History AwesomeButImpractical / AnimeAndManga

*** The Namekian Dragon Balls and Super Dragon Balls manage to make an already-impractical in-story cheat code even ''more'' impractical simply by being too big to fit in one's pocket. Namekian Dragon Balls are roughly the size of dodgeballs, while Super Dragon Balls are roughly the size of entire ''[[UpToEleven planets]]''.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' has two examples from the final part of the manga. CompleteMonster The Unknown Man uses a specialized crossbow that fires spiked, poisoned balls of sufficient weight and impact that a Diclonius cannot easily turn them back, especially at close range. He disables Nana with it, then threatens to disfigure a resistant Mayu, till in a BigDamnHeroes moment, evolving JerkassWithAHeartOfGold Bando pounds the intruder to hell and back. Unknown Man gets the drop on Bando as well, but Bando's artificial hand enable him to pull the spiked ball out, which he then shoves where the sun don't shine, sending Unknown Man running and crying. Bando then takes the crossbow for his final battle with Lucy, but the spiked ball was a recovered rather than a fresh one, and the poison is lessened enough for Lucy to overcome it. After Bando is seemingly killed, the crossbow ends up in the hands of the determined Agent who recaptured Lucy, to defend herself and Meganekko MadScientist Arakawa from a sinking island full of vengeful Clone Diclonius. She uses it to great effect--and then it runs out of ammo, which, being heavy spiked balls, isn't easily replaced. In this case, sadistically awesome and only very briefly practical.

*** The Destructo 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. This attack ''does'' wind up backfiring on Freiza far, far worse than Krillin's inferior version ever did, but due to his own stupidity.

*** 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 a number of drawbacks attached to it. For example, Gotenks using SSJ3 shortens his normal FusionDance time limit from 30 minutes to 5, while Goku using the form as a delaying tactic against Fat Buu reduces the amount of time he has left during his once-in-an-afterlife visit to the mortal world. Later on, after Goku is brought back to life, he finds out that SSJ3 puts an incredible strain on the body that causes him to tire out quickly during the fight with Kid Buu. Goku later on manages to minimize these drawbacks, but by the time he does Super Saiyan 3 has become SoLastSeason.
** 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. The Super Saiyan God seen in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' lessens the Impractical by showing that it can match Beerus' power at maximum, where the movie version could only to 70%.
*** Speaking of ''Resurrection F'', Frieza's new Golden form also qualifies. While it gives him speed and power on par with a Super Saiyan God, he practically bleeds stamina, meaning that he can't maintain it for very long and when it ''does'' end, he's completely gassed out afterwards. This is entirely Frieza's fault; as Vegeta surmises, once he achieved the form he immediately rushed to Earth to take his revenge, rather than undergoing any further training in order to address the flaw. Dragonball Super makes it less impractical as Frieza can control his power in the form, allowing him to last a while longer than in the film while holding back (although he still kicks Goku's ass, and he is still burning Ki at an accelerated rate), but conversely he burns out after only a minute of using his full power.

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' gives us the [[spoiler:Super Kaioken, the fusion of Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and the Kaioken. It's a technique powerful enough to battle the deadly assassin Hit, who is the strongest warrior in Universe 6, and [[OhCrap gives Beerus major pause]]. However, the technique is totally incomplete - the skill only lasts a few minutes (on-screen, it's shown to be only two minutes), has a 90% failure rate and, if performed wrong, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique could kill Goku]]. This is why he considers it [[GodzillaThreshold his ultimate trump card]].]] A few episodes after its introduction, we find out that [[spoiler:using it in this way causes "delayed onset ki disorder", which [[PowerIncontinence throws off his whole ki potential]] without proper rest.]]

* ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': [[spoiler:Halfway through the series Mori gets an ability to turn her opponents into glasses fetishists. [[StoryBreakerPower This means she can make her opponents do whatever she wants, including beating themselves up]], by threatening to break her glasses. Unfortunately there is a ridiculous catch: the opponents have to strike a "Goodie-Two-Shoes" pose (both fists placed near chin, one leg raised backwards) in order for it to work.]]

* Giga Slave from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}''. Sure, you can destroy any enemy/mazoku with it, but chances are you're going to bring on {{Instrumentality}} or [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt worse]], [[spoiler: be possessed by the (dark) creator of the Universe and most likely ''die from that mere fact'' (like it happened to Lina in ''Next'', only surviving when the Lord of Nightmares saw Gourry's UndyingLoyalty to her)]] and if/when you manage to dodge all the above, you still lose your magical powers for a few days [[ArsonmurderAndJaywalking and]] [[LockedIntoStrangeness your hair might turn white until you recover]].

** Part 3 is rather infamous for this. Joseph's Hermit Purple, can take "spirit photographs" using cameras, or can pull a more advanced version with a television; unfortunately, in both cases it destroys the device being used, and in 1987 that kind of tech isn't cheap. Made worse by the fact that [[spoiler:DIO's "[[FanNickname Hermit Purple 2]]"]] can pull exactly the same trick but doesn't destroy the camera.

*** Part's 4 The Hand is generally considered to be one of the most powerful stands in the series, not only it's strong and fast enough to keep up with Crazy Diamond but it also has the ability to erase ''anything it wants'' with it's [[MeaningfulName right hand]]. And range isn't a problem either because it can erase the space between the user and his target. In other words, The Hand is a OneHitKill machine capable of defeating almost anything with just 2 arm swings. Too bad it's user Okuyasu Nichimura is too nice to ever kill someone with it and a TooDumbToLive fighter.

** Also, we may not be seeing Pactio telepathy at its best. All of Negi's own are a probationary version meant for people who are ''considering'' making a Pactio - just backed by such ridiculous levels of power that it's possible to overlook the difference. The others have been either involving people equally immature or other "abusers of the system". No reason to think two people who have fully committed to it and spent a decade or two working on the bond couldn't do better.
*** Well, telepathy is just a [[FlightStrengthHeart bonus power]] of pactio, after all.

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' gives us the [[spoiler:Super Kaioken, the fusion of Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and the Kaioken. It's a technique powerful enough to battle the deadly assassin Hit, who is the strongest warrior in Universe 6, and [[OhCrap gives Beerus major pause]]. However, the technique is totally incomplete - the skill only lasts a few minutes (on-screen, it's shown to be only two minutes), has a 90% failure rate and, if performed wrong, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique could kill Goku]]. This is why he considers it [[GodzillaThreshold his ultimate trump card]].]] A few episodes after its introduction, we find out that [[spoiler:using it in this way causes "delayed onset ki disorder", which [[PowerIncontenence throws off his whole ki potential]] without proper rest.]]

** Yu can transfer his soul to another person and do whatever he wants, but only for five seconds. There seems to be no limit to how often he can do this however.

*** Unit-08 is the only EVA in 3.33 that actually subverts this, since it's a Combat Deployment Type just like Unit-02, which means it is designed for combat. All its weapons are Anti-AT-Field Weapons, making it specialized in killing things with an AT-Field (humans, Angels, other EVAs).
*** Mark.09 is the only Eva so far that can function without its head and it can spontaneously grow a giant booster-rocket out of its back, which appears to be awesome enough, if it wasn't for the fact that it sucks in combat. Its armor is soft and flexible, allowing the Eva to grow the giant booster-rocket, and as a result, destroying the EVA takes very little effort. Its only enemies are also other EVAs, making it way more useless...

* Subverted in the "Phantom Bullet" arc of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': [[LaserBlade Photon Swords]] in ''Gun Gale Online'' possessed incredible attack power, but were considered this trope due to their limited range, meaning that by the time anyone got close enough to attack with one, they'd be riddled with bullets. Kirito, however, manages to transform the Photon Sword into a LethalJokeWeapon, using his personal experience in VRMMO games that emphasized swordfighting to not only dodge bullets, but [[ImplausibleFencingPowers deflect them using his Photon Sword]] before going in for the kill.

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' gives us the [[spoiler:Super Kaioken, the fusion of Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and the Kaioken. It's a technique powerful enough to battle the deadly assassin Hit, who is the strongest warrior in Universe 6, and [[OhCrap gives Beerus major pause]]. However, the technique is totally incomplete - the skill only lasts a few minutes (on-screen, it's shown to be only two minutes), has a 90% failure rate and, if performed wrong, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique could kill Goku]]. This is why he considers it [[GodzillaThreshold his ultimate trump card]].]]

** [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique The Mangekyo Sharingan]] causes its user to goes blind from overuse. And for some people "overuse" can happen rather quickly. And for [[GlassCannon Uchiha Itachi]] [[spoiler: unless in Edo Tensei form where he has unlimited stamina and chakra.]] It's much worse. Itachi is one of [[TheAce ''the strongest'']] ninjas in the whole world, gifted with three incredibly haxxed techniques. But Itachi...has ''[[RedShirtArmy genin]]'' level stamina. He has only ''three'' uses of it before he exhausts his normal supplies of chakra, more than that ''kills him''. Using the MS five times during his battle with Sasuke is what partially killed him-accelerating his disease AND adding chakra exhaustion to boot.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has the Bahamut itself, Lux Arcadia's Divine Drag-Ride. It has a lot of destructive firepower, can easily defeat at least a thousand men, and is a LightningBruiser. Its problems? It's such a huge energy hog that it can literally drain anyone who uses it, and the first time the protagonist uses it, it rendered him into a coma for weeks. Its techniques and firepower are so precise that the protagonist has to use an AceCustom that heavily weighs him down and force himself to be a StoneWall just to perfectly utilize Bahamut.

* The [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Double Zeta Gundam]], a massive (even by Franchise/{{Gundam}} standards) CombiningMecha with many BFG's, the most powerful one built into its head. The catch? it can only fire them about two or three times before the suit's capacitors are completely drained of energy.
** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamMSIgloo MS Igloo]]'' is based on this premise, though some [[SuperPrototype Super Prototypes]] like Hildolfr tank turn out to be effective. The worst offender is the Jormungand's {{BFG}} from first episode, being a big target with low accuracy and a very long cool-down period between each shot. What makes the Jormungand stand out even more is the fact that it was hauled out and only fired three shots... from its own crew out of sheer frustration that Command was ''ignoring them''. When their XO decides to go out and ''give'' his crew the info they needed, Char Aznable shows up and tells them to just go on back, the Mobile Suits got this. Which most likely means that Zeon built a humongous gun for nothing more than show.
*** Zeon loved this, constantly creating new classes of mecha instead of just concentrating on a few like the Gouf and Gelgoog. In particular, the Big Zam was based off of the "super tanks" from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII that were prohibitively heavy and slow. It could take on long-range roles, but was useless at close-range.
** In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'', beam weapons have become so powerful, that the equivalent conventional weaponry (read ''massive'' Gatling gun) has too much recoil for it to be aimed properly.
** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'', the Wing Zero, a nigh-unstoppable mobile suit designed for wholesale destruction, rapidly becomes this when used for anything requiring just a bit more precision. Nothing says AwesomeButImpractical like trying to defend civilians when your primary long-ranged weapon can one-shot the entire ''colony'' you're fighting in, and your ultra-sophisticated cockpit system is busy trying to MindRape you into pulling the trigger.
*** 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. This is the reason why combat inside colonies is generally avoided across the ''Gundam'' timelines, and why some forces (like ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91''[='s=] Crossbone Vanguard) develop weapons that are made to avoid this eventuality.
*** Wing Gundam's [[WaveMotionGun buster rifle]] has enough energy for only three shot at maximum output. It need to recharge outside of combat. [[MidSeasonUpgrade Wing Zero]] doesn't share this limitation however. 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.
*** 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.]]
** From ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' is the titular Gundam X. On one hand, it's pretty good specs-wise and possesses the almighty [[WaveMotionGun Satellite Cannon]] (designed to ''vaporize colonies''). On the other, the damn thing has hilariously long charging and cool-down times, requires a direct view of a moon-based facility, and needs a [[PsychicPowers Newtype pilot]] for the first activation. What's more, it's only mid-range weapon is a weird [[SwissArmyWeapon rifle/shield hybrid]], making the use of both at the same time impossible. Thank god the [[MidSeasonUpgrade Double X]] ironed out most flaws (it has both a rifle and a shield, and the cool-down of its ''Twin'' Satellite Cannon is greatly reduced). And in the meantime, the original got remodeled into the Gundam X Divider which scrapped the Satellite Cannon and replaced it with the Divider Shield containing [[MoreDakka lots of smaller beam cannons]].

** In the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', beam rifles were exactly this, as they were insanely powerful at the time (as they were the means to make a Mobile Suit have the power of a battleship), but they had a few drawbacks - your suit needed to have the sufficient power to power up a beam rifle's charges to fire, you had no way to reload on the battlefield and they were quite expensive. It wasn't until suits began having stronger and cheaper powerplants and the advent of the E-Cap device that beam rifles became more practical. For example, the GM (a toned-down mass production model of the original [[SuperPrototype Gundam]]) had to make do with a shorter-ranged and less accurate "beam spray gun" because it couldn't handle the Gundam's full-power beam rifle.

*** Seven Swords... Why on Earth would anyone find it necessary to carry seven swords on one Mobile Suit? It only has two hands to hold them, after all. Sure, it's awesome and Setsuna manages to put all swords to use once, but the one time he does it on-screen, he destroys six of the Seven Swords, just because he had to destroy the enemy he'd stabbed six of the swords into. [[AllThereInTheManual Various sidestories and Gunpla instructions]] revealed that the Exia's successors, the 00 and the 00 Qan[T], also had Seven Swords types. Both were designed to help stabilize the Twin Drive Systems and both were rendered unneeded due to various reasons (focusing on the 0 Raiser and the 00 Qan[T] not needing extra equipment to reach full synchroization.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'' and the [=RX-78GP02A=] Gundam [=GP-02A=] "Physalis". Designed for fortress smashing, it was armed with a nuclear warhead in the event another Zeon would try that stunt again. After the nuke is used... it isn't much use. All it had afterwards was two beam sabers and head vulcans, which meant it needed help should the opposition confront it afterwards.

*** Kakyoin and Polnareff both have unique powers that they "forget to use" all the time. Kakyoin's Hierophant Green can get inside people, and control their bodies, or simply kill them from inside out. Polnareff's Silver Chariot can [[ShedArmorGainSpeed shed its armor to become incredibly fast]] and [[DoppelgangerAttack generate seven copies of itself]]; he only ever uses these abilities once, during his BrainwashedAndCrazy battle against Avdol.

* [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Saturn]], otherwise known as the Senshi of Ruin, has power that far eclipses the other senshi (save for Usagi herself.) In the [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]], she states that she can destroy an entire planet by herself. The downside is that using it kills her; she takes out one season's Big Bad (she gets better) and then against all the others after that never gets to use it again.

* The titular character of ''Manga/GashBell'' has the spell "Jikerdor", which magnetizes and immobilizes enemies. Seems awesome, until you realize you need a large amount of metal for the spell to make contact with, and very rarely do the opponents conveniently fight in a location like that. In fact, a filler arc where the {{Mooks}} consisted of iron-suited baddies were the only time the spell became truly important.
* Drifting as dramatized ''Manga/InitialD'' looks good in the anime, watching the cars slide and such. But in practice, drifting is more or less a spectacle rather than an often used technique in racing. Most of the reason is because your tires will wear out very fast.
** Averted in the later seasons(stages) when exhibition drifting wasn't really used. The drifting in the later stages were more akin to drawn out versions of rally drifting. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKpa99O1oZ4&feature=related]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'' Luffy's Gear Third as soon it has been used will reduce Luffy's size turning him into a midget or toddler as he is smaller than even a young child. As well as reducing his size, his power is also limited, and he loses the ability to use his Devil Fruit powers. This requires Luffy to run and hide until the effects wear off. This lasts for the same amount of time that was needed to use Gear Third.
** However, after [[spoiler:the TimeSkip]], he seems to be now able to use it without shrinking at all, and can use [[spoiler:the Color of Armarments Haki]] to make it even stronger.

** The signature jutsu of the Yamanaka Clan, the Mind Body Switch Technique. How can a jutsu that can swap your body with an enemy allowing you to do absolutely ''anything'' to them not be awesome -- by creating a technique that leaves your original body defenceless, by creating a technique that doesn't allow you to physically injure your opponent in any way because it would injure you too, by creating a technique that only moves in a straight line and is slow enough to be dodged by first year Genin, by creating a technique that uses so much chakra it can't be used immediately afterward forcing you to wait whilst your enemy uses their less stupid and useless jutsu on you. Yeah, awesome technique that.
*** Which is why the Yamanakas have a more advanced jutsu that lets them take control of an enemy's body without losing control of their own. It's just that Ino hadn't mastered in Part 1.

** [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique The Mangekyo Sharingan]] causes its user to goes blind from overuse. And for some people "overuse" can happen rather quickly.
*** And for [[GlassCannon Uchiha Itachi]] [[spoiler: unless in Edo Tensei form where he has unlimited stamina and chakra.]] It's much worse. Itachi is one of [[TheAce ''the strongest'']] ninjas in the whole world, gifted with three incredibly haxxed techniques. But Itachi...has ''[[RedShirtArmy genin]]'' level stamina. He has only ''three'' uses of it before he exhausts his normal supplies of chakra, more than that ''kills him''. Using the MS five times during his battle with Sasuke is what partially killed him-accelerating his disease AND adding chakra exhaustion to boot.

* Sanosuke's [[{{BFS}} zanbato]] in ''Manga/RurouniKenshin.'' Sure, it looks cool, but it's also so big and cumbersome that it can only be swung over-head or from the side, making it incredibly easy to predict and allowing all but the slowest of opponents to evade it with barely any effort.

** A recently introduced character can punch hard enough to destroy fortresses and (allegedly) could at a minimum severely injure one of the ''Four Emperors''. The catch? He has to warm up for an hour to throw a single punch.

* ''Panzer World Galient'': Galient's Flight Form makes quick travel to other places convenient, but since it has no weapons to speak of, it's completely vulnerable to aerial attacks. Luckily, this is eventually fixed via the Assault Galient upgrade.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Sleeping Giant Thud, a monster that can't be beaten in battle, or spells and traps, and can destroy any monster it battles. Only problem? You can summon it only if you have a LV 1 Monster on the field for '''20 TURNS'''. In an anime that barely gets past 7, this is...near impossible. It's never been summoned past Team Taiyou.

** From ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'' is the Gundam X. On one hand, it's pretty good specs-wise and possesses the almighty [[WaveMotionGun Satellite Cannon]] (designed to ''vaporize colonies''). On the other, the damn thing has hilariously long charging and cool-down times, requires a direct view of a moon-based facility, and needs a [[PsychicPowers Newtype pilot]] for the first activation. What's more, it's only mid-range weapon is a weird [[SwissArmyWeapon rifle/shield hybrid]], making the use of both at the same time impossible. Thank god the [[MidSeasonUpgrade Double X]] ironed out most flaws (it has both a rifle and a shield, and the cool-down of its ''Twin'' Satellite Cannon is greatly reduced). And in the meantime, the original got remodeled into the Gundam X Divider which scrapped the Satellite Cannon and replaced it with the Divider Shield containing [[MoreDakka lots of smaller beam cannons]].

**** Seven Swords... Why on Earth would anyone find it necessary to carry seven swords on one Mobile Suit? It only has two hands to hold them, after all. Sure, it's awesome and Setsuna manages to put all swords to use once, but the one time he does it on-screen, he destroys six of the Seven Swords, just because he had to destroy the enemy he'd stabbed six of the swords into.

*** The Destructo 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.

*** 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 a number of drawbacks attached to it. For example, Gotenks using SSJ3 shortens his normal FusionDance time limit from 30 minutes to 5, while Goku using the form as a delaying tactic against Fat Buu reduces the amount of time he has left during his once-in-an-afterlife visit to the mortal world. Later on, after Goku is brought back to life, he finds out that SSJ3 puts an incredible strain on the body that causes him to tire out quickly during the fight with Kid Buu.

*** Speaking of ''Resurrection F'', Frieza's new Golden form also qualifies. While it gives him speed and power on par with a Super Saiyan God, he practically bleeds stamina, meaning that he can't maintain it for very long and when it ''does'' end, he's completely gassed out afterwards. This is entirely Frieza's fault; as Vegeta surmises, once he achieved the form he immediately rushed to Earth to take his revenge, rather than undergoing any further training in order to address the flaw.

** Joujirou has SuperSpeed, which he calls teleportation. Unfortunately he can't slow himself down, so ends up crashing into stuff repeatedly and has to wear safety equipment underneath his uniform.