Analogies backfiring in anime and manga.
- In the Baccano! Light Novels, Isaac and Miria try to comfort Ennis by assuring her that, even if she has done some bad things in the past, she'll still be successful and well loved as long as she does good things to balance it out, "just like Al Capone!" Whitesmile also plays with the standard Romeo & Juliet analogy: Elmer is perfectly aware of how the play ends when he suggests that Sylvie take a page from it — he also remembers that the Elizabethan era believed in an afterlife (though he seems to have still missed the fact that Elizabethan England considered suicide a mortal sin).Elmer: Didn’t you know? There's actually an afterlife in the world of that play. So after they die, they can meet up again — 'Were you just pretending to be dead all along, Juliet?' 'Romeo, darling, you’re so oblivious.' They could laugh together afterwards!
- In Bakuman。, Mashiro tells Takagi, while working on his manga despite being hospitalized, that he feels like Joe Yabuki going into his last match, and Takagi thinks to himself that Joe died in the ring. This is possibly a subversion, though, as Mashiro had earlier been shown to have been aware of how it ended, and found Joe's death admirable.
- Later on, Fukuda, after not doing as well as he'd hoped in a romance one-shot writing contest, protests that he was "the Romeo of Hiroshima," as if to imply that he had a fair amount of experience. Interestingly enough, the winner, Aoki, had never been on a date before.
- This makes some sense, since 'romance' as a genre has less to do with sexual experience than with poetic and persuasive depiction of human emotions. And a playboy is likely to have trouble with precisely the poetry part.
- Later on, Fukuda, after not doing as well as he'd hoped in a romance one-shot writing contest, protests that he was "the Romeo of Hiroshima," as if to imply that he had a fair amount of experience. Interestingly enough, the winner, Aoki, had never been on a date before.
- In an episode of Digimon Adventure Izzy tries to explain to Matt's father how not all Digimon are bad, saying "They're not like those pretend monsters you see in the movies destroying all those Japanese cities." He quickly realises what a bad example this is, given that the good and bad Digimon had spent the last three days having destructive battles across Tokyo.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- After ripping Cell's tail off with his bare hands, Android 16 compares him to a bee without a stinger. After a moment or two of screaming in pain, Cell stands up and declares 16's analogy to be inaccurate; when bees lose their stingers, they're gone for good and the bee dies, but when Cell loses his tail, he can just grow another one... and proceeds to do just that.
- During a fight against Super Buu, Vegeta claims that he'd rather die than fuse using the Potara Earrings with Goku. Goku points out that at the moment, Vegeta is already dead and has no other choice.
- In Fate/Zero, Kiritsugu claims that war and conflict is the worst thing imaginable, and thus anything that reduces the amount of war in the world is justified. Furthermore, he hates glory and honor, since they paint battle as something good. Saber (a knight from late antiquity) claims that if all that were true, every war would bring all the punishments of Hell upon the Earth. Kiritsugu says that is exactly right.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), there is a lengthy example of one of these:Roy: You know, running makes you look guilty.
Edward: We're running because we knew you'd come after us! Isn't that what every dog does when it's chased?
Roy: Yes, but a trained dog never defies the orders of its owner.
Edward: Then I'm a stray.
Roy: Really? Then maybe we'll just have to put you down.- This is playing up a theme that was built into the setting with the phrase 'dog of the military,' as well as being a shout-out to Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa's earlier successful one-shot 'Stray Dog,' which dealt with Mad Scientists making dog-themed Artificial Humans and the rights and wrongs of their conditioned loyalty and the use of it.
- In Girls und Panzer, when the Russia-themed Pravda team has Ooarai cornered in a building, they surround it and give them three hours to surrender. Nonna, vice-captain of the team, discusses this decision with her captain, Katyusha.Nonna: You gave them time to surrender because you were hungry and sleepy, I see.
Katyusha: No, it's because Katyusha has a very kind heart! Kind like the Siberian plain is wide!
Nonna: Does that mean you have a heart made of ice, too? - In episode 25 of Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE, Kazami and his Gundam Aegis Knight is getting pinned down by the Fin Funnels of the Fake Nu Gundam. Checking his streaming feed for some ideas, some fans suggests remembering the Stark Jegan vs. the Kshatriya or the Hyaku Shiki vs. the Qubeley. Kazami points out the glaring problem with that.
- In Haruhi Suzumiya, when dealing with a crazy Humanoid Interface, Kyon angrily tells her to take their alien conflict to the edge of the galaxy. As she points out, Earth is at the edge of the galaxynote .
- In Episode 23 of THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, the Producer inflicts this on Mishiro by punching a big hole in her comparison between stars and idols.Mishiro: Think of idols as stars. You should know if the starlight is going to fade. A star that's hidden by clouds is worthless. If you can't see it, it's just darkness. Nothingness.
Producer: All clouds clear up. And the stars are still there. - Toward the end of Muhyo and Roji, Page notes that a "golden thread" binds Muhyo and Roji together. Lil and Maril mercilessly mock his choice of words, noting how easily a thread made out of gold would break.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Asuka closes the door of her room and says: "This is the impenetrable Wall of Jericho!" to Shinji.note The backfire there is essentially intentional. The line is an extremely oblique hint for Shinji to try something, but he fails to pick up on it.
- One Piece: A back-and-forth one occurs during the Thriller Bark arc. When the Straw Hats are planning to bring down Gecko Moria, Chopper is hesitant about them acting like it would be easy, reminding them that Moria is one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Luffy dismissively says that so was Crocodile, who he had previously defeated. Chopper then immediately turns Luffy's analogy back on him by saying that's exactly his point, as even though Luffy won, Crocodile still came dangerously close to killing him.
- Samurai Pizza Cats (the Gag Dub version of Kyatto Ninden Teyandee) has a Brick Joke version in the episode "Field of Screwballs." Al Dente informs Princess Vi that she's getting her own show, to which she says "It's like I'm in The Wizard of Oz!" Earlier in the episode, she had made an And Your Little Dog, Too! curse at Lucille. This reference does not exist in the original Japanese version.
- In the OVA for Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever, Elise tells her charge, the singer Fiasse, that she doesn't trust Kyouya and Miyuki to provide her adequate protection, saying that amateurs don't sing on the same stage as professionals. Fiasse then points out that anyone who likes to sing can do so together.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Shinji likens his deck to the Commons (the poor, oppressed people of his city); his deck works around using weaker monsters to swarm the field and form a big monster, saying that, if the people work together, they can become an unstoppable force and destroy those who oppose them. He uses his duels to represent the Commons fighting back against their enemies to win. The analogy backfires when Yuya destroys Shinji's strongest monster and wins their duel. The revolution is all but quelled now that their thing that represented them was destroyed.
