Times where somebody shares a disguised anecdote about themselves in Anime and Manga.
- Sasuke Uchiha in Boruto, when he travels alongside Boruto back to 20 years in the past, and meets a 12 year old Naruto who's coping with Sasuke's recent defection from Konoha. He tells Naruto (who's unaware of his true identity) the story of "an old friend of his" who left his friends in search for power and how he never gave up on him until he managed to knock some sense into him. All of which cheers Naruto up.
- In Cage in Lunatic Runagate, Yukari explains what happened in her last attempt to invade the moon this way. Ran actually figures it out immediately, but Yukari denies this being the case.
- Used as Dramatic Irony in Code Geass. Shortly after Lelouch uses his geass to make Shirley forget him, he and Shirley talk and he mentions a friend that he lost. Shirley quickly realises that Lelouch is talking about a girl he loved. What she doesn't realise is that she is the girl he's talking about.
- In Dr. STONE, Tsukasa Shishioh explains his hatred for modern society by telling Senku about a boy who went out to collect seashells for his sick little sister, only to get beaten up by a greedy adult who claimed ownership of the beach. It's strongly implied that Tsukasa was talking about himselfnote , but isn't fully confirmed until over 70 chapters later, when Senku reveals that he figured the whole thing out on his own, and manages to negotiate peace with Tsukasa by promising to save his sister.
- Dragon Ball Z when a space warrior named Raditz appears claiming to be Goku's brother, Master Roshi tells Goku of a story his grandfather once told him.Roshi: A long time ago, your Grandpa Gohan was walking through the woods when he came upon a strange object that appeared to have fallen from the sky. When he went to examine it more closely, he found a baby boy with a tail, sealed inside a little round pod. Gohan decided to take the child home and raise him as his own. But the boy had an angry, violent nature, and before long the old man was at his wits' end. Then one day, there was a terrible accident. The child fell into a deep ravine and hit his head. The injury was nearly fatal. But somehow, miraculously, the boy survived. What's more, after that, he was no longer violent. From that day on, he became a happy, loving boy.
Goku: The boy was me, wasn't it?
Roshi: Yes... - During the final story arc of Fairy Tail, August tells Jellal and Gildarts the story of Zeref and Mavis's son, who was never shown any kind of affection from his father, leaving him lost in a mental wasteland until the day he can finally be stopped by the love of his mother. For several chapters, he appears to be talking about Larcade, who is introduced as Zeref's son, shares his last name, and is obsessed with killing Zeref's brother, Natsu, for getting all of his father's attention. It isn't until after Larcade is ousted as a demon from the Book of Zeref that it's revealed August was talking about himself, and went unloved by his parents because he kept his true identity a secret from them, since they are both cursed to inadvertently kill the ones they love.
- Full Metal Panic! Sigma has a one off chapter where, after getting into a fight over each other's perceived lack of competence, both Kurz and Sousuke go about telling Mao one of their most memorable war stories. Kurz recalls a skirmish in Lebanon two years ago, where he fought some Savage pilot way better than Sousuke, and was just about the only target he wasn't able to take down. Shortly after, Sousuke tells Mao about this sniper he went up against two years ago in Lebanon who was far superior to Kurz...
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig includes an episode in which a woman who owns a shop tells the Major a story about a boy and a girl who were two of the first people to get cyborg bodies. It's implied that the little girl is in fact the Major, which is all but confirmed at the end of the episode when the Major seems to know something about what happened that the woman didn't tell her. Also, later episodes suggest that the boy was the season's Anti-Villain Kuze.
- In one hentai collection Hachishaku Hachiwa Keraku Meguri - Igyou Kaikitan, the Framing Device is a young man and his cab driver telling each other ghost stories to pass the time as she drives him. The first story he tells her is about a boy who became entranced by the spirit Hasshaku-sama. The last part of the collection has the young man reveal that he was that boy, and that the entire reason he's making this trip is to return to the village where he encountered Hasshaku-sama. His grandfather had warned him that the seals keeping Hasshaku-sama confined had been broken, and he is rushing back to the village hoping to seek help again. The driver then reveals that she is Hasshaku-sama.
- Haruhi Suzumiya: When Taniguchi is telling Kyon about Haruhi's dating spree a few years back (where she said yes to literally everyone who asked her out, only to break up with them soon after), he mentions one poor bastard who only lasted five minutes. Context makes it clear he's talking about himself.Taniguchi: [muttering] Why'd she even say yes?
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Koichi and Rohan end up in a mysterious alley where they meet a girl named Reimi Sugimoto, who tells them a story about a girl who was murdered 15 years prior alongside her dog who had his throat slit. She then reassures a frightened Koichi that it didn't actually happen. However, shortly after this, Rohan sees a dog with a slit, bleeding throat, leading Reimi to reveal that she was the girl murdered and that she and her dog are ghosts who want their murderer, Yoshikage Kira, brought to justice so they can finally move on.
- In Midori Days, Ayase recounts a story of her friend who has a crush on someone, but due to her shyness was unable to confess properly, until an outburst caused her to accidentally confess, only to later redact the confession as a joke. She was, of course, talking about her own crush on Seiji, and she used the climax to finally confess for real.
- My Hero Academia: Early in the Training Camp arc, Izuku attempts to empathize with a troubled boy named Kota by talking about his childhood struggles with being Quirkless (long prior to being passed his Quirk early in the series). He frames them as having happened to a friend of his.
- A relatively subtle example happens in One Piece, during Chopper's backstory. Dr. Hiruluk tells Chopper the story of a thief who was diagnosed with an incurable disease, and wandered the world until he found a cherry blossom tree, and was supposedly miraculously cured. In a later scene, after Dr. Hiruluk has thrown Chopper out of his home to avoid making him watch him die, Dr. Hiruluk speaks with Dr. Kureha, who asks him why he doesn't go on another voyage to find the legendary trees like he did in the past, indicating him as the person in the story.
- Happens in episode 9 of Psycho-Pass when Masaoka is trying to give Akane insight to inspector Ginoza's frustration with her risking the hue of her psycho pass by explaining that his father was one of the unlucky detectives who were labeled latent criminals from around the time when the Sibyl System was first being put in place (with Ginoza being a little kid at the time). The audience finds out later finds out that Masaoka is Ginoza's father.
- Done in Triage X during Hitsugi's rematch against Kaori and Kaoru. She tells them about a young girl who suffered from a debilitating disease, and whose scientist father began experimenting on her to try and cure it. After developing a drug that boosted the girl's strength and endurance to superhuman levels, the man lost his way and started experimenting on others as well, until finally the girl snapped and killed everyone involved in the experiments. Hitsugi then reveals that she was the little girl, and asks Kaori and Kaoru how they managed to survive, revealing that they were also used as test subjects by her father.
