I'd make a joke about Touma having suffered enough and the writers hating him, but considering this isn't canon to the anime and this version is quite a bit more unpleasant, I'd say he had it coming
Level 5-Vision, just a day away. Will a new YKW come out, will Hino have finally learned how to manage his company, or will they be filing for bankruptcy? Who knows, but in that lead up I stumbled upon another potential keeper from this franchise. (Update: It ain't looking good for us Level-5 bros... it's so over)
What's the Work?[]
Yo-kai Watch is a franchise, brought to you by the creators of Professor Layton, set in a world inhabited by Yo-kai (not Yo-Kai, Youkai, Yokai or any other fancy spelling) spirits that can "inspirit" people to alter their behaviour.
The Return of the Oni King is the fourth movie in the franchise, set 40 years after the original anime continuity and follows Natsume, the daughter of og protagonist Nate. But we're not talking about the movie, I've already done that one, we're talking about the manga adaptation, the one that adapted out the very Oni King from the title.
Who is the Onimaro Leader?[]
This incarnation of a horribly wasted character design, rather than being the Oni King's right hand, is the titular Oni King himself. He lead the Onimaro on regular crusades by turning into a comet that orbited the earth (wait that's not how comets work) and visited every one thousand years. When they arrived Onimaro would first alter human personalities, causing them to be more callous, apathetic and excited to see each other die. As time goes on, they'd then fully possess them by latching onto their darker impulses, transforming them into violent oni. Eventually, the Onimaro Leader would revert to his standard form and crash down to earth, causing the oni to float into the air and be absorbed, at which point he'd use them as batteries. They're conscious the whole time this happens. The plan was to absorb every human and then destroy the world itself, but the Yo-kai of the world managed to repel the Onimaro every time this occurred. During their crusades, they stole a Yo-kai Watch and corrupted it into the Kigan Gear, which was to be given to humans who were willing to sell their fellows out to the Onimaro. While the end of the world was always averted, their affect on humanity was not forgotten, and thus they gained a reputation for being one of the most terrible threats humanity had ever faced.
However, far into the future, humanity's relationship with Yo-kai had waned due to Nate having lost his Yo-kai Watch (there were others who could befriend Yo-kai but the writers forgot and needed to sell more toys). At the same time, the rulers of the Yo-kai World were both injured and preoccupied. Thus, the Onimaro struck early. The effects early effects are shown, with a crowd watching as a child almost drowns, and when he's rescued, bemoan that they were unable to witness him drown. A truck driver almost runs over a child, but when he is stopped by a Yo-kai, he complains that he had not managed to go forward a little closer. Humans then start turning into oni, brawling amongst themselves to select a leader. Meanwhile three Onimari, Ogu, Togu and Mogu appear before a boy named Touma, who they (very easily in this adaptation) convince to work with them. They grant him powers which he uses to beat down the current oni gang leader, which convinces the other Onimaro that he's worthy of the Kigan Gear. With it, he leads the oni until he receives a text from his mother, which causes him to falter slightly. The Kigan Gear immediately picks up on this and savagely crushes his wrist. Things don't get much better for him since Natsume, who he knew from school, shows up, causing it to crush his arm even harder. Realising Touma was unfit, the Onimaro Leader descended to earth to round up the oni himself, causing them to float up into the air and absorbing crowds of them into his body.
Eventually, he caught site of the main cast and fought with Touma, who had been redeemed and converted Kigan Gear back to its original stated and used it to transform into Yo-kai. He managed to overpower him, revert him to his normal form and was about to kill the child when he was knocked out by the dragon Yo-kai, Seiryuu. Upon regaining consciousness, he saw Seiryuu holding him up by the neck, but also realized he seemed to be in someway close to Natsume. Noting how both humans and Yo-kai have empathy that can be exploited, he changed his face to that of Natsume's best friend Saki, begging Natsume to get him to stop. This caused Seiryuu to drop his guard and allowed for him to impale him clean through the chest. Eventually, he's beaten and brought down to human-size, but as they do so, the bodies of the hundreds of Onimaro victims suddenly become visible through the cloak. Turns out they were conscious the whole time and can feel the same pain as the Onimaro Leader. Fun. He remarked how good human malice was a power source, and that it had allowed his survival countless times in the past. Realizing how to win, Touma used his Yo-kai Watch and transformed into Fudou Myou, a divine destroyer of evil. Pointing out how he was still human on the inside, the Onimaro Leader instead turned into Touma's mother and begged him to stop, before trying to skewer him. However, Fudou Myou doesn't fall for it and directly attacked the darker parts of humanity that formed the Onimaro, destroying them and causing the Onimaro Leader to revert to his original form and be ripped apart.
Heinous Standard[]
This one's a lot easier than what's coming next. As it's not canon to the anime series or the videogames, the most heinous contenders are out of the picture. No cannibals, serial killers or intergalactic emperors here. As someone who's tried to destroy the world multiple times, mutates humans into violent (and now much more homicidal) demons, and feeds off them in a process shown to be agonising for them, he quite easily passes.
Mitigating Factors[]
Much like his original counterparts, he shows no care for his fellow Onimaro, Ogu, Togu and Mogu prove Onimaro have moral agency since they redeem themselves (the manga in general gives some characterization to the Onimaro, who are shown to be more intelligent and coordinated) and since he's the king this time around we don't have to worry about possible shows of loyalty. The real problem here is personality; he's definitely closer on the GDV end of the scale compared to his original incarnations, not getting nearly as much screentime and not being nearly as expressive. However, I still think he shows enough to qualify. Firstly, like the originals, he shows a distinct hatred of humanity, targeting them simply for being humans, but also takes it a step further and shows a hatred of Yo-kai as well. As both of them are capable of empathy, he looks down on them as it can be something exploited. He also mocks humanity for how their malice will always rebirth him right after it's made clear everyone trapped inside him is suffering. He does also show fear when backed into a corner, as he's seen visibly sweating when Seiryuu has him and he has to think of a way to get out. Finally he shows a degree of sadism and excitement whenever he successfully uses his shapeshifting to make an opponent lower their guard and uses it to strike them. It's not a lot, and a really watered down version of the originals, but he's certainly got some semblance of a personality, even if it is just one of wet cardboard. tl;dr He's racist, even more so than the originals, shows a wide range of emotions, and is shown sometimes enjoying himself. I feel like it's just enough for him to qualify.
Verdict[]
Definitely on the weaker end of the scale, but it's up to you as always