Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Brainwashed And Crazy / Anime & Manga

Go To

Brainwashed and Crazy in Anime & Manga.

  • Lucifer in Angel Cop. Already a powerful psychic she'd actually volunteered to be experimented on and turned into a psychic super soldier because she believed she was helping mankind. Sadly, she's brainwashed to the point that she believes viciously murdering innocent people and her former allies who woke up from the brainwashing is all for humanity's sake.
  • In Ao no Fuuin, Soko gets brainwashed by Takao to make her more willing in resurrecting the Oni tribe and it causes her to attack Akira when he tries to rescue her.
  • The eponymous drug in Banana Fish is used to brainwash people into doing things they would normally never do, including committing suicide or attacking their friends.
  • In Battle Spirits Brave: Duc is turned into The Prison General by Zazie and Geraid, becoming outright sadistically murderous.
  • Bleach:
    • In a filler arc, the zanpakuto of most or all of the soul reapers in Soul Society are turned against their masters by a rogue zanpakuto named Muramasa.
    • This happens to Rukia in the third movie thanks to Shizuku and Homura.
    • And this is also the modus operandi of one Shukuro Tsukishima, who does this via using his memory-altering powers to convince his victim that he's their dearest person ever.
    • Later, Sternritter "L" PePe Waccabrada uses his powers to brainwash Jidanbou (via "sharing his love") to attack the Mission Control squad members and later Hisagi and even his comrade-in-arms Meninas McAllon.
  • In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, it's revealed that the cause of The End of the World as We Know It was a snuff film with subliminal messaging that brainwashed anyone who saw it into doing Junko's bidding. Mikan and Chisanote  were among her first victims, and they end up helping her murder Chiaki in order to infect the rest of the class, which led to the events of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
  • In Digimon Frontier, Kouichi is brainwashed by the Big Bad into believing that he is a Digimon and into forgetting about his human life. Later on, Kouichi remembers that he's human, and Cherubimon has to start manipulating his emotions and memories.
    • In Digimon Fusion, Kiriha is brainwashed for a while. Also, anyone hit by EBEmon's attack becomes brainwashed.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • In the Majin Buu arc, it is Vegeta who is brainwashed and made to fight against his former allies. The brainwashing also gives him a major power boost. In fact, that's why Vegeta decided to let Babidi take control of him: so that he could be on even ground with Goku at long last. He eventually manages to break free of the mind control, but the trope is subverted before then, as Vegeta reveals that he could break free at any time.
    • In the Garlic Jr. filler, the black water mist does this to all the supporting characters, turning them evil. Piccolo and later Krillin fake being infected, in order to free the currently captured and bottled-up Kami and Mr. Popo.
    • In the second movie, Piccolo is captured by Dr. Wheelo and Dr. Kochin and forced to fight Goku.
  • It is played in Dragon Ball GT when Baby controls almost all the Earth population. The only ones that weren't controlled were Goku, Pan, Mr. Satan, Majin Buu and Uub.
  • Lelouch from Code Geass has the power to give commands that cannot be resisted, meaning that he can do this at will. Unfortunately, he's not always able to control it, as evidenced when he accidentally Geassed Princess Euphemia into killing the Japanese, leading to the Euphinator incident.
    • It also happens to him, twice, thanks to his father who possesses a Geass that lets him manipulate memories. The first time he tried turning him into a military strategist for Britannia. Second time he just made him an ordinary high school student to bait a trap for C.C. Both times it fails ultimately.
  • Jellal, a massive expy from Fairy Tail, is made out in flashbacks of when he was a kid to be perfect hero material. He has a strong sense for justice, he risks everything for his friends, and he doesn't bow down to the enemies. At the time the story begins, though, he's trying to revive the Fairy Tail world equivalent of Voldemort using forbidden resurrection magic by sacrificing his childhood friend. Three guesses why.
    • Juvia Lockser also became a victim of this trope when, while fighting against Vidaldus Taka, she was almost completely transformed by the magic of the enemy into a sadistic version more self-confident of herself (and whose rocker clothing was a reflection of that of her manipulator ).
  • Played for laughs in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu when Sousuke puts his high school rugby team through Training from Hell (fit for navy seals), which results in them becoming brainwashed and crazy killers that completely annihilate the other team. Their eyes are even shown glowing red.
  • Fushigi Yuugi is fond of this device.
  • In GaoGaiGar FINAL, Guy is captured and chemically brainwashed into a berserk destroyer by the villains, placed in a copy of his Humongous Mecha GaoFighGar, and sicced on Sixth Ranger J along with similarly reprogrammed copies of the rest of the robot team. Right as Repli-GaoFighGar is about to bludgeon King J-Der, the Repli-Nakama resist the reprogramming and sacrifice themselves to stop Guy and give the remaining heroes a chance to get him back.
    • In the original series, all four of the machine kings are all subject to this trope, with all eventually getting redeemed some time into the show, with Primada and Polonaise suffering Redemption Equals Death sort of, while Pizza and Penchinon both get restored to their original forms, Soldato J and the main computer of the J-Ark, respectively.
  • In Guardian Fairy Michel, this happens to any fairy forcibly transformed into a monster.
  • This was the modus operandi of Goldie Musou in multiple arcs of the Gunsmith Cats manga. It's explained fairly well by her use of the drug Kerasine and her skills in hypnotism to convince her tools that their targets (ranging from complete strangers to beloved family) are possessed by demons, shapeshifting aliens bent on conquest, and the like. Indeed, the murders often cement her hold, by making a return to reality too painful for the subconscious to permit.
  • In Hekikai No Aion, the mushis infect a human host. The victims look normal but them become this when they take a look at Seine's face.
  • Inuyasha:
    • Big Bad Naraku uses this on Action Girl Badass Normal Sango's brother Kohaku nearly every time he appears on the show.
    • This happens to poor Inuyasha an awful lot, given how many times he gets forced into his homicidal full demon form by various villains.
    • Happened to Kagome once, when Tsubaki the evil Miko contaminated the Shikon no Tama shards with her own dark energy. She then tries to make Kagome attack Inuyasha with her own arrows, despite Kagome's own struggles to not harm him.
    • Happens to Sango in episode 131. She gets possessed by a demon egg, resulting in an epic battle where Miroku fights to free her from demon control.
  • In Kill la Kill, Ragyo's Mental Refitting forces special Life Fibres called Marionette Threads into her victim's brain, turning them into mindless drones that do her bidding without question. In Episode 18, we first see this used to enslave the entire 1-Star student body of Honnouji Academy. Made even worse when she used it on Ryuuko. She managed to fight it off, though, and physically pull the Marionette Threads out of her own brain with her bare hands!
    • This also happens when somebody is "worn by their clothes", and the Life Fibres in their garments forcibly bend the wearer's will to their own. This happens to Ryuuko when she's forced to don Junketsu in Episode 20, with the aforementioned Mental Refitting.
  • In the Alternate Universe manga The King of Fighters: G, several people are in this state at one moment or another. When Goenitz arrives to the Grand Finale and starts wreaking havoc, almost at the same time Kim Kaphwan and Robert Garcia are briefly brainwashed but bring themselves out on their own (Kim beats Chang and Choi but is released immediately afterwards; Robert attacks Ryo, but reacts when the other doesn't even flinch at the sight); similarly, the maddened Mr. Big is easily defeated by Wolfgang Krauser.
    • There are also several cases of More than Mind Control; specifically Benimaru, Mai and Leona. In the first two cases, their inner struggles are greatly amplified by Goenitz's powers and they're sent into temporal Unstoppable Rages; in the third, Goenitz himself awakens Leona's Orochi blood.
  • In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Knuckle Joe's father, a renowned Star Warrior, is kidnapped and brainwashed by eNeMeE himself. He is sent to attack his former allies, and his best friend Meta Knight is forced to kill him. In another episode, Kirby himself gets possessed by the Demon Frog, though luckily he can be easily snapped out of it thanks to his pure and innocent nature.
  • Kishin Douji Zenki:
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999), Link befriends a baby dragon. Seven years later, Ganondorf brainwashes the dragon, and Link is forced to kill him. It's not just any baby dragon. It's Volvagia.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Ginga is brainwashed by the villains, and is then sent to kill her younger sister Subaru. In typical Nanoha fashion, she is subsequently cured of this by the application of a Wave-Motion Gun at point-blank range.
    • In the manga, she's possessed by one of the spores from Shiho's CHILD, and attacks the heroes as they attempt to rescue Mashiro from kidnappers.
  • Mashin Hero Wataru Series: Almost all floor bosses and their subordinates are normal residents of Soukaizan and Seikaizan whom the Big Bad turned into their minions. Upon clearing a floor level, those affect are turned back to normal.
  • It happened several times in the Mazinger trilogy:
    • Mazinger Z: The Hero Kouji Kabuto was brainwashed by Viscount Pygman, and later by the Vegans in the UFO Robo Grendizer Go Nagai manga, the UFO Robo Grendizer vs. Great Mazinger movie and Super Robot Wars MX in Chapter 10. Professors Morimori, Sewashi and Nossori also were brainwashed by Baron Ashura into one of the earlier episodes of the original anime series. AND in another episode three workers of the Institute were brainwashed into piloting several Mechanical Beasts.
    • Great Mazinger: Boss was brainwashed by Warrior Monster Psychoveia in one of the first episodes to kill The Hero Tetsuya. Tetsuya himself also was brainwashed by Vegans along Kouji in the UFO Robo Grendizer manga.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: Brunhild, Duke's best friend back in Fleed was brainwashed by the Vegans into murdering Duke. Also, Kouji and Tetsuya were brainwashed to destroy Grendizer with their own Humongous Mecha.
  • DG Cells have this effect in Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Once the metal plague gets into the victim's brain, they become subject to the Dark/Devil Gundam's will. It's also known as the Devil Gundam's ability to self-multiply.
  • Neo Roanoke in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny is yet another example, as he's truly Mu La Flaga from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, after having miraculously survived the utter annihilation of his mobile suit... in space. Go figure.
    • Stella, who is really just emotionally fragile and naive, but is brainwashed into freezing up or panicking whenever someone mentions death, and to calm down and absolutely trust anyone who vows to protect her. After being programmed and deprogrammed so many times by Phantom Pain, then Shinn, then Phantom Pain again, her main response now is to go crazy and panic over anything she even loosely relates to death. Which is bad if she's at the controls of a truly giant mecha with about fifty-bazillion Wave Motion Guns and no-one can talk her down.
  • In Gundam Build Fighters, Tatsuya Yuuki is hooked up to an enhanced version of the Embody System against his will as the PPSE Chairman is determined to eliminate Sei and Reiji before they end up revealing the truth about how Gunpla Battling is possible. It's notable in that this is the only time Tatsuya loses in this and its sequel.
  • In Monster, Gillen hypnotizes Nina in order to draw out her childhood memories. She refuses to tell him anything and attempts to strangle him for good measure.
  • In both versions of My-HiME, this happens to Mikoto Minagi, where it takes a Cooldown Hug from Mai to undo the brainwashing.
    • In the anime, Mikoto is controlled by a pendant similar to the one worn by her older brother Reito, who himself is possessed by the Obsidian Lord.
    • In the manga, Mikoto briefly gets possessed by mind-controlling spores from Shiho's CHILD. Shiho herself is under the thrall of a set of power-amplifying earrings provided by the Arc Villain who kidnapped her.
  • This is what happens to four of the main characters Gainer, Cynthia, Gauli and Sara in Overman King Gainer forcing the last main character, and the supporting cast to fight the Overdevil and them at the same time.
  • Photon: The Idiot Adventures: Photon is trapped in a transparent cell with Keyne, who has been turned psychotic by the Evil Overlord. It's a lopsided cage match, since Photon has a Wouldn't Hit a Girl ethic. The Emperor does this purely For the Evulz. Keyne proceeds to pummel poor Photon bloody.
  • Pokémon Adventures:
    • Happens to Annabel during the Emerald arc.
    • This happened to Blue during the RGB arc.
    • This was revealed to be the reason that Bruno is in the Elite Four.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Arguably, also happens to Celebi in the fourth movie.
    • Happens to Pikachu a few times: Once from Cassidy and Bunch ("Pikachu Re-Volts"), thrice from Colress in the N arc. And when his Nice Guy tendencies are subverted, he gets scary.
  • Pretty Cure
    • In the second Futari wa Pretty Cure MAX HEART movie, Freezer and Frozen use their powers to turn Cure White against Cure Black. Cure Black constantly pulls a "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight, but refuses to actually lay a hand on her friend. This bores them and causes them to turn Cure Black. Thankfully, they shake off the brainwashing just in time to save each other from a painful death.
    • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, Seiren suffers this partway through the first half of the series as she starts having doubts over their mission.
  • The wolves (and possibly sharks) in Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, making it so that Luke is unable to talk to them.
  • Ranma ½:
    • The super-ninja Konatsu is brainwashed by his Evil Stepmother (who bears a scary resemblance to Edward G Robinson) into attempting to kill Ranma. It is only the Power of Love that undoes it.
    • The Phoenix People are also able to use something like this (or possibly More than Mind Control); they have magical eggs that they can throw at people, which then expand and envelop the person. When the egg is cracked open (it doesn't hatch otherwise, but thankfully seems to put the victim in a state of suspended animation), the victim "imprints" on the first person they see, becoming their helpless slave. Kiima does this to Shampoo and then orders her to kill Ranma. To her credit, Shampoo manages to ask Ranma to instead allow her to use one of the eggs on him, so that she won't have to fulfill her orders, but Ranma (understandably) refuses. She then attempts to get Ranma to have sex with her (whereas, up until now, she's always aimed for romance and at one point actually got offended when she was made out to be trying to seduce him), going so far as to threaten Akane Tendo's life to make this happen. Ranma cures her by sticking her in another egg, and Mousse then shows her a mirror, so she imprints on herself. She later cures Genma, who she had managed to capture in an egg of her own, by telling him to snap out of it.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Mamoru was at least twice brainwashed into doing this to the Senshi. in the Stars manga, Sailor Galaxia does this not only to him, but to all the Seishi who are mind-controlled to attack Usagi. In the manga, it's made abundantly clear that the senshi are actually already dead.
    • Ami is also brainwashed in a R episode where she is made to think all of her friends hate her for being a nerd. She sees through the ploy and blasts the monster.
    • Also in Sailor Moon R, Chibiusa is brainwashed into attacking the rest of the cast, and is made to believe everyone hated her (thanks to the Big Bad altering her memories/taking out important bits of them).
    • There's also Professor Tomoe in the anime, who gets brainwashed and crazy as a consequence of a Deal with the Devil with Big Bad Pharaoh 90 to save Hotaru from death.
    • In the Stars anime, Haruka and Michiru pretend that they are brainwashed by Galaxia to actually attempt to fight her (going as far as killing Setsuna and Hotaru with their own hands) but fail and ultimately die. This event is redone multiple times in the musical adaptations based on the Stars series.
    • In the manga the Shitennou/Generals of the Dark Kingdom (Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, And Kunzite) are this. Unfortunately, Jadeite, Nephrite, and Zoisite are revived by the Silver Crystal with the memories of their past lives only to turn into their respective stones. Poor Kunzite is re-brainwashed and dies fighting the Inner Senshi as Beryl's puppet and also turns into his stone. But hey, after all that they eventually are reunited with the person they were born to serve Mamoru/ Prince Endymion and get to hang out with him from the stones their spirits now reside in.
    • In the live action version, Mercury is kidnapped by Kunzite and brainwashed, becoming Dark Sailor Mercury. She is later healed by Sailor Moon (with a My God, What Have I Done? moment included), with no memory of the events In the finale Mamoru takes the Queen Meteira into his body and thus is brainwashed by her.
    • In the manga the Amazoness Quartet were revealed to be this as Nehelennia forcibly awakened them early from their slumber and brainwashed them into serving her. They're actually the Sailor Quartet and supposed to awaken to be Chibiusa's team when she comes of age.
  • Both the Crystal Saint (anime only) and Leo Aiolia in Saint Seiya. Their brainwashing was so through that it took death to release them. Crystal had to die, Aiolia had to see someone else die. Both cases end up in tears.
  • Ikuto from Shugo Chara! when controlled by his evil jerkass of a stepfather and forced to transform into Death Rebel. He's not necessarily crazy when brainwashed at first, just rather cold and emotionless. But, sadly, the control over him eventually escalates to he point where he's trying to murder his childhood friend Tadase and the girl he loves, Amu. Luckily, in more recent chapters of the manga, he's shown to be back to normal thanks to Amu.
  • Happens very briefly in most parts of any Slayers media, usually to townspeople. There's Rezo controlling Zelgadis during Season 1, and Hellmaster Fibrizzo controlling Gourry during Season 2.
  • In Soul Eater a meister named Crona debuted in the series by attempting to kill the two protagonists. This was because Crona was infected with a substance called Black Blood, which is a blood replacement fluid that can be controlled by a human weapon (in their case, the Demon Sword Ragnarok), which sacrifices the user's sanity for invincibility. After being restored to sanity, Crona was allowed to join the DWMA, but as of recent chapters has been recaptured and rebrainwashed by Medusa and in Chapter 104 became the series Big Bad, much to the dismay of both characters and the audience. Until Chapter 106, anyway.
  • All of Zaitel's followers in Space Carrier Blue Noah have been brainwashed into believing he is their savior.
  • The Strider manga has this happening to Hiryu's sister Mariya, necessitating her killing by Hiryu himself, as well as his best friend Kain. The one who turns out to be behind both of these acts is Matic, the Vice-Director of Hiryu's own Strider organization, and he wants to do this to everyone on earth.
  • Happens briefly to Izawa and Isurugi in Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidou Kyuukyuu Keisatsu, as a result of over-exposure to the Evil AI's sound.
  • In Toriko, Joa the Dark Chef has this power. Joa can "cook" others with a few slices to alter their "flavor", changing them into completely different people. Teppei falls victim to this and is now an emotionless fighting machine under Joa's command.
  • In Umi Monogatari, Sedna does this to sea creatures and eventually Marin and Kanon's friends.
  • Variable Geo: Satomi and Chiho both wind up being enslaved by The Jahana Group, albeit for different purposes:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has an unusually bizarre fascination with brainwashing characters, especially female protagonists, to the point that it's practically a Once a Season gimmick. The only series to avert it thus far is Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, which parodies it by having Romin shift into "hangry mode" when she is denied food.
    • Original series:
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
      • Manjoume in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was brainwashed by the Society of Light and sent to force-recruit everyone else at the Academy, including his friends. Not quite the same, but considering the Society was an apocalyptic cult, it might as well be.
      • Happened to Misawa and Asuka as well. In Asuka's case, she was much more dangerous because she was serious about it, unlike Manjoume's "I've seen the light!" cult ranting, however she did show resistance to the brainwashing as she stood up for her former Obelisk Blue friends and refused to play the "White Veil" card to win with her own strength. Meanwhile, Misawa released himself by realizing that what he thought he wanted wasn't what he really wanted after all. In fact, Misawa wasn't actually brainwashed, due to the fact that he lost willingly to Manjoume to enter the Society of Light.
      • In fact, Saiou himself, the leader of the cult, qualifies, maybe especially so. He was brainwashed by the greater evil directing the cult and became its pawn. At times, there was a conflict within him, and occasionally, his sanity broke through temporarily but his madness always returned until the climax of the arc.
      • The Duel Zombies are also this case, turning the various characters of Duel Academia into mindless "zombies" (read: they're not undead) who want to duel challenge other duelists to turn them into their kind.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds:
      • Divine uses some form of Mind Control to unleash Aki's full power of her Psychic abilities, making her act crazy during a good portion of her duel with Misty.
      • Speaking of Misty, all the Dark Signers are corrupted and misled by the power of the Earthbound Gods, although they still have a degree of free will. If the Dark Signers try to resist them or surrender the duel, the Earthbound Gods will then take full control of them.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
      • Anyone who is corrupted by a Number falls into this trope. The Number will corrupt the minds of the user with their inner desires (even if the desires themselves are benevolent in danger). Even Yuma's Kibou'ou Hope has this effect on other people who aren't protected by the Emperor's Key.
      • The Barians can brainwash people with their Barian powers in form of "Rank-Up Magic Barian Force", making them their pawns to fulfill their objectives. Kotori and Cathy are the only characters of the main gang to get brainwashed like this.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: The Doktor abuses the Real Solid Vision system by materializing Parasite Fusioners into tiny parasites that can enter the brain of his victims through their ear holes and latch on their brains, making them his puppets. He does this to all of the four Bracelet Girls and he tries it on Yuya too. Unfortunately for him, Yuya resists the Doktor's attempt because of his inner darkness burning the parasite that is latching on his brain.
  • Kolulu and Koko fall under this trope in Zatch Bell!: the former has a psychotic personality that comes out when her bookkeeper reads spells, and latter becomes sadistic and evil because Zofis tampers with her heart, although he claims he couldn't have done it if the impulses weren't in Koko to begin with. He lies, as revealed after his defeat — the only difference between Koko and his other mind slaves, who had no memories of their time spent brainwashed and crazy, was special tampering intended to drive Koko mad with guilt by keeping all the horrible memories with her, in case she survives Zofis' defeat.
  • In the manga series Zodiac P.I., Lili's rival, Sirius, is brainwashed into trying to kill her, her friend, and her father. Finally broken thanks to both The Power of Love and the shock of cold water.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top