Dont You Dare Pity Me / Anime & Manga

Don't You Dare Pity Me! in Anime and Manga.

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• While Haruyuki Arita of Accel World may not possess much in the way of self-confidence, even he has his small among of pride. His hatred of being pitied is so great it even got represented in the big nightmare the Brain Burst program used to generate his avatar Silver Crow. He also tried to distance himself from his friends after starting middle school for this reason, and also encouraged Chiyu to accept Taku's offer to go out.
  • Which is ironic when you consider that seeking pity was what his best friend turned temporary enemy Takumu accused him of always doing when they had their gigantic battle.
• Through the entire run of Air Master, Sakiyama Kaori had been caught in a Can't Catch Up dynamic with the titular street-fighter, Maki. No matter how strong she got — quickly going from being a joke to taking down championship-level wrestlers with a single attack — she still couldn't reach Maki's level, and every fight they had ended with Kaori unconscious or even near death. In the final episode, as Maki is on her way to face her final challenge against 'The Strongest Man,' Kaori challenges her one last time. She is at the peak of her power, even embracing a rage-powered near-Super Mode, and yet Maki and the viewers know that she doesn't have a prayer. But when Maki says "I'm sorry, but... it'll take only one minute," Kaori literally explodes in fury, not at Maki's confidence in her own skills, which is well-founded, but in the pity inherent in the first part of the statement. Taken aback, Maki apologizes and recants. "One minute." (It takes barely ten seconds, but Kaori is smiling as she goes down.)
• In Kadowaki and Hinohara's backstory in Arata: The Legend, Hinohara took it easy and tied with Kadowaki in a track meet after hearing of his problems. Kadowaki did not take the gesture kindly and ruthlessly bullied him in response.
• Said word for word in Banana Fish by Lee Yut Lung to Blanca, who at that time was hired by Yut Lung as an assassin, after the latter tries to offer the former some sympathy.
• In BanG Dream!, in the last episode of the "It's MyGO!!!!!" spin-off/soft reboot, Sakiko says something to this effect to her childhood friend, Mutsumi.
  "You can keep your worry. The weak me is already dead and gone!"
• Beastars:
  • Louis has a wicked inferiority complex that forces him to react this way when disadvantaged.
  • Similarly, part of Haru's promiscuity stems from it being one of the few ways she's found to have others treat her as an adult, instead of regarding her like a helpless child in need of protecting.
• In Berserk, this is part of what drove Griffith past the Despair Event Horizon and triggered the events of the Eclipse. Being treated with pity in his torture ravaged state following his rescue by the two people who meant the most to him did probably the most to poison him against them and instill a hatred within him that would manifest in the most horrible way possible.
• Betrayal Knows My Name: Uzuki does not like it when Yuki pities him.
• Black Lagoon: Revy has a moment of this with Rock while they’re collecting a famous painting from a sunken Nazi submarine. Rock takes notice of Revy collecting the various medals and material still there, and when he asks what she’d do with them, Revy says she intends to sell them. When Rock objects, Revy decides to give Rock a little advice, relating her Dark and Troubled Past to him. When Rock says he’s sorry for hearing it, Revy tells him “Fuck you.” She says that if she wanted pity from Rock, she’d have made up a much more “colorful” story to tell him, the point of her story is being that, since she’s living in Roanapur, Revy’s got no use for pity or morals.
  • Rock notably takes this to heart later on when he finally gets fed up with Revy’s attitude and treatment towards him, actually accusing Revy herself of wallowing in self-pity, after she told him not to think like a hypocrite and pity her. This moment actually causes Revy to begin developing genuine respect for Rock.
• Bleach:
  • Many of Nnoitra's decisions are based on his desire not to be pitied, as he is deeply hurt by then-Espada Neliel Tu Odelschwanck following him around to keep him alive because he is weaker than she is, and at one point after losing to Nel angrily thrusts his weapon at his fraccion Tesla when he asks if he is all right, warning him not to pity him. After being defeated by Kenpachi, he gets up even when Kenpachi believes the fight is finished, angered by being dismissed, and charges him again. He gets killed for it, but Nnoitra welcomes it, believing death in battle is preferable to living with that shame.
  • Grimmjow gets royally pissed off when Ichigo challenges him with confidence. He interprets it as Ichigo looking down on him and saying Grimmjow is so weak he doesn't have to worry.
  • At the end of Uryu's fight with Haschwalth, which ends with the latter being drained of his powers via Auschwalen, Haschwalth tells Uryu not to pity him, since he actually feels honored that Yhwach stole his power and not Uyru's.
• Jun Misugi in Captain Tsubasa is an uber version of this. To the point that he'd rather put his life at risk (he has a weak heart) than abandon his team in their hour of need.
• In Charlotte, Nao Tomori dislikes being pitied by Yuu Otosaka. Whenever Otosaka expresses pity for Tomori's circumstances, particularly how her older brother was used as a lab rat and left traumatized by the experience, she snarks at him and says she doesn't want pity from someone who used his powers to cheat on tests.

• At one point in Code Geass, Lelouch gets rather sick of this treatment, especially when he has such a sense of self-loathing.
  Lelouch: Stop it! Stop giving me your pity! Spare me your charity! This is something I have to achieve on my own! And so for that, I shall stain your hands with blood, Euphemia Li Britannia!
• In A Cruel God Reigns Jeremy uses a version of this version several times against Ian. While he does use the straight-up Don't You Dare Pity Me!, he also uses the "I don't need love" and "I don't deserve love" versions.
• Cyborg 009 has Phil, the Hot-Blooded Anti-Villain of the Psychic Assassins arc, push his soft-spoken and kindhearted teammate Lina away whenever she worries because of his ailing health
  Phil: Shut up, Lina! You're not my mother!
• Dear Brother:
  • Mariko Shinobu tells this first to Nanako, mistakenly thinking that she only came to her birthday dinner only due to pitying her. She later does it to Kaoru when she attempts to make her eat some days after the incident where she threatens to pull a Murder-Suicide with Nanako, few after telling her not to pity her.. In the anime, Mariko also tries to hide her distress at her parents' divorce to Nanako and Tomoko.
  • Similarly, this can be seen as one of the reasons why Kaoru broke off with Takehiko after having to go through a mastectomy. She knew he would try to help her and suffer a lot as a result (not to mention she knows he has other... complicated issues coming from his family problems), so she basically removed herself from his life.
• Digimon Tamers: In the midst of a Heroic BSoD from her partner Leomon getting murdered, Jeri yells at the other kids to leave her alone when they're trying to take her to a safer place while Megidramon battles Beelzemon. It doesn't help that it mirrored the exact circumstances when she found out her mother died.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • Vegeta hates it when Goku and the others show him pity. He thinks it's a sign of weakness.
  • Frieza takes it a step further and uses Goku's pity in a last-ditch attempt to kill him.
• Elfen Lied:
  • When Kouta found Yuka on a beach as she is reflecting on her Unrequited Love. Her exact line to him as he offers to take her home was along the lines of "Stop wasting your sympathy!" His response? A slap to the face for not considering how worried he was about her.
  • This was also Lucy's response to Kouta mentioning how sad she looked during her childhood.
• In Evergreen, Hotaka has this reaction when Niki meets him for the first time since he was supposed to be alone with the teacher, and his embarrassment at his scar and weakness takes over.
• This happens twice in Fairy Tail between Wendy and Sherria, who both take turns on either side:
  • During their match in the Grand Magic Games, Wendy is at such an obvious disadvantage power-wise that Sherria offers her a chance to surrender, feeling she'd just be kicking her while she's down. In a show of guild pride, Wendy steadfastly refuses to go down without a fight and demands Sherria hit her with everything she has. The end result is that Wendy holds out long enough for a time-induced tie that solidifies their friendship.
  • Much later, Wendy joins Sherria's guild after the eponymous guild disbands. When Natsu stops by just after the Time Skip, hoping to get the old guild back together, Wendy declines the offer so Sherria wouldn't have to feel lonely, since Sherria's cousin Sherry has left to get married. Sherria gently tells Wendy that this is nothing more than pity, reminding her that she still has everyone else at the guild to keep her company, and ultimately convinces her to rejoin Natsu.
• The reason for Kazuma and Fumino's marriage in Faster Than a Kiss. In the extremely brief backstory, she originally refuses his offer to take her and her little brother into his home, not wanting to receive "vague sympathy". Only when he agrees to marry her instead does she accept. Then Hilarity Ensues.
• Flame of Recca: In the past, Kurei's birth mother, Reina, rejected Kagehoshi's help for giving her food when she fell ill in exile. She took Kagehoshi's kindness as an insult for her and her son's humiliation and eventual miserable life.
• In Fruits Basket:
  • Kyo himself invokes the trope when Tohru sees his true form for the first time, lashing out at her in fear of rejection.
  • The trope is lampshaded by Kagura twice: when she asks Tohru not to go out with Kyo purely because she pities him, and when she refuses her mom's sympathy after Kyo rejects her affections, referring to herself as a "very selfish girl".
  • In the past, the woman who ended up marrying Kazuma's grandfather (the previous Cat) only did so because she pitied him. It seems that Kagura, Kazuma, and Kyo himself are afraid that Tohru only gets close with Kyo because she also pities him.
  • Akito invokes this when Tohru offers her friendship towards the end of the manga. She slaps Tohru and screams "Do NOT talk to me like you understand! Do you pity me? You can't deceive me! We can't reconcile... I'm... I'm dirty!" Tohru cries at this and says she's not perfect as well, that she also is in pain, and Akito panics and has a Villainous Breakdown.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Envy will NOT let anyone pity them. So much so that Envy commits suicide because of it, specifically because Ed, the one they hate the most, is showing it to them.
  • Averted when Miles, in a Secret Test of Character, reveals his Ishvalan ancestry to Ed and accuses him of the crimes the Amestrians committed to the Ishvalans. Ed, who was a child during the war and is only half-Amestrian, counters that Ishvalans burnt his hometown and killed Winry's parents, which surprises Miles, who said he usually got pity as an answer to that question.
• Fushigi Yuugi: When Seiryu is finally sealed and losing his power, Nakago finally just gives in to be defeated by Tamahome. When Tamahome asks him why he didn't dodge his deadly punch, he's pissed off, because he hates to be pitied.
• Naoki Shinjyo from Future GPX Cyber Formula invokes this on Hayato when his car got stuck in the mud during the first half of the African GP. Hayato tries to help Shinjyo to get out of the mud, but he said:
  Shinjyo: Weren't you satisfied enough just to laugh at me? I'd rather drop out than have to take your pity!
• Good Night World: Both Taichiro and Kojiro, a dysfunctional father and son pair are shown to not like feeling pitied, which ironically causes their attempts to be nice to each other to backfire. Taichiro is also shown to default to skepticism if anyone else tries to be nice to him, with all those from whom he accepts kind gestures explicitly being people he has come to trust over time.
• Don't treat Ayase Shinomiya from Guilty Crown differently just because she happens to be wheelchair-bound. She will surely kick your ass if you do.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Flay Allster takes it really bad when she feels Kira Yamato is spending time with her rather than his parents because he pities her as an orphan. Previously, she was the one acting as Kira's only moral support. This is also something of a Heel Realization for her; she's been manipulating him all this time, using him for her own ends... and he's being kind and pitying her.
• In Gundam Build Divers, this puts Tsukasa Shiba into a Villainous Breakdown. While he's in the middle of his Cryptic Conversation Motive Rant, Sarah stops him by asking "Then, why? Why are you crying?". This really pisses him off.
• Claes from Gunslinger Girl does not tolerate sympathy from anyone concerning her situation within the Agency (handler is dead, cannot go into missions anymore, is confined as a tech tester). In an inverse, she doesn't give sympathy to the girls or even tolerate their angsting, as seen when Angelica becomes self-deprecating after her blunders in the mission in the mountains.
• Toris aka Lithuania from Hetalia: Axis Powers does not have a good life since he works for Russia and is in a very weird and tragicomic Love Triangle with his boss and said boss's little sister, but hates telling others (even his old friend Feliks aka Poland) about his problems. In fact, Poland learns about Lithuania's woes only by accident, when he gets ready to sneak behind Lithuania when he's in the bathtub and happens to see the massive scars on his back.
• The iDOLM@STER (2011) has Chihaya shun anyone who dares to come close to her during her Heroic BSoD.
• Ruriko of I Married My Female Friend occasionally falls into this.
  • In an early chapter, she learns that Kurumi, who is writing about her and Ruriko's marriage- the two got together as part of an agreement, due to neither having a significant other five years after coming of age- is getting negative comments online, some of which express pity for Ruriko for being dragged into it. After Ruriko and Kuroda's mutual friend Kuroda expresses how it make her feel bad hearing strangers talk about pitying Ruriko, Ruriko politely says, "I'm the one who gets to decide whether I deserve pity or not."
  • A somewhat more serious example come up several chapters later, when Kurumi is considering purchasing a combined washer-dryer. Ruriko had recently been hospitalized with appendicitis, and while she hadn't needed surgery, she still had to pay for the hospital stay. When Kurumi proposes buying the washer-dryer, Ruriko is initially opposed to it on the basis that Kurumi would have to pay for it herself and as friends, they shouldn't owe each other anything. This results in a brief spat between them, as Kurumi concludes that Ruriko had expected Kurumi, who seemed less invested in their relationship, to leave, but this is eventually resolved by them holding off on buying the washer-dryer until Ruriko gets her bonus and is able to pay her half.
• Inuyasha: When Sesshoumaru's only arm is badly injured by Magatsuhi, Inuyasha becomes visibly guilt-stricken over the extent of his wounds, blames himself for what's just happened, and promptly tells him that a fight is no place for an injured person. All it does is piss off Sesshoumaru and make him even more stubborn than usual about continuing to fight.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency briefly invokes this at the end of Joseph and Whamuu's second fight. With Wamuu reduced to a head and crumbling away, Joseph decides to offer some of his own blood to ease Wamuu's pain as he is dying. Wamuu angrily objects, thinking Joseph is pitying him; however, Joseph assures him that he is doing so out of respect for the passing of a Worthy Opponent.
• May Wong from Kaleido Star invokes this trope on Sora Naegino twice. First, after her Break the Haughty episode, when she thinks Sora will mock her for being abandoned by Leon and tells her to go away when in reality Sora wanted to tell her that she flunked Leon's last test.. Second, when Katie asks a punished Sora (meaning, she's not allowed to perform for almost dropping out of the Stage) to challenge her during rehearsals, but Sora refuses and May even slaps her in the middle of her upcoming Heroic BSoD.
• The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa):
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004), Shadow Link is forced to use the Dark Mirror to revive himself and is left barely able to breathe and unable to walk under his own power. When he sees Princess Zelda staring at him, he screams at her that he won't accept her pity.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), King Bulblin is angry when Ilia finds him wounded and in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown over his loss to Link.
• In March Comes in Like a Lion, Kyoko has a lot of pride in herself that would cause her to react this way. She verbalizes this to Rei when she attempts to leave the Kouda house; by that point, she is sick of being treated delicately and people feeling sorry for her.
• My Hero Academia: This seems to be the whole reason Katsuki Bakugo hates the main character, Izuku Midoriya. Being looked down upon by someone he viewed as a no-good weakling triggered a massive Inferiority Superiority Complex within him. It also the reason he can't accept the results of the U.A. Sports Festival, as he only won because Todoroki didn't use his full power. While Todoroki was going through his own issues at the time that made him unable to use them, the knowledge that he ultimately won because his opponent didn't use everything at his disposal leaves Bakugo feeling like he only won the fight out of pity, which sends him into even more of a rage than if he had lost fair and square. It gets to the point where he needs to be gagged and chained in order to make him accept the award.
• My-HiME:
  • Mai struggles with this quite a bit. While she is quick to help others in need (stemming from a tragic incident from her youth that led to her mother's death and her brother's illness), she is even quicker to push away help when she needs it to avoid being seen as weak.
  • Natsuki in the manga. When she is fighting her mother Saeko, she gets a Breaking Speech saying that since Yuuichi has kissed and effectively chosen Mai, he is only helping her out of pity. Yuuichi then admits that he kissed Mai but asks if Natsuki has any objections to him helping her, causing her to punch him and accuse him of pitying him before kissing him and, her feelings settled, summoning her Child to fight.
• Sakura from Naruto refuses to have Ino hold back during their fight in the Chuunin exams. She resorts to deliberately hitting Ino's two Berserk Buttons (her crush on Sasuke mocked/challenged and being called "Ino-pig") in public to force her into attacking at full strength; Naruto is shocked when she does that, and Kakashi's explanation goes by this trope.
  Kakashi: Sakura isn't the kind of person who mocks someone out of pure cruelty. But she also dislikes the idea of Ino taking pity on her.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Done during Negi's fight with Rakan. Jack patronizingly tells Negi that while he's impressed with his progress, he should just give up because he really has no chance to win. Negi doesn't take it well. Of course, knowing Jack, he probably said it just to get Negi to fight harder.
  • Fate's minion Homura pulls this on Rakan as well, when he briefly reads her mind and finds out she's a war orphan taken in by Fate.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka cannot stand being pitied because in her mind it means that people have realized what's beneath the surface and thinks that she is weak and pathetic.
• In New Game!, Tsubame "Naru" Narumi is an aspiring programmer whose parents oppose her going into the gaming industry, and have made a deal with her — she must pay for her own education, and if she can't get hired by Eagle Jump, she must return home and inherit the inn. Naru insists that her best friend, Momiji "Momo" Mochizuki, not tell anyone, out of what Momo describes as stubbornness and a desire to show up her mother.
• Omamori Himari: Being a warrior who respects honor, Himari occasionally takes offense to Yuuto's kindness when something bad happens to her.
• One Piece:
  • During the Little Garden Arc, when Mr. 3 mocks Brogy and calls him out on going all out against his rival/long time friend Dorey even if he was suffering the effects of a bomb going off inside his stomach, Brogy furiously reveals that he realized from the very start that his opponent was wounded, but rather than pity him and go easy, he decided to honor him to the very end by fighting him seriously.
  • Chopper goes over to treat Usopp after he loses his duel against Luffy, saying crewmember or not, he needs medical help, but Sanji tells him that Usopp knew what would happen, and it would be even more painful to be pitied after his loss. Chopper opts for just leaving medical supplies for Usopp to tend to his own wounds. Chopper's done this a few times as well, but it's played for humor.
  • Played for Laughs when Perona discovers that her Negative Hollows (which normally cause people to fall into depression) don't work on Usopp because he's so pessimistic. She and her subordinates then try to cheer him up with encouraging signs, which cause Usopp to yell at them.
  • Zoro does this after taking all of Luffy's pain. When Sanji later asks him what's going on, he simply answered: "Nothing happened".
  • In a stranger take on the trope, after Brook is beaten within an inch of his un-life by his own shadow in the form of Ryuuma, it is Ryuuma (who both is and is not a part of him) who scolds the rescuers for "interacting with the defeated." Brook himself, however, eagerly accepts help in taking his shadow back.
  • Admiral Fujitora, who's blind, really doesn't like being pitied because of it, even if it's someone taking it easy on him in a fight for that same reason. When Luffy started calling where his attacks would land to "give him a chance", Fujitora got quite miffed about it and started actually swinging to kill rather than arrest.

• Mai (Konami's daughter) from Popotan does not take kindly to Mai the main character trying to help her when her sketchbook gets stolen.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Sayaka does not like it when people pity her for not getting the boy. And even worse, when they pity her for not being able to hack what being a Magical Girl actually means. She even rebukes Madoka's approach (though to her credit, she realises it's not good)! Homura is not pleased with this development.
• Queen Millennia: The first thing Yayoi does upon hearing that the Millennial Thieves' ship Two Stars got destroyed is to call Selene and ask how many people were aboard and if she was close to any of them. The boss is saddened and also feels very insulted.
• In Ranma ½, after a fight with a stronger and faster Ranma, Ryoga has been twisted into a human knot. Akane is trying to untie him and explains how Ranma is stronger and faster due to his training/fighting with Cologne (Shampoo's great-grandmother). Ryoga doesn't "want to see pity in those eyes," so he runs away... on his hands.
  • This could also be seen as the reason why Ranma and Akane basically fail as a Battle Couple. Both practice Supernatural Martial Arts, but while Akane is good, Ranma is better. Couple this with his own desire to avoid seeing Akane get hurt, as well as Akane's mixture of self-esteem troubles and tsundere nature and Ranma's having No Social Skills, and the result is Akane getting ticked off by his insistence that he needs to "look after her".
  • In the moxibustion arc, Akane tries to cheer Ranma up. When he responds negatively to her encouragement by walking away, she says:
    Akane: You fool! Snap out of it!
    Ranma: Stop it... I don't want your pity...
• Pumpkin Doryu of Rave Master says this when the heroes begin to feel sorry for him upon learning his Start of Darkness. It soon falls in a genuinely creepy Madness Mantra.
• Romeo × Juliet: As he lay dying, Leontes Montague tells Juliet that he'll not have her pity.
• Done unusually in Rurouni Kenshin, where a dying Udo Jin-E rebuffs Kenshin's pity—being so violent and insane, he much preferred the silent, murderous Kenshin about to kill him moments before.
  • During the Jinchu arc, we learnt that Hyogo Kujiranami used to be a samurai loyal to the Bakufu who lost an arm to Kenshin. While he was ready to die, Kenshin spared his life, causing him to become furious, feeling that he was not only deprived of his arm, but also forced to live as a pariah in the world built by his opponents and sworn revenge to the point of psychotic madness. Luckily, Yahiko finally manages to talk him out of his berserker frenzy.
• Sailor Moon: Used big time by Queen Nehelenia. After finding out about her past, the Senshi and especially Usagi start to pity her and look at her with sympathy, causing her to fly off the handle. "Those eyes again... DON'T LOOK AT ME WITH SUCH EYES!" She then attacks them. They keep it up as she breaks down and gives up.
  • The Cloverway Dub emphasized this in an impressive manner in the last episode of the fourth season (the last that was dubbed). Right after Nehelenia has thrown Sailor Mini Moon to her death, she gloats that maybe now Sailor Moon can understand her pain. While the original text had Sailor Moon declare she wouldn't lose to Nehelenia, the dub instead has her pointedly state "I still pity you."
• In Saki Shinohayu -dawn of age-, Kanna's reaction to her friends trying to comfort her after her loss to Hayari Mizuhara in mahjong, the first time anyone has defeated her at a game, is to tell them that she doesn't need their pity, declare mahjong an "illogical pile of shit" and run off spouting profanity.
• Sara from Samurai Champloo is very definite about not wanting to be felt sorry for even though she's blind. It turns out she does just fine.
• Sgt. Frog: In the manga when one of Tamama's attempts to discredit Mois not only ends in failure but results in Mois trying to console him without knowing what she is consoling him about.
• In both Shaman King and Shaman King: Flowers the Tao Family and the Asakura Branch Family have this. It tones down when they have their Heel–Face Turn.
• The title character of Shuukan Shounen Hachi isn't happy at all that people praise him for "doing his best". It's the worst kind of humiliation to him, since people who say that never seem to consider that he can succeed.
• A constant theme for Tatsumasa Oda from Slam Dunk, who has severe problems with his own pride and a sudden injury in his foot and pushes his girlfriend Youko away when she tries to help him. It's up to Hanamichi Sakuragi to see what's going on.
• Tsubaki's brother Masamune in Soul Eater gives this word for word during their fight; Tsubaki continues to pity him even as he's stabbing her in half a dozen places.
• In Sword Art Online, it's implied that Asuna's cousins, who are also competing with her academically due to a family-wide rivalry between their parents and hers, expressed sympathy for her being trapped in the eponymous video game for two years because she's no longer a threat to them. As such, while a part of Asuna's glad to see them again, she also recognizes their pity for what it is and doesn't like it.
• Touch (1981): On top of everything that's gone wrong in life, Coach Kashiwaba's going blind. But he's not going to let anyone else know it.
• In Unico in the Island of Magic based on the Unico manga by Osamu Tezuka, after Unico apologizes to Lord Kuruku for forcefully stabbing him during the stories' climax. Kuruku is shocked and outraged by telling him why he said sorry to him. Unico then explains the reason he apologized to him was because he felt sorry over his existence due to being powered by his hatred, loneliness, and mistreatment by his former owners.
  Kuruku: (yelling) Why are you saying that you're sorry!? Why!?
  Unico: Because I feel sorry for you.
  Kuruku: (perplexed by his response) You feel... (beat) what do you mean you feel sorry for me?
• Older Than They Look Saku "Loli" Momoi in Wasteful Days of High School Girls dislikes hand-me-downs and pitying favors that remind her of her height, so she's actually happy to have been put in the back row of class during her second year in spite of her difficulty seeing the chalkboard.
• Welcome to the NHK: Elena in the Manga when Yamazaki tries to give him money so he can get a sex change operation.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 204, after defeating Kaiba in the semifinal match of Battle City, Atem remarks that although he won, they have no difference in skill, and Kaiba responds angrily, "Is that supposed to be pity?!" (It's more that he's winding up to a Kirk Summation: skill aside, Kaiba lost because he's motivated by hatred, Atem won because he's motivated by friendship, which is something Kaiba doesn't really comprehend, if the fact he interprets kindness as pity hadn't given that away.)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yusei's duels with Aki before her Heel–Face Turn is filled with moments where latter tries to refuse any sympathy from the former. Luckily, Yusei is persistent enough to get through her.
  Akiza: I need my mask, why are you trying to help me, Yusei?
  Yusei: Because I know you!
  Akiza: You know who? The scared girl? Maybe the face behind the mask?
  Yusei: I know what it's like to be the outcast, I'm from the Satellite! You think people like it when they saw me?! You can't stay afraid! You can't hide behind a mask forever!
• In Yuri is My Job!, this happens between Sumika and Nene. The latter had broken off her schwestership with Sumika to be schwesters with her lover Goeido, only for Goeido to callously break up with Nene before long. Sumika was quite bitter about what had happened, with the incident convincing her that any romance in the salon would likely end badly, but Nene disagrees.
  "This thing you do, Sumika… you're very caring, but it's annoying. I think I at least know how to fall in love with people on my own. I don't need someone micromanaging every little thing I do. Crying because you've been left behind is just another part of love."

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