Characters.Dark Angel: Part of the X5s' genetic engineering is enhanced intelligence and memory, allowing them to pick up skills quickly. As seen in "The Berrisford Agenda", Alec learned to play the piano at concert level after starting the day before.
ScreenRantPitchMeetings.Tropes A To L: This trope is lampshaded in the pitch meeting for 'SHAZAM!', when Billy's foster siblings learning how to use their powers during the climax, despite just having received them, is described as "super easy, barely an inconvenience." By comparison, Billy spent most of the movie learning how to master his powers. In the Ahsoka pitch meeting, Sabine almost flawlessly uses the Force in the climax, despite having struggled with it for the entire series.
Series.Atlantis: Jason at Le Parkour, but not at swordfighting. This leads to the logical conclusion.
Characters.Arthur Younger Children: For a four-year-old, she seems to have a remarkable natural talent for several things, usually ones that Arthur failed at.In "Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest", she comes up with a jingle for the titular contest before Arthur does. She also proves to be a skilled enough sculptor to create a replica of Rodin's The Thinker out of snow. In both "I'd Rather Read It Myself" and "D.W. Tale Spins", she is shown to be excellent at coming up with her own stories on the spot. In "Cast Away", she manages to catch several fish by using the unconventional but surprisingly effective method of playing a song from Mary Moo Cow on her tape recorder to attract them. Averted when it comes to ice skating. In "D.W. on Ice", she claims to be a natural at it, but her staking lesson for James has her fall over several times while James hardly falls at all.
Recap.Charmed S 2 E 3 The Painted World: Phoebe's spell allows her to memorise a Jeet Kune Do manual and become a high-level black-belt instantly. It's downplayed as Phoebe had been established as studying martial arts back in the first season which explains why she was able to use her new-found knowledge.
Anime.Healer Girl: Despite getting started later than Hibiki and Reimi, Kana is very skilled. Having the ability to change the images during her singing, a very rare ability.
Characters.Gamaran Shura: He only took him a chapter (about a handful of minutes, more or less) to learn how to use the exotic urumi Shiva and use it in combat with deadly expertise.
Series.Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: In contrast to some previous series, the trope is averted with the Shinkengers, having been trained all their lives to fight Gedoushu.In Act 36, Genta treats Kotoha's uncharacteristic request for curry rice as a challenge to be accepted - and does it so well that he gains a thriving new clientele.
Characters.Tortall Universe: He becomes accustomed to his changed body very quickly, something that Rikash thought would take a few days, and is able to leverage a brief head start to dodge the other Stormwing while on his first, clumsy flight. Ozorne is also able to stretch a Stormwing's limited magic to its absolute maximum, becoming more effective as a mage than ones who've had centuries to practice. This might be using the knowledge of magical principles that he picked up in university. Numair thinks he's just brute-forced it.
Fanfic.A Hollow In Equestria: Heavily subverted when it comes to Twilight learning an advanced lightning spell. Ulquiorra explains how her attempts to properly control it involve continual study and effort to the point of exhaustion, with Spike sometimes having to carry her home while she's unconscious.
Characters.Frankenstein: The creature is a blank slate... essentially a newborn but with motor skills. He learns to speak and read French fluently in less than a year of watching a family teach a foreigner. After just a few months he's already good enough to read Paradise Lost!
DitzyGenius.Video Games: In Final Fantasy XIV, the Warrior of Light is The Ace and an Instant Expert at nearly every craft they put their mind to, be it battling Physical Gods or becoming an artisan. But several of their dialogue options and journal entries make them come across as a Cloudcuckoolander. For instance, when looking for an object at the bottom of an ice-cold, murky pond, they can offer to try and drink the pond dry to get to the thing they're looking for. They can also be a Supreme Chef but completely fail to register that the "squishy" spices they just retrieved from a shipwreck are rancid and moldy.
VideoGame.Jigsaw: You learn to play the mandoline by doing it a couple of times, which takes minutes of game-time.
Recap.Star Trek Voyager S 3 E 9 Warlord: Tieran almost immediately begins using Kes's Psychic Powers with amazing proficiency, even though his description of them as "unique" implies that he has never possessed a host body with such powers before. Once he is gone from her mind, Kes cannot use her powers the way Tieran did.
Characters.La Magnifique Grande Scene: Ema's real talent, which is perfectly supported by her Photographic Memory. She can perform complex variations not just with one look, but just by hearing the instructions, forming a whole dance routine in seconds. It's noted this is also her downfall, since everything comes so easy to her on the surface she wasted years not bothering to train the details, costing her an appearance in the YAGP finals. This also applies to her language skills. She goes to class on-and-off, yet her English is already better than Shouko (her classmate in English school), enough to fluently converse with Miriam. Note even Sakura, who practically grows up alongside the latter, can't speak English to that extent.
Literature.Flashman: Cunning Linguist: One of Flashy's genuine talents is his ability to easily learn languages; to such an extent that he's practically an Instant Expert when it comes to this. (Though this characterization was most likely for practical reasons: Flashy being able to converse on a native speaker level with every single person he encounters was more or less a requirement for the kind of stories Fraser wanted to tell.)
AbortedArc.Live Action TV: Jonas Quinn did get a proper send-off and turned up in a later episode, but it had been hinted, especially in "Prophecy", that his brain was special in some potentially plot-important way, and it was never revealed what this was or what it had to do with anything. His brain was special because he could memorize all Jackson's notes in between seasons. It wasn't explained why it was special, but as for how it was special, his super-learning made him a good Suspiciously Similar Substitute. His planet gets a guest appearance on SGU, he doesn't. Blink and you'll miss it — his planet is mentioned as one of those which fell to the Ori in season 9 or 10. Season 2 of Stargate Universe even has his planet as the focus of an episode (it's one of the only planets that can safely dial Destiny), but Jonas is again absent.
Characters.Doctor Who River Song: Her TARDIS piloting is justified, since the TARDIS herself teaches her via telepathy, and is her second mom. Seeing as the TARDIS is unused to time progressing linearly and was fully aware of who River was all along, she probably started training her in utero.
Recap.Family Guy S 13 E 1 The Simpsons Guy: When Lisa lends Meg her saxophone to find out what she can be good at, Meg immediately begins to play blues on it expertly. Lisa, being the jealous person she is, takes the saxophone back. By the end of the episode, Lisa gives away her saxophone to Meg so she can play it and shine. Unfortunately, Peter throws it in a garbage can.
Literature.Rainbows End: Technology — called Just In Time Training (JITT) — exists to allow this, but its side-effects are so severe that it's completely banned outside the intelligence community.
Pantheon.School Activities: Rainbow Dash: The Leader in Sunset's Absence, Girliness Upgrade, Tends to Snooze in Class, Character Exaggeration of Her Pony Counterpart, Hates Being Alone, Super-Speed and Some Invulnerability Only While Speeding, Adapting to Her Powers Quickly, Skirt Over Modesty Shorts
Characters.Knights Of The Old Republic II The Sith Lords The Party: Always Someone Better: Kreia openly expresses the Exile to be this towards herself. Where Kreia is dependent on the Force, is not good working with other people in even terms, and comes from a long struggle to acquire the knowledge that she carries, the Exile is a natural leader and team player, an Instant Expert in all the Jedi fields, and achieved the feat of living without the Force.
VideoGame.Atlantis The Lost Tales: In the first game, Seth acquires the power to command the crystals that power a lot of Atlantean machines. He immediately learns how to fly a flyer.
Characters.Keijo: She can figure out her opposite's moves and think of ways to counter it immediately the longer she's in a match. She also figures out Aoba's ability to predict shifts in the wind just by watching her move.
Characters.Terrafor Mars: Telescoping Staff: Marco lends his Arachne staff to Akari so he can fight the Mole Cricket Terraformar. Akari proves to be an Instant Expert with it, using the staff's thread and the attached heavy baseballs to beat up the cricket until it tries to flee.
Characters.Jujutsu Kaisen Ryomen Sukuna: In the extremely rare event that he sees a jujutsu technique he's not familiar with, he's capable of using and adapting to it immediately.
Recap.X Men S 1 E 3 Enter Magneto: Storm learns the weak points of the nuclear missiles through Xavier's telepathy linking her mind to Cerebro's databanks.
Characters.Tsukipro: Bookworm: Back when they started, he mentioned that he read all the books that Shu recommended to the twins. On top of that, he's able to memorize things taught to him almost instantly. In other universes, like Taikyoku Denki, he bought a book with his first allowance, showing that this trait of his is kept consistent.
VideoGame.Assassins Creed II: The purpose of letting Desmond relive Ezio's life is to gain the latter's skills. Ezio himself takes to the Hidden Blade very quickly, though he could possibly have had weapons training in the past for the other weapon types and the training with Paola and Mario has a montage flavor to it that Renaissance confirms.
Characters.Fire Emblem Three Houses Black Eagles: Stock Shōnen Hero: Despite not being one of the protagonists, Caspar takes clear influence from this archetype. He's a Hot-Blooded, somewhat naïve and Book Dumb pure young man with a big appetite, a strong sense of justice and a strong desire to get stronger. The overlap between that trope's key elements and Caspar's is almost perfect, except that he doesn't have Instant Expert potential. His Three Hopes support with Ferdinand suggests he does have The Gift for combat, however.
Characters.Campfire Cooking In Another World With My Absurd Skill: Sui is most definitely this. So far, it's been able to produce remarkable results with all of its skills even on the first try, but it does struggle to describe the process for understanding how to use those skills to others.
Manga.Dagashi Kashi: The Endo twins seem to have a knack for this.Saya manages to become an instant expert at pretty much anything she picks up for the first time, without even knowing what it is just moments prior. Tou became an expert monjayaki cook on the spot despite having never having had any training and only offered to take up Kokonotsu's post on a whim.
Characters.Green Lantern 1941: Had the ability to instantly master any sport or sport-related talent like a world-record champion, no matter how obscure.
Characters.Earth Twenty Seven The Justice League: Adam learns exceptionally well and can pick up new skills remarkably quick. In fact, if he isn't learning something constantly, he feels unchallenged and depressed. Among the many skills Adam has mastered in his idle time include chess, Bonsai tree cultivation, Canadian and American history, Ancient Greek philosophy, Roman military campaigns, multiple card-based games of chance, the heraldry of feudal Europe, molecular gastronomy, and Rannian literature.
VideoGame.Battlestar Galactica Online: Both played straight and averted. On the one hand, once you pass a certain level you can immediately upgrade to a new starship type without having to go for special training. You also don't need special training to switch between ship models. On the other, the skills that you can train ingame to improve your performance take a clear amount of time to complete, which gets increasingly long as you go up.
Characters.Inazuma Eleven Go: Even though he had started playing soccer relatively recently when he joins the team, he learns quickly, even with a little struggle.
DarthWiki.Yukari Is Free: How can these people be so good at piloting advanced combat mechs with absolutely zero training, anyway?
Characters.Sword Art Online Abridged Asuna: Badass Normal: It's implied that her innate sword skills in Episode 2 are completely her doing and not the game's mechanics, as she's shown to have no idea of how to actually play the game. Either that or she's just an Instant Expert. In Season 2, her proficiency in unarmed combat (enough to best some of Sugou's trained guards) is also implied to be a case of this as well, as she's not shown to have reclaimed her SAO stats like Kirito did.
VideoGame.Dark Souls III: Your character can use any weapon and even adopt the martial arts that goes with it, meaning your Western hack and slash knight can grab a katana and become an Iaijutsu Practitioner without much transition.
Characters.Jujutsu Kaisen Yuji Itadori: It's pointed out several times that Yuji is an extremely fast learner, getting a basic grasp of his ability to control Curse Energy within days of being given an exercise by Gojo. His brawling skills grow by leaps and bounds after Todo starts giving him advice, and he performs the highly advanced Black Flash just minutes after being given a basic explanation, and matching the record for most Black Flashes in a row in the ensuing fight.
Wrestling.Gene Le Bell: He shocked the Machado brothers with his positional and submission knowledge the first time he rolled with them, which he explained with the obvious relation between his judo and their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. At the end, it was him the one who taught them, especially about leglocks and neck cranks, which he knew from catch wrestling.
Podcast.Tales Of The Extraordinary: Randolph Moon can quickly learn a skill by watching someone perform it, and then perform it competently.
Characters.Death Battle Season Seven Part 1: The transformation into a Power Ranger automatically grants him extensive mastery of a wide variety of martial arts. While Leo has more actual martial arts training, the amount of skill granted by the Power Ranger transformation allows Jason to match him.
Literature.Inheritance Cycle: Eragon learns magic faster than any of the other characters, despite him being Just a Kid. He also learns to read in a week, and never has literacy problems after that, in either his own or the Ancient Language. It probably helped that his own mind was supplemented by Saphira's, who as a very young dragon was still very receptive to new knowledge and information.
Recap.What If S 2 E 6 What If Kahhori Reshaped The World: Within a day or two of Kahhori's arrival on Sky World, she has mastered her powers to a greater extent than those who have been there for years. It's implied that her strong motivation and determination are what grant her such extraordinary power.
Film.Everything Everywhere All At Once: Evelyn barely needs any training to become an expert jumper, able to find the skills and actions she needs even without the Alphaverse computers telling what random action to take.
Literature.Imaro: The Ace: Imaro. While he's never an Instant Expert, once he gets a chance to practice at anything, he invariably becomes the best at it.
Roleplay.Conquest Quest: As an Exalted, she can become an expert at many skills nigh-instantly, and learn anything else at a vastly accelerated rate.
Recap.I Zombie S 3 E 9 Twenty Sided Die: Liv once again shows that eating someone's brain imparts some skills, including knowledge of D&D and the ability to read Russian.
VideoGame.Omensight: Once the Harbinger sees someone unlock a seal, she's able to use them all over the game world not just for plot, but also exploration.
Fanfic.The Steep Path Ahead: Familiar: Saito is this for Louise. And later Tiffania. While she's initially upset since once you summon a familiar, you can't replace them until the current one dies, his familiar powers makes him worthwhile.Julio is this for the Pope. As well as for Charlotte through a contract spell. There are also wild familiars, released from service after their masters are killed and now free. They often have heightened intelligence.
Recap.The Simpsons S 18 E 2 Jazzy And The Pussycats: Bart shows off the genes he got from Homer by learning to play the drum masterfully in no time flat. He is even capable of playing the drums while actually sleeping with his eyes shut. Subverted when Lisa assumes that, since Bart is instantly able to become a master drummer, she should be able to instantly become a pro skateboarder. She steps on Bart's skateboard, is unable to control it, and crashes into a hot sauce display.
Manga.Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru: Downplayed with Minoru and Ibuki's older brother. They're both very talented fighters who are capable of taking on and even winning against karatekas with years of experience despite having only practiced for a few months themselves.
Characters.Sweet Valley High: Nora is able to do a perfect imitation of Elizabeth pretty much instantly, whereas Margo took months to be able to imitate her, and usually got mistaken for Jessica.
Recap.I Zombie S 1 E 3 The Exterminator: After eating the hitman's brain, Liv suddenly becomes an expert on a number of subjects: She knows what the term "sociopath" means and when it was coined, and she knows a lot of random facts about lakes. Later on, she cleans up in a trivia contest.
VideoGame.Persona 5 Dancing In Starlight: Most of the Phantom Thieves have never danced before, but are able to perform professionally for the twins. Justified by exploiting the cognitive nature of the Velvet Room - by simply visualizing the dancing in their mind, their bodies will automatically follow the steps without error.
Characters.Artemis Academy And Apollo Academy: She already knew she was getting physically stronger thanks to her training with Tiffany, but much to her own surprise, she has also somehow become a Kung-Fu Wizard.
Fanfic.The Measure Of A Titan: David averts this, as it takes months of practice for him to even survive a battlefield.
RenamedTropes.Q To Z: Suddenly Always Knew That: Suddenly Always Knew That used to be "I Know Kung-Fu". It was mistaken for the trope I Know Karate, which is about people revealing that they know a martial art; this one's actually about people revealing that they know something (not necessarily a martial art) that they never previously showed because You Didn't Ask. The trope name came from The Matrix, which wasn't an example to begin with; the protagonist learns kung-fu through an Upgrade Artifact, which is more Instant Expert than anything else. "I Know Kung-Fu" now redirects to I Know Karate.
Characters.Vampire The Requiem: The Akhud's primary unique discipline Praestantia instantly gives them skills in a number of areas, all of them violence related. It also allows them to cancel actions that would fail and improves their defence a bit.
Characters.RWBY Ozpin And Oscar: Discussed in-universe. While Ozpin's own training helps Oscar develop at an accelerated rate, he still has to train his own body and Aura to handle his inheritance and unlock his own Semblance. While Jaune is incredulous at the speed of Oscar's progress, it takes a near-death experience at the end of Volume 7 for him to finally unlock Ozpin's power, but he gains control over it very quickly once he does.
VideoGame.Persona 4 Dancing All Night: Nanako delights the Dance Instructor after she manages to utterly dominate a complex dance routine that not even Kanami got right for two weeks and a half.
Headscratchers.Resident Evil: Also, how would he immediately know how to use all of these things? The giant tentacles, and three part jaw, the feelers... Do Las Plagas give you Instant Expert juice?
Characters.Wish Dragon: Din accidentally wishes to be able to fight, and Long makes him a kung fu master. He is very confused by his new reflexes.
Recap.Tales From The Crypt S 4 E 12 Strung Along: Downplayed, but Rick/David picks up string puppetry pretty quickly, Joseph telling Ellen that he learned in two weeks what he did in two years.
WebVideo.Mario Warfare: Mario and Luigi couldn't have had more than a week of training before Bowser's invasion, yet they're complete masters of martial arts and firearms.
Characters.Shadow And Bone: Subverted. Despite being The Chosen One, she initially cannot control her powers. Her first public demonstration at the royal court required the general’s amplifier abilities, and she had to spend time training before she could demonstrate her powers again in a second public appearance.
Characters.Borne Of Caution: When Lee uses the Psychic TM on Octillery, he only needs 20 minutes to harness the power and form it into a cushion beneath him to neutralize friction for easier movement. Not quite levitation, but one step away from it.
Awesome.Fairy May Cry Original: The rest of the group joins in and hold their own quite well, despite lacking any magic. Special mention to Lisanna, who displays impressive proficiency with Cerberus despite minimal experience, and keeps pace with Natsu's performance.
Recap.Ben 10 S 2 E 4 Gwen 10: When Gwen gets the Omnitrix, she is even better than Ben. For example, she automatically learns how to shoot projectiles as Diamondhead.
Literature.Love And Freindship: According to the the narrator, she herself picked up accomplishments quickly in the convent. Of every accomplishment accustomary to my sex, I was Mistress. When in the Convent, my progress had always exceeded my instructions, my Acquirements had been wonderfull for my age, and I had shortly surpassed my Masters.
Literature.World Break Aria Of Curse For A Holy Swordsman: Moroha learns how to use Isurugi's speed attack almost instantly after just watching him a few times. By contrast, the latter mentions that it took him two years to master it.
Characters.Negima Cosmo Entelecheia: Fate can 'install' new abilities, allowing him to learn a wide variety of skills instantly. Presumably it is also how he learned to fight. Kotaru lampshaded this when Fate demonstrated excellent singing (as in scoring 100% at the karaoke bar on the first try!).
Characters.Kagurabachi: Defied. The climatic fight against Sojo has him reaching a new level of understanding and control with Cloud Gouger through his fighting with Chihiro, whilst Char finally manages to unlock her Healing Hands ability to restore Chihiro's battered body enough for a final fight with Sojo. When Chihiro manages to prevail against Sojo's new technique at the cost of his right arm, Char tries to use her power to restore it, but fails. Chihiro nonetheless comforts her for her aid, and Shiba affirms that she can't expect to completely master a new technique she's only just used. This is contrasted against the mortally-injured Sojo, who believes his new understanding of the Scared Blades will give him the insight to control the Datenseki they were forged from in his last moments, only to undergo a Phlebotinum Overload instead, adding insult to injury in his Karmic Death.
Characters.Dark Forces Saga: Can deflect blaster bolts with a lightsaber as soon as he gets his hands on it, and masters the Force over a short enough period of time that he can defeat a gauntlet of Dark Jedi over an incredibly short span of time. He goes through this again in Outcast, though that part is justified in that he'd already used the Force extensively before cutting himself off from it, and he reestablishes that connection by using the power of the Valley of the Jedi. Deconstructed in that he can (depending on the player) potentially fall to the Dark Side in Jedi Knight, actually does so during Mysteries Of The Sith, and only takes up his lightsaber and Force powers in Jedi Outcast out of vengeance.
Characters.My Hero Academia All Might: He instantly got the hang of using One For All at maximum power when he obtained it, which contributes to his inability to teach Midoriya how to use it. This bites everyone in the ass later. Since All Might never struggled with the Quirk, he was incapable of having visions like the other wielders. This makes him have no real knowledge about the truth of One For All and All For One. As one fan described it, "He skipped to level 100 without watching the cutscenes and beat the final boss using a limited moveset."
Characters.Garo: He masters Soul Metal in a matter of seconds, while this takes years to master for a regular Makai Knight.
Series.Vikings: Happens with regards to languages. At various times Ragnar, Lagertha, and Rollo ask to be taught foreign languages. All of them are fluent by the next episode.
Webcomic.The Descended: Averted with regards to Skill Point Reset—the person has to learn how to use their new abilities.
Fanfic.Hikari: Subverted for pretty much everyone. The closest to this would be Binah.
Deconstruction.Diamond In The Rough Touhou: In most Gappy fics, Reimu ends up training the Stu and they become automatically good at danmaku. Here, Brolli, who already has overpowered beasts, still wants to train with Reimu, and he gets his butt kicked. After training is over, Reimu voices how much she hates training and gets all of her experience just hunting youkai.
Fanfic.Alone Together: Averted. At first, the mathematics in Drakken's notes looks like gibberish to Kim — it takes months before she understands any of it, and years before she begins making any real progress toward getting back home.When Kim gets appendicitis, Shego manages to quickly teach herself enough to successfully operate, but not with the painless ease typical of this trope. Afterwards, she starts seriously studying medicine in order to be better prepared next time.
WesternAnimation.Wish Dragon: Din accidentally wishes to be able to fight, and Long makes him a kung fu master. He is very confused by his new reflexes.
Manga.Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Innocent: Nanoha learns pretty quick how to play the game if someone explain her new features she doesn't know. Or she just copies other people, which would be like copying the moves in a fighting game, without seeing the input commands.
Characters.Midnighters: Subverted. It seems like Melissa immediately fixes all of her problems with mindcasting when Madeleine shares her memories at the end of Touching Darkness, but she actually just gets the tools to be functional and continues to develop her powers over the course of the last book.
