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** Demalo Black A.K.A 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 supossed heritage to try slipping, but Sentoumaru knocked him out in one hit. Needless to say, his recruits weren't pleased.
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** Demalo Black A.K.A 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 supossed heritage to try slipping, but Sentoumaru knocked him out in one hit. Needless to say, his recruits weren't pleased.
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* Pop from ''Manga/DaiNoDaibouken'' started out like this, but [[CharacterDevelopment he gets better]].
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* Pop from ''Manga/DaiNoDaibouken'' ''Manga/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai'' started out like this, but [[CharacterDevelopment he gets better]].
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* ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'': Ishtar abandons her Familia and tries to sprint when Freya retaliates. She ends up suffering a mortal fall after a feeble attempt at striking Freya.
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** Envy constantly resorts to dirty tricks, such as the ShapeshifterGuiltTrip, when fighting his enemies, and will bitch and moan non-stop the very second he's losing. His cowardice ''really'' shows when he [[TooDumbToLive reveals to Roy Mustang that]] ''[[TooDumbToLive he]]'' [[TooDumbToLive killed Maes Hughes]] and [[EvilGloating brags about it]]... and when he [[OhCrap realizes just how bad of an idea it was to piss off Mustang]], spends the remainder of the episode running in fear of the conflict he willfully brought down upon himself.
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** Envy acts like a big shot and constantly resorts to dirty tricks, such as the ShapeshifterGuiltTrip, when fighting his enemies, and [[VillainousBreakdown will bitch and moan non-stop the very second he's losing.losing]]. His cowardice ''really'' shows when he [[TooDumbToLive reveals to Roy Mustang that]] ''[[TooDumbToLive he]]'' [[TooDumbToLive killed Maes Hughes]] and [[EvilGloating brags about it]]... and when he [[OhCrap realizes just how bad of an idea it was to piss off Mustang]], spends the remainder of the episode running in fear of the conflict he willfully brought down upon himself.
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** Android 19 ruthlessly beats on Goku and sucks the life out of him while he's suffering from the heart virus, but when he's beaten by the perfectly healthy Vegeta and loses both arms, he flips out and runs for his life, screaming in terror.
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** Android 19 ruthlessly 'gleefully'' beats on a sick Goku senseless and sucks the life out of him while he's suffering from the heart virus, drains his energy... but when he's beaten he gets his ass handed to him by the perfectly healthy Vegeta and loses both his arms, he flips he's left trembling in fear before freaking out and runs running for his life, screaming the hills. Vegeta even calls him out on it in terror. the original Funimation dub:
-->'''Vegeta''': What's the matter? ''You're'' the one who started this game, and now you don't want to play anymore? You were enjoying yourself before, when you were sucking the life out of Kakarot!
-->'''Vegeta''': What's the matter? ''You're'' the one who started this game, and now you don't want to play anymore? You were enjoying yourself before, when you were sucking the life out of Kakarot!
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is one of the more disgraceful examples in the series' recent history. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and '''[[HumanShield a small army's worth of human shields]]''' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is one of the more disgraceful examples in the series' recent history. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and '''[[HumanShield a small army's worth of human shields]]''' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' ''somewhat'' of a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] may as well be the living epitome of this trope. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and '''[[HumanShield a small army's worth of human shields]]''' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] may as well be is one of the living epitome of this trope.more disgraceful examples in the series' recent history. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and '''[[HumanShield a small army's worth of human shields]]''' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** For all his talk about "[[SocialDarwinist survival of the fittest]]", Koichi Shido is a snivelling weasel, immediately running at the sight of "Them" and cowering in fear when Kohta points a gun at him. His cowardice is the ''only'' reason Rei opts not to kill him when he has her at his mercy, declaring he's [[NotWorthKilling not worth it]].
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** For all his talk about "[[SocialDarwinist survival of the fittest]]", Koichi Shido is a snivelling weasel, immediately running at the sight of "Them" "[[NotUsingTheZWord Them]]" and cowering in fear when Kohta points a gun at him. His cowardice is the ''only'' reason Rei opts not to kill him when he has her at his mercy, declaring he's [[NotWorthKilling not worth it]].
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* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Raynare loves to stand around, taunt and torment people she thinks are inferior to her, but the moment she realizes she's in trouble, she tries to run away, happily sacrificing her minions in the process.
** She laughs at Issei when he spills out his lingering affections toward her, mocking him as completely unworthy of being boyfriend material, yet attempts to fall back on their date when Rias is about to kill her. Issei expresses disgust she's only now responding to his feelings when it's convenient for her, and gives Rias permission to finish her off.
** She laughs at Issei when he spills out his lingering affections toward her, mocking him as completely unworthy of being boyfriend material, yet attempts to fall back on their date when Rias is about to kill her. Issei expresses disgust she's only now responding to his feelings when it's convenient for her, and gives Rias permission to finish her off.
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* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Raynare loves to stand around, taunt and torment people she thinks are inferior to her, but the moment she realizes she's in trouble, she tries to run away, happily sacrificing her minions in the process.
**process. She laughs at Issei when he spills out his lingering affections toward her, mocking him as completely unworthy of being boyfriend material, yet attempts to fall back on their date when Rias is about to kill her. Issei expresses disgust she's only now responding to his feelings when it's convenient for her, and gives Rias permission to finish her off.
**
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** Cell himself zigzags, especially when compared to Frieza. Early on, he tended to retreat when potentially outclassed and outnumbered, only striking when he had the advantage. [[PragmaticVillainy Justified in that he was genuinely weaker than Piccolo who had re-merged with Kami, leaving to empower himself in preparation to make sure that his victory and taking down the Androids- was much wiser than fighting a losing battle with a stronger at the time adversary]]. His Semi-Imperfect form also has this mindset in mind once he was outclassed completely by Vegeta, [[ManipulativeBastard playing on the Saiyan's ego in order to spare him from being killed on the spot, rather than fighting a losing battle]]. In his Perfect form, he's overall [[SmugSuper justified in his overconfidence]] and [[BloodKnight more willing to engage in lusting for battle]] as [[CavalierCompetitor as long as he's confident in his superiority]]. Once Cell fully comprehends just how much stronger Super Saiyan 2 Gohan is in comparison to himself, [[VillainousBreakdown he's gradually left trembling in fear before him]]. By the time Gohan forces him to expel Android 18 and revert to his Semi-Perfect form, he's absolutely ''terrified'' and ordering Gohan to stay back. [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled Unlike Frieza though, he was willing to follow through]] [[DrivenToSuicide with the option of killing himself rather than dying at Gohan's hands]] [[TakingYouWithMe if only to make sure he takes his enemy with him]] and [[SoreLoser make sure he was the victor even with an underhanded method]]. Once he returns as [[CameBackStrong Super Perfect Cell]], this is downplayed again as he's more confident in taking on Gohan, [[WorfHadTheFlu who was wounded and insecure enough to not unleash his full power]] and his [[ThisCannotBe final words were not in fear, but in disbelief and anger that he wasn't perfect]].
--->'''Cell''': S-stay away from me, you monster!
--->'''Cell''': S-stay away from me, you monster!
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* Shinji Ikari of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fervently ''believes'' himself to be this, even though he's saved the world quite a few times [[CowardlyLion despite being terrified while doing so]]. This is partially because his life [[ButtMonkey just sucks that much]]. His infamous mantra, "I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away!" is him chiding himself for being frightened when he has absolutely every reason to be terrified of the giant monsters trying to kill him.
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* Shinji Ikari of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fervently ''believes'' himself to be this, even though he's saved the world quite a few times [[CowardlyLion despite being terrified while doing so]]. This is partially because his life [[ButtMonkey just sucks that much]]. His infamous mantra, SurvivalMantra, "I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away!" is him chiding himself for being frightened when he has absolutely every reason to be terrified of the giant monsters trying to kill him.
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* The first StoryArc of ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'' has the FauxAffablyEvil [[spoiler:[[AIIsACrapshoot Fav]], one half of the BigBadDuumvirate. He gleefully orchestrates {{Deadly Game}}s and manipulates Magical Girls into slaughtering each other for his sick amusement, all the while remaining smug that nothing can touch him since nothing on Earth can destroy his terminal and kill him. However, when Ripple is revived and enraged by his cruel words about Top Speed's death, Fav's bravado goes out the window the moment he sees her carrying a weapon from the Magical World (the only thing that can destroy his terminal) and he tries to make excuses for his words. Snow White can sense his panicking thoughts and warns Ripple not to listen, and Fav can only futilely plead for his life before Ripple gives him his well-deserved demise.]]
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** Corkus at first did not have the guts to deal with Guts personally, but he later did dare to have him killed...by having seven or so of his cronies do it for him. He also did have the gall to mock and try to rough him up...after Griffith dislocated his shoulder.
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** Corkus at first did not have the guts spine to deal with Guts personally, but he later did dare to have him killed...by having seven or so of his cronies do it for him. He also did have the gall to mock and try to rough him up...after Griffith dislocated his shoulder.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] may as well be the living epitome of this trope. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShield human shields]]'' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] may as well be the living epitome of this trope. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShield '''[[HumanShield a small army's worth of human shields]]'' shields]]''' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** 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 steel 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.
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** [[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 [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking 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 cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[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 [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking 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 mercy]] like the [[HateSink sniveling filth filth]] they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** Rubber Soul tries to surprise Jotaro with a sneak attack after getting caught in the water.
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** Rubber Soul tries to surprise Jotaro with a sneak attack after getting caught in the water. Prior to this he tried weaseling his way out of a beating with a JustJokingJustification, and only got an advantage because Jotaro wanted to get more information on future Stand users and delayed the punching. When Rubber Soul is incapacitated again he tries the same line, but Jotaro just holds him in place while Star Platinum pummels him.
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** [[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 [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking 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 don't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[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 [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking 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 don't doesn't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[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'' insanely powerful [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking 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 don't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[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'' insanely immensely powerful [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking admirals.]][[/note]] 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 don't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[AristocratsAreEvil The Celestial Dragons.]] When it comes down to it, they're nothing more than 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'' insanely powerful [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking admirals.]][[/note]] to commit insanely horrific acts, such as slavery, torture, and murder, [[ForTheEvuls for fun.]] When someone manages to find a loophole around their protection, or just plain don't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[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'' insanely powerful [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking admirals.]][[/note]] to commit insanely horrific acts, such as slavery, torture, and murder, [[ForTheEvuls [[ForTheEvulz for fun.]] When someone manages to find a loophole around their protection, or just plain don't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** [[AristocratsAreEvil The Celestial Dragons.]] When it comes down to it, they're nothing more than 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'' insanely powerful [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking admirals.]][[/note]] to commit insanely horrific acts, such as slavery, torture, and murder, [[ForTheEvuls for fun.]] When someone manages to find a loophole around their protection, or just plain don't care what happens to them, they cry and beg for mercy like the sniveling filth they are. So far, the only known Celestial Dragon to avert this trope is [[spoiler: Donquixote Doflamingo.]]
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** Inverted with Dimo Reeves, who is presented as unlikable and selfish in Season 1 when he attempts to prioritize evacuating his caravan before the people of Trost. However, it's later revealed that his company has been essential to stimulating the district's economy and preventing unemployment.
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** Most of the people in power throughout the series are this trope. Some are even willing to sacrifice thousands of people just so they can retain their wealth and authority.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] may as well be the living epitome of this trope. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShields human shields]]'' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] may as well be the living epitome of this trope. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShields ''[[HumanShield human shields]]'' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is arguably the biggest one in the entire series. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShields human shields]]'' to win against his "weakling son." [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have a backbone.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is arguably may as well be the biggest one in the entire series.living epitome of this trope. In a one-on-one fight against [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShields human shields]]'' to win against his "weakling son." Again, this is against '''one''' person. [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the eyes of the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have ''somwhat'' of a backbone.
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** J. Geil, on top of being a [[SerialRapist rapist]] and [[PsychoForHire just a terrible monster]] and [[EvilGloating bragging about his depraved acts]], immediately runs away and begs for his life once Jean-Pierre Polnareff, the brother of one of his victims, defeats his Stand.
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** J. Geil, on top of being a [[SerialRapist rapist]] and [[PsychoForHire just a terrible monster]] loving to inflict harm on others]] and [[EvilGloating bragging brag about his depraved acts]], immediately runs away and begs for his life once Jean-Pierre Polnareff, the brother of one of his victims, defeats his Stand.
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** Sugou Nobuyuki/Oberon spends most of the Fairy Dance arc cocky, composed, and arrogant, [[AGodAmI declaring himself a god]] and rubbing in Kirito's face that there's nothing he can do to stop him... as long as he's in control of the situation and has his GameMaster powers backing him up. The minute he's [[DePower stripped of his admin privileges]] and faced with a righteously pissed-off Kirito, Sugou has a massive FreakOut and [[InelegantBlubbering breaks down crying like a scared little girl]]. He's just as cowardly in real life; he attacks Kirito with a knife, slashing his arm in a surprise attacks, and [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown kicks Kirito multiple times after he falls to the ground]] before trying to kill him... and when Kirito overpowers him, takes the knife away, and states his intention to kill him with it, Sugou panics and immediately tries to make a break for it; Kirito just barely manages to stop himself from finishing him off, by which point Sugou is crying TearsOfFear and [[BringMyBrownPants loses control of his bladder]] before passing out.
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** Sugou Nobuyuki/Oberon Nobuyuki Sugou/Oberon spends most of the Fairy Dance arc cocky, composed, and arrogant, [[AGodAmI declaring himself a god]] and rubbing in Kirito's face that there's nothing he can do to stop him... as long as he's in control of the situation and has his GameMaster powers backing him up. The minute he's [[DePower stripped of his admin privileges]] and faced with a righteously pissed-off Kirito, Sugou has a massive FreakOut and [[InelegantBlubbering breaks down crying like a scared little girl]]. He's just as cowardly in real life; he attacks Kirito with a knife, slashing his arm in a surprise attacks, and [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown kicks Kirito multiple times after he falls to the ground]] before trying to kill him... and when Kirito overpowers him, takes the knife away, and states his intention to kill him with it, Sugou panics and immediately tries to make a break for it; Kirito just barely manages to stop himself from finishing him off, by which point Sugou is crying TearsOfFear and [[BringMyBrownPants loses control of his bladder]] before passing out.
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** Gabriel Miller, one of the villains of the Alicization arc, constantly brags about being an InvincibleVillain and [[YourSoulIsMine stealing souls]], but when [[spoiler:Kirito beats him and leaves him to be DraggedOffToHell, he screams and begs for his minions to save him.]]
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** Gabriel Miller, one of the villains BigBad of the Alicization arc, Alicization's second half, constantly brags about being an InvincibleVillain and [[YourSoulIsMine stealing people's souls]], but when [[spoiler:Kirito beats him and leaves him to be DraggedOffToHell, he screams and begs for his minions to save him.]]
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** Corkus at first did not dare to deal with Guts personally, but he later found the guts to have Guts killed...by having three or so of his cronies do it for him.
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** Corkus at first did not dare have the guts to deal with Guts personally, but he later found the guts did dare to have Guts him killed...by having three seven or so of his cronies do it for him.him. He also did have the gall to mock and try to rough him up...after Griffith dislocated his shoulder.
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** Corkus at first did not dare to deal with Guts personally, but he later found the guts to have Guts killed...by having three or so of his cronies do it for him.
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** Kuradeel poisons the rest of his party, paralyzing them, and slowly tortures Godfrey to death before trying to do the same to Kirito. When Asuna turns the tables on him and nearly kills him, Kuradeel pathetically tries to appeal to her conscience before trying to kill her.
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is quite possibly the biggest one in the series. He's a [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]] to ''Don Krieg'' levels, using every dirty trick in the book (technology, [[HumanShield Human Shields]], among other things) to get an advantage over his opponent. He also threatens [[spoiler:his son Sanji's mentor and adoptive father Zeff]] with death if [[spoiler:Sanji]] dares to fight back against [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherBully his brothers']]]] abuse, as well as [[spoiler:Judge's]] own. But what really drives it home is when [[spoiler:he cowers, cries, and begs for somebody to save him when he's surrounded by the Big Mom pirates with none of his usual toys to help him out. Even his other three sons are [[FaceDeathWithDignity completely laid-back about their upcoming demise]], and chastise their father for his pathetic behavior.]]
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** [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is quite possibly arguably the biggest one in the entire series. He's In a [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]] to ''Don Krieg'' levels, using every dirty trick in the book (technology, [[HumanShield Human Shields]], among other things) to get an advantage over his opponent. He also threatens [[spoiler:his son Sanji's mentor and adoptive father Zeff]] with death if [[spoiler:Sanji]] dares to one-on-one fight back against [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherBully [[spoiler: Sanji,]] he needs jetpack boots, an electric spear, and ''[[HumanShields human shields]]'' to win against his brothers']]]] abuse, as well as [[spoiler:Judge's]] own. But what really drives it home is "weakling son." [[spoiler: Literally sobbing and begging for his life when [[spoiler:he cowers, cries, and begs for somebody to save him when he's surrounded by Big Mom's men]] didn't exactly boost his reputation in the Big Mom pirates with none eyes of his usual toys to help him out. Even the fans, [[EvenEvilHasStandards or his other three sons are [[FaceDeathWithDignity completely laid-back about their upcoming demise]], and chastise their father for his pathetic behavior.]]four children.]] [[spoiler: Personally attacking Big Mom at the royal wedding]] is the only time he's shown to have a backbone.
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** Though he's had several hints of this beforehand, as of recently, [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is revealed to be one. He's a [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]] to ''Don Krieg'' levels, using every dirty trick in the book (technology, [[HumanShield Human Shields]], among other things) to get an advantage over his opponent. He also threatens [[spoiler:his son Sanji's mentor and adoptive father Zeff]] with death if [[spoiler:Sanji]] dares to fight back against [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherBully his brothers']]]] abuse, as well as [[spoiler:Judge's]] own. But what really drives it home is when [[spoiler:he cowers, cries, and begs for somebody to save him when he's surrounded by the Big Mom pirates with none of his usual toys to help him out. Not a hint of all his usual bravado was to be seen anywhere.]] Even better? [[spoiler:His other three sons are [[FaceDeathWithDignity completely laid-back about their upcoming demise]], and ''mock their father for crying.'']]
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** Though he's had several hints of this beforehand, as of recently, [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is revealed to be one.quite possibly the biggest one in the series. He's a [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]] to ''Don Krieg'' levels, using every dirty trick in the book (technology, [[HumanShield Human Shields]], among other things) to get an advantage over his opponent. He also threatens [[spoiler:his son Sanji's mentor and adoptive father Zeff]] with death if [[spoiler:Sanji]] dares to fight back against [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherBully his brothers']]]] abuse, as well as [[spoiler:Judge's]] own. But what really drives it home is when [[spoiler:he cowers, cries, and begs for somebody to save him when he's surrounded by the Big Mom pirates with none of his usual toys to help him out. Not a hint of all his usual bravado was to be seen anywhere.]] Even better? [[spoiler:His his other three sons are [[FaceDeathWithDignity completely laid-back about their upcoming demise]], and ''mock chastise their father for crying.'']]his pathetic behavior.]]
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Do note he was only brave AFTER he got his suit back, so it really shouldn't count as he actually thought his suit was enough to take her on, rather then any real bravery.
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*** It's later revealed to be a subversion. [[spoiler:Judge was more upset over losing everything he had ever worked for than dying, hence the reason he was crying. When he and his other sons are saved by Sanji, he shows he has somewhat of an honorable side by holding off the Big Mom Pirates with his other 3 sons to allow Sanji, Luffy, and their allies to escape and ''personally attacking Big Mom by himself'' — [[CurbStompBattle with expected results]].]]
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* Takehiko Inoue's ''Manga/{{Vagabond}}'' features Hon'iden Matahachi, whose usual "flight instead of fight" response fuels his inferiority complex compared to his childhood friend [[UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi Shinmen Takezou]]; after he didn't have the bravery (or whatever) to follow Takezou into a shed, they're physically separated, and over the next four years he only catches fleeting glimpses of his former friend now called Miyamoto Musashi. It doesn't help that Matahachi had become a con artist passing himself off as Sasaki Kojirou, and is ''very'' self-conscious of his self-preservation instinct and inferiority complex both conflicting with his desire to exceed Musashi (if only in name, pinning his hopes and idolation on the ''real'' Kojirou as being the one who could overcome Musashi in fact).
* Shinji Ikari of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fervently ''believes'' himself to be this, even though he's saved the world quite a few times [[CowardlyLion despite being terrified while doing so]]. This is partially because his life [[ButtMonkey just sucks that much]]. His infamous mantra, "I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away!" is him chiding himself for being frightened when he has absolutely every reason to be terrified of the giant monsters trying to kill him.
* Pop from ''Manga/DaiNoDaibouken'' started out like this, but [[CharacterDevelopment he gets better]].
* In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', [[spoiler: Kensuke the living sword ran away during the fight with Red Dragon. This taught Laios a harsh lesson about bonding with monsters.]]
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
** Magnifico is a good example and has yet to grow out of this.
** Nina in the Conviction Arc was even worse. She repeatedly considers abandoning other characters to save her own skin, including Casca, who is mentally ill and incapable of looking after herself. However, she's still somewhat sympathetic, because her inner monologues show that her cowardice isn't really a conscious decision that everyone else is expendable; she does ''want'' to be brave, especially for her "sister" Luca, but when her life and well-being are threatened, she panics and can't bring herself to actually follow through with it. Also, the reason for her getting cold feet is often perfectly understandable, [[spoiler:best illustrated by her arrival into the torture chamber, by far ''the'' most nightmarish place in the entire Tower of Conviction]], [[http://www.mangareader.net/96-1139-166/berserk/chapter-19.html as can be seen here]].
** The Baron of Koka, the first real demon battle Guts has in the manga, gleefully kills and destroys to satisfy his sadism. But when Guts proves he's not invincible, his arrogance disappears and he starts begging for the mercy he never would've shown his victims. Guts doesn't give him any.
* Defied by BigBad Phantom from ''Manga/{{MAR}}'', who regularly kills any and ''every'' mook that runs from battle. He only does this a few times onscreen, but it is clearly established that he ''despises'' cowards. He even denies his mooks the death of the protagonist Ginta, saying that, since he's a WorthyOpponent, there's no reason to kill him until he's strong enough to put up a proper fight.
* Uragami from ''Manga/{{Parasyte}}'', who has been known to rape and murder humans, runs away and screams in fear when he sees a Parasyte reveal its true form for the first time.
* Akito Tenkawa spends much of the early part of ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' trying to flee from combat, though to be fair, he's got some fairly serious psychological problems, considering it's a comedy series. Unlike a certain other pilot of whom he is partly a parody, he [[CharacterDevelopment gets over it]]. Eventually.
* MadScientist Akihiro Kurata from ''Anime/DigimonSavers'', just one of the [[SmugSnake many]], ''[[MoralEventHorizon many]]'' things that fans can hate about him.
** However, this does make [[spoiler:his downfall [[VillainousBreakdown much more entertaining]] when we see him ''[[AintTooProudToBeg begging for his life]]'' as [=ShineGreymon=] Burst Mode gives him exactly what he had coming]].
* Zofis from ''Manga/ZatchBell'', who is revealed to be afraid of Brago and anyone with more power than him.
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'':
** Jackal, a minor arc villain, is the practitioner of a martial art called "Nanto Bakusatsu-ken" — ''South Star Exploding Kill Fist''. Despite the grandiose name, the style consists mainly of throwing sticks of dynamite at enemies while at a safe distance. Kenshiro [[LampshadeHanging calls him on this]] by snidely asking him if it's even truly a martial art (to which his only reply is “[[CombatPragmatist Hey, as long as it works]]”). When Kenshiro goes on his RoaringRampageOfRevenge, Jackal leaves his men to die and ultimately tries to lie his way out of his fate, first tricking a giant inmate into thinking he's his long-lost brother before siccing him on Kenshiro and then trying to lie to Kenshiro about said inmate being a monster, which turns out to be the last mistake Jackal ever makes.
** Jagi, in addition to being a heartless and cruel monster, is also ''the'' most cowardly of Kenshiro's major villains in the series, and the only one who does ''not'' FaceDeathWithDignity — in fact, he has the ignominy of being the only Hokuto Shinken practitioner to beg and grovel for his life in the tradition's entire 2000-year history.
** Also applies to almost all minor thugs in the series who live long enough to realize that they're screwed. A lot of them end up completely breaking down and begging for their lives. It doesn't help that Kenshiro's primary fighting style has a penchant for [[{{Gorn}} rather gruesome]] [[YouAreAlreadyDead delayed death attacks]].
* ''Manga/HighSchoolOfTheDead'':
** Misuzu Ichijou is quick to kick her "BFF" down the stairs to the zombies just to avoid sharing her fate. She ends up paying for this very quickly with her [[KarmicDeath life]] in the anime or with her humanity in the manga.
** For all his talk about "[[SocialDarwinist survival of the fittest]]", Koichi Shido is a snivelling weasel, immediately running at the sight of "Them" and cowering in fear when Kohta points a gun at him. His cowardice is the ''only'' reason Rei opts not to kill him when he has her at his mercy, declaring he's [[NotWorthKilling not worth it]].
* Most of ''Manga/AkameGaKill'''s villains are this, as part of the series' BlackAndGrayMorality, but several examples stand out.
** Prime Minister Honest is a total sleazeball who utilizes the most underhanded tactics imaginable to meet his goals; he even went so far as to barb Incursio's hilt with danger beast poison during Tatsumi's execution. In the anime, after all of his plans fall apart, he [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tries to flee]], whimpering and whining pathetically the whole time, and then screams for someone to save him when [[spoiler:Leone blocks his path]].
** The Wild Hunt, in addition to being heartless and cruel monsters, are also ''the'' most cowardly of Night Raid's major enemies (with the exception of Cosmina and Izou), and the only ones (with the exception of Cosmina) who do ''not'' FaceDeathWithDignity — in fact, they beg and grovel for their lives as they die.
** Bolic is so cowardly that he begs for the Jaegers to protect him when Night Raid comes to assassinate him.
* Chaka from ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' is a sociopathic asshole whose specialty seems to be [[KickTheDog Kicking the Dog]] and who sees nothing wrong with beating a noncombatant just to provoke his colleague into a gunfight, then running away while toting a human shield when things go badly for him and shooting several of his henchmen just because he's pissed. He fancies himself a Wild West gunman, but he's nothing more than a stupid, incompetent prick who thinks himself something far more than what he actually is. So much so that when he's finally dealt with, it's by Revy denying him his duel with her and leaving him for Ginji Matsuzaki, who relieves him of his gun and both of his hands before sending him into a pool to drown.
* Kishin Asura from ''Manga/SoulEater'' became a physical font of insanity and evil because he was scared of everything — which led to [[TheParanoiac paranoia]] and the desire to become so powerful that no one could harm him, at any cost.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** Yoki constantly suffers the consequences of his scumbag actions, mostly because he keeps [[ChronicBackStabbingDisorder lying and backstabbing]] so he can bribe his way into a higher military rank. Every nasty scheme backfires, landing him in nastier and nastier situations to the point that he's the manga's resident ChewToy. One of the characters even points out it's entirely his own fault that he gets into these messes. Eventually, [[CharacterDevelopment he finally starts to move out of this]], first becoming actually useful, and then later showing some courage by [[spoiler:'''ramming a car into Pride''']].
** This was the accusation of [[spoiler:Kimblee against Pride. On realizing he was near death, Pride tried to take over Ed's body as a new host, just moments after explaining his hatred of humans. Kimblee couldn't stand the cowardice and hypocrisy]].
** Envy constantly resorts to dirty tricks, such as the ShapeshifterGuiltTrip, when fighting his enemies, and will bitch and moan non-stop the very second he's losing. His cowardice ''really'' shows when he [[TooDumbToLive reveals to Roy Mustang that]] ''[[TooDumbToLive he]]'' [[TooDumbToLive killed Maes Hughes]] and [[EvilGloating brags about it]]... and when he [[OhCrap realizes just how bad of an idea it was to piss off Mustang]], spends the remainder of the episode running in fear of the conflict he willfully brought down upon himself.
** The 2003 anime has a subversion with Rick and Rio's mother, who seemingly abandoned her children to die during the Ishval invasion before she got herself killed in an explosion. They later learn that [[spoiler:she suffred from an eyesight degeneration and didn't notice that her children were in front of her. She ran away trying to find them]].
* The first BigBad of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' is pwned by [[PerversePuppet Chachazero]] after running from the final battle of the Kyoto arc. The point of her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech is proven completely true [[spoiler:when she gives Chigusa the most ignominious defeat ever: scaring her so badly that she fainted, revealing her cowardly nature]].
* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Raynare loves to stand around, taunt and torment people she thinks are inferior to her, but the moment she realizes she's in trouble, she tries to run away, happily sacrificing her minions in the process.
** She laughs at Issei when he spills out his lingering affections toward her, mocking him as completely unworthy of being boyfriend material, yet attempts to fall back on their date when Rias is about to kill her. Issei expresses disgust she's only now responding to his feelings when it's convenient for her, and gives Rias permission to finish her off.
* Yukiteru's father from ''Manga/FutureDiary'' is this, all the way. He even [[spoiler:kills his wife because he's terrified that she'll tell the police he just left his son to die on a collapsing tower]].
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''
** Hol Horse manages to be the only recurring villain in Part Three... by running for his life whenever things go wrong. He also refuses to ever work alone, despite being an assassin; he knows how weak his Stand is against most other Stands, after all. The incident that finally dispatches him even comes about because of his cowardice: told by a fortune-telling book that he'll kill Jotaro at noon, he takes the shot from a far distance and from cover... [[spoiler:which allows for a ProphecyTwist to send the bullets back into ''his'' head. To be fair, Thoth was ''prescribing'' that shoot-from-cover bit. The only thing Hol did wrong was use his own watch, which was fast, rather than a perfectly accurate clock. Had he done that, the bullets would have hit Jotaro along with the water burst from the pipe. Also, he didn't die — like with Enya, he disengaged Emperor before the wounds could become fatal]].
** Rubber Soul tries to surprise Jotaro with a sneak attack after getting caught in the water.
** J. Geil, on top of being a [[SerialRapist rapist]] and [[PsychoForHire just a terrible monster]] and [[EvilGloating bragging about his depraved acts]], immediately runs away and begs for his life once Jean-Pierre Polnareff, the brother of one of his victims, defeats his Stand.
** Steely Dan, like Hol Horse, has a pretty weak Stand. But at least Emperor has ''some'' offensive power by itself; all Lovers does is relay Dan's own pain to its host, amplified several times over. Dan, pure slime that he is, doesn't just use this as a deterrent. No, he effectively blackmails Jotaro into being his slave, even to the point of forcing him to steal a bracelet, then get beaten silly by security, while Dan himself ''steals an even more valuable necklace'' during the commotion. All the while gloating over being tacitly invincible. Of course, once Kakyoin outmaneuvers and drives Lovers out of Joseph, Dan devolves into a pure sycophant, begging for mercy without dignity... [[spoiler:then trying to use an innocent girl as ''another'' hostage to force Jotaro to let himself be stabbed! Dan ''fully'' deserved the [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown 3+ pages/20 seconds of Ora-Ora]] that Jotaro ultimately unleashes on him]].
** Alessi, whose Stand allows him to de-age anyone who touches his shadow. This is ''the only way'' he's willing to fight anyone (unlike Hol, who just adheres to the creed "run away to fight another day"), even if the nearest adult is a harmless woman. He has to use an ''axe'' to fight them. And to think he keeps calling himself a "good boy". Which make his defeat all the sweeter when he runs into Jotaro. He manages to use his powers on him, but Jotaro is so badass that even as a Standless kid, he's more than a match for him, giving him [[RapidFireFisticuffs the ORA ORA treatment]] anyway and then laying him out with an uppercut. Talk about irony.
** Dio Brando, of all people, is this. Even though he is determined, this does not mean he is particularly brave; for all his pride, he isn't above fleeing or begging for his life when things turn sour.
* Genma Saotome, father of the titular character of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', falls somewhere between this and LovableCoward. Despite being one of the more formidable martial artists in the locale, whenever trouble arises (and it's often [[SinsOfOurFathers his fault that it does]]), his plan of action invariably boils down to some variant of "run away" or "make Ranma deal with it". Whether it's pinning the blame on Ranma, telling Ranma that it's his "duty" to handle things, or simply vanishing into the woodwork and leaving Ranma with no choice but to try and handle something he hasn't the faintest idea about, Genma virtually never lifts a finger to help. He also has a bad habit of grabbing [[BalefulPolymorph the nearest bucket of water]] as soon as it seems like he might have to answer some pointed questions.
* Virtually every ''Franchise/DragonBall'' villain has moments of this; they're so arrogant that they believe that no one can stop them, and then FreakOut and become desperate when they meet someone who can and ''does'' kick their ass:
** Yajirobe qualifies as this most of the time. With the exception of [[SingleStrokeBattle the time he ate Cymbal]] and him crawling out from behind a rock long enough to [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome cut off Vegeta's tail]] in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', he'll constantly hide, cower, and be a general wuss. Interestingly, when we first meet him, he was seemingly set up as Goku's new {{rival}}, before falling into CantCatchUp even faster than all the other characters did.
** Goku's brother Raditz is a more unlikable example. Despite being a member of a race of {{Blood Knight}}s who would actually prefer death when defeated in battle than live with the shame of losing, he has the nerve to beg his younger, weaker (at the time) brother to let him go, only to backstab him when freed. Goku wasn't fooled again when he tried the same trick twice. It's suggested that this is part of why he's much weaker than other Saiyans; being someone who runs away whenever pushed, he rarely gains the benefit of [[CameBackStrong Zenkai.]]
** Frieza is proven to be one of these once he's no longer inaccessibly stronger than everyone around him. Also, deep down, this was Frieza's ultimate motivation for killing the Saiyans — he was afraid that they'd produce a Super Saiyan, which will be his undoing.
** Frieza's minions, Zarbon, Dodoria, and Cui, all act like big shots and are confident that they could easily beat Vegeta, but the second Vegeta turns the tables on them and is about to kill them, they beg for mercy (Zarbon), cry out to Frieza for help (Dodoria), or just plain run (Cui).
** When Goku gets the better of him several times during their showdown, King Piccolo results to using Tien as a HumanShield and threatening to kill him to force Goku to stand still and let Piccolo [[GameBreakingInjury break his legs and left arm with rocks]] so he could finish him while he was helpless.
** Android 19 ruthlessly beats on Goku and sucks the life out of him while he's suffering from the heart virus, but when he's beaten by the perfectly healthy Vegeta and loses both arms, he flips out and runs for his life, screaming in terror.
** Dr. Gero uses sneak attacks, and when Piccolo chops his arm off, all he can really do is run away to get backup.
** [[SquishyWizard Babidi]] is entirely dependent on his minions to fight and protect him, and begs for his dirty life when Piccolo corners and overpowers him. Goku even outright calls Babidi a "cowardly worm" while criticizing Majin Buu for letting Babidi push him around.
** Eis Shenron of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' goes from gloating over Goku when he has the upper hand to pathetically sniveling and begging for his life the minute Goku turns the tables on him.
** When Mercenary Tao starts losing to Goku, he begs for his life and offers to change his ways... and then tries to blow him up with a grenade when Goku's back is turned.
** Tambourine acts like an ArrogantKungFuGuy when in control of a situation, but when Goku beats him senseless in their rematch, he tries to make a break for it.
** The Cell Jrs. gleefully beat up the weaker Z-Fighters on Cell's orders, but back down in fear when faced with an enraged Super Saiyan 2 Gohan; one even uses Krillin as a HumanShield and threatens to slit his throat with WolverineClaws if Gohan doesn't back off, and when only one is left standing, he immediately tries to make a break for it.
* Daemon Spade from ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'' turns out to be one of these when facing someone who can actually defeat him. His "special move" is to bravely, bravely, run away to another dimension.
* In ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', Nijima used [[spoiler:Seigfried]] as a human shield during the [[spoiler:D of D]]. He also runs from almost every person who even slightly threatens him. Averted once when he lies to [[spoiler:Kenichi]] to keep him from being lynched by [[spoiler:Ragnarok]].
* ''Manga/{{InuYasha}}'':
** Kotetsu, the twisted artist who uses demonic ink fueled by human blood and entrails, begs for his pathetic life when Inuyasha has him cornered.
** [[BigBad Naraku]], especially before he TookALevelInBadass. He typically uses [[ActuallyADoombot demonic puppets of himself]] or manipulates others into fighting Inuyasha and his companions for him so he doesn't have to worry about his own safety, and whenever he ''does'' fight on his own, it's almost a guarantee that he'll pull a VillainExitStageLeft as soon as the tides turn against him.
* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': Takeda Kanryu acts like a big shot and gloats about [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney the power of money]] while unloading a gatling gun on Kenshin and his friends. As soon as Kenshin bypasses said gatling gun and is staring him down, Kanryu is reduced to a pathetic wimp begging Kenshin not to kill him, right before Kenshin breaks his jaw.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Helmeppo bullies people while hiding behind his tyrannical Marine Captain father Morgan. He gets better, though, when his father is defeated and he learns to become a great marine.
** Kuro, as a {{Foil}} to LovableCoward Usopp. Tired of being pursued by the Marines, he sets up a scheme to murder an innocent young girl and his men in order to inherit her wealth and retire.
** Marshall D. Teach, better known as Blackbeard, is a notable example in that despite having the D. initial, he started begging for his life the moment it was in immediate danger.
** 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.
** Demalo Black A.K.A 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 supossed heritage to try slipping, but Sentoumaru knocked him out in one hit. Needless to say, his recruits weren't pleased.
** Though he's had several hints of this beforehand, as of recently, [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is revealed to be one. He's a [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]] to ''Don Krieg'' levels, using every dirty trick in the book (technology, [[HumanShield Human Shields]], among other things) to get an advantage over his opponent. He also threatens [[spoiler:his son Sanji's mentor and adoptive father Zeff]] with death if [[spoiler:Sanji]] dares to fight back against [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherBully his brothers']]]] abuse, as well as [[spoiler:Judge's]] own. But what really drives it home is when [[spoiler:he cowers, cries, and begs for somebody to save him when he's surrounded by the Big Mom pirates with none of his usual toys to help him out. Not a hint of all his usual bravado was to be seen anywhere.]] Even better? [[spoiler:His other three sons are [[FaceDeathWithDignity completely laid-back about their upcoming demise]], and ''mock their father for crying.'']]
*** It's later revealed to be a subversion. [[spoiler:Judge was more upset over losing everything he had ever worked for than dying, hence the reason he was crying. When he and his other sons are saved by Sanji, he shows he has somewhat of an honorable side by holding off the Big Mom Pirates with his other 3 sons to allow Sanji, Luffy, and their allies to escape and ''personally attacking Big Mom by himself'' — [[CurbStompBattle with expected results]].]]
* Zoisite from ''Anime/SailorMoon'', a SmugSnake who prefers to use dirty tricks and cheat to win, and always running away when a fight is looking to be getting tough. The sheer level of cheating, conniving cowardice he displays actually makes him one of the more effective villains in the series, lasting longer than many of his contemporaries.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny''
*** Yuna Roma Seiran was a snivelling coward and wannabe ManipulativeBastard who got Orb into the war on the Earth Forces' side, takes command of the army at the front...and then proceeds to spend the campaign having one panic attack after another. He's incapable of standing up to Earth Forces Captain Neo Roanoke, who more or less takes over the campaign and uses the Orb forces as cannon fodder, and is ultimately killed when trying to escape from a losing battle.
*** Lord Djibril, Blue Cosmos leader, is a much more dangerous example, as he combines this trope with DiabolicalMastermind. When things go south for him, Djibril always bails, leaving his allies in the lurch...only to return soon after with his latest [[WeaponsOfMassDestruction Weapon Of Mass Destruction]] primed for combat. A [[SmugSnake slimy]], cowardly [[TheBully bully]] who nevertheless manages to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths through pure malice.
** The first opponent Riku and Yukio face in ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'' is Douji. His MO in Gunpla Battle Nexus Online was to tail new players, wait until they're sufficiently weakened, then trick them into going into battle where he would defeat them without getting into trouble thanks to LoopholeAbuse. When Riku overcomes him, he's left a sobbing wreck who vows revenge.
* Subverted with Taikobo in ''Manga/SoulHunter''. He ''pretends'' to be this early on but is actually a {{Chessmaster}}, using how people see him to his advantage.
* Captain Knowles of of the ''Goliath'' in ''Anime/LastExile'' ordered his ship to flee battle before the retreat was sounded. Later, he was too cowardly to face Alex in a duel he himself demanded and so decided on a ship-to-ship duel, figuring his battleship would be superior. When he saw his opponent was the ''Silvana'', he ordered his gunners to fire before the fight started.
* Masao from ''Manga/{{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.
** A somewhat straighter but less obvious version is Atsushi Ookawa. When he first meets TheVamp Chizuru, he says that people stay in at night because "they're all a bunch of stinking cowards," yet [[spoiler:when Chizuru is actually in danger, he fails to rescue her because he's too scared of his father to risk his wrath, and later, when he's discovered after killing Toshio Ozaki's mother in revenge, he begs for his life.]]
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
** [=PaniK=][[note]]who is simply an unnamed "player killer" in the original Japanese version[[/note]] is portrayed as the classic cowardly bully, who pushes other people down in order to make himself feel braver. Yami isn't buying it. This carries into his duelist tactics: as Yami notes, hiding his monsters in shadows so opponents can't attack because they don't know how strong they are is a cowardly way to duel, and when they're revealed, he switches them to defense and sets them up behind barriers to protect them until the shadows return. Although this becomes a case of FridgeLogic when you consider how often Yami, Yugi, Joey, and various other characters we're supposed to root for are forced/choose to play defensively at times.
** Yugi's accusations of cowardice towards Noah Kaiba are far more justified, given how he [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem uses his power over the virtual world]] to manipulate everything in his favor as he pleases, often [[{{Hypocrite}} committing the same underhanded acts]] he had scolded the Big Four for committing. [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Yugi eventually tells him]] that, despite his intelligence and deceptive age, he's still nothing but a SpoiledBrat who never grew up because he never wanted to.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', there was Lotten, the BigBad of the Crashtown arc. He seemed brave enough when he had the advantage, but when things turned against him, he detonated a series of explosives planted in Crashtown and fled to save his own skin (even willing to leave his lover and partner Barbara — the only one who was loyal to him — behind to her fate). He didn't escape, and the most interesting part is, while the dub had to edit out the scene where Kiyru forced him to finish the duel (Kiryu's winning move simulated Lotten being shot in the head), the dub ending may have been far more fitting, depending on one's point of view: Kiryu refused to finish the duel, instead letting it remain unfinished so everyone would know Lotten chickened out like a coward.
* Mr. Heartland, TheDragon to the BigBad in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL''. He usually uses a hologram when he has to talk to someone who might be angry at him (a good idea once, because Kaito tied to slug him) and when the heroes stormed the Faker's compound right before the FinalBattle of the first season, he hid behind a army of robots, doing nothing but taunting them. [[spoiler:(He did get his in the end when he fell through a portal to the Barian World, where he was turned into a bug-like creature. Also, in the later arc, he did develop enough of a spine to confront Kaito directly.)]]
* Isao from ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}''. When it's his turn to pilot ([[spoiler:which ends in his death]]), he just runs away, resulting in him dying without winning a fight, and long-term adverse consequences to the pilots.
** In the anime, there's also [[spoiler:Koyemshi, as a human]], who's even worse than Isao. Despite having forced a pilot to participate, he breaks down into a sobbing wreck when it's his turn and cuts a deal, which ends up [[spoiler:turning him into the robot Koyemshi and forcing him to recruit other pilots]].
* ''Anime/WolfsRain:'' [[spoiler:Tsume's]] back story has him being one of these, with him running away, leaving his friends to die. He's a unusual example in that he's portrayed as ultimately a good person, having grown out of his cowardice by the time the show starts.
* ''[[Toys/BBSenshiSangokuden BB Senshi Sangokuden: Brave Battle Warriors]]'', an adaptation of a line of SuperDeformed Franchise/{{Gundam}} toys based on ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', has Enjutsu Zssa, based on Yuan Shu. Here, Enjutsu is a sniveling, pompous, gutless coward who runs at the first sign of danger and even abandons his own brother in the face of an attack by a single enemy. He also has the gall to be surprised when Enshou Bawoo (based on Yuan Shao and himself not exactly a sterling example of bravery either) ends up yelling at him for leaving him to die.
* The protagonist of 1982 manga ''Manga/{{AKIRA}}'', [[BombThrowingAnarchists Shotaro]] [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster Kaneda]], despite his [[MilesGloriosus bravado]], had a nasty habit of abandoning his friends when they got into trouble and running away when things got sticky. [[HoYay Except for Tetsuo, who (despite having every reason) he never really left behind]]. This tendency is [[AdaptationalHeroism all but ignored in the film]].
** [[SleazyPolitician Mr. Nezu]] also qualifies, especially in the film, where he tries his damnedest to make a run for it when his underhanded dealings blow up in his face.
* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':
** Sugou Nobuyuki/Oberon spends most of the Fairy Dance arc cocky, composed, and arrogant, [[AGodAmI declaring himself a god]] and rubbing in Kirito's face that there's nothing he can do to stop him... as long as he's in control of the situation and has his GameMaster powers backing him up. The minute he's [[DePower stripped of his admin privileges]] and faced with a righteously pissed-off Kirito, Sugou has a massive FreakOut and [[InelegantBlubbering breaks down crying like a scared little girl]]. He's just as cowardly in real life; he attacks Kirito with a knife, slashing his arm in a surprise attacks, and [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown kicks Kirito multiple times after he falls to the ground]] before trying to kill him... and when Kirito overpowers him, takes the knife away, and states his intention to kill him with it, Sugou panics and immediately tries to make a break for it; Kirito just barely manages to stop himself from finishing him off, by which point Sugou is crying TearsOfFear and [[BringMyBrownPants loses control of his bladder]] before passing out.
** There's also [[TheBully Endou]] and the two other girls who try to extort money from Shino "Sinon" Asada, by [[TraumaButton triggering her past trauma]], simply because they don't have the guts to actually get violent with her. When Shino's friend, Kyouji Shinkawa, bluffs and pretends to be summoning a police officer to Shino's aid, Endou and the others immediately flee. At the end of the arc, after Shino [[spoiler:[[Awesome/SwordArtOnline overcomes her fear of guns long enough to show that Endou didn't deactivate the other safety on her model gun, then uses the gun to shoot a can with perfect accuracy]],]] Endou is left stunned, on her knees.
** Dyne, leader of Sinon's squad in Gun Gale Online. He specializes in ambushing groups of monster hunters (who aren't specialized in fighting players, although they ''are'' armed and ready to fight), and tends to give up and flee at the first indication that he's in over his head. He's also something of a {{hypocrite}} in that he complains about monster hunters who hire bodyguards coming off as cowards. That said, he does put himself in the line of fire to give Sinon the chance to take down a heavily armed foe, albeit after Sinon browbeats him for his cowardice.
** Gabriel Miller, one of the villains of the Alicization arc, constantly brags about being an InvincibleVillain and [[YourSoulIsMine stealing souls]], but when [[spoiler:Kirito beats him and leaves him to be DraggedOffToHell, he screams and begs for his minions to save him.]]
* ''Anime/CrossAnge'':
** Julio Asuka Misurugi verges into this once he gets cornered by Ange, while [[VillainsWantMercy begging for his life]]. He even offers to reinstate his sister back to the royal family in exchange for sparing him. Unfortunately for him, his attempts failed [[KickTheSonOfABitch once Embryo erases him]].
** Embryo himself in the final episodes. He ditches his Diamond Rose Knights to be left to die fighting the [=DRAGONs=] to make way of searching for Ange. Then in the final battle, he hijacks Salia and Hilda's Ragna-Mail into attacking Salamandinay. Unfortunately for him, none of these worked thanks to a KirkSummation, Salia and Hilda's Ragna-Mails broke free from his control.
* ''Anime/Persona4TheAnimation'': Yukiko, Chie, and Rise all provide a minor example during the fight against Shadow Naoto; they use Teddie as a HumanShield to save themselves from Shadow Naoto's RapidAging-inducing EyeBeams, and then flat-out bail on the guys to avoid suffering the same fate. This is in stark contrast to the [[VideoGame/Persona4 original game]], where they're willing to [[TakingTheBullet shield Yu from fatal attacks]] if their [[RelationshipValues Social Links are progressed far enough]].
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', 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.
* ''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.
* Manga/{{Wolfsmund}}: [[VillainProtagonist Wolfram]] is revealed to be this when he abandons his own men when the fighting goes south, with his own Dragon stating his disgust at his master's actions. It shows again when he's about to be executed, despite subjecting countless people to horrific ends, he goes out sobbing that putting him to death is unjust.
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' has its fair share of these in the Dark Tournament arc.
** Roto basically pulls a [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Steely Dan]] on Kurama, threatening his mother with a remote that summons a demon to kill her if he dares to fight back, beating him while he's helpless, and ''immediately'' starts begging for his life once the tables are turned. He even states that [[JustJokingJustification he wasn't really gonna press the button!]] Kurama still kills him.
** The rest of Team Jolly Devil Six, who leave [[TagalongKid Rinku]] to fight Team Urameshi after Hiei's [[CurbStompBattle "fight"]] against Zeru.
** Bakken, who is all too eager to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown beat up an unconscious Kurama,]] but is reduced to pathetically begging for mercy within ''minutes'' against someone who can actually put up a fight, like Yusuke. In the anime, he even smashes a rock over Yusuke's head while doing so...[[NoSell which has no effect on him at all.]] Cue a [[CurbStompBattle one-sided]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beatdown]] that leaves Bakken's ''entire body'' broken.
** There's also [[TheDon Gonzo]] [[SmugSnake Tarukane,]] the BigBad before the Dark Tournament Arc. Once all his money and protection is gone thanks to Yusuke and co., he turns into a panicky, sobbing wreck, and attempts to escape his mansion, taking Hiei's sister, Yukina, with him. ''[[FromBadToWorse Then]]'' [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Hiei]] shows up. [[TooDumbToLive Gonzo couldn't have picked a worse choice of sentences to beg for his life.]]
-->'''Gonzo:''' WAIT...! I don't know who the hell you are, but if it's money you're after...we can talk! Listen here...that broad behind you, she makes jewels like you wouldn't believe![[note]]by crying[[/note]] I could pour ''millions'' from her!
--> ''(cue DeathGlare and a NASTY [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beatdown]] from Hiei)''
* Shinji Ikari of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fervently ''believes'' himself to be this, even though he's saved the world quite a few times [[CowardlyLion despite being terrified while doing so]]. This is partially because his life [[ButtMonkey just sucks that much]]. His infamous mantra, "I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away!" is him chiding himself for being frightened when he has absolutely every reason to be terrified of the giant monsters trying to kill him.
* Pop from ''Manga/DaiNoDaibouken'' started out like this, but [[CharacterDevelopment he gets better]].
* In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', [[spoiler: Kensuke the living sword ran away during the fight with Red Dragon. This taught Laios a harsh lesson about bonding with monsters.]]
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
** Magnifico is a good example and has yet to grow out of this.
** Nina in the Conviction Arc was even worse. She repeatedly considers abandoning other characters to save her own skin, including Casca, who is mentally ill and incapable of looking after herself. However, she's still somewhat sympathetic, because her inner monologues show that her cowardice isn't really a conscious decision that everyone else is expendable; she does ''want'' to be brave, especially for her "sister" Luca, but when her life and well-being are threatened, she panics and can't bring herself to actually follow through with it. Also, the reason for her getting cold feet is often perfectly understandable, [[spoiler:best illustrated by her arrival into the torture chamber, by far ''the'' most nightmarish place in the entire Tower of Conviction]], [[http://www.mangareader.net/96-1139-166/berserk/chapter-19.html as can be seen here]].
** The Baron of Koka, the first real demon battle Guts has in the manga, gleefully kills and destroys to satisfy his sadism. But when Guts proves he's not invincible, his arrogance disappears and he starts begging for the mercy he never would've shown his victims. Guts doesn't give him any.
* Defied by BigBad Phantom from ''Manga/{{MAR}}'', who regularly kills any and ''every'' mook that runs from battle. He only does this a few times onscreen, but it is clearly established that he ''despises'' cowards. He even denies his mooks the death of the protagonist Ginta, saying that, since he's a WorthyOpponent, there's no reason to kill him until he's strong enough to put up a proper fight.
* Uragami from ''Manga/{{Parasyte}}'', who has been known to rape and murder humans, runs away and screams in fear when he sees a Parasyte reveal its true form for the first time.
* Akito Tenkawa spends much of the early part of ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' trying to flee from combat, though to be fair, he's got some fairly serious psychological problems, considering it's a comedy series. Unlike a certain other pilot of whom he is partly a parody, he [[CharacterDevelopment gets over it]]. Eventually.
* MadScientist Akihiro Kurata from ''Anime/DigimonSavers'', just one of the [[SmugSnake many]], ''[[MoralEventHorizon many]]'' things that fans can hate about him.
** However, this does make [[spoiler:his downfall [[VillainousBreakdown much more entertaining]] when we see him ''[[AintTooProudToBeg begging for his life]]'' as [=ShineGreymon=] Burst Mode gives him exactly what he had coming]].
* Zofis from ''Manga/ZatchBell'', who is revealed to be afraid of Brago and anyone with more power than him.
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'':
** Jackal, a minor arc villain, is the practitioner of a martial art called "Nanto Bakusatsu-ken" — ''South Star Exploding Kill Fist''. Despite the grandiose name, the style consists mainly of throwing sticks of dynamite at enemies while at a safe distance. Kenshiro [[LampshadeHanging calls him on this]] by snidely asking him if it's even truly a martial art (to which his only reply is “[[CombatPragmatist Hey, as long as it works]]”). When Kenshiro goes on his RoaringRampageOfRevenge, Jackal leaves his men to die and ultimately tries to lie his way out of his fate, first tricking a giant inmate into thinking he's his long-lost brother before siccing him on Kenshiro and then trying to lie to Kenshiro about said inmate being a monster, which turns out to be the last mistake Jackal ever makes.
** Jagi, in addition to being a heartless and cruel monster, is also ''the'' most cowardly of Kenshiro's major villains in the series, and the only one who does ''not'' FaceDeathWithDignity — in fact, he has the ignominy of being the only Hokuto Shinken practitioner to beg and grovel for his life in the tradition's entire 2000-year history.
** Also applies to almost all minor thugs in the series who live long enough to realize that they're screwed. A lot of them end up completely breaking down and begging for their lives. It doesn't help that Kenshiro's primary fighting style has a penchant for [[{{Gorn}} rather gruesome]] [[YouAreAlreadyDead delayed death attacks]].
* ''Manga/HighSchoolOfTheDead'':
** Misuzu Ichijou is quick to kick her "BFF" down the stairs to the zombies just to avoid sharing her fate. She ends up paying for this very quickly with her [[KarmicDeath life]] in the anime or with her humanity in the manga.
** For all his talk about "[[SocialDarwinist survival of the fittest]]", Koichi Shido is a snivelling weasel, immediately running at the sight of "Them" and cowering in fear when Kohta points a gun at him. His cowardice is the ''only'' reason Rei opts not to kill him when he has her at his mercy, declaring he's [[NotWorthKilling not worth it]].
* Most of ''Manga/AkameGaKill'''s villains are this, as part of the series' BlackAndGrayMorality, but several examples stand out.
** Prime Minister Honest is a total sleazeball who utilizes the most underhanded tactics imaginable to meet his goals; he even went so far as to barb Incursio's hilt with danger beast poison during Tatsumi's execution. In the anime, after all of his plans fall apart, he [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tries to flee]], whimpering and whining pathetically the whole time, and then screams for someone to save him when [[spoiler:Leone blocks his path]].
** The Wild Hunt, in addition to being heartless and cruel monsters, are also ''the'' most cowardly of Night Raid's major enemies (with the exception of Cosmina and Izou), and the only ones (with the exception of Cosmina) who do ''not'' FaceDeathWithDignity — in fact, they beg and grovel for their lives as they die.
** Bolic is so cowardly that he begs for the Jaegers to protect him when Night Raid comes to assassinate him.
* Chaka from ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' is a sociopathic asshole whose specialty seems to be [[KickTheDog Kicking the Dog]] and who sees nothing wrong with beating a noncombatant just to provoke his colleague into a gunfight, then running away while toting a human shield when things go badly for him and shooting several of his henchmen just because he's pissed. He fancies himself a Wild West gunman, but he's nothing more than a stupid, incompetent prick who thinks himself something far more than what he actually is. So much so that when he's finally dealt with, it's by Revy denying him his duel with her and leaving him for Ginji Matsuzaki, who relieves him of his gun and both of his hands before sending him into a pool to drown.
* Kishin Asura from ''Manga/SoulEater'' became a physical font of insanity and evil because he was scared of everything — which led to [[TheParanoiac paranoia]] and the desire to become so powerful that no one could harm him, at any cost.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** Yoki constantly suffers the consequences of his scumbag actions, mostly because he keeps [[ChronicBackStabbingDisorder lying and backstabbing]] so he can bribe his way into a higher military rank. Every nasty scheme backfires, landing him in nastier and nastier situations to the point that he's the manga's resident ChewToy. One of the characters even points out it's entirely his own fault that he gets into these messes. Eventually, [[CharacterDevelopment he finally starts to move out of this]], first becoming actually useful, and then later showing some courage by [[spoiler:'''ramming a car into Pride''']].
** This was the accusation of [[spoiler:Kimblee against Pride. On realizing he was near death, Pride tried to take over Ed's body as a new host, just moments after explaining his hatred of humans. Kimblee couldn't stand the cowardice and hypocrisy]].
** Envy constantly resorts to dirty tricks, such as the ShapeshifterGuiltTrip, when fighting his enemies, and will bitch and moan non-stop the very second he's losing. His cowardice ''really'' shows when he [[TooDumbToLive reveals to Roy Mustang that]] ''[[TooDumbToLive he]]'' [[TooDumbToLive killed Maes Hughes]] and [[EvilGloating brags about it]]... and when he [[OhCrap realizes just how bad of an idea it was to piss off Mustang]], spends the remainder of the episode running in fear of the conflict he willfully brought down upon himself.
** The 2003 anime has a subversion with Rick and Rio's mother, who seemingly abandoned her children to die during the Ishval invasion before she got herself killed in an explosion. They later learn that [[spoiler:she suffred from an eyesight degeneration and didn't notice that her children were in front of her. She ran away trying to find them]].
* The first BigBad of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' is pwned by [[PerversePuppet Chachazero]] after running from the final battle of the Kyoto arc. The point of her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech is proven completely true [[spoiler:when she gives Chigusa the most ignominious defeat ever: scaring her so badly that she fainted, revealing her cowardly nature]].
* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Raynare loves to stand around, taunt and torment people she thinks are inferior to her, but the moment she realizes she's in trouble, she tries to run away, happily sacrificing her minions in the process.
** She laughs at Issei when he spills out his lingering affections toward her, mocking him as completely unworthy of being boyfriend material, yet attempts to fall back on their date when Rias is about to kill her. Issei expresses disgust she's only now responding to his feelings when it's convenient for her, and gives Rias permission to finish her off.
* Yukiteru's father from ''Manga/FutureDiary'' is this, all the way. He even [[spoiler:kills his wife because he's terrified that she'll tell the police he just left his son to die on a collapsing tower]].
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''
** Hol Horse manages to be the only recurring villain in Part Three... by running for his life whenever things go wrong. He also refuses to ever work alone, despite being an assassin; he knows how weak his Stand is against most other Stands, after all. The incident that finally dispatches him even comes about because of his cowardice: told by a fortune-telling book that he'll kill Jotaro at noon, he takes the shot from a far distance and from cover... [[spoiler:which allows for a ProphecyTwist to send the bullets back into ''his'' head. To be fair, Thoth was ''prescribing'' that shoot-from-cover bit. The only thing Hol did wrong was use his own watch, which was fast, rather than a perfectly accurate clock. Had he done that, the bullets would have hit Jotaro along with the water burst from the pipe. Also, he didn't die — like with Enya, he disengaged Emperor before the wounds could become fatal]].
** Rubber Soul tries to surprise Jotaro with a sneak attack after getting caught in the water.
** J. Geil, on top of being a [[SerialRapist rapist]] and [[PsychoForHire just a terrible monster]] and [[EvilGloating bragging about his depraved acts]], immediately runs away and begs for his life once Jean-Pierre Polnareff, the brother of one of his victims, defeats his Stand.
** Steely Dan, like Hol Horse, has a pretty weak Stand. But at least Emperor has ''some'' offensive power by itself; all Lovers does is relay Dan's own pain to its host, amplified several times over. Dan, pure slime that he is, doesn't just use this as a deterrent. No, he effectively blackmails Jotaro into being his slave, even to the point of forcing him to steal a bracelet, then get beaten silly by security, while Dan himself ''steals an even more valuable necklace'' during the commotion. All the while gloating over being tacitly invincible. Of course, once Kakyoin outmaneuvers and drives Lovers out of Joseph, Dan devolves into a pure sycophant, begging for mercy without dignity... [[spoiler:then trying to use an innocent girl as ''another'' hostage to force Jotaro to let himself be stabbed! Dan ''fully'' deserved the [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown 3+ pages/20 seconds of Ora-Ora]] that Jotaro ultimately unleashes on him]].
** Alessi, whose Stand allows him to de-age anyone who touches his shadow. This is ''the only way'' he's willing to fight anyone (unlike Hol, who just adheres to the creed "run away to fight another day"), even if the nearest adult is a harmless woman. He has to use an ''axe'' to fight them. And to think he keeps calling himself a "good boy". Which make his defeat all the sweeter when he runs into Jotaro. He manages to use his powers on him, but Jotaro is so badass that even as a Standless kid, he's more than a match for him, giving him [[RapidFireFisticuffs the ORA ORA treatment]] anyway and then laying him out with an uppercut. Talk about irony.
** Dio Brando, of all people, is this. Even though he is determined, this does not mean he is particularly brave; for all his pride, he isn't above fleeing or begging for his life when things turn sour.
* Genma Saotome, father of the titular character of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', falls somewhere between this and LovableCoward. Despite being one of the more formidable martial artists in the locale, whenever trouble arises (and it's often [[SinsOfOurFathers his fault that it does]]), his plan of action invariably boils down to some variant of "run away" or "make Ranma deal with it". Whether it's pinning the blame on Ranma, telling Ranma that it's his "duty" to handle things, or simply vanishing into the woodwork and leaving Ranma with no choice but to try and handle something he hasn't the faintest idea about, Genma virtually never lifts a finger to help. He also has a bad habit of grabbing [[BalefulPolymorph the nearest bucket of water]] as soon as it seems like he might have to answer some pointed questions.
* Virtually every ''Franchise/DragonBall'' villain has moments of this; they're so arrogant that they believe that no one can stop them, and then FreakOut and become desperate when they meet someone who can and ''does'' kick their ass:
** Yajirobe qualifies as this most of the time. With the exception of [[SingleStrokeBattle the time he ate Cymbal]] and him crawling out from behind a rock long enough to [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome cut off Vegeta's tail]] in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', he'll constantly hide, cower, and be a general wuss. Interestingly, when we first meet him, he was seemingly set up as Goku's new {{rival}}, before falling into CantCatchUp even faster than all the other characters did.
** Goku's brother Raditz is a more unlikable example. Despite being a member of a race of {{Blood Knight}}s who would actually prefer death when defeated in battle than live with the shame of losing, he has the nerve to beg his younger, weaker (at the time) brother to let him go, only to backstab him when freed. Goku wasn't fooled again when he tried the same trick twice. It's suggested that this is part of why he's much weaker than other Saiyans; being someone who runs away whenever pushed, he rarely gains the benefit of [[CameBackStrong Zenkai.]]
** Frieza is proven to be one of these once he's no longer inaccessibly stronger than everyone around him. Also, deep down, this was Frieza's ultimate motivation for killing the Saiyans — he was afraid that they'd produce a Super Saiyan, which will be his undoing.
** Frieza's minions, Zarbon, Dodoria, and Cui, all act like big shots and are confident that they could easily beat Vegeta, but the second Vegeta turns the tables on them and is about to kill them, they beg for mercy (Zarbon), cry out to Frieza for help (Dodoria), or just plain run (Cui).
** When Goku gets the better of him several times during their showdown, King Piccolo results to using Tien as a HumanShield and threatening to kill him to force Goku to stand still and let Piccolo [[GameBreakingInjury break his legs and left arm with rocks]] so he could finish him while he was helpless.
** Android 19 ruthlessly beats on Goku and sucks the life out of him while he's suffering from the heart virus, but when he's beaten by the perfectly healthy Vegeta and loses both arms, he flips out and runs for his life, screaming in terror.
** Dr. Gero uses sneak attacks, and when Piccolo chops his arm off, all he can really do is run away to get backup.
** [[SquishyWizard Babidi]] is entirely dependent on his minions to fight and protect him, and begs for his dirty life when Piccolo corners and overpowers him. Goku even outright calls Babidi a "cowardly worm" while criticizing Majin Buu for letting Babidi push him around.
** Eis Shenron of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' goes from gloating over Goku when he has the upper hand to pathetically sniveling and begging for his life the minute Goku turns the tables on him.
** When Mercenary Tao starts losing to Goku, he begs for his life and offers to change his ways... and then tries to blow him up with a grenade when Goku's back is turned.
** Tambourine acts like an ArrogantKungFuGuy when in control of a situation, but when Goku beats him senseless in their rematch, he tries to make a break for it.
** The Cell Jrs. gleefully beat up the weaker Z-Fighters on Cell's orders, but back down in fear when faced with an enraged Super Saiyan 2 Gohan; one even uses Krillin as a HumanShield and threatens to slit his throat with WolverineClaws if Gohan doesn't back off, and when only one is left standing, he immediately tries to make a break for it.
* Daemon Spade from ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'' turns out to be one of these when facing someone who can actually defeat him. His "special move" is to bravely, bravely, run away to another dimension.
* In ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', Nijima used [[spoiler:Seigfried]] as a human shield during the [[spoiler:D of D]]. He also runs from almost every person who even slightly threatens him. Averted once when he lies to [[spoiler:Kenichi]] to keep him from being lynched by [[spoiler:Ragnarok]].
* ''Manga/{{InuYasha}}'':
** Kotetsu, the twisted artist who uses demonic ink fueled by human blood and entrails, begs for his pathetic life when Inuyasha has him cornered.
** [[BigBad Naraku]], especially before he TookALevelInBadass. He typically uses [[ActuallyADoombot demonic puppets of himself]] or manipulates others into fighting Inuyasha and his companions for him so he doesn't have to worry about his own safety, and whenever he ''does'' fight on his own, it's almost a guarantee that he'll pull a VillainExitStageLeft as soon as the tides turn against him.
* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': Takeda Kanryu acts like a big shot and gloats about [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney the power of money]] while unloading a gatling gun on Kenshin and his friends. As soon as Kenshin bypasses said gatling gun and is staring him down, Kanryu is reduced to a pathetic wimp begging Kenshin not to kill him, right before Kenshin breaks his jaw.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Helmeppo bullies people while hiding behind his tyrannical Marine Captain father Morgan. He gets better, though, when his father is defeated and he learns to become a great marine.
** Kuro, as a {{Foil}} to LovableCoward Usopp. Tired of being pursued by the Marines, he sets up a scheme to murder an innocent young girl and his men in order to inherit her wealth and retire.
** Marshall D. Teach, better known as Blackbeard, is a notable example in that despite having the D. initial, he started begging for his life the moment it was in immediate danger.
** 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.
** Demalo Black A.K.A 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 supossed heritage to try slipping, but Sentoumaru knocked him out in one hit. Needless to say, his recruits weren't pleased.
** Though he's had several hints of this beforehand, as of recently, [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Judge Vinsmoke]]]] is revealed to be one. He's a [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]] to ''Don Krieg'' levels, using every dirty trick in the book (technology, [[HumanShield Human Shields]], among other things) to get an advantage over his opponent. He also threatens [[spoiler:his son Sanji's mentor and adoptive father Zeff]] with death if [[spoiler:Sanji]] dares to fight back against [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherBully his brothers']]]] abuse, as well as [[spoiler:Judge's]] own. But what really drives it home is when [[spoiler:he cowers, cries, and begs for somebody to save him when he's surrounded by the Big Mom pirates with none of his usual toys to help him out. Not a hint of all his usual bravado was to be seen anywhere.]] Even better? [[spoiler:His other three sons are [[FaceDeathWithDignity completely laid-back about their upcoming demise]], and ''mock their father for crying.'']]
*** It's later revealed to be a subversion. [[spoiler:Judge was more upset over losing everything he had ever worked for than dying, hence the reason he was crying. When he and his other sons are saved by Sanji, he shows he has somewhat of an honorable side by holding off the Big Mom Pirates with his other 3 sons to allow Sanji, Luffy, and their allies to escape and ''personally attacking Big Mom by himself'' — [[CurbStompBattle with expected results]].]]
* Zoisite from ''Anime/SailorMoon'', a SmugSnake who prefers to use dirty tricks and cheat to win, and always running away when a fight is looking to be getting tough. The sheer level of cheating, conniving cowardice he displays actually makes him one of the more effective villains in the series, lasting longer than many of his contemporaries.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny''
*** Yuna Roma Seiran was a snivelling coward and wannabe ManipulativeBastard who got Orb into the war on the Earth Forces' side, takes command of the army at the front...and then proceeds to spend the campaign having one panic attack after another. He's incapable of standing up to Earth Forces Captain Neo Roanoke, who more or less takes over the campaign and uses the Orb forces as cannon fodder, and is ultimately killed when trying to escape from a losing battle.
*** Lord Djibril, Blue Cosmos leader, is a much more dangerous example, as he combines this trope with DiabolicalMastermind. When things go south for him, Djibril always bails, leaving his allies in the lurch...only to return soon after with his latest [[WeaponsOfMassDestruction Weapon Of Mass Destruction]] primed for combat. A [[SmugSnake slimy]], cowardly [[TheBully bully]] who nevertheless manages to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths through pure malice.
** The first opponent Riku and Yukio face in ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'' is Douji. His MO in Gunpla Battle Nexus Online was to tail new players, wait until they're sufficiently weakened, then trick them into going into battle where he would defeat them without getting into trouble thanks to LoopholeAbuse. When Riku overcomes him, he's left a sobbing wreck who vows revenge.
* Subverted with Taikobo in ''Manga/SoulHunter''. He ''pretends'' to be this early on but is actually a {{Chessmaster}}, using how people see him to his advantage.
* Captain Knowles of of the ''Goliath'' in ''Anime/LastExile'' ordered his ship to flee battle before the retreat was sounded. Later, he was too cowardly to face Alex in a duel he himself demanded and so decided on a ship-to-ship duel, figuring his battleship would be superior. When he saw his opponent was the ''Silvana'', he ordered his gunners to fire before the fight started.
* Masao from ''Manga/{{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.
** A somewhat straighter but less obvious version is Atsushi Ookawa. When he first meets TheVamp Chizuru, he says that people stay in at night because "they're all a bunch of stinking cowards," yet [[spoiler:when Chizuru is actually in danger, he fails to rescue her because he's too scared of his father to risk his wrath, and later, when he's discovered after killing Toshio Ozaki's mother in revenge, he begs for his life.]]
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
** [=PaniK=][[note]]who is simply an unnamed "player killer" in the original Japanese version[[/note]] is portrayed as the classic cowardly bully, who pushes other people down in order to make himself feel braver. Yami isn't buying it. This carries into his duelist tactics: as Yami notes, hiding his monsters in shadows so opponents can't attack because they don't know how strong they are is a cowardly way to duel, and when they're revealed, he switches them to defense and sets them up behind barriers to protect them until the shadows return. Although this becomes a case of FridgeLogic when you consider how often Yami, Yugi, Joey, and various other characters we're supposed to root for are forced/choose to play defensively at times.
** Yugi's accusations of cowardice towards Noah Kaiba are far more justified, given how he [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem uses his power over the virtual world]] to manipulate everything in his favor as he pleases, often [[{{Hypocrite}} committing the same underhanded acts]] he had scolded the Big Four for committing. [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Yugi eventually tells him]] that, despite his intelligence and deceptive age, he's still nothing but a SpoiledBrat who never grew up because he never wanted to.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', there was Lotten, the BigBad of the Crashtown arc. He seemed brave enough when he had the advantage, but when things turned against him, he detonated a series of explosives planted in Crashtown and fled to save his own skin (even willing to leave his lover and partner Barbara — the only one who was loyal to him — behind to her fate). He didn't escape, and the most interesting part is, while the dub had to edit out the scene where Kiyru forced him to finish the duel (Kiryu's winning move simulated Lotten being shot in the head), the dub ending may have been far more fitting, depending on one's point of view: Kiryu refused to finish the duel, instead letting it remain unfinished so everyone would know Lotten chickened out like a coward.
* Mr. Heartland, TheDragon to the BigBad in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL''. He usually uses a hologram when he has to talk to someone who might be angry at him (a good idea once, because Kaito tied to slug him) and when the heroes stormed the Faker's compound right before the FinalBattle of the first season, he hid behind a army of robots, doing nothing but taunting them. [[spoiler:(He did get his in the end when he fell through a portal to the Barian World, where he was turned into a bug-like creature. Also, in the later arc, he did develop enough of a spine to confront Kaito directly.)]]
* Isao from ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}''. When it's his turn to pilot ([[spoiler:which ends in his death]]), he just runs away, resulting in him dying without winning a fight, and long-term adverse consequences to the pilots.
** In the anime, there's also [[spoiler:Koyemshi, as a human]], who's even worse than Isao. Despite having forced a pilot to participate, he breaks down into a sobbing wreck when it's his turn and cuts a deal, which ends up [[spoiler:turning him into the robot Koyemshi and forcing him to recruit other pilots]].
* ''Anime/WolfsRain:'' [[spoiler:Tsume's]] back story has him being one of these, with him running away, leaving his friends to die. He's a unusual example in that he's portrayed as ultimately a good person, having grown out of his cowardice by the time the show starts.
* ''[[Toys/BBSenshiSangokuden BB Senshi Sangokuden: Brave Battle Warriors]]'', an adaptation of a line of SuperDeformed Franchise/{{Gundam}} toys based on ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', has Enjutsu Zssa, based on Yuan Shu. Here, Enjutsu is a sniveling, pompous, gutless coward who runs at the first sign of danger and even abandons his own brother in the face of an attack by a single enemy. He also has the gall to be surprised when Enshou Bawoo (based on Yuan Shao and himself not exactly a sterling example of bravery either) ends up yelling at him for leaving him to die.
* The protagonist of 1982 manga ''Manga/{{AKIRA}}'', [[BombThrowingAnarchists Shotaro]] [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster Kaneda]], despite his [[MilesGloriosus bravado]], had a nasty habit of abandoning his friends when they got into trouble and running away when things got sticky. [[HoYay Except for Tetsuo, who (despite having every reason) he never really left behind]]. This tendency is [[AdaptationalHeroism all but ignored in the film]].
** [[SleazyPolitician Mr. Nezu]] also qualifies, especially in the film, where he tries his damnedest to make a run for it when his underhanded dealings blow up in his face.
* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':
** Sugou Nobuyuki/Oberon spends most of the Fairy Dance arc cocky, composed, and arrogant, [[AGodAmI declaring himself a god]] and rubbing in Kirito's face that there's nothing he can do to stop him... as long as he's in control of the situation and has his GameMaster powers backing him up. The minute he's [[DePower stripped of his admin privileges]] and faced with a righteously pissed-off Kirito, Sugou has a massive FreakOut and [[InelegantBlubbering breaks down crying like a scared little girl]]. He's just as cowardly in real life; he attacks Kirito with a knife, slashing his arm in a surprise attacks, and [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown kicks Kirito multiple times after he falls to the ground]] before trying to kill him... and when Kirito overpowers him, takes the knife away, and states his intention to kill him with it, Sugou panics and immediately tries to make a break for it; Kirito just barely manages to stop himself from finishing him off, by which point Sugou is crying TearsOfFear and [[BringMyBrownPants loses control of his bladder]] before passing out.
** There's also [[TheBully Endou]] and the two other girls who try to extort money from Shino "Sinon" Asada, by [[TraumaButton triggering her past trauma]], simply because they don't have the guts to actually get violent with her. When Shino's friend, Kyouji Shinkawa, bluffs and pretends to be summoning a police officer to Shino's aid, Endou and the others immediately flee. At the end of the arc, after Shino [[spoiler:[[Awesome/SwordArtOnline overcomes her fear of guns long enough to show that Endou didn't deactivate the other safety on her model gun, then uses the gun to shoot a can with perfect accuracy]],]] Endou is left stunned, on her knees.
** Dyne, leader of Sinon's squad in Gun Gale Online. He specializes in ambushing groups of monster hunters (who aren't specialized in fighting players, although they ''are'' armed and ready to fight), and tends to give up and flee at the first indication that he's in over his head. He's also something of a {{hypocrite}} in that he complains about monster hunters who hire bodyguards coming off as cowards. That said, he does put himself in the line of fire to give Sinon the chance to take down a heavily armed foe, albeit after Sinon browbeats him for his cowardice.
** Gabriel Miller, one of the villains of the Alicization arc, constantly brags about being an InvincibleVillain and [[YourSoulIsMine stealing souls]], but when [[spoiler:Kirito beats him and leaves him to be DraggedOffToHell, he screams and begs for his minions to save him.]]
* ''Anime/CrossAnge'':
** Julio Asuka Misurugi verges into this once he gets cornered by Ange, while [[VillainsWantMercy begging for his life]]. He even offers to reinstate his sister back to the royal family in exchange for sparing him. Unfortunately for him, his attempts failed [[KickTheSonOfABitch once Embryo erases him]].
** Embryo himself in the final episodes. He ditches his Diamond Rose Knights to be left to die fighting the [=DRAGONs=] to make way of searching for Ange. Then in the final battle, he hijacks Salia and Hilda's Ragna-Mail into attacking Salamandinay. Unfortunately for him, none of these worked thanks to a KirkSummation, Salia and Hilda's Ragna-Mails broke free from his control.
* ''Anime/Persona4TheAnimation'': Yukiko, Chie, and Rise all provide a minor example during the fight against Shadow Naoto; they use Teddie as a HumanShield to save themselves from Shadow Naoto's RapidAging-inducing EyeBeams, and then flat-out bail on the guys to avoid suffering the same fate. This is in stark contrast to the [[VideoGame/Persona4 original game]], where they're willing to [[TakingTheBullet shield Yu from fatal attacks]] if their [[RelationshipValues Social Links are progressed far enough]].
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', 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.
* ''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.
* Manga/{{Wolfsmund}}: [[VillainProtagonist Wolfram]] is revealed to be this when he abandons his own men when the fighting goes south, with his own Dragon stating his disgust at his master's actions. It shows again when he's about to be executed, despite subjecting countless people to horrific ends, he goes out sobbing that putting him to death is unjust.
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' has its fair share of these in the Dark Tournament arc.
** Roto basically pulls a [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Steely Dan]] on Kurama, threatening his mother with a remote that summons a demon to kill her if he dares to fight back, beating him while he's helpless, and ''immediately'' starts begging for his life once the tables are turned. He even states that [[JustJokingJustification he wasn't really gonna press the button!]] Kurama still kills him.
** The rest of Team Jolly Devil Six, who leave [[TagalongKid Rinku]] to fight Team Urameshi after Hiei's [[CurbStompBattle "fight"]] against Zeru.
** Bakken, who is all too eager to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown beat up an unconscious Kurama,]] but is reduced to pathetically begging for mercy within ''minutes'' against someone who can actually put up a fight, like Yusuke. In the anime, he even smashes a rock over Yusuke's head while doing so...[[NoSell which has no effect on him at all.]] Cue a [[CurbStompBattle one-sided]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beatdown]] that leaves Bakken's ''entire body'' broken.
** There's also [[TheDon Gonzo]] [[SmugSnake Tarukane,]] the BigBad before the Dark Tournament Arc. Once all his money and protection is gone thanks to Yusuke and co., he turns into a panicky, sobbing wreck, and attempts to escape his mansion, taking Hiei's sister, Yukina, with him. ''[[FromBadToWorse Then]]'' [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Hiei]] shows up. [[TooDumbToLive Gonzo couldn't have picked a worse choice of sentences to beg for his life.]]
-->'''Gonzo:''' WAIT...! I don't know who the hell you are, but if it's money you're after...we can talk! Listen here...that broad behind you, she makes jewels like you wouldn't believe![[note]]by crying[[/note]] I could pour ''millions'' from her!
--> ''(cue DeathGlare and a NASTY [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beatdown]] from Hiei)''
