Late Arrival Spoiler / Anime & Manga

For obvious reasons, all examples contain spoilers, so they will be unmarked.

Late-Arrival Spoiler in Anime & Manga.

---

• Downplayed with The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. The manga doesn't bother to hide the harem's more surprising members or their relationships with the already existing characters, but the vast majority of girlfriends are only introduced right before or at the exact moment they fall in love with Rentarou, so this doesn't usually cause problems for latecomers.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The fact that Brock leaves the show permanently in Best Wishes. Also, him even being a main cast member at all.
  • Misty, May, Max, and Dawn are also Put on a Bus. Misty was put on a bus after the Johto saga.
  • Iris and Cilan. Magazine scans, posters for the anime, and previews show off Ash without them, and with his new companions instead.
  • Back during the Diamond & Pearl series there was the whole Gible fiasco, in which some merchandise revealed that Ash catches a Gible. Done once again in Best Wishes, revealing that Ash gets a Scraggy, Sewaddle, Palpitoad, and Roggenrola. Happens again in XY, where merchandise revealed Serena will catch a Pancham.
  • Previews and sources spoiled every single outcome for the Club Battle Tournament up until the finals, aside from the battle between Antonio and Dino, two background characters.
  • After the Club Battle Tournament, Team Rocket's Meowth joins the crew, although fans correctly guessed that he was spying for Team Rocket.
  • The fact that Ash's Charizard came back to the team was spoiled for Japanese audiences, as it was plastered over almost every kind of merchandise imaginable.
  • An advertisement spoiled not only that Ash's Frogadier would evolve to his final stage, but would also gain an exclusive Super Mode with its own name. The same advertisement would also spoil his Noibat evolving into Noivern.
  • As early as episode eight in the Alola series, it's revealed that Lillie is Lusamine's daughter and Gladion's sister. Her relation to them in Pokémon Sun and Moon is considered a big twist and isn't discovered until three-quarters of the way through the main story.
  • Perhaps the biggest spoiler yet was before the final match of the Alola League, Ash was shown holding the trophy in a few screenshots, including a full clip as part of a promotional giveaway. Granted, due to Ash losing the last time he was in the finals of a League, some fans were skeptical this could all be a trick. It wasn’t. He finally won.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Different spoilers for different Parts, most of these are spoiled if you bother to read anything that comes after.
  • Phantom Blood: Jonathan Joestar dies and takes Dio's head with him, and Will Zeppeli dies to save Jonathan around the Part's midway point.
  • Battle Tendency: Joseph survives his fight with Kars, but Caeser dies fighting Wamuu.
  • Stardust Crusaders: DIO survived the events of Part 1 by taking Jonathan's body (which retroactively spoils the end of Phantom Blood) and gains a Stand called The World that can stop time. Anybody familiar with the Memetic Mutation surrounding Dio knows about his Stand's time stop ability, but in the series proper, none of the heroes knew until they actually fought him, with Kakyoin sacrificing himself to give the rest of them a clue. Fortunately for anybody not already spoiled by the memes, the anime adaptation of Stardust Crusaders presents the mystery of DIO's powers in the same way the manga did 23 years ago, but the JoJo video games and Shonen Jump crossover games that DIO appears in just assume everybody knows already. Also, DIO using a steamroller in an attempt to kill Jotaro.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: Yoshikage Kira is the Part's Big Bad, he kills a man named Kosaku and steals his identity, and later gains the ability to create time loops.
  • Golden Wind: The boss of Passione is the Part's Big Bad, he has a Stand called King Crimson (with powers that are difficult to explain but just work), and his name is Diavolo. Also, Trish has a Stand called Spice Girl and Gold Experience evolves into Gold Experience Requiem which condemns Diavolo to an eternal, repeating death loop.
  • Stone Ocean: Enrico Pucci's Whitesnake evolves into C-Moon, and later into Made in Heaven.
  • Steel Ball Run: Johnny Joestar's Tusk is an ACT Stand, Funny Valentine is the Part's Big Bad and is supported by Jesus of Nazareth, and an Alternate Universe Diego Brando with The World as his Stand is the Final Boss.
  • JoJolion: Josuke is actually a Fusion Dance between two Posthumous Characters, and Toru, the supposedly well-mannered hospital intern, is the real Big Bad of the story.
• Mazinger:
  • Mazinger Z: Kouji's father is alive and he has built a Humongous Mecha and trained an Ace Pilot to fight the same menace that had just destroyed Mazinger Z. That is the premise of the sequel, so if you watch it, it completely spoils the end of the first series.
• In Afro Samurai, Kuma being Afro's childhood friend, Jinno is treated as this, not only in the second movie, Resurrection, but even on the season one website. Then again, It's not a particularly big spoiler, since even when broadcast in episode rather than movie format, it's revealed the same episode Kuma is.
• Sailor Moon:
  • Usagi/Serena being the Moon Princess. The manga and live action version play Sailor Venus up as the real princess until the reveal by having her pretend to be her to keep Usagi safe until she regains her memories of her past life. The first anime goes through several candidates (Princess Diamond, Rei/Raye, and Minako/Mina) before the reveal. Immediately after said reveal, the spoiler went public on covers and merchandise. Really, the anime's second closing song "Moon Princess" spoils this one before the reveal.
  • Not many people may remember that Chibi-Usa/Rini being the daughter of Sailor Moon was once a late second-season revelation. Once she became Sailor Chibi-Moon, it was everywhere.
  • The identity of Sailor Saturn/Hotaru is another one. First she's just a girl who Chibi Usa befriends. Then we see she's the daughter of the big bad of the season. Then we see she's got an evil personality and has special powers. Then we are told (but not shown) that gasp, she's the missing Saturn, who is evil. Then we find out Saturn is not evil and not the Messiah of Silence, the being possessing Hotaru is and we SEE her as Saturn. Cue next season all these twists are thrown out and her being depicted as an ally in the merch.
  • And then there's the DiC dub, which came right out of the gate with spoilers galore in the opening: not only did it show the fact there were going to be five sailors total, the theme song itself named them all. It also spoiled the secret of the Rainbow Crystals, as well as using clips from the last two episodes of the first season showing definitively that Serena was also the Moon Princess. To their (sort of) credit, they kept the same opening for the second season (the half they dubbed, anyway), so it didn't spoil anything else.
• Continuity Reboot Sailor Moon Crystal presumes familiarity with earlier entries in the franchise, so it uses this trope to Hell and back.
  • Contrary to the manga and first anime, Crystal isn't shy about blatantly foreshadowing the identity of the princess and her prince for the sake of Dramatic Irony, whether in Act 1's Cold Open Dream Sequence, the Closing Credits, or the parallelistic artwork on its various Title Cards.
  • Momoiro Clover Z's music video promo for series Opening Theme "Moon Pride" openly spoils their identities as a matter of course during new animated footage, despite premiering the same day as Act 2.
  • Season 3 treats Haruka's gender the same way the manga and original anime did, making it seem from her first appearance that she's a man. However, within the first episode itself, before her gender is revealed properly, the mid-episode ad-break cards depict her in Sailor Uranus form, clearly female.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Considering her current role as The Lancer, as well as the insane amount of official and fanmade art depicting both her and The Hero attached by the hip, it will be very surprising indeed if anyone who has even heard of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha doesn't know that Fate pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Hayate and the Wolkenritter get this, too, to a lesser extent — see the Megami cover that used to be at the top of the page. It even gets lampshaded in a one-shot made to celebrate the release of the second movie.
    Subaru: The fact that you're our commander now is a massive spoiler!
  • Given their prominent placement in art for StrikerS Sound Stage X and ViVid, Cinque, Nove, Dieci and Wendi's Heel–Face Turn, as well as Vivio's true nature, are headed toward this.
  • The opening for ViVid Strike! spoils the fact that Ixpellia woke up during ViVid.
• Though Fuuma's Face–Heel Turn in X/1999 is treated as a surprise when it happens, official art and the opening of the anime series explicitly show him locked in combat with the main character, so whether any viewers of the anime were actually shocked by this revelation is debatable. The suspicious absence of Kotori in other art also foreshadows the Wham Episode pretty heavily to the point that it's fairly easy to guess what's going to happen to her (the Waif Prophet even all but says it at several points).
• For Persona 4: The Animation, the anime assumes most of the viewers have already played the game, and because of this, certain scenes are played with much less fanfare (Teddie revealing his human body was a big deal in the game, in the anime he just popped his head off and things continued from there). They also put less effort into hiding things (Naoto was harder to figure out in the Japanese game than in the anime).
  • The same goes for Persona 5: The Animation, based on its sequel. For instance, one piece of promotional art depicts the Phantom Thieves (aside from Joker), with Goro Akechi having a noticeably more deranged expression than everyone else. Take a wild guess who The Mole is.
• Saint Seiya:
  • Saori being the reincarnation of Athena is revealed about mid way through the first season, and after that it's treated this way in official art and other media.
  • In the Spanish opening, they reveal the existence of the other Gold Cloths and the redesigned Sagittarius gold cloth, all of which is supposed to be a secret (even from most of the characters) till episode 30.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • The Cover for the final season◊ of Brotherhood contains no less than three of these. In all fairness, it can be assumed that anyone buying the last season already knows that Selim is Pride and King Bradley is Wrath, but there's no excuse for spoiling Father's One-Winged Angel form, which wouldn't be revealed until that very season.
  • Any attempt to summarize the plot of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa will spoil the ending of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Ed gets transported to our world while saving Al, and Al is trying to reunite with him.
  • Some commercials for the initial DVD release of the original anime also featured one of the most pivotal and affecting character deaths, that of Maes Hughes, which happen halfway through the series and was a major emotional turning point.
• Naruto:
  • In an interview about the Naruto Shippuden dub, Tara Platt (who plays Temari) nonchalantly mentioned the death of one of her character's brothers which happens in Part 2/Shippuden, when talking about things fans have told her about. To make matters worse, the writer of the article felt the need to remove any doubt which brother she was talking about adding the character's name in brackets. (He got better, albeit through a side character sacrificing her own life.)
  • Sasori's true form has been shown fairly prominently in advertisements for Naruto video games, including the evidence that he is actually a human puppet.
  • The Ultimate Jutsus and Awakenings in the Ultimate Ninja Storm videogame series contain a lot of spoilers, especially in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations. Five Kage Summit Kankuro's Ultimate, for example, has him using Sasori as one of his puppets, while Danzo's Awakening spoils a major Reveal about him. And then there's the very existence of Susanno Sasuke and Nine Tails Chakra Naruto...
  • One of the advertisements for Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 shows that the real Madara, who Tobi is not, would be fighting the Kages, which happened in the manga less just barely a year earlier and hadn't even happened at all in the anime yet.
  • The cover for volume 68 of the manga shows young Kakashi, Rin and Obito, the last of whom supposedly died some time back, before being revealed as the series' Big Bad much later - and the obi included with the book's Japanese edition even mentions Obito by name. A huge spoiler for readers still in the dark about Obito being alive, and the Big Bad no less, even for Japanese fans. Though it eventually reached a point where most of this site doesn't even bother spoiler-tagging it anymore.
  • Watching any of the teasers and trailers for The Last: Naruto the Movie before finishing the manga pretty much gives away every single twist for the last few chapters (the adult designs for the characters, Kakashi being the Sixth Hokage, Naruto's and Hinata's children, Sasuke reforming, etc). This was especially bad when these teasers and trailers were initially released four months before the last couple of chapters were even released, meaning the trailers spoilt things that hadn't even happened yet. For that matter, the premise of the movie itself, Naruto realizing he's in love with Hinata, gives away who the main Official Couple is going to be at the end of the series. Although, similar to the above, most of this site has gradually stopped bothering to spoiler-tag who the main Official Couple is anymore.
  • Boruto: Naruto the Movie is even worse. It was released over a year before the anime ended and is a sequel movie to The Last, set at minimum fifteen years later. It spoiled so many things for non-manga readers, like who the Official Couples are and what their children look like.
• Try to find a piece of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch merchandise with evil, black-haired, end-the-world-and-kill-my-ex Sara on it. Even though she spends most of the series this way, you won't succeed. Anything with her on it proudly displays the orange-haired, reformed Sara of the end of the first season.
• Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • The big Reveal about the title character's nature. An ad for the books in Shonen Jump mentions the twist while explaining the premise of the series.
  • In fact, watching the episodes in in-story chronological order (the order in which the episodes were released in America, naturally) turns half the anime series into one.
  • Any merchandise with Asakura Ryouko on it tends to advertise her as an alien computer as well as a Yandere Psycho Knife Nut, and sometimes even Yuki's first Evil Counterpart. It's worth mentioning that both of these are revealed in the first volume of the manga adaptation. Second chapter, to boot.
• Hunter × Hunter: The existence of some of the series' later arcs spoil certain events from previous ones:
  • In the Yorknew City arc, some suspense and mystery centres around a game titled Greed Island, which is presented as the next step in Gon's journey to track down Ging. The fact that the next arc is called the Greed Island arc makes this intrigue somewhat moot.
  • The name of the 2011 anime's final arc - The 13th Hunter Chairman Election - spoils that Netero, the previous chairman, dies during the Chimera Ant arc.
• One Piece:
  • Many of the Straw Hats' joining the crew; the anime often assumes that the viewers have read the manga already and will not be surprised to see them as part of the crew in openings, endings or commercials. The first five Straw Hats are shown in the crew in the first opening and the first three are shown in the first manga volume (which ends when Luffy first meets Nami). Robin was shown in the crew in the third opening, despite it being twenty episodes before her Heel–Face Turn. Brook was shown in ads for One Piece: Unlimited Cruise late in the Thriller Bark arc. The only true exceptions seem to be Franky and Chopper. This was taken to extremes in Funimation's English releases. The Collection Six DVD (which contained the opening of the Skypiea arc) included a flyer directly telling the viewer that Franky would join the Straw Hat crew, something that wouldn't happen for another one hundred and ninety episodes; Not only that, but the actual DVD being advertised was still over a hundred episodes away from that spoiler happening. The DVD cover and disc art for Season Five: Voyage Four shows the Going Merry burning, which didn't happen until the last episode on that box set. FUNimation's release of the movie Strong World also spoiled Brook joining the crew, which had yet to happen in the English dub. That being said, anyone who has so much as seen a promo image for the series will have these revelations spoiled for them anyway.
  • Similarly, the existence of a Time Skip. The vast majority of media and merchandise, and of course the manga/anime itself, features the post-time skip designs of the Straw Hats as the default designs, which for the most part are obviously older and changed. The reasons for that time skip tend to remain in the realm of spoiler territory, though.
  • Many of the villains' or the Straw Hats' other enemies being as such are surprises in the manga when they initially seem to be harmless characters, but are known by the time of the anime adaptation, especially Kuro, Tashigi, the Number Agents in Whiskey Peak (including Vivi, whose being revealed as The Mole puts her in a double example), the four CP9 agents infiltrating the Galley-La company and Dr. Hogback, such as when they are shown in openings as villains.
  • Franky debuted in America in Unlimited Adventure... long before he was ever introduced in the English manga or anime, and Robin was shown as a crew member long before she actually joined.
  • The twelfth movie spoils a huge plot point revealed at the end of the Fishman Island arc, namely Aokiji not being a Marine anymore, due to his loss against Akainu in a fight for the position of Fleet Admiral.
  • Some of the One Piece video games made after Ace's death will casually make reference to that event and show characters acting astonished when he shows up.
  • Due to Sabo's sheer popularity, particularly in proportion to the amount of time he's been in the manga, marketing for the series has been pretty upfront about showing his present-day self. When the anime reached the point in the story where this is revealed, this version of Sabo has also become frequently included in color-spread illustrations and in promotional material for video games and merchandise, such as this commercial for ''Grand Battle! X''.
  • One of the openings was believed to be this, but turned out to be a red herring, with a shot of jolly carpenter Kaku mixed in with shots of the Straw Hat Pirates, leading people to believe Kaku would join the Straw Hats. Instead, Franky was the new recruit, and Kaku was a deep undercover assassin for the World Government.
  • The 22nd opening (Over the Top) spoiled several elements of the ongoing Wano arc for anime-only viewers. Including Luffy's imprisonment, Sanji's raid suit, Shimotsuki Yasuie's death, and Kyoshiro being a member of the Nine Red Scabbards.
  • The reveal of Dr. Vegapunk's six satellite bodies was supposed to be a surprise twist in the years-long buildup towards his official introduction, with Lilith being the very first in the Debut Queue and the real Vegapunk coming in last within a span of six chapters. The anime not only announced voice actors for all seven of them ahead of their anime debut, but also revealed how they'd look animated.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Chi-Chi and Goku as newlyweds appear in the fourth Dragon Ball ending, which debuted the same episode as the all-grown-up versions of the characters, but a good number of episodes before Chi-Chi had been reintroduced. Certain characters like Yajirobe are also introduced early via the closing credits as well.
  • For American viewers, Dragon Ball Z was a series of L.A.S.'s being delivered effectively as character exposition from the word "go", since it exploded in popularity before its predecessor (despite two previous attempts to dub said predecessor). Things like Goku having a son and a long-lost evil brother, being from a race of alien warriors, and Piccolo Jr. pulling a Heel–Face Turn were all meant to be shocking surprises to fans who grew up watching Dragon Ball first. A lot of the former show's major events are also affected, like Tenshinhan's Heel–Face Turn, Demon King Piccolo having a son, Goku marrying Chi-Chi, and the introduction of all the supporting characters who show up by the start of Dragon Ball Z.
  • The video game Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout was released in America a year after Dragon Ball Z first aired in the country. It had characters that included Freeza in his final form, Cell in his Perfect Form, Kid Buu, Adult Gohan, Trunks, and even the Super Saiyan forms. People who would be playing this would have no idea who half of these characters were. In Japan, the manga was already finished.
  • The first episode of Dragon Ball Z Kai includes footage from the special Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku, revealing that Freeza destroyed Planet Vegeta rather than a meteor. Originally, Freeza's existence wasn't even hinted at until the Namek Saga.
  • Taken to rather absurd levels with the English dub of Dragon Ball Super, which premiered a mere half hour before the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters and spent the first episode spoiling the entire Majin Buu arc: Fat Buu turns good, Goku comes back from the dead and destroys Kid Buu with the Genkidama, and Gohan marries Videl.
• With Yu-Gi-Oh!, cards from the show usually get made into the actual card game. While most are printed in packs after their debut, some cards are printed or revealed before their debut in the show. One notable case comes in Yuya gaining Synchro Summoning. His Synchro Monster, Enlightment Paladin, was touted as his new ace and made the face of the Breakers of Shadow pack, long before he even got him in the show.
  • Episode titles and descriptions are released in batches, and they occasionally spoil the winners of duels in the episode immediately after. One description will often state things like: "Can X defeat this fearsome opponent?" The episode after that will have a description like "After X defeated their opponent..."
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Yuya and Yuzu each having three counterparts and there being four dimensions was a big twist in Season 1 but any discussion about the series will bring these plot points up. Same goes for Zarc and Ray and the Original Dimension.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Setsuna revealing her wings was a surprising twist the first time it was revealed. Nowadays however, you'd likely be more surprised to learn that it was meant to be a surprise. As Asuna herself said, the wings are cool, thus, several pictures featuring Setsuna, like, say... the covers for some of the Video Game adaptations, depict her in all her spoilery winged glory.
  • Hopefully you've already read the manga before starting to watch the OVAs. Because the first five seconds reveals the big bad of the festival arc and the resolution of said arc. Then it proceeds to introduce Kotarou as one of the good guys, sticks Chisame into the group and shows the results of the training Evangeline gave everyone in Ala Alba. What's that, you didn't know about that group? You shouldn't have watched the OVA yet then. (Luckily, some of the OVAs come packaged with the special edition compiled manga volumes for your convenience). And since said OVAs came packaged with manga volumes from way later the plot points they cover, the only reason this should apply is if you're somehow watching them without following the manga.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers is based on rather basic history, so it obviously will invoke this trope. The Axis Powers lose. But on the more personal levels for the characters, it's assumed that every fan has at least read the strip "America Cleans Out the Storage", which is a Tear Jerker in a comedy series.
• Lots of fans still treat the fact that there are three Syaorans in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- as a spoiler (or, alternatively, the fact that Watanuki from Xxx HO Li C is a clone of Syaoran), even though both of them appeared on the cover together for a later manga volume.
  • The fact that Fai had his left eye torn out and eaten by one of the aforementioned Syaorans, and to a lesser extent the fact he's a vampire dependent on Kurogane's blood as a result, is also still treated as a spoiler by some fans...despite the fact he's sporting an eye patch in almost every subsequent cover and official art. At least until he got it back in a later chapter...
  • Watanuki, inheriting the shop from Yuuko, all thanks to the manga covers and anime adaptations of Kobato. and Blood-C. But those who don't read the manga are still confused on Yuuko's whereabouts when Watanuki became the shop owner. Of course, this changed in xxxHolic: Rei where Yuuko returns as the owner of the shop.
• The DVD case of Desert Punk shows what the main character looks like without his mask and the dub credits (though oddly not the credits for the Japanese cast) also spoil what his real name is by billing him as such, when we don't find out either until episode 3.
• Hey, at least all of the above waited until the spoiler had actually happened in the show. Not Fresh Pretty Cure! Setsuna/Eas's defection from Labyrinth and rebirth as the fourth Fresh Cure, Cure Passion was spoiled left and right by merchandising at least a month before it actually happened. Even if you managed to avoid this, being spoiled on her Heel–Face Turn is still nigh-inevitable when most every piece of general Pretty Cure media nowadays will include Setsuna with the other Cures.
  • In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Itsuki Myoudouin is a girl and Cure Sunshine; Yuri Tsukikage is Cure Moonlight. Not only did the merchandising department spoil this in their rush to market two more Cures, the trailers completely gave away Sunshine's identity before it was officially revealed.
  • Really, every time Pretty Cure adds a new character, their identity becomes all but impossible to avoid. Suite Pretty Cure ♪ is now subjecting Ellen/Cure Beat to this treatment, and she probably won't be the last. This is possibly a reason why Smile Pretty Cure! didn't have any sort of Sixth Ranger character. It did have an 11th-Hour Ranger, but that avoided this trope. In a similar vein, Doki Doki! PreCure let slip that there was going to be a Sixth Ranger, but they managed to hide which character she was going to be...because she wasn't an existing character.
  • Pretty Cure All Stars: Spring Carnival is pretty bad if you haven't seen any of these series prior to watching this movie, as it does spoil major plot points from their respective series.
  • This even happens before a new series even starts: merchandise for each Pretty Cure season is usually released a week or two before the show's premiere, some of which will spoil the civillian identities of the Cures.
    • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure's Sixth Ranger, Cure Earth. Due to an unexpected Schedule Slip, merchandise for her started to show up two months before her debut.
• Planetes: Due to the Evolving Credits, anyone who sees a late season version of the intro will be horrifically spoiled on 2 major characters who Face–Heel Turn.
• Back in 1996, Van's wings in The Vision of Escaflowne were major spoilers. Nowadays, nearly half◊ of◊ the◊ official◊ art◊ show them, including the box set◊. That's right, you get spoiled just trying to buy the damn show.
• Any story summary for Monster has to reveal that Tenma decides to save the young boy in the first episode, who turns out to be a homicidal genius and the Big Bad of the series.
• A couple covers for later volumes of 20th Century Boys feature a thinly-mustached man who looks a great deal like Kenji Endo. Who was supposed to be dead after the first story arc concluded.
• Any attempt to cover that "Siegrain" or Ultear from Fairy Tail were villains who slipped into the council in order to manipulate it for their own personal gain are half-hearted at best. No one really attempts to hide that Siegrain is really a guy named Jellal who used illusions to trick everyone into thinking Siegrain was another person (his twin, if anyone saw both of them) either. The only thing people try to cover up is that Jellal was a villain because Ultear brainwashed him. Wait...no. They don't care if that one gets out either.
  • Technically, the fact that Natsu is Fairy Tail's Salamander spoils the twist at the end of the first episode.
  • Lisanna, believed by her friends and family at Fairy Tail to have been dead since before the series began, is alive and working at the guild again.
• Fist of the North Star:
  • In the Legends of the True Savior movie series, many of the plot twists and revelations from the manga are treated as if they were common knowledge. For example: in Legend of Yuria, it's made obvious that Yuria didn't die during her captivity in Southern Cross and is in fact the Last General of Nanto, whereas the poster for Legend of Raoh: Chapter of Fierce Fight shows Kenshiro shedding tears over Raoh's dead body.
  • The cover artwork for Vol. 2 of the original Hokuto no Ken tankobon by Jump Comics shows a bleeding Shin falling to his death, an event which occurs in the second chapter of that particular collection.
  • The plot description of Discotek's fourth DVD collection of the anime series spoils the fact that Kaioh is Raoh's estranged brother.
• ADV's various releases of Neon Genesis Evangelion have a tendency to contain spoilers for previous episodes in their episode descriptions - most notably for episode 22, in which "Misato mourns the loss of Kaji."
  • The image of the merged Lilith/Rei creature from End of Evangelion is also hugely prevalent on everything from posters to covers and official artwork, despite the fact that Rei's role in the Assimilation Plot is supposed to be a surprise.
  • The Rebuild of Evangelion movies have something like this going on. For example, that image that frequently surfaces of Asuka with an eye patch? It's the very last shot of the teaser at the end of the second movie, which confirms she survived the final fight. This was not a given, as the story in the movies has diverged from the TV series'.
  • It also happens in The Merch. The "Angel Chromosome XX" line of figurines, moe anthropomorphisms of the series' angels, features some spoilerific info such as Human!Lilith being Rei Ayanami and Tabris being just a female Kaworu.
• Seeing as how it was revealed back in 2005, the fact that Sōsuke Aizen is the Big Bad in Bleach can't possibly be avoided if one casually mentions the series... well, unless you're only talking about the first arc.
• For those just starting to watch Slayers NEXT, Xellos is a Mazoku. It's not a secret anymore. The opening sequences for the season itself spoils it, if you watch closely.
• Destiny of the Shrine Maiden at first appears to be a simple series about two best friends, with some Les Yay and mechas thrown in. Then it turns into a twisted love triangle. Being that it is one of the most popular Yuri series to date you should already know that the main duo aren't just best friends and who Himeko ends up with. And if you don't know, the English dub DVDs made sure to make it clear.
• Ai's true identity is one of the biggest plot twists in Case Closed. Too bad she's one of the most popular characters and its impossible to talk about her without spoiling anything.
  • Then again, it does get revealed pretty soon after she first appears, so no troubles. Shuichi Akai and Jodie, on the other hand... Try discussing them without revealing that they're not Gin and Vermouth in disguise, which probably everybody assumes before the big reveal. And let's not even start with Rena.
• Pokémon Adventures:
  • Yellow is a girl. If you read FRLG or the last chapters of Emerald or GSC before you read the Yellow arc, you're going to be awfully confused by the consistent male terminology.
  • Ruby and Sapphire are Forgotten Childhood Friends and love interests, along with the fact Sapphire was once very effeminate, is something you'll come across any time people talk about the characters. Likewise Ruby's hairstyle qualifies.
  • Lillie is Lusamine's daughter. This gets revealed a few chapters into the arc. In the original game it was a twist that isn't revealed until over halfway through.
• Pluto: The cover of the final volume shows Atom touching one of Pluto's horns, spoiling not only that he returns to life in-series but also the ultimate outcome of their fight. Of course, if you've read the original, as just about everyone in Japan would have, you'd know this already.
• All the official art for the second season of Heaven's Lost Property shows Astraea hanging around the good guys (well, Ikaros and Nymph, fellow Angeloids), spoiling her eventual Heel–Face Turn. Guess they expected everyone to have read the manga already.
• Kidou's Heel–Face Turn halfway through the first arc of Inazuma Eleven was accompanied by a uniform change (for obvious reasons, but he even changed the color of his Badass Cape to match) and turned him into a permanent fixture of the central cast, making this trope practically impossible to avoid.
• In Digimon Adventure, the fact that Hikari Yagami was the eighth Chosen Child was intended as a surprise (well, sort of). Come Digimon Adventure 02, we're "reminded" of the fact in the first episode.
  • While the preview for 02 episode 8 was suppose to hype up who the Digimon Kaiser/Emperor could be, his onscreen moments as Ken lacked any subtlelty as his behavior was no different from the Kaiser/Emperor. And in both versions, Wormmon refers to him by name before the Chosens find out for themselves.
  • The advertising for the later movies featuring the 02 cast shows Ken among the heroes, which gives away his Heel–Face Turn in the original series.
• You literally cannot go through Ojamajo Doremi without knowing that Hana, the magical baby the main characters are sworn protect in the second season, becomes part of the main team by the fourth season as a witch apprentice. Her identity was kept as a spoiler at first, but pretty soon her image was on everything, from toys to posters. It's the same with real name of the Big Bad, Majo Tourbillon. Her name is virtually common knowledge.
• In Vampire Knight Guilty, that Yuuki is actually a pure-blood vampire, as well as Kaname's sister (technically; it explains things in the manga) and fiance.
• Girl Friends (2006) spends much of the first volume looking like a standard story about two girls of contrasting personalities meeting and becoming friends, before Chapter 7 confirms that one of them has fallen for the other in a big way. Of course, as the manga is best known as a modern classic of the Yuri Genre with advertisers marketing it as a story of two best friends who fall in love, it's hardly a surprise now.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Something of an inversion, on the whole—most of the official summaries and merch items heavily imply that it's a typical cutsey magical girl show, but Internet-powered word-of-mouth has informed pretty much anyone who cares that it's extremely dark and subversive. Oddly enough, the truth is somewhere between those extremes.
  • The existence of Homura's past Shrinking Violet self essentially redefines the nature of the entire series, yet the character is plastered onto a lot of official artwork and is given a fair amount of merchandise. It's even the artwork for the second Blu-Ray Disc. As in, the disc before that episode even happens.
  • The cover for the third DVD is based on the final episode, depicting Madoka in full-on Ultimate Madoka form, Homura wearing her ribbon as a headband, and Mami, Kyouko, and Sayaka not dead (even though Sayaka, unlike the other two, does not come back to life). Even if you somehow avoid seeing the cover art, Ultimate Madoka appears on the menu screen and is pretty hard to miss, especially in the blu-ray version.
  • The cover for Rebellion also has Ultimate Madoka on it. She doesn't actually appear until near the end, so that's pretty spoilery; but it's not nearly so ridiculous as the ads for the boxset that reveal Demon Homura, a.k.a. Ultimate Walking Spoiler. Apparently they couldn't resist showing off the new outfit.
  • The DVD covers for the UK releases spoil the hell out of the episodes - the second one has Homura with her braids and glasses, something that isn't even seen until the third DVD while the third one has Madoka as Ultimate Madoka.
• Being a Stealth Sequel, the first chapter of UQ Holder! refers rather liberally to many of the events that occurred in Negima! Magister Negi Magi's epilogue, among them being the fact that the masquerade is broken and Evangeline is no longer bound to Mahora.
• The cover art of Angel Beats!, as shown on the tropes page, pretty clearly reveals that Angel was Good All Along. Instead of trying to murder Otonashi and Yurippe with her trademark handspears—basically the only thing she does for the first few episodes—she's just sitting next to them unthreateningly.
• Death Note has a few, including L's appearance and Misa's appearance as the Second Kira. Also for the manga, the fact that Light's father is the Chief of Police is a HUGE reveal. Despite this, it is shown in the blurb of the first volume.
• Love Live! doesn't even try to hide the identities of all the girls who end up joining μ's, despite the fact that getting certain people to join is played for drama and Eli is even positioned as an antagonist for a while. When the opening and ending both depict them all happily dancing together, there isn't really any doubt. Though admittedly the whole anime was based on a series of music videos featuring all the girls, so it wouldn't have been news to anyone who'd seen them, either.
  • The same can be said for every subsequent series. While they all play up things for drama, you know that despite Kanan's aloofness and aversion to Mari, Lanzhu's disappointment towards the idol club and going solo, or Chisato's doubts about joining the group will be solved by the fact they all are depicted in the openings and endings singing and dancing with all other members.
  • Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club gets specially hit with this, as it assumes that the viewer is familiar with the game it adapts. As a result, Rina's face is shown since the moment she appears, rather than keep it hidden like in the game until the player reaches a certain Bond Story with her. Likewise, Setsuna's whereabouts as the secret identity of student council president Nana Nakagawa is also revealed in both the opening and second episode. This also serves a bit of Recursive Adaptation, as future story and event updates for the game have also more deliberately shown Rina's face even if the player hasn't deepen their bond with her.
• The plot of Canaan was written under the assumption that the viewer has played or at least has basic info about 428: Shibuya Scramble, the Visual Novel it's a Spin-Off from, so it freely reveals plot points like: Big Bad Alphard having masqueraded as Canaan for a good part of the game, the real Canaan saving Maria's life, the UA virus...
• In Inazuma Eleven Go: Chrono Stone, Tenma is reminiscing with Fei and Aki about past adventures that he and other characters have gone, including ones that Endou went on in the original series. When they talk about the events surrounding Aliea Academy's invasion of Japan, Tenma drops a line that spoils that season's major plot twist:
  Tenma: But Aliea Academy...were human!
• Air: Misuzu's death is very poorly guarded in commercials, probably because word of mouth spread for it specifically because it was sad.
• Tokyo Ghoul: Kaneki's transformation from a Cute Bookworm into a white-haired Anti-Hero. In fact, this version is the more iconic of his looks even though the change doesn't occur until the midway point of the series (or the final episode of the first season of the anime).
  • Likewise, there's that, at the end of the original series, Kaneki is defeated by Arima and ends up becoming Haise Sasaki, a Ghoul Investigator haunted by a past he can't remember. Describing the sequel without bringing this up is more than a little impossible.
• The opening sequence of Sands of Destruction shows a brief clip of Awakened Kyrie, though it's very short and if you haven't played the game, you may mistake it for sunset lighting just making his hair look red. Since The Anime of the Game was actually created to promote the game, the game itself makes no attempt to hide the fact that Kyrie is the Destruct and in fact begins its plot with this; the manga also presumes familiarity with the plot and doesn't make such a big deal of hiding it. Morte's precise reason for wanting to end the world isn't explored until fairly late in the anime (though there is some Foreshadowing), but the back of the DVD case spells it out quite plainly. Surprisingly, this isn't spoiled by the game or manga, as they're Alternate Continuities and so her reasons are different.
• The cover for Kill la Kill's 4th English-language home video set shows the identity of the purple Scissor Blade's owner—Ryuko spends the first half of the series trying to figure out who this swordfighter could be and incorrectly assumes it's Satsuki.
• At the end of the first episode of the anime for Seraph of the End, Yuichiro is the sole survivor of the Hyakuya orphans' attempt to escape from the vampires. A promotional image before the first episode even came out depicted Mikaela, one of Yuichiro's comrades from the orphanage, as a vampire and fighting against Yuichiro.
• The cover art for From the New World reveals several deaths, but it's subtle. Only Saki and Satoru are looking in the same direction (towards the viewer) on volume 1 and volume 2. They survive; everyone else—Maria, Mamoru, Shun, Squealer, and Kiroumaru—dies.
• Attack on Titan:
  • The back of the published manga can cause this in two different ways since it features the top 10 of the of the 104th trainee corps. If you've read the first volume or seen enough episodes, you can figure this out easily, and the fact that they're in order from 1-10 going left to right helps. On the back of volume two, Eren, the fifth from the left, is transparent, which one would assume is to show that he was killed in book 1; but if you look at the later books, he goes back to being solid white, which means that he gets better in book 2. Any time someone's killed or turns out to be a traitor, they disappear entirely
  • This happens again with the cover of Volume 14, which prominently shows that Erwin has lost his right arm.
• Sunday Without God has two: first, Ai's last name is Astin, prominently displayed on character bios, even on the official site. So, how that is that a spoiler? Hampnie Hambart's real name is Kizuna Astin, revealing that he really is her long-lost father. Second, the fact that Alice appears on the covers of the later novels spoils that he doesn't die at the end of the Class 3-4 arc.
• This teaser trailer for the movie PriPara The Movie: Everyone's Desire! Let's Go PriParis spoils Falulu's death from season 1.
  • Like the Haru No Carnival example above, the Everyone, Gather! Prism Tours movie spoiled the endings of every season of PriPara's predecessor.
• Accel World promotional materials showing Taku and his Duel Avatar, Cyan Pile, as an ally of the protagonists, spoils not one but two plot twists. The first is that Taku, not Chiyu, is controlling Cyan Pile, and thus is the antagonist of the first arc. The second is that Haru/Silver Crow didn't finish off Cyan Pile at the end of their duel, allowing him to do a Heel–Face Turn and join the heroes.
• The anime version of BanG Dream! focuses on the origins of Poppin' Party as a band. BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!, which was released in the middle of the anime's original airing and distinctively puts the girls as one year older than in the anime, however, spoils a number of things. The band still has all its members and is still performing successfully, Saaya and Tae have clearly decided to join Poppin' Party after all, and the SPACE live house no longer exists and the main live house Poppin' Party now uses is one called CiRCLE. The first two can at least be interpreted by other franchise material and a bit of common sense, however, the fact that SPACE is seemingly closing is supposed to be the big dilemma of the anime series's first season.
• Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School does this on two fronts: the solicits for Side: Despair mention one of the major twists of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, while its first episode assumes you watched Chisa die in the first episode ofSide: Future.
• Yuri!!! on Ice is now just as well known for being a Queer Romance between the two leads, Yuri and Victor, as it is for its realistic portrayal of figure skating, but that was a shock for people watching it week-to-week. Sometimes it leads to people who watched it later underestimating how revolutionary it was when it came out, to show two men kiss (even if the kiss was obscured by Victor's arm) and then get engaged.
• Natsume being Nate and Katie's daughter is foreshadowed early in Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside - The Return of the Oni King but not revealed until the credits. It's no longer a spoiler by the Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside series.
• Sword Art Online: Promotional material for the Alicization arc spoils that Alice, who's introduced as Kirito and Eugeo's Childhood Friend from the Underworld, eventually becomes an Integrity Knight by showing an adult Alice with her Osmanthus blade and Integrity Knight armor.
• My Hero Academia: At the start of the Paranormal Liberation War arc, there is an earth-shattering revelation regarding Aizawa and Present Mic's high school friend, Shirakumo. However, this comes across as a Remember the New Guy? if the reader isn't keeping up with the prequel Spin-Off, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, which has an entire arc focused on Aizawa and his relationship with Shirakumo, revealing who he is and what happened to him in high school; the manga proper only hints at Shirakumo's existence and he's never referrred to by his name up until the revelation.
• In Arachnid, Yoriko Tajima is a bully-turned-friend who is also an ageless Shadow Dictator who got Japan nuked on purpose. Her identity comes up not only in the spinoff Caterpillar at a point it was a prequel, but also in the next-to-last page of Choubu no Shinobi, a Sengoku era spinoff, for no good reason! And then there's Himenospia, which may seem unrelated but follows the plot beats of Arachnid so closely that Yoriko's character and backstory are split between the heroine, the Big Bad and, yes, the bully-turned-friend.
  • The volume 11 cover for Arachnid shows Sasori with her mechanical stinger tail drawn out. The volume 12 cover alludes to Ai Kuramoto being the real Army Ant Queen instead of her decoy Sara.
  • At the end of Caterpillar, Imomushi had missed out on the Arachnid Hunt so she is informed about what happened and the "Rape Zombie Apocalypse" that followed.
  • Blattodea is a sequel to Arachnid from the point of view of a new heroine, Chiyuri. The first few chapters expect the reader to already know enough to not bother with recapitulating things with much context.
  • Arachnid and Caterpillar were finally officially translated to English in 2022 at the same time, but the latter got translated much faster and yes, it did get to the spoiler-heavy chapter before the Arachnid translation even got halfway done.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016) doesn't bother hiding Midna's true identity or appearance at all, nor Ganondorf's role as Zant's patron. Instead, it builds up to the Hero's Shade's true identity as the late Hero of Time.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War doesn't pull its punches when it comes to spoilers from previous arcs that trying to follow along with the plot of the anime is just going to be confusing without prior knowledge from at least seven prior games before this original anime adaptation. The fact that the cast casually mention these events don't help whatsoever. Some examples include the steam tank incident in Liberl, Crossbell being occupied by Erebonia, and Erebonia's national hero being North Ambria's biggest threat who, thanks to the Perspective Flip, is playing his role as the Hero Antagonist from North Ambria's perspective. In fact, the cast of the anime head to Erebonia to investigate said national hero and find any intel about him and his Super Robot.

---