Overshadowed By Awesome / Anime & Manga

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• Reiichi in Air Master. He fights by using his bicycle as though it were part of his own body, the same way other fighters use their fists and legs, and the stunts he can pull could probably get him into any X-Games competition on Earth. But since he's not strong enough to get into the Fukamichi Ranking, he ends up looking hopelessly weak next to the rest of the cast.
• In Arata: The Legend, Kotoha ends up like this. Her main purpose is to use her ability as a member of the Uneme family to heal other people's injuries and to be The Heart of the group, but even that became superfluous when Mikusa and Rami joined. And then she ended up overshadowed by them because Mikusa was an Action Girl and ready to hold her own, while Rami — being an Uneme member herself — was the second medic added to the group. But later chapters prove her to serve as The Heart of the team, since she's the only one that can really calm Arata down when his emotions run rampant and his anger could lead to his sword Tsukuyo turning into a demon, and the Heroic Sacrifice of another Uneme member leads to Kotoha's healing abilities to being strengthened.
• Bamboo Blade's Yuji Nakata qualifies for this. As if being The One Guy is not sad enough, it's clear that he has remarkable skills and discipline in Kendo, is one of the strongest students in the dojo as the few fights he has been in ended with him beating the opponent with little to no effort, but this show/manga is mainly about cute female kendo practitioners and their every day life; in the end Yuji is more of a possible love interest for Tama than anything else.
• Isidro of Berserk has a serious case of this, Yeah, he's a kid, and compared to Guts he's quite literally nothing, but he shows himself perfectly capable of holding his own against enemies that tear trained and heavily armoured soldiers to pieces, including killing at least a few Kushan Monsters assisted only by Puck. If this was a Shonen series, he'd be a full blown badass.
  • Isidro is kind of intended to be a send-up of traditional Shonen heroes. But really, almost everyone except Guts and Schierke suffers from this.
  • Another example from Berserk would be Casca during the golden age arc. A very capable soldier and Griffith's second in command, but she doesn't compare to Guts on the badassery scale, and both she and Griffith know it. Speaking of which, she's also overshadowed by Griffith when it comes to commanding skills, as she is also a SUPER competent leader, especially after the Hawks are exiled and she takes the lead after Guts' departure and Griffith's imprisonment.
• Bleach: Chad is a powerhouse who could withstand being hit by motorcycles or steel girders without injury even before he obtained supernatural powers. His powers give him such powerful punches that he usually just fights with his right arm's defensive power instead of his left arm's attack power. However, he struggles to keep up with both Ichigo and Uryuu's powers, and is constantly used as the fall-guy to reveal the strength of the next new enemy. During the final battle, he's relegated to an off-screen role, fighting off some never-before-seen animated statues, while the rest of the gang take on the Big Bad.
  • Inverted in the epilogue in regards of In-Universe fame, as he became an International-level boxer.
  • For Bleach, in Soul Society a.k.a. for Soul Reapers, anyone with ranks below top five seats aren't worth mentioning (except Hanataro, because gets Rank Up many times and his mastery in healing technique), with the divisions' captains dwarfing their lieutenants. In Hueco Mundo, any individual dwarves people below him/her (in evolution level, Arrancar (Espada and Former Espada) — Arrancar (Fracción) — Vasto Lorde — Adjuchas — Menos Grande — Menos — Demi Hollow.) For Quincies, anyone who has symbol are the only import.
• In Captain Tsubasa, there is Misugi, who in the early chapters, was in par of skills with the eponymous character. Nowdays, it's impressive that he dribbles through people. But even then, Tsubasa overshadows the whole Japanese team.
  • And inside the aforementioned whole Japanese team, Hyuga, Wakabayashi, Misaki, and arguably Aoi and Matsuyama (in that order from most to less important) steal the spotlight to the rest of the team.
• Claymore gives us Clarice, who has the skill and inhuman physical attributes to make her a fearsome warrior by any human standard. Not only is she ranked #47 (that is, dead last) among the warriors known as Claymores, but she is assigned the keeper of the almost hopelessly insane #4 Miata... who casually rips apart monsters a BFS-wielding Clarice has a hard time against with her bare hands.
  • Yuma of the Seven Ghosts is a milder example. The former rank #40 (lower than any of the Pieta survivors save Claire) thought she existed on the other's sufferance, was probably correct in thinking she was the weakest of them, and remained convinced that she had not grown in power during the timeskip... until she faced four warriors (including a single digit) upon her return from the north and battered them into submission using the flat of her blade without even trying.
• Death Note:
  • Matsuda is obviously competent enough to be on the task force, and has even helped the team a few times. But how can he look even somewhat intelligent next to supergeniuses Light and L?
    • Some source clam he landed his current job because of connection yet he is smart enough not to make big mistake and keep his job. Still, he is, most of the time, the first one to voice his curiosity, so yeah anyone would look foolish next to L, Light, Mello, and Near. Oh, by the way, he survived as active member of Kira Task Force, if that doesn't prove his credibility nothing will.
  • Same thing with Misa Amane. The audience tends to join right in with Light and L denouncing her as stupid. In reality she pulls off some really complex plans, and her Shinigami eyes make her more deadly than any other Death Note user in the series; she's just not as smart as the four super geniuses who steal the show. Additionally, she has the disadvantage of being completely insane.
• Most of the kids and Digimon in any season of Digimon. In most seasons, don't expect to defeat any major opponent unless your partner is either the Goggle-Wearer, the Rival (aka Blue Digivice), or in later seasons the Third Hero. Heck, in Digimon Tamers, don't expect to defeat anyone important unless you're Takato&Guilmon, Henry&Terriermon, Rika&Renamon or Ryo&Cyberdramon, or even Beezlemon. For that matter... don't even expect to DO anything. (Did you know that Kazu is actually Gardromon's partner? I certainly wouldn't have).
  • These days, saving the main characters twice (Kenta and Marine Angemon) or just Takato (Kazu and Guardromon) from certain death or torture isn't worth anything. Also, it's apparently a good idea to have the seven years old or younger children fight directly an Eldritch Abomination who manages to equal, or outclass EVA in Break the Cutie moments.
  • Taken to ridiculous extremes in Digimon Frontier, due to the lack of Digimon partners on the henshin heroes. Only two of them get to fight using all of their transformations, but the others? They are all demoted to damage control.
  • This is averted in Digimon Data Squad, where every main character is just as capable of kicking lots of ass. Hilariously inverted in the human side of things, all due to Masaru/Marcus having the habit of punching said monsters in the face and somehow being able to damage them himself. The others are not as suicidal to do that.
  • ...And then the trope goes back to full throttle and becomes even worse in Digimon Fusion since the beginning. Only the goggles-wearer of three friends is the one trying to take action in every important fight. His other friends are just comic relief material in a team already filled with the element in multiple people. The others who get to order Digimon, sadly, happen to be aligned with bad guys.
• Largely averted in the 2001 series Cyborg 009, but still implied. Despite that the title character gets the most focus, pretty much all of the 00 cyborgs get their moment in the sun at some point. This is also a bit surprising considering that they name 009 as the most advanced cyborg of the bunch except for 0010-13, who kicked the bucket, doesn't always render the other cyborgs useless. 001, despite being a baby who is asleep 90% of the time, is arguably the most powerful Cyborg because of his near unlimited capabilities. Even 002, who is explained as a much more simplistic model than 009 can still fly whereas 009 can't.
• Dragon Ball does this to anyone not named Goku, or anyone who's not a Saiyan. To make a long story short, at a certain point everyone except Goku and Vegeta falls prey to this, because of all the Z Fighters they are the only ones who truly love fighting and will keep training not to fight some uber threat, but because they feel the need to push themselves past their ever increasing limits:
  • Even "normal" characters like Chi-Chi still have unusual origins and are ridiculously powerful, but anyone who isn't at least part Saiyan will eventually be exponentially outstripped and never able to catch up again, either because Goku is just that freakishly talented (as shown in the page image), or later because Saiyans are that good and devoted to fighting.
  • Krillin, the former Trope Namer, was once considered Goku's rival in the early parts of original Dragon Ball (Krillin has only got the better of Goku once, and that was by tricking him. And including Dragon Ball GT, had only outright beat Goku in a sparring match once in the series' end), and very much acting as the underdog fighter in many of the battles he took part in. This was overshadowed by the gradual introduction of demons, monsters and aliens in the series that Goku fought to much better success, and the introduction of the Saiyans once Goku was revealed to be member of them. The adult Krillin is (by Word of God) still one of the most powerful full-blooded humans in the series. Yamcha, during the Buu Saga, admits that Krillin is probably the most powerful human alive. It's just that compared to godly powerhouses like Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks, Goten, and Android 18, no human can compare. He occasionally lampshades this, bringing up the nature of characters introduced when the series began.
  • No matter how much Yamcha does improve, in the World Martial Arts Tournaments he always gets to be one of the eight finalists and loses in the first round due to being put against a much more powerful opponent (Master Roshi, Tien Shinhan and Kami). At least he is smart enough to know when to retire. Averted in the Galactic Patrol arc, where Yamcha has a rare Moment of Awesome curb stomping three prisoners whom Arc Villain Moro had powered up with Goku and Vegeta’s Ki, showing while might Yamcha falter compared to the Saiyans he’s still one of the strongest beings in the universe and a Physical God in his own right.
  • Tenshinhan was once on par with Goku, only to be completely outshined in a matter of days when the next Arc Villain showed up and Goku worked to defeat him. And then again, at the next tournament Goku defeated Tenshinhan without breathing hard or even using a Kamehameha, and later Tien proves no match against Nappa. By the time the Super Saiyan state is being used, the author almost completely forgot about him, Tenshinhan was nearly useless, although he was given two scenes to prove his worth: He decided to stall for time and slow down Semi-Perfect Cell with the improved version of his Tri-Beam (or Kikoho [Spirit Cannon]) technique, but this was more a play for time and didn't actually damage Cell at all. He would also provide a bit of a distraction later on during the Super Buu arc, but to not as great an effect.
  • Master Roshi in his disguise of Jackie Chun put it into words during the 22nd World Tournament: Goku had casually defeated Pamput with three elbow strikes, resulting in him and Krillin calling him a weakling. But their master quickly pointed out that Pamput was indeed an awesome fighter, as shown by the uninterrupted winning streak that gave him two world championships and him breaking down a wall with an elbow strike. In his words, "The reason why he seemed ordinary to you is because you are not", and unfortunately this applied to the rest of the competitors who all had unbelievable strength. This coming after Tien Shinhan, before the fight, mocked Pamput's two world championship titles as meaning nothing in the World Tournament, as the tournament itself is so above all other world martial arts tournaments that the tournaments themselves are overshadowed by a more awesome one.
  • In terms of the World Tournament, nearly every single competitor who isn't a main character becomes this by the time the 23rd Tournament rolls around because they are that much more talented than ordinary folk. Even Cyborg Tao is hilariously overpowered by Tien Shinhan, who himself was suffering from this trope by the time they fought in the ring.
  • It's worth noting that Vegeta himself often falls into this trope, working his ass off only to be surpassed by the amazingly gifted Goku. The difference is that being a Saiyan, he loves fighting as much as Goku does and is also capable of consistently catching up.
  • Android 18, who along with her brother was strong enough to kill Super Saiyan Gohan and bring about an apocalypse across THE ENTIRE WORLD in an alternate future, was never given a real chance to distinguish herself as a fighter once she became a good guy until the Tournament of Power in Super, despite the fact that her alternate future version is stated to be weaker than her present self. She's still as strong as ever, it's just that once again the Saiyan characters got even more powerful.
  • Mr. Satan/Hercule is a more direct use of the trope. While he is a showboating coward, he's still fairly good amongst non-superpowered opponents (at one point he effortlessly knocks out two armed men with a single kick) and he won his title of World Martial Arts Champion fair and square in a time period where all the main characters decided not to compete. When Goku and his allies started appearing in tournaments again, it caused a bit of concern to his reputation, but later on they agreed to allow Hercule/Mr. Satan to continue being the champion even as they enjoy themselves in their matches. Heck, Majin Buu (who happens to be Hercule/Mr. Satan's best friend) was doing just that for at least two tournaments before the Z Fighters started appearing again at the very end of the series. It should be noted that he has been acknowledged as the strongest normal human who can't use ki...he's pretty much peak human, near the level of Batman. The only reason he looks weak is because he has the misfortune of existing in a universe with people powerful enough to blow up planets by sneezing.
    • The anime shows Mr. Satan pulling such feats as pulling four buses, ripping apart three phone books, and annihilating an opponent three times his size with embarrassing ease during the 24th Tenkaichi. All amazing feats... For people without ki.
  • And of course, Piccolo too, who had previously started out as a two-time Arc Villain, despite initially showing about as much potential for growth as his Saiyan comrades, and began Z as the second strongest being on Earth. He was quickly overshadowed by the Saiyans and despite taking a level in badass during the Cell Saga, his ultimate power-up (merging with Kami) wasn't even sufficient to defeat Cell in his first form. By the very end of the manga, he had given up any intention of attempting to fight Goku or Vegeta in the ring. Averted by the time of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero where Piccolo gets a new Super Mode and helps defeat the new antagionists, beating Gamma 2 who was on the level of Goku and Vegeta, meaning Piccolo is now within the same ballpark as the poster Saiyans (in the base forms at the very least) even after their training with Whis.
  • Gohan initially starts out stronger than both Goku and Vegeta and at the end of the series is even poised to supplant both of them (Goku was dead and actively raised Gohan to take his place, and Vegeta outright retires from fighting). His latent potential to be stronger than anybody is brought up numerous times, and on two separate occasions he's stronger than the two of them, either as a Super Saiyan 2 at the end of the Cell Arc, or after having his power upgraded by Old Kai for the fight against Buu. But when there are no threats to the world, he stops training and goes back to focus on his studies as he doesn't share the same outright passion for fighting, so even disregarding GT, Goku and Vegeta must have surpassed him by the Tournament at the end of the series (and certainly have by the time of Dragon Ball GT). In Dragon Ball Super, Gohan, having grown lax is overshadowed by the now godly Goku and Vegeta and has to train to get back to where he was at the end of the Buu Saga but still falls behind his father, Vegeta and arguably Frieza. Averted in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, wherein Gohan reafirms the fact his botomless potential can bring him back to Goku and Vegeta's level at any time (unlike them usually without the need for training), as seen with his new "Gohan Beast" transformation, which is comparable to Goku's Ultra Instinct and Vegeta's Ultra Ego in power.
  • While Goten and Trunks are introduced as child prodigies early on, eventually they're overshadowed by their fathers and haven't been shown to have the potential they once had in the wake of their parent's accomplishments, even when fused into Gotenks. It doesn't help that, in the ending to the manga and the GT continuation, they have a much lower interest in fighting than before, just like what happened to Gohan. Averted with Future Trunks, as his lifestyle and heritage actively encouraged him to take fighting as seriously as is forebears.
  • Dragon Ball GT: By the end of the Shadow Dragons Arc, Vegeta, Goku, Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and Omega Shenron are THOUSANDS of times stronger than everyone else, with the sole exception of Super Android 17. GT was so unbalanced that no one but Goku mattered in the fights anymore (not helped by the fact that Vegeta was either not participating or taken over by the villain for the first half of the series).
  • Pan in GT must be at least as strong as Dr. Gero as she defeats him easily, which means that her base form is more powerful than Goku and Trunks were when they defeated Frieza. And yet even before the Super Saiyan 4's rendered the whole cast obsolete she had been overshadowed by the entire front line team as for some reason she never achieves the standard Super Saiyan transformation, which as Goten and Trunks prove she is more than capable of doing at her age. As a result she is arguably irrelevant in battle as early as the Machine Planet. Theories abound as to why, from her motivation (she fights, but isn't a fighter), to the amount of Saiyan blood in her (she's 1/4 Saiyan), to females not being able to (somewhat debunked by Caulifla and Kale in Dragon Ball Super); but whatever the cause it means that the most powerful non-android female in the series was left on the sidelines very quickly indeed. If Dragon Ball Super is anything to go by, there are strong signs that Pan actually has even more potential than her father Gohan, at least in that continuity. At age ONE, she was shown to be able to power-up her Ki, carry the entire Pilaf Gang and fly around. WITHOUT ANY POSSIBLE FORMAL TRAINING. Gohan, in comparison, took an entire year under Piccolo's Training from Hell to learn these abilities. Even worse; Gohan for once wants her to follow her grandfather's steps and become a fighter.
  • Taken to absurd levels in the 2013 movie, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, where Goku falls victim to the trope. Even after becoming a Super Saiyan God and achieving the strongest canon transformation at that point in the history of the series, he's still no match against Beerus and this was after Goku got absolutely owned when he first took on Beerus... AS. A. SUPER. SAIYAN. 3.. This is then further compounded when it is revealed Beerus was only using 70% of his full power and Whis, his attendant, is even stronger than he is. It seems that the point of these two is to apply this trope on the pair who have been invoking it upon everybody else, although how long this will last is anyody's guess. In an interview, Toriyama explained this in a plainer fashion. By having Beerus as a ten-out-of-ten benchmark, a fully powered-up Goku in Battle Of Gods only manages to get to around seven, while Whis - were he to even try - weighs in at fifteen.
  • The "overshadowed" part is really made clear during the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' retelling in Super, when Frieza returns to life (and Earth), far stronger and with a much larger army. With the exception of Frieza himself (who only Goku and Vegeta could fight due to Gohan neglecting his training for a time), the Z Fighters (not even all of them) crush every one of their enemies (who outnumber them more than 100 to 1) without any serious effort. Even the Elite Mook Sasami was only able to challenge Piccolo (who had been fighting before that), and Gohan crushed him after going Super Saiyan.
  • Surprisingly, Vegito the Porta Fusion of Goku and Vegeta gets Overshadowed by Awesome by his Fusion Dance counterpart Gogeta thanks to both Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Before then, Vegito was a Showy Invincible Hero so powerful it took the Rule of Drama in the form of Buu’s digestive systems splitting Vegito into Goku and Vegeta who was also Armed with Canon thanks to Gogeta only appearing in a Non-Serial Movie and GT. Come Vegito’s next appearance in Super episode 66 and it’s a major step down, failing to seriously damage Zamsu before diffusing and getting his strength nerfed due to a retcon setting a time and power limit for mortals using the Porta earrings. Whilst in comparison, Gogeta in Broly is not only being made canon but effortlessly delivers a spectacular Curb-Stomp Battle to titular Berserker in the finale without even diffusing. To pour salt on the wound, Super Dragon Ball Heroes has Gogeta defeat Final Boss Hearts who was powered up with the Universal Seed which shocks and impresses goddamn Jiren himself.
• The entire source of Unsui's woobieness in Eyeshield 21. An extremely hard-working person who's described as being "only a good player" and "the best of the average" who doesn't even come close to his brother's level as a football player or even stand out compared to the quirkier characters. Made all the sadder by the fact that he's smart enough to know his skills only make his brother look even more talented by comparison.
  • Many named characters have this as their trait. Many of those people would eventually overshadowed by Japanese Youth All-Star Team. AND all teams, except Japan, are overshadowed by USA Team, especially by Pentagram. In Example, many fans know that Tetsuo Ishimaru is famous for being The Nondescript but less are aware that he is one of few in Devil-bats capable of 5.0 seconds 40 yard dash.
• Lucy from Fairy Tail fits this pretty well. She's fairly powerful as a Celestial Spirit mage, considering she has 10 (9 post-Tartaros arc) of the 12 one of a kind zodiac keys, but she's constantly being eclipsed by the insane antics of Natsu, Erza, and the other upper level Fairy Tail members. She takes some of the biggest Took a Level in Badass moments of the core team, eventually becoming one of the strongest Celestial Spirit mages alive, but even then she freely admits that Natsu and many of her friends are still stronger than her; luckily for her she compensates with strategy and groundedness.
• Marui Zenji from Food Wars!. He's intelligent, well read and highly skilled, but simply can't match his adversaries for talent or stamina. For example, his Fall Classic preliminary score of 86 would have been enough to see him through to the win almost any other year, but when stacked against people who are either supertasters (Akira Hayama, Erina Nakiri), have decades of kitchen experience (Ryou Kurokiba, Soma, the Aldini brothers), or both (Alice Nakiri) he just can't keep up.
• In Future GPX Cyber Formula, any racer who isn't Hayato or Kaga have fallen into this as the series progresses into the OVAs. Originally, Shinjyo and Randoll are very skilled racers and could be considered The Rivals to Hayato, but in the later OVAs, they are usurped by Bleed Kaga, who takes their place as the rival to Hayato.
• This is the case for Shinpachi in Gintama. At some point a fan-letter asked how strong Shinpachi was. Gintoki answered that Shinpachi was actually pretty strong, but just happened to be surrounded by monsters.
• Used a few times in Girls Beyond the Wasteland:
  • Yuuka watches another voice actress perform some lines, and feels inadequate as a result. She ends up flubbing a lot of her dialogue, and takes so much time on retakes that they run out of time at the recording studio. She suffers a Heroic BSoD after this, but fortunately Buntarou and Sayuki snap her out of this later on.
  • Though they're getting mostly positive feedback on their demo game, the club tries out a demo from a game company who released a demo of their game on the same day. As each member plays it, they notice how much more professional their competitor's game is, and begin to doubt themselves. Sayuki then reassures them that both of the games are marketed towards different audiences, so shouldn't be compared side by side.
• Gundam:
  • In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Sayla Mass and Kai Shiden are both very competent pilots and aces several times over. However, they have the misfortune to serve alongside Amuro "One-Man Army-personified" Ray, who upstages them at every turn and pilots against Char Aznable, the series' most iconic badass.
  • In Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Kamille's archenemy, Jerid Messa, is often viewed as a poor pilot due to his constant defeats at Kamille's hands. However, the thing to remember is that Kamille is an incredibly powerful Newtype in a Super Prototype handtailored to his specifications, and Jerid is a Badass Normal Elite Mook in a mass-production suit. That Jerid is even still alive is a testament to his Ace Pilot status, and when facing off against anybody other than Kamille he tends to win more often than not. Titans leader Jamitov Hymen even recognizes this, promoting Jerid to be his bodyguard despite Jerid's protests that his career up to that point has been nothing but a long string of defeats.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack brings us Gyunei Guss, undoubtedly the most stable Cyber-Newtype to date and a pilot of skill comparable to actual Newtypes. Trained since childhood, Gyunei proves a better pilot than Char in some ways, using his Mobile Suit's funnels to successfully target and destroy Londo Bell's nuclear warheads (a feat which Char later tries and fails to replicate). Unfortunately for Gyunei, he's up against Amuro Ray, who has graduated from 'just' being a One-Man Army into downright Invincible Hero territory.
  • Lucrezia Noin from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing is a pretty good Mobile Suit pilot, but when your teammates are five Gundam Pilots and the only Federation pilot who can match them, it's easy to be forgotten. Of course, this ignores a few facts: 1) Zechs says that during their academy days, she held back in order to make him look better (Zechs finished top of his class, for the record), and 2) in Endless Waltz, she lasts just as long the Gundam Pilots while using a Taurus, which is a good but still outdated machine when compared to the Serpents fielded by the enemy. This has lead to the fan theory that Noin is one of the best pilots in the show, held back only by the fact that she never gets anything better than a Taurus.
  • The same can be said of Yzak Joule in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED who talents seem insignificant next to those of his superior, Athrun Zala, and his enemy, Kira Yamato. This only gets worse when the two of them receive their respective Mid Season Upgrades. Then in the finale he kills two Super Soldiers and you remember that oh yeah, this guy's a badass. Kira's Big Brother Mentor, Mu La Flaga is in a similar position, though his general cool factor tends to outshine his handicaps.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Lunamaria Hawke suffers from this, often being decried as a Faux Action Girl, despite serving with competence throughout the war. This is largely because she's on the same team as Rey and Shinn, whom only Kira and Athrun stand a chance against. Her initial equipment isn't much better, being given a Gunner Zaku to start and not having Rey's Ace Pilot skills to make up for it. Once in the Impulse, she fares better.
• Inazuma Eleven's semi-Compilation Movie has The Orge, a mysterious soccer team from the future that beats up a main series's Big Bad god wannabe Zeus Academy badly. The rest of the movie progresses to ignore the Zeus completely.
• In Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara all routinely fall victim to this trope whenever they go into battle teamed up with Inuyasha. Despite the fact that all of them have at least a few skills that could contribute to victory, Inuyasha usually does almost all or all of the heavy lifting in combat, and he virtually always is the one to deliver the final killing blow. Sometimes Inuyasha's companions will just stand in the background and make commentary about the fight, even though they have no valid reason not to participate.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple zig-zags on this: Kenichi is universally acknowledged to have no talent, but he's the main character and receives the appropriate amount of screentime/pagetime to show Training from Hell hard work does eventually pay off. Meanwhile, Action Girl Miu has to hold back when she and Kenichi spar, but she appears less often.
• The Uncrowned Kings in Kuroko's Basketball. They are genius basket-ball players who were almost at the level of the Generation of Miracles. However, their individual skills were completely overshadowed by the team-play of Teiko.
• Discussed by the narrator in Legend of the Galactic Heroes with regards to Oskar von Reuenthal — he would have been a brilliant ruler of his own right if not for the fact that he was born in the same era as Reinhard von Lohengramm.
• Lupin III: Zenigata at first glance seems like a Clueless Detective for his constant failure to ever bring in Lupin. But take a close look and you'll see that this is only the case because he's going after Lupin. The man has put away countless other criminals without fail, often in the wake of his pursuit of the thief, and it's been shown that Zenigata is just about the only person who stands the slightest chance of bringing Lupin in for good. Any other cop would be lucky to get within three miles of Lupin when their on the case. Zenigata has managed to corner him time and again and frequently manages to be a Spanner in the Works to the otherwise tidy and concise plans the thief comes up with.
• Played with in Medaka Box. Zenkichi barring his parasite eyes is the only "normal" one out of all the main characters. Despite this, he manages to get most of the fights and somehow keeps up with all the super powered people in this series. Maguro even calls him "normal cool" claiming that he is unique because he is normal. However, in the Student Council Successors arc, Najimi sends 5 normal girls to compete in Medaka's treasure hunt where they not only do better than Zenkichi (who came in dead last being unable to solve the first clue), they actually manage to make it to the final round and briefly manage to match Medaka. After noticing Zenkichi placing in dead last in the treasure hunt in comparison to the other normal people, Medaka throws him aside placing him directly under this trope in her eyes.
• Suezo from Monster Rancher has many characteristics of this, being practically a disembodied giant eyeball. Compared to his other Monster teammates who have much more powerful and useful attacks, Suezo comes up short with only a tail attack and tongue lash as his primary moves. And even then, most of the bad guys shrug off his attacks like they're nothing. Suezo is rarely portrayed as a heavy hitter and the instances where he does land blows on the bad guys is when he's already fighting alongside his friends as a team (their attacks help to make up for his). The only time Suezo managed to win a battle on his own was against a giant Zilla in one of the Grand Prix games. He does, however, have quite a unique ability of being able to teleport. It would be quite a useful ability if Suezo actually had some decent attacks to go along with it... which he doesn't.
• Moriarty the Patriot has Louis James Moriarty overshadowed by his brilliant older brother, Professor William James Moriarty. Louis is capable, brilliant, and terrifying in his own right, but he doesn't stand out against his one-year-older brother whom he's pledged his entire devotion to until William takes a plunge into the Thames River alongside Sherlock Holmes at the end of The Final Problem.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!:
  • Prince Alan is very talented at pretty much everything, but since he compares himself to his superhuman twin brother he ended up with an inferiority complex. No one can compete with Gerald. At least, not at most things. When Katarina helps him realize that he's better at music and enjoys it more than academics and swordplay he gets over his complex and moves on.
  • Katarina herself is said to be pretty in the novels and shown to be quite cute in the illustrations, but her friends Mary, Sophia and Maria are all said to completely blow her out of the water, though you can't tell by looking at them. Katarina herself doesn't get down about it though except that she firmly believes she has a villainous face, which actually led to her developing a very pretty smile because she wanted to focus on not intimidating people.
• Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Lorem is a demon famous for her incredible power. Her very breath can be made hot enough to cause another demon's life to flash before her eye. Lorem's sister Merii, on the other hand, usually prefers not to fight and has even marketed her Healing Hands into a fortune she uses to support her sister and nephew. However, this should not be taken to mean Merii is weak by any measure. It's explained to Chiharu that both Lorem and Merii are monstrous in their power, but Lorem tends to be the one who grabs everyone's attention. This is demonstrated when the mission into the Self-Administrated Zone turns into a fight. Merii strikes back for an attacker only for one of her allies to use his Flash Step to knock the attacker away before the blow hits. Once things calm down, that attacker remarks that Lorem and Merii make a terrifying duo.
• Naruto:
  • Hatake Kakashi was originally made up to be one of the most elite ninjas of Konoha, in part due to his Sharingan's ability to copy any technique, earning him the nickname "Copy Ninja Kakashi". That was until other Uchihas turned up with two Sharingans, with much more advanced abilities. Then someone came out with lots of Sharingans, while others combined the Sharingan's powers with other powers, and still others started using disposable Sharingans. Then Obito gives both his Sharingans to Kakashi after death... and he can awaken Perfect Susano'o.
    • Kakashi still played an important role in the plot and in every battle his side was involved in due to his intelligence, experience and his Sharingan's unique ability. However, much later, during the Fourth Ninja World War, this too gets overshadowed when it is revealed that Uchiha Obito, who gave Kakashi his Sharingan, was still alive and had become much more adept at using his Sharingan.
  • During the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, Choji and Neji defeat jonin-level Sound ninja in one-on-one battles, but post-Time Skip they get overshadowed by Naruto, Sasuke, Akatsuki members and other antagonists.
  • Post-Time Skip, all characters except a handful of main characters and the antagonists get little or no screen-time and hardly contribute anything significant to the plot. Shikamaru gets A Day in the Limelight occasionally only to be instantly overshadowed by Sasuke or Naruto shortly afterwards.
  • Sakura, formally The Load of Team Kakashi, improved greatly over the timeskip and Took a Level in Badass becoming a Combat Medic and learning Tsunade's Super-Strength. She shows this off by catching Kakashi in the Bell Test and fighting near evenly with Sasori, the third or fourth (depending on how you rank Obito) strongest member of the Akatsuki. Then...she's put Out of Focus until the War Arc where she shows off again by mastering the Byakugo no Fuin, the same seal Tsunade has and causing more damage with a single punch than even Sasuke's Susano'o. Then...Naruto shows off his full power and Sasuke levels up his Susano'o. THEN they get powers from the Rikudo Sennin. Poor girl...she truly can't catch up despite all her efforts.
  • Rock Lee, though lacking the flashy powers, becomes strong through sheer training and effort, and is very super-humanly fast by real world standards, but he gets overshadowed due to The Worf Effect. Word of God says he was created to show viewers that effort and hard work pay off. Doesn't stop him from reaching the Sixth Gate though.
  • After the Pain arc, Kiba acknowledges that this happened to the entire Konoha village in comparison to Naruto.
  • During the Fourth Ninja World War, the entire world gets overshadowed by a handful of protagonists and antagonists.
  • During the later part of the same war, it happens in turn to each of the antagonists. Itachi and Sasuke do this to Kabuto, Big Bad Tobi is insanely powerful and gave the Shinobi Alliance a hard time, only to be overshadowed by Greater-Scope Villain the real Uchiha Madara. The Greater-Scope Villain in turn gets overshadowed by an even more insanely powerful Kaguya Otsutsuki, which even makes Sasuke wonder if a person so powerful could even exist.
  • Sasuke himself is hit hard by this. Despite being one of the stronger Ninja in the first half of Part II, he quickly, and we mean quickly begins being overshadowed by Naruto once Naruto masters Sage Mode. Its only made worse within the War when Sasuke is comparing his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan self to Naruto's Kurama Chakra Mode, not even knowing of Bijuu Mode. When Naruto brings out Bijuu Mode, powers up the entire army again and saves the entire Alliance...Sasuke shows jealously at how strong Naruto is. And even after getting powers from the Rikudo Sennin (Sasuke even gets the Rinnegan)... Naruto got more of a lion's share again and Sasuke has to designate himself as decoy against Kaguya since he is unable to even injure her (though to be fair, even Naruto was having difficulties with giving her injuries and his powers were better suited for fighting some like Kaguya; it probably doesn't help that Naruto was already used to most of his powers and had guidance from 9 tailed beasts).
  • Tsunade manages to get hit with this despite being the freaking Hokage and the World's Strongest Woman, since her teammates are Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
  • A meta-example is the author, for whom this is an Inverted Trope. The author has a twin brother, who is also a mangaka himself.
  • The Byakugan users also fell into this, for a time. Initially, it was well matched with Sharingan: the former had X-ray, telescopic and chakra pathway analysis, and the latter could follow your movements, copy jutsu and hypnotise. As time went on, not only did the regular Sharingan gain several new potentially game-breaking abilities, but it also gained the ability to evolve into the Mangekyo Sharingan, and then on to the Rinnegan, which are two of the most powerful abilities in the series. It is still incredibly useful, especially when paired with the Gentle Fist style, but it fell behind in variety of abilities. However, in The Last: Naruto the Movie, the Byakugan is capable of becoming the Tenseigan when merged with Hamura Otsusuki's chakra (similar to the Sharigan->Rinnegan example), gaining a Tenseigan Chakra Mode - which in short combines characteristics of the Six Paths Sage Mode and the Rinnegan (i.e., enhanced physical abilities, all nature transformations, and powerful new abilities like the Truth-Seeking Balls). It's a major Throw the Dog a Bone aspect, and its only weakness is the time it takes the Tenseigan to mature (compounded with semi-common painful pulses in the eyes), and if the user is weakened enough in battle, it fades entirely and must be re-made overtime.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi has a huge number of badass people, but several (Rakan, Eva, Alberio Ku:nel Sanders, Fate, and especially Nagi) outstrip the main characters by several orders of a magnitude, and numerous characters comment that they're of "an entirely different level" from everyone else. One of Negi's main goals it to be powerful enough to be counted among them. Given recent events, he may very well have done so. Rakan has admitted that Negi is well on his way.
• Mireille Bouquet of Noir is a talented assassin whose partner is the ridiculously lethal Kirika Yumura. On the meta level, the Spiritual Successor Series Madlax is a very good anime overshadowed by the existence of Noir.
• One Piece:
  • Usopp's ace sharpshooting skills and the ability to trick and outwit his opponents (when he's not hiding behind something) makes him a Badass Normal. The problem is that everyone else on the crew is insanely powerful, so much so that Usopp harbors a massive inferiority complex and frets constantly that he'll be left behind and that his crew doesn't really need or want him (which was actually Played for Drama in the Water 7 arc). Zoro and Sanji even have a conversation pointing out how strong Usopp has gotten, and that he could defeat virtually any normal opponent. Unfortunately, they're with Luffy so the enemies are anything but normal.
  • Luffy himself suffered from this in his childhood. Due to his rough training, he's still able to keep up with his older brothers, but often got captured or easily subdued, forcing his brothers to save him. Later in Marineford, Luffy gets severely overshadowed by the Whitebeard Pirates who have to save his butt from the Marines multiple times alongside Boa Hancock and Jimbei. Luffy of course more than makes up for it later though.
  • Ace also qualifies. His record has some very bad losses against Whitebeard, Blackbeard, and Akainu (the latter also being his final battle ever. It's not because Ace was weak, in fact he was very powerful, but those enemies were just that strong. In the case of Blackbeard, the villain won but not easily and his fruit saved him multiple times.
  • One of the bad guys suffers from the same issue as Ace, and it's Jack the Drought. His losing record is quite big and includes Zunesha, Dogstorm as Sulong, and Doflamingo's escort, which had Fujitora, Tsuru and Sengoku. Jack isn't weak, even Kaido makes it clear; he just faces way too mighty foes.
  • Logia Devil Fruit users (with the obvious exceptions of Akainu, Aokiji and Kizaru) get extremely overshadowed by Paramecia and Zoan Devil Fruit users in the Time Skip. Pre-timeskip, Logia users were nigh-unbeatable and displayed power (especially Enel) that were frankly god-like in scope, Crocodile requiring a weakness to water to be heavily exploited in order to be defeated and Enel having the misfortune of Luffy’s Rubber Man Devil Fruit being a natural counter to his own Shock and Awe Devil Fruit. Come the timeskip while Paramecia and Zoan Devil Fruits only get more bizarre and powerful with Combo Platter Powers, Logia types in comparison are far more easily dealt with thanks to pretty much everybody and their mom knowing Haki which can bypass the Logia's Intangibility defense. The three new Logia type antagonists, Caribou, Caesar and Monet are fairly easily defeated while the Paramecia and Zoan type villains are immensely tougher. Double subverted with Aramaki, who, as an Admiral, is very relevant even post-Wano... however, he is overshadowed by the legendary Shanks.
  • The Kid Pirates In-Universe feel overshadowed by the Straw Hat Pirates, having had a far rougher time in the New World compared to them. Kid himself expresses jealousy and bitterness in Wano at seeing the Straw Hats kick ass and tells his crew upon raiding Onigashima not to let the Straw Hats show them up. Even after aiding in Kaido and Big Mom’s defeat, Kidd and co's luck doesn't improve as Kidd challenges Shanks once again... and is utterly annihilated.
• One-Punch Man: Taken to the absolute extreme with the main character Saitama, as literally the entire cast are overshadowed by him. As the title of the series suggests, his entire MO is a One-Hit KO punch. He is so far above everyone that he's actually had an existential crisis at the fact that nothing is a challenge for him anymore. Even when there was one character who could survive one his blows, all he had to do was put forth some effort to finish the job. It gets turned on its head later on when it's revealed that because of Saitama making the rest of the heroes look pathetic by comparison, the public started losing faith in them. After all, if somebody as plain looking as Saitama can just come in and effortlessly destroy these supposedly powerful monsters, how does that make the rest of the powerful heroes look to the public eye?
  • Perhaps the greatest example of all is Saitama's apprentice, Genos. He's an intelligent, cool-looking and extremely strong Neo Human Casshern Expy who would be an awesome protagonist in any other anime, plus he was an S-class hero right off the bat. Except, he's actually more a Failure Hero because very often he gets turned into a modern art project by his opponents and it is up to Saitama to come save the day.
  • "Speed-O'-Sound" Sonic is a Bishōnen ninja and assassin repeatedly shown to be one of the most dangerous fighters in the series, taking on monsters that defeated S-Class Heroes and S-Class Heroes like Genos and emerging victorious. It's been noted that if he wanted to he could easily rank amongst the S-Class in the Hero Association. He's also the guy who decided to declare Saitama as his Worthy Opponent and rival who he intends to surpass. Put simply, it never works out for him.
  • This is also Tanktop Master's Running Gag: Tanktop Master is the strongest of the Tanktoppers and can pose a legitimate threat for a Mile-Long Ship by just throwing large pieces of concrete at it... But as the Tanktoppers' Running Gag is that they get defeated and-or humiliated every time, every time he shows up someone one-ups him: his attack on Boros' ship was immediately followed by Tatsumaki using her Psychic Powers to hit the target with dozens of destroyed buildings, when Metal Knight's drones clean up the aftermath of Boros' attack and rebuild the entire area he's forced to admit it would have taken him hundreds of days just to clean up the rubble, and when he fights Garou he goes down very quickly once his opponent gets serious, and that in spite of Tanktop Master having almost beaten him to death beforehand.
• Deconstructed rather heavily in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, where multiple characters feel like their hard work is meaningless in light of the super-talented Mashiro and Misaki. Particularly, Rita quite heavily resented Mashiro for her overwhelming talent, despite being a competent artist herself, not helped by her own grandfather telling her that she will never get anywhere close to Mashiro's level even though she works hard. Similarly, Sorata's game concept is overshadowed by the artwork Mashiro did to support it, as in, he fails to pitch it to the game developer, but the same developer immediately sends Mashiro a job offer. It's all Played for Drama.
• In The Prince of Tennis series, arguably the Fudomine Team. Despite starting out as Seigaku's first major rival and one of their closest as well as one of their strongest, they become overshadowed by Hyotei and Rikkaidai. Pretty much their only powerful member is Captain Kippei Tachibana, a nationally-ranked player. While Hyotei and Rikkaidai got rematches with Seigaku, Fudomine never gets the chance.
• In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Miki Sayaka suffers from a crippling case of this. Despite getting right back up after an attack Kyouko predicted would floor her for months and obliterating H.N. Elly in one hit, the fandom still dismisses her as a "weak magical girl". Unfortunately for Sayaka, her fellow main characters are a veteran who has been fighting Witches for years, a Grief Seed hoarder who constantly replenishes her magical power, a time mage, and Jesus. By the time of The Movie, this is no longer the case, with Sayaka having developed powers of her own, and various spinoff material such as 'Magical Record' have made it clearer that Sayaka is not a weak Magical Girl, just one surrounded by titans.
• Ranma ½:
  • Before the series began, the Kuno siblings were two of the three top martial artists in their district, with Kodachi taking on 4-to-1 odds and whipping them effortlessly. Despite being able to render a bokken, a wooden training sword, into an Absurdly Sharp Blade and use Razor Wind attacks, Tatewaki Kuno becomes a mere Joke Character — his sister Kodachi just barely escapes this by a combination of the fact she doesn't fight all that often, but when she does, she's willing to cheat and use paralysis or sleeping poisons to get the upper hand.
  • Akane Tendo, the remaining top martial artist in the district, is able to quickly defeat a mob of about thirty fighters from her school each morning in the beginning of the series; later, she only escapes becoming a Damsel in Distress through her default reaction being to try and solve her problems on her own, her actually being able to help Ranma and co on occasion, such as against Orochi, or Taro. She still gets abducted various times in both canons, occasionally overpowered or otherwise kicked around by rivals and challengers from out of town, but does appear to considerably increase her martial arts skill towards the end of the series.
  • Soun and Genma get something of this treatment as well. While partially due to just not even wanting to fight that often, the few times they do get the notion to fight, it's against something meant for Ranma to deal with. Especially weird as these two possess the ability to become Godzilla sized (And Soun seems to pull his Samurai armor and armaments out of nowhere as well).
    • Genma is just too lazy to be a decent fighter most of the time. On the extremely rare occasions that he gets serious, he can beat Ranma without trying too hard. He did train Ranma to the point he's at now, remember.
  • Ukyo Kuonji is an odd case of this as she is the second strongest of Ranma's fiancees, being the only one with a special Finishing Move in the anime and having a very intense, Ranma-esque fight near the end of the manga. However as strong as she is, she tends to be forgotten by Takahashi and is rarely involved in the serious arcs and when she is it's in a support role. Other times she is simply not mentioned and the other characters never think to ask her for help when something comes up. Presumably her self-owned restaurant takes up most of her time and after making up with Ranma she didn't feel much of a need to fight.
  • The reason Ukyo is the second strongest of Ranma's fiancees is Shampoo, who at the start was arguably on par with Ranma himself, with him being physically stronger and her having a devastating advantage in striking speed (it's telling that when Shampoo wanted him (or rather his female form) dead early on Ranma refused to fight, and when they did fight and he defeated her (the whole reason she wanted Ranma-chan dead), it was when Shampoo had just fought and won a tournament and was tired). Unfortunately for her Ranma manages to acquire her same striking speed through the "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire Fist" (implied to be the same speed-enhanching technique Shampoo uses) and leaves her in the dust, and when they fight again later in the series he swiftly overpowers her.
• Rurouni Kenshin:
  • Kaoru is stated to be as strong as a national level-kendo champ, but she only really gets to show this off once in the manga against "designated female" Kamatari of the Ten Swords. To her credit, she manages to beat him with a broken bokken. She gets better treatment in the anime, where she's treated more as an equal member of the Kenshin Gumi and is given more to do. For example, in the anime version of the Megumi arc, she participates in the rescue mission at Kanryu's mansion along with the others, and gets to plow through waves of mooks. In the manga, she stays home for no apparent reason because Sanosuke tells her to have breakfast and a hot bath ready for when they get back.
  • Ironically, Kenshin's fighting partner Sanosuke is given the reverse treatment in the anime. In the manga, he's an expert in hand-to-hand combat and wins more than his fair share of fights against strong opponents (often whilst heavily wounded). In the anime? He's mainly used to show how strong the villain of the week is before Kenshin saves the day.
  • Once opponents that are at Kenshin's level are introduced, the gap between Kenshin and Sanosuke, Yahiko, and Kaoru become much more apparent.
  • Even Kenshin is overpowered by his master Hiko, who is so ridiculously powerful that the author stated he can't use him to deal with threats in the story because it would be too easy for him.
• The title character of Sailor Moon begins as this with Mercury by her side; the other senshi just have more strength and fighting ability, plus their attacks are offensive. As the seasons pass Moon levels up and passes over everyone else. The Outers then overshadow the Inners, and everyone overshadows Chibi Moon. At least Chibi Moon has the potential to be insanely powerful, according to the manga.
• Saiyuki's Gojyo is a pretty good fighter and holds up well against generic cannon fodder. Then, when the time comes to kick it up a notch, Sanzo breaks out the sutra, Goku and Hakkai take off their limiters, and Gojyo... is screwed. (On the bright side, when the others are half-dead after these high-powered fights, Gojyo is generally still on his feet and able to get them help.)
• This trope is played with in Saki.
  • Nodoka Hanamura is the National Inter Middle champion in the game of mahjong, and Kiyosumi High School's mahjong team is recognized because she's playing there. Aside from her mahjong skills, she's also quite the looker, so in the eyes of casual fans and the media, she's both eye candy and a force to be reckoned with in the national tournament individual match. This became obvious in the Nagano qualifiers, where people flocked to watch her match and left when it ended. This is why come the final round, nobody expected Kiyosumi to win the qualifiers because Koromo Amae, the previous tournament MVP and classified as one of the "mahjong monsters," was expected to just walk away with her team representing Nagano in the National tournament for the second year in the row. That is until the eponymous character shows a level of play that completely eclipses anything seen so far, and brings Kiyosumi to the National tournament.
  • Come the National Tournament, Nodoka is just a "good" player to the other participating schools and the real threat in Kiyosumi is Saki. in so much that the more savvy players and coaches are developing countermeasures against her and not Nodoka because Saki was the one who defeated Koromo.
  • On Saki's side, there's the fact that while she's considered as a "mahjong monster" her reputation pales in comparison to her older sister Teru. To elaborate, Teru is both The Ace of two time team champion Team Shiraitodai and won the individual's National Champion twice, and like Nodoka, is all over the media as a mahjong sensation. Teru's reputation is such that her claim of not having a younger sibling is taken at face value immediately by the reporter who asked her.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei examines this idea at one point; Krillin is specifically mentioned, along with how India's massive population gets Overshadowed by China's ginormous one. There's even a character who specifically attracts this: unless his baldness is revealed, he won't even be noticed as existing. Kafuka assumes he's some kind of fairy.
  • Marie Curie is also brought up. Specifically, how her husband and children are also Nobel Prize winners, but all of them are overshadowed by Curie herself.
• Klein in Sword Art Online went from being a clueless noob to leader of one of the top guilds in Aincrad, leading a 7-man Badass Crew with no casualties; not even the strongest guild can boast that. Unfortunately, Klein is friends with Asuna the Flash and the Black Swordsman Kirito.
• Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar: Kenshi Masaki is this compared to the rest of his family. Case in point: his brother ^note Tenchi is the avatar of their universe's God and is immensely powerful. His younger great-great aunt ^note Sasami is one of three goddesses as are her sisters via assimilation ^note Washu and Tokimi. Big brother can pull out Light Hawk Wings like they're going out of style and great-great aunt has a very powerful battleship that summons Light Hawk Wings at will. Kenshi? Can only summon a Light Hawk Sword in his Humongous Mecha by condensing a mountain.
  • And even by this, he's outshone by Tenchi's senpai, who pilots a giant robot powered by a Juraian tree seed that creates five Light Hawk Wings and can break the laws of physics.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • The entire Team Dai-Gurren. While they're far better at destroying Ganmen and Mugans than the Red Shirts, they are nonetheless constantly eating the dust left by Kamina, and later Simon, as they go further up the Serial Escalation scale.
  • Subverted in the second movie when they spiral up and form Tengen Toppa versions of their own mecha and kick the crap out of the Anti-Spiral.
  • Additionally, the reason Viral is such a Butt-Monkey who gets his ass kicked again and again during the first half of the series isn't because he's weak, but because he's a Beastman, and thus has no Spiral Energy. While the heroes are able to increase their power levels, he can't. Until the final battle, in which he is capable of it despite being a Beastman. Spiral Energy does not care about impossibilities.
• Tenjho Tenge:
  • Takayanagi. While the first two episodes basically states how incredibly super-strong he is, he gets owned by his own brother around episode 8, leaving him without anything to do the rest of the show. Really, he doesn't do anything. This all while the main character, whom Takayanagi beat the crap out of during their first encounter, keeps getting stronger and eventually surpasses everyone.
    • Actually his case is so extreme that Ogure Ito teased his fans with so many in-verse implications that one day he would reach True Warrior or God Tsukuyomi status only to in the end drop all this for the Human VS. God fight.
  • Also the female lead of the series and her big sister. While the latter is super-awesome in the beginning, it does not take long for her to be overshadowed by her apparently cooler little sis.
  • What about Bob. Just the guy himself.
• Compared to normal people, Tiger & Bunny's Kotetsu Kaburagi would probably be considered very awesome: he has the ability to increase his abilities hundredfold for a brief period of time; he has cool, incredibly advanced Powered Armor; he dedicates his life to saving everyone he can, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Unfortunately for him, the viewers of HeroTV aren't comparing him to normal people. They're comparing him to other superheroes, such as the ridiculously Ace-like Sky High, or the identically powered and armored (but younger and more marketable) Barnaby Brooks Jr. As a result, he tends to fall behind when it comes to points and ratings.
• Seidou Takizawa from Tokyo Ghoul is this trope to a "T", with all the jealousy and insecurity that comes with it. His poor luck started with being in the same class at the Academy as Akira Mado, which always left him in second place. His assignment to the 20th Ward landed him working with not only Akira, but an entire group of legendary veterans and brilliant up-and-comers. Though graduating Salutatorian from the CCG Academy suggests he's actually quite skilled in his own right, he is constantly left in the dust and bitter over how his peers outshine him in all things. In the sequel, however, he seems to have finally crawled out of the shadows of his peers in the worst way possible.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, there’s Mai Kujaku. She's a very good duelist and strategist, but has the misfortune to be on the same team as Yugi and Kaiba (who have connections to the nameless pharaoh and some of the most powerful cards around) and ends up going up against Dark Marik in the Battle City semifinals.
• The Standard Dimension as a whole in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, while they have all the extra deck summoning methods compared to the single one the other three have, on average the average Standard duelist can't compare to an average Fusion, Synchro or Xyz duelist. There are exceptions of course with Reiji being a master of all summoning methods, Yusho able to toy with YURI of all people and later Yuya becoming the best duelist in his dimension.
• Discussed and lampshaded in regards to Blue Angel in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, while she's a skilled duelist Soulburner informs her that her lack of an Ignis AI hampers her from reaching him and Playmaker in a skill level.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • Kuwabara gets this treatment to a degree. While he's probably not as strong as fellow humans (and former Spirit Detectives) Shinobu Sensui and Kuroko Sanada, Genkai speaks very highly of his abilities, and damn right she knows what she's talking about. In the dub, she indicates he has the potential to be the strongest human alive. Though in terms of physical strength he's left in the dust by his demon and half-demon companions, Kuwabara does get to win several key battles against much more powerful demons so he isn't completely overshadowed by others in the strictest sense. He actually keeps up with Hiei and Kurama pretty well, possibly becoming stronger than them during the Chapter Black arc, but ultimately takes himself out of contention because he wants to get an education. Near the end of the manga, he's heavily outclassed by Hiei, Kurama, and Yusuke, who have all spent an entire year training in the demon realm, but they still can't complete their mission without Kuwabara... because, while Kuwabara can't beat any of them in a contest of strength, he does have other, specialized skills that they don't. Namely, he can cut through dimensional barriers.
  • A-class demons are even stronger than Toguro, but for even a low S-class demon, they are just Mooks who are themselves only Elite Mooks at best to the rulers of the demon realm.

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