Sometimes, due to the nature of the medium, it's hard to spot moments in manga or anime that just seem to come out of left field.
- 7 Seeds has the Applause chapter. It's already oddly placed as it occurs between the penultimate and ultimate chapter of the currently on-going and intense Minor Heat arc. The strange part is that it features Hana, who apparently survived the fatal situation she was last left in, frolicking around on grass and greens with a group of piglets, gets taken in like an adopted child by their pig mother and she's suddenly transformed into a little child! She does revert to her regular age on the last page, determined to live in this world now... but it seems so odd, going against the danger she was in when we last saw her (which also had her presumed dead!) and seems to take more than a page out of Heidi! It is important to the story, as the next arc will begin at the place where she currently is at, but the originally placing and events in the chapter are just... weird.
- In the 1980s episode of Astro Boy "Uran's Twin", Uran and her double suddenly go into a song and dance about who is the real Uran. The song is never mentioned again afterwards and is not even in the dubbed version.
- The ending of Astro Ganger. Ganger bids his farewells to Kantaro and orders him to enter his saucer - and then tears through the Blasters' base, allowing the panther to kill them all. Then, Ganger throws the panther against the walls, knowing that for the sake of the Earth it can't live. However, due to all the energy it absorbed, it sets off a reaction that causes the entire ship to explode. Poor Ganger looks aghast at the rubble as he accepts his death. Meanwhile, Kantaro and Rie watch from their ship, crying. Then the anime straight up cuts to the credits, without giving the audience the chance to digest what just happened. In Syria, this episode actually caused audiences to cry.
- Azumanga Daioh certainly seems to be full of Big Lipped Alligator Moments, too many to list, but among which include "one life one meeting", the new year's dream sequences, and the kitchen knife incident with Osaka, particularly in the anime when it cuts to Tomo splattering ketchup onto some eggs. But then again, many fans consider the presence of these Big Lipped Alligator Moments part of the show's charm.
- In an early chapter of Baki the Grappler, Yujiro is chilling in his hotel room, when suddenly he senses someone on the other side of the door. Yujiro tries to open the door, only to find out that he can't because someone is holding the door handle on the other side. By the time Yujiro smashes the door open, the person on the other side has already fled. This incident is never brought up again and it's never explained who was beyond the door. Given the timing, it's likely the author intended it to be Baki's next opponent, Kureha. However, Yujiro is later firmly established as the most powerful creature on the planet, far stronger than Kureha, so ultimately the scene makes no sense in the context of the story.
- Beastars: Legoshi turns into a swarm of moths during his final battle with Tem's murderer and then never uses this ability ever again. It is unclear if this even actually happened or was some kind of hallucination.
- At one point in the manga Beelzebub, a side panel is used to explain a slightly obscure term one of the characters uses. This explanation is placed over an image of a teddy bear at a bar, with a footnote saying "This picture has no relevance what-so-ever."
- Kuma-chan strikes again later on, for absolutely no reason this time, when instead of sitting at a bar it's taking a bubble bath.
- Black Butler: Claude (anime only) has a very, very over the top scene involving him tap dancing, swinging from a giant chandelier hundreds of feet in the air, and flinging a loaded table unto the air, then leaping into the air and flinging hundreds of plates (that he is running with!) and silverware onto the table. Defying absolutely all laws of physics, the table is somehow set perfectly once everything lands, and he looks up to perfectly catch his pair of airborne glasses on his face as the cherry on top of the whole sequence. This whole thing appears to be there just to show off animation and/or that demon butlers are just so awesome they can somehow do this kind of thing. This is a fairly serious and dark anime, not a Looney Tunes cartoon, by the way.
- Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: being a series that is nothing but BLAMs, one stands out in particular, where Beauty, the Only Sane Man of the group, suddenly snaps and begins playing along with the weirdness for no reason, once Bobobo and Don Patch get back on screen and do something strange, she's right back to normal, no explanation given, no comments made.
- In BNA: Brand New Animal most beastmen's alternate animal form is a "regular" bipedal humanoid animal, but the last episode shows Cliff Boris' alternate form as a mix of a naked man and a bunch of snakes coiled together. It was vaguely foreshadowed by an earlier episode that showed his reptilian eyes, but no reason is ever given as to why he's so bizarre compared to the others.
- A Centaur's Life, ordinarily just a slice-of-life series about high-school students in a world populated by fantasy races, has a bizarre episode that's basically two back-to-back BLAMs:
- First, merfolk are performing a religious ritual when an enormous being calling itself their god, Dagon, rises from the sea. The high priest immediately declares that Dagon isn't a physical god so anything calling itself Dagon is a false god and everyone swims away. Then the "god" is shown being picked up by a ship full of Antarcticans, apparently as some sort of practical joke. No part of this has any relation to the main characters, in fact they don't ever seem to even realize that it happened.
- Second, a frog-man (whose species is a stand-in for Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribes) businessman is coming to the school, but first he goes to his home village where they're wearing tactical gear and carrying submachine guns because the frog-god provided them and told them to kill humans. Then he meets with an angel businessman who suddenly has a flashback to when he was a child being held in a concentration camp in World War 2. Again, none of this involves the main characters at all, the closest bearing it has is that the frog-man briefly visits their school.
- Chou Kuse ni Narisou has a recurring character, Momoko, whose entire purpose is seemingly to appear out of nowhere, do something completely bizarre, and then leave.
- Pretty much all of Fuuko Ibuki's appearances after her initial arc in the first season of CLANNAD count as this, mostly because all of the main characters don't remember her. This is mainly due to the fact that she's the Astral Projection of a girl who's in a coma, but that doesn't make them any less hilarious nor more, or any less random.
- It Makes Sense in Context as it's adapted from an unlockable easter egg in the visual novel.
- Daimos: In episode 39, Georiya shoots an arrow
at the Star Of David. It is never explained why this Baamite alien has a specific grudge against the Jewish people and feels a need to deface their religious symbols, considering that up to this event, the anime never mentioned Judaism before or made references to it. Prior episodes establish that Georiya despises the human race as a whole, so him focusing on one group in particular comes off as very absurd. His Arch-Enemy, Kazuya, isn't even Jewish, he's Japanese. - The anime adaptation of Death Note:
- In episode 12, L is listening to a message from the second Kira, which at one point refers to shinigami. Upon hearing this word, the normally unflappable L suddenly has a ridiculously over-the-top panic attack. It's never explained why the mention of "shinigami" would upset him so much, and he never reacts again this way to any other supernatural event (later into the series he does look shocked upon confirming shinigamis are real, but not more than the rest of characters).
- Episode 25 has a scene where Misa sings a Villain Song over a montage of her killing criminals with the Death Note. The song comes completely out of nowhere, holds exactly zero relevance to the plot, and is never mentioned again. It's pretty odd, considering that the rest of the anime sticks pretty close to the Law of Conservation of Detail.
- In episode 12, L is listening to a message from the second Kira, which at one point refers to shinigami. Upon hearing this word, the normally unflappable L suddenly has a ridiculously over-the-top panic attack
- In the first chapter of Delicious in Dungeon, Marcille refuses to eat monsters so hard she starts breakdancing. This is never commented upon and never appears again afterwards.
- There is an early episode of Digimon Adventure 02 that, although comedy-driven and not supposed to be taken seriously, has a pretty jarring scene. Simply putting, V-Mon all of a sudden admits having romantic feelings for Tailmon and decides to train hard to evolve and impress her. It's a very strange scene, mainly because in the Digimon series (especially the Adventure continuity) almost no Digimon ever show romantic affection for other species other of Digimon. And of course, this affection was never even hinted before, and it's never mentioned later.
- Even more so is the episode "Dagomon's Call". While the V-mon evolution episode fits the tone of the series' more comedic moments, this episode suddenly and with no apparent reason shifts into a dark, Lovecraftian story where Hikari is targeted by an (apparently?) evil being; gets depressed, sick, and a little neurotic; and is spirited away to an alternate dimension (which may or may not be different than the one they're usually going to), where she might have been stuck if her friends hadn't come to find her. It's especially jarring since the tone of the story does a complete 180, suddenly using minimal dialogue and few sound effects in a way that completely clashed with the show's overall tone. The most that's ever mentioned again is the recurring (and never entirely explained) Dark Ocean setting.
- The most prominent time the Dark Ocean is mentioned again is when Daemon is sealed in it. Speaking of Daemon, he's another example. He's extremely powerful villain that has no connection to the events of the main story shows up with no explanation for what he is or where he came from that nearly decimates the protagonists, and isn't mentioned again (minus a passing reference in the English dub).
- The Dark Ocean storyline visited in the episode, as well as Daemon's presence, were originally planned to see expansion, but this was scrapped due to meddling from Bandai and disputes amongst the writing staff. Though, interestingly, both episodes are generally pretty well-regarded in the fanbase.
- Also in Digimon Tamers, which is much more serious than its predecessors, there was this bizarre scene with a talking owl. What it said was important to the plot, but it is never revealed why it could talk, or why it spoke like a preacher, or how it even knew what it knew. The owls words are recounted, but no one ponders why it talks, or where it got its knowledge. It is very bizarre compared to the overall tone of the show. Here is a link to it.
- The third episode of Adventure 01 opens with the protagonists getting caught between two Monochromon, thinking they're trapped. The Monochromon proceed to fight each other, leaving the protagonists free to leave. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the episode's plot and isn't mentioned again.
- Even more so is the episode "Dagomon's Call". While the V-mon evolution episode fits the tone of the series' more comedic moments, this episode suddenly and with no apparent reason shifts into a dark, Lovecraftian story where Hikari is targeted by an (apparently?) evil being; gets depressed, sick, and a little neurotic; and is spirited away to an alternate dimension (which may or may not be different than the one they're usually going to), where she might have been stuck if her friends hadn't come to find her. It's especially jarring since the tone of the story does a complete 180, suddenly using minimal dialogue and few sound effects in a way that completely clashed with the show's overall tone. The most that's ever mentioned again is the recurring (and never entirely explained) Dark Ocean setting.
- Doraemon Film Series isn't above having weird moments like these in the movies:
- Early in Doraemon: Nobita and the Knights on Dinosaurs, Suneo randomly encounters real, living dinosaurs on the surface, even before the revelation of Enriru and the Underground Dinosaur World's existence, including a brontosaurus which somehow made it into the garden in Suneo's house. Besides driving Suneo into a near-paranoid state, there's no explanation as to how the dinosaurs randomly breaks into the surface world, the plotline was quickly dropped once the gang enters Enriru and never brought up for the rest of the story.
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-express have Doraemon and Nobita spending their first night in the titular Express, only for Nobita to run into a Mirror Scare involving a vampire. Later on Nobita gets attacked by an outlaw, Suneo finds a pirate in his bedroom, and Gian have a dinosaur bursting through his windows... all events which are later swept aside when the story decide to focus on an Assimilation Plot involving alien parasites instead.
- In the first Dragon Ball Z movie, Gohan eats a magic apple, which causes inebriation in children. Cue musical sequence with dancing dinosaur hallucinations. The next movie has another spontaneous Gohan song, and while the lyrics and visuals are just as trippy, this one doesn't even have a magic apple to justify it.
- In an episode of Z, while he's training with Piccolo, Gohan is dropped down a cliff, tries and fails to get back up... and then starts shouting out shiritori words and demanding Piccolo to continue them. Piccolo doesn't, perhaps because he knows he cannot — Gohan's last word is raion ("lion"), but no Japanese word begins with this word's last character. The whole moment is probably just Gohan mounting a Lame Comeback and throwing a childish challenge to Piccolo, but this doesn't feel particularly natural even in the original. Notably, each and every English dub of this scene has that moment completely rewritten, presumably because of how nonsensical and untranslatable it is.
- Vegeta's desire to take over the Earth and fighting with Gohan after finding out that both Goku and Freeza had (apparently) died. It's a complete non-sequitur (it's anime-only filler that doesn't occur in the manga), it's odd considering that Vegeta later said that he actually wants to see Goku alive, and it's never mentioned again. In fact, Gohan is seen in the next episode uninjured and Vegeta, who flew off, is standing exactly where he was in the previous episode, also uninjured.
- The crossovers episodes with Dr. Slump are the very definition of this, coming off as completely out of place episodes in the middle of the current story arc. Even ignoring the story arcs, they still feel out of place for the Dragon Ball universe, given the zaniness and quirkiness of Penguin Village, not to mention Arale's insanely overpowered gag power (even inexplicably surpassing the power level of robots specifically designed for combat like Cell, as least going by filler in Dragon Ball Super), to the point you would be forgiven for thinking that Goku had somehow been transported to another dimension. The fact that her powers are attributed to her being a gag character makes her even more of a BLAM for the franchise.
- During the Namek Saga in Dragon Ball Z, Goku reads Krillin's mind to catch up on the events of the last several days. Goku doesn't really know how he did it and it is never discussed again.
- The very first episode of the Full Metal Panic! anime features Sousuke rescuing a unknown but relevant-looking girl, whom light novel readers would recognize as Mira Kudan, but given that she never appears again in the entire anime series, for people unfamiliar with the novels she ends up being an unexplained, out-of-context plot point Left Hanging. This only finally changed when Mira returned in the Invisible Victory season, which premiered sixteen years after her anime debut.
- The wing scene in Eden of the East. It's rationalized, somewhat, but the fact that it is so fuck-outta-nowhere in a political thriller, you'd think the characters would be shaking their heads in disbelief for at least an episode. Though given the amount of hallucinogens they just inhaled, they may be forgiven for it.
- There's also the scene where Akira nearly drives his bike off an unfinished bridge for no apparent reason, and has a bizarre hallucination of a bunch of creepy white zombie things which lick him while he laughs and calls them Johnny. Then they start biting him, so he yells at them, and suddenly the hallucination ends; Akira drives off as if nothing happened. It's probably some kind of weird metaphor for how he saved everyone on Careless Monday, but in any case, the whole waking dream is treated like a pointless diversion and is never brought up again.
- In the bonus story of Haganai volume 7, Yozora hits Maria on the cheek and quotes the part of the Bible where Jesus talks about turning the other cheek. As she does, the statue of Jesus in the same room comments that he never said that. Up until this point there hasn't been any supernatural elements in the series.
- Hayate the Combat Butler has its fair shares of BLAMs, like random scenes of a girl gushing about Hayate while eating several episodes before she is properly introduced. There's also a Cold Opening in episode 10 where Maria is singing on the TV for some reason, the stage apparently being a Humongous Mecha hand, a group of big tough bald guys is watching her in an old TV set, then it explodes.
- That's an Actor Allusion to Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. But yeah, it doesn't make sense.
- Heavy Object has an almost perfect example. During a firefight between the protagonists and the enemies in Antarctica, a baby penguin wanders into the battlefield. Both groups stop shooting at the exact same time, to avoid harming it, and they start to silently cheer for the penguin. Then, an albatross appears and tries to attack the penguin, but the penguin's mother appears and engages in a staredown to protect her baby. Eventually, the albatross gives up. Both groups cheer loudly, shoot into the air and end up scaring the penguins. After they go away, the firefight restarts like nothing had happened.
- An early chapter of Hellsing features Seras sleeping in a coffin after it was transported to Brazil. Before Alucard tries to wake her up, she breaks into a bizarre dream about her gun having the spirit of Baron Harkonnen that talks to her. As the scene keeps going, the art eventually devolves into random scribbles that only sort of look like humanoid shapes before Alucard eventually gets her up. The OVA has an equivalent sequence involving Alucard and a lot of spirits, most notably an equally random Bruce Willis spirit. Seras' gun is named Harkonnen and Alucard's is Jackal.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers's 18th episode. The Axis and Allies are fighting, and the giant Godzilla-sized embodiment of Roma Antiqua just rose from the...sea...and... just watch...
- Although this one is mentioned again in episode 32, by Roma Antiqua himself to Germany.
- How could we forget the mochi strips? In the webcomic, the aliens really sum it up best: "O god...wtf?" This is for a good reason.
- Paint it, White! has several, even if one does not count the random recycling of clips from other episodes:
- Prussia tries to hold a talent show and have Ukraine and Belarus sing "Carrot and a Stick", which flops when they cancel at the last minute. Apparently the Japanese version vaguely connects this to the plot by having the show be canceled because of the invasion, but it doesn't affect the plot at all. In the English dub, not even that connection is made.
- Austria is asked by Japan to write music for the Bon Dancing Festival, which he feels he is unable to do. Not only does the scene come out of nowhere, but Japan has already held the festival by this point and apparently had no problems with the music. It might be a flashback, but it still is never referenced again.
- In the middle of the final fight where most of the Nations are turned into Pictonians, the movie cuts to a scene where Chibitalia and Holy Roman Empire are standing in a field, saying each other's names repeatedly. It immediately cuts back to the fight.
- At the climax of the movie, Rome shows up in a Kiss-like costume, performing a rock version of "Heaven and Hell". While the scene does have some effect on the story (he uses this opportunity to distract the aliens from Italy, and leave Italy a magic marker to fight them), everyone pretty quickly forgets that the personification of Ancient Rome gave a rock concert.
- Although this one is mentioned again in episode 32, by Roma Antiqua himself to Germany.
- Due to Yoshihiro Togashi's near-zero understanding of how the English language works, every translation of Hunter × Hunter into English accidentally turn a backstory of a side character into this. The manga goes from the main characters in a fight to a story about a man who was abused by his father as a kid, became a drug kingpin, founded a nation, and was later eaten by ants, and then right back to the fight as if nothing happened.
- The anime of In/Spectre, during a scene where a police officer goes over the history of a victim-turned-evil-spirit, suddenly plays the entire theme song and animation for a nonexistent anime about a well-endowed Magical Girl who fights oil barons with a flamethrower. This isn't completely out-of-context, since the victim she's researching played the main character in that show, but nothing in this lengthy Cutaway Gag is relevant to anything outside it, and once it ends we jump straight back to serious crime-investigation with no further comment about the weird detour.
- At the beginning of one episode, a cloth-like being (probably an ittan-momen) appears from under the heroine's skirt and then flies away. She doesn't seem to care or notice it.
- In the Jack and the Beanstalk (1974) anime, near the middle after bringing home some of the treasure and celebrating with his mom, Jack's dog Crosby suddenly gains the ability to speak, and he sings about how he loves the moon. After the song is over, Crosby never speaks again, and Jack points out how weird that was.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure sometimes gets too bizarre:
- In Phantom Blood, Dio Brando is revealed to have several petnote dogs with human (and/or vampire/zombie?) heads. One makes a lewd comment about the current Damsel in Distress, and Dio crushes it under his foot for being 'rude'. The other dog-men never appear again and no explanation is made of where they came from or why Dio had them. It could potentially serve as Foreshadowing, as Dio later grafts his own head onto Jonathan's headless body. Perhaps he was practicing with these early experiments in case he needed to find a new body for himself?
- Battle Tendency:
- After the Pillar Men awaken, their leader, Kars, accidentally steps on the shadow of fellow Pillar Man, Wamuu, causing Wamuu to instinctively attack Kars, with the explanation being that Wamuu hates having his shadow stepped on. You'd think this detail would end up becoming a Chekhov's Gun, but it's never brought up again.
- After the emotional gut-punch that is Caesar's death, the audience is then treated to a very strange encounter. As Joseph and Lisa Lisa make their way to confront Kars and Wamuu, they're suddenly confronted by a vampire named Wired Beck. Lisa Lisa proceeds to take him down in a very one-sided encounter, and the two proceed onward as if the entire thing never happened. The event is most likely meant to show off just how skilled Lisa Lisa is with Hamon... which is overall pointless given she's already proven how skilled she is previously.
- After knocking Lisa Lisa unconscious, Kars randomly starts using her legs as an air guitar. Considering he's been asleep for hundreds of years, how he even knows what a guitar is is unknown.
- The "fight" against Kenny G. in Stardust Crusaders. While making their way through DIO's mansion, Avdol, Polnareff, and Iggy suddenly find that the mansion has been turned into a strange and elaborate maze. This seems to be leading into a battle... only for Iggy to immediately sniff him out and take him down, with the 3 proceeding onwards as if nothing happened. One could make the argument that this was a Red Herring for Vanilla Ice, except Vanilla Ice has already been introduced just a scene prior.
- During the final battle of Diamond is Unbreakable, Yoshikage Kira, while planning his next attack, randomly comes across a civilian who accuses him of trying to steal his neighbor's panties. An annoyed Kira walks away, after which the civilian finds a pair of panties, presumably belonging to the neighbor, hanging from a nearby tree. The man attempts to grab them, only to be blown up by one of Killer Queen's bombs that had for some reason been placed on the panties. This is a completely irrelevant bit of Black Comedy that comes out of nowhere in the otherwise very serious climax to the Part.
- Golden Wind:
- The scene where Giorno first meets Polpo, who bites off two of his own fingers while eating, which then reappear a few seconds later. While this is one of the less strange things to happen in the series, it stands out because even after Polpo's Stand ability is revealed, it still doesn't explain what happened with his fingers, since Giorno himself didn't do anything to replace them either.
- In an iconic moment, Team Bucciarati have managed to capture a rival gang member, Mario Zucchero, now reduced to a disembodied but still-living head. Wanting to torture some information out of him, three members, Mista, Narancia, and Fugo, decide to hang him by an eyelid with a fish hook, put a pair of lenses on his eyes to burn his right eye in the harsh sunlight...and then turn on a radio and begin dancing in perfect sync, with no explanation or communication between them. It just happens, and Zucchero is Forced to Watch.
- During the final battle when everyone switches bodies. The gang runs through the city trying to track Diavolo down and a criminal who switched bodies with a cop lecherously eyes up Mista in Trish's body and tries to arrest them with the clear intent of raping them only to get shot. This does nothing to advance the plot nor is it ever brought up again.
- In Steel Ball Run, Gyro Zeppeli has a tendency to make random jokes, none of which have any relevance to the current events at hand and are never brought up again after they're made.note
- JoJolion:
- After the fight against Aisho Dainenjiyama, Josuke and Yasuho go for a walk along the sea. Yasuho suddenly asks Josuke to sing a song, leading to Josuke creating a song about his love for fries.
- During Josuke and Rai's chase for Satoru Akefu, the two decide to find a place to recover from their wounds. Suddenly cut to them in a Lamborghini in a tree. How they got there is never explained.
- In Junjo Romantica, Miyagi, straight up until that point, suddenly grabbing a heartbroken Hiroki and attempting to kiss him. He never showed any serious interest in him before, and it's never mentioned again afterwards.
- The Kanamemo episode "My First Diet" was a fairly normal episode... until the ending. Haruka gets arrested and is seen in jail, even (no reason was given, but given her lecherous personality...), but it's all back to normal on the next episode.
- In Episode 2 of Kimihagu, Emily masturbates in the bathroom, but's it's never brought up again at all. The anime producers must've figured that since she did have a route and proper sex scenes in the main H-Game with the main protagonist (just like all the other girls), this would've been better than nothing.
- Near the end of the sixth episode of Kure-nai, all the characters (who are currently practicing for a play) suddenly burst into a seemingly-improvised song—out of nowhere—that has nothing to do with the play. (For one thing, all the names in the song are English, while the play is Japanese). The song goes on for a surprising amount of time before it stops, confuses everyone watching on, and just sort of... ends there.
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes, of all things, manages to get one in early in its second season, in the form of a bizarre sequence where Reinhard and Kircheis turn into angels and fly away into the sunset. It lasts all of five seconds, comes out of nowhere right during the middle of another character's speech, and has absolutely no bearing on the plot at hand (Reinhard and Kircheis both remain firmly on and in the latter's case, in the ground afterwards).
- Worth noting that this is not actually something that happened. It was the illustration of a metaphor about their relationship, which is what Annerose was talking about. The "wings" metaphor recurs now and then throughout the series, though never again accompanied by the weird-as-hell imagery.
- In the third season, we cut to a scene of Dusty in a fancy pirate outfit complete with a pirate hat with a large feather and a hook hand. We never see this outfit again. Ever. And no one mentions it.
- The sing-along sequence in the Love Hina special "Kimi Sakura, Chiru Nakare!"
- Macross:
- In episode four of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Hikaru and Minmay are trapped deep within the title dimensional fortress for several days. Looking out of one of the ship's windows, they spy a giant tuna fish floating through space. Having almost run out of food, they immediately decide that it would be a good idea to go out into space and bring it inside the ship. Lacking spacesuits, Rick improvises by wrapping a towel around his helmet and holding his breath for the duration of the expedition. He succeeds in bringing the fish into the airlock, but in their haste they manage to slam the door down on the tuna, leaving only its head. Nonetheless, they still manage to make a meal out of it, which consists of little more than the fish head facing skyward in a simmering pan. Although their bizarre food acquisition plan can be explained by hunger-induced madness, the existence of the giant fish and its ability to withstand the effects of being teleported into the vacuum of space is never discussed, nor is the incident brought up again.
- The fish came along with the rest of the surrounding ocean and Macross Island. It wasn't implied to be alive, merely intact — along with a lot of other debris. Vacuum isn't nearly so damaging as fiction tends to place it. Sure, it'll kill you, but you'll be an open-casket funeral.
- The event also serves as an extended pun on the show name: Macross=Ma Ku Ro Su, Tuna=Ma Gu Ro.
- In episode 35 of Macross 7, while the flower girl listens to one of Fire Bomber's songs, it suddenly cuts to Basara standing as a leaf flutters onto his cheek. Cue Basara eating the leaf whole. Despite Basara being on a Journey to Find Oneself at this point in the series, this scene has no context, nor does Basara ever bring it up again.
- In episode four of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Hikaru and Minmay are trapped deep within the title dimensional fortress for several days. Looking out of one of the ship's windows, they spy a giant tuna fish floating through space. Having almost run out of food, they immediately decide that it would be a good idea to go out into space and bring it inside the ship. Lacking spacesuits, Rick improvises by wrapping a towel around his helmet and holding his breath for the duration of the expedition. He succeeds in bringing the fish into the airlock, but in their haste they manage to slam the door down on the tuna, leaving only its head. Nonetheless, they still manage to make a meal out of it, which consists of little more than the fish head facing skyward in a simmering pan. Although their bizarre food acquisition plan can be explained by hunger-induced madness, the existence of the giant fish and its ability to withstand the effects of being teleported into the vacuum of space is never discussed, nor is the incident brought up again.
- March Comes in Like a Lion: Episode 13's opening scene of Smith eating his breakfast. It's an odd scene with a stark contrast with the rest of the series in style and tone, with an jazzy track that's unlike the rest of the soundtrack and a runtime of two minutes. Unlike the scene in Episode 1 where Rei is silently walking to his match with his father, this scene tells the audience essentially nothing about Smith from his silence (other than he eats like a bachelor slob). In comparison, the original scene only took up a single panel and not nearly as much attention was drawn to his eating habits. Context for it can only be derived from an out-of-universe perspective; Shaft wanted to do a shot-by-shot homage of an opening scene from a drama.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, the part where Trowa and Quatre play music together. It has nothing to do with the plot, they never do it again in-series, it's barely a blip on the radar in terms of how their friendship develops, and no one in-series (not Trowa and Quatre themselves, not any other character) ever mentions it again.
- The entire Island/Africa arc (episodes 23-34) of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, aside from being badly animated, has plenty of such moments, from King's "human-like" antics to Jean's extended dream of building inventions to caves with hallucinogenic mushrooms to races between two mechanical lions resembling King to misadventures in a (badly stereotyped) tribal village. None of which are ever referenced again by the time the show recovers at Episode 35. (Only exceptions: parts of episode 30 and most of 31, which even director Hideaki Anno admits would have saved out of the twelve "filler" episodes.)
- In fact, one can watch it like this: episodes 1-22, 30, 31, and 35-39.
- In Moomin (1990), the episode "Crooks in Moominvalley" has the infamous scene where Little My asks Snufkin out on a date, causing him to panic and fall into the water. Little My has never shown romantic interest in Snufkin before, it makes no sense for her to want to date Snufkin since they're related, and this ends up having no bearing on the rest of the episode (with the only acknowledgement that it even happened being one scene where Snufkin briefly looks nervous and tries to hide when he sees Little My running towards him).
- Naruto: Anime filler in general does a lot of weird stuff, but the weirdest, most out-of-nowhere moment might be when a villain was revealed to be a floating, talking, body-snatching wig, with zero explanation for how that came to be. She's killed almost immediately after this reveal, and is never mentioned again.
- In one of the early episodes of NEEDLESS, a cat/worm creature comes out of Eve's ear a she is sleeping. Said cat/worm thing never appears again for the rest of the series, and its purpose is never explained either.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi has the infamous chapter 235 cheerfully starting with "Yes, we're worried about the captive Asuna, but right now..." Cue thirteen pages of "relaxation, healing, and group nakedness!" in the bath, including massive Skinship Groping of the cast by a girl who calls herself "Chichigami" (Breast Goddess), and their mild retaliation. This is never mentioned again.
- Even more surreal because it includes the minor Reveal that the Sick and Wrong Powered Armor Bounty Hunter from chapter 218 who is obsessed with "boobies" to the point of assaulting women so they can't resist... is actually the above said girl. Naturally, this reveal has no plot relevance whatsoever.
- In Occult Academy Maya and Fumiaki discover nothing less than the Tree Of Life itself. This would be a tremendous find in its own right, but it is merely treated as a minor plot device and never mentioned again after its occurrence.
- One Piece: Eiichiro Oda is very good at avoiding this trope. Many events that might appear to be a Big Lipped Alligator Moments at first in fact turn out to be a Chekhov's Gun for much later. Oda also avoids this trope by making all these seemingly random moments so ridiculously absurd that the audience just goes along with it. But even then, there are some moments just that are just bizarre even by One Piece's standards:
- During the Alabasta arc, there is the arrival of the Kicking Claw Squad, 4 Red Shirts that suddenly show up with no prior buildup whatsoever. They drink the Hero Water, which gives those who drink it tremendous strength, but results in instant death after 5 minutes. They try to attack Crocodile, who changes into sand, flies to the roof of a building, and mocks them while waiting for their deaths. Needless to say, they die shortly afterwards and despite how upset Vivi, Cobra, and Chaka were about this, it's never mentioned again. This scene did nothing to further the arc's plot. It does point out how petty Crocodile can be if he wants, setting his character for future fights with Luffy.
- Pretty much the entirely of the Davy Back Fight arc is one of these. The Straw Hats arrive on Long Ring Long Land and get challenged by the Foxy Pirates in a Davy Back Fight. The Straw Hats win, and the Foxy Pirates leave, are never seen again (outside of some filler arcs in the anime), and absolutely nothing of value to the plot happens along the way. The arc really only exists to serve as a Breather Arc between the Skypeia and Water 7 arcs, and both of which are rather long and intense arcs.
- The "Zombie Night" dance number from the Thriller Bark arc. There is no lead up beyond zombies shuffling to a mansion carrying a disco ball, and no mention of it ever made again, though the dance hall is mentioned as a possible location for a wedding reception later in a one-off gag. The entire arc is a play on Michael Jackson's songs and videos — the name Thriller Bark (Thriller), Brook the skeleton's 45-degree angle pose joke (Smooth Criminal), and the aforementioned dancing zombies (disco dancing, but sadly not the music). The dance sequence was originally intended to be a more direct parody of Thriller (with similar music and dance moves) but someone in the legal department got worried about the potential for a lawsuit so the bit was changed to a far more generic number, which makes the whole thing seem random and out-of-place.
- There are a few moments in the Marineford arc that come off as this, though given how much does happen in the arc, it's entirely possible for someone to miss these on their first viewing. One such example of these moments includes Sengoku rolling up his sleeves, making it seems as if he's finally going to enter the battle, only for his next appearance to show him still standing on the platform with his sleeves rolled back down.
- One Stormy Night has this random female wolf with white fur just show up there for no reason and having nothing to do with the film's plot. Once she disappears, she's neither seen, heard, nor mentioned again.
- Episode five of Ookami Kakushi starts out focusing on Hiroshi slowly realizing there's something not quite right about the town he moved to...and then suddenly cuts to a scene wherein a man is reunited with his two dogs in the antarctic, and gets eaten by said dogs. And then it turns out this is a commercial for an upcoming movie to be shown in Jougamachi. Of course, the only people who are actually shown seeing said commercial are Hiroshi's sister and father, who promptly go back to reading and never mention it again.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has the Help! We are Angels at the end of episode 10. The majority of episode 10 doesn't really have much of a story in the first place, with focus highly on Chuck against Fastener, though this ending isn't related to anything in the episode whatsoever and comes out of nowhere, is never mentioned again and is an over-the-top parody of music videos. Tropes Are Not Bad in this case however, as it's one of the most popular parts of the show.
- Phoenix: In the first volume, "Dawn", before Saruta and Nagi take on a pack of wolves, there's a brief sequence depicting the wolves in action star style, kabuki style, Disney style, grand prix style, broadway style and student riot style. The gag comes completely out of nowhere, and once it's over, the story just keeps going like nothing happened.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- In "Hocus Pokemon", Ash gets turned into a Pikachu by a magic spell that was supposed to make him capable of understanding Pokémon language (which, oddly, it doesn't; he still talks normally in that state). The transformation lasts the last 3 minutes of the episode and the first 3 seconds of the next — at which point it wears off. Totally irrelevant to the show's plot, and after it wears off, it's never mentioned again.
- The episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon" features a scene where, after having endured an encounter with a giant mechanical Rhydon, Ash's Pokémon and Team Rocket's Pokémon are suddenly crying and drinking away their troubles at a oden stand that's attended by a Slowbro. The next morning they wake up in a completely different area and the Slowbro oden stand never explained or referenced again. In the Japanese version of that episode, there are captions translating the Pokémon's speech. Basically, the point of the scene is that the Pokémon are acting like stereotypical Salarymen, going out late drinking with their coworkers and commiserating about their jobs. It's never explained or referenced again in that version either.
- Also, near the end of the episode "The Case Of The K-9 Caper!", Jigglypuff just walks right in the middle of a semi-climactic scene and sings for 4 seconds (which surprisingly brings no one to sleep), then just walks off. Save for an off comment made by Ash immediately after (and a meaningless hook at the end of the episode), this has nothing to do with the episode at all, making it more of an extreme case of both this and Spotlight-Stealing Squad.
- In Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, there's one strange scene, even by the standards of the setting, where Pikachu and company are treated to a ballet performed by Grass types and Water types.
- The Advanced Generation series contains an amusing one in the episode "Once in a Mawile". While Team Rocket are pondering what to do with Brock's Lombre, which they have accidentally captured, Jessie's Wobbuffet pops up and the two Pokémon spontaneously perform what Meowth describes as "a really bad comedy routine" entirely in Pokémon Speak. It is never mentioned again. Notably, this episode comes right after the also BLAM-tastic "Claydol Big and Tall", which is described in the Bizarro Episode page.
- Then there's Hapu's dance scene in the episode "A Grand Debut", it comes straight out of nowhere, as she doesn't mention anything about having to go do a dance at the Ruins of Hope anywhere in the previous 5 episodes. This episode is actually about the Pokémon battle between Hapu & Ash, so the scene really comes out of left field.
- The Nightmare segment in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion is bizarre even by the standards of a movie about a psychological breakdown. It serves some narrative purpose in showing what Puella Magi do normally in Homura's Lotus-Eater Machine, but around the point where they defeat the big cuddly Nightmare monster by singing a nonsensical lullaby and turning it into a giant cake, things have pretty clearly entered this territory. As you might assume, Nightmares never show up again after that sequence, and the next few scenes are far less cute.
- The series itself has one as well: the end card◊ for Episode 2 features among the girls Lord Humungus, for seemingly no reason at all.
- In the series, right after Kyouko dies, Homura and Kyubey have a conversation in the former's apartment. For the Compilation Movie, they jazzed up the scene by moving it to a gigantic dilapidated graveyard in the middle of nowhere, with ominous red lighting and clouds flying past at impossible speeds. It's very unclear how or why they ended up all the way out there, especially since Sayaka's funeral occurs later and Kyouko's body was destroyed in a huge explosion. It may not even be a real place, which is confusing, because the conversation was clearly real in the series. In any case, the graveyard never appears again.
- Then again, Kyubey is a Reality Warper Starfish Alien, so at least he has an excuse.
- The series itself has one as well: the end card
- The manga Qwan derailed itself at the climax of its plot to transport the hero to a strange place full of people obsessed with their own hair and beards. This also happened close to the end of the third volume and the next volume still isn't out yet, almost pushing this into Gainax Ending territory.
- At the end of the first Japan-only Ranma ½: Nettou Uta Gassen OAV, the trailer for the second OAV involves movie trailer parodies: Shampoo in a Shout-Out to The Last Emperor, Akane in a silent film, and Mousse staring down an Apache helicopter. None of this ever happens, but it's funny.
- In a movie that's already one hell of a Mind Screw, the brief moment in the Adolescence of Utena when the strange, offbeat and surreal video of Nanami the cow is put in by the shadow girls manages to be one of these, coming right after a dramatic and horrifying scene, and of course never being mentioned again. Of course, according to Kunihiko Ikuhara, this was intentional. He's just that sort of guy. While the scene is so weird that even the shadowgirls are speechless, the video is kind of foreshadowing. If you think of Chuchu as Utena, The crocodile thing as Shiori and Nanami the cow as Akio... It makes sense if you think of the entire movie being on acid, but when even the characters are going "What the hell?!" in Utena you know it's something special.
- "You're not the only one who can turn into a car!" After Utena turns into a car... The car-wash is never mentioned again (as well as Utena's clothes or transformation ability)
- Revolutionary Girl Utena is just as bad. Seemingly every Nanami episode includes bizarre examples of this, including escaped boxing kangaroos, surfing elephants, a designer-brand cowbell that turns its wearer into a cow, and girls mysteriously laying eggs.
- Sailor Moon has a moment where Mimete spots a "No trespassing!" sign, starts crumpling it up, and then a security guard pops out in the distance. He does nothing but stand still, smile and stare at her, until she decides to put the sign back. He then continues to smile and stare, and slowly raise his hand to exchange a "We're good!" gesture. Mimete then moves on with her evil plan with no objections. It must be seen to be believed.
- In one episode, Chibi Usa tried flirting with a boy, and he then proceeds to act very strangely and erratically, speaking nonsensically, and takes off his pants and underwear to show her his penis. Chibi Usa looks dumbfounded throughout the entire exchange and disgusted. The boy was actually a red herring that was teased at the end of the previous episode leading the audience to believe he was going to be Chibi's love interest for the episode, but it ended up being a different boy, who had an even stranger conclusion.
- Smile Pretty Cure! has the Akanbe eyecatch. The first episode which featured it had it because the episode was about April Fools Day (but in most parts of Japan, episode 10 had it), the second time, in episode 17 was really confusing as to why it was there, which really made it this trope. It however did not appear in the episode where Candy was kidnapped, and instead a Candy eyecatch was shown. Also, another way to tell if it's going to be on an episode (if you're watching it live) is if the last ad of the ad break is for Tanoshii Youchien when the plot is already about something scary. The exception to this is episode 39, when it was for the Sun-Star products UkiUki Nurie and Himitsu no Jewelry Box, and on episode 47, where it was for Seipan backpacks, which have nothing to do with the show in the first place.
- And again in episode 28 due to it being an episode about a haunted school.
- And yet again in episode 33, because it was about a yokai movie.
- And in episode 39, due to the villains trying to give the Cinderella story a Bad Ending.
- The absolute final time it could be seen was on episode 47. It's easy to explain why it was there.
- Excalibur in Soul Eater is the living embodiment of this trope, being a Cloud Cuckoo Lander with a love for bizarre stories and actions, such as telling everyone about how he spends his day.
- Space☆Dandy: Dandy surfing off into space at the end of episode 6. It has great animation and music to go with it, making it a fan favorite moment for the series as a whole. And yet it comes out of nowhere at the end of what is generally considered one of the worst and most pointless episodes in the series. And the only foreshadowing to it is Dandy telling the others how much he used to surf at the beginning of the episode, with them not really believing him. The fact that such an awesome moment happens after such an inane episode almost feels like a prank on the part of the creators.
- During the second season of Strike Witches, the girls find a treasure chest in the ocean and Lucchini attempts to use lock picks to open. The picks came from seemingly nowhere, disappear afterwards, and her lock-picking skill is never mentioned.
- The infamous "Goosh Goosh" scene from the very first episode of the Tokyo Tribe anime, which has Fat Bastard crimelord Buppa raping a truly unfortunate Bishōnen to death. This rather disturbing scene is not followed up on or referenced at all in the rest of the series, but it is the scene a lot of people know it for.
- The very first scene in Transformers Victory - in a Wild West town populated by Transformers and various other aliens, a pair of Decepticons arrive and are driven off by Star Saber, who seems to be a gunslinger, in front of a Christian church. This has nothing to do with the plot, and is never mentioned in any context throughout the show.
- In a later-season episode of Urusei Yatsura, Megane is under the impression that Ataru is going to take advantage of his parents winning a vacation to Ataminote to sleep with Lum. At one point, Lum finally tells Megane to get bent and that she WANTS to sleep with Ataru. Cue a Megane freakout that is essentially a parody of the then-current Return of the Jedi that has no other bearing on the plot. Lum does sleep with Ataru, but in the most technical sense — since she can't control her lightning powers while asleep, Ataru is in an insulating suit that completely forbids any mobility, making any hanky-pany impossible.
- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: In this Cosy Catastrophe, Robot Girl Kokone has a job as a delivery person. While out on her rounds one day, she pulls a gun on someone who startles her. This the first indication we have had that the setting in general and delivery work in particular is dangerous enough to require armed protection, and the gun (a Static Stun Gun, by the way) is never mentioned again. The closest we come to violence in the entire series is a woman saying hurtful things to her romantic rival.
- The early chapters of Yu-Gi-Oh! are rather episodic in nature as it is, but are at least consistent. However, chapter 21, "Digital Pet Duel," is bizarrely out of place. It's the only story in the entire series where Dark Yugi doesn't show up and no shadow games are played and no magic is at work, and yet it is implied that the virtual pets are somehow alive and sentient in a universe established to be just like our own unless ancient magic is involved. These sentient LCD games and the whole incident is never brought up or acknowledged ever again.
