False Flag Operations seen in Anime and Manga series.
- In Aldnoah.Zero, the assassination attempt on the VERS princess was planned by a faction among the Orbital Knights to provide a Casus Belli for their invasion of Earth.
- Attack on Titan: Armin, thinking out loud, suggests causing a disaster and blaming it on either the Monarchy or the Brigade in order to get the populace as a whole to regard the Survey Corps as their saviors. He then looks up to the shocked and horrified faces of his comrades. He claims he was just joking. And the series doesn't like to leave Chekhov hanging: shortly afterward, the Brigade murders Edward Reebs and tries to blame it on the Survey Corps.
- In Carole & Tuesday, sleazy political advisor Jerry tries to drum up support for Valerie Simmons' xenophobic policies by orchestrating a terrorist attack on the Martian capital's climate control system, causing temperatures to plummet, and blaming it on immigrants from Earth. It works, but comes back to bite him in the series finale: when Valerie is shown irrefutable proof that Jerry was responsible, she's so disgusted by his methods that she withdraws her candidacy and fires him on the spot.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, the shape-changing homunculus Envy took the form of an Amestrian soldier and fired the shot that started the Ishballan War.
- In Chapter 106 of GTO: The Early Years, Minamino tries to kill Eikichi, dressing as a Kamakura Massacre gang member (who are already on bad terms with Eikichi's gang) so they'll get blamed. His plan doesn't work out.
- Gundam
- In Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO, the Zeons made a Zaku disguised as a GM for this purpose. It was so good that it was shot down by its own ship on the way back from its mission.
- In the flashback arc of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, the Zabi family use the death of former leader Zeon Deikun to stir up anti-Federation sentiment (it's never stated outright if they poisoned him or simply seized the opportunity when he died of a heart attack). Then, during his funeral, Kycilia Zabi kills her brother Sasro with a car bomb because he hit her during an argument and blames it on Deikun's Old Retainer Jimba Ral - the one person who up to that moment could have blocked the Zabis seizing control of Deikun's party.
- The "space pirates" who attack the Capital at the beginning of Gundam: Reconguista in G are really Amerian irregulars in disguise so that they can conduct raids without starting a war, and so they can violate the laws against technological development without the SU-Cordists in space cutting them off from Photon batteries. As multiple other factions start colliding with each other, it ends up as an Open Secret as the "pirates" are usually aligned with Amerian forces in battle.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans there are a group of Dort colonists protesting for better working conditions. They are armed but simply demand the right right to negotiate. It turns out Gjallarhorn actually planned for the protest. They set off a bomb at the protest site, blaming it on the protesters and using it as an excuse to butcher the entire protest. Then Gjallarhorn allows protesters on the other Dorts to steal Gjallarhorn weapons, which had been rendered unusable so that Gjallarhorn could then butcher all of THOSE protesters too. Even some members of Gjallarhorn were disgusted by the underhanded brutality.
- And at the same time, Kudelia's own financial supporters attempt to kill her to blame Gjallarhorn and make her a martyr.
- Gundam Wing: OZ leader, Treize, puts a plan into play by having the Gundam pilots think they're attacking an OZ base when in really it's a conference where most of the Alliance is trying to aim for peace with the space colonies. When Heero destroys the ship carrying the delegates who were going for that option. The surviving Earth Alliance takes it as an act of war. Whoops.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the Earth Alliance learns of ZAFT's Operation Spit-Break, the invasion of the JOSH-A base in Alaska, and decide to do a little house cleaning. They let the invasion occur, but by that time, most of the bigwigs in the Atlantic Federation have skeedadled, leaving the base defended by their Eurasian counterparts and the remaining crew of the Archangel while they activate the Cyclops System hidden underneath and eradicate everyone there. Mu La Flaga discovering the Cyclops and Kira's arrival allows the Archangel and some of the forces to escape, but the death toll was high enough that the Atlantic Federation now had control and their controllers within Blue Cosmos can change the war into one of extermination.
- Twice in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury:
- In episode 19, Prospera uses Aerial Rebuild's Data Storm ability to control a tank and make it fire on her, giving her a reason to escalate the situation by discovering and destroying an Ochs Earth bunker filled with Lfrith units, igniting a dormant powder keg between Earthians and Spacians.
- In the very next episode, Shaddiq orders the captive Nika, Elon #5 and Norea to be released, allowing Norea to rampage across Asticassia as a means to force the Space Assembly League to act against Benerict Group.
- One Piece had several people and countries do this.
- Baroque Works occasionally pose as Alabastan troops attacking civilians in order to discredit the real army. Later, one agent actually transforms to look like the King of Alabasta to drive people into violent rebellion. Baroque Works agents were also placed among the rebels; agents on both sides are tasked with shooting key people on the other side if the Alabastan civil war appears to be reaching an end so that the war can continue. The organization's goal is to weaken both sides as much as possible so their leader, Crocodile, can take over the country with minimal effort.
- Don Krieg has also been known to use this strategy, specifically wanting to capture the Baratie to do it more easily.
- This was how the crooked and greedy king of Yvneel Kingdom screwed over Montblanc Noland after he "led" him on an apparent wild goose chase to what was supposed to be an island with a land of gold. He planted a fake member of Noland's crew from his servants and made him a "credible" source that Noland was a liar. In truth, the Knock-Up Stream blasted part of said island, Jaya, into the sky in between the time he left and returned. Too bad it was the part with the golden Shandora civilization.
- A big part of Fishman Island arc's flashback was that mermaid queen Otohime was apparently shot by a human. In the present, Fishman pirate Hody Jones, near the end of his takeover, gloats that it was him who shot Otohime and framed a human pirate to instigate the Fantastic Racism between humans and fishmen.
- Doflamingo did this to King Riku when he took over Dressrosa. Claiming to Riku he'll leave the country be if Riku gets a large sum of money to pay him off. Since the people of the island trust the king, they willingly give it up. Only once they nearly had the money, Doflamingo used his string powers to take control of Riku and his soldiers and attack the kingdom, making it seem like he had gone mad until Doflamingo comes in and "stops the villainous king", gaining the people's favor and taking the throne.
- In Spy X Family:
- The previous war between Westalis and Ostania started after the Westalis town of Luwen was bombed. Westalis claims that it was done by Ostania, while Ostania cites that it was a false flag operation, alongside rumors of Westalis having worked with a third country to provoke Ostania into attacking. It's not clear what the truth is, if the stories were all propaganda made up by each country or a separate mastermind itself. Franky tells Twilight that the stories likely are mostly propaganda made up by Ostania to save face, but that soldiers like them will never hear the whole truth and that anyone that died during the war is just an Unwitting Pawn.
- The cruise arc has Snoops set up various bombs all over the ship, but he intentionally built the bombs to look like the work of western terrorists and put any blame on Westalis, should any residue of the bombs be found. Fortunately, Twilight manages to disarm the bombs, and the Ostanian government believes the bombs to have been planted by a third country to provoke trouble.
- In Transformers: Robots in Disguise, the Predacons disguise themselves as Autobots and fire on the Decepticons, hoping that the two groups will annihilate each other.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: During the formation of the Tower of Hanoi, an unknown force had destroyed Cyberse World. Lightning—the leader of the Ignises—and Windy—his dragon—suspected that Aqua—the Water Ignis—was a spy who led Cyberse World to be destroyed. Turns out Lightning was the one who had destroyed Cyberse World. He wanted to escalate the human-Ignis conflict by provoking his fellow Ignises into hating humans and going against them.
- In Zoids: Chaotic Century, a member of the Guylos Empire hired some mercenaries to pose as members of the Republic to stage an attack on their own forces to start the war the Empire's been itching to have. While it worked initially, the commanders from both sides fortunately knew it was a False Flag Gambit and found an excuse to stop the fighting.
- Later, the same person hires the same mercs to kidnap and kill Prince Rudolph so he can take over the Empire and re-start the war. He didn't count on them falling in love with the target and nearly getting themselves killed trying to protect him. They later become his bodyguards.
