History SeriousBusiness / AnimeAndManga

* 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. {{Justified}} for the bikini design, as the designer had unwittingly got her hands on the formula of a chemical weapon... And failed to notice because ''she'' was that obsessed with fashion and just too honest to try and murder her competitors.

-->'''Megumi:''' ''(shocked)'' You mean it's like ''that''?!\\

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Learning that Yuko Ozawa, a former classmate of Yuji from middle school, had a crush on him makes Nobara and [[NotSoAboveitAll Megumi]] drop everything in order to [[GossipyHens gossip about it]].

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Learning that Yuko Ozawa, a former classmate of Yuji from middle school, had a crush on him makes Nobara and Fushiguro drop everything in order to gossip about it.
-->'''Fushiguro:''' ''(shocked)'' You mean it's like ''that''?!\\

* ''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!=]"

'''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.

* ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'': In an omake chapter, the male researchers from the Level 6 Shift project need [[CloningBlues the 20,000 clones]] of Mikoto Misaka as close to the original as possible, so they try to figure out what kind of panties Mikoto wears under her shorts. A request for [[ArtificialIntelligence Tree Diagram]] to calculate a simulation is immediately denied ("Don't use me for stupid things"), so they send in the Hound Dogs, a black-ops mercenary squad. They break into the Tokiwadai dorm in the middle of the day in full gear... and are immediately slaughtered by the dorm supervisor. Just as the researchers are declaring that they'll have to take to the field themselves, the female researchers reveal that [[MundaneSolution they just ordered 20,000 pairs of cheap panties]].

* The school in *Jishou F-Rank* settles everything through games. You can lose money, your place in the school, your rights...

** 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.

** 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.]]

* ''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 ''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.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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]].

* The Delta Force class (''especially'' Touma, Aogami, and Tsuchimikado) in ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' take Serious Business to ridiculous lengths. Seeing Komoe-sensei shed a tear? Go pull off an all-out war in 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 to eat~!

* 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.

** [[[https://youtu.be/YLiMGjJZA9U?t=171 One scene]] in ''Beyblade Metal Fusion'' episode 13 implies that in the Beyblade universe, ''Moses parted Red Sea'' using a Beyblade.

** The visuals for one scene imply that in the Beyblade universe, ''Moses parted Red Sea'' using a Beyblade.

* Sawako of ''Manga/KimiNiTodoke'' and Erza from ''Manga/FairyTail'' take everything seriously.

--> '''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!

* ''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.

* 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.]]

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

* ''LightNovel/BenTo'': Half-priced bentos are ''VERY'' serious to the point there is all out war, and rules regarding combat.

* The Delta Force class (''especially'' Touma, Aogami, and Tsuchimikado) in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' take Serious Business to ridiculous lengths. Seeing Komoe-sensei shed a tear? Go pull off an all-out war in 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 to eat~!

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

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

* 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.

* ''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.

* 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.

* 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.

** 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...

* 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.

* The Delta Force class (''especially'' Touma, Aogami, and Tsuchimikado) in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' take Serious Business 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~!
* ''Anime/CarriedByTheWindTsukikageRan'': Ran almost started a fight over watered down sake. She says it's as precious as blood.

** All that aside, it's partially justified in ''SIGN'''s case; for Tsukasa, it really ''is'' a matter of life or death.

* 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.

** A notable early episode has Ash act this way about his [[NiceHat hat]] when it's stolen by a Mankey; citing that it's an official Pokémon League Hat that he won in a raffle by sending in large amounts of postcards. Suffice to say; he's determined to get it back and capture the Pokémon that took it as well.

** Never say [[{{Yandere}} Kaede]] is a psycho KnifeNut StalkerWithACrush in front of members of ''Kitto Kitto Kaede-chan'' if you value your life.