History EstablishingCharacterMoment / AnimeAndManga

** Yusuke Urameshi spends his first scene, and in fact the first several episodes, dead. This is far from defining, as he gets better, but the true EstablishingCharacterMoment here is him getting rather irritable at the people gathered around his corpse, even taking a swing at one of the paramedics there to take his body away. He is a ghost at the time, so it really comes to nothing.

* In the ''Manga/OnePunchMan'' anime, Tornado is first seen being deployed to deal with what can best be described as a talking Godzilla knockoff. Immediately after she lands, she gets a call from her superiors telling her to come back and gets into an argument with them. When the monster tries to give its MotiveRant, she yells at it to shut up until she gets off the phone. Then when it tells her nothing short of a meteor can kill it, she calmly says she'll just have to get one of those, uses her powers to nonchalantly '''''pull one out of space''''', and literally liquefies the monster with it. That's Tornado in a nutshell: Cool and composed one moment, shouting at someone like a bratty kid half her age the next, and so ludicrously powerful that she can always get away with it.

** In Giyu's first scene, he gives Tanjiro a scathing TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after Tanjiro begs him to let him try to turn his sister back to normal, saying that nothing good will come of Tanjiro's weakness and naivete. Shortly thereafter, he has an InternalMonologue expressing that he regrets not arriving in time to save Tanjiro's family. After he stabs Tanjiro when tries to [[DefiantStoneThrow attack]] him, kncoks Nezuko out when he defends him, Giyu ultimately decides to spare them and refer them to his old teacher. All this shows that Giyu is outwardly cold and cynical, but with a HiddenHeartOfGold.

** In Giyu's first scene, he gives Tanjiro a scathing TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after Tanjiro begs him to let him try to turn his sister back to normal, saying that nothing good will come of Tanjiro's weakness and naivete. Shortly thereafter, he has an InternalMonologue expressing that he regrets not arriving in time to save Tanjiro's family. After Tanjiro tries to attack him and Nezuko defends her unconscious brother, Giyu ultimately decides to spare them and refer them to his old teacher. All this shows that Giyu is outwardly cold and cynical, but with a HiddenHeartOfGold.

* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', we have Faye first moments on screen, which are [[MaleGaze a quick show up]] [[MsFanservice of her ''assets'']], her [[TheLadette smoking a cigar]], getting attacked and [[ActionGirl defending herself quite well]] but [[FailureIstheOnlyOption getting captured at the end]]; all in barely a minute.

** The debut of Erza makes a lot of her key traits clear: she's really strong, serious but well meaning, and not the most socially graceful, traits that the series going forward elaborates on.

** In Lelouch's flashbacks we see he is not physically fit when Suzaku beats him in a race up a hill as well.

** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo Giorno]] returns a woman's stolen wallet, uses his Stand to swipe some cash without her noticing, and buys some gelato for himself and a kid.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': Etemon is introduced as a LaughablyEvil yet NotSoHarmlessVillain. He is revealed as an adult-size monkey puppet with a very goofy popstar personality and it's hard to take him seriously. Then later in the same episode, he is able to DePower the Chosen Children's Digimon Partners with ThePowerOfRock and destroys a village, and he does both things while being several kilometres away from them. And at the end of the episode, it is shown that his network cables are spread over the entire Server Continent, showing that he has much more power and control over the continent than you would have imagined.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' has [[TeenGenius Shinichi]] solving a case and cannot resist the challenge. He meets up with his childhood friend Ran, who after he casually insults her father, ''punches'' a metal pole while cheerfully smiling.

* ''Anime/Shirobako'': In the first episode, the rest of [=MusAni=] is celebrating the airing of the first episode of Exodus to Tomorrow, the anime they're producing, and while everyone is happy, Tarou is nervous. Soon after, it's revealed that he failed to do his job, left a critical scene for Episode 2 unanimated and put the entire episode in jeopardy. Get used to him making these kinds of blunders frequently, at least in the first half.

** The first thing we see of Big Mom in person is her commenting about having countries destroyed for not giving her the candy she wanted ''and eating her henchmen''. Later scenes only reinforce the fact she is completely nuts if the first scene didn't make it abundantly clear.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' introduces Izaya Orihara by having him orchestrate the rescue a teenage girl from a kidnapping attempt...[[BaitTheDog which he]] ''[[BaitTheDog also]]'' [[BaitTheDog orchestrated]]. Why? [[{{Troll}} He just wanted to see how she'd react.]] It's a bit of an experiment for him, the question being whether he can get her to commit suicide. Why? Because he loves humans, [[MagnificentBastard and it's so interesting to see what they'll do.]]

* Everything you need to know about Umaru Doma is summed up neatly by her brother Taihei in the opening moments of ''Manga/HimoutoUmaruChan''; In public, she's a [[TheAce straight A honors student who excels at everything she does with virtually zero effort,]] yet is incredibly friendly, humble, [[OneHundredPercentAdorationRating and worshipped by her classmates and teachers]] (the anime even shows her getting a child's balloon out a a tree and helping an old man cross the street). But in the privacy of her home, she turns into a lazy, bratty shut-in, visually represented by her transforming into a chibified gremlin version of herself, who loves anime, manga, and video games, and would like nothing better than to eat junk food and sleep all day, with Taihei walking in on her while she's napping with her school clothes and a bunch of snacks piled all over the floor.

** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Jotaro]] is introduced after being arrested due to a street fight. The cops explain to his mother that he's not only unharmed, but severly beat multiple opponents. His mother assures them that Jotaro is a good boy, and takes off to his cell, having flashbacks of a younger Jotaro acting like a sweet young boy. This immediately cuts to the now 17-year old Jotaro yelling at his mother to shut up. However, he goes on to explain that he had no control of his actions in the street fight, and refuses to leave his jail cell until he's sure no one else will get hurt because of him.
** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Josuke]] is first seen calmly tolerating a group of would-be bullies, but beats one of them to a pulp when he insults his hair.

* The ''Manga/WanderingSon'' anime adaptation has Chiba smacking a boy with a book on the head when he taunts [[{{Transgender}} Nitori]], the object of her affections, about if she and her {{platonic life partner|s}} [[{{Transgender}} Takatsuki]] dated. At that period in time Chiba had a dislike for him due to being jealous of his and Nitori's relationship, and she walked out of the classroom after attacking the guy. This scene shows off her ViolentlyProtectiveGirlFriend and ClingyJealousGirl behavior. A different variation happens in the manga where she's introduced asking Nitori if she was involved with a girl, to which she replies no. This makes her happy and she leaves, which makes Nitori monologue about how she's strange; this scene sets the mood for her social awkwardness.

** Ryoma successfully prevents a Yakuza boss from stabbing him by grabbing his wrist in time...only to grip down on the blade with his free hand anyway, just to show how badass he is. "Come on, push or pull. You'll save face if you at least chop off a finger." This sets the tone for the rest of the series, which is mostly composed of CrazyAwesome and {{Slasher Smile}}s.

** Killer Bee first appears writing down rap lyrics and insisting that he be called Hachibi-sama (or Jinchuuriki-sama depending on translation) then fighting Sasuke by wielding [[CrazyAwesome seven swords, none of which he holds in his hands]].

* ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion 2.0'' opens with a fight between the previously unseen Third Angel and new character Mari Illustrious Makinami. In the space of the first few minutes, we witness Mari [[{{Nerdgasm}} gushing over her Eva's controls]], [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} casually singing to herself while heading into battle]], ''[[CrazyAwesome trying to ]]'' '''GIGA DRILL BREAK''' ''[[CrazyAwesome the Angel]]'', [[BloodKnight wincing in pain then exclaiming that it's fun]] and [[SelfDestructiveCharge finishing the battle by arming the self-destruct and ejecting]].

*** The above moment is followed up by another where both L and Light make the exact same oath to hunt down the other, despite being miles away, demonstrating early on that they're NotSoDifferent.

** Blackbeard makes his first actual appearance in a bar enjoying the cherry pie Luffy hates and hating the ale Luffy enjoys. They quickly take offense to each other's taste in food and try to have an impromptu eating contest. He later encourages Luffy to keep following his dreams because dreams never die. All of this foreshadows that he and Luffy are NotSoDifferent, but the ways they are different will be ''very'' major ways.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Guts is first seen [[spoiler: having sex with a woman who turns into a demon, then shooting her with his arm cannon]], then killing a bunch of thugs in a tavern with his crossbow and chopping one in half with one blow of his {{BFS}}. The purpose of this is to let the reader know just how ruthless Guts is, and to demonstrate his badass qualities (although the [[spoiler:sex scene]] in hindsight comes across as EarlyInstallmentWeirdness).

* Everything you need to know about Umaru Doma is summed up neatly in the opening moments of ''Manga/HimoutoUmaruChan''; In public, she's an [[TheAce honor student who excels at everything she does with virtually zero effort,]] yet is incredibly friendly, humble, and worshipped by her classmates and teachers. But in the privacy of her home, she literally turns into a lazy, bratty gremlin of an otaku who would like nothing better than to eat junk food, play video games, read manga, and sleep all day, with her brother Taihei walking in on her while she's napping with her school clothes and a pile of snacks all over the floor.

* ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse''
** The early first episode effectively shows Mari "Kimari" Tamakmi's character when she wakes up late in her extremely messy room, happens to find a diary from some time ago that contains her goals for high school, and she gets upset that she hasn't done any of them. She then tries to follow through on one of them- cutting class- but ends up chickening out and actually coming to school anyway. This goes to establish her as a bit of a ditz with an adventurous streak.
** Shirase's moment comes when Kimari finds her sobbing in the bathroom over losing 1 million yen (roughly $10,000) that she saved up in order to go to Antarctica to find her MissingMom. When Kimari realizes that the money she picked up belongs to Shirase and returns it, Shirase very forcefully accepts, showcasing how serious she is about going to Antarctica and that she's NotSoAboveItAll.
** In Hinata's first scene, she's working at a convenience store instead of going to class, and intently staring at the bottom of a globe- in other words, at Antarctica.
* Tokiwa from ''Manga/AskDrRin'' first appears at the end of episode 1, staring at a photo of Meirin with [[RemovedFromThePicture Asuka's face scribbled out]]. Guess who he spends the next few episodes trying to win the affections of and who he spends the next few episodes trying to murder? [[spoiler:This is subverted later, however. It's a good Character Establishing Moment for the first few episodes, while he's possessed by a demon, alone. Once the demon's been exorcised, he becomes much nicer, more like VitriolicBestBuds with Asuka, though he still has affections for Meirin]].

* In the second episode and chapter of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', Rosette gets hurt during a battle and is briefly knocked unconscious. Chrono then jumps to conclusions and assumes she's either badly injured or dead and has a FreakOut, trying to break the seal on his demonic powers on his own. In both versions it serves to establish Chrono's true nature as a demon, and also how fiercely protective he is of Rosette. In the {{manga}} it also establishes Chrono's FatalFlaw--his temper--which pays off in volume 5, when he [[spoiler:breaks his seal when confronted with Aion and tries to kill him--nearly killing Rosette with his powers and setting half of San Francisco on fire in the process]].

** Lelouch gets multiple of these in episode one. First, he turns around a nearly lost chess game by moving his king piece first, establishing himself as a brilliant tactician with a penchant for bold, audacious, and borderline reckless moves. Then, when Kallen crashes her truck, he is pretty much the only bystander who goes to help (while everyone else just stands around with their cellphones out and wonders where the ambulance is), establishing him as the one guy who will get his hands dirty to help a stranger. When he is trapped in said truck later, he deduces he is in Tokyo's old subway system by ear, showing his vast encyclopedic knowledge. This is often overlooked, but when he believes he's about to die, he thinks of his [[MoralityPet little sister]]--the one person he'd go to any length to protect. Finally, at the end of the episode, after using his MagicalEye to make the soldiers threatening him kill themselves, he flashes an [[PsychoticSmirk Evil Grin]], revealing just what kind of a fabulous WellIntentionedExtremist he is about to start transforming into.

** Sagara Sousuke gets two dramatically contrasting ones at the beginning of the series. His entrance establishes him to be an [[TheStoic emotionless]] badass that doesn't have any particular feeling or compassion towards people dying. The whispered girl that he rescues asks him if he feels sad that one of his brave comrades died, to which he blankly replies that he doesn't really know or feel anything particular. Then he's assigned an undercover mission as a NewTransferStudent, and the other half of his character--a clueless military nerd only doesn't panic at mundane tasks and social situations when he's too dumb to realize how bad he is at them--becomes apparent in his fumbled class introduction.

* The first three episodes of ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'' essentially establish that, unlike the previous Pink-type leaders and their Blue-type best friends, Tsubomi Hanasaki was a very timid and shy girl and that Erika Kurumi was the GenkiGirl of the series. The opening scene of episode 2 also showed that Tsubomi had a ''long'' way to go before she could be established as a respectable Cure.

* Precia Testarossa's first scene in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' involves her [[EvilMatriarch sadistically whipping her daughter]] [[TheWoobie Fate]] for not bringing her enough [[MineralMacguffin Jewel Seeds]]. Say hello to the BigBad of season 1, and by far ''the'' cruelest villain of the series.

*** Then episode 34 comes by... Hoo boy! [[spoiler: He kills three people who he claims looked at him the wrong way, wants to kill Team 8 and threatens to kill his own SIBLINGS when they try to reason with him!]] Good grief! And he only gets ''worse'' before he gets better thanks to Naruto!

** Nami's first appearance in both the anime and manga does this - in the manga, she's running away from some pirates who she's just stolen from, and when Luffy falls out the sky in front of her, she uses him as a scapegoat so she can run away. In the anime, she's sweet-talking a guy on a rich passenger ship, only to sneak off to steal things the second everyone's distracted.

** Ace is introduced as having fallen asleep in a restaurant, while eating and while in the middle of the conversation, making it look like he'd died mid-sentence from spider poison. The first thing he does upon waking up is wipe his face on a lady's dress, wonder why everyone's panicking...and immediately fall back to sleep in the same position as before. His following conversation with Smoker also shows his more serious side.

** Saint Shalria and her father, Saint Roswald, have one that not only applies to them, but [[AristocratsAreEvil the vast majority of the Celestial Dragons]]. After one of their slaves' [[ExplosiveLeash collars]] detonates, Shalria and her father arrive on the scene with a pirate on a leash, callously talk about the man, a pirate worth 60 million berries, as if he were a replaceable piece of property, before Shalria shoots the man in the head with a pistol. While this is happening, no one dares to stand up to the Celestial Dragons- or even stand up- since any attack against a Celestial Dragon will be punished with an attack from an Admiral.
** Many of the Eleven Supernovas get fairly interesting reveals. Law is introduced as a level-headed yet creepy pirate who doesn't hesitate to flip off the supernova with the highest bounty.

** [[spoiler:[[InvincibleVillain Kaido.]]]] His first act is to jump off a sky island, 10.000 meters in the air, [[IncrediblyLamePun crashing]] the [[spoiler: alliance-party of three of the Supernovas]], sinking one of their ships, and devastating the place, from the impact alone. He complains he didn't die, and declared his intent for war with [[spoiler: [[PsychopathicManchild Doflamingo]]]], without even knowing of his predicament. [[spoiler: He was bored.]]

* In episode 114 of ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'', where the recurring character Himespetchi appears for the first time, Mametchi runs into the classroom and Himespetchi [[LoveAtFirstSight immediately falls in love with him]]. You have one guess as to what Himespetchi's defining character trait is.

** When Yuki is first introduced in episode 2, the first thing she does is give Basara a hug. This [[ClingyJealousGirl angers Mio]], as well as the rest of the boys at his school due to the two girls being viewed as untouchable idols.

* ''Manga/YuriIsMyJob'' begins with the main character, Hime Shiraki, being showered with affection by her classmates for how cute she is, before revealing in an InternalMonologue that [[BitchInSheepsClothing it's all an act]] that she's worked on for her entire life, and she hopes to use it to [[GoldDigger marry a billionaire]].

* In ''Anime/MaiOtome'', Nina's introduction involves her getting a drink as a gift from some admirers among the passengers of the sand ship. A desperately thirsty Arika then runs into her, spilling part of the drink on her and gulping down what's left, resulting in her adoptive father getting a look at her panties and [[DaddysGirl her]] being mortified.
** Shiho tells some Corals gossiping about Nina possibly facing expulsion for the incident in Episode 1 that they shouldn't talk about their classmate like that. When they're out of earshot, she gleefully holds up her "spiraling" stick and declares that this is Nina's punishment for not accepting her offer to be her room attendant.