History BecomingTheMask / AnimeAndManga

** [[spoiler: Charlotte Pudding, her bubbly infatuation with her fiancé Sanji was initially just a ruse and she actually thought he was pathetic and [[KickTheDog cruelly mocked him]] when she didn't know he was watching her. She was all Gung ho to kill him during their ArrangedMarriage... until Sanji complimented her ThirdEye when she revealed it at which Pudding was stricken with VillainousBSOD since everyone else before then, had called her extra eyeball hideous. After that Pudding falls in love with Sanji for real, gets jealous of seeing him with other women (Nami and Chiffon) and even has a lustful NoseBleed seeing him do anything cool and manly all while poorly trying to keep up the impression that she hates him. Ultimately [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] though as Pudding despite her feelings for Sanji still thinks she's a monster unworthy of his affection and uses her Devil Fruit power to give him LaserGuidedAmnesia after kissing him]].

* In ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY'', the protagonist is <Twilight>, a spy who takes on the identity of Loid Forger, adopts a daughter, and marries Yor Briar (an assassin), all in order to investigate a politician. Meanwhile, Yor agrees to marry Loid because [[OldMaid a woman being single at her age is seen as suspicious]], which could hurt her career as a ProfessionalKiller. And, just as you'd expect, it doesn't take long when Loid and Yor both [[RomanticFakeRealTurn start to gradually develop genuine feelings for each other]], as well as a parental bond towards Anya, despite their family originally having ulterior motives... During the family interview at Eden College, Loid is visibly angered when a teacher makes rude remarks about Yor. Moments later, Loid and Yor are barely able to contain their rage when the same teacher makes callous remarks about Anya's parentage. And this is when all three individuals have known one another for barely a week. At one point, another secret agent who's worked with Twilight before is able to tell that the love he's displaying towards Yor is more than just a facade.
* In ''Manga/{{Superior}}'', the BigBad female lead feigns hopelessness to gain the hero's trust and kill him. A few days later she realises she has a ''huge'' crush on him.

** Never one to be content with mediocrity, Lelouch vi Britannia wore and became not one, but ''two'' different masks through the series' run, one being [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Zero]] and the other being [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Lelouch]] [[BrilliantButLazy Lamperouge]].

* In the manhwa ''Manhwa/AflameInferno'', creatures called Tedlars can only interact with the human world by taking over a human's body, subsequently killing the human doing so. As the Tedlars usually have to live the same life the possessed humans do to avoid detection (not to mention they have access to all the humans' memories), it's quite possible that they become the human they took over themselves. However, usually Tedlars don't stay too long in one body and return to their plane of existence to 'cast off' the fake identity, avoiding this.
** It's a plot point that the Tedlar called Inferno refused to return, thereby retaining her memories as the human Jeanne de'Arc, and more importantly, the experience of becoming a mother.

* ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'':
** First, despite starting out the story hating the Wang Pu brothers, Xiaxi is actually fairly sad when she leaves them behind because while she certainly doesn't love them, she has grown fond of them and finds it difficult to stomach having tricked them into falling in love with her only to leave them behind.
** Second, she feels that being a ManipulativeBitch may be starting to supplant her true personality, so she occasionally goes out of her way to act on what she feels is her better nature even when it's contrary to her own needs or at least more difficult.

* In ''Manhua/RavagesOfTime'', Sima Yi's plan for revenge after [[spoiler:Cao Cao has his family purged]] involves his assassin Liaoyuan Huo joining "a worthy lord" and using Sima Yi's money to build him up as a rival to Sima Yi's lord Cao Cao[[note]]particularly after the deaths of Lu Bu and Sun Ce, then moreso after the northern Yuan clan's downfall[[/note]] so that [[TheStarscream Sima Yi can work his way up Cao Cao's ranks]]. However, Sima Yi already admits [[CallForward his recognition that Liaoyuan Huo has been "want(ing) to leave this dark maze"]] (as Zhao Yun realized during [[spoiler:his rescue of Zhang Lei and Sima Lang during the purge of the Sima clan residence]][[note]]"I have always wanted to crawl out of this place, crawl toward the light. For what? Living without ambition, like Zhongda; I hate that kind of life. Living from day to day, like my life; I hate that too."[[/note]]) and years later, in chapters 386 and 387 [[spoiler:Huo turns on his teacher as an assassin after the teacher and his men take Liu Bei's wives and son hostage during the Battle of Changban]], having by now internalized the name that Liu Bei gave him: [[spoiler:Zhao Yun, styled Zilong]].

* In ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY'', the protagonist is <Twilight>, a spy who takes on the identity of Loid Forger, adopts a daughter, and marries Yor Briar (an assassin), all in order to investigate a politician. Meanwhile, Yor agrees to marry Loid because [[OldMaid a woman being single at her age is seen as suspicious]], which could hurt her career as a ProfessionalKiller. And, just as you'd expect, Loid and Yor both [[RomanticFakeRealTurn start to gradually develop genuine feelings for each other]], as well as a parental bond towards Anya, despite their family originally having ulterior motives... At one point, another secret agent who's worked with Twilight before is able to tell that the love he's displaying towards Yor is more than just a facade.

* Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo: The Count initially only pretends to like Albert in order to use and manipulate him so he can get closer to his enemies - one of them being Albert's own father. As the series progresses, however, the Count genuinely comes to care for Albert, which causes him a lot of angst and heartbreak. He tries to make himself look like a CardCarryingVillain to push Albert away once his plans come to fruition, but his eyes are dead and he can't look at the boy as he puts up the said facade. At one point, the Count takes it upon himself to tell Albert everything so that he will know why he did what he did.

* "Anime/Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo": The Count initially only pretends to like Albert in order to use and manipulate him so he can get closer to his enemies - one of them being Albert's own father. As the series progresses, however, the Count genuinely comes to care for Albert, which causes him a lot of angst and heartbreak. He tries to make himself look like a CardCarryingVillain to push Albert away once his plans come to fruition, but his eyes are dead and he can't look at the boy as he puts up the said facade. At one point, the Count takes it upon himself to tell Albert everything so that he will know why he did what he did.

* Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo: The Count initially only pretends to like Albert in order to use and manipulate him so he can get closer to his enemies- one of them being Albert's own father. As the series progresses, however, the Count genuinely comes to care for Albert, which causes him a lot of angst and heartbreak. He tries to make himself look like a CardCarryingVillain to push Albert away once his plans come to fruition, but his eyes are dead and he can't look at the boy as he puts up the said facade.

* In ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY'', the protagonist is <Twilight>, a spy who takes on the identity of Loid Forger, adopts a daughter, and marries Yor Briar (an assassin), all in order to investigate a politician. Meanwhile, Yor agrees to marry Loid because [[ChristmasCake a woman being single at her age is seen as suspicious]], which could hurt her career as a ProfessionalKiller. And, just as you'd expect, Loid and Yor both [[RomanticFakeRealTurn start to gradually develop genuine feelings for each other]], as well as a parental bond towards Anya, despite their family originally having ulterior motives... At one point, another secret agent who's worked with Twilight before is able to tell that the love he's displaying towards Yor is more than just a facade.

** In a darker variant, this is [[spoiler: Kabuto]]'s backstory. An orphan who was all but conscripted into duty as a spy, he spent most of his childhood under numerous names in different villages. [[StepfordSmiler By the end of it, he's not really sure who he is.]] When he breaks down, the village stops trusting him, he loses his only purpose in life, and ends up believing Orochimaru's insane logic. And when Orochimaru dies, he doubles down on it and decides to become the most powerful being on the planet in an attempt to give himself worth.

* In episode 18 of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the guy who was hitting on Mikoto turns out to be a shapeshifting assassin assigned to kill her. He fell in love with her for real, so he decided to protect her from his colleagues, but murder Touma and get rid of his potential romantic rival. After Touma defeats him and a steel girder falls on him, he begs Touma to protect her as well.

* The eighth ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' light novel:

* In ''LightNovel/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma'', Koutaro ends up acting out the role of a legendary knight in a play written by Alien Princess Theiamillis. After a battle with Theia's rival ends up catapulting them two thousand years ago on Theia's homeworld, he ends up actually becoming the knight of legend. Fortunately for him, Theia was big on [[ShownTheirWork Showing Her Work]], and actually trained him in ancient Forthorthian sword techniques, and his Knight costume was actually a suit of high-tech PoweredArmor.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'', [[spoiler: Togame]] really did fall in love with [[spoiler: Shichika]] but due to RevengeBeforeReason (at least according to them), they would have killed the latter in the end regardless.

* Mami in ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess'' is a spy charged with disrupting the reunion of Wataru and his sisters, pretending to be another sister; at the climax of the series, she is the one who takes the action necessary to keep the family together, rejecting her own ''real'' brother -- the mastermind of the scheme -- to beg Wataru to come back home.

* Parodied at ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'', a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs: Just after his TomatoInTheMirror moment, when he realizes he is not an [[{{Sentai}} Star Ranger]], but merely a ShopKeeper who CannotTellFictionFromReality, Akihiko decides that even if he is not a Star Ranger, he will be a hero and see that a little boy is not harmed by an AngryGuardDog.

* In ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY'', the protagonist is <Twilight>, a spy who takes on the identity of Loid Forger, adopts a daughter, and marries Yor Briar (an assassin), all in order to investigate a politician. Meanwhile, Yor agrees to marry Loid because [[ChristmasCake a woman being single at her age is seen as suspicious]], which could hurt her career as a ProfessionalKiller. And, just as you'd expect, Loid and Yor both start to gradually develop feelings for each other as well as a genuine parental bond towards Anya, despite their family originally having ulterior motives... At one point, another secret agent who's worked with Twilight before is able to tell that the love he's displaying towards Yor is more than just a facade.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' is about a spy, an assassin, and the girl they adopt, so as to use the fake family as a cover for their secret activities (both being oblivious, mind). Pretty much everyone involved (except Anya, the daughter, who knows everything due to being a secret telepath) is surprised to see how quickly they stop viewing themselves as a fake family, and become a real one pretty much by accident.