Ret-Gone/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Ret-Gone in Anime and Manga include:

CLAMP crossover 'verse

  • In the end of the Clow Card arc of Cardcaptor Sakura, Sakura is threatened with something like this should she fail: no one will actually be gone except Yukito in the anime, who disappears with Kero, Yue, and the Cards, but everyone will forget that their most beloved person ever meant anything to them.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and ×××HOLiC (also CLAMP series) are connected by a Ret-Gone in which Real!Syaoran of Tsubasa, the son of reincarnated in the past Clone!Syaoran and Clone!Sakura (and not of Cardcaptor Sakura Sakura and Syaoran as previously thought), gave up his existence in his home world for the Sakura of the world of Clow. In order to fill the gap this left in space-time, a new son (who had not previously existed in any world) was created for C!Sakura and C!Syaoran, Watanuki Kimihiro of Holic. Watanuki's existence is therefore precarious and could be erased by R!Syaoran's death or by the Tsubasa gang correcting the space-time disturbance. The point of Holic has been for Watanuki to develop connections to other people that will anchor him to existence when the endgame comes.
    • Additionally, this almost happens to the "twins" described above when their parents have a Critical Existence Failure upon the death of their creator, as when he dies, their parents technically never existed once again, just as they were retconned in originally. The twins end up making a Deal with the Devil just to continue having existed.
    • Also,[1] Yuuko of xxxHoLic suffers this once she re-dies. She actually died centuries ago, but a Reality Warper told reality to ignore that for a while. When she sells that "reality ignore my death" effect in a Deal with the Devil of her own, all of a sudden, to most people it is as if she had never kept on living for hundreds of years.

Pretty Cure

  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure, the three Seeds have this effect, but the evidence was pretty much all faked in the first place—each sprang into existence at the beginning of the same episode where his/her Ret-Gone happened—so it's justified as a non-lethal case of No Ontological Inertia.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, this briefly happens to Hikari, but it's a milder form, as Nagisa and Honoka are able to snap people out of it merely by mentioning her.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star, when Michiru and Kaoru die, only Saki and Mai remember they ever existed, as Saki discovers when she tries to tell her sister Minori that Kaoru (who Minori was close to) is gone. When they turn out to be not so dead after all, everybody suddenly remembers them again, even realizing they've been gone lately.

Sailor Moon

  • Happens to ChibiUsa in both versions of Sailor Moon that she is in; in the anime it's due to Mamoru being placed in an almost permanent state of dreaming by Queen Nehellenia in the manga it's due to Mamrou being thrown into the Galaxy Cauldron and melting away, soul and all.. She also gets retgoned after Galaxia Kills Mamoru In the manga, contrary to standard Grandfather Clauses, ChibiUsa is able to survive for an unusual amount of time after the point where her birth is made technically impossible. The future just becomes very stormy and unstable. In the anime version of this she's almost entirely retgoned however, vanishing from photos. The Sailor Senshi still seem to remember her however, they just can't tell things that are supposed to show her have changed.
    • Chibi-Usa survives because when Galaxia kills Mamoru, she just takes his Sailor Crystal. At that point, it's still possible for him to be revived as it happens later in that arc. However once he's thrown into the Cauldron, he's pretty much dead until Sailor Moon defeats Chaos.
    • There's a fanfic where Usagi gives birth to a different child in place of ChibiUsa. Said child, after over nine hundred years of living in the shadow of a sister who never existed, eventually manages to become Sailor Moon, thereby causing ChibiUsa to disappear from photos and gradually fade from memory. Interestingly, this is also one of the few fics to suggest that Usagi would be upset by this situation.

Other works

  • This is the fate of Enrico Pucci at the end of Part 6 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. By using his newfound power of speeding up time, he speeds up time so much that the universe loops back on itself and reality is reset. However, as he is killed before completing the loop, the universe snaps back into a slightly altered version, and Enrico Pucci is nowhere to be seen.
  • Shakugan no Shana has bad guys which consume people's power of existence. In order to prevent a shock to the reality fabric, placeholders ("torches") that resembles the original person are left behind. "torches" slowly burn out, becoming increasingly lethargic while all traces of their existence begin to disappear. At the beginning of the series, Yuji desperately, but futilely, tries to keep a classmate-turned-torch alive and continuously involved with their friends, but their attention inevitably drifts, until she finally fades away.
    • Except nobody actually ends up forgetting her for long, because Shana then takes on her identity. She doesn't take on the vanished girl's personality, though, leading some to question, "Has she always been like this?"
  • Happened to Chikane from Kannazuki no Miko as requirement for the save-the-world ritual... well, until The Power of Love and The Promise shook hands with each other to Screw Destiny while subverting the Bait and Switch Lesbians trope that anime writers loved so much back then.
  • The Movie of Haruhi Suzumiya -- The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya—centers around about what you'd expect. Haruhi (and Itsuki, who was Demoted to Extra) turn up going to another school. The fantastic secret identities of the SOS Brigade -- including Haruhi -- have likewise been retroactively undone.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The M.O. of the Big Bad of Season 4 mentally tortures his victims with the darkness and guilt in their hearts until they believe they don't deserve to exist -- and then grants their wish.
  • The end of the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga has Utena erased from the memories of the entire cast, with the exception of Touga, who mourns her passing worse because he cannot share his mourning with anyone. Only just then, Chuchu dresses up like Utena, and then Anthy walks by, now dressed in a boy's uniform like Utena had worn, so obviously some things have changed - and, as she says, Utena is not gone, but out there somewhere.
    • Same happens in the anime series (minus Chuchu) and Anthy sets off to find Utena again, implying that she wasn't so much "erased" as "moved away" from the other characters' world, which signifies her transition from childhood to adulthood.
  • At the end of Serial Experiments Lain The main character Lain does this to herself.
  • Tenchi in Tokyo, Yugi apparently "Ret Hered" her shadow Sakuya into the community- everyone else is given Fake Memories of her, her name's put into the records of her apartment building, etc. Once Sakuya realizes she doesn't remember anything and Yugi decides she's served her purpose, all the illusions are undone and Sakuya is Ret-Goned again- Tenchi's friends don't remember her, her name disappears from the records, and she disappears from a previously-taken photo.
  • This is the favored tactic of Enfant in Madlax, who can effectively manipulate all information channels on the planet and, thus, erase all traces of anyone's existence, like they did e.g. with Maclay Marini.
  • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni has this happen in Rei, since Rika getting hit by a truck sent her to a Hinamizawa where the dam project was still underway in June 1983, and a good portion of the major characters are absent.
    • She's only in a coma though.
  • In the current story arc of Kinnikuman Nisei, set in the past, Brocken Jr. loses his right arm in a match, thus removing his trademark Red Rain of Berlin attack. In the next match, Jade attempts the move and is shocked to find he can't do it. Looking at a photo shows that Brocken Jr.'s hand is now a hook, therefore Brocken could never have taught the move to Jade. After some time for Jade's mind to adapt to his new memories, he now knows a leg-based version of the move: Brocken's Repatriation.
  • Fuuko in Clannad. Gradually, everyone forgets that she's been running around the school lately and becomes unable to see or remember her. Eventually, only Tomoya remembers her. The starfishes she carved stay around, a handful of characters like Sunohara and the Fukuhara's kind-of but not quite remember her. She gets better if you make the right decisions.
  • Bleach: The first movie, Memories of Nobody, ends with Senna fading from existence. It's a bit of a subversion for two reasons: Originally she never really existed in the first place being a collection of random memories given a soul, and Ichigo walks right by her in the movie's ending. Still, she's essentially Ret-Gone. Because she's a movie character she's probably never going to be brought up in canon again, meaning she's never going to be re-introduced to the cast.
    • Also, in Movie 3, Rukia gets an incomplete dose of Ret-gone. The force behind this isn't powerful enough to completely erase her; Zanpakutou spirits and artificial souls such as Kon are immune to the effect, and physical evidence such as written notes remain. Ichigo also regains his memories with a bit of nudging, as the force couldn't Ret-Gone the fact that Rukia was the original source of his powers.
  • This is essentially the power of Ukoku Sanzo's Muten Sutra in Saiyuki, as he shows Sanzo first-hand: literally, 'the power of nothingness'. It also extends to things, though, not just people, but the effect it has on people is what makes it fit the trope.
  • In an episode of Kirby Right Back At Ya!, no one was able to recognize Escargoon when the monster Erasem entered his body, although he never actually disappeared.
  • In Nabari no Ou, this is Yoite's main goal. He doesn't succeed in either the manga or anime.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, this happens to Madoka in the final episode, after she uses her newly obtained powers to rewrite all of reality so that witches are not born from the corruption of Puella Magi. Homura's upset (seeing as the whole reason she became a Magical Girl in the first place was to keep Madoka alive), but Madoka herself is pretty cool about it.
  • Time Stranger Kyoko has this happen to the titular character. After giving Ui her body back, Kyoko returns to earth to see her friends one last time. She's invisible, can't be heard. Her father explains that her friends didn't forget about her. It's that she never existed in their hearts to begin with. She gets better.
  • In Darker than Black, Amber's remuneration of her power to Time Travel causes her to age backwards and has become a toddler as a result of using her powers too much. In the end, in order for Hei to Take a Third Option, she willingly uses her powers one last time and retgones herself.
  • The fate of most Kanshuu's victim on World Embryo.
  • Whether it belongs here or elsewhere (there IS an anime though I've not seen it) the Visual Novel One: To the Radiant Season has this as the major plot. You are disappearing from everyone's mind and vanishing from the Earth. The only thing that can bring you back is if you've made a connection with a girl enough for her to remember you.
  • One Piece:
    • An incomplete version occurs in the Dressrosa arc courtesy the powers of the Hobby-Hobby Fruit wielded by Sugar. Her powers allow her to transform anyone she touches into LivingToys, which she can then place under her control. A side-effect of this power is all memory of who she transforms is removed from other people. Physical evidence, such as written reports or statues, still remain.
    • It's frighteningly easy for Ain - from the 12th movie - to RetGone a foe. Her Devil Fruit power can make someone 12 years younger with each use (and she does not have to touch a victim to use it), and can potentially erase a person from existence via multiple uses by reversing them past their birth. While she's never done so on-screen, she tends to use it as a threat after displaying what it can do. And it works. Even the Straw Hats, who usually don't fear death, backed off after she reduced Nami to an eight-year-old and explained what would happen if she did it again.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, Beerus does this to Zamasu, eradicating him in Universe 10 and splitting the timeline, undoing all the damage he did in the current timeline. Course, the guy was really asking for it.
Back to Ret-Gone
  1. ↑ yes, CLAMP loves this one
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