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Mr. Bunting is the main antagonist of the 2023 anime film The Imaginary. He is a man that imaginary friends fear because he eats imaginaries and will stop at nothing to eat them because he doesn't have an imagination of his own and also is Rudger's archenemy.
He was voiced by Issey Ogata in Japanese and by Jeremy Swift in English.
What Makes him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- While his design and some of his moments do comedic effect, the anime doesn't make fun of him for it or really portray him in a comedic manner, as all of these moments are short and part of his facade, as his eating of the Imaginaries, and by the time he meets Rudger, he drops almost all of his comedic moments and is taken completely seriously as a threat as all of his actions are played for suspense, drama, and horror.
- While most of his actions happen off-screen, he doesn't build on the Fridge Horror, as the depiction of him trying to absorb Rudger, as well as the depiction of him absorbing one of the Imaginaries, give him enough characterization to not be a typical villain with off-screen crimes or a simple one-man attempted murder.
- While it is explicitly stated that he initially absorbed Imaginaries to maintain a connection with his Imaginary and live longer than normal humans, this ultimately serves as a weak, if any, justification for his actions, as the anime shows that he no longer views his Imaginary as a person, viewing them as nothing more than a pawn in his plans, as well as a way to maintain his power in the Imaginary. While it is implied that he did not know that he had absorbed his Imaginary in the finale, this does not diminish his main intention, and it does not appear that he cared what happened to his Imaginary, and even if he had, he probably would not have cared.
- What makes his acts of absorbing Imaginaries even worse is that explicitly states that absorbing Imaginaries also kills the children they were connected to, forming a deadly hole in their hearts, something that Bunting himself was well aware of but did not care about.
Past[]
- At one point in his youth, he refused to part with his Imaginary, and absorbed one of the Imaginaries to do so, becoming nearly immortal. While it is true that he now needed to absorb Imaginaries to maintain a connection to his Imaginary and his powers in the Imagination, as well as to avoid dying, he has no reason to psychologically intimidate Imaginaries or to deliberately target Rudger to absorb him, as he mainly does such things out of pure sadism.
The Imaginary[]
- Chases Amanda into the way of traffic, causing her to get hit by a car and nearly killed.
- Sends his Imaginary to kidnap Rudger and then absorb him.
- During the chase, he sadistically kills Emily by shooting her in the chest, mocking and cruelly laughing about how they, being mere Imaginary, can't change anything.
- He attempts to consume Rudger one last time, involving Amanda and her mother in the process, and attempting to kill them too if they get in the way.
External Links[]
- Mr. Bunting on the Villains Wiki
