History ConservationOfNinjutsu / AnimeAndManga

''Franchise/{{Digimon}} TheMovie'' plays this very straight for both the heroes and [[BigBad Diaboromon]], whoever has greater numbers tends to be on the losing side. Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon can barely get a hit in on Diaboromon in between all the ass-kicking that he's giving them, but when he multiplies into several thousand copies and they [[FusionDance become Omnimon]], the army is mowed down within seconds. When he gets to the last Diaboramon, the fight is now one-on-one and is more evenly matched (if only because he's too fast to hit).

* ''Webcomic/{{OnePunchMan}}'' normally plays this straight early on, with dozens of relatively strong monsters losing to a single strong hero and vice versa, it brutally averts this trope throughout the Monster Association Arc. This is most notable during [[spoiler: Atomic Samurai (Or any Hero barring Saitama) vs. Black Sperm]], where the latter's ability to overwhelm with numbers makes quick work of what would be serious opposition in a one on one battle, or how a group of middling heroes manage to become a serious threat to [[spoiler: Garou]] of all people when working effectively together.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' is a frequent offender, especially in plots involving the Red Ribbon Army or Frieza's empire, but the most blatant usage is in the Bardock TV Special. As he races to attack Frieza in the climax, he has to fly through an army of {{mooks}}, which cause him so little trouble that, in some cases, they look like they're splattering on his face.

*** But subverted by Metal Cooler in one of the movies. After a long struggle, one copy is defeated, only for hundreds more to show up... each of whom are just as strong as the first.

** It should be noted that while this trope is eventually justified for Rinka, other characters don't share this luxury. [[spoiler: When dozens of trained ARES PMSC soldiers storm Kozuki and Minami's hideout, Minami is immediately overwhelmed, and Kozuki only barely escapes due to some clever trickery and forethought. Even so, by the time we see those two again, Kozuki is on her last legs, and nearly gets killed by one of the soldiers, only surviving nearly on pure luck due to the man not knowing she can teleport in firearms. Even after that, she's easily swarmed by the other soldiers and would have died then and there had Zeusu not shown up.]]

** There are two instances where the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu fails to apply to Naruto. His "Shuriken from A Thousand Directions" technique utilizes mass numbers of clones to bombard a single target with shuriken. Also, in the beginning of the anime, his assault of Mizuki is conducted with hundreds of clones, which end up beating up the supposedly more skilled opponent into a pile of mush.

** Played straight with the fight of [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain Madara Uchiha]] versus [[RedshirtArmy Gaara's Division]] of the Shinobi-Alliance]], where the former [[CurbStompBattle curbstomps]] the later with Taijutsu only. This, only happens in the Anime, which takes his physical combat-abilities UpToEleven. [[spoiler:His [[FunctionalMagic Ninjutsu]] and [[MagicalEye Sharingan]] are handy, too.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{OnePunchMan}}'' normally plays this straight early on, with dozens of relatively strong monsters losing to a single strong hero and vice versa, it brutally averts this trope all throughout the Monster Association Arc. This is most notable during [[spoiler: Atomic Samurai (Or any Hero barring Saitama) vs. Black Sperm]], where the latter's ability to overwhelm with numbers makes quick work of what would be serious opposition in a one on one battle, or how a group of middling heroes manage to become a serious threat to [[spoiler: Garou]] of all people when working effectively together.
''Franchise/{{Digimon}} TheMovie'' plays this very straight for both the heroes and [[BigBad Diaboromon]], whoever has greater numbers tends to be on the losing side. Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon can barely get a hit in on Diaboromon in between all the asskicking that he's giving them, but when he multiplies into several thousand copies and they [[FusionDance become Omnimon]], the army is mowed down within seconds. When he gets to the last Diaboramon, the fight is now one-on-one and is more evenly matched (if only because he's too fast to hit).

** Most blatant with Myotismon, who was able to effortlessly NoSell the attacks of the 5 Protagonist Digmon of the same level as him and 1 lower until the 8th Digimon prophesied to beat him evolved to his level despite the same Digimon that had being able to fight him evenly when they fought 1 one 1.
* From the same franchise comes the final battle of ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersLeapingThroughTime'', and it concerns Myotismon and his two Mega forms Venommyotismon and Malomyotismon. Back in the first 2 seasons of the series, Myotismon on his own was a very powerfull opponent, able to hold his own against multiple ultimate digimon and later Mega digimon simultaniously. The final battle of YHT involved not just 1, but a complete ARMY of Myotismon, who later digivolve into THREE Venommyotismon and several dozen of Malomyotismon. But although they have the main characters in a pinch at first, once the other leaders and their (mega level) digimon partners show up, the various Venommyotismon and Malomyotismon start dropping like flies.

** Later in the series [[spoiler: the main lead's father Nagi and his team the Ala Rubra were fighting in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon against the absolute BigBad. A single sneak attack from him was enough to wipe out the entire party. Then, after being [[HealingHands healed]], Nagi managed to single-handedly take out the BlackCloak wearing UltimateEvil. Hammering the point home, each individual member of the Ala Rubra were more than capable on their own against their [[PlotTailoredToTheParty stylized]] [[PsychoRangers PsychoRanger]] opponents they'd faced previous]].

** ''Webcomic/{{OnePunchMan}}'' normally plays this straight early on, with dozens of relatively strong monsters losing to a single strong hero and vice versa, it brutally averts this trope all throughout the Monster Association Arc. This is most notable during [[spoiler: Atomic Samurai (Or any Hero barring Saitama) vs. Black Sperm]], where the latter's ability to overwhelm with numbers makes quick work of what would be serious opposition in a one on one battle, or how a group of middling heroes manage to become a serious threat to [[spoiler: Garou]] of all people when working effectively together.

* ''Webcomic/{{OnePunchMan}}'' normally plays this straight early on, with dozens of relatively strong monsters losing to a single strong hero and vice versa, it brutally averts this trope all throughout the Monster Association Arc. This is most notable during [[spoiler: Atomic Samurai (Or any Hero barring Saitama) vs. Black Sperm]], where the latter's ability to overwhelm with numbers makes quick work of what would be serious opposition in a one on one battle, or how a group of middling heroes manage to become a serious threat to [[spoiler: Garou]] of all people when working effectively together.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}} TheMovie'' plays this very straight for both the heroes and [[BigBad Diaboromon]], whoever has greater numbers tends to be on the losing side. Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon can barely get a hit in on Diaboromon in between all the asskicking that he's giving them, but when he multiplies into several thousand copies and they [[FusionDance become Omnimon]], the army is mowed down within seconds. When he gets to the last Diaboramon, the fight is now one-on-one and is more evenly matched (if only because he's too fast to hit).

** Subverted spectacularly in OVA 8, where a count of how many members of each warring faction remain by the time Alucard, Anderson and the Captain meet is done before the climax. One side has thousands of humans, one has hundreds of knock-off vampires, and the final has been reduced to two true vampires and one human. However, instead of whittling down the larger forces' numbers like we might expect, the last side simply unleashes [[SealedEvilInACan enough familiars]] to rout the others through [[ZergRush sheer force of numbers]].

** Made more explicit in OVA 8, where a count of how many members of each warring faction remain by the time Alucard, Anderson and the Captain meet is done before the climax. Guess which side gets wiped out first and who comes out victorious:
---> Army of the Roman Catholic Church's 9th Crusade: 2875 men.
---> Members of the Last Nazi Battalion "Millennium": 527 vampires.
---> English Protestant Knights "Hellsing": [[spoiler:2 vampires and 1 human.]].

** The reverse also holds true, where the inclusion of *all* the hero characters instead of only a few in a standard episode rarely has a bigger effect on the outcome of a fight than the episode's time constraints. Ironically, [[Franchise/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon The live action version]] ends up accidentally subverting this; the busy schedules of the actresses meant many fights only involved two or three of the girls at a time. Full team assaults were generally filmed for important villains, creating the implication that as a full assembled team could handle most things easily.

* Played with in Anime/YuGiOhArcV. The [[EliteMooks Obelisk Force]] usually defies this trope by having 3 of them gang up on 1 or 2 opponents and then crushing them through using the nature of Battle Royal duels to their advantage (largely by attacking said opponents before they get a turn). Played straight (even exaggerated) in other cases, such as [[spoiler: Kaito]] taking down an entire battalion of unnamed Academia students by himself, or Yuri [[OneHitPolykill simultaneously annihilating]] 5 renegade students [[CurbStompBattle without taking damage]]. Justified in some of these cases with the side of one using monsters that can attack multiple times or otherwise benefit from a target-rich environment, such as Shun/[[DubNameChange Shay]] and his Raidraptor - Rise Falcon.

* ''Manga/RoninWarriors'' is almost absurdly blatant about this. In the first episode, they face a single one of Talpa's samurai {{Mooks}}. It takes the entire episode and the Hero summoning his armor and using his FinishingMove to take him out. Any subsequent attacks by them can generally be handled ''without'' transforming, and in the second arc, ''two'' of the heroes can take on hundreds of them. The series got even [[UpToEleven more]] blatant when [[AmplifierArtifact The Jewel Of Life]] held by [[TheScrappy Yuli]] was taking them out by the ''dozens.'' By that point, the Mooks were less a threat and more a hindrance like a field of tall, groaning grass.

** The reverse also holds true, where the inclusion of *all* the hero characters instead of only a few in a standard episode rarely has a bigger effect on the outcome of a fight than the episode's time constraints. Ironically, [[PrettyGuardianSailorMoon The live action version]] ends up accidentally subverting this; the busy schedules of the actresses meant many fights only involved two or three of the girls at a time. Full team assaults were generally filmed for important villains, creating the implication that as a full assembled team could handle most things easily.

* The "Nomu" clone-mutants in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. The first time they appear, there's only one--an extremely dangerous EvilKnockoff of All Might designed to defeat him. It nearly succeeds--the highest-ranked hero in the world, to whom most villains are child's play, needs a HeroicSecondWind and some help from his students to defeat it. It even survives being [[ATwinkleInTheSky punched into the sky]], and the police are able to capture it only because it's too mindless to do anything without orders. Other such clones show up later, and they're still powerful, but can be taken out relatively easily by professional heroes. By the time [[BigBad their master]] shows up and sends in the whole lot of them, they're little more than a distraction.

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', individual witches are unique, have names, and are highly dangerous. Some are capable of defeating multiple {{Magical Girl}}s singlehandedly. In the last scene, Homura is shown fighting "distortions" [[spoiler:(the replacement for the erased witches)]], which are more numerous than witches and apparently much weaker, since she takes on several simultaneously and nonchalantly.

** It should be noted that while this trope is eventually justified for Rinka, other characters don't share this luxury. [[spoiler: When dozens of trained ARES PMSC soldiers storm Kozuki and Minami's hideout, Minami is immediately overwhelmed, and Kozuki only barely escapes due to some clever trickery and forethought. Even so, by the time we see those two again, Kozuki is on her last legs, and nearly gets killed by one of the soldiers, only surviving nearly on pure luck due to the man not knowing she can teleport in firearms. Even after that, she's easily swarmed by the other soldiers and would have died than and there had Zeusu not shown up.]]

* This trope is first subverted and then justified in ''Manga/TokyoESP''. Early on, multiple opponents bumrushing Rinka is usually a sound strategy; she only won her first fight with a group of people because they lacked ESP and weren't expecting her to show up. Every other time following that up to a point she usually gets her ass handed to her. [[spoiler: This is in fact [[TheHeroDies what ends up killing her at one point,]] because she goes up against three powerful ESPers who, while not on her level in a straight fight, are more than a match for her in a three-on-one, with additional help from a bunch of mind-controlled students.]] [[JustifiedTrope However, as mentioned, this is eventually played straight with a pretty good justification.]] [[spoiler: While Rinka is a great martial artist, it took Yoda teaching her a trick for her to realize she can easily abuse Conservation of Ninjutsu; tactically retreat to force group fights into one-on-one fights, where Rinka naturally dominates with her 15+ years of martial arts training. This ends up working so well [[FamedInStory that most opponents learn to either fear or admire her,]] and by the end of the manga, even ''entire squadrons of trained ESPers'' can't take her in a fair fight.]]

** Akatsuki has apparently gotten wise to this; [[OddlySmallOrganization they only work]] [[EvilDuo in two man teams]]. To give you an idea of how effective this is, each team is usually on equal standing with an ARMY.

* ''Manga/{{Dragonball}}'' is a frequent offender, especially in plots involving the Red Ribbon Army or Frieza's men, but the most blatant usage is in the Bardock TV Special. As he races to attack Frieza in the climax, he has to fly through an army of {{mooks}}, which cause him so little trouble that, in some cases, they look like they're splattering on his face.

* ''Manga/GetterRobo Armageddon''. On one end, an entire army of Anime/GetterRoboG, the second of the Getter Robo line. On the other, a singular classic Getter Robo, piloted by Ryouma Nagare. Ryouma owns them easily.

* Any nameless mook in ''{{Utawarerumono}}'' is canon fodder and will die in the dozens per sword slash from a general or important character. The large scale battles are really battles between named characters. The mooks on either side are just window dressing and will not get any kills in.

** The show makes note of this trope: The standard squad is made up of four ninja. Kakashi says that any more and the team starts getting slow, clunky, and disorganized. A bigger team is worse at completing missions than a smaller one. Plus, any ninja that stands alone is pretty much BadAss enough to beat an entire squad.

* In ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'', Apostles were a major threat early in the series, with Guts needing to fight with everything he had to kill one, and Guts probably would have died fighting the Count if the Count's daughter hadn't conveniently burst into the room for Guts to use as a hostage. Now that all the Apostles in the world are serving Griffith, they've been demoted to [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]]. Justified, since Guts has the [[DeadlyUpgrade Berserker's Armor]], which makes him much stronger and brings out his SuperpoweredEvilSide. That being said, [[{{Badass}} Zodd]] still manages to prove to be a major threat every time he shows up.