History DeusExMachina / AnimeAndManga

* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
** The guild is completely worn out after having fought all of Phantom Lord's best members and mooks, but their almighty leader is still in top shape. It's a good thing Makarov came back and destroyed them all with a single spell. Granted, Makarov coming back from his GameBreakingInjury was {{foreshadowed}} throughout the arc with several scenes showing the guild's healer help him recover, but the singular spell? That didn't receive a thing.
** The X-Balls, which provided a way for the Fairy Tail gang to regain their magic in Edolas. There's no hint for how or why Mystogan (who gave them the X-Balls) would have them [[spoiler:aside from him ''being'' from Edolas, but even then there's no explanation for how he created them]].
** [[spoiler:Mavis' Fairy Sphere saves Sirius Island from the DiabolusExMachina of Acnologia's attack. However, Mavis won't be able to use it again, and the guild was still split apart for seven years.]]
** [[spoiler: In the Tartarus Arc Mard Geer uses the curse Alegria that froze everybody inside the Tartarus' base. Everybody except Lucy. Mard Geer even said that the chances to not get caught were one in 1,000,000,000. And Lucy conveniently was the only Fairy Tail wizard that could summon the Celestial Spirit King that knew exactly how to dispel Alegria which released all of Fairy Tail and allowed them to defeat Tartarus and stop Face.]]
*** [[spoiler: In the same arc, when all the 3,000 Faces were about to activate and destroy all magic of the continent, the dragons, the same that raised Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Sting and Rogue, and disappeared several years ago, all appear from where they were hiding inside their Slayers and destroyed all the Faces.]]
** There are quite a few glaring ones in the Alvarez arc, so much so that the term has been affectionately renamed "Deus Ex Mashima":
*** Gajeel survives being dragged to his certain death thanks to the timely activation of Irene's [[RealityWarper Universe One]].
*** A rejuvenated Dimaria Yesta, with no-one left on Fairy Tail's side to oppose her [[TimeMaster time stopping magic]] (due to Chelia losing the ability to use magic), is off-screened by the awakening of [[spoiler:an E.N.D.-possessed]] Natsu [[spoiler:after she attacks Lucy, and who is apparently so strong that he's immune to her power, something that Dimaria herself can only mutter in shock at]].
*** Both Irene and August having last minute [[HeelFaceTurn Heel-Face Turns]] [[spoiler:for the sake of their [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loved ones]]]] and committing suicide to nullify almost 100% guaranteed victories (Irene about to kill Erza; August about to kill ''everyone'' not named Zeref or [[spoiler:Acnologia]]).

* In ''Manga/AsatteNoHoukou'', Karada and Shokou are able to [[spoiler: switch back to their original ages]] when [[spoiler:Kotomi gives them a second wishing stone]], which she had never previously mentioned or hinted at having. This, of course, didn't happen in the manga.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':
** Halfway through the GeckoEnding of the first anime, after [[spoiler:Asuna's [[IronicBirthday birthday party]], [[MoodWhiplash sudden death]], [[ReallyDeadMontage funeral, and cremation]], and Negi's [[FiveStagesOfGrief desperate]] search for a way to bring her back to life, [[TeenGenius Chao Lingshen]] and [[MadScientist Hakase Satomi]] reveal that they have a TimeMachine]]. The [[spoiler:TimeMachine]] in question was a major plot device in the manga's Mahora Festival arc. While it was a major {{Asspull}} for those who only watched the anime, for those fans familiar with the manga it was somewhat closer to a ContinuityNod.
** Another example is the end of the Kyoto Arc, where the Negi party was saved from the BigBad and the Demon God he [[SealedEvilInACan unsealed]] by the equally demonic unsealed [[PersonOfMassDestruction Evangeline]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': In the Loguetown arc, Luffy is caught off guard and captured by the Buggy Pirates, who want revenge for an earlier defeat. As Buggy prepares to execute Luffy in front of a huge crowd while his friends try to no avail to save him, the entire platform is struck by lightning (which does not damage Luffy, a RubberMan) just before Buggy can decapitate him, which frees him. This is lampshaded by Sanji, who then asks Zoro [[DivineIntervention if he believes in a higher power]]. Though there is a possible subversion in that [[spoiler:Luffy's DisappearedDad, Dragon (who was present at the time) is hinted to have some kind of control over the weather, and thus may have purposely created the lightning strike in order to save his son]], this has not been proven, and since fate plays a very important role in Luffy's journey, the trope very well could have been played straight after all.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. The result of the fight between [[ReligiousBruiser Scar]] and [[{{Wrath}} King Bradley]] is decided by an almost literal one. Bradley has Scar dead to rights, and takes a moment to insult Scar's beliefs, telling him he's ridiculous for believing in God. At that moment in the sky, the solar eclipse ends and the sun's rays start coming out from behind the moon, glinting off of Bradley's sword and blinding him long enough for Scar to land a fatal blow. As he lays dying, Bradley can't help but note the irony of what he said.

* In volume 5 of ''Daichouhen Anime/{{Doraemon}}'', after a lot of time traveling and reality altering that ends up in them being petrified by a demon, Doraemon and Nobita are very fortuitously saved by Dorami, Doraemon's little sister, almost at the end of the book, even though she doesn't even make the cover, merely because there's a distress signal from a gadget of hers known roughly as "Bug Omen Alarm".

* ''Anime/TenkaiKnights'' the [[spoiler: Tenkai Wolf]], a creature who'd never been mentioned before (and had the flimsiest foreshadowing ever) suddenly appears and easily defeats the [[spoiler: good and evil halves of the Tenkai Dragon]] before they're fighting inadvertently destroys the planet.

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' is a repeat offender of Deus ex machina, but one of the most striking examples is Alluka. She is a literal machine (machina?) of this trope. She has a special power that can supposedly do anything (the limits of this ability are unknown by anyone InUniverse, but Illumi speculated that there is probably 'no limit'). "It" never uses the ability itself, and only uses it when someone asks for a wish. There are strict rules regarding how to use the ability, and there are drawbacks in the form of a backlash, which can be trivial or severe, depending on the magnitude of the wish. Alluka was first introduced (with no hint of prior existence aside from confirmation that Killua had additional siblings that had yet to be introduced) after [[spoiler:Gon sacrificed his aura to defeat Neferpitou and was left in a state of near-death with little chance of being revived through 'normal' means. Obviously the only point of bringing this character into the manga was to [[ResetButton heal Gon and pretend that nothing ever happened]]. This is a wish that was expected to have an extremely major backlash that could potentially end up killing the entire Zoldik family, but, of course, it turns out that Killua can break the established rules for no reason and "command" Alluka to give any wish without any backlash]].
* In ''Anime/{{Planzet}}'', the day is saved when the protagonists stumble onto a [[spoiler:SuperRobot that was hidden until it was absolutely necessary. Its origins are never explained.]]
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', the guild is completely worn out after having fought all of Phantom Lord's best members and mooks, but their almighty leader is still in top shape. It's a good thing Makarov came back and destroyed them all with a single spell. Granted, Makarov coming back from his GameBreakingInjury was {{foreshadowed}} throughout the arc with several scenes showing the guild's healer help him recover, but the singular spell? That didn't receive a thing.
** The X-Balls, which provided a way for the Fairy Tail gang to regain their magic in Edolas. There's no hint for how or why Mystogan (who gave them the X-Balls) would have them [[spoiler:aside from him ''being'' from Edolas, but even then there's no explanation for how he created them]].
** [[spoiler:Mavis' Fairy Sphere saves Sirius Island from the DiabolusExMachina of Acnologia's attack. However, Mavis won't be able to use it again, and the guild was still split apart for seven years.]]
** [[spoiler: In the Tartarus Arc Mard Geer uses the curse Alegria that froze everybody inside the Tartarus' base. Everybody except Lucy. Mard Geer even said that the chances to not get caught were one in 1,000,000,000. And Lucy conveniently was the only Fairy Tail wizard that could summon the Celestial Spirit King that knew exactly how to dispel Alegria which released all of Fairy Tail and allowed them to defeat Tartarus and stop Face.]]
*** [[spoiler: In the same arc, when all the 3,000 Faces were about to activate and destroy all magic of the continent, the dragons, the same that raised Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Sting and Rogue, and disappeared several years ago, all appear from where they were hiding inside their Slayers and destroyed all the Faces.]]
** There are quite a few glaring ones in the Alvarez arc, so much so that the term has been affectionately renamed "Deus Ex Mashima":
*** Gajeel survives being dragged to his certain death thanks to the timely activation of Irene's [[RealityWarper Universe One]].
*** A rejuvenated Dimaria Yesta, with no-one left on Fairy Tail's side to oppose her [[TimeMaster time stopping magic]] (due to Chelia losing the ability to use magic), is off-screened by the awakening of [[spoiler:an E.N.D.-possessed]] Natsu [[spoiler:after she attacks Lucy, and who is apparently so strong that he's immune to her power, something that Dimaria herself can only mutter in shock at]].
*** Both Irene and August having last minute [[HeelFaceTurn Heel-Face Turns]] [[spoiler:for the sake of their [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loved ones]]]] and committing suicide to nullify almost 100% guaranteed victories (Irene about to kill Erza; August about to kill ''everyone'' not named Zeref or [[spoiler:Acnologia]]).
* In ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}: Nobita's Little Space Battle'', the characters have been shrunk and the gadget they used to do so had been stolen, so they must take it back as it is the only way to reverse the shrinking effect - or wait for half a week, because apparently the effects of the shrink ray isn't permanent. Plenty of other times though it's been implied that it ''is'' everlasting. In fact, this is the only time that the effects of the shrink ray wear off in the show.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. The result of the fight between [[ReligiousBruiser Scar]] and [[{{Wrath}} King Bradley]] is decided by an almost literal one. Bradley has Scar dead to rights, and takes a moment to insult Scar's beliefs, telling him he's ridiculous for believing in God. At that moment in the sky, the solar eclipse ends and the sun's rays start coming out from behind the moon, glinting off of Bradley's sword and blinding him long enough for Scar to land a fatal blow. As he lays dying, Bradley can't help but note the irony of what he said.
* ''Manga/VampireKnight'': [[spoiler:At the end, the solution to coexistence is a sudden discovery of an old theoretical cure that can transform vampires into humans.]]

** ''Anime/PokemonRangerAndTheTempleOfTheSea'' has a similar occurrence where Ash suddenly gains what seem to be ''DragonBall/DragonBall'' powers to stop what would have otherwise been a villain victory. The original version had an unclear explanation and the dub added a ''slightly'' deeper level of justification.

* ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** A major sticking point with fans at the end of Part 3 is Jotaro's [[spoiler: spontaneous development of Time Stop]] in his fight with DIO, which enables Jotaro to fight DIO on more or less equal terms. The only possible foreshadowing of this is DIO's comment that he and Jotaro share a similar type of Stand, but DIO is just as shocked as the reader when Jotaro is able to [[spoiler:move during DIO's Time Stop]]. It's still not as ridiculous as in Part 5 [[spoiler:since DIO's vampire stamina allows him to stop time for longer than the human limit of five seconds while Jotaro struggled to move for even two to three seconds, meaning the latter was still at a ridiculous (but not hopeless) disadvantage.]]
** Another one comes at the end of Part 5, when Giorno fights Diavolo. Giorno is [[spoiler: pierced by the Requiem Arrow]], and his Stand Gold Experience gains the ability to [[spoiler: ''[[NoSell negate any action taken by an opponent.'']]]] Stands had been shown to develop new abilities thanks to the arrow before, but that power is ridiculously broken.
** Part 2 eventually has the BigBad Kars becomes ''immortal'', being able to survive being roasted alive in a volcano and being able to curb stomp the good guys. Joseph admits his defeat as the battle is truly hopeless and he's run out of plans... then Kars's finishing move, a Hamon strike that he suddenly gained the ability to use, gets bounced and amplified by the [[McGuffin Red Stone of Aja]], creating a giant volcanic eruption and along with other things being tossed that launch him into the outer space, where he is ultimately frozen alive and floating around the universe for eternity.

*** Part 2's example is a bit less blatant than others, as (at least in the anime) Joseph can be seen grabbing the Red Stone right as he starts fleeing from Kars. An earlier scene has Lisa Lisa demonstrate the stone's ability to amplify solar energy, implying that the same can be done to Hamon with it. The first antagonist of part 2, Straizo, demonstrates that undead beings can still use hamon, but would normally kill themselves doing so. And the Pillar Men have previously been shown learning new languages within minutes, demonstrating their genius intellect that allows them to learn new things incredibly quickly. This all provides some foreshadowing as to how Kars is eventually taken down (or rather up).

* ''Franchise/DragonBall''
** When Frieza is revived and comes to destroy the Earth, everyone is crapping their pants because Goku was "the only one" who had a chance at beating him. Then, out of nowhere, Trunks appears, killing Frieza with a few slashes, then King Cold shortly after. Yes, Frieza was a way of giving the Z Fighters' newest ally his big introduction to set up the Android/Cell sagas, but that doesn't keep him from looking like something out of a fanfic.
** In order to beat powerful enemies like Lord Slug and Broly, the Z Fighters transfer their power to Goku, which gives the latter a tremendous boost in strength, more than enough to destroy the enemy in a dominating fashion. Said ability is never elaborated (at least not to that extent) in the main series, where it would have no doubt made some of the biggest fights a lot simpler.
*** On the subject of the defeats of villains in movies, in Wrath of the Dragon, Goku uses a previously unseen attack called the Dragon Fist to kill the seemlingly unstoppable Hirudegarne.
** When Vegeta attempts to wish the earth back and everyone who's died since the day of the tournament. Dende tells Vegeta about the previously established limitation of Porunga: he can only bring back one person at a time. Then suddenly the new Grand Elder tells Dende that after Freeza they upgraded Porunga's powers, so they can bring back more than one person. This one is not quite as bad, as a dragon has had it's power upgraded before, but it's awfully convenient the upgrade happens to be exactly what the protagonists need.

** Speaking of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', in the Future Trunks arc, after Zamasu assimilates with TheMultiverse, the only option left is for Goku to [[SummonBiggerFish summon]] [[TopGod Zeno]] and have him [[OneHitKill one-shot Zamasu]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill along with the rest of future timeline multiverse]].

* At the end of ''Manga/WolfsRain'', [[spoiler: after Darcia defeats and kills all the major cast members and prepares to enter paradise, he is suddenly vaporized (except for his eye) for no apparent reason, other than he's evil.]] This comes off as a bit of an AssPull for some.

--> '''[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yami Yugi]]''': I activate "Deus Ex Machina"!
--> '''[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Weevil]]''': ([[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Beavis-esque voice]]) Hee hee! Hey! No fair! You can't use spell cards on my turn!
--> '''[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yami Yugi]]''': Tell it to the writing staff!!

** ''Anime/PokemonRangerAndTheTempleOfTheSea'' has a similar occurrence where Ash suddenly gains what seem to be ''Manga/DragonBall'' powers to stop what would have otherwise been a villain victory. The original version had an unclear explanation and the dub added a ''slightly'' deeper level of justification.

* Played absolutely straight in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} NEXT''. Nearly the entire plot revolves around Lina's [[HoldingBackThePhlebotinum refusal to cast the Giga Slave]] after her discovery that miscasting it may end the world. Hellmaster Phibrizo eventually blackmails Lina into casting it and ensures that the casting fails, only for the power called upon by the spell, the supreme creator goddess of the Slayers universe, the Lord of Nightmares, to take Lina's body as an avatar instead and promptly annihilate the previously invincible (to the heroes) demon lord with a casual gesture. She also plays ResetButton by bringing everyone back to life that Phibrizzo had killed (Lina's breaking point about casting the spell was his threat to [[DeaderThanDead obliterate their souls as well]]).

** Yhwach is [[SuperpowerLottery so strong]] that only the most powerful Shinigami, [[StoryBreakerPower Yamamoto]], can match him in battle. Yhwach can place shards of his soul into people, helping them become more powerful. When he reclaims his shard, he absorbs the energy of the person in the process, killing them to empower himself by leaving behind a blood clot made of Stil Silver that makes its way to their hearts. He can draw energy from his minions whenever he wants and he can predict all of his opponents moves before they even know what they're going to do. He can also overcome any other ability if he studies it long enough, negating even successful attacks against him by changing the future. It's made clear by even Mayuri, Yamamoto and the Quincies that Yhwach is basically unkillable. Only when the final battle begins is a way to kill him revealed: [[spoiler:Ryuuken forged a secret arrow nine years ago from the Stil Silver that killed his wife; Uryuu learns his power can negate Yhwach's ability to see his future, allowing him to fire Ryuuken's arrow without Yhwach detecting it. The arrow nullifies Yhwach's power for a second, allowing Ichigo to kill Yhwach, whose dying thought is the realisation that Haschwalth disloyally disguised a future vision of his death as a dream so that he would ignore it. Simultaneous to Ichigo's killing blow, Yhwach begins reforming ten years in the future, only for Ichigo's young son to touch his manifesting reiatsu; instantly negating the reformation, he ensures Ichigo's killing blow succeeds.]]

* Batou is saved from certain death in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' by an extraordinary literal example.

* The final episode of the ''Manga/AngelSanctuary'' OVA is about as literal an example of this trope as it gets.

* In volume 5 of ''Daichouhen Anime/{{Doraemon}}'', after a lot of time traveling and reality altering that ends up in them being petrified by a demon, Doraemon and Nobita are very fortuitously saved by Dorami, Doraemon's little sister, almost at the end of the book, even though she doesn't even make the cover.

* In volume 5 of ''Daichouhen Anime/Doraemon'', after a lot of time traveling and reality altering that ends up in them being petrified by a demon, Doraemon and Nobita are very fortuitously saved by Dorami, Doraemon's little sister, almost at the end of the book, even though she doesn't even make the cover.

* In the end of the Fairy Dance arc of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', one of these occurs. Sugou has Kirito pinned down on the floor with gravity magic and impaled through the chest with his own sword, and is about to molest if not rape Asuna. So what happens? The ghost of Kayaba Akihiko (only very briefly foreshadowed at the end of the Aincrad Arc) appears as an AI consciousness and grants Kirito his account, along with the admin privileges it provides. Cue Kirito removing Sugou's admin authority and then beating him effortlessly in a duel.

* In ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'', Ruby can't penetrate through the lightning that a machine made to be able to defeat the {{Big Bad}}s. What does he do? The only logical thing, of course: call out [[spoiler:Celebi]], which doesn't make sense because [[spoiler:Celebi]] is no more resistant to electricity than Swampert, but that's not all. Then [[spoiler:Celebi]] proceeds to use its [[spoiler:time powers to revive Norman, Steven, and Courtney. And Celebi's not even caught in a GS Ball, which the Mask of Ice needed a full blown out plan to get!]]

** ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' features Ash running between a beam struggle between Mew and Mewtwo that [[TakenForGranite turns him to stone]]. When a few shocks from Pikachu make it clear that [[TheHeroDies Ash is, in fact, dead]], all of the Pokémon cry... and their tears swirl over to Ash's body and bring him back to life. Nowhere else in the entire series is the fact that Ash was literally brought back to life brought up. Justified as in the prologue of the movie, it is explained that the tears of Pokémon contain life. This is also briefly mentioned in the movie itself. But only in the dub.

* A staple of the ''Anime/SailorMoon'' anime. Two notable instances would be all the heroines dying only to be randomly resurrected; and the heroine throwing herself from a floating island, then inexplicably sprouting wings on the way down.

** When Vegeta attempts to wish the earth back and everyone who's died since the day of the tournament. Dende tells Vegeta about the previously established limitation of Porunga: he can only bring back one person at a time. Then suddenly the new Grand Elder tells Dende that after Freeza they upgraded Porunga's powers, so they can bring back more than one person.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ''

** Trunks killing Frieza was of little consequence, since Goku arrives not long afterwards and it was Frieza's plan from the start to wait for Goku to arrive before destroying the planet. The very existence of Trunks's future implies that Frieza had little time to terrorize the Earth before Goku arrived and defeated him. Perhaps a better example of Deus Ex Machina in Dragon Ball Z happens in the movies. In order to beat powerful enemies like Lord Slug and Broly, the Z Fighters transfer their power to Goku, which gives the latter a tremendous boost in strength, more than enough to destroy the enemy in a dominating fashion. Said ability is never elaborated (at least not to that extent) in the main series, where it would have no doubt made some of the biggest fights a lot simpler.

* A literal Deus Ex Machina is attributed to everyone's survival after the FinalBattle of ''Manga/RaveMaster.'' This despite several characters using a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to win their battles. The characters theorize that since they saved the world, the world decided to save them back.

** ''Anime/Pokemon4Ever'' has a pretty bad one. After a [[TearJerker long, heartwreching]] sequence of everyone sobbing over [[spoiler:Celebi's]] death, several other Celebis come right the hell out of nowhere to bring the dead Celebi back to life, then they fly off never to be seen again. They were never mentioned before or even after this scene.