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  • In Alyosha!, Chapter 1.2: After Alyosha throws her poison tooth, Miru tells her that you must throw unwanted teeth onto the roof. 35 chapters later, she throws her blade on the roof, saying "Miru taught me 'Throw the blade you don't need onto the roof.'" The pun being that both "tooth" and "blade" are "ha" in Japanese.
  • AKIRA has a scene very early on where someone pulls the pin out of a grenade to blow himself up (as well as half the gymnasium). However, when the grenade doesn't explode, he's pounced on. After Kaneda, his friends, and Kei leave, the grenade goes off in the gymnasium behind them.
  • Assassination Classroom:
  • Case Closed:
    • In one episode of the anime, Kogoro is a guest on a television show and mentions a risk of Analog phone calls by showing how easily they can be overheard - and he gives a theoretical example of a conversation one would not want to be overheard: An adulturer making a plan with a mistress. In another episode, Ran is meeting with her mother, and they pass by a TV store where that clip is played back without context.
    • When Kazuha is first introduced, she has initially thought Kudo was a girl trying to seduce Heiji. When she sees Shinichi in person for the first time in "The Desperate Revival" arc, she notes to herself that he really is a man.
  • During Death Note, it's made clear that Ryuk loves to eat apples. After a few offhand remarks about this, it is left out for a while. When Light voluntarily becomes incarcerated, Ryuk asks "So, I guess apples are out of the question now?"
  • In Delicious in Dungeon, Laios's "Idea of a Cool Monster", shown when discussing the merits of chimera, returns nearly forty chapters later as a summoned monster within his dreams to defend himself from a shin.
  • The original Digimon Adventure has one between Joe and Gomamon. It starts in episode 7 with Gomamon offering to lend a hand when things get too hard, to which Joe replies he kind of...doesn't have hands. Cut to the season finale, where Joe offers to shake Gomamon's hand, and jokes when he actually pulls it off.
    • A bit of Filling the Silence actually put this one in Digimon Adventure 02. Early in the episode "His Master's Voice", the principal says, "Would the person who put the jelly donuts in the swimming pool please report to the office?" Later in the episode, someone runs by Kari and says "...And then I put the Jelly Donuts in the swimming pool."
  • In the first Tournament Arc of the original Dragon Ball Jackie Chun (AKA Roshi in disguise) destroyed the moon to stop Ohzaru!Goku's rampage, and the announcer complains, among other things, that now werewolves will be unable to transform. Comes the second Tournament Arc, and one of the finalists is Wolfman a reverse werewolf (that is, a wolfman that becomes fully human with the full moon) that is enraged with Jackie Chun because without moon he cannot transform anymore.
  • The Duel Masters dub was specially designed to lampshade the hell out of this trope during its television run. When the series was initially premiering on Toonami, there was one new episode a week. The closing line for one episode has a tournament announcer placing the game on hold for a commercial break, then the opening line for the next episode:
    "That commercial break seemed to last a week."
  • Episode 6 of Durarara!! has Togusa try to track Kazatano with a sock for his scent. It seemed like the dog just ran off... but it turns out he did track them down at the end of the episode, just a bit too late.
  • In Endride, as revenge for Shun trying to booby-trap him into having a vision, Eljuia fake prophesizes that Shun can return home if he finds an Endora bluebird, which leads the excitable Shun to walk right into his own trap. Out of earshot, Felix comments to Eljuia that no such species exists. Several episodes later, Gradido gives the Ignauts a whistle and gets Shun to blow on it, summoning a blue-feathered bird which they can use to communicate. Shun's first reaction is to ask "Is this one of those Endora bluebirds?"
  • The mushroom growing on the heads of Team Natsu in the first few chapters/episodes of Fairy Tail. Fast-forward to the Tartaros arc, Happy is seen with a striped mushroom on his head that is actually one of Tartaros's demons that had latched on to Happy.
    • Near the end of the Edolas arc, Natsu takes on the persona of the Great Demon Lord Dragneel, claiming he is responsible for magic disappearing from Edolas in order to convince Mystogan to "defeat" him and be seen as a hero, rather than sacrificing himself. Much later, it turns out that E.N.D. stands for Etherious Natsu Dragneel, and Natsu himself is the strongest of the demons Zeref created.
  • Fist of the North Star sounds like the last series that would employ a brick joke, but it does. Kenshiro "convinces" a sleazy bartender to do him a favor and watch over some orphaned kids by hitting a pressure point with a one-month time delay, promising to come back and "turn off" the pressure point's effect. Several gory chapters later, Kenshiro goes back to check on the kids, and finds out that a village has offered to take care of the children. The orphans are thrilled to see Ken...and off in one corner of the page is the bartender, running out to meet Ken in a combination of joy and panic. The scene cuts away after that panel, so Ken probably restored the bartender after that page.
  • In the very first issue of Food Wars!, we are introduced to Soma's most legendarily disgusting dish: squid tentacles in peanut butter. Fast forward 250-odd issues to the end of the "Rebellion"-arc, and what are the secret ingredients in the dish Erina makes in her Cooking Duel with Eishi Tsukasa? Absolutely correct. Squid tentacles and peanut butter.
  • In Gakuen Babysitters, after mistakenly believing Kotarou to have experienced his first love and needlessly preparing red beans and rice (see The Other Wiki on sekihan), Saikawa promises Ryuuichi that he would prepare sekihan as well for when Ryuuichi actually does experience his first love. A few chapters later, he does prepare the dish when Ryuuichi receives a love letter in his locker the very day he returns home, as if he were prepared to make the dish for that very moment.
  • In Good Luck Girl!, Momoji and Kumagai reenact the infamous scene from Dragon Ball Z when Vegeta screams, "It's over 9000!" and crushes the scouter. Later, when trying to find Ichiko, Momoji comments that it would be a lot easier to find her if Kumagai hadn't crushed the scouter.
  • Hidamari Sketch:
    • Nazuna attempts a drawing and the characters spend a few strips trying to guess who it is. It isn't until a few chapters later that it's revealed to be the landlady.
    • In episode 4 of Hoshimittsu, Nazuna is identified as a jimoti ("local" people from the neighborhood), a word that sounds like an Italian surname to Miyako. Later, the girls visit a hardware store, where they run into a burly, foreign-looking man. Miyako inmediately identifies him as "Jimotti-san".
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Stardust Crusaders:
      • The Oingo Boingo Brothers attack a random man because Boigo's Stand Thoth told them to. The guy ends up coming back later for payback, this time with hired thugs.
      • Near the end of the Part, Polnareff makes an offhanded comment about the unlikeliness of the rest of the Crusaders showing up at last minute to save him. During his fight with DIO, this is exactly what happens.
    • Midway through Diamond is Unbreakable, Jotaro makes a one-liner about breaking Kira's watch and face. By the end of the Part's finale battle, both those things are broken (granted, neither of them are broken by Jotaro).
    • During Part 4, Rohan explains that he has the ability to completely write and send in a manuscript for his manga in just 4 hours. When Made in Heaven is speeding up time in Stone Ocean, Rohan is apparently the only mangaka able to meet his deadlines.
  • In a chapter of Katteni Kaizo, Yoko Tanaka hid behind a brick wall, unnoticed. The series was then cancelled due to a lack of readership. In a completely unrelated chapter of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei seven years later, she finally smashes through the wall and yells her name. Turns out that they share a common fanbase.
  • Lampshaded by Fuwa Koro-Sensei Quest! when a magic sphere attack from Sugino at the start of the series takes down a monster near the end. When Fuwa mentions that Sugino fired multiple attacks, the rest from the first chapter arrive and destroy a stone bridge, seperating the class.
  • The weird purple thing that Yoshihisa dreams about in the first episode of Kotoura-san does make a reappearance in the last as a prize in a claw machine that Yoshihisa plays while on a date with Haruka.
  • In episode 8 of Laid-Back Camp, Nadeshiko shares a photograph of a strange-looking vehicle on her way back home from school with her friends. This turns out to have been a Google Street View camera car, and in the episode's post-credits, Rin finds a surprised Nadeshiko standing at the intersection.
  • In the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, while on Tetra’s ship, Link is told to swab the deck against his will. When he gets on Linebeck’s ship, he makes the boy do the same thing.
  • In the animated adaptation of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, there was the twisted game of house that Touka and Yumeha were playing together where they are divorcees keeps popping up in random places.
    • It's first brought up in episode 5 after Yuuta comes back home after tutoring Rikka and sees them playing house in his room.
    • He finds them talking about it again when he comes back after he and Rikka confess to each other in episode 10.
    • The two of them talk about "being able to see the kids" in front of everyone in episode 11 before Touka leaves for her flight to Italy which surprises everyone but Yuuta.
  • The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer had one that spanned most of the series. In an early chapter, Sami catches Yuuhi out with a feint while sparring and comments on how bad he is at them. Cut to the second-last chapter where Yuuhi and Mikazuki are having one last big rematch as Beast Knights, and Mikazuki gets the final blow by calling a punch but throwing a kick, planting his foot straight in Yuuhi's face.
  • When Amitie agrees to be interrogated by the TSAB in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection, she specifically asks for Fate to be the one to do it. Nanoha theorizes it's because Fate is a kind girl, and Vita tells her to take things seriously. After the interrogation is over, Fate asks Amitie why she was chosen specifically, and Amitie says it's because she looked like a kind girl.
  • Monster Musume had a bonus comic at the end of the first volume where the girls try to find out whether Kimihito has an affinity for hips, butts, or breasts. He replies that he likes legs, the joke being that none of the girls have normal legs. Then a few volumes later Rachnera is introduced. Cue Kimihito commenting that he finds her legs very charming.
  • Early in Chapter 29 of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Nozaki explains to Wakamatsu the dangers of working with screentones, such as dropping a knife on one's thigh. The chapter ends with Wakamatsu dropping a knife on his thigh.
  • Cowboy Bebop: The episode "Cowboy Funk" features wannabe bounty-hunter Cowboy Andy, a rich guy who decided to go around dressed as an actual cowboy — horse and all — in pursuit of criminals, particularly the Teddy Bomber. No one on the Bebop believes Spike when he tells them that a cowboy in a ten-gallon hat and spurs riding a horse kept him from capturing Teddy, and Jet and Faye jokingly suggest that a samurai would have been more believable. At the very end of the episode, after Teddy has been captured, Andy shows up again, now calling himself Musashi and dressed like a samurai.
  • In the second episode of Naruto, Naruto takes a ridiculous picture for his official ninja profile, with extreme make-up and an obnoxious pose, and the Third Hokage tells him to retake the picture. Apparently, that never happened, because in the Naruto Shippuden anime-only arc "Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops" (which follows Kakashi through the years between the day he killed his teammate Rin and into the start of the original series), the Third Hokage is seen with the stat sheets of Kakashi's next team to read in front of him, and we're treated once again to Naruto's obnoxiously-ridiculous photo. It's even funnier for being right next to Sasuke and Sakura's completely normal photos.
  • One Piece:
    • Luffy regularly saying that their next crewmate should be a musician (over more important roles like a cook, a doctor and a shipwright.) 337 episodes and several new crewmates into the series, the Thriller Bark arc starts. By the end, they've recruited Brook, a musician.
    • Early on before Water 7, Luffy also makes a crude drawing of what their next crewmate should look like. The drawing looks vaguely like Franky, who eventually becomes the crew's shipwright.
    • After the battle of Enies Lobby, Sanji receives his first wanted poster, which uses a very unflattering drawing in lieu of a photo. Some time later during the Sabaody arc, the Straw Hats encounter a masked man named Duval who holds a grudge against Sanji because his true face looks exactly like the sketch from the wanted poster.
    • Most of Usopp's lies and stories have become true at some point. Not all of them, and maybe not entirely, but they are somehow true. A few specifics include:
      • Usopp discovered his genuine sniping skills when he nailed a faraway rock with a single cannon blast from the Going Merry. He claimed to have hit it on purpose, but later developed those skills for real.
      • He often claimed early one that he has 8000 followers at his command. Come the end of the Dressrosa arc, several pirate crews and their captains have joined to form the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
      • He once said to Kaya he visited the country of the dwarves. One Time Skip later, he does visit Green Bit, the country of the dwarves.
      • In the Thriller Bark arc, Usopp wakes Luffy, Zoro and Sanji up by claiming that a beautiful swordswoman has just brought meat. Come the Dressrosa arc, and Rebecca enters the picture, being a beautiful young swordswoman who befriended Luffy after giving him food.
    • At one point in the Alabasta arc, Mr. 3 is seen floating on water, despite the fact that as a Devil Fruit user, he should instead be sinking like a rock. The anime made him float on a table to correct this error, but as for the manga version, Oda jokingly explained in an SBS that Mr. 3 was held afloat by a piece of "unbelievably floaty wood". Waaaaay later, at the end of the Fishman Island arc, the Straw Hats use pieces of that exact same wood to reach the surface again.
    • After the events of the CP9 Saga, Iceburg was shown, via cover story, to be searching for a new secretary. Among the candidates were a flirtatious young woman, a cute little girl, an ugly woman, a Miniature Senior Citizen, and a literal Fishman. Way later, another cover story reveals who he picked: the cute little girl.
    • During the Water 7 arc, when Paulie tries to explain to Lulu and Tilestone that it was Lucci, Kaku, Kalifa, and Blueno that tried to assassinate their boss Iceberg, they exclaimed they thought it was two boys named Michael and Hoichael that went after him. Following Enies Lobby, we see the titual Michael and Hoichael trying to mug Zoro, before being quickly beaten by him.
    • Zoro still owes Nami money for that time he borrowed some from her in Loguetown to buy some new katana.
    • During Big Mom's Tea Party, Charlotte Smoothie squeezes juice out of a giraffe and serves it to guests, one of which being Stussy of Cipher Pol 0. Over two hundred chapters later Stussy reveals her true nature by chomping into the neck of Kaku, who can turn into a giraffe, and sucking his blood.
    • Cover of Volume 25, as first printed in 2002, depicts Buggy, Shanks, Luffy and Blackbeard in various degrees of dramatic poses. Twenty one year later in 2023, Volume 105 depicts the same people in similar poses as they now stand as the new Four Emperors of the pirate world.
  • Episode 22 of Osomatsu-San has one that starts in the 4th episode. Todomatsu witnesses Dayon helping Iyami practice his iconic "Sheeeh!", by lifting a lid off the ground to reveal a yellow turd of varying sizes for Iyami to react to. Fast forward to the 22nd episode where Dayon drops down into the arena to reveal a giant pink turd to Iyami, similarly to how he did in the 4th episode. SOMEHOW, this causes Iyami to drop the Final Sheeeh, which completely destroys the Earth.
  • In Persona 4: The Animation, after Yosuke asks Yu if he'd seen Yukiko's Midnight Channel show, Yu responds that he wishes he'd taped it. Some episodes later, when Rise's is being broadcast, the camera cuts to Yu mashing the record button on his TV's remote.
    • Even before that, when Yosuke asks Yu if he saw Kanji's Midnight Channel show, Yu's response is to offer Yosuke a copy.
  • For whatever reason, the Pokemon fandom took a strong attachment to Pikachu's love of ketchup, that appeared in only one episode back in 1998. It reached Companion Cube levels among the fandom, depicting him and his love of ketchup in countless fanart over the years. SIXTEEN YEARS LATER, an episode of Pokémon the Series: XY finally reunited Pikachu with a bottle of ketchup, and the audience was reminded just how much he loves it. It even got its own Image Song sung by Pikachu's voice actress!
  • Rebuild World: When Shirakabe tells Akira during the prep for a mission that he’s being stuck with The New Meat Togami, he tells Akira that if he gets sick of Togami, to throw him back into Shirakabe’s APC. After Togami spends the entire mission as The Load, he falls off of Akira car, gets yanked up off the ground by Akira Just in Time, and is immediately thrown into Shirakabe’s APC.
  • Very near the beginning of R.O.D the TV, Maggie mentions that she's a fan of Harry Potter. Two episodes later, while staying in Nenene's apartment, she decides to move into the cupboard under the stairs.
  • Near the start of chapter 6 of Sakura Trick, Haruka gives Yuu a swimsuit with an Umbrella of Togetherness using their names on it, which Yuu promptly tears off. At the end of the chapter, Mitsuki, trying not to worry about Yuu, finds a certain drawing...
  • Happen in School Rumble when Hanai fly as a human kite when their ship got lost. He returns few chapters later.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie features a scene halfway trough the second act where Robotnik attempts to blow up Tails using 2 rockets modelled after a tortoise and hare. The hare speeds off and lands a direct hit, but the tortoise of course is incredibly slow (and Robotnik even wonders aloud why it was a failure). At the end of the film, the main characters are all reunited when Robotnik turns up again, revealing the next part of his plan to conquer the world. Naturally, the tortoise crawls up to him from off-screen and explodes!
  • Spy X Family: In one arc, Loid is called away from Yor and Anya to help foil a terrorist bombing, and he covers it by claiming that he's having digestive issues. Several chapters of terrorist-plot-induced chaos later, the three of them are reunited... at which point he apologizes for having taken so long in the bathroom, causing Yor to apologize for cooking breakfast so poorly.
  • It happens in the first Time Bokan series. Early in episode 2, Chorobou threatens Perasuke with being grilled and eaten if he doesn't reveal where Dr. Kieta is. When the gang is sent back to Ancient Greece, Perasuke is taken by the Persians, who almost do exactly that.
  • Happens in the Touhou Project manga Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth. Kaguya needs to lose weight, so Tewi fixes her a Banana Yogurt Natto Drink. She doesn't drink it. Ten strips later, after she's tried several other means of losing weight, she comes back from a run with Mokou, thirsty, and Tewi hands her a drink...
    • Two more from Chapter 2, where Reisen and Tewi get trapped at Kourindo by rain. In an early strip, Tewi claims that she tried to predict the weather by kicking her shoe, but launched it into the stratosphere; as they leave Kourindo, Rinnosuke sees them off and finds the shoe outside his shop. While the girls are at the shop, Tewi reads an Outside World magazine about the "Sunflower" satellite and imagines a giant sunflower in space; as they walk home, she stops by a patch of sunflowers and tells them that they're awesome.
  • Fai of Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- goes volumes with substituting whistling with a "hyuu~". At first people thought it was to annoy Mr. Grumpy Kurogane, but by the time Recourt comes around, he whistles for real, which unleashes one hell of a spell and saves everyone's lives.
  • The Voynich Hotel features one such joke that doesn't pay off until the last page of the story, where two buffoonish Yakuza who disappeared in a very early chapter and were implied to have been killed off-panel by one of the maids show up out of the blue and are staggered by their bill. Turns out they were apparently trapped in time at the restaurant they were going to the last time they were seen, for a period of weeks if not months.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: In an otherwise terrifying episode, when Yuya declares an attack using his Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, which is an Xyz monster, Kachidoki points out that Idaten's effect makes the attack points of any monster with a level lower than itself zero. Yuya replies that Xyz monsters don't have levels, to which Kachidoki responds with absolute shock "If they don't have levels, doesn't that mean their level is zero?!" Almost a hundred episodes later, Kachidoki pops up again with a new monster that makes the attack points of every monster on the field zero and then increases their attack based on their level... "So your dragon's level may as well be zero!" Damn, dude never got over that blunder.
  • Your and My Secret begins with scientist Momoi Manzo talking about making a shrinking device, only to reveal after it goes off that it the experiment was actually for a body swap machine. Towards the end of the series he finally gets around to fixing it so the main characters can swap back... only to reveal that he made a shrinking device instead.
  • Happens in Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: In chapter 2 the monks were given good luck by Chitose Nakai, in chapter 19 one of Chitose's middle school friends mentions that one of her favorite celebrity in the Johnny's was once a monk.
  • In the first episode of Yuyushiki, Yuzuko mentions the common trope where someone is knocked out via a karate chop to the neck, and wonders aloud if the move works in real life. A few episodes later, she unexpectedly tries to knock Yui out with a karate chop to the neck. It doesn't work.

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