Badass Bystanders in Anime and Manga.
- The entire frigging mining town from Castle in the Sky, when Pazu and Sheeta are on the run from Dola's gang. Pazu's boss faces off against Dola's sons, no question asked, while his wife helps the children escape through the back door. Also the old engineer, who leaps into action and buys the kids time to run away when he realizes the military isn't there to help.
- Frequently happens in the Digimon series. Usually, The Hero and The Lancer are the ones to gain the highest evolutionary levels, with the rest being one level lower. That doesn't, however, mean that the others are helpless, and still are able to contribute to battles.
- In Digimon Tamers, the Drunk with Power Mega-level Beelzemon has his gun point-blank at Gallantmon's head. The Champion-level Guardromon fires his attack at Beelzemon. It doesn't hurt him, but it does distract him long enough for Gallantmon to regain control of the fight and win.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- In the fourth chapter, Ed is fighting terrorists on a train in a hostage situation. When he makes it to the coal room, he quickly takes out one of the two terrorists, but the other manages to aim a gun at him... when the two stokers (the people who shovel coal into the train's furnace) suddenly come out of nowhere and start bashing the guy's head in with their shovels. It's to be expected from a World of Badass.
- Ed's involvement itself is an example of this. Originally, the trainjackers' purpose was completely unrelated to Ed and Al... and then one of them made the mistake of calling Ed "short".
- In Episode 58 of Brotherhood, while Wrath is hanging from Greedling's leg, a nameless Briggs soldier (with a mustache) manages to shoot Wrath in the shoulder. This is a man who was never even touched throughout the first 59 episodes out of 64.
- Concurrently, there are some shots from a random Amestrian soldier's point of view, as he and his men rush up a staircase, and are swiftly shot with a machine gun in this enclosed space, and he goes behind a pillar while the others die or run. He just stays behind the pillar under heavy fire, and eventually kills the gunner and gets to the top despite being shot, and manages to shoot Greedling through the head, seeing him as a monster before falling over.
- The real one comes when the heroes have been taken out by Father's Wave-Motion Gun alchemy. He then is this close to absorbing Ed and Izumi to replenish his Philosopher Stone, when a random sniper bullet comes out of nowhere and nails Father right in the head! It doesn't kill him, but it does knock him down for a few seconds, saving Ed and Izumi, and setting up the good guys counterattacks and effectively leading to his defeat.
- One is played for laughs in the Hyper Dolls manga when she appears; one of the title Lovely Angels duo teases the other that the Badass Bystander is a possible Sixth Ranger... one of many to come... "Just like Sailor Moon..." "NOOO! (Knocks out bystander)"
- Yuuna 'the Kid' Akashi in Negima! Magister Negi Magi starts decimating robot invaders during the Mahora school festival to the utter astonishment of everyone around her. When the really really big stuff starts coming out, she does get outclassed though. Just like everyone except Negi, really.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns has Ash and all of his friends captured, Jessie and James forced on cleaning duty, and Mewtwo forced to submit to Giovanni, and it all seems hopeless...until Team Rocket meddling with nature awakens the local Bug Pokemon, who attack the base and allow the heroes to regroup and win the day.
- In Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened has a wild Feraligatr commanding many Pokémon to defend their home from the invading Genesects. Notably, though, is how this Feraligatr did more than the main trio did as they were just standing around and repeatedly trying to get to Red Genesect and Mewtwo when in the end they both realized their error of their ways... by themselves.
- Similarly, Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel has the Pokémon living at the Nebel Plateau. When the Big Bad tries to obliterate them and their homeland by means of Wave-Motion Gun, they choose to rally together and fire back one of their own. Beam-O-War ensues. Luckily, they have some last-minute assistance from Squishy/Zygarde, who assumes its Complete Forme to help them overpower the attack.
- Rurouni Kenshin: A Gentle Giant sumo student left the academy after being bullied by a combination of The Bully and Jerk Jock. Rather than taking down the bully, Kenshin encouraged the bully's victim to stand up, and Kaoru helped him train. It turns out the student had an incredible untapped potential, so the Jerk Jock bullied him out of fear; when the student knocks the Jerk Jock over, the owner of the academy reveals this to everyone.
- Sailor Jupiter's debut in the Sailor Moon anime. She initially appears to be just some random Huge Schoolgirl who held her own against one of the Quirky Miniboss Squad with just her bare hands. (To the viewers who ignored the clues. Her debut episode even mentioned Sailor Jupiter in the title).
- Henaro in The Tower of Druaga is just a random tavern patron who's forced to go along with the main characters when the military raids the building, and proves to be quite capable of standing up for herself. Ultimately subverted, as it turns out she was planted there to infiltrate the group.
- Variable Geo: Nerdy Washio is a Nice Guy with no fighting ability to speak off. Yet, in the final episode, he somehow made it past the security at the Jahana research facility undetected and saved Reimi, as the building was going up in flames. Moments later, they're seen safely outside, with Washio's jacket draped around her shoulders, to protect her modesty.
- This was how Rinne initially met her martial arts instructor Jill during a flashback in ViVid Strike!. When she was a victim of a Vehicular Kidnapping, Jill proceeded to chase down the car on foot and beat her way into the kidnappers' hideout to rescue her.Kidnapper: Who are you?!
Jill: Just a martial artist off the street.
- In Wonder Egg Priority, sometimes a Victim of the Week will help a protector defeat the Wonder Killer:
- In episode 2, Minami Suzuhara has spent the episode blaming herself for her gymnastic coach's abusive treatment of her. But when Ai gets blinded by goop during the fight against the Wonder Killer, Minami suddenly defies her coach by shouting directions to Ai so that Ai can still dodge attacks and land hits even while blinded.
- At the beginning of episode 4, Miko and Mako prevent the Wonder Killer from skewering Ai by playing a video of the idol Yu-Yu, because since the Wonder Killer is based off Yu-Yu's stalker, the Wonder Killer would never skewer a girl while her idol is watching. Simultaneously, while Momoe is fighting the Wonder Killer based off the executive who harassed Miwa, Momoe starts to have trouble when the Wonder Killer fires a red square of energy and she needs to block it with her umbrella. Suddenly, Miwa pretends to give into the Wonder Killer's advances, causing the Wonder Killer to let its guard down so Momoe can break through the red energy square and stab it to death.
- In Living In This World With Cut And Paste, there exist Divine Beasts that, by mutual agreement between the god of the world and the invading god of evil, don't do anything except enforce the Balance Between Good and Evil, unless directly attacked:
- Fenrir nearly condemns humanity to extinction after Claude, an arrogant aristocrat, uses very, very illegal SLAVE COLLARS on its pups, and attacks one of them with lethal force just to prove he's not bluffing and to feed his sense of superiority. If Myne hadn't shown up to rescue the pups, things would have gone very, very badly.
- An arrogant king uses an other-world summoning ritual without permission, both to bolster his own sense of superiority and deal with an incoming demon army invasion. A divine beast was sent to punish him for the affront, because if the locals can use other-world summons with impunity, the invading demon army can too. Fortunately for this king, the demon army foolishly attacks the divine beast, drawing the beast's ire and leaving the cleanup and punishment to other humans.
