History ReplacementGoldfish / AnimeAndManga

* In ''[[Anime/CaptainHarlock Cosmo Warrior Zero]]'', the new first mate, Marina Oki, looks EXACTLY like Captain Zero's late wife.

* The Manwha (and movie) ''Film/MySassyGirl'' is about [[spoiler: a man who meets a seemingly deranged woman who forces him to act like her deceased lover ("No soda, ''coffee!''"). By coincidence, the dead lover is the man's cousin.]]

** Jose Croce sees his cyborg Henrietta as one of these to his deceased little sister, Enrica, who he regards as PurityPersonified, and even lets Henrietta wear some of her clothing. Still he teaches Henrietta the violin instead of the harp and treats her respectfully as an individual.
** It's implied that Jose's brother [[AntiHero Jean]] is cold and distant to his own Cyborg, Rico, both to keep his emotional distance from a {{cyborg}} girl [[YourDaysAreNumbered who will die sooner or later]] ''and'' to not see her as a stand-in to Enrica.

* Variation: [[spoiler:Fate Testarossa]] from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' was [[spoiler: [[TomatoInTheMirror (unknown to her)]] supposed to be a [[CloningBlues replacement]] for Alicia Testarossa, the daughter of Precia Testarossa. Unfortunately, even with Alicia's memories, Fate was not a perfect copy (the Movie mentions that unlike Alicia, she's not left-handed and has different magic potential). In the end, she unwittingly became merely a tool to help Precia resurrect Alicia, while her inability to mimic the original [[TheWoobie led to much suffering on her part]].]]

* Nataku in ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'' is the botched, emotionless, genderless [[CloningBlues clone]] of the resident MadScientist's dead granddaughter Kazuki Honjou, a DelicateAndSickly girl who died before her destiny as one of the Dragons of the Earth was unfurled. As such, Dr. Honjou told Nataku what was going on and sent him to Kanoe so he would take Kazuki's place.

* This shows up occasionally in the ''Literature/{{Doll}}'' manga series with people trying to use the titular RidiculouslyHumanRobots as Replacement Goldfish. In one story, a little boy who is neglected by his mother is given a Doll that looks exactly like her for Christmas. When the boy tells his real mother that it's okay that she ignores him because he doesn't need her any more, she has a HeelRealization -- which might have been the Doll's creator's goal all along. In another story, a woman who lost her son when a Doll accidentally drowned him in the bathtub and formed an anti-Doll terrorist group in response and begins to see the enforcer Doll (that looks like a young boy) that was sent to stop the group as a replacement son. The inventor of the Dolls nearly went through with this after his wife -- who helped invent the Dolls -- succumbed to a neurological disease that left her a listless shadow of her former self. In his grief, he designed a Doll that looked exactly like her and uploaded her memories into the Doll. When the Doll is activated and greets him with his wife's voice, he embraces it in joy -- but stops when the Doll calls him "Master". Coming to his senses, the man devotes himself to taking care of his invalid wife.
* An episode of ''Manga/BlackJack 21'' has the good doctor (and his assistant/adopted daughter/wife, Pinoco) befriend a young guy living in a developing country. Originally one half of a pair of identical twins, his brother was adopted as a ReplacementGoldfish for a wealthy man whose child (who looked identical to the brothers) perished in the same flood that rendered the twins orphans. The man hid the death of their child from his wife, and thus couldn't adopt both of them, forcing the twins to be separated, and the adopted twin to act like the long-dead boy in order to avoid breaking the heart of his adopted mother. (On top of this, she was injured during the flood and was left with a delicate health.) Cue his twin brother winding up mortally ill and in dire need of a kidney-transplant...and only one compatible donor in the city.
* In ''Anime/ImGonnaBeAnAngel'', [[spoiler:Kai knows that Natsumi, who he is in love with, sees him just as a replacement for her dead brother Fuyuki, who Natsumi had obsessed over constantly since his death. He eventually decides that, for her own good, it would be the best if they parted ways]].
* In the original, 1969 ''Manga/HimitsuNoAkkoChan'' series, Atsuko "Akko-chan" Kagami, the main protagonist, has to ask, for a school assignment, the origins of her name. She discovers that Atsuko was actually supposed to be her older sister who was stillborn. Being born a little girl, the "younger" Atsuko was given the name already used for her dead sibling, with no one ever mentioning that until she asked first.
* [[BigBad The Millennium Earl]] from ''Manga/DGrayMan'' uses this trope in what could be the most sadistic and horrible way ever invented. He takes advantage of the grief of somebody and offers him a ReplacementGoldfish of the loved one that he lost. This wouldn't be that bad if the replacement wasn't an EldritchAbomination that will kill the person who invoked it and use his body as a disguise so it can wander outside looking for more victims without being spotted. Not to mention that [[AndIMustScream the soul of the invoked one will be permanently attached to the monster until an exorcist frees it.]]
* Kagome of ''Manga/InuYasha'' has major insecurites over the fact that she may be the title character's ReplacementGoldfish for his lost love, Kikyou, aka [[{{Reincarnation}} Kagome's self in her past life]]. As the love plot thickens and Kikyo is brought back to life, it continues to play into Kagome's inferiority complex that Inuyasha will eventually return to her.
* An interesting variation in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'': In the OAV timeline, Sasami's connection to Tsunami began when Sasami, as a toddler, fell from a near-fatal height to the base of Tsunami's tree. Tsunami saved her by combining their lifeforce to heal the little girl; however, Sasami didn't understand and was afraid that she might just be Tsunami's copy of the real girl, and so carried the secret for years for fear of losing her family's love. When it's revealed, however, Tenchi and the other girls didn't exactly care, and Ayeka openly told her that she was still Sasami. Tsunami then confirmed that Sasami was indeed the real one.
* In ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'', [[spoiler: Ringo Oginome]] actually ''aims'' to become one of this in regards to [[spoiler: her deceased older sister, Momoka, even when her parents had not asked her for anything by these lines.]] By episode 14, [[spoiler: she has decided to not go through it]]. [[spoiler: For major irony, however, right as Ringo gives up on the whole deal... it turns out that Momoka's UnluckyChildhoodFriend Yuri Tokikago ''does'' see Ringo as a RG for her, since [[StrongFamilyResemblance she looks and acts almost exactly as Momoka would if she still lived]]. Unfortunately, [[BrokenBird Yuri is so mentally/emotionally broken]] at that point that she drugs Ringo and then gets ready to ''rape'' her. She ultimately doesn't go through it.]]
* ''Manga/FamilyCompo'' revolves around this. The adult protagonist is taken in by his aunt (who is near-identical to his deceased mother), her husband, and their daughter. The protagonist [[KissingCousins has romantic feelings]] toward his cousin but other than that they act like a typical family.
* Midori Wakatsuki's foster parents in ''Manga/EdenNoHana'' adopted her to fill in the blank left by the tragic death of her biological daughter Reika. Her mentally-broken foster mom treats her with relative kindness, but calls her by the dead little girl's name and acts as if Midori was the real Reika. Her issues are made worse by the fact that [[BrotherSisterIncest her stepbrother]] [[RapeAsDrama sexually abuses her]]. It takes the intervention of Midori's ''actual'' brother Tokio to give her the chance to run away from this toxic situation so they can rebuild their lives together.
* ''Manga/FrankenFran'' has one truly brilliant {{subversion}} of this trope. One story follows a robotics expert asking for Fran's help in putting his dying wife's personality and memories into a robot program so he never has to lose her. [[spoiler:In usual ironic fashion, he uses the program to make his new robot model, gets rich by selling them and starts to mess around with other women while ignoring his wife's robotic form because he doesn't believe it's her anymore.]] In comes karma like a steamroller, [[spoiler:with a large army of robots with his wife's personality eventually become far too lonely and all go after him, unaware of their own strength and nearly kill him.]] When Fran enters the picture again, [[spoiler:a robot remaining asks that he be saved so they can be together forever, and Fran figures there's only one way to do that properly. She turns him into a robotic program as well, that becoming his second model and him being so scared that he becomes a floor mat to the innocent wife robot.]]
* In ''Literature/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'', Misaki's older sister, Fuuka, tells Jin in episode 11 that she sees herself as this to him.
* [[spoiler:Beluna, one of the maids]] in ''Manga/TheVoynichHotel'' is actually a [[spoiler:simulacrum made by Elena, AKA Lachrymarum. Lachrymarum arrived too late to stop the beheading of the original, her middle sister Suspirorum, and for worse Suspirorum's head had already been taken away; she used what was left of the corpse to make Belena.]]
* Played with in ''Anime/{{Kyousogiga}}''. When the priest Myoe if forced to leave the realm he created, he makes his adopted son Yakushimaru into a replacement goldfish for himself. The second Myoe understandably has very mixed feelings about this.
* This is implied to be the main reason for why Kyouko [[MoralityPet adopts Yuma as an apprentice]] in ''Manga/PuellaMagiOrikoMagica''. Yuma's about the same age as Kyouko's dead sister Momo, comes from a similarly destitute background, and if the {{Drama CD}}s are accurate, she even has a [[ThirdPersonPerson similar speech pattern.]]
* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' Masami and Yoshie Izumi had a baby son, but he died before he turned one year old. Almost at the same time, Masami's cousin and his wife died in a car crash, leaving their own baby son Koushirou behind. Therefore the Izumis took Koushirou in at first to recover from the death of their child, but in the end they loved him like he was their actual biological kid.
* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'':
** Jose Croce sees his cyborg Henrietta as one of these to his deceased little sister, Enrica, who he regards as PurityPersonified, and even lets Henrietta wear some of her clothing. Still he teaches Henrietta the violin instead of the harp and treats her respectfully as an individual.
** It's implied that Jose's brother [[AntiHero Jean]] is cold and distant to his own Cyborg, Rico, both to keep his emotional distance from a {{cyborg}} girl [[YourDaysAreNumbered who will die sooner or later]] ''and'' to not see her as a stand-in to Enrica.
* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** Taken to both very creepy and very heartbreaking extremes. [[spoiler: [[WholeEpisodeFlashback 14 years ago]], the daughter of a Tokyo daycare worker ran away from home. Her [[TheOphelia very mentally/emotionally frail]] [[DelicateAndSickly mother]] tried to commit suicide several times, developed an eating disorder and had to be hospitalised; [[DespairEventhorizon her despair was so deep]] that [[LoveMakesYouCrazy her husband and younger brother decided]] to kidnap a child from the husband's workplace and raise him/her as their own, so she'd be able to start from zero and regain the will to live again]]. Too bad [[spoiler: the woman chose a little girl named Ran Mouri as the target, ''right'' at the moment when [[NewTransferStudent Shinichi Kudo]] was trying to befriend her: [[SpannerInTheWorks Shinichi]] went ProperlyParanoid and told his parents Yusaku and Yukiko about the teacher's odd behavior... so [[GuileHero Yusaku]] easily realised what would happen, alerted the police (including Ran's PapaWolf Kogoro), had both wife and brother arrested, then talked the husband into turning himself too in exchange for being reunited with the daughter, whom he had previously located.]]
** Inspector Shiratori tries to pursue Kobayashi-sensei after previously failing to court Miwako. When Kobayashi saw Miwako while visiting the station, and saw [[IdenticalStranger how much they look alike]], she assumed that Shiratori just saw her as Miwa's ReplacementGoldfish and tries to avoid him afterwards. However, it was revealed that the girl Shiratori first fell in love with was actually Kobayashi, and his initial pursuits of Miwako was a case of WrongGirlFirst.
* Part of the reason Yuuri from ''Manga/SchoolLive'' is so attached to Yuki is because she reminds her of [[spoiler:her little sister]]. It was subconscious though, because Yuuri forgot about her due to recent events.
* Zeo in ''Anime/{{Beyblade}}''. In the anime, he is a robot replacement to the original Zeo. In the manga, instead, he is Zeo's younger brother Leon who was brainwashed to behave exactly like his dead older brother.
* Cool, kind ClassRepresentative Aya Kurokawa in ''Manga/KanojoNiNaruHi'' is a is a voluntary replacement goldfish for her older sister (also named Aya, albeit written with different Kanji) who was killed in an accident shortly before Aya herself underwent a spontaneous GenderBender. She goes along with it because she loved her sister, is convinced that her sister truly was a much better person, and feels tremendous guilt for jealously wishing her sister ill before she died. Tragically, she's also a StepfordSmiler steeped in self loathing because she remains convinced she's just an imitation of the "real" Aya. She doesn't allow herself any credit for her own actions and firmly believes "The real me is ugly" despite BecomingTheMask.
* Due to [[IdenticalStranger looking almost exactly like him]], Kiyama Hiroto from ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' is the adopted son of Kira Seijirou and a replacement for his deceased son, Hiroto, whose name he gets from. It is unknown what his real first name is, though if we go with the second sequel, an AlternateContinuity where the original Hiroto [[SparedByTheAdaptation is alive]], it's Tatsuya.
* This is the plot of the moive ''Anime/{{Hal}}'', where Hal is killed in a plane explosion and a robot is given his appearance to help his girlfriend Kurumi come to terms with his death. [[spoiler:The end of the movie reveals that it was actually the other way around. Kurumi was the one who had died and replaced with a robot, with Hal having deluded himself into thinking he was the robot as a coping mechanism.]]
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' [[spoiler:Zeke]] spent a lot of time playing catch with Tom Xavier, the man who eventually became his mentor and father figure. Xavier eventually admits that he once had a son who was killed as an infant; playing catch with [[spoiler:Zeke]] was in some ways an attempt to recapture the happiness he never got to experience.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', nearly the entirety of Gecko Moria's crew consists of zombies created from stitched-together corpses that are then reanimated by his [[CastingAShadow shadow powers]]. They retain some personality from their shadow's original owner, but are more-or-less {{Zombie Mooks}} that obey his every command. In the past, he apparently had a loyal crew that were implicitly his TrueCompanions, but they were all slaughtered by Emperor [[TheDreaded Kaido]] in the New World, leading him to create a crew of disposable husks that he would never get attached to.
* In Creator/YuuWatase's earlier manga ''Zoku Manga/ShinshunkiMimanOkotowari'', the trope is defied and probably deconstructed. [[spoiler: Kazusa, who once had a huge BigBrotherAttraction towards her brother Manato, once has the chance to date a boy named Takanari who looks JUST like Manato, plus glasses. However, [[LoveHurts this utterly and painfully fails]], and Kazusa later concludes that she missed out on many prospect boyfriends ''because'' of her BigBrotherAttraction.]]

* In ''Manga/QQSweeper'' Kyuutaro worries this is happening with Fumi, who reminds him of Fuyu, his childhood crush.
* In ''Manga/SingYesterdayForMe'', Shinako was devastated by the experience of caring for her high school crush as he slowly died of a terminal illness. She fills the emotional void he left by caring for and nurturing his brother Rou and their father. She shows hints of possible attraction to Rou, but only because he reminds her of his brother, and is incapable of seeing Rou as his own individual man rather than a clone of his brother or a child to be cared for.
* In ''Anime/SpaceWarriorBaldios'', the long-deserted lunar colony of Little Japan turns out to be inhabited by elderly residents who'd refused to relocate decades before the series started. Their children and grandchildren died en route to Venus when their ship was struck by a meteor, leaving an infant SoleSurvivor, Raita, who grows up to be a member of the Baldios crew and returns to the colony on a mission. He finds that the elders had surrounded themselves with android duplicates of their lost children, families that would never age or abandon them. [[spoiler: When aliens attack Little Japan, the android versions of Raita's parents help him escape because his arrival had fulfilled their dream of seeing their robotic child grow up.]]
* In ''Anime/{{Hal}}'', robot Q01 takes the on the appearance of Hal and attempts to replace him to try and mend Kurumi's heart because Hal, her lover, dies in a plane crash at the beginning of the film. [[spoiler: Near the end of the film it is revealed that Hal was not the one who died in the plane crash but instead Kurumi. Q01 had actually replaced Kurumi to mend Hal's heart as he was suffering from amnesia due to trauma after the loss of Kurumi.]]
* In ''Manga/MissionYozakuraFamily'', Nanao bears a striking resemblance to Taiyo's deceased little brother Hikaru. So hearing Nanao's struggles to fit in and live a normal school life quickly moves Taiyo to tears and gets him to start doting on Nanao like he did with Hikaru.
* Judah from ''Manga/FirePunch'' resembles Agni's sister Luna causing him to believe she may have survived and been brainwashed. After she loses her memory, Agni convinces her that she is in fact Luna.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Ayaka Yukihiro had a little brother who suffered a TragicStillbirth. Negi Springfield is the age her brother would have been if he was alive, causing her to try to act like a sister to him.
* ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'': Euclid Lucifuge is murderously obsessed with his sister Grayfia, who wants nothing to do with him since he is a villain. When he notices Rossweiss' slight resemblence to Grayfia, he kidnaps her and tries to turn her into his new sister, though Issei rescues her.

* ''Manga/GakuenBabysitters'': Defied by the chairwoman who adopts the Kashima brothers. She lost her son and daughter-in-law in the same plane crash that they lost their parents, but even though she has taken them under their wing, she makes it clear that she isn't there to replace their parents and they aren't there to replace her son. They do, however, create a new family dynamics between themselves on the principle that [[YouAreNotAlone you are never alone, even when your loved ones leave.]]
* Nuku Nuku from ''Anime/AllPurposeCulturalCatGirlNukuNuku'' is not quite a ReplacementGoldfish, in that the scientist takes the brain of the cat he struck in an accident and resurrects it in the body of a hyper-powered, incredibly cute [[RobotGirl cybernetic]] [[{{Catgirl}} cat-brained girl]].

* In ''Manga/DaytimeShootingStar'', we see in the special centered on him [[spoiler:Shishio meets a new girl who is essentially a grown-up, mangaka version of Suzume.]]
* ''Manga/AstroBoy'' is the replacement for Tobio, the son Doctor Tenma lost in a car accident. It's especially tragic because Tenma had realised that he was so obsessed with developing a super-robot that he forgot to pay attention to his son, and the accident involved a robotic car that Tenma had given him as an apology. Tenma gives Astro incredible superpowers, partly to prevent anything bad from happening to the replacement. Interestingly, Tenma has an incredibly hard time dealing with it, especially when he realises that his robot son can't grow up (even though he was presumably ''designed'' that way). ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'' throws the additional wrinkle of Tenma rejecting Atom because he's ''too'' perfect and thus could never hope to be who Tobio really was. Different adaptations give Tenma varying degrees of tension with his creation, but it wasn't until the [[WesternAnimation/AstroBoy 2009 movie]] that Tenma could accept Astro as a different but equally valid son. There's a reason we use ''Astro Boy'' as the illustrative example on UnbuiltTrope.
* Honey Kisaragi in ''Anime/CuteyHoney'', a robotic replica [=/=] partial clone of the daughter that Dr. Kisaragi lost. Before dying, however, Dr. Kisaragi reassured her that she was her own person and said that he loved her all the same.

* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** In all versions, most attempts at human transmutation are done to revive deceased loved ones, and the result is always dire disappointment. ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' takes it further: [[spoiler: Many of these attempts create a homunculus who is physically identical to the original, but have their own soul and are recognisably not human. Izumi is the only one who actually bonds with the one she created, probably because all she had to compare him to was a stillborn child.]]
** In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' Majihal creates simulacra of his lost love interest Karin from years ago. Turns out she had gone missing rather than died, but when she returned he had become so obsessed with perfecting his ideal android that he refused to accept an average-looking middle-aged woman as the genuine article. Alchemist Shou Tucker is also obsessed with using human transmutation to recreate his lost daughter, whom he "killed" by using as ingredients in a transmutation experiment, which then died.
** There are two ReplacementGoldfish relationships that complement and parallel each other. The orphaned Elric brothers take on their alchemy teacher Izumi as a mother figure, while Izumi herself had a stillborn child and now accepts the Elrics as surrogate children.
** In one ''[[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Brotherhood]]'' OVA, the Elric brothers encounter a rich couple that lost their daughter and apparently succeeded in transmuting her back, as they see the girl completely healthy, [[spoiler: but it turns out that, unsurprisingly, the transmutation had failed, and the couple lied to the alchemist (who lost his eyes as payment) to make him believe he succeeded, and the girl was, in reality, an orphan they adopted because she was their late daughter's IdenticalStranger.]]
** In one of the Yonkoma, Van Hohenheim accidentally drops [[spoiler:the flask containing the Homunculus, killing it]]. He literally replaces it with a goldfish.
* Invoked twice in ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'':
** Hotohori marries Houki, a young woman from his harem that looks just like a female version of [[spoiler: the recently murdered]] Nuriko (who, according to the ''Suzaku Hi Den'' novel and OAV, was Houki's BigBrotherMentor). While Nuriko's affections for Hotohori were mostly unrequited, it ''does'' raise some eyebrows.
** It's also explained in ''Suzaku Hi Den'' that Houki herself had once been in a relationship with a young man named Shuu, who looked ''just'' like Hotohori, save for their hair/eye color. [[spoiler: And he's later revealed to be not just Hotohori's long-lost older half-brother, but the ''rightful'' heir to the Konan Imperial Throne. [[TearJerker It ends in tears]].]]

* An old man in the anime of ''Manga/RozenMaiden'' convinced himself the boyish doll Souseiseki was his child, Kazuki.
* Variation: [[spoiler:Fate Testarossa]] from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' was [[spoiler: [[TomatoInTheMirror (unknown to her)]] supposed to be a [[CloningBlues replacement]] for Alicia Testarossa, the daughter of Precia Testarossa. Unfortunately, even with Alicia's memories, Fate was not a perfect copy (the Movie mentions that unlike Alicia, she's not left-handed and has different magic potential). In the end, she unwittingly became merely a tool to help Precia resurrect Alicia, while her inability to mimic the original [[TheWoobie led to much suffering on her part]].]]
** Her adopted son was in a similar position: [[spoiler:he's a product of the same cloning tech that created Fate. It seems to have improved somewhat in the interim, as he's never mentioned to be different from the original Erio. He was taken away from his "parents" when the Bureau found out about his origins. One of the reasons Fate took him in was to try to prevent him from going through the same kind of pain she did as a child.]]

* In ''Anime/TheBigO'' anime, R. Dorothy Wayneright was an android created as a surrogate for the deceased daughter of her creator.
* Likewise Naomi Armitage in ''Anime/ArmitageIII''.
* In ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'', Minoru's persocom Yuzuki was a replacement for his sister (whom you might recognize as [[spoiler:Kaede]] from ''Manga/AngelicLayer''). It should be noted, though, that he eventually understands what he is doing to Yuzuki and decides to stop updating his sister's personality into her. Also, the whole thing might be insane if it came from a scientist with no interest for ethics, but it's understandable since he's a lonely 12-year-old who needs some kind of emotional protector.
* Nataku in ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'' is the botched, emotionless, genderless [[CloningBlues clone]] of the resident MadScientist's dead granddaughter Kazuki Honjou, a DelicateAndSickly girl who died before her destiny as one of the Dragons of the Earth was unfurled. As such, Dr. Honjou told Nataku what was going on and sent him to Kanoe so he would take Kazuki's place.
* An unusual case crops up in ''Manga/XxxHolic'' when it turns out the reason [[spoiler: Watanuki]] was even born was because the ''universe generated him'' to fill the void [[spoiler: Syaoran]] left behind when he was removed from his own timeline. It's unusual because this isn't about filling an emotional void, just a ''literal'' one.
* In ''VisualNovel/ToukaGettan'', [[spoiler:Yumiko considers Touka to be her dead daughter]].

* Suzu in ''Hotori - Tada Saiwai o Koinegau'' is a robot replacement for a couple who has recently lost their son to illness, and struggles with the question of whether he has an identity of his own. The "doctor" who's overseeing the process of implanting the dead boy's memories into Suzu also has a terminally ill daughter, but (perhaps wisely) decides against getting a Replacement Goldfish because he's got enough experience with the robot doubles to know that however good the replacement is, it will never really be ''her''.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'':
** Played with in the second season when [[spoiler:Neil Dylandy, the original Lockon Stratos, has a twin brother named Lyle, who eventually takes up his brother's place as Lockon in Celestial Being after Neil's death in the first season finale.]] He grew into being his own person by acting like as much of a {{Jerkass}} as he could when he first came to Celestial Being, purposely failing to deliver during battle, and refusing to feel vengeful when everyone expected him to. Only later does he actually put his heart into filling [[spoiler:his dead brother's shoes]], and it was when he was trying to save [[spoiler: [[LaResistance Katharon]], the group for whom he was acting as a DoubleAgent]]. Later, he says that, as a child, he had himself sent to boarding school to get away from the comparisons and laments the fact that he will never live [[spoiler: Neil]] down.
** Lyle also deliberately tries to subvert this trope when Feldt Grace, his brother's LoveInterest, meets him. When he first arrives on the ''[[CoolShip Ptolemaios]]'', he acts like a jerk to her and drives her off in tears. Lyle later apologizes, revealing that he did it because he recognized that she was in an emotionally fragile state, and didn't want her to form a misguided attraction to him based solely on the fact that he looks exactly like the man she loved. The two make peace, and they end up with completely different love interests.

* In ''VisualNovel/H2OFootprintsInTheSand'', Hinata is a ReplacementGoldfish for [[spoiler:''her own sister''. Her older sister, the real Hinata, drowned, and the family forced Hotaru to replace her, telling everyone that Hotaru had died instead.]]
* Played with in a chapter of ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', with a new character ([[spoiler:Kanoya]]) being referred to by the Club Members (except Haruhi and Tamaki) as the "Ideal Haruhi" because in addition to bearing an uncanny resemblance to Haruhi, she lined up almost perfectly with Tamaki's daydreamed version of her. [[spoiler:Subverted in that Tamaki apparently never viewed this "Ideal Haruhi" as a love interest, despite her crush on him. Poor Kanoya.]]
* In ''Manga/PetShopOfHorrors'', an early chapter of the manga which became the first episode of the anime involves the Count selling a "rabbit" to a pair of distraught parents - a "rabbit" who looks exactly like their dead daughter, Alice. They take her in and treat her exactly the same as their own daughter, [[spoiler:with disastrous results. It turns out that the "rabbit", when fed sweets, "gives birth to" (is eaten from within by) dozens of {{killer rabbit}}s, each of which go forth, kill, eat, and "give birth" to more killer bunnies until the town is overrun.]]
** Quite a few chapters deal with D giving a pet as a replacement for a lost child, spouse, or family member. Almost all of them appear human to the owners and (thankfully) they don't all end like Alice the Rabbit did. In one chapter, D is visited by a man whose famous fiancée just died and [[spoiler:gives him a mermaid that looks just like her...a mermaid which enchants and seduces him before devouring him]]. Another chapter has Leon's younger brother Chris bond with a Maya bird [[spoiler:which appears in the form of Chris and Leon's deceased mother, giving both a chance for emotional release before finally dying of old age]]. In fact, it was in that chapter that D comments on how the pets in his shop will deliberately take the form and role of whomever the owners want, including lost loved ones.
* In ''Manga/{{Sola}}'', we find out that the protagonist, Yorito, is actually [[spoiler:a replacement made out of paper by Aono to replace the REAL Yorito, who died sometime in the feudal era in a landslide. Using her paper manipulation abilities as a yaka, she basically planted dead!Yorito's personality and memories into origami!Yorito.]] The whole thing is a bit disturbing when you think about it. Near the end, [[spoiler:Aono uses her powers to control Yorito when he tries to intervene in a fight. Yorito calls her out on this and points out that she would never have done that to the real Yorito.]]
* [[spoiler:Shiina]] in ''Manga/ShadowStar'' gets to be this in a ''very'' strange way in the manga. [[spoiler:She's a replacement for ''herself'' after she is killed by a fighter jet; it's basically the handiwork of her real {{Mon}}, the Earth itself, because she still has to fulfill her role in what will become of the world]]. Not to mention that [[spoiler:if you believe the theory that Shiina drowned in the very first chapter, the Shiina we see throughout most of the manga is a replacement of ''that'' Shiina]]. And it's possible that there were other examples even before then.
* In ''[[Anime/CaptainHarlock Cosmo Warrior Zero]]'', the new first mate, Marina Oki, looks EXACTLY like Captain Zero's late wife.
** ''Manga/GalaxyExpress999'''s Maetel has a startling resemblance to KidHero Tetsuro's MissingMom. This is not a coincidence...
* The Manwha (and movie) ''Film/MySassyGirl'' is about [[spoiler: a man who meets a seemingly deranged woman who forces him to act like her deceased lover ("No soda, ''coffee!''"). By coincidence, the dead lover is the man's cousin.]]
* Sharem in ''Manga/ImmortalRain'' is so into her ReplacementGoldfish son that she has no issues with his... eccentricities or his views on humanity.
* The second season of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' has Rolo, who was [[spoiler:inserted into Lelouch's modified memories by Emperor Charles as part of a backup plan should Lelouch ever realize who he truly is.]]
* ''Manga/MermaidSaga'':
** ''Mermaid's Mask'' has an adult man called Nanao explain that his mother did this. She tried to commit double-suicide by eating mermaid's flesh when he was a young age, but she survived and stopped aging and he kept growing up. When he ended up having a son himself, his mother kidnapped her grandson and raised him as her own, even giving him the same name. She intends to replicate the first incident, believing that this Nanao will attain the same immortality as she did.
** ''Mermaid's Scar'' has Mana and Yuta meet a woman named Misa [[note]](she was unnamed in the manga, so the OVA came up with the name)[[/note]] and her young son Masato [[spoiler:who turn out to be both immortal and together since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Turns out, [[EnfanteTerrible Masato]] isn't Misa's biological child: he became immortal first and offered her a chance to eat the mermaid's flesh and be with him. Misa accepted because her own child died and she saw Masato as a replacement, and now she ''deeply'' regrets it.]]
* ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'':
** This can be a rather disturbing (and possibly implied) view of the two (male) twins that Gauron [[WifeHusbandry took in]]. It's revealed that Gauron had actually wanted to lure and take Sousuke in [[LoveAtFirstSight the first time he saw him]], giving him a "dark smile" (read: ''rapeface''), and, later, even coming out and saying that his plans for Sousuke had been less than pure (hint: it involves raping him). Later, Gauron ends up taking in two male twins that he tells Sousuke "were quite similar to you". It gets worse: The twins are both Asian (like Sousuke), and they are described using similar terms to Sousuke's physical looks ("slender" build, around the same age, with a similar sort of haircut, and one of the twins even uses the same kind of gun Sousuke normally uses - an automatic pistol, which was also why Kaname knew how that gun worked better than if he had been using a different kind).
** Toyed with a bit, and subverted during ''The Second Raid''. Sousuke is separated from Kaname by Mithril, and goes into his huge HeroicBSOD. He ends up meeting a Chinese prostitute who looks exactly like Kaname, and decides to hire her to chat with him. The subversion comes in that, as soon as she starts making advances on him and attempts to kiss him, he [[ChasteHero completely freaks out and runs away]].
* Happens twice in ''Anime/RahXephon''. The two main leads, Ayato Kaina and Haruka Shitow, inadvertently seek out a ReplacementGoldfish for one another after they're separated across time by the arrival of the Mulians. Haruka starts dating [[spoiler:Ayato's twin brother Itsuki]], and Ayato becomes infatuated with a rather odd girl named Reika Mishima [[spoiler: who's actually a spirit that's adopted the form of a girl similar to Haruka ''because'' Ayato missed her that much.]]. Eventually, they are reunited and everything is set right with the help of the titular GiantMecha.
* ''Manga/GameXRush'' features the 'replacement child' type, with [[spoiler: Miyuki's damaged mind believing that Yuuki was her son, Memori... and that anyone who tried to say differently was clearly trying to take Memori from her, and thus should be stabbed until they're dead]].
* In one episode of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', a woman wants to kill her ex-boyfriend and become the ReplacementGoldfish for him herself. Given that both are cyborgs with interchangeable bodies, it might even have worked in some twisted way.
** Considering how the writers are [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastards]] they never let us know whether or not she failed and if Pazu was or was not killed and replaced.

* In the original TV series of ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'', studio Gonzo reveals in an interview of Newtype that the reason why Alucard turns Seras Victoria into a vampire was because 'her eyes' reminded him to 'Integra's' when she was a young girl. This is never brought up in the series, though they do make an emphasis on her eyes when he's about to shoot her.

* This shows up occasionally in the ''Doll'' manga series with people trying to use the titular [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Ridiculously Human Robots]] as Replacement Goldfish. In one story, a little boy who is neglected by his mother is given a Doll that looks exactly like her for Christmas. When the boy tells his real mother that it's okay that she ignores him because he doesn't need her any more, she has a HeelRealization -- which might have been the Doll's creator's goal all along. In another story, a woman who lost her son when a Doll accidentally drowned him in the bathtub and formed an anti-Doll terrorist group in response and begins to see the enforcer Doll (that looks like a young boy) that was sent to stop the group as a replacement son. The inventor of the Dolls nearly went through with this after his wife -- who helped invent the Dolls -- succumbed to a neurological disease that left her a listless shadow of her former self. In his grief, he designed a Doll that looked exactly like her and uploaded her memories into the Doll. When the Doll is activated and greets him with his wife's voice, he embraces it in joy -- but stops when the Doll calls him "Master". Coming to his senses, the man devotes himself to taking care of his invalid wife.

* Yakou from ''Manga/YuraraNoTsuki'' fell in love with the title character's SuperpoweredAlterEgo, but couldn't get together with her because she's a Guardian spirit. In the sequel, ''Rasetsu no Hana'' he becomes romantically involved with Rasetsu, who looks almost exactly like Yurara (but with slightly different hairstyle).

** Subverted following the death of Neil Dylandy (AKA Lockon Stratos), his [[ReplacementSibling twin brother]] Lyle is recruited by Celestial Being to take Neil's place as the team's sniper. When he first arrives on the ''[[CoolShip Ptolemaios]]'', Lyle meets his brother's LoveInterest Feldt Grace and acts like a jerk to her, driving her off in tears. Lyle later apologizes, revealing that he did it because he recognized that she was in an emotionally fragile state and didn't want her to form a misguided attraction to him based solely on the fact that he looks exactly like the man she loved. The two make peace, and they end up with completely different love interests.
** Played with in the second season when [[spoiler:Neil Dylandy, the original Lockon Stratos, has a twin brother named Lyle, who eventually takes up his brother's place as Lockon in Celestial Being.]] He grew into being his own person by acting like as much of a {{Jerkass}} as he could when he first came to Celestial Being, purposely failing to deliver during battle, and refusing to feel vengeful when everyone expected him to. Only later does he actually put his heart into filling [[spoiler: his dead brother's shoes]], and it was when he was trying to save [[spoiler: Katatron, the group for whom he was acting as a DoubleAgent]]. Later, he says that, as a child, he had himself sent to boarding school to get away from the comparisons and laments the fact that he will never live [[spoiler: Neil]] down.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', Eris did this with her dead love Rezo, giving us Copy Rezo.

* An episode of ''LightNovel/TheThirdTheGirlWithTheBlueEye'' features the superweapon Gravestone, whose creator made it in the image of his dead son and ended up trying not to use it for that reason.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'':

* In ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'', Misaki's older sister, Fuuka, tells Jin in episode 11 that she sees herself as this to him.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': Euclid Lucifuge is murderously obsessed with his sister Grayfia, who wants nothing to do with him since he is a villain. When he notices Rossweiss' slight resemblence to Grayfia, he kidnaps her and tries to turn her into his new sister, though Issei rescues her.

** Taken to both very creepy and very heartbreaking extremes. [[spoiler: [[WholeEpisodeFlashback 14 years ago]], the daughter of a Tokyo daycare worker ran away from home. Her [[TheOphelia very mentally/emotionally frail]] [[DelicateAndSickly mother]] tried to commit suicide several times, developed an eating disorder and had to be hospitalised; [[DespairEventhorizon her despair was so deep]] that [[LoveMakesYouCrazy her husband and younger brother decided]] to kidnap a child from the husband's workplace and raise him/her as their own, so she'd be able to start from zero and regain the will to live again]]. Too bad [[spoiler: the woman chose a little girl named Ran Mouri as the target, ''right'' at the moment when [[NewTransferStudent Shinichi Kudo]] was trying to befriend her: [[SpannerInTheWorks Shinichi]] went ProperlyParanoid and told his parents Yusaku and Yukiko about the teacher's odd behavior... so [[GuileHero Yusaku]] easily realised what would happen, alerted the police (including Ran's OverprotectiveDad Kogoro), had both wife and brother arrested, then talked the husband into turning himself too in exchange for being reunited with the daughter, whom he had previously located.]]

** In all versions, most attempts at human transmutation are done to revive deceased loved ones, and the result is always dire disappointment. [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist The 2003 anime]] takes it further: [[spoiler: Many of these attempts create a homunculus who is physically identical to the original, but have their own soul and are recognisably not human. Izumi is the only one who actually bonds with the one she created, probably because all she had to compare him to was a stillborn child.]]
** In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime]] Majihal creates simulacra of his lost love interest Karin from years ago. Turns out she had gone missing rather than died, but when she returned he had become so obsessed with perfecting his ideal android that he refused to accept an average-looking middle-aged woman as the genuine article. Alchemist Shou Tucker is also obsessed with using human transmutation to recreate his lost daughter, whom he "killed" by using as ingredients in a transmutation experiment, which then died.

* Sharem in ''Manga/ImmortalRain'' is so into her ReplacementGoldfish son that she has no issues with his... eccentricities or his [[KillEmAll views on humanity]].

* Nataku in ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'' is the botched, emotionless, genderless [[CloningBlues clone]] of the resident MadScientist's dead granddaughter Kazuki Honjou, an IllGirl who died before her destiny as one of the Dragons of the Earth was unfurled. As such, Dr. Honjou told Nataku what was going on and sent him to Kanoe so he would take Kazuki's place.

** Taken to both very creepy and very heartbreaking extremes. [[spoiler: [[WholeEpisodeFlashback 14 years ago]], the daughter of a Tokyo daycare worker ran away from home. Her [[TheOphelia very mentally/emotionally frail]] [[IllGirl mother]] tried to commit suicide several times, developed an eating disorder and had to be hospitalised; [[DespairEventhorizon her despair was so deep]] that [[LoveMakesYouCrazy her husband and younger brother decided]] to kidnap a child from the husband's workplace and raise him/her as their own, so she'd be able to start from zero and regain the will to live again]]. Too bad [[spoiler: the woman chose a little girl named Ran Mouri as the target, ''right'' at the moment when [[NewTransferStudent Shinichi Kudo]] was trying to befriend her: [[SpannerInTheWorks Shinichi]] went ProperlyParanoid and told his parents Yusaku and Yukiko about the teacher's odd behavior... so [[GuileHero Yusaku]] easily realised what would happen, alerted the police (including Ran's OverprotectiveDad Kogoro), had both wife and brother arrested, then talked the husband into turning himself too in exchange for being reunited with the daughter, whom he had previously located.]]

* Due to [[IdenticalStranger looking almost exactly like him]], Kiyama Hiroto from ''Anime/InazumaEleven'' is the adopted son of Kira Seijirou and a replacement for his deceased son, Hiroto, whose name he gets from. It is unknown what his real first name is, though if we go with the second sequel, an AlternateContinuity where the original Hiroto [[SparedByTheAdaptation is alive]], it's Tatsuya.

* In Creator/YuuWatase's earlier manga ''Zoku Manga/ShinshunkiMimanOkotowari'', the trope is defied and probably deconstructed. [[spoiler: Kazusa, who once had a huge BigBrotherAttraction towards her brother Manato, once has the chance to date a boy named Takanari who looks JUST like Manato, plus [[{{Megane}} glasses]]. However, [[LoveHurts this utterly and painfully fails]], and Kazusa later concludes that she missed out on many prospect boyfriends ''because'' of her BigBrotherAttraction.]]