Characters who have Inferiority Superiority Complexes in Anime and Manga.
- Azumanga Daioh: It's repeatedly implied throughout the series that Tomo's constant teasing and egotistical behavior is a projection of her own insecurities. She has her own concerns about her weight, appearance, and intelligence, yet repeatedly teases her peers for their own faults in these areas and plays herself up as above them all.
- Bakuman。:
- Miura often seems unshakably confident in his opinions about the direction Mashiro and Takagi should go, especially his belief that gag manga are more likely to maintain their rank than serious manga, but in his thoughts and around his fellow editors, he's less certain of himself, blaming himself for Detective Trap getting cancelled and believing that he has to get a hit out to keep his job.
- The biggest example of the series is Aiko Iwase, who thinks she is better than anyone else and trashes manga in comparison to literature. When she meets her rival Takagi, who isn't a professional mangaka at the time, but he does not give a fuck about her already being an infamous author, she's quite shocked to learn that the Weekly Shonen Jump sells multiple times more than her books do, so she starts becoming a mangaka to surpass Takagi. At first, her manga becomes very popular, since her partner is the young genius Nizuma, but when the quality of her story goes down, she is stuck in a crisis, until fellow mangakas motivate her to continue her manga again; since this point, Iwase mellows out of her icy ego.
- In the beginning of Black Clover, Noelle is a haughty royal who believes that she's superior to commoners because she's been mocked all her life by her family for her Power Incontinence, giving her very low self-esteem as a result. By being accepted by the Black Bulls and gaining confidence as she develops her magic, she grows out of it, even telling a little peasant girl at the Star Festival that social status shouldn't matter.
- Bleach: Nnoitra Gilga proclaims himself the strongest Espada (despite being only the 5th strongest one), acting extremely egotistical during his fights. But beneath his arrogant front is man with a deep inferiority complex. He had an inability to win fights, especially against Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck who at the time was the 3rd Espada. That, combined with Nelliel disrespecting and pitying him for his destructive stupidity, caused him to develop a grudge against her that motivated him to ambush her. As his fight with Zaraki Kenpachi starts to drag on, he gets increasingly more desperate and frustrated over being unable to beat the mighty Captain. He hates being spared by an opponent, viewing it as the biggest disrespect to a warrior.
- In Brave10, Nanakuma is tsuntsun and extremely haughty, but it's because he's afraid everyone thinks he's the inferior twin and he's desperate to surpass his brother as a result.
- In Daily Lives of High School Boys, Girls-only Sanada East's Student Council President Ringo-chan only started to have an extremely large ego as she noticed how the boys-only Sanada North has a far more well-run student council.
- Ruruka Ando in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School was known as the "Ultimate Confectionist". Like some other Hope's Peak students, she began to believe that talent was all that matters in life and developed bitter anxiety towards people who wouldn't eat her sweets as she thought it was all she had to offer. This ends up poisoning her relationship with her best friend with tragic results once the new Deadly Game kicks off.
- Death Note:
- Light seems to be living his life under the assumption that he has to be perfect. Perfect student, perfect son... and then he kills two people by accident just to satisfy his curiosity and his boredom. That ruins everything. It makes him a murderer, evil. The only way to become "perfect" again is to become Justice, to become God. In his own words, "If Kira is caught, then Kira is evil. If he wins and rules the world, Kira is justice." He gets caught. As per the trope, at times he comes off as desperate to prove himself — especially in his interactions with L, where he seems to get overly excited even when he gets simple answers right. And "feeling better about themselves by putting others down"...does the whole world count?
- Mello is a more typical example of the trope — though Light does count. Ranked second best at a school for genii, Mello is motivated by his raging inferiority complex which drives him to do whatever it takes to prove he's number one and beat Kira and Near. He grows up from being the slighted school bully into becoming a terrorist mafia lord.
- Digimon Adventure 02: Ken Ichijouji during his stint as the Digimon Kaiser/Emperor. While he claimed to be the "only perfect human being", and frequently called other people derogatory epithets like "maggots" and "insects", he was actually crippled by a sense of worthlessness and guilt. The "superiority" part falls away completely once he pulls his Heel–Face Turn.
- Dragon Ball:
- Vegeta of Dragon Ball Z has this problem for most of the series. Although he boasts about being the strongest and the prince of his race, he's come across as having an inferiority complex given his constant need to prove himself and his inability to take trash talk. Not helped by Goku always being one step ahead of him, despite all the training he does and Goku being a low-class warrior. His insecurities reached a head in the Buu Saga where Vegeta sold his morality and family for power just so he could finally beat Goku and regain his status of being the best. It isn't until near the end of the series that he finally makes peace with being second best and takes real pride in what he has.note
- Krillin in the original series. He acts cocky, self-assured, and is a bit of a smartass, but it's all to hide his crippling low self-esteem. He was bullied mercilessly at his former temple for being weak and small, causing him to eventually run away. After becoming friends with Goku and gaining confidence in himself, he drops the superiority act. However, he becomes very aware of how weak he is compared to all the monsters in the universe, which causes his inferiority complex to return, except he now covers it with humor and self-deprecation.
- In the video games, Big Bad Turles from The Tree of Might becomes this through his interactions with characters he never had the chance to meet in the movie, most notably the higher-class 'Elites' Nappa and Vegeta but also Goku, who he mocks for "all the clumsiness I'd expect of a low-class warrior" despite being a low-class Saiyan himself.
- Louise of The Familiar of Zero is a Jerkass noble that believes she's superior to her love interest (who she refers to as a "dog"), but deep inside, she has very low self-esteem due to bullying and taunts about her breasts. Not to mention the pressures from both societal expectations and being a member of the most prominent family next to the royal family of Tristain, and wanting to live up to the Legacy of her mother, the legendary Karin the Heavy Wind.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, this is pretty much the reason the homunculi sadistically torment humans. This is most explicitly brought up in the case of Envy.
- Gouda, the primary villain of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Second Gig is driven by such a complex. He has a horribly scarred face that he deliberately kept because he thought it made him look distinctive and notable, and all his crimes are ultimately about getting people to acknowledge his genius. He's pissed when Batou points out that he's a poser who needed a virus to artificially trigger a Stand Alone Complex instead of coming up with something cool enough that people would do so voluntarily like the Laughing Man incident.
- In the various versions of Goblin Slayer, the goblins are pitiless and vicious monsters who look down on the other races they spend their time raiding. It's shown that they hate the idea of other individuals living better, and the titular character muses that envy is the one element holding them all together. Even the goblin paladin, a Magic Knight that is probably the best specimen of goblinkind, is shown to secretly live with the fear that a strong enough adventurer could reduce him to a "mere goblin".
- Gundam:
- Karozo Ronah, the Big Bad of Mobile Suit Gundam F91, has this as the rotten core of his villainy in spite of the supposedly high-minded ideals of Cosmo Babylonia he spouts. He's not a true Ronah, having married into the villainy, and when his wife Nadia abandoned him for another man he volunteered to become a Cyber-Newtype, throwing himself into the Cosmo Babylonia ideology to cover for his wounded insecurities (which come out anyway in his reunion with Nadia and battle with his daughter, Berah Ronah aka Cecily Fairchild).
- Tieria Erde from Gundam 00 starts out as a cold, high-and-mighty Jerkass, but when he makes the kind of mistake he calls his fellow Meisters out on, his disappointment in himself is such that he bursts into tears. And as soon as the supercomputer he's so faithful to ditches him altogether, it's revealed that he's too insecure to do anything on his own without it.
- In a way, the title character of Haruhi Suzumiya. When she was a little girl, she thought of herself as special until her parents took her to a sporting event and she saw a stadium full of people. She realized then just how many people were alive in the world, and how utterly unremarkable she really was. It's downplayed (in fact, no one may even know it but Kyon), but her forceful and loud personality and attempts to have adventures are a conscious effort to make herself unique. From the other side of things, she's the only one who doesn't know that she is truly unique (and might possibly be God).
- In the anime/manga version of The Heroic Legend of Arslan, some characters suspect the reason why Silvermask is so quick to proclaim himself as "His Highness" or the rightful king of Pars and becomes infuriated when people don't acknowledge him as such is that he is jealous that Arslan can freely call himself "prince" and people easily flock to Arslan's banner instead of Silvermask's.
- I Got My Wish and Reincarnated as the Villainess (Last Boss)!: In some routes of the "The Saint and the Four Knights" canon, Elizabeth becomes an Alpha Bitch due to Fantastic Racism-induced Chronic Self-Deprecation and having her last source of pride shattered by Karen. Luckily, this time around Elizabeth doesn't fall into either of these pitfalls.
- Inuyasha: Sesshomaru's animosity towards Inuyasha was hiding a crippling fear that his late father viewed him as the less-favored son. He successfully hid these fears from everyone, including himself, by insulting Inuyasha's Half-Human Hybrid heritage while touting his own Blue Blood lineage. Inevitably, it comes out into the open in the worst possible way leading Sesshoumaru to the conclusion that his father had been grooming Inuyasha to kill him. He eventually realizes that his father actually had faith in his ability to become a Big Brother Mentor and settles for being an Aloof Big Brother who turns up by accident whenever Inuyasha's group needs help.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Terence T. D'Arby from Stardust Crusaders believes himself to be superior in every way to his older brother Daniel J. D'Arby. This makes Jotaro's statement that Daniel would have been able to figure out that Jotaro was cheating right away all the more humiliating.
- Formaggio from Golden Wind has this, stemming from his teammates’ constant belittlement of him for having such a weak Stand ability.
- In JoJolion, Joshu Higashikata's Jerkass tendencies come from his jealousy over people he feels are more talented than him.
- In the The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), Zant still claims that he considers Hylians to be inferior to the Twili, and that he is the only one worthy of leading both the Twilight Realm and Hyrule. After losing to Link, though, he admits that he never believed in himself, and did everything he did to hide his personal weakness.
- Takeshi's younger brother Gekkou from Magical Warfare towards Takeshi. Gekkou's hatred of his brother is fueled by a belief that he's inferior to him thus his desire to take everything from Takeshi (Kurumi, Twilight, personal pride) to make himself feel better.
- Tetsuya Tsurugi from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger, who was created twenty years before, was EXACTLY like Asuka, word for word. He was a Hot-Blooded Ace Pilot and was so arrogant, anyone who questioned his skills had trouble with him. Sometimes he seemed more concerned with showing off than with protecting humanity when he fought the enemy, and he could not stand someone showing him up. That same arrogance also made him bickering with Jun, and Tetsuya Would Hit a Girl even though Jun is both his Love Interest, his Battle Couple, and adoptive sister. However, he had a massive complex of inferiority and lacked a sense of self-worth. He was so arrogant because he was permanently afraid of someone replacing him and taking his reason for existing away, and his self-esteem issues were so big he thought his adoptive sister would dump him for someone she barely knew.
- My Hero Academia:
- This is all but shown explicitly to be behind most of Bakugo's bravado; he feels the need to prove himself superior to everyone so that no one will look down on him. In particular, he wants to prove himself superior to Midoriya (who attempted to save him from a villain at the start of the series and later defeated him in a training exercise) and All Might (who did save him from the villain). In fact, a bonus chapter had Uraraka point-blank tell Bakugo this is why he is so antagonistic to his former friend. Despite belittling and insulting him, he always shows great fear in Midoriya's massive leaps in improvement because deep down, he knows that Midoriya is much worthier of being a better hero than he is.
- Also Aoyama, who is always standing out in his way, is shown to "just want to be equal as everyone" later in the manga, being told there that "Your standards must be off if you don't know you are equal as us" in a moment of awesomeness. The fact that he was originally Quirkless may have had something to do with it.
- It's implied that Endeavor's need to surpass All Might, and the horrific treatment of his family that happened as a result, are rooted in his low opinion of anyone who's not the best, himself included. Furthermore, he's hampered by the physical limitations of his Hellfire Quirk; he risks overheating if used extensively, which is why he tries to finish fights quickly in single shots lest he burn himself out. This is why he banks on Shoto to become his successor since Shoto's Ice and Fire balance each other and thus are not prone to the weaknesses that hamper him or that possibly crippled his oldest son and original successor, Touya, whose weaker constitution toward heat made his problem toward his own fire Quirk worse than his father, as implied to be discovered in a training accident. He has a mental breakdown when he becomes the top-ranked hero on a technicality due to All Might's retirement because he believes he is unworthy of the recognition and responsibilities. It takes a personal talk with All Might to finally understand what it really means to be the Symbol of Peace and try and fix what and who he damaged over the years.
- Alan in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! acts all arrogant and condescending, but it's only because he's jealous of his more talented brother. When he finds something he can do better than him, he mellows out and turns out to be a really nice guy.
- Naruto:
- It's pretty clear that Sasuke's need to defeat Itachi was driven almost as much by his need to finally prove himself better than his brother for revenge. Being born the Always Second Best to a genius older brother and the "Well Done, Son" Guy of a distant father were bad enough, but even then, Itachi and Sasuke were quite close, with Sasuke thinking the world of his older brother while Itachi being protective of Sasuke. Then, said brother killed his entire family and told him to hate and grow strong to be worthy to face him. Then Itachi showed up again years later, looking for Naruto, which is what set off Sasuke (both because of this and because well, Itachi was going to target his precious people once more). Sasuke utterly lost and underwent another dose of mental trauma that unstabilized him. It didn't help that Naruto was finally growing strong enough to challenge and maybe surpass Sasuke, the top student in their class. All this was a recipe for a tragic Face–Heel Turn. Made more ironic when you realize how Itachi played that complex, why he did so, and how it all went wrong. He also shows some behavior of this type towards Naruto himself, though much of this ties into his issues with Itachi. To Sasuke's mind, if Naruto can advance faster than him/become his equal, then he isn't advancing fast enough himself and has no chance of catching up with Itachi. This flaw of his was lampshaded verbatim by Kakashi in an episode.
- Naruto as well, albeit in a different way. In the beginning, his bratty, braggart attitude, and dreams to be Hokage were driven by a need to be acknowledged by the village and not be viewed as a monster, but as Naruto Uzumaki. His initial rivalry with Sasuke was fueled by his need to prove himself equal to the haughty top student who deep down felt the same sort of pain and loneliness as him (and wanted to befriend him.) Unlike Sasuke though, Naruto would shed his complex as he got people that cared about him and vice versa (which makes for an interesting counterpart to Sasuke, whose process became worse over time, albeit that was Itachi's doing.) In fact, by the time of Shippuden, he's actually prone to Heroic Self-Deprecation, which increases as he grows stronger (sadly as a result of him reflecting on his failures to save the people he cares about.)
- Neji seemed to have this to an extent as well. Behind his Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy attitude he belied a huge complex over being a member of the Hyuga's Branch Family, a fate he deeply resented and desperately wanted to escape, even if he would never admit it out loud. Instead, he took out his own insecurities on those he perceived as weaker than him (his teammate Lee and his cousin Hinata) to feel better about himself, and he would react with anger if somebody exposed those insecurities to him, as it happened in both his fights with Hinata and Naruto. Thankfully he dropped this mindset after Naruto defeated him.
- Madara Uchiha's complex towards the 1st Hokage is probably the most extreme example in the series. In a flashback, even mentioning his name was enough to tick Madara off. In fact, much of the conflict in the current story can ultimately be traced back to Madara's inability to accept being Always Second Best to him and his reaction to this.
- The entire history of shinobi was orchestrated using this. Black Zetsu used Indra's jealousy and frustrations with Asura to start a centuries-long conflict that would end with Naruto and Sasuke.
- Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion is practically the poster child for this trope. Outwardly she comes across as haughty, arrogant, prideful, and annoying. In reality that is a false persona that she dons to cover up her debilitating lack of self-esteem and gut-wrenching fear of being replaced and/or abandoned, a product of childhood trauma.
- One Piece:
- Usopp alternates between bragging about his skills and being cowardly or deeply insecure about his skills. He worries constantly about being left behind and that the Straw Hats don't want or need him. Fortunately, through events and building up his confidence, he realized that yes, the Straw Hats want him because they are True Companions and he becomes more courageous and self-confident.
- The flashbacks in the Fish-Man Island arc reveal Arlong has one of these as part of his Hidden Depths, which only becomes obvious in hindsight. It turns out the reason why Arlong was in the East Blue is that he once got his ass kicked by Borsalino (the future Admiral Kizaru) after trying to avenge the death of Fisher Tiger, teaching him a brutal lesson about how far away he was from the real top-tier fighters of the world. This, in combination with getting his ass kicked again, this time by his "brother" Jimbei, convinced Arlong he had no shot at measuring up to the real monsters of the Grand Line, causing him to run off to the East Blue to find any personal success as a pirate. Thus, all his boasting during the East Blue saga about his superiority and the superiority of Fish-men is really just him trying to prop up his fragile ego after those two crushing defeats.
- Sae from Peach Girl has a high and mighty opinion of herself and literally gets a big head over things working out in her favor. She often spreads gossip around to make people distrust Momo, which is done as a result of her own jealousy and insecurity and to bring herself up.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Iris used to taunt Ash about his battle skills and always called him a kid. But one episode reveals why she keeps doing it: she couldn't battle well when her Excadrill starts ignoring her. When this is solved, Iris becomes much friendlier to Ash... though she still calls him a kid from time to time.
- Ash himself was like this in the Kanto arc. He had his bratty and asshole moments due to his own insecurities about the mistakes he made as a rookie trainer. It didn’t help that people would always put him down for it. He grows out of this once he improves as a trainer.
- In the Sun & Moon series, this also applies to Guzma, the leader of Team Skull, who often rants about how he is 'undefeated' when in reality most of his 'non-defeats' were just because he was in one-on-one battles that triggered his Golisopod's Emergency Exit and he claimed that he didn't see the point in continuing the fight.
- A few characters from Revolutionary Girl Utena have distinct shades of this:
- Kyouichi Saionji is a massive jerkass who acts arrogant during duels and with regards to Anthy (whom he regularly batters) but is also hinted to have issues with self-loathing and has a huge inferiority complex with regards to his childhood frenemy Touga, which drives him to assert himself in horrible ways.
- Nanami Kiryuu is the Rich Alpha Bitch of Ohtori's middle school, but when her beloved big brother (the aforementioned Touga, who just about all her feelings of superiority hinge on) starts screwing her over later in the series, it turns out that she has very little in the way of intrinsic feelings of self-worth. The fact that she drowned Touga's kitten as a small child doesn't help, fuelling both her extreme clinginess towards her brother (partly out of penance) and her hatred of herself.
- Rozen Maiden: Suigintou fits this to a "T". She is so afraid of being rejected by her father and considered "junk" that she is determined to win the Alice Game and prove herself superior to all of her sisters.
- Ayaka Machida from Stellvia of the Universe has a psychological need to be The Ace and will go to criminal lengths to ensure that. In the entire show, she is pretty much the only character who would willingly hurt another, as she does to Yayoi and Shima (almost), who were both better than her in piloting. When she fails to eliminate Shima and the truth comes out, she is pretty much crushed. Ironically, she is redeemed by Yayoi herself, who loves her too much to not forgive her. This helps Ayaka to acknowledge that there are pilots better than her and to simply enjoy flying with them (particularly Yayoi) instead of competing.
- Sword Art Online: Sugou Nobuyuki fancies himself a big and powerful man, even declaring himself a god, but he's ultimately nothing but a poor imitation of Akihiko Kayaba and he knows it. When the latter's Virtual Ghost intervenes and grants Kirito Game Master powers to turn the tables in his favor, Sugou whines and throws a temper tantrum over the fact that even with Kayaba dead, he's still Always Second Best. Kirito even lampshades it; while both of them were defeated by Kayaba and forced to work for him, Kirito defied Kayaba while Sugou wants to be him.
- Kamina, of all people, from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann shows a lot of bravado and pulls one crazy stunt after the next, from going up against a Humongous Mecha armed with nothing but a katana to hijacking an enemy mech while in the middle of a fight against said mech, combining two mechs by literally stabbing one of them down into the other from the top and finally stealing another even bigger mech in the middle of a battle. And yet, he reveals in Episode 7 that he is actually just as scared as everyone else, if not more so, but acts tough solely for Simon's sake, and that Simon was the one who actually kept him alive all along, and that he doesn't think he can actually do anything without Simon.
- Shutaro Mendo from Urusei Yatsura, though it's not so much his pride hiding insecurity as his pride being so central to his character that he tends to collapse when it's topped. Like when Rei showed up and was judged better looking, he immediately began ranting about how money was all that mattered, and how he keeps rolling into the fetal position every time Ryunuske reveals that she's getting more love letters than him.
- To different extents, both Seto Kaiba and Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
- In the former's case, he was an orphan whose only pride was chess and forced the mogul of a big company to adopt him in a chess game. He subsequently takes over the company by force and is obsessed with being number 1. When Dark Yugi beats him in a duel, he becomes obsessed with revenge and coming out on top. In both lives, he seems to have an inferiority complex regarding Yugi, and will only acknowledge him as a rival. While consistently looking down on others, he has a chip on his shoulder in both lifetimes.
- The latter's case happens in the manga up until Duelist Kingdom — he is confident in his abilities in games to the point of pride and aggression getting the better of him. This seems to be because he doesn't know who he is and assumes that he is merely some other form of Yugi intended to protect him. When he's confronted with the fear of actually having to face loss and not being able to protect Yugi's loved ones, he retreats further into his assumed gaming prowess, underestimating Mai to focus on Pegasus. He grows out of this by admitting his fear, acknowledging the possibility of losing and his pride effectively stops hampering when he learns he was once human, not just a spirit created by the Puzzle.
