History TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter / AnimeAndManga

* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
** ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' has Miyuki's grandmother, a woman who proves that she has [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure Kaoruko-levels]] of awesomeness by standing up to a Bad End effect and not having her energy drained and doing so ''flanked by an army of forest animals''. Nothing is mentioned of her ever again.
** While everyone not named Mana Aida can easily be classified as this in ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure'', Alice Yotsuba/Cure Rosetta gets this the ''worse'' out of all of them. Very early on, [[RefusalOfTheCall she rejects the offer of being a Cure]] simply because she had a very nasty temper as a child and was afraid of accidentally releasing her rage while on the field. However, aside from one episode where a RichBitch tried to exploit this to win a contest, this trait is never brought up ever again, and instead, Alice is regulated to whipping out the Rosetta Reflection and nothing else. Hell, even her MidSeasonUpgrade reflects this. While everyone else gets a badass new [[FinishingMove finisher]], Cure Rosetta is stuck with [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway a dinky little party balloon]] containing whatever was needed to save the day that was only used '''''twice'''''.[[note]]It's worse in the English dub, where the Rosetta Balloon is only used '''''once''''' due to Saban cutting out the Blood Ring saga entirely.[[/note]]
*** To further rub salt in the wound, one of the arcs in the season gave everyone on the team a DayInTheLimelight episode in which everyone grows stronger after overcoming their personal issues... well, Rikka, Makoto and Mana does. Alice was put on the backburner ''in her own episode'' [[SpotlightStealingSquad while her butler and one of the villains overtook the majority of plot]].
** ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'': Yuuko Oomori is often seen as the most forgettable member of the main team, as unlike Megumi's LoveTriangle plot (for better of for worse), Hime's CharacterDevelopment and near-main character status, and Iona's AwesomeEgo, Yuuko doesn't bring much outside of singing about [[TrademarkFavoriteFood rice]] every now and then.
** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' isn't immune to this either, in spite of its excellent use of its characters.
*** Mother Heart, the golden spirit that appears in the opening and whenever the Cures perform the Tomorrow With Everyone attack, never gets directly mentioned by any of the characters, remaining a GreaterScopeParagon at best. The only time she even took direct action was to pull a DeusExMachina and allowed [[TheSixthRanger Ruru and Emiru]] to transform into Pretty Cures.
*** Some feel that the main protagonist Hana Nono falls under this as well, as her StepfordSmiler, MasterOfNone, and past bullying experiences [[spoiler:as well as her BadFuture incarnation's death fueling the main motivation of the BigBad]] could have resulted in her being one of the most complex lead Cures in the franchise's history. Unfortunately, ''Hugtto'' rarely ever touches upon these issues outside of a handful of episodes, [[spoiler:and she never learns the fate of her future self either]], thus dooming her to falling into the same ditzy-pink Cure role as others did before her.
** To sum up the main issue with ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'', anyone who is not named Laura is treated as an afterthought by the show. While Asuka and Manatsu do get some character-focus episodes, some feel the show doesn't do enough to expand on their characters, and it's basically unanimously agreed that Sango and Minori feel the most one-note out of the entire team.

[[folder:''Bleach'']]
* [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Link to the manga]]:
** Yasutora "Chad" Sado, who despite being one of Ichigo's longtime friends, a member of Ichigo's main team, and the fact that he had kept fighting longer than other examples here, ended up [[TheWorfEffect losing]] to Kyoraku from within their [[CurbStompBattle short fight]], and just when it seemed that things were finally looking bright and up for him later on, he got [[YankTheDogsChain cut short]] by Nnoitra, and again in the last arc, when it seems that he's gonna finally do something in order to help Ichigo and his friends out, the manga [[ExecutiveMeddling was rushed]] and nothing had truly came out of it.
** Tatsuki Arisawa is a close childhood friend of Ichigo and Orihime, having been Ichigo's sparring rival in Karate classes and protecting Orihime from bullies who didn't like her hair colour. Although she initially began developing spiritual awareness along with the other characters, she never developed beyond spiritual awareness and was sidelined for most of the story, even after Ichigo eventually let her know about the spiritual wars and societies he and Orihime had become involved with. In response to fan frustrations about Tatsuki's lack of development, Creator/TiteKubo explained that her role was reduced because Shueisha wanted to focus on the Shinigami.
** Kon's introductory arc paints him as a considerably more serious character, refusing to take life as a result of having lived in fear of being discarded. After this, though, he's mostly portrayed as perverted comic relief and occupies Ichigo's body whenever he goes out as a Soul Reaper. Although he's used in a lot of supplementary material, some people feel that Kon could be used for so much more.
** Many of the Arrancars were unexpectedly popular with readers both domestic and abroad, so Kubo was pushed by his editors to give each one ADayInTheLimelight to please the fans. Unfortunately, since the Arrancar were villains meeting the inevitable shonen defeats, this also meant many fans were disappointed by how quickly most of them were killed off after receiving the required amount of backstory.
** Rudbornn Chelute, the head of the Exequias, is the only Arrancar with a fully intact mask. The point of being an Arrancar is that they have broken masks, so he's quite the enigma. He's the leader of the Exequias, a group of FacelessGoons who have the same type of skull; they're spawned by Rudbornn himself, making him a non-video game version of a MookMaker. He apparently kills off a few minor antagonists once they've [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived their usefulness]] and sort of disappears for a little while. Toward the end of the Hueco Mundo arc, he has a brief fight with Rukia in the manga, a full-episode fight against Rukia, Renji, and Chad in the anime... until he's smashed to pieces by Yammy before we find out anything really significant about him.
** The Privarons are former Espada who were demoted in favor of the newer, more "enhanced" ones that everyone knows about now. They consisted of Dordoni Alessandro del Socaccio, Cirucci Sanderwicci and Gantenbainne Mosqueda, each with their own distinct designs, abilities and personalities, with [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Dordoni]] and especially [[{{Dominatrix}} Cirucci]] being the ones that fans latched onto. Gantenbainne disappeared after his fight while the other two were killed by Rudbornn and experimented on by Szayelaporro and later Mayuri. [[spoiler:Then in the Blood War arc, it turns out that Mayuri revived Dordoni and Cirucci as [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombie-like beings]], with their personalities and memories intact. Not only is it never revealed how this was possible with characters who were technically already ghosts to begin with, nothing is actually ''done'' with them and thus their return was fairly pointless.]]
** A lot of fans felt that the Fullbringers' arc was little more than filler, meant to restore Ichigo's powers, although most got a backstory and even some CharacterDevelopment before they left the map. [[spoiler:Three of them were revealed to be alive and training under Kukaku Shiba, but that plot thread was never mentioned again.]] Their arc was widely seen as a sub-par sidetrack to the main plot, which may explain why they've been PutOnABus.
** Retsu Unohana was a calm woman with a gentle smile that terrified others. Supplementary books listed her as one of the strongest and oldest captains, and a master swordsman. However, she remains on the sidelines throughout the story as a medic until it is eventually revealed that she was an atoning criminal, the first Eleventh Division's first Kenpachi and the reason Zaraki loves fighting so much. [[spoiler:To counter the final BigBad, she sacrifices her life to unlock Zaraki's full potential, leaving fans to feel like the motherly healer image was ruined, and that her death was based on faulty in-universe logic and real life sexism in Shonen manga to empower a character fans felt was already too powerful.]]
** Gremmy Thoumeaux and his pawn, Guenael Lee. Guenael had a very interesting power that was used solely to show off Yachiru's shikai before Gremmy killed him and took over the fight. Gremmy was an extremely powerful RealityWarper whom other Sternritter seemed to fear. [[spoiler:He was introduced creating Guenael from his imagination and then killing Rose and Kensei just by imagining them dead. All he ends up doing is fighting Kenpachi where he doesn't use the creative possibilities of his power, has a straight battle of power and kills himself in a way that's so stupid even Kenpachi lampshades the ridiculous nature of it.]]
** Robert Accutrone demonstrates himself to be the equal of Captain Kyoraku, the second strongest Shinigami after Yamamoto. After taking Kyoraku's eye, he disappears from the story for a while before being easily defeated to show off Byakuya's NextTierPowerUp. [[spoiler:When he next appears, it's simply to show how Yhwach kills suing his special Auswahlen LifeDrain ability. Despite the build up given to Auswahlen, including it being the reason Ichigo and Uryuu's mothers died when they were children, Robert is the only Quincy who is ever instantaneously killed by it, and his Schrift ability is never revealed.]]
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' uses [[DistressedDamsel Noel]] to develop Rina's and Caren's characters and Coco to develop [[EvilFormerFriend Sara]], but once they're rescued, they (and Caren, who had previously been an AloofAlly with a decent character arc) do basically nothing unless the plot absolutely requires everyone to be there for an arc's final confrontation. Caren is the most glaring example as she'd been important to the plot before, but all of Coco's character development was cut from the anime adaptation, so she was basically a cardboard cutout throughout the ''whole thing'', only getting one filler episode to herself.

* ''Anime/MarvelAnimeWolverine'': Unfortunately, out of all the other Marvel projects (''[[Anime/MarvelAnimeIronMan Iron Man]]'', ''[[Anime/MarvelAnimeBlade Blade]]'', and ''[[Anime/MarvelAnimeXMen X-Men]]''), it is the Wolverine anime in particular that is notorious for wasting perfectly good characters throughout the course of the story, presumably to fill the series’ runtime, leaving them with tragically wasted potential, villains that mainly serve as an AntiClimaxBoss, and missing character arcs:
** The aforementioned Omega Red. He was shown to be a very dangerous threat to both Yukio and Logan, the latter of whom he actually came dangerously close to killing. But the creators knew that, so they end up giving him a prolonged battle sequence with Wolverine that lasted an entire episode, then basically threw him away by lazily killing him off just as he came back for another round with Wolverine, because apparently, Wolverine needs to focus solely on killing [[BigBadDuumvirate Hideki and Shingen]], and Omega Red would seem to be too much of a distraction for that goal. This, coupled with Omega Red’s own [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot badass]], [[NightmareFuel legitimately scary]] design, [[NoIndoorVoice hammy voice]] thanks to Creator/JBBlanc, and loyalty to his source material, just makes his defeat and anticlimactic demise all the more disappointing and shameful that he ended up wasted so much.
** Mariko, especially when compared to her comics and film counterparts, where she actually serves some relevance and characterization to make her fleshed out enough. She was supposed to be somewhat better here in the anime series. Instead, she was only being used as nothing more than a [[FlatCharacter generic]] [[SatelliteLoveInterest damsel in distress]] and a pretty face to look at and serves as basically a plot device for Logan to do something throughout his entire anime. She basically spends the entire series either looking sad, thinking about how she doesn’t deserve Logan’s love, switching randomly between being a [[{{Wangst}} whiny defeatist]] who believes she deserves her ArrangedMarriage and subsequent miserable life, and [[TheLoad standing around]] being used as a [[ButtMonkey walking punching bag]] for her fiancé and even her ‘’own father’’, no less. And then at the end, because of her random and anticlimactic death, she ultimately ends up making the whole anime a ShootTheShaggyDog story.
** Speaking of her father, the aforementioned Shingen was another tragic example. From the comics, he was a viciously cruel, ruthless, murderous, and even sadistic person who contrasts his evil with a sense of honor, legitimate motivations, and even a backstory. Despite this anime setting him up to be just like he was in the comics, [[AdaptationalVillainy maybe even more dangerous and evil]], Shingen instead became unfairly reduced to being nothing more than a [[GenericDoomsdayVillain boring, generic, and listless]] InvincibleVillain, who seems to be treated much more like an inhuman, unstoppable, [[TheDreaded inexplicably dangerous]] force of nature than he is as an actual character. During his very few screen time, he basically spends it waving his sword, [[SayMyName growling Logan’s name]], meditating, and during his interactions with others, [[{{Jerkass}} he just walks over everyone, even on his own ally Hideki]], [[BullyingADragon who was doing nothing more than actively helping Shingen fulfill his ambitions in the first place,]] even though Hideki’s reasons for doing so were purely self-serving. Worst of all is that he ultimately ends up undervaluing his own character to such a degree that not even his BadassNormal skills could compensate, primarily because of his one-dimensional {{Jerkass}} behavior, his stereotypical, combat-hungry arrogance, [[KarmaHoudini and somehow never once being called out for his attitude]]. In addition, [[FlatCharacter a lot of his overall characterization leaves a lot to be desired.]] For starters, it had never been mentioned of what precisely he plans to do with Madripoor once the marriage was finalized. For another example, Shingen’s exact relationship with Hideki has never been explored or even passively mentioned other than Hideki apparently being afraid of him and the whole arranged marriage between Hideki and Mariko being used basically as a power play for Shingen. And then during the final battle, when it seems like he shows some sign of depth, he gets killed off and then a passing mention of him and his actions, and then that’s literally it, the anime ends afterwards. Many fans agree that Shingen deserves a lot better, same with Omega Red.

* ''Anime/MarvelAnimeWolverine'': Unfortunately, out of all the other Marvel projects (''[[Anime/MarvelAnimeIronMan Iron Man]]'', ''[[Anime/MarvelAnimeBlade Blade]]'', and ''[[Anime/MarvelAnimeXMen X-Men]]'', it is the Wolverine anime in particular that is notorious for wasting perfectly good characters throughout the course of the story, presumably to fill the series’ runtime, leaving them with tragically wasted potential and missing character arcs:

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'':
*** Stella Loussier. She's the most child-like member of the three [[TykeBomb Biological]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy CPUs]], almost bordering on ObliviouslyEvil. When she accidentally fell off a cliff and was saved by Shinn, she first learned the concept of "protecting" something. This later led to her going out on her own in an attempt to protect her teammate Auel's "mother" from harm. Is this a sign of her growth as a character? Seems like it, especially as she winds up being captured by ZAFT afterwards, and Shinn wants to devote time and resources to curing her. [[HopeSpot Surely they'll be able to help her right?]] Nope! [[spoiler:Turns out that ZAFT doesn't have the medical assistance to fix her up, and likely plan on dissecting her corpse if she dies. So she gets sent right back to Phantom Pain when Shinn breaks her out, and he earnestly begs [[CriminalAmnesiac Neo Roanoke]], Stella's superior, to take her away from the war. Guess what happens, then? [[ILied Neo lies to Shinn's face]], has Stella's memories wiped, and gets her to pilot the giant, city-demolishing Destroy Gundam, leading to her [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds going on a rampage and killing millions]]. Shinn manages to get through to her and stop her horrific assault... but just when it looks like he's succeeded in DefusingTheTykeBomb, the sight of Kira Yamato and the Freedom Gundam freaks Stella out again, and she nearly attacks Shinn... [[ShootTheDog and is then killed when Kira intervenes and brings down the Destroy]]. In the end, she was doomed from the start, and Shinn failed to [[DeclarationOfProtection protect her as he promised]]. All of that, just so her death could be used to motivate Shinn to take down Kira. It would be far more interesting to see her survive the rampage of the aforementioned Destroy, face the consequences of her actions, and mature as a person. But all of her character development turned out negative, and only served to [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain cause Shinn's character development to degrade further as well]]. It really didn't help that the second opening implied she was going to be a major character, yet she ends up dying slightly more than half way through the series without doing anything important (other than dying).]]

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': Nena Trinity. She's introduced, like her brothers, as an unsettling figure and later crosses the MoralEventHorizon by [[spoiler:killing all of Louise's family.]] Then Ali Al-Saachez unknowingly gives her a taste of her own medicine by killing her brothers and leaving her all alone. Now in season 2, this seems to have affected her and she's slightly less batshit insane and more thoughtful. She also has to work with an even bigger spoiled, sociopathic villainess, giving her someone to reflect on. She later helps out the cause of good, not due to a HeelFaceTurn, but because [[EvenEvilHasStandards her side isn't living up to her standards.]] All the while, [[spoiler:Louise]] is becoming a DarkActionGirl and out for revenge against Nena. This would be a great plot: have [[spoiler:Louise]] face Nena now that Nena has somewhat redeemed herself and is beginning to change for the better. It would be a fascinating conflict of GreyAndGrayMorality. So what happens? A TimeSkip occurs, and Nena is suddenly back to being as much of a psychotic bitch as before. She discards her standards, and, though she does awesomely get rid of Wang Liu Mei, nothing really happens to even out the conflict between her and [[spoiler:Louise, who ''brutally'' kills her out of vengeance for her family. Nena dies unredeemed, and in a completely unsympathetic way that leaves her no better than an AssholeVictim.]] Which leaves the question: ''What was the '''point''' of trying to develop Nena's character if the staff was just going to end her '''this''' way?!''

*** Yurin L'Ciel is established to be an X-Rounder, this series' equivalent of a Newtype. She's conscripted by the Unknown Enemy for this ability. So of course you immediately hand her over to a seven-year-old psychotic brat who's already proven himself too capricious to be a commander and who gets her killed in the first battle she's used in by his carelessness. Why? To motivate Flit, because [[SarcasmMode just killing his mom and exclusively targeting civilian colonies isn't enough to make him hate the Unknown Enemy forever]]. But mostly, it's because in a ''Gundam'' show, the Newtype girlfriend dies, and by gum the whole franchise will end if we break that rule.

*** Stella Loussier. She's the most child-like member of the three [[TykeBomb Biological]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy CPUs]], almost bordering on ObliviouslyEvil. When she accidentally fell off a cliff and was saved by Shinn, she first learned the concept of "protecting" something. This later led to her going out on her own in an attempt to protect her teammate Auel's "mother" from harm. Is this a sign of her growth as a character? Nope! [[spoiler:She ends up captured by ZAFT, gets sent right back to Phantom Pain, has her memories wiped, is forced to pilot a city-destroying giant mech, and is killed by Kira Yamato and the Freedom Gundam. All of that, just so her death can be used to motivate Shinn to take down Kira. Even though it would be far more interesting to see her survive the rampage of the aforementioned giant mech, face the consequences of her actions, and mature as a person. It really didn't help that the second opening implies she's going to be a major character, yet she ends up dying half way through the series without doing anything important (other than dying).]]

*** Stella Loussier. She's the most child-like member of the three [[TykeBomb Biological]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy CPUs]], almost bordering on ObliviouslyEvil. When she accidentally fell off a cliff and was saved by Shinn, she first learned the concept of "protecting" something. This later led to her going out on her own in an attempt to protect her teammate Auel's "mother" from harm. Is this a sign of her growth as a character? Nope! [[spoiler:She ends up captured by ZAFT, gets sent right back to Phantom Pain, has her memories wiped, is forced to pilot a city-destroying giant mech, and is killed by Kira Yamato and the Freedom Gundam. All of that, just so her death can be used to motivate Shinn to take down Kira. Even though it would be far more interesting to see her survive the rampage of the aforementioned giant mech, face the consequences of her actions, and mature as a person. It really didn't help that the second opening implies she's going to be a major character, yet she ends up dying half way through the series without doing anything important (other than dying).

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'': Stella Loussier. She's the most child-like member of the three [[TykeBomb Biological]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy CPUs]], almost bordering on ObliviouslyEvil. When she accidentally fell off a cliff and was saved by Shinn, she first learned the concept of "protecting" something. This later led to her going out on her own in an attempt to protect her teammate Auel's "mother" from harm. Is this a sign of her growth as a character? Nope! She ends up captured, gets sent right back to Phantom Pain, has her memories wiped, is forced to pilot a city-destroying giant mech, and dies. Just so her death can be used to motivate Shinn to take down Kira and the Freedom Gundam. Even though it would be far more interesting to see her survive the rampage of the aforementioned giant mech, face the consequences of her actions, and mature as a person. It really didn't help that the second opening implies she's going to be a major character, yet she ends up dying half way through the series without doing anything important (other than dying).
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': Nena Trinity. She's introduced, like her brothers, as an unsettling figure and later crosses the MoralEventHorizon by [[spoiler:killing all of Louise's family.]] Then Ali Al-Saachez unknowingly gives her a taste of her own medicine by killing her brothers and leaving her all alone. Now in season 2, this seems to have affected her and she's slightly less batshit insane and more thoughtful. She also has to work with an even bigger spoiled, sociopathic villainess, giving her someone to reflect on. She later helps out the cause of good, not due to a HeelFaceTurn, but because [[EvenEvilHasStandards her side isn't living up to her standards.]] All the while, [[spoiler:Louise]] is becoming a DarkActionGirl and out for revenge against Nena. This would be a great plot: have [[spoiler:Louise]] face Nena now that Nena has somewhat redeemed herself and is beginning to change for the better. It would be a fascinating conflict of GreyAndGrayMorality. So what happens? A TimeSkip occurs, Nena is suddenly as much of a psychotic bitch as before, she discards her standards, and, though she does awesomely get rid of Wang Lui Mei, nothing really happens to even out the conflict between her and [[spoiler:Louise.]] Which leaves the question: ''What was the POINT of trying to develop Nena's character if the staff was just going to end her THIS way?!''

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': While it's usually better about this than the other two "big three" shonen, there have been a couple of instances:
** It's more of a power than of an actual character, but during the Enies Lobby arc, we're introduced to Funkfreed, a sword that was infused with an elephant Devil Fruit. Normally, such a quirky being would be fascinating, but unfortunately, Funkfreed was owned by [[DirtyCoward Spandam]], so he wasn't used to his full potential. This was actually justified, however, to show what a weak, pathetic person Spandam was.
** Another example that comes to mind are the General Zombies from the Thriller Bark arc. The EliteMooks of the island, they have hints of interesting pasts as they'd all apparently been a notable person in life, and several looked like they'd be good opponents for the Straw Hats (one had a physique similar to Franky's, another was a sniper like Usopp). Instead, they're unceremoniously [[TheWorfEffect pummeled into submission to show off the super-zombie Oars]] (the pummeling also takes place on a bridge, which proceeds to [[DroppedABridgeOnHim literally fall on top of them]]) The last two standing, hosting the shadows of Zoro and Sanji, don't even get a full fight, as Robin tricks them into taking each other out by exploiting their mortal counterparts' rivalry.