History BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor / AnimeAndManga

* In the ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' arc of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Polnareff comes across Cameo, the Judgment Stand, who offers him three wishes. His first wish (for wealth) is granted straight. He uses his second and third wish to resurrect Sherry and [[spoiler:Avdol]], and Cameo brings them back as flesh-eating ghouls who start devouring him alive. [[spoiler:He's only saved in time thanks to Avdol being OnlyMostlyDead, with that being the reason the group was on that island to begin with]].

** In general though, the ''Dragon Ball'' series is actually a massive subversion. Since fairly specific wishes are made and the dragons aren't assholes, every wish they make ends up doing exactly what they want. Example: King Piccolo wishes for youth. He doesn't turn into a fetus or baby, but instead turns to his prime. And to take it even farther, the dragons will even double check with you if your wish is logically flawed. When they try to wish Goku back to life, the dragon mentions that he'd be brought back at the same location he died at and since the planet he was on exploded, he'd be revived in space and then die again, giving them a chance to wish for something else instead. Nor does wishing for something beyond the dragon's power result in a wasted wish. Although, this courtesy didn't seem to extend to Pilaf and his gang because in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', we find they got their hands on the dragonballs and somehow wished themselves younger, as they appear as children in this movie. Moreover, this wish was apparently made in Future Trunks' timleine as well, since in that timeline, Mai is about Trunks' age, and the dragon died when Piccolo was killed, an event which happened when Trunks was a baby. This means the Pilaf gang ''somehow'' wished themselves into babies shortly before the Androids attacked and killed everyone. Guess the Eternal Dragon knows of Pilaf's ButtMonkey status.

** In general though, the ''Dragon Ball'' series is actually a massive subversion. Since fairly specific wishes are made and the dragons aren't assholes, every wish they make ends up doing exactly what they want. Example: King Piccolo wishes for youth. He doesn't turn into a fetus or baby, but instead turns to his prime. And to take it even farther, the dragons will even double check with you if your wish is logically flawed. When they try to wish Goku back to life, the dragon mentions that he'd be brought back at the same location he died at and since the planet he was on exploded, he'd be revived in space and then die again, giving them a chance to wish for something else instead. Nor does wishing for something beyond the dragon's power result in a wasted wish. Although, this courtesy didn't seem to extend to Pilaf and his gang because in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', we find they got their hands on the dragonballs and somehow wished themselves younger, as they appear as children in this movie. Moreover, this wish was apparently made in Future Trunks' timleine as well, since in that timeline, Mai is about Trunks' age, and the dragon died when Piccolo was killed, an event which happened when Trunks was a baby. This means the Pilaf gang ''somehow'' wished themsleves into babies shortly before the Androids attacked and killed everyone. Guess the Eternal Dragon knows of Pilaf's ButtMonkey status.

** In general though, the ''Dragon Ball'' series is actually a massive subversion. Since fairly specific wishes are made and the dragons aren't assholes, every wish they make ends up doing exactly what they want. Example: King Piccolo wishes for youth. He doesn't turn into a fetus or baby, but instead turns to his prime. And to take it even farther, the dragons will even double check with you if your wish is logically flawed. When they try to wish Goku back to life, the dragon mentions that he'd be brought back at the same location he died at and since the planet he was on exploded, he'd be revived in space and then die again, giving them a chance to wish for something else instead. Nor does wishing for something beyond the dragon's power result in a wasted wish. Although, this courtesy didn't seem to extend to Pilaf and his gang in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', who like King Piccolo ask for youth and get reduced back to children. Guess the Eternal Dragon knows of Pilaf's ButtMonkey status.

* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'', Mingyi intentionally antagonizes his wife and concubines by talking about how great his new servant Xiaxi is. He's aiming to make them lash out at her so she'll be forced to depend on him. His apparently meekest wife Liu Ru actually ends up ''whipping her'', including a lash across the face, when Mingyi is away. He gets back, is horrified and has her banished, but before then Xiaxi rather coldly asks him if he's satisfied since he got what he wanted. He's upset with himself because he doesn't know how to appeal to her (since she's being intentionally difficult) and his attempts to make her rely on him just seem to make her hate him more. [[spoiler:Funny thing is, it's a double setup. First, she's baiting him to care more about her. Second, Liu Ru was in on it the whole time because she ''wanted'' to be banished. She was basically legally kidnapped away from her actual fiancée to serve Mingyi.]]

* ''Manhwa/IWish'' is basically built on this. The clients come to K to ask for a wish of theirs to be fulfilled. The problems come in when either someone realizes what it would mean when their payment would be whatever is closest to their heart at the moment, what exactly the fulfillment did and the consequences it could bring.

* ''Manhua/MyWifeIsADemonQueen'':
** Penny keeps demanding that Isabella stop holding back and reveal her true strength. She quickly regrets it when Isabella complies.
** Zhou Lu turns down Rennes's offer of surrender, and demands that he does his worst. He does.

** The third chapter has Kumi, a high-school student with a crush on the school's idol, Kisarazu, wish that Kisarazu would become finger-sized so she could take care of him and they would fall in love. The Angel grants her wish... And SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome happens, as Kisarazu is ''terrified'' by the situation, already has a girlfriend, and doesn't take the discovery that Kumi was responsible for this well. At least Kumi learned her lesson...

** The Grail has been [[spoiler:corrupted already during just about any appearance of it and it interprets ANY wish as a wish for destruction. The comparison is "If you wished to be the richest person in the world, it would interpret it as a wish to kill everyone with more money than you." Really, the only way to get the wish you actually want is if destruction]] is what you actually want.

* In ''Literature/FateZero'' Kiritsugu wants the Holy Grail to grant world peace, but when he finally has the chance to make his wish the corrupted Grail explains how it intends to grant it: by ''killing off all of mankind but Kiritsugu and his daughter'', because Humans would always fight. Then it's subverted when Kiritsugu [[ScrewDestiny destroys the Grail]].
** The Grail has been corrupted already during just about any appearance of it and it interprets ANY wish as a wish for destruction. The comparison is "If you wished to be the richest person in the world, it would interpret it as a wish to kill everyone with more money than you." Really, the only way to get the wish you actually want is if destruction is what you actually want.

** Aizen has been manipulating Ichigo [[spoiler:for Ichigo's entire life]] to get stronger because he wants a WorthyOpponent. He gets what he asked for, and then some...

** Gremmy wished for himself to be stronger than Kenpachi. [[spoiler:He manages to get stronger, but as his body was untrained to the sudden power flux (for which Kenpachi wears an Eye Patch), he promptly explodes.]]

* This trope forms the central core of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'':
** [[DealWithTheDevil Kyubey]] grants wishes in exchange for the wisher becoming a MagicalGirl and fighting monsters for him. The problems that arise from the granting of the wish aren't exactly because of the wish itself, or from Kyubey -- while he's not exactly trustworthy, he has no incentive to screw with peoples' wishes: when he says he can grant ''any'' wish, he ''means'' it, and he has no reason to influence what a Magical Girl wishes for, or to decide for her what she thinks fighting Witches for the rest of her life is worth. The problem is ''the person making the wish is almost never honest about what they really want''. Those whose wishes are fully selfish end up regretting foregoing an unique opportunity to help others, while those who chose to help others forget that [[SecretlySelfish every selfless wish has a selfish motive behind it]], which is by no means guaranteed to be fulfilled. In either case, the resultant regret sends a Magical Girl deeper into despair... which is what Kyubey wants. The fact that the Incubators only contract with willing girls and offer no-strings-attached wishes is their idea of equal payment for what the Magical Girls inevitably have to suffer in the end. If there is an aesop in all of this, it is perhaps simply to be honest with your desires and aware of the sacrifices you're willing to make to see them fulfilled.
*** Kyubey later notes that making a wish that goes "beyond reason" is inherently a bad idea. Such a wish will distort reality and have disastrous consequences as a result. In such cases it is the wish itself which causes the disaster, not Kyubey.
** The ending turns the situation on its head. [[spoiler:Madoka makes a wish that balances both selfishness and selflessness and thus manages to lessen the tragedies of everyone else's wishes but avoids the despair that would have resulted if her wish did not specify a clause for herself that would guarantee her survival and happiness. It's bittersweet, in that the result is that erasing herself from mortal existence mean that only one person will ever be aware that she ever existed as a person, but what she gets out of it personally isn't just the salvation of all magical girls, it's also the knowledge that she is important and doing something very, very useful after spending the entire series being down on herself for not being able to do anything.]]
** A straight version of the trope applies for ''Kyubey'', who tried to prod Madoka towards making a contract by telling her she has the power to become a god who could save magical girls from their tragic fates. [[spoiler:By stating a wish that could save everyone ''and'' herself, this is precisely what she does. Thus Kyubey's race gets the short end of the Miracle Contract stick for a change.]]
** ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' is less explicit about it, but the story is still based around this trope. Because of one character's desire for everyone to be together, they all get trapped in [[spoiler:her giant witch labyrinth]]. The other characters inadvertently imply that they wanted this, too, so she decides to give them what they want... [[spoiler:by becoming a demon and brainwashing everyone, especially Madoka. The instigator herself isn't happy with this, because she can't even be Madoka's friend anymore; but she feels it's necessary for everyone else to be happy, even though they probably wouldn't be if they remembered everything]].
* ''Manga/PuellaMagiKazumiMagica'', a spinoff of ''Madoka Magica'', surprisingly averts this for the most part. Most of the central characters used their wishes to either wish for small things that weren't as likely to go awry (Saki wishing for a flower she was keeping to bloom forever in memory of her dead sister) or to support their dreams and desires rather than having them granted outright (aspiring novelist Umika wishes to meet an editor who would recognize her talents rather than just wishing to be a successful novelist). It turns out that their attitude is taken from their leader, Michiru; rather than wish to cure her grandmother's terminal illness, she wishes to spend whatever time her grandmother has left together, because she knows simply curing the illness wouldn't be respecting her grandmother's lifestyle.
** However, one particular example does play it straight and goes awry very, very badly. [[spoiler: As a child, Niko accidentally shot some of her friends when they were playing around with a gun. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom She wished to create a copy of herself who had no memory of the incident.]] Said copy [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes insane with anger when she uncovers the truth about her origins]] and ends up becoming the BigBad of the series.]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
** During the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, Bakugou declared he would be number one. While he did become just that, he found the process of getting there and said victory unsatisfying. He was shown up by Midoriya in the very first event. He sees [[TheAce Todoroki]] as his main rival but Todoroki continues to ignore him and views ''Midoriya'' as the one to be defeated. And when Bakugou actually beats Todoroki in the final round, he was furious to realize Todoroki didn't use his fire powers, unlike in his earlier fight with Midoriya, meaning Todoroki was holding back on him. He gets so angry that they have to chain him down and force him to wear a muzzle like a dog.
** This is mirrored later after the Villain Raid Arc, when [[spoiler: All Might's forced retirement means that Endeavor becomes the Number One Hero by default, something he's strived for all his life at the cost of completely ostracizing his family through his outright abusive behavior. However, he's furious at the circumstances of becoming Number One, because he feels he didn't really earn the position like he envisioned.]]
* The erotic doujin series ''My Little Sister is a Genius'' begins with the protagonist feeling disgruntled that his smug, younger prodigy sister beats him to the punch at everything he tries, to the point where he lost all motivation for his current interests and moved onto the next one only for the cycle to repeat. He hopes for there to be something, anything that he could best her at, and that she be a cuter and more dependent sister--and he gets his wish when she gets irreversible brain damage [[spoiler:that he later learns was from a guilt based suicide attempt]], regressing her mental age in the process.

* In ''Manga/MyBrideIsAMermaid'', the Seto Clan (sans Ren, Sun and Masa) spend almost the entire story wishing that Sun would break up with Nagasumi. When it does finally happen, [[spoiler:Sun is kidnapped by a noble who doesn't have any of Nagasumi's good traits. Thankfully, Nagasumi stops this in time.]]

** Dr. Mashirito came about due to this. According to [[WordOfGod Akira Toriyama]] in an interview with Forbes, when the resident MadScientist's first design was sent to his then-editor Kazuhiko Torishima, he rejected it as not being intimidating enough and told Toriyama to think of the person he hated the most. Akira Toriyama promptly used ''Torishima'' as the basis for the next design instead, and when Kazuhiko Torishima found out, he was not amused.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Rentarou Aijou wishes for a girlfriend at a shrine; he's granted '''one-hundred''' of them. And if they ever reject him, at any point, for any reason, then they will '''die'''.