What the Hell, Hero?/Anime and Manga

"Blue: So you forgive me, right? Sabrina: DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH."
 * Code Geass
 * The "Kallen Combo" would count as a pretty good example of calling (a guy who claims he is) the hero out on his actions. Suzaku tries to apologize to Kallen And her entire speech (in between punches) can be summed up with this trope.
 * Nunnally also gets in one or two before then with Suzaku: she gives off a very disturbed expression when she hears Suzaku call Kallen by her prisoner number when he requests to interrogate her, and in the following episode, after being refused in her requests to Suzaku to touch his hand to know if he is telling the truth or be assured that her brother Lelouch is safe, she calls him out for being a liar.
 * Episode 19 of R2 has the entirety of Black Knights (except for Kallen) doing this to Lelouch when they hear it from Schneizel: Lelouch has
 * In the Grand Finale,
 * Episode 15 has Lelouch give one of these to C.C., regarding and giving Geass to people knowing what can happen with it. She eventually.
 * Mao also gives one to Lelouch and Suzaku.
 * Of all people, Benjamin Franklin in the official backstory. He betrayed Washington and the rest of the Founding Fathers in exchange for becoming a nobleman. Fans think he was Geassed.
 * Shizuru Fujino from Mai-HiME gets an earful from Haruka Suzushiro and Yukino Kikukawa when she essentially abandons her Student Council President post to protect Natsuki from Nao (not to mention kissing her sleeping body when no one else was around); Yukino in particular complains about her never acknowledging Haruka's efforts to surpass her, doomed as they may be, and Haruka slaps her for insulting Yukino and for being a Schoolgirl Lesbian. She takes this as a slight against both her and Natsuki, and.
 * Uryuu Ishida from Bleach gets called out by Ichigo for using Hollow bait, attracting lots of monsters, in the middle of a town filled with innocent people, all in order to have a hollow-hunt-off with Ichigo.
 * When Momo Hinamori attacks Gin Ichimaru in a rage, believing him to have murdered her captain, Izuru Kira, Gin's lieutenant, gives one to her while fighting her to protect his captain, calling her out on confusing public and private matters. Later on in the anime, when Rangiku visits her in her cell, she gives her another one, saying that she should have given more thought to her position as lieutenant of the fifth division, and considered how best to lead after Aizen's death.
 * Shortly before the Hueco Mundo arc, Tatsuki calls Ichigo out on leaving her in the dark about him being a shinigami and the situation with Orihime.
 * In the battle for, Ikkaku fights against one of Barragan's faction, and while he has bankai, he chooses not to use it to prevent himself from being forced to become a captain and leave Kenpachi's service. As a result, the strategically important pillar he is protecting is destroyed, and Iba calls him out on disobeying orders for his own desires.
 * A heartbreaking one occurs in Chapter 453 when Tatsuki calls out Ichigo for  What makes it worse was that
 * The Prince of Tennis's Akaya Kirihara, a child-like and cheerful guy who turns into a Tyke Bomb when in the courts, is the first one to get called out. One of the managers, An Tachibana, is ; at some point she corners him to talk about that, but a verbal fight ensues, since Kirihara himself resorted to
 * The second one is An herself. After her fight with Kirihara and, An understandably panics and pretends to not know anything, so someone else is blamed by the others - Akira Kamio, An's Unlucky Childhood Friend. Ryoma unmasks her, and Kamio reprehends An for her conduct because, as angry as Kamio himself is, he wouldn't deliberately resort to violence. (As for Kirihara himself, he has kept his trap shut because he doesn't want even more problems for An and himself.)
 * And the third is Ryoma Echizen. He had been acting uninterested and bratty all the while, ignoring the challenge posed by a certain boy named Kevin Smith...until he sees Kevin play. Ryoma then practically demands to be in the Senbatsu team, which is seen by sub-coach (and Seigaku captain) Tezuka as a very rude request because Ryoma is putting his personal desire over the team's needs (seen as a huge insult to the team). Tezuka is actually so upset that he.
 * Haruhi Suzumiya: Kyon often calls the series eponymous character on her more sociopathic antics. Normally she just ignores him and even when she does back down she never concedes that she was over the line. But when she and followed it up by, Kyon was so furious that he actually tried to hit her. Fortunately Koizumi stopped him
 * In the books, he also calls out adult Mikuru on her mistreatment of her past self.
 * Subverted for the majority of Berserk. In the first story arc, Guts lets himself get captured by some soldiers after killing a couple of bandits, knowing full well that the bandit leader will destroy the town he's in to kill him. When Puck calls him out on this, Guts laughs it off and replies that if the townspeople can't defend themselves, then they deserve to die. Throughout the series, Puck reprimands Guts for his actions, but the trope is averted because Guts couldn't care less about Puck's feelings and is never presented as a good guy to begin with.
 * However, this all comes tumbling down at the beginning of the Conviction Arc. Before the above events happened, and after the tragic Eclipse, Guts left  Casca in the hands of Godo, an aged blacksmith with a small daughter Erica, and Rickert, a young boy and  . He then left to hunt Apostles and the Godhand and returned two years later only to learn Casca wandered away from Erica in the woods and is now missing. Guts flew into a rage and started yelling at Rickert for losing her and for not being out looking for her. Erica tearfully told Guts he all but disappeared on them for two years and that Rickert did go looking for her but returned to support them as Godo's been seriously ill. Godo, dying of old age, pointed out that Guts himself abandoned her in his own rage and as such he had no right yelling at Rickert. He also noted that Guts had allowed hate and anger to consume him in his grief over the Eclipse. This is the first time that the What the Hell, Hero? lecture is played straight in Berserk, as it causes Guts to make the protection of Casca his top priority and he begins to revert to how he was before the Eclipse. Even Puck is surprised that Guts' entire attitude changed when it came to saving one woman.
 * In Mirai Nikki, Yukiteru calls Yuno on her claim that she To put it in his words: "What the hell?!"
 * In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and the second series, several of Roy Mustang's colleagues, particularly Ed and Armstrong, have this reaction when Roy kills by burning her alive because she's suspected of killing his friend
 * Later,
 * Also in Fullmetal Alchemist 's manga and second series, Ed has one of these moments with Ling after the prince While the second Greed wasn't exactly a hero, he still got one from Ling when he
 * A Running Gag in Hajime no Ippo is to have Coach Kamogawa loudly calling Takamura out on his jerkassery, even beating him up with his walking stick.
 * In Yu Yu Hakusho, Kuwabara gives one to Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama when they go off to the Demon Plane in the Three Kings arc, claiming that they are no better than the demons they fight in their seeking battle.
 * "You should go to the . In fact that's probably the best thing for everyone. After looking a demon who's eaten humans in the eye and distinctly referring to those humans as a 'food supply', I don't think you belong in the anymore."
 * Dragonball Z: The final battle with Cell. As Gohan's busy getting beaten to death by Cell (with Goku and the others just standing there watching), Goku wonders out loud what Gohan is waiting for, expecting the fight to bring out Gohan's full power. Team Dad Piccolo (who, frankly, was more of a father to Gohan than Goku was to that point), disgustedly calls out Goku for healing Cell and then just standing there watching him pound the life out of his son. Piccolo points out (correctly) that Gohan wasn't like him or Goku or Vegeta: he didn't revel in the fight; he was just wondering why his own father was just watching him get beat to death, wondering if his father values a fair, manly fight more than his own son's life, and that, even though it would probably cost him his life, he was going to jump in and help. The anime is a bit easier on Goku than the manga -- mostly due to Goku's expression being changed from "Dull Surprise" in the manga to more "Oh Crap! My God, What Have I Done??"
 * Krillin also calls Goku out for letting Vegeta escape after he's facilitated the deaths of their friends and beaten the living hell out of them. Goku just smiles and says he wants to fight Vegeta again. Granted, Vegeta turns into a valuable ally and Krillin pulls a similar trick two arcs later on
 * Bulma also delivers one to essentially the whole Z-Gang for being so fight-obsessed that despite Trunks coming all the way from The Future to tell them about how much of a Crapsack World things'll be due to two renegade androids and giving them three years of prep time, Goku, Tenshinhan and especially Vegeta essentially say "That's too easy, we'll just train until they arrive, cause enough damage to get noticed and when it's all over, we'll just use the Dragonballs to revive everyone!" No wonder Old Kai called them on their reliance on using the dragonballs so often when the audience initially thinks he's just a cranky old geezer for blaming Bulma for making the Dragon Radar.
 * Bulma also calls the remaining Z-fighters out after it seems that Goten and Trunks have been defeated by Buu and Piccolo had destroyed the door to the Time Chamber to stop him escaping, trapping them in there forever. When Krillin cheerily states that Piccolo can just kill them and himself, then bring them back to life with the Dragonballs, Bulma goes ballistic, saying: "They were children, they weren't even meant to fight! You grown men stood back and let this happen!"
 * In One Piece Hannyabal points out that Impel Down is one of the things keeping the world safe, and Luffy causing a mass breakout would cause mass panic. Luffy simply doesn't give a crap about things like that.
 * During Luffy's argument with Usopp, Luffy is about to suggest that if Usopp is so dissatisfied with his decision, he should leave the crew. Sanji kicks Luffy into a wall, angrily telling him to think before he speaks. Luffy apologizes,
 * That whole sub-plot is resolved with another What the Hell, Hero? moment, when, while the others (including Luffy) are discussing Usopp rejoining the crew as if it were a matter of course, Zoro points out that Usopp left the crew willingly in deliberate defiance of Luffy, and said that if Luffy was so spineless to let Usopp back in without making him apologize, then he (Zoro) would leave the crew.
 * In the Drum Island arc, during a tense standoff between the village guards and the Straw Hats, someone fires a shot and Vivi’s shoulder is grazed. Luffy gets angry and it seems as though a fight will break out, but Vivi enters a Pose of Supplication, begging the villagers to let them in, and chastises Luffy for losing control, saying that he’s “not fit to be (their) captain”. Luffy gets the hint, apologizes and follows suit with Vivi, prompting the villagers to let them in.
 * When they reach Fishman Island, Sanji gives such a speech to Jinbei involving the latter's past relation with Arlong.
 * Parodied when Sanji finds out that Luffy spent the two-year timeskip on an island full of women while he was stuck on an island full of Okama.
 * In Pokémon Special, Ruby participated in a Pokemon Contest, only to lose to someone he greatly admired. He blamed his Feebas for the loss, which caused her to run away in grief. While Ruby got better after the initial tragedy of taking his frustrations and failings out on his teammate, Wallace has to spell it out to him first.
 * A Played for Laughs variant happened in the Yellow arc, when Sabrina learns that after she had gone out of her way to protect Blue from Lorelei after they were cuffed together, ) Blue justifies this by saying that she needed to fool Sabrina to effectively fool Lorelei.

"Domon: "Leave of absence? How can she be so selfish?!" Dr. Mikamura: "You fool, you are the selfish one! has always had a strong sense of responsibility, you pressured her until she snapped. That's why the Kasshus can't fully be trusted!""
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh!!, after Yami's use of the seal of Orichalcos results in Yugi losing his soul, Yugi's self-proclaimed girlfriend Rebecca chews him out for this, saying that if he really were noble he would never have done something that horrible. Yami doesn't even try to defend his actions there.
 * Also, during Yugi's duel with, he refuses to let Yami take over. When Yami asks why, Yugi tells him it's because It takes Yami pretty much pleading with him and Mai chewing Yugi out herself to have him change his mind.
 * Note that the above example only happens in the 4Kids! Entertainment dub. In the original version of that episode, Mai was chewing out Yugi for being so focused on Pegasus that he wasn't paying attention to her or their duel; the whole sub-plot wasn't in the original at all, but was added to the dub.
 * In Naruto, Yamato informs Naruto about his injuring Sakura while in four-tails mode, and tells him that if he wishes to bring Sasuke back, he should rely on his own power to do so and avoid becoming agitated enough to go into fox mode. Yamato and Kakashi lecture him after one of his Leeroy Jenkins moments in the Three Tails arc, saying that it put himself and his comrades in danger, but both concede that Sakura's dropping down on Naruto and punching him into the ground was much more effective.
 * Then there's (fake) confession to . In her attempt to stop him from chasing after Sasuke and hurting himself, she wasn't very convincing and caused Naruto to call her out for lying to herself and to him.
 * all get angry with Choji when he
 * Temari and Shikaku both call Shikamaru out in the Rescue Sasuke arc when he considers giving up being a shinobi. Shikaku, in particular, is furious with Shikamaru and calls him a spineless coward, adding that if he drops out of being a shinobi, his team mates will only go off with someone else and possibly be killed, and he has the chance to prevent that happening.
 * Naruto gets called out by on his insistence on trying to do everything by himself.  tells him that doing so is disrespectful to the people that care about him, and it's egotistical of Naruto to think that he can solve all the world's problems by himself.
 * Subverted in Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure, wherein Earlier still, Avdol called Jotaro out for using Star Platinum to break D'arby's finger...until Jotaro himself called out D'arby's attempted slight of hand trick.
 * In Black Butler, Ciel Phantomhive, the Troubled but Cute hero, has gotten one of these from, of all people, Sebastian, his demonic butler. In Chapter 34, After this, Ciel proceeds to . Then comes the Doctor, who reveals that  Ciel reacts violently, insisting that Sebastian  Afterwards, Ciel demands they  Sebastian then reminds Ciel that their job was to  Unfortunately, Sebastian is bound to Ciel's will, so has to obey him.
 * Sailor Moon S has Haruka and Michiru calling out Usagi for being too soft on Hotaru, the local Apocalypse Maiden.
 * In the manga Sailor Moon feels much the same way towards them for immediately jumping to kill Hotaru rather than find a less...murderous way to settle things. They appear a good bit more sympathetic later, when it's revealed that they just don't want the world to end like it did before
 * In the SuperS special, a villain calls out Michiru for destroying a potentially-apocalyptic vase in order to save Haruka, pointing out that she had no idea she wasn't ending the world.
 * In Baccano, Crazy Survivalist Really Seven Hundred Years Old Adorably Precocious Child Czes finds out that there is another immortal, the only thing that can kill him, on the Flying Pussyfoot. He tries to convince Ladd Russo to kill everyone on the dining car to out the immortal. Not only does
 * Legend of Galactic Heroes: Kircheis issues Reinhard a What the Hell, Hero? for not stopping an enemy attack that wiped out an entire planet of innocent civilians (note in the anime version, Reinhard only agreed to consider not intervening, believing he had more time to think about it than he actually did). Years later,.
 * In the manga adaptation of Battle Royale, Yutaka gives Shinji a hell of a one of these
 * The task force call L on several of his actions in Death Note -- both the genuinely extreme ones and the ones that are probably just pragmatic
 * The task force calls Near out for having Misa and Mogi abducted as a precaution, saying that doing so is illegal. However, Mogi reveals that they consented to this.
 * In one episode of Speed Racer, an opponent needs to win to get medicine to save a loved one, yet the title character won't lose on purpose because that is "cheating", despite protests from Trixie.
 * In Ouran High School Host Club, Kyouya calls out Tamaki's father Yuzuru for
 * In the backstory of Seirei no Moribito, normally laid-back and patient healer Tanda called Balsa out over how many people she was killing while working as a bodyguard, asking her how much meaning her vow to save eight lives could possibly have if she was killing so many others to do it. Some two years later, he admits that it came as much out of his fears for her safety and his unrequited love for her as anything else, but Balsa took it to heart nonetheless.
 * In the Bokurano anime, when
 * In the third anime series of Slayers, it's Filia's turn to be called out; even after it's been spelled out to her that the emotionally traumatized Big Bad is beyond salvation, she refuses to have him destroyed out of guilt, which in itself she didn't gain until it is plainly spelled out to her that her race of dragons ended the main villain's out of paranoia.
 * In Mahou Sensei Negima,  essentially calls the collective presence of mages living on earth, pointing out that it's really unethical for them to hide all of their abilities from the rest of the world, especially when a lot of magic is pretty freaking dangerous. Notably, the protagonist admits that she has a point and almost joins her, but ultimately opposes her anyway because while he agrees with her in theory, her methods cause way too much collateral damage for him to be willing to switch sides.
 * In Bakuman｡, the main characters get this after they submit a one-shot manga to a Treasure contest that Eiji Nizuma is judging, thus violating the rules of their contract, and Hattori tells them to consider Miura’s situation.
 * In the Neo HK arc of G Gundam, Domon snaps when  and chews her out rather harshly. When , Domon is told by Dr. Mikamura that he's full of shit.


 * In Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, Garterbelt constantly berates the angels for their selfish and irresponsible behavior. It never works. In episode 13, snaps and calls them out on their callous reaction to
 * In Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2, Saji Crossroad
 * Generally Played for Laughs in Full Metal Panic, with Kaname chewing out Sosuke for one of his plans. Played for drama at the end of the Second Raid, when some soldiers call out Sosuke on his Heroic BSOD, and the fact that he seems about ready to start killing everyone.
 * In the finale of Ghost in the Shell: SAC: 1st GIG, the Umibozu repeatedly call out Section 9 for killing them while resisting arrest, especially when Batou executes one that he'd just Mind Controlled.
 * Eikichi Onizuka in Great Teacher Onizuka often goes to extreme lengths to teach his students (and other teachers) a simple life lesson. These invariably get him into some kind of trouble when the higher-ups find out.
 * In a few instances his students and his friends have called him out on his less noble decisions. For example, Ryuji refuses to talk to him after he starts kissing up to Ms. Daimon and her "points" system, rather than being genuinely concerned with helping his students.
 * Soul Eater: The eponymous character, having taken a level in maturity, calls Black★Star out for his stubbornness. Namely, not recognizing the consequences that could result in telling Cute Witch Angela about Mifune's.
 * In Muhyo and Roji, Muhyo calls out Roji for going alone with Nana to deal with a haunt and failing to bind it with his ward, saying he almost got her killed. Roji earlier tries to give Muhyo one when he thinks he's sending Nana's father's ghost to Hell, but relents when he finds out that he's sending the ghost to the Styx (essentially Purgatory).
 * Shouma Takakura from Mawaru Penguindrum does this twice: once to  and later to   The first one works, as   the second.