Skewed Priorities / Anime & Manga

• A Certain Magical Index:
  • In the Deep Blood arc, a girl gets severely injured. Aisa Himegami asks Touma to help undress her so she can treat her injuries, but he gets embarrassed and refuses. She calls him out on this, saying the girl is dying, so modesty should be the last thing on his mind. He reluctantly does it.
  • When Ouma Yamisaka blows up the restaurant Touma and Index were eating at and then threatens him with a crossbow, Touma yells at the guy for shredding his homework in the process.
  • During the Hyouka Kazakiri arc, everyone in the mall is informed there is a terrorist attack going on and urged to evacuate. Mikoto and Index waste time arguing about the fact they are rivals for Touma's affections, and ignore Touma, Kuroko, and Hyouka asking them to get moving, until Kuroko gets fed up and teleports them away.
  • When Touma gets pissed off at the villain of the Daihasei Festival arc, Oriana Thompson, who is involved in a plot to brainwash the city, it's not the possibility of mass mind control that really upsets him, it's that her actions are interfering with the festival that's going on. This is because Touma tends to care more about the individuals than the long-term consequences, but it still comes across as rather bizarre.
  • When Ollerus tries to tell him what he knows about Imagine Breaker, Touma blows him off, saying he needs to finish his shopping before the store closes.
• In Chapter 27 of Asteroid in Love, Mikage tells Mira that Mari has been texting non-stop on how to help with Mira and Ao despite she should be preparing for her college entrance exams. Upon learning that, in a manga-only bit, Mira muses, "Uh, that's a bit... are you fine with that?", suggesting Mari gets her priorities wrong.
• In Attack on Titan, as Rod Reiss's massive Titan form advances on Orvud District, the Survey Corps asks the local Garrison to hold an evacuation drill so that they can be prepared to evacuate the citizens if necessary. One of the evacuees asks if he can leave to prepare his shop for the day, but a Garrison soldier bluntly tells him that there isn't any point, since he won't get any customers because of the evacuation. As Erwin points out, the people in the northernmost district of the innermost wall are the furthest removed from the Titans, so it isn't surprising that they don't take the evacuation seriously.
• Played with in Black Butler, as Sebastian's priorities appear bizarre to an onlooker, but are actually quite logical when one considers the terms of his contract. For instance, when Ciel is abducted by the mafia in the second episode, Sebastian goes to rescue him — and between slaughtering mooks keeps checking his watch in frustration, complaining that he's not going to be able to get dinner finished on time. In a later episode, upon discovering that a woman's life may be in danger, his reaction is to shrug and keep serving Ciel breakfast. The other servants are baffled by Sebastian's blasé response. Bard even chastises him for it before he and others take off to help the woman. However, Sebastian's contract with Ciel dictates that he must not only protect the young lord, but he also must be the perfect butler. Ciel's safety ultimately takes top priority, but in Sebastian's mind, failing to deliver dinner or serve breakfast properly nearly approaches breaking his half of the bargain. So dinner really is something to worry about, even on a rescue mission, and his master's breakfast is literally more important than anyone else's life or death. Not that Sebastian cares if random humans die.
• Bleach:
  • In the Soul Society arc, Ichigo tries to insist on staying and waiting for Ganju to return so they can finish their fight, even though he knows they're on a deadline to save Rukia from being executed. All because he doesn't want Ganju, some random punk he doesn't know, to think he's a coward who ran away from their fight. Yoruichi angrily scratches his face and calls him out on wasting time.
  • In the Fake Karakura Town arc, Hachi and Soi Fon are facing Baraggan, a Nigh Invulnerable Walking Wasteland. Hachi tells Soi Fon that they have to work together and combine their powers, or Baraggan will kill them. Soi Fon coldly declares that she will never work with a comrade of Urahara, whom she hates. She says this while Baraggan is advancing on them. Keep in mind that Baraggan has already disintegrated her arm. In the nick of time, Hachi promises to trap Urahara in a forcefield for a month, and Soi Fon finally agrees.
  • Pesche and Dondochakka often get distracted talking about inane topics during battles.
  • In the Thousand Year Blood War arc, a new villain by the name of Ivan invades Ichigo's bedroom. Ichigo doesn't really seem to mind the fact that Ivan broke into his house and seems more annoyed that he's standing on his bed. Ichigo promptly kicks him out and then prepares to go after him. Ishida, Orihime and Chad decide it's more important for them to stay behind and eat up the bread that Orihime brought than go out to help him.
  • When the Vandenreich invade Soul Society and start slaughtering everyone, Akon manages to get a message to Ichigo asking for his help. Mayuri gets angry because Akon is using his equipment without his permission.
  • After Ichigo effortlessly knocks four female Sternritters through buildings, three of them regroup and marvel at his strength, wondering what they should do. Suddenly, the fourth, Candice Catnipp, goes completely berserk, ranting that Ichigo will die for getting her covered in dust. The other three comment, "That's what you're concerned about?"
• In Blend-S, when Kaho's mother blasts at her for performing poorly at an exam and threatens to ban her from gaming if she doesn't score at least an average mark in the make-up test, she nevertheless makes the most of what little gaming time she has remaining.
• In Bokurano, Maki Ano chides her Otaku adoptive father for being focused on buying models of Zearth and the other Humongous Mecha it fought that he'd be late for his wife giving birth to their first child. Mr. Ano then replies that Maki is his first child, and jokes that the second birth should be easier than the first.
• Near the end of the City Hunter story arc involving Miyuki Kobayashi, when armed criminals pursue Kaori and Miyuki in a Car Chase into a narrow alleyway and the girls, trying to flee from said criminals, find more of them in a car ahead of them, Kaori, not wishing to take the risk of waiting too long for Ryo to catch up to rescue them, suggests that they just ram the car ahead in hope of escaping on foot afterwards. Miyuki, seeing no other way, agrees, but adds that Kaori and Ryo would have to pay for the cost of the car repair. Kaori understandably calls her out on it.
• In Claymore, the reborn Teresa is less concerned about the Awakened Being of pure hatred and malice in front of them than she is about the possibility of Raki taking her adoptive daughter Clare's virginity.
• Crayon Shin-chan have its titular character and his family being worried over things that they shouldn't be worried about, while they have much bigger problems at hand, as a recurring Running Gag in both the manga and movies. Notably this bit in the third film, Crayon Shin-chan: Unkokusai's Ambition:
  [the Noharas are unexpectedly dragged into a wormhole leading to Feudal-Era Japan]
  Hiroshi: Judging from the things we've seen so far; we must be in the Edo Period. And I don't even know if we're able to return to our own time...
  [cue a Gasp! from Misae and Shin-Chan]
  Misae: We have to! If I don't pay our city tax by the bank at the end of today, a penalty will be attached! And today's the last day of sales at the department store!
  Shin-Chan: And there's a two-hour Action Mask special on TV tonight!...
  Hiroshi: I think that's the least of our worries...
• Cupid's Chocolates: In her attempt to attack Tang Xuan over Haoyi, Ouyang Xueli accidentally causes a fire at a camping trip setting everything ablaze. This doesn't deter her from trying to attack Xuan. The others try to put out the fire leading to Xuan and Xia getting swept up in the nearby river. This STILL isn't enough to distract Xueli from her obsession over Haoyi, expecting them to die and not wanting Haoyi to mourn for them afterwards. Ling Yuan ends up doing a What the Hell, Hero? on her, telling her if either Tang Xuan or Xia Zitong drowned after they fell into a nearby river, Haoyi would never forgive her.
• The Dangers in My Heart: Ichikawa and Yamada get trapped in the school storage room in Chapter 122 after Yamada accidentally knocks off the door handle. Ichikawa reassures her that the handle was worn out anyway, having no idea that Yamada was just grinning to herself behind his back. Then when he tries calling Moeko for help, Yamada yanks his phone and puts it in her chest pocket.
• Played for Drama in DARLING in the FRANXX. While Zero Two's body is on earth with the group, her consciousness has merged with the Strelitzia Apus and is fighting the VIRM by herself in space. Despite knowing the conditions that they've been left under thanks to VIRM's meddling and the tremendous amount of work they need to do to rebuild the land from scratch, Hiro's priority is to see Zero Two above all else. Goro chews him out for always going off on his own unknowingly and acting like an Ungrateful Bastard to the rest of Squad 13 just because of his love and willingness to die for Zero Two. As much as Hiro cared for the rest of his squadmates, Zero Two is his number one priority due to the The Promise they've made two episodes prior, and Goro understood his decision to save her in the end.
• Devil Hunter Yohko: When Sayoko Mano was given the choice between dating and sex, or carrying on her family's legacy by becoming the 108th Devil Hunter, she chose sex. Which is how she became pregnant with her daughter, Yohko, at only 15. And now that Yohko's old enough to make the same choice, Sayoko actively encourages her to do the same.
  Sayoko: [to Yohko] Life's too short to waste on being a Devil Hunter. A cute girl your age should get out more and date lots of young men. Here.
  [Sayoko tosses Yohko a pack of condoms]
• Digimon Adventure had some fun with this one.
  Izzy: Hello, mom and dad, the fate of the world, remember? My grades can wait!
• Dorohedoro tends to have more than one sample from character to character.
  • Kaiman dislikes Thirteen not because Thirteen is interested into pursuing Nikaido for romantic purposes...but because the guy likes to order Gyoza; Kaiman's favorite food, meaning Kaiman gets a bit less of it.
  • Dr. Kasukabe takes everything in stride as long as it can satiate his scientific research.
  • Ebisu's too wacky that she lives on this trope.
  • En, the Big Bad, is the most feared mafia boss of the sorcerer world. However, he is also a Cloud Cuckoolander who is not that into being evil, seeing as he had his own popular ramen shop (that went down not because sorcerer hunters destroyed it while trying to kill Shin and Noi, but because someone got food poisoning), holds food tournaments to decide who can open up shops in his domain, and holds party events where many get invited to incredible amusement parks.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Goku and Piccolo fight in the final match of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. Piccolo announces that he plans to kill Goku and take over the world, even nearly killing the audience with stray energy blasts. When Goku's friends attempt to assist him, he orders them back, saying that if they help him, he will get disqualified. They incredulously ask, "You're still thinking about the match!?" and try to point out that Piccolo obviously doesn't care about the match (you get disqualified if you kill your opponent), but to no avail.
  • In later episodes, Goku and Chi-Chi tried to get Annin to put out the fire in the Ox-King's castle, and Annin only cared about her noodles. Goku, understandably, is angry about it, even though it didn't excuse his rude behavior.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • Chi-Chi thinks Gohan's studies are more important than saving the world. It's to the extent that, in the movie "Super Android 13!", Gohan outright asks her if his studies really matter more to her than Goku's life, which shocks Chi-Chi enough to let him go help.
  • Vegeta does this in the Cell arc when he allowed Cell to reach his final form. It was because he cared more about having a thrilling fight over the fate of the planet. Vegeta in the Buu Saga has this when he only cared about gaining power and being better than Goku than the fate of the universe, by allowing Babidi to turn him into Majin Vegeta and causing Majin Buu to be released.
  • Played for laughs in the Namek Saga, where Dr. Briefs considers Goku's rebuilt spaceship unfit for takeoff—because he hasn't found the right spot for the stereo speakers.
  • Goku always insists on fighting fairly, even if it puts him and his friends at a disadvantage. Because of this, he has to let his most powerful enemies transform to their strongest level of power. Also, he gave Cell a senzu bean and tried to get Gohan to fight him, because he felt it wouldn't be "fair" if Gohan beat Cell at his weakest.
  • During the Buu Saga, when Babidi and Buu threaten to destroy the city, Goku evacuates everyone to Kami's Lookout, but Dr. and Mrs. Briefs refuse to go, saying they don't want to leave their home and pets behind. They realize they left the Dragon Radar behind and Trunks comes back to search for it. Even after Trunks explains that if Buu blows up their home and destroys the Radar, then they won't be able to find the Dragon Balls and fix everything, Dr. and Mrs. Briefs are incredibly lazy in helping him search for it and focus more on doting on him.
  • Gotenks is an arrogant blowhard who cares more about showing off than actually saving the world. During his fight with Super Buu, he deliberately drags out the fight for the sake of drama and pretends to have expended all his energy in an attempt to invoke Heroic Second Wind... which leads to him and Piccolo getting trapped in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and Super Buu escaping and killing everyone outside.
• Dragon Ball Super:
  • Goku asks Vegeta to train with him. While normally, Vegeta is just as obsessed with fighting as he is, he declines because his daughter is about to be born and he wants to be there. Goku gets confused and thinks Vegeta is being weird, wondering why something like a birth would be more important than training. This implies Goku wasn't there when his son Gohan was born.
  • Beerus is a God of Destruction whose attitude towards a planet is largely dependent on its cuisine. He is shown blowing half of a planet to pieces because the food he was offered was subpar, and nearly destroyed the earth when Majin Buu refused to share pudding with him. Thankfully, after his fight with Goku, it has been the other foods he sampled that has spared the planet from his wrath.
  • Zen'O holds the Tournament of Power, where the losers get their home universe erased from existence. While everyone else understandably freaks out when they learn about the stakes, Goku cares more about the fact he has a chance to fight the strongest opponents in several universes.
  • When Goku goes to recruit Android 17 for the Tournament of Power, he initially refuses because he was more concerned with protecting the nature preserve he worked at from poachers, even after being told that the fate of the universe was at stake. His reasoning was that everything being destroyed was preferable to just the innocent suffering, despite having a wife and children at home. Android 18 was even worse in that regard, as she threatened to quit the team after finding out there was no cash reward even after being told all of their lives were on the line.
  • During the Tournament of Power, Ribrianne asks Goku what he plans to wish for. He, at first, considers wishing something for his family, until he is way more excited about wishing to fight a strong opponent instead.
• Fairy Tail:
  • In the Fantasia arc, Laxus and his crew turn the girls to stone and threaten to shatter them unless the guys search the town for and defeat them. Traps laid by one of Laxus's teammates force the guys to fight each other in order to advance, all desperate to save the girls. Natsu is trapped in a forcefield that's intended to keep Makarov from interfering and struggles to escape, not to save the girls, but because he wants to fight the others and prove that he's the strongest. Makarov angrily calls him out on this, but Natsu explains that Laxus is obviously bluffing about shattering the girls. It turns out that he was correct. Laxus didn't truly have the heart to kill anybody.
  • Played for Drama in the Sirius Island arc. In the middle of the guild's S-Class Exam, in which the wizards compete for the chance to become one of the guild's elites, the dark guild Grimoire Heart attacks, forcing them to cancel the exam. Most of the wizards immediately get what's going on and go out to fight Grimoire Heart, but Cana is so desperate to become an S-Class wizard so that she can reveal herself to her father Gildarts that she uses a magic card to put Lucy (who, as Cana's partner, is helping her without standing to gain anything) to sleep and goes off to finish the exam by herself. Luckily, though, she realizes what she's done and comes to Lucy's rescue.
  • In the Avatar arc, Natsu is pissed when Sherria steals his friend Happy so she can take to the air and fight the invading Orochi's Fin guild alongside Wendy(who's flying with her own friend Carla) and chases them down. When he catches up to them, he finds the villain Bluenote Stinger using his Gravity Master powers to pin and slowly crush Sherria, Happy, Wendy, and Carla. Natsu is so strong that he unaffected by the gravity, then he marches over and starts lecturing Sherria on stealing his friend. The others tell Natsu that they have more important things to worry about, like Bluenote who is slowly killing them. Seeing Bluenote as a mere annoyance, Natsu defeats him with one attack and continues to lecture Sherria, only for Happy to ask if he hadn't noticed they are surrounded by Bluenote's group, Orochi's Fin. Fortunately, Orochi's Fin surrenders since Bluenote lost.
• Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel: In the second movie, Lost Butterfly, when Sakura chops off Gilgamesh's leg, he gets pissed, not because of the injury, but because the action almost made him kneel before her.
• Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]: When Lancer offers an alliance to Shirou and Rin, Shirou says he has one condition. Lancer assumes he's going to demand the identity of Lancer's Master, the last unknown one in the Holy Grail War. Shirou just wants Lancer to promise not to try to flirt with Rin. Lancer agrees that this is far more important and promises, while Rin is extremely embarrassed because she isn't officially dating Shirou yet.
• At the start of Fly Me to the Moon, Nasa Yuzaki, the protagonist, gets hit by a truck while he's distracted by a cute girl, only for said cute girl to save him. Despite the severity of Nasa's injuries, from blood gushing from his forehead to two broken legs, he insists on going after the cute girl to thank her and ask her out. Unusually for this trope, it actually pays off for him, since she returns to him years later, and they end up getting married.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Shou Tucker is so desperate to pass his State Alchemist assessment and keep his high salary, that he willingly resorts to turning his own daughter and her dog into a chimera, condemning a five-year-old to life as a mutated abomination and proving that he cares more about his research than about the well-being of his child. Unlike most examples of Skewed Priorities, this one is not Played for Laughs; everyone is absolutely disgusted that Tucker could be so selfish as to genuinely think this is an acceptable "solution", and Ed—who adheres to a strict Thou Shalt Not Kill moral code—is so enraged that he would have beaten Tucker to death if Al hadn't intervened to restrain him.
  • Towards the end, the sacrifices have been gathered for the Big Bad's bid for ultimate power, and the fate of the world is at stake. Said Big Bad has just finished his Evil Gloating about how anyone who attempts human transmutation is punished for their hubris in cruelly ironic ways. Ed's response isn't to start running or attempt to fight, at least not yet; it's to start yelling because one of the people present, Roy Mustang, didn't even attempt human transmutation and only ended up in the Gate of Truth because the villains deliberately put him there. He's not even yelling about the morality of putting Roy in that situation; he's yelling because the fact of how Roy got there means the Big Bad's conclusion doesn't make any sense, which while certainly an accurate summation is still pretty far from the biggest problem here.
• Played for Drama in GARO: The Animation. When Lara's house is attacked by the Monster of the Week, Leon advises her and her family to run away to a certain tree where a barrier against monsters is. However, Lara's grandfather disobeys the orders and runs into his burning home to rescue his harvest. This only suceeds in getting Lara and all her family killed.
• Gate: When the gate of the other world shows up in the first episode, Japanese citizens are attacked by an unknown hostile enemy force dead set on invading the land beyond the Gate. Though he does his part as a JSDF soldier, Youji was much more worried about the fact that he wouldn't be able to buy any Doujinshi due to the attack, rather than the fact that a hostile army came out of nowhere and was killing people.
• Goblin Slayer only cares about exterminating goblins. If anyone asks him to help out against other threats, like a demon lord who is trying to take over the world, he'll ignore it because the threat is not a goblin. He flat out says he doesn't care about saving the world, only about killing goblins.
  High Elf Archer: Don't you get it!? An army of demons is coming! We're talking about the fate of the world! Do you understand that!?
  Goblin Slayer: Perfectly. But before the world ends, goblins will put an end to many more villages. We cannot ignore the goblins because the world is in danger.
• Great Teacher Onizuka: Rather than seeking immediate medical attention for the bullet wounds in him, Onizuka goes and takes the National Scholastic Aptitude Test first.
  • Even worse in the live-action episode that adapted the same storyline. Murai has just been beaten unconscious, but do Onizuka and Miyabi take him to a hospital? (Or at least call his mother?) Nope, they spend the next several hours until dawn searching for her lost necklace. And then he goes and takes the test, while bleeding out from a stab wound.
• The computer society president in the Haruhi Suzumiya anime shows this briefly when challenging Haruhi to a game to get his computer back:
  "I'm even willing to overlook the mental trauma you inflicted upon me when you stole my computer!"
  • Completely overlooked is the fact she blackmailed it out of him by threatening to frame him and his clubmates for gang-rape. Though it is possible that he was referring to the entire incident and not just the taking-the-computer part, though he is vague.
• Heavy Object:
  • Milinda's seat belt malfunctions and starts strangling her. Qwenthur attempts to help her, but pauses to debate with himself on how to do that without accidentally groping her boobs. He restrains his own hand and yells at himself not to be a pervert, all while Milinda is choking. Eventually, she has to save herself by hitting the Ejection Seat button.
  • After a stunt with particularly bad fallout, Frolaytia refers to Qwenthur and Havia as War Criminals #1 and #2 respectively. Qwenthur is aghast because that's the kind of nickname that can stick; Havia is upset because he's #2.
• In High School D×D, when Issei is mortally wounded in the first episode, his first thoughts are regretting that he's about to die without getting laid and getting a harem. He immediately lampshades how selfish this is. At other times, he'll think about perverted things during serious moments. His priorities remain rather skewed after he's revived as a devil. For instance, very few things besides his friends' lives can trump breasts. In one major battle against an enemy who can cause anything to become half its size and/or power. Issei is struggling immensely in this battle, when someone mentions that the attack could halve the size of his crush's breasts. Almost immediately Issei exhibits an explosion of near-infinite, pure, unbridled fury. You can destroy his school, you can threaten his hometown, but don't you dare threaten his club president's boobs.
• What would you do if you were bound by tentacles and were getting the life slowly sucked out of you? If you're Neptune from Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation, you'd worry about your unfinished video games, of course!
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • In Battle Tendency, Joseph saves a young black man from two racist, corrupt cops by breaking the nose of one and the other one's trigger finger. After this he realizes how much trouble this could land him in... because his grandma Erina is going to be mad.
  • In Diamond is Unbreakable, Rohan attempts to find out how Josuke is cheating during a dice game until Tamami points outs that Rohan accidentally set his own house on fire without realizing it. Despite the warnings, Rohan shouts that he doesn't care if his house burns down as long he finds out how Josuke is cheating.
  • In Golden Wind, Ghiaccio is more concerned with ranting about the pronunciation of Venezia/Venice than the fact that he's currently in the middle of a battle against Giorno and Mista.
• Jujutsu Kaisen:
  • Following the colossal disaster that was the Shibuya Incident, the higher-ups in Jujutsu HQ become more focused on making a show of how they are in control of the situation and punishing the party responsible. Not only are they hopelessly not in control, but the man targetted for assassination, principal Yaga, is not even directly responsible and they know it; they just want to pressure him into revealing the secret to creating independent cursed corpses. But more importantly they go out of their way to spite Satoru Gojo now that he's trapped within the Prison Realm and can't challenge their conservative policies anymore, making it a criminal offense to attempt to free him even though his strength is needed now more than ever and revoking Yuji's stay of execution even though he hasn't eaten all of Sukuna's fingers yet. All of this forces the main characters to essentially work behind their backs to try and get anything productive done. That they go to master Tengen directly for advice helps.
  • The Zen'in Clan, for their part, becomes more preoccupied with their Succession Crisis than lending a hand in dealing with the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident. Even though Naobito Zen'in's will stipulates that, with Gojo sealed Megumi is to become the leader of the clan, Naoya and his supporters plot to have him killed in order to usurp his rightful position, even though Megumi was picked specifically so that the Zen'in Clan can more easily work with the rest of the Great Families. This eventually costs them far more than they bargained for when Maki slaughters the entire clan in retaliation for Mai's death.
• Occurs in the Junji Ito Kyoufu Manga Collection story, "The Hanging Balloons". There's an army of man-sized killer balloons crawling all over Tokyo, abducting and assimilating civilains by the hundreds, and somehow the protagonist's father thinks going to work on time is more important. He assures his wife and children that he'll be back by evening, despite his family's protests, leaves the house, and is promptly assimilated by one of the balloons. Apparently the father's fate is a reference to "karoshi", the culture of Japanese workaholics where they'll literally put their jobs over their lives (and dies for it).
• Played for Laughs in Chapter 216 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Kaguya Shinomiya considers the fact that her boyfriend Miyuki Shirogane wants to have sex with her to be a more pressing matter than the ongoing Shinomiya/Shijo war that could determine her entire future. Kaguya's schoolmate and relative Maki Shijo is quick to lampshade this.
• From Kill la Kill, Mako is very ditzy. In the first episode, she is kidnapped and hung upside down ready for execution, and she's more concerned that everyone can see her panties (she forgot to wear her sexy ones that day). When her captors say they will dunk her in boiling oil, she's more concerned that the oil will make her clothes transparent. Her captors comments that she's either very carefree or very stupid.
• In Magical Girl Apocalypse, when Akuta gets his arm blown off, his only complaint is that it will now be more difficult for him to masturbate.
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, near the climax, the protagonists and their former enemies, the Wolkenritter, must join forces to destroy the Book of Darkness's corrupted defense program. When told that the Arc En Ciel, a weapon that distorts time and space for hundreds of kilometers to disintegrate everything in its range, is going to be used near Uminari City to get rid of the Eldritch Abomination, the Wolkenritter's main worry is how it would affect their master Hayate's house.
  Shamal: I don't really want Hayate-chan's house to get obliterated either...
  Chrono: We're not talking about damage on such a small scale...
• Maria no Danzai
  • The school principal seems more concerned with getting sexual favors from Maria and ensuring the academic performance of the students doesn't hurt the school's reputation than the students' physical and mental wellbeing. If a problem arises that could affect the latter, he simply sweeps it under the rug and pretends nothing is wrong, and strongly encourages the rest of the teachers to do the same.
  • Played with while Kumiru's helper is in the middle of carrying out his assault on Maria. He assumes Maria is trying to change the subject or stall for time when she mentions they'd catch a cold out in the rain, only to immediately see himself being put into a French kiss by Maria while he tries to call her out on it. Now putty in her hands, Maria completes the thought by saying they should head to a recently foreclosed love hotel, where he sells Kumiru out.
• In Chapter 6 of Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, Koizumi reveals that she handed in her test paper completely blank because the day before the exam, she impulsively went to Touhoku to eat some Natto Kimchi Cream Cheese Ramen.
• In Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, the eponymous Nozaki, most of the time, prioritizes the wrong things, much to the frustration of his assistants and editor.
  • The best example is when Hori tried to teach him how to draw backgrounds, where he tries to employ the use of the Scully Box as an in-universe explanation for why the characters' heights are inconsistent and the perspective is off.
  • One chapter has Wakamatsu and Mayu try to play a galge while Mikoshiba watches. The game features The Six Stats system and since Wakamatsu and Mayu are both athletes, they proceed to use all their skill points on Strength. The two proceed to bumble through the game and get the worst ending, but considers the playthrough a win because they manage to win the sport competition event partway through.
• New Game!:
  • When Aoba stays late to work, Rin asks her if her parents are worried about her staying out this late, and Aoba says yes. Of course, it's not because it's dangerous to be out late at night, or even because of how hard Aoba's working, but because staying up too late is bad for Aoba's skin.
  Rin: Of all things to be worried about...
  • The day before the beta version of Fairies' Story 3 is released, Nene eats Ko's pudding by mistake, not seeing Ko's name written on the side until it's too late. In response, Rin, who doesn't know who's responsible, sends a company-wide email asking for the culprit to come forward, even though the pudding only cost 100 yen and Ko insists that it's not a big deal. That said, Rin has an understandable reason for wanting to resolve the issue, saying that since they're at a critical point in the development, they need to work together smoothly and can't afford small problems that might affect teamwork.
• One Piece:
  • In the Thriller Bark arc, Luffy puts recovering the Straw Hats' stolen food on the same level as rescuing Nami and getting his, Zoro and Sanji's shadows back (without which, they will be vaporized by the sunlight). This is in keeping with his personality, as he is at one point unsure whether he wants the legendary One Piece or a Hercules beetle more.
  • In earlier episodes, he said a bard was more important to the crew than a medic.
  • Both he and Carrot show it here; both seem far more concerned with their dinner than the dozen or so Marines out for their heads, pausing fight them only between mouthfuls. Of course, the same can be said for the Marines; one is more concerned that there'll be none of the curry left for them, while another seems to prioritize finding Nami to hit on her.
  • When Princess Shirahoshi has her hand in marriage demanded by Vander Decken, who has spent ten years using his Devil Fruit's Always Accurate Attack to keep her confined to a tower, she responds he's not her type, much to the shock of everyone present.
    "WHAAAAAAAT?! IS THAT THE REASON?!"
  • While Luffy negotiated with Big Mom in order to re-save Fishman Island after a lengthy battle with Hody Jones, Luffy reveals he gave away all the treasure Fishman Island rewarded the pirates with for saving them. Nami, naturally, beats the Monster Trio for it, claiming Luffy shouldn't have given away the treasure at all.
  • Later, when dealing with a captured Luffy and Nami, Big Mom herself lists off the Straw Hats' transgressions against her: challenging her to a fight over Fishman Island, beating one of her sons to an inch of his life, and eating all the candy which was meant for Big Mom as tax ^note Luffy lied to Big Mom so that she won't target the island in retaliation. Big Mom then states she considers the last one to be the most heinous crime committed against her.
  • In the Egghead arc, a Celestial Dragon complains that because of the food shortage, he ordered lobster and it never arrived. Nevermind that Kuma leveled the same place he's standing on, less than five minutes before.
• One-Punch Man:
  • Due to the fact that he's basically an Invincible Hero, Saitama is prone to thinking about something like his groceries or rent, even when in the middle of a fight.
  • One of the executives in the Hero Association lampshades that the association spent only fifteen minutes discussing Garou, who'd taken out multiple A Class heroes, but two hours debating the hero names for Genos and Saitama.
• Pokémon Adventures: Ruby constantly refuses to fight bad guys and help people, saying he doesn't want to get his Pokemon dirty. When he is informed that Team Aqua and Team Magma are threatening to destroy the Hoenn region, he says he doesn't care and he only came to the Hoenn region to participate in Pokemon Contests, and later participates in one in a city that is flooding. Several characters call him out on this and he eventually gets his act together and saves the day.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Team Rocket and its fervent desire to catch Ash's Pikachu, which is always a priority next to whatever more highly valuable mon there is.
  • The Z-Move Guardian of Alola has only ever been used when Alola faces imminent crisis against threats threatening to harm Alola and its citizens. The Tapus never end up using this Z-Move during any of the actual crises that occur during the series, probably because Ash and co. were never in any kind of danger and had things under control. However, Guardian of Alola ends up being used by Tapu Koko... against Pikachu during their final match, a totally friendly match that poses no threat to Alola. This is justified because Tapu Koko is a Blood Knight and the Tapus in general don't exactly align with human values.
  • In Journeys, a Grookey ends up being found sleeping with Goh, causing the latter to worry about where its trainer is at. Never mind the fact it was that easy for a Grookey to sneak into his room in the first place, in a lab that by all means should have better security than just a slightly open window.
• Pretty Cure:
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: In Episode 47, a news reporter pauses in the middle of covering a giant kaiju monster in the city to wonder why a group of girls are flying.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: In Episode 44, the only reason Elda doesn't want to die is because she won't be able to eat her snacks.
  • Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: In Episode 8, Tsubasa's only concern about Kabaton's Ranborg terrorizing Sora and Mashiro is that the Ranborg can fly.
• Puella Magi Kazumi Magica. Kazumi's Establishing Character Moment is asking for food toward the house owner when she wakes up. Yes, she did punch the owner when she realizes she's naked, but when her stomach growls, it implied that all is forgotten. Even the fact that said owner planned a terrorist attack didn't bother her much than, say, the chance that the food might be poisoned.
• Rebuild World:
  • After Taking the Bullet for Carol, Akira is less concerned that he's coughing up blood than the fact that his rucksack full of valuable relics was destroyed in the process. He does have expensive medicine to patch up his injured organs, but Carol finds herself giggling over how he's more devastated over losing his relics than getting shot. He doesn't perk up again until Carol offers him 40 million aurum to continue protecting her until they escape the ruins.
  • At one point, Akira agonizes over having to use Antimatter rounds that cost 100 million aurum per bullet. Shiori informs him that the usage of those is heavily restricted by the government and he could easily end up being hunted down for having them, but Akira brushes this off, which makes Kanae laugh.
• Lampshaded in Robotics;Notes. Akiho's more concerned about entering the Robo Expo to prove that she's just as good a roboticist as her sister than she is about a fellow team member who was injured while testing the Humongous Mecha and even worse, the death/murder of the person who was considered to be their mother-figure. Kai immediately calls her out on how selfish she's being and she herself is aware of this as well, however it does not deter her from wanting to attend the Expo as she feels that this is the only link she has left to her sister.
• Sailor Moon:
  • In The '90s anime dub, when Serena finds her fellow Sailor Scouts all chained up in a room from the Monster of the Week. Raye lampshades this by angrily ordering her to help them.
  Serena: Hey, Mercury, I thought you were in computer school.
  Amy: Class finished early.
  • Usagi in general (in the anime at least). In the earlier episodes, she cares more about being a normal girl than being the protector of the universe. This led to a Beware the Nice Ones moment with Luna when she threatens to claw Usagi's face when she doesn't feel like helping stop the Monster of the Week and looks scary doing it.
  • Usagi and Rei argue over which one of them is prettier when they're in the middle of a fight against Jadeite.
• There's a chapter of the Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei manga all about this. For instance, one character who is a hardcore otaku, runs into his burning home to rescue various moe merchandise he owns, but neglects his sister, who is still trapped inside. He promptly gets smacked by his mom when the sister is rescued by firefighters in the interim.
• Bookworm Lucy (etc.) Yamagami from Servant × Service has a tendency to allocate an absurdly large portion of her salary on books, to the point of practically starving herself. For example, in episode 11, Yutaka saw her eating...bread crust for lunch. This is also a trait that Yutaka exploits a little; he keeps asking her out to eat because he knows she'll say yes because she'll be hungry.
• Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle: Princess Syalis prioritizes getting sleep over almost everything else, including self-preservation, which often results in her dying having to be brought back. This in turn results in another example of this trope when the Demon Cleric botches the resurrection spell and accidentally fuses her with a cat demon. She's much more concerned with taking the chance to sleep under her Kotatsu while in a cat body than she is about getting the fusion fixed.
• So, I Can't Play H!: You'd think Mina would at least be a little upset that Quelle invaded her home by mind controlling her parents. Except Mina doesn't mind it at all. When Ryosuke asks her about it, she tells him she's happy now that she's part of a provisional contract, like him.
• Underworld Academy Overload!!: Choco scolds Shion for crashing into buildings and Towa while testing out her new broom, mainly because being injured would make her uglier. Towa comments that the priorities are kind of weird. Still, Shion does get punished by school's faculty.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: In the Duelist Kingdom arc's Japanese version, when the group runs into Seto Kaiba, Yugi invites him to join them and the tournament so that they can enter Pegasus' castle together. Kaiba rudely brushes them off, saying that since his brother Mokuba is being held prisoner, he'll enter the castle on his own without delay. Jonouchi gets pissed off about Kaiba saying he'll enter the castle without earning Star Chips, even with Mokuba at stake, and challenges him to a Duel. The English dub changes this to Joey getting pissed off at Kaiba for being rude and insulting them.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: There's this dialogue between Bonaparte and Crowler when Chancellor Shepard returns from his sabbatical:
  Bonaparte: [panicked, running into office] Crowler! Crowler! Something terrible has happened!
  Crowler: Don't tell me! The faculty kitchen is out of fondue?
  Bonaparte: It's worse than that! Actually, it's more like a toss-up. Chancellor Sheppard is back and he's headed this way!
• Yui Kamio Lets Loose: In the second chapter Kiito goes to find loose Yui in Black, mainly because she's now viewed as his girlfriend and he has a reputation to fix.
• In YuYu Hakusho's Chapter Black arc, this amusing dialog in the Dub occurs during Yusuke's and Sensui's final confontation in the breach hideout:
  Yusuke: [To Sensui] Now, it's just the way it should be, you and me! One of you in there said you didn't care about the tunnel now. Well that's exactly how I feel! The world ends, the world survives, I don't friggin' care; all I care about is that you are beaten!
  Kurama: Well, that's awfully reassuring...
  Kurabara: Yeah, considering he's our last hope, his priorities are a little skewed.
  • This is happening while our heroes are trying to stop an inter-dimensional portal from opening and unleashing deadly demons that will effortlessly wipe out humanity.