History FallenHero / AnimeAndManga

* In ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', [[spoiler:Dios]], aka Akio, shows what happens when the PrincelyYoungMan turns into one of these.

* ''Manga/UbelBlatt'' has a number of these, similar to the Overlord example further down the page. 14 heroes go to fight the Dark Lord. On the way there, 3 die heroically, and upon the entrance of the Evil Lair, 7 of the survivors get cold feet and stay behind. The other 4 go to defeat the villain, winning with great difficulty. Returning home, those heroes get ambushed by their former comrades and are bloodily murdered. They go on to become the "Seven Heroes, who defeated the Dark Lord and the '4 Lances of Betrayal'". The 7 Lances end up going insane with power, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity but can get away with anything because of their hero status.]] Though one of the 4 is back and wants revenge.

* [[spoiler:Mikado Ryugamine]] in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''. The entire show appears to surround their own moral decline.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'':

* "[[RedBaron Platinum Saber]]" Leon Cromwell from ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'' began as a Hero of humanity, blessed by the fairies to defend against the calamities that would strike at humans. However, his obsession with finding a certain Otherworlder drove him to abandoning his position as a Hero and becoming a Demon Lord, casually summoning multiple children and discarding them when they proved to be the wrong person, unless they proved to have enough resolve that he thought they could be a useful servant like Shizue Izawa. [[spoiler:However, as both Leon and his few friends note, he isn't actually that different as a Hero or a Demon Lord. He became a Hero both because he wanted to help people and to find that Otherworlder (his ChildhoodFriend Chloe), and when it became clear the latter couldn't be achieved as a Hero he turned to the Demon Lord role. His kingdom of El Dorado [[AHeroToHisHometown still views him as the shining beacon of hope and stability]], and even the Otherworlder children he didn't conscript into his army were allowed to live in peace on his island continent. His big problem is [[PoorCommunicationKills he doesn't feel the need to explain himself to others]], which makes him come across as a callous EvilOverlord.]]

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'': [[BigBad Fugil Arcadia]] and [[PosthumousCharacter Arshalia Rei Arcadia]] teamed up to stop the oppressive Holy Arcadia Empire and the rebels who resorted to increasingly radical and vengeful tactics. Despite their efforts, they could never get the two sides to make peace, causing them to become desperate and resort to more villainous methods. [[spoiler:Arshalia created a massive Divine Drag-Ride, Ouroboros, to hypnotize the populace into forgetting their hatred. She also created Sacred Eclipse to both save people and kill those who are a source of conflict. When Sacred Eclipse pointed to her and Fugil as a source of conflict due to the entire world fearing them, she sets Sacred Eclipse to murder indiscriminately so that Fugil can defeat it and be seen as a hero. After she's killed by the rebel faction, Fugil spends millennia using Ouroboros and Sacred Eclipse in a misguided attempt to prove Arshalia's methods correct.]]

* [[spoiler:Mikado Ryugamine]] in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''. The entire show appears to surround their own moral decline. [[spoiler:Mikado started out as an ordinary, bored middle-schooler who wanted a more exciting life so he started the 'Dollars', an online gang based in Ikebukuro. However, as the gang became more and more real, likewise it became more criminal. Mikado then peacefully corrected this behaviour by suggesting that they should be a nice gang. He was absolutely ecstatic during the first Dollars meeting, where he got everyone together and stopped Namie Yagiri. Unfortunately, well before then, he had gained Izaya's interest. The informant began purposely messing with Mikado both overtly and covertly, he told Mikado he would always get bored of his life and would have to constantly change in order to keep it interesting and revealed Mikado's status as leader of the Dollars to Masaomi. He set the Yellow Scarves against the Dollars to cause a gang war and even involved the Slasher. Among the numerous other things, Izaya also arranged for the kidnapping of Non, Chikage's girlfriend, via the Dollars forum to start a large brawl, causing Mikado to want to remove the 'bad apples' from the Dollars. However, by this time, Mikado began to crack under the pressure and became a far more twisted person. He illegally obtained info on Dollars members he considered bad and had Aoba and his friends violently remove them. It becomes very obvious he's gone over the deep end when he calmly dismissed Celty's warning to not resort to violence and when he finally saw Masaomi again, told him he's 'not ready'. In the conclusion, Mikado threatened various gang members' families in order to enact his plan to annihilate the Dollars. He shot at Masaomi with a gun when the latter attempted to stop him. Despite missing, he revealed he had a second, concealed gun that fired on contact and shot Masaomi in the leg. Finally, in utter despair over what he had become, Mikado shot himself in the head. However, thanks to Celty, Mikado did not die and later ceased his gang-related activities to have a normal life]].

* "[[RedBaron Platinum Saber]]" Leon Cromwell from ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'' began as a Hero of humanity, blessed by the fairies to defend against the calamities that would strike at humans. However, his obsession with finding a certain Otherworlder drove him to abandoning his position as a Hero and becoming a Demon Lord, casually summoning multiple children and discarding them when they proved to be the wrong person, unless they proved to have enough resolve that he thought they could be a useful servant.

** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for Lelouch, who chose to be a DarkMessiah Type-4 AntiHero the moment he could do anything (i.e., the moment C.C. gave him Geass). [[spoiler:It's played straight after [[LaResistance the Black Knights']] [[TheMutiny betrayal]], which coerces him into [[TheUnfettered abandoning]] [[MoralityChain his morality]] [[ZeroApprovalGambit and]] [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over]] [[TheEmpire his father's empire]] followed by becoming an EvilOverlord. That said, it was partly [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] for the sake of uniting people in hatred against him and behind the new "Zero" as an IdealHero of Justice necessary to push the world into an era of peace.]]

* [[spoiler:Oskar Von Reuenthal]] in ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes''. Particularly tragic, since he did not rebel against [[spoiler:Reinhard Von Lohengramm]] out of genuine malice or ambition, but because he was framed and was too proud to accept punishment for a crime he did not commit. His death is arguably the most senseless and undeserved in the entire series.

** Belive it or not, even [[spoiler: Orochimaru]] qualifies. Although he'd die before admitting it, there was a time, before his defection, when he legitimately cared about his teammates and fought on behalf of his village. After seeing many people die in war, he became obsessed with gaining immortality and [[JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope lost any sense of ethics]].
** [[spoiler:Obito Uchiha, soon after his "death", became the [[BigBad Tobi]].]]

* Gendo Ikari from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', as once [[spoiler:Yui dies, he retreats into himself and becomes a ManipulativeBastard and TheDragon to SEELE]].

** [[spoiler:Obito Uchiha soon after his "death" became [[BigBad Tobi]].]]
** The Nine Tailed Fox could be argued to be this. One of the legends mentioned about him by Jiraiya and a toad made him out to be some kind of supernatural natural disaster that emerged to punish mankind when they got too evil and sinful. As he's very much sapient, regardless of whether or not he's inside a host, and if there is any truth to the legend, that means he chose to seek out and destroy evil wherever it emerged. Considering that the Tailed Beasts were all thought of as nothing more than convenient power sources to be exploited, that means that he could have eventually gotten tired of that nonsense and played the part of the asshole embodiment of evil that he portrayed himself as to be left alone.

** Shinji Ikari from ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' fits this much better, as unlike Gendo he was genuinely saving the world [[spoiler: until Gendo tricked him into dooming humanity.]]

* Gale Raregroove, Pumpkin Doryu, and Captain Hardner in ''Manga/RaveMaster''.

* "[[RedBaron Platinum Saber]]" Leon Cromwell from ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'' began as a Hero of humanity, blessed by the fairies to defend against the calamities that would strike at humans. However, his obsession with finding a certain Otherworlder drove him to abandoning his position as a Hero and becoming a Demon Lord, casually summoning multiple children and discarding them when they proved to be the wrong person, unless they proved to have enough resolve that he thought they could be a useful servant.

* Nina from ''Anime/MyOtome'' takes this to its literal extreme. At first, she was the top student in her class with a promising life ahead of her, and then [[LoveMakesYouEvil she went crazy when she thought that Arika was trying to steal the man she loved]]. From there, she [[spoiler:accidentally killed one of her best friends when she turned out to be TheMole, and purposefully killed tens of thousands more to prove her devotion]], ending with her reputation in tatters, [[spoiler:him on his deathbed, and the memories of the two of them ever having met lost forever]], and a loss in the final battle that ends with her ''[[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay falling from outer space]]''.

* Gendo Ikari from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', as once [[spoiler:Yui dies, he retreats into himself and becomes a ManipulativeBastard and TheDragon to SEELE]].
** Shinji Ikari from ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' fits this much better, as unlike Gendo he was genuinely saving the world [[spoiler: until Gendo tricked him into dooming humanity.]]
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Judai's HeroicBSOD causes him to transform into the villainous Supreme King once he decides to use evil's methods to fight evil itself, complete with a literal gaggle of Fallen Heroes (evil versions of his normal Elemental Heroes).
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Rex Godwin qualifies. [[spoiler:Before he became the tyrannical head of Security, he was the legendary Mysterious D-Wheeler who tried to build the Daedalus Bridge and connect Satellite to Neo Domino, hoping to free the residents of Satellite from the oppression of the upper class. But Security had other ideas. When they tried to arrest him, he drove his D-Wheel off the incomplete bridge, vanishing, becoming a martyr to everyone who followed him. In a sense, when he became a Dark Signer, he was a WellIntentionedExtremist, who sought to put a stop to the conflict between good and evil that seemed doomed to repeat itself endlessly. When he was [[KilledOffForReal finally defeated]], the Daedalus Bridge was completed as a modern bridge, and stands as a symbol of the man he once was.]]
* Nina from ''Anime/MyOtome'' takes this to its literal extreme. At first, she was the top student in her class with a promising life ahead of her, and then [[LoveMakesYouEvil she went crazy when she thought that Arika was trying to steal the man she loved]]. From there, she [[spoiler:accidentally killed one of her best friends when she turned out to be TheMole, and purposefully killed tens of thousands more to prove her devotion]], ending with her reputation in tatters, [[spoiler:him on his deathbed, and the memories of the two of them ever having met lost forever]], and a loss in the final battle that ends with her ''[[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay falling from outer space]]''.
* Sensui from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. [[spoiler:Was a Spirit Detective, and a damn effective one, until he saw [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the Black Black Club torturing demons for their own amusement]], got his hands on [[PostHistoricalTrauma Chapter Black]], and went insane with the desire to get rid of all of humanity.]]
* ''Manga/{{Pretear}}''. Along with [[spoiler:the revelation that the Princess of Disaster is the current form of the last Prétear, Takako]], the show also plays with the possibility that [[spoiler:''anyone'' who becomes the Pretear could become the Princess of Disaster. Which naturally leads Himeno Awayuki, the current Prétear, straight into a HeroicBSOD while she sorts it out.]]
* ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'':
** Gentle Chapman was one of the most admired Fighters ever, but [[spoiler:after old age and an illness caught up with him, he could only win via cheating (perpetrated without his knowledge by his wife). He paid for it by dying...and was revived as a zombie by the Devil Gundam.]]
** Master Asia also falls under this. He was formally a part of the Shuffle Alliance, a group that was devoted protecting humanity from self destruction, and [[TheHero Domon Kashu's]] mentor. [[spoiler:But during the previous Gundam Fight, he saw how badly the Fight damaged the Earth and blamed humanity for despoiling their homeworld so carelessly. After meeting the Devil Gundam, he joined its plan to wipe out humanity, believing that it was the best path for life on Earth to survive.]]
** Also Devil Gundam. It was built as nanomachine colony to restore Earth's environment, but [[spoiler: Ulube]] wanted to use it as a weapon. When it escaped to Earth, the impact messed with its A.I and turned it into an EldritchAbomination.
** [[spoiler: ''Ulube'' himself]] seems to fit in as well. He seems to have been genuinely heroic, if proud, until [[spoiler: he lost to Master Asia, let his bruised pride get to him, and then began to plot to get more and more power... ]]
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'''s BigBad, [[spoiler:Ribbons Almark]], seems like this, considering that [[spoiler:he was a Gundam Meister who piloted the very first Gundam in the series ''and'' saved Setsuna's life.]] It's actually a subversion, as he was never a hero. [[spoiler:The intervention when he saved Setsuna had no glorious goal beyond a field test of the 0 Gundam, and he was supposed to kill all witnesses. He only spared young Soran Ibrahim because he saw the devotion in the young soldier. And this incident triggered his god complex, leading him to become the BigBad.]]
* Gale Raregroove, Pumpkin Doryu, and Captain Hardner in ''Manga/RaveMaster''.
* [[spoiler:[=LordGenome=]]] of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', who was Simon's predecessor. [[spoiler:[[EternalRecurrence One of them, anyway]].]]
** Same goes for [[spoiler:Guame]], who is ''Boota's'' predecessor.

* In ''Anime/MagicalProjectS'', [[spoiler:the third candidate, Romio]], was a former magical girl [[spoiler:from Earth]], but she was unable to maintain the Good-Evil Balance. Because of this, she became bent on destroying Earth.
* In ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', [[spoiler:Dios]], aka Akio, shows what happens when the PrincelyYoungMan turns into one of these.
%%* ''GaReiZero'': Yomi [[MemeticMutation ;_;]]
* ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' has Wheeljack, and depending on who you talk to, Starscream could also be considered as this.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** [[spoiler:Nagato, aka Pain]] was born with a special power that marked him as a literal [[MessianicArchetype messiah]]. Inspired by the words of his childhood friends and mentor, he desired to bring about a lasting peace. However, [[spoiler:his pacifistic attempts left his friend Yahiko dead and him crippled]], shattering his dream. So, he set out to create a new peace, [[spoiler:by [[DarkMessiah sharing the pain that he had suffered]].]]
** [[spoiler:Hanzo]], his predecessor as the leader of [[spoiler:the Hidden Rain Village]], also started off with good intentions before he became a CrazySurvivalist.
** Sasuke Uchiha [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain also becomes one of these over the course of the story.]]
** Belive it or not, even [[spoiler: Orochimaru]] qualifies. Although he'd die before admitting it, there was a time, before his defection, when he legitimately cared about his teammates and fought on behalf of his village. After seeing many people die in war, he became obsessed with gaining immortality and [[JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope lost any sense of ethics]].
** [[spoiler:Obito Uchiha soon after his "death" became [[BigBad Tobi]].]]
** The Nine Tailed Fox could be argued to be this. One of the legends mentioned about him by Jiraiya and a toad made him out to be some kind of supernatural natural disaster that emerged to punish mankind when they got too evil and sinful. As he's very much sapient, regardless of whether or not he's inside a host, and if there is any truth to the legend, that means he chose to seek out and destroy evil wherever it emerged. Considering that the Tailed Beasts were all thought of as nothing more than convenient power sources to be exploited, that means that he could have eventually gotten tired of that nonsense and played the part of the asshole embodiment of evil that he portrayed himself as to be left alone.
* [[spoiler:Oskar Von Reuenthal]] in ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes''. Particularly tragic, since he did not rebel against [[spoiler:Reinhard Von Lohengramm]] out of genuine malice or ambition, but because he was framed and was too proud to accept punishment for a crime he did not commit. His death is arguably the most senseless and undeserved in the entire series.
* ''Manga/UbelBlatt'' has a number of these, similar to the Overlord example further down the page. 14 heroes go to fight the Dark Lord. On the way there, 3 die heroically, and upon the entrance of the Evil Lair, 7 of the survivors get cold feet and stay behind. The other 4 go to defeat the villain, winning with great difficulty. Returning home, those heroes get ambushed by their former comrades and are bloodily murdered. They go on to become the "Seven Heroes, who defeated the Dark Lord and the '4 Lances of Betrayal'". The 7 Lances end up going insane with power, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity but can get away with anything because of their hero status.]] Though one of the 4 is back and wants revenge.
* ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' has plenty of these since every warrior is doomed to [[EvilFeelsGood eventually succumb]] to her SuperpoweredEvilSide. However, the one who fits this trope the best is [[spoiler: Priscilla]] — once a gifted young warrior and WideEyedIdealist, she is now the terrifyingly powerful BigBad.

* Aga Mbadi from ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita: Last Order''. He was once a renowned hero around the solar system for hunting down a dangerous terrorist. After [[spoiler: being forced to watch the only woman he ever loved slowly die in his arms and acquiring his insane nemesis's brain chip]], he has turned into a ManipulativeBastard who considers everyone but himself lower than dirt.
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has not only one, but ''two'' Fallen Heroines. In fact, the story is arguably about the StartOfDarkness for one of them. And while we don't see their StartOfDarkness, it turns out that [[spoiler:''every single witch'' aside from former familiars was once a magical girl]].
** And in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' [[spoiler: the movie's protagonist [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain becomes the series's]] [[SatanicArchetype new devil figure]].]]

* Jinno from ''Anime/AfroSamurai''. He was Afro's best friend as they trained together for years, but one night under the Bodhi Tree, he witnessed all of his friends and fellow pupils killed by bandits, and then Afro coldly murdered their master to obtain the No. 2 headband. He blames Afro for everything that happened, and had his ruined body fitted with cybernetics to turn him into a formidable warrior. Before Afro can challenge Justice, he has to fight past his childhood friend.
* Lady Flair in the ''Anime/DirtyPairFlash'' universe, a Former WWWA agent and predecessor to the Current Lovely Angels who after a mission goes bad and felt betrayed went on to become an assassin , but makes an heroic sacrifice after realizing the truth of what happened.
* Suzaku from ''Anime/CodeGeass'' was the poster boy for what an Eleven can become in Britannian society. When Princess Euphie dies, he turns into the [[KnightTemplar White Grim Reaper]]. That said, he was already an AntiVillain in deep denial over what he was ''really'' doing working for TheEmpire, but that is the point he started to cross multiple moral lines in pursuit of his goals.
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for Lelouch, who chose to be a DarkMessiah Type-4 AntiHero the moment he could do anything (i.e., the moment C.C. gave him Geass). [[spoiler:It's played straight after [[LaResistance the Black Knights']] [[TheMutiny betrayal]], which coerces him into [[TheUnfettered abandoning]] [[MoralityChain his morality]] [[ZeroApprovalGambit and]] [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over]] [[TheEmpire his father's empire]] followed by becoming an EvilOverlord. That said, it was partly [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] for the sake of uniting people in hatred against him and behind the new "Zero" as an IdealHero of Justice necessary to push the world into an era of peace.]]
* In ''Manga/FushigiYuugiByakkoIbun'', a prequel to ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', the audience sees a kind and silent man named Nirusha, who helps a much abused little girl to start looking for her place in the world. Towards the end of the chapter, it's revealed that said man is none than [[spoiler: the horrifyingly cruel Miboshi from the original series.]]
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul :Re'' gives two examples, both corrupted by [[AntiHumanAlliance Aogiri Tree]] over the course of the two-year TimeSkip between series. Hinami has gone from TheCutie that did her best to assist the heroes and wanted to live in peace with humans, to a BrokenBird that is a prominent member of Aogiri. She handles their intelligence network, and seems to have lost all compassion for humans. More extreme is the other example, [[spoiler: former PluckyComicRelief Seidou Takizawa. The idealistic Ghoul Investigator was ReforgedIntoAMinion, and has become a deranged HalfHumanHybrid that appears to have lost his humanity as a result of extensive torture. He gleefully explains that IAmAMonster, and goes on a killing spree on the orders of the BigBad]].
* ''Manga/AkameGaKill'': In a rather bizarre inversion, Kurome views Akame as a fallen warrior due to her sister undergoing a HeelFaceTurn and turning against TheEmpire they both stood for.

* [[spoiler:Mikado Ryugamine]] in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''. The entire show appears to surround their own moral decline. [[spoiler:Mikado started out as an ordinary, bored middle-schooler who wanted a more exciting life so he started the 'Dollars', an online gang based in Ikebukuro. However, as the gang became more and more real, likewise it became more criminal. Mikado then peacefully corrected this behaviour by suggesting that they should be a nice gang. He was absolutely ecstatic during the first Dollars meeting, where he got everyone together and stopped Namie Yagiri. Unfortunately, well before then, he had gained Izaya's interest. The informant began purposely messing with Mikado both overtly and covertly, he told Mikado he would always get bored of his life and would have to constantly change in order to keep it interesting and revealed Mikado's status as leader of the Dollars to Masaomi. He set the Yellow Scarves against the Dollars to cause a gang war and even involved the Slasher. Among the numerous other things, Izaya also arranged for the kidnapping of Non, Chikage's girlfriend, via the Dollars forum to start a large brawl, causing Mikado to want to remove the 'bad apples' from the Dollars. However, by this time, Mikado began to crack under the pressure and became a far more twisted person. He illegally obtained info on Dollars members he considered bad and had Aoba and his friends violently remove them. It becomes very obvious he's gone over the deep end when he calmly dismissed Celty's warning to not resort to violence and when he finally saw Masaomi again, told him he's 'not ready'. In the conclusion, Mikado threatened various gang members' families in order to enact his plan to annihilate the Dollars. He shot at Masaomi with a gun when the latter attempted to stop him. Despite missing, he revealed he had a second, concealed gun that fired on contact and shot Masaomi in the leg. Finally, in utter despair over what he had become, Mikado shot himself in the head. However, thanks to Celty, Mikado did not die and later ceased his gang-related activities to have a normal life]].

* [[ColdSniper Lady Nagant]] from ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' was once a Pro-Hero working directly for the Hero Commission, but was branded a villain and imprisoned in Tartarus after killing another hero. [[spoiler: Officially, anyway. In actuality Nagant was being used by the Commission as an assassin, killing off potential villains and dissidents before they had a chance to act on such impulses. Lady Nagant did this without question for a little while, but her doubts and guilt grew unbearable until one day she asked the Director of the Commission to put an end to the killings. The Director refused and threatened Lady Nagant if she backed out, leading to her shooting him dead and being branded a villain.]]

* [[FallenHero Griffith]] of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', once the closest thing the general universe had to a hero, but who is now [[spoiler: the fifth member of the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demonic Godhand]], Femto]].

* [[WhiteHairBlackHeart Griffith]] of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', once the closest thing the general universe had to a hero, but who is now [[spoiler: the fifth member of the demonic Godhand, [[AmbitionIsEvil Femto]]]].

** Berserker, [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep dubbed "Black Knight"]], [[spoiler:revealed in the final battle (by KingArthur ''[[SheIsTheKing herself]]'', no less) to be Sir Lancelot.]]

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'': [[BigBad Fugil Arcadia]] and [[PosthumousCharacter Arshalia Rei Arcadia]] teamed up to stop the oppressive Holy Arcadia Empire and the rebels who resorted to increasingly radical and vengeful tactics. Despite their efforts, they could never get the two sides to make peace, causing them to become desperate and resort to more villainous methods. [[spoiler:Arshalia created a massive Divine Drag-Ride, Ouroboros, to hypnotize the populace into forgetting their hatred. She also created Sacred Eclipse to both save people and kill those who are a source of conflict. When Sacred Eclipse pointed to her and Fugil as a source of conflict due to the entire world fearing them, she sets Sacred Eclipse to murder indiscriminately so that Fugil can defeat it and be seen as a hero. After she's killed by the rebel faction, Fugil spends millennia using Ouroboros and Sacred Eclipse in a misguided attempt to prove Arshalia's methods correct.]]

* Nina from ''Anime/MaiOtome'' takes this to its literal extreme. At first, she was the top student in her class with a promising life ahead of her, and then [[LoveMakesYouEvil she went crazy when she thought that Arika was trying to steal the man she loved]]. From there, she [[spoiler:accidentally killed one of her best friends when she turned out to be TheMole, and purposefully killed tens of thousands more to prove her devotion]], ending with her reputation in tatters, [[spoiler:him on his deathbed, and the memories of the two of them ever having met lost forever]], and a loss in the final battle that ends with her ''[[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay falling from outer space]]''.

* Sensui from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. [[spoiler:Was a Spirit Detective, and a damn effective one, until he saw [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the Black Black Club torturing demons for their own amusement]], got his hands on [[PostHistoricalTrauma Chapter Black]], and went [[NietzscheWannabe insane with the desire to get rid of all of humanity]].]]

* Aga Mbadi from ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita: Last Order''. He was once a renowned hero around the solar system for hunting down a dangerous terrorist. After [[spoiler: being forced to watch the only woman he ever loved slowly die in his arms and acquiring his insane nemesis's brain chip]], he has turned into a ManipulativeBastard and NietzscheWannabe who considers everyone but himself lower than dirt.

* Aga Mbadi from ''[[Manga/{{Gunnm}} Battle Angel Alita: Last Order]]''. He was once a renowned hero around the solar system for hunting down a dangerous terrorist. After [[spoiler: being forced to watch the only woman he ever loved slowly die in his arms and acquiring his insane nemesis's brain chip]], he has turned into a ManipulativeBastard and NietzscheWannabe who considers everyone but himself lower than dirt.

* [[{{Deuteragonist}} Griffith]] of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', once the closest thing the general universe had to a hero, but who is now [[spoiler: the fifth member of the demonic Godhand, [[AmbitionIsEvil Femto]]]].

* Griffith of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', once the closest thing the general universe had to a hero, but who is now [[spoiler:[[DarkMessiah the fifth member of the demonic Godhand, Femto]]]].

* [[spoiler:Mikado Ryugamine]] in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''. The entire show appears to surround their own moral decline. [[spoiler:Mikado started out as an ordinary, bored middle-schooler who wanted a more exciting life so he started the 'Dollars', an online gang based in Ikebukuro. However, as the gang became more and more real, likewise it became more criminal. Mikado then peacefully corrected this behaviour by suggesting that they should be a nice gang. He was absolutely ecstatic during the first Dollars meeting, where he got everyone together and stopped Namie Yagiri. Unfortunately, well before then, he had gained Izaya's interest. The informant began purposely messing with Mikado both overtly and covertly, he told Mikado he would always get bored of his life and would have to constantly change in order to keep it interesting and revealed Mikado's status as leader of the Dollars to Masaomi. He set the Yellow Scarves against the Dollars to cause a gang war and even involved the Slasher. Among the numerous other things, Izaya also arranged for the kidnapping of Non, Chikage's girlfriend, via the Dollars forum to start a large brawl, causing Mikado to want to remove the 'bad apples' from the Dollars. However, by this time, Mikado began to crack under the pressure and became a far more twisted person. He illegally obtained info on Dollars members he considered bad and had Aoba and his friends violently remove them. It becomes very obvious he's gone over the deep end when he calmly dismissed Celty's warning to not resort to violence and when he finally saw Masaomi again, told him he's 'not ready'. In the conclusion, Mikado threatened various gang members' families in order to enact his plan to annihilate the Dollars. He shot at Masaomi with a gun when the latter attempted to stop him. Despite missing, he revealed he had a second, concealed gun that fired on contact and shot Masaomi in the leg. Finally, in utter despair over what he had become, Mikado shot himself in the head. However, thanks to Celty, Mikado did not die and later ceased his gang-related activities to have a normal life]].

* Suzaku from ''Anime/CodeGeass'' was the poster boy for what an Eleven can become in Britannian society. When Princess Euphie dies, he turns into the [[KnightTemplar White Grim Reaper]].
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for Lelouch, who chose to be a DarkMessiah Type-4 AntiHero the moment he could do anything (i.e., the moment C.C. gave him Geass). [[spoiler:It's played straight after [[LaResistance the Black Knights']] [[TheMutiny betrayal]], which coerces him into [[TheUnfettered abandoning]] [[MoralityChain his morality]] [[ZeroApprovalGambit and]] [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over]] [[TheEmpire his father's empire]]. That said, it was partly [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] for the sake of uniting people in hatred against him and behind the new "Zero" as an IdealHero of Justice necessary to push the world into an era of peace.]]

** Apparently Lieutenant General Raven used to be a kind and very good leader who placed the needs of his men first. Now he's a InsaneAdmiral who wants immortality.