You Shall Not Pass/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


As a Death Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.

  • The finale of Tokyo Mew Mew had Ichigo's team expend themselves so she could face off with Deep Blue.
  • Likewise, the finale of the first season of Sailor Moon has each Senshi holding off a group of youma to give Usagi a chance to face the Big Bad. Their deaths were rather gruesome, and censored from the English dub, which took out half the two-part episode -- the remainder was merged into one.
  • Deliberately pushed to ridiculous extremes in the Excel Saga episode "Menchi's Great Adventure", where the members of Menchi's group rapidly sacrifice themselves in succession until only Menchi is left.
  • Mazinger Z: It happened fairly often:
    • An example taken from the original manga. Kouji has been cornered by several Mechanical Beasts, but Sayaka shows up with Aphrodite-A to give him time to reach Mazinger-Z: [1]
    • Episode 6: A Mechanical Beast is trashing one city to keep Mazinger-Z and Aphrodite-A busy as a second Beast and a squad of Iron Masks take over the Photon Atomic Research Institute. Kouji tells he will deal with the first Beast to let Sayaka go to protect the Institute.
    • Another example taken from episode 74: A Mechanical Beast was completely trashing Mazinger-Z around. Sayaka -as piloting Aphrodite-A- stepped between both and stood in the way of the Beast to protect Kouji, receiving all its attacks to prevent it from killing Kouji and destroying Mazinger-Z even though it meant Aphrodite-A was destroyed for good.
    • Episode 92: Kouji is hurt and can not fight, so Boss knocks him out, and he and Sayaka deploy their Humongous Mecha to try to hold back the Mykene Warrior Beasts marching towards the Institute. They fail badly.
    • Chapter 6 from Shin Mazinger Zero: Three assassins Robot Girls -Gamia Q1, Q2 and Q3- are attempting to get Kouji murdered, but Sayaka and Boss to step in the way to protect him: [2]
  • Naruto:
    • Each member of the Sound 5 and the Sasuke retrieval team (except Naruto who goes to get Sasuke personally) does this.
    • Shikamaru does earlier on when he plays decoy in order to let Naruto and Sakura catch up with Sasuke and Gaara. When he suggested the idea to Naruto and Sakura the expressions alone showed that it was a suicide mission. He just happened to be saved by Asuma before he could be killed.
    • It was shown in a flashback that a team led by the Second Hokage was surrounded by an elite group of shinobi in a dangerous mission. Deciding that his charges are too young to die and they could lead the village on without him, he chose to be a decoy to let them escape and die in battle, but not before appointing Hiruzen Sarutobi as the Third Hokage.
  • Saito single handedly takes on an entire army of swordsmen, archers, mages, dragons, and whatnot at the end of the second season of The Familiar of Zero. And wins. Before the second season was adapted from the novels, an Image Macro floating on the Internet depicted this using an army scene from Utawarerumono, with the caption: "Saito: Proving that one can simply walk into Mordor".
    • Not wins as much as succeeds. Sure, the You Shall Not Pass worked perfectly, delaying the entire army of 70,000 for days, easily long enough for the retreating forces to escape. However, he also dies in the attempt, if only for a short while.
  • In Gash Bell, Won Lei does this against the massively more powerful than him Unko Tintin during the Faudo Arc.
  • Both exemplified and inverted in Saint Seiya. Not only are the Gold Saints tasked with barring the heroes' progress through the Sanctuary's Twelve Zodiac Houses, but whenever two or more of said heroes arrive at each House, one of them will invariably stay and fight to let the other one (usually Seiya) press onwards instead of fighting the single enemy as a team. During the Hades story arc, when the Gold Saints are allies to the heroes, they repeat their feat by holding back the spectral forces of the dead, risen to invade the Sanctuary and kill Athena. Taurus Gold Saint Aldebaran takes this to the extreme, with his body continuing to protect his House long after he has been killed.
  • In a parody of the above, the first Ranma ½ movie presents the Seven Lucky Gods of Martial Arts blocking the title hero's advance in exactly the same fashion, until one of his allies (or, at one point, an entire crowd of them) arrives to take over the fight for him.
    • This is actually a repeat of an earlier gag in the anime, where Natsu, Take and Ume, the three elders of the Daimonji School of Martial Arts Tea Ceremony (and anime-only characters) try to bar the desperate charge of Akane, who is attempting to save Ranma from being "sacrificed", only to be knocked out of the way by the Foe-Tossing Charge of her uncontrolled horse.
  • C.C. pulls this in the first season finale of Code Geass, sacrificing herself to deal with the disoriented and crazed Jeremiah Gottwald in the nigh-invincible Humongous Mecha, dragging said mecha and her own mecha into the ocean so Lelouch can hurry on ahead to rescue his sister. Since C.C. has already proven herself immortal (surviving a headshot in the first episode), however, the element of danger and loss is lessened.
    • In R2 Episode 2, Urabe of the Four Holy Swords pulls a Taking You with Me with his Knightmare's Self-Destruct Mechanism to hold off the seemingly invincible Vincent KMF. When Lelouch tries to stop him by saying that he can't build the future on the bodies of the fallen, Urabe goes ahead with it but tells Kallen to stick with Lelouch, since that the response just proves he's a man worth following. Sadly, the Vincent is completely unharmed.
    • In R2 Episode 10, Li Xingke says this to Zero, who had kidnapped the Tian Zi to stop the marriage between her and Odysseus.
  • Villain example: Cinque performs this against a berserk Subaru to allow her sisters to escape with their captive in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. She barely survives the beatdown, but she is effectively out of commission for the rest of the season.
    • Also, to note, indeed, "You shall not pass!" is also what she says to Subaru before her final attempt at killing her... and it also counts as practically the last thing Cinque says all season.
  • Haji pulls this one in the finale of Blood+ , holding back a rampaging Amshel long enough for the rest of the motley band to escape. Military forces arrive seconds later and bomb the building, collapsing it and burying both of them under several tons of rubble. However, it is very heavily hinted in the final episode that Haji managed to survive.
    • Previous to that, Haji does his damnedest to perform a You Shall Not Pass in episode 21 against the Schiff -- all of them. It doesn't quite work, but it's still pretty Badass.
  • Tasuki attempts one of these in Fushigi Yuugi. His fight with brainwashed Tamahome is already rapidly going downhill when Nakago arrives to finish things. At this point, having already suffered a savage beating from Tamahome and barely able to stand up straight, Tasuki continues to throw himself into battle against both men, hoping to keep them preoccupied long enough for Chichiri and Miaka to get to safety. Definitely his CMoA.
  • Inverted in a recent chapter of One Piece, when a villain pulls this against a rampaging hero. He even gets in a good Breaking Speech about why the hero's actions might not be for the greater good, and may in fact put the world in greater peril.
    • Interestingly, an inversion of this is given moments later by an extremelly pissed off Magellan, who delivers a You Shall Not Leave after he finds his bruised and battered subordinate. Magellan becomes a Advancing Wall of Doom after delivering a a shout to epic it's heard several floors above him and makes all the escaping inmates freak the hell out.

Warden Magellan: STRAW HAAAAT!! I WILL NEVER LET YOU GET OUT OF THIS PRISON!

    • Also pulled by Luffy in his fight against Rob Lucci, in a way, as this trope was pretty much the entire point behind their fight, as Luffy could not let him leave his sight, as he'd go on to kill his Nakama.
    • Happens again, with another villain, when Vice-Admiral John Giant (whose last name means exactly what you'd think) stands in the way of Whitebeard, and utters the exact line. It becomes a subversion when despite his colossal strength he's unable to even slow Whitebeard down.
    • Beautifully done by Whitebeard in a more recent chapter. Nothing says "You Shall Not Pass!!!" quite like splitting the entire flipping island in half with a giant chasm.
  • Happened to Jubei in Yaiba during their quest for the Orb of the Dragon God, taking down thousands of mummies with him.
  • Maggie does this to hold back Wong in the climax of the Dokusensha arc of ROD the TV Series. She even cuts down a bridge to cause him to fall down. You'd think she'd have read The Lord of the Rings and be expecting the paper whip slap up to pull her down after him.
  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rei Ayanami reverses Unit 00's AT Field and absorbs Armisael so that she can hit the self destruct and take it out.
  • Atori from Noein, who uses his body to block the portal through which the forces of Shangri'La are attempting to invade.
  • In Digimon Frontier Sorcerymon does this to hold off the bad guys giving the kids just enough time to escape.
  • Team Rocket of Pokémon has an impressive one in the Pokémon: Advanced episode "A Poached Ego." In it, they go up against a Tyranitar - BAREHANDED - in order to give their Arbok and Weezing a chance to escape into the wild with a herd of Ekans and Koffing.
    • Mewtwo Returns: Misty, Brock and the superclones face off Giovanni so Ash can deliver Mewtwo to the spring. We sadly don't get to see the battle ever start.
  • Subverted in Berserk. When Guts and Casca are seperated from the Band of the Hawk and surrounded by 100 enemy mercs, Guts tells Casca to run and bring back help while he deals with them. Everything about this scene would suggest a heroic sacrifice, and Casca knows it, but can do nothing but try to get back with help as fast as she can. When she does arrive with the rest of the band, all they can hope for is that somehow Guts has managed to hold on, and it's a slim hope at best. And then they arrive, and to their utter shock see 100 corpses on the ground, and a wounded Guts passed out against a tree.
  • Even though Shoichi Irie from Katekyo Hitman Reborn wasn't one of the good guys at the time, he really put up a fight against Tsuna when Tsuna is on the way to the laboratory. Some traps on the side and the final obstacle of the strange-eyebrow Genkishi was tough enough for Tsuna, but Shoichi attempt to stop Tsuna failed. They forgave each other later and became best friends by the end of the arc. :-)
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team features a pair of examples in which villains do this against the heroes (although the series has Grey and Gray Morality so they aren't really bad people), first with a few members of a squad sacrificing themselves to save the rest and then with Norris Packard sacrificing himself to give the Kergeren time to escape. Unfortunately, both of them end up as Senseless Sacrifices thanks to the Federation's General Ripper.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lordgenome's Heroic Sacrifice. "You shall not Infinity Big Bang Storm! LAZENGAAAAN... OVERLOAAAAAAD!".
  • In The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, when Tiir begins to massacre his troops and manages to severely injure him, Claugh orders his troops to retreat, intending to "hold him off as long as [he] can" to cover their escape. However, out of loyalty to their commander, they refuse and cover his retreat, with another soldier picking him up and carrying him away against his wishes.
  • Bleach anime.
    • In episode 54 Ichigo faces off against three Soul Reaper lieutenants and Captain Kuchiki so Renji can get away with Rukia.
    • In episode 154 the Arrancar Dordonii repays a debt of honor to Ichigo by fighting Rudbornn Chelute and the Exequias to give Ichigo and Nel time to escape.
  • Tien does it against Semi-Perfect Cell in Dragonball Z by spamming his life-draining Neo Tri-Beam to allow Android 18 to escape and therefore prevent the seemingly unstoppable Cell from achieving his perfect form. The attacks didn't hurt Cell (who was probably thousands of times more powerful than Tien), but they kept him pinned down, and considering that Tien had been Overshadowed by Awesome, it was both very unexpected and very Awesome. Cell was going to kill him for his interference, but Goku intervened.
  • This happens near the end of Minagoroshi-Hen in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Like, three times in a row. First Mion, then Rena, and then Shion. Even after that, things get worse.
  • Kimblee of all people pulls this in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime. Just as Pride begins consuming Ed's body, Kimblee emerges from the maelstrom of souls within Pride and gives him a verbal lashing for being so cowardly. His interference delays Pride long enough that Ed was able to defeat him.
  • The End of Evangelion has Misato doing this... and blowing herself up so they don't pass.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Kaede, Kotarou, Asakura, Makie and Yue all attempt to stop Quintum from reaching Natsumi, Nodoka and Great Grandmaster's Key. They don't succeed, but stall him long enough for Tertium's Villainous Rescue.
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch combines this with Let's Get Dangerous, when Karen, Noel and Coco finally get to do something for once!
  • The Mobile Suit Gundam episode "Big Zam's Last Stand is one giant You Shall Not Pass on the part of Anti-Villain Dozle Zabi, who holds The Federation back long enough with the titular Big Zam for his troops to escape, and after the Big Zam is destroyed, pulls out an assault rifle and keeps right on shooting at the Gundam.
  • Eyeshield 21 plays this straight with Banba. It was due to his efforts that his quarterback is the first (and only) quarterback to survive the onslaught from the beastly Gaou.
  • In the final battle of Girls und Panzer, to overcome ridiculous odds Miho has to fight Maho one tank to one tank. Kuromorimine isn't interested in being sporting about it, though, and will definitely swarm her. So she races through a tunnel that's the only entrance to a courtyard, Maho chases her in ... and the Leopon then backs partway into the tunnel to hold the position and keep the deciding fight one on one. They clobber several Kuromorimine tanks before being taken out; when the sub-commander orders her people to drag the Leopon out of the way, its crew laugh and say, "Take your time!"

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