A large ground vehicle causes a major change in a person.
When life "hits like a truck", literally. Heavy impact by a large vehicle would normally be an instantaneous death. But when the writer wants to go extra, instead of dying the character receives a major change in their status.
Most common results are:
- Reincarnation, often as the story's premise.
- Superpowers
- Losing your dream job
- Changes in personality.
Often nicknamed as "Truck-kun" by the anime community, though that refers to any cases of truck accidents.
Note that examples with permanent death don't count.
Don't forget to Look Both Ways.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Dark Gathering: A possessed truck driver runs into the car with Yayoi Houzuki's family. Both parents have perished (and the mother got her soul stolen), but from then on Yayoi became a genius and able to see ghosts naturally.
- No Longer Allowed in Another World: A 1948 writer Osamu Dazai tres to perform a Suicide Pact with his assistant, but gets run over by a truck and reincarnates as an adventurer in Zaunberberg.
- Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable: In the climax of the story Yoshikage Kira got accidentally run over by an ambulance, crushing his head. He then reappears in the Ghost Alleyway, and after confrontation with Reimi Sugimoto's ghost, gets Dragged Off to Hell.
- KonoSuba: Lampshaded and parodied by Kazuma Satou, when approached by a slow-moving tractor and believing it to be a truck, dying from shock and reincarnated in Belzerg.
- Magical Princess Minky Momo: In a form of protest of the toy sponsor pulling off from the series, the writer Takeshi Shudo decides to get Momo run over by a truck carrying toys and reincarnating as a human girl.
- The Ride-On King: It seems that Alexander Purchinov is about to be run over by a terrorist in a truck, but he Judo-throws the entire truck and is unharmed. Then a statue piece falls on him, and he gets teleported along with the statue head into a new world where he awakens to Supernatural Martial Arts.
- Wise Man's Grandchild: A man forgets to Look Both Ways and after being hit by a truck reincarnates as Shin Wolford, a grandson of The Archmage.
- Zombie Land Saga: Sakura Minamoto gets run over by a truck on her way to school and is brought back to life as a zombie idol by Kotaro Tatsumi.
Films - Live-Action
- Unbreakable: David gets into a train accident that kills all passengers except for him, making him discover his Super-Toughness.
Literature
- Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?: Kurihara Misato has pulled a Diving Save to save a little girl from a truck and reincarnates as Adele von Ascham.
- Knight's & Magic: A mecha otaku dies in a car accident and reincarnates as Ernesti Echevalier, a pilot of Humongous Mecha.
- Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: An unemployed man tries to save teenagers from a truck and gets hit himself. He reincarnates as Rudeus Greyrat.
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: A Fortune Lover visual novel fan gets hit by a truck and wakes up as a younger version of Catarina Claes, the antagonist of the game.
- Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon: The unnamed protagonist notices a vending machine about to fall from a delivery truck and jumps after it off the cliff, promptly dying and reincarnating as Boxxo, a magical version of the vending machine he tried to save.
- The Saga of Tanya the Evil: A mean salaryman gets pushed in front of a train and reincarnates to become a Military Mage.
Video Games
- Yo-kai Watch: The Series Mascot, Yo-Kai Jibanyan, was once a regular cat called Ruby who got run over by a truck.
