Examples of The Poorly Chosen One in Anime and Manga.
- Corrector Yui: Haruna was supposed to be the Corrector instead of Yui, but the moment she finally takes the reins, Drosser (the Evil A.I. Big Bad) decides to say "Let's Get Dangerous!" and curb-stomped-slash-corrupted her in her very first battle. It turned out that Drosser had a crush on Yui and decided to manipulate events so she would become the Corrector because that way he would be able to meet her better, fulfill her Magical Girl fantasies... and he was holding back because he didn't want to hurt her (too badly).
- Dragon Ball Z: Gotenks is held up by the rest of the Z fighters as their best hope to defeat Majin Buu. This hope turns out to be misplaced, as Gotenks turns out to be a egocentric blowhard who cares more about looking cool than about saving the world. Consequently, all of his attempts to defeat Buu end in disaster.
- Aseo from Elden Ring: The Road to the Erdtree stands in for the Tarnished protagonist from the original game, and as such is chosen by Torrent as his rider. Unlike in the game, where Torrent sensed the Tarnished's potential to become Elden Lord, Torrent's criterium here is that Aseo has "nice, firm haunces." In other words, Aseo has a great ass, which is a very important trait for horses like Torrent. Aseo ends up being a Lethally Stupid Lovable Coward who'd much rather just run away than confront any of the game's big scary bosses, but grows in both knowledge and strength as time goes on, until he's a warrior worthy of the Elden Throne.
- Mahito from Jujutsu Kaisen is propped up by his fellow Disaster Curses to be able to defeat the sorcerers once and for all due to his youth, power, and growth potential. But a couple of dozen chapters after this sentiment is expressed, he is utterly defeated by Yuji (albeit after a grueling battle where the latter needed help) and attempted to flee, in contrast to the Villainous Valour shown by his peers during their own deaths, and ultimately assimilated by Geto for the said power.
- Chariot du Nord from Little Witch Academia (2017) was a witch and student from Luna Nova Academy who was chosen to wield the Claiomh Solais, a Magic Wand that chooses its wielder and is destined to break the seal of the Grand Triskellion when its user rediscovers the Seven Words of Arcturus. Believing that magic was meant to make people happy, Chariot became the idol "Shiny Chariot", using the Claiomh Solais (renaming it "Shiny Wand") to put on magic shows for the public. When her popularity declines, she grows desperate to impress her crowd when her usual spells no longer cut it, eventually leading to her permanently scarring the surface of the Moon. Her actions deemed her unworthy of wielding the wand and it disappeared before she could ever find all Seven spells.
- In the Fortune Lover 2 arc of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, we learn that in said sequel, Katarina Claes is supposed to wield the Dark Covenant and spread evil with a Dark Familiar -Cerberus- by her side as the Chosen Champion Of Darkness. In the series proper, the real Katarina has firmly established herself in the opposite different alignment of that, and would be more likely to kiss the Chosen Champion of Light -Maria, who holds the Light Covenant- than to menace her.
- Naruto: Jiraiya was told as a young man that someday he would mentor the Child of Prophecy who would either save the world or destroy it. At first, Jiraiya thought it would be Nagato, a war orphan from the Land of Rain who possessed the Rinnegan, a power once wielded by the legendary Sage of Six Paths, and despite the boy's initial fear of his own powers, he matured during his training with the help of his fellow students/orphans/friends Yahiko and Konan. Unfortunately, after their training concluded and they parted, Jiraiya lost hope when he learned they all died during their attempts to reform their country. In reality, only Yahiko died, but something in Konan and Nagato definitely died with him and Nagato became a Dark Messiah as a result. Later, he believed it would be Minato, who despite having no bloodline jutsu was The Ace and became the youngest Hokage of the Hidden Leaf...only for him to make a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Nine-Tailed Fox. Ironically, the actual chosen one, Naruto, was somebody Jiraiya never considered it being until shortly before his own death at the hands of Nagato.
- No Longer Allowed in Another World: All Otherworlders were people from the modern world who were unhappy with their lives, only for the Isekai Jackpot Truck to transport them to a RPG Mechanics 'Verse with a special skill or ability. Deconstructing the "Zero to Hero" aspects typical of an Isekai protagonist, being granted a second chance at a new life with fancy new powers doesn't make them any less of a loser than they were in their old lives, resulting in manchildren using their powers and position to live out power fantasies. Even the more benevolent examples (Sensei, Yamada and the Cowardly Man in crutches) show concerning habits and instability that aren't made much better by their divine gifts. Wolf goes on to surmise that for as miserable as they were in their old lives, the pressure of being yanked from their world and suddenly being expected to save theirs took its toll on their mental health, making them more tragic than truly despicable.
- In The Rising of the Shield Hero, Ren, Itsuki, Motoyasu and Naofumi are brought to the Melromarc Kingdom as the Four Cardinal Heroes, them being the Sword, Bow, Spear and Shield Heroes respectively. Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu are handed everything they could ever need and are treated with reverence (the Three Heroes Church even believing them to be gods) while Naofumi is treated like a devil by virtue of being the Shield Hero and falsely accused of rape by Princess Malty For the Evulz. As time goes on however, Naofumi proves to be a competent and compassionate (albeit cynical) hero who slowly wins over the people. Meanwhile, Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu's clashing egos and tendency to treat the world like it's a game lead to their idiot heroics only making things worse. It got to the point that the church that worshipped the Heroes of the Sword, Spear, and Bow decides to brand them as "fake" and kill them all simply because of their incompetence. Finally, they completely bungled the Spirit Tortoise disaster in an attempt to get back the respect they thought they deserved, leaving them universally disliked. The reason Naofumi surpasses them is that the Heroes should have been summoned one at a time in different rituals. Summoning all of them at once interfered with the ability of the Weapons to choose an ideal wielder. The Shield was able to choose the perfect match while the other Weapons had to make due with lesser wielders.
- In The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World, "God" apparently picks his saviors at random, and the reason why he had to summon Tsukina was because his last pick was a Spoiled Brat uninterested in learning any magic or doing anything in the job description.
- Happens routinely in The Twelve Kingdoms. Each of the titular kingdoms is ruled by an immortal god-king/queen, chosen by a Kirin. Unfortunately, despite the inherently virtuous Kirin always having the best intentions, they DO screw up sometimes, and puts someone on the throne who'll crack under the pressure, turn into a vicious tyrant, or let the kingdom decay while wallowing in base hedonism. Worse, this world runs by Fisher King rules — a poor king leads to natural disasters, droughts and floods, and even monster-invasions. The series starts when the Kirin Keiki tracks down an Ordinary High-School Student from our world to be the new Queen of Kei — after his previous choice ended very, very badly. Considering this track-record, a lot of the kingdom's people are rather worried about this apparent Chosen Zero... If the enthrownment had gone as planned, they would have been correct. It's only a lot of hardship driven character development that made her someone who had a chance to rule sucessfully.
