History TheWorfEffect / AnimeAndManga

* In his first appearance in ''{{Durarara}}'' Kinnosuke talks how police gets that kind of treatment in all kinds of fictions dealing with supernatural – they usually ends laying in their own blood to show how dangerous enemy is. However, he doesn't really mind, as this shows that people still believe that cops are strong and powerful.

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' does this with Kuwabara,who lost almost all his battles in the TournamentArc to show how terrible the next team was. Averted against the final team though where he beat Elder Toguro

* Ash's Charizard from the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime is regarded as one of, if not ''the'', strongest {{mon}} amongst all the main characters' teams. So powerful, in fact, that he can [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu stand toe to toe against Legendary Pokémon, and]] ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu win]]''. However, he has also been a victim of this trope at least two times.

** Vegeta is doomed to this role for most of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. After and even before his HeelFaceTurn, his place in the plot is mostly getting the crap kicked out of him by the newest villain, including Zarbon(though he makes up for it the next time they fight), Recoome, Frieza(who killed him), Android 18, Perfect Cell, Cell Jr., Majin Buu, Kid Buu, and most recently Beerus. And that's not even counting the movies, besides Battle of Gods, which is canon. It's even acknowledged in-universe with Vegeta lamenting that he's gone soft and that Goku is always one step ahead of him.

** He's [[MemeticLoser never going to live down]] the fact that he was [[DroppedaBridgeonHim unceremoniously killed]] by a Saibaman.

** Even Goku wound up like this in late DB and early DBZ. Both Tao-Pai-Pai and and King Piccolo defeated him with little to no trouble in their first bouts with him forcing Goku to seek ways to get stronger to overcome them. Then at the start of DBZ when Raditz showed up, he took Goku out with ''one kick'' during their first encounter and spent most of their second curbstomping him.

** Hody Jones, BigBad of the Fishman Island arc, got hit with this badly. First he defeated a crew heading to the New World with relative ease, all while being restrained by chains, to establish that he is a serious threat. [[spoiler:Then Zoro beat him. With one slash. ''Underwater''. Meaning that ''Sanji'' could've easily defeated him if he wanted to, and he usually fights the third strongest antagonist. Even when he went OneWingedAngel, he didn't stand chance, easily getting his ass kicked by Luffy on land. Hell, when the fight was underwater, and Luffy couldn't swim and stuck in a ''bubble'' that restrained his movements, and trying to prevent a '''ColonyDrop''' that was about to destroy Fishman Island, Hody ''still'' got his ass kicked. This is establish that while Hody would've been a good opponent pre-TimeSkip, he is ''nothing'' compared to a New World-ready crew.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' franchise as a whole has [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Seraphimon]]. As an Mega-level Digimon, the leader of the Three Great Angels and one of the rulers of the Digital World in the ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' continuity, he is incredibly powerful, but you'd only really know this if you're into the ExpandedUniverse. Whenever Seraphimon shows up in [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 an]] [[Anime/DigimonFrontier anime]] or [[Manga/{{Digimon V-Tamer 01}} manga]], he is promptly defeated (and outright killed in ''Frontier''), demonstrating just how dangerous the new antagonist is. His debut appearance in the first of the ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' movies had him defeated by Cherubimon within ''thirty seconds'' of evolving, and that was with another Mega, Magnadramon, assisting him!

** Luffy's rival Smoker shares the same fate as Ace. While defeating Luffy and proving that he is a WorthyOpponent, he immediately gets worfed by Monkey D. Dragon. And usually when Luffy is about to be captured by him, a character with few or no feats shows up to save him from Smoker and by this proves his strength. In Loguetown it was Dragon, in Alabasta he tied with Ace and in Marineford Hancock easily broke his weapon. This is taken to extreme levels during Punk Hazard, where he is beaten by [[spoiler: no less than 4 characters: Trafalgar Law, Caesar Clown, Vergo and then Doflamingo (though in Caesar's case, he was handicapped by not [[FreakyFridayFlip being inside his own body)]]]].

** Luffy's rival Smoker shares the same fate as Ace. While defeating Luffy and proving that he is a WorthyOpponent, he immediately gets worfed by Monkey D. Dragon. And usually when Luffy is about to be captured by him, a character with few or no feats shows up to save him from Smoker and by this proves his strength. In Loguetown it was Dragon, in Alabasta he tied with Ace and in Marineford Hancock easily broke his weapon. This is taken to extreme levels during Punk Hazard, where he is beaten by [[spoiler: no less than 4 characters: Trafalgar Law, Caesar Clown, Vergo and then Doflamingo (though in Caesar's case, he was handicapped by not [[FreakyFridayFlip being inside his own body]]]].

** Kuyou is on the giving and receiving end of this. In his first appearance, he curb-stomps Inner Moka and nearly kills Tsukune, forcing Moka to give the latter a SuperhumanTransfusion to save his life, which also gives Tsukune just enough power to beat Kuyou down. When he returns during the Fairy Tale arc, he's averted VillainForgotToLevelGrind and gotten even stronger... but his only real purpose is to show the readers how [[TookALevelInBadass many levels in badass]] Tsukune has taken by kicking his ass.

** During Season I, Inner Moka always managed to defeat the MonsterOfTheWeek with ease, with a few exceptions; for example, she only managed to beat Gin because the full moon, which was Gin's power source, ended up being covered by clouds, and she was nearly killed by Kuyou. Come Season II, she gets hit by this more and more starting with Kahlua, whom Inner Moka openly admitted she didn't stand a chance against.

** Even [[LadyOfWar Signum]] got hit with this in ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce Force]]'' to show off how powerful the [[InvincibleVillain Huckebein]] are.

*** Marines in general (unless you're Admiral rank or higher, or [[AlmightyJanitor Garp]]).

** Luffy's rival Smoker shares the same fate as Ace. While defeating Luffy and proving that he is a WorthyOpponent, he immediately gets worfed by Monkey D. Dragon. And usually when Luffy is about to be captured by him, a character with few or no feats shows up to save him from Smoker and by this proves his strength. In Logue town it was Dragon, in Alabasta he drawed with Ace, in Marineford Hancock broke his weapon and most recently [[spoiler: was beaten first by Trafalgar Law and then by Doflamingo]].

* Kuyou of ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' is on the giving and receiving end of this. In his first appearance, he curb-stomps Inner Moka and nearly kills Tsukune, forcing Moka to give the latter a SuperhumanTransfusion to save his life, which also gives Tsukune just enough power to beat Kuyou down. When he returns during the Fairy Tale arc, he's averted VillainForgotToLevelGrind and gotten even stronger... but his only real purpose is to show the readers how [[TookALevelInBadass many levels in badass]] Tsukune has taken by kicking his ass.

*** Chad is one-shotted by Nnoitra to establish Nnoitra's threat level prior to Ichigo fighting him.

** Kenpachi was worfed in a swift off-screen fight to establish the power level [[spoiler: of Yhwach]] in the final arc.

* ''KirbyRightBackAtYa'' would sometimes give Meta Knight this treatment whenever they wanted to show how dangerous the MonsterOfTheWeek was.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Manjoume gets the Worf treatment quite a bit--he's lost to Daichi, Amnael, Saiou, and Amon. All four of them beat Manjoume in their first shown duels, and with the exception of Amon none of them had a particularly hard time doing it. He also tends to duel [[TheHero Judai]] whenever Judai gets a new deck. His only wins before Season 2 were against Mooks, his brother (who isn't a duelist), and a MonsterOfTheWeek. He got more victories in Season 2 after his FaceHeelTurn, including against Daichi and Asuka, and he's the one who dueled and defeated the entire Obelisk Blue dorm. Still, said FaceHeelTurn was caused by, you guessed it, the BigBad defeating him in a duel. Season 4 finally gives him a significant victory on his own when he defeats [[TheAce Edo]].

*** Speaking of [=CP9=], the Galley-La workers. They were established as extremely strong and capable of beating Luffy easily, yet once the [=CP9=] members revealed their true identities, the Galley-la workers were tossed aside. Of course, it's probably safe to assume that Luffy's heart really wasn't in the fight after Usopp left, which is a fair enough explanation for him egtting kicked around by people he's established to be far stronger than.

** Of all the characters, the one closest to being the main villain got this. Blackbeard, among other things, was considered to be at the same level of one of the four most baddasses pirates in the world, this even was before he got his super powers, several characters had ben Worfed for the sake of his, and he's considered one of the only two enemies Luffy had ever ran away from, yet during the Impel Down arc he got badly trashed (like Voldemort-killing-Cedric badly) by a completely new character called Magellan who's in charge of the prision, it's important to notice that by the end of the very same arc that he got Worfed he came to be considered the most dangerous criminal in the world, and every named character ever wants his head, this Magellan dude is bad news. Notably, Magellan has one of the most broken non-Logia Devil Fruit powers in the series (up there with [[PersonOfMassDestruction Whitebeard]] himself), and the team-up of Luffy, Crocodile, Jinbei and Ivankov has no choice but to flee from him.

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Poor Mamoru. On top of being the anime's designated [[JamesBondage Distressed Dude]], he also had the distinction of being a strange candidate for this trope because all he had going for him as Tuxedo Mask were his physical strength and agility, a cane, and roses that rarely had any magical properties. Needless to say, it wasn't terribly threatening when you saw the powerless guy in a suit get his butt kicked to try and show the bad guys were a real threat compared to the main characters who all have super powers. In the manga, he ''does'' have super-powers, as well as character development, but in the anime, well, even the show [[LampshadeHanging had fun]] with his designated appearance toward the end of the battle (followed by an overly long metaphor and call for Sailor Moon to use her final attack).

*** Due to the fact that the girls so often rely him to pull their butts out of the fire in their fights, this trope also has the unfortunate side-effect of making the senshi look ''weaker'' by comparison.

** Vegeta is doomed to this role for most of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. After his HeelFaceTurn, his place in the plot is "lose to Zarbon (though he makes up for it the next time they fight) lose to Recoome, almost lose to Frieza, lose to Frieza's final form, get killed by Frieza, lose to Android 18, lose to Perfect Cell, almost lose to Cell Jr, lose to Majin Buu, and get the crap kicked out of him by Kid Buu while someone else wins the fight."