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Its Personal / Anime & Manga

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Things getting personal in anime and manga.

  • In Attack on Titan, Eren when he sees the abnormal Titan who ate Thomas while in Titan form. He suddenly gains the strength to overpower the numerous Titans pinning him and charges the abnormal one uncaring of the fact that his arms are being torn off in the process. He then proceeds to bite the Titan's weakspot and throws him at the other Titans while simultaneously decapitating the one he was biting.
    • Eren's feelings towards the Colossal and Armored Titans who destroyed his hometown. It's the same as his feelings towards all Titans, but turned up to eleven.
      Eren: I'll do everything in my power to make your deaths as excruciating as possible.
  • Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature: Ryo in the Framing Device has a personal vendetta against Bagi — she killed his mother when she promised not to. He didn't know she was set free, however.
  • Bleach:
    • Though outclassed in depravity by villains such as Szayelaporro and Aizen, the Grand Fisher happens to be one of Ichigo's most personal roles for killing his mother and of course for attacking his two sisters so that he could consume their souls as well. Ultimately, it is Isshin Kurosaki who cuts him down.
    • Zommari Rureaux, on the verge of defeat against Byakuya, rants about Soul Reapers persecuting Hollows and declaring that they have no right to judge them merely for eating humans. Byakuya then cuts him down, replying that his actions had nothing to do with Soul Reaper duties, but for Zommari's trying to kill his sister Rukia.
    • Aizen made it very personal for Hitsugaya after brutally stabbing Momo Hinamori, Aizen's previous lieutenant and Hitsugaya's friend, when the former defected from the Soul Society. Then Aizen tricked Hitsugaya into impaling Hinamori in Chapter 392 and suddenly this trope was cranked up to eleven.
    • Aizen thinks Ichigo needs this trope to win a fight. He's wrong.
    • The Visoreds had a personal grudge against Aizen for forcing hollowfication on them. Then Gin sliced Hiyori in half, and cranked this trope up for Shinji, who directed his ire at Aizen, not Gin: Gin was just the subordinate doing Aizen's dirty work, so Aizen was the real threat.
    • Ishida's battle with Mayuri is one of the most epic cases of this trope in the series, second only to...
    • ...Yamamoto's truly incredible explosion of rage in Chapters 503-505.
  • Bon from Blue Exorcist is someone who takes this trope too far as a character flaw. He tends to take everything personally, from Rin hiding that he's the son of Satan, to Shima serving as a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent between the Order and the Illuminati. He feels betrayed that Rin wouldn't confide in him his true heritage, even though he never stopped talking about how much he hates everything Satan related (and indeed, he and everyone else started ignoring Rin after the truth came out for a while) and can't understand that the latter example has nothing to do with him. It's not until Shima calls him out for acting like a spoiled brat who thinks the world revolves around him that Bon starts to get over this behavior.
  • Case Closed:
    • In one episode, the murder takes place at a reunion of Kogoro's old high school Judo club, with both the victim and killer being members (and therefore longtime friends). Kogoro's anger over the situation and resolve to see it through to the end convinces Conan to let him have this one, though he does help out by subtly nudging Kogoro in the right direction.
    • Also, did the killer of the week target Ran? Conan will take that very, very personally.
    • Really, as a general rule, if you have any plans at all of getting away with your murder/other crime, you should definitely not run afoul of this trope with Kogoro. The bumbling drunk routine will go out the window, he will find you and he will make sure you face justice, probably with some expert-level Judo moves thrown in.
  • A Certain Magical Index: "Stiyl, I'm gonna go punch Fiamma. While I'm gone, you take care of Index."
  • The very first episode of A Certain Scientific Railgun has Saten trying to be Badass Normal by stopping an escaping bank robber. Unfortunately for her, she's just a teenage girl while her target is an adult man. Mikoto witnesses the bad guy kicking into Saten. Cue Mikoto showing why is her nickname "the Railgun" despite the fact that as a Badass Bystander, she has no real reason to join the fray.
  • In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Faraday kidnapping Lucy as well as his plans to bring her back to Arasaka strike a nerve for David. So much so that he goes on an all-out rampage against Arasaka, Militech, and MaxTac to rescue Lucy, and he later screams in rage when Trauma Team tries to help Faraday escape.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, the Infinity Castle Arc is chock full of these, setting itself back from even long before the start of this series. This includes:
    • Zenitsu vs Kaigaku. When Kaigaku, Zenitsu's senior and student of the same Thunder Breathing Master, Jigoro, deliberately becomes a demon, Jigoro commits seppuku to atone — but without a second, he ends up dying a slow and agonizing death. When the news reaches Zenitsu, he drops all signs of his cowardice and lack of self-esteem, filled with the sole purpose of killing his traitorous senior. It definitely doesn't help that Kaigaku keeps insulting Jigoro's death as a senile old fart, thus pissing Zenitsu off.
    • Tanjiro vs Akaza. For Akaza, its because of getting humiliated by Tanjiro when the latter threw his nichirin blade as Akaza fled from the rising as Tanjiro yelled on that this was Rengoku's victory, angering him. Not to mention that this was highlighted by Muzan himself for leaving the other demon slayers alive, speaking on how the performance of Upper Rank 3 has declined. And for Tanjiro, it is for killing off a respectable man like Rengoku.
    • Douma vs Shinobu, Kanao and Inosuke. Oh boy, this one is a doozy. To start, Shinobu's older sister was killed by Douma long ago, thus with Shinobu completely dropping her calm demeanor into pure anger upon learning that he was the one that killed Kanae. For Kanao, as she arrived to help her master, she arrived just in time to see Upper Rank 2 kill her. Kanao had mentioned that for the first time in her life, she felt so angry that her body might tear itself apart and hated Douma so much it makes her sick. Finally for Inosuke, Douma had killed his mother a long time ago when Inosuke was but an infant. The Upper Rank had then proceeded to mock the demon slayer's mother for being such a stupid woman with a pitiful existence, despite how much she loved her son. Inosuke had claimed that it was indeed a miracle to meet the killer of his mother and his friend and declared that he would give Douma true utter Hell.
    • Kokushibo vs Muichiro, Genya, Sanemi, and Himejima. Unlike the other examples, this battle didn't start out with personal stakes. Kokushibo's opponents arrived one after another, simply doing their job to take him down as Upper Rank 1, the second most powerful demon. Near the conclusion of the battle, he executes an attack that slices Genya's upper body in half vertically. His older brother Sanemi witnesses this, his last living relative bleeding out on the ground with a fatal injury. Shedding Berserker Tears, Sanemi becomes even more motivated to kill Kokushibo for harming his younger brother, who he always wanted to keep safe.
    • And finally, Muzan. The demon slayers all have some extreme beef with Muzan as he is the progenitor of all of their misery and their friends and families killed by the demons he created. Tanjiro, who have always seen most of the demons he fought to be pitiful and sad, looks at Muzan with absolute hatred for personally killing his family. Tamayo also vowed to kill him for turning her into a demon and from there, her killing her husband and children and many others, with a grudge lasting 400 years ago. Yushiro as well, after Muzan killed Tamayo, has sworn to end Muzan.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Vegeta's deep hatred for Frieza is almost unparalleled in a series full of personal conflicts. And that's BEFORE he finds out Frieza was the one who blew up Planet Vegeta and wiped out most of the Saiyan race.
    • Goku had a lot of friends die throughout the series, but it was Frieza's cold-blooded murder of his best friend Krillin that triggers his ascension to Super Saiyan.
    • Before then, it was King Piccolo who killed Krillin and Master Roshi. By the final fight Goku isn't interested in the state of the world so much as making Piccolo pay for taking those dear to him.
    • And even before then, Goku had only antagonized the Red Ribbon Army because they were out to find the Dragon Balls. Hadn't they sent Tao Pai Pai after him, he wouldn't have killed Goku's friend Bora in front of his son, as this single act triggered a Roaring Rampage of Revenge of Goku to get the Dragon Balls from them, so as to wish him back to life.
    • The entire Android/Cell Saga could be seen as a big 'It's Personal' towards Goku since Dr. Gero built the androids specifically to kill Goku as vengeance for destroying the Red Ribbon Army. Yes, at least two futures were completely ruined and another almost blown apart because of one man's personal vendetta.
    • In Dragon Ball Super, Goku Black ends up generating personal vendettas against him from Future Trunks, Vegeta, and eventually, Goku himself. Future Trunks despises him for completely devastating his world which had already experienced so much destruction from the Androids, with his mom being one of the recent victims. Going off that, Vegeta also hates him for killing Future Bulma and making Future Trunks's life miserable. And Goku explodes with absolute rage when he learns that Black stole his body in another timeline, murdered him with it in front of Chi-Chi and Goten, and then went after them, too. Having three major characters out for his blood to this extent is probably a record for Dragonball villains and really says something about how horrible he is.
  • Durarara!!:
  • Anti-Villain example: In Eureka Seven, Ray and Charles Beams fight against Gekkostate not merely because the military pays them to (though that is a factor), but also because of a grudge against Eureka, whom they believe is to blame for Ray's infertility.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • This is the Tartarus guild member Silver's history with Gray, as he makes no secret that he absolutely loathes him. Which actually makes sense, when you realize he's actually Deliora, the demon who destroyed Gray's hometown and forced his beloved mentor and surrogate mother to sacrifice her life to stop. He never forgave her or any of her students. For those same reasons, and considering he's also currently using Gray's father, Silver's, corpse as a vessel, this trope is in full swing by Gray to him as well. Subverted when it turns out that he isn't really Deliora, he's actually the reanimated body of Silver Fullbuster, and he was just saying all that to Grey to make him angry enough to kill him so as to avenge him and defeat Tartarus.
    • Zeref's desire to die is so great that he deliberately tries to invoke this with protagonist Natsu Dragneel, who, as both his younger brother and the demon E.N.D., is the only being capable of killing him. He hopes that if Natsu is driven by rage, it'll empower him enough to kill Zeref.
  • Fang of the Sun Dougram has a minor plotline about two Humongous Mecha pilots going AWOL to avenge the deaths of their comrades. When command orders them to retreat, the older one cuts off the radio saying that this is personal.
  • This is the reason the title character fails the First-Class Mage Examination in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Serie, who is administering the exam, has held a grudge against her student, Flamme, and her student's student, the eponymous Frieren, for a thousand of years due to their philosophy of magic pursuit contrasting hers.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Once Ed realizes that Scar is responsible for Nina's death, he begins to take his conflict with the man more seriously. But once he learns he also killed Winry's parents, he begins pursuing the man with even more rage.
    • Scar and Kimblee end up having this dynamic with one another upon meeting each other face-to-face on a train to Briggs. They recognize each other from the Ishvalan Civil War when Kimblee personally attacked Scar's hometown and slaughtered his family. While for Scar, it's personal because Kimblee killed his family, it's personal for Kimblee because the idea that he failed to kill someone in front of him in the midst of a battle irritates him.
  • In Full Metal Panic!, it's revealed that Gauron and Sousuke initially had nothing against each other. And then Gauron decided to attack the Guerilla village Sousuke had been living in, mass slaughtering all the citizens while Sousuke and Kalinin were out. Not to mention how, after that, he decided to accept a job from the KGB to go after Sousuke and Kalinin and kill them. After all that... it became personal.
  • GaoGaiGar:
    • It was personal from before the beginning of the series, after EI-01 slammed into the shuttle Guy was piloting, nearly killed him, and did kill his girlfriend's family.
    • Forty-eight episodes later, after the force behind the Zonders has been destroyed... Mikoto is forced to become the next evolution of Zonder-esque machine life-form.
  • Gundam:
    • Mobile Suit Gundam: Amuro Ray and Char Aznable become mortal enemies after the tragic death of Lalah, who has been so dear to both of them.
    • Mobile Fighter G Gundam has Domon Kasshu, who is really pissed at his brother Kyoji for getting their mother killed and father imprisoned. Which turns out to be a frame-up by the Japanese government; when he learns the truth, Domon switches targets accordingly. He's also out to get Master Asia after learning he's in cahoots with the Devil Gundam. On a smaller scale, there's Andrew Graham of Neo-Canada who is totally uninterested in fighting anyone but Argo Gulskii, as he blames Argo for his wife's death.
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Shinn Asuka wants Kira Yamato dead after Kira kills Shinn's love, Stella, only to save the mass from further tragedies she is causing.
      • Kira himself meanwhile opposes Zaft after they supposedly send assassins after Lacus (and further attempts on their life prove him correct) despite them looking like the good guys in the war at first. At the end of the series he personally goes to confront the chairman at gunpoint over this and his attempts to destroy Orb. He also starts viewing Shinn as a serious threat after his first defeat of him, although he doesn't hold a grudge when the war is over.
    • This seems to run a lot in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Dark Action Girl in training Louise Halevy wants a piece of the Celestial Being for what she thought to be massacring her whole family and crippling her. Meanwhile, many people want a piece of Ali Al-Saachez for several reasons:
      • Setsuna F. Seiei wants him dead for manipulating him to kill his own parents and becoming a purposeless child soldier.
      • Lockon Stratos wants him dead for being responsible for the death of his entire family save his twin brother. He fails, unfortunatley, which sets the motivation for the next guy.
      • Tieria Erde wants him dead for killing Lockon, his partner and first love.
      • Nena Trinity wants him dead for killing her brothers. Ironically, she's the one who actually killed Louise's family.
      • And Ali's eventual killer? Lyle Dylandy, the twin brother of the original Lockon Stratos who now took his name. In an aversion of this trope, he didn't exactly kill Ali because he killed his brother. In fact, he offered him one last chance at redemption, which Ali promptly refused.
    • In Gundam AGE, one of Grodek Ainoa's reasons for hijacking the battleship Diva is to avenge the death of his wife and daughter, who have been murdered by the Ax-Crazy Unknown Enemies.
      • Flit has it in for Decil thanks to Yurin's death at the end of the first generation, and Decil towards Flit for beating him. Interestingly, Flit is rather a Combat Pragmatist who's perfectly willing to gang up on Decil or fight him with the Diva itself rather than insisting on a duel... which makes Decil flip out even worse.
      • There's also Asemu and Zeheart, but in Asemu's case it's less about vengeance or anger and more about proving he can fight him equally despite not having psychic powers. He also starts hating on Desil (everyone hates this guy). When he kills Woolf. But unlike Flit who clashed with Desil for years, Asemu promptly killed him almost immediately, meaning it was personal for about 5 minutes.
    • In Iron Blooded Orphans, after Biscuit's death, Mikazuki Augus declared whoever blocks his way is his enemy and he will crush every last one of them. When he finally get to meet Carta Issue, the one who killed Biscuit, he prompted to go for a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and immediately shredded every last one of them within a minute without even bothering to speak. Unlike most examples, it remained ambiguous whether Mika took Biscuit's death very personally, or he just doesn't want to waste any time on his enemies and simply kill them in his everyday "whatever" mood.
      • Gaelio is a much more stricter and tamer example compared to Mika, he has a legitimate grudge against Tekkadan for them being responsible to his friends' maim and deaths, especially Mika brutally killing Carta in the most undignified way as possible.
      • Ein Dalton makes the other two look tame in comparison, ever since the death of Lieutenant Crank, one of the only two Gjallarhorn officers who even cared about him in his entire life, he has been plotting to exact his revenge to the "sinful children" who killed Crank. When he got the chance to exact his revenge, he blamed everyone in Tekkadan for Crank's death, brutalized both Azee and Lafter, and even going after Kudelia, a politician who has nothing to do with Crank's death.
  • Hi-Speed Jecy: Erin's crusade against Major Sabatini is in part because her brother got the business end of the very corruption he was investigating.
  • Holyland: Masaki originally did not want to lead the rest of the street fighters against King, but when Yagi tried to kidnap Mai, he changed his mind.
  • In Hunter × Hunter:
    • This is the core of Kurapika's motivation for almost everything he does: He is the Last of His Kind among the Kurta Clan, which the Phantom Troupe had wiped out many years ago — Kurta eyes glow red when under distress, and sell for very high prices on the black market. From that point on, Kurapika has dedicated his life to seeking out and killing off every member of the Phantom Troupe.
    • The Phantom Troupe itself, meanwhile, plays with this trope. Uvogin has no personal stake in anyone he kills, and in fact is so remorseless that he feels nothing when killing people. However, he is absolutely thrilled to kill people who have developed personal grudges against him, and goes from indifference to elation when Kurapika fights him one-on-one and Uvogin learns Kurapika's motivations. When Kurapika actually manages to kill off Uvogin, this kicks off this trope in Nobunaga, as Uvogin and Nobunaga were friends, and Nobunaga swears revenge on Kurapika. Meanwhile, Nobunaga attempts to nominate Idiot Hero Gon into the Phantom Troupe, and while it fails, for some reason, this enrages Troupe member Feitan so much that he makes it a personal goal of his to kill Gon, though it's a low priority and he doesn't actively seek Gon out.
  • A lot of major characters in Inuyasha have it in for Big Bad Naraku, who has a huge list of wrongdoings including, but not limited to: tricking Inuyasha and Kikyo into thinking they had betrayed one another after he kills Kikyo; cursing Miroku's family; murdering Sango's family and destroying her village (and framing Inuyasha for it) and brainwashing her younger brother; using Sesshomaru several times to kill Inuyasha before trying to absorb him and kidnapping Rin (but it's Kagura's death that was the last straw and he starts going after Naraku in order to avenge her); and killing Koga's pack (which he once again frames Inuyasha for).
  • Irresponsible Captain Tylor: Admiral Donan after being "outwitted" by the Soyokaze early in the show attempts to track Tylor down for revenge. He leads his entire fleet to orbit around a star then fires on the Soyokaze. The star's gravity well changes the course of the shots, hitting the star and causing it to flare up and destroy his own fleet. His ship crippled, Donan asks Dom if he managed to take out the Soyokaze as well and Dom confirms his success.
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Rohan Kishibe's motivation to join the hunt for Yoshikage Kira is this trope. Kira's first victim was Rohan's Cool Big Sis Reimi, and she died protecting him.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen:
  • In K Tatara Totsuka from the Red Clan, HOMRA, is killed before the start of the anime. This causes the rest of the Clan to try to hunt down and kill the killer. It is stated they have bonds that run thicker than blood, so doing the same to any other member would prompt the same response. Reisi Munakata kills Mikoto Suoh, the Red King. However, HOMRA doesn't go after him. Though Anna can't forgive him, she knows Mikoto wouldn't want Reisi killed for it. It also helps that Reisi genuinely feels sorry for killing him.
  • In Knights, Mist is especially driven to stop the Corrupt Church and their witch-hunts after seeing his own mother burned at the stake, and at his father's hands.
  • This was Tubby's attitude in Episode 6 of the Little Lulu anime, after Lulu had gotten him into trouble, leading to him to invoke this line in the English version;
    Tubby: Lulu's played her last dirty trick on me! This time, I'm just really fed up! This time, the worm is gonna turn!
  • Terrorist group in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS that threatens the safety of The Multiverse? Pretty bad, but saving worlds and stopping such threats are part of Nanoha's job description. Terrorist group that kidnapped and tortured the Mysterious Waif that Nanoha had taken in as her daughter? Okay, now it's personal.
    • Subverted in A's. Chrono does request that he be put in charge of the Book of Darkness Case since it was responsible for his father's death, but he doesn't view it differently than any other dangerous Lost Logia and he never shows the Wolkenritter any personal animosity.
  • Maria no Danzai: Nothing screams "personal" like erasing your former identity and dedicating two years of your life to planning the torture and deaths of the Gang of Bullies responsible for the death of your only son. Because for Maria Akeboshi, "mere revenge" is too soft.
    Maria Akeboshi: They deserve judgement.
  • In Mazinger Z, Dr. Hell got Kouji's grandfather assassinated. After his grandfather died, Kouji swore he WOULD find those responsible and WOULD make them pay. That is one of his motivations to piloting Mazinger-Z and fighting Hell. Moreover he has stated he does not want nobody else loses his/her families cause the ambition of Hell.
    • In the sequel, Great Mazinger, fighting the Mykene became personal to Tetsuya after Professor Kabuto, his adoptive father died to save him.. And in the Gosaku Ota manga version, he wanted Marquiss Yanus dead after she tore Misato in half to his face.
    • And in the OTHER sequel, UFO Robo Grendizer, the version manga of Duke Fleed hated Commander Barendos after he dropped his little siblings from a height from three kilometers in front of him. The sole sight or mention of him press HARD Duke's Berserk Button.
  • Megazone 23 Part II: B.D. framed Shogo for Tomomi's murder.
  • In Monster, Eva is only linked to Johan by her connection to Tenma. But when Martin dies, Eva decides she's going to go after him herself.
  • Moriarty the Patriot: Billy spends The Valley of Fellows arc chasing after the man who destroyed his hometown of Fort Sumner and killed his best friend.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • In the later part of the series, it’s constantly personal for Midoriya due to the series’ main villain going after him to steal his Quirk and Midoriya’s Quirk being passed down via the eight previous holders specifically in hopes of destroying said villain.
    • It gets personal for Endeavor when he realizes one of the secondary villains in the final arcs is his oldest son, who wants revenge for Endeavor being an Abusive Parent.
  • Naruto:
    • Orochimaru seems to make it his life's work to earn the hatred of a significant portion of the cast, from Anko Mitarashi and Hiruzen Sarutobi, to Jiraiya and Tsunade, and is probably this to the Leaf as a whole given his goal is to wipe it from the face of the Earth and that he topped its Most Wanted List. Naruto probably feels this way about him too, since even though Oro hasn't done that much to him personally, he doesn't forgive him for murdering the Third or corrupting Sasuke.
    • Naruto has this for Kabuto Yakushi after learning that he was a spy for Orochimaru.
    • Despite already hunting him for the nine-tailed fox, Pain happened to make things very personal for Naruto when he killed Jiraiya, forced Kakashi into a Heroic Sacrifice, and destroyed the Leaf Village. After injuring and potentially killing Naruto's toad allies, his stabbing Hinata after she told Naruto she loved him is enough to force Naruto into his six-tailed, and then his eight-tailed, states.
      • Earlier on, there's also Naruto's fight against Neji in the Chunin Exams finals. Neji tries to talk Naruto into giving up by telling him that he has Nothing Personal against him, to which Naruto answers that he does have a lot against Neji, particularly for how he nearly killed Hinata in the preliminaries.
    • The reason Sasuke Jumped Off The Slippery Slope. Itachi killed the Uchiha clan and traumatized him with Tsukuyomi. Then after killing Itachi he turned his attention to Konoha because they ordered Itachi to massacre the clan and that led to his Revenge Before Reason mindset.
    • Averted by Tobi/Obito Uchiha. While Rin's death was Obito's Start of Darkness, and Obito (knowing Kakashi feels guilty about being unable to protect her) plays with Kakashi's feelings for a bit ("Because you let Rin die"), he is well-aware that Kakashi was forced into that situation and admits that it's not Kakashi's fault that he became what he did, but rather the world's fault.
      • Obito is the mastermind of the Nine-Tails attack, the murderer of Naruto Uzumaki's parents, and is the reason Naruto became a jinchūriki shunned by most of Konoha (save for a very few number of people who were always nice to him). Obito and his Akatsuki subordinates, including the aforementioned Pain, have relentlessly hunted for Naruto and killed many of his allies. Naruto and Hinata consider it very personal when Obito kills Neji, who died protecting the two of them.
    • Madara never forgot about how Tobirama killed his brother and when they're both revived in the Fourth Shinobi War, he gets to act on his grudge.
  • The Demon Arc in Negima! Magister Negi Magi turned out to be very personal indeed for Negi when Wilhelm revealed to him that he was the demon that petrified his hometown. Cue Negi blindly charging, and having to be pulled out of the line of fire by Kotaro.
    • Also, Fate Averruncus. Initially, to Negi, it was just a really powerful evil guy that had to go down, but it was personal for Fate because Negi managed to hit him. Subsequent encounters made it personal for Negi as well.
    • Happened again with Negi to Governor General Kurt Godell after learning Godell was one of many responsible for the destruction of his hometown. It gets pretty intense after Negi literally turns into a demon. Even got to the point that Shrinking Violet Nodoka couldn't use her mind reading book to tell what was going on inside Negi's head save for three sentences "Make them atone. Don't Forgive. Kill them all."
    • In Chapter 301, Dynamis breaks out of his Stoic facade. He laments the fall of the organization's power from boasting an army of thousands to relying on a few relatively weak little girls and that they were forced to play dead to survive. Dynamis blames this Villain Decay on Takamichi and Godel, and really really really wants to make them pay.
  • One Piece:
    • This is Crocodile's main motivation throughout the Whitebeard War, agreeing to join Luffy in breaking out of Impel Down so he can go after Whitebeard and kill him.
    • This is usually the main reason the Straw Hats choose to get involved conflicts. They typically don't care about the politics of the islands they visit and don't go out of their way to try to be heroes, but if you mess with a member of the crew (or someone they've befriended), it's ON. Arlong Park? Nami was crying. Alabasta war? Princess Vivi befriended them. Declaring war on the World Government? Robin tried to pull a Heroic Sacrifice for them. Luffy breaking into Impel Down and then the Marines' HQ? They were trying to kill his brother.
    • Let's just say that Smoker didn't take Vergo's betrayal of the Marines very well and leave it at that. Then Vergo went and attacked his subordinates. Ultimately, Smoker realizes that he can't beat Vergo, so he steals the handicap that was preventing the nearby Trafalgar Law, who had an even bigger instance of this trope towards him, from winning. The end result is Vergo being chopped to pieces and blown up. That's right: a One Piece villain, in canon, was Killed Off for Real.
    • In One Piece Film: Z, this was the Straw Hats' main motivation for going after Z. He attacked them after they went out of their way to heal him, had one of his subordinates rejuvenate Nami, Robin, Chopper, and Brook by twelve years, and finally, taking Luffy's hat.
    • Law's plan and alliance with the Straw Hats was not to go after Kaido, as he initially claimed. In truth, it was to screw over Donquixote Doflamingo for murdering his father-figure Corazon thirteen years ago. Law himself is prepared to fight Doflamingo one-on-one and, even if he dies in the ensuing battle, the destruction of the SMILEs factory on Punk Hazard he orchestrated will ensure that Doflamingo will die anyway at the hands of Kaido. Since Law intentionally pissed off Doflamingo with the entire plan and the killing of two loyal subordinates, the conflict is personal on both ends.
    • By the end of the Whole Cake Island arc, Luffy has gained the personal ire of two of the Four Emperors, Big Mom and Kaido. Kaido's grudge comes from Luffy's role in the destruction of the SMILE factory and his defeat of Doflamingo, effectively halting his plans to create an army of Devil Fruit users. As for Big Mom, what began as Luffy infiltrating her territory to get one of his crew back from her ended in massive collateral damage to her kingdom, the defeat of two of her top soldiers, who are also her sons, and the papers playing up the entire thing as Luffy's victory despite the fact they barely escaped. Chapter 907 opens with Big Mom and Kaido arguing with one another over an open, unencrypted line about which of them will claim Luffy's head and threatening the other against it.
  • Pokémon 3: Ash and his friends arriving at Greenfield transformed into a crystal world was a surprise and a curiosity as they'd known about the town in the past, and had connections to a famed research family who lived there. But then due to a misunderstanding of Molly's wish, her Entei kidnaps Deria Ketchum to serve as Molly's mama. And that made everything much more personal for Ash and Professor Oak.
  • Rosario + Vampire: Kurumu promptly develops this mindset against Security Committee member Keito calls her a "dumb, slutty airhead" to her face.
  • The final arc of Rurouni Kenshin has Kenshin fighting Enishi Yukishiro, his brother-in-law because Kenshin accidentally killed Tomoe Yukishiro, Enishi's sister, and Kenshin's first wife. Enishi makes it clear that this is personal, by sending Kenshin into a "living hell" by defeating him and killing Kenshin's lover Kaoru, though he actually only kidnaps her.
  • In Saki, during the individual tournament, Momo makes it her goal to defeat the eponymous main character, since Saki faced Momo's friend and senpai Yumi in her match, defeating her and eliminating Momo and Yumi's school from the tournament; Momo notices that in spite of Yumi taking her loss gracefully, she was still quite disappointed. Momo doesn't succeed, though.
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: Unlike his teammates, Joe "The Condor" Asakura has a very personal reason to fight the Galactor organization, since they took his parents' lives and almost took his.
  • In Sonic X, seeing his friends attacked, injured and imprisoned by the Metarex in the episode Testing Time gives us Dark Sonic. And also show's us a side of Sonic that we've really never seen in full swing before — namely the part of him that you do not, under any circumstances, piss off.
  • Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry; as if her beloved older brother killing her whole school didn't already give Sara Werec this complex, he goes and offs Carris too, just after exposing her true identity. True, he did have a bit of a suicide wish...
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Do NOT mess with Yugi (or Tea, for that matter). Yami WILL kill you. For that matter, don't screw with Mokuba. it's a great way to get Kaiba pissed off.
  • In YuYu Hakusho, Toguro capitalizes on this trope in order to get Yusuke to fight him at his full strength. He does this by first killing Genkai before the finals, and then during his fight with Yusuke, seemingly kills Kuwabara, but he had only pretended to. Ironically, 50 years ago, a demon named Kairen had killed all his students and forced him to come to the Dark Tournament, which precipitated his Start of Darkness.

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