Glass Cannon/Anime and Manga

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Examples of Glass Cannons in Anime and Manga include:

  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
    • Fate's Sonic Drive form introduced in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S. It improves on her original Sonic Form by giving her a lot of oomph to complement the speed increase, boosting her magic powers to astounding levels and letting her access Bardiche's Riot Zamber form. But much like the original Sonic Form, all of this comes at the cost of armor, so all it'll take is one good hit to make her fall. Not that it proves to be much of a detriment; so far, only Erio has managed to land a hit during a mock battle in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, where it indeed wiped out most of Fate' Hit Points.
    • Hayate has also shades of this : her spells range from nuclear explosion to... bigger nuclear explosion, but it comes with looooooong casting time and inability to take hits. She even said Caro would win against her in one-on-one. This is counterbalanced by the fact that Hayate almost never fights one on one; even without her other allies, most of the time she still has Reinforce with her, who can separate and hold off a target with a slew of not quite as powerful, but quite a bit faster spells while Hayate prepares her Wave Motion Gun.
    • Lutecia Alpine is an S-rank summoner who, in StrikerS, was capable of summoning insects that rivaled Caro's powers, but had hardly any moves with which to protect herself. However, as of ViVid, she appears to have developed the magical capabilities to fight alone well enough to enter the tournament alongside Vivio and her friends.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima traditional style mages tend to be like this, which is why they have partners to guard them from their opponents while they prepare their big spells. The mark of the highest-level mages is that they grow tough enough to move past this and are powerful enough not to need the protection.
  • The Big Bad of the final arc of Ranma ½ has powers bordering on a Person of Mass Destruction and he can tank Ki Attacks, but a rather pampered life has lead him to be rather weak against physical attacks. Of course this is just compared to the completely Made of Iron fighters in most of the series (he was called a wuss for being moderately injured by a boulder... being thrown by tornado winds that were drilling into the ground and altering the course of an underground river).
    • Cologne has some elements of this as well. Given that she's one of the two most prominent Miniature Senior Citizens and a very Old Master (three hundred years in the anime), this might be somewhat explainable.
    • Akane Tendo as well. Though she can dish out punches with the best of them, she has nowhere near the healing speed or toughness of any of the other characters; while she is too skilled to be The Load in an actual fight, she is still regarded by some as a Damsel Scrappy because she insists on getting into a fight, but somebody (mainly Ranma) usually has to keep an eye on her because she can't take the hits they can.
  • Pikachu fits this trope well in Pokémon. Massively powerful attacks? Check. Tendency to go down quickly in a fight? Oh yeah.
    • A lot of high-Speed, high-Attack Pokémon fall into this. Weavile springs to mind; blindingly quick and decently strong, but pit it against a Fire or a Fighting type and its toast.
  • Louise from The Familiar of Zero. Just like the Mahou Sensei Negima example, her partner/familiar Saitou is here to protect her while she prepares her insanely powerful spells.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Tieria Erde's Gundam in The Movie, the Raphael, is this. It is equipped with Big Friggin' Wave Motion Guns that can also function as Attack Drones. However, due to said Gundam not being equipped with real GN Drives as well as the lack of resources used while it was being created, all defensive capabilities were sacrificed in favor for its offense. His earlier Gundam Nadleeh qualifies as well: it's essentially a Fragile Speedster with the Exia's close-combat attack power. Naturally, it's only used in emergency as it's a Dual Mode Unit, its other form being Gundam Virtue.
      • The GN Arms from the first season too. Lockon absolutely owned everyone with it until Ali incapacitated him with a single well-aimed shot at his beam cannon. Then it turned out the Gundam piloting the exoskeleton is tougher than the actual exoskeleton! Setsuna's close-combat GN Arms fared slightly better as it took a couple of hits before finally succumbing. Another example of this trope is the Gadessa: its main weapon is a Wave Motion Gun with ridiculous range... and not much armor. It still has a backup weapon and a beam saber but its defensive capabilities are nowhere near those of the others, as Lockon took it out in the final battle with a point-blank burst from his Gundam's sidearm after Playing Possum to lure it close.
    • On the subject of Gundam, ANY Univeral Century unit built after the events of the Mobile Suit Gundam F91 movie... since Beam Weapons are so overpowered, by that time, they decided to change plans for future unit development.
  • Tongpu from Cowboy Bebop. The guy can destroy buildings, cause explosions and throw people across rooms, but if ONE little dagger penetrates his leg...
    • Tongpu ends up being almost a One-Hit-Point Wonder because of his Minor Injury Overreaction. He has incredible defensive abilities against virtually all projectile weapons, and nobody had ever thought to/lived long enough to stab him. When Spike does manage to get this hit in, he regresses to childhood, crying out for his mommy before he is squashed flat by the Space World robots.
  • Lillidan Crauser of The Prince of Tennis. He is extremely powerful, able to curb-stomp a bloodshot Kirihara using even greater violent play than him. However, he lacks stamina and defense. Once Kirihara brought out his devil mode...
  • In Hajime no Ippo, minor character Eleki Battery who fought Kimura is definitely one. He is able to keep up with Kimura's speed and has enough power to knock Kimura down in one blow, however, all Kimura needed to do was land one hit to his body to knock him down.
    • Also Ryuichi Hayami, who's got very good counters and speed as well as strength... but one well placed punch and he's out. This gets so bad that, when Kobashi manages to deal him a REALLY well-placed hit in the jaw, the injury he sustains forces him to retire.
    • Ichiro Miyata possesses ungodly speed and techniques, but he's also got a glass jaw inherited from his father that makes him very easy to take down. Hence why he relies so much on counters, which help him develop from a Fragile Speedster into this.
  • Shiki, The Dragon and (sort-of) Squishy Wizard from Black Cat. His normal attacks do more damage than anything this side of the The Hero, the Big Good, and The Big Bad's final moves, but he goes down with one pistol-whip from Train.
    • To be fair, said pistol-whip was a special move that could tear through a Heavily Armored Mook at one-fourth power.
  • The Japanese National Team in Captain Tsubasa. They've got excellent scorers in Tsubasa, Aoi and Hyuga as well as great GK's like Wakabayashi and Wakashimazu, but one of their biggest flaws is how easily their defense can be torn and the rival teams can try their luck at scoring. And since the two Waka GK's are prone to Game Breaking Injuries. . .
    • Single player version: Jun Misugi. Excellent strategist, very dedicated, great at teamwork, marvelous scorer... and with pathetic stamina due to being an ex-Ill Boy. Hence why he's seen more often than not in manager positions and doesn't play until it's mandatory.
  • Similarly, Hisashi Mitsui from Slam Dunk is one of the best 3-point scorers in Japanese HS basketball. But around 3/4 of an intense game, he's almost completely knocked out and unable to merely walk outside the basketball fields.
  • Nami from One Piece. Her Clima Tact can make very dangerous lightning attacks, and while they take some time to charge up, her offensive power with these makes her one of the most dangerous Straw Hats. She is one of the very few people who can hurt Luffy with a regular punch, though it is because she "beats up his spirit". Her durability, however, is very puny and no better than that of real life human.
  • May of Fullmetal Alchemist has quite a few different ranged attacks with her alkahestry, but is one of the least durable characters, partly the result of being a young girl.
  • Alyssa of My-HiME has the ability to cause devastation on a large scale with her Child, Artemis, but unlike other Himes, does not have an Element to protect herself, instead relying on Miyu's assistance.
  • Shin Kazama of the Area 88 manga fits this trope. He deals a nasty blow to Saki's head during a temporary psychotic rage, but Mickey floors him with one punch.
  • Itachi Uchiha is basically this in Naruto. Despite having three of the most powerful attacks in the entire manga, Itachi's base arsenal lacks versatility. Not only that, a sufficiently strong character could One Hit KO if they got close. His stamina is particularly low as well, meaning he can't fight for extended periods. Those three powerful attacks? They cost more than 30% of his total chakra, meaning he can't spam them like his brother Sasuke can. Instead of aiming to beat Itachi in a straight up battle, Sasuke should have aimed to outlast him instead. He becomes more of a Lightning Bruiser as an Edo Tensei since his Cast from Hit Points Susano'o no longer causes damage to his body, he can use it as freely as Sasuke does with his EMS.
  • Freezing: Pandoras are an interesting case. Against each other, they are Lightning Bruisers, but they become this when battling against Novas and Pandoras who have been corrupted by them.
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