Instances where villains are inches away from victory in Anime & Manga.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- Occurs in the Cell Saga, when Big Bad Cell who was thought to have died when he self-destructed comes back thanks to his regeneration From a Single Cell and is now even STRONGER than Super Saiyan 2 Gohan. Cell launches a MASSIVE Kamehameha wave with the intent of blowing both the Z-Warriors and the earth away and it's all Gohan can do but hold him off in a Beam-O-War struggle which he is slowly losing ground in (the anime, which thankfully was kept in Kai, included the Z-Warriors helping out by firing energy blasts at Cell from behind. Though he manages to deflect them through pure energy alone). Then all of a sudden, Vegeta blasts Cell from behind distracting him long enough that Gohan can push both Kamehameha waves back at Cell, killing him off for good.
- At around the same time of Vegeta's attack, Goku (who recently died to save the planet from Cell's self-destruction) appeared in spirit form to tell Gohan that he's really still strong enough to kill Cell, because his broken arm doesn't actually do anything to weaken him. Cue both Goku (in spirit form) and Gohan doing the Kamehameha at the same time.
- In the movies, this is kinda Broly's thing. Example: Pre Villain Decay (well, we're talking about a show where the heroes are exponentially more powerful every season and the Return is about 10 years later), Broly is in a different league from the heroes, to the point no one in the entire cast can so much as stand toe-to-toe with him and trade blows. Broly is so powerful that the Blood Knight Vegeta is too scared to fight him until most of the cast is near death. Then Vegeta is put down in about 5 seconds. Goku, with the combined remaining power of the entire cast, lands one punch and it looks like Broly blows up from his own overpowered-ness. And then the planet blows up for unrelated reasons.
- The Return: Well, teenage Gohan can go toe-to-toe with Broly now. Broly shows a tiny amount of what could be construed as fear when Gohan goes Super Saiyan 2... at which point Broly goes Legendary Super Saiyan and proceeds to No-Sell anything Gohan throws at him. He reacts a little bit to being drowned IN LAVA. The following is possibly the most intimidating Out of the Inferno ever. Because, y'know, LAVA. Gohan and his little brother Goten only manage to defeat him with assistance from the spirit of the then-dead Goku.
- But only because a side attack from Trunks distracted Broly. Had Trunks not regained consciousness or if Broly ignored the attack, he almost certainly would have destroyed the Earth. Like father, like son.
- The Buu saga is arguably the darkest hour for the heroes: Buu has killed nearly everyone on Earth and absorbed Piccolo, Goten, Trunks and Gohan, the last of which Goku was planning to fuse with to defeat Buu. The only people left for Goku to fuse with are Mr. Satan the Fake Ultimate Hero, and Dende, who's needed to keep the Dragon Balls working. Only the surprise return of Vegeta (who had previously died in a failed Heroic Sacrifice) turns things around.
- King Piccolo also comes very close to winning during the King Piccolo Saga of the original Dragon Ball. He got the Dragon Balls to give him eternal youth and killed the dragon so no one could ever use the Dragon Balls against him. He also murdered a large number of the strongest fighters in the world, beats Goku so bad that his heart stops, and seizes control of the entire world, turning it into a living hell. The only reason he ultimately lost is because he never anticipated that Goku was Not Quite Dead.
- MÄR, at least the anime version anyway. Everyone except Ginta, Babbo and Jack are dead, the Big Bad is attacking Earth, and it looks like all is lost. Then Snow merges with Koyuki to allow Ginta to use the magic stone inside of her to defeat the Orb and resurrect everyone. Think about that, if Snow hadn't died beforehand, everyone would've been screwed. The manga averts this however, with a laughably easy final battle in which none of the heroes even get so much as a scratch.
- Mazinger Z: Often Dr. Hell and his followers were on the brink of winning, and only through of extreme competence and sacrifice of Kouji and his allies or of utter incompetence of Hell's minions, the situation was saved. It happened several times when they very nearly took the Institute over (the most prominent of them happened in episode 57) or invaded it successfully (episode 87), or managed to steal a sample of Alloy Z... However the most notorious of them happened in the last episode when Archduke Gorgon's Robeasts destroyed Mazinger-Z and demolished the Institute. Tetsuya's Big Damn Heroes moment saved Kouji's life, but the villains finally were victorious against Mazinger. That story was greatly expanded in the Mazinger vs Great General of Darkness movie.
- Great Mazinger: Several of them. Two of them stand out:
- In the Gosaku Ota manga episodes, Great Marshall of Darkness sucessfully blackmailed Japanese army into destroying Great Mazinger and the Fortress of Science. The army bombarded the Fortress and stormed into the place before blowing it up completely, and the heroes were forced to flee and lie low for a while. Meanwhile, Mykene army conquered Japan.
- In the last episodes of the anime and Gosaku Ota manga, the Mykene army struck the Fortress and in the manga, Marquis Janus traped Misato and cut her in half, and attacked Mazinger-Z and Great Mazinger separately. Kouji and Tetsuya nearly got killed, and Prof. Kabuto commited a Heroic Sacrifice to save Tetsuya. The generals of the Mykene army laughed. Five minutes later they were not laughing.
- UFO Robo Grendizer: One of the best examples happened in the two-part finale of the first season. Grendizer had been beaten by two Robeasts and forced to hiding, Kouji's TFO had been badly damaged, Blackie had taken control of the Science Space Center and tortured Dr. Umon. When Duke returned, he managed beat both mechas, saving his friends and destroying Blackie's command ship.
- Great Mazinger: Several of them. Two of them stand out:
- It's an unwritten rule in Yu-Gi-Oh! and its spinoffs that the protagonist can't win with more than 500 Life Points left, and doubly so if it's a climactic Duel.
- Taken to one of its most logical conclusions at the climax of the Yugi vs Noah Duel, as the final turn starts with Yugi at 100 LP taking out Noah's 10,000.
- 5Ds had quite a few Near Villain Victories at the start of the Dark Signer arc - mostly due to the Earthbound Immortals. On two occasions, the protagonists only survived due to timely Plot Driven Breakdowns.
- There are a few situations where a Duelist wins while having no Life Points at all, only remaining in the game with the assistance of a card effect.
- In the final Duel of the third season of GX, Yubel uses a card that forces Jaden to add one of 5 cards to Yubel's hand every time he uses 2 Spells. It eventually comes down to two cards: Grinder Golem, which would cause Jaden to lose due to Yubel's own effect, and Super Polymerization, which is a MacGuffin that can destroy multiple dimensions at once. Jaden goes for Super Polymerization, and Yubel is about to pull off her master plan with it until Jaden alters the card's targets to their souls, forcibly ending the Duel.
- Taken up to eleven in Zexal, where Yuma hits 100 LP in nearly every duel.
- VRAINS has GO Onizuka's entire Dueling style exploiting this trope. He allows his opponent to seemingly get the advantage on him so he can stage a comeback victory.
- R.O.D the TV. Joker has Junior, with the intention of using his body to house the Gentleman (the former head of the British Library whose soul is in a set of books), and is set to brainwash the whole world into believing the British are all powerful (and somehow transforming reality into something 19-century). The heroes are there but since paper is their main weapon, there's none on hand. Trying to talk things out doesn't work. Nenene, who throughout the series was stressing over writing a novel and had only recently finished it, sacrifices the unpublished novel, which is more than enough artillery for Yomiko and the Paper Detectives to stop the baddies.
- 20th Century Boys uses this to great effect. Friend, for one, actually succeeds in ruling the world and being hailed and loved as the world's savior. It's only when he decides to destroy it, that things start to turn in our heroes favor.
- Monster has one at the end when, following the Ruhenheim Massacre, Johan very nearly coerces Tenma into shooting him and thus corrupting himself forever by threatening to kill a young boy only to be shot in the head by the boy's father at the last minute.
- In the finale of Digimon Adventure 02, MaloMyotismon has begun his plan to engulf both the Digital World and Real World in darkness under his rule and the Digidestined present are unable to stop him. Even when they receive aid from the other Digidestined on Earth, MaloMyotismon is able to feed on the darkness of the Dark Spore children to become stronger. It takes an outright Deus ex Machina of embracing dreams in order to destroy him.
- The goal of the bad guys in Digimon Frontier is to destroy the digital world piece by piece and feed it to Lucemon, thereby freeing him from his prison. The heroes do all right at first, but then they come up against the Royal Knights, who repeatedly take out a chunk of the world and the heroes barely escape with their lives. Eventually the Knights succeed in taking the entire planet, forcing the heroes to take refuge on the moons. They're able to rally and take out the Knights at this point, but that still means Lucemon's back, and he's able to start an invasion of the human world before he's defeated.
- Digimon Fusion does it twice. First it seems DarkKnightmon has completely absorbed his brother Bagramon till Bagramon fights back and absorbs him. Then Bagramon has the digital world and earth under his power, and prepares to destroy everything and remake everything in his will with the Code Crown power, and just he is about to finish of Taiki Shoutmon appears and saves him, because the Code Crown chooses Taiki over Bagramon, and the tables start to turning in favor for the good guys there.
- Oh good Lord, Fullmetal Alchemist. In Chapter 104, the Big Bad, Father, absorbs the souls of everyone in the country and eats the Truth, making him powerful enough to conjure a sun in the palm of his hand. Luckily for the world, Hohenheim had a circle in place to reverse it, leaving Father in a state of Superpower Meltdown due to not having enough souls to contain Truth. At which point awesomeness ensued.
- Tokyo Majin. The heroes are up against a God Mode evil spirit (Yagyu Munetaka) who eliminates all the main & supporting cast heroes—which adds up to a fight of about TWENTY on ONE. Only the resident badasses are even able to deal damage to him. With all your typical anime Badass superpowers present. There is much buildup that they're likely to lose unless they unlock all four Godbeasts to turn Hiyuu into what amounts to the ultimate hero of awesomeness. So, as most of the cast lies there broken, dead or dying, in from left field comes the final Godbeast's vessel and bam, the Hero of Ultimate Bullshit is awakened. Screaming J-Rock in the background. Hope Spot. Hiyuu STILL LOSES. And the heroes finally answer with their own God Mode Heroic Resolve as The Heart brings everyone back to life, declaring they will keep fighting until they win.
- In Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions, Big Bad Kodai almost succeeded in opening the Time Ripple...but it was an illusion — Zorua had luckily broken his illusion canceler when attacking him.
- Also, in the TV special Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns, Giovanni came very close to success.
- Though Team Rocket many times has successfully captured Pikachu, they're almost immediately thwarted. However in "A Scare to Remember", they came closer than they've ever got before when Pikachu developed amnesia and was separated from Ash. Team Rocket successfully persuaded Pikachu that he was a member of their team, and Pikachu attacked Ash Ketchum without hesitation. Though Pikachu would regain his prior memories, and give a little payback to Team Rocket, it was pretty weird to hear James ordering Pikachu to use Thunderbolt.
- An early episode of Sun and Moon gets even closer when TR's Mimikyu and Mareanie are able to defeat Pikachu and Rowlet in a Double Battle fair and square. The only reason they don't get away with nabbing Pikachu is because Bewear steps in to take the villains to its cave at the last second.
- In Project ARMS, Alice has possessed Katsume, Ryo appears to have no choice but to kill them both, Keith White is quickly on his way to being a living god and destroying everyone on the planet to prove it, and the ARMS weapons - the only things that have a chance of stopping him - have been deactivated. It's only after Kei is able to appeal to Azreal and get the ARMS weapons back up that things start to turn in their favor.
- In Bleach, Aizen has fused with the Hogyoku, beaten the Court Guard Squads, killed Gin, and is going to kill Ichigo's friends and take over the universe when Ichigo arrives as a Physical God and defeats him at the cost of his powers.
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Neo-Zeon is in control for the series: the AEUG is barely hanging on and is little more than an annoyance to the revived Zeon. Then, just as Haman Karn is about to solidify her control over the Earth Sphere, an Enemy Civil War erupts and Neo-Zeon rips itself apart, allowing the Federation's previously-outmatched forces to come in and sweep up the pieces.
- Also happened in the original Mobile Suit Gundam: early in the One Year War, the Battle of Loum saw Zeon wiping out most of the Federation fleet and capture its commander general Revil, and the Federation was about to surrender when Revil managed to break out and make a Rousing Speech that evidenced how Zeon was actually in worse shape than the Federation, resulting in the Federation soldiering on and continuing the battle. Even then, Zeon had invaded Earth and occupied most of Europe, North America, northern Asia and chunks of Africa. That's the situation at the start of the series, and it's only halfway through it that the Federation scores a decisive victory and retakes Europe and Asia, and it's hinted that the major contribute of the heroes is to distract Zeon's armies from the war by bringing a lot of firepower too near Zeon's major industrial hubs on Earth, forcing them to redeploy and giving the Federation much needed breathing space to marshal up its much bigger army and unleash it on Zeon's occupied territory.
- This trope appears to be a favorite of Hirohiko Araki, as every villain of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure often comes only a hairsbreadth away from killing all the heroes, only to be defeated by circumstances they couldn't predict:
- Phantom Blood: Dio succeeds at killing Jonathan and stealing his body, but Jonathan stops him from ruling and terrorising England by trapping him on an exploding ship, and the Joestar bloodline barely survives thanks to Jonathan having impregnated his wife Erina before his untimely demise.
- Battle Tendency: Kars finally becomes the Ultimate Life Form with Complete Immortality after obtaining the Red Stone of Aja. His triumph becomes his curse when Joseph, acting on instinct, uses the Stone to launch Kars into space with a volcanic eruption. Kars eventually freezes into a statue due to the sheer coldness of space, and since he can't die and has practically no chance of landing somewhere, he would eventually Go Mad from the Isolation and his brain shuts down.
- Stardust Crusaders: Nearly all the heroes are dead and DIO has acquired a massive power boost that allows him to stop time on such a scale that Jotaro simply can't keep up, but in the end, DIO is defeated by Polnareff's intervention, and eventually, Jotaro learning through DIO's time-stops that he can also stop time.
- Diamond Is Unbreakable: Kira acquires Bites the Dust, a seemingly foolproof power that allows him to constantly kill and rekill any potential witnesses until he's satisfied that his secret identity is complete. In fact, at one point he manages to kill all of the heroes, but he doesn't realize it because the power doesn't include awareness of what happens in the time loops (the only way to find out would be to go through another loop and see who just randomly explodes). Only due to sheer luck is Hayato able to create a situation where Kira must deactivate the looping in order to protect himself (as he can't use his Stand while Bites the Dust is active), which saves the heroes and ultimately results in Kira's defeat.
- Vento Aureo: Diavolo has nearly wiped out all opposition, and is only moments away from acquiring the Stand Arrow, but is narrowly defeated by Bruno, Trish, and Giorno snatching it away from him in the last second, coupled with Giorno using the Arrow himself to give his own Stand the exact ability needed to counter Diavolo's ability to skip ahead in time.
- Stone Ocean: Enrico Pucci succeeds in killing all of the primary protagonists and accelerating the universe through a second big bang. The only thing preventing a Downer Ending is Emporio surviving long enough to kill Pucci with oxygen purification, causing a Reset Button that brings back time to before the start of Stone Ocean, revives the main heroes (though with some minor differences and no memory of what they'd just been through), saves everyone else on Earth (who are oddly implied to have kept their memories), and retcons Pucci from existence.
- Steel Ball Run: This actually happens twice. Gyro dies, and Johnny is left to fight alone against the seemingly Nigh-Invulnerable Funny Valentine. Crippled, without his horse, and with only one bullet left, Johnny finally understands Gyro's dying words and unlocks the ultimate form of his Stand. Following this, Alternate Universe Diego Brando actually beats Johnny thanks to Valentine having warned him of Johnny's ultimate power, rendering him helpless while Diego wins the race, and is just about to ensure that the Saint's Corpse will remain in his possession, when Lucy Steel arrives with the original Diego's head, which merges with the second Diego and blows his head up. Because Diego had to cut off his own leg in order to beat Johnny, he couldn't escaape her despite her being a stand-less teenage girl. For an extra kicker, since Diego can't claim his prize money due to an unfortunate case of death, he's disqualified and the prize goes to Poco Loco, the much less sinister runner-up. Granted, Johnny ultimately loses the race, but he only joined it to learn how to walk again, so he arguably got everything he wanted anyways.
- In Umi Monogatari, Sedna comes extremely close to winning. By the end of episode 11 she has absorbed Marin and Kanon's combined power and shattered their transformation stones, rendering them completely incapable of stopping her. She then floods them with darkness and nearly kills them before they realize what the darkness is.
- In Naruto, in the filler Land of Tea Escort arc, Fukusuke Hikyakuya came to within inches of winning the race that would dissolve the Wasabi clan. Idate luckily crosses the finish line in the nick of time. Kyuroku Wagarashi and the evil Minister then try to cheat the outcome saying that Idate should be disqualified for riding on Naruto's back part of the way. Fortunately, the Tea Daimyo grills the Minister for accepting the Wagarashi bribes and forces him to become a monk and disbands the Wagarashi for their crimes forever.
- In the 24th episode in the second half of the first season of Sword Art Online, Oberon cuts Kirito and Asuna's reunion short and spams his Game Master status, pinning Kirito on the ground with gravity-based magic, then impales him with his own sword and then proceeds to tear parts of Asuna's garments off, and lick her while sexually assaulting her, and then threatens that once he's done that in the virtual world, he'll do the same thing to Asuna in the real world, while she is in a coma, in her hospital bed, with Kirito unable to stop him. Just as he's about to give up in his Near-Death Experience, the digital spirit of Kayaba, the antagonist from the first half, who was disgusted with Sugou's abuse of the system, gives Kirito his system administrator privileges and a Heroic Second Wind, allowing Kirito to have control of the system, reduce Oberon to Level 1, take away his control of the system, turn off his pain absorber, and defeat Oberon and save Asuna.
- Happens in The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird.
- Happens quite a few times in Fairy Tail with the various Arc Villains coming within a hair's breadth of their goals.
- Galuna Island Arc: Despite the team having defeated Lyon and his cohorts, the demon Deliora has been freed from his Iced Shell prison just as Lyon intended...only for the demon to just fall down and die right then and there due to its life being sapped by Iced Shell's properties.
- Phantom Lord Arc: Fairy Tail's has worn itself out defeating the Element 4 to stop Abyss Break, Natsu is in no condition to keep fighting after bringing down Gajeel, and Erza, still weakened from her previous injuries and their best hope, is losing hard against Master Jose and no one is left to help her due to the others fighting a losing battle against Jose's Shade soldiers. Cue Master Makarov, healed from his previous crippling injury, coming in to save her and taking the fight to Jose himself before wiping him and his Shades out with Fairy Law.
- Fighting Festival Arc: Almost everyone in Fairy Tail is too weak to move after taking down the Thunder Palace, Makarov is suffering from a heart attack brought about by stress so he's no help, Laxus has just wiped the floor with Natsu and Gajeel, and he's about to unleash Fairy Law to wipe out everyone in Magnolia despite Levy's pleads. Great destruction is only averted because Fairy Law fails to hurt anyone in the city because Laxus deep down could never bring himself to hurt them, and casting the spell uses up so much energy that Natsu (with Gajeel's help) is finally able to take him down.
- Tartaros Arc: Despite defeating the Nine Demon Gates and even Mard Geer himself, the magic superweapon Face is still activated, seemingly spelling the end of everything as everyone's magic begins to leave them as they desperately try to destroy the Faces and the grievously-injured Mard can only smile at the sight of his plan to revive E.N.D. coming true before his eyes. However, the dragon parents of Wendy, Gajeel, Sting and Rogue all arrive to wipe out the Faces themselves, putting an end to the demon's schemes.
- Stitch!: In the "Stitch vs. Hämsterviel" two-part season one finale, Hämsterviel manages to use Mind Control on Jumba to get him to make a machine that sucks the magical energy out of the Spiritual Stone and transfer it into Hämsterviel himself. This made him so strong that Stitch could not defeat him, and the "hamster-like" alien used a handheld vacuum-like device to suck and shrink Stitch into a small, seemingly-indestructible football-shaped container. However, Stitch's companion Yuna manages to take the container from Hämsterviel and eventually bring Stitch to the Spiritual Stone, which temporarily lends its remaining power to him. This allows Stitch to break the container from within, grow back to his original size, and—after generating the gladiator-style outfit he had been daydreaming of wearing—fight Hämsterviel and defeat him, sending him back to Galactic Prison along with Gantu and Reuben.
- In the 90s Sailor Moon series, Zoisite and Kunzite have the Sailor Guardians trapped in an unbreakable barrier and Tuxedo Mask is wounded thanks to Zoisite disguising himself as Sailor Moon. Before Kunzite could use the barrier to crush the girls, a beam of light strikes his hands - Sailor Venus arrived just in time to save her future teammates. The villains are ready for round 2 before Queen Beryl recalls them as Zoisite’s attack ended up unmasking Tuxedo Mask and she recognized his face, forcing a change of plans.
- Voltes V: Despite Prince Heinel being considered an In-Universe Memetic Loser by Zambajil and his cronies, he has this.
- If Voltes V didn't know of Galgo's flaw, he would have annihilated the robot right there.
- In episode 34, Heinel recruits Gilligan, and tells him of his plan to capture the Volt Frigate in exchange for Dange. This almost works, but it turns out that Girion has a Hidden Heart of Gold, and renounces his loyalty to Heinel.
- In the Grand Finale, had he not discovered that Kentaro/Gohl was his father, he would have driven his dagger into Kenichi. Even though he had tried to murder him moments earlier, Kenichi still welcomed him as a brother.
