History NominalHero / AnimeAndManga

* Xiaxi, the protagonist of ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'', is intentionally morally ambiguous. Her only goal is to survive, but in order to do so, she has to cause young men to fall in love with her even though she has zero intention of ever reciprocating and has every intention of abandoning them the moment they do. Despite her completely selfish motivation, she just so happens to be an otherwise good influence on her targets: The wild Mingluan becomes more focused, the narcissist Mingyi becomes more thoughtful and less selfish and the impulsive and lazy Jun'er starts shaping up to be a responsible and mature leader.

* ''WebComic/OnePunchMan'' has several examples, which helps underscore its critique of superheroes being a paid government service like the police and fire department. S-Class hero Metal Knight only cares about developing his weapons technology and sees protecting the innocent as a side-effect. A-Class hero Amai Mask is a {{Bishonen}} pop idol who cares more about appearance than saving lives and has enough sway with the Hero Association that he gets a say over which heroes are allowed to advance to S-Class. The protagonist Saitama initially only cares about getting fans, but [[WhatYouAreInTheDark his actions when the cameras are off]] show that he's actually very noble deep down. Genos also starts the series as an example of the Revenge variation of this trope but grows out of it thanks to interacting with Saitama. A major defining moment comes with the end of the alien invasion: Saitama and Genos help fight off the invaders while Metal Knight and Amai Mask only show up after the battle is over, the former to salvage the alien spaceship for tech, and the latter so he can bawl out the other heroes for not doing a good enough job (in his opinion) and [[EstablishingCharacterMoment slaughter some aliens who had already surrendered]].

* The titular Healer of ''Anime/RedoOfHealer'' is a sadistic, revenge-obsessed SerialRapist who starts wars against entire kingdoms and demonic realms just to get back on a few "heroes" who raped and abused him in his adventurer career. He delights in capturing those who abused him, subjecting them to horrific rape and ColdBloodedTorture, and brainwashes two of his victims to put into his pocket as obedient slaves. He's only considered a hero because all of his enemies are literally just sociopathic {{Asshole Victim}}s who do similar things as him but are even less sympathetic.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Mayuri's sole interest is to work for the advancement of scientific discovery and much of his science does prove beneficial to Soul Society. For example, he's the person the [[CombatMedic Fourth Division]] goes to when a patient needs organ transplants. However, he's a sociopath who doesn't care at all for his subordinates and sees everybody as either a tool or a research experiment (which are often cruel and sadistic in nature); he'll go to any lengths ForScience WordOfGod states he's an example of necessary evil.

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' has quite a number of these, but Denji, the main lead, is a big candidate. Having spent much of his life deprived of any real comforts, his only motivation for a lot of the early chapters is just to enjoy what he has, now that he can afford to put jam on his bread and sleep in a real bed. He self-admittedly notes in one chapter that he only sides with humanity because they're currently giving him what he wants, and doesn't start taking truly altruistic actions until very late.