History BigDamnHeroes / AnimeAndManga

* Protagonists of {{shonen}} FightingSeries tend to do this so many times in their respective anime that it becomes tired and clichéd after a while. Notorious perpetrators of this trope include Goku from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Ichigo from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Kenshiro from ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', and ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. It has become more and more common to invert this by having the protagonist bailed out at some point (usually during the first fight with a stronger foe) by one of the supporting characters. Listing the complete list of times this happens in this type of show would be a page-eating exercise in pure madness.

** In the climax scene from the film ''Anime/OnePieceFilmStrongWorld'', the entire crew minus Nami (who was thrust into the role of DamselInDistress) burst into the BigBad's hideout, wearing {{badass longcoat}}s and wielding pistols and rifles, begin to [[MoreDakka open fire]] on all the {{Mooks}} as a way of saying hello, before going into action for real.

* For a [[TheMafia Mafia]] gangster [[CardCarryingVillain that insists he's a villain]], ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'''s [[NobleDemon Luck Gandor]] sure ends up doing this a ''lot''. Notable examples include pulling a very timely ClickHello on Dallas Genoard just when Dallas and his buddies have Firo and Ennis at gunpoint, and braining [[DumbMuscle Gustavo Baggetta]] repeatedly with a chair when he finds Gustavo menacing Eve Genoard.

* Touma of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' does this with alarming frequency. Index, Aisa, Misaka [[spoiler: both Mikoto and Imouto]], Hyouka, [[spoiler: Orsola and Kuroko.]] All have been saved by Touma, usually coming from absolutely no where.

* ''LightNovel/ChromeShelledRegios'' when Layton increases his kei in order to save Nina and win the match with the 16th platoon.

* The final episode of ''LightNovel/DragonCrisis'' has an intense one in which [[spoiler:the protagonists arrive with a squadron of Society members to hijack an airplane and save the main character's love interest, Rose. This includes an ice dragon freezing the runway, a Society member ''crashing a helicopter into the cockpit'', and another character falling onto the kidnaper, Onyx...''WITH A CAR.'' All to the truly epic music "Run & Gun."]]

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', Sousuke tends to have entrances like these to save the day. In fact, the amount of times he does this to his ArchEnemy Gauron are so numerous, Gauron eventually {{lampshades}} it mockingly. In the finale of the first season, Gauron tackles Sousuke (while in their [[HumongousMecha AS]]), and holds him down while he [[TakingYouWithMe tries to self destruct]], teasingly telling Sousuke: "Well well, how do you like this? It's such a disgrace like this, isn't it? You can't act like a big damn hero and save the day in a cool way." Guess what: [[spoiler:He does it anyways]].

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': This tends to be played with as much as played straight, with Akira usually answering a DistressCall and then needing a GunshipRescue of his own.

* In ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'', the HardDrinkingPartyGirl MagicalGirl (No, really) Margery Daw has a Big Damn Heroes moment. Both she and her {{Sidekick}}''/''EmpathicWeapon [[LampshadeHanging point out]] that this is "Nice timing".

* Moroha does this in Episode 2 of ''LightNovel/WorldBreakAriaOfCurseForAHolySwordsman'', which ends up saving Ranjou and Urushibara, both of whom were completely outclassed by the hydra they were fighting.

** AAAAND in another chapter, we have [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Laxus]] saving [[TokenMiniMoe Wendy]], [[LeeroyJenkins Natsu]], [[TheChick Lucy]], [[InnocentFanserviceGirl Grey]], and [[TheBigGuy Erza]].

* ''LightNovel/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense'': During the 4th event Sally pushes herself to her limit alone and eventually gets surrounded by the Order of the Holy Sword led by Frederica. After messaging her guild members that she's about to die, she still puts up a good LastStand but eventually collapses from exhaustion. At this moment [[spoiler:Maple makes an [[DynamicEntry explosive appearance from the sky]], creates some defensive walls, equips Machine God, picks up Sally, flies into the sky, and blasts about 70 members of the Holy Sword]]. A rescue that Sally believed was impossible due to how far out she was from others.

* Kan, Kan, Kan, Maaya Kan of ''Manga/{{BioMeat|Nectar}}'', who has actually lampshaded the trope by stating that an entrance should be dramatic. Shingo has even called him out (accurately!) for hiding in wait for the perfect moment to appear.

** First is towards the end of Minagoroshi-hen, with [[spoiler:Keiichi, Rena, Mion and Shion saving Rika and Satoko from the Yamainu, only to be subverted by the main villain showing up and personally [[KillEmAll murdering them all]].]]

* ''Manga/FairyTail'':

*** It is safe to say that Mashima Hiro is REALLY into this trope.

** Chapters 273 & 275 have more than can be believed. [[spoiler:Chapter 273 has Kuu Fei bashing Kurt Godel with her [[MartialArtsStaff artifact]]...through a wall. Followed by Takahata making his reappearance by smashing Godel in the face with a full-force blow. Chapter 275 has Takane & Mei, then Yue, and finally Mana all making their Big Damn Heroes moments. Mana's is [[DodgeThis particularly epic]].]]

** Chapters 273 & 275 have more than can be believed. [[spoiler:Chapter 273 has Kuu Fei bashing Kurt Godel with her [[SimpleStaff artifact]]...through a wall. Followed by Takahata making his reappearance by smashing Godel in the face with a full-force blow. Chapter 275 has Takane & Mei, then Yue, and finally Mana all making their Big Damn Heroes moments. Mana's is [[DodgeThis particularly epic]].]]

* BadassBiker [[BikerBabe Babe]] Houquet's [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introductory scene]] in ''Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada'' is this when she appears as a mysterious fighter [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority clad in red armor]] saving Mint and Ray.

** And 611 has '''''[[UpToEleven the entire united shinobi army]]''''' showing up to help Naruto, Guy, Kakashi, and B take on the 10 tails! Subverted when they fail to do anything of value whatsoever. But they looked [[RuleOfCool badass]] while doing it!

** The second ''Pretty Cure All Stars'' movie has a funny one: [[spoiler: The Heartcatch and Fresh girls are evenly matched against the bad guys and it looks like the baddies are ready to cut loose. Cue the arrival of the Max Heart, Splash Star and Yes teams, who quickly join their Cure companions and defiantly tell them they aren't taking the MacGuffin! Cure Blossom suddenly starts flailing at them while Cure Marine wonders [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters where these people came from?!]]]].

* ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'': [[spoiler:Ayumi]] escapes from the Kyokuto gang, but they chase her until she's [[NoEscapeButDown backed up against a cliff]]. Just as they're about to rape her, [[spoiler:Ryuji]] shows up and takes them out with a few {{roundhouse kick}}s.

* ''Manga/{{Life}}'' is a rather realistic, though exagerrated, SliceOfLife series. However the scene where Ayumu and Hatori get saved from being gang-raped and left for dead in an abandoned series really seems unusual. It's full of buildings catching on fire, dramatic CleanPrettyReliable, and overall may just be the most dramatic scene in the manga.

** Most recently, Kaoru of the Shimon Family, followed closely by [[spoiler: Yamamoto himself]], both of them against [[spoiler: Arc BigBad Daemon Spade]].

** In ''Anime/PokemonGenerations'', we get this a few times. It's {{subverted}} in [[Recap/PokemonGenerationsE11TheNewWorld Episode 11]] when a rescue attempt by Cynthia is aborted by Giratina appearing and taking out Cyrus of Team Galactic. Played straight in [[Recap/PokemonGenerationsE12TheMagmaStone Episode 12]] when Detective Looker's Croagunk halts Heatran from vaporizing Buck.

* In the first ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' movie, Batou arrives just in time to save the Major near the end. In the 2nd movie, the roles are reversed.

** In Chapter 263, Gash has just fallen to Zeon/Zeno, and nobody else is still around who can match Zeon in a straight-up battle. As the heroes need to get away to heal Gash, [[WildCard Papipurio]] launches a smokescreen to help them and, more blatantly, Cherish and Nicole use their new sniping spell to attract Zeon's attention. And two chapters later, it turns out she had a bigger gambit planned: luring Zeon away from his psychic partner so that the latter couldn't warn him about her sniping the restraints off of Gash's captive allies.

** Two different non-typical examples occur in the team's match against Team Masho. In the first, Yusuke was disqualified from the last of the five fights on a technicality due to the opposing team's manager bribing the officials, Hiei and The Masked Fighter have been trapped behind a barrier throughout the entire match and, thus, are disqualified as well, and Kurama lost his (third) match [[ItMakesSenseInContext thanks to the life-sucking plant growing in his bloodstream.]] The only option left to them seems to be [[TokenEvilTeammate Hiei]]'s killing spree idea. They are saved from that by [[{{Determinator}} Kuwabara]], who had previously let three BrainwashedAndCrazy fighters beat him senseless to snap them back to normal, draging his broken and bloody body into the ring so that a trained fighter can make it more broken and bloody. The second example occurs during this fight. Kuwabara is rather predictably not doing well. Risho happily informs Kuwabara that his body is tapping into his spirit energy just to keep him moving, meaning he can't summon his spirit sword. Kuwabara takes this in stride and [[CastFromHitPoints decides to use his own life energy]] to end the match with a double kill, which will count as a win for his side. He says goodbye to his friends, charges in screaming, and grapples Risho in mid-attack. Before Kuwabara can off himself, his love interest Yukina arrives. [[PowerOfLove This give him the strength to]] bitch-slap Risho across the whole damn stadium.

** [[Recap/ZombieLandSagaE03 In episode 3]], Ai and Junko, finally snapping out of a two episode-long funk, come in at the last minute to save Franchouchou's performance after an almost-disastrous slip up.

* This happened often in the first two seasons of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', complete with some great background music.
** When Brock made his first appearance in 'Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire'', in "You Can Never Taillow", he suddenly appeared and used Forretress to scatter a flock of Taillow that were terrorizing Ash, May, and Max.

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Smith]] tries to kill Bootsvorz with a missile for failing him many times after he attacked Osamu. Bootsvorz would’ve suffer the same fate as - or worse - than Osamu, have it not been for Hayato and Asurada GSX taking a shortcut to arrive in the nick of time, leaving Smith distracted [[spoiler:and it leads to his death.]]

** Smith tries to kill Bootsvorz with a missile for failing him many times after he attacked Osamu. Bootsvorz would’ve suffer the same fate as - or worse - than Osamu, have it not been for Hayato and Asurada GSX to come in the nick of time, as he takes a shortcut, [[spoiler:which leads to Smith’s death.]]

* In ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'', at the climactic end of the no-rule [[BloodSport Fireball race]], it looks like Hayato is heading towards defeat when the leading car trails behind him and tries to destroy Asurada with a device. Cue Kaga, who seems to be out of the race after a crash, appearing out of nowhere to [[CarFu crash his Proto-Jaguar]] head-first into the other car while injuring himself in the process. This allows Hayato to win the race.