39,327
edits
Karma Houdini/Anime: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
(clean up) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 18:
** Kaiba from the original manga. Sure, Yami punished him with a Shadow game and became somewhat more of a [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] in the process, but he still got away with extorting the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons from their original owners, one of whom committed suicide.
* Rimelda of ''[[Madlax]]'' kills off or is responsible for the deaths of the most likable members of the cast, including {{spoiler|Madlax's apparent romantic interest, Vanessa}}. Not only does she survive in the end, but {{spoiler|she gets together with Madlax}}. Presumably Bee Train was trying to replicate their success with ''[[Noir (Anime)|Noir]]''.
* Despite ostensibly being one of the "good guys" throughout 2/3 of the series ''[[Mai-Otome (Anime)|Mai-Otome]]'', [[Spell My Name With an "S"|Nina Wang]], who is the poster child for [[Love Makes You Evil]] and fits into about several dozen other tropes, pulls a selfish, spoiled, bratty [[Face Heel Turn]]. She willingly and freely betrays everything she's ever stood for, tosses her morals and decency aside, murders her best friend, attempts to murder several of her other good friends, aids [[The Empire]] in conquering the world, and almost single-handedly completes 90% of a plan to bring about [[The End of the World As We Know It]]. Her excuse? She's a little cranky that her father (yes, they're not related by blood, but he's still her FATHER) refuses to see her as a woman and fell in love with her friend instead of her. She continues down this path even after her father, the only thing she cares about, basically DIES (he later lived, but she didn't know...) trying to stop it. Her outcome at the end of the series? Happily ever after, never answering for anything she caused or even having to face anyone or anything from her old life to remind or accuse her, taking advantage of her father's amnesia to make him fall in love with her for real this time.
** On the other hand, she becomes [[The Atoner]] in [[Mai Otome Zwei]], working with Nao to investigate the ruins and helping Arika defeat the [[Big Bad]].
** Which is not to forget that throughout the course of the ''[[Mai-Otome (Anime)|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 ''[[Anime/Mai-Otome Zwei|Mai-Otome Zwei]]'' clean as a whistle, presumably to do the same things all over again.
Line 28:
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's'', the [[Artifact of Doom|Book of Darkness]] decides to kill Nanoha and trap Hayate and Fate in [[Lotus Eater Machine|eternal dreams]]. The one responsible for setting up the whole thing turns out to be {{spoiler|Gil Graham}}. That person's fate at the end? {{spoiler|Retiring back in his home country of England, Earth, with his two familiars to keep him company}}. He thought it was [[I Did What I Had to Do|the only way]] to get rid of the [[Clingy MacGuffin|Book of Darkness]] once and for all. It took Nanoha's over-powered ten-member party, ''which included the current master of the book'' plus the [[Wave Motion Gun|Arc-en-Ciel]] to <s>finally destroy</s> temporarily regain control of it.
** Perhaps a more troubling example is the above character's accomplices, {{spoiler|the Lieze twins}}, who, in order to activate the Book Of Darkness, {{spoiler|absorb Shamal and Signum's linker cores, beat up Zafira to do the same to him, and then finish off Vita in front of Hayate while disguised as Nanoha and Fate}}. While all the people in question get better, ''no one'' brings up what happened or proposes any punishment for the responsible parties.
* Mayuri Kurotsuchi from ''[[Bleach]]'' is a [[Mad Scientist]], who loves performing experiments on living subjects. In his first arc he routinely [[Abusive Parent|abused his]] [[Mad
** Not much is known about Kenpachi Zaraki's past, but it's implied that he has his own massive body count. His stated purpose in life is to fight and kill others, bringing carnage and bloodshed wherever he goes. And he doesn't have much of a reason forit either. Also. from what we know Zaraki just showed up one day and killed the previous Kenpachi because he could.
* Keel Lorenz, the [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] [[Big Bad]] from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', {{spoiler|not only gets to see his delusions come to pass, but we get to see him reacting with sadistic glee as he is assimilated into the "perfect being" that he has created. Though his actions were implied to have been reversed by the end of the movie, we never do see him get his comeuppance.}}
Line 37:
** The Higa team. The coach is a [[Jerkass]], and doesn't receive any more comeuppance than being hit with a tennis ball by the captain of the team when he tries to leave. Half the team itself is comprised of unsportsmanlike [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]] who attack other teams' coaches, and the other half is just ''slightly'' less unsportsmanlike than that. Once they're beaten by Seigaku, it's as if all grievances disappear. They even show up in a comedic [[Breather Episode]], and no mention is made of their earlier conduct.
* Akito of ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', in spite of spending most of the manga series being nigh-on [[Ax Crazy]] and making the lives of every member of the Zodiac as miserable as possible at every opportunity, {{spoiler|gets a last-minute redemption story via Tohru and ends up ''friends'' with her, Uotani and Hanajima, with Shigure as her lover}}.
** Then again, that's kinda the point of having [[The Messiah|Tohru]] [[Pollyanna|Honda]] as the main character. The fact that {{spoiler|Akito herself [[Heel Realization|realizes how horrific she's been]], [[My God, What Have I Done?|questions whether she's redeemable at all]], and is the one who ultimately and willingly frees the Zodiac}} are points in his favor.
*** Those "points in his favor" don't make up for the extended physical, mental, and emotional abuse that ''nearly every single family member of his'' had to suffer because of him.
** Shigure also gets away with his various manipulations, and jerkassery, {{spoiler|getting Akito in the end to boot.}}
Line 43:
** {{spoiler|Yazan makes a [http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/193/yazanep27ko0.png brief cameo] in episode 27, and while unnamed, his identity is later confirmed in Gundam Ace}}. "Immortal Cockroach", indeed.
*** {{spoiler|He might have brain damage as a result of his exploits in Shangri-La however, considering he seemed to get crazier and stupider as the series went on.}}
** Also subverted with [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Louise]], who committed many atrocities with the A-Laws, but lives in the end and has an apparent happy ending. The show director, apparently unsatisfied with this, makes it more clear in the following movie that Louise's life is far from happy now and that dying would have been easier on her, but she must instead live as [[The Atoner]]. At least, however, she [[The Power of Love|has Saji]] [[Throw the Dog A Bone|by her side.]]
* Despite being a [[Super Robot]] OVA series, ''[[Dangaioh]]'' is heavily on the cynical side of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]... and ''loves'' Karma Houdinis! To drive the point home, the main villain of the show ([[Big Bad|Garimos]], leader of a population of parasitic beings who depopulate planets to fatten themselves) never gets punished for his crimes. Another villain, the psychotic cyborg [[Blood Knight|Gil Barg]], {{spoiler|dies in the first OVA, but is then resurrected as an even worse [[Ax Crazy]] murderer, thus making his comeuppance null and void}}.
* ''[[Glass Fleet]]'''s [[Manipulative Bastard]] Vetti Sforza uses his allies as tools and turns against them when they've served their purposes, is responsible for the deaths of Michel's father and brother, {{spoiler|seduced if not actually raped his foster mother in order to get her to kill his foster father and then murdered her once she'd done it,}} {{spoiler|drugs and apparently rapes Michel}}, and even {{spoiler|kills Cleo, his own twin brother, while Cleo is trying to save the world}}. He states up-front that all of his efforts are for the sole purpose of prolonging his own life. Not only does he never receive any particular comeuppance, he ends up {{spoiler|receiving instant and total redemption courtesy of some last-minute [[Epiphany Therapy]] with Cleo's spirit}}, and becomes {{spoiler|the rightful leader of the entire galaxy, with Michel's apparent ungrudging support}}.
* ''[[Inuyasha]]''
** He's not a villain for very long, but after Koga makes his [[Heel Face Turn]], everyone seems to forget that he made his introduction to the series by feeding an entire village to his pet wolves. Then again, villages get destroyed so often in that series, they may have genuinely forgotten. On the other hand, it's probably just as well that Inuyasha's group never learn that one of the villages he destroyed was Rin's and that he even [[Death Is Cheap|killed Rin]].
** Sesshomaru receives a very long [[Character Development]] arc to end the story as an [[Anti
** In the manga though, it wasn't that they were attacking him but more than he was so cruel that he'd rip peoples' heads off for no reason.
* ''[[Vandread]]'' has Rabat, more of an [[Honest John]], but later on he says that he deliberately leads Harvest Fleets to wipe out potential dangers in return for them sparing him. And before that, deceiving the Nirvana's crew, trying to steal Hibiki's mech, and then beating him senseless whilst lecturing him on 'using his own words' despite his own deceit and greed, before escaping. Despite helping out later on, it's a wonder he doesn't receive some sort of misfortune for his actions.
** To be fair, the Nirvana's crew did try to rob him blind after his first encounter with them, but he got away. By the second time they got him, they were busy with other matters, he returned on his own to return Hibiki, and he escaped mostly unnoticed, and the third time he helped them again.
* Akabane Kuroudo in the ''[[Get Backers]]'' manga.
* [[Boring Invincible Villain|Paul]] in the ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime, has gotten away with countless cases of psychological and physical abuse towards his own Pokemon, equally countless cases of neglect and abandonment, multiple counts of poor sportsmanship, conduct unbecoming a Pokemon trainer outside the arena, one count of critically demoralizing a Gym Leader, and one Rage Quit, among others, with nary a word in reprimand for it. In fact, [[
* Cain from the ''[[Trinity Blood]]'' anime, was pulling the strings behind all those events and...he gets away at the end.
** This is mostly due to [[Author Existence Failure]]. Sunao Yoshida, the author of the novels that Trinity Blood was based on, died before he finished the series.
Line 59:
* At the end of ''[[Code Geass]]'', Most notably Ohgi, who not only receives no punishment for his actions but is rewarded for it {{spoiler|as he became Prime Minister of Japan}}. Villetta, too, to a lesser extent, and various surviving Britannian soldiers, including [[Lady of War|Princess Cornelia li Britannia]], who in the real world would no doubt be tried for their war crimes. Not to mention that Ohgi and Villetta, who were responsible for the betrayal for somewhat unfounded, and a few hypocritical reasons, got the happiest ending. (To add to this, Villetta herself was no stranger to screwing over Lelouch for her own ignoble reasons, to which effect she used a traumatized Shirley to capture him.) Compare and contrast to the {{spoiler|self-sacrifices of Lelouch and Suzaku, who alienated from and made themselves dead to the world, [[Thanatos Gambit|literally in the case of the former]] and [[Fate Worse Than Death|figuratively in the case of the latter, who also became the new Zero as per the Zero Requiem]], which made the new peace possible for everyone else.}} Consider also that {{spoiler|the two may not have went with such a plan, which also had a high degree of inferred destruction,}} if not for the aforementioned betrayal, and it only looks even worse.
* Ryuk from ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' was the catalyst for several years' worth of murders, simply because he was "bored." At the end, {{spoiler|he just goes back to the Shinigami world from whence he came, with nothing to stop him from returning to the human world and causing another murderous streak. It doesn't help that the only way a Shinigami can die is by using a Death Note to save the life of a human,}} something Ryuk would never do.
** Not to mention Hitoshi Demegawa. While in the manga he's just a greedy, obnoxious character, the films take it up a notch, wherein he {{spoiler|[[Politically
** Also Misa Amane, in the films. At the end of the second film, she is {{spoiler|shown to have been let go of by the police after losing her memories of having used the Death Note, despite having previously killed Mogi (who dies here [[Death By Adaptation|in place of]] Ukita in the manga)}}. [[Hand Wave|However]], the police couldn't convict her without exposing the existence of the Death Note. Plus with the Note's destruction, she will as mentioned before lose her memories.
* Momoko from ''[[Telepathy Shoujo Ran (Anime)|Telepathy Shoujo Ran]]'' has quite a history of atrocious behavior throughout the series, ranging from putting masses of people under mind control up to getting a woman killed so she can get her hands on some special plant. At one point she also plays a major part in an effort to [[The End of the World As We Know It|eradicate all of mankind]]. Her fate? She gets to bring her grandmother flowers in the hospital. That ought to teach her.
Line 65:
* {{spoiler|Tsukiko}} from ''[[Paranoia Agent (Anime)|Paranoia Agent]]'' {{spoiler|destroys most of Tokyo because of her mental instability. Her fate? She walks the streets two years later}} as if nothing ever happened.
* ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'' has {{spoiler|Yuka}} and {{spoiler|Kouya}}, both of whom are [[Easily Forgiven]].
* Asuham Boone from ''[[Overman King Gainer]]''. Towards the end of the series, his obsession with getting back at Gain for the whole mess with Asuham's sister Karin degenerates to the point where Asuham willingly manipulates Cynthia and a lot of his underlings (not to mention President Munt himself) in order to awaken the Overdevil, an [[Eldritch Abomination]] capable of destroying the world. He never seemed hesitant nor regretful about it... and all that happens to him is that he gets his Dominator shot down and gets a [[What Were You Thinking?]] speech from Karin herself (who had come to terms with the fact that Gain's relationship with her wouldn't have lasted). Not much of a punishment, huh? Understandable in that [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] had come out of his problems with depression and was producing lighter and more idealistic shows... but still, some were dissatisfied letting Asuham go like that, after all the crap he pulled.
* Rau Le Crueset from ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', [[Omnicidal Maniac]] and [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] (although many would consider him a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]). Dying at Kira and the Freedom's hands {{spoiler|after killing Flay}} was not much of a punishment for him, considering Le Creuset was also a [[Death Seeker]]. So, in the end, he got what he wanted, and was [[Hannibal Lecture|Hannibal Lecturing]] the hero from beginning to end. Some have theorized that Le Crueset {{spoiler|shot down Flay's shuttle}} ''exactly'' because he wanted Kira to be enraged enough to kill him...
* Genpou Saji in ''[[Ikki Tousen]]''. He [[Magnificent Bastard|orchestrated everything]] and somehow no one feels compelled to harness their rage and kick the crap out of him. If he had an actual reason to be forgiven, or had some further development later then it would work, but he's let go like he never did anything. Saji's appearance in Great Guardians doesn't fix things.
** Strongly subverted in the manga, where his manipulations are not only generally well-intentioned and far less damaging, {{spoiler|they eventually ''do'' get him killed by Hakufu. This, in fact, [[Thanatos Gambit|is even part of his plan]], which he thinks of [[Death Seeker|as his due comeuppance]].}}
** And wasn't he given a somewhat more sympathetic role in Great Guardians, {{spoiler|by having him show genuine concern and love towards the ''real'' Saji Genpou, retaking his places as Ouin Shishi (Wang Yun) and de-brainwashing Ryoufu}}? That's not 100% enough to redeem him, but it's far from simple handwaving.
* In ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'', {{spoiler|Seishirou Sakurazuka}} is this, managing to walk away at the end of the series with nothing more than a lost eye (which is lost willingly, by the way) after killing one main character and horribly breaking another, in addition to many other murders he himself claims to have committed. {{spoiler|It's not until ''[[X 1999]]'' that he finally gets some karmic retribution, but considering that even then he dies on ''his'' terms by what amounts to assisted suicide...}}
* ''[[Franken Fran]]'' is better-known for its particularly vicious [[Laser
* In ''[[Heat Guy J]]'', Daisuke's older brother (and boss), Shun {{spoiler|stages a ''coup d'etat'' and tries to enforce martial law in Judoh, but gets granted amnesty because of the good things he'd done leading up to that as the police chief}}
* Ms. Nomura of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni]]'', who along with her cohorts in Tokyo, funded the schemes of [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|Miyo Takano}} to {{spoiler|wipe out Hinamizawa and its residents}} get off scot free when said scheme fails by making {{spoiler|Takano their scapegoat for the entire plot}}. This is in spite of them being as quite guilty of causing the disaster {{spoiler|as Takano, and unlike her, having NO [[Freudian Excuse]]}}.
Line 84:
* Hao of ''[[Shaman King]]''. Screw [[Freudian Excuse]], the guy had an entire organization made of people whose lives he ruined after him, he ruthlessly killed all of his opponents in the Shaman Tournament and then devoured their souls, many members of said organization among them. His punishment in the manga version? {{spoiler|He succeeds in becoming the titular Shaman King.}}
* In the first season of ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'' the anime, Ball Masque (the main villains) do not get their comeuppance.
* Chaos Choir's leaders and main villains (and [[Well
* In the ''[[Shangri-La]]'' anime, Nagiko and Tarsian instituted a system of {{spoiler|child sacrifice}} yet are never called to account for this and are seen flying off together scott free in the last episode.
* Nina Purpleton in ''[[Gundam 0083]]'' 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!
Line 105:
* If Johan got away in the end, so is [[MW|Michio Yuki]]? {{spoiler|He may failed to gas the whole world and loses Garai, but he manages to get away clean from it by posing as his younger lookalike brother}}.
* [[Character Development]] or no, there have been times where Karma seems to love giving [[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]] the longer end of the stick. From [[Black Comedy Rape|groping Mikuru]], to blackmailing the Computer Club, [[Kick the Dog|to spiking Mikuru's drink]] and calling her Haruhi's toy, many come to wonder why she hasn't been suspended/expelled/arrested.
** She did almost earn a punch from Kyon for those last two offenses (the last straw being the "Mikuru is my toy" thing), which [[My God, What Have I Done?|prompted]] [[Heel Realization|her]] [[Took a Level In Kindness|immediate]] [[Heel Face Turn]] (even more immediate in the anime version), so this could be a subversion. Doesn't stop her from molesting Mikuru in "Someday in the Rain" just for old time's sake, but then again, that may just be the author confused about the timeline he had set up in [[Anachronic Order]].
* 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.
Line 114:
* President Kuroi on the anime version of ''[[The Idolmaster (Anime)|THE iDOLM@STER]]'', shows himself to be a [[Jerkass]] on a great caliber, attempting to sabotage the 765Pro idols only to prove himself 'superior' to 765Pro's President Takagi. In the end he's shown laughing to himself as his last scheme agaisnt the 765Pro Agency works wonderfully and they can't do anything to get back at him. He ''did'' lose his Project Jupiter, who's sick of his sabotaging, especially that one event involving slandering Chihaya with her [[Dark and Troubled Past]] to the point of traumatizing her, but considering that in his last words, he said that the Jupiters are expendable and he can find another group, it's only a matter of time until he rises back up to try and slander 765Pro again.
* Sakura Kyouko from ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' treats humans as feedstock to farm [[Eldritch Abomination|Witches]], having probably [[Villainy Discretion Shot|directly or indirectly killed hundreds of people]] so she can throw magic around a little more freely. But oh well, she's got a [[Dead Little Sister]] and tries to save a main character (who she also previously tried to kill), so she gets a nice [[Heroic Sacrifice]] (and eventually gets a reasonably good ending).
** Whether or not you think he's truly horrible or a [[Well
* A large portion of [[Queens Blade]]'s cast are murderers, thieves, destroyers of nature, and general self-centered [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]] psychopaths. The franchise is also a fan of giving happy endings to [[Merchandise
* [[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.}}
| |||