History SecretTestOfCharacter / AnimeAndManga

* The "Evolution" arc of ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}'' has one for each of the protagonists([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Masquerade]]) to help overcome their glaring psychological weaknesses.

** There's one of these during the first part of the Chuunin exam. An extremely difficult written exam is given. Before the final and supposedly most difficult question is revealed, the contestants are given a chance to quit the exam. Anyone who gets it right passes by default. Get it wrong, and you fail and can never take the test again, effectively stonewalling your ninja career. If you quit, however, your whole squad fails (but may try the test again next year). Many forfeit and leave, but the protagonist stays even though he couldn't answer even one of the other questions. It turns out that not giving up (along with putting your team's interest before your own) is the {{Aesop}}, and everyone who didn't walk out passes. The aim of the exercise was to weed out those who would betray their teammates for their personal interests, or cave to pressure from their enemies. The rest of the test was to see if the examinees were good enough at ninja skills to cheat and not get caught.

* Played with in ''Literature/Overlord2012''. Sebas Tien is [[TokenGoodTeammate the only person in Nazerick with a non-evil alignment]], so when he effectively rescues a young human girl (which was well beyond the purview of his assignment), others start to question his priorities. To put an end to it, Ainz orders Sebas to kill Tuare, the girl in question. Considering his position, and the fact Tuare has already been through far worse than a quick death (she makes no attemptto defend herself, seeing her death as the price to pay for her savior not getting in trouble), Sebas goes through with it. [[spoiler:Cocytus blocks his attack, saving Tuare, and confirms to Ainz that Sebas wasn't checking his swing. Satisfied with this show of loyalty, Ainz declares the matter closed and makes Tuare an apprentice maid in the dungeon, effectively Sebas's ward.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': During their first meeting, Ukitake gives Ichigo just enough hints for him to work out that [[spoiler:as a Substitute Shinigami, Soul Society will keep an eye on him and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness execute him if they determine that he is more of a threat than an asset]]]]. Seventeen months after Aizen's defeat, [[spoiler:[[FallenHero Ginjo]]]] explicitly spells it out to Ichigo, who responds that he kinda figured it out long ago and that he found it suspicious that Ukitake let him figure it out in the first place, when he could've easily kept Ichigo in the dark if he really wanted to. From this, Ichigo determines that Ukitake ''wanted'' him to learn the truth in order to see whether or not Ichigo would still choose to side with Soul Society in spite of it. Once he declares that he will, the rest of the Shinigami sent to [[spoiler:restore his powers]] take their leave, satisfied that Ukitake and Rukia's faith in Ichigo has been proven to be well-founded.

** The nobility that controls the government gets put through one when they recieve[[spoiler:a false report stating that Wall Rose has fallen]]. They fail miserably when [[spoiler:they insist on sealing off Wall Sina and letting the refugees of Wall Rose, over half of humanity, die. As a result, they [[MilitaryCoup are ousted from power]] and Historia Reiss is installed as Queen]]. Pixis even states that had they reacted differently, he would have been content to [[spoiler: let Erwin (And maybe even himself) be executed. But because they were willing to sacrifice half of humanity to protect themselves, Pixis sides with Erwin and has his soldiers take over the capital]]

** The nobility that controls the government gets put through one when [[spoiler:a false report stating that Wall Rose has fallen]]. They fail miserably when [[spoiler:they insist on sealing off Wall Sina and letting the refugees of Wall Rose, over half of humanity, die. As a result, they [[MilitaryCoup are ousted from power]] and Historia Reiss is installed as Queen]]. Pixis even states that had they reacted differently, he would have been content to [[spoiler: let Erwin (And maybe even himself) be executed. But because they were willing to sacrifice half of humanity to protect themselves, Pixis sides with Erwin and has his soldiers take over the capital]]

** The nobility that controls the government gets put through one when [[spoiler:a false report stating that Wall Rose has fallen.]] They fail miserably when [[spoiler:they insist on sealing off Wall Sina and letting the refugees of Wall Rose, over half of humanity, die. As a result, they [[MilitaryCoup are ousted from power]] and Historia Reiss is installed as Queen]]

* In the first ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' light novel, the [[NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters Gandor brothers]] are introduced in a scene in which they force a man to play RussianRoulette with a fully-loaded pistol. When the unfortunate individual panics and tries to use the gun to shoot oldest brother Keith, Luck informs him that [[FalseRoulette the cartridges are empty]] and the whole thing was a test: they know he's been embezzling from them, and out of respect for the work he's done for them up to that point they decided to test him and see how he'd react. If he'd accepted his fate and pulled the trigger on himself, they'd simply have kicked him out of their [[TheMafia family]]. If he'd confessed and begged for mercy, they'd have beat the stuffing out of him and kicked him out of the family. If he'd continued to play dumb, they'd have cut his tongue out but still let him leave with his life.

* Played with in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012''. Sebas Tien is [[TokenGoodTeammate the only person in Nazerick with a non-evil alignment]], so when he effectively rescues a young human girl (which was well beyond the purview of his assignment), others start to question his priorities. To put an end to it, Ainz orders Sebas to kill Tuare, the girl in question. Considering his position, and the fact Tuare has already been through far worse than a quick death (she makes no attemptto defend herself, seeing her death as the price to pay for her savior not getting in trouble), Sebas goes through with it. [[spoiler:Cocytus blocks his attack, saving Tuare, and confirms to Ainz that Sebas wasn't checking his swing. Satisfied with this show of loyalty, Ainz declares the matter closed and makes Tuare an apprentice maid in the dungeon, effectively Sebas's ward.]]

** When a team led by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju was pinned down by enemies, he determined the only way any of them would escape was if one member [[YouShallNotPass stayed behind to delay them]]. He asked his subordinates for a volunteer, with Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately stepping forward. Tobirama refused having planned to sacrifice himself all along. The question was a final test to see which of his pupils would become Hokage after his death and Hiruzen passed. [[TheRival Danzo Shimura]] despised Hiruzen for this, both because it meant [[GreenEyedMonster Hiruzen got to be Hokage instead]] and that his [[WhatYouAreInTheDark own quiet hesitation to be the one to offer his life]] showed his convictions weren't as strong as he thought them to be.

* Played with in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012''. Sebas Tien is [[TokenGoodTeammate the only person in Nazerick with a non-evil alignment]], so when he effectively rescues a young human girl (which was well beyond the purview of his assignment), others start to question his priorities. To put an end to it, Ainz orders Sebas to kill Tuare, the girl in question. Considering his position, and the fact Tuare has already been through far worse than a quick death, Sebas goes through with it. [[spoiler:Cocytus blocks his attack, saving Tuare, and confirms to Ainz that Sebas wasn't checking his swing. Satisfied with this show of loyalty, Ainz declares the matter closed and makes Tuare an apprentice maid in the dungeon, effectively Sebas's ward.]]

** Shirogane's father tests Kaguya's feelings for his son the first time they meet by pretending to be an outsider and insulting Shirogane to gauge her feelings for him. [[spoiler:Given how his courtship with his own wife was very similar to the one that Kaguya and Shirogane have now (plus the fact that she turned out to be a GoldDigger who abandoned him after Kaguya's family stole his company), it's understandable why he'd want to make sure Kaguya doesn't have sinister intentions for his son.]]

* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', this was the reason for Mamoru's prophetic dreams. His future self, King Endymion, sent him vague, prophetic dreams about ''something'' horrible happening to Usagi, if they stayed together. He did this, in order to test his past's self's feelings and see if they could master this. Backfires horribly, as Mamoru is so confused and terrified that he ''dumps'' Usagi with no proper explanation and it takes them a good dozen episodes to finally get back together, only after ''Usagi'' started having prophetic dreams, too. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero This means Endymion almost destroyed his entire future, which would have included his wife and daughter's lives, because of this.]]

* In ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'', Saul does this to Seigi a couple of times. Usually, the premise is asking him questions about gemstones or other knowledge and turns into Saul approving of his moral choices and giving him the information he needs to proceed.

-->'''Setsuna''': The choices you gave me -- it wasn't that I needed strength to defeat you, but what I did need to break through was to truly '''realize''' the power of my own will! That was the answer, wasn't it?!
-->'''Eva''': ''injured'' [[SureLetsGoWithThat Nhn? Dunno... I s'ppose...]]

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': [[spoiler:The Tournament of Power turns out to be one of these for '''[[UpToEleven all of existence]]'''. Eight universes are pitted against each other in a battle royale tournament, with the losers being erased from existence and the last person standing on the winning team getting a wish from the Super Dragon Balls. In the end, Android 17 gets the wish and uses it to bring back the other seven universes...at which point the Grand Priest reveals that Zen-Oh fully expected this, believing that whomever won the tournament would be virtuous enough to make a selfless wish like that. If they'd made a selfish wish instead, he would have just erased all of existence on the spot.]]

** When a team led by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju was pinned down by enemies, he determined the only way any of them would escape was if one member [[YouShallNotPass stayed behind to delay them]]. He asked his subordinates for a volunteer, with Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately stepping forward. Tobirama refused having planned to sacrifice himself all along. The question was a final test to see which of his pupils would become Hokage after his death and Hiruzen passed.

* [[ElaborateUniversityHigh Eden Academy]] in ''Anime/SpyXFamily'' carefully vets prospective students and their families for elegance. On interview day, each family is gathered in a courtyard and told to wait; [[AwesomeByAnalysis Loid]] notices that they're being watched, and deduces that this is part of the test.

** Marlow gets put through one to see if he was trustworthy enough [[spoiler:to join Levi's squad and help rescue Eren and Historia]]. He and his fellow teammate are made to believe that they will be killed. Marlow chooses to not fight, instead trying to let his teammate escape unharmed and intentionally drops his weapon to show his willingess to trust [[spoiler:Jean Kirchstein]].

* The infamous [[TrainingFromHell "Tokyo Tower Hell"]] admission test from ''Manga/Eyeshield21'' tuns out to be this, because what matters is '''not''' to [[spoiler: carry some ice packs to the top of Tokyo Tower]] but to [[spoiler: get to the top ''[[DeTerminator even if the contents of the ice packs have melted]]''.]] As a proof, [[spoiler: ''[[WeakButSkilled Manabu]] [[GeekPhysique Yukimitsu]]'' managed to pass it despite getting there ''as the sun is setting'' '''and''' after all the ice he was carrying has melted down.]]