What an Idiot!/Anime and Manga

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Sometimes, when viewing an arc in an anime or manga, there are times when a viewer feels compelled to shout, "WTF did you do that for?!"

Because of Values Dissonance between Japan and North America, these are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

Subpages

D.Gray-man

Creepy Twins Jasdero and Devit (Jasdevi) have the power to materialize anything they both think of. During the Ark arc, they wind up fighting Allen, Krory, Lavi, a Brought Down to Normal Lenalee, and one normal person from the Black Order. The Exorcists are trying to get past them through a locked door leading further into the Ark. They screw around with the Exorcists, throwing fire and ice at them, materializing fake copies of the key to make it harder to find the real one, and making masks over their faces that make Jasdevi invisible. This could be justified as sadistic fun, up until the point where Lavi picks out the real key.
You'd Expect: That they'd use their powers to do something like fill the whole room with concrete or, if they thought the badasses could break through that, gas that was poisonous to anyone who wasn't a Noah. Well, that probably wouldn't work on Allen, but they had no way of knowing that. At any rate, it wouldn't be hard for them to instantly end the fight.
Instead: They let most of the Exorcists go, except for Krory, who decides to pull a You Shall Not Pass. In their fight with him, they do a Fusion Dance into a Super Mode with Prehensile Hair and Super Strength, and it's mostly a martial arts battle. It's not until they've been at it for a while that it occurs to Jasdevi to create something heavy to squish their opponent, and it takes even longer for them to think of slamming him in an iron maiden. Thus, despite their incredible power, which should by rights lead to a One-Hit Kill, the twins don't win.
During the Rewinding Town arc, Road commands an Akuma to self-destruct in front of Allen, and explains that if an Akuma is killed by anything other by Innocence, its soul will be destroyed.
You'd Expect: Allen to use his Arm Cannon to shoot and purify the Akuma from where he's standing.
Instead: He leaps at it, almost gets caught in the explosion, and has to be saved by Lenalee. No wonder she slaps him.

Fushigi Yuugi

Right in the beginning, Miaka has a huge What an Idiot! moment. After travelling into Ancient China and meeting Tamahome, they both witness a procession for the Emperor. Tamahome comments jokingly that in exchange for his help, he wants her to get him a jewel from the Emperor's crown.
You'd Expect: That she'd either 1. realize he's joking, or 2. try to think up a plan to help him steal it.
Instead: She runs up to the Emperor's palanquin and yells at him to give her a jewel from his crown, grabbing onto his palanquin and ripping and breaking part of it. This has the expected result of the guards seizing her and attempting to execute her. This is especially ridiculous when one considers that, even without ignorance of culture differences, this action would pretty much be the equivalent of running up to the President of her country while he's in his car, tugging on the car door and breaking part of it, while screaming at him to give her 5000 bucks. And this is all played as if Miaka is an "average junior high school student" who has a reasonable education, instead of someone with a high amount of brain damage.
Yui and Miaka both spend some time unconscious, with their last memories being men trying to attack them.
You'd Expect: That both, despite their understandable distress, would take a moment to assess their physical situation. For example, the fact that they were still wearing exactly what they were wearing when they passed out, including intact underwear. That they had no bruises, no cuts, no bumps, and maybe going so far as to check and find that their hymens were still perfectly intact. Or if they were too shy to check themselves, Miaka at least was a highly honored priestess in a civilized nation, and could have had a midwife from the Emperor's harem check her out and assure her of her virginity.
Instead: Both immediately assume that they were brutally raped, and now have nothing but revenge and misery and deep, deep shame left to them. Presumably they both know by this point about the mechanics of sex, including ejaculation... or they could just ask why on Earth their rapists bothered to put clean panties back on them when they were done.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

In the Watanagashi arc, Keiichi narrowly manages to escape from his friend's Torture Cellar after almost having nails hammered into every joint in his hands. Before he escapes, however, she warns him not to come near her if he sees her again. She manages to escape as well and a few days later throws stones at Keiichi's window in the middle of the night.
You'd Expect: Keiichi would lock all of the doors, stay inside, and call the police, since at this point, she's a full-blown Ax Crazy who's responsible for the murder of four different people.
Instead: He goes outside and talks to her to find out if she's okay. After giving a few good Evil Laughs, she shows him why this was so stupid and stabs him in the gut. Ironically, this isn't even the thing that does him in this arc. He finally dies from psychological trauma from all the abuse he racked up.
In Onikakushi-hen, Rena and Mion (though mostly Rena) suffered from this. For Rena: Keiichi has been screaming at her and avoiding her for days now.
You'd expect: For her to stay away from him at the next sign of a threat.
Instead: She goes up to him, most likely with her signature machete in hand, and starts talking to him. Also, this is after he banged her hand into a door at full force.

Inuyasha

Kagome can travel from Feudal Japan to modern times via the Bone-Eater's Well. For a while, shortly after the hunt for the Shikon shards has begun, Kagome took to keeping these shards in a bottle on her desk back home—which the bad guys can't get to, being stuck in the Feudal era.
You'd Expect: For her to take each new Shikon shard with her back home, put it in the bottle, and assemble the Jewel in a time and location that Naraku has no hope of getting to, and where mythological Japanese beasties are much less numerous and easier to dispatch than in Inuyasha's native time period.
Instead: She keeps the incomplete Shikon Jewel on her person, making it child's play for Naraku to steal it and keep it, making himself stronger and stronger with each passing minute.
Every month during the new moon Inuyasha undergoes a transformation into a weak, nearly helpless human. Every time this happens, some demon or other shows up to kick his ass and nearly kills him.
You'd Expect: that the group would at least try to plan their returns to the village around this very specific and reliable weakness so that Inuyasha could go to Kagome's time period where he would be safe.
Instead Inuyasha has never gone to Kagome's time even once during the new moon; instead the group is always out doing some sort of demon-hunting activity far away from Kaede's village.
Speaking of Inuyasha's transformation, Naraku eventually finds out about this little development.
You'd Expect: for him to spy on the heroes to find out exactly when Inuyasha turns into a human and use this information to launch a sneak attack.
Instead Naraku never follows up on this, throwing away a perfectly good opportunity to kill Inuyasha and his friends.

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne

Maron's classmates make comments that she resembles the titular character in Miyako's presence.
You'd Expect: Miyako would find out immediately Maron is Jeanne and decided not to arrest her after all.
Instead: She refuses to believe they're the same person because of the resemblance, vowing to arrest her to prove her point.
Miyako finally found out Maron is Jeanne upon seeing her transform.
You'd Expect: She retreats from the street to let her seal a demon attacking them.
Instead: She fainted from the revelation and Fin takes her hostage.
There's also episode 43 where Miyako is not completely possessed by a demon, but manipulated by the Brainwashed and Crazy Fin Fish into killing Jeanne so that "she can get Maron back". After a while, Jeanne begins to fight back.
You'd Expect: That she will just have to "checkmate" the demon within her.
Instead: She just took away the gun she's holding. Like that'll ever work.
Even Worse: She doesn't fight back after that.

Lyrical Nanoha

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: Mad Scientist Sorceress Precia Testarossa needs all 21 Jewel Seeds (or, by her own estimates, at least 14) to activate a successful dimensional transference to Al-Hazard. Once she sees that her cloned daughter, Fate, has lost her battle with Nanoha for control of all 21 Jewel Seeds, she zaps her and takes back the nine Jewel Seeds she had in her possession.
You'd expect: Precia to also zap Nanoha and swipe the remaining Jewel Seeds, which were on her person at the time. Or even earlier than that, send Fate to TSAB as The Mole to get her hands on the rest of the Seeds.
Instead: Neither thought occurs to her. Her subsequent attempt to use the nine Jewel Seeds to achieve dimensional transference ends catastrophically, and she perishes along with her lair.
In A's, it's eventually revealed that the entire plot is the machinations of one Admiral Gil Graham, attempting his own secret plan to destroy the Book of Darkness for good. It's taken roughly nine years to set up, and is rather convoluted and intricate. A significant part of the plan involves sending his familiars, Lotte and Aria out to aid the Wolkenritter (the Book of Darkness' defense programs) against the heroes several times, before finally killing them in front of their young master, driving her over the edge to justify using extreme measures. Naturally, since they're somewhat well known, disguises are employed. Not a problem, magic can be used for that.
You'd expect: Them to take disguises that, well, look like nothing, which shouldn't be that hard. Something that wouldn't stand out to anyone. They could even take different disguises each time, just to keep people guessing.
Instead: They take on forms heavily implied to be Chrono Harloawn's dead father, who died working on the Book of Darkness case the last time it appeared. Naturally, this can't be a coincidence, and the list of potential suspects is narrowed significantly. Before long Chrono has defeated the familiars easily, arrested their master, and confiscated the Device meant to accomplish the plan. It wouldn't have worked anyway, but if you spend nine years on something, it's hard to believe a weak point like that would slip through.

Mahoromatic

Mahoro finds out that her master Suguru participates in a street fight festival. She sets out with Minawa to retrieve him and bring him home safely.
You'd Expect: Mahoro and Minawa take off for the air and survey the area from there, since you have to fight when you walk the streets. Alternatively, they could simply break the flowers on their heads indicating that they are disqualified, so they won't be bothered by all those baton-swinging morons looking for a brawl.
Instead: They walk around with the flowers intact on their heads and get distracted by fighting all those apparently brain-damaged locals - which also takes a ridiculous amount of effort, considering they are battle-androids.
Also from Mahoromatic: Mahoro keeps confiscating Suguru's Porn Stash, since according to her "dirty thoughts are bad".
You'd Expect: Suguru makes it clear that he is the master and she is the maid, and she has no right to tell him what he should or should not keep under his bed.
Instead: Suguru lets Mahoro simply take away his expensive erotic books, even though he sometimes goes to great lengths to obtain a rare issue. Worse, he even allows himself to be scolded by her. Who is the master and who is the maid again?

Maria Watches Over Us

Sachiko has a hard time when her grandmother, who she loves immensely, becomes terminally ill and winds up in the hospital.
You'd Expect: Sachiko explains to Yumi why she won't be around school much anymore in the following period, even if she finds it hard to talk about it. After all, Yumi is her beloved soeur and therefore the first and foremost person that she can confide her troubles to, outside family. That way she could have given a Yumi a chance to stand by her emotionally as well.
Instead: Sachiko tells Yumi nothing and keeps on disappearing without explanation, seemingly conspiring with her cousin Touko, Yumi's biggest rival at the time. This results in quite a bit of emotional turmoil for Yumi, who really has no clue about what is going on.
First-year student Naito Shouko desperately wants to be a member of the Yamurikai, so she signs up for the tea-party which Yoshino and Yumi hold to find a soeur, since being picked by either one of them would secure her position in that prestigious student council.
You'd Expect: She concentrates her efforts on one girl, preferably the less-popular one, and tries to woo her into becoming her grande soeur. Since she has quite an impressive appearance her chances would have been rather good.
Instead: She outright mentions that either one of them is fine, spoiling any chance she might have had to be picked as a soeur.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Evangelion have to have cords attached to them for power, and being unplugged and without a power source is a major problem for some episodes.
You'd Expect: They'd add external battery packs to the Evangelion for every sortie.
Instead: They do......in one episode, in which they are destroyed and are never rebuilt or mentioned again.
Alright folks, sit down, grab a nice fluffy pillow, this is the big one. Rei is created and bred to bring The End of the World as We Know It. Just as Gendo is going to implement this plan however she hijacks the whole kit and kabudle. The fate of the human race is quite literally in her hands.
You'd Expect: She cancels the whole thing. When speaking to Shinji she voices her objections to Instrumentality, proving once and for all to be the Only Sane Woman. And if it killed her, well she wants to die anyway, so it'd be no loss for her.
Instead: She wipes out the human race on Shinji's behalf, because she asked and it was what he wanted. He learns to Be Careful What You Wish For, and Rei states that each individual can reverse Instrumentality if they wish. You can still get brain damage from your reaction.
- Suicidal Apocalypse Maiden? Eyep, she's gonna pass up Instrumentality.

One Piece

A bunch of people ate mystical fruit that gave them superpowers but made them unable to swim.
You'd Expect: Them to immediately take a sturdy merchant ship to the nearest continent and live out their lives in a low-moisture area. This is, in fact, exactly what Crocodile does initially, being an Evil Genius.
Instead: Most Devil Fruit users aren't as savvy as Crocodile; they keep living on a string of islands, and half of them work as sailors.
- Eating a devil fruit has the potential to give the eater insane powers, which can be useful when everyone's searching for a legendary treasure. Historically, many real life pirates also can't swim.
- It's also worth noting that except for the Red Line, the One Piece world seems to consist mostly of islands.
From the Marineford Arc: Luffy and Ace, along with the remainders of the Whitebeard Pirates, are trying to flee Marineford. They run into Akainu, who begins to trash-talk Whitebeard, something that Ace doesn't take kindly to.
You'd Expect: They ignore the trashtalk and continue to hightail it out of there to their escape ship.
Instead: Ignoring his fellow shipmates' and even Luffy's urgings to ignore Akainu and his words, Ace takes the bait and starts a fight with the Admiral, someone who can injure him despite his usual intangibility, and ends up with a lava fist through the gut in order to protect Luffy when Akainu decides to go after him too. And unlike everyone else in One Piece, he actually dies.
The Dressroasa Arc had two examples (by different idiots) in one episode!
- First example: the Straw Hats' plan to liberate the island required knocking Sugar out, thus undoing the effect of her Devil Fruit power on previous victims, which had turned them into toys and made them her slaves (a number that, over ten years, had amounted to thousands). The initial plan was to trick her into eating an incredibly spicy Tatababasco berry disguised as a grape, which would make her collapse. Even getting close to Sugar is difficult, as she’s always with her hulking bodyguard Trebol, but some distractions cause them to be separated, leaving Sugar potentially a sitting duck.
  You'd Expect: Usopp would use his “pepper delivered to foe’s mouth with slingshot” trick he had done so many times before, or his “pepper planted in innocuous-looking bowl of fruit” trick that he had also used many times before. Given Sugar’s weakness for grapes, someone could likely pull it off simply by offering it to her with a bunch of normal grapes, easy as giving candy to a baby.
  Instead: Usopp and Robin seem far too worried about badly hurting Sugar to fight her, given how much she looks like a child (a side-effect of her Devil Fruit; she’s much older) and the Tontatta tribe, who also severely underestimate, agree with this sentiment. So, they simply charge into her room with an intent to gently restrain her and force-feed her the berry. This proves a near-fatal mistake, as Sugar quickly uses her power on Robin and the Tontatta, quickly using them to restrain Usopp. It seems all is lost, but then comes the second example:
- Sugar realizes the general idea behind the suspicious berry, but assumes it was some deadly poison and Usopp intended to kill her.
  You’d Expect: She’d just throw it away and use her power on him too. After all, someone like her can never have too many Slave Mooks.
  Instead: Developing a bout of Bond Villain Stupidity, Sugar decides to force-feed it to him, hoping he dies in agony. Fortunately, Usopp can’t tolerate such a hot spice either, and does a Wild Take to end all Wild Takes, scaring Sugar half to death, causing her to faint from fright, and having the result the Straw Hats had originally intended.
In the Egghead Arc, York (the "satellite" of Dr. Vegapunk who embodies his Greed) turns traitor against the others; after CP0 invades the island, she activates the Frontier Dome (placing the whole island on lockdown) to prevent escape, and then contacts the Five Elders, promising she will constuct a second Mother Flame in exchange for being made a World Noble and sparing the laboratory. Unfortunately for York (a Brilliant But Lazy type who lacks any real fighting skills), she is quickly overwhelmed and taken hostage by the Straw Hats.
You'd Expect: York is no fool, and the smart thing to do here would be to remain a quiet, cooperative prisoner and wait for rescue, especially since most of the heroes and the three surviving satellites are only reluctantly letting her live right now. This makes even more sense in hindsight, as later in the arc, Jaygarcia Saturn personally leads the armada to Egghead, and the Straw Hats are in for the fight of their lives. In fact, with the lockdown in place, they'd be doomed, but...
Instead: After shamelessly begging the Elders to rescue her before the Straw Hats cut off the transmission, she switches to true corny villain fashion, taking this time to gloat, giving the heroes the old You Have No Chance to Survive as long as the Frontier Dome was active, having admitted to encrypting its access with a passcode beforehand.
One Small Problem: Not only does she make this rant in front of the true Vegapunk, the surviving - and loyal - satellites Edison and Atlas are present. Vegapunk would be a sorry excuse for a supra-genius if an android he himself built could lock him out of a computer he himself designed. Long story short, she can't, he and the others manage to crack the code, causing Saturn to lose at least one edge he has.
- Of course, Vegapunk himself does deserve some of the blame in how he designed the satellites in the first place, a clear case of this otherwise brilliant scientist grabbing the Idiot Ball.
  Here’s How It Works: Vegapunk designed the satellites to each embody one side of his personality in a way to maintain Balance Between Good and Evil, so that any extreme action taken by any of them could be scrutinized by an opposite counterpart. Thus, Shaka (Good) balances/is balanced by Lilith (Evil), Edison (Thinking) balances/is balanced by Atlas (Violence), and Pythagoras (Wisdom) balances/is balanced by York (Greed). In fact, one could say that Shaka has a clear advantage over Lilith, York, or Atlas, as Pythagoras and Edison would likely side with her over any extremist plan proposed by one of the "darker" satellites. However, Vegapunk also made it so none of his other selves (or himself) had any authority over another - period. In theory, it is democracy at its finest, but...
  There’s Just One Problem: The loophole York exploited rests in another of Vegapunk’s creations (meaning all of them, York included, knows how they work), the Seraphim.^[1] The Seraphim are programmed in a way that they can only follow the orders of one person at a time, until such time as that person changes the orders, relinquishes that order, or they receive an order from someone with higher authority. The tiers are, from highest to lowest, the Celestial Dragons, Vegapunk and his satellites, then Sentomaru (Vegapunk's bodyguard), and finally, anyone who is given a Command Token, which for the purposes of this Arc is CP0. The emphasis on this rule is higher; an order cannot be overrided by someone of equal authority to the one who gave the order. York was thus able to assume command of the Seraphim on her own, and the other satellites had no means of stopping them. A much safer programming would have been to give them a “majority rules directive” of sorts, so that several members of one tier who agreed with each other could override the orders of one member, a situation that would have halted York’s plan very quickly.
  To Make Things Worse: Now that Saturn is in command of the Seraphim, the Celestial Dragons could easily have the same problem should Saturn decide to turn against them (very likely his goal, given what is now known about him), as they are also (by their own designation) of equal authority. Although whether this would be “worse” for the good guys or the bad guys right now is debatable.

Oniisama e...

Mariko Shinobu makes sure Nanako Misonou and her best friend Tomoko Arikura miss each other after school. She then tells Tomoko that Nanako doesn't have time to spend with her anymore, since she joined the Sorority.
You'd Expect: Tomoko calls Nanako the same evening to ask her directly what's up. Or maybe ask her in the way to school tomorrow. Seeing how Mariko is openly clingy with regards to Nanako should already have sounded some alarm bells, and since Tomoko lives near Nanako's home it should be easy to catch up with her in the morning.
Instead: Tomoko simply decides to believe Mariko without any evidence and goes into instant sulk mode. She even refuses Nanako's phone calls later that evening, not even wondering why Nanako would call her in the first place when she doesn't have time for her.
Local Rich Bitch Aya Misaki is very butthurt because an "outsider" like Nanako has been invited to have a spot in the famous Sorority, which she assumed it'd be hers due to having attended Seiran for far longer time and being from a very rich and distinguished family (Nanako is the daughter of an uni professor but technically is middle-to-high class, which is far below the average Sorority girl).
You'd Expect: Aya decides to formally issue a "protest" via speaking directy to the "higher ups" like Fukiko, or at least take the deal with some dignity and keeping it to herself. The aforementioned Mariko (also a prospect Sorority member) may be clingy to Nanako, but she also seems to be quite protective of her, and not to mention she has also been attending Seiran for years so Aya has leads on Mariko's Hot-Blooded personality.
Instead: Aya and her Girl Posse, Miki and Megumi, openly bully Nanako in front of everyone, thinking that Aya's high social status will let her get a Karma Houdini. She adds insult to the injury via making cruel comments about Mariko too.
Much, much later, Miki and Megumi are on their own, rather worried because it looks like the Sorority will be disbanded, thus Aya's dream of being there will be definitely crushed. Two of the elder Sorority girls approach them and ask the two to burn the signature books requesting the Sorority disolution, promising to make their beloved Aya a membress.
You'd Expect: For Miki and Megumi to make sure that the Sorority ladies do really mean what they've promised, asking for a sort-of proof in regards to it.
Instead: The two girls actually go and steal the records on their own, without even questioning anything.. This leads to them getting caught, Aya taking the blame for them and letting everyone think she was behind it, which then causes her to cross the Despair Event Horizon and almost kill herself, Nanako and Tomoko's efforts being the only reason she lives on.

Sailor Moon

In the Sailor Moon R TV series, Mamoru Chiba starts freaking out after he has a dream where Usagi will die. And not only that, he has it several times. All of this takes its toll, and he dumps Usagi to avoid exposing her to danger.
You'd Expect: Mamoru to eventually tell Usagi straightforwardly that he's got big issues of his own to solve and needs some time out to figure what the hell goes on. Maybe not tell her the content of the dream, but he could at least let her know that the blame's not on her.
Instead: Not only does Mamoru dump Usagi without any decent explanation, but he actually does everything in his power to push her away for almost 20 episodes straight, sometimes even resorting to borderline psychological abuse... and still refusing to tell her why he let her go. The result? - the confused Usagi flickers between being determined to become strong enough to win him back and being so depressed that the enemy takes advantage of her fragile state of mind and almost kills her in episode 69.
In Sailor Moon S, Mistress Nine awakens and takes over Hotaru's body. She temporarily reverts back to being Hotaru, claims Hotaru's body is rejecting her and asks Sailor Moon to give her the Holy Grail, despite the Outer Senshi pleading with her not to.
You'd Expect: Sailor Moon to be on her guard and refuse to hand over the Holy Grail.
Instead: Sailor Moon gives the Holy Grail to Professor Tomoe, who passes it to Mistress Nine. She places it in a device, the Holy Grail is destroyed, and all hell breaks loose as Pharaoh 90 appears and daimons swarm Tokyo.

Welcome to The NHK

Satou is given a stash of underage pornography by Yamazaki. Afraid that he himself is becoming a Lolicon, he resolves to improve himself.
You'd expect: He gets rid of the pornography.
Instead: He comes up with a plan where he hangs around in the bushes outside a middle school wearing a trenchcoat and looking every inch the creepy paedophile while carrying a camera - the idea being that seeing himself like this will be sufficient impetus to stop his attraction to Lolita-like characters. This won't end well.
In a later episode, Satou is invited to a seminar which instantly makes the fact that it's a pyramid scheme obvious, and realizes it's a scam right off the bat.
You'd Expect: He runs away.
Instead: He runs away... and still gets talked into joining. When he gets home that night, products in tow, his friends berate him for it. One of them runs to a bookstore and buys a book on pyramid schemes, and studies it for a solution. They find they have the option of returning the items and getting out.
You'd Expect: They return the items and claim their refund.
Instead: They return the items and claim their refund... and then get talked into buying more products. On the way back, they start talking about how stupid someone would have to be to be involved in a pyramid scheme. They only realize this when the book they had consulted earlier falls out of one of their bags.

Other Idiots

Mirai Nikki gives us the standoff between Yuki and his Dad, after finding out he'd lied about coming back to the family to kill Yuki and had stabbed his Mom to death while fleeing.
You'd expect: Yuki to completely reject his father's apology, and maybe even try to kill him. Or at least take it with a grain of salt, given how much he'd lied to Yuki at that point.
Instead: He totally forgives his father, and even vows to go stargazing with him after his sentence is over. And when his father bites it, he grieves for him just as much as his Mom, promising to bring BOTH of them back. It's as if his dad had lied about taking him to the arcade or something—and he accepts the apology without questioning it once. What the Hell, Hero??
In Mamotte Shugogetten, the hero Tasuke looks into a ring and gets a guardian spirit from it because of his purity of heart. A legend that his dad sent along with the ring said that something like this would happen. Of course, she causes him lots of trouble by doing things like destroying his school, locking him up at Christmas, etc. He receives more gifts like this via the mail from his traveling dad. They have legends that say if someone with a pure heart does something or other, some spirit will appear, etc.
You'd Expect He'd remember the legend of the ring and therefore count all these legends as true, being careful to avoid doing the stuff that would activate them.
Instead He does exactly what is required to activate those legends. He repeats this mistake twice. Once the spirit inside has repeatedly tried to get him to pay attention to only her, and the other time the spirit's only job is to create "trials" for her master, really just making life more difficult on him.
Blue Drop: Hagino is the commander of an alien battleship who learns about her people's plan to invade the earth, which she is squarely opposed to since the has grown to love the planet and its inhabitants--and one inhabitant in particular: Mari.
You'd Expect: Hagino puts all of her knowledge and resources on the line to stall the invasion and to save as many people as possible—including herself and the girl she loves. She'd be a greater asset to the Earth's resistance when she's alive, after all.
Instead: She wastes a lot of time and energy rehearsing a silly School Play, because the girl she loves is in it as well. Once the invasion starts, she can't do much more than put on a kamikaze-act to save her girl's city from destruction. Although this is very heroic, it is also very stupid and wasteful. Hagino's people obviously have a lot of trouble thinking clearly when under the influence of hormones, as is also shown in the manga.
- Not to mention that she ejected her co-pilot against her will, and didn't, you know, eject herself afterwards when the ship had demonstrated quite enough AI to do it by itself. During the maneuver, she neither gives any order nor touches any command, it's like she was just there for the ride.
In Hot Gimmick, a girl named Hatsumi is tasked with getting a pregnancy test for her sister, under the premise that it's for her. On the way back however, she bumps into Ryouki, the Manipulative Bastard son of the landlady.
You'd expect: Hatsumi lies and says "it's for me" or even better "my parents are trying for another child".
Instead: She says "they're for my sister", setting up the blackmail plot of the series.
My-HiME: Episode 13, "Night of the Tamayura": Yuuichi and Shiho are out on a date, and they bump into Mai and Reito just as they're about to kiss. He's still struggling to decide whether or not he actually likes Mai "in that way".
You'd expect: Yuuichi to keep his mouth shut and wait until the end of the festival to ask Mai about what happened...or perhaps confronted her about his feelings, maybe...eight episodes ago, when Reito wasn't around.
Instead: He picks the worst possible time to blurt out Mai's name, and breaks two cardinal rules of dating in the process: 1. Never cockblock another guy just as he's about to get some action, and 2. Never confess/imply that you like another girl in front of your date. Now, Shiho's mad at Mai and refuses to talk to her; and Reito, usually a calm and collected guy, is mad at Yuuichi because he suspects something's going on between the two of them. Nice job breaking them up, "hero".
In Strawberry Panic!, sweet, shy, and cutesy Hikari has fallen in love with her older classmate Amane. However, as a result, she is being stalked, harassed, and almost sexually assaulted by a Psycho Lesbian duo who want to get Amane to join the Etoile Election by threatening to harm her.
You'd Expect: Hikari and/or Amane to report these occurrences to either the school staff or the police.
Instead: Neither of them do anything, and the evil duo end up nearly raping Hikari twice, and she continues to be stalked and tormented until the end of the series. Not to mention that Amane is more or less bullied into entering the Etoile Election anyway.
The Result: Two Words: Karma Houdini.
In Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin and Shishio are on their last legs. Shishio's 15-minute limit has already elapsed. His right-hand man, Houji, has a rifle.
You'd Expect: Yumi: "Just Shoot Him!"
Instead: Houji: "I believe in Lord Shishio!!!!!" * throws his gun away* .
The Result: Shishio: * Man On Fire*
- But you want to know what makes this What an Idiot! moment worse? Previously on the Great Kyoto Fire chapters, Houji modified Shishio's original plan by arranging that 7 members of the Juppon Gatana took part of the Great Kyoto Fire by killing the police officers and VIPs as a distraction while the rest sail towards Tokyo to bombard it and thus destroy it while the capital was undermanned. He did this because he wanted to bring total victory to Shishio regardless of costs and perhaps even risking gaining his ire modifying his plan in such a manner. Before the final fight with Kenshin, Houji swore that he would risk being hated like snakes and scorpions as he put it and had his rifle in hand in case the worst would come to worst! By pulling his Honor Before Reason moment, Houji completely contradicted himself in this double whammy of the most illogical, thus bringing us this moment. Holy crap.
  - Remember Shishio's philosophy, the one that Houji fanatically adopted? "If you're strong you live, if you're weak you die." As far as they were concerned, if Shishio got killed in battle, then it meant he was weak and deserved to be killed. Of course, Houji didn't seem ready for the possibility that Shishio could be killed, hence his Villainous Breakdown.
- Similarly: Saito has just gained the advantage of surprise by suddenly appearing on the battlefield.
  You'd expect: He'd go for Shishio's heart. Or pretty much anything vital in that area.
  Instead: Tries to stab him in the forehead for some reason. So he hits the only armored part of Shishio's body. And due to Shishio's ability to beat any attack he's seen once, even his Zero Gatotsu fails (an Ass Pull in itself) and that's pretty much it for him in the fight.
In The Daughter of Twenty Faces, Chiko accompanies the Twenty Faces gang on a trip with a submarine.
You'd Expect: The captain of the submarine has Chiko frisked just like the grown-ups and makes her leave behind the conspicuous basket she's carrying. Better still: he leaves her ashore, since a submarine is no place for children. Yet even better still would be to only take the people who are needed for the mission, since a submarine tends to be crowded pretty fast.
Instead: He lets her enter the submarine unchecked. That's really stupid, since Chiko might be a kid, but she still accompanies a troop of known hoodlums.
In Clannad, Sunohara has to endure ridiculous amounts of abuse at the high school soccer club.
You'd Expect: Sunohara takes this up with the school authorities and at least tries to make clear how messed up the soccer club is. Failing that, he could simply join another club outside school, since every Japanese town worth its salt has at least one or two. In the unlikely case that there are none in his town, he could try in a neighboring one. And failing that, he could even try to found his own club. Anything for the love his sport, right?
Instead: He causes a fight at the high school club, gets thrown out and then even gives up soccer completely, sulking about it for most of the series.
In Tokyo Mew Mew, Kish figures out that Aoyama can only transform into Blue Knight if Ichigo is in danger.
You'd Expect: Kish would attack Aoyama, and Aoyama only, since he is in a "I want to have my revenge on the Blue Knight!" rampage.
Instead: He ignores that vital fact and attacks Ichigo. Failure Ensues.
In Ef: A Tale Of Melodies, Mizuki sends Kuze a "letter of challenge", urging him to meet on the school roof in an effort to get him out of his self-inflicted isolation since he discovered he suffers from a terminal heart condition. He indeed shows up.
You'd Expect: She challenges him in words only to try to make him understand she really loves him and wants to be with him, despite his condition.
Instead: Mizuki actually pulls off a surprise attack and kicks Kuze hard in the chest, telling him that he "died once" already. Sure enough, Kuze gets a heart attack shortly after.
In Gakuen Alice, a heartbroken Mikan follows her beloved best friend Hotaru to a weird school filled with supernaturally gifted children. Once she gets there, Hotaru treats her like dirt most of the time.
You'd Expect: Mikan tries to get out of the school back into the normal world, to forget about Hotaru and mend her broken heart.
Instead: She sticks around, being the victim of abuse by the school's staff and students and of Hotaru's Tsundere tendencies.
In Yami no Matsuei, Tsuzuki is pretending to be a casino dealer on a cruise ship. Antagonist Muraki comes over and offers to play poker with Tsuzuki. When asked what they're betting on, Muraki answers, "your body," and proceeds to describe what he would do with Tsuzuki. However, Muraki never states what's in it for Tsuzuki if he wins, making it a lose-lose proposition.
You'd Expect: Tsuzuki to say "Hell no. Do you think I'm stupid? There's nothing in it for me. Go away."
Instead: Tsuzuki says yes, promptly loses, and gets all whiny and whimpery when Muraki starts feeling him up. He doesn't even have the guts to punch Muraki or push him away.
From The Rising of the Shield Hero: Want an example of a lying liar who lies about everything, in including her lies? Look no further than Princess Malty Melromarc. The lies and slander she used to ruin the Shield Hero’s life included accusations of rape, attempted rape, treason, and murder. Naofumi is only the latest intended victim, and many others before him were executed as a result of her lies. And she gets away with this mostly due to her affiliation with the Three Heroes Church, right up until the point said church is brought down. As a result of this action, Malty and her father are exposed as the conspirators they are, and a slave rune is drawn under Malty’s neck that will punish her with physical pain should she answer a question untruthfully.
You'd expect: As Mark Twain once said, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and let everyone assume you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” Malty was in big trouble and the old phrase was very literal. Now would have been a good time to confess her crimes and hope for a plea bargain.
Instead: Malty continues to lie and double down on previous lies all through her trial, with the slave rune in plain sight, which is broadcast for the entire kingdom to see, the rune reacting to every one. It doesn’t grant her much sympathy, nor does it do much to sway the judge or jury. Even worse, it makes the prosecutor’s job much easier during her father’s trial, who due to his daughter’s shameless display now has no defense at all.
To Make Things Worst: Malty shamelessly pleads for her life even as she is brought to the guillotine, begging her former victim for mercy. To be blunt, it's a rather pathetic display, again in front of scores of witnesses. Amazingly, Naofumi does decide to grant clemency - so long as Malty changes her name to "Bitch" as an alternative punishment.
Lucky Star OVA had the volleyball scene in which Kagami's team is one point ahead, Konata does a roll and block the ball.
You'd Expect: Misao: Go for it, Chibikko! HIT IT WITH ALL YOU GOT! (knowing that Tsukasa is clumsy at everything but cooking).
Instead: Misao: Go for it, Little Sister! HIT IT WITH ALL YOU GOT!
Result: Tsukasa jumps up, misses the ball, hits the net and lost the game. (Ow, it seems I smacked into something.)
Nami from Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo turns against her sisters after they had been neglecting her obvious depressed state for a while already. The fact that her oldest sister Kazane favors her sister Akiha over her just adds to her feelings of helplessness. It doesn't take long before Nami and Akiha have their first violent confrontation, during which Nami vents her frustration.
You'd expect: Akiha tries to convince Nami that she and her sisters really do love her and asks her to reconsider what she's doing.
Instead: Akiha simply tells Nami to shut up, and Nami starts attacking her in full vigor. Smart move, Akiha.
Utawarerumono: A thief breaks into a government fort and attempts to steal medicine for his sick sister.
You'd expect: A man hunt so at the very least people knew what is going on.
Instead: Soldiers ride into a nearby village that knows nothing about the crime and demand that they turn over the thief that "they know" is being hidden there, get rowdy, and kill the village leader Tusukuru.
Results: Needless bloodshed that started a rebellion that could have been avoided.
- The village starts a rebellion for the death of Tusukuru and the later imprisonment of Oboro.
  You'd expect: The emperor to simply crush the rebelling village.
  Instead: He orders the destruction of non-rebellious villages as an example all because he lost his brother and of his own pride.
  Results: This leads to a full scale rebellion. Even his top general, Benawi, is pissed off at how dumb this move was. Pride Before a Fall indeed.
In Chocotto Sister, Choco and her friends find a full-grown panther in a shed.
You'd expect: They call the police, who have the panther caught and taken care of properly. Feeding a cat that size is near impossible for laymen, for starters.
Instead: Choco and her friends keep its existence a secret and try to feed it scraps they bring to the shed. The panther, now dubbed "Kuro", then gets itself killed when it crosses the highway after visiting Choco's home. Choco is devastated by it, but c'mon girl--it's your own damn fault. Kuro would have been much safer in a zoo, where you might even have been able to visit it.
In Fist of the North Star, Shin is trying to win the heart of Yuria, by committing genocide and be a supreme warlord so he can give her the land. Yuria is not amused.
You'd expect: Shin wises up and do as Yuria say to win her heart.
Instead: Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. He continues his daily routine of conquering in her name. The result: Yuria commits suicide.
Dancougar: Shakunetsu no Shusho. The authorities want to kill or capture a mysterious girl who releases deadly plant spores when she is alarmed. They are armed with a kind of "stasis guns" which will freeze everyone in a targeted area. They manage to approach the girl without being noticed while she is chatting with Masato (one of the main characters critical to the fate of the world at large).
You'd Expect: They fire the stasis gun at her. As it has a fairly large area of effect, pinpoint accuracy is not necessary. While they would almost certainly end up freezing Masato too, he could be unfrozen with no ill effects.
Instead: They open fire with regular guns and miss. The girl becomes upset and releases her deadly plant spores, killing all of them. Only as the last one goes down does he remember the stasis gun, and freezes both the girl and Masato; who incidentally cannot now be freed, as some of the spores might have been on the verge of infecting him.
In Canaan, Hakko is led to a room in the "Factory", where she finds someone sitting in a chair in Liang Qi's clothes, facing away from her.
You'd Expect: Hakko makes sure that it is indeed the evil Liang Qi who is sitting there, especially since it's rather suspicious she would simply be waiting for Hakko to arrive, considering Hakko's deadly power.
Instead: Hakko begins talking right away, unleashing her deadly voice upon the hapless victim in the chair—which for her is about the same as rushing into the room with guns ablaze. Of course, the person in the chair is not Liang Qi, but her captured lover, dressed in Liang's clothes.
NEEDLESS. Uten, a needless with the ability to turn anything invisible, needs to find the location of our heroes' hideouts. He happens to chance upon two of them while they're out shopping.
You'd Expect: Powers. Of. Invisibility. He only needs to shadow them back to base to succeed. This ain't rocket science, kids.
Instead: Uten sets up an extremely contrived trap for the two and tries to make them believe he's almighty and knows magic by turning parts of the building invisible, so he can interrogate them into revealing the base's location (changing gears midway into 'killing them and search corpses for clues'). He fails miserably. And dies. At no point does he even try to use his invisibility to escape when things have gone pear-shaped. Truly one for the record books.
In the anime Suzuka, Yamato Akitsuki has just broken up with his thoughtful, softspoken, and almost perfect girlfriend, Honoka, and confides in his friend and secret admirer, Suzuka.
You'd Expect: For Yamato to give a straightforward account of the tragic and mutual breakup and how shaken he was with the ordeal. Or at least to keep the reasons to himself.
Instead: Yamato lies and brags about how he dumped her saying that she was annoying for absolutely no reason . In a much-needed wakeup call, Suzuka berates him for treating Honoka that way, knowing that she put her all into their relationship.
- Toward the end of the series, Yamato and Suzuka reconcile their feelings for each other, but in order for her to truly come to terms with her past, she has to visit the grave of her ex-boyfriend one last time.
  You'd Expect: Yamato would be a nice and understanding guy and allow her to come to terms with the emotional tumor that disallows her from developing trust, let alone a relationship, with another guy.
  Instead: He grabs her arm and yells at her telling her that she shouldn't visit his grave any more and to get over the past. Luckily for him, instead of yelling at him or hurting him like the Tsundere she is, Suzuka takes a third option and calmly invites him on her trip to the cemetery, to which he reluctantly agrees.
  - The above examples are but mere snippets of Yamato's bumbling idiocy. There's really a multitude of them throughout the series, most of which could be easily resolved by simply being honest or thinking of someone other than himself.
In Sasameki Koto, Ushio wants a cute girlfriend badly.
You'd Expect: She makes use of personal ads and the Internet to find someone, or tries to find a LGBT group in her neighbourhood (which nowadays can also be found in every Japanese town). Since she's an extremely pretty girl herself, she likely wouldn't have too much trouble meeting somebody that way.
Instead: She runs after girls at her school or even in the street, startling them and generally behaving like a moron.
- Also, she's in high school. She's got plenty of time to meet girls the old fashioned way before she resorts to Internet dating. And most of the girls at her school already know that she's gay, so why be shy about it?
In Claymore, a band of bandits attack a town the warrior known as Theresa of the Faint Smile had just left (literally passing her on the road and clearly recognizing her). One of them finds the small girl that was with Theresa when last they met, and is aware that while she was merely annoyed at the prospect of being raped by him she made it clear that she would be willing to face the punishment for one of her order killing a human if he hurt the kid.
You would think he would point the kid in the direction he last saw Theresa, or have her tied up and set aside with as little harm as possible for said warrior to find.
Instead by the time Teresa returned to the down the guy was casually dragging the aformentioned girl (obviously quite badly beaten and possibly raped) across the villiage square in full view of her. Then he turned and mocked Theresa by noting "... How cute she was she she was screaming your name." Cue Single-Stroke Battle... lots of them.
- Claire and Yokai! Priscilla have a final battle to the death. Raki interferes- by crying and hugs Claire from excecuting the final blow- because she's going to become like Priscilla anyway.
  You would think Claire would push Raki aside to finish the battle with demonic Yokai Priscillia who had slaughted countless towns and people from their Organisation
  Instead Claire misses her chance and Priscillia and Easley canters off into the sunset.
Kämpfer, episode 11. In the previous episode, something happened to Natsuru, but he cannot remember just what happened. Now, Shizuku has a tÃªte-Ã -tÃªte with Natsuru, where she uses Kaede's most precious doll to reveal the Moderators' motives. She also says that she knows that Kaede is connected to the Moderators. She then managed to recover Natsuru's memories of what happened: he was mind-controlled by Kaede into attempting to rape Shizuku.
You'd expect: Natsuru to accept that his crush is evil and join the resistance against the Moderators.
Instead: Natsuru goes to Kaede's house to ask if this is true. Cue mind control.
Gurren Lagann has Lordgenome leaving a cryptic warning behind, that can more or less be paraphrased as "When there are a million humans on the surface of the planet, something bad will happen."
You'd expect: With the rate at which their tech levels were advancing, the Dai Gurren Brigade would try to keep surface numbers to a minimum, by only taking in people who actually want to get out of the ground to buy them time to investigate the moon, and maybe think of other ways to stall the count until they can find a way to stop it for good.
Instead: Under Rossiu's direction, they drag people out of their underground villages, even the ones who don't want to come up, just to COUNT THEM, thus ACCELERATING the growth of numbers. Sure, it's the kind of series that's full of Idiot Heroes, but Rossiu was supposed to be the cool and calculating kind of person.
- From Gurren-Lagann The Satire:

Simon: "Rossiu? Have you been forcing people out of their homes behind my back?"
Rossiu: "Would you believe me if I said 'no'?"

In Akkan Baby, our 16 year old main characters have no idea what a condom is. Or how to operate a pregnancy test. Or that you don't put futons on the baby.
In Dance in the Vampire Bund several students (including the bulk of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council), after thier brainstorming plan on flushing out those students who have become vampires ran after dark, elected to barricade themselves into the chapel on campus rather than risk being picked off on thier way home. Suddenly the lights went out and the student council president (who was apparently abducted a few days ago) started calling to them from outside claiming she had been injured escaping her kidnappers.
You Would Think that the various students would suspect a trick of some sort, being aware that several students have become vampires and recalling that "Kaichou" had vanished the night after loudly berating Princess Mina Tepes, the New Transfer Student/long-lost founder of the school/self-proclaimed Ruler Of All Vampires, for her intrusion.
Instead several students override the objections of Yuki with a dismissive "What are you talking about, it's Kaichou!" "She's all right!" and throw open the front door. Yup, Shinonomi Nanami is there... surrounded by at least a half dozen vampires and looking a bit befanged herself.
Uzumaki: the town of Kurôzu-cho and everyone in it is descending into madness. The two main characters, Shuichi and Kirie witness increasingly nightmarish happenings, and almost die a few times as a result. Shuichi urges Kirie to run away with him numerous times.
You'd expect:eventually Kirie would leave with Shuichi before they fall victim to the insanity. You'd expect that Kirie's hair coming to life and almost killing her, as well as Shuichi, seeing people turn into giant snails, and witnessing pregnant women sucking human blood would be enough to have both of them running away with nary a backward glance.
Instead: Kirie doesn't decide to leave until it's far too late, months after the events start happening. Both she and Shuichi suffer the consequences. Also, with each new chapter, she seems to have forgotten the terrible things that happened in the last chapter.
Darker than Black, episode 25. Kirihara's boss mindlessly confesses on how eeeevil he is and tells her his evil plans of doing evil things in the future. Kirihara secretly has a recorder in her pocket, and then has the entire conversation there.
You'd expect: Kirihara would silently leave the room, then give the recording to the authorities and then have the last laugh.
Instead: She stupidly shows him the recorder to brag about it.
Result: Kirihara being strangled, and needing to be saved.
- The Interquel OVAs: Hei is on the run from... well, pretty much everyone, when all of a sudden people start trying to capture Yin. In particular, he runs up against a Manipulative Bastard Master of Illusion named Claude who catches him off guard by impersonating his ex-girlfriend Amber. After a number of near-misses and an ever-increasing amount of weirdness, Claude grabs Yin a second time and Hei, being his overprotective self, decides to rescue her even though it's probably suicide.
  You'd Expect: That the Badass assassin who made a name for himself killing people with Game Breaker superpowers would pay attention to his ally's warnings, remember that the guy he's up against can manipulate what he sees, and generally try to maintain a healthy level of skepticism when he comes to the top of the building and sees Yin sitting in an empty room, alone and unguarded.
  Instead: He runs straight in and immediately goes over to her. This, inevitably, results in him stuck in place in the middle of the room while Claude laughs at him. When someone else appears to attack Claude and the power holding Hei in place vanishes, he immediately goes for a Face Palm of Doom... and falls for an Aizen Gambit, electrocuting Yin instead and setting off the Eldritch Abomination Super-Powered Evil Side she'd been developing. Yin pleads with him to kill her to stop it; he can't bring himself to.
  Result: Very nearly The End of the World as We Know It. Yin manages to suppress Izanami with Heroic Willpower, putting herself into a Convenient Coma, and Hei is left as an angry, depressed wreck in the second season.
Fullmetal Alchemist, episode 51 and in the manga. The psychopathic Envy has been reduced from his Eldritch Abomination true form to his fetus-like true, true form. May Chang is to take Envy back to her home country so that she can acheive her goal of bringing back the secret of immortality. Envy tells her that by going back, she is abandoning her friends to coming events, and suggests she should turn back.
You'd expect: Well, you'd expect that the characters would have squashed Envy like a bug when given the chance and wouldn't have entrusted a manipulative liar into the care of a rather naive young girl- there's Idiot Ball to go around here. Barring that, you'd expect that May wouldn't trust Envy and would carry on with her journey.
Instead: She listens to Envy and heads toward Central City, the capitol of Amnestris/headquarters of the villains.
Result: Envy's talk about the secret of immortality was only true From a Certain Point of View- he leads May into a trap of cannibalistic Zombie Mooks who are are practically immortal/invincible and then uses the zombies to recreate his Eldritch Abomination form.
- In chapter 107, Greed attacks Father to get the latter to grab him and absorb his philosopher's stone's souls.
  You'd expect: This is supposed to distract Father long enough for Ed to attack him.
  Instead: Greed gloatingly tells Father about this plan, giving Father the opportunity to counter Ed's attack.
- In Chapter 6, Ed and Al are being attacked by Scar, who has just blasted apart Al's left flank, and almost destroyed Ed's arm, thanks to his powers using his arm
  You'd Expect: Ed to pick a strategy that involves staying the hell away from Scar's reach at all costs.
  Instead: He charges Scar with a Blade Edge on the side of his automail. It goes about as well as you can imagine.
In Kimi ni Todoke, our heroine Sawako looks like it has finally gotten into her head that Kazehaya does like her too. Valentine Day approaches.
You'd expect: Sawako gives Kazehaya chocolate. Even if it is just "duty" chocolate.
Instead: She gives chocolate to everyone but Kazehaya. You see, she's so honest that she couldn't give him just "duty" chocolate, but too humble to dare to give him "love" chocolate. So she doesn't give him any.
Result: Kazehaya is left absolutely confused. Does she like him or not? Their relationship is now worse than it was at the beginning of the story.
In Girls Bravo, Koyomi and Tomoka, natives of the planet Seiren, come Earth to find a husband for Maharu. Once they find a suitable match, they intend to return to Seiren using their Aqua Lamps (two tiny silver beads).
You'd expect: Them to keep the Aqua Lamps somewhere where they can't easily be stolen. After all, without the Aqua Lamps they're trapped on Earth. At the very least, you'd expect them to keep an eye on their magical items.
Instead: The antagonist steals their Aqua Lamps with no trouble at all, and days (possibly weeks) elapse before they even become aware of the theft.
In the New Vestroia season of Bakugan Battle Brawlers, our BBEG King Zenoheld uses a Giant Mecha Dragon Bakugan called Farbros which can merge with more parts Voltron-style and become pretty much unstoppable. In the middle of the season, he is confronted by two of the good guys, who also have a kind of modular fusion system (albeit weaker, but these three are the only ones who have it).
You'd expect: King Zenoheld and the Good Guys to immediately whip out these powerful forms and have the most EPIC battle the series has ever seen!
Instead: Not only do they NOT do this, but said BBEG, without fusing to the special parts, promptly blows up his own robot. The good guys watch helplessly as their Bakugan's behinds are kicked by a self-destructing robot(which probably wouldn't have happened had they been in their fused forms...)
But Instead Not only did one of the good guys' combiners never be heard from again soon after this episode, but when it did happen, the battle was never really finished as the two instead moved onto something else. A real wasted opportunity...
In Katanagatari the Insect themed Quirky Miniboss Squad (composed of three ninja) are sent to go capture Naname the younger Ill Girl sister of the protagonist. They decide in probably reasonable Ninja procedure to go one at a time (ostensibly because two are only there as transportation and backup respectively) to subdue and capture her to hurt her older brother. The first Mook arrives at her location and ambushes her with his Praying Mantis close combat style nails (long and sharp) but is quickly defeated off screen and rendered unconscious.
You'd expect: That his backup WOULD check in on him after he was gone for an inordinately long time.
Instead: Even though one of them gets a 'bad feeling' that something has gone 'terribly wrong', he doesn't do anything which for a cartoon medium might as well mean Too Dumb to Live as it's a shameful case of lacking Genre Savvy.
- Also in Katanagatari for the same episode when the Praying Mantis guy does die and his friends go in to try to rescue him/continue the mission they send the next close combat specialist in next, which is fine, but it turns out that Naname has Awesome By Analysis, meaning that whenever they show her any of their generationally passed down ninja arts she will instantly learn it and master it the second time they show her.
  You'd Expect: if you were sane upon seeing this and her serenity dissonance slasher smile 'run the fuck away', grab the remaining guy and RUN like you never did before to inform the rest of your ninja brethren of the threat they face and report a full account of her abilities and weaknesses that you could glean from that short encounter (being Shinobi they should have observation skills). Or at least, assuming that this happened way too fast for the guy to run away before dying, for the Bee themed guy remaining to realize the depth of the threat and run for it and hopefully make it off the island alive.
  Instead: The Butterfly themed guy gets himself killed - which on second thought/review may have been impossible for him to get out of - but the Bee themed guy actually 'tries to stay' to complete the mission rather than run away; although Naname noticed his presence it still should have been possible to run.
In the Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu finale, Akihisa uses his one request to the school to give Himeji a second chance to take the admission test so she can go to the A-Class (For geniuses) instead of the F-Class (For idiots) she was stuck in due to fainting during the original test.
You'd Expect: She does the test, gets in the A-class and thanks Akihisa for using his request on her.
Instead: Once she's done with the test, she erases her name so she's ends in the F-class again, just to be with him. Nevermind they can be together outside of class (As Yuuji and Shouko demonstrate, you can be in different classes and be friends and even a couple). She COULD have done it to keep an eye on Minami, the other member of the Love Triangle, but this is never stated. And just to make things worse, when Akihisa finds out she wasted her chance to be in the class she deserves and gets angry, HE gets called out by everyone else, while Himeji's idiocy goes unnoticed.
In Bakuman｡, Akito "Shujin" Takagi meets with Yuriko "Ko Aoki" Aoki to talk about how to better characterize the opposite sex in their respective works. He realizes that his girlfriend, Kaya Miyoshi, will get jealous.
You'd Expect: Him to explain the situation to her. She might not be happy that he isn't turning to her, but she might understand why he's seeking out a fellow Mangaka.
Instead: He keeps on meeting with Aoki secretly, and in the process, picks up a copy of one of Aiko Iwase's (who had previously expressed an interest in him) novels with a letter to him, resulting in Miyoshi finding it while cleaning. She's quite upset.
- Later on, Nakai, working for Nanamine, realizes correctly that things are going downhill and is desperate to keep his assistant job. He's also one of the few who knows about Nanamine's 50 20 9 online helpers.
  You'd Expect: Him to realize that Nanamine keeps secrets from other people, and talk to Nanamine himself.
  Instead: He sneaks into the room while Nanamine is fixing the copier and tells them (over the microphone, while giving his name and identifying himself as Nanamine's assistant) that the manga has fallen to 16th and ask them to make good chapters. The few remaining people then quit on the spot.
In Black Lagoon, Hansel (?) attempts to kill Balalaika. He sees her waiting for him at the other end of a large, open plaza, just sitting there.
You'd Expect: He'd find some other way of getting to to her, waiting until he can be sure she's alone.
Instead: Against this leader of a crack sniper team, holding a rifle right now, he walks slowly straight ahead, coming at her with an axe! Gunshots and Hannibal Lecture ensue.
- Later on, in the Japan arc, Chaka beats and abuses Rock, in order to provoke Revy into a gunfight, then, later, kidnaps Yakuza Princess Yukio, abuses her and challenges Revy again, only to be contemptuously dismissed, after having Rock bash him with a bowling pin and a Precision F-Strike. Chaka lives this trope.
Hentai work Dawn of the Silver Dragon. Big Bad uses technology, which can turn any woman into willing sex slave with More Than Mind Control and uses it for profit (or so it seems).
You'd Expect: Formation of elite, male only force dedicated to stopping the threat, perhaps using some additional privilages to put villain down. You know, something like The Untouchables.
Instead: A female only police group is hunting the guy. To add to the idiocy, one of high ranking officers was former victim of above technology. And if that's not enough the leader of the unit willingly let's herself be caputred as a part of bait operation, with only one person of backup. It may be hentai, but nothing excuses levels of idiocy that high.
Probably in the name of Fan Service, but Infinite Stratos has one jarring moment in episode seven. Ichika and Charlotte need to change their clothes.
You'd Expect: One can change in the bathroom, and the other can just change in the bedroom.
Instead: Ichika then suggests that they change while facing the other way. Cue Charlotte tripping on the floor and Ichika turning around to see her backside.
Air Gear: Kogasumaru are building a front-line base, designing it so it would help its inhabitants defend the base and territory as much as possible.
You'd Expect: A base to be set up in a strategic location where it won't be affected by environmental hazards.
Instead: The base is set up on a bridge, on train tracks which are being used.
Haruhi Suzumiya: The local Reality Warper is making a sci-fi movie. She is often unable to see\ignoring the lines between reality and fiction, and is able to blur those lines with her subconscious powers. Most of the main characters are certified Genre Savvy about this.
You'd Expect: Subtly (or less so) point out that the movie is not real from the beginning, thereby preventing the activation of her powers.
Instead: One of the characters believes that the reality warper's often conveniently ignored common sense will reign her in, and therefore does nothing. The main characters only jump in when the desired special effects become real.
Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!: Nao is in love with her brother Shuusuke, who also loves her, and they just found they're Not Blood Siblings at that. She catches him playing an Eroge with a sweet and kind Younger Sibling Fetishization.
You'd Expect: She realizes that's the way her brother likes girls and acts that way to please him. It's her natural instinct in fact, being nice to him. She could even offer herself to him in a "Why playing games when you have a real sister who loves you?" sort of way.
Instead: She unplugs the computer, he loses his data and gets horribly angry, making their relationship worse. In fact, the entire first episode consists of Nao holding a planet-sized Idiot Ball and faking Tsundere-ness at her brother whenever they're getting close, for no reason other than making their relationship harder and giving us a show to begin with. Had she been nicer, he wouldn't show much interest on Iroha and the other girls and she could win his heart with little effort.
Saki: Amae Koromo can make a winning move in the mahjong tournament.
You'd Expect: Her to make the move and win the game.
Instead: She deliberately makes a lower-scoring move in order to demoralize her opponents and set things up so that they cannot make their own highest-scoring moves, despite the fact that they wouldn't have been able to make them anyway had she ended it as soon as she could. Naturally, she loses because of this.
This also showed up twice in the Little Lulu anime episode where Tubby gets captured by the Westside Gang. Lulu and the gang come up with Plan A, which was to hide a saw inside a pie for Tubby to use to escape. However, since none of them knew how to make a pie, they decide to substitute the real thing with a mud pie. Lulu and Annie then bring the mud pie over to the Westside Gang's territory and give it to Tubby.
You'd Expect: Tubby to listen to Lulu and for her to tell him that there's actually a saw hidden inside the mud pie so that he can escape to freedom.
Instead: When Tubby finds out that the pie was actually mud, he becomes angry, saying that he cannot eat it then kicks it so hard that it sails out the window of the RV he was imprisoned in and onto the ground, revealing the saw in front of the Westside Gang.
- Then later on in the same episode, after Willy and Iggy have also gotten captured by the Westside Gang, it is then up to Wilbur to come to the rescue with a shovel that he intends to use to tunnel into the RV to save Tubby and the others. Once on the other side, Wilbur then proceeds to carry out his mission.
  You'd Expect: Wilbur to lightly tap on the side of the RV and quietly let Tubby, Willy, and Iggy know that he was going to dig them out and for them to be ready when he did.
  Instead: He just goes ahead and starts digging next to the RV, causing Tubby, Willy, and Iggy to become worried, thinking that a bear is coming to eat them, then promptly alert the Westside Gang that they hear a weird noise, resulting in Wilbur's capture after that.
Oreimo. In one scene in episode 3, Kyosuke explicitly tells Kirino to keep her DVDs and games out of sight while she's not in her room.
You'd Expect: Kirino to be extra cautious about her collection, since she's a siscon fan.
Instead: She leaves one of her games in the open on the very day her father comes into her room during her offline meeting, sparking a chain of events that ends with her hobby almost endangered and both Kousaka siblings injured (Kirino gets a minor injury because she tried to attack her own father with a crystal ashtray, but she was lucky compared to Kyosuke, who first gets his arm twisted for blocking his father from entering her room and then gets punched in the face after claiming ownership of all the adults only material in the house).
Battle Athletes Victory: Kris has vowed to her family that she'd return to the moon the day she turns 18 to become a priestess. Then she meets Akari and falls hopelessly in love with her.
You'd Expect: Kris either hides or controls her feelings for Akari or she decides to break her vow to be with the one she loves.
Instead: She relentlessly pursues Akari, and when Akari finally starts returning her feelings she tells her that she has to leave, causing Akari quite some heartbreak.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The show has it's main characters competing for Grief Seeds produced from the Witches they kill. As they use their magic, their Soul Gems begin to fill with darkness, which is then transferred into the collected Grief Seeds.
You'd expect: Someone to question the nature of the dark substance that appears inside a Soul Gem, especially since it requires a Grief Seed of all things to remove, a Grief Seed that can regenerate the Witch if left alone too long. Read that again: A Magical Girl's power source produces something unusable to themselves, but compatible with the monsters they fight, and can revive said monsters.
Instead: No one seems to make the connection, most likely assuming that this "dirtiness" will make them no longer able to use magic. To drive the point home, fans questioned this from the very beginning and speculated the results until the moment they were confirmed in episode 8.\\
The Familiar of Zero: At one point in season 1, Louise the Tsundere with a heavy dose of tsun, gets affected by a Love Potion and changes from an outright sadistic personality to lovey-dovey Clingy Jealous Girl towards Saito, who is almost the sole victim of her permanent abuse. Everyone comments on how the new Louise is better and more comfortable to interact with.
You'd expect: Saito to understand that a Louise who does not permanently tries to get him into a hospital is a lot better for his health and, to be honest, a lot cuter and thus agree with the others to accept her new self.
Instead: He tries everything, despite everyone's constant attempts to convince him otherwise, to get Louise back to her old self, and when he finds out she remembered the whole thing, she beats him up brutally again, and at least 3 dozen more times after that despite the fact that Saito proved to be Above the Influence.
- On the same series, there's the season 2 finale. when Saito comes back home after stalling/beating an army and explains to Louise he was healed by an elf.
  You'd expect: Knowing Louise's A-Cup Angst, he omits the "minor" fact of said elf being a busty girl.
  Instead: Saito blurts it out on a perverted manner, thus completely ruining the until-then very emotive finale. Cue Louise rightfully beating him down.
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi: On the Sports Festival, Kazuma's trial is looking for "big breasts".
You'd expect: He goes after Tsumugi, Hina or any of the many other busty girls in the show.
Instead: He goes after Madoka, who reacts violently when touched by men and thus sends him off flying, as everyone expected.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Roy Focker takes a few bullets when his spaceplane gets shot at during a dogfight with the Zentraedi, but manages to fly back to base with relative ease.
You'd expect: Upon disembarking from his plane, Focker would cry "Medic!", get taken to a military hospital, and medical personnel would do whatever they could to save one of the Macross's best pilots.
Instead: Focker walks out of the base (presumably without anyone noticing his condition), goes all the way to his love interest Claudia's house, sits down for coffee and a chat, and eventually bleeds to death all over her nice couch.
Mayo Chiki: Kanade is feeling in Troll mode, so she tells Usami main guy Kinjirou is a pervert. Note this is the same guy that has gynophobia, Usami said 3 episodes ago she'd help curing it and thus knows this, two episodes ago she invited him to her house and rubbed her chest on him (Which he didn't like much because of his condition) and in this very episode, Kinjirou accidentally grabs Usami's bare left breast and that causes him to faint in the act, plus Kanade's been trolling Usami for the entire episode.
You'd expect: Usami to notice the obvious lie and tell Kanade she knows Kinjirou's not like that.
Instead: Usami instantly belives Kinjirou's a super-pervert and lashes at him. Seems Usami is very gullible or Kanade so good at bluffing Usami would've believed she is the Moon too.
Blood C in episode 8 a Elder Bairn is approaching the school and a fast rate:
You'd expect: Saya to warn everyone or they would run.
Instead: She doesn't. As a result, they get slaughtered except for one and Saya herself.
In Berserk Guts tries to leave the Band of the Hawk to embark on his own dream, but Griffith doesn't want any of that and battles Guts for his freedom - which he loses, being his very first defeat. Guts promptly leaves to set off on his journey, leaving his friends and comrades behind.
You'd expect Griffith to just pick himself up and get over it, since most of the hard work that the Band of the Hawk fought for was already over and all Griffith really had to do in order to obtain the Kingdom of Midland was to wait around and marry Princess Charlotte. Plus, Griffith said that a true friend to him wouldn't let anything get in the way of his dream, which was exactly what Guts was doing in the first place.
Instead Griffith has a total emotional breakdown after Guts left, and did some truly downward-spiraling behavior that involved him sleeping with the princess, getting imprisoned and tortured for a year, and just throwing away all of that hard-earned work.
The Result: It Got Worse. Really worse.
- In the same chapter, the King of Midland hears word of what Griffith has done and storms into Charlotte's room. He sees that she has some love bites on her neck and some puddles by the windows where Griffith made his exit. However, the King is only truly convinced when he uncovers some blood stains on Princess Charlotte's bed.
  You'd expect that Charlotte just lie and say that her period had just started.
  Instead she just sits there and stares at her father.
  The Result: The King begins to manifest his very disturbing feelings toward his daughter.
Magical Project S has Ramia finding out Misao's father is coming to visit her.
You'd Expect: She'll just give her some slack and be with her father.
Instead: She has her transformed into Misa on that day.
Result: Sasami and Misao have discovered their magical girl identities in the end. Congratulations, Ramia, for making that happen.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Caren saves the mermaid trio from the Black Beauty Sisters.
You'd Expect: She'd join them.
Instead: She refuses to join them all because she thinks Rina left her twin sister, Noel, to get captured.
Result: The Black Beauty Sisters captures her easily. Caren has bought all that on herself because she thinks she can rescue Noel by herself.
Monster has Dr. Tenma being held hostage by the Baby. The latter tells him to leave the questions to him.
You'd Expect: Tenma acknowledges this and agrees to answer his questions.
Instead: He keeps on asking the questions causing the Baby to whack him repeatedly in the face with a billiard stick.
A mostly off-screen moment from Mayonaka Lolita: A high-school teacher, for some reason, makes a rejuvenation medicine.
You'd Expect: He would hide it in a safe place and label it correctly. This medicine could cause a lot of problems after all.
Instead: He mistankingly gives it out as juice to a male student.
Result: Said male student gives it in turn to a female student, who drinks it and promptly regresses into a child. Way to go, dumbass.
- From this point on...
  You'd Expect the teacher to try and make an antidote.
  Instead: He smiles, tells the girl she'll only be able to turn back to normal by kissing the boy she loves, and leaves. WTF.
In the second to the last episode of Ai to Yuuki no Pig Girl Tonde Buurin, Karin is cornered by her classmates just as she tries to think of a way to transform without them noticing.
You'd Expect: She'll have to go somewhere far where they can't see her transform.
Instead: She just blurted out she's Buurin to them, resulting that when she transforms, she's stuck in that form.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Kousuke and his almost-girlfriend have taken Makoto's bike, which she knows is dangerous because the brakes are broken; it caused her to almost experience death-by-train-collision earlier in the movie. She's also figured out that she can only time-leap one more time, probably ever.You'd Expect: She does nothing; if something bad ends up happening, she can go back and undo it. Or she could go back to a few hours ago and throw the stupid bike in a river.
Instead: She vaguely considers waiting to see what happens, and then she wastes her last time-leap pointlessly dodging a question from Chiaki. Inevitably, Kousuke and the girl are hit and killed by the train, forcing Chiaki to use up his last time-leap to save them, and then he's erased from existence by time-police or something. Whoops.

Makoto: I sure used my last time-leap on something stupid! Oh well, no big deal...

In Fushigiboshi no Futagohime the Big Bad's plan to conquer the world by convincing world leaders that everyone else has already surrendered to him. He's already next the prince of his homeland so he simply convinces his parents to retire. Next he steals the royal seal from the Moon Kingdom and uses it to falsify a treaty of surrender. Armed with this he then proceeds to the other kingdoms.
You'd Expect: The world leaders would attempt to find out why the Moon Kingdom surrendered, which would naturally lead to them finding out the treaty had been forged.
Instead: upon being shown the treaty they immediately surrender.
Furthermore: every prince and the princess including the Big Bad's sister knows he's a villain, but no one listens to them.
Rocket Girls: The girls in orbit rendevouz with a Space Shuttle, and while they're aboard, the Shuttle crew offer a "goods exchange": trade items with their mission logos. The only things the girls have with the SSA logo on it are their pens.
You'd expect: Somebody would think to trade SSA pens for NASA pens.
Instead: The girls give away their only pens in exchange for mission patches from the Shuttle's crew. (What were the Shuttle crew doing with extra mission patches in orbit? It costs over $50,000 to launch 1kg of mass into orbit aboard a Space Shuttle; nothing non-essential went into orbit at the time. Anyway.).
It gets worse: This comes back to bite them when the capsule's mission parameters change in mid-flight and the girls have to record a list of times and durations that they need in order to land safely.
You'd expect: The flight specialist to call up a text editor on the capsule's computer display and record the numbers there... assuming Mission Control doesn't simply transmit them directly to the capsule's computer.
Instead: Everybody lets the mission specialist — who they know blacks out when subjected to thrust above 4 Gs — memorize the numbers and hope she doesn't black out again. Of course she does black out during the very first (8 G) course correction, and it's only the flight specialist being Hot-Blooded in an otherwise-serious series that gets them home alive. Everybody was carrying the Idiot Ball in that scene.

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↑ This is a Quirky Miniboss Squad who are clones of the former Seven Warlords, with cybernetic enhancements, and artificial Devil Fruit powers, who work as a team; suffice to say, they are bad news.

[1] This is a Quirky Miniboss Squad who are clones of the former Seven Warlords, with cybernetic enhancements, and artificial Devil Fruit powers, who work as a team; suffice to say, they are bad news.

[1]