History Characters / SamuraiJackAku

* MoodSwinger: One of his most jarring traits. One moment, Aku could be a hilarious ComicRelief and be a bad guy you simply LoveToHate, but the next he could be a heartless monster who would massacre innocents, enslave billions, and torture a man and make him see his whole life burn in front of him just for the fun of it (ie: The Lava Monster).

* ContraltoOfDanger: She had a deep and husky feminine voice, which only highlights her [[EvilSoundsDeep ominous nature even further]].

* BadassBaritone: Greg Baldwin gives him a lower voice pitch than Makoto Iwamatsu, which makes it all the more appropriate for the Shape-Shifting Master of Darkness.

* NoBiologicalSex: While Aku predominantly appears in a male form with a deep and imposing voice, he is really just a black mass literally MadeOfEvil older than the universe. He's appeared to Jack as a woman before and [[FoeRomanceSubtext grew closer to the Samurai]] just to mess with him. [[spoiler:It does turn out that he can procreate when the High Priestess of the Aku cult consumes his "essence", creating seven half-human, half-demon hybrids.]]

* GenderBender: The male Aku took on the shape of a pretty woman. This must've added [[UnsettlingGenderReveal an extra layer of shock]] for Jack, who was obviously almost feeling romantically attracted to "Ikra".

** When the magic jewel tests Jack's and Ikra's hearts, it found out that Ikra is pure evil. The jewel's guardian mainly tries to fire its blasts at Ikra (besides Jack not wanting to fight). Ikra soon reveals that [[VoluntaryShapeshifting she can fly and become a giant]] to defeat the jewel guardian, much to Jack's (still oblivious) confusion. But Jack doesn't realize that he's been fooled until ''after'' Ikra smashes the jewel, [[EvilLaugh cackles maniacally]], and then changes back into Aku.

* TaughtByExperience: This is shown by his infliction of WatchingTroyBurn, [[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E11TheBirthOfEvilPart1 the first time he does this]] after being granted form by Jacks' Father, he simply has the Emperor strung to a tree and ForcedToWatch as the newly-formed shapeshifting master of darkness burns down his kingdom from afar; thinking that the Emperor posed no further threat to him, [[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E12TheBirthOfEvilPart2 only for the Sleipnir to liberate the Emperor from the tree]] and bring him to the Gods who grants the Emperor the Sword capable of killing Aku. [[Recap/SamuraiJackS1E10JackAndTheLavaMonster When he repeats this with the Viking Chieftain years later]]; Aku opts to seal away the Viking in crystal and after destroying his Village buries the Viking within the earth.

* TaughtByExperience: This is shown by his infliction of WatchingTroyBurn, [[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E11TheBirthOfEvilPart1 the first time he does this]] after being granted form by Jacks' Father, he simply has the Emperor strung to a tree and ForcedToWatch as the newly-formed shapeshifting master of darkness burns down his kingdom from afar; thinking that the Emperor posed no further threat to him, [[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E12TheBirthOfEvilPart2 only for the Gods that had hunted Akus' progenitor to liberate the Emperor from the tree]] and grant him the Sword capable of killing him. [[Recap/SamuraiJackS1E10JackAndTheLavaMonster When he repeats this with the Viking Chieftain years later]]; Aku opts to seal away the Viking in crystal and after destroying his Village buries the Viking within the earth.

Long ago — ''very'' long ago — a single small fragment of an EldritchAbomination fell to Earth, wiping out the large saurian creatures that dominated the planet at that time. It existed as a mindless evil for millions of years until a brave king attempted to destroy it: the attempt to destroy it instead gave it consciousness. It became Aku, shapeshifting master of darkness, and unleasher of unspeakable evil. When a noble samurai came to fight him, Aku tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where he is the ''de facto'' ruler of the world, and his evil is law. Now, the samurai called Jack has drawn every drop of his ire, and he devotes a ''lot'' of effort to finishing Aku once and for all.

* DoNotGoGentle: His usual response to a serious setback is to run away. But if that's not an option, he'll fight ferociously with every resource he's got. [[spoiler:Subverted with his actual death, where he is still extremely weak from the beating Past Jack gave him right before the even stronger future one comes back. The last few moments of Past Aku's life than consist of desperately trying to escape from Jack in complete panic.]]

* StrongerWithAge: Not inherent within his makeup exactly, age nature or longevity don't make him stronger, but rather time allows Aku the opportunity to pillage resources and mystical sources of power that would allow him to augment his own considerable power. This was exactly the reason Aku sent Jack into the future. The trip was only an instant for Jack but for Aku it was the same as exiling his enemy for thousands of year while Aku used the time to build an empire, gain resources and enhance his own personal might.

* GreaterScopeVillain: Became one in [[GrandFinale Season 5]]. Sure, he's still the chief antagonist, but a lot of antagonists have more involvement than himself in the plot such as [[PsychoForHire Scaramouche]] (Aku's favorite assassin), the HighPriestess (the woman who raised the Daughters of Aku), [[PsychoElectro the Dominator]] (a brutish, tyrannical man in Aku's employ) and Lazarus-92. On the other hand we have the Omen and Jack's Inner Self [[spoiler:later revealed to be his EvilCounterpart,]] [[EnemyWithin who serve as a more psychological threat to Jack]]. So yeah, Aku never directly acts against Jack [[spoiler:(at least until "C")]]; instead, it's the other mentioned characters that cause trouble for Jack.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Aku has had many opportunities to kill Jack, but instead, he often just [[EvilIsPetty teases]] him instead. In fact, in the series finale, he is unable to decide on what method to use to kill Jack, leading to his [[NiceJobFixingItVillain ultimate defeat]].

* OmnicidalManiac: Aku taken ''billions'' of lives in all his existence, so this is to be expected.

* ObviouslyEvil: Right down to his ''[[BilingualBonus name]]''!

Long ago — ''very'' long ago — a single small fragment of an EldritchAbomination fell to Earth, wiping out the large saurian creatures that dominated the planet at that time. It existed as a mindless evil for millions of years until a brave king attempted to destroy it: the attempt to destroy it instead gave it consciousness. It became Aku, a being of pure darkness, and unleasher of unspeakable evil. When a noble samurai came to fight him, Aku tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where he is the ''de facto'' ruler of the world, and his evil is law. Now, the samurai called Jack has drawn every drop of his ire, and he devotes a ''lot'' of effort to finishing Aku once and for all.

Long ago — ''very'' long ago — a single small fragment of an EldritchAbomination fell to Earth, wiping out the large saurian creatures that dominated the planet at that time. It existed as a mindless evil for millions of years until a brave king attempted to destroy it: the attempt to destroy it instead gave it consciousness. It became Aku, a being of pure darkness, and unleasher of unspeakable evil. When a noble samurai came to fight him, Aku tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where he is de facto ruler of the world, and his evil is law. Now, the samurai called Jack has drawn every drop of his ire, and he devotes a ''lot'' of effort to finishing him once and for all.

->''"Who dares to summon the Master of Masters, the Deliverer of Darkness, the Shogun of Sorrow, '''Aku?'''''"

Long ago — ''very'' long ago — a single small fragment of an EldritchAbomination fell to Earth, wiping out the large saurian creatures that dominated the planet at that time. It existed as a mindless evil for millions of years until a brave king attempted to destroy it: the attempt to destroy it instead gave it consciousness. It became Aku, a being of pure darkness and evil. When a noble samurai came to fight him, Aku tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where he is de facto ruler of the world. Now, the samurai called Jack has drawn every drop of his ire, and he devotes a ''lot'' of effort to finishing him once and for all.

* FourFingeredHands: Considering he's thoroughly evil, [[FourIsDeath there's probably a meaning to it]]. As of Season 5, he's now got the full set. Given that he's a shapeshifter, he can grow extra digits if he wanted.

** A Zig-Zagged example. In some episodes, such as "The Beginning" three-parter, "Jack and the Lava Monster", "Jack and the Ultra-Robots", "Jack vs Demongo", "The Princess and the Bounty Hunters", "Tale of X9" and "The Birth of Evil" two parter, he's every bit the embodiment of evil he claims to be. In other episodes, he's a [[LaughablyEvil complete clown with some hilarious lines]]. Basically, depending on the episode, he can make you laugh or scream. [[MoodWhiplash Sometimes both in the same episode]].

* LargeHam: So hammy that one of the first things he makes his slaves do is build statues of him. His manner of speaking (as demonstrated by the opening intro) is also based on traditional Japanese Kabuki, which comes across as hammy when translated into English. It's to the point that it's actually more jarring in the few moments that he's actually more subdued, such as in the Demongo episode.

* {{Leitmotif}}: His main theme sounds like low, malevolent, and warbling horns; with a few rattling flutes, and [[ScareChord Scare Chords]] thrown in for good measure. It's barely even music, and strongly underlines the fact that despite his sometimes quirky antics, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Aku remains the embodiment of evil]]. He also has an "action" theme which is heavy on taiko drums and eerie bells, fitting for a Japanese demonic overlord.

* LovecraftianSuperpower: A trait he inherited from [[EldritchAbomination the Black Mass]]. Any kind of body horror, physical manipulation, shapeshifting, and dark magic is at his disposal as he is the [[GodOfEvil embodiment of evil]]. [[spoiler:The bit of himself he gave to the Cult of Aku, when drunk by the High Priestess, caused her to become pregnant and give birth to seven daughters, all of which carried Aku's essence inside him. Aku is able to take direct control of them and, by adding some more of his power, turn them into {{Humanoid Abomination}}s.]]

* MaouTheDemonKing: A shapeshifting demon ruler born from a pit of evil in Japan who commands legions of demons created from his evil essence, and whose defeat is needed for the time displaced Samurai to complete his journey and save the world. Aku's face is even based on the Japanese ''{{oni}}'' [[spoiler:and it would later be revealed that Aku has several beautiful daughters, including Ashi.]]

* MorphicResonance: He always has the same black, red and green color-scheme in every form he takes.

* {{Narcissist}}: He once said "No mortal can defeat me" right before getting his ass handed to him, asked for a group of fish people to build statues of him every month, and sees Jack as foolish for even trying to fight him. The main impetus of the episode "Aku's Fairy Tales" is that he can't stand that children would rather worship Jack and not him and he attempts to win children over through fairy tales.

** Happens yet again. It turns out that the [[spoiler:Daughters of Aku are ''literally'' his offspring. Years ago, he paid a visit to his cult and filled a goblet with his essence to humor them. He didn't expect the High Priestess to actually ''drink'' it. The result is that Aku indirectly fathered seven exceptionally deadly children who came closer than anyone else to actually ''killing'' Jack. It ultimately leads to Aku turning his last living daughter, Ashi, into a powerful puppet that forces Jack to surrender because of his feelings for her.]]

** Happens yet again. It turns out that the [[spoiler:Daughters of Aku are ''literally'' his offspring. Years ago, he paid a visit to his cult and filled a goblet with his substance to humor them. He didn't expect the High Priestess to actually ''drink'' it. The result is that Aku indirectly fathered seven exceptionally deadly children who came closer than anyone else to actually ''killing'' Jack. It ultimately leads to Aku turning his last living daughter, Ashi, into a powerful puppet that forces Jack to surrender because of his feelings for her.]]

** [[spoiler: Visiting the Cult of Aku in the first place and leaving behind his essence to humor them with is ultimately what did him in, as it resulted in creating Ashi - the one who would successfully send Jack back in time to kill him.]]

!![[MeaningfulName Aku]] [[note]][[BilingualBonus Japanese for "evil".]] [[IHaveManyNames Also known as]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the "Shapeshifting Master of Darkness", "Master of Masters", "Deliverer of Darkness", and "Shogun of Sorrow".]][[/note]]

Long ago—''very'' long ago—a single small fragment of an EldritchAbomination fell to Earth, wiping out the large saurian creatures that dominated the planet at that time. It existed as a mindless evil for millions of years until a brave king attempted to destroy it: the attempt to destroy it instead gave it consciousness. It became Aku, a being of pure darkness and evil. When a noble samurai came to fight him, Aku tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where he is de facto ruler of the world. Now, the samurai called Jack has drawn every drop of his ire, and he devotes a ''lot'' of effort to finishing him once and for all.

* TooPowerfulToLive: It was so powerful that the TopGod{{s}} of '''''[[UpToEleven three separate pantheons]]''''' had to fight it personally!

** In all episodes taking place in the past, Aku is consistently depicted as a humorless, sadistic monster with no redeeming qualities. Even when he underestimates his foes, he quickly reassess the situation to his favor, most notably sending Jack into the future just as the samurai prepares the final blow. And since Jack's sword is the only thing able to kill Aku, Aku easily conquers the Earth and worlds beyond... and then becomes complacent with his eternal rule, doing nothing but reviewing new tributes from the enslaved inhabitants and ordering minions to carry out random acts of evil for his amusement. It is here he develops his iconic sense of humor, possibly the only redeeming quality he has gained.