The Atoner / Anime & Manga

• Assassination Classroom:
  • After seeing the error of his ways, Terasaka decides to become a better student and classmate, to the point of shrugging off a potentially fatal poison to help his classmates at the climax of the Assassination Island arc.
  • Kayano is the first to join Nagisa's "blue" (save Koro-sensei) side during the civil war game as penance for having attempted to kill Koro-sensei out of Misplaced Retribution.
  • For both his failure to protect Aguri, his past as a professional hitman, and his inability to properly guide his apprentice, who betrayed him to the government and assumed his "Reaper" persona, Koro-sensei has decided to spend his last days teaching her students at Class 3-E to honor her dying wish of helping them become better persons, even as he takes to heart her lessons about what it means to love and look after someone.
• Discussed in Attack on Titan, when Reiner mockingly demands to know if this is what Eren expects them to do, while asking what the point is of lecturing them on morality if he already sees them as monsters. It gets more complicated since he is genuinely remorseful over his crimes, slowly spiraling into madness and close to crossing the Despair Event Horizon. However, it's fairly clear Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie don't believe atoning for their crimes is even remotely possible, leaving them with no choice but to continue their mission.
  • The First King, Karl Fritz, is also this. Despite being ruler of the Eldian Empire, he was wracked with immense guilt over the genocidal and sadistic atrocities that his ancestors meted out on the Marleyan people and so hatched a plan. Together with the noble Tybur family, Fritz created the myth of Helos, a Marleyan warrior who slew the Devil of All Earth, a figure in Eldian mythology that had granted Ymir her Titan-shifting powers, and led his people in revolution against Eldia. In truth, Fritz and the Tyburs took a large portion of the Eldian people to the neighbouring island of Paradis, where they would wait in exile until Marley decided to wipe them out. Fritz believed Marley was entirely justified in exterminating the remaining Eldians for their crimes and thus would put up no resistance when Marley came knocking. To further ensure this was carried out, Fritz erased the memories of his people so they would be ignorant and peaceful, unaware of the world beyond the walls.
  • One young man who bullied Historia in the past works at her orphanage as a volunteer to atone for his mistreatment of her, and eventually became the father of her child.
  • By the end of the series, the surviving members of the 104th Training Corps have become this. All of them have blood on their hands, including that of people they once knew, but they decide to band together to save the world from the Rumbling in order to atone for the people they've killed.
  • Kiyomi Azumabito deeply regrets letting Eren(the wielder of the Founding Titan) and Zeke(a Titan Shifter of royal blood) get in contact, thus making the Rumbling possible. Because of that, she asks Falco to see if he can use his newfound Jaw Titan powers to become a flying titan, even if doing so sinks the ship that she's on and kills her.
• Baccano!
  • The straight example is Ennis, a Homunculus Battle Butler who detests her inability to oppose her master out of fear and tries to invoke Redemption Equals Death to redeem herself (it almost happens, but Firo negates the "death" part).
  • Isaac and Miria subvert it: they want to atone for their (rather silly and harmless) past sins... Robin Hood style, which technically escalates their crime spree.
• Nacht Faust from Black Clover. Joining the Magic Knights and his goal of destroying evil before it can harm good people stems from having been an amoral delinquent who cast a Devil-Binding Ritual which led to his moral brother Morgen's death in stopping it, seeing himself as unforgivable for it and willing to sacrifice himself if needed to save those who're right.
• Bleach:
  • Yamamoto created the original Gotei 13 by gathering together twelve of Soul Society's worst criminals and thugs, and Yamamoto was the worst of them. In later years he described a portrait of his younger self as a "monster" that nearly destroyed Soul Society, due to his ruthlessness while exterminating the Quincy and establishing the Shinigami. He vowed to submit himself to the authority of the Central 46 to keep himself in check, even when he knew their decisions were wrong.
  • Yachiru Kenpachi viewed the result of her battle with Zaraki Kenpachi as a grave crime, as the resulting mental block he placed on his abilities greatly diminished his exceptional strength. She left the battlefield and became a healer while trying to discover how she could undo that damage.
• Casshern from Casshern Sins spends nearly the entirety of the series trying to atone for a sin he doesn't remember committing: killing Luna, the world's last hope. It's a pretty big mistake, since it ended up causing all life in the world to die or start dying. It's implied Braiking Boss, the person who ordered Luna's murder, is of this trope as well. He goes so far as to bury every follower of his that died from the Ruin, reasoning that he wanted to etch into his heart the pain the Ruin had caused.
• Part of the reason Castle Town Dandelion's Kanade running to be Queen is because she wants to advance their nation's medical technology and find a way to cure Shuu's leg, as penance for accidentally breaking it back in their childhood when her castle crumbled, inadvertently ruining his dreams of becoming a football player.
• Chrono from Chrono Crusade deeply regrets joining Aion's side and being responsible for Mary Magdalene's death, and spends the entire series trying to be kind to people and help others to make up for his past sins. Also, the manga epilogue shows that Joshua Christopher joined the Order, with another character guessing he did it with hopes of atoning himself.
• Code Geass:
  • In the Grand Finale Suzaku Kururugi—a former Death Seeker who wanted to atone for killing his own father, yet has been Geassed to Live at any cost—becomes one of these when he takes on the role of Zero at Lelouch's request. After killing him. More than that, Suzaku was The Atoner all along. Driven to kill his father in order to save the population of his entire country, with dubious results, he joins the army... and starts being the Death Seeker he was up until the above scene in the finale.
  • Paired with the above Lelouch Lamperouge had become one at the same time after the last Trauma Conga Line he went through which left him with nothing after he was betrayed by the very forces he raised up to fight against The Empire. In his case, however, his method of atonement is to die after performing the Zero Requiem to force the world into a better place; by giving them first himself as the enemy to hate and then placing Suzaku as the new Zero for them to rally behind after Lelouch secretly cleaned up the worst of Britannia and the world so it would be easier for his sister to succeed him as a much beloved leader.
  • Jeremiah Gottwald AKA Orange blames himself for not being able to protect Lady Marianne and her children and everything he does is him trying to atone for their deaths. This fuels his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder as after he finds out that Lelouch is alive; he betrays Britannia, under the guise of loyalty, to join the man who had been trying to destroy them, and after Zero left the black knights he followed him back to Britannia.
  • After Nina Einstein finally realizes that Evil Is Not a Toy after her Sphere of Destruction-like bomb obliterates Tokyo, decides to work with Lelouch himself to stop the plans of Schniezel for world domination.
• In Corsair, Canale tries to atone for his years as a Sharq assassin and particularly for the murder of Sesaam Zaiyaun, whom he was in love with. He requests that Ayace kill him several times, lest he bring anymore danger to the people he loves.
• Jeremy from A Cruel God Reigns feels that he should not experience love or be worthy of love to compensate for killing his stepfather.
• Ken Ichijouji in the second half of Digimon Adventure 02. After the breakdown of his Digimon Emperor persona, he works hard to undo all the damage he caused and redeem himself. Even as late as the series finale, however, when the characters are each shown their fondest wish Ken's vision is of himself beaten to death by the Digimon he abused as the Digimon Emperor.
• In Digimon Tamers:
  • A defining example in Anime is Impmon, who became Beelzemon through a Deal with the Devil obsessed with obtaining power by himself. He killed and absorbed the data of Leomon, whose partner, Jeri the former comic relief was utterly heartbroken to witness, which resulted in her later being susceptible to being kidnapped and psychically tortured by a modern-day Eldritch Abomination. Spared from death by Jeri herself, tormented by the guilt of his actions, discovering his inner goodness, reuniting with his own young Tamers, Impmon finds new resolve to save Jeri from the Eldritch Abomination known as the D-Reaper. Against the D-Reaper he uses everything in his power to desperately save Jeri. Every attack until he calls forth Leomon's "Fist of the Beast King" attack and successfully reaches out to Jeri, but fails to get her cooperation because he isn't actually Leomon. He is nearly fatally wounded and doesn't participate in the final battle. After the D-Reaper's defeat, Impmon is at last able to ask for Jeri's forgiveness. To his relief, she forgives him, leaving Impmon finally at peace in the end.
  • To a lesser degree of drama there's Yamaki, who begins the series as the main villain and sinister man in black who ruthlessly deletes Digimon he sees as alternately disruptions to the natural order or the advance guard of an invasion, and threatens to take the children's partners away (to be fair, he doesn't do so when given the chance). However, when Juggernaut, his attempt to purge all digital life from the real world, not only fails horribly but opens the way for the real invasion, he has a genuine What Have I Done moment and spends the rest of the series working with the reunited Monster Makers to aid the Tamers. He modifies both the Hypnos system and many of his old programs into highly useful tools, and Juggernaut even becomes the means by which the ultimate enemy is finally deleted.
• Tien Shinhan from Dragon Ball. After studying in the Crane school under Master Shen, Tien becomes a person who fights to kill or at least severely injure his opponent. This of course gains him many enemies. After the master of the rival school, Roshi, gets through to him, he realizes killing is not always necessary, and he spends the King Piccolo arc trying to learn and do a dangerous suicidal technique to atone for his past actions.
• Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z in the Buu saga. After spending much of the series being unable to catch up to Goku, Vegeta allows the evil sorcerer Babidi to place him under mind control for the power boost it comes with. Vegeta kills dozens of people, fights off the mind control to fight Goku, and helps Babidi unseal Majin Buu, who (seemingly) kills Gohan. Vegeta at last sees sense after this and goes to fight Buu alone, and blows himself up in an attempt to kill Buu which ultimately fails. Dragon Ball Super takes it even further with Vegeta feeling genuine remorse about his past as a murderous maniac and especially slaughtering the innocent Namekian village all those years ago, declaring to Moro when he saves a few of them from him that he can't let harm befall the Namekians after what he did.
• In Endride, Louise was The Mole for the Truculent. Despite initially wanting to leave the Ignauts after betraying them, feeling uncomfortable with their forgiveness, the character chooses to stay and atone by helping the cause.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Gajeel becomes this after joining the guild. Confirmed as of chapter 212.
  • Crime Sorciere Jellal, Urtear, Meredy become this after the Time Skip. In particular, one of the newer members, Sorano (also known as Angel of the Oracion Seis), believes that she's done too much evil for her to be able to call herself Yukino's sister until she's atoned.
  • Used as the twist in the Tenrou Island arc. After building up Zeref, who the villains are trying to awaken, as the most evil and powerful mage in history we find out he was never sealed at all. His inactivity was due to a Heel Realization hundreds of years ago and making the arc villains actions pointless all along. Zeref is a particularly cruel version of this trope, desperately wanting to die for his sins but being unable to control his Life/Death magic means he can neither die nor be anywhere near others so he can atone. He later decides that Humans Are the Real Monsters and vows to wipe them out or die trying.
• In The Familiar of Zero, this is what Professor Colbert is eventually revealed to be. He used to be the Captain of a squad of Fire Mages; and after burning down an entire village along with its people (under orders to eradicate an epidemic, which would turn out to be a false pretext), he resolves to attempt to atone for his actions. He starts by saving Agnes from the village, and then becomes a teacher at the Institute, devoting himself to research, and generally refusing to partake in any more violence or fighting. Unfortunately, when Agnes finds out, she is understandably furious.
• Franken Fran has a seemingly demon-possessed cardinal and the front-runner to be the next Pope who turns out to have been a former gangster. After being saved from being shot in the head, he devoted his life to the Church, and faked the possession to avoid having an ex-criminal be Pope.
• Fruits Basket:
  • Ayame feels guilty about his neglect of his younger brother Yuki, and is trying to be a better big brother. The rift between them, and Ayame's natural extravagant manner not appealing to Yuki, makes it difficult, but Ayame persists and ultimately succeeds.
  • In the Back Story, Kazuma took on the Parental Substitute role for Kyo Sohma/the cat of the Zodiac because of his guilt over how badly he treated the last cat, his grandfather, when he was a youngster.
  • The reason Kagura is so hung up over Kyo is because A.) she only played with him as a child because his terrible home life/curse made her feel better about her own situation, and B.) she ran away in fear after seeing Kyo's true form and felt guilty about how withdrawn he became afterwards. Hence why she asks/warns Tohru to only approach and love Kyo if she really loves him, and not due to pìty.
  • Akito gets some of this after a Heel–Face Turn, having realized how deeply their actions hurt others.
• In Full Metal Panic!, it's revealed that Kalinin always felt horrible guilt and great regret that he did nothing to save Sousuke's mother (who ended up plunging to her death on the frozen and broken down airplane). As a result, he feels the great need to make it up to Sousuke, and always had the great desire to adopt him as his own son. Unfortunately, Sousuke is sent to an orphanage, and the next time Kalinin meets him, he's shocked to see that Sousuke turned into a cold-blooded, uncaring killer. This causes him to feel even more guilt for having let Sousuke go and become like this, and in turn becomes even more dead set on making it up to him.
• Fullmetal Alchemist lives off this trope, as almost every single heroic character has done something either very stupid or very villainous which he or she is attempting to atone for.
  • Dr. Marcoh, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, and Alex Louis Armstrong's motivations are to atone for all the Ishvalans they killed during the Ishval Massacre. Especially Armstrong, Roy, and Hawkeye. i.e., Roy's long-term goal when he becomes Führer? He wants to turn the country into a democracy, and eventually be tried for his war crimes - which Riza implies could get him executed. And considering her famous "I'll follow you into hell" line...
  • Ed and Al's primary reason for finding the Philosopher's Stone is to redeem their bodies after attempting to transmute their mom. At the same time, Ed's own primary reason is to bring Alphonse back. It's either "our bodies" or "Alphonse"; he blamed himself for years, afraid to even ask Al if he blamed him for what happened.
  • Scar, whose transition from being motivated by revenge to wanting to break its cycle actually occurs during the series.
  • Dr. Knox, like the rest of above mentioned in the Ishavalan war, but he isolated himself from his friends and family. He became a forensic pathologist because he felt that he no longer had the right to be a doctor for living patients after he used his skills for horrifying medical experiments on the Ishvalans.
  • Shou Tucker is an aversion; he doesn't seem to see anything wrong with combining his daughter and dog to accelerate his research. And this is the second time—the first time was his wife. In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), however, uses Tucker in a villainous example. Once he finds out about Nina's death, he spends the rest of the series trying to bring Nina back, which extends to mutating himself into a grotesque beast man and siding with the likes of Greed and Frank Archer. Unfortunately, his efforts are in vain.
• Chichiri of Fushigi Yuugi holds himself responsible for his best friend Hikou's death, half-justifiably (the friend was killed by a flood, but Chichiri was also fighting violently with him at the time, and his attempt to save Hikou from the flood failed). Regretting how his anger contributed to the situation, Chichiri becomes a Religious Bruiser and strives to keep his emotions hidden and controlled at all times.
• Gugure! Kokkuri-san has Shigaraki; every cent that he steals goes towards funding an orphanage for the children of families he's destroyed.
• Higurashi: When They Cry:
  • In the appropriately-named "Atonement Chapter" (Tsumihoroboshi-hen) Keiichi is briefly able to break through the "Groundhog Day" Loop and is allowed to clearly see his actions in the first arc, in which the Hate Plague drove him to isolate himself from his friends and murder Rena and Mion. He becomes The Atoner as a result and redoubles his efforts to try and save Rena, who is now in the same boat as he was. Also, before he moved to Hinamizawa, he was a nihilistic loner who got his kicks by shooting at little kids with a pellet gun. When he severely injures a little kid (as opposed to the bruises it usually caused) he realized how horrible his actions were and turned over a new leaf.
  • Shion goes from Satoko's persecutor in Meakashi-hen to her loving big sister who's willing to sacrifice her life for in the final arcs, Minagoroshi-hen and Matsuribayashi-hen.
• After being a Smug Snake and almost becoming the Big Bad, Yuri Killian in Kaleido Star decides to go into a 10-Minute Retirement and study art in Paris, only to return as a sponsor and later directly try to atone for his deeds. And not only for those he committed against the Stage. And before that, the reason why Yuri was able to completely seizing the Stage is because Kalos Eidos let him do so as atonement for believing himself to have caused the death of Yuri's father on-stage due to a very ill-timed talk with him. Kalos saw Yuri's rise as his revenge for the death of Aaron and his (Kalos's) own punishment, which is why he didn't retaliate until the last moment.
• Kino's Journey. A once-violent criminal has decided to atone for his acts by accompanying the widow of a man he killed while she Walks The Earth as her bodyguard. The next scene shows the atoner dying in a forest clearing, as the widow has just emptied her pistol into him. She was so hurt that she didn't think he deserved atonement.
• In Kotoura-san, after Haruka forgives her for her Poke in the Third Eye and nearly gets Manabe killed, Hiyori becomes overly sensitive about upsetting Haruka. In Episode Five, she becomes comically saddened when she briefly thinks Haruka hates her.
• In episode 6 of the Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! anime, Makoto Isshiki shaved off his head and took the heat for the other guys in 1-4 for taking polls of the girls. This is to maintain some kind of desirability among the girls.
• In Lyrical Nanoha:
  • The Wolkenritter join the TSAB to make up for their crimes committed while filling the Book of Darkness. Signum is particularly focused on this, as she states that she plans to repent for her crimes except when she is with Hayate, but Nanoha suggests that rather than regret what she did, she should just focus on helping people. Hayate is similarly motivated by a desire to make up for the Book of Darkness incident, having been subject to most of the blame for it and feeling responsible for it.
  • All seven of the Numbers who performed a Heel–Face Turn also apply, especially Cinque. Cinque has the longest sentence out of all of them (possibly because she killed people, including the original Zest), and while she doubts she'll ever be truly free, she cares enough for her sisters to do what is necessary to care for them.
• The Misfit of Demon King Academy: After Emilia Ludowell gets the snot beat out of her post-reincarnation, she takes a hit intended for Anos' mother, which earns her Anos' gratitude. Sooner or later, after realizing that her experiences with the very racism she once believed in would forever change her, even if she returned as a pure-blooded demon, she decides to enroll as a teacher, and later, headmistress in the Hero Academy, swearing her life to protect and guide her new students there.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
  • This is a facet of Heero Yuy that shows up in a couple of major ways. After he is tricked into killing a large number of UESA leaders, he spends some time traveling with Trowa to meet with the families of each person that died, where he offers them the chance to kill him as retribution.
  • The first version of the opening credits hints at something that's finally revealed in Endless Waltz: one of Heero's first covert assignments (destroying an OZ mobile suit factory) went catastrophically out of control and ended up killing a young girl and her dog that he'd met the day before. Heero has been haunted by guilt over that ever since.
• Franz Bonaparta from Monster is played up as being the creepy children's book author responsible for the madness that created Johan Liebert. As it turns out, he actually had everyone involved in the eugenics experiment killed so that he could save Johan's twin sister from a similar fate.
• Balsa from Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit wants to save eight lives for the eight lives that were taken in her protection as a child. To do so, she realizes would only mean something if she doesn't kill others. It's not easy to spare and escape a force of elite warriors.
• In Muhyo and Roji, Enchu, despite being imprisoned for life in the Arcanum, studies to one day become an Executor and atone for his crimes.
• My Hero Academia: Despite his status as a hero, Endeavor made his family go through emotional and physical hell just to have a perfect successor, who'd be able to overcome All Might and become the number one hero in his stead. Circumstances and major events made him have a Heel Realization, and strive to live up to his status as a hero and make amends for his horrible treatment of his family. Deconstructed since while he's genuinely willing to atone, he has possibly too much to make up for 10+ years of emotional and physical abuse on his family are nowhere near easily forgivable, if at all. Out of his family, only his daughter, Fuyumi, is willing to give him some sort of benefit of a doubt; his wife Rei and remaining sons Natsuo and Shoto still don't want anything to do with him, (though Shoto is more neutral) and Natsuo, in particular, is quick to call him out the first chance he gets. He's painfully aware of all of it, yet continues to try and atone anyway, as it's the only thing he can do. Then there’s the oldest, Toya, who was thought dead but survived and became Dabi, a mass-murdering psychopath who wants Endeavor dead. Once the truth about Toya is made known to the world, as the superheroic community faces scorn over its apparent corruption and many pro heroes are forced into retirement, Endeavor strives to continue to be a hero and stop Dabi and his confederates, because it is his duty as a hero to not only protect the people, but to work to re-earn their trust.
• In My-Otome Zwei, Nina becomes this, wanting to make up for her actions in the previous series by helping Nao investigate the ruins in Episode 3, and fighting alongside Arika in the final battle in Episode 4.
• Naruto has a few examples:
  • Pain AKA Nagato, who sacrifices himself to reverse all of the damage he has done to the Leaf Village upon being swayed by Naruto's words, trusting in him to end the cycle of hatred.
  • Tobi AKA Obito Uchiha, who saves Naruto's life and tries to sacrifice himself on two separate occasions. The second time sticks, with him dying in Kakashi's place.
  • Kabuto Yakushi, after accepting his fate in the genjutsu, Izanami casted by Itachi, helps the heroes in the Fourth Shinobi World War. After the war he starts an orphanage in Konoha, like his adoptive mother had once.
  • Sasuke Uchiha. After he realizes he has caused so much pain for little to no reason, he requests that Naruto takes his Rinnegan and use it to dispel the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and kill him off. Naruto has none of it and tells him to redeem himself by helping others. He... does just that, exploring Kaguya's dimensions to search for a reason as to why Kaguya would want an army of White Zetsu. This comes to a head in Boruto: Naruto the Movie, where he ends up leading the other Kage to rescue Naruto, as well as tutoring Naruto's son, Boruto. Although this last one is a base breaker as some people feel he was let off too easily.
• No Longer Allowed in Another World: The Cowardly Man was usually ignored and alone most of his life, not made easier since he had to use a wheelchair. When he makes a friend who defends him from bullies, he panics in a situation where he could have returned the favor, this being when he is summoned as an otherworlder. Feeling immense guilt for this, he anonymously donates food to an orphanage uses his "Werewolf" gift to deter bandits and monsters that would do them harm. Sensei returns him to the moment when he was summoned, with implications that he and his friend will make-up and be just fine.
• The Prince of Tennis has Kippei "The Kyushuu Lion" Tachibana. While not an evil person, his playing style was highly violent. Then, his best friend and rival Senri Chitose became one of his victims when Tachibana accidentally hit him in the eye and almost blinded him. Wrecked with guilt, Tachibana seriously thought he should just leave tennis as a whole, but then his family transferred to Tokyo. He enrolled in Fudomine Junior High and and witnessed how the local tennis clubs' rookies were bullied by the sempais and the ex-coach; Tachibana stood up for them and became their leader and captain.
• Xerxes Break of PandoraHearts is this, though he claims otherwise. This is because he was once Kevin Regnard, a Failure Knight driven to make a Deal with the Devil that required him to murder as part of his bargain. He made it with the hopes of changing the past, in order to bring back the murdered family he served. Eventually, after sacrificing 116 people to his Chain, he was dragged into the Abyss and was able to convince the Will of the Abyss to grant his wish. Unfortunately, he later learned his wish resulted in the family being murdered four years later... by the one child that had survived the slaughter in the original timeline. The horror and grief over his actions are his driving motivation, though he keeps it secret from others.
• The Ride-On King: Dia has been scheming against the Black Tower before, during and after Rina became a Chaos warrior, each time unwittingly dragging other people into his problems. Each time he decides to dedicate his life on fixing his mess.
• In Saki, Hajime Kunihiro's crime- cheating in a mahjong game in elementary school- is much less severe than many of the ones described here, but it still haunts her to the point at which she wears chains on her wrists that hinder her movements, and works especially hard to be trustworthy to her teammates on Ryuumonbuchi, especially her close friend Touka.
• Shakugan no Shana: At the near-end of the story,' Yuuji, knowing how much pain he had caused for the sake of Xanadu's creation with the power of the God of Creation, attempts to become this by leaving for Xanadu alone, in order to work to encourage the Crimson Denizens to live in peace with, and befriend, the humans living there. The love that he and Shana shared trumped this, however, and they leave for the new world together. At Xanadu, he does atone by trying to get the Humans and Denizens to co-exist, but often ends up becoming a target of aggression, getting involved in fights and often on the run.
• SHUFFLE!: After discovering that it was not Rin's fault that her beloved mother died, after mistakenly believing it was because Rin willingly took the blame to prevent her from dying out of despair, Kaede Fuyou makes her purpose in life "to serve Rin-kun"—so she can make up to him for all the tremendous abuse she piled up on him.
• In A Silent Voice, Ishida Shouya once was the ringleader of a group of kids who bullied Nishimiya Shouko, a deaf girl. He ended up being scapegoated for all the bullying, and he came to realize just how awful his treatment of her was. He spends the bulk of a five-year Time Skip preparing to set things right. In a darker turn, specifically to make amends before he kills himself. Nishimiya responding positively towards his actions leads him to keep living, although this trope continues to color Ishida's actions.
• While a few villains from Snow White and Seven Dwarfs eventually become this, the primary example is Fujimaru, who makes it a point to fight against the dictatorship government as atonement for having served it previously. This leads to him nearly making a Heroic Sacrifice in the finale, though he fortunately gets off with Redemption Equals Affliction rather than Redemption Equals Death.
• In Summer Time Rendering, both Tokiko and Dr. Hishigata sided with Shide and Haine thinking they were protecting their loved ones. After they each learn what Shide's real goal is and that he'll betray them once they've outlived their usefulness, they resolve to make things right by doing everything in their power to help fight the shadows and stop the mass murder ritual from taking place.
• In Sword Art Online Progressive, Nezuo is a player who'd scammed other players out of their weapons in order to help his guild, which had fallen behind the other clearers while trying to help him level because Nezuo has a Full-Dive Nonconformity that's an almost crippling disadvantage in battle. After Kirito and Asuna find out what he was up to, he, on Kirito's advice, masters the chakram (one of the few viable ranged weapons in the game) and uses it to save the other clearers from the second floor boss. Unfortunately, he's nearly executed for his crimes until his guildmates take responsibility and give up their gear as restitution.
• In Talentless Nana, Nana Hiiragi is fully aware of the horrific nature of her murdering the superpowered "Talented" students but feels no remorse for it. After her best friend Michiru dies, she discovers the true nature of her parents' death, and learns how the Organization she's been working for has lied and manipulated her this entire time however, she subsequently pulls a Heel–Face Turn and now works to protect the Talented and try to atone for her murders.
• Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee:
  • Kimidori fulfills this trope while working as a maid for her old friend Rei, and sending her hand-drawn postcards of her hometown. Kimidori feels guilty over selling a pin Rei gave her as a gift to pay off some debt collectors, and feels unworthy to call herself Rei's friend, but wants to help Rei. Rei learns the truth from Lag's heart bullet and forgives Kimidori, glad to have her friend back.
  • Noir, the amnesiac Gauche Suede, eventually comes to regret sacrificing many hearts in the name of advancing the underground revolutionary movement Reverse's mission, and seeks to atone for it. The circumstances of this change of heart differ between the manga and anime adaptations, but result in Noir doing a Heel–Face Turn.
• Lordgenome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, after hundreds of years of suppressing humanity underground, during the fight with the Anti-Spiral, he sacrifices himself to absorb the Infinity Big Bang Storm and transfer it to Spiral Energy, which the Dai-Gurren Brigade uses to defeat the Anti-Spiral. He even has a bit of a final goodbye to his daughter.
• Willard in Tenrou Sirius the Jaeger is basically this. As in Episode 7, Willard regrets the things that he had done in the past, considering that he is the one who enables the massacre of Yuliy's village, Dogville, after he translates the contents of a book revealing the location of Sirius Ark to the vampires. It affects him deeply, to the point that he takes little Yuliy into his care and calmly waits for Yuliy to finish him once he finds out the truth. He also regrets that he encouraged Yuliy to focus so single-mindedly on vengeance.
• After Rikiishi died as a consequence of his opponent's punches during their match, Joe Yabuki of Tomorrow's Joe has a 10-Minute Retirement he comes back from with a single goal: to honor him by winning everything Rikiishi should have won, including the world championship, also refusing to change weight class when a late growth spurt gives him a Welterweight's body build because Rikiishi had slimmed down from Welterweight to Bantamweight specifically to fight Joe, and that played a part in his death.
• Vash the Stampede from Trigun constantly is wracked by guilt over his past and the extensive body count that he blames himself for, even though none of it is truly his fault. What he truly has remorse for is the fact that he couldn't prevent said things from happening in the first place. In the original manga, Vash killed everyone in July except for himself, Knives who was critically injured, and Hopperd the future-Gauntlet. Vash was friends with several people in July and is forever haunted by killing his own friends for revenge.
• Abel Nightroad from Trinity Blood is a centuries-old Crusnik (uber-vampire who feeds on normal vampires, has superior destructive powers and is invincible) who used to hate humans and took the vampire side of the conflict when war broke out. He was essentially a living weapon of mass destruction and supposedly killed seven million humans. Eventually it was the death of his lover, who had sided with the humans (after telling him how to defeat the vampires) and had been trying to influence him, that caused him to change his views. Nine hundred years later, he's a priest of the Vatican and tries to avoid and prevent killing whenever he can, and is wracked by guilt for his sins.
• Alan from Windaria, who spends the bulk of his life rebuilding the world after he helped ruin it.
• Quent in Wolf's Rain is something of a variation on this. He only comes to realize that wolves are not evil when Toboe, the wolf he has been pursuing most vigorously, makes a futile attempt to save him from the Big Bad Lord Darcia. It is only after they have both been mortally wounded, and Quent realizes that it was Toboe who saved him from freezing to death on an earlier occasion, that Quent is able to redeem himself in a small way by comforting the dying Toboe as his own life ebbs away. It's not much—but it's enough.

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