History JerkassWoobie / AnimeAndManga

** Precia in the first movie. She's just as cruel to Fate as in canon, but it's revealed that not only was she a loving mother who wanted to spend more time with her daughter, but [[spoiler:she [[ButSirItsNotReady tried to prevent the premature launch of the reactor]] that caused the meltdown that killed Alicia]], and the companion manga shows just how painful it was for her, especially with [[spoiler:her [[TearJerker cradling Alicia's lifeless body in her arms]] as tears are streaming down her face]]. In her final moments, as she's falling to her apparent death, she appears to finally understand [[spoiler:Alicia's desire for a little sister]] and regret her actions.

** Mewtwo. He goes on a rampage against all living things to prove [[CloningBlues clone superiority]], but after [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds what happened to him]], can you blame him?

** In the Watanagashi/Meakashi-hen arcs, [[spoiler:Shion Sonozaki]] pretty much fits the bill. On the one hand, there's everything that she has had to go through as TheUnfavourite of her family, never mind the ColdBloodedTorture she's put through just before she finds out about [[spoiler:her boyfriend Satoshi's disappearance]] -- which she had gone through specifically in order to ''prevent''. On the other hand, her RoaringRampageOfRevenge goes [[AxCrazy so far]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel off the rails]] (specially in the case of [[spoiler: Satoko, whom she straps to a cross and tortures to death, and Mion, whom she forces to watch as she murders poor Satoko]]) that it's hard not to be relieved [[spoiler:when she finally gets her KarmicDeath near the end]], if only for her own sake.

** Gilbert He may be antagonistic and even violent toward Serge (especially in the beginning), but he sure went through a lot of crap in his life...

* In Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind, Kushana, who is introduced in the film version as a seemingly steriotypical evil queen ("Nice valley. Think I'll keep it."), her status as an apparent CardCarryingVillain is quickly subverted. This apparently was deliberate on the part of the writers: Miyazaki describes Nausicaa and Kushana as "two sides of the same coin", largely differing in that Kushana has "deep, physical wounds".

* ''Anime/{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'':
** Seto Kaiba, though less so in the anime adaptation, where he ''stays'' a jerk long after the finale of the Battle City arc, which, in the manga, was supposed to be where he let go of his tragic past and became a better person.

** Also Aki of 5Ds. Yes, she was ostracised as a child by her parents for having magic powers, and subsequently found by a lunatic who wants to rule the world for no adequately explained reason other than "I'm different and therefore I should be on top of the world". But that smile she wore when using her magic powers when dueling, especially against Yusei, was damn creepy.

* Kevin of ''KarateShoukoushiKohinataMinoru'' is established as one of these in chapter 66.

** Sôsuke Sagara. Originally a sweet, innocent kid, his heartbreaking backstory turns him into a cold-hearted {{Jerkass}}. He finds it extremely hard to understand other people's feelings, and tends to do very [[HeroicSociopath morally ambiguous things]] without much consideration for others. Most of the time, it's played for laughs. There are numerous times where he finds himself unable to understand why someone feels fear or sadness (even when someone died). The poor guy goes through so much crap throughout the series, though, including his childhood as a [[ChildSoldiers child soldier]], so it's easy to feel sympathy for him despite his flaws.

* From ''DarkerThanBlack'', [[TheHandler Huang]] [[spoiler:was a cop until his best friend was horribly killed... by the woman Huang loved, who he discovered had just been using him to get to said best friend. He was left with no choice but to join the Syndicate or have his memories wiped, which he feels would be like killing his friend all over again.]] Tis resulted in Huang being a [[NobleBigot bigotted]] {{jerkass}}, all things considered.

** Gilbert/Prussia can also qualify. He's an unrepentant, egotistical MemeticBadass who delights in causing trouble for others and seems to only think about himself...but at the same time, he's also something of a ButtMonkey who [[TedBaxter isn't as awesome as he likes to think he is]], and is shown to be secretly lonely and trying to pretend that he doesn't care about not being a nation anymore or not having any friends at all. And if you see him with ShippingGoggles on, there's the added "pain" of being the UnluckyChildhoodFriend to a NinjaMaid, who's head over heels in love with the local WhitePrince.

* Sakuya Ookochi from ''Anime/SensualPhrase''. He's a JerkAss and a BastardBoyfriend to his girlfriend Aine largely because of a scene where he attempted to rape her out of jealousy, and even when not being a BastardBoyfriend, he's a huge jerk even to his own bandmates. Then, it's shown that he has an extremely DarkAndTroubledPast (as in, [[spoiler: he's an HeroicBastard ChildOfRape, his "father" left him when he learned that baby Sakuya wasn't his kid, he was bullied all the time because of his heritage, and his LadyDrunk mom drank herself to death when he was a child).]] While said past explains pretty well why he's such an asshole, it still doesn't justify his horrible treatment of other people around him, which had to be toned down in the anime quite a bit... and it still wasn't enough to make him anything but a JerkAss.

* Louise of ''LightNovel/ZeroNoTsukaima''. Saito too. His pervertedness can be too much at times, and he sometimes pokes fun at Louise when she's just minding her own business but Louise frequently beats and berates him, sometimes to HeroicSociopath levels, and Saito's stuck in an alternate world (though he decides to stay after falling in love with Louise). And he tends to go all out when trying to protect Louise or his friends from harm. His selfless heroic side tends to be immediately followed by him demonstrating his idiotic perverted side, though. It's also later shown that Louise is constantly being pressured by her family to get married and she's frequently bullied by one of her older sisters who has a bigger temper than Louise. Oh, and although Louise is in her second year at the Tristain Academy of Magic, her magic skills still need a lot of work. Because of this, she lacks self confidence, and her classmates look down on her, calling her "Louise the Zero", frequently teasing her for her zero success rate and [[ACupAngst flat chest]] (including Saito!). This gets worse because most of the female cast except her (and Tabitha) are busty. And Saito's total lack of proper human interaction is pretty clear - he knows nothing about sympathy (remember, Saito — when someone's crying, it means something's wrong), empathy (his total inability to figure out how to not piss someone off), and sincerity (telling Louise he loves her while fantasizing about her sister), but despite his flaws, he truly does care for Louise, as shown by his willingness to take her beatings and almost die for her.

* Kyouko Sakura from ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. She's introduced as an amoral, AxCrazy, borderline evil DarkActionGirl...[[spoiler: and then we learn that her family was destitute after her minister father was excomulgated, she used her Wish to get him followers...and when Dad found out, he went mad and killed the whole Sakura family except for her.]] It certainly helps that [[spoiler: the person she mocked the most, Sayaka, was also the one who unlocked her HiddenHeartOfGold.]]
** Homura, too. She first appears in the act of severely injuring the series's lovable mascot (in fact, she had already killed him, but he revived himself, so she was trying to kill him ''again''). Later, she gives vague, threat-like warnings to Madoka, and generally acts creepy and ominous. She doesn't seem truly evil, since she shows up to help the "good guys" a few times, but she's extremely detached and uncaring, especially when [[spoiler:Sayaka dies]] and Kyouko (the ''other'' JerkassWoobie) blows up at her for seeming so heartless. Of course, there's a (spoileriffic) reason for all this: [[spoiler:Homura's a time traveller, and has watched all the other girls die extremely tragic deaths in numerous previous timelines. She keeps going back in an attempt to fix things, but always ends up making everything ''even worse'' than the last time. At this point, she's given up on everything except trying to save Madoka, despite knowing that it's probably impossible; she's become so detached because, otherwise, she'd lose hope and turn into a witch herself.]]

** Arguably, the Nine-Tailed Fox. You'd never believe it, but [[spoiler:after the downright ridiculous asskicking that it endured, to have its power taken from it and locked away again seems very depressing. Not to mention, [[spoiler:it openly expresses its bitterness over humans imprisoning it and using it as a power source for decades.]] This sentiment is starting to be recognized by the fandom. [[spoiler: Even ''Naruto'' feels sorry for it, and apologizes for trapping it in its prison again.]]

** Arguably, the Nine-Tailed Fox. You'd never believe it, but [[spoiler:after the downright ridiculous asskicking that it endured, to have its power taken from it and locked away again seems very depressing. Not to mention, [[spoiler:it openly expresses its bitterness over humans imprisoning it and using it as a power source for decades.]] This sentiment is starting to be recognized by the fandom]]. [[spoiler: Even ''Naruto'' feels sorry for it, and apologizes for trapping it in its prison again.]]

* ''{{Literature/Baccano}}'': hey, everyone, meet Czeslaw Meyer. A ReallySevenHundredYearsOld CrazySurvivalist who uses [[AdorablyPrecociousChild his appearance]] to manipulate people. Tried to get someone to kill dozens of people in the hope of finding one immortal. Is a CrazySurvivalist because [[spoiler:the guardian he'd trusted [[FateWorseThanDeath spent 200 years torturing him]] in every way he could think of, supposedly to "test the limits" of their immortality. Czes only escaped by ''eating him'', absorbing all his memories of gleefully tormenting the poor kid ForTheEvulz.]]

** One must not forget that Saito was kidnapped from his world, treated sub-humanly, made into a slave for a bratty, over-privaledged little girl, and had his mind screwed with a bit magically (though he doesn't know it).

** Beyond Birthday from ''DeathNote:'' ''Literature/AnotherNote''. L's neglected [[BetaTestBaddie Backup]] turned SerialKiller. [[spoiler: He was born with the ability to see when everyone is going to die, he was raised at an orphanage, neglected by his role model, and saw his classmate commit suicide (and of course knew it would happen). He's batshit crazy and totally psychotic but ouch, he attempted to burn himself alive!]]

* ''{{Literature/Baccano}}'': hey, everyone, meet Czeslaw Meyer. A ReallySevenHundredYearsOld CrazySurvivalist who uses [[CuteShotaroBoy his appearance]] to manipulate people. Tried to get someone to kill dozens of people in the hope of finding one immortal. Is a CrazySurvivalist because [[spoiler:the guardian he'd trusted [[FateWorseThanDeath spent 200 years torturing him]] in every way he could think of, supposedly to "test the limits" of their immortality. Czes only escaped by ''eating him'', absorbing all his memories of gleefully tormenting the poor kid ForTheEvulz.]]

* Gilbert of ''Manga/KazeToKiNoUta''. He may be antagonistic and even violent toward Serge (especially in the beginning), but he sure went through a lot of crap in his life...

** Ryôga Hibiki has terrible luck, is cursed to assume the form of a [[BalefulPolymorph small, defenseless pig]] when he gets wet, has one of the worst ever seen cases of NoSenseOfDirection, the direction issues are inherited from both his parents and so he almost never sees his family, is a [[CourtlyLove dedicated romantic]], is too shy to even talk to other girls (despite the fact most would probably find him [[EstrogenBrigadeBait highly attractive]]), and the one girl he's in love with is engaged to someone else. He's also bad tempered and masquerade as her pet to get affection from her, even if it's only as her pet.

* Misa Amane from ''Manga/DeathNote''. If she weren't so damn amoral, she'd be a very sympathetic character - what with her ParentalAbandonment issues and her devotion to Light, which is both ''very'' crazy and ''very'' genuine. She, ultimately, is an aversion (at least to [[AmericansHateTingle American audiences]]), due to the fact that her abandonment issues are rarely focused on--rather, her bubbliness and cluelessness are.

* From DarkerThanBlack, [[TheHandler Huang]] [[spoiler:was a cop until his best friend was horribly killed... by the woman Huang loved, who he discovered had just been using him to get to said best friend. He was left with no choice but to join the Syndicate or have his memories wiped, which he feels would be like killing his friend all over again.]] Tis resulted in Huang being a [[NobleBigot bigotted]] {{jerkass}}, all things considered.

* Impmon from ''Anime/DigimonTamers'', to an extent. He starts out as TheImp, but later, his human-hating tendencies are explained by [[spoiler:the fact that he was fought over by his toddler Tamers, getting physically hurt.]] But it's not until he, unable to digivolve by traditional means, [[spoiler: makes a [[DealWithTheDevil rather shady deal]] with Chatsuramon, one of the Devas, that his true jerkass side shows. Of course, in order to be able to evolve, he has to kill the Tamers and their partners. He honors his deal by [[KilledOffForReal killing and absorbing Leomon]]]].He deserved a punch on the face. Also, a big hug.

** Her replacement, Teru Mikami, also qualifies. His backstory was ''really'' sad. And [[BullyHunter standing up to bullies]] as a teenager was very nice of him! Of course, it dulls the shine a bit that, oh, he was happy that his mother died, since she didn't want him to keep standing up to the bullies and getting into trouble for it.