Obake, formerly known as Bob Aken, is a villainous figure who made his debut in Big Hero 6: The Series since its pilot. He was the main antagonist of the first season.
Background[]
| “ |
Obake, once my star student. I knew him as Bob Aken. He had so many ideas to make the world a better place. I encouraged him to explore fearlessly. Unfortunately, the path he chose led him to the energy amplifier. He was not as successful as Mr. Hamada. The boy needed limits. I did not provide them. It was a mistake I never wanted to make again. However, it seems I have. |
” |
| ―Professor Granville, telling Big Hero 6 about Obake | ||
Bob Aken was once a star student of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology under the tutelage of Professor Granville. Granville noticed his genius and gave Bob his laboratory. She also allowed him to use the SFIT's lab even after hours. Granville believed that Bob would make great accomplishments without limits, but that eventually made him work on dangerous experiments. One night, while Bob was working on an energy amplifier, it blew up on his face, setting the lab on fire and having him sent to the hospital.
Granville felt tremendous guilt and responsibility for the boy's incident, telling the authorities it was her fault and resigning from SFIT shortly after. Even though Bob survived, he didn't return to SFIT either. Aken suffered damage in the temporoparietal junction of his brain which caused the left side of his face to glow with a purple light from time to time. The accident made him unable to tell right from wrong, but apparently, he knew about his condition and did not care about receiving medical attention despite of it being treatable. Over the years that followed, he deemed his condition "liberating".
Twenty years later, he still had ambitions to "create a better world", but the nature of his new plan was corrupted, and intended to achieve this by recreating the Great Catastrophe of 1906—the historical tragedy which caused the birth of the San Fransokyo city. In order to carry this out, he operated from the shadows under the alias of Obake, forming connections with criminals in the city, beginning with Yama, to retrieve his energy amplifier from Granville and build a gigantic machine that would burn the city down.
Personality[]
Back when he was a student at SFIT, Bob Aken had plans to change the world for the better with cutting-edge technology. But following his accident, the permanent damage he suffered to his brain had a negative effect on his psyche, rendering him cold-hearted and insane.
His previous ambitions were now greatly twisted by the belief that genius should not be held back, but have the freedom to explore it to help civilization progress, in whatever way it had to come, and his desire to be recognized for it only fueled his mentality. While he still intended to make the world a better place, he didn't care if innocent people got hurt or even killed in the process as a small price to pay for his desires. He became an intimidating man who terrified other criminals like Yama and was described by one of the Mad Jacks as "kind of a freak". Despite his insane beliefs, he acted calculating and patient.
He also developed an obsession with Lenore Shimamoto's scientific career upon finding out she was responsible for the Great Catastrophe of 1906. Seeing how she had become famous and remembered, he wanted to "live forever" just like her by recreating the devastating event. Despite his fixation on Shimamoto, he had a low opinion on artistic expression and didn't hesitate to damage her "City Rising" artwork in order to acquire the blueprints beneath it. In general, he only seems interested in things that can be proven factually, while having no interest in subjective opinions, shown when he shut down Noodle Burger Boy after the robot claimed that his plan "seemed" to be working, when it was in fact working.
He liked remaining obscure to most of the outside world and performed his attacks anonymously, sending out his minions or hired villains for his schemes, but he sometimes went out himself, and since very few people knew him he was unnoticed. When going to crowded or public places, he disguised himself to keep his identity secret. Obake was also well informed about the events that occurred in the city, hiring Globby not long after his mutation and constantly seen watching the news or the city's surveillance cameras, particularly when Big Hero 6 appear in them. He could hack into most devices utilizing robots and chips in order to communicate with his associates, usually with his ogre-like emblem appearing on the monitor.
Because many of his plans had been foiled by Big Hero 6, he started to obtain information about them, getting as many details as possible and becoming upset when his hired criminals failed their missions after facing them. Due to this, he also made alliances with the villains that faced Big Hero 6 in the past. Upon obtaining enough information about the heroes, Obake realized that Hiro Hamada was a lot like him and decided to become a "mentor" for him despite Hiro's refusal.
He was overconfident about his plan and believed it was impossible to be stopped—so when Hiro actually proved himself smarter than him by finding a way to stop the shockwave, Obake easily admitted defeat and stayed in his crumbling lair, as he believed his dream was gone and there was nothing left for him.
Appearance[]
Obake is a slender male, who has pale and almost greyish skin, blue eyes and an English accent. His hair is black with a red streak sometimes visible.
When he was young, he wore a black jacket and a turtleneck with a red scarf, black pants and white shoes. He wore two disguises in "Rivalry Weak". The first consisted of a red shirt with a brown hoodie, a black hat, black pants and red scanner glasses; he wore a cowboy hat, glasses, an orange beard, red scarf, a buttoned up shirt and black pants for his second disguise.
At times, the left side of his face glows with a purple light from his accident. He can apparently do this at will but is more notable whenever he shows strong emotions, such as excitement or anger.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Genius-level intellect: Obake is a patient, calculating, technological genius with prowess towards machines. He is skilled in hacking since he managed to hack into multiple systems and take control of them. Based on his hideout, it seems Obake can also access the city's surveillance systems, as he learned about the Big Hero 6 when observing them through nearby cameras.
- Bioluminescence: After the lab accident that hospitalized him when he was in college, he gained the ability to make the left side of his face glow purple on command. This was mostly shown when he displayed strong emotions such as anger or excitement.
Equipment[]
- Watch: Obake wears a watch that also has a hologram map. He was able to trace Big Hero 6 with it, noticing they were approaching to his location when they searched for the Mad Jacks.
- Small graphene knife: Similar to Momakase's knives, Obake owns a small graphene-bladed knife that he used to take a slice of Globby's substance.
- Black market chip: A chip that he created himself and sold to Mr. Krei for an insane amount of cash, doing so anonymously and with lies by making him believe it was cutting-edge technology; in reality, it was an empty drive used to hack and obtain his files.
- Micro-Drones: A group of small flying robots that he sends to attack or spy.
- CPU Robot: It is a small spider robot with Obake's symbol imprinted in it. Obake gave it to Noodle Burger Boy in order to take over the Kentucky Kaiju's system.
- Scanner Glasses: Obake owns a pair of glasses used to digitalize Lenore Shimamoto's journal so he could read it from his own base, as well as scanning her house trying to find her secret laboratory. The first glasses were accidentally broken by a kid, but he could either fix them or build another pair.
- Graphene shard: He gave it to Momakase in order to help her break free from prison.
- Scan Jammer: Obake had a scan jammer which prevented Baymax's sensors from tracking him. He also gave one to Momakase after she joined his "club".
- Crab Robot: Another of his creations is a semi-sentient robot modeled after a real crab. It works underwater and allowed Obake to record everything around his underwater base, as well as automatically uploading the feed to his computer.
- Noodle Burger Boy's Remote: A remote that allows him to shut off Noodle Burger Boy at any time, especially when he is annoying him.
- Digital Imaging Lenses: Special contact lenses which created augmented reality visions to appear for its user. Obake implanted them in every member of Big Hero 6 with them being unaware of it.
- Obake Chips: Obake created multiple, purple chips with his logo imprinted on them, designed to reprogram most robots by overriding their initial programming and turning them evil.
History[]
Learning that his former mentor Granville was returning to SFIT, Obake contacted Yama to acquire back his energy amplifier which Granville now used as a paperweight. Yama's plan foiled by the newly-formed superhero team Big Hero 6, so an unhappy Obake communicates with Yama by hacking an elevator and threatening to send him plummeting. With his life in the line, Yama narrowly calms Obake by revealing he managed to construct an army of robots to continue with the plan. Obake sees potential in his work but warns Yama not to fail him this time.
Yama tries to distract Big Hero 6 by sending his robots to cause a rampage downtown while he breaks into SFIT, but he's confronted by Baymax and Hiro Hamada. The three of them witness the power of the amplifier when the item cracks open and overcharges one of Yama's robots until it explodes, though Yama manages to grab the amplifier and escape with it. While on the run, he calls Obake demanding to know why he wasn't informed of the item's capabilities; Obake, working on a device and watching Yama from his computer's screen, simply reasons that Yama is his subordinate and shouldn't be asking questions about his missions. Yama promises to return the item soon and ends the call, but the amplifier burns through his tracksuit and adheres to an oncoming incoming train. Big Hero 6 arrives, and the team ends up thwarting Yama's plans when Hiro destroys the item in the air. Despite losing it, Obake doesn't back down from his initial plan and instead takes an interest in the new heroes as he observes them on the monitor screen from his lair.
Some time later, Obake continues to study Big Hero 6 following the team's victory against High Voltage, particularly Hiro and Baymax as he watches a close-up picture of both. His face glows while looking at them.
He remains silent until "Failure Mode" when he employs the new mutant criminal Globby to steal a painting called "City Rising" from the San Fransokyo Museum of Art, knowing that the artist of the piece, Lenore Shimamoto, was also the scientist who caused the Great Catastrophe over a century ago.
Once Globby succeeds and meets with Obake at a hideout, Obake becomes interested in Globby's gooey body substance and takes a slice of it for further study, stating it may reveal more potential. He then breaks the City Rising painting's frame to reveal blueprints hidden beneath it—which he uses as the basis for his own machine.
In order to learn more about Big Hero 6, Obake carefully lays a double plan in "The Impatient Patient" by hiring the mercenary team Mad Jacks to steal a valuable chip that Alistair Krei bought on the black market. Little did anyone know, that it was also Obake who sold Krei the drive in the first place through lies about it containing cutting-edge technology that would be beneficial for his company. Hiro, Baymax and Fred prevent the Jacks from stealing the chip, and the mercenaries contact Obake, who is upset they were beaten by a child, then telling them to finish the job. Obake then stares at a picture of Hiro in his superhero suit and wonders what it will take to lay him low.
The Mad Jacks later abduct Krei from his office and succeed at getting the drive, subsequently leaving Krei hanging from an antenna back at his own building. Krei calls Big Hero 6 for help and they begin looking for the Jacks, who at the time were meeting with Obake at a warehouse. Obake notices that the heroes have tracked down the Mad Jacks and orders them to take away the chip while he escapes. The Jacks end up caught by the heroes, forced to lend the chip to them. Later, the chip is returned to Krei and it's revealed that Obake accurately predicted everything that Krei would do—and that he only used the Mad Jacks to get Krei paranoid enough to keep the secrets in the chip to himself instead of telling anyone in his team about it.
Krei plugs the drive in his computer only to find out it is empty, thus getting angry that buying the chip and everything that happened afterward was for nothing. It turns out that the drive was a bug that allowed Obake to spy on Krei and hack into his company's network as soon as he plugged it in. Obake not only gained access to top-secret projects, but also uncovered Hiro's secret identity.
Following his discovery about Krei's files, in "Killer App", Obake sends an army of weaponized Micro-Drones to attack civilians at Night Market Square, trapping them atop Telegraph Tower until Big Hero 6 once more appeared to foil the attack. Obake watched the whole scene and called the drones disappointing, then makes it his mission to uncover the identities of the five remaining members of the team. He goes about this by personally breaking into a Noodle Burger restaurant at night to steal their animatronic mascot, Noodle Burger Boy, as he is aware that the robot was originally manufactured by Krei Tech as a weapon, then reprograms him with a chip. With Noodle Burger Boy's ability to obtain the personal information of customers upon scanning them, Obake sends him out to retrieve information on Big Hero 6. The robot succeeds in his first attempt, but he also tried to engage in battle with the team a couple of times. As he failed each time, Noodle Burger Boy returned to Obake's hideout whilst sounding scared and sad because of it. However, since the robot completed his mission to obtain their data, Obake did not mind that he couldn't beat them. Obake plugs Noodle Burger Boy to his computer and obtains the heroes' info, then watches as the true identities of Baymax, Fred, Honey Lemon, Go Go Tomago and Wasabi are revealed to him.
In "Small Hiro One", Hiro learns from Wendy Wower that Granville had been teaching at SFIT for 20 years. This shocks Hiro, as he had been told that Granville was a new teacher who recently joined after Robert Callaghan's arrest. He goes to the library and finds an SFIT Yearbook, where he indeed finds a picture of young Granville and a seemingly random student—the young Bob Aken. This causes Hiro to wonder why she hid this fact from him.
Meanwhile, having learned all of Big Hero 6's identities, Obake earns other details such as each members' house, and even scans Hiro and Fred's respective bedrooms, even planting a secret camera in Fred's room. However, Obake takes the most interest in Hiro due to his outstanding genius, so he proceeds to test out the boy's intelligence and personality in the episode "Kentucky Kaiju", by sending out Globby to a bank just to fight Big Hero 6 rather than having him steal anything; he orders Globby to make Hiro feel useless, which he manages to do when he taunts him by telling him that he depends on all his friends because they all have weapons and fighting abilities except for him. Globby then returns to Obake's lair, stating that he did what Obake asked, yet doesn't understand why. Obake remarks that what he did was beyond his understanding, but tries to explain to him that he planted doubt in Hiro's mind, and will now observe how the boy genius will act on that said doubt.
For his next step, Obake sends out Noodle Burger Boy to cause havoc and fight the team, equipped with a new flying mech. Hiro had since upgraded himself with "Nano-Dex", which enhanced his physical strength and allowed him to take on the robot with no help. Later, Noodle Burger Boy returns with Obake and Globby, and the trio watches a video of Hiro's fight. Turns out, Obake had also predicted Hiro would react the way he did by trying to prove himself independent, calling his upgrade an obvious choice, but still being impressed by it. After being annoyed by his bickering minions, Obake notices the Nano-Dex shirt which Hiro used to increase his strength, and remarks that "it's too bad he rushed it."
Obake later goes to Lucky Cat Café seemingly as a regular client, watching as Hiro and Baymax leave to Fred's house to see if they can solve Hiro's problem after his Nano-Dex shirt wouldn't come off. Obake overhears their conversation and simply smiles at them while reading the newspaper. Aunt Cass approaches him and asks if he is liking the blueberry scones, to which Obake replies positively.
Noodle Burger Boy then goes to steal Fred's new, giant Kentucky Kaiju mech and installs an advanced CPU Robot that Obake gave to him, corrupting the Kentucky Kaiju's programming as it goes awry and begins to attack the city. Still stuck with the Nano-Dex, Hiro manages to take down the huge robot by using his intelligence; finally breaking free from his upgrade in the process. In the aftermath of the battle, Obake spies on the team from his lair along with his two minions, watching as Hiro suddenly realizes two things: that Noodle Burger Boy couldn't have created the CPU robot all by himself, and that Globby never stole anything from the bank—he was only trying to get into his head—which led him to create the Nano-Dex in the first place. Hiro deduces that both of them must be working for "someone else", and Obake explains to his two minions that his plan was to test Hiro's intelligence. Globby asks how smart Hiro is, to which Obake simply responds "very", having witnessed how easily he discovered the truth.
During "Rivalry Weak", Obake goes to the San Fransokyo Art Institute to find more secrets from the scientist Lenore Shimamoto, as her house had recently been restored and the institute allowed people to tour inside it. Wearing a hoodie and cap to remain anonymous, Obake enters her house using a pair of scanner glasses. Though he is trying to find Lenore's secret journal, his plan fails when a kid accidentally bumps into him and makes Obake drop the glasses, then the kid breaks them by stepping on them. Obake simply scares the child away with his face glow and soon retreats; though later he sees in the news that Honey Lemon, Baymax, Go Go and Hiro had found the artist's secret lab while they were trying to prank the SFAI.
Obake as "Herman Ekabo"
Honey Lemon secretly takes the journal with her but Obake notices this, then the next day he goes to SFIT disguised and calling himself "Herman Ekabo", claiming to be a historian from the museum. Pretending to be unaware of the journal's existence, he induces Honey Lemon into giving it to him. Honey Lemon eventually goes to the museum to see how they're doing with the newly-found journal, but instead, she learns that "Herman Ekabo" is not a real person, panicking as she calls her team to help find the thief. Since Honey also left her SFIT ID inside the book, this gave the team an advantage and they track the ID down to a seemingly empty warehouse, where they see Obake inside, calmly reading the book with his scanner glasses on. Yet, the heroes are completely are unaware of anything Obake has done so far, and believe he is simply a stranger.
The team breaks inside but Obake continues to read unworried, and simply claims to be disappointed as he believed the team could have tracked him down sooner. Obake says he needs one more minute to finish reading and comments that it is also how much time the heroes have left, suddenly trapping them in separate containers that give them all only one minute to solve particular death traps: Hiro and Baymax trapped in a replica of Hiro's bedroom that is slowly filling with water and threatens to drown them, Go Go and Honey Lemon are trapped inside a replica of Lenore Shimamoto's laboratory with the walls closing in on them and threatening to crush them, while Fred and Wasabi are inside a replica of Fred's room where they fight against clones of themselves.
The team manages to make their way out of the containers, so Obake becomes mildly impressed and praises them for their creativity and intelligence. He remains, however, unintimidated by the heroes, and hands over the book to them. Before Big Hero 6 gets the chance to do anything else, the lights are turned off, Obake's face glows, and he vanishes from the place, leaving the team to wonder who the mystery man is. As Fred soon begins conceptualizing possible names for their mysterious new enemy, they open Shimamoto's book and see Obake left them a message on one of the blank pages with his "name" signed, letting the heroes know they will meet again.
Back at his hideout, Obake uploads the glasses' data onto his computer, having Shimamoto's diary completely digitalized for himself, then uses a filter on the final and seemingly blank pages that reveal many hidden notes and formulas written within them, pondering where to start with all the new information he obtained.
Obake helps Momakase escape.
Obake then allies himself with another of Big Hero 6's enemies, Momakase, in "Fan Friction". Disguised as a security guard, Obake goes to the San Fransokyo Prison and finds the special cell where Momakase is held, secretly giving her a graphene shard to help her escape, as well as the location of his hideout.
Hiro and Baymax are quickly alerted about Momakase's escape and rush to capture her while she's still on the run, but Obake aids her with a Micro-Drone when the heroes catch up to her, allowing Momakase to get away safely while the drone is destroyed and Hiro figures that it was sent by Obake.
Eventually, Momakase finds Obake's location but doesn't trust him just yet. She puts a graphene knife against his neck, but Obake doesn't flinch and shows her all of his research on Big Hero 6, inviting her to join his "club". Momakase agrees due to her seeking revenge against them, and Obake tells her that he has plans for Hiro. He proceeds to give her a scan-jammer to prevent Big Hero 6 from locating her.
Obake tasks Momakase with a mission; she traps Big Hero 6 and Karmi at Krei Tech's to-be-destroyed lab located in Akuma Island. Upon succeeding and leaving the team and Karmi to their doom when the island is about to detonate, she is steering a boat away and contacts Obake, who tells her that Hiro will survive if he is smart enough.
In "Mini-Max", Obake has a relatively minor role, in which he hacks Granville's new Security System Robots at SFIT, since she noticed the increasing number of attacks happening in the city. Obake turns the bots against Hiro and Granville, who eventually find themselves cornered in one of the classrooms while hiding from the bots. While trapped, Granville tells Hiro part of her story with Bob Aken, albeit keeping the details at a minimum. Fred and his brand-new "sidekick" Mini-Max arrive at SFIT and defeat the robots, but Obake is still able to spy on Granville and Hiro the next day through one of the trashed robots when they talk about Granville's past "mistakes" referring to Obake, which only makes him frown in silence while staring at them.
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Following this, Obake remains silent with the attacks against Big Hero 6 and instead focuses on his bigger plan with the Shimamoto blueprints he obtained. He operates in an underwater base with Noodle Burger Boy at the San Fransokyo bay and creates a robotic crab to scout the area. Meanwhile, Hiro has been trying to figure out Obake's plan using hints he has obtained from all his past encounters but remains unsuccessful to understand what his endgame is. Fred soon calls Hiro to celebrate Wasabi's birthday and the team decides to recover Wasabi's car which was lost underwater months before when they fought Yokai, and fix it for him as a present. Hiro creates underwater suits for Baymax and himself.
The robot crab records Hiro and Baymax while they retrieve the car and returns to Obake's base. The crab bot uploads its data to Obake's computer, showing him the feed of Hiro and Baymax, but Obake also notices Baron Von Steamer using his drill vehicle underwater—although he doesn't consider him a threat and dismisses him, calls his name stupid.
Obake later spies on Big Hero 6 through a red dragon toy in Fred's room, where he notices them watching a message from Baron Von Steamer to Fred's father, the former superhero Boss Awesome, hearing that Von Steamer had planned to attack the city to challenge Boss Awesome, although Big Hero 6 must fight him instead since Fred's father was in another part of the world at the time. Noodle Burger Boy then makes a comment to Obake about Von Steamer's scheme possibly interfering with their own plans, but Obake is not worried, as it is Big Hero 6's duty to stop such villains, so he simply continues his work. Obake later shuts off Noodle Burger Boy for annoying him while he attempts to convert H2O to D2O, so he can turn the water into fuel for his machine.
Big Hero 6 is contacted by Obake.
Eventually, the team helps Fred while he poses as Boss Awesome to foil Von Steamer's plot, but they are unable to figure out what he has planned. Since Obake figured that Steamer would actually interfere with his own schemes because he was planning on draining the ocean, he hacks Big Hero 6's communicators and helps them figure out that a Boss Awesome statue which had been unveiled a few days before was actually Steamer's mech in disguise. Hiro and Baymax destroy the statue and soon Steamer is defeated and arrested; the team goes back to Hiro's garage, where they ask themselves why Obake would help them, and go take a look at Hiro's "conspiracy wall" research to help him resolve things. On the other hand, Obake succeeds at turning water into fuel at the bay and thanks Big Hero 6 for foiling Steamer's plan, as they inadvertently helped his own in the process.
Having learned about Hiro's past as a bot-fighter, Obake also built a robotic "daughter" named Trina, and sent her out to pose as a normal teenager who also enjoyed bot fights and participated in them like Hiro once did. Trina hacked her opponents' bots and committed heists with them, framing the original bot creators as criminals who started getting caught more frequently. Big Hero 6 learned about this, but Hiro knew something was wrong when one of his former bot-fight associates was arrested as well. Hiro became tempted to get back into bot-fighting and used the excuse that he would just "investigate" the culprit of all heists.
Upon meeting Trina, Hiro fell in love with her and continued to delve deeper back into bot-fights because of her; Trina also managed to frame Yama as the responsible for the past heists, but after Big Hero 6 found no evidence of this, Hiro realized that Trina as the only other suspect. Hiro tried talking with her to convince her to leave bot-fights, promising to help her like Tadashi helped him. However, Trina refused and escaped while leaving her battlebot to attack him and Big Hero 6, until the bot is destroyed by Hiro using his Megabot.
Trina then returns to her "father" accompanied by one of the battlebots after stealing a diamond, but Obake showed little interest in it, so he asked Trina to show him something else. Trina then projected a hologram of her conversation with Hiro in which he mentions his brother Tadashi. After witnessing this, Obake shuts Trina down and hugs her, remarking on how they offered Hiro "freedom" and he rejected it. He then tells Trina it is time to "move forward".
Obake investigated more about Tadashi and even managed to obtain some of his test recordings from the time he was building Baymax—in the same laboratory that belonged to Bob Aken two decades prior. Having learned about the importance of Tadashi to Hiro, Obake realized he could use him to manipulate Hiro.
On Halloween day, Hiro receives an invitation to Mr. Ohare's House of Scares and gets his friends to go with him. Although the house was not actually scary to any of them, they noticed a new unusual attraction which they looked through and showed them the image of a vampire. However, it also implanted digital imaging lenses in their eyes discreetly. As they begin to talk about their real biggest fears, they soon leave the house. Before they can return home, they receive an alert about Noodle Burger Boy stealing a Krei Tech crate and go fight him. However, during the fight, Hiro sees Tadashi due to the imaging lenses, though he tries to ignore it because no one else saw him.
The following day, Hiro starts seeing Tadashi again during class. Later that night, Noodle Burger Boy and a batch of Buddy Guards he stole from the crate the night before ambush the team and badly damage Baymax, as planned by Obake. At home, Hiro tries to fix Baymax but sees Tadashi once more. This time, he follows him through the city until Tadashi enters Ohare's haunted house, where he starts to talk with Hiro, who mentions that he dislikes how Granville is giving him limits; "Tadashi" then tells him that his genius shouldn't be held back. Hiro finds his response to be odd but continues to talk with his deceased brother about how life has been without him. On the other hand, Go Go is pulling an all-nighter at SFIT while she works in a Hyperconducting Magnet, when Noodle Burger Boy and his Buddy Guards suddenly break in to steal it. She calls the rest of the team, but all become distracted when the digital imaging lenses project each member's biggest fears as augmented reality illusions, making it easier for Noodle Burger Boy to steal the machine.
Hiro then tells "Tadashi" that Baymax has also been alright but was recently trying to fix him; "Tadashi" then tells him that he shouldn't be fixing his old work, but saying this only causes Hiro to realize that he was not really talking with his brother because he'd never say the things he said, and quickly tries to figure out what's really going on. Both Hiro and Go Go remember the haunted house attraction and realize at the same time that they were wearing contact lenses, so they take them off while Go Go tells her teammates to do it as well. "Tadashi"'s voice switches to Obake's, who reveals it had been him all along and calls Hiro a clever boy, before Hiro finally takes the lenses off and stops seeing the Tadashi illusion, although it was late for Big Hero 6 since Noodle Burger Boy had already escaped with the Hyperconducting Magnet and brought it to Obake. With the magnet, the destructive machine he had been working on all along is nearly complete, and so Obake prepares for his ultimate plan.
The final piece Obake required was his energy amplifier; six months had passed since his original invention was destroyed by Hiro, but knowing it was time for Hiro's final semester project, Obake devised a new plan to subconsciously manipulate Hiro into building a new one for him through mere influence: He sends out Globby to steal a failed, trashed version of an amplifier built by by Krei Tech Industries. While the rest of Hiro's friends present their projects to Granville for approval, Hiro and Baymax fight Globby, who is attempting to steal the briefcase containing the junk amplifier. Globby escapes after he fails to steal the briefcase while Hiro returns to SFIT, but Granville knows he doesn't have a project yet and urges him to find one. Later, Hiro returns the briefcase to Alistair Krei, who tells Hiro that its content was a worthless thing, and that it was impossible to create a working energy amplifier. As planned by Obake, this series of events cause Hiro to think about proving Krei wrong by building a working one and presenting it to Granville as his closing project. However, Granville is horrified to learn that Hiro is working on this as she remembers what happened to Bob Aken, and forbids him from continuing, telling him that his project will be denied unless he finds something else.
Despite this, Hiro doesn't listen to her and quickly begins to work, claiming that she will change her mind when he succeeds. Soon, Hiro fully concentrates on this project to the point he starts to ignore his friends. Meanwhile, Fred plans to bait Globby with a fake Krei amtoplifier briefcase and capture him in order to lead the team to Obake and stop him once and for all—but the plan backfires when Noodle Burger Boy unexpectedly shows up as well and Hiro is absent. During the fight, Noodle Burger Boy also inserts Obake's chip into Baymax. Spoon, Hiro arrives and the villains escape with the fake briefcase, but Hiro is unaware that Baymax is now under Obake's control. Days later, on the SFIT Expo day, Obake Baymax lies to Hiro and tells him that he is detecting Obake at one of his hideouts, urging him to miss the expo because it's the perfect chance o stop him. Hiro hesitates, so Baymax further manipulates him by saying it's for the greater good, and that Tadashi would've wanted it. Hiro agrees, but as soon as they track down "Obaand ke", he learns that it was only a decoy created specifically to distract them. Hiro asks Baymax how they could have mistaken the robot for a real human, but Baymax says he doesn't know.
Meanwhile, Obake walks into the presentation and talks to Granville, who was surprised to see him after so many years, but Obake thanked her as she had "made him the man he is today". Big Hero 6, as students, noticed him calmly walking around and tried to go to him and capture him, but the rest of Obake's team then broke into the SFIT and attacked everyone.
Afterwards, Obake used his old SFIT ID to enter Hiro's lab and mentioned how it belonged to him before, then stole the amplifier and left riding some Buddy Guards while his minions also escaped. Granville then revealed everything about Bob Aken to her students, whom she knew were Big Hero 6.
Back at Lucky Cat Café, Hiro finds out that Baymax had been reprogrammed by Obake's chip, but before Hiro can remove it, the reprogrammed Baymax grabbed Hiro's hand and took him to Obake's base. There, Obake revealed he wanted Hiro to be his student after his entire plan succeeded and destroyed the city in order to create "New San Fransokyo" from the resulting catastrophe. Obake told him that Professor Granville doesn't understand Hiro's potential but he does, and that when his new city is complete, he can't wait to see what Hiro will accomplish as his student. Noodle Burger Boy is sent by Obake to the lighthouse at top of the submarine base to insert the amplifier into the machine and set the plan in motion, while Obake himself tried to convince Hiro to join him. Hiro however refused, so Baymax imprisons him.
Globby however realized the madness of Obake's plan and betrayed his allies by breaking out Hiro and helping him escape. Obake soon finds Momakase adhered to the wall after she had fought Hiro and Globby while trying to stop both of them from escaping, so he freed her and ordered to recapture Hiro.
With Baymax still under Obake's control, Hiro went to the lighthouse by flying on his Skymax and took his amplifier back, although the machine had become self-sustaining so it still generated enough energy to create a star that would wipe out the town. Reunited with Big Hero 6, Hiro remembered that Fred had ordered a new Kentucky Kaiju robot, which was big enough to counteract the energy from the star and stop the shockwave from destroying San Fransokyo. Obake stayed at his base with Baymax and Noodle Burger Boy, but deactivated the latter after having bothered him again, instead activating an immobilized Baymax to talk with him. Baymax scanned Obake and noticed his brain damage so he offered to help, but Obake simply replied that it was a souvenir from a childhood mishap.
Ultimately, Big Hero 6 foils the plan and Obake watches his cameras go off, wondering how Hiro was able to stop him and becoming too dispirited about the fact that he won't be remembered like Lenore Shimamoto for turning the city into something perfect. The base also starts crumbling and falling apart, so he decides to free Baymax from his control, although Baymax's healthcare programming still forced him to stay until Obake told him that he is "satisfied with his care", thereby allowing the robot to return to Hiro while he simply sat on his chair waiting for his demise as the base is destroyed.
In the aftermath, Hiro gave the amplifier to Granville so she'd lock it inside a safe, and Granville asked what happened to Obake. Hiro and Baymax then went back to the remains of the base with their submarine armors, but Baymax couldn't find Obake's body. Hiro told him it was impossible that he could survive, to which Baymax replied what Hiro had said earlier: "Nothing is impossible."
Etymology[]
- Obake - Obake means "ghost" or "apparition" in Japanese and can also refer to "monster". The term itself literally means a thing that changes, referring to transformation. In Japanese folklore, an Obake (お化け) is a supernatural entity either capable of transformation or is a human ghost. The Obake is closely related to the Japanese Yōkai; fittingly, Robert Callaghan, another supervillain encountered by the Big Hero 6, used "Yokai" as a codename.
Trivia[]
- The last name of his disguised alias "Herman Ekabo" is just "Obake" backwards.
- Although "Obake" is an actual Japanese word, the alias "Obake" is actually formed out of his real full name, taking 'ob' from 'Bob' and 'ake' from 'Aken'.
- According to Baymax, his body temperature is below normal.
- Obake's plan shares some similarities to the plots attempted by Everwraith and Deadline from the original Marvel version of Big Hero 6.
- Everwraith wanted to burn down Japan by recreating the nuclear attacks from World War II after reasoning that the attacks forced the nation to rebuild excel, so another attack would cause further progress; while Deadline planned to use a Doomsday Device that would destroy one city/country at a time, starting with Japan, unless humans put their differences aside and changed for the better.
- Obake intended to wipe out the world, starting with San Fransokyo, by using a machine to recreate the Great Catastrophe of 1906 and eventually rebuild a "better world" from the destruction caused.
- Both Noodle Burger Boy and Trina considered each other and Obake as a family, despite the fact that Obake never actually called or treated Noodle Burger Boy as his child, only Trina.
Appearances[]
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Shorts | |||
| Baymax and... | |||
| 1. "Baymax and Fred": | Absent | 4. "Baymax and Hiro": | Absent |
| 2. "Baymax and Go Go": | Absent | 5. "Baymax and Mochi": | Absent |
| 3. "Baymax and Wasabi": | Absent | 6. "Baymax and Honey Lemon": | Absent |
| Baymax Dreams | |||
| 1. "Baymax Dreams of Evil Sheep": | Absent | 4. "Baymax Dreams of Mochizilla:": | Absent |
| 2. "Baymax Dreams of Bed Bugs": | Absent | 5. "Baymax Dreams of Too Many Freds": | Absent |
| 3. "Baymax Dreams of Too Many Baymaxes": | Absent | 6. "Baymax Dreams of Fred's Glitch": | Absent |
| Big Chibi 6 | |||
| 1. "Making Popcorn": | Appears | 7. "Love Letters": | Appears |
| 2. "Mochi No!": | Absent | 8. "Super Charged": | Background |
| 3. "Save Mochi": | Appears | 9. "Low Battery": | Appears |
| 4. "Noodle Song": | Background | 10. "Road Trip": | Background |
| 5. "Snoring": | Absent | 11. "Super Driver": | Appears |
| 6. "Gumball Trouble": | Background | 12. "Brunch Rush": | Appears |
| Baymax and Mochi | |||
| 1. "Flowers and Butterflies": | Absent | 3. "Messy Room": | Absent |
| 2. "Mochi and his Toy": | Absent | ||
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Season 1 | |||
| 1-2. "Baymax Returns": | Appears | 13. "Small Hiro One": | Pictured |
| 3. "Issue 188": | Appears | 14. "Kentucky Kaiju": | Appears |
| 4. "Big Roommates 2": | Absent | 15. "Rivalry Weak": | Appears |
| 5. "Fred's Bro-Tillion": | Absent | 16. "Fan Friction": | Appears |
| 6. "Food Fight": | Absent | 17. "Mini-Max": | Appears |
| 7. "Muirahara Woods": | Absent | 18. "Big Hero 7": | Absent |
| 8. "Failure Mode": | Appears | 19. "Big Problem": | Absent |
| 9. "Aunt Cass Goes Out": | Absent | 20. "Steamer's Revenge": | Appears |
| 10. "The Impatient Patient": | Appears | 21. "The Bot-Fighter": | Appears |
| 11. "Mr. Sparkles Loses His Sparkle": | Absent | 22. "Obake Yashiki": | Appears |
| 12. "Killer App": | Appears | 23-25. "Countdown to Catastrophe": | Appears |
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Season 2 | |||
| 1. "Internabout": | Mentioned | 14. "Mini-Maximum Trouble": | Mentioned |
| 2. "Seventh Wheel": | Absent | 15. "El Fuego": | Absent |
| 3. "Prey Date": | Absent | 16. "The Globby Within": | Absent |
| 4. "Something's Fishy": | Absent | 17. "Hardlight": | Absent |
| 5. "Nega-Globby": | Pictured | 18. "The Present": | Absent |
| 6. "The Fate of the Roommates": | Absent | 19. "Hiro The Villain": | Mentioned |
| 7. "Muira-Horror!": | Absent | 20. "Portal Enemy": | Absent |
| 8. "Something Fluffy": | Absent | 21. "Fred the Fugitive": | Mentioned |
| 9. "Supersonic Sue": | Absent | 22. "Major Blast": | Absent |
| 10. "Lie Detector": | Absent | 23. "Fear Not": | Absent |
| 11. "Write Turn Here": | Mentioned | 24-25. "Legacies": | Mentioned |
| 12-13. "City of Monsters": | Mentioned | ||
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Season 3 | |||
| 1. "The Hyper-Potamus Pizza-Party-Torium": | Pictured | 6A. "Big Hero Battle": | Absent |
| 6B. "Go Go the Woweroo": | Pictured | ||
| 2A. "Mayor for a Day": | Absent | 7A. "The New Nega-Globby": | Absent |
| 2B. "The Dog Craze of Summer": | Absent | 7B. "De-Based": | Absent |
| 3A. "Trading Chips": | Absent | 8A. "The MiSFIT": | Absent |
| 3B. "Mini Noodle Burger Max": | Absent | 8B. "Return to Sycorax": | Absent |
| 4A. "A Friendly Face": | Absent | 9A. "A Fresh Sparkles": | Absent |
| 4B. "Big Chibi 6": | Absent | 9B. "Noodle Burger Ploy": | Absent |
| 5A. "Cobra and Mongoose": | Absent | 10A. "Krei-oke Night": | Absent |
| 5B. "Better Off Fred": | Absent | 10B. "The Mascot Upshot": | Absent |
Gallery[]
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An Image Gallery is available for Obake.
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References[]
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