User blog:Red Chevalier/PE Proposal: Masato Mishima

I guess I'll test out the new Pure Evil by proposing a villain from Kamen Rider Kabuto. This guy is a pretty bad dude, so get ready.

What is the Work?
Kamen Rider Kabuto is the seventh installment in the Heisei era of the Kamen Rider series. The plot is a little complicated so I'll try to explain it the best I can. Also, spoilers.

In 1999 a meteorite crashed into Earth containing an invasive species of shape-shifting alien parasites called the "Worms", which are capable of perfectly copying the appearance and memories of any being. In response to this an organization called ZECT was formed to combat the Worms. Secretly, 35 years before the start of the series, a first generation of Worms, called the "Natives", already came to Earth and warned of a second wave of their species that was coming to invade, secretly co-founding ZECT with several humans to develop the Masked Rider System and the Zecters, which would allow humans to become Kamen Riders to fight the second wave Worms. The Zecters are not just cold technology however, they have minds of their own and choose their user, even if said user is not affiliated with ZECT, which many of them are.

The main protagonist of the series is Souji Tendou, a massive egotist who trained his entire life to become the user of the Kabuto Zecter, stealing it from ZECT, and destroy the Worms with it. Tendou is joined by Arata Kagami, the son of ZECT's leader Riku Kagami and a ZECT agent tasked with recording their battles. The whole series is basically one big three-way struggle, between Tendou, ZECT and the Worms. Later on it even turns out the Native Worms have their own agenda, to forcibly turn all of humanity into Native Worms because they deem it inferior.

Who is the villain?
Masato Mishima, the second-in-command of ZECT and assistant to ZECT's chairman Riku Kagami. Mishima suffers from Aguesia, giving him no sense of taste. While technically on the same side as most of the heroic secondary characters, over the course of the series Mishima is a soulless bastard with no sense of empathy for others who is ultimately out for himself and many of the problems faced by the heroes are the result of his machinations.

What does he do?
Before the start of the series, Mishima abducted a boy and locked him in a ZECT facility to experiment on him. These experiments involved forcibly converting the boy into a Native Worm and then forcing him to assume the form of Souji Tendou in order to harness the power of the Hyper Zecter. The torture Mishima inflicted on the boy was so severe that it drove the boy crazy and caused him to forget his identity. This boy would later surface in the present as Dark Kabuto and cause problems for Tendou.

One of Mishima's crueler actions early on is kidnapping Gon, the child companion of Daisuke Kazama, the user of the Drake Zecter, and locking in a ZECT compound in order to force him to fight for ZECT. At a later point, Mishima attempts to frame Daisuke for the murder of a rival make-up artist so a Worm can mimic him and take his place. Mishima is also responsible for testing the dangerous power of the Gatack Zecter on his own men in order to find a wielder for it, having resulted in the loss of many of their lives. Once a wielder for it is chosen, Mishima fires Tsurugi Kamishiro, a Rider working as a mercenary for ZECT who refused to target other Riders, despite him being poor and his work as a ZECT Rider being his only source of income, even going so far as to mock him and his butler for it.

Later, as Tendou's interference in ZECT's operations gets on his nerves, Mishima decides to have him assassinated and sends Renge Takatori, a ZECT soldier whom he had spent the last seven years forcing to eat nothing but boiled rice, to pose as a ZECT cadet in order to get close to him and kill him. When Renge ends up switching sides after growing to care for Tendou and tasting his cooking, Mishima attempts to have her killed.

Towards the end of the series, Riku Kagami reveals the existence of Worms to the world and prepares to disband ZECT once the Worm threat has been dealt with. However, Mishima joins in a conspiracy with the Native leader Negishi to forcibly transform all of humanity into Natives using special pendants that will convert their wearers into Natives upon the release of a special signal and overthrows Riku as leader of ZECT, as well as eventually giving up his own humanity by becoming the Gryllus Worm, the strongest Worm. As the new head of ZECT, Mishima distributes the Native pendants to the citizens under the guise of them being Worm identification pendants, accusing anyone who doesn't wear the pendants of being a Worm. To activate the pendants, Mishima kidnaps Dark Kabuto and tortures him by draining his power to combine with a fragment of the Natives' meteorite and broadcast the signal.

Heinous Standard
A common theme across Kamen Rider has been humans being capable of evil more monstrous than the actual monsters of the show and Mishima is no exception, committing acts far more vile than any of the Worms (besides possibly the Cassis Worm), including child abuse, torture, murder and attempted genocide.

Mitigating Factors
Nope. Not being able to taste stuff isn't a justification for any of the stuff Mishima does. Mishima is a sociopath only out for himself, who sees those around him as disposable tools and is willing to go against his own stated cause if it means the advancement of his power.