights, despite knowing his brother is Zero. Therefore, he can't capture C.C., which was his mission from the start. Lelouch plays the part of loving him as a brother in order to get Rolo on his side.

Death Note

  • Light Yagami lost his cool from time to time, especially right at the end, when he realized he'd finally run out of plans. The manga is especially an excellent example, as the would-be god realizes that he, whose pedestal was forged with so many deaths, does not himself want to die, and begs desperately for his life.
    • Parodied in this blog entry, which was also made into an animated gif and video.
    • He also gets a smaller one in episode 9, when L meets him at university and tells him, "I'm L." He manages to stay calm until getting home, where he screams in anger about how L got him, eventually giving his first psychotic laugh of the series.
    • There's also the deleted scene in the anime where Light stays in the graveyard after L's funeral, and remains composed until everyone leaves, whereupon he starts laughing madly, proceeds to crawl on top of his rival's grave and shouts, " What do you think of that, L? This is my perfect victory! That's right—I win!" with a crazed look on his face.
    • It really began on episode 2 when L first outfoxed him with a broadcast from a fake L. L on the other hand is rarely ever fazed.
  • Teru Mikami suffered one of these too. In the anime version, he committed an extremely painful looking suicide.
  • Kyosuke Higuchi Particularly in episode 23.

Dragonball Z

  • Vegeta, in the moment that leads to his Beam-O-War, where he freaks out after he realizes that Goku has succeeded in making him bleed. He gets a little blood trickle from his mouth, and suddenly he decides that he wants to destroy the planet.
  • Captain Ginyu has an even BIGGER freakout when he reads Goku's Power Level. So much that, at least in the dub, Goku says to Jeice, "I think your friend's having a nervous breakdown!"
  • You know what? Frieza and Cell, upon seeing their opponents' new transformations. Frieza especially. He goes from using a very polite form of Japanese (shown in translation by not using contractions) and treating the whole thing like a workout, to using a rougher speech form (contractions now in subtitles!) and attempting to destroy the whole planet. Considering Frieza had nearly wiped out the Saiyan race and made the few survivors into (supposedly) loyal underlings specifically to prevent any possibility of a Super Saiyan ever showing up, because it was thought that only a Super Saiyan would be able to beat him, when Goku magically transforms into the dreaded instrument of prophecy... yeah, that would necessitate a Villainous Breakdown.
    • Later shown even quicker when Frieza shows up to get his revenge on Earth. Goku is MIA, and Trunks shows up instead. Frieza, not knowing who Trunks is, goes on long winded posturing about the backwater weakness of Earth and laughs at him thinking he can win... and when Trunks turns into a Super Saiyan, Frieza goes from gloating to absolutely terrified to completely enraged in seconds, going from standing around talking to frantically trying to blow him up.

Frieza, looking with horror as Trunks goes SSJ: It's- It's those eyes!

    • The episode in which Cell has his Villainous Breakdown was actually called "Cell's Mighty Breakdown" in English. In summary, after Gohan delivers two punches that make him drop to his knees, Cell decides to blow up the planet; only for Gohan to to fire an even bigger Kamehameha that almost reduces to him to nothing. This results in a Clipped-Wing Angel that is easily beaten back to Semi-perfect form in one hit. From there, Cell decides to do suicidal bombing in order to win the fight, becoming completely unstable at this point.
    • When Cell returns as Super Perfect Cell you can tell he was going insane from being humiliated by SSJ2 Gohan. He was yelling nonsense, and had facial tics that only a demented madman would have. When he finally dies at the hands of Gohan, he can do nothing but scream "I AM PERFECTIOOOOOOOOONNNNN!!!"
      • A much earlier breakdown contained an infamous shot of him screaming with his mouth wide open, which eventually became the infamous Lazer image.

Gundam

  • Rau Le Creuset, the Big Bad of Gundam Seed spent most of the series being portrayed as a very calm and calculating individual. However near the end of the series when he comes face to face with series protagonist Kira Yamato and longtime rival Mu La Flaga, he reveals his true nature as a raving Nietzsche Wannabe and Omnicidal Maniac. He then proceeds to spend the final episodes of the series screaming and ranting about how Humans Are the Real Monsters and that everything must be destroyed until Kira finally shuts him up with a beam saber through the cockpit.
    • Well, that's because as far as he can see his plan has already succeeded, so all that is left to do for him is to find a suitable death on the battlefield, while watching the world burn, Hannibal Lecturing his enemies, and otherwise having some fun ( as he suffers from an incurable genetic condition that will painfully kill him in the near future, it's not like there is any point at surviving for him). If anything, that's the opposite of the Villainous Breakdown.
    • Have you guys forgotten Azrael's horrendous one in the second-to-last episode? Come on, he had Natarle, Flay and the Bridge Bunnies at gunpoint to make sure they'd follow his orders while screaming like a maniac, beat up Flay when she tried to rebel, shot Natarle four times after she managed to get her subordinates away from him, and ultimately destroyed Fllaga's Gundam and killed him (or so we thought). It's almost a relief when Murrue uses the beam cannon of the Archangel to obliterate the Dominion.
      • What about his desperate "I always win."? Watching Natarle tell him "you lose" was a crowning moment of awesome.
    • Cortho Bauer too. He goes from the most reasonable of the Extended Trio, to a Laughing Mad Empty Shell following Shani and Orga's deaths.
      • While Flay is more sympathetic, she has a rather tragic one in episode 28. By this point she has genuinely fallen in love with Kira despite her original plan, and as such has become even more confused than she was earlier. When she suspects Kira of pitying her she completely looses her composure, and breaks down sobbing while asking how he can possible pity someone like her (implying that she is filled with self-loathing).
    • The side-story Gundam SEED Astray has Rondo Ghina Sahaku suffering one after Lowe Guele defeats him, despite the Red Frame losing the Gerbera Straight. It's especially shown when Ghina tries to shoot him in the back and is blocked by the Gerbera Straight's broken blade randomly floating by. Thankfully, Gai Murakumo puts Ghina out of his misery.
  • The sequel, Gundam Seed Destiny has a major one in Rey Za Burrel. Having been defeated by Kira, and unable to avenge Rau, Rey comes to the realisation that he and Chairman Durandal have been in the wrong. This culminates in him shooting Durandal and going out crying for his mother.
  • In Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Dekim Barton has an epic one when his entire plan unravels.
  • In the Gundam Wing anime, the Treize Faction and the colonies have become White Fang and revolt against Tsubarov, and when his mobile dolls and Lunar Base are being destroyed by Wufei, he begins ranting about how "he is invincible" shortly before one of the explosions kills him.

Naruto

  • Gaara, whose sand provided him with such perfect protection that he'd never been hit, much less felt physical pain (up to a certain point, though), is stabbed in the shoulder by Sasuke. Gaara wonders what that warm, wet stuff is and then goes nuts when he realizes it's his own blood.
    • Gaara has an even bigger one during his final battle with Naruto. For all his life Gaara's been driven by his hatred and rage, and in the final decisive clash, Naruto's love for his friends gave him the power to overcome Gaara. Realizing that his entire philosophy was wrong causes Gaara to lose it completely and scream at Naruto as the latter continues to crawl towards him. Eventually he realizes that Naruto's love is what gave him the strength to overcome Gaara, causing him to finally let go of his hatred.
  • Although implied that it was purely an act, Itachi has a rather frightening one during his fight with Sasuke. When he finally reveals his reason for sparing Sasuke, he flips out into a maniacal scream session at him in an almost psychotic fashion, sharply contrasting his usual stoic behavior. Itachi later implied that this was not a breakdown, it's how he truly is on the inside.
    • Sasuke himself gets one during his fight with Kakashi after coming back to the Leaf Village. He gets uncharacteristically mad at a "low-life" like Kakashi merely possessing a Sharingan, then claims that the laughter of the villagers in his memories is ridicule because they're ignorant of Itachi's sacrifice.
    • And then there's his Laughing Mad moment in Shippuden episode 214 and manga chapter 483. See it here. There's also the crazy look in his eyes when he declares that he wants to kill Kakashi and everyone in Konoha. And how he lost his sanity after Itachi died and when he learned from Madara what Itachi's true intentions were.
  • Also, Deidara. He gets pretty unhinged when he realizes that Itachi's Sharingan is more artful than his bombs and tries to kill himself by blowing himself and Sasuke up at the end of their battle.
  • Filler Villain Fuka has one every time Naruto manages to hurt her or damage her hair.
  • When Kabuto was attacked in the beginning we see his eyes go bloodshot as he reveals a bloodthirsty side. Also, after Orochimaru died, Kabuto had an existential crisis, but he claims that the person who inspired him to continue was Naruto.
    • During Kabuto's fight with Sasuke and Itachi Kabuto has some more of these. Confident in his beliefs and victory, he begins to shed tears when the Uchiha brothers fend off his attacks. However, after suddenly emerging from Orochimaru's mouth and bisecting Itachi, he tearfully declares that a genius with everything wouldn't understand his desire to find his true self and that no one would stand in his way.

One Piece

  • Almost every Big Bad has one. Kuro, Don Krieg, Arlong, Wapol, Crocodile, Eneru and Moria all have epic breakdowns while fighting Luffy.
  • So far, the only major enemy that Luffy has actually defeated to NOT have a breakdown was Arrogant Kung Fu Guy Rob Lucci. He only had time for an Oh Crap.
  • Moria's breakdown came at about the same time as he used Shadows Asgard.
  • Elite Mook Blueno as he fights Luffy during the Enies Lobby arc Blueno had previously defeated Luffy on Water 7 along with the rest of CP9, especially since Luffy couldn't at first overcome their special martial arts. When the two face off again (with Blueno by himself no less), not only does Luffy get past his strong defense, he can even keep up with him. What's more, Luffy unveils a new technique that makes him even more powerful. Bluneo loses his demeanour more and more as he finds himself outclassed. Finally ending where he tries to stand up to a strong attack. Once it hits he looks like he has a smug grin on his face from withstanding the impact...only to drop a second later, out cold.
    • Part of the reason he's so horrified at what Luffy is doing is because this particular CP9 generation is the strongest one yet and has never lost a fight. Blueno had clobbered Luffy twice and stopped the Straw Hat Pirates several times already to where he feels it's a routine. As he doesn't know what it's like to not curb stomp everyone in his way, let alone run out of options the moment the match had begun, he momentarily loses all coherent thought. The whole squad is in such disbelief that Luffy was victorious that some of his comrades pretend it didn't happen and the others decide to accept hasty (and incorrect) conclusions of what just happened.
  • While the New Fishman Pirates were never entirely sane in the first place, they go completely nuts when Luffy defeats Hody. They start killing their own men as "sacrifices" for their hatred towards humans.
    • Hody Jones, leader of the New Fishman Pirates, undergoes a physical breakdown to go with mental one. Near the end of his fight with Luffy, Hody's face seems to degenerate, becoming less human.

Other series

  • Marluxia has one in the manga adaptation of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Just compare his first appearance [dead link] with this.
  • The last episode of the 2003 Astro Boy series could have easily been renamed from "The Final Showdown" to "Dr. Tenma's Breakdown." It begins in "Astro Reborn" with Tenma erasing Astro's memories to live out an idyllic life together as father and son. When that fails, and after going crazy on a pipe organ a la Phantom of the Opera, he takes over the Ministry of Science and demands one last meeting with "Tobio". When his We Can Rule Together speech to Astro then fails, he tries to commit suicide by destroying both himself and his old laboratory.
  • Mazinger Z: Dr. Hell had several breakdowns: The first of them happened in episode 3, right after Mazinger-Z defeated his first Mechanical Beasts, and he realized Juzo Kabuto still could surpass him and thwart his lifelong plans even after death. He destroyed all Mykene Humongous Mecha he had found, declaring them being uselesss, and he very nearly gave up right then, but The Dragon Baron Ashura convinced him to not forfeit his wolrd-domination dream. Another memorable one happened in episode 68, when finally he saw himself unable to triumph over Kouji Kabuto. He destroyed all of his newest Beasts, and swallowing his pride, asked help to Archduke Gorgon.
    • Great Mazinger: Great Marshall Of Hell -The Dragon of the second season- also had several of them at the end of series, mainly in the Gosaku Ota manga continuity. His expression and subsequent fit when Venus-A shot the flying fortress Mykeros down was particularly beautiful.
  • Zofis in Zatch Bell suffers a really nasty one. Even after he gets his ass handed to him he remains defiant and tries to keep Koko's memories of her atrocities intact. Then Brago steps in and confronts Zofis with the fact that Zofis has been afraid of him from the beginning. He then threatens to hunt Zofis down and make his life miserable even after he returns to the mamodo world unless he erases the memories. At this point Zofis BREAKS DOWN CRYING WHILE LAUGHING INSANELY AT THE SAME TIME before finally yielding.
  • Tomoe has an absolutely huge freakout in Mai-Otome when she realizes that everyone (including her Valkyrie team) has deserted her for the side of the Garderobe Alliance, and Shizuru gives her the what-for about trying to manipulate everyone she comes across. Even in the end, Tomoe still tries to paint herself as a victim, saying that it's their fault for not cooperating with her.
  • Gackto in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch starts to crack at the end of the first arc with Sara's betrayal and Kaito's rejection. He gets better pretty quickly. Michel is less lucky, going through a series of Freak Outs and Villainous Breakdowns near the end of his arc that involve killing his own servants, three for no reason, eating two of them and being appalled afterwards, being forced to possess an Ill Girl, discovering he's a clone and, when he finally says "forget this" and goes to join the good guys, having his free will taken away. Most of this is caused by the medication he's been given, which is slowly driving him insane.
  • Ukyo from Samurai 7 maintains his Magnificent Bastard demeanor right up until he's attacked by Kikuchiyo in the last episode, upon which he snaps.
  • Dilandau in Vision of Escaflowne wavers between this and just being outright Ax Crazy. In his first few appearances, he's merely sadistic. Once Van scarred his pretty face, he moved up to outright screaming psycho killer. Near the end, after Van killed his entire squad, he starts hallucinating and babbling and only snaps out of it long enough to slaughter a bunch of people.
  • Brooklyn the invincible world champion from Beyblade, after he was defeated by Kai who at the time was considered the biggest loser in the entire series. Not only that, but Brooklyn took the mental breakdown to the logical extreme: he convinced himself his defeat never happened, that everything was nothing but a nightmare, a bad dream that would end soon.
  • One of the most heartbreaking examples comes from Rurouni Kenshin, with Soujiro Seta revealing his horrific Backstory to Kenshin as they fight, and quickly losing it afterward.

Soujiro: You say you strive to protect those who need your help? WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU?

    • Just watch it.
    • Makoto Shishio also has a breakdown after being hit with Kenshin's ultimate technique, though this is due in part to his badly burned body going over its 15 minutes limit of fighting, causing him to lose what little sanity he has.
    • Enishi Yukishiro also has a breakdown of epic proportions at the end of Jinchuu arc. When the image of his dead older sister Tomoe doesn't smile for him anymore, during his second fight with Kenshin... oh boooooooy, he loses it.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, in which The Rival, Jack Atlas, turns into a revenge-fueled lunatic upon finding out he technically lost to protagonist Yusei. Interestingly, Big Bad Godwin appears to be egging this breakdown on.
    • More recently, Placido more or less loses it when he realizes that Yusei has a chance of beating him, and went One-Winged Angel by revealing himself to be a cyborg and fusing himself with his D-Wheel to become a sort of motorcycle-centaur.
    • Later on, Aporia gets one during his fight against Jack, Rua, and Ruka. At first, he starts out as cool, calm, and in control, and spared Jack and Ruka just to piss Rua off. Later, when Rua intercepts an attack towards Jack, Aporia gets slightly pissed and attacks him, even if he could defeat one of the others. When Rua acquires his own Signer Dragon, Aporia becomes visibly angry, and moreso when Ruka destroys his Field Spell. He gets pushed over the edge when Jack destroys most of his Spells and Traps, and has a Slasher Smile when boosting his monster's ATK to 8300. He gets easily beat, falls to his death, and gets better.
    • Yubel has a similar breakdown in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX; after Judai finally gets it through her head that he doesn't share her twisted view of love, and is ready to commit to an Heroic Sacrifice to take her down, the normally-cool Duel Monster goes psycho and decides she won't omit herself and Judai from The End of the World as We Know It, after all.
    • Panik from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! suffers a huge one. At the beginning he delights in putting Yugi through the same torture as Mai and countless other duelists, but at the end, he's reduced to a screaming, raving wreck as Yugi proceeds to push as many of Panik's buttons as he possibly can.
  • Team Kenya leader Victor of Medabots tournament arc managed to pull of The Stoic to an admirable degree, never once shifting from his slightly angry looking frown for the whole season. He continues this throughout the whole of the final, calmly and ruthlessly sacrificing his teammates and outright destroying two of Team Japan's Medabots without once raising his voice... right up to the point where The Hero expresses his intention to keep fighting despite having lost weapons, mobility and all of his armour. Then Victor laughs. Joker style. Along with his previously silent Medabot, who unleashes the hero's signature Finishing Move amid vitriolic ranting about the heroes abject stupidity from the Slasher Smile sporting Victor. As one of the heroes notes, "Woah."
  • Takano's breakdown at the end of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. She loses it as the rest of the Yamainu are getting defeated by and surrendering to the protagonists and their friends. She refuses to give in, and that's when she finally realizes that Nomura tricked her into helping her just to close up a company. Upon doing so, she snaps and starts running for the mountains until the protagonists corner her and place her under arrest. When the group sees that she's been infected with the Hinamizawa Syndrome, Tomitake pities her and the group decides to cure her of the disease, having her sent to the hospital for curing. After the credits roll, things calm down a lot more for her when Frederica Bernkastel gives her a Happy Ending by preventing the deaths of her parents in order to change her destiny.
    • And another one in Higurashi Kira Episode 2 during a battle with Oyashiro Rika and Trap Satoko alongside Ritual Tool Devil Nail Ripper. Takano becomes furious after Satoko transforms and helps Rika back up after which the two take her and Nail Ripper on together. The girls overpower Nail Ripper and Satoko creates a pitfall trap underneath its foot that it falls into, causing Takano to Freak-Out and afterwards receive an Oh Crap moment upon seeing the girls about to unleash their 07th Explosion attack which destroys Nail Ripper and sends Takano flying into the horizon, screaming "Sorry, Brother!" along the way before becoming A Twinkle in the Sky.
  • Kohane's mother in ×××HOLiC has one that starts just after she suspects her daughter's medium abilities are fading. This culminates in a truly epic scene where she snaps, attacks Kohane, and then proceeds to beat Watanuki senseless for daring to intervene. All of this on live television.
    • In ×××HOLiC: A Midsummer Night's Dream, this happens to the dude who collects collectors when Yuuko walks towards him and is unfazed by anything he throws at her to keep her away. As she picks up the pace and begins to run, he gets even more desperate.
  • Queen Nehellenia the Big Bad of the fourth season of Sailor Moon has one after being blasted by Sailor Moon's Golden Crystal causing her to turn into a hideous old woman and choosing to reactivate her magic mirror prison seal, rather than losing her beauty. Consequently, when she is released from the seal during the beginning of the next season she spends most of her time in this state raving about how she will make Sailor Moon and her friends suffer.
  • "WE... WE WERE SUPPOSED TO WIN 5-0! AND YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!"
  • In the final of Witchblade anime Wadou slips into complete drooling insanity when his shady enterprises bring more disastrous effects than he could imagine. Looks like little backstabbing is one thing, but possibility of being obviously guilty in flattening half a city or so...
  • Berg Katse in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman spent his/her whole life being manipulated by Big Bad Sosai X, whom s/he worked his/her ass off to please. In the finale, however, X revealed that he intended to destroy the world and leave Katse behind to die with everyone else. Realizing s/he'd been played for a fool his/her whole life, Katse absolutely lost it in front of the Science Ninja Team and committed suicide by throwing himself/herself into the lava pit screaming "DIE, DIE, EVERYBODY DIE!!!".
  • Fullmetal Alchemist is no stranger to this trope either. In the anime, Envy nearly breaks down after Dante sends Hohenhiem through the gate (thinking she killed him) but is talked into calming down when Dante promises to let him kill the Elrics. Even after killing Ed, he isn't satisfied. Upon being sent to the gate (thanks to Al using the stone and him trying to prevent it) and learning that Ed's Father is still alive, he practically forces his way into the gate and loses it transforming into a dragon in the process. Also Dietlinde Eckhart, the main baddie from the movie, near end of the climax goes into a tirade about how Ed's world is full of monsters when Ed gains the advantage. Ironically she ends up turned into something of a monster on the the trip back to her world through the gate and shot as result of her appearance.
    • The Manga on the other hand. Envy somewhats goes through this (this version isn't very sane) whenever some forces him to go into his true form, a small fetus-like lizard.
      • Envy's worst breakdown was when Ed, holding Envy's weakened form, revealed he knew what the source of Envy's hatred for humanity was: He envied their ability to care for one another. Enraged at having his motives perceived by a human he despised above all others, Envy tore out his own Philosopher's Stone and crushed it to spite Ed's mercy.
    • Central Command, with each General more or less losing it due to Roy and Olivier Armstrong's revolution defeating their forces and Father betraying them.
    • Other than, Envy, there's the Big Bad himself, Father, who after succeeding at becoming a Physical God rudely had 50 million bound souls torn out of his body by Hohenheim. The imbalance was enough that Father could barely restrain the powere he had stolen. As he was forced to expend even more souls in an attempt to protect himself, his self-control decayed further until, at the end, he was a muttering, shambling hulk.
      • But Father's true breakdown occurs after his death. After confronting the Truth and learning that he's no better then the humans he belittled, he's dragged into the Gate, asking in tearful screams what he should have done differently.
  • Popo from Kaiba begins to lose it just as he wins. First, his mother's memory chip accidentally slips from his fingers and is destroyed, then he finds out his accomplice Cheki has had her personality wiped clean to become an obedient servant. Having lost these things precious to him and seeing the giant memory/PlanetEater plant coming towards planet Lala, he decides that letting it eat the world and achieving Instrumentality is the only solution.
  • "Margaret! What's happened to you?! You BITCH!!"
  • Creed from Black Cat has one of these in a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Train. When Train goes to Creed's Supervillain Lair, pops in, saves Rinslet, then runs off leaving everyone confused, Creed doesn't take it very well.
  • Isshiki gets one in RahXephon. After spending the entire show trying to play the Magnificent Bastard to prove that he isn't worthless he finally gets into a position where he can strike a definitive blow against the Mu... only to have it backfire spectacularly, leading directly to him losing his position and the Omniscient Council of Vagueness that he was working for denying ever having heard his name. He...doesn't take it well.
  • At the end of the first arc of Digimon Adventure 02, the Digimon Emperor starts having one of these as a result of trying to control Chimeramon. When he's finally defeated and learns the Digital World isn't some video game to win, he finally goes What Have I Done and turns back into his true identity, Ken Ichijouji. Think they're done there? It Got Worse—minutes later, his partner Wormmon dies; when he goes back to the real world, he goes into a Heroic BSOD for two episodes.
    • Ken's breakdown is even more awful in the Japanese and uncut German version where most of the things he does after Chimeramon is yell a lot and whip Wormmon while it tries to explain the situation.
  • Trigun completely reversed this during the climactic showdown between Vash and Legato. There, Vash... the good guy was in a mad panic, while Legato... the bad guy was remaining calm and reserved.
  • During the first arc of Digimon Tamers, Yamaki has a long and escalating sequence of these, starting with angry rants when particularly stubborn "Wild Ones" resist deletion up to a full-on, possibly partially insane breakdown when the Juggernaut program doesn't work as planned, including choking a kid and stumbling off yelling angrily to himself in proud Lovecraftian fashion. Surprisingly, he does not have one when he's fired after Hypnos collapses, instead beginning a Heel Face Turn that results in him becoming a staunch (and largely sane) ally.
  • Lucemon from Digimon Frontier generally shows no emotion except cold disdain—but he loses it on the two occasions he's outmatched by Susannoomon. The second time is particularly extreme, as he's reduced to screaming about his "utopia."
  • Kurata has a major one when ShineGreymon enters Burst Mode and gives his One-Winged Angel form a Curb Stomp Battle. He goes from Smug Snake to frantically begging for his life. It continues after his final plan backfires, having him screaming for help as the rift between the worlds opens and vaporizes him.
  • Hellmaster Phibrizzo from Slayers NEXT. When his plan to have Lina cast the Giga Slave and destroy the world backfires due to Lina being possessed by the Lord of Nightmares, he completely flips out, eventually screaming out "I WANNA BE DESTROYED!". His wish is granted shortly afterwards.
    • Valgaav from TRY inverts this trope. At first, he's fueled by vengeance against both Lina and the Dragons, with the anger and psychosis you'd expect from such a motive, but after merging with Darkstar, he reveals his new plan to remake the world with an eerily calm demeanor.
  • In Gun X Sword, the Claw's dream is delayed at the 11th hour by Ray's Heroic Sacrifice, leading to his claw twitching for a full episode. When Van puts his dreams of Instrumentality down for good, he goes completely off the handle.
  • This happens to Griffith in Berserk when Guts defeats him in one single stroke to earn his freedom. Guts' desertion marks a turning point in Griffith's life and ambitions and everything falls apart for Griffith from there on, making it an apt breakdown.
  • Johan from Monster has two of these—one after finding a Bonaparta children's book that helped mess him up as a kid, and the other after he realizes that his memories are actually Nina's, the latter leading to the climactic scenes in Ruhenheim. Given what he is, these make him even scarier.
    • Arguably three, given the freakout he has at the climax when his sister determinedly interrupts his Kill Him Already-moment with Tenma to Care Bear Stare at him just as he's getting into his Hannibal Lecture stride. "I am too irredeemable! Now shoot me in the head or the kid gets it!". The boy has issues.
  • Harry McDowell of the Gungrave anime is always completely calm and collected, no matter how bad a situation he's in, and never fires a weapon himself, until Brandon Heat, his best friend points a gun at him. Harry draws his own gun, fires at least five shots into him, then rams the barrel into his eye and fires a sixth. Later on he gets two other breakdowns as he's trying to deal with the fact that he killed his best friend whom he's trusted and relied on since they were children and whom he wanted to stay by his side.
    • Plays out a little differently in the game's storyline. Harry just gets a punch to the face because he had plans to manipulate Maria into being Brandon's wife, something that Brandon would never do. Harry's also oddly calm when Grave/Brandon confronts him at the very end of the game. With all of Harry's lieutenants and monsters destroyed, he simply accepts his defeat and allows Grave to kill him.
  • The Anti-Spirals (represented by their avatar the Anti-Spiral King) of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are archetypal inhumanly calm and dispassionate Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Until the last episode. During the Final Battle the Anti-Spirals unleash thousands of years worth of repressed emotion and Hot Blood, ranting about the sacrifices they made to protect the universe and screaming that the protagonists are idiots who don't realize that their actions will lead to the end of everything.
    • It's actually a vital plot point if you look at it right. Both Lord Genome and the Anti-Spiral are very calm and confident, Smug Snake levels on the part of the Anti-Spiral. When the heroes manage to fight them face to face, they go completely Hot-Blooded and proceed with the ass-kicking. The reason it's a plot point is because the Anti-Spirals, and by extension Lord Genome, were trying to suppress hot blooded badassery. Lampshaded on the part of Lord Genome and foreshadowed for the Anti-Spiral when Anti-Spiral Nia says "Not even Lord Genome could suppress the Spiral instinct."
    • Cytomander also loses a fair chunk of his self-control during the Battle of Teppelin, such as cackling like a maniac after Simon unleashes a drill Macross Missile Massacre.
  • In Fruits Basket, Akito Sohma has a rather fragile grip on reality and thus it takes little to shake her up. A first breakdown comes after Kureno is freed from the curse, causing her to go from a scared but mostly kind child to full-on possessive and clingy, beating and locking up the other Zodiac members to keep them from "leaving" too. A second one comes towards the end of the series, after Momiji is freed, panicking her again to the point of nearly stabbing his mother with a knife. This breakdown is only intensified when Hiro is freed in the middle of the attack, leading Akito to stab Kureno in the back and then go off in a delirious state to attack Tohru Honda, who she blames for everything. However, Tohru manages to actually get to Akito and talks to her kindly... and after Tohru almost falls victim to Death by Falling Over in the middle of their confrontation, Akito finally realizes what a fucked-up bitch she is and has a Heel Face Turn..
    • Akito's mother Ren, who is just as screwed-up, has a breakdown of her own when she learns that Shigure only slept with her and showed any interest in her because he was in love with Akito and thought Akito would look more like her, had she been raised as a girl and not as a boy per Ren's selfish demands, thus causing her to enter Akito's room with a knife and demand that she hand over a box which supposedly had something of Akira ( Akito's late father)'s in it. It's empty.
  • In Darker than Black, The Man Behind the Man does not react well at all to Hei completely wrecking The Syndicate's Contractor-genocide plan and Kirihara recording his Motive Rant so that she can arrest and prosecute him. In fact, he starts strangling someone who he was asking not 5 minutes earlier to join him.
  • Fenrir the Princess of Disaster has one in Prétear when Mawata is saved by her family and Sasame appears to have second thoughts about siding with her. However, considering before her Face Heel Turn she was already an insecure, needy young girl and fell when Hayate rejected her love , this isn't so much a sudden change in personality as it is a revelation that Takako, the sweet girl she used to be, is still there underneath the villain, and is not beyond salvation. Soon, Himeno succeeds into bringing Takako/Fenrir back to the side of good.
  • In chapter 272 of Mahou Sensei Negima, Kurt Godel loses some of his composure when Negi reveals that he knows that the Magical World is falling apart. Negi then accuses him of betraying the ideals of the people he looked up to in his youth namely Arika and Nagi. Godel gets pissed, calls Negi a "little boy who's too smart for his own good", and decides to force Negi to be his pawn. It fails.
    • And in chapter 298, Fate, who's normally coldly Stoic visibly trembles with wrath and looks upset when Negi declares that he will prevent the future in which the magical world collapses from happening.
  • FLCL has a strange one (Anyone surprised?) when Naota reveals that he's absorbed the powers of Atomsk... it's Haruko that snaps, who immediately grabs her weapon (read: guitar) and lunges at Naota, screaming "THAT POWER'S MINE!!!"
  • Yokoya in Liar Game could lie, deceive and bribe his way through any situation. That is, until he met Nao and Akiyama. At the end of the Second round, he managed to profit greatly from the game, when everyone else had just managed to pay off their debts and gained nothing. He began gloating to Akiyama that he had lost, when Nao of all people mentioned how Yokoya had contradicted his earlier philosophy of dominance. Instead, he had turned to tricks to profit and unknowingly had three traitors on his side. "Even though you made the big money, Mr Yokoya, you lost the game to me."
    • In the Pandemic game, when he tried to bribe money to one of his teammates who trapped himself in the examination room, his teammate continually kept demanding more and more money, until Yokoya visually lost his calm demeanor and began violently kicking at the door ... only to find out that it was Akiyama in the room the whole time and who he was slipping money to.
  • It's difficult to name a Hellsing villain who doesn't have a Villainous Breakdown.
    • Almost every single person who's faced down Alucard suffers such a breakdown at the end of their fight. Like Rip van Winkle (whom you could almost feel sorry for) and Luke Valentine (If only for Alucard's Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "If I'm a dog, then you're DOG FOOD!" Followed by mastication.)
    • Zorin Blitz gets seriously freaked out when she learns just why she shouldn't have fucked with Seras. She was all confident while she was pulling a Break the Cutie tactic on Seras, mind raping and maiming her, killing Pip, and referring to the dead Pip as an insect. Seras then snaps and Zorin had a permanent Oh Crap expression on her face up until Seras kills her by cheese grating her against a wall until her skull breaks.
    • Enrico Maxwell has one when Anderson breaks the armored glass protecting him from Alucard's familiars. This is followed by him being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
    • In fact, there are probably only three villains who avert this trope: Jan Valentine (who goes out laughing his ass off), the Captain (who goes out the same way), and the Major (who just wanted constant and everlasting war, regardless of who won or lost).
  • Daniel D'Arby's breakdown in Part 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Jotaro beats D'Arby in a game of poker by messing him up through sheer bluffing! D'Arby is an expert gambler, had the whole game rigged to his advantage, and Jotaro had never played poker before that moment. Jotaro's poker face was just that good.
  • Aureolus Izzard from A Certain Magical Index goes from a calm, Magnificent Bastard to a murderous lunatic when Stiyl and Touma inform him that his complicated plan to find and trap a vampire, then force it to turn Index into a vampire in order to save her life is completely unnecessary because Touma already saved her. He gets even more upset when Stiyl questions why he needed to find and trap a vampire in the first place if he has Reality Warper powers, he could have just summoned one or even turned Index into a vampire himself. Then, he completely loses it when Touma acts like Aureolus chopping his arm off means nothing to him and slowly advances on him, laughing like a crazed lunatic and giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. In a blind panic, Aureolus screams, "He's a monster!" and has just enough time to go Oh Crap before his Reality Warper powers turn against him and cause a dragon to emerge from Touma's arm stump, which finishes him off.
    • Accelerator also has one of these (not sure if other moments really count for this) after Touma slaps his hand away, something that has never happened due to his vector control ability redirecting any and all attacks or block attempts.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn: The normally calm and polite Byakuran goes apeshit following Uni's Heroic Sacrifice because of her key importance in his plan to become ruler of all time and space.
    • Daemon Spade loses it when Tsuna gains the combined powers of the Vongola and Shimon rings. He becomes a screaming lunatic futilely lashing out in rage and denial. The breakdown is reflected in his appearance—his once bishonen form becomes a warped and hideous mass Body Horror.
  • Soul Eater is fond of these, since most of its characters aren't exactly stable.
    • Dark Magical...Person Crona is constantly on the cusp of a nervous breakdown anyway, but goes absolutely ballistic when Maka connects with their psyche.
    • Giriko has one following Arachne's death. And later, he follows it up with an even bigger one. In fact, he gets so angry that his soul explodes.
    • Kishin Asura has these constantly in the anime, due to his overwhelming terror at anything he doesn't understand.
  • Iwao Washizu from Akagi completely breaks down and briefly goes catatonic when Akagi manages to outperform him in their epic Mahjong match. Akagi personally has to talk him into continuing their game, and gives himself a disadvantage for the next round.
  • Grings Kodai from Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions is normally quite the Smug Snake, but when Zoroark foils his plan, he does both variations, first flying into a psychaotic rage and trying to murder her and her son. When that backfires, he becomes a lot less composed than he used to be.
  • In the second-to-last episode of Shaman King, Hao gets a huge Villainous Breakdown when Yoh regains his soul and his consciousness to the joy of his friends and his fiencee Anna - leading Hao himself to lose his cool and get really mad as well as go Ax Crazy, to Opacho's upset.

Opacho: ...I don't understand. I thought we were friends... (walks away sadly)
Hao: Hah... hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Opacho's gonna miss out on all the fun! HEAR ME NOW, SPIRIT OF FIRE! (Spirit of Fire appears) REGENERATE, AND ARIIIIIISSSEEEE!!! Devour him! (Spirit of Fire lunges at the Great Spirits and starts absorbing their energy)

  • In the Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga, Shadow Link gets one when Vio is freed by the other three Links and the Links defeat his Hinox servants. His Villainous Breakdown has him fly into a rage and hit the four Links with a This Is Unforgivable! and make one last lash at them - only to be defeated by the combined power of their Four Swords.
  • Moo in Monster Rancher Episode 47. During his final attack on the Searchers, he is completely overcome by the evil of his soul, and completely goes berserk, even destroying many of his own men. In the next episode he is finally destroyed.
  • Cyrus of all people has one of these in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure, which leads to his Heel Face Turn.
  • Shugo Chara: Nikaidou, after capturing Su (And, previously, both of Amu's other Charas, although, by that time, they had been freed.), seems to become more, and more unhinged, constantly ranting about his obssession with success and societal promotion, although whether or not that was him trying to (Thankfully, failingly.) "convince" him - self to not embrace his past Dreams is left un - clear.) and typing furiously upon his computer while once hitting his desk hard. His only moments of knowingness come when Su speaks towards him, trying to convince him to let her out to clean his room and make him a new cup of coffee, rather than escape and, more noticeably, when she (Albeit inadvertently.) reminds him of his own Dreams. An odd case within the fact that only one protagonist (Su, who is being held hostage.) ever gets to see most of it within action. And his face. Good God, his face. Also becomes completely subverted during The Anime's finale/conclusion of the manga's third arc: Gozen breaks down, but it's not at all villanous: Goxen has been revealed to be Hikaru, the boy that Amu encountered (Within an, at times, very disturbing fashion.) before - hand, and he is crying through - out years of repressed sadness due towards his extraordinarily strict upbriging, which the return of his Heart's Egg towards him lets completely out, thus stopping his usual (Albeit false.) extraordinarily unfeeling temperament.
  • Throughout the Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou", Tongpu/Mad Pierrot is set up as a psychotic and seemingly invulnerable assassin who can stop bullets with the greatest of ease. However, when Spike manages to embed a knife into the guy's thigh, the up-until-that-point cold-blooded killer is reduced to a bawling mess thrashing on the pavement and crying for his mommy. The earlier establishment that his mental state and powers are the result of genetic engineering experiments performed on him does serve to make this childish tantrum not seem so out-of-the-blue.
  • Somewhat similar to the Trigun example above, the protagonist, Shinji Ikari, goes through one in The End of Evangelion. Normally, it would probably just fall under Go Mad from the Revelation... except that Shinji's misery leads him to take it out on the rest of humanity.
  • Minor character Kashiwara has one in the first episode of Gunbuster. After Noriko "Wipe Out Girl" Takaya is chosen for a position that she felt should have been hers, and Coach doesn't do a damn thing to explain himself, Kashiwara tricks Noriko into a mecha battle - up to this point, Noriko's nickname of "Wipe Out Girl" was given to her for a reason. As Kashiwara keeps kicking Noriko's ass, she goes on a brief rant about how the latter girl has no skills or talent, and her epxression is truly frightening. And when Noriko turns off her monitor on a desperate gamble, then Kashiwara goes completely apeshit and evidently tries to kill her. Fortunately, though, Noriko responds with her legs.
  • Sakura Gari: Sakurako, Souma's Yandere sister, suffers a massive (and heartbreaking one near the end. S/he's actually a boy named Youya, desperately lonely and unstable, and s/he ends up commiting suicide when s/he thinks s/he's killed Souma. But not before... after having loced Souma and Masataka away in a burning building, s/he stumbles in Lord Saiki's bedroom, whispering "Father... Sakurako has always wanted to see you...", then starting to chop up everything in sight with his/her trusty katana, crying and screaming "Why was I born? Why am I here? Why do I exist, Father, WHY?!" When s/he stops and realizes that Souma might be dead, s/he screams in horror, lets go of their Weapon of Choice and then runs under the cherry trees... Few later, we find him/her dead, his/her wrists slit open and their lifeless body inside the pool. And Souma bawls his eyes out with his/her lifeless body in his arms.
  • Karakuridouji Ultimo: In chapter 11 Rune completely looses it, with an ultimate crazed look on his face, while bawling his eyes out at the same time. Then there's the fact he's perfectly willing to kill his best friend because he doesn't love him back, then commit suicide.
  • Perfect Blue features both Rumi and Me-Mania experiencing this towards the end. Rumi ends up permanently institutionalized and delusional.
  • Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest: Kuro, multiple stages. Haguro's is pretty epic too.
    • Post Haguro's death, Ryuuko just lost what little bit of sanity she had left (and considering how Ax Crazy she was there wasn't much left), wandering on the streets and selling her body in utter disbelief now that she lost Haguro and couldn't get Inugami.
  • Rosario + Vampire: Kuyou in chapter 52 of manga season 2.
  • Kanamori has two in the manga Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni. The first is when Marie Moriya, his Lolicon interest, threatened to tell others about their supplementary lessons, he snaps, and strangles her to death. The second breakdown was when he failed the three rules about Mesomeso, and Marie becomes Mesomeso, and is about to kill him, he breaks down, and told her that he always loved her. She tells him she loved him too, and gives him the Kiss of Death.
  • In Tokyo Mew Mew, Quiche gets this when he realizes that the Mew Aqua doesn't actually make people stronger, just stores power. He gets even worse with every rejection courtesy of Ichigo.
    • And later, Deep Blue gets this when Ichigo reaches out to Masaya, who apparently starts fighting back against the aliens' leader from within him. The more Masaya fights back, the more Deep Blue loses his composure. And he gets even worse when he finally realizes what is happening to him, and eventually gets held in place by Aoyama-kun much to even more of his agitation. His breakdown gets more and more intense until Ichigo becomes forced to kill them both in order to set her beloved Masaya free... which is a rather nice end to a Complete Monster like Deep Blue himself.
  • The Dark Precure goes through this near the end of Heartcatch Pretty Cure. When she first appears, she's calm, collected and a walking can of Curb Stomp Battle. However, once Yuri regains her Heroic Resolve and returns to action, she starts to snap, especially since Yuri's finally dumped her baggage and is fighting clearer. When we see her near the end of the series, hopped up on a major power boost, all she wants to do now is just kill Yuri and keep Professor Sabaku to herself.