Never Live It Down/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Bright Noa, the only character to be a main character in Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Chars Counterattack is best known not for being a main character in so many series, but for hitting his crew members. Fandom loves to cite how much Bright slaps people for not being awesome enough. Interestingly, Brightslaps are well received by the fandom, who tend to credit him for turning whiners into MEN OF DESTINY.
    • Even Super Robot Wars gets in on the joke, where he regularly knocks some badassery into such pilots as Shinji Ikari.
    • Similarly, Dozle Zabi only says "Once the Big Zam is mass produced..." once. And its one of the most memorable lines in the series. Same applies to Ramba Ral's "This is no Zaku, boy! No Zaku!!!"
    • Olba Frost has a great deal of hatedom due to one episode where he became furious at the heroes for hurting his brother. Never mind his big brother got injured taking an attack for him. Never mind they've gone through so much hell that they only have each other for emotional support. Never mind for the rest of the series he's a perfectly calm and composed person. Never mind he wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his brother and stand on his own two feet. Nope, he's a sniveling male Yandere, through and through. Even Olba's own voice actor dislikes the guy because of all this.
      • Which is a shame, as there are other, far more legitimate reasons to dislike him and Shagia.
    • If you listen to the internet, Lunamaria Hawke couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if she was standing inside it because she missed a shot on a civilian shuttle moving on a relatively predictable course. On the one hand, episode 7 establishes her as a lousy shot in person when she couldn't get a bullseye at the shooting range. On the other, her ZAKU's Weapon of Choice is a long-range beam cannon...
      • Also, she wasn't the only person to have missed the shuttle in other Gundam shows; in an episode of Zeta Gundam, Char tried to shoot down a fleeing shuttle, but he missed as well.
    • Even Kira Yamato isn't immune. Fans seem to have clung to the idea that he's actually a poor pilot that relies on Freedom's Beam Spam abilities and only sits in the corner letting his computer do all the work. This was only true in his first battle with Freedom, in which he does indeed use full burst mode for almost the entire fight, but that's understandable because he's getting the hang of it, and the show wanted to hammer "THIS IS FREEDOM'S GIMMICK! IT HAS MANY GUNS!" into the audience. But after that he mostly sticks to sabers and his one rifle (which doesn't use the targeting computer) and in fact moves around in battle quite a bit. He never uses his Beam Spam more than once or twice per battle after that, yet the fandom seems only remember him sitting in one spot and letting his computer do all the work for the rest of Seed and all of Destiny. Of course, this probably wasn't aided by the copious use of Freedom's Full Burst attack via Stock Footage.
      • This is also in part because in the first part of the series, Kira pulled some tricks with the Strike Gundam that even detractors will call clever. After he gets the Freedom, this pretty much disappears in favor of the aforementioned "beat viewers over the head with the fact that Freedom has lots of guns".
    • Nena Trinity crossed the Moral Event Horizon of the wedding shooting. Then afterwards, things got rather worse for her and she's forced to lay low, be less psychotic, helping Wang Liu Mei and when she mistreats her, Nena starts with leaking information that Liu Mei withheld to the Celestial Being, saving many lives, and when Liu Mei got even worse, Nena snapped again and killed her. While she's definitely a nutcase and generally not caring about other people's life, she's able to do both good and evil, and she's got a really tragic existance too which, while not absolving her of ANY crime, does mean she is perfectly able to be pitied. Of course, fans only remembered that one wedding incident and think that's all Nena ever did, thereby she's an unforgivable evil bitch.
  • Every member of the primary cast of Gundam Wing has at least one minor trait or famous moment that ended up being their standard fanfic portrayal. Sadly, this blatantly ignores the Character Development that sees the characters grow out of those attitudes, which in turn results in people savaging the series for having shallow, one-dimensional characters.
    • At the start of the series Heero is full of self-loathing and tries to atone by putting his life on the line constantly - so much so that an off-hand line of dialog ("Life comes cheap, especially mine") has become a tertiary Catch Phrase. Combined with the above, he's also poratrayed as constantly trying to self-destruct his Gundam, when he only did that once in the TV series, he was facing an ultimatum to either hand over his Gundam or have the colonies' inhabitants slaughtered, and chose to Take a Third Option through Heroic Sacrifice.
      • He did try to kill himself two other times. First, on the beach when Relena found him in Episode 1. He fired an explosive charge in his pressure suit, but was only designed for in-space suicide by breaching the suit and evacuating its air. On the ground, it didn't even injure him. Second, in episode 3, when he at first didn't pull his parachute jumping out of the military hospital tower Duo broke him out of; he pulled it last-second, and only broke a leg.
    • Relena only yelled Heero's name out loud thrice in the series (plus once more in the dub), yet people bash her as if she finished every episode with a Say My Name scream. She's also treated as a Yandere or a Stalker with a Crush despite the fact that she went to visit Heero all of once and remarked about it a few scenes later.[1] (She did track him down a second time, but that was because she was afraid he would try to kill himself and had something she thought would convince him otherwise.)
      • There are also people who claim that she's constantly being kidnapped and in need of rescue, rather like Orihime later on. Relena was kidnapped all of once in the anime (Endless Waltz), but people also tend to label her imprisonment by Romefeller as a kidnapping, ignoring that it was intentional and had a positive outcome. And late in the series, she's held hostage on the space fortress Libra, but that was a snap decision by the person responsible and done while ignoring the chain of command, rather than orders by White Fang's leader to detain her.
        • Relena might as well get an award for this, since even the first things she ever says get this. In the first episode she asks her father to "leave yourself a little bit of free time" on his business trips, causing some to call her an Attention Whore for demanding he ignore his work to spend time with her. This ignores the fact that they are very obviously a loving family and that Relena was invited on the trip specifically so that she and her father could have some time together, only for him to have to back out due to his obligations. Not to mention that four episodes later, they go on another trip together and she takes his being busy much better.
    • Wu Fei is possibly the biggest victim of this in all of Wing (yes, even moreso than Relena). In an early episode he denigrates a female opponent, leading people to assume he's a psychopathic misogynist. Late in the series, he takes up the ideal of justice and becomes something of a Jerkass. It's typically ignored that there are reasons for his attitudes (Freudian Excuse, My Greatest Failure, and Values Dissonance from a strict, traditionalist Chinese upbringing), or once again that he gets over it.
      • Another often-cited complaint with Wu Fei is his hypocrisy, as some say his repeated statements about honor and fair fights conflict with his terroristic actions (like blowing up a dormitory full of sleeping soldiers in his debut episode). However, the show actually presents Wu Fei's internal conflict over his actions, particularly in the episode where Team Mom Sally helps pull him out of his Heroic BSOD.
    • Wing even has a non-human example: The Leo mobile suit used early in the series has a reputation all over the internet (even on this Wiki) as being a shoddy piece of crap that falls apart if it's so much as breathed upon. Granted, it is a Mecha Mook, but when not facing a Super Prototype they tend to do quite well, and are actually superior to some better-liked Gundam staples like the Zaku II when examined from a technical standpoint.
  • Bleach has Orihime. You get kidnapped by the Arrancar ONCE, and suddenly, you're the Princess Peach of anime. Even Kairi didn't have it this bad.
    • Not to mention, it just wasn't a mere kidnapping. Ichigo and the others were barely recovering after a huge battle that they lost, Orihime was trying to cope with her feelings for Ichigo and her recent depression over feeling left behind, and then Ulquiorra showed up and gave her a very cruel Sadistic Choice coming from Aizen. The fandom, though? "OMG WHORIHIME, WHY DIDN'T YOU FIGHT BACK YOU STUPID BITCH, HOPE YOU KILL YOURSELF THERE YOU USELESS SLUT!"
    • The main reason for the complaints is because that it involves Inoue going back on the promise that she made to herself to grow stronger and to no longer be a burden to Ichigo. She went from making a promise to fight alongside her Nakama to allowing herself to be kidnapped by Ulquiorra. Sadistic choice by Ulquiorra? Yes. Were fans annoyed that she back-pedalled on the promise she made to herself? Most definitely.
      • Other cite the Lust arc as her biggest Never Live It Down moment, and for good reason too. It is one of the few times in any kind of story where you will find a healer begging their half dead patient to save them.
    • Also, the fandom joke in which Rukia is the poster girl for Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. Actually, Ichigo gets impaled more than she ever does, and once she's actually the one doing the impalement to someone else ( Kaien).
  • Naruto:
    • The early dub for the anime involved a large amount of "believe it"s to cover for Naruto's peculiar speech pattern(appending "dattebayo" to his sentences). While this was reduced later on as the anime gained American popularity, many believe he says "believe it" every five words.
    • Sasuke Uchiha's haters who claim he was always an impossibly huge Jerkass, instead of just aloof and somewhat rude - mostly in response to Naruto and Sakura genuinely irritating him (he gets worse later, but this is about how he acted at the start). For example, many are quick to cite all the times that he's put down Naruto, but forget that Naruto is the same way towards him and much louder about it. People also tend to exaggerate how many times he's told Sakura she was annoying. He said it twice. Once when she actually was being annoying, and when he barely knew her, and the other time was him joking/being sarcastic when he was about to leave Konoha and goes to Orochimaru.
    • Sai asked Naruto a few times when they first met if Naruto had male genitalia, as an insult no less. But from the way to fans talk you'd think every other word out of Sai's mouth is penis, even as he runs around brandishing a measuring tape.
    • Neji was a total Jerkass to Hinata prior to his Character Development. Even after the development transpires and Neji starts very clearly treating Hinata with care, fandom still doesn't let go of his past misdeeds.
    • The fandom also tends to exaggerate Hinata's fainting spells despite the fact that she only fainted twice in the manga, (once while going into the hospital and seeing him injured, and once while he unexpectedly walks up on her when she hasn't seen him in almost three years). It doesn't help that she is more prone to fainting in the anime.
    • And as for Naruto himself...y'know that "Sexy No Jutsu", an actual, honest-to-goodness ninja attack that involves turning into an alluring female (and is a regular super in the fighting games)? In the manga, he does this a couple of times in volume 1, and it's a long, long, LONG time before we see anything like it again. (Mainly because it's not a serious ninja technique, it's just a bit of goofing around, an extremely rare luxury in the world of Naruto.)
    • Tsunade's hitting Naruto and Jiraiya is very much exaggerated. The fandom seems to think she would hit Naruto for calling her Granny Tsunade (when it's actually an affectionate nickname) or when Jiraiya is acting overly perverted (which he doesn't do either). In the manga she never hits them except a few times such as the time she fought Naruto and that beating she gave Jiraiya when they were younger for peeping on her.
      • She seems to be more temperamental in the anime, as in the manga, the angriest she gets with Naruto after the Search for Tsunade Arc is raising her voice at Naruto for not showing respect to Fukasaku. Sakura suffers from the same problem. Not helped by Character Exaggeration in the anime, where one of the more forms of Padding is "Sakura beats up Naruto for no clearly defined reason."
    • Kakashi very often suffers from this. He invariably teaches Sasuke the Chidori and all of a sudden he plays favourites and all he wants is to train Sasuke, while hating Naruto, ignoring that teaching Sasuke this was for Sasuke's own good beyond mere strength as a ninja, and generally Kakashi plays favorites the least out of the various sensei (like Gai with Lee, Asuma with Shikamaru, or Kurenai with Hinata.)
    • No mention of the Accidental Kiss between Naruto and Sasuke back in episode 3? For shame.
  • From hearing the so-called "Fans" talk, you'd think all Neon Genesis Evangelion's Shinji Ikari ever does is sit around wangsting endlessly, only ever ceasing to do so to masturbate over comatose girls. Actually, he spends most of the series being a kind and helpful, if not very confident young man who risks his life to save the world in battles against reality defying Eldritch Abominations despite the fact that he's understandably terrified of them. He is also quite efficient in battle, so much that Asuka is jealous of him. You gotta forgive him for ending up as a mental wreck after his relationship with his father (which was never all that good to begin with) was utterly shattered, his best friend (Toji) was maimed, his mentor/father figure (Kaji) was murdered which caused his mother figure/guardian (Misato) to fall into depression, one of his love interests (Asuka) utterly rejected him and ended up being brutally Mind Rape-d soon after, shortly before his other love interest (Rei) pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to save him, all that while Shinji was forced to watch helplessly by circumstances he had no control over. Rei was then replaced by a clone that looked the same,but did not exactly act the same. Then, Shinji met a nice boy (Kaworu) that thought he was really awesome and wanted to be his friend - turns out he is actually the Monster of the Week and Shinji has to kill the only person who ever said "I like you" to his face. Did I mention that he still saves the world after this?
    • Also, Rei. The first episode to properly focus on her clearly establishes her as a Sugar and Ice Personality who does have emotions, but apparently, four episodes of sitting around enigmatically are enough to brand yourself as the Emotionless Girl.
    • Among Neon Genesis Evangelion fans, Toji is known for being violent because of a fight with Shinji. Toji is normally a pacifist, and it relates to the same reason he picked a fight with Shinji: the reason he was pissed at him was how his sister was injured in an Eva battle.
    • Misato is often characterized as a crazy driver by fans due to a scene in the anime where she deliberately (and playfully) acted like one to give Shinji a scare.
  • The title character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has a tendency to take Defeat Means Friendship to ridiculous levels of excess, and many fans act as if she's truly looking for excuses to blow people up. However, the reason she's so quick to attack is because her weapons are incapable of killing people.
    • And she always tries diplomacy first. It's just that her opponents are never willing to just talk, so she has to force them to listen to her.
    • Ironically, the only character Defeat Means Friendship was played straight for was Fate and the only other character it was used for, if subverted, was Vita. The fandom would have you think that she beats the crap out of all of her friends despite befriending Yuuno, Chrono, Amy, Arisa (arguably not a Defeat Means Friendship), Suzuka, Hayate, among others without being locked in battle.
      • Interestingly enough, Dieci, whom Nanoha defeated quite easily, turned good, but the two of them have never been shown interacting after their battle.
    • The Manga Omakes run with this, stating that characters often see Nanoha as somebody who would blow people up with maximum destructive force at the slightest provocation and thus are afraid to get on her bad side. There's even a rumor floating around the Academy and the Bureau about how she "Mows enemies and allies with pure destructive force" and "People forfeit their lives whenever they make the White Devil angry".
    • Hayate's Cosplay Otaku Girl tendencies are also subject to a great deal of exaggeration, based off her designing the Wolkenritters' barrier jackets in a deliberate attempt to make "knight-like clothing".
    • Shamal's Lethal Chef tendencies tend to get exaggerated in fan works, despite Hayate suggesting in the first A's sound stage that her cooking has improved significantly and the Wolkenritter conceding that it's not as good as what Hayate makes, but it's "not bad." It doesn't help that the other Wolkenritter like to remind her about her mistakes. One suspects that the makers caught on when they included this scene in The Battle of Aces.
    • First impressions are a large part of how a character is portrayed, and it's somewhat unfortunate that Cypha had to debut easily dispatching Signum while mocking her status as a knight. It pissed a lot of people off when it first happened, and failed to endear her to almost anyone. This can also be a positive example, though, since otherwise most fans probably wouldn't be interested in her either way now.
  • In Inuyasha, Inuyasha really never left the group to run after Kikyo. The one time he did run after her was the first time he heard of her after she supposedly died, and while it was romantic it's implied he was entranced, and once he comes to his senses he abandons her to save Kagome. The next time he actually has any sort of secret meeting with Kikyo is 24 episodes later, where he only chases her to save her life when he sees her being chased by a demon—also both meetings end with her trying to kill him. In order to make him into a Ron the Death Eater though, fans will portray Inuyasha as always running away from the group at the drop of a hat to have romantic, often sexual, meetings with Kikyo.
  • If Zoids fanfiction were to be believed, one would think Bit and Leena were constantly stealing each other's snacks, but it's only happened maybe once or twice on the actual show.
  • How many times did Suzumiya Haruhi grope Mikuru? Yes, more than once. And how many times did she rewrite reality without even knowing that she's doing so? Once, and maybe twice. But considering how some people react, one would think she does these things every single episode.
  • There was one instance in Fullmetal Alchemist where Colonel Mustang is seen slacking off at work and avoiding paperwork until the last second. This wasn't even a very important episode, just a little fanservice since he hadn't shown up in a while. However, try to find ONE Royai fic (Or even just a fic about the colonel in general) that doesn't at least mention this 'tendency'. Just one.
    • Author example. Al hides a kitten in his armor once, and this is repeatedly parodied in the manga omakes (for example having an enormous cat that breaks out of the armor or multiple cats that claw Marta when she tries to hide in there, resulting in Al recovering his memory of being at the Gate).
    • In one of the GBA games a sidequest involves him finding and collecting dozens of cats, all of which boost the power of his special attacks where he releases a swarm of them to maul opponents.
  • James from Pokémon in one episode remarked that he wanted a doughnut once. In the show's earlier days, he seemed to be known for wanting doughnuts.
    • Same thing can be said for Pikachu and ketchup. He carried a bottle of it around for half of the episode "Showdown at Dark City" and was never seen touching the stuff again. It's still brought up in fanfics to this day, all because the scene was just too funny to forget.
    • For the series as a whole, it was many years before Pokémon got away from its reputation of causing seizures, based on an unfortunate art decision in a single episode. Even then, the Pokémon featured in the episode (Porygon) has never appeared in the anime since, nor has its evolutions. All this despite the fact that Porygon wasn't even in the scene that caused the seizures.
      • Likewise Pokemon in the west has been unable to live down the reputation of things that happened during the "fad" years.
    • Ash, in one episode, complained about the idea of helping Team Rocket's Pokemon because "they're the bad guys". Fanon (particularly rabid Rocketshippers) has since latched onto the idea of him being a heartless Jerkass when it comes to Team Rocket, even going out of his way to hurt them or anyone else who would help them in any way.
    • The fourth iteration of the Pokemon anime, Best Wishes, seems destined to be remembered first and foremost for the airing of the climactic, Story Arc-concluding "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" two-parter being postponed for well over a year due to the 2011 Tohou earthquake and tsunami happening the week before it's originally intended airdate.
  • Thanks to the predominance of Fanon for Ranma ½, many of the characters suffer Never Live It Down to some extent.
    • Akane Tendo used a mallet to hit her Jerk with a Heart of Gold fiancé twice in the anime, and only a few times in the manga... but lots of people also used mallets, including Ranma (more often than Akane,) Soun, Genma, and a few oneshot characters. In fanfiction, she's the only one who's ever known to use a mallet when things get violent, despite the fact she canonically prefers her fist (and a shinai, to a lesser extent, in the anime version).
    • Ranma Saotome claims he Wouldn't Hit a Girl three times at most. Possibly influenced by the prevalence of the Armor-Piercing Slap, fanfic Ranma is infamous for looking down on women's combat abilities, something he never does in either version of the canon, and for refusing to strike back at women even if they're actively trying to kill him.
      • Please remember, too, that there's a difference between trying to kill someone and actually having a shadow of a phantom of a prayer of succeeding. Ranma doesn't go full out against, Akane, Ukyo, or Shampoo because they're no threat to him. And to a lesser extent Kodachi, although that was more a case of Rumiko Takahashi needing a way for that fight to last longer than 3 panels.
    • Shampoo once made usage of special mushrooms that made the consumer vulnerable to hypnotic suggestions, and twice tried to take advantage of a piece of love magic that fell into her hands. She didn't even plot the mushroom incident on her own. Fanfiction portraying her as a villain invariably plays up her as being a kind of "mistress of love potions and mind-controlling poisons". In canon, chemical usage is the specialty of Kodachi Kuno. And even Kodachi sticks with paralysis and sleeping powder.
    • Akane stopped calling Ranma "pervert" relatively early on in the manga, and when she used it again after many, many volumes of absence, the obvious Call Back made it very funny. To the fandom, it's pretty much her Catch Phrase. Though she does frequently accuse him of lecherous intentions, it's rare that she actually says "pervert".
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Nodoka will forever be considered the series' foremost Covert Pervert after she came up with a certain solution to the love triangle involving herself, Negi, and Yue. Granted, she is a Covert Pervert, but her fantasizing (which is only actually seen about 3 times in 250+ manga chapters) is greatly exaggerated by the fandom.
    • It's mostly remembered because it IS genuinely hilarious to see the most shy of the girls having such filthy fantasies. That and it is canon that she's got Evangeline beaten in the "Ero" charts.
    • This got a callback in a recent chapter, when Haruna called her and Yue "the polygamous duo".
      • And another in the Lotus Eater Machine, where Nodoka's "dream" is to be with both Yue and Negi. Though to be fair, Luna/Shiori (who ships herself with Negi and Fate) and Chachamaru (who wants to go Walking the Earth with Negi and Eva) seem to have similatt fantasies.
    • For the same reasons, nobody will probably forget Robot Girl Chachamaru's "winding" incident. It was even popular enough to get done a second and third time. Pity how the OVA failed to translate this scene into audio-visual form.
  • Death Notes Light Yagami spends the vast majority of his time portraying a near-flawless modest front over a cold, calculating and, above all, rational interior. However, he's usually remembered for his two Evil Laughs, his near-sexual pleasure in victory, and his abiding love of potato chips.
    • Except that Light throws several tantrums in the course of the series, one as early as in the second episode. The last episode is the only time he does it with witnesses other than Ryuk present. But calling him calm or rational at any time is a stretch - that's yet another part of the mask he's constructed around himself.
  • For Yu-Gi-Oh!, people who complain about shows they don't watch have always made fun of Yu-Gi-Oh! characters for having strange hair. In the original show however, only Yugi had exceptionally strange hair. The only other people who came close (like Honda and Otogi) were really no different than any traditional cartoon caricatures. Of course the later series (not made by the original creator) ran with this, and led to another lead character with strange hair in 5Ds.
    • Anzu/Tea is often bashed for her speeches about friendship. However, the friendship between the four protagonists is the central theme of the show aside from Duel Monsters, which was a Plot Tumor; friendship was the main original point. There's also the fact that A--this is mostly a dub-only trait of hers, she's much less preachy in the Japanese version, and B--as it is the central theme of the show, the other four give speeches about The Power of Friendship just as much as she does, especially Yami Yugi.
  • A similar thing happens to Dragon Ball, which gets often mentioned to as "that show with spiky-haired dudes". The only spiky-haired characters are Goku and Vegeta, sometimes Yamcha, Gohan and Goten, and all the aforementioned minus Yamcha plus Trunks when they're Super Saiyans. And all of these but Goku and Yamcha don't appear until halfway through the series. Not to mention most of them are related. HFIL, there are about as many "bald" characters (Krillin, Tenshinhan, Muten Roshi, Nappa, Piccolo and Freeza kinda... Also Vegeta's Forehead of Doom went under Memetic Mutation in Japan), but you never see this called "that show with the bald dudes". To be fair, they tend to stand out the most, but still, you'd think everyone in this show has Shonen Hair by listening to some.
    • Let us not forget how Vegeta has a habit of yelling random numbers while crushing electronics in his hand.
    • Krillin is often mocked because he dies a lot. While he does die 3 times (4 counting Dragon Ball GT), there's another character who dies just as much, but never gets brought up: Chaozu. However, Krillin's first two deaths were important, memorable events that had a lot of emotional impact, the non-canon fourth one like this too, and only the third was minor (Albeit the anime made it a bit better). Chiaotzu's first two deaths were Senseless Sacrifices, and the third wasn't even pointed out, just inferred. But nobody remembers this.
    • Krillin's subsequent deaths are far more notable because he was revived with the Dragon Balls once already (and before they came up with new rules, the Dragon can only revive a person once). Krillin effectively cheated death twice, first by being revived and again when his friends circumveined the 1 revival rule. This may have contributed to his dying being memetic. Still, the same things could be said of Chiaotzu (As they die at about the same time; hell, Chiaotzu's second death comes well before Krillin's), but the show focuses more on Krillin so it's understandable he's remembered more.
    • Furthermore, Yamcha is considered the ultimate loser by many fans. While he loses most of his battles, often in ridiculous ways (His first death is a source of much laughter and jokes for fans), he does win twice and at least hangs around the main cast all the way through the series (GT aside, where he does get Demoted to Extra [2] and only gets two or three cameos). However, Chiaotzu (See a pattern?) NEVER wins a fight on screen, except in filler, all his fights but one are Curb Stomp Battles with him on the receiving end (At least Yamcha puts some resistance) and on the last two manga arcs he gets Put on a Bus, never showing up again except on ONE manga panel on the late Buu Arc (Though the anime Filler gives him some more screentime). Sure, Yamcha isn't exactly the strongest guy around, but there are worse.
    • Dragonball Z often poked fun at for it's dragged out fight scenes... However, the only time it was really as bad as the jokes made them out to be were during the Namek Saga. Other times were not as bad.
    • Yamcha was killed by a Saibamen once. Video games however seem to love making Yamcha utterly freaked out by them if his post resurrection version encounters them despite being the weakest opponents available.
  • There's one particular episode of Sailor Moon Stars where Setsuna/Sailor Pluto scares the living daylights out of the girls on about three occasions by popping up out of the blue. The girls are eating ice cream when she appears. She pops up holding a popsicle. This episode made her famous in fandom for the Stealth Hi Bye.
    • Mamoru, in the anime, broke up with Usagi once, during a storyline in which he was having cryptic nightmares that Usagi would die if he didn't stay away from her. They got back together when Usagi had a nightmare too and realized what was really going on. They basically vow to Screw Destiny and fight off whatever threat comes together. During the entire storyline, Mamoru was shown privately grieving their separation and several times deigning on the Screw Destiny route himself but stopping out of fear for what would happen to Usagi. The eventual source was proven to be a future form of himself trying to test the strength of their relationship because of the powerful threats they would face from the Black Moon. The way some people (especially Seiya/Usagi fans) tell it, Mamoru despised Usagi throughout the entire series, constantly abused her or ignored her, and only got back together with her out of duty to the relationship they had in their past lives.
    • To be fair, that's actually pretty close to how he acted for the majority of the first series. They went from despising each other, to having one episode where they become sort of friendly, then he gets brainwashed and once he's fixed they're a couple who love each other. Definitely out of character for the later season incarnation but there is at leats some basis for the character.
  • While most Higurashi characters can, and have, gotten past their violent reputations and their respective arcs, Shion Sonozaki is still most well-known for her acts in Meakashi. It seems like most fans don't know, or care, about the fact that her personality isn't like that.
    • Then again, Shion is quite overprotective towards her loved ones and at least once it was to Kick the Dog levels (like almost killing Satoko out of jealousy when not under the hate plague effects, and her actions in Meakashi were both horrifying and graphic, even for Higurashi, which is saying something.
    • There's also the case of Rena Ryuugu, who is perceived by many to be the series' trademark Ax Crazy, Cute Psycho, cleaver-wielding girl. The truth is, she is only truly like this in the sixth arc; her psychotic behavior in the first arc was merely a hallucination out of extreme paranoia by its main protagonist, under effects of the Hate Plague.
      • Rena's still better than Shion though. She's considered a friendly character just as much as a Cute Psycho, if not more.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia has a case that's odd in that it's based on an event that hasn't even been shown in canon. As the series' characters are Anthropomorphic Personifications of nations, their characterization in fanworks are often based to some extent on real-life historical events that their representative nations, which is pretty much inevitable as it's impossible for canon alone to delve completely into the nations' histories. However, the Fanon that arises from this can get rather... questionable at times, like in the case of America and Japan. One of the most well-known interactions between these two nations in real life is America's bombings of the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan that ended World War II, and many fans take this as proof that the characters must have an angsty, difficult, and even abusive relationship (especially if they view it as a tragic romance)... even though they're shown to have become best friends in numerous post-WWII strips with not a trace of bitterness to be seen. Not to mention that in real life, America actually treated Japan pretty decently after the atomic bombings, going through its occupation of Japan with a minimum of bitterness and hostility, a portrayal that would likely fit their APH characters better.
    • Japan himself suffers from this. Yes, he stabbed his doting brother China In the Back for no clear reason. Yes, it was a shocking Kick the Dog moment, especially in a series that normally depicts historical events humorously, so it's understandable that it really stands out to many fans and makes them wonder about Japan's true character. And yes, many of Imperial Japan's war crimes in real life were no laughing matter. But that doesn't mean that the character Japan has to be a sociopathic Complete Monster who ruthlessly manipulated, abused, and raped his East Asian siblings in cold blood during his imperial years, especially considering that he's shown to be on relatively civil terms with them in the post-WWII strips. And some bad acts can be undone, you know...
    • Spain also gets this too. Fanon likes to think he's a Yandere or a Cute and Psycho because of Spanish history and Hidekaz Himaruya said in his notes that he was originally going to be a two faced character like Russia that was only kind toward Romano. Himaruya mostly discarded that idea many years ago, but decided to play upon it on the 2011 Fool's Bath where Spain seems to snap at France when he revealed who the culprit was (which was indeed Spain, who sent the threatening letters to everyone and if they didn't come to this location at a certain time, he would reveal their most embarrassing picture of them). However when Spain appears to take his anger out on America and England, he switches back to his cheery self and explains that he just wanted to hang out with everyone and France twisted the words of what he really wanted. It was obvious that his anger was because he was drunk, but the fans now declare that he is officially Yandere / Cute and Psycho despite it being Played for Laughs.
    • A less extreme example would be Poland- he crossdressed all of three times in the entre webcomic, none of which were recent and one of which was deleted from the site due to Old Shame, but fandom seems to love putting him in skirts near-constantly.
  • In Ghost Hunt, Naru is shown drinking tea maybe 3 or 4 times in 25 episodes, and other characters are often given tea as well when they come into the SPR office. The fandom, however, always portrays Naru as a tea addict. Find one fanfiction featuring Naru that does not mention tea multiple times, I dare you.
  • Try taking the Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen version of Count Brocken seriously after Boss, Nuke, and Mucha play soccer with his disembodied head.
  • Due to the fact that Ikuto is very flirtatious with Amu, some fans think he is a playboy. He isn't, because Utau once even said that Amu was the only girl he ever loved.
  • When Mohiro Kitoh said he would make a manga about a girl riding a mountain bike, people blew the premise out of proportions, making jokes of how the bike will destroy the earth and such. Why? Because of his previous works.
  • In the Durarara!! novel, a new character is introduced named Aoba Kuronuma. There is no official artwork of him, however he has shown up a lot in fan art? How? Because he's most remembered by being stabbed with a pen by none other than Mikado and is always drawn with a bandage on his hand. Even though he has yet to appear in the anime, jokes about what happened continues via drawings and Fanfiction.
  • That incident in Code Geass involving Nina Einstein and a certain table.
    • There's a scene in the second season where Schneizel engages Lelouch in a game of chess, which became infamous all over the Internet when Schneizel moved his King next to Lelouch's, which is illegal AND impossible in chess. This tends to get portrayed as the writers being idiots who know squat about chess...ignoring that the actual game was already over and Schneizel was just testing Lelouch to see what kind of leader he is.
  • Boku No Sexual Harassment: Corn. You know that scene.
  • Vic Mignogna stole a fan's sandwich.
  • Lenalee from D Gray Man suffers from this. No matter how many Akuma she defeats, it seems she'll always be best known for that one time when she was Brought Down to Normal and became unable to fight for a while. Even after she got her powers back and curb-stomped a Level 4 Akuma, fans didn't stop portraying her as a whiny Damsel in Distress. What makes it even worse is that Allen went through the exact same thing, but nobody bashes him for it.
  • In Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, Hatori gets a LOT of flak for what he did to his love interest (and childhood friend) Chiaki. Basically, he was stressed out from having an unrequited love for twenty years, his childhood friend was dense and his rival was rubbing it in his face that he would get Chiaki first. So what does he do that's so horrendous that that's all what people remember him for? He brutally rapes Chiaki despite him begging him to stop and being physically, mentally psychologically broken during that moment. And then he gets Karma Houdini when the two hook up later. Needless to say, mention the pairing online and the results won't be pretty.
    • What makes this most noticeable from other yaoi series is that Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi actively tries to avoid the Victim Falls For Rapist trope (making this series very realistic) and so far, the three other pairings have successfully avoided it. This is the only pairing that does not avoid it and to make it worse, this doesn't fall under the Victim Falls For Rapist trope, it falls under Rape as Drama and Stockholm Syndrome. Add to the fact that Chiaki doesn't handle the situation realistically telling Hatori not to leave him instead of distancing himself like a normal person would and also not pitying Hatori during the rape scene also does not help Hatori or Chiaki's case.
    • Chiaki himself has a Never Live It Down moment from the above but also because of his inability to understand love. Apparently, there is a limit to how stupid you can be when it comes to romance. It's been established that Chiaki while not the sharpest tool in the shed is rather observant of certain things (like knowing Hatori's Berserk Button (since Hatori is a hard person to read) but pushing it anyway as well as knowing what his female audience wants and doesn't want when it comes to his manga along with wanting what's best for his friends and the people around him, he will always be labeled as the stupidest, most insensitive character in the series thanks to his oblivious nature and this attitude is what leads to his best friend Yanase's breakdown.
      • Episode 10, 15 and 16 doesn't help his cause. Episode 10, Yanase confesses to Chiaki when he's drunk. Chiaki responds by leaving him at the hot springs to run to Hatori. Episode 15, he acts like it's Yanase's fault that the previous incident happened and hits multiple Berserk Buttons in the episode. He denies that Yanase confessed to him in his head and then tells Yanase that he should hook up with one of the female assistants, effectively setting him off. End of the episode has Chiaki get Yanase's hopes up by implying that he'll think about having a relationship with him. Episode 16...Chiaki flips out at Hatori because he saw him with his ex girlfriend and goes to Yanase's place knowing full well that his best friend is in love with him and setting his expectations high. Then the rejection scene comes that leads to Yanase breaking down crying asking why he chose Hatori over him, and Chiaki can't come up with a response. Finally, Chiaki tells him that he'll see him at work tomorrow implying that he just ignored the confession a third time.
  • Did you know that Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica actually does more things in the series than using the Tiro Finale and getting her head eaten? Because from the way the fans talk about her, you'd think that was all she ever did. Even the official merchandise is getting in on it - a lot of it includes the Witch who killed her in some way. Shortly after episode 3, japan got a new word: Mamiru. It means either get guillotined like Mami or have a miserable death.
    • Not true. She also tries to kill all her friends in one timeline. Most people who saw that tend to remember it for one reason or another.
  • We, as the Berserk fandom, will never forget the pinnacle moment of Guts' realization of Casca's beauty - when he made this priceless face. Hey, it was a big deal, since it pretty much marked the moment that Guts began to view Casca as more than just "friends." Plus it was just so Goddamn funny.
  • Your Name: In-universe, whoever Mayugoro the sandalmaker was as a person and whatever else he did, now he is only known as the guy who somehow started a fire in his bathroom 200 years ago that led to the destruction of large parts of Itomori and the loss of the Miyamizu Shrine's records. Both Toshiki (in spinoff novel Another Side: Earthbound) and Yotsuha are appalled that the Great Fire to which his name was appended is his sole legacy.
  1. ↑ "I've come all the way here just to chase after a guy. Are you surprised, Father? But I couldn't help myself; I wanted to see him so badly. Can you understand how I feel, Father? Heero's the support I need to have around until I can get over my sadness over you. But he keeps running away from me..."
  2. ↑ Like everyone else...
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