History SeriousBusiness / AnimeAndManga

* In ''Manga/AiKora'', quite a number of characters seem to take their personal fetishes far too seriously (including Hachibei Maeda, the protagonist!) Chapter 42 involves Maeda butting heads with a band of militant {{meganekko}} fetishists, who are up in arms over a fake glasses fad and go around breaking the glasses of "false" meganekko. And according to chapter 45, ''pantyhose'' is serious business.

* Aito of ''Manga/TheComicArtistAndHisAssistants'' and his panty shots, the latter of which is the ''sole'' reason why he became a SequentialArtist. A more specific example exists in the ''Panty Wars'' skit, when he, upon reading arguments comparing the two main types of panty shots, ''panchira''[[note]]showing just a small portion of the panties[[/note]] and ''panmoro''[[note]]a full view of the panties[[/note]], he realized by mainly drawing ''panmoro'', he was basically portraying his female characters as [[MyGirlIsNotASlut sluts]].

* Aito of ''Manga/TheComicArtistAndHisAssistants'' and his {{Panty Shot}}s, the latter of which is the ''sole'' reason why he became a SequentialArtist. A more specific example exists in the ''Panty Wars'' skit, when he, upon reading arguments comparing the two main types of Panty Shots, ''panchira''[[note]]showing just a small portion of the panties[[/note]] and ''panmoro''[[note]]a full view of the panties[[/note]], he realized by mainly drawing ''panmoro'', he was basically portraying his female characters as [[MyGirlIsNotASlut sluts]].

* In one episode of ''Manga/DMonsterMusume'', an Ork radical group [[DieHardOnAnX forcefully takes over a bookstore and starts a hostage situation]]... and the group demands that in order for them to let the hostages go Light Novels and Anime must start to be written with more Ork protagonists. [[ComicallySmallDemand That is literally their only demand]]. [[DisappointedByTheMotive The police commissioner gets a conniption when he hears this.]]

-->'''Luffy:''' This flag is a promise of life. You don't fly it lightly!!! '''''IT'S NOT SOMETHING TO BE LAUGHED AT OR SHOT AT!!!'''''

** In Sinnoh Ash and co met up with a villain who was willing to turn weapons and Pokemon on humans, as well as deal with the issue of Pokemon poaching and kidnapping. Hunter J was by far one of the more terrifying villains, and show that there are people in the Pokemon universe who are evil, practical and downright ruthless (which is a stark contrast to the hilarious Rocket trio, who half the time forget they're even villains, at least before they TookALevelInBadass in ''Best Wishes''-but even then, they don't come close to her). Even more so was that she had the same reason as Rocket: To kidnap rare and powerful Pokemon to sell to the highest bidder. Unlike the Rocket Trio, she succeeded most of the time.

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', food is serious business. Seriously. Gigantic supermonsters that could level cities are hunted by warriors, not for the treasure they might guard, but because they're insanely delicious. Gourmet meals can cost billions, if not trillions, of yen, and they have special jails dedicated just for food related crimes. Including dine and dash.
** The reason for this? It's because with [[AppliedPhlebotinum Gourmet Cells]], people can gain super powers by consistently eating their favorite foods, and from eating certain ultra-rare foods, and a centuries long war was once stopped by a legendary chef who created the ultimate food, called [[spoiler: God.]]

** Manjoume's brothers in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' outright state that Duel Monsters is one of the three pillars of society alongside politics and business. In other words, a [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries children's card game]] has replaced religion as one of the pillars of society.

* This is true of the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' universe, with its hospitals, schools, and criminal organizations centered around Pokémon.

* ''Anime/KazemakaseTsukikageRan'': Ran almost started a fight over watered down sake. She says it's as precious as blood.

* "Immortal" Tatsu, an ex-Yakuza turned HouseHusband in ''Manga/WayOfTheHouseHusband,'' takes his domestic duties INCREDIBLY seriously, to the point where he will flat-out ignore armed gangsters trying to kill him in order to make it to a massive sale, cleaning house for guests is treated with the same seriousness and attention to detail as cleaning up the scene of a murder, and accidentally walking into the women's changing room results in him willingly offering himself up for ritual execution to make up for his "disgraceful conduct."

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', when Mikage asked Moe, the local SweetBaker, to teach her chocolate making in the ninth episode, the latter gets very excited as she eagerly gives Mikage a rapid-fire lecture about how to make chocolate. Mikage initially sees it as this trope, and then realizes that's how she herself comes across to others when talking about rocks -- she's a big geology nut.

* In ''Manga/AiKora'', quite a number of characters seem to take their personal fetishes far too seriously (including the protagonist!) Chapter 42 involves Maeda butting heads with a band of militant {{meganekko}} fetishists, who are up in arms over a fake glasses fad and go around breaking the glasses of "false" meganekko. And according to chapter 45, ''pantyhose'' is serious business.

* In one episode of ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'', an Ork radical group [[DieHardOnAnX forcefully takes over a bookstore and starts a hostage situation]]... and the group demands that in order for them to let the hostages go Light Novels and Anime must start to be written with more Ork protagonists. [[ComicallySmallDemand That is literally their only demand]]. [[DisappointedByTheMotive The police commissioner gets a conniption when he hears this.]]

* ''WebComic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': "Whether it be games or cleaning, it's Serious Business to me!"

* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar:''

* ''Manga/{{Kurogane2011}}'': A manga based around the INTENSE world of HighSchool UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}} where success in matches, tournaments and major life decisions are usually determined due to FlawExploitation, HyperAwareness and the occasional advice from [[SpiritAdvisor samurai ghosts]].

* {{Hachimaki}} are SeriousBusiness in the world of ''Anime/AfroSamurai'', with the Number One headband apparently conferring the powers and responsibilities of a God, and only the Number Two headband has the right to challenge the holder of the Number One headband.

*** It's later revealed that [[TheVerse in-universe]] [[spoiler:the technology developed for Air Trecks was integrated into ''everything'', from transportation to weapons technology, and the [[MacGuffin Sky Regalia]] is a universal remote that would allow the owner, for example, to control the world's nuclear weapons stockpiles.]] So yes, SeriousBusiness. This of course makes the entire thing seem somehow even ''more'' ridiculous when one realizes that someone, somewhere decided to make the key to ruling the world ''being good at inline skates''.

* We all know that Tests in RealLife are SeriousBusiness. In ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts''? ''Waaaaaaaaaay'' too serious.

* ''Manga/BlueExorcist'' has an overly [[SeriousBusiness dramatic cooking fight]] in [[{{Filler}} Episode 6]].
* The Delta Force class (''especially'' Touma, Aogami, and Tsuchimikado) in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' take SeriousBusiness UpToEleven. Seeing Komoe-sensei shed a tear? Go pull off an all-out war in a a school festival! No more food in the cafeteria because the class was dismissed late? Organize a small scale break out so some members can go get some food from a local store. Someone mention Nabe? Let's all go out too eat~!

** Come to think of it, Haruhi takes everything this way, game or no. Which makes it SeriousBusiness for the rest of the SOS Brigade: if losing a baseball game means Haruhi will throw a world-destroying sulk, that really does up the ante.

* As ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' advances its plot, it seems the butler career becomes more and more SeriousBusiness. The bare minimum seems to be equivalent to applying for a shounen fighting manga's character job. Props if you also have a FinishingMove.

* ''WebComic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': "Whether it be games or cleaning, it's SeriousBusiness to me!"

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Martial arts is serious enough in real life, but when you have martial arts tea ceremonies, martial arts take out races, martial arts cooking, and many, [[MartialArtsAndCrafts many, many others]], you know it must be SeriousBusiness.

** And in ''Manga/TheLegendOfKoizumi'' mahjong is ''even more'' SeriousBusiness. World politics are decided by secret high-stakes Mahjong games.

** The GUN BATTLE OF DEATH. The stakes? Who gets to choose the event for the culture festival. Guns. Blood. Death. Culture Festival is SeriousBusiness.

* Bread is treated as SeriousBusiness in ''Manga/YakitateJapan'', although given the wondrous properties of the hero's ''own'' bread, (including the ability to rearrange the fabric of reality and send people back in time), perhaps this shouldn't be surprising.

** ''GX's'' protagonist Judai attempts time and again to convince his opponents that their reasons for getting into the game are wrong, and need to remember that the main point of the game is to have fun. Pretty amusing when you consider that ''these people go to a prestigious boarding school for the sole purpose of learning how to play it better''. Judai [[DeconstructorFleet eventually stops enjoying the game]] in Season 4 after spending most of Season 3 playing with his and/or other's lives at stake. The two-part finale, after all the villains have been defeated, consists of him regaining the sense of fun he'd lost...[[spoiler: by going ''back in time'' to duel Yugi]]. After all the life and death battles in the previous two seasons fought using Duel Monsters, Judai plays with [[spoiler:Yugi]] with nothing at stake - the victor of the duel wasn't shown, but it's clear that what mattered was that Judai had a good time, and had a burden lifted off his shoulders as a result.

* While the game itself isn't an incredible amount more popular (possibly unintentionally) than current MMO's are, The World in ''Anime/DotHackSign'' has players who take it a ''little'' too seriously sometimes. Especially groups like the Crimson Knights, who are becoming thuggish police types in a video game. The serious business was probably more obvious when the show was new and MMO's did not have nearly as high a number of player bases and twenty million seemed an absurd number. Though it's the only big MMO in the setting. There are other small ones, but they never took off. A past super virus wiped out every operating system except Altimat, and as The World came with Altimat, everyone with a computer had the game.
** With the exception of the super virus, that still sounds like TruthInTelevision. [=WoW=] is so popular that all other [=MMOs=] could be called "other small ones" by comparison.
** Assuming that the World from the anime doesn't play like the World from the videogame sequel, one might be able to understand the game's popularity. It seems to be a fully virtual world with rather realistic interactions, not to mention use of Occulus Rift esque headsets (long before the Occulus Rift was even a thing).
** All that aside, it's partially justified in ''SIGN'''s case; for Tsukasa, it really ''is'' a matter of life or death.
* ''WebComic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': "Whether it be games or cleaning, it's SeriousBusiness to me!"
** A lot of characters have this, despite Germany being the worst: [[TheDitz Italy]], [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld China]] and [[LovableSexManiac France]] are a little too obsessed with [[ForeignQueasine food]], England's got [[CoolChair Busby's Chair]], and... well, anything [[LoveFreak America]] does, really.
** [[TheGambler Monaco]] bets dates on TabletopGame/{{Poker}} while loudly proclaiming that she's "very strong" and laughing.
* Parodied and inverted in ''Manga/DetroitMetalCity'', where music fans assume that the titular band has demonic power over the universe, commit terrorist crimes and that the lead singer is a god. None of that is true whatsoever, but the band's fans act as if it was. On a smaller scale, the police assume that DMC is the root of all crime in the area.
** The band Helvete actually does what DMC claims to do, their fans even ''blew up buildings'' for them.
* ''Manga/DGrayMan'''s Kanda is willing to fight his way through the entire staff of the Black Order to fix his SlipknotPonytail after Bookman steals his hair tie. There is epic posing and BattleAura involved.
* Gil from ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' removes the PowerLimiter on an EldritchAbomination to get [[NiceHat his hat]] back. The EldritchAbomination in question was engaged in an arm-wrestling match at the time.
* We all know that Tests in RealLife are SeriousBusiness. In ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts''? ''Waaaaaaaaaay'' too serious.
** Similarly, in one episode of ''Anime/MagicalWitchPuniechan'', Punie threatens to blow up the solar system if she fails a test.
* ''P2! Let's Play Ping Pong!'' is a manga where... well, you can [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin probably guess]] what's Serious Business there.
* Smiles in ''Anime/{{Grenadier}}''. If Rushuna's got a dirty look on her face, and informs you that you're not getting a smile, '''''Run'''''.
** Truth be told, you really have to push Rushuna extremely far for her to stop smiling.
* In ''Manga/{{Nononono}}'', ski jumping is apparently a very important sport in Japan--important enough to have masses of people threaten the safety of an athlete and his family for not winning a medal.
* In the Nue arc of ''Anime/{{Mononoke}}'', "The 'Hearing' of Incense" is such serious business that a game where the players try to determine minute differences between pieces of incense made from the same type of tree is used to to decide whose marriage proposal is accepted!


* ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'': Ike planning a theme park trip. That is serious business. Overlaps with MundaneMadeAwesome.

* In ''Anime/SummerWars'', the Japanese card game Hanafuda is used to decide marriages and fight the BigBad using {{Cyberspace}} accounts to set the stakes.
** Justified, like with many examples, as said big bad used its influence to access the world's collective nuclear pile, making the situation rather serious.
* Strawberry Cake is VERY serious especially the ''Strawberry'' on top, just ask [[Manga/KOn Mio, Yui]], [[Manga/{{Nichijou}} another Mio]], [[Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei Chiri]], [[Manga/FairyTail Erza]], [[{{Manga/Yotsuba}} Yotsuba and Mrs. Ayase]].
* To ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'''s Sky High, birthday parties are ''very'' serious business.
-->'''Sky High:''' Thanks to you, our surprise party was ruined. ''[[BewareOfTheNiceOnes I worked hard to remember my lines.]]''
* Sawako of ''Manga/KimiNiTodoke'' and Erza from ''Manga/FairyTail'' take everything seriously.
* In the manga ''Manga/GambleFish'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin gambling]] is SERIOUS BUSINESS. In a prestigious private [[HighSchool school]], once main character Shirasagi Tomu enters, it descends into the the insanity of gambling, where people not only bet millions of yen, but even ''body parts''. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis In. A.]] ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis School]]''.
* In ''Manga/KOn'', cake is very serious business.
** And light music, naturally.
* Makoto from ''Manga/WanderingSon'' takes female clothing ''very'' seriously.
* ''Anime/KazemakaseTsukikageRan'': Ran almost started a fight over watered down sake. She says it's as precious as blood.
* ''LightNovel/BenTo'': Half-priced bentos are ''VERY'' serious to the point there is all out war, and rules regarding combat.
* An example predating many of these: In ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', racing is serious business. Lots of drivers play rough and several people are rammed off the road to their deaths over the course of the show.
* Sora from ''Manga/FamilyCompo'' takes manga making very serious. It's his job and all, but sometimes he seems a bit extreme.
* ''Anime/{{Scan2 Go}}'', a car-racing toy, is taken ''way'' too seriously by the main characters considering that, even in-universe, [[MerchandiseDriven they are just toy cars]]. The fact that HotBlooded main character Kaz Gordon takes it way too seriously and doesn't know how to relax is depicted as a character flaw.
--> "Do not underestimate [=Scan2go!=]"
* In the anime of ''Anime/PhantasyStarOnline2'', the [[VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2 eponymous MMORPG]] has become so popular and widespread in Japanese society that the student council of Seiga Academy study it and submit reports on it in order to better understand and interact with the student body: as such, Itsuki Tachibana's primary duty as the student council's vice president is to ''play [=PSO2=]'' and write about it. This stems from the council president Rina Izumi's belief that [=PSO2=] sits on the cutting edge of communication technology, and with the school's administration looking into banning the game from campus, she is determined to convince them that the game is not detrimental to academic performance, since banning the game would constitute a severe breach of student privacy.

* ''[[Anime/VariableGeo Variable Geo]]'' takes the trope to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literal extremes.]]
** The plot centers on an official tournament for [[WorldOfActionGirls combat waitresses]], who are competing for the ultimate prize: 10 million yen, a choice piece of prime real estate, and a year's worth of free advertising for their establishment.
** What's more, VG is such a big deal, that some of the participants even have corporate sponsors, and multi-national conglomerates have stock market shares in the tournament. And one scene shows that the Prime Minister, himself, takes time out of his schedule to watch VG matches!
* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'' human media is a strictly regulated commodity among the various races of the Cthulhu mythos, complete with smuggling rings to get around the limitations on how much can be taken at a given time. It's serious enough that [[spoiler:some MoralGuardians want to destroy the Earth to protect their races from the media]].
* In ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'', shopping is serious business for Iona, dragging Hime to the cheapest grocery store possible and still using coupons. When an angry Hime calls her a "scrooge" over her penny pinching (which was kicked off because she was refused a snack food), she flips out and says it's "economical".
* In ''LightNovel/GonnaBeTheTwinTail'', the main character Mitsuka Souji treats girl's twintails as serious business, since he has a fetish for them. While his friend Aika is exasperated and wishes he were more normal, it turns out to be valid, as certain invaders from another world can steal various fetishes from people (especially twintails) and use them to gain enough strength to conquer.
* Used a few times in ''Anime/GirlsBeyondTheWasteland'':
** Atomu is initially rejected since he doesn't have any particular talents. He then starts ranting about how some girl turned him down after asking to meet him, and develops a dark BattleAura. Sayuki then decides to let him manage the club.
** Sayuki telling Buntarou that she's putting him on lockdown, complete with a helicopter flying behind her as she calls him over the phone to tell him.
* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar:''
** Kaguya and Shirogane turn pretty much everything into mind battles, from Old Maid, discussing where to go on vacation, to exchanging LINE [=IDs=]. All in the name of forcing each other to confess their love.
** There's a running subplot involving the Four Ramen Emperors of Tokyo, who treat eating ramen as a matter of life and death.
* ''Manga/{{Keijo}}'' is a pro sport where the competing girls try to push each other off a platform and into the water using their butts and boobs. Despite the seemingly silly premise, the heavy amount of betting involved has driven up the prize money, so the competitors tend to take it '''very''' seriously and people have been known to die in the ring.
* Some of the villains-of-the-week in ''Manga/CityHunter'' are willing to rob, maim, kidnap, and murder to get to the top of the bloodthirsty, cutthroat professional worlds of... bikini design, children's book illustration, and wine tasting.
* In ''Manga/QQSweeper'' cleaning can save people's lives, so Kyuutaro and Fumi have to be really good at it and know exactly how to do so.
* In ''Manga/{{Kakegurui}}'' gambling is very, ''very'' serious business. A person's standing in school is entirely dependent on how much they can win (and how much they can afford to pay to the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil), with even the simplest of games of chance being determined by [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame wagers of millions of yen.]]
* "Immortal" Tatsu, an ex-Yakuza turned HouseHusband in ''Manga/WayOfTheHouseHusband,'' takes his domestic duties INCREDIBLY seriously, to the point where he will flat-out ignore armed gangsters trying to kill him in order to make it to a massive sale, cleaning house for guests is treated with the same seriousness and attention to detail as cleaning up the scene of a murder, and accidentally walking into the women's changing room results in him willingly offering himself up for ritual execution to make up for his "disgraceful conduct."
* Surprisingly ''averted'' in ''Manga/FoodWars'':
** While cooking is incredibly serious business within Tootsuki, it is recognized that gourmet food is a niche interest outside that limited sphere, and the people who take it seriously do so because they are within that niche, but most of the world couldn't care less.
** Even the most obsessive cooks never consider cooking to be a goal in itself, but always have another goal in mind and consider food to be a stepping stone towards that goal.
** The ones that actually do consider food to be the most important thing in existence (Eishi, Azami, [[spoiler: young Joichirou, Akira during his tenure at Central]]) are seen as maladjusted at best, and teetering on the brink of insanity at worst. Soma, the most competitive of the lot, at one points stands to lose his culinary career, but rather sanguinely points out that as a driven, reasonably intelligent sixteen-year-old, he could do a lot of other things with his life than cook, and losing his chosen career would be a heavy blow but hardly a crippling one.
* In ''Anime/{{Aggretsuko}}: A Very Metal Christmas'', Fenneko and Tsunoda get ''really intense'' about Retsuko's Instagram feed. In opposite directions.
-->'''Fenneko:''' [[NotSoStoic Instagram is EATING HER SOUL!]]\\
'''Tsunoda:''' Every time you post a cute picture to social media, you're helping to make the world a better place! [glares] You ''do'' want to make the world a better place, right? [takes a selfie] I'm such a giver.
* A lot of humor and much of the plot of ''Manga/PrisonSchool'' is derived from people taking things way too seriously instead of acting like normal people.
** Gackt agrees to help Kiyoshi break out of prison temporarily so Kiyoshi will pick up a limited edition figurine for him while on the outside. Gackt wants the figurine so much that he soils himself in public just to get the sound of him soiling himself as part of the escape plan.
** When the boys are pleading with the headmaster to give them time to come up with a defense so they won't be expelled, Kyoshi gives an impassioned speech about why asses are better than boobs, completely winning the headmaster over.
** Gackt is able to convince the boys to help their hated enemies the shadow student council against the regular student council by revealing that the regular council's school fare will not have a wet t-shirt contest, unlike the shadow council's.
* In ''Anime/JewelpetSunshine'', Jasper's TrademarkFavoriteFood is curry, but he enjoys it without anything else on it. Saying you enjoy curry with extra soy sauce or any other additional sauce or topping within earshot of Jasper ''will'' make him angry. An entire episode is dedicated to a fight between Jasper and one of the human students of Sunshine Academy based ''solely on their opinions regarding how to eat curry''.

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* In ''LightNovel/VioletEvergarden'', writing letters through the use of ghostwriters becomes very serious business. When two royals are arranged to be married, their correspondence is put on display for the public to admire and discuss, letter by letter. A soldier in a war zone sends for a ghostwriter to write a letter back home. Ghostwriters are used to write letters for a whole town, to be dropped from a plane so that everyone gets a random letter to read. Ghostwriters seem to be present for anything important.
* The ''Anime/RedLine race''. {{Justified|Trope}} because the betting and advertising make a ton of money, and according to Lynchman 'there's enough money riding on this race to buy several planets!'
* To Tomoki in ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'', everything perverted is extremely serious business. To the extent of spending half a year building a system that would allow him to monitor the best peeping spots in the city without leaving his room and using a ''[[KillSat Peeping Satellite]]'' for a similar purpose. He actually almost won a wrestling tournament through sheer pervertedness.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
** In the world where the game takes place, especially the sequel ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', the card game of "[[Anime/YuGiOh Duel Monsters]]" is a global phenomenon. National tournaments, academies, politics, etc. all revolve around a fairly simple collectible card game. And this isn't even including the mystical occult properties, known only to a few: that ''Duel Monsters'' is actually based on magical games powerful ancient Egyptians used to play. [[spoiler:From the latter part of the first series onward and in every subsequent series to date, ''Duel Monsters'' becomes a ''CosmicKeystone'' or a method of manipulating one.]] Should children really be playing this card game?
** The main villain of the Battle City arc is fond of ''making'' the game serious with human lives at stake. Furthermore, during the Battle City tournament, two people were struck by lightning and no less than four people fell into comas after they lost their duels, one of which was almost fatal. However, all Kaiba and his lackeys care about is continuing the tournament.
** ''GX's'' protagonist Judai attempts time and again to convince his opponents that their reasons for getting into the game are wrong, and need to remember that the main point of the game is to have fun. Pretty amusing when you consider that ''these people go to a prestigious boarding school for the sole purpose of learning how to play it better''. Judai [[DeconstructorFleet eventually stops enjoying the game]] in Season 4 after spending most of Season 3 playing with his and/or other's lives at stake. The two-part finale, after all the villains have been defeated, consists of him regaining the sense of fun he'd lost...[[spoiler: by going ''back in time'' to duel Yugi]]. After all the life and death battles in the previous two seasons fought using Duel Monsters, Judai plays with [[spoiler:Yugi]] with nothing at stake - the victor of the duel wasn't shown, but it's clear that what mattered was that Judai had a good time, and had a burden lifted off his shoulders as a result.
** The English dub for ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' lampshades this at one point. Manjoume is upset because he's being upstaged by a new guy (Amon) who's absurdly wealthy.
--> '''Manjoume:''' Who cares if he's better looking and so what if he's richer than I am. I'm really good at playing card games! And that's what life is ''really'' all about, anyway!
** In the [[Manga/YuGiOhGX manga version of GX]], even Judai finds it odd that Misawa wants to duel him for Asuka's mobile number, something he's have been glad to simply ''give'' him. (Misawa has a crush on her and thinks they're an item; they aren't.)
** In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Duel Monsters has justification for being so important: Duels create the energy that fuel the world. This essentially equates to perpetual energy for anything with Momentum built into it just so long as duels keep happening and is especially helpful when evading authorities.
** When Lucciano and Jose confess to playing a part in the murder of Sherry's parents, Sherry and her butler Mizoguchi angrily try to attack them with hand-to-hand combat. The two villains, while easily warding off their attacks, at first get confused why they are attacking them, then get fed up and easily beat them down, then tell them they have to duel if they actually want to accomplish anything.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' has a card called "Numeron Code" that created all of reality. Card games are also used to decide the fate of three different universes, but in the end it was mainly on account of the villains being that crazy rather than card games being that important.
** In one episode, Anna tries to get revenge on Yuma for supposedly standing her up (it turned out to be a case of MistakenIdentity). Despite being strong enough to punch through concrete and wielding a massive cannon, she agrees to settle the matter in a duel when Yuma suggests it. Kotori even says that doesn't make any sense.
** StopHavingFunGuys like Seto Kaiba and Siegfried often mock Jonouchi for using luck-based cards, claiming that he's not a ''real'' duelist. At one point in ''5Ds'', Kiryu uses a luck-based card, and Yusei starts flipping out and asking what he's doing. Kiryu tells him to "Relax, it's just a duel".
** In ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'', the protagonist Yuya Sakaki dedicated his life to his father's philosophy that dueling is all about having fun and entertaining the audience. When he learns of other worlds where people conduct warfare and hurt each other by beating them in duels (losers get sealed in cards, the monsters are solid and can hurt you), the concept is almost inconceivable to him. Then it gets more serious than ever. The rulers of the Fusion Dimension seems to have its sights on conquering the other dimensions, and has nearly succeeded doing so to the Xyz Dimension. Duel Monsters has become so serious [[SillyReasonForWar that an interdimensional war is being waged over]] ''[[SillyReasonForWar which Extra Deck Monster is superior.]]'' [[WarIsHell And the]] [[FantasticRacism results]] [[ChildSoldier are not]] [[ShellShockedVeteran pretty.]]
** The Synchro Dimension's society is built on winners and losers. The rich are vastly more powerful and have more say, and Commons are poor and oppressed. People of all kinds will be tossed away by society if they lose duels and, in the case of the Friendship Cup, are even being forced into slavery. At one point, Yuya says they should stop dueling and look for Yuzu after she and her motorcycle crashed into a building and has not been seen since, bringing up that she would likely need serious and immediate medical attention. Shinji tells him that no one will listen to him unless he wins duels and proves his worth, because dueling and winning are just that important here.
** On a more personal level, Yusaku, the main character of ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'', treats Dueling not as a form of competitive sport and entertainment, but as a means to eliminate (or even potentially kill) those who are getting in his way, especially the Knights of Hanoi [[spoiler:(for [[DarkAndTroubledPast ruining his childhood]])]]. Fans noted that Yusaku is [[ContrastingSequelMainCharacter the complete opposite of Yuya]]: driven by [[UnstoppableRage rage]] and [[PowerOfHate hatred]], prioritizes RevengeBeforeReason and [[{{Foil}} embraces brutality over entertainment]].
** Manjoume's brothers in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' outright state that Duel Monsters is one of the three pillars of society alongside politics and business. In other words, a [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries children's card game]] has replaced religion as one of the pillars of society.
* Manga/{{Akagi}} breaks people's ''minds'' by playing TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}}. The fact that there is an extreme amount of money riding on each game probably helps, as does the fact that he is effectively playing semi-legal gambling games with mobsters, who ''do'' in fact murder people in real life over not paying debts created by rigging or attempting to rig games of skill or chance.
* ''Manga/InitialD'': Street racing + Serious Business. That some people get like this in real life just makes it all the more hilarious.
* ''Manga/MyNeighborSeki'' is a gag manga about a boy who gets invested in his games to the point of crying and freaking out, and a girl with ''a lot'' of imagination, treating everything as incredible, even if we're talking about a cactus plushie or Othello. It was bound to happen.
* One of the main charming quirks of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is how it presents utterly ridiculous concepts, takes them very seriously and [[ItMakesSenseInContext actually makes them genuinely feel serious]]. As an example there are serious, life-threatening battles involving things like betting the characters' souls on a baseball video game and [[RuleOfCool playing a game of deadly rock-paper-scissors while flying high above a town with high speed WITH NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER.]]
** Gambling on video games actually makes perfect sense. Terrence D'Arby is a man in his 20's who's ''really, really good'' at video games. Since nearly all his opponents are not (especially since this was a time when it was largely considered a kiddie fad), if they have no choice but to fight on his terms (or else lose an ally's soul and possibly their own), that gives him a huge advantage. Any time life and death is involved, Serious Business is a given.
* In ''Franchise/{{Beyblade}}'', the sport of beyblading itself. It seems like if anyone wants to TakeOverTheWorld, they have to do it with duelling tops.
** It is not so much the tops as the [[{{Mon}} artificial or spiritual entities of animals inside]] that allow the tops to pack as much yield as a nuclear bomb without the nasty side effects. As powerful as ''that'' and they are exclusively put in ''spinning tops'' used by ''children'' to win a ''game''. Even in the story's own history, they're always said to have been used for actual combat and ''wars'' prior to the days of modern beyblading.
** Even without the "take over the world" angle, the sport of beyblading is able to fill stadiums specifically built for it, so there is some serious money there.
** The first season provides the [[UpToEleven ultimate example]] with the PPB, the institution training the US national team... That is literally ''BackedByThePentagon '''[[UpToEleven and]]''' [[UpToEleven the NASA]]''. Seriously. It was so bad that the BBA Team (including the member who would later ''put down his life'' to try and win a particularly important match) called them out on it...
** The visuals for one scene imply that in the Beyblade universe, ''Moses parted Red Sea'' using a Beyblade.
* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'' there are luxurious underground gambling clubs for chess, frequented by millionaires, Mafia bosses and the like. Bring your own extremely expensive chess board and bet a fortune.
** Averted. The gambling club was not for chess specifically. There were lots of different games available. Chess just happened to be Lelouch's game of choice, so it received the most attention.
** Also: using a giant robot to make pizza. And everything else related to the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil, for that matter.
* As far as Gintoki from ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' is concerned, ''Magazine/ShonenJump'' and sugar are both extremely serious business.
** [[RuleOfFunny EVERYTHING is serious business]] in Gintama; eating hotpot, eating contests, gambling, collecting beetles, strawberry milk, pet pageants, being a fanboy, being an otaku, gaining weight, losing weight, [[ScareEmStraight separating your garbage]], being ''[[GratuitousEnglish hado boerudo]]'', playing console games/[=MMORPGs=], acquiring paper to wipe your butt. Even being a ''{{neet}}''. And it's hilarious.
* ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}'' suffers from this, to the point where it almost seems to be a parody of the {{Mon}} genre. Sadly, it is not. It's just an anime that apparently has children who are overly attached to their Bakugan, and [[spoiler: don't get started about how the Bakugan Universe gets into this matter]].
* Subverted in ''Manga/AngelicLayer'', Creator/{{CLAMP}}'s version of a typical {{shonen}} battle-game series. At first, it seems to fit perfectly, as Angelic Layer matches are broadcast on the sides of buildings to large crowds, Angels are treated as {{Companion Cube}}s, and [[spoiler:Shuuko has abandoned her daughter in favor of playing professionally.]] However, as we progress through the series, we realize that it was just a busy public place where people wanted to watch a sport (much like football), people that take the game too seriously frequently [[AnAesop learn]] from [[DefeatMeansFriendship being defeated]] that they should just have fun, and [[spoiler:Shuuko's debilitating self-loathing, which propelled her to leave her child, is cured by her coworkers' support and her daughter's forgiveness.]] Most people see the competition as just a game--albeit a tad odd.
* Similarly in ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'', where Mr. Ral explains to Reiji that people do recognize that Gunpla Battle is a game based on fictional works, but it's ''because'' it's just a game that people can take it so seriously ''and have fun doing so''.
** In a specific (and more classically negative) example, the Renato Brothers treat Gunpla Battles as seriously as real wars and hate Meijin Kawaguchi because of his "Gunpla should be fun" attitude, to the point where they want to defeat him in order to discredit his ideology. The ''Battlogue'' OVA shows that the Renatos even engage in mid-battle Roleplay (via animated pilot figurines) and get mad at Meijin for breaking their immersion by throwing a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 1/60-scale Gundam Exia]] into their battle.

* Bread is treated as SeriousBusiness in ''Manga/YakitateJapan'', although given the wondrous properties of the hero's ''own'' bread, (including the ability to rearrange the fabric of reality and send people back in time), perhaps this shouldn't be surprising.
** Kuroyanagi has made it clear that he's willing to risk bodily harm and even death for the sake of a reaction. Most evident in the jam match between Kanmuri and Tsutsumi, where his reactions consist of shoving his face into a bowl of boiling hot, flaming jam and suffering serious burns, and then trying to climb into a large pot in order to smoke himself to death.
** Another reaction has him run off and marry a random Gonk woman with the last name Shima just so he can change his surname (he ends up divorcing her just in time to taste the competition's bread.)
** ''Manga/SaijouNoMeii'', by the same author, takes this trope in a completely different direction by applying an over the top Shonen Manga mindset to something that actually ''is'' serious, namely Pediatric Surgery.
* In ''Manga/AiKora'', quite a number of characters seem to take their personal fetishes far too seriously (including the protagonist!) Chapter 42 involves Maeda butting heads with a band of militant {{meganekko}} fetishists, who are up in arms over a fake glasses fad and go around breaking the glasses of "false" meganekko. And according to chapter 45, ''pantyhose'' is serious business.
* In ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'', there's an entire ''civilization'' based around a single in-universe giant robot anime. This concept is also deconstructed; it's shown how this excessive fixation on and fetishization of fiction has distorted their society on several levels, from gender roles to politics.
* The gondolier business in ''{{Manga/ARIA}}'' consumes all of the protagonists' lives. Sure, it's their profession, but they're just transporting tourists through the canals of New Venice and it is indicated that they'll stop once they get married.
* As ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' advances its plot, it seems the butler career becomes more and more SeriousBusiness. The bare minimum seems to be equivalent to applying for a shounen fighting manga's character job. Props if you also have a FinishingMove.
* ''Anime/LuckyStar'''s Anime Tenchou brings gallons of [[HotBlooded hot blood]], various superpowers and ''nuclear explosions'' to the humble business of running a comic and animation store. Why can't real managers be like this guy? [[spoiler:And wait till you see his boss...]] Bonus points for being voiced by Creator/TomokazuSeki.
* In the manga ''Manga/IronWokJan'', Chinese cooking competitions can fill stadiums and attract celebrity judges, and a particularly famous food critic is a popular celebrity. There's even a shadowy organization that secretly controls all food production and distribution throughout Asia and is trying to take over the Chinese cooking industry of Japan by defeating Japan's top young chefs in a cooking competition.
* Characters in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' think deeply and strategically about ''everything'' they do, in hilariously excessive detail, from playing rock-paper-scissors to using Internet search engines to making sushi to buying antiques to guessing a secondary character's gender. At one point, a character haggles down the price of a cell phone, and ''a crowd bursts out into applause''.
* ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'': The main characters take the game of {{Go}} very seriously. In this sense it's TruthInTelevision, and you'll know it if you know any professional players. However, it is made clear that the world at large doesn't particularly care about the game, even when it knows it exists.

* ''Manga/SgtFrog'' plays with this trope by having Keroro and Giroro treat ''everything'' from vacuuming, to going to the beach, to jumping rope, as though it were either a major military operation or a CookingDuel to decide the fate of the galaxy.
* ''Lunch'' becomes serious business in one episode of ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', with Skuld and Mara fighting over a ''boxed lunch'' with bombs and magic, culminating in Skuld ''throwing herself off a roof'' to catch it before it hits the ground.
* ''Anime/MetalFighterMiku'' makes women's wrestling serious business.
* Likewise, ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'' features wrestling matches that can decide the fate of the earth, and are frequently to the death.
* The Japanese junior high school tennis circuit in ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis''.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBqBCMpn4ZE Stock up on tennis rackets in 2012]]
* Rika (Ruki) in the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonTamers''. While all the characters are perhaps a little overly into the Digimon card game even before having to use their cards ''to save the world'', Rika is ''by far'' the most intense. She is even appalled at her mother for not taking the childrens' card game seriously enough.
** This is ''the whole reason she got a {{Mon}} in the first place''.
* In ''LightNovel/MagiciansAcademy'', a good portion of the school is made to run a magical DeathCourse, no holds barred, to decide the next school uniform. The students who aren't putting their butts on the line watch this in a large stadium with commentary, video cameras, the works. Serious Business indeed.
** Sakuma takes [[DeathIsDramatic dramatic deaths]] (going so far as to hand a person a gun), and Moe fetishes seriously (he wreaks [[StuffBlowingUp explosive violence]] on someone for tricking him with fake moe glasses)

* ''Anime/BattleBDaman''. Apparently, in the "B-Da World", a person's social position, level of respect and moral actions are defined by playing marbles. Not playing B-Daman is something so bad that people don't even recognize you as a person (that's the message that the ''first episode'' gives to us). Playing with marbles is also a good way to take over the world and be a world-threatening criminal.
* ''Manga/EightOhOneTTSAirbats'' has a ramen-eating contest bet on by not only the entire JSDF, but Russian and American troops as well.
* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Negi and Fate attempt to have a diplomatic meeting and nearly come to blows while arguing about whether tea or coffee is superior. [[spoiler:The negotiations later fail for an unrelated reason.]]

* ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'' does this with {{hentai}} games, though that might just be an exaggeration to reflect Satou and Yamazaki's respective mental derangements.
** It becomes much more serious if you want to make ''money'' by making a hentai game.
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'', the {{instant fanclub}}s in the anime have carried over into real life, with ShipToShipCombat.
** Never say [[{{Yandere}} Kaede]] is a psycho KnifeNut StalkerWithACrush in front of members of ''Kitto Kitto Kaede-chan'' if you value your life.
* ''Manga/XxxHolic'': Watanuki gives a BreakingSpeech to a woman he is teaching cooking [[spoiler:because she won't eat what she cooks, as she doesn't want to know herself and will not eat what people she is familiar with make either.]] Yea, that's right. If you don't eat your own cooking or others, it means [[spoiler:you don't know yourself or them and are afraid of commitment. Or something.]]
** Being a TV psychic who's accused of giving false readings is apparently heinous enough in xxxHolic to warrant physical assault (even if the psychic is a young girl) and vandalism of the psychic's house.
* ''Manga/AirGear'': roller skating is serious business, with a huge subculture, tournaments, gang wars, and a special police force dedicated to catching (read: often brutally injuring) unruly Air Treckers. The manga makes a point of addressing this trope. Both Simca and Ikki state that A.T.s should be for fun, and not used as tools for violence or control.
** Further on in the ''Manga/AirGear'' manga, a cameo appearance from UsefulNotes/{{BARACK OBAMA}} reveals that the roller-skates are pivotal to his plans of change. Seriously.
*** It's later revealed that [[TheVerse in-universe]] [[spoiler:the technology developed for Air Trecks was integrated into ''everything'', from transportation to weapons technology, and the [[MacGuffin Sky Regalia]] is a universal remote that would allow the owner, for example, to control the world's nuclear weapons stockpiles.]] So yes, SeriousBusiness. This of course makes the entire thing seem somehow even ''more'' ridiculous when one realizes that someone, somewhere decided to make the key to ruling the world ''being good at inline skates''.
* ''Manga/BeautyPop'' treats styling this way, to the point where heroine Kiri inherits her super-stylist father's special techniques: The Corkscrew, the Whirlwind, the Wizard, and their signature faster-than-the-eye-can-follow ''precision hair-cutting''.
* In ''Anime/ReadOrDie'', books are most definitely serious business.
** Justified in the [[Anime/RODTheTV TV series]], where [[spoiler:the British Library is enacting a multi-generational plan to take over the world by ''rewriting history''. Taking control of the world's books is just the first step.]]
* ''Manga/BakusouKyoudaiLetsAndGo'' is a series about racing miniature cars, which is serious business.
** Strangely, it starts out rather normal since mini 4wd is somewhat a serious hobby (car modification and care) in the first place. It's BigBad who's trying to turn racing into war and the heroes' responses that makes things ridiculous.

* In ''Manga/ChuukaIchiban'', also called ''Cooking Master Boy'', cooking badly in an established restaurant and insulting certain chefs are ''federal crimes''. Impersonating a renowned chef is like ''treason''. Being the emperor's chef and/or taste tester makes you one of the highest ranked persons in China, even when retired. There is an exam that takes place every four years to become a "Super Chef", which officially makes you as high ranked as a military general or even higher. Then there's the Underground Cooking Society that aims to control China through the cooking industry and magic cooking utensils.
* ''Manga/{{Saki}}'' does this with TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}}, more or less. It's fairly toned down compared to most examples here, with nothing more riding on the games than would be in RealLife. On the other hand, high school tournaments get national broadcasts, there's trading cards of professional players, and generally very little to suggest that the average person in the Saki universe isn't fond of the game.
** And in ''Manga/TheLegendOfKoizumi'' mahjong is ''even more'' SeriousBusiness. World politics are decided by secret high-stakes Mahjong games.
*** Not just world politics, but whether or not [[spoiler:the world will be taken over by [[StupidJetpackHitler NAZIS FROM THE MOON]], led by Hitler, whose Mahjong powers are so awesome he has gone SUPER SAIYAN.]]
*** According to the Pope, God used Mahjong to create the world.
* ''Manga/JumborBarutronica'': Construction workers are heroes and knights, riding [[HumongousMecha giant robots]] [[MundaneUtility equipped with excavator equipment,]] and [[TykeBomb cloned children]] implanted with the memories of worker-heroes with [[MorphWeapon shape-shifting, liquid metal hands that turn into giant shovels and drills]]. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as it is set two-thousand years in the future, with the world in shambles because of pollution, so re-constructing the earth is vitally important. But... '''''Construction Knights! On Giant Robots! Shape-Shifting Clones!'''''

* In ''Manga/{{Bartender}}'', making cocktails is most definitely serious business, with businesses and futures hanging in the balance.
* {{Hachimaki}} are SeriousBusiness in the world of ''Anime/AfroSamurai'', with the Number One headband apparently conferring the powers and responsibilities of a God, and only the Number Two headband has the right to challenge the holder of the Number One headband.
* In ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'', working on manga is treated as a true calling that could very well threaten your life, like firefighting or something.
** In fact, the main character's uncle ''dies from exhaustion from working on his manga'' before the start of the series. However, this can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the TruthInTelevision of the staggering amount of people in Japan who die of overwork. His uncle had been focusing only on his manga and setting aside sleeping and eating properly.
** Mashiro himself is hospitalized because of overworking, which nearly ruins his career.
** Since being mangaka ''is'' business in real life, everything involving manga is justified. Mangaka is a job, and only successful mangaka can live by making manga alone. The chance of being a successful mangaka is little, that is why Mutou Ashirogi tries everything to improve their manga.

* While the game itself isn't an incredible amount more popular (possibly unintentionally) than current MMO's are, The World in ''Anime/DotHackSign'' has players who take it a ''little'' too seriously sometimes. Especially groups like the Crimson Knights, who are becoming thuggish police types in a video game. The serious business was probably more obvious when the show was new and MMO's did not have nearly as high a number of player bases and twenty million seemed an absurd number. Though it's the only big MMO in the setting. There are other small ones, but they never took off. A past super virus wiped out every operating system except Altimat, and as The World came with Altimat, everyone with a computer had the game.
** With the exception of the super virus, that still sounds like TruthInTelevision. [=WoW=] is so popular that all other [=MMOs=] could be called "other small ones" by comparison.
** Assuming that the World from the anime doesn't play like the World from the videogame sequel, one might be able to understand the game's popularity. It seems to be a fully virtual world with rather realistic interactions, not to mention use of Occulus Rift esque headsets (long before the Occulus Rift was even a thing).
** All that aside, it's partially justified in ''SIGN'''s case; for Tsukasa, it really ''is'' a matter of life or death.
* ''WebComic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': "Whether it be games or cleaning, it's SeriousBusiness to me!"
** A lot of characters have this, despite Germany being the worst: [[TheDitz Italy]], [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld China]] and [[LovableSexManiac France]] are a little too obsessed with [[ForeignQueasine food]], England's got [[CoolChair Busby's Chair]], and... well, anything [[LoveFreak America]] does, really.
** [[TheGambler Monaco]] bets dates on TabletopGame/{{Poker}} while loudly proclaiming that she's "very strong" and laughing.
* Parodied and inverted in ''Manga/DetroitMetalCity'', where music fans assume that the titular band has demonic power over the universe, commit terrorist crimes and that the lead singer is a god. None of that is true whatsoever, but the band's fans act as if it was. On a smaller scale, the police assume that DMC is the root of all crime in the area.
** The band Helvete actually does what DMC claims to do, their fans even ''blew up buildings'' for them.
* ''Manga/DGrayMan'''s Kanda is willing to fight his way through the entire staff of the Black Order to fix his SlipknotPonytail after Bookman steals his hair tie. There is epic posing and BattleAura involved.
* Gil from ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' removes the PowerLimiter on an EldritchAbomination to get [[NiceHat his hat]] back. The EldritchAbomination in question was engaged in an arm-wrestling match at the time.
* ''Manga/Eyeshield21'' takes football to the extreme. While the players are a bit more justified, since, well, they spend nearly everyday training for the game and will break into tears at losing, the audience, on the other hand, has no excuse. It's a full crowd for all the later games and some schools focus almost entirely on the sport. This is American football. In Japan. And it's constantly being lampshaded that the audience (both in the series and real life) has no idea what is going on. To be fair, Japan won two American football World Cups and hosted the latest one, where they came in second. In real life.
** Taken to the extreme with the Teikoku Alexanders, who have over 200 players from across Japan divided into 6 strings, while your average ''NFL'' team has a '''maximum''' of 53. And to advance in the ranking you have to memorize over 1,000 plays and run 40 yards in under 5 seconds.
** While not {{Truth in Television}}, it's actually not all that unbelievable for a sports club in Japan. For example, high school ''baseball'' is so insanely popular that a team with a good chance of making it to the Koushien (the Christmas Bowl of baseball) will have 150+ members (and like Teikoku, most of those players are 2nd-6th stringers who act as lackeys).
** So while there aren't ''actual'' football teams in Japan that are that big, if the sport were to get extremely popular (and presumably that's the sort of universe Eyeshield takes place in), a team like Teikoku would not be unrealistic, unlike in America.
%%
%%* Club games in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry''.
%%
* We all know that Tests in RealLife are SeriousBusiness. In ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts''? ''Waaaaaaaaaay'' too serious.
** Similarly, in one episode of ''Anime/MagicalWitchPuniechan'', Punie threatens to blow up the solar system if she fails a test.
* ''P2! Let's Play Ping Pong!'' is a manga where... well, you can [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin probably guess]] what's Serious Business there.
* Smiles in ''Anime/{{Grenadier}}''. If Rushuna's got a dirty look on her face, and informs you that you're not getting a smile, '''''Run'''''.
** Truth be told, you really have to push Rushuna extremely far for her to stop smiling.
* In ''Manga/{{Nononono}}'', ski jumping is apparently a very important sport in Japan--important enough to have masses of people threaten the safety of an athlete and his family for not winning a medal.
* In the Nue arc of ''Anime/{{Mononoke}}'', "The 'Hearing' of Incense" is such serious business that a game where the players try to determine minute differences between pieces of incense made from the same type of tree is used to to decide whose marriage proposal is accepted!
* An omake for ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' involves a group of scientists dispatching a special ops force in order to find out what type of panties Misaka Mikoto wears. They also sent a request to the supercomputer Tree Diagram, who told them not to use it for such a small thing.
* ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'': Auto racing is already serious business in real life, but when it's set in the future, you got AI-computer equipped race cars complete with booster engines and there's insane racing courses (in the TV series), you know it's ''really'' serious business.
** Your car has an engine with '''three''' times the power of the [[TankGoodness M1 Abrams]], ''Without'' the booster, '''''what''''' [[JustifiedTrope did you expect from that]]?
* ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'': Ike planning a theme park trip. That is serious business. Overlaps with MundaneMadeAwesome.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Luffy ''[[BigEater loves]]'' [[RealMenEatMeat meat]], and he takes it ''very'' seriously. He practically goes mad with fury when he goes to a restaurant that doesn't serve meat; when offered shellfish, he replies with "Shellfish isn't meat! Meat is [[InvokedTrope serious business!"]]. He also considers piracy to be serious business, and [[BerserkButton gets really pissed with Wapol flaunting the jolly roger]].
-->'''Luffy:''' This flag is a promise of life. You don't fly it lightly!!! '''''IT'S NOT SOMETHING TO BE LAUGHED AT OR SHOT AT!!!'''''
** Kaku's Devil Fruit power lets him turn into a [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent weregiraffe]]. While everybody else finds it appropriately ridiculous, Kaku himself takes giraffes so seriously it borders on obsession, considering them majestic and powerful creatures. At one point he says "I love giraffes" in [[MundaneMadeAwesome the same grim, determined tone you might expect from a man swearing vengeance on a murderer]].
* The Delta Force class (''especially'' Touma, Aogami, and Tsuchimikado) in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' take SeriousBusiness UpToEleven. Seeing Komoe-sensei shed a tear? Go pull off an all-out war in a a school festival! No more food in the cafeteria because the class was dismissed late? Organize a small scale break out so some members can go get some food from a local store. Someone mention Nabe? Let's all go out too eat~!

* The show ''Anime/DogDays'' manages to invert this trope. War is serious business in RealLife, but in their world it's a perfectly safe sporting event.
** Also an inversion, as extremely powerful demons/monsters pose a very real potential threat, making such 'wars' a necessity for the training of soldiers. Money is also involved, so it can be at least as important as other betting sports.
* ''Manga/BlueExorcist'' has an overly [[SeriousBusiness dramatic cooking fight]] in [[{{Filler}} episode 6]].

* ''Manga/{{Kurogane2011}}'': A manga based around the INTENSE world of HighSchool UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}} where success in matches, tournaments and major life decisions are usually determined due to FlawExploitation, HyperAwareness and the occasional advice from [[SpiritAdvisor samurai ghosts]].
* In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', tankery, which, in this universe, is also a ''competitive sport'' played by schoolgirls in order to refine their womanly attributes, is considered this way. [[spoiler:Hana and Miho]] have, respectively, been disowned for participating in tankery [[note]]Although in Hana's case, her mother comes around and it's indicated she overreacted to a very sudden mention of her daughter doing tankery[[/note]], and been slated for disinheritance for not upholding the honor of the family's practice of tankery. The Nishizumi family is said to be the strictest of all the tankery schools, and Maho once points out that a single loss in ''10,000'' battles is enough to get expelled.
* In ''Manga/AddictedToCurry'' this happens for curry: friendships grow and die by the curry pot and high-stakes cooking competitions decide the future of the main character more than once.
* ''Manga/MyBrideIsAMermaid'' has several examples:
** Sun and Lunar's respective fan clubs turn the school into a literal ''war zone'' battling over whether Sun or Lunar is better. Which is especially absurd as Sun and Lunar's rivalry is completely one-sided and only Lunar actually cares.
** Mawari tends to take this approach to enforcing her brand of justice. Which is fine, as she wants to be a police commissioner one day. Unfortunately, she generally goes overboard and enforces rules like "no walking more than two abreast on the sidewalk" with the same gusto that's generally reserved for laws like "no murdering".
** Mermaid priorities are a bit... different from human priorities: Sun's father ([[ItMakesSenseInContext a yakuza boss posing as a teacher]] calls in his elite (in name only) squad of fighters, pulls the fire alarm, and ''evacuates the school''... because Nagasumi brought a cat to class.
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' is full of this, though unlike most examples, the over-the-top WorldOfHam is 100 percent intentional and part of the absurd charm. Literally ''everything'' related to school, including tennis matches and the freakin' ''sewing club'', are part of some grander world domination scheme. Oh yeah, and clothes are Fascism. [[spoiler:[[StarfishAliens And aliens]].]]

* Aito of ''Manga/TheComicArtistAndHisAssistants'' and his {{Panty Shot}}s, the latter of which is the ''sole'' reason why he became a SequentialArtist. A more specific example exists in the ''Panty Wars'' skit, when he, upon reading arguments comparing the two main types of Panty Shots, ''panchira''[[note]]showing just a small portion of the panties[[/note]] and ''panmoro''[[note]]a full view of the panties[[/note]], he realized by mainly drawing ''panmoro'', he was basically portraying his female characters as [[MyGirlIsNotASlut sluts]].
* In ''Anime/NoGameNoLife'' all games are treated as very serious business, especially by the two protagonists, Sora and Shiro. In the world of Disboard, violence has been outlawed and games are used to decide all conflicts, from social disputes to wars between nations. Entire races can be sold into slavery based on the outcome of a game as simple as rock-paper-scissors. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since it's a world where the [[OddJobGods God of Games]] Tet became the TopGod, making games a sacred form of conflict resolution enforceable by divine decree and bound by [[TheCommandments Ten Pledges]]. At the same time, the tenth of these reads "Everyone must have fun playing together!", implying that, despite the seriousness it's treated with, fun was still Tet's primary reason for introducing the whole system in the first place.

* Episode 23 of ''Anime/SengokuCollection'' features four year old Tsunehisa Amago trying to take over her daycare's sandbox to make the biggest sand castle possible. The episode is presented in the style of a war documentary, with actions like turning a hose on a mudfight or one child telling on the teacher shown as moments of tremendous import.

* ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'' basically runs on this, from a hot-blooded training to "dodge the sun" to a desperate race to get limited-edition burgers, to Youko almost crossing the DespairEventHorizon when she learns there won't be any run-for-the-bun in the obstacle race this year.
* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', the Sports Festival at [[AcademyOfAdventure Yuuei Academy]] is a huge event that draws more national attention than the Olympics! Somewhat justified, though, in that Yuuei is the top school in the country for training prospective superheroes, and the Sports Festival is used as a venue for heroes and corporations to scout promising new talent. Also, while over 80% of the population in this series has some form of [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Quirk]] granting them an unique ability, some aspects of society, such as the Olympics committee, have been slow to adjust their standards to allow for the incredible variety of abilities that now exist.
* In ''Cosmo Warrior Zero'', alcoholic drinks: the people of Gun Frontier are ready to hang Tochiro for (accidentally) destroying their whole reserve of booze and being unable to replace it, and Tochiro's best friend Anime/CaptainHarlock, after kicking everyone's ass for nearly killing Tochiro, ''agrees they're right when the locals manage to explain their reasons''. He then proceeded to give them ''his'' reserve of booze so that Tochiro could be spared.

* In one episode of ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'', an Ork radical group [[DieHardOnAnX forcefully takes over a bookstore and starts a hostage situation]]... and the group demands that in order for them to let the hostages go Light Novels and Anime must start to be written with more Ork protagonists. [[ComicallySmallDemand That is literally their only demand]]. [[DisappointedByTheMotive The police commissioner gets a conniption when he hears this.]]
* PlayedForLaughs in an {{omake}} in ''Manga/BlackLagoon''. [[MafiaPrincess Yukio]] tries to perform a BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine with her clubmate for a [[SchoolFestival Culture Festival]]. Yukio takes this ''extremely'' seriously and, not really understanding how to perform ''manzai'', seeks coaching from the [[{{Yakuza}} Washimine Group]], who similarly take Yukio's desire to learn extremely seriously. HilarityEnsues.

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', when Mikage asked Moe, the local SweetBaker, to teach her chocolate making in the ninth episode, the latter gets very excited as she eagerly gives Mikage a rapid-fire lecture about how to make chocolate. Mikage initially sees it as this trope, and then realizes that's how she herself comes across to others when talking about rocks--she's a big geology nut.

* Used a few times in ''VisualNovel/GirlsBeyondTheWasteland'':

* Used a few times in ''VisualNovel/ShoujotachiWaKouyaOMezasu'':

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh''

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi and Fate attempt to have a diplomatic meeting and nearly come to blows while arguing about whether tea or coffee is superior. [[spoiler:The negotiations later fail for an unrelated reason.]]

** In fact, the main character's uncle ''dies from exhaustion from working on his manga'' before the start of the series.
*** However, this can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the TruthInTelevision of the staggering amount of people in Japan who die of overwork. His uncle had been focusing only on his manga and setting aside sleeping and eating properly.
*** Mashiro himself is hospitalized because of overworking, which nearly ruins his career.

** TruthInTelevision?

* ''WebComic/AxisPowersHetalia'': "Whether it be games or cleaning, it's SeriousBusiness to me!"

* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' takes football to the extreme. While the players are a bit more justified, since, well, they spend nearly everyday training for the game and will break into tears at losing, the audience, on the other hand, has no excuse. It's a full crowd for all the later games and some schools focus almost entirely on the sport. This is American football. In Japan. And it's constantly being lampshaded that the audience (both in the series and real life) has no idea what is going on. To be fair, Japan won two American football World Cups and hosted the latest one, where they came in second. In real life.

* In ''LightNovel/HaiyoreNyarkoSan'' human media is a strictly regulated commodity among the various races of the Cthulhu mythos, complete with smuggling rings to get around the limitations on how much can be taken at a given time. It's serious enough that [[spoiler:some MoralGuardians want to destroy the Earth to protect their races from the media]].

** Similarly, in one episode of ''Anime/DaiMahouTouge'', Punie threatens to blow up the solar system if she fails a test.

* Subverted in ''Anime/KidouTenshiAngelicLayer'', Creator/{{CLAMP}}'s version of a typical {{shonen}} battle-game series. At first, it seems to fit perfectly, as Angelic Layer matches are broadcast on the sides of buildings to large crowds, Angels are treated as {{Companion Cube}}s, and [[spoiler:Shuuko has abandoned her daughter in favor of playing professionally.]] However, as we progress through the series, we realize that it was just a busy public place where people wanted to watch a sport (much like football), people that take the game too seriously frequently [[AnAesop learn]] from [[DefeatMeansFriendship being defeated]] that they should just have fun, and [[spoiler:Shuuko's debilitating self-loathing, which propelled her to leave her child, is cured by her coworkers' support and her daughter's forgiveness.]] Most people see the competition as just a game--albeit a tad odd.

* "Immortal" Tatsu, an ex-Yakuza turned HouseHusband in ''Manga/{{Gokushufudou}},'' takes his domestic duties INCREDIBLY seriously, to the point where he will flat-out ignore armed gangsters trying to kill him in order to make it to a massive sale, cleaning house for guests is treated with the same seriousness and attention to detail as cleaning up the scene of a murder, and accidentally walking into the women's changing room results in him willingly offering himself up for ritual execution to make up for his "disgraceful conduct."

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' is full of this, though unlike most examples, the over-the-top WorldOfHam is 100 percent intentional and part of the absurd charm. Literally ''everything'' related to school, including tennis matches and the freakin' ''sewing club'', are part of some grander world domination scheme. Oh yeah, and clothes are Fascism.

* In ''Anime/NoGameNoLife'' all games are treated as very serious business, especially by the two protagonists, Sora and Shiro. In the world of Disboard, violence has been outlawed and games are used to decide all conflicts, from social disputes to wars between nations. Entire races can be sold into slavery based on the outcome of a game as simple as rock-paper-scissors.

* ''Anime/TheIdolmaster'' - Well, the 765Pro Agency ''is'' a SeriousBusiness.

** In a specific (and more classically negative) example, the Renato Brothers treat Gunpla Battles as seriously as real wars and hate Meijin Kawaguchi because of his "Gunpla should be fun" attitude, to the point where they want to defeat him in order to discredit his ideology. The ''Battlogue'' OVA shows that the Renatos even engage in mid-battle RolePlay (via animated pilot figurines) and get mad at Meijin for breaking their immersion by throwing a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 1/60-scale Gundam Exia]] into their battle.

* In ''Anime/AggressiveRetsuko: A Very Metal Christmas'', Fenneko and Tsunoda get ''really intense'' about Retsuko's Instagram feed. In opposite directions.

* In ''Anime/JewelpetSunshine'', Jasper's TrademarkFavoriteFood is curry, but he enjoys it without any extra toppings on it. Saying otherwise within earshot of Jasper ''will'' make him angry. An entire episode is dedicated to a fight between Jasper and one of the human students of Sunshine Academy based ''solely on their opinions regarding how to eat curry''.