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Blue And Orange Morality / Anime & Manga

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Blue-and-Orange Morality in Anime and Manga.

  • After God: The motives of IPOs aside just living their lives are neither clear nor coherent, and they often fail to figure out why humans are angry or sad. When Orokapi is asked why is he bothered by his tail being cut if he can regenerate, he asks why are humans bothered by murders if they can reproduce. When Vollof is asked to bring Shion to life, he gets confused what she wants with water, not understanding death as a concept. Alula thinks Waka having other concerns besides revenge means there's something wrong with her brain.
  • The Fair Folk from The Ancient Magus' Bride embody this trope as they live by their own different rules than humans. This is especially true of main character Elias who does not understand emotions, at least beyond the core logic of all being's emotions, and has a mindset towards Chise that takes a while to figure out. While he understands the idea of good acts, he's an Anti-Hero on a good day and a Nominal Hero at worst because he can't comprehend the point of either kind or what seperates them; the only thing he genuinely tries to protect in earnest is Chise, and even that's complicated when it's revealed he sees her as a curiosity he cannot understand, and only took her in as an apprentice to see the results rather than out of any compassion. Even after the two have shared genuine compassion, his urge to save her means he's perfectly willing to discard the life of another without a moment's hesitation, because they're not Chise and thus below his concern.
  • Baccano!:
    • Ronnie Schiatto is just as likely to incite a massacre as he is to follow a man for two-hundred years just to give him some company. The only answer he's ever given for his motivations is that he's very old, very powerful, and very bored.
    • Similarly, Huey Laforet. The amount of regard he has for human life is determined by how much scientific knowledge they provide.
    • Ladd Russo, believe it or not, does have some set of values. It can best be described as thus: Life is fleeting, and people are liable to die at any moment. People who don't understand this need to be taught through direct experience - aka dying.
    • Elmer C. Albatross's moral axis doesn't take into account things like "good" or "evil". All he cares about is happiness. Seeing other people happy makes him happy, though he doesn't actually care about the people. This makes him a bonafide sociopath with a mindset so alien and disturbing that it terrifies the Big Bad.
  • Black Hanekawa chides Koyomi from Bakemonogatari for thinking he can befriend or empathize with so-called "oddities" such as itself. Koyomi frequently repeats that oddities should not be hated for what they do because they're only doing what is natural for them.
  • Battle Angel Alita:
    • Mercurians are the descendants of the nanomachine plague left on the planet by a terrorist half a millennium ago. They've since developed into the civilization so utterly alien to the humanity's way of thinking that their ambassador (or at least the entity supposed to contact the Solar System at large) turned out to be a 20 meter tall killing machine with a phallic-shaped Wave-Motion Gun in the right place. Fortunately there were places where such "Ambassadors" could be dealt with.
    • And then there's the whole Desty Nova bunch. An inconcievably brilliant scientist who's equally inconcievably insane, hellbent on scientifically determining what's good, what's bad, and how to put this knowledge to use. The scariest thing about him (or them sometimes) is that he's getting close to succeeding.
  • Bleach: Mayuri is the ultimate scientist of the series, lacking his good counterpart Urahara's morality and his Evil Counterpart Szayel or Aizen's god complex. All that matters to Mayuri are results; he doesn't seem to see any sort of hypocrisy in torturing Quincies to death as a form of study and then healing the last remaining one years later to show his new medicine works perfectly. He abuses his daughter, but from his own perspective this is because he knows for a fact his creation can handle it and people protesting how he treats Nemu are questioning the quality of her design. Szayel raping and nearly killing Nemu to save himself from death doesn't appear to bother Mayuri (he can just "fix" her later), but he expresses utter contempt for him once he hears Szayel proclaiming himself a perfect being; perfection would be the death of scientific innovation, after all, and no man of science should view that as desirable.
  • Nathan Mahler of Blood+ is less than concerned about the ongoing war between the Red Shield and Diva's group. His true motives aren't revealed until the very end of the series, and are cryptic even then.
  • The Arume from Blue Drop. Pathologically afraid of human males to the point of gender segregation and transgender experiments, think using little girls as biological weapons disposal units is "beautiful," and think schoolgirls are mighty fine; which they express through bizarre sex acts.
  • Cells NOT at Work!: The more experienced Macrophages could be described as having this, as they are very much believers in “survival of the fittest” and insist that nonworking cells must eventually be disposed of. Yet their attitude is less about social Darwinism than basic pragmatism: the human body is a land of finite resources, and there is no practical justification for continuing to feed and care for cells that are incapable of doing, or simply have no intention of doing, their jobs. It’s important to remember that while the cells may be portrayed as human, they are decidedly not, and this is how things are supposed to work in the human body.
  • Death Note: The Shinigami. Their existence revolves around killing human beings, and they need to do it to survive. Their greatest sin is to kill someone to preserve the life of another, supposedly because the entire purpose of their existence is to shorten human lives. Ryuk dropping the Death Note onto Earth out of boredom seems pretty cruel, since it turns Light Yagami and others into callous killers, but to him, killing people with a Death Note is just a part of nature. Shinigami might be a subversion, since they seem to comprehend human emotion and values perfectly. Ryuk is well aware that Light is a monster and calls him out on it, but just doesn't care. Which makes a certain amount of sense for a nigh-immortal Shinigami; we're all going to die soon anyway so why should he care if some of us die a few decades earlier.
    • Another hint at their alien values can be seen in the fact that they have a law against killing a human by a method other than the Death Note, and that breaking this law merits punishment at the highest possible level (which involves an unspecified punishment followed by execution). This makes the punishment for killing a human to save another human — instant, and possibly painless death — seem comparatively lenient.
  • Digimon:
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods: Beerus, the Big Bad of the film, overlaps this with Jerkass Gods. He's the God of Destruction, it's his job to destroy worlds so it makes sense he doesn't see anything morally wrong with his actions. It's actually established that old planets have to be destroyed so new planets can be born; the problem with Beerus is that he acts independently of the Kaioshins (even worse now that there's only two of them left), chooses what planets that he will destroy at his leisure, and he can and will destroy even important planets without a second thought if he's irritated enough. Dragon Ball Super introduces his twin brother Champa, the God of Destruction of Universe 6, has the same type of morality and it's implied that these two are actually mellow by God of Destruction standards.
    • Believe or not, Goku shows very strong shades of this sort of morality throughout Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Considering Goku is a Saiyan, it's in his blood to love fighting and combat, and that love for fighting sometimes come off as a negative to Earthlings, gods, and other aliens (as well as the show's fanbase). He is often regarded with unease whenever he shows such excitement for battle, with one of Goku's friends even calling him a monster for being so excited about a fight when the entire planet hangs on the brink of destruction. Also, his love of fighting often causes them to make decisions that many think of as bad, or even stupid. Moments that have brought up this accusation include Goku wanting to defeat Piccolo by the tournament rules, sparing Vegeta's life after their battle just so that he could fight him again, sending his own son to fight Cell, gambling that Gohan would awaken his hidden power just in time during his struggling fight and ultimately win, giving a Senzu Bean to Cell so that Gohan gets a fair match against him, rather than a better chance to win and save the world, fighting Vegeta on even terms when he could have powered up to Super Saiyan 3 and quickly ending it when every hit he took went to awakening Majin Buu, and abandoning his family and friends to train a child he just met so that child could become more powerful and protect the Earth when Goku dies. Further evidence of this is in the movie Battle Of Gods when Goku's morality is questioned because of his love of fighting. Likewise, as shown in Super, while his nonchalance towards the other universes is one thing, his inability to understand Krillin's trauma, when faced with illusions of their past enemies (and Tambourine, Frieza, and Super Buu, in particular) highlights this alien mindset further.
      • Every pure-blooded Saiyan has this sort of morality, as it is in their nature to strive for a great battle no matter what the risk and such a behavior and mentality like that is questioned by several characters, good and bad, throughout Dragon Ball Z. In fact, Goku is a much more benign example than the rest of his Saiyan counterparts due to the head trauma he sustained as a toddler and being raised morally by Grandpa Gohan. The only character who probably has more of an "alien" view of how the world is perceived than Goku is Vegeta, considering that his desperation for a great battle has the been the catalyst for every single arc in Dragon Ball Z occurring. There is a reason why some fans consider him The Load. However, with his increasing amounts of Character Development post-Buu Saga, especially in Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta is moving away from his primarily Saiyan mindset, which serves to all the more highlight Goku's continued alien mindset, such as at the beginning of the Universe Survival Arc, the latter not understanding the former's newfound desire to stay at Bulma's side, now that she's pregnant with Bra. Overall, Super borders on deconstructing Goku's mindset, in the face of other fighters who've themselves changed, especially to English audiences who grew up with his altered characterization in the original Funimation dub.
    • Word of God from Akira Toriyama is that Saiyans as a whole have a strange view of relationships and procreation as well. They don't generally have an idea of marriage, outside of royal bloodlines, and don't mate for romance but simply for procreation. The most Saiyans tend to feel about their mates and children is close friendship and battle companions, but not romantic, paternal, or maternal love as an Earthling understands it. This is why Goku is a relatively poor parent to Gohan and Goten and husband to Chi-Chinote . It is very rare for a Saiyan to feel genuine love for their mates and children... which is why Vegeta's relationship with Bulma and their son Trunks is so much more special, as was Bardock and Gine's.
  • Izaya Orihara in Durarara!! works by a series of rules that seem to default to "I'm a troll" but have deeper and longer-reaching motivations. His morality seems to be guided simply by how boring something is.
    • Characters with Blue-and-Orange Morality are common in Ryogo Narita's work, to the point that it'd be harder to find the ones that are normal.
  • Amaterasu dis Grand Grees Eydas IV from The Five Star Stories was very weird right from his early childhood, and it only got worse with age. Some of his deeds and decisions could be only justified by the Omniscient Morality License he's got because of being a Physical God, and even that only by a big stretch.
  • The main character of Franken Fran believes that life, any kind of life, is better than death, and thus seeks to save people's lives even if they'd prefer being dead afterwards. Not to mention that she's pretty nonchalant towards violence and murder in general. Her younger sister Victoria isn't much better — Fran was built as a surgeon, but she was built as a bodyguard... and so she considers killing someone a proper response in most circumstances. She likes to tell Fran off on her beliefs, but Fran isn't exactly in the wrong when she calls Victoria on hers. Both of them, at the very least, value life more than their older sister Gavrill, who relishes in killing people in the most horrific and painful ways possible, and who doesn't appear to operate out of any moral code to speak of.
  • In Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Our Demons Are Different in that they aren't Always Chaotic Evil and are in fact somewhat civilized, but they're too alien in mindset with a complete Lack of Empathy that makes them fundamentally incompatible with humans. Some like to eat humans, sure, but others simply don't understand familial relationships, emotions like regret or hope, why humans care about the deaths of other humans, how just replacing an eaten daughter with the daughter of the neighbor's family (which you murdered all the rest of) doesn't fill the hole you made, etc.
  • Solf J. Kimblee in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime has an odd code which seems to consider holding true to your role or principles the most important thing, irrespective of their conventional morality. He criticizes soldiers for being reluctant to massacre defenseless people, but expresses admiration for the Rockbells for their determination to save lives (of the same people the soldiers were killing) as doctors. He sides with the homunculi because they give him freedom to practice his alchemy without restriction, but claims to be primarily interested in who'll win the conflict between them and humans. In the end he saves Ed from a Grand Theft Me by Pride because he's repulsed by Pride abandoning his claims of superiority as a homunculus to merge with a human to save himself.
  • Golgo 13: Duke Togo barely has a moral compass at all. To him, life can be divided into two separate sectors - "on the job" and "off the job". "Off the job", he lives a quiet, unaffected life. "On the job", he will literally kill anyone if he deems it necessary. No targets are off-limits, and if the client betrays him he will kill them as well without even blinking. The only hint of morality he has is professionalism - he conducts himself as a Consummate Professional, and expects the same behavior from his clients.
  • Gundam 00 has the Extraterrestrial Liquid-metal Shapeshifters (ELS) from The Movie. These are intelligent metal-based life forms that evolved on a gas giant. They communicate telepathically, or by combining their physical forms together to form a unified being. Naturally there is some amount of extreme confusion between the two species when they meet humanity. The mutual misunderstandings lead to a war between the two before a clear means of communication is found.
  • Guu of Haré+Guu, essentially The Trickster. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to her actions: she's just as likely to torment Haré as rescue him from mortal danger by summoning godlike powers, all the while seeming casual and uncaring. Her inscrutable agenda makes it impossible to pinpoint her position.
    • She loves to act like she's giving Haré An Aesop, but always subverts it completely in the end.
  • Ryoko Asakura (an "integrated data entity" disguised as a human) in Haruhi Suzumiya. She honestly can't grasp why murder is wrong as long as it achieves an objective.
    • Similarly, Kuyo Suoh. She (and the entity behind her) is simply so alien in personality that she makes Nagato and Ryoko look like normal human beings... to the point that when Kuyo makes her own attempt on Kyon's life, it's Ryoko who saves him.
  • Vampires in Hellsing (more the anime than the manga) are alluded to having their own set of rules and motivations. This is what made the Freaks so dangerous, since they were artificial vampires and thus had vampire powers but human desires and instincts. Vampires such as Incognito and Alucard seem to have taken human masters in part for this reason.
  • This plays a large role in Heroic Age, in which the "Iron Race" (humanity) doesn't understand the values of the "Silver Race" that is warring against them, especially considering that they are Straw Vulcans who reject/transfer emotions to a few chosen individuals. The lack of understanding that the SR have no emotional attachments (to home planets) while humanity does, causes the SR to wonder why the humans would try to take back their home planet and then try to conquer the homes of the "Bronze Race" and SR, and causes the human military to attack what they assumed was a well defended BR home world when it was a weakly defended mass nursery, and attack the SR homeworld which was mostly abandoned, opening themselves up for an ambush.
  • Humanity Has Declined is premised on the study of the Blue/Orange morality of the fairies, who themselves are unable to produce their most and least favorite things (candy, radio waves), while conversely afflicting havoc on humanity with what they consider to be trivial assistance or entertainment.
  • Hunter × Hunter:
    • Gon Freecs has distinct shades of this. He isn't The Unfettered, because he is guided by a strong sense of right and wrong, but as the counterfeiter he hangs out with finally realizes: "He doesn't care about the good and the bad." Neither the readers nor the other characters can really predict where his moral sense will take him, and he surprises even his best friend (a child assassin) a lot. Notable events include:
      • A serial killer once trained him and Killua, and he cheerfully allowed the person to go free afterward even after it was pointed out that this would cause more young women to get eaten, because "he helped us".
      • After one of the Phantom Troupe is killed by Kurapika, Gon and Killua are captured by his best friend, who suspects them of involvement and rants, in tears, about how much it hurts to have lost his blowing-stuff-all-to-hell partner. And Gon responds with sudden fury, because he had assumed that the Troupe's members could do such horrible things because they didn't understand how much it hurt to lose people, which meant he couldn't hold it against them, but if they can and still do it, they're so incomprehensibly evil he wants to end them.
      • Tonpa admits how much he enjoys watching people fail miserably and die taking the hunter exams, which infuriates everyone else...except Gon, who continues treating him like a friend because he inadvertently helped them with his cowardice.
      • There are several times where Gon puts a mission, and even his friends, in jeopardy because of his Blood Knight tendencies and a bruised ego.
      • During the Chimera Ants arc Gon's main objective is avenging Kite, and when Neferpitou, the ant responsible for Kite's condition, begs him for more time to heal Komugi, an innocent blind girl caught in the middle of the whole conflict, Gon flies into a rage over Pitou mutilating his beloved mentor yet showing compassion for someone else, and completely disregards Killua's feelings about the situation. He gives Pitou less time than requested, reduces the amount of time for every distraction, and even threatens to kill the mortally-wounded Komugi if Pitou tries to make a run for it. Gon only lets Pitou heal her after Killua reminds him that Pitou is the only chance he has at restoring Kite, and not out of any concern for Komugi's well-being. It's quite possibly the ultimate example of how Gon's morality is derived from his own experiences instead of any traditional sense of right and wrong.
    • The Chimera Ants enter this territory from time to time, as well, though they're largely just evil. Although most of the ants are evil and some are good, the king, Meruem, is a master of this trope. All the experiences he goes through continually shape his moral code which fluctuates wildly through the arc, turning him from what appears to be a Cell rip-off into one of the most deep and interesting villains in shonen manga. And yet he always seems to have his code stuck somewhere in the Blue and Orange territory.
    • Hisoka's moral code begins and ends with fighting. He isn't concerned with good vs. evil or right vs. wrong or even powerful vs. weak (although he certainly factors that axis in) so much as finding and/or cultivating opponents strong, skilled or interestingly weird enough to potentially give him the fight of his life, and lives for the satisfaction of killing them down the line should he best them. The world for him divides this way: Worthy Foes (to whom he is helpful and fairly, even surprisingly, polite to... in his own way) vs. Unworthy Foes (to whom he's not polite, like, at all: so very, horrifically dead if they push his disgust, anger or bloodlust even slightly) vs. Rocks (just about everybody else — they only wind up dead if they become unlucky, inconvenient or really, really tedious: Nothing Personal) vs. Nopes (things that are just too many shades of dangerously alien for him to find any merit or fun in messing with — rare, but it happens). Treating him as both Faux Affably Evil and Chaotic Evil/ Chaotic Neutral (dependent on whether he likes you, and that is subject to change without notice) are the safest things to do, but... they're not entirely accurate.
    • At first blush, the entire Zoldyck family seems to share a Consummate Professional code — the kind you'd pretty much expect from a family of highly pragmatic and secluded assassins. It colors everything they do, from Training from Hell kinds of Tough Love to a very flexible outlook on violence and a strict approach to following good business practice. But, the more you get to know about them, the weirder and more emotional their relationships get at the core driving them all. And, the less of a convincing "typical moral spectrum" they therefore show, even for the deeper, darker, more Evil parts of the pool. Killua is the most normal of the lot, thanks to wanting to branch out and engage with the wider world in a non-commercial, (mostly) unstabby way... yet, he is his own brand of off-the-wall, too. And, then there's Illumi. Oh, boy. He takes the family weirdness to places even the rest won't willingly go — he's after gaining personal power at any price... when the rest of the family is basically about charging others a mint to kill people over whatever power plays their clients have going on, not their own personal power trips.
  • The Pillar Men Wamuu and Esidisi in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency have as much regard for human life as most people have for insects, other than the occasional human warrior who knows how to use the Hamon (which is their greatest weakness). Evident in the moment they walked through and killed Mark on accident and didn't even notice him.
    • Their leader, Kars, in addition, seemed to have a fascination with over all forms of life besides humans, save for Hamon users. He would go out of his way to not land on a patch of flowers, and killed two teenagers so they wouldn't run over a puppy. Whether or not this was the mindset of the deceased Pillar Man Clan is uncertain. They apparently lived in harmony with the rest of life on Earth and each other, and tried to kill Kars and Esidisi because they believed their ambitions endangered all life on the planet.
  • Heartseed from Kokoro Connect depending on your viewpoint. When he makes the phenomenon happen, the group finds Heartseed's actions malicious even though he ends up (maybe purposely) bringing them closer together.
  • Togashi loves this trope — the Prince in Level E is similarly inscrutable, and his compatriots and relatives often fail to understand whether he's really this different, or just a Jerkass Troll.
  • Mad Scientist Bondrewd the Novel from Made in Abyss is guilty of some of the most revolting and horrific acts in the story, yet seems to bear no malice or hatred towards anyone. Instead, he expresses immense respect and gratitude towards every single person he's sacrificed in his research, even making a point of remembering all of their names. However, he's also saved countless lives as his research has led to some of the most important advancements and inventions in his field, arguably making him a Science Hero as well. To Bondrewd, there is no greater good than progress, and anyone who contributes to his progress should be commended. Whether they're actually willing participants in said research matters little. He doesn't even have any issues turning his adoptive daughter Prushka into a barely living mass of tissue in a can, instead approaching the deed with his usual affable optimism and commending her for assisting him with his experiment.
  • Most of the Eclipse Drivers in Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force show this symptoms. Aside from the fact they must kill in order to survive, none of them are concerned with other infectees or other living things but rather themselves or their family. However, the worst case is the Hückebein family. With exception for their affection to Thoma, they seem to have little to no problems to doing criminal activity to get what they want, as well as no regard to others' lives. Additionally, they seem to view themselves above both civilization and society, and appears to strongly believe in Might Makes Right.
  • The title character from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro exemplifies this trope. His one and only concern is discovering and solving the mysteries he feeds upon. This, mixed with the fact that he is a demon, make for a very unique morality in which he likes and protects humans, not because it is the right thing to do, but because they provide his food and entertainment. That by no way means he can't have fun at the expense of humans, though.
  • Minerva-X from Mazinger Z is a sentient Humongous Mecha specifically created to be Mazinger-Z's Battle Couple. Despite -or maybe because- she was created by humans, several of her personality traits -mainly her conception of what love is- are completely bizarre. Because she was created to be Mazinger's partner in battle, she is in love with Mazinger in spite of she knows it is a machine and it is not sentient. She also treats the pilot of a Humongous Mecha like if it was another part of the mecha (presumably, the brain). This is expanded on Shin Mazinger Zero, where she (transformed into a Robot Girl) teases Sayaka because she saw Aphrodite (Sayaka's Fem Bot) fighting alongside Mazinger and got jealous, got... all bothered when she was inside Mazinger's cockpit, and she told she loved Kouji... but she loved even more Kouji piloting the Hover Pilder, and she loved above all Kouji on the Pilder piloting Mazinger. Usually Kouji and Sayaka only shake their heads and accept her like she is.
    Sayaka: How... unique...
  • The eponymous Mononoke, from the show of the same name, are repeatedly stated to think completely differently from people. Depending on the incident that created them, their thought process can be very, very warped.
  • The more intelligent mushi of Mushishi are a milder case. The mushi's form of life is so alien from our own that 'good' and 'bad' may mean completely different things to us and them. For example, in the very first episode the mushi lure a young girl out to the forest for a feast, during which they tell her that they want her to watch over her future grandson. Ginko himself makes no comment as to whether he thinks she and her grandson will be better off with the botched mushification completed or not; he merely presents each of them with the option of completing it and lets them decide for themselves.
  • The Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey shows that Lock, Shock, and Barrel don't understand the difference between good and bad, just what's fun for them in the moment.
  • Invoked by Cuuko in Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!. She claims that being an alien / Great Old One means that human morality doesn't apply to her. Mahiro doesn't buy it, because she and any other Mythos entity he's met have shown all too human behavior. She said this when Mahiro stopped her from trying to strip (and go further with) a Heroic BSoD-ing Nyarko in public.
  • In One Piece, there are many people who consider the Straw Hat Pirates heroes because of how they constantly risk their lives to save others. The crew's captain and first mate, Monkey D. Luffy and Roronora Zoro, disagree because heroes would share their food and alcohol, which Luffy and Zoro won't unless the people they're expected to share with are really hungry. A clearer way of explaining the Straw Hats’ morality is that they don’t think they’re heroes because they help people because they want to, not because they feel an obligation to, but it’s a distinction that means more to them than it would for most people.
  • Parasyte: Parasites eat humans because that's how they survive as a species, and they feel no more guilt about killing the sapient lifeforms who serve as their prey than humans do about eating livestock such as pigs and cows. They are mostly incapable of emotion, so whenever they explain the reasons behind their actions it's very cold-blooded and matter-of-fact. Furthermore, each individual of their species will do anything to ensure its own survival, and they do not understand the human concept of altruism. Migi is frequently baffled by what he sees as irrational behavior and thoughts from his host Shinichi, and considers Shinichi's objection to plans he suggests — like using his classmates as human shields in order to defeat a hostile parasite, or even just pickpocketing money to purchase a cab ride to safety—to be a misguided case of Honor Before Reason.
  • Kyubey of Puella Magi Madoka Magica is stated to be unable to understand human morality, being utterly confused as to why the girls would be horrified by the idea that a contract with him is essentially lichification. It later states that the species that he belongs to is incapable of emotion of any sort. In terms of actions, it also sees nothing wrong with manipulating generations of girls into situations that inevitably lead to their becoming murderous Eldritch Abominations, since the system prolongs the life of the universe by reversing entropy. It also doesn't understand why humans consider omitting important information as a form of duplicity. Although it is quite clearly aware of what humans think of his actions, hence his duplicity. It just doesn't get why we think that way. The fact that it states its kind wonders at how humans can function when they're a bunch of individuals with different emotions may hint at why it sucks at understanding how contracts in our sense work, since contracts involve negotiations between different interests, while Kyubey is a Hive Mind and thus might literally have no concept of individuality.
  • Shampoo from Ranma ½ is a sweet and caring girl, who was raised in a society of warrior women and thus sees nothing wrong with chasing someone to the literal end of Earth to murder them just for defeating her under certain circumstances or for being in her way, savagely beating up a childhood friend for being annoying (in her defense, Mousse is incredibly annoying, not just to her), or cooking a random piglet (through she wouldn't do it if she knows it's a pet, no matter if the owner is someone she knows as a romantic rival). She slowly starts getting outsider values as time goes on... As in, she still considers them silly (and will still murder Akane if she's sure she can get away with it) but at least made the effort to respect the values of the country she currently lives in.
  • In Rebuild World, Akira understands right and wrong, but operates more on a spectrum of fairness. He expects to be rewarded for his efforts and prioritizes survival first and foremost. If a job becomes too dangerous for him to handle, he has no problems leaving the people he's supposed to be rescuing or fighting alongside behind. At the same time, he's not so self-serving that he refuses to share rewards if he feels it's duly owed. He won't scam others either, offering them what he believes is a fair price for goods or services based on what he thinks is the truth even if lying would get him a better deal. Even after developing something of a guilty conscience, he performs good deeds out of his own belief that it will reduce his good luck deficit or benefit him in the long-term rather than for the sake of it. He also dislikes the idea of having unpaid debts and thinks it's unfair for him to tag along with more experienced hunters since he believes he'll slow them down.
  • Kumoko in So I'm a Spider, So What? has morals that make logical sense given her position, but completely contrary to normal human society.
    • If she kills something, it would be morally wrong not to eat it, even if the thing she killed was a human being that attacked her. She doesn't hunt intelligent creatures for food, but once they start trouble they're lunch. And they also taste pretty good.
    • The idea of murder being wrong is only something she vaguely believes in. She's surprisingly nice given that she's a giant spider monster and will save random humans she comes across and even heal their injuries. But if they're rude and hostile towards her, she perceives this as aggression, and anything that threatens her must die.
    • She believes strongly in free will. Later in the story, she goes to a secondary character and explains the dire situation of the world and lets them choose what to do with said information. She thinks to herself that she'll accept any decision they make. But if said decision is to oppose her, she will instantly kill and eat them. She seems no contradiction in saying she is offering someone a choice and then killing them if they answer in a way she doesn't like. To be fair, though, she would have also accepted them choosing to stay neutral and walk away from the conflict altogether.
    • Finally, while she seemingly identifies as the villain of the story, this turns out to be only in a meta sense: She's extremely upset with herself when her utilitarian actions cause emotional distress. namely Killing The Hero Julius was not personal and only done because if he dies she can save the lives and souls of countless other innocent people, but his little brother Shun is obviously not okay with this. Further, after working with Shun's little sister Sue in order to assassinate some corrupted figures, she eventually uses mind control on her when she senses Sue is at the point where her morals would stop her from cooperating. She thinks this will leave Sue's conscience clear, but the girl surprisingly does take responsibility for her actions, which leaves her briefly murderous and suicidal. Kumoko is again very upset because she doesn't know why Sue and Shun are upset when she was just being pragmatic without intending to hurt anyone more than necessary.
  • It's acknowledged In-Universe that The Blackholians of Space Patrol Luluco have ideals that don't make any sense whatsoever. They're Impossible Thieves that run on the principles of So Bad, It's Good who then destroy the objects they collect despite the sheer amount of effort they put into getting them.
  • A lot of the swordsmen in Vagabond follow their own personal codes of honor, and the story doesn't really present Musashi as "evil" because he kills people.
  • Hoshin Engi:
    • Shinkohyo doesn't seem to care about who wins the conflict between Taikobo, Bunchu, and Dakki, and doesn't show concern over the many evil actions the latter has committed. He even talks in a rather casual and friendly manner no matter whichever of them he is addressing. His only involvement in the events is usually to give a little push in one direction or another to make things more interesting to watch. And yet, he sometimes personally steps in and acts for things like trying to prevent the sons of the emperor from leaving the capital, not because he wants to help their opponent, but because it goes against his sense of aesthetics. Considering that he dresses like a Pierrot, his "sense of beauty" makes for a very strange moral scale.
    • Fukki, one of the Precursors, is extremely detached about things, and while he made a plan to stop the evil plans of fellow alien Joka, had no problem letting her kill millions several times until she had weakened enough and earth Sennin have grown strong enough to put the plan in motion. When Nentou calls him out on this, he answers that it is not a matter of justice or good.
  • Yuuko from ×××HOLiC could be considered to have a version on this, in which, to Yuuko's point of view, any wish or decision can be justified, as long as the the wisher or decision-maker is satisfied with the result, and the only rule in her wishes being Equivalent Exchange and that she won't kill, as it will 'weigh down' on the Universe.
    • Some supernaturals falls under this trope as well, for example Jorogumo directly states that she will not take anything that was given to her, but when Watanuki (the protagonist) fights for his goal, she clearly approves and leaves. All the time with a cheery attitude and threats of murder.
    • Watanuki adopts it as well at the end of the manga.
  • Togashi makes allusions to this in YuYu Hakusho, too, once the S-Class demons start to turn up. Previous, all the weird-thinking people like Sakyou and Sensui were insane or just evil.

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