Thread Mode Natter and Justifying Edits moved here. Move the example back if it just has to be back in the main page. I'm not familiar with some of the examples in question, so if there seemed to be a major problem with an example because of the natter, I moved it here.
Bleach. Ichigo is ludicrously overpowered at every stage of the story, and the writer intends to keep it that way, it seems. Occasionally, by which we mean all the time, he will find a rival of some sort who is able to keep pace with him (Ishida) or trounce him soundly (Renji, among others), only to be once again far above that person after some training or a turnaround or even just time passing. And that's when Ichigo isn't being overpowered just by his innate properties (insanely high Reiatsu and the luck to become a Vaizard).
Partially averted with some of the top-tier Shinigami. Kenpachi has yet to be defeated by anybody including Ichigo himself (despite not having even the low-tier Shinigami powers), and Old Man Yamamoto has only ever been in trouble once, when his powers were sealed during a Filler arc.
Additionally, it seems as though Chad, Uryu and Renji are only able to take out Elite Mooks (except for the Amagai arc, when Uryu and Chad fought the Quirky Miniboss Squad), and are unable to fight against the upper-tier enemies. Since they end up separated from Ichigo or recovering from their wounds for much of the arc, they are rarely able to contribute, and when they do, it rarely impacts what Ichigo is doing.
In the Soul Society arc, Uryu was able to defeat a Captain, but did so in a way that caused him to burn out his powers immediately afterward.
Among English-speaking fans, Renji, Rukia, Uryu, and Chad are almost universally known as TeamJobber. Orhime can be thought of as a former member, since she doesn't actually fight anymore.
This was especially sad since all of those characters were once able to fight Goku on (at least) equal terms.
And immediately afterward, Vegeta (the only Saiyan fighter other Gohan who's still alive at the time) launches his own attack from behind against Cell. Unlike the others, he actually does enough damage to break Cell's concentration and allow Gohan to overwhelm him in the Beam-O-War.
Blame Filler for that: In the manga only Vegeta attacks Cell (And his attack works because it's unexpected, not strong; he beamspammed Cell before and did no damage), the other characters just stand and watch.
The majority of the cast of Sailor Moon was twice the victim of being picked off within the span of a single episode, only to be resurrected with a Reset Button after the final battle. In the manga, they die EVERY SINGLE ARC, WITHOUT FAIL! And Tuxedo Mask is put under mind control by the villains, possibly AFTER he is dead.
To be fair, the manga was somewhat better about this, as usually the Senshi could at least kill some relatively major villains by themselves, while in the anime they were incapable of even finishing off a Monster of the Week without Sailor Moon's help... Except when they could.
Unfortunately, as of the commencement of the WRGP, this trope is in full effect, with Jack and Aki losing to Andre of Team Unicorn before Yusei proceeds to defeat all three members of the team all by himself.
Possibly, this was only in effect for that set of episodes - the next duel has Crow and Jack taking out Team Catastrophe by themselves, before Yusei even gets on the field.
Speaking of Rua, he seems to be serving as a one man Team Cannon Fodder. In the three duels he's been in so far, he's lost all of them. Strangely, he's not portrayed as that good of a duelist, so it's not an example of The Worf Effect.
Any quidditch scene in Harry Potter. The seeker on the team can, in one move, score fifteen goals and end the game right away. Which means that in most cases the seeker, I.E Harry in most matches in the stories, is the only one that makes a real difference.
Hey, be fair. A team can catch the Snitch and still lose. It's happened in canon.
Plus, the winning margin itself is important in rankings. Gryffindor had to have at least a 60 more points before Harry could get the Snitch or they would win the match and lose the championship. Probably works the same in the World Cup as well, and if it doesn't, the Irish show why a good Seeker isn't necessary nor is it an instant win.
Ben 10 in almost any episode, and always using the second variation. After all, Ben's the one with the alien superpowers, so he's gonna be the hero. Gwen and Grandpa Max are, if anything, abnormally capable of holding their own under the circumstances, occasionally even managing to rise to partial subversions on occasion. Judging by a flawed Aesop attempt in the Cape Canaveral episodes, someone may wish to explain this to Gwen, who appears quite jealous of Ben's capabilities, especially since the she and Grandpa Max are becoming more and more capable as the series go on, with Gwen even going so far as to start learning magic.
Fully averted in Ben 10 Alien Force, with Gwen and Kevin having powers equal to (and in some ways, more useful and flexible than) Ben's aliens. Coupled with Kevin's Troubled, but Cute status, fancy car, and number of clever one liners (not to mention the massive amounts of shipping speculated to be a case of reversing Ben and Gwen's Kissing Cousins vibe), Kevin seems to be coming into his own.
Your Mileage May Vary. Kevin is by far the weakest link of his group, the strongest one being Gwen or Ben. As a matter of fact, Kevin suffers from the Worf Effect more often than not.
In Jackie Chan Adventures the Enforcers ultimately become this, as they are sometimes in a story just to give Jackie something to fight at while other characters (usually Uncle) are fixing the problem or taking care of the more important objectives. In this respect, sometimes Jackie himself can be considered cannon fodder since his objective sometimes is just to provide a destraction while Uncle fixes something. Also, to a lesser extent the agents of Section 13 could qualify since usually they can't defeat the Big Bad through conventional means, thus leaving the main characters to have to face off alone.
To be fair, at one point, Captain Black wanted his Section 13 agents and him to try rocket launchers against Shendu when it looked as if Jackie was knocked out against him. Uncle never gave them a chance.
Thread Mode Natter and Justifying Edits moved here. Move the example back if it just has to be back in the main page. I'm not familiar with some of the examples in question, so if there seemed to be a major problem with an example because of the natter, I moved it here.