Karma Houdini/Anime: Difference between revisions

** Which is not to forget that throughout the course of the ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' anime, [[Psycho Lesbian]] / [[Smug Snake]] Tomoe has amassed for herself a pretty long rap sheet: assault, vandalism, attempted murder, kidnapping, blackmail, {{spoiler|attempted rape... of a ''high-ranking school official''}}, aiding and abetting terrorists, and at one point openly declared that she intended to kill anyone who stood in her way (read: ''everyone''), and has shown no remorse for any of it. She never receives any sort of formal punishment, and the only retribution she gets for this is a few broken bones after falling out of the sky... which ''barely'' counts as a slap on the wrist compared to the lives she tried to ruin. She comes back in ''[[Mai-Otome Zwei]]'' clean as a whistle, presumably to do the same things all over again.

** John Smith from [[Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~]]. He kidnaps Sifr to take control of the ancient technology, and while he loses the Schwarz Space Station, M9 and quite a few of his men, he escapes in the end, albeit because the heroes' mission was about protecting Sifr rather than defeating Schwarz.

* Because it only covered about 60% of the manga, the ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' anime ends with Kakuzawa laughing maniacally and declaring his victory. {{spoiler|In the manga, Lucy slices his head off for being a pathetic Diclonius poser, and his plans ultimately come to nothing.}}

* Schwarz of ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' were most likely allowed to become Karma Houdinis, despite being the [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]] of the protagonists and perpetrating quite a lot of carnage, by virtue of gaining enough of a fan following to become [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Ensemble Dark Horses]]. Sequel series ''Weiss Kreuz: Glühen'' sees two of them recast to some extent as [[Heroic Sociopath|Heroic Sociopaths]] and one more performing an arguable [[Heel Face Turn]], but none of them have been redeemed or seen any justice for their various acts of villainy. (Meanwhile, none of the ''protagonists'' escape anything like unscathed.)

* Nina Purpleton in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory]]'' is partially responsible for the success of the colony drop, stabs Kou in the back (after lots of tedious relationship development setting them up as a couple that culminated shortly before this) by running back to her old boyfriend (who happens to be Gato, one of the major villains) and then ''pointing a gun at him'' to ''protect'' the villain, and this on top of being a bitch to Kou for most of the series. And not only does she get off scott-free in the end, she has the audacity to ''smile'' at Kou in the epilogue!

** ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' actually fixes this somewhat, but those don't really count...

* Throughout ''[[Infinite Ryvius]]'', a shadowy conspiracy launched a [[False-Flag Operation|False Flag]] terrorist attack against a school, tried to murder everyone aboard (resulting in the deaths of the entire faculty and many students,) chased after the surviving students (all children) and attempted to kill them all, caused massive collateral damage in the process, blocked the students' attempts to communicate with anyone, framed the students for everything that happened so far, and [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blew up an inhabited moon]]. In the last episodes, one of the naval officers they've duped finds out about the situation and publicly exposes the whole thing before killing himself in shame, the result? They're apparently given administrative control over researching the [[Super Prototype]] spaceship the students survived aboard while being hounded around the solar system in. Oh, and the protagonist (who, up to this moment has been an utter [[Butt Monkey]]) [[My Fist Forgives You|slugs one of them in the face after considering their apology]].

* The protagonist Yamaguchi in [[Suehiro Maruo]]'s ''[http://samehat.blogspot.com/2005/10/poison-strawberry-chapter-one.html Poison Strawberry]''. Karma Houdini for its own sake.

* Needless to say, ''many'' characters in [[Hentai]]. Rare is the sex scene that's consensual throughout for both parties.

* Waiting for that treacherous [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]] Rosemary from [[Ashita no Nadja]] to finally get what's coming to her? Well, when the series ends, you'll ''still'' be waiting. {{spoiler|A slap in the face is literally the most she receives for her crimes.}}

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', Karen and Will were [[Elite Mook|Elite Mooks]] who gleefully attempted to [[Mind Rape]] Blue, made it ''very'' clear that they willingly followed the [[Big Bad]] [[For the Evulz]], and ditched the [[Big Bad]] not because they went through a [[Heel Face Turn]], but because they got scared and ran away. And yet, somehow, {{spoiler|they're now part of the Indigo League Elite Four as of the HGSS arc}}.

* In one episode of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', Chessmaster Hex gets away scott-free simply on the grounds that he's to old and senile to remember the plan he set into motion 50 years ago that just now activated.

* Dilandu in the ''[[Escaflowne]]'' movie gets away scot-free with his surviving Dragonslayers, without showing any remorse for his previous actions. He just shrugs, comments that there will always be new wars for him to fight, and rides off into the sunset. What's worse is that the scene has an extremely positive tone to it, like he somehow deserved to live and continue his life of violence and bloodshed without learning a thing, except maybe "don't try to fight Escaflowne".

* Surprisingly, [[AIR]] of all things have this in the form of the Buddhist Monks. Their crime? {{spoiler|Killing an innocent (albeit powerful) girl who left the temple to go see her mom, then proceeding to put a curse on her soul so that she will die every time she feels love. This leads into Misuzu's death as well.}} They get away with their crimes. The sadder part? Someone ''was'' considering going on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] on them, but was stopped because {{spoiler|it wouldn't be what that girl would want.}}

** ''[[Super Robot Wars Alpha]] Gaiden'' and ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]]'' fix this by killing him off in battle.

* [[Troll|Izaya]] from ''[[Durarara!!]]'' ''does'' get punched for his actions. Once. In the anime only. For emotionally destroying a middle schooler and causing a huge gang war that puts an incredible strain on the relationship between three of the main characters. He also gets hit once by a trashcan Shizuo threw, but this is [[Played for Laughs]] and has no effect on him, and blatantly doesn't make up for having framed Shizuo for numerous crimes and sending wave after wave of thugs to attack him when they were in highschool. The novel however subverts this as karma is starting to come back and hit him particularly {{spoiler|getting stabbed by Jinnai, leaving him in the hospital for days when anyone who hates him can come and kill him.}} Karma seems to have hit him in volume 9 when he's tortured by Earthworm but this is later subverted too {{spoiler|as it turns out he had everything planned out from the beginning and was waiting for the best moment to humiliate her.}}

* In ''[[Love Hina]]'', Kanako rapes Motoko while disguised as Naru to sow chaos among the residents. The incident is briefly mentioned when the residents attack Naru, and then when the real culprit is found, completely forgotten. Kanako suffers no punishment for this and other cruel acts.

** The same can be said for the brutality the other female inmates of Hinata House put Keitaro through. Naru's antics on Keitaro, which, many times, are ''extreme'' overreactions, dip into sociopathy that could warrant arrests.

** Rezo, Rezo, Rezo...a priest who healed people far and wide...and experimented on others, often to the point of death, and sacrificing ''an entire kingdom'' to open his eyes...sure, he apologized in the end, but ''still.''

* In a rare heroic example, it's a wonder {{spoiler|Ariel}} from ''[[Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?]]'' is ''still'' teaching at Matelis after {{spoiler|trying to overthrow Lilia Lilith, Queen of Villiers, a century ago. Her accomplices [[Gender Bender|weren't so]] [[Blood From the Mouth|lucky, though...]]}}

* [[Yandere|Hatori]] from ''[[Sekaiichi Hatsukoi (Manga)|Sekaiichi Hatsukoi]]'' comes off as one. While most semes in yaoi anime tend to get away with raping their uke and said uke falling for them, this series is known for avoiding the [[Victim Falls For Rapist]] trope to make it more realistic. However, what has made people remember Hatori is in the novel {{spoiler|he ''brutally'' rapes his best friend Chiaki after thinking that he lost said best friend to his rival Yanase.}} What makes it stand out though is {{spoiler|during the rape scene, Chiaki is shown to be screaming and begging him his friend to stop and not enjoying it at all unlike other yaoi "rape" scenes.}} Hatori tries to atone by {{spoiler|quitting his job but given that Chiaki is [[Too Dumb to Live|idiot]], he begs him to stay}} and they hook up...thus starting their rather [[The Masochism Tango|unbalanced relationship]] in the series.

** It gets worse as the series progresses. By episode 16, it's like Hatori is trying to see how much he can get away with his [[Yandere]] tendencies. In the episode he gets to cancel his date with Chiaki and expect him to be fine about it, goes to meet his ex girlfriend (of course he was meeting her due to work but Chiaki thought he was cheating on him behind his back, and it's later revealed by Yanase that he went out with a lot of girls during his high school year and that it's not impossible to think that), and finally {{spoiler|barges into Yanase's house and proceeding to beat the crap out of him and then forcing himself into Chiaki's house. And what does he get? He gets yelled at by Chiaki for simply skipping out on the date and he gets Chiaki to calm down easily.}} The last concerning {{spoiler|Yanase}} is the cause of a huge backlash given that {{spoiler|Yanase was just rejected by Chiaki a second time and entered a [[Heroic BSOD]] and Hatori proceeding to beat him up counts as a huge [[Kick Them While They Are Down]] Moment that leaves a bitter taste in the viewers mouth.}}