History UnderestimatingBadassery / AnimeAndManga

*** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'' the new Red Ribbon particularly the UnwittingPawn SmugSuper androids Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 don't think much Piccolo and Gohan only seeing them as minor threats or mini-bosses to be taken out before moving onto main course that is Goku and Vegeta. They get a rude awakening when Gohan [[PersonOfMassDestruction decimates]] most of their base in pure rage at Pan being "kidnapped" and Gamma 2 going from confident he can beat to Piccolo to a PunchPunchPunchUhOh against his SuperMode, this results in a ScrewThisImOuttaHere from the leaders Magenta and Carmine. Also Gohan in general gets underestimated throughout the movie even by his own allies (including his own daughter Pan), being a bumbling nerd who has a DroppedGlasses [[BlindWithoutEm moment]] straight after a fight. Yet as proven by the climax he's a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass who's the WorldsStrongestMan when fully realising his limitless well of potential [[spoiler:delivering a CurbStompBattle to Cell Max upon becoming Beast Gohan.]]

** On the flipside, Vinsmoke Yonji has this moment when he meets his brother Sanji again after 13 years. Yonji, having easily thrashed his non-SuperSoldier brother for most of his childhood, assumes he'll still be able to push [[TookALevelInBadass a full grown Sanji]] around. [[CurbStompBattle Boy, was he mistaken]]. After getting his skull reset, Yonji blusters over how a "good for nothing" like Sanji could kick his ass so hard.
** This trope keeps happening throughout the Whole Cake Island Arc to varying degrees. Vinsmoke Judge figures he can use Big Mom's name to intimidate his enemies easily by giving his estranged son as a bridegroom, never taking into account just ''how'' unreliable and two-faced Big Mom is, and in fact she just wants to kill his family and take his army's technology. Capone "Gang" Bege cooks up a plan to kill Big Mom by pushing her TraumaButton and firing several poisoned missiles at her --''one'' missile could kill a man easily, but why take chances?-- only to be shocked when her hysterical screams have enough force to destroy the missiles easily. The Big Mom Pirates are so used to dealing with pesky rookies entering their territory, so while they get a good start against the Straw Hats, they write them off on vague reports despite having NeverFoundTheBody, allowing the heroes to regroup and plan a counterattack. After the Straw Hats ruin the Tea Party assassination, the Charlotte Family abandons this attitude and send all of their forces to where they expect the Straw Hats to be, as, after so many near misses, they can no longer take chances and give Luffy and co. even the slightest hope of escaping. And even ''then'' they keep underestimating the Straw Hats, thinking Luffy couldn't ''possibly'' have [[spoiler:beaten their strongest brother and paragon fair and square, one on one]].
** This keeps happening in the Wano Arc. After Luffy gets beat and captured by Kaido, the guards of the Udon prison-mine assume he's just a small-fry they can push around with ease, even though Luffy's resilience had won ''Kaido's'' respect. In the third act, a bunch of Animal Kingdom Pirates attack Luffy, Kid, and Law's crews all at once, believing that since all three captains were captured by Kaido at one point, they must be a bunch of pushovers. The three captains get vexed by this disrespect and proceed to ''obliterate'' one of their ships in a matter of seconds.

** This trope keeps happening throughout the Totto Land Arc to varying degrees. Vinsmoke Judge figures he can use Big Mom's name to intimidate his enemies easily by giving his estranged son as a bridegroom, never taking into account just ''how'' unreliable and two-faced Big Mom is, and in fact she just wants to kill his family and take his army's technology. Capone "Gang" Bege cooks up a plan to kill Big Mom by pushing her TraumaButton and firing several poisoned missiles at her --''one'' missile could kill a man easily, but why take chances?-- only to be shocked when her hysterical screams have enough force to destroy the missiles easily. The Big Mom Pirates are so used to dealing with pesky rookies entering their territory, so while they get a good start against the Straw Hats, they write them off on vague reports despite having NeverFoundTheBody, allowing the heroes to regroup and plan a counterattack. After the Straw Hats ruin the Tea Party assassination, the Charlotte Family abandons this attitude and send all of their forces to where they expect the Straw Hats to be, as, after so many near misses, they can no longer take chances and give Luffy and co. even the slightest hope of escaping. And even ''then'' they keep underestimating the Straw Hats, thinking Luffy couldn't ''possibly'' have [[spoiler:beaten their strongest brother and paragon fair and square, one on one]].

** Similarly, Zorin disobeys orders and attacks the Hellsing mansion, assuming it was helpless without Alucard around. She ends up killing and insulting Seras' LoveInterest, leading her to evolve into an actual vampire and granting Zorin a death that would have made Alucard proud. The Major even tried to warn her about it beforehand, saying that while he himself isn't certain why, Alucard had to have chosen to turn Seras into a vampire for a reason, and if Alucard sees something in her, then she's not to be taken lightly.

* It's not uncommon in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' for a minor or sometimes major villain to underestimate Kenshiro, a man who can make your body explode. Usually, said villain thinks the villain’s own techniques are better than his, and that villain pays with the villain’s own lives for it.

* Happened all over the place in ''Manga/OnePiece''. The [[BigBad villains]] and minor [[JerkAss assholes]] often underestimated [[TheHero Straw Hat Luffy]], [[TheLancer Zoro]] or [[TheBigGuy Sanji]] when they first meet, but sometimes the Straw Hats themselves fall prey to this. Somewhat justified since this series is filled with {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s and {{Crouching Moron Hidden Badass}}es.

** Which makes at least one major aversion rather notable. When Luffy learns that his brother is on death row, he resolves to rescue him, despite knowing that said brother is in the pirate crew of [[WorldsStrongestMan Whitebeard]], who is absolutely ''[[PapaWolf guaranteed]]'' to make a move to rescue him already, and is far better equipped to do so. Everyone tells Luffy that he'll be in completely over his head if he tries to butt in, and they're ''absolutely right''. Luffy spends the entire battle getting repeatedly [[CurbstompBattle curbstomped]] by pretty much every antagonistic named character he encounters, needing to get bailed out by either a member of Whitebeard's crew, or one of the allies he made in [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down]].

** Both Kenpachi and Nnoitra manage to underestimate ''each other'' during their battle. Specifically, Nnoitra finds out that Kenpachi doesn't care at all about being hit, won't stop attacking no matter what he throws at him, and is actually strong enough to bypass his resistance; meanwhile, Kenpachi is forced to reconsider his [[AttackAttackAttack usual tactic]] after taking so many wounds from Nnoitra's scythes, since dragging the fight long as he usually does will result in him dying from blood loss, forcing him to do the unthinkable and use both hands.

** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'': Wired Beck thinks Lisa Lisa is just a pretty woman and pounces on her, ignoring both her completely calm and composed attitude and her threat that it will be the last thing he does. Naturally, it doesn't end well for him.
** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'': Nena wrongly assumed Joseph was nothing more than a senile old man with a weak Stand. She meets her demise when he outsmarts her. Then, Alessi, despite knowing how strong Jotaro is, was so swept up in his gloating after turning Jotaro into a child, failed to even consider that a younger Jotaro might be nearly as strong as his older self.
** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'': Yoshikage Kira, in his first encounter with Jotaro, makes the mistake of assuming that he would be a pushover because of Jotaro's severe injuries. A NoHoldsBarredBeatdown proves him wrong, and Kira quickly wises up from it and tries his best to avoid Jotaro in the future. After implanting [[GroundhogDayLoop Bites the Dust]] into Hayato, Kira arrogantly believes that he is just a snot nosed little brat and doesn't think he's smart enough to disrupt his plans. This is most obvious after Hayato comes up with the plan to use Stray Cat against him, Kira assumed that Hayato needed to have repeated the day three or four times in order to come up with said plan, when in actuality Hayato only repeated the day twice. Then, after luck saves him from Stray Cat's bullets, he arrogantly reveals his identify out loud in front of Josuke, never imagining that Hayato had a backup plan in case the first plan failed.
** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'': In the midst of the last battle, Diavolo believes Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem merely gained a power-up in strength, completely forgetting that the power of Requiem grants Stands entirely new abilities as it did with Polnareff's Silver Chariot. This ended up being an [[ResurrectionDeathLoop eternally fatal]] mistake.

** Miwa once asked Mai how strong her sister Maki was; having a strained relationship with her sister, Mai simply told Miwa that Maki is a grade 4 sorcerer and a weakling who cannot even see curses and [[UnSorcerer relies on cursed tools since she has no cursed energy of her own]]. Miwa was relieved to hear this, since they would be fighting Maki and the rest of the Tokyo students for the Goodwill Event. As Miwa quickly finds out when she ends up fighting Maki, however, [[CurbStompBattle Mai was talking out of her ass]].

** Eso assumes that Yuji and Nobara are weak enough to fall to his Cursed Technique within minutes without fighting back. They then instantly turn the tables on the both of them, with Nobara sticking her nails in her body to use "Resonance" on them, while Yuji's resistance to poison (due to being Sukuna's vessel) allows him to fight Kechizu without any hassle.

** Characters tended to underestimate Naruto often because they simply knew him as a struggling ninja academy student. Post-time skip it became less common, especially since he started win enough fights which would more likely make others too afraid to take him on. [[spoiler:Surprisingly averted by the real Madara Uchiha]] of all people. He actually respects Naruto's abilities, and this is a guy who considers everyone but [[spoiler:the First Hokage]] an unworthy challenge.
** Despite his reputation, Kakashi is underestimated surprisingly often, such as Zabuza thinking he stood a good chance when in reality Kakashi ended up beating Zabuza in a few moves. This is not so surprising given that Kakashi seems to [[ObfuscatingStupidity purposefully make himself look weak]]; he slouches, moves slowly, seems to be half-blind to the uneducated, and goes around reading porn everywhere. If you saw someone like that, your first impression wouldn't be that he is a powerful ninja, let alone that he'd [[spoiler:be Hokage in a few years' time.]]
*** [[spoiler: Obito]] underestimated the speed and efficiency with which Kakashi could use [[PortalCut Kamui]]. He quickly learned not to do so again.
** Perhaps the most commonly underestimated nin of all is [[BewareTheSillyOnes Might]] [[BunnyEarsLawyer Guy]]. Eccentric, bombastic, and goofy barely does his HotBlooded personality justice. However, make no mistake: despite his student Lee [[TheWorfEffect losing quite a few of his fights]], Guy is a ''whole'' other beast. His opponents often [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass underestimate]] [[WorldsStrongestMan him]]... and they pay '''dearly''' for it.
** Lee himself gets enormously underestimated during the Chūnin Exams, especially by the Sand Siblings, during his fight with Gaara. Since Gaara is so powerful, he literally doesn’t have to move and let his sand do all the work, so Temari and Kankurō’s reaction to Rock Lee (someone who cannot use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu -because he cannot mold Chakra- and just punches and kicks really hard as part of Taijutsu) is “Really?”. Even when Lee is removing his leg weights, Temari scoffs at the idea of taking off measly weights letting him outmaneuver Gaara’s sand; but is cut off mid-thought when said weights exploded on impact with the floor leaving two massive craters, and she along with Kankurō have a StunnedSilence. Gaara himself isn’t all that concerned over the weights, but ''he does'' soon have a OhCrap at Lee [[FlashStep disappearing in front of his eyes and appearing behind him]].
** Kabuto is a repeatinh offender, even when by all rights experience should have taught him better. Then again, he is a SmugSuper and a colossal {{Jerkass}}.

** Characters underestimating Naruto more often comes because they simply knew him as a struggling ninja academy student. Post-time skip it became less common, especially since he started win enough fights that would more liken make other afraid to take him on. [[spoiler:Surprisingly averted by ''Madara'' (the real one)]], of all people. He actually respects Naruto's abilities, and this is a guy who considers everyone but [[spoiler:the First Hokage]] an unworthy challenge.
** Despite his reputation, Kakashi is underestimated surprisingly often, such as Zabuza thinking he stood a good chance when in reality Kakashi ended up beating Zabuza in a few moves. This is not so surprising given that Kakashi seems to [[ObfuscatingStupidity purposefully make himself look weak]]; he slouches, moves slowly, seems to be half-blind to the uneducated, and goes around reading porn everywhere. If you saw someone like that your first impression wouldn't be that he is a powerful ninja, let alone that he'd [[spoiler: be Hokage in a few years' time.]]

** Perhaps the most commonly underestimated nin of all is [[BewareTheSillyOnes Might]] [[BunnyEarsLawyer Guy]]. Eccentric, bombastic, and goofy barely does his HotBlooded personality justice. However, make no mistake, despite his student Lee [[TheWorfEffect losing quite a few of his fights]], Guy is a ''whole'' other beast. His opponents often [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass underestimate]] [[WorldsStrongestMan him]]... and they pay '''dearly''' for it.
** Lee himself gets pretty epically underestimated during the Chūnin Exams especially by the Sand Siblings during his fight with Gaara. Since Gaara is so powerful he literally doesn’t have to move and let his sand do all the work, Temari and Kankurō’s reaction to Rock Lee (someone who has no Jutsu or crazy Chakra power and just punches and kicks really hard) is “Really?”. Even when Lee is removing his leg weights Temari scoffs at the idea of taking of measly weights letting him outmaneuver Gaara’s sand but is cut off mid-thought when said weights exploded on impact with the floor leaving two massive craters and she along with Kankurō have a StunnedSilence. Gaara himself isn’t all that concerned over the weights but ''he does'' soon have a OhCrap at Lee [[FlashStep disappearing in front of his eyes and appearing behind him]].
** Kabuto is a repeat offender, even when, by all rights, experience should have taught him better. Then again, he is SmugSuper and a colossal {{Jerkass}}.

* ''Anime/IsabelleOfParis'': Isabelle sees Jean as a crybaby (to be fair, she wasn't wrong) in spite of his protests that he isn't. When she challenges him to a duel, to her shock, Jean wins, the latter remarking that he's been practicing his sword craft every day. However, because Jean is the show's ButtMonkey, he then embaresses himself by falling off his horse while trying to climb it.

*** Supreme Kai Shin both underestimates and overestimates badassery. He overestimates his enemies and is repeatedly surprised by how freakishly strong the Saiyans are. Had he come to Earth with a rational assessment of their power, rather than a poor assumption, things would have gone a lot better, something that he lampshades after Buu's awakening. {{Deconstructed}} as this led to Vegeta and some of the others underestimating the threat of Majin Buu, especially once revealed.

*** Vegeta himself has also made this mistake. He underestimated how powerful Goku was in their first battle and had to resort to becoming an Oozaru in order to swing things in his favor. This then led to him getting his tail cut off by Yajirobe after he had dismissed humans as weaklings. Then there is his battle with Android 18 where he assumes she would be easy prey having recently unlocked his Super Saiyan form and destroyed Android 19. [[JustToyingWithThem After luring Vegeta into a false sense of security]], 18 delivers an absolutely painful and humiliating CurbStompBattle to him. But perhaps the worst moment of Vegeta underestimating an opponent was him thinking he could take Cell in his perfect form, a mistake Cell made sure to let him live to regret. To add insult to injury, the only reason Cell reached his perfect form is because Vegeta helped him after Cell promised him a challenge.

*** Several characters underestimated Goku when he was a child, thinking there was no way such a small child could be strong.

* ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'': Kuroko Shirai has clearly never heard of Shizuri Mugino, the Meltdowner and the fourth strongest esper in Academy City. When she meets her, she dismisses her as an ordinary citizen and [[MyDadCanBeatUpYourDad gets into a childish argument with Frenda Seivelun where she says Mikoto would easily defeat Mugino]]. In reality, Mikoto and Mugino had fought earlier and Mugino almost killed her if it wasn't for dumb luck. Kuroko was really lucky that Mugino was more embarrassed about Frenda than her, or else she probably would have attacked her.

* The Beast Titan in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', despite being warned about Levi by ''both'' his subordinates, dismisses him as a mere human unworthy of consideration. This gets his Titan form cut to pieces, his army slaughtered, and forces him to retreat after nearly getting killed himself.

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Eso assumes that Yuji and Nobara are weak enough to fall to his Cursed Technique within minutes without fighting back. They then instantly turn the tables on the both of them, with Nobara sticking her nails in her body to use "Resonance" on them, while Yuji's resistance to poison (due to being Sukuna's vessel) allows him to fight Kechizu without any hassle.

* There are plenty of manga and light novels where the very premise telegraphs this trope. The protagonists typically have a low aptitude that makes them looked down upon by their peers, but they have a perk ([[HeartIsAnAwesomePower or learn some creative uses of their skills]]) that allows them to more than compensate for that.
** In ''Literature/AmIActuallyTheStrongest'', part of Haruto's NewLifeInAnotherWorldBonus is massive magical aptitude, but the world he reincarnates it cannot properly calculate his magic reserves, leading to instruments giving him a power reading of 2 when he's actually 1002.
** Rein of ''Literature/BeastTamer'' gets booted from the Hero's party for his lack of combat ability, only for him to discover the full potential of his talents as TheBeastmaster, while the rest of the party [[RemovingTheCrucialTeammate discover the hard way]] how much they had been dependent on his skills as the SupportPartyMember.
** Tatsuya, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', has no magical capability which gets him looked down upon by most other students with magical aptitude, but he compensates with his talent for creating magical devices that let him beat other magicians.
** In ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', nearly everyone (particularly his fellow Legendary Heroes) looks down on Naofumi Iwatani, the Legendary Hero of the Shield, because his shield makes him weak at fighting. That shield actually turns him into a StoneWall capable of tanking pretty much any attack, allows him to become an excellent support for his party and gives him the means to support himself, becoming the strongest of the Legendary Heroes soon enough -- and that's without taking into account the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Cursed Shield]]...
** ''Literature/TheStrongestSageWithTheWeakestCrest'' sets this entire trope up due to Demons infiltrating the upper ranks of the education system and altering the way magic is taught in an EntertaininglyWrong way as part of a scheme to weaken humanity's magic prowess. Thus, the protagonist who bears what his peers assume to be the titular weakest crest, actually bears the crest which is best suited to combat, so he gets consistently underestimated by his opponents before he trounces them in a fight.

* Firo Prochainezo from ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' is one of the Martillo family's top fighters, second only to Ronnie ([[spoiler:who's more or less an ''EldritchAbomination'']]). He also a small, baby-faced pretty boy that looks so harmless that ''children'' think they can take him on without much trouble. Czeslaw finds this amusing.

* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'':
** Mikoto Misaka is the third strongest esper in Academy City, and everyone knows about her, yet for some reason delinquents frequently try to hit on her, generally resulting in them getting electrocuted. In fact, in the first scene of the first episode of the anime the main character is running from delinquents that he got to chase him because they approached her carelessly. In the end, she still zapped them. Made even worse by the fact that she's always wearing the uniform of a highly prestigious school known to only accept espers of Level 3 or higher, and is the only facility in the city to boast ''two'' Level [=5s=] among its students, so anyone wearing that uniform is likely not someone to be trifled with.
** There are only seven Level 5 espers in Academy City. Each is a OneManArmy and the stronger ones like Accelerator, Dark Matter, Railgun and Meltdowner are an outright [[PersonOfMassDestruction Persons of Mass Destruction]]. One would think that punks would get their photographs and avoid any of them at all costs but no, if you thought trying to punch out [[ShockAndAwe Mikoto]] was bad, there are [[TooDumbTolive idiots]] who try to attack [[AxCrazy Accelerator]]!
** In the spinoff ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', Kuroko Shirai has clearly never heard of Shizuri Mugino, the Meltdowner and the fourth strongest esper in Academy City. When she meets her, she dismisses her as an ordinary citizen and [[MyDadCanBeatUpYourDad gets into a childish argument with Frenda Seivelun where she says Mikoto would easily defeat Mugino]]. In reality, Mikoto and Mugino had fought earlier and Mugino almost killed her if it wasn't for dumb luck. Kuroko was really lucky that Mugino was more embarrassed about Frenda than her, or else she probably would have attacked her.
** It only gets worse from there. Later in the series, {{God}} (yes that one) is [[SerialEscalation somewhere around the]] ''fifth'' strongest entity in the series, and the ones stronger than he/she/it are severely underestimated. Like that one time [[PersonOfMassDestruction Accelerator]] ([[OvershadowedByAwesome not on that exclusive stronger than God list]]) tried to attack [[PhysicalGod Aiwass]] (the strongest entity in the series). Aiwass' ''passive defenses'' would have killed him in his SuperMode. To give a comparison of their powers, Accelerator is to Aiwass what your average Level 1 is to Accelerator.
** A lot of villains end up underestimating Touma Kamijou. Of special note is Rensa. Since she had never heard of him, when he shows up to stop her, she dismisses him as some street punk pretending to be a hero to act cool. Never mind the fact that by the time they meet, Touma's already battled the Dark Side of Academy City and multiple magic factions several times and stopped WorldWarIII. She doesn't take it well when he easily wards off her attacks and creams her with ease.

* Many groups in ''Literature/DemonKingDaimao'' seem to have Akuto in the sights of their manipulations, and casually talk about pushing him aside or disposing of him or some such, which would be incredibly stupid considering his "Demon Lord" status. And this isn't even getting into those dumb thugs that tried to pick a fight with him and instead ended up with broken limbs.

* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'''s Shizuo Heiwajima, Ikebukuro's resident [[RedBaron God of Destruction]], doesn't particularly look like the sort of person who would ([[MusclesAreMeaningless or even could]]) uproot vending machines and beat people half to death with them when he's not actively doing so. Thus, many people don't realize that it's a bad idea to pick a fight with the skinny guy in a bartender suit until it's far too late.

* A recurring problem in ''Literature/GoblinSlayer''. Goblins are seen as a low priority, domestic threat by the adventurers, frequently leaving the job of killing them to newbie adventurers looking for an "easy" first quest. Many of these newbies learn ([[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome if they survive in fact]]) that the Goblins are [[ItCanThink smarter than people give them credit for]]. Not by much, but clever and devious enough to tear inexperienced adventurers to bits.

* This trope leads to ''nearly every'' fatality featured in ''Literature/JuniTaisenZodiacWar'', because ''almost every'' participant is so short-sighted that they can't see that their opponent might have something up their sleeve:
** Boar was so preoccupied thinking about a way to easily dispatch Rabbit that [[spoiler:it opened up a blind spot while she was mentally preoccupied, and she dies unceremoniously when Snake's corpse grabs her from behind, giving Rabbit an opening to plant a knife in her chest]].
** Dog thought Rooster wasn't worth much physically or mentally, but he needed a distraction for Rabbit, so he dopes her up on a strength inducing poison. [[spoiler:She immediately crushes his skull after getting the dosage.]]
** Rooster thought she could fight on par with Ox due to her newly enhanced strength. [[spoiler:He quickly stabs her through the eyes before she knew what hit her.]]
** Monkey thought she could easily subdue and restrain Rabbit because the latter was not a trained fighter. [[spoiler:She did not realize that Rabbit could use Snake's severed head as a camera to see his blind spots, and thus, Rabbit was able to stab her when she tried to get behind him to incapacitate him.]]
** Sheep witnessed Tiger sitting on a bench and downing mass amounts of alcohol, causing him to view as nothing more than an incoherent drunk and the weakest of the fighters. [[spoiler:He's forced to eat his words after she shreds him apart with her nails.]]
** Horse thought that Snake's corpse could not use its abilities and weaponry, and thus decides to ignore a warning from Rat that said corpse might come to the bank he was hiding in. [[spoiler:He meets his end when Snake's corpse, looking for Rat, torches the bank with Horse inside, causing him to suffocate from oxygen deprivation.]]
** Snake dismissed Rabbit as a threat due to his bizarre behavior, and thus let his guard down around the latter when he detects Monkey planting explosives underneath the floor. [[spoiler:When he tries to warn Dragon, it creates an opening for Rabbit to decapitate him.]]
** Dragon thought he was untouchable because he could fly beyond the detection of the other fighters, and focused all his attention on Snake's corpse fighting Ox and Tiger. [[spoiler:This caused him to forget that Rabbit and Monkey's corpse are probably nearby. As such, when he tries to ambush Ox and Tiger, he left himself open to be distracted by Monkey tossing Snake's head at him, giving Rabbit an opportunity to bisect him at the waist when he also gets thrown to Dragon's altitude by Monkey.]]
** Rabbit initially ''seems'' to play this straight when he confronts Ox and Tiger on his own despite their superior combat prowess and predictably gets hacked to pieces by them. However, he averts this [[spoiler:as he committed suicide just before Ox and Tiger manage to touch him, which enables [[{{Necromancy}} his power]] to work on his corpse, just as he had planned]].
** After hacking Rabbit to pieces, Tiger and Ox were so focused on their promised duel that they overlooked the fact Rabbit committed suicide just before confronting them. As such, [[spoiler:they did not notice that Rabbit could use his power on his own corpse until he managed to fatally wound Tiger by stabbing her InTheBack]].
** Ox was so focused on the reanimated Rabbit's [[HumanoidAbomination grotesque appearance]] that he did not realize the corpse's bizarre shape was designed to hide a reanimated Monkey inside itself. [[spoiler:He pays for this lapse when Monkey's corpse bursts out of Rabbit and manages to restrain him, necessitating a MercyKill from Rat to prevent him from being reanimated himself.]]
** Rat completely averts this trope due to [[{{Seers}} his ability]] giving him foreknowledge of what every other participant is capable of, and as such, knew to stay out of everyone else's way. [[spoiler:This ultimately wins him the Zodiac War.]]

* Might as well be a running gag in ''Literature/LordMarksmanAndVanadis''. Someone scoffs at Tigre for using a bow or him intending to make a ridiculous shot, [[ImprobableAimingSkills he actually does it.]] Happens all the time.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''Literature/RebuildWorld''. People can hardly believe that Akira's a highly ranked hunter because of his youth and size. When he's allowed to unwind, he's able to act like a perfectly ordinary boy right up to the point that he's threatened and pulls a gun on someone. In truth, he's not nearly as skilled or talented as his feats suggest, as so much of his success is tied to [[VirtualSidekick Alpha's support]]. Thus, others judging him to be nothing special in person is accurate up to the point that Alpha helps him out. Later on, there is TheReveal that [[spoiler:as a side effect of his condition which allows him to see the InvisibleToNormals Alpha, he unconsciously transmits his feelings into others, and that this messes with their evaluations of him.]]

* ''Literature/{{Shimoneta}}'': It may not be apparent at first, but Oboro has his job [[BunnyEarsLawyer for a reason]]:
** After his first inspection of Tokioka Academy, in episode 8, Ayame and Tanukichi assume he's no threat to SOX's operations. But the following day, Oboro begins [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame drafting students SOX had taught]] about lewd material, as part of his [[MoralGuardians Prefect Squad.]] Under his leadership, they become so efficient that they locate nearly all of SOX's hidden porn caches within a week's time and confiscate them.
** Oboro's second duty is to protect the Nishikomiya's daughter, Anna. While her father, Matsukage, has absolute faith in Oboro's ability, his wife has no confidence in him at all. So when they learn Anna had become involved in the hostage situation in episode 11, it prompts the following exchange:
--->'''Sophia:''' Tell me you're joking! Why is Anna there with those terrorists??\\
'''Matsukage:''' ''(smirks and steeples fingers)'' Calm down, dear.\\
'''Sophia:''' Huh?\\
'''Matsukage:''' I'm sure she's just gathering intel. Oboro is with her.\\
'''Sophia:''' ''(angrily)'' Do you really think that clueless dummy can protect our little girl?!\\
''(scene immediately shifts, showing Oboro [[SuperSpeed sprinting down the hall]] [[BigDamnHeroes to Anna's rescue]])''

* In ''Literature/SupposeAKidFromTheLastDungeonBooniesMovedToAStarterTown'', we have Lloyd, the titular protagonist who's seen as the "weakest" person in his home village Kunlun, a town of (supposed) legend consisting of descendants of ancient heroes. To anyone outside his village however, he's a OneManArmy whose abilities far surpass anyone else's, and is able to oneshot most problems. However, because of his village's view of him, [[AchievementsInIgnorance he doesn't pick up on how strong he truly is]] outside of his village and [[HeroicSelfDeprecation believes he isn't special]] compared to the other villagers whose abilities exceed his in power, strength, and magic potential. For this reason, [[IJustWantToBeBadass he wants to become a soldier]], as they're seen as brave and strong, [[IdiotHero completely unaware]] that the already has these traits.
* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', this happens to Kirito a lot in Volumes 2–7, though it's justified as Volume 2 involves interactions with people who haven't heard of him, and in ALO and GGO, he doesn't have the same rep he had in SAO and is an unknown quantity. Ironically, the top-level players in ALO know who he is, but the middle to lower players have never heard of him.

** The arc before this, Punk Hazard, had both his subordinates, Monet and Vergo, thinking they could take the Straw Hats and Law easily. Monet, likewise took care not to underestimate them. Granted, she gives Luffy, Nami, Chopper, and Robin a hard time. But when it came time to fight Zoro, she instantly fell prey to this as she figured he WouldntHitAGirl. Zoro proved her dead wrong after letting Tashigi have a go at her, revealing he was holding back and could've killed her --a Logia-user, mind you-- ''at any time''. As for Vergo, he takes on both Law and Smoker back to back. He does seem to have the upper hand but only because he had Law's heart at the time and Smoker throwing his fight to get it back. Once Law does get his heart back, he ends the fight in one hit ''and Vergo was fully Haki covered at the time''. What makes it even more satisfying? Doflamingo is listening in on a Den Den Mushi gloating how badly Vergo beat him up the last time and how "traumatized" Law is to face him. Yeah, Doffy really doesn't know his enemies well.

* There are plenty of manga and light novels where the very premise telegraphs this trope. The protagonists typically has a low aptitude that makes them looked down upon by their peers, but they have a perk ([[HeartIsAnAwesomePower or learn some creative uses of their skills]]) that allows them to more than compensate for that.

* There are plenty of manga and light novels where the very premise telegraphs this trope. The protagonist typically has a low aptitude that makes them looked down upon by their peers, but they have a perk ([[HeartIsAnAwesomePower or learn some creative uses of their skills]]) that allows them to more than compensate for that.

* In the early volumes of ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'', Alita was underestimated by many of her enemies and paid the price, starting with the arrogant bounty hunter named Zapan. In the sequel Manga, ''Last Order'', her reputation as one of the strongest warriors in the universe precedes her.

* There are plenty of manga and light novels where the very premise telegraphs this trope. The protagonist typically has a low aptitude that makes them looked down upon by their peers, but they have a perk that allows them to more than compensate for that.

** Tatsuya, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', has no magical capability which gets him looked down upon by most other students with magical aptitude, but he compensates with his aptitude for magical devices that let him beat other magicians.

* In ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', nearly everyone (particularly his fellow Legendary Heroes) looks down on Naofumi Iwatani, the Legendary Hero of the Shield, because his shield makes him weak at fighting. That shield actually turns him into a StoneWall capable of tanking pretty much any attack, allows him to become an excellent support for his party and gives him the means to support himself, becoming the strongest of the Legendary Heroes soon enough -- and that's without taking into account the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Cursed Shield]]...

** [[spoiler: Aizen]] is a tremendous threat, being a very powerful captain-class villain. However, both the Gotei 13 and Ichigo are so focused on avoiding [[spoiler: Aizen's]] [[AntagonistAbilities stupidly overpowered]] zanpakutou ability to [[MasterOfIllusion manipulate]] all the senses of everyone around it that they completely overlook the most important thing: even without his zanpakutou, he's still powerful and exceptionally skilled in all shinigami arts. As a result, [[spoiler Aizen]] single-handedly takes down multiple captain-class opponents at the same time.

** Both Kenpachi and Nnoitra manage to underestimate ''each other'' during their battle. Specifically, Nnoitra finds out that Kenpachi doesn't care at all about being hit, won't stop attacking no matter what he throws at him, and is actually strong enough to bypass his resistance; meanwhile, Kenpachi is forced to reconsider his [[AttackAttackAttack usual tactic]] after taking so many wounds from Nnoitra's scythes, since dragging the fight long as he usually does will result in him dying from blood loss.
** Aizen is a tremendous threat, being a very powerful captain-class villain. However, both the Gotei 13 and Ichigo are so focused on avoiding Aizen's [[AntagonistAbilities stupidly overpowered]] zanpakutou ability to [[MasterOfIllusion manipulate]] all the senses of everyone around it that they completely overlook the most important thing: even without his zanpakutou, he's still powerful and exceptionally skilled in all shinigami arts. As a result, Aizen single-handedly takes down multiple captain-class opponents at the same time.
** Aizen is so focused on defeating Yamamoto's zanpakutou, the most powerful offensive weapon in Soul Society history, that he completely underestimates Yamamoto's [[StrongAndSkilled undefeatable skills in all shinigami arts]]. He also forgets about Yamamoto's resolve to win at all costs -- even if he has to blow himself up to take out Aizen. Aizen acknowledges to himself that he completely underestimated Yamamoto.
** Ichibei is fully aware that Yhwach possesses unique abilities and is exceptionally powerful and dangerous. However, he's so confident in his own exceptional and unique abilities that he completely misunderstands the nature of Yhwach's power. As a result, Yhwach is able to overcome and negate Ichibei's abilities.