Wall Banger/Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


When I first read this, the sound of hatred that emitted from my throat was so potent that it summoned a demon that killed my roommate. To avoid a repeat occurrence I will not attempt to recapture that moment.
Y Ruler of Time, That Guy With The Glasses reviewer, about a certain chapter of Naruto

Sometimes, not even reading it right to left can save a story from the wrath of Fridge Logic.

Please note that, if they occur only in the anime, then put them in the section for anime.

Bleach

  • In Bleach, Urahara telling Orihime she would not be able to fight against Aizen's army without Tsubaki was unfortunate for her, but somewhat reasonable and in keeping with others were saying about her (Uryu and Chad have expressed similar sentiments before, and Renji agrees with Urahara in the same scene). But it turns unbelievable when it turns out that he lied to her and chose not to reveal that Aizen was interested in her powers. His lie leads to her capture: after speaking with Rukia and hearing that she only needs resolve for battle, Orihime manages to get Tsubaki repaired and starts training to get stronger, which leads to her encountering Ulquiorra in the dangai when she goes to help Ichigo. If Urahara was clever enough to hide the Hogyoku inside Rukia (and only get outsmarted by Magnificent Bastard Aizen), then he should have considered that she might have stayed behind if she realized just how important she was.
    • Has it been said why exactly Urahara, a 200 year old (at least) chessmaster, didn't see it coming? That's the wall banger.
    • With his arrival on the battlefield, perhaps Kisuke will prove himself the most potent chessmaster of them all.
      • Nope. Aizen transformed into a bedsheet ghost and defeated Isshin, Kisuke, and Yoruichi. He appeared to kill the last two. He beat them all at the same time! And he didn't seemed tired in the slightest.
        • Actually, later chapters confirm Urahara is alive, and since he doesn't mention Yoruichi dying, it's safe to assume she's alive too.
      • It's even more of a wallbanger that he didn't even consider an indiscriminate attack that would have killed everyone in a certain radius. Yamamoto can think this up but the supposed genius can't?
      • Yamamoto is known for being a cold, calculating tactician. Urahara wants to save everybody. The latter thing is typically harder than the former.
  • And then, in Chapter 349, Orihime's reaction to Ichigo getting a hole blown in his chest by Ulquiorra's Cero is to panic and beg for Ichigo's help. Throughout the Arrancar arc, she had realized that she couldn't rely on Ichigo all the time, and she wanted to become stronger to help him and fight on her own by the next time she saw him. Now she's falling back into relying on Ichigo, not even trying to help herself, which only serves to confirm the arguments of those who consider her too weak. It's not that she no longer realizes her problem, but her instincts are just wrong...
    • If Orihime had no combat skills, then that would serve as an excuse. But she can literally reject space-time. She might be capable of turning Aizen and his whole army into embryos. Yet not even the 'genius' Urahara considered trying to hone her skills even to incapacitate Arrancar. It's as if the series itself is conspiring against her getting stronger. Her non-combat role in the Soul Society arc was tolerable because no one knew the extent of her powers and because she was still new to fighting. By now, it's been several hundred chapters, and Aizen himself told her that she could reject space-time. As time goes by, it seems less and less realistic that Orihime won't fight and win some battles. The series can't Hand Wave it with her being "afraid" or "in pain" forever; she's too much of a powerhouse for that excuse to remain tolerated. If this keeps up, then it'll seem like Tite Kubo and Shonen Jump are deliberately putting Orihime through Chickification when she should be one of the greatest badasses in the series, just so they can have a Moe Moe Damsel in Distress.
    • It was established at the start of the current arc that Orihime's problem is her lacking the will to use her powers to harm others. Hopefully, this arc will manage to sufficiently motivate her to consider using her abilities effectively for something other than healing.
  • Fine if Orihime doesn't want to kill people, fine. But, Kubo, no stunning people, no knocking them unconscious, nothing? She either HAS to kill them or can't? Regardless of what Kenpachi says, going on the offensive does not mean going for blood. If Orihime is even half as smart as people say she is and that training she did with Rukia in Soul Society was worth even half the trouble, why hasn't she figured some way around this?
    • Orihime doesn't even have to try to knock them out. As it's been repeatedly stated on this very page, she can reject space-time, which basically means she can morph any object or person into a state they used to be in the past. She could de-power major villains by de-aging them until they're not strong enough to kill her friends. She could probably turn her enemies into babies if she tried. Basically, people who can warp time-space have a lot of ways they can kill people without inflicting mortal injuries. Tite Kubo just isn't thinking.
    • The idea that Orihime would never ever want to even HURT anyone is bullshit. Isn't this the same girl who drew herself as a destructive robot in the future? The girl who's supposedly took karate lessons yet she never does this in self defense? Kubo has just contradicted previously established characterization in order to make her the arc's Damsel in Distress and it's made worse by Orihime's unwillingness to get better over the course of the arc. She CHOSE a fighter's path yet can only cry and rely on "Kurosaki Kun!" whenever she's in real trouble instead of trying something. The most she can do against Ulqiorra is slap him but she can't even fight back against Loly and Menoly? It's really no wonder those girls hated Orihime's guts and tormented her so much; she's so helpless, she made it all too easy for them!
  • Yammy, the weakest of the Espada who was constantly getting kicked around by the protagonists, was revealed to be the 0 Espada, a rank that was never previously mentioned or hinted at, after his release. A number of hollows had stated that the Espada only goes from 10 to 1.
    • Maybe they'll go to negative numbers eventually?
    • How many of us like Yammy? Does he have any other characteristics besides "big, loud, and dumb"?
    • Oh, and it was completely useless -- Kenpachi and Byakuya easily defeat him. It's like Tite Kubo is trying to get fired.
      • Take a look at the latest manga chapters. He's still with us (both Yammy and Tite Kubo).
    • Yammy being the 0 Espada is later given a somewhat reasonable explanation, albeit one that admittedly sounds like a Hand Wave: The Espada are not ranked based on power or ability, but how much energy they give off when they enter their true forms. While this is a fair explanation, it still doesn't really make any sense in terms of why you would rank your top soldiers in a way that doesn't help them at all and actually hurts some of them.
  • Not to be outdone, Ichigo commits the biggest Wall Banger in the manga so far during his second fight with Ulquiorra. When he comes to his senses and realizes how brutally he mutilated Ulquiorra while in Hollow mode, he demands that Ulquiorra cut off his arm and leg so they can have a fair fight. (Orihime, who has already healed an opponent at his request, is standing right there.) To make it worse, Ichigo, who only a few chapters ago declared that he fights not because he thinks he can win but because he has to win, screams, "What kind of victory is this?!" as Ulquiorra dies, as if he cared more about the fairness of the fight than about saving his friends. Ichigo's behavior in this chapter came so far out of left field that many fans regard it as Character Derailment to boost Ulquiorra's status to Worthy Opponent and Noble Demon.
    • This is easy to explain: it's because of Ichigo's failing ego. He has been unable to protect any of his friends since the end of Soul Society. He has been suffering defeats from almost everyone, and he seems weak in comparison. He wants to prove to himself and possibly others that he can protect his friends. The best way to prove this and not screw up the plot is to defeat Worthy Opponent and Noble Demon Ulquiorra in a fair match. The kind of victory where Ichigo's out of control Hollow mode wins him the fight is the kind that won't prove that he is strong enough to protect anyone. Even though he still won...
    • In the current arc, a megalomaniacal evil genius wants to turn the souls of everyone in his hometown into a giant key, slaughter most of his shinigami allies, and conquer three different universes. And when a foreign being invades your universe with the goal of exterminating. enslaving, or eating your family, friends, and species, letting them slice you in half so the job would be easier for them isn't honor. It's betrayal. Ichigo states as early as the first volume that he fights primarily to protect his friends and family; how the heck is losing limbs going to help you with that, dear hero? The desire for fairness and sympathy is in his moral code; but when a war is going on, you have to draw the line somewhere...
    • Ichigo still hasn't killed a single non-Hollow opponent. Before this scene, he hadn't even killed a single Arrancar. He was perfectly willing to let any and all of Aizen's servants go as long as they weren't standing in his way. And when he destroyed Ulquiorra, he nearly killed Ishida, which (accidentally) makes overcoming Ulquiorra pointless because the full Hollow form is obviously too dangerous to release and, without it, Ichigo still sucks compared to high-end Espada and cannot meaningfully contribute to the war!
    • It is already established that Ulquiorra can regenerate limbs. Ichigo would have had a "fair" fight if he had just waited five minutes. (He had no idea that he also did fatal internal damage.) Ulquiorra, who did know he got fatal internal damage, would not have waited that long to attack, but still...
  • The real Wall Banger here should be how Hollow Ichigo's cero, fired at POINT-BLANK RANGE, didn't destroy Ulquiorra outright, making room for this Wall Banger about Ichigo wanting to be fair and sympathetic by wanting his arm and leg off. Remember that the cero was aimed at Ulq's head, yet only his lower body (i.e. the easily-regenerated portion) was destroyed.
  • Ulquiorra's entire death sequence was a giant Wall Banger, especially since it necessitated the two Wallbangers noted above (Ichigo being derailed and Ulquiorra's illogical survival of Ichigo's last attack). The reason these Wallbangers had to happen? To give Ulquiorra a dramatic death and to make us feel sorry for him, just like Orihime does. But wait: isn't this the same Ulquiorra who was actively trying to mind rape Orihime without a second thought? Who threatened to force food down her throat if she didn't eat? Who spoke of tearing apart her chest and cracking open her skull? And even if Kubo and the fans "forgot" about all those incidents by the time the death scene rolled around, are we supposed to forget that Ulquiorra blew a hole right through Ichigo's chest when he was already defenseless and helpless, and then brutalized Ishida so severely that Orihime started to cry and scream for Ichigo to come back and protect her from him? And yet, the characters and readers are expected to sympathize with Ulquiorra here. This is the mother of all Wallbangers -- not only did Kubo see fit to have this scene, but he utilized the other two aforementioned Wallbanger-caliber plot points to make it happen.
    • Feeling sympathy and pity for Ulquiorra is not impossible; forgiving him, like Orihime seems to do, is.
    • Orihime saying she's "not scared" of Ulquiorra as he's dying is supposed to be touching and sad, but it comes across as profoundly stupid when you remember that moments earlier she was absolutely terrified of him. Her line might as well have been "I'm not scared... now that you're dying and no longer actively trying to maim and kill my friends." Note that despite forgiving and pitying Ulquiorra, Orihime makes no attempt to save him.
  • Aizen showing up in the middle of Tia Harribel's battle and killing her for no reason. She doesn't even get a death scene or last words; it's just into the fridge. Not only is it unsatisfying, but it's also Out of Character for Aizen, who sacrifices minions like it's going out of style but would never be so stupid as to do his enemies' work for them just because he's a nigh-omnipotent egomaniac.
    • What makes it worse is that Hitsugaya had appeared to defeat her not long before. It would have been better to have him kill her right then and there.
    • Because Harribel was rendered incapitated, none of the Vizard girls were allowed to show ANY of their abilities; their contribution to the fight was axed because Kubo didn't feel like giving Harribel a second round like the other top Espada. And Harribel gets neither death scene nor flashback, unlike every other Espada that died. There goes the female!
      • While still a wallbanger, things are somewhat better knowing now that Harribel survived... somehow. No explanation was given in the manga itself - rather, how Harribel survived was only mentioned a databook.
  • Mayuri Kurotsuchi. We are introduced to this utterly loathsome person who tortured Ishida's grandfather to death and did experiments on human subjects, which positioned him to be one heck of a future opponent for Ichigo and co... and then, suddenly, when Mayuri comes back, he bullies Ishida for comic relief, and he is considered a good guy. His Complete Monster and Karma Houdini status is played for laughs. What the hell, Kubo? We know Mayuri is your creator's pet, but you can't expect us to forget what he did and consider him just a laughable Jerkass buffoon. As for Ishida... he has no problem working with the bastard who once tortured his granddad and still bullies him. He has nothing more than mild annoyance towards the man who ruined his life.
  • When Harribel releases, she cuts Hitsugaya in freaking half from a distance. Next chapter, he returns and reveals that what she hit was an ice clone. That can bleed. And speak.
    • Blood, speaking, even limbs falling off -- those bits are well in the realm of possibility given Cicada; and it certainly makes more sense than a few rags and a captains cloak behaving that way. But it was still a cruel move by Kubo, all but destroying the tension from the previous chapter without warning -- and that's a pattern that continues for most of those fights. If he absolutely had to stay in against the third espada, then ice limbs not only would have had more of a basis, given his bankai form, but also would have kept SOME of that tension. Even Frozen Blood might be better.
    • The real Wall Banger: after that exchange, neither party uses that level of skill again. Hitsugaya does pull out an interesting technique later on; but it seems like Harribel got weaker after releasing -- she could hit Hitsugaya quite before.
  • Tousen releases his Ressurecion, all but slaughters Komamura in the space of a few pages, and is about to strike the finishing blow in a confrontation that has been a long time coming. Then Hisagi gets up again, after being run though twice earlier in the fight and after suffering massive wounds before then -- he is nowhere near in good condition and was nowhere near the same ballpark as a captain in the first place. Nevertheless (perhaps because he should've been "dead"), Hisagi manages to catch Tousen completely by surprise. This would have been okay if he had distracted him just long enough for Komamura to get a second wind and strike a desperate blow with his bankai. But no -- not only does this surprise blow work, but he also manages to cut him through and then release his sword inside Tousen's skull, ending it right there out of nowhere. All that built-up tension gone, and Komamura didn't get to do anything despite this being his single greatest possible shining moment in the whole series, which he could have used to end his jobbing streak right then and there.
    • The sequence was meant to show how far Tousen had fallen. It was even ironic, considering that gaining sight turned out to be Tousen's greatest weakness. Still anticlimactic, though.
      • LOLIRONY is neither a good excuse to screw over prior conventions nor a good reason to make Komamura, who had every bit as much depth behind this matchup, worthless. Had he been able to do something, anything, other than get beaten down, it would've been better. Making him worthless is inexcusable.
      • Hopefully, the anime's censorship will allow Koma to do something there. At least we get Koma's first Shirtless Scene thanks to Clothing Damage.
      • Nope, the anime still made him worthless.
  • Shinji demonstrates his Shikai against Aizen, catching him in an Interface Screw and making him bleed. But he taunts Aizen about the element of his sword Aizen neglected to realize in his analysis. (That itself isn't a Wallbanger, since EVERYONE does that for no reason). Suddenly, Aizen instantly defeats him despite the sword's effect being unbreakable and despite the fact that Shinji pointed out that an experienced captain like Aizen should be MORE crippled by the sword's power than a novice.
    • That exchange was Shinji holding the Idiot Ball. In fact, the entire fight is a Wall Banger. Why is Shinji surprised that his shikai was overcome, when Aizen was shown to figure it out on his own the first time during the exchange and got more than enough time to figure it out again with all his boasting? Shinji had another trick but held it back because he thought Aizen couldn't overcome something that he just fully explained, and that Aizen seemed to figure out before his first trick.
  • Ichigo makes it to FKT and has a chance to take a surprise blow at Aizen; not only does he miss it, but he also doesn't don the mask before it is stomped on. Also, Aizen tries to talk him into believing that "he has no reason to hate him" despite all that he has done to his friends and his personally trying to kill him. And Ichigo would have fallen for it if not for the interference of Komamura.
    • It gets worse when you remember that Grand Fisher went to Hueco Mundo, specifically to that Lab/guard station where Ichigo entered that world through, to get turned into an Arrancar, suggesting that Fisher was at least tangentially connected to Aizen. Take this with Aizen's comment that Ichigo's life had been part of Aizen's plan, and you realize that Aizen is responsible for the Hollow that killed Ichigo's mother, tried to kill his sisters, and (in the anime) accelerated Orihime's brother's Hollowfication. This, combined with his admission back in Soul Society that he helped create the Hollow that killed Kaien Shiba, and Aizen is responsible by proxy for a lot of the pain felt by a number of main characters.
  • How utterly, obscenely powerful Aizen has become has certainly proven to be a wallbanger, especially in the most recent chapter. After easily dispelling total sensory inversion, he cuts apart Tengen Myou'ou's titanic blade without even trying, lops offs an arm without batting an eyelid, and takes down Komamura, Love, and Rose in a single slash each, making Koma's filler-based anime-centered losing streak canon in the process, all without releasing. And the reason he's so broken? As Gin said in summation, "You try to do anything, you're careless, because Aizen's just that powerful". Guess the journey to godhood was redundant.
    • And he manages to top himself- Aizen, on his own, using, at most, a minimal amount of illusions and a bare blade, takes down every remaining captain in a single stroke, seemingly makes Yamamoto commit what amounts to suicide in an effort to destroy him, which doesn't work, and now casually disposes of Isshin, Urahara and Yoruichi mere chapters after their Big Damn Heroes entrance and after people such as Urahara were said to be equal to Aizen in several respects. Why does anyone even bother trying at this point?
    • Has no one even bothered to ask when did Aizen switch with Momo? If Aizen was already using Kyoka Suigetsu before Ichigo showed up then Ichigo should not have been affected by the illusion of everyone else seeing Momo as Aizen. And yet, for some reason, Ichigo (who was watching the entire fight without even blinking) waited until after Hitsugaya ran his sword through her heart to ask the others why the hell they were beating on a poor girl who was already half dead!!
      • This one is usually explained by Aizen blocking their hearing so they couldn't hear Ichigo.
        • That explanation doesn't work either, since Ichigo was seen having conversations with several of Aizen's attackers before they went charging him down. Even if they couldn't hear Ichigo, why did he just stand there and let it happen? We've seen before that Ichigo isn't the type to just stand by and let a bunch of guys beat down a helpless girl, regardless of the odds against him.
  • It turns out that Ichigo's entire career as a shinigami was a massive Xanatos Roulette planned by Aizen since before Ichigo became a shinigami! The hollow attacking the Kurosaki household and wounding Rukia just enough for her to transfer her powers to Ichigo but not enough for either of them to die? Just as planned. Ichigo being mortally wounded and stripped of his powers but saved at the last second by Urahara and turned into a true Shinigami? Just as planned. Ichigo practically dying in his fights against Renji, Kenpachi, and Byakuya without his Hollow's random interference? Just as planned. Ichigo nearly being devoured from within by his inner hollow in his struggle to become a Vizard? Just as planned. Ichigo randomly gaining control of his mask to narrowly defeat Grimmjow after almost being beaten to death by him twice? Just as planned. Ichigo randomly being saved from Nnoitra and Tesla kicking him while he was down? Just as planned. Ichigo coming back from the dead TWICE against Ulquiorra? Just as planned. Had Ichigo died or stayed dead at any point, the "plan" would have failed; its success proves once and for all that Aizen is a Villain Sue.
      • This is, of course, assuming what he's saying is the actual truth and not something he made up to mess with Ichigo's head.
    • Aizen already knows everything that will happen. If he had planned for Ichigo to train to use Final Getsuga Tensou and can stop or counter it easily, then Kubo needs to cancel Bleach and quit writing manga because there is no other foreseeable way that Aizen can be stopped. Kubo has no place in the industry if he can't write a manga without bullshit plot twists and powers coming out the wazoo.
      • Aizen knows Ichigo is training. We're 50% of the way to a massive wallbanger.
  • Kubo's topped himself. The Hougyoku was revealed to be a wish-granting machine even though its power was only used to create Arrancars and Vizards. Its creator explicitly stated that its power was to break down the barrier between Shinigami and Hollow. There already was an accepted in-story logic behind Orihime and Chad gaining their powers.
  • So. This is it. Gin appears to have met all expectations, rising from an obedient yet cunning Smug Snake to usurp Aizen's position as the Big Bad. He does the impossible, outwits Aizen, and seemingly manages to kill him for good, obliterating his body and extracting the Hougyoku in the process. Aizen somehow manages to survive that, giving no explanation for his sudden revival other than "The Hougyoku is already mine." Aizen then assumes a six-winged form and gives Gin the Harribel treatment, casually disposing of him, bare-handed, in one stroke. We're supposed to assume that Ichigo can eventually emerge victorious against this guy.
    • Aizen planned for Gin to kill him. He knew that Gin was trying to kill him. Aizen's supposed death at the Hands of Gin just gives him another form and makes him even more powerful.
  • Aizen's Alas, Poor Villain moment. It's not so much the fact that they're trying to make us feel sympathy for the Complete Monster that commits Moral Event Horizon after another as many times as we blink, although that IS one factor into the Wall Banger moment. It's the fact that, if Ichigo's hypothesis is correct, the Hougyoku didn't give up on Aizen and took away his powers. It took away his powers because, deep down, Aizen wanted to lose his powers. That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen. EVERYTHING,including his defeat, went JUST. AS. PLANNED.
  • Think about this: Aizen's sentence for trying to kill everyone, killing two shinigami and razing war against the Soul Society: 20 thousand years. He's immortal so this means he'll live through it all and everything. It means he'll eventually be free. As if that is not suck enough, here's another thing to remember. Rukia's sentence for giving Ichigo her powers - Death. WHAT?!. that alone should state how much of a wallbanger this is.
    • This might be justified by Aizen being truly immortal, as in impossible to kill, but then that just turns it into another wallbanger. This bastard is evil incarnate, Ichigo's bullshit Alas, Poor Villain moment notwithstanding. If you really can't just outright destroy him, and he will never, ever die, why the fuck would you give him a sentence he'll live through? You already have him tied up so he'll never escape. Toss his ass in a hole, fill it in, move the entire hole into a box, hurl the box to the moon, then bury him in the moon, but at least make sure he'll never fucking escape. Unless you're confident that he'll be a weakling by the time he gets out, why take the chance?
    • Rukia's sentence was made after Aizen had killed Central 46. Meaning that Aizen himself gave the death sentence to claim the Hougyoku.
      • The same sentence that very few of the captain's decided to openly question. Komamura's apparently a decent guy from what we can see. Soifon is in charge of the (allegedly) intelligence division. Unohana is supposed to be a deeply caring individual who helps everyone. Yamamoto is in charge of all of Gotei 13. Why was it that out of all the loyal captains besides Byakuya only Shunsui[1], Ukitake[2], Zaraki[3] and Hitsugaya[4] were the only ones to oppose it? Why was Ukitake the only one to even suggest appealing the decision?
  • The war is over. Most of the shinigami and vizard are confirmed to be alive and ok. But, there's still some characters unaccounted for. A list: Soi-Fon, Kira, Kensei, Mashiro, Oomeyeda (he flat out disappears during the fight with Aizen), Isane, Yoruichi, Hachigen, Hanataro, Iba, and This Troper's favorite, Komamura (out of the unaccounted characters, his wounds where the most severe). Since the new arc is gonna start after the 2-week break, we will most likely not see their condition until about 40 or so chapters later. WTF?! Everyone was accounted for after the Soul Society arc, but WHY NOT HERE?! If you ask Kubo what happened to them on his twitter, he'll most likely say that "he may draw them again later" which possibly means he was too lazy to draw those characters in the first place!!!!!!!!! Then the might force of the Head bangs the wall multiple times until it's reduced to dust.
    • The entire end of the Aizen saga. Not because it ended badly, but because almost every single plot thread is left hanging and some of the only threads that are tied up are ones that the ending itself created. Nel, her Fraccion, Grimmjow, several Vizards, many Captains and Lieutenants, and the relationships between almost all characters are not mentioned or expanded upon from the conflict's ending. It then goes into a new storyline with virtually none of the problems that arose from the end of the previous arc being mentioned. It felt extremely rushed, as if Kubo heard that people were bored with the arc and decided to just cut everything and move on to something fresh. The story also hasn't explained why Ichigo and Rukia had to say goodbye. They haven't mentioned there being anything stopping Rukia from seeing Ichigo using a gigai, or relaying messages through Orihime or Ishida, who didn't lose anything and can still see spirits and Shinigami perfectly well. Speaking of Orihime, come the end of the Aizen saga, we realize that everything that's happened to her had absolutely no point or pay-off. She didn't use her powers to erase Aizen. She didn't use her powers to kill Aizen. She didn't use her powers to destroy the Hougyoku. The last we see of her in the saga is Ichigo leaving her on the roof of Las Noches to heal Ishida's hand. All this means that the Chickification into a Damsel Scrappy is what stuck with her through the entire arc and nothing else, because, as mentioned above, her swear to erase the Hogyoku paid nothing off and it ended up doing nothing but giving the story a scene to fill in a few panels. While Ichigo (sort of) being the one to defeat Aizen makes sense, being the main character and all, it doesn't help that pretty much everybody else had to be stuck somewhere else, even those who, at that point, could probably still do something to contribute to the story.
  • Many fans groaned at the latest chapter of Bleach. The Fullbringers, a fairly interesting if mysterious group of empowered humans, have been trying to cut some kind of deal with Ichigo for the past few chapters. Debates have been going on as to whether they're supposed to be allies, villains, or something else, but the latest chapter indicates that their deal is to transfer their interesting powers over to Ichigo and become ordinary humans. They've been in the manga for about ten chapters and their chances of actually contributing much beyond serving as living power-ups for Ichigo are already dwindling.
    • To make matters worse, one of the people in this group is Chad, a Ensemble Darkhorse who is constantly on the receiving end of The Worf Effect and was once a main character, but went through several hundred chapters previously without any lines, or many appearances that didn't consist of him face-down and bleeding heavily. If this plot works out, Chad would lose his powers permanently, just to give Ichigo a new power-up, rendering Chad completely useless even within the context of the series.
    • Another wallbanger is how the story mirrors way too closely the Vizards bit from last arc: group of quirky characters with new powers shows up, talks Ichigo around a bit, give him knowledge/powers and soon will be discarded away. Kubo has fallen again into his habit of creating more characters to get himself out of his writer's block, ensuring his large cast of old favorites do not get further development and the newest characters are fleshed out just enough to be forgotten when the plot demands it.
  • My ultimate Bleach wallbanger (this requires lengthy explanation): Ichigo was able to fight on par with Kenpachi Zaraki with only his shikai, right? Immediately afterwards he fought Byakuya Kuchiki while being in an injured state and did fairly well, right? He then achieved Bankai. According to Yoruichi just ACHIEVING bankai results in the Soul Reaper's abilities increasing by as much as FIVE TIMES without including whatever extra powers the usage of said Bankai might provide, right? In other words: becoming five times stronger, five times faster, etc. Judging by his fight with Byakuya, I would say that Ichigo abilities were enhanced considerably, not even including the extra power boost his bankai adds to his physical strength and speed, right? Ichigo then learns how to Hollowfy, which further enhances all the powers of the one who uses said ability, RIGHT? He then goes to Hueco Mundo, a world where just BEING THERE enhances Hollow powers, RIGHT?! All in all, using his bankai and hollowfying, Ichigo should be CONSIDERABLY more powerful than he was when he fought Kenpachi and even when he fought Byakuya, RIGHT?!?! So then why, oh why, (while he is in Bankai, Hollowfied, in Hueco Mundo, and putting every ounce of power he could muster into a single Getsuga Tenshou) WHY IS THAT HE COULDN'T EVEN MAKE YAMMY BLEED THEN BYAKUYA AND KENPACHI (Two characters he equaled without using as much as he used against Yammy) SHOW UP AND WITHOUT EVEN USING THEIR FULL POWER THEY START HACKING YAMMY TO PIECES LIKE HE WAS NOTHING?!?!?!?! *sobs* *beats head on wall repeatedly* *sobs some more*
    • "Fighting on par" with someone who deliberately lowers themselves to your level doesn't say anything about who is better. Ichigo could be stronger than Kenpachi's limit, or he could still be weaker, we just can't know until Kenpachi runs out of handicaps to remove.
    • Except Kenpachi fought at his full power in soul Society. And LOST.
  • The death toll after it was all over Gin just gets slashed but Hiyori Gets SLICED IN HALF and survives also Jushiro and Hinamori getting Stabbed they survive too.
    • Hey, a HUGE chunk of characters are ignored! Most of the vice captains, Kensei and Mashiro, the arrancars that helped Ichigo and his friends, and this troper's favorite character, Komamura (Soi-Fon doesn't count as the end of the arrancar saga in the anime revealed she's ok). I hope you all enjoyed them, because most of them are gonna get written out (arrancar and vizard) or won't show up until we're all possibly dead from 2012! (vice captains and Komamura)
    • They came back! In the background. Essentially as Ichigo's living power-ups. Yay?
      • "Background" is jumping the gun a little bit. They haven't done anything besides talk yet, but they're not just background characters.
  • The latest chapters of Bleach are now featuring the Fullbringers versus the Shingami which, for all the hype that the Fullbringers were brought up, essentially turned into a Curb Stomp Battle mostly in favor of the Shinigami. To elaborate here are some of the battles and the results.
  • And even Ichigo versus Ginjo turned out to be a Curb Stomp Battle, specially when Ginjo goes bankai before he reveals he has hollow powers. The guy's got a Copy system of the highest caliber. He then shoots a what looks like to be a cero and Ichigo blocks the attack with almost no effort,before slicing Ginjo. So much for the hype.
  • It's not terrible, but a particularly egregious borderline Ass Pull is the fact that 486 reveals that Sasakibe knew bankai. The problem with this is that it makes his getting destroyed by Ichigo in the Soul Society arc a massive and retroactive example of The Worf Effect.
  • Three Vizard have resumed their positions as captains. I seem to remember these very same vizard being sentenced to death merely for surviving a horrible experiment then having to live in fear and seclusion for over a century. Their leader even told the Head Captain (in no uncertain terms) that they were not allies of the Soul Reapers. I might be willing to understand them forgiving and moving on, but resuming their former positions and acting like being sentenced to execution on principle alone never happened? After seeing that, there is now a dent in my wall that's shaped like my head. Of all the farfetched things in Bleach, this one takes the cake.
  • Why didn't Old Man Yama try to barbecue Aizen when he had a chance? Right after he trapped Aizen in the Jokaku Enjo, why didn't he use his powers to pump the flame prison full of fire or perhaps cause the prison to press inwards on its captives? If Aizen could have escaped from that he would have done it long before Wonderweiss showed up, and he hadn't been transformed by the Hogyoku yet. He would have been completely helpless against an attack like that. Instead the Old Man waited until everyone else had been cut down before he even tried to go on the offensive against Aizen.
  • Chapter 474 was quite possibly the moment that the Fullbringer Arc hit its low point, and that's saying a lot. That Ginjo revealing the extra use of the substitute badge is treated as some horribly unspeakable act by ANYBODY, let alone Uryu and the story itself, is just unbelievably stupid. While they definitely should have told Ichigo about it, the Soul Society has at least two reasons why this is justified in general and even more when it comes to Ichigo.
    • 1. There is a precedent in Ginjo of Substitute Shinigami betraying Soul Society. It would only make sense for them to have protection against it happening again. Even disregarding him, substitutes have only a very loose affiliation with Soul Society, so it makes sense to watch them in case of betrayal.
    • 2. Soul Society is primarily a military organization. Being able to keep track of their soldiers makes sense from a strategical point of view and even more so with soldiers who are nowhere near the main HQ of the Soul Society.
    • 3. This is where we get into the Ichigo-related reasons. When he received that badge, he wasn't an official shinigami or even on their side. He was a rebel ryoka and a destructive force against them, taking out 2 captains and 2 lieutenant-class shinigami (if you count Ikkaku as on par with a lieutenant). He is too rebellious to be reasonably kept under control without surveillance so of course they'll watch him.
    • 4. Ichigo has an uncontrollable (as far as they knew at the time) Hollow form and they would need to get to him fast for restraining him if he goes berserk again.
    • 5. Ichigo's reiatsu has been established as the reason Hollows are attracted to him and his family. By limiting his power in his human form, they keep him and his family out of problems that he doesn't want to seek out.


Naruto

  • The general treatment of Naruto prior to the series. It's at least somewhat understandable that the villagers would be suspicious and angry at the boy who is hosting the same demon that caused them so much pain. What isn't understandable is that the ninja allowed these events to unfold. It has been made clear more than once that the higher-up ninjas (including Kakashi) were fully aware of how much his life sucked, and of course they're entirely aware of how the seal really works and why. They never once considered the possibility that this kind of treatment might cause the boy possessed by the powerful, malevolent demon to go on a killing spree? Or that instead of seeking attention he might decide to betray the village the first chance he gets?
    • It's really stupid when you consider that a jinchiruuki is capable of releasing their demon simply by a conscious act of will. Forget a mere "killing spree"; Naruto is capable of nuking Konoha and every living thing in it, at any time he feels like, just by letting the Nine-Tails back out to finish the job. No special training or skill required. At this point any remotely rational actor would be bending over backwards to make Naruto like them (as the alternative, killing Naruto in his sleep, would also just release the Nine-Tails). And yes, the villagers might not know that this is how demon seals work. But the ninja damn sure do, and also have a strong vested interest in not dying in a giant demon apocalypse some day, and so you'd think they'd either attempt to educate the villagers in exactly what suicidal morons they're being or otherwise make sure Naruto gets lots of emotional support because Naruto's continued good health and sanity is literally the only thing holding back the Kyuubi. But no!
      • It gets worse. Due to the extremely high power level of the Kyuubi, only someone with Uzumaki blood (and its accompanying extremely high chakra tolerance) can safely be the jinchiruuki for the Nine-Tails. Naruto is the last living Uzumaki in Konoha, and as far as Konoha knows for the first 11+ years of his life, the last living Uzumaki anywhere. And yet despite the part where it is a literal survival necessity for the next generation of the village to make damn sure Naruto has at least one kid before he dies, no one sees anything wrong with letting Naruto be completely socially isolated from everyone -- especially his own peer group and all the girls in it. The hell were you idiots planning to use later, test tubes?
    • This is a problem with just about all the villages, save Kumo. The villages apparently believe they can abuse the jinchuuriki into subservience, and if the child turns out like Gaara, they kill them and try again.
      • You'd think if demon vessels were so easy for any village to kill if they got uppity, then there'd be no reasons to fear the demons so much in the first place. Oh wait. Suna in particular had a slight problem with the 'let's just kill Gaara' solution, as I recall.
  • The section of the manga where Pain spends a few chapters detailing his backstory. Pain likes to paint himself as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, claiming he has felt pain like no other. While the basics of his back story had been mentioned, the exact reasons he suffered more than anyone else had not been revealed until then. Fans were expecting a sad tale that made Gaara's life look easy by comparison...and got a bunch of chapters showing a list of cliched Freudian Excuses. It's supposed to make Pain's Complete Monster status understandable, but it makes him look like an overgrown Emo Teen. Even worse when you consider that Kishimoto had done a much better job of humanizing his villains in the past. (Gaara, Gaara, Gaara.)
    • It was just a case of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, especially when that power involves summoning a death god by sprouting hundreds of spikes painfully out of your back, after having your legs crippled, your best friend killed by your own hands, and your idealistic outlook thrown in your face.
    • It's a no-win situation. We would've wanted to know his backstory, given that he claimed that he had suffered more pain than anyone else. But, assuming it wasn't otherwise important, leaving his past as a Noodle Incident would've been safer -- then we could still have imagined that what he claimed was true.
      • Just because Pein is of the opinion that his pain is more deep and important than other people's pain and that gives him the right to cause untold death and destruction doesn't mean it's supposed to be true.
  • Lee's battle with the three sound ninjas. First is the fact that even though Lee is facing three opponents, he uses a move that he knows will only take out one opponent (which it doesn't) and then leave him completely helpless. Even worse is when it's later revealed that he can simly take off his ankle weights and move at superhuman speed. More then fast enough to take out all three sound ninjas. Why didn't he just take the weights off and beat them!
  • The Reveal of Big Bad Madara Uchiha as the real villain because of its timing. This marked when the Uchiha clan got a complete stranglehold on the story; and this reveal came right in the middle of the biggest mystery of the manga up to then, the question of who led Akatsuki, and spoiled the drama. It also marked the abandonment of Akatsuki's ingenious Xanatos/Arabian Nights Gambit; the initial replacement for that gambit didn't look as interesting.
  • The Ass Pull that occurs when the Kyuubi is about to break free once and for all. The fourth Hokage suddenly appears in Naruto's mind from out of nowhere, gives him a short pep talk, repairs the seal, and vanishes. This in itself was foreshadowed with the Third's explanation of how the seal works. But Naruto emerges almost unharmed; his skin should have literally boiled off during the short time Kyuubi was out, and he should not have been able to heal that quick. He was ready to take on Pain again with recharged chakra. It defuses what could have been the single most dramatic part of the entire manga with a Deus Ex Machina.
    • Jiraiya stated that when the seal is restored and the transformation reversed (he used the key to loosen and then re-strengthen Naruto's seal the first time he went 4-tails), the chakra was able to heal his burns. When Yamato stopped Naruto's transformation back in the second arc, his technique forcefully subdued the Kyuubi, leaving Naruto unable to heal. Don't talk about the Sora Filler transformation; that was inconsistent.
  • Nagato manages to get even worse. He's just revealed that he had the power to raise the dead all along. En masse. He brings back the entire village of Konoha (whom he had just killed) and all the named characters he slaughtered (except Jiraiya). It is even implied that, if he hadn't been exhausted, then he could have done this without dying.
    • The village itself is still a smoking crater. This does not make the mass resurrection any less of a massive cop out.
    • Nagato has the ability to perform any jutsu, up to and including mass resurrection. There are healing and repairing jutsu out there. Why didn't Nagato perform one of the healing jutsu on himself and fix his legs?
    • Hell, why didn't he go around raising people from the dead and preaching his gospel? He could have taken over the entire world with his brand shiny new religion, and he could have been the Messiah. Instead, see below.
    • Nagato has an insane philosophy: "Peace only comes through fear, violence, etc."
    • Those who had liked Nagato earlier liked him precisely for his balls-to-the-wall villainy and the smackdown he laid on the boring invincible ninja village. He was HeelFaceTurned because he was reminded of his master's dream (after he killed his old master, no less). Magically canceling the results of the smackdown was a bitter icing on this ass-shaped cake.
  • We can probably declare chapter 449 to be official Worst Chapter in All of Naruto. It took the previous thirty chapters of intense drama and stunning action and undid most of the long-term effects all at once!
  • For some time in Naruto, the Spotlight-Stealing Squad (full of Akatsuki members and Uchihas) got bigger and bigger, Nukes were dropped, and Walls were banged.
  • The Jyuubi. Way to give us another Ass Pull, Kishimoto. To elaborate: Throughout the entire series, we've been led to believe that the Tailed Beasts were real mythical beasts who could one day just happen to show up to wreak havoc upon your village. Then Madara reveals that they were nothing but by-products of this Jyuubi and were created from its powers when it was sealed inside the moon.
    • He said that he wants the body and that he wants to seal the demon inside himself. This violates the Evil Overlord rules on several levels...but there you go.
    • The existence of the Jyuubi had never even been hinted at before this chapter. It felt like Kishimoto had just made it up on the fly.
    • The Jyuubi idea had been seen in Fan Fiction since the Shukaku's appearance but before its canonical appearance. That might make it worse.
  • Kishi managed to top himself AGAIN. Naruto hyperventilated and collapsed while crying at the thought of Sasuke needing to be stopped. Remember, Naruto had successfully handled his mentor being killed, his village being nuked, and his mother-figure being put in a coma; he even forgave the guy responsible. But the mere thought of having to take Sasuke behind the shed has him collapsing in a panicked pile of childish immaturity. Naruto, ladies and gentlemen: the biggest disgrace of a Shonen protagonist ever.
    • It's not that what Naruto is doing is illogical in itself. You can make a good argument that this development makes sense (see below for the good argument). But you just made a former Determinator wimp out like a small child when, if he's worth his salt, he should be growing up, trying to find the right solution, or trying to consider the options. Making him wimp out and knock himself unconscious because the world isn't going the way he wants is NEVER the wisest option. There's a reason Shinji gets so much flack for that crap -- but Shinji was always that kind of person in that kind of series. Naruto was a Determinator -- why should he give up now?
  • While not as wall banging as Nagato's Deus Ex Machina, the lack of interaction between Naruto and Hinata is mind boggling. What does Naruto do after returning to the village, after a girl declares her love for him and attempts to save his life even when she knows it's probably a death wish for herself? Nothing! After declaring her love and getting a life-threatening smackdown, and upon seeing Naruto return, what does Hinata do? She cries tears of happiness with the rest of the crowd -- nothing more. What the hell, Kishimoto?!
    • A simple on-panel "thank you" on Naruto's part would have been nice. Apparently, Hinata is not important enough even for that. That's what bugged a lot of people about the whole business. It felt as if Hinata was brought out solely to make her Anguished Declaration of Love and draw out the Kyuubi through her near-sacrifice. In other words, she was a simple tool to move the plot forward instead of a legitimate character. Now that she's done her job, she has become background noise once again.
      • For that matter, there is not even the slightest canon hint Hinata ever got an off-panel "thank you". We have to just assume that it must have happened because otherwise Naruto would have to be some kind of completely oblivious... oh. Yeah.
    • Kishimoto time to flesh out Konohamaru's relationship with Naruto. Granted, Konohamaru is more important to the storyline then Hinata, but just barely.
  • Sasuke decides to go to the Kage Summit to kill Danzo, the current acting Hokage. The problem? Danzo is surrounded by the other four Kages -- who are all extraordinarily powerful ninja -- each Kage's two Jounin bodyguards, the leader of the Land of Iron, and loads and loads of samurai security guards. Sasuke could have been killed several times over if it wasn't for the timely intervention of Madara Uchiha. Sasuke is effectively too dumb to consider living.
    • Made worse because Tobi expected Sasuke and Team Jobber to succeed so that Madara could hold them all hostage. Yes, Madara's plans were hinged on Sasuke and his Job Squad defeating an army of Samurai, five Kage, and their elite bodyguards.
    • No, he only wanted them to weaken them, and they succeeded. The Raikage walked away without an arm.
  • Danzo has several Sharingans! On his ARM! And the face of the Shodai on his shoulder. Why these developments are a problem:
    1. It means that every main antagonist or antagonistic character (Madara, Sasuke, Danzo) has the Sharingan for no better reason than Sharingans being awesome. (See the Spotlight-Stealing Squad complaint above.)
    2. Orochimaru specifically said that Yamato was the only replica of the First that could handle his cells. But Danzo is able to use them when only a single copy of the Shodai out of several can.
    • Danzo was working with Orochimaru. Obviously, the testing on Yamato and the others helped to perfect it with Danzo, who still couldn't use it well.
    • The Sharingans have another special technique; uber-illusions, inextinguishable magical fire, and literal Plot Armor weren't enough. This technique allows Danzo to choose to reject events such as his own death. At least he can't use whatever eye used the technique, right? Oh, wait, none of them are in his eyes. This is short-circuiting what had looked like canonical restrictions to Sharingans. Okay, maybe it'll just be One-Shot Revisionism -- maybe only Danzo will ever use this loophole -- but still...
  • A relatively minor one: Sasuke went from willing to sacrifice himself to save his comrades against Killer Bee to abandoning them to go Danzo hunting in what couldn't be more than two weeks, for no clear reason.
  • Even with the mass resurrection, the Pain arc did one good thing: it made clear that Naruto was now a Badass. Kishimoto, apparently angry at himself for making Naruto cool, spent two chapters turning Naruto into a complete pussy who humiliates himself over a guy who betrayed them for one of the village's worst enemies. Hell, even other characters seem to think this is stupid.
    • It doesn't help that Sasuke's currently working overtime to make Naruto look like a bigger and bigger idiot for being such a pussy in front of the reigning King of Badass in Naruto, the Raikage, with each passing chapter.
    • Ever since the Pain arc, Kishimoto has been working overtime to piss away all the cred Naruto earned in the fight with Pain by successively portraying him as a punching bag, a beggar, a crybaby, and finally an indecisive pushover who faints when told to get over his lifelong obsession with Sasuke. Meanwhile, Sasuke has been merrily jumping from one Kage-level fight to another. Perhaps the mangaka has an ulterior motive in elevating his personal favourite character (hint: he's the younger of two surviving Uchihas) in the next popularity poll by derailing his rival and our (designated?) hero, Naruto.
    • There are several more problems with this development:
      1. There is Moral Dissonance of Naruto implying dangerous repercussions to the Raikage's actions if he tries to stop a murderous criminal from acquiring Sealed Evil in a Can to blackmail the world just because the criminal in question is the friend he swore to bring home alive.
      2. This is the second time in a row that Naruto was faced with a difficult situation and had an emotional cop-out. This feeds into the third problem:
      3. This is Character Derailment for one of the greatest Determinators in manga history. Naruto banishing his doubts and deciding that his old Nindo was just fine after all is fine. Naruto being smart and looking for a way out is fine. Naruto deciding to face facts and Shoot the Dog is also fine. Naruto wimping out and fainting because he can't face facts is not.
      • Sasuke is a murderer and a terrorist. Even though the Raikage's reasons for wanting to kill Sasuke have a personal edge, he isn't the only one who wants Sasuke's head. Naruto asking the Kumo leader to forgive Sasuke--who is still a revenge-fueled, traitorous criminal--is asking him and everyone else in the world to turn a blind eye to terrorism because otherwise feelings would be hurt. This degree of selfishness in a character who used to be The Messiah Idiot Hero is appalling. This guy wants to be in charge of a village?
  • Kishimoto appears to be trying to derail Sakura's character by portraying her as a shallow bitch who's in the wrong. Naruto insists that she's "lying to herself" when she confesses love for him, that she still has feelings for Sasuke deep down, and that she is trying to use Naruto as the next best thing. But she doesn't seem nearly as in love with Sasuke as Naruto is; she has enough intelligence to try to hunt him down, while Naruto still insists on "saving him." Hell, Naruto even says that he understands why Sasuke wants to destroy the village and that he wants to help him ease the pain! The whole affair reeks of bad writing.
    • Can we drop the pretext and flat-out state that Sakura is now a Double Subversion of a Faux Action Girl or Damsel Scrappy? Sakura has been on a downhill slope ever since the end of the Gaara Arc, but the evidence is overwhelming now: Sakura is no Action Girl. Having to get rescued twice in two chapters because she was choked on both occasions after she deliberately sabotaged her own efforts to Shoot the Dog (seriously, couldn't she have told the others to stay back?) is bad enough; but one of the rescuers is the person who specifically told her to Stay in the Kitchen.
      • Sakura, you have SUPERSTRENGTH! And yet, you nearly die by being strangled twice. You could've broken his arm like a twig...but no...
  • Sakura hits it out of the park again! After seeing Naruto's controversial confrontation with Sasuke, she believes that her resolve is nothing compared to Naruto's, and all that's left for her to do is...believe in them. Not just believe in Naruto's ability to save the man who tried to kill her in cold blood, but believe in Naruto AND Sasuke. Not take part in this confrontation of wills or try to stop Sasuke herself so Naruto doesn't have to fight him and risk a Mutual Kill; just...stand uselessly on the sidelines and believe. Sakura's character development has essentially come full circle.
    • Apparently, her super strength only works around Naruto, one of the earliest examples is her fight vs Zaku who stabs and bite him. However, sometime later, Naruto mocks Lee, cue Megaton Punch. Where was that power when she needed it?
  • The plot seems to bend over itself so that Sasuke's actions rarely have permanent consequences. When they do, it's generally implied that the victim was an Asshole Victim and deserved what happened to him. Kishimoto seems to believe that as long as Sasuke is only attempting to commit heinous acts (such as murdering Karin to get Danzou or exterminating Konoha) and is not succeeding, then he is still redeemable. Kishimoto, the Moral Event Horizon does exist, and many readers think Sasuke crossed it long ago. There's only so much the readers can take before a character becomes irredeemable in their eyes; after that, any Heel Face Turn or attempt to humanize the villain will only outrage them.
    • What manga are you reading? It's made clear that Sasuke's gone over the line with what he's done.
    • Considering where the manga stands on the Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism, it is also clear that Sasuke will be redeemed, no matter how absurd that seems.
  • A big one: How is it that hardly anyone in the Leaf seems to know that Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage? It's been Handwaved by stating that Sarutobi must have covered it up, but that doesn't explain how. Naruto retains his mother's maiden name, and unless Minato and Kushina were married in secret (unlikely considering they lived in the same house and walked in public together) the connection would be obvious for everyone to make.
  • Minato's reasoning behind sealing Kyuubi into Naruto and not let Kushina take it with her when she died: I can't raise a kid, 'cause I'm a guy. Also, he should have known what he was getting into when he was conceived by shinobi parents. And worse, Kushina AGREES with him orphaning their child and pretty much condemning their son to a life of isolation and emotional abuse without argument.
  • A continual Wall Banger is how little the women contribute to the plot. The last truly awesome battle we had was the Mizukage; that one had an Ass Pull to save her opponent, rendering it useless. This is taken to ridiculous heights in chapter 510. Satellite Character Konan faces off against Big Bad Madara for Nagato's Rinnegan eyes. She's analyzed his ability and shows him OVER 600 BILLION exploding tags on paper - enough to keep him from phasing through since he can only maintain the technique for five minutes and the explosion will go on for ten. Does that work? No. Why? Madara uses Izanagi to survive the explosion and appear behind her. He stabs her through the gut and hypnotizes her, making the battle pointless and stuffing Konan into the fridge. Have pity for these poor women who find themselves in Kishimoto's work.
    • At least it meant something. Her awesome Heroic Sacrifice at least limited Big Bad Madara to one Izanagi, unless Kishi cops out again.
    • Madara's got a wall full of Sharingans. Several dozen at least. That poison bug guy getting Madara to tear an arm off is about how effective Konan's attack was.
      • It's worse. Madara simply used Pain's Rinnegan eye as a replacement.
  • But wait! There's more. Now, if Izanagi alone had been the reason for Madara's victory, it would have stayed within the established Sharingan powers as displayed by Danzo. But no, it turns out Madara won vs. Senju even though previous canon seems to suggest otherwise. The dialog suggests it may just be a moral victory (Immoral Victory?), but even this interpretation contradicts all his previous hints about being "a shadow" of his former self. Anyway, he took the First Hokage's Senju powers (or whatever) and made himself the second Sage of the Six Paths. He also did something to Nagato, who turns out to be an Uzumaki with no prior hints of it, to make him the third Sage. And Izanagi turns out to be an ability only those with the powers of the Sage can use, which means Danzo either knew as much as Madara about the subject or lucked out in his choice of powers. In fact, Madara says that Danzo's version was incomplete and that the real Izanagi is true reality-warping power -- it's how the first Sage made the nine tailed beast. It's as if he's on the path to become a Villain God Mode Sue. The Uchiha Plot Tumor just keeps on GROWING to absurd levels, and all of them probably have Plot Armor now. In fact, thanks to this logic, it seems as if Naruto himself is on the path to getting an upgrade to being the fourth Sage because of that crow Itachi made him deep-throat all those chapters ago. All that's left is for Sasuke to get his hands on a similar power, which could be Nagato's eyes, and essentially the Uchiha will be the one and only reason anyone in the manga ever succeeds at anything.
    • In regards to the point about Sasuke, it gets worse: Sharingans can transform into Rinnegans somehow, if an Uchiha is given Senju DNA. The villains have access to plenty of Senju DNA - enough to power up an entire army of Zetsus and then some. We're over 50% of the way to a massive Wall Banger.
  • Naruto being too stupid to realize that something was wrong and tries to find out what sex a giant armadillo is while Kabuto attacks and kidnaps Yamato. Then we get to find out that the armadillo does in fact have a penis. The fact that Kishimoto drew it two chapters in a row just makes it worse.
  • Possibly worst of all, Naruto not only inherited the 'Will' of the Senju clan but is actually a blood relative and by extension a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths! This puts the final nail in the coffin of the whole 'Destiny doesn't matter' theme from Part 1 because all the major events with Naruto in the Ninja World, from his rivalry with Sasuke to his eventual confrontation of Madara have been declared as being set up by the old Uchiha-Senju connection. Looks like Neji was right after all. Fate decides everything.
  • The recent fight with Nagato. Okay, not only does Naruto lose about every braincell he has to even forget something he realized five seconds ago, Kabuto loses every braincell and actually forgets about Itachi, the S-rank ninja who just broke free of his control. No, seriously. He just forgot he was there despite wanting Shisui's eye and everything. He makes Nagato act like an idiot, literally making no move to fight with any nobility. Itachi's Gary stu-ism level also leaps off the charts. While Naruto and Bee panic, Itachi just calmly analyzes everything and forms a plan and defeats Nagato more or less instantly in a single chapter. The most hyped character in the entire manga goes down with almost no fight whatsoever. Even if he's fighting something far, far out of his league, Itachi will always win with no difficulty at all. It's gotten way too much.
    • And then he has the gall to lecture Naruto for going all solo. Considering what he did aka the Uchiha Massacre and Mind Rapes his Beloved brother.
      • Oh, look, now Itachi is taking the lead against Kabuto so his brother is relegated to sidekick status despite having the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Itachi is revealed to have ANOTHER trump card in Izanami and Kabuto can't even get the upper hand once. Except when Itachi is so PURE AND PERFECT that he takes the hit to save his poor dear brother. Everyone'd be lost without Itachi! Fucking stu.
  • Naruto vs Sasuke at the Valley of the End. Naruto blaming himself when he THREW the fight when he purposely went for Sasuke's headband.
  • Whenever Naruto appears to be growing as a character, he seems to immediately take a level in dumbass. Made worse by the fact that the characters regularly comment on the fact.
  • The Resurrection of the real Madara in his first attack he takes out most the 4th division and wounds Onoki, with the ability to drop meteors out of nowhere, when the 2nd Mizukage, Tsuchikage and the No Selling Juggernaut that is the Third Raikage could not despite their badassness and heres the real headbutt because he appeared all of a sudden the other three decide to join forces with the other two. Just to prove that once an Uchiha is on the battlefield and everyone will get worfed, the Second Tsuchikage get effortlessly bitchslapped away.
    • In addition to that his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. He has both Mokuton and Rinnegan. On top of that he's an immortal zombie. Only the Author Can Save Them Now indeed.
  • Anko and Tenten are apparently some of Kishimoto's favourite characters. Tenten is also apparently only there to be third of Team Gai as she has had no onscreen manga battles. The first time Anko appears after the Chunnin Exam/Invasion arc is THE INVASION OF PAIN, SIX YEARS LATER!!!!! You want to know who his favourite is? Sasuke. Tells you something doesn't it.
    • And Anko was pretty much stuffed into a fridge soon after to act as a powerup for Kabuto. Though there may be a chance for Anko to escape considering she's not dead... yet.

Ranma ½

  • In the manga version of Hinako's arrival, in a scene that was removed from the anime adaptation, Akane demanded that Ranma explain just why he was harassing Hinako... only to pay no attention to what he says (he tells her that he's trying to hit pressure points that will nullify her aura-stealing power) even when he shows her the pressure point chart he's using. Instead, she accuses him of being a hornball pervert who just wants to grope Hinako's cleavage. Then she punches him through the roof when, while trying to respond to her accusation, he mentions as an aside that she's rather flatchested. After that, she's shown remembering the "conversation" as, basically, Ranma telling her that he has every right to grope and she has none to interfere. If this isn't Selective Obliviousness, then what is it?
  • Speaking of the manga version of the hypnotic mushroom story; Akane believes that Ranma will try and take advantage of her because they're home alone together and she is sick. Even after learning he's only been trying to hug her because of mind control, and he's otherwise proven he's quite willing to just stay out of her way otherwise, the last panel shows herself surrounding herself with weapons and keeping a very close eye on Ranma. The anime, at least, removes this by changing the ending for a gag where Ranma and Akane are united in discomfort by the family serving up a load of mushroom-dishes after they finally manage to get rid of Shampoo.
  • The manga also has the Dō-chan arc; Akane gets a magical outfit that makes her the most powerful martial artist in the series. She proceeds to not only routinely curbstomp Ranma but also gloat over her newfound power and mock him as a weakling. She is then surprised when Ranma, never the most sensible sort about this kind of thing, promptly starts trying his damnedest to get the dogi off her... particularly since this is exactly the same thing that happened when she got her hands on the Super Soba powerup.
  • And then there's Ranma being unaware of the fact that his female form's lesser reach will make him disadvantaged against the taller Mousse in their first duel. He had already fought Ryoga and many other opponents as a girl; this had never been an issue before.
    • To be fair, Mousse is quite a bit taller than even Ranma's male form. It wouldn't be too far off the mark to think that he'd be a problem this way, while Ryouga, who is a little bit shorter than Ranma's male form, would not cause this.
      • In addition, Mousse is a weapons user. A guy with bare hands trying to fight a guy with melee weapons is facing a reach disadvantage even with all other things being equal, and as just pointed out Mousse already enjoys a reach advantage over Ranma even if they're both bare-handed. Add in yet another layer of disadvantage by making Ranma fight in his female form, which has even shorter reach than his male form, and at this point Ranma goes "OK, this is actually starting to become a problem". Vs. Ryoga, on the other hand, he has the advantage that they're both fighting bare-handed (so no edge there), and the fact that Ryoga isn't really that much taller or longer-armed than Ranma's female form, let alone his male form.
        • Ranma also has a notable speed advantage on Ryoga, further compensating for any possible reach deficit. Mousse, OTOH, pretty much only survives on speed and distance.
  • In the Valentine's Day filler chapter, Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi all mob Ranma and beat the snot out of him. And not even because he's pissed them off by, say, trying to avoid taking chocolate from them: this is their idea of a present for him.
    • No, they don't beat the snot out of him, not deliberately. They all come at him at once trying to give him their own chocolate, and he's just caught in the Big Ball of Violence that ensues --presumably because the three of them are all bitter enemies and each one tried to fight the other two off so Ranma would only get one present. He was just pulled into the crossfire.
  • One of the Nodoka stories before she finally manages to meet Ranma has her meet him at last... but, because Happosai is feeling particularly like being a Jerkass today, Ranma has been dressed as a girl without his knowledge when she does meet him. Nodoka immediately dresses in the outfit for Seppuku and tells Ranma to get ready to die -- she doesn't even give him a chance to explain himself! One would almost think she wants to kill Ranma if she's willing to go for her sword with that little provocation. Adding more fuel to the fire is that Noh acting, a very traditional and manly artform, relies heavily on men crossdressing as women, as women are traditionally forbidden from being actual performers. Yes, Ranma isn't a Noh actor, but Nodoka didn't know that at the time!
    • Interestingly enough Noh was originally done by woman but they were later outlawed from doing it in the Edo period because too many of them were thought to be prostitutes.
  • Speaking of Jusendo, how about Ranma not beating seven shades of shit out of Soun Tendo and/or Genma Saotome for stealing his cure, trying to blackmail him and Akane into getting married with it, and ultimately being responsible for him staying cursed, at the end of the Failed Wedding?
    • They try to blackmail him and Akane into getting married every Tuesday. It's like blaming a dog for licking itself.
  • Similarly, why did neither Ranma, who proclaimed (if only to himself) at the end of the last Jusendo to be in love with Akane, nor Akane, who was willing to get married to Ranma at last, even seem to think of calling Nabiki out for ruining the affair, given she was the one who called all of their respective rivals/would-be love interests to the wedding?
    • In part because Ranma at least clearly does not want to get married at that time. He even states he is too young and needs more time in volume 37, and tried to start a fight with Akane to avoid being married in volume 38. Ranma is more likely to thank her than condemn her for getting the wedding ruined.
      • Ranma might not have wanted to get married, but Akane seemed to want to do so. Even if she didn't, neither she nor Ranma would really appreciate that Nabiki would put Akane's life in danger for money or made a fool out of them in front of so many people.
      • Perhaps they realized this little fact off-screen: a wedding would probably do nothing to invalidate their rivals/would-be love interests' claims. If anything, they would've torn up the house even worse out of sheer anger. Pretending that the wedding was going to make everything A-OK was not smart course of action, no matter how one looks at it.
        • Even worse: marrying Akane without somehow resolving the situation with Ukyo and Shampoo first is basically setting Akane up to be murdered. (Ironically, Shampoo is the one less likely to do the killing in this instance; she only needs to marry Ranma under Amazon law, which probably won't recognize or care about any marriage Ranma might legally be in in Japan. A Ranma/Akane wedding, on the other hand, means Ukyo cannot hope to form a household with Ranma so long as Akane is still alive.)
  • Akane actually siding with her father in placing all of the blame for the wedding being a disaster on Ranma is also rather incentive to introduce one's skull to the nearest wall.

Other

  • The last volume of Angelic Layer because of the way Misaki's mother, Shuuko, was portrayed. Does she have a reason for not letting Misaki get involved in her career? Nope... she's chronically shy. Yep, she essentially abandoned her child, didn't even try to get in contact with her, and even ran away while her daughter chased her because she's shy. And it's supposed to be cute, and Misaki's instantly forgiving her behavior without even demanding a further explanation for her disappearance from her life until this is supposed to be equally cute; but it makes for a horrible mother.
  • The entirety of Transformers Kiss Players is ridiculous, but especially egregious is Ravag...er, sorry, "Black Panther Man" and his story. One of the most fanatical and loyal members of the Decepticon cause, so much so that he willingly attempted to alter history not once but twice to bring the faction out on top, and a vicious and serious Badass...gathering the history of the entire Transformer race to create a future "free of unnecessary conflict" with a smile and a hug. Yeah...
  • Hellsing with how The Major is a cyborg...that was built in the 1940s? Yes, Hirano needed a way to explain his longevity without his being a vampire, but that's pushing it. The series has plenty of magic and Magitek elements that could have offered a more reasonable explanation.
    • Walter's betrayal. No foreshadowing, ridiculously flimsy logic (are we honestly supposed to believe that the man who proudly boasted of his age and experience was willing to betray the woman he practically raised himself, and all of humanity, just to be young again?), it completely derailed Walter's character, and ultimately served no purpose but to pad out the finale.
  • Devilman contains the single most inane Ass Pull of all time in the end. It turns out that Ryo Asuka, Akira's heterosexual life partner, is a hermaphrodite. He's also Satan, and he's in love with Akira. They have hot steamy sex, Akira goes to sleep dies, and the series ends. ...yeah. Never mind that everything weird that happened before was a Fridge Logic expansion of the previous events, which usually avoided major asspulling.
    • In the manga? There's also the part where they beat the crap out of each other with that whole final battle between demons and devilmen and Satan kills Akira.
  • Silent Sinner in Blue, chapter fifteen: Marisa has cornered Yorihime with an epic Beam Spam attack. Out of the blue, Yorihime, looking duly unimpressed, picks up one of the star-shaped pieces and eats it like a cookie. This would be somewhat amusing until you learn that in the Touhou universe, if you're hit by a bullet in any way, shape or form, you lose the duel. Yorihime should have lost then and there. So what does she go on to do? She deflects all of Marisa's subsequent attacks and summons the power of a GODDESS, completely beating Marisa with no semblance of fair play at all.
  • School Rumble's abrupt abortion at chapter 283 sparked a universal "WHAT THE HELL?!" from almost every fan of the manga.
  • From the second half of Houshin Engi:
    1. Killing off nearly the entire cast, including the characters that had depth.
    2. Suffering from Shonen Hero Syndrome so much that the only good guy who got any screentime was the insanely generic hero himself.
    3. Stopped basing it off a Chinese legend and went off on some sci-fi bent for no apparent reason other than Akira Toriyama did it, forgetting that Dragon Ball just included some names from Journey to the West, while Houshin Engi had tried to adapt the actual legend.
    4. Failing to finish other plotlines, like the main villain having possessed someone or the poor girl's family joining the good guys' side.
  • The D.Gray-man manga features an inherently Wall Bang-worthy scene: a flashback of a priest cursing God after losing his fiance... to a humongous cross held up by a very flimsy rope. Instead of going after whoever placed a massive cross on the ceiling using the tiniest rope available, he picks up a massive axe and shouts at God in the most cheesy, over-the-top manner possible.
    • You forgot the fact that this was about a priest marrying a nun. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Fixed in the anime, thank goodness.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle / ×××HOLiC: After all the Mind Screwing was just starting to be explained and make sense, CLAMP nailed the fanbase with a massive time-paradox curve-ball that had masses screaming. Five words: The clones are Syaoran's parents. What. The. Hell.
    • Since the clones were reincarnated as Real!Syaoran's parents, that can just mean they only look like Syaoran and Sakura, but are genetically different enough to provide Real!Syaoran's genes.
    • Wait, this isn't a Stable Time Loop?
      • Well, it was until Yuuko died (chose to die?) and both sets of Syaorans and Sakuras decided they'd had enough.
      • The epilogue tells us that during the final fight, reality (and the Stable Time Loop) was broken so much that the clones no longer exist, but real!Syaoran does. Nevertheless, they're still his parents. On top of that, Sakura and Syaoran want to find a way to bring the clones back, since it's been established that created beings don't "die" -- they just need a vessel for their still-present souls, since CLAMP still has that whole no Back from the Dead rule. Still confusing.
    • Even worse, the ending of xx Holic involves Watanuki just sitting around the shop for over a CENTURY waiting for Yuuko to return. This is despite Yuuko's pleas for Watanuki to just let go of his obsession with her and live his own life. Himawari manages marry a guy who's conveniently immune to her negative aura with no explanation given whatsoever, and Doumeki is given opportunity to help Watanuki forget about Yuuko, but is too indecisive and palms the responsibility off to his descendants, who are as indecisive as he is. In the end, the manga straight up tells the reader that Watanuki never sees Yuuko again, dooming him to wait for eternity. If that's not the most rage inducing Downer Ending ever, I don't know what is.
      • The biggest wallbanger here is just how abrupt it feels. Reading the series as a whole and then getting to the ending you just get the feeling that the author/s just woke up one day and said, "You know what? I really can't be bothered to write any more of this series. So here's the last chapter, such and such happens. The end." Imagine if you're reading Dragonball, you get up to the Cell Saga, you finish the chapter where Gohan is about to step up against Cell, and then the next chapter after that is the last chapter of the entire series where the gang are sitting in the kitchen explaining that Gohan beats Cell and Goku is dead. Life goes on. The end.
  • At the end of Chobits, despite everything that's happened in the series, it's revealed that Persocoms were never sentient and they never can be, meaning that Chii's behavior and personality are essentially fake, and making the whole series a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story. Also, the authors make a blatant Ass Pull to dump even more misfortune on Hideki by making it so that if he ever tries having sex with Chii, her memories would automatically reset.
  • A Shojo manga called Papillion Hana To Cho had a big one: Wallflower Ageha has discovered a tiny bit of confidence and has secretly hooked up with her handsome school counselor. Her Evil Twin Hana won't be having any of that and so, when Ageha gets sick, she comes to school disguised as her sister, abuses the counselor's credit card, and generally acts Out of Character. The next day, the counselor breaks up with Ageha because he can't stand her anymore. Yes, a psychology student who has been been talking to a girl for weeks doesn't think it strange when she acts completely different and then "snaps back" the next day. They're twin sisters, not Cylons! On top of all that, Ageha is told to suck it up and not be so emotional (by the counselor's mentor!), and so she doesn't confront him on why they broke up. Of course, they shouldn't have been together in the first place, which only adds to the Poor Communication Kills.
  • There's a one-shot Yaoi manga, "Pet on Duty", about a spineless jellyfish of a human named Mizuki. He feels that he's a burden to everyone, and he can't hold down a job. Never mind that one of his employers fired Mizuki for being slightly late on the first two days of the job for reasons beyond his control (he's living somewhere he shouldn't be, a company dorm, and can't be seen). Just look at the ending: it seems that Mizuki is finally becoming independent, or at least stronger; but when it comes time to confess his love to the older seme? "Please take care of me forever!" He just snapped back to, more or less, his old self, for no reason but to get the two together. Now, keep in mind that "pet" is their term for "housewife"...
  • For Inuyasha. Just all of the useless attacks that he learns. Really, what point did Rumiko see in giving Inuyasha half of those attacks? Wind Scar becomes a Waif move the moment he can use it whenever he wants. Back Lash Wave is only ever used about three times, and not only is forgotten but never even used against Naraku. The Red Tetsusaiga form becomes non-essential once he upgrades his barrier breaking abilities with the Adamant Barrage. Now, Adamant Barrage is only useful to break barriers, but otherwise doesn't deal the damage it used to. Dragon-Scaled Tetsusaiga also becomes practically useless against Naraku in that it only breaks off some body parts without him ever weakening. Meidou Zangetsuha also was only as efficient against Naraku as the Wind Scar was. There's also Kouga who, once getting the Goraishi was basically Put on a Bus, and any hype about his weapon basically flopped as he wasn't even around to tap into any potential the weapon could have.
  • The five-volume story Seinei (Baptism of Blood) by Kazuo Umezu (of Drifting Classroom fame). A nice premise: aging movie star has her brain transplanted to her young daughter, so she can re-experience youth and find the happiness she thinks has been denied from her. If the gory operation does not leave you speechless, what follows will: the daughter's class-teacher actively encourages his preteen, grade-school girls to have nuptial fantasies about himself. And he is married. The sexual-harassment laws in Japan must be ripe for a revision. Naturally our body-swapped protagonist wants the hunk for her own, but the wife is no push-over. As they try to outsmart each other, you'll forget the Egregious plot to enjoy the cold-blood tortures. Umezu's "twist ending" is the epitome of a wall-banger: there has never been any brain transplant; the girl is just being herself all along -- yeah, we are talking about a twelve-year-old who knows her mother's childhood in minute details, who can paralyze people with acupuncture needles, and whose guile puts Xanatos to shame. In the final frames Umezu even has the audacity to pull a Space Whale Aesop (something about being the only sane person in a mad world). Face Palm.
  • One Piece has a potential wallbanger: Pell surviving the bomb explosion. Seriously, he was carrying the bomb when it blew up, and it was treated as a serious death. And then it's revealed that he survived with no explanation whatsoever.
    • Of course if you think about it, the timer had 5 seconds left when Pell picked it up. Crocodile said it had a 5 km blast radius. So in order for the blast to not destroy the city, Pell had to have been carrying it pretty damn fast. So it's not completely impossible for him to have dropped it at the very last second and gotten far enough away so he only got seriously hurt.
    • Meaning all he needed was to move 10 km in five seconds. Well, probably a single km is survivable: when the bomb explode, the effect is visible from the ground as a big explosion, impossible to be 5 km away. So, 2 km in five seconds... 1440km/h. SONIC BOOM!
    • Pell has to lift the bomb (which is standing still) as well as carry it far enough. Assuming constant acceleration, to get as far as 5 km in 4 seconds (I give him 1 second to fly away) carrying a 10-ton bomb, his wings would have to generate lift equal to almost a tenth of the freaking Saturn V rocket.
  • There's Honor Before Reason, and then there's the aftermath of Katsumi's loss to Pickle in Baki the Grappler. Like he did against Retsu, Pickle decides to eat part of Katsumi after winning. But instead of stopping at one leg, he's going to eat Katsumi's hands and feet, leaving him a quadriplegic. And Doppo--Katsumi's father, mind you--is okay with this, along with all of Katsumi's students, to the point where they form a human wall around Pickle to stop him from being tranqed. Doppo explains that Pickle believes that by eating part of his prey, he can gain their strength, which is why he only hunted the mightiest dinosaurs in the prehistoric era, and eating parts of his opponents is his way of paying tribute to them. First off, how does Doppo know all this? It's not like Pickle's capable of speech. Second, that doesn't really work! Eating a surgeon's hands won't give you surgical skills...but it will deprive said surgeon of the ability to perform their job and leave them a useless cripple, like what's happening to Katsumi. Sure, Pickle doesn't know that...but you do, Doppo! He'll never perform martial arts again, which means he can no longer train students, and spend the rest of his days requiring at-home care for the simplest tasks that we take for granted because we still have limbs. What a tremendous honor! I'm sure Katsumi's heart will swell with pride every time his caregiver wipes his ass for him. Turn in your Cool Old Guy license, Doppo.
    • Then there's Yujiroh's goddamn Villain Sue status. The manga's gone on for more than twenty years, and Baki still can't beat him in a fight. What makes this especially be a wallbanger is that Baki's most recent fight with Yujiroh was built up into something important, to the point that Baki said there was nobody left he had to fight. But nope, Baki still loses, story still goes on long after it should have ended.
  • In Hunter X Hunter, Gon out of nowhere turns into a badly-drawn Fist of the North Star character with hair a mile long and kills Pitou. It's even worse than it sounds: the anatomy on display in this sequence is nothing short of horrendous, the fight scene terrible, the dialogue comically hammy and melodramatic. And worst of all, the revelation that kicked this whole thing off was something blindingly obvious.
  • In the Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force manga, they introduced a new character whose first act is slaughter Signum in a way that invokes the possibility that she might DIE(she barely survives tough). This mirrors the Wall Banger in Super Robot Wars about a newcomer character killing Lamia Loveless (the character Signum is Expying); that the writer chose to replicate or invoke it in the original work even knowing the consequences (Word of God said he's a fan of Super Robot Wars) is a Wall Banger on its own.
  • Arguably, the very existence of Kaiba in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga from Duelist Kingdom onward. This doesn't apply to the anime because the circumstances of his first duel with Yugi were changed, but in the manga, after losing to Yugi in a children's card game, Kaiba devised a ridiculously-convoluted revenge plan that was supposed to end in the deaths of Yugi and all his friends... which, I reiterate, was all because he lost a card game. Yugi beats him and gives him another Penalty Game, which sends Kaiba into a coma, and when he wakes up partway through the Duelist Kingdom, everything's fine and Yugi does not hold the fact that Kaiba tried to kill him against the man, even though during Death-T himself he pretty much said that This Is Unforgivable!. Jounouchi is the only one of Yugi's group to complain about Kaiba being Easily Forgiven, but nobody pays any attention to him. Sure, Kaiba is given an "excuse" later on, but the Wall Banger here is that he was portrayed as a Complete Monster in his arc, but because of his popularity the writer brought him back in a more sympathetic light. It doesn't make any sense.
    • Kaiba didn't want revenge on Yugi just for beating him at the card game, Yami Yugi put him through a horrible Mind Rape that only made him worse as the penalty game for losing that first card game. Yugi doesn't hold anything against Kaiba because he's an easily forgiving Nice Guy, and while the others do still dislike Kaiba, Joey's the only one Hot-Blooded enough to act upon his hate and unforgiving. Lastly, he can't be a Complete Monster if he was shown to have a Freudian Excuse even at the end of that arc, and him becoming more sympathetic is called Character Development.
      • Kaiba repeatedly tried to murder all of them in the manga. His plan involved the following. A rigged game of laser tag against commandos where everyone on Yugi's team would have gotten electrocuted. A ride that would have electrocuted them all if they screamed[5]. A trap that would have cut off everyone's hands if Yugi couldn't solve a puzzle. A trap involving a serial killer and Kaiba threatening to kill a child if one of the team doesn't face him. A game involving massive blocks that would crush anyone caught in it. A rigged game with Mokuba where Kaiba nearly killed Mokuba after Yugi won. Lastly, a game with Kaiba where everyone else was held at gunpoint, and that's not even getting into Mokuba's attempts to cut off Yugi's fingers and poison Yugi and Jonouchi independently. Even if Yami Yugi's game was what made him hate Yugi so much this doesn't change the fact that for some time both of these brothers have not exactly been stable, law abiding citizens and a reasonable person would try to get them arrested. In Yugi's case however, he and his friends settle for preaching friendship to two attempted murderers.
  • Any project based on Mahou Sensei Negima is pretty much cursed to have a bad ending, but the one that completely upset the fans the most was the actual ending to the original manga. The manga had just finished up the Magic World arc with the revelation that the Big Bad has taken over the body of Nagi Springfield, the father of main character Negi Springfield, and it looked like things were being set up for a final arc involving a showdown between Negi and his students vs. his father and the members of Cosmo Entelecheia. Unfortunately, rather than setting up and showcasing this epic final battle (as well as solve various loose plot threads that were still hanging), Ken Akamatsu instead does the following: reverts back to the Unwanted Harem days of the early volumes, with it culminating in a pointless Character Derailment-filled storyline where Negi's students gang up on him thanks to the jealously of one of the cheerleaders; does a time skip to graduation, resulting in a whole bunch of character development and storylines being condensed to just notes in Negi's copy of the class roster; and only hints about the events of Negi defeating the Lifemaker and rescuing Nagi in the final chapter (when after another time skip, some of Negi's students, who are now young adults, meet Nagi for the first time). It also doesn't help things that the final "major" storyline somewhat rehashes the Xebec ending, in which something bad happens to Asuna (in the case of the manga, she's sealed away and wakes up 130 years in the future), with her situation being solved thanks to the use of time travel.
    • This Character Derailment arc needs some expansion because it to is a wallbanger for just how far out of character it took some of the girls. After finding out that Negi likes someone, 3-A decide to find out who it is/ get a straight answer to their own feelings. Fair enough, some even stick to this goal. Some however absolutely lose their fucking minds. Culminating in a scene where they have Negi corned, and proceed to stick several foreign objects in his ass fitting both the literal definition of rape on top of Mind Rape. Despite Nodoka and her painless mind-reading being there, they choose to brainwash and force the feelings from his own mouth by sticking something up his ass. Just to reiterate: an 11-year-old has been corned by several people 4 years their senior of the opposite gender in an alley, and been forcibly injected anally with two mind-altering substances that leave them more or less completely helpless to their whims. Several of the characters directly involved in this have been consistently characterized as nice girls who generally care about Negi(Kaede, and Setsuna in particular), and he still has to desperately fight off brainwashing thrice before even two decide that this situation is messed up. Eventually its resolved with the girls realizing their in the wrong, but the manga doesn't present them as nearly wrong enough, nor in line with their characterization to avoid being a wallbanger.
  • In Case Closed's Moonlight Sonata case, the initial assumption is that the killer must have been a man, because he was strong enough to move the first victim's body. This supposedly eliminates Narumi Asai, a petite woman, from the list of suspects. However, it is eventually revealed that Narumi is actually a man in disguise. This is the final proof that he is the killer, even though he still doesn't have enough muscle to move the body. Sexism doesn't make a good basis for a murder mystery.

Back to Wall Banger
  1. a drinker
  2. half-dead from some spiritual disease and not able to work half the time
  3. a bloodthirsty maniac not really in it for any reason beyond having a fight
  4. a kid who for some reason is more mature than most of the adults
  5. which also involved a torturer employed by Kaiba who is implied to have killed people for him in the past