History CrapsaccharineWorld / AnimeAndManga

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' seems like an idealistic world, but once you start digging deeper, you realize things aren't all that great. The world has over 80% of the population armed with some sort of oddball superpower or mutation and heroes like All Might are looked up to as paragons of justice. As well, many of those who have "Quirks" can go to specialized schools to train to be heroes. Things fall apart beyond that; the remaining 20% are "Quirkless" -- normal humans -- and are looked down upon by those with Quirks and are even denied the chance to be heroes themselves legally because they just wouldn't be able to "keep up". Even if you have powers, there's a chance that the powers you have just wouldn't work in a "heroic" setting and are equally looked down on for having "bad" powers. Not helping matters is the fact that many blatantly favor flashy Quirks then simpler Quirks. Even more so, many active heroes aren't there to make the world a better place, but instead are in it for the wealth and fame, ignoring social woes. It's no wonder those like Hero Killer Stain and [[spoiler:Shigaraki]] wanted to destroy the current world order.

* ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The land in which Melromarc is first glanced upon looks quite beautiful and serene, with its castle obviously taking center-stage during the opening parts of the story. Then, along came the resident [[RoyalBrat First Princess]] and shows that, underneath its seemingly-beautiful facade, is, in truth, a land rife with [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil legal Demi-human slavery]] along with its [[EntitledBastard absolutely horrid King Melromarc]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing sadistically-twisted aforementioned First Princess]] who completely ruins the [[CynicismCatalyst Shield Hero's reputation]] with her FalseRapeAccusation, along with stealing his belongings as well when he was asleep. All-in-all, it's shown as the complete opposite of its original aspect, being nothing more than a [[WretchedHive den of noble bigots and the like.]]

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' is a DoubleSubversion. Hinamizawa seems to be a TownWithADarkSecret, Watanagashi is presented as a FeteWorseThanDeath, Oyashiro-sama a ReligiousHorror, and the girls a ThemedHarem of {{yandere}} and CuteAndPsycho. Sure, the series is a PsychologicalHorror and every arc starts with happiness and fun and ends with horrors. However, the answer arcs (which are still creepy; Meakashi-hen, Shion's arc, may possibly be the most disturbing fragment of the series) show that [[spoiler:the people of Hinamizawa really are all good at heart (yes, even the {{Yakuza}} family we're initially led to suspect is behind everything, [[RedHerring they have]] '''[[RedHerring nothing]]''' [[RedHerring to do with the recent deaths and disappearances]]), Watanagashi's sordid roots have been seized upon to hide the opportunist BigBad's conspiracy, Oyashiro-sama is an adorable moeblob who suffered more than anyone else in the series (although Takano is a big contender), and the HatePlague isn't limited to the girls nor are they in themselves crazy. The last few arcs, where the Games Club forges [[TrueCompanions a stronger bond]] and resists the insanity, have them resort to nonlethal and sometimes even nonviolent tactics to protect the village and their friends. Oh, yeah, and [[EarnYourHappyEnding there's a happy ending]], and not only is the BigBad allowed to live in the end, she is even pardoned, as she has been manipulated, and it's strongly hinted that she has been functionally insane for some time.]]

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has "Academy City" (officially known as Academy City of Science and Technology) advertised to the whole world as a technologically advanced city filled with students from kindergarten to university level that learn side-by-side along with the scientists, wanting to become Espers. What they don't advertise about the city, however, is that more than half of Academy City's students are Level 0 Espers who don't have "useful" ability (including the main character [[TheHero Touma Kamijou]]), and discrimination against low level Espers is not uncommon. While Level 3, 4 and 5 students mostly have special oppportunities such as getting high allowances and access to elite educational facility, Level 0 students have to live like [[{{Muggles}} Muggles]] around "scientific demigods" and try their best to catch up (to no avail). There also exist the "Dark Side" of Academy City, which refers to the criminal underworld of Academy City that dealt with criminal enterprises, such as human experimentation, espionage, and assassinations.

* ''LightNovel/DrugstoreInAnotherWorld'' is a very colorful, pleasant, and easygoing fantasy world, largely set in a small but prosperous countryside town. It's ''stil'' frequently threatened by bandits, who are taking advantage of the ongoing worldwide war against demons and humans which have all able-bodied young men conscripted into service, and just ''travelling between towns'' is difficult and dangerous because of the threat of wild monsters and yet more bandits both.
* ''LightNovel/EvenThoughImAFormerNobleAndSingleMother'' shows the title character, Shirley, in town getting her daughters ready to go to school, and the town looks happy and peaceful. Just off-screen, things are horrific. Shirley worries about her daughters' well being because she herself became a citizen for a single bribe of three gold coins, no background check or vetting. She dares not accept promotion in her line of work, adventuring, because emergencies, capable of destroying the kingdom, occur all across the land, ''multiple times a week'', and if she accepted a promotion, she'd be legally bound to go off and face them, leaving her two daughters completely unattended. Then there's her own DarkAndTroubledPast.

* More or less every town, city and other form of population concentration points in the world of ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' feature this trope. [[spoiler: For example, the nation Kino visits in episode 12 boasts about its peaceful nature, having abandoned the war machines it used in past wars with its neighbor and its citizens living happily and in harmony. However, how the two nations reached this lasting peace becomes known later on, as Kino witnesses small but well armed forces from both nations slaughter unarmed civilians that belong to neither. These civilians are castaways, no one cares about them, so the wars of the past were replaced with a competition where both nations kill these outcasts as much as they can in a set time limit. At the end the bodies are piled up on a weight meter and the side that killed more "wins the war", after which both return to live in peace.]]

* In ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'': The world is peaceful because crime and war etc. are forbidden by {{God}}, and all bets are enforced by MagicallyBindingContract, and so such agreements must be honored. However, this means that skilled cheaters are the most dangerous people in the world, capable of dooming even countries in a single game. Also, the sentient species are ranked by magical ability, which means humans are at the bottom of the barrel and dying out as a result. Of course, Volume 6[=/=]the movie indicates that this is actually something of an ''improvement'' over [[CrapsackWorld the old world]].

* ''LightNovel/OutbreakCompany'' takes place in an amazing fantasy world with magic, dragons, lizard people, and elves. But most people are illiterate, masters regularly abuse their servants, and non-humans are 2nd class citizens.

** Killer-T Cells that underperform are executed on the spot (albeit via TrapDoor to make it not as gruesome). Only 2-3% of thymocytes survive the selection process, which is [[TruthInTelevision true]].

* The setting of ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'' is a futuristic society with many seemingly wonderful advances in technology, but the Neurolinkers essentially enable ParentalNeglect, and even an advanced network of security cameras doesn't keep the world entirely safe. Brain Burst is also like this, as it's a ruthless struggle for survival, where people desperately cling to their points and often do very unethical things to earn them.

* ''Anime/{{Mobile Suit Gundam 00}}'' lampshades this early on, after the TimeSkip. The world now run by the [[TheFederation Earth Federation]] seems to be better off than in Season 1, and it is commented on multiple times that lots of people genuinely believe this. However, [[LaResistance Celestial Being, Katharon, and anybody else capable looking beyond the surface]] know the truth: The world looks that way because the obscenely brutal StateSec are doing their best to make sure that's what the majority of the public believes, partially to squelch any potential insurrection as a reaction against Celestial Being in Season 1.

* The setting of ''LightNovel/TheSaintsMagicPowerIsOmnipotent'' is Salutania, a rich, prosperous medieval fantasy kingdom with happy residents, a benovelent king, and no shortage of incredibly friendly handsome men and beautiful women who openly welcome the protagonist, Sei Takanashi, a woman taken there from modern earth as part of a botched "Saint Summoning" ritual. Said ritual was meant to save Salutania against the monster-producing misama and outside the highly secure royal capital where Sei lives for a year, industries and provinces are crumbling from the unrelenting pressure of monster raids, safe zones are steadily growing smaller and smaller, and even basic necessities like medical supplies are increasingly hard to produce in the numbers they need to try and survive another day, not to mention the ongoing politics where it's every noble and faction begging to be saved over the other! It need also be mentioned that that "Saint Summoning" was only meant to be used ''once'', but the situation is so dire the current government decided the potentially catastrophic consequences of trying and failing were worse than not doing it.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', the world looks relatively pleasant and bright on the outlook, but at the same time there are [[CorruptCorporateExecutive very shady executives]] and [[MadScientist scientists]] who are more than willing to use extremely shady methods to achieve their goals, as well as {{serial killer}}s who use the [=VRMMO=]s to target and kill people in real life, and that's before factoring in the SAO Incident, which led more than 10,000 people being trapped in the game for years.

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The land in which Melromarc is first glanced upon looks quite beautiful and serene, with its castle obviously taking center-stage during the opening parts of the story. Then, along came the resident [[RoyalBrat First Princess]] and shows that, underneath its seemingly-beautiful facade, is, in truth, a land rife with [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil legal Demi-human slavery]] along with its [[EntitledBastard absolutely horrid King Melromarc]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing sadistically-twisted aforementioned First Princess]] who completely ruins the [[CynicismCatalyst Shield Hero's reputation]] with her FalseRapeAccusation, along with stealing his belongings as well when he was asleep. All-in-all, it's shown as the complete opposite of its original aspect, being nothing more than a [[WretchedHive den of noble bigots and the like.]]
* ''LightNovel/ThermalOperator'' has as a backdrop a boy who just learned he has super-powers getting officially screened, ranked, and being sent to school to learn to use them, and the world appears at peace, except, not so much. The world has endured WWIII thanks to these powers some ten odd years ago, the only reason this stopped was because the nine most powerful of these [Talent] users signed a pact that split up the world into 9 equal pieces called [Site], leaving the nations in their territories intact only as a courtesy for form over substance. Children as young as first year of high-school, ''and younger'' are constantly under threat of being drafted into the military, if not simply grabbed right off the street to be sold to shady individuals for anything but wholesome reasons. Even the protagonist ''was flat out lied to'' about the nature of his [Talent] to try and keep him BeneathNotice, ''and that failed!''

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has an idealistic setting with the bad guys falling before ThePowerOfFriendship or [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath inspiring speeches]], but the world it takes place in is pretty dark. Trained assassins are raised from childhood in villages run by other trained assassins and are hired out to anyone with enough money. The good guys are apathetic at best, the bad guys are all incredibly powerful, not only capable of but more than willing to kill anyone who looks at them funny for no reason other than because they can. The governments and agencies that are supposed to deal with this sort of thing are largely self-absorbed and not likely to put any real effort into pursuing anyone who tries to defect from their village (which seems to happen quite a lot), which is just as well because no one whose job it is to get rid of rogue ninjas is capable of defeating 14-year-olds, much less city destroying badasses. Finally, before the start of the series, said ninja villages were constantly embroiled in various wars against each other ([[CivilWar and themselves]]), with several major world wars and they always picked unaffiliated countries to stage their wars in, meaning lots of innocent people are caught in the crossfire. After the series starts, you've got villains who instigate a war because of their own cynicism, villains who are willing to destroy cities just to prove a point, villain who experiment on children, villains who subjugate the souls of the dead and force them to fight against their loved ones, and the BigBad willing to plunge the entire world in LotusEaterMachine because [[TheLostLenore the girl he was in love with died]] and he willed to create a world in which this did not happen while the TheManBehindTheMan has [[AGodAmI a god complex]] and a ''very'' twisted idea of peace after living a life of war where he lost every single one of the ''four'' brothers he loved. Most importantly, there is FantasticRacism against the people who house the 9 most powerful beings in the world, who are "demonic" in the first place because of people treating them as nothing more than sources of power and as destruction-seeking monsters. The titular character lives his early life with this.

* ''LightNovel/EvenThoughImAFormerNobleAndSingleMother'' shows the title character, Shirley, in town getting her daughters ready to go to school, and the town looks happy and peaceful. Just off-screen, things are horrific. Shirley worries about her daughters' well being because she herself became a citizen, for a single bribe of three gold coins, no background check or vetting. She dares not accept promotion in her line of work, adventuring, because emergencies, capable of destroying the kingdom, occur all across the land, ''multiple times a week'', and if she accepted a promotion, she'd be legally bound to go off and face them, leaving her two daughters completely unattended. Then there's her own DarkAndTroubledPast.

* In ''Anime/LycorisRecoil'', Tokyo and Japan are touted as being the safest places to live in the world, but that comes at the cost of DA preemptively assassinating anybody that is a potential threat. And their agents? Orphaned girls who are trained and indoctrinated from childhood to be government-sanctioned assassins.

* ''Anime/MagicalWitchPuniechan'' opens with a TastesLikeDiabetes SugarBowl for the MagicalLand Punie comes from. It's later revealed to be a brutal despotism run by an EvilOverlord who rose to power through a smear campaign against the old monarchy and is more than willing to commit mass slaughter to keep the people in line. By comparison, Earth itself is a more traditional CrapsackWorld.

* UsefulNotes/HongKong as depicted in ''Manga/HaouAiren''. A bright, shining city full of prosperity and fun things to do... while [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs gangsters]] train children [[spoiler: like the BastardBoyfriend male lead]] as assassins in a shadow war filled with rape, murder, and suicide.

** Skypiea and Dressrosa. Gorgeous cities, lush landscapes, people seemingly happy with their lives, loved/respected monarchs. But under the vernish you find slave labor, and if you ever displease the authority your very existence will be erased. Skypiea improved a lot after Luffy beat Eneru, to be fair.

** The Sabaody Archipelago, while [[{{Pun}} bubbly]] and paradise-like on the surface, hides a dark underbelly of slavery and FantasticRacism (regarding [[FishPeople Fishmen]] and mermaids]]), everyone in the area bowing down to the corrupt World Nobles, having no choice but to allow their atrocious actions. Not even human civilians are safe here if they cross a World Noble.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has an idealistic setting with the bad guys falling before ThePowerOfFriendship or [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath inspiring speeches]], but the world it takes place in is pretty dark. Trained assassins are raised from childhood in villages run by other trained assassins and are hired out to anyone with enough money. The good guys are apathetic at best, the bad guys are all incredibly powerful, not only capable of but more than willing to kill anyone who looks at them funny for no reason other than because they can. The governments and agencies that are supposed to deal with this sort of thing are largely self-absorbed and not likely to put any real effort into pursuing anyone who tries to defect from their village (which seems to happen quite a lot), which is just as well because no one whose job it is to get rid of rogue ninjas is capable of defeating 14-year-olds, much less city destroying badasses. Finally, before the start of the series, said ninja villages were constantly embroiled in various wars against each other ([[CivilWar and themselves]]), with several major world wars and they always picked unaffiliated countries to stage their wars in, meaning lots of innocent people are caught in the crossfire. After the series starts, you've got villains who instigate a war because they were passed over for leadership of their home village, villains who are willing to destroy cities just to prove a point, villains who subjugate the souls of the dead and force them to fight against their loved ones, and the BigBad willing to plunge the entire world in LotusEaterMachine because [[TheLostLenore the girl he was in love with died]] and he willed to create a world in which this did not happen with while the TheManBehindTheMan just wants people to treat him like the god [[AGodAmI which he considers himself]]. Most importantly, there is FantasticRacism against the people who house the 9 most powerful beings in the world, who are "demonic" in the first place because of people treating them as nothing more than sources of power and as destruction-seeking monsters. The titular character lives his early life with this.

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The land in which Melromarc is first glanced upon looks quite beautiful and serene, with it's castle obviously taking center-stage during the opening parts of the story. Then, along came the resident [[RoyalBrat First Princess]] and shows that, underneath its seemingly-beautiful facade, is, in truth, a land rife with [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil legal Demi-human slavery]] along with its [[EntitledBastard absolutely horrid King Melromarc]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing sadistically-twisted aforementioned First Princess]] who completely ruins the [[CynicismCatalyst Shield Hero's reputation]] with her FalseRapeAccusation, along with stealing his belongings as well when he was asleep. All-in-all, it's shown as the complete opposite of its original aspect, being nothing more than a [[WretchedHive den of noble bigots and the like.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The land in which Melromarc is first glanced upon looks quite beautiful and serene, with it's castle obviously taking center-stage during the opening parts of the story. Then, along came the resident [[RoyalBrat First Princess]] and shows that, underneath its seemingly-beautiful facade, is, in truth, a land rife in [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil legal Demi-human slavery]] along with its [[EntitledBastard absolutely horrid King Melromarc]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing sadistically-twisted aforementioned First Princess]] who completely ruins the [[CynicismCatalyst Shield Hero's reputation]] with her FalseRapeAccusation, along with stealing his belongings as well when he was asleep. All-in-all, it's shown as the complete opposite of its original aspect, being nothing more than a [[WretchedHive den of noble bigots and the like.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The land in which Melromarc is first glanced upon looks quite beautiful and serene, with it's castle obviously taking center-stage during the opening parts of the story. Then, along came the resident [[RoyalBrat First Princess]] and shows that, underneath its seemingly-beautiful facade, is, in truth, a land rife in [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil legal Demi-human slavery]] along with its [[EntitledBastard absolutely horrid King Melromarc]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing sadistically-twisted aforementioned First Princess]] who completely ruins the [[KnightInSourArmor Shield Hero's reputation]] with her FalseRapeAccusation, along with stealing his belongings as well when he was asleep. All-in-all, it's shown as the complete opposite of its original aspect, being nothing more than a [[WretchedHive den of noble bigots and the like.]]

* ''LightNovel?TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The land in which Melromarc is first glanced upon looks quite beautiful and serene, with it's castle obviously taking center-stage during the opening parts of the story. Then, along came the resident [[RoyalBrat First Princess]] and shows that, underneath its seemingly-beautiful facade, is, in truth, a land rife in [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil legal Demi-human slavery]] along with its [[EntitledBastard absolutely horrid King Melromarc]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing sadistically-twisted aforementioned First Princess]] who completely ruins the [[KnightInSourArmor Shield Hero's reputation]] with her FalseRapeAccusation, along with stealing his belongings as well when he was asleep. All-in-all, it's shown as the complete opposite of its original aspect, being nothing more than a [[WretchedHive den of noble bigots and the like.]]