Obake is a mysterious villain in Big Hero 6: The Series, serving as the main antagonist of the first season. Though his machinations are unknown, Obake's sinister demeanor and unique ability to corrupt technology, threatens the city of San Fransokyo.
Background[]
Little is currently known about Obake. Twenty years in the past, he was an exceptionally young student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where he studied under the tutelage of Professor Granville. Today, he spends a majority of his time in his underwater lair, developing a plot of which the details are unknown (though it evidently has some connection to the famed artist and scientist, Lenore Shimamoto). Obake is an extremely gifted scientist; his genius is primarily used to manipulate technology to do his bidding. He has surveillance on virtually every corner of San Fransokyo, allowing him to monitor and control parts of the city as he pleases. To assist in his schemes, Obake calls 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[]
Obake has an ominous aura about him, in part due to his fervent 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.
Apart from being an expert hacker, the lengths of Obake's power are unknown. As such, he 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.
Physical appearance[]
Obake is of average height, with a slim physique. His skin has a pale, somewhat grayish tone. He has black hair with a red streak, piercing blue eyes, and noticeable cheekbones. The left side of Obake's face occasionally produces a bright, neon purple glow that stretches from his skull, down to just above his chin. The cause of this glow has yet to be revealed.
Role in the series[]
The mysterious villain makes a hidden appearance in "Baymax Returns", as he gives Yama his orders through phone calls to him and using his hacking to show Yama the item that he wants him to collect, where he could find it or to punish him. At the end of the television pilot, he makes a silhouette appearance of his back as he observes Big Hero 6 on the monitor screen from his lair.
Throughout the first half of the series, Obake hires operatives, such as Globby and the Mad Jacks to do his bidding. At the same time, he monitors Big Hero 6's activity, and takes a suppressible interest in Hiro Hamada. In "Failure Mode" He hires Globby to steal a priceless painting known as the "City Rising", which had blueprints hidden underneath. The blueprints were for some sort of machine that was designed by artist and scientist Lenore Shimamoto. In "The Impatient Patient", Obake hires the Mad Jacks to steal a valuable hard that Alistair Krei bought on the black market. Little did anyone know, that it was Obake who sold Krei the hard drive, and he used the Mad Jacks to get Krei paranoid enough to keep the secrets on the hard drive to himself. The hard drive itself was actually a bug that allowed Obake to hack into Krei's computers once he plugged it in. Once inside Krei Tech's systems, he not only gained access to top-secret projects but also uncovered Hiro's secret identity.
Following this discovery, Obake makes it his mission to uncover the identities of the five remaining members of the team, and goes about this by stealing and reprogramming Noodle Burger's animatronic mascot in "Killer App". With Noodle Burger Boy's ability to obtain personal information of customers by scanning them, Obake sends it out to retrieve information on Big Hero 6. The mission is a success, and by the end of the episode, Obake "gets to know" the true identities of Honey Lemon, Baymax, Go Go Tomago, Fred and Wasabi.
In "Kentucky Kaiju", Obake had Globby lure out Big Hero 6 with a bank robbery and had him singularly target Hiro and toy with him psychologically, planting the seeds of doubts for the sole purpose of how Hiro would react. Subsequently, he dispatched Noodle Burger Boy to wreck havoc. Reviewing footage of his minion's fight with Hiro, Obake was disappointed and unimpressed to see the boy having developed superstrength and determined Hiro had developed a nano compression circuitry to accomplish this and predicted this would backfire on the boy. He subsequently observes Hiro and Baymax at Lucky Cat Café inconspicuously and watches them leave for Fred's house. He then thanked Aunt Cass for the coffee and blueberry scone, his pleasant demeanor unsettling her. Ultimately, after Noodle Burger Boy hijacked Fred's life-sized Kentucky Kaiju and planted a control device on it, which Hiro defeated with his wits, Obake was satisfied with having determined Hiro's level of intelligence.
When the house of Lenore Shimamoto was reopened after restoration in "Rivalry Weak", Obake went to SFAI in search of her secret lab only to be thwarted when a child bumped into him and broke his glasses. When news of Shimamoto’s secret lab was exposed to the public, he enhanced the video to zoom in Honey Lemon, only to find that she is in possession of her diary. The next day, Obake disguised himself as a historian in an attempt to get the diary from Honey Lemon and succeeded. Later on, he finally met Big Hero 6 in person and claimed disappointed because he knew the team could have tracked him down sooner. In their first encounter, Obake has the team trapped into three separate containers with only one minute to solve the riddle and the time he needed to finish scanning the diary. After the team escaped from his traps, he became mildly impressed with their creativity and cleverness. After that, he left the warehouse, with a desire to meet the team again another day. Back in his hideout, Obake has Lenore's diary digitized into his computer and has its hidden contents, formulas and equations revealed to him, pondering where to start with it.
This plan was set in motion in "Kentucky Kaiju", in which Globby was sent to plant seeds of doubt into Hiro, making the latter question his own capabilities. The result was Hiro granting himself super strength through the use of nano compression circuitry, a move that Obake found painfully predictable. Obake nevertheless sought to test Hiro further by having Noodle Burger Boy hijack a life-sized Kentucky Kaiju animatronic and having it rampage through the city. During the monster's battle against Big Hero 6, Hiro's nano-suit gets destroyed, leaving him physically powerless. He is nevertheless able to defeat the animatronic and save the city by relying solely on his wit. While overlooking the damage, Hiro uncovers an incredibly advanced CPU with Obake's emblem. Knowing the technology is beyond Noodle Burger Boy's capabilities, Hiro deduces that someone else was behind the plot and becomes determined to find out who. Meanwhile, Obake is pleased with Hiro's performance and declares that he is, indeed, very smart.
When the house of Lenore Shimamoto was reopened after restoration in "Rivalry Weak", Obake went to SFAI in search of her secret lab only to be thwarted when a child bumped into him and broke his glasses. When news of Shimamoto’s secret lab was exposed to the public, he enhanced the video to zoom in Honey Lemon, only to find that she is in possession of her diary. The next day, Obake disguised himself as a historian in an attempt to get the diary from Honey Lemon and succeeded. Later on, he finally met Big Hero 6 in person and claimed disappointed because he knew the team could have tracked him down sooner. In their first encounter, Obake has the team trapped into three separate containers with only one minute to solve the riddle and the time he needed to finish scanning the diary. After the team escaped from his traps, he became mildly impressed with their creativity and cleverness. After that, he left the warehouse, with a desire to meet the team again another day. Back in his hideout, Obake has Lenore's diary digitized into his computer and has its hidden contents, formulas, and equations revealed to him.
During the events of "Fan Friction", Obake releases one of Big Hero 6's previous adversaries, Momakase, from prison. Obake offers her a place in his "club", with the intent on eliminating Big Hero 6, to which Momakase accepts. Momakase is successful in imprisoning Big Hero 6 on Akuma Island, where they are left to die as the island itself is marked for demolition. While reporting her success, Momakase questions why Obake would agree to the killing of Hiro, as the latter supposedly had plans for the boy. Obake simply declares that if Hiro is "good enough", he'll survive. As predicted, Hiro and his teammates survive the destruction of Akuma Island, further showcasing Hiro's capabilities.
In response, Obake initiates another coup to learn more about Hiro, in hopes of having him join his side. Obake sends his daughter, Trina, to gather intel on Hiro, and learns that the latter was influenced by his deceased brother, Tadashi Hamada, to give up his criminal habits and enroll into SFIT. During the events of "Obake Yashiki", Obake arranges for Hiro to be secretly fitted with augmented reality contact lenses, which gives him the illusion that Tadashi has returned. Upon further inspection, however, Hiro discovers that it was merely Obake posing as Tadashi in attempt to influence him. Though his plot was unsuccessful, Obake remains unfazed and even compliments Hiro's deduction. Meanwhile, Obake sends Noodle Burger Boy to steal a shipping container full of Alistair Krei's Buddy-Guard drones, which he puts to work on a machine in his lair. He also acquires a high-powered magnet from SFIT.
As revealed in "Countdown to Catastrophe", the machine was created to harness the power of an energy amplifier. Once set off, the amplifier will create a shockwave powerful enough to destroy San Fransokyo. Being unable to create another energy amplifier himself, Obake orchestrates a faux robbery of a special Krei Tech briefcase to lure in Hiro. Hiro learns that the case contained what was meant to be an energy amplifier. Though the product was a failure, it inspired Hiro to create an amplifier, himself. He succeeds, which unknowingly drew Obake closer to his goal. Globby, Momakase and Noodle Burger Boy were then sent out to distract Big Hero 6, while Obake stole the amplifier from Hiro's lab. During the chaos, Noodle Burger Boy inserted a chip into Baymax that reprogrammed him to serve as one of Obake's subordinates.
Baymax kidnaps Hiro and takes him to Obake's lair, where the villains are preparing to unleash their apocalypse upon San Fransokyo. Obake explains his plot to Hiro, and offers him a place in his new city as a student. When Hiro refuses, Obake imprisons him under the assumption that Hiro will start to think differently once there's "nothing left to save". Unfortunately for Obake, Globby breaks Hiro out and reunites the boy genius with his teammates. Obake orders Momakase to recapture Hiro, but she is unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the energy amplifier is set off, creating a massive shockwave from San Fransokyo's bay. Hiro and his teammates are just barely able to stop the wave from ravaging the city, thus foiling Obake's plans for good.
From his lair (which is on the verge of destruction from the impact of the shockwave), Obake looks on in horror as his machinations crumble before him. Distraught, Obake laments the loss of all he's worked for, and his dream, but refuses to leave his lair. Instead, he releases Baymax from his bind and orders the latter to reunite with Hiro. He also asks that Baymax sends his regards to Hiro ("Tell him, I still think we would have done great things together.") Baymax notes that he cannot leave Obake unless he is satisfied with his care. Choosing to die alongside his work, Obake notes that he is satisfied with my care, prompting Baymax to take his leave. As Obake sits in silence, his home continues to crumble until it is destroyed completely. Following these events, Professor Granville shows concern over what became of Bob. This prompts Hiro and Baymax to search for his remains at the bottom of San Fransokyo bay. They detect no trace of him, however, leaving Hiro and Baymax to question what became of Bob Aken.
Trivia[]
- "Obake" (おばけ) means "monster" or "apparition" in Japanese, which is appropriate, considering both his rather monstrous behavior and the neon-purple glow on his face.
- Obake has a one-eyed ogre-like logo that appears on the screens and monitors he hacks into.
- Despite appearing in "Baymax Returns", Obake's face was not shown until "Failure Mode".
- His fake name "Ekabo" is Obake backwards.
- According to Baymax, Obake's body temperature is below normal.
- So it was similar to Amon, because she loses her powers to defeating him.