Shadow Archetype / Anime & Manga

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• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Hakari's mother and Shizuka's mother both have had beefs with Rentarou over their daughters' interactions with him, and Rentarou has confronted them over problems with the girls. They view Rentarou as a bad influence on their daughters until he gets them to see things from their daughter's perspective. Where they're different is the fact that Hakari's mother is also one of Rentarou's soulnates.
• In Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution the character Yoriko has two distinct personalities for two of the five different factions in the show, Aryashiki (the side she grew up believing she had to take command of) and Darklore. It turns out that her Darklore persona (which has been causing havoc for most of the series) was as much a part of her as her Aryashiki one and it just took a while for her to realize. She embraces her other half and takes her back.
  Yoriko: I kept thinking... I'm not doing those awful things to Kyouta. It's not me. But it was.
  It was a little scary there for a while. But it's going to be okay now.
• Area 88: Shin and Nguyen are both Asin pilots stranded in a foreign country. Unlike Shin, Nguyen enjoys committing acts of brutality.
• In Attack on Titan, this is the case with Eren Yeager and Reiner Braun. Both are Eldians raised with what they learn to be falsified history and lose their innocent view of the world at a young age, resulting in them becoming driven with their goals and more cynical. However, Reiner was the heroic leader and protective big brother to everyone, when in reality he was one of the Titans that attacked the Wall in the beginning and was fighting for a hostile country, intending to kill everyone living in Paradis. Eren was a misfit and mostly shone through his determined attitude, who turned out to be a Titan himself, but decided to use his powers to keep the people in Paradis safe.
  This gets thrown on its head post-Time Skip, as Eren becomes more corrupt (or rather makes himself look like a monster to give his friends an opportunity to face him and put an end of the long lasting cruel history) and even admits that he and Reiner are very much the same, and Reiner shows that he has become guilt-ridden from his previous actions and genuinely wants to do better now. They are displayed like the same character, but viewed from 'the other end' of the war. And then it becomes more ambiguous which one of them is the other's Shadow, due to the growing Grey-and-Gray Morality.
• Beastars:
  • Riz is what Legoshi could become if he let his predatory instincts consume him so much that he'd kill someone he cares about. To say Legoshi did not take seeing this dark reflection of himself well would be an understatement.
  • Melon is the shadow archetype of Legoshi's and Haru's future children. As the offspring of a carnivore and a herbivore, Melon has suffered from debilitating health issues all his life, which the children of Legoshi and Haru would inevitably suffer from as well. Legoshi resolves that even if he can't protect his children from having to suffer as Melon did, he can at least treat them with love so that they won't turn into axe-crazy serial killers.
• Black Jack:
  • Dr. Kiriko (aka "Mozart"). A doctor who served in wartime, he believes in helping patients die painlessly when there is no chance for recovery. He's not evil, as such, but where Black Jack will do anything possible to make a patient live, Dr. Kiriko will choose euthanasia rather than prolong the patient's suffering. Naturally, the physicians clash at times but must cooperate at others. To his credit, if he discovers that the patient has a chance of recovery, guess who he turns to?
  • Black Jack actually had three shadows, though Kiriko was the only one who stuck. An acupuncturist who disdained traditional medicine appeared a few times, and an idealistic doctor who worked within the system appeared exactly once.
• Black Lagoon:
  • The protagonist Rock serves as a shadow for later character Yukio, who chose to take leadership in her yakuza family not that she had much choice. Later, Yukio even calls him out on his motivations for saving her, citing that he only sees her as his old self, but is unwilling to let go of his past.
  • Within the main cast are Rock and Benny. Both are among the nicer members of the Lagoon Company and aren't much for physical confrontations. But while Rock still (mostly) has a sense of morals and wants to save others, Benny has become completely desensitized to the violence that his fellow Lagoon members commit.
• In Bleach, the Inner Hollow is Ichigo's true Zanpakuto spirit Zangetsu. Treating it as an invasive parasite instead of merely being his more aggressive side manifested is one of the reasons his power has fluctuated throughout the series. In the final arc, he at long last accepts that it along with the manifestation of his Quincy heritage the Old Man are not his enemies or his allies — they are him.
• A Certain Magical Index: Besides Accelerator, Tsuchimikado Motoharu serves as the Anti-Hero counterpart to Touma. Despite his good intentions, he is almost always willing to take more deadly measures to achieve things. While Touma has no organization affiliations, he tries to help any of his friends regardless of their loyalties. Tsuchimikado has multiple affiliations but is only really loyal to his younger step-sister. While Touma's Blessed with Suck powers are played for laughs, Tsuchimikado is in danger of dying from using his powers.
• Code Geass has Lelouch and his half brother Schneizel. Lelouch is a Rebel Prince who leads the Black Knights and fights to take down the Holy Britannian Empire (due to the heaps of abuse he suffered under his father, The Emperor of Britannia), while Schneizel is the Prime Minister of said Empire and wants to eventually take his father's place on the throne. Both are highly skilled manipulators who are masters of faking emotions, and widely shown to be the best strategists on their respective sides. Perhaps most surprisingly, for all the atrocities they cause, both genuinely desire to create a better world for non-selfish reasons. The main difference between the two is that Lelouch had to spend seven years living in a nation that was invaded and crushed under Britannia's heel while caring for his blind and paraplegic sister, while Schneizel spent most of his life in the imperial court. Consequently, Lelouch has an understanding of the trials the average person suffers and what change society needs to become better. Schneizel's upbringing left him extremely sheltered, so his methods to try and create a better world are shown to be sociopathic and rely mainly on fear to work.
• In Cowboy Bebop, it's heavily implied that Vicious is what Spike would've turned into without Julia's influence (and vice-versa). Vincent, the main antagonist of Knockin' on Heaven's Door, is convinced that he living in a dream, a world-view eerily similar to Spike's.
• Death Note:
  • Kira is this to Light, becoming all the things he claims to hate, even as he's punishing the world for being them.
  • L and Light have a whole reciprocal shadow thing going. Light is the social one, who not only understands but really cares about proper socialization and not being indecorous, but as Kira he's also the one who's the most prolific serial killer in history. L is antisocial and willfully unsocialized, and he doesn't really care about little things like illegal detainment, mock executions, and torture, but he's the one trying to enforce that you don't go around killing people, and he means it. Enough to be unwilling to test the Note. They're certainly both liars. The primary difference between L and Light — two childish geniuses who hide behind their claims of justice and have no idea how to be wrong — is that L is capable of accepting and coping with his own and the world's flaws, two concepts that Light will never even grasp.
    Light: The world was too rotten, with too many rotten people... Somebody had to do this! The world had to be fixed!
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,
  • Kaigaku ultimately represents what Zenitsu would be like if the latter had completely given up on nurturing basic care for another person as consequence of living a harsh childhood as a wandering orphan, and failing to recognize the few good things that actually happened later in their lives, resulting in a completely selfish person and borderline sociopath, who only has one way of walking through life: what is best for me defines good, what is not defines evil. Zenitsu summarizes this himself with his Box of Happiness ideology.
  • Muzan is this for one of his underlings, Rui. Their character and motivations are derived from their shared past as Delicate and Sickly. And while both commit atrocities from left to right, Muzan is what Rui would be if the latter has no love left for anyone.
  • Gyutaro and Daki are basically what Tanjiro and Nezuko would have been if they let their despair and dark impulses drive them. Tanjiro even acknowledges this when Gyutaro confronts him.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure has Devimon and his later forms like Daemon or Murmuxmon representing what would happen if Angemon, HolyAngemon or Seraphimon ever gave up hope or gave in to Wrath.
  • Digimon V-Tamer 01 also has Neo Saiba, who represents what Taichi would be like if he let his guilt and anger devour him. This is an odd case, as the Taichi that shows up in this manga is NOT the one from the anime, but anime!Taichi and Neo have a number of very interesting parallels. As is, Manga!Taichi and Neo Sabai are instead foils.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Crane Hermit is a shadow of Master Roshi. He represents what Roshi would be like if he became corrupted. Supplementary guides expand on this, by stating The Crane hermit took the death of his master at the hands of King Piccolo much worse than the turtle hermit did, giving into more harmful sadism and one track minded pursuit of power than comparatively harmless lechery and educational pursuits.
  • Before his Heel–Face Turn, Tien represents what Goku would be like if he allowed his arrogance and natural talent for fighting to go to his head. This also highlights the difference between the Turtle and the Crane Schools. Master Roshi went out of his way to teach his students humility and that there was always someone better. The Crane Hermit bloated his students' egos, telling them that there was no one stronger than them. Roshi also taught the value of learning things other than fighting and killing.
  • King Piccolo is a shadow archetype to Goku. Given their similar backstories, Piccolo is what Goku would have become if he embraced his ruthless Saiyan nature. Or even if Goku had learned the worst lessons from humanity rather than the best.
  • Turles. In fact, Turles was originally supposed to be the result of what Goku would have been like if he hadn't lost his memory. He's still a low class saiyan warrior who desired to improve himself, but ultimately decided to rely on shortcuts at the expense of other people rather than hard work and experimentation. Goku has felt pressed to use short cuts or endanger others on occasion, these are just things he refuses to make habitual.
  • After character development, Frieza to Vegeta. Frieza is everything Vegeta would have become if he succeeded in taking his place as ruler of the universe instead of settling down on Earth.
  • Cell serves as this to different characters in his evolutionary line:
    • In his Imperfect form, he represents what Piccolo would be like if he never met Gohan and became a friend.
    • In his Semi-Perfect form, he is Vegeta if he never settled down on Earth and became completely ruled by his pride and arrogance.
    • In his Perfect form, he is what Goku would be like if he chose only to live for fighting and used his natural talent to terrorize people instead of protecting them. In fact, Cell sought out the means to gain his perfect form purely for the sake of it, himself not realizing that of all the genetic material he is made up of that particular path is most invokative of Goku. One could even say Cell is Goku without the childhood head injury (or, as of Retcon by Toriyama, no influence from a good-natured parent like Gine).
    • When he reaches his Super Perfect form, he is Gohan if he embraced the rage of a Super Saiyan and became an uncaring monster who only lives to destroy.
  • Majin Buu to Goku. If Goku lived only to eat, satisfying his need for battle, and cared for no one outside of himself, he would be similar to Buu.
  • Beerus is what Goku would be like if he didn't have anyone around to act as his moral compass.
  • Goku Black. With all of Goku's power at his disposal and none of his kind-heartedness, Black is living proof of just how terrifying and unstoppable Goku would be as a villain. Goku is pure in his desire to always improve, to always better himself. Black is also pure, but bettering himself is a means to an end. His purity is in his desire to change the world as he sees fit, with no regard for anyone else living in it.
  • Jiren is Goku if Goku had been able to achieve all of his power without help from his friends, and if all of Goku's loyal friends had died without a way to bring them back to life. As such, he continuously seeks to gain greater strength with even fewer distractions than Goku -be they family, vocation or the well-being of general public-, he absolutely refuses to form any connection to those who gravitate towards him to the point that when he reconsiders he doesn't even know how to anymore, plus he is deeply disturbed and haunted by the past trauma and failures. One could say Jiren is what Goku thought he wanted to be, but really doesn't when he sees it; and Goku is what Jiren would like to be like, but couldn't afford to.
• Fairy Tail has Jiemma, guildmaster of Sabertooth, where only the strongest wizards are allowed and failure is not tolerated. His mentality is very similar to Laxus's way of thought before he Walked The Earth and Tamed His Anger.
• In Food Wars!, Momo Akanegakubo is also born with The Gift, heir to a wealthy family but was adored and spoiled rotten by her parents. She became a Womanchild Elitist obsessed with cuteness. She represents what Erina could have become if she was spoiled and used her gift carefreely.
• In Fruits Basket, Tohru is an incredibly sweet and selfless girl who always puts others before her own happiness. Akito is an angry emotional and mental mess who selfishly clings to the Zodiac curse, out of fear of rejection. While Akito envies the unconditional love Tohru receives, Tohru herself has deeply-repressed selfish urges (mainly her desire to have her mother all to herself, hating her father for "taking" her mother even though she knows such hatred is wrong). Over the course of the manga, Tohru comes to terms with the idea that it's okay to be selfish once in awhile, and Akito is able to let go of the curse, believing that there will be people out in the world who will still love her. Akito essentially represents the person Tohru could have become if she'd been raised by an abusive mother like Ren instead of the wise and nurturing Kyoko.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Certain amoral alchemists are fond of telling Edward Elric that he's just like them for trying to bring his dead mother back to life, something he really doesn't want to hear but sometimes acknowledges is true. Izumi reacts with anger when she finds out because Ed represents her own guilt at her own attempts to bring her child back to life.
    • Shou Tucker in particular embodies what Ed would have become if he hadn't recognised the consequences of "messing around with somebody's life". Like Ed, Tucker commited a grave sin through alchemy, fusing his own loving family with animals and turning them into talking chimeras; but unlike Ed, he refuses to admit that he did anything wrong and feels no remorse for what he did.
  • The creepy creature that sits outside the Portal of Truth and selectively reveals ugly truths is a proper, Jungian shadow archetype, and tells Ed "I am also you." Interestingly, he's visually inverted, so he's bright light and not the traditional shadow.
  • Hohenheim and Father, the Big Good and Big Bad respectively, down to their identical appearances.
  • Greed may eventually pull his Heel–Face Turn act, but he is this to Ling as well. Both expressed interest in Alphonse's nature as a disembodied soul attached to armor, both are power-craving individuals inclined to do anything to get what they want, and both have a strong unwillingness to lose anything of value to them, which extends to their comrades. Ling however is good-natured and has an openly declared willingness to serve his people, compared to his jerkass Homunculus counterpart who tries to center absolutely everything around himself. Their similarities foreshadow Ling merging with Greed.
  • Most of the homunculi fit the bill for someone or another: Pride for Edward, Envy for Mustang, Sloth for the Armstrongs, Wrath for Scar, and, as has already been covered, Greed for Ling. Interestingly, Pride is the only one who isn't killed by the hero.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Wrath is a shadow archetype to Envy. They're both Artificial Humans of Ambiguous Gender, with the same bad taste in fashion, vindictive streak (watch Wrath kill Lust and say there's no sadism there), impulsive tendencies (although Envy's are slightly more controlled due to his greater experience), abandonment issues and fondness of displaying a Slasher Smile in combat. The difference is that Wrath has people who genuinely care about him, and is eventually able to lose that anger and pull a Heel–Face Turn, whereas Envy, after 400 years of nurturing his spite, has nothing but deep-seated rage left to him; all that remains is psychosis and self-loathing.
• The title character from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has three in fact.
  • The first one is her cousin Maki, who is basically what she would be if Shirogane was dating Fujiwara, right down to the same birthday, reactions, facial expressions, and lines of thought. Even her hair and eye colors are a more muted version of Kaguya's (brown and pink instead of black and red). Fittingly enough, this is partly why the two don't like each other.
  • According to the bonus content in Volume 19, her third eldest brother Unyo is basically what she would have been if she embraced her harsh family upbringing. His past life of befriending a Hayasaka and has a different mother from the rest of his brothers is no different from his little sister, except that befriending Shirogane and the student council members changed her into a better person, something that even Unyo acknowledges.
  • As revealed in Chapter 208, the relationship between Shirogane's parents played out in the same way as Shirogane with Kaguya. Both Shirogane and his father pushed themselves to their limits to win the girl they liked, but while Shirogane's mother is an implied Gold Digger who judged her family members with their talents, Kaguya fell for Shirogane due to his kindness and accepting the flawed person he is.
• Kenichi and Kanō in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Kenichi embodies the light aspect of martial arts, and Kanō embodies the dark aspects. They are opposites in every way, personality and appearance-wise, yet they are also very similar in that both are students of multiple Master-class fighters and partly because of this, they are viewed as the best fighters in their individual peer groups.
• Done subtly in Major with Joe Gibson Jr. in relation to protagonist Goro Shigeno. Both of them become rivals during the Minor Leagues arc, and part of the rivalry is fueled because both want to challenge and defeat Joe Gibson Sr. in the Majors. Gibson Sr. played a part in a childhood tragedy for both of them (for Goro, he accidentally killed his father Shigeharu with a dead ball to his head, and for Junior he drove his wife to divorce and leave with their daughter back to the United States, where they'd die in a car accident). While Goro forgives Gibson Sr. for his father's death as early as his childhood, Junior continues to blame his father for the death of his mother and sister still as an adult, and his main reason to play is to eventually crush his father as revenge for destroying his family. In fact, Junior assumes at first that Goro is also motivated to play against Gibson Sr. for revenge too, and is shocked to learn that Goro holds no ill will towards him. It's even reflected when they play against one another: Goro is mainly a pitcher, while Junior plays second base and is primarily a slugger.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Gendou gives a good idea of how disillusioned, cynical and bitter Shinji could grow up to become. It's even lampshaded in the Angelic Days manga, which shows Gendou as a Troubled, but Cute (in Yui's eyes!) "nobody loves me so I hate everybody!" teen.
  • The actual shadow archetype from Jungian psychology shows up, as a shadowy Shinji on a train that reveals truths Shinji doesn't want to face. However, since Shinji frequently suffers from negative opinions of himself he rather likes his shadow and feels it to be much better than he is. This projection of positive value judgements makes his shadow contrast with the typical 'dark' and 'evil' depiction of this archetype.
  • It is also invented with Kaworu, who as a character is pretty much an embodiment of all of the qualities Shinji lacks, but rather than being his Evil Counterpart or The Rival, Shinji's extremely low self-esteem means that he quickly deems Kaworu much better than he is because of this, and the two get along extremely well.
• One Piece:
  • A good number of adversaries of Monkey D. Luffy were once idealistic young pirates like Luffy, except they witnessed a horrible incident and either became disillusioned with the world, resorting to unethical means to get what they want (Crocodile, Doflamingo), or outright snapped and went insane (Moriah, Arlong); and some others (Kuro, Don Krieg, Hody Jones) represent basically what Luffy, as a pirate himself, simply is not and would not do. Luffy himself had almost lost his optimism when his brother Ace was executed by the Marines in front of him, but he had close friends to lift his spirits during his darkest moments, whereas several of those villainous characters were alone during theirs. Trafalgar Law is an Anti-Hero case, who is Luffy's equal in potential and influence but let the tragic events in his past consume him, causing him to become moody and unconcerned in the present. Same with Eustass Kid, who has the same passion and dreams as Luffy and even respects Luffy for that but won't hesitate to kill bystanders who disagree with him.
  • Of special note is Blackbeard, who is the one character as jolly and idealistic as Luffy, and even shares the same philosophies about life as Luffy, but whereas Luffy spreads his joy to everyone around him and cares deeply about people, Blackbeard cares only about himself and his social status. Marshall D. Teach is who Luffy could become if he prioritized his dream of becoming King of the Pirates above all else. Most of his crew is also composed of people with similar abilities to Luffy's crew, only with their positive personality traits removed: Both Zoro and Shiryu live to fight, but Zoro duels only people who accepts his challenges whereas Shiryu is a Blood Knight who fights anyone he feels like and will kill anyone in his way; Sanji and Burgess are both very loyal to their captains and are martial artists, but Sanji is careful and keeps Luffy in check whereas Burgess is reckless and always genuinely agrees with Blackbeard no matter how wrong it is; etc.
• Paranoia Agent is ultimately about what happens when someone's Shadow Archetype gets out and starts breaking everyone else's shadows free.
• In Pokémon Adventures, Lance is this to Yellow. Both were born in Viridian Forest, and both have the power to heal Pokémon and listen to their thoughts. While Yellow is a pacifistic Friend to All Living Things who just wants everyone to live in peace as a result of this, Lance is a brutal Well-Intentioned Extremist who plans to wipe out all of humanity because he believes Pokémon and humanity to be completely incompatible with each other. (And when they clash? Good. Lord.)
• The Prince of Tennis has a few as well. Fuji originally did not care as much for winning as enjoying the thrill of the game. Shiraishi, on the other hand, finds his own tennis boring but is committed to winning no matter what. Both are also considered the most formidable members of their respective teams, even more than their captain/lancer.
• In Puella Magi Madoka Magica Madoka represents selfless love, sacrificing herself to save everyone, while Homura represents selfish love, sacrificing everything to save Madoka. This is blatantly apparent in Rebellion, where Madoka is God and Homura is The Devil.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena being a complex psychological piece has plenty of examples. The elevator in the Black Rose arc is all about getting in touch with one's shadow. All the Black Rose duelists become Black Rose duelists by entering the elevator and confessing something, usually that they secretly hate some other character.
• Rurouni Kenshin:
  • Big Bad Shishio is the assassin who succeeded to Kenshin. He represents what Kenshin could have become if not for a certain incident in his past.
  • Seta Soujirou is the naive, emotionless killer to Kenshin's Obfuscating Stupidity cheerfulness and pacifism. They're both heavily influenced by the ideals of their respective masters, but while Kenshin eventually learned from his experiences, Soujirou was only ever guided by Shishio's ideals.
  • Saitou Hajime is the ruthless Anti-Hero to Kenshin's atoner. Like Kenshin, he operates on his own sense of justice and does what he thinks is right. However, he's willing to kill for his beliefs and doesn't believe in people changing in spite of his changing affiliations of over the years.
• The incredibly freaky first appearance of Dark Sonic in Sonic X, in response to the sight of his friends being injured and imprisoned (and exposure to the negative energy of Fake Chaos Emeralds) Dark Sonic emerges from the normally far-calmer (by comparison, anyway) Sonic and proceeds to beat the living begeezus out of a couple of Metarex testing robots. Ironically enough, he was snapped out of it by Eggman.
• Inverted in Tales from Earthsea. Throughout the movie, Arren is pursued by a shadow in his form. As a matter of fact, the Arren we watch for most of the movie is actually Arren's shadow, and is fleeing in fear from the noble and courageous self he refuses to acknowledge, instead blaming it for all the violence and fear he's lived through.
• Tekken Chinmi: Oudow was what Chinmi could've become if he wasn't kind-hearted. When Oudow was younger, he studied under Master You Sen who only gave him menial tasks (the same ones You Sen would give to Chinmi until he actually started teaching him) and never really taught him anything. Why? Because Oudow has evil heart and is too arrogant and impatient to learn anything from You Sen. Eventually Oudow mastered Tsuuhaiken by himself without You Sen ever taught him that, left for a lone journey, and eventually returns to Dai Rin as dreaded villain who menaces everyone in the temple.
• Tiger & Bunny It's shown that Kotetsu and Kriem both had very similar histories. Both were NEXT that grew up during the height of NEXT prejudice and had come to hate themselves before encountering someone that inspired them to embrace their abilities and follow in their new idol's footsteps. The key difference is that Kotetsu's encounter was with Sternbild's first superhero Mr. Legend, while Kriem ran into NEXT-supremacist supervillain Jake Martinez.
• Trigun:
  • Vash's brother Knives, instead of having an extreme aversion to killing, sees humans as pathetic and inferior, and has no compunction about killing them for any or no reason. Knives has serious self-control issues which occasionally cause him difficulties and turn out to have shortened his lifespan, while Vash being The Fettered is... ubiquitous. His twin isn't just everything-bad-that-he-isn't, he's everything Vash refuses to be. Even more in the manga, where Vash almost flipped out the same time Knives did, and had a suicide attempt and accidentally almost killed Rem, which was met with maniacal laughter, and then he pulled himself together and chose to not give up on people.
  • Wolfwood is Vash's foil, though Vash may be viewed as the idealism-shadow of either Knives or Wolfwood, who wear Jade-Colored Glasses.
• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle:
  • Fugil serves as one to Lux. While Lux is an Ideal Hero who tries to save his enemies, Fugil is ruthless and calls such ideals foolish. This is emphasised by the later revelation that Lux once nearly lost his own idealism but was saved by his childhood friend and eventual love interest. On top of that, Fugil is heavily implied to have once been like Lux, later becoming cynical after the death of his love interest.
  • Yoruka is this to Lux in a different way. Both are royalty of now-fallen countries, both lacked the right to inherit^note Lux because he was the seventh son; Yoruka lost hers because of being a born killer and both suffered because of the Old Arcadia Empire. However, Lux played a pivotal role in destroying the Empire by non-lethally defeating its army, while Yoruka became an infamous assassin for the Empire (albeit in a failed attempt to save her country) and remains loyal to it after its destruction. Both are subservient to others, but Lux helps out anyone who asks while Yoruka devotes herself to a single master at a time. They have near-identical fighting styles, having invented the same techniques independently, but Yoruka's is naturally more lethal. Finally, they both have younger siblings of the opposite sex who can't fight, but Yoruka's brother was killed prior to the start of the series.
• Valvrave the Liberator: Haruto and L-Elf. Haruto winds up as the titular mecha's pilot for brash, emotionally driven, but overall selfless reasons. L-Elf does everything he does for a cold, carefully calculated purpose, and that included attempting to steal the Valvrave — which he would have succeeded at if not for being unaware of the changes it puts its pilot through. Haruto is rather emotional and kind, thinks with his heart, and generally only takes the short-term into account with his actions. L-Elf plans out his strategies literal years in advance and his only moral code can be summed up as successfully bring revolution to my country, nothing else matters. Whereas Haruto is an super-powered being due to his status as a Valvrave pilot, L-Elf is technically a normal human being, but is still widely known as the One-Man Army. Haruto attended a normal high school until the war between their countries, and L-Elf graduated from an elite military academy meant to train Child Soldiers. Yet, amidst all of this, L-Elf is completely hellbent on forcing Haruto to join him in his efforts as Haruto can potentially help L-Elf achieve his revolution as much as five years earlier than he'd originally predicted.
• Among the many interpretations of Fuuma's strange anti-Christ character in X/1999 is that he is a Shadow Archetype born out of the dark side of Kamui's nature. In the TV series this character claims to be Kamui's "Gemini" and its implied that if Kamui had been consumed by his own rage and grief, this character would have instead become a Messianic Archetype in Kamui's stead.
• This is the entire premise of Yu-Gi-Oh! (well, besides the card game) and was the whole plot of the beginning manga. There are three doubles: one of the main character and two of the main antagonists, respectively. For the main character, Yugi, his double, which in the American fandom is called a yami ("darkness") evolved into a protagonist, but is still a Darker and Edgier version of Yugi. The antagonists are a classmate of Yugi's whose body is taken over by a vengeful spirit (the second yami) and a revenge-obsessed teen with an actual Split Personality (the third). A good deal of conflict in the series revolves around the magic of the Shadows wielded by them and others.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Sherry Leblanc acts as one to Aki, one can imagine had Aki never met Yusei and instead remained loyal to Divine. The fact that Sherry's desperation to find answers of her parents' whereabouts led to her joining forces with Z-One, eerily similar to how Aki was brought into the Arcadia Movement by Divine where he exploited her Psychic Powers for his own personal gain.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has Big Bad Zarc be one for the protagonist Yuya. Though it might be more accurate to say Yuya is the shadow archetype for Zarc as Zarc is Yuya's original self. Both Zarc and Yuya wanted to make people happy by dueling but had opposition to their ideals. While Zarc focused on the audience happy at the price of his own happiness, Yuya kept reaching for ideals by changing himself till he was able to wow the audience. The difference led Zarc to grow bitter at humanity for their bloodlust and kill everyone while Yuya was able to fulfill his ideals and while keeping his sanity.

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