History Main / EasyAmnesia

** This comes up again with [[spoiler: Morgan, the Avatar's KidFromTheFuture]], who had a similar experience, and like them never remembers everything about their past.

* Very common in dreams. Barring the rare lucid dream, most people have no recollection of their real life circumstances while dreaming and easily accept even the most implausible events as "real." Conversely, only a small percentage of dreams can be recalled on awakening.

* AsYouKnow, it's mostly hard to remember what happened while you were drunk or shortly before (particularly while the hangover kicks in), mostly due to brain damage.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* At the end of the ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'' manga, Shin sustains injuries after an aerial duel with Kanzaki. He suffers amnesia from his injuries and trauma and cannot remember the events of the previous few years. On the bright side, his amnesia provides a {{relationship reset button}} with his fiancee Ryoko.

* Celty from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' lost some memories from over a hundred years ago, possibly due to losing her head. There's only that thought and one of Shinra's theories to go by and the head loss seems to be the most sensible explanation.

* In the ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' episode "A Scare to Remember", Pikachu gets amnesia after a Team Rocket attack and Meowth convinces him to be a part of Team Rocket. Pikachu gets cured after taking a long drop into a river with Ash. Doubles as a TearJerker.

* The [=UnSub=] in the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Tabula Rasa" got amnesia after falling off a building and being put into a coma for three years.

* Subverted on ''Series/DarkMatter''. Initially, the crew assume that whatever wiped all their memories while they were in stasis was just a glitch in the system, but at the end of "Episode 2", Five (the MysteriousWaif who is the [[EveryonesBabySister youngest member of the crew]] and has everyone's memories buried in her subconscious) reveals to Two that she can recall one of them erasing their memories deliberately, "Because we're dangerous."

* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', Captain Archer actually gets anterograde amnesia. Earth is destroyed by the Xindi, and Archer has been unable to form any new memories for years. Every morning he wakes up and thinks it's the same day, when in reality it's about 13 years after the event. Of course, Dr. Phlox eventually cures him (it's due to a virus), but because it's a time-based virus, curing it in the present also cures it in the past; meaning Archer never lost his memory and Earth was never destroyed.

** The typical "amnesia plot" was subverted in the episode "Future Imperfect". After an away mission goes awry, Commander Riker wakes up sixteen years in the future, with Doctor Crusher explaining that he has acquired a brain disease which has ravaged all memory of the intervening years since he contracted the infection during the away mission. [[spoiler: This turns out to be an elaborate ruse - he's still in the present, and his mind is being probed to construct this future reality in the hopes that he will keep a lonely alien company.]]
** The episode "Thine Own Self" has Data getting amnesia while on a pre-industrial alien world. This at least is justified somewhat, since Data is an [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Android]] and thus his "memory loss" can be explained away as a malfunction.
** And yet another has the entire crew losing their memories as the result of a cunning plan by an alien intruder to have them help him make war on an enemy. Naturally, this leads to all kinds of hijinks and hilarious misunderstandings as the crew misinterpret their true roles on the ship.
** Yet another episode has them gradually discover they have amnesia after being led to believe they'd been knocked unconscious for 30 seconds and going through a wormhole. In actuality, they voluntarily had their memories of the previous day wiped, but failed to eliminate all the clues that indicated more time had passed.

** Similarly, ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' uses memory-erasing nanobots in one episode.

* In Creator/FredSaberhagen's ''The Frankenstein Papers'', [[spoiler:it turns out that Frankenstein's creature was actually an alien who'd been struck with amnesia while investigating the electrical activity in Frankenstein's lab: amnesia is a typical side-effect of exposure to high voltages in his species, and the lab's equipment wasn't properly insulated]].

* The trope is given a little jab in Isabel Cooper's ''No Proper Lady,'' when Simon plans to get around explaining where Joan came from by claiming she hit her head and lost her memory. Joan protests that amnesia doesn't work that way, to which Simon replies that nobody they're telling the story to is going to know any better.
* Done realistically in ''Caliban''. Doctor Leving does suffer from traumatic amnesia from being violently assaulted, but it's limited to events shortly before being attacked. [[spoiler:Which is exactly what Ariel wanted - for Doctor Leving to forget about needing to doublecheck the inventory records (What she had been doing when the attack took place) until she could arrange to alter the records to cover up the fact that Ariel a non-Three Law Compliant test robot that was intended to be destroyed after the tests were completed.]]

* In ''The President Vanishes'' by Creator/RexStout, a van which was delivering goods to the White House is suspected of being the vehicle used to abduct the president when its driver is found in a nearby park suffering from amnesia after a simple blow on the head.

* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': The eighth book begins with the protagonist [[YouWakeUpOnABeach waking up on a beach]] halfway around the world from the last place he remembers... which turns out to have been eight years ago. When his companions find him, they have to contend with the loss of all his CharacterDevelopment throughout the series, until [[spoiler:his memory is finally restored at the sight of his close friend Tenzing Tharkay.]].

* Basically deconstructed as a theme in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fic "Riley Who?" (currently lost to the 'net), when Buffy takes a knock to the head mid-season 4 and wakes up thinking it's a year ago. As the Scoobies try to work out why this blow to the head in particular cost Buffy her memory, when Riley mentions that his last pre-amnesia talk with Buffy ended when Riley told her that he loved her and Buffy said nothing in response, Xander speculates that the key is the timing. With Riley having just had sex with Faith while in Buffy's body, Buffy realised that she can't tell ''Riley'' that she loves him after such an event where she was able to forgive Angel, so her mind used the 'excuse' of the latest blow to the head to go back to when she was involved with someone she could say "I love you" to after they had an 'encounter' with Faith.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode "Sight for Sore Eyes", Bloo went after a kid as he thought he was an imaginary friend owner that he and Mac were looking for. However, it turned out that it wasn't but he had his big brother beat him up for chasing him. After smashing into a trash bin, Bloo had a concussion as he didn't remember anything up to the point that he was playing with his friends when they found him, which led to a misunderstanding between friends. Bloo might of got those memories back when Mac explained everything.

On TV, amnesia is just a plot device for the current episode or movie or whatever, and it's pretty much always organic and originated by some kind of funny injury or physical impact. Everything and anything the character knows about him or herself may be lost, or just the last 24 hours may disappear — it's [[LaserGuidedAmnesia completely dependent on the plot]]. This is often used to avoid AsYouKnow exposition by making it so the character ''doesn't'' know things they should be familiar with; whether it's actually an improvement is down to the individual viewer.

* ''Manga/GaRei'' sees Kagura lose much of her memory within a period of time. She eventually recovers it in a matter of chapters.

* This trope is the central premise of ''Manga/OneWeekFriends'', where a girl named Fujimiya Kaori will lose all memories of her friend after a week.

* In the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "A Scare to Remember", Pikachu gets amnesia after a Team Rocket attack and Meowth convinces him to be a part of Team Rocket. Pikachu gets cured after taking a long drop into a river with Ash. Doubles as a TearJerker.

** ChineseGirl Shampoo, in her first story, reveals she has a {{Pressure Point}}s technique that lets her modify memories; she not only manages to make Akane Tendo forget who Ranma Saotome is, but also puts a kind of block on her mind so she literally cannot form any mental association with him -- which leads to her repeatedly asking who Ranma is after he just told her his name a few minutes ago, much to Ranma's annoyance. Fortunately, Akane Tendo is such a {{Tsundere}} that the technique gets broken by having Ranma [[InsultedAwake mock her until her sheer rage breaks down the blocks]]. For added MartialArtsAndCrafts appeal, the actual technique looks like the user is performing haircare on their victim; as the points (understandably) are on the head, and certain herbal extracts are needed to bring out the full effect, it's easiest to disguise the manuever as washing hair.

* In ''Manga/ElfenLied'', Lucy has this. While she can sometimes remember herself, most of the time she is reduced to a powerless, infantlike BlankSlate that knows nothing about proper behavoir, the bathroom, or [[PokemonSpeak the Japanese language]]. Then again, [[BrokenBird considering]] [[TheWoobie her]] [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil life]], [[WorldHalfEmpty heavy braindamage might not be so bad]].
* The cause of Elie's amnesia in ''Manga/RaveMaster'' is unknown, with most likely causes being magic overload, [[HilariousInHindsight Sieg blowing up the building she was in]], and [[spoiler: a 50 year long deep sleep]]. It takes most of the manga (roughly thirty volumes) to recover her memories, which is the focal point several times. When she finally regains her memories she gets amnesia ''again'' roughly a week later simply because she doesn't want to remember a certain death. When said death turns out to have not been real, she regains her memories again.
* Celty from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' lost some memories from over a hundred years ago, possibly due to losing her head. There's only that thought and one of Shinra's theories to go by and the head loss seems to be the most sensible explanation.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', a repentant bandit fell from a cliff and became an amnesiac as a result, earning him the nickname "Menma" in Konoha. Shortly afterward events in the village reminded him of his past as a bandit, but he chose to keep his returned memories to himself.
* ''Words Worth'': This happens to Prince Astral after Maria uses her magic to banish him into the future in a fit of rape-induced rage, affecting him to the point where in later episodes he even participates in an attack against his former kingdom.

* Kurando from ''Manga/PopcornAvatar'' reverts to having the memories of a 3rd-grader after Lisa throws him to the floor a little too hard.
* At the end of the ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'' manga, Shin sustains injuries after an aerial duel with Kanzaki. He suffers amnesia from his injuries and trauma and cannot remember the events of the previous few years. On the bright side, his amnesia provides a {{relationship reset button}} with his fiancee Ryoko.
* In the 35th episode of ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'', Prince Kanata, who disappeared [[YouShallNotPass while helping the Cures escape from DysDark]], is located in Yumegehama after being found by the local violin shop owner, having lost his memories during the escape. While pieces of his memory do peek through from time to time, he has yet to recover them fully, subverting the trope for now.
* [[DiscussedTrope Referenced]] in ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'': Aizawa, an alien investigating the Earth for her highly advanced species, believes ([[AliensStealCable thanks to reading manga]]) that humans can have their memories erased by blunt force trauma. We have no idea if this would actually work, because everyone refuses to let her use her "memory erasure device" on them because it's just an ordinary hammer (or her alternative, a shovel).
** Played straight in the AnimatedAdaptation's last episode: Youko's father discovers that [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire her secret]] has been exposed and says that as per their original arrangement, she has to leave school. Fortunately he accidentally gets hit with Aizawa's hammer, causing him to forget the whole thing.

* Toyed with in ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga''. Sakura starts off the series with amnesia, due to head trauma from dying by truck collision before being resurrected as a zombie. Her initial motivation for going along with her situation is to get her memory back, as she apparently gets flashes while performing as an idol. [[spoiler:Come the end of episode ten, and she's hit by a truck ''again''--she gets her old memories back, but loses all the memories she made over the series, and has no idea where she is.]]

* In episode 15 of the 1990 series based on ''Literature/TheMoomins'', while Moomin and Snorkmaiden are in the Lonely Mountains, Snorkmaiden ends up slipping down the Lonely Mountains, and after a long roll down, she ends up losing her memory and begins thinking she’s a princess. Moomin’s family (as well as his friends) spends the entire episode playing along and treating Snorkmaiden like a princess (as Snorkmaiden continues to think she’s a princess) until she ends up getting a basket put over her eyes by Mrs Fillyjonk, resulting in Moomin and his family trying to get the basket off, in which Little My smacks Snorkmaiden in the head with the broom, which not only destroys the basket, but also results in Snorkmaiden’s memory returning.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When Creator/RobertKanigher was brought back as the writer after the ill received "Mod Era" he quickly killed off I Ching and then had Diana fall out of a window and hit her head, forgetting all about her now dead martial arts master with no other side effects, to write him and any grief over his death out entirely.

* ''ComicBook/SpideySuperStories'': Franchise/SpiderMan loses his memory in issue 21 when he runs out of webbing and falls head-first onto a piano. A bonk on the head from J. Jonah Jameson restores his memory.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', villain Lesla-Lar abducts ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and brainwashes her into believing she is Lesla herself. Kara spends two days living as Lesla-Lar until she is found and rescued by [[ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog Krypto]]. As being brought out of the Bottle City and enlarged, though, Kara hits her head, is knocked unconscious (was depowered at the time) and forgets the false memories imprinted in her brain.

* In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', Harry Osborn has temporary amnesia after being badly injured during a fight with Peter Parker. It not only results in rather convenient selective memory loss, but also [[IdentityAmnesia changes Harry's personality substantially]]. In the comics, similar tactics were used on occasion to make Norman Osborn forget that he was the Green Goblin.

* The character [[ActionGirl Tzigone]] from the TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms ''Literature/CounselorsAndKings'' trilogy has this. [[spoiler: It turns out her wizard mother deliberately wiped her memory just before she was captured by her enemies, so that Tzigone wouldn't go looking for her and get herself killed]]. Her memory comes back gradually over the course of the novels.

** Index remembers very little of her own life due to periodic mind-wipes by her magician caretakers, used to keep her photographic memory from overloading her already strained brain. [[spoiler:Except that's just a lie to keep her under control]].

* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': The eighth book begins with the protagonist [[YouWakeUpOnABeach waking up on a beach]] halfway around the world from the last place he remembers... which turns out to have been eight years ago. When his companions find him, they have to contend with the loss of all his CharacterDevelopment throughout the series, until [[spoiler:his memory is finally restored at the sight of his close friend Tenzing Tharkay.]]

* Averted on ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. In the series finale, [[spoiler: Sarah's memory is virtually destroyed by the faulty Intersect 3.0 after she is captured by [[BigBad Quinn]] and forced to Flash repeatedly, which he then uses to brainwash her into working for him. Even after the team helps her throw off Quinn's influence, there is no way to restore her memory again after Chuck uploads the sole remaining copy of the Intersect himself to save a theater full of people from being blown up by a bomb. Although there are fragments of memories remaining that strongly imply she could eventually recover some of what she lost, the series still ends on a somewhat ambiguous note over her future.]]

* In the ''Series/FraggleRock'' episode "Boober Gorg", Boober loses his memory after being hit on the head by a falling rock, and begins thinking he's a Gorg. The Gorgs are actually fooled too, but only because there were rumors of a sorcerer roaming the area and one of them coincidentally going missing, leading the Gorgs to jump to the wrong conclusion...

* An ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' episode has Jeannie getting amnesia from a bump on the head, and forgetting that she's a genie.

* Subverted on ''Series/KenanAndKel''. When the two go to the airport to pick up Kenan's friend's girlfriend, they accidentally hit her on the head. When she wakes up, she claims she doesn't have a boyfriend and leaves. HilarityEnsues as they try to find her and get her back. In the end, it turns out they got the wrong girl. It was also lampshaded when Kel attempts to get her memory back by hitting her a second time.

* In the ''Series/LoisAndClark'' episode "All Shook Up", Clark attempts to destroy an asteroid heading for Earth by [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming into it]], only to fall back to Earth and lose his memory. The asteroid is delayed on its mission due to destroy all life on Earth in a few days, but Superman didn't get it sufficiently pushed off its course -- and he's nowhere to be found. Everyone wonders where their hero is, including the amnesiac Clark. His parents try to explain to him that ''he'' is Superman. His dad succeeds by trying to hit Clark with a bat and having it shatter. He can't re-learn to fly in a few days, though. Eventually, just as all seems lost, [[StatusQuoIsGod he regains his memory and pushes the asteroid out of the way]]. Like a number of ''Lois and Clark'' episodes, this is based on [[Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman the 1950s television series]] with George Reeves. This one is from the 1953 episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfSupermanS2E12PanicInTheSky Panic in the Sky]]".

* Happens to Cousin Larry on ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' after he falls down the stairs. HilarityEnsues.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': One StoryArc [[AvertedTrope doesn't use]] this trope. Lex Luthor, through his father's machinations, is given permanent amnesia through electroshock at a crooked psych ward, causing him to forget both his father's evil dealings and Clark's secret identity. Is also an example of LaserGuidedAmnesia, since it's convenient to the plot. That said ''Smallville'' has a lot of Easy Amnesia. 90% of the cast, Clark Kent included, ought to be suffering from severe head trauma by now. If someone sees Clark using his powers, especially in the early seasons, you can bet they'll get an instant bonk on the head to forget that. The bludgeoning might not even be needed, but although psychological shock is more likely to trigger something like this, they don't show any other signs of it. There's a vaccine: "If you learn Clark's secret and don't forget it immediately, you are henceforth immune to amnesia". Or you die.

* In ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan'', right after Kermit finds out that the production is a go, he gets hit by a car, and he loses his memory. [[spoiler: He regains it as a result of Miss Piggy throwing him against a wall.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha 2'' has Ibis Douglas, who lost her memories due to a jet fighter crash and some severe repression before the story starts. She's a terrible pilot, and some assume she must've been a great pilot before she got amnesia. As later events reveal, she was actually even ''worse''. Since she's a main character though, she later does turn into a great pilot.
** Played straight later on with [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAdvance Axel]] and [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Alfimi]] when they get themselves transported to the ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier'' world, [[LateArrivalSpoiler after the]] [[BackFromTheDead events of]] ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Original Generation Gaiden]]''.
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry5PassionatePattiDoesALittleUndercoverWork'', the fourth game in the ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' series: At the start of the game, Larry, being a character in a computer game, has completely forgotten the events of his previous adventure, ''Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies'', because the villain has stolen the game disks.
** In reality, ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 4'' [[MissingEpisode never even existed]], as the third game's ending didn't lend itself to a sequel and the designers decided to skip straight to the fifth game, letting players come up with their own theories on the events of ''Leisure Suit Larry 4''.
*** There's also the fact that Al Lowe promised there'd never be a fourth game of the series, due to some of the negative reactions garnered by the series. He kept his promise, too...
*** The game was indeed created, but was flushed down a toilet by Roger Wilco in ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest IV|Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers}}''. This temporal paradox caused the game to never be published.

* In ''VideoGame/VandalHearts'', character [[spoiler:Eleni]] has this as a result of having been sent traumatically back in time as a young child; the character recovers her memory after [[StableTimeLoop seeing herself sent back]].
* In the second expansion set for ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Muradin Bronzebeard is revealed to have been knocked out and given amnesia [[StayingAlive instead of being killed]], which completely destroys the dramatic purposes of his death. The strangest part is that there's no discernible reason for this. [[spoiler:Yorg Stormheart]] could have been a completely new character and it wouldn't have made a lick of difference to the plot so far, save for some BackStory told to the [[PlayerCharacter PC]] to liven up a long period in one quest in which nothing much happens.
* Subverted (kinda) in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: From the New World'', Johnny lost his memory and hasn't gotten it back by the start of the game. Subverted in that he got from an accident that killed his entire family. Maybe a Self-Defense Mechanism? Or maybe [[spoiler:a side effect of being brought back from the dead]].

* Largely averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''; there are precisely two cases of amnesia, and neither one is easily received or easily fixed. Terra's amnesia is explicitly magical, stemming as it does from years of wearing a [[{{brainwashed}} Slave Crown]]. Any memories she gets back after that tend to be hazy and less than useful, and while she does make a full recovery, that too is magical. [[spoiler:Rachel]] suffers a far more mundane case of amnesia, that comes about from a serious fall. The entire affair is hugely tragic, and she doesn't recall anything about who she was or who [[spoiler:Locke]] is until her final moments.

* One of the sidequest in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' involves hitting someone in the head with a hammer so that they can remember something they forgot earlier. It works, and it's hilarious. Doubly so if you accidentally hit him one time too many and he forgets it again.
* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', a pair of RidiculouslyHumanRobots loses their memories, but it's hardly ''easy''. It's implied that both of them contracted amnesia after getting battered in an epic fight that happened in the backstory; one of them loses the few memories she has left after recovering from [[NoWaterproofingInTheFuture nearly drowning]]. A mushroom restores her memories completely; the other bot only regains a select few of his memories (and even this is arguable) and mostly relies on the word of others for information about his past.
* Averted in ''Secret of the Scarlet Hand'': a witness suffers amnesia after a bad fall, and VideoGame/NancyDrew must collect once-familiar items from his workplace and show them to him in the hospital to help him ''gradually'' re-connect with his old memories.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has Galuf, a [[spoiler:king from another planet and powerful warrior who's had quite a bit of experience fighting the BigBad]] get amnesia within the first five minutes as a result of a meteor crash (he was piloting it). All he is able to remember is his name. Not that it keeps him from hurling himself headlong into the quest.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/MegamanLegends''. Roll declines to reveal to "Joe" that she's his daughter because she knows he'll never be the man he was again and wants him to be happy with the new family he has on Calinca Island & spare him the pain of knowing that not only is his first wife dead, but the thing that killed her is [[BodySurf taking her body for a ride]].

* Averted in ''VideoGame/Persona4'': The [[TarotMotifs Death]] Social Link, Hisano Kuroda, is a widow whose husband recently died of [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed what was pretty obviously]] Alzheimer's. As in the real world, he only got worse until he finally died, [[TearJerker as Hisano bitterly relates]].

* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo''
** This becomes one of the major plot points in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo 20th Anniversary''. The previous game's OmnicidalManiac, Ecolo got a case of amnesia after being defeated. [[spoiler: He regains his memory at the end, and decides to go back to space-time travelling, albeit being upset that everyone will forget him most likely, and everyone does... Except Ringo.]]
** In Raffina's ending in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoFever'', Ms. Accord [[spoiler: tricks Raffina into closing her eyes,]] so that Ms. Accord can [[spoiler: hit Raffina on the head with a hammer,]] causing Raffina to [[CranialEruption suffer a bump on her head when she wakes up]] and lose her memory about the flying cane.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' the PlayerCharacter is found by the Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick in the middle of a field with no memory of his/her past life. Notably, when the Avatar tries to explain this, Frederick is doubtful and suspects them of hiding something. It's revealed the amnesia was caused by [[spoiler:[[BigBad Grima]] from the BadFuture trying to go ahead and [[DemonicPossession possess]] them then and there, but the Avatar was too weak in the present time, which caused their amnesia and weakening the Fell Dragon even further than the original trip through time did, forcing him to act through proxies until the endgame.]] Noticeably, the Avatar ''never'' recovers all those memories and effectively considers said past life dead to them.
** This comes up again with [[spoiler: Morgan, the Avatar's KidFromTheFuture]], who had a similar experience, and like them never remembers everything about their past.
** But it gets {{subverted|Trope}} with [[spoiler: Emmeryn, whose trauma-induced amnesia has left her in a state of barely being able to talk, which she never recovers from]].
* Isabelle from ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin]]'' is found in the rubble of a city suffering from amnesia [[spoiler:or so you think. It's later subverted when you learn she's a [[ReallyWasBornYesterday recently created]] ArtificialHuman who has no memories to begin with, just a butt-load of information about the two countries in the game]].
* The main character in the first ''VideoGame/{{Enigmatis}}'' installment loses her memory just before the game's story starts, spending the rest of the plot trying to figure out what her investigation had previously uncovered.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'': A villager from Burland who goes off to search for the missing children in Chapter 1 winds up amnesiac and locked up in a local jail after encountering too many monsters. To restore his memory, you go back for his wife so that she can show him her wedding ring.
* In ''VideoGame/HiddenCity'', the eponymous City is plagued by a mysterious magical fog that causes anyone caught in it to lose bits and pieces of their memories. However, those affected by it can usually regain the lost memories if they can find personal belongings that relates to the memories they lost.
* ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor Resident Evil: Survivor]]'' begins with the protagonist stumbling from a crashed helicopter, passing out, and waking up with no memory of his identity or what's going on. He starts [[IAmWho finding proof]] that he might be Vincent Goldman, an utterly horrific man responsible for his horrible circumstances. But nope, he's actually Ark Thompson, a private investigator hired by [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 Leon Kennedy]] to check out Umbrella's operations on Sheena Island and stop them if possible.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has a rare example of anterograde amnesia in the Heaven's Feel route: [[spoiler: Tapping into the power of Archer's left arm (which has been surgically grafted in place of his original arm) causes Shirou irreversible brain damage, leaving him increasingly unable to remember past events and causing him to be unable to write new memories. It is only through a constant effort of will that he can remember events that happened hours or minutes ago.]]
** The series also contains a subversion: [[spoiler:Archer claims not to know who he is as a result of Rin making errors in his summoning. This is a lie.]]

* Nevy in ''Webcomic/AvasDemon'', subverted because she got her amnesia by [[spoiler: drinking a potion that simultaneously killed her and bound her soul to the next thing to be born in the universe.]]

** According to the [[AllThereInTheManual Allspark Almanac 2]], they were going to revisit the amnesia concept with Cosmos, an adorable little astronomer who looks like a young boy but is Really700YearsOld. He had scanned a B-Movie flying saucer prop, and then... loses his memory in an accident. "[[HilarityEnsues Hilarity]] [[IdentityAmnesia Ensues]]".

* Zigzagged in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales''. Chumley is hit on the head and thinks he's a rich businessman; once Tennessee finds out what's wrong with him, he takes the smart option for once, and attempts to take him to a doctor. However, Chumley resists his attempts, and after HilarityEnsues, he knocks himself on the head again and is cured.

* One episode of the original ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' has Shredder lose his memory due to a head bonk. He wanders around the city, somehow gets a job at a fireworks factory, and bemusedly decides to detonate a bomb at city hall just ForTheEvulz. When the Turtles confront him, Shredder even remarks that "Shredder" is a stupid name, and he gets his memory back when [[IntrepidReporter Vernon]] [[GoingForTheBigScoop gets in the way]] and causes an accident.

* A stock plot of WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry cartoons: Tom takes a whack to the noggin, forgets he's supposed to hate Jerry and thinks he's a mouse himself. HilarityEnsues and Tom keeps getting hit on the head and bouncing back and forth between personalities.

* {{Creator/Filmation}} ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'' episode "Forget Me Not, Superdog". ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog loses his memory when he's hit on the head by a Kryptonite meteor. He regains it when he's caught in an explosion.

* VideoGame/PuyoPuyo

* Featuring the rare ''mechanical'' deviation, ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlue Red Vs Blue: Recreation]]'' has already given us amnesia in ''real time'':

* Deconstructed in ''Machinima/FreemansMind''. After getting knocked out by soldiers, Gordon needs a few minutes to remember what happened due to a mix of stress, a prior history of drug usage and binge drinking, and previous head trauma. Even after, he winds up thinking the Resonance Cascade was caused by a satanic ritual for some reason.

* ''WebVideo/SevenSecondRiddles'': One riddle involved a [[TheButlerDidIt butler who killed his master]], but somehow passed a LieDetector when claiming he didn't commit the murder. The solution was that he'd hit his head afterward, conveniently forgetting he committed a murder.

* Parodied in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', when Truman's father's inconvenient reappearance after being McLeaned is to be explained as down to amnesia. When he admits this, the director looks suitably shame-faced.

** Another realistic treatment is Piccolo's, or rather, Kami's memories. After arriving on Earth in a spaceship as a child, he had absolutely no memories of who he is or what he's doing there - he speculates that he probably hit his head. He also never recovers from it, and unlike Goku he never even finds out what his real name was (not that the reader ever finds out, either; he's called "the son of Katat" by the Grand Elder or, after Piccolo and Kami [[SplitPersonalityMerge re-merge into a single being]], he calls himself "the Nameless Namekian", but continues to go by "Piccolo" for convenience).

** Another realistic treatment is Piccolo's, or rather, Kami's memories. After arriving on Earth in a spaceship as a child, he had absolutely no memories of who he is or what he's doing there - he speculates that he probably hit his head. He also never recovers from it, and unlike Goku he never even finds out what his real name was (not that the reader ever finds out, either; he's called "the son of Katatz" by the Grand Elder or, after Piccolo and Kami [[SplitPersonalityMerge re-merge into a single being]], he calls himself "the Nameless Namekian", but continues to go by "Piccolo" for convenience).

* Parodied in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', when Truman's father's inconvenient reappearance after being previously killed off and presumed dead by Truman is to be explained as down to amnesia. When he admits this, the director looks suitably shame-faced.

* Parodied in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', when Truman's father's inconvenient reappearance after being McLeaned is to be explained as down to amnesia. When he admits this, the director looks suitably shame-faced.

* Averted UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/Persona4'': The [[TarotMotifs Death]] Social Link, Hisano Kuroda, is a widow whose husband recently died of [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed what was pretty obviously]] Alzheimer's. As in the real world, he only got worse until he finally died, [[TearJerker as Hisano bitterly relates]].

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', [[spoiler: Nel]] lost her memory after receiving a blow to the head from [[spoiler: Nnoitra]].
** [[spoiler: And being turned into a child. This, from what we know about Hollows, is something Nel never experienced as a Hollow, and may be one of the reasons for the problem.]] It is implied that the incident occurred years before the recovery.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': In the fourth season premiere Archer goes into a fugue state after [[spoiler:his mother gets remarried]] and forgets his identity. Doctor Krieger tells the rest of the ISIS crew that they need to ease him out of the state and can't just "whang him on the head with a frying pan" to snap him out of it. Archer's memory slowly starts to seep back in but Lana gets impatient after they're caught in a shootout and whangs him on the head with a frying pan. Despite Krieger's objections it actually ''does'' snap Archer out of his amensia and sets him back to normal.

-->-- '''Calculon''', ''[[SoapWithinAShow All My Circuits]]'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''