History AwesomeButImpractical / AnimeAndManga

*** Wing Gundam's buster rifle has enough energy for only three shot at maximum output. After, it need to recharge outside of combat. In ''Glory to the Losers'' manga, this was {{Retcon}} to a dozen of energy cartridges, but Heero can't seem to find a way to replace them.

*** Wing Gundam's buster rifle has enough energy for only three shot at maximum output. After, it need to recharge outside of combat. In ''glory to the Losers'' manga, this was {{Retcon}} to a dozen of energy cartridges, but Heero can't seem to find a way to replace them.

*** Wing Gundam's buster rifle has enough energy for only three shot at maximum output. After, it need to recharge outside of combat. In ''Frozen Teardrop'', this was {{Retcon}} to a dozen of energy cartridges, but Heero can't seem to find a way to replace them.

** Wing Gundam's buster rifle has enough energy for only three shot at maximum output. After, it need to recharge outside of combat. In ''Frozen Teardrop'', this was {{Retcon}} to a dozen of energy cartridges, but Heero can't seem to replace them.

** Any stand that [[LuckBasedMission relies on gambling counts]]. Osiris, Atum, Boy II Man and Marilyn Manson can steal souls or organs if their users win some kind of game or bet. While they have potential to defeat ANY kind of enemy, the stand is pretty much useless if the user is unlucky or outsmarted... or even just refuses to play.

** Any stand that [[LuckBasedMission relies on gambling counts]]. Osiris, Atum, Boy II Man and Marilyn Manson can steal souls or organs if their users win some kind of game or bet. While they have potential to defeat ANY kind of enemy, the stand is pretty much useless if the user is unlucky or outsmarted...

** Guldo of the Ginyu Force is able to [[TimeStandsStill freeze time]] for as long as he holds his breath... but he can't hold his breath for very long, and doing so uses up a lot of his energy. As shown when he uses it against Gohan and Krillin three times in a row, he ends up so drained that he can't even fire basic Ki Blasts.

** Now we have Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires five good-hearted Saiyans donating energy to a sixth and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing. The next movie introduces Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, which is essentially an improved and more efficient version without all the drawbacks.

** RebuildOfEvangelion has... quite a few things that qualify. First off, there's the ''entire Operation Yashima'', which just like in NGE requires that NERV uses a Positron Rifle that uses ''every single Watt of power in Japan''! And they authorize that without knowing for sure if it'll actually work or not. Secondly, there's Evangelion Provisional Unit-05, one of the new EVA-Units. Since it's more mechanical than most Evangelions, and it serves as a prison-guard for an Angel, it is practically useless, since only few people can pilot an EVA. The only upsides is that the pilot is there and the EVA has the power to keep the Angel from causing too much trouble. The downside, however, is that it only gets power while it's running on the rail-tracks running throughout the prison, and the EVA isn't designed to ''fight'' Angels, only keep them away from Tokyo-3. As a result, the only way it can defeat the Angel is by self-destructing, and the self-destruct mechanism itself gives the pilot enough time to escape unharmed.

** Another King Kai technique, the Kaioken, multiplies the user's power several times for a short period, but places a severe strain on the body afterwards (to the point where Krillin giving Goku a congratulatory slap on the back afterwards caused him intense pain). It's not surprising that he stopped using it after the battle with Frieza, at which point he had the more reliable Super Saiyan form.

* In ''Manga/{{Charlotte}}'', Yu and the others have special powers, though each of them has some kind of drawback:

* The magical weapons in ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon''. While it can help adventurers that don't know much magic, they are expensive, {{breakable|Weapons}}, and not as strong as actual magic. Welf, possibly the only living person who can make them ''en masse'', refuses to make them for this very reason.

** This is also stated why the Tallgeese, the SuperPrototype to all mobile suits spent most of its existence gathering dust in a museum. Tallgeese was simply ''too fast'', and put so much strain and G-Force on the pilot that most people attempting to fly it wound up dead from the force alone. It just wasn't practical to produce on a mass scale, so the Leo and Aries suits are essentially downgraded versions of the Tallgeese. It's not until the Gundams show up and become a serious threat that OZ decides to repair the Tallgeese to its former glory and hand it to the one pilot they have with the skills to master it; [[CharClone Zechs.]]

** Another prime example is Super Saiyan Grades 2 and 3, the "advanced" Super Saiyan forms created during the Cell Saga (not to be confused with Super Saiyan 2 and 3). These forms greatly bulk up the user and make him far more powerful, but it drains stamina and reduces speed, which makes it useless since all the power in the world does you no good if you can't hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta figured that these forms were useless on their own[[note]]Goku instead opts to try and surpass Super Saiyan entirely, resulting in Super Saiyan 2, while Vegeta works out a more efficient way to use Grade 2[[/note]], but the less savvy Trunks found out the hard way when fighting Cell.

* Similarly, ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' has Goku's massively powerful Spirit Bomb attack, an attack so ponderous it takes ''several episodes'' to fully charge--he also invariably needs help holding off the baddie while he does so.
** Goku's Kaiohken can multiplicate Goku's energy several times for a short times but his body is seriously damaged when using it. It's not weird that he stopped using it after fighting Frieza.[[note]]Then again, he got the [[GoldenSuperMode Super Saiyan]] transformation while fighting Frieza, so he didn't really need Kaio Ken anymore.[[/note]]
** And it only defeats a canon villain once.

*** The Desstructo Disc's flaw is highlighted when compared to [[BigBad Freiza's]] death saucer attack which not only creates two discs, but allows the user to mentally control them to home after their target.
** Also, Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, at least at the beginning of the series when it takes an inordinately long time to charge. It's because when he uses it, he's in the middle of [[AnArmAndALeg not having an arm.]] According to Piccolo, having both of his arms would've let him charge faster.
** Also, in the two advanced stages of the Super Saiyan (not to be confused with Super Saiyan levels 2 and 3, those are different), the Saiyan bulks up and becomes far more powerful, but as a result he drains more energy and in the third stage slows down greatly. Goku realized this drawback right away, Vegeta worked out a way to only partially use it so that he'd only lose a small amount of speed and minimize the energy consumption, while Trunks learned the hard way.
** Super Saiyan 3 itself also counts. It's the most powerful Saiyan transformation seen in DBZ, but consumes an enormous amount of energy, which has the side effect of reducing the length of a normally 30 minute fusion to about 5 minutes. It isn't even an EleventhHourSuperpower like the first two; it appears early in the arc and is well outclassed by the villian's later forms, as well as Gohan after his hidden potential is released, who suffers no power drain.
** Now we got Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires six Saiyans and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing. Interestingly, its follow up, [[IncrediblyLongName Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan]], is actually much more efficient.
* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'' is full of varied and powerful stands, some of them are [[GameBreaker hilariously broken]] but have major weaknesses or requirements.
** Part 3 is rather infamous for this. Joseph's Hermit Purple, can use cameras to take photos and find anything he wants, or use a TV to read minds, receive mental messages or watch anyplace in the world. The potential to use this is almost unlimited! Think about how many hidden stand users he could have found, and all those traps he could have avoided! The problem is, Part 3 takes place around the Egypt in 1987, so there isn't much technology for him to use, and he has to discard them after using...
*** Kakyoin and Polnareff both have unique powers that they "forget to use" all the time. Hierophant Green can get inside people, and control their bodies, or simply kill them from inside out! He could have used it to defeat so many enemies, or interrogate them, but for some reason, he only uses it twice. Polnareff and Silver Chariot manage to be even worse, he can take off his stand's armor, and fight with eight different Silver Chariots that move faster than light! With powers like that, most of his enemies would be defeated in a blink of eye, but he only uses this power once and manages to LOSE the fight! (Since Silver Chariot is blind, Polnareff didn't see Avdol's flame and lost.)

* In ''Anime/ProjectAKo'', MadScientist babe B-Ko unleashes her killer mecha the Max 5000. It combines from several shape-changing vehicles in a drawn-out TransformationSequence, she boasts of all its amazing killer powers and exotic weaponry, it's even referred to as "The Blue God of Death". But its gadgets and elaborate transformations don't leave any room for the pilot to control the thing, so it just stands there inert until the Heroic Schoolgirl A-Ko kicks it and it falls down.

*** Side materials claim the Wing Zero's Twin Buster Rifle (and by proxy the Wing Gundam's singular Buster Rifle) have variable power outputs and can be altered to "standard" beam rifle levels on a whim. That does little good in a space colony, since any kind of weapon discharge (even machine gun fire) may puncture the colony's hull and spell destruction for everyone within it. The latter was why the Crossbone Vanguard of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Gundam F91]]'' primarily used [[BoringButPractical shot lancers]] (machine guns with a jousting lance attached) instead of beam rifles, or even why Amuro in the first episode of the original ''Gundam'' only used his beam saber[[note]]and even then, he ''still'' accidentally ripped the colony a new one when his first kill's power plant exploded[[/note]].

** In ''[[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray Gundam SEED Astray]]'' the [[{{BFG}} Lohengrin Launcher]] can fire a huge blast of anti-matter positrons which atomizes anything in its path. It also drains the entire battery to do it.

*** In the ''Gundam SEED Astray'' OVA, Lowe obtains a [=BuCUE=] head from a dealer at an auction. While having a twin-bladed beam saber that rotates is awesome, it takes away a hand from his Red Frame, keeping him from using the Gerbera Straight katana, ''still'' uses too much energy from his suit and, when he leaves it behind, laments on the fact that he just lost about a million credits.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' showed that the [=RX-78NT-1=] Gundam "Alex" had a special armor suit made out of strong Chobham armor. While the armor was tough and is able to withstand the Kampher's chain mine, the armor weighed down the "Alex" immensely, killing its speed. As the "Alex" was designed for Newtypes (re: Amuro Ray) in mind, this would be a ''dangerous'' thing.
** ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' shows that ''Gunpla Battles'' are this. This was especially noted with the Gunpla Battle Club - its members kept making Gunpla and getting them trashed early in tournaments. You're looking at $100 USD worth of work (at the very most) going down the drain. This is most likely why the Gunpla Battle system nowadays use damage levels to prevent this.

* JojosBizarreAdventure is full of varied and powerful stands, some of them are [[GameBreaker hilariously broken]] but have major weaknesses or requirements.

** Now we got Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires six Saiyans and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', "One for All" is this when Midoriya first acquires it. His body is still not able to handle the incredible SuperStrength it grants, nor is he able to regulate how much power he uses when he activates it. He has a long way to go before he'll be able to pull off the same feats All Might can do.

** Also, in the two advanced stages of the Super Saiyan (not to be confused with Super Saiyan levels 2 and 3, those are different), the Saiyan becomes far more powerful, but as a result he drains more energy and slows down greatly. Goku and Vegeta realized this drawback of the form right away and worked out a way to only partially use it so that they'd only lose a small amount of speed, while Trunks learned the hard way.

** Also, in the two advanced stages of the Super Saiyan (not to be confused with Super Saiyan levels 2 and 3, those are different), the Saiyan becomes far more powerful, but as a result he slows down greatly. Goku and Vegeta realized this drawback of the form right away and worked out a way to only partially use it so that they'd only lose a small amount of speed, while Trunks learned the hard way.

** Hiten Mitsurugi is a swift and powerful style that's practically unbeatable, but is meant to be used by people with a strong and durable body type. When used by the small and slender Kenshin, it degrades his muscles at an accelerated rate. Roughly 20 years after he first started learning the style, he's lost the ability to use its fabled techniques, and will soon be unable to use a sword at all.

** The Evas themselves would also easily qualify under most circumstances. They're HumongousMecha which possess incredibly powerful defensive and offensive abilities, however...they're [[PsychoactivePowers reliant on the pilot's emotional state]] to function, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Piloted by a Forsaken Child]], [[BondCreatures picky about who pilots them]], the damage dealt to them is [[{{Synchronization}} mirrored on their pilots]] when they're at their best, and they need to be plugged in to a power source to operate for more than a few minutes. What saves them from this in the series itself is both the fact that they operate almost entirely within a fixed area (so they're usually plugged in) and for the bulk of the series are pretty much the ''only'' thing capable of killing an Angel, making their utility outweigh their impracticality.