History BrokenAesop / AnimeandManga

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
** Gentle Criminal's [[StartOfDarkness backstory]], where he attempted to illegally use his powers to save a civilian and ended up severely hurting the man instead, leading to Gentle being ostracized and having his life ruined, carries with it the harsh lesson that laws exist for a good reason, and attempting to do something illegal and/or unsafe, no matter how good of a cause it's for, can cause extreme harm, and you need to let trained professionals handle dangerous situations. This, however, ignores the times that the ''protagonists'' acted outside the law and ultimately didn't have things backfire on them. Izuku and Shoto disobeying orders, running off and using their powers illegally against Stain helped save Tenya's life and bring Stain down, and at the end the police chief agreed to sweep their actions under the rug. In another case, when the students of Class 1-A sneak off to rescue Bakugou from the League of Villains, they don't directly cause any harm or suffer any punishment apart from Aizawa's threats of expulsion which he never follows up on. All Might lost his powers not because of carelessness on the students' part, but because he was trying to protect Bakugou and fight his ArchEnemy at the same time, both things which would have happened no matter what the class did in that situation. So the lesson ends up being "don't do something illegal for a good cause, because only TheHero has good enough judgement to do that without causing unforeseen problems".
** To a lesser extent, the story's premise that "anyone can become a hero" falls completely on its face when you remember that [[UnSorcerer Midoriya]] wouldn't have been capable of pretty much ''any'' of the feats he pulls off without the incredible legacy of [[StoryBreakerPower One For All]] backing him up at every turn. If he hadn't had his fateful encounter with All Might to pass those powers on, he would have amounted to little more than a RedShirt even if he [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower trained his body]], since EveryoneIsASuper. So the Aesop ends up being, "anyone [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections with the ear of those who are already powerful]] can become a hero".

* The moral of ''Literature/RingingBell'' is supposed to be that VengeanceFeelsEmpty and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters obsessing over revenge can make you into a monster]], as Chirin kills Woe but the sheep all reject him for his monstrous appearance and behavior and he's now alone in the world after having killed someone who he came to see as a surrogate father figure. The anime somewhat fumbles this, however, as Chirin attacking Woe isn't portrayed as him doing it out of the desire for revenge, but rather to protect the other sheep in the pasture after being reminded of his mother protecting him. This makes the other sheep rejecting Chirin at the end come off more as a mix of NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished and UngratefulBastard.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': When Tai first discovers the Crest of Courage, he tries to force Greymon to Digivolve by recklessly jumping in front of his enemy. The action causes Greymon to Digivolve into [=SkullGreymon=], who goes on a rampage. Though he's EasilyForgiven, during the actions Tai is reprimanded by the rest of the team for his recklessness. But at the end of the Etemon arc, Tai gets Greymon to Digivolve into [=MetalGreymon by=]... recklessly charging toward the BigBad and beckoning him to fight, and thus finally defeating him. This is seen as an act of courage. So what is the message here? "Recklessness is okay if your friends approve of it"?

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'''s messages of chasing freedom from oppression ring hollow when it turns out that despite being the most vocal about it, the protagonist, Eren Yeager, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo was a slave to fate]] [[spoiler:and Ymir Fritz]] the whole time. To elaborate, [[spoiler:The Paths are a form of GeneticMemory that allow Ymir's descendants to see the past and future, and the Attack Titan to communicate across time. After finally gaining control of all his Titan powers, Eren uses the Paths to see the future where he [[WellIntentionedExtremist exterminates most of humanity to give his friends the freedom he desires for them]], and concludes it's the only way forward. To that end, he uses the communication to arrange certain moments, such as forcing the Smiling Titan to eat his own mother and [[MindRape mentally tormenting his father]] into stealing the Coordinate Titan to ensure he becomes the person who decides to commit genocide on the people outside the walls. To make matters worse is the implication that [[GreaterScopeVillain Ymir Fritz is the true mastermind]] behind the events of the series, wanting to wipe out humanity for how she was treated and manipulating her descendants through the Paths [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist to ensure only they get to survive her genocidal wish]]]].

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' suffers from this a bit when not executed properly:
** The running theme of the entire franchise is "WarIsHell", but some series will demonstrate this by having giant, awesome battles between slick, badass HumongousMecha, and often the "Hell" aspect only comes from people dying, sometimes in [[DiabolusExMachina ludicrously tragic ways]] (see: ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam''), making the lesson look like "[[DoNotDoThisCoolThing War is awesome, it's dying that sucks]]." The [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam original]] [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam three]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ anime]] of the Universal Century actually avert this in that while the battles are still engaging as what moves the narrative forward and what help exemplify the CharacterDevelopment of the pilots, the series go out of their way to establish that the victories in battle are not worth the emotional trauma of being in mortal danger with no escape, being responsible for ending lives even if it's in the pursuit of a good cause, losing loved ones, sometimes right in front of your eyes, and facing horrors the still-teenaged pilots should never experience. Amuro is still traumatized seven years later, Kamille is mentally and emotionally worn down to the point of being comatose, and Judau becomes so cynical he leaves the Earth sphere entirely to never fight another pointless war. It's also notable that the UC timeline is the only Gundam timeline to have many large scale wars break out throughout it, far more than any other Gundam timeline. Within it there is at least 9 (11 if count Turn A Gundam and Reconguista In G) anime UC Gundam series with 9 major wars.
** Lampshaded for tragedy in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'', where Al begins the series loving Mobile Suits and thinking a battle that nearly saw a Zaku crashing into their school was awesome, then at the end, having seen the real damage war causes firsthand and lost people he cared about in it, breaks down into tears -- all while his friends gush about how the next war is gonna have even more awesome battles with even cooler-looking mobile suits ([[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam they're not wrong]]).

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'''s messages of chasing freedom from oppression ring hollow when it turns out that despite being the most vocal about it, the protagonist, Eren Yeager, [[YouCantFightFate was a slave to fate]] [[spoiler:and possible Ymir Fritz]] the whole time. To elaborate, [[spoiler:The Paths are a form of GeneticMemory that allow Ymir's descendants to see the past and future, and the Attack Titan to communicate across time. After finally gaining control of all his Titan powers, Eren uses the Paths to see the future where he exterminates most of humanity to give his friends the freedom he desires for them, and concludes it's the only way forward. To that end, he uses the communication to arrange certain moments, such as forcing the Smiling Titan to eat his own mother and [[MindRape mentally tormenting his father]] into stealing the Coordinate Titan to ensure he becomes the person who decides to commit genocide on the people outside the walls. To make matters worse is the implication that Ymir Fritz is the true mastermind behind the events of the series, wanting to wipe out humanity for how she was treated and manipulating her descendants through the Paths to ensure only they get to survive her genocidal wish]].

** In ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'', one episode has Henri back up Homare's dream to be a hero by indulging in his own pastime of crossdressing. He uses it to prove to Masato that a person doesn't have to stick by rigid gender roles in order to be happy, and Masato eventually comes to see his point of view by the end when he sees just how capable the Cures are at being heroes. A fine thing to teach the young girls and adults watching; though to some longtime fans, it came across as a cold comfort to those who watched the previous season, ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode''. A bit of minor controversy arose over a lategame shakeup: due to [[spoiler: Pekorin being allowed to turn into a Cure in the second-to-last episode, but Pikario getting restricted to an eerily Cure-''like'' powerup 10 episodes before despite being established prior that he wanted to become a Cure, unlike the former's case]], the suddenness of [[spoiler: Pekorin's change]] caused some to think it was enforced to ensure the unwritten [[spoiler: "No Male Cures"]] policy. That group wound up indirectly getting the opposite message when the two events were strung together: a boy can wish to be a princess if he wants, but [[spoiler: he can never truly become one.]] This is ultimately averted near the end when Henri [[spoiler: actually does become a Precure, Cure Infini, alongside many other people in order to defeat the BigBad.]]

** The story attempts to be a race allegory using {{beastmen}} and humans. The second half of the series almost renders it moot by dropping TheReveal that beastman are genetically predisposed to violence: when sufficiently stressed out, Beastmen can and will uncontrollably transform into terrifyingly powerful monsters that will blindly maim and destroy anything in their path. Meaning that humans are perfectly ''justified'' in not trusting their anthropomorphic brethren and wanting to either eradicate then or forcibly turn them all human. Which is the exact opposite idea you want to plant in a series that had spent several episodes going "racism is bad" and just had the main character admit to and apologize for their irrational bigotry the episode before. Even though the show ends with the characters curing this affliction, thus making it a non-factor for the future of this world, it's hard to forget the fact that they accidentally undermined their anti-racism message an hour prior.

** In ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'', one episode has Henri back up Homare's dream to be a hero by indulging in his own pastime of crossdressing. He uses it to prove to Masato that a person doesn't have to stick by rigid gender roles in order to be happy, and Masato eventually comes to see his point of view by the end when he sees just how capable the Cures are at being heroes. A fine thing to teach the young girls and adults watching; though to some longtime fans, it came across as a cold comfort to those who watched the previous season, ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode''. A bit of minor controversy arose over a lategame shakeup: due to [[spoiler: Pekorin being allowed to turn into a Cure in the second-to-last episode, but Pikario getting restricted to an eerily Cure-''like'' powerup 10 episodes before despite being established prior that he wanted to become a Cure, unlike the former's case]], the suddenness of [[spoiler:Pekorin's change]] caused some to think it was enforced to ensure the unwritten [[spoiler: "No Male Cures"]] policy. That group wound up indirectly getting the opposite message when the two events were strung together: a boy can wish to be a princess if he wants, but [[spoiler: he can never truly become one.]] This is ultimately averted near the end, when Henri [[spoiler: actually does become a Precure, Cure Infini, alongside many other people in order to defeat the BigBad.]]

** In ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'', one episode has Henri back up Homare's dream to be a hero by indulging in his own pastime of crossdressing. He uses it to prove to Masato that a person doesn't have to stick by rigid gender roles in order to be happy, and Masato eventually comes to see his point of view by the end when he sees just how capable the Cures are at being heroes. A fine thing to teach the young girls and adults watching; though to some longtime fans, it came across as a cold comfort to those that watched the previous season, ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode''. A bit of minor controversy arose over a lategame shakeup: due to [[spoiler: Pekorin being allowed to turn into a Cure in the second-to-last episode, but Pikario getting restricted to an eerily Cure-''like'' powerup 10 episodes before despite his development]], the suddenness of [[spoiler:Pekorin's change]] caused some to think it was enforced to ensure the unwritten [[spoiler: "No Male Cures"]] policy. That group wound up indirectly getting the opposite message when the two events were strung together: a boy can wish to be a princess if he wants, but [[spoiler: he can never truly become one.]] This is ultimately averted near the end, when Henri [[spoiler: actually does become a Precure, Cure Infini, alongside many other people in order to defeat the BigBad.]]

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has an in-universe example, where Madoka goes to her mother to ask what she should do to resolve a difficult situation between her friends. Her mother advises her that if there's no clear "right" answer to the situation but she still needs to do ''something'', then it's okay to do something that seems wrong in the short term; if anything, learning to deal with mistakes is part of growing up. However, this turns out to have been terrible advice for Madoka's situation: [[spoiler: it causes Madoka to throw Sayaka's SoulJar off a bridge, revealing the truth of her abilities and kicking off her SanitySlippage]]. The series reconstructs it, illustrating exactly ''why'' sometimes a mistake is worth making for the lesson learned: [[spoiler: It ruined ''Sayaka's'' life to know that she's undead, but the understanding that Madoka gains from making that mistake allows her to finally get one over on Kyubey, and he'd never have revealed the truth if he wasn't rubbing it in her face.]]

''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' and ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' have [[BrokenAesop/{{Naruto}} their]] own [[BrokenAesop/YuGiOh pages]].

''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has [[BrokenAesop/{{Naruto}} its own page]].

* ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'' has a couple, mostly by virtue of being a HappyEndingOverride that turns Yugi and Atem's final duel into a catalyst for the plot and the scope of what the characters intend to accomplish.
** Kaiba spends much of the film in an obsessive state, trying futilely to see Atem while being told that Atem has moved on and isn't coming back, with [[spoiler:Yugi recompleting the Puzzle to prove it]]. Throughout the movie Yugi and his friends have moved on from the loss, Yugi gives Kaiba a speech directly telling him to move on, and [[spoiler:Atem himself takes the Puzzle to the afterlife with him]]. Kaiba then decides that [[spoiler:if he can't bring Atem back, he'll meet Atem by going to the afterlife instead, leaving Mokuba to run his company in his stead]].
** In the manga and anime, the Ceremonial Battle was all about Yugi overcoming Atem in a duel to prove he had grown to the point he no longer needed his other self and was ready to be on his own. In this film, much of the film is spent building up the ideas that Yugi has grown as a duelist, and he and Kaiba need to move on with their lives and accept Atem isn't coming back. [[spoiler:Then the possessed Aigami is about to deal the game-ending blow when Atem spontaneously returns to save Yugi and defeat Aigami, showing that Yugi does still need his help sometimes]].
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' states repeatedly that having fun at a game is more important than who wins and who loses. Jaden, the main character, very nearly ''wins every time'', and many of his duels have nothing at stake, so it's not as though he couldn't afford a few black marks on his record. It's even worse when you take into account how much [[SeriousBusiness importance]] the card game is given in-universe; the same level as friggin ''politics and economics''. This is eventually deconstructed and becomes the driving point of the plot, with Judai realizing how broken his Aesop is after the duels stop being fun, the stakes are increased, and that he wins all the time regardless.
** One episode has Juden Duel a guy who's essentially used CharlesAtlasSuperpower to master TheMagicPokerEquation, and who relies entirely on his ability to draw any card he wants. The moral, along with the usual "have fun and don't take it too seriously", is "you can't just use luck to carry you; you have to use strategy as well." This is coming from a character whose ability to always get the right card is an explicit part of his character, to the point of one opponent literally building their strategy around countering it (and failing).
** One duel had Syrus and Hassleberry forced into somewhat of a tag duel with Thunder and Frost, two members of the {{Big Bad}}'s sister's QuirkyMinibossSquad. After a few snarky comments, they realize that they need to put aside their differences and work together lest they become hostages to lure Jaden into a trap. However, just as they are about to overcome the TeethClenchedTeamwork of their adversaries, Frost activates a trap at the last minute to pull out a victory while throwing his partner under the bus, rendering the protagonists' team efforts meaningless.
*** This is made worse when you realize that Hassleberry and Syrus don't mind working together-aside from a few snarky comments, they barely argue compared to Frost and Thunder. The problem is that their backs are facing each other, so they're unable to work together even if though want to, as they don't know what their teammate is going to play next. The solution they come up with is that they use their opponents cards as mirrors, but, as stated above, they fail anyway.
*** This also applies to Frost and Thunder themselves, as both are treated as babies for arguing and not working together. However, this only applies to Thunder, as he completely ignores his partner's moves, while Frost is justifiably angry at Thunder for not listening to him.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'':
** Several times, the series gives the moral that "no card is worthless, just as no person is worthless." However, this is undercut by the fact that protagonist Yusei Fudo uses one of the most powerful decks in the series, full of Synchros ranging from rare to one-of-a-kind. What's more, every time he uses "worthless" cards to make this point, he quickly reverts to his usual Deck. And in any case, ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' is kind of a terrible game to make this moral with, being laden with cards that are either [[JokeCharacter completely useless]] or [[PowerCreep strictly outclassed;]] every time Yusei tried to prove the moral, the card he used was a LethalJokeCharacter at worst. One wonders what he'd do with something like [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Morinphen Morinphen...]]
** Team Unicorn is constantly praised for their amazing teamwork, yet Andre did the majority of the work in their match against Team 5D's by defeating Jack and Aki, as well as cutting Yusei's life points in half. It gets even worse when it's revealed that in all previous team matches before this one, Andre was able to beat all three members of ''every'' opposing team by himself without shifting to Breo or Jean. Worse, their apparent dueling performance does not back this up; Breo's entire strategy doesn't even ''slightly'' intersect with his teammate's. It's contrasted even further by the fact that, while the moral is supposed to be "Team 5Ds was at a disadvantage because they didn't have teamwork", the fact is, they still won that duel, despite relying entirely on Yusei.
** At the end of said Duel, Jean decides to break from the script set up before the Duel, in favor of trying to defeat Yusei through a more aggressive method rather than simply letting him deck out. This is treated by the narrative as a good thing, since he's gone from thinking in terms of pure analytics to doing [[DontThinkFeel what he feels he should do]]. The problem is that not only does this break the above moral on teamwork even further (since it means completely ignoring all the hard work Breo put in to deplete Yusei's deck), but it causes him to lose when he triggers Yusei's defenses, and by extension, causes Team Unicorn to ultimately be knocked out of the tournament altogether. So actually, if Jean had stuck to his rigid script and not gone with his gut, he would have won.
** In general, the moral of the entire WRGP arc is intended to be of teamwork and ThePowerOfFriendship. This isn't borne out, because Team 5D's works together by ''far'' the least of any of the onscreen teams. Every other team runs synergetic if not outright identical decks and frequently dedicate themselves to a single strategy to the point of members deliberately sacrificing themselves, while the members of Team 5D's run personalized and completely dissimilar decks and pursue totally unrelated strategies, at most leaving a card or two for their teammate. Further undermining this is the presence of [[InvincibleHero Yusei,]] who is the ultimate victor of almost every battle in the tournament, the most skilled and successful member of his team by a significant margin, and the only member who never loses. It's hard to take the idea of teamwork seriously when you get the feeling that Jack, Crow, and Aki could have spent their duels blowing spit bubbles and Yusei would have still carried the whole thing. Not to mention on a meta level, this arc saw most of the prior cast be DemotedToExtra - particularly Ruka and Rua, who have almost no role at all in the entire arc, and Aki, whose only role was to fail at filling in for Crow. Essentially, it asks us to care about the cast's teamwork while writing only the three protagonists as significant and only the protagonist as competent.
** The moral of Aki's first Duel with Yusei was that she had to learn to think for herself and couldn't just let one person think for her. But when she makes a HeelFaceTurn, a large chunk of her screentime is spent on being Yusei's SatelliteLoveInterest, and her only arc is dedicated to trying to copy something Yusei does.
** The Crimson Devil mini-arc deals with Jack accepting that he mustn't rely purely on his power strategy or else he will die. He keeps refusing to accept that until he does something else. But in the end, he's rewarded with an upgrade that gives him even more power and it gives him the victory.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' goes for a CheatersNeverProsper moral a number of times, a common one in the franchise - but Yuma only succeeds as he does because he has Astral giving him tips, and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers the ability]] to alter the result of his draws.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' suffers heavily from having ''two'' major morals and attempting to switch between them from episode to episode - specifically, "making people smile and entertaining others are the best things ever", and "WarIsHell and HumansAreBastards". So a number of characters have personal trauma, deep prejudices, or depraved attitudes... but [[AngstWhatAngst it's nothing that five minutes of making them smile can't cure.]] Being an entertainer is awesome and will lead you to greatness... but Yuya's biggest successes are found by relying on his SuperpoweredEvilSide, and the most prominent entertainer in the cast besides him is a MemeticLoser. People die in war and it's horrible... but that would be a downer, so it's clear from the start that everyone to "die" by being carded can come back. Making people smile is a good deed... but the villain's entire motivation is steeped in the fact that he did what the audience wanted and was corrupted. Class divisions are dangerous, deep-seated, and hard to remove... but if everyone is smiling because they watched a cool duel, they break down overnight. So entertainment can do anything... except that the main villain's defeat has nothing to do with making him smile; he was [[HeroicSacrifice buried in bodies]] and sealed through magic.
** Overlapping with AesopAmnesia, the intended moral of the Synchro arc was that people have to make their own style. Yuya finds that his entertainment style isn't appealing to people, and Jack calls out Yuya's style of entertaining and dueling as being forced, shallow, and not his own, because [[GenerationXerox it's copied from his father's]] and [[SuperpoweredEvilSide powered by Zarc]]. This does lead to a payoff of Yuya finally developing his own style, along with a set of cards that come from neither, in the final episode of the arc... but then Yuya completely forgets this new style and the cards he created, and goes back to copying his father and borrowing from Zarc for the rest of the series. Where this goes from AesopAmnesia to BrokenAesop is that despite this, Yuya's never shown having any problems entertaining people again, despite his style being as forced, shallow, and not his own as ever. Turns out never doing your own thing is perfectly fine.
** Professor Leo Akaba, the BigBad for most of the story, wants to capture the Bracelet girls and fuse them back into their original incarnation, his daughter Ray. After the conflict with the GreaterScopeVillain Zarc is over, the Professor acknowledges that it was unfair of him to value Ray's existence over the four Bracelet girls' individual lives. However, the story ends with only Yuya and Yuzu retaining their physical form, while their respective dimensional counterparts fuse with them and forever lose their bodies, and the rest of the cast is OK with this.

* The moral of ''Literature/RingingBell'' is supposed to be that VengeanceFeelsEmpty and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters obsessing over revenge can make you into a monster]], as Chirin kills Woe but the sheep all reject him for his monstrous appearance and behavior and he's now alone in the world after having killed someone who he came to see as a surrogate father figure. The anime somewhat fumbles this, however, as Chirin attacking Woe isn't portrayed as him doing it out of the desire for revenge, but rather to protect the other sheep in the pasture after being reminded of his mother protecting him. This makes the other sheep rejecting Chirin at the end come off more as a mix of NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished and UngratefulBastard.

** ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure'' tries very hard to push the message of how being selfish is wrong and you can only truly be happy by helping others, yet two episodes argue ''against'' the moral with the counterargument of "being selfless can lead to burnout and cause more harm than good", as one episode has Mana being put out of commission because she overworked herself helping everyone over every little thing, and [[spoiler:Princess Marie-Ange's attempt to be selfless to her people conflicted with the love of her father (who was corrupted into King Jikochuu), thus was unable to fully commit to the needs of the many leading to her dying and the kingdom getting destroyed. And that's not going into the fact that Mana ''solos'' the BigBad while preaching the "being Selfish is bad" message, especially since before then, every other ''Pretty Cure'' season has the final battle be a group effort between the heroes in order to put the main villain down, yet here the other Cures are hit with TheWorfEffect with their only purpose being to give Mana an EleventhHourSuperPower.]]

** ''Dazzing the Nimbasa Gym'' tries to teach Ash not to overthink things in battle, as his true strength comes from his belief in his Pokémon over strategy. The moral falls apart as Ash's Palpitoad which he expected to sweep Elesa's entire team with was defeated because Elesa used strategy to overcome its type advantage, Ash's Snivy loss was treated as [[DidntThinkThisThrough a lack of strategy]] as opposed to overreliance, and Pikachu who Ash relied on his belief in still needed a strategy to overcome Elesa's Tynamo.

* ''Literature/The8thSonAreYouKiddingMe'' has the main moral that one's birth doesn't determine their status in life, as emphasized by the protagonist going from the youngest son of an ImpoverishedPatrician family [[SelfMadeMan to a powerful player in the kingdom on his own]], and several other characters are motivated to make their own way in the world upon seeing his journey. However, Wendelin also has [[TheGift magic]], which is almost one-in-a-million rare, extremely powerful, and a talent that someone has to be born into as it can't be learned. So your birth decides everything about your success in life--the mistake of the nobles is judging it on the wrong thing.

* ''Literature/TheFruitOfEvolution'' has the overarching moral of [[PrejudiceAesop judging others based on their character instead of their appearance]], starting all the way in the second episode when Seiichi has to realize he was wrong about judging Saria for being an ugly gorilla monster when she [[TakingTheBullet takes an almost-fatal strike]] to save him. Later on, the series uses TheEmpire and the armies of MaouTheDemonKing to explore and show the problems of bigotry and discrimination. Unfortunately, this moral is broken because BeautyEqualsGoodness is in full effect in this series--Seiichi and various members of his harem get ProgressivelyPrettier with every power upgrade, and reasonable characters on each side of the various issues are portrayed as attractive while jerks and incompetents are nearly always [[{{Gonk}} ugly]]. It takes 11 episodes to show a heroic character that is not conventionally attractive, and the only villainous character that's not a hideous {{Gonk}} doesn't even show up until over halfway through the 12th and final episode of the series. So in this universe, you get the sense that it's entirely reasonable to judge based on appearance.

* While ''Literature/HighSchoolProdigiesHaveItEasyEvenInAnotherWorld'' goes out of its way to try to show [[GoodRepublicEvilEmpire how much better democracy is in contrast to the classist, abusive feudal system]], the protagonists don't do many democratic things throughout the story. Instead of negotiating with others or letting the people decide what is best, the protagonists form a ScamReligion to take charge of government and decide what is best for the people and force other countries to bend the knee through superior military technology. In the Yamato arc, the protagonists allow their citizens to vote on the issue of helping Yamato and try not to state their opinion, but this is long after the voters have been influenced by said religion. Worse yet, the Republic of Elm's democratic system would have been subverted by malicious actors without the protagonists' interference.

* ''Literature/IrinaTheVampireCosmonaut'' wants to make a statement about racism through having a vampire suffering bigotry in a stand-in for the Soviet space program, but falls flat because it tries to have things both ways - it starts by telling us several legitimate reasons for why humans would hate and fear a race that's faster, stronger, and regularly kills them for food, but then [[InformedAttribute fails to actually show any of these]] with the eponymous Irina, who has [[OurVampiresAreDifferent almost no vampire-like attributes]], much less any of the ones that would ''warrant'' all the hatred thrown her way, so as to make her more appealing as a protagonist. And that's not even getting into Irina's ''own'' arrogance and bigotry toward humans, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality which the story never really addresses]].
* ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'':
** It spares no effort to criticize classism and make the point that a person's status should be decided by their own merits and not their birth, which is supposed to be exemplified by the protagonist saving the day despite being looked down upon by his fellow students and most of society as a whole. The problem is that said protagonist is [[PersonOfMassDestruction a comically-overpowered genetically-engineered super-mage]] from a rich family, and being literally created to have ridiculous powers that hardly anyone on else on earth can match is the definition of being born into privilege.
** This aesop is broken in perhaps the most blatant way during the first battle between the Bloom and Weed classes. Tatsuya and the others start the conflict and go to great lengths to prove that someone's worth can't be decided by something as simple as a power level number, and that everyone has unique skills and traits that make them valuable in their own way. However, instead of using creative methods that make use of their skills to defeat the arrogant Blooms, the Weeds simply win through brute force. Later arcs show that despite the story taking great pains to convince the reader that everyone has worth and can contribute, Tatsuya's friends can't save the day on their own, and have to rely on him to rescue them from certain defeat.

* ''Literature/KumaKumaKumaBear'':
** Yuna believes that AristocratsAreEvil based on their portrayal in the media she has consumed, and because all the nobles she meets are decent people who genuinely care about the well-being of their territories and people, she has to repeatedly learn the lesson to not judge them based on their birth because classism goes both ways. However, the series then goes on to portray the merchant class as universally corrupt, repulsive, greedy individuals who are extorting the common people through tactics that range from unfair price manipulation all the way up to conspiring with organized crime--exactly as universally despicable as Yuna falsely believes the nobles to be.
** Yuna, being shown as fairly self-centered at the start of the series, gradually learns that taking care of other people is rewarding on its own terms, which is especially shown in her care for Fina and her family. When she visits the seaside town of Millela though, she only takes measures against the bandits raiding the surrounding roads because they dare interfere with her sleep, and she only reason she considers ridding the town of the kraken is that it forms an obstacle in getting the fish she needs to make her favorite dishes.

* ''Literature/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'': Hachiman's character arc is supposed to be about him growing to learn that [[CruelToBeKind tough love]] and [[ZeroApprovalGambit making yourself the target of hatred]] under the guise of helping people is ultimately arrogant, needlessly cynical, ill-informed, and most importantly just plain wrong--problems that are solved with harshness are able to be solved a million times easier with true compassion. However, this is called into question when Hayato and Yukino are shown being as harsh as Hachiman if not more so, and don't suffer any karmic backlash. This makes the Aesop look like it has less to do with the morals of the act, and more with who's carrying it out.

* While ''Literature/HighSchoolProdigiesHaveItEasyEvenInAnotherWorld'' goes out of its way to try to show [[GoodRepublicEvilEmpire how much better democracy is in contrast to the classist, abusive feudal system]], the protagonists don't do many democratic things throughout the story. Instead of negotiating with others or letting the people decide what is best, the protagonists form a ScamReligion to take charge of government and decide what is best for the people and force other countries to bend the knee through superior military technology. In the Yamato arc, the protagonists allow their citizens to vote on the issue of helping Yamato and try not to state their opinion, but this is long after the voters have been influenced by said religion.

* ''Manga/ZekkyouGakkyuu'' has this occur in ''The Bonds Of A Curse''. The story has the ostracized [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Kurosawa]] and the good-looking [[SenpaiKohai Sakahara]], with the former being avoided because of her rumored ability to use voodoo dolls to curse people. Kurosawa turns out to be a very nice person, who loves the little puppy the class is taking care of. And Sakahara is actually a huge jerk, who tortured said puppy as ways of stress-relief until the puppy died. The protagonist asks for Kurosawa's help in using a voodoo doll to curse Sakahara and a moral of "killing is wrong" is tacked onto the end. However, neither of the girls gets in trouble for this and they seem quite happy after avenging the puppy's death. A much more appropriate moral would have been to not judge people's [[BeautyEqualsGoodness goodness]] on [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon their looks]].

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Gentle Criminal's [[StartOfDarkness backstory]], where he attempted to illegally use his powers to save a civilian and ended up severely hurting the man instead, leading to Gentle being ostracized and having his life ruined, carries with it the harsh lesson that laws exist for a good reason, and attempting to do something illegal and/or unsafe, no matter how good of a cause it's for, can cause extreme harm, and you need to let trained professionals handle dangerous situations. This, however, ignores the times that the ''protagonists'' acted outside the law and ultimately didn't have things backfire on them. Izuku and Shoto disobeying orders, running off and using their powers illegally against Stain helped save Tenya's life and bring Stain down, and at the end the police chief agreed to sweep their actions under the rug. In another case, when the students of Class 1-A sneak off to rescue Bakugou from the League of Villains, they don't directly cause any harm or suffer any punishment apart from Aizawa's threats of expulsion which he never follows up on. All Might lost his powers not because of carelessness on the students' part, but because he was trying to protect Bakugou and fight his ArchEnemy at the same time, both things which would have happened no matter what the class did in that situation. So the lesson ends up being "don't do something illegal for a good cause, because only TheHero has good enough judgement to do that without causing unforeseen problems".

* ''LightNovel/TheFruitOfEvolution'' has the overarching moral of [[PrejudiceAesop judging others based on their character instead of their appearance]], starting all the way in the second episode when Seiichi has to realize he was wrong about judging Saria for being an ugly gorilla monster when she [[TakingTheBullet takes an almost-fatal strike]] to save him. Later on, the series uses TheEmpire and the armies of MaouTheDemonKing to explore and show the problems of bigotry and discrimination. Unfortunately, this moral is broken because BeautyEqualsGoodness is in full effect in this series--Seiichi and various members of his harem get ProgressivelyPrettier with every power upgrade, and reasonable characters on each side of the various issues are portrayed as attractive while jerks and incompetents are nearly always [[{{Gonk}} ugly]]. It takes 11 episodes to show a heroic character that is not conventionally attractive, and the only villainous character that's not a hideous {{Gonk}} doesn't even show up until over halfway through the 12th and final episode of the series. So in this universe, you get the sense that it's entirely reasonable to judge based on appearance.

* ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'':

* ''LightNovel/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'': Hachiman's character arc is supposed to be about him growing to learn that [[CruelToBeKind tough love]] and [[ZeroApprovalGambit making yourself the target of hatred]] under the guise of helping people is ultimately arrogant, needlessly cynical, ill-informed, and most importantly just plain wrong--problems that are solved with harshness are able to be solved a million times easier with true compassion. However, this is called into question when Hayato and Yukino are shown being as harsh as Hachiman if not more so, and don't suffer any karmic backlash. This makes the Aesop look like it has less to do with the morals of the act, and more with who's carrying it out.

** The running theme of the entire franchise is "WarIsHell", but some series will demonstrate this by having giant, awesome battles between slick, badass HumongousMecha, and often the "Hell" aspect only comes from people dying, sometimes in [[DiabolusExMachina ludicrously tragic ways]] (see: ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam''), making the lesson look like "[[DoNotDoThisCoolThing War is awesome, it's dying that sucks]]." The [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam original]] [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam three]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ anime]] of the Universal Century actually avert this in that while the battles are still engaging as what moves the narrative forward and what help exemplify the CharacterDevelopment of the pilots, the series go out of their way to establish that the victories in battle are not worth the emotional trauma of being in mortal danger with no escape, being responsible for ending lives even if it's in the pursuit of a good cause, losing loved ones, sometimes right in front of your eyes, and facing horrors the still-teenaged pilots should never experience. Amuro is still traumatized seven years later, Kamille is mentally and emotionally worn down to the point of being comatose, and Judau becomes so cynical he leaves the Earth sphere entirely to never fight another pointless war.

** One duel had Syrus and Hassleberry forced into somewhat of a tag duel with Thunder and Frost, two members of the {{Big Bad}}'s sister's QuirkyMinibossSquad. After a few snarky comments, they realize that they need to put aside their differences and work together after learning that they're going to become hostages to lure Jaden into a trap. However, just as they are about to overcome the TeethClenchedTeamwork of their adversaries, Frost activates a trap at the last minute to pull out a victory while throwing his partner under the bus, rendering the protagonists' team efforts meaningless.

*** This also applies to Frost and Thunder themselves, as both are treated as babies for arguing and not working together. However, this only applies to Thunder, as he completely ignores his partner's moves, while Frost is justifiably angry at Thunder for not listening to him. Frost is even ''punished'' for this at the end when Thinder betrays him to win.

** The series emphasized the importance of ThePowerOfFriendship, but one time that the message gets murky is in the [[TournamentArc Grand Magic Games]]. Sabertooth, which took over the rank of the #1 guild in the absence of Fairy Tail's strongest members, is led by TheSocialDarwinist who throws members out for losing. While the narrative wants to show that Fairy Tail is stronger because they value their comrades, it does so using a fight in which Natsu ultimately shoves his partner Gajeel out of the match over a petty argument and goes on to solo Sting and Rogue, a duo who are actually famous for their teamwork. The fight ends with Natsu singlehandedly overpowering their [[CombinationAttack Unison Raid]], a sign of how close the Twin Dragons are, while Mavis monologues about Natsu's bonds make him strong. True, it's made clear that Sting and Rogue despite their teamwork still clearly put far more pride in their strength rather than their bonds (even Sting's promise to Lector was based in how he was gonna prove himself stronger than Natsu) and Sting did nearly the same thing when he told Rogue not to interfere with his Dragon Force beatdown of the two, while Natsu made it known before his final beatdown that what's coming is for everyone in his guild they laughed at (and it was made clear either Natsu and Gajeel were strong enough solo Sting and Rogue given their performance up to that point), but at first glance it feels hypocritical. The anime makes this worse when Natsu is under the delusion that Gajeel ran off and chastises ''him'' for not understanding teamwork.