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Does Not Know His Own Strength / Anime & Manga

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Characters who have trouble judging and controlling their own strength in Anime and Manga.


  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Karane has a habit of accidentally injuring Rentarou out of embarrassment, even being mentioned to have put him in a full body cast at least once. When she confronts Ahko’s former friends, Ahko warns her that they’re not as resilient as Rentarou has made himself.
  • Astro Boy: This was a major issue Astro had when Tenma was forcing him to be a replacement for his deceased son Tobio. Being a Robot Kid, Astro couldn't act like a normal child and broke things very easily. Eventually he learned to control himself better.
  • In Aruosumente, the Sage comments on how Legna has great abilities as an Oracle but lacks the knowledge and refinement to use them fully.
  • The Rogue Titan in Attack on Titan tends to hit so hard that it wrecks its own body along with whatever it's hitting. Fortunately, its Healing Factor helps to make up for that.
  • Azumanga Daioh:
    • A common occurrence with Passionate Sports Girl Kagura, who oftentimes ends up hurting people when she's really just playing around. As an example, her attempt to smack out Osaka's hiccups resulted in Osaka doubling over, and later caused her to crumple to the ground after she hits her solar plexus. She realizes this later on when her roughhousing causes her to accidentally knock down a tent other girls were setting up, which leads her to break down crying. Thankfully, she makes up for it.
    • In a more comedic instance, Tadakichi-san tries to imitate Maya after seeing him jump into Sakaki's arms, and ends up body-slamming poor Chiyo.
  • Basquash!: Iceman, especially in episode 8, when Dan constantly chews him out for his "DESTROY!!!" fever, but he simply cannot grasp that being a complete barbarian during games is bad. In the end, it is revealed that his infamous "destroy balls" are nothing but mere passes. Iceman is simply incapable of NOT throwing them.
  • Finny from Black Butler tends to do this, the result being lots of broken things and a crowning moment of awesome when he gets to use this to his advantage.
  • In Berserk when Femto aka Griffith first uses his new god powers to stop The Skull Knight saving Guts and Casca, he holds out his hand and makes a gravity well that misses the knight but crushes a group of Apostles into chunks. Femto then looks down at his hand, amazed. When Guts attacks him years later, Femto doesn't even uses his hands and just blows Guts away from him using telekinesis, showing how much he has mastered his powers.
    • Killer Gorilla Apostle Wyald has a moment he where he picks up Casca like a doll and in doing so hurts her, because he doesn't know his own strength at least when applied to less violent actions.
    • Heroic example comes from Guts when he's fighting a roaming Apostle and using an ornate Cool Sword that Godot gave him, when fighting the monster Guts swings the blade so hard it snaps in two against the Apostle's hide. Guts then finds his iconic BFS and "neatly" slices the Apostle in two, this scene not only shows the level of weaponry you need to slay a demonic being, but it also shows Guts's Super-Strength is so high that any blade smaller than a greatsword is ill suited for him.
  • A more tragic example occurs in Birdy the Mighty. In one episode, a serial killer is hunting and murdering young women with short brunette hair and glasses. It turns out to be a rogue Marionette that escaped and is seeking the women because they have similar traits to her creator, who imprinted her with childlike affection, and she ended up killing her "Mama" and the other women by hugging them until their insides ruptured.
  • In Bleach, after Nel Tu temporarily returns to her true age, she hugs the living crap out of Ichigo, who had previously been badly wounded while she was watching. However, what she fails to realize is that she's so strong in that form that she actually comes close to choking him. By the time Orihime makes her realize it, he passed out, causing her to worry and hug him even harder.
  • Date A Live: During a car ride, Tohka gets so frustrated by seeing Shido give affection to Yoshino that she stomps her foot. Her foot punches through the car's floor and then destroys the bridge they were driving on. At least no one was hurt.
  • The Demon Girl Next Door: Magical Girl Warrior Momo is unable to control her strength in her Darkness Peach form.
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Before he became a Demon Slayer, Gyomei lived a peaceful life as a priest free of conflict. However, when a demon attacked and killed several of the orphans at his temple, Gyomei retaliated with a ferocity and strength that he did not know he had in him, beating the demon's head to a bloody pulp over and over until the sun rose. He states that if it weren't for that moment, he would have lived his entire life without realizing that he possessed such incredible strength and resolve.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The very first time this trope was in effect was during the preliminary matches of the 21st tournament. Goku playfully tapped his opponent (a big, muscular man) in the back of his leg, causing the man to fall out of the ring in pain. Goku quickly told Krillin to be careful from then on. It had been a while since Goku and Krillin had fought somebody who didn't have super-strength on par with their own, after all.
    • During the filler episodes leading up to the Cell Games in Dragon Ball Z, Goku and Gohan had this problem as Super Saiyans. Needless to say, Chi-Chi wasn't amused. The viewers were, though. This made sense, because they'd never gone through everyday, non-combat life in Super Saiyan form before.
    • In filler late in the Cell Saga, Goku crumbles the wooden house King Kai built as soon as he lays his hand on it.
    • During one of the tournaments, contestants are qualified to participate in the fight by punching a machine that registers the force delivered. Goku and his friends have to concentrate really hard to hit the machine without breaking it. Vegeta doesn't hold back.
    • Before that, when Goku wants to train Gohan in preparation for the Androids, while Goku attempts to calm his wife Chi-Chi down he pats her on the back, causing her to fly through a wall and a tree. Goku was very apologetic and helped Gohan patch her up.
    • An earlier filler example happens when Goku recovers from his heart illness, and he and Chi-Chi do the "happily toss into the air" bit when they reunite. Goku, momentarily(?) forgetting his own strength, accidentally tosses Chi-Chi too far (as in, too high to see). She didn't really seem to mind, probably since he caught her and the action reaffirms his aforementioned recovery.
    • His youngest son, Goten, unknowingly achieves Super Saiyan for the first time while training with Chi-Chi. He promptly kicks her, assuming she'll still be faster than him and dodge. She's not, and flies about twenty feet into a tree. She's perfectly fine, and not the slightest bit angry, just upset that her youngest son is already an alien killing machine.
    • Even Chi-Chi herself gets in on the action. In an early episode, while waiting longer than usual for Goku to return home (he may have been dead at the time), she decides to wash the dishes. About every other dish gets squeezed so hard it cracks, then dropped into a convenient garbage bin. While Chi-Chi has a much lesser level of Super-Strength than the main characters, it's still more than enough for her to shatter glass in her bare hands if she's too angry to restrain herself.
    • Gohan humorously has a few moment like this during his High School days when he tries to act normal, like when playing baseball not only does he jump 25 feet in the air to catch a home run but when he throws the ball (as lightly as he can) to kid on third base he knocks the dude straight over. Another time Gohan created a goddamn earthquke in his classroom by tapping his foot impatiently allowing Gohan to get out of class.
    • For all his embarrassing defeats in Z, Yamcha's still strong enough to wreck an ordinary weight machine with one tug. Also when Yamcha gives Beerus a simple Smack on the Back in Dragon Ball Super he makes the Physical God of Destruction stagger forward in surprise. This shows despite how lesser Yamcha's power is he still has enough Super-Strength to nearly knock over a god who wasn't expecting it from a mere mortal.
  • Durarara!!'s Shizuo Heiwajima is prone to this, especially when angry. At one point the Yakuza even deduce Shizuo's recent presence in an apartment complex simply by the state of the stairway's guardrails — which is not very difficult, as Shizuo managed to utterly destroy them on his way out.
  • Eyeshield 21:
    • While Gaou knows how strong he is, he doesn't understand the very idea of "holding back", and is thus completely unable to do so in any situation. The same can be said for Husky Russkie Rodchenko.
    • Kurita, on the other hand, is too strong and too friendly for his own good, meaning big, painful hugs all around.
    • Shin also does this from time to time, usually with electronic devices.
  • Fabricant 100: No 100 is so physically strong, a pen disintegrates when she takes it.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Roy Mustang suffers from this in chapter 107.
      Roy: Without my vision I can't limit the blast properly!
      Hawkeye: Don't limit it at all!
    • Major Armstrong is feared because of this. He hugs others and causes minor-to-severe injury while doing so. When seeing Edward injured and in the hospital, he was so emotional that he hugged him to the point Edward needed a full body cast.
  • Fushigi Yuugi has Nuriko, completely unaware just how strong his super strength is. Wanting to cheer Tamahome up, he gives him a tiny poke on the back of the guy's head with his index finger and promptly sends Tamahome's face into the table.
    Nuriko: I only gave you a poke.
    Tamahome: You call that a poke!?
  • In Get Backers, one of the repeating causes of the main characters' crushing debt is the fact that Ban can't seem to control his strength when he is in a bad mood. As a result, he and Ginji frequently find themselves having to pay for damages to the Honky Tonk as a result of Ban breaking everything from coffee-cups to plates, tables, bars, doors, windows, and even walls.
  • During her early life in a highly enhanced prosthetic body, the Major of Ghost in the Shell had some major (no pun intended) difficulties controlling the prosthetics' strength. In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex she mentions (and it is shown in the opening credits) that after being installed in her cyborg body she crushed one of her dolls by squeezing it too hard.
  • The few countries in Hetalia: Axis Powers with Super-Strength are very prone to this. America in particular. Usually at either Japan or England's expense.
  • High School D×D:
    • One of the first steps in Issei's development is the harsh realization that he's a pretty worthless Devil and his Sacred Gear is far more valuable them him. Over time, and with a lot of Training from Hell (no Hard Work Hardly Works here), he's able to keep a level playing field with increasingly powerful opponents that constantly push him to the limit. While this doesn't affect his daily life, it does result in Issei completely forgetting how to fight against normal enemies, rather than dragons and gods.
    • During his Mid-Rank Devil exam, for the combat portion, Issei is so certain he'll barely scrape through this phase as well he put all his strength into the fight, resulting in his opponent being sent through the wall in a single blow.note 
    • Issei regularly spars with Kiba, who is repeatedly described as the only technique-type on a team of power idiots. Kiba reveals he can't take this sort of training lightly, as Issei could kill him if a blow got through without being properly mitigated. Issei is horrified - he'd already been holding back.
  • Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers: When Yuu and Hitomi do the cart curling game with Yuu in the cart, Yuu tells Hitomi to use her full strength to push the cart because it seems heavy. She does...and sends the cart so fast that it rams into a wall and flips Yuu out of it.
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?:
    • Ais Wallenstein is so strong that she injures her sparring partners even when she tries to hold back, and she needed to get a Made of Indestructium sword because all other weapons break when she uses them.
    • Lyu Lyon also finds it hard to hold back when sparring.
  • As she undergoes her first full transformation into Harugon in the first chapter of Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Kuroe Akaishi runs away from Arata Minami and catches her breath at a bridge. She absentmindedly grips one of the railings with a transformed hand, crushing it and tumbling into the river below.
  • Kaiju No. 8: When he turns into a kaiju for the first time, Kafka is not used to his newfound Super-Strength among the many other problems he initially faces as he ends up Stumbling in the New Form. He attempts to hold onto a hospital wall only to leave an impression in it, and when he punches a kaiju in order to save a little girl he is surprised to see how hard he hit it.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
    • Muay Thay God of Death Apachai Hopachai. Also a Gentle Giant on his own right, he is really kind to all living things, being even able to speak with animals. Unfortunately, due to the Training from Hell he went through during his childhood (and the fact that he was thrown in life-or-death battles even as a kid) he's incapable of sparring with Kenichi without delivering several blows that would have killed anyone less resilient. It gets to a point when Kenichi loses the memory of being hit due to a concussion. He's actually killed Kenichi at least once. The other masters are able to revive the poor kid, and it's been mostly played for laughs. He thankfully grows out of this in time.
    • Kenichi himself gets into this early on. One of the more humorous examples has him giving a "light" slapping to Niijima, and manages to knock him out instead.
    • Played more tragically during Kenichi's fight against the Tirawit Koukin trained Karate club. While they received training in attacking and were pretty good at it they received none in defending. That's why when Kenichi used his normal strength against them, one blow was enough to send them to the hospital. Tirawit points out how Kenichi doesn't even realize how much stronger he is than average humans.
  • Lapis Re:LiGHTs has Salsa of IV KLORE. She is a werewolf with supernatural strength and speed but is so excitable and wild that she oftentimes breaks things like doors.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Being a combat Cyborg blessed with Super-Strength, Subaru mentions her fear of performing this trope during a flashback. Also illustrated in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga during a wall-climbing exercise, when a Teana that just met her asked her to put a little more strength in boosting her up, causing the now terrified girl to achieve her dream of taking to the skies a lot earlier than she expected.
    • Since she received her powers by fusing with a Great Big Book of Everything containing the strongest spells in the multiverse, Hayate literally cannot use low-power magic. As a result, the TSAB normally treat her similarly to a tactical nuke, only calling her in to cast a single spell in certain situations (and after evacuation orders have been given). Which is odd, given that Rein Eins' usage of spells like Bloody Dagger show that Hayate should, at least in theory, be able to fight at the anti-personnel level.
    • In a sound stage of A's, after Shamal forgot to heat up the water for bathing Vita asks Signum use her magic. She answers that she lacks finesse for smaller tasks.
    • A physical strength example occurs in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, when Miura Rinaldi, one of Zafira's students in martial arts, accidentally breaks the wookden pole she uses for training soon after it was fixed.
  • It's a Running Gag in Massugu ni Ikou that Big Friendly Dog Hanako jumps up on people and knocks them down.
  • During an arm wrestling competition in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Ilulu ends up snapping Makoto's wrist like a twig.
  • In Monster Musume, Kimihito's Cute Monster Girl harem, with the exception of Rachnera and Lala, have difficulty holding their strength back, which often results in Kimihito being injured. When Lunacy strikes Miia, Papi, and Centorea at the same time, they all suffer from this, thus leaving Kimihito facing a very real risk of literally getting killed during intercourse if the temporarily lust-crazed girls manage to capture him long enough to have their way with him.
  • In Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Masayuki Hori is more used to performing rugged physical labor than performing delicate tasks. When he tries to add screentone to a drawing, he tears through the paper.
  • Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: Prince Zanoba was born with a rare gift of Super-Strength which was discovered when at the age of three, he accidently snapped his baby brother Julius' neck in front of a whole birthday party. It's a Running Gag how Zanoba breaks things, or does a Neck Lift or Ceiling Smash by accident.
  • Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Lorem's overwhelming brute strength is great for dealing with enemies... not such much for fine household chores. Her attempts to cook a simple food dish for Gospel go awry after she keeps destroying all the food and appliances. By the time Merii comes over, the kitchen is a complete mess and Lorem only has a barely edible carrot paste to show for it.
  • Naruto:
    • Sakura Haruno, while training with Tsunade during the time skip of the original series, acquires the same herculean strength that she has. But of course, whenever Naruto does anything Sakura thinks is stupid, she gets the urge to pound the tar out of him and sends him flying with just one punch.
    • Played for Laughs when Naruto gains Biju Mode and accidentally hit one of the Bijudama into one of the Alliance formations, indirectly wiping it out because he couldn't control his strength.
    • Earlier, when Naruto and Sasuke are fighting on hospital roof and use their new jutsus (Rasengan and Chidori) on each other, Sakura gets in the way and to both boy's panic they literally can't stop before Kakashi knocks their asses into two water tanks. Sasuke is pleased to see his chidori seemly did more damage to water tank than his rival's attack until he looks behind Naruto's tank and sees what the Rasengan did. This clearly wasn't Naruto's intention therefore Kakashi is concerned Naruto learned such a powerful attack at a young age.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Happens a few times in One Piece especially when people get their Devil Fruit Abilities for the first time: Luffy for instance as a child couldn't control his Rubber Man powers and would end up punching his own face with attempted stretchy punches, not until he was a teenager could use his powers better; though Crocodile still dubbed him Unskilled, but Strong. Kaku also had this problem despite being grown adult and Professional Killer, when he first activates his Zoan-Devil Fruit he falls through the floor and his attacks are now strong enough to unintentionally slice the building he was standing inside in half.
    • Luffy still invokes this trope with his other actions as everything from a Smack on the Back, The Glomp or Balloon Belly can cause Amusing Injuries, property damage or worse if Luffy isn't careful. In Movie 7 Luffy discovers Second Gear by complete accident and is amazed when he sends a Humongous Mecha flying out of nowhere.
    • Zoro was plagued by this trope in his early bounty hunter days (shown in Filler) where he'd constantly break his other katanas by using too much Super-Strength, so much of his early training was focusing on using the required force and nothing more. When Zoro told Mihawk about the times where he'd chip his blades, Mihawk outright told Zoro a ruined sword is Master Swordsmen's greatest shame so Zoro strove to learn Armament Haki to protect his katanas from harm.
      • Even when being careful Zoro risks killing normal dudes with his strength as when he used the flat side of his blades to knock out the Galley La Foremen and Nami warned him that's still enough to cause serious injury. Earlier on Zoro split the Going Merry's mast in half while simply drawing the sails, though in this case it's more showing the poor condition the ship was in that it couldn't handle its superhuman occupants rather than Zoro's strength.
    • Sanji gets a variation in Skypeia when Gan Fall teaches him about the Impact Dial, Gan Fall instructs him to put the dial on a barrel and then smack it with all his strength using a huge hammer Sanji does so and nothing happens leaving Usopp whose watching underwhelmed. Sanji understands the Dial absorbed the damage from his blow and Gan Fall told him to press the Dial to the barrel and see what happens... the barrel explodes into smithereens, if Sanji had swung the hammer normally without the Dial being there he would've put a hole in the Merry's deck.
    • This trope comes up again in Punk Hazard thanks to Trafalgar Law putting half the crew in a "Freaky Friday" Flip situation, the first case is when Nami in Franky's Cyborg body goes to punch out Sanji who’s in Nami's own weaker sexy body and loving it... which results in Nami nearly killing Sanji/herself. The second time is when Franky decides to use Chopper's ability to transform into stronger forms through pills. Unfortunately, Franky doesn't have any of Chopper's medical expertise and goes on a Unstoppable Rage in Monster Point which he can't control.
    • As shown in a Flash Back Charlotte Linlin aka Big Mom suffered from this problem immensely, when she was just five years old, she was strong enough to kill a large bear instantly with a single smack, merely intending to scold the animal. She also broke several of giant's bones by slapping a mosquito on his back, hell even as a 68 year old woman she just walked through an iron bound door unconsciously. It's likely because she was Easily Forgiven for her accidents as a child by Mother Caramel that Big Mom cares little for the catastrophic damage she causes later in life.
  • In Pokémon Journeys: The Series, Ash's Dragonite tends to hug its human allies a bit too hard. Pokemon allies on the other hand enjoy the cuddles from this Gentle Giant.
  • Ever since they switched to a multi-man team, the Pink heroine in the Pretty Cure series will always discover how powerful she is when she takes off into the sky in a panic.
  • Ranma ½:
    • Whenever Ryoga's emotions get too much, or his mind wanders, everything he touches tends to crumble around him. Combine this with the fact he gained the ability to shatter inanimate matter with a finger jab early in the series, and you've got a man who has as much trouble not destroying Tokyo as he does navigating it.
    • There is also a storyline in which Akane gains Super-Strength due to accidentally eating food called Super Soba, and briefly falls into this trope. She first discovers her newfound strength when she casually sets her bowl down, and promptly smashes the table and the floor below the table. She would also regularly pat other characters (usually Ranma) with what was supposed to be a light touch on the head or shoulder, and instead sent them flying.
    • During a mid-manga story, Ranma is weakened by a vengeful Happousai. The cure involves a painful-looking moxibustion technique applied on his back — out of reflex, he tries to swat Cologne off his back, only to find himself smashing a solid concrete roller (the kind used to flatten sports fields) purely by accident.
    • It's played up more in the manga version, but Shampoo often destroys things around her, tearing through walls rather than going for the door or shattering doors when she does use them. It's debatable whether she counts for this, though, as it's just as likely that she just likes to show off that she's a Cute Bruiser. Though when given a hypnotic suggestion to "go home peacefully" she still smashes through a wall as she leaves.
  • In Rebuild World, Shizuka warns Akira to not crush the trigger of his guns by accident while getting a handle on the Super-Strength his augmented suit provides. When training with it at first, he punches and kicks holes in the ground and accidentally flings himself around. His Virtual Sidekick Alpha reprograms it to make up for its cheap Power Limiter capabilities.
  • Karna, the protagonist of The Rise of the Unemployed Wise Man has no clue how insanely overpowered he is, even when he learns that he has several gods as pets as his only frame of reference is the legendary heroes of humanity who were even more powerful and would look at his exploits as "the basics."
  • Makoto Kino from Sailor Moon. By accident, she had choked Mamoru unconscious while trying to interrogate him and smacked Ami while trying to give her a friendly pat on the back. These instances are Played for Laughs, of course.
  • In Spy X Family, Yor Briar is ridiculously strong, which she puts to great use as the assassin "Thorn Princess". But in her everyday life she's rather ditzy and often neglects to hold back her strength. This results in such hilarity as slicing through the cutting board when trying to cut celery, hitting a tennis ball so hard that the racket's strings dice it into cubes, and breaking her little brother's ribs by hugging him.
  • In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation: The Inspector, Lamia listens to a rather heartwarming speech from Kai to Ryusei and Bullet about trying to get the captured Arado to make a Heel–Face Turn of his own will. As the speech finishes, Excellen cheerfully points out to Lamia that she's accidentally twisted the handles of the exercise machine she had been using into a pretzel.
  • In Tenchi Muyo! GXP, protagonist Seina Yamada has to spend several episodes learning to control this after being given enhanced strength and speed.
  • In Tiger & Bunny, it's implied that Kotetsu had this problem back when was a child ("I'm not supposed to touch anyone when I'm like this. I'll hurt people."), which was why he was ashamed of his NEXT abilities up until he encountered Mr. Legend.
  • Tomo-chan Is a Girl!: A childhood flashback indicates that Tomo suffered from this a bit in childhood (i.e snapping Jun's handheld video game in two while trying to play it when they first met). As a high-school student she has mostly grown out of it aside from... well she is a Spirited Competitor who considers it disrespectful to treat opponents with kid gloves, which would not be a problem if it were not for how when her blood is up her ability to properly gauge the capabilities of others goes way down.
  • Torako, Anmari Kowashicha Dame da yo centers on a soft-spoken, insecure, impossibly strong gentle giantess transferred to a school filled with the most fearsome and notorious delinquents in Japan because she suffers from this; damaging doors constantly and breaking a classmate's arm by flinging her out of the path of an oncoming truck along with past acts of carnage she frantically downplays.
  • Monkey king Bambina from Toriko can't find a suitable opponent or a dance partner, because almost everybody he comes across ends up ripped to shreds in seconds, when he tries to fight or dance with them, due to his incredible strength. Even powerful regenerating demon, capable of singlehandedly killing and eating almost every creature on planet managed to survive only for a couple of seconds.
  • Asuka Mizunokoji in Urusei Yatsura is arguably the strongest person in the series; she can run 100 meters in 12 seconds while wearing a 200 kilogram suit of armor (and moments later runs another 100m in seven seconds), twist a solid steel dumbbell into a pretzel whilst nervously fidgeting with it, rip a tank apart with her bare hands, and plough headfirst through solid stone walls without even noticing. She also has absolutely terrible control over her strength, especially whilst trying to be physically affectionate; her tendency to break her love interest Tobimaro's bones with each hug is one of the primary reasons he's not interested in her. The other, but certainly almost as important, reasons being that he doesn't like girls much and he's her brother.


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