History InformedAbility / AnimeAndManga

* ''Franchise/GundamExpandedUniverse'':

** According to background materials, the GM Sniper II from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' was [[EliteMooks the most advanced mass production mobile suit]] made by the Federation during the war, with specs rivaling or even surpassing ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the original Gundam]]''. Less than a minute after their introduction, they were all destroyed off-screen by the Kämpfer.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'' does this to Kio Asuno, the third-generation protagonist. Initially, he's an inexperienced pilot who relies on the power of the Gundam, [[PsychicPowers his X-Rounder abilities]], and his wingmates to get through battle. As the series progresses, everyone starts talking about what a great pilot he is, except he's still entirely reliant on the Gundam, his X-Rounder abilities, and his wingmates to survive--as soon as he's deprived one of those three things, he starts losing.

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'', the Gustav Karl made an appearance. According to the background, it was a next generation mobile suit that wouldn't officially enter service until [[Literature/MobileSuitGundamHathawaysFlash a decade later]]. It was easily disabled by a Jesta before it could even fight back (though its pilot was caught completely off guard, and was eating snack in the cockpit when he was attacked). It was similarly curbstomped by the technologically inferior Dijeh in Anime/MobileSuitGundamNarrative.

** A number of characters are lauded, mainly by the fanbase, for their masterful tactical abilities, particularly Gohan and Piccolo. While they're not stupid most of the time, they rarely display anything more complicated than the occasional misdirection ploy, and seem to hold the IdiotBall with about the same frequency as everyone else. Both of them were even OutGambitted by [[DumbMuscle Super Buu]]. Goku is in fact usually the one to do this, being able to think a few steps ahead in a fight to get what he wants (such as rescuing Kami after he was swallowed by Piccolo, done by tricking Piccolo to grow so large he could jump into his mouth).

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', the OMNI Enforcer's Windam was said to be a high performance unit, yet just like almost every other grunt suit in the series, they drop like flies whenever they face named characters in combat (at one point, ''thirty'' of them were destroyed by ''two'' main characters). The sole-exception was the AceCustom piloted by Neo Roanoke.

** ''Manga/StoneOcean'' gives a RandomPowerRanking to most Stands, and mostly they add up or at least make sense at a glance... except the one for Ermes Costello's Stand, Kiss. Kiss lets Ermes place a sticker on an object, which duplicates it and can be removed at any time, causing the duplicated objects to merge back together and be damaged. Sounds gimmicky, but useful, about in line with your average Stand. Its stats? A-rank in Destructive Power, Range, Speed, Persistence, and Developmental Potential, and C-rank in Precision. They're the highest recorded for a Stand [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale with all its stats listed]][[note]]the only one to tie it is Red Hot Chili Pepper, and that was only after absorbing most of Morioh's electricity[[/note]]. Going by those stats, Kiss should be doing things like exceeding the speed of light, shattering brick walls with a single punch, and showing off new abilities in every other fight, pulling off tricks on the level of BigBad Stands like The World, Killer Queen, or King Crimson. Suffice to say, Ermes never demonstrates anything even slightly resembling this kind of power. If anything, in the ([[OutOfFocus few]]) fights she has in the series, she comes across as WeakButSkilled.

* ''Manga/KenganAshura'''s Nezu Masami is noted in his pre-fight introduction to have been, at one point, the champion of the underground promotion Bishamon, an organization comparable to Kengan. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't exactly get a chance to show this off, as he ends up defeated by his opponent, the FragileSpeedster Rei Mikazuchi, so quickly that it sets an in-universe record. Even other fighters who lose their sole onscreen bouts or get outright curbstomped still tend to get a chance to strut their stuff, while Nezu's only move we see in any detail is the kick he uses to break his own helmet.

** ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'': Supposedly, [=MagnaGarurumon=] and [=EmperorGreymon=] transcend the Warrior Ten that all but indicated to be {{Physical God}}s. In the show itself however, the two ''frequently'' get steamrolled by foes that they theoretically could beat without degenerating into uphill battles (even discounting the Royal Knights, they have trouble dealing with three [=SkullSatamon=] at one point) and even the battles they won are won only barely. The end result is the two having the worst win rate out of any anime protagonist's Mega forms (4 wins, 5 losses and 2 draws for [=EmperorGreymon=] and 3 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws for [=MagnaGarurumon=]) and making them look like ''failures'', that even the original [=WarGreymon=] and [=MetalGarurumon=] has a higher win-rate compared to their supposedly "superior" counterparts (defeating four Mega-level villains and only losing to Piedmon). It doesn't help that the duo of Megas aren't seen again after Lucemon unceremoniously throws them around one last time.

* The Royal Knights from ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'' are a downplayed example. In their first couple of encounters with them, they gave the main cast a hard time that required the intervention of another Royal Knight opposing them. But after unlocking Burst Mode in their following battles, almost half of the knights start dropping like flies until they switched sides and spent the remainder of the series keeping both the Human and Digital World’s apart.

** Of all the people said to be users of [[AwesomenessIsAForce Conqueror's Haki]] three have never been seen to use it. Boa Hancock, who mentions she can use it in reaction to Luffy using it, Sengoku, although in his case it was on an info card, and Eustass Kidd, who was mentioned by Kaido as being able to use it. This is especially JustForFun/{{Egregious}} as even some users of Conqueror's Haki were able to show it as the effect of Conqueror's Haki clashing between two users, yet none of the three have ever been given a chance.

*** Downplayed with Ruka. During her first duel, she is introduced as a "child prodigy" who was a masterful Duelist at a toddler age, but with having only a few duels in the series, it doesn’t seem to come across that way. Still, when she took over for Rua during his duel against Demak, she made the most out of the cards she had available and managed to win within a few turns, even reclaiming her Ancient Fairy Dragon.

*** Downplayed with Ruka. During her first duel, she is introduced as a "child prodigy" who was a masterful Duelist at a toddler age, but with having only a few duels in the series, it doesn’t seem to come across that way. Still, when she took over for Rua during his duel against Demak, she made the most out of the cards she had available and managed to win within a few turns, even reclaiming her Ancient Fairy Dragon and later proved instrumental in defeating Aporia with Rua and Jack.

* Gates, the villain of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic! The Second Raid'', is supposedly an extremely skilled and dangerous HumongousMecha pilot who leads a team of specially trained hunter-killers for Amalgam, all of whom are equipped with extremely powerful [=BlackBox=] mecha (for a comparison, ''one'' such mecha in the hands of a lower-standing member of the organization fought Sousuke to a standstill three times, killed several {{redshirt}}s and mortally wounded a MauveShirt during the first season). Alas, five minutes after actually entering combat and proving his 'fearsomeness' by killing an overstrained and mentally unstable girl who was using an inferior machine, [[CurbStompBattle he and his entire team are bowled over by Sousuke in one go]] like so many {{mooks}}.
* Takaya “2D-kun” Sato from ''LightNovel/GoldenTime'' has stated that he prefers 2D women over real women. However despite this he shows attraction to Kouko Kaga over the course of the series. One could argue that he is possibly aromantic allosexual as while he shows attraction he never pairs up with any girl unlike the other guys even when their are available women.

* One might be excused for forgetting that Sena Kashiwazaki from ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' is meant to be an academic genius and an athletic prodigy, as the RuleOfFunny means she regularly falls for painfully obvious tricks and the RuleOfSexy means her general method of movement is clumsy enough to invoke plenty of swinging shots of her giant boobs. She's also laughably clueless, although in that regard she may be justified due to her absurd wealth making her unfamiliar with the way the "real world" works.

*** Ruka is introduced as a "child prodigy" who was a masterful Duelist at a toddler age. However, the closest thing she has to a win on her own is forcing a draw in the first season, with her other Duels being mostly carried by her tag partners (in her final Duel of the series, she plays a total of ''two'' cards on her own, only one of which does anything meaningful), and what strategies we see from her don't exactly make her look like a born genius.

* One might be excused for forgetting that Sena Kashiwazaki from ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' is meant to be an academic genius and an athletic prodigy, as the RuleOfFunny means she regularly falls for painfully obvious tricks and the RuleOfSexy means her general method of movement is clumsy enough to invoke plenty of swinging shots of her GagBoobs. She's also laughably clueless, although in that regard she may be justified due to her absurd wealth making her unfamiliar with the way the "real world" works.

** Kakashi states a few times that Sakura specialized in genjutsu before becoming a medic, including stating that he specifically trained her in it. Despite that, Sakura never casts even a single genjutsu in the entire series.

* In ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', Queen Mariella tells Naofumi that she repeatedly sent adventurer parties to him to try and make up for the nastiness of her husband and daughter. He breaks down in response. The only time on-screen that a party tried to recruit Naofumi, they tried to mug him for what little money he had.

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Zeke is held up as the "Strongest Warrior" of all the titan shifters, but barring his offscreen fight against Reiner, all of his victories only occur when he has an overwhelming advantage, such as Mike being trapped atop a house with nothing to grapple onto or Survey Corps being unable to move as he throws rocks at them over and over. Twice Levi utterly obliterates him and the dozens of titans he brought as backup. Then against the Mid-East Alliance, Zeke only manages to throw a couple shells before he's taken out in a single shot from their anti-titan cannons.