When I say anime gang, I’m not so much referring to an actual gang the likes of which could be found in the series Tokyo Revengers, but more so a gang of villains who have bonded together for a common purpose. They are typically involved with some sort of ranking system, either by who joined the group the earliest or who is the most powerful. You see, recently Genshin Impact dropped a lore video that I have to admit I didn’t really pay attention to, however once some buzz began circling around the Internet I had to see what the hype was about. In Genshin the main villains right now are called the Fatui Harbingers, and they are the evil gang of the game. Unlike some games though, so far one harbinger has been made playable and leaks indicate that further “evil” characters will be playable too so people were extra excited as that’s not always the case. The Fatui Harbingers are once again bad guys working together in a number system, with Childe the current playable harbinger being number 11. For the first time, the trailer revealed the faces of several other Fatui and it looked like a shot right out of a Bleach opening. This whole fiasco of people being hype over the bad guy gang got me thinking, god damn a lot of series have this trope in anime.
History repeats itself.
The Akatsuki, The Espada, Organization XIII, The League of Villains, The Knights of the Round, The Phantom Troupe, The Demon Moons, The Ten Commandments, hell the list goes on and on. The trope of a group of bad guys coming together has been especially prevalent in anime over the years and is continuing to this day. For my brain, the earliest example I know of a group of villains working together to take down the hero is The Sinister Six from the Spider-Man comics who made their debut in 1964. Obviously with how storytelling works this is far from the first example of it ever, however I do think it played a hand in popularizing the idea in the comic book and eventually manga space. Regardless, while The Sinister Six are an early American example, I think the amount of villain groups in American media today pales in comparison to the ones in Japanese stories. Sure we have some situations where groups of villains are on the same side, but it seems truly rare to find a case where there’s a large organization spanning 8+ members each of whom often receive a decent amount of screentime and pose a threat.
I tried to do some research to find out why this trope was utilized so much in Japan, however I didn’t find any answers. My reasoning is that if a manga or game gets popular, the author/creator can oftentimes be forced into continuing a series or stretching it out for longer than they initially intended. This trope of a villain gang means you can introduce an organization, let’s call it The Bad Boys, who are numbered 1-16. Now let’s be honest, at that point people will probably only give a fuck about numbers 8 and below unless you REALLY make something spicy for the ones ranked above 8 (assuming lower ranking is higher power and plot importance). This way, you could write a story where the heroes defeat numbers 15 and 16, and then like number 6 shows up and BEATS THEIR ASS to make the true threat of the lower numbers be real. This is how Demon Slayer did it, as while the series introduced 12 demon moons in the anime, many of the lower six moons were killed instantly by their leader Muzan and never actually did anything of merit. However, since they’re ranked low to begin with, nobody gave a single fuck and the story was unaffected. This saved the author’s ass in case there needed to be a spin-off movie/arc or something, they could have centered it around one of those lower moons so it still felt like the heroes were making progress on their goal.
That’s my thinking on the usefulness of the trope and why it might be prevalent. Hell what do I know though, it could just be that Japan is a group-focused society and thus even the villains are depicted as people grouping together for a common goal. One thing is for sure, this trope has been around for years and it shows no signs of slowing down. Thankfully unlike some other tropes this one never seems to bother me. I have a soft spot for bad guys putting their differences aside and kicking some ass, and the ranking system can make for some interesting turns (like when Ulquiorra was revealed to probably be the strongest, despite being ranked as number four). Why do you think villain groups are so popular in anime? Do you enjoy the trope or are you tired of it? Do we have villian groups in America that I’m just not thinking of? Have a sad backstory, get recruited by a leader, and join a gang of evil in the comments below!
