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Worf Had The Flu / Anime & Manga

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Times where Worf Had the Flu in Anime and Manga series.

  • Beastars: Legoshi has a cold when he goes looking for Tem's murderer, causing him to temporarily lose his sense of smell, and allowing Riz to get the drop on him.
  • Berserk:
    • When Guts first encountered the Holy Iron Chain Knights, he was heavily injured and exhausted from his fight with Rosine, one of the most furious and grueling battles of his career. As such, he was weak enough for them to capture, though not without taking casualties. When he encounters them again, as he's searching for Casca, some of them remark that his combat performance was leagues above the first time.
    • During Casca's first battle against Adon Coborlwitz, she loses and needs a rescue from Guts because menstrual cramps are throwing her off. While tending to her Guts notes blood between her thighs and comments to himself how it must be hard for a woman mercenary. The next time she and Adon meet, during the Battle of Doldrey, the beatdown goes the other way, and Adon does not survive.
    • Grunbeld demands a duel with Guts after hearing of the potential Zodd saw in him. However, Guts is severely wounded at the time (it's thanks to the Berserker Armor that he can stand up at all), meaning Guts is only able to stay alive until Guts & co. are rescued by Schierke's mentor.
  • Bleach:
    • Despite being a captain, Ukitake was unable to save Kaien because he had a coughing fit in the middle of the fight. He was forced to order Rukia to kill Kaien to save everyone's lives, as he was incapable of fighting any further.
    • During the Arrancar Arc, Ichigo's spiritual power constantly fluctuates. At his best, he can defeat powerful Espada but at his worst, he can't even fight a sealed Yammy. The problem centres on his fear of his inner Hollow and his inability to control it. He only masters this fear and therefore his resolve at the very end of the arc. Plus, he has a Power Limiter in the form of his substitute Shinigami badge, and his own power is actively sabotaging him; his Quincy power is suppressing his Hollow/Shinigami powers and leaving him much weaker for it.
    • Captain and Lieutenant-class Shinigami wear a Power Limiter in the living world, which can tamp them down to 20% of their normal power. Anime filler will often take advantage of this fact to make Shinigami lose fights they should win. In two arcs, the filler has also contrived a reason to render Ichigo's power so unreliable as to make him more of a liability than a use. In the Bount Arc, he was even forced to relearn Bankai, while the Gotei Invasion arc kept him at a fluctuating, diminishing power level due to it being set at a time where the Canon had removed his power completely.
    • If a Bankai ever breaks, it's impossible to repair the Bankai back to its original form. It can only function at a reduced level ever after. Renji's Bankai was broken by Byakuya and Ikkaku's was broken by Edorad. It's also revealed that a refusal to properly embrace and become one with a Zanpakutou results in its power being held back from the Shinigami. Ikkaku is well-known for fighting his power instead of embracing it, but Renji's zanpakutou also doesn't trust him enough to share its full power willingly.
    • Nnoitra Gilga benefits from this three times (though twice he set it up). In the backstory, he was only able to injure Nel because he attacked her friends first and then used an illusion to set her up for a cheap shot. Against Ichigo, he ambushed him after he won a fight against Grimmjow and was exhausted, and he only won his fight against Nel because her reiatsu was unstable because of the injury he dealt her a while back and she was unable to land the finishing blow.
    • When Isshin fought against White 20 years ago, Aizen slashed him across his back, which debilitated Isshin enough that he couldn't use his Bankai and left him with a far more difficult opponent than he would've had to deal with normally.
    • Masaki's greatest ability as a Quincy was her Blut Vene; the only time she was injured in a fight was while saving Isshin from White. Against a Hollow of Grand Fisher's caliber, she would've had little to no trouble. However, Yhwach just so happened to use Auswahlen that day to steal the powers of all impure Quincies, which thanks to White infecting her 11 years prior also included Masaki. Just as she prepared herself to fight Grand Fisher, Masaki's powers vanished, leaving her utterly helpless to defend herself.
    • When Zaraki defeats Gremmy, he's left in a very badly injured state and coughing up blood. He is immediately ambushed by four female Sternritters, who reason the best chance anyone stands of defeating Zaraki is to take him down when he's in such a bad state. They succeed.
    • In the anime, Candice, one of the aforementioned female Sternritters, first puts up quite a fight against Ichigo, and when Ichigo later leaves for the Royal Realm to chase after Candice's boss Yhwach, she and a few other Sternritters gang up on Byakuya. Despite Candice's impressive Shock and Awe powers, said powers also function like an electrical battery, and she has the bad luck of running out of juice in the middle of fighting Byakuya, resulting in her swift defeat.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • During the Agitate Halation arc, Touma Kamijou fights Motoharu Tsuchimikado and nearly effortlessly beats him into the ground. Touma immediately realizes something is wrong, since Motoharu knows advanced martial arts and once effortlessly beat him into the ground during the Angel Fall arc. Motoharu was utterly exhausted since he had been fighting other people all day and had scaled a tall building using no equipment except grips on his hands, and had gotten mentally unbalanced after hearing a false report that his little sister Maika had just been murdered.
    • During the Railgun side of the Sisters arc, Mikoto faces Mugino, the 4th-ranked level 5 (Mikoto is ranked 3). It's an extremely close fight that Mikoto ultimately wins more by luck than skill. At this point, Mikoto was operating on zero sleep after having spent three nights attacking various facilities throughout the city, and had just taken a beating against Mugino's subordinate. By all indications, if Mikoto was fresh she would have curb-stomped Mugino.
  • In the first chapter of Delicious in Dungeon, the first iteration Touden Party was a Badass Crew of Experienced Protagonists, and have already fought monsters on the level of the Red Dragon many times. However, by the time of the battle, they had lost their food supply and the crippling hunger made them slow and sluggish, leading to Falin getting eaten right when she teleports them to safety. Her brother Laios takes it as a sign that for he and the remaining members to go back and save Falin, they need to get food from the dungeon so they won't be out of energy for their rematch against the dragon.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Doma soared through the Upper Ranks in less than a hundred years, eventually settling at Upper-2. He then playfully asserted his dominance over the Upper-3, Akaza, who could never defeat him and take that spot for himself. This extended even to Doma letting Akaza punch his jaw off as a mere banter between friends. But in the end, a combination of Doma’s own lack of care for anything and being poisoned by Shinobu made his fight against Kanao and Inosuke more of a race against time than a battle of pure strength, with Doma killed without ever showing his true power.
  • Digimon Data Squad: In one episode, one of Masaru's punches breaks SaberLeomon's tooth. This wouldn't be out of character for him except that an earlier attempt to punch SaberLeomon had significantly less effect, and prior to the second attempt SaberLeomon had just taken a Gizumon blast, severely weakening him to the point when an Ultimate level Digimon could blow him up.
  • Digimon Adventure: In the episode "The Arrival of Skullgreymon," Tai's Greymon does badly against an evil Greymon under Etemon's control because Tai had previously overfed him as part of an attempt to get him to digivolve to the Ultimate level; as a result, Greymon gets curb-stomped until he finally digivolves into SkullGreymon.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • In the very first arc, Goku loses to Yamcha because he's hungry, but Yamcha doesn't finish the fight because Bulma shows up, so both combatants "had the flu". When they fight again on even terms, Goku knocks out Yamcha's tooth and the latter calls the fight off early due to loss of pride.
    • Also happens when Goku loses to King Piccolo's minion Tambourine, but only because Goku was exhausted from fighting in the 22nd Tenka'ichi Budokai. Tambourine is confident he can win again in the rematch, but against a more refreshed Goku, things don't go so well for him.
    • Dragon Ball Z:
      • Goku's heart virus thing while fighting Android 19. This is actually taken to the extent of an Alternate Timeline, where without the aid of Trunks, Goku died from the virus, and well...
      • Gohan is this trope. Goku knows that Gohan has incredible power and wants him to draw it out. However, Gohan isn't a Blood Knight like his pureblooded Saiyan father and is more of a Mama's Boy who is a Friend to All Living Things. This is easy to tell during the Cell Saga finale as Gohan refuses to go all out in his Kamehameha Beam-O-War because the others are fighting Cell from behind and he doesn't want to kill them, too.
      • Part of Goku's poor performance against Kid Buu was because he was no longer used to having a living body. He had grown accustomed to the near endless endurance and power of his dead body. Specifically, Goku needed too much power to maintain his Super Saiyan 3 form while alive. Considering the toll it took on his spirit body during the fight with Fat Buu (even reducing the amount of time Goku's spirit could remain on Earth), Goku probably should have predicted it.
      • In the Garlic Jr. filler arc, Piccolo was merged with Nail, had his full power evenly matched with Garlic Jr. even in his transformed state, and supercharged with the power of the Makyo Star. However, Piccolo's life is tied to Kami, who is put into danger by the spirits of the former Kami, leaving Gohan to challenge Garlic Jr. himself.
    • Dragon Ball Super: Hit gets heavily handicapped during the various Tournaments, as all his best techniques are perfected for an instant and certain kill, and thus can't be applied in a competition where actually killing your opponent means getting disqualified. When he faces Goku without this restriction in a lethal bout he (temporarily) kills him very quickly.
  • Expelled from Paradise: Angela Balzac gets accosted by three lecherous thugs. She beats them up with her martial art skills, but since she had been refusing to sleep and had become sick, she weakens and they overpower her until Dingo saves her.
  • In Fairy Tail:
    • This tends to happen anytime an enemy takes advantage of Natsu's motion sickness, which usually results in them kicking his ass or giving him a much harder fight than he'd usually have.
    • During the Battle of Fairy Tail arc, Gray gets taken out by one of Laxus' Elite Mooks because he was forced to take a hit for a local that was getting endangered by their fight. Also, they were forced to battle in a location that gave his opponent an edge.
    • Jellal Fernandez, one of the most powerful characters in the setting, is taken out off-panel by Midnight (admittedly not a small fry himself) during the Nirvana arc. Erza thinks to herself that this is because Jellal hadn't fully recovered from waking up from his coma, and putting a seal that was going to blow himself up alongside Nirvana didn't help matters either. Come the Tartaros arc, Jellal takes down not just Midnight, but Cobra, Racer and Angel by himself in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
    • Later, Ultear manages to defeat the Black Wizard Zeref, who had previously been talked up as one of the most powerful and dangerous wizards of all time, although it's clear from her injuries it wasn't easy in the slightest. Zeref comes back later and explains that, as his magic is meant for causing grievous harm, he can only use it to his full extent when he's willing to kill his opponent, which he then proceeds to prove to her boss and superior in every way Hades, killing him with one move.
    • One reason Igneel was defeated by Acnologia was because the former was technically already dead, the latter had drained his soul a long time ago. Igneel was in a half-dead state when fighting Acnologia, and he still managed to tear off Acnologia's arm before finally going down. It's eventually revealed Acnologia was also suffering under this trope during the battle due to the magic weapon Face, as unknown to nearly anyone else Acnologia's ability is to absorb any and all magic that's used against him, and its activation in the middle of their fight more or less emanciated him. Still didn't stop him from tearing Igneel's torso apart before obliterating his body, however.
    • Zeref's final battle with Natsu. Even with Fairy Heart massively powering him up, Zeref wasn't much more powerful compared to their intial battle at the start of the Alvarez arc and Natsu manages to bring him down after a struggle. However Zeref was using most of his new power and what he originally had to keep the portal to the past open, preventing him from going all out. Considering the massive amount of magical energy required for time travel, its impressive Zeref was able to fight at all and come as close to winning as he did.
    • The final battle against Acnologia was only won thanks to this. His spirit being split from his body in the space between time enabled the Dragon Slayers to hold back his spirit and the rest of Fairy Tail backed by wizards across the continent were able to use Fairy Sphere to seal his mindless body away. The sealing slowed his spirit down and his missing limb left him unable to react in time when Natsu unleased his final attack from the left finishing him for good.
  • Cloud in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children struggles against the triplets partially due to being two years out of practice and partially due to being crippled by Geostigma.
  • Toki in Fist of the North Star suffers from severe radiation poisoning which saps his strength. Technique-speaking he's the best user of Hokuto Shinken in the series, and Raoh and Kenshiro both know he'd have been the successor of the style if it hadn't been for his illness.
  • Early in Gintama, it is noted a few times how Gintoki's blade has dulled since the end of the Joui War, making him weaker than he was in his prime. Because of this he's defeated several times by people he usually could handle easily. However, every time he is pushed to the brink of death, a little bit of his old strength comes back to him, allowing him to mop floors in a rematch.
  • Cure Moonlight in HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has this leading to why she's taken out of action for 3/4ths of the series. It's kinda hard to fight with your head straight when you see your fairy partner blow up and disintegrate in front of you.
  • A recurring phenomenon in Holyland. When Yuu or whoever's heart is not in it, their fighting ability takes a large drop.
  • Kill la Kill: In Episode 4, Ryuko didn't have her outfit as Senkestu was being cleaned when Ryuko and Mako were forced to leave early. Making the pratfalls all the more difficult to evade. Ryuko herself even states it wouldn't even be a problem if she has Senkestu with her. Later on when Senketsu is cut into tiny pieces, Ryuko has Taken A Level In Badass and is able to kick ass even without Senketsu (though she did have a tiny scrap of him left).
  • In Magic Knight Rayearth, Ascot takes out Hikaru and Fuu at the Water Shrine when he summons a fire beast — not only will Hikaru's magic strengthen it, Fuu's will as well because it's wind-based and you do not want to add oxygen to a fire.
  • In Season 3 of Major, protagonist Goro Shigeno plays through the Seisshu vs Kaido match with an ankle injury. The Kaido players, former teammates of Goro who want to defeat him because he left Kaido halfway through their second year, are shocked to realize he's been playing that way the whole time (even more when they learn that their manager was the one responsible for his injury, by ordering one of their players to do it out of spite). Kaido only wins because Goro ends up collapsing due to exhaustion and pain (after playing fifteen innings straight), and they acknowledge that things would have gone very differently had he been at full capacity.
  • In Mazinger Z: Infinity, Tetsuya Tsurugi and the Great Mazinger end up captured by Dr. Hell due to the fact that Tetsuya was fighting in a populated city, thus his options were severely limited.
  • Medaka Box: Zenkichi's victory against Munakata is slightly downplayed, as despite his abnormal desire to kill, he was actually actively suppressing it.
  • This happens to Kanna twice in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid:
    • Her attempt at killing Kobayashi failed miserably, and hilariously, thanks to her lack of power. When she regained it, she shows that she could have killed her easily if she were fresh.
    • Chapter 16 in Kanna's Daily Life has her in this situation, with her taking part in a PE class despite not getting any sleep the previous night, not having any breakfast, and not being able to recharge her mana due to her not wanting to be late for school.
    • Ilulu also mentions that she still hadn't healed from the wounds Tohru gave her during her introduction following her fight against Azad.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, The Freedom's loss against Shinn and the Impulse was attributed to the fact that Kira was trying to keep the Archangel safe while dealing with Shinn at the same time. Kira also later admits to Athrun that he was also "distracted" because he was "unsure" if he should be fighting ZAFT or not.
    • Before that, in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the Freedom is heavily damaged by the Forbidden, Raider and Calamity due to a combination of Kira focusing on trying to save Flay and still being rattled over the truth of his origins.
  • Muhyo takes a long time to recover his tempering after a sentencing, so when a problem arises soon afterward, he's often unable to intervene immediately. As such, after the group defeats Face-Ripper Sophie, only for Rio to reveal herself as a traitor and attack them, they spend much of the battle retreating, and must brew Muhyo a dangerous potion to help him get his tempering back before they can effectively fight back.
  • In My Hero Academia, Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki were able to win against Hero Killer Stain (an S-ranked villain) partially because his fighting style and Quirk are best suited to ambushes and one-on-one fights and partially because he was suffering a Villainous Breakdown the entire fight (his Black-and-White Insanity did not lend itself well to people admitting Villain Has a Point). The end of the fight also reveals that Iida's opening kick broke a rib.
  • Naruto:
    • During the Chunnin exam tournament, Jiraiya notices the chakra-blocking seal that Orochimaru had placed over Naruto's Kyubi-containing belly-button seal, and realizes it prevented Naruto from channeling properly. Once he removed it, Naruto was able to instantly master the water-walking technique he had been struggling with before. And it might also explain Naruto's rather lackluster performance against Kiba — Naruto previously never needed any distractions or significant pauses in a fight to create Shadow Clones. Naruto himself never seemed to notice his own difficulties either.
    • This is the only reason why Orochimaru was able to beat Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage. Hiruzen was way past his prime by the time of their fight and even the simple use of the Kage Bushin technique ate away at his lifespan. Orochimaru even said that had this been just ten years before, even with the Edo Tensei Hokages, Hiruzen would have won then.note  But...since Hiruzen was in old age, the best he could do was a tie with a Taking You with Me jutsu against Orochimaru and the Edo Hokages.
    • Tsunade's first appearance has her using then-current Big Bad Orochimaru like a paddleball. The only reason Orochimaru did not bust out far more powerful moves for the fight was because had previously lost the use of his arms (and thus, most of his jutsus). Jiraiya was likewise disabled thanks to a drug Tsunade slipped into one of his drinks earlier on. Tsunade as well suffered some early damage due to her entirely psychological weakness to blood, making her use her trump card on a healing power and, less memorably, as years out of practice. If the Sannin were at their top form during the fight the others there would've been useless and the battle would've dwarfed even the epic rumble that it was and likely not be quite as one-sided.
    • The Sound Four were all capable of holding off multiple ANBU agents in their first appearance, but all lost to genin later on. However, this (and the fact that the Konoha genin caught up to them in the first place) was at least partially because they had exhausted themselves when they ran into two Konoha jonin and had to activate their cursed seals just to get away with Sasuke's body unharmed. Even with this, Sakon and Tayuya still almost won their fights and only lost because of the sand genin's interference.
    • Said jonins were exhausted themselves, because they ran into the Sound Four while en route back to the village, after a mission.
    • Especially true with Kimimaro, who was literally seconds away from killing Gaara and Rock Lee when his illness causes him to die. Given that he was able to defeat the sound four all at once and was able to move with sheer willpower, it is especially evident.
    • One scene in Episode 52 of the Naruto: Shippuden anime (which doesn't appear in the manga) suggests that Naruto and Sakura faired poorly against Sasuke in their first meeting with him after the timeskip because of their wounds from their previous battle (although they do realize that Sasuke has gotten far more powerful). Yamato is also holding back, not wanting to injure Sasuke too much, but just after he decides to get serious, Orochimaru leaves with Sasuke. In the manga, Naruto was still suffering from his Four-Tailed Form's side effects. He was, at best, half power when he finally encountered Sasuke (even Orochimaru commented when they fought again, Naruto wasn't doing nearly as well before). Likewise, Sakura was still suffering from the poisonous wound that she had gotten from the Kyuubi's tail swipe. Only Yamato and Sai were at full strength.
    • Orochimaru has had to been sick or weak at the time for both Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke to defeat him. When he faced both, for example, his body was rejecting him both times, and he couldn't kill either of them (needing their bodies for Grand Theft Me). Its even pointed out later that the only reason why Sasuke beat Orochimaru in the first place is because Sandaime Hokage's Shiki Fujin still sealed his arms, thus robbing him of his ninjutsu.
    • Played with in Sasuke's battle with Itachi. Not only is Itachi in terrible shape (basically, using the high level Sharingan techniques means Cast from Hit Points, with the negative that a night at the Inn does NOT fix you right up), he's damn near blind, holding back, and was actually trying to let him win and yet he still utterly dominates Sasuke, who is in top form. Sasuke only survives because Itachi dies at the end. To be fair though Itachi only 'dominated' when Susano'o came into play since Sasuke had no knowledge of said technique, thus no counter unlike having counters to Amaterasu with Oral Rebirth or Tsukuyomi with his Sharingan mastery and rage. Even Itachi complimented Sasuke's power, and if not for Susano'o Kirin would have wiped Itachi off the face of the map.
    • Naruto’s battle against Pain could have been much more one sided with the odds heavily against Naruto had it not been for the fact that Pain was trying to capture Naruto, not kill him. It also didn't help that he'd just finished fighting and leveling a village, and his most powerful body had its powers disabled at the start of the fight.
    • Sasuke's poor performance against Killer Bee is accredited to him not being fully recovered from his fight with Itachi.
    • Danzo only lost to Sasuke since he was unable to use Shisui's eye and was holding back power to fight Tobi, who was the more dangerous opponent.
    • And going back allllll the way, Naruto's crappy abilities with chakra control are implied to be due to the Kyuubi's chakra inside him. Once he started getting his jutsu under control, he was learning jounin level skills (albeit in a wasteful manner — thank the Sage of Six Paths that he's got enough chakra to burn) and a technique that requires a practically impossible level of chakra control.
    • It's almost a necessity in the Naruto universe; the majority of techniques and strategems are actually fairly accurate for how a ninja with quasi-magical powers would be: an attack, preferably a sneak attack, that tends to be somewhere between a One-Hit Kill and ridiculously excessive. The fights would be a lot shorter and the action a lot less interesting if they lasted one panel/minute EVERY single time.
    • Naruto himself suffered this during the War Arc. Against Nagato and Itachi, he was starting to run on empty for his Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode due to using it all night, fighting the Raikage, then creating 13 clones to help on several battlefields. When he attempted to create a clone to find Kabuto, his Chakra Mode disappeared and he was left exhausted. Then during the fight with Tobi, he couldn't use his superior speed and barely used any jutsu's against Tobi's paths due to being so completely exhausted from his previous fights. Its only after getting Kurama's partnership he's able to truly pull a Heroic Second Wind. Even after his Biju Mode runs out, he's completely recharged but he still uses his Chakra Mode conservatively against Tobi so he isn't lured into the same trap he was before.
    • Sakura's apparently been charging her Yin Seal for the past three years.
    • Madara and Hashirama as Edo zombies both lacked some/most of their power due to their summoner being too weak to bring them back properly, which makes it possible for living people to defeat them.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Specially common when the 3-A non-combatant/non-magical girls have to be portraited as "dangerous" to more powerfull characters. Negi is an horrible victim of that when his students Took a Level in Jerkass.
  • In the Ninja Scroll movie, Dakuan reveals to Jubei that his victory over the monstrous Tessai wasn't wholly due to Jubei's considerable skill. Tessai had been poisoned when he tried to rape Kagero since Kagero is a Poisonous Person.
  • One Piece:
    • Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats are initially unable to defeat the CP9, and while they are not yet using the techniques they use to defeat their opponents in later battles, Nami suggests that they weren't fighting at their full potential because they were still unsure whether Robin had betrayed them. Once they realize that she did what she did for their sake, they are able to fight to their full power to rescue her (strangely enough, Sanji knows Robin's reasons and still is unable to defeat Blueno, but later defeats the far more powerful Jyabura). Luffy also admits he wasn't at his fullest because he wasn't full and just fought Wanze, who was a relatively weak enemy but managed to thrash Sanji a fair amount before he started using knives.
      • Blueno's own poor showing against the Straw Hats compared to his collegues is attributed to his cover identity of the past five years being a purely non-combat/physically demanding job of barman.
    • Earlier in the manga, Sanji was wounded by Pearl and nearly lost to Gin.
    • In the Skypiea arc, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji are unable to fight well against Wiper because they have not adapted to Skypiea's higher elevation and thinner atmosphere. Luffy manages to get over this by the time he fights the White Berets, and throughout the rest of the arc, there is no suggestion that the characters are fighting at anything less than their full potential.
    • The Straw Hats exhaust themselves fighting the first Pacifista on the Sabaody Archipelago, making them easy pickings for Sentoumaru, Kizaru, Kuma, and another Pacifista.
    • Kuma seems to be a fan of this trope, considering that he's beaten the Strawhats twice, and both times he confronted them right after they'd fought a major, exhausting battle.
    • Luffy's somewhat underwhelming (Haki aside) showings during the Kuja and Marineford battles are at least partially attributed to having to deal with the Kizaru/Kuma/Sentoumaru/Pacifista gangstomp the day before in the previous case and nearly dying against Magellan and being kept running on sheer willpower and hormone doping in the latter case. Of course, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the major players are all Warlord of the Sea class, at least, but the Luffy at Marineford didn't seem to be operating at the same caliber as he did against the likes of Rob Lucci and Gecko Moria, and actually had to be doped again near the end of the battle.
    • This was the primary reason Franky was struggling against Fukurou, despite having previously overpowered Blueno; As he was lacking in Cola, his attacks were decreased in effectiveness and power. Once he got his cola back...
    • Seriously, many of Zoro's battles had him at some sort of disadvantage or not at his full potential. In the battle with Cabaji, he was already injured from Buggy's earlier attack. When fighting Hachi, he was still recovering from his wounds from his fight with Mihawk and had a fever on top of that. He had difficulty with Mr 1 since Mr 1's body can become steel, something Zoro couldn't cut at the time. During the Davy Jones game, he wasn't able to use his swords due to the rules. He only had two swords with him during the fight against Ryuuma. And against Oars, he was still getting used to his new sword Shuusui. With Kuma, he had taken damage from Ryuuma and Oars over the night. With the Flying Fish Riders and with the Pacifista, he was hampered down from his injuries from Thriller Bark, along with Luffy's pain that was transferred to him.
      • This trope didn't stop Zoro during the Fish-Man Island Arc. His opponent was Hody Jones, a Great White Shark Fishman. For those who didn't know, Fishmen become ten times stronger while underwater, but the same can't be said for humans. However, despite needing to take a breath before drowning, Zoro effortlessly defeated Hody with only a single slash while underwater.
      • Violently defied during his fight with Cabaji, who was targeting his earlier wound from Buggy. Zoro, mindful of his goal to be the best swordsman alive, proceeded to cut open the wounds, making them much worse. Cabaji believed that to be giving him an out, as Zoro could use the injury as an excuse for a loss. Zoro refutes that, saying that if he lost to someone like Cabaji with such a "minor" injury, he may as well give up on his dream altogether. He then hands Cabaji his ass.
    • Whitebeard, the man considered the equal to Roger at his peak, went into the Marineford war suffering heavily from illness, old age and injury. While his raw power and toughness still impressed everyone, many people noted he was nowhere near the top of his game, causing him to tank attacks that he would have otherwise either blocked or evaded. Taking all those attacks did eventually kill him.
      • Though considering how much damage his rampage caused, it's made people wonder how powerful he was when he was in his prime — and how powerful Roger was when he was still alive.
    • King Neptune was a strong warrior in his youth, and demonstrates a truly impressive feat of Fish-Man Karate in his palace. However, he's gotten old and throws out his back during the initial fight with the Straw Hatss. This leaves him more or less incapacitated for the rest of the arc.
    • This was the case with Trafalgar Law. Before the Time Skip he was too weak to stand up to Vergo, and was absolutely terrified of him. After it, it seems the situation has not changed, with Vergo curb-stomping him twice. However, this was mainly due to having Law's heart. Once Smoker got Law his heart back, Law proceeded to curb-stomp Vergo in his most powerful form with one slash, cutting apart not only Vergo but also the entire laboratory they were fighting in as well.
      • Happens to Law again in the Dressrosa arc. By the time he fights Donquixote Doflamingo one-on-one, he had to fight both Doflamingo and Admiral Fujitora at the same time, then protect Caesar and the Straw Hats from Doflamingo. He was undoubtedly exhausted by that point, and it doesn't help that his Devil Fruit abilities are explicitly stated to rely on his stamina. As an end result, he suffers a very bad Curb-Stomp Battle at Doflamingo's hands.
    • Smoker likewise, had become a Vice-Admiral after the Time Skip, and had fought fairly evenly (in some cases had the upper hand) against Vergo, who's of the same rank. He eventually lost, though that was because he was trying to get Law's heart back instead of outright beating him. Later, he's confronted by a very pissed off, homicidal, nothing-to-lose, Doflamingo — while Smoker was, at best, at half-strength from fighting Vergo. It ends with Doflamingo easily defeating him, and Smoker would've been killed if not for the sudden arrival of Kuzan (the former Admiral Aokiji).
    • In the Wano arc, after Kaido shows up near Luffy and Law while he's heavily drunk, he gets sucker punched by Luffy with multiple finishing moves, not even getting a single hit in. Then it's revealed that Kaido managed to completely No-Sell all of said attacks, is now sober thanks to them, and he promptly one-shots Luffy.
    • In the backstory, Kozuki Oden lost his fight with Kaido because a third party distracted him by pretending to hold his young son hostage.
    • Referenced during Luffy's rematch with Kaido, when Kaido suddenly pulls out a huge barrel of alcohol and chugs it while the fight's still going. Luffy is incredulous that Kaido's getting sloshed already and, right before he throws another punch, says that Kaido better not complain and say "I was drunk" for the reason he lost. Unfortunately, if anything, getting drunk makes Kaido even stronger.
    • During the Revolutionary Army's attack on Mary Geoise, their captains face off against two Marine Admirals. Admirals are some of the most powerful fighters in the world, but neither is able to fight with their full plethora of powers due to their abilities being incredibly destructive once unleashed, and they want to avoid causing collateral damage to the Holy Land and accidentally injuring any Celestial Dragons in the area, allowing the revolutionaries to complete their objectives and get away unscathed.
  • Suzuka of Outlaw Star gets food poisoning from Aisha's cooking just before ending up in a fight with Shimi, the first assassin of the Anten Seven that the crew encounters. She consequently puts up her worst performance of the series, although in fairness, Shimi effortlessly defeats everyone else too.
  • Pokémon: The Series: Ash's team of Pokémon have suffered this trope often:
    • In "Friend and Foe Alike", thanks to Team Rocket's schemes, Ash had to arrive at the stadium late and with a completely exhausted team, which is why he loses his tournament match to Ritchie.
    • As Ash's Primary Powerhouse prior to Greninja, Charizard has quite a few instances:
      • "Charizard Chills" has the title Pokémon critically frozen after battle with a Poliwrath. His respect as well as loyalty for his trainer returned after Ash spent all night trying to thaw him out.
      • Later, he also suffers a wing injury during the battle against the Johto gym leader Faulkner, giving him a little bit of trouble against the leader's Pidgeot.
      • Most of the time Charizard loses a battle it's treated this way, examples include the losses against Dusclops (where he was winning until Ash attempted to finish the match using a fighting type move on a ghost type, firmly holding the Idiot Ball) and Blaziken (because Ash had no knowledge of what a Blaziken was).
    • Ash's Grovyle from evolves into Sceptile... at the worst possible moment, when he was heartbroken from a Meganium he'd fallen in love with choosing a Tropius instead. Somehow, this causes Sceptile (a powerful Pokémon in its own right) to be unable to use its attacks, rendering it useless for a couple of episodes.
    • Ash's Pikachu gets a taste of this in the very first episode of the Unova saga. An encounter with Zekrom, one of Unova's Legendaries, overloads Pikachu's electricity-storing capability and thus renders it unable to use Electric-type attacks. Ash finds this out the hard way when the 'Chu gets trounced in a battle with a trainer who had, mere minutes earlier, received his first Pokémon.
    • Pikachu Inverts this, however, on one occasion in the Hoenn saga: Applied Phlebotinum caused Pikachu to strike a fever, which also gave him an insane power up, leading up to Ash easily defeating Wattson.
    • Bewear was conveyed a comically unstoppable throughout the Alola saga, pursuing Team Rocket anywhere and No Selling any Pokémon or even Ultra Beasts' offence. Her winning streak finally ends during the Guzzlord invasion at the end of the series, however. She fights one of the Guzzlord single handed and actually has the upper hand for a while, until her baby Stufful loses grip of her, allowing Guzzlord to pummel her while she is distracted protecting it. Team Rocket of all people end up having to rescue her from the killing blow in their new mecha.
  • In Pokémon Adventures, Petrel claims that he had an easy time defeating Lance, easily one of the most powerful trainers in the world. Turns out that Petrel disguised himself as Yellow, the one person who Lance is afraid of, throwing him off his game.
  • In Porco Rosso's first fight against Curtis, the engine of his plane is badly in need of an overhaul, and he's primarily focused on nursing the engine through one last flight to his mechanic so he can get it repaired. As a result, when Curtis ambushes him, he quickly loses and nearly dies. In the rematch, which takes place after Porco's plane has been repaired and neither side has the element of surprise, the two are almost perfectly evenly matched.
  • In The Prince of Tennis:
    • Shinji and Kamio are spectacularly losing a doubles match and their coach/captain Tachibana is shocked as to why they're doing that badly. Jerkass Akutsu shows up and reveals that he knows why: he saw how the taxi that Kamio and Shinji were travelling in was involved in a crash. Tachibana calls off the match and is upset at the two... but not for having to pull them out, but because they didn't tell him that they were injured.
    • Tachibana himself in the manga. He's stated to be a nationals-level player on par with Tezuka and Atobe, but his friend Chitose shows up and says that he's weaker than he was the year before, causing Kamio to realize that, because he's only had second-years to practice against and no coach to guide him, his skills have atrophied.
    • Tezuka is a frequent victim of this. Despite easily being one of the best players in the series, his arm injury has impeded his performance in pivotal moments, notably against Atobe and Sanada.
  • Prior to his first battle with Mukuro, Hibari from Reborn! (2004) literally had been injected with a flu, causing him to get curb-stomped despite being at least Mukuro's equal in fighting prowess.
  • In Rebuild World, Sara and Elena are easily subdued by a gang after they lost most of their equipment and supplies on their last mission, needing Akira to save their lives. But they're a force to be reckoned with once they're fully armed, obliterating an army of monsters on their lonesome.
  • Rurouni Kenshin: One of the reasons Kenshin easily fell to Shishio in the first part of their battle was because he had already gone through battles with Aoshi and Sojirou. Both opponents were considered near or at Kenshin's level, so it would be a miracle for him to even be able to stand up to Shishio. This trope extended to Kenshin's allies as well; Saitou, Sano and Aoshi were unable to even hurt Shishio due to their previous injuries.
    • Shishio is actually concerned about whether or not this is fair, but Kenshin reminds him that it counteracts his own handicap, his lack of sweat glands which eventually set him on fire and burn him up from within. Shishio also plays with the trope, since it's implied that the extra heat energy his body produces makes him stronger somehow and he can literally kill someone by touching them long enough. Oddly enough, he doesn't use this as a weapon.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • During the Makaiju/Doom Tree Filler Arc of Sailor Moon R Usagi watches in horror as her Moon Tiara Action attack powers down in mid-flight, leaving her a crying confused mess when the other Senshi come to the rescue. When a subsequent battle not only has this happen again, but also destroys her original brooch and strands her and Luna in another dimension, Usagi comes to realize the reason of this happening is because her head wasn't in the game: she didn't want to be Sailor Moon anymore and, because of it, it was affecting her powers. It takes a pep-talk with the spirit of Queen Serenity and a new brooch to get her back in the game.
    • In episode 96 of Sailor Moon S Makoto has her pure heart stolen. Then she and Uranus go head-to-head. Many fans saw Uranus' subsequent one-hit-knock-out of Jupiter to be pretty unfair and pointless except to show how SUPER-AWESOME Uranus is. However, the fact that Jupiter did just have her pure heart literally ripped out of her is a good reason that she may not have been up to snuff.
    • While in the first manga arc and the first season of the old anime Sailor Venus is shown to be by far the most formidable fighter of the Sailor Senshi, she doesn't get to show it all too often in the rest of the series. She also suffers from PTSD and is deeply depressed, even if she's so good that in the manga the others don't get a single hint until halfway the Dream Arc (or NEVER in the anime), weakening her performance unless she gets furious, at which point she reminds everyone how terrifying she is.
      • She had been hit by this even before her psychological trauma, back in her solo series, two times: her battle with the four Founde youma happened right at the moment she had decided to retire (in fact she had retired about two minutes earlier, deciding to make a brief comeback only because the youma were already there and eventually staying as a superhero) after considering it for the last few days and thus had forgot to recharge her compact, keeping her from using the Crescent Beam right at a moment where the large number of brainwashed civilians was preventing her from just beating her opponents with her bare hands, and needed Ace to rescue her; and in the battle against Princess Linlin said youma revealed that Ace, Venus' one true love, was a member of the Dark Kingdom and Kunzite's Dragon, the first of the events that caused her PTSD and depression, throwing off her game and needing her to be rescued by Ace for the last time before her powers fully Awakened and she had to kill Ace with her own hands. It would have been three, as one youma caught her right after she had given over a liter of blood, but she powered through that one.
  • Magic users in Slayers lose a lot of power when their health is compromised, which is especially problematic for sorceresses during that time of the month. This makes it much easier for Zelgadis to capture Lina during an early story arc.
  • Soul Eater:
    • Black Star's failure to use Soul Menace against Kid is actually a product of his inability to deal with the worfing that he's noticed he was being subject to. And THOSE losses were caused by him losing confidence in himself for not being able to master Shadow Star.
    • Much earlier on, Maka, Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki were fighting against Free, where the flu was affecting all the fighters. Black Star and Tsubaki were suffering from the aforementioned inability to master Shadow Star, Maka and Soul were dealing with personal issues that went so far as to affect their ability to function properly as Meister and Weapon, and Free was learning first-hand that spending 200 years in a jail cell plays havoc on your ability to properly use your magic. The only reason the heroes won was because their flu wasn't as bad and/or they overcame it, while Free literally lost because his magic backfired on him at the wrong moment. Lucky that he's immortal.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's: The Wolkenritter are less at an advantage over Nanoha and Fate's group because they have sworn not to kill anyone in their quest to save Hayate. Despite managing to fight off Signum until she retreats or outside forces interfere, Fate loses most of her sparring matches against Signum in the period after A's.
    • Nanoha's overexerting herself results in her getting injured and almost crippled while on a mission in between A's and StrikerS, as Shamal points out in the page quote. Part of the overexerting came from her penchant for going all out in typical shonen fashion at some decisive battles.
    • Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force gives this treatment to Signum by way of depriving her of the equipment needed to fight against the Hückebein. Signum goes into her battle with Cypha lacking the countermeasures necessary to neutralize her opponent's Mage Killer abilities, and as a result only manages to hold her own until Cypha gets serious. Double points here because before this, Signum had never been defeated onscreen by any of the other characters.
    • Later on Signum inverts this instead. She did wake up and has gotten more proper equipment, but she has one more handicap: That injury was very life-threatening that she could end up crippled for life. When she instantly issues a rematch with Cypha, you expect that she'd lose out again or at best only manages to get even due to the injury. What happens was that in a single chapter, Signum completely beat the crap out of Cypha to the point she had to retreat.
  • In Sword Art Online, Kirito has a kendo sparring match with his sister, a champion-level swordswoman. They fight pretty evenly until she wins. She points out that his muscles had severely atrophied from being in a two-year coma (the match happens roughly a month after he woke up), noting that if he had been at full strength, he would have easily won. Not to mention as well that Kirito was trying to use the sword fighting style he learned in the game during a real world fight, where he didn't have a computer aiding him with the moves, or nigh superhuman speed, strength, and reflexes to pull them off.
  • In the Tales of Symphonia manga, Lloyd claims that Kratos lost his last fight with him because he was still suffering from the wound he received protecting him from Yuan.
  • In Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, during the infiltration of Honey Waters, Niche drinks some of the poisonous water that is the village's namesake. It doesn't take effect immediately, but when the villagers pin down Lag and Connor, Niche is only able to defeat Lag's attackers before being paralyzed from the poison, resulting in her and Connor being captured and Lag barely escaping.
  • Lordgenome of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann wasn't fighting anywhere close to his real potential during his fight with Simon, and he still would have won if he had not underestimated Simon's determination. A thousand years of boredom had dulled his edge considerably, as he proved during the final episode.
    • Even more true considering that according with his backstory revealed in the Parallel Works 8, Lord Genome turns against his own comrades in the name of the Anti-Spiral effectively taking down a LEGION OF SPIRAL WARRIORS all by himself, it's more or less stated that Genome, at the time, have the power to defeat the anti-spirals and end the war if he knew what to do but he was convinced and scarred by the truth of the Spiral Nemesis.
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
  • In Tokyo Mew Mew, Ichigo gets attacked by Kisshu in Episode 17 while she's sick, resulting in her being unable to defend herself and the Blue Knight appearing for the first time to save her.
  • The first five Yu-Gi-Oh! series have a trend where the main character defeats a powerful opponent, then loses to the next opponent due to a technicality:
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi defeats Kaiba, then loses to Pegasus because the timer ran out before Summoned Skull could attack Illusionist Face Mage.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Judai/Jaden defeats Dr. Cronos/Crowler, then as soon as he draws Monster Reborn, which could finish off Manjoume/Chazz, they are caught and the duel doesn't finish.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Yusei defeats Ushio/Trudge, but in a flashback, he loses to Jack Atlas because he had no Spell or Trap Cards in his deck.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Yuma defeats Shark, but loses to Takashi/Caswell because he couldn't access his Number Cards.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yuya defeats Strong/Sledgehammer, but loses to Yuzu/Zuzu because he couldn't figure out Pendulum Summoning.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: In Atticus Rhodes' duel with Aster Phoenix, Tragoedia interferes and uses dark magic to paralyze Atticus, preventing him from activating his facedown card that could have stopped Aster's final attack. Aster doesn't notice the interference and gloats, believing he defeated Atticus all by himself.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V:
    • Yuzu loses her Duel with Masumi because she'd been conflicted over the mysterious boy resembling Yuya, causing her to make incredible novice mistakes. She feels horrible over it because it forces a tie-breaker when Gongenzaka forces a draw in his Duel, leaving You Show and LDS 1-1, a match that, had Reiji not forfeited in a major hurry, would have surely went to LDS. When Yuzu and Masumi have their rematch in the Maiami City Tournament, Yuzu gives Masumi a great Duel and comes up on top.
    • Gongenzaka's Tag Duel with Sawatari against the Tyler Sisters in the Xyz Dimension was stacked against his favor because of two reasons: (1) His Superheavy Samurai deck heavily relies on having no Spell/Trap Cards in his Graveyard (while Sawatari's deck heavily relies on those), and (2) each tag team shares the same field and Graveyard, leading to their defeat off-screen. Of course, Yuya lampshaded this when he learned about their loss. Also, Sawatari's playstyle would be crippled if he tried to accommodate to Gongenzaka due to how Spell-reliant his Abyss Actor deck is.

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