Top: Light Yagami, aspiring god of the new world.
Bottom: Light Yagami, screaming, slobbering lunatic.
Bottom: Light Yagami, screaming, slobbering lunatic.
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#-F
- Nazi soldier Adolf Kaufmann, among all his nasty deeds, spends almost the entirety of Adolf looking for the documents that prove Hitler's Jewish origins in order to destroy them. When he finally succeeds in finding them, he is immediately informed of Germany's defeat and Hitler's death. Having realized that he lost a good chunk of his life in going after what are now useless pieces of paper, he starts laughing madly and then desperately crying.
- Iwao Washizu from Akagi completely breaks down and briefly goes catatonic when Akagi manages to outperform him in their epic Mahjong match. Akagi personally has to talk him into continuing their game, and gives himself a disadvantage for the next round.
- The last episode of the 2003 Astro Boy series could have easily been renamed from "The Final Showdown" to "Dr. Tenma's Breakdown." It begins in "Astro Reborn" with Tenma erasing Astro's memories to live out an idyllic life together as father and son. When that fails, and after going crazy on a pipe organ a la Phantom of the Opera, he takes over the Ministry of Science and demands one last meeting with "Tobio". When his We Can Rule Together speech to Astro then fails, he tries to commit suicide by destroying both himself and his old laboratory.
- Attack on Titan plays this for drama, showing just how terrifying a broken villain at the end of their rope really is.
- When confronted and exposed as the Female Titan, Annie's calm shatters and the body count rapidly begins to rise. Unlike in the previous confrontation, Annie is clearly desperate and begins to flash back to their Freudian Excuse while delivering a vicious beatdown to Eren. Rather than attempt to capture him, however, she makes a final desperate attempt to escape by Wall Crawling up Wall Sina. When this fails, she begins to weep and seals herself away in a Crystal Prison. The battle leaves the city in ruins, with many wounded or dead among the military and civilians alike.
- After The Reveal, Reiner was already suffering from Sanity Slippage but made no effort to attack the heroes. This changes completely once Erwin manages to rescue Eren, seriously wounding Bertholdt in the process. Cue the Armored Titan picking up and hurling other Titans at the fleeing soldiers with Improbable Aiming Skills, cutting off their escape. Mikasa and Jean are both injured, while many soldiers are killed in the ensuing slaughter. Armin is horrified by the enemy's sudden reckless behavior, wondering if he even cares anymore if Eren ends up being eaten along with everyone else. Without Eren's Eleventh Hour Super Power, everyone would have ended up being devoured.
- Reiner's been getting worse ever since he made it back home. He's now a Shell-Shocked Veteran and the Sole Survivor of the mission to retake the Founding Titan from inside the walls of Paradis Islandnote . He's had to fight in yet another war, has been almost killed more times than pretty much anyone else in the series and in once scene is shown to be so broken that he almost shoots himself with a gun, but is interrupted when he hears his subordinate Falco outside. After Reiner meets up with Eren for the first time in four years, he has his biggest Villainous Breakdown to date, which involves Sympathy for the Hero, It's All My Fault (regarding Eren's mother being eaten during the initial breaching of the walls) and even has him asking Eren for a Mercy Kill, where he's shown on the ground crying at Eren's feet. Eren doesn't kill him, but says he feels sorry for him and that they're similar in that they're just doing what they have to. And then Eren twists the knife by revealing just what he's there to do: turning into his Titan form so he could fight and eat the Warhammer Titan.
- Zeke suffers two breakdowns when reality doesn't go according to plan.
- After leaving Levi to be devoured by Titans who used to be his subordinates, Zeke is completely unprepared for Levi to annihilate said Titans and then come looking for revenge. His frantic attempts to protect himself fail and it's only after he escapes that he regains his cool.
- Zeke is horrified when he realizes that Eren has managed to do the impossible by making Ymir ignore the command of the royal family, giving Eren control of the Founding Titan's power.
- This happens to Griffith in Berserk when Guts defeats him in one single stroke to earn his freedom. Guts' desertion marks a turning point in Griffith's life and ambitions and everything falls apart for Griffith from there on, making it an apt breakdown.
- Brooklyn the invincible world champion from Beyblade, after he was defeated by Kai who at the time was considered the biggest loser in the entire series. Not only that, but Brooklyn took the mental breakdown to the logical extreme: he convinced himself his defeat never happened, that everything was nothing but a nightmare, a bad dream that would end soon.
- Impressively averted in Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!. Kinshiro Kusatsu, the leader of the Terrible Trio of evil Magical Boys, is arrogant, elitist, hyper-pretentious and, under his cool cover, more than a little emotionally unstable. He's an absolutely prime candidate for a Villainous Breakdown of the first order, and he does go on an Evil Makeover-fuelled Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the second-to-last episode. Come the finale, however, he finds that rather than being groomed for world domination, he's been featuring in an Immoral Reality Show, that the Mentor Mascot he swore an oath to follow has been using him as a patsy, that his varied palette of emotional distress has been used for entertainment, and that despite all of this, he's still expected to fight for the cameras. Instead of taking the final plunge that seems so likely, his reaction is a very quiet and dignified refusal.
- Creed from Black Cat has one of these when Train goes to Creed's Supervillain Lair, pops in, saves Rinslet, then runs off, leaving everyone confused. Creed doesn't take it very well.
- Black Butler:
- In the anime adaption, as Sebastian turns into his true form and literally tears the Angel to shreds, the latter can do nothing but scream in hate and pain at how filthy the former is until they die.
- Black Clover:
- After Licht is struck down by Asta during their first meeting, he loses his composure as he furiously asks why a human with no magic has the grimoire and swords that once belonged to his master. As Licht goes on ranting, however, his magic begins to flare out of control, forcing the Third Eye to stop fighting the captains in an attempt to stabilize him before withdrawing for the time being.
- Once it finally sinks in for Vetto that, no matter what he does, Asta will not be broken by something like despair, he calls him a "despair-eating devil" and loses what little restraint he had left in his attempts to kill him.
- Ladros begins to crack once Asta uses his Black form and shrugs off all of his attacks. When Asta starts flying towards him, Ladros finds himself fleeing for his life, desperately screaming at Asta to get the hell away from him.
- Dante doesn't take Magna seriously at first when the latter challenges him to a fist fight. He comes to regret this as Magna uses a spell of his own creation to evenly split their collective mana between the two, ensuring a fair fight. As Magna slowly beats the tar out of Dante, he refuses to accept that a commoner like Magna could beat him, and eventually loses control of his own magic in his rage over his own defeat.
- Chaka in Black Lagoon is an arrogant small-time Yakuza with delusions of grandeur who tries to make a name for himself by kidnapping Yukio, the new head of the Washimine clan. When Rock, Revy, and Ginji storm his hideout to rescue her, he reacts with his usual bravado. However, he's quickly subjected to a Humiliation Conga. The cracks start to appear when Rock snatches his hostage from right under his nose, leading him to shoot his own henchmen in the back when they try to abandon him. Things get worse when he challenges Revy to a duel, only for her to dropkick him in the face and declare him Not Worth Killing. Finally, when Ginji chops off his hands and knocks him into a swimming pool to drown, he's reduced to thrashing around and shrieking impotent death threats.
- Bleach has many:
- Zommari probably had the biggest one out of all the Espada. He comes off as being the most composed of the group, going on long tangents on how Byakuya cannot beat him, believing his powers are enough to stop him from moving. When he attempts to have Rukia kill herself by manipulating her body with his power, Byakuya gets tired of this game and simply casts a Kido to paralyze her. Zommari, more explicitly in the anime, immediately loses it and demands his target to move; Byakuya follows up with a 360 attack, causing Zommari to use his full power while proclaiming loudly that all he sees will bend to his will, even though it fails miserably. The next chapter has him in Madness Mantra mode, going on a speech about What Measure Is a Non-Human?, ending with a clear Villainous Breakdown of him praising Aizen as he dissolves.
- Also Szayelaporro Granz, who starts out smug and confident in his superiority. When Mayuri starts messing with him, however, he throws a temper tantrum and starts swearing a lot. He's also breaking down shortly before his death, begging for Mayuri to hurry up and kill him, but then again from his perspective, he's been frozen in place with a sword slowly piercing him for a millennium by then thanks to a drug he accidentally ingested that slows down his sense of time to the point where one second feels like one hundred years.
- Kenpachi's clear enjoyment of what appears to Nnoitra to be a losing battle starts to strongly unnerve Nnoitra. As Kenpachi continues to laugh and enjoy himself, Nnoitra descends into raving and swearing at him. Eventually, this psychological edge causes Nnoitra to be too shaken to think to defend himself when Kenpachi finally goes for a killing strike, crippling him in one blow.
- Ulquiorra gets a brief one in his fight with Ichigo. After his first release and curbstomping Ichigo, he loses his usual composure when despite seeing the difference between their powers, Ichigo refuses to give up.
- Findorr, one of Barragan's Fracción, spends most of his fight with Hisagi gloating about his superior strength, which he can increase by breaking off parts of his mask. After Hisagi decides to fight him seriously and utterly schools him even with 90% of his mask gone, which allegedly puts him on the level of a Captain, Findorr snaps and tries one last time to blast Hisagi with a Cero as he screams and curses at the Lieutenant. He continues screaming as Hisagi's Kazeshini pushes through his attack and kills him.note
- After being hit with Soi Fon's Bankai a second time, Barragan Luisenbarn loses all composure and goes on a rant that covers every facet of this trope. He proclaims himself to be a god, orders his opponents to bow before his might, and keeps muttering "You insects!" over and over again. It only gets worse after Hachi uses Barragan's own power against him and he starts to disintegrate, culminating in him throwing his axe at his own boss!
- In Chapter 385, Tousen loses his composure and goes on a tirade explaining why he chose to betray Soul Society. To add to the effect, Tosen's blank Hollow mask cracks open
in a manner that resembles teeth. And in the next chapter, he goes completely insane after his Resurrecion grants him eyesight. This proves to be his undoing. - Aizen spends most of his screen time being invincible, and talking about how invincible he is, while never raising his voice or getting mad. Once the Deicide Arc rolls around, he's defeated everyone that's fought him, and is on his way to create the King's Key and destroy Soul Society. Then Ichigo returns, having finished his training to use the Final Getsuga Tenshou. Ichigo manhandles Aizen with nothing but his physical strength, and Aizen loses some of his composure. Aizen transforms into monstrous form after monstrous form, yelling about how much better he is than Ichigo, and losing it more and more as they fight. Once Ichigo effortlessly destroys Aizen's perfectly chanted Kurohitsugi Kido spell, he cracks completely, and starts ranting at length about how he's the perfect existence, and that he can't be stopped by Ichigo, a mere human, while roaring at him to not be so conceited. Then Ichigo blasts him with his Mugetsu technique, Aizen is rejected by the Hougyouku, and Urahara's Sealing Kido activates, sealing him in an energy tree as he screams that he's the only one with the right to change the world. He's cut off mid sentence, and is next seen being sentenced to 20,000 years of imprisonment by the Central 46, since they can't execute him because he's immortal due to the Hogyoku. By that point, however, he's recovered and back to being his calm, mocking self.
- In Chapter 466, Xcution member Yukio drops his Dissonant Serenity and goes completely off the handle when Hitsugaya brings up his Parental Neglect issues.
- In Chapter 477, Tsukishima, who's normally calm and composed, has a Freak Out moment following Riruka shielding Ichigo and Rukia from his attack that was meant to kill them. He gets this look on his face and screams at her to "MOVE!!!" In Chapter 478, Tsukishima acts deeply upset over Ginjou's death and has another Freak Out moment.
- Äs Nödt goes on a long-winded rant of screaming and roaring about the endless torture he intends to put Byakuya through after the latter casually fights him off using only Shikai rather than Bankai as he had assumed.
- Lille Barro utterly loses it after Kyoraku and Nanao defeat him, with Lille losing most of his power as a result. He swears to destroy Soul Society in retaliation, but a revived Izuru quickly gets in his way.
- Yhwach. During his final fight with Ichigo, he starts to lose his calm composure, showing signs of stress and rage as he begins to experience unexpected events that he had not foreseen. This is emphasized when he realizes Haschwalth had disguised one of his future visions as a nightmare, ensuring that the one vision Yhwach did receive was ignored as a dream. Having always trouble understanding Uryuu's abilities, he begins to scream when Uryuu's arrow temporarily disables his powers. As he realizes that all future paths are now closed to him and that he will die, his sanity breaks as he screams at Ichigo that he has condemned the world to forever experience death before Ichigo destroys him.
- Episode 11 of Canaan has Liang Qi suffering severe Sanity Slippage (not that she's ever been sane to begin with) as a result of her "nee-sama", Alphard, abandoning her. When Cummings tries to get her to see reason, she shoots him in the leg and then gives him the beating of his life, all the while ranting loudly about how she will destroy anyone and anything that gets between her and her "nee-sama." Then Alphard battles her hand-to-hand, and Liang proves Too Kinky to Torture, begging for more pain from her. When Alphard's attention turns toward Canaan blasting up the soldiers raiding the base, Liang Qi loses it big-time. She breaks into Cummings's lab and takes a dose of the Ua virus in a mad bid to give herself synaesthesia like Canaan. But since Liang Qi doesn't have the genes to handle synaesthesia, she suffers horribly both physically and mentally. Then Alphard shows her the card that Liang wrote in Siam's name, revealing that she knew all about her plot to "rescue" her, and revealing that Siam never called her Alphard, but Canaan. This results in Liang Qi losing it completely, becoming so far gone that she doesn't even recognize her own reflection in the mirror, believing that it is Canaan staring back at her. It ultimately falls to Cummings to deliver a Mercy Kill.
- The Wacky Racing episode of Carnival Phantasm has this happen to Gilgamesh when he realizes that Shirou and Saber are finally catching up to him, Archer, and Rin as they near the finish line. The arrogant, prideful god-king immediately loses his temper big-time, screaming the word "bastard" several times and calling Shirou and Saber "goddamn brutes" as the three teams of racers line up neck and neck and approach closer to the finish line.
- Aureolus Izzard from A Certain Magical Index goes from a calm, Magnificent Bastard to a murderous lunatic when Stiyl and Touma inform him that his complicated plan to find and trap a vampire, then force it to turn Index into a vampire in order to save her life is completely unnecessary because Touma already saved her. He gets even more upset when Stiyl questions why he needed to find and trap a vampire in the first place if he has Reality Warper powers, he could have just summoned one or even turned Index into a vampire himself. Then, he completely loses it when Touma acts like Aureolus chopping his arm off means nothing to him and slowly advances on him, laughing like a crazed lunatic and giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. In a blind panic, Aureolus screams, "He's a monster!" and has just enough time to go Oh, Crap! before his Reality Warper powers turn against him and cause a dragon to emerge from Touma's arm stump, which finishes him off.
- Accelerator also has one of these (not sure if other moments really count for this) after Touma slaps his hand away, something that has never happened due to his vector control ability redirecting any and all attacks or block attempts.
- A Certain Scientific Railgun shows more of the fight from Accelerator's perspective, and he is having a prolonged Freak Out during his fight with Touma due to finally realizing what kind of a monster he is for killing the Misaka Sisters.
- Happens to Aleister Crowley, the biggest of the Big Bads, and most chessy of The Chessmasters, when the otherwise meaningless and insignificant level 0, Shiage Hamazura, manages to beat the level 5, Shizuri Mugino, using nothing but his own strength and determination, completely going against all of Aleister's plans. He orders his execution, but Shiage still somehow manages to live on, making life even more difficult for Aleister.
- Awaki Musujime has one when Kuroko gives her a breaking speech about exactly what is wrong with her as a person, and exactly why everything is her fault, not the fault of her powers or her circumstances. She goes so crazy for a moment that she collapses the entire building on Kuroko (who barely escapes alive thanks to Touma and Misaka showing up). She practically starts crying when she runs into Accelerator immediately after.
- Accelerator also has one of these (not sure if other moments really count for this) after Touma slaps his hand away, something that has never happened due to his vector control ability redirecting any and all attacks or block attempts.
- Code Geass:
- Lelouch vi Britannia a.k.a. Zero degenerates into anger rather quickly during those few times when he is tactically outmaneuvered (typically when his rival, Suzaku Kururugi, and the Lancelot shows up unexpectedly), in stark contrast to his usual smug and self-confident behavior. Granted, it could alternatively be interpreted as that of a Byronic Hero's Heroic BSoD or Freak Out, depending on your interpretation of Lelouch. In the cases of others who are very much qualified as villains, meanwhile...
- Jeremiah Gottwald started this after he was stripped of his rank in the wake of the supposed "Orange" incident. At the Battle of Narita, he nearly lets himself get killed by Kallen Kozuki and her Guren MKII while trying to kill Zero, and is seen after the battle gibbering crazily and fainting in the middle of a road.
- Mao literally goes ballistic with rage when Lelouch emotionally toys with him regarding his relationship with C.C., whom Mao has a crush on. Lelouch makes it sound like he has been intimate with C.C., and that just drives Mao off the walls, more so than usual. He is reduced to swinging the chainsaw he was holding around, daring Lelouch to come out and face him while furiously calling him a liar.
- Rolo Haliburton, Lelouch's "younger brother", goes through a subdued one in Episode 29. After Lelouch takes a bullet meant for his Knightmare, Rolo inadvertently joins the Black Knights, despite knowing his "brother" is Zero. Therefore, he can't capture C.C., which was his mission from the start. Lelouch plays the part of loving him as a brother in order to get Rolo on his side.
- Luciano Bradley of the Knights of the Round is the most despicable member of his group, and is always confident and smug as he toys with his opponents on the battlefield, taunting them about how his victims value their lives. But when he finds himself in a helpless, vulnerable position at the hands of Kallen, he momentarily rages at her for daring to threaten him. This only earns him his brutal death as Kallen proceeds to microwave his Percival into exploding, with Luciano in disbelief that his own life was taken by an "Eleven."
- Emperor Charles zi Britannia completely loses all his composure when Lelouch ruins his and Marianne's Assimilation Plot. Though experiencing an almost hushed moment of disbelief at first when Lelouch destroys the Thought Elevator, he suddenly grows fearful when he and Marianne start to disintegrate as they are absorbed by the C's World, which will result in a cessation of existence for both of them. After Lelouch furiously calls Charles and Marianne out for abandoning him and Nunnally in Japan for the sake of their plan, Charles acts in stark contrast to the likely heartbroken Marianne; while she stays silent and is perhaps actually realizing her faults, Charles furiously shoves past her and launches himself at Lelouch to strangle him, ranting at him even as he's dissolving into sparkling light.
- Throughout the Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou", Tongpu/Mad Pierrot is set up as a psychotic and seemingly invulnerable assassin who can stop bullets with the greatest of ease. However, when Spike manages to embed a knife into the guy's thigh, the up-until-that-point cold-blooded killer is reduced to a bawling mess thrashing on the pavement and crying for his mommy. The earlier establishment that his mental state and powers are the result of genetic engineering experiments performed on him does serve to make this childish tantrum seem not so out of the blue.
- Cross Ange: The series' Big Bad, Embryo, is usually a calm, collected, sophisticated, Faux Affably Evil Genius who is hellbent on making Ange his wife, in hopes that he can be the progenitor of a new world with her as this generation's "Eve" and he its "Adam". But the first time his usual polite demeanor cracks and he starts raising his voice is when he confronts Tusk, Ange's Nice Guy Love Interest, who angrily calls him out for trying to claim her like she's some beast he can tame. This isn't what upsets Embryo, though; what pisses the "Tuner" off is when Tusk makes a quip that he knows Ange so well, he could count the number of freckles on her inner thigh. Embryo deduces it as a threat to Ange's virginity, which he feels he is entitled to. Then Tusk proceeds to proudly reveal that he and Ange slept together in a very heartfelt first time, and even goes into detail about how good the sex was. At first, Embryo thinks Tusk is lying, but once he realizes he isn't, he is Blinded by Rage as he furiously proclaims that he won't let what Tusk did stand, accusing him of defiling his wife. At that point, Embryo lets go of all pretenses of pretend affability; when he catches Ange again, he beats her and attempts to rape her on the spot. And when Tusk saves her from his clutches before he can violate her, Embryo finally loses his cool; he angrily states that if Ange won't "accept his love", he'll just kill her and find someone else to become his "Eve".
- In Darker than Black, The Man Behind the Man does not react well at all to Hei completely wrecking The Syndicate's Contractor-genocide plan and Kirihara recording his Motive Rant so that she can arrest and prosecute him. In fact, he starts strangling someone who he was asking not 5 minutes earlier to join him.
- Light Yagami of Death Note lost his cool from time to time, but the ultimate freakout was right at the end, when he realized that he dug his own grave via his unshakable belief that he could never be defeated, leading to a series of fatal oversights. Once he realizes that there's no hope of fooling anyone anymore, he breaks into an Evil Laugh as he goes on a Motive Rant about how he's just a Well-Intentioned Extremist who was the only person who could make the world "better." Then he resorts to using a piece of the titular Death Note to try and kill Near when the latter verbally tears him apart. Touta Matsuda, who had previously wanted to believe that Kira was indeed well-intentioned, immediately stands up to him and shoots Light's hand, provoking Light to furiously shout at Matsuda for "screwing with him" as he desperately tries to convince him to kill Near and the rest of the SPK. When Matsuda is unswayed, Light tries to write Near's name in his own blood on the page he concealed; he then devolves into incredulous, fearful screaming once Matsuda flies into a rage and unloads the contents of his revolver into Light's body. In the manga, the wannabe god realizes that he, who built his gargantuan ego upon so many deaths, does not himself want to die, and begs desperately for his life after Ryuk writes Light's name in his Death Note in front of Near, Mikami and everyone in the SPK. He dies pathetically, without sympathy, bleeding on the floor as a heart attack finishes him off. In the anime, he ends his reign of terror by trying to flee the scene, running aimlessly through the city, crying as his life flashes before his eyes, before finally collapsing and Dying Alone. Notably, unlike his unrepentant and truly vile manga counterpart, Light in the anime is given a case of Alas, Poor Villain, seeing as he seemed to have a tearful Heel Realization before he died.
- Teru Mikami suffered one of these too. In the anime version, he committed an extremely painful looking suicide with a ballpoint pen in the warehouse in front of everyone. The manga version was lower-key, but still present: upon seeing Light pathetically begging for help after being shot, he stares at him with the most distraught look and angrily proclaims "You're not God!", proceeding to follow with a string of insults towards the man he once idolized. He later commits suicide in prison out of despair.
- Kyosuke Higuchi. L, Light and the rest of the team engineer a situation where Higuchi brings out the Death Note with him, by making Matsuda (who Higuchi believed to be dead) appear as a guest on Sakura TV promising to reveal who Kira is at the end of the show. Higuchi runs into a panic when he can't find Matsuda's real name, with the people he can reach out about being deliberately unhelpful due to working with L's team. Out of desperation, he makes the Shinigami Eyes deal (which lets him know people's real names by looking at their faces in exchange for half of his remaining lifespan) and drives to Sakura TV to see Matsuda. Using the Eyes, he kills a policeman who tried to stop the car, which alerts the Task Force and leads to a car chase. When he's cornered by the police, he tries to shoot himself in panic, but the gun gets shot out of his hands. He's left to quietly answer L's interrogation until Light, now back to being Kira, kills him with a Death Note-induced heart attack.
- Digimon:
- At the end of the first arc of Digimon Adventure 02, the Digimon Emperor starts having one of these as a result of trying to control Chimeramon. When he's finally defeated and learns the Digital World isn't some video game to win, he finally goes What Have I Done and turns back into his true identity, Ken Ichijouji. Think they're done there? It goes From Bad to Worse — minutes later, his partner Wormmon dies; when he goes back to the real world, he goes into a Heroic BSoD for two episodes.
- Ken's breakdown is even more awful in the Japanese and uncut German version where most of the things he does after Chimeramon is yell a lot and whip Wormmon while it tries to explain the situation.
- Later, Mummymon gets to join in on the fun. First he's Forced to Watch as MaloMyotismon, a reincarnated Myotismon, torture-murders his partner-in-crime Arukenimon right in front of him and there's nothing he can do about it. How does he react afterwards? He flips out, flies into a tear-filled rage, and attacks MaloMyotismon in an attempt to avenge his beloved partner, even screaming his last words, "THEN I WILL TEACH YOU TO FEAR ME!!" which ends with him being melted, complete with a horrible scream courtesy of MaloMyotismon's Crimson Mist.
- The finale, which is two episodes after that, unsurprisingly has this happen to MaloMyotismon himself. Digidestined from all over the world use their digivices to weaken him with light, so he tries to use the darkness from the Dark Spore children to withstand the light. Unfortunately for him, this backfires and his breakdown only gets worse when the Dark Spore children become Digidestined themselves and start talking about their hopes and dreams, which causes his darkness to be expelled and him to lose his body parts until only his shadow remains, and that shadow is left screaming that the paltry children as he calls them cannot make him disappear and that he will not allow that to happen to him.
- During the first arc of Digimon Tamers, Yamaki has a long and escalating sequence of these, starting with angry rants when particularly stubborn "Wild Ones" resist deletion up to a full-on, possibly partially insane breakdown when the Juggernaut program doesn't work as planned, including choking a kid and stumbling off yelling angrily to himself in proud Lovecraftian fashion. Surprisingly, he does not have one when he's fired after Hypnos collapses, instead beginning a Heel–Face Turn that results in him becoming a staunch (and largely sane) ally.
- Even D-Reaper of all characters suffers one as well. When Gallantmon: Crimson Mode flies toward the bubble in which Calumon keeps Jeri to save her from the Mother D-Reaper, the creature extends its tendrils to kill Gallantmon and then retrieve Jeri from inside the bubble only to be paralyzed at the last second by a Shaggai-loaded SaintGalgomon reversing the flow of time within its dimension. From there on, Mother D-Reaper uselessly tries to extend its tendrils while reduced to frantically screaming all the way to its demise.
- Lucemon from Digimon Frontier generally shows no emotion except cold disdain—but he loses it on the two occasions he's outmatched by Susannoomon. The second time is particularly extreme, as he's reduced to screaming about his "utopia."
- Digimon Data Squad's Kurata has a major one during the last phase of his final battle against the heroes. First of all, his head emerges from Belphemon's chest screaming the name of the Damon family, and goes from Smug Snake to angrily throwing temper tantrums and laughing uncontrollably at the same time, voicing his hatred towards Marcus and his father Spencer, and goes so far as to have his One-Winged Angel form consume several Space-Oscillation devices and go on a rampage to make several rage-filled attempts to destroy his enemies. But the greatest moment of his whole breakdown occurs when ShineGreymon enters Burst Mode and gives both him and Belphemon a Curbstomp Battle. He then goes from going on his rage-filled rampage to frantically begging for his life. It even continues after his final plan backfires, having him screaming for help as the rift between the worlds opens and vaporizes him.
- At the end of the first arc of Digimon Adventure 02, the Digimon Emperor starts having one of these as a result of trying to control Chimeramon. When he's finally defeated and learns the Digital World isn't some video game to win, he finally goes What Have I Done and turns back into his true identity, Ken Ichijouji. Think they're done there? It goes From Bad to Worse — minutes later, his partner Wormmon dies; when he goes back to the real world, he goes into a Heroic BSoD for two episodes.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- Vegeta, in the moment that leads to his Beam-O-War, where he freaks out after he realizes that Goku has succeeded in making him bleed. He gets a little blood trickle from his mouth, and suddenly he decides that he wants to destroy the planet.
- Vegeta's former partner Nappa really loses it when Goku, a mere "third-class" Saiyan, starts curbstomping him.
- Captain Ginyu has an even BIGGER freakout when he reads Goku's Power Level. So much that, at least in the dub, Goku says to Jeice, "I think your friend's having a nervous breakdown!"
- Frieza, upon seeing Goku transform into the Super Saiyan he feared for so long. He starts to become desperate once Goku gains the upper hand and really starts to lose it with each blow Goku deals him, resulting in an attempt to destroy Namek. It finally reaches its peak once Goku decides to call off the fight and states that Frieza already lost to someone who was "just a monkey" and tells him to live with the knowledge of defeat and flies off. Frieza snaps and had lost it so much he could barely think straight, resulting in attempting to kill Goku that leads to his own defeat by his own attack.
- Even before Goku turned Super Saiyan and things started to go downhill for him, he has a seething breakdown when he emerges from the ocean after being grievously injured by Goku's Spirit Bomb. Completely furious at this slight, he loses what little composure he had left and attempts to murder everyone in the vicinity, failing (just barely) with Piccolo and succeeding with Krillin. The latter's death is ultimately what triggers Goku into turning into a Super Saiyan in the first place.
- Later shown even quicker when Frieza shows up to get his revenge on Earth. Goku is MIA, and Trunks shows up instead. Frieza, not knowing who Trunks is, goes on long-winded posturing about the backwater weakness of Earth and laughs at him thinking he can win... and when Trunks turns into a Super Saiyan, Frieza goes from gloating to absolutely terrified to completely enraged in seconds, going from standing around talking to frantically trying to blow him up.Frieza, looking with horror as Trunks goes SS: It's— It's those eyes!
- In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' Frieza undergoes three of these and with each one loses more and more of his sanity. By the end of the film, he's left screaming in terror as Goku finally kills him yet again. One such breakdown is seen when Sorbet gets the drop on Goku. Frieza tries to get Vegeta to finish the job, and kill Goku, offering Vegeta the position of Supreme Commander. Vegeta turns Frieza down, and proceeds to deliver a Curb-Stomp Battle, during which Frieza, in progressively increasing desperation, tries and fails to injure Vegeta. In the Dragon Ball Super adaptation of Resurrection 'F', Frieza instead manages to maintain his composure for longer but breaks it when Vegeta overpowers him and dies screaming when Goku vaporizes him (again) with a Kamehameha.
- The episode in which Cell has his Villainous Breakdown is appropriately called "Cell's Breakdown" in English. In summary, after Gohan delivers two punches that make him drop to his knees, Cell decides to blow up the planet; only for Gohan to fire an even bigger Kamehameha that almost reduces to him to nothing. This results in a Clipped-Wing Angel that is easily beaten back to Semi-perfect form in one hit. From there, Cell decides to do suicidal bombing in order to win the fight, becoming completely unstable at this point.
- When Cell returns as Super Perfect Cell you can tell he was going insane from being humiliated by SS2 Gohan. He was yelling nonsense, and had facial tics that only a demented madman would have.Cell: (laughs manically) YES! I CAN FEEL YOU SLIPPING!! (when Cell starts to over power Gohan in the Beam-O-War)
- When Cell returns as Super Perfect Cell you can tell he was going insane from being humiliated by SS2 Gohan. He was yelling nonsense, and had facial tics that only a demented madman would have.
- But irony comes back to bite Cell in the ass when Vegeta hits him from behind with a Big Bang Attack, causing him to slip, uttering a single confused “Vegeta?” before getting vaporized. And when he finally dies, he can do nothing but scream "I AM PERFEEEEEECT!!!".
- Earlier Semi-Perfect Cell had a huge breakdown when Vegeta utterly humiliated him in their fight. After his smugness is shattered and Cell’s questions about how Vegeta gained his newfound strength are laughed off by Vegeta, Cell has a huge tantrum whining and bellowing like big green baby that Vegeta wouldn’t stand a chance against his perfect form.
- After Super Buu realizes he's been trapped in another dimension with no means of escape and with no candy to eat, he goes into a breakdown that results in a hole being ripped between dimensions from his screaming, allowing him to escape. A later breakdown occurs in the anime when he gets his ass kicked by Vegito after gaining a stronger form: This time his screaming threatens to collapse the wall between dimensions entirely.
- In Dragon Ball Super, Merged Zamasu does not take it well when Vegeta and Future Trunks throw his Sphere of Destruction back in his face and has a gigantic one after Goku manages to break through his second Sphere of Destruction and deform his now mortal right half. He goes from a Smug Super to a screaming psychopath as the heroes continue to defy him. By the end of it, what little sanity he had left is utterly destroyed. It doesn't help that being a fusion of a mortal and an immortal has left his Fusion Dance completely unstable in every way.
- And when he loses his physical body, his soul becomes a Laughing Mad engine of destruction incapable of any cognitive thoughts beyond his hatred for all life forms that aren't himself.
- His components both play this straight and avert this. Future Zamasu ends up suffering from a minor one when Future Trunks and Future Mai succeed in sealing him with the Evil Containment Wave, which only fails because they didn't add the sealing tag. When he breaks out, he's visibly sweating and shaken, which is noticeable considering he's been using his immortality to let him survive punishment throughout the arc. On the other hand, Goku Black, who was on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Vegeta for all the crap he put both the Saiyan Prince and his family both in the present and future and gets a "The Reason You Suck" Speech on top of it, just shrugs it off and keeps on fighting, never losing his self-control and even pulling out a new technique. On the other hand, in the manga, Black does lose his cool and rages over how Vegeta seems to suddenly get the better of him.
- Frost does not take it well when Frieza betrays the former right after managing the earn his trust by tricking Frost into using his 100% form before Frieza blasts him off the arena, even calling him an amateur at that. He is so enraged by the betrayal that he decides to ignore the rules and tries to blast Frieza despite already being knocked out. Zeno erases him before it could happen.
- Jiren, despite being an Anti-Hero at best, hits this mark as Ultra Instinct Goku utterly hands him his ass. As Goku and others explained, their big strength is in trust. As it flies in the face everything Jiren has dealt with, it absolutely infuriates him and he tries to murder the ringed out members of Universe 7. Goku saves them and smashes Jiren into the ground.
- Oddly enough, Dragon Ball makes a tragic example with Broly, who goes through the mother of all mental breakdowns over the death of his father, Paragus.
- Fairy Tail has this happen quite a lot. Exactly how they deal with this varies.
- Jellal, in the Tower of Heaven arc, maintains a calm demeanor even in the face of a furious Erza's insults and attacks. He keeps this attitude while fighting Natsu... until he starts destroying the Tower, sending Jellal into a rage. He wants to kill Natsu so badly at this point that even when Erza, who he needs alive for his plans, gets in the way to stop him, he fires off a deadly attack with little hesitation. When the attack kills Simon, he laughs maniacally and calls the action pointless because he still wants to kill Natsu and Erza. When Natsu gains the upper hand in Dragon Force, he engages a Motive Rant, his speech becoming progressively more unhinged, and he finally prepares an attack that will destroy the tower (which is what pissed him off in the first place), convincing himself that he can rebuild it even though he'd thrown away all his unwitting slaves by this point.
- The realization that he is alone, his underlings are defeated, and everyone else in the guild are risking their lives to stop him completely shatters Laxus' composure. Unfortunately, instead of collapsing, he goes into Unstoppable Rage. He has a second one when his Fairy Law spell fails to hit anyone in the city and he realizes that despite all his talk of wanting to root out the weakness of the guild and make it stronger, deep down he never wanted to kill anyone. This just sends him even further into Unstoppable Rage and nearly causes him to kill Natsu for real, only to just barely be defeated.
- The Oración Seis seems pretty prone to this. Racer when Lyon figured his powers out, Angel when Gemini disobeyed her in favor of Lucy's kindheartedness towards celestial spirits, Cobra when Natsu managed to knock him down and then Brain shoot him in the back for the crime of not winning decisively enough, and Midnight when Erza figured his powers out all suffer various amounts of anger and disbelief which leads each of them to try and kill their opponents before going down themselves. Brain has a pretty good one here too, with eyes bulging out and everything.
- Edolas!Erza when she's screaming about how Edolas will suffer without magic. Like Laxus, she also goes into Unstoppable Rage, not that it helps since Erza still manages to keep pace with her and eventually talk her down.
- After his defeat, Faust becomes completely horrified when he sees images of Igneel, Grandeeney, and a hungry-looking Metallicana◊ staring down at him. His face completely breaks down◊, and eyes bulge out, before fainting from sheer shock.
- Hades, despite displaying several Oh, Crap! faces whenever the heroes managed to surprise him or briefly get the upper hand, always composed himself and simply went back to dominating them. However, once his Soul Jar was destroyed while the heroes got their final Heroic Second Wind, the breakdown begins in earnest when he realizes this time he actually is on the verge of losing, at which point he devolves to screaming in defiance and pain as they wail on him and he tries to mount a counterattack.
- Mard Geer Tartaros, after spending most of the arc as the epitome of Dissonant Serenity and Soft-Spoken Sadist, finally hits his breaking point when his Memento Mori, the ultimate curse he created to unleash Cessation of Existence on his maker Zeref, fails to kill Natsu and Gray due to the latter using his Devil Slayer powers counter it at great cost to himself. He immediately re-assumes his One-Winged Angel form in anger and tries to kill the heroes, and when Natsu manages to land a Dragon Force-enhanced beatdown he goes full-on Unstoppable Rage and grabs Natsu by the head with the intent of splattering him against the stone floor not noticing Gray getting back up and getting ready to shoot him through the chest before it's too late to dodge.
- FLCL has a strange one when Naota reveals that he's absorbed the powers of Atomsk... it's Haruko that snaps, who immediately grabs her weapon (read: guitar) and lunges at Naota, screaming "THAT POWER'S MINE!!!"
- In Fruits Basket, Akito Sohma has a rather fragile grip on reality and thus it takes little to shake her up. A first breakdown comes after Kureno is freed from the curse, causing her to go from a scared but mostly kind child to full-on possessive and clingy, beating and locking up the other Zodiac members to keep them from "leaving" too. A second one comes towards the end of the series, after Momiji is freed, panicking her again to the point of nearly stabbing his mother with a knife. This breakdown is only intensified when Hiro is freed in the middle of the attack, leading Akito to stab Kureno in the back and then go off in a delirious state to attack Tohru Honda, who she blames for everything. However, Tohru manages to actually get to Akito and talks to her kindly... and after Tohru almost falls victim to Death by Falling Over in the middle of their confrontation, Akito finally realizes what a fucked-up bitch she is and has a Heel–Face Turn..
- Akito's mother Ren, who is just as screwed-up, has a breakdown of her own when she learns that Shigure only slept with her and showed any interest in her because he was in love with Akito and thought Akito would look more like her, had she been raised as a girl and not as a boy per Ren's selfish demands, thus causing her to enter Akito's room with a knife and demand that she hand over a box which supposedly had something of Akira (Akito's late father)'s in it. It's empty.
- Fullmetal Alchemist is no stranger to this trope.
- Envy is a homunculus known for their trick of avoiding outright combat with a well-placed Shapeshifter Guilt Trip, or just invoking Nightmare Fuel. Consequently, they completely fall apart when Roy Mustang, who's been tracking them down every since they killed Mustang's best friend, Maes Hughes, stops falling for their tricks and just focuses on taking them down. Envy ends up cornered, staring up at Mustang in sheer terror, whimpering and begging for mercy.
- Once Mustang burns them down to their true form; a tiny wormlike lizard, they're caught by Ed. Holding Envy's weakened form, Ed reveals that he knows what the source of Envy's hatred for humanity is: they envy humanity's ability to care for one another. Humiliated, cornered, miserable, and furious, Envy tears out their own philosopher's stone and dies.
- Central Command, with each General more or less losing it due to Roy and Olivier Armstrong's revolution defeating their forces and Father betraying them.
- The Big Bad himself, Father, after succeeding at becoming a Physical God, rudely had 50 million bound souls torn out of his body by Hohenheim. The imbalance was enough that Father could barely restrain the power he had stolen. As he was forced to expend even more souls in an attempt to protect himself, his self-control decayed further until, at the end, he was a muttering, shambling hulk.
- But Father's true breakdown occurs after his death; after confronting Truth and learning that he's no better then the humans he belittled, he's dragged into the Gate, asking in tearful screams what he should have done differently.
- One of the less noticeable breakdowns happens to Wrath towards the end of his fight with Scar. After Scar has revealed that he has a reconstruction circle along with his destruction one, Bradley loses it and starts roaring at Scar about his use of alchemy despite it being abhorrent to the Ishvalans.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Envy nearly breaks down after Dante sends Hohenheim of Light through the gate (thinking she killed him) but is talked into calming down when Dante promises to let him kill the Elrics. Even after killing Ed, he isn't satisfied. Upon being sent to the gate (thanks to Al using the stone and him trying to prevent it) and learning that Ed's father is still alive, he practically forces his way into the gate and loses it while transforming into a dragon in the process.
- Also Dietlinde Eckhart, the main baddie from the movie for the first anime, near the end of the climax, goes into a tirade about how Ed's world is full of monsters when Ed gains the advantage. Ironically, she ends up turned into something of a monster on the the trip back to her world through the gate and shot as a result of her appearance.
- Envy is a homunculus known for their trick of avoiding outright combat with a well-placed Shapeshifter Guilt Trip, or just invoking Nightmare Fuel. Consequently, they completely fall apart when Roy Mustang, who's been tracking them down every since they killed Mustang's best friend, Maes Hughes, stops falling for their tricks and just focuses on taking them down. Envy ends up cornered, staring up at Mustang in sheer terror, whimpering and begging for mercy.
- In F-Zero: GP Legend, with his plans in shambles and getting caught in the destruction of his super weapon, Black Shadow leaps out of his racer, crying out how neither he nor his dream of conquest will die. Captain Falcon hops out of his racer and responds with an epic "FALCON PUNCH!", pulling a Taking You with Me to make sure Black Shadow's threat is at an end.
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- Girls und Panzer:
- Alisa finds out that Oorai has discovered that they were intercepting their radio transmissions and is using that tactic against them, she breaks down and starts ranting about various things, such as a boy who won't notice her feelings, the supposed superiority of the Sherman Tanks, and how if Oorai is getting shut down, it should be shut down immediately. She briefly regains her composure when the team captain sends reinforcements, but when the team loses anyway, she breaks down again, especially when Kay states she wants to give her a talking-to.
- Erika Itsumi gets this the worst. When her Tiger II suffers a breakdown in Episode 11 due to no reason other than being a historically breakdown-prone Tiger II, she curses, screams, raises her fists and stomps the ground; on national TV.
- Minor character Kashiwara has one in the first episode of GunBuster. After Noriko "Wipe Out Girl" Takaya is chosen for a position that she felt should have been hers, and Coach doesn't do a damn thing to explain himself, Kashiwara tricks Noriko into a mecha battle — up to this point, Noriko's nickname of "Wipe Out Girl" was given to her for a reason. As Kashiwara keeps kicking Noriko's ass, she goes on a brief rant about how the latter girl has no skills or talent, and her expression is rather frightening. And when Noriko turns off her monitor on a desperate gamble, then Kashiwara goes completely apeshit and evidently tries to kill her. Fortunately, though, Noriko responds with her legs.
- In the religious film The Golden Laws, the rebel monk Devadatta, while far from sane, finally loses it after his attempt to kill Buddha via elephant failed. He then proceeds to dip his sharp-nailed pinky into a bottle of deadly poison and runs behind the monk to stab him. However, this becomes his undoing as Satoru's warning exposes Devadatta's true colors to both the townsfolk and King Ajatashatru. After receiving a sermon from Buddha on repentance, he accidentally bites his poisoned fingernail in anger, realizing too late what he did. From there on, he spends his last minutes on the floor, crying in despair while the other monks futilely try to help him.
- Gundam has a number of villains who lose it usually by the end.
- Rau Le Creuset, the Big Bad of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED spent most of the series portrayed as a very calm and calculating individual. However near the end of the series when he comes face to face with The Protagonist Kira Yamato and longtime rival Mu La Flaga, he reveals his true nature as a raving Straw Nihilist and Omnicidal Maniac. He then proceeds to spend the final episodes of the series screaming and ranting about how Humans Are the Real Monsters and that everything must be destroyed until Kira finally shuts him up with a beam saber through the cockpit. This is a bit of an atypical example, because as Rau becomes more unhinged, his plans are actually working, indicating that his previous calm demeanor may have been a Mask of Sanity.
- Azrael's horrendous one in the second-to-last episode. He had Natarle, Flay and the Bridge Bunnies at gunpoint to make sure they'd follow his orders while screaming like a maniac, beat up Flay when she tried to rebel, shot Natarle four times after she managed to get her subordinates away from him, and ultimately destroyed Mu's Strike Gundam and killed him. It's almost a relief when Murrue uses the beam cannon of the Archangel to obliterate the Dominion. Even as he desperately says to himself, "I can still win, I always win", Natarle calmly tells him "You lose" as they are obliterated together.
- Clotho Bauer too. He goes from the most reasonable of the Extended Trio, to a Laughing Mad Empty Shell following Shani and Orga's deaths.
- While Flay is more sympathetic, she has a rather tragic one in Episode 28. By this point she has genuinely fallen in love with Kira despite her original plan, and as such has become even more confused than she was earlier. When she suspects Kira of pitying her she completely loses her composure, and breaks down sobbing while asking how he can possible pity someone like her (implying that she is filled with self-loathing).
- The side-story Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray has Rondo Ghina Sahaku suffering one after Lowe Guele defeats him, despite the Red Frame losing the Gerbera Straight. It's especially shown when Ghina tries to shoot him in the back and is blocked by the Gerbera Straight's broken blade randomly floating by. Thankfully, Gai Murakumo puts Ghina out of his misery.
- The sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny has a major one in Rey Za Burrel. Having been defeated by Kira, and unable to avenge Rau, Rey comes to the realisation that he and Chairman Durandal have been in the wrong. This culminates in him shooting Durandal and going out crying for his mother.
- The former main hero, Shinn Asuka, essentially shambles into this trope in a very painful way. When we first see him, he's well adjusted with the worst thing he had was a chip on his shoulder towards ORB. However, as the series progresses, he loses more people he cared about either by death (like Stella) or rejection (like Athrun) and once Kira Yamato becomes the main hero once more, Shinn's nothing more than one big ball of anger, forged that way by Rey and Durandal and so lost in it that he loses sight of everything.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00
- Nena Trinity has two. The first is when she watches her brothers, Johann and Michael, be suddenly offed without warning by Ali Al-Saachez. It's not easy to feel sorry for the Trinity Siblings, but after watching Ali shoot Michael dead instantly, steal his Gundam Throne Zwei, and destroy Johann and his Throne Eins, Nena is left the Sole Survivor as she flies away, wailing about her beloved brothers' deaths. Not that she undergoes a Heel–Face Turn... even though she later kills Wang Liu Mei, she still considers discreetly going back to the Innovators' side to lay low, if only to survive. But the Big Bad, Ribbons Allmark, has already realized her as a threat and tells her personally she'll be executed. Nena gets excited because she thinks Ribbons is sending Ali, who is actually Ribbons' top subordinate, and thinks she will finally get to avenge Johann and Michael. But then a certain girl named Louise Halevy shows up, rages at her for killing her parents, and tears into Nena's Gundam Throne Drei, throwing Nena into a shocked yet indignant fury herself, not knowing that five years ago, she actually DID kill Louise's parents when she blew up a wedding for no other reason but for fun. Nena tries to defend herself, but Louise's Regnant Mobile Armor rips the outdated Throne Drei to pieces, even as she tries to explain that she's lost family as well, and that she was created for her job and forced to fight. But Louise wants her to shut up, and as Nena is defiantly screaming that she doesn't want to die like this, Louise tells her that her parents never even had the chance to say they didn't want to die before Nena killed them. When Louise finally strikes the killing blow and viciously guts Nena inside her cockpit with her Regnant's claws, Nena dies screaming a bitter curse at her murderer as the Throne Drei combusts and blows apart.
- Ribbons Allmark himself gets in on this midway into Season 2, when he witnesses Tieria Erde kill Bring Stabity. Up until now, Ribbons has presented himself as a Faux Affably Evil Chessmaster with a burning hatred for humans, believing in Innovade supremacy. But when he witnesses Bring — one of his fellow Innovades — killed in combat, his demeanor cracks enough for him to look suddenly shocked. When Wang Liu Mei acts all casual and almost mockingly asks him why he seems so upset, Ribbons momentarily snaps and strikes Wang across the face, calling her a "greedy bitch" while never raising his voice. But his true breakdown occurs during the final fight of the series, where after he and Setsuna destroy each others' Gundams, Setsuna still comes for him one last time with a repaired Gundam Exia. After trying so hard to kill the first human Innovator, Ribbons finally loses his cool completely and flies into a rage, angrily dismissing him as nothing more than a "mere human" as he commandeers the 0 Gundam in a final attempt to kill him.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Dekim Barton has an epic one when his entire plan unravels.
- In the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing anime, the Treize Faction and the colonies have become White Fang and revolt against Tsubarov, and when his mobile dolls and Lunar Base are being destroyed by Wufei, he begins ranting about how "he is invincible" shortly before one of the explosions kills him.
- Gundam Build Divers' first antagonist, Tsukasa Shiba, loses his composure twice. First is when he gets confronted by The Hero, Riki Mikami, who expresses his love for GBN, causing him to rant about how that game lacked any weight of Gunpla Duels. His second one is when Riku defeats him in a Gunpla Duel, first leaving him speechless and then ranting to his old friend Koichi as he leaves.
- Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE has Alus, the show's Big Bad who's also a Tragic Villain, who laments over how the Ancient Eldorans who made him never returned for him after over a millennia. This mourning comes back when Hiroto's team forms the Re:Rising Gundam and fire the Grand Cross Cannon at his orbital cannon. As everything settles down, he still refuses to surrender. Once Masami mentions of the "People of the Gunpla", Alus identifies the Gunpla fighters as another set of invaders interfering in his goals to defend Eldora and angrily decides to upload himself and his entire warfleet to GBN and destroy it and all of the Divers therein to ensure that no one will get in his way ever again. Needless to say, Hiroto and everyone in GBN were counting on him to do that. While he still puts up a good fight against the BUILD DiVERS and the game's players, he and his forces ultimately get trashed by them all, especially when millions more Divers enter the fray, causing him to be reduced to screaming in absolute fury as he combines his wrecked Core Gundam with the remains of his own ship in a last-ditch attempt to destroy GBN.
- Kentaro Mahara from Gundam Breaker Mobile's ONA Gundam Breaker Battalogue faces a huge one while rampaging at Japan's GB Fest. He starts losing his cool when Misa arrives with Mr. Kadomatsu's vaccine program to free Ryūsei, Sana and Touma from his hacking and gets more and more furious when the four defeat his AI Pilots and the onlookers start admiring the youths to his fury. When his main target Takuma enters the scene and corners him despite all his preparations, he finally snaps and assimilates all of the data from all of his victims into his Barbataurus in a rage-fuelled final bid to annihilate all of his foes at the cost of destroying the system. He continues verging towards insanity when Kadomatsu turns his AI Pilots against him and is left screaming insanely as all of his opponents give him one critical blow after another, culminating in him infuriately shrieking Takuma's name as the latter destroys his machine for good. Afterwards, he's left utterly broken by his latest defeat and having his "spotlight" stolen.
- Rau Le Creuset, the Big Bad of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED spent most of the series portrayed as a very calm and calculating individual. However near the end of the series when he comes face to face with The Protagonist Kira Yamato and longtime rival Mu La Flaga, he reveals his true nature as a raving Straw Nihilist and Omnicidal Maniac. He then proceeds to spend the final episodes of the series screaming and ranting about how Humans Are the Real Monsters and that everything must be destroyed until Kira finally shuts him up with a beam saber through the cockpit. This is a bit of an atypical example, because as Rau becomes more unhinged, his plans are actually working, indicating that his previous calm demeanor may have been a Mask of Sanity.
- Harry McDowell of the Gungrave anime is always completely calm and collected, no matter how bad a situation he's in, and never fires a weapon himself, until Brandon Heat, his best friend points a gun at him. Harry draws his own gun, fires at least five shots into him, then rams the barrel into his eye and fires a sixth. Later on he gets two other breakdowns as he's trying to deal with the fact that he killed his best friend whom he's trusted and relied on since they were children and whom he wanted to stay by his side.
- Oh it gets worse. Even after the murder, Harry still had his faculties about him. But after his takeover of Millenion he learned during a confrentation with his old boss that Brandon had known the entire time what Harry was up to, but hadn't turned him in out of loyalty. That's when Harry went over the edge.
- Plays out a little differently in the game's storyline. Harry just gets a punch to the face because he had plans to manipulate Maria into being Brandon's wife, something that Brandon would never do. Harry's also oddly calm when Grave/Brandon confronts him at the very end of the game. With all of Harry's lieutenants and monsters destroyed, he simply accepts his defeat and allows Grave to kill him.
- In GUN×SWORD, the Claw's dream is delayed at the 11th hour by Ray's Heroic Sacrifice, leading to his claw twitching for a full episode. When Van puts his dreams of Instrumentality down for good, he goes completely off the handle.
- The Dark Precure goes through this near the end of Heart Catch Pretty Cure. When she first appears, she's calm, collected and a walking can of Curb-Stomp Battle. However, once Yuri regains her Heroic Resolve and returns to action, she starts to steadily lose her composure, especially since Yuri's finally dumped her baggage and is fighting clearer. By the time of the final battle, and hopped up on a power boost, she's gone completely berserk, and all she wants to do now is just kill Yuri so she can have their father, Professor Sabaaku (a.k.a. Yuri's father Mr. Tsukikage, brainwashed by Dune), accept her as his only daughter. Though after she is fatally wounded by Cure Moonlight, and a now-freed Mr. Tsukikage accepts her and Yuri as his daughters, she seems to finally let go of her rage and hatred as she dies.
- Big Bad Dune soon follows. When we first seem him, he's a Smug Snake who gladly wipes the floor with the other Cures and turns the Earth into a desert. Once Yuri finally drops the rest of her baggage, restored to full power and her and Tsubomi are reunited with Erika and Itsuki that things start going south for Dune. When he's nearly purified by the Heartcatch Orchestra, he flips out, grows to massive proportions and starts punching the Earth, declaring that nothing can defeat the hate in his heart.
- It's difficult to name a Hellsing villain who doesn't have a Villainous Breakdown.
- Almost every single person who's faced down Alucard suffers such a breakdown at the end of their fight. Like Rip Van Winkle (she actually starts hers the moment that she realizes that Alucard is within fifteen miles of her, and her end is so unpleasant you could almost feel sorry for her) and Luke Valentine (if only for Alucard's Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "I'm a dog? Then you're dog food." Followed by mastication.)
- Zorin Blitz gets seriously freaked out when she learns just why she shouldn't have fucked with Seras. She was all confident while she was pulling a Break the Cutie tactic on Seras, mind raping and mutilating her, killing Pip, and referring to the dead Pip as an insect. Seras then snaps, drinks Pip's blood and awakens as a full vampire, and Zorin had a permanent Oh, Crap! expression on her face up until Seras kills her by grating her face against a wall until the only intact part of her face left is an ear.
- If that wasn't bad enough, when it's obvious she's going to be killed, Schrödinger appears and tells her flat out that the Major won't be using the suicide chip on her for being such a moron. As such, she would be dispatched in such a method as well.
- Enrico Maxwell has one during his assault on London, it rose when Alucard went Level 0 Release and massacred his armies with an entire army of familiars, and it went on max level when Anderson breaks the armored glass protecting him from Alucard's familiars. This is followed by him being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
- In fact, there are probably only three villains who avert this trope: Jan Valentine (who goes out laughing his ass off), the Captain (who goes out the same way), and the Major (who just wanted constant and everlasting war, regardless of who won or lost).
- Koichi Shidou from Highschool of the Dead receives one when Rei deems him unworthy of being killed.
- Miyo Takano’s breakdown at the end of Higurashi: When They Cry. She loses it as the rest of the Yamainu are getting defeated by and surrendering to the protagonists and their friends and afterwards turn themselves in as they are placed under arrest. She refuses to give in, even when Okonogi eventually decides to accept defeat as well, and that's when she finally realizes that Nomura tricked her into helping her just to close up a company. Upon doing so, she snaps and starts running for the hills until she trips and falls. Just as it starts raining, she starts crying and tries to commit suicide by scratching out her own throat like some other characters did in previous arcs, just as the protagonists corner her. The group sees that she's been infected with the Hinamizawa Syndrome, and she attempts to shoot Hanyuu but Hanyuu easily dodges her bullet (since she is a god, after all). Just as Takano is about to be arrested, Tomitake stops the arrest and pities her for being a victim of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, and the group decides to cure her of the disease, having her sent to the hospital for curing. After the credits roll, things calm down a lot more for her when Frederica Bernkastel gives her a Happy Ending by preventing the deaths of her parents in order to change her destiny. This is a rather surprising and fitting fate for her.
- And another one in Higurashi Kira Episode 2 during a battle with Oyashiro Rika and Trap Satoko alongside Ritual Tool Devil Nail Ripper. Takano becomes furious after Satoko transforms and helps Rika back up after which the two take her and Nail Ripper on together. The girls overpower Nail Ripper and Satoko creates a pitfall trap underneath its foot that it falls into, causing Takano to Freak Out and afterwards receive an Oh, Crap! moment upon seeing the girls about to unleash their 07th Explosion attack which destroys Nail Ripper and sends Takano flying into the horizon, screaming "Sorry, Grandfather!" along the way before becoming A Twinkle in the Sky.
- Daniel J. D'Arby's epic breakdown in Part 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Jotaro beats D'Arby in a game of poker by messing him up through sheer bluffing. D'Arby is an expert gambler, had the whole game rigged to his advantage, but ultimately lost to Jotaro's extreme poker face and his own immense fear that if he loses, he must reveal Dio's secret, which is likely to get him killed, reducing D'Arby to a blabbering, slobbering lunatic as he faints and then giggles erratically while squirming around on the ground.
- Later on, Dio has an epic one when Jotaro destroys his Stand, The World, with Star Platinum, as he finally disintegrates and explodes into a chunk of flesh to be erased by the sun.
DIO: "AAAAGGGGGHHHH! WHAT THE HELL?! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! I AM THE IMMORTAL DIO! I AM DIIIIIOOOOO!!!"- From Part 2, Esidisi invokes this by crying like a spoiled brat once his hand is cut off to calm himself down and unnerve Joseph. He suffers a real one once Joseph manages to out gambit him, leading to a futile Clipped-Wing Angel in an attempt to take him with him.
- The biggest one in Part 2 belongs to the Big Bad, Kars. After being launched into space by a volcano's eruption, he tries to return to Earth using air jets, but this results in his body freezing over until he becomes trapped as a creature caught halfway between organic and mineral, dooming him to float in the void for all eternity, unable to die even though he desperately wants to. Eventually, it becomes too much for him to handle and he stops thinking.
- The Big Bad from Part 5, Diavolo winds up trapped in an infinite death loop thanks to Golden Experience Requiem's power, making him experience all manner of deaths only to be resurrected just so he can die again. And he cannot tell when he will die or how. This drives him insane from paranoia and the last we see him, he's screaming at a little girl to get away from him.
Diavolo: "How?! How many deaths must I die?! What will happen to me next?! How much longer do I have to wait for the end?! (to a little girl) STAY BACK! LEAVE ME BE! D-DON'T COME CLOSER! STAY AWAY!! LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!" - Popo from Kaiba begins to lose it just as he wins. First, his mother's memory chip accidentally slips from his fingers and is destroyed, then he finds out his accomplice Cheki has had her personality wiped clean to become an obedient servant. Having lost these things precious to him and seeing the giant memory/Planet Eater plant coming towards planet Lala, he decides that letting it eat the world and achieving an Assimilation Plot is the only solution.
- Karakuridouji Ultimo: In Chapter 11, Rune completely loses it, with an ultimate crazed look on his face, while bawling his eyes out at the same time. Then there's the fact he's perfectly willing to kill his best friend because he doesn't love him back, then commit suicide.
- In Kill la Kill, Nui Harime completely loses her fake cheery exterior once Ryuko reclaims Senketsu, kicks her ass, claims both of the Scissor Blades, slices off her arms and absorbs them into Senketsu, going into a Madness Mantra until Rei Hououmaru rescues her. Nui then rages her frustrations at her for picking her up, all while her now-stubby arms spray blood in her face. From then on, her bubbly, happy smile is permanently replaced with a Slasher Smile.
- Yokoya in Liar Game could lie, deceive and bribe his way through any situation. That is, until he met Nao and Akiyama. At the end of the Second round, he managed to profit greatly from the game, when everyone else had just managed to pay off their debts and gained nothing. He began gloating to Akiyama that he had lost, when Nao of all people mentioned how Yokoya had contradicted his earlier philosophy of dominance. Instead, he had turned to tricks to profit and unknowingly had three traitors on his side. "Even though you made the big money, Mr Yokoya, you lost the game to me."
- In the Pandemic game, when he tried to bribe money to one of his teammates who trapped himself in the examination room, his teammate continually kept demanding more and more money, until Yokoya visually lost his calm demeanor and began violently kicking at the door, only to find out that it was Akiyama in the room the whole time and who he was slipping money to.
- The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa):
- In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004), Shadow Link gets one when Vio is freed by the other three Links and the Links defeat his Hinox servants. His Villainous Breakdown has him fly into a rage and hit the four Links with a This Is Unforgivable! and make one last lash at them — only to be defeated by the combined power of their Four Swords. He later returns, reformed after his Villainous Breakdown, to make a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Dark Mirror and therefore help the other four Links defeat Vaati.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), after his second and even more devastating loss to Link, King Bulblin is left as a shattered wreck sitting in the alley of Hyrule Castle Town. Even his former captive Ilia feels sorry for him.
- Maria no Danzai: Maria's victims tend to break down at some point or another as she targets their insecurities.
- Between Okaya making it clear how little Kowase really means to him and Maria blackmailing him, Kowase begins to lose his composure as he slowly loses control of his life. Yashima standing up to him after Maria encourages her becomes the last straw: in response, Kowase tries to drown her and force her to go back to how she was before in a desperate attempt to reassert control, only being stopped by Maria kidnapping him before he can finish.
- Kumiru suffers a relatively minor one when she accuses Kinugawa of stealing her clothes, only to turn out he couldn't have done it because he was with Maria at the time (and because it was Maria herself who stole her clothes and stuffed them in Kinugawa's bag). Days later, she loses it completely after she wastes the one lifeline Maria gave her and is given a "The Reason You Suck" Speech by Maria: Kumiru's face warps and she mumbles at Maria to die so she can reunite with her son. At this point Maria thanks Kumiru for showing her what an unrepentant bitch she really is.
- Mazinger Z: Dr. Hell had several breakdowns: The first of them happened in Episode 3, right after Mazinger-Z defeated his first Mechanical Beasts, and he realized Juzo Kabuto still could surpass him and thwart his lifelong plans even after death. He destroyed all Mykene Humongous Mecha he had found, declaring them being uselesss, and he very nearly gave up right then, but The Dragon Baron Ashura convinced him to not forfeit his wolrd-domination dream. Another memorable one happened in Episode 68, when finally he saw himself unable to triumph over Kouji Kabuto. He destroyed all of his newest Beasts, and swallowing his pride, asked help to Archduke Gorgon.
- Great Mazinger: Great Marshall Of Hell — The Dragon of the second season — also had several of them at the end of series, mainly in the Gosaku Ota manga continuity. His expression and subsequent fit when Venus-A shot the flying fortress Mykeros down was particularly beautiful.
- Team Kenya leader Victor of Medabots tournament arc managed to pull of The Stoic to an admirable degree, never once shifting from his slightly angry looking frown for the whole season. He continues this throughout the whole of the final, calmly and ruthlessly sacrificing his teammates and outright destroying two of Team Japan's Medabots without once raising his voice... right up to the point where The Hero expresses his intention to keep fighting despite having lost weapons, mobility and all of his armour. Then Victor laughs. Joker style. Along with his previously silent Medabot, who unleashes the hero's signature Finishing Move amid vitriolic ranting about the heroes abject stupidity from the Slasher Smile sporting Victor. As one of the heroes notes, "Woah."
- That is nothing when compared to The Japanese version.
- He gets worse when it is revealed that the entire tournament was merely a facade for the Rubber-Robo's real plan of triggering the Ten Days of Darkness again — the very Ten Days of Darkness that happened during Victor's childhood.
- That is nothing when compared to The Japanese version.
- Medaka Box: Kumagawa Misogi is usually so able to keep up his faux-innocent poker face even when defeated (as his entire shtick is being defeated) to the point where people question whether he even has a heart, but he surprises everyone after the third match of the Election Battles by having one of these. His follower Emukae Mukae almost kills herself saving him and his opponent from the bombs attached to them, upon which Kumagawa very visibly freaks out and starts screaming; not only because she got herself seriously injured, but because saving him was entirely pointless, as he can always negate his own death with "All Fiction". What's more, when Emukae asks him not to make her injuries become nothing with "All Fiction", Kumagawa has what could easily be seen as a panic attack. Among the onlookers, Kurokami Medaka remarks that this is clear proof that Kumagawa, the self-proclaimed iredeemable and weakest human being, actually values his comrades greatly in his own "Minus" way. She describes this incident as the good guys touching his "hidden trauma" without even realizing it. This event is what pushes Kumagawa into trying to redefine his character and take back his original Minus Skill.
- Gackto in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch starts to crack at the end of the first arc with Sara's betrayal and Kaito's rejection. He gets better pretty quickly. Michel is less lucky, going through a series of Freak Outs and Villainous Breakdowns near the end of his arc that involve killing his own servants, three for no reason, eating two of them and being appalled afterwards, being forced to possess an ill girl, discovering he's a clone and, when he finally says "forget this" and goes to join the good guys, having his free will taken away. Most of this is caused by the medication he's been given, which is slowly driving him insane.
- The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Emilia Ludowell was already a major bitch, but after seeing Anos beat her brother, her mind started taking a massive decline in what little sanity she had. Once Anos kills her; permanently reincarnates her into the very kind of half-demon she was racist towards; and leaves her in the buff, she effectively enters a Villainous BSoD, screaming and crying at her fate.
- Johan from Monster has three of these — one after finding a Bonaparta children's book that helped mess him up as a kid, and the other after he realizes that his memories are actually Nina's, the latter leading to the climactic scenes in Ruhenheim. Then he has a freakout at the climax when his sister determinedly interrupts his Kill Him Already!-moment with Tenma to Carebear Stare at him just as he's getting into his Breaking Speech stride. "I am too irredeemable! Now shoot me in the head or the kid gets it!". Given what he is, these make him even scarier.
- Peter Čapek is an even more straightforward example when he discovers that he and his entire underground neo-Nazi movement were being manipulated all along by Johan, who never cared about their promises of power and has started to kill them all one by one. Čapek rapidly begins to lose it, to the point of killing his chauffeur out of fear — which causes his former bodyguards to shoot him down in reprisal.
- Roberto goes through one when Tenma actually musters the nerve to shoot him during the University of Munich library fire, contrary to the speech he just gave the doctor about not being able to take a life, causing him to break his composure and attempt to kill him before he is shot a second time and seemingly falls to his death. He goes through another one when Lunge headbutts him in the nose after he momentarily subdues the inspector (both emotionally and physically) and gloats about him having "lost his edge," unleashing a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Lunge and trying to strangle him to death thereafter.
- Christof Sievernich has one after Eva Heinemann shoots off his ear. When he manages to tackle her and grab her gun, he goes into a hysterical, psychotic rage about how his future political career has been ruined by her actions altering his appearance, and nearly shoots her in the face point-blank before Tenma's narrow intervention saves her.
- Hartmann experiences one when he fails to mold Dieter into another Johan and Tenma prevails upon Dieter to leave Hartmann's side, leading him into a fit of anguished shouting about the boy.
- Moo in Monster Rancher Episode 47. During his final attack on the Searchers, he is completely overcome by the evil of his soul, and completely goes berserk, even destroying many of his own men. In the next episode he is finally destroyed.
- My Hero Academia: All for One has the breakdown of the century in the Final Battle, where after he spends the entire manga curbstomping everyone around him while bragging and boasting about being an "Invincible Demon King", he undergoes one heck of a Humiliation Conga that concludes with his former minion Lady Nagant and his own apprentice Tomura Shigaraki both turning on him, causing All for One to lose his shit and break down throwing a massive and deranged temper tantrum, screaming desperately for Kurogiri's help to no avail as he mentally regresses into the Stupid Evil Psychopathic Manchild he is deep down. By the time he's de-aged into a baby, courtesy of Bakugo's Howitzer Impact barrage, All For One could do nothing but screaming "NO!" and "HATE!" in sheer terror and frustration as he's rewinded out of existence.
- Tomoe has an absolutely huge freakout in My-Otome when she realizes that everyone (including her Valkyrie team) has deserted her for the side of the Garderobe Alliance, and Shizuru gives her the what-for about trying to manipulate everyone she comes across. Even in the end, Tomoe still tries to paint herself as a victim, saying that it's their fault for not cooperating with her.
- Gargoyle in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water manages to hold it together amazingly well throughout the finale, concealing any anger or distress even as his plans gradually crumble around him. Then his Puppet King breaks free of his control and dies freeing Nadia as well, at which point Gargoyle starts to get actually, openly angry for the first time in the show. And he just keeps getting angrier and angrier as Nadia continues to reject his commands, even as he threatens her friends with torture. Finally, the heroes's Cool Starship comes crashing right into his already-failing lair and Gargoyle finally snaps, unable to do anything but scream madly about how they're committing sacrilege by fighting him before getting blown halfway to hell by a pointblank cannon blast.
- Naruto:
- Gaara, whose sand provided him with such perfect protection that he'd never been hit, much less felt physical pain (up to a certain point, though), is stabbed in the shoulder by Sasuke. Gaara wonders what that warm, wet stuff is and then goes nuts when he realizes it's his own blood.
- He has an even bigger one during his final battle with Naruto later that day. For all his life, Gaara's been driven by his hatred and rage, and in the final decisive clash, Naruto's love for his friends gave him the power to overcome Gaara. Realizing that his entire philosophy was wrong makes Gaara lose it completely, screaming while Naruto continues to crawl towards him. Despite this, it's Naruto's understanding of his history that helps him let go of his hate at last.
- Itachi has a rather frightening one during his fight with Sasuke. When he finally reveals his reason for sparing Sasuke, he flips out into a maniacal, almost psychotic scream session, sharply contrasting his usual stoic behavior. Itachi implied afterwards that this was not a breakdown, it's how he truly is on the inside. It's later revealed, however, that the entire breakdown was purely an act.
- Sasuke himself cracks during his fight with Kakashi after meeting Team Seven again. He gets uncharacteristically mad at a "low-life" like Kakashi merely possessing a Sharingan, then claims that the laughter of the villagers in his memories is ridicule because they're ignorant of Itachi's sacrifice: he'll shut them up by killing everyone in Konoha. He goes completely Laughing Mad (see it here).
- Deidara gets pretty unhinged when he realizes that Itachi's Sharingan is more artful than his bombs, and he tries to kill Sasuke by blowing himself up at the end of their battle.
- Filler Villain Fuka has one every time Naruto manages to hurt her or damage her hair.
- When Kabuto was attacked in Part I we see his eyes go bloodshot as he reveals a bloodthirsty side. Also, after Orochimaru died, Kabuto had an existential crisis, but he claims that the person who inspired him to continue was Naruto.
- During Kabuto's fight with Sasuke and Itachi, Kabuto has some more of these. Confident in his beliefs and victory, he begins to shed tears when the Uchiha brothers fend off his attacks, and during his counterattack tearfully declares that a genius in everything, like Itachi, wouldn't understand his desire to find his true self: no one would stand in his way.
- Just before he's pinned to the same moon Princess Kaguya is being sealed in, Black Zetsu screams at Naruto that he's just another part of the shinobi history he created. Naruto responds that it's shinobi who truly made that history, not some spoiled brat who still clings to his mother's side even after a millennia of living.
- Gaara, whose sand provided him with such perfect protection that he'd never been hit, much less felt physical pain (up to a certain point, though), is stabbed in the shoulder by Sasuke. Gaara wonders what that warm, wet stuff is and then goes nuts when he realizes it's his own blood.
- In Chapter 272 of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Kurt Godel loses some of his composure when Negi reveals that he knows that the Magical World is falling apart. Negi then accuses him of betraying the ideals of the people he looked up to in his youth namely Arika and Nagi. Godel gets pissed, calls Negi a "little boy who's too smart for his own good", and decides to force Negi to be his pawn. It fails.
- And in Chapter 298, Fate, who's normally coldly Stoic visibly trembles with wrath and looks upset when Negi declares that he will prevent the future in which the magical world collapses from happening.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Somewhat similar to the Trigun example below, the protagonist, Shinji Ikari, goes through one in The End of Evangelion. Normally, it would probably just fall under Go Mad from the Revelation, except that Shinji's misery leads him to take it out on the rest of humanity.
- Played straight with Gendo, who completely loses his composure when Rei turns against him and rather than allowing him to finally fulfil his plan of being reunited with Yui, instead chooses to let Shinji be the one who decides what should be done with Instrumentality. Notably, Gendo is shown actually being afraid and even begging for the first time, pleading with Rei to not leave him behind.
- Asuka Langley Souryuu's whole character arc is a slow-acting one where she increasingly loses her patience and sanity as she gets defeated more and more in battle and her self-confidence gets shattered, including her worsening attitude and abusive behavior towards Shinji. If her entry on Tantrum Throwing is anything to go by, she's had several catastrophic meltdowns. By End of Evangelion, she straight-up loses it completely and reverts to her base instincts upon waking up from her Angst Coma; a berserk, shrieking madwoman who just wants everyone and everything around her to die horribly. By the end of it all, after having been gruesomely killed by the MP EVAs and willing herself back to life, Asuka is left bedridden on the outside and dead on the inside, reduced to a catatonic, blank slate.
O-Z
- Almost every One Piece Big Bad has one. Kuro, Don Krieg, Arlong, Wapol, Crocodile, Enel and Moria all have epic breakdowns while fighting Luffy.
- So far, the only major enemy that Luffy has actually defeated to NOT have a breakdown was Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy Rob Lucci. He only had time for an Oh, Crap!.
- Crocodile's breakdown is notable because it was one of the main reasons he lost the final round of his fight with Luffy — it translated to the fight itself, causing a Combat Breakdown wherein he unleashed his poisoned hook and tried to match Luffy physically rather than just using his Devil Fruit powers to do the deed like he had for the last two rounds. Warlord or no, Crocodile is not a physical fighter and even this early in the series Luffy was an insane physical powerhouse that was out of his league.
- Moria's breakdown came at about the same time as he used Shadows Asgard.
- Elite Mook Blueno as he fights Luffy during the Enies Lobby arc. Blueno had previously defeated Luffy on Water 7 along with the rest of CP9, especially since Luffy couldn't at first overcome their special martial arts. When the two face off again (with Blueno by himself no less), not only does Luffy get past his strong defense, he can even keep up with him. Blueno keeps his composure through that, seeming shocked and impressed that Luffy is that good, but he's still in control. Then Luffy uses Gear Second, and the breakdown begins as he is unable even to dodge, finally ending where he tries to stand up to a strong attack. Once it hits, he looks like he has a smug grin on his face from withstanding the impact...only to drop a second later, out cold.
- Part of the reason he's so horrified at what Luffy is doing is because this particular CP9 generation is the strongest one yet and has never lost a fight. Blueno had clobbered Luffy twice and stopped the Straw Hat Pirates several times already to where he feels it's a routine. As he doesn't know what it's like to not curb stomp everyone in his way, let alone run out of options the moment the match had begun, he momentarily loses all coherent thought. The whole squad is in such disbelief that Luffy was victorious that some of his comrades pretend it didn't happen and the others decide to accept hasty (and incorrect) conclusions of what just happened... though they're probably right on the count that spending five years as a bartender didn't help with his fighting skills.
- Zoro and Sanji can be relied upon to drive their foes crazy, even when the villain comes into fight with top confidence.
- Mr. 1 was cool as cucumber... until Zoro got up after getting his chest sliced upon and nearly getting hit with dozen falling rocks, upon which Mr. 1 is stunned and just blindly charges at Zoro.
- Kuroobi was smug and confident in the first half of his fight with Sanji, even mocking Sanji underwater saying he was too weak to defend anyone. Then back on surface Sanji beats him into bloody pulp and Kuroobi can't even see straight for rage, cursing before Sanji sends him though Arlong Park
- Ohm is carefree and stoic when faced with Zoro, but has a big Oh, Crap!! when Zoro slices though his Iron Cloud whip and cuts him down.
- Mr. 2 Bon Clay is graceful and flamboyant, but in the anime just ends up growling and snarling as Sanji kicks him around.
- Undead Samurai Ryuma has dignified one when Zoro sets him aflame, ashamed that he has let the legendary body of the Samurai down and gives Zoro his black katana saying he has earned it.
- Absalom starts off shit talking Sanji when he comes to save Nami, having met Sanji's shadow in a weak body earlier and assumes he is the same, ranting that he's worthless until Sanji interrupts him by blowing his ass across the room, Absalom can only question why the hell he's so strong as Sanji pounds him into the floor.
- Snow Harpy Monet becomes absolutely terrified when she thinks Zoro is gonna cut her in half (he does, but not fatally); and later stone giant Pica is unabashed that Zoro keeps slicing him to pieces, only getting furious when Zoro mocks his soprano voice.
- Hody Jones, leader of the New Fishman Pirates, undergoes a physical breakdown to go with the mental one. Near the end of his fight with Luffy, Hody's face seems to degenerate, becoming less human.
- While the New Fishman Pirates were never entirely sane in the first place, they go completely nuts when Luffy defeats Hody. They start killing their own men as "sacrifices" for their hatred towards humans.
- Spandam deserves special mention as he some has truly beautiful meltdowns throughout Enies Lobby, his big first one is when he hears Luffy has broken in, but he doesn't get clear message of details from his men. Assuming Luffy has been captured he goes to gloat to the chained Robin and Franky asking the government goon on the phone how badly damaged the invading pirates are. The goon reports an army has broken though all the tower of justice and that Luffy has taken out 5000 men, much to Spandam's stricken shock◊. Spandam's next big one is when he claims that Luffy and the crew will never be able to save Robin as they face to face with The Government, pointing at the flag with pride, Luffy turns to Usopp and asks him to burn the flag, Usopp does so thus declaring war on the entire worldSpandam: ARE YOU INSANE? YOU DO THINK HONESTLY THINK YOU CAN SURVIVE WITH THE WORLD AS YOUR ENEMY?
Luffy: BRING IT ON!!!!
(cue Spandam squealing like a girl)- Spandam truly comes apart at the end of the arc, when he drags Robin towards to end of bridge of hesitation (tasting victory) BUT THEN he gets shot down in flames. Getting up in fury he screams who did that and sees Usopp the Sniper King on top of the Tower of justice posing like a boss, and gets even more outraged when none of his men can shoot back at Usopp, then Robin gets her cuffs off and slaps his face bloody and Franky crushes him with an elephant. But still not taking the hint, Spandam insanely orders his men to blow the crew out of the water when they are escaping the Buster Call, screaming that the whole situation is impossible and is cut short when Robin snaps his spine in two.
- Donquixote Doflamingo is an interesting example. At first, it wasn't Luffy, but Trafalgar Law, who began to tweak Doflamingo by capturing Caesar and gave him the choice of either giving up his title as a Warlord or face the wrath of Kaido of the Four Emperors when Doflamingo couldn't provide him anymore artificial Devil Fruits without Caesar's help. Doflamingo eventually managed to cool down after thwarting Law's plan and capturing him, but then he suffered another one after losing control of his kingdom thanks to the Straw Hats. His final breakdown followed the series' formula when Luffy finally squared off against him and gave him an epic beatdown. By the time he's been imprisoned, he's ranting insanely that only he could keep the seas from collapsing into an all-out war for domination, though after some time he's calmed down, taking solace in the fact his sworn enemies will probably not survive, and his only request afterwards is to be given daily news so he can watch the world go to hell.
- Vinsmoke Judge falls apart spectacularly once it's revealed his plan has backfired and he's been betrayed, and Big Mom had wanted him dead the entire time. He starts weeping and begging for mercy in such an embarrassing manner even his children start jeering him and telling him to take it like a man, and the betrayers in question delight in telling him his dreams have been crushed.
- In the same occasion, Big Mom is rendered catatonic due to the massive chaos that just unfolded; they built up so much rage towards so many things at once, they fail to decide where to direct their Unstoppable Rage first. This is actually a problem for the heroes: their original plan was to induce Big Mom into a different kind of breakdown via breaking Mother Carmel's photo, which would've caused Big Mom to lose her Nigh-Invulnerability.
- During the raid on Onigashima, after Orochi gets betrayed by Kaido he goes completely around the twist, charging around and starting fires to burn down Onigashima and destroy the Flower Capital. He calms down when he meets Komurasaki... only to continue freaking out when he's pinned under rubble and robbed of his powers, and Komurasaki reveals herself as Kozuki Hiyori, the daughter of his greatest enemy. He's reduced to sobbing pitifully for mercy and trying to shift the blame, but Hiyori's not interested in his pleas.
- In the penultimate episode of Paranoia Agent, Lil' Slugger goes after (now former) detective Ikari's wife, Misae, after she learned of the cost of a potentially life-saving surgery for her chronic illness. Misae proceeds to Break Him by Talking, lecturing him about how she overcame the weakness of heart and desire for an easy way out that led to him gunning for her and how she, and humanity by extension, were far stronger than he could fathom. All the while, Lil' Slugger grows from a scrawny kid into a hulking brute and swings wildly about the room, growing increasingly frustrated until, finally, he simply vanishes.
- Perfect Blue features both Rumi and Me-Mania experiencing this towards the end. Rumi ends up permanently institutionalized and delusional.
- Adachi from Persona 4: The Animation immediately starts freaking out when he realises that the kids he's fighting aren't as pathetic as he expected, and also that they're rejecting his philosophy, he almost kills himself too, but then he gets possessed by Ameno-Sagiri
- This can happen occasionally in Pokémon Adventures, with perhaps the crowning example being Ghetsis in the penultimate chapter of the B2W2 arc, who after being defeated and denied control over anything, loses his Maskof Sanity completely and ultimately goes Laughing Mad.
- Grings Kodai from Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions is normally quite the Smug Snake, but when Zoroark foils his plan, he does both variations, first flying into a psychotic rage and trying to murder her and her son. When that backfires, he becomes a lot less composed than he used to be.
- Fenrir the Princess of Disaster has one in Prétear when Mawata is saved by her family and Sasame appears to have second thoughts about siding with her. However, considering before her Face–Heel Turn she was already an insecure, needy young girl and fell when Hayate rejected her love , this isn't so much a sudden change in personality as it is a revelation that Takako, the sweet girl she used to be, is still there underneath the villain, and is not beyond salvation. Soon, Himeno succeeds into bringing Takako/Fenrir back to the side of good.
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, Kyubey, despite previously being completely emotionless, noticeably starts to become more frantic as their plans start falling apart, and even stutters upon seeing Sayaka summon her witch form, and is shocked to learn that Sayaka and Nagisa are also part of the Law of Cycles. And then they shout "THIS IS SO ILLOGICAL!" in unison once their Isolation Field is destroyed. Finally, Kyubey is reduced to genuine terror when Demon Homura appears and the entire race is now under her rule. In the movie's final scene, Kyubey is nothing more than a quivering lump of fur next to Homura.
- Reborn! (2004): The normally calm and polite Byakuran goes apeshit following Uni's Heroic Sacrifice because of her key importance in his plan to become ruler of all time and space.
- Daemon Spade loses it when Tsuna gains the combined powers of the Vongola and Shimon rings. He becomes a screaming lunatic futilely lashing out in rage and denial. The breakdown is reflected in his appearance — his once bishonen form becomes a warped and hideous mass Body Horror.
- In the finale of Revolutionary Girl Utena the previously unflappable Chessmaster Akio Ohtori. When he sees that Utena has not only failed to give up, but also succeeded in what he thought was impossible and opened the Rose Gate, threatening the cornerstone of his illusionary power, he is immediately reduced to desperately begging her to stop what she is doing, and finally just wordlessly screaming in terror.
- Sakura Gari: Sakurako, Souma's Yandere sister, suffers a massive (and heartbreaking one near the end. S/he's actually a boy named Youya, desperately lonely and unstable, and s/he ends up commiting suicide when s/he thinks s/he's killed Souma. But not before... after having locked Souma and Masataka away in a burning building, s/he stumbles in Lord Saiki's bedroom, whispering "Father... Sakurako has always wanted to see you...", then starting to chop up everything in sight with his/her trusty katana, crying and screaming "Why was I born? Why am I here? Why do I exist, Father, WHY?!" When s/he stops and realizes that Souma might be dead, s/he screams in horror, lets go of their weapon and then runs under the cherry trees... Few later, we find him/her dead, his/her wrists slit open and their lifeless body inside the pool. And Souma bawls his eyes out with his/her lifeless body in his arms.
- Soul Eater is fond of these, since most of its characters aren't exactly stable.
- Dark Magical...Person Crona is constantly on the cusp of a nervous breakdown anyway, but goes absolutely ballistic when Maka connects with their psyche.
- Giriko has one following Arachne's death. And later, he follows it up with an even bigger one. In fact, he gets so angry that his soul explodes.
- Kishin Asura has these constantly in the anime, due to his overwhelming terror at anything he doesn't understand, but there needs to be a special mention for the absolutely SPECTACULAR one that he has in the final episode.
- Isshiki gets one in RahXephon. After spending the entire show trying to play the Magnificent Bastard to prove that he isn't worthless he finally gets into a position where he can strike a definitive blow against the Mu... only to have it backfire spectacularly, leading directly to him losing his position and the Omniscient Council of Vagueness that he was working for denying ever having heard his name. He doesn't take it well.
- Rosario + Vampire:
- Kuyou in Chapter 52 of manga Season 2.
- Akuha at the end of Chapter 53 breaks down laughing and crying out of insane jealousy after she sees Moka with Tsukune.
- One of the most heartbreaking examples comes from Rurouni Kenshin, with Soujiro Seta revealing his horrific Back Story to Kenshin as they fight, and quickly losing it afterward.Soujiro: You say you strive to protect those who need your help? WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU? Just watch it.
- Makoto Shishio also has a breakdown after being hit with Kenshin's ultimate technique, though this is due in part to his badly burned body going over its 15 minutes limit of fighting, causing him to lose what little sanity he has.
- Enishi Yukishiro also has a breakdown of epic proportions at the end of Jinchuu arc. When the image of his dead older sister Tomoe doesn't smile for him anymore, during his second fight with Kenshin, he loses it.
- In The '90s Sailor Moon anime.
- In the DiC dub, Queen Beryl's response to Princess Serena's reassurance that she isn't scared anymore is a frustrated "YOU SHOULD BE!"
- In Sailor Moon R, En had one of these in Episode 59 when Ail told her that Mamoru never really loved her. In response, she literally smacks him aside and begins blasting the two with energy, even blasting Moonlight Knight when he intervenes.
- Koan (Catsy) goes on a blind, screaming rage after Rubeus confesses that he never loved her and her attempt at suicide with a time bomb was thwarted by the Sailor Scouts.
- Berthier's (Berty or Birdy, depending on dub or sub) Villainous Breakdown is more depressing. After Petz (Prizma) and Calavaras (Avery) refuse to help Berthier catch the Sailor Senshi, Berthier chuckles and tells everyone how she's not surprised that her sisters would abandon her and thinks it's very funny — until the last, lingering thread of her emotional restraint breaks and she uses her Dark Water power to freeze herself and everyone around her.
- Rubeus himself had one of these, starting off when Sailor Moon and Chibi-Usa caused his ship to explode, and culminating when Esmeraude left him to die on said spaceship, ignoring his pleas for help. He goes from Evil Gloating to anger to begging over several minutes. And yes, he deserved it. It's even more noticible in the original Japanese.Rubeus: ESMERAUDE! Help me! ESMERAUDE! (the ship blows up, killing him)
- In S season, Eudial had one when the Holy Grail was revealed, flamethrowering the entire place with a deranged grin and laughing most of the way to get the Holy Grail. When Sailor Moon sends her out the window, she's really pissed, which leads directly to her death.
- Queen Nehellenia, the Big Bad of Super S has one after being blasted by Sailor Moon's Golden Crystal causing her to turn into a hideous old woman and choosing to reactivate her magic mirror prison seal, rather than losing her beauty. Consequently, when she is released from the seal during the beginning of the next season she spends most of her time in this state raving about how she will make Sailor Moon and her friends suffer.
- Ukyo from Samurai 7 maintains his Magnificent Bastard demeanor right up until he's attacked by Kikuchiyo in the last episode, upon which he snaps.
- Berg Katse in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman spent his/her whole life being manipulated by Big Bad Sosai X, whom s/he worked his/her ass off to please. In the finale, however, X revealed that he intended to destroy the world and leave Katse behind to die with everyone else. Realizing s/he'd been played for a fool his/her whole life, Katse absolutely lost it in front of the Science Ninja Team and committed suicide by throwing himself/herself into the lava pit screaming "DIE, DIE, EVERYBODY DIE!!!".
- In the second-to-last episode of the first Shaman King anime, Hao gets a huge Villainous Breakdown when Yoh regains his soul and his consciousness to the joy of his friends and his fiencee Anna — leading Hao himself to lose his cool and get really mad as well as go Ax-Crazy, to Opacho's upset.Opacho: ...I don't understand. I thought we were friends... (walks away sadly)
Hao: Hah... hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Opacho's gonna miss out on all the fun! HEAR ME NOW, SPIRIT OF FIRE! (Spirit of Fire appears) REGENERATE, AND ARIIIIIISSSEEEE!!! Devour him! (Spirit of Fire lunges at the Great Spirits and starts absorbing their energy)- In the manga and the second anime that adapts the former, while Goldva isn't a villain since she and the Patch are simply forced to do their duties to protect Hao while he's in the process of becoming one with the Great Spirit, the moment he absorbs Lip and Lap's souls after awakening is when she starts going ape-shit insane, going into Laughing Mad mode and raving about Hao's new role as the new Shaman King before attempting to kill everybody.
- Shugo Chara!: Nikaidou, after capturing Su (And, previously, both of Amu's other Charas, although, by that time, they had been freed), seems to become more, and more unhinged, constantly ranting about his obssession with success and societal promotion, although whether or not that was him trying to (Thankfully, failingly.) "convince" himself to not embrace his past Dreams is left unclear.) and typing furiously upon his computer while once hitting his desk hard. His only moments of knowingness come when Su speaks towards him, trying to convince him to let her out to clean his room and make him a new cup of coffee, rather than escape and, more noticeably, when she (Albeit inadvertently.) reminds him of his own Dreams. An odd case within the fact that only one protagonist (Su, who is being held hostage.) ever gets to see most of it within action. And his face. Good God, his face. Also becomes completely subverted during The Anime's finale/conclusion of the manga's third arc: Gozen breaks down, but it's not at all villanous: Goxen has been revealed to be Hikaru, the boy that Amu encountered (Within an, at times, ''very disturbing'' fashion.) beforehand, and he is crying throughout years of repressed sadness due towards his extraordinarily strict upbriging, which the return of his Heart's Egg towards him lets completely out, thus stopping his usual (albeit false) extraordinarily unfeeling temperament.
- Hellmaster Phibrizzo from Slayers NEXT. When his plan to have Lina cast the Giga Slave and destroy the world backfires due to Lina being possessed by the Lord of Nightmares, he completely flips out, eventually screaming out "I WANNA BE DESTROYED!". His wish is granted shortly afterwards.
- Valgaav from TRY inverts this trope. At first, he's fueled by vengeance against both Lina and the Dragons, with the anger and psychosis you'd expect from such a motive, but after merging with Darkstar, he reveals his new plan to remake the world with an eerily calm demeanor.
- Joker of Smile Pretty Cure! suffers a major one. At this point, it seems like he's achieved some sort of victory, gathering tons more of negative energy to revive Big Bad Pierrot. And the icing on the cake, he's created his own group of Psycho Rangers, the Bad End Precure, and sends them to deal with the girls for good. Things fall apart when he realizes that the Miracle Jewel he sought was just a fluke — it was just the egg form of Queen Candy. It goes downhill once the girls are able to overpower their twins and return to the real world that Joker flips out, revealing he's only doing this because he wants to sow chaos, that he has no real purpose. At the very end, a batch of the Bad End ink falls on top off him and he "gleefully" disappears and is absorbed into Pierrot.
- Dr. Eggman, in Sonic X, manages to get a breakdown towards the beginning of an arc, in which he finds Professor Gerald Robotnik's "Ultimate Life Form" and initially mistakes him for Sonic, believing that Sonic found the secret laboratory ahead of him. Eggman calms down, however, when he realizes the figure standing before him is not Sonic, just someone with a very similar silhouette.
- Two examples from the original Strider manga:
- The Enterprise scientist in Chapter 3 starts out very confident in the security he has got for his secret lab, as he tells Faceas Clay through a phone call. This confidence vanishes just as Hiryu and Cain make quick work of his men, making him jump on the phone to ask for reinforcements moments before both striders confront him. But the real breaking point comes right after Hiryu destroys the Zain Terminal, which he treated as his child: he goes Laughing Mad, mocking Hiryu and Cain that their efforts are futile since the terminal they destroyed was but one of millons and finally burns to death while fanatically praising Faceas Clay.
- Vice-Director Matic in the final chapter. Ever the Smug Snake, Matic corners an exhausted Hiryu after he murdered Clay (as he wanted), explains to him all his plans to take over both the Striders and Enteprise, and is about to execute Hiryu when Cain comes to the rescue. From there, it's all downhill for him: he fights an injured and weakened Hiryu, but backs away when Hiryu adamantly refuses to go down, then finds the Striders he thought were his lackeys don't follow his orders, and then Director Kuramoto (who he ordered his execution) was not only alive, but on to his treason. Cornered, he breaks down and threatens all present with a bomb, only to be Impaled with Extreme Prejudice seconds after by the main Zain computer he desired for so long.
- In Episode 6 of Tenchi Muyo!, it seems that Kagato is close to victory: Tenchi and Ryoko are helpless, Ayeka and Mihoshi are trapped in another dimension with Washu and the Juraian ship Tsunami is being drawn into the Souja with the namesake Goddess and Sasami being dragged in for the ride. Then, Tenchi decides to follow up on some advice Tsunami gave and, when Kagato attacks Tenchi again, he's stunned to see him with three Light Hawk Wings. He's quick to point out that there's no way Tsunami could be giving him her power until he realizes the true horror: this isn't Tsunami's doing — it's Tenchi's own power manifesting.Kagato: It's YOU! You're doing this!
- The Anti-Spirals (represented by their avatar the Anti-Spiral King) of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are archetypal inhumanly calm and dispassionate Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Until the last episode. During the Final Battle the Anti-Spirals unleash thousands of years worth of repressed emotion and Hot Blood, ranting about the sacrifices they made to protect the universe and screaming that the protagonists are idiots who don't realize that their actions will lead to the end of everything.
- It's actually a vital plot point if you look at it right. Both Lordgenome and the Anti-Spiral are very calm and confident, Smug Snake levels on the part of the Anti-Spiral. When the heroes manage to fight them face to face, they go completely Hot-Blooded and proceed with the ass-kicking. The reason it's a plot point is because the Anti-Spirals, and by extension Lordgenome, were trying to suppress hot blooded badassery. Lampshaded on the part of Lordgenome and foreshadowed for the Anti-Spiral when Anti-Spiral Nia says "Not even Lordgenome could suppress the Spiral instinct."
- Cytomander also loses a fair chunk of his self-control during the Battle of Teppelin, such as cackling like a maniac after Simon unleashes a drill Macross Missile Massacre.
- In Tokyo Mew Mew, Kish gets this when he realizes that the Mew Aqua doesn't actually make people stronger, just stores power. He gets even worse with every rejection courtesy of Ichigo.
- And later, Deep Blue gets this when Ichigo reaches out to Masaya, who apparently starts fighting back against the aliens' leader from within him. The more Masaya fights back, the more Deep Blue loses his composure. And he gets even worse when he finally realizes what is happening to him, and eventually gets held in place by Masaya much to even more of his agitation. His breakdown gets more and more intense until Ichigo becomes forced to defeat them both in order to set her beloved Masaya free, which is a rather nice end to Deep Blue.
- Trigun completely reversed this during the climactic showdown between Vash and Legato. There, Vash... the good guy was in a mad panic, while Legato... the bad guy was remaining calm and reserved.
- Played straight in the manga with Rai-Dei the Blade and Leonoff the Puppet Master. For the former, Vash manages to defeat him, the guy completely loses it and tries to kill Vash with one final attack only to be shot dead by Wolfwood. For the latter, even after he tries mindscrewing with Vash, Vash just calmly attempts to talk with him and starts reminding him of things from his past, revealing that he used to know Leonoff when he was younger. Leonoff can't take all these returning memories which he's apparently tried to dispose of before, and ultimately winds up killing himself.
- Kanamori has two in The Unforgiving Flowers Blossom in the Dead of Night. The first is when Marie Moriya, the girl he's been molesting during his "supplementary lessons" with her, threatens to tell others about said "supplementary lessons", he snaps, and strangles her to death. The second breakdown was when he failed the three rules about Mesomeso, and Marie becomes Mesomeso, and is about to kill him, he breaks down, and told her that he always loved her. She tells him she loved him too, and gives him the Kiss of Death.
- Dilandau in The Vision of Escaflowne wavers between this and just being outright Ax-Crazy. In his first few appearances, he's merely sadistic. Once Van scarred his pretty face, he moved up to outright screaming psycho killer. Near the end, after Van killed his entire squad, he starts hallucinating and babbling and only snaps out of it long enough to slaughter a bunch of people.
- In the final of Witchblade anime Wadou slips into complete drooling insanity when his shady enterprises bring more disastrous effects than he could imagine. Looks like little backstabbing is one thing, but possibility of being obviously guilty in flattening half a city or so is another.
- Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest: Kuro, multiple stages. Haguro's is pretty epic too.
- Post Haguro's death, Ryuuko just lost what little bit of sanity she had left (and considering how Ax-Crazy she was there wasn't much left), wandering on the streets and selling her body in utter disbelief now that she lost Haguro and couldn't get Inugami.
- Wolfsmund:
- When the Wolf's Maw is finally under siege and being brought down, Wolfram snaps enough to even throw one of his own soldiers out his window just for questioning him.
- Occurs again as Wolfram is taken to his execution, he starts screaming and telling the rebels that his Lord and God will punish them and that they will go to hell if they kill him. Considering what he did to the people over the years, the jackass has no right to talk about hell.
- Darcia the Third from Wolf's Rain has several in varying degrees, but the biggest comes in the last few episodes, where he kills the main cast so *he* can be the one to open Paradise. His last moments are spent cackling madly, with his wolf form managing to look rather insane as well.
- ×××HOLiC:
- Kohane's mother has one that starts just after she suspects her daughter's medium abilities are fading. This culminates in a truly epic scene where she snaps, attacks Kohane, and then proceeds to beat Watanuki senseless for daring to intervene. All of this on live television.
- In ×××HOLiC: A Midsummer Night's Dream, this happens to the dude who collects collectors when Yuuko walks towards him and is unfazed by anything he throws at her to keep her away. As she picks up the pace and begins to run, he gets even more desperate.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, in which The Rival, Jack Atlas, turns into a revenge-fueled lunatic upon finding out he technically lost to protagonist Yusei. Interestingly, Big Bad Godwin appears to be egging this breakdown on.
- More recently, Placido more or less loses it when he realizes that Yusei has a chance of beating him, and went One-Winged Angel by revealing himself to be a cyborg and fusing himself with his D-Wheel to become a sort of motorcycle-centaur.
- Later on, Aporia gets one during his fight against Jack, Rua, and Ruka. At first, he starts out as cool, calm, and in control, and spared Jack and Ruka just to piss Rua off. Later, when Rua intercepts an attack towards Jack, Aporia gets slightly pissed and attacks him, even if he could defeat one of the others. When Rua acquires his own Signer Dragon, Aporia becomes visibly angry, and moreso when Ruka destroys his Field Spell. He gets pushed over the edge when Jack destroys most of his Spells and Traps, and has a Slasher Smile when boosting his monster's ATK to 8300. He gets easily beat, falls to his death, and gets better.
- Yubel has a similar breakdown in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX; after Judai finally gets it through her head that he doesn't share her twisted view of love, and is ready to commit to an Heroic Sacrifice to take her down, the normally-cool Duel Monster goes psycho and decides she won't omit herself and Judai from The End of the World as We Know It, after all.
- Panik from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! suffers a huge one. At the beginning, he delights in putting Yugi through the same torture as Mai and countless other duelists, but at the end, he's reduced to a screaming, raving wreck as Yugi proceeds to push as many of Panik's buttons as he possibly can.
- Kaiba himself suffers this whenever he loses or is on the verge of losing to Yugi. He even considers blowing up Alcatraz Island before the Battle City Tournament is up after he loses!
Kaiba *before Yugi commands Dark Paladin to attack*: YUGI!!! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED AT MY OWN TOURNAMENT!!!!- He suffers a similar one when Joey duels him after Yugi's duel. Using a clever strategy, Joey manages to destroy one of Kaiba's prized Blue-Eyes White Dragons, and then subsequently revives it onto his own side of the field, turning it against him. After seeing Joey, whom Kaiba always considered a second-rate duelist, is in command of his favorite monster and using it against him, he's livid.
- Bandit Keith suffers one when Joey defeats him in the Duelist Kingdom arc, even with Keith cheating twice over (stealing Joey's entry card before the duel in an attempt to get him disqualified and cards hidden in his wristband during the duel). He screams that the duel didn't count by virtue of Joey not using his own entry card (revealing his machinations in the process), beats up Pegasus's guards when they try to drag him away, and pulls a gun on Pegasus himself (in Japan at least), demanding his prize money. He's tossed into the ocean for his trouble.Keith: NOBODY BEATS BANDIT KEITH! NOBODYYYYYYY!!!!
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Jean-Michel Roget spends his story arc as a stoic (if smug) Manipulative Bastard plotting to gain control of the City. However, his composure starts to fade over the latter half of his arc. First, when Yuya refuses to be his right-hand man, then when Serena refuses to follow the course he set for her, Reiji ruining his take-over of the city, Yuzu tackling him and hijacking his public feed to give the city hope, and Jack Atlas defeating Roget's Dragon Sergey Volkov. As every single stage of his plan is thwarted, he becomes increasingly erratic. Roget's ensuing breakdown puts just about every other Yu-Gi-Oh! antagonist to shame in its sheer magnitude, as he becomes a raving, screaming madman within the space of about half an episode, culminating in the ultimate Rage Quit as he tries to suck the entire City into a wormhole while ranting about how everything can disappear if he can't have it. Hilariously, his breakdown even extends out-of-universe: he continues his breakdown as he narrates the preview of an episode, culminating in screaming the show's tag line.
- Zofis in Zatch Bell! suffers a really nasty one. Even after he gets his ass handed to him he remains defiant and tries to keep Koko's memories of her atrocities intact. Then Brago steps in and confronts Zofis with the fact that Zofis has been afraid of him from the beginning. He then threatens to hunt Zofis down and make his life miserable even after he returns to the mamodo world unless he erases the memories. At this point Zofis has a crying and laughing fit before finally yielding.
