People who struggle with their own shortcomings in Anime and Manga.
- In The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time, Heinz, leader of the adventuring party, The Five Colored Blades, is a Byronic Hero responsible for the death of the protagonist's mother, after blindly accepting a quest to capture "a high ranking member of an evil cult" which she pointedly was not, and after ignoring her public torture for three solid days, and watching her be set ablaze at the stake, flees into another country, doing absolutely nothing in regards to Vandalieu himself. He spends the next 10 years desperately fleeing his own guilt, downplaying or even lying about his involvement to everyone he can, including himself. He seeks to end the system of oppressive discrimination which brought about the quest in the first place while still being seen as a hero to that very same system. He also refuses to admit responsibility for his actions, shifting the blame as much as possible to things beyond his control, rather than learning from his mistakes or changing his behavior, still taking that very same type of request, but wiping out entire villages, rather than just random individuals, and then hosts lectures in the public square how oppression is wrong and adopting another orphan of the same race as the protagonist, to tell himself he's changed, when he clearly hasn't. This does nothing to help his self-proclaimed goal of atonement, but instead makes him the most hated enemy of the protagonist, the very oppressed races he states he wants to champion, and the very goddess who created those races.
- Death Note's Light Yagami/Kira is a brilliant student who can make long-term plans to counter the Kira Task Force who's trying to bring him to justice for using the titular notebook to murder people he deems "bad" (which starts off as criminals, but quickly includes anyone who disagrees with his vision, let alone tries to stop his vision). However, his hubris, raging god complex, and inability to take criticism cause him to make several mistakes that eventually lead to his undoing, most notably, murdering Lind L. Tailor on live television for saying that what he is doing is evil, which allows the real L to narrow down Kira's location to the Kantō region of Japan. Ultimately, what seals Light's fate is when he gloats, "Well, Near, looks like I win" before the Death Note takes effect, only to find out too late that the notebook had been replaced with a fake one. Near even says that Light could have still thwarted him had he not prematurely gloated, proving that, in spite of L and Near's efforts, the biggest threat to Light's plans to become the "God of the New World" is Light himself.
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba:
- Zenitsu is too obnoxious, grabby and clingy for the comfort of the women he meets. As he approaches women with unbound zeal and behaves like a showoff, instead of approaching out of sincere drive to help and sympathize (like Tanjiro does), said women generally dislike him. Sure, he's a nice guy... but he's no gentleman.
- The tragedy in Kokushibo's human life comes from a succession of choices he made and had no one else to blame but himself, unlike several of his fellow Kizuki members who suffered under completely external factors. Michikatsu chose to harbor jealousy over Yoriichi's talent which nurtured a massive inferiority complex, to the point he created his own false memories of absolutely hating Yoriichi over the centuries in order to force himself to believe his choices were valid, not petty; Michikatsu chose to abandon the life as the head of the Tsugikuni family, leaving his wife and children behind to pursue strength under Yoriichi's teachings; Michikatsu chose to betray the Demon Slayer Corps with the growing fear of dying under the effects of the Mark and wasting all the years he gave into perfecting his martial arts, turning into the demon Kokushibo to retain all of it. As Kokushibo is about to die he is left with nothing but regrets, coming to terms with all of his efforts to remain alive as a demon led to absolutely nothing truly beneficial to him, and he just couldn't hate Yoriichi as much as he believed he did, wondering why he was even born.
- To put it simply, the one most responsible for Muzan Kibutsuji’s problems and eventual downfall is ultimately Muzan himself. His extreme anger issues, impatience, and sociopathy cost him his chance to live life as a normal human when he killed the doctor treating him before he could finish making the medicine meant to heal him. Then over a thousand years later, he ends up inadvertently killing the one person who could have helped him find the Blue Spider Lily that he’d been searching for to attain Complete Immortality (according to supplementary materials, anyway) which leads to her son eventually becoming the one to finally kill him.
- Many of Vegeta's defeats from Dragon Ball Z often have him solely responsible for it. One such example is when he has Cell on the ropes and could easily destroy him when they fight but due to his pride and belief that he is the strongest, allows Cell to absorb Android 18 and reach his perfect form. To his shock, he finds Cell is now far more powerful than him and is easily defeated.
- Hoshino, Close Your Eyes is a niche series with an infamous Sudden Downer Ending that many believe was the author lashing out at the publisher out of spite after being denied an anime adaptation. The main character Kobayakawa is a socially awkward loner who gradually learns to come out of his shell and make friends. In the end, he suddenly becomes this trope and rejects his crush after her Love Confession on the grounds that he doesn't feel that he's good enough for her. His friends encourage him to stop being an idiot but he reinforces his decision by cutting contact with everyone. In the end, after he's burned bridges with all the friends he made over the past year they all go on to lead happy, successful lives while he goes back to being the lonely, asocial Loser Protagonist he was at the start.
- Minor villain Thunder McQueen in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean. After being imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, he spends his time in a perpetual cycle of self-loathing over his bad luck that makes him selfishly drag down others close to him which Pucci calls "the purest form of evil". This is reflected by his Stand ability, which shares the damage inflicted by his suicide attempts with a specific person he imprints on. Ermes even tries to talk him down and get him to move on from his self-pity, but that just prompts him to try to be Together in Death with her and forces a violent resolution.
- In Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Kaguya's "losses" in her games with Shirogane are due to her own conceit, or by thinking that she has more control of the situation than she actually does. Hell, even the majority of her "wins" have nothing to do with what she had planned.
- Kumagawa in Medaka Box. His constant self-loathing and the nature of his ability means he can never actually achieve a true victory over anyone.
- My Hero Academia:
- Katsuki Bakugo is a Strong and Skilled Genius Bruiser who won the Superpower Lottery. He'd be an incredible hero... if it weren't for his horrible attitude, Hair-Trigger Temper, and Inferiority Superiority Complex. He loses his first Heroes Vs. Villains exercise because he charged off to be a Leeroy Jenkins against Izuku, and he later loses his chance to get a provisional license because he couldn't stop snapping at the people he was supposed to rescue, and got marked down.
- Momo Yaoyorozu suffers this briefly after Tokoyami effortlessly bests her in the Sports Festival. It ends up shattering her confidence until Todoroki ends up giving her a much-needed pep talk.
- The main character flaw of quite a few characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- The protagonist, Shinji Ikari, has, due to the Parental Abandonment he experienced at a young age (his mother dying in an accident and his father abandoning him soon there after), internalized a belief that he is an unwanted and worthless child. This leads to have problems forming deep relationships with people, as he is stuck between the desire for love and acceptance from other love, while his own Heroic Self-Deprecation and self-loathing subconsciousness leads him to keep his distance from and fear opening up to others, because at the end of the day, he has severe problems just accepting himself, so he simply cannot imagine that anyone else could ever love him.
- Asuka Langley Soryu has similar problems, down to having a Dark and Troubled Past that is quite comparable to Shinji's, but unlike Shinji who is an Extreme Doormat who shies away from people, Asuka instead compensates with an Inferiority Superiority Complex, leading her to have a bossy and thunderous personality as she needs to be in control of and feel superior to everyone around her. But cracks start to show in Asuka's psyche when she discovers that she actually has budding feelings for Shinji, who in many ways is the opposite of the cool, masculine, and adult Kaji, who is the one Asuka's own logic dictates she should desire. For Asuka to discover that, in spite of her attempts to be in control of everything around herself, her own emotions will not allow themselves be controlled so easily, is a major blow to her self-image. This is made even worse due to the fact that whenever she tries both subtly and not-so-subtly to get Shinji to realize that she has feelings for him, he always fails to pick up on her intentions due to his own aforementioned issues, and as Asuka simply cannot just tell him how she feels as she has problems even admitting to herself that she has a crush on him, she obfuscates said flirting attempts behind several layers of facetiousness which only serves to make it even harder for Shinji to understand her. On top of this, Asuka also simultaneously experiences the humiliation of seeing her performance as an Evangelion pilot, the main thing she ties her self-esteem up in, gradually worsening during the latter half of the series, at which point she is basically helplessly trapped in an ever-downward spiral of frustration and self-hatred.
- At the end of the series, it becomes clear that Shinji's father Gendo isn't that different from his son. Essentially, Gendo abandoned Shinji as a child and keeps him at a firm distance as a teenager because his exceptionally low opinion of himself has led him to believe that he is unworthy of being a parent and would only hurt his son by being close to him. Of course, Gendo's abandonment of Shinji is one of the main reasons why Shinji is such an emotionally damaged individual.
- Ranma ½: Every character is their own worst enemy in one way or another. Stand-out mention to Genma, who manages to derail more of his own schemes through cheating or running away, and Mousse, who would make more progress with Shampoo (and would win more fights) if he would just keep his damn glasses on instead of letting his vanity get the better of him.
- Katsuya of Rebuild World is genuinely heroic and wants to make the world a better place, but his own flaws and insecurities undermine and sabotage him at every turn. His Glory Hound ways cause him to either dive into or instigate fights way, way above what he's prepared for, getting people around him killed as they try to bail him out. His shameless skirt-chasing causes an endless string of easily avoidable problems and conflicts. His propensity to fly into an Uncontrollable Rage puts him and everyone around him in terrible danger whenever things go wrong. Lastly, his completely unjustified envy towards the main character, Akira, who has to struggle for every accomplishment and perk, as opposed to being grateful for what he already has, causes Katsuya to antagonize Akira at every opportunity, and threatening the latter's life, earning the latter's enmity and destroying any hope that he can actually rescue people, as he intends, instead of getting them killed.
- Spy X Family: Agent Nightfall wants nothing more than to marry Agent Twilight, and would love to replace Yor as his "fake wife" and assist him in completing Operation <STRIX>. Unfortunately for her, she totally torpedoed any chance of succeeding due to her Consummate Professional nature, as she ignores all emotions during work (aside from her massive infatuation with Twilight) and barely emotes on her own. Twilight outright tells Yor that he never considered Nightfall (under her alias of Fiona Frost) for his fake wife because she doesn't have the required skillset to be a parent, which would compromise the mission because her intended way of raising Anya would raise too many alarm bells to others. Indeed, once Anya uses her telepathy to read Nightfall's mind and sees that the latter would literally whip her into being a "Stella earning machine", she does everything she can to dissuade Loid from replacing Yor with Fiona.
- Yuri!!! on Ice: The only real antagonist of the story is Yuri Katsuki's insecurities and anxieties. To put it this way, if he didn't have them, he would have been a far more powerful presence in the figure skating world.
