History ChekhovsGun / AnimeAndManga

* In the ''LupinIII'' movie ''{{The Castle of Cagliostro}}'', there are a few details you might miss the first few times you watch the movie:

* The mangaka of ''AoiHana'' and ''HourouMusuko'' frequently includes characters that looks like they'll only appear once or twice, or that don't have much to them, that become important characters later on. Same thing with plot devices.

** Itachi stuffing some crow down Naruto's throat. We know its going to be important, but how its going to show up is a mystery.
*** [[spoiler: It just showed up again when Itachi used the Mangekyo sharingan on Naruto in a recent chapter (around 7/26/11). Presumably it's some kinda sharingan counter]]

* There's actually a fairly elaborate one in TanteiOperaMilkyHolmes at the end of season 1. Mary and Kate from episode 5 inspire Milky Homes to not give up. Aileen from episode 4 gives the girls transportation to their final battle, the recurring Pig-Faced character comes by to deliver a Toys-Powered Ring from Sonya (episode 9) and a wedding plate from Claris (episode 6), Sherlock's various encounters with [[{{DarkActionGirl}} Henriette's]] [[{{BuxomIsBetter}} Cleavage]] also come into play as well.[[spoiler: The ring winds up saving Sheryl's life, the plate becomes crucial for Cordelia's defeat of [[{{MasterSwordsman}} Stone River]], and Sherlock's previous brushes with Henriette ACTUALLY become a way for Milky Holmes to identify her as [[{{PhantomThief}} Arsene]]. ]]

* ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is mostly just clever storytelling and repetition so it's actual {{ChekhovsGun}}s are much harder to spot. Akio's planetarian is one of them, but a much more significant one is the Sword of Dios, drawn from Anthy's bosom every other episode. No one asks why. Come the second arc onwards [[spoiler:swords are being drawn from everyone's chests]]. [[spoiler:And, to cap it off, then the Sword of Dios has to be drawn from Utena's breast.]]

** Kinda foreshadows its significance in episode 11 when Eureka does not take the collar off when bathing and episode 19 when the collar was intact while Eureka's clothes and hair were being consumed by the Scab COral.

** Kinda foreshadows its significance in episode 19 when the collar was intact while Eureka's clothes and hair were being consumed by the Scab COral.

*** [[spoiler: It just showed up again when Itachi used the Mangekyo sharingan on Naruto in a recent chapter (around 7/26/11). Presumably it's some kinda sharingan counter]

*** [[spoiler: It just showed up again when Itachi used the Mangekyo sharingan on Naruto in a recent chapter (around 7/26/11). Presumably it's some kinda sharingan cutter]

* ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is mostly just clever storytelling and repetition so it's actual {{ChekovsGun}}s are much harder to spot. Akio's planetarian is one of them, but a much more significant one is the Sword of Dios, drawn from Anthy's bosom every other episode. No one asks why. Come the second arc onwards [[spoiler:swords are being drawn from everyone's chests]]. [[spoiler:And, to cap it off, then the Sword of Dios has to be drawn from Utena's breast.]]

* ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is mostly just clever storytelling and repetition so it's actual {{ChekovsGun}}s are much harder to spot. Akio's planetarian is one of them, but a much more significant one is the Sword of Dios, drawn from Anthy's bosom every other episode. No one asks why. Come the second arc onwards [[spoilers:swords are being drawn from everyone's chests]]. [[spoiler:And, to cap it off, then the Sword of Dios has to be drawn from Utena's breast.]]

*** And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to add more. Seriously, this series has ''great'' rewatch value.

** [[spoiler: Shizuru's [[PsychoLesbian thing]] for Natsuki:]] my Mom, ''somehow'', picked up on it in their ''[[BeyondTheImpossible first onscreen interaction, the first time she watched the series]]'' in Episode 4, becomes important in Episode 21.

** In conjunction with the above spoiler, Season 3 (StrikerS) opens with Nanoha rescuing a girl from a raging fire and using Divine Buster to blow a hole clear through the entire building to get her out. That scene is ''nothing but Chekhov's Guns''. The girl becomes Subaru, whose origins are crucial to the plot and lead you to one of the big Wham Moments of the season; and Nanoha [[spoiler: stalls in a battle while doing Wide Area Search so she can stop Quattro, who when it is way too late remembers Nanoha has an attack that can also serve as the biggest DungeonBypass in history.]]

* Griffith's Crimson Behelit in the ''{{Berserk}}'' anime. We first see it after the naked water fight that he and Guts have in an early episode, and apart from a different colored Behelit taken off a demon Guts kills in the very first episode, it doesn't have a lot of significance, save for Zodd's prophetic warning about how when Griffith's dream crumbles, Guts will face his death. The Crimson Behelit turns out to be [[spoiler:the key to become the very next member of the Godhand, the {{Big Bad}}s of the series, during the Eclipse, and when it activates, it's the point when everything goes straight to Hell for Guts and the Hawks that Griffith led]].

* In ''{{Monster}}'' a hospital director helps himself to the unconscious antagonist's candy. Nothing happens for a while. And then they find his body next to a candy wrapper.

* I'm surprised that ''DetectiveConan'' wasn't mentioned. It's frequently used and a regular watcher ends up being trained to look for them in every episode. They're particularly subtle, too. One episode involved the culprit wearing a headband with the name of her favorite singer. The singer, Okino Yoko, has an accent over the third 'o'[[hottip:language note:This is also the spelling as used in TheOtherWiki. Elsewhere it is just written as ''ou''.]]. When the culprit committed the crime, blood, which was the same color as headband, got on it (conveniently right on the accent mark), and was discovered by Mouri * cough* Conan* cough* as the killer. Of course, if you are an American viewer, you might tilt your head at the odd spelling at first since, hey! You don't know how Japanese worth squat! It was probably caught easier by Japanese viewers, but still subtle, and no one really pays attention to it until Conan provides the proof.

* I'm surprised that ''DetectiveConan'' wasn't mentioned. It's frequently used and a regular watcher ends up being trained to look for them in every episode. They're particularly subtle, too. One episode involved the culprit wearing a headband with the name of her favorite singer. The singer, Okino Yoko, has an accent over the third 'o'[[hottip:language note:This is also the selling as used in TheOtherWiki. Elsewhere it is just written as ''ou''.]]. When the culprit committed the crime, blood, which was the same color as headband, got on it (conveniently right on the accent mark), and was discovered by Mouri * cough* Conan* cough* as the killer. Of course, if you are an American viewer, you might tilt your head at the odd spelling at first since, hey! You don't know how Japanese worth squat! It was probably caught easier by Japanese viewers, but still subtle, and no one really pays attention to it until Conan provides the proof.