As a Death Trope, Spoilers naturally abound. Be cautious.
Times where somebody decides they're More Expendable Than You in Anime and Manga.
- In Attack on Titan, entire squads of soldiers are tasked with throwing their lives away if it means keeping Eren safe, because of how valuable his special abilities are. After learning about the circumstances under which his father stole the Coordinate ability and gave it to Eren, Eren deeply regrets coming to accept these sacrifices, and wonders if he deserves to be humanity's hope.
- In Bleach, when Orihime and Sado are about to go and save some innocent bystanders from Yammy and Ulquiorra, he asks her to grab her friends and run, and leave the fighting to him - because she can heal people and he can't, so he's more expendable. She agrees but comes back just in time to stop the scene from doubling as a Heroic Sacrifice.
- "Just in time" being about a minute later.
- Early in the second season of Code Geass, Urabe uses this as justification to execute a suicide attack against Rolo in order to give Zero and the others time to escape and topple Babel Tower. Much later in the series when the Black Knights turn on Lelouch, Rolo sacrifices himself to rescue him, which he does by overuse of his geass.
- At one point in D.Gray-Man, most of the cast is packed aboard a ship that is only kept afloat by Miranda's power, which keeps everything in a stopped-time state from before the damage was incurred. When the ship is attacked, several crewmembers fling themselves in the way of deadly attacks to protect her, on the reasoning that they've already taken mortal wounds and will die as soon as the spell is released anyway, but if Miranda dies, then everyone dies.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- Vegeta knocks Trunks and Goten out before using his suicide attack against Buu. He did the same thing to Goku earlier, but that was when he still planned to survive and get the glory.
- Also, much earlier in the series, Gohan (who is only five years old at the time) doesn't actually knock Piccolo out, but tells him to stay out of the fight because if he dies, they lose the Dragon Balls meaning that everyone who has died so far will be Killed Off for Real. Not that it stops Piccolo once Gohan is in danger...
- Also, in Trunks's timeline, Gohan does this to Trunks before the fight where the Androids finally kill him.
- Another interesting example during the Saiyan Saga where Yamcha volunteers to fight the Saibamen before Krillin, as the latter had already been wished back to life with the Dragonballs during the original series, whereas Yamcha hadn't. This - along with a case of failing to make sure his enemy was down - leads to Yamcha's death.
- At the end of Fullmetal Alchemist, Greed and his human host Ling are being absorbed by Father. Greed, who is known for always telling the truth, falsely reassures Ling that they are going to fight together. With Ling distracted, Greed separates himself and allows himself to be absorbed, and then pulls a Taking You with Me on Father.
- Franz in Gankutsuou (an anime variation of The Count of Monte Cristo), intentionally gets Albert too drunk to attend a duel with Edmond that Franz knows Albert wouldn't be able to win. Knowing that he also has no chance, he then puts on the armor, attends the duel in Albert's place, and is killed.
- Double... no, triple... okay, multiply subverted at the end of GaoGaiGar. The Mobile Unit enters the body of the Z-Master. One by one, each hero holds back an enemy so that Guy can reach the boss (straight). Then, when he gets there, they aren't dead and come back to join him in the final battle (subverted). Then he never even has the opportunity to offer to sacrifice himself, because King J-Der does it for him (double subverted). Then, the character gets better enough to return in FINAL. Oh, and then the battle with Zonuda resubverts with all the heroes getting absorbed one by one, then GaoGaiGar himself also getting absorbed and a surprise Deus ex Machina saving the day.
- Discussed in In Another World, I Am Called: The Black Healer. Since healing magic is so rare, Cyan tells Renee that she simply cannot allow herself to die and that she must be prepared to let people die so that she can save more people in the future.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), although Link has learned by this point that he needs all the help he can get to defeat Ganondorf, he's still insistent that no one follows him into the castle for the final confrontation itself. Darpa reads it as Condescending Compassion by a Smug Super (which Link plays along with), but Midna realizes when Link leaves her behind as well that he doesn't expect to survive a fight with Ganondorf either—he's just the only one expendable for whatever Heroic Sacrifice will be necessary.
- In yet another variation, one Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water story has Grandis volunteering to take her tank (and her two minions) out to clear a minefield that's pinned in the Nautilus, mostly to show off to Nemo. Her boys' reaction? Sanson cold-cocks her and leaves her in the cabin while they go out on a near-suicide mission. Fortunately Jean stows away on the tank, and he is NOT expendable, even in a Gainax show.
- Naruto:
- In a flashback, Hiashi Hyuga kills a Cloud ninja who'd tried to kidnap Hinata, resulting in the Cloud village demanding his death to appease them. The elders of the clan propose passing off Hiashi's twin brother Hizashi as him, since Hiashi is the head of the clan, while Hizashi is part of the branch family (i.e. more or less a servant to the clan). Hizashi himself approves of this plan and knocks Hiashi down with a blow to the solar plexus when Hiashi objects.
- There's a later one with Asuma and Shikamaru where Shikamaru wants to use a more sure-fire strategy that also happens to put himself at greater risk. The plan is shot down because of this. Oddly enough, it's actually more like 'Kotetsu and Izumo and more expendable than you' because Asuma would be on the frontlines anyway. But Asuma is the one who dies.
- In Pokémon 2000, Team Rocket, of all people, pull one of these. Lugia is flying over the ocean while trying to calm down the world-threatening fighting of Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, but is being weighed down by Jessie, James, and Meowth clinging to his leg after he rescued them. They realize this, and knowing that Lugia is the only one who can save the world, they let go, plummeting into the ocean with the full expectation that they're going to die. (They don't). Best of all, it's Jessie, the most mean-spirited and selfish of the three, who suggests it.
- In Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew: Ash and Lucario at first both seem to cooperate in sacrificing themselves to power up a suicidal aura move to heal Mew and save the Tree of Beginning. However, as Ash's life force drains away and he begins to die, Lucario forcibly shoves him away and finishes the healing himself, and dies from it. It's strongly implied, from his body language and previous moments of foreshadowing, that he wants to spare Pikachu the same grief of losing a trainer that he suffered.
- In Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea Ash and May are both trying and failing to repair the Sea Crown without being drowned in the flooding temple, until Ash finally tricks May into getting into an airtight emergency capsule ahead of him and locks her inside, explaining that she has to take care of Manaphy and Pikachu, and dives back into the depths of the temple alone to finish the repairs himself (as he expected, he winds up drowning in the attempt, although he is revived).
- The end of the first season of Ronin Warriors has this happen when each of the main characters sacrifices themselves to save Ryo until only Ryo is left to face Talpa.
- Sailor Moon: In the first season, the Sailor Senshi all sacrifice themselves, protecting Sailor Moon and preventing her from rescuing them, just to get her to Queen Beryl. Done again in the final season, with all the Senshi giving up their star seeds (and thus dying) so that Sailor Moon can fight Galaxia.
- In a Shadow Game on Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi and his friends (who have all been turned into monster cards) are facing Bakura's Man-Eater Bug, which will destroy whoever attacks it. Tristan's ready to take the hit for his friends, but Joey gut-checks him and launches the attack instead.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters Yugi's friends argue that they're more expendable than he is and Alexander may have a point in saying to sacrifice them to win, but Yugi says that while he knows there's a lot at stake, they're his best friends and there's no way he'd desert them. Yugi then sends his monsters to help his friends, leaving himself defenseless.
