Western Animation / Belphégor (2000)

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Belphégor is a French-Belgian-Canadian animated series that first aired in 2000, inspired by the 1927 Arthur Bernède novel and 1965 miniseries of the same name.

Set in modern-day Paris, it featured the titular character, a mysterious masked criminal, as the antagonist, up against a pair of journalists, Jacques and Sarah, and Sarah's father, a police inspector, who tried to thwart his numerous plots.

Tropes found in this cartoon:

• Antagonist Title: The title character is the Big Bad.
• Badass Normal: Aside from using a Ring of Power as his only weapon (and the occasional smoke bomb for escape purposes), Belphégor has no superpowers to speak of. He uses said ring only to tranquilize people. How does he always get away without guns? Well, he's strong, smart and always has an escape plan or a Batman Gambit ready. Many times, he doesn't even make use of his underlings' help, but handles the most dangerous situations himself.
  • Jacques, Sarah and the Police Inspector are this as well, as all of them have gone up against Belphégor and his thugs from time to time. However, Sarah may also be a downplayed case as it's shown throughout the show she has some sort of psychic powers.
• City Noir: Paris is presented as a dark, brooding metropolis, especially when Belphégor is on the move. In the opening sequence, the city gets covered in the shadow of a giant effigy of Belphégor, towering above.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: Belphégor certainly evokes the imagery when he steals a necklace from the Louvre, although he misses any obvious cat appearance.
• Corrupt Politician: Quite a few on the show, most of whom end up as Belphégor's Asshole Victims though he never outright kills them. The most notable one is the Mayor of Paris, who was shown to be willing to align with corrupt, foreign dictators, control the economic market, and often unintentionally plays into Belphégor's hands because his greed and sense of self-importance is that predictable.
• Death Trap: Strangely, averted by Belphégor himself, despite the presence of death traps. Whenever he places someone in an elaborate death trap, it's never to use it as a means to outright kill, but rather to intimidate, interrogate or just screw with the sanity and fear of the person trapped and those around them. Usually, he does so to provoke an action by the other characters that will help him achieve his true goal.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Belphégor fits this trope very well. Unlike most diabolical masterminds, however, he gets in on the action just as much as his mooks and underlings, if not more so.
• Dramatic Unmask: Subverted many times. Each time the protagonists corner Belphégor to unmask him or come close to uncovering his identity, it turns out either that the unmasked man isn't really him or he manages to destroy the evidence of his identity before they get to it.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Belphégor's Evil Lair is a high-tech complex, richly decorated in Baroque or Roccoco style.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Belphégor speaks in a deep, reverberating voice.
• The Faceless: Belphégor is only ever seen with his gold mask on, which doesn't even have a mouth. One episode has the characters tracking down an old film, as they discover that a boy acting in it is the man himself. The audience is shown a cutscene of the film... with Belphégor's face obscured in shadow.
• Freudian Excuse: One episode hints that Belphégor had suffered a great loss in the past — the death of someone close to him due to a passenger plane crashing. Said plane was sabotaged by a general in order to kill just one man on board, who was transporting plans for a new weapon. The episode doesn't fully explain the incident and exactly who was the person close to Belphégor that died, but Word of God confirms this was what caused his transformation into an unfeeling criminal, detached from the rest of the world, constantly provoking life and living on the edge. It is possible the person who died was a woman, possibly a wife or lover, as Belphégor was once seen stroking a long strand of red hair in his lair one episode.
• Intrepid Reporter: Both Jacques and Sarah. Jacques seems to be more of the audio type of reporter, usually on camera or in a radio station, while Sarah works for the newspaper.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Belphégor, as usual. This time he's wearing a mouthless golden mask covering his face.
• Ominous Music Box Tune: The main theme. It's played as a music box owned by Belphégor is being activated, with a dancing figure spinning on top.
• Pet the Dog: Belphégor is capable of doing this once in a while. On rare occasion, he'll save the heroes lives. And there was one specific moment was when he helped an old psychic man named Amadee get revenge against the man who humiliated him and the people who put him in jail for refusing to go to war. Belphégor even showed outright concern for Amadee when the device that allowed him to control statues started effecting his health, and when Amadee was caught, he even broke him out of jail. It's suggested that Belphégor may have felt a kinship with him, perhaps because they both had their lives ruined by such warmongers.
• Ring of Power: Belphégor's ring is capable of emitting a flash that transfixes enemies, leaving them paralyzed.
• Relationship Labeling Problems: Sarah and Jacques are this. While they've been shown to kiss and have romantic tension, they are never outright called a couple, and Sarah has shown interest in other men.
• Sigil Spam: Belphégor loves the symbol of Tanit (a real-life symbol heavily featured in Phoenicia and Carthage). He wears a ring with it and loves to display it in his lair.
• Sinister Surveillance: Belphégor is seen having cameras installed all over Paris. He uses them for spying purposes, which helps him a lot in his plans and is often the reason he's one step ahead of the protagonists.
• Trap-Door Fail: A non-comedic example is used in one episode. An old general Belphégor is after tries to use a trap door on him as the man confronts him in his own office. However, the minute he presses the button, Belphégor proceeds to inform him that the trap door is disabled, much to the general's surprise and horror.
• Terms of Endangerment: Belphégor often calls Sarah "mon chéri", meaning "my dear" in a close or romantic context in French. Doesn't stop him from involving or endangering her in his schemes.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: There is a lot of lore regarding Tanit, ancient civilization, mythologies, and the various historic paintings, novels, and artifacts that the show sometimes goes into, but otherwise they leave enough unresolved and ambiguous with the belief that the audience knows about it or would be interested in learning on their own.
• Villainous Crush: Possibly. Belphégor has displayed an interest in Sarah throughout the show, most notably starting in episode eight. There are episodes where he attempts to draw her to his side: in one by making her dependent upon him via a magic link through rings he sent anonymously as an admirers gift, in another by kidnapping her and making her go through tests he set himself to let her see inside his mind, and in the final episode where he attempts to destroy Paris and reform it into a new city, he most notably left Jacques to die underground... but when he comes across Sarah, he knocks her out and kidnaps her so that she can witness the birth of the his new city. It's possible that he either views her as a Replacement Goldfish for the person he lost, but it is also possible that he developed some sort of twisted, but genuine, kind of feeling for her. Nothing is ever outright said however, and there are only implications through his actions and ambiguous words.