For this article I wanted to return to my favorite anime once again. Naruto is not perfect, but it has many interesting ideas in its story that I keep going back to thinking about one or the other thing. There are great fights, there are great arcs and there is great lore. This time however I want to focus on the villains. Not on all of them. There are a bunch of more or less interesting bad guys in the series, but I want to focus on three, that are my favorite, and that in my opinion provide insight into three different ways on how to design a villain.
There is of course Pain. Maybe the greatest villain in the series. I also love Tobi. I know, his real name is Obito, but when I talk about his design in this article I want to focus on the character Tobi – that is, the Akatsuki member with the orange mask, that is silly, but he might also be Madara and be very powerful? Lastly, and this is the one who prompted me to write this piece, is Danzo Shimura. Compared to Pain and Tobi, he plays a arguably smaller role, but not an unimportant one in the series. And while he is detestable, I am a big fan of his design.
I’d like to argue, that these three represent three different types of villains, that one can design in ones story. I would call them the mythical (Pain), the mysterious (Tobi) and the resourceful (Danzo) villains.
Nagatos Pain – a mythical reckoning
I think Pain is maybe the poster child of mythical villains, because what sets them apart is that they and their abilities symbolise an idea, a concept. Pain represents pain, and more than that, the buddhist notion of the cycle of pain. Pain has six bodies with one unique ability. Each of them representing one part of the samsara: Humans, gods, half-gods, animals, hungry humans, and humans in hell.
Pain is a god. At least he thinks of him like that. And he is presented as that. We are introduced to him early in the series (Shippuden), as the mysterious leader of a powerful group. We know that he will be the end boss when it comes to defeating that group. When we meet him through Jiraiyas eyes, he is again presented as a god, with a community honouring him as one. Here we also see him defeat Jiraiya, one of the more powerful people we know until then. Mythical villains are a force of nature. Their power seems insurmountable by the hero, as if they are tasked to defeat a god. The mythical villains are entities, of whose existence we know from the beginning of the story, and who we know we must defeat, but think it impossible. They seem invincible.
The fight between the hero and the mythical villain is destiny. Often foretold by prophecy. Often too it decides the fate of the world. And it is devastating, two forces of nature clashing with each other. The fight between Kurama and Pain is drawn in a weird way, in an attempt to show their otherworldly power.
The hero can only defeat the mythical villain by achieving mastery over the idea the villain represents. By killing Jyiraiya, Pain instills pain on Naruto. That pain makes him hate Pain, wanting to kill him and thus he would become part of the cycle of pain. Naruto decides in the end to try to understand and forgive. As he is not controlled by pain, he defeats Pain.
I think Madara (the real one) replaces Pain as the mythical villain later in the series. But here’s an unpopular opinion: I don’t think Madara is a good villain. He is presented as a god and he is powerful as a god. But his power are all over the place and it is not quite sure what he symbolizes and how that stands in relation to the heroes. Rather, I think, it’s good that he is overcome by Zetsu, who represents hatred that has haunted humanity over centuries.
Danzo’s Ambition – resources provide power
Why do I find Danzo exciting as a villain? He’s an old man who needs a cane. We all know these are the most powerful fighters in anime. But that’s not what draws me to him. Danzo is ambitious. He has a vision and fights for it – by any means necessary. Danzo is introduced to us when a more adult, darker part of Naruto’s world is revealed to us. Later in the show we learn that pretty much every time something awful has happened in the recent past, Danzo was behind it. That’s one part of the resourceful villain – they have no scrupels, no moral code. They have a goal and want to reach it. Everything is either an obstacle or a tool that helps to reach that goal. And that’s the second part. Everything is a tool.
I call them resourceful villains, because they know how to use the resources at their disposal in the most efficient way possible. They know about the importance of resources in the first place, and gather them. These resources can be weapons or literal tools, but they can also be information or political and economical resources. Danzo is the leader of the secretive and dangerous Anbu unit, and therefore he wields not only political influence, but also has his own army at his disposel. A fact which in the story he rarely uses. Rather his resourcefulness comes to light, when he shows his abilities.
In the Five-Kage-Summit, it is revealed that Danzo was using Shisuis eye, which he stole and implanted into his eye-socket, to manipulate a member of another Kages entourage. It was simply a tool to get to what he wanted. In his fight against Sasuke, it is revealed that his whole arm is full with stolen Sharingans. Which he uses to use a powerful Jutsu, that costs one their eyesight. Since he has multiple eyes, he can use it multiple times. Later in the fight it is revealed that he has implanted himself Hashirama cells.
With the eyes and the cells he had the probably two most powerful genes implanted into himself. Now this shouldn’t be confused with the mad scientist, another type of villain, which I personally don’t care for that much. Naruto has one of them with Oroshimaru. Oroshimaru experimented on himself to make himself immortal. But I would argue his motivation was that of a scientist, to make the impossible possible. Danzo didn’t use science for science’s sake. He used Oroshimaru to make himself stronger, because he saw himself being on a mission. And he is ambitious in a political way.
The resources used by the resourceful villains do not always have to be collected through nefarious means. They can be obtained by fair training or work as well. However, if the resources are stolen from the hero, their family or their friends, or even from their culture or tradition – such as the Uchiha eyes are in Sasukes case – it makes for an even more contemptuous villain. In those cases the fight is more personal.
The effective use of their resources makes them incredibly powerful. They could even defeat a mythic villain, just because they know to use their comparatively little resources better than the vast power at the disposal of a mythic character. What is needed to defeat such villains is a test of wits and ability. The hero must show that they have greater mastery over the resources the villain has, or in general are more resourceful. In Danzo’s case, Sasuke defeats him, because of a simple trick with his sharingan, showing that he can use his eyes, that naturally belong to him, better than Danzo can his many stolen ones. Resourceful villains from other media that come to mind are Abessa from the Arcane Series and Toji Fushiguro from Jujutsu Kaisen.
Tobis mystery– evading the grasp of your mind
Who is that man behind his mask, who seems to survive even the most impossible to survive situations? He’s a silly little goose, which isn’t taken seriously by his companions at the Akatsuki. Or is he Madara, the age old menace from Konoha and secret leader of said group? For the sake of this analysis of villain types, I see the character of Tobi as different to the character of Obito. After the reveal of his true identity, Obito, in my opinion, becomes a character independent from Tobi. Also in my opinion, he becomes more boring than the character of Tobi.
The “mystery” in “mystery villain” is not so much about the “who are they?”, but about the “what are they?” While their appearance and presentation are mysterious already – most of them seem like they know more than they let on and way more than the protagonist or any other character – it is their ability that really raises some questions.
We see Tobi survive some deadly situations and ask ourselves, how does he do that? Then, later on we learn his ability is that he cannot be touched. It’s a simple ability. Nothing flashy, and yet incredibly powerful. Such should be the abilities of mystery villains. The ability should also be weird. Weird in a sense, that it seemingly doesn’t fit into the established world. We learned that most Jutsus are cast with signs, yet Tobi doesn’t seem to cast anything. He just seems to be that way. And that begs the question, is he even human? What is he?
The key to defeating mystery villains is quite simply, to understand their ability, to understand them. Although sometimes it may be more fun, to never truly understand them. The intention of a mystery villain is also not clear. Most of the time, they are entities that exist in the world, sort of outside of the main story. Their own intentions could put them in the way of the protagonists, but they could just as easily make them unexpected supporters, and so, their true identity never has to be fully revealed. They could be the main villain, but then their identity must be revealed and – just like Tobi – they become a different villain. Another example, that maybe doesn’t tick all the boxes but still fits into the role of a mystery villain is Into the Spiderverses Spot. His ability is rather weird, and he is rather silly – just like Tobi. But it’s not a facade he is hiding behind. There is nothing to reveal about him, but at the end of the second movie it seems like he is transforming from the mystery villain to a mythic villain.