Villains of Competence

[Bliss]

I know this doesn't really count from anime but what about The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3... even though she wasn't really a villain. Or Revolver Ocelot?

[Metroidvania]

If we're including games, technically, the flood (Gravemind) is actually pretty competent.
And I just remembered, both Halo and MGS have anime style graphic novels, so they could count!

[Bliss]

If we're including games, technically, the flood (Gravemind) is actually pretty competent.
And I just remembered, both Halo and MGS have anime style graphic novels, so they could count!

*grins* Heh, y'know if we're going with games as well then how about the Orochi followers in KoF? *smirks* They're manga, and even a couple of series that are KoF based, so that could count although I don't think the anime had the Orochi followers..

[camk4evr]

(I can't believe I'm going to suggest this but...)
Char Aznable of Mobile Suit Gundam. In the original series he succeeded at his original goal of killing the entire Zabi family. If it wasn't for his desire to defeat Amuro in single combat (on a relatively even footing) he would have won in the end of the Char's Counter attack.
The Bunker space pirates of Dangaio. While the Dangaio team defeats some of their agents in the end the Dangaio is destroyed and the Bunker still exist.
Geist of MD Geist.

[Shadell]

That's true, but he is still on the wrong side of the law, which makes him a villan nonetheless, and his plots almost, if not always, work......
But I digress, to avoid the same type of aforementioned CCS debate.

Hmm... On the same lines as Lupin I'd like to nominate in general all of the heroes from those genre anime. They routinely break the law for profit or the challenge of it. Under the initial definition for qualification provided by the thread:

1: Have a defined objective for his scheming. This objective must not be inherently lame (Example of lame plot: Rockman Axess, Bubbleman attempts to take over the city's water supply so that he can make every toilet in the city backflow).
2: Must have a well thought out plan. 'Go to point X, cause trouble, when hero shows up, kill' is NOT a well thought out plan unless it includes a specific mechanism by which the villain gains a significant edge over the hero.
3: Come close to succeeding, or possibly even succeed.

2 is usually the point of the show, and 3 is generally a given in the thief genre. Additionaly it mentions only one plan. Lupin, Mouse, Dark, etc. have all accomplished at least one plan with great success and little morality involved
Which leads me to the question; should 'scehming' from the origonal post be treated as the short term or the long term goal? After all it's easily concievable for a villain to succeed admirably in the short term, while setting themselves up for failure in the long term.

[bissek]

As the originator of this thread, I'm ruling that being able to achieve short-term success but not being able to approach long-term success is acceptable for subordinate villains, who serve under the chief villain, but not the chief villain him/herself.
As such, Jadeite, who was nominated fairly early on in this thread, would be considered acceptable for his short-term achievements, but Beryl, his superior, would not, as she was unable to do anything productive with the results of his successes/near successes.
I've also seen short-term defeats nearly bring long term victory. In SD Gundam, the Commander had a series of failed attacks in rapid succession, each of which depleted the Gundam Force's equipment, supplies and energy. After three or four episodes, with one battle per episode, each of which started within minutes of the previous episode, the Gundams were barely able to hold on. If the Commander's forces had been able to provide better suppression fire while the Gundam Forces were repairing Captain Gundam, he would have won.
As for Anderson, no. According to the manga, he is not a villain. He is a mentally disturbed hero who doesn't understand that he's working for a villain until volume 7 of the manga. In the anime, the only plan he ever uses is "Go to point X, cause trouble, when hero shows up, kill". Facing Alucard in a subway car to reduce his maneuverability was a nice idea, but if he did his research on Alucard, he'd have learned that Alucard considers decapitation to be an inconvenience, not a danger, and also made plans to keep his enemy down. Since the fact that Alucard is far beyond a normal vampire's strength isn't a secret, he should have known that. As such, he does not qualify. I wouldn't rate his boss as a great villain either, as all he's doing is taking advantage of someone else's plan to wreak more havoc. The Major (head villain of the Hellsing manga) meets at least two of the three requirements. The only issue is his goal -

To savor the joy of war limitlessly... For the next war, and the next, and the next.

Basically, his goal is to destroy things because he likes destruction. I'm not sure if that counts as a sensible goal.
As for Lupin, generally his official goal is to obtain the treasure. In the six Lupin movies I've seen, he has destroyed the treasure (or most of it) three times, deliberately left it behind once, found the treasure in question wasn't portable enough to be stolen once, and the last time had yet to even plan the robbery at the end of the movie. The last one was technically a success, as he was trying to defend against somebody trying to rob HIM, and walked away with the knowledge of where all his enemy's loot was stashed, waiting for him to steal it at his convenience. That's not a evry high success rate.

[Kai]

I nominate Pasdar, from GaoGaiGar
Originally, his goal was to infect Earth with Zonder metal, but was thrwarted by Galeon. After being able to partially regenerate himself, he used his 4 zonder kings to atempt small scale attempts to infect the planet with Zonder metal. Upon being thwarted by GGG and Mamoru, he switches his focus on getting them outta the way, while still going for his plan. He eventually does create a Zonder metal Plant, but is destroyed by GGG. But his legacy lived on in Mikoto Utsugi, when the New Zonder activated in her, creating Zonuda.

[GenocideHeart]

If we go by games with anime, Indalecio in Star Ocean 2 will probably rank pretty damn high. The only reason why he 'lost' in the end was because of an incredibly convenient plot device that stopped his Crest of Annihilation, but still managed to wipe Energy Nede out as retaliation.
And for games in general, Kefka. He actually SUCCEEDED in destroying the world and becoming a God. That later he lost is irrelevant.

[toa Lhikan]

Makuta from Bionicle.
He is when you look at him, he is one of the most powerful villains out there. He can beat most heroes out there with ease . His only weakness
was his ego, but when you look at what he can do, you can see why.
Almost all his plans succeeded to some point or another. Most of his defeats, he was able to rebound from them disturbingly quickly . Most of his loses were from lack of time, him not going all out , or by pure luck and that is why I nominate Makuta for this.
Thank you for your time.

[Screwball]

Not exactly from anime, but the Major from the Hellsing manga (and presumably the new Hellsing OVas, which I haven't seen yet). His objective was to cause as much damage and bloodshed as possible, and he succeeded admirably, almost wiping out Hellsing twice, and pretty much destroying London, along with, apparently, most of the British military, using the lure of eternal life to convince men to betray their country and prevent any coherant defence.
And, one completely unrelated to anime at all: Horus, from 40K. He kicked off a civil war that ended up with the Emperor effectively dead, and the Imperium trapped in a hell of superstition and ineffective beuacracy. Sure, he may not have won, but he ensured that the Imperium would never be able to win either.

[Shadell]

Johan Liebert from Monster- Even as a child he was capable of driving well over 50 people to kill each other in a violent rage, just to observe how they reacted to the lure of power. He possesed a talent that allowed him to not only identify killers with ease, but befriend them easily, and even make people murder on his command. I could list more examples, but the fact remains he demonstrated incredible intelligence throughout the entire series.
The ONLY reason he wouldn't deserve a place on this list, would be because his goal was a bit unclear, and seemed more nihilistic then vilanous.

[FOG3]

(I can't believe I'm going to suggest this but...)
Char Aznable of Mobile Suit Gundam. In the original series he succeeded at his original goal of killing the entire Zabi family. If it wasn't for his desire to defeat Amuro in single combat (on a relatively even footing) he would have won in the end of the Char's Counter attack.

Don't you mean the begining when Amuro is using the el cheapo Z Gundam, before he gets the Nu? Of course, if Amuro didn't have Deus ex Machina the Asteroid would have still hit.
Honestly he missed the perfect oppurtunity to make a scathing comeback.
"Don't underestimate the power of the Nu Gundam!"
"Reality check Amuro, you don't have powerful enough thrusters nor enough fuel to do anything meaningful to this asteroid."
I nominate Kihara Masaki of Hades Project Zeorymer. How can you beat a guy who has a plan to take over the world that continues beyond his death has at least double redundancy, and would have worked too if not for the fact both of his back ups put up enough resistance and were motivated enough to kill each other to stop him. Even then as it appears to end up with the Zeorymer causing an extinction level event, Kihara did accomplish the make the world his Hades part, even if he didn't stick around for the seize control phase supposing he didn't have yet another backup somewhere.

[Ninsaneja]

Orochimaru? Uuuhhhh.... Kabuto, as Orochi-man's subordinate (totally succeeds at almost everything as a spy in the short run?)

[camk4evr]

Don't you mean the begining when Amuro is using the el cheapo Z Gundam, before he gets the Nu? Of course, if Amuro didn't have Deus ex Machina the Asteroid would have still hit.

No. I meant that, in the original MS Gundam series, Char's goal in life was to destroy the Zabi family for killing his father (he joined Zeon's military as a way to get close to them) and, with the exception of one or two who were killed by some one else, he succeeded in doing just that.

[lwf58]

Yes, Char succeeded in almost all of his plans. He wiped out the Zabi family, reformed the Zeon into a strong military and economic power again after they were devasted by the One Year War and its aftermath, and accomplished just about everything else he wanted. Too bad he was scum at heart, who never saw a woman that he didn't try - and usually succeed - to manipulate into being another weapon in his arsenal. Even the one woman he ever actually loved, Lala Sun, was little more than a tool to him.

Don't you mean the begining when Amuro is using the el cheapo Z Gundam, before he gets the Nu? Of course, if Amuro didn't have Deus ex Machina the Asteroid would have still hit.

The Nu Gundam was developed from Psycho Frame technology, which was developed by Zeon and then deliberately leaked so that Lond Bell could use it in a mobile suit for Amuro. Char told him that during the movie. Char and Amuro had been friends, enemies, and rivals in all things for decades by that time, and their fights had normally been inconclusive. Char wanted to have a final battle with Amuro to prove he was the better of the two for much of the time they knew each other. The asteroid drop was as much about drawing Amuro into a fight where he wouldn't hold back, as pushing forward Char's agenda regarding the forced evolution of humanity.
And he succeeded. He got the fight he'd always wanted, and while it was proven that Amuro was the better combat pilot when the chips were down and no punches pulled, that loss still was a victory of a sort for Char. His attempt to force Amuro to fight seriously worked exactly as he planned it.