The Adventures of Mini-Goddess had a Baseball Episode that saw Urd and Skuld use clones of themselves to form teams and play against each other. In the final inning, when it seemed like Urd's team didn't have much of a chance to win, she used a "special technique" called "Vanishing Pitcher". Skuld then follows her lead by employing "Vanishing Catcher". Before long, every position on both teams is gone, and only Mr. Helper and Gan are left... until:
Brother Three does the same in both the original series and the video game, making him the only character other than Afro to appear in all Afro Samurai media and survive.
Akudama Drive: Hacker had long deactivated the bomb collar that had been keeping him with the group. When the group plans to head back to Kansai, he takes it off and announces his plans to continue riding the Shinkansen the rest of the way to Kanto, even if the Decontamination Area could kill him, while giving Ordinary Person one of his drones as a parting gift.
Ayano Usami in Asteroid in Love inspires to be a novelist, rather than a jouralist; the reason she's in the Newspaper club is that she wasn't getting along with other members of the Literature Club, so she switch to another club that does a lot of writing.
Attempted by a bunch of soldiers in Attack on Titan during the Battle of Trost. Commander Pixis announces an insanely risky plan to halt the Titan advance, and a large number of soldiers simply give up and decide to leave, despite desertion being punishable by execution. Pixis stops this by telling them that "Fighting the Titans is a terrifying thing. Some who have experienced it cannot continue. Therefore, those who wish to leave will not be punished. Go ahead and leave... if you are willing to allow your loved ones to witness the terror of the Titans." That stops the deserters in their tracks, and convinces them to fight.
Banished from the Hero's Party: Unable to cope with Ruti's Sanity Slippage and Ares's condescending behavior, two members of the Hero party left with one intending to search for Gideon. Yarandrala leaves having come to suspect that Ares had Gideon killed, while Danan goes in search of Gideon after realizing how badly his absence has affected the group.
Black God: Riona fled the Kaionji Group, after learning they were planning to experiment on her because she was a Main Root. Then she became Yakumo's contractee, in order to protect herself from them.
One of the omakes in Black Lagoon features younger versions of all the main characters... all except Dutch, that is. He simply left a note saying "Don't bother looking for me" before running off. Apparently there's things in his youth he'd rather keep secret. May or may not tie into his unknown past.
Bleach: Findorr slowly gains the advantage against Hisagi during their fight... until Hisagi decides to stop holding back and starts using Kazeshini. Before long, Kazeshini's unpredictable movements have Findorr against the ropes, culminating in Hisagi lopping off half of his right arm (er, pincer). In the manga, realizing he's no match for Hisagi, Findorr turns tail and tries to run for his life; he doesn't get far before Hisagi finishes him off. In the anime, on the other hand, Findorr goes into a Villainous Breakdown and desperately attempts to kill Hisagi by blasting him with a Cero; Hisagi simply uses Kazeshini to cut through the Cero... and Findorr's face.
Saizo almost does this after being curb-stomped by Hanzo and fearing he Can't Catch Up. The anime replaces this with Saizo doing it after Masamune captures Isanami. He stays in the end, thanks to some Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! peptalks.
In the sequel, Hanzo doesn't take so well to being replaced by Tokugawa and goes looking for work with the Braves.
As a result of the above example, Jinpachi gets fed up at leaves, angry on behalf of Anastasia.
Subverted in Cowboy Bebop episode "Black Dog Serenade"; one of the convicts that took part in hijacking a prison ship tries to flee through an airlock when things go bad. Unfortunately, the section he escapes to is open to space, and though there's no Explosive Decompression, he's still as good as dead.
When Piccolo is fighting Frieza in his 2nd form, Vegeta flies off, trying to escape from Frieza. Frieza intercepts him, twice. And then he punches Vegeta into a nearby mountain.
Vegeta also leaves Goku to fend for himself against Jeice and Captain Ginyu, selfishly flying off for the Dragon Balls to use for himself.
In a filler episode of Dragon Ball Z, Mercenary Tao/Tao Pai Pai is asked to guard a special building that is (supposedly) designed to protect people from Cell and can only be entered if you're stinking rich. Tao is called in to take care of the a little girl's grandfather who fought off the guards, only to have Gohan save him. Tao's ready to fight Gohan, but panics once he learns his name and that he's the son of Goku. Not wanting to lose MORE of himself, he kicks down the nearest tree, launches it into the sky and hops on, leaving for parts unknown.
Shuro and Namari in Delicious in Dungeon both leave Team Touden after the Red Dragon attack at the beginning of the series. Shuro intends to return to the dungeon to rescue Falin by himself, while Namari simply moves on to other work.
Shuro ends up being a Double Subversion. He does come back later in an attempt to save Falin, but then leaves again after Falin Came Back Wrong (which convince him that he's lost her forever).
In Fate/Grand Carnival, the first episode's cavalry battle devolves into a massive war between the Servants. Mash desperately calls for Da Vinci for help, only to find a cardboard cut-out of Da Vinci with the words "Gone home" in her place.
In Guilty Crown, Haruka Ouma decides she's had enough of the GHQ after learning that her brother Keido is responsible for Kurosu's death, steals a motorcycle and hightails it out of there.
Holyland: Some of the thugs in chapter 162 chose to flee than try taking on Yuu.
This happens 3 times in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. In Part 2, Joseph Joestar runs away during his fights against Straizo and Kars screaming "Nigerunda yo! (Run away!)." In Part 3, Joseph's grandson Jotaro does this in the fight against Rubber Soul and his Stand Yellow Temperance. Both do it not out of cowardice but as an excuse to get some time to think out their next plan of action.
Near the end of Part 8, the villain of that chapter pulls this trope, deciding that confronting a hero who has just obtained a new power-up simply isn't worth it.
The titular character of Kino's Journeypractically embodies this trope, especially when a country she's visiting becomes too dangerous, too unpredictable, or too downright weird.
In Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Walter von Schönkopf and his Rosen Ritter often rout their opponents simply by announcing themselves (or, even more often, by mowing them down until someone notices the regimental shoulder badges, at which point they lose all heart and run for it).
Pulled by Kuzzey Buzzkirk in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Realising he's The Load, he does the sensible thing and leaves the ship.
Also pulled by a Space Colony of mixed population (Coordinator and Natural) in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray. They convert their colony into a giant spaceship and head for Jupiter, where there are no colonies, no people, and no one to tell them that half their population needs to die.
It's strongly hinted in the backstory of ∀ Gundam that at some point during the Dark History before the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse, the Spacenoids simply packed up and left the Earth Sphere for the stars, the Colonies turning into impromptu Generation Ships. This in turn explains why there aren't any left. Except for the Moonrace.
For a more direct example, Colonel Michael decides to ditch Guin Sard Lineford during the final battle, finding it insane that Guin is still trying to play the long game rather than deal with the fact that the ship is going down in flames.
In Gundam ZZ, our hero Judau — fed up with the politics and other bullcrap about Earth and the space around it — quits after ending the threats to the Earth. He packs up and leaves for the Jupiter colonies to leave the madness behind and start a new life.
A Mobile Suit Victory Gundam side manga expands on this: since Jupiter got itself involved in the Earth Sphere's wars, even this was not enough for him. So Judau got together a large group of like-minded people, converted a couple of space colonies into a spaceship, put everyone in stasis, and launched for Alpha Centauri. The manga ends on a note that, 400 years later, the ship successfully arrived and humanity's first interstellar colony was established.
Both Amuro and Kai bail from White Base in Mobile Suit Gundam due to having enough of fighting in the war. They do end up coming back, though.
Rain Mikamura does this twice in the same story arc in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, the first time because she got tired of Domon's bullheadishness (not helped by how she couldn't do anything to keep Allenby from being abducted, which she took as not being worthy of staying around), the second time because she found out her father was responsible for Domon's troubles, which totally crushes her mindset and makes her the thing she's to blame too.
An interesting variant in My Hero Academia as the "Deku vs. Class 1-A Arc" boils down to this. Class 1-A has finally found Deku after he quit U.A. High and became a vigilante intending on putting away criminals All For One broke free and they want to bring him back so they can face everything together. However, All For One's mind games has made Deku fearful of everyone's safety and is trying his best to run away to protect them. Thus, it's a fight for Class 1-A to break through Deku's Chronic Hero Syndrome and talk reason into him while Deku is trying his best to use his powers to escape.
In Nisekoi Marika's mother begins forcing her into an arranged marriage as part of an earlier agreement where if Marika couldn't get Raku to fall for her she'd agree to marry someone that Chika picked out for her. Marika tries to bail and the main cast come to rescue her. Everything gets blown ridiculously out of proportion by the end and multiple serious felonies are committed by Chika. The groom, who is actually a rather decent guy, backs out the moment he realizes that Marika doesn't want to marry someone twice her age after her friends come for her. He only agreed as a favor to Chika in the first place and because Marika seemed okay with it earlier on. After he walks out the arc then continues on for a few more chapters even though the groom has already left.
In the Alabasta arc, Usopp tries to pull this after Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas escape from a massive explosion practically unscathed and come after him and Chopper. Then they insult Luffy. Usopp promptly changes from this trope into Let's Get Dangerous!.
Usopp has one of these when he hears that they need to get a new ship.
Gothic Lolita Perona, one of the Co-Dragons in the Thriller Bark arc, has this after Usopp defeats her; when she comes to, she finds out that Oars (a giant giant that was Moria's greatest trump card) was rampaging through the island, apparently out of control, and that fellow Co-Dragon Hogback had been crushed by him. She reasons that between Oars and the Straw Hats, Thriller Bark wasn't going to last long, and decides to quite literally abandon ship. She would've made off with the Straw Hats' ship, but Kuma intervened and granted her wish in a different way by using his powers to send her elsewhere.note Turned out she ended up at Mihawk's place which was creepy enough for her tastes and out of the way so all she had to do was taunt Zoro for two years when he ended up there.
After Luffy punches out Saint Charloss, thereby guaranteeing that an Admiral will be sent to the Sabaody Archipelago to deal with the Straw Hats, most of the other pirates present flee the island to get out of the way of the crossfire.
In the Marineford Arc, Mihawk leaves as soon as Shanks and his crew appear, stating that fighting Shanks wasn't part of the deal.
Still in Marineford arc, a random Marine grunt tried to run away from his post after seeing the Whitebeard Pirates' strength, but the deserter was quickly dispatched by Admiral Sakazuki.
Aokiji was strongly opposed to Akainu becoming Fleet Admiral, so much so that they ended up having a fight to the death for the position that went on for ten days!note The aftermath of that fight was still etched onto Punk Hazard after the Time Skip. Ultimately, Akainu won, but spared Aokiji's life. Aokiji was so averse to serving under Akainu that he ended up ditching the Marines and giving up his position as an Admiral.
In chapter 1084. Wapol, once he Witnesses Imu killing King Cobra for knowing his identity. He immediately runs for his life out of the mariejois, realizing that he's next if he's caught.
In Pokémon: The Series, if Paul is watching Ash or another trainer having a battle, often he will get bored and leave before it is finished, calling them pathetic. This was especially problematic when his Chimchar's fear of Zangoose led to him pulling this trope in the middle of a Double Battle.
In Pokémon 4Ever, all of the Iron-Masked Marauder's Pokémon abandoned him. This shows just how vile a villain he was — it is almost unheard of for Pokémon to abandon their trainers, even ones who are evil or abusive. And true, he was a monster compared to most other members of Team Rocket.
In Sun and Moon, Guzma's Golisopod has the Ability Emergency Exit, which allows it to switch out to a teammate if it's taken too much damage. Usually Guzma would use that to call off a battle, but in a Pokémon League battle he couldn't use that excuse when his giant water bug facing a potentially knockout Fire Blast decided to activate it, switching out to Scizor to take the hit.
Black's Munna abandoned him once it didn't like its trainer's dreams anymore. It eventually returned to him as a Musharna though.
In Ranma ½, Principal Kuno hires three champions to subdue a rebellious Miss Hinako (and Ranma, natch): Happosai, Tatewaki Kuno... and Nabiki. While the two others actually try to engage in battle and are easily routed, Nabiki just takes the money and runs.
In an anime story where Azusa returns, she gets interested in Kuno and ends up visiting his house. Later Kodachi sees the mess she's causing including taking her stuff. After trying to fight her she gives up and announces that she'll live outside for a while. Meanwhile after Akane told P-Chan about Azusa's return offscreen, he refuses to leave the closet.
In Rebuild World, this is Akira's reaction when he gets a notice of several highly dangerous bounty monsters being sighted in the wasteland. Knowing his luck, he decides to turn around and go home to study, since he's almost certainly going to run into one of those monsters while trying to do something else.
When a Mexican Standoff develops between Akira on one side, and The Rival Katsuya who’s with his team, over the fate of the girl who pickpocketed Akira and manipulates Katsuya to defend her, Reina’s bodyguard Shiori decides it’s none of their business and takes her to leave (which results in Reina being isolated within Drankam). Soon after, Akira leaves too since he’s not wearing his Powered Armor and realizes fighting like that would be suicide.
One of the happiest and more awesome moments in Revolutionary Girl Utena revolves around this trope. It happens in the Grand Finale when Anthy, finally released from her older brother and Big Bad Akio's influence by the apparently ret goned Utena, calmly goes to his office all dolled up for a travel and tells him that she no longer will be the Rose Bride and that she's bailing out of Ohtori Academy, much to Akio's sudden distress as this completely derails his plans from then on. She then leaves the Ohtori campus only in Chu-Chu's company, determined to find Utena againand finally have her own life.
Subverted in Sakura Gari Masataka attempts to run away in the middle of the night after Souma rapes him in the warehouse. Souma puts a stop to that plan by blackmailing him with his brother's debts.
In the English dub, the narrator makes notice of the show recycling the 'multiple of one character' gag, and gets tired of it.
Narrator "Last episode had two Momokas, now there's two Angol Mois? If we get two Keroros, I quit!"
Later in episode 23, Where there actually ARE more than one Keroro, he keeps his word.
An episode of Squid Girl has the characters trying to learn English. In one scene Cindy decides to take various things Eiko says (in Japanese) and associate them with similar-sounding English words/phrases. Eventually, she "mishears" "arigato" as "alligator", freaks out, makes up some excuse to leave, and bails.
Transformers: ★Headmasters had a rare example of the main hero doing that without ever returning. That episode featured the destruction of Cybertron while under Rodimus Prime's leadership. Rodimus Prime decided he had enough of the war. He quickly and casually passed on his leadership to Fortress, and leaves the Autobots with Kup and Blurr to find a new homeworld for their race. The manga has him eventually return after Scorponok's final defeat, and he later reappears in the "Return of Convoy" manga and story pages, having reverted to his Hot Rod self and become a Micromaster.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Manjyome (Chazz) tries to do this right before Judai (Jaden) is about to duel Kagemaru. (Seeing as Kagemaru plans to use all three Sacred Beasts, it's hard to blame him.) He changes his mind after Asuka (Alexis) scolds him, however.
In YuYu Hakusho, during the Dark Tournament Arc, tournament commentator Juri barely manages to escape the section of the ring where Shishiwakamaru strikes with his cursed sword and puts a huge crater into the ground. In addition to that, the same attack sends spirits out from the sword, which attack and kill numerous spectators. When Shishi goes to use the same attack again, spectators start trying to flee the arena in terror. Koto, reporting from ringside, mentions that as commentators, she and Juri have to stay out of professionalism (credit to Koto; as a fox demon, the last attack hurt her ears). When she turns to get Juri to confirm this, we see that Juri is already standing by the exit saying, "Screw this, they don't pay me enough!"
practically embodies this trope, especially when a country she's visiting becomes too dangerous, too unpredictable, or too downright weird.