Establishing Series Moment / Anime & Manga

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• Accel World starts with a scene of Haruyuki hiding in the bathroom during lunch and playing an online squash game, showing that it's about a group of emotionally damaged individuals and the virtual world in which they do battle.
• The first two episodes of After War Gundam X establishes Garrod as a badass, if rash, child hero, and how awesome this Gundam series will be.
• Akazukin Chacha fudging up a spell shows she's an inept wizard as well as the show's reliance on Hurricane of Puns as its main source of humor.
• Angel Beats! starts with a boy waking up within the grounds of a huge, empty high-school at dusk, meeting a beautiful, silent little girl, and getting stabbed right through the chest by a sword she appears to pull out of thin air. He is soon rescued by another girl, with guns.
• Assassination Classroom starts with a classroom of students pulling out guns and opening fire on their teacher, a giant octopus monster with a smiley face, who's dodging the bullets at Mach 20 speeds while taking roll call, establishing the outlandish premise of the series nicely.
• Attack on Titan's first chapter/episode contains a scene where a soldier informs a mother that her son is dead. He opens a bundle to reveal a severed arm, apparently the only piece of his corpse they were able to recover. When asked if the son did anything of value when putting his life on the line, the soldier breaks down in tears and tells her that the mission was a complete failure and that he died for nothing. This is not a story in which the heroes are guaranteed to win, and when they do win, it usually comes at great cost, including the lives of significant characters.
• Baccano! sets up the tone of the series very early on the first time we see Firo Prochainezo, which also counts as an Establishing Character Moment for him. Firo gives some money to an old homeless man, who immediately pulls a knife and tries to rob him. Firo catches the knife without even looking, but gets his fingers sliced off in the process. Then the fingers reattach, and Firo knocks the dumbstruck man out with one punch.
• Berserk introduces us to Guts by showing him having graphic sex with a succubus and then, when she turns into a horrible Eldritch Abomination under him, killing her by shoving his Arm Cannon down her throat and blowing her skull out the back of her head (the first of many frightening things the reader will see). He then walks into a tavern where some men have turned an elf into their plaything, before viciously slaughtering them all with a repeating crossbow and his BFS. (Slightly subverted as later revelations make the scene of Guts having sex with the demoness so badly out of character for him that it becomes Early-Installment Weirdness.)
• Black Lagoon establishes its vicious crime-noir tone early by having Rock get punched in the face and robbed of a data disc for his corporation, with the lady among his attackers, Revy, expressing her desire to "kneecap this pussy" to make him talk. The over-the-top gunplay that also characterizes the series is first shown in the shootout at the Yellow Flag with the mercs hired to murder Rock, and is the first indicator of how badass and psycho Revy truly is.
• Bloom Into You begins with Yuu monologuing about how she's familiar with how love is expressed in shoujo manga and love songs. In the first actual scene, it's revealed that Yuu's still mulling over a confession she got from a classmate, whom she likes but doesn't feel anything special towards, showing that not everyone gets to have their feelings reciprocated and helping establish a significant part of Yuu's character arc.
• Black Butler does this within the first episode: It seems like a gothic, standard period-piece/Slice of Life anime, with typical Scenery Porn and Cloud Cuckoo Landers, until it gets to the last eight-and-a-half minutes, when Sebastian (possibly under the direction of the board game Ciel was reciting) reveals just how cruel and deadly he can be - by driving the poor bastard Corrupt Corporate Executive to insanity, breaking his leg to the point of immobility, and then roasting him alive inside a cramped, iron-cast oven.
• Bokurano. The kids use Zearth to beat the enemy robot and save the day, unaware that, in the anime, the battle caused thousands of deaths and extensive collateral damage. Then Waku, the apparent main protagonist(as well as the first narrator in the manga), takes a fatal plunge off the robot. The kids don't learn until later that Waku had died before he fell because Zearth took his life force, but this drives home that Anyone Can Die.
• A Certain Magical Index begins with Touma running away from a gang of delinquents. He loses them, only for a girl to appear and reveal that she knocked out the delinquents herself—he was actually trying to save them from her. The girl attacks him with giant bolts of electricity, which he negates using his right hand.
• By the time you read and watch Cells at Work! CODE BLACK you will soon realize that this is not the regular shonen series you read and watch but the Seinen darker and grittier version of it that involves dangerous diseases and cells getting killed off a lot.
• The first chapter of Codename: Sailor V establishes itself as a Magical Girl Warrior series by having Minako fight a monster (then only the third series ever, and the one to spawn Sailor Moon and the whole genre), its Darker and Edgier nature on Magical Girl shows of the time by having said monster being the guy she was crushing on, and its being still relatively fun when Artemis (a cat) walks into Minako's bathroom as she's taking a shower and she kicks him out calling him a pervert (only later does she start wondering why this cat can talk).
• Cromartie High School: First episode, first minute: HE ATE MY PENCIL!!
  • Or more to the point: HE ATE ALL MY PENCILS!!
• Darker than Black demonstrates what it really is only by the end of the second episode, when the visible part of its plot is twisted to the hell and back.
• Deadman Wonderland starts with Ganta and his friends discussing an upcoming class trip to the amusement park/prison "Deadman Wonderland." Right before a mysterious figure in red bursts in through the window and slaughters the entire class except for him.
• Death Note: In the first episode, Light Yagami gets his hands on a notebook thanks to which he can kill anyone, anywhere, without any evidence whatsoever pointing to him. Surely, he's going to be impossible to catch? Then comes the second episode, in which the detective known as L in a single brilliant stratagem manages to pinpoint the killer's home country, the region in which he lives, and the limitations to his powers. Evidently, this series is going to feature a lot of brilliant mental work.
• Every Dragon Ball anime happens to have one:
  • Dragon Ball: Starts with a lax introduction that spends much of its runtime on Bulma and Goku first meeting before setting off on their adventure, establishing that the series has a more balanced focus on its characters alongside the action. The first real fight is a giant pterodactyl, simultaneously fantastic while not having any of the hallmarks the series would later be known for: melee martial arts rule the day here.
  • Dragon Ball Z separates itself from its light-hearted predecessor by having Piccolo - the villain from the previous series - be trounced by a mysterious new villain from outer space, reveal that Goku has had a son with mysterious hidden powers, and things get desperate enough that Goku pins the villain and lets himself be killed by Piccolo, completely trivializing his goal of killing Goku in the face of the new threat. All of this happens in the span of three episodes, establishing for those starting with Z that this is an action series like none other of its day.
  • Dragon Ball GT starts by turning Goku into a child again and setting him off into space on another Dragon Ball quest, a story idea that hadn't been important since before the Z rebrand. Unfortunately this wouldn't stick, and the series would revert to its usual Z storylines within 25 episodes.
  • For western fans, Dragon Ball Super beginning with Goku as a farmer tending crops for a living establishes that this series has a very different idea of Goku's characterization compared to the Funimation Superman expy that they're probably more used to seeing. It also takes several episodes for the action to ramp up in any significant way, a huge contrast from the way Z would swiftly introduce villains who mess things up for the heroes.
• The first episode of Elfen Lied's anime adaptation goes back and forth in tone; amidst the brutal aftermath of a naked psychic woman escaping a high-tech facility seemingly in place to restrain her, we meet a Cute Clumsy Girl named Kisaragi who is established as a Plucky Comic Relief character and well liked by her peers, and is given a fair bit of Character Development in the space of a minute or so, with promises of more to come. Roughly three minutes after she is introduced, she stumbles into the middle of a tense standoff between outmatched security personnel and the aforementioned psychic girl who has so far gruesomely murdered every other person she has encountered. Kisaragi proves no different.
  • Heck, the very first shot of the first episode is of a freshly-severed arm, complete with pool of blood. If that doesn't tell you what kind of series you're in for, nothing will.
• The anime of Excel♡Saga opens with Excel Excel, recently graduated schoolgirl, skipping across the schoolyard, happy that she's already got her first adult job lined up. Then she skips out into the street and is immediately hit by a truck. As her life (literally) flashes before her eyes, a voice calls out to her: "Excel. You must not die in the first episode. Even if you care not for yourself, think of the storyline." The series gets weirder from there.
• Fate/stay night: The Heaven's Feel manga opens with a magus monologuing about his ambitions of power and glory while he oversees a ritual Powered by a Forsaken Child- specifically, a blank-eyed girl who meekly endures her suffering. It seems like your typical Big Bad introduction scene- gloating, Virgin Sacrifice imagery, ominous foreshadowing of the magus' evil goals, blahblahblah- until the girl, Sakura Matou, is commanded to leave the room...and the camera follows her. And then readers realize that this poor girl is the protagonist, and that Heaven's Feel is not gonna be a happy story.
• The first two scenes of Fate/Zero can easily sum up the themes behind the show. The first scene is Kiritsugu seeing his wife and her newborn child, with his first words being that he'll be the one to kill his wife and she shows that she's completely cool with it so long as it helps Kiritsugu fulfill his ambition of making the world a better place. Next scene is the deuteragonist, who arrives at a Master's house with his father to talk about their roles as overseers of the Grail War and how their job is to make sure the war's as balanced as possible... only for his father and the Master to then tell him plans regarding how they will support said Master in winning the war. These two scenes help establish the central theme of the show: There's no honor to be had in this war, not with well-intended pragmatists who bend the rules running the game.
• In it's first few minutes, FLCL seems like it'll be a typical Slice of Life story about a jaded preteen boy in a small, boring town. However, any sense of normalcy is thoroughly shattered with the sudden arrival of a deranged woman riding a Vespa, who hits said boy in the face with a guitar. It just gets weirder from there.
• Food Wars! had two: the very first Cooking Duel between Soma and his father, which established the core premise of the series; the second is the Orgasmically Delicious reaction of the Land shark to Soma's dish which established that this is a Food Porn in an almost literal sense of the word.
• The manga adaptation of Full Metal Panic! establishes the tone of the series and Kaname and Sousuke's relationship in the first few pages, which are also given in full color. Kaname wakes up on an average day, takes a shower, and screams in fright when she notices a cockroach. Sousuke smashes in through her window in full combat gear with a gun in hand and ask-yells if she's okay. After a few seconds registering what just happened, Kaname wallops him for acting crazy again and for seeing her in just a towel.
• Ga-Rei -Zero- doesn't even wait until the third episode to show that Anyone Can Die and the effect of the Artifact of Doom. The squad in the promotional posters, including the Ensemble Dark Horse Badass Biker girl? Dead at the end of the first episode, killed by one of the main characters turned evil.
• Gintama: At the first page when you read what is considered a edo era manga, a samurai who on his dying breath due to an unknown disease tells his children that the samurai spirit will never die and when he looks at the sky wishing to see it “cloudless” one last time you can see an alien spaceship fly by and then cut to many years later revealing to be a town filled with aliens as it is going to be an alternate history manga.
  • The same with the one hour first episode of the anime adaptation (based on an unpublished pilot chapter) began with Gintoki and shinpachi running from some bad group until they are caught in a highway filled with flying vehicles.
• The first chapter of Girls' Last Tour begins with Chito and Yuuri trying to make their way out of an underground area, with Chito chiding Yuuri for being curious about the hole, as well as for misinterpreting the meaning behind the phrase, "I wish a hole would swallow me up." After that argument concludes, they decide to get to the surface as soon as possible, so they won't run out of food, even though there's no guarantee they'll find food or people on the surface. All this sets up the lighthearted banter that defines most of the main characters' interactions, as well as the bleak post-apocalyptic nature of the setting.
• Girls und Panzer begins with an Action Prologue of schoolgirls fighting in a tank battle (which gets shown in full a few episodes later), proving that the show is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. And if the audacious premise still hasn't hit you yet, there's the Reveal Shot at the end of the first episode, which shows that the school and the entire surrounding town is on top of an airship carrier.
• Goblin Slayer: The first entry establishes this series is not pulling its punches when it shows a party of novice adventurers who don't really know what they're doing going into a cave to deal with a goblin infestation. Within the span of a few minutes, the mage gets stabbed in the gut with a dagger coated in debilitating poison (and later has to be Mercy Killed despite their efforts to save her), the warrior is graphically torn limb from limb by a horde of them after his long sword gets caught on the cave ceiling and knocked out of his hand, and the female brawler is smacked into several walls by a huge goblin, beaten to a pulp, and then pinned down and gang-raped by the rest. Only when poor Priestess, the only member of the party who knows that rushing in without thinking is a bad idea, is cornered by more goblins who want to do the same things to her does our real protagonist arrive and show us how goblin slaying is properly done, and he establishes himself to be ruthless, not even sparing the children among the goblins he kills.
• Grand Blue: At first, Grand Blue appears to set up the generic story of a college freshman falling in love with a girl he just met before first year begins. When he opens the door to his new residence, he finds a bunch of nude, muscular men with grotesque faces cackling and playing Drinking Games and ropes him into their insanity without choice, thus revealing said manga's true nature a a pure comedy.
• Gunslinger Girl starts with Henrietta, a normal looking middle school aged girl, and an older man named Jose on a mission. When a man threatens Jose, Henrietta gets angry (though her face doesn't show it) and beats the guy with her violin case. She then grabs her gun from the case and single handedly shoots down every man in the room without flinching. It also counts as a Establishing Character Moment as it shows off how Henrietta looks (and normally acts, to a degree) like a normal girl however is very dangerous (especially when her handler Jose is concerned).
• Higurashi: When They Cry looks like it could pass as a harem series if you ignore the intro of both the anime and manga. However as the first episode goes on we learn of some mysterious deaths, the protagonist learns about the towns dark past, and some of the characters start acting secretive about it. So it's a mystery related harem? But than while the decoy protagonist is hanging around waiting for his friend, she comes out with a cleaver (though it made sense in context). That sets the mood for the series, which gets progressively more grim before bouncing between the two.
• Holyland starts introducing us to the delinquents of the streets in the evening, with one dragging away a wimpy student still in uniform and others talking of the Thug Hunter that recently has been taking down delinquents, with the leader of the group explaining how this is possible through a certain boxing technique... That the wimp from before executes on the delinquent threatening him before running away in fear of a retaliation from the thug, who is talking big in spite of his bloodied face and being unable to stand.
• The first minute or so of the Initial D anime does an excellent job of establishing what to expect out of the series. It starts with a series of establishing shots of a mountain pass in the middle of the night. The very first sound you hear is tires squealing in the distance. A background song begins with the standard guitar with drum accompaniment. Then the AE86 makes its appearance in all its 2D Visuals, 3D Effects glory, with the speedometer reading almost 130 kph (about 80 mph), and the background music abruptly becomes Eurobeat. From there, the 86 goes through several tight, high-speed drifts. Then we switch to the perspective of another driver coming in the other direction, who upon seeing the 86 comments on how the driver of the 86 hasn't changed a bit.
• Gurren Lagann's Spiritual Successor, Kill la Kill, has an equally huge start. A teacher is in the middle of a rather boring lecture on the rise of Hitler when an enormous foot breaks down the door, which explodes. Gamagoori enters, a student drops a tear-gas bomb that somehow blows the door off the classroom, Gamagoori jumps out a window to intercept him and whips both him and his clothes to shreds. After said student is hung on display as a warning to future would-be thieves, we get Satsuki's Establishing Character Moment. All within the first four minutes of the show.
• The very first scene of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid has the titular Kobayashi wake up one morning with a hangover, take some stomach medicine while complaining about back pain, and get ready for work at her Soul-Crushing Desk Job. This all might serve to make you think this'll be just another dime-a-dozen Slice of Life series... Except Kobayashi's morning routine is interspersed with an ENORMOUS F**K YOU DRAGON flying into the city. As soon as Kobayashi opens her door, the dragon, which is about as tall as her apartment building, roars right in her face and shapeshifts into a girl in a maid outfit, telling Kobayashi she's there to start working for her as thanks for saving her life and inviting her to come live with her the previous night during a drunken bender. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Tohru.
• In episode 1 of Monster Rancher, Genki has just met Mocchi when the latter is threatened by the Black Dino Squad. What's Genki do when their leader threatens to make the young monster a slave? Kick the Black Dino in the face. This establishes that unlike some other Mons series, the protagonist is an active participant in battles and fights alongside and against the monsters, as well as how far the heroes will go to protect others.
• My Bride is a Mermaid began with the improbable incident of a Magical Girlfriend proposing marriage to an Unlucky Everydude. Then Masa-san and his Yakuza crew enter the picture. The craziness snowballs from there.
• My-HiME first shows that it often deconstructs Magical Girl tropes near the end of the first episode, when Natsuki and Mikoto's fight on the ship causes it to start sinking, and Mai and Mikoto are only saved from drowning by an early appearance of Mai's Child, which crashes into Fuuka Academy and leaves a fiery crater.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion starts like any other Super Robot series up until the moment Gendo emotionally blackmails Shinji into piloting EVA-01 by wheeling out the gravely injured Rei. This is immediately followed by Shinji attempting to battle the Angel, failing miserably (even at just making the EVA walk), which causes Unit 01 to go berserk, taking matters into its own hands. This is the very first indicator of just what kind of Genre Deconstruction we are in for.
• The very first page of Oddman 11 is Setsu walking in on Sister Itami pissing on his brother's face.
• One Piece
  • The anime starts with a slightly serious take on the whole pirate theme, with a pirate ship attacking a normal ship. However, the first second Luffy appears — by breaking a barrel in which he was sleeping, screaming, "WHAT A GREAT NAAAAAAAAAAAAP!", and punching some dude in the process — you know which direction this series will go.
  • The manga instead begins with Luffy's origin story (adapted into Episode 4 of the anime). Luffy, an aspiring pirate, befriends Red-Haired Shanks and his crew of pirates while they're staying in his town. Some mountain bandits pick on the pirates, who refuse to do anything about it until Luffy foolishly antagonizes the bandits, at which point Shanks and his crew mop the floor with the bandits to save Luffy. Shanks ends up losing his arm while saving Luffy from a Sea King (whom he terrifies into retreating with a Death Glare), but doesn't mind as long as Luffy is safe. As Shanks and his crew leave the island, Luffy reiterates his promise to become a pirate, whereupon Shanks loans Luffy his straw hat and asks him to return it once he's become a great pirate. This chapter establishes some of the most important themes of the series- dreams, adventure and friendship.
• One-Punch Man opens up with a devastating monster who destroys an entire city and took out a couple of super heroes. Cue our hero going forth to confront the monster. He proceeds to kill the monster in the middle of his Motive Rant... then laments on how it took just one punch to end the conflict... again.
• Ouran High School Host Club opens with Haruhi meeting the titular host club, who mistake her for a gay client (and a guy), all the while a giant blinking arrow points out the Priceless Ming Vase that Haruhi's about to break every time it appears on-screen, firmly establishing the series as a Better than a Bare Bulb Affectionate Parody.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon: The Series: Ash calling out a flock of feral Spearow baring down on him in the middle of a thunderstorm, all to protect an ornery Pikachu that doesn't want to listen to him. Ash wins.
  • It may have been at the end of the first volume, but Pokémon Adventures still managed to establish itself as a Darker and Edgier iteration of the series when it infamously sliced an Arbok in HALF. And it survived.
• Pretty Cure
  • Much of the first episode of the first series, seems like a start to your usual run-of-the-mill Magical Girl anime. And then the first fight starts, and the girls rely on Good Old Fisticuffs and Super-Strength until the end of the battle, showing that this was not going to be your usual Magical Girl franchise.
  • While most of the Pretty Cure series are light-hearted, Doki Doki! PreCure actually starts off with a Downer Beginning, with Trump Kingdom and Cure Sword being defeated; letting you know that it's going to be much Darker and Edgier than the other works.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica initially seems like a relatively grim but still typical magical girl show. Then comes episode 3, where the series resident Cool Big Sis gets her head bitten off by the latest Monster of the Week and her corpse eaten messily, which sets the tone nicely for what's still to come.
• Happy Sugar Life: By the time you look at the first page of the series you will know that this is not a bright and colorful manga but a violent psychological one.
• Ranma ½. A girl and a panda fighting in the rain.
• The first episode of Saint Seiya has Athena's Pope describe what Seiya and Cassios had to go through for the right to compete for a Bronze Cloth (the lowest tier among Athena's Saints)... Then Cassios slugs Seiya and starts whaling on him before the fight to obtain that Cloth can be started and nobody cares - not even Seiya, who merely hacks Cassios' ear off and utterly overwhelms him, showing just how epic the fights in this series can be... And that the followers of the Goddess of War don't really care for fair fights.
• One of the very first scenes of Sakura Gari is a house in uproar because the matriarch is found to have committed suicide. She's found in a bloody bath tub completely naked, nipples in full view, and two young children happen to see it. This pretty much sets the tone for the entire manga.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero seemingly begins with the usual isekai shenanigans though there are several hints of things starting to go downhill for the Shield Hero well before his little "helper" sets him up the very next day. Unfortunately, this isn't like your typical isekai with the MC being OP... Though there is a way for the Shield Hero to have genuine power... at a terrible price in return.
• School Rumble starts with Tenma talking about how love is the greatest thing in the world, surrounded by falling cherry blossoms. Then an Art Shift happens and we see Harima, wearing sunglasses, on a motorbike, and accompanied by rock music, talking about the same thing... immediately after beating the snot out of a bunch of other delinquents.
• Shi ni Aruki begins with the Plot-Triggering Death of Tokiko's father, but after it introduces the rest of the family, two of Tokiko's adoptive siblings die in the exact same chapter, proving that Anyone Can Die. Also that Tokiko isn't exactly disturbed by any of this.
• Shimeji Simulation: It starts with Shijima Tsukishima going out after two years of her reclusion, where she later has a fateful encounter with Majime Yamashita. That is until the appearance of the Gardener and countless oddities in the world start to show that there is more to the manga than what is initially seen.
• Shirobako begins with the five members of a high school anime club- three third-years, a second-year and a first-year- vowing to make an anime together. It cuts to several years later, with Aoi Miyamori, the main character and a former club member, working as a low-ranking production assistant at a struggling animation company alongside her friend, Ema Yasuhara, who works as an animator, and the other three aren't nearly as fortunate^note Shizuka Sakaki works at a bar while trying to land acting roles, Misa Toudou is doing 3D animation work for a company that doesn't do anime, and Midori Imai, the youngest of the group, is still in college. The series is about people who are passionate about anime, but doesn't shy away from showing how much hard work the anime industry involves.
• Shuukan Shounen Hachi introduces the readers (along with Hachi and Saru) to Onigahima academy by showing multiple students with uncanny designs (including a guy with a goatee and a fedora, a girl with a bat backpack and another girl with a panda mask) and shortly after senior students looking down at them from the top of a tower with heavy shadowing and ominous expressions. All of that establishes the mix of goofiness and over-the-top drama that will be the series' bread and butter.
• Symphogear: There are badass Magical Girl Warrior fighting swarms of Eldritch Abominations with the power of songs. Their valiant struggle will eventually cost them their lives. This is shown in the early part of the first episode with Kanade's death, and before that, with Miku visiting Hibiki's grave.
• The first thirty seconds of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann contain an entire galactic cluster exploding, a lot of pseudo-sciencey dialogue about Maelstrom cannons and the fabric of space-time, and one of the series' defining catchphrases being delivered, before inspiring music plays during a huge pan out over a badass space cruiser.
  Future/Alternate Simon: Gurren Lagann, spin on! Just who the hell do you think I am?
• The Two Sides of Seiyuu Radio starts with the main characters, both voice actors, taping an episode of their radio show together. Once they're off the air, they start bickering as usual, showing that they're not at all like their public personae, and can't stand each other.
• Wandering Son starts off as a rather typical looking Seinen manga about a boy in elementary school. He has a nice family, his sister's a little mean, he makes some friends with girls... then we learn that he liked it when they forced him to dress like a girl.
• Zombieland Saga starts with the main character Sakura, who's portrayed as the usual plucky idol anime protagonist, getting unceremoniously hit by a truck. Then death metal starts playing as the opening credits roll over scenes of Sakura's body flying from the impact. This is not going to be your typical idol anime.

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