History Jerkass / Anime

** Amuro Ray, Kamille Bidan, Judau Ashta, Setsuna F. Seiei, etc... you name it!
*** That said, most Gundam protagonists' character arcs revolve around learning to consider more than themselves. [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GetAHoldOfYourselfMan With a little help.]]

** Kuyou, the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName anti-human fascist]] who headed the [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil Security Committee]]. He regularly abused his authority to make the students' lives miserable, and on top of it all, he needs little-to-no provocation to burn somebody, human and monster alive, to ash.

* Vegeta from ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. In the early stages of the anime, the arrogant prince of the Saiyans is a complete genocidal asshole with nary a nice bone in his body, constantly insulting his teammates even after doing the HeelFaceTurn, and being perpetually jealous of his FutureBadass son Trunks. He does mellow out once the sense of family with Bulma and Trunks sets in for him. Which takes some time.

* Asuka Langley Soryu of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is practically the epitome of a jerkass who regularly announces that she hates everyone and everything at times of emotional intensity (which is mostly when she fails due to her own fault and tries to blame it on something else). She is not even trying to be playful or joking when she says she hates people; she almost always ''means'' it, especially in the case of Shinji or Rei for merely not being nice to her, despite the fact that they did absolutely nothing to deserve it; in other words, she hates them just for ''being'' there. There is a good reason for this, though: [[FreudianExcuse like all the main characters, she has an extremely traumatic past, which has instilled her with a severe inferiority complex]], for which she compensates by aggressively attempting to keep the people around her from getting too close to her, as she does not want anyone controlling or [[DontYouDarePityMe pitying]] her.
** Ryoji Kaji starts off as quite a jerkass himself, coming off as completely self-centered and his behavior toward Misato borders on sexual harassment. He's even introduced in the same episode as Asuka is, and while his debonair demeanor is more pleasant than her's, his actions for his first few episodes actually ''surpass'' her in sheer jerkassery. Once he and Misato's past together is uncovered and a misunderstanding between them cleared up, he drops the JerkassFacade and reveals that he's actually more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
** In the manga adaptation, both Asuka and Kaji [[TookALevelInKindness aren't half as bad as they were in the anime.]] [[TookALevelInJerkass KAWORU, on the other hand...]]

** Seto Kaiba starts out as this, forcing Yugi's grandpa to duel and mocking anyone, especially Joey, who he considers beneath him in terms of dueling skills.

** Bandit Keith is like the above, only worse. When Bones fails to beat Joey in a duel, he not only has his cronies block the exit to a cave where Yugi and Co. are in, but beats the crap out of said cronies and steals their star chips.

* Hiei from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', and egregiously so, especially in the manga. By the end of the anime, he manages to squeak into JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory, but just barely. Considering that he's a demon who was [[ParentalAbandonment cast out]] of the [[LadyLand female-only society he was born in]], despite his own mother ''actually wanting'' to raise him, he would naturally be an ass, but Kurama's companionship and respect makes it more of a FreudianExcuse.

** Vampire Moka and Kokoa Shuzen were both introduced this way. [[DefrostingIceQueen But they improve]].

** Noah also counts.
** Don't forget Gozaburo Kaiba, the man who adopted Seto and Mokuba and is also the biological father of Noah as well. The man practically sets the precedent for jackassery of the entire series

** [[{{Tsundere}} Sakura]] was like this in the first episodes, towards [[DoggedNiceGuy Naruto]]. She ''always'' sided with Sasuke in any argument, and gave Naruto [[MegatonPunch insanely powerful punches]] for [[DisproportionateRetribution the smallest of reasons]]. She got better.

** Sanji has been called a jerk on occassion due to treating the women members of the crew better than anyone else, but when it comes down to it he'd gladly give his life if it meant saving his friends and other innocents regardless of gender. So more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold than a real JerkAss

** Precia Testarossa constantly batters and abuses Fate whenever she fails on a mission- she ''whips'' the poor eight year old girl with a bullwhip! All Fate wanted to do was see her mommy smile again. She didn't care how much she had to suffer, as long her "mommy dearest" became nice again. Unfortunately for her, [[spoiler:Precia reveals that she was just a clone of her dead daughter, Alicia, that she was simply a tool and that she never loved her at all; if anything, she hated her! Fate tries to give her one last chance to repent for her crimes, telling her that while she isn't Alicia, she still cares for Precia because she brought her into the world. And the queen bitch laughs at her face and chooses to die instead!]]

* Everyone in ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' has fallen into this at least once.

** In the spin-off, you have Yume from the manga and Ramia and Konoha from ''Pretty Sammy''.

** Erika Itsumi, Maho's vice captain and Miho's successor in that position. She's introduced mocking Miho and the rest of Oarai as a no-name school that shouldn't even enter the tournament, complains about Maho [[spoiler:letting Mako and Saori borrow their team's helicopter to quickly get to Mako's grandmother in the hospital]], and shoots a nasty glare at [[spoiler:one of her teammates when she goes over to thank Miho for saving them, an act that resulted in Black Forest losing the tournament for the first time in a decade]].

* ''Manga/{{Kotoura-san}}'':

** Toka is like this. She constantly tries to whore attention to herself, doesn't necessarily care about others' well being if they aren't one of her people, and in recent chapters promised to make Nodoka her maid if she lost the match. Her PetTheDog moments with Koromo make her a bit more bearable, though.
** Hiroe doesn't hesitate to mock her opponents in battles, and to add injury to insult treats her teammates with a fair amount of respect.

** Jin Akutsu is a big, scary jerkass who hits people from other teams, treats his HotShounenMom rather badly, humiliates his childhood friend when he attempts to call him out on his jerkiness, almost hits his coach when the old man tries to recruit him, and in flashbacks he picks on other guys ''several times''. Still, after losing his official match with Ryoma he evolves more into a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'''s Dallas Genoard is practically this trope personified, with nearly every scene he's in being punctuated with a KickTheDog moment. Even his PetTheDog scene ends with him [[KickTheDog Kicking The Dog]]. Karma does, however, [[CementShoes bite]] [[AndIMustScream him]] [[FateWorseThanDeath hard]].
* ''{{Manga/Bakuman}}''

* Everyone in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' and ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' have fallen into this at least once.

** In the TimeSkip, Sabertooth is a guild ''full'' of such people with their [[spoiler: former]] Guild Master Jiemma and Minerva taking the trope and ''running with it to escalating levels]].

->''Why do you put so much energy into pissing people off?''\\
-- '''Kagura''' (to Tomo), ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh''

** Neji Hyuuga is introduced as this, looking down on those he saw as weaker than him [[hottip:note:Virtually every genin-level ninja, but especially Lee, Hinata and Naruto]] until Naruto [[DefeatMeansFriendship beats it out of him]]. Before this happened, the nicest thing we have seen him do is offer his cousin a chance to surrender before their match. And then, for all intents and purposes, he tries to kill her and only fails because the adults in charge are quick enough to jump in and stop him. And then he has the audacity to get upset and cry favoritism when they stop him from essentially murdering his defenseless cousin.

* Ratso the mean cat from ''Anime/{{Wowser}}''.