Beware The Silly Ones / Anime & Manga

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Following Anime & Manga has its own page:

• One Piece

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• Akame ga Kill! has Sheele. She is so awkward that she can not handle even the smallest chores without causing chaos. But she is also a good fighter and a very effective contract killer.
  • Another example is Leone. Most of the time she behaves like a playful party girl who likes to drink a lot. But she does not tolerate injustice, she kills her opponents cruelly and mercilessly, and she is by far the most physically strong in her entire group.
• Mr. Percival Pompous, as he's called in the 1960's version of Astro Boy, seems a ninny comic relief from his whiny voice and habit of falling on his face; when action is needed, though, he's a tough fighter and a crack shot. Plus a reasonably good detective.
• Tamako Kaneda from Battle Club is very clumsy and often injures herself. She is absent minded often forgetting the names of people she just met, where she was going and what she was doing. She’s also a natural wrestler with incredible moves.
  • Tondemon Higashi the head coach of the Wrestling Club may appear as just a perverted old man, but he’s a wrestling legend. He was all-japan strong man champion eight times in a row and after his retirement he raised numerous champion wrestlers.
• In Black Butler, we have Lau. You know, the goofy guy who constantly barges into the Phantomhive mansion and irritates the crud out of Ciel? it was all an act. Oh, and he was the head of the Chinese mafia.
  • Also Madame Red. The red-dressed, haired and eyed aunt of Ciel who sees him as her surrogate son? She's half of Jack the Ripper, punishing prostitutes for requesting abortions while she can't have kids because of an accident that also killed her husband; the other half being her seemingly-stupid but highly sociopathic shinigami butler Grell Sutcliff.
    • Grell still fits this trope when in she's in her true shinigami form. Throughout the show, she spends a lot of time being essentially a walking punchline. It's very easy to forget that she's capable of killing people in cold blood, and that she's a strong enough fighter to hold out against Sebastian for several minutes (most people manage about two seconds).
  • The three bungling servants at the Phantomhive mansion. While they seemingly behave incompetently, the truth of the matter is Sebastian hired them as bodyguards to protect the mansion. Bard's a former soldier, Mey-Rin's an ex-professional assassin, and Finny has superhuman strength. The three managed to effectively force a gang of mobsters to retreat in their failed attempt to attack the mansion.
    • Well, they don't so much "force a gang of mobsters to retreat in their failed attempt to attack the mansion" as "brutally murder a group of seven highly trained assassins who were going in to kill them all." The most used sound effect in that chapter was Splat.
  • The Undertaker. He's a ridiculous Cloudcuckoolander who demands payment in jokes. He's also a highly trained shinigami, and as such can be extremely dangerous when he wants to be. Basically, Black Butler has an entire army of comic relief characters, and all of them are capable of doing very unpleasant things to you.
• Charmy Pappitson from Black Clover has a childlike appearance, comical obsession with food, and magical attribute of cotton of all things that makes it seem as though her role is being useless comic relief. That said, she has insane attack power with her giant sheep that even Gauche reluctantly admits, letting her one-shot members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun. Her magic can even cook food that restores magic power, making it incredibly useful. And she later manifests Food Magic, letting her eat enemies' magic and pummel them with a barrage of enhanced punches.
• Bleach: Mashiro Kuna is a doofy Womanchild and Kamen Rider Expy with no real attention span, even having a tantrum in the middle of an investigation because she was hungry. She's also a powerful Visored capable of destroying Gillians with one kick, and capable of holding her mask far longer than her compatriots.
  • On the bad guy's side there was Wonderweiss, a drooling, passive, easily distracted childish Arrancar who was able to beat up several skilled characters on the good guys side, and kept Head Captain Yamamoto at bay for an extended period of time (as he was kept as a secret weapon for the express purpose of doing so by sealing Ryujin Jakka).
• Yukiko Kudo, mother of Case Closed's Shinichi Kudo, is frequently shown to be a ditz with a mischievous streak. She has proven time and again, however, to be a reliable ally in times of need. In the Mystery Train arc, she confronts an old friend who is a member of the bad guys' organization code named "Vermouth" and successfully distracts her long enough for a plan to fake Haibara's death to be implemented while convincing Vermouth that she had successfully stopped them.
• Chainsaw Man's Falling Devil served as a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist to the nightmarish Darkness Devil, with her bizarrely affable mannerisms revolving around cooking and the idea of being an Evil Chef, which don't even have any connection to the fear she embodies, as well as her tendency to actually get injured in combat (albeit with absolutely no permanent effect) lends her a certain comedic air around her appearances. However, her status as a Primal Fear makes her one of the most powerful threats in the setting, and simply her mere presence on Earth disrupted the planet's gravity and caused mass casualties on a global scale.
• Every single recurring character from City Hunter has a measure of silliness, ranging from Kazue (the sanest one) having infiltrated a large corporation by getting engaged to the son of the CEO to Ryo's perverted and generally insane antics (when he got drunk and came home with various objects, a statue of Colonel Sanders, and a toddler, he and Kaori were surprised only at the toddler, because it was the first time he brought one home). All of them are also incredibly dangerous, ranging from Kazue being able to prepare poisons that kill you in five minutes or make you impotent to Ryo being a One-Man Army who can use a revolver to put six bullets in the same hole at fifteen meters and a rifle to shoot a belt from one kilometer away. Even Kaibara is this: on one side he's almost as much of a goofball as Ryo, on the other he's one of the few men in the world who can match Ryo with a handgun and controls a gigantic syndicate.
• In Claymore there is Dauf. He is not exactly smart, but he had third place among the first-generation warriors, and is one of the strongest Awakened Being there is.
• Prince Clovis from Code Geass is depicted as a buffoon and is loved by his siblings, but he ordered his men to indiscriminately slaughter everyone they came across in order to cover up his mistakes. One wonders what other atrocities he might have gone on to casually commit had Lelouch not shot him after interrogating him. The fact he had also captured an immortal and was experimenting on her suggests even more skill than initially seen.
• Matsuda Touta from Death Note has a well-earned reputation as The Ditz, to the point where he's a Phrase Catcher of the words "Matsuda, you idiot!". When Matsuda realizes that Light is actually Kira, he breaks emotionally and shoots Light's hand when he tries to use a piece of the Death Note. When Light tries again, Matsuda (who was once or twice hinted to be a decent marksman despite his silliness) flies into a furious Unstoppable Rage and then turns Light into Swiss cheese with a barrage of bullets, only prevented from delivering the Coup de Grâce by the other officers.
  Matsuda: I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM! HE HAS TO DIE!
  • This also applies to the one who actually delivers the Coup de Grâce: Ryuk. As silly as Ryuk as been, he is still a shinigami at the end of the day, and he did warn Light that he intended to write Light's name in the titular notebook once he got bored.
• The Millennium Earl in D.Gray-Man looks like an obese grinning goblin with an umbrella that makes him fly like Marry Poppins and often ends his speech bubbles with a heart. Despite this, though, do remember that he's the God of Evil.
• Etemon in Digimon Adventure. Yes, he's a wannabe rock star comedy monkey (and an Elvis Impersonator in the dub), but that never stopped him from curbstomping the protagonists every time they saw him. The fact that he's a level higher than them and can negate their ability to powerup helps tremendously. He also managed to throw their leader, Taichi, back to the real world, resulting in the break up of the team left behind in the Digital World. He did it by dying, mind you, but that was a lot better than his predecessor Devimon did. He comes back as the Mega level MetalEtemon, still as hammy and comical as ever, then has an even match with the Dark Master Pinochimon and relentlessly chases two of the Chosen Children for the next couple of episodes. He's eventually defeated, but not before he kicks off the franchise's Running Gag of killing Leomon at least once a series.
  • Pinochimon and Piemon are silly, fun-loving, Mega-level sociopaths. The latter gets bonus points for also being a Monster Clown.
• Another Digimon entry would be the protagonists of the V Tamer manga Taichi and Zeromaru (a V-dramon). They call themselves the "100% Combination" as up to the story start, they haven't lost a match with paired together. That record holds throughout most of the series, even against mon of a higher level, with the first and only exception being Arkadimon near the very end. They are also prone to Victory Dances, and other bouts of light-hearted messing about, not even five seconds after they've won.
• The titular character of Doraemon may be silly, befitting the Kodomomuke nature of the series, but he falls along Cosmic Weight in the Super Weight scale. Even when they're all granted by items rather than inherent powers and have some limitations, they allow him to (among other things) stop time, travel across time, bend reality, travel to different reality, and even create a new universe. As a school project.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Ginyu Force from Dragon Ball Z, five goofy manchildren whose poses are Serious Business as they play rock-paper-scissors to decide who fights who and bet candies on who wins. Their power levels and/or their physical and special abilities, on the other hand, are no laughing matter. Guldo alone would have killed Krillin and Gohan had Vegeta not stepped in. The three together were absolutely no match for any one of the other four, getting utterly curb-stomped by Recoome until Goku did his Big Damn Heroes moment. Even after he showed up, Captain Ginyu himself gained the upper hand for a bit by switching bodies with Goku, and would have only gotten stronger had he learned to properly utilize Goku's body.
  • Also the last villain of the series, Majin Buu — a fat, childish, bubblegum-pink creature, which nevertheless was rightfully seen as the most dangerous entity in the universe.
  • Goku, especially when he was a kid. Because of how naive and childish he was, he had no problem playing hide-and-seek with his enemies, choosing to eat over fight, or just act like a goofball in the middle of a battle. Despite this, he still kicked his opponents' butts, and not let's get started on what happens when he is serious. This is downplayed when he is an adult since most of his silly moments happens outside the battlefield. When he fights, he usually drops all the silliness.
  • Yajirobe is usually a comic relief character in Dragon Ball Z; he's a slob who spends most of his time eating, and has No Social Skills. However, he was able to turn the battle between Goku and Vegeta around by ambushing Vegeta (who had assumed his giant ape form) and slicing his tail off, forcing him back into his humanoid form and letting Goku regain the advantage.
    • Earlier on in Dragon Ball, he manages to fight (an admittedly tired) Goku for a while, and had killed off one of King Piccolo's demon children (who aside from Piano, were all capable of fighting Goku to a standstill) even shrugging off several of his attacks. So Yajirobe is seriously dangerous and superpowerful, just very much Overshadowed by Awesome.
  • From the canon movies and Dragon Ball Super we have Beerus, a Physical God who naps for decades at a time, obsesses over food, and has a butler with him at all times to keep him out of trouble. He is also among the most powerful beings in the universe, second only to Whis, and curb stomps everyone he has ever fought, including Super Saiyan God Goku.
  • Dragon Ball Super introduces Beerus's twin brother Champa, who's just as silly as Beerus (if a little more boorish). Like his twin, Champa is a God of Destruction (specifically, he's from Universe 6), and the second most powerful entity in his universe, behind only his angel assistant, Vados.
  • Dragon Ball Super later introduces Toppo, a denizen of Universe 11 who leads a group called the Pride Troopers, who are basically Super Sentai, and so he poses, names his attacks, and repeats the word 'justice' constantly. He also is being scouted as a potential God of Destruction and can fight Goku on even footing, to the point that ends up being the penultimate opponent of the Tournament of Power for Goku and his allies.
  • The original series had Shen, a normal guy who managed to get to the final 8 of the Tenkaichi Tournament by sheer dumb luck, since he always managed to trip or curl up in a way that succeeded on knocking out or throwing off the ring anyone who fought with him by mere mistake... or so he wants you to believe. In the fight against Yamcha he drops the silly act and reveals he's actually Kami, the god of Earth, borrowing a human body to enter the tournament undetected and fight against Piccolo. The name Shen was a clue, as it's half of Shen-Long's name.
• This often happens to be the case with characters from Fairy Tail. If a character looks or acts in a manner that seems strange, don't be surprised if turns out that they can kick 20 flavours of ass.
• In Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, the titular character is an elven Token Mini-Moe with cloudcuckoolander tendencies stemming from Immortal Immaturity. She's also one of the most powerful mages in the setting, having already defeated Maou the Demon King decades prior alongside her old party, and coldly defeated one of his minions with Psychic-Assisted Suicide after getting her to lower her guard.
• Pictured on the main page is Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist. Of all of the homunculi, he's the only one who's played for laughs, since he's fat, dumb, and overall acts like a lovable dope. There's also the fact that he's very innocent, and only does what he does because his higher-ups tell him to, and he genuinely doesn't see any wrong in what he's doing. However, as his name suggests, he has a bit of a hunger streak. In the manga and Brotherhood, it's not helped when he's reminded of Lust's death by Roy Mustang's hands, which drives him into the monstrous state also shown. In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), he becomes this after Dante steals his rational thought, leaving only his infinite hunger in its place. This leads to him becoming a crazed abomination that attacks friend and foe.
• Aoki Masaru of Hajime no Ippo is routinely the butt of almost every joke at Kamogawa Gym, frequently loses his mind during weight training (going from horribly and hilariously emaciated to excessively and morbidly obese just in the lead-up to a match), has a weak jaw that he must constantly watch out for, and his matches have a tendency to become "mud fights." As a result, he is often considered the worst active boxer in the gym. Nevertheless, his completely unorthodox style of boxing is so insane and ridiculous that it's actually effective. He's a decent outboxer, can fight in both orthodox and southpaw stances, and is extremely skilled at deceiving his opponents through misdirection.
  • One of his most insane "techniques" is the "Look Away" punch, where he will stop abruptly in the middle of a match with a shocked expression, and then slowly look off to the side as if seeing something amazing; at which point, the bewildered opponent will turn to see what they're looking at, allowing Aoki to take advantage of the opening with his Frog Punch. It sounds moronic and ridiculous — but it's actually so effective that even the crowd is fooled into doing it. The amazing thing is that Aoki developed it after realizing that everyone has a human tendency to turn their attention when someone looks to the side at something else. During the first match he employed it, his focus was on getting his opponent to stop throwing punches every second — so he pretended to be weakened early on and then deliberately allowed himself to take a beating from his opponent (who bought the act and tried to go in strong for the KO) for several rounds in a row, blocking the entire time until his stamina was depleted. Cue the Look Away, which Aoki could only do once his opponent was too winded to keep punching.
• Igano Kabamaru: A bunch of thugs made the mistake of harassing Kabamaru while he was dozing off in the garden, not knowing that Saizo's training had resulted in him gaining super strength and legs made of iron. He leaves them apologizing for ever attacking him in the first place.
• Inuyasha shows a heroic example with Jinenji. He is a half-demon, and the prime example of a Gentle Giant. But when he fights, he is a very strong opponent.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders: Jean-Pierre Polnareff is the Butt-Monkey among the Joestar Group, being freaked at the bathroom shenanigans, as well as Iggy's antics throughout the series. He's the first to fall headfirst into the enemy Stand users' traps as well. He's also the only one among the group who has shown active willingness to kill their opponents, and has the highest kill count among the Joestar group (Jotaro's kills come a close second). He's also the other original survivor from the Joestar Group due to his Stand's abilities (Joseph was revived by a blood transfusion). In Part 5, he was the one who tracked down Diavolo, a man known for his intense paranoia and Superpower Lottery to match (if not surpass) DIO's, and introduced Stand Requiems.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable:
    • Okuyasu stands out for being one of the few idiots in a series where everyone is creative. His Stand, however, is very powerful, and he has just enough creativity to defeat Akira Otoishi, who could use electricity on a massive range, and even rob the Big Bad of the part, Yoshikage Kira, of Stray Cat, which allowed him to use ranged attacks and was the reason Josuke didn't beat Kira on his own.
    • Shigechi wasn't threatening in the slightest. He's a fat, dimwitted, greedy kid, and his Stand, Harvest, is a large number of tiny figures that can seek and bring him small stuff. However, when he turned on Josuke and Okuyasu, he not only showcases how terrifying a Stand like his can actually be (fighting one big enemy is much easier then fighting hundred tiny ones), but also used surprisingly clever tactics that allowed Harvest to overpower both of them at the same time. In fact, even though both Josuke and Okuyasu have incredibly powerful Stands themselves, they had to resort to trickery to defeat him.
  • Golden Wind: Pesci is a babyish, cowardly member of the Assassin Squad with a head resembling a pineapple and no discernible neck whose stand, Beach Boy, is a fishing rod with all the power that suggests. When Prosciutto, his 'brother'^note It's implied they're not literally related, but Pesci refers to Prosciutto as 'Fratello' is killed, Pesci gets serious and, despite his seemingly weak Stand power, forces Bucellati to acknowledge that between Pesci and Prosciutto (whose stand ability was to make everyone within a kilometer or so of his position rapidly age to death), Pesci was the more dangerous. It gets to the point Bruno had to get mad to win.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
  • Apachai Hopachai is a Manchild Friend to All Living Things Genius Ditz, whose field of genius happens to be destroying things with his body. "Things" definitely includes buildings and helicopters as well as people. He's known as the Death God of the Muay Thai Underworld for a reason.
  • Ma Kensei is a Dirty Old Man who will go to ridiculous lengths to match up against attractive female opponents when duels are divided up, intends to wear the luchador mask Diego Carlo provided for him in the Master-Disciple Tag-Team Match, and acts with a lack of restraint and dignity exactly opposite to what you would expect a man known as "The Master of All Chinese Bare-Fisted Styles" to. Yet he still lives up to that title spectacularly.
  • Kii Kagerou hands out pamphlets to instruct others in how to avoid being accidentally killed by him, thinks every woman he meets is some undefined previous acquaintance known as "Mi-chan," and is more prone to Art Shift than perhaps any other minor character in the series. He has also killed more people than he can remember.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Present Mic, a very loud and boisterous Life of the Party type whose penchant for Large-Ham Announcer antics makes him Fun Personified versus his Heterosexual Life-Partner Aizawa's moody glumness. However, don't think that just because Mic is a giant goofball that he isn't also wildly dangerous. He's almost certainly Obfuscating Stupidity, as he turns out to be even smarter than Aizawa, and on top of that is scarily ready to brutalize anyone who hurts Aizawa or his late friend Oboro Shirakumo. Witness the assault on UA where Present Mic showed up late to find Shoji carrying away an injured Aizawa. Mic's response? Unhesitatingly turn to face the villains responsible and completely blow out everyone's eardrums with a shout so loud it produced its own wind stream. Later, he finds out that said late friend, Shirakumo, was turned into a Nomu, and when he and Aizawa find the doctor who was responsible, Mic beat the guy to a pulp. He Also says he wants to “have a karaoke contest” and “make a stew with his boiling blood” after the Kurogiri visit at Tartarus. Let that sink in…he wants to literally liquefy and destroy the guys who messed up Oboro.
  • Jin Bubaigawara, aka the supervillain Twice. He's an Affably Evil Cloud Cuckoolander, but his Self-Duplication power is one of the most potentially dangerous Quirks in the entire Legion of Doom, if not the series. Twice is later officially ranked an S-Class villain, higher than Dabi or Toga. Even Hawks considers him the League's most dangerous member.
• Right, so, in Naruto, there's this group of bad guys. After one bites it, this minion of the Man-Eating Plant guy gets promoted to full miniboss-status. He seems kinda lame, but as it turns out, he's not only the organization's founder and secret leader, he's explicitly carrying out the Evil Plan of one of history's most powerful ninjas.
  • And now, he's become the Ten Tails' host. Remember, the last man who did that was the Sage of Six Paths, a man who could have killed Hashirama, The "God of Shinobi" with about as much effort and in as much time as it would have taken to look at him. He also created all ninjutsu and the Tailed Besats. By himself.
  • His partner Deidara was a candidate as well. Sure, his banter about art and his violent temper are funny, but he was able to take out Gaara and didn't do so bad against Sasuke, either.
    • Speaking of Gaara, his demon Shukaku certainly qualifies. While he is amusing to watch and acts like a violent drunk, he is still very dangerous and was more than a match for the boss toad Gamabunta.
  • Might Guy as well. While the guy is a legitimate goofball, Itachi (the man who almost single-highhandedly wiped out one of Konoha's strongest clans) still considered him as a legitimate threat. In fact, he's one of the few characters capable of taking out a member of Akatsuki by himself.
  • Hell, a lot of the cast would fit this trope in some way. You've got Jiraiya, a hopeless pervert and Large Ham who is also so good at what he does that Pain has to hide half of his bodies just to defeat him. Guy's student, Rock Lee delivers Sasuke his first real beatdown of the series, kicks Madara so hard he splits in half and usually has to be a victim of The Worf Effect to be defeated. Even Naruto counts, being a notorious prankster and hyperactive idiot, as well as a serious heavy hitter. He gets his silliness from his mother, Kushina, who survived being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice an hour after giving birth to him and managed to restrain the Kyuubi with chakra chains just to protect her child.
  • The anime also brings us Fujin and Raijin, two massive yet horribly dumb brothers who are incredibly docile as long as they are fed. When they get hungry, they go on rampage and Tsunade, the then Hokage, has to step in herself to subdue them.
• One-Punch Man: Watchdog Man is a generic-looking guy dressed up in a McGruff knockoff suit who seems permanently out of it and apparently took the term City Watchdog way too literally. He also got assigned to the most dangerous city in the country because of his skill, and by the time they could ask him if there was anything to report, there really was nothing to report because he had already killed every monster.
  • Saitama himself is a silly-looking bald guy wearing an even sillier-looking yellow costume. His superhero name is actually "Caped Baldy". He is often seen to be more preoccupied with his groceries or something else equally mundane rather than the Monster of the Week... but make no mistake: that's because he is at such a ridiculous power level that his mundane life is paradoxically more challenging than his superhero deeds. Threaten innocent people in his presence, and, well... you'll see for yourself why he is the main protagonist of a series titled One Punch Man.
  • Many of the S-Class heroes fit this trope in one way or another. Puri-Puri-Prisoner, a bizarre combination of Camp Gay and Manly Gay who lives in prison by choice and frequently rips his clothes off in battle because, well, his Super-Strength and insane pain tolerance make reasonable fighting styles unnecessary. Tank-Top Master, who "uses the Tank-Top fighting style," whatever that means, but, like Prisoner, has super strength, and has the most oversized muscles of all the heroes. Pig God, an impossibly obese man who eats constantly; he also eats and digests his enemies. And, of course, the number-two hero in the world, Terrible Tornado, a name which seems to refer to her obnoxious, childish personality; until you see her in action, absolutely annihilating Godzilla-sized monsters with overpowered telekinesis.
• PandoraHearts: Xerxes Break, the clownish servant of the Rainsworth family that constantly eats candy and carries around a doll on his shoulder. He was once The Red-Eyed Ghost, an infamous Illegal Contractor that murdered over a hundred people being pulled into the Abyss. He's also a Master Swordsman and has a contract with one of the most powerful Chains, the chain-killing Mad Hatter.
  • Also, Jack Vessalius counts, too. That sunshine demeanor and friendly attitude conceals a dangerous and insane underside. Same with Oz. Oz is also quite deadly when provoked. Try to insult Alice and he will cut you down with B-rabbit's scythe. Since he is also B-rabbit, that counts, too.
  • And we can't forget Vincent. He mostly comes off as dangerous to the audience, and a Psycho Supporter to Gil, his older brother, but to most of the characters he's that goofy noble who falls a sleep in the hallways due to an apparent lack of control over his power. Don't you believe it! He's cold and lethal, and if you try to hurt Gil, he will kill you.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Team Rocket would actually succeed in many of their schemes if the twerps didn't get involved. In Best Wishes, the silliness is completely dropped for Jessie and James, and at a minimum for Meowth. XY returns them all to clownish villains, but retains shades of their previously found deadliness, making this trope ever prominent.
  • The Pokémon Poacher brothers from the Larvitar storyline in late-Johto were portrayed this way, while Butch and Cassiday got flanderized into this.
  • There are also just gobs of individual Pokémon in the show that were depicted this way. Some of the best examples include Wobbuffet and the Bellsprout Ash almost lost to in the Indigo League. Wobbuffet became almost entirely a joke character later on, but had a sudden moment of badassery in the first episode of XY. Magikarp when it evolves into Gyarados also fits this trope.
  • Mew spends most of its screentime in the first movie flying around acting cute and silly, in contrast to the serious villain Mewtwo. But when Mewtwo attacks it at the climax, it completely drops its aloof, adorable demeanor and retaliates with equal force. It then engages in a pitched battle with Mewtwo, seemingly as content as he is to fight to the death before Ash intervenes.
  • Ash himself became this in the Sun and Moon series. Due to his Keet mannerisms and slapstick goofiness getting exaggerated, he doesn't get taken seriously that often. When he battles or faces the threat of the week however, he shows them just how long he's been doing this. If you need further proof, this time he finally wins a League even with a team of just five Pokémon. He even beats Tapu Koko as well.
• Pretty Cure:
  • Nozomi Yumehara from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 is clumsy, academic dumb, cheerful and overall a very silly girl. But she was appointed as leader of her team by unanimous vote for a reason. And like a switch getting flipped, as a Cure she's hyper-competent and has no problem utterly obliterating her enemies. Once, her team was losing against Mucardia, but she simply advanced and strongly gripped his wrist, all the while talking down to him and that scared him enough to retreat.
  • Miyuki Hoshizora from Smile PreCure! is pretty scatterbrained and a huge klutz but she's also the most determined among her team and willingly jumped into Joker's Ball of Neglect to save them. She possesses latent powers that proven to be the most powerful among her entire group, being capable of unleashing large and incredibly strong beams, destructive lasers, and holy light-based attacks and can even transform into a powerful goddess-like entity with the size of a planet.
  • Manatsu Natsuumi from Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is perhaps one of the silliest protagonists of the series. But all that silliness hides a smart, responsible and charismatic person, willing to do everything she can for her friends. And as a Cure, she shows several times how seriously she takes her job. There's a reason why a lot of students come to respect and be inspired by her.
  • Sora Harewataru from Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure is an extremely Large Ham and you will find yourself amused by her actions most of the time. However when fighting, she shows no mercy to her enemies but she also follow her ideals in a truly admirable way. It's a lot to say that when she gave Battamonda an Implied Death Threat if he kidnapped Elle even when she was exhausted, he was so terrified of her that he retreated.
• In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, Vidan's desire to marry his mother, the Demon Lord, is goofy and he's an effeminate Sissy Villain. He's also more than willing to stir up racism and induce violent riots to manipulate others and commit mass murder.
• Rurouni Kenshin has Kenshin, who is usually a polite, obvious moron ... and, if you push him too far, the legendary assassin Hitokiri Battousai.
• Sailor Moon examples:
  • Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon is a ditzy schoolgirl who cries, whines and eats a lot. But she's also a powerful Magical Girl who will fight with teeth, nails and magic to protect those she cares for. And in the first anime she actually tried to murder Minako's rival in love (thankfully, Minako talked her down, and in time she mellowed out).
  • Minako Aino/Sailor Venus, whom Usagi/Sailor Moon's character was based off of, is comically over-the-top, occasionally makes bad jokes, and uses Malapropisms like no tomorrow. She's also The Leader of the Senshi, extremely powerful (the most powerful of the inner guardian senshi in the manga), capable of scaring the arc villains senseless with her sheer power, and has a habit of brushing off excruciating attacks that cause all of the other Sailor Senshi to pass out from pain, and killed her own true love because he was with the Dark Kingdom, only offering him a single chance to stand down before she killed him and going through it the moment he tried to attack.
• The main character of Sasuga no Sarutobi is a perverted, meatball-shaped, troublemaker who jokes about everything. He's also near-invincible in battle.
• Hanamichi Sakuragi of Slam Dunk is a beginner at the sport of basketball and it shows (sometimes even becoming The Load to team Shohoku), adding that he's got a short temper and tendency to make a fool of himself while trying to be impressive. When he gets really focused, however, he's capable of very impressive plays, and more than once he's been instrumental on helping his team pull through, often surprising those who disregard him as a joke.
• Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle: Princess Aurora Syalis Goodereste, the eponymous Sleepy Princess, seems like just a lazy and scatter-brained young woman, but she proves to be very dangerous if her sleep is disturbed.
• Lord Death of Soul Eater. The goofy face, goofy voice, and general jokester personality can make you forget he's the guy who handed the Kishin his ass in a bag made of his own skin all those years ago. And be warned, Lord Death is by no means rusty.
• Enji Koma of Tokyo Ghoul is a prime example of not judging Ghouls based on their every-day personality and looks. Most of the time, he's a goofy Big Brother Mentor to the other staff at Anteiku, and brags about being a Retired Badass. He's generally dismissed by the younger employees, but proves he isn't all talk when CCG raids the cafe. Turns out, he used to be the leader of one of the most infamous gangs in Tokyo and spending his days serving coffee hasn't dulled his strength in the least bit.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul: re, Sasaki Haise might normally be a goofy, bumbling Pungeon Master who's too soft on his subordinates, but catch him in the wrong moment and he suddenly doesn't seem so approachable. This is a side-effect of his past self — Kaneki Ken — resurfacing whenever he uses his kagune.
• Vash the Stampede from Trigun. He acts cowardly and stupid, providing general comic relief through out the show, but is in fact incredibly dangerous. If you piss him off (by hurting... pretty much any living thing) he can — and will — execute six precision quickdraw shots on your body, any one of which could cripple you. Why six, you ask? Because his revolver only has six chambers.
• Fay D. Fluorite from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- is a big source of comic relief, but when push comes to shove, you don't want to be pitted against an insanely powerful, well-trained mage who knows hand-to-hand combat and is skilled with both a normal bow and a crossbow. Not to mention that he gets turned into a Vampire half way through the series, complete with Wolverine Claws which he makes good use of as Fei Wang Reed's Mooks learn the hard way.
• It would be easier to list the characters from Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun who aren't this, as the world is abundant with goofy, silly characters who are nonetheless very powerful and not ones to be angered. The standout being Sullivan. Who despite being an oddball old man obsessed with his adopted grandson, is also the most powerful Demon in the realm. And would be leading the entire thing if he so chose.
• In World Trigger, Ikoma is fond of the Dynamic Entry, posing for and talking to nonexistent cameras, wearing Cool Shades when in battle, likes to summarize everything his teammates tell him in the heat of combat, and just being an overall Large Ham with No Indoor Voice when confronting opponents. However, he also has a sword capable of some of the fiercest Razor Wind projectiles and is a very skilled tactician, using said summarization to keep track, in his head, of the entire battlefield and all of its participants. He is also otherwise a Combat Pragmatist, knowing when to keep quiet and how to best use the terrain around him to give him any edge he can find. Case in point: When they first meet, Ikoma sees right through the main characters' plan to defeat him, resulting in he and his team wiping the floor with them — and when an explosion takes out the last remaining main character, Ikoma dramatically poses with the burst in the background..
• Pegasus Crawford / Maximillion Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh! is more or less this trope. Most of his dialogue is that of mockery and he acts like a playful child. But underneath that is a cold, calculating villain who through ultra-powerful cards and mind reading can prove to be a dangerous opponent. And when you start beating him, he drops the goofiness and becomes dead serious. This attitude is best represented through his Toon Monsters: Very silly looking creatures, but with enormous power that is difficult to beat. When they are destroyed, Pegasus becomes much darker...
  • The toon monsters themselves embody this trope, as do toons in general, as described in other sections.
• Jaden Yuki from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is known for his optimistic, happy-go-lucky attitude and is a nearly constant source of comic relief. He's also one of the best duelists at the academy. And when Season 3 happens, well...
• Several characters in Zatch Bell! have nonsensical powers that are nevertheless put to good use in battles of wit.
  • Kanchome is a duck-billed boy in pajamas whose spells are all about trickery and illusions. Although cowardly and unconfident at first, he learns to stand for himself and protects his allies with clever use of his powers. Eventually, he gains a spell that grants him absolute control over a target's mind and is only defeated because of a cheap nuke shot from final villain Clear Note.
  • Belgim E.O and Unko Tintin are two giant undead themed demons who put the heroes through some hilarious situations, only for things to take a sharp turn for the worse as they turn out to be terribly dangerous opponents.
  • Momon is a rabbit-monkey pervert boy who used his detection and mobility powers to avoid encountering enemy demons. When it's finally up to him to protect the main cast, though, he makes a fool out of Zeon and his underlings and successfully buys enough time for Gash and Kiyomaro to get back to the game.
  • Purio is a gonk-looking demon kid who can only perform support spells that immobilize his enemies. He's quite a threat when providing backup for a powerful partner, but it's downplayed in that later on, while he does last to the top 10 of the King Tournament, he does so by avoiding all combat and goes down without a fight thanks to Clear Note.

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