History HonorBeforeReason / AnimeAndManga

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Sayaka refuses to replenish her strength with Grief Seeds, just because Homura uses them and Sayaka doesn't want to be anything like her. This was a very poor decision.

** Jun Misugi suffers from [[IllBoy a heart illness]] that forces him to sit out and play only half a match per day. However, during important matches, he's willing to go past his limit and risk his life rather than leaving his team when they need him.

*** Especially pronounced in the second season where he and Setsuna are duelling over an ocean. Setsuna's Gundam malfunctions in the middle of the fight and Graham leaves him be because he can't see any value in defeating a disabled opponent.

* In ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'', the titular character's suicidal devotion to Nagi and ''every'' person that needs his help often falls into this. Plus, the fact he [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist never called social services]] on his deadbeat parents (who are either heartless, brainless, or both) as a child speaks volumes about his kind character.
** Becomes downplayed though the course of the series due to how [[KnightInSourArmor cynical]] he has become thanks to his horrid childhood.

** Another infamous example is when Goku gives Cell a Senzu bean to fully heal himself so that he can fight Goku's son Gohan at full strength. He was confident in his son's strength and he is partially impaired by his Saiyan genes. What he did to Frieza on the other hand...
** Earlier, he rejected Bulma's suggestion to [[StatingTheSimpleSolution hunt down and kill Dr. Gero before he activates the Androids]], partly for BloodKnight reasons, and partly because he's not comfortable with killing him yet because Gero hasn't actually done anything bad; of course, he's forgetting that Gero was one of the head scientists of [[ArmiesAreEvil the Red Ribbon Army]], and most likely built most of their weapons and technology.
** The whole scene near the end of the Buu arc where Goku is refusing to throw the Genki Dama because Vegeta's in the way must qualify for this. He's holding back an attack with enough power to destroy the final BigBad because it would kill Vegeta too. Forget that not throwing the attack would doom the entire universe ''including'' that one person he's trying to spare.

** Played with early in the Baltic Sea War arc when Thorfinn is cornered by a group of five Jomsvikings, the BadassArmy of the series who are known for their strict discipline and codes of conduct. The men are on a mission to kill Thorfinn, and seeing that he is unarmed, they toss him a weapon, since it would shame the Jomsvikings to gang up on and kill a warrior who is unarmed, and then they attack one at a time, each seeking to earn glory by being the one to kill Thorfinn. Thorfinn effortlessly beats the first, and only has minor difficulty in beating the second. At that point the third guy commands his two remaining soldiers to forget honor and just gang up on and kill Thorfinn, causing Thorfinn to more or less quip "So much for the honor of the Jomsvikings."

* In ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' it's more of a case of vengeance over reason, with Thorfinn risking life and limb to protect the man he wants to kill.
** More importantly is the way he always insists on doing the killing the 'honourable' way, in a one-on-one duel. Said man, who is more experienced, skilled at playing the younger man as a two-cent kazoo and far more CombatPragmatist [[spoiler:(and once was in the same position as Thorfinn; he assassinated his victim in his bed after spending two years worming himself into his graces)]], considers Thorfinn's methods to be a major case of WhatAnIdiot.

* ''Manga/SchoolZone'': Fuji is determined, to Captain Ahab-levels, to win a stuffed animal from a crane game. She's long since stopped caring about the doll itself; for her, [[IveComeTooFar she's come too far to quit now]]. When a friendly arcade clerk offers to move the doll to where she can grab it more easily, Fuji is so wracked with guilt her classmate thinks she murdered somebody. Afterwards, the clerk offers to give her one. Fuji refuses. The clerk then plays the game, wins immediately, and ''gifts Fuji the stuffed animal''. Fuji boldly declares that if she hasn't won it herself, it's meaningless, and pledges to return soon to play again. Did we mention she's already ''80,000 yen''[[note]] ''about $750''[[/note]] in the hole over a toy that probably costs 1,500 yen?

* ''Manga/InuYasha'':
** Inuyasha will not run or hide from a fight, even if caught in his powerless [[BroughtDownToNormal human form]]. The anime expands this to explore how Inuyasha and Kikyou first met. When Kikyou demands to know why he didn't attack her when she was too injured to fight back, he explains he doesn't play dirty.
** Sesshoumaru will fight his opponents head on, even when severely [[BroughtDownToBadass de-powered]]. He inflicts a DieOrFly test on Inuyasha to prove Inuyasha's ready for Meidou Zangetsuha, promising he'll give up both swords if it works. Badly injured, Inuyasha succeeds, Sesshoumaru keeps his promise, and Naraku ambushes Inuyasha with Tenseiga. Sesshoumaru dives into the meidou to save Inuyasha, destroying Tenseiga and also his ability to escape the meidou. When Inuyasha notices, Sesshoumaru says saving them is up to Inuyasha now, prompting Inuyasha to realise he's been given Meidou Zangetsuha.
* [[IdiotHero Alice L. Malvin]] of ''Anime/PumpkinScissors'' insists on charging ahead and "destroying evil" no matter what the odds are against them. She also will not hesitate to call out ''anyone'' who she sees as contributing to or aggravating that damage, up to and including TheEmperor of her own country, regardless of how capable they might be of physically or politically squashing her like a bug. Even after she [[CharacterDevelopment started using more reason]] after she was kidnapped, [[WideEyedIdealist she stayed true to her ideals]].
* The heroes of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' follow this trope to a tee. Surprisingly enough, even the heartless SocialDarwinist villain Shishio Makoto follows this trope, threatening to kill his scheming right-hand man, Houji, who proposed a cowardly assault on the loved ones of the heroes while they dueled his lord; for such behavior is, to quote Shishio himself, "Against the Way of the Warrior." They then do it anyway after Shishio lies to the Juppongatana about a supposed infraction Houji had committed that had put them in danger, as a way to put Houji on the spot and force him to prove the strength of his devotion, with Houji's resultant display of loyalty and committment impressing Shishio sufficiently that he claims the idea as his own.
* In ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'', Saiga relentlessly protects Kagura from Suitengu and the members of the secret underground club of the rich and elite of Japan, against the advice and protests of his friends Ginza and [[PetHomosexual Bob]], who believe throughout the series that he should simply leave her to her fate. Saiga is willing to die in order to allow Kagura a chance of happiness, and in the end [[spoiler:goes blind while saving her.]]
* [[TheLancer Daewi]] in ''Anime/TheGodOfHighSchool'' does this in his first real fight in the tournament when his opponent trips during an attack and he stops to offer him help to get back up (getting hit in the face by his [[BatterUp bat]] in the process), arguing that attacking him while he's down would be cowardly.

** Unlike their future counterparts, #17 and #18 from the main timeline never team up against one person to keep things fair. If their enemies' comrades are intruding the battle, the remaining twin would join in to help out. It's made clear, however, that this is because they're fighting out of boredom and for the sake of having fun - in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', when their existence is on the line, they are full-on [[CombatPragmatist pragmatists]].

** In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'', Wufei tracks down Treize Khushrenada in an attempt to kill him to prevent him from taking control of the Earth Sphere Alliance. However, instead of blowing Treize to smithereens with his Gundam, Wufei accepts a challenge to a sword duel from Treize which he loses. Treize reciprocates Wufei's earlier gesture of honor and allows him to leave in his Gundam rather than seizing the state-of-the-art machine for study or reverse-engineering. Wufei departs--again passing up the perfectly good chance to eliminate the would-be dictator with superior firepower.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' would be considerably less funny [[PillarsOfMoralCharacter without this]]. It also would've been much much shorter.
** This can actually be considered an element of Ranma's fighting style; whenever challenged to one of the various MartialArtsAndCrafts, he always has to BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame, even if he has only a minimum amount of time to pick up the rules and despite the fact he's usually going against a champion of that style, and the stakes tend to be something like, "If you lose, we get your dojo and/or fiancee, if you win, we'll admit you don't suck." During the Martial Arts Dining arc; despite the fact Ranma is clearly starving, s/he insists that s/he will only eat what s/he ''earns'' from the table/arena. In the anime, at least, s/he even goes so far as to turn down Akane when she offers her fiancé some smuggled food. This almost results in Ranma losing the contest when his/her frantic efforts at both fighting and thinking up counters burn out what little energy s/he has left.
** Nodoka Saotome and her {{Seppuku}} pledge is a rather darkly humorous take on this, seeing as how the so-called "pledge" is ambiguous as all hell (It was that Ranma would grow up to be 'manly'). While the series' heavy reliance on RuleOfFunny ultimately leaves the audience [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt too skeptical to believe the threat would ever REALLY be carried out,]] all the evidence in the series is that, if Ranma thought he had sufficiently disappointed his mother, ''he would go through with it''. This is despite the fact that Ranma was about a year old when he 'agreed' to it.
** One thing that often gets overlooked is that Ranma's father Genma, despite being a DirtyCoward, has come up with two super-powered techniques which he ''never'' uses simply because he vowed not to. He holds to this even when he's getting beaten senseless and could easily wipe the floor with his attacker if he broke them out. He'd also submit to the Seppuku thing if he was called on it (of course, in typical Genma fashion, the trick is arranging matters so that he never does actually get called on it). Honour is a finely tuned thing.
* The only way to cure Kibagami Jubei, the hero of the {{anime}} classic ''Anime/NinjaScroll'', of the slow-acting poison in his body was to take a Girl Ninja whose own body's potent poison would destroy the comparatively weaker venom in the process. But knowing that this would obliterate what little was left of her sense of self-worth, already shredded by the fact no man dares to touch her, Jubei instead refused her offer and walked off like a gentleman, into certain death.
** Well, he ''does'' [[TakingAThirdOption kiss her.]]
* Negi Springfield of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', in spite of being a talented young warrior, is so kind-hearted he even offered mercy to a Demon Lord ''who destroyed his village and crippled his cousin.'' His kindness and merciful nature has almost cost him his life on more than one occasion.
** He tends to show mercy when he perceives an unvoiced IfIWantedYouDead subtext -- he's just painfully ready to see those. He also benefits more from showing mercy than he would from finishing enemies of the week off. For example, the Demon Lord (who was just a summoned lackey anyway) dropped on its way back home the second hint so far that the village massacre did no truly ''permanent'' harm to anybody... except emotionally, if Negi ''let'' it...
* In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross''[=/=]''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' Millia insists that Max shoot to disable Zentradi battlepods to simply put them out of action instead of killing them to show that the Terrans are serious about wanting peace. Even though this could be seen as completely insane considering the Zentradi finally decided to fight full out to destroy the ''Macross'', Hikaru Ichijo learns what his wingmates are doing and joins this act of mercy along with other human pilots despite the dire situation. As it turns out, this gesture actually saves the ship because many of the Zentrani forces, already becoming enthralled with Terran culture, learn about the humans' mercy and decide to mutiny throughout the fleet to stop the fight. Commander Breetai is horrified at the unprecedented insubordination and is forced to order an immediate ceasefire in direct violation of his orders.
* In a somewhat unusual example, Suzaku from ''Anime/CodeGeass'' displays shades of this trope. Unusual since many consider him to be a ''villain'', because the main character is a NecessarilyEvil AntiHero / HeroAntagonist / DesignatedVillain (pick one) violently rebelling against TheEmpire that Suzaku has joined to attempt to induce legitimate social change.
** Prior to a certain event near the end of the first series ([[spoiler:Euphie's death]]), Suzaku follows this trope pretty closely despite working for the [[TheEmpire evil empire]]. He refuses to shoot his friend even when threatened with being shot himself if he doesn't, he stops pursuing his target in order to save endangered civilians, he always gives his targets a chance to surrender (even after [[ItsPersonal things get pesonal]]), and basically has to live as a TechnicalPacifist who's involved in killing tons of people. He also regularly risks himself to save others (although this is partially because he's a [[spoiler:DeathSeeker]]).
** Lelouch himself falls under this on a few occasion: the chess match against Schneizel. Schneizel deliberately moves his king into check. Instead of accepting an immediate win, and in the process captivity of Suzaku, one of his biggest obstacles, Lelouch refuses the move. Schneizel notes that the Emperor would have immediately checkmated, and has just [[SecretTestOfCharacter learned the type of man the still masked Zero is]].
** Furthermore during the battle against Xingke and the Chinese Federation when Kallen was captured, Lelouch uncharacteristically chose to risk his entire military operation to engage the enemy and save her.
** Another notable example from Lelouch is shown in how he uses his [[HypnoticEye Geass power]] throughout the story. After most of the series using it to make people perform specific tasks that are only done once in his quest to destroy [[TheEmpire Britannia]], by the final arc of the series [[spoiler:he uses it to completely enslave the Britannia Royal Court and it’s soldiers to take over as emperor.]] Why didn’t he do that from the beginning? Because despite his Geass, Lelouch respected free will too much to do so, and his taking such a route is done as another sign that he’s crossed the DespairEventHorizon after a brutal TraumaCongaLine. [[spoiler:It’s also later revealed to have been deliberately temporary, as material explains that after Lelouch and Suzaku enacted the [[ThanathosGambit ZeroRequiem]], Jeremiah freed everyone with his Geass Canceler.]]
* Digimon has a few examples:
** In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' there are two cases of this: Cody, who suffered an HeroicBSOD for ''lying'', and for a while considered himself worthless to the point of not being willing to be the one chosen to escape from a underwater base in order to save the others. The D-3 chosen children (well, mainly Yolei and Cody) also showed the trope when it came to the point of having to kill an actual digimon, which wasn't a problem for the [[Anime/DigimonAdventure previous chosen]].
** In ''Anime/DigimonTamers'', this a definite, if not lampshaded, character trait of Ryo Akiyama.
* Though she knows she can't do it for everybody (and this fact does cost her quite a bit of her happiness), Mai Tokiha from ''Anime/MyHime'' possesses an unshakable desire to protect her friends and her brother. She even wanted to find it in her heart to forgive a pair of her ''enemies'' (who wanted to turn her school into a pile of smoldering rubble), because she saw them happily singing together in a park one day and figured that even they deserved a chance at happiness.
* Subverted in (of all shows) ''Anime/TransformersArmada''. Faced with the choice of leaving his friend, Wheeljack, trapped in an inferno and going for help, or staying with him to the end, Hot Shot goes with the former, but is forced to abandon Wheeljack because his commander believed in TheNeedsOfTheMany over the principle of NoOneGetsLeftBehind, and refused to risk any more of his troops in the fire. Hot Shot defied his commander and tried to go back for Wheeljack, but by then the flames were too much for him to overcome. The decision is later regretted, out of both reasonable, genuine guilt, and the fact that Wheeljack survived, and did not...[[BestServedCold take abandonment very well]].
* Tendō Rushuna in ''Anime/{{Grenadier}}'' specifically fights to "remove an enemy's will to fight" [[ThouShaltNotKill without killing]], or if possible, without hurting them at all.
* In ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' it's more of a case of vengeance over reason, with Thorfinn risking life and limb to protect the man he wants to kill.
** More importantly is the way he always insists on doing the killing the 'honourable' way, in a one-on-one duel. Said man, who is more experienced, skilled at playing the younger man as a two-cent kazoo and far more CombatPragmatist [[spoiler:(and once was in the same position as Thorfinn; he assassinated his victim in his bed after spending two years worming himself into his graces)]], considers Thorfinn's methods to be a major case of WhatAnIdiot.
* Fate of ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', who, despite the insistence of her superiors, stayed inside the BigBad's CollapsingLair to try and stop the SelfDestructMechanism during the third season finale because there were innocent people trapped inside. Not to mention the time she freed her WorthyOpponent from the clutches of a monster out of instinct... which promptly got her berated by MissionControl because she was supposed to capture her.
** The latter incident is similar to one time in the first season when Nanoha intervened against Lindy's orders to help Fate seal the six Jewel Seeds in the ocean, rather than wait until she was exhausted and vulnerable afterward to capture her, even giving her half the seeds. Thankfully, Fate had not collected enough seeds for her mother to reach Al-Hazard.
* Hikaru from ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' invokes this directly in the first season during her fight with [[BrainwashedandCrazy Lafarga]]. When Umi implores her to use her magic to save her life, Hikaru replies that "The opponent is a swordsman. I won't use magic either," despite the fact that using her fire magic would have done the job in an instant.
* Despite the carnage that inevitably occurs around him, and his superhuman skill with a gun, Vash the Stampede from ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' is absolutely determined never to kill anyone. This puts him in increasingly tighter positions as the series progresses, [[spoiler:until he has to choose between killing a villain with his own gun or allowing his friends to be killed. He shoots.]]
* Chibodee and George in ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' both lose their rematch to Domon because they showed their attacks to him beforehand, and he was able to learn moves to counter them.
** Sai Saici had a different version of this in his rematch with Domon. Even with his Gundam getting [[CurbStompBattle thrashed]] by Domon, he still kept fighting. It took the intervention of Neo-China's Emperor to prevent Sai Saici's death.

* LampshadeHanging: Both protagonist and antagonist fall victim to this line of thinking in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}''. An awakened being [[spoiler:Ophelia]] puts all of her vulnerable, human portions at her tail and challenges Claire to cut through the awakened being's body using her dangerous "Flash Sword" technique. As Claire begins the test of mettle, [[spoiler:Ophelia]] thinks to herself, "The fool, she could've just ignored me and aimed right for my tail." [[spoiler:Ophelia]] seems to slightly realize that she too is guilty of honor before reason since she agreed to put all of her vulnerable parts in one easy to target place. As she continues to berate Claire's foolishness, [[spoiler:Ophelia]] thinks to herself, "Wait, who am I talking about?"

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Edward turns down the opportunity to take the Philosopher's Stone and run, despite it being the one thing he's been searching for for three years. He leaves it, because the doctor who has the stone used it to heal injuries and sicknesses in his town. Edward says that he didn't want to take away the town's life support, and if he achieved his objective at the cost of others, then it would leave a bitter aftertaste. His brother agrees.
** Also, even to save his friends, Edward finds himself unable to kill anybody, even his virtually immortal enemies. [[spoiler:He makes an exception for Father.]]
** Once the brothers discover the true source of a Philosopher's Stone ([[spoiler:human souls]]), they resolve to never use that means to get their bodies back to normal. [[spoiler:And in the end, they didn't have to.]]
** Late in the game, Al concedes to use the Stone during a fight with Kimblee, because he's helping to save humanity, not himself, and [[spoiler:the souls in the stone would probably want to fight for what's best for humanity as well]].
** In the finale, [[spoiler:Hohenheim, having exhausted his Philosopher's Stone, was down to his own soul and would likely die soon; he offers it up to save Alphonse, who had sacrificed his bond to his armor to give Edward his arm back and prevent Father from turning him into another Stone. Edward turns it down, because the brothers believed that, as it's their own fault for losing their bodies, they won't have anyone pay for their mistake, even their own father. Probably a good thing, though, because there's a chance that Hohenheim would have ended up [[AndIMustScream stuck in the Gate]]]].
** A rare villain example in the form of Kimblee. As despicable as he seems, he still has his code of honor which he never breaks [[spoiler:even to save his own life, or at least keep his soul from fading away.]] Had Kimblee simply stood by as Pride [[spoiler:attempted to [[GrandTheftMe steal Ed's body]] when his own was disentegrating]], he might have even been able to reassert his own consciousness over Pride's at a later point.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** [[TheHero Ichigo]] believes in fighting his way. He won't let his Hollow get in the way of that, even if disadvantages him to do so. His Hollow taking over allowed him to not only survive Byakuya's killing blow, but to gain the upper hand and badly wound Byakuya. Upon regaining control, Ichigo apologised to Byakuya and asked if they could start the fight over. It was the first time Byakuya realised Ichigo had a lot more honour to him than he'd realised and, fortunately for Ichigo, he agreed.
** Ichigo displayed this trait again against Ulquiorra. Ichigo, at the verge of death, was so completely taken over by his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Hollow]] that he lost all reason and not only overwhelmed Ulquiorra with raw power, but even stabbed Uryuu for trying to calm him down. When Ichigo regains control, and sees what he's done to both Ulquiorra and Uryuu, he insists that the only way he'll continue fighting Ulquiorra is if he's given the same injuries in compensation. ''This means chopping off an arm and a leg''. [[spoiler:Ulquiorra's too far gone, however, and dies before Ichigo can carry through his vow.]] It's especially bad because Ulquiorra has very clearly displayed that he can easily regenerate limbs. The fight would be even again if Ichigo just stood by and allowed him to heal up a bit naturally so the offer to have his own limbs cut off is exceptionally irrational.
** Ikkaku has vowed to fight and die under Kenpachi's command. To this end he'll even throw a fight to avoid revealing how powerful he really is, just in case the truth puts him under pressure to work towards becoming a captain of another squad. Called out on this by Iba who told him he's not as expendable as he thinks he is, he should be working to get stronger, and he should never put personal pride before his shinigami duty.
** Yumichika is so determined to remain a subordinate of both Kenpachi and Ikkaku, and so determined to uphold the squad's kidou-hating, direct combat-loving philosophy, that he hides his power and would prefer to die than reveal the truth in public. Ikkaku may only be hiding bankai, but Yumichika's even hiding his ''shikai'' thanks to his power being kidou-based. This means he has to fight his battles on HeroicResolve alone.
** Ukitake placed so much value on honour that he ignored his own misgivings and allowed Kaien to avenge his murdered wife. When Kaien requested Ukitake and Rukia stay out of the fight no matter way, Ukitake agreed and explained to Rukia that there was a difference between a fight for life and a fight for pride. Unfortunately, the culprit wasn't a normal Hollow and had a special ability that proved Kaien's undoing.
** Subverted with Kyouraku. He's a devoted CombatPragmatist and lectures other captains that idealistic fighting is a distraction captains can't afford when in battle. Kyouraku and Ukitake are acknowledged as the greatest partnership in the Gotei 13, and it's made clear that while one side of the partnership plays this trope painfully straight, the other blows it to hell.
** Yamamoto lost his left arm in the battle against Aizen. Afterwards, he chooses to leave it as it is, even though [[HealingHands Orihime]] would easily be able to restore it. He says he didn't think it would be right to ask a human for help in a matter that should have only involved shinigami. [[spoiler:Yhwach completely mocks him for this attitude, pointing out that if he still had both arms, he might have stood a chance against him, before killing Yamamoto.]]
** Cang Du believes that people with bonds in life should go TogetherInDeath. He'll even go to the trouble of knocking enemies out and dragging them to their comrades so he can kill them at the same time. He also said it didn't feel right to attack Hitsugaya with his own Bankai, even though he doesn't believe Bankai have wills and souls of their own.
** While attempting to rescue Orihime in Hueco Mundo, Renji lectures Ichigo about "true warriors not fearing death" when the latter doesn't want to split up the group. Apparently Renji forgot that they were there on a rescue mission and they weren't supposed to get into a series of life and death battles.
* Naja of ''Anime/SandsOfDestruction'' is guilty of this on several occasions, most notably when he and Lia escape from a sand submersible working together with the World Destruction Committee. After surfacing and reaching land, he has the chance to arrest them on the spot, but opts to let them go (much to Lia's frustration). After all, they had a deal.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** Josuke Higashikata is the poster child of this trope. In a series where AnyoneCanDie, he holds the distinction of having not killed a single human, despite the deaths of people around him, including his grandfather early on! Of course, that's just [[TechnicalPacifist not taking their life...]]
** In Part 7, Steel Ball Run, Ringo Roadagain is determined to make sure that not only is he aware of everything that could play a role in a duel; he wants his opponent to be likewise aware. There's actually a great reason for this--those duels are to help purify his spirit of uncertainty. If neither side has an advantage (and before you ask, although Mandom's good at [[GroundhogDayLoop saving Ringo's neck,]] it gives his opponent the same capacity to avoid Ringo's attacks), then he can be sure that his victories were genuinely deserved.
* Tenma in ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', although he distinctly cares about the "right thing" rather than any type of personal honor.
* Theoretically this can be applied to the Dai-Gurren team in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' because they tend to put ''[[HotBlooded everything]]'' before reason. Viral especially which is why he can [[BeyondTheImpossible break physical laws and do the impossible.]]
** Viral also provides a couple of more straight examples. First he allows Team Gurren to [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn get dressed]] before a fight. Later he refuses an order to attack Simon because his commander is threatening to kill Yoko if Simon defends himself.

** Diamond also shows shades of this, wanting to stop Team Galactic even though he's just a kid.
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple''. The series oozes this: even the antagonists, none of whom are even remotely nice people, will abide by the rules of martial arts--which is to say, even though they all want the main character either dead or on their side, none of them will go ahead and kill him, despite having many chances to do so. The title character himself, meanwhile, has a strict set of beliefs that he ''will not break,'' regardless of how much sense they make to others. It's completely awesome, of course.
** As long as the antagonists from Yami/YOMI are concerned, this is not so much "Honor Before Reason" as much as it is their, as they call it, "pride as martial artists". They want to prove that ''their'' way of doing martial arts is the only proper way. If you want to prove that your kung-fu is better, than you have to defeat the enemy by using kung-fu, otherwise you haven't proven anything.
*** This extends so far that the ones who are defeated will ''willingly'' rot in prison once defeated even though it's clearly displayed they can enter and leave at will.
* In ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'', World Champion David Eagle is unwilling to exploit Takamuras bleeding wound by targeting it, possibly giving him a TKO win. Any normal boxer would have done so, and Takamura himself does without hestitation. However, this also has to do with Eagle wanting to fight his opponent on the same level, in order to push himself further.
* Rock Lee of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' nearly destroys his own life to defend his Nindo. Fortunately, [[spoiler:there were HealingHands available]].
** The whole reason for Naruto trying to help and redeem Sasuke can be summed up as this: he must stand by his word to save his friend, however despicable his friend's actions and motives.
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere''- Shu always does the right thing, no matter the consequences. Stupid perhaps, but considering the [[DeathWorld impossibly bleak setting]] of the series it's difficult not to cheer him on. [[DecoyProtagonist While he doesn't achieve much on his own]], his idealism causes others to question their actions and [maybe] regain their hope for the future.
* Jin from ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''. A running plot-line of the series is the fact that his fellow disciples are trying to avenge the death of their master by killing Jin. Actually [[spoiler:Jin's Master was forced to kill Jin during the night by the BigBad because of Jin's defiance against turning their samurai school into an assassin school/guild. Jin merely killed him in self-defense. If Jin simply told the others this, it would save him a lot of trouble. It would also disgrace the name of their master and school so he takes full blame.]]

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'':
** [[TheLancer Kazuma]] [[RatedMForManly Kuwabara]] is pretty much the embodiment of this trope. He [[HotBlooded loudly]] declines his teammates' offers to keep him from dying, insisting that men fight their own battles, and later, after whupping a kid who nearly killed him and his {{Muggle}} friends, Kuwabara opts to save the kid's life by dragging not only his unconscious body, but the unconscious bodies of all three of his friends to safety despite sustaining heavy injuries himself.
** During the TournamentArc, George suggests Hiei attack Bui while the latter is removing his armor. The girls scold him that Hiei is too honorable to do such a thing, with Kuwabara's sister suggesting George would attack a man with his back turned or even handcuffed and blindfolded. They all seem to forget that the tournament is BloodSport where the vast majority of the fights end in one of the fighters killing the other. The rules themselves are pretty much limited to "Keep it in the ring, fight one on one (unless both teams agree to different terms), and only five people to a team", otherwise anything goes.
** Similar to Kuwabara, Yusuke prefers to fight his battles on his own. During his final battle with Sensui, despite his recent power-up, Sensui still has the advantage, but Raizen suddenly possesses Yusuke's body and is powerful enough to beat him. When Yusuke regains control of himself and realizes Sensui is dying, he becomes really upset and says it wasn't right to win with outside interference, even begging someone to heal Sensui so they can have a rematch and he can prove he can win on his own (Sensui is too far gone for healing, however).

* Examples from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' and its sister show ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'':
** When Mikoto Misaka learns that her clones that she loves like sisters are being slaughtered by Accelerator, she considers the affair her problem and tries to solve it on her own, not telling anybody about it. When she realizes that she can't beat Accelerator, she decides her only option is a HeroicSacrifice. When Touma Kamijou finds out, he calls her out on being too proud to ask for help and solves the problem by kicking Accelerator's ass.
** Touma Kamijou has ChronicHeroSyndrome and absolutely refuses to ignore or abandon anybody in trouble, no matter how injured he is or how powerful the foe. It is later pointed out that he also has a problem with asking others for help, which he later grows out of.
** Gunha Sogiita has SuperSpeed, yet he always announces his presence and refuses to ambush or attack from behind. He claims that a true warrior always takes his opponents head-on and does not use dirty tricks. Ironically, this is part of the reason why [[ApathyKilledTheCat he sees no reason to learn how to master his abilities and improve his fighting skills]].
** Index insists that dealing with enemy mages is her responsibility and not Touma's, due to her encyclopedic knowledge of magic. She ignores Touma's arguments that he is better suited to fight them, though this is in part because she doesn't want to see him get hurt fighting.
** Leivinia Birdway carries an antique flintlock pistol that only has one shot and takes a long time to load (she typically uses it to finish off a downed opponent). She doesn't use modern guns because of her contempt for science and because flintlock pistols are cooler.
** Princess Villian is an ActualPacifist, and as a result refused to learn how to use magic because it can potentially be used to fight, something which her older sister Carissa mocks her for. [[spoiler:She becomes more of a MartialPacifist during and after Carissa's coup against the royal family.]]
* Eita Touga of ''Manga/TwelveBeast'' frequently advocates running away from the giant, city destroying war-machine. War Leader Jawea and the Harpies choose to stay and fight, to protect their tribe's honour. Less egregious than other examples as fleeing would leave over half the tribe--the elderly, young, and flightless--behind.
* In ''Anime/VoltesV'', TheDragon continues to fight the Voltes team in the last episode, even though it is obvious his side is about to lose. The only reason for doing so is that he is a noble.
* ''LightNovel/LordMarksmanAndVanadis'':
** The ''entire nation'' of Brune will only fight with swords and thinks that people who use bows are sissies and thus have no honor. The protagonist (an improbably skilled archer) politely thinks they're idiots.
** That's not the best example in the series though, oh no. The best example is the protagonist's ChildhoodFriend and {{Meido}} (of the non-battle variety) staying in the protagonist's mansion when an invading army ransacks the town, only starting to flee when the enemy general enters the mansion and announces his intention to rape her. Why? ''Because the protagonist told her to watch the house''.
* ''Manga/HighschoolOfTheDead'' has our protagonists, long been obsessed with survival and avoiding fights with [[NotUsingTheZWord "them"]] wherever possible, decide to brave an entire ''horde'' of them to save a 7-year-old girl. ''[[https://youtu.be/1oPjhrV8HjM they were successful]]''.
-->''"[[PunctuatedForEmphasis IT'S. A. LITTLE. GIRL.]]"''
* When Train confronts Shiki near the end of ''Anime/BlackCat'', just before his final battle with Creed, he has, depending on whether it's the manga or the anime, either the ability to fire one last nanomachine-powered railgun shot for the day or an [[AppliedPhlebotinum Orichalcum bullet]] that can pierce any object. Just before the fight actually starts, he ends up firing it into the sky instead, just to show that he doesn't need it to beat Shiki ''or'' Creed.
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Sayaka refuses to replenish her strength with Grief Seeds, just because Homura uses them and Sayaka doesn't want to be anything like her. This was a very poor decision.
* ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' has a few examples:
** Genzo Wakabayashi is very proud of his goalkeeping skills, and during the Nankatsu vs Shutetsu match he almost leaves his team on account of losing his personal duel with Tsubasa (that Tsubasa would be able to score him a goal during the match). His coach Mikami quickly delivers him an ArmorPiercingSlap [[WhatTheHellHero and calls him out]] on leaving his teammates on a personal whim.
** Jun Misugi suffers from [[IllBoy a heart illness]] that forces him to sit out and play only half a match per day. However, during important matches, he's willing to go past his limit and risk his life rather than leaving his team when they need him.
** Tsubasa himself during the Middle School arc. He gets an ankle injury during the opening match, and then for good measure, he hurts his shoulder saving an opposing player from a bad fall during the second. Despite his doctor's warnings, [[{{Determinator}} he continues to play and pulls through the pain, doing what it takes to win his third National Championship before graduating.]]
** Genzo gets another moment when he plays a friendly match against Schneider. Against his coach's orders to keep the tie, Genzo leaves his goal unguarded when his team gets a free kick to try and score a goal himself. [[GoneHorriblyWrong It backfires horribly]] because not only he misses the shot, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but gives Schneider the perfect chance to shoot back and win.]]
* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', during the Sports Festival, Shinso brainwashes some students to work with him during the Cavalry Battle, and is able to advance to the next round. Ojiro from Class 1A and Shoda of Class 1B, having some idea of what happened, decide to withdraw from the final tournament, unsure of whether they deserve to be there. While some are shocked that they'd forgo a chance to prove themselves as a heroes and potentially get a good work study that could further their career, the organizers accept their decision.
* In the manga ''Manga/PsychometrerEiji'' the EvilChef Yasuo Aoki is a KnowNothingKnowItAll who was too hung up on appearance and the taste suffered. His latest victim had to tell him this even if it killed her. Surprisingly this proved to be a good thing as Yasuo saw his food as SeriousBusiness so he ended up being HoistByHisOwnPetard trying to prove her wrong.
* ''Manga/SchoolZone'': Fuji is determined, to Captain Ahab-levels, to win a stuffed animal from a crane game. She's long since stopped caring about the doll itself; for her, [[IveComeTooFar she's come too far to quit now]]. When a friendly arcade clerk offers to move the doll to where she can grab it more easily, Fuji is so wracked with guilt her classmate thinks she murdered somebody. Afterwards, the clerk offers to give her one. Fuji refuses. The clerk then plays the game, wins immediately, and ''gifts Fuji the stuffed animal''. Fuji boldly declares that if she hasn't won it herself, it's meaningless, and pledges to return soon to play again. Did we mention she's already ''80,000 yen''[[note]] ''about $750''[[/note]] in the hole over a toy that probably costs 1,500 yen?
* Welf Crozzo of ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' refuses to craft magic swords for this reason. [[SuperpowerLottery Despite being spared from the curse that prevented people in his family to craft the weapons]], he instead chooses to make a normal sword that can surpass one. Unfortunately, this mindset has [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer made somewhat of a pariah both in the Guild and his previous familia]], and even Hephaestus herself warned him not to let his pride get those close to him hurt.
* ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'': Because Azusa was tricked into touching her horns, by law of the blue dragons, Flatorte has become her servant. There is nothing binding her to this, no spell, no physical threats, and when Azusa offers to free her since she doesn't want a slave, Flatorte states she'll have to kill herself. Flatorte, despite hating this, states she has to as per her pride as a blue dragon. Azusa decides to order Flatorte to do as she pleases, granting her some agency in her new life.

* Welf Crozzo of ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' refuses to craft magic swords for this reason. [[SuperpowerLottery Despite being spared from the curse that prevented people in his family to craft the weapons]], he instead chooses to make a normal sword that can surpass him. Unfortunately, this mindset has [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer made somewhat of a pariah both in the Guild and his previous familia.]]

*** One example he plays straight is during the Davy Back Fight, where the Strawhats and Foxy Pirates do contests to claim crewmembers from eachother. The Strawhats lost the first contest and so the Foxy Pirates claim Chopper. When the Strawhats won the second contest, Nami points out that they could claim Foxy himself, who would automatically forfeit the third contest and let them reclaim Chopper. Luffy shut down the idea because he really, *really* doesn't want [[JerkAss Foxy]] on his crew.

** [[NobleDemon Mizael]], one of the Seven Barian Emperors, was big on this. When he and his fellow Barians Vector and Durbe confront Yuma, Shark, and Kaito on the Sargasso battlefield, he refused to use the "Sargasso's Lighthouse" card that his two allies were using (which would have protected him from the Sargasso's detrimental effects) calling it a "coward's card" and preferring a battle against Kaito on truly equal terms.
** At one point, Gauche faces off against Yuma, who has taken a ton of damage beforehand and is down to his last few Life Points, and his boss has made sure to set up the Duel on a field where players take damage every time they do something (meaning Yuma is effectively locked down). Being a BoisterousBruiser who saw Yuma as a WorthyOpponent, Gauche is disgusted at this, and activates a card that brings Yuma's Life Points to full in exchange for letting him draw two cards. When his boss gets angry at him, he merely responds "[[BlatantLies I just wanted to draw some cards.]]"

* [[IdiotHero Alice L. Malvin]] of ''Anime/PumpkinScissors'' insists on charging ahead and "destroying evil" no matter what the odds are against them. Even after she [[CharacterDevelopment started using more reason]] after she was kidnapped, [[WideEyedIdealist she stayed true to her ideals]].

** This can actually be considered an element of Ranma's fighting style; whenever challenged to one of the various {{Martial Arts and Crafts}}, he always has to {{Beat Them at Their Own Game}}, even if he has only a minimum amount of time to pick up the rules and despite the fact he's usually going against a champion of that style, and the stakes tend to be something like, "If you lose, we get your dojo and/or fiancee, if you win, we'll admit you don't suck." During the Martial Arts Dining arc; despite the fact Ranma is clearly starving, s/he insists that s/he will only eat what s/he ''earns'' from the table/arena. In the anime, at least, s/he even goes so far as to turn down Akane when she offers her fiancé some smuggled food. This almost results in Ranma losing the contest when his/her frantic efforts at both fighting and thinking up counters burn out what little energy s/he has left.

* Negi Springfield of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima!'', in spite of being a talented young warrior, is so kind-hearted he even offered mercy to a Demon Lord ''who destroyed his village and crippled his cousin.'' His kindness and merciful nature has almost cost him his life on more than one occasion.

* ''Manga/OnePiece''

* [[ActionGirl 2nd Lt.]] [[Anime/PumpkinScissors Alice L. Malvin]] has made it her mission to help people and to repair the damage done to her nation by the recent war. This means that she will not hesitate to call out ''anyone'' who she sees as contributing to or aggravating that damage, up to and including TheEmperor of her own country, regardless of how capable they might be of physically or politically squashing her like a bug.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''

* Tenma in ''{{Anime/Monster}}'', although he distinctly cares about the "right thing" rather than any type of personal honor.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Chronicles'' was a SpinOff of the original anime where each episode provided ADayInTheLimelight moments to many of the show's secondary characters. One episode centred around Ash's friendly rival Richie, who met an older trainer named Silver who dreamed of catching a Moltres. Unfortunately, Team Rocket tried to kidnap the Moltres, and Richie and Silver had to team up to rescue it. They succeeded, but Moltres was injured and exhausted from what Team Rocket did to it. Silver knew he could have captured Moltres easily but he chose to let it go. He wanted to [[EarnYourHappyEnding catch Moltres fairly]], beating it in an honest fight.

* In Anime/VoltesV, TheDragon continues to fight the Voltes team in the last episode, even though it is obvious his side is about to lose. The only reason for doing so is that he is a noble.

* Though she knows she can't do it for everybody (and this fact does cost her quite a bit of her happiness), Mai Tokiha from ''Anime/MaiHime'' possesses an unshakable desire to protect her friends and her brother. She even wanted to find it in her heart to forgive a pair of her ''enemies'' (who wanted to turn her school into a pile of smoldering rubble), because she saw them happily singing together in a park one day and figured that even they deserved a chance at happiness.

** In the virtual world arc, Ooka/Johnson was caught cheating by Noa/Noah and Jonouchi/Joey would have won by default. However, Jonouchi insisted on finishing the duel. Never mind the fact that a. Jonouchi already had a huge disadvantage (no cards in his hand and no monsters on the field). Not to mention he had plenty of reasons to hate this guy anyway other than the cheating (Ooka was an AmoralAttorney who had admitted he had seen innocent men convicted, and had been insulting Jonouchi the whole time.) Most importantly, they were dueling for their lifes as the loser would be trapped in the virtual world forever. [[LampshadeHanging Even Yugi and Anzu/Tea wondered what Jonouchi was thinking.]]

** Smoker would have chosen death over accepting help from a pirate in Hazard Punk if Tashigi hadn't reminded him they had subordinates and little kids to help.

* In the manga ''Psychometrer Eiji'' the EvilChef Yasuo Aoki is a KnowNothingKnowItAll who was too hung up on appearance and the taste suffered. His latest victim had to tell him this even if it killed her. Surprisingly this proved to be a good thing as Yasuo saw his food as SeriousBusiness so he ended up being HoistByHisOwnPetard trying to prove her wrong.

* ''Manga/SchoolZone'': Fuji is determined, to Captain Ahab-levels, to win a stuffed animal from a crane game. She's long since stopped caring about the doll itself; for her, [[IveComeTooFar she's come too far to quit now]]. When a friendly arcade clerk offers to move the doll to where she can grab it more easily, Fuji is so wracked with guilt her classmate thinks she murdered somebody. Afterwards, the clerk offers to give her one. Fuji refuses. The clerk then plays the game, wins immediately, and ''gifts Fuji the stuffed animal''. Fuji boldly declares that if she hasn't won it herself, it's meaningless, and pledges to return soon to play again. Did we mention she's already ''80,000 yen''[[note]] ''about $750''[[/note]] in the hole over a toy that probably costs $15?