Establishing Character Moment / Anime & Manga

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• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You has one for pretty much everyone.
  • Rentarou is introduced confessing to a girl who rejects him even though he's a Nice Guy and telling "[his] generic nameless friend" this is the 100th time he's been rejected, showing him as a Love Freak (and, incidentally, presenting how this series has No Fourth Wall). His meeting with Hakari and Karane shows his penchant for Love Makes You Dumb for believing their thin excuses. Punching himself in the face for even considering secretly two-timing them despite being completely alone at that moment demonstrates he's an All-Loving Hero. And the convoluted game he makes up to give his First Kiss to both of his first two girlfriends shows the type of Zany Schemes he will come up with to make the girls happy.
  • Hakari flirtatiously pretends to have hurt her leg from a Crash-Into Hello and asks Rentarou to carry her to the nurse's office, showing her Covert Pervert side.
  • Karane flusteredly rejects needing to be carried to the office while indirectly accepting Rentarou's help, demonstrating her Tsundereness.
  • Shizuka is introduced using a book to "speak" by pointing at different parts, showing her love of books and her Cute Mute tendencies.
  • Nano acts emotionlessly when she works with Rentarou, but she copies the image in her textbook instead of using the microscope to see the real deal claiming it's more efficient, and when Rentarou gets a cut on his finger she sucks on it. This establishes her as a Emotionless Girl with an obsession for efficiency who is Not So Above It All when it comes to being quirky.
  • Kusuri immediately begins to offer Rentarou a drug she's made and force-feeds it to him. This establishes her Mad Scientist side and her penchant for Didn't Think This Through, since she gave him the drug without considering the secondary effects.
  • Hahari begins by showing how stern she is in trying to keep Hakari from Rentarou, as an overprotective mother... but it is after she has her ZING!! with Rentarou when she shows her real self, which is someone who's even more of a Love Freak than her daughter.
• Accel World:
  • The series begins with the protagonist, Haruyuki Arita, getting a message from a bully demanding that Haru buy him food or face the consequences. Depressed about school, as usual, Haru retreats into the bathroom during lunch and plays a squash game, in which he has the high score. All this shows that Haru's a victim of bullying with terribly low self-esteem, and an impressive gamer.
  • During Haru's lunch break, his Childhood Friend, Chiyuri "Chiyu" Kurashima tracks him down to the boys' bathroom and offers him her home-made lunch, showing that she's the kind who does everything she can for her friends.
  • Kuroyukihime, as a fairly complex character, has multiple moments. Her first appearance involves her beating Haru's previous high score on Squash (although it's later revealed that she had to Accelerate to do so), and cryptically inviting him into another world. Later on, after Kuroyukhime admits to being jealous of Chiyu, Haruyuki suggests that Kuroyukihime hangs out with him because she hates herself, causing her to tearfully slap him in the face and call him an idiot^note Whenever Haru had done something stupid, Kuroyukihime would've smugly called him a "fool". The latter incident shows that even after all her time in Brain Burst, in the end, she's an emotionally vulnerable 14-year-old girl. There's also how she manages to trick Araya into punching Haruyuki on-camera so that he'll be caught and expelled, resulting in him trying to kill her and Haruyuki in revenge, showing that Kuroyukihime's plans don't always go as she intends.
  • Yuniko Kozuki, also known as Scarlet Rain, manages to pose as a young relative of Haru's, after spending a lot of time and points to deduce that he's Silver Crow. All this shows that despite her young age, she's cunning, bold and has points to spare, and when you consider that she did all this to save her friend and "parent" Cherry Rook, it shows she cares for those close to her.
• Tokiwa from Ask Dr. Rin! first appears at the end of Episode 1, staring at a photo of Meirin with Asuka's face scribbled out. Guess who he spends the next few episodes trying to win the affections of and who he spends the next few episodes trying to murder? This is subverted later, however. It's a good Character Establishing Moment for the first few episodes, while he's possessed by a demon, alone. Once the demon's been exorcised, he becomes much nicer, more like Vitriolic Best Buds with Asuka, though he still has affections for Meirin.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • The entire first chapter neatly establishes Korosensei's character. He's silly, cocky, gleefully admits to having destroyed most of the moon and his plans to do the same to the world, and for some reason he's agreed to be a homeroom teacher a class of students considered otherwise hopeless in exchange for giving these same students the chance to assassinate him. But when a suicide bomber assassination attempt nearly harms a student, he becomes furious and threatens the ones who thought of the plan to never pull a similar stunt again...and then congratulates the suicide bomber for the perfect execution and shares some words of encouragement with the rest of the class.
  • And then there's the suicide bomber, Nagisa. He executes the plan by first going up and trying to stab Korosensei first, and then when he blocks, he hugs Korosensei with a grenade around his neck. This foreshadows his talent for assassination, his lack of self-esteem, and his eventual modus operandi when executing an assassination.
  • Karma is introduced by having him be the first to injure Korosensei by tricking him into shaking his hand when it's taped with blades that harm him.
  • Itona manages to make clear both his oddiness and his overwhelming desire for strength and victory in the first five seconds on-page. By bursting through a wall and sitting at his desk without breaking a sweat, while declaring his superiority over said wall.
• Attack on Titan:
  • Levi's very first scenes showcase his three main attributes. He kills no fewer than three Titans in a bored manner, showing himself to be a consummate badass, before being annoyed with having to clean Titan blood from his hands - being a neat freak. But he doesn't hesitate to grab a dying subordinate's bloody hand to comfort him.
  • The first action of Eren's Titan form is to deliver a massive punch to a Titan about to eat Mikasa, then proceed to stomp its neck to death, showing that this titan not only kills other titans, but knows their weaknesses.
  • The Beast Titan's first order of business is to casually terrify Mike Zakarius, one of the most powerful members of the Survey Corps, before ordering a group of Titans to tear him apart.
    • Hell, the simple fact that it can talk is a pretty big indicator of his character.
  • Eren gets another effective one post Time Skip: he has a calm conversation with Reiner inside a flat, but threatens to transform and kill everyone inside if Reiner doesn’t comply. He then proceeds to make good on his threat, and then slaughters Marley’s top brass in his Titan form with animalistic fury. All of this goes to show that, while Eren is just as determined as he was before, he’s become a lot more jaded.
• Azumanga Daioh opens in the manga with Yukari-sensei boisterously introducing herself...to the wrong class. The anime opens with her stealing a student's bike to get to class on time. Actually, Azumanga Daioh is very good at setting up what a character will be like on first meeting: Chiyo-chan tutors a very embarrassed older student in her second scene; Sakaki makes Chiyo nervous at first...and then we see her "preferred jobs" list includes "Veterinarian" and "Toy store clerk"; Tomo volunteers to stand in the hall with buckets and fails.
  • The opening sequence of the anime introduces the girls in manners befitting their personalities as they are tossed into the air: Chiyo-Chan is loving it, Osaka looks surprised, Sakaki seems confused, Yomi tucks and rolls, and Tomo enjoys it...until the logo smacks into her.
    • Kimura's defining moment is the page quote for Joshikousei, when he loudly declares how much he likes high school girls.
• Baccano!:
  • Firo's first appearance in the anime version has him taking out an old homeless man that was trying to stab him — even though Firo had given him money a moment earlier — after said homeless man cuts off a couple of Firo's fingers...which immediately reattach themselves.
  • The light novel introduces him this way, as well, except it replaces his fingers being cut off with him simply disarming his opponent and knocking him out (since at the point in the novel when he's introduced, he's still a Badass Normal).
  • Although it's not his first scene, Luck Gandor's establishing moment in the anime comes when he recites the first few lines of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Spirits of the Dead," and reflects that where previously his fear of death made the poem terrifying to him, now that he is immortal he would no longer be afraid to die if he could.
    • In the novels, Luck and his brothers are introduced forcing a man to play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver; when he panics and tries to shoot Keith, Luck sorrowfully informs him that the cartridges were all empty, that they know he's been embezzling from them, and the whole thing was a Secret Test of Character which he has just failed miserably.
    Luck: This is truly regrettable.
  • Right from the get-go, you know Isaac and Miria are complete, lovable morons. It might have something to do with their year-long stint searching for gold in a mine. Before impulsively stealing from the mafia to give their buddy an expensive gift.
  • In the first episode of the anime, one of the first things Ladd Russo does is shoot a little boy in the face with a shotgun. (Of course, said "little boy" was actually centuries old and his head reconstructs itself a few minutes later, but Ladd certainly didn't know that.) A few episodes later, he responds to a group of thugs threatening him onboard the Flying Pussyfoot by knocking one of them down and then punching him in the face over and over until the man dies.
• Bakuman。:
  • In the very first scene , Moritaka Mashiro is sitting in class, bored and pessimistic about his prospects if he gets a "normal" job while drawing a detailed sketch of his crush Miho Azuki, showing that he's a talented artist, even if he sees little hope of being able to draw manga.
  • Akito Takagi appears in the classroom holding Mashiro's notebook. Instead of making fun of him or blackmailing him, he simply asks Mashiro if he wants to make a manga series with him, showcasing himself as a guy with big ambitions.
  • Eiji Nizuma's first mention is when he wins an honorable mention in a manga contest, and says that he won because he was drawing while other kids his age played video games. This comes off as somewhat arrogant to Mashiro and Takagi, but it also shows the depths of Eiji's passion for manga, especially when Eiji later confirms that he had to draw because he didn't live near others and his family couldn't afford video games.
  • The editor in chief, in response to Eiji asking to cancel one series he doesn't like if he becomes the top-ranked manga artist, says he will consider the request if he still wants to do it after he learns about the difficulty of becoming a professional and becomes the top-ranked manga artist, showing his respect for determination.
  • Kayoko Mashiro scolds her son Moritaka for playing video games, saying that at this rate, he won't have much of a chance of getting into a good high school, showcasing her status as a strict Education Mama.
• In Berserk, Guts is first seen having sex with a woman who turns into a demon, then shooting her with his arm cannon, then killing a bunch of thugs in a tavern with his crossbow and chopping one in half with one blow of his BFS. The purpose of this is to let the reader know just how ruthless Guts is, and to demonstrate his badass qualities (although the sex scene in hindsight comes across as Early-Installment Weirdness, given what is later revealed about his character in regards to sexuality).
• Black Lagoon:
  • Balalaika gets one of these at the end of the third episode , when she calls the Lagoon Company in order to tell them a "very funny joke," the punch line of which is her firebombing the apartment of that arc's antagonist. While there were a couple of hint in the two previous episodes, this scene is the moment that clearly establishes her as the Affably Evil Sociopathic Hero Blood Knight that she is.
  • The first episode has a number of examples: Dutch with his cool-and-in-control persona as he competently manages a group of hostages. Revy's establishing moment during the next scene shows her as a psychotic woman with a Hair-Trigger Temper, and caps off with Revy trying to shoot Rock while looking away before being corralled by Dutch, the only person on the crew who can handle her. Rock is initially portrayed as a quite fearful Fish out of Water, but in the Yellow Flag scene, the first clue we're shown that he is more than he seems is when he drains his rum in one gulp before Revy's shocked eyes, leading to a drink-off between the two. And then the shootout, which shows Revy sporting a Slasher Smile while capping a group of hardened mercs with Guns Akimbo, establishing just why she's called "Two Hands."
  • Benny also gets one when he comforts Rock in a later episode regarding the fates of Hansel and Gretel, showing that while he's a nice guy, he's utterly desensitized to the violence.
  • Chaka's first appearance has him cursing out his girlfriend over the phone during an important meeting then trying to pick a fight with Revy by beating up Rock. Combined with his sloppy purple suit, unkempt beard, and long bleached hair (compared to the others' grey or black suits and clean cut appearance), viewers have everything they need to know he's an unprofessional delinquent and an asshole who thinks he's hot shit.
  • Major Caxton is first shown in a flashback to his Vietnam service, standing between his entire unit and a little girl they're threatening to rape, ensuring that he's not just some two-bit thug the audience is cheering to see slaughtered like all the rest when his mission puts him on a collision course with Roberta.
  • Chang gets a good one too, casually stopping by the Lagoon Company headquarters to give them the heads-up about the men coming to kill them all before pulling out two pistols and blasting his way out without flinching, not losing his cool even when someone throws a grenade his way. What really seals the deal is when Revy, AKA the single rudest and most foul-mouthed character in the series, has nothing but polite respect for him, and even joins him in a Back-to-Back Badasses moment, you know that Mr. Chang is not someone to fuck with.
• Bleach:
  • Ichigo is introduced beating up a bunch of thugs because they knocked over a vase which was an offering to a little girl who died recently. It would turn out Ichigo was doing all of this for the little girl, who came back as a ghost. He later tells the ghost girl that he will bring her new flowers and to hurry up and go to heaven.
  • Chad's first scene in the manga has him catch a steel bar with his back before it can hit the parakeet his friends just gave him, shrugging off any damage.
  • Gin's first appearance involves him slicing off Jidanbo's arm and declaring that for a gatekeeper, losing means death. He then stays around long enough to confirm Ichigo's identity, then starts to walk away, only casually knocking Ichigo back and forcing the gate shut when Ichigo plans on fighting him.
  • Nanao finds Kyoraku sleeping and tells him intruders have broken into Seireitei. He lazily responds with "What do you want me to do about it?" This was significant for another reason because Kyoraku's Evil Counterpart Starrk has the exact same exchange with Lilinette during the Hueco Mundo arc.
  • Mayuri himself gets his when, after his human bombs that he sicced on Uryu and Orihime fail, he blows them up anyway. "A bomb isn't supposed to come back."
  • Aizen gets one as well, but not when we first see him. In fact, his moment comes when he stabs his devoted subordinate Momo after revealing he's alive, and effectively saying in his calm tone that he really didn't care what he just did to her. The rest of the Soul Society arc forever establishes him as the main villain and Big Bad.
  • Ginjou was introduced by bumping into Ichigo and acting like a spaz as his bag was dropped. But as soon as Ichigo hands the bag to him and leaves, he flashes a smirk and his face was framed in shadow.
  • Yhwach is introduced by casually slicing off the arm of Luders Friegen, without even moving an inch from his throne, when the latter starts bickering with Asguiaro Ebern in his presence, quickly establishing himself as a Soft-Spoken Sadist and a Bad Boss. Then, while Luders is still writhing in pain while lying on a pool of his own blood, Yhwach offers to allow him to stay like that, while pointing out how he won't be needing his legs in that case. Finally, once Luders concludes his report, Yhwach offs him for speaking of the future when he asked him to speak of the present, making it clear not long after that he's okay with offing Arrancar for similarly petty reasons since he can capture as many as he likes now that he has conquered Hueco Mundo.
  • One of the Zero Squad members gets hers by way of Mayuri - she reveals that she broke into his lab and then calls him out for his lack of security. He sits there and takes it. Considering we know that a) Mayuri hates having his lab messed with and b) is rather lacking in sanity, that he'd react in such a way nicely highlights what kind of badass we're dealing with.
• Bloom Into You:
  • At the start of the story, it's revealed that Yuu hasn't responded to a boy's Love Confession in two months, since while she doesn't dislike him, she doesn't feel anything special about him. She also has yet to choose a club, having previously played softball because a friend invited her, at which point her teacher suggests that she join the student council. All this establishes Yuu as fairly indecisive, but willing to help her friends, as well as being someone who has yet to feel true love.
  • Played with in Touko's case. While she is a fairly complex character, her graceful and polite rejection of a suitor goes to show Yuu and the audience the kind of person she seems like at first glance, or at least the kind she wants to be. It leaves a strong impression on Yuu, who describes her as cool, attractive and nice.
  • Sayaka's first major scene is her expressing her bitterness over Touko choosing Yuu as her campaign manager over Sayaka, but soon forgiving her, as long as Touko wins the election. All this shows how closely Sayaka values her position as Touko's Best Friend and confidant, as well as her somewhat jealous streak.
  • Upon being introduced to the student council as the former president's kouhai in the kendo team, Doujima flippantly says that he "sucked" at kendo, so he decided to give it a rest, and he thought student council work would look good on his transcript. Sayaka then worries about whether Doujima will be any help, at which point Touko points out that the previous president, who tended to delegate all the work to others, found him useful, showing that Doujima's laid back and a bit immature, but can be reliable when he needs to be.
• Bokurano:
  • In the anime, Masaru "Kodama" Kodaka's introduced using a sparkler to burn a beached crab to death, and when he's called out on it, he replies that it's no different from how humans eat meat. This shows he's not only capable of acts of great cruelty, but also easily rationalizes said cruelty.
  • In the anime, Ushiro's moment comes when, after thinking that he pushed Waku to his death, he gets upset and slaps his little sister Kana. While Ushiro is a Big Brother Bully, he also has a conscience.
  • Koyemshi's first scene involves him insulting the pilots and acting quite arrogant, establishing himself as a jerkass.
  • In the manga, Mako "Nakama" Nakarai gets on her fellow campers' case for not doing their homework, showing that she's a bit of a busybody who wants to be seen as a good girl. In the anime, she tells Waku about how the individual has a duty to serve the group.
  • In the anime, Daichi talks with Kanji about he wants to bring his family to the island where they're having the nature trip, establishing himself as a caring big brother.
  • In both versions Maki dotes on Kana, and in the anime, she gets upset with Ushiro for bullying Kana.
  • Misumi Tanaka is first introduced calmly reasoning with Koyemshi by respectfully calling him "Koyemshi-san," and politely requesting to be allowed to investigate Zearth, showing her as a good-natured individual who has a way with people. In the manga, she also mentions having a daughter who's Kana's age, indicating that she also cares for the pilots as if they were her own children.
• Buso Renkin: The very first time Kazuki Muto appears in the series, he is taking a fatal blow for a stranger, and then suddenly waking up later and screaming that he'll avenge his death before going on to beat up his friends while half asleep. These scenes do a good job of showcasing his Chronic Hero Syndrome and borderline Cloudcuckoolander nature.
• Brynhildr in the Darkness:
  • You know the villains aren't going to be sympathetic when one of them (Chisato Ichijiku) has a captured girl subject to a Cruel and Unusual Death and watches it without horror or remorse.
  • The first scene of "Valkyria" has her speak in a cutesy manner, then turn around... to reveal multiple bloodily killed witches with not a scratch on herself, after which she gives a Slasher Smile.
• Case Closed has Shinichi solving a case and cannot resist the challenge. He meets up with his childhood friend Ran, who after he casually insults her father, punches a metal pole while cheerfully smiling.
• In the second episode and chapter of Chrono Crusade, Rosette gets hurt during a battle and is briefly knocked unconscious. Chrono then jumps to conclusions and assumes she's either badly injured or dead and has a Freak Out, trying to break the seal on his demonic powers on his own. In both versions it serves to establish Chrono's true nature as a demon, and also how fiercely protective he is of Rosette. In the manga it also establishes Chrono's Fatal Flaw — his temper — which pays off in Volume 5, when he breaks his seal when confronted with Aion and tries to kill him - -nearly killing Rosette with his powers and setting half of San Francisco on fire in the process.
• The fifth episode of Classicaloid opens with Schubert walking across a beach, waxing lyrical about certainty (which may bring to mind his senpai, Beethoven) and leaving adults acting like kids in his wake.
• While it may not appear this way at first, the initial appearance of Priscilla in Claymore sets up a lot of what will happen later. We hear that she's a new Claymore who's recently ranked # 2...and then she's late, and when she does show up she trips and falls over while apologizing for being late because of some Yoma. Just as the other Claymores and the audience are prepared to write her off, we look around and see that the alley she just came out of is covered from top to bottom with dead Yoma, which she just plowed through, by herself, without alerting the others. This establishes Priscilla's naive and innocent nature while giving a glimpse of just how ridiculous her powers are, so it's no surprise that she later becomes what may be the most powerful awakened being ever.
• Code Geass:
  • Lelouch Lamperouge gets multiple of these in Episode 1. First, he turns around a nearly lost chess game by moving his king piece first, establishing himself as a brilliant tactician with a penchant for bold, audacious, and borderline reckless moves. Then, when Kallen crashes her truck, he is pretty much the only bystander who goes to help (while everyone else just stands around with their cellphones out and wonders where the ambulance is), establishing him as the one guy who will get his hands dirty to help a stranger. When he is trapped in said truck later, he deduces he is in Tokyo's old subway system by ear, showing his vast encyclopedic knowledge. This is often overlooked, but when he believes he's about to die, he thinks of his little sister—the one person he'd go to any length to protect. Finally, at the end of the episode, after using his Magical Eye to make the soldiers threatening him kill themselves, he flashes an Evil Grin, revealing just what kind of a fabulous Well-Intentioned Extremist he is about to start transforming into.
  • In the first episode, Suzaku Kururugi proceeds to give Lelouch his only gas mask when the (supposed) container of poison gas opens, and then gets shot for refusing to kill Lelouch for witnessing something he shouldn't. This becomes a lot more significant once we get The Reveal about Suzaku's motivations.
    • Suzaku is such a dynamic character that he gets multiple ECMs. His admittance to Kallen about killing his father, his willingness to use Nunnally to manipulate Lelouch, his Laughing Mad moment after the FLEIJA goes off. Exactly which moments properly establish his constantly evolving character is best left to personal opinion.
  • In Lelouch's flashbacks we see he is not physically fit when he and Suzaku race up while Suzaku is in fact quite fit.
  • In her first appearance, Euphemia comes off as a ditz when she pretends that she was being chased by imaginary bad guys, but when she sees Suzaku being heckled by racist Britannian thugs, she immediately comes to his defense. Later, she uses her status to put to an end to a street brawl between Jeremiah Gottwald and four Britannian soldiers. So while Euphemia might prefer to avoid the limelight and act like a normal girl, she has the steel backbone and views of any Britannian royal, she's just a sweetie about it whose nice to everyone and expects kindness to be shared n return.
  • When Cornelia is introduced, the very first thing we see her do is lead an army of elite Knightmare pilots to a stunning victory against clearly outmatched foes. The generic bad guys are blown to smithereens, and the viewer is treated to a visual of her Knightmare standing triumphantly over her fallen foes, surrounded by flames. At that point, it's quite obvious she's not to be trifled with.
  • Nunnally refers to her maid, Sayoko, as Japanese and not Eleven, indicating that she's a kind person at heart who treats everyone well, even if they're minorities or of lower social status.
  • Clovis's very first appearance is to give a dramatic speech about a terrorist attack and ask for a moment of silence for those who died. However, he only acknowledges the eight Britannians who died and not the fifty-one Japanese, showing him to be casually racist. Once the cameras turn off, it's revealed he was actually at a party during said speech, cementing him as an inept ruler.
  • In Nightmare of Nunnally, Alice is first introduced using her Super-Speed powers to steal the skirts of the bullies harassing Nunnally. Later chapters reveal that this is not the first time she has done something like this.
• Comic Girls:
  • Immediately after hearing that her manga got overwhelmingly negative results, Kaos gets quite depressed and apologizes to her editor, all while being surrounded by friendly animals.
  • Amisawa, Kaos' editor, reads off a list of the highly critical survey results. She then thinks to herself that Kaos has talent, before suggesting that Kaos come to the dorms, showing that while she's brutally honest, she has faith in Kaos' potential.
  • Koyume is first shown chowing down on sweets while meeting with her editor, and accepts the offer to live at the dorm without hesitating for a moment.
• In Cowboy Bebop, we have Faye first moments on screen, which are a quick show up of her ''assets'', her smoking a cigar, getting attacked and defending herself quite well but getting captured at the end; all in barely a minute.
  • The first episode shows off Spike's badassery as a martial artist practioner and experienced bounty hunter, before revealing his bullheaded destructive tendencies in his conversation with Jet.
  • The opening fight of the movie helps re-establish the characters for newcomers unfamiliar with the series. The way Spike deals with the thugs shows his confidence in his skills and that he rarely takes anything seriously. However, Jet is more practical and concerned with simply getting the job done without dragging any innocent civilians into the fray.
  • Vicious's first actions onscreen are slicing the throat of an important mob boss with a katana and then leaving through a hallway packed with the dead bodies of guards he's slaughtered.
  • Udai Taxim is similarly introduced standing in a corridor full of dead guards after a successful prison ship break. When another prisoner offers him a stolen bottle of wine, Taxim takes it...and pours it onto the ship's floor as a toast before uttering one of the best lines in any dubbed anime ever.
  Taxim: Cheers to the ship that charmed the devil.
  • Mad Pierrot makes his intentions terrifyingly clear with one bone-chilling line of dialogue:
  Mad Pierrot: Hello, gentleman. I journeyed here in order to take your lives.
• Cross Ange begins with a blonde-haired, magenta-eyed teenager of 16 shifting a motorcycle-seated, ornate fighter plane into a giant white and golden robot to combat a gigantic dragon, all the while singing a beautiful song. The Curb-Stomp Battle finishes with the singing girl's mecha, called Villkiss, palming the vicious beast's underbelly with an attack that causes icicles to burst out of the dragon's body. Then the girl opens the cockpit and pulls out a gun as Villkiss takes aim with its own rifle to finish the job, and the girl gives her Verbal Business Card.
  "My name is Ange. And I will live... even if I have to kill."
• In Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Yumoto manages to chase after a wombat in a hot spring bathhouse when he would normally slip. En and Atsushi were talking about oden ingredients when the wombat arrived and talked to them about saving the world with love. Not only does that set the roles for 4 characters, it also tells the viewer they're in for one heck of a Parody.
• Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School:
  • In the framing story of Despair, Yukizome watches a film of herself being brutally murdered and idly comments on it while eating popcorn. Then she excitedly realizes that it's just like an scene in one of her favorite movies. Chisa Yukizome, everybody.
  • In Future, Munakata deliberately arrives late to a meeting between Foundation leaders as a way of showing disdain for their commander, and coldly orders the squabbling leaders to act more professional.
  • Sakakura beats up a handcuffed man who's been accused of treason (not proven to have committed it) and has to be called off by other people.
  • Andou is shown happily feeding her boyfriend Izayoi sweets, only to then start acting like an antagonistic Alpha Bitch to the others. Izayoi ends up throwing a kunai at Asahina, making his paranoid protectiveness of Andou clear as well.
  • Once the killing game begins, the first thing Mitarai does is tell Tengan off for possible sexual harassment.
• Hei of Darker than Black is introduced viciously interrogating and then killing a Contractor, showing that he's not at all a typical hero. He then gets a very different establishing scene in his civilian identity as Li, where he's a nice, gentle guy. The series is all about reconciling the two moments.
• In DARLING in the FRANXX, Hiro's first scene has him monologuing about the philosophical meaning of a wounded bird he saw in the forest. As you might expect from this, he's not great at parties.
• Death Note
  • The audience gets to know the kind of person Light Yagami becomes when we learn that in the time between acquiring the Death Note and meeting Ryuk, he's already written pages of names within the Note, knowing that they're all dead by his hand. And then he proclaims his plans to use the Death Note to become "God of the New World".
  • L is introduced as a character when he tricks Light into killing Lind L. Tailor, and then uses various pieces of circumstantial evidence to discover that Light is not omniscient or all-powerful; he does, in fact, have limits on his ability to kill people, and L now knows where "Kira" lives. He also openly taunts Light, becoming the first person in the series thus far to truly make him angry.
    • The above moment is followed up by another where both L and Light make the exact same oath to hunt down the other, despite being miles away, demonstrating early on that they're Foils.
  • The anime introduces Mello and Near in the same scene, having the former freak out in reaction to what he's told while the latter remains calm, nicely setting up the Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic between them.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba:
  • Tanjiro is first introduced in an In Medias Res scene, desperately trying to get help for his injured and demonized sister Nezuko. The story then flashes back to the previous day, when Tanjiro says goodbye to his mother and siblings before setting out to sell charcoal. While in town, he greets the townspeople and helps prove a young man didn't break a vase by using his sense of smell to find the scent of a cat. All this shows that he's a Nice Guy and a loving older brother.
  • In Giyu's first scene, he gives Tanjiro a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech after Tanjiro begs him to let him try to turn his sister back to normal, saying that nothing good will come of Tanjiro's weakness and naivete. Shortly thereafter, he has an Internal Monologue expressing that he regrets not arriving in time to save Tanjiro's family. After he stabs Tanjiro when the latter tries to attack him, knocks Nezuko out when he defends her unconscious brother, Giyu ultimately decides to spare them and refer them to his old teacher. All this shows that Giyu is outwardly cold and cynical, but with a Hidden Heart of Gold.
  • When Tanjiro runs into Muzan Kibutsuji for the first time, he acts completely innocent. He then swiftly swipes at a man walking by him, causing the man to turn into a demon and attack his wife. This forces Tanjiro to subdue the man, while Muzan casually walks away with his own family. If that doesn't showcase his complete and utter disdain for human life, then later, he brutally takes his rage out on some drunken passersby who insult his appearance, giving the only one who didn't a completely horrific death simply because she was there. Then he orders two of his underlings to kill Tanjiro because his earrings reminded Muzan of another demon slayer who almost killed him in the past.
  • Zenitsu has a few such moments. His first scene has him desperately begging a girl he just met (and who happens to be engaged) to marry him, fearing he could die at any moment despite the fact that he survived Final Selection. Later on, he shows his more positive qualities when he protects Tanjiro's box(which contains his sister Nezuko) from Inosuke, getting badly injured in the process. Zenitsu went to all this trouble because Tanjiro mentioned how important the box was to him, despite knowing full well that Nezuko, a demon, was inside.
  • During Shinobu's fight with the Older Sister spider demon, she cheerfully asks the demon how many people she's killed, and when the demon lies about it, Shinobu kills her with her poisoned sword, the smile never leaving her face. This shows that Shinobu is a Stepford Smiler with a consuming hatred for demons.
  • Enmu is introduced when he and the other Lower Ranks have been summoned by Muzan to be disposed of. Instead of running or pleading for his life like the others, Enmu instead gleefully cherishes the opportunity to die at his master's hand, and thanks him for saving him for last so that he could enjoy the sound of his fellow Lower Ranks' screams.
• Digimon Adventure:
  • We're first introduced to the main characters at summer camp and their reactions to the sudden snow sets up their personalities - Tai excitedly runs out first and wanting a tobagan race, T.K. happily running out to build a snowman, Matt urging his little brother to be careful, Sora lamenting that she didn't bring a jacket, Joe worrying about what ailment he'll pick up, Mimi cheerily mentioning that she should have brought her pink furry socks and Izzy staying inside with his computer.
  • Etemon is introduced as a Laughably Evil yet Not-So-Harmless Villain. He is revealed as an adult-size monkey puppet with a very goofy popstar personality and it's hard to take him seriously. Then later in the same episode, he is able to De-power the Chosen Children's Digimon Partners with The Power of Rock and destroys a village, and he does both things while being several kilometres away from them. And at the end of the episode, it is shown that his network cables are spread over the entire Server Continent, showing that he has much more power and control over the continent than you would have imagined.
  • The introduction of the four Dark Masters sets up all of their personalities almost instantly. Piedmon sadistically laughs over the fear humanity is displaying and treats the whole thing like a flashy performance; MetalSeadramon declares his desire to cut out the middleman and wipe out all the humans at once, showing that he prefers to get things done quickly and easily; Puppetmon counters that such a thing would be boring and how he'd prefer to pick the humans off one by one, showing his childlike mentality as he treats the endeavor like a game; and Machinedramon remains silent and glares menacingly in the corner, foreshadowing his ruthlessly efficient nature.
• DNA2 establishes Karin by cutting from the highschool drama to an abandoned factory, a huge, round space capsule appearing and her stepping out, her face mostly obscured by the mist and her clothes, giving us a Blasphemous Boast... and then she proceeds to swoon and Squee over how awesome that whole thing was!
• Dragon Ball:
  • The original Dragon Ball series:
    • We first see Krillin trying to impress Master Roshi by making a grand entrance by jumping off his boat and doing several flips, only to land head first into the sand. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about Krillin.
    • Chi-Chi is first shown being chased by a T-Rex, crying out for help and running for help. In the midst of her running, she removes a boomerang from her helmet, throws it, and decapitates the T-Rex. When she realizes what she has done, she vaporizes the body with a laser built into her helmet. This tells us Chi-Chi is a reluctant fighter when first we meet her.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Between being blasted away by Goku's Kamehameha, having his eye neary shot out, having his tail sliced off and severely weakening him, nearly getting killed by the Spirit Bomb, falling from several thousand feet in the air, and still getting back up to keep fighting the heroes, Vegeta's first appearance firmly establishes his sheer durability and determination.
    • Future Trunks cemented both his Badassery by Curb Stomping Frieza and King Cold, two of the most powerful and dreaded villains in the DBZ universe at the time, and then his kind nature by politely offering assistance to the Z-Fighters to find Goku.
    • The Ginyu Force's entrance. Frieza's most elite soldiers introduce themselves by striking a super-sentai inspired group pose.
    • Frieza smirking as his men murder the Namekians for their Dragon Ball. If you watch Dragon Ball Z Kai, he is shown in the first episode blowing up Planet Vegeta while laughing.
    • Android 16 watching a group of birds, then scolding Androids 17 and 18 when their battle with the Z fighters scared said birds away.
    • Cell, introduced while sucking the life out of person.
    • Babidi killing his own men when they succeeded in their mission.
    • Majin Buu has four, one for each of his personas.
    • As Fat Buu, when first awoken, he dances around for several minutes laughing like a kid, much to everyone's confusion. Then Dabura (who is at least as strong as the previous arc's Big Bad) insults him and Buu punches his eyes out before pasting him into the nearest cliff. Later in that scene, when Babidi sets Buu on Dabura (because Dabura very sensibly told Babidi that Buu was uncontrollable and they should kill him when they had a chance), Buu tanks all of Dabura's attacks before turning him into a cookie and eating him.
    • As Evil Buu, he obliterates Van Zant with a Slasher Smile.
    • As Super Buu, he liquifies himself and pours down Smitty's throat, inflating him until he explodes from the inside. He then flies straight for the Lookout, demonstrating his ability to sense energies.
    • As Kid Buu, his first action is to try to blow up Earth, and when Goku and Vegeta barely stop him in time, he responds by making an attack 10 times bigger, making him the first villain to actually destroy Earth, after both Vegeta and Cell threatening it.
  • Pan in Dragon Ball GT fighting with the bank robbers manages to condense her cockiness, compassion (trying to get the person she though was a little kid out of there), ability to fight and bravery (remember, she's supposed to be 10, and is already at least stronger than Android 20 (Dr. Gero).
• Dr. STONE:
  • Tsukasa has literally just been woken up from being encased in stone for over three thousand years as a last-ditch act of desperation by Senku and Taiju. Only his eye is visible, but he immediately asks what the situation is, and when Senku tells him, he blows the rest of the stone off his body like bullets before taking out several lions in an instant. Bare-handed. What an entrance.
  • Kohaku's first appearance is her attacking Tsukasa for breaking Senku's neck, showing her as a badass and honorable warrior, but unable to win against the World's Strongest Man.
  • Homura's first appearance is her burning down Ishigami Village while Hyoga and his goons distract the heroes.
• Durarara!!:
  • Izaya Orihara is introduced by having him orchestrate the rescue of a teenage girl from a kidnapping attempt...which he also orchestrated. Why? He just wanted to see how she'd react. It's a bit of an experiment for him, the question being whether he can get her to commit suicide. Why? Because he loves humans, and it's so interesting to see what they'll do.
  • And in the very next scene, Celty gets hers: "The world isn't as cruel as you make it out to be."
  • In the light novel and the manga, Izaya manages to do this to two girls at the same time. Oh, he also drugs them and stuffs them into suitcases. Then he stands on a rooftop and laughs like an absolute lunatic while declaring his love for humanity. He's also the most popular character in the series, natch.
  • His and Shizuo's characters are pretty well established by just the opening credits, which shows Shizuo lifting up a vending machine, and throwing it at Izaya. Who smirks, and steps to the side, causing a pipe to break, which gushes water and Shizuo and sends him flying backwards.
• Our introduction to Lucy from Elfen Lied is a scene of her brutally murdering about thirty five guards. While naked.
  • Thirty-five guards and a scatter-brained, clumsy secretary, who had in the previous scene received a little character building, making this an establishing moment for the show as well.
• Eyeshield 21 has a few:
  • The first time we see Hiruma he's got a gleefully manic smile and tricks the protagonist into revealing his cell phone number so he can learn his name and address JUST so he can spam him with fliers to join the Football Team.
  • Kurita walks into the Football Ball club room and sees a trio of delinquents about to beat up the protagonist. The delinquents then proceed to try and attack him. His conclusion? They must be hear to join the football team! He then accidentally (and effortlessly) throws them to the side in an attempt to show them how to be a lineman. Just as Kurita is running to them to apologize, the bullies run away in fear.
  • Shin's establishing character moment has him declaring he's not content with just being a normal person...WHILE DOING VERTICAL PUSH UPS WITH HIS THUMBS. Normal, right.
• Haruko Haruhara of FLCL fame gets this in the first few seconds, just to let the audience (and the characters around her) know that she's insane: After finishing a piece of bread that she was implied to have stolen, she revs up her moped, gives us a smirk and a cry of "Awright! LUUUUUNCHHHH.... TIIIIIIMMMMEEEE!!!!", and blasts off at breakneck speeds, running over our main character (which she doesn't even notice until she stops), completely freaks out about "killing" who she believes to be "Tarou-kun", defying all laws of physics in the process, and then proceeds to give her version of CPR (actually, just planting one long, passionate kiss on the mouth) knocking said protagonist out of shock, proceeding to bean him square on the head with a bass guitar, shake him upside down (even though she had just told the protagonist's friend not to do this) frustrated that "it's not coming out," then proceeding to call him useless and driving off faster than when she arrived.
• Fairy Tail gives a pretty unique one to its main villain, Zeref. After building him up for 200 chapters as the ultimate evil the readers are shown a scene of him (though he goes unnamed at the time) about to be attacked by a pack of wolves. After killing them without trying he apologizes for having taken their lives, and in fact tried to ward them off before they could attack so that they'd remain unharmed. It was such a drastic difference from what readers expected that despite earning the nickname "killing mage" virtually no one considered he may have been the anticipated villain.
  • In the scene where Fairy Tail guild master Makarov is introduced, he scolds the members for the huge number of complaints regarding their reckless behaviour that he has received from the council, and immediately proceeds to burn away all those complaint letters and tells the members not to care about the council. Said scene also serves as one for the respective members, establishing some of their quirks- Cana's drinking habit, Loke's womanizing, Gray's stripping and Elfman's obsession with manliness.
  • The first chapter/episode showcases Natsu and Lucy quite well. Lucy seems to be an average fan girl but shows courage in confronting the villain of the episode with her stellar spirits. Natsu shows off his many Idiot Hero traits before revealing his true power as "Salamander".
  • The debut of Erza makes a lot of her key traits clear: she's really strong, serious but well meaning, puts as high of an expectation on others as she does herself, has her own odd traits, and not the most socially graceful, traits that the series going forward elaborates on. This is particularly the case in the anime, where her full debut combines several chapters worth of moments establishing Erza as a character into one episode.
  • Mirajane's moment comes a fair amount of time after her introduction. During the Fantasia arc, when Fried is torturing her brother Elfman and prepares to kill him, Mirajane finally overcomes the trauma of losing her younger sister, Lisanna and assumes her Satan Soul form. She then easily defeats Fried, but after subduing him, spares him, saying that they're part of the same guild and shouldn't be fighting one another. It nicely shows that she's devoted to her siblings, a powerful mage and a kind person at heart.
  • Brandish Mu of the Spriggan 12 is introduced complaining about how the fight between Marin, one of her subordinates, and the Fairy Tail wizards, resulted in the destruction of a food stand she wanted to visit. When Marin complains and insists that she help take care of the Fairy Tail mages, she shrinks him (someone who'd previously been at an advantage against the entire group) and the entire island, showing that she has her quirks, but she's not to be trifled with.
• The Fate Stay Night - Heaven's Feel manga:
  • Rider, a tall, elegant magical being, is summoned into the mortal world with much pomp and ceremony...and she immediately turns away from her summoner to examine the hurt, naked girl collapsed on the floor. Later she asks the girl's name, despite Shinji's insistence that she is worthless and irrelevant to Rider's duty.
  • Taiga, a grown woman, takes childlike glee in pranking Shirou by switching the house's sauce bottles.
  • Rin "wasting", in her words, a stockpile of powerful magic (that was a gift from her father, no less) to save the life of an innocent caught in the crossfire of the Holy Grail War. Heart of gold, that girl.
• Fate/Zero establishes each of the Masters within their first scene.
  • Kiritsugu's first words to his wife after she had just given birth to their daughter is how he will kill her. She's totally fine with it.
  • Kotomine's father, along with Tokiomi, instructs Kotomine about how he will help Tokiomi use the Grail for their own gain despite telling Tokiomi that their role as priests is to keep the Grail War as unbiased as possible. Afterwards, the father tells Tokiomi about how depressed Kotomine is over his wife and how he hopes the war will help him.
  • Kayneth, the heir to a long-running mage lineage and a well-respected teacher,, berates a student over his paper about how training can make a mage better than a mage with a powerful lineage. Pissed off, said student, Waver Velvet, steals Kayneth's package and enters the war to prove himself.
  • Kariya marching towards his father's house after learning he essentially took one of the daughters of The One That Got Away to create a Magus and asking to fight in order to spare her.
  • And lastly, Ryunosuke murdering a family and carelessly asking a kid if it's okay that a monster comes and eats him.
• Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star. First we see that he is The Stoic, a Friend to All Children, and a generally decent Nice Guy. He's imprisoned due to the fear of the innocent people of the wasteland, but doesn't take it out on them. He helps others in his own way, including using a Pressure Point technique to restore the speech of a little girl who was rendered mute by the trauma of watching her parents die, and doesn't even leave the prison when it's implied he could... until his Papa Wolf tendencies are invoked by the utter cruelty of the village's attackers. At this point, he demonstrates, among other things, that he is a One-Man Army, and he is a Bully Hunter who attacks his enemy's Pressure Point via Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs to reduce them to Ludicrous Gibs. He only has four words for the thugs who oppress others: "You Are Already Dead." In spite of the fact that he shows how Good Is Not Soft, he is still an All-Loving Hero and the Hope Bringer. We can get all of this in just the first episode of the anime. Whew.
• Kyo Sohma's introductory scene in Fruits Basket involves him crashing in through the roof and challenging Yuki to a fight.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • The very first thing Scar does is break into a guarded house in a very leisurely manner and slaughter Shou Tucker by blowing his head apart. He then turns his attention to his daughter Nina Tucker, whom Shou Tucker has alchemically fused with her dog. Scar then kills her as gently as he can and then prays to God to accept her father and her.
  • The side story where Fuery finds a puppy in the rain is one for Hawkeye. She tells him to find the dog an owner by the end of the day, or he'll have to put the dog back. At the end of the day he tells her he couldn't find anyone - at which point she promptly adopts the dog herself. (At this point, Hawkeye was only a side character, and thus the reader believed she really would make him put the dog back in the rain.)
  • Izumi Curtis first appears as a bed-ridden woman. She then welcomes Edward by slamming her foot into his face. Then she happily greets Al. Then she judo-throws him. Then, as she's berating them for being out of shape, she suddenly spits a lot of blood. And finally she hugs her comforting husband in a lovey-dovey manner. There, that's (almost) everything you need to know about teacher Izumi.
    • If that weren't enough, Izumi reveals that during the introduction moment she figured out that Ed and Al had done Human Transmutation, simply by the sounds of Ed's Artificial Limbs and she could feel that Al's armor was empty when she threw him. She was just waiting for them to come clean and when they didn't, she kicked Ed again for thinking he could avoid the conversation!
• Full Metal Panic!:
  • Sagara Sousuke gets two dramatically contrasting ones at the beginning of the series. His entrance establishes him to be an emotionless badass that doesn't have any particular feeling or compassion towards people dying. The whispered girl that he rescues asks him if he feels sad that one of his brave comrades died, to which he blankly replies that he doesn't really know or feel anything particular. Then he's assigned an undercover mission as a New Transfer Student, and the other half of his character — a clueless military nerd only doesn't panic at mundane tasks and social situations when he's too dumb to realize how bad he is at them — becomes apparent in his fumbled class introduction.
  • Gauron's establishing moment during the first episode he's shown...where he has shady dealings and smugglings with the KGB. When the huge, muscled lieutenant gets angry at him for raising his rates, calling him a "Chinaman" and threatening to throw him into the labor mines, Gauron calmly and smilingly takes out his gun and pumps the man's head full of lead. He then proceeds to happily go up to the terrified colonel and continue discussing business. It certainly sets the idea and tone for the rest of the story that Gauron is a complete Ax-Crazy psychopath that won't hesitate to kill anyone for the heck of it.
• Aside from kicking ass (in most cases, anyway), the Suzaku and Seiryuu Seishi from Fushigi Yuugi commonly make an entrance while their body symbols are glowing.
• The protagonist of Gabriel DropOut is shown going from perfect angel to extreme slacker as she gets drawn into an MMO.
  • Satania is first scene shows her laughing maniacally at not putting a bottlecap in its proper receptacle.
  • Raphi's introductory sequence has her messing with Satania.
• New Getter Robo is an absolute goldmine for amazingly memorable ECMs. To wit:
  • Ryoma successfully prevents a Yakuza boss from stabbing him by grabbing his wrist in time...only to grip down on the blade with his free hand anyway, just to show how badass he is. "Come on, push or pull. You'll save face if you at least chop off a finger." This sets the tone for the rest of the series, which is mostly composed of Crazy Is Cool and Slasher Smiles.
  • Ryouma: Walking into a multinational Martial Arts tournament, insulting everyone there, beating the shit out of everyone there, declaring that its revenge for the way the showboating modern martial artists had destroyed his father's career as a Dojo master, and then fighting off a hit-squad even after getting stabbed in the shoulder.
  • Professor Saotome: After Hiring above-mentioned hitsquad to test Ryouma's capabilities, his response can be summed up as such: "Good job, you proved you're a badass. Now shut up and get in the giant robot."
  • Hayato: Ripping a dude's face off with his bare hands for not being willing to follow him.
  • Musashi: After Ryouma crashes the Getter Falcon in a forest full of de-evolved humans, Musashi rolls in, saves his life, and then proceeds to help repair the eagle with a squad of monkeymen that he cowed into submission by beating the shit out of them until they followed his lead, and then helping the Injured Ryouma pilot the Getter. What makes this establishing is that at no point in this entire sequence does Musashi ever stop acting like a dangerously cheerful 8 year old.
  • Prof. Shikishima: While being used as a Human Shield, he proceeds to recommend that Ryouma use a particular gun on the nearby workbench to shoot the Dinosaur Assassin through him, describing in gory detail how he wants to get shot in the head and die in a massive explosion of gore, going on for so long that the Assassin gets freaked out and runs away. After Ryouma compliments him on his bluff, Shikishima responds in confusion that he wasn't bluffing.
  • Go: After it is established that Go deliberately underperforms in everything he does and hangs around in a bad crowd, a seven foot tall supermuscled cyborg monstrosity arrives on his front door. His mother immediately sighs, turns around, and yells to Go that one of his friends has come by before said Cyborg demolishes the front end of the house.
• A few in Girls und Panzer:
  • Mako Reizei is first seen staggering to school, complaining about how painful mornings are. When she arrives, she's met with a Disciplinary committee member who says she's been late over 200 times, and for whom she has a nickname of her own.
  • The first thing Jerkass and Alpha Bitch Erika Itsumi says to Miho is "Vice captain... Ah, I mean, former vice captain" in a highly sarcastic and patronizing tone of voice. As she's leaving, she says Oarai is going to lose the tournament, with it only being a question of how badly, and it should not even be entering in the first place.
  • Maho's moment comes in Episode 6 when she tells Erika to fly Mako to the hospital so she can see her grandmother, and justifies her decision by saying that doing so is also part of tankery. This not only shows her kinder side, but also her belief that adherence to a Serious Business ideology of tankery and acts of kindness are not mutually exclusive, especially not when she is motivated to live up to the expectations for her as Nishizumi Heir out of a desire to allow Miho to live and do tankery her own way.
  • Miho and Maho's mother Shiho is first shown berating Miho for abandoning the flag tank to save the crew of another, telling her that she's expected to live up to the family standards, and that it's impossible to win without sacrifice.
  • Nonna's second line of dialogue has her telling the short-tempered Katyusha to wipe her face, indicating her motherly behavior towards Katyusha, and her being close enough to Katyusha to be able to correct her.
  • In Little Army, Miho's tank crew gets establishing moments in rapid succession after their class gets news that Miho's older sister, an alumna of their elementary school, won a tankery tournament. Hitomi runs over to Miho, falls on her face and asks to become one of Miho's sister's fans. Chihiro apologizes to Miho for Hitomi's eager questioning. Emi is the only one in the class who is openly displeased at the fact that Maho won the tournament, and by commenting on the strength of German tanks, reveals her knowledge about tanks not only to the viewer, but also to Miho.
• Goblin Slayer introduces the eponymous Goblin Slayer after demonstrating how reprehensible the goblins are. He is shown as almost silent, approaching the goblins without announcing himself, fighting defensively...up to the point he efficiently brutalizes and executes two goblins. Rescuing their victims is almost an afterthought, with him outright Mercy Killing one of the party who was poisoned and still alive and suffering after determining that the poison had spread too far in her system for an antidote. He then goes on to wipe out the entire nest efficiently and ruthlessly, using traps, goblin weapons, ambushes and even Priestess's miracles, which the other party never gave much thought to, to lethal effect upon them; and then goes on to demonstrate to a horrified Priestess that yes, he Would Hurt a Child, if the child was a goblin, unflinching in his willingness to Pay Evil unto Evil. All without so much as raising his voice.
• Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters: Haruo is first introduced threatening to suicide bomb the Aratrum if his demands — cancelling the expedition to Tau-e, whi because he thinks it's a veiled attempt to lessen the mouths to feed on — aren't met within one hour. This scene shows how desperate, angry, and persistent he is — not willing to back down, even if he ends up being killed.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Kamille Bidan quickly establishes just how hot headed he can be when he assaults an elite officer of the Federation just for making a crack about his name. This is the first of many rash actions he takes before maturing into a respectable man and soldier.
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Domon Kasshu starts the first episode by befriending a kid, growling "Have you seen this man?" at a guy, and then cleaning up in a bar brawl. Allenby Beardsley has one defining her as an Action Girl by pitting her in an arcade simulation battle against Domon. The machine broke down before either of them called it quits.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, the five Gundam Pilots each get their Establishing Character Moment in the first episode, where four of them get brief scenes showing their initial battles on Earth and parts of their personalities (Duo's enthusiasm and glibness, Trowa's cool head and stoicism, Quatre's nice guy with an edge, and Wufei being an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy). Lead character Heero gets his at the very end when Relena invites him to her birthday party; in rapid succession, he tears up the invite, wipes away the tears that previous action caused, then whispers his Catchphrase into her ear: "I'll kill you."
  • After War Gundam X: In his first minute on screen, Garrod Ran hijacks a Mobile Suit, with nothing but a 9mm and a homemade flash bang; this is a 15 year old kid, by the by, a teenage Action Survivor. He then takes a job to "rescue" a girl named Tiffa Addil from supposed kidnappers, but promptly turns on the one who hired him when he realizes they have evil intentions and Tiffa is frightened, showing he is not so heartless as to never question a shady employer. He then proceeds to steal a Gundam, fight off Tiffa's pursuers, and later wipes out an army of raiders with his Gundam's Wave-Motion Gun in a ferocious bid to keep her safe. Unfortunately, the last part ended up traumatizing Tiffa and putting her into a coma because she has psychic powers, and suffered a backlash from the great amount of death she "felt" when Garrod wiped out the raiders. And that's just the first two episodes.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
    • Setsuna F. Seiei introduces himself in the past as a hopeless Child Soldier in an army of minimally armed children fighting a "holy war in the name of God", running for cover as he despairingly declares that there is no god. In the present day, we see him older and in the seat of the GN-001 Gundam Exia. He then proceeds to subject a bragging pilot in a prototype Mobile Suit to a Curb-Stomp Battle, effortlessly dismantling the guy before taking his leave. All with a calm, deadpan, almost robotic demeanor. One wonders how his past broke him to become so deadpan, just about emotionless.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE's Woolf Enneacle has an episode for this. He struts out of the shower declaring that he's the best and challenges Flit Asuno to a contest for the Gundam. Then in the second half, we see that his massive ego is actually justified because of his skills on the battlefield. The Hero of the second generation, Flit's son Asemu, is introduced when he beats up the bullies who are harrassing his friends and then worries about the Mobile Suit contest because he wants to impress his father. And third generation protagonist Kio Asuno proves his heroic credential by unhesitatingly staying in danger zone to rescue some left behind children amidst an attack on his home city.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Episode 4. Chuatury "Chuchu" Panlunch has been shown to be a loud and hostile person with a mean streak and a dislike of Spacians, putting her odds with Suletta Mercury... but as much as she thinks she dislikes Suletta, she hates the arrogant Spacian bullies even more, especially when Chuchu realizes she and Suletta are similar in their motivations. Upon discovering that two Spacian girls sabotaged Suletta's Demi Trainer the same way they did to Chuchu's, Chuchu disembarks her DT and — without a word — absolutely decks one of them before ending up in a violent scuffle with the other, using some incredibly rude Japanese terms (Sub only) and eventually knocking both bullies out cold with her bare fists. This quickly establishes her Hot-Blooded nature, her Jerk with a Heart of Gold tendencies, and what happens when a Pintsized Powerhouse is Raised by Dudes. In a franchise that has had its share of memorable fistfights, it's incredibly telling how unflinchingly brutal and one-sided Chuchu's fight is.
• Gunslinger Girl
  • The Action Prologue shows Henrietta, a quiet little girl with a violin case, break a mans' neck with said violin case, before opening fire up on a group of thugs with a P90 submachine gun...''remaining completely expressionless.'' It quickly switches to a montage of her training, which she tackles in the same emotionless, mechanical fashion. The next scene, though, has her puddling up when her handler admonishes her for being reckless, effectively demonstrating that for all the killing, she's still a little girl.
  • In the first episode featuring Triela we see her acting as a Cool Big Sis to Henrietta, then it changes to her chasing down a Mafia mook who she takes down with a few aimed blows, then shoots without orders when he draws a gun, then she backchats her handler over the matter when he reprimands her — all establishing Triela as a kind, mature, skilled Action Girl with a touch of independence and rebelliousness unusual in these brainwashed cyborg killers.
• Haru and Midori: Midori is shown getting up and leaving her job while her coworkers talk in the background. She then goes to the convenience store to buy some instant noodles for dinner, but is unable to express herself clearly enough to ask for chopsticks. When she gets home, her mother gets on her case about taking care of herself. All this shows that Midori has severe social issues, and her life is a bit of a mess.
• In Haruhi Suzumiya, all the main charachters get one
  • Haruhi's very first line cements her character: "I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travellers, espers, or sliders, come join me. That is all."
  • Kyon quickly establishes his snarky narrator status with his initial monologue
  • Yuki Nagato easily establishes her status as a quiet, passive, Emotionless Girl by allowing Haruhi to use her club room and replying to 4 questions with eight words (two of which are her name).
  • Mikuru Asahina's introduction is her getting kidnapped and molested by Haruhi because she is cute.
  • Itsuki's intro "Oh, I get it. As expected of Ms. Suzumiya" establishes his Mr. Exposition role.
• The Heroic Legend of Arslan:
  • The Hiromu Arakawa manga introduces Arslan as a Friend to All Living Things who dislikes violence and ponders what it means to be a good king.
  • Daryun is a skilled fighter loyal to Arslan when he deliberately misses his shot at killing the boy who kidnapped the prince at Arslan's plead.
  • King Andragoras furiously demotes Daryun at his suggestion that there is a trap and they should reconsider blindly charging at the enemy, thinking it was a coward's way out. He also harshly calls out his son Arslan for arriving at the scene when he wasn't summoned.
  • Gieve mercy-killed a captured general who begged to be killed by an ally than tortured to death by Lusitanian soldiers, shooting an extremely faraway distance to fulfill the general's wish. His next scene follows this up by showing that he's also an incredible musician, a habitual liar, and a casanova through his performing before the queen and the revelation that he'd seduced one of her ladies-in-waiting.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers has several of these in the first chapter. America shows his Manchild personality and how they can make a huge hero to defend the earth. Switzerland irritably snaps at Japan for agreeing with America. England first appears to be the Only Sane Man (with a hint of Tsundere towards America), only to lose his temper when France speaks up and then get into a fight with him.
  • Then China attempts to calm things down but is ignored. Greece shows his philosophical side while being surrounded by cats and later is seen sleeping when the rest of the countries argue amongst themselves. Russia mentions enjoying seeing Lithuania begging to him in tears with a cheerful smile and then asks if Latvia agrees (while Belarus holds a knife to his throat). Poland jumps in to protect Lithuania from Russia. Germany yells at everyone to shut up and strictly proceeds on with business. Italy, when chosen to speak first, shouts out his trademark food "PASTA!!!!!!!!!!!"
  • Italy gets another one when he first meets Germany; he's found hiding in a tomato crate, tries and fails to convince Germany he's a fairy, then tearfully surrenders and begs for his life.
  • In Canada's first appearance, he apologizes for being late ... with no one realizing who he is.
• Koichi Shidou of Highschool of the Dead first appears to be a well meaning teacher concerned for the safety of his students. But when one of said students breaks his ankle and pleads for help, Shidou responds "Oh well, that's it for you!" and stomps him on the face before casually walking away and leaving the boy as zombie food. What a dick!
• Himouto! Umaru-chan: Everything you need to know about Umaru Doma is summed up neatly by her brother Taihei in the opening moments of the series; she's an honors student who makes perfect grades and excels at everything she does with virtually zero effort, yet is incredibly friendly, humble, and worshipped by her classmates and teachers. At least... She is in public. In the privacy of her home, Umaru is a lazy, bratty shut-in (visually represented by transforming into a chibified gremlin version of herself once she closes the door) who loves anime, manga, and video games, and would rather just eat junk food and sleep all day, with Taihei walking in on her while she's napping with her school clothes and some snacks piled all over the floor.
• The Honor Student at Magic High School opens with Miyuki calmly striding through a burning building as she heals the people evacuating it. Her internal monologue is concerned less with the pyrokinetic terrorist trying to kill everyone than the fact that his attack completely ruined the daytrip she had planned.
  • Maya's characterization is foreshadowed by the utter horror her own niece feels at the prospect of asking Maya for 'help'.
  • In the movie's first shot of Lina, she's tugging a cart of tacky souvenirs behind her as she exits a plane, and presses one of them on her army contact despite the latter's attempt to make her act more serious.
• Inuyasha:
  • Minor character Jinenji is first mentioned when Inuyasha and company arrive at a village and are told about a half-demon who lives not far away and has been terrorizing the locals. The heroes go to find Jinenji, who is pretty creepy-looking with a huge stature, a horse-like head, and bulbous all-blue eyes. His immediate response when Inuyasha attacks isn't to fight back, but for tears to start welling up in his eyes and he runs to a nearby farmhouse, crying out for help, and his aged mother comes running out and bonks Inuyasha on the head. The protagonists quickly realize that Jinenji is quite peaceful, the product of genuine love between his human mother and demon father, and befriend him; he has scars all over his arms from abuse that the locals inflicted on him, not anything from starting fights or even defending himself from other demons. They even stand up to the other villagers when they show up to kill Jinenji themselves.
  • Miroku's introduction quickly establshes the key components of his character: he's shown to secretly ransack the home of a Lord who hires him, but at the same time also does locate and defeat an actual demon that was haunting the Lord's home, showing he is legitimately skilled as a monk.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Each JoJo gets one.
    • Jonathan jumps to help a young lady being bullied by kids taller and stronger than him because hey, that's just what a gentleman does.
    • Joseph asks two Dirty Cops to let a victimized black kid go, even if said kid stole his wallet. Then one of the cops provokes him. A moment later, both cops have broken fingers and Joseph is freaking at the possibility that his grandmother will find out he lost his temper.
    • Jotaro is introduced after being arrested due to a street fight. The cops explain to his mother that he's not only unharmed, but severely beat multiple opponents. His mother assures them that Jotaro is a good boy, and takes off to his cell, having flashbacks of a younger Jotaro acting like a sweet young boy. This immediately cuts to the now 17-year old Jotaro yelling at his mother to shut up. However, he goes on to explain that he had no control of his actions in the street fight, and refuses to leave his jail cell until he's sure no one else will get hurt because of him.
    • Josuke is first seen calmly tolerating a group of would-be bullies, but beats one of them to a pulp when he insults his hair, then using his power to heal a turtle they were torturing to death despite noting aloud how much he hates them, showing personal hangups won't stop his kind heart.
    • Giorno returns a woman's stolen wallet, uses his Stand to swipe some cash without her noticing, and buys some gelato for himself and a kid.
    • Jolyne is introduced in a cell complaining that someone saw her masturbate.
    • Johnny witness Gyro Zeppeli's duel and without a care touches the Steel Balls.
    • Josuke wakes up and asks Yasuho who he is, then fiercely retaliates against Joshu, who pushed Yasuho aside and attempted to smash in Josuke's head with a rock.
    • Jodio stops a couple of cops from molesting his brother Dragona by beating them so badly Dragona actually begs him to stop, and then destroys the body cameras and the one on the cruiser so they don't get implicated.
  • Dio's very first appearance features him pulling off a literal Kick the Dog moment on Jonathan Joestar's poor dog Danny, telling the audience immediately that this guy is going to make most Jerkasses seem tame. In case you didn't get the message on what a piece of work this guy is, him throwing Danny in a trash furnace after Jonathan beats his ass for all the abuse he heaped onto him shows that Dio's not just a mere asshole - he's a cold-blooded psychopath without a shred of morality who feels no remorse for those he hurts and kills. And he only gets worse from there on out.
  • Yoshikage Kira, the Big Bad of Part 4, has one of the most memorable introductions in the series. He brings his girlfriend home for a pleasant dinner date, only for said girlfriend to turn out to be the remaining hand of a woman he murdered, and he talks to it like it is indeed his girlfriend, whom he acts like a perfect gentleman to. Not only does he present himself with a pleasant unassuming demeanor, he also shows how mentally warped and unhinged he is as well.
  • Okuyasu Nishimura, Josuke's best friend, originally shows up as a bullying delinquent antagonist with a wildly overpowered Stand who is talked up as one of the most terrifying Stands in existence... who proceeds to immediately knock himself out within minutes. No brains, all brawn. And the day after Josuke beats him? Okuyasu shows up at Josuke's house and immediately acts like his new best friend. Charmingly, the friendship takes.
  • Araki has a firm belief that Bad People Abuse Animals, thus you'll know immediately if a villain is irredeemably heinous if they kill an animal on screen. This is consistent across every part of the franchise.
• Jujutsu Kaisen:
  • Upon first taking possession of Yuji's body, Ryomen Sukuna revels at being able to feel the moonlight on his skin once more, before growing excited at how the modern world is crawling with people... and how he can't wait to slaughter them all.
  • Satoru Gojo introduces himself by, in quick succession, making light of how battered Megumi is and how Yuji has become Sukuna's vessel, telling Yuji to let Sukuna take possession for a few seconds, then toying with Sukuna as the latter tries to kill him, showing that he rarely takes things seriously and that he has more than enough power to back up his attitude.
• Before she even makes it to her first audition in Kaleido Star, Sora shows her colors as a spirited and determined youth by chasing down a man who stole her luggage using some impressive amazing acrobatics. When a girl is able to chase after a guy at full speed through heavy traffic and catch up to him, don't think she'll be one to give up her greater goals (becoming a full-fledged member of the Kaleido Stage troupe) so easily.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Fujiwara's first scene gets off a lot of her personality traits in rapid succession. She's offering movie tickets that she won to Kaguya and Shirogane because her father won't let her see anything with romance, completely unaware that Kaguya had secretly snuck them into her mailbox. Then she flips the entire script by offering a second pair of tickets to another movie, leaving Kaguya and Shirogane to have to alter their plans of attack on the fly. Finally she grabs the steamed bun that Kaguya and Shirogane were already reaching for, before heading off to class, all while completely oblivious to the Duel of Seduction happening right under her nose.
  • Tsubame is introduced being assigned as the vice captain of the cheer team, showing off both her leadership skills and her bubbly personality. But the real moment comes at the end of the meeting when everyone is exchanging Line IDs and she notices Ishigami sitting by himself due to not using the app and goes to give him her email address so he can stay involved with the group, establishing her as someone who looks out for people that would otherwise be ignored.
  • Maki's first focus chapter starts with her laughing off the idea of having a crush on Kashiwagi's boyfriend before walking off to mope and ending up getting accidentaly stepped on by Shirogane when he finds her passed out on a pathway from crying too much, showing her to be the story's ultimate Tsundere, Third Wheel, and Butt-Monkey.
• The very first thing Ryuko Matoi does in Kill la Kill is take a bite out of a raw lemon, without even peeling it. She then proceeds to pull the "Switcheroo" variant of Give Me Back My Wallet on a middle-school pickpocket with the half-eaten lemon, snark about it, kick the ass of his gang when they try to take it by force, and show them mercy when they inevitably beg for it. This all paints a picture of a tough-as-nails Japanese Delinquent with a Byronic streak and a heart of gold.
  • Her enemy Satsuki first appears standing on the tallest building in the school, radiating blinding light and making a dramatic speech about how absolute her rule is.
  • Satsuki's enforcer Ira Gamagoori first appears kicking down a heavy steel door and announcing that he is there on official business. He also doesn't simply walk in—no, he fills the entire room as he enters.
    • When said steel door is kicked at him, the teacher, Mr Mikisugi, who had previously been giving an incredibly dull lecture, is the only person who manages to avoid it.
    • Ryuko's best friend Mako is seen in the same scene, sleeping in class, unaffected by Gamagoori's rampage or even the tear gas bomb being dropped afterwards.
  • Nui, a later antagonist, introduces herself by intervening a fight between Ryuko and Uzu Sanageyama in a way that makes you wonder if they ran out of animation budget when it came time to draw her in, touching Satsuki's cheek across a split screen, effortlessly unravels Saganeyama's Blade Regalia with one tug of her little fingernail, then proceeds to pull out the other half of the Scissor Blades and reveal that she's the one who killed Ryuko's dad. All with the most sickeningly sweet smile imaginable. Keep in mind: this is all within five minutes of her debut.
• K-On! has the main character Yui oversleep, almost drop her cell phone in an attempt to pick it up, panic, race to school, (falling over on the way out), saying goodbye though a mouthful of food. Even in her rush to get to school on time, she doesn't neglect to pat an adorable puppy and help an old lady across the street..... and when she does get there, she finds out that she got there early by mistake, having read the clock wrong.
• KonoSuba: The very first scene tells you everything you need to know about Kazuma and Aqua. Kazuma dies an extremely humiliating death, but gets back at a goddess who constantly belittles him by exploiting a loophole to drag him down to the mortal realm with him as his "cheat item", showcasing him as a Loser Protagonist who nevertheless can be very cunning and vindictive when pushed. Aqua meanwhile is said goddess who pridefully mocks Kazuma only for all her composure to break down when Kazuma gets one over on her, nicely displaying how underneath her godly pride is a Loser Diety who's ultimately not very different from Kazuma.
• Laid-Back Camp begins with Rin setting out to a campground by herself. Considering that the people working there recognize her, and she's shown to be very competent, it's clear that Rin has a lot of experience with camping. After noticing Nadeshiko napping on the bench, Rin occasionally checks up on her (albeit not going out of her way to do so), showing that while Rin is a bit of a loner, she does care about others.
• Land of the Lustrous's theme opens with Phos sleeping peacefully, curled up in fetal position. As one might expect, Phos is young and a bit of a dreamer.
• Liar Game:
  • Nao returns a 100 yen coin to the police.
  • Akiyama dons a disguise and tricks the reporters into chasing the wrong guy.
• Little Witch Academia (2017):
  • The first time we see a teenaged Akko, she's thrilled to have arrived in a town close to Luna Nova... but has no clue how to get there. While she undergoes Character Development during the series, she never stops being her bubbly, excited and clueless self.
  • Lotte offering Akko a broom ride shows her kindness, while all the pranks Sucy plays on Akko with a complete straight face cement her status as a stoic, mischievous troublemaker.
  • Diana flawlessly answers a high-level question in class, establishing her as The Ace, but doesn't react to the slew of compliments her teammates and teachers give her. Later, after Akko took the bolt of a spell to protect what Diana thought were pests leeching off the Jennifer Memorial Tree, she's shown trying to tell what really happened to the professors, implying that she has a honest, humble core behind her stoic exterior.
  • Andrew is introduced utterly disinterested in the witches fawning over him and the magic they perform with, establishing him as The Stoic Indifferent Beauty.
• Lucky Star opens with one for protagonist Konata. After an impressive run on the track, she is asked by Tsukasa why she doesn't go ahead and join the club. Konata's response? It would get in the way of her anime.
  • Miyuki telling Konata of a better way of eating her chocolate cornet.
  • Kagami getting mad at Konata for staring at her while she sleeps then going into an internal monologue about how touched she is Konata visited her.
  • Tsukasa walking in on Kagami and Miyuki while still in her pajamas.
• In Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Lupin and Jigen triumphantly drive off with stolen casino cash after humiliating the chasing security guards. However, they quickly realize the bills are impressive forgery of the Goat Bills. The disappointment doesn't last long and they just joyfully throw all of the (probably spendable) cash out and decide to find the source of the forgery.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Precia Testarossa's first scene in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha involves her sadistically whipping her daughter Fate for not bringing her enough Jewel Seeds. Say hello to the Big Bad of Season 1, and by far the cruelest villain of the series.
  • Her daughter Fate's establishing moment comes in the second drama CD, when she forms a familiar contract (which she'd been studying secretly) in order to save the life of a dying wolf cub she encountered despite knowing little about animals, but leaves the contract open-ended so that the familiar, Arf, won't disappear. This shows that she's somewhat naive, but also a skilled mage who will do anything for those she cares about.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Nanoha quickly establishes her M.O. as an instructor and superior officer. When Subaru, a Private, addresses Nanoha, a Captain, as "Nanoha-san," then tries to take it back, Nanoha says it's perfectly fine to call her that, although she doesn't mind when her long-time best friends Fate and Hayate call her "Instructor Takamachi" in the following scene. She then goes over Subaru and Teana's performance in the exam they took for their B rank, declaring that despite their proficiency, she can't allow them to pass due to their reckless stunt at the end, but she does give them a chance to try again. Nanoha's relaxed and informal when it comes to professionalism, but she's firm when it comes to the things that matter.
  • ViVid Strike! introduces us to our protagonist Fuka Reventon by showing her intervening in a street fight some of her co-workers were getting into, establishing herself as a girl with a lot of talent for fighting who hasn't been trained in it with a delinquent streak who is willing to risk a job she needs for those she works with. A flashback shows that she's been this way since she was a young girl.
• Medaka Box:
  • The very first scenes of the manga show a purple haired girl onstage making a grand speech. In a few panels, she states her grand purpose to help the student body with all their problems using only a suggestion box. Thus we are introduced to our titular character Medaka Kuromkami, our ambitious all-loving heroine
  • Zenkichi takes a few scenes to establish his character. Among all the students, he's the one who claims cynically that she's only "standing over everyone". Yet this same student is the childhood friend of Medaka and at the start of the series the only one who talks to her normally.
  • Shiranui appears to be just a goofy friend of Zenkichi. But during one conversation she chides Zenkichi on misinterpreting Medaka's motives, showing there's more to her than it seems
  • Kumagawa Misogi has perhaps the most unsettling introduction in the series. While there were certainly a few earlier scenes discussing his character, his actual debut comes right after the protagonists have finished taking on the Flask Plan. What do they see? Twelve bloodied fighters pinned to the walls with screws. Out comes an unassuming boy who proclaims 「It wasn't my fault」.
• Monster has Johan Liebert, whose first monologue oozes a sociopathic mind hiding behind a calm, cool demeanor.
  • From the same series, you have Wolfgang Grimmer, whose first major interaction with another character is to offer his shoes to a kid whose shoes were stolen by some bullies, neatly demonstrating both how eccentric and what a nice guy Grimmer is.
• Muhyo and Roji:
  • Yoichi is first introduced performing a Skinship Grope on Nana.
  • When Goryo's introduced, he effortlessly takes out a spirit with clever tactics, then gives the rescuee an extremely expensive bill. In the middle of the conversation, he gets a call about a woman who didn't pay, and casually mentions that he let a haunt possess her, before leaving her relatives to pick up the tab. All this shows that he's an incredibly efficient and ruthless magical law practitioner.
  • Tomas reads aloud a letter from an MLS agent to his wife, which Tomas stole after killing the man, and derisively refers to it as drivel. This nicely establishes how he's one of the nastier antagonists, who makes Goryo seem like a decent human being in comparison.
• My Bride is a Mermaid: Lunar-papa's super action packed entrance.
• In My Hero Academia:
  • Izuku Midoriya is introduced as a child defending another young boy from some bullies, despite being Quirkless, hopelessly outmatched and terrified. In the same chapter, the Quirkless boy is the only one who has the guts to save his friend who has been bullying him for years while all the heroes were hesistating to do anything. It shows that Midoriya has heroic qualities that are above even over actual heroes, and he's rewarded for that by becoming All Might's secret successor candidate.
  • His friend Bakugou gets a...less flattering one—not only is his child self introduced picking on both Midoriya and another innocent kid, but as a teen, he's introduced loudly declaring that his classmates are weaklings, attacking Midoriya for even thinking of trying to get into U.A. without a Quirk, burning his notebook out of spite and mockingly telling him to kill himself so that he might be reborn with a Quirk. It's somewhat downplayed as Word of God is that Bakugou wasn't meant to come off as quite that horrible.
  • All Might is first shown appearing almost literally from the shadows, as people don't notice his scrawny true form, appearing as a Hope Bringer when things seem bleak. It's also his day off (he's grocery shopping) but that doesn't keep him from heroics, as when a civilian says that there's no end of Quirked villains, he resolutely steps up to say that there is an end, because now he's there to do something about it, complete with Catchphrase. And the first time he fights? All Might Megaton Punches a villain so hard that they are vaporized in a single hit. This is particularly notable because he doesn't even hit the villain in question—the wind pressure alone from the motion of his punch reduces the slime monster to a disgusting spray, saving Midoriya.
  • The friends Midoriya ends up making at U.A. get very interesting introductions as well—Ochaco Uraraka is introduced helping Midoriya out with no hesitation by making him float when he accidentally trips, while Tenya Iida makes his uptight but well-meaning personality known by loudly correcting a U.A. staff member and then calling out Midoriya for mumbling so much.
  • The Big Three - aka the top three U.A. students each have one as they are introduced to Class 1-A and the audience. Tamaki becomes shy and cannot speak in front of the class. Nejire is easily distracted and asks various personal questions of others (for example, asking about a scar Todoroki got in an extremely traumatic incident). Mirio cheerfully decides to stage a fight with the class.
  • Shota Aizawa, Class 1A's homeroom teacher, bluntly tells his students that if they're just here to make friends, they should go home. He then holds a Quirk aptitude test, threatening to expel the lowest scorer, and is especially hard on Midoriya, who can't control his Quirk very well. After Midoriya finds a way to do well on the ball throwing test, Aizawa says that he lied and that he was never going to expel anyone...only for All Might to confront him shortly afterward and reveal that Aizawa had expelled his entire class last year for not meeting his standards. This establishes Aizawa as a Stern Teacher who's willing to play fast and loose with the truth and has high expectations for his students.
  • Momo Yaoyorozu's moment comes when she analyzes the Heroes vs. Villains match, and points out the flaws in Bakugo, Midoriya and Uraraka's approach to the exercise, particularly how they wouldn't be appropriate in an actual battle between heroes and villains. In response, All Might is simultaneously impressed at her analysis and a bit surprised at how blunt she is. This establishes Yaoyorozu as a brutally honest but also highly intelligent person.
  • Before his first physical appearance, All For One is established as the man pulling the strings of the League of Villains and All Might's former Arch-Enemy. Once he finally deigns to intervene in the plot, he asserts what a menace he is even in his crippled state by effortlessly defeating all the Pro Heroes attacking his base, levelling a sizeable portion of the Kamino Ward in the process, and blasting a hole in Best Jeanist when he's the last one still able to fight, leaving Midoriya and his friends (who happen to be hiding nearby) to hallucinate their own deaths from the sheer malice exuding from All For One and struggling to hold their breath and not make a sound. It's especially bad for Midoriya since, unlike his friends, he knows exactly just who All For One is since All Might told him about his history with the One For All users.
• In My-HiME
  • Shiho is first established as a Clingy Jealous Girl when she punches Yuuichi out of the way when he tries to give Mikoto CPR, saying that "(his) eyes look indecent".
  • Mai is introduced worrying about her brother Takumi, who's seasick, establishing her as a caring if slightly overprotective older sister.
  • In the anime opening, Mai is shown pouting and crossing her arms when Yuuichi is on screen, excitedly wiggling back and forth with her back to the screen when Reito appears and looking at the screen with a worried expression when Takumi appears, summing up her relationships with the three most important boys in her life.
  • Haruka's first scene has her yelling at Mai for the property damage caused by her arrival at Fuuka Academy, while the other student council members are calmer and more welcoming of Mai.
• In My-Otome, Nina's introduction involves her getting a drink as a gift from some admirers among the passengers of the sand ship. A desperately thirsty Arika then runs into her, spilling part of the drink on her and gulping down what's left, resulting in her adoptive father getting a look at her panties and her being mortified.
  • Shiho tells some Corals gossiping about Nina possibly facing expulsion for the incident in Episode 1 that they shouldn't talk about their classmate like that. When they're out of earshot, she gleefully holds up her "spiraling" stick and declares that this is Nina's punishment for not accepting her offer to be her room attendant.
• My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected:
  • Hachiman Hikigaya's first monologue establishes just how jaded and spiteful he is regarding High School life. But his later speech regarding "hard work providing consolation" shows he's not as hopeless as he seems.
  • Hiratsuka's first scenes include exasperatedly insulting Hachiman, nearly punching him, before finally deciding to put him in the service club.
  • Yukino Yukinoshita seems to be your typical bookish regal girl, until she launches into her brutal snarkfest upon seeing Hachiman.
• Naruto: The title character's introduction establishes his nature as a prankster well enough, but the first scene that shows how there's more to him than that is when he sits on the swing, looking on at all the other kids who graduated get congratulations from their parents, while he is the only one who failed, showing the depths of his loneliness and isolation.
  • In Iruka’s second scene, he tells Naruto that he can’t go home until he cleans the monuments, and Naruto sullenly responds that he has no one to go home to. Iruka ponders it for a moment, then tells Naruto that if he finishes, they’ll go out for ramen, effectively showing that Iruka may be strict, but also cares for Naruto.
  • Gaara’s pre-Heel–Face Turn character is established when he breaks up the fight between Kankuro and Team 7 by threatening to kill Kankuro, his own brother.
    • Then Episode 34 comes by... Hoo boy! He kills three people who he claims looked at him the wrong way, wants to kill Team 8 and threatens to kill his own SIBLINGS when they try to reason with him! Good grief! And he only gets worse before he gets better thanks to Naruto!
  • Might Guy appears in a puff of smoke, brags about his rivalry with Kakashi, punches Lee for using the Primary Lotus in a sparring match, then tearfully hugs him and assigns him laps.
  • Jiraiya is introduced peeping on women in the baths, then knocks out Special Jonin Ebisu with one attack.
  • Sai is introduced kneeling before Danzo, with a smile Danzo knows is fake. When told to stop it, Sai apologizes, saying that he read smiles are good for such situations.
  • Hidan and Kakuzu's introduction indicates their conflicting personalities as a psychotic religious zealot and a practical, greedy mercenary. Hidan confesses that he might kill the Two-Tailed Beast's host in a rage, prompting Kakuzu to remind him that the mission is everything, to which he responds that his religion forbids not killing opponents.
  • Suigetsu, shortly after being released from his tank, complains about the other two members Sasuke is planning on recruiting for what he then calls Team Snake. He then tells Sasuke that he isn't necessarily any better than the others who tried to take down Orochimaru- he only had more opportunities- while making threatening gestures at him, before backing down when Sasuke is unfazed, signifying that Suigetsu is not much of a team player.
  • A is lifting a barbell one-handed while being told that Killer Bee has been captured. He then smashes his desk in anger, vowing to go after his little brother.
  • Killer Bee first appears writing down rap lyrics and insisting that he be called Hachibi-sama (or Jinchuuriki-sama depending on translation) then fighting Sasuke by wielding seven swords, none of which he holds in his hands.
  • In the anime, in which Hinata appears in the first episode, she's seen silently cheering Naruto on as Iruka makes him do a Transformation Jutsu in front of the class. In the manga, she greets him when he comes to the written portion of the Chunin Exam, but can't look him in the eye or speak without stuttering, and later offers to let him cheat off her paper. Both these scenes establish her shyness and crush on Naruto.
• In Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the eponymous heroine is first seen with her glider coming to rescue Master Yupa from a rampaging Ohmu, which she approaches peacefully and successfully calms down so that no one needs to be harmed.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Jack Rakan is introduced when he interrupts Negi's fight against Kagetarou and proceeds to end it with a sword the size of a building.
  • After Kurt Godel's first appearance, it is quite clear that he is a manipulative asshole and a blatant liar ("Where have I seen your face? Couldn't possibly have been on Megalomesembria's Most Wanted...") — and that he is not one to be trifled with, politically or on the battlefield.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion is filled with them:
  • Shinji Ikari - an introvert concealing large amounts of rage at his father over being abandoned yet still returning when his father calls, and then submitting to his father's manipulation of protecting others while putting himself at risk both physically and emotionally. An amazingly complex character, but all pretty well established in the first episode.
  • Misato Katsuragi — Wild party girl in her picture, Drives Like Crazy, sympathetic in a motherly or Cool Big Sis way towards our hero, established in the first episode.
  • Gendo Ikari — a cold hearted bastard who manipulates everyone, and willingly sends his own child into mortal combat and attempts to send a heavily injured Rei when said child refused, first episode.
  • Rei Ayanami — mysterious, magical, stoic, obedient, all in the first episode with only a single line of dialogue.
  • Asuka Langley Sohryu — the infamous introduction, following her skirt blowing in the air: *SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK* "What was that for?" "Viewing fee." That's only half of her character, though. In the next episode, she is shown crying in her sleep about the loss of her mother, which displays her sweeter, almost completely hidden side. More subtly, her first proper line is to respond to Misato's remark that she has grown taller, by pointing out that she has also "developed into a woman in other places as well." This establishes her obession with being seen as an adult.
  • Kaji — "Is she still wild in bed?" While playing Footsie Under the Table. Oh Kaji you Handsome Lech you.
• New Game!: In Umiko's first scene in the manga(she appears a bit earlier in the anime adaptation), she lectures Aoba, a character designer, for how the 3D models of some of the NPCs Aoba made have bugs, and complains that the artists aren't careful enough with her work. Shortly thereafter, Ko greets Umiko by her Embarrassing Last Name of "Ahagon," pushing her Berserk Button and causing Umiko to shoot Ko in the head with an airsoft gun. Shortly after leaving, Umiko realizes that she was too hard on Aoba, and decides to give her a spent shotgun shell as an Apology Gift. These initial scenes establish Umiko's personality, quirks and hobbies.
• No Game No Life: The protagonists, Sora and Shiro are introduced defeating 1,200 enemy players, who not only outnumber them but are using cheats, by controlling two characters each and seeing through the cheater's methods. It then reveals that these two gamers are actually living in a trash-strewn room, having stayed up all night and subsisting on rations and junk food. All this goes to show that they're NEETs in the real world, but gaming prodigies who are right at home in Disboard.
• One Piece:
  • Luffy's first appearances in both the manga and anime pretty solidly define his personality and approach towards life, albeit at different angles. In the manga, we see him as a small child giving himself a scar on his cheek to show how tough he was, and is cheerful in the next scene. The anime shows him bursting out of a barrel cheerfully screaming about his great nap.
  • Zoro's first appearance in the manga is being tied to a pole, starving for 9 days and smiling. Also, when he eats the dirty riceball that a little girl left him (who he had earlier rescued despite not knowing her and was why he was captured in the first place) and asks Luffy to tell her that it tasted good, you know he's a good guy at heart.
  • Nami's first appearance in both the anime and manga does this — in the manga, she's running away from some pirates who she's just stolen from, and when Luffy falls out the sky in front of her, she uses him as a scapegoat so she can run away. In the anime, she's sweet-talking a guy on a rich passenger ship, only to sneak off to steal things the second everyone's distracted.
  • Sanji is introduced serving Fullbody and his date, making advances on the date. When Fullbody tries to get him in trouble in revenge for being humiliated, and ends up spilling the soup that Sanji made on the floor, Sanji beats him up, as wasting food is a Berserk Button for him.
  • Mihawk is introduced by effortlessly destroying Don Krieg's flagship, already having destroyed the rest of his fleet. When asked why he followed them, he stated it was to kill time.
  • Captain Smoker gets an interesting introductory scene — a little girl spills her ice cream on him, initially causing him to set his Death Glare off on her. But rather than snarl at her or Kick the Dog he kindly offers to buy her a bigger one. This establishes him as a more morally complex character than many of the other Marine characters in One Piece who doesn't adhere to the Marines' "Absolute Justice" doctrine, and hence mainly serves as a Worthy Opponent later on for the crew.
  • Ace is introduced as having fallen asleep in a restaurant, while eating and while in the middle of the conversation, making it look like he'd died mid-sentence from spider poison. The first thing he does upon waking up is wipe his face on a lady's dress, wonder why everyone's panicking... and immediately fall back to sleep in the same position as before. His following conversation with Smoker also shows his more serious side.
  • The first thing Admiral Akainu does onscreen is blowing up a ship full of evacuees that the Marines had promised to spare just because of the slim chance that one of the criminals they were after might be onboard. This happened in Robin's backstory, 20 years ago.
  • Movie 7 The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle establishes the original seven Straw Hats fairly well within the first minute.
    • Nami is excited about finding such a huge treasure chest.
    • Sanji gushes about how beautiful Nami is before arguing with Zoro.
    • Zoro snarks at Sanji and points out how are they going move the treasure chest.
    • Usopp is worried that if they don't stay focused, they'll die.
    • Chopper panics at Usopp's words.
    • Robin calms Chopper and assures him they'll make it.
    • Luffy cheerfully agrees and says things will work out. Before knocking the tent covering them from the rain.
  • Saint Shalria and her father, Saint Roswald, have one that not only applies to them, but the vast majority of the Celestial Dragons. After one of their slaves' collars detonates, Shalria and her father arrive on the scene with a pirate on a leash, callously talk about the man, a pirate worth 60 million berries, as if he were a replaceable piece of property, before Shalria shoots the man in the head with a pistol. While this is happening, no one dares to stand up to the Celestial Dragons — or even stand up — since any attack against a Celestial Dragon will be punished with an attack from an Admiral.
  • Many of the Eleven Supernovas get fairly interesting reveals. Law is introduced as a level-headed yet creepy pirate who doesn't hesitate to flip off the Supernova with the highest bounty. Interestingly enough, he later on ends up fighting together with that Supernova against the Marines sent to the auction house, showing his ability to form alliances that advance his goals.
  • Admiral Fujitora's gets one in his second scene when he orders a subordinate to count the number of civilians in the coliseum, the city, and the country because "Before counting our enemies, shouldn't we count the number of people we have to protect?"
  • Kaido. His first act is to jump off a sky island, 10,000 meters in the air, crashing the alliance-party of three of the Supernovas, sinking one of their ships, and devastating the place, from the impact alone. He complains he didn't die, and declared his intent for war with Doflamingo, without even knowing of his predicament. He was bored.
  • Blackbeard makes his first actual appearance in a bar enjoying the cherry pie Luffy hates and hating the ale Luffy enjoys. They quickly take offense to each other's taste in food and try to have an impromptu eating contest. He later encourages Luffy to keep following his dreams because dreams never die. All of this foreshadows that he and Luffy are not so different, but the ways they are different will be very major ways.
  • The first thing we see of Big Mom in person is her commenting about having countries destroyed for not giving her the candy she wanted and eating her henchmen. Later scenes only reinforce the fact she is completely nuts if the first scene didn't make it abundantly clear. These scenes also set up her status as a Psychopathic Manchild, which is crucial to making Big Mom both incredibly terrifying, and rather tragic in hindsight.
• In the One-Punch Man anime, Tornado, also known as Tatsumaki, is first seen being deployed to deal with what can best be described as a talking Godzilla knockoff. Immediately after she lands, she gets a call from her supervisors telling her to come back and gets into an argument with them. When the monster tries to give his Motive Rant, she yells at him to shut up until she gets off the phone. Then when he tells her nothing short of a meteor can kill it, she calmly says she'll just have to get one of those, uses her powers to nonchalantly pull one out of space, and literally liquefies the monster with it. That's Tornado in a nutshell: Cool and composed one moment, verbally abusing someone like an abusive parent the next and so ludicrously powerful that she can always get away with it.
• Within the first 30 seconds of Ouran Highschool Host Club, we've learned that Haruhi dislikes social activity in school, has a dead mother, and just wants to study.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: When the two girls are first called into duty, we see Panty sleeping with a man who had been in her bed; establishing her as a village bicycle. Stocking is eating a piece of cake, establishing her love of sweet foods. These become the catalysts of their behavior for the rest of the show.
• Hijikata of Peacemaker Kurogane stepped in to stop Okita's deadly attack on Tetsu with his bare arm, breaking the wooden sword in half instead.
  • Okita initially appears as a delicate, girly looking boy but as Tetsu and Tatsu finds out, he is actually one of the best and frightening swordsmen of the Shinsengumi.
• A Place Further than the Universe
  • The early first episode effectively shows Mari "Kimari" Tamakmi's character when she wakes up late in her extremely messy room, happens to find a diary from some time ago that contains her goals for high school, and she gets upset that she hasn't done any of them. She then tries to follow through on one of them- cutting class- but ends up chickening out and actually coming to school anyway. This goes to establish her as a bit of a ditz with an adventurous streak.
  • Shirase's moment comes when Kimari finds her sobbing in the bathroom over losing 1 million yen (roughly $10,000) that she saved up in order to go to Antarctica to find her Missing Mom. When Kimari realizes that the money she picked up belongs to Shirase and returns it, Shirase very forcefully accepts, showcasing how serious she is about going to Antarctica and that she's Not So Above It All.
  • In Hinata's first scene, she's working at a convenience store instead of going to class, and intently staring at the bottom of a globe- in other words, at Antarctica.
• Several are shown in the first episode for Plastic Memories:
  • Tsukasa meeting Isla in an elevator, and sees her crying as she looks outside.
  • Tsukasa's co-workers and their various reactions towards him. Some seem eager to work with him, while others, such as Kazuki and Michiru, are more skeptical of his usefulness to their department.
  • Zack seems out of place to Tsukasa at first due to his resemblance to a young boy. But he is also the first one to show him how they do their job, and does it fairly well.
• The pilot episode of Pokémon: The Series wastes little time depicting Ash Ketchum as a Butt-Monkey Idiot Hero. However, his true ECM comes when his disobedient Pikachu is badly injured by a flock of Spearow and he faces the entire flock on his own to protect Pikachu. Ash may not be very smart, but he's got balls of steel and a pure heart.
• Pretty Cure:
  • Love Momozono's first moments of Fresh Pretty Cure! are her bawling her eyes out because she failed to help her friend Yumi with her Love Confession and accidentally making things worse between her and the boy she likes, establishing her to be a Love Freak, but also a busybody.
  • The first three episodes of HeartCatch Pretty Cure! essentially establish that, unlike the previous Pink-type leaders and their Blue-type best friends, Tsubomi Hanasaki was a very timid and shy girl and that Erika Kurumi was the Genki Girl of the series. The opening scene of Episode 2 also showed that Tsubomi had a long way to go before she could be established as a respectable Cure.
• The Prince of Tennis:
  • Keigo Atobe, captain of the Hyoutei team, walks onto the tennis court for his match against Seigaku's Kunimitsu Tezuka amidst cheers and cries of "The winner will be Atobe! The loser will be Tezuka! The winner will be Hyoutei! The loser will be Seigaku!" from his large crowd of supporters. When he reaches the center of the court he raises his hand and snaps his fingers, silencing the crowd at "The winner..." He then flings off his jersey and exclaims "Will be me!" His supporters go nuts. And that tells you everything you need to know about him.
  • Our main character Ryoma Echizen establishes himself quickly in the first few scenes. First by telling off some bullies(mostly for being noisy), and then correcting them on their tennis grip.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica gives one to Walpurgisnacht, an extremely powerful Witch that has been basically treated as a final boss appearing in the city and only seen in silhouette until Episode 11. Her first proper scene shows that her appearance causes the weather to go crazy, basically creating a super cell of a thunderstorm threatening the whole city. And this skyscraper-sized thing descends from the clouds, fire sprouting out around her, and she lifts the giant gear her bottom half is made up of and slams it down loudly. This is the Witch that threatens Mitakihara and has done so in the many, many loops Homura has gone through, the one that has caused Madoka's death in previous timelines.
• The Ranma ½ anime started with a mysterious redheaded girl angrily escaping from a huge shadowy monster panda, dexterously dodging its attacks and countering with a flying kick and an impossible-looking throw, then loudly complaining about being forced into an Arranged Marriage (quite rudely in the Japanese version, too) and claiming to be looking for the cure to a curse. The manga merely delayed it a bit by introducing the Tendo family first, but Ranma's first appearance to the world was very memorable and quickly defined his basic traits to the audience at large. (It also indicated that something very weird was about to begin.)
  • Kodachi Kuno gets a very distinctive one as well, as when Ranma meets her for the first time, she's been cornered by three rival gymnasts attempting to get revenge on her for previous times she had ambushed them. Kodachi responds by feigning innocence, defeating them effortlessly, and then continuing to beat on them even whilst lecturing them on how "if I weren't a lady" she would really do something awful.
  • In the anime, Nabiki initially appears to be a Cool Big Sister, if a bit mischievous, with a side of Yamato Nadeshiko... Then, upon hearing a knocked out Kuno sleep talk about his love for the mysterious "Pig Tailed Girl" that knocked him out and then his love for Akane, waits for the night, turns Ranma into a girl, takes pictures to sell Kuno at the first chance, and turns Ranma back (and the wet spot from the cold and hot water makes him think he wet the bed). Then she goes and takes pictures of Akane to sell Kuno at the first chance... And when Kuno invites her to a cafe to give her a gift for the Pigtailed girl she proceeds to eat a bowl of shiroku (sweet-bean soup), a plate of spaghetti, an ice cream cone, and a cup of coffee on his money, sells him the pictures a thousand yen apiece, tells him exactly what she thinks of him the whole time... And that if he wants to give anything to the Pigtailed Girl he should give it to Ranma, as that way it was funnier.
• Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 opens with a fight between the previously unseen Third Angel and new character Mari Illustrious Makinami. In the space of the first few minutes, we witness Mari gushing over her Eva's controls, casually singing to herself while heading into battle, trying to GIGA DRILL BREAK the Angel, wincing in pain then exclaiming that it's fun and finishing the battle by arming the self-destruct and ejecting.
  • Shortly afterward, we get Asuka's introduction, which is much more...er, theatrical than her series one.
    • Theatrical meaning she leaps from a plane in a giant robot, and tears one of the largest Angels shown so far a new one before she ever touches the ground. It was dead by the time she landed.
• In Re-Kan!, Narumi first sees Hibiki at a crosswalk. The latter crosses the street by hopping up and down and screaming. Narumi thinks she's strange at first, until she spots some handprints on Hibiki's leg, and then sees a ghost boy clinging onto it.
• Record of Ragnarok: Sasaki Kojiro's first appearance practically sums up his character. He volunteers to go for his round instead of waiting for Brunhilde to pick him. His appearance is that of an elderly man, which seemingly contradicts the In-Universe rule where all human combatants take the form of their golden age (i.e., their youth). The next thing he does is to recover a falling milk jug and every single bit of milk in it with a swing of his sheathed sword. He then proceeds to enjoy a meal consisting of the milk he just recovered, plus the salmiak pies on the floor (which is said to taste awful), a peculiarity that none would expect from a Japanese old fella like him. Finally, he reveals he has been pursuing the way of the blade for 400 years since he ascended to the afterlife. All of the aforementioned moments during his first appearance cements him as a man of action, a man of initiative, a peculiar Cool Old Guy, and the Master Swordsman.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero introduces Myne as a helpful girl who seems to have faith in him when the other people who came with him to the other world wouldn't let him join them. She shows him the basics of absorbing, takes him on a shopping trip, and even makes a little romantic overture. She also doesn't lift a finger to help him against the orange balloons and the first thing she talks about after Naofumi gets his new armor is how much the buyback price is going to be, explaining to him that once he gets stronger and gets better armor, he won't need the old one anymore and can sell it off. After a nice dinner where she again tries to go into seduction mode, she gets this little devious look in her eyes as Naofumi heads off to bed. All this serves to foreshadow how Myne will betray him by stealing his stuff and making the False Rape Accusation which kicks off the series.
• Rooster Fighter: The series starts with Keiji saving a child from a demon like he's a Superman, then flashbacking to him mating with a chicken he melodramatically leaves behind.
• Rurouni Kenshin:
  • Kenshin's first act is to dodge Kaoru's attack easily, then feign Obfuscating Stupidity after realizing she's not a threat. His first mission statement, in the same chapter, is to state that while "the sword that protects life" is a foolish ideal, he prefers it over the reality that is the killing art of swordsmanship.
  • Sanosuke is introduced as a restless figther who almost seems like a typical bully in his thirst for fights. His subsequent appearance in the Akabeko then establish him as more of a heroic if cynical figure after he beats up some noisy drunks. He also shows how observant he is with Kenshin's Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Saitou Hajime takes at least two to establish himself. In his debut, he shows off just how deadly he is by effortlessly defeating Sanosuke. Once his true colors are revealed, he tells his former employers that though they can bribe and tame anyone else, he only operates on his own code.
• In Sailor Moon, the episode that debuted Makoto Kino had her effortlessly beating up three punks who were about to assault Usagi for running into them. This is her very first scene, and well before she even knew she was Sailor Jupiter, and before she even knew who Usagi was.
  • Codename: Sailor V establishes Minako as not your typical Magical Girl and a Bunny-Ears Lawyer when her mascot Artemis shows up to tell her she's a Magical Girl and she kicks him out of the bathroom while calling him a pervert, then leaves wondering since when cats can talk.
  • Usagi's first scene is her sleeping in late, nearly forgetting her lunch, and running to school while still half asleep. That's it. That's all you need to know about Usagi.
• Saki:
  • Mihoko, after winning the first round of the prefecturals along with the Kazekoshi team, prevents her coach from slapping her close friend and teammate Kana for making a minor mistake late in her match, telling her that Kana is skilled and that if she makes any mistakes, she will take responsibility. After the coach storms off, Mihoko hugs and comforts Kana, showing her motherly and protective relationship with the Kazekoshi team.
  • In Achiga-Hen, Toki and Ryuuka's first scene involves Toki falling to her knees, prompting the Achiga girls to rush over to help her, only for her close friend Ryuuka to leap to her side from even farther away.
  • Yuu's first scene shows her under a kotatsu in the middle of summer. She's shy enough to be startled by her sister bringing along two guests, one of whom she knows. After she gets over that and her initial shock at her sister telling her that they're reforming the Achiga girls' mahjong club, she says she's happy, as she always wanted to be in the same club as her sister but didn't feel as though she could join.
• The first minutes of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei's first episode could be considered the Trope Codifier, from Fuura Kafuka's introduction where she happily dances beneath sakura trees on her way to school whildst praising spring, love and hope, to Itoshiki Nozomu interrupting her happy stroll by hanging himself from one of the trees in front of her very eyes, setting the tone of these two characters straight, and then playing the suicide attempt for laughs, setting the tone for the show.
• School Rumble:
  • Harima monologuing about the wonder of love after he had just beaten the tar out of a bunch of delinquents.
  • Harima and Hanai try to impress their boss with their strength while working part-time as movers. The boss says they're not as strong as "Ichi-san" who they picture is a big burly dude. Turns out she's a tiny girl who can lift a piano.
• Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it:
  • In the opening pages of, Yukimura gets on Himuro's case about her arriving 3 minutes late. Himuro replies coolly that it was actually 2 minutes and 32 seconds, and mocks him for being unable to measure time correctly.
  • As soon as Kanade is introduced, she is dumbfounded by Himuro and Yukimura's initial attempts to define "love" through equations. She tries to explain that love is not something easily proven with numbers and facts, but her attempt only prompts Yukimura to try looking for commonalities between her experiences and Himuro's.
• How does Sengoku Basara introduce us to Sanada Yukimura? Oh, just by having him blow open a giant door with his Dual Wielding spears, making a dramatic speech while whooping some Mooks, and eventually summoning a spiraling tornado of fire to impress his badass mentor!
• Shirobako: In the first episode, the rest of MusAni is celebrating the airing of the first episode of Exodus to Tomorrow, the anime they're producing, and while everyone is happy, Tarou is nervous. Soon after, it's revealed that he failed to do his job, left a critical scene for Episode 2 unanimated and put the entire episode in jeopardy. Get used to him making these kinds of blunders frequently, at least in the first half.
• Shi ni Aruki:
  • Tokiko chides her best friend for being ungrateful toward her mother and reminds her that her mother could die any time, creeping her friend out. When she gets home and finds her adoptive father dead, she picks up one of the books at the crime scene and reads it. She continues reading as the rest of her family grieves over Tokimune's body, showing that she's far from normal.
  • Akiyama is introduced eating a parfait while talking on the phone with the professor he works for. The professor calls him out on his work ethic, but he calmly says the professor only cares about finding the truth, and not about the victims. This establishes his Genius Sweet Tooth, his bluntness, and the fact that virtually everyone finds him rather off-putting and insufferable.
• Slayers begins with a gang of bandits celebrating their recent plunder, only for a fireball to crash into their fortress, setting it ablaze. When the flames clear, a red-headed sorceress is standing in the center. Her name is Lina Inverse, and she quickly dispatches the leader of the bandits while taking as much of their treasure as she can. This establishes that Lina will do anything for money, and that attacking bandits is one of her favorite ways to get it.
• Soul Eater: The first trio of episodes has these for the main characters, while also establishing the main flaws in the partnerships:
  • Maka and Soul Eater are introduced fighting and defeating a kishin egg, demonstrating they're capable students. Only afterwards do they start arguing.
  • Black☆Star is first shown in the darkness reciting the Assassin's code... and promptly jumping on his targets' dinner table and announcing that he's going to "ASSASSINATE YOU ALL!". With Tsubaki as a microphone.
  • Death the Kid enters the story apparently having no trouble hunting down a monster he's cornered in an alley. Then he's distracted by his partners slightly inaccurate "Super Sentai" Stance...and gets so upset he fails to notice his target is running away.
• In Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Erich Domel's first scene has him inflicting a Curb-Stomp Battle on the Comet Empire, warning one of his subordinates to never underestimate the enemy and then telling him to finish destroying the enemy ships, talking with another on how this last victory should rid them of the Comet Empire for a while, and protesting being recalled home to get decorated and promoted because he has a job to do until the commander in chief tells him that Dessler has a problem he needs Domel to take care of.
• Haku's first action in Spirited Away was to tell Chihiro to leave the spirit world for her own safety and distracting the other spirits, despite (seemingly) not knowing her. Later, when he gave her some food to stop her from disappearing, he lets her touch his hand to prove that it worked. It was a quick blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment but Haku's tender expression towards Chihiro proves that he isn't as cold as he seems.
  • Yubaba is mentioned a few times in advance of her first appearance on-screen and it's made clear that she's not someone you want to mess with. When Chihiro finally enters her office, she's quietly sitting at her desk, going through paperwork, and magically zips Chihiro's lips shut because she annoys her, calmly telling the little girl that there's no place for her at the bathhouse and would prefer to turn her into something more useful, like a pig or a lump of coal. When she finally lets Chihiro speak again, her insistence that she be given a job sets off Yubaba and suddenly everything in the room starts flying around in response to her anger and she soars across the room to deliver a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to her face-to-face, relenting only when her literal giant baby of a son starts crying and finally agrees to hire Chihiro to the end of allowing her to calm him down. All this together solidifies her as a calculating businesswoman who won't stand for any nonsense and with a Hair-Trigger Temper, but who can also be reasoned with.
• In Episode 114 of Tamagotchi, where the recurring character Himespetchi appears for the first time, Mametchi runs into the classroom and Himespetchi immediately falls in love with him. You have one guess as to what Himespetchi's defining character trait is.
• Spy X Family:
  • "Twilight"/Loid's introduction as WISE's top spy has him disguise himself as the buyer of blackmail material, then the following night, breaks up with the blackmail target's daughter and throws away his current identity in the process, while declaring that he gave up on romance the moment he became a spy.
  • Anya's introduction has her read Loid's mind to see what he's looking for in her, then manages to convince him to adopt her by pretending to solve a crossword puzzle, when she's actually reading the answers he came up with.
  • Yor's introduction depicts her as a shy girl working as a city hall clerk, and cares for her younger brother. However, when "Shopkeeper" calls for "Thorn Princess", she instantly flips to a merciless assassin who instantly slaughters her target. Then she flips back and freaks out when she realizes she tore her dress in the process.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Kamina's very first onscreen action is to tell Simon that he should walk with his head held high and insists that he call him "bro". Later in the episode he challenges a giant robot to a fight on foot with nothing but a katana, while self narrating, clearly displaying the level of Hot-Blooded determination the audience is to expect.
  • In the same episode, Yoko comes in swinging down on a rope and blasting the Gunmen with a sniper rifle. Then Simon falls on her, and she doesn't deliver the slap-in-the-face gut reaction you'd expect from a Gainax heroine.
• In The Testament of Sister New Devil, several characters do interesting things when they're first shown:
  • Basara first runs into Mio while she's using the bathroom. He then ends up going inside and covers her mouth up to keep her quiet, lest she screams and someone mistakes it for an assault.
  • When Yuki is first introduced in Episode 2, the first thing she does is give Basara a hug. This angers Mio, as well as the rest of the boys at his school due to the two girls being viewed as untouchable idols.
• The first sight the audience gets of Kotetsu in Tiger & Bunny is him standing on the rail in his Wild Tiger costume, waiting to intercept a hijacked monorail. When the producer of HeroTV instructs him to wait until after the commercial break to make his move, he refuses, telling us more or less everything we need to know about his role in the series.
  • There's a moment for both title characters while they're out of costume and the camera isn't running. When passing by a child whose balloon was stuck in a tree, Barnaby walks on without sparing the scene a second glance. Kotetsu, on the other hand, immediately retrieves the balloon.
  • Barnaby gets a positive one when he saves Kaede (though he had no idea she was Kotetsu's daughter) from certain death — it's the first indication that despite his apparent coldness and indifference, he's not heartless.
• The anime of Trigun pulls this off beautifully with its main character, Vash the Stampede. His very first appearance, where he survives a saloon being blown to pieces, belies his later appearances as an incompetent goofball, giving the audience brief but profound proof that, despite his immature behavior, he really could be the legendary outlaw.
• In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Kurogane is introduced when he kills an attacking army of assasins, shouts at his loli girlfriend, and then is immediately sent off to another dimension.
• Tweeny Witches: Grande first appears as a shadowy figure in a flashback, swallowing his prophetic advisor whole in front of the latter's young son, Sigma, for opposing his forbidden plan. It establishes him as a ruthless tyrant long before his actual appearance.
• Christine from UFO Baby seems like a quiet girl until the end of the episode. First she voices her concern that Kanata and Miyu have not returned to class then she starts talking to herself about what they are doing together and imitates their voices and finally she trashes her desk in a fit of rage.
• Amelia, the chef of The Voynich Hotel attempts to commit suicide, fails, and tries to poison a hotel guest so she won't die alone. When Elena foils her murder attempt, she quietly goes back to work. This is pretty much her entire life. And it is hilarious.
• The Wandering Son anime adaptation has Chiba smacking a boy with a book on the head when he taunts Nitori, the object of her affections, about if she and her platonic life partner Takatsuki dated. At that period in time Chiba had a dislike for him due to being jealous of his and Nitori's relationship, and she walked out of the classroom after attacking the guy. This scene shows off her Violently Protective Girl Friend and Clingy Jealous Girl behavior. A different variation happens in the manga where she's introduced asking Nitori if she was involved with a girl, to which she replies no. This makes her happy and she leaves, which makes Nitori monologue about how she's strange; this scene sets the mood for her social awkwardness.
  • The manga is pretty good at this. Chizuru is introduced in both medias as wearing the male uniform on the first day of school, and later essentially hitting a girl; this shows off her calm Cloudcuckoolander nature and her Genki Girl attitude. Her best friend Momoko is first seen clingy at her side, Oka is first seen asking Nitori if she has any masculine interests before dismissing her, Yuki is first seen seemingly flirting with a ten year old.
• In Yona of the Dawn, Shin-Ah's first act was to rescue Yona, a stranger at the time, from a kidnapper and gently lead her back to her friends.
• From the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, the very first image of Yami No Yuugi, or the Pharaoh, has him dressed in leather, casually perched on a brick wall, and giving a bully, who had beaten the crap out of his host hours before, what can really only be described as the mutant offspring of a Rape Face and a Death Glare. Within the next few pages, he challenges the bully to a game that consists of nearly stabbing their hands with a huge hunting knife through a stack of dollar bills. The bully loses. The Pharaoh does something to convince the bully a pile of leaves is really a pile of cash. It's implied that the Bully never recovers from this. You now know everything there is to know about the Pharaoh.
• Within minutes of first appearing in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Crow steals from a warehouse, pulls off a one-turn-kill against a Mook, then flips out some wings on his motorcycle to fly over a ramp to safety. Get used to such moments.
• Yuri is My Job!:
  • The series begins with the main character, Hime Shiraki, being showered with affection by her classmates for how cute she is, before revealing in an Internal Monologue that it's all an act that she's worked on for her entire life, and she hopes to use it to marry a billionaire.
  • Mitsuki's first scene has her acting nice to Hime while in character, but then fiercely rebuffing her when she tries to act like she knows her, setting the tone for her relationship with Hime.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • Yusuke Urameshi spends his first scene, and in fact the first several episodes, dead. This is far from defining, as he gets better, but the true Establishing Character Moment here is him getting rather irritable at the people gathered around his corpse, even taking a swing at one of the paramedics there to take his body away. He is a ghost at the time, so it really comes to nothing.
    • All of this happens AFTER he had sacrificed his own life to save a child (more or less...), which goes a long way to establish him as a good-natured thug.
  • Shinobu Sensui introduces himself to Yusuke and the audience by causing Muroda to freak out by reading his mind, and seemingly having him killed by shooting him in the forehead (when it was actually Hagiri). Sensui even lampshades this trope to Yusuke:
  Sensui: We'll call that my introduction, Yusuke Urameshi.
  • Kurama walking out on Hiei and Gouki after acquiring the magic mirror.

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