Line #11 InformedAbility/AnimeAndManga


1	* Yukito from ''VisualNovel/{{Air}}'' supposedly managed to support himself for years by performing tricks with his magic doll, but in the TV series and manga he hardly makes a single yen with his act. He fares a bit better in TheMovie, though.
2	* ''Manga/AceOfTheDiamond'' gives us Chris who everyone seems to agree is the best catcher ever, including the canonically named "best catcher of his generation" Miyuki. The only times we really see him in action are in junior high where he defeats Miyuki (which Rei attributes to their teammates and not their respective abilities) and in his third year of high school where he's nowhere near his best after a GameBreakingInjury. He also never gives out any advice to other catchers and has a habit of recklessly endangering himself during matches by diving headfirst after balls and crashing into walls. The only other showdown between Chris and Miyuki also happens off screen with less than reliable pitchers muddling the result. The only thing where his abilities truly shine are his knowledge about baseball, said to be the best on the team, his game calling however remains something we're just supposed to believe.
3	* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
4	** Zeke is held up as the "Strongest Warrior" of all the titan shifters, but barring his offscreen fight against Reiner, all of his victories only occur when he has an overwhelming advantage, such as Mike being trapped atop a house with nothing to grapple onto or Survey Corps being unable to move as he throws rocks at them over and over. Twice Levi utterly obliterates him and the dozens of titans he brought as backup. Then against the Mid-East Alliance, Zeke only manages to throw a couple shells before he's taken out in a single shot from their anti-titan cannons.
5	*** This was explained later on. Zeke has the ability to control mindless titans[[note]] how he did this is complicated and spoilerific, so we're not going to talk about it here[[/note]]. This is a ''very'' powerful ability, as it allowed him to turn a mob of giants into a coordinated army, able to pull off complex tactics and strategies. Zeke also had an impressive throwing arm, making him the only Shifter who could fight at long range. Both of these combined are the reason Zeke was put up on a pedestal. The catch is that there were numerous flaws in this strategy, and in Zeke himself as a person, which become more apparent as events progress. The two big ones were A) Zeke had never learned close range fighting techniques like the other titan shifters, and B) without any commands, his mindless titans couldn't act on their own, much less defend himself or alert him to a potential theat. This is how Levi was able to curb-stomp him- While Zeke was distracted by a sacrificial force, Levi had basically hopped his way to Zeke's position using Zeke's own "soldiers" as stepping stones. By the time Zeke realized he'd lost his entire screen, it was too late; Levi was on him and tore him to pieces. The final de-throning moment for Zeke is when more powerful, and accurate, types of artillery started being developed. Weapons that could not only out-range even his mighty throws, but were also loaded with shells specifically designed for killing titans.
6	** Mikasa Ackerman is TheAce of the 104th cadet corps. Meaning she had top grades in not only the physical portions of training, but also has a brilliant strategic mind. We never see Mikasa form any kind of battle strategy besides "Attack the enemy and overpower them." She leaves all the planning to Armin.
7	** Hitch Dreyse graduated top 10 of her cadet class in order to make it to the Military Police, but we never see her actually do anything combat related aside from overpower a [[spoiler:weakened Annie Leonhart.]]
8	* ''Anime/BakuganBattleBrawlers:'' Lync is stated to be one of the best Brawlers among the Vestals, due to being one of [[QuirkyMinibossSquad the Vexos]]. But the only win we see him achieve on his own is the result of him outright cheating (using a battlefield that drains energy from his opponent’s Bakugan so they’re stuck at their base power level), with most of his track record being losses (though not without putting up a good fight).
9	* In ''Anime/BattleSpiritsShonenToppaBashin'', despite Numbers Elite being a team supposedly composed of the best battlers in the world, they have an incredible loss record. Notably, Masako/Number Eight, who doesn’t win a match until [[spoiler: she’s paired with Striker in a tag battle]] and especially Elliott/Number Two, who is the actual designer of the game and wins a grand total of zero times in the series.
10	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
11	** 9th Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie claims to have copied the abilities of ''over 36000 Hollows.'' Before he's killed, we see him use at most three of them. Particularly silly is when he announces he has this ability and boasts about his massive versatility, and then immediately whips out the same halberd he's been using for the whole fight at this point.
12	** Yammy Llargo is normally the 10th Espada, but when he goes OneWingedAngel he jumps up to the ''0th'' Espada because it's [[HulkingOut fueled by his anger and rage]], meaning he's stronger than the likes of [[TouchOfDeath Barragan]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction Starrk]]. Despite this, he's treated as a ButtMonkey by just about everyone, and when he actually does activate it, all he does is beat up some vice-captain level fighters off-screen, and then he gets taken out off-screen easily by Kenpachi and Byakuya, both of whom were still injured from fighting lower-ranked Espada, and they treated the fight as an ''annoyance''. The other "weaker" Espada get closer to winning and killing their foes than he does. It's not even that they defeat him by exploiting weaknesses in his power or fighting style; from what we can tell, they just straight-up slashed and stabbed him to death.
13	** Taken to an extreme with Chojiro Sasakibe. [[spoiler:His funeral reveals he possessed Bankai but had [[IGaveMyWord always refused to use it]]. His case isn't helped by the fact that the one time we see him enter a fight, at the end of the Soul Society arc, Ichigo knocks him out with one punch.]]
14	** According to pg.82 of ''The Official Bootleg'', Sui-Feng's division is said to excel at stealth, which they use to scout enemy territory and undertake special espionage missions. [[HighlyVisibleNinja Yet that isn't what the reader sees.]] In fact, [[MilitariesAreUseless their spy network was never used once]] in the entire manga.
15	** Mashiro can hold her mask for ''15 hours''. But the only time she fights with her mask on it breaks after a few minutes.
16	** It's supposed to be impossible to overcome the effects of Shinji Hirako's shikai (so we're told over and over). It's been used twice, and neither of those opponents were more than mildly inconvenienced by it. One of them was [[TheAce Aizen]], and the other was [[MadBomber Bambietta]], who solved the problem of having her senses flipped around by just ''nuking everywhere''.
17	** The captains in ''general''. These are supposed to be elite soldiers with hundreds of years worth of experience (if not close to a thousand in some cases). They end up succumbing ''hard'' to TheWorfEffect--to the point in which viewers end up surprised when they ''do'' end up winning if only because they didn't see it coming.
18	*** Sajin Komamura is a particularly huge victim of this. As a captain, you would think he would be one of the strongest. After all, StatisticallySpeaking, he's [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bleach/images/a/af/BKBKomamura%27s_Battle_Chart.png/revision/latest?cb=20180110034311&path-prefix=en not so much on the kidou or mobility]], but his stats suggest a MightyGlacier. He ends up getting regularly taken out in one hit, and has only been able to win with help from people like Hisagi, and his ''final'' battle (the only one he [[spoiler: actually ''wins''... and on his own, it's a PyrrhicVictory]].
19	** The five members of the Zero Squad are stated to be stronger than the entire Gotei 13 - and maybe they are. The problem is that A) They are poorly fleshed out due to being introduced right at the end of the series, so it is hard to argue using on-page evidence that anyone except Ichibe could have defeated someone like Yamamoto or Kenpachi, and B) in the first major battle we see them in, they are up against [[InvincibleVillain Yhwach,]] with the end result that four out of five of them were defeated between scenes.
20	** The Sokyoku is supposed to have the power of a million Zanpakuto - which Ichigo blocked using only one (and in his Shikai form no less). And to make matters worse, we later learn that Ichigo's current sword is in fact only using a fraction of its true potential due to how his powers work, meaning that Ichigo achieved this feat using an imperfect Zanpakuto. He's strong, but there is no way that he is ''that'' strong.
21	* Meg from ''Anime/BurstAngel'' is supposed to be a badass mercenary that can handle herself in any fight against humans, cyborgs, or mechs. However, during the anime series, she gets kidnapped over and over again with her partner [[SuperSoldier Jo]] having to rescue her.
22	* Mitsuko Kongou from ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun''. She's a Level 4 and worthy rival to teleporter Kuroko Shirai, and boasts about her powers to anyone who will listen (including those she's about to fight). Despite this, the first few times she appears in onscreen battles, she loses before even having a chance to use her ability. It's subverted when you actually do get to see her fight and she [[spoiler:launches an armored truck at two helicopters and then goes about fighting PoweredArmor soldiers [[BackToBackBadasses with Kuroko]]. [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Turns out she can apply a constant force to any surface she touches.]]]]
23	* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
24	** Tohdoh is described as a great general (having beat Knightmare Frames during the invasion without any of his own), only to have disaster strike whenever he is put in a leadership position, the most obvious instance being the season finale where he manages to get nearly his entire army either killed or captured. He is a pretty good pilot but otherwise not too remarkable.
25	** The Knights Of Round. Two of them are killed by [[spoiler:Suzaku]] with ease. At least Luciano Bradley and 4 of his subordinates, together, manage to defeat a sniper in melee, but even the ones who live don't show impressive ability. Anya's greatest skill is using her Knightmare's giant cannon to blow stuff up, and with a cannon that big, it'd be more shocking if she missed. Gino is the only one who shows actual skill, and he's left in the dust by the Knight of Seven, [[spoiler:Suzaku Kururugi]] - so much so that he's not even a challenge. At least he can go toe to toe with every other pilot in the series... Except, you know, the Black Knights' own ace, Kallen. But that's not unexpected, so that's... a 2 out of 7?
26	** Dorothea Ernst and Monica Kruszewski get the worst of it though, being left mostly out of the spotlight. Monica had a little bit of extra screen time, but both only received enough battle time to get one-shotted by Suzaku in a better robot. [[EnsembleDarkhorse Fan favorite Nonette Enneagram]] was spared from a potentially similar indignity by being kept entirely in the background. Speaking of Nonette, she's been said to make even Cornelia nervous.
27	* ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool'' plays this for comedy. We're told many times about how various characters are stone-cold badasses who aren't to be messed with, and hear many a BadassBoast or claim of being TheDreaded. Naturally, since the show is a comedy, there are basically zero serious fights in the entire series, and the vast majority of these stone-cold badasses never throw a punch. The closest things to fights in the series are the characters posturing in their opponent's faces or doing weird things to throw each other off.
28	* Character sketches describes Literature Girl from ''Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys'' as an otherwise sociable, popular girl in Sanada West High... When not [[WrongGenreSavvy trying to]] [[LongingForFictionLand re-enact]] her RomanceNovel's MeetCute by lounging next to Hidenori--which is nearly the only case when she appears.
29	* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'': [[EvilPrince Richter]]'s skill in battle. While his flashback with Aizam shows that he's supposedly a skilled warrior, he gets beaten by Kazuya, an earthling, in a matter of seconds. Not only does Kazuya break his sword and shield, Richter doesn't manage to land a hit on him. Kazuya punts Richter on the shoulder, causing him to stagger, and would have defeated him had Melvi not intervened by kidnapping Erika. Even as an Admiral, Richter lets his emotions get in the way, which unsurprisingly leads to him not getting a single victory over the Earthlings.
30	* ''Anime/DeathNote'': Kiyomi Takeda is supposed to be a charming, intelligent woman around the same level as Light, but he effortlessly manipulates her into doing his bidding and she shows nothing but condescending rudeness (towards Misa) and blind loyalty to him.
31	* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', at the height of Zenitsu's supernatural hearing, it was stated he can even hear someone else's thoughts, however, that is never put on display throughout the series; the best showcase of Zenitsu's hearing is him being able to somehow "hear" how good a person is through their body movements, speech and breathing, that's how Zenitsu devoted himself to Tanjiro as a great friend.
32	* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
33	** ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'': Supposedly, [=MagnaGarurumon=] and [=EmperorGreymon=] transcend the Warrior Ten, who are already all but indicated to be {{Physical God}}s. In the show itself however, the two ''frequently'' get steamrolled by foes that they theoretically could beat without degenerating into uphill battles (even discounting the Royal Knights, they have trouble dealing with three [=SkullSatamon=] at one point) and even the battles they won are won only barely. The end result is the two having the worst win rate out of any anime protagonist's Mega forms (4 wins, 5 losses and 2 draws for [=EmperorGreymon=] and 3 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws for [=MagnaGarurumon=]) and making them look like ''failures'', that even the original [=WarGreymon=] and [=MetalGarurumon=] has a higher win-rate compared to their supposedly "superior" counterparts, defeating four Mega-level villains and only losing to Piedmon. It doesn't help that the duo of Megas aren't seen again after Lucemon unceremoniously throws them around one last time.
34	** The Royal Knights from ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'' are a downplayed example. In their first couple of encounters with them, they gave the main cast a hard time that required the intervention of another Royal Knight opposing them. But after unlocking Burst Mode in their following battles, almost half of the knights start dropping like flies until they switched sides and spent the remainder of the series keeping both the Human and Digital World’s apart.
35	* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
36	** In the anime, when Frieza and King Cold are landing on Earth, the Z-Fighters state that Cold's PowerLevel is even higher than Frieza's. Of course, since Trunks kills Cold with even less effort than when he killed Frieza, who is explicitly mentioned to be even stronger as [[{{Cyborg}} Mecha-Frieza]] than he was when he fought Goku on Namek, this is a little difficult to believe, though it could be explained by Frieza suppressing his power.
37	** Cui and Dodoria are considered among the elite of the [[TheEmpire Frieza Force]], being as strong as Vegeta was during the Saiyan Saga and even higher than that respectively. Yet by the time Vegeta shows up on Namek after having recovered and powered up from his beatdown on Earth, both of them have such a poor showing against him you'd swear they were only as strong as [[EliteMook Nappa]], who Vegeta killed nearly as easily. It's particularly bad in Dodoria's case, since looking at the official PowerLevel (Dodoria at 22,000 to Vegeta's 24,000), the gap is actually less than what was between Vegeta and Kaioken x 3 Goku on Earth (Vegeta at 18,000 and Goku at 24,000) despite Vegeta handling himself much better in that fight. By comparison, fellow elite [[TheBeautifulElite Zarbon]] despite also being out-matched in raw power by Vegeta acquits himself much better in the fight even before he resorts to his OneWingedAngel to lay a beatdown.
38	** Burter of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Ginyu Force]] repeatedly boasts that he's the [[FastestThingAlive fastest in the universe]], to the extent that he's in disbelief that Goku's able to outrun him. While his ''traveling'' speed appears to be genuinely exceptional, his ''fighting'' speed is clearly outmatched by the likes of Goku, Ginyu and Frieza. Lampshaded by Goku in their fight:
39	-->'''Burter:''' "What?! How did you sneak up on me?! I'm supposed to be the fastest in the universe!"\
40	'''Goku:''' "[[DeadpanSnarker I guess that makes you the second-fastest, then.]]"
41	** [[AllThereInTheManual Supplemental material]] establishes Krillin as the strongest human character in the series. Barring the fact that most non-Saiyans CantCatchUp, Tien Shinhan had the better showings in fights throughout the series, though this could be attributed to Krillin's cowardice, the fact that [[OvershadowedByAwesome he tended to enter fights with Goku and Gohan by his side]], and [[AllThereInTheManual Tien is actually descended from an alien race that landed on Earth and interbedded with humans]], so Krillin is the strongest ''pure'' human character.
42	** After Krillin learns about the so-called "zenkai" power boost, where a Saiyan gains strength after surviving a near-fatal fight, he says that it explains how Goku got more powerful after similar situations earlier in the story. While this is certainly plausible, nobody, including Goku, makes any mention of such an effect after the numerous possible examples[[labelnote:*]]Jackie Chun, Tao Pai-Pai, Tenshinhan, Piccolo Daimao (twice!), Piccolo Jr., Raditz and Vegeta[[/labelnote]]. Most of the time these are attributed to intense training after the fact, [[FridgeLogic however it might explain why Goku was able to survive and get a power boost from the Ultra-Divine Water, which normally kills you]].
43	** Due to the fact that the series starts on a rather high power scale, the audience more or less has to take how strong a given character is [[MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours at the words of other characters]], since it soon becomes impossible to convincingly demonstrate without destroying the planet they're standing on. Even to the end of the series, you'll still see a character being able to blow up mountains, create giant ki blasts, or move faster than the eye can follow as an OhCrap moment, when such feats were shown as early as ''Manga/DragonBall''. More or less, the series loves to say that a character is thousands of times stronger than another, when their actual feats appear to be on about the same level (if not lower). This was lampshaded in one episode of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', where Freeza creates a massive explosion with a wave of his hand, at which Vegeta angrily claims "Not impressed! I can do that, too!".
44	** A number of characters are lauded, mainly by the fanbase, for their masterful tactical abilities. While they're not stupid most of the time, they rarely display anything more complicated than the occasional misdirection ploy, and seem to hold the IdiotBall with about the same frequency as everyone else. Goku is in fact usually the one to do this, being able to think a few steps ahead in a fight to get what he wants (such as rescuing Kami after he was swallowed by Piccolo, done by tricking Piccolo to grow so large he could jump into his mouth), which is ironic given his usual treatment as an IdiotHero.
45	*** Gohan is a particular recipient of this treatment. If you were to read descriptions of Gohan in guidebooks, you'd expect him to be an absolute GeniusBruiser who can outsmart anyone and a master of battlefield tactics. Yet in the actual manga, Gohan's intelligence comes off as average at best. If anything, the arc where Gohan plays the biggest role, the Buu Saga, depicts him as a bit of an idiot--and not in a FridgeLogic sense, in a sense of being acknowledged, in-universe, that he's making huge mistakes (slacking off his training despite now being Earth's protector, using a PaperThinDisguise and expecting it to work, being emotionally goaded multiple times, coming up with no noteworthy plans, and ultimately getting OutGambitted by Super Buu, an enemy that up to that point had been depicted as DumbMuscle). For the most part, it seems to arise from the fact that he becomes a "scholar" after the series, an idea that isn't really developed beyond that description.
46	** A particularly terrible example occurs during the Android Saga. After scaring Android 20 into retreating after Android 19 is destroyed by Vegeta, Piccolo realises that Vegeta was bluffing and had lost more energy than he was letting on. Piccolo says that he "Thinks of every conceivable advantage... tactically, he's impossible to beat." This is laughable given that over half of Vegeta's fights involve him woefully underestimating his opponent due to arrogance and being beaten as a result.
47	** Some guides put Raditz's power at 1,500 instead of 1,200, but considering that he was severely wounded by a Gohan who was just over 1,300 and killed by an attack that hovered around 1,400, this is hard to believe.
48	** Officially, the Ox King has a power level of over 900, making him not only the strongest character in ''Manga/DragonBall'' before Raditz, but stronger than most of the cast ''combined''. His only fight is against Goku near the start of the series, who held his own just fine despite allegedly having a power level barely in the double digits.
49	* In ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'', Saki is at one point stated to be a brilliant programmer, and all her peers at Eden express a wish that she would take over their fledgling company. She is never actually shown doing any programming in the series or its two follow-up movies, instead spending most of the time following Akira around.
50	* In the ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' manga, Elgala and Hyatt claim to be a master swordsman and marksman respectively. Elgala is seen holding a sword on a cover, once brandishes a stick like an IaijutsuPractitioner, and claims to have gone on a real-life adventure for treasure. Hyatt died trying to throw a rock the only time she's attempted "combat".
51	* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
52	** There are several moves which represent this, although it would be classed more as ''Informed Power'' than ability. The Iron Dragon's Sword is stated by Gajeel to "be able to tear through anything it touches" yet has not hit a single target, presumably due to fights ending rather quickly should it actually hit (it ''is'' a [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] and the results would be messy). Whilst there are other moves that fit this bill, such as Laxus' Raging Bolt, the Abyss Break is a noticeable case. It's supposedly a devastating spell that is capable of wiping away an entire town. The first time it's attempted to be cast, its power source is removed, the second time, the user ''loses concentration'' before being able to finish casting it because of a previous injury. Abyss Break is the only spell to have never been officially cast despite being mentioned practically once every other arc.
53	** In fact, any such spell that's potentially able to end a target's life can be predicted as likely to miss (Sherria's Heavenly Gathering of Clouds when used on Wendy due to some quick strategy), failing to be cast in time (Hades' Grimoire Law against Fairy Tail as a last resort before Natsu takes him down with his new finishing move), prove nowhere near as effective as claimed (Sting's Holy Nova failing to scratch Natsu during the Grand Magic Games), or have someone else with more health take it instead and barely survive, implying it ''would'' have worked if it actually hit the intended target (Gajeel tanking Laxus' Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd in place of a weakened Natsu).
54	** With the self-explanatory name they have, one would also expect the Dragon Slayers, particularly all the named Dragon Slayers we see in modern times, to actually live up to their name. However, barring the movie ''Dragon Cry'' where Natsu [[spoiler: kills the dragon Animus through his own strength alone]], none of the Dragon Slayers in the series proper are shown to be able to defeat and kill a dragon on their own, particularly during the ''Eclipse Arc'' where every last one of them falls short of living up to their moniker against the Eclipse Dragons. And even towards the end, Natsu [[spoiler: only manages to kill Acnologia with a ''massive'' amount of help, with the outside world trapping Acnologia's body while the other Dragon Slayers lend Natsu their power for the finishing blow.]] By 100 Year’s Quest, Natsu and Gajeel are able to defeat two of the Five Dragon Gods, albeit with some aid from Ignia and Brandish respectively.
55	* ''Franchise/FateSeries'': Shinji Matou is established in side materials as being very intelligent(with Nasu comparing him to ''Literature/SherlockHolmes''), is stated to be popular with female schoolmates, and is vice-captain of the archery club. In FSN he comes across as a SmugSnake with zero sense of strategy, none of the named female characters like him, and he doesn't even try to use a bow in the Grail War.
56	* ''Manga/ForestOfPiano'': The character's reactions to, and descriptions of, the piano playing in the anime have virtually nothing to do with the actual music shown.
57	* Gates, the villain of ''Literature/FullMetalPanic! The Second Raid'', is supposedly an extremely skilled and dangerous HumongousMecha pilot who leads a team of specially trained hunter-killers for Amalgam, all of whom are equipped with extremely powerful [=BlackBox=] mecha (for a comparison, ''one'' such mecha in the hands of a lower-standing member of the organization fought Sousuke to a standstill three times, killed several {{redshirt}}s and mortally wounded a MauveShirt during the first season). Alas, five minutes after actually entering combat and proving his 'fearsomeness' by killing an overstrained and mentally unstable girl who was using an inferior machine, [[CurbStompBattle he and his entire team are bowled over by Sousuke in one go]] like so many {{mooks}}.
58	* Takaya “2D-kun” Sato from ''Literature/GoldenTime'' has stated that he prefers 2D women over real women. However despite this he shows attraction to Kouko Kaga over the course of the series. One could argue that he is possibly aromantic allosexual as while he shows attraction he never pairs up with any girl unlike the other guys even when their are available women.
59	* ''Franchise/GundamExpandedUniverse'':
60	** The [[HumongousMecha Mobile Suits]] in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' have a knack for using weapons once or twice (e.g. Exia only uses its wrist vulcans twice in 25 episodes. But blink and you'll miss it!) But [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]] make things worse. For example, did you know the GN-007 Arios Gundam in season 2 had a beam shield? According to the official file it does, but it has never been animated. The [[CompilationMovie Special Editions]] do add footage of some weapons in use, but these are only glimpses in action packed sequences.
61	** According to background materials, the GM Sniper II from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' was [[EliteMooks the most advanced mass production mobile suit]] made by the Federation during the war, with specs rivaling or even surpassing ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the original Gundam]]''. Less than a minute after their introduction, they were all destroyed off-screen by the Kämpfer.
62	** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'' does this to Kio Asuno, the third-generation protagonist. Initially, he's an inexperienced pilot who relies on the power of the Gundam, [[PsychicPowers his X-Rounder abilities]], and his wingmates to get through battle. As the series progresses, everyone starts talking about what a great pilot he is, except he's still entirely reliant on the Gundam, his X-Rounder abilities, and his wingmates to survive--as soon as he's deprived one of those three things, he starts losing.
63	** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', the OMNI Enforcer's Windam was said to be a high performance unit, yet just like almost every other grunt suit in the series, they drop like flies whenever they face named characters in combat (at one point, ''thirty'' of them were destroyed by ''two'' main characters). The sole-exception was the AceCustom piloted by Neo Roanoke. A MS Encyclopedia video once hosted on Gundaminfo's Website/YouTube page boasted about how powerful and threatening the Windam was, but there are literally no scenes of doing just that with only Neo Roanoke's custom giving the Freedom Gundam trouble being the sole exception.
64	** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'', the Gustav Karl made an appearance. According to the background, it was a next generation mobile suit that wouldn't officially enter service until [[Literature/MobileSuitGundamHathawaysFlash a decade later]]. It was easily disabled by a Jesta before it could even fight back (though its pilot was caught completely off guard, and was eating snack in the cockpit when he was attacked). It was similarly curbstomped by the technologically inferior Dijeh in Anime/MobileSuitGundamNarrative.
65	* One might be excused for forgetting that Sena Kashiwazaki from ''Literature/{{Haganai}}'' is meant to be an academic genius and an athletic prodigy, as the RuleOfFunny means she regularly falls for painfully obvious tricks and the RuleOfSexy means her general method of movement is clumsy enough to invoke plenty of swinging shots of her giant boobs. She's also laughably clueless, although in that regard she may be justified due to her absurd wealth making her unfamiliar with the way the "real world" works.
66	* In ''Manga/{{Hitohira}}'', Nono is supposed to be able to beat up all of the karate club on her own, even though later she is shown to have her hands full fighting only ''one'' person, namely [[spoiler:her female fellow club member Risaki]]--which even results in a tie.
67	* Yoshii from ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' is said to know how to use a knife properly, but apart from slashing some random guy once, he gets promptly demolished by Masaki when he tries to do so.
68	* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Inuyasha's [[TwentyFourHourArmor Robe of the Fire Rat]] is stated to be stronger than any human-made armor, and yet it constantly gets [[ClothingDamage shredded]] whenever he fights. Which implies the demons he is usually fighting are [[FridgeBrilliance strong enough to trump a flaming rodent demon]].
69	* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure:''
70	** In ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'', there's many remarks to the effect that Kakyoin's Emerald Splash is a powerful attack, to the point that Star Platinum being able to block it was treated as a small miracle. In practice, you'd struggle to name a single time [[TheWorfBarrage where he actually hit someone with it and it did any real damage;]] most notably, DIO deflected a barrage with his bare hands.
71	** ''Manga/StoneOcean'' gives a RandomPowerRanking to most Stands, and mostly they add up or at least make sense at a glance... except the one for Ermes Costello's Stand, Kiss. Kiss lets Ermes place a sticker on an object, which duplicates it and can be removed at any time, causing the duplicated objects to merge back together and be damaged. Sounds gimmicky, but useful, about in line with your average Stand. Its stats? A-rank in Destructive Power, Range, Speed, Persistence, and Developmental Potential, and C-rank in Precision. They're the highest recorded for a Stand [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale with all its stats listed]][[note]]the only one to tie it is Red Hot Chili Pepper, and that was only after absorbing most of Morioh's electricity. Star Platinum also has similarly high stats with an A in precision and a C in range instead, and Star Platinum has been shown to be one of the strongest Stands in the series[[/note]]. Going by those stats, Kiss should be doing things like exceeding the speed of light, shattering brick walls with a single punch, and showing off new abilities in every other fight, pulling off tricks on the level of BigBad Stands like The World, Killer Queen, or King Crimson. Suffice to say, Ermes never demonstrates anything even slightly resembling this kind of power. If anything, in the ([[OutOfFocus few]]) fights she has in the series, she comes across as WeakButSkilled.
72	* ''Manga/KenganAshura'''s Nezu Masami is noted in his pre-fight introduction to have been, at one point, the champion of the underground promotion Bishamon, an organization comparable to Kengan. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't exactly get a chance to show this off, as he ends up defeated by his opponent, the FragileSpeedster Rei Mikazuchi, so quickly that it sets an in-universe record. Even other fighters who lose their sole onscreen bouts or get outright curbstomped still tend to get a chance to strut their stuff, while Nezu's only move we see in any detail is the kick he uses to break his own helmet while entering the arena.
73	* ''Anime/HelloSandybell'': Scappan claims to be a man of many talents, but is clumsy and is frequently yelled by the editor-in-chief as well as Kitty for being a bumbling idiot when it comes to news reporting.
74	* Lorelei Wang from ''Manga/LoveIsInTheBag'' never passes the opportunity to tell everyone that she is a [[TeenGenius genius]], but even the rest of the cast is in doubt of that status.
75	* Konata from ''Manga/LuckyStar'' is said to be a good martial artist, but aside from that Franchise/StreetFighter parody, we have yet to see her fight for real.
76	* Punie from ''Anime/MagicalWitchPuniechan'' is supposed to have nigh-infallible submission techniques to bring down her opponents, but everybody who knows a bit about martial arts should see that it's a bit silly. Most opponents don't even defend against her approaches--and when they fall down they don't even ''try'' to get up anymore, making it all too easy for Punie to perform a lock on them.
77	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'', a manga parodying the convention of {{Shojo}} manga.
78	** {{Discussed}} when Nozaki tries to defend Suzuki's supposed lack of development by saying he actually studies a lot, to which Miyamae points out that [[LampshadeHanging he never shows it]].
79	** In a different comic, Miyamae orders Nozaki to {{invoke\|dtrope}} this for Suzuki's dedicated skincare routine.
80	--->'''Nozaki''': He puts great effort into his skincare every day.\
81	''[insert Imagine Spot of Suzuki with all his skincare products while bragging about how handsome he is]''\
82	'''Miyamae''': You'd absolutely better not draw that.
83	* ''Manga/MyBrideIsAMermaid'': Maguro, Agitaro, and Furiyo are stated to be Gozaburo's EliteMooks, but they're just as scared of cats as any other merperson, and in episode 16, they're completely ''pounded'' by Akeno not once, but twice.
84	* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', Minoru Mineta is the only member of Class 1-A who has a 5/5 in intelligence, making him second only to [[TeenGenius Momo Yaoyorozu]] and her 6/5 ranking, and placing him ahead of [[TheHero Izuku Midoriya]], [[GeniusBruiser Katsuki Bakugo]], [[ClassRepresentative Tenya Ida]], [[TheAce Shoto Todoroki]] and Tsuyu Asui, all of whom have 4/5 intelligence. Unfortunately, Mineta doesn't display much more intelligence than his peers, with the aforementioned characters (as well as Ojiro and Jiro, both of whom have 3/5 intelligence) placing ahead of him on the midterms and displaying more clever strategies in dangerous situations. Compare Yaoyorozu, the top scorer in the class, who not only needs to be intelligent enough to know the chemical attributes of an object in order to make said object with her Quirk, but also has to be clever enough to use her creations effectively.
85	* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
86	** Stealth and black ops for ninja in general. Ninja teachers will take any chance they get to lecture their students on the subtle arts of subterfuge, sabotage, assassination and spying. In practice, they are as stealthy as a barrage of fireworks, and their chief concern is fighting other (equally flashy) ninja. Essentially, everyone's DrunkWithPower and waving it around like they're big shots.
87	** The Chunin examinees are said to be the best Genin in the world, but all nine of the rookies fresh out of the Konoha academy, as well as Team Guy, whose members have been ninjas for a little over a year, all make it to the finals while many more experienced ninja fail [[spoiler:although in Kabuto's case, he did it on purpose to gather intelligence on the competitors. More so, Orochimaru, along with some Sound Village minions, Kabuto included, were deliberately thinning the herd behind the competitors' backs to scout out someone from his homeland, which he knew contained exceptional ninja, as a viable candidate for his [[GrandTheftMe body possession tecnhique]] and also to spite his old master, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the current Hogake and head of the village. Sasuke Uchiha became the unfortunate target.]]
88	** Kakashi Hatake is said to have "over a thousand" different abilities he has copied from people over the years. Unfortunately we only see about ten of them over the course of hundreds of episodes and a handful of movies.
89	** Kakashi is better off than Sarutobi Asuma or especially Yuuhi Kurenai. Asuma is supposedly one of the most powerful guys in ''Naruto'', and besides defeating cannon fodder Sound nins, his next opponents were Kakuzu and the immortal Hidan. Kurenai, on the other hand, had faced undefeated Itachi. (Doesn't help that the only thing she really does in the plot afterwards is [[spoiler:get knocked up by Asuma shortly before he dies.]])
90	** The ANBU are sent on all the most dangerous missions, any badass main character has spent time in the ANBU, and overall, are supposed to be the [=SEALs=] of the ninja world. When they actually get into a fight, they're degraded to {{mook}} status, those formerly badass masks now cementing their status as CannonFodder. The fact that they're anonymous but allegedly elite makes them custom-made for TheWorfEffect.
91	** The audience is told Hanzou, leader of the Village Hidden in the Rain has almost unstoppable power and skills but we never actually see him in combat. This is then mixed with TheWorfEffect when [[spoiler:Hanzou's assassination is used to hype up Pain's own power, emphasized even more by the fact that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru all lost to Hanzou during the war. Both of these tropes are eventually averted for Pain when he proceeds to kill Jiraiya and blow up Konoha proving that the rumors of his abilities are no exaggeration.]]
92	** ''Naruto himself'' throughout the first half of Shippuden as practically every mention of him was accompanied by a comment over how strong he is and how much he has improved, yet the only improvement he ever really showed was a bigger Rasengan, and the constant need to get bailed out of any dangerous situation by his teammates. Thankfully, [[TookALevelInBadass he got better as the series went on. And well, he was better than he started out.]]
93	*** Another one is how while goofing off in class, he secretly trains extremely hard when no one is around because he both wants the attention of being a goofball but be skilled enough to one day be Hokage. Virtually any time he's shown actually trying, he's just as unskilled as when he goofs off (such as failing the graduation tests and being unable to complete missions equivalent to yard work). Likewise, most of his successes are accomplished either from tricking his opponent in some way or just overwhelming them with his naturally high amount of chakra. Added on to this, we only see that hard training in flashbacks as with the exception of training arcs, almost all of his downtime seems to be eating ramen and just doing normal civilian stuff.
94	** Another victim of this trope is the 2nd Hokage. Despite doing all of nothing in the one fight he has on-panel in the series, much, much later chapters have revealed several capabilities of his that have never been seen, including [[spoiler:creating the Edo Tensei technique, which allows the user to use golems of dead people to fight their opponent,]] and [[spoiler:being a master of Space/Time techniques, the same techniques used by Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, which make him NighInvulnerable.]]
95	** Sasuke has actually flirted with this trope from time to time. While he's without a doubt [[TheAce very skilled,]] when you actually take a closer look at his Win/Loss ratio, Sasuke doesn't put up the best performance. A good majority of Sasuke's victories have been a result of WorfHadTheFlu; [[spoiler:Naruto specifically held back at the end during their battle at the Valley of the End, he ambushed Orochimaru when he was on a sick bed; Itachi was nearly blind and, [[UnreliableNarrator according to Zetsu and Tobi]], holding back and terminally ill, and still Sasuke only technically won because Itachi dropped dead on the spot, his supposed illness having caught up to him.]]
96	** Hayate Gekko, the Chunin Examiner was heavily implied to be pretty tough judging by the fact that he had the job he did. However, he gets offed while listening in on two villains, one of which, the Sand Ninja Jonin, was his killer.
97	** [[spoiler:Kaguya]] is supposed to be an unstoppable PhysicalGod who conquered the world and even the Sage himself would have no chance against her. Yet Naruto and Sasuke smack her around all while Black Zetsu orders her around.
98	** Shikamaru Nara is said to have an I.Q. of 200, which, if true, would make him one of the smartest people to have ever existed. While he can be noted to be quite bright, he has by no means demonstrated that he is 200 I.Q. smart. Though this could be chalked up to being BrilliantButLazy.
99	** It's often claimed that the Byakugan is held in equal regard to the Sharingan. At the start of the series, you could probably debate which was better (the Byakugan's all-around vision and seeing chakra points versus the Sharingan's PowerCopying), but as the series went on, the Sharingan gets a good dozen or so additional powers or upgrades revealed for it (including the Mangekyo Sharingan and the Rinnegan, which are pretty much NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), while the Byakugan is still more or less limited to those two abilities.
100	** Yagura, the Jinchuuriki of the Three-Tailed Turtle, is stated to be one of the four people who has a complete control over his Bijuu, yet when we see him fight after being resurrected by Kabuto, he fights no better than the other Jinchuurikis sent to fight Naruto. Adding insult to the injury, he easily falls under Tobi's Genjutsu despite the fact that he normally should be immune to this by virtue of his own Bijuu breaking it.
101	** Itachi having supposedly been terminally ill and holding back against Sasuke, which is only said ex-post facto by [[UnreliableNarrator Zetsu and Tobi.]] The only health problem he is ''shown'' to have before the battle is that he was going blind from Mangekyo Sharingan overuse. Ultimately, he seems to collapse from chakra exhaustion caused by overworking his eyes: it had been established that his safe limit was three times per day but he is forced to use it four times during the battle (Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu once each and Susanoo twice, after Sasuke obliterates it the first time). Notably, the "symptoms" of prior damage mentioned by Zetsu (coughing blood, sluggish movements, blindness, etc) are displayed by Sasuke himself when he starts overusing his own Mangekyo Sharingan, and Sasuke goes onto [[spoiler:living a perfectly healthy, normal life, with no terminal illness in sight]].
102	** Kakashi states a few times that Sakura specialized in genjutsu before becoming a medic, including stating that he specifically trained her in it. Despite that, Sakura never casts even a single genjutsu in the entire series, although she shows some proficiency in dispelling genjutsu.
103	* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
104	** The Canis Niger group of [[PunchClockVillain bounty hunters,]] who were made out to be an incredibly strong group of mages. We see them capture Nodoka (a total noncombatant) and her group of treasure hunters (who we've never seen fight), before Negi shows up and wipes them all out single-handedly. The only real thing of note that they pull off successfully is luring Setsuna and Kaede into a trap.
105	** In the penultimate chapter, one of them [[spoiler:defeats Yue, who has become a decent Magical Detective combatant, but then she is defeated by Negi just as easily as before.]]
106	** In an in-universe example, Nagi Springfield the [[RedBaron Thousand Master's]] legend says he knows 1000 spells. In truth, he knows 6. To his credit, though, most of the ''[[InvincibleHero other]]'' [[WorldsStrongestMan rumors]] tend to be true. It turns out that those 6 spells are all he ''needs''. The lesser-known rumor that he got his title from bedding a thousand women is unconfirmed, though [[ChickMagnet given what his son's like,]] it's plausible.
107	** Any given monster or non-humanoid creature generally fits, most notably the SealedEvilInACan Ryoman Sukuna no Kami, who was overwhelmed by an even more evil being Evangeline ''[[RedBaron the Dark Evangel]]'' ([[IHaveManyNames among her many titles]]). Also odd was a massive black dragon which Ninja Kaede defeated ''while blind-folded''.
108	* Asuka of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' offers an intellectual example. Reportedly, she is a prodigy who graduated from a German University by the age of 13, and though this emphasizes the competitiveness of her character, she never displays the education level she should have (the most she ever does is show off how easily she can do Shinji's homework, which is a straightfoward physics problem). Further, accelerated admission to higher learning in Germany is as much dependent on emotional maturity of the student, but her temperament doesn't suggest someone who'd be considered for Gymnasium early, much less Universitat, or even someone who'd been immersed in a mature peer group, academic or otherwise. In the manga, she at least shows an ability to act more mature than she actually is.
109	* Kirika Yumura of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' is supposed to be fluent in a large but unspecified number of languages. The number of times she (Or anyone else, for that matter) is seen speaking any language other than Japanese (Or whatever language the DVD is subbed into) is zero.
110	* ''Franchise/OnePiece'':
111	** Of all the people said to be users of [[AwesomenessIsAForce Conqueror's Haki]] two have never been seen to use it. Boa Hancock, who mentions she can use it in reaction to Luffy using it and Sengoku, although in his case it was on an info card. This is especially JustForFun/{{Egregious}} as even some users of Conqueror's Haki were able to show it as the effect of Conqueror's Haki clashing between two users, yet none of the three have ever been given a chance.
112	** Downplayed with the Sea Kings. They are supposedly very powerful, and serve as a means of dissuading sailors from entering the Calm Belt, but they only demonstrate how deadly they are when the Lord of the Coast- which was extremely vicious compared to most Sea Kings- eats Higuma the Bear in Luffy's past, and then eats Shanks' arm. Their strength being never shown onscreen, they mostly serve to show how powerful certain characters are by [[TheWorfEffect falling in battle against them]]. Some even get cut in two.
113	*** There is, however, immense variance in size and power among Sea Kings. One arc has appearances by Sea Kings like Stripey who are bigger than good-sized islands; Lord of the Coast is probably about the size of one of their ''teeth''. These uber-Sea Kings also, unlike previous smaller ones, demonstrate human-level intelligence.
114	*** Additionally, their primary threat is what they can do to ships rather than characters. A lot of the high-end characters are Devil Fruit users. Destroy the ship and there's nothing keeping them out of the water. TKO. This is why Marine ships have Seastone hulls, because that material keeps Sea Kings from noticing their presence (Though it doesn't make the ships invisible to them). Other modes of transport, like the Sea Train, have a whistle that scares them off.
115	*** Finally, while there are creatures so powerful that they prey on even Sea Kings, said Sea Kings are also dangerous by their sheer number. [[spoiler:To the point that the ability to talk to and command Sea Kings is enough to make the person who wields it considered one of the three Ancient Weapons, Poseidon, capable of destroying the world if in the wrong hands. Good thing the person who currently holds this power is an adorable and extremely kind young princess who wouldn't hurt a fly.]]
116	** Similarly to Sea Kings, giants are always spoken about as being incredibly powerful. It's to the point that Big Mom is on an active campaign to be in their good graces and get them on her side. She claims that she'd [[TakeOverTheWorld rule the world]] by now if that were the case. The world of ''One Piece'' is chock-full of characters that passively have varying levels of super strength. Of course, this is a race-wide ability of the giants. However, they're continuously outclassed by [[PintSizedPowerhouse much smaller characters in that department]], as many of them who showed up throughout the series get [[CurbStompBattle beaten soundly]] by opponents ''nearly 1/10 their size''. Typically, one giant can clean house when they're fighting nameless [[RedShirt Red Shirts]] and {{Mooks}} that are smaller than them, but all bets are off when they have to face one of the more powerful characters that are around as small. Even though Big Mom [[OurHumansAreDifferent is large by human standards]], she is still smaller than your average giant. Hell, when she was much smaller as a 5 year old, she was able to ''kill one of them by tossing him into the ground!'' Compared to smaller characters, the giants hardly ever catch a break when it comes to showcasing incredible feats of strength and durability.
117	** Usopp deliberately invokes this trope through BlatantLies so he can intimidate and frighten off people, claiming he has a force of [[InsistentTerminology 8,000 loyal men]] at his command from his very first appearance. A hundred or so flags pop out among bushes and start waving. [[TheSmartGirl Nami]] quickly sees through the trick and rats out the real size of his force- three little children playing pirate.
118	** Franky, in his original cyborg body form, had a feature known as Tracking Cannonball, where he would expose two shoulder cannons, though dislocating both shoulders to do so. Chopper thought he would fire projectiles which targeted the enemy. Instead, Franky chases down the target while firing his cannons wildly- which stands out as a case of ''Mis''informed Ability.
119	** Ain from the twelfth movie can turn her FountainOfYouth powers into a TouchOfDeath, by repeatedly rejuvenating the enemy until they disappear. However, she never gets a chance to perform it onscreen.
120	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan''. Many characters boast about or have others talk up their skill, strength, powers, or [[InformedAttribute other attributes]]. But, [[ComicallyInvincibleHero Saitama]] being [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Saitama]], he regularly [[OneHitKill defeats]] or [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadows]] them before they can show it [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction to Saitama's dismay]].
121	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Ash's Charizard is never seen using Mega Punch or Fly, but it's implied he does know those moves. Ash called for them, but Charizard was still disobedient during the former, and during the latter, his wing was too damaged.
122	* Lampshaded in the ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis 40.5'' databook. Aragaki, a character whose sole contribution was to lose a doubles match the author didn't even bother showing, is given a bio something like: "In order to hold his own on such a formidable team, he must have awesome tennis powers ... well, he ''should''..."
123	* Several examples from ''Manga/RaveMaster''. The first is Mega Unit, described as TheAlcatraz... while the person talking about it is looking at it in ruins after the BigBad [[CardboardPrison broke out.]] The next is Miltz, who's supposed to be one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. It takes, at most, one spell to knock him down, and he never cast a single effective spell in battle either. The final one is Beryl, supposedly the strongest of the Oracion Six generals, all other six (as there were really seven) were quite a feat to beat, if beaten at all, and one later took down a demon lord. Beryl took only one hit.
124	* In the manga series ''Real Clothes'', characters are sometimes praised for their ability to color-coordinate an outfit. Since ''Real Clothes'' is published in black and white, it's not really possible for the readers to see how good the coordination actually is.
125	* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' spends hours of footage telling us that Bronze Saints can reach the speed of sound, Gold Saints can reach the speed of light, and so forth. But when any of them need to get anywhere in a certain limit in time (read: once per arc), they run more-or-less as fast as a normal person ([[{{Padding}}or even slower]]).
126	* [[TheOjou Touka]] in ''Manga/{{Saki}}'' is supposedly a great Mahjong player. However, every match she's in, she manages to lose horribly. Offscreen she does fine though, in some cases because of her "Cold Touka" state, which she enters without knowing of it, and has a drastically different playstyle, enabling her to defeat the main character, [[DiscOneFinalBoss Koromo]] and professional Mahjong player Fujita in a practice game.
127	** Toyone Anetai of the Miyamori team supposedly has six different abilities. However, she only shows two of them in her match with Saki, [[spoiler:before losing and resulting in Miyamori being eliminated from the tournament]].
128	** Similar to Toyone, Komaki Jindai of Eisui is sometimes possessed with different "god" spirits that cause her to have different playstyles, but is only possessed by one in her match, which is fairly weak. [[spoiler:Like Toyone, her team doesn't make it to the next round, but she expects to do better in the individuals]].
129	** Several of the professional players' styles are [[AllThereInTheManual hinted at in supplementary materials]], but apart from [[CurbStompBattle Fujita easily defeating Saki and Nodoka]], we never see them in action.
130	* ''Manga/ShinMazingerZero'' sees Dr. Hell's Gordon Hell get knocked into outer space in his battle against Mazinger Z. He boasts that it was built for galactic conquest in the first place, and it's even more powerful in space. However, we don't get to see this, as Koji and Mazinger Z then proceed to vaporize Gordon Hell with the Dynamic Fire Nova.
131	* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' manga, Mosquito was about to assume his youngest form, when he was at his most powerful, but thanks to intervention, [[spoiler: he was killed before he could finish the transformation]].
132	* Shinra from ''VisualNovel/TheyAreMyNobleMasters'' is supposed to be a world-famous, talented conductor. Yet all we see her do is waving her staff around in a very unprofessional manner and answering stupid questions from her musicians. The music that results from her conducting is also not really noteworthy.
133	* In ''Manga/ATimidWomanLongingForHerDeliveryGirl'', Kazama is apparently great at his job, and his coworkers value him so much that they tolerate him hitting on women who work for the company until he pushes his luck too far by sexually harassing Takase. However, since he only appears in two scenes, he never demonstrates his skills.
134	* In ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', Aoyama and Zakuro are both said to be excellent at speaking English, but they and the supposedly native speaker Mary [=McGuire=] do not speak it much better than GratuitousEnglish; there are relatively few grammar issues, but the delivery is ''very'' stilted.
135	* Kai Suwabara of ''Anime/YakitateJapan'' is said from the first volume to be a once-in-a-lifetime talent and is positioned to be the one to beat for any tournament that he enters. Throughout the entire series, he only wins outright ''once'', in the preliminary round of an international tournament. In comparison, ButtMonkey Kawachi is constantly mocked for substandard baking skills, yet the only times he outright loses are when he's against the InvincibleHero and once when a SmugSnake sabotaged him.
136	* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
137	** Due to a combination of TheMagicPokerEquation, [[MerchandiseDriven the need to advertise new cards]], a mess of CCGImportanceDissonance, and flat-out bad duel writing, ''Anime/YuGiOh'' is full of duelists who are treated as experts despite their actual strategies being laughable, and cards treated as unstoppable despite being average at best.
138	** In the manga. Despite apparently being an expert at all games, we only ever see [[Characters/YuGiOhSetoKaiba Seto Kaiba]] play Duel Monsters and chess.
139	** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'':
140	*** Fubuki is said to be one of the top duelists of the school and is even lauded as the best duelist they have left after Kaiser graduates. Both duels he has as himself end in a loss, one of which is chalked up to a decidedly amateur mistake. (His duels as Nightshroud involved either [[TheAce Judai or Hell Kaiser Ryo]].)
141	*** Another example is Manjyome Jun's two brothers, Shoji and Chosaku. Their plan was to TakeOverTheWorld using business, politics, and Duel Monsters, Shoji mastering the first and Chosaku the second (with Jun himself mastering the third, until he became disgusted with them and quit the plan). The thing is, while each of them claims to be tops in their field, no details are ever given of the company that Shoji owns or the political office that Chosaku holds, or any accomplishments that either has made in either field. (Not to mention that, from what we've seen of them, their skills in leadership and strategy are ''terrible'', and whatever influence the two actually have, Seto Kaiba is clearly not impressed at all by it.)
142	*** Tyranno Kenzan is referred to as the highest-scoring student in Ra Yellow. Over the course of the series, he Duels eleven times and wins only four, two of which were offscreen.
143	*** Obelisk Blue students are claimed to be the top-ranked students, and being in the dorm is a sign of prestige. For the most part, unless they're major recurring characters, they don't seem much more skilled than their Red and Yellow counterparts. About three-quarters of the cast is below Blue, and [[AlmightyJanitor all are more skilled than the majority of its students.]] Indeed, several plots (the Duel Giant, Kenzan's introduction, the White Dorm, the Duel Zombies) were predicated on someone of a lower dorm being [[TheWorfEffect able to certifiably hand dozens of Blue students their asses.]] About the only implication of Blues being more skilled is MonsterOfTheWeek students have a mild tendency towards being Blue. All in all, they come off as the Duel Academy version of legacy-admitted university students, getting in more due to their money and family reputation instead of skill (and [[DoubleStandard female students just enter Blue automatically]] because there's only one girls' dorm).
144	*** Johan is said by Pegasus to be the ''fifth best duelist'' he's ever seen, after Yugi, Kaiba, Jonouchi and Edo. This is from Edo's flashback in the middle of Johan's first onscreen duel, while Edo himself is a pro duelist who had actually been shown defeating both the aforementioned Judai and Ryo. Johan would end up with a decent track record, but his deck wasn't even complete until halfway through his debut season, which meant that up to that point, his primary strategy seemed to be swarming the field with relatively weak monsters with no clear win condition other than to hope the opponent doesn't have anything stronger.
145	** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'':
146	*** Harald is supposed to be the most skilled of Team Ragnarok, the worthy wielder of Odin, and his team's answer to [[InvincibleHero Yusei.]] During his only actual Duel, he completely spoils a huge lead where he started out with two OlympusMons, misplays multiple times while demonstrating no particularly impressive combos, [[ComplexityAddiction tries to outplay Yusei when he had more than enough power to just smash him,]] and concludes the duel with an entire five-card hand of useless Traps (two of which aren't just useless in the situation, but in his deck, period).
147	*** Team Unicorn is praised for their amazing teamwork, yet when Team 5D's looks up data on their past duels, it's revealed that Andre defeated each opposing team by himself without relying on Breo or Jean. Even in their match against Team 5D's, Andre did the majority of the work by defeating both Jack and Aki, as well as cutting Yusei's life points in half, while Breo pursued a [[InstantWinCondition mill]] strategy which didn't intersect in the slightest with Andre's rapid beatdown.
148	*** Downplayed with Ruka. During her first duel, she is introduced as a "child prodigy" who was a masterful Duelist at a toddler age, but with having only a few duels in the series, it doesn’t seem to come across that way. Still, when she took over for Rua during his duel against Demak, she made the most out of the cards she had available and managed to win within a few turns, even reclaiming her Ancient Fairy Dragon and later proved instrumental in defeating Aporia with Rua and Jack.
149	** In ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'', V is said to be the strongest of the three Arclight brothers, and the mentor to the incredibly skilled Kaito Tenjo. However, both his brothers played flexible strategies that made use of a variety of cards, whereas V's only real strategy seems to be "summon Dyson Sphere as soon as possible." And despite claiming to [[AwesomenessByAnalysis have countermeasures for all of Kaito's strategies]], he's ultimately taken down by the same card that defeated his brothers, in a fashion that makes it clear he had no preparation for it.
150	** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'':
151	*** Zarc, who was an internationally-famous celebrity and entertainer before he became the BigBad. In his only onscreen match, he uses what might well be one of [[ArcFatigue the most boringly straightforward strategies]] in the franchise, relying entirely on [[StoryBreakerPower his overpowered dragon's]] protective effects to NoSell everything the protagonists throw at him. This is suggested to be the result of his fear of losing, but this was something that developed well before he turned evil.
152	*** Another example from Zarc is Pendulum Summoning, which he claims to have created to combat the four Nature Cards. His Pendulum monsters proved no less vulnerable to destruction from the Nature Cards' effects, merely being easier to summon back to his field afterward.
153	*** Ray, the original incarnation of the Bracelet girls, was supposedly a professional duelist whose crowning achievement is defeating the aforementioned Zarc so thoroughly that his dragons are later shown to be terrified of her revival. At no point are we shown even a sliver of her talent, or even her personal deck; her victory was, from what we can see, mostly a result of using the four special cards that her father made specifically to defeat Zarc. Yet the narrative insists that ''she'', not just the cards, is crucial to defeating Zarc when he revives. [[spoiler:While Leo fails to use them to defeat Zarc, it only didn't work thanks to a card that would have countered Ray equally well--the only reason the series didn't end in tragedy was that Leo ran into Zarc's trap before she could.]] The closest we get to seeing her skill is when she advises Reira during her duel with Reiji--a Duel which the former lost.
154	* Rando from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' is said to have 99 Techniques, but in his one appearance he uses only seven. He does refer to the last spell he uses as something he usually doesn't need to draw on.

Context InformedAbility / AnimeAndManga