History JerkassWoobie / AnimeAndManga

** Akane Tendô is [[NiceGirl a generally nice, placid]] GirlNextDoor who has [[OvershadowedByAwesome lost her position as the best martial artist around]], [[CantCatchUp seemingly irreversibly]], and been saddled [[ArrangedMarriage against her will]] with a fiancé who seems to enjoy hitting her most sensitive spots, like her "modest" figure (in comparison to [[GenderBender his]] own and those of her rivals) and her failure to become a YamatoNadeshiko which is one of her greatest wishes. On the other hand, she's prone to jabbing him where it hurts as well more than once and occasionally manipulating him for her own purposes, and [[ArmorPiercingSlap lashing out violently when he does something that she suspects]] is perverted...and she's so skittish that she has very little trust for him ''not'' to do something perverted.

*** Although he doesn't elicit too much sympathy while he has amnesia, and would be too nice to qualify even if he did, Weather Report becomes this once he gets his memories back and his backstory is learned. [[spoiler:Born Domenico Pucci and being SwitchedAtBirth by the Bluemarine family, the newly-christened Wes Bluemarine, despite his {{Jerkass}} tendencies, found love in one Perla Pucci, not realizing that [[BrotherSisterIncest she was his birth sister]]. Pucci knew who the two were and hired a private investigator to split the two up, but the investigator turned out to be a KKK member who proceeded to lynch Wes because he believed his adoptive black father was his birth father, which eventually caused Perla to be DrivenToSuicide when she believed he died. At this point, Wes lost all compassion due to losing the only woman he loved, awakened the Weather Report Stand, and vowed revenge against Pucci, only to be inflicted with LaserGuidedAmnesia by Whitesnake. Upon regaining his memories, he set out to finish what he started, not caring who gets hurt along the way, only for Wes to be murdered in cold blood by his long-lost and much-hated brother, with Anasui noting that Wes' death finally put his [[ByronicHero tormented soul]] at ease. And all this because he wasn't aware that his lover was actually his sister.]]

** Alois Trancy. Alois is possibly the one of the [[CreepyChild most disgusting children]] ever seen in anime, and, most of the time, you just want to punch him for being such an ass. But he had a legitimately horrifying backstory as [[spoiler: Jim Macken, an orpha who'd later become a SexSlave]], and ultimately [[spoiler: a heartbreaking death.]]

** Sofiya Irininskaya Pavlovena, alias Balalaika. Thanks to the Afghan War, the girl who UsedToBeASweetKid and wanted to become an olympic sniper ended up as a cynical, stylishly brutal Mafia queen and cold-hearted [[MagnificentBastard MagnificentBitch]]. She's also quite the MamaBear who shows no mercy to anyone who harms her subordinates, which proves that she's still human: those men are all she has anymore, so she protects them fiercely. [[spoiler:And yes, she's the one who has both Hansel and Gretel horribly killed. ''Because'' they killed a subordinate and tortured another to death.]]

* Arguably, LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya. She learns, rather painfully, that she isn't all that special, and in her quest to make her life special, goes on a hunt for aliens, time travellers, and [=ESPers=] after some inspiration from Kyon. This leads to her general sociopathy and her obsession with cosplaying Mikuru. Kyon says that, through her CharacterDevelopment, she's not exactly turning into a good person, but is ''returning'' to be [[UsedToBeASweetKid the kind kid she once used to be.]]

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Asuka Langley Soryuu may come across like an annoying brat initially, but she has an ''incredibly'' heartbreaking FreudianExcuse: When Asuka was very young, [[spoiler:her mother, Kyoko, went insane and ceased to recognize her as her daughter]]. When [[spoiler:Kyoko]] committed suicide, Asuka found her body, with [[spoiler:the doll Kyoko believed to be her own daughter]] hanged right beside her, in a sort of would-be murder-suicide. Her father seemingly never cared about [[spoiler:her mother]] or Asuka in the first place, and began having an affair with the head nurse in charge of her. So far in her life, the people she cared about either a) killed themselves or b) revealed that they didn't care at all. Asuka threw herself into learning how to pilot EVA-02 in a desperate attempt to earn affection from others. She also feels that anyone she cares about will leave her, so she developed a fake arrogant personality to [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex hide her real insecure self]] and push everyone away. [[FromBadToWorse And then the events of the series kicked in]]. Including the TropeNamer for MindRape. Then the second episode after the MindRape features Asuka [[spoiler:naked, hollow-cheeked, and lying in a tub]], well past the DespairEventHorizon, stating that she no longer has the will to live. The tub appears to be filled with a red liquid indicating that ''she tried to [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself]] by slitting her wrists''. Poor Asuka...And in ''End of Evangelion'', she finally gets to [[spoiler:see her mother inside Unit 02]] and feel love and acceptance from her... only to be shortly thereafter forced through the experience of [[spoiler:being {{eaten alive}} by the Mass Production Evas]].On the other hand, the story also [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructs]] the trope by showing that [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse just because you have a bad past, does not justify having a crappy attitude towards others and offloading your anger on others]], as the other characters get more and more fed up with the Jerkass half and stop caring about her as they have other things to worry about than her. In fact, the only person who cares about her in the end is [[spoiler:[[TheHero Shinji]]]], whom she [[UngratefulBitch still abuses]] when [[spoiler:[[TheEndoftheWorldasWeKnowIt Third Impact]]]] happens.

* ''LightNovel/SuteraretaYuushaNoEiyuutan'': Katsuragi Daichi is a somewhat pudgy high-schooler that begins the story with a rag shoved in his mouth, being literally used as a mop. This is a relatively benevolent day for him, as he spells out that he's been sent to the infirmary countless times, even with broken bones, yet the teachers and class president don't just ignore his plight, they "help" him by siding with the bullies, even going so far as to physically drag him out of his room and to class so the bullies can have their way. Then the goddess Clare summons the entire class, including himself, to the world of Rostalgia, where his situation hardly improves. Once the class has been magically inspected by King Ginger, he's shoved into the stables, left to his own devices, and treated with derision for failing to improve, even being called "The Useless Hero", while everyone else gets the VIP treatment. Upon their first foray into a dungeon, for live combat practice, Daichi puts himself at risk to save the whole class from their own folly, despite all the crap they put him through, only to find himself being set on fire, kicked down the stairs into the swarm of monsters, and having the exit magically sealed in his face. After waking up from being EatenAlive no less than five times, he finds a corpse of a classmate and his first thoughts are testing his new "Lich King" ability to resurrect, enslave, and exploit her.

* [[CuteBruiser Taiga Aisaka]] of ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}''. Her violent emotional mood swings and stature complex stem more [[ParentalAbandonment from having a broken family]] than romantic issues, making her a borderline BrokenBird and a walking {{Deconstruction}} of the popular {{Tsundere}} archetype. One could also reasonably argue that Taiga had become just a plain [[TheWoobie woobie]] by the end of the series.

** Yuri "Yurio" Plisetsky is a rude BrattyHalfPint whose treatment of Yuri Katsuki and Victor is sometimes sheer cruelty. He is also a very lonely kid who only got his first friend by the age of 15, is all but stated to have been raised solely by his grandfather (one of the few people he's affectionate to), is the sole provider for his family ''and'' is clearly aware that he's reaching a critical point in his career as a whole (he's going through puberty and is aware that the chances it'll bring to his body might ruin his [[{{Bishonen}} androgynous appeal]], which is one of his main catches as an figure skater), which explains his drive and sheer ''despair'' to win.

** 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 [[MrFanservice 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.

** Shampoo, particularly in the anime, genuinely loves and cares for Ranma, but gets little affection from him. Due to his HarmfulToMinors training and a BalefulPolymorph curse inflicted on her as punishment early in the series, he actually runs away from her quite frequently. She's also a stranger in a strange land and has no friends at all outside of Ranma and Mousse (Akane might have counted as well if she and Shampoo had not been rivals in love). However, she's also coldly efficient to the point of being frighteningly amoral, perfectly willing to kill off someone she considers an enemy, and her preferred victims are the aforementioned Mousse and Akane, treating the first with incredible cruelty and being determined to get rid of the latter (And even ''Ranma'' has been appalled at how badly she treats them).

* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'': Several characters act like jerks to Usagi, but qualify as this:
** Mamoru. When he first shows up, he acts like a jerk who takes pleasure calling Usagi an insulting nickname. But life has been cruel to him. A car crash on his sixth birthday killed his parents and left him with amnesia. He also doesn't have any friends at the start of the series (besides Motoki) because he doesn't have Usagi's way with people. Plus, even though he claims to be Sailor Moon's protector, he's often useless in battle and pretty weak compared to the Senshi. They get power-ups all the time while he's often the one who needs saving. The guy can't catch a break. He's a male hero in a WorldOfActionGirls, so it's hard not to pity him.
** Rei acts like a violent and angry bitch to Usagi, but it's often because she's frustrated about having to put up with someone so lazy, foolish and irresponsible. As sweet and lovable as Usagi is, someone like her could drive anyone crazy. Besides, Usagi has an ideal family life and plenty of friends, but Rei's mom is dead, her dad abandoned her at the shrine because he never really cared, and her classmates shunned her for being a weirdo with strange powers. Who can blame her for being a jerk? On top of all that, Rei was dating Mamoru until they found out about their past lives. She had to step aside just so her boyfriend could be with his true love from a past life.

** Jadeite fits, at least in the anime. The above examples [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold aren't totally heartless]], but Jadeite actually is an outright {{Jerkass}}, and not just to Usagi and not just because he's a villain. He's really sexist to the girls and doesn't care who he hurts while collecting energy. So why feel sorry for him? Well, in his final anime appearance, he learned the identities of Moon, Mercury and Mars, but before he could tell Queen Beryl and save himself, she gave him a FateWorseThanDeath by freezing him in crystal as punishment for his many failures.

** Maki Honoka, one of the Kiznas, is a brash, angry girl who and snarks at everybody. She is also [[spoiler:still grieving over her LostLenore, the IllGirl Ruru, who died after leaving her with the words that she will never let Maki move on from her, refusing herself to read the last chapter of the manga they were making together, even though that chapter was actually a letter to Maki to apologize and ask her to move on after her death]].

** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean]]'':

** Russia. A creepy, mentally unstable StepfordSmiler who [[PsychopathicManchild has fun]] terrifying and abusing his subordinates, especially TheWoobie, Lithuania...but the times we [[RussianGuySuffersMost seem him suffer]] are nothing short of heartbreaking, and he truly loves his ProneToTears older sister, Ukraine, as much as his insanity lets him and the pressure he puts on her. You also can't help but feel sorry for him as he's constantly being pursued by his even crazier sister Belarus (also an example of this trope, as seen below), who wants to marry him. Also, Himaruya's new profile on him points out that he truly wants to have new friends. However it won't happen in a long time, because he's so scary that he ends up driving away potential friends, and he's had bosses who tell him force is the best way to make friends.

[[folder:Ranma 1/2]]

[[folder:Hetalia Axis Powers]]

** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable]]'':

[[folder: Hetalia Axis Powers]]

[[folder: Naruto]]
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': many, if not ''most'', of Naruto's opponents over the course of the series, notably:

[[folder: One Piece]]

[[folder: Ranma 1/2]]

* To an extent, Caesar Zeppeli from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency''. At first he's really just a {{Jerkass}}, until he shows that he cares about Joseph/Jojo's survival [[spoiler: while hanging to the Hell Climb Pillar when the latter accidentally activates a trap (although Jojo mistakes his facial expression for resentment),]] and saving him not long after, cementing their friendship for good. TheWoobie element comes after Caesar gets in an argument with Jojo (briefly going back to his jerk self) and goes to face the baddies on his own, at which point Lisa Lisa tells Jojo of his difficult past and [[spoiler: how his father sacrificed himself to save him without even recognising him.]] Then, [[spoiler: while he has the upper hand on Wamuu, he does that one '''really''' [[NiceJobBreakingItHero stupid mistake]] that earns him an instant NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. As Wamuu (and the audience) thinks that he's going to die miserably, he uses his very last strengths to make an inspiring speech about the human spirit and to steal an item from Wammu that can save Jojo's life. And if one of the most magnificent deaths in the series didn't earn the viewers's sympathy, then Joseph's heartbroken reaction upon finding Caesar's remains ought to.]]

* To an extent, Caesar Zeppeli from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency''. At first he's really just a {{Jerkass}}, until he shows that he cares about Joseph/Jojo's survival [[spoiler: while hanging to the Hell Climb Pillar when the latter accidentally activates a trap (although Jojo mistakes his facial expression for resentment),]] and saving him not long after, cementing their friendship for good. TheWoobie element comes after Caesar gets in an argument with Jojo (briefly going back to his jerk self) and goes to face the baddies on his own, at which point Lisa Lisa tells Jojo of his difficult past and [[spoiler: how his father sacrificed himself to save him without even recognising him.]] Then, [[spoiler: while he has the upper hand on Wamuu, he does that one '''really''' [[NiceJobBreakingItHero stupid mistake]] that earns him an instant NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. As Wamuu (and the audience) thinks that he's going to die miserably, he uses his very last strengths to make an inspiring speech about the human spirit and to steal an item from Wammu that can save Jojo's life. And if one of the most magnificent deaths in the series didn't earn the viewers's sympathy, then Joseph's heartbroken reaction upon finding Caesar's remains ought to.]]

** Nagi somehow manages to earn the love and sympathy of the audience in spite of being a self-centered little brat. Maybe it's her adorably innocent CryCute moments.

* ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'': Shogun Iemitsu the Younger (or [[SheIsTheKing Lady Chie]], depending on who you ask). We first see her when the former buddhist monk Arikoto is presented to her, given a 'maidenly' name, and ''beaten about the head and face'' '''by''' ''her until he bleeds, for not answering to it fast enough''. However, even without factoring in the [[DeusAngstMachina improbable extent]] of her DarkAndTroubledPast, it becomes clear that she is, in truth, a prisoner in the Shogun's castle who has been stripped of both her name and, to a large degree, her gender as well. The closest thing to love she gets [[spoiler: [[AMatchMadeInStockholm before Arikoto comes into the picture]]]] is from someone who she knows [[LovingAShadow only sees the reflection]] of [[ChildByRape a father she never knew]] in her.

** Light Yagami himself also falls under this given his fear of death.

* Sakuya Ookochi from ''Manga/SensualPhrase'' is 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 ChildByRape, 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.

[[folder: Gundam]]

[[folder: Death Note]]

** There's also Mao, who takes this trope in a different direction. His personality is [[JerkAss abrasive]] and many of his actions are [[MoralEventHorizon utterly cruel]] but he [[OneSceneWonder still]] inspires sympathy from some measure of the viewers once they learn that he's essentially [[KiddieKid a child in the body of a seventeen-year-old]] who has [[MoralMyopia no sense of perspective whatsoever]], [[UnhappyMedium in constant pain]] [[BlessedWithSuck from his mind-reading Geass]], and abandoned by [[SingleTargetSexuality the one person]] who could interact with him at all normally (who is also [[LoveMartyr the only person he loves!]]) because he couldn't bring himself to [[spoiler:kill her and taking her immortality, and because she [[WhatAnIdiot actually thought that it was a good idea]] to leave him to live totally alone for the rest of his life.]] And all because he became an UnhappyMedium at the age of ''six!''

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Asuka Langley Soryuu may come across like an annoying brat initially, but she has an ''incredibly'' heartbreaking FreudianExcuse: When Asuka was very young, [[spoiler:her mother, Kyoko, went insane and ceased to recognize her as her daughter]]. When [[spoiler:Kyoko]] committed suicide, Asuka found her body, with [[spoiler:the doll Kyoko believed to be her own daughter]] hanged right beside her, in a sort of would-be murder-suicide. Her father seemingly never cared about [[spoiler:her mother]] or Asuka in the first place, and began having an affair with the head nurse in charge of her. So far in her life, the people she cared about either a) killed themselves or b) revealed that they didn't care at all. Asuka threw herself into learning how to pilot EVA-02 in a desperate attempt to earn affection from others. She also feels that anyone she cares about will leave her, so she developed a fake arrogant personality to [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex hide her real insecure self]] and push everyone away. [[FromBadToWorse And then the events of the series kicked in]]. Including the TropeNamer for MindRape. Then the second episode after the MindRape features Asuka [[spoiler:naked, hollow-cheeked, and lying in a tub]], well past the DespairEventHorizon, stating that she no longer has the will to live. The tub appears to be filled with a red liquid indicating that ''she tried to [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself]] by slitting her wrists''. Poor Asuka...And in ''End of Evangelion'', she finally gets to [[spoiler:see her mother inside Unit 02]] and feel love and acceptance from her... only to be shortly thereafter forced through the experience of [[spoiler:being {{eaten alive}} by the Mass Production Evas]].On the other hand, the story also [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructs]] the trope by showing that just because you have a bad past, does not justify having a crappy attitude towards others and offloading your anger on others, as the other characters get more and more fed up with the Jerkass half and stop caring about her as they have other things to worry about than her. In fact, the only person who cares about her in the end is [[spoiler:[[TheHero Shinji]]]], whom she [[UngratefulBitch still abuses]] when [[spoiler:[[TheEndoftheWorldasWeKnowIt Third Impact]]]] happens.

** Yuri "Yurio" Plisetsky is a rude BrattyHalfPint whose treatment of Yuuri and Victor is sometimes sheer cruelty. He is also a very lonely kid who only got his first friend by the age of 15, is all but stated to have been raised solely by his grandfather (one of the few people he's affectionate to), is the sole provider for his family ''and'' is clearly aware that he's reaching a critical point in his career as a whole (he's going through puberty and is aware that the chances it'll bring to his body might ruin his [[{{Bishonen}} androgynous appeal]], which is one of his main catches as an ice skater), which explains his drive and sheer ''despair'' to win.
** Jean-Jacques might be an InsufferableGenius who makes sure to guarantee everybody knows he is, or at least sees himself as, better than everybody else, but in episode 11 [[spoiler:the pressure of the Grand Prix Finals finally gets to him. His fear of the younger, more talented skaters and the older, more experienced ones, together with the amount of pressure he puts in himself, leads him to fumble all his jumps and eventually get a score so low, he can no longer win. Yet, all his fans and specially his girlfriend keep cheering him on and screaming his name even after his low score.]]

* The Makaiju tree and the aliens it created. It created a race of children so it wouldn't be alone but the race soon fell into warfare and self-destruction. The tree took its remaining loyal followers to find a new home but it was too weak to speak or create new followers, watching as the aliens died one by one until Ail and An were the only ones left. As a result, Ail and An grew up without love and were misguided in thinking the tree needed energy to survive when in reality, it needed love.

* Nao Yuuki of the ''Anime/MyHime'' anime. She's quite bitter towards others, uses her Child for selfish purposes, acts hostile toward Mai merely for being well-liked for caring for Takumi, and tends to cooperate only when she enjoys it rather than out of a sense of right and wrong. During the Hime Carnival, after [[spoiler:her eye gets put out by accident]], she [[DisproportionateRetribution swears revenge]] and [[spoiler:tries to kidnap Takumi via RevengeByProxy, indirectly causing his death, and tries kidnapping Natsuki twice]]. However, it's later revealed that [[spoiler: her father is dead and her mother is comatose (causing her desire to seek vengeance on perverts)]], and after [[spoiler:Nao's child is destroyed, killing her mother, and Shizuru is about to finish off Nao]], Natsuki intervenes and says that if she had not met people like Shizuru, [[NotSoDifferent she might have turned out the same way]], showing that, in spite of Nao's bitter and selfish attitude, she has suffered quite a bit and is ultimately human. By that point, [[spoiler: Nao is a complete wreck, and ends up weeping hot bullet tears for her now dead mother.]]

** There's also Emil, a blind girl who was taken in and exploited by the keepers of the Wuthering Heights inn, and [[spoiler:also formed a bond with the Gaichuu Laphroiag, using him to devour the hearts of her employers and many other people]]. As much as Zazie wants to stop her, [[spoiler:particularly because Laphroiag ate his parents' hearts]], he also sympathizes with her [[NotSoDifferent because of their similar circumstances]] [[OrphansOrdeal as orphans]].

%%Good Evening Editors, If you wish to add more woobies, please consult the cleanup thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15391212720A38366900&page=1

* Reika of ''LightNovel/GoshuushouSamaNinomiyaKun'' is an arrogant {{Tsundere}} who frequently hits Shungo, but she also harbors feelings for him and frequently angsts over whether or not he likes her back. She has so much insecurity over her love for Shungo that she develops an alternate personality that comes out and attempts to rape Shungo in an attempt to convey her feelings to him.