History DirtyCoward / AnimeAndManga

** Like Kowase, [[AlphaBitch Kumiru Shikimi]] is one of the earlier targets since Maria considers her a coward who would run at the sign of danger. While she's certainly mouthy, when the chips are down and she realizes that she's shit out of luck [[AintTooProudTobeg she's quick to resort to begging]].

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': [[VillainProtagonist Light Yagami]] has no qualms against killing thousands of people, criminal or otherwise, for the sake of his plans, but at the end of the series, when he's been outed as Kira and faced with his own mortality, he absolutely [[FreakOut freaks out]] and begs for someone, ''anyone'', to save him.

** [[TheBully Tsubasa Kowase]] is noted by Maria to only target [[ShrinkingViolet docile girls who probably would not retaliate]] after he [[{{blackmail}} extorted them]]. She also later states that [[StarterVillain she specifically targeted him first]] because he was the most likely to run once her targets realize they're in danger.
** Like Kowase, Kumiru Shikimi's one of the earlier targets since Maria considers her a coward who would run at the sign of danger. While she's certainly mouthy, when the chips are down and she realizes that she's shit out of luck she's quick to resort to begging.

* In the [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', while Linebeck is initially portrayed as a LovableCoward like his game counterpart, [[spoiler:it's revealed that he abandoned his crew when their ship was attacked by the Cubus Sister. In the present, he finally subverts it when he tries to pull off a HeroicSacrifice against Bellum to save Link]].

** Naturon Shenron is almost as bad as Eis. Once he absorbs Pan, he actively taunts Goku and kills several innocents for the hell of it and to egg him on. When Goku prepares to steal his heart and [[ShootTheDog blast him while Pan's absorbed]], Naturon goes from smug to desperately trying to beg him not to fire, only regaining his cool when it turns out Goku subconsciously held back the attack and just injured him. When he loses Pan, he immediately attempts to absorb a bird for a power-up and tries to beg for his life again before shooting Goku with a surprise attack.

** Despite Kitz Wörman/Kitz Weilman warning the recruits that desertion is punishable by death, he's the first to run away when the Titans return.

** Aultcray gains this trait after his personality changes -- he mocks and tries to screw Naofumi over out of spite just for being the shield hero, but if he's provoked enough, then he will immediately start showing fear in his face.

* [[TheBully Tsubasa Kowase]] of ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'' is noted by Maria to only target [[ShrinkingViolet docile girls who probably would not retaliate]] after he [[{{blackmail}} extorted them]]. She also later states that [[StarterVillain she specifically targeted him first]] because he was the most likely to run once her targets realize they're in danger.

** Pepe Waccabrada will act high and mighty when the situation is in his favor, but when Liltotto confronts him to make him pay for using Meninas against her after Kensei pummels Pepe, he [[VillainsWantMercy pathetically and comically begs for his life]] before [[EatenAlive being chomped down by her]].

* [[TheBully Tsubasa Kowase]] of ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'' is noted by Maria to only target [[ShrinkingViolet docile girls who probably would not retaliate]] after he [[{{blackmail}} extorted them]].

** Spandam [[MoralEventHorizon crosses the line]] to become a more obvious asshole than he already was in the flashback, when he [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown started to beat a defenseless]] [[WouldHitAGirl Nico Robin]] and [[EvilGloating mocks her about a military operation against her home island, which resulted in the death of her family and friends]]. He also beats Cutty Flam/Franky when he's down, also mocking the death of his father figure, caused by Spandam himself, but starts to scream and cry when Franky manages to bite Spandam in the head couple of times. He also relies on Lucci to protect his skin a lot. While he is willing to chase the Straw Hats himself even after he and his agents are beaten, he still has his troops do all the dirty work, and it's because he is a SoreLoser.
** Demalo Black AKA Fake Luffy. He tried to pass himself and his crew as the real Straw Hats in order to win himself a larger crew without even having the skills or looking like them (or even ''acting'' like them, as he shoot two random people and mockingly apologized) to back it up, and it bit him hard when Sentomaru and a group of Pacifistas came to arrest the real Straw Hats (who coincidentally decided to reunite that time); he only could flaunt his supposed heritage to try slipping, but Sentoumaru knocked him out in one hit. Needless to say, his recruits weren't pleased.

** Kurozumi Orochi. A spiteful individual who purposefully runs his country to the ground, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters persecuting them all because they persecuted his family]], he abuses his authority by having dissenters executed and flaunts his power even to the special Government agents, but only because Kaido backs him up. When he is cornered, he either uses his powerful Fruit against civilians, or begs for mercy, or has to act sneaky to do proper damage. [[spoiler:A bit before his death, he does all the above.]]

** Spandam [[MoralEventHorizon crosses the line]] to become a more obvious asshole than he already was in the flashback, when he [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown started to beat a defenseless]] [[WouldHitAGirl Nico Robin]] and [[EvilGloating mocks her about a military operation against her home island, which resulted in the death of her family and friends]]. He also beats Cutty Flam/Franky when he's down, but starts to scream and cry when he manages to bite Spandam in the head couple of times. He also relies on Lucci to protect his skin a lot.

** [[AristocratsAreEvil The Celestial Dragons.]] When it comes down to it, they're nothing more than sadistic, overgrown bullies who take advantage of the protection they receive from the World Government[[note]]Anyone who attacks them has to deal with one of ''three'' immensely powerful [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership admirals]][[/note]] to commit insanely horrific acts, such as slavery, torture, and murder, [[ForTheEvulz for fun.]] When someone manages to find a loophole around their protection, or just plain doesn't care what happens to them, they [[VillainsWantMercy cry and beg for mercy]] like the [[HateSink sniveling filth]] they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragons to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo, and that is only because of his harsh childhood after his father took him out of Mariejois with their family to live a normal life, and Mjosgard outside of flashbacks, who became a decent human and stopped a war by himself]].

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Haruta Shigemo loves nothing more than to pick on enemies weaker than himself, especially if they can't fight back, [[KickThemWhileTheyreDown and to repeatedly attack them even after they're already defeated]].
** After Hanami barely escapes from Gojo's Hollow Purple and is left too injured to move, [[WeAreStrugglingTogether Haruta is sorely tempted to attack the Disaster Curse even though they're ostensibly on the same side]], and only relents after [[IllKillYou Mahito warns him not to act up if he values his life]].
** While fighting Nobara, Haruta repeatedly dodges her attacks until [[LivingWeapon his sword]] catches up with Akari, [[SupportPartyMember a non-combatant assistant manager]], after which he promptly ditches Nobara to run towards Akari's position and kick her while she's on all fours. Even though he has Nobara at his mercy after hitting her in the jaw and leaving her too dazed to stand, Haruta keeps stabbing Akari [[ForTheEvulz because he just finds it that much fun]], and taunts Nobara when she screams at him to stop.
** When a [[TranquilFury very pissed off Nanami]], who's way above Haruta's weight class in terms of power, shows up and starts giving Haruta a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown in retribution for killing the rest of the assistant managers, Haruta tries to have his sword sneak up on Nanami while he's distracted. After Nobara puts a stop to that by literally nailing his sword to the ceiling and Nanami punches him again, Haruta begins to cry and apologize, but Nanami interrupts by [[TalkToTheFist punching]] him [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom across the street]] because he knows Haruta isn't sorry at all.
** You would think after being used as Nanami's punching bag Haruta [[KnowWhenToFoldEm would wise up and leave Shibuya]] after [[WindsOfDestinyChange his Cursed Technique saves him from death]], right? Well, no: the moment he wanders into a distracted, injured Megumi, Haruta attacks him from behind, relishing the opportunity to trample on the weak once more. [[spoiler:That proves to be a costly mistake when Megumi responds by [[GodzillaThreshold summoning Mahoraga]], who will not stop fighting until both Megumi and Haruta are dead; this, in turn, forces a rampant Sukuna to [[ThirdPartyStopsAttack intervene]] because [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou he still has plans for Megumi]], and [[WalkingWasteland levels a sizeable portion of the city]] in the ensuing fight. After the dust settles, Sukuna tells Haruta to get lost; Haruta happily does so and counts his lucky stars that he survived, only to unwittingly run into Sukuna's still-active Domain and [[CleanCut fall to the ground in pieces]].]]

** Tamayo calls Muzan a coward because she believes everything he does [[ImmortalsFearDeath is out of fear of anything that could hurt him]] and is ultimately proven correct by his actions. [[spoiler:This also plays into his new demonic form during the final battle, where he prioritizes long range in all of his Blood Demon Arts to keep the Demon Slayers away from him. It's even implied the reason he tries to avoid fighting the Demon Slayers himself is because he's actually terrified of them, thanks to his NearDeathExperience at the hands of Yoriichi. When the sun starts to rise and Muzan is unable to finish off the remaining Demon Slayers, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he turns away and runs from the fight without a hint of shame]] before being stopped by Tanjiro and Iguro. He also attempts to completely escape by turning into a giant demonic baby to shield himself from sunlight, which perfectly reflects his [[PsychopathicManchild true nature as a cowardly brat who can't accept his mortality]]. The combined efforts of all the Demon Slayers prevent him from escaping as his [[UndignifiedDeath demonic baby form is turned to ashes by sunlight]]. When his final attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe spite the Demon Slayer Corps]] by turning Tanjiro into a demon that [[RemovedAchillesHeel conquers the sun]] gets foiled by the combined efforts of Nezuko and Tanjiro's friends curing him of his demonization, the last remnants of Muzan's consciousness in Tanjiro's MentalWorld can only [[AintTooProudToBeg futilely and pathetically beg]] [[PleaseDontLeaveMe Tanjiro not to leave him in the darkness of Hell]] as Tanjiro [[TheFinalTemptation rejects his offer of eternal life]].]]

** The Spider Demon that acted as the older sister of Rui and the Spider Family's "Daughter" will throw anyone under the bus just to save herself and kill anyone who poses a threat to her safety all the while [[NeverMyFault claiming she's the victim]]. [[AdaptationExpansion In the anime]], a Spider Demon that acted as the "Elder Sister" in the family showed her kindness and tried to escape with her, but when Rui caught them in the act, [[TheFarmerAndTheViper "Daughter" sold out "Elder Sister" just to avoid his wrath and condemned "Elder Sister" to be cut to pieces by Rui and left to burn in the sunlight]].

** Tamayo calls Muzan a coward because she believes everything he does [[ImmortalsFearDeath is out of fear of anything that could hurt him]], and is ultimately proven correct by his actions. [[spoiler:This also plays into his new demonic form during the final battle, where he prioritizes long range in all of his Blood Demon Arts to keep the Demon Slayers away from him. It's even implied the reason he tries to avoid fighting the Demon Slayers himself is because he's actually terrified of them, thanks to his NearDeathExperience at the hands of Yoriichi. When the sun starts to rise and Muzan is unable to finish off the remaining Demon Slayers, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he turns away and runs from the fight without a hint of shame]] before being stopped by Tanjiro and Iguro. He also attempts to completely escape by turning into a giant demonic baby to shield himself from sunlight, which perfectly represents his [[PsychopathicManchild true nature as a cowardly brat who can't accept his mortality]]. The combined efforts of all the Demon Slayers prevent him from escaping as his [[UndignifiedDeath demonic baby form is turned to ashes by sunlight]]. When his final attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe spite the Demon Slayer Corps]] by turning Tanjiro into a demon that [[RemovedAchillesHeel conquers the sun]] gets foiled by the combined efforts of Nezuko and Tanjiro's friends curing him of his demonization, the last remnants of Muzan's consciousness in Tanjiro's MentalWorld can only [[PleaseDontLeaveMe futilely and pathetically beg Tanjiro not to leave him in the darkness of Hell]] as Tanjiro [[TheFinalTemptation rejects his offer of eternal life]].]]

* Masao from ''Literature/{{Shiki}}'' is a bit of a downplayed version. Notably, his cowardice makes him less of a threat than many other vampires because he's too scared to routinely kill and eat humans. He plays the trope somewhat straighter in the manga than he does in the anime.

** While fighting Nobara, Haruta repeatedly dodges her attacks until his sword catches up with Akari, [[SupportPartyMember a non-combatant assistant manager]], after which he promptly ditches Nobara to run towards Akari's position and kick her while she's on all fours. Even though he has Nobara at his mercy after hitting her in the jaw and leaving her too dazed to stand, Haruta keeps stabbing Akari [[ForTheEvulz because he just finds it that much fun]], and taunts Nobara when she screams at him to stop.
** When a [[TranquilFury very pissed off Nanami]], who's way above Haruta's weight class in terms of power, shows up and starts giving Haruta a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown in retribution for killing the rest of the assistant managers, Haruta begins to cry and apologize, but Nanami interrupts by [[TalkToTheFist punching]] him [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom across the street]] because he knows Haruta isn't sorry at all.

* In the [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', while Linebeck is initially portrayed as a LovableCoward like his game counterpart, [[spoiler:it’s revealed that he abandoned his crew when their ship was attacked by the Cubus Sisters. In the present, he finally subverts it when he tries to pull off a HeroicSacrifice against Bellum to save Link]].