Obake

Obake is the main antagonist of the first season of Big Hero 6: The Series. He is a mysterious and cold-hearted scientist with a sinister plot to destroy San Fransokyo and the world at large.

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 : the part of the brain that allows him to tell right from wrong. This rendered Aken insane. 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 blamed Granville's teaching for his failure and vowed to resume his project in time. At that point, Bob Aken became 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 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, 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 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
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 in his way 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.

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.

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.

Physical appearance
Obake is a tall man, with a slim physique. His skin has a pale, somewhat grayish tone. He has black hair with a red streak that's shaved on the sides, piercing ice 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.

Obake wears a black waistcoat (with a left pocket) over a dull grey turtleneck with its sleeves rolled up. He also wears a wristwatch on his right arm. His pants and shoes are black, though his pants are of a lighter tone.

Role in the series
The mysterious villain makes a hidden appearance in "Baymax Returns". Through phone, Obake orders his lackey, Yama, to steal a paperweight from the office of Professor Granville. The paperweight has the ability to amplify technology to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, Yama's initial attempt ends in failure, motivating Obake to kill him. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Yama claims to have something better and reveals to have an army of super-strong robots cloned after Baymax. Obake orders Yama to use the bots to steal the paperweight, but Yama's efforts are thwarted by Big Hero 6. Their leader, Hiro Hamada, destroys the paperweight to prevent it from causing any further destruction. As the team celebrates their victory, Obake watches intently on the monitor screen from his lair, seemingly intrigued by their sudden presence. Despite the loss of the paperweight, Obake continues on with his plot by hiring operatives to do his bidding. 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.

Meanwhile, Obake monitors Big Hero 6's activity and develops an interest in Hiro Hamada. In "The Impatient Patient", Obake anonymously sells Alistair Krei a "valuable" hard drive on the black market. 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, Obake 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. Even so, Obake's main concern lies with Hiro, who shows potential in being of use to Obake. Before Obake could pursue the boy genius, however, he sought to test his intelligence and find out just how smart Hiro truly is.

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.

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.
 * The purple glow on his face is reminiscent to that of the Hawk Moth, who is the main antagonist in the animated show Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, which produced by ZAG Animation. Whether this was intentional has yet to be determined.
 * Ironically, Disney Channel EMEA is a co-producer for Miraculous, and owns the distribution rights for that region.