Which group of villains is better? The Akatsuki or the Espada

[Nocturnowl]

I've got to admit, despite loving the York New arc and that I'd unsurprisingly consider HunterXHunter a stronger manga/anime...
I find it hard to give much of a damn about a good chunk of the phantom troupe and would take the akatsuki over them in an instant, half of the troupe truly feel like they're just there
I can imagine people out there being bigger fans of the less popular espada, or even their arrancar subordinates before caping for mummified boxing man, mr gun body or Mop top

Though granted, the sheer diversity in skills (some being completely non combat related) and visual design may be part of their appeal to some.
I guess really I feel like there's a pretty big gulf between the most important members and the less important ones

 

[Sesha]

Choosing between shit with used syringes in it and shit with razor blades in it is tough.

I guess Akatsuki, since it had Deidara, Hidan and pre-Madara Tobi, while the Espada just had Aaroniero. The Akatsuki also stayed relevant for longer, played bigger roles, and tied in somewhat more with the stories of certain chars, whereas the Espada were basically glorified goons that were completely irrelevant after Fake Karakura.

 

[Horohorohoro]

I don't even think they're equivalent. The Akatsuki are important for a much more significant chunk of the story than the Espada are in Bleach.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Remember when Zommari popped his Resurrección and it turned out be a floating pumpkin of eyeballs, he then swiftly jobbed to Byakuya

Remember when spoon-spada Noitra was taken out because Kenpachi decided to swing his sword with two hands?

Remember when Yammy proclaimed "who said the espada went from 1-10?" as he revealed himself to actually be Espada 0 in an attempt to upgrade him from jobber status so late into the arc, and was then defeated off panel anyway?

Classic, Bleach was a riot if nothing else.

edit: I've gotta give the espada props for their battle themes though

 

[Flame Flamey]

Yammy revealing himself to be the 0 Espada, and then jobbing offscreen while being made fun of is my favorite twist in all of shonen

Also Kisame is my favorite Naruto villain, which is funny because Yammy and Kisame have similar roles in the story. And they both have unexpectedly poignant death scenes.

 

[Gunny T Highway]

The Espada for the most part were one time villains. The Akatsuki members were at least encountered more than once and had more overall importance in Naruto.

 

[Axumar]

I hate that the Akatsuki because the end game of Naruto just plain sucked. The ones that stuck around near the end had pretty bad bullshit stories. That said, their introduction and early fights were really cool.

Bleach was cool early on but started to suck for me before this villain group had anything major to do. So I can't really vote for them.

I like the Phantom Troupe but like much of HxH, they feel like half formed ideas.

 

[Ruisu]

The espada had more interesting powers, battles and interpersonal dynamics. I also liked how it was outright stated that their purpose was to buy time in the one big standoff that happened in fake karakura, so the story never tricked you into thinking these guys had some grander design that was later forgotten, all arrancar were byproducts of the real objective and the espada were the strongest of them but still disposable byproducts.

Aizen was the real focus from the start, and it didn't bother me when the Espada started dropping, because you knew to expect that.

 

[Nakenorm]

View: https://youtu.be/suwfJMiXauU

I'm still going with Akatsuki over them

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This song slaps so damn hard

 

[Kusagari]

Remember when Zommari popped his Resurrección and it turned out be a floating pumpkin of eyeballs, he then swiftly jobbed to Byakuya

Remember when spoon-spada Noitra was taken out because Kenpachi decided to swing his sword with two hands?

Remember when Yammy proclaimed "who said the espada went from 1-10?" as he revealed himself to actually be Espada 0 in an attempt to upgrade him from jobber status so late into the arc, and was then defeated off panel anyway?

Classic, Bleach was a riot if nothing else.

edit: I've gotta give the espada props for their battle themes though

Click to shrink...

I remember Szayel's fight dragging on for what felt like months in the manga because it was all leading to impregnation and then Mayuri science hax.

 

[Qikz]

The Marine Admirals from OnePiece are not in this because it'd be a cake walk.

 

[Tathanen]

the espada have always sucked

 

[Swiggins]

It's the Akatsuki and it's not even close.

That red cloud cloak is STILL fucking iconic 20 years later.

 

[HeartlessNobody2134]

Espada were basically wasted potential. Like someone posted, they didn't have any agency.

If they were their own entity apart from Aizen, I think they could have worked a lot better.

 

[Pein]

Also boring

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True only a couple of them are cool, Chrollo was only neat when he was fighting somebody.

Anyway it's the akatsuki, grimmjow is alright though. The old man hollows form with the skull and crown looked badass and coyote stark has a cool name. Other than them they're a bunch of lackeys.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra nearly give this to the Espada by themselves, but Akatsuki win out. They just have too many good, fleshed out members. Even getting as much time as Grimmjow did, they needed to keep him around and explore the idea of him becoming King.

Whenever I dunk on MHA villains, I'm always thinking how about how much better the Akatsuki are.

 

[Beedig]

The Marine Admirals from OnePiece are not in this because it'd be a cake walk.

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This is what I was going to say.

 

[Rosebud]

The Marine Admirals from OnePiece are not in this because it'd be a cake walk.

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I hate them, but maybe that's the point lol

 

[shintoki]

Atatsuki are actual characters, the Espada are fodder.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

Outside of Ulquiorra and Grimmjow... And I guess Granz for stupid reasons. Did any of them really put up a fight? They just felt like a speed bump on the way to Aizen, Gin & Tousen.

Akatsuki gave us some great fights and were involved with the lore of the Naruto universe.

Basically comparing Bleach's lowest point with Naruto's highest point for me.

 

[Seesaw15]

Theres a version of the Espada every arc of Bleach. Tite just be coming up with cool designs with zero character.

 

[Kusagari]

Theres a version of the Espada every arc of Bleach. Tite just be coming up with cool designs with zero character.

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The Espada are better than the Wandenreich who are probably one of the lamest groups in manga history.

 

[Qikz]

I hate them, but maybe that's the point lol

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The best thing about the Marines is in universe they're technically not the bad guys. It's just Oda has written them so well that they could definitely be the villains even if they are on the side of justice.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

The Espada are better than the Wandenreich who are probably one of the lamest groups in manga history.

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True. The anime might make them look cool af animated though. Their shadow teleporting thing already looks cooler in motion.

 

[Yourfawthaaa]

Akatsuki.

Thats one hell of a squad and all of them are formidable foes. I want no parts of fighting Hidan or Itachi.

 

[Black_Stride]

The Espada were literally put together just as a distraction for the Gotei 13 while Aizen got things going.
I liked a few of them, but they really were fodder characters.

Starrk
Grimmjaww
Ulquiorra

Were the only ones worth anything.

Expanded universe Halibel too, but otherwise all of them were basically filler characters.
Once Aizen had enough he did what they couldnt for chapters and chapters in like 3 panels.



The Akatsuki were awesome.

 

[Hyun Sai]

All the Espaga got for them is some banger themes. Loved Grimmjow entrance.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWaszAJ4HqI

 

[brinstar]

Akatsuki's aesthetic was top tier. The cloaks, the crossed-out bands, the mysterious hologram meetings. I'll never forget the months and years of speculating over them when I was younger.

 

[Shemhazai]

All pale in the face face of the Ginyu Force.

 

[Saiyaman]

Phantom Troupe > Whatever the One Piece equivalent is > Akatsuki > Espada

I fuck with the Espada because I love Bleach, but the Akatsuki cloak is too iconic. Shit, I even got one tucked in the closet. I think both groups provided good discussion/speculation. I remember everyone trying to figure out who were the top 3 Espada. The shock when Ulquiorra was 4 and Coyote Starrk was 1, lol.

 

[Doukou]

Option C: The Phantom Troupe from HxH

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Eh I think the Phantom Troupe has potential but they really need more time. As a plot function they were great in York New, but the individual characters really are one note

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Akatsuki easy. Apart from Kakuzu, every member had a standout look, fight, and power set. Some of them even had great story moments just for themselves (Kisame, Itachi, Pain).

 

[Bricks]

I find both pretty unremarkable when it comes to characterization, so I'll just go with the "rule of cool".

And boy, are the Espada so much cooler looking than anything Kishimoto could come up with. As a character designer, I think Kubo is generally fantastic.

 

[YamchasRevenge]

When Itachi and Kisame showed up for the first time, you knew shit was getting serious.

 

[DragonSJG]

Lets be real the troupe are kinda lame. An experienced nen user can easily take them

 

[PaladinCharge]

I kinda think the One Piece equivalent is more the Seven Warlords than it is the Admirals, maybe just cuz there's more of them and they're established earlier on. Either way they're cooler than the Akatsuki or the Espada. The Espada suck. If it was Akatsuki vs the Captains, that might be closer, but even then Akatsuki are probably better.

 

[Kusagari]

I kinda think the One Piece equivalent is more the Seven Warlords than it is the Admirals, maybe just cuz there's more of them and they're established earlier on. Either way they're cooler than the Akatsuki or the Espada. The Espada suck. If it was Akatsuki vs the Captains, that might be closer, but even then Akatsuki are probably better.

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The Warlords have Buggy, so they win by default

 

[Kain]

You mean who jobbed harder? Espada, that whole arc save the awesome Ulquiorra fight was fucking lame. Even the number one was a loser.

But Akatsuki were a bunch of tools too. Nagato's ridiculous backstory will never not be hilarious

 

[Chumunga64]

from what I've read about bleach, that espada really suffered from kubo's tendency to make more characters when he has writer's block so there's like a bunch more stronger groups

the akatsuki have the benefit of being relevant for a while

 

[Bard]

Visually the Espada. Ulquiorra alone is a cooler design than anybody in the Akatsuki. The red cloud cloaks look awful.
Story wise, the akatsuki actually do more and seem to work as a cohesive group.

Overall, they're both different types of garbage and I refuse to give the win to either one.

 

[ResetEraIsTheBestEra]

fronting-wise Espada's are way cooler-looking than the Akatsuki, i mean, look at them they look lame-o group of kids you see in the backalley writing names in their Death Note

of course im with HStallion if we can insert a C Option

 

[Rosebud]

I kinda think the One Piece equivalent is more the Seven Warlords than it is the Admirals, maybe just cuz there's more of them and they're established earlier on. Either way they're cooler than the Akatsuki or the Espada. The Espada suck. If it was Akatsuki vs the Captains, that might be closer, but even then Akatsuki are probably better.

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The Warlords aren't really villains though

 

[Zero-ELEC]

lol

lmao, even

 

[SquirrelSr]

The Espada were explicitly cannon fodder made by Aizen to fight the Captains. The Akatsuki as a concept was sound. A mercenary group made up of rogue ninja that did secret dirty work for all the villages. Too bad all that amounted to was being usurped by the Uchihas.

 

[EndlessSummer]

Akatsuki are some of the best villain group along with the Phantom Trouple.

 

[Tomasoares]

Akatsuki easily.

More memorable characters than the Shichibukai, Phantom Troupe, Espadas or the Juppongatana. It's mostly because they're more present in the story and have very distinct personalities and habilities. Shichibukai started losing their appeal as One Piece went on and the rest isn't an equally major threat.

Overally HxH is by far the best story, though

 

[PaladinCharge]

The Warlords aren't really villains though

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I mean, they work for the government, which is the same organization that the Admirals work for... And certainly most of them are presented as villains at least when they're first introduced.

Their motivations tend to be more varied than the Akatsuki and especially the Espada, but I think when the idea of them is introduced, I at least kind of assumed the Strawhats were going to have to fight most of them at some point. Many of them served as the big bad of some of the most important arcs, much like the Akatsuki (e.g. Crocodile, Gecko Moria, Doflamingo).

There's also only like 3 Admirals at any given time, and Aokiji and Fujitora aren't really villains either.

 

[Rutger]

Yeah, put me down as a vote for the Phantom Troupe.

Both the Akatsuki and the Espada ended up equally disappointing overall, so I don't look at either as above the other.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

I can't forgive the Espada for the stupidity behind that Numero 0 twist. Kubo really thought he ate with that.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

I remember Szayel's fight dragging on for what felt like months in the manga because it was all leading to impregnation and then Mayuri science hax.

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What Mayuri did to Szayel was legitimately one of the only cool/chilling parts of that arc.