All For Nothing / Anime & Manga

All for Nothing in Anime & Manga.

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Examples:

• Berserk: Becoming an Apostle is never worth it. In the short term, it grants someone who reached the lowest point in their lives power and removes many of the human inhibitions that would prevent them from indulging in their darkest desires. In the long term, it costs them the people they valued the most in the world and forces them to be forever subservient to the Godhand. After the initial thrill of demonic depravity wears off, most Apostles realize that their new lives haven't done anything to fix the problems that made them so miserable as humans: the Count still loves his daughter too much to offer her as a (second-chance) sacrifice to save himself, Rosine realizes too late the Godhand never granted her wish to become an elf, Ganishka is still paranoid as ever, etc. All they have to show for their deal is an eternity to stew over their same old issues with the added burden of guilt and loneliness brought on by sacrificing their closest loved ones. Their former ambitions are effectively dead as they're forced into eternal servitude at the whim of beings infinitely more powerful, clever, and evil than they could ever be. Just to twist the knife a little more, all Apostles are doomed to be dragged into the Abyss by the souls of their victims to suffer with them for all of eternity. By the time an Apostle realizes what they've signed themselves up for, they're already damned.
• Black Clover: The Elf Reincarnation Patry orchestrated as revenge against mankind is actually a sham manipulated by the high-level devil Zagred so he could create a body to wreak havoc. Even worse, the royals didn't even actually kill the elves like Patry believed. Zagred killed them personally by copying the Prince's magic. This means within 200 or so chapters Patry has been preparing revenge over literally nothing. Poor guy.
• Chainsaw Man: Aki has sacrificed the majority of his lifespan in order to defeat the Gun Devil, and dedicated his life to vengeance for his family. He then recruits Denji and Power solely because they are unhinged enough to defeat the Gun Devil. Makima later reveals that the Gun Devil was already defeated, and all they are actually doing is to give Japan an edge on the Lensman Arms Race against the other nations. Then, he gets killed by the Devil and is made into a Fiend, only to be killed again by Denji, who was now like a brother to him.
• Code Geass: When Suzaku Kururugi father planned to encourage the Japanese people to fight to the bitter end during Britannia's original assault on the country, he killed him in order to force a surrender before what he saw to be a massive amount of unnecessary deaths could occur. However, as he himself admits in the opening narration of R2 Episode 20, his plan failed. Japan's immediately surrendering didn't stop constant warfare, and ironically his letting Japan be given over to Britannia before the other world powers could potentially get involved likely only resulted in a greater net total of lost lives. This is made especially clear after he obliterates the Tokyo Settlement and around thirty million people as a result of his "Live" command.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
  • Gloria Martinez works herself to the bone to afford David's tuition at Arasaka Academy and their monthly rent. After her death, David gets expelled from AA by assaulting Katsuo and joins a gang of edgerunners, kickstarting the very life of crime that leads to his eventual death, all of which she worked so desperately to help him avoid.
  • Lucy was exploited by Arasaka during her childhood, and she was a Sole Survivor of her team after they broke out. It is thus understandable why she desperately wanted to protect David when she found out Arasaka's plans to use his tolerance for cybernetics for experimentation. Unfortunately, her efforts to keep him off Arasaka’s radar end up getting her captured by Faraday, forcing David to don the cyberskeleton in order to mount a rescue attempt. Even if Adam Smasher hadn’t killed David at the end, the accelerated cyberpsychosis as a result of David installing the cyberskeleton would have, meaning Lucy’s efforts to keep David safe only ensured his death.
• Death Note: Not only does Light Yagami’s crusade to create a crime-free utopia go up in smoke, the global crime rate (and, likely, ongoing wars) go back to the way they were before Kira appeared. His Superior Successor Minoru Tanaka fares far better in the Distant Sequel: he never actually acts as Kira, but his sneaky plans create an economic boom for the Japanese public, and (inadvertently) ensure that nobody else gets a chance to use the Notebook without significant consequences.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Big Bad Muzan's ultimate goal is to find the Blue Spider Lily in hopes of using it to remove his weakness to sunlight. The final chapter set in the modern day reveals that the Blue Spider Lily does exist, but only blooms when exposed to broad daylight, meaning Muzan never had a chance to find it.
• Digimon Ghost Game: In Episode 47 "Memory of Eternity", a miniscule-sized Datamon puts a dying Shadramon into the body of Kiyoshiro's senior, causing the Shadramon to haphazardly manifest out of the human's body. The Shadramon doesn't completely emerge out of the human's body however, and instead materializes with his unconscious body intact. Datamon deems him a failed experiment and declares that he did this because he wants to attain virtual immortality by possessing humans, but since his first experiment failed, he could kill off both the human and the Digimon and move onto someone else. Once Nanomon is stopped and extracted, Thetismon separates Shadramon from the human's body...and Shadramon disappears after seconds anyways, implying that Datamon was attempting to murder people and Digimon for nothing.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • During the first saga of the series, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Krillin all train in order to be able to combat the incoming Saiyans. Soon as Vegeta and Nappa get there and they, along with Gohan and Piccolo engage the two. Yamcha is blow up in a sneak attack by one of the man-made henchmen, the Saibamen. Chaiotzu ends up blowing himself up in vain to trying to kill Nappa. And Tien ends up losing an arm and using up all his energy just trying to take Nappa out... which also fails. And Krillin ends up being pretty damn useless as well, as Nappa punishes him and Gohan. So all that training was for naught. This repeats itself on the Android Arc, where the humans ultimately realize how underpowered they are compared to each new foe that appears. As a result, they give up on fighting... or at least Yamcha and Chiaotzu do.
  • During the Buu Saga, Vegeta becomes so obsessed with topping Goku that he makes a Deal with the Devil with Babidi, allowing Babidi to turn him into a Majin and bring forth his inner evil to do so. As it turns out, Goku had unlocked Super Saiyan 3 and had been holding back against Majin Vegeta the whole time, so Vegeta sold his soul to Babidi, forsook his family, friends, and own convictions, and helped unleash Majin Buu upon the world for nothing. More than that, the very thing he did all of the above actions for, his pride, was utterly and completely destroyed. Not only were his sacrifices meaningless, he once again has to deal with the fact that Goku made a huge leap ahead of him by unlocking Super Saiyan 3, to say nothing of the insult of being allowed to think he could win. As a result, Vegeta is pretty damn pissed with Goku when King Yemma brings him back to fight Buu after he gave his life in a failed effort to make amends.
    Vegeta: I sent myself into a cold oblivion, and I did it on a lie!
    • This is not the first time this happened to Vegeta. In the Frieza Saga, he spent the majority of the story arc avoiding a direct conflict with the titular tyrant, while using subterfuge and quick action to take the Namekian Dragon Balls for himself and pick off his men, reaching the brink of death more than once, so that he can use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality, and so that he can finally challenge him. Unfortunately, the Grand Elder, whose life sustains the usage of the magical orbs dies, and Frieza confronts him and his erstwhile allies, Krillin and Gohan. Seeing no other choice, they battle him head-on, but it's not enough. Piccolo is revived and brought to Namek, and he turns the tables against Frieza at first, but it quickly becomes clear that the battle is still a losing one. So Vegeta, in an attempt to become a Super Saiyan, has Krillin put him to the brink of death and have Dende revive him so he can receive a dramatic power boost. It works, but Frieza still toys with him, and he loses all hope when he realizes he's not a Super Saiyan, leading to a savage beatdown by Frieza's hands before he executes him. Everything he did in that arc was to free himself from the yoke of Frieza, and it all it earned him was a pitiful death. At least he got better by the arc's end.
  • Said word-for-word in Dragon Ball Z Kai by Piccolo upon seeing Frieza's true form. After all the training he did with King Kai, and everything Gohan and Krillin went through to get Namek's Dragon Balls to revive him... he states to Gohan that he can no longer protect him. Not from Frieza.
  • Dragon Ball Super has an "All For Nothing Saga" in the form of the Future Trunks Saga. Basically, the entire reason it happened is because the heroes tried to fight off this new threat in the form of Goku Black and Future Zamasu, and saved Future Trunks' timeline and survivors of their attack. So after 20 episodes of mystery-solving and fighting what happens? Merged Zamasu becomes a bodiless form who succeeds in killing off every single survivor that the heroes fought so hard to protect, and begins the process of spreading across the entire multiverse and timelines. This forces the heroes to summon Future Zen-Oh, who has to completely erase Future Trunks' entire timeline from existence, just to finish off Future Zamasu once and for all. And Future Trunks and Future Mai are the Sole Survivors of that timeline. That's right, all their efforts they worked so hard to protect the timeline ended up being completely meaningless, and they couldn't even meet their friends in the afterlife because it's also blown up. The only compensation for all this is the fact that Zamasu was stopped before he managed to spread to other timelines. That, and Whis can send Trunks and Mai back to a time just before Goku Black came into being, allowing Future Trunks to prevent it all from happening in the first place.
    • The manga version had it even worse. Least in the anime they managed to killed Merged Zamasu's main form. In this version, nope, they cut him in half... and he just makes multiple copies of himself. Meaning there's no way they can even defeat him because he's just too overpowered. It's only due to Goku remembering he had Zen-Oh's button that saves them.
  • On the flip-side, this also applies to Zamasu himself in that he finally succeeded in killing of all the mortals in the timeline and managed to have a whole universe shaped in his vision upon gaining his bodiless form. But by that time, he has completely lost his mind, which means that he will never be able to enjoy it. His victory is also negated when Future Zen-Oh appears and eradicates the timeline he resides in, with the knowledge that he couldn't kill the people who caused him the most grief.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Jellal spent years before the start of the series up to the Tower of Heaven arc manipulating Erza, his childhood friends/fellow slaves, and even the Magic Council itself in order to prepare the R-System for the process of reviving the black wizard Zeref after being possessed by his spirit as a child. He tormented Erza, destroyed countless lives, and even killed one of his friends Simon in the name of obtaining "true freedom." The kicker? Even if he hadn't been defeated by Natsu and Erza, it wouldn't have mattered because Zeref was never dead in the first place. His "possession" was really the result of a brainwashing spell by Ultear who was manipulating him for a plan by her own dark guild to unseal Zeref and to take the Council's eyes off their movements. He becomes a wanted criminal, loses his memories, gets a death wish upon learning what he did, and it was all based on a lie.
  • The dark guild in question, Grimoire Heart, ends up suffering similarly in a case of karma. In their goal to unseal Zeref, they cause all manner of death and destruction over decades to obtain "keys" to awaken him. As it turns out, these "keys" hold no more water than the rumors of Zeref's death. Zeref himself actually wants nothing to do with them due to his own self-loathing and desire to die for his own sins, and in fact kills off Grimoire Heart's leader in anger.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Heiter, now an old man, asks Frieren to decipher a grimoire that supposedly contains spells of resurrection and/or immortality, in the hopes of prolonging his life. The process takes Frieren six years (a long time by human standards, but a blink of an eye for her), during which time she also instructs Heiter's adopted daughter Fern in magic. When she finally finishes deciphering the grimoire, she informs Heiter - who by then is at death's door - that it didn't contain any resurrective or life-prolonging spells after all. It's then immediately subverted, as Heiter admits that he knew that all along, and his real objective was to trick Frieren into teaching Fern enough magic that, upon his passing, she'd be strong enough for Frieren to take on as an apprentice. Frieren is not amused by Heiter's deception, but nonetheless agrees to take Fern with her.
• Though this is far more often the rule than an exception for antagonists, Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) deserves a special mention due to its ties to one of the show's themes. Big Bad Dante at one point gives Ed a Breaking Speech that equivalent exchange is a falsehood made up to make people feel better about themselves, and that no amount of Ed's efforts mean the universe owes him a Happy Ending. Considering Dante orchestrated multiple genocides, manipulated the homunculi and has been body hopping for centuries to create a new Philosopher's Stone, her ultimate failure and demise shows just how right she is.
• In the Manga and Brotherhood versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, Shou Tucker's Moral Event Horizon of fusing his daughter Nina with her dog Alexander into a pitiful, suffering Chimera became this once we learn later in the series that the military already had human/animal chimera, and unlike Tucker's chimeras, these ones are not only in a perfectly fine mental state, they can even shift back to their human forms at will. All of Tucker's madness and his sacrificing of his wife and his daughter was done for the sake of experiments the government had already perfected in secret, and done because he wasn't "in" enough to be privy to them.
• Gintama has some arcs/chapters/episodes that ends in this or "Shaggy Dog" Story, either Played for Laughs or Played for Drama. But one arc in particular is a clear All for Nothing: The Shougun Assassination Arc. After the protagonists spent so much time protecting Shige Shige from the Arc Villains, Takasugi and Kamui, he is killed anyway months later by the Big Bad Wannabe, Nobu Nobu (who started the arc in the first place). The only things that came out of this arc are that the status quo of the series has been shattered and that Gintoki and Kagura had planted the seeds of a Heel–Face Turn in Takasugi and Kamui, respectively, that pays dividends two arcs later.
• Green Box: "Exit" is not a valid item according to Green Box's logic and Monaco was sacrificed for nothing. Liechtenstein similarly was used to learn that you can't transport humans in.
• One of the most iconic and significant arcs in GTO: The Early Years is the Midnight Angels arc, where after 35 chapters, Eikichi and Ryuji defeat the re-formed Midnight Angels gang under Junya Akutsu, who is Put on a Prison Bus, and then they burn the founder Masaki's coat that Akutsu had been trying to get his hands on so nobody would be able to bring the gang back. Except then Akutsu breaks out of jail after less than a year, and is apparently never recaptured. In the sequel to the sequel GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Eikichi returns to Shonan to find out Akutsu is leading a gang again, presumably under the same name. The failure is downplayed since there was at least one major positive outcome of the arc: Nagisa was finally freed from Akutsu's clutches, and was able to begin healing from his abuse.
• In Hellsing, this is revealed to have happened to Walter. After Alucard is killed by Schrodinger, Walter's laughter at Alucard's demise can only turn to bitter tears as he realizes that he's sacrificed his entire life and betrayed Hellsing for nothing whatsoever. Walter failed to kill Alucard, let alone best him, and the Major never even expected that Walter would succeed. Walter somberly notes that he'll die a traitor's death just before he expires.
• Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen: Kaldus Coendera's decades long plan to steal the royal family's seal from Tersia Family and pass his son Zeon as Joulran Tersia, the true heir of King Windellan, was pointless from the start. Joulran and the royal family have a Shared Unusual Trait of Whirlpool fingerprints Kaldus didn't know about, so Bard didn't even have to do anything as it would be clear Zeon is an imposter.
• Ie Ga Moete Jinsei Dou Demo Yoku Natta Kara has this happen in chapter 1. The protagonist Harold Smith spent over 10 years of hard work getting himself a home, only to come home after the house is completed to watch it and all his possessions, save the clothes on his back and savings of one month's wages, on fire, and burning to the ground helplessly. He goes into a near suicidal depression and spends everything he's got buying Attie, the dark elf slave and female lead. Soon after, they go adventuring together.
• I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level: Since her creation, Shalsha was dedicated to killing Azusa for 50 years by attempting to master Smite Evil magic. While this made her effective against Azusa, anyone and everyone else could easily take her down, which is proven when Laika knocks her out with one blow. Once she wakes up, Shalsha realizes her one hour of being able to use Smite Evil has long since passed and is unable to use it again for decades. The one benefit is that Shalsha undergoes a Heel–Face Turn and accepts Azusa as her mother.
• High School D×D uses this trope twice. Luckily it's only the antagonistic side that suffers instead of the heroes.
  • Kokabiel's attempt to start another Great War fails: the three of the seven Excaliburs he stole are retrieved and sent back to Rome; Kokabiel's plot to kill the Gremory family have been foiled; and on top of that, he ends up being overpowered by Vali and captured by Azazel to be frozen in Cocytus.
  • The Khaos Brigade's efforts to take over the Underworld and plan to kill Great Red go up in smoke as Katerea is killed by Azazel after her attempts to foil a peace treaty between the Three Factions fail; Creuserey is killed by Sirzechs and Azazel while trying to avenge Katerea; Shalba is overpowered by Issei; the Hero Faction's attempt to transform Yasaka into the Nine-Tailed Fox and summon Great Red are foiled thanks to Sun Wukong and Yu-Long teaming up with Issei to beat them in Kyoto; Shalba's attempt to exact revenge on the Devils leads to his death; and the Old Satan Faction is dissolved after their leaders' deaths.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, the events of the finale turn Dio and Pucci's whole plan into this. Pucci manages to transform his stand Whitesnake into Made in Heaven and resets the universe just as planned... but before he can actually finish making the changes he wanted, Emporio kills him. The universe snaps back to normal, all the heroes are restored to life (if with different names), and they're actually in a better state than before (such as Jolyne and Anasui's counterparts being Happily Married), while Pucci himself is seemingly erased from existence.
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!: After Mizusaki and Asakusa call for help while they're stuck on the rooftop, Kanamori smashes through a wall to bring the ladder back upright. Cue the two of them standing right behind her, revealing that they just slid down a pipe to the ground instead. Kanamori proclaims that they'll be paying for the damages.
• Maria no Danzai:
  • Played cruelly straight in the worst way possible in the end, as Kiritaka Nagare's failure to accomplish his goal had tragic consequences for his family. He’s bullied for months by Okaya's gang — the torment Kiritaka suffered more akin to torture than bullying. But he endured it all because he was gathering evidence on the bullies and he did not want to worry his mother Mari, who he loved greatly. Then Kiritaka was killed by a prank by the bullies under the threat of a fake porno with his mother edited in being posted online unless he jumped off a cliff, which his mother saw just as a truck ran him over. After an investigation by the police his parents were told that his death was a suicide caused by Abusive Parents, which made them blame themselves. Mari, depressed by everything surrounding his death, discovered a journal about the bullying Kiritaka suffered, leaving her to swear revenge on his bullies. Two years later, Mari is under a new identity, Maria Akeboshi, and is hunting and killing Okaya's gang one by one, having thrown away her marriage and her previous life to get revenge. It is clear that her son's death has completely destroyed Maria, and even though she's getting revenge for her son, it will likely cost Maria her sanity and life.
    • It's also revealed that his father, Inspector Taiichiro Nagare's life, was destroyed as well. Taiichiro is heartbroken about both his son's death and the divorce from his wife. He’s also become an outcast towards most of the police department because they believed he was abusing his son.
    • All in all, Kiritaka failed to report his bullies, it's implied that in the two years after his death his bullies had free reign to destroy his classmate's lives, and his early death at the cost of protecting his mother's reputation and dignity was not only ultimately pointless but destroyed his family as well.
• Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms has a couple story arcs that end this way:
  • Mezarte wants to make up for the gradual loss of its iconic Renato dragons by kidnapping women from a Society of Immortals and using them to bear immortal heirs for various families, including the royal one. The lone child from the royal marriage shows no sign of having inherited her mother's immortality, all the Renato either die or escape, and formerly allied nations get so angry with the kingdom that they band together to invade it.
  • Krim, who is in love with the woman who was forcibly married into the royal family, spends years plotting to set her free, only for her to refuse to be rescued twice: first because she's pregnant, then because going with him would keep her from ever seeing the daughter from whom she was separated ever again.
• Masamune-kun's Revenge: The titular protagonist's whole plan was to get revenge on Aki by making her fall in love with him, and then reject her when she confesses to him, but despite having numerous chances, he can't bring himself to hurt her as he still loves her. Then comes the reveal that the girl who rejected and called him "Pig's Foot" as a child wasn't Aki, but Yoshino posing as her, meaning that he was holding a grudge to the wrong girl this whole time due to a misunderstanding.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Ace Pilot Norris Packard goes solo to destroy three Mass Produced Guntanks being protected by the titular force as the Zeon force is trying to get their wounded out into space and the Guntanks will shoot down their Zanzibar-class in a heartbeat. Norris succeeds but dies in the process. Later, Aina, piloting the Apsalus III, calls for a cease fire so the ship can liftoff. The Federation general, Iser Ryan, allows it, but is secretly seeking a reason — any reason — to get the GM Sniper he's putting into position to attack the ship. Aina's brother, Ghinias, ends up taking over control of the Apsalus and attacks, giving Iser the reasoning he needs to shoot down the Zanzibar, killing everyone on board and rendering Norris' sacrifice moot.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is a really brutal example: learning that his superior, Colonel Killing, has learned that the Cyclops Team has failed in destroying the Gundam NT-1 and is seeking to launch a nuke at the colony holding it, Bernard Wiseman sets off on a suicidal plan to destroy the Gundam and save the colony. What Bernie doesn't know is that, before he put the plan in action, the Federation had already confronted and stopped Killing, thus his plan is meaningless. Bernie is able to critically damage the NT-1, but dies in the process, meaning the Federation loses out on an upgraded Gundam. But the events happen on December 25th, which is already the Battle of Solomon, and the next week is the Battle of A Baoa Qu and Zeon's total loss, thus win or lose, Zeon is going to lose anyway.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory ends with Operation Stardust being a complete success, making all the protagonists' struggles pointless. However, the Delaz fleet is wiped out before they can celebrate their victory, and the aftermath of the conflict only amounts to the deaths of millions of civilians instead of the rebirth of Zeon. The only real winners are Jamitov Hymen, Jamaican Daninghan, and Bask Ohm, who let the operation happen as pretext for the formation of the Titans.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Endeavor, the #2 ranked hero, goes through some deplorable lengths to try to surpass All Might, which includes using his own family as a stepping stone. Even though he finally gets the number one spot, he can't enjoy it because he knows he only got it by default due to All Might's retirement. He'll always be compared to All Might due to All Might's final battle, which will continue to inspire other heroes for decades to come. So no matter what he does now, he'll always feel that All Might has completely and utterly beat him. Worse still, for all the efforts he took to groom Shoto as his successor, there is a strong possibility that Shoto will eventually be surpassed by All Might's protege Izuku Midoriya. This completely breaks Endeavor, forcing him to finally confront his actions and maybe actually become a good person. This in turn allows him to actually subvert the trope as without his obsession with beating All Might, he's free to explore other avenues in which he's actually better; for example, Shoto, Izuku, and Katsuki all find him to be a much better mentor than All Might was, because he can connect better with his students and is intelligent enough to understand the problems they face.
  • Nana Shimura made the difficult choice to put her son Kotaro into foster care to protect him from her life as a superhero because she knew All For One would target her family to get to her; her husband had already been killed by a villain. She even went so far as to ban Gran Torino and All Might from contacting him to keep him safe. However, Kotaro grew up to be an absolutely horrible person due to feeling abandoned and had a kid named Tenko who he abused for wanting to become a hero. Kotaro ended up murdered by his own son when Tenko's Quirk first activated due to the former's abuse. And then All For One adopted Tenko as his heir and renamed him Tomura Shigaraki, just to further twist the knife. Upon learning that Shigaraki got his twisted view on Hero society from his father, Gran Torino realized just how horrible a mistake Shimura's decision was. Even worse, it's later revealed that All For One had managed to track Kotaro down anyway, enabling him to begin manipulating Tenko for his plans, thus rendering Shimura's actions completely in vain.
  • Sir Nighteye spent years prepping Mirio Togata to inherit One-For-All from All Might, only to find the power has already been given to the Quirkless Izuku Midoriya. Sir Nighteye spent a great deal of time making it clear he's going to make Midoriya accept he's unworthy of the power and give it to Togata. However, fate would prove him wrong. His attempts to prove Midoriya unworthy did more harm than good, as he was able to avert a terrible future Nighteye thought impossible. Though he admitted he was wrong on his death bed, his first impression's damage was already done and Midoriya thought it best to give his power to Togata, who bluntly refused as he doesn't want to use another person's Quirk, something Nighteye never took into consideration. However, even if things did work as he wanted them to, later chapters reveal anyone who already has a Quirk upon receiving One For All would suffer from Rapid Aging, meaning the Quirkless Midoriya was indeed a better fit, while Togata would have likely had to give up the power and retire before ever getting to be the new Symbol of Peace like his mentor wanted.
  • Even poor All Might isn't immune to this. In his Final Battle with All For One, he was forced to use up the last embers of One For All in order to defeat the villain and bring him to justice, being forced to retire afterwards. Immediately following the war with the Paranormal Liberation Front, All For One performed the impossible and lead a mass breakout from Tartarus, thus negating All Might's final act as a hero.
  • During the Paranormal Liberation War Hawks prioritized dealing with Twice due to the villain's Quirk being on the verge of a Story-Breaker Power, and thus, was forced to kill him when Twice pulled a Redemption Rejection. Unfortunately, Dabi got the footage of Hawks' act and sent it out into the public, wrecking Hawks' reputation and destroying faith in heroes. Later on, it's revealed that Dabi and Toga managed to get a sample of Twice's blood, with the awakened power of Toga's Quirk allowing her to use the Quirk of whoever she transforms into, so Hawks' actions were rendered completely pointless.
• Naruto:
  • The Sasuke Retrieval Arc. To recap, Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji are sent to retrieve Sasuke from being sent to Orochimaru, due to which they get into fights with the Sound Four. Neji, Kiba and Choji are near-fatally injured during the time their opponents are dispatched, during which time Lee joins in the effort. He fights Kimimaro so that Naruto can go after Sasuke, in which time the Sand Trio are sent as backup for the team. Despite everything, Naruto fails to convince Sasuke to return to the village, at which point, Naruto gets into a fight with Sasuke and is almost killed, as Sasuke himself goes over to the Sound. The only saving graces being all of the Genin and Shikamaru are saved in the nick of time, and Orochimaru fails to get Sasuke as his new body.
  • Madara Uchiha orchestrated the entire plot of Naruto for the sake of his own idea of "peace", even going as far as training a successor (Tobi/Obito) to continue his work when he could not stave off death any longer, with specific instructions to eventually revive him to complete the plan. All of this was to prove his ideology was better than his former best friend and rival Hashirama Senju's. Well, he succeeds...only to be stabbed in the back by his Enigmatic Minion Black Zetsu, who reveals that Madara, much like everyone else, was an Unwitting Pawn in a much larger game, right before his body is used as a vessel to revive the true Final Boss of Naruto, Princess Kaguya. After Kaguya is defeated, Madara is left powerless and on the verge of death, forced to confront the fact that all his plans and efforts were based on a lie, and that his ideology will die with him, while Hashirama's will endure and live on. The sole comfort he has is that, despite everything, Hashirama still sees him as his friend.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • ZigZagging in the final episodes of the series. Despite all the efforts he made at connecting with others, Shinji comes to feel betrayed and abandoned by everyone. Despite all their efforts at preventing the Third Impact, the pilots failed because their superiors wanted them to fail in order to trigger their own, somewhat better version and turn the entire planet into a barren wasteland with humanity all but extinct. However, it was Shinji's efforts at connecting with others that led to Rei rejecting his father and instead turning the reins of the Third Impact over to him, and it was Shinji's desire to see those people again that led him to stop the instrumentality of humanity. End result: the world ends up as a twisted wasteland; it's left with the hope of recovery as Shinji and Asuka return, giving a tiny step to reach each other out, and all humans can choose to re-embody if they really want to, but it's implied that the only ones who can resist the temptation have to be as fucked up as Shinji and Asuka. They may not have even had that much if Gendo's or SEELE's plans had gone through.
  • The Reboot Rebuild of Evangelion is even WORSE. In this version, Shinji manages to hold onto his determination and saves Rei... only to reveal that he just triggered the Third Impact by doing that and that she disappeared without a trace, killing the better half of the world. Nobody's amused. Shinji teams up with Kaworu because he's the only one who still shows him kindness, and tries to fix everything. He loses him too and partially triggers the Fourth Impact. So now Shinji has destroyed the world, lost Rei, only saved Asuka (whose every second in existence is sheer suffering and hatred towards Shinji) and another step in Gendo's hidden agenda is completed. At this rate, you can expect Shinji to rip apart what is left of his dignity and sanity and eventually destroy the entire universe. Or, you know, rebuild the world in the final film, only without Eva.
• One Piece:
  • Crocodile hatches a six years (and probably more) long plan to destabilize the country of Alabasta, all so he can be acclaimed at its saviour and ruler, and access the ancient weapon Pluton who he believes is hidden somewhere in the kingdom. Only for Robin (the only woman with the ability to read Poneglyphs, which among others things tell of the ancient weapons' locations) to tell him it isn't in Alabasta. Worse, later arcs of the manga reveal that Pluton's actual location is on the other side of the world, in Wano, a country taken over by Kaido, and on top of all that, Pluton is resting at the bottom of a kilometers-deep artificial sea meaning that even if the Straw Hats hadn't disrupted his plans, Crocodile taking over Alabasta wouldn't have put him any closer to actually getting the ancient weapon.
  • Four CP9 agents infiltrate Water 7 in order to find out where Iceberg hid the blueprints to the ancient weapon Pluton. Shortly after the Straw Hats arrive in Water 7, CP9 forces Robin to surrender to them, then raids the Galley-La Headquarters, only to find that Iceberg gave the blueprints to Franky. At that point, they capture Franky and bring him to Enies Lobby with Robin, hoping to interrogate Franky for the blueprints' location. Unfortunately for them, after Luffy and the other Straw Hats manage to rekindle Robin's will to live, Franky reveals that he'd hidden the blueprints inside his body, then proceeds to burn them in front of CP9, since he's confident the Straw Hats will save Robin (which they do). Kalifa, one of the CP9 infiltrators, is dismayed.
    Kalifa: We spent five years on our mission for this?
  • Impel Down and Marineford make up an entire All For Nothing arc. Luffy breaks into Impel Down to rescue his brother Ace upon learning he had been captured and sentenced to death. He fights his way down to the bottom level, surviving only due to luck and Heroic Willpower, only to find that Ace had already been removed for execution. Luffy then starts a Prison Riot to escape, letting hundreds of the world's worst convicts out in the process, and travels to the giant Pirates vs. Marines battle taking forth. Fighting past thousands of soldiers, including the Marines' top fighters, the Admirals, Luffy manages to free Ace from his Power Limiter handcuffs, and they begin to leave. Until Ace turns around in response to one of the Admiral's taunts, gets into a fight, loses, and dies to protect Luffy. If Luffy's reaction of going into a Heroic Blue Screen of Death isn't sad enough, the realization that the past 51 chapters were all for naught makes it so much worse.
    • The Marines don't get off that easily either as they suffered massive casualties, lose Sengoku, Garp, and Aokiji all via resignation due to, respectively, trying to cover up the escape of Impel Down's worst inmates, having had to fight two members of his own family and losing one in the process, and refusing to serve under the man chosen to replace Sengoku after being unable to prevent his ascension. On top of all that, the death and final words of Whitebeard cause a new era of piracy and the Marines now have to deal with a level of piracy worse than ever before. They may have killed Whitebeard and killed off Gold Roger's bloodline, but their victory was hollow.
  • This occurs a few times in the Whole Cake Island arc:
    • This is the final step of Sanji's Trauma Conga Line, when it was revealed that Pudding was actually Evil All Along and the entire wedding was just a ploy to execute the Vinsmoke Family, meaning that everything he had done: leaving the crew, resubmitting himself to his family's abuse, and treating Luffy and Nami like trash, was for nothing. Fortunately, Luffy's face-punch reignites his desire to reunite with the Straw Hats, which ultimately leads to the entire wedding fiasco.
    • Same goes for Sanji's father, Vinsmoke Judge, who tried everything to cow his estranged son into submission, even blackmailing him with Zeff's safety and putting (fake) explosive bracelets on him knowing that even if Sanji were to survive, the one thing he enjoyed (cooking) would be rendered impossible without hands. He also experimented on his own children, with him outright removing their human empathy in the case of his quadruplet sons so Germa 66 can be led by strong commanders who will recapture North Blue and lead his kingdom to greatness. At the end of the day, all his efforts are for naught — his own wife, Vinsmoke Sora, resorted to extremely desperate measures to ensure her unborn sons would still have empathy, leading to Sanji's birth as he is now. This kicks off a series of events that leads to Judge and his "perfect" children being rounded up for slaughter by the Charlotte family. Fortunately for them, Sanji's too compassionate to let them die.
  • After serving under Big Mom for an entire year, working his way up the ranks to be in a position to kill her, and coming up with a clever yet convoluted plan to pull it off, Bege's entire assassination plan backfires: Big Mom's scream inadvertently destroys his missile launchers, his escape plan is ruined, and his treachery has been exposed to the Big Mom Pirates.
  • Averted with Pedro's Heroic Sacrifice to take down Perospero. Even though Perospero survived the explosion with only a missing arm, Pedro's sacrifice freed Chopper, Brook, and the Thousand Sunny from Perospero's candy and gave the Straw Hats an opening to escape, so it doesn't count as a Senseless Sacrifice.
  • Despite The World Government destroying Ohara Island and the scholars that inhabited it, the latter's efforts save their books during the Buster Call succeeded. Saul's giants retrieved them and hid them, and Vegapunk memorized the whole lot. The World Government burning down the entire island was not enough to bury the truth forever, and in the end worked against them by implicitly confirming Ohara's theories and inspiring the formation of the Revolutionary army. In short, the scholars posthumously gave one big middle finger to the World Government.
  • Despite his progress in Wano, gaining a powerful alliance, him and Law defeating Big Mom, and helping in Kaido's defeat, as well as getting three of the four Road Poneglyphs, Eustass Kid's success become naught in Chapter 1079, when Shanks elects to destroy the Kid Pirates after seeing how bloodthirsty and cruel Kid generally is, with his "allies" nowhere to save him this time, as well as the Red Hair Pirates seizing their Road Poneglyphs, and Dorry and Brogy sinking their ship anyways, kicking Kid out of the race of becoming King of the Pirates.
  • Bartholomew Kuma refused to marry his Childhood Friend Romance Ginny, out of fear she would be put in danger by being openly the wife of the last Buccaneer. Then Ginny got kidnapped by a Celestial Dragon for her beauty and was made his slave-wife for two years before she died escaping him.
• During the finale of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Homura begs Madoka to not make her wish because of all of the pain she went through to protect her. She even says "Everything I fought for... it will all be for nothing!" Madoka still makes her wish, and while this may have benefited everyone else, the biggest side effect was that Madoka had to be retconned out of existence. Madoka seems fine with this though and assures Homura she'll always remember her sacrifice, so it's not all bad.
  • In the Rebellion movie, it appears it didn't take from Madoka's point of view. Homura makes the decision to usurp Madoka's goddess powers and rewrite the universe again so as to be able to look out for Madoka's interests, even if it goes against her original wish.
• During the Grand Finale of Sailor Moon, Sailors Neptune and Uranus pull off a desperate Fake Defector act in order to get close enough to Galaxia to finish her off, going to such lengths as killing Pluto and Saturn (depriving Sailor Moon of two valuable allies right after the death of Princess Kakyuu and the Heroic Sacrifices of the Inners) and attacking Moon herself and her remaining allies, the Starlights (so she wouldn't suspect them, but also weakening her physically and devastating her emotionally) before finally attacking Galaxia with her own bracelets. Unfortunately, due to no longer having a Sailor Seed, Galaxia is unaffected by the sneak attack before retaliating against the conspirators, and Neptune and Uranus die right in front of Moon and the Starlights without accomplishing a thing.
• A somewhat more comedic version of this. In School Rumble, class 2-C was divided between whether they should do a play or cafe for the School Festival. They then devoted the next mini-arc to a dramatic war game held in the school between the two groups using fake guns. The very next day, while being punished for the game, their teacher Kooriyama suggests they just do both.
• Transformers: Energon: Alpha Quintesson spends the entire show manipulating Autobots and Decepticons in order to recreate the planets Unicron had devoured in a new universe outside regular space. By using the weakened Unicron as a newborn sun, the plan suceeds... until the sun collapses into a black hole that consumes the young universe and sets the stage for Transformers: Cybertron.
• Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song: In the final arc, it's revealed that Project Singularity was pointless. The Archive, the computer responsible for the AI uprising that killed mankind, had already planned for that outcome 100 years in the past, and would alter different events no matter what Vivy and Matsumoto changed to get back to the original outcome.
• Voltes V: With The Reveal that his father is a Hornless Boazanian and his "betrayal" was simply trying to find a better way of life for his people, and that Kenichi was his brother all along, Heinel felt ashamed for ever partaking in the scourge against Earth and disavowed his actions.
• Your Name: The side novel Another Side: Earthbound reveals that, after his wife Futaba's death, Toshiki had set out to become mayor of Itomori in order to modernise the town, spending 2 years preparing and then getting elected into a 4-year term. As he's standing for reelection at the start of the film proper, though, comet Tiamat crashes into it one month later, rendering all his efforts pointless.