History GambitPileup / AnimeAndManga

** [[spoiler: During the following Egghead arc ''it get's even worse'' when pretty much ''every big player in the entire world'' starts to move at the same time.]]

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has slowly fallen into this: from Orochimaru, to Tobi and Danzo, to the villages it seems that backroom scheming is the only [[HighlyVisibleNinja ninja activity]] that the characters are good at. In short, Sasuke was being manipulated by Orochimaru who was being manipulated by Itachi (who himself manipulated Naruto) who used by Danzo who was being manipulated by Tobi, who calls himself Madara. At the same time, Pain, the head of Akatsuki, had different goals to Akatsuki itself, and was in turn taking orders from Tobi without realising his intentions (while making it appear that Tobi was one of his subordinates and too dumb to plan anything). Then Kabuto comes out of nowhere and shows Tobi, [[spoiler:that he has found the body of the real Madara, this means that Tobi was pretending to be Madara and was actually [[FallenHero Obito Uchiha]]. Then, it turns out Obito's [[AssimilationPlot "Moon's Eye Plan"]] was actually the real Madara's plan, and Obito was also supposed to bring Madara back to life to become the jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails. But later we learn that Obito never had any intention of reviving Madara and he himself was using him in order to become the jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails. Nevertheless, when Madara became the jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails and executes the Moon's Eye Plan, Black Zetsu reveals he was manipulating Madara and was exactly the one who led Kabuto to the location of Madara’s corpse as part of his plan to bring back [[PhysicalGod Kaguya Ootsutsuki]]. So, to recap, Pain was ostensibly leader the Akatsuki, but was actually used by Obito and Madara, who were using each other to their advantage, and all of them were used by Black Zetsu]]. Oh, and any number of these characters might be taking advantage of plans made by the Sage of the Six Paths hundreds of years ago. Yikes.

** The Totland Arc on the surface revolves around an arranged marriage between Charlotte Pudding, a daughter of Big Mom of the Four Emperors, and [[spoiler:Sanji]], a son of Vinsmoke Judge, King of the Germa 66. [[spoiler:Judge is seeking to exploit Big Mom's power to retake his old kingdom in the West Blue, but is OutGambitted early on by Big Mom, who's arranging to murder the entire Vinsmoke family and steal their clone army for herself. But this in turn is at risk of being derailed by one of Big Mom's trusted lieutenants, Capone Bege, who's planning to spring his own trap on Big Mom at the same time she springs hers on the Vinsmokes, assassinating her because he's a sociopath who loves to murder leaders of criminal organizations and watch how the decapitated "body" of the group will respond. And the Straw Hat Pirates, informed by their ally Jinbe about the impending pileup, are planning to use the chaos to rescue Sanji's sister and escape from Big Mom's territory alive.]]
** The Wano Arc. Luffy and Law’s alliance against Kaido continues into this arc, having already destroyed most of his supply chain. They are joined by the Kozuki Clan who want to retake Wano from Shogun Orochi, who is allied with Kaido. Things get more complicated when [[spoiler:Big Mom joins the fray and agrees to help Kaido, pitting the group against two of the strongest people in the world]]. Midway through the raid on Onigashima, the heroes are joined by [[spoiler:the Kidd Pirates who want revenge on Scratchman Appoo (who ''also'' plans on abandoning Kaido if things go south) and Basil Hawkins for betraying them to Kaido; X-Drake, who is a spy for the Marines who’s cover is blown and uses the raid to run away; and Kaido’s son Yamato, who just wants to beat up on him.]] And on top of all of this [[spoiler:CP-0 are watching the whole thing hoping to assassinate Luffy before he activates Gear Five]]. This results in an 150 chapter long arc, with 100 chapters being ''a single fight'' where all of these factions run into each other, to varying degrees of success.

*** [[spoiler: At the same time, Eustass Kidd decides to challenge Shanks, only to get defeated in a {{Single Stroke Battle}} while Shanks acquires his two Road Porneglyphs. Also, the latter has just finished assembling his fleet at Elbaf and is seemingly planning to make his move for the One Piece soon.]]
*** [[spoiler: ''Also'' at the same time, Blackbeard has managed to capture Koby and is planning on using him as a bargaining chip in order to force the government to recognize him as the official king of Fullalead. He then attacks Law and defeats him as well, gaining all the Porneglyphs the latter had. And because he abducted Charlotte Pudding, he already has someone who could potentially read them. And one of his ships is also present at Egghead...]]

*** [[spoiler: Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Army has finally made it's move against the World Government and started attacking the supply ships that bring food to Mary Geoise, effectively putting the center of the world under siege while simultaniously starting a number of successful insurrections in several countries.]]

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' has this. The Digidestined are again fighting several enemies who have their own agendas. Most of them are actually manipulated by[=/=]following [[spoiler:[[TheChessmaster Malomyotismon]]]], but there're some who're enemies to him as well as to the Digidestined. The [[EvilOverlord Deamon]] [[KnightOfCerebus Corps]] and [[WildCard Blackwargreymon]] are fighting his followers just as hard as they fight the Digidestined, and [[HybridMonster Kimeramon]] starts to act on his own will when he seems to be possessed by [[spoiler:[[MagnificentBastard Devimon]]]]'s spirit, who apparently is trying to get a comeback, and then there's [[EldritchAbomination Dagomon]] of the Dark Ocean, who wants to claim the power of light so that he can use it for his own plans of conquest.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'' is basically 37 episodes of Gambit tropes. For instance, during the last few chapters/episodes: [[spoiler:Near replaces Mikami's Death Note with a fake copy. But wait, that Death Note was fake, and the real one was in a vault somewhere. However, Mello comes in and tricks Mikami into using his real note, letting Near replace the real one with another fake one]].

* Cho-Katsu Komei from ''Manga/GiantRobo'' OVA continuity has, according to his backstory, once created this on ''purpose'' for his giant, incredibly convoluted GambitRoulette, and the effect was such a huge mess that even his boss, Big Fire, ordered him to stop it all at once, because he has no idea what's going on anymore. And OVA itself has few gambits playing on one another. And Komei claims it is all part of ''his'' plan all along.

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'''s plot is almost entirely gambit pile ups, and most of them by [[ManipulativeBastard Dakki]]. Everyone is fighting for a different faction or very personal reason beyond Taikobo, although he starts off only [[ItsPersonal wanting revenge]] before {{character development}} kicks in.

** [[spoiler: During the following Egghead arc ''it get's even worse'' when pretty much ''[[UpToEleven every big player in the entire world]]'' starts to move at the same time.]]

* The various [[TheChessmaster Chessmasters]] in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' are locked in a covert struggle to determine who gets to mold the future of the world into their ideal design, with the constantly-unfolding [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning posthumous]] GambitRoulette of their centuries-deceased predecessor (a plan several of the aforementioned schemers hijacked for their own ends, with mixed results) contributing to the already convoluted web of machinations for which the original planner may have already planned for. It doesn't make it any easier when several of the key characters on all sides of the conflict all believe themselves to be carrying out the original plan.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury''. [[spoiler: The attempted assassination of Deling]] at the end of the first season sets off a truly enormous one. [[WellIntentionedExtremist Shaddiq]], [[DefrostingIceQueen Mirione]] and [[TheAce Elan Ceres]] all run for Benerit Group president with their own goals in mind. Guel is supporting Mirione, but his brother isn’t entirely on board with the idea. Peil Technologies and Prospera Mercury are also supporting her [[spoiler:up until the point where Mirione wins. Prospera Mercury uses her to eliminate Gundams on Earth via a FalseFlagOperation and then obtain Quiet Zero. Meanwhile Peil rats her out to the Assembly League, another independent faction who want to dissolve the Benerit Group because of Prospera’s actions being pinned on her.]] While this is going on the terrorist group Dawn of the Fold is continuing attacks in the name of Earth’s independence, Elan Ceres [[spoiler:Number 5]] is a WildCard with inscrutable motives, and [[TheHero Sulletta’s]] GUND-ARM inc is caught in the crossfire due to her mother’s machinations.

* Season 2 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' sees Tekkadan's efforts to gain independence for Mars, [=McGillis=] Fareed's preparations for a coup to reform [[ArmiesAreEvil Gjallarhorn]], Rustal Elion's attempts to amass his own personal power and Jasley Donomikols's schemes to seize control of [[TheMafia Teiwaz]] all colliding with one another. And that's not counting the many individuals caught in between, all with their own motives for partaking in the conflict.

* The Flying Pussyfoot arc of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'' can be accurately summed up as a "clusterfuck." Trying to elaborate is an effort in futility, but it would probably sound like the start of an old joke: "So a cult, a gang, two [[spoiler:immortal]] bank robbers, a Senator's family, [[spoiler:a psychopathic hitman]], a bomb-smuggling [[spoiler: immortal]] child, a spy for an information brokering business, and the Chicago mafia all walk onto a train one day..." Oh, and by the way, the company that owns the train is a NebulousEvilOrganisation (conveniently named "Nebula").
** The trope in effect is best showcased when ''three different gangs hijack a train car '''at the exact same time.'''''
--->'''Cultist with machine-gun:''' Everyone, down on the floor now!\\
'''Gangster with pistols:''' Hands in the air, all of you!\\
'''Bootlegger with knife:''' Everybody freeze!\\
'''Old man:''' W-which one should we do?

* As of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'''s 8th volume, the following groups and organizations are or have been involved in Izaya's crazy little MobWar and its surrounding confusion: three different color gangs, all of which [[spoiler: were secretly created by middle schoolers, only two of whom are now even in high school]], a faction composed of an unknowing bunch of people who have been demonically possessed, the {{Yakuza}}, TheMafiya, a pharmaceutical company fond of kidnapping immigrants for experimentation, an American {{Megacorp}} secretly (and violently) researching the supernatural, a serial-killing {{Dhampyr}}, a [[HeadlessHorseman Dullahan]] searching for her head (along with her BackAlleyDoctor boyfriend), a man with inexplicable super-strength and no temper to speak of, and a Saitama biker gang. There are at least three other Chessmasters or wannabe-Chessmasters besides Izaya trying to steer things towards their own interests, and about half a dozen WildCard characters that can make or break alliances at a moment's notice. So far, the only thing guaranteed is complete and absolute chaos. Which is exactly what [[TheChessmaster Izaya]] [[ItAmusedMe wanted.]]
* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', several of the villains don't even know about each other. For example, Amata Kihara and Vento of the Front attack Academy City on two fronts, and end up getting in each others' way when they meet. A great example is Volume 15 of the light novels, in which all five of Academy City's secret enforcement groups (GROUP, ITEM, SCHOOL, MEMBER, and BLOCK) stumble into each other's plans and it turns into a city-wide battle royale that involves no fewer than ''three'' [[PersonOfMassDestruction Level 5 Espers]] and several sorcerers who have their own plans and use the chaos to their advantage. Everyone's acting at cross-purposes, and keeping track of what's going on and what everyone's objectives are can get ''very'' confusing. [[spoiler:At the end of the day and when the dust settles, only GROUP remains intact and functional, though ITEM is eventually able to reform.]]
** Taken to the extreme is the entire plan of Aleister Crowley who is the man behind almost every single action in the series. Him being [[spoiler: cursed to always fail no matter what]] somehow manages to make a plan that is comprised of an extreme amount of lesser plans, including the ones of other characters, running against each other and failing, enabling even more plans to start off. Highlighted once by a character who describes his plan as something that will succeed as long as something happens, even if it fails in the end.
--->''Aleister Crowley viewed both success and failure as a means to reach the desired result. So it was possible that Mina’s betrayal was part of the plan. It was also possible that questioning this was part of the plan. It was also possible that Kamijou believing he had seen through the plan was part of the plan''

* The first four volumes of ''LightNovel/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom'' is an extended one of these.
** Tension between the new king, Souma, and the three dukes of the Kingdom of Elfrieden causes two of the Dukes to rebel against the king. [[spoiler:One of the dukes, Georg Carmine, actually rebels to help the king by drawing out corrupt nobles so they can all be eliminated at once, but that plan only works if the war actually happens.]]
** The neighboring Principality of Amidonia takes advantage of the civil war to try and invade to take back land lost to Elfrieden decades ago. They over-commit to the invasion, leaving Van, their capital city, open, and once Duke Carmine's army is defeated and under the king's control, they launch a counter invasion of Van, taking the city and killing the Sovereign Prince.
** Souma is forced by the Gran Chaos Empire to return the city of Van, but only after he shows the city what freedom from the oppressive Principality can be like and extracting large reparations from Amidonia. This causes discontent in Van against the Principality, which Souma wants to use as cover to legally annex the city.
** Princess Roroa of Amidonia, drives her brother out of the country, leaving her the only remaining member of the royal family, then coordinates revolts across the country petitioning to become part of Elfrieden, forcing Elfrieden to annex the entire country, complete with an ArrangedMarriage with Souma to give him legitimacy.
** The entire thing was set in motion by [[spoiler:former king Albert, who had memories of summoning Souma and making him Prime Minister, leading to a BadFuture, so he abdicated the throne to Souma in order to give him more power, and told Carmine about the problems with corrupt nobles, leading to his "rebellion" against Souma.]]

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes''. The whole damn thing. Yes, it's a bigger pile up than ''Manga/DeathNote''. All the characters have their own individual unique agenda which ''does'' come to fruition and ''does'' affect the rest of the story. And it goes on for ''110 episodes''.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Demonbane}}'' has a surprising lack of Chessmasters, considering that there are no less than five different {{Gambit Roulette}} going on throughout the series, some of which are so insane that one wonders how they even ''thought'' of their ultimate goals, and one of which involved planning from ''before the dawn of time''. Of all of them, only one manages to succeed, and it only manages to succeed in an alternate universe.

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes''. The whole damn thing. Yes, it's a bigger pile up than ''Manga/DeathNote''. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters All the characters]] have their own individual unique agenda which ''does'' come to fruition and ''does'' affect the rest of the story. And it goes on for ''110 episodes''.

** The Totland Arc on the surface revolves around an arranged marriage between Charlotte Pudding, a daughter of Big Mom of the Four Emperors, and [[spoiler:Sanji]], a son of Vinsmoke Judge, King of the Germa 66. [[spoiler:Judge is seeking to exploit Big Mom's power to retake his old kingdom in the East Blue, but is OutGambitted early on by Big Mom, who's arranging to murder the entire Vinsmoke family and steal their clone army for herself. But this in turn is at risk of being derailed by one of Big Mom's trusted lieutenants, Capone Bege, who's planning to spring his own trap on Big Mom at the same time she springs hers on the Vinsmokes, assassinating her because he's a sociopath who loves to murder leaders of criminal organizations and watch how the decapitated "body" of the group will respond. And the Straw Hat Pirates, informed by their ally Jinbe about the impending pileup, are planning to use the chaos to rescue Sanji's sister and escape from Big Mom's territory alive.]]

** Played earlier in the Land of Birds filler arc. By the time of [[spoiler:the general's failed execution, plots were in play by the general, Konoha shinobi, rogue shinobi infiltrating the compound, Naruto posing as a ghost, the daimyo posing as a ghost, the daimyo's ''sister'' pretending to be the deceased daimyo, the daimyo's aid/potential love interest,]] and a bunch of [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys chimpanzees]]!

** Taken to the extreme is the entire plan of Aleister Crowley who is the man behind almost every single action in the series. Him being [[spoiler: cursed to always fail no matter what]] somehow manages to make a plan that is compromised by an extreme amount of lesser plans including the ones of other characters running against each other and failing, enabling even more plans to start off. Highlighted once by a character who describes his plan as something that will succeed as long as something happens, even if it fails in the end.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan:''

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' seems to have at ''least'' three separate large-scale conspiracies going on, with potential for several more to be present (and that's not counting the ones that existed in the flashbacks, and may still be present). Naturally, Negi and his family end up at the center of all of them, causing them to crash into each other. At least three of these gambits were planned by Negi's own students since ''chapter one'', namely [[spoiler:Eva, Chao, and Zazie]]. One also wonders if the class makeup of 3-A can really be coincidental, seeing as to how no less than half the class is unusual in ''some'' regard. Even the school staff seems to be comprised entirely of talented mages.

* ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'' has one during the future arc: All along, the readers were led to believe the whole reason they were in the future was because of Byakuran's machinations and Irie Shouchi was the root of all their problems, only to result in a Pileup with three main players.

* Anime/{{Windaria}} The shadowland king wants Lunaria's water, Roland and Veronica want peace, Lunaria Queen wants more money from Shadowland king, Lagado seeks more power, and Alan wants to protect his homeland.

* ''Anime/Danganronpa3: Future'': Munakata wants to betray Tengan so he can replace him as leader, and also kill Naegi because he sheltered war criminals. Tengan wants to [[spoiler:manipulate Mitarai into using his talent to brainwash the world]]. Kyoko, Asahina, and Gozu aren't in favour of Naegi's execution for various reasons. [[spoiler:Chisa feigns support for Munakata, but in fact she the one who provoked all this situation for a third party who isn't even alive when the story begins.]] Ruruka (and Izayoi) want Seiko dead for personal reasons, and the feeling is reciprocated. [[spoiler:However, Ruruka's pathological fear of betrayal leads her to murder Izayoi.]] Juzo wants to protect and serve Munakata, but has several secrets that take priority over that desire. All of these characters belong to the same organization. %%I didn't place this entry under FlockOfWolves because most of them aren't working against the organization ''itself''.%%

** In the final arc, this all comes to a head as Eren and Zeke confront each other: [[spoiler: Zeke anticipated Eren betraying him and has been planning to convince Eren to change his mind and stick to their plan. However, Eren reveal the true power of his Attack Titan: sending information across time to other Attack Titans. Eren's machinations reached back in time, before his birth, to ensure his plan would come to together. But all of that, Eren realizes, was because of Ymir, the original titan. She had spent millennia serving those with royal blood, waiting for someone like Eren to save her, never believing she could do it herself. Eren gains Ymir and the Founding Titan's great power simply by telling Ymir she's not Zeke or anyone else's slave; she's free to do whatever she wants.]]

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' started out complicated enough. Regulars generally only start to realise what a political stew they've landed themselves in when they have Climbed a few floors, but Baam gets thrown into the deep end from before the start with multiple existing political power-blocs and factions trying to pull his strings even before he's been completed evaluated on the Newbie level of the Second Floor. Some of whom are actually his friends looking out for his best interests (not looking at you, Aguero and Rak). Part 2 only gets more complicated with a greater number of players involved and more information on some of the people behind other people. There are no fewer than ''eight'' separate gambits running toward a variety of objectives. And, it's not even certain what any group's full plan or objectives are beyond the obvious immediate hopes of Team Sweet-and-Sour (don't get separated, squashed and/or killed because of the craziness).

* The storyline of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' has driven so far past this point that it is approaching it a second time. Here's a tip at how convoluted it is: [[spoiler:[[FlockOfWolves There is only one person in the initial party who is not a spy.]] That person is not Princess Sakura.]] Planners include: Clow Reed, Fei Wong Reed,[[note]]the BigBad, who in and of himself creates so many overly complex gambits that even ''he'' gets confused[[/note]] Yuko Ichihara, Tsubasa "Syaoran Jr." Li, Manga/CardcaptorSakura Kinomoto, Ashura-O, Syaoran "Syaoran Sr." Li ([[spoiler:aka Cloney]]) and his wife Sakura Li, Tomoyo-Hime, Queen Nadeshiko and King Fujitaka ([[spoiler:before being [[RetGone Ret Gone'd]]]]), and probably several others offscreen. None of these people collaborated to any significant degree when planning their gambits, except ''maybe'' Clow and Yuko, who collaborated on the early and penultimate stage details and loose end tying. The rest was all independent {{Gambit Roulette}}s crashing from all conceivable directions into one another. Diagrams are of absolutely no use here.

-->'''Cultist with machine-gun:''' Everyone, down on the floor now!
-->'''Gangster with pistols:''' Hands in the air, all of you!
-->'''Bootlegger with knife:''' Everybody freeze!
-->'''Old man:''' W-which one should we do?

-->''Aleister Crowley viewed both success and failure as a means to reach the desired result. So it was possible that Mina’s betrayal was part of the plan. It was also possible that questioning this was part of the plan. It was also possible that Kamijou believing he had seen through the plan was part of the plan''

** The Totland Arc on the surface revolves around an arranged marriage between Charlotte Pudding, a daughter of Big Mom of the Four Emperors, and [[spoiler:Sanji]], a son of Vinsmoke Judge, King of the Germa 66. [[spoiler:Judge is seeking to exploit Big Mom's power to retake his old kingdom in the East Blue, but is OutGambitted early on by Big Mom, who's arranging to murder the entire Vinsmoke family and steal their clone army for herself. But this in turn is at risk of being derailed by one of Big Mom's trusted lieutenants, Capone Bege, who's planning to spring his own trap on Big Mom at the same time she springs hers on the Vinsmokes, assassinating her because he's a sociopath who loves to murder leaders of criminal organizations and watch how the decapitated "body" of the group will respond. And the Straw Hat pirates, informed by their ally Jinbe about the impending pileup, are planning to use the chaos to rescue Sanji's sister and escape from Big Mom's territory alive.]]