Imagine Spot / Anime & Manga

Imagine Spots in Anime & Manga.

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Reality is cruel when you're a kid in a wheelchair

• In The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Yaku has several in Chapter 76, while trying to remember what Kusuri told her about the other girls. Every single one of them is wrong — e.g. the one for masochist Iku shows her as tiny and weak, while the one for Yamame shows her as a Tsundere.
• Played with and played straight in the second episode of the Ah! My Goddess TV series — when Keiichi mulls over what wish of his Belldandy should grant, he first imagines life as a wealthy man, then Belldandy, who's reading his mind the entire time, says she would gladly "give him more money than he could hope to spend in his lifetime". Then Belldandy says she could also grant the wish of wanting to destroy the entire world, "although [she] would prefer to not do business with that type of client." Cue Keiichi imagining a giant explosion leveling a city, with him off to the side, laughing evilly, in a monocle, a wiry mustache, and what suspiciously looks like a Schutzstaffel uniform.
• Ai Yori Aoshi:
  • Mayu fantasizes about being an uh-MAZING cook so that Kaoru falls for her unconditionally. In reality, the complete opposite is true.
  • Later on, we witness Kaoru's imaginings of marriage to Aoi, who is an amazing cook. They tend toward the perverse, sometimes.
• Asteroid in Love:
  • In a part of the twenty-fourth chapter that is not adapted into anime, Mari "Monroe" Morino teaches Mai several things about photography, including "exposure compensation". Mai imagines Mari having a Marilyn Maneuver causing an "exposure" (as in a Panty Shot), and "compensated" by putting a Censor Box over her eyes.
  • In an unanimated bit of the twenty-eighth chapter, Ao reminds herself she needs to tell her mother how she feels about having to move away. She recalls Mikage's suggestion that she should throw a tantrum at her parents...and then imagines herself doing just that. She then flails her arms in the air to stop herself from imagining this. Shiori is confused.
  • The thirty-first chapter, animated as part of the ninth episode:
    • Mira and Ao have a minor quarrel because Mira unpacks Ao's moving boxes without permission. Since both of them refuses to give a reason, Misa, seeing them as astronomy enthusiasts, decides they are arguing about the origins of the moon, and imagines of their arguments out loud.
    • After the above, Ao starts to worry about Mira's lack of the sense of privacy, and imagines a few scenario of this: using her stationery, reading her Science Fiction (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, no less), moving to doing laundry for her. This part is not animated.
  • During the thirty-fifth chapter, Shiho tells Ao she finds the latter's brain interesting due to the latter's being both a Shy Blue-Haired Girl and The Determinator. The latter freaks out and imagines Shiho Mind Probing her.
  • In the fourty-first chapter, the cast have a brief discussion on Dobsonian telescopes. Chikage mentions they look like human cannons in circuses. Mira promptly imagines launching herself into the space a la Human Cannonball to find asteroids. Ao reminds her it's not possible.
• Ayane's High Kick: We get to see one of these from Ayane when Kunimitsu makes a pitch to get her to join his dojo, declaring that she can become a champion. She sees herself in the middle of a ring with a pro-wrestling world title belt and a cheering crowd, unaware that Kunimitsu is actually referring to her becoming a champion kick-boxer.
• Azumanga Daioh uses several imagine spots throughout the course of the series, many of which involve (unsurprisingly) Cloudcuckoolander Osaka.
• B Gata H Kei makes frequent use of these, most commonly by main character Yamada, whose random, erotically-oriented fantasies approach Scrubs levels of frequency and, much like JD, are frequently followed by in-character outbursts that sometimes get her in trouble.
• Isaac and Miria of Baccano! have a joint one (fitting, considering their ditzy duo status) complete with Art Shift when they speculate with horror on Jacuzzi's fate at the hands of the mythical Rail Tracer. Which, by the way, they visualize as a giant green worm with fangs.
• In Bleach, Chad tries to remember what Ichigo's little sister Karin looks like. We end up with Squick as he sees Ichigo with a black wig, Karin's red hat, and lipstick.
• Bocchi the Rock! uses this quite often, whenever the titular heroine's anxiety causes her to space out and imagine the worst-case scenarios in given situations. In the anime version, most of them involve many forms of Art Shifts or Medium Blending for extra silliness.
• Used so heavily in Brigadoon: Marin and Melan that it's a bit confusing at first. Marin's imagination usually involves violent death.
• Bunny Drop: When talking with his parents, Daikichi has frequent Flashbacks to his childhood (often accompanied by the informative caption "Showa-era child rearing!")
• Used in a Code Geass sound episode where Shirley is imagining all kinds of insane things that could go wrong if she asks Lelouch out to a concert. It starts with him just saying that he will take his sister to the entire student council admitting their undying love for him, even Arthur. That's almost JD level weirdness.
  • Also used in the Picture Drama in which Sayoko first meets Suzaku when he comes over for tea with Lelouch and Nunally. She happens to overhear part of a conversation between Suzaku and Lelouch at the end and somehow interprets it to mean they are secretly in love... and her imagination runs away on her a little.
• Kappei and Seiichiro from Dash Kappei. Every time their fantasies concern a romantic relationship with Akane.
• Debusen: Mitsuru has several about the horrible things that people might do to him if they learned that he was actually a man pretending to be a woman.
• Taichi's anxiety over Zeromaru leads to him having these in Digimon V-Tamer 01. It's later revealed Gabo had many of the same feelings, leading them to share an imagine spot.
• Digimon Tamers:
  • Takato has one when he can't find his partner Guilmon, imagining Guilmon being shot to death by police.
  • Takato gets a few lighthearted ones in a row when he first meets Culumon. Thinking Culumon would be safer with a human Tamer, he imagines how various of his acquaintances would go about taking care of Culumon; none of them work out very well.
• Digimon Frontier: The infamous sequence in the Beach Episode "Beastie Girl", wherein Izumi/Zoe pictures herself wearing several of the swimsuit options she has.
• Akina of Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san! is prone to these. Most often her fantasies of "saving" Kaede from an otaku's life devolve into a yuri fantasy, which often cause her to freak out and makes her classmates regard her as the oddball of the classroom.
• The characters in Eyeshield 21 do this sometimes. Usually they imagine themselves pulling of a spectacular play (in Monta's case, it's always followed with Mamori fussing happily over him).
• This is occasionally used in Fairy Tail, most often when the Yandere Juvia imagines Gray falling in love with her.
• Used once to great effect in Fist of the North Star, during the fight between Rei and Raoh: realizing that Raoh is far stronger than him, Rei decides to use a suicide attack to take Raoh down, we see it landing... And then it cuts to Raoh still alive and thinking "He plans to use this kind of attack with me?!", revealing it was simply Raoh guessing how it would go if he fought Rei normally before deciding for a more unorthodox counterattack — one that distracts Rei just long enough for Raoh to strike the decisive blow unimpeded.
• May Chang in Fullmetal Alchemist is prone to daydreaming about the Elrics (first Ed, then upon finding him insufficiently tall, Al) with copious Bishie Sparkle. Already funny, it becomes downright Hilarious in Hindsight when Monica Rial was cast as her English voice actress, leading to many Ouran High School Host Club jokes among fans.
• Masamune of Gate 7 get lose in his own Imagine Spot of Cat Girl Hana at the middle of a battle.
• Goblin Slayer has a short scene in the second volume where a Rhea scout is caught out during his promotion exam by Guild Girl for helping himself to the treasure that by rights belonged to the rest of his party, with not even Goblin Slayer having any pity for the guy because he is an adventurer too. Following his demotion and banishment, the scout has a brief Imagine Spot about pulling his knife and attacking Guild Girl only to be smashed down by Goblin Slayer, resulting in him backing down. It definitely didn't help that his thoughts during the imagine spot were very, very goblin-like. When the scout finally does decide to attack them in revenge for this humiliation in the third volume, his death at Goblin Slayer's hands is anything but pretty.
• In chapter 13 and episode 11 of Gourmet Girl Graffiti, it was revealed Ryou's parents wanted to get Ryou a bodyguard when they went overseas, but was refused by her Grandmother. Kirin briefly thought about how Ryou would be different if she had a live-in bodyguard.
• Great Teacher Onizuka anime constantly switch between real world and the titular Onizuka's "fantasy".
• In Gundam Build Fighters, Sei and Mao got lost in an Imagine Spot battle as they try to gauge how strong the Build Strike Full Package and the Gundam X Maoh are between each other. The "battle" is interrupted by Mr. Ral, who doesn't want their fight to be wasted on such a thing.
• Hello! Sandybell: Sandybell frequently imagines herself and Mark dancing at the Shearer's household, both wearing msquerade masks, as it was the last time they had an intimate moment together before he ran away from home.
• Switzerland in Hetalia: Axis Powers is a surly, gun-toting miser, but Japan imagines him as a befrocked, beribboned Heidi who engages in song and dance.
• The fifth episode of THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls has a few of these, for the idols who are imagining what their debut would be like.
• Imagine Spots are incredibly common in Is the Order a Rabbit?, with at least one instance per episode as the characters start imagining things in response to something another said.
  • A couple happen in the first episode, such as when Cocoa thought Rabbit House was literally a place to play with rabbits, and Rize imagining herself wearing a Playboy Bunny outfit.
  • Rize does this again in episode 3, imagining herself in a Playboy Bunny costume, except this time with a floppy-eared headband like the one worn by Sharo. She decides that it works equally well.
• In Is This A Zombie?, Ayumu constantly imagines Eucliwood talking to him, usually praising him and acting sexy. In each imagine spot, she is voiced by a different actress.
• A Running Gag of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is Shirogane envisioning Kaguya looking down upon him with a sarcastic smile and muttering "How Cute." The one time she did make the face, she was actually being sincere, but was attempting to maintain a stoic expression in place of a wide smile, resulting in the aforementioned sarcastic smile. And when she finally does say the line in a sarcastic tone, it's because he isn't acting on his feelings for her.
• Manabe from Kotoura-san is so perverted so he often has perverted Imagine Spots about his girlfriend Haruka. Haruka, however, is a telepath, so this and the Dirty Mind-Reading that always ensues becomes a Running Gag. In fact, he deliberately dreams them up solely to tease her; when Haruka caught a cold that temporarily blocked her telepathy, Manabe found it was no fun to fantasize about her unless she could see it.
• Lady!!: After Lynn earns the Lady's Crest, George presents her with a chest. Lynn uses the Lady's Key that he gave to her early in the series to open it. It tiurns out to have a crown. Lynn puts it on and imagines herself wearing a glitzy pink ballgown and riding fancy horse-pulled carriages is greeted by Edward, while Sarah also wears a glitzy blue ballgown and is greeted by Arthur, and the horse carriage pulls them across the sky, with clouds and rainbows. The sequence is studded by sparkles the entire time.
• Unavoidable Lucky Star example: Hiyori would often falls into fantasies about portraying her classmates Yutaka and Minami as lesbians, but immediate cut short by chastising herself about thinking her friends that way. Said friends are clueless as to what she's freaking out over.
• In Macross Frontier, Luca's brain goes to town in not entirely worksafe ways◊ when Sheryl casually declares Alto her slave. Makes you wonder what else goes on in his head, considering Sheryl obviously meant slave in the menial labor-drone sense.
• Maison Ikkoku: Godai often imagines himself getting intimate with Kyoko.
• March Comes in Like a Lion has a rather grim example of this trope in its first chapter. Rei imagines himself beating his adoptive father to death while Rei's paralleling beating his father in a professional shogi match to a news story of a man murdering his father with blunt force. Yikes.
• Minami-ke's Hosaka gets really caught up in his fantasies, usually starring Haruka, to the point of acting them out. Everyone else thinks he's weird and a little sick in the head.
• Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles:
  • In Chapter 8, Yuu imagines she and Koizumi happily chatting together.
  • In Chapter 13, Yuu gets one of Koizumi being taken away by a suave older guy.
• Moriarty the Patriot: In Chapter 76, Moran has a few pages of fantasizing about an island paradise and being naked in bed after tasting Albert's creme brulee.
• Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Lorem tends to have this while thinking about Gospel's future. She dreams of having a close relationship with him where he'll always be happy to see her even as he gets older, but also imagines him as a terrible delinquent should she somehow fail as a parent.
• My Clueless First Friend: While Nishimura and Takada are out getting cake for a Christmas Party, they spot one of Takada's sister's friends on a date. After witnessing her and her boyfriend kissing, an embarrassed and furiously blushing Takada and Nishimura simultaneously imagine older versions of themselves doing the same.
• Naruto:
  • Early on in the anime, Naruto fantasizes about becoming Hokage and beating Sasuke. There's more than that:
  • In the "what's under Kakashi's mask?" episode, Sasuke, thanks to Naruto's goading, imagines an unmasked Kakashi with big red lips, and then big buck teeth; he quickly agrees to help Naruto and Sakura try to see Kakashi's face.
  • In that same episode, our trio treat Kakashi to lunch at Ramen Ichiraku as part of their first attempt. Kakashi is suspicious and has three imagine spots in a row: first, getting buried under a big pile of snow (ironically, after he says "I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed on me,"), then, his order of ramen exploding in his face, and finally, him getting bopped by a giant Extendo Boxing Glove and Squashed Flat against a wall. At the end of each one, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura triumphantly flash the peace sign and declare, "He fell for it!!"
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi has quite a few, as well as a few Imagine Sketches from Haruna (or Nodoka's magic diary). In one notable instance, after Nodoka confesses to him, Negi imagines himself marrying her... without losing the Blank White Eyes he got from the revelation.
• In episode 3 of New Game!, While Aoba is on the train, anxious after having overslept, she imagines a situation where Kou punishes her for being late by forcing her to stay overnight in her underwear.
• Nichijou: In chapter 138, the ultra-tsundere Misato has one of her usual tsun moments with Kojirou and prepares to blast him with a bazooka; then one of his remarks sends her off on a three-page daydream about the two of them developing a saccharine romantic relationship. She snaps out of it and blasts him, then as she leaves, she notices that he finally addressed her by her first name...
  Caption: After this, like a large river, her lengthy delusion continued.
• In Nightmare Inspector, Kairi spends a lot of his time fantasizing and daydreaming. We get to see a few of said fantasies, which are... strange, to say the least.
• Onsokumaru of Ninja Nonsense does these a lot, usually involving Fanservice images of Kaede and Shinobu, or of himself surrounded by women or doing something awesome.
• The main character from No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!~, Tomoko, being the anime and Dating Sim-obsessed introvert that she is, has plenty of these, mostly about how the newest tactic she has is going to make her popular. Naturally, none of these work out the way she hoped.
• Onani Master Kurosawa: Kurosawa has these as twisted Sadist fantasies about girls he knows for his daily routine. Being unable go through with it serves as a Love Epiphany.
• One Piece employs this often enough, usually for romance/perverse fantasies (Sanji and Boa Hancock being two favorites). Oddly Nico Robin gets a few quite whimsical ones.
• Wakaba Kumura of Otasuke Miko Miko-chan has these frequently.
• Misaki in Our Home's Fox Deity is prone to sudden and overthought fantasy sequences about Noboru, her crush. Usually these fantasy sequences involve Kuugen or Kou, his family's resident Pretty Freeloaders.
• Ouran High School Host Club has "Tamaki's Inner Mind Theatre", usually with Tamaki fantasizing about Haruhi.
• Often used in Paradise Kiss. In one instance, Yukari pictures a Love Triangle as a Duel to the Death between Tokumori as a samurai and Arashi as a Lupin III pastiche, for the love of Miwako as a schoolgirl in Sailor Fuku. She notes it's only natural Arashi won, after all, he had a gun.
• In the second episode of Paranoia Agent, Yuichi has these more frequently (and they become more indulgent/fantastical) as things continually get worse for him.
• Plica has several, though some of the other characters also get in on it.
• Happens a few times in Poison Berry in My Brain; the sequences are appropriately labeled "Imagination".
• One Pollyanna episode focuses on Pollyanna meeting a disabled boy in a wheelchair, who befriended her squirrel Chip Mack. They converse and he tells her about the things he'd do if he wasn't disabled, and the scene cuts to him imagining himself as a king.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Meowth of Team Rocket has done this about Once per Episode since Hoenn, thinking about what Giovanni would do with the Pokémon of the day. More often than not, the imagery is pretty weird. Everything from said Boss spontaneously performing a Super-Deformed Gene Kelly dance routine, to said Boss stripping to a Loincloth for almost no friggin' reason. It helps that said Boss is The Comically Serious, and the occasions with Meowth's accented voice filling in for what he imagines would be what Giovanni would say help even more. What makes it even more imaginative is that the three were probably the most pathetic excuses for Team Rocket members ever seen on the show, at least until they Took a Level in Badass in Unova, and that Giovanni mostly despises them.
  • Who's an even more Comically Serious than Giovanni? Why, Cyrus, of course. But that only serves to make this scene◊ more hilarious, as the Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! heroes ponder where he could have gone after the Spear Pillar.
  • There's Connoiseusse Burgundy, who has one involving Cilan mocking her and her Oshawott in a particularly cruel manner while Pansage just cackles viciously. Considering what Cilan's really like, plus her evaluation of Ash's Pokemon in a negative light, it just shows how wacked out she really is.
  • Piplup in "Piplup, Up, and Away!" kept imagining Dawn praising him and himself being a total badass.
  • In the Johto episode Turning Over A New Bayleef, at the beginning of the episode, the stew is prepared and Ash attempts to serve it. While Ash tries to keep Totodile at bay under the fear that Totodile might cause Ash to spill the stew, Bayleef is beginning to rush over to Ash, but halfway through, due to being too big to jump into Ash's arms because of the fact that she evolved from a Chikorita in the previous episode and that she caused Ash to be sent flying during a game of fetch, factored by the mention of the potential stew spillage, she stops running and looks up at a thought bubble above her head that the camera pans up to consisting of her (in a different style where her eyes are black dots) continuing to run up to Ash (who is in the same style), which sends him flying and causes the stew to spill on Ash, and Ash angrily yells, "Bayleef! I told you before, no Tackling!" After the camera pans back down on Bayleef, the thought bubble disappears, and Bayleef, shaking her head upon realizing that it might end badly, decides to simply walk.
• Ranma ½:
  • Every character indulges in this regularly. If there are any other people in the room, they usually comment on the scene.
  • Ranma is figuring out the best way to approach Akane while she's in the hospital bed. All of his imaginations ends up with them kissing, which makes him snap back to reality like he woke up from a nightmare.
• Rebuild World:
  • Played for Drama more often than not with Sheryl imagining Akira executing her, drowning her, but most importantly, in one Foreshadowing a bloody future Love Triangle, Sheryl sees Akira abandoning her forever after witnessing her Holding Hands with The Rival Katsuya. She also has a few erotic fantasies.
  • Akira has a childish fantasy about using two assault rifles in Guns Akimbo that makes Alpha scold him how it'd wreck his arms if he wasn't wearing Powered Armor as Required Secondary Powers for it.
  • Akira and Nojima each have one as part of a Running Gag about maid outfits. Due to Alpha and Shirakabe suggesting it, they both imagine buff male soldiers like Kurosawa fighting in maid uniforms since they provide better protection due to Lost Technology, leading to the desire for Brain Bleach.
• Used several times in a row in an episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena, when Nanami is trying to embarrass Anthy (and win Miki's affection) by planting weird stuff in her room. She envisions each ploy going off without a hitch, only to have them fail because Anthy is already keeping weird stuff in her room. And Miki finds it cute.
• Saitou Hajime of Rurouni Kenshin: Memetic Badass, Inspector Javert, The Comically Serious... and master of the trope. He makes the "If Kaoru → Tanuki and Megumi → Fox, then Misao → Weasel" in one and images a broom shooing away a rooster when Chou and Sanosuke get into an argument.
  • In the anime, after Saitou casually drops the fact that he's married (and the manga has to add a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer), there's an Imagine Spot of Saitou reclining on the statue of a Bodhisattva.
• We see Haruka's fantasies fairly often in Sakura Trick.
• The Secret Recipe: In chapter 15, right after Wakatsuki had a brief daydream of Yuuko in a Naked Apron, one of the Cooking Club members bring up the upcoming cultural festival and asked what should their aprons be like. Cue immense blushing from Wakatsuki.
• In A Silent Voice, Shouko has one of the Tear Jerker variety. When she sees her grade school classroom, she starts imagining what those days would have been like if she not only had friends, but also if her family was together. This includes her grandma still being alive, her mother being more caring and less stressed, and her father actually being present in her life.
• Snow White with the Red Hair: Zen's fantasizing of riding with his girlfriend Shirayuki on his horse for a trip is shown right before she rides out on a horse on her own and reveals that since the last time they traveled together she's learned to ride. He then has to school his expression and congratulate her even though he'd been looking forward to a situation where he got to ride with her for months.
• In Soul Eater Not!, new student Tsugumi imagines herself surrounded by pretty boys at the academy, but she snaps out of her thoughts once she sees Black Star punching a guy in the face. She also imagines the aforementioned pretty boys all clamoring to be her partner, but instead finds herself being fought over by two female classmates.
• Spy X Family:
  • Yor tends to imagine herself brutally murdering her way through her problems, only to hastily remind herself that she can't kill innocent people. Overlaps with Imagine Spotting, since Anya is a telepath and can see these fantasies.
  • Since Yor is worried Loid will leave her if he finds out that she's an assassin, Anya picked up on this, and tends to have the exact same terror. She keeps imagining what will happen if she fails to keep Loid from noticing Yor's suspicious combat skills.
    Loid: Y-You're a hired killer? I want a divorce. The Forger family is no more! Also, let's abandon Anya.
• Star Driver has Wako doing almost exactly the same thing, complete with Ouran-style captions. Yaoi style!
• Strawberry Marshmallow:
  • In he manga, while Nobue is filling out a job application for one of the "zillions of 7-Elevens" in the area, the other girls contemplate what sorts of jobs they would want to get. The question is posed to Matsuri, and Miu imagines Matsuri in a few different kinds of jobs, coming up with the conclusion that Matsuri is not employable. When they consider the job of handing out promotional tissues, Miu remarks that "Matsuri wasn't able to do it at all just now," and imagines herself in the position, sneaking them into people's pockets and bags even if they refuse, and offering entire boxes at once.
  • This also happens in the corresponding anime sequence, except with Miu imagining a single job for Matsuri and Ana (Matsuri as a sweet potato woman (like an ice cream woman, but with sweet potatoes) and Ana as a ball girl at a tennis court.) As for tissue pack marketing, Miu and Chika acted it out in real life with the same level of success as Matsuri.
• Junpei in Strawberry 100% often has fantasies about panty shots.
  • A memorable example has Junpei, after discovered that Aya (his Meganekko schoolmates) is the mysterious girl with the strawberry panties, imagining of hug and grope both the nerdy-Aya and normal-Aya...in the middle of an exam!
• Used frequently in the Animated Adaptation of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note, usually in hexagonal speech balloons, to show how Aya feels inside despite appearances.
• To Love Ru Darkness:
  • Momo has one of the heavily censored kind when she thinks of Rito. And multiple somewhat less censored ones of how she hopes things will turn out during Rito's time alone with various individual harem-candidates. The actual events are invariably tamer than what Momo is hoping for (though still very much NSFW thanks to his Accidental Pervert nature).
  • Many of the girls seem to be developing powerful fantasies based around Rito. Yui, for example, is constantly imagining herself in the role of wife and mother.
  • The first series has Rito imagine Haruna in a bikini in the first chapter.
• Usagi-chan de Cue!!: Miku imagines herself and Haru as naked newlyweds. Later, Miku learns that Mimika has "slept with" Haru (just sleeping, no hanky-panky) and imagines Mimika and Haru as a naked couple.
• With the Light: In the first chapter, Sachiko has a few in which Hikaru is a neurotypical young boy who's happily willing to be held in his mother's arms, being read to on her lap, and being taught and speaking words.