Sometimes, when viewing an arc in an anime or manga, there are times when a viewer feels compelled to shout, "WTF did you do that for?!"
These shows have so many of these moments that they now have their own pages.
Haruyuki, as Silver Crow, manage to reduce Nomi AKA Dusk Taker down to a tiny silver of health. You'd Expect: Haru to end the duel by running up to Nomi and punch him again. Instead: He activates his wings, giving Nomi enough time to fight back and steal his wings.
In the second to the last episode of Ai To Yuuki No Pig Girl Tonde Buurin, Karin is cornered by her classmates just as she tries to think of a way to transform without them noticing. You'd Expect: She'll have to go somewhere far where they can't see her transform. Instead:She just blurted out she's Buurin to them, resulting that when she transforms, she's stuck in that form.
Air Gear: Kogasumaru are building a front-line base, designing it so it would help its inhabitants defend the base and territory as much as possible. You'd Expect: A base to be set up in a strategic location where it won't be affected by environmental hazards. Instead: The base is set up on a bridge, on train tracks which are being used.
In Akkan Baby, our 16 year old main characters have no idea what a condom is. Or how to operate a pregnancy test. Or that you don't put futons on the baby.
In the Baka To Test To Shoukanjuu finale, Akihisa uses his one request to the school to give Himeji a second chance to take the admission test so she can go to the A-Class (For geniuses) instead of the F-Class (For idiots) she was stuck in due to fainting during the original test. You'd Expect: She does the test, gets in the A-Class and thanks Akihisa for using his request on her. Instead: Once she's done with the test, she erases her name so she's ends in the F-Class again, just to be with him. Nevermind they can be together outside of class (As Yuuji and Shouko demonstrate, you can be in different classes and be friends and even a couple). She COULD have done it to keep an eye on Minami, the other member of the Love Triangle, but this is never stated. And just to make things worse, when Akihisa finds out she wasted her chance to be in the class she deserves and gets angry, HE gets called out by everyone else, while Himeji's idiocy goes unnoticed.
In the New Vestroia season of Bakugan Battle Brawlers, our BBEG King Zenoheld uses a Giant MechaDragon Bakugan called Farbros which can merge with more parts Voltron-style and become pretty much unstoppable. In the middle of the season, he is confronted by two of the good guys, who also have a kind of modular fusion system (albeit weaker, but these three are the only ones who have it). You'd Expect: King Zenoheld and the Good Guys to immediately whip out these powerful forms and have the most EPIC battlethe series has ever seen! Instead: Not only do they NOT do this, but said BBEG, without fusing to the special parts, promptly blows up his own robot. The good guys watch helplessly as their Bakugan's behinds are kicked by a self-destructing robot(which probably wouldn't have happened had they been in their fused forms...) But Instead: Not only did one of the good guys' combiners never be heard from again soon after this episode, but when it did happen, the battle was never really finished as the two instead moved onto something else. A real wasted opportunity...
Akito "Shujin" Takagi meets with Yuriko "Ko Aoki" Aoki to talk about how to better characterize the opposite sex in their respective works. He realizes that his girlfriend, Kaya Miyoshi, will get jealous. You'd Expect: Him to explain the situation to her. She might not be happy that he isn't turning to her, but she might understand why he's seeking out a fellow mangaka. Instead: He keeps on meeting with Aoki secretly, and in the process, picks up a copy of one of Aiko Iwase's (who had previously expressed an interest in him) novels with a letter to him, resulting in Miyoshi finding it while cleaning. She's quite upset.
Later on, Nakai, working for Nanamine, realizes correctly that things are going downhill and is desperate to keep his assistant job. He's also one of the few who knows about Nanamine's 5020 9 online helpers. You'd Expect: Him to realize that Nanamine keeps secrets from other people, and talk to Nanamine himself. Instead: He sneaks into the room while Nanamine is fixing the copier and tells them (over the microphone, while giving his name and identifying himself as Nanamine's assistant) that the manga has fallen to 16th and ask them to make good chapters. The few remaining people then quit on the spot.
Battle Athletes Victory: Kris has vowed to her family that she'd return to the moon the day she turns 18 to become a priestess. Then she meets Akari and falls hopelessly in love with her. You'd Expect: Kris either hides or controls her feelings for Akari or she decides to break her vow to be with the one she loves. Instead: She relentlessly pursues Akari, and when Akari finally starts returning her feelings she tells her that she has to leave, causing Akari quite some heartbreak.
Guts tries to leave the Band of the Hawk to embark on his own dream, but Griffithdoesn't want any of that and battles Guts for his freedom—which he loses, being his very first defeat. Guts promptly leaves to set off on his journey, leaving his friends and comrades behind. You'd Expect: Griffith to just pick himself up and get over it, since most of the hard work that the Band of the Hawk fought for was already over and all Griffith really had to do in order to obtain the Kingdom of Midland was to wait around and marry Princess Charlotte. Plus, Griffith said that a true friend to him wouldn't let anything get in the way of his dream, which was exactly what Guts was doing in the first place. Instead: Griffith has a total emotional breakdown after Guts left, and did some truly downward-spiraling behavior that involved him sleeping with the princess, getting imprisoned and tortured for a year, and just throwing away all of that hard-earned work. The Result: It goes From Bad to Worse. Really worse.
Later on, in the Japan arc, Chaka beats and abuses Rock, in order to provoke Revy into a gunfight, then, later, kidnaps Yakuza Princess Yukio, abuses her and challenges Revy again, only to be contemptuously dismissed, after having Rock bash him with a bowling pin and a Precision F-Strike. Chaka lives this trope.
Hagino is the commander of an alien battleship who learns about her people's plan to invade the earth, which she is squarely opposed to since the has grown to love the planet and its inhabitants—and one inhabitant in particular: Mari. You'd Expect: Hagino puts all of her knowledge and resources on the line to stall the invasion and to save as many people as possible—including herself and the girl she loves. She'd be a greater asset to the Earth's resistance when she's alive, after all. Instead: She wastes a lot of time and energy rehearsing a silly school play, because the girl she loves is in it as well. Once the invasion starts, she can't do much more than put on a kamikaze-act to save her girl's city from destruction. Although this is very heroic, it is also very stupid and wasteful. Hagino's people obviously have a lot of trouble thinking clearly when under the influence of hormones, as is also shown in the manga.
Not to mention that she ejected her co-pilot against her will, and didn't, you know, eject herself afterwards when the ship had demonstrated quite enough AI to do it by itself. During the maneuver, she neither gives any order nor touches any command, it's like she was just there for the ride.
In Canaan, Hakko is led to a room in the "Factory", where she finds someone sitting in a chair in Liang Qi's clothes, facing away from her. You'd Expect: Hakko makes sure that it is indeed the evil Liang Qi who is sitting there, especially since it's rather suspicious she would simply be waiting for Hakko to arrive, considering Hakko's deadly power. Instead: Hakko begins talking right away, unleashing her deadly voice upon the hapless victim in the chair—which for her is about the same as rushing into the room with guns ablaze. Of course, the person in the chair is not Liang Qi, but her captured lover, dressed in Liang's clothes.
In Chocotto Sister, Choco and her friends find a full-grown panther in a shed. You'd Expect: They call the police, who have the panther caught and taken care of properly. Feeding a cat that size is near impossible for laymen, for starters. Instead: Choco and her friends keep its existence a secret and try to feed it scraps they bring to the shed. The panther, now dubbed "Kuro", then gets itself killed when it crosses the highway after visiting Choco's home. Choco is devastated by it, but c'mon girl—it's your own damn fault. Kuro would have been much safer in a zoo, where you might even have been able to visit it.
In CLANNAD, Sunohara has to endure ridiculous amounts of abuse at the high school soccer club. You'd Expect: Sunohara takes this up with the school authorities and at least tries to make clear how messed up the soccer club is. Failing that, he could simply join another club outside school, since every Japanese town worth its salt has at least one or two. In the unlikely case that there are none in his town, he could try in a neighboring one. And failing that, he could even try to found his own club. Anything for the love his sport, right? Instead: He causes a fight at the high school club, gets thrown out and then even gives up soccer completely, sulking about it for most of the series.
A band of bandits attack a town the warrior known as Theresa of the Faint Smile had just left (literally passing her on the road and clearly recognizing her). One of them finds the small girl that was with Theresa when last they met, and is aware that while she was merely annoyed at the prospect of being raped by him she made it clear that she would be willing to face the punishment for one of her order killing a humanif he hurt the kid. You'd Expect: That he would point the kid in the direction he last saw Theresa, or have her tied up and set aside with as little harm as possible for said warrior to find. Instead: by the time Teresa returned to the down the guy was casually dragging the aforementioned girl (obviously quite badly beaten and possibly raped) across the village square in full view of her. Then he turned and mocked Theresa by noting "... How cute she was she she was screaming your name." Cue Single Stroke Battle... lots of them.
Claire and Yokai! Priscilla have a final battle to the death. Raki interferes—by crying and hugs Claire from executing the final blow—because she's going to become like Priscilla anyway. You'd Expect: Claire would push Raki aside to finish the Curb-Stomp Battle with demonic Yokai Priscillia who had slaughtered countless towns and people from their Organization. Instead: Claire misses her chance and Priscillia and Easley canters off into the sunset.
In Dance in the Vampire Bund several students (including the bulk of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council), after thier brainstorming plan on flushing out those students who have become vampires ran after dark, elected to barricade themselves into the chapel on campus rather than risk being picked off on thier way home. Suddenly the lights went out and the student council president (who was apparently abducted a few days ago) started calling to them from outside claiming she had been injured escaping her kidnappers. You'd Expect: That the various students would suspect a trick of some sort, being aware that several students have become vampires and recalling that "Kaichou" had vanished the night after loudly berating Princess Mina Tepes, the New Transfer Student/long-lost founder of the school/self-proclaimed Ruler Of All Vampires, for her intrusion. Instead: Several students override the objections of Yuki with a dismissive "What are you talking about, it's Kaichou!" "She's all right!" and throw open the front door. Yup, Shinonomi Nanami is there... surrounded by at least a half dozen vampires and looking a bit befanged herself.
Dancougar: Shakunetsu no Shusho. The authorities want to kill or capture a mysterious girl who releases deadly plant spores when she is alarmed. They are armed with a kind of "stasis guns" which will freeze everyone in a targeted area. They manage to approach the girl without being noticed while she is chatting with Masato (one of the main characters critical to the fate of the world at large). You'd Expect: They fire the stasis gun at her. As it has a fairly large area of effect, pinpoint accuracy is not necessary. While they would almost certainly end up freezing Masato too, he could be unfrozen with no ill effects. Instead: They open fire with regular guns and miss. The girl becomes upset and releases her deadly plant spores, killing all of them. Only as the last one goes down does he remember the stasis gun, and freezes both the girl and Masato; who incidentally cannot now be freed, as some of the spores might have been on the verge of infecting him.
Episode 25. Kirihara's boss mindlessly confesses on how eeeevil he is and tells her his evil plans of doing evil things in the future. Kirihara secretly has a recorder in her pocket, and then has the entire conversation there. You'd Expect: Kirihara would silently leave the room, then give the recording to the authorities and then have the last laugh. Instead: She stupidly shows him the recorder to brag about it. Result: Kirihara being strangled, and needing to be saved.
The interquel OVAs: Hei is on the run from... well, pretty much everyone, when all of a sudden people start trying to capture Yin. In particular, he runs up against a Manipulative BastardMaster of Illusion named Claude who catches him off guard by impersonating his ex-girlfriend Amber. After a number of near-misses and an ever-increasing amount of weirdness, Claude grabs Yin a second time and Hei, being his overprotective self, decides to rescue her even though it's probably suicide. You'd Expect: That the badass assassin who made a name for himself killing people with Game Breaker superpowers would pay attention to his ally's warnings, remember that the guy he's up against can manipulate what he sees, and generally try to maintain a healthy level of skepticism when he comes to the top of the building and sees Yin sitting in an empty room, alone and unguarded. Instead: He runs straight in and immediately goes over to her. This, inevitably, results in him stuck in place in the middle of the room while Claude laughs at him. When someone else appears to attack Claude and the power holding Hei in place vanishes, he immediately goes for a Face Palm of Doom... and falls for an Aizen Gambit, electrocuting Yin instead and setting off the Eldritch AbominationSuperpowered Evil Side she'd been developing. Yin pleads with him to kill her to stop it; he can't bring himself to. Result: Very nearly The End of the World as We Know It. Yin manages to suppress Izanami with Heroic Willpower, putting herself into a Convenient Coma, and Hei is left as an angry, depressed wreck in the second season.
In The Daughter Of Twenty Faces, Chiko accompanies the Twenty Faces gang on a trip with a submarine. You'd Expect: The captain of the submarine has Chiko frisked just like the grown-ups and makes her leave behind the conspicuous basket she's carrying. Better still: he leaves her ashore, since a submarine is no place for children. Yet even better still would be to only take the people who are needed for the mission, since a submarine tends to be crowded pretty fast. Instead: He lets her enter the submarine unchecked. That's really stupid, since Chiko might be a kid, but she still accompanies a troop of known hoodlums.
Hentai work Dawn of the Silver Dragon. Big Bad uses technology, which can turn any woman into willing sex slave with More than Mind Control and uses it for profit (or so it seems). You'd Expect: Formation of elite, male only force dedicated to stopping the threat, perhaps using some additional privilages to put villain down. You know, something like The Untouchables. Instead: A female only police group is hunting the guy. To add to the idiocy, one of high ranking officers was former victim of above technology. And if that's not enough the leader of the unit willingly let's herself be captured as a part of bait operation, with only one person of backup. It may be hentai, but nothing excuses levels of idiocy that high.
Creepy Twins Jasdero and Devit (Jasdevi) have the power to materialize anything they both think of. During the Ark arc, they wind up fighting Allen, Krory, Lavi, a Brought Down to Normal Lenalee, and one normal person from the Black Order. The Exorcists are trying to get past them through a locked door leading further into the Ark. They screw around with the Exorcists, throwing fire and ice at them, materializing fake copies of the key to make it harder to find the real one, and making masks over their faces that make Jasdevi invisible. This could be justified as sadistic fun, up until the point where Lavi picks out the real key. You'd Expect: That they'd use their powers to do something like fill the whole room with concrete or, if they thought the badasses could break through that, gas that was poisonous to anyone who wasn't a Noah. Well, that probably wouldn't work on Allen, but they had no way of knowing that. At any rate, it wouldn't be hard for them to instantly end the fight. Instead: They let most of the Exorcists go, except for Krory, who decides to pull a You Shall Not Pass. In their fight with him, they do a Fusion Dance into a Super Mode with Prehensile Hair and Super Strength, and it's mostly a martial arts battle. It's not until they've been at it for a while that it occurs to Jasdevi to create something heavy to squish their opponent, and it takes even longer for them to think of slamming him in an iron maiden. Thus, despite their incredible power, which should by rights lead to a One-Hit Kill, the twins don't win.
Also, during the Rewinding Town arc, Road commands an Akuma to self-destruct in front of Allen, and explains that if an Akuma is killed by anything other by Innocence, its soul will be destroyed. You'd Expect: Allen to use his Arm Cannon to shoot and purify the Akuma from where he's standing. Instead: He leaps at it, almost gets caught in the explosion, and has to be saved by Lenalee. No wonder she slaps him.
After his first failed attempt to kill Near in Death Note, Light Yagami sends the Death Note to Teru Mikami, a definite Kira supporter, with instructions on it. You'd Expect: Light to send a message to Mikami to hide a page of the Death Note on his person, considering he must have had Kiyomi Takada do the same herself, and does so himself (using a trick watch to hide it). This would help him handle emergencies, the number of which had lately been high enough for Light to be tempted to kill Sayu with the watch trick. Additionally, for himself, he would make some extra precautions to ensure that he's not on the brink of defeat again. Instead: He does not. This is clear from the fact that Mikami has to go to the bank a second time in a single day in the first place to kill Takada. Light, blinded by his ego and not even instructing Mikami earlier to only enter the warehouse (which has a single exit to begin with) upon hearing a password from him (like what he did in his Memory Gambit), declares his victory in the warehouse too early.
Light, still being a student, has been keeping his Death Note activities in the afternoon to late evening. L comments upon this, suggesting Kira is a student. You'd Expect: Light would try and dissuade the notion by suggesting that it is just a coincidence and many people may only be able to attack in the afternoon, not just students, being the Chess Master he is. Instead: He begins writing down names to die in a more spread out fashion that day the night before, leading L to deduce that the Kira has insider information about the investigation and prompting him to lock everyone in the same room together, which forces Light to actually get on the team to keep up with his opponent.
It's the endgame! Light and Near face off in the ultimate battle of wits. The fate of the world rides on these moments. Light's plan? To perfectly recreate the act of using the Death Note with a fake, then ensuring Near swaps the fake for another fake. Essentially, they will have believed that they disarmed him, unaware that they've only captured a harmless copy! Meanwhile, he keeps the real Death Note hidden away, then replacing the fake with the real one at the last moment! That way, the copy they "know" is fake is anything but! That way, when they allow him to incriminate himself, he'll instead slaughter them all at once, and the world will be his! You'd Expect: That Light The Chessmaster would keep an eye on the real Death Note at all times, test it prior to the epic finish, keep several backups stored, maybe lend that page he keeps in his watch to the assassin, and hey, maybe even a grenade or two just in case. As long as they die, however they die, he wins. And even if they don't, they won't have any evidence directly linking him to Kira. Instead: He puts the original in a safe miles away, under no observation, doesn't bother testing it, and then loudly incriminates himself in front of all of them. Then he tries to use a Death Note (ironically, a functioning Death Note page that could have killed them all had he given it to his lackey instead), in front of several people with much faster guns. Twice.
As bad as the above Death Note examples are, probably one of the worst moments of stupidity in the series occurs at the end of the Yotsuba Arc. The police have caught Higuchi, and neither Misa nor Light have any memory of being Kira, and thus they are not a threat anymore. Suddenly, Soichiro and Mogi see Rem after touching the Death Note, and freak out. L asks Mogi to bring the Death Note over to the helicopter, where Light is sitting right next to him. You'd Expect: That L, who pretty much figured out Light's Memory Gambit and told everyone on the task force about his suspicions regarding it, and who strongly suspected Light as Kira from the very beginning, would be extra careful with the Death Note seeing as how Light is RIGHT NEXT TO HIM and keep the Death Note away from him at ALL COSTS. Unfortunately, he gets distracted by Rem and the various realizations he has regarding her and the notebook, and Light impatiently grabs the notebook out of his hands. But even then, you would at least expect L to try to grab the notebook back from Light as soon as he regained focus and saw Light not holding the notebook, but also acting VERY strange with it. If Light resists, then L can just use that reaction as more evidence against him, and/or just ask one of the other task force members to hold on to it instead. Since the team will be regrouping back at HQ after securing Higuchi, L can read over the rules of the Death Note with the task force while keeping Light away and try to find out how to both solve the case and get rid of the danger posed by the notebook. Even if L doesn't know about all the rules of the Death Note or about the piece of the notebook in Light's watch, you would at the VERY LEAST expect that he would do everything in his power to ensure that Light and the Death Note stay separate and keep a watchful eye on both. Instead: L just sits there as Light regains his memories. He simply asks Light if he is ok, and then reluctantly lets him look over some names from the Death Note. All he does afterwards is give Light a suspicious look, and then immediately goes back to looking at the police handling Higuchi.
Even worse, shortly after Light has the Death Note, Higuchi suddenly has a heart attack and dies. This is obviously the work of Kira, and the entire task force knows it. What does L do in response? You'd Expect: L would instantly put two and two together, realize "Hmm... that happened right after I let Light hold on to the Death Note for a while, and I pretty much figured out his whole memory gambit earlier. I guess that pretty much confirms he's Kira", and then put Light into custody until he can figure out exactly what happened and then come up with a plan to end this nightmare. Instead: L pretty much lets Light go free as if Light is completely un-suspicious, and then lets Light continue his plan, which soon gets both L and Watari killed. Thus, Kira is free to wreak havoc on the world for another four years.
In Detective Conan, there are times that Ran managed to figure out that the titular character is Shinichi. You'd Expect: Since he's not telling her about it, she has to keep this to herself until the right moment he tells her. Instead: She just said it to his face and tries to get a confession out of him, leading to the times where he managed to get her suspicious off.
During the "Holmes Freak Murder Case", after saying who the culprit is, Kogoro thinks Heiji, who was knocked out at that time in courtesy of Conan's tranquilizer watch, is doing the wrong thing so he bonks him in the head. You'd Expect: Conan shoots him with another dose of tranquilizer. Instead: He continues on with his deduction. Once that is done, Heiji admitted that he saw all that after he got hit in the head, getting the chance to figure out that Conan is really Shinichi.
In Ef: A Tale Of Melodies, Mizuki sends Kuze a "letter of challenge", urging him to meet on the school roof in an effort to get him out of his self-inflicted isolation since he discovered he suffers from a terminal heart condition. He indeed shows up. You'd Expect: She challenges him in words only to try to make him understand she really loves him and wants to be with him, despite his condition. Instead: Mizuki actually pulls off a surprise attack and kicks Kuze hard in the chest, telling him that he "died once" already. Sure enough, Kuze gets a heart attack shortly after.
Elfen Lied, Episode 1. Kurama's ditzy secretary, Kisaragi, goes to bring Kurama coffee (something she keeps messing up on). Unfortunatly, she messes up and falls. And make matters worse, she falls right between Kurama and several security guards, and the diclonious, Lucy, who was killing everybody in her path to escape. You'd Expect: Kisaragi to notice that Lucy is behind her and that she's dangerous and listen to Kuruma and run. Instead: She just sits there cluelessly, not even knowing that the blood handprint on her shoulder means she's going to die. And... guess what happens.
Fairy Tail: Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Erza and Wendy all need to train hard for the upcoming Grand Magic Games. However, Lucy's beloved celestial spirits haven't seen her for ages, and want to celebrate her return with a big party in the celestial spirit realm. Trouble is, a day there equals three months in Lucy's world. You'd Expect: The spirits to hold off on the party until the games have finished, so that Lucy and her friends have time to get in shape. Instead: They throw the party anyway, and by the time Lucy and the others get back to their world, they've only got a few days left before the games start, and have to rely on a Deus ex Machina to stand a chance.
In Fist of the North Star, Shin is trying to win the heart of Yuria, by committing genocide and be a supreme warlord so he can give her the land. Yuria is not amused. You'd Expect: Shin wises up and do as Yuria say to win her heart. Instead:Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. He continues his daily routine of conquering in her name. The result: Yuria commits suicide.
Episode 51 and in the manga. The psychopathic Envy has been reduced from his Eldritch Abomination true form to his fetus-like true, true form. May Chang is to take Envy back to her home country so that she can acheive her goal of bringing back the secret of immortality. Envy tells her that by going back, she is abandoning her friends to coming events, and suggests she should turn back. You'd Expect: Well, you'd expect that the characters would have squashed Envy like a bug when given the chance rather than entrust a manipulative liar into the care of a rather naive young girl or even send said naive girl out to tell a desperate Emperor about a soul-sucking method of immortality—there's plenty of Idiot Ball to go around here. Barring that, you'd expect that May wouldn't trust Envy and would carry on with her journey. Instead: She listens to Envy and heads toward Central City, the capitol of Amnestris/headquarters of the villains. Result: Envy's talk about the secret of immortality was only true From a Certain Point of View—he leads May into a trap of cannibalistic Zombie Mooks who are are practically immortal/invincible and then uses the zombies to recreate his Eldritch Abomination form.
Speaking of Envy, after he announces to Mustang that he killed Hughes and entered his One-Winged Angel form. You'd Expect: Now that the cat's out of the bag, Envy would attack Mustang head on. Instead: He Hannibal Lectures him, resulting a great Shut Up, Hannibal! in form of a Talk to the Fist. ** In Chapter 107, Greed attacks Father to get the latter to grab him and absorb his philosopher's stone's souls. You'd Expect: This is supposed to distract Father long enough for Ed to attack him. Instead: Greed gloatingly tells Father about this plan, giving Father the opportunity to counter Ed's attack.
In Chapter 6, Ed and Al are being attacked by Scar, who has just blasted apart Al's left flank, and almost destroyed Ed's arm, thanks to his powers using his arm You'd Expect: Ed to pick a strategy that involves staying the hell away from Scar's reach at all costs. Instead: He charges Scar with a Blade Edge on the side of his automail. It goes about as well as you can imagine.
In the third season, Mithril's intelligence department put down a report stating that Sousuke is being wasted as Kaname's bodyguard, causing the South Pacific fleet commander to order Captain Testarossa to recall him to full service as the Arbalest's pilot. You'd Expect: Mithril to consider the fact that Sousuke has spent the last six months integrated into civilian society and has been solely responsible for a VIP's well-being, and include forewarning and a sensible recall schedule followed by a thorough psychological debriefing and a monitored return to active service to ensure he doesn't break down from the ensuing stress. Instead: Over the course of the next 24 hours, Sousuke is promptly ordered out of the mission and permanently banned from contacting Kaname. Once back in Mithril's fold, his CO proceeds to verbally lambaste him because she's jealous and he is assigned a new superior officer who further belittles him and uses Training from Hell to retrain him, followed by immediate deployment into an active terrorist attack without any kind of follow-up. To the shock and awe of no one watching, Sousuke suffers a Heroic BSOD shortly after from the resulting stress. What's worse is that The Lambda Drive is dependent on the user's emotional and mental stability to even work, and since this is precisely what Sousuke was recalled for...
In the novels following End Of Day By Day (TSR), it's revealed that the chief of the Intelligence Department was in fact an agent of Amalgam. It's strongly implied that Sousuke's abrupt removal was in fact his idea, intended to leave Kaname alone and vulnerable, under the "protection" of an agent like Wraith, who preferred to not get involved, and who bore a personal grudge against Sousuke. It was probably meant to clear the way for Leonard Testarossa. Until Gauron's pupils got in the way. Once you start adding all this together, it's clear that the odds are being deliberately stacked against Sousuke, no matter how much Tessa might think it was only her decision. Oh, and in case you missed this, the Amalgam agent mentioned is the general Sousuke smacks down at the end of TSR. (He is finally discovered and captured in the "Dancing A Very Merry Christmas" novel.)
The first series also has a grand example of this kind of mistake. After participating in a massive joint military operation to capture Gauron, the team proceeds to imprison him aboard their high-tech super submarine. You'd Expect: Since Mithril is explicitly stated to be a MERCENARY ORGANIZATION, the two individuals who should have guarded this man would be the only two who wouldn't be motivated by anything other than personal vendetta or duty, particularly Sosuke and either Kalinin or Kurz, whose partner was just injured in battle against him. As long time members of the organization, it is likely they could be trusted to, at the very least, not help Gauron in any way. Instead: Sousuke is not put on duty guarding this guy, and instead the job is relegated to two nameless guards who, surprise, surprise, work for the very financially well off Gauron. Because they're MERCENARIES.
In the novels, it's explicitly mentioned that Gauron was being watched by members of both the PRT and the SRT, in 'quick one hour shifts". Lian and Dunningan were the second shift—that's why Gauron didn't escape sooner, because he didn't know who the traitors were or when they would make an appearance. So, while it was possible for Sousuke and/or Kurz to end up guarding Gauron sooner or later, I truly doubt Kalinin would let Sousuke in there, knowing full well their history. Kurz, on the other hand, is surprisingly described in the novels as a much more cool-headed guy, who couldn't be nettled easily. Or at all. It's all part of being a good sniper, apparently.
Right in the beginning, Miaka has a hugeWhat an Idiot moment. After travelling into Ancient China and meeting Tamahome, they both witness a procession for the Emperor. Tamahome comments jokingly that in exchange for his help, he wants her to get him a jewel from the Emperor's crown. You'd Expect: That she'd either 1. Realize he's joking, or 2. Try to think up a plan to help him steal it. Instead: She runs up to the Emperor's palanquin and yells at him to give her a jewel from his crown, grabbing onto his palanquin and ripping and breaking part of it. This has the expected result of the guards seizing her and attempting to execute her. This is especially ridiculous when one considers that, even withoutignorance of culture differences, this action would pretty much be the equivalent of running up to the President of her country while he's in his car, tugging on the car door and breaking part of it, while screaming at him to give her 5000 bucks. And this is all played as if Miaka is an "average junior high school student" who has a reasonable education, instead of someone with a high amount of brain damage.
Also in Fushigi Yuugi, Yui and Miaka both spend some time unconscious, with their last memories being men trying to attack them. You'd Expect: That both, despite their understandable distress, would take a moment to assess their physical situation. For example, the fact that they were still wearing exactly what they were wearing when they passed out, including intact underwear. That they had no bruises, no cuts, no bumps, and maybe going so far as to check and find that their hymens were still perfectly intact. Or if they were too shy to check themselves, Miaka at least was a highly honored priestess in a civilized nation, and could have had a midwife from the Emperor's harem check her out and assure her of her virginity. Instead: Both immediately assume that they were brutally raped, and now have nothing but revenge and misery and deep, deep shame left to them. Presumably they both know by this point about the mechanics of sex, including ejaculation... or they could just ask why on Earth their rapists bothered to put clean panties back on them when they were done.
Yui becomes the priestess of Seiryuu and Miaka's enemy, because she thinks that Miaka never returned to the book to look for her best friend and came back only to see Tamahome. Yui also thinks she was raped and Nakago constantly tells her that this is somehow Miaka's fault and that Miaka never cared about her. You'd expect: Yui to not believe any of that seeing as she and Miaka are best friends and would trust her friend. Instead: She constantly refuses to believe any word Miaka says, that she didn't know Yui was in danger or that she would ever betray Yui. She doesn't even believe it when Miaka tells her the shocking truth about summoning one of the Gods, until she sees the effects herself. Cue My God, What Have I Done?.
Anime G-L
In Gakuen Alice, a heartbroken Mikan follows her beloved best friend Hotaru to a weird school filled with supernaturally gifted children. Once she gets there, Hotaru treats her like dirt most of the time. You'd Expect: Mikan tries to get out of the school back into the normal world, to forget about Hotaru and mend her broken heart. Instead: She sticks around, being the victim of abuse by the school's staff and students and of Hotaru's tsundere tendencies.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Kousuke and his almost-girlfriend have taken Makoto's bike, which she knows is dangerous because the brakes are broken; it caused her to almost experience death-by-train-collision earlier in the movie. She's also figured out that she can only time-leap one more time, probably ever. You'd Expect: She does nothing; if something bad ends up happening, she can go back and undo it. Or she could go back to a few hours ago and throw the stupid bike in a river. Instead: She vaguely considers waiting to see what happens, and then she wastes her last time-leap pointlessly dodging a question from Chiaki. Inevitably, Kousuke and the girl are hit and killed by the train, forcing Chiaki to use up his last time-leap to save them, and then he's erased from existence by time-police or something. Whoops.
In Girls Bravo, Koyomi and Tomoka, natives of the planet Seiren, come Earth to find a husband for Maharu. Once they find a suitable match, they intend to return to Seiren using their Aqua Lamps (two tiny silver beads). You'd Expect: Them to keep the Aqua Lamps somewhere where they can't easily be stolen. After all, without the Aqua Lamps they're trapped on Earth. At the very least, you'd expect them to keep an eye on their magical items. Instead: The antagonist steals their Aqua Lamps with no trouble at all, and days (possibly weeks) elapse before they even become aware of the theft.
Lordgenome leaving a cryptic warning behind, that can more or less be paraphrased as "When there are a million humans on the surface of the planet, something bad will happen." You'd Expect: With the rate at which their tech levels were advancing, the Dai Gurren Brigade would try to keep surface numbers to a minimum, by only taking in people who actually want to get out of the ground to buy them time to investigate the moon, and maybe think of other ways to stall the count until they can find a way to stop it for good. Instead: Under Rossiu's direction, they drag people out of their underground villages, even the ones who don't want to come up, just to COUNT THEM, thus ACCELERATING the growth of numbers. Sure, it's the kind of series that's full of Idiot Heroes, but Rossiu was supposed to be the cool and calculating kind of person.
From Gurren-Lagann The Satire:
Simon: "Rossiu? Have you been forcing people out of their homes behind my back?" Rossiu: "Would you believe me if I said 'no'?"
Haruhi Suzumiya: The local Reality Warper is making a sci-fi movie. She is often unable to see\ignoring the lines between reality and fiction, and is able to blur those lines with her subconscious powers. Most of the main characters are certified Genre Savvy about this. You'd Expect: Subtly (or less so) point out that the movie is not real from the beginning, thereby preventing the activation of her powers. Instead: One of the characters believes that the reality warper's often conveniently ignored common sense will reign her in, and therefore does nothing. The main characters only jump in when the desired special effects become real.
In the Watanagashi arc, Keiichi narrowly manages to escape from his friend's Torture Cellar after almost having nails hammered into every joint in his hands. Before he escapes, however, she warns him not to come near her if he sees her again. She manages to escape as well and a few days later throws stones at Keiichi's window in the middle of the night. You'd Expect: Keiichi would lock all of the doors, stay inside, and call the police, since at this point, she's a full-blown Ax Crazy who's responsible for the murder of four different people. Instead: He goes outside and talks to her to find out if she's okay. After giving a few good Evil Laughs, she shows him why this was so stupid and stabs him in the gut. Ironically, this isn't even the thing that does him in this arc. He finally dies from psychological trauma from all the abuse he racked up.
In Onikakushi-hen, Rena and Mion (though mostly Rena) suffered from this. For Rena: Keiichi has been screaming at her and avoiding her for days now. You'd Expect: For her to stay away from him at the next sign of a threat. Instead: She goes up to him, most likely with her signature machete in hand, and starts talking to him. Also, this is after he banged her hand into a door at full force.
In Tatarigoroshi-hen, Keiichi finds the disemboweled body of Rika at the temple shrine, minutes after telling Satoko - who was already under significant distress from her uncle's abuse and Irie's 'suicide' - that he murdered her uncle, causing her to separate herself from him to find some clothes. Understandably, he's more than a little pertubed at the sight of crows munching on his friend's corpse, so he swings his hatchet to scare them off - accidentally dropping it in the process.
You'd Expect: He would take the hatchet, hide it, and then go and get some help - or at least try to make sure Satoko keeps away (if anything for her own sanity).
Instead: He takes the hatchet and stares at the blood on it for several seconds, only interrupted by Satoko - who has just reappeared - screaming at him.
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi: On the Sports Festival, Kazuma's trial is looking for "big breasts". You'd Expect: He goes after Tsumugi, Hina or any of the many other busty girls in the show. Instead: He goes after Madoka, who reacts violently when touched by men and thus sends him off flying, as everyone expected.
In Hot Gimmick, a girl named Hatsumi is tasked with getting a pregnancy test for her sister, under the premise that it's for her. On the way back however, she bumps into Ryouki, the Manipulative Bastard son of the landlady. You'd Expect: Hatsumi lies and says "it's for me" or even better "my parents are trying for another child". Instead: She says "they're for my sister", setting up the blackmail plot of the series.
Probably in the name of Fanservice, but Infinite Stratos has one jarring moment in episode seven. Ichika and Charlotte need to change their clothes. You'd Expect: One can change in the bathroom, and the other can just change in the bedroom. Instead: Ichika then suggests that they change while facing the other way. Cue Charlotte tripping on the floor and Ichika turning around to see her backside.
Kagome can travel from Feudal Japan to modern times via the Bone-Eater's Well. For a while, shortly after the hunt for the Shikon shards has begun, Kagome took to keeping these shards in a bottle on her desk back home —which the bad guys can't get to, being stuck in the Feudal era. You'd Expect: For her to take each new Shikon shard with her back home, put it in the bottle, and assemble the Jewel in a time and location that Naraku has no hope of getting to, and where mythological Japanese beasties are much less numerous and easier to dispatch than in Inuyasha's native time period. Instead: She keeps the incomplete Shikon Jewel on her person, making it child's play for Naraku to steal it and keep it, making himself stronger and stronger with each passing minute. However: Leaving dangerous shards in her time and putting her family in danger while she travels in the past would be true stupidity. Since youkai after the jewel do exist in the modern world (eg. noh mask) Kagome is doing the right thing. Also she needs to have the shards on person to keep them pure. Even Miroku can't purify them. And they could easily corrupt Inuyasha's demonic energy. (eg. Oni's stomach) Also Naraku did not steal the jewel. Kikyou stole it which was absolutely the greatest What an Idiot moment of the entire series. Not to mention how she gave him a new body.
Also in InuYasha, every month during the new moon Inuyasha undergoes a transformation into a weak, nearly helpless human. Every time this happens, some demon or other shows up to kick his ass and nearly kills him. You'd Expect: that the group would at least try to plan their returns to the village around this very specific and reliable weakness so that Inuyasha could go to Kagome's time period where he would be safe. Instead Inuyasha has never gone to Kagome's time even once during the new moon; instead the group is ALWAYS out doing some sort of demon-hunting activity far away from Kaede's village.
Speaking of Inuyasha's transformation, Naraku eventually finds out about this little development. You'd Expect: for him to spy on the heroes to find out exactly when Inuyasha turns into a human and use this information to launch a sneak attack. Instead Naraku never follows up on this, throwing away a perfectly good opportunity to kill Inuyasha and his friends.
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne: Maron's classmates make comments that she resembles the titular character in Miyako's presence. You'd Expect: Miyako would find out immediately Maron is Jeanne and decided not to arrest her after all. Instead: She refuses to believe they're the same person because of the resemblance, vowing to arrest her to prove her point.
Miyako finally found out Maron is Jeanne upon seeing her transform. You'd Expect:She retreats from the street to let her seal a demon attacking them. Instead:She fainted from the revelation and Fin takes her hostage.
There's also Episode 43 where Miyako is not completely possessed by a demon, but manipulated by the Brainwashed and Crazy Fin Fish into killing Jeanne so that "she can get Maron back". After a while, Jeanne begins to fight back. You'd Expect: That she will just have to "checkmate" the demon within her. Instead:She just took away the gun she's holding. Like that'll ever work. Even Worse: She doesn't fight back after that.
Kampfer, Episode 11. In the previous episode, something happened to Natsuru, but he cannot remember just what happened. Now, Shizuku has a tęte-ŕ-tęte with Natsuru, where she uses Kaede's most precious doll to reveal the Moderators' motives. She also says that she knows that Kaede is connected to the Moderators. She then managed to recover Natsuru's memories of what happened: he was mind-controlled by Kaede into attempting to rape Shizuku. You'd Expect: Natsuru to accept that his crush is evil and join the resistance against the Moderators. Instead: Natsuru goes to Kaede's house to ask if this is true. Cue mind control.
The Insect themed Quirky Mini Boss Squad (composed of three ninja) are sent to go capture Naname the younger Ill Girl sister of the protagonist. They decide in probably reasonable Ninja procedure to go one at a time (ostensibly because two are only there as transportation and backup respectively) to subdue and capture her to hurt her older brother. The first Mook arrives at her location and ambushes her with his Praying Mantis close combat style nails (long and sharp) but is quickly defeated off screen and rendered unconscious. You'd Expect: That his backup WOULD check in on him after he was gone for an inordinately long time. Instead: Even though one of them gets a 'bad feeling' that something has gone 'terribly wrong', he doesn't do anything which for a cartoon medium might as well mean Too Dumb to Live as it's a shameful case of lacking Genre Savvy.
Also in Katanagatari for the same episode when the Praying Mantis guy does die and his friends go in to try to rescue him/continue the mission they send the next close combat specialist in next, which is fine, but it turns out that Naname has Awesome by Analysis, meaning that whenever they show her any of their generationally passed down ninja arts she will instantly learn it and master it the second time they show her. You'd Expect: if you were sane upon seeing this and her serenity dissonance slasher smile 'run the fuck away', grab the remaining guy and RUN like you never did before to inform the rest of your ninja brethren of the threat they face and report a full account of her abilities and weaknesses that you could glean from that short encounter (being Shinobi they should have observation skills). Or at least, assuming that this happened way too fast for the guy to run away before dying, for the Bee themed guy remaining to realize the depth of the threat and run for it and hopefully make it off the island alive. Instead: The Butterfly themed guy gets himself killed—which on second thought/review may have been impossible for him to get out of—but the Bee themed guy actually 'tries to stay' to complete the mission rather than run away; although Naname noticed his presence it still should have been possible to run.
In Kimi ni Todoke, our heroine Sawako looks like it has finally gotten into her head that Kazehayadoes like her too. Valentine Day approaches. You'd Expect: Sawako gives Kazehaya chocolate. Even if it is just "duty" chocolate. Instead: She gives chocolate to everyone but Kazehaya. You see, she's so honest that she couldn't give him just "duty" chocolate, but too humble to dare to give him "love" chocolate. So she doesn't give him any. Result: Kazehaya is left absolutely confused. Does she like him or not? Their relationship is now worse than it was at the beginning of the story.
This also showed up twice in the anime episode where Tubby gets captured by the Westside Gang. Lulu and the gang come up with Plan A, which was to hide a saw inside a pie for Tubby to use to escape. However, since none of them knew how to make a pie, they decide to substitute the real thing with a mud pie. Lulu and Annie then bring the mud pie over to the Westside Gang's territory and give it to Tubby. You'd Expect: Tubby to listen to Lulu and for her to tell him that there's actually a saw hidden inside the mud pie so that he can escape to freedom. Instead: When Tubby finds out that the pie was actually mud, he becomes angry, saying that he cannot eat it then kicks it so hard that it sails out the window of the RV he was imprisoned in and onto the ground, revealing the saw in front of the Westside Gang.
Then later on in the same episode, after Willy and Iggy have also gotten captured by the Westside Gang, it is then up to Wilbur to come to the rescue with a shovel that he intends to use to tunnel into the RV to save Tubby and the others. Once on the other side, Wilbur then proceeds to carry out his mission. You'd Expect: Wilbur to lightly tap on the side of the RV and quietly let Tubby, Willy, and Iggy know that he was going to dig them out and for them to be ready when he did. Instead: He just goes ahead and starts digging next to the RV, causing Tubby, Willy, and Iggy to become worried, thinking that a bear is coming to eat them, then promptly alert the Westside Gang that they hear a weird noise, resulting in Wilbur's capture after that.
Love Hina: When Keitaro had to choose between Naru and Mutsumi and decide which of them truly was his long-lost childhood friend, who he made a promise to get into Tokyo University with and eventually wed. You'd Expect: He would pick Mutsumi, who is not only the second nicest person to him of the whole cast in general (Shinobu is the nicest), she's the only one who does not hit him when he does something that looks wrong. It's even explicitly stated she is a female version of him! Instead: He picks Naru, who beats him regularly, calls him names, and once refused to study with him for fear of catching bad grades! Even if it is a question of who he made the promise to back then as opposed to now, you would think that he'd look at the way each girl has treated him and just promptly take it back!
Lupin III: For the majority of this show, the titular character ended up meeting Fujiko after a betrayal coming out of her. You'd Expect: Lupin will catch on about it and wants nothing to do with her. Instead: He continues to blindly trust her. Every. Single. Time.
Anime M-R
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: Mad Scientist Sorceress Precia Testarossa needs all 21 Jewel Seeds (or, by her own estimates, at least 14) to activate a successful dimensional transference to Al-Hazard. Once she sees that her cloned daughter, Fate, has lost her battle with Nanoha for control of all 21 Jewel Seeds, she zaps her and takes back the nine Jewel Seeds she had in her possession. You'd Expect: Precia to also zap Nanoha and swipe the remaining Jewel Seeds, which were on her person at the time. Or even earlier than that, send Fate to TSAB as The Mole to get her hands on the rest of the Seeds. Instead: Neither thought occurs to her. Her subsequent attempt to use the nine Jewel Seeds to achieve dimensional transference ends catastrophically, and she perishes along with her lair.
In A's, it's eventually revealed that the entire plot is the machinations of one Admiral Gil Graham, attempting his own secret plan to destroy the Book of Darkness for good. It's taken roughly nine years to set up, and is rather convoluted and intricate. A significant part of the plan involves sending his familiars, Lotte and Aria out to aid the Wolkenritter (the Book of Darkness' defense programs) against the heroes several times, before finally killing them in front of their young master, driving her over the edge to justify using extreme measures. Naturally, since they're somewhat well known, disguises are employed. Not a problem, magic can be used for that. You'd Expect: Them to take disguises that, well, look like nothing, which shouldn't be that hard. Something that wouldn't stand out to anyone. They could even take different disguises each time, just to keep people guessing. Instead: They take on forms heavily implied to be Chrono Harloawn's dead father, who died working on the Book of Darkness case the last time it appeared. Naturally, this can't be a coincidence, and the list of potential suspects is narrowed significantly. Before long Chrono has defeated the familiars easily, arrested their master, and confiscated the Device meant to accomplish the plan. It wouldn't have worked anyway, but if you spend nine years on something, it's hard to believe a weak point like that would slip through.
Mahoro finds out that her master Suguru participates in a street fight festival. She sets out with Minawa to retrieve him and bring him home safely. You'd Expect: Mahoro and Minawa take off for the air and survey the area from there, since you have to fight when you walk the streets. Alternatively, they could simply break the flowers on their heads indicating that they are disqualified, so they won't be bothered by all those baton-swinging morons looking for a brawl. Instead: They walk around with the flowers intact on their heads and get distracted by fighting all those apparently brain-damaged locals - which also takes a ridiculous amount of effort, considering they are battle-androids.
Also from Mahoromatic: Mahoro keeps confiscating Suguru's Porn Stash, since according to her "dirty thoughts are bad". You'd Expect: Suguru makes it clear that he is the master and she is the maid, and she has no right to tell him what he should or should not keep under his bed. Instead: Suguru lets Mahoro simply take away his expensive erotic books, even though he sometimes goes to great lengths to obtain a rare issue. Worse, he even allows himself to be scolded by her. Who is the master and who is the maid again?
Mai-HiME Episode 13, "Night of the Tamayura": Yuuichi and Shiho are out on a date, and they bump into Mai and Reito just as they're about to kiss. He's still struggling to decide whether or not he actually likes Mai "in that way". You'd Expect: Yuuichi to keep his mouth shut and wait until the end of the festival to ask Mai about what happened...or perhaps confronted her about his feelings, maybe...eight episodes ago, when Reito wasn't around. Instead: He picks the worst possible time to blurt out Mai's name, and breaks two cardinal rules of dating in the process: 1. Never cockblock another person just as s/he's about to get some action (double if it's someone you know), and 2. Never confess/imply that you like another girl in front of your date. Now, Shiho's mad at Mai and refuses to talk to her, and double since Mai had promised to help Shiho win Yuuichi's affections and now Shiho thinks Mai was lying (when in fact, Mai did mean what she said); and Reito, usually a calm and collected guy, is mad at Yuuichi because he suspects something's going on between the two of them. Nice job breaking them up, "hero".
In Mamotte Shugogetten, the hero Tasuke looks into a ring and gets a guardian spirit from it because of his purity of heart. A legend that his dad sent along with the ring said that something like this would happen. Of course, she causes him lots of trouble by doing things like destroying his school, locking him up at Christmas, etc. He receives more gifts like this via the mail from his traveling dad. They have legends that say if someone with a pure heart does something or other, some spirit will appear, etc. You'd Expect: He'd remember the legend of the ring and therefore count all these legends as true, being careful to avoid doing the stuff that would activate them. Instead: He does exactly what is required to activate those legends. He repeats this mistake twice. Once the spirit inside has repeatedly tried to get him to pay attention to only her, and the other time the spirit's only job is to create "trials" for her master, really just making life more difficult on him.
Sachiko has a hard time when her grandmother, who she loves immensely, becomes terminally ill and winds up in the hospital. You'd Expect: Sachiko explains to Yumi why she won't be around school much anymore in the following period, even if she finds it hard to talk about it. After all, Yumi is her beloved soeur and therefore the first and foremost person that she can confide her troubles to, outside family. That way she could have given a Yumi a chance to stand by her emotionally as well. Instead: Sachiko tells Yumi nothing and keeps on disappearing without explanation, seemingly conspiring with her cousin Touko, Yumi's biggest rival at the time. This results in quite a bit of emotional turmoil for Yumi, who really has no clue about what is going on.
Also in Maria-sama ga Miteru, first-year student Naito Shouko desperately wants to be a member of the Yamurikai, so she signs up for the tea-party which Yoshino and Yumi hold to find a soeur, since being picked by either one of them would secure her position in that prestigious student council. You'd Expect: She concentrates her efforts on one girl, preferably the least popular one, and tries to woo her into becoming her grande soeur. Since she has quite an impressive appearance her chances would have been rather good. Instead: She outright mentions that either one of them is fine, spoiling any chance she might have had to be picked as a soeur.
Mayo Chiki!: Kanade is feeling in troll mode, so she tells Usami main guy Kinjirou is a pervert. Note this is the same guy that has gynophobia, Usami said 3 episodes ago she'd help curing it and thus knows this, two episodes ago she invited him to her house and rubbed her chest on him (Which he didn't like much because of his condition) and in this very episode, Kinjirou accidentally grabs Usami's bare left breast and that causes him to faint in the act, plus Kanade's been trolling Usami for the entire episode. You'd Expect: Usami to notice the obvious lie and tell Kanade she knows Kinjirou's not like that. Instead: Usami instantly belives Kinjirou's a super-pervert and lashes at him. Seems Usami is very gullible or Kanade so good at bluffing Usami would've believed she is the Moon too.
Mayonaka Lolita:
A mostly off-screen moment: A high-school teacher, for some reason, makes a rejuvenation medicine. You'd Expect: He would hide it in a safe place and label it correctly. This medicine could cause a lot of problems after all. Instead: He mistankingly gives it out as juice to a male student. Result: Said male student gives it in turn to a female student, who drinks it and promptly regresses into a child. Way to go, dumbass.
From this point on... You'd Expect the teacher to try and make an antidote. Instead: He smiles, tells the girl she'll only be able to turn back to normal by kissing the boy she loves, and leaves. WTF.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Caren saves the mermaid trio from the Black Beauty Sisters. You'd Expect: She'd join them. Instead:She refuses to join them all because she thinks Rina left her twin sister, Noel, to get captured. Result: The Black Beauty Sisters captures her easily. Caren has bought all that on herself because she thinks she can rescue Noel by herself.
Mirai Nikki gives us the standoff between Yuki and his Dad, after finding out he'd lied about coming back to the family to kill Yuki and had stabbed his Mom to death while fleeing. You'd Expect: Yuki to completely reject his father's apology, and maybe even try to kill him. Or at least take it with a grain of salt, given how much he'd lied to Yuki at that point. Instead: He totally forgives his father, and even vows to go stargazing with him after his sentence is over. And when his father bites it, he grieves for him just as much as his Mom, promising to bring BOTH of them back. It's as if his dad had lied about taking him to the arcade or something—and he accepts the apology without questioning it once. What the Hell, Hero?
Yukiteru really loved his Jerkass of a father (plus, he had actually spent his money—despite being buried in debts—to redeem his telescope to live up to the promise he made to Yuki to go stargazing with him. And, he was also going to turn himself in). Also, it's not that this actually had any drawbacks for Yuki (ok, other than on his sanity). If there's someone who's been a real idiot, of the hopeless kind, it's Deus Ex Machina. He's dying and he needs to find a successor soon. You'd Expect: Him to choose his successor without making all that fuss, and leave him/her his place. Instead: He listens to John Balks and organizes the competition for his place. Seeing how his days were numbered and in the series it's always made a lot of noise about temporal alterations, what brighter idea than giving future-reading diaries to a dozen of psychos who have to kill each other in order to become his successor? It's not like he can die before the new God is chosen or... oh, wait, he didn't think of that. And even later in the series, when his death approaches and he begins to suspect that MurMur is planning something behind his back, he still doesn't choose his goddamn successor and lets the stupid game go on! So, basically, yes: Deus Ex Machina is the WORST god any universe could ask for. And remember that he didn't actually need to put up that show to choose the next god as shown at the end of the series.
Monster has Dr. Tenma being held hostage by the Baby. The latter tells him to leave the questions to him. You'd Expect: Tenma acknowledges this and agrees to answer his questions. Instead: He keeps on asking the questions causing the Baby to whack him repeatedly in the face with a billiard stick.
Needless. Uten, a needless with the ability to turn anything invisible, needs to find the location of our heroes' hideouts. He happens to chance upon two of them while they're out shopping. You'd Expect: Powers. Of. Invisibility. He only needs to shadow them back to base to succeed. This ain't rocket science, kids. Instead: Uten sets up an extremely contrived trap for the two and tries to make them believe he's almighty and knows magic by turning parts of the building invisible, so he can interrogate them into revealing the base's location (changing gears midway into 'killing them and search corpses for clues'). He fails miserably. And dies. At no point does he even try to use his invisibility to escape when things have gone pear-shaped. Truly one for the record books.
There is this shy, introverted, cowardly, etc. 14 year old boy, one of the few people who can prevent the destruction of the whole human race, whose performance is directly linked to his state of mind. You'd Expect: A team of psychologists and/or therapists working to ensure top condition. Extensive psychological evaluation, therapy sessions after battles, supporting friends/colleagues. Instead: Left completely alone with his doubts and mental problems, abused by nearly all people, never receiving credit for his accomplishments, being belittled at every possible occasion, being the butt of every malicious joke. It's a complete miracle that it took Shinji 19 episodes to Freak Out.
The Evangelion have to have cords attached to them for power, and being unplugged and without a power source is a major problem for some episodes. You'd Expect: They'd add external battery packs to the Evangelion for every sortie. Instead: They do... in one episode, in which they are destroyed and are never rebuilt or mentioned again.
Alright folks, sit down, grab a nice fluffy pillow, this is the big one. Rei is created and bred to bring The End of the World as We Know It. Just as Gendo is going to implement this plan however she hijacks the whole kit and kabudle. The fate of the human race is quite literally in her hands. You'd Expect: She cancels the whole thing. When speaking to Shinji she voices her objections to Instrumentality, proving once and for all to be the Only Sane Woman. And if it killed her, well she wants to die anyway, so it'd be no loss for her. Instead: She wipes out the human race on Shinji's behalf, because she asked and it was what he wanted. He learns to Be Careful What You Wish For, and Rei states that each individual can reverse Instrumentality if they wish. You can still get brain damage from your reaction.
A bunch of people ate mystical fruit that gave them superpowers but made them unable to swim. You'd Expect: Them to immediately take a sturdy merchant ship to the nearest continent and live out their lives in a low-moisture area. Instead: They keep living on a string of islands, and half of them work as sailors.
Some historical justification: even in the real world, pirates and sailors of that era could not often swim.
Upon entering the Grand Line, the Straw Hats ship is in danger of crashing into a giant whale. They slow down by firing the ship's front mounted cannon, but still sail into the whale. The only damage is the ship's masthead being broken off and the whale doesn't notice them and starts submerging. You'd Expect: The Straw Hats wait for the whale to go, and continue on with their journey, reattaching the masthead later on. Instead: Luffy, angry at the whale for breaking his favourite seat, punches it in the eye. The whale notices, and swallows the ship in response.
Boa Hancock, ruler of Amazon Lily, is a Shichibukai, as part of a treaty to protect her people and country from the World Government, who have some EXTREMELY powerful forces at their disposal. She's called upon to fight for them in the upcoming war with Whitebeard. Admittedly, she has a very good reason to hate the World Government. You'd Expect: Her to grit her teeth and agree to fight Whitebeard, if only to keep the World Government off her back and protect her people. Instead: She refuses, and not only that, she tries to rob the ship sent to get her and attacks the crew. Needless provocation at its finest. Thankfully: She falls in love with Luffy and agrees to go in exchange for being allowed to visit Impel Down in order to smuggle Luffy there so he can rescue his brother.
Luffy and Ace, along with the remainders of the Whitebeard Pirates, are trying to flee Marineford. They run into Akainu, who begins to trash-talk Whitebeard, something that Ace doesn't take kindly to. You'd Expect:They ignore the trashtalk and continue to hightail it out of there to their escape ship. Instead:Ignoring his fellow shipmates' and even Luffy's urgings to ignore Akainu and his words, Ace takes the bait and starts a fight with the Admiral, someone who can injure him despite his usual intangibility, and ends up with a lava fist through the gut in order to protect Luffy when Akainu decides to go after him too. And unlike everyone else in One Piece, he actually dies.
Arlong is headed to Bellmere's house to get protection money from her. Bellmere sucessfully ambushes him and is now on top of him, holding a shotgun inside his mouth. You'd Expect:Bellmere to just shoot Arlong. Instead: She gloats about being a Marine and tries to get Arlong and the fishman to surrender. It backfires on her when Arlong bites off the shotgun's barrel, ending up in her death, and Nami's imprisonment.
Several of the Straw Hats have switched bodies, thanks to the powers of Trafalgar Law. As Franky is heading out in Chopper's body, Chopper instructs him in the use of Rumble Balls: taking one will transform him into a massive monster that will give him immense strength for three minutes, but afterwards leave his body paralyzed for several hours. Furthermore, it took Chopper a long time to learn to control this body at all, and it would have been conceivable that Franky could not have done that either. He is naturally told to eat the drug only under an extreme emergency. You'd expect: Franky to pocket the Rumble Ball and save it for when it is needed the most. Instead: He eats it immediately and goes on a drug-infused rampage.
As far as One Piece is concerned, what Chief Warden Magellan did during the Impel Down Arc is the epitome of this trope. There's just no contest. During said Arc, Luffy, Emporio Ivankov, and Inazuma managed to get down to Level 6 of Impel Down and free Jinbe and Crocodile. Shiliew (a former Chief Guard of the prison who is on death row in Level 6) witness this and tells the officers to pass word to Magellan about what happened, saying that he'll lend a hand with handling the escapees. There's also the problem of Buggy and Mr. 3 causing a prison riot and as if the situation couldn't get any worse, the Blackbeard Pirates have entered the prison and began wreaking havoc. You'd Expect:Magellan would completely ignore Shiliew and request help from the Marines, because he and his current staff just can't handle the Blackbeard Pirates, the prison riot, and prison break at the same time. In the case of Shiliew, it should be noted that he was imprisoned because he killed prisoners as a pastime, referring to his victims as "just trash". Instead:He. Lets.Him. Out. The Chief Warden of a maximum-security prison authorizes the release of a ridiculously powerful Ax CrazyMaster Swordsman from Level 6, the prison's lowest level were the most powerful and dangerous prisoners are kept, because he thought he needed this psychopath's help and NOT the Marines. Let that sink in. Magellan himself was the one who defeated Shiliew in battle, arrested him, and is fully aware and horrified of his murderous tendencies and abuse of power. He was reluctant to release him, knowing full well how big of a risk it was. He had so much pride that he didn't want any outside assistance, hence why he didn't ask the Marines for help. With that said, Shiliew naturally had no interest in helping. The moment he was released and given back his sword, he kills the officers who released him. There's more:Shiliew even meets the Blackbeard Pirates at one point in the prison and doesn't attack them, which is what Magellan ordered him to do. He goes on to disable all surveillance equipment within Impel Down and cuts off all telecommunication to Marine HQ and the World Gov't. Eventually, Magellan himself encounters the Blackbeard Pirates and makes short work of them with his poison (showing us that he didn't need Shiliew's help, after all). He leaves them for dead, because he didn't have time to throw them in a cell. He goes after the escapees (Luffy and company, along with Buggy, Mr. 3, and their group), who are on the upper floors trying to escape, which is exactly what they did, minus Mr. 2. The Marines actually did show up, but they were too late to do anything significant. Had they came earlier inside Impel Down instead of arriving late and staying inside their ships, they would've had a better chance catching the escapees. Downward spiral:Shiliew returns and gives Blackbeard and his crew the antidote to Magellan's poison. He joins their crew and they proceed to go down to Level 6, tell the prisoners down there to have a death match so that the survivors can be set free and join their crew (which results in them recruiting 4 more members), and escape the prison. It was later revealed that some of the survivors of the death match that didn't get recruited ended up beating Magellan within an inch of his life and as if the 5 prisoners that Blackbeard recruited from Level 6 weren't bad enough, these prisoners escaped too! Just look at the One Piece Paramount War entries for Pyrrhic Victory. Most of those scenarios could've been avoided had Magellan used his brain, toss aside his absurd pride, call the Marines for helpfrom the beginning, and NOT release Shiliew from his cell!
Speaking of Magellan, there's his first fight with Luffy. Luffy is told multiple times that Magellan can poison anyone who touches him. Also, the reason Luffy's in Impel Down in the first place is to rescue his brother Ace, who will be taken away and executed in a few days. You'd Expect: Luffy to either run away, or attack Magellan in a way that doesn't involve him making contact. Instead:He REPEATEDLY PUNCHES the guy,and is predictably beaten easily by the Chief Warden.
Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!: Nao is in love with her brother Shuusuke, who also loves her, and they just found they're Not Blood Siblings at that. She catches him playing an eroge with a sweet and kind Little Sister Heroine. You'd Expect: She realizes that's the way her brother likes girls and acts that way to please him. It's her natural instinct in fact, being nice to him. She could even offer herself to him in a "Why playing games when you have a real sister who loves you?" sort of way. Instead: She unplugs the computer, he loses his data and gets horribly angry, making their relationship worse. In fact, the entire first episode consists of Nao holding a planet-sized Idiot Ball and fakingtsundere-ness at her brother whenever they're getting close, for no reason other than making their relationship harder and giving us a show to begin with. Had she been nicer, he wouldn't show much interest on Iroha and the other girls and she could win his heart with little effort.
Mariko Shinobu makes sure Nanako Misonou and her best friend Tomoko Arikura miss each other after school. She then tells Tomoko that Nanako doesn't have time to spend with her anymore, since she joined the Sorority. You'd Expect: Tomoko calls Nanako the same evening to ask her directly what's up. Or maybe ask her in the way to school tomorrow. Seeing how Mariko is openly clingy with regards to Nanako should already have sounded some alarm bells, and since Tomoko lives near Nanako's home it should be easy to catch up with her in the morning. Instead: Tomoko simply decides to believe Mariko without any evidence and goes into instant sulk mode. She even refuses Nanako's phone calls later that evening, not even wondering why Nanako would call her in the first place when she doesn't have time for her.
Also in Oniisama e..., local Rich Bitch Aya Misaki is very butthurt because an "outsider" like Nanako has been invited to have a spot in the famous Sorority, which she assumed it'd be hers due to having attended Seiran for far longer time and being from a very rich and distinguished family (Nanako is the daughter of an uni professor but technically is middle-to-high class, which is far below the average Sorority girl). You'd Expect: Aya decides to formally issue a "protest" via speaking directy to the "higher ups" like Fukiko, or at least take the deal with some dignity and keeping it to herself. The aforementioned Mariko (also a prospect Sorority member) may be clingy to Nanako, but she also seems to be quite protective of her, and not to mention she has also been attending Seiran for years so Aya has leads on Mariko's Hot Blooded personality. Instead: Aya and her Girl Posse, Miyuki and Megumi, openly bully Nanako in front of everyone, thinking that Aya's high social status will let her get a Karma Houdini. She adds insult to the injury via making cruel comments about Mariko too.
Much, much later, Miki and Megumi are on their own, rather worried because it looks like the Sorority will be disbanded, thus Aya's dream of being there will be definitely crushed. Two of the elder Sorority girls approach them and ask the two to steal and burn the signature books requesting the Sorority disolution, promising to make their beloved Aya a membress. You'd Expect: For Miki and Megumi to make sure that the Sorority ladies do really mean what they've promised, asking for a sort-of proof in regards to it. Instead: The two girls actually go and steal the records on their own, without even questioning anything.. This leads to them getting caught, Aya taking the blame for them and letting everyone think she was behind it, which then causes her to have a BSOD and almost kill herself, Nanako and Tomoko's efforts being the only reason she lives on.
In Ookami Kakushi, Hiroshi isn't exactly known to make intelligent decisions. To list a few examples:
He has befriended Sakaki, who confides to him that he lost his fiancee to the mysterious group murdering people around town, and is seeking the truth. Hiroshi knows who the leader of this group is: Someone from his own school. You'd Expect: Hiroshi would realize Sakaki is probably murderously furious towards the person who killed his fiancee and keep his mouth shut until he knows more about the group, or the person's reasons for doing it. Instead: He tells Sakaki the name of the leader in the group. Not surprisingly, Sakaki uses this little bit of information to set a trap.
Said trap involves kidnapping the girl ( Nemuru), calling up Hiroshi, and taking him out in the middle of the night to an abandoned barn with the claim that he will show him "the truth". You'd Expect: Hiroshi would see something suspicious in being called up at night, realize he might potentially be in danger if he were to go inside, and not go into the barn. Instead: He walks into the barn, runs into Nemuru, and realizes the danger he might be in...just in time for Sakaki to leave him a knife as a parting gift and lock him up inside.
During the night, Nemuru finally tells Hiroshi everything, including that he is in danger of being attacked if she loses control of her impulses, and must be left tied up. You'd Expect: He would take into account what almost happened with Issei and follow her advice and leave her tied up until morning. Instead: He unties her, and she nearly attacks him. Nothing bad happens, but still...
And then there's Sakaki in episodes ten and eleven. We will start with the end of episode ten, which is when he begins to latch on to the Villain Ball: He stabs his accomplice and lets him know of his real plan to destroy the city. You'd Expect: He would stab him one last time to kill him, thus unable to tell anyone of his plans. Instead: He leaves him to die alone. When someone else comes across the wounded man, he uses his last breath to warn the village of Sakaki's plan.
And speaking of Sakaki's plan...his plan is to basically open the dam and destroy the village. After managing to open the dam itself... You'd Expect: He would stay at the station to guard it, or otherwise break the dam controls before leaving. Instead: He not only leaves the station, but he also leaves the controls perfectly intact for the heroes to come along and undo the damage.
While heading back through the forest, Isuzu notices Sakaki, someone who holds a grudge against the entire village and hates everyone in it, walking by, not to mention someone whom she knew was a genuine threat. You'd Expect: She would get out of there and alert the attention of the police, or the extermination group. 'Instead: She follows him into the forest alone, loses sight of him, and gets shot.
Last but not least, Sakaki is just about ready to take his revenge and is presented several oppurtunities to shoot Nemuru and/or Hiroshi. You'd Expect: He wouldn't wait for them to finish monologing and just shoot them. Instead: He stands around waiting for them to finish talking before ranting about his revenge, and how they're all monsters...but never actually shoots anyone. By the time he does try to get a shot, Kaori shows up, takes the bullet instead, and drags him down to his demise.
Oreimo. In one scene in episode 3, Kyosuke explicitly tells Kirino to keep her DVDs and games out of sight while she's not in her room. You'd Expect: Kirino to be extra cautious about her collection, since she's a siscon fan. Instead: She leaves one of her games in the open on the very day her father comes into her room during her offline meeting, sparking a chain of events that ends with her hobby almost endangered and both Kousaka siblings injured (Kirino gets a minor injury because she tried to attack her own father with a crystal ashtray, but she was lucky compared to Kyosuke, who first gets his arm twisted for blocking his father from entering her room and then gets punched in the face after claiming ownership of all the adults only material in the house).
Magical Project S has Ramia finding out Misao's father is coming to visit her. You'd Expect: She'll just give her some slack and be with her father. Instead: She has her transformed into Misa on that day. Result: Sasami and Misao have discovered their magical girl identities in the end. Congratulations, Ramia, for making that happen.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The show has it's main characters competing for Grief Seeds produced from the Witches they kill. As they use their magic, their Soul Gems begin to fill with darkness, which is then transferred into the collected Grief Seeds. You'd Expect: Someone to question the nature of the dark substance that appears inside a Soul Gem, especially since it requires a Grief Seed of all things to remove, a Grief Seed that can regenerate the Witch if left alone too long. Read that again: A Magical Girl's power source produces something unusable to themselves, but compatible with the monsters they fight, and can revive said monsters. Instead: No one seems to make the connection, most likely assuming that this "dirtiness" will make them no longer able to use magic. A minority of fans questioned this from the very beginning and speculated the results until the moment they were confirmed in Episode 8.
In Episode 11, Madoka's mom confronts her as she intends to leave the shelter to go help Homura. You'd Expect: Junko to adamantly refuse to allow Madoka to leave the shelter to help a friend who's name Junko doesn't even know. Combined with Madoka's recent suspicious behavior Coupled with the fact that Sayaka just died and Junko suspects that Madoka knows something about it, but won't say anything and the fact that Madoka just outright said the fire department couldn't handle it. Instead: No such thought crosses Junko's mind and she allows her ordinary fourteen year old daughter to venture out into a suicidally dangerous storm, simply because Madoka's a good girl.
But you want to know what makes this What an Idiot moment worse? Previously on the Great Kyoto Fire chapters, Houji modified Shishio's original plan by arranging that 7 members of the Juppon Gatana took part of the Great Kyoto Fire by killing the police officers and VIPs as a distraction while the rest sail towards Tokyo to bombard it and thus destroy it while the capital was undermanned. He did this because he wanted to bring total victory to Shishio regardless of costs and perhaps even risking gaining his ire modifying his plan in such a manner. Before the final fight with Kenshin, Houji swore that he would risk being hated like snakes and scorpions as he put it and had his rifle in hand in case the worst would come to worst! By pulling his Honor Before Reason moment, Houji completely contradicted himself in this double whammy of the most illogical, thus bringing us this moment. Holy crap.
Similarly: Saito has just gained the advantage of surprise by suddenly appearing on the battlefield. You'd Expect: He'd go for Shishio's heart. Or pretty much anything vital in that area. Instead: Tries to stab him in the forehead for some reason. So he hits the only armored part of Shishio's body. And due to Shishio's ability to beat any attack he's seen once, even his Zero Gatotsu fails (an Ass Pull in itself) and that's pretty much it for him in the fight.
Anime S-Z
In the Sailor Moon R TV series, Mamoru Chiba starts freaking out after he has a dream where Usagi will die. And not only that, he has it several times. All of this takes its toll, and he dumps Usagi to avoid exposing her to danger. You'd Expect: Mamoru to eventually tell Usagi straightforwardly that he's got big issues of his own to solve and needs some time out to figure what the hell goes on. Maybe not tell her the content of the dream, but he could at least let her know that the blame's not on her. Instead: Not only does Mamoru dump Usagi without any decent explanation, but he actually does everything in his power to push her away for almost 20 episodes straight, sometimes even resorting to borderline psychological abuse... and still refusing to tell her why he let her go. The result? - the confused Usagi flickers between being determined to become strong enough to win him back and being so depressed that the enemy takes advantage of her fragile state of mind and almost kills her in Episode 69.
The last one is actually born from a MASSIVE example of this. Mamoru's future self King Endymion is in a VERY difficult crossroads since his daughter Chibi-Usa is in the past, Neo Queen Serenity is in a coma, the Senshi have improvised a Barrier Maiden stunt to protect what's left of Crystal Tokyo, and he himself is now few more than a speaking, sentient hologram due to his injuries. Endymion still has his memories of how his life was in the past, and wants to help his former self.... You'd Expect: For him to send Mamoru warnings about the future to tell him what's going on. What's left of his powers allows him to alter Mamoru's dreams and tell him stuff, even if he can't directly tell him all that has been going on. Instead: He "tests" Mamoru and Usagi's bonds, which are somewhat stronger than in the past but still potentially shaky, via mind-raping his own younger self with vague dreams about how he must dump Usagi to save her from a Bad Future. Which leads tomuch unnecessary melodrama, stress and heartbreak for both Usagi and Mamoru. It's not until Usagi has a dream about it as well that things are a little cleared up, and once they meet in the future, neither Mamoru nor Usagi are even angry at Endymionfor almost destroying their relationship in the first place.
In Sailor Moon S, Mistress Nine awakens and takes over Hotaru's body. She temporarily reverts back to being Hotaru, claims Hotaru's body is rejecting her and asks Sailor Moon to give her the Holy Grail, despite the Outer Senshi pleading with her not to. You'd Expect: Sailor Moon to be on her guard and refuse to hand over the Holy Grail. Instead: Sailor Moon gives the Holy Grail to Professor Tomoe, who passes it to Mistress Nine. She places it in a device, the Holy Grail is destroyed, and all hell breaks loose as Pharaoh 90 appears and daimons swarm Tokyo.
Saint Seiya Omega has the Bronze Saints traveling with Aria to destroy the elemental cores siphoning the Earth's Cosmo into the Tower of Babel. At this point, they know that Mars has them branded as traitors and Gold and Silver Saints as well as Martians have been sent after them to take back Aria. In recent missions, Soma had a fairly successful fight with Mars' daughter Sonia, the woman who killed his father, and Ryuho, after trying to clear a path for his friends in his home area, followed in his father's footsteps by defeating the new Perseus Saint. You'd Expect: The group to know they need to stick together and use their numbers as they have been to keep Mars' loyalists from getting their FalseAthena back while they complete their task, and also expect any encounters with personal acquaintances and enemies to happen along the way. Instead:Soma decides to go off on his own after Sonia before they even get to where Ryuho is, and after taking care of Perseus Mirfak and losing the Libra cloth to its new saint, Ryuho and Haruto decide to take off their own way as well. The Result:Eden strikes. The only thing standing between him and taking Aria back, is Yuna and Koga. Who at this point are both thoroughly unprepared for his fury, and if he wasn't the Ikki Expy, you would think they just lost the world.
Saki: Amae Koromo can make a winning move in the mahjong tournament. You'd Expect: Her to make the move and win the game. Instead: She deliberately makes a lower-scoring move in order to demoralize her opponents and set things up so that they cannot make their own highest-scoring moves, despite the fact that they wouldn't have been able to make them anyway had she ended it as soon as she could. Naturally, she loses because of this.
In Sakura Wars: the Movie, after Yoneda is missing, the Imperial Flower division is put on indefinite standby at the Flower Mansion. Unfortunately, while this is going on, the army places Yoneda's second in command, Kaede Fujida, under house arrest along with the ladies of Wind Divison (the Bridge Bunnies). You'd Think: The army commander would have additional guards to maybe hold the Wind Division ladies in the control room hostage, in case the Flower Division decides to break into the theater and take it back. If not, when Kanna breaks into the control room, the army commander could simply pull his gun out and point at Deputy Commander Kaede Fujida's head, and threaten that he's going to blow her brains out unless Kanna, Sumire, and Leni stand down. Instead: The army commander has no additional guards, and points his weapon not at Deputy Commander Kaede, but at Kanna telling her to stand down, and as Kanna talks, Kaede takes the opportunity to knock out the army commander.
Ushio wants a cute girlfriend badly. You'd Expect: She makes use of personal ads and the Internet to find someone, or tries to find a LGBT group in her neighbourhood (which nowadays can also be found in every Japanese town). Since she's an extremely pretty girl herself, she likely wouldn't have too much trouble meeting somebody that way. Instead: She runs after girls at her school or even in the street, startling them and generally behaving like a moron.
Also, she's in high school. She's got plenty of time to meet girls the old fashioned way before she resorts to Internet dating. And most of the girls at her school already know that she's gay, so why be shy about it?
Nami from Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujoturns against her sisters after they had been neglecting her obvious depressed state for a while already. The fact that her oldest sister Kazane favors her sister Akiha over her just adds to her feelings of helplessness. It doesn't take long before Nami and Akiha have their first violent confrontation, during which Nami vents her frustration. You'd Expect: Akiha tries to convince Nami that she and her sisters really do love her and asks her to reconsider what she's doing. Instead: Akiha simply tells Nami to shut up, and Nami starts attacking her in full vigor. Smart move, Akiha.
In Strawberry Panic, sweet, shy, and cutesy Hikari has fallen in love with her older classmate Amane. However, as a result, she is being stalked, harassed, and almost sexually assaulted by a Psycho Lesbian duo who want to get Amane to join the Etoile Election by threatening to harm her. You'd Expect: Hikari and/or Amane to report these occurrences to either the school staff or the police. Instead: Neither of them do anything, and the evil duo end up nearly raping Hikari twice, and she continues to be stalked and tormented until the end of the series. Not to mention that Amane is more or less bullied into entering the Etoile Election anyway. The Result: Two Words: Karma Houdini.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Roy Focker takes a few bullets when his spaceplane gets shot at during a dogfight with the Zentraedi, but manages to fly back to base with relative ease. You'd Expect: Upon disembarking from his plane, Focker would cry "Medic!", get taken to a military hospital, and medical personnel would do whatever they could to save one of the Macross's best pilots. Instead: Focker walks out of the base (presumably without anyone noticing his condition), goes all the way to his love interest Claudia's house, sits down for coffee and a chat, and eventually bleeds to death all over her nice couch.
Yamato Akitsuki has just broken up with his thoughtful, softspoken, and almost perfect girlfriend, Honoka, and confides in his friend and secret admirer, Suzuka. You'd Expect: For Yamato to give a straightforward account of the tragic and mutual breakup and how shaken he was with the ordeal. Or at least to keep the reasons to himself. Instead: Yamato lies and brags about how he dumped her saying that she was annoying for absolutely no reason . In a much-needed wakeup call, Suzuka berates him for treating Honoka that way, knowing that she put her all into their relationship.
Toward the end of the series, Yamato and Suzuka reconcile their feelings for each other, but in order for her to truly come to terms with her past, she has to visit the grave of her ex-boyfriend one last time. You'd Expect: Yamato would be a nice and understanding guy and allow her to come to terms with the emotional tumor that disallows her from developing trust, let alone a relationship, with another guy. Instead: He grabs her arm and yells at her telling her that she shouldn't visit his grave any more and to get over the past. Luckily for him, instead of yelling at him or hurting him like the Tsundere she is, Suzuka takes a third option and calmly invites him on her trip to the cemetery, to which he reluctantly agrees.
Kuradeel tricked and paralyzed Kirito with poison. You'd Expect: Kuradeel to strike somewhere vital and get it over with. Instead: He took his sweet time gloating and torturing Kirito. The Result:Asuna had more than enough time to come to the rescue.
Kirito correctly deduced that Heathcliff was Kayaba in disguise. Kayaba challenged Kirito to a one-on-one duel. The deal was that the game would end 25 floors early if Kirito manages to defeat him. You'd Expect: Kirito to decline the offer, play it safe and not die pointlessly. The fronliners need all the help they can get in future possible fights and would have lost a valuable asset if he loses. He lost the first duel. Kirito is up against the game admin after all and he was even informed about system assist from Kayaba himself. There is absolutely no reason for Kayaba to play fair or keep his promise. Instead: Kirito agreed and thought that he could solo the final boss. He did, in fact, died, only to be saved by a Deus ex Machina.
Sugou was performing an experiment to use ALO as a means of mind control and planned to be wedded with a comatose Asuna. You'd Expect: Sugou to keep his mouth shut and masquerade as a harmless friend of the Yuuki family. Even if things go south he can more likely avoid criminal charges had he stayed an anonymous mastermind. Instead:Hemade sure that Kirito and Asuna knew that he was evil. Result: He starts off the entire ALO story arc where Kirito eventually manages to defeat him.
Kirito found out that the comatose Asuna is imprisoned in ALO. You'd Expect: Kirito to inform authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of ALO and its operators. After all, he was the person who saved everyone from SAO, his words hold some weight. Instead: He dived in to play ALO, with no guarantee that he can actually save her from inside the game.
Kirito has a week to race against the clock in order to prevent Asuna from getting married while in a coma. You'd Expect: Kirito to head to the World Tree ASAP. Instead: He took part of in-game political conflicts of no real life consequences, delaying the rescue.
Sugou has admin access to ALO. You'd Expect: Sugou to program the game so that Asuna cannot leave her cage or that he is the only one who can unlock it. Instead: He uses keypads for the cage and in-game items(key cards) for administrator access. As a result, Asuna was able to leave her cage for a short time and snatched the keycard, then passing it to Kirito down below.
In Tokyo Mew Mew, Kish figures out that Aoyama can only transform into Blue Knight if Ichigo is in danger. You'd Expect: Kish would attack Aoyama, and Aoyama only, since he is in a "I want to have my revenge on the Blue Knight!" rampage. Instead: He ignores that vital fact and attacks Ichigo. Failure Ensues.
A thief breaks into a government fort and attempts to steal medicine for his sick sister. You'd Expect: A man hunt so at the very least people knew what is going on. Instead: Soldiers ride into a nearby village that knows nothing about the crime and demand that they turn over the thief that "they know" is being hidden there, get rowdy, and kill the village leader Tusukuru. Results: Needless bloodshed that started a rebellion that could have been avoided.
The village starts a rebellion for the death of Tusukuru and the later imprisonment of Oboro. You'd Expect: The emperor to simply crush the rebelling village. Instead: He orders the destruction of non-rebellious villages as an example all because he lost his brother and of his own pride. Results: This leads to a full scale rebellion. Even his top general, Benawi, is pissed off at how dumb this move was. Pride Before A Fall indeed.
Uzumaki: the town of Kurôzu-cho and everyone in it is descending into madness. The two main characters, Shuichi and Kirie witness increasingly nightmarish happenings, and almost die a few times as a result. Shuichi urges Kirie to run away with him numerous times. You'd Expect: Eventually Kirie would leave with Shuichi before they fall victim to the insanity. You'd expect that Kirie's hair coming to life and almost killing her, as well as Shuichi, seeing people turn into giant snails, and witnessing pregnant women sucking human blood would be enough to have both of them running away with nary a backward glance. Instead:Kirie doesn't decide to leave until it's far too late, months after the events start happening. Both she and Shuichi suffer the consequences. Also, with each new chapter, she seems to have forgotten the terrible things that happened in the last chapter.
Satou is given a stash of underage pornography by Yamazaki. Afraid that he himself is becoming a Lolicon, he resolves to improve himself. You'd Expect: He gets rid of the pornography. Instead: He comes up with a plan where he hangs around in the bushes outside a middle school wearing a trenchcoat and looking every inch the creepy paedophile while carrying a camera - the idea being that seeing himself like this will be sufficient impetus to stop his attraction to Lolita-like characters. This won't end well.
In a later episode, Satou is invited to a seminar which instantly makes the fact that it's a pyramid scheme obvious, and realizes it's a scam right off the bat. You'd Expect: He runs away. Instead: He runs away... and still gets talked into joining. When he gets home that night, products in tow, his friends berate him for it. One of them runs to a bookstore and buys a book on pyramid schemes, and studies it for a solution. They find they have the option of returning the items and getting out. You'd Expect: They return the items and claim their refund. Instead: They return the items and claim their refund... and then get talked into buying more products. On the way back, they start talking about how stupid someone would have to be to be involved in a pyramid scheme. They only realize this when the book they had consulted earlier falls out of one of their bags.
In Yami No Matsuei, Tsuzuki is pretending to be a casino dealer on a cruise ship. Antagonist Muraki comes over and offers to play poker with Tsuzuki. When asked what they're betting on, Muraki answers, "your body," and proceeds to describe what he would do with Tsuzuki. However, Muraki never states what's in it for Tsuzuki if he wins, making it a lose-lose proposition. You'd Expect: Tsuzuki to say "Hell no. Do you think I'm stupid? There's nothing in it for me. Go away." Instead: Tsuzuki says yes, promptly loses, and gets all whiny and whimpery when Muraki starts feeling him up. He doesn't even have the guts to punch Muraki or push him away.
The season 2 finale. when Saito comes back home after stalling/beating an army and explains to Louise he was healed by an elf. You'd Expect: Knowing Louise's A-Cup Angst, he omits the "minor" fact of said elf being a busty girl. Instead: Saito blurts it out on a perverted manner, thus completely ruining the until-then very emotive finale. Cue Louise rightfully beating him down.
