I Know Youre In There / Anime & Manga

"I Know You're In There Somewhere" Fights in anime and manga.

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Pokémon

• Pokémon: The Series anime:
  • In Pikachu Re-Volts, Butch and Cassidy put many Pokémon on an island (including Ash's Pikachu, Misty's Togepi, Jessie and James's Pokémon, and Team Rocket's Meowth) under their control using a Drowzee. Ash, Misty, Jessie, and James try to get through to their Pokémon, but are unsuccessful. However, Ash is able to save the Pokémon by taunting his Pikachu to use Thunderbolt on him as he stands on the machine that is controlling him and the others, which sets them free.
  • In Battling the Enemy Within, Ash gets possessed by the spirit of an evil king and Brandon attempts to save him. Ash is able to break free for a brief moment, but the evil king regains control again and Brandon eventually wins the battle. Ash is finally able to fight back his control when he hears Pikachu calling out to him, allowing him to tell his partner to use Thunderbolt on him; this frees him from the evil king's control and allows Brandon to seal it away.
  • Shown most prominently in Chim - Charred! and Fighting Ire with Fire!, Ash's Infernape, while he was a Chimchar and Monferno, had a problem with controlling his Blaze ability due to the outright abusive training tactics he suffered through when he was on Paul's team, sometimes related to Paul's desire to force out the full extent of his power to the surface. Now whenever Blaze was activated, he would snap and enter into a state of PTSD-esque psychosis and stop listening to Ash completely. However, Ash would try to snap him out of it with words and a Cooldown Hug. However, after evolving all the way to Infernape and during Ash's Gym battle with Volkner, he was shown to have finally overcome this obstacle.
  • In Team Plasma's Pokémon Power Plot!, Ash's Pikachu becomes a victim of Colress (of Team Plasma)'s experiment for a mind control device. However, Ash is able to reach out to Pikachu, who breaks free from Colress's control.
  • In Meowth, Colress and Team Rivalry!, Team Rocket's Meowth offers his help for Colress's experiment. Colress accepts it, but puts him under his control, which he wanted to do all along. However, hearing Jessie and James's voices, Meowth snaps out of Colress's control.
  • In Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony!, after Team Plasma perfects the mind control device, Ash's Pikachu gets hit and is controlled by the organization once again. Ash tries to get through to Pikachu but is unsuccessful, which causes him to get knocked out, resulting in N making a deal with Team Plasma for his freedom. In the next episode, Pikachu gets controlled once more, but this time he is able to resist, not only by using his electricity but also from sheer force of will. Pikachu is also able to resist Team Plasma's control through Ash, Axew, Cilan, and Iris's words of encouragement.
  • In A Conspiracy to Conquer!, Jessie, James, and their Pokémon get hypnotized by a rogue Malamar. Meowth is unsuccessful in reaching out to them, which leads him to go seek out Ash and his friends for help. After Pikachu gets hypnotized as well, Ash is able to call out to him and he starts fighting off its control.
  • In Calling from Beyond the Aura!, after going through Mega Evolution for the first time in the last episode (at which time it went out of control and ignored its Trainer), Korrina's Lucario goes into a berserk state when it Mega Evolves in order to battle Team Rocket. However, Lucario hears Korrina calling out to it and is able to maintain self-control of its Aura long enough to finish Team Rocket off before losing control again. In the next episode, during a battle with Mable, Korrina unsuccessfully tries to get through to her Lucario when it loses control again. After some training, Korrina uses Mega Evolution with her Lucario in order to save her friends' Pokémon from Team Rocket, but loses control once more. However, Korrina finally gets through to her Lucario when she tells it to remember that they have one heart and two viewpoints, and to bring them together. After hearing Korrina's voice, Lucario regains control of itself and defeats Team Rocket with its Trainer's help.
  • In Facing the Grand Design!, after his Inkay gets hypnotized by his evolved form, James saves him when he calls out to him and feeds him his favorite food.
  • In The Future Is Now, Thanks to Determination!, after witnessing Ash trying to save Pikachu from Team Rocket's control, Clemont is inspired to save his Luxio (who is also under their control) by calling out to him, and his Luxio successfully hears his voice.
  • In Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, Ash gets possessed by the fury of a Mythical Pokémon as both Pikachu and his Hoopa friend unsuccessfully attempt to reach out to him. However, Hoopa is able to calm the fury down and save Ash from its control.
  • In Coming Apart at the Dreams!, Squishy tries to reach out to Z-2 when it is put under Team Flare's control but fails, and it ends up being controlled as well. Meanwhile, Ash and his Greninja are subjected to attempted control by Team Flare as well because Lysandre wants to use them for their plans. However, Pikachu is able to save Ash by calling out to him, which works, as he not only hears his voice but also is inspired to fight back, even getting Greninja to do the same thing. In the next episode, Bonnie tries to reach out to Squishy, but it attacks her and Blaziken Mask protects her from it. However, after hearing the song Bonnie made for it, Squishy snaps out of Team Flare's control and embraces her.
  • In A Masked Warning!, Ash's Lycanroc would go berserk whenever someone ruins its fur and doesn't listen to it's Trainers commands, but did calm down with Nebby's help.
  • In Rescuing the Unwilling!, upon seeing Lusamine's Clefable being possessed by the Nihilego that fused with her mother, Lillie is able to get through to her by reminding her of the bond they both share. In the following episode, Lillie reaches out to Lusamine and manages to get through to her, but Nihilego refuses to let her go, forcing Ash to separate them forcefully with Pikachu's new 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt.
  • In Tough Guy Trials!, Lycanroc goes out of control again during a battle against Nanu, with Ash unable to get it to calm down, which eventually costs Ash the battle. However, in the following episode, Ash succeeds in getting through to Lycanroc as he reminds it of the bond they both share and who it is, which allows Lycanroc to turn this newfound power into a strength.

Yu-Gi-Oh

• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In Battle City arc, Marik took control of Joey and Téa with his Millennium Rod, and sets up a Duel to the death between Yugi and Joey. Both Duelists would be chained to an anchor; the winner receives the key to free themselves, while the loser will be dragged into the ocean. Any attempts to Take a Third Option would lead to Téa being crushed to death. During the duel, Yugi keeps reminding Joey of their friendship; Joey eventually resists enough to fight off Marik's mind control just as Yugi is ready to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, and Joey uses his own card effects to force the Duel to end in a tie and save everyone's lives.
  • In the Noah's Saga arc, Noah hypnotized Mokuba and took him as a hostage during his duel with Seto. With the combined efforts of Yugi and Seto, the latter of which felt remorse for how he treated him, Mokuba could fight back, eventually breaking out at the sight of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, right in time for the brothers to share a reunion.
  • Also attempted in the Joey vs. Mai duel in the Doma arc. This time, Mai is really relentless, and only broke free of Dartz's influence at the last moment.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Joey is taken over by the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, who is being controlled by "the Blade of Chaos". Cue a battle with Yugi and Joey in their respective monsters' armor.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
  • Notably subverted in the case of Zane Truesdale. Atticus, who had once been under the influence of Nightshroud in an earlier episode, tries to perform this trope on Zane to attempt to redeem him, and gets consumed by Nightshroud again mid-Duel. Zane trounces him to purge Nightshroud's influence, and Atticus is surprised that Zane hasn't changed a bit. Zane explains that he's embraced his dark path of his own volition, something that his brother or friends couldn't seem to grasp. More than a few fans seem unable to grasp it as well.
  • Jim's duel with "Supreme King" Jaden couldn't possibly take this more literally; he even actually goes "in there." It's also a subversion because while Jaden is in there, he can't/won't fight. He's freed thanks to Jim's and Axel's sacrifices, one of which only revealed why Jaden was messed up. He never does fight from within.
• Subverted in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds during the Dark Signer plot — even if the Dark Signers come to their senses or manage to avenge or get over the reasons they asked for another chance in the first place and snap back to normal, the Earthbound Gods pull a hostile takeover. Oh, and if they lose the duel, they die.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
  • Defied twice with Vector before finally succeeding.
  • IV also tries after Shark becomes Nasch. Nasch's response is to try to bring out IV's original personality as well - the callous, revenge-driven creature he was before the previous Duel the two had. Neither are actually successful.
• Done in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. After Yuya, Yuri, Yugo and Yuto become Zarc, it takes the combined efforts of Aster Phoenix, Sora, Shay, Kite, Jack, Gong, Crow, Sylvio, Leo, Declan, Riley with Ray and her counterparts to snap the Yu-boys out of Zarc's control

• It's a common tactic when Magical Girls have to fight their Brainwashed and Crazy loved ones, and is often reserved for the Grand Finale.
  • Sailor Moon towards evil Endymion, evil Hotaru, evil Chibi-Usa a.k.a. Black Lady, and many a Monster of the Week. It appeared in nearly every episode during the Rainbow Crystal arc in Season 1, specifically with Urawa and Rei's grandfather. Hell, Sailor Moon is MADE of this trope.
    • In fact, during Rei's battle with her grandfather, she experiences a moment of Genre Savvy as she claims that her grandpa will snap out of it when his human consciousness realizes that he's fighting his granddaughter. Naturally, just because she says it, that's precisely what doesn't happen, and so Sailor Moon must take the regular Moon Healing Escalation route to revert him back to normal. ^note  It should however be noted that the man had enough mental fortitude and training to initially shake off the brainwashing attempt, and that he's the only human in the lot who showed that kind of resistance.
    • Then there is the gut-wrenching scene where Usagi tries to call out to Hotaru, currently being suppressed by The Dragon Mistress Nine. She tries to use it to her advantage by appealing to Usagi's compassion to make her let go of the Grail to summon the Big Bad, and succeeds. However, Hotaru really managed to resurface and after taking an energy blast from the summoned Big Bad to the face, Mistress Nine is no match for a fully awakened Hotaru. On top of that, thanks to Usagi's compassion, she does not give in to her more destructive impulses which have her feared as the Warrior of Ruin by the Outer Warriors, and she is in a willing disposition to pull a Heroic Sacrifice with the Big Bad instead of destroying the planet (as she did do once during the Silver Millenium War).
  • For that matter, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon's Grand Finale, as well a failed attempt on Dark Mercury. After the speech she promptly cuts Moon down anyway, and the shock of realizing she nearly killed a friend snaps her out of it.
• Taken to a rather bizarre extreme in the movie 009 Re:Cyborg. That's because after having discovered that some sort of anomaly is keeping Joe from remembering being a 00 Number Cyborg, Dr Gilmore realizes that the only way to get him to remember is to have Geronimo Junior try to beat the tar out of him to kickstart his memories.
• Played with in Assassination Classroom. Kaede Kayano/Akari Yukimura is seemingly in control of herself when she tries to assassinate Koro-sensei with her tentacles, but Koro-sensei's primary objective when fighting her the second time around is to remove them, as the tentacles will slowly drive her insane with bloodlust to fatal results. Sure enough, in the later stage of the fight she loses control over herself. The fact that she later admits to Becoming the Mask (when initially confronted following The Reveal, she states that her personality as Kayano was all just an act) is a sign that even if she was having second thoughts about going forward with her original plans, the burning pain from her tentacles (especially since she endured them for over a year waiting for the right time to strike) would eventually force her into trying to kill Koro-sensei. This also is in effect when Nagisa joins into the fight. As he subdues her with The Big Damn Kiss, he remarks "I can't let you say it was all an act".
• Attack on Titan: In Episode 12, both Mikasa and Armin struggle to get through to Eren when he loses control of his Titan form and is stuck in a kind of Lotus-Eater Machine. Eventually, Armin manages to snap Eren back to his senses.
• Berserk plays with this. When he first got his cursed armor, Schierke had to reach out and calm down Guts so he wouldn't kill himself and their True Companions. Later in the port city battle, Schierke pulled Guts out of the armor's influence just enough to let him think clearly.
• Garcia's ill-fated Mexican Standoff with Roberta in Black Lagoon.
• In Bleach, the Bount arc featured the enemy Mabashi who used his doll to possess Rukia. This was followed by a prolonged battle between Rukia and her ally Orihime, in which Orihime (a peace-loving girl who's rarely willing to hurt even the villains) refused to hurt her and resorted to talking her out of it. Even when Rukia's companions (and pre-possession Rukia) are urging her to just go attack. She succeeds with a Cooldown Hug mixed with her Barrier Warrior powers.
  • In the Canon Arrancar Arc, it's tremendously subverted. Ishida attempts to prevent Ichigo (who has succumbed to his Superpowered Evil Side) from killing a seemingly defeated Ulquiorra. Ichigo, however, impales Ishida on his sword. Orihime, pulling herself out of her Heroic BSoD, shrieks out Ichigo's name, but then Ulquiorra jumps in... and smashes Ichigo back to his real Shinigami form. Ichigo can't recall what happened.
• Cardcaptor Sakura, during the Final Judgment; Sakura couldn't hurt Yue, the true form of her crush Yukito, and so she lost the first time around. Once Kaho uses her bell as a Reset Button, Sakura tries it again and succeeds.
• In Ceres, Celestial Legend, confrontations between the Mikagi-possessed Aki and Aya (who has rather more control over her possession by Ceres) go like this. Each time, Aya tries to keep Ceres from killing Aki, in hopes that he might get free from Mikagi. In the end, since Mikagi will not let Aki re-take control, Aki chooses to let Aya/Ceres kill him.
• Satella tries this on her sister, Florette/Fiore in Chrono Crusade, but it fails. She's forced to disable her opponent instead, by freezing them in crystal in the manga and killing them outright in the anime.
  • There's also Rosette and Joshua's fight in the manga. In this case it does work, except Rosette has to shoot one of Joshua's horns to free him from their powers enough to bring him back.
• This is Atsushi's approach, at the climax of Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! Attacked by his Evil Former Friend Kinshiro, he refuses to fight back, and keeps using the Affectionate Nickname of "Kin-chan" despite it being a Berserk Button.
• Suou tries this on Tanya in the second season of Darker than Black. This being the show it is, just when it seems like it might be having an effect, Tanya gets killed by a sniper.
• In Delicious in Dungeon, Laios tries this on chimera!Falin. He seems to be getting through to her...until Kabru attacks her and she goes berserk again.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Tanjiro does this to his sister Nezuko, who was turned into a demon and is trying to eat him. Giyu, a Demon Slayer who comes upon the two, notes that most people whose loved ones become demons try this, and most get eaten... but is then shocked when, after Tanjiro collapses, Nezuko moves to protect him - as a wounded, newly-turned demon, she has to be starving, but she refuses to eat in order to protect her brother.
• In the adaptation Devil Children, Setsuna does this to Zett who by that point has become Zebul. He succeeds.
• Allen Walker tries this on Lavi in D.Gray-Man after Road mind raped him. In the middle of the fight, Allen hugs his friend close and asks, "Lavi, can't you hear my voice?" Doesn't quite work and Allen continues to get wailed on, but fortunately it turns out Lavi had been Fighting from the Inside the whole time and eventually manages to stop himself.
• Digimon:
  • When Kari in Digimon Adventure 02 winds up trapped in a city in the Digital World, she runs into an old friend named Andromon, an android Digimon under the Digimon Emperor's control. She pleads for him to remember her, and he slowly does just that. It was the success of this trope, in fact, that showed everyone that the Digimon Emperor's brainwashing dark rings had less control over Perfect^note Japanese/Ultimate^note English dub level Digimon.
  • Takato tries this on Rika in the second Digimon Tamers movie while she is being controlled by Parasimon. True to the darker tone of Tamers, it doesn't work and Guilmon just hacks the thing off her back.
  • In Digimon Ghost Game, Monster of the Week Gyuukimon was a Reluctant Psycho that was once a friendly Ryudamon but spontaneously Dark Digivolved to its new monstrous form. After Canoweissmon beats some sense back into him, they're able to use Hiro's Digivice to change him back.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • Son Goku attempts this with Vegeta during the Buu Arc. Subverted, as Vegeta willingly let himself become possessed by Babidi in order to increase his power. He does not even follow any of the wizard's orders, and can snap out at any time. He eventually does so, before knocking Goku out and making a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Mr. Satan tries to get through to Super Buu by reminding him of his vow to never to kill again and shows him the puppy he saved. Buu laughs at him and Piccolo harshly tells him that the Buu he made friends with is gone. It later turns out that Fat Buu isn't gone, he just has no control of Super Buu since he's a different personality altogether.
  • Dragon Ball GT has a subversion of this as well with the Super 17 saga, when Android 18 joins the fight between Goku and Super 17. After 18's speech to 17 about being weak and cowardly for being the doctors' assassin rather than make his own decisions, Android 17 takes enough control of his Super self to turn around and kill Dr. Myu… then continues the fight, but lets Goku see his weakness and defeat him.
• Subverted in Fairy Tail in the fleshed out history of Lisana. Mirajane, the one who was supposed to be doing most of the work taking out The Beast, made a mistake. Elfman used his own version of the siblings' Take Over magic to grab control of it, but in doing so began to rampage. Lisana arrived and tried to calm him down, soothing him with talk about how much she and Mirajane loved him... only to get brutally killed in a single strike. Small wonder both survivors had severe personality flips after this.
• Fresh Pretty Cure! has Inori trying this on Lucky, who is turned into a monster. It worked, if it wasn't for Eas stopping it.
• Also played with in Fruits Basket, where Tohru Honda resorts to gently speaking to Akito Sohma during the latter's enormous Villainous Breakdown, replying to her opponent's threats, slaps, screams and knife swinging with kindness and understanding. She finishes her speech with a friendship offer at the corner of a cliff... Then, the ground breaks and poor Tohru falls off, getting severely injured. That, however, makes Akito snap out, as she starts screaming for medical help for Tohru instead of indulging into Evil Gloating, marking the start of her Heel–Face Turn.
  • She actually used it before, against Kyo's cursed form. It looked like it'd fail, but worked like a charm after a while.
• From Far Away has a nice subversion: Izark is a hero with a Superpowered Evil Side who recently managed to change back intentionally. When he fights Swacka, an opponent who also shapeshifts involuntarily, Izark scrambles for the right phrase to describe what made him able to end his transformation. Nothing works. Then he reminds his opponent of the teachings of the Gray Bird tribe, which is the tribe Swacka belongs to. Miraculously Swacka changes back. Asked admiringly if he is a tribal master, Izark answers that he had no idea what he was talking about and made it all up as he went along.
• In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Ling Yao's body is taken over by the homunculus Greed, but Ed knows Ling is "still in there" because he hesitates during a fight when Ed mentions the name of Ling's loyal bodyguard, Lan Fan. Indeed, Ling manages to convince Greed to make a Heel–Face Turn and the homunculus eventually performs a Heroic Sacrifice necessary for Ed to defeat Father.
  • One of the rare instances where the possessor and possessee eventually learn to share, largely due to this trope's invocation.
• In the second Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart movie, Cure Black tries this on the Brainwashed and Crazy White, but it doesn't work, and Black herself ends up in the same condition. Eventually they each snap out of it on their own.
  • Nozomi tries this on the other four in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, mid-season, with the same result as the Max Heart example.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure! had a villainous example of this trope. Setsuna (formerly Eas) had just recently defected from Labyrinth to the Cure's side and become the fourth Cure, Cure Passion. For the next couple of battles, Westar and Soular tries to bring Setsuna back to Labyrinth's side by invoking this trope, even going as far as forming a Monster of the Week based on Eas' likeness. Unfortunately for both of them (and fortunately for the Cures), by that stage Setsuna had firmly decided that she would stay on the Cure's side, and they soon realized that their attempts to bring Setsuna back to Labyrinth's side would be useless (though they refuse to accept it).
  • In the HeartCatch Pretty Cure! movie, Cure Blossom tries to snap out Olivier of his brainwashed state by talking to him. However, Cure Marine's trying to protect her friend and fighting him. When Marine fires a shot meant for Olivier, Blossom takes it, saving Olivier, but destroying her hairbow, letting her hair fall loose. It's enough to snap Olivier out of his trance
  • In the Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO! movie, Cure Dream faces down a mind controlled Coco and, because of it, she's slowly turning into chocolate. Dream continues to call out his name and it slowly snaps him out of it, but it only takes hold once she ends up throwing her arms around him, murmuring "Remember me", then kissing him.
  • Makoto attempts on in an episode of Doki Doki! PreCure, singing a song to try to rattle Regina free of the brainwashing she had been put through. Even more so is that she pulls off an Unflinching Walk as both hero and villain fight around the two before Daabi initiates a henshin, allowing Makoto to grab Regina's weapon and keep singing. Too bad it's a very blatant Hope Spot moment.
• Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. A literal version when the Major takes on a Posthuman who used to be a champion boxer with Good Old Fisticuffs, betting there's enough of his previous self there that he can't resist the challenge.
• Subverted in Gankutsuou, Albert convinces the Count to revert back into a human, but doing so makes the now-mortal Count vulnerable to a wound he received earlier, which kills him.
• A very slight variation is used in the Get Backers manga: When Ginji tries to fight the Brainwashed and Crazy Kazuki, he's already pretty beaten up. He does try to appeal to "Kazu-chan's" true self, but doesn't get any results and focuses instead on appealing to Toshiki, the one currently in control of Kazuki and once a good friend of his. He finally resigns himself to death when Toshiki and Kazuki attack him together, as he can't bring himself to kill his friend. Cue Juubei's Big Damn Heroes moment.
• In Guardian Fairy Michel, when Baron gets turned into a monster, Rena begs her to remember her existence as a fairy and stop harming things. Electro is brought back in a similar way, but thanks instead to Harry, the human boy who befriended him.
• Gundam:
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Trowa and Quatre pull these on each other. When one is brought mad by the Wing Zero's Zero System, the other snaps him out of it. Trowa pulls it first, then Quatre follows.
  • Saji Crossroads tries this on his ex-girlfriend, Dark Action Girl Louise Halevy in the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Doesn't really work since Louise's conditioning kicks in, but at least Saji manages to survive the encounter..
    • In episode 24, Saji tries again. It works this time (with help from Setsuna's Trans-Am and the sight of a certain promise ring) and he makes Louise come back to her senses.
    • Don't you remember Allelujah Haptism's situation in Season 2 which takes place before Saji/Louise's situation mentioned above (Well, before Saji found out that Louise is with the A-LAWS)? It's pretty much this. His foe/rival that he keeps fighting (throughout Season 1) is actually his childhood friend whom he hasn't seen ever since he was a child? Check. She's part of the enemy side? Check. She lost her memories of him because of personality implantation and only thinks of him as an enemy? Check. He's not fighting her properly and she's gaining the upper hand? Check. He's trying to get her to remember him rather than fight her? Check. He finally brought her memories/original personality back (by yelling her real name multiple times) and she's a couple with him now? Check.
    • The only difference is that it took him only 4-5 episodes to get Soma Peries/Marie Parfacy back while Saji took almost half of the season to get Louise back.
• Subverted, so far, in Guyver. Sho has repeatedly tried to appeal to his brainwashed former ally Murakami, and has failed every time.
  • Another subversion comes when Sho has to fight his father, who has become a Guyver-killing Enzyme Zoanoid. He can't talk him down and has his brain ripped out. The Guyver takes over and kills Mr. Fukamachi on instinct. Sho forgets about it but later remembers and develops a mental block against using his powers. He later overcomes the block when Aptom threatens Mizuki.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: Seldomly works and almost every individual Story Arc has a Downer Ending. However, the actual I Know You're In There Somewhere moment of Watanagashi-hen/Meakashi-hen does kinda work since it does end up saving Keiichi's life for the time being as Shion tearfully realizes that she can't bring herself to hurt him. She warns Keiichi to never approach her again as she realizes the Hate Plague will have completely taken over her mind by that point and will be unable to stop herself from hurting him.. "I don't understand... Why am I hesitating?"
  • Also of note is the rooftop battle in Tsumihoroboshi-hen, when Keiichi succeeds in snapping Rena out of her Hate Plague-induced insanity.
• Ikki Tousen Great Guardians:

• In the manga, Koukin mixes this with a Cooldown Hug when Hakufu's body is almost completely taken over by her Superpowered Evil Side while fighting Ukitsu. Again, not even taking a sword to the gut from the berserker Hakufu stops him. WOW.

• The second Inuyasha movie makes good use of this trope when InuYasha begins to be transformed into a full demon (for good this time!), but Kagome snaps him out of it with a kiss.
• Inuyasha the Movie: Fire on the Mystic Island: Inu-Yasha initially attempts this on Kikyo's clone, but he gives it up after discovering it isn't the real deal.
• In Kill la Kill, after Mako lets the power of running Ryuko's Fight Club get to her head, Satsuki gives her a Two-Star Goku Uniform and gets her to fight Ryuko, who's grown weary of being on her own while Mako and her family enjoy their new-found wealth and wants to disband the club. Ryuko doesn't bother fighting back, simply standing there and taking attack after attack...and when Mako realizes this, she gets so upset at the possibility of killing her friend that she calls off the fight and agrees to disband the club as Ryuko wanted. Shortly afterwards she punches a massive hole i the ground in frustration, revealing that she'd been holding back her true power throughout the fight...just as Ryuko knew she would.
  • Happens again to Ryuko in episodes 20 and 21. After Ragyo and Nui forcefully stitch Junketsu onto Ryuko's body, it rewrites her memories to give her a happy life with Ragyo, thereby making her completely loyal to her. Throughout the entirety of episode 21, Satsuki, Mako, the Elite Four, and the rest of Nudist Beach all fight Ryuko while attempting to snap her out of it. They eventually succeed after Senketsu and Mako enter Ryuko's mind, severing her mental connection to Junketsu.
• Constantly attempted in Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato, since The Dragon Gai is The Hero Shurato's Rival Turned Evil and Childhood Friend, due to being Brainwashed and Crazy. It never works, either because the brainwashing is too strong or Gai is taken away when it looks like Shurato may be able to get through him. And it only works... when Gai is about to die, letting him pull a Dying as Yourself.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), Ganondorf forces Link into a fight after possessing Princess Zelda, knowing that Link can't force himself to hurt his destined protectorate but also isn't able to actually break through to her. This ends in a Curb-Stomp Battle that Link only survives thanks to Zelda nearly pulling off a Heroic Suicide and Midna being a Big Damn Hero.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Plays with this in it's finale. Nanoha did this with her daughter, but even after she gets through to her, Vivio's body is still under direct control of the Saint's Cradle. So Nanoha has to use a more direct approach to free her.
  • Further used with the Dark Magical Girl of the Season, Lutecia, after she's mentally altered to see Erio and Caro as threats to her mother Megane being revived, resulting in the two splitting duties, with Caro working on Lutecia while Erio's stuck trying to talk Lutecia's bodyguard summon Garyuu into not killing them both in the meantime. Unique in that Lutecia has been an antagonist the entire time and this is the first time she's bothered talking with the heroes. It seems Nanoha's habits as a Messianic Archetype rubbed off on her trainees.
  • Nanoha did this earlier, in A's, when her friend Hayate snapped and was taken over by an evil magical artifact. It failed, but Hayate fortunately snapped out of it by herself.
• Magic Knight Rayearth has two instances:
  • The fight against Caldina. She specializes in hypnotism and puppeteering, forcing Hikaru and Umi to attack Fuu. Fuu tries to snap them out of it and ends up binding them with a spell, but then she begs them to dodge because Caldina turns the magic on her. Eventually Fuu is able to attack Caldina herself, which breaks it.
  • The Final Battle against the fully awakened Princess Emeraude is like this. The girls are attacked by her Superpowered Evil Side that was born from the Knights killing her Bodyguard Crush Zagato thinking he was keeping her prisoner, while seeing flashes of the form that they already know. Emeraude is in there somewhere, but she implores them to kill her now —as she summoned them to do in the first place, this being the reason why Zagato fought them—before she's so lost in grief and rage that she begins openly praying for Cephiro's destruction. Massive emotional trauma ensues.
• MegaMan NT Warrior (2002):
  • Attempted in episodes 18-19 of the original season, when Mayl uses a strange battle chip that causes Roll to turn on her and Megaman. After repeated pleading and one instance of I Surrender, Suckers, the effects are undone when Higsby explains that she just had to insert another battle chip to eject the corrupting chip and undo its effects.
  • Axess episode 49 features Lan, Chaud, and Megaman trying to redeem Protoman, who had been turned evil by a Dark Chip. When Plan A goes awry, Chaud does the unthinkable and Cross Fuses with Dark Protoman himself. Chaud's struggle from within, combined with Lan's and Megaman's efforts from outside, free Protoman from the effects of the Dark Chip, bringing about one of the most emotional episodes in the anime.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch put a twist on this. Main character Lucia Nanami wasn't the one that talked down The Man Behind the Man each time he or she was revealed to be an important figure to their quest and relations. No, it was Hanon, the lovestruck schoolgirl whose teacher turned out to be in love with Sara. Hanon eventually convinced Sara that she was still a princess and a hero. Similarly, when the Great One in the second arc revealed his origin, it was his son, Rihito, that reached his original feelings.
• Used in Naruto, when Sakura uses this and a Cooldown Hug to stop cursed-seal!Sasuke from pretty much murdering the Sound Genin who seriously beat her up. Subverted later: she attempts it on Naruto when he's under the effect of the Kyuubi, but fails.
  • A much more tragic example occurs sometime later, during Kakashi's duel with Tobi who is really Obito Uchiha. Kakashi tries to remind Tobi of the boy he used to be, but Obito's retorts make it painfully clear that the him Kakashi knew is no more. This conclusion is later disproven by Naruto, though, when Obito sees a montage of what his life would have been like if he'd stayed loyal to Konoha instead of joining Madara, proving that he deep down regrets his Face–Heel Turn.
• This was used on the comatose, completely-in-the-middle-of-the-rewriting-ritual Asuna in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Except that Negi isn't the one doing it, but the girls from 3 A. And by "the girls", we meant not just the Ala Alba ladies (Setsuna, Konoka, Kuu Fei, Haruna, Nodoka, Anya, Yue, etc.), but all the girls of the class - including these who were Muggles until few ago (Ayaka, the Narutaki twins, the cheerleaders, etc.) The only ones who weren't there were Eva (who was fighting with Ala Rubra) and Chao (still in the future). And the result? It worked. Asuna snapped out of her coma and returned to the action... and in the middle of this, she stopped a little to thank the girls for saving her.
• An interesting subversion in One Piece. Ivankov is supposedly one of the few people Kuma fears, so Ivankov initially refuses to fight, instead trying to get him remember who he's attacking. When he learns that Kuma has been turned into a cyborg and no longer remembers his past life, Ivankov decides to beat the fear back into him.
• The ending of Overman King Gainer has Gain doing this to Gainer, but Gainer is too brainwashed so the minor character gives Gain the Planeta coat so that Cynthia, Gain, and Sara can hear the thoughts about friendship. Earlier, Adette tries to do this against Hughes Gouli, threatens to shoot him, tries to shoot him, before screwing the whole thing and just kissing him which works.
• Naturally Phantom Thief Jeanne had one of these moments. Her best friend, Miyako, is manipulated by Fin into attacking her. Jeanne would have succeeded but for Fin's hindrance; the bright side is that Miyako herself snapped out of it with Noin's help.
• Prétear: Himeno/Pretear v.s her stepsister Mawata, taken over Takako/Fenrir. And later, Himeno again, against Takako herself.
  • In the manga, Mawata and Himeno team up and deal one to Mawata's mother Natsue, possessed by Takako/Fenrir.
• In The Prince of Tennis OAV, Genius Bruiser Inui pulls this on his Tsundere partner, Kaidoh, when he falls into an Unstoppable Rage state during their doubles match against Renji and Kirihara. It works and Kaidoh calms down, but they lose anyway since Inui was too injured to continue.
• In Princess Tutu, Fakir and Mytho have a sword duel that turns into one of these, including Fakir showing the other boy his reflection in his sword and shouting "Remember your true self!" It appears to have failed, and the now-evil prince raises his sword and brings it within an inch of Fakir's face, only to stop himself at the last second. Mytho then tells Fakir and Tutu "don't come near me!" and flees. This turns out being slightly subverted, however: the next time we see him, he's as evil as ever, if not worse.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The fight against Oktavia (Sayaka), in two different timelines. It turns out about how you'd expect — it fails. In the third storyline, Homura has to kill her with bombs; in the main one, Kyoko chooses a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Fans speculate, perhaps hopefully, that it didn't entirely fail during this timeline. Oktavia does seem to hesitate. The real roadblock is that there's nowhere else to go from there. As puella magi, their only real skill is killing witches; they have no means of healing them.
    • That's not entirely true. The laws of magic in-universe are based on the laws of thermodynamics, among which Equivalent Exchange is loosely based. There is one way they can likely turn a witch back into a magical girl (but it's not pretty), by giving up all their magical girl powers and thus becoming a witch themselves, the energy given to the witch might be enough to reverse the process. Words on the other hand, are pretty useless, since the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism rests pretty firmly on cynicism at this point.
    • Puella Magi Kazumi Magica showed an attempt that worked: take the corpse of a witch, use the energies of at least six other girls to transform it into a humanoid body, reconstruct the Grief Seed until it resembles a Soul Gem again, wipe the girl's memory so she doesn't go Axe-Crazy from having a witch's mind, and then use a wish to turn her body into a human one. For obvious reasons, this wasn't something Kyouko could do.
  • Played straighter in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion: There's the girl's fight with Homulilly. They don't actually try to attack her; instead they hold off her familiars and attacks while they try to bust through her barrier and Kyubey's isolation field. It works. But whether it worked exactly as it was supposed to is up to debate. And earlier, the girls defeat Hitomi's Nightmare in the same manner, with Sayaka calming her down.
• Ranma ½: Ranma tries this in one of his fights with a brainwashed Shampoo. It doesn't work.
  Ranma: We're your friends! Shampoo, try to remember!
  Shampoo: Shampoo have no friends!
• Zigzagged in Record of Lodoss War, at least in the OVA Animated Adaptation. Ghim attempts to free Leylia from Karla's control by talking to Leylia and begging her to remember who she is. Initially, this fails, with Karla mocking Ghim for not having a better plan beyond that. Then Ghim tries again, wading into a torrent of magical energy whilst begging Leylia to snap out of it; his efforts, combined with the sight of the comb he whittled for her, does cause Leylia to surface, cutting off the spell. This gives Woodchuck, Parn and Deedlit a chance to attack Karla, which in turn distracts her enough that Ghim can knock off her circlet with his boomerang-axe, breaking Karla's control and freeing Leylia.
• Played straight in Revolutionary Girl Utena multiple times, during the Black Rose arc, in which Utena both fought her rivals and tried to talk sense into them. Notable example is Wakaba: Utena didn't feel safe "using the sword (of Dios) against a friend," so despite Anthy's warnings she resorts to disarm Wakaba first, then use Wakaba's own sword (pulled from Saionji's body) to defeat her.
• Suiseiseki in Rozen Maiden manages to pull this one off in the reboot of the manga, when Souseiseki's body has been possessed by Kirakishou. She manages to put a plan in motion that would ultimately remove Kirakishou from Souseiseki's body by getting Jun to sign a contract with Souseiseki's ring and inserting a rosa mystica into the body. She ultimately sacrifices her own rosa mystica after Suigintou, who has Souseiseki's, refuses to hand it over out of arrogance. Granted that despite her general attitude, this is very in-character for her.
• Rurouni Kenshin: A subversion — or just very sinister straight example — would be first fight between Saitou Hajime and Kenshin early in the Shishio arc, where Saitou attempts to drag Kenshin's Battousai side to the surface. He succeeds... and then damn near strangles Kenshin to death. Kaoru attempts to stop them since she has brought Kenshin back from the Battousai state before, but it doesn't work; it takes the arrival of a high-ranked minister whom both Saitou and Kenshin knew from Restoration times to stop them.
  • During the Kyoto arc, it's played straight. Kenshin attempts to drag the more gentle persona of his Worthy Opponent Shinomori Aoshi to the surface. He's become a Blood Knight after the cruel deaths of his Quirky Miniboss Squad and Kenshin doesn't want to kill him in battle, having promised Misao that he'd bring him back. Mentioning Misao's Tender Tears and how Aoshi was running away from the truth works pretty well, and Aoshi comes back to his senses.
  • Also played with in Seijuro Hiko's fight with Fuji, who's under the effect of More than Mind Control, and by Sanosuke towards his Evil Mentor Anji.
    • Poor Anji. Though Sano more trash talks him into repentance than calls out to him per this trope, since Anji'd been like this for about nine years since a Break the Cutie deal caused his Face–Heel Turn, and Sano first met him last week. Sano did have extremely good points, though... Like how his dead adoptive children would've never wanted him to take revenge for them, and how Anji had pretty much lost himself in his way to get revenge. "Don't you see them cry among the blood you've spilled!?"
    • And Hiko continues a colossal dick while doing his thing for Fuji. Again, It Makes Sense in Context: not only he was snapping Fuji out of his funk, but showing him what an asshole his "master" Saizuchi was. And considering that Saizuchi was an irritating Smug Snake and the one who and manipulated an innocent and desperate Gentle Giant like Fuji, well...
• Cruel subversion in Shadow Star. Hiroko Kaizuka aka Hiro-chan has gone all batshit after being cruelly abused by her classmates and not having her parents' support, killing bullies and parents alike and threatening to kill Shiina's father, Shunji, to force her join her cause. Shiina attempts to talk Hiroko out of it, but Hiroko says she can't go back and that Shiina can't save everyone with kindness, while her Shadow Dragon Oni (which she used to commit the murders) breaking Shunji's arm and almost strangling him. Cue to Hoshimaru snapping Hiroko's neck to save Shunji, and to a traumatised Shiina screaming and going into an Heroic BSoD when she sees that her father is safe, but Hiroko is dead.
• The talk is inverted in Sonic X. Eggman, being who he is, obviously isn't going to try and talk Dark Sonic down nicely. No. Instead he mentally berates the guy and tells him to get the hell outta there before anyone else gets blown up. Amazingly, it works.
• Subverted in the second season of Sorcerer Stabber Orphen: Ellis tries it on the Brainwashed and Crazy Majic, but fails and is knocked out. Played straight immediately afterwards: Orphen tries it again, combining words and magic fighting, and he is successful.
• Ox does this with Kim in the Soul Eater manga when she's enjoying being a "true" witch a bit too much (for the uninformed, this is not a conscious decision, but an effect of the Morality Manipulator). It works, in spite of his Combat Pragmatist of a partner deciding she was too much of a threat to his meister and stabbing the girl.
  • In chapter 76, Black Star tries this on a mad Death the Kid. "I'm bringing you back even if I have to drag you!", indeed. It works in the end.
  • In chapter 96, Maka tries this on Crona but it doesn't work. Soul attempts this as well, but he ain't much more succesful either. It still doesn't deter either of them. Though they do eventually achieve success...later on.
  • Tsugumi and Anya have this problem with Meme in the last episode of Soul Eater Not!, because Meme is under the control of Shaula Gorgon.
• In Street Fighter II V, Ken and Guile are forced to use this trope on the brainwashed Ryu and Chun-Li, who are in this state thanks to Bison.
• Played with in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon repeatedly tries to get his lover Nia, as the Anti-Spiral messenger, to snap out of it. At the critical moment of episode 22, he realized that the reason she kept appearing to him—and the reason she's still wearing their engagement ring—is that on some level she wanted him to save her. He then proceeds to drive straight for the core drill slot she's standing in front of, without bothering to ask her if she'll get out of the way. She does, and starts behaving like her normal self, just before she's summoned back to the Anti-Spiral homeworld.
• In Tiger & Bunny, Kotetsu becoming Unpersoned and declared a killer means that he soon find himself being pursued by his own superhero friends, who have had all their memories of him altered courtesy of the show's Big Bad. The trope is subverted in that Kotetsu tries to make them remember him but has little luck (except maybe with Karina, who has a crush on him).
  • Played more or less straight when Kotetsu has the same fight with his partner Barnaby. At no point during the actual battle (or the relentless reminiscing Kotetsu does in-between) do Barnaby's memories show any sign of returning — but when Kotetsu addresses him using the Embarrassing Nickname he gave him in a previous episode, he regains his senses.
• In Trigun, one of the Gung-Ho Guns uses their powers to possess a child, and Vash thinks he can talk to the "kid inside" and get him to fight for control of his own mind. This doesn't work out, because Wolfwood shoots the kid, leading to a What the Hell, Hero? conflict with Vash.
• In Ushio and Tora: during the Hokkaido arc, Ushio falls victim to the Beast Spear and goes on a rampage after transforming into a monstrous form. What follows is essentially having five girls he bonded with use a sacred comb to remove part of his hair to restore his soul, which, at one point, includes Tora restraining him in what's essentially this trope mixed with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Used for intense drama in the Vampire Princess Miyu OAV. A young woman sacrificed herself to the Shinma Lemures to bring her husband Back from the Dead, but he Came Back Wrong as a servant of said Shinma and without any memories. Miyu noticed this and deduced that the now-Shinma wouldn't stop killing people unless he remembered his past, so while fighting him she showed him visions of his past and tried to make him remember his wife and his own passing. And he did... but since he was now a Shinma, he was shot to death by the police.
• Variable Geo: In the final episode, Yuka is forced to confront her best friend, Satomi, who'd been possessed by Miranda Jahana's disembodied spirit. She uses Satomi as leverage by threatening to kill her from within, unless Yuka agreed to surrender her body to her. Just as Yuka is about to comply, Kaori prevents it from happening and tells Yuka how to free Satomi from Miranda's control. She does it by unleashing the full depth of her feelings and gets her bff back, unharmed.
• Violinist of Hameln has many, but there is one in special where Raiel tries to bring Hamel back after he transforms into a Mazoku. Raiel is still Hamel's best friend even after he KILLED RAIEL'S PARENTS, during his first inadvertent Mazoku transformation, and is constantly bullying him.
• The whole point of 75% of the Filler episodes of Wedding Peach, usually requiring The Power of Love. It happens a lot with Yousuke and Takurou.
• Reversed in the final battle of X1999, where Kamui saves Fuma from his brainwashing, and simultaneously the entire world, by forgiving Fuma for killing him when Fuma takes advantage of Kamui's refusal to fight.
• Zatch Bell!: Sherry Belmont struggles to wake Brainwashed and Crazy Koko, who insists that she turned evil out of her own free will. For a moment, Sherry starts to really believe that it's true, until she notices some earrings Koko is wearing that are a symbol of their friendship...

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