Kick the Dog/Anime and Manga



"Mai: You got ?
 * Haruhi Suzumiya, in one scene, grabs the computer club president by the arm, pulls his hand onto the chest of her "friend" Mikuru, takes pictures to falsely incriminate said computer club president of sexual harassment, and then uses this to Blackmail said computer club president into giving her a computer for free. When the computer club president points out that everyone in the room is a witness, Haruhi threatens to claim that everyone in the room was ganging up on Mikuru to rape her. Note that Mikuru herself evidently wanted no part in this and was simply forced into it, essentially making this entirely Haruhi's idea. This is the kind of thing a character should at least go to jail for, but Haruhi gets away with it entirely.
 * (Not to mention she also forces the club to set up the computer, hook up internet, and help Kyon get started on the website, using the falsely claimed information from before.)
 * The other protagonists also continue to associate with Haruhi after that, although given what she is capable of, this is justified in-story.
 * We all know how the titular character from Suzumiya Haruhi loves to mistreat, molest and abuse the closest thing to a female friend she has, Mikuru. Naturally, this is Played for Laughs, but in the 2nd novel, there is a definite scene that crosses the line: During the filming of the Brigade's movie "The Adventures Of Mikuru Asahina", Haruhi (with the help of Genki Girl Tsuruya) first puts tequila into Mikuru's drink, so she would act more realistic for the kissing scene. The next thing she does is to punch Mikuru on the head simply because she still wore her colored contact lens. She then continues to punch her several times because the "contact lens is supposed to fly out when your head gets smacked." After Kyon understandably yells at her that Mikuru is not her toy, she seriously replies "Well I've decided, Mikuru-chan is my toy!". This actually makes Kyon explode, trying to punch her, but he is stopped by Koizumi. After Haruhi realizes what Kyon was about to do, she still doesn't get it, confronting him even more. This also shows just what a sociopathic Jerkass Haruhi can be...though soon she starts to get better.
 * This is softened in the anime adaptation, where Haruhi does declare the same thing...but when Kyon is about to hit her for making Mikuru cry and Itsuki stops him, her resulting Heel Face Turn comes a bit sooner-- she does understand that she was wrong, almost immediately stops arguing with Kyon and then stares away from him (with tears in her eyes). And not to mention Kyon, thanks to Itsuki, realizes that it's not in him to be physically violent.
 * In 'Disappearance, Kyon threatens the IDSE with complete destruction should they kill Yuki by provoking Haruhi. Wisely, they step down. So what could be worse than killing Yuki?
 * Mazinger Z: Big Bad Dr. Hell does not kick dogs. He catches their tails and flings them around, smashing them against a wall until they are a bloody pulp. Yes, it really happened in one of the manga versions. And it happened when Hell was a child. And it happened because he thought the dog was glaring to him (his Abusive Parents, shitty teachers and bullying schoolmates were already wearing down his sanity back then).
 * On the other hand, The Dragon Baron Ashura is not above of petty acts of cruelty, but usually they have a purpose. Yet those acts include: hitting a children on his head to knock him out and steal him, blowing up the wheelchair of a disabled little girl to prevent her from escaping, ordering one of his Iron Masks to kill a little cub whose mother had just got killed...
 * Naruto: Hyuuga Neji's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Hinata in the Chunin exams shows just how much of an asshole he really is. Also an example of Revenge By Proxy since she didn't do anything to deserve it. Unlike others, however, he gets better.
 * Tobi tried to kill a baby For the Evulz.
 * People have been said to kick dogs. Kisame just kicked his sword. Which is now oddly more life like.
 * More realistically, at the very start of the series, Sakura opines that Naruto (who she can't stand at this point of the series) is a Bratty Half-Pint because his parents were dead, and that she wished she didn't have any parents either so they couldn't tell her what to do. She gets better after a lot of Character Development, set off mainly during an Important Haircut.
 * It should also be noticed that Sakura not only was called out by Sasuke, but that she apologized to Naruto few after this happened. This was the first sign that childish and thoughtless as she was, Sakura wasn't as shallow as she seemed.
 * Flame of Recca: In his first appearance, Kurei reveals himself to be a complete douche after he threatened to kill Ganko, a little girl for betraying him. He then proceeds to taunt her by bringing up her dead mother and how she will be seeing her soon. Add this in with him beating a women who loves him more than life itself, and you see where this is going.
 * It's practically a hobby of Kogoro Mouri's. One major example occurs when Kogoro ogles a fashion model. However, it turns out . Kogoro, however, thinking with his dick, automatically assumes she's innocent. Even though Conan had reasonable evidence, he not only refused to listen to Conan, but even struck him.
 * Zig Zagging Trope: There's the the bit of Values Dissonance at play, since there's somewhat more of a range in regards to Corporal Punishment for young boys in Japan. (As well as the Hilariously Abusive Childhood trope). This is played rather interestingly when Heizou Hattori punches his son Heiji as punishment at some point, and Kogoro isn't exactly thrilled.
 * Just about every villain in Fist of the North Star engages in kicking the dog in some form. Bad guys who go too far with such in Kenshiro's presence usually wind up dead by head or full body explosion courtesy of the Hokuto Shinken.
 * In one of the early episodes of the anime, one of Diamond's men forces a villager to shoot a can off the head of his little boy with a bow a la William Tell. When the father can't go through with it, the scumbag takes it upon himself to "help" him, taking hold of the bow and arrow in a Hands-On Approach fashion, but deliberately shaking up the poor guy's aim just to be a sadistic asshole. When the arrow finally does get launched, Kenshiro intervenes before the arrow can go into the boy's head, then dispatches the mook for his cruelty before confronting Diamond, who gets the response of "I don't give my name to monsters," when he demands Kenshiro's name.
 * And as Kick the Dog-tastic as that scene was, the scene it replaced in the manga was even worse..
 * Souther pretty much is this trope. He kidnaps children, forcing them to work on his massive pyramid, and poisons a supply of bread knowing that it will be stolen from him, just to serve as a warning. On top of this he kills the nicest guy in the series in an unimaginably cruel way, an act that infuriates Kenshiro to the point of telling him that "when I'm done with you, there will be nothing left!"
 * Kaioh, on the other hand, takes this trope rather literally. In a flashback we see him decide to start being evil and then, as his first evil act...you guessed it. Oddly enough this is meant to be a serious scene. Of course he also plays this trope very straight in a variety of other ways...
 * In another literal example, a soldier of God's Army kicks Lin's puppy.
 * Young Jagi attempts to stomp a puppy in Yuria's den.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh spent 4 episodes by having Marik do this by brainwashing Jonouchi and Anzu, forcing Yugi to duel Jyonouchi on a 1-hour time limit where the loser will sink to the bottom of the ocean (or they both will if no one wins), and threatening to drop an explosive dumpster on Anzu if Kaiba interferes. And a while later, there's his Mind Rape of Mai...
 * Kaiba himself has done this on at least a few occasions.
 * In one of his establishing moments, he beats up Yugi after getting called out on stealing his grandpa's Blue Eyes White Dragon. In his next appearance, he kidnaps Yugi's grandpa and forces him to duel with the Blue Eyes White Dragon as an ante. After beating the latter, he takes the Blue Eyes and tears it up, sending the poor old man into shock and into the hospital. As if that weren't enough, he gets Yugi and his friends involved by putting them in the Death-T Amusement Park, with the former dueling in a life or death match.
 * Later on in Duelist Kingdom, he insults Jou, who has challenged and lost against him.
 * When Anzu/Tea consoles Yugi following the latter's loss against Kaiba at Duelist Kingdom, by berating Yugi himself for forfeiting the duel after the latter had just been traumatized by the really cruel Batman Gambit involved, where Kaiba would step off the edge of the castle if Yugi made the winning attack, and Yami was planning to make that attack before Yugi jumped in and stopped him. Revoltingly, after Anzu gave him a well-deserved Shut UP, Hannibal followed by an additional insult from Jou, Kaiba's fanbase wanted him to tell them off, if not beat them up. Really, even if Kaiba was trying to save Mokuba (which Yugi's friends didn't know about, and it'd take them a while to do so), he did not need to do this.
 * And not even MOKUBA is free of Kaiba-kicking. Much later, Kaiba loses to Yami/Yugi AGAIN, and starts whining and ranting about it. When Mokuba tries to help him, Kaiba resorts to insulting Mokuba himself and calling him worthless, which enrages Jounouchi to the point of challenging him to a duel despite knowing he'd lose. And the Kaiba fangirls rejoiced at that and bended over to excuse Kaiba abusing Mokuba!
 * Kaiser Ryo in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, following his Freak-Out, originally just came off as an unfeeling, disrespectful jerk who liked dressing in black; if anything, his new bad-boy persona only increased his popularity in the eyes of the fangirls...until Episode 95. His brother Sho challenged him to a duel, so Ryo made them both wear shock bands on their wrists that would electrocute them when they took damage. He then spent the duel taking pleasure in watching Sho writhe in pain from the shocks, and almost kills him in the end. Let's repeat that - he did this to his own little brother! Even if Sho was the one who issued the challenge, it was still uncalled for.
 * There's also Howard X Miller who steps on a flower for no reason other than to prove to the audience that he's a villain, however this may be more of a poke the poodle moment.
 * Edo Phoenix also does this to Judai in their second duel by nonchalantly walking away after he sends him into a Heroic BSOD by beating him.
 * To drive the point home, Jack Atlas of Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds.
 * In the manga version of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Kaworu Nagisa kills a kitten, going along with the Japanese switch of Petting The Dog with a cat. He justifies this by saying that, since neither he nor Shinji would care for the kitten, which was orphaned, it would die a slow, painful death through starvation if he didn't intervene. Still, seeing someone squeeze the life out of a poor, innocent kitten is...disturbing, to say the least. Tokyo-3 may not have a Humane Society, and all the people there are probably preoccupied with more important things, but he still gained the Fan Nickname "Evil Manga Kaworu" for this.
 * In the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, nearly every single character is a victim of this. Significant props go to: Gendo for emotionally and psychologically destroying his own son until he has the self-esteem of a small, frequently-abused dog; for using and throwing away Ritsuko over and over again until she's an emotional wreck; for using Rei like a non-sentient puppet and continually bringing her back to life and...you know what, Gendo Ikari does a lot of dog kicking.
 * In Revolutionary Girl Utena, Nanami Kiryuu is established early on as a deceptive and manipulative bully. She's insanely jealous of her brother Touga's time, and that she idolizes him to an almost sexual degree. But she only really becomes freaky when shown in a flashback: She's six or so, and her brother gets a cute little kitten and pays more attention to it than he does to her, even while he's talking to her. Nanami puts the thing in a box and pushes it over a waterfall (into a water treatment center?). She does run away crying, so you could say she's not as cold as some. But then she says something like, "I'm sorry, I had to do it!" Brrrr.
 * Interestingly enough, it was Nanami who gave Touga the kitten in the first place. To her credit, the imagery heavily implies that young Nanami simply didn't understand the impact of her deed until the last moment and her final words were a futile attempt to justify the whole episode to herself. Then again, back in these flashbacks she was a little girl, no older than ten years old.
 * Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist has a couple of Kick the Dog moments, the biggest of which is in the manga
 * Elfen Lied:
 * Played with near the very beginning of the series, when Mayu is first introduced. After leaving the house, Lucy stares for a while at Mayu's dog, which tied to a post near the front gate. It seems like she actually killed the dog for real...but the only thing she did was cut its rope. Which, given that it was quite obviously terrified of her, might actually count as a Pet the Dog instead.
 * The scenes manage to be even more shocking when you take into account the fact that both of these dogs are drawn as little more than small puppies.
 * The anime series Night Walker includes a villain who feeds on dogs.
 * Lina Inverse of Slayers does this to varying degrees, either to the people she's fighting or to her allies, namely Amelia. Regularly she becomes outright genocidal whenever there's food at stake (such as blowing up an entire restaurant over a fallen sardine in Slayers Premium), or if someone takes note of her small bust size, irregardless if it's an insult or not. She regularly abuses her swordsman companion Gourry, and abuses Amelia's (a princess of an influential kingdom, mind) vast fortune for meals and other luxuries. It's taken even further in the radio dramas: in one, she shoves Amelia in a pickle barrel and forgets she's there during a trip in the sewers, and in another, she offers some Fish People Amelia as a bride in order to get off of an abandoned island.
 * Xellos also does this every once in while, just to remind folks that despite his generally cheerful facade, he IS a Monster and will gladly kill anybody his boss orders him to, Lina included.  in NEXT is a good example.
 * That wasn't Xellos. killed  The worst Xellos has done in the anime is whack  a few times with his staff in TRY. If anything, wiping out the Disc One Final Boss that the entire party couldn't beat in a second, laughing mockingly the entire time was the first of multiple Kick the Dog moments from.
 * The next one was when  kindapped   and forced him to fight the party, which sent   into a total emotional breakdown. After that, he   because  Then, he   and in the final battle,   all to make poor Lina, who as seen above is 'NOT a saint and yet she still does care for others when it truly counts, cross the Despair Event Horizon and   Face it.   didn't just kick the dog. He kicked every dog in the pound.
 * himself is not an innocent victim, and has his own kick the dog moment when  It doesn't help that
 * Let's not forget Kanzel in NEXT, when he
 * From Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure
 * Long before he became a vampire, Dio Brando, Big Bad of Parts 1 and 3, introduced himself to Jonathan Joestar by kicking his dog Danny in the head. Then later, he sets the dog in the incinerator and tricks the butler into to burning the dog to death. What an asshole.
 * And then in Part 3, Vanilla Ice literally kicks the dog (Iggy) to reinforce his utter admiration of and loyalty to Dio.
 * In an episode of Go Lion, One of Prince Sincline's slave women accidently spills some wine on his lap, he responds by taking out his Laser Blade and killing her on the spot. Obviously this scene could not be portrayed in a kids cartoon in America so it was cut of Voltron.
 * Happens with cats in the manga of Sailor Moon, when Luna, Artemis and Diana are wounded by Tin Nyanko and turn into ordinary, non-talking cats. To make matters worse, one of Galaxia's minions, Lethe, kills them in the next chapter...by, no less.
 * In the anime, Rubeus' abuse of his Love Martyr Koan feels like a repeated puppy kicking. Calaveras and Petz abandoning Berthier after she loses to Ami is also a quite dickish move.
 * Paul tops the list as being the biggest Jerkass in the Pokémon anime by releasing Pokemon that lose battles. In his first appearance, he captured three Starly and kept the one that knew Aerial Ace...and later, despite the fact that it won against Ash's Starly, released that one as well (in the same episode, no less)! Other moments include releasing his Chimchar after Nurse Joy told him to not overwork his Pokemon on the day before battle not only because he deemed Chimchar too weak after he had his other Pokemon to gang up on it, but because Chimchar wouldn't attack the enemy team because the other team had a Zangoose. He also defeated gym leader Maylene easily and calls her the weakest gym leader he has ever battled (mind you this might be the gym leader that his older brother might have crush on). The last one being refusing to take Brandon's advise with treating your opponent with respect and curb stomps Ash causing him to have a Heroic BSOD in the next episode because Paul literally convinced him in battle that it was his fault that his Pokemon were weak.
 * Team Rocket is prone to doing this as well, when they're at their worst.
 * In the episode "Pallet Party Panic", it isn't enough for Team Rocket to simply make off with Pikachu after distracting the heroes by serving them infernally spicy food; as they make off in their hot air balloon, they proceed to bombard the party, causing chaos and destroying all the food present. Not to mention that Ash's Pidgeotto is poisoned by Arbok in its attempt to stop them. It takes Charizard getting ticked off by them destroying a table with fruit that he had his eyes set on that they finally get their just desserts.
 * In an episode where Ash's Chikorita evolves into Bayleef in Johto, they having Weezing and Arbok beat him up because Chikorita was the only Pokemon he had with him at the time, and she'd gotten captured. Another instance where they did this was in Odd Pokemon Out!, where Ash's Grovyle evolves into Sceptile to rescue a Meganium he had a crush on...then found out that he couldn't use moves due to being heartbroken because the she actually was the significant other of a Tropius Grovyle had been fighting that episode. Team Rocket seizes this opportunity, beating up Sceptile with Cacnea and Seviper, while calling Sceptile a wimp. Sceptile broke out of this Heroic BSOD two episodes later, but it was still a really big dick move.
 * And how did he break out of said BSOD? Because when Ash tried to yet again prevent Pikachu from being kidnapped by the Rockets and was hanging on from their trademark balloon...they sent out their Pokemon to attack him. You heard it right: they sent said Pokemons to openly attack a human child who's completely helpless by that moment, and who could've been killed by falling off such heights. If not for Grovyle going Papa Wolf, Ash would've not survived said deal.
 * is at his lowest so far in Best Wishes when we find out that . While  pretended to be Ash's friend in order to steal his and his friends Pokemon a few times, this time  and looked gleefully sadistic while doing this. Also he earned the trust of Ash and his friends and  . Pikachu was so hurt by this, that he didn't forgive  after this. It is also presented as more vile than anything he did, although he is capable of much worse than just mere deception, as seen in the Japanese version of episode 12 when he translates the Squirtle Squad's command that Ash make it back with the Super Potion before noon as a death threat to Misty--and seeing that the Squirtle Squad didn't join up with him to be hired killers, Misty was lucky he's too much of a Noble Demon to actually follow through with his death threat.
 * Whenever Wakamatsu Madoka, the heroine's bitchy rival in Full Moon O Sagashite, looks like she might be getting too sympathetic, she is shown being cruel to her adorable pet pig, thereby cementing her reputation of bitchiness.
 * We are first introduced to Teresa of the Faint Smile in Claymore when she casually splatters bystanders flicking the blood from her sword after killing a Yoma, then hints that failure to give the payment for her services to the correct traveller will result in more attacks and no help. In the next town she literally kicks a young girl the local Yoma kept for 'entertainment' halfway across a street in an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade her from following. It was only after the kid's persistence and an encounter with bandits pushes her into Morality Pet status that we learn her name (Clare) and realize this is the Backstory of the previous chapters' protagonist.
 * The climax of the Rurouni Kenshin movie has the Japanese army surrounding a small force of rebels, stopped while Kenshin goes in to try talking them (and their leader) down. Kenshin succeeds, only for.
 * The original series has  punting the same puppy twice. First he , and immediately after that he   Yeah, the victim was a Spoiled Brat, but he definitely did not deserve what   did to him.
 * Let's not forget Usui trying to stab Misao In the Back for no reason at all. Fortunately, Anji stops him.
 * Prior to her Heel Face Turn, Gatomon in Digimon Adventure does a minor case of this. A growling dog approaches her, and she smacks the animal with her tail. The dog goes off whimpering as the catmon smirks.
 * Amusingly, Digimon Adventure 02 uses this trope very literally:
 * Done again near the end, where  Both occasions of punting are cut from the dub.
 * Digimon Tamers has an example of this when Beelzemon does this to Kyuubimon; a 9-tailed fox digimon. Made even worse by the fact that Kyuubimon was already wounded and couldn't defend herself.
 * Fate Testarossa introduces herself to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha by roughing up an enormous kitten for a Jewel Seed. She (Fate) gets better.
 * Fate's mother, Precia, introduces herself by whipping Fate repeatedly for not getting enough of said Jewel Seeds, establishing herself as the cruelest villain of the series.
 * Pick any moments in Force. Any moment.
 *  Mai-Otome viewers get an early glimpse of Tomoe's not-so-niceness when . She then took it a step further and . And that's just for starters...
 * In the manga, after Arika has an accident with the Artai ambassador, Nagi appears to have his bodyguards ready to kill her, but Nina intervenes, willing to accept punishment in Arika's place. Nagi then has her bend over and repeatedly hits her backside with a riding crop, doing so even more when seeing bandages on her fingers from her attempts to complete her sewing project.
 * Hiten, a Monster of the Week from Inuyasha, comes home with a woman, and when his brother Manten tells him that he failed to collect some jewel shards he discovered, flies into a rage and kills her for no apparent reason. Very gruesomely, too: in the manga he punches a hole through her head, and in the anime, he uses a blast of lightning to fry her to a charred husk.
 * Manten himself was no slouch. He and Hiten had killed and skinned a powerful fox youkai, and when the youkai's son Shippou confronted them, he noticed...that Manten was wearing his dad's fur around his belt. And Manten openly laughed about it in front of little Shippou. Think whatever you want of Shippou as a character, but that was a seriously dickish move.
 * Tsubaki the Dark Priestess gets one when she contaminates the Shikon no Tama with her own miasma, which causes Kagome incredible physical strain and pain. Then, she takes control of Kagome's body and forces her to try shooting Inuyasha, despite an horrified Kagome's protests.
 * While Naraku has had dozens of moments like this, his treatment of Sango at the beginning is specially noteworthy. He pretends to be the handsome Ill Boy White Prince Hitomi to gain her trust and puts a Shikon shard on her back to ease the pain of her injuries. What did he truly want, though? To have her fight to the death due to the Shikon shard nullifying said pain and making her believe she was getting better. When the shard is removed by Inuyasha and his friends, Sango passes out and she's so weakened that it takes her days to even wake up. And what he does to her AND Kohaku goes even further...
 * His verbal beatdown of Kagura as well as squeezing her heart on his hand to make her collapse in pain isn't much better.
 * Smug Snake Jonathan Glenn does this in Brain Powerd when . He had no reason to do that, he just wanted to show off his power and make Yuu suffer.
 * And let's not forget a scene a few episodes before, where Jonathan basically tells Yuu (paraphrased): "". Yeah, Johnny Boy is a jerk.
 * Despite being a hero (well, Anti-Hero), Lelouch from Code Geass gets a definite Kick the Dog moment when Yes, it IS true that.
 * It's meant to show that Lelouch was definitely losing it. On the other hand, considering that one of the  it clearly drives home the point   gave in the previous episode: you never, ever, give   an opportunity. Just take a step back and think about it - Lelouch kills three or four dozen heavily armed soldiers over the course of the series   simply because they give him the few seconds needed to make eye contact, and can create a small army with a half-hours work. Lelouch knows just how stupid it would be to take chances. They're not even victims:   They're dangerous as hell. So, this is more of a "Shoot the Cerberus" moment, because he can't win with any other method, and he can't run, because they'll attack him, and he can't defeat them if they have the advantage of surprise, and he's only avoided them because they don't realise he knows about them.
 * Charles did this to Lelouch as well on a couple of crucial occasions as well (like saying "old news, what about it?" when young Leluch called him out on his indifference towards Marianne's murder).
 * And let's not forget Schneizel, either, via He also  The bastard doesn't stop there, though.
 * The Pretty Cure villains are pros at this.
 * In Episode 11 of Futari wa Pretty Cure, after assuming his monstrous form to fight Nagisa/Cure Black and Honoka/Cure White, Gekidrago becomes so frustrated that
 * Femme Fatale Poisonny's tactics almost always involve some dog kicking, mainly using mind control over a group of bystanders and using them as meat shields. The brainwashing of two of Nagisa and Honoka's schoolmates in Episode 14 comes to mind.
 * In Splash Star, the very first thing Karehan (the first member of Dark Fall's Quirky Miniboss Squad) does is beat up Flappy and Choppy to force them to give up information about the Source of the Sun.
 * It seems that villains, in that series, are at their worst when they're about to be killed by the heroines. In Episode 13 of Splash Star, Moerumba destroys a glass sculptor's work in front of Saki and Mai just to prove his point that might makes right.
 * Shitataare, while a somewhat humorous villainess, seemed to try her best to get under Saki and Mai's skin by repeatedly reminding them of . Pretty much the only villain who refrained from punting the pup in that season, other than Michiru and Kaoru themselves, was Kintolesky, because of his obsession with fighting fair.
 * Jerkass road racer Shingo from Initial D. We first witness him He continues his Kick The Dog moments by   But this turns into , and since then Shingo is more of a Jerk With a Heart of Gold.
 * In Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, little Marie's entire family (including her dog) are gunned down by the Neo Atlantian soldiers just because they're that mean.
 * And don't forget when
 * attack on a near-defenseless Yukino in  Mai-HiME punctuated her Face Heel Turn.
 * Also, Nao, did you really need ? The worst part is that  attempted to stop the fight in which Nao.
 * It initially appears as though was responsible for, but it later turns out that it was actually . Her reason?
 * It initially appears as though was responsible for, but it later turns out that it was actually . Her reason?


 * Because"


 * Really not helped by how, before that puppy punting happened,
 * In Saint Seiya, Aquarius Camus is quite a Knight Templar, and we get to see that clearly when
 * Creepy Twins Thanatos and Hypnos are much worse, as
 * Cancer Deathmask actually introduces himself by kicking puppies, as in the anime he throws a blind Shiryu down the Rozan cascade because he tried to defend his Old Master Dohko.
 * One of the moments when we're 100% aware that Hilda has become a Dark Messiah is when she kills a little singing bird. And later, we see her verbally abusing  to deliberately encourage his rivalry with, fully aware of how much the first hates the latter.
 * also does this via not only mocking  and taking up his "offer" of , but by
 * In the fillers, the trope is discussed when  For them, this is  ; for, their POV is bullshit and they did it For the Evulz.
 * In Yakitate!! Japan, we see just how rotten Tsukino's stepsister Yukino is in a flashback, where Yukino throws the ashes of Tsukino's late mother onto a tree while laughing like a maniac. A very jarring moment for a comedy about bread-making, especially since it's all but forgotten after that scene.
 * One Piece has a literal version of this. Before we even get a look at her face, the very first thing "Pirate Empress" Boa Hancock does is kick a kitten that simply happened to be in her path.
 * Hancock is absolutely smitten with this trope. In the very next chapter she destroys a clay statue of her that the tribe's children worked on, claiming that it ruined the aesthetics, before proceeding to toss the tribe's elder through a window (though to be fair, she did know said elder was Made of Iron), and if that wasn't enough, in the next chapter she petrifies three of Luffy's newfound allies when they try to reason with her. Luckily for the side of good, that just happens to be one of Luffy's Berserk Buttons...
 * She's at it again, a few chapters later she comes across a puppy and a baby seal...guess what happens. What makes this particularly notable is this is after her Heel Face Turn, although technically, almost none of the Kuja even suspect she went through a Heel Face Turn and oddly, almost none of them were aware she was cruel to them in the first place.
 * Earlier in One Piece, there was an even more literal version of this when minor villain Mohji the Lion Tamer kicked an Angry Guard Dog in his path. He then proceeded to cross the Moral Event Horizon by taking the only thing the dog cared about (a pet shop once owned by his deceased master) and burning it to the ground right in front of him. Cue the asskicking for Luffy.
 * During the Buster Call in Enies Lobby, we are briefly shown a Marine captain so ruthless his immediate response to a subordinate hesitating to fire on a base full of their own men, is to shoot this officer in the face.
 * Also subverted quite cleverly at the start of the Loguetown arc. When we first meet new villain Smoker, he is walking down the street looking generally sinister. A little girl running around with an ice cream cone accidentally bumps into him and ruins his marine uniform by getting chocolate all over his pants. Smoker gives the girl an intense, hard look...and then sweetly apologizes for bumping into her. He even gives her money to buy even more than she lost. Especially effective since up to this point, all the villains in One Piece had been irredeemable bastards; Smoker is the first antagonist with real moral complexity to him.
 * Crocodile stabbed Robin just because he had no more use for her and doesn't trust anyone.
 * Akainu attacked his own fellow man for refusing to participate in battle against the White Beard pirates, and even nearly killed Coby for the same reason.
 * In Gundam 00 the Federation military unit A-Laws is established as pretty mean when they arrest an innocent Saji Crossroad for hanging out with a suspected rebel, who they both shoot and beat up for trying to run away. Saji gets sent to what appears a penal colony created solely to make the inmates' lives a living hell, and then the A-Laws test their brand spanking-new killbots by letting them run amok in the colony. And then they get a Kill Sat...the first time it is used, a refugee camp gets destroyed. It gets worse from there...
 * The oft-cited "Nena attacks a wedding out of frustration/boredom" incident also counts, since her character was established one episode earlier as a playful yet mentally unstable child soldier (her older brothers are much less on the "playful" side...especially Michael).
 * And then, which is a Kick the Dog moment in itself.
 * In one episode of Fushigi Yuugi, while talking with underlings, Nakago takes a canary out of its cage and crushes it in his hands, just for the heck of it.
 * And there's also his role in, in which he clearly knows how disturbed the guy is upon  , and he encourages him to "take revenge"...
 * Now and Then Here And There plays this literally. Except it's a cat. And it's not kicked, it has its neck snapped when Hamdo has a tantrum.
 * In the end credits for "Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~", main character (and assassin) Zwei is depicted repeatedly shooting a target's sad-eyed dog after he's killed her. One assumes we're meant to take this to mean that he's edgy and dangerous in his brainwashed and confused assassin persona.
 * In Eyeshield 21, pretty much anything that Agon does. Highlights include: taking Kurita's spot at Shinryuuji just to spite Hiruma; perving on, accosting and nearly assaulting Mamori; nearly taking Sena's eye out at the tournament drawing; beating up the sympathetic Zokugaku Chameleons; intentionally dislocating the rather puppy-like Mizumachi's shoulder in a scrimmage, pretty much all the nasty things he says to his less talented but much nicer twin brother, and attempting to break the knees of a child in a wheelchair.
 * Romeo X Juliet's Lord Laertes Van di Montague does this regularly, but the worst (aside of the terrible massacre of the Backstory) is  For no other reason than proving a point to  .
 * In Blade of the Immortal, Shira not only kicks the dog, but . Of course, we already know Shira is beyond Moral Event Horizon and accelerating.
 * The World Is Mine introduces its Villain Protagonists by showing Wild Child Mon casually toss the girl he was having sex with out of their moving car onto the freeway. Mon's partner Toshiya's slide into complete monstrosity happens when he tortures and kills an elderly couple.
 * In his early appearances, Mayuri Kurotsuchi from Bleach was clearly designed to be loathed by the audience due to the near constant abuse he levelled towards his daughter and lieutenant, Nemu.
 * There's also the part where he tries to kill Ikkaku when he refuses to answer his questions, before Kenpachi stops him.
 * Gin Ichimaru is introduced by slicing off Jidanbo's arm (only making a gash in it in the anime) and suggesting that he should have died defending the gate. And then there's his falsely offering to help save Rukia and all his friends before her execution just to raise and dash her hopes. Not to mention how
 * Byakuya does some pretty assholish things in the Soul Society arc, such as refusing to allow Renji to be treated when he's defeated (which earns him a harsh scold from Renji's friend Momo in the anime), attempting to overkill Ganju simply for being a Shiba, and openly insulting the more merciful captains such as Ukitake. In fact, some believe that if it wasn't for his Freudian Excuse , he would've crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
 * Tousen, . Subverted later, as.
 * has kicked many puppies, but two of these have pretty much been mutilated under the force of his kicks: How does he do such things?  And much later?
 * It Got Worse; when Hitsugaya finds, he apologizes...and says he should've.
 * Don't forget killing just because he was pissed off that.
 * And then
 * Practically everyone who suffered in the story is HIS fault.
 * While Yamamoto isn't a villain, his method of telling Nanao it was futile for her to follow Kyoraku was cruel: he knocks her unconscious merely with his Battle Aura, causing Kyoraku to quickly get his lieutenant out of range. The old man was right, as Nanao realises whilst still paralysed/in shock that there's no way Kyoraku and Ukitake can defeat their commander and teacher, but was it really needed?
 * has now done this. He used his power to
 * taunts Ichigo
 * 's murder of can be seen as this too. Okay, so  is something.  is...something else.
 * isn't much better, what with
 * Miss Minchin in Shokojo Sera literally does this, except that it's Kick The Cat, and the cat gets its revenge fairly soon. Ironically, she soon undergoes a probable Heel Face Turn, and is seen holding the same cat in her arms an episode later.
 * Deathsaurus in Transformers Victory leaves the Dinoforce to die on Atlantis after he gets enough energy to reactivate his evil fortress of doom. Tragically, they keep on stealing energy while under the impression that he's going to return.
 * In previous series, Transformers Super God Masterforce Wilder does that early in the series. Literally.
 * Grewcica in the Gunnm OVA kills the dog that Gally picked up. Gally then uses the pup's blood to paint her face, giving herself the marks we know so well.
 * In Kinnikuman, Mixer Taitei does an almost literal example (but ratchets up the brutality) by needlessly killing a helpless puppy with his blender blades, thoroughly establishing him as one of the most monstrous heels Kinnikuman would ever face. In Nisei, you also have Dialbolik/Tel Tel Boy killing famous wrestlers just to get an audience's attention.
 * In the fourth arc's witches' tea party in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, cracking up at poor  terrible fate was one of the big shots across the bow to keep an eye on those two.
 * How the hell did Erika smashing Maria's dreams in front of her not make this list?
 * Don't forget Rosa going crazy.
 * And then we have.
 * Pretty much every interaction Kinzo has ever had with his sons and daughters is a Kick the Dog moment. A great example would be what he did to, or even "better",
 * Sakyo of Yu Yu Hakusho does this almost literally as it is revealed in his backstory that he tortured animals in his job at a pet shop in his boredom.
 * And then we have Tarukane's horrible treatment of Yukina, in which he tortured her painfully to make her cry her tears of pearls, and took to having Younger Toguro kill her pet birds when she became desensitized to pain.
 * Don't forget Sadist Teachers Iwai and Akashi messing up with Kuwabara's grades deliberately to ruin his promise to get good ones so his friend would be allowed to keep his part-time job. Thankfully, the director catches them on it and fixes the problem.
 * From Ef a Fairy Tale of The Two: while nobody ended up dead and she's not exactly a villain,  feels very much like this. So much that, for some, the scene where   comes off as the girl's karmic punishment rather than the Tear Jerker it may have been supposed to be.
 * OTOH, when, that also felt like punting a pup. To her credit, she does feel bad afterwards.
 * Black Butler: In the first episode of the second season, Alois Trancy stabs his maid Hannah Anasfeloz in the eye with his fingers. For daring to look her master in the eye while serving him. The nerve of her.
 * And later he forces her to strip naked, half to use her dress and half due to this.
 * In the Liar Game,.
 * The Christmas present episode in Jazz was a massive Kick the Dog moment on Naoki's part.
 * About every villain in the Dragonball series performs at least one Kick the Dog moment, from Nappa incinerating a city to nothing to Majin Buu transforming whole crowds of civilians into food and eating them and just minutes before he attempts to kill them all.
 * Izaya does this in Durarara when he spends all of episode 17 making 's life literally HELL, even using   for such purposes.
 * Don't forget his treatment of the distraught Rio Kamichika,
 * Fairy Tail had its fair share of Kick the Dog moments from Gajeel attacking Shadow Gear and Lucy.
 * Fried attacking
 * Faust using as a missile against  so he could have infinite magic among other things.
 * Sakura Gari has too many Kick the Dog moments to mention. Here's a short list: Souma does it to Masataka by  and then further hurts him by  . And Souma has been kicked continuously his whole life by every single responsible adult in his life  . However, one of the two who has repeatedly Kicked The Dog throughout the entire series with absolutely no remorse or conscience is  . This is not a happy series.
 * Don't forget that Souma kicked the pup even harder by
 * And then we meet Katsuragi's other victim:
 * Souma's younger sister Sakurako also gets her pup kicking turn, when she feeds Masataka glass shards hidden in the meal she cooked for him.
 * And you may wonder who is the second unrepentant puppykicker, huh? Well, the reply's here:
 * Aya Misaki from Oniisama E does this quite a bit, but an especially good example is when she mocks both Nanako's middle-class background and Mariko's dysfunctional relationship with her father.
 * 's abuse of  is like kicking a puppy repeatedly - one incident that particularly stands out is when   No wonder Kaoru hates her so much.
 * Choji Suitengu does this constantly throughout Speed Grapher (just as often Kick the Son of A Bitch, actually). He has people who can't pay their debts killed and cashes in their life insurance policies, and the things he puts the teenage Kagura through would make him a Complete Monster, were it not for his Freudian Excuse and Pet the Dog moments.
 * In the anime Steins Gate,  killing   multiple times in cold blood. While the act is relevant to the plot, it has no meaning whatsoever, since it is really difficult to believe that the victim, even if witnessing a kidnapping attempt, would ever be a threat to whoever ordered that.
 * And then  after getting a short Hannibal Lecture gets killed in cold blood by   for betraying the Nebulous Evil Organisation by aiding the heroes. And the execution was pretty pointless, since the organization had no use for both of them anyway.
 * Takatsuki from Wandering Son is typically a Nice Guy, though he has a temper. He went through a period in middle school where one of his close friendships broke apart. Around the middle of this period he told Saori, who is very much in love with Nitori, that she was dating Anna.
 * In the "anime" of Deltora Quest we have the filler villain Oacus, wizard of fire. A young girl with a doll is cleared on of her home, and he proceeds to burn it down. She asks him if he can save her (why is already silly, since he's the very person who burned her place down and unlikely to lift a finger). To which he says, "I certainly could, but I don't want to," and points his magic at the girl's doll.
 * In Berserk, has a horrific Kick the Dog moment within his larger scale Moral Event Horizon during the Eclipse.  was an act of irredeemable evil, but it had the understandable purpose of . However,  served no purpose whatsoever; he had , and so the only possible reason for this particular atrocity was cruelty for cruelty's sake.
 * On a less disturbing but still rather heinous note, Gambino's general treatment of Guts in general. This is the guy who manages to Kick the Dog by petting one on his lap during the nightmare sequence in the second episode. And that's not even mentioning.
 * No matter what you think of  from Kaleido Star, not even   deserves to have   actually
 * Mawaru Penguindrum:  is very much treated in this manner. Even more-so by
 * Another example is
 * isn't above this, either. He could have perfectly  in episode 12, but waits until   to appear, while subtly   And even worse case is when
 * And then we have  kicking some pups as well, when
 * Tiger and Bunny: villain Jake Martinez holds the city of Sternbild hostage and decides to toy with them by challenging the Heroes one-by-one to duel with him, only to brutally defeat and mock them.
 * Jake doesn't hold a candle to the real Big Bad . Not only does he Mind Rape his protege   into submission through Laser-Guided Amnesia, but also has   brutally killed and blames it on   by giving everyone Laser-Guided Amnesia. Had he succeeded, not only would   have lost his Parental Substitute, but might also have unknowingly murdered, if not imprisoned for life, his best friend!
 * While Togenishia and Yabooki from Hana Noko Lunlun were mostly a Goldfish Poop Gang, sometimes they did shockingly terrible acts. An example happens in the Netherlands arc when . Another takes place in the Italy arc, where   The worst one happens in the Grand Finale:   For no other reason than being butthurt because Lunlun was taking some days off.
 * Jake doesn't hold a candle to the real Big Bad . Not only does he Mind Rape his protege   into submission through Laser-Guided Amnesia, but also has   brutally killed and blames it on   by giving everyone Laser-Guided Amnesia. Had he succeeded, not only would   have lost his Parental Substitute, but might also have unknowingly murdered, if not imprisoned for life, his best friend!
 * While Togenishia and Yabooki from Hana Noko Lunlun were mostly a Goldfish Poop Gang, sometimes they did shockingly terrible acts. An example happens in the Netherlands arc when . Another takes place in the Italy arc, where   The worst one happens in the Grand Finale:   For no other reason than being butthurt because Lunlun was taking some days off.