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beccastareyesDay 25 - Best anime villain: tie between Akio Ohtori and Hellmaster Phibrizzo
Here I'm going to distinguish between characters I like as villains and characters I like as characters. They aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but there are characters that make me cackle with glee when I realize just how they have the heroes over a barrel, which may not be the same as the characters I find fascinating.
And I admit, I love the mindscrew as my favorite villain technique. So I went with villains that could use it.
Akio is the antagonist of the last arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena. And... well, spoilers. He's the chairman of the school, and engaged with the trustee's daughter. He's also one half of the prince Dios... the one jaded and corrupted by the world, and without most of his power. He wants his old power back, which means finding a prince as noble as he once was to unlock it. To this end, he sets up the duels for the Rose Bride (his sister, Anthy) and promising the power of Dios, the power to revolutionize the world, as the ultimate goal -- who was also split, with half of her enduring tremendous pain for her brother, and the other half following Akio's orders. Akio basically manipulates things to both find a candidate among his students and to test Utena when she emerges. He then tries to get his mitts into Utena... and half-suceeds. Utena was willing to take Anthy's place, freeing Anthy, but left Akio in the lurch. And this act of noble sacrifice was enough to free Anthy from her abusive relationship with her brother, leaving Akio without a means of resuming the duels.
Granted, manipulating a bunch of hormonal teenagers when you are centuries old may not seem like a hard task.
Phibrizzo is also looking for power. In his case, he knows that Lina Inverse can cast the Giga Slave, summoning down the spirit of the creator of his world, and as a good little being of pure destruction, he figures he can get her to start casting the spell, and then disrupt it, which will return the world to primordial chaos. On the other hand, Lina knows the spell is risky, so won't bust it out unless desperate.
Phibrizzo's first plan is to convince the rebel mazoku Gaav that Lina is part of some hidden mazoku plot. Gaav is sufficiently powerful that Lina would need to cast the Giga Slave to not die. On the other hand, Lina is interested in not destroying the world, so she makes it her business to learn a safer spell, the Ragna Blade. So... since Lina wasn't cooperating, Phibrizzo kills Gaav himself and moves to phase two.
Phibrizzo pretty much kidnaps Lina's kinda-boyfriend, brainwashes him to fight the party, then brings back a city that had been destroyed last year (to get Lina to cast the Giga Slave, ironically*) to mess with her (and use the unwilling shades to channel her and her other friends to him), then he starts crushing the life force out of her friends one by one, then threatens to kill her boyfriend... basically trying to drive Lina to the point where she knew she had to either die, watch everything she loved be painfully killed, or gamble that she could cast the spell and keep control long enough to kill Phibrizzo before he killed her (and disrupted the spell).
Of course, Phibrizzo didn't count on the fact that apparently the creator of their world was more interested in crushing him like a bug than destroying the world by existing in it. But, hey, who can fathom the ways of the Lord of Nightmares?
* Now I wonder if Phibrizzo was the one who planted the idea in Copy Rezo's head that he needed to get Lina to cast that spell in order to beat the original Rezo or die trying. It's not like Lina's ability to call down crazy amounts of magic beyond the standard Dragon Slave is widely known. Eris and Copy Rezo might have known Lina killed Rezo and a piece of Shabranigdo, but not necessarily how.
Previous Days
Day 1 - Very first anime: Speed Racer; Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2
Day 2 - Favorite TV series: Slayers
Day 3 -Your anime crush: Thoughts on anime adaptions
Day 4 - Favorite Film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Day 5 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were): Mizuno Ami, Sailor Moon
Day 6 - Most annoying anime character: Louise, Familiar of Zero
Day 7 - Character you’d most like to slap: Miaka & Tamahome, Fushigi Yuugi
Day 8 - Most epic scene ever: Climax, Princess Mononoke
Day 9 - Saddest anime scene: Climax of final episode of Kino's Journey
Day 10 - Favorite slice of life anime: Here is Greenwood
Day 11 - Favorite mech series: Vision of Escaflowne
Day 12 - Best installment of a franchise you don’t like: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki
Day 13 - Worst installment of a franchise you do like: Slayers: Hourglass of Falces
Day 14 - Current (or most recent) anime wallpaper: Sylphiel
Day 15 - A reality check for a genre you like: Eureka SeveN
Day 16 - An anime classic that simply doesn’t work for you: Akira
Day 17 - Best Background Music: .hack//SIGN
Day 18 - Best Five-team: cast of Digimon Adventure 02
Day 19 - Change you’d like to make to any one anime: Fix the pacing problems in Crest of the Stars.
Day 20 - Most ambiguous anime character: Anthy, Revolutionary Girl Utena
Day 21 – Favourite OAV Series: Elf Princess Raine!
Day 22 -Animation studio you'd most like to slap: Thoughts on sequels
Day 23 - Anime you think had the best, or most intriguing art: Mushishi
Day 24 - Favorite anime hero or heroine: Rosette Christopher
Here I'm going to distinguish between characters I like as villains and characters I like as characters. They aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but there are characters that make me cackle with glee when I realize just how they have the heroes over a barrel, which may not be the same as the characters I find fascinating.
And I admit, I love the mindscrew as my favorite villain technique. So I went with villains that could use it.
Akio is the antagonist of the last arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena. And... well, spoilers. He's the chairman of the school, and engaged with the trustee's daughter. He's also one half of the prince Dios... the one jaded and corrupted by the world, and without most of his power. He wants his old power back, which means finding a prince as noble as he once was to unlock it. To this end, he sets up the duels for the Rose Bride (his sister, Anthy) and promising the power of Dios, the power to revolutionize the world, as the ultimate goal -- who was also split, with half of her enduring tremendous pain for her brother, and the other half following Akio's orders. Akio basically manipulates things to both find a candidate among his students and to test Utena when she emerges. He then tries to get his mitts into Utena... and half-suceeds. Utena was willing to take Anthy's place, freeing Anthy, but left Akio in the lurch. And this act of noble sacrifice was enough to free Anthy from her abusive relationship with her brother, leaving Akio without a means of resuming the duels.
Granted, manipulating a bunch of hormonal teenagers when you are centuries old may not seem like a hard task.
Phibrizzo is also looking for power. In his case, he knows that Lina Inverse can cast the Giga Slave, summoning down the spirit of the creator of his world, and as a good little being of pure destruction, he figures he can get her to start casting the spell, and then disrupt it, which will return the world to primordial chaos. On the other hand, Lina knows the spell is risky, so won't bust it out unless desperate.
Phibrizzo's first plan is to convince the rebel mazoku Gaav that Lina is part of some hidden mazoku plot. Gaav is sufficiently powerful that Lina would need to cast the Giga Slave to not die. On the other hand, Lina is interested in not destroying the world, so she makes it her business to learn a safer spell, the Ragna Blade. So... since Lina wasn't cooperating, Phibrizzo kills Gaav himself and moves to phase two.
Phibrizzo pretty much kidnaps Lina's kinda-boyfriend, brainwashes him to fight the party, then brings back a city that had been destroyed last year (to get Lina to cast the Giga Slave, ironically*) to mess with her (and use the unwilling shades to channel her and her other friends to him), then he starts crushing the life force out of her friends one by one, then threatens to kill her boyfriend... basically trying to drive Lina to the point where she knew she had to either die, watch everything she loved be painfully killed, or gamble that she could cast the spell and keep control long enough to kill Phibrizzo before he killed her (and disrupted the spell).
Of course, Phibrizzo didn't count on the fact that apparently the creator of their world was more interested in crushing him like a bug than destroying the world by existing in it. But, hey, who can fathom the ways of the Lord of Nightmares?
* Now I wonder if Phibrizzo was the one who planted the idea in Copy Rezo's head that he needed to get Lina to cast that spell in order to beat the original Rezo or die trying. It's not like Lina's ability to call down crazy amounts of magic beyond the standard Dragon Slave is widely known. Eris and Copy Rezo might have known Lina killed Rezo and a piece of Shabranigdo, but not necessarily how.
Previous Days
Day 1 - Very first anime: Speed Racer; Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2
Day 2 - Favorite TV series: Slayers
Day 3 -
Day 4 - Favorite Film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Day 5 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were): Mizuno Ami, Sailor Moon
Day 6 - Most annoying anime character: Louise, Familiar of Zero
Day 7 - Character you’d most like to slap: Miaka & Tamahome, Fushigi Yuugi
Day 8 - Most epic scene ever: Climax, Princess Mononoke
Day 9 - Saddest anime scene: Climax of final episode of Kino's Journey
Day 10 - Favorite slice of life anime: Here is Greenwood
Day 11 - Favorite mech series: Vision of Escaflowne
Day 12 - Best installment of a franchise you don’t like: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki
Day 13 - Worst installment of a franchise you do like: Slayers: Hourglass of Falces
Day 14 - Current (or most recent) anime wallpaper: Sylphiel
Day 15 - A reality check for a genre you like: Eureka SeveN
Day 16 - An anime classic that simply doesn’t work for you: Akira
Day 17 - Best Background Music: .hack//SIGN
Day 18 - Best Five-team: cast of Digimon Adventure 02
Day 19 - Change you’d like to make to any one anime: Fix the pacing problems in Crest of the Stars.
Day 20 - Most ambiguous anime character: Anthy, Revolutionary Girl Utena
Day 21 – Favourite OAV Series: Elf Princess Raine!
Day 22 -
Day 23 - Anime you think had the best, or most intriguing art: Mushishi
Day 24 - Favorite anime hero or heroine: Rosette Christopher
