Obake

**Obake** is a villainous figure who made his debut in the animated TV show Big Hero 6: The Series since its pilot. He is the main antagonist of the first season.

## Background

Obake was born as Bob Aken. Twenty years before the events of the series, Aken was an exceptionally young prodigy at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where he studied under the tutelage of Professor Granville. Aken sought to change the world in a grand way and went about doing so by creating an Energy Amplifier that would provide limitless energy. Granville believed Aken's intelligence would allow him to achieve great things; she granted him access to the school's resources without restriction but was unaware of just how dangerous his experiment truly was.

Unfortunately, Aken's experimentation resulted in a catastrophic explosion that nearly took his life. He survived with severe damage to his temporoparietal junction, the part of the brain that allows him to tell right from wrong, thus turning Aken into a sociopath. He was also left with a deformity along the left side of his face, which now produced a bright, neon purple glow based on his mood. The effects of Aken's illness would only worsen if not treated, but he found the damage to his mind to be "liberating" and therefore let it be. With his damaged mental state stripping away his moral compass, Aken became villainous and corrupt. He credited Granville's teaching for his new outlook on life and vowed to resume his project in time. At that point, Bob Aken became a supervillain known as Obake.

Obake was a self-proclaimed fan of the famed artist and scientist, Lenore Shimamoto. Like Obake, Shimamoto looked to create an energy amplifier to provide limitless energy for the world. However, her experimentation instead created a massive star that destroyed San Fransokyo, killing millions of people and forcing the city to be rebuilt from scratch. Despite the horrific events, Shimamoto's failure resulted in the creation of New San Fransokyo—a city that is far more powerful and efficient than its previous incarnation. Not only that, Shimamoto went on to become one of the most renowned figures in her field. Obake hoped to imitate Shimamoto's legacy by destroying the world on a large scale, recreating it into a "paradise", and going down in history as the man responsible. Though this would result in billions of deaths, Obake viewed this as a small price to pay to achieve immortality.

With a set goal in mind, Obake dedicated himself to collecting the material necessary to create his apocalypse. He spent a majority of his time in his lair off the coast of San Fransokyo. From there, Obake had surveillance on virtually every corner of San Fransokyo, allowing him to monitor and control parts of the city as he pleased. To assist in his schemes, Obake called upon the assistance of San Fransokyo's criminal underworld. As revealed in "The Bot Fighter", Obake has a daughter named Trina, who acts as an accomplice in his schemes. Though she appears to be a normal teenager, she is actually an android with whom Obake shares a paternal bond.

### Personality

Greatly because of neurological damage to his mind, Obake is a staunch, ominous intellectual operated by the belief that innovation is worth every risk and sacrifice, no matter who has to fall to achieve such feats, fueling his confidence. The soft-spoken villain carries himself in a phlegmatic manner, though behind this persona lies a cruel and unpredictable menace. In his approach to diabolism, Obake is very meticulous and refuses to act on impulse. When faced with an obstacle, Obake will observe it from a distance, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of his hurdle, then use the information he's gathered to overcome it. This rigorous conduct allows Obake to always be five steps ahead of his enemy. As a result of this, he fears nothing or no one. He does, however, hold some level of respect to those who can hold their own against his schemes, at least briefly. As is the case with Big Hero 6, and more specifically their leader, Hiro Hamada.

As he prefers to work in secrecy, Obake regularly aligns himself with other criminals to use their resources to achieve his goals. Obake is deeply feared by his subordinates and is intolerant of failure. Should his underlings underperform in their assignments, Obake will quickly resort to killing them as punishment.

Obake's unwavering mentality comes from the belief that villainy is freedom. He lacks respect for the law, and pities anyone that chooses to follow it; he equates having a moral compass to being tied to a leash. In relation to this, Obake sees his attempts to recruit Hiro as a means of "liberating" him from the laws set by society. To Obake, he believes anyone with a vision should have the freedom to execute it, so long as not one shred of doubt gets in the way. In his own twisted way, Obake attempted to use this connection he had with Hiro, knowing the boy genius's vulnerability lied in their similar backgrounds, showing a wish for like-minded visionaries at his side; even after Hiro escaped, Obake strictly ordered Momakase to bring him back alive, despite the trouble Hiro was to his plans.

Obake was motivated solely for recognition of genius and success, and whatever cataclysm could come from it was a necessary evil for the world to improve under his vision. Unfortunately for Obake, his overconfidence, ambitions, and intellectual superiority come with a price. Obake chooses not to think of his previous accidents as failures but mere setbacks, and cannot fathom the possibility of making an error in his schemes. By doing so, he has a tendency to underestimate those who were lower in intelligence and expressed a distaste for artistic and abstract concepts, treating both with nonchalant disregard. His loathing for outdated and archaic technology also extended to villains who shared a technological background, showing he sees unsophisticated technology as beneath him.

His arrogance, combined with his penchant for seeing the bigger picture of things, made him impulsive at times, such as the case when he pretended to be Tadashi and revealed himself to Granville, both of which inadvertently allowed Big Hero 6 to discover more about their enemy than Obake intended to. Ultimately, when Big Hero 6 overturned Obake's grand scheme, Obake—for the first time in his life—suffered a mental breakdown so severe that he literally could not comprehend why it failed, having accounted for every possible contingency. Even when he was given the chance to escape and start from scratch, Obake chose to go down with everything he worked for, rather than survive knowing his efforts ended in failure.

## Trivia

* Obake's name comes from his real name, B**ob Ake**n.
* Obake will become Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of Big Hero 6: The Series.*
* Obake will return for revenge against Thomas, Twilight, Hiro and their friends after being resurrected by The Black Cauldron in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures Series.

## Gallery

Bob Aken and Professor GranvilleObake's death