Secret Tests of Character in anime and manga.
- After God: Tokinaga tells Waka that the government has locked her underground, and he's going to experiment on her. Her being offended instead of using her powers on him was sufficient proof she's still human.
- AKB0048: Episode 3 is a Mood Whiplash; teenage girls aspiring to become free-speech singers (in a Crapsack World where corrupt militia shoot down concert singers and their fans). Up until then though, the girls didn't see any serious combat. It goes full Puella Madoka when they're dressed in combat fatigues and forced to fight giant mecha in a warzone, complete with explosions and crying trauma! Then it's revealed to be the bar exam: the mechs were designed to terrorize without killing, and whoever didn't run away screaming gets in the academy.
- Attack on Titan:
- Marlow gets put through one to see if he was trustworthy enough to join Levi's squad and help rescue Eren and Historia. He and his fellow teammate are made to believe that they will be killed. Marlow chooses to not fight, instead trying to let his teammate escape unharmed and intentionally drops his weapon to show his willingness to trust Jean Kirchstein.
- The nobility that controls the government gets put through one when they receive a false report stating that Wall Rose has fallen. They fail miserably when they insist on sealing off Wall Sina and letting the refugees of Wall Rose, over half of humanity, die. As a result, they are ousted from power and Historia Reiss is installed as Queen. Pixis even states that had they reacted differently, he would have been content to let Erwin (And maybe even himself) be executed. But because they were willing to sacrifice half of humanity to protect themselves, Pixis sides with Erwin and has his soldiers take over the capital
- Zeke reveals that he put Eren through one. While they are in the Paths and Zeke remains chained to the ground because of the First King's vow of peace, he was actually testing to see if Eren really was on his side about using the Founding Titan and Royal Blood's power to sterilize all Eldians. When Eren makes it clear that he never intended to go along with that plan, Zeke breaks the chains symbolizing the vow and reveals that he had long overcome it, and that pretending he didn't was all a test.
- In the first Baccano! light novel, the Gandor brothers are introduced in a scene in which they force a man to play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded pistol. When the unfortunate individual panics and tries to use the gun to shoot oldest brother Keith, Luck informs him that the cartridges are empty and the whole thing was a test: they know he's been embezzling from them, and out of respect for the work he's done for them up to that point they decided to test him and see how he'd react. If he'd accepted his fate and pulled the trigger on himself, they'd simply have kicked him out of their family. If he'd confessed and begged for mercy, they'd have beat the stuffing out of him and kicked him out of the family. If he'd continued to play dumb, they'd have cut his tongue out but still let him leave with his life.Luck: Looks like... you chose the worst of the lot. This is truly regrettable.
- The "Evolution" arc of Bakugan has one for each of the protagonists (and Masquerade) to help overcome their glaring psychological weaknesses.
- In Black Cat, after Kyoko does her Heel–Face Turn, Sephiria offers her either death or a position among Chronos' Erasers. Kyoko refuses, and Sephiria reveals that it was all a test of her vow to train to never kill again.
- During the Neo-Nazi arc in Black Lagoon, it turns out the Lagoon Company's client hired them as a secret test of character for a group of Neo-Nazis. They failed.
- It was more a test of power than of character; the Nazi's sponsor (and Lagoon Company's employer) wasn't interested in supporting a group of wannabes who couldn't even beat a mere black man and half-Chinese woman. Not to mention the Jew also in the Black Lagoon company, though he's more of a Non Action Jew.
- Bleach: During their first meeting, Ukitake gives Ichigo just enough hints for him to work out that as a Substitute Shinigami, Soul Society will keep an eye on him and execute him if they determine that he is more of a threat than an asset. Seventeen months after Aizen's defeat, Ginjo explicitly spells it out to Ichigo, who responds that he kinda figured it out long ago and that he found it suspicious that Ukitake let him figure it out in the first place, when he could've easily kept Ichigo in the dark if he really wanted to. From this, Ichigo determines that Ukitake wanted him to learn the truth in order to see whether or not Ichigo would still choose to side with Soul Society in spite of it. Once he declares that he will, the rest of the Shinigami sent to restore his powers take their leave, satisfied that Ukitake and Rukia's faith in Ichigo has been proven to be well-founded.
- Horribly played with in a case of
Case Closed, where a rich man tries to test his two daughters and potential heiresses' love for him by pretending to have a heart attack and seeing how they react, while also hiring Kogoro to keep an eye on them. His doctor, who also happens to be the son of his dead and ruined business partner, gets PISSED and kills the old man instead — he was able to withstand the crisis coming from his dad's ruin, but lost it when the person who ruined his family told him about his plans and decided to murder him for being a sonuvabitch who thought he could test people's love. It really didn't help that one of the daughters was planning to kill him already. - In The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Saul does this to Seigi a couple of times. Usually, the premise is asking him questions about gemstones or other knowledge and turns into Saul approving of his moral choices and giving him the information he needs to proceed.
- In Claymore, Galatea threatens to attack Jean and Clare in order to make sure they both know the prices of their actions. Once she is sure that they know it, she let them go and covers their escape.
- The Code: Emperor of Code:Breaker is fond of giving these to Ogami to ensure he is an acceptable host. For example, Ogami is presented the chance to give the Emperor a personality change. Naturally, he refuses, accepting the Emperor as his usual, difficult self.
- In Code Geass, a game of Chess between Schneizel and Lelouch (as Zero) ends when Schneizel deliberately moves his King into check, within range of Zero's King. Zero responds by moving his King, allowing one of his "lesser" pieces to attack instead. Schneizel says that in the same situation, the Emperor would have taken King with King, and Zero's action gives him a good measure of what kind of man he is.
- The issue with taking an illegal move is that Lelouch doesn't need to make a move — Schneizel just forfeited, and taking his king is an unnecessary formality. The test is whether or not Lelouch would accept his prize of one shiny new captured enemy Ace, despite not having actually achieved anything worthy of it — a test of Lelouch's pride. By framing it in the context of chess, and then getting it wrong, it loses a degree of impact.
- Death Note:
- L secretly tests Aizawa, to see if he'll go back to the police or not. Watari renders it useless, though, by inadvertently giving it away.
- Soichiro tests Light under L's direction to find out if Light was Kira. Light passes because he had removed his memories of being Kira.
- In Death Parade, beings called Arbiters judge the recently deceased by making them play a game chosen at random. Winning and losing does not matter, what does is the person's conduct; the Arbiters believe a person's true character is exposed in a truly stressful situation. Unfortunately, the Arbiters are so detached from humanity that they do not understand the full range of emotions and cannot tell if someone is lying. This means the tests are unreliable and leads to many errors in classification. After many screw-ups, they are given an assistant who can think like a human does to get them back on track.
- In Detective School Q, during entrance exams Dan Morihiko pretends to need rescue due to being trapped on a rock ledge and injured. Kyu finds out that he only pretends and ignores it, alas comes back later when emptying dam puts Dan in real danger (Kyu had deducted that Dan was crippled and unable to walk, having seen that his shoes were new despite his explorer gear and clothes), which causes him to come late for the last part of the exam. He still passes.
- Dragon Ball Super: The Tournament of Power turns out to be one of these for all of existence. Eight universes are pitted against each other in a battle royale tournament, with the losers being erased from existence and the last person standing on the winning team getting a wish from the Super Dragon Balls. In the end, Android 17 gets the wish and uses it to bring back the other seven universes...at which point the Grand Priest reveals that Zen-Oh fully expected this, believing that whomever won the tournament would be virtuous enough to make a selfless wish like that. If they'd made a selfish wish instead, he would have just erased all of existence on the spot.
- The infamous "Tokyo Tower Hell" admission test from Eyeshield 21 turns out to be this, because what matters is not to carry some ice packs to the top of Tokyo Tower but to get to the top even if the contents of the ice packs have melted. As a proof, Manabu Yukimitsu managed to pass it despite getting there as the sun is setting and after all the ice he was carrying has melted down.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Ed and Al's entire adventure ends up resulting in one of these. In order to defeat Father, Al sacrifices his soul to give Ed his arm back. After the battle is won, Ed immediately starts desperately thinking of a way to get Al back again. He's offered the use of a philosopher's stone, but he refuses. Ed and Al's father offers to trade his own life of Al's since he's going to die soon anyway, but Ed rejects that solution as well. What price could he possibly pay to even out the Equivalent Exchange, then? He gives up the ability to perform alchemy, which turns out to be the correct answer.
- The whole thing with summoning the Beast Gods in Fushigi Yuugi is this. The prospect Priestess gets three wishes, but there's a catch: she must be strong-willed and pure enough not to let the Beast God she summons consume her soul. Typically, this means using the wishes to help others, not for her own happiness (the exception, of course, being perhaps a wish to get home safely.) Oh, and then there's the whole Virgin Power thing in a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, where the priestess almost inevitably has feelings for at least one of the guys and, whether she's loved back or not, there's always drama (and others may be trying to either get her to lose her Virgin Power so they can achieve their own ends without her in the way, or manipulate her so she'll make her Wishes to their benefit.) This is seen pretty clearly in the evolution of Miaka Yuuki's would-be wishes: at the start of the series they're all selfish (and comically so!), then she switches to both self-serving and selfless possibilities (like using one to help the world of the book, another to restore her ruined friendship with fellow Priestess Yui, and another to bring her beloved Tamahome with her to the real world), and by the Grand Finale the wishes she actually makes are all for others (Reviving Yui who had been devoured by Seiryuu, giving Tamahome enough power to defeat Nakago, and restoring both the world of the book and Earth to what they were before they collided in the story and havoc was unleashed.) She survives and both she and Yui are sent back home safely, and some time later Tamahome is reincarnated as a human and returns to her.
- In Ginga Densetsu Weed, Gin performed one on Weed by pretending to try to kill Hougen. When Weed stops him, Gin reveals that it was a test and that Weed passed. This is clearer in the manga than it is in the anime.
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has one. In order to unlock the full power of the Heartcatch Mirage, the girls must undergo a Final Ordeal, which involves them fighting themselves... or rather, the negative aspects of themselves: Tsubomi's insecurities and leaning on others, Erika's hangups over her older sister, Itsuki's conflicts between wanting to be a girl and preparing to take over her grandfather's dojo and acting like a boy, and Yuri's insistence in doing things alone. Once the girls finally realize that and admit they can grow past it, they're asked one last question: "Do you need me anymore?" All four girls say "Yes."
- Narsus did one to Arslan in the 2015 anime/manga The Heroic Legend of Arslan when they first met. He told Arslan that if he were Kharlan trying to capture Arslan, he would set a village on fire and continue to kill innocent villagers to provoke Arslan out in the open. Arslan immediately said they had to stop Kharlan before that happened. Daryun later commented how if Arslan didn't respond as such, Narsus would see him as unfit as king and abandoned him.
- One of the first tests that the heroes in Hunter × Hunter are given deals with them choosing between two paths, one to their destination and the other to their deaths. Their answer to the question the elderly woman gives them will determine where they go. The question given to the heroes is whether they would save their son or daughter. One character complains at the unfairness of the question before another character quickly silences him. Once the time is up, the elderly lady promptly declares that their answer (which was silence) was correct. It would be impossible to choose between these two answers and it was an answer that shouldn't be taken lightly, unlike the contestant before them who casually gave his answer thinking it would please the elderly woman.
- The Hunter exam itself. While it takes a sharp mind and lots of different skills to earn your Hunter license, you will not be respected as a Hunter, or allowed serious jobs as one, until you unknowingly take the secret exam. Which is learning and mastering Nen (to a significant degree). That being said, the Hunter Association sends a mentor to each person who passes (or, in the case of Gon and Killua, who travel together, Wing comes by to teach them both), so most people who pass the Hunter Exam overall also pass this portion.
- A later Hunter Exam has a segment in which examinees are interviewed about the country of Kakin and how they might gain favor with them. What the examinees don't know is that the Hunter Association has Kurapika on board, who has a lie detector ability, and what they're really doing is identifying agents from Kakin trying to infiltrate the Hunter Exam and weeding as many of them out as they can.
- IDOL × IDOL STORY!: When Mimi Nagisa is tasked with ranking the sixteen idol candidates, it's obvious her new friend Koyuki should be dead-last. But, unsure whether the last place will be eliminated, Mimi waffles on ranking her fifteenth instead, even though Suzu turned in a marginally-better performance. The sponsor of the idol audition, Aria Otoboshi, watches the deliberations via camera and decides on a whim that if Mimi ranks Koyuki fifteenth, she's going to cut Suzu. But in the end Mimi chooses to be honest and rank Koyuki last, and so everybody passes.
- The entire subplot/main plot concerning Mikael from I'm Gonna Be an Angel! is based on this. Mikael, who believed that he was sent with a mission of making Noelle (and Silky) angels and to in the process become one himself, failed at it and none of them became an angel in the end. And that was in fact Heaven's desired outcome all along — because if Noelle, Silky and Mikael did become angels they would have to fuse into one angelic being; in other words, they would die as individuals. Mikael believed that he was testing Noelle when in fact Raphael (and Heaven) were testing him — and the entire point of this test was to make Silky and Mikael redeem and accept themselves for who they are, to bring their fallen halos back above their heads and to promote Mikael to a position of an angel teacher.
- Inuyasha:
- Inuyasha is trying to get a new ability for his sword from a demon in the underworld. His friends are in danger, and though the demon warns him that he'll never be able to get the upgrade if he turns away to help his friends, he does. If you've already read this far, you know what happened next.
- Sesshomaru's entire journey turns out to be a secret test of character beginning with his father arranging for Inuyasha to inherit Tessaiga and Sesshomaru to inherit Tenseiga, not only because Tessaiga is Inuyasha's Restraining Bolt, but also because Sesshomaru needs to learn a massive lesson about compassion. Tenseiga's secret weapon attack can only be unlocked when Sesshomaru's heart grieves for the death of someone he deeply cared about, which ultimately turns out to be Kagura. Tenseiga and its attack can only be strengthened through him learning to put the lives of others before his own personal ambitions Rin's second death is overturned when his mother is satisfied he's learned the lesson. Then he learns that he has been training the weapon attack to give it to Inuyasha all along, which is a test designed to put an end to his obsession with Tessaiga and accept Inuyasha for who and what he is. Lastly, in a battle where he ends up openly protecting everyone in both his group and Inuyasha's group, his true power finally manifests. Turns out the point of all these tests was that, when Sesshomaru finally discovered he was a One-Man Army with a Weapon of Mass Destruction, he'd have accepted the importance of Comes Great Responsibility.
- Kouga goes through a test of character that ensures he knows that he must use his great power only for the sake of his people. When he proves he's learned that lesson, he's given the Goraishi, an ancestral wolf tribe weapon.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency, Those Wacky Nazis capture a group of civilians and tell them that they have to choose one to die, while the rest will be released. The youngest among them volunteers, only to be told that only the courageous and fit are permitted to live. The order is then given to let him go and execute the rest.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
- Shirogane's father tests Kaguya's feelings for his son the first time they meet by pretending to be an outsider and insulting Shirogane to gauge her feelings for him. Given how his courtship with his own wife was very similar to the one that Kaguya and Shirogane have now (plus the fact that she abandoned him after Kaguya's family stole his company), it's understandable why he'd want to make sure Kaguya doesn't have sinister intentions for his son.
- Chapter 172 reveals that Kaguya used to test other girls like this: she would tell them a juicy secret, then later Hayasaka would talk to that girl's friends to see if she'd gossiped about it or not. If the girl had spilled the beans, it "proved" to Kaguya that she wasn't trustworthy and therefore didn't deserve to be her friend. The narration explicitly calls this a bad habit borne from the Shinomiya family's lack of trust in "outsiders", and suggests that if Kaguya could trust people without having to test them first, she might have had more friends than just Fujiwara. Of course, the obvious issue with this form of testing is that she was never able to gauge Hayasaka's trustworthiness.
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Kenichi finds himself in a situation where he can choose between Hayato's and Evil Mentor Ogata's mentorship. It's very tempting for Kenichi because previously Hayato seemingly abandoned him and Ogata seems like a very friendly person. The catch is that the Trickster Mentor Hayato himself put Kenichi in this situation to test his moral priorities.
- In Episode 2 of Macross Delta, the Walkure rig the ropeway car as an impromptu theater to play a simulation of a Var syndrome attack to test Freyja Wion's reaction. She starts singing even while cowering under the (simulated) attack, reaching out to her Var "infected" attacker, passing the test with flying colors which allows her to join the group.
- In Magic Knight Rayearth, every time the Power Trio met up with a Masshin, the girl who should interact with him is taken away to speak to the spirit of the Humongous Mecha directly. As this happens, the other girls are attacked and quickly subdued. The third one wants to help but the Masshin says she must stay with him and proceed with the awakening ritual even if the others die, or she will NOT succeed and the whole mission will crumble. Inevitably, the girl chooses her friends over the mecha... and not only he lets her go help them, but congratulates her because had she chosen to stay, she wouldn't be able to get the Masshin by sacrificing her companions, agreeing to be bound to her.
- It looks like this is the case in Maria†Holic: Mariya is willing to allow his twin sister Shizu to have the chairmanship of the Ame-no-Kisaki and Mori-no-Mihoshi schooles, since he entered the "competition" for it more out of love for their dead grandma than anything else... Bhe's not telling her because he wants her to get stronger by conquering her fear of boys, so she'll be properly ready for the position.
- Monster: Nina Fortner/Anna Liebert was supposed to forgive him.
- Muhyo and Roji has some for each of the titular characters. In Muhyo's case, he fights against the Hades Lord, but can't quite win. He refuses to give up and manages to convince Yoichi and Biko to do the same, impressing the Hades Lord, who allows him to make a contract with him in exchange for controlling his fear, noting that he had killed the others who had tried to summon him and fled. Roji gets one in the competition against Goryo and Ebisu, as Muhyo holds back, wanting to see what Roji can do in a situation like this- but Roji still hasn't gotten over his feelings of inadequacy compared to Muhyo, and is thus put on leave and sent to train at the Magical Law Society. At the end, Page offers him a position as assistant with the promise of helping him improve his skills, but Roji refuses, stating that he wishes to work with Muhyo, impressing Page with his "kind, unwavering heart."
- Mx0: When Taiga meets Rendou Niigaki for training to improve his skills with the M0 Plate, Rendou tells him to gather mushrooms from around the island for a potion. The truth is that he does not expect Taiga to find a single mushroom since they are out of season and is actually testing if Taiga has the commitment needed for the training.
- Played with in My First Girlfriend Is a Gal. Ranko tries to flirt with and have sex with Junichi at one point, just to see if he's willing to stray from his relationship with Yukana. Much to her surprise, Junichi refuses her advances. Rather than be satisfied with him being faithful, she screams at him, shouting that Yukana deserves better than him. Then she mounts on top of him with the intention of raping him so badly that he'd never want anything to do with women again. Her attempt is stopped by Yukana who overheard shouting, but Ranko has yet to fully accept their relationship.
- My Hero Academia has what seems to be a fairly straightforward entrance for UA Academy, with each prospective hero tasked with gathering points by defeating mock villains. Little do they know, another score is tallied in secret by a panel of judges: a "rescue score" measuring each entrant's willingness to save others in spite of the fact that there was no reward or glory in it. Izuku Midoriya's rescuing a fellow entrant from a mock villain that gave no points earned him a high enough score from rescue points that, even with no points from defeating other mock villains, allow him to pass the test.
- Naruto:
- There's one of these during the first part of the Chuunin exam. An extremely difficult written exam is given. Before the final and supposedly most difficult question is revealed, the contestants are given a chance to quit the exam. Anyone who gets it right passes by default. Get it wrong, and you fail and can never take the test again, effectively stonewalling your ninja career. If you quit, however, your whole squad fails (but may try the test again next year). Many forfeit and leave, but the protagonist stays even though he couldn't answer even one of the other questions. It turns out that not giving up (along with putting your team's interest before your own) is the Aesop, and everyone who didn't walk out passes. The aim of the exercise was to weed out those who would betray their teammates for their personal interests, or cave to pressure from their enemies. The rest of the test (in which you're disqualified if you get caught cheating too many times) was to see if the examinees were good enough at ninja skills to cheat and not get caught.
- In the Tea Country arc, we learn that Idate Morino (the brother of the proctor for the exam Naruto took) once took a different version: one where the team learned that right before the tenth question, the person on their team with the lowest grade would never be allowed to be a ninja again (and if anyone on your team quits at this point the whole team fails normally). In that case, everyone who stayed failed, because the inherent Aesop was to not sacrifice a teammate for personal gain. Unfortunately, this caused Idate to defect from the Hidden Leaf Village.
- The bell test given by Kakashi. Kakashi has two bells and claims that only those with a bell will pass the test (there are always three people attempting). This would naturally prompt people to attempt to grab the bells by themselves, allowing Kakashi to easily defeat them in a one-on-one fight. The actual test is to see who would propose to the others that they all work together to get the bells for the good of all. If they fail that test, he has another one in which he explains the purpose of the original test, then offers to give them a second chance, but leaves them with one teammate tied up and receiving no lunch and a warning to not feed him/her. If they are willing to put the welfare of their team ahead of their leader's rules (i.e., share their lunch with the tied-up teammate), they pass. (Kakashi states that as low as ninjas who do not follow the rules are, those who do not support their comrades are even lower.) It's worth noting that Kakashi is at that point notorious for rejecting every prospective team of Genin in the past. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are the only students who ever passed his test. In Boruto Episodes 36 and 37, Kakashi administers a variation of the bell test for Boruto's entire class, though this time, he's testing both their teamwork in the face of seemingly unfair rules and their resolve in dealing with impossible situations.
- When a team led by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju was pinned down by enemies, he determined the only way any of them would escape was if one member stayed behind to delay them. He asked his subordinates for a volunteer, with Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately stepping forward. Tobirama refused, having planned to sacrifice himself all along. The question was a final test to see which of his pupils would become Hokage after his death and Hiruzen passed. Danzo Shimura despised Hiruzen for this, both because it meant Hiruzen got to be Hokage instead and that his own quiet hesitation to be the one to offer his life showed his convictions weren't as strong as he thought them to be.
- The one planned by Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, for his youngest child Gaara failed miserably. Rasa wanted to test his 6-year-old son's ability to control the Tailed Beast inside him. How to go about it? Order the boy's uncle, his caretaker and only person in the world he really has, to assassinate him and tell him that his mother (who died giving birth to Gaara) never loved him. Presumably the idea was that if Gaara could keep control after all that then all was well. Instead it just drove Gaara over the edge, something he wouldn't recover from until after Rasa's death six years later.
- During the "Five Day Mark Curse" episode/chapter in Natsume's Book of Friends, Natsume was cursed by a vicious spirit that would eventually drain his life, though with the help of his spirit allies, he was able to break the curse. It turned out that one of his contracted spirit allies deliberately orchestrated the event to test if Natsume would abuse his power over having his name in the book. Natsume failed the test, though we're not told how he did, but the spirit was content to leave his name (hence his power) in Natsume's hands anyway because he found Natsume "interesting" enough to tag along with for now.
- Subverted in Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Evangeline decides that Setsuna has become "too soft", to prevent another failure in protecting her charge Konoka— she may not be able to Shoot the Dog if she needed to. So Eva tries to force Setsuna to choose between her "sword or ordinary happiness". Setsuna takes it a different way...Setsuna: "The choices you gave me — it wasn't that I needed strength to defeat you, but what I did need to break through was to truly realize the power of my own will! That was the answer, wasn't it?!"
Eva: (injured) "Nhn? Dunno... I s'ppose..." - In New Game!, when Nene applies for a position at Aoba's company, Umiko, the interviewer, has Nene's friend Aoba sit in on the interview. While Aoba doesn't know anything about programming, and can't ask Nene any meaningful questions, her presence does help test whether Nene can be professional while Aoba is around(e.g. calling her "Suzukaze-san" rather than "Aocchi"). Nene passes the test and is hired.
- One Piece:
- During the Arlong Arc, Zoro is captured by Arlong's crew and briefly interrogated, during which time, Nami reveals that she's with Arlong and was simply playing Luffy and the others for fools to steal from them and that she's a cold, heartless witch. Zoro (who is tied up at this time) throws himself backwards into the sea shortly after this reveal... and Nami dives in and pulls him out. He promptly points out "What kind of cold-blooded witch woman can't stand to see a man drown?", indicating Nami's not nearly so antagonistic towards them as she's trying to make herself out to be.
- In Amazon Lily arc, Luffy's gets angry when the Amazons that helped him were turned to stone by Boa Hancock. He proved to be a formidable opponent and defeated the champions of Amazon Lily, Hancock's younger sisters. At the conclusion of the battle, instead of going for victory, he helped protect their darkest secret from being accidentally revealed. After the fight, Hancock offers him a choice: he may either take a ship and leave the island to reunite with his crew or she will release the women who helped Luffy from her powers. She makes this offer anticipating he'll reveal his true nature by taking the ship, but Luffy immediately chooses the latter and bows in gratitude before Hancock. This convinces her to reveal her and her sisters' Dark and Troubled Past and the reason for their fake jerkass persona, earning her respect and love for Luffy and allowing him the use of a ship.
- Both the anime and manga versions of Ouran High School Host Club have an example featuring identical twins Hikaru and Kaoru. In middle school, whenever either one of them got a love letter from a classmate, the one it was intended for would meet with her, pretend to be the other twin (claiming she "put the letter in the wrong desk"), and say that his brother (the intended target) wasn't interested but he could go out with her instead. When the girl inevitably agreed to this, it proved she not only didn't know the twins well enough to see their individual personalities, but in fact saw them as completely interchangeable; and they both rejected her.
The manga expands a bit on this, making it clear that it wasn't just prospective dates: at that age passing the twins' tests enough to interact in any emotionally significant way was impossible. Because the twins weren't really sure they wanted to have any friends, and weren't sure what they wanted in a friend, they switched places, misintroduced themselves to new people, tried to copy each other's personalities, and lied about whether somebody had correctly identified them, all the while demanding that complete strangers know them as well as they knew each other. Tamaki's utter insistence that he was their friend regardless of how inadequate they evaluated him as, coupled with growing maturity, wore them down enough that when Haruhi came along with the actual ability to easily tell them apart they were able to accept it without trying to break her down. By the series' start the "guess who is who" routine had become a slightly mocking game with clients rather than a vicious rejection of the rest of the world. - Played with in Overlord (2012). Sebas Tien is the only person in Nazerick with a non-evil alignment, so when he effectively rescues a young human girl (which was well beyond the purview of his assignment), others start to question his priorities. To put an end to it, Ainz orders Sebas to kill Tuare, the girl in question. Considering his position, and the fact Tuare has already been through far worse than a quick death (she makes no attempt to defend herself, seeing her death as the price to pay for her savior not getting in trouble), Sebas goes through with it. Cocytus blocks his attack, saving Tuare, and confirms to Ainz that Sebas wasn't checking his swing. Satisfied with this show of loyalty, Ainz declares the matter closed and makes Tuare an apprentice maid in the dungeon, effectively Sebas's ward.
- In one story of Petshop Of Horrors, there was a man Roger running for president. Though charismatic, he was also arrogant and ungrateful, in contrast to his kind assistant Kelly who lacked Roger's charm. Kelly was in love with Roger's fiance Nancy but they couldn't be together. But then Roger received a Kirin, a powerful beast that could grant wishes. On the ride home, Kelly saw a bus full of children in danger and quickly stopped the bus from going over the cliff, but at the cost of his car going over. That was when the Kirin asked Kelly his wish. For a moment, Kelly thought of wealth, power and fame, but remembered Nancy and simply wanted to see her smile again. When he woke up, he was confused why Nancy was calling him Roger and telling him that Kelly was dead. Then he found out that he was in Roger's body. Because of his Heroic Sacrifice, he was guaranteed to become president and Nancy was technically now his fiance. The Kirin saw that he passed the test and granted him everything.
- In Planetes, the trope is subverted when Hachimaki is trying to get on the Von Braun's crew, and has to repair a simulated life support failure in a large tank of water as part of a test. Several other applicants are doing the test simultaneously, and Werner Locksmith, who is in charge of the Von Braun mission, lied to them that if a dangerous accident occurred, no divers would come in to save them. When one of them accidentally cuts her air tube and starts losing air and sinking, Locksmith doesn't send in the divers straight away, because he wants to see how Hachimaki would react. While the other applicants swam down to save her, Hachimaki simply continued with the test. He passes while the others all fail from running out of time, and Locksmith reveals that he is impressed by Hachimaki. The logic is that, while Hachi's behavior seems ruthless at first glance, if the event had occurred for real during the Von Braun mission, saving the ship, the mission, and everyone on board would have taken preference over saving one crewmate.
- A few of the Gym Leaders do this in Pokémon: The Series, which makes sense as their job is to test trainers in a multitude of ways.
- In Pokémon Adventures, Erika has Red catch an Eevee before accepting his Gym challenge. During the battle, Erika goes to let the Eevee out of its Poke Ball, noting that Eevee is too badly hurt to survive if she does, and if Red has Pika stop her he'll lose his opportunity to defeat her Vileplume. Of course, Red has Pika stop her anyway and earns the Rainbow Badge.
- In The Promised Neverland, Norman tells Ray that he's going to hide two ropes in different places, giving one location to Don and one to Gilda; if one disappears, they'll know if either of them is The Mole for Mom. When they check later and find one missing, Norman's theory is confirmed: Ray is the spy.
- Employed in the fifth Queen's Blade OVA, where Nanael steals a sacred grape and is booted out of heaven and down to the Swamp Witch's lair. Down below, she eats the grape and becomes a fallen angel, using her powers to blow up the Witch's castle. In somewhat of an Ass Pull, the whole course of events was revealed to be a secret test of character, but the more incredulous part is that Nanael's actions caused her to pass.
- In Sailor Moon, this was the reason for Mamoru's prophetic dreams. His future self, King Endymion, sent him vague, prophetic dreams about something horrible happening to Usagi, if they stayed together. He did this, in order to test his past's self's feelings and see if they could master this, stating in person later that it was to see if their love for one another wasn't fickle and insecure. Backfires horribly, as Mamoru is so confused and terrified that he dumps Usagi with no proper explanation and it takes them a good dozen episodes to finally get back together, only after Usagi started having prophetic dreams, too. This means Endymion almost destroyed his entire future, which would have included his wife and daughter's lives, because of this.
- In Saotome Senshu Hitakakusu, on the night before a tournament she'll be fighting in, Yae runs into Kagome Hanami, the boxer who knocked her out in a matter of seconds the last time the two fought. Noticing Yae is eager to prove herself, Hanami makes a bunch of dismissive comments about her, her school, and her cornerman and boyfriend Satoru, then says she'll only recognise them if Yae is able to win every one of her matches within the first round. Come the day of the tournament, Yae starts fighting more aggressively, scoring multiple first-round victories but quickly growing exhausted and putting herself at heavy risk of counter-punches. Satoru, noticing this, pulls her aside before the finals to remind her that their main goal is making it to the Olympic stage, and that she shouldn't put herself at risk just to seek Hanami's acknowledgement. In the final match, Yae paces herself much better, avoids a decisive counter-punch, and manages a victory in the second round; exactly what Hanami was hoping for, as she was gauging how Yae would react to provocation.
- In Soul Eater, one of the Great Old Ones puts Kid through this in the Book of Eibon to see what he would do with 'power'. Shinigami did something similar — although with much lower stakes — with Black Star and Maka's assignment fighting Sid and Stein (so effectively Kid was convinced not only that it was real but that his father would let them die, leading to him joining Shibusen). It could be argued Shinigami did the same with all three of the debut episodes/chapters for the main groups.
- Sakuya Ookochi subjected a girl named Sakura to one of these in Sensual Phrase. Sakura had befriended Sakuya's love interest Aine, but dumped her once she learned that she was Sakuya's girlfriend. Sakuya then asked Sakura out and apparently dumped Aine... but shortly afterwards he dumped Sakura as well, revealing that he only dated Sakura to see if she'd resist the massive pressure of going out with someone famous as him. Since Sakura didn't "pass" his test, Sakuya left her and got back with Aine.
- In Space Battleship Yamato, once they finally reach Iscandar, Queen Starsha reveals that their entire journey was this. She could have sent the Cosmo Cleaner D ("Cosmo DNA" in the Star Blazers dub) to Earth right away, but wanted to test humanity's will to survive, an act that she regrets. This was largely left out in the aforementioned dub.
- Eden Academy in Spy X Family carefully vets prospective students and their families for elegance. On interview day, each family is gathered in a courtyard and told to wait; Loid notices that they're being watched, and deduces that this is part of the test.
- Special mention goes to the boy trapped in a gutter. A typical test would pass anyone who would get their clothes dirty to save him, but Eden would disqualify anyone who attended the interview in filthy clothes; the real test is to see who could help him while keeping their clothes clean. Loid passes by pulling him out, getting mud all over everyone's clothes, but it works out because he brought a change of clothes.
- Subverted when a pack of animals stampede the testing area; it's not a test, but a genuine accident, and not even Eden Academy would put people in danger like that. The Forger family still passes by taking down the stampede; Loid points out the leader of the pack, Yor takes him down, and Anya notices that he was just scared and comforts him.
- The movie They Were 11, based on a short manga by Moto Hagio, features several people taking an entrance exam for Cosmo Academy: surviving for a set number of days on a derelict spaceship. Upon arriving, they find that instead of the expected 10 people, there are 11 of them, and after several unexplained incidents they suspect one of them to be a saboteur. Turns out the 11th person was an instructor who had been deliberately placed to cause trouble as a test of character. Several incidents, however, were not planned, and the entrants are commended for still attempting to last as long as possible in spite of this.
- Optimus Prime stages an impromptu one in Transformers: Energon when the other Autobots decide to have a race. With Hotshot and Ironhide neck and neck on the home stretch, Optimus suddenly jumps into the middle of the path and challenges them to get past him. Eventually, Ironhide grapples with Optimus and tells Hotshot to go on and win — at which point Optimus tells him that he is the real winner, because he has learned that a commander must put his troops ahead of his own glory. Oh, and as for who crossed the finish line first? Misha and Arcee.
- In the Tsukihime manga, Ciel tests whether Akiha has it in her to be a murderer by... threatening her and her brother and then fighting her to the death. What Akiha doesn't know is that Ciel cannot be (permanently) killed/injured, so Ciel is free to test Akiha's power with impunity. She also tries this in the original Visual Novel with Shiki, who is afraid that he is the murderer who has been stalking the streets in his dreams. Shiki has Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which allows him to bypass any and all forms of regeneration or immortality. Depending on your decision, things don't go quite as planned.
- One of the stories in Warcraft: Legends is about Thrall's mother, Draka, trying to become a powerful warrior despite appearing sickly and weak. She goes to a shaman for help, who tells her that a totem with the power to make her into a warrior can be made, but she must collect the necessary materials by hunting several dangerous animals by herself. Draka manages to successfully hunt all of the animals and returns, and the shaman tells her that no such totem exists. Draka's quest was the actual test, where she proved that she could hunt down Outland's most dangerous wildlife by herself without the aid of magic.
- Just about every Shadow Game in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga is an example of this before they are only used by villains. When Dark Yugi emerges and takes over Yugi's body because someone was bullying him or his friends, he declares a Shadow Game on the tormentor. The games are usually made up on the spot and are rather simple affairs, but the catch is that if the opponent tries to cheat in any way, the game will end and the cheater will be subjected to a "penalty game" (which is less of a game and more of a prolonged torture). Of course, in this case, his opponents would almost always cheat and end up caught on fire, seeing the world as pixels, thinking trash was money, and other gross fates.
- In the second anime adaptation, in the Doma/Orichalcos arc, Dark Yugi betrays Yugi's pleas to not use the Seal of Orichalcos in a duel. When Dark Yugi loses, Yugi sacrifices his soul in his place. Later, Dark Yugi meets with Yugi again, but this time, Yugi turns his back on Dark Yugi, claiming that Dark Yugi's soul should have been taken away instead. Yugi recreates the same situation as the last time the Orichalcos was used, but reversed; this time, it's Dark Yugi who pleads to Yugi not to activate its dark powers. As expected from this trope, Yugi reveals that his fake jerkass behaviour was merely a test to see if he learned from his lesson to escape the Orichalcos's temptations.
- Manjyome's A Day in the Limelight episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX — he is told at the end that the abridged The Hero's Journey he's just undergone was more of a test to Break the Haughty than of his dueling skills.
- YuYu Hakusho:
- Yusuke's mentor Genkai tells him that the only way he can master her ultimate technique, which he absolutely needs to do if he wants to survive the coming battles, is by killing her. Yusuke spends some time agonizing about it, then tells Genkai that he can't do it. It turns out he did exactly the correct thing, because by refusing to kill her he proved that he was a moral person and by not rejecting her request immediately proved he wasn't so mentally weak that he wouldn't at least consider that it might be necessary.
- Also appears during an earlier episode of the series, when Yusuke is a ghost. His girlfriend Keiko rushes into a fire to save his body, which he can't come back to life without, and he is given the choice to throw his MacGuffin egg into the fire and save her from almost-certain death, but in exchange, it wouldn't be able to perform the task for which it was intended, namely bringing him back to life. Yusuke does choose to save Keiko, and at the end, Koenma reveals that if he hadn't done that, the creature that hatched would have eaten him instead of helping him, that being the fail state of the actual test, which was to see if he was a good person by giving him an egg that would absorb his positive and negative energy. Since he saved Keiko, Koenma decides to resurrect Yusuke personally as a reward. And later in the series, the egg turns out to still be intact and hatches, revealing a cute little mascot-like spirit animal named Puu.
- In the manga, Yusuke sacrifices all his accumulated "virtue" to save Keiko. Koenma comes into contact with Yusuke's virtues and determines that Yusuke has both good and bad qualities and above all else, acts without thinking. He decides that as it's too difficult to pin down Yusuke's character while he's a ghost, he should let Yusuke back into his body.
