Due to the nature of this trope, expect spoilers.
Daydream Surprises in Anime and Manga.
- In episode 6 of Another, Sakakibara randomly jumps up from his desk, grabs Misaki's hand and the two of them indulge in a hilarious dance in the middle of class. None of the other students take notice. Cut to Sakakibara staring off into space with a stupid grin on his face. Due to the seriousness of the show before that though, Mood Whiplash may occur.
- Change 123: Happens at least two times, first time (chapter 3) it's about Kosukegawa confessing to Motoko that he loves her (back when he was still too shy about it), second time (chapter 43) he has an angst-driven fantasy about getting bolder with her.
- How Midnight is finished off when his illusions backfire on him in Fairy Tail.
- A hilarious one happens where Lucy declares her undying love to Gray and tries to lay him down. Thank you, Juvia.
- Most installments of the Doraemon Film Series open with Nobita's daydreams before it segues into reality, that Nobita has somehow dozed off in the middle of doing his chores. Of note...
- Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld begins with Nobita in a magic world, fighting demons resembling Gian and Suneo to rescue Princess Shizuka, and fleeing on a Flying Broomstick before his mother Tamako shouts at him to wake up. Then cuts to the revelation that Nobita had somehow dozed while sweeping the front yard.
- Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West: Nobita is somehow Son Goku, beating up demons who resembles his bullies Gian and Suneo, before confronting a Buddha that looks like Doraemon. Turns out Nobita had actually fallen asleep during rehearing his school play, Journey to the West... while Playing a Tree, no less!
- A fairly serious one in Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights, when Nobita sees Shizuka on a slave ship after she's lost in the world of Arabian Nights, which gives him a Catapult Nightmare. Turns out Shizuka was indeed captured by slavers, and Nobita is Dreaming of Things to Come.
- At the beginning of Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum, Nobita unexpectedly becomes Sherlock Holmes and is matching wits against his arch-enemy, Arsène Lupin. And then he wakes up after slipping off his table, where he had dozed off while reading a Sherlock Holmes book.
- In Genshiken, Madarame starts talking to Saki about the latest episode of Kujibiki♡Unbalance, to which she responds with increasing interest, then enthusiasm, and then finally full-on fangirlism — and then we snap back, she's still reading her shoujo manga, and Madarame berates himself for coming up with such an out-of-character fantasy for them.
- Worked repeatedly into the same episode of the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It leaves even the character (let alone the viewers) questioning whether his fantasies are real or not. One of the more bizarre episodes of the series.
- Great Teacher Onizuka:
- When Onizuka is having a job interview with Uchiyamada and the latter is rejecting him with insults, we are shown our hero punching the vice-principal in the face and totally beating him up. He was just daydreaming this.
- Uchiyamada also has a waking nightmare when Onizuka catches him being The Chikan; in the fantasy, he loses his job and reputation, stabbing Onizuka in a fit of murderous rage.
- Teshigawara fantasizes about showing Fuyutsuki his Stalker Shrine of her, and her being into it. Then it cuts back to show that he's imagining it.
- After her mother asks if she's got a boy she likes, Hinagiku of Hayate the Combat Butler has a dream of Hayate confessing to her. After she wakes up, she fights with herself about whether she actually likes him like that. She doesn't realize she does until halfway through the next season. From the manga it's been stated that she loved him at first sight though.
- One episode of K-On features this courtesy of Azusa, who's suffering from heatstroke and keeps nodding off. At several points the episode almost imperceptibly segues into something bizarre, such as the other light music club members rushing down a waterslide while balancing pots of yakisoba on their heads, only for Azusa to then wake up and realize she'd only dreamt it.
- Maison Ikkoku also does this constantly throughout the series. The daydreamer is, with one or two exceptions, always Godai, and it almost always involves him getting into a prone position with a willing Kyoko. He never actually manages to get there because he always bows his head in real life and bumps into to something at the last moment, usually a lamppost, and that snaps him back to reality.
- Used ambiguously in Martian Successor Nadesico: Akito is stranded in a drifting shuttle with two of his would-be love interests, where their chances of survival would increase dramatically if one were to bail out. The camera cuts to the outside while Akito immediately names Yurika as the jumper: "You're a real burden on my shoulders." When we cut back inside, there's none of the shock or offense you might expect, but some dialogue later on implies that he did indeed make his thoughts known. What probably happened was that he asked Yurika to jump, and she made up her own (surprisingly plausible, for Yurika) reason for why he said that; she's a lot more capable of surviving in space than inexperienced civilian Megumi.
- Ninja Nonsense has Onsokumaru and the ninja gang planning to peep on Shinobu and Kaede while they're in the changing room. We then see Shinobu and Kaede in the changing room, and Skinship Grope begins complete with "seductive" music and some...interesting sound effects. Then Kaede and Shinobu ask Miyabi to join them... at which point it cuts back to Onsokumaru saying "And that's what I expect it to be like!"
- This happens in One Piece, on the voyage to Impel Down. Boa Hancock demands an absurd amount of food to be delivered to her cabin that's also off-limits. We cut to what looks like Hancock and Luffy sharing a meal, with Luffy looking suspiciously suave and spouting cliche'd romance lines. We next see Hancock huddling in the corner sighing at the thought of it actually happening while Luffy gorges himself as expected.
- PaRappa the Rapper:
- The fifth episode begins with PaRappa and Matt fishing while the gang are on a picnic. PaRappa appears to catch a gigantic fish and Sunny, Paula and Katy swoon over him for it, afterwards it turns out this didn't really happen and PaRappa was just imagining what he expected to happen.
- In the sixth episode, a scene where PaRappa impresses Sunny by karate chopping a tall pile of metal plates turns out to be PaRappa once again imaging what he expects to happen.
- The eighth episode has PaRappa and friends appear to be in trouble when their hippo teacher finds out that PaRappa, Matt and PJ are building a rocket on school grounds. We see a bizarre scene of everyone riding the rocket to another planet where they dance with some aliens, afterwards this is revealed to be yet another fantasy of PaRappa's.
- This is a favorite gag of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½. Often interrupted as another character spots the daydreamer acting out the dream and makes some loud noise to bring him or her back to reality.
- Samurai Champloo: The first episode goes to commercial with Mugen and Jin fighting inside a burning building. Coming back from the commercial, it seems Mugen's still fighting, but then it gets all weird, with fire being cold and Jin in a bathtub. He eventually comes to and realizes he'd been knocked out and tied up along with Jin. This results in a very amusing and just-slightly-naughty exchange:Mugen: I remember a dream. There was fire all around me.
Jin: It wasn't a dream.
Mugen: Oh yeah? So you were in a bathtub with your thing hanging out?
Jin: Now that was a dream. - School-Live! famously has one that encompasses almost the entire first chapter/episode.
- Yuri Kuma Arashi: Ginko Yurishiro has several romantic daydreams in which her Love Interest, Kureha Tsubaki, reciprocates her feelings. They contrast the reality of the situation, where Kureha still distrusts Ginko and finds her efforts to get closer suspicious.
