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

Broken Ace / Anime & Manga

Go To

"I don't care what kind of awesome mercenary you are—you're a seriously broken human being!"
— Kaname Chidori, Full Metal Panic!
  • Adekan: Shiro is a man of breathtaking beauty who is wanted by both men and women for his looks and charm without even trying. It's later revealed that he has serious issues and its only Kojiro that finally makes him actually feel something since he's spent his life as a cold assassin fighting for his survival.
  • Atsumu Matsuyuki aka Yukiatsu from Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. On one hand he's gorgeous, book smart enough to go to an elite high school, popular among girls, and looks pretty well-adjusted. On the other he blames himself for his first love Menma's death, deeply resents Jintan and his closeness to her, is unable to interact well with Tsuruko (the only person from the True Companions still close to him), considered Anaru as his "backup" love interest, and took to cross-dressing as Menma to alleviate his own pain.
  • The Area 88 manga and OVA is brimming with broken aces:
    • First, there's Shin Kazama, the most skilled fighter pilot at Area 88 who is also a psychological mess due to Kanzaki's betrayal and war trauma.
    • There's Mickey Simon, a tall, blond, charming ace pilot who veils his war trauma and cynicism with a friendly exterior. The Vietnam War left him with PTSD, which prevented him from leading a happy life back in New York.
    • Saki is a wealthy prince, diplomat, and fighter pilot who has a condescending attitude toward the Asranian people, a strong desire for revenge against his father, and a death wish, as evidenced by his suicide at the end of the manga.
    • Hoover is a former major in the West German air force, a seasoned NATO aerial commander, and heir to a long lineage of ace fighter pilots. He also suffers from crippling survivor's guilt over the deaths of several pilots during a training exercise near Mont Blanc.
  • Arisa, who was thought of as the beautiful charismatic class rep by her twin sister Tsubasa is gradually revealed as one of these having a part in creating the King, culminating in her attempted suicide which starts the plot off.
  • Comes with the territory in Attack on Titan, due to the nature of the world. Anyone that survives long enough ends up with MASSIVE issues of one nature or another.
    • Levi is considered the World's Strongest Man. He's also an obsessive neat freak, incredibly snarky, and abrasive to the extreme. One could only assume that this is his way of coping with the countless deaths he has faced.
    • Mikasa ranked in the top of her class and is considered a prodigy of historical significance. She's also a Broken Bird Emotionless Girl desperate not to lose her family for a third time, and it's heavily implied that the reason she is so powerful is because of the horrific trauma she experienced as a child.
    • Reiner ranked just below Mikasa, being both an incredibly-skilled soldier and an all-around solid, reliable guy that others deeply admire. He's actually a Titan spy, and slowly suffers a complete emotional breakdown as a result of Becoming the Mask.
    • Annie is every bit as skilled as Mikasa when it comes to combat, but she's a Perpetual Frowner Ice Queen who has a lot of trouble associating with other human beings. It's because her father put her through extreme and unambiguously abusive training to make her that skilled a fighter, and like Reiner, she's a Titan spy who is having immense difficulty coping with her own actions. When her duplicity is finally unveiled, she completely snaps.
    • Last but not least, the protagonist Eren likely takes the cake. Like the previous three, he placed among the top of his class, but the death of his mother severely broke him to the point to that his entire life's focus seems to be about destroying every single Titan in existence. It only gets worse for him when he is revealed to be a titan shifter, with the responsibility (and becoming the thing he hates most) weighing him down even more. And this is just the beginning of the rabbit hole; let's not even get started on the crap that happens during and after the battle to retake Shinganshina and the subsequent true nature of the outside world.
  • Azumanga Daioh:
  • Louis from Beastars is smart, popular, and an extremely skilled actor but he is also a severely damaged person.
  • Griffith from Berserk. An excellent commander, a masterful swordsman, graceful, elegant, and charismatic. He's also an incredible narcissist who sees everyone else in the Band of the Hawk as an extension of himself, has severe self-loathing problems, and develops a growing dependency on and obsession with his greatest warrior Guts. When Guts leaves the Hawks, it starts a downward spiral for Griffith that would culminate in the betrayal of all the Hawks in order to become Femto during the Eclipse.
    • Guts is gaining this status with his new companions. They all look up to him as an awesome force of nature against impossibly strong foes more or less, but it's obvious or at least suspected by them all that Guts is hiding some serious issues about his past (which, funnily enough, none of them ever actually inquired about).
  • Ciel Phantomhive of Black Butler. He's a very cute young male, the head of the Phantomhive noble family, and runs the Phantomhive Company, which manufactures toys, sweets, and food. He is shown to be extremely competent and intelligent, both at running his company and at learning new tasks. He learns to dance in a short period of time, just through Sebastian's teaching, and it is stated that he takes a variety of lessons from tutors. He also comes across as being a mostly emotionless, cold, intelligent child; he is capable of portraying himself as an engaging, happy, easygoing individual, typically when undercover, but is quick to revert to being callous when he no longer has to hide Beneath the Mask. Before the loss of his parents, his life as a slave and role as a human sacrifice, however, he seemed to be a happy and energetic child. He also seems to have no qualms with lying to, stealing from, or killing others, so long as it benefits him in some way.
  • Bleach:
    • Retsu Unohana is an eminent warrior even in the setting's World of Badass, a beloved leader, incredibly beautiful, and the Soul Society's best doctor. Unfortunately, she also was a psychotic criminal who greatly enjoyed violence and combat. Along with her raging insanity, she's driven by the desire to atone for sealing Zaraki's powers when he was young, feeling that she ruined his potential.
    • Sosuke Aizen is gifted with extraordinary talents that set him apart from the rest of the cast. He is a brilliant scientist with an astounding level of intelligence and charisma; a master of Zanjutsu, Kido, Shunpo, and Hakuda; his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu's Shikai allows him to control the five senses and create perfect illusions, and he has one of the highest amounts of Reiatsu out of any character in the series, something that is recognized by the Vandenreich. During his tenure as Captain of Squad 5, he was greatly respected and taught a popular calligraphy class. Unfortunately, he's a sociopath who is incapable of empathizing with others and will stop at nothing to overthrow the Soul King. It is implied though that deep down, Aizen is really just a lonely man who only wanted an equal to understand him for who he was.
  • Bloom Into You
    • Touko Nanami is the Student Council President, one of the top students in her grade, an excellent athlete and highly popular. She also suffers from crippling self-esteem problems, believing that she could only become valued by becoming just like her sister, and hating her old self.
    • To a lesser extent, Sayaka, who's on par with Touko in most regards. In her case, she's still somewhat hurt by her old senpai breaking up with her out of the idea that she's too old for a Gay Romantic Phase and having unrequited feelings for Touko that she can't confess for several reasons.
  • Broken Blade's Girge. He is extremely good-looking, the Ace Pilot, soft-spoken, and polite. He is also a psychopath, his favorite pastime is killing off teammates, and he basically can't be bothered to be bothered. Evil Redhead indeed.
  • Carlos Santana and Roberto Hongo from Captain Tsubasa. Both are handsome and skilled sports idols, but to reach the places they are now, they went through lots of heartbreak and suffer. Santana became a heartless machine after his double Parental Abandonment and the abuse dealt by his coach, and for several years he was unable to connect to anyone emotionally; Roberto was almost Driven to Suicide when he lost everything after being diagnosed with eyesight problems and having to forcibly retire and had to rebuild himself from zero. They both get better.
    • And then we have Stefan Levin, who had a borderline perfect life until his girlfriend was hit by a truck in the same day he became the Swedish champion and was about to propose to her. The results were horrifying on his psyche, and drove him to straightforwardly brutalize his rivals as much as he could within the rules to win and dull the pain. He also gets better in the end.
  • Kishibe in Chainsaw Man was the World's Best Warrior who started out as an arrogant Devil Hunter but after nine years of near-death experiences (and violent rejections from his Sexy Mentor Quanxi) he became so scarred, disheveled, and visibly tired that he's pretty much turned into a completely different person. He's made contracts with three different Devils but he's so physically beaten down that he has nothing left to trade to use their power, which he apparently doesn't even need as he's capable of curbstomping almost any Devil or Fiend without any supernatural ability whatsoever. He's also an alcoholic who's watched so many of his colleagues and proteges die horrible deaths he seems barely able to feel anything anymore.
  • In Charlotte, Yu is seemingly the perfect student, with perfect grades and also good looking to boot. In reality, he's not that smart, got good grades by cheating and he's just a selfish Manipulative Bastard. He is then exposed by Nao Tomori, another person who has similar special powers to his.
  • Taichi in Chihayafuru: he's very rich, good-looking, charming, popular, and very intelligent — he even has a whole room filled with trophies of various competitions he's won, as he's immediately succeeded at almost everything he's ever tried. However, karuta is not one of those things: there, while he does possess some natural abilities (his memory is incredible even by professional standards), he is leagues away from matching Arata, and has a terrible track record of bad luck that kept him from officially making Grade A for a long time. Multiple characters have envied him for this, most obviously Tsutomu who hated him at first for consistently beating him at school despite having so much else going for him. But Taichi himself is consumed with self-doubt and envy — his mother is incredibly strict and would punish him whenever he failed to succeed (and highly discouraged him pursuing anything he wouldn't immediately succeed at), leaving him terrified of failure. Meeting Arata and seeing his skill left him aware of how little he's actually capable of in the one area that really matters to him, and the fact that Chihaya is much closer to Arata's skill level (despite herself being an airhead who gets terrible grades and is nicknamed 'beauty in vain' for her difficult personality) doesn't help his jealousy issues at all.
  • Claudine: Claude de Montesse becomes this when he goes to university. While he's genuinely book smart, kindhearted, and world-weary, his Break the Cutie past as well as his identity issues coming from being a transgender man in early 20th century France cause the poor dude lots of emotional trouble.
  • Code Geass:
    • Prince Clovis. To most of his subjects he appears to be the perfect prince. In reality, he is an insecure wreck who commits mass slaughter to cover his screw ups.
    • And Suzaku Kururugi. Oh God, Suzaku. Handsome, sweet, idealistic, skilled pilot, superhuman fighter...Death Seeker, Self-Made Orphan, Hypocrite, Idiot Hero, Broken Cutie.
    • Lelouch Lamperouge may also count—as a student, he's a gorgeous, Brilliant, but Lazy Gentleman Snarker who half the school is a bit sweet on, and as Zero, he's a tactical genius. What neither of these descriptions mentions is that he's mostly driven by rage and extremely severe Parental Issues.
    • Chancellor Prince Schneizel is seen as the friendly civilized face of the Britannian Empire. He's really a twisted cynic willing to manipulate (Nunnally) or kill (Cornelia) family members and nuke his own country to further his plans. He becomes a straight Ace and even keeps his position only after Lelouch takes his free will away.
  • Yoh Hinomura from Crying Freeman. A Tall, Dark, and Handsome artist who is actually a Hitman with a Heart who cries for his victims.
  • Light Yagami from Death Note is an incredibly handsome, straight-laced, straight-A, genius student who happens to believe that murdering masses of criminals (and anyone else who stands in his way) will create a perfect utopia with himself as its all-powerful omnipotent God. Also, he loves potato chips.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the founder of Breathing Techniques and the greatest swordsman in the whole series has a pretty sad life from failling to kill Muzan due to distractions, losing his family in the process with his wife and their unborn kid dead and seeing his own twin brother turned into a demon.
    • Seems to run in the family, Kokushibo/Michikatsu Tsugikuni, Yoriichi's older brother. Despite his strength and talent, he was always surpassed by his younger twin brother and because of that, it caused him to become envious and jealous towards him and besides that, he feared the possibility of defeat and death, so he went as far to become a demon to avoid that. Despite this, he nearly gets killed by Yorrichi who was a dying elderly man. The fact Yoriichi dies of old age instead of dying in battle enraged Kokushibo since that makes Yorrichi an undefeatable warrior, something that Kokushibo wanted to become. But now with Yoriichi dead, Kokushibo's pitiful inferiority complex continues to worsen for him.
  • In Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, Chikane is a female example of this. Intelligent, wealthy and beautiful, she's basically adored by everyone around her, and doesn't show any real flaws...until Cerebus Syndrome kicks in. Then we learn that she's destined to kill the only girl she's ever loved...and she becomes a Yandere to cope with this...and she secretly fears that her feelings for Himeko make her "unclean". For someone so gifted, she's remarkably quick to fall to the dark side.
  • Tsukasa Shishio from Dr. STONE was known as the Strongest Primate Student for his strength and martial art skills in the present day. His strength millenniums later in the Stone World let him defeat a pride of lions, and he possess immense charisma and strategy that lets him compete with protagonist Senku. However, he has a deep-seated hatred for adults and the modern world, choosing to destroy the petrified adults to prevent their resurrection and raising an entire army for the purpose of enforcing his beliefs.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Vegeta. He is the prince of his race and a Child Prodigy so talented that Frieza himself took a liking to him, grooming him into one of his right-hand men. To the remaining Saiyans he is a figure of both admiration and fear, having their complete loyalty. When he is introduced, he is far stronger than anyone in the series, including Goku. He is also a master tactician when level headed. However, Vegeta hates being under the rule of another or anyone stronger than him and despises never being able to escape his oppressor even when he learns said oppressor destroyed his homeworld. He is also forced to live under Fantastic Racism by his own comrades and even his boss. To make matters worse he is surpassed in every way by a warrior he considers low class, who also defeats his enslaver, leading to an Inferiority Superiority Complex that nearly cost him his newfound family and happiness. His cold, uncaring nature also makes it hard for anyone to like or even tolerate him. It's not until the end of the series that he finally begins to recover and make peace that he will never be the strongest in the universe.
    • After going through some serious Training from Hell, Tagoma becomes this in Dragon Ball Super. His power greatly surpasses Shisami who is about as strong as Piccolo, becoming the strongest soldier in Frieza's army. However, being Frieza's punching bag for four months has left him horribly broken. He now has a cold outlook on things and no longer values his comrades.
    • Zamasu is the Supreme Kai-in-training of Universe 10 and is the most powerful Kai shown yet, capable of fighting evenly with Super Saiyan 2 Goku, whose base form is even stronger than Buu when he slaughtered most of the Kais of Universe 7 with relative ease, but he slowly and steadily goes off the deep end after losing his sparring match with Goku. Not only does he become a complete zealot in his belief that mortals are evil and must be destroyed for universal peace, but he also abandons his godly body and takes Goku's body as his own to acquire more power, becoming the very thing he hates. His sanity also takes a hit given his wild mood swings as Goku Black. By the end of it, he became one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse short of Zeno himself, but his sanity was completely destroyed in the process.
    • Jiren is the strongest Pride Trooper of Universe 11, a hero team devoted to justice. Moreover, he is easily the strongest mortal known to exist and incredibly skilled. So great in fact that he defeated Universe 11's Destroyer Belmod. Only being defeated thanks to Goku attaining and completing a mythical technique called Ultra Instinct that even Gods of Destruction like Beerus have not mastered. From his introduction onwards Jiren is presented as an unstoppable force of power so great that Hit, Freeza and even Goku are unnerved and reluctant to face him. In every fight he brutalizes and crushes his foes like it was child's play and with minimum effort whether it is Golden Frieza, SSB Vegeta, Hit or SSB Kaioken x 20 Goku. And unlike so many other fighters his strength is pure willpower and effort, no inherent potential or Saiyan biology or rare unique abilities like Buu. Just pure strength. As a side effect however, Jiren is The Stoic who barely involves himself in a tournament he could win until the end and selfishly lets his teammates fail. A tendency due to his Dark and Troubled Past, where after seeing his family, mentor and friends either die or abandon him, Jiren spits on the idea of trust and believes only in Might Makes Right. As a result his mental state is quite poor, and only worsens as the Tournament goes on and Universe 7 overcomes obstacle after obstacle through teamwork. As the endgame continues and Goku defiantly fights for his friends and attains Ultra Instinct one last time and overwhelms Jiren, the Pride Trooper completely breaks down down due to this triggering his past trauma and history of loss, refusing to acknowledge he is wrong and in a rage attempts to murder Goku's friends and team to prove The Power of Friendship is a lie. However Jiren in the end thanks to the efforts of Universe 7 in particular the mutual trust and excellent teamwork of Goku and Frieza and support of Toppo is able to experience a Took a Level in Kindness and finally grow beyond his past.
  • Hikaru Himuro of Dragon Drive. At the start of the series, he's undefeated and has curb-stomped everyone he's ever played against — until Reiji catches him off-guard and nearly defeats him. It later becomes evident that he has a serious inferiority complex and literally does not understand the concept of friends.
  • In ef - a fairy tale of the two., Miyako Miyamura is cheery, athletic, funny, with top grades, a superb cook and housekeeper. She's actually unable to socialize with people since she was practically abandoned by her parents after their VERY bitter divorce, so she became The Ace to try regaining their affections — and failed badly. So she's also out-of-reality, selfish, clingy, childish, love-starved...and in dire need of both a swift slap to the head and a tight, warm hug.
  • Agon Kongo of Eyeshield 21. He's a once-a-century prodigy, who doesn't even need to practice to be a brilliant athlete, has a reaction time that's nearly superhuman, gets good grades with his eyes closed, and has fantastic social skills when he cares to. One the field he's a One Man Football Team; off the field, he's incredibly successful with girls, and is more or less allowed to do whatever he wants to at the school. It's made him an incredibly entitled, borderline sociopath, with no empathy, a total inability to connect to others, and a very short fuse. He's feared instead of liked, and almost everyone who spends more than a few minutes with him (deservedly) wishes he was dead.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • When we are first introduced to Erza Scarlet in Fairy Tail, we are introduced to a stern, powerful, and charismatic S-Class wizard, who was able to keep rivals Natsu and Gray in line. However, she had a dark past as a slave to a dark cult devoted to bringing back Zeref, who tortured her and took one of her eyes after an escape attempt gone wrong. She gained the strength to fight after her closest friend Jellal was captured in his attempt to free her, and she unlocked her magic because of the death of her grandfather figure Rob. When she found Jellal, he had seemingly changed from his torture, becoming obsessed with bringing back Zeref, and keeping Erza from interfering by holding the lives of their unaware friends hostage. Erza's attempt to fight him years later ends up with her hesitating, allowing Jellal to finish the steps for the Tower and leading to her friend Simon Taking the Bullet to save her and Natsu's life. At the end of the arc, she tries to sacrifice herself to stop the Tower of Heaven from overloading, but is kept from passing on by the vision of her guildmates morning her death.
    • Jellal Fernandez started as The Leader for his and Erza's group during their days as slaves. However, during his torture by the cultists, he was brainwashed by Zeref's ghost (really Ultear from Grimoire Heart as part of their guild's goals), and turned into a sociopath obsessed with bringing back Zeref, manipulating the Magic Council (while under the guise of their Wizard Saint Councilor Siegrain) into firing their super-weapon Etherion onto the tower. After his defeat by Natsu, he is seemingly killed during the destruction of the R-System. Months later he is brought back as an Amnesiac Hero by Brain, hoping that the former's evil persona will help them find a super-weapon called Nirvana. Jellal breaks down when he learns of his past misdeeds from Erza (who was under the impression that was still his villainous self), and tried to destroy both himself and Nirvana as repentance. Years later, he became a member of Crime Sorcière, a guild dedicated to stopping dark mages as a means of atonement, but still has self-resentment to keep himself away from Erza despite their mutual feelings for each other.
    • Mirajane Strauss was one of Fairy Tail's S-Class Wizards and the famous She-Demon. However, prior to joining Fairy Tail, she and her siblings were orchestrated by their village after a demon she defeated caused her arm to turn demonic. It took arriving to Fairy Tail and her siblings learning Take-Over magic to help her recover. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes again when she takes her siblings on an S-Class quest that leads to her brother attempting a full-body takeover on a Beast and pushing him into a berserker state, causing him to apparently kill their younger sister Lisanna. This leaves Mirajane as a seemingly cheerful barmaid and famous model, but really a Stepford Smiler who was unable to use her magic until her brother's life was put in danger.
  • Sōma's father Jouichirou in Food Wars! was the greatest chef in the world, and the most talented student to ever grace the halls of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. However, the people around him saw his talent but not the overwhelming hard work it took to get there, and constantly pressured him to reach greater and greater heights. In the end, Jouichirou snapped under the pressure, had a complete mental and physical breakdown, and vanished from the academy in the middle of the night in order to maintain some shred of his sanity. Twenty years later, he has begun cooking again but is content to run a blue-plate diner and doesn't even try to cook at levels his teenage self would consider tragically basic except when training his son to be a Superior Successor.
  • Sousuke Yamazaki from Free!. He's a nationally ranked butterfly swimmer, also excellent at the front crawl and apparently good at backstroke, very attractive, scouted by universities for swimming scholarships, etc. Turns out he came home from his prestigious high school in Tokyo because he injured his right shoulder through overtraining. His refusal to take a break from swimming and actually deal with the problem resulted in the joint breaking down, and he'll never be able to swim professionally.
  • Satellizer L. Bridgette from Freezing. Beautiful, skilled, book smart, and so damn fucked up.
  • Fruits Basket:
    • Yuki Sohma is handsome, intelligent, and practically worshiped by most of the female students at school as "Prince Yuki". However, he's actually a Stepford Smiler who's terrified of rejection and has massive self-esteem issues due to years of Akito's physical and emotional abuse.
    • His underclassman and future girlfriend Machi Kuragi can be seen as a failed attempt at this; she was constantly pushed to be "perfect" by her parents, and this leaves her with a compulsion to ruin anything "perfect" that she sees, whether methodically or through violent outbursts.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Edward Elric is the titular Fullmetal Alchemist, the youngest State Alchemist in history and the Hero of the People that stops corruption wherever he goes. In reality, he a broken teen that blames himself for trying to bring back his dead mother, which cost his arm and leg and cost his younger brother Alphonse's body. He often sees his alchemy as the quick solution to any problem, until it proved powerless to save Nina from being turned into a Chimera from her father, so much he was willing to sacrifice his life to Scar to allow his brother to live.
    • Roy Mustang, the famed Hero of Ishval and the famous and charming Flame Alchemist, with aims of becoming Amestris's next Fuhrer? Try a man filled with guilt for the innocent he killed under Central's orders. The death of his best friend Hughes led him to a path of vengeance, and once he found Envy, the one responsible, he furiously sets the homunculus on fire, over and over again.
  • Yuno Gasai of Future Diary. Smart, beautiful, and diligent; those who don't truly know Yuno would simply see the model student role she plays while at school. In truth, she is extremely Ax-Crazy and Yandere for Yukki to the extent of kidnapping and confining him. She can be quite clingy and is fond of stalking him because he made a Childhood Marriage Promise with her — after Yuno had fatally snapped on her Abusive Parents. When obstacles arise that either endanger Yukiteru's life or threaten their relationship, her thoughts turn murderous and she lets nothing get in the way of her path. Even herself, if this means Yukki will win.
  • Future Robot Daltanious: Kloppen is the feared and respected Commander of Zaal, but he's secretly forced to put up with abusive regulations from his father, Dolmen, and threatened with violence whenever he fails. Dolmen even forces him to assassinate Professor Namil, who was actually a caring father figure to Kloppen even if he was complicit with Dolmen's manipulation.
  • Naoki Shinjyo of Future GPX Cyber Formula: A former F3 champion, Grand Prix winner, and a rising star of world-class racing competition with an attitude. His one flaw is his short temper, which leads to a major problem because he's repeatedly beaten by a couple of 14-year-olds who've come from nowhere in term of motorsport experiences. As a result, he becomes overly arrogant, gets worse and worse in racing, and starts blaming everything on his engineers and dumb luck. It isn't until he's sacked by his boss and obtained a harsh reminder from his Love Interest that he finally starts to smarten up.
  • Gate Keepers:
    • Ruriko transformed herself into a beautiful, smart and capable leader because an incident with an injured kitten from when she was young convinced her that she can rely on no one but herself.
    • Reiji/Shadow is handsome and charismatic but hates being human because his childhood trauma convinced him humans are gullible and can be manipulated if he presents the right image. He is also misogynistic because the girls who he thought were his friends laughed at him when he was living in the street.
  • Tetsuya Tsurugi from Great Mazinger. Yes, all those ten years of training under his adoptive father's wing have made him into a combat pro that is respected by everyone, including the Mykene...but nothing can cure his lack of self-worth, his inferiority complex, and his pathological fear of being left alone and replaced. And that bites EVERYONE in the ass later. To the point that, in one continuity, he practically commits suicide to take down the Mykenes.
  • Suguru Teshigawara from Great Teacher Onizuka is the most well-known teacher in school. He is handsome, smart, and comes from an influential family. He also harbors an unhealthy attraction towards Azusa. After Onizuka one-ups him again, Suguru beats up a student while in class.
  • Quiet literally Asahi's introduction arc in Haikyuu!!. He is the ace of Karasuno, not in the sense that he is the best all-around player but as the In-Universe definition, i.e. he is the left wing spiker with unrivalled strength that can spike through three blockers. However, prior to his introduction in the first season, he had left the team due to being blocked continuously in a game against Date Tech. Having a high sense of responsibility, he shouldered the guilt and the weight of the defeat all by himself. This caused him to feel very discouraged and insecure, no longer being able to claim the title ace. Later, it gets resolved with an inspiring speech from Hinata and him being cornered into playing with Suga and Nishinoya again, remembering why he plays volleyball and why he is the one they call ace.
  • The titular Hayate the Combat Butler, who, being a Cosmic Plaything aside, is unnaturally talented and self-sufficient for someone of his age. Unfortunately, this only came about due to a lifetime of horrific parental abuse and neglect (he pretty much had to single-handedly sustain his entire family financially because his parents kept pissing away any money on his mother's gambling addiction,) as well as a very traumatizing experience with Athena that leaves him very reluctant to reciprocate any romantic interest.
  • Soichiro Arima from His and Her Circumstances. Handsome, popular, smart, kind...and full of self-hatred and parental issues that pushed him to become the "perfect" son, even after he and his girlfriend Yukino (who's also a Broken Ace, but a far milder one) agree to drop their Stepford Smiler facades. Yukino became jealous of Soichiro's success but we find out he modeled himself after her. She later has to face her own Broken Ace phase after Maho temporarily gets the others against her, and when she realizes that thanks to her sheer efforts to act like the Perfect Girl, she cannot interact with others normally.
  • Juli Bauernfeind from The Heart of Thomas is regarded as one of Schlotterbach's finest pupils, being pious, intelligent, hardworking, and kind, but with a façade of perfection he's terrified of anyone seeing past. Memories of being tortured by upperclassmen have left Juli with a burn mark, panic attacks, and the belief that he has forfeited the right to be loved by anyone. This leads him to reject the confession of the titular Thomas. Thomas then commits suicide.
  • Mikael from I'm Gonna Be an Angel! calm, polite and sweet to those who don't know him and stubborn, obsessive and totally insecure boy to those who are close to him (mainly, one person). In reality, a boy who cannot accept who he really is and constantly desires perfection. His self-hatred leads to an epic Face–Heel Turn and even more epic breakdown. He gets better, though.
  • Isabelle of Paris: Geneviève is secretly unhappy about her life in spite of her wealth and natural talents because her parents want her to marry Victor and will look down on her if she chooses to marry the man her heart belongs to as he is from an impoverished background. Once she is disowned after her Forbidden Romance with Jules, she lives in Paris with him and wants to be with forever... and then the Prussians deem him a fugutive for inciting rebellions across Paris. Nevertheless, Geneviève swears to be by his side no matter what and bids a goodbye to Isabelle, forced to leave her for her own safety.
  • The Kindaichi Case Files has two of them in term of major characters.
    • Akechi. He is a former straight-A student, Todai graduate, amateur chess player (who ranks somewhere among the world's best amateur players), trained violinist (who can play for a professional quartet of a piece he played for the first time), capable fencer (who once beat the national champion), capable pilot, certified wine expert capable of taking sommelier's duty, and a fluent French speaker. However, some events in his past haunted him like a murder among his circle in high school and a robbery case his father was in charge of that forced his father into early retirement.
    • Takato, a character this case has closest to a Big Bad, is a straight example of this. He was a talented pianist and magician during his high school year (coincidentally, he entered the same high school as Akechi did). In current manga's timeline, he's a cold-blooded killer who thinks perfect crime as a form of art, not to mention his first murder during high school to which he commented as "not any different as usual".
  • In Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, Father was chosen by God to be the most powerful exorcist in the world. He has successfully repelled several members of the Demon Lords of Hell, saving the world time and again in the process. But Father was abandoned by his parents at a church in Northern Italy and ostracized for it. Once the clergy realized his potential, he was molded into humanity's savior through terrible abuse and Training from Hell to be using as a Tyke-Bomb against Satan. This and the pressure of saving humanity time and again from Eldritch Abominations has left him Covered in Scars, with a Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality, and No Social Skills. He was also a Death Seeker desperate to martyr himself to reach Heaven faster because he didn't know anything else before Dante gets to him.
  • In Mission: Yozakura Family, Kyoichiro is an Implacable Man said to be the family's finest spy, easily overwhelming his siblings despite their best efforts to impede him. But his lingering guilt over how a mistake of his badly injured Mutsumi has made him a Knight Templar Big Brother who brutally beats or even murders anyone he perceives as a threat to her.
  • Mu La Flaga in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is an expert pilot and war hero who comes across as a friendly and easygoing person — which he is, but a lot of his affable behavior serves to cover for the fact that he drove himself to become an ace pilot as a means of finding some sense of self-worth (he was such an unfavorite in the eyes of his father that he was disinherited and locked away in a Big Fancy House for years, while his dad went and cloned himself), and he's overachieved as a soldier to the point that he's not capable of thinking like a civilian any more.
    • His rival Rau le Creuset qualifies for this trope for many of the same reasons (he's the above-mentioned clone of Mu's insanely narcissistic father), but the psychological damage his charismatic facade hides is even more severe than Mu's, and has given him a hatred of humanity so violent that he's driven to try to speed up what he sees as its self-destruction.
    • Athrun Zala becomes this in the sequel. ZAFT, and in particular the Minerva crew treat him like The Ace, but he can't live up to his own standards, is obviously struggling with PTSD, and is more than a little self-destructive. Throw in a nice big batch of Heroic Self-Deprecation, and the inability to see anything but shades of grey and away we go. His screwed-up love life doesn't help matters.
    • Heck, Char Aznable from the original series is pretty broken. So much so that he becomes an Omnicidal Maniac and a borderline paedophile during the events of Char's Counterattack. Even before then, he suffered from a near-total Lack of Empathy, and a vastly overblown sense of his own self-importance.
    • As an Expy of Char, Zechs Marquise of Gundam Wing is another Broken Ace. His partner-in-crime and eventual enemy, Treize Khushreneda is an even better example. He's a genuinely gentlemanly Cultured Warrior and Magnificent Bastard, who has the world in the palm of his hand, and the respect of everyone, including his enemies. He's also depressed by his attempts to make the world make sense, isolated from society and the other villains by a set of morals that would have been more appropriate to 19th Century Europe, unable to connect with other people or even recognise his own feelings for them, and as is revealed in the finale, a bonafide Death Seeker. Treize basically has all the abilities of The Ace (albeit a villainous one) combined with the personality of a Stepford Smiler.
  • Monster's Johann Liebert is something of a subversion, in that he has virtually no actual personality or drive of his own, to the point of being almost more of a force of nature read as The Ace than even a broken one. His sister Nina, on the other hand, is brilliant, driven, and a genuinely good person, but plagued by first her lack of memories and then the horrors of the ones she recovers.
  • Moriarty the Patriot: William is good at nearly everything, brilliant beyond the bounds of realism, effective in a fight, charming, popular, attractive, charismatic as hell, and everyone adores him. Except himself, as he's wracked with guilt and become a Death Seeker.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Todoroki has one of the most powerful Quirks in his class, is handsome, well-liked, and consistently one of the highest-scoring students. He also has massive family issues that wreak havoc on his motivation and ability to use his powers effectively.
    • All Might is the #1 hero and Symbol of Peace to the world, but constantly questions whether he's really living up to the standard that he presents to the world. He also lacks confidence in his ability to properly teach the next generation how to be heroes, and especially so in Midoriya's case. In fact, being The Ace is actually a hindrance in this regard; since using One for All and being a hero came naturally to him, he has little real advice to offer Midoriya and the rest of his students about those things, since he never struggled with them.
    • Bakugo has a powerful Quirk, is insanely driven to be the best Hero in the world, consistently performs near the top of his class both physically and academically, and has been shown at multiple points to have high levels of brilliance and courage. He's also a massive asshole as a result of the constant praise of his youth getting to his head, and the realizations that he's not the best of his class, he's nowhere near ready to be the #1 Hero in terms of personality, and that his old childhood friend/former bully victim/now rival Midoriya may very well surpass him all serve to just drive him even further up the wall even as he trains to overcome them.
      • As the manga progresses, you also learn that Bakugo is suffering from a severe bout of guilt, believing that it was his fault that All Might has almost completely lost his powers and officially retired after his rescue arc. Bakugo, being Bakugo, refuses to talk to anyone about it and simply acts aggressive to everyone around him (more than usual anyway). This guilt was feeding onto his inferiority complex which then explodes after failing the proficiency exam and even results in a heartbreaking breakdown.
    • Momo Yaoyorozu was this for awhile. She has one of the most versatile Quirks in the entire series, and has a genius-level intellect that allows her to use it to its fullest, be at the top of her class academically, and be one of the series' premiere strategists on top of that. However, her Quirk does nothing to boost her physical capabilities and takes some time to make use of, so when she's pitted in a one-on-one against Tokoyami, who has a powerful Quirk that allows him to attack immediately, repeatedly, and at range, she's overwhelmed before she can even react, utterly shattering her confidence and leaving her unwilling to assert herself or her ideas. In the Final Exams, she starts to recover from this after a pep talk from Todoroki and successfully implementing a plan to defeat Aizawa.
  • This just happens to geniuses a lot in the Naruto world, as you would expect from anyone who's ranked especially high within a society of superpowered killers:
    • Itachi Uchiha. He's one of the most talented shinobi in the setting but we also see that he was torn between village and clan and full of emotional turmoil while going about being a 13-year-old The Stoic, and then Danzo pushed it to the crisis point and made him choose. Ultimately he's sacrificed his family, his happiness, and his honor all for the sake of serving the village but it's not hard to understand that a well-adjusted person, let alone a well-adjusted genius, could probably have taken a third option. Itachi's training and issues combined to make him manipulable. In addition to this, after his death, almost all of his plans backfire horribly in his face, as Sasuke goes completely insane and decides to destroy Konoha. Tobi also heavily implies that the only reason he is so strong and wise is because he was so traumatized by war when he was four years old that he had no choice but to grow up quickly.
    • This trope definitely runs in the family. Itachi's brother, Sasuke Uchiha — prodigy, handsome, extremely-skilled ninja, wanted by a lot of girls. But he's also incredibly damaged inside because of his past. It gets worse as the series goes on. He's extremely gifted, able to use some of the strongest attacks seen yet at the ripe age of about seventeen, and can hold it his own against foes like the Raikage. He's even more damaged inside than before and it gets brutally thrown back at him.
    • The legendary Uchiha clan head, Madara Uchiha another one Broken Ace. Having been raised in war and combat, he made a name for himself as one of the world's strongest, always fighting to protect the Uchiha. But after spending most of his life in war and losing all his brothers, Madara finally lost all hope after discovering that human conflict led to people stealing chakra from god, which only made the world worse. At this point he decides that the current world isn't worth caring about and pursues an Assimilation Plot.
    • Sasuke's ex-sensei, Kakashi Hatake, is another Broken Ace, albeit one who remains on the side of good. He was a child prodigy who became a jounin before he even entered his teens, is one of the only non-Uchiha to have mastered the Sharingan, is a skilled elemental user and has over 1000 jutsu at his disposal. He's also eaten up with self-loathing and guilt at not being able to protect his teammates, both of whom are dead, and his father committed suicide in front of him when he was a child. One of his quirks — chronic lateness — is explained by his constant visits to his old teammate Obito's memorial, although it's actually an aspect of his having turned himself into a living memorial; Obito was always late for the reasons that Kakashi uses as excuses in the present. As expected, Kakashi does not take The Reveal that Obito survived and went off the deep end very well.
    • The Legendary Sannins are some of the most renowned ninjas in the world. But they are also some of the most broken individuals and having endured plenty of tragedies.
      • Jiraiya is one of the strongest ninjas in the world and a world-renown author. But he was never able to win Tsunade's heart, the one woman he genuinely had feelings for. He was unable to convince Orochimaru from abandoning the village. He also blames himself for being unable to save either his teacher Hiruzen and his student Minato. And despite his apparent big ego, he had a lot of self-loathing, believing his life was just a long string of failures.
      • Orochimaru was a talented shinobi since he was a child, with his skills growing ever since. He developed into an amazing scientist. But his love for obtaining every jutsu sent him into a downward spiral of crime, leading to him defecting from the Leaf and transforming into a complete sociopath. The bonds he had with his teammates, teacher, and the village were irrevocably damaged. By the start and end of the series, Orochimaru was a wanted Missing-Nin.
      • Tsunade is the most well regarded and famous Medic Nin and has been dubbed, "The World's Most Beautiful and Strongest Woman". But she also lost her only sibling to war, was unable to save her fiance's life despite her prowess, and developed a fear of blood ever since (though she did get over that). She then spent years away from her home (along with Shizune and Tonton), gambling and drinking. Things did get better after reconciling with Jiraiya and meeting Naruto, but then Jiraiya dies on her right when it looked like they might have been able to kindle something.
    • Naruto himself grows into one. His badass boasts gain credibility the more he matures and he also grows handsome and a weapons-grade badass with various girls in his village taking a liking to him after he saves them from Pain. However, he also suffers massive guilt over not being able to save Sasuke, hides deep insecurities behind a goofy attitude and smile and endures numerous Break the Cutie ordeals one which includes his parents sacrificing themselves so that he could survive and sealing the Nine Tails Fox inside him when he was just a baby and his best friend whom he is trying to save trying to kill him numerous times. There's also the fact that should Akatsuki take the nine tails fox from him he'll die. He's also determined to save Sasuke to the point of losing an arm to him.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka Langley Sohryu. At the beginning of the show, Asuka has the highest sync ratio, is the most superlatively trained pilot, and has a college degree at age 13. While Shinji cowers and struggles to overcome his fear of giant horrible aliens trying to kill him, Asuka readily jumps into the fray to kick ass and take names...only to be revealed to be crippled by parental issues, combat stress, and adolescent angst. Oh, and a bit after Shinji passes her in synch tests (essentially taking away her "best pilot" status), she is hit with a Mind Rape.
  • One Piece:
    • Portgas D. Ace. One of the most powerful pirates under Whitebeard's command, owning nearly everyone he comes across...until he meets Blackbeard. After being imprisoned in Impel Down, he is revealed to have a lot of angst about his father (none other than Gold Roger) and barely even wanting to live. And once his little brother Luffy frees him and gives him a second chance? He takes a lava punch from a General Ripper to protect the poor kid, then dies in his arms. To explain how badly broken Ace was, one must know the Driving Question of his life. The question which he spent his entire life searching for, that he continued to live to find the answer to...was whether or not he deserved to be born. He was that broken.
    • All the of the Seven Warlords of the Sea are supposed to be The Aces who can match the Four Emperors along with the Marines, however, all of the Warlords, saved for Blackbeard and Buggy, are people with severe emotional and mental issues. Crocodile had his will broken by the harshness of the Grand Line, and tries to take over a kingdom and turn it into a military state. Mihawk is constantly bored since no one can challenged his sword skills. Hancock was enslaved as a child by the World Nobles and has a tattoo permanently embedded on her back. Jimbei lost his captain and friend who was betrayed by humans, his queen was killed by an assassin, and Arlong went on to terrorized East Blue after he was freed since he became a Warlord. Doflamingo is a former World Noble who was exiled, hunted, and tormented by people who were wronged by the World Nobles, lost his mom to illness, and was raised by a gang who treated him like a god. Moriah had his entire crew wiped out by one of the Four Emperors and tried to create a pirate crew of zombies so he never has to experience that lost again. Kuma was slowly turned into a mindless cyborg and now has no will of his own. Law, the newest member after the two year time-skip, had his life ruined because the World Government covered up how his home got lead poisoning (which caused other kingdoms to wall off his city-state and kill anyone who tried to escape), he only had a few years to live because of said poisoning, his entire family was murdered by people who thought his illness was contagious, and his father-figure was murdered saving his life both from Doflamingo and his illness.
    • Charlotte Katakuri is regarded as The Ace of the Big Mom Pirates. He's calm, composed, gallant, serious, doesn't underestimate his enemies, all with the kind of strength that makes him able to easily toy with Luffy. But while he is very powerful, all of this is an act. Due to being bullied as a child for his "pelican-eel" mouth, he's gone out of his way to hide his true self from others. In reality, Katakuri is an extremely insecure individual who is so desperate to Never Be Hurt Again that he has concealed every single personality trait that can be construed as a "flaw" (such as the gluttony and hedonism that every member of his family has in some form) and deliberately cultivated his image as the "perfect" older brother to earn the adoration of his family. As a result, he is constantly under an immense amount of pressure and stress to maintain this facade, and copes by allowing his mask to drop during his daily "snack time", which he spends in isolation. Anyone who has the misfortune of seeing him without the mask is killed immediately, as Katakuri is that terrified of people knowing the real him. Eventually, however, it's revealed it's not his face that's he's worried about. Rather, it's his siblings. As a kid, he didn't give a damn about what others thought of his face and just beat up anyone who insulted him, until one such group of his victims decided to get payback by brutally scarring the face of his sister, Broule. Realizing his carelessness led to one of his beloved siblings getting hurt by proxy, he adopted the "perfect" image in order to instill a fear in everyone so great they would never attempt such a stunt again.
  • Oz Vessalius of PandoraHearts is, according to the guidebook Pandora Hearts 24 + 1: Last Dance, good at pretty much everything. Unfortunately, he has more emotional issues than...well.
  • Persona 4: The Animation establishes that even though Yu Narukami pretty much an expert at nearly everything and can max out a Social Link within a short amount of time, he's actually broken inside due to having to leave his school and friends in Tokyo for a year. This gets even worse due to the fact that he now has to leave his new friends in Inaba which was apparently the most fun he's had, leading to the point where he's willing to let Izanami trap him in a Lotus-Eater Machine just so he doesn't have to leave everyone behind. Margaret manages to snap him out of it and forces him to confront his Shadow, who panics about him constantly having to leave everything and everyone behind, rendering him alone and helpless.
  • Oboro Mochizuki of Psyren. He's a Long-Haired Pretty Boy, is a movie star and idol, has the ability to master PSI abilities with almost no effort, has healing ability and excels in Rise type of PSI. However, he also has a hidden screwed up and sadistic side. He shows it when he uses his "First aid heal" at full power against a Tavoo, just to see what would happen — instead of bringing the Tavoo back to normal, it overloaded its regenerative capabilities and turned it into a bloated, misshapen blob.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica has two of these: Mami and Homura.
  • Akio Ohtori of Revolutionary Girl Utena. He once was the most generous and sweet person as Prince Dios, but his terrible experiences left him completely disenchanted and embittered. Now he's a Magnificent Bastard who manipulates everyone and everything, including Anthy, his little sister, who is pretty much trapped in a Fate Worse than Death after trying to help him.
  • Rurouni Kenshin has a whole Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass thing going, like Vash above, but with those who know the truth about him cultivates a type of guardian dragon image and attempts to show no genuine weaknesses because they're under his protection and look up to him, and is almost universally admired and feared under his Nom de Guerre. He is, however, crawling with issues, mostly self-doubt and self-loathing but also some serious unresolved conflicts in his personal philosophy. Understandable in someone traumatically orphaned and enslaved around eight, raised by a tsundere drunkard genius with a very cynical view of the world, and became a terrifyingly effective assassin at fourteen. Who is now a Technical Pacifist. In a nation that has just pulled itself out of war and is in its way to become Imperial Japan. His story is a Take That! to the whole Jidaigeki fiction genre, and it shows.
  • Minako Aino in the manga version of Sailor Moon: she's the most experienced of the Sailor Senshi, can annihilate opponents with Super-Strength without transforming, brings couples together by just being around them for an extended period of time, is an awesome athlete and singer... And is the local Stepford Smiler due having to kill her own love interest and realizing she would always choose duty over love (something that stings her hard, as she can see the Irony of being this and a Love Goddess at the same time). The fact she can't ask the others for help coping with it lest it comes out she's not the role model she feels she has to be only makes it worse, and in fact she doesn't even start recovering until the immense strain of her normal troubles and what she was going through in the Dream arc makes her break character.
  • Phoenix Ikki in Saint Seiya is LEAGUES over the other Bronze Saints in fighting ability, and his Phoenix Cloth guarantees that, even if defeated, he comes back stronger and more dangerous every time. However, getting that Cloth was an ordeal that scarred him for life, and even having his friends as support he still has trouble coping with friendship and companionship.
  • Souma Saiki of Sakura Gari. A man with borderline-unearthly beauty who's extremely cultured and a genius businessman...but also a cynical Depraved Bisexual who has been through severe abuse of all kinds.
  • Shinnosuke Yamazaki from Sakura Wars was a brilliant engineer and a hero alongside his team (Team Hanagumi's predecessors). According to the anime, he was also obsessed with finding a permanent solution to Tokyo's monster problem; he went mad after finding out they exist As Long as There Is Evil. When he couldn't beat them, he joined them and became Aoi Satan.
  • Sakuya Ookochi from Sensual Phrase. Tall, Dark, and Handsome, with a great singing voice, extremely sexy and charismatic, and with a very cute and loving girlfriend who's also a talented songwriter. However, he's also completely messed up due to his seriously fucked up views on love and sexuality (poor, poor Aine) as well as a terrible past that involves his Lady Drunk mother's death, the discrimination he faced as both a half-foreigner and a Heroic Bastard, and lots of other stuff.
  • Kaede Rukawa from Slam Dunk. Girls want him. Boys want to be him. But basketball is his one true passion and he pursued it relentlessly to the detriment of his social life.
  • Loid Forger aka Twilight from Spyx Family. Being the world's best spy admired by multiple women and his fellow agents, he's a very attractive and intelligent man with countless talents and skills that enables him to complete innumerable missions without a hitch. However, he also has a horrific past where he was orphaned and emotionally scarred due to war and discards any chance in having an ordinary life just to prevent another one from happening.
  • Ryu from Tantei Gakuen Q. For a middle schooler, he has quite a lot of achievements. Let's see, he's the only one who passes the Q-Class preliminary test with perfect score, has a great martial arts prowess, finishes a 3-year middle school curriculum in only one year, has the qualification to enter MIT, excels in mathematics as proven by solving Todai-class math problem in less time than needed, has research background with mathematics researchers from MIT (he worked together with them, mind you), speaks fluent English, has the qualification to become a home tutor for a high-schooler taking entrance exam to medical school, quickly adapts to disguise lesson compared with others, as skilled as (if not slightly less than) Kyu in term of solving mysteries, clearly has the looks that can make girls fawn over him... Except he can be quite hasty when it involves Takumi Kuzuryuu's works and/or Meiosei, a criminal organization specialized in devising perfect crime plan as shown when he made a careless and weak deduction in one case. Also, not having his childhood memories because he was under strong hypnosis and inner conflict for being both member of Q-Class and grandson of Meiosei's leader and founder, the cause of his hasty deduction in previously mentioned case greatly trouble him. Thankfully, he got better.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kamina. He was an insecure young man painfully aware of his own shortcomings who always relied on others. The only thing he could do was inspire other people, most notably Simon (considering how valuable this was, this was quite useful). Word of God is that he had the lowest potential for Spiral Power among the main cast because of this (excluding Viral, a Beastman who cannot naturally produce Spiral energy to begin with). Spiral Power depends on a person believing in himself/herself, which Kamina could never do.
  • Barnaby Brooks Jr. from Tiger & Bunny. In the public eye he's a handsome new up-and-coming superhero and friend of the people; charming, well-educated, eminently marketable. In private he's cold, cynical, obsessively introverted, haunted by a Dark and Troubled Past involving the murder of his beloved parents when he was just four years old, has severe trust and relationship issues and has never had a single friend.
    • Barnaby's situation turns out to be worse than he himself believed when it's revealed that his parents' murderer is the man who eventually became his trusted mentor and guardian of 20 years; a man who's in the habit of doctoring people's (including Barnaby's, obviously) memories whenever he wants them to do his bidding. Is it any wonder the poor guy's so messed up?
    • And then we find out that Mr. Legend, everyone's favorite Old Superhero, became one after losing his powers and descending into alcoholism and Domestic Abuse. Which caused his son Yuri (whom we'd meet as Lunatic) to horribly snap...and kill him.
    • In a milder version, Keith "Sky High" Goodman temporarily went through this after the Time Skip when he loses his title as King of the Heroes, slips further down the ranks, and has to come to terms with his defeat at the hands of Jake Martinez. After falling in love with a strange and quiet girl in the park, he regains his confidence in himself and his abilities. And then he accidentally kills her when she appears as a supervillain and doesn't even know it until her creator locks him in a deathtrap and concludes his bigoted rant with a You Killed My Father Wham Line for extra insult.
  • Aoyama Masaya from Tokyo Mew Mew tries hard to be a perfect son and student in order to hide his rather misanthropic personality and the conflicts that come with it. He also admits that the facade is largely out of practicality, since seeming like an ideal kid was the surest way to get adopted.
  • Tokyo Ghoul:
    • For all of skills and talent, including good looks, Amon is really, really messed up all things considered. Not only does he inflict massive self-deprivation, but he's so utterly devoted to ridding the world of Ghouls he has no real individual happiness. Considering how he tends to be the Sole Survivor of many things in his life, it's not hard to see why.
    • In the sequel manga, Akira refers to Sasaki as "The Ace of the Mado group". He hides it well from most people, but he's about a broken as a person can be due to his past and present while still being relatively functional and maintaining a handsome star pupil state. In general, he masks his massive emotional and psychological issues behind a cheerful smile, terrible puns, and a gentle attitude.
    • Tsukiyama is a smart exceptionally handsome young man with impeccable manners who comes from a rich family. He also happens to be the gourmet ghoul and he is incredibly cruel in his methods of securing the ultimate dish made from ghoul/human flesh. He grows obsessed with Kaneki and pursues him, with his feelings implied to grow to be romantic. Unfortunately, his attachment to Kaneki leads to him suffering horribly and nearly starving himself to death due to mourning over Kaneki's supposed death.
    • It's not until his final battle with Kaneki that we learn just how broken Arima is. He's a flawed Half-Human Hybrid doomed to die of internal Rapid Aging (he's already suffering premature hair whitening and glaucoma) thanks to his hybrid Ghoul genetics who was bred to be a glorified Elite Mook for V, and he hated every second of his life as their pet murder machine. Arima also didn't exactly have the best social life. He's simultaneously revered and resented (meaning he has few actual friends) by his colleagues, making him seem rather lonely.
  • Vash of Trigun is quite possibly the best gun-fighter on Gunsmoke, effectively immortal, and has saved countless lives. However, he has also suffered immense tragedies, his body is littered with the scars and wounds of his battles, and for every life he fails to save he falls into a depression. He tries to hide the bleaker side of his existence by constantly smiling, goofing off, and partying whenever possible.
    • Vash approaches this trope extremely sideways, given that the classic Broken Ace is preoccupied with appearances and Vash has three distinct reputations: the way people think about his name, the way people who meet him casually view him, and the way people think of him after he saves the day. The three interact in strange ways. Vash wants to be seen as harmless, except when he's using his scary rep to intimidate opponents or clear innocents out of ricochet range, but his actual excellence and kindness draw a lot of admiration when observed. On the other hand, his emotional issues combined with his evil reputation can attract a lot of serious hate.
      • That is to say, he tries to be a loveable fool except when it's necessary to be otherwise, but is often believed to be the Big Bad or The Ace depending on what data observers have.
    • Vash is also a Broken Ace in that he tries to be a Wide-Eyed Idealist in a setting that is far too cynical to let him be successful at it.
  • ViVid Strike!: Rinne may be one of the best fighters in the world, able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Vivio and Miura, but her history of bullying has left her psychologically scarred, and inadvertently ruining her friendship with Fuka has done her no favors.
  • Voltes V: Subverted. While Heinel graduated at the top of his Military School, is the only one competent enough to lead the Earth Invasion, is a Master Swordsman and an excellent pilot, he is also a laughing stock amongst Zambajil and his court of nobles. By the end of the series, all his comrades have been killed off one by one, the Empire he's fighting for is falling and he finds out that he's been fighting against his own family. And then he goes out via Redemption Equals Death.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Seto Kaiba mixes this with Villain with Good Publicity on one hand and Noble Demon on the other. He's a world-famous duelist, a child genius, and the billionaire head of a hugely successful multi-national gaming company. He's also completely uncaring of anyone outside his Morality Pet Mokuba, is filled with hatred for Yugi for being a better duelist, is haunted by the memory of his abusive stepfather, and is completely absorbed in his work and his dueling, showing little, if any, interest in anything else.
    • Judai Yuki becomes a deconstruction of The Ace in Season 3 of Sequel Series Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Success has always come so easily for him that he puts too much pressure on himself to be a perfect, invincible hero who can never let anyone down until he finally snaps under it and falls over the Despair Event Horizon.
    • Hell Kaiser Ryo suffered a similar breakdown — one major loss for the undefeated champion made him lose all sense of self-worth until a Freak Out transformed him into a Combat Sadomasochist.
  • Kouji Nanjo from Zetsuai (1989). He's handsome, smart, good at kendo, excellent in singing and songwriting, and from a powerful and rich family. And he's also a BUNDLE of issues.
  • Zombie Land Saga:
    • The main heroine Sakura Minamoto has proven to be incredibly talented in many fields. As an idol she's a skilled singer, dancer, team player, and was shown to have great potential in sports and academics, having trained enough to be the fastest runner in her age group in preparation for a relay race and scored very high during mock exams for the best high school in Saga. Unfortunately most of her efforts have been spoiled by a series of misfortunes striking at the most inopportune moments, leaving her jaded and apathetic about the possibility of ever realizing her dreams before Iron Frill came along.
    • Ai Mizuno was once the legendary center for Iron Frill, one of the biggest idol groups in Japan. Her life was cut short by a freak lightning storm that killed her onstage in front of thousands. Having since been revived as a zombie, she's hurt deep down that her life and legacy have become nothing more than a sensationalized tragedy, and desperately wishes to relive her glory days and undo the damage to her image.
    • Junko Konno was a pioneer of idol culture in The '80s before dying in a plane crash at nineteen. Now revived as a zombie in the 2010s, she finds herself incredibly out of place as an 80s idol in the age of social media, and begins to seriously doubt whether or not she can have any relevance among her peers.

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