Beyond the Impossible/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Events in Anime that are not possible. Only list examples that fit the description

  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fits this to a T. Kamina ain't kidding when he says this trope is his group's Standard Operating Procedure. Here's the list of their Crazy Awesome.
    • Death is more of a nuisance for Kamina who can infiltrate a Lotus Eater Machine and escape with his buddies, despite the Anti-Spiral saying both of these events were impossible for 'intelligent life forms'.
    • Simon creates a mecha with Lagann that can kick an enemy to the end of the Space-Time continuum. It makes this big hole in reality.
    • Attenborough can use laser cannons to shoot points in space-time. Not just one point but every point. It's like he's pointing a gun at history. They never made this weapon; Attenborough created it on the spot simply because he wanted More Dakka.
    • Viral is a beast man who was created to be absolutely physically incapable of generating spiral energy, but he becomes so Hot-Blooded he can do it anyway.
    • One of their battles was calculated to have a zero percent chance of success. They succeeded anyway.
    • The whole series' premise plays this trope to the letter, as seen in its theme:

Do the impossible.
See the invisible.
ROW! ROW! FIGHT THE POWAH!
Touch the untouchable.
Break the unbreakable.
ROW! ROW! FIGHT THE POWAH!

Among Black Jack's many medical accomplishments are full-body skin grafts, arm transplants, brain transplants, fingerprint transplants, grafting two people together to share one heart, extracting full-body parasites, operating at lightning speed, operating blind, operating in space, operating on a dozen patients at once, operating on dogs, cats, deer, bears, monkeys, birds, whales, aliens, ghosts, mummies, plants and computers, and removing a parasitic worm from his own intestines while under assault by a pack of wild dingos.

  • Black Jack 21 takes all of this and turns it Up to Eleven. Example scenario: Dr. Black Jack must save the life of the pilot (critically injured by a point blank grenade hit in the cockpit) of a turbulence-ridden and heavily damaged jet so that he may guide someone else into landing it before the plane runs out of fuel and dooms all of its passengers. However, before BJ can do this, he must first get into the cockpit via an emergency exit that can only be accessed by exiting the passenger cabin and climbing atop of the plane's fuselage, all while the plane is still thousands of feet in the air and flying at full speed.
  • Baccano!: The rules of Immortality are spelled out and fixed but Fermet has defied one of the biggies. Namely that being eaten by another immortal is the only way they can die. He's recovered from it twice.
    • Also, Claire Stanfield. He thinks he's God, and considering the stuff he does he may not be too far off the mark.
  • Bleach The entire reason Aizen wants the Hōgyoku; normally there are rules seperating Shinigami from Hollows and he wants to break them. He succeeds only to have him and his last opponent lose that power in order to not completely destroy the conflict.
    • To put it into context, when one transcends both Shinigami and Hollow, they acquire the power to transcend Reason itself. Aizen took this trope literally when he destroyed Koutotsu, a Being of Reason, by letting it ram into him; it exploded on impact.
    • On a smaller scale, Kenpachi can use his shikai without knowing his zanpaktuou's name. There was an entire episode where the The Hero learned the name of his and everyone else has to do the same, but Kenpachi is so freakin' strong he ignored the supernatural rule and forced the shikai.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist is driven by an attempt to break Rule Number One in Alchemy: Equivalent Exchange. It turns out Magic A Is Magic A, and the best thing an alchemist can do is be creative in their price.
    • Although Kimblee acomplishes an impossible feat by not only surviving assimilation by Pride, but holding him back from fleeing into Edward's body.
      • Technically not impossible; the reason most people would be assimilated is that the constant pressure of the suffering of millions of souls would break their minds, rendering them unable to concentrate enough to maintain individuality. Unlike Lin Yao, who survived through sheer force of will, Kimblee says that he survived because not only were the screams of the suffering not unpleasent, they were like music to him. Knowing Kimblee, he probably wasn't bluffing
  • Dragonball Z: The Supreme Kai thinks this when he finds out how powerful the earth Saiyans are. To explain: this guy is the series' equivalent of God and yet his power level is nothing compared to them. The saiyans outgrew him by refusing to accept a limit to their potential power.
    • Let's elaborate. Goku, in his base and weakest form, is miles ahead of the Supreme Kai in terms of raw power. [1]. His son, Gohan, is even stronger after the oldest god in the universe unlocks his powers. Buu is also stronger than Goku. Buu proceeds to absorb Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Piccolo. With that much power, he can destroy the universe if angered into using it. So, you've got that written down? Now imagine that Vegetto, the fused form of Goku and Vegeta using the Gods' earrings, is even STRONGER than that... in his base form. Now try to picture how much real estate damage he could do as a Super Saiyan 3. Or worse. As a Super Saiyan 3 Giant Monkey.
      • Don't forget Gogeta Super Saiyan 4. He is the fusion of Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan 4 form, who are stronger than almost anything in the series. A flick of his finger could end the universe as we know it.
    • Speaking of Vegetto, when he got turned into a jawbreaker by Super Buu, he revealed he could not only control himself in that state, but actually effectively fight him, and was probably even more dangerous as a candy drop, because of the small size and speed that made it harder for Buu to fight him. No other character has even demonstrated that they could become completely mobile when Buu turned them into candy. The implication with Vegetto is that he could by simply being that strong.
  • Detective Conan Movie 5: Countdown to Heaven. Conan jumps between two skyscrapers on a skateboard. And it only gets crazier from there.(Warning: some spoilers for the ending.)
  • Death Note: Light tries to do this with the Death Note's rules but Magic A Is Magic A and he can only fake it. It bites him in the ass later on.
  • Diebuster: To quote from the final episode: "Impossible...the black hole is going to split...That's not allowed in this universe...
  • Digimon Adventure commenced before the Ultimate (dub Mega) level was introduced in the broader canon, so the level only first appeared within the last third of the series; as such the series generally called the Perfect level the strongest level and its members "fully-evolved" and "strongest Digimon". It was introduced by Vamdemon, already an immensely powerful Perfect who had already singlehandedly overwhelmed the heroes several times before being killed, being resurrected as the Ultimate-level VenomVamdemon and proceeding to wipe the floor with the heroes. Yamato compares it to changing the rules partway through the game.
    • And they continue this in every season, with the protagonists reaching Mega as soon as it becomes necessary... and every single time, it comes as a result of what can only be called divine intervention.
      • Season 1 - Two of the protagonists get shot by holy arrows.
      • Season 2 - The Digital World's equivalent of a god lends them their power.
      • Season 3 - The Digimon merge with their partners to reach Mega, and require the power of the aforementioned god to do it outside of the Digital World.
      • Season 4 - The angels that rule over the Digital World give them the power.
  • FLCL It's kinda hard to tell if there are any rules to begin with but a few likely candiates are
    • It's established early on and confirmed near the end that N.O. capability humans need to be hit by Haruka's bat to use their heads as portals. That never happens to Eri, yet she summoned a Medical Machinan machine after headbutting Naota
      • It's in the director's commentary. It was because of how Naota and Eri knocked noggins when Naota is hit by Haruka's moped earlier. There's some kind of transitive property to it.
    • How does Canti fly in the second episode? It's like he took fake decorative wings and made them magic when no one was looking. "It flies around like its never heard of gravity."
    • On a meta level, it has more double entendres and half-veiled sexual references than some hentai, and yet it's definitely neither that nor ecchi.
  • G Gundam. It starts with things like a Giant Robot shaped like a windmill or a Sailor Moon expy from Sweden (Sunrise doing a Take That to rival Toei, maybe?), and ends with The Power of Love taking the form of an actual King of Hearts. Remember, the people doing this are a martial artist and his Wrench Wench. Neither of them have supernatural powers.
    • Then there's Master Asia, who regularly beats the crap out of giant robots with a cloth belt...its length seems to vary greatly depending on need. And his giant robot has a Giant Robot unicorn...which is piloted by his horse.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima features Jack Rakan who does this regularly. For example: a particular villain had warped reality so that he ceases to exist entirely, prompting a Heroic BSOD and Super-Powered Evil Side relapse in the Kid Hero. Rakan immediately wills himself back into existing temporarily, for the sole purpose of smacking Negi upside the head. Chisame says he has 'infinite cheats'.
    • Vampires (In the second anime at least) are stated to be weak to garlic but Evangeline adds it to her ramen.
    • A prerequisite of a Pactio is having a soul. Chachamaru believed she couldn't get a Pactio because she is an artificial construct. Either she really did have a soul, or Negi's magic is great enough to screw over the rules of the Pactio system and create a soul.
    • The Class Rep broke the Pactio system when she pacted with Negi; her love for him was so great she inverted the spell and became the dominant partner in the contract, despite not actually having any magical power, one of the only examples of love being quantifiably taken Beyond the Impossible.
  • Naruto Killer Bee uses seven swords, at once, without his hands, and it works. He can also transform into his biju without going nuts, which the previous two jinchuriki (one of them The Hero) demonstrated to be impossible.
    • Other examples include Kushina surviving having the Kyuubi extracted from her, something that was assumed to be universally fatal, and the Third Raikage No Selling a Rasenshuriken, an attack that, up to this point, had pretty much instantly disintegrated everything else it hit. Even the Kyuubi took more damage from it.
    • Chapter 533: Chouji grows chakra wings without using the three soldier pills in succession, a feat that blows away his own father.
  • One Piece: Zoro can talk with a sword in his mouth. Sanji can ignite his legs with stomping and not get burned. UNDERWATER, even. He kicked Duval pretty. A sword ate a fruit that turns it into an elephant. Their creator says their 'heart' does it, somehow.
    • Actually, the last one is some sort of breakthrough by the series' resident Omnidisciplinary Scientist, Vegapunk by name. He's been mentioned several times, but never seen; Oda has hinted that when he finally makes his appearance, a lot of questions will be answered.
    • There's also Blackbeard, who somehow managed to steal Whitebeard's Devil Fruit powers; almost two hundred chapters prior, it was stated that anyone who tried to use the power of more than one Devil Fruit would literally explode, and it still hasn't been explained how he did it.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. It was ultimately so confusing that not only was the mascot baffled, not only were the protagonists baffled, not only was The Chessmaster who planned most of it baffled, the writers themselves were baffled and have stated that they have to go back and read it again.
  • Durarara!!'s Shizuo. First of all he's super strong in a show that (some elements aside) is pretty realistic. More impossible, he's broken so many bones its amazing he can even walk. His buddy Shinra, a doctor, stopped trying to figure out how he does it.
  • The Slayers uses theurgic magic (meaning it draws from faith in Gods or Demons). Martina uses a curse, on raw willpower drawing from the energy of a spirit that doesn't actually exist, since she made it up. Granted, it isn't nearly as impressive as nearly anyone's magic, but that she can use this at all, even for minor curses or dowsing, is, well... a bit insane.
  • Baki the Grappler:
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its SpinOffs Puella Magi Kazumi Magica and Puella Magi Oriko Magica are all full of Wham Chapters and Wham Lines.
  • In Crest of the Stars Ekuryua's driving is so bad that she induces motion sickness in a shuttle full of Abh. This is supposed to be impossible because Abh are genetically engineered to fly in ships without inertia dampening.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Sakaki Shio, the "100-dan" karate master of Ryozanpaku, versus Akira Hongo, the "God Fist" of YAMI's One Shadow Nine Fists. They engage each other in battle and manage to knock each other unconscious at the same time after a grueling fight. And they keep right on fighting DESPITE BEING COMPLETELY UNCONSCIOUS .
  • Marcus from Digimon Savers once broke an unbreakable shield with his bare fist.
  • Luke in The Sacred Blacksmith specializes in forging katanas. Eventually he forges a katana that is so perfect, so sharp, that he sticks it into a table and orders someone to take their sword and strike the katana. Remember, this katana is at rest. Absolutely no motion or force is behind it. The other sword is swung at full force and it's blade gets sliced cleanly in half without so much as leaving a scratch on the katana. Impossible would be the Katana surviving the strike. In this case, Beyond the impossible is the striking weapon being cleanly destroyed without so much as a resulting blemish in the effort. This isn't even one of his magically forged ones (those actually break pretty easily). This one was made the mundane way with mundane materials and yet it still does the above.
  • Kämpfer Natsuru gets married With himself. and even more impossible he has a little girl with himself. Despite all this it could be averted as there was a lot of weird stuff in that episode.
  • Despite a lot of extreme and reality bending abilities in Medaka Box, Aka Aoki has the distinction of an Abnormality that is impossible according to the series' own logic. She can infect any person with any sickness ...and she uses it to cure any damage done during Flask 13 and the subsequent trials.
  • Averted in Midori no Hibi. One of Seiji's classmates claimed he did this by punching out a car but Seiji sweatdrops and says that's impossible.
  • Heroic Age. Bellcross punches a BLACK HOLE.
  • High School DxD. Issei accidentally summoning the breast god that other gods don't know about thought that it was crazy definitely counts.
  • Fushigi Yuugi has a place in Kotou called the "Shrine of Seiryuu"; a Physical God that stands opposed to the god Suzaku. In this place, the warriors of Suzaku are forbidden entry by a magic barrier that specifically targets them and the priestess of Suzaku is paralyzed. Chichiri can get in nonetheless because "I'm trickery, you know?" while Tomahome is powered by love. To a native of the Universe of the Four Gods this is as impossible as someone ignoring the laws of Thermodynamics in real life.
  • Shakugan no Shana. Tenmoku Ikko can cut Fecor's Magnesia with the Nietono no Shana; a feat that no Crimson Lord has ever matched. He's just a torch with a treasure tool!
  • The Animatrix has three examples:
    • In World Record, Dan manages to run fast enough to cause glitches in the Matrix as it struggles to keep up with him. Even when the Matrix freezes the program, it doesn't stop him for long.
    • After the Machines manage to reconnect him and make sure he can never walk again, he briefly manages to glitch gravity and begin floating.

Dan: FREE!

    • In Kid's Story, The Kid managed to wake himself up from the Matrix, an act nobody considered possible.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure did it to a lesser extent when new Stands appearing in Part 4 and later seemed to break previously established limitations:
    • Part 4 introduces some peculiar Stands that allow a single person to effectively have two Stands at a time (Boy II Man and Cheap Trick), effectively breaking the "only one Stand per user" rule.
    • Also in Part 4, Killer Queen and its secondary attacks, Sheer Heart Attack and Bites The Dust, introduce the concept of Automatic Stands and break the rule of "longer range means less powerful". At least Automatic Stands have the weakness of being predictable and out of direct control when far from their user.
    • After the concept of a "mirror world" was deemed ludicrous in Part 3, Man in the Mirror in Part 5 has a power based exactly on this concept.
    • Notorious B.I.G in Part 5 is the first Stand in the series able to live on with its user dead and no object to bind to, making it effectively indestructible.
  • In K-On! high school [sic], Ui plays a guitar line that her music teacher is certain requires six fingers on her hand to play. Yes, Ui has normal hands.
  • In the Doma Arc of Yu-Gi-Oh, Dartz (being the Big Bad) naturally has a deck that is ridiculously overpowered, culminating in the summoning of Divine Serpent Geh, whose ATK is infinite. But the Trope is expanded on a turn later, where Yami counters this with Knight of Destiny, whose attack Score is beyond infinite. Interestingly, these cards do haveOCG counterparts, but their effects are at least understandable.
    • The idea of “beyond infinite” is in fact contradicted in Yu-Gi-Oh! R (which is Loose Canon at best, but then, so is the Doma Arc) where Yami uses Obelisk the Tormentor to defeat Tenma’s Wicked Avatar. The Avatar is Nigh Invulnerable because it is a top-tier Divine card, (which makes it impervious to the effects of all Spells and Traps, plus the effects monsters except Divine Beasts of the same Tier, which only includes itself and the Winged Dragon of Ra) and its own effect makes its ATK equal to the ATK of the opposing monster plus 1. Yami is able to defeat this by using a special Spell Card called Divine Evolution on Obelisk the Tormentor, causing it to evolve one Divine rank higher, and then using Obelisk’s own effect to make its ATK infinite. The Wicked Avatar cannot make its own ATK higher than that no matter how hard it tries, so the result of the battle is (as per the rules of Duel Monsters) a draw resulting in Mutual Kill, and the Avatar’s defeat breaks the curse put upon Tenma.
  1. ↑ Whilst he doesn't know how to use it to do anything other than blowing up, it's still power, and it's also the only reason why he's lower in the Super Weight class than the gods.
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