黒幕 (くろまく) just came across my lessons and the main definition given is wirepuller which isn’t a very natural phrase nor is it intuitive without context. So I was thinking of a person who literally pulls wires or steel cables like on a dock or something. The alternative definition of mastermind or power broker is a much better main definition for someone who controls things from behind the scenes. But the other definition of Dick Cheney is even more interesting. lol
I find this quite hilarious.
A more natural one would be stringpuller, no? One who pulls the strings from behind the scenes?
Puppet Master?
“Svengali”
I’d say that would be more evident than wire puller. I think in English though we would usually use a phrase instead of a single word. Ex. The person who is pulling the strings. or something. Really though the inclusion of Dick Cheney is what is funny to me.
“The Wizard of Oz”
Pay no attention to the wirepuller?
My favourite stringpuller
I swear the main definition used to be Mastermind. I don’t remember ever seeing “wirepuller”, which isn’t even, like, a real word for me. Is it US slang?
But anyway, yes, interesting alternative there 
Google-sensei says:
mainly US and Canadian a person who uses private or secret influence for his own ends
As a US citizen for my entire life I would like to officially dispute these. I have never heard of a ‘wirepuller’ and my first thought was the same as Okanekure that it’s a person that literally pulls wires.
I’ve heard of someone pulling the strings but, yeah, never someone pulling the wires.
Interestingly, literally translated this is a reasonably common idiom in German (“Drahtzieher”). leo.org lists wirepuller as a English translation, but I’ve also never heard this in English. (Other translations are “svengali”, “manipulator”).
Wiktionary doesn’t know the English term with the meaning of “mastermind” or “puppetmaster”, it lists “person from Warrington” instead.
The German term is also a technical term for someone that pulls actual wires, but note that “pulling wires” refers to how wires are manufactured traditionally: You start with a large wire and pull it through a hole to make it smaller. (In English this seems to be usually referred to as “wire drawing”)
Count another American who’s never heard the word “wirepuller” before!
Please note that “all people who use the term ‘wirepuller’ are North American” does not neccessarily imply "all North Americans use the term ‘wirepuller’ " 
Hmm… 
I see I see. It must just be those Canadians then. 
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