Naraku vs. The Major: Who had the Most Nefarious Plot?

Greetings, fellow citizens of the Earth!  You may have noticed that this week that I’m not doing a review.  For this week I decided to do a discussion post.  And let me tell you, I’ve wanted to do this one for a while now.  But now seems like a good time to do this.  As many of you are aware, Toonami recently aired Hellsing Ultimate for its first ever television debut.  Then I found out recently that Toonami was bringing back Inuyasha for the television premier of Inuyasha: The Final Act.  So with that much said, let’s get to the point here.  For this post, I took two of my favorite anime villains- the Major from Hellsing Ultimate and Naraku from Inuyasha as well as Inuyash: The Final Act- and asked the question, “who had the most nefarious, most evil, most diabolical plan?”

Now before I begin, I think I should explain what’s going to be discussed.    Here I will take a look at the two villains individually and their grand scheme or scheme worth recognizing.  I will also give some interesting “did-you-know” information.  From there I will determine who I thought had the most “nefarious plot.”  So now that you know what this is about and what to expect, let’s begin the battle!

First Up: Naraku

So first up in this duel is the infamous half-demon Naraku.  The primary antagonist for Inuyasha and its spin-off Inuyasha: The Final Act, Naraku starts off literally crawling out of a hole in the ground.  The story of Naraku’s birth begins with a bandit named Onigumo.  After betraying a fellow bandit, Onigumo is burned alive, and then thrown off a cliff after surviving the fire.  With all of his limbs broken and burnt beyond recognition, he is taken in by the priestess Kikyo and is nursed back to health.  During this time, he begins to fall in love with her.  Not long after this, Onigumo strikes a deal with a horde of demons; in exchange for gaining the ability to walk again in order to obtain the Shikon Jewel as well as Kikyo, Onigumo gives up his body to the demons.  And thus, Naraku is born!  And those who have seen a good bit of the series pretty much know what all Naraku has done throughout the series.

Naraku is probably one of the most well known villains in all of anime.  He is also probably one of the most cunning villains as well.  Most of his plans involve hurting the characters of Inuyasha to the physical and even the emotional level without involving himself directly.  He is able to pull this off by using incarnations-beings created from his own body-, demon puppets-apparitions also created from his body-,or just getting some other desperate soul to do it for him.  Naraku is also probably one of the most hated characters in all of anime.  Why?  Cause it’s just so much fun to hate him.  That’s why he’s one of my all time favorite villains!

So what’s Naraku’s Plan?

Now Naraku’s schemes are too numerous to count.  Some range from very simple to very complex.  Some are more well known than others.  Probably one of the most well known is the one that involves Inuyasha and Kikyo.  This plan involved splitting the two apart, which eventually leads to Kikyo’s death and Inuyasha being sealed to the Sacred Tree.  However, this is not the plan I’m going to be talking about.

The one of many Naraku’s plans that I’m going to talk about is probably one of his most complex.  This plan is the one that takes place in the series during his disappearance.  After being defeated by Inuyasha and Sesshomaru at the end of season three, Naraku goes MIA for the fourth season.  It’s not until the fifth season that we start to hear from him again, finally making a long overdue personal appearance by the end of the season.  Right here, is where one of Naraku’s most elaborate plans takes place. 

In season five, Inuyasha and company’s search for a missing Naraku leads Mount Hakurei-a sacred mountain said to purify even the most evil of criminals.  Here, as many fans would know, the gang is attacked by a long dead band of mercanaries-now resurrected by the use of Sacred Jewel Shards- called the Band of Seven.  After battling the Band of Sevne and killing off all the members, the gang realizes that Naraku has been hiding inside Mount Hakurei the whole time.  This is only part one.  Part two involves the priest Saint Hakushin.  Hakushin’s back story is that of a pious Buddhist priest who lives a very virtuous life, even showing pitty to the lowest of criminals.  At his sick bed,  he vows to become a “living Budha”-aka, a holy mummy.  However, while going through the process, he panics and has second thoughts.  Despite his fears and concerns, he dies.  Though his remains are constructed as a living Budha, his soul remains a bit more active.  That’s when Naraku comes in.  Naraku finds Hakushin’s soul and convinces him that the people he protected and served were inconsiderate and in the wrong.  Hakushin sees this as an act of salvation and agrees to help Naraku, and therefore erects a barrier to protect Mount Hakurei and Naraku. 

Now many people would assume that this was all for the sake of Naraku discarding his human heart-Onigumo’s heart to be more precise-, which still loves Kikyo(part three of Naraku’s plan).  And yes, this is one reason why Naraku goes to such extremes to hide and protect himself.  But it’s not until after Naraku reappears that getting rid of his heart was just part of the plan.  What is he really after?  What he’s been trying to do for much of the series: killing Kikyo.  We even find out that Naraku’s scheme started early on in season four!  After meeting the bandit that attacked Onigumo, Kikyo is asked by him to take a lock of his hair to Mount Hakurei to be purified.  According to Naraku, he was the one who told him about Mount Hakurei in the first place, even telling Kikyo, “You did not come here of your own accord, I lured you here!”

So let’s sum up this evil plan here.  Naraku:

1.       Revives the vicious Band of Seven to kill Inuyasha and the gang, as well as Koga and Sesshomaru-also in pursuit of Naraku,

2.       Takes advantage of the priest Hakushin by showing him sympathy, allowing Hakushin to protect Naraku by erecting  a powerful barrier around that mountain that is so strong that Inuyasha himself can barely get through,

3.       Takes advantage of the bandit responsible for Onigumo’s injuries by feeding him information about Mount Hakurei, “luring” Kikyo to the mountain,

4.       Discards Onigumo’s heart as well as create a new body for himself-which is actually pretty epic looking-,

5.       And let’s not forget the biggest detail, destroys Mount Hakurei in the process of escaping.

And all for what?  To kill Kikyo.  It may seem a bit pathetic, but when you look at how many parts were in this plan, and how neatly they were carried out, it’s pretty impressive to see how it all worked out in the end.  It’s also why this was one of my favorite Naraku schemes thus far in the Inuyasha.

 

Next Up: The Major

So next up in the fight is the maniacal Nazi commander of the Millennium organization, the Major.  Honestly, we don’t know that much about the Major.  At least, we are kept in the dark about his past.  However, according to Wikipedia, he has a similar past to that of another character from one of Kouta Hirano’s other stories (for those of you who don’t know, Kouta Hirano is the creator of Hellsing).  I will not verify or confirm this.  However, what Hellsing Ultimate as well as the prequel series Hellsing: The Dawn do tell us is that the Major was a member of the German SS during World War II.  And in 1944, he was responsible for a covert operation to create an army of Nazi vampires.  After that failed, he came back fifty-five years later to do the same thing again. 

Aside from that, throughout much of the series, the Major talks about nothing but war and how much he loves it.  In fact, in a speech he gives towards the end of the fourth episode, he lists a number of occurrences from blazing tanks, to killing POWs, to getting his butt handed to him by Russian and American forces and how it all excites him.  Yeah, the man’s pretty twisted.  And his master plan is just as twisted.

So what’s the Major’s Plan?

The Major’s plan is certainly less complicated than Naraku’s, but the ultimate objective is totally unexpected and brilliant.  First off, we already know that part of the plan is to create an army of Nazi vampires.  Part two of the plan, is to attack London.  What follows after is Alucard’s level 0 release once he returns to London.  With Millennium’s army in shambles and the Vatican’s Ninth Airborne Mobile Crusade wiped out and London in worse shape than it was before, this leads to a final battle between Alucard and Anderson, and later a vampiric Walter.  At this point in the series, the tables seem to turn and we discover the Major’s true objective, and it’s not just starting a war.  Things start to get serious when Alucard begins to absorb all the blood left behind from the victims of the attack.  But while this is going on, we notice one of the characters, Schrödinger, decapitate himself, and fall into the mix of the river of blood.  And once Alucard absorbs all of the blood, the Major spills the beans.

At this point, and throughout the final episode, the Major explains how his whole purpose of creating an army, attacking London, sacrificing that same army as well as his other subordinates -which includes the Valentine Brothers, Tublicain Alhumbra, Rip Van Winkle, Zorin Blitz, Schrödinger, and even the Major’s faithful Captaiin- was to kill Alucard.  The Major explains his purpose for attempting this act, which I have yet to understand, and also gives details as to how he ultimately pulls it off.  Not only that, Alucard’s defeat also states Schrödinger’s purpose in the Hellsing series.  Shrödinger’s motto is “I’m everywhere and nowhere.”  The Major explains this by saying that Schrödinger is able to appear in multiple dimensions of time and space.  For instance, he is able to appear and disappear without warning at the Round Table meeting in London in episode four, and is even able to appear in Zorin’s thought just moments before she dies.  However, he can only do this if he is self aware; in other words, he must be able to recognize himself.  By decapitating himself and mixing his corpse in with the blood that Alucard is absorbing, he cannot recognize himself because of the other souls mixed in with the blood. 

Now how this affects Alucard is due to the fact that when he drinks blood, he not only takes in the soul of that individual’s blood, but also their abilities.  Considering this, Alucard is able to obtain Schrödinger’s ability.  However, because Schrödinger can no longer recognize himself, he no longer exists.  And because of this, neither does Alucard.  And the result?  Alucard literally disappears.

[Phew] That took a lot to explain, but yes, that is the Major’s plan in a nutshell.  But to review, the Major’s plan involves:

1.       Creating an army of Nazi vampires, as well as the Millennium organization,

2.       Attacking the city of London,

3.       Sacrificing the same army he created as well as his top officers,

4.       And using Shrödinger as the ultimate weapon for defeating Alucard.

As I said earlier, this plan was not as complicated as Naraku’s.  But with all the detail and careful planning involved, the whole thing was brilliant.  It’s also a shock for Hellsing fans when they realize that the Major is after Alucard.

Some Things these Guys Have in Common

Now before I reveal who I thought the winner was, I want to take a moment and share some interesting facts about these two characters.  As you may know, these characters certainly have some major differences.  One’s Japanese, the other is German.  And both characters live in completely different eras.  But what I’m going to talk about is what they have in common.  So here’s a few things that these characters share.

·         Neither one of them is human: Yes folks, it’s true.  Now many Inuyasha fans already know that Naraku is not a human.  That was established well before Naraku’s official debut.  However, many people in the series believed that he was a demon.  Now that is not true.  Because the demons that made up Naraku used the human Onigumo as a foundation, Naraku is half-and-half.  The Major, interestingly enough, is also not human-for the most part anyway.  The end of the tenth episode of Hellsing Ultimate reveals that the Major is a cyborg.  However, the Major claims that he is still a human being because of his will to live.

·         Both of their plans fail: Finally, both of these guys’ plans ended up falling through.  Why?  Because the objective of both plans was to target and kill a specific person.  You haven’t met that objective if they’re still alive.  After Mount Hakurei was destroyed in Inuyasha, many people believed that Naraku had killed Kikyo.  However, Inuyasha and the gang, especially Kagome, are pretty shocked in the final season when they discover that she’s still alive, but recovering from her encounter with Naraku.  The Major’s plan almost worked, at least for thirty years after London’s attack it did.  But after some soul searching- and killing-on Alucard’s part, Alucard returns.

The Winner?

The Major

This one was pretty hard.  Both villains had some pretty well thought out plans.  Each one also had its strengths and weaknesses.  The Major’s plan took fifty-five years to put together while Naraku’s plan probably took only a couple of months-knowing Naraku, that’s what I would assume.  On the other hand, Naraku’s plan had a lot of parts to it while the Major’s plan was a little more straight forward- but you could say that both plans required everything to fall into place precisely.  What determined the winner in this fight was the death toll; how many bodies did these plans rack up?  Naraku’s plan had some pretty serious collateral damage.  Hell, he destroyed an entire mountain!  But, how many people died as a result?  To be precise, about eight (The Band of Seven and Saint Hakushin).  We don’t know how many other people died as a result.  But considering how many people lived during the Feudal Era, there probably wasn’t that many.  The casualties for the Major’s plan were over three million.  Or to be more precise, “3,718, 917.”  So overall, the Major’s plan had an exact number while with Naraku’s plan, we don’t know how many people actually died.  So looking at this, I had to give it to the Major.  However, I have to admit, Naraku’s plan had the most collateral damage.  Like I said, he destroyed an entire mountain!  That’s a phenomenon that you don’t hear about that often. 

Well, that’s all I have for that.  So what do you think?  Did the Major really have the best plan?  Was there another one of Naraku’s plans that I should’ve brought up?  Do you think I should order a pizza?  Come on people! I wanna hear what you have to say-except for the pizza part.  Like I’ve said before, I call these discussion posts for a reason.  Be sure to leave your comments below.  Anyways, that’s all I have for this week.  Stay tuned for more, because next week I will reveal November’s Character of the Month.

-Hanime on Anime