Not So Different Remark / Anime & Manga

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• 7 Seeds
  • Ryo tells Ango that the two of them are 'cut from the same cloth'. They're both stubborn, fast thinkers, are generally even the top of their classes and keep their cool in tough situations. Ango isn't happy to hear this, but eventually accepts it.
  • When Koruri finds out how Ango has been treating Hana horribly including trying to rape her, which is a sore spot for Koruri, who had been sexually harassed by one of the teachers, she calls both of them out, stating "that's what the teachers did!"
• A benign variant happens in Chapter 31/ Episode 9 of Asteroid in Love. After Misa gives her advice to Ao regarding the latter's dispute with Mira earlier this episode, she added that despite all her big words, she's worried about her new college life, especially because she's really bad at housework. Ao, who's also bad at housework, silently nodded.
  Ao: Suddenly, I feel much closer to her.
• Astro Boy gets to hear one of these speeches every time he tangles with Atlas or Blue Knight. In fact, in Blue Knight's case it actually worked for a while.
• Attack on Titan:
  • Eren points this trope out to Reiner after meeting him for the first time in four years. Reiner asks Eren why he's come to attack Liberio, to which Eren responds "I'm the same as you". Reiner was just doing his job when he and his friends attacked Eren's hometown, and Eren's just doing the same when he attacks Reiner's.
  • Even Jean realizes that he has no rights to criticize Reiner for killing his best friend Marco because he also took parts in killing Reiner's best friend Bertolt, meaning that he is no better than him and that he can't attack him because that would only make the connection closer. What's more, Jean had also taken part in an attack on Reiner's hometown of Liberio, not unlike how Reiner, Annie and Bertolt had breached Wall Maria.
• Baccano!: In 1711, while agonizing at the possibility of having to kill the envious fellow alchemist Szilard to protect some dangerous knowledge, Maiza asks "Are he and I really so different?" (As it turned out, they were different enough that Szilard completely lost his marbles and started killing people for the knowledge even while Maiza was still thinking it over.)
• In Bakuman。, Nanamine, having revealed his true colors, tells the main characters, whom he's a fan of, that they should understand his lack of trust in editors and plan to get ahead by releasing his rejected one-shot online and consulting 50 people for advice by saying that they had to defy their editors and make waves in the past, and that "Tanto," a work that they were dissatisfied with enough to want to end, is the result of them listening to their editor.
• Berserk:
  • Puck chastises Guts — who at the time is just as vicious as the monsters he hunts for — for being so cruel to Vargas, a kind but revenge-driven man who wants the apostle who mutilated Vargas and forced him to watch as he ate his wife and children dead, saying that they weren't much different and should consider each other allies. Guts laughs it off, but later reconciles to himself that he and Vargas weren't so different after all, since he and Guts shared the same cruel fate when encountering apostles.
  • At one point during the Golden Age Arc, Casca points out that Guts wasn't so different from Griffith when their personal ambitions and dreams were involved. She basically called them both out as self-centered bastards who didn't give a damn about her feelings or well-being in the end so long as they got what they wanted (which also has a lot of fridge implications as the story progresses - literally).
• The Big O
  • Big Bad Alex Rosewater never gets sick of pointing out that hero Roger Smith is just as arrogant, power-hungry, and obsessive as he is, for manipulating a giant robot to fulfill his personal moral agenda.
    • Except Alex's interpretation can be considered wrong considering that Roger intentionally puts on the air that he is just a business man and saves people by way of business.
  • In episode "Eyewitness" Angel tells Roger Smith that they're not so different.
• Bleach:
  • Once the enmity ends between Ichigo and Uryuu, it becomes very clear, very quickly that the two are not so different. Neither of them are willing to accept such a claim but, while the pair may look dissimilar on the surface, everyone in-universe who knows them can see just how alike they really are. It's a source of great amusement for their friends, in fact.
  • Vandenreich leader Yhwach reveals that Yamamoto was once every bit as brutal as him, something both are aware of but hold in different perspectives.
  • Komamura based his friendship with Tousen on the belief that their hearts were similar enough for him to be able to guide Tousen back to a better path. Later, he falls victim to his desires for revenge just like Tousen. Instead of dying, Sajin loses his humanity. He acknowledges the irony as he begins to lose his human thoughts.
• Bokura no Kiseki: After Yanuma loses it and attacks Meguro in a desperate bid to get people to respect him, the main character Harusumi has a moment of this. He says that Yanuma's desire to force everyone to respect him with his rank in the past and his superior magic is similar to the desire Harusumi had back in the prologue to attack the people who were bullying him with dangerous magic.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Heaven Canceller points out to Accelerator that he and Touma are not all that different in their determination to protect those they care about.
  • Touma and Othinus come to this conclusion about each other after their conflict in New Testament 9. Othinus trapped Touma in a series of horrible recreations of the world in an effort to break his will, but it helped him realize that she had also been cast out of her original world and had been trying to get back. She considers him the only person who understands her.
• Subverted in Code:Breaker when an evil character says she was severely abused because of her powers, and a good character says that he too was abused. They go through a Defeat Means Friendship moment and then the evil character drops all the people she's frozen into a pit. It seems that Defeat has nothing on treating someone like a human being.
• Code Geass: As foils of one another, it's obvious to the audience that Lelouch and Suzaku are not so different, and there are a number of instances when they realize this in the show. One obvious example in R2 being during the meeting at the Kururugi shrine, when Suzaku sees through Lelouch's lies because he recognizes that, like him, Lelouch is pained by having to cover things up in order to make the world better. Because of Schniezel's interruption, it's still a few more episodes before they actually manage to reconcile.
• Spike and Vicious have a moment like this during their standoff in the Cowboy Bebop episode "Ballad of Fallen Angels":
  Vicious: You should see yourself. Do you have any idea what you look like right at this moment, Spike?
  Spike: [with a savage grin on his face] What?
  Vicious: A ravenous beast. The same blood runs through both of us. The blood of a beast that wanders, hunting for the blood of others.
  Spike: I've bled all that kind of blood away.
  Vicious: Then why are you still alive?!
• Death Note: Both Light and L fall under this trope, engaging in roughly the same questionable activities in their cat-and-mouse game. For example, they both use criminals to test the power of the Death Note at least once during the story. L acknowledges their similarities early in the series:
  "Kira is childish and hates to lose... I am also childish and hate to lose."
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, after being shaken to the core by Rengoku's valiant heroism in the Mugen Train arc, Tanjiro at first is silently at odds with how different Tengen seems to be when compared with Rengoku. It only gets worse when Tengen seems to act like a complete carefree hedonist with a bizarre fixation on flamboyancy and very little care towards the innocent, and that makes Tanjiro briefly lose respect towards Tengen, rejecting him as being a Hashira at all. That all changes when the situation in the Entertainment District is revealed to be far more dangerous than expected; Tengen then acts way more serious and dependable, and in the heat of the Upper-6 fight he protects Tanjiro several times, claiming the main slayers trio were his successors. By then, Tanjiro even superimposed Rengoku's image on Tengen, finally admitting he is not much different than Rengoku at the end of the day.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • At least once Frieza tells Goku that they're alike, going so far as to point out that, as a Super Saiyan, Goku is as much a beast as he is.
  • Some of the Z Team were shocked when they see 17 mercilessly kill Dr. Gero. Vegeta merely comments that it is no different as what Saiyans would do as he has no problem killing those he doesn't like.
  • During the Saiyan and Namek Sagas, Vegeta is this to Frieza. As much as he hates Frieza, Vegeta is quite similar to him in many ways, particularly in his sadism; he refused to even consider reviving Raditz for being a weakling, killed Nappa in cold blood for losing to Goku even as Nappa begged him for help, did the same to a Saibamen for losing to Tien, and slaughtered an entire Namekian village, children included, with a Psychotic Smirk on his face. Dende refuses to heal Vegeta for this reason, flat-out telling him to his face that he's no better than Frieza.
• A variation: Habashira Rui and Hiruma have a moment in Eyeshield 21 where Habashira asks why their paths are so different when their methods are the same.
• Shinji tries to pull this on Rin in the Fate/stay night manga, but it kind of falls flat since she never considered harvesting souls for her Servant. Rin just punches Shinji in the face, tells him not to lump her together with the likes of him and calls him disgusting.
• Happens a few times in Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • When Edward confronts Shou Tucker over his use of his wife and daughter as subjects in his experiments, Tucker says Edward is just like him, because Edward used alchemy to try to bring his mother back. Ed starts beating him for this, but Al pulls him back. Tucker looks like he's about to push Ed further, when Al says "Mr. Tucker, if you don't shut up, I'll be the one beating you." Given that Al is a hulking suit of armor, this makes Tucker be silent.
  • This is done slightly differently in the 2003 adaptation by virtue of extending the speech. There it's presented more as Ed beating him up cause what he said truly struck a nerve. And indeed, in this version, part of the reason for Ed trying to resurrect his mother was out of a childish misplaced pride in believing he could do it when everyone else failed.
  • Defied when Edward first fights Scar. Scar notes that both of them use their arms for destruction. Edward answers: "Don't you start! We're nothing alike!"
  • In a conversation with Sgt. Fuery, Al comments that Ed dislikes Mustang because at heart, they are very similar when it comes to protecting their loved ones. If one takes a close look and compares them, they are indeed very similar to one another. Both are powerful Alchemists, both have seen the Gate of Truth, became State Alchemists at a very early age, are masters of a powerful and dangerous style of Alchemy, have made terrible mistakes they deeply regret, have a brother (in Mustang's case, brother figure) they love dearly, and both seem to have a thing for bossy, no-nonsense blonde women they have known since childhood.
  • Rare hero to villain instance: after Zampano and Jerso, Kimblee's first two chimera underlings, are defeated and tied up, Alphonse asks them if they really have no family or anyone who cares about them. They respond that, being half-human monster-things, they can't exactly go home again. Al takes off his head to show them he isn't a normal human either, and if he can hope to get his body back, so can they, talking them into a Heel–Face Turn.
    • Edward had a similar moment with the Slicer Brothers after beating them in the 5th Laboratory, refusing to kill them despite being Animated Armor just like Al—precisely because they were Animated Armor just like Al. Unfortunately, they got speared by Lust right before their ensuing Heel–Face Turn could have any effect.
  • Greed gives one of these speeches to Ed not too long before the final battle, explaining how even though what Ed is wanting to do is seen as noble and Greed's goals are seen as selfish, both of them are at the end of the day motivated by desire, and that "greed" doesn't necessarily have to be evil. Also, when Greed first fought Ed, Greed taunted Ed for being the kind of person who doesn't mind getting beat up but flips out when people he cares about get hurt, and ironically Greed turns out to be exactly the same in that respect.
  • May Chang comes from Xing's smallest and weakest clan, and her pet panda was also abandoned by its family for being small and weak. When hearing this, Scar decides to help find Shao May. Yoki explains this change of heart to May by drawing parallels to the Ishvalan Extermination where Scar's people were wiped out.
  • Lampshaded in the Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) episode "The Phantom Thief":
    Edward: It's funny. Every crook I meet wants to tell me how much I'm just like them.
• Full Metal Panic!:
  • Sousuke is subject to this kind of Break Them by Talking from Gauron in "The Second Raid". Gauron gets pissed off that Sousuke has been trying to fit in with normal people and have friends, saying that it's making him "weaker", and that it's a hopeless goal to have. He proceeds to go on about how they were a match made in heaven, and that Sousuke shouldn't deny it. It eventually ends with Sousuke shooting Gauron, which was exactly what he was hoping for.
  • In the manga, Leonard Testarossa asks Chidori why she is more afraid of him than Sousuke, saying that Sousuke has killed just as many, if not more people than Leonard.
• Space Battleship Yamato: The leader of Gamilas, Dessler, has an internal version in the TV Series 2. After being The Dragon for the Comet Empire, Dessler realizes after the end of combat with Yamato that Kodai cares as much for Earth as Dessler did for Gamilas. Thus began the Heel–Face Turn...
• Gunslinger Girl: Triela comes to think of herself as similar to her Distaff Counterpart Pinocchio (the young assassin she'd dedicated herself to killing) at the end of Il Teatrino. Flashbacks reveal that their backstories are remarkably similar — both are victims of child abuse rescued by their surrogate fathers, and who judge their own worth solely by their ability to kill for that 'father'.
• In Heaven's Lost Property, Ikaros shares moments of this with Chaos and Hiyori. With Chaos because they both had difficulty understanding what love is, and with Hiyori because they were both given powers they never asked for and they both have feelings for Tomoki.
  Hiyori: You were right. We are the same. We don't want...
  Ikaros: ... the boy we love to die.
• Hellsing:
  • In OVA 4, the Major pulls a double whammy. First he points out that if He allows the Major's evil to exist, then Iscariot's God must be mad, or evil. When told "You're Insane!" for showing off the slaughter he's caused, he points out, "You sure didn't have a problem fifty years ago!" He is talking to the Iscariot Organization.
  • Alucard also notes how similar he and the Major are, as they are both lovers of war who destroy their enemies and allies alike in pursuit of their mad ambitions. The big difference between them turns out to be that, when offered immortality on the verge of death, Alucard accepted while the Major adamantly refused.
  • It turns out that the two who were really not so different all along were, in fact, Alucard and Anderson, to the point that it actually brings Alucard to bloody tears . Though the two originally had a Red Oni, Blue Oni thing going on, Alucard appreciated him as his dearest enemy and tells him that if Anderson killed him, he would be honored. That doesn't stop him from going full force against Anderson to test him, though...which ends up backfiring hard when Anderson uses a Deadly Upgrade and essentially becomes a tool of God in order to finally kill Alucard. Alucard, who sold his soul to the devil in order to live as a vampire, cries and gets extremely pissed because he didn't want Anderson to become a monster like him. After all, a monster of God is still a monster. But Anderson doesn't care because he's always seen himself as an instrument of God, so he sees the other side of the coin: a monster of God still serves God.
• The title character of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru turn out to be very similar. They even follow the same Character Development path (although it takes Sesshoumaru longer and the anvils dropped on his head need to be more vicious to get him to pay attention). This is remarked on a couple of times in the manga, usually Played for Laughs, such as when Toutousai deliberately provokes the pair into trying to kill each other then complains that their identical short tempers prove they're brothers.
• Kagerou Project: In a conversation between Ayano and Takane, Ayano admits that she couldn't be the girl Shintaro needed, that he needs someone more energetic and selfish to pull him along. Takane responds by listing all of his negative traits (ill-tempered, egotistical, secretive, no focus) before stopping herself short and realising she's just listed all of her negative traits too. Hence why she seeks him out as Ene and tries to push him out of his current lifestyle after Ayano's suicide. Results vary by timeline.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: For all of Kaguya's comments about being unable to deal with Fujiwara's little sister Moeha, they do have one major thing in common: they're both in love with Shirogane. They end up having a bonding experience over this commonality.
• The final episode of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War has Rean Schwarzer telling Lavian Winslet that they're not so different from one another where Rean remarks that all he did was try to protect his loved ones and at some point got labeled as Erebonia's national hero, much like Lavi who was just trying to protect her home North Ambria and somehow became the symbol of the nation.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS:
  • Jail Scaglietti uses as the basis of his Break Them by Talking the assertion that Fate's adopting children who would become Child Soldiers that loved her makes her no different from Jail himself or her Evil Matriarch of a mother. Erio and Caro, the children in question, respond with a You Are Not Alone speech about how they're the ones who chose their path and that all Fate did was raise them to be strong-willed enough to do so, which gives Fate the strength to take Jail and his Numbers down. (Ironically, it turns out that Jail is right about himself and Fate being similar, just not in the ways he thinks: both are Artificial Humans who exceeded design expectations and took down their own creators. Too bad for Jail that he was Fate's creator.)
  • In A's, during Zafira's third fight with Arf in Episode 7, he says that he will serve his mistress regardless of whether what he's doing is right. He then says "You're the same type of beast as me... can you say you're any different?" While he is a guardian beast and Arf is a familiar (which Arf herself says is a difference only in terminology), he has a point considering that Arf had helped Fate gather the Jewel Seeds in the first season. Arf is left unable to articulate a response.
• In Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, Mammon declares that men are "apostles of violence" and that to be a man one must fight and kill for the things they want. He goes on to say that Father isn't so different, having carved out his lot in life by proving himself the strongest exorcist through battle and encouraging Father to revel in the violence of his profession. Father is shaken when he sees his bloodied reflection after dispatching Mammon, asking Imuri if he's "manly" in the way Mammon described him.
• Alviss and Rolan in MÄR. Both of them were orphans, victims of circumstances beyond their control. What differed was who took them in. Whereas Alviss was found by Dana/Boss, Rolan was found by Phantom, and their loyalties were based on those encounters. Alviss uses the trope in their battle in the finals, saying Rolan may have turned out more like him if it had not been Phantom who found him.
• During the Mythical Age of The Misfit of Demon King Academy, the Hero Kanon claims he wishes to slay the Demon King Anos Voldigoad to protect his loved ones. Anos asks Kanon if he believes the demons aren't trying to do the same with their loved ones.
• Gundam:
  • The final battle of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has a couple of speeches along these lines. Played straight in the case of Kamille and Jerid, and played rather strangely in the case of Reccoa and Emma. Also, there is a really nice scene in a theater...
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00: In the first season, Nena Trinity shoots at Louise Halevy's family in frustration over having to work while others have fun, crippling her and killing the rest of her family. In the second season, Louise lets her hatred and desire for revenge rule over all her actions as she joins the A-Laws, an extremist "peacekeeping force" that oversees the massacres of thousands under the orders of Ribbons Allmark. Eventually, the two meet after Louise's Super Prototype Regnant ambushes Nena's outdated Throne Drei. Hearing Louise's desire for revenge against her (and likely not even remembering what she did), Nena counters by saying she is doing the exact same thing, since she lost her brothers soon after the wedding massacre, and lived an even worse life than Louise did. Unfortunately for Nena, because she was the one who killed Louise's family, Louise shrugs off her comments and plea for her life, saying that her parents never got the chance to beg for their right to live... and kills her brutally. The end result shows Louise now as disturbed and psychopathic as Nena, and despite having avenged her family, she still lashes out at everyone around her until Saji, her boyfriend, finally snaps her out of it in the finale. She is paying dearly for her actions in the movie, and despite the fact that she would rather die, she has to live her life now as The Atoner.
• Monster:
  • Dr. Gillen makes these remarks towards the incarcerated serial killers he interviews. Since his sins actually appear to amount to being an emotionally distant husband, and getting competitive as a student to the point of cheating on ONE test, this seems a bit of a stretch.
  • Played with a bit regarding Tenma and Johan. Inspector Lunge analyzes Johan's crimes from the perspective that Tenma is the killer and that "Johan" is simply an alternate personality who doesn't really exist. This may seem like a stretch, but his logic isn't as far-fetched as one would think. Lunge reasons that Tenma would have to have a calm, clinical mindset to perform his surgeries — and that is exactly what he reads from Johan's crime scenes. Complicating things is something both characters do have in common: their disconnect from others and society in general. Upon researching Tenma's background and concluding that he doesn't fit into Japanese society, Lunge simply reinforces his view that Tenma's detachment is what allows him to kill without a second thought. In reality, Tenma isn't as much like the real killer as Lunge thinks he is.
• My Hero Academia: After Izuku goes on a long rant about his difficulty controlling his quirk due to how powerful it is, Endeavor tells him that he is "one of us", leaving Izuku puzzled at the comment. Endeavor also has a quirk that damages his own body, and his eldest son Touya had died because of the same problem (or so everyone thought at the time, though he most certainly did NOT escape unscathed). The English dub clarifies this line by having Endeavor say that Izuku is not alone in his struggles.
• In My-HiME, Natsuki realizes that she is not so different from her bitter enemy Nao when Nao reveals that her father was killed and her mother was rendered comatose in a robbery, leading her to trick men into soliciting her for Enjo Kosai and robbing them in revenge and for her to distrust anyone other than herself. Natsuki lost her mother at a young age and her father abandoned her, leading her to be similarly vengeful, as well as distrustful of others until she met Shizuru. As a result of this, Natsuki prevents Shizuru from finishing off Nao after destroying her Child, in spite of everything Nao did to her.
• Miri Diana in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is a prim, proper lady with great focus on proper etiquette and so on, while her daughter Katarina can be charitably described as a major tomboy and uncharitably described as a hyperactive idiot who eats until she throws up and plows fields for fun. One day, while nearing pulling her hair out, Miri gripes to her husband that she has no clue where her daughter gets this from, to which he mutters too quietly for her to hear that she definitely gets it from her mother.
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: When Jean and Hanson stop fighting over the blue water, they realize they're both mecha geeks and simultaneously Squee over the Nautilus. For the last seven episodes, these two have been antagonistic but thanks to Enemy Mine they become good friends.
• Naruto:
  • In the Ultimate Ninja game, if you select Hinata's history mode, when you face Sakura she'll say that Hinata reminds her of how she used to be shy before meeting Ino, fighting you/Hinata for a good challenge, and offer encouragement and comfort if you/Hinata lose.
  • Pain also pulls this off in his fight with Naruto, pointing out that they both act out of their sense of justice and that they both desire peace, even if their methods are different. They're also both students of Jiraiya.
  • In Chapter 485, Naruto admits that he isn't too different from Sasuke, since he once harbored thoughts of revenge against the Leaf Village for his shabby treatment. He laments that if things had been a little different, their positions could have been switched.
  • In Chapter 581 Kabuto says he and Sasuke are not so different because they both wish for the destruction of the Leaf Village. In response, Sasuke says "I'm not like you".
  • Don't forget Gaara telling Sasuke this as their eyes really matched their purpose of life: revenge.
  • In an interesting twist, one of Tobi's goals apparently is to make Naruto more like him. And given that he's actually Obito Uchiha, the good-natured knucklehead of Kakashi's genin team before he suffered a Freak Out, this is probably a case of I Hate Past Me. Naruto acknowledges this and says that, had things been different for the former, he might have actually admired Obito.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji realises during the beginning of instrumentality that he and Asuka are very much alike:
  Asuka: Even just the sight of you gets on my nerves!
  Shinji: Because I'm just like you?
• No Game No Life has the protagonists, the Brother–Sister Team of Sora and Shiro, compared with Kurami, their initial opponent for the throne of Elchea, and Feel Nilvalen, Kurami's elven friend and owner. Both pairs have strong bonds of trust, and are confident that the other will support them if they make a mistake. When Sora tells Kurami this, she asks him if he got the line from her memories (which they recently exchanged), he simply shrugs and answers noncommittally.
• One Piece:
  • Done inadvertently by Sanji when fighting Absalom: Not only they have a similar reaction to seeing a sleeping Nami in a wedding dress, but Sanji reveals that given invisibility powers, he would do little better than Absalom himself. However, a later arc past the time-skip implies Sanji's desire for the Clear-Clear Fruit originally stemmed from his horrific childhood at the hands of his brothers and father and wanting to disappear. Also, when Sanji obtains a Germa suit which gives him the power of invisibility, he uses it to peek on nude women in the baths of Wano.
  • It's been stated that both Crocodile and Gecko Moria were very much like Luffy in their younger days. In this case, they seem to serve as reminders of what Luffy himself may become if, as Crocodile did, he allows the harshness of the world to make him abandon his dream, or, as Gecko Moria did, he fails to protect his True Companions.
  • The reason Doflamingo took Trafalgar Law under his wing and was training him to be his right hand? Because he saw so much of himself in the young child. The reason Rocinante rescued Law from his brother was in order for him not to become like Doflamingo. The motivation behind Law's Roaring Rampage of Revenge was to put an end to Doflamingo's madness — which was Rocinante's goal — however, becoming just like him in the process. Doflamingo points out the irony, but Law gives a good Shut Up, Hannibal! in the form of a lightning shock.
  • Going all the way back to Drum Island, Sanji actually invokes the trope in a positive way. He and Luffy had earlier called Chopper a monster because he was a reindeer who could transform into a humanoid form because of his Devil Fruit. Chopper then sees Luffy's own Devil Fruit powers and asks Sanji about it. As a way to make up for the bad first impression, he goes on to say Luffy is "a monster," subtly pointing out that Chopper may be odd, but then so is Luffy.
• In Outlaw Star, Harry MacDougal pulls one of these on Melfina, to whom he reveals to her that he's also an Artificial Human.
• Panzer World Galient:
  • Although she's one of the heroes, Hilmuka thinks that she's not so different from Marder. Just like him, she hates planet Lanplate's lifeless, stagnant utopia.
  • During his last battle, Hy Shaltat suggests Jordy that he joins them, telling that he's not really different from Marder.
• Tetsunosuke and Suzu from Peacemaker Kurogane, although constantly pushing each other's buttons and being rivals, are shown to think to themselves that maybe they're not so different after all. At least until Suzu goes insane and obsessed with Tetsunosuke...
• In the anime version of Prétear Fenrir even says at one point that Himeno is going to repeat her fate — to which Himeno immediately objects. Not only Fenrir actually got her powers from being in the same position as Himeno, she turned evil because of her unrequited love for the same person Himeno is in love with.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: In the climax of the Sisters War arc, Ichika gets confronted by Nino for trying to sabotage Miku's confession to Fuutarou. Ichika tries to defend herself by reminding Nino that she'd said before she wouldn't let anybody get in her way, even asking how are they any different. Nino replies that she values their bond as sisters just as much, if not moreso than she does Fuutarou, and adds that she would have been happy for her (Ichika) if Fuutarou had chosen her. That said, once things calm down later and seeing that Ichika regrets what she did, she admits that she may have done something similar, had their positions been reversed.
• Rebuild World: Carol remarks that Sheryl is like if Viola had a little sister. Viola is Sheryl’s Evil Mentor who had double crossed her and made her victim to a number of plots. Carol saying this ruins Sheryl’s mood, but Carol is actually complimenting Sheryl’s intelligence and cunning as a Guile Hero.
• In Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mikage (the villain of the second arc) points out that he and Utena are very similar. He can barely finish the sentence before she punches him.
• Mugen and Jin in Samurai Champloo. Pointed out by Fuu within her diary, much to both's displeasure. They're both morally ambiguous Blood Knights who differ only in personality. Although at first glance Jin appears to be the Standard Good Guy and Mugen appears to be the Token Evil Teammate, the series quickly establishes that Jin is also cold, irritable, and arrogant (esp. in regards to Mugen) despite his noble bearing and fine words, while by the second episode Mugen is already showing some heroic tendencies and concern for Fuu despite his claims of being a loner and hating everyone. Additionally, both Jin and Mugen enjoy the company of prostitutes, both Jin and Mugen love to fight and never back down from a challenge, both Jin and Mugen become better people as a result of Fuu's quest... the list goes on.
• In SD Gundam Force, Sazabi tries this on Captain near the end of their fight, in an attempt to lure him to the dark side. Captain's response?
  Captain: If you want a friend... You'll have to do better than that!
• In Spider Riders the leader of the Invectids and former Spider Rider Manitd tries this on Hunter Steele twice. Pointing out that he once fought for the Oracle, and that it cost him the lives of all the people he cared for.
• The Summer You Were There: Shizuku has surprising similarities with the two people who don't get along with her, which are acknowledged in the story.
  • Seri hates Shizuku for bullying Seri's friend Ruri in elementary school, and is thus immediately hostile to Shizuku when she tries to apologize to Ruri years later. However, when Seri and Ruri's mutual friend and Shizuku's girlfriend Kaori collapses, Seri accompanies Shizuku to the hospital and tells Shizuku about Kaori's respiratory disease. A few chapters later, Seri explains that while she still hates Shizuku, she told her so that she could help Kaori if she collapsed again, and because she saw a little of herself in Shizuku. Ruri had struggled with an illness of her own when she was younger (which Shizuku didn't know about) and led to her chronic absences, and thus her falling behind in school and Shizuku inadvertently bullying her in a misguided attempt to help her catch up. Seri thus concludes by saying that since the adults didn't tell her anything about Ruri back then, she understands how Shizuku feels being Locked Out of the Loop about Kaori.
  • Shizuku visits Kaori's home on Kaori's request and meets Kaori's younger sister Shiori. Shiori goes on an angry tirade blaming Shizuku for Kaori's condition worsening and expressing her fear of losing her sister. Shizuku doesn't take it personally, but comforts Shiori and realizes, based on her own fear of losing Kaori, that she loves Kaori. After she gets home, she mentally remarks that she and Shiori are the same in that they both love Kaori and can't bear the thought of losing her.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
  • During Simon's final fight against Lordgenome, Lordgenome says, "There was once a man who fought as you do, unaware that his actions would lead to the universe's destruction." He's talking about himself, back in the day when he and the other thousands of spiral warriors unsuccessfully waged war against the attacking Anti-Spirals (which the Dai-Gurren Brigade battle in the second story arc, only to succeed), stating that Simon and he are not so different in that respect.
  • After the Time Skip, Rossiu becomes even more ruthless and pragmatic, to the point of planning on executing Simon as a scapegoat to appease the populace, and using a ship to evacuate with only a portion of the world, leaving the rest to die when the moon crashes into the planet. Simon points out that Rossiu now has the same look in his eyes as the priest of his village, who'd kept a strict population limit on the village and exiled people in order to keep below that limit.
• In A Timid Woman Longing For Her Delivery Girl, Kei Takase, the protagonist, quits her job after a male coworker gets fired for sexually harassing her, and some of her other coworkers gossip about her behind her back, wishing she'd been fired instead. Takase works freelance to minimize her contact with other people, and when the old man who handles her deliveries is replaced by a friendly young woman named Rinko Komine, Takase is initially wary of Rinko, and is rather curt with her for the first few weeks. Over time, though, she realizes that Takase is as nice as she seems, and in the JapanStandard translation^note In the official Renta! localization, Takase instead concludes that Rinko is not like the former coworkers Takase hates, laments that her judgmental attitude makes her no different from the coworkers she hated.
• In Transformers: Armada, Unicron accuses Optimus Prime of being little different from Galvatron, suggesting that the real reason he fights evil is that he enjoys the thrill of battle and the praise he gets from others for it. Notably, while the other characters object to the comparison, Optimus himself doesn’t. After the final battle with Galvatron, he admits that he did indeed enjoy the fight to an unhealthy degree. He decides he’s no longer worthy of wielding the Matrix and departs on a Redemption Quest to conquer his personal demons and become worthy once more.
• In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Big Bad Fei-Wang Reed explains "Syaoran" Li that the two have are wishing to obtain the same wish (reviving a dead person) the two have brought miseries to the people around them. In the story nobody ever denies this and the final chapters solidify this. However, it should be noted that "Syaoran" was just a puppet of Fei-Wang all along.
• Voltes V: Nakamura accuses the Voltes Team of not knowing how it's like to lose your parents to the Boazanians. Ippei rebukes him by saying that the Go brothers lost their mother and Megumi lost her father to the Boazanians, but unlike Nakamura, they didn't let their hatred consume them.
• Your Lie in April: Nagi realized that Kousei and herself are not as different as she'd thought; both are always gazing, pursuing, and loving someone they can never have no matter how hard they tried. In Nagi's case, its her own brother; in Kousei's case, its a girl who likes his best friend. She also realized that Kousei also afraid because of the sheer pressure before giving their duet performance in Episode 18.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Yubel informs Amon during their duel that he's just like her — they both destroy the ones they love.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has several, but a notable one is in the DOMA arc. Raphael, one of Dartz's henchmen, is convinced that even the nicest people have darkness in their heart, and tries to prove this to Yami Yugi by making him play the Seal Of Orichalcos field spell card that feeds off of the darkness in people. He succeeds, and wins as a result, in one of the most painful and depressing moments in the series.
• In Yuri is My Job!, Sumika complains to her friend Nene that Kanoko, her friend and schwester at the salon where they both work, is fixated on her Only Friend Hime(for whom Kanoko has unrequited romantic feelings), and Hime is all Kanoko talks about. Nene then remarks that Kanoko is all Sumika ever talks about, and asks if Sumika is in love with Kanoko, a question that Sumika finds difficult to answer.
• In YuYu Hakusho, Yusuke notices that he's got some similarities with his opponent Jin, particularly enjoying fighting and a similar fighting style, and his acknowledging their similarities is slightly played up in the anime. After dying at Yusuke's hands, Toguro tells Genkai that Yusuke has the potential to become great, but might end up like him if Genkai doesn't make the right decisions.
  • Happened with Hiei and Mukuro as well, with Mukuro recruiting Hiei for the sole reason they they both grew up with terrible lives, and living in Makai, where it's a constant struggle for survival, that's saying something. Eventually (once Mukuro's revealed to be a woman) blooms into something of a tempestuous romance.
  • This is actually a major underlying theme in the story. Mainly in that demons are also not so different to humans. Demons are a designated evil and have no obligations to being good. Thus often making themselves out to be more evil. Well, at least in this show. But the series then introduces many humans who are just as evil if not worse than demons and many demons who have proven to be truly good-hearted like Yukina. In the end chapters of the manga, for example, announcer girls Juri and Koto, known for not being afraid to commentate on carnage during the tournaments, find a natural affinity for television. It's a sign that more-disciplined demons who learn to play by the rules (the most basic rule: don't exploit humans) can be accepted by humans as being rather decent folk.