Restraining Bolts in Anime and Manga.
- Ai no Kusabi: Riki's Pet Ring is a restraining bolt and is often used as a Shock Collar (among other things) by Iason when Riki misbehaves.
- +Anima: Senri's eyepatch acts as a restraining bolt. Since his Anima is basically the spirit of a homicidal bear that terrorized his village when he was younger, it's pretty important that it stays on.
- Attack on Titan: In theory, whoever holds the Founding Titan becomes a living god with the power to control any and all aspects of both Eldian people and Titans. However, this power comes with a serious catch-22: only those with royal blood can unlock the full power of the Founder, but every holder of the Founder with royal blood is bound by the will of their ancestor, the First King of Paradis, who renounced war and believed his people deserved to ultimately die. This means that members of royalty like Freida Reiss, who inherited the Founding Titan believing she would be able to disappear all the Titans threatening their land in an instant, lost themselves to the First King’s will and refused to do away with the rampaging monsters that they could have otherwise willed into non-existence.
- A Certain Magical Index: Touma's right arm contains Imagine Breaker, which cancels the effects of any magic, esper, and divine abilities it comes in contact with. It also passively cancels abilities that are indirect, such as telepathy and a near-total reality wipe. It doesn't completely give him a pass, as on a few occasions he has had his arm lopped off (with magic) in an effort to stop Imagine Breaker. Aside from causing him heartache ("Such misfortune"), when it's not saving him from being electrocuted, the "restraining bolt" aspect of the power is that Touma is hiding something powerful inside his right arm.
- Chrono Crusade: Demons are often subject to a geas cast on them by their masters. It first shows up when Lerajie is contracted to Azmaria's foster father but uses Azmaria's powers to break free from it. Later in the manga, it's revealed that Pandaemonium has the ability to cast geas on demons because their horns connect them to her. Aion and the rest of the sinners tear out their own horns to keep themselves from being controlled by her.
- Code Geass: Lelouch is given the power to give others an absolute order which they cannot disobey, essentially whatever type of Restraining Bolt he likes. He theorizes that if someone is given an order that they find completely repugnant or badly against their true nature, they could resist it a little, as seen when he accidentally orders his half-sister Euphemia to "kill all the Japanese" and she resists at first, but eventually gives in. Merely ordering someone to kill himself or herself is not nearly sufficient to invoke this; the order has to be truly against the very nature of the person in question. The final episode offers a little more proof for Lelouch's theory: He orders his sister-turned-opponent Nunnally to hand over the controls to the Kill Sat Damocles. She fights it for about a minute before the Geass wins out and she hands it over with a cheerful smile on her face, and after the effects wear off, she's beyond upset at what happened. The best display of this is the geass which Lelouch gives to Suzaku to "Live"! Suzaku is highly suicidal and tries to get himself killed in many dangerous situations. Due to his geass, he is unable to allow himself to die, which results in his nuking of Tokyo settlement. This has interesting results in two instances: against Bismarck, this translates into Suzaku being scared to death and wanting to run away from the fight. Then, once Suzaku becomes Knight of Zero, he somehow manages to twist it into a Cursed with Awesome Defense Mechanism Superpower via Insane Troll Logic: even again a deadly foe who would trigger the curse of the geass, forcing him to "live" by any means available... well, it turns out that once he gets a grip on the flight-or-fight reflex which the curse tends to cause, he can willingly choose to "fight" with an improved reaction time.
- Deadman Wonderland: All inmates are fitted with a collar that contains multiple devices to ensure obedience to the prison. This forces criminals of all sorts to participate in deadly contests and humiliating shows to avoid death by a poison being injected into them.
- Dragon Ball
- A Played for Laughs version appeared early on in the original series. When Oolong tries to run away due to not wanting to go to Fire Mountain, Bulma fed him a pill that gives him intense diarrhea whenever he heard the word "Piggy" to ensure he behaved.
- In Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly's father Paragus has his scientists create a headband that restrains Broly's psychotic tendencies. Eventually, seeing Goku (against whom he has a ridiculous grudge) causes Broly's power to destroy the device and allow Broly to wreak havoc.
- The version of Paragus from Dragon Ball Super: Broly instead uses an electric Shock Collar to keep Broly under control, furthering the comparison between his treatment of Broly and that of a trained animal. Cheelai steals the remote control and destroys it, which frees Broly of the collar but also prevents Paragus from bringing Broly down when his rage becomes uncontrollable.
- Kid Buu in the Majin Buu saga. Anyone he had an attachment to (namely, Mr. Satan) is off-limits for killing as long as Fat Buu is inside his body. Once he spits him out, he is no longer restrained from attacking these people. This was forced upon him by the previous Supreme Kai, who realized that he was outclassed but baited Buu into absorbing him, which not only prevented him from using all his power but acted as a conscience to the monster and gave him some degree of intelligence. Super Buu (created when the fat version was absorbed by his own inner evil) is dependent on Fat Buu to keep his mind and not revert back to a brainless Omnicidal Maniac.
- The Fox & Little Tanuki: Senzou, an evil fox sealed by the gods, is given a divine rosary bead collar before he is set free. It causes him pain whenever he tries to do anything evil or neglects Manpachi, a tanuki pup he has been tasked with raising to be an upstanding servant of the gods.
- Franken Fran: After her first appearance, Victoria has a chip put in her head which jolts her severely if she gets violent. Fran, her "sister" and the person who put the chip in there, hopes that it will teach the kill-crazy Victoria to appreciate life. The odds of this are pretty low.
- In GaoGaiGar Final, the villains capture the main character and implant a mind-controlling Restraining Bolt that does, in fact, look like a giant bolt.
- The Tachikoma
walking tanks in Ghost in the Shell have a literal restraining bolt covering their chin-mounted projectile weapons, which can only be removed by human(oid) personnel. As far as the trope is concerned, said bolts are artifacts of the numerous physical and procedural limitations placed on the Tachikomas, given that they're just smart enough to get into trouble. - In the ending of Hollow Fields, as the heroes are leaving the school, it turns out that Claude McGinty has had a device implanted in him (thanks to his previous attempt to escape) which prevents him from leaving. Even though he insists that they leave without him, he ends up being part of the motivation for the protagonists' decision to stay.
- Hunter × Hunter: Illumi shoves a pin in Killua's head in order to make him value his own life over that of his best friend Gon. Killua later locates the pin and violently removes it.
- Inuyasha:
- Kaede forces Inuyasha to wear a magical, non-removable necklace which she created, controlled by a trigger word spoken by Kagome. Whenever Kagome uses the trigger word ("Sit, boy!"), the necklace's enchantment painfully forces Inuyasha to the ground (at times with enough force to crush wooden bridges or crater earth). Early in the series, she uses this ability in self-defense and to enforce morality on the Made of Iron half-demon, but later on, it is invoked less frequently until she eventually stops using it altogether. In the anime, it's used much more frequently, and its use never fully dies off because it's used for comedy. In the third movie, a collision of several powerful forces actually breaks the necklace, causing it to fall apart into its component beads. However, since the movies are not officially canon, the Reset Button is duly pressed in the final scene and the necklace goes back on, even though it's no longer necessary by this point.
- Without his sword Tessaiga (whether it's separated from him or breaks), Inuyasha's demon half sends him into an Unstoppable Rage and turns him into a mindless monster. Tessaiga was made so that this wouldn't happen to him (and the sword's a lot better than what he'd get for letting his demon half take over).
- Kamen no Maid Guy has a subversion; Naeka is given a Maid Guy Whistle, which causes Kogarashi unspeakable pain, and aside from prolonged beatings is the only way to control him. She breaks it first thing next episode.
- Kamisama Kiss: This is how familiar contracts work. Tomoe, who is something of an Expy of Inuyasha, gets one placed on him by Nanami at the start of the series. Nanami tends to use it to stop Tomoe from killing people.
- Macross introduces this trope in Macross Frontier. In Macross Plus, the Big Bad protects itself by hijacking the Ghost X-9 Attack Drone prototype. In the chronologically later Frontier, Luca's AIF-7S drones are equipped with a "Judah System" which slaves the drones to his ELINT Valkyrie, essentially turning the drones into remote-controlled appendages. When he disengages the system in the final battle in response to the enemy deploying Ghost V-9s, the drones turn into Flash Stepping Lightning Bruisers and proceed to open a can on the Ghosts.Luca: Simon, John, Peter... I will now unlock your chains. [cue Rapid-Fire Typing] Show the power that once plunged Macross City into the depths of terror! Judah System, RELEASE!
- Mazinger Z:
- It's implied in the original series and outright shown in Shin Mazinger Zero that Z has a Restraining Bolt: its pilot. If Mazinger lacks a pilot to control and restrain its power, it can become a demon and destroy the world. Mazinkaiser demonstrates that if the Humongous Mecha is not controlled, it simply goes berserk and destroys all it meets. Shin Mazinger Zero elaborates further on this, showing that if it is not piloted or it is piloted by someone is dominated by negative emotions (sadness, hurt, fury, hatred, helplessness...), Mazinger-Z evolves into an Eldritch Abomination and destroys the world.
- Without Minerva-X's circuit partner, she would be unable to tell friend from foe and would go berserk.
- In Shin Mazinger, Baron Ashura and several of Dr. Hell's other minions are modified to never attack Dr. Hell or his assistant, Tsubasa Nishikiori, who now opposes him. Viscount Pygamon promptly bypasses this by gouging out his own eyes.
- Naruto:
- The cursed seals placed on members of the Hyuga branch family act as a traditional Restraining Bolt in that they stop members of the branch family from harming (or in some cases thinking about harming) members of the head family, keeping them a servant clan to the head family. They also prevent the devastating advanced bloodline of the Hyuga family from getting into enemy hands by sealing away the Byakugan when the wearer dies.
- Later, it is revealed that Sai (and every other member of his black ops division) possesses another kind of Restraining Bolt, one that prevents him from disclosing any information about his boss. If he does, then the curse mark will paralyse him (and thus, render him unable to speak). It's been confirmed that all ROOT members' tongue seals vanished at the time of Danzo's death.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: The School Curse thingy that Evangeline is under prevents her from leaving the Mahora campus, and the school barrier's purpose is to limit the powers of any monstrously powerful being on campus, of which Eva is one. Thus, the School Curse indirectly functions as a Power Limiter in sealing her magic power and (apparently) the majority of her shinso powers as well (she doesn't get her magic back until she stops being a jerk), while also forcing her to attend a middle school full of... well, full of Negima characters, while also preventing her from causing chaos. The only ways for her to get free are if A) Nagi breaks the curse; B) the principal constantly signs forms to let her leave campus, letting her automatically regain her powers; C) the school barrier is shut down. The last is generally far too difficult to take down to be practical, but it happens at least twice in the manga, once during a power maintenance black-out, and again as part of Chao's scheme. Eva didn't take advantage of the second instance... that we know about or that has yet become apparent. During the Bad Future period, it's mentioned that she's out of Chachamaru's detection range — she certainly had most of a week for vacation time and had knowledge of and exploitable access to some of the time travel methods used in the arc.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- The armor worn by the Humongous Mecha serves the dual purpose of protective gear and Restraining Bolt. It apparently keeps the Evas from going berserk and killing everything, instead forcing them to obey orders from the pilots. Given that the Evas are the ultimate weapons, with minds of their own, and a very bloodthirsty inner nature, it's a fair notion. However, Unit-01 tends to go berserk whenever she feels like it anyway, and eventually is the one to break her armor off.
- Imagine you made a clone of a Physical God, then you surgically removed a portion of its spinal column to allow someone of your choice to control its actions, to use it in a war against its own kin. It is at least borderline sentient and quite aware of what you're doing during this process. Now imagine just how important keeping said Physical God restrained would be. How far does this go? Their power source is missing, specifically so that if it gets out of control they can pull the plug and let the batteries run down. Oh, and don't ask about what happened to the originals, you won't like the answers. The first action taken by Eva-01/Yui when she has a limitless power supply is to break said restraints and allow herself to be hauled back into her cage, grinning with the knowledge that she's effectively unstoppable now.
- Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 modifies this a bit. Unit 02 has literal restraining bolts below the fins and along its back. When Mari removes these... holy shit. If berserk means "uh-oh", Beast mode means "OH FUCK!"
- The original function of the Spears of Longinus was to keep Eggs like Adam and Lilith sealed if they accidentally land on a planet that already has an Egg. The Lances are essentially control rods that keep Eggs dormant. Second Impact happened because a group of human scientists accidentally awakened Adam.
- Nora: The titular demon has a habit of coming up with various iterations of "(His) Ingenious Plan" to take the remote control for his particular bolt from the boy to whom he's been bound. Most of these are single-step plans involving things like dropping rocks on the kid while he's asleep or making him fall into hastily-dug holes. Since Nora's 'victim' is a Magnificent Bastard-in-training, it's safe to say that Failure Is the Only Option.
- In One Piece, there's a rare mineral called Seastone that can nullify the effects of Devil Fruit; Smoker claims that it "gives off a wavelength that is the same as the sea itself", so touching it has the same effect as the ocean does on a Devil Fruit user, making him unable to use his powers. The Marines use this to restrain such prisoners, making handcuffs and shackles out of it. (They also often use it to make bars for jail cells, weapons, and even hulls of ships; somehow they seem to have vast quantities of this stuff which is supposed to be rare.)
- Pokémon Adventures: During the FireRed/LeafGreen arc, Giovanni shows that he is Crazy-Prepared — he claims that he didn't expect Mewtwo to show up and try to kill him, but he apparently always brings around with him a special suit specifically meant to restrain Mewtwo and limit its massive power. In a Mythology Gag, the suit is identical to the armor which the anime version of Giovanni makes Mewtwo wear in Pokémon: The First Movie.
- Rosario + Vampire: Moka's titular Rosario keeps her true nature sealed, while Tsukune's holy lock prevents him from turning into a ghoul.
- Used in Saiyuki by those members of the team who need them (although they do gain more power, making it partly I Am Not Left-Handed).
- Sword Art Online In the Alicization arc, all of the artificial people of the Underworld are bound to obey the Taboo Codex and the will of those in positions of authority by means of "the Seal of the Right Eye", which causes intense pain in a person's right eye as the words "SYSTEM ALERT - CODE:871" fills their vision. Attempting to resist against the seal causes the pain to intensify. If someone overcomes the influence of the seal, their eye will explode.
- The World God Only Knows: Keima's primary motivation for capturing the loose souls is to prevent the collar around his neck from exploding and killing him. In order to do that, though, he must make women fall in love with him in order to get them out of hiding. To complicate things, Keima believes that the real world is flawed and spends most of his time playing Visual Novels.
