Bad Boss / Anime & Manga

Bad Bosses in Anime and Manga.

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• Baccano!: Szilard Quates is a complete prick to his homunculus servant Ennis, regularly forcing her to do things she's obviously uncomfortable with and dismissively telling her she is not really human at every opportunity. Naturally, this eventually causes her to turn on him and help the heroes destroy him after he goes that step too far by trying to make her kill her own friends. Just before he dies, Szilard ends up revealing that Ennis is just the latest homunculi he's created and that all of her predecessors have done the same thing, for presumably the same reasons. It seems Szilard just cannot resist the urge treat his creations like crap, no matter how often it backfires.
• Bleach:
  • Sosuke Aizen created an army of Hollows over the course of at least a century pretty much solely for them to be killed fighting Soul Society as a distraction for his true plan. At least he's upfront about it—he informs his enemies that he specifically warned his followers not to trust him because he might betray them at any moment. He's actually a fairly decent guy to work for up until the point You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, but that seems written into the contract.
  • One of the first things we see Mayuri Kurotsuchi is turning his subordinates into living bombs, killing one that didn't detonate the first time because "a bomb isn't supposed to come back". He proceeds to savagely beat his lieutenant Nemu for asking for the antidote to the poison she inhaled because he made her immune to that and therefore concludes that she couldn't possibly be suffering was making fun of him. When called out on this by Ishida, Mayuri berates him because Nemu is his daughter and he can treat her however he likes. Amazingly, his later appearances play him for laughs and he's underwent a Hazy-Feel Turn.
  • Mayuri's equally evil counterpart and Aizen's Octava Espada is Szayelaporro Granz, a Mad Scientist who has performed experiments on himself and his underling so that he can recover from injury by eating them.
  • Yhwach, the leader of the Vandenreich, within his first two scenes, is observed mutilating and dismembering his underlings for effectively no reason. They had neither failed him nor outlived their usefulness. In fact, whipping off an underling's arm seems to be his favorite way of getting their attention. Later, he also resorts to the ol' classic You Have Failed Me and You Have Outlived Your Usefulness antics.
  • This is true of the Sternritter in general. Quilge Opie sends his much weaker minions into battles and only enters once they have all been defeated, killing anyone who flees. Mask de Masculine incinerates his number one fanboy (and the one providing his Healing Factor) because he knew James would regenerate anyway, and banked on being able to take out Renji Abarai in the process. Bambietta Basterbine lets off steam by sleeping with her henchmen and violently killing them if she's still frustrated. The only objection anyone has to this habit (even the henchmen themselves are actually very willing and eager) is that it's a waste of hot guys. Furthermore, Giselle Gewelle, who can turn people into Zombies, is shown to be incredibly abusive towards her puppets, with the implication that she's reprogrammed them into sex slaves. If there is a Vandenreich leader who is not a walking workplace hazard, we have yet to see them.
  • Later on, Yhwach's behavior (and allowing of the Sternritter to do the same) is later given an explanation: every Quincy in existence literally derives their power from him, and that power returns to him upon their death. This is the only thing that saves him from a Fate Worse than Death, because he was born blind, deaf, numb and dumb and the only way he can keep his senses is to give out his power, binding it to an individual's soul, and then have it return to him. The result is that he is a Blood Knight and his army must fight and die for him lest he return to a state of living death. He has to kill his subordinates — or at least, send them to their likely deaths — if he wants to stick around, and it explains why he has no objections at the Unfriendly Fire of the Sternritter. Doesn't change the fact that is clearly enjoying himself, and he's willfully enslaving their souls (and the souls of their descendants) because he thinks It's All About Me. This also explains the behaviour of his subordinates — their job is simply to fight and kill until someone kills them, so if someone is unwilling to fight, they can simply serve His Majesty in death, although it must be said that only a few senior Sternritter even know of this fact.
• Captain Commando: Scumocide only allows people useful enough by his standards to join his organization and will allow any minions who fall beneath his expectations to die at the hands of others such as Carol and Brenda who nearly died at Dolg's hands when their plan to get Captain Commando killed by Ginzu failed.
• A Certain Magical Index has One-Eyed Othinus, the leader of GREMLIN. She is revealed to have a tendency to kill or maim subordinates when she's bored or displeased. It comes to no surprise that when she loses her powers, her former minions immediately try to kill her.
• Chainsaw Man: When Denji takes one of his men hostage, Katana Man just chops through both of them.
• Cross Ange: Jill, formerly known as Alektra, after the failure of the first Libertas, became commander of Arzenal. The loss of her loved ones, her arm and her ability to pilot Vilkiss hardened her to the point that the only thing in her mind is getting her revenge on Embryo, and doesn't care how many people she has to sacrifice to do so, even openly gloating about how everyone is a tool for her revenge. This attitude results in Ange openly rebelling against her, and Salia turning coat and easily falling into Embryo's manipulations (just like Jill herself did in the past).
• Faraday from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners stands out for having a reputation of being this as a fixer. A Fixer's job is to provide a reliable workflow for mercenaries and the best ensure their people are satisifed with fair deals and receive tasks that they'll be more than happy to take up. Faraday does neither of those, seeing everyone as an expense he's gladly able to part with at a moment's notice. Moreover, he rarely, if ever, follows his word on any deals he makes, leaving his mercs either hanging or dead, which has made him a very dodgy person to work for as Rebecca dryly notes during the Cyberskeleton heist. This leaves either only the desperate or those who are tempted by offers that sound too good to be true for the mercy that do end up working for him. Both Kiwi and, indirectly, David pay the price as a result.
• Daimos: Richter treats Raiza like a punching bag. He once slapped her even after she tended to his injuries because she suggested that they seek aid from the humans. Gurney also faced similar abuse from Richter, the Alien Prince ordering for his Execution after repeatedly hitting him with his staff. While Gurney eventually rebelled against Richter, Raiza stayed with him because she loved him.
• Daltanious: Kloppen abuses his subordinates for petty reasons such as "showing weakness" and being unable to bring down Daltanious. His Establishing Character Moment is siccing his panther, Nova, on one of his Generals because he expressed fear about the robot, which would be funny if the rest of his cabinet wasn't staring in horror.
• Though he doesn't exactly have what could be called "henchmen," Light Yagami of Death Note kills or tries to kill almost everyone who helps him throughout the series. A Justified Trope, since Light tries to keep his identity as the mass murderer Kira a secret from the police, and every person that knows who he really is poses a security risk. Misa devotes her entire life to serving Kira, even to the point of undergoing rather painful interrogation, shortening her lifespan twice, and giving up any notion of a normal life for him and he still treats her like dirt and manipulates her for all she's worth.
• Mikbell of Delicious in Dungeon abuses Kuro's loyalty terribly. Two other members of her party discuss how she's probably barely paying him and just giving him food instead. In all her interactions with Kuro, she treats him more like a pet than a person.
• Muzan Kibutsuji from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an epitome of this trope. Firstly, even mildly contradicting him can result in an agonizing execution. Tanjiro is furious at how he treats Susamaru and Yahaba as expendable tools, especially when the former dies merely because she speaks Muzan's name. Secondly, after Rui is killed, he decides to disband the Lower Ranks, stating the Upper Ranks is all he needs (to be fair though, the very introduction of the Upper Rank demons is one of them killing the Flame Hashira.) He does this by massacring them brutally. After he accuses one of being more frightened of the demon slayers than of himself, the demon frantically protests it's not true, only for Muzan to execute her on the spot anyway for having contradicted him. Another one asks for Muzan to give him more blood (which would make the demon more powerful, but has a risk of killing him), but Muzan accuses the demon of giving him orders, and kills him as well. The only time he subverts this is when the former Lower-6, Kyogai, reaches his human-devouring limit and can't grow stronger. Muzan decides he's no longer of any use — but rather than kill him, he simply removes the number from Kyogai's eye and exiles him. Muzan must have been in a surprisingly pleasant mood that day.
• Digimon:
  • The Digimon Adventure anime and its sequel, Digimon Adventure 02 has:
    • Myotismon (Vamdemon), whose minions he's killed for failure or for no apparent reason once he was done with them, and the fact that both his resurrections required the deaths of others, the only minion of his known to have survived working for him is Gatomon (Tailmon), who's also the one who turned against him. Even then, it's stated that Gatomon suffered regular physical abuse at his hands.
    • Puppetmon was nearly as bad, killing off minions who annoyed him even slightly. At least Metalseadramon and Machinedramon's reasons for killing Scorpiomon and Warumonzaemon made some sense.
    • Etemon is a sillier example, as he's always screaming at his minions and frequently whacks them over the slightest offenses.
    • During his time as the Digimon Emperor, Ken Ichijoji regularly abused his various Digimon slaves, even going so far as to force them to fight to the death in a Colosseum-style arena for his own amusement. In a unique case, Ken did all of this because he thought the Digital World was just a big computer game, and pulls a Heel–Face Turn when he discovers otherwise.
  • Digimon Fusion the Bagra Empire has no problem in killing its own troops to harvest their data. And Kiriha isn't particularly nice to some of his digimon that he considers as weak.
• Dragon Ball loves this trope:
  • Dragon Ball:
    • General Blue, the gay high-ranking officer in the Red Ribbon Army, often executed his own soldiers if they either did unclean things (e.g. he had a random soldier executed for picking his nose), or failed him. He's also quite careless about where he sends his fellow soldiers, as he sent his soldiers rushing down a corridor that had holes coming out while he walked slowly. Guess what happened to those soldiers?
    • Colonel Violet, another officer in the Red Ribbon Army, has a total disregard for her men. When her group is threatened by a crocodile, her first reaction is to throw two of her own men into the water, then have everyone leave as the croc eats them. While fighting a tribe for a Dragon Ball, she doesn't bat an eye at all of her men getting killed, yet goes out of her way to rescue a monkey that got injured in the fighting.
    • Commander Red, the Red Ribbon Army's boss, is even worse: He has his soldiers executed for failure, and has... an extremely wide definition as to what it means to fail (for one thing, if some soldier is unlucky enough to not be able to evade a cat he sics on them and gets his eye plucked out... he's executed). Then he reveals that he only wanted the Dragon Balls to make himself taller, and is perfectly willing to throw every last soldier's lives away to get it. At which point Staff Officer Black disposes of Red and takes over.
    • Emperor Pilaf regularly insults and belittles his Co-Dragons Shu and Mai. It's taken to ridiculous extremes in the second episode of the anime, where he farts and tries to pass the buck onto Shu, going so far as to threaten Shu with a chainsaw when he objects.
  • Powerful enemies on Dragon Ball Z tend to be extremely cruel and apathetic when it comes to anybody working under them:
    • Vegeta, back during his tenure as a villain in early Z. He mercilessly killed one of the Saibaiman for losing to Tenshinhan in a fight, and after Nappa got his back broken by Goku, he threw him into the air and obliterated him with an energy beam.
      Vegeta: I have no use for a paralyzed Saiyan! You're dead weight now!
    • Freeza was especially bad about this; every time he happened to have a mood swing (which was quite frequently, considering that he was a sadistic and narcissistic Galactic Conqueror), one or more of his henchman would find themselves vaporized instantly. This seems to be mostly in the anime, though — in the manga he's less kill-happy, though no less sadistic. Freeza is several orders of magnitude more powerful than his strongest subordinate (he can destroy entire planets with a finger) and is practically invincible, so if you work for him there isn't really anything you can do about this behavior. It becomes a lot clearer how terrible a boss Freeza is when his men revive him. When Tagoma (who helped revive him, by the way) says Freeza should just give up on revenge and focus on ruling, Freeza chooses to blast him out of the spaceship (which kills a number of his soldiers as collateral) for daring to say he shouldn't get back at Goku. After his soldiers get knocked out by the Z-Fighters, he wipes them all out. The only person Freeza treats with even a modicum of respect is Ginyu. Freeza only got wished back because they needed his tyranny to stop his army from self-destructing (something they're clearly reluctant to do).
    • During the Majin Buu saga, there was Babidi. After his human minions succeed in acquiring a large amount of power for him, he makes one explode and has the other shot when he tries to escape; the Kaioshin even outright states that Babidi always kills his minions when he has no further use for them. When he wakes Buu, his first order is to have his Dragon Dabura turned into a cookie and devoured by Buu. He then controls Buu by repeatedly threatening to seal him away again. As one would expect, threatening the most powerful being in existence didn't pan out too well.
    • Chilled, Freeza's ancestor in the non-canon Episode of Bardock, is just as bad as his descendant, if not worse. In one scene, he kills one of his random henchmen simply because said henchman was blocking his view, and that was when he was in a good mood.
  • The villain Moro from Dragon Ball Super is more of a downplayed example, as he's capable of genuinely commending his subordinates for their efforts. He will only kill them if they have either outlive the usefulness or may possibly interfere in his schemes (as Cranberry and Shimorekka found out).
  • Movie villains Slug and Bojack have no reservation killing their own minions. Slug kills anyone who triggers his Berserk Button (calling him old) or try to hide inside his ship, whereas Bojack kills Zangya for no reason. The only implication why Bojack kills Zangya is that she's too afraid to fight Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, who just killed Bujin and Bido with one hit each, but that's about it.
• Fairy Tail has plenty of these:
  • Karen Lilica and Angel, who viewed their Celestial Spirits as nothing more than their personal weapons and frequently mistreated them. In fact, Karen's abuse of Aries and Leo/Loke is what resulted in her death at the hands of Angel.
  • Brain, who shoots Cobra in the back for taking too long to defeat Natsu (and Cobra was about to win despite taking a pretty bad injury, meaning Brain saved Natsu). Cobra made sure he paid for that seven years later.
  • King Faust, who burns down one of his soldiers' legs (said soldier was a kid) when she said that another soldier is in trouble.
  • Zancrow, who incinerates his mooks just because they told him to be careful when fighting Natsu. When Natsu calls him out on this, Zancrow calls them "trash" and weaklings unfit to uphold Grimoire Heart's reputation as the strongest dark guild if a punk like Natsu could kick their asses.
  • Jiemma Orland, who assults and exiles anyone in his guild who fails to win a single fight and is not above killing said subordinates, to the point everyone in his guild fears him. Even his very Establishing Character Moment is giving Yukino the most humilating exile possible.
  • Mard Geer Tartaros, who tortures one of his underlings for torturing one of the heroes, because he thinks that if Humans Are Insects then there's no reason to toy with them. And shortly afterwards, he allows many of his own troops being absorb by Pluto's Grim if it means trapping heroes as well.
  • Alok, who offers a destructive god his entire cult as a sacrifice in the name of Zeref. The said cult wasn't even aware of their leader's intentions.
• Many of Fist of the North Star's villains are given to this behavior. Often the only thing keeping their mooks from saying Screw This, I'm Outta Here when faced with Kenshiro exploding their heads is fear of what their bosses will do to them. One of the worst in this regard is Jagi, who will kill you just for looking at him without his helmet on, or for refusing to call him by his brother's name while he's trying to blacken it.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Kimblee is so unpleasant to his minions (as well as being such an utterly sadistic, degenerate villain in general) that every single one of them has done a Heel–Face Turn by the end of the series.
  • Father is the ultimate example. He does lend aid to his Homunculi children/enforcers now and then, but he really just values them as assets in his centuries long plan and will reabsorb or forcibly reprogram them if they rebel. He's even worse to his fanatical human conspirators, as he never masks his disdain for humanity and is stringing most of them along on the promise of immortality. By the climax, almost all of his minions homunculi and human alike have died horribly to help him achieve his dreams, and he's too busy laughing it up as he absorbs God to care.
  • Maes Hughes is a heroic example. He's generally a Nice Guy and a doting father, but he runs his assistant Sheska ragged and, in some versions, gives her pictures of his daughter instead of paying overtime. And then he fires her, although, to be fair, that was to protect her from the conspiracy.
• Gates from Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid had a penchant of killing his subordinates at the drop of a hat, just to show how much of a raving lunatic he was.
• The unnamed villain in The Fuma Conspiracy, and leader of the Fuma, has no qualms about losing subordinates, and shows no emotion after some of them are butchered by a trap.
• Hayate the Combat Butler: Klaus, the head of the Sanzenin manor, has the titular butler (and protagonist) as his personal Boss's Unfavorite Employee and constantly threatens to fire Hayate if he cannot prevail over whatever inconvenience has popped up, no matter how insignificantly petty or brutally life-threatening.
• Inuyasha:
  • Naraku constantly threatens his subordinates/detachments with death should they defy him, once tortured Kagura by squeezing her disembodied heart in his hands, and personally killed Kanna as part of a Suicide Mission he sent her on. Needless to say, quite a few of his detachments turn on or try to turn on him throughout the series, with Byakuya being the only one to stay loyal to him; his habit of this is such that he actually anticipates ahead of time that both Hakudoshi and the Infant will eventually try to betray him.
  • Sesshomaru constantly abuses his Sycophantic Servant Jaken, physically and verbally. On at least two occasions, he even literally stepped on him.
  • In Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, Kirinmaru is quite callous towards his subordinates, but considering the fact that they are all jerkasses and dirty and unfair cowards while he is a true gentleman and honorable fighter, he's quite justified. He's also not nearly as ruthless, abusive, and demanding as Naraku was. He is quite willing to discipline them, but he doesn't just kill or threaten them, simply putting them in their places by intimidating them, not really punishing them.
• Isabelle of Paris: Thiers has Karlov choke Panza until his mouth bleeds as a demonstration of his power. He's also generally rude and belitting to him.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency: Despite caring for both Wamuu and Esidisi, Kars considers Santana nothing more than a guard dog. He also doesn't care for any of his vampiric subordinates at all and will willingly sacrifice them if it gives him the opportunity to catch Lisa Lisa by surprise.
  • Stardust Crusaders: In spite of how many minions he has, DIO doesn't care about most of his henchmen and as seen with Enya's death when he sends Steely Dan to kill her on the possibility she told the heroes what DIO's power is. Even though she said nothing, she was still killed, showing that his most loyal ones are disposable. However, despite being aware of Hol Horse's ineptitude and multiple failures, he offers him another chance despite the man even attempting to kill DIO out of sheer spite... or rather because of it, because he saw a glimmer of competence in him when he took the shot.
  • Golden Wind: Due to his paranoia and controlling nature, Diavolo utilizes very brutal methods to keep his subordinates in line. However, these same draconian methods, along with him selling drugs to children, end up alienating his men, causing many in his organization to turn against him. When two members of the Hitman Team attempted to learn his identity, Sorbet was hacked to pieces and Gelato swallowed his gag while being forced to watch, their remains were delivered to their squad.
  • Steel Ball Run: Funny Valentine casually kills a subordinate for the sake of his own convenience when he needed to utilize his abilities.
• Kamisama Kiss has a couple of examples. The first one we are introduced to is Nurakami, whose familiars have a low life expectancy (her current two are her forty-second pair). She is later surpassed by Akura-Ou.
• You'll be hard-pressed to find a scene that has Tonga from Kimba the White Lion that doesn't have her yelling or whipping her own workers. It got to the point where her lioness Bella Dona ditched her after being whipped when she was trying to tell Tonga where Kimba and Roger Ranger were hiding.
• Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro features Neuro. Even leaving out the fact that he's a demon from the depths of the Makai, he's physically abusive to the people who work for him (at one point, he sets his assistant's hair on fire just to prove a point), with punishments for "failures" like forcing one to hold over her body a tub of gasoline with a candle that, if spilled, would burn her to death, gives absolutely no concern over the health and welfare of the people who work for him, or even for their wealth and property, as he completely totaled the new car of one employee and would only replace it with a clunker that wouldn't last a year, and borrowed under the name of another several million yen. The only reason anyone works for him is because if they refuse, he'll kill them. He loses some Bad Boss points (even comedic ones) for actually stealth-rewarding his assistants and much of the abuse being Training from Hell.
• Shell Septinos of Mardock Scramble is a corrupt employee for the October Corporation, but the moment it becomes clear that his pastime is catching up with him, they turn their back on him and hire contract killers to shut him up for good. The fact that he was even engaged to the daughter of their CEO having no impact on the decision.
• Mazinger Z: Dr. Hell is a curious example. On one side he felt that he was above executing his subordinates. On the other side he was not above punishing their failures with strikes, insults or torture. He used an Agony Beam with Baron Ashura several times, insulted him often, and an episode opened with Ashura getting flayed for their latest failures. In Mazinger-Z vs Devilman movie he slapped Ashura because he was angry and Ashura was nearby. And yet he cared for his henchmen in his own way, turning Ashura down whenever they asked for execution, constantly giving them second chances, forgiving failures when he knew that his Co-Dragons had tried their best, and mourning Ashura after their death and planning to avenge him.
• Metroid has these two space pirate leaders:
  • Mother Brain views the Space Pirates as tools to be used and later disposed of. She even refers to them, including Ridley, as simple beasts in the manga. This attitude is hinted at in a Zero Mission cutscene where the Metroids are free and devouring every Zebesian on sight, despite statements saying that Mother Brain can control them through her brainwaves.
  • Metroid Prime: Episode of Aether gives us the unnamed Space Pirate called "Boss". Puns aside, he was shown throttling one of the pirates under his command when the latter made a report that Samus is coming to stop him.
• Muruta Azrael, Lord Djibril, and Patrick Zala of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (and sequel Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny) were terrible bosses, with the first two in particular subscribing to a We Have Reserves style of fighting that cost thousands of lives. They also controlled their subordinates through drugs and brainwashing, and killed anyone who tried to argue with them.
• Monster: Johan Liebert, the titular monster, given his propensity to murder his minions or talk them into killing themselves. Even his most devoted follower, Roberto, is not spared a tragic end as Johan coldly rubs in the fact that he will not be able to see the "Scenery for a Doomsday" that Johan has planned for Tenma in his final moments, though Roberto's death had nothing to do with Johan and he was unlikely to survive his wounds. Johan was just being his usual sociopathic self. His treatment of his minions is justified since he doesn't truly care for anybody except his sister and Tenma and even then, how he shows his affection is very twisted and involves murdering lots of people.
• Naruto:
  • Orochimaru sacrifices his subordinates to perform forbidden jutsu, regularly performs gruesome experiments on many others (though he probably mainly picks his prisoners), murders one mook who came in to help him when he was screaming in pain, and dismisses his most fanatical follower as unimportant after he chose to die fighting for him. He even flat-out admitted to Kakashi at one point that he considers all of his subordinates who don't have special worth to be nothing but worthless pawns.
  • Orochimaru can be contrasted with Pain, who is a ruthless but beloved god to his village, genuinely cares for his country, and rebukes his subordinates for fighting amongst themselves and disrespecting each other, stressing teamwork and camaraderie.
  • Tobi is somewhere in the middle. While he doesn't seem too concerned about the deaths of his henchmen and actively manipulates all of them, he doesn't seem to have expected them to die either and he doesn't regard them as cheap sacrifices. He outwardly respects them at any rate, though he teases them occasionally.
• This is one of the defining traits of One Piece villains. Luffy hates them because he believes in True Companions and betraying your companions is the worst crime ever.
  • This is also how to measure the Character Development of Buggy the Clown. In the beginning, he uses his own men as shields and in the manga goes so far as to have one of his men killed over mishearing something he said and falsely believing that he was making fun of his nose, but when we see him last, he and they are crying joyously at their reunion.
  • Captain Kuro, despite being one of the earliest villains, might be one of the worst bosses. He always planned to kill all of his subordinates to conceal his identity forever, and willingly hurts them with his ultimate attack. What that's exposed, his minions cheer for Luffy instead of him.
  • Don Krieg. He can be good to his men and beg to feed them so he can have a proper army, but he will execute them, even Gin, if they show any sympathy to their enemy.
  • Crocodile is willing to let his own underlings die by the thousands in order to pursue his own goals. Not above doing the deed himself if they screw up, either. The only ones exempt are the ones he genuinely likes, and only Daz Bonez qualifies there.
  • Enel is willing to let his own underlings die by the thousands in order to pursue his own goals. And he's perfectly willing to do the job himself if he feels like it as well.
  • Spandam is willing to let his own underlings die by the thousands in order to pursue his own goals. Also willing to let his other subordinates kill them for him, since most of said underlings are stronger than him.
  • Hody Jones is willing to let his own underlings die by the thousands in order to pursue his own goals, or kill his subordinates For the Evulz.
  • Subverted by Arlong, who despises and kills humans callously, but deeply cares for and gets enraged when his subordinates are harmed. Particularly when Luffy uses one of his incapacitated allies as a shield. But when it comes to Nami, he has no qualms finding loopholes to keep her forever in service.
  • Also subverted by Mr. 2 Bon Clay, who has no problem beating his men for failing him, but refuses to let anyone else hurt them.
  • Zig-zagged with Donquixote Doflamingo. When creating his "family" of executives, he specifically welcomed individuals with a Dark and Troubled Past because they'd be the most likely to die for him whenever he demands it, but still somewhat cares about them even though he's willing to sacrifice them. When his subordinates Vergo and Monet both happily die in Punk Hazard following Doflamingo's request that they do so, he shows some care for their deaths and commends both for their loyalty before they kick the bucket. His reaction afterwards to head to Punk Hazard himself, mow down Marine soldiers with impunity, and nearly kill the Vice-Admiral present in a fit of bloody murderous rage.
  • Big Mom has eaten her subordinates, most of which are her own children. While she mostly cares, she's still very dismissive, prone to bullying, not all there with reality, and very prone to losing all reason and going berserk, in which case subordinates can expect to either be devoured or soul-ripped.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Hunter J is more than willing to sacrifice her own minions, leaving them to die if she has to, if she thinks she will benefit. (Sadly, that is far from her worst trait. Very few villains on the show are crueler than she is. And the worst part? She is motivated by greed, nothing else.)
  • The Iron Masked Marauder of Pokémon 4Ever is so evil that upon his defeat, every single one of his Pokémon ditched him. Most of the time, a trainer's Pokémon are loyal to the trainer even if they are evil: the Marauder was just that much of a dick.
• Queen's Blade: Menace, who lost her kingdom because she was more concerned with spending all her time having lesbian orgies with her huge harem than actually ruling. Eventually, her favorite love-slave Anarista betrayed her to a foreign power and her kingdom was conquered and destroyed.
• Rosario + Vampire:
  • Gyokuro Shuzen is perfectly willing to let her minions die in droves as long as she gets her way. On top of that, she openly threatens to kill Akua, one of her daughters, when she feels that Akua has worn out her usefulness.
  • The Masked King, head of the Miao family and the true head of Fairy Tale. He brutalizes his subordinates and planned to kill Xia-Long regardless of whether or not Xia-Long was loyal to the cause. Furthermore, when Gyokuro loses control of Alucard and is about to be consumed, the King, despite being perfectly capable of rescuing her, sits back and lets her die. Not that Gyokuro didn't deserve it.
• Xanxus from Reborn! (2004) will kick his subordinates a hundred meters out of the base if they don't give him the right meat for dinner. He launches many things onto Squalo's head, usually glasses of wine, and possibly bigger things... When Bel and Mammon come disguised as transfer students for the Arcobaleno Trials, they hint that their family doesn't get a long well, since their mom (Squalo) yells a lot, and their dad (Xanxus) throws a lot of things. He's been known to "not care" if his subordinates go missing. Neither does anyone else on the team. Good thing Squalo came back anyway.
• Sailor Moon:
  • The 90s anime loved this trope. The lesser villains were far more likely to be killed by their bosses (or each other) than by the Sailor Guardians. Beryl imprisoned Jadeite and killed Zoisite; Wiseman killed Diamond and Saphir and was indirectly responsible for Esmeraude's death; Mistress 9 was responsible for Kaolinite's second death and was herself a victim of attempted murder by Pharaoh 90; Galaxia offed 3/4 of her minions, the only exception being Lead Crow, to show her up as the biggest threat the heroines had yet faced. Tomoe didn't kill anyone, likely because he was possessed and was otherwise hit by Adaptational Heroism, but was indifferent to his subordinates' deaths. The true sole exception was Nehellenia because her season was the most lighthearted and technically all the villains got to live. Beryl's case got a vaguely Black Comedy lampshade when Naru asks Nephrite if his organization allows him to take a day off, and he just laughs.
  • The manga had a couple of examples, but here the heroines killed most of the villains. Wiseman killed Rubeus for attempting to defect and the only subordinate Galaxia killed was Tin Nyanko. Zirconia may have attempted this with the Amazones Quartet by sealing them in orbs, but it's unclear if this would have killed them or just imprisoned them. There are also a couple of instances where it's implied a higher up would've killed a villain had they not been killed by the Sailor Guardians first, i.e. Beryl saying she will not tolerate a third straight failure from Jadeite (very heavily implying she'll kill him) and Esmeraude, assuming "leave" was a euphemism for death.
  • Sailor Moon Crystal mostly follows the manga, but has two notable changes that fall under this trope. Metaria kills the Shitennou for outliving their usefulness, though it's likely she would've killed all her subordinates anyway once she gained the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal considering she was an Omnicidal Maniac. Wiseman kills Diamond like he does in the first anime, but is otherwise in the same boat as Metaria considering they're related.
• The Sands of Destruction manga plays with this: Morte is shown to bark orders at her sailors (well, technically they're Agan's sailors, but she's the one who bosses them around), threatening to cut their pay if they don't work fast enough, and they in turn call her a demon (which she finds amusing). However, they're also seen to joke around with her just moments after this, so apparently working for an Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac isn't that bad.
• The Secret Garden: After Lilias died, Archibald Craven was Driven to Suicide and screamed abuse at Camila, her lady-in-waiting, blaming her for her death. Camila, who had been offered a job out of Lilias' kindness, was driven to live in poverty once again. He was also cruel to his ex-accountant Max, who he blamed for theft (even though Max was innocent) and subjected him to similar abuse.
• Tono to Issho: Oda Nobunaga has a habit of setting his retainers on fire for his own amusement.
• Trigun:
  • Millions Knives allows none of his servants to exit the anime alive, as he views them as garbage like all the other humans. Caine in the anime and Dominique in the manga even kill themselves rather than face the penalty for failure.
  • Then there's Legato, his head servant, who is strongly implied to do quite a few of the murders for failure and has a bit of an issue with Midvalley in the manga. His coin gimmick even implies that he intended for all the members of the Gung-ho Guns to be killed before his final confrontation with Vash (which might make him even worse than Knives in some way. Interestingly, the manga version of Legato himself is an extraordinary "victim" of Knives's cruelty, as his zeal earns him a broken spine and Knives tells him that he doesn't care about his loyalty and will kill him as soon as he stops being useful.
  • Master Chapel in the manga. This is all the more aggravating since he's a kind of substitute father to several of his henchmen.
• Voltes V: Subverted and downplayed. In the earlier episodes, Heinel was extremely harsh to his aides, punishing them for being ineffective against the titular Super Robot. He had Jangal arrested for a day as he was unable to defeat Voltes V, and in another episode he has Zuhl whipped to the point his body is Covered in Scars for the same reason. Notably, the only one safe from his wrath was Katherine, as he refused to kill her despite her being just as incompetent as Jangal and Zuhl, though he did cut her veil as a test of loyalty. In later episodes Heinel would become a Benevolent Boss, being more understanding to his aides' limits and working together with them instead of constantly ordering them around. When Jangal dies, Heinel calls him a brave warrior and says he will never forget his loyalty.
• In Yatterman, even when his leads are revealed to be inaccurate, Dokurobei is always quick to punish the Doronbo Gang when they fail.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Marik was a Bad Boss even before his Superpowered Evil Side took over. He Brainwashed many Ghouls (or did so to force them become Ghouls), apparently murdered practically every one who failed him, including Rare Hunter, Pandora, Pantomimer, and Masks of Light and Darkness, and possibly others, and slaps Rishid in the face for failing to find Yugi's friends. (To make this truly ironic, there was never any confirmed case of Dark Marik killing one of his servants — he intended to kill Rishid, but he considered Rishid an enemy, seeing as he could possibly cause the real Marik to regain control. Of course, the reason he never killed a servant may simply be because he was on the airship (and later Alcatraz) and never had an opportunity to do so.)
    • Also, Dartz, who kind of crossed into Stupid Evil this way. His group was small enough as it was, but he seemed more than willing to sacrifice the few servants he had to the Orichalcos, up to the point where he was literally the last one left at the climax. Though Justified since they had outlived their usefulness and he was badass enough to nearly win on his own anyway.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters Alexander is condescending to his vassals and declares them useless when Yugi's friends damage their monsters, and is perfectly willing to sacrifice them for his own gain.
  • The Three Emperors of Yliaster from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds rarely had to punish a minion, but the few times they did, they showed complete lack of mercy. When Clark Smith disobeyed them, they literally erased him from existence, altering the past so that he was never born. (At least, that's what they claimed they did; seeing as this didn't undo any of the crimes he had committed, like ordering the murders of Sherry's parents, it may have been more complicated.)
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
    • Tron clearly intended to sacrifice his henchmen from the start, despite the fact they were his own sons. He even went so far as to insult IV to his face, (in the dub saying that he "would assign more value to a trio of baboons"). Of course, few villains in the whole franchise were more sadistic than Tron was.
    • Don Thousand had them all beat, although calling him a "boss" may be slightly inaccurate. (He was a godlike entity worshipped by the residents of Barian World, but took far more of a role in governing it at times.) The worst thing he did to them was the method he recruited them, arranging for seven powerful warriors and sages to suffer horrible deaths, and then use the Over-Hundred Numbers to reincarnate them with their memories corrupted as dark creatures. He later consumed them (his intentions all along, most likely) when his plan to obtain the Numerion Code reached a climax.

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