Heel Realizations in Anime and Manga.
- Sadakiyo from 20th Century Boys realizes that he's been manipulated by Friend into doing evil when he bashes a former schoolmate's head in after the latter had come to him for information.
- Also hilariously averted by Yanbo and Mabo: they never realized they were bullies to start with, and yet they manage to realize a Heel–Face Turn without noticing.
- The final climax of the 2003 version of Astro Boy. For the entire series, Dr. Tenma had been trying to guide Astro so that he would eventually become the most powerful robot in the world, able to rule over all humanity. However, all this time, Astro had been fighting for peaceful man-machine coexistence. So in their final conflict, Tenma and Astro meet in the abandoned Laboratory 7, where most of Tenma's angst originated, first with his real son then with Astro's original incarnation. What finally ended the battle wasn't strength of arms at all, but Astro forgiving Tenma for everything he did. He suddenly realizes that the robot he built himself had shown himself to be more human than him, and he finally surrenders.
- In Assassination Classroom, Koro-sensei, back when he was the God of Death, but just before the tentacles completely turned him into a superbeing, had his when Aguri Yukimura died getting impaled by a tentacle meant for him in order to calm him down from what would be a self-destructive rampage. His inability to save her made him realize that for all that he knew for the sake of taking lives, he never used his knowledge to help people.
- Quite a few villains from Attack on Titan experience this, but tend to follow it up with an Ignored Epiphany since they still believe their actions are necessary or justified.
- Djel Sanes, a Dirty Cop responsible for murdering Pastor Nick and several other innocents in order to protect the Government Conspiracy's secrets. He breaks down and admits that he is a monster for all he's done, but insists it was for the greater good, before saying that Hange will have to take his place.
- Reiner Braun breaks down and admits to having lost their moral compass, later ranting about being a murderer and a monster. He's coped with his guilt via episodes of Trauma-Induced Amnesia, and is deeply shaken once he realizes it. Still, they resolve that there isn't any choice left but to take responsibility and see things through to their end.
- Bertolt Hoover similarly breaks down, accepting that their actions can never be forgiven and that it isn't possible to apologize. However, they reject a Last-Second Chance by stating that they can't stop.
- While not necessarily an antagonist, Grisha Yeager realizes that his plans to defeat his enemies by essentially raising his son to become a pawn of his resistance movement and infiltrate the Marleyan government, which ended up resulting in Zeke betraying his parents, thus causing Dina to be turned into a Titan who later kills and eats Grisha's second wife, were the wrong course of action."I was a bad father... a bad husband... and a bad man."
- Connie becomes more of a jerkass after the Time Skip, starting with blaming Eren for Sasha's death, becoming more short-tempered and even planning on feeding Falco, a young boy who'd just acquired the power of the Jaw Titan, to Connie's Titanized mother in order to bring the latter back to normal. After Armin manages to snap him out of it, Connie realizes that he's done unforgivable things, such as killing two of his old comrades in the battle for the port, and comes to his senses.
- Gabi, who's Reiner's young cousin, is even more zealous about her mission, and shows no mercy to her enemies. After meeting the family of Sasha Braus, whom Gabi had killed, as well as other people in the group she hated, Gabi starts to question herself, and eventually realizes that she was a devil, before saving the life of a girl who'd tried to kill her in revenge for Gabi's killing of Sasha.
- Near the end of the series, Karina Braun, Reiner's mother and Gabi's aunt, a woman who'd manipulated her son and niece into joining the Warrior Program to better her own life and possibly as a revenge scheme against her former lover, realizes that she's been a terrible mother all along.
- In Berserk, Griffith is made to realize at the Eclipse that rather than being the beloved leader that everyone thinks he is (including himself at times), he is an ambitious man who will do anything to realize his dream and uses people to that end, even into death on the battlefield. It's his spite for Guts' being the one person he couldn't control that sends him over the mother of all Moral Event Horizons.
- Black Lagoon. Rock grows to realize the path he has chosen after he fails to save Yukio and the Washimine clan from destruction. He experiences this again after Fabiola calls him out on his plan that, while saving Roberta from herself, also nearly got Garcia killed.
- In Bleach, Uryu is initially obsessed with proving the Quincies superior to the Soul Reapers, and he tells Ichigo about how his master and grandfather argued in favor of Quincies working together with Soul Reapers, only for the Soul Reapers to reject his plans and let him die against five Huge Hollows while Uryu watched. Ichigo then tells Uryu that while he wasn't paying attention to all of the story, he understood the part about his master wanting cooperation between Quincies and Soul Reaper, and proposes joining forces with him in spite of being angry about him using hollow bait and endangering innocents. At the end of the fight, while Uryu saves Ichigo's life, he realizes in an internal monologue the real reason he did all this in the first place — he was angry with himself for failing to save his master's life.Uryu: Maybe I was trying to forget my weakness. My weakness in not risking my life to help you. By blaming the Soul Reapers, I tried to forget my own shame. Master... today I will help a Soul Reaper. Can you forgive me? I am a weak disciple. A weak disciple who wouldn't die for you. Can you ever forgive me? Master...
- Captain Tsubasa: Stefan Levin, in his bid to fulfill his promise to his deceased fiancée Karen of becoming the world's best player, became ruthless to the point of using his shots to injure his rivals in order to win. It takes his teammates telling him that what he's doing won't bring Karen back from the dead, as well as the courage shown by the Japanese defender Tomeya Akai in taking his shots at point-blank to protect his goal (and his goalkeeper as well), and Tsubasa Ohzora refusing to pay him with the same coin by stating "The ball is my friend, not a weapon to hurt others" to realize that he's been spitting on the memory of his love.
- Code Geass:
- Suzaku Kururugi
- Suzaku had one in R2, right as he was about to use Refrain on Kallen to get her to admit who Zero was. In his mind, this makes him just like Lelouch, who (as far as he knows) wormed his way into the hearts of many, including Suzaku and his love interest, only to exploit them.
- Suzaku has a second one after using the FLEIJA upon the Tokyo Settlement. After a moment of going Laughing Mad, he eschews his morals and his distaste of results through contemptible means, going as far as to demand a prince of Britannia promote him to the highest post of the military and, since only the Emperor had that authority, requesting to assassinate the Emperor.
- C.C. has one as well upon Lelouch stopping the Ragnarok Connection of his parents, she stands down and flat out stays that it was a terrible thing for them to even attempt.
- Suzaku Kururugi
- The comedy series Daily Lives of High School Boys, surprisingly, has a few examples.
- Played for Laughs: This trope is the entire point of High School Boys and Panties peeping at a girl's panties does not make a guy feel good, but guilty and depressed... especially when you tricked The Ditz into unwittingly flaunting her panties. Motoharu slipped into a Heroic BSoD so hard he skipped school for three days.
- Played for Drama: Habara always ends up crying whenever her past as The Bully, the legendary "Archdemon" is brought up.
- Played for Drama: Yanagin was in Habara's gang as well, but she did a Heel–Face Turn due to what happened to Karasawa.
- In the finale of the Death Note anime, Light Yagami lies bleeding and slowly dying on some stairs, abandoned by everyone whom he considered an ally, betrayed by the one person (Matsuda) who seemed the most to understand his philosophy and not only sees his long-dead rival, but also a vision of himself from older times, before he got possession of the Death Note and became Kira. It ultimately doesn't help because Light dies, having lost every shred of dignity he originally possessed.
- In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, during his final moments before death, Gyutaro realizes that during their terrible childhood living in the poorest area of the Red Light District under a prostitute mother who abused he and his sister Ume/Daki to no end, they should have struggled more to survive instead of running away from life once their mother died. What Gyutaro did instead was basically become a pimp to his own sister and teach her that she shouldn’t take crap from nobody, which indirectly pushed her to stab in the eye a samurai who wanted to have his way with her when she didn’t want to, causing Daki to be burnt alive as retaliation, which made Gyutaro desperate to save her enough to accept the offer to become demons who, even after that, worked their way into the Red Light District in the shadows for a century. Gyutaro wishes at last he would have taught his sister better life lessons instead, groom her to become a nice lady out of being a prostitute who maybe would have married a good man and made a nice family together. Interestingly, he doesn't regret his own fate, and says that no matter what, he was beyond saving — he just doesn't think the same of Ume, who he thinks that she has a better shot in life than him. This underscores his subterrenean self-esteem issues thanks by his miserable life.
- Denjin N: Tadahiro realizes surprisingly early in the story that killing people around Misaki is only making her scared and miserable, and he resolves to leave her alone. Though, when the police begin suspecting her of the murders, he decides to come back into her life to protect her from being wrongfully arrested and resumes the killings. When Tadahiro splits himself into two, one of them is willing to perform murder-suicide on himself because he causes Mistaki distress.
- Digimon:
- Ken of Digimon Adventure 02 realizes that the Digital World is not a video game with good cruelty potential, that the Digimon are alive and sentient, and that sadistically torturing them as an Evil Overlord is in fact bad. He undergoes a Heel–Face Turn soon after... if you can say he was a Heel to begin with. He honestly didn't know what he was doing until later in the arc, at which point he went into Dark Spore aided denial.
- Yamaki in Digimon Tamers has a particularly nasty one when he realizes that not only has he been killing sentient beings in the name of destroying "digital anomalies", but that it may have been his efforts to control what he saw as an invasion that made the real invasion possible.
- Beelzemon, also from Digimon Tamers, has one when the ramifications of his lust for power finally hit him: he sold out and tried to kill his friends, drove one of them over the Despair Event Horizon by killing her partner right in front of her, and was at least indirectly responsible for the D-Reaper gaining the ability to invade Earth. This horrifies him so much that he actually has to be persuaded into Heel Face Turning, as he doesn't believe he deserves it.
- Before them, three out of the four human antagonists of Digimon V-Tamer 01 quit after this realization. The one that doesn't is told You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and thus quits before it.
- Much like Ken, Ewan in Digimon Fusion finds out that his general antics (though manipulated by AxeKnightmon) aren't a game, but he's tricked into brushing it off until his partner Damemon dies.
- Doraemon: Occurs in "Soap Bubbles". Doraemon and Noby use the Soap Bubble Straw to make their friends realize they made bad choices like smoking or walking without looking. From the way their friends act after getting hit with the bubbles, you'd think they were guilty of horrible crimes.
- In Dragon Ball, Vegeta has one of these toward the end of the Cell Games arc; it unfortunately takes his son getting killed right in front of him to trigger it, but the proud Prince Of All Saiyans has a moment of clarity where he realizes he's been a terrible father and allowed his son to die. He decides to make amends. Saiyan style.
- Elfen Lied. At the very end of the manga, the DNA Voice that arguably drove Lucy to her murderous ways, is prepared to use its remaining power to destroy the world once Nyu and Lucy's spirits leave their melted body. Kouta has promised to kill Lucy, but cannot do it out of love. The Voice is shocked and impressed. In hideous pain itself, it now begs Kouta to end its existence, and he does.
- Fruits Basket: For most of the series, Akito Sohma is horrifically abusive and controlling to the rest of the Sohma family, inflicting all manner of physical and mental scars on them out of a fear of abandonment brought about by her mother's extensive emotional abuse; on top of this, Akito, by her own admission, doesn't know right from wrong because of everyone around her either abusing her, ignoring her, or enabling her. When she's in the midst of a Villainous Breakdown, Tohru reaches out to her and offers her genuine friendship; this, combined with Tohru subsequently falling off a cliff and nearly dying, gets a horrified Akito to finally realize what a horrible person she's become.
- Fullmetal Alchemist. Most of these moments are in flashbacks, as soldiers in Ishval realize they're acting as Punch Clock Villains and become The Atoners we know and love. In the timeframe of the story itself, Scar gets a slower-acting one than usual, apparently beginning when he notices that he's standing menacingly over Ed and Winry in exactly the same way he remembers Kimblee standing over him and his brother.
- In Ga-Rei -Zero-, Yomi realizes what kind of monstrosity she is after she crippled Kiri physically and mentally. Actually she realizes this multiple times, but the Sesshouseki robs her of clarity of mind and fills her with rage and despair. Happens again in the final chapters of Ga-Rei manga.
- Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet: Ledo does not take it well when he learns that the Hideauze are Transhuman Aliens, and not true extraterrestrials. The Hideauze whose children he just absentmindedly killed out of Forever War instinct. And then Chamber makes it worse when he follows his programmed directive and crushes a curious Hideauze child.
- Gundam:
- In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, both Master Asia and Dr. Mikamura get them. For Master Asia, it was the fact that humanity was a part of the Earth as nature was and wiping them all out wouldn't solve a thing. For Dr. Mikamura, it was the realization that his own jealousy towards Dr. Kasshu led them to the point where his own daughter was now the core of the Devil Gundam. Both of them suffer Tear Jerker-worthy Redemption Equals Death moments to atone.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Chang Wufei had defected to the Mariemaia Army, and engaged in a duel with Heero Yuy, explaining to Heero that warriors like him were being cast aside in a changing world. But when he "defeated" Heero, Wufei had a flashback of him seeing his home colony self-destruct. This set the stage for his Heel–Face Turn, as he joined the protesters at Luxembourg.
- In ∀ Gundam, Queen of the Moon Dianna Soreil learns that her policies, past antics, and army have actually caused quite a bit of suffering both on Earth and on the Moon for years and allowed maniacs like Gym Ghingham to seize ludicrous amounts of power. This turns her into The Atoner and causes her to undertake massive changes in policy upon regaining power.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED sees Flay Allster slowly have one over the tail end of the series. While the groundwork was laid when she began to genuinely love Kira even as she seduced and manipulated him, it finally sticks for good when she spends time as a ZAFT captive and observes Coordinators, seeing them as people with hopes and dreams. Any remaining doubts are expunged when she witnesses Muruta Azrael's cruelty and psychopathy firsthand.
- Haruhi Suzumiya in Sigh, when she finally gets called out by Kyon on her treatment of Mikuru. Directly after this is one of her biggest Pet the Dog moments, and she becomes much nicer after this. Made more obvious in the anime rendition, where she looks away from Kyon as he calls her out and it's clear that she's at the verge of tears.
- In the 11th book, Kyouko Tachibana has one of these.
- Happened in several arcs in Higurashi: When They Cry, with varying results.
- Tsumihoroboshi-hen: When Keiichi recalls the events of Onikakushi-hen, and he realizes that he was the insane one, not them.
- Meakashi-hen: When Shion realizes what she's done after killing Satoko.
- Inuyasha: Mayu Ikeda, the ghost of a little girl who died in a fire, makes efforts to kill her little brother, believing their mother played favorites with the two to the extent that she deliberately left her to die in the fire; in reality, her mother didn't even know Mayu was still in the apartment. Her actions lead to her nearly being Dragged Off to Hell by the Soul Piper, but Kagome intervenes and helps her realize that her mother always loved her and would never have left her to die. Thinking back to all of the happy times she had with her mother, Mayu suffers one of these and tearfully begs for a chance to atone; seeing this, the Soul Piper changes its judgment and spares her.
- In K: Return of Kings, Nagare, the Green King has one in the end when Shiro and Neko tell him that they're willing to sacrifice the Slates because they don't need power, just warm food and friends to share it with around a small table. Which is what his Clan had as well, only they were too focused on their revolution plot to appreciate it before it was too late (or at least Nagare was). This is emphasized when Shiro and Neko run past the Green Clan's room on their way to this showdown, and Shiro gives it a sad look.
- In Kamisama Kiss while carrying out a Honey Trap ploy Jirou's actions (which Tomoe refers to as looking at a reflection of himself) causes Tomoe to admit what an asshole he's been to Nanami.
- Hiyori Moritani reaches one in the third episode of Kotoura-san. She had four members of her family's dojo go after her crush, Yoshihisa Manabe, after he made it clear that he loves the title character, Haruka Kotoura, instead of her. She only wanted him roughed up a bit; things went too far and he got hospitalized. She's utterly wracked with guilt over what happened, and since Kotoura has Telepathy, Hiyori knows that Haruka could easily reveal the truth and ruin her. But when Haruka only uses her powers to find out what hospital Yoshihisa is at, Hiyori realizes that all of the good things Yoshihisa said about Haruka were true, and that Hiyori was the one in the wrong the whole time. It sets up a proper Heel–Face Turn in the following episode.
- In Linebarrels of Iron, after Kouichi Hayase's selfish use of Linebarrel gets one of his friends killed, he realizes he's been a Designated Hero and resolves to be a proper good guy.
- Lucky Star: A minor one. Matsuri Hiiragi sent a message to Kagami and Tsukasa about picking up some ingredients for dinner to make a special dish, but they didn't get it before they got home. Matsuri lays into them, and Kagami storms out of the house to buy the ingredients. The eldest sister, Inori, pointedly tells Matsuri that she could have handled that better. Matsuri quietly agrees.
- Magical Project S, Misao Amano is shocked to find out she is Pixy Misa (the evil magical girl that has tortured practically every main character, including her parents and her best friend). While it was initially thought her evil side was due to brainwashing, it was, in fact, her repressed self, despite having no memory of her actions.
- My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected: After much soul searching, Hachiman finally realizes and confesses to Yukino and Yui that his methods of resolving social issues have done nothing but cause rifts in the relationships with the few people in his life that respect him.
- Naruto:
- Neji admits this in Shippuden episode 192 in a flashback before the Time Skip where his defeat by Naruto really gets him this.Neji: He helped me to understand just how selfish and narrow-minded I was being.
- A subtle one happens in the anime. When he fights Kidomaru, an opponent who outclasses him and has Neji struggling to survive for most of the fight, Neji has flashbacks to his dismissive attitude toward Lee, Hinata, and Naruto, and seems to realize what it means to be the underdog for once.
- During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Gaara's father, the Fourth Kazekage (revived via the Edo Tensei), came to this realization when he saw that the son he made into a weapon and denounced as a failure ended up becoming a better Kazekage than he ever was. He admits his faults and his lies and makes peace with his son before being sealed away.
- At the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Madara of all people gets this realization despite his ego. After he seemingly succeeds in his goal of using Infinite Tsukuyomi to brainwash everyone into peace and happiness, Black Zetsu betrays him and reveals that all he accomplished was becoming a vessel for the less well-intentioned Kaguya Otsutsuki. Once Madara is released from her control and is about to die again, he admits that his distrust towards later generations (and of people in general) is a large Fatal Flaw of his that caused him to start his extreme plans.
- Neji admits this in Shippuden episode 192 in a flashback before the Time Skip where his defeat by Naruto really gets him this.
- Gendo Ikari has one in (all together now) Neon Genesis Evangelion at the very end. This being Evangelion, Gendo realizes this too late to do any good to anybody, and ends up dying an agonizing and surreal death midway through said realization. His last words are especially tragic."I'm sorry, Shinji."
- In the final episode of Planetes, Hakim experiences this after a simple conversation with Nono. Because Nono was born on the Moon and lived there for her entire life, she has absolutely no concept of what a country is. Hakim, who has resorted to terrorism to bring attention to the plight of the third world, realizes that development in space would eventually eliminate the borders between countries and loses his will to fight.
- When a scrappy entrepreneur from The Old Country shows up, Claire (who was raised and educated in the USA since the age of eight and become a Workaholic ladder-climber) finds him annoying at first, until he reveals that his life's history is very similar to hers, at least before he went back to El Tanika to aid them with his education. Ultimately, this guilt bomb only serves to send her into a bit of a death spiral.
- Mewtwo at the end of Pokémon: The First Movie, when he realizes not all Humans Are Bastards.Mewtwo: The human sacrificed himself to save the Pokémon. I pitted them against each other. But not until they set aside their differences did I see the true power they all shared deep inside. I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.
- Rurouni Kenshin: The eponymous Himura Kenshin was a cold-blooded "Knight Templar" assassin for the Ishin Shishi who was willing to bury his humanity and kill on command if it meant bringing forth a peaceful era to Japan. It isn't until he accidentally kills his wife Tomoe that he realizes the hypocrisy of his ideals and vows to never kill again once the war has ended.
- The anime-exclusive Maikaiju Aliens in The '90s Sailor Moon, who gather energy to heal the dying tree that created them. However, not knowing what love is due to their horrific childhood, they wind up feeding the tree the wrong energy, causing it to go berserk. It actually kills Annote , who takes the bullet for Ail ("Alan" in the English dub), before explaining to Sailor Moon its backstory. An is restored once the tree is healed, and the aliens depart Earth so they can nurture the tree back.
- Makoto has one (sort of) near the end of the School Days anime. When Sekai tells him that she's pregnant, he freaks out in class and loudly blames her for ruining his life, causing his harem to dump him. Later, while angrily wandering the streets, he runs into Kotonoha, and, horrified by how mentally broken she has become as a result of his constant cheating and then rejection of her, gets back together with her. He then muses apologetically about how he became addicted to sex, and that he should have stayed loyal to Kotonoha. However, one wonders how bad he really feels about everything when, after Sekai comes to his apartment to demand he take responsibility for their child, he reaffirms his decision to be with Kotonoha by making out with her in front of Sekai, and ignoring her as she tearfully shrieks for them to stop. In retrospect, not all that surprising that Sekai stabbed him to death.
- Shiawase Tori-mingu: Art student Suzu has just gotten into birdwatching to find inspiration for her paintings. Initially she thinks nothing of sneaking up and spying on them, but when a nature photographer points out that she's ten times larger than a bird and unintentionally terrifying, Suzu realizes the birds she's been admiring all this time might've been scared of her.
- Ellen in Suite Pretty Cure ♪ gets one that leads to cementing her Heel–Face Turn as she's forced to watch a father and son drown in sorrow by the power of a Negatone, making her realize everything she's done was just hurting people. Hummy and the Fairy Tones who power her up as Cure Beat help find her resolve and allow her to finally become a Cure full time.
- In Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Sara has this realization after seeing the memories from the Shindan Lag used to finish off the Gaichuu. They had pretended to be part of the anti-government faction Reverse (with Hunt presented as the "Man Who Could Not Become Spirit" to prevent people from mistreating him because of the monster arms sewn onto him), and while keeping up that act, decided to prevent letters from coming to Honey Waters. A man took it upon himself to deliver the letters, but was attacked by the Gaichuu, lost his heart and died. After realizing that their lie caused his death, Sara turns over all the money they received to the villagers and sets out with Hunt to start anew.
- Some of the later episodes of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, particularly 23: Rossiu's been the personification of "Shoot the Dog" for the entire arc, saving only the 18% or so of the human population that he can... until it turns out that he was leading them into an ambush, and Simon's actions were able to save nearly all of them. Rossiu tried to do the right thing, but he just acted as an obstruction to the guy who was really doing the right thing, and the realization drove Rossiu to suicide. Or it would've, but Simon managed to invent teleportation just to stop him.
- A strong case of Wrong Genre Savvy — had he been in a Gundam series, he'd have been the "right" one. At the same time, Gurren Lagann was made by Gainax...
- Thorfinn in Vinland Saga eventually realizes that during his You Killed My Father quest in the prologue he killed many people's fathers, sons or brothers, and aided Askeladd's band in killing, raping and enslaving many more. Sickened by his previous actions he vows never to fight again, which he later (after realizing that there are other, less-nice people in the world who still fight and kill) amends to never kill again but fight for the sake of others.
- Happens rather often in Yu-Gi-Oh!. To start, Marik (the real one, not his Superpowered Evil Side) had this moment after his dark side took over, so much that, during the Final Battle, he pleaded with the Pharaoh not to hold back and to strike his evil side down, despite the fact that it would cost him his own life. (Fortunately, Yami found a way to do it without killing him.)
- This happened to Noah too. The Heel Realization for him came after Mokuba, despite everything that Noah had done, seemed willing to help Noah, even going so far as to call him his brother (even though that was only a technicality in the loosest terms, if that) and Noah double-crossed him anyway, stealing Mokuba's body in order to flee the Virtual World before Gozaburo put his plan into motion. He at first called Mokuba an idiot for trusting him... And then the full ramifications of what he had just done hit him. After changing his mind and going back to help the other heroes, he went so far as to say that he "deserved it" when Jonouchi apologized for wanting to slug him, and in the end, made a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Gozaburo.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Saiou was an odd case. Due to his psychic tarot reading powers, he realized that evil would overpower him years before it actually happened, and warned his friend Edo Phoenix about it. Even when it did happen, his good side struggled with his evil side constantly, and at one time when his good side was briefly dominant, he gave the two keys to his Doomsday Device to Judai and Edo, pleading with them never to give them back.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Jack was the biggest example. His road to a complete Heel–Face Turn started when Yusei defeated him the first time, and it took longer than most. While he remained The Rival for the most part, he was closer to Yusei than other examples in the franchise.
- This happened to Carly, Misty, and Greiger (Bomber) of the Dark Signers, mostly because they had been Forced into Evil. Goodwin (Godwin) also did this upon realizing that the path he was following wasn't what his brother, who like him became a Dark Signer intentionally, would have wanted. But Kalin (Kiryu) was the biggest example: he became a Dark Signer intentionally because he believed that his best friend had sold him out to the police for going too far in their vigilante activities. Like the other Dark Signers, he died upon defeat and was reborn as human. But unlike Carly and the others, he kept his memories of being a Dark Signer, and with the truth of the matter known to him (his best friend had tried and failed to sacrifice himself for him), he went into a self-imposed exile to punish himself.
- A lot of villains in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, at least the first season. All three of Tron's sons, Tron himself, and even Dr. Faker at the end realized that what they had done was inexcusable.
