Alright. So...I think this is going to be my first removal proposal and I have a feeling that when I do this, I am definitely going to be crucified by the original proposer of this villain in question. Anyways, since Vicious from Cowboy Bebop seems like gaining a lot of support in terms of keeping him after re-evaluation (Thanks for the votes btw!). There is another candidate from the same work that needs a re-evaluation too but I'm on verge removing him for the reasons that I will state below. Anyways, let's begin with the proposal shall we:
What's The Work[]
Now, for those who still don't know what Cowboy Bebop is. I'll copypaste what's the work supposed to be about to get the gist of it:
"Cowboy Bebop is one of the famous animes of all time and one of the anime that has legendary status due to it being one of the animes that introduce the American people into anime after well...Akira exists. Anyways, Cowboy Bebop tells us the story about several bounty hunters who are none other than Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Edward. Together, they tried to hunt several criminals just for a quick buck. However, being a sci-fi anime, of course...The show is set in space which adds to some nice sci-fi aesthetics! As they catch several criminals, several hijinks ensues be it a comedy, a drama, a thriller and so on."
Anyways, while the stories of CB is mostly episodic and yada yada yada...I'm going to discuss another candidate from Episode 16, Black Dog Serenade, who is essentially Jet Black's arch-nemesis, Udai Taxim.
Who is He/What Has He Done[]
Alright, so Udai Taxim is basically Jet Black's arch-nemesis who is essentially the mercenary of a crime syndicate in the Moon, Europa, and is one of the man responsible for one of the members of ISSP, Jet Black, losing his arm as he conspired with Jet Black's former partner in the force, Fad, to eliminate Jet once and for all which resulted on Jet becoming a bounty hunter he is today.
As Udai was imprisoned and he and the rest of inmates were transferred to Pluto, Udai mercilessly slaughtered several guards in the ship and another one of his establishing character moment is that he poured a wine that he was given by an inmate of his to a corpse of one of the guard he slaughtered. That shows how asshole-ish Udai can be.
Anyways, as Udai found out one of the prisoners acting like an idiot, he simply kills him because why not and as they attempted to escape the police force, he and his men send a fake distress signal towards the police force, claiming that the ship experiencing mechanical failure only it was revealed to be one of Udai's tricks so that he could slaughter all of the police force who approaching the ship.
Now, after Jet Black and his partner do a one last job to capture Udai in his ship, Jet tries to fight Udai one-on-one and the former then accuses Udai that he lost his arm because of him, only to be revealed that Udai wasn't the guy that made Jet Black lost his arm and was revealed to be Fad himself. Eventually, Udai was betrayed and shot by Fad, killing him in the process.
Why Doesn't He Qualify[]
As for mitigating factors itself, yeah...Udai doesn't have any. Yes, he kills a prisoner who become a tad too violent but that's because Udai saw him as nothing but annoyances and his relationship with Fad isn't better either as he blackmailed him by saying that he got an important information if he got killed. So seems like an Easy Keep right. Unfortunately? The issue that I have for Udai qualifying is the heinous standard alone.
Okay, it is stated that Udai himself qualify as a PE because the fact that he racks the highest bodycount in the series for a one-shot villain. This is actually half-true and half-false in some scenarios. Considering we have the likes of Maria Murdoch who orchestrated a massacre in a dinner and attempted to turn all of the 8 million population in Ganymede into nothing but feral apes because of her obsession on protecting Sea-Rats, Tongpu who massacred all of the people in the ISSP research facility (Granted that they were experimenting him to the point it took it's toll on his mental health and thus making them an asshole victims) and Dr. Londes who also made his cult committing mass suicide while justifying himself that they did this on their own volition while it was revealed that he made a cult and intentionally make his members committed suicide so that he could make friends.
And then you have the elephant in the room that is the movie of course. Alright, depending on your perception of the canonicity of the movie, I should include this guy to get the gist of the heinous standard: The Big Bad of the movie, Vincent Volaju, is responsible for the massacre of innocent people in the highway which kills around 70 people while injuring 200 people which made them experiencing a rather cruel and unusual illness, massacring several people on the train and then tries to spread a nanochips across Mars and if it succeeded, it would made Vincent racking the highest bodycount in the series proper (If he hasn't already).
Now, according to Wikipedia, the movie is set between Episode 22-23 of the show which if that's the case, muddled the heinous standard more than before which I think hurt Udai's chances on qualifying due to the nasty shit that other antagonist even some of the one-shots like Maria or Dr. Londes has pulled. If you don't think the movie isn't canon, then maybe I could see him qualifying by the skin of his teeth and at the very least, the other keeper of Cowboy Bebop, Vicious, had something going on for him but I don't know.
As for other crimes that he had committed, well, Udai is partially responsible on Jet-Black losing his arm which made it rather personal for him. But then you have Vicious who also committing some personal atrocities such as selling his comrade during the Titan War which resulted on him given a drug that destroyed his hormones or responsible for the death of the hero's love interest which made him lose the meaning of life. Yes, despite Vicious bodycount isn't that impressive, his crimes had personal edges on him that I could understand why people eager to see him staying. As for Udai, I don't know, I'm not seeing it here.
As far as the resource goes, Udai had 12 inmates who accompany him a bit if you want to ask me compared to the likes of Vicious who becomes the head of Syndicate and had his men on disposal and yes, he appeared around 5 episodes compared to Udai who only appeared in 1 episode, Vincent Volaju who is a lone-wolf although there is one of them who accompanied him, Maria who is the leader of an Eco-terrorist group and Dr. Londes who is a leader of a massive cult. If the resource arguments does some favor in Udai staying, I don't blame you. But I'm still not sure if he qualifies anymore for PE.
Final Verdict[]
I lean cut on Udai for now. But if someone persuaded me with a strong argument. I can try and change my opinions on him. Until then, thoughts?