Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context BrokenAesop / AnimeAndManga

Go To

1%%%
2%%
3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4%%
5%%%
6
7!!Works with their own pages
8* ''BrokenAesop/{{Naruto}}''
9* ''BrokenAesop/YuGiOh''
10----
11* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'''s message that individualized education in a caring environment is superior to a colder and less personalized style is rather undermined by the fact that Koro-sensei is explicitly superhuman. A real human being is flat out ''incapable'' of the kinds of stunts he pulls because they can't move at super speed, don't have perfect memory or genius level intellect, can't memorize dozens of textbooks and can't hold multiple conversations at once. Nor can they be everywhere at once to stop bullying or attacks. It may be perfectly true that the Japanese educational system is deeply flawed in many respects, but expecting a human being in charge of dozens or hundreds of students to be able to keep up with Koro-sensei is impossible.
12** This is acknowledged in later chapters when Nagisa considers becoming a teacher himself. At first he has doubts about being as good as Korosensei because he obviously doesn't have Korosensei's powers, but in the end he resolves to become the best teacher he can be regardless.
13* In ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'', the message of the arc in which Mashiro and Takagi get in trouble with their girlfriends is that people in relationships shouldn't keep secrets from one another. Later, when [[spoiler:PCP doesn't get an anime, Takagi considers illustrating Shiratori's manga while Mashiro, despite being uncomfortable with the idea, doesn't mention it to Takagi]]. At the same time, Miyoshi and Azuki never hear [[spoiler:that there won't be an anime]] until Takagi inadvertently mentions it in Miyoshi's presence, and the conflict is mainly between Takagi and Mashiro (mainly because of their conflicting goals; [[spoiler:as Mashiro realizes, PCP would help Takagi earn a living as a mangaka, while it does not put Mashiro any closer to fulfilling his promise]]), not between them and their girlfriends.
14* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': The overall message of the series for most of its run is that racism is not always a problem so easily done away with. In the setting, pick a background character at random and chances are they'll be racist as hell, much like pretty much every human everywhere in real life up until the last couple centuries, and even many humans today in many countries around the world. Even most of the ''good'' guys start out being fairly racist until their interactions with other species start to re-inform their worldviews. Fast forward to the end of the last arc when all of that racial tension is utterly obliterated by TheLancer giving a speech on National TV. It's exactly as forced and unsatisfying as it sounds.
15* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ikkaku refuses to use his [[SuperMode Bankai]] in front of others so he can continue serving the 11th Squad Captain Kenpachi, as acquisition of a Bankai is a prerequisite to becoming a captain himself. After losing an important fight to protect Karakura Town from Aizen's forces, he is chewed out for his HonorBeforeReason fighting style. However, the same arc had Yumichika narrowly win his fight only after his opponent obscured them from the rest of the battlefield, whereupon he reveals his true power that his squad considers unmanly, and is praised by his opponent's dying words for refusing to use his powers until nobody else could see it. Early in the final arc, [[spoiler:Sasakibe is killed and revealed posthumously to have had a Bankai that he concealed for the ''exact same reason'' as Ikkaku, yet is showered in praise for his loyalty toward Yamamoto.]]
16* One episode of the ''VideoGame/BlueDragon'' anime had the main characters meet a brother/sister pair. The brother wanted to be a Shadow Wielder like the main characters, while the sister hated them. They're then attacked by bandits, and Shu decides not to fight in order to teach the kid that fighting isn't always the answer. This is broken because not only does Shu clearly get the crap beaten out of him, but also because in the end of the episode he ''goes back and beats up the bandits'' after the sister tells him that she doesn't really hate all Shadow Wielders anymore.
17* ''Anime/BNABrandNewAnimal'':
18** The story attempts to be a race allegory using {{beastmen}} and humans. The second half of the series almost renders it moot by dropping TheReveal that beastman are genetically predisposed to violence: when sufficiently stressed out, Beastmen can and will uncontrollably transform into terrifyingly powerful monsters that will blindly maim and destroy anything in their path. Meaning that humans are perfectly ''justified'' in not trusting their anthropomorphic brethren and wanting to either eradicate them or forcibly turn them all human. Which is the exact opposite idea you want to plant in a series that had spent several episodes going "racism is bad" and just had the main character admit to and apologize for their irrational bigotry the episode before. Even though the show ends with the characters curing this affliction, thus making it a non-factor for the future of this world, it's hard to forget the fact that they accidentally undermined their anti-racism message an hour prior.
19** Another point of contention is that despite the show heavily pushing the message that the way to defeat bigotry is to understand each other, humans are portrayed as InnocentlyInsensitive ''at best'', and as psychos willing to kill innocent beastmen at worst. As the action is largely contained within the beastman-only Anima City, it's never shown that the main characters are making any real effort to reach out and understand the human population, and it's made clear that beastmen run on a moral code that seems downright alien to humans. Indeed, [[spoiler:every important human character turns out to be a beastman of some sort, and when given the choice to return to being a human, both Michiru and Nazuna choose to stay as beastmen]].
20* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'': When Halekulani uses his [[Main/WaveMotionGun 100 Billion Dollar Bazooka]] on Bobobo, Don Patch and Jelly Jiggler, they counter it with their own [[Main/ThePowerOfFriendship Friendship Wave Technique.]] They miss and get hit, but Bobobo shields himself with Don Patch and Jelly.
21-->Beauty: You better get a dictionary and look up "friendship"!!
22* Intentionally done in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'''s "Toys in the Attic" episode, an episode devoted to twisting AnAesop in increasingly silly ways; Ed's [[SpoofAesop already silly lesson]] of "[[TooSmartForStrangers If you see a stranger, follow him!]]" is broken by Ed losing interest in the "stranger" and falling asleep.
23* ''Anime/CrossAnge'' is clearly meant to be anti-bigotry, considering that it decries the horrible treatment of the [[{{Muggles}} Norma]] by the Mana people, and the story is about the Norma fighting against their oppression and gaining freedom. Part of [[TheHeroine Ange]]'s CharacterDevelopment is about learning not to judge others, and that Norma are people too. The problem is that the show then goes on to depict the Mana people (with a few exceptions like Momoka and post-CharacterDevelopment Emma) as AlwaysChaoticEvil, to the point of [[spoiler:their prejudice being outright genetically programmed]], and when the BigBad Embryo [[spoiler:[[TheMagicGoesAway destroys Mana]] and both he and Ange herself leave the Mana people to fend for themselves]], [[InferredHolocaust this is portrayed as karmic justice despite effectively being genocide]].
24* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
25** The Karin's Tower arc of ''Manga/DragonBall'' concludes by revealing that there's no such thing as a magic potion that makes you stronger; Goku's ordeals to get the Super Holy Water (being effectively TrainingFromHell) [[MagicFeather were what made him strong]]. Ergo, the moral is "there isn't a way to just magically be great, you have to work for it." Then a few arcs later when Goku needed a powerboost, Karin [[AssPull reveals that he was holding out]] and there's actually an Super ''God'' Water where, if you drink it and survive, you get a lot stronger. At this point, the only thing keeping the moral intact is that the Super God Water was claimed to be poisonous if you weren't strong enough to survive it. Then, over the course of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', pretty much every arc would reveal at least one new way for characters to get stronger without having to do any real work for it, including "zenkai boosts", the Super Saiyan forms, the various "unlock potential" abilities, fusions, absorption and even Dragon Balls themselves, which shattered the moral into a million pieces.
26** Many accounts have claimed that the point of the scouters and PowerLevels was to show how silly it was to claim that a fight can be determined by simple numbers or raw strength, because combat is unpredictable - except, PowerLevels basically ''are'' that silly. Invariably in the series, fights are won by the person who had more raw strength, they often demonstrate the ability to circumvent stuff that really should be able to take them down regardless of how strong they are (most infamously the "fighting candy"), and techniques that can do so like the all-cutting Destructo Disk are famously underused. There are times where someone with a lower power beats someone with a higher power, but this is almost always through techniques that allow them to make their power greater than the opponent, such as the Kaioken. Even in the Namek Saga, the part of the series that constantly played up the UnskilledButStrong nature of most of the involved combatants on the enemy team, not a single one was actually beaten by an opponent with a lower power level. And scouters are basically exactly the same thing as energy-sensing that's used by everyone in the series, except that scouters put a number on it while the user of energy-sensing just shouts "They're more than twice my strength!" It's one thing to say this in real life, but when having a higher number than your opponent means they basically can't even scratch you and is indeed based on a distinct value (namely, the person's ki), it's no wonder that the fandom has dedicated so much time to determining everyone's PowerLevels.
27** Later in the series, Goku is focused on PassingTheTorch to his sons. Gohan does eventually surpass Goku and defeat Cell after Goku sacrifices himself, even being billed as the main protagonist in the Buu arc. Goku also invests time in training Goten and Trunks to ensure that Earth has a protector when he’s not around; he’s technically “dead” at this point, and Vegeta also sacrificed himself. However, Super Buu becomes too much for the children to handle, leading to Goku’s revival and reclaiming the main character position. Vegeta also returns and becomes the only other relevant fighter. Meanwhile, the hyped-up new generation get absorbed by Buu, die, and have no major role for the rest of the arc even after their revival.
28** The prior Cell arc also attempted to feature this moral, claiming that Goku creates more issues than he solves and the world is better off without him, and he needs to step aside to let the next generation of heroes take place. However, the rest of the arc seems to show how ''essential'' Goku is. His death in Trunks's timeline is directly cited as the reason for the BadFuture, the completely unheralded arrival of Trunks was the only thing apart from him preventing the earth from being annihilated by Frieza and his father, he rescues multiple people from certain doom over the course of the arc, he introduces the characters to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that gives them even a chance to contain Cell, he comes up with a training method that allows him and Gohan to stand toe-to-toe with Perfect Cell and brings Gohan to the brink of Super Saiyan 2, he stops Cell's self-destruct from destroying the Earth, and his encouragement is what enables Gohan to win the final BeamOWar. Though he's hardly free of stupid or detrimental actions in the arc (most famously the senzu bean incident), nearly every character has at least one major screwup under their belt, and none do as much as Goku does to make up for it. If anything, much of the reason things go badly in the arc is because Goku spends most of it [[DeusExitMachina either incapacitated or training.]] And when we move on to the early Buu Saga, we see that Goku not being around has caused the opposite of his predictions; without his presence, all the other good guys have either shown no significant improvements or outright slacked off and gotten weaker.
29** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Vegeta defeats the God-of-Destruction powered Toppo by sticking to his pride as a fighter and using the new form granted to him through that pride -- while Toppo decided to discard his "justice" ideals in order to unleash his full powers and entirely focus on the survival of his home universe. After his defeat, he gets chided by Jiren and Vegeta for abandoning his principles and still losing, while Jiren praises Vegeta for holding true to his beliefs. This moral would be far more reasonable, if ''Dragon Ball'' hadn't shown how "sticking true to your pride" is a '''bad thing''' in life-or-death situations (as Vegeta himself can attest on his encounters against Cell and Babidi). Moreover, if using the God of Destruction powers conflicted with Toppo's ideals from the start, it doesn't make sense that he would be trained on them - as the franchise consistently shows that you have to constantly train in order to access techniques and transformations. Ultimately, the comments from Vegeta and Jiren end up looking more like an attempt to villainize Toppo rather than a moral consistent with the setting.
30* In the ''Anime/DragonsDogma'' episode "Greed", Ethan and some soldiers defeats a lich that was cursed by a gold coin with insatiable greed. When the soldiers remark that the families of their fellows who died will starve without their salaries, Ethan picks up the cursed coin and suggests that they just take their fair payment of the gold hoard they just liberated. The implication seems to be that Ethan was being corrupted, especially since one of the soldiers immediately goes mad the second he touches the coin, but from an audience standpoint he's really not suggesting anything unreasonable. The soldiers deserve payment for services rendered, and the duke who hired them is clearly a greedy bastard himself.
31* ''Manga/DrRamuneMysteriousDiseaseSpecialist'' has one early [[MonsterOfTheWeek Patient of the Week]], a [[TheCasanova serial philanderer]] who's dating several women at once, and the story makes it very clear that his issues stem from his lack of honesty, which he needs to learn. However, Ramune engages in some major dishonesty of his own when he gives the patient the harshest treatment that he can--he didn't do this because he genuinely believed it was the only way to help the man realize and fix his mistakes, but because [[GreenEyedMonster he was jealous that a woman he was crushing on was in love with the patient]].
32* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
33** The series is ''big'' on highlighting ThePowerOfFriendship. So much so that many a third of the battles couldn't have been won without it. Lucy gets half her powerups because spirits like how friendly she is with them. Sticking it out for your friends is always the right thing to do... unless you're Jellal, in which case doing so gets you tortured and [[spoiler:brainwashed]], hated by everyone, and robbed on any semblance of life or freedom. Granted, it gets better for him down the line [[spoiler:especially when it comes out his worst actions were under said brainwashing]], but it's a ''long'' path...
34** The series emphasized the importance of ThePowerOfFriendship, but one time that the message gets murky is in the [[TournamentArc Grand Magic Games]]. Sabertooth, which took over the rank of the #1 guild in the absence of Fairy Tail's strongest members, is led by TheSocialDarwinist who throws members out for losing. While the narrative wants to show that Fairy Tail is stronger because they value their comrades, it does so using a fight in which Natsu ultimately shoves his partner Gajeel out of the match over a petty argument and goes on to solo Sting and Rogue, a duo who are actually famous for their teamwork. The fight ends with Natsu singlehandedly overpowering their [[CombinationAttack Unison Raid]], a sign of how close the Twin Dragons are, while Mavis monologues about how Natsu's bonds make him strong. True, it's made clear that Sting and Rogue despite their teamwork still clearly put far more pride in their strength rather than their bonds (even Sting's promise to Lector was based in how he was gonna prove himself stronger than Natsu) and Sting did nearly the same thing when he told Rogue not to interfere with his Dragon Force beatdown of the two, while Natsu made it known before his final beatdown that what's coming is for everyone in his guild they laughed at (and it was made clear either Natsu and Gajeel were strong enough solo Sting and Rogue given their performance up to that point), but at first glance it feels hypocritical. The anime makes this worse when Natsu is under the delusion that Gajeel ran off and chastises ''him'' for not understanding teamwork.
35** During the Tenrou Island arc, Natsu is taught by Gildarts that sometimes he needs to accept that an opponent is out of his league instead of attempting to fight. Natsu would go on to [[IgnoredEpiphany consciously ignore this lesson twice]] in that same arc when it was clear that backing down wasn't an option if he and his companions wanted to live, and suffers no consequences. Against Zancrow, who can eat his flames, he [[AssPull suddenly finds a bizarre way to do the same thing]]. Against Hades, Fairy Tail gets powered up by outside circumstances just as Hades gets powered down by outside circumstances.
36** During the Tartaros arc, one of Erza's most infamous {{Ass Pull}}s involves her opponent Kyouka shutting off her five senses, only for Erza to spout off a generic speech about how "the light of friendship" overcomes any fear Kyouka can try to put her through. By the end of the arc, Erza suddenly starts to feel trauma over Kyouka's torture, and instead of seeking help from the aforementioned friends, secludes herself to angst over her out-of-nowhere trust issues, just to provide a ShipTease moment when Jellal comes to comfort her.
37** The final arc reveals that two main protagonists are each related to a prominent antagonist, namely that [[spoiler:Natsu is Zeref's little brother (as well as his greatest demonic creation after his original body died), and Erza is the daughter of Irene]]. The story for these parts comes off as incredibly wishy-washy about whether it wants to promote FamilyOfChoice or ThickerThanWater. On the one hand, [[spoiler:Natsu hardly seems to care about being the {{Big Bad}}'s little brother other than the occasional sarcastic "Big Bro", and Erza bluntly tells Irene that Fairy Tail is her true family with her only true parent being Makarov after hearing straight from Irene's lips how she abandoned her as a child and hates her (plus being fully willing to destroy Fairy Tail).]] On the other hand, [[spoiler:the story goes to great lengths to display Zeref's ultimately one-sided devotion to his little brother, and Irene suddenly near the end of their fight remembers in a MomentOfLucidity that her abandonment of Erza was out of fear and disgust with herself nearly trying to steal her daughter's body and so chooses to kill herself to spare her now, regardless of how Erza feels about her. Both of these are portrayed as some of their humanizing moments, and latter still in ''100 Years Quest'' both Natsu and Erza would go so far as to acknowledge the deceased Zeref and Irene as family]].
38* This is PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords2004''. Link learns the value of teamwork over the course of the story, but only amongst his doppelgängers. His final panel shows him leaving the Hylian knights in the dust to fight without them.
39* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' starts picking up a message in its second half that revenge is always wrong, and only leads to a cycle of violence. Trouble is, Al, the one most adamant about this, physically stops Marta from taking revenge on Kimblee, who is then left free to do lots more bad stuff before successfully being killed off. You can't help but think a lot more people would have been better off if Al had just let her do it.
40** The [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist manga]] has an in-universe example. Close to the end, the BigBad gives a little speech about how all of the sacrifices are being punished in [[IronicHell ironic ways]] for their hubris in performing human transmutation: [[spoiler: Izumi being rendered infertile by her attempt to resurrect her lost child, for example]]. Ed points out immediately that [[spoiler:Roy Mustang]] ''didn't even try'' human transmutation and only ended up in the GateOfTruth because the villains forced it to happen.
41* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
42** Lampshaded by Lacus Clyne in the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'', when she points out the apparent hypocrisy of their actions: "... calling out for peace with guns in our hands."
43*** Another example of BrokenAesop in the same series happens when Athrun and Cagalli tearfully argue over whether Athrun had the right to [[spoiler:blow Kira up after Kira kills Athrun's ally Nicol in retaliation for Athrun himself killing Kira's ally Tolle]], as part of the theme of how pursuing pacifism also involves not continuing the cycle of revenge. However, it seems Kira himself is excused from this argument when he [[spoiler:kills Rau in retaliation for killing Flay.]] It's even more jarring when Lacus herself calls for the pilots of the Three Ships Alliance to avoid killing whenever possible.
44** A recurring one in ''Anime/GundamSEEDDestiny'': the show is extremely clear on the idea that war is bad, and kindness and peace needs to win out. But it's undermined quite a bit by the fact that the good guys, especially Kira Yamato, tend to pursue violence as a first resort and have a major habit of ignoring what other people want or are trying to tell them. Which would be fine if this blatant hypocrisy was the point... but it generally isn't.
45** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' has this happen InUniverse; the protagonists' plan to end war involves attacking anybody who participates in war, regardless of any other factor. Several characters comment on the blatant hypocrisy, and the heroes themselves wonder what they're doing. [[spoiler:Turns out it's part of a larger plan, to unite humanity against a common enemy.]]
46* The main moral of ''Manga/HowHeavyAreTheDumbbellsYouLift'' -- that any ordinary person can get fit with some hard work -- is offset by the fact that Hibiki is ''not'' particularly dedicated (she consistently eats poorly, for instance), yet still has impressive physical gifts. Your ordinary person is not going to be able to punch boxing bags so hard it breaks the chains or effortlessly defeat a world arm-wrestling champion with only a few months of training, even if they work much harder than Hibiki does throughout the show. And of course, most of the other characters are simply not ordinary to begin with, being either fitness buffs (Machio, Akemi) or top-tier athletes (Ayaka, Gina). The characters that are the most ordinary, Tachibana and Deire, are frequently made the butt of jokes relating to their lack of athleticism despite by all appearances being serious about their fitness, which makes one wonder how productive the manga is really being about trying to make ordinary people hit the gym.
47* A lot of the aesops and stories in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' revolve around a world and belief where there are very rarely a true black and white side to any conflict, and there are usually layers that need to be explored to better understand, which is amplified by the setting. In most arcs, this is portrayed fairly well, with very few characters outside of the main protagonists being wholly heroic, good-natured, or righteous, and even said main characters having their own severely notable flaws. But it becomes a lot harder to parse this aesop in the Chimera Ant arc specifically. Togashi put a lot of effort into portraying the Ants as complex, constantly learning and evolving, [[spoiler:and by the end of the arc every Ant that survived has given up their old ways. However, a great emphasis was put on specifically the Ant King, Meruem, developing compassion and an understanding for human life, thanks to his interactions with Komugi, with his final scene being them holding each other as they slowly pass.]] Just as well, an emphasis on the unpredictable and, at times, vile nature of human beings, such as NGL's backwards society being a big reason why the Chimera Ants become such a global issue, and [[spoiler:having to utilize a Poor Man's Rose nuclear weapon to finally kill Meruem and the other ants.]] But, as characters, the Chimera Ant can't really be seen as anything other than evil, inhumane, and deplorable. Their entire existence and growth is based around murdering and consuming humans to make them into more ants, with many scenes dedicated to their usually gleeful and bloody rounds of hunting and murdering any and all humans they come across to use for food - even innocent children. This reaches its apex when [[spoiler:Meruem and his Royal Guards storm a Royal Palace to make it their new nest, slaughtering not only the corrupt Dictator, but also his innocent dancers... but not before saying it's ironic that they plead for mercy, when they kill and eat animals like cows.]] Compare this to any other arc, such as Yorknew - while the Phantom Troupe is implied to have killed innocent people, almost all of their actions in the arc are focused on the Auction, exclusively inhabited by corrupt millionaires that are more concerned with their own money and fun than their safety, as well as guards they've hired for the event.
48* ''Manga/IfMyFavoritePopIdolMadeItToTheBudokanIWouldDie'' attempts to dismantle a common stereotype in Japanese media by showing that idol {{otaku}} are not creepy, obsessive, crazed stalkers by showing that they're truly good people who support their favorite groups and idols because they want them to succeed. However, Eripiyo's behavior ends up unintentionally reinforcing some very negative stereotypes of idol otaku: she's fanatically devoted to buying Maina's merchandise, gets so excited upon seeing her that she at one point passes out and has to have medical help, and in general her entire life seems to revolve around Maina. While she may not be a creepy StalkerWithACrush, her behavior still comes across as an unhealthy obsession.
49* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' often seems to have some conflicting moral lessons depending on the situation, although this can be put down to the fact that different characters have different opinions, and no one character is perfect on their own, which in turn could be seen as an Aesop of its own.
50** In the first season they seem to have the lesson "don't play as a solo, even if you feel you can score right now, pass to someone else to give them a change". In Season 3, however, one of the character's entire arcs revolve around the lesson "it's fine to show off and score all the goals. True team-mates will be happy for you, not angry".
51** The fact that a lot of the show resolves around how soccer is a pure sport and should be played without any methods that aren't natural in soccer (the super-dimensional aspect of it obviously being natural in-universe) can come off as broken when the "mixi-max" ability is introduced. Unlike all the other super-dimensional aspects which involve naturally evolving the ability to use the moves, this one isn't natural and involves having to take and transfer someone's aura with electronic guns. Although the ability can be done naturally too which is seen twice, and you do have to train to match the transfer subject's aura, most of the mixi-maxing is done by force with equipment, which kind of squishes the moral that you're not supposed to use unnatural enhancements in sport.
52** A lot of the lessons of the show are based around the fact that winning isn't everything. Which can come off as odd when the characters constantly mention and empathize how they ''must'' win certain matches and if they don't then everything they've built up will be shattered. This is more confusing than broken, since the specific moral is supposed to be that you should fight to win, but if you ''do'' lose then that's still okay.
53** The fact that violence shouldn't be allowed in soccer is broken by the fact the soccer the characters play is naturally violent. Such as, apparently charging into someone and shoving them is a bad thing to do, but it's completely fine if you electrocute an opponent so much they fall to their knees in pain.
54* ''Manga/{{Inuyashiki}}'' preaches that no matter what a person has done in the past, it is never too late for them to redeem themselves and do some good. However, this aesop is bungled by the series' treatment of most villains apart from the BigBad, who instead of being granted a chance to FaceHeelTurn and make up for what they've done are simply dealt with (in one infamous example crippled for life), arrested, or killed and never seen again.
55* ''Anime/KadoTheRightAnswer'':
56** The anime sets up the idea that dialogue and negotiation are essential for co-existence, and that there aren't always simple, brute-force solutions to problems that can be implemented without a hitch: The alien that arrives to 'advance' humanity needs a human aide in order to provide his gifts in the most efficient way, and there is immense political fallout to the alien choosing Japan as its host nation (even though it was essentially chosen at random). When the time comes to solve the show's main conflict, all that is abandoned and the final episodes are entirely devoted to using brute-force violence in as straight-forward a way as possible to solve everything.
57** It also tries to say that it is wrong to try to make decisions for others, which amounts to [[CondescendingCompassion thinking you know better or are more intelligent than them]], and people must be given the ability to think for themselves. However, when zaShuina attempts to forcefully [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence take humanity into the anisotropic realm with him]], Saraka and Shindo attempt to stop him and permanently cut off the connection between Earth and the anisotropic, and their reasoning is that humanity needs to evolve on its own. However, they never bothered to find out if the people of Earth really wanted to go with zaShuina or not, so they end up making decisions for others [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality just like him]].
58* ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2017'' puts emphasis on the idea that teamwork is essential in order to achieve success, however in the end only Akko and Diana's protagonist/antagonist relationship is really important to the plot, and all the others (even Akko's roommates and friends Sucy and Lotte) become increasingly irrelevant. Even in the final episode, when all the important characters receive a power-up, the other witches are only needed to get Akko and Diana into the stratosphere to fight the final enemy, and aren't seen until the episode's end. Also, Constanze explicitly says she works alone and yet she manages to create stuff nobody else in the show can do.
59* In ''Manga/LoveHina'', the idea is that ''everything'' is possible if you try your hardest, even getting into Japan's top university and charming a really hot girl, even though you're a total loser. However, while Keitaro does start off as a really pathetic individual, it does not take long before he turns out to not only be [[BeautifulAllAlong handsome]] but also a gifted archeologist and martial artist. You'd ''expect'' someone who is not really cool or talented to captivate through {{determinat|or}}ion and charm. While Keitaro is very determined, his defeatist, whiny and relatively immature personality, as well as his tremendous clumsiness deeply annoy the girls... It's only when he drops his usual act that the women show ''any attraction'' for him, often pointing out that he is very handsome when he is not being annoying. Ultimately, instead of ''Manga/LoveHina'' being about an underdog accomplishing goals far beyond his reach through {{determinat|or}}ion and ThePowerOfLove, it's actually about someone who was CrazyIsCool from the start but never had the proper motivation to unlock his potential until he met the girl.
60* ''Anime/MagicalShoppingArcadeAbenobashi'', at first, appears to simply be a zany [[TheresNoPlaceLikeHome trying-to-get-home]] plot as they travel from one bizarre world to the next. As it turns out, the reason they couldn't get back was [[spoiler: that Sashi was the one in control without even realizing it. Not only that, it's revealed to him that they're stuck there [[DarkerAndEdgier because he's suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the fact that Arumi's grandfather died from the fall off his restaurant.]] Feeling guilty, he tries to distract her and prevent them from returning so she doesn't learn the truth. This fails and, in the end, they start to head home. This, however, is undermined by him unlocking a hidden power, [[ResetButton re-writing reality to prevent grandpa from dying.]]]] The moral of the story is "while tragedy really hurts, you can't hide in your own little world forever and have to face reality eventually." Or that's what it would be if not for how it ends. Instead, it comes off as "if you wish hard enough, you'll never lose anyone or anything close to you."
61* ''Manga/MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro'' ep. 14 ends with a message about how people shouldn't be so intolerant of other people's cultures. The hypocrisy is that this is delivered in reaction to the antics of possibly the most xenophobic and offensive depiction of an [[{{Eagleland}} American]] in anime since 1945. However, a later chapter reveals that the American had been [[spoiler:the first test subject of the electronic drug, which exaggerates something a person likes in order to warp them into psychotic killers]], making the Eagleland stereotype something of an ExploitedTrope. If Yako and the others (possibly even the readers) hadn't been blinded by the stereotype of Americans, they likely would have realized that something was wrong much sooner. So, don't let yourself be blinded by negative stereotypes, kids. If you do, [[spoiler:[[AIIsACrapshoot an evil computer]] [[SpaceWhaleAesop will take over the world]]]].
62* ''Anime/MasterOfMartialHearts'' tries to end with a partial "exploiting women for sex is wrong" Aesop (along with a "vengeance is bad" one that comes straight out of nowhere). This Aesop falls flat on its face when the previous four episodes leading up to the finale were shameless and unironic PantyFighter fair that went ''beyond'' panties seeing as the characters frequently ended up completely topless. And that's only ''one'' reason why the Aesop fails.
63* ''Anime/MyOtome'': Arika succeeds in her quest to become an Otome not because of the purity of her dream, but because she's the daughter of Lena Sayers and so the authorities (first and foremost, Natsuki) are willing to bend the rules for her. And she's a powerful Otome for the same reason, namely that she inherited Lena's genes and gems.
64* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
65** Gentle Criminal's [[StartOfDarkness backstory]], where he attempted to illegally use his powers to save a civilian and ended up severely hurting the man instead, leading to Gentle being ostracized and having his life ruined, carries with it the harsh lesson that laws exist for a good reason, and attempting to do something illegal and/or unsafe, no matter how good of a cause it's for, can cause extreme harm, and you need to let trained professionals handle dangerous situations. This, however, ignores the times that the ''protagonists'' acted outside the law and ultimately didn't have things backfire on them. Izuku and Shoto disobeying orders, running off and using their powers illegally against Stain helped save Tenya's life and bring Stain down, and at the end the police chief agreed to sweep their actions under the rug. In another case, when the students of Class 1-A sneak off to rescue Bakugou from the League of Villains, they don't directly cause any harm or suffer any punishment apart from Aizawa's threats of expulsion which he never follows up on. All Might lost his powers not because of carelessness on the students' part, but because he was trying to protect Bakugou and fight his ArchEnemy at the same time, both things which would have happened no matter what the class did in that situation. So the lesson ends up being "don't do something illegal for a good cause, because only TheHero has good enough judgement to do that without causing unforeseen problems".
66** To a lesser extent, the story's premise that "anyone can become a hero" falls completely on its face when you remember that [[UnSorcerer Midoriya]] wouldn't have been capable of pretty much ''any'' of the feats he pulls off without the incredible legacy of [[StoryBreakerPower One For All]] backing him up at every turn. If he hadn't had his fateful encounter with All Might to pass those powers on, he would have amounted to little more than a RedShirt even if he [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower trained his body]], since EveryoneIsASuper. So the Aesop ends up being, "anyone [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections with the ear of those who are already powerful]] can become a hero".
67* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'''s protagonist seems to break two primary Aesops which he himself claimed to believe in:
68** Firstly the series' quote: "Our Magic is not omnipotent... a little bit of courage is the real magic" is thrown out the window the moment the {{Shonen|Demographic}} features of the series kick in, with the protagonist, Negi, wanting more and more magical power and not showing any courage and/or confidence against opponents unless he knows he has more power than them [[spoiler:to the point of obtaining BlackMagic to do so]]. Though characters like Asuna, Ako and Nodoka show courage in the romance department, it's shown that the girls without their Pactios (magical contracts where Negi gives them power) are essentially TheLoad. Thus the series teaches us "You need to be brave... but without magic you're screwed".
69** Secondly, the Aesop: "We are all the main characters of our own lives" seem broken when you notice that the secondary characters only get ADayInTheLimelight when their debatable CharacterDevelopment has something to do with Negi. And those that don't, like Setsuna, end up OutOfFocus even when facing their own rival in the series. Made particularly egregious the fact that Akamatsu doesn't believe this Aesop applies to anyone except Negi is when Kotaro says: "Negi... you're the star". Which seems somewhat OutOfCharacter for a HotBlooded, BoisterousBruiser like him.
70** Then we have a third Aesop everyone tries to make Negi learn, which is impossible since he suffers from a severe case of AesopAmnesia; it is that team work is important and you can't do anything alone. While this Aesop is followed through in the Festival arc, it ends up being forgotten since Negi's TrueCompanions end up being reduced to WeAreTeamCannonFodder. [[spoiler:Negi defeats Fate on his own and Ala Alba can't do anything but let Ala Rubra and Evangeline sort everything else out.]]
71** So to sum it up secondary characters can follow the Aesops while the main character can't.
72* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'':
73** An episode of the Naisho {{O|riginalVideoAnimation}}VA ends with Seki-sensei chewing out the anchor leg of her room's opponents in a swimming relay for not trying as hard as Aiko. [[spoiler:One, the opponents ''won'' that race, and two, after all her hard practicing, Aiko didn't even compete.]]
74** The message about giving up magic, [[spoiler:given by the witch apprentices in the penultimate episode of the main series,]] ended up both contradicting the importance of magic shown in earlier seasons (especially when people's lives are at stake), and tolerating irresponsibility for [[spoiler:leaving Hana and leaving most (if not all) future burdens involving the Witch World on her.]] Similar logic can also be applied to giving up technology as well. Still, to people not thinking hard and just grasping the "achieve things with your own effort" moral, it works, but no aesop is broken if one doesn't connect the dots.
75* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
76** In "Challenge of the Samurai", the moral about finishing what you started (and not making up excuses for stuff) was broken. The first thing that happens is that [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom the Samurai]] pulls a sword on Ash ''just'' when he's about to catch a Weedle. When Ash didn't catch the Weedle, it gets away and then warns a swarm of Beedrill, which attack everyone before seizing Ash's new Metapod. Now Ash goes out to fetch Metapod, making his best effort -- when Team Rocket shows up to harass him more, forcing him to run. In the end, Ash's last "excuse" was that he got sidetracked, he admits that [[ItsAllMyFault everything was his fault]] - when in fact, nothing was. So it's a case of NeverMyFault by the Samurai, [[{{Hypocrite}} who blamed Ash for the mess he started in the first place]]!
77** In episode 65, Gary makes fun of Ash for catching so few Pokemon. Ash says that he doesn't care about the numbers, just that all of his Pokemon are his friends. This is coming from the person who has thirty Tauros. Is he friends with all thirty of them? Can he tell the difference between them? He hadn't even used any Tauros in battle at this point. Even worse, it's made clear that Gary has been switching his Pokemon out regularly to use all of them. In other words, Gary's been making ties with ''all'' of his Pokemon. Ash very rarely rotates his Pokemon, leaving them to stay with Oak for who knows how long until he needs them for a particular battle. And if you want to go even further, the vast majority of his older Pokemon are ignored once a new series begins.
78** It has been stated that trained Pokémon are stronger than wild ones, so Pokémon Trainers must train them and can't expect to win battles using untrained ones. This sends the message that you must work hard in order to attain your goals and can't be lazy and expect to get things done the easy way. Yet every time Ash used Pokémon that he had never trained or even used once (ie: Tauros and Krabby) during Pokémon League [[note]]whose participants are supposed to be some of the strongest trainers in the region[[/note]] matches during the original series, they kicked far more ass than most of those he had used through most of his journey (ie: the Kanto starters) and thus should be more experienced. Even worse, his Krabby evolved into Kingler ''in the very first Pokémon Battle it participated in'' when most of the Pokémon Ash had with him for most of his journey and had participated in dozen of battles were still unevolved.
79*** The same thing had happened earlier with Ash's Primeape: it won a Pokémon fighting tournament despite being a freshly caught Pokémon that had never been trained or used in a battle before. In the same tournament participated a guy called Anthony who used a Hitmonchan he had been obsessively training to the point of neglecting his family, yet he didn't even get to the finals. In fact, Anthony was so impressed by Ash's Primeape that he offered to take it under his mantle, apparently thinking that it was worth more than his highly trained Hitmonchan.
80** By the end of the Indigo League, Ash learns the HardTruthAesop that his humiliating loss was his own fault -- as he'd gotten half his badges without battling, been carried by BeginnersLuck through most of his League matches, and failed to train his team (especially his disobedient Charizard), he was bound to lose to a more prepared Trainer eventually. But in practice, the real reason Ash lost because his team sans Charizard was exhausted from escaping Team Rocket; thus, while his luck was running out, this would have happened even if he'd properly trained his team or earned his prior wins. Also, Charizard's obedience ultimately had nothing to do with training -- it remained disobedient even when Ash ''was'' trying to command it, and only regained loyalty to him after Ash saved its life a second time. While Ash was a better Trainer by that point, nothing about his skill ever had to do with controlling Charizard, especially since Charizard had known Ash was selfless from the very beginning.
81** In ''The Grass Route!'', the lesson is supposed to be that Ash lost to Ephram because he didn't train for the tournament. However, Bulbasaur easily thrashed his opponents during the tournament and was also pummeling Ephram's Skippy and lost solely because Skippy got lucky and learned Solar Beam.
82** ''Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym'' tries to teach Ash not to overthink things in battle, as his true strength comes from his belief in his Pokémon over strategy. The moral falls apart as Ash's Palpitoad which he expected to sweep Elesa's entire team with was defeated because Elesa used strategy to overcome its type advantage, Ash's Snivy loss was treated as [[DidntThinkThisThrough a lack of strategy]] as opposed to overreliance, and Pikachu who Ash relied on his belief in still needed a strategy to overcome Elesa's Tynamo.
83** In the second N-related episode, he tries to protect a Braviary from Team Plasma. When Team Plasma sends out two Pokémon to fight him, he expresses his wish that he could rescue them from Team Plasma so that they could return to the wild and live in peace. The problem is that the two Pokémon he's talking to are ''Zangoose and Seviper'', who are using successful teamwork while in Team Plasma's hands, while their entire characterization in the franchise is how they will fight each other to the death in the wild. While some of N's opinions are countered by Ash and friends, this one is not addressed.
84** Iris's Dragonite out the gate is as stubborn and disobedient as he is powerful, and Iris's next step in her growth as a trainer is based on learning to tame him and earning his trust. She eventually succeeds... whereupon Dragonite loses pretty much every battle he takes part in ([[TheWorfEffect usually to reinforce how tough Iris's opponent is]]). It's hard to see how taming Dragonite helped to develop Iris when all of Dragonite's wins came from when he ''wasn't'' obeying her.
85* ''Popotan'' ends on a moral about living on in the hearts of those you meet and part with as the key to fulfillment. Except, that's exactly the opposite of what happened to lead Mai to revisit Konami, the one who tells her that, in the first place. It was already revealed in Episode 9 that Konami in the main timeline had died of a broken heart due to never seeing Mai again. Clearly, there was reason to assume the protagonists ''had'' left any number of others throughout time heartbroken. Also, even though Ai and Mii both crave to eachother and Mai again, Mai's only issues was about Konami bugging her about such an unwanted topic as her journey from all series long, and unlike them, she ''did'' find real fulfillment before, even with only Mea living with her, even ''before'' finding out about such a debt as she had on her hands to repay, when she missed the timeskip between episodes 5 and 6 and was finally able to settle down for five years, at least until she found out that she and her sisters can't age outside the house while their journey is still in progress.
86** The source of the moral itself makes no sense either. From what we learn in Episode 9, Konami had died of a broken heart from never seeing Mai again, and this is why her daughter Mai becomes cold and distant from everyone. As if protagonist-Mai even made any promise to see her again to begin with, one she'd know she wouldn't be able to keep. Episode 2 ended with the two of them only promising not to forget each other, and Mai's farewell gift saying "Thank you. Goodbye."[[note]]Mai did say "See you tomorrow, Konami," while the house was about to leave, but she might not have noticed anything while hugging her with her eyes closed.[[/note]] It's not like Mai was her only friend either; they are shown with two other girls when bonding earlier in the episode, and it's pretty obvious that Mai wasn't the one who befriended them, given her attitude before and after. Exactly ''what'' made Mai so special to Konami that she in turn would obsess over her to the point of naming her daughter thereafter and dying from despair from not seeing her again?
87* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
88** ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure'' tries very hard to push the message of how being selfish is wrong and you can only truly be happy by helping others, yet two episodes argue ''against'' the moral with the counterargument of "being selfless can lead to burnout and cause more harm than good", as one episode has Mana being put out of commission because she overworked herself helping everyone over every little thing, and [[spoiler:Princess Marie-Ange's attempt to be selfless to her people conflicted with the love of her father (who was corrupted into King Jikochuu), thus was unable to fully commit to the needs of the many leading to her dying and the kingdom getting destroyed. And that's not going into the fact that Mana ''solos'' the BigBad while preaching the "being selfish is bad" message, especially since before then, every other ''Pretty Cure'' season has the final battle be a group effort between the heroes in order to put the main villain down, yet here the other Cures are hit with TheWorfEffect with their only purpose being to give Mana an EleventhHourSuperPower.]]
89** The movie tie-in to ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'', ''Ballerina of the Doll Kingdom'', has the heroes being trapped in a world created from the wish of Tsumugi, a young dancer who can no longer use her legs. As they struggle to free her from the villain, they have to come to grips with some uncomfortable (but mature) lessons, such as Lovely realizing that ''not'' all problems can be fixed with hard work or wishes, and that sometimes you're unable to fulfill your dreams - and that's okay; you're fine as you are so long as you remain a good person at heart. But then it turns out that Tsumugi's paralysis was actually caused by the villain's magic, and the Precure defeating him hits the ResetButton. Yes, it's nice that she can dance again, but way to invalidate your message (and drop the ball on what was mostly a realistic, respectful message about disabilities and depression).
90** In ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'', one episode has Henri back up Homare's dream to be a hero by indulging in his own pastime of crossdressing. He uses it to prove to Masato that a person doesn't have to stick by rigid gender roles in order to be happy, and Masato eventually comes to see his point of view by the end when he sees just how capable the Cures are at being heroes. A fine thing to teach the young girls and adults watching; though to some longtime fans, it came across as a cold comfort to those who watched the previous season, ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode''. A bit of minor controversy arose over a lategame shakeup: due to [[spoiler: Pekorin being allowed to turn into a Cure in the second-to-last episode, but Pikario getting restricted to an eerily Cure-''like'' powerup 10 episodes before despite how it was established prior that he wanted to become a Cure, unlike the former's case]], the suddenness of [[spoiler: Pekorin's change]] caused some to think it was enforced to ensure the unwritten [[spoiler: "No Male Cures"]] policy. That group wound up indirectly getting the opposite message when the two events were strung together: a boy can wish to be a princess if he wants, but [[spoiler: he can never truly become one.]] This is ultimately averted near the end when Henri [[spoiler: actually does become a Precure, Cure Infini, alongside many other people in order to defeat the BigBad.]]
91* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'': The theme of on-court violence. Tezuka loses his cool a few times in order to deliver this very Aesop, yet some of the strongest players such as Kirihara employ this very strategy with [[KarmaHoudini few repercussions]].
92* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has an in-universe example, where Madoka goes to her mother to ask what she should do to resolve a difficult situation between her friends. Her mother advises her that if there's no clear "right" answer to the situation but she still needs to do ''something'', then it's okay to do something that seems wrong in the short term; if anything, learning to deal with mistakes is part of growing up. However, this turns out to have been terrible advice for Madoka's situation: [[spoiler: it causes Madoka to throw Sayaka's SoulJar off a bridge, revealing the truth of her abilities and kicking off her SanitySlippage]]. The series reconstructs it, illustrating exactly ''why'' sometimes a mistake is worth making for the lesson learned: [[spoiler: It ruined ''Sayaka's'' life to know that she's undead, but the understanding that Madoka gains from making that mistake allows her to finally get one over on Kyubey and indirectly ''save'' Sayaka, and Kyubey would never have revealed the truth if he wasn't rubbing it in Madoka’s face.]]
93* The moral of ''Literature/RingingBell'' is supposed to be that VengeanceFeelsEmpty and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters obsessing over revenge can make you into a monster]], as Chirin kills Woe but the sheep all reject him for his monstrous appearance and behavior and he's now alone in the world after having killed someone who he came to see as a surrogate father figure. The anime somewhat fumbles this, however, as Chirin attacking Woe isn't portrayed as him doing it out of the desire for revenge, but rather to protect the other sheep in the pasture after being reminded of his mother protecting him. This makes the other sheep rejecting Chirin at the end come off more as a mix of NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished and UngratefulBastard.
94* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', the "Sailor Moon Says" segments forced Aesops into the English dub that were never intended. In one particular episode, Usagi/Serena is distraught over Naru's/Molly's infatuation with Nephrite/Nephlyte, the villain of the current arc. Serena attempts to convey this by blurting out a bunch of nonsense at her, and then running away to avoid talking about her personal life. Molly then goes on to steal a priceless gem from her mother's jewelry store at Nephlyte's request and is creepily seduced away from her normal behavior as Nephlyte, being around twice her age, easily manipulates her. When the Sailor Scouts confront them both in a park and attack Nephlyte, Molly attempts to protect him by throwing herself in front of Sailor Moon's tiara. When another monster appears, Nephlyte protects Molly from it, and she passes out. Nephlyte teleports away, gloating about how he's one step away from destroying humanity. Sailor Moon's response? To ''wish upon a star'' that Nephlyte will conquer the bitterness in his heart. In short, she watches her friend get coerced into sneaking out at night, lying, and stealing from her mother by an abusive older boyfriend, and her solution to seeing how much her friend cares for said abusive boyfriend is to ''pray that he gets better''. Hoping an awful individual becomes a better person isn't [[HardTruthAesop necessarily a bad thing]], but the odd choice for the episode proper to focus on the abuser's wellbeing rather than the victim's is only highlighted by the "SMS" segment we're handed at the end of the episode, which gives the more immediate and proactive message of talking to your friends if they're doing something dangerous... something that Serena completely ''failed'' to do and in-part the reason why things got as bad as they did.
95** Even Luna is bewildered by this:
96---> "Sailor Moon Says"? What about "Sailor Moon Does"?
97* One episode of ''Manga/SgtFrog'' has the moral of "Treating building Gunpla models (Or anything else) as SeriousBusiness is bad", which is fine in theory, but it ends coming as "Not putting any effort whatsoever at all in doing things is perfectly acceptable if you're having fun", which is... not so fine. For once, the GoldenMeanFallacy is ''right'': Put some effort on doing things, but don't yell at others for making a simple mistake. Thankfully, AesopAmnesia saves the day.
98* ''Manga/ScumsWish'':
99** Treating other people [[ReallyGetsAround as your own personal sex toys]] might feel good in the short term, but in the end you'll wind up lonely and bitter with no one who's willing to see you as anything more than a sex object either. Well, unless your name is Akane, where you'll end up with a husband who's unquestionably devoted to you and will wait on you hand and foot... and who you only started dating to [[ForTheEvulz screw with that girl who liked him because it was fun to watch her break down]].
100** In general, the manga is heavy-handed that using others and lying to them in relationships is a very bad thing, and the protagonists are horrible people for doing so. It's undercut by the fact that not only are both of them fully aware that each are using the other, and in fact feel terrible about it, they only started their relationship based on that and that alone, and even set limits so they wouldn't be consumed by their fake desires. While the protagonists do actually start using others in relationships later on, and bad things happen to them because of it, the narration is deadset on calling them horrible people before even showing the reader why they are.
101* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': The cause the heroes fight -- to prove that humanity is worth its existence--is undermined frequently by their own concessions about the innate bad streak in humanity without acknowledging the good, ''and'' [[spoiler:their hinted acceptance at the end that humanity is unlikely to change for the better or embrace the GreenAesop the shamans supposedly live by]]. The story further undermines this by rendering the only non-shaman protagonist utterly useless and giving the roles he could actually play in the story to non-Muggle characters, even in situations where him taking action would be common sense. In addition, all other non-Shamans are depicted at best as too powerless to even help themselves and at worst as greedy, self-centered, corrupt, or downright evil people. And yet the message is still supposed to be seen as in ''favor'' of humanity.
102** The aforementioned GreenAesop it tries to portray is also rather screwed up, as while Shamans complain frequently about the damage humanity does to the earth, they still use and spread the same polluting technology and building development strategies into their shaman-only settlements and even use modern weaponry in many of their battles--some against normal humans. So how can shamans ask normal humans to adapt to supposedly better, simpler ways if [[MoralMyopia shamans themselves live technologically the same way as them]]?
103* ''Anime/{{Shinzo}}'': The main messages are that racism and such is bad and that one should always practice forgiveness. However, Enterrans outside of the three heroes are at the depicted as greedy, sneaky and deceiving at best and pure, sadistic evil at worst. In addition, whenever Yakumo forgives someone, they tend to endanger her life shortly after. As such it's easily to take away the message that forgiveness is stupid and that you should always judge people on their appearance.
104* Amu Hinamori, lead MagicalGirl in ''Manga/ShugoChara'', spends most of her filler episodes telling other children a number of different aesops, usually variations on "you're great just the way you are", but Amu herself can't grasp these lessons when they apply to herself. Particularly in the latter half of the season when [[spoiler:Amu's fourth egg, Dia, turns into an X-egg, resulting in several episodes worth of HeroicBSOD]].
105* In one episode of ''Manga/SuperPig'' Karin once got a demo of the MagicalGirl form she wished for to try for one day, however she failed solving a dangerous situation making her deliberately become Buurin again to do that. While this was probably meant as a ''"maybe what you already have is better than you think"'' but is broken since her demo did not possess any superpowers aside flight making it useless as a super form.
106* The BeYourself message applied to Simon in the first half of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' in regards to trying to be like Kamina falls a little flat when, after the TimeSkip, it's revealed that Simon grew up to look and act a lot like Kamina regardless.
107* ''Manga/SomaliAndTheForestSpirit'' has a prominent anti-bigotry moral, but it refuses to acknowledge the actual impact of that bigotry, as it presents the humans' xenophobia and violent retaliation against beasts who stray too close to their homes as equally bad as the beasts enslaving humans and hunting them for fun. While the intent appears to be showing that any group can perpetrate bigotry, it just comes off as a baffling way of judging crimes [[GoldenMeanFallacy that are not equal in severity as if they are]], and considering the beasts' cruelty, the humans' xenophobia ends up looking more justified than it was intended to.
108* ''Manga/ToTheAbandonedSacredBeasts'''s main message, stated in Schaal's internal monologues, is that at their core everyone just wants to survive and commits the actions they do because they at least think it will help them keep surviving, even if those actions seem truly rotten to outsiders. This moral is broken by [[BigBad Cain]], who actively [[KickTheDog commits acts of cruelty just for fun]], even if they hinder his goals.
109* In-universe in ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', happens twice in the "Duel of courage" story:
110** Ryuunosuke teaches Lum that the key to winning a duel is to use the brain and not just the muscles. She immediately demonstrates this by engaging her father in a mindless fistfight.
111** The reason Lum asked Ryuunosuke's advice in the first place is that she wants to inspire a junior that anyone can win without superpower [[JapaneseSpirit if they have enough courage]]. As her opponent turned out to be inhumanly invincible, Lum resorted to swallowing what is basically doping in increasing quantity, and yet it is still not enough and she collapses due to withdrawal. The conclusion her junior draws is that any dirty tricks is okay to snatch a win.
112* In an episode of ''Manga/WeddingPeach'', the message is that no matter if you are fat or thin, [[TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside true beauty comes from within]]. Only, there is a student, Yukiko, whose boyfriend dumps her when she has been turned fat by the VillainOfTheWeek, but takes her back when she is restored to her former, slim self.
113* The show ''Wonder 3'' was seemingly made as a kid-friendlier version of ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'', and has similar problems with its central premise. A coalition of alien races have taken notice of humanity's tendency toward war and send a group of scouts to study us up close and see if we deserve to survive, while bringing along a doomsday bomb to destroy the planet if they decide we do not. [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality It doesn't think to turn the mirror on its supposed "good guys"]], though. However warlike humankind is we don't know about these aliens' existence and couldn't possibly see them as an enemy, and we don't have anywhere near the technology to visit let alone threaten life in other galaxies even if we wanted to, and thus the aliens are deciding whether they should wipe us out even though we're a threat only to ourselves. It makes the aliens setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner of a species that doesn't even know they're there look like dangerous xenophobes themselves, even though they're the purported heroes, with some translations of the theme song even calling their kind "angels". At least Klaatu met humanity face-to-face and opened up about his intentions.
114* ''Anime/WonderEggPriority'' has two major Aesops, and by the ending it manages to break both of them.
115** Suicides are caused by unaddressed, systemic societal problems that push people to their breaking points, and it's the responsibility of everyone to help people who are at risk by addressing and fixing those problems...that is, until it's revealed that all the victims in the show killed themselves [[spoiler:because [[BigBad an evil sentient AI]] pushed them to do so]]. So societal issues such as bullying may make someone feel suicidal, but the only way that they'll ''act'' is if a ManipulativeBastard comes along. The final episode breaks it even further by showing that [[spoiler:Koito was hardly a victim to begin with. She inadvertently fell to her death while attempting to ruin someone else's life by taking full advantage of those same societal issues]]. So suicides are victims of humanity's collective ills...except when they aren't, and it was really their own faults all along.
116** Dealing with the loss of a friend is tragic and traumatizing, but it's something that you have to accept and move on from. Through the Wonder Eggs and each other's help, Ai and her friends slowly start to overcome their respective traumas over losing a loved one and reintegrate into normal life. When each girl completes her mission, [[spoiler:their respective friend fades away in the other world]], proving once and for all that yes, the dead are dead and there's no way you can bring them back. However, [[spoiler:the final episode reveals that the dead were replaced in the girls' world with their parallel universe counterparts, so effectively all of them did come back to life after all]]. Apparently, the reason why you should learn to cope with loss is that [[spoiler:by doing so you'll get to bring back the person you're mourning]].
117* One of the main criticisms of ''Anime/YuriKumaArashi''. The series tries to make some points about the treatment of lesbians in Japanese society, as well as some of the more problematic aspects of the YuriGenre (such as BaitAndSwitchLesbians and HideYourLesbians), but it also gleefully indulges in a lot of the tropes that it set out to criticize (''especially'' {{Fanservice}}). The show's heavily reliance on RuleOfSymbolism has also made it very difficult to glean any real aesops from it, which is why so many people accuse it of having a muddled, confused message.
118* Lampshaded in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. A one-chapter story involves Yusuke investigating an alleged demon haunting at Keiko's school, only to find out that it was perpetrated by two girls trying to force a third off the basketball team because they didn't like her, and as a scholarship student, she wouldn't willingly leave. As the story ends with Yusuke selling the school uniform he borrowed from Keiko online because she refused to pay him, the narrator declares that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans are as bad as demons, if not worse]]. The author's editor then reminds him "But [[spoiler:Yusuke's]] part demon." Also, the next chapter reveals that Yusuke was only joking when he said that he sold the school uniform.
119* ''Manga/ZekkyouGakkyuu'' has this occur in ''The Bonds Of A Curse''. The story has the ostracized [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Kurosawa]] and the good-looking Sakahara, with the former being avoided because of her rumored ability to use voodoo dolls to curse people. Kurosawa turns out to be a very nice person, who loves the little puppy the class is taking care of. And Sakahara is actually a huge jerk, who tortured said puppy as ways of stress-relief until the puppy died. The protagonist asks for Kurosawa's help in using a voodoo doll to curse Sakahara and a moral of "killing is wrong" is tacked onto the end. However, neither of the girls gets in trouble for this and they seem quite happy after avenging the puppy's death. A much more appropriate moral would have been to not judge people's [[BeautyEqualsGoodness goodness]] on [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon their looks]].

Top