Moments of Cruel Mercy in Anime and Manga.
- It's unclear in Assassination Classroom whether Nagisa realizes this, but his finishing move against Takaoka counts as this. Even as it's happening, he knows that he'll never get Nagisa's smile out of his nightmares. It may have been kinder to just kill him.Nagisa: [sincerely, with a genuine smile] Takaoka-sensei, thank you very much.
- The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time: Our protagonist can do this if he thinks his enemies deserve punishment without killing them. The first example is the townspeople who watched in enjoyment as his mother burns at the stake, so he uses his magic to make their fields, walls and houses just, walk away, leaving them helpless.
- He decides to get payback on the Mirg nation for attacking his new home by sending an army of undead, their own army at that, to harass the villagers and forcing them to evacuate. He then steals their crops, poisons their waters and fields and leaves some undead for good measure, turning thousands of people who had benefitted from expelling him and the Ghoul tribe who took him in from that territory, into refugees.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- Goku planned to do this to Frieza during their fight on Namek, beating the tyrant senseless and driving him to a Villainous Breakdown before deciding that, with Frieza's ego in shambles over having been defeated by a Saiyan of all beings, he's Not Worth Killing, outright telling him as such and ordering Frieza to "go crawl off someplace and hide" and continue to live with the shame of his defeat. Later, after Frieza lost his arm and entire lower body, he tried it again before flying away. It backfires both times: the entire reason Frieza lost his limbs in the first place was because he got hit with his own energy disc, and when Goku gave him some energy to at least survive, Frieza turned around and tried to kill him with it; by this point, Goku is done giving Frieza chances and blows him away, outright calling him a fool for not just walking away when he had the chance.
- Earlier, after Goku tricks Captain Ginyu into switching bodies with a frog, Vegeta chooses not to kill him for this reason, finding Ginyu being forced to live life as a frog amusing.
- In Dragon Ball Super's Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' adaptation, Gohan easily beats Ginyu-in-Tagoma's body despite being out of shape and only able to hold Super Saiyan form for a few moments. He spares Ginyu and tells him to get lost. This pisses off Frieza so badly, as it reminded him of the aforementioned mercy Goku gave him, that he goes and tortures Gohan for it.
- Frieza could actually be considered a Deconstruction of this trope. Every time Goku showed mercy with the intent of making him live with the shame, Frieza would either attempt to kill him or blow up the planet, the latter of which in Resurrection F and Super killed everyone on Earth and would have led to a bad ending if Whis hadn't turned back time. Frieza is the type of foe who needs to be killed.
- Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger: When Sara announces her desire to spare the Magus Sisters despite their crimes, Cindy scoffs at her and asks if she wants them to suffer even more. Sara replies that she indeed wants them to suffer, but also to atone so they can work together to produce a better Mysidia.
- Fist of the North Star:
- Kenshiro ends up doing this to Souther, partially. While he does ensure that Souther eventually dies soon enough, the fact that he actually does show mercy to Souther is the dagger through the heart of Souther, who himself had sworn off all kinds of mercy, making it a heavy blow onto his pride. Possibly Amiba as well. Kenshiro doesn't directly kill him and mocks Amiba's inability to avert his fate.
- He also subjects this to one particular thug
with Hokuto Goukin Bundan Kyaku (Iron Muscle Shredding Kick). Unlike the fates of many other thugs that dealt with Kenshiro, this thug just got the muscles of his arms shredded, but by doing so deprived him of his brute strength he used to bully others. Kenshiro then suggested that the thug uses what remains of his life to live an honest life instead of bullying others since he left enough strength for the thug to do that. The thug fled the scene crying because he couldn't do whatever he wants anymore.
- Veronica of Franken Fran makes one friend (Yura) in her month-long stay at a girl's school. Every other student performs multiple acts of bullying, from dumping water on her to writing on her clothes. In the end, none of the bullies (except one) are harmed, and her friend turned out to be the one who was behind all the bullying and sold the bullied girls to pedophiles. Veronica brutally kills the men in Yura's room, along with the bully, and leaves Yura there to explain the situation to the authorities.
- The real irony is that it was true mercy: while even The Ingenue Humanoid Abomination Adorea managed to make some friends in that school, Veronica has No Social Skills nor the slightest idea how to make a friend. She knew from the very beginning that Yura was a False Friend. Even so, Veronica really felt that a false friendship is better than nothing, so Veronica led Yura into her own plan, trying to enjoy the most of their false relationship. That simulation really meant something to Veronica, and for that, Yura was spared. The last panel shows her denying her tears to Adorea.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist (both the manga and the Brotherhood series), Scar does a violent variation (not exactly mercy) to Dr. Marcoh and really makes it clear that post-Heel–Face Turn, he's still an Anti-Hero. Marcoh comes to Scar admitting that he had created the Philosopher's Stones which were used to wipe out most of the population of Ishval (Scar's country). While Scar has in the past killed state alchemists for less, he's cooled by this point and is also taken aback when Marcoh begs for death (Marcoh had been threatened by Lust and Envy that if he didn't make another Stone for them, they would kill Marcoh's entire village). So, what does Scar do? He "helps" Marcoh to fake his death by using his powers to horribly disfigure his face.
- And by this point, Marcoh loathes himself so much that he doesn't really care. While he has the skill and opportunity to repair the damage later, he decides to keep it as penance.
- It also served a practical purpose: No one besides the homunculi was able to recognize the disfigured doctor, allowing him and Scar's group to travel with more ease.
- In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, after Motoko goes completely berserk and unloads a full clip of a .50 cal anti-material rifle point blank into Gayle's Armed Suit cockpit for nearly killing her, running out of ammo is the only thing that stops her from killing him. At that point, the pressure from the denting of the armor plating was suffocating him inside his suit. She only allowed him to live so that he would forever regret ever hunting her down.
- Ginga Densetsu Weed: Hiro leaving Kamakiri to recover by himself (not likely) comes to this. Hiro has left the Irish Wolfhound wounded, bloodied, de-fanged, and castrated on the ground, but instead of killing him for killing his father when he was a puppy, he leaves him there after saying to live with his wounds to understand the feelings and pain of others. Kamakiri tries to attack him one last time... but fails, leaving him howling in pain and rage as his death arrives.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, the protagonist Josuke has a Stand that allows him to restore things to their original estate, including wounds. However, when he's angry he can use his powers in pretty sadistic ways, like one villain who ended up crippled in the hospital and was visited by Josuke. The villain immediately started pleading that he wouldn't hit a poor, crippled man in a hospital. Josuke heals him back to perfect health just so he can beat him up so bad he cripples him again.Josuke: If I heal you up first, then I figure it's a fair fight, right?
- In La Blue Girl Kamiri is hypnotized by Kugutsumen, a ninja from a rival clan, and he convinces her to steal an important MacGuffin from her own ninja clan. But before she can do that, the other Kunoichi in her clan find out about this and punish her horrifically. They rape her with a gruesomely spiked dildo, which leaves her vagina severely damaged (so that she can no longer use her ninja sex magic). But rather than killing her for treachery, they let her live, and exile her instead, to live out the rest of her days alone and in horrific pain. This comes back to bite them later, as Kamiri and Kugutsumen take the very same spiked dildo the Miroku ninja used on Kamiri and rape each and every one of them to death with it.
- A meta-example comes from Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, which has its primary antagonist Katejina Loos lose both her eyesight and her memory in the final battle to make a surprise appearance at the very end where she is reduced to The Ophelia. The decision to spare Katejina from death was motivated by this trope, as Yoshiyuki Tomino detailed in an interview, describing Katejina as having committed too many war crimes for death alone to be a sufficient punishment. As he directly puts it, "Life was a heavier punishment for her".
- In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Allelujah Haptism is subjected to this by the Federation after the loss of Celestial Being in Season 1. Instead of simply being executed, Allelujah is placed in an isolated prison, muzzled and straitjacketed, and suffers nonstop torture and interrogation by the Federation for 4 years before finally being saved by his comrades thanks to Nena and Liu Mei's information.
- In Monster Rancher, Moo claims that he knew where Holly and Suezo were hiding while their village was being destroyed, but deliberately left them alive. He did this specifically with the intention of making them despise him — after all, Moo is fueled by hatred, and sees Holly as a particularly potent potential source since he's possessing her father as his vessel. He has every intention of making things as painfully personal for her as possible so that she'll hate him all the more.
- My Hero Academia: The villain Shigaraki deals this out to fellow villain Overhaul when he has the chance to kill him, while attacking the police convoy transporting Overhaul and his men to prison. Shigaraki decides it would be a crueler and more fitting revenge for Magne's death and Mr. Compress's destroyed arm to instead take both of Overhaul's arms, leaving him incapable of using his Quirk (just as he had intended to do to others) and then leave him for the police to retrieve, effectively leaving him a Quirkless and crippled man who will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
- Happens to Ritsuko in Episode 23 of Neon Genesis Evangelion. After revealing the secrets of the Terminal Dogma and of Rei and the Dummy Plug System to Shinji and Misato, Ritsuko realises that Gendo used her, and destroys Rei's clones. She then breaks down into tears, inviting Misato to shoot her, saying that she welcomes death. Misato refuses, saying that Ritsuko is a fool for saying so.
- In Noir, after Chloe reveals that Kirika was the one who killed Mireille's parents, Kirika begs Mireille to keep the promise that she made in the first episode and kill her. Instead, Mireille walks away, severing their partnership and leaving Kirika with the knowledge that she is now alone. They reconcile in the penultimate episode.
- One Piece:
- Luffy attacks with all his might, but he avoids killing his opponents. This is because Luffy believes that forcing someone to live with all their hopes and dreams destroyed is a Fate Worse than Death. Occasionally, some of Luffy's villains actually end up better off than they started (Wapol, for example, became an incredibly wealthy toymaker and tyrant of another kingdom, and Eneru went to the moon like he originally wanted).
- This seems to be Blackbeard's modus operandi in dealing with his defeated opponents. If you're lucky, he'll kill you on the spot. If you're really unlucky, he'll have you turned in to the World Government, who'll send your ass straight to Impel Down, an outright monstrous prison where pirates and other criminals are put through such horrendous torture, they beg for death on the mere first level. And Blackbeard greatly prefers the second option. So far, he has done this to Portgas D. Ace (albeit as part of his larger plan) and Jewelry Bonneynote . Only the latter escaped alive.
- During the Time Skip (specifically, a year after the Battle of Marineford), he and his crew defeated the rest of the Whitebeard pirates during the Payback War. However, their fates (aside from Marco and later Izu) are currently unknown.
- Pokémon: The Series: At the climax of Pokémon 4Ever, when the Iron-Masked Marauder is surrounded by angry forest Pokémon as they confront him for all the heinous crimes he has committed, the Marauder begs for mercy. His pleas are ignored, and they tie him up using String Shot.
- The ultimate fate of Queen Nakia in Red River (1995) is this: she's in perpetual house arrest and living comfortably... but she knows that she owes it to Yuri and Kail, the protagonists and her worst enemies, who intend for her to witness how the Hitite Empire blossoms and flourishes without her in power. As a plus, her son Juda aka the person she intended to put in the throne as her Puppet King, has completely deserted her.
- The ending of Revolutionary Girl Utena can be seen this way. Rather than actually killing or hurting Akio, Anthy simply walks out on him, leaving him powerless. Since there weren't really too many ways to kill him anyway, it mightn't have been mercy, as such. But since Akio needs Anthy as a part of his plans, this is the worst thing that could've happened to him, plus he gets to see how Anthy ultimately regained enough of her self-worth to leave him out in the cold forever.
- In the anime adaptation of The Rising of the Shield Hero, Naofumi plays off his request for The King and Malty to be spared as this. This also doubles as a case of Adaptational Heroism, as in the original Light Novel, Naofumi instead called for the two to be executed and had to be talked down. Their punishments were quite fitting for those who would abuse their royal power for selfish gains. They were stripped of all power and authority, and to rub salt in the wound, Naofumi had their names legally changed to "Trash" and "Bitch" respectively.
- In Samurai Champloo, Mugen knows that Kohza, a girl from his old crew of pirates and criminals who once had feelings for him (and whom Mugen may or may not have had feelings for), is absolutely terrified of being alone, considering the worst possible thing that could happen to her. When she betrays Mugen and sets him up to die after they reunite in the present, Mugen and Jin defeat and kill the last members of the gang, including Kohza's incredibly cruel and evil brother Mukuro, and Shiren, the corrupt young official who was infatuated with her. Mugen, however, ignores and refuses to harm Kohza, even as she collapses and literally screams at him and begs him to kill her.
- Sword Art Online:
- After managing to overpower Sugou in real life, Kirito is fully prepared to just slit his throat and be done with it, but ultimately settles for just knocking Sugou out and letting the cops arrest and incarcerate him, his dreams and ambitions crushed, his body permanently damaged, and exposed to the world as a cyber-criminal.
- After their fight in Underworld, PoH fully expects Kirito to give him a warrior's death, boasting that he'll just keep coming after Kirito and Asuna again and again until he finally slits their throats and rips their hearts out in real life. Instead, Kirito subjects him to a Fate Worse than Death by turning him into a tree and trapping him in Underworld, declaring that he'll never log out.
- The ending of SymphogearG has Genjurou sparing Dr. Ver, preventing him from attempting to kill himself upon witnessing all his plans unravel when Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe, Symphogears he manipulated to advance his goals of making himself look like a hero by exploiting the chaos of the moon crashing into the Earth courtesy of Nephilim, his creation, finally wised up and joined Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris to stop Nephilim. Genjurou's reasoning is that he's not going to let Ver be written off as having pulled off a "Heroic Sacrifice" in the attempt to stop the moon's fall, instead making sure he's going to see justice done. It was so bad that by the end he's reduced into a giggling fit as he's being led away in handcuffs.
- In Tokyo Ghoul, after escaping his restraints Kaneki beats Yamori within an inch of his life and devours his Kagune. Then, having crippled the other Ghoul suitably, he simply leaves him to be finished off whenever CCG finally finds him.
- In Tomodachi Game, after surviving a round of the Deadly Game with a bunch of thugs, Guile Hero Yuichi manipulates their leader into gambling away his own fingers. After he's held down by management, he begs one of his underlings to take his place only for them all to turn on him. Yuichi collapses from blood loss before he can claim his prize, but it's implied he allowed himself to do so as he already won by not only outing his opponent as a Dirty Coward and ruining his reputation, but also by leaving him in the hands of a group of people crazier than either of them.
- In Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago, when Hurrem confronts a concubine that tried to sneak her way into the bed chamber of the sultan in an attempt to gain his favor, everyone expects Hurrem to have said concubine assassinated. But instead of that, Hurrem banishes her from the harem. Several concubines actually thought this was very merciful of her, but Gulbahar points out the opposite: the women in the harem are taken in at an early age and life in the harem is actually rather luxurious, so for them to be cast out into the world outside is actually pretty cruel.
- Hiei of YuYu Hakusho was ordered killed by the village of his birth due to the expectation that any male child born to their One-Gender Race of normally Truly Single Parents would inevitably destroy them if allowed to grow up. Years later, he returned to do just that, but, after seeing the pitiful lives the villagers lived, he came to the conclusion that killing them would only end their misery.
