History Main / HardWorkHardlyWorks

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Played with in the manga ''Manga/{{Aisaretaino}}'': Izaki bears a lingering grudge against Hakamada because Hakamada excels at everything he turns his hand to without even trying, while Izaki himself works hard for little apparent return. Eventually, however, he discovers that Hakamada feels inferior to ''him'' because his accomplishments, obtained without real effort, feel empty, and he admires Izaki's [[{{Determinator}} stubborn drive to succeed]]. (On the other hand, Hakamada is a wealthy author who wrote a bestselling novel in three days, while Izaki is a salaryman, so we can't really call it a subversion of the trope.)
* Averted hard in ''Manga/AllRounderMeguru'': while talent is an important element, not only it takes many hours of rigorous training to assimilate techniques, it's made clear that the biggest difference between a normal amateur and both professional MMA fighters and amateurs planning to go pro is physical strength that can be obtained only through hard training-and that goes for any martial art
** Meguru has a talent for [[AwesomenessByAnalysis analyzing his opponents' techniques, strengths and weaknesses and get the right timing to put them at disadvantage]] and [[PowerCopying easily learning techniques used on him]], but before he could use his talent he had to go through a very long, repetitive and hard training to learn the basics and through many painful spars with Maki to learn the clinch. He also needs more work than average to keep his physical strength, and that is why, in spite of being a lightweight (up to 65 kg) coming from karate, his usual trainer is Nabe, a middleweight (up to 77 kg) ''wrestler'' who works him to the bone.
** Momoko is a genius judoka who quickly learns ju-jitsu, but would always skip reinforcement training. Because of that, every time she takes part in a tournament she ''always'' loses in the semifinals or finals due being too tired.
** Mitsuya is well known for his talent, even having been a candidate for the ''Olympic games'' and was expected to win the All Japan Amateur Shooto Tournament-but due his exceptional talent he failed to take things seriously, and that cost him both his chance for the Olympic games and the qualification for the national tournament, in the latter case losing (barely) to Meguru in the finals of the Kansai tournament. He has learned from his defeat, and at the Kanto Open Tournament he mops the floor with Yudai (noted to be almost Meguru's better in grappling and his overall equal).
* ''Manga/AngelicLayer'' outright states that experience doesn't matter in the Angelic games, and that the deus' love for their Angels is far more important than the Angels' parameters and strengths. At the start of the Manga, TheProtagonist Misaki knows nothing about Angels, but quickly becomes the champion of the Kanto regional tournament while suffering almost no losses, defeating many much more experienced Dei in the process. It's made worse that Misaki is almost seen in a TrainingMontage (aside from the dance session near the start of the manga), making it seem like she is putting 0 effort to win.
* Played with and ultimately averted in ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom''. Class 3E's hard work does pay off at the very end with every student making the top fifty spots in the school, but the weakest student in the class (Terasaka) stays the weakest academically and Karma, who is naturally gifted, stays at the top. It's in comparison to the rest of the school that they gained, not so much in comparison to each other.
** Karma managed to place thirteenth in the entire school for the first term's finals without even studying...but this is treated as failure since ''everyone knew he could have done better if he tried'', having been fourth place on the midterms. It's only when he studies that he can claim the top spot in the school.
** The four class slackers decide to place top of a subject in the midterms...in the elective of home ec; which is then subverted as it's revealed they would have had to have studied past testing trends to score so well on such a subjective course and thus worked just as hard as their classmates. The other top scorers are all noted as having natural talent in their preferred subjects on top of their studying.
** Class A has an advantage due to being more naturally gifted in the style of study promoted by the school and having special cram sessions. During the second finals, A Class trains ''too hard'' and end up burning out by the latter half of the tests since they can't sustain their energy anymore.
** Played straighter in regards to assassination techniques. No matter how hard he tries, Karma is simply not the natural assassin Nagisa is; for all his raw strength and brains Karma cannot master the elements of surprise and the speed Nagisa has at his disposal. Nagisa not acknowledging his natural talent actually acts as a minor BerserkButton for Karma in the class civil war.
* ''Manga/BlackClover'':
** Subverted. Despite being born without any magic, Asta has trained diligently for years, giving him an incredibly muscular body and great strength. However, in the first chapter it's established that, despite his musculature, he still can't compare to skilled mages. Then, he manifests his grimoire, which gives him an anti-magic sword that he can wield because of his lack of magic ''and'' strength from years of training.
** This is discussed regarding the kingdom's aristocracy. It's stated that the biggest factor to learn spells is natural talent. Nobility rarely train as a result and look down on it as something people who are not born into power do. However, it's also stated that dedicated training, battle experience, and intense determination in a crisis are important factors in manifesting power. This explains how the Black Bulls, who are mostly commoners who have been through many tough battles and trained hard, effectively face off against other, mostly noble Magic Knights in the Royal Knights Exam. And it's because Noelle has natural talent and worked hard as a Black Bull that she learns her spell Valkyrie Armor to save her siblings.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** Ichigo goes through TrainingFromHell lots of times, but that hasn't stopped him from conquering a curriculum lasting approximately hundreds of years in the matter of weeks, days or ''hours''. [[spoiler: Which is why he has to lose that power in order to keep the story going, because if enemies are ''even'' stronger than that state, then the rest of the cast would be even more superfluous than they already are.]]
** It's stated by Aizen that Shinigami have a specific limit to how powerful they can get which is determined long before they even start trying to get stronger, and it's implied that this applies to Hollows as well. This trope [[DiscussedTrope was even discussed]] by Grimmjow's minions who, after eating thousands of Hollows to try to advance to the highest Hollow stage, noted that their growth had just completely stopped at some point. This was part of Aizen's motivation to create the [[MacGuffin Hougyoku]], which can alter both Shinigami and Hollows to erase those predetermined limits, either by turning them into Shinigami/Hollow hybrids or, in his own case, by transcending both types of power.
* Averting this is a key part of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''. Anyone can become a powerful esper if they work hard and focus on the ability improvement curriculum. Mikoto Misaka, one of the heroines, started out as a level 1 and rose to level 5 (the highest level) through patience and determination, and is often held up in the series as an example of what you can do if you work at it. [[spoiler:Except that's all a lie. Using the supercomputer Tree Diagram, the city's leadership knows who will respond best to the ability improvement. They focused their efforts on those children, while ignoring the majority of the city as not worth the investment of time and resources]].
* ''Manga/ChoujinSensen'': According to FEE, this is how Tomobiki justifies his action in not enrolling in college, finding a full-time job, or confessing to the girl he likes.
* Yamcha from the ''Manga/DragonBall'' series has an extreme case of this, particularly in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Even in the original series, he was often used for TheWorfEffect despite training a lot, particularly for Martial Arts tournaments. For the third tournament at the end of ''Dragon Ball'', he even does TrainingFromHell alone in the wild for three years, invents a new move from scratch, and still loses in his first match. In ''Z'', Yamcha never wins a single fight, ultimately realizes he'll never be useful in protecting the Earth, and gives up after almost dying a third time in the Android Saga. By the time of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', he had still never achieved any of his goals in life (getting married and/or winning a World Martial Arts Tournament).
** Vegeta. He trains and trains and trains, but Goku is most of time stronger than him, and the only saving grace for him is that thanks to his AND Goku's constant training, they're both the strongest characters in the entire series. Yes, Goku trains (though it's usually unclear just how much, or whether it's because he just gets better training), too, but at nowhere near the level of Vegeta. The funny thing is that Vegeta was supposed to be the super-talented prodigy. Whis suggests in ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection 'F']]'' that Vegeta actually trains ''too'' hard and doesn't let himself relax, which hurts him and doesn't allow him to build his strength up to Goku's level (on the other hand, Goku's relaxation means he lets his guard down when Vegeta wouldn't).
** Averted with Goku and Gohan. Gohan has far greater inherent potential, but does not find fighting fun, so he prefers having a normal life to constant practice. Goku, on the other hand, spends most of his life (and whatever parts of his afterlife we saw) undergoing ever more extreme TrainingFromHell and eventually outpaces Gohan. Gohan in his mystic form ends up becoming the most powerful unfused character in the entire series due to his potential, but is soon outpaced by Goku and Vegeta, who kept up their training while Gohan finally knuckled down and concentrated on studying.
** There's also the fact that Goku trained under several masters of martial arts throughout his life, learning various techniques and training methods that compensated for his low (for a Saiyan) inherent power, while Vegeta, for most of his life, was too arrogant to even ''think'' of asking someone to train him. When Vegeta finally swallows his pride in ''Super'' and asks Whis to train him, he rapidly catches up to Goku. But then Goku asks Whis to train ''him'', and, [[CantCatchUp well...]]
** It's played completely straight when you compare Saiyans with non-Saiyan characters: Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu eventually more or less pretty much spent ''all their time'' training after a certain point, and remained hopelessly behind the Saiyan characters nonetheless. Neither of them could even put a ''scratch'' on Nappa! Even though Tenshinhan was able to harm [[PersonOfMassDestruction Semi-Perfect Cell,]] managed to survive Super Buu's [[KillEmAll Human Extinction Attack,]] and later showed up against Buu...the pink git practically only needed to ''cough'' to send Tien flying (though that's more thanks to the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil).
** There's also the fact that Saiyans get a literal, quantifiable power boost from ''almost dying.'' At one point on Namek, Vegeta's strategy is "have Krillin shoot a hole through my chest, and then get Dende to heal me". It's the only time anyone invokes it, implying that it's less efficient than training (and it does nothing to raise any sort of skill, just power level), but the fact is that their biology is built for this trope. Yamcha, Krillin, and Tien may gain skill by fighting to the death, but they'll never get the same gains that Goku and Vegeta get in that same situation.
** Really, anyone who isn't Goku (and to a lesser extent, Gohan) falls victim to this trope. Piccolo, despite having no family or friends to distract from his constant training (the only person he spends any time with is Gohan, and essentially all the time they spend together ''is'' training), and at one point being STRONGER than the Saiyans during the Android Saga, is nowhere near as strong any time afterwards. By the time of ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection 'F',]]'' Vegeta has managed to restore himself to relevance, but the non-Saiyans are still little better than {{mooks}}, no matter how hard they train.
** This is lampshaded by Master Roshi with the quote at the top of the page, as back in the original series we had no idea what a Saiyan was.
** Master Roshi gets to lampshade it a second time during the Android Saga when he admits he was once called the 'Strongest in the World' but now he'd 'give anything just to be able to help out again'. [[spoiler: He does a pretty good job in the Universe Survival Saga, where he manages to get three eliminations on his own before succumbing to exhaustion.]]
** Vegeta may not ''quite'' be able to keep up with Goku at Super Saiyan 3 (they were more or less equal at Super Saiyan 2), but he comes a damn sight closer than anyone else in the universe. There's a ''reason'' Frieza was scared of how powerful the Saiyans might become.
** Then there is the case of Goten and Trunks, who are the youngest of Super Saiyans. Gohan, Vegeta, Chi-Chi and Goku each had their own expressions of shock when they found this out. The three older Saiyans had to go through sweat and blood to accomplish their transformations, and the two brats just got theirs when they were playing in the woods without even knowing what Super Saiyans were at the time.
*** This seems to have become a trend for human-Saiyan hybrids, as the end of ''Dragon Ball GT'' shows one of Goku's descendants (his great-great grandkid) casually using the Super Saiyan transformation in a tournament sparring match along with one of Vegeta's descendants.
*** The Super Saiyan transformation comes in response to a need, not a desire. In all known cases, the form has been initially triggered by either desperation or indignation. However, Saiyans are somewhat detached (with the exception of Goku), which is why it is difficult. For hybrids such as Gohan, they possess the emotional connection of humans allowing them to reach it easier. Kid Trunks, Goten and Goku Jr., being young children, have the easiest time being forced into desperation or indignation.
*** Goku Jr., Goku's great-great grandson becomes a Super Saiyan defending a bear against a pig-demon thing, a clearer example compared to Trunks and Goten.
** The best way to describe this trope in ''Dragon Ball'' is that while hard work pales before natural talent, said talent must be ''maintained'' with hard work. Saiyan hybrids like Gohan, Goten and Trunks have more potential than their full-blooded Saiyan fathers, but said fathers are also constantly training to improve themselves while Gohan is more focused on studying and Goten and Trunks on being kids. ''Dragon Ball''[='=]s infamous SoLastSeason is also a factor. While anime filler shows that by the end of the Namek saga, the Z fighters (yes, including Yamcha) are powerful enough to defeat the Ginyu Force (thanks to King Kai training them), who in their introduction were powerful enough to easily defeat Vegeta, the threats from the next saga put even ''Frieza'' to shame, so they're stuck being useless.
*** This is also demonstrated by Future Trunks, who's the last living fighter in his timeline and thus doesn't have the leisure to slack off like the others. When he returns in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', he's dealt with Majin Buu (well, Babidi and Dabura -- he didn't let them come ''close'' to reviving Buu) and has spent a year fighting off an EvilTwin of Goku. As a result, he's achieved Super Saiyan 2 and is (at least according to the manga adaptation) equal to Super Saiyan 3 Goku in terms of power. [[spoiler:And that's ''before'' he achieves a form that's seemingly just a step shy of Super Saiyan Blue.]]
*** Defied with Hit, who notes that as he has no transformations or inherent boosts to make himself more powerful, he has to get better the old-fashioned way. And it works. He manages to defeat Goku in their sparring match (if partially because Goku used a DangerousForbiddenTechnique that was about to run out and disable him), and by the next time Goku sees him, he's improved by leaps and bounds and is able to (temporarily) kill Goku.
*** Completely and utterly averted with [[spoiler: Jiren:]] hard work and training made him more powerful than ''gods''.
** This trope explicitly comes into play in the movie ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection 'F']]'': after Frieza is wished back to life by his minions, he says that he thought being a prodigy was all he needed, only to receive a rude awakening thanks to Goku and Future Trunks. Thus, he resolves to train for the first time in his life so he can return to Earth and take his revenge on the Saiyans. His training succeeds, as he becomes powerful enough to challenge post-series Goku. The real kicker? It only takes him ''four months'' to come close to Goku's level, who had been training for ''years''. [[spoiler: However, this trope isn't played completely straight. Frieza increased his raw strength, but didn't learn to control or maintain his power. Once he reached his super form, he could only keep it for a short time before his energy rapidly drained. Goku calls Frieza out on this, saying that instead of completing his training, he rushed to Earth as soon as he achieved his new transformation. It's re-averted when Frieza [[RemovedAchillesHeel meditates while in Hell to learn to control his ki,]] and by the time of the Universe Survival Saga, he's able to keep up without exhausting himself.]]
* This is why Liz Ricarro from ''Anime/IGPXImmortalGrandPrix'' gets angry with Takeshi. She trains herself so much whereas he rarely does anything and yet, they're just as good at being mech pilots. It can easily seen where Liz first beats him handily in kung fu, what she has been practicing for years, in the first episode. That is until Takeshi practices kendo, where he easily beats her in the second season.
** Then partly defied in the same season when [[spoiler: Takeshi talks to the InsufferableGenius Max about everyone working together.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', Unsui and Agon, twin brothers, couldn't be further apart in ability. Unsui puts himself through TrainingFromHell (at one point shown doing one handed push-ups with their team's center sitting on his back) and is only "a great player". Agon doesn't practice at all, and is "a once-in-a-century prodigy." He's also the only one of the Shinryuuji Nagas who has any luck with the ladies (being that they go to an all-boys school). Sure, he's got TheGift, but he's also stone-cold ''evil''. Ever since his team's loss to Deimon, he ''has'' been working out with increasing fervor and desperation; He doesn't want to become the trash he sees everyone else as. Subverted twice, though, when Hiruma deliberately (and successfully) sets Yukimitsu (who is 0 percent talent and 100 percent hard work) against him, and when Hiruma himself (a physically average player) outruns Agon because he improved his 40-yard dash by 0.1 seconds through the training Agon disdains.
** Leonard Apollo learned this the hard way during his time in the NFL, as well.
** And then there's the Yuuhi Guts. Even the ''manager'' keeps a training regiment so brutal it would bring most other schools' ''players'' to tears, but they only score one touchdown against Deimon in the fall tournament.
*** It's worth nothing that the actual players (i.e. the ones that trained hard and ended up scoring the only touchdown) were only in the game for the last few minutes. The school had opted to use star players from other sports (Yuuhi being a renowned sports school where football was the only thing they didn't excel at), and they played terribly, having never practiced football itself and generally having no teamwork whatsoever. Had the actual football players been in the entire time, well, they probably still would've lost (Deimon was still the better team and trained every bit as hard as the Guts, after all), but it would've been a much closer game.
** A lot of the characters avert this too, though. And almost all of the "I'm just that good!" types wind up getting owned by Deimon, who are the results of canny planning, hell-training, and tenacity. Pretty much everyone on the Deimon team worked hard for their abilities in some way or another, and the closest it has to a "he's just that good" is the quarterback's planning skill.
** One of the only moments in the series that makes Agon seem like less of a JerkAss is due to this trope. [[spoiler: Habashira Rui has to sub in for Shin when he's injured in the final game against America. ''Everyone,'' Habashira included, knows that he's not good enough to take on America. But he does it anyway, and Agon removes his wig and glasses, taking the game 100% seriously for perhaps the first time, purely out of respect for Habashira and to remind Unsui what he should be striving for.]]
*** Shin averts this trope, however. Hiruma explicitly defines him as "the opposite of Agon, a monster who achieved his strength through hard work."
** Another subversion is Monta vs the "genius" catchers such as Ikkyu and Taka. The fact that he spent years chasing after and catching baseballs allows him to follow the ball more closely than anyone else, a skill that allows him to beat his much more naturally-talented rivals.
* PlayedWith in ''Manga/FairyTail'' when Natsu faces the Vanish Brothers. They say that the time spent training his [[PlayingWithFire fire magic]] should make him a SquishyWizard and they should surpassed him in speed and strength from all their years of physical training. Nope! Not only does he have magic that they don't, [[KungFuWizard his brand of magic requires him to train his physical body as well]], and since he's been using it since childhood, he's both stronger and faster than them despite being younger too.
* A fair amount of what's going on in-universe in ''Manga/FoodWars'' is playing with the perception of this trope. The Totsuki Institute (as presented at the beginning of the storyline) is dedicated to both accepting only the exceptional as students and only graduating the most determined to master cuisine to the extent human lifespan permits. There is a very wide range of talent among new students, and while the school apparently does provide both all the necessary instruction and opportunities to develop the needed additional skills for a real-world career (such as ensuring students within their first year learn what it's like to prepare fifty or more servings of a meal under time constraints) it also devalues students who "only" learn and do everything demanded of them. (Likewise, it's a fairly open secret that students out on internships who do all the work asked of them timely and without error ''and nothing more'' fail. Totsuki produces future stars of the hospitality industry and critical team members, not just competent employees.) Between all the stress students who weren't as prepared going in suffer trying to keep up and the daily struggle to stay enrolled, the apparent ease those students who came in with semiprofessional skills display performing in group activities, the lack of visibility of all the self-training and experimentation those same students are putting in on their own to develop themselves further (and class work is basic enough in comparison it isn't obvious to their peers they really do learn there) and ''considerable'' pandering to the desire of the press and outside community to believe in TheGift, it's no wonder that most of the student body fails to appreciate their own improvements and pays at least lip service to this trope to explain why they just can't ever be like those special people.
** This gets contrasted later when somebody tries introducing the (extremely popular among the remaining student body) idea that all the "untouchable" students merely have exceptionally developed skills which can be learned and replicated, and that classwork should now consist of learning to cook their recipes. (This is not presented as an improvement, introducing CripplingOverspecialization and possible dependence on a school-managed supply line and career management services as cornerstones to the new educational philosophy. It's now student attempts to do anything beyond minimal involvement in class lessons which are being shut down.)
* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', several of the characters have at least some martial arts training. However Kyo has probably trained longer and harder then any of the other characters and still can't beat his rival Yuki. Even worse Yuki is never seen actually training and it is implied that he holds back when he and Kyo fight. Meanwhile Kyo loves martial arts, has been training from a young age, and even spent four months training in the mountains in an attempt to beat Yuki, yet still can't due to the curse. When shown fighting other people however, Kyo is shown to be a skilled fighter.
* Played straight in ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist''. Edward gets to be a State Alchemist (a coveted position in Amestris) because of his natural talent moreso than how much work he puts into it.
** Dante, BigBad of the ''Anime/FullMetalAlchemist'', delivers a [[HardTruthAesop well deserved sledgehammer]] to EquivalentExchange and mentions this trope during her BreakingSpeech:
---> '''Dante''': "Consider the state alchemy exam that you passed with flying colors. How many others took the test that day? Spent months, years preparing, some working much harder than you. Yet you were the only one who passed. Where was their reward? Is it their fault they lacked your natural talent?"
** This ''only'' applies to the 2003 anime. It is clear in both the manga and Brotherhood that the amount of work Ed and Al put into learning alchemy was extremely high, and their so-called natural talent stems from them directly interacting with the Gate Of Truth when trying to resurrect their dead mother.
* In ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'', Naoki Shinjyo works hard to win races and two F3 championships to get to Cyber Formula racing. Yet he gets constantly beaten by Hayato, a 14-year-old rookie with no experience in motor racing and it leads him to [[NeverMyFault blame others for his failures in racing]]. It takes Miki to straighten him up and realize that his obsession of training hard and being the best clouds his ability as a racer. By then, Shinjyo regains his love for racing.
* Likewise, Kisaragi in ''Manga/GAGeijutsukaArtDesignClass'' is also hardworking and doesn't seem to be very skilled, unlike the more CloudCuckooLander-ish Nodamiki. Unlike ''Hidamari Sketch'', though, whether she's that bad compared to Nodamiki has not been demonstrated.
* Ironically, this utterly [[DefiedTrope defied]] in Hideaki Anno's first work, ''Anime/GunBuster''. The main character Noriko is of the belief that talent is all you need to be good at mecha piloting. However, her teacher shows her that the woman she looked up to works '''very''' hard to get were she is. In fact, one of the series' mottos is "Hard work and guts!"
* Averted in the boxing anime ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'', as hard work usually ''does'' pay off. The Main character Ippo does have immense punching power by nature, his friend/rival Miyata is called a genius for his talent, and his JerkAss BigBrotherMentor Takamura is easily the best boxer in the whole series...but ''all'' of them still train very hard to get better and so do most other boxers. Kamogawa once said to Takamura "Not everyone who works hard is rewarded. However, all those who succeed have worked hard!"
* Played straight on the third episode of ''Anime/HellGirl'' during Season 3. An Idol Singer is loved and worshiped for her beauty and natural singing talent. However, during her youth, the Idol Singer used to bully another inspiring singer who was working very hard. The flashback also showed that the Idol Singer didn't even practice and got by on her looks, taking FanService pictures. The bullied girl tries to blackmail her by exposing the fan service photos; she demands the Idol Singer give her a break in the music business. But the Idol Singer tells her that she never could sing well. A scene earlier proves this when she sung and sounded off key. The once bullied girl cries about how she worked very hard all her life. But the Idol Singer responds by saying: "Hard work is the last resort of those without talent." [[spoiler: This makes the bullied girl call Hell Girl. And even though the Idol Singer paid her 3 million yen and wrote an apology song for the bullying, the bullied girl still sends her to hell, while the Idol Singer was singing the apology song live on stage during a concert. The [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty revenge is empty however]], as the Idol Singer went on to become a music legend, while the bullied girl is forever broken, being in her shadow]].
* Subverted by ''Manga/HellTeacherNube'': both [[WhoYouGonnaCall Nube]] and [[EnjoKosai Izuna]] are exceptionally gifted with immense supernatural abilities, but Nube endured arduous training for years and years to reach his level of skill, a fact that he always uses to berate Izuna when she tries to find a shortcut.
* In ''Manga/HidamariSketch'', While Yuno is known to be hardworking, her skills will probably never be as good as those of her DitzyGenius neighbour Miyako.
* Averted in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', where even [[WordOfGod the author]] has gone on record stating this is a series where hard work does pay off. This is exemplified at the end of Volume 2/anime Season 1, when Issei's EleventhHourSuperpower [[spoiler:expires before he can land more than one good hit on his foe. He goes on to win the fight thanks to everything he learned during his earlier TrainingFromHell, with a dash of CrazyPrepared.]] Even his biggest MidSeasonUpgrade, [[spoiler:being resurrected in a body grown from two deities]], is less of a raw power boost than finally being able to go all-out without [[HeroicRROD tearing himself apart]].
* ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'', [[ShownTheirWork which reads more or less like the author's love letter to martial arts and street fighting]], presents most fighters' skill as a mixture of training, fighting experience and inborn 'talent', and makes it clear that ultimately it's those with talent who rise to the top if they get the other two; training and experience can only compensate so much. Protagonist Yuu Kamishiro is noted to have talent and combines it with [[TrainingFromHell working himself to the bone]] and hard-earned experience to win over people who have martial arts backgrounds, despite lacking formal training and experience until his mid-teens (which would be a death sentence to most people's ability to compete). Some people, like Masaki, are noted to have all three, and serve as mentors or major street bumps during the story.
* Subverted in ''Manga/HunterXHunter''. While natural talent grant you significant edge over untalented individuals, one still must train extremely hard to get results. Chief of the Hunter Association Netero stated that human potential is ''limitless'' and we know that [[FunctionalMagic nen]] can prevent aging. So, theoretically, a talentless person will require much more time to catch up, but eventually ''will'' catch up.
** [[spoiler:And gloriously subverted with Netero himself, who managed to fight with [[BigBad Mer]][[PhysicalGod yem]] on semi-equal ground due to insanely over the top training (even by Shonen standards).]]
* Shirogane from ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' averts or subverts this, depending on how one looks at it. In his own estimation, he has zero natural talent, and the only reason he holds the #1 spot in academia is because of the constant effort put into studying. It's been shown that he's from below average to downright atrocious when it comes to some mundane activities, including ones that any other individual wouldn't have had trouble performing reasonably well at without prior training (aside from, weirdly enough, juggling). It also takes tremendous amount of work, along with a skilled instructor to bring his skills in those areas to about normal level. On the other hand, he is quick-witted and can come up with plans on the spot, holds multiple national certifications in different fields, manages to keep in balance his domestic routine, three part-time jobs and rather demanding studying sessions at the same time, eventually [[spoiler:gets accepted into extremely selective Stanford University ([[GradeSkipper at an accelerated rate at that]])]], and most importantly, '''always''' succeeds exponentially in self-improvement (becoming average at something may not sound extraordinary, but when you start below figurative "zero", it's a whole other story). All of that suggests he might be very special human being.
* Invoked, but ultimately averted in ''Anime/KaleidoStar''. When she first joined the Kaleido Stage, the smug, arrogant May Wong believed she could charm her idols Leon and Layla and become a star without even trying. Cue BreakTheHaughty when Leon deliberately drops her during an act as a test of strength, badly injuring her in the process, and when Layla tells her that while her performances are technically good, they're completely soulless and not actually focused on entertaining the audience, thus meaning she'll have to start from scratch.
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' plays around with his trope in many ways but the most prominent is the aversion with Kenichi himself. He's TheProtagonist but he doesn't have TheGift. Hard work always trumps untrained talent and between two hard workers, the one who works harder has the advantage. The entire story is a message in that you need to work hard to keep up in the world of martial arts.
** Kenichi is repeatedly said to be completely average and talentless, and his only strength is training hard. Although the people he beats up on a regular basis also probably train hard as well and probably have been doing so for more than a few months, they still don't train ''as'' hard as Kenichi. He trains under numerous different masters, working 7 days a week and often dying from the training, only to be brought back with medicine and first-aid. So while Kenichi might not have trained as long as his opponents, he has trained hundreds of times harder. That's why he defeat Karate club bullies and Ragnarok thugs. ''Yomi'' is a different matter. His opponents there are all expert martial artists, raised by masters every bit as strong as his own, with techniques just as brutal, which means he loses some of his "hard work" advantage.
** When Takeda begins his own TrainingFromHell under the underground boxing master, his abilities surge massively in a very short amount of time, putting him very nearly in Kenichi/Yomi tier within a much shorter time than Kenichi himself needed. He even began to unravel and utilize Kenichi's recently-learned perfect defense within a single sparring match. So apparently when a person who is already exceptionally talented (as Kenichi's masters have all noticed) starts that sort of training, the results are dramatic and much faster. So it's subverted in that for the prodigies, hard work ''really'' works.
** It's zigzagged with Berserker, a boy who has never had any training, but is so naturally talented that he has never lost a single fight. Then Tanimoto manages to defeat him, and afterward states that this entire trope is a lie:
--->"One part talent may equal a hundred parts of hard work, but what if it's one thousand parts hard work? What about ''ten'' thousand? In the world of martial arts, hard work will ''always'' trump natural talent."
** Natsu, who like Takeda is very naturally talented even manages to quickly boost his skill level by consistently fighting opponents who are just a little bit better than he is. Part of his resumed TrainingFromHell by his own master who is the brother of one of Kenichi's masters.
** Everyone in Yomi works hard but here are prodigies among Yomi's ranks and Kenichi's masters point out that being a prodigy doesn't mean anything without training yourself to back it up and that they can't simply rely on their innate talents.
* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' is an extreme version. The title character literally did not train ''at all'', instead skipping right to fighting monsters for an hour or two after school each day. Within a week she's stronger than someone else around her age who had been training ''his entire life'', and by the end of the first season (at most a couple months) she's become A (elite) rank. When there are more seasons, much RankInflation ensues though there's at least a considerable TimeSkip between the second and third seasons.
** The second season and its [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary manga]] [[HandWave explains]] all this by...turning Nanoha into a complete aversion of this. Her exponential increase in strength? It's revealed that thanks to [[MagicWand Raising Heart,]] she's able to train ''[[TrainingFromHell every single waking moment of her life,]]'' displaying astonishing multi-tasking skills by running virtual reality training programs directly into her mind while she eats, goes to school, and does her other activities. This is in addition to her waking up early and going to bed late to practice her magic in the real world, and Raising Heart going on Pressure Mode to act like a magical training weight that forces Nanoha's magical growth by draining her mana when she's not active.
*** The third season then subverts it. Apparently all that built up stress and exhaustion [[HeroicRROD caught up to her years later,]] nearly killing her on a routine mission.
** Additionally, said manga shows that while Chrono (said "someone else her age") isn't as powerful, [[WeakButSkilled his combat experience actually allows him to be able to defeat both Nanoha and Fate.]]
** Teana is a complete aversion. Unlike the other Forwards, she doesn't have the advantage of winning the SuperpowerLottery or [[spoiler: being a SuperSoldier,]] but she manages to become the only one of them to reach [[RankInflation S Rank]] (half a rank below Nanoha) through hard work alone.
** This is Jill Stola's personal philosophy in ''Anime/VividStrike'', and is one of the things that Nove disagrees with her on. The irony being that Jill earned her skill while Nove is a genetically enhanced combat cyborg. Then again, Nove is close friends with -- and was originally defeated by -- Teana, so she knows first hand that this trope doesn't always apply.
* Medaka from ''Manga/MedakaBox'' is about the epitome of this trope. Her abilities just literally come to her be it semi-naturally or through her ability PowerCopying, which not only allows her to acquire other peoples' powers just fighting or coming into contact with them (and later [[spoiler:just by hearing some details about the ability]]) but allows her to master their ability even if the original holder hasn't done so themselves and create derivatives of them to suit her own needs [[spoiler:albeit ones that didn't take the original purpose of the ability into account]]. [[spoiler:This later comes to a head as she is considered an opponent that even an introduced GodModeSue can't beat.]] Before the series' GenreShift it wasn't really touched upon, but since becoming a battle manga, she's become somewhat of a Deconstruction of overpowered main characters. She does however state in the beginning that those with talent (like herself) do work to get where they are, but the work put in varies like any other person.
** It's also played with in regards to the SupportingProtagonist Zenkichi. Despite being the TeamNormal of the cast, he's able to keep up with other Superpowered characters through hard work and determination. Yet in a later arc, [[spoiler: other characters explicitly stated to be normal easily upstage him in a Treasure Hunt.]]
* In ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', during Muhyo's days at the academy, [[spoiler:Enchu]] works hard to become an Executor while Yoichi and Muhyo slack off. However, Muhyo soon realizes his talent, and despite [[spoiler:Enchu]] pulling all-nighters when he and Muhyo are considered for Executor, Muhyo is chosen.
** It's later revealed that there was more to the decision than aptitude; [[spoiler:Page said the committee was concerned by Enchu's preoccupation with his ill mother (her death greatly contributed to his StartOfDarkness, and was ''part of Teeki's plan''), and chose Muhyo because he, in refusing the position, was thinking of others]].
* Averted/Subverted in ''Manga/{{Mx0}}''. Kuzumi is thought to be an incredibly gifted wizard with a gold card. In reality he has no magic, and his innate skill is so low that he failed the entrance exam. Everything he does he does through careful lying and a lot of hard work. [[spoiler: The series ends (aggravatingly abruptly, due to cancellation) with him temporarily transferring to another school with a special tutor who is going to push him up to gold card level through raw hard work.]]
* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', this gets played straight before being subverted. Protagonist Izuku Midoriya hoped to become a hero like his idol, All Might, even though he's [[UnSorcerer Quirkless]]. But the day he meets All Might, the hero flat out tells Izuku that being a superhero is impossible without a Quirk because it's simply too dangerous of a job. But after being chosen as the successor of One For All and entering U.A., he works his butt off more than anyone else to catch up to his classmates who have had their powers their entire lives. His efforts pay off, becoming one of the best fighters in his class, giving him excellent grades, as well as a newfound respect from his peers that he never had when he was Quirkless.
* Training in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' might give a person more control over their magic, but any actual increase in power is negligible at best considering that Catarina spent seven years honing her skills under a personal tutor (something which is noted to be out of the ordinary) and all it did was let her raise the dirt around her by several more centimeters. Indeed, in the ''Verge of Destruction'' SpinOff, this fact is one of Sienna's major hangups and the primary reason why she initially hates Maria.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}:'' The series shills the initial {{Aesop}} that hard work will trump natural talent any time. As the series progresses however, that... isn't always perfectly represented.
** Rock Lee seems like the poster child for this trope.
*** He has little natural talent whatsoever and trains and trains and trains to prove he can be a powerful ninja without ninjustu or genjustsu. He has a good showing at first, easily defeating the two leads, but then proceeds [[TheWorfEffect to lose almost every other fight he gets into]]. However, those losses tend to come from extremely powerful enemies and Lee has impressive showings for those fights. His fight with Gaara, for example, had Gaara's teammates spend the entire match [[OhCrap panicking]] at how badly Lee was manhandling him. Also, it is indisputable that Lee has come a long way from where he was in the academy, where even his beloved and supportive Guy sensei admitted he was pathetic. So, hard work may not have made him the best around, but without it he'd be useless.
*** It should be noted that Lee is hardly talentless. Sure, his talent with the more traditional ninja arts is non-existent. However, it's also said by Kakashi there is no way hard work alone can get you to open five of the Eight Gates at age 13. Lee's case is really a person whose talent is not discovered by lesser teachers and he later runs into a teacher that recognizes his real talent and applied the appropriate training method for that talent. Naruto (and possibly his earlier reincarnations) is more or less the same thing. Basically, hard work is important, but to get to the very top or close to it, you need ''both'' talent and hard work.
** Sasuke was born with TheGift, specifically one that lets him instantly copy any technique and, with sufficient training and aptitude, execute it flawlessly, in addition to already exceptional skills. Now, quite a few times he is said to train seriously, notably in his Fire Release jutsus and Chuunin exam training, but much of it happens offscreen, and he gets several powerups in a row thanks to SuperpowerfulGenetics mixed with ThePowerOfHate. He does receive his Mangekyo after a grueling battle with Itachi, and it requires battles with several powerful opponents for him to master it. However, this trope becomes more notable after he receives Itachi's eyes from Tobi, whereupon he starts receiving incredible power-ups without any work put in. Much like Naruto, he tends to ping-pong as the plot demands. As best as we know, the two characters on the opposite ends of the scale are Indra and Ashura, the sons of the Sage of the Six Paths who both achieved similar levels of power, Indra through SuperpowerfulGenetics, and Ashura through TrainingFromHell and ThePowerOfFriendship.
** The titular character ping-pongs between both ends. On the one hand, he starts the series as a talentless loser whose only saving grace is insane amounts of stamina. On the other hand, we learn that his parents were both highly-skilled ninja and the Kyuubi implanted in him makes incredibly strong, and is the reason for his incredible stamina in the first place. However, learning to control the Kyuubi's chakra was a long, dangerous process and [[spoiler: the Sage of Six Paths]] has pointed out that incredible parents don't always pass down their talent. However, in earlier chapters Tsunade said that Naruto's ninjutsu style is like his mother's (we never really saw Kushina fight) and its been noted a few times that he also inherited her strong chakra genes to make it even possible for him to control the Kyuubi chakra.[[note]]Though he didn't inherit his mother's powerful "[[ChainPain chakra chains]]" ability; instead his distant cousin Karin spontaneously manifests that ability.[[/note]] Naruto will frequently undergo TrainingFromHell which would seem like an aversion, but he often gains extraordinary power from it that no one else could or would get and in some cases he uses his aforementioned incredible stamina to take shortcuts that wouldn't be available to use for other people. Finally, he's TheChosenOne who is destined to succeed through hard work, as paradoxical as that sounds. At the end, he and Sasuke only succeed [[spoiler:due to a literal DeusExMachina in the form of the Sage Of Six Paths inexplicably showing up and giving both of them a power up due to them being the reincarnations of his sons.]]
** It's also worth mentioning Shikamaru. For most of the series, he is the definition of BrilliantButLazy. During the Chunin Exams, he is the only participant to pass and be promoted to Chunin even though he was by far the laziest participant and passed entirely due to impressing the proctors with his raw natural ability. In spite of his slacker tendencies, he ends up being the one of the youngest jonin of his generation. He also [[spoiler: becomes co-general of his own division during the war.]] It could be said that he only grows strong after he starts working hard. But considering the effort he puts in compared to everyone else, it's obvious that his success is mostly due to his genius intellect.
** Then we have [[AwesomeMcCoolname Might Guy]] to provide the '''ultimate''' subversion: as a child, he was so talentless he ''failed the academy entrance exam'' the first time around and couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, but by the time we meet him, his training has enabled him to use ninjutsu and made him one of Konoha's top shinobi. When he uses [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique the Eight Gates]] he becomes capable of [[spoiler: warping space ''with a kick''.]] Hard Work is what made Guy strong enough to knock around [[spoiler: Uchiha Madara, the guy who Curbstomped all five living Kage at the same time]] like a ''ragdoll.'' Along with Minato, Gaara, Kakashi, and Lee, who helped nerf him. Still, it's enough for [[spoiler: Madara]] to declare him the greatest taijutsu master he has ever faced, and give him more respect than the entire Shinobi Alliance. In fact, Guy is one of only two people [[spoiler:Madara]] ''ever'' considered a worthy opponent.
** Also zig-zagged with Naruto's son, Boruto, who is talented at chakra control. However, his laziness causes him to fall behind other genin of his generation and causes him to resort to cheating with pre-loaded jutsus. In the final battle, the one jutsu he worked hard on, the Vanishing Rasengan, manages to save the heroes from the villain (who is also lazy). Of course, Naruto's massive chakra was still necessary to finish the villain off.
* Negi of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' manages to pick up martial arts pretty much over a weekend. He also manages to master incredibly advanced magical techniques in very little time. It's partially justified in that he uses a YearInsideHourOutside mechanism to cram whole extra months of TrainingFromHell in. Even so, in the space of a month or so, he puts together a BlackMagic technique, the complexity of which surprises the person who created the BlackMagic to begin with. Said person is an immortal vampire who previously spent years on it.
** Jack Rakan might be an aversion. Unlike Negi, who was very powerful but didn't seem to put any effort into gaining that power, Jack Rakan spent almost whole his life fighting, he almost died many times but as time passed he became more and more powerful all thanks to decades of hard work. Even Negi refers to Rakan as "The Ultimate Hard Worker".
** In a possible subversion, Rakan is generally still acknowledged to be a lot stronger. The general opinion of the matter is that Negi's greatest strength lies in how proficient he is in making new techniques. At one point, it's mentioned that people would just love to stick him behind a desk somewhere and have him make new spells.
** And for a completely played dead straight example, Nagi at the age of fifteen fought evenly with Rakan (forty years of combat experience) and presumably won their fight by a tiny margin. And Nagi is a lot less intelligent than Negi is and probably didn't do nearly the same type of training.
** The aversion is underlined by Fate Averruncus when Negi manages to defeat him after learning Dark Magic -- Fate is surprised by that Negi could ever beat him in a fight, and is unable to improve himself because he never needed to train in his whole life. He only survives his fight against Rakan by using an artifact that [[GameBreaker breaks the game]] even more than Rakan himself, because it [[spoiler:MAKES the game. Rakan manages to come back anyway for a brief period.]]
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Asuka is sent over the edge when Shinji's sync ratio got higher than hers even when she trained as a pilot for years. Then we found out why: it's revealed that Asuka figuratively "walling off" her heart from everyone (to avoid being hurt again) also caused her to shut out Eva-02 in all her attempts to synchronize with it[[spoiler:s resident soul, which just so happens to be that of her dead mother]], thus she was essentially piloting an Eva all wrong. The fact that she managed the highest sync ratio for any period of time is impressive, and Asuka is still a better pilot than Shinji in terms of self-discipline and practical skill anyway. The main problem being that the series is ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', where everything will always go wrong (unless you're in a LighterAndSofter spin-off).
* ''Manga/OnePunchMan'' plays with this.
** Exaggerated to parodic levels with Saitama's SuperStrength and SuperToughness coming from, according to himself, from [[spoiler:doing one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten kilometre run every day for three years]], which is all ''anyone'' needs to do in order to be able to punch holes in buildings and win every fight with a single punch. Everyone treats this as exactly as stupid as it sounds. [[spoiler:There are implications that Saitama's incredible strength may be some supernatural ability that was somehow unlocked by obsessively training to be a hero. Although the true nature of his power remains a mystery.]]
** For anyone ''not'' named Saitama, this gets ping-ponged everywhere. Some of the most powerful S-Class Heroes achieved their rank through honing their swordsmanship (Atomic Samurai), martial arts (Bang), physical training (Superalloy Darkshine and Flashy Flash), while others used methods like technology (Metal Knight, Genos, Child Emperor) to close the gap. The strongest shown S-Class Hero (Tatsumaki) was born with her incredibly powerful [[MindOverMatter esper]] abilities, but it's not entirely clear how much of it is purely innate and how much was honed through training (though she's still leagues stronger than Fubuki [[spoiler:and Psykos]], both of whom were explicitly born with weaker abilities and trained much harder than her to maximize them, but still can't match her for sheer power). Monsters that [[WasOnceAMan were once humans]] could have transformed from becoming so obsessed in a particular field they transformed, or they short-cutted [[spoiler:with monster cells]].
** Garō plays with this harder than anyone. He ''has'' trained and much of his power comes from his sheer mastery of martial arts and [[PowerCopying incorporating new techniques from others]] [[TaughtByExperience while fighting them]]. On the other hand, the reason he's gained so much power so quickly is that he seems to possess an innate CameBackStrong AdaptiveAbility that makes him stronger the more damage he takes fighting strong opponents.
** This actually gets lampshaded and defied when Flashy Flash (who proudly claims he achieved his abilities by training harder than anyone else in his village) fights two strong ninja from the village that used monsterization as a shortcut to greater power over training further. While incredibly fast and powerful while transformed, [[UnskilledButStrong they still hadn't fully mastered their new abilities]] and are ultimately cut down by Flash, who notes that if they had ''trained'' themselves to that level of power, they would have stood a chance of defeating him.
* Averted and then played straight in the case of Kirino in ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}''. She has been able to be a highly successful student athlete by practicing ''really'' hard, despite the lack of talent. However, after she starts being trained as a ''professional'' athlete, [[spoiler: it all falls apart as she clearly couldn't catch up to those who ''also'' have real talent.]]
* ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'' has a lot of this, because of the composition of the main trio: Sorata, who is neither very focused nor skilled; Nanami, who is very hardworking but probably not outstanding, and Mashiro, an IdiotSavant:
** Sorata tells Nanami in Episode 15 that he hopes she succeeds at her audition because he's been watching her study hard ever since they were first year high school students, and hopes that it pays off at some point. Especially since both of them failed at their resepctive auditions the first time around.
** Played straight in the end of Episode 20 and the whole Episode 21: [[spoiler:it starts with Nanami failing her audition; goes on with Sorata's game failing the last review due to another rhythm game which was more simple, traditional and more appealing to the market; afterwards, all of the main cast fail at getting enough signatures to prevent the destruction of Sakura Hall; finally, to add insult to injury, the game company that rejected Sorata ended up sending a work offer to Shiina as character designer thanks to the pictures she gave to Sorata.]]
* ''Manga/PingPong'': Sakuma puts in ten times the effort of all the other major characters combined to excel at table tennis, but his astigmatism and lack of natural talent prevents him from ever surpassing them. His crappy attitude doesn't help matters, and gives Smile reason to utterly crush him when they face off.
* The titular character of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' possesses a CharlesAtlasSuperpower that, sometimes, allows him this particular luxury. Although he has to train long and hard to attain [[RapidFireFisticuffs blinding speed,]] (the ''Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken'' and ''Parlay du Fois Gras'' training methods,) or learn a particularly [[FinishingMove devastating technique,]] (the ''Hiryuu Shouten Ha'' and ''Mouko Takabisha'',) "long and hard" for him means "a few days of experimentation", regardless of the decades it might have taken the techniques' original creators. Particularly noticeable in the case of the [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Umisenken,]] which he learned from watching it once, and practiced and ''mastered'' literally overnight, then used it to defeat the opponent who had trained in the opposite style Yamasenken his entire life.
** It does help that the "Musabetsu Kakutō Saotome Ryū" (The Saotome School Of [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatism]]) is actually absurdly simple -- accent on ''absurd''. Its sole method of training is TrainingFromHell -- [[TaughtByExperience By Experience.]] As in, survive stupid suicidal acts '''repeatedly'''. For example, Genma taught him how to fall from buildings without killing himself by throwing him off cliffs. He survived over a decade of this. [[TheSpartanWay Starting at age two.]] Result: The martial arts equivalent of ''Series/ThePretender''. If there's something he doesn't know how to do with his body already, he can come up with a suicidal training aid and fill the gap in a day or so.
* {{Averted}} in the manga version of ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Makoto/Sailor Jupiter is the one who is supernaturally strong and Minako/Sailor Venus merely trains a lot, and the one time they fought due to Makoto being BrainwashedAndCrazy Minako [[OneHitKO knocked her out with a single vicious kick]].
** Averted again in the final arc when Sailor Moon has to face [[spoiler:her BrainwashedAndCrazy friends,]] as the one that proves the most dangerous is [[spoiler:Sailor Venus,]] the best trained one. Then seemingly played straight when Sailor Moon finds her resolve and [[OneHitKO kills everyone with one attack...]]except the manga side stories show that the workaholic Sailor Venus has been training her, it just hadn't been shown in the main story.
* In ''Manga/{{Saki}}'', a variation comes into play with Kaori, a complete beginner at mahjong whom her friend, the Tsuruga team president, recruited to the team so that they would have enough people to go to the tournament. Kaori manages to come out on top in her match with her uncanny BeginnersLuck, which disrupts the playstyle of Mako, her opponent from the protagonists' team, who plays with PhotographicMemory of her time in her grandfather's mahjong parlor and cannot counter Kaori's playstyle due to never having seen an amateur at play before. When the Tsuruga girls prepare to go to the individuals, Kaori is forbidden from practicing, under the reasoning that if she lost her beginner's luck, she could not possibly improve enough in that short time to compensate. Kaori ultimately ends up getting eliminated before long, though.
** In a more individual case on the flip side of this trope, Maho, who can imitate anyone's "special ability" for a single turn each day, nevertheless has many bad habits, such as revealing that she has no yaku, or trying to pick up a tile when doing so would get her penalized, despite having practiced for a year, and she's referred to as an "eternal beginner."
* In ''Manga/ServantXService'', for all his youth CreatureOfHabit Jouji has been challenging BrilliantButLazy Yutaka. For all these years Jouji won for ''not a single time''.
* Ren of ''Manga/ShamanKing'' suffers from this. His entire life has basically been one long TrainingFromHell, and yet no matter how hard he pushes himself, Yoh always kicks his butt with what seems to be little to no effort, the whole while spouting off his own philosophy of not pushing himself too hard to do something he can't do (which would have been the thing required to defeat Ren in that particular battle) until for no apparent reason, he is suddenly granted the ability to do that critical thing (or more commonly, the strategy that every experienced Shaman watching thought was total suicide turns out to work).
** It's worth remembering that prior to the story's beginning Yoh was given TrainingFromHell by his grandfather and later his fiancée, but said training didn't give him any [[IAmNotLeftHanded hidden power for him to conceal]] or help him get over his slacker tendencies. Hell, he's practically the ''messiah'' of slackers!
* ''[[Manga/ShinmaiOssanBoukenshaSaikyouPaatiNiShinuHodoKitaeRareteMutekiNiNnaru Shinmai Ossan Boukensha, Saikyou Party ni Shinu hodo Kitaerarete Muteki ni Naru]]'': Zig-zagged during Rick's fight with Gis. Gis is a DraconicHumanoid naturally gifted with incredible power and, as such, looks down on and mocks those who think "hard work" is enough to match him. Rick is a largely talentless, middle-aged man who started training much later in life than normal, but that training was so hellish that after two years he, too, boasts incredible power. Gis's previous fight was with Rick's friend Angelica, who had spent the month prior going through much the same TrainingFromHell Rick had in preparation for the fight, only to lose to Gis and fall into the DespairEventHorizon as a result. As Rick's fight with Gis progresses, it's revealed that he's actively holding back his full power. To be precise, he's holding himself back to Angelica's current level of physical strength so that she can view the fight almost as a rematch and get an idea of her true potential. Rick is handily winning until Gis unleashes his full draconic power. Once he does so he's so powerful that both Rick and Angelica acknowedge that, as she is now, after only one month of training, Angelica could ''never'' have beaten the naturally gifted Gis. Rick's response is to stop holding back as much and start using as much strength as Angelica would have after six months of training, then nine, then twelve and as he does so restricts himself largely to Angelica's own techniques. In this state he defeats Gis with ease, shows Angelica just what she has the potential to become, and subverts the idea that hard work is worthless all in one go.
* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' is a complete aversion, which is notable because it takes place in an MMO, which would naturally fall into this. The only way to increase your skills is to work, ''hard''. If they weren't trapped inside the game 24/7, no one would have time to get past level ten. Even though everyone desperately wants to escape from the game, they grudgingly admit that it is fair. A very in-depth review of the series pointed out that this is largely because the series was written in 2000, before ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', when [=MMOs=] were still grindfests where you could expect to do nothing but kill monsters to advance for most levels.
** And then it's played straight in both the ''Fairy Dance'' (where he is explicitly cheating by carrying over his SAO stats) and ''Phantom Bullet'' arcs ([[spoiler: where Kirito basically [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] his human enemies]]), only to be averted again during ''Alicization''. [[spoiler: And then played straight ''again'' with a vengeance, as Kirito goes from a HeroicRROD to the WorldsStrongestMan within seconds of his awakening and manage to {{CurbStomp|Battle}} both Vassago ''and'' Gabriel, both being {{Invincible Villain}}s until then.]]
* ''Manga/{{Teppu}}'' is about how main character Natsuo has finally found a sport UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts) where this trope ''doesn't'' hold for her, meaning she'll actually have to work to excel at it. This is exactly why she's interested in it. The manga otherwise has much the same attitude towards this trope as ''Holyland'' above: A good MMA fighter needs to have talent, training ''and'' experience. Natsuo has the talent, which is why she has the potential to be great at it. Her erstwhile rival Yuzuko has an expert coach and lots of training experience and hard work behind her, while Yuzuko's best friend Ringo adds a natural talent for the sport on top of it.
* ''Manga/{{Touch}}'': Averted in Tatsuya's case. Although he is an amazing natural athlete, even better than Kazuya, years without exercising or practicing mean that when he eventually joins the baseball team he has to train hard to even come close to his brother's standard, let alone surpass him. Played straight, however, with Minami, who goes from not being particularly interested in gymnastics to winning a championship very quickly.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'',
** Judai, despite sleeping through all the few classes he bothers to attend, effortlessly beats anybody who challenges him (except for a rare few). Deconstructed in Season 3, when an Isaac Newton-like teacher tries to take revenge on him for inspiring pupils to ignore studying and try to emulate his success, and a villain convinces him that everything coming so easily for him means he isn't a true hero. It's almost like a summary of how nobody likes TheAce because nowadays, TrueArtIsAngsty.
** The ''one'' time he ''does'' prepare and use a coherent strategy, in his second duel against Ryo, it doesn't work. Ryo comments that it's a disappointment and tells him to go back to dueling the way he did before. (Judai takes this advice to heart and manages to end their match in a draw.)
** The best example in the series however comes from Daichi Misawa, the Ra Yellow who is originally set up in Season 1 as TheRival to Judai. While exceptionally smart, he is shown spending hours upon hours studying and formulating strategies in order to beat his foes, being so CrazyPrepared as to make ''8 different decks'' over the course of the series (6 elemental decks, a seventh specifically to beat Judai, and an 8th "perfect" deck he uses for the rest of the series.) With the exception of Manjoume in Season 1, however, he rarely ever wins duels on-screen, and the few times he does win are against nameless RedShirts, and no one else cares. Be it Judai [[AssPull revealing a brand-new card perfect for the scenario,]] or the current BigBad [[MoreThanMindControl manipulating his will,]] Misawa's hard work all comes to naught against the MagicPokerEquation, and ends with him running away from the school [[NakedPeopleAreFunny buck naked.]]
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''; Case in point, Kuwabara trains hard to unlock his spiritual powers, Yusuke gets hit by a car. Yusuke trains too, sure, but he always manages to find shortcuts, leaving everyone else to get there the hard way.
** Come to that, throughout the series, Yusuke and Kuwabara mostly don't train during peaceful times. Kurama and Hiei do, and it lets them stay at roughly the same level. Hiei gets it the worst, because he doesn't seem to do anything else with his free time, while Kurama puts in enough work to stay at the top of his class in school and spends time with his human mother.
* Averted ''hard'' in ''Anime/ZatchBell'' with Zeon. He has the same lightning spells as TheHero Zatch only Zeon has also undergone TrainingFromHell. The end result is he kicks the crap out of Zatch so badly it takes Zatch's partner Kiyo having the [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Answer Talker]] superpower to even stand a chance. Zeon wins anyway through another aversion of the trope, his own partner Dufort has the same Answer Talker, only where Kiyo awoke it an hour ago he's been practicing it for years and naturally outclasses Kiyo by a large margin. When Zatch is about to undergo his own TrainingFromHell, he's told to not even bother trying to imitate Zeon's FlashStep abilities; it took Zeon years to get those down and Zatch just doesn't have the time.
* Every ''Franchise/{{Zoids}}'' protagonist of note tends to [[FallingIntoTheCockpit drop into the cockpit]] without much previous combat experience, and manage to kick the backsides of more than a few expert enemies who've fought for years.
** Bit Cloud might be a deconstruction, as he spent most of his adult life as a junk merchant specializing in Zoid parts and studying tactics, and isn't treated very seriously by opponents early on because he had little fame behind him. Bit also states at the start of the series he had wanted to be a pilot so it's possible he had trained beforehand. He's certainly good at coming up with a plan.
** Van and Bit are both justified by having the [[SapientSteed Organoid helping out from the inside]]. Van in particular starts out relying almost entirely on Zeke, and receives proper training later on. Bit [[ObfuscatingStupidity might be smarter than he looks.]]
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** The best of the Guarians of Gloom, Ares, is a God of War because that he constantly trains and fights. And even then it's stated that he can be killed if his opponents are enough skilled or have enough numbers.

** Harry is a naturally gifted Seeker. He doesn't seem to be that far above average while playing any other position. During the O.W.L tests, Harry is the student (that we know of) with the higest number of O.W.Ls after Hermione. And before that when the moment to learn the Patronus came, he learnt it in a day.
** This is also extended to Hufflepuff whose defining trait is hard work. [[HufflepuffHouse The number of major/notable characters from that house that are crucial to the plot can be counted on one hand ]].
** Hermoine is the best student in her house [[AvertedTrope because she spends all her time reading]].

** Harry is a naturally gifted Seeker. He doesn't seem to be that far above average while playing any other position.During the O.W.L tests, Harry is the student (that we know of) with the higest number of O.W.Ls after Hermione. And before that when the moment to learn the Patronus came, he learnt it in a day.

It results in CantCatchUp and InstantExpert, and the hard-working character becoming TheResenter who keeps saying "ICouldaBeenAContender". This is the opposite of CharlesAtlasSuperpower and WeakButSkilled. Contrast HardWorkFallacy (the misconception that ''only'' hard work matters) and TalentedButTrained (ability ''plus'' hard work). See also TechnicianVersusPerformer and IncompletelyTrained. It's often accompanied by a TrainingMontage. Is regretfully a HardTruthAesop.

It results in CantCatchUp and InstantExpert, and the hard-working character becoming TheResenter who keeps saying "ICouldaBeenAContender". This is the opposite of CharlesAtlasSuperpower and WeakButSkilled. Contrast HardWorkFallacy (the misconception that ''only'' hard work matters) and TalentedButTrained (ability ''plus'' hard work). See also TechnicianVersusPerformer and IncompletelyTrained. It's often accompanied by a TrainingMontage.

** In "Mom and Pop Art", Homer's failed attempt at building an outdoor barbecue winds up becoming an renouned outside artist, which annoys Marge who has been trying her hand at art for years and never reached the progress Homer had.

** Neville seems to be playing this straight until ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. Neville is PlayedStraight. Neville is at the rock bottom of the pecking order. While he does improve during the DA lessons he does not really reach the level of the main Trio or even the other students of the DA. Neville is a case of CantCatchUp.

** Neville seems to be playing this straight until ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. Neville is PlayedStraight. Neville is at the rock bottom of the pecking order. While he does improve during the DA lessons he does not really reach the level of the main Trio or even the other students of the DA. Neville is a case of Can'tCatchUp.

** Harry is a naturally gifted Seeker. He doesn't seem to be that far above average while playing any other position.Altough during the O.W.L tests, Harry is the student (that we know of) with the higest number of O.W.Ls after Hermione. And before that when the moment to learn the Patronus came, he learnt it ina day.

** Ron can be called the poster boy for the trope. He starts as a rather mediocre Quidditch Player, but quickly becomes one of the best players of the Team. And when he studies hard, he actually got a very large number of OWLs
** Neville seems to be playing this straight until ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. Give Neville a reason to work, and he will give you results. When Bellatrix Lestrange escaped from Azkaban Neville was given sufficient reason to become a fighter; his subsequent focus and training caused him to improve himself almost as fast as ''Hermione'' and Harry considered this sudden change to be quite alarming. This was also the book in which it was revealed he'd been using a wand that hadn't chosen him meaning he'd had the distinct disadvantage of dealing with a wand that was fighting him this whole time.

** Harry is a naturally gifted Seeker. He doesn't seem to be that far above average while playing any other position. [[LamarckWasRight The general line is that this is because his dad was a great seeker]]. When it comes to school work, he leans on Hermione.

** Ron doesn't excel at school subjects or sports because he's playing Wizard Chess, which he excels at and he eventually becomes an excellent Quidditch Keeper and his grades are mostly passable to good, he's just OvershadowedByAwesome.

** It has also been mentioned a few times that Alice is the highest paid engineer in the company, so her effort isn't completely wasted.

* Lampshaded in ''Film/ForrestGump''. Forrest never works to become a fast runner or a good table tennis player.

* Charm Caster in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' spent years learning magic. Gwen meanwhile is naturally talented and can do it without any training. Justified since she is part Anodite, aliens who are literally made of magic.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': The episode "Flying Solo" has Clyde want to sing the solo, believing that [[HardWorkFallacy having a month of training and practice]] [[HighHopesZeroTalent and wanting to sing the solo more than Lincoln]] makes him a better choice for the part. So, he tricks Lincoln into losing his voice when Lincoln gets the part instead. But it is only after Clyde tries to sing the solo, but keeps making mistakes during practice, when he realizes that he's actually ''physically'' unable to sing the solo correctly [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome because all the training in the world can't change the quality of his voice]]. Unlike Lincoln, [[BeautifulSingingVoice whose voice is actually right for the part]].

** To the trope's point, follow-up researchers Macnamara (2014) did a meta-analysis across disciplines, critiqued the 10,000hr Rule (apparently a somewhat arbitrary number), found deliberate practice explained roughly a quarter or less of success (some fields as low as 1%), and concluded "deliberate practice is important, but not as important as has been argued". It may be a requirement for many kinds of success, but by no means a guarantee.

* Averted with a vengeance in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', where even [[WordOfGod the author]] has gone on record stating this is a series where hard work does pay off. This is exemplified at the end of Volume 2/anime Season 1, when Issei's EleventhHourSuperpower [[spoiler:expires before he can land more than one good hit on his foe. He goes on to win the fight thanks to everything he learned during his earlier TrainingFromHell, with a dash of CrazyPrepared.]] Even his biggest MidSeasonUpgrade, [[spoiler:being resurrected in a body grown from two deities]], is less of a raw power boost than finally being able to go all-out without [[HeroicRROD tearing himself apart]].

** And then it's played straight in both the ''Fairy Dance'' (where he is explicitly cheating by carrying over his SAO stats) and ''Phantom Bullet'' arcs ([[spoiler: where Kirito basically [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] his human enemies]]), only to be averted again during ''Alicization''.

* ''[[Manga/ShinmaiOssanBoukenShaSaikyouPaatiNiShinuHodoKitaeRareteMutekiNiNnaru Shinmai Ossan Boukensha, Saikyou Party ni Shinu hodo Kitaerarete Muteki ni Naru]]'': Zig-zagged during Rick's fight with Gis. Gis is a DraconicHumanoid naturally gifted with incredible power and, as such, looks down on and mocks those who think "hard work" is enough to match him. Rick is a largely talentless, middle-aged man who started training much later in life than normal, but that training was so hellish that after two years he, too, boasts incredible power. Gis's previous fight was with Rick's friend Angelica, who had spent the month prior going through much the same TrainingFromHell Rick had in preparation for the fight, only to lose to Gis and fall into the DespairEventHorizon as a result. As Rick's fight with Gis progresses, it's revealed that he's actively holding back his full power. To be precise, he's holding himself back to Angelica's current level of physical strength so that she can view the fight almost as a rematch and get an idea of her true potential. Rick is handily winning until Gis unleashes his full draconic power. Once he does so he's so powerful that both Rick and Angelica acknowedge that, as she is now, after only one month of training, Angelica could ''never'' have beaten the naturally gifted Gis. Rick's response is to stop holding back as much and start using as much strength as Angelica would have after six months of training, then nine, then twelve and as he does so restricts himself largely to Angelica's own techniques. In this state he defats Gis with ease, shows Angelica just what she has the potential to become, and subverts the idea that hard work is worthless all in one go.

* In ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' Hynreck is a professional hero who spent his whole life being the best at everything he does, but he can't hold a candle against Bastian, who outmatches him with ease by virtue of holding AURYN.