Whether they are actually good from a realistic standpoint is another matter, though. Some just go by edgy aura.
Naraku from inuyasha, incredibly manipulative and has no qualms uses his own minions to play games with inuyasha, sango, sesshorama,etc in his ultimate goal to acquire the shinkon jewel(which has sentience), which ironically is playing games on the inuyasha-universe, both humans, hybrids and demons alike. strangely he has no animosity against humans, only when it convenient for him to use them as bait for the main atagonists. his mind games often leads to death of his the demons/humans he uses, so it doesnt come back and bite him later in the series.
Whether they are actually good from a realistic standpoint is another matter, though. Some just go by edgy aura.
With this relaxation of the criterion, I’d say
Tap for spoiler
Prospera Mercury
from The Witch from Mercury fits the bill.
Feels like a cheap answer tbh. One can probably mention quite a few Gundam antagonists in this thread.
Lelouch for male, Maomao for female
lelouch cheated, he acquired his mind control from a humanoid with supernatural powers.
Assuming it’s the character from The Apothecary Diaries: how is Maomao an antagonist?
Depending on the sense of the word, she is always antagonizing the plot to kill Jinshi.
I’m probably on the wrong meaning here
Izaya Orihara from Durarara
Well, pretty much everyone in the first season of Promised Neverland is good at mind games, regardless of their role in the story. (As for the second season, it never existed, m’kay?)
Lelouch against his enemies overall come to mind, specially on the later half of the series.
Death Note may have gotten incredibly silly at times, but at least it got us some top-tier memes.
Naraku.
That’s perfect because it fits BOTH sides of the question XD
