Defensive Feint Trap / Anime & Manga

• In Attack on Titan, after getting severely cut up by Captain Levi, the Female Titan collapses against a tree and slumps her head forward. This exposes the nape of her neck, the weak point of all titans. Mikasa goes for the opening, which is exactly what the Female Titan was expecting her to do. Levi gets injured saving Mikasa and then has to sit out a major battle.
• Ayakashi Triangle: In a partially comedic example, Matsuri runs away from a bathroom ambush while putting his underwear back on. Once the assailant turns the corner following after, he's greeted by Matsuri in the middle of an axe kick.
• Berserk: Griffith uses this tactic to win the Battle of Doldrey and make the Kingdom of Midland victorious in their Hundred Year War against the Holy Tudor Empire.
  • Griffith arrays his mounted company, the Band of the Hawk, on the open plain in front of the castle with a river at their backs. General Boscogn and the Tudor Empire's Purple Rhino Knights, who greatly outnumber the Hawks and are more heavily armed, come out to meet them. Boscogn can't reconcile what he's heard about Griffith's brilliance with his seemingly insane plan, coming to do battle against Boscogn with inferior numbers in a place from which he won’t be able retreat if he loses. Griffith leads a vanguard of about 2,000 horse, or half his forces, in a direct attack on the Rhino Knights. Fierce fighting ensues, during which the Hawk's best fighter Guts engages Boscogn himself.
  • Suddenly, Griffith orders all his men to fall back. At this point Boscogn is thoroughly confused. He feels like it would be unwise to pursue without knowing what kind of trick Griffith is trying to pull, but then out comes Governor Gennon from inside the castle. Gennon is an old pervert who has been infatuated with Griffith ever since an encounter years ago, and he overrules Boscogn by commanding the troops to pursue the Hawks and capture Griffith unharmed.
  • This is exactly what Griffith was counting on. The cavalry battle has stirred up huge clouds of dust that make it nearly impossible for the sentries on the castle battlements to see what's going on, allowing the other half of Griffith's forces (led by Casca) to sneak around the battle and pour into the castle through its open gate. Meanwhile, the Hawks outside turn and re-engage the Rhino Knights. The battle is decided when, almost simultaneously, Guts beheads General Boscogn and Casca's force raises the Band of the Hawk flag over Doldrey. Tudor morale collapses, and Griffith is able to drive them from the field.
• Black Clover: While fighting Valtos, Asta is unable to defend himself from his Spatial Magic blasts coming from everywhere. When told by Yami to think of something, Asta... drops both of his swords, his sole means of defense. Valtos is confused by this, but decides to capitalize on Asta leaving himself wide open like this and charges up a stronger blast — which is exactly what Asta was banking on: by sensing ki, Asta accurately predicts where the next blast will come from, and promptly jumps into the portal Valtos opened to punch him in the face.
• In Code Geass R2, Zero uses this strategy against the Eunuchs, with a twist: said help comes in the form of a citizen population enraged by the Engineered Public Confession the former had set up, with the latter openly admitting to the Empress Tianzi being disposable. He also tries it against Schneizel, but Schneizel doesn't take the bait.
• Works out spectacularly in Desert Punk for Kanta Mizuno, who, in his own words, knows when it's time to run like a little bitch. He proceeds to do just that and lures an entire contingent of enemies into a derelict, dead-end building...rigged with tripwire grenades.
  Raider: Wait! That's a...ooh, shit.
• Girls und Panzer revels in this, as it is all about the "sport" of tank combat. Defensive Feint Traps figure in every battle in the national tournament, sometimes from both sides.
• In part 1 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Jonathan lures Dio to the third floor of his burning mansion to give the fire time to spread and so that he can drop Dio into the fire from the top floor.
• A very common tactic in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, especially by the FPA. Yang Wenli is especially famous for this. There is actually a battle in the series where an enemy commander — upon seeing Yang's fleet fall back and fearing a trap — is tempted to order a retreat right away.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Shiro finds his Ez-8 out of ammo during his showdown with Norris' Gouf Custom. As Shiro tries to reach for an extra magazine, Norris takes aim with the Gouf's triple-barreled machine gun, which is mounted on the Gouf's left arm (Shiro's right), causing him to run in the opposite direction. Norris quickly raises the other arm instead and fires its magnetic line, catching and tearing away Shiro's shield and disabling the Ez-8's arm.
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Atlantic Federation faction of Earth Alliance pull one of these, leaving minimal forces belonging to the Eurasian Federation at the Alaska base while most of the ZAFT forces stage an attack on it. They wait until ZAFT has nearly taken the entire base, then set off the Cyclops system hidden underground, blowing the base and 80% of ZAFT's fighting force to kingdom come with the bonus of ensuring the Eurasians no longer have the capability to challenge Atlantic Federation dominance in the Earth Alliance.
• Naruto:
  • Shikamaru has used some form of this in nearly every one of his fights, doing things like feigning helplessness to lure an opponent closer. This is a major part of his battle strategy and he isn't afraid of admitting it.
    "How many times do I have to tell you? The first move is always a feint. It's the most basic thing to land a hit with the second move."
  • Sakura also used one of these to get rid of Sasori's Kazekage puppet. After getting nicked by one of his Poisoned Weapons she secretly takes one of the antidotes, which Sasori didn't know she had, while hiding behind said (large) weapon and destroyed the Kazekage puppet when it went in for the Coup de Grâce.
• Ranma ½:
  • It is a big part of the Hiryu Shoten Ha: the technique is set up by leading the opponent into the center of a spiral, letting them vent a "hot" Battle Aura with their attacks while the user remains cool and defensive. Then, at the nexus, the user delivers a single spinning uppercut that, without necessarily connecting, nevertheless causes a temperature clash that generates a wind blast anywhere from "toss the foe off their feet" to "create a massive tornado that ravages the vicinity for several minutes." Unfortunately, most people who have been hit with the technique recognize the defensive spiral dance almost instantly and go into defensive mode themselves.
  • Also, this was Pantyhose Taro's primary strategy during the Water Citadel fight: instead of engaging enemies directly, he ran from them and directed them into water traps that would trigger their relatively harmless cursed forms. When he tricked Ranma into turning into a girl this way, thus revealing how the entire battleground was rigged with high-pressure water, he finally pushed the offensive (being much faster and taller than she was) while taunting her with using the water on himself (and therefore assuming his gigantic, nigh-unbeatable monster form). By the time she finally landed a hit on him, all she accomplished was smash him into a wall, which broke and released a torrent of water upon him.
• Rurouni Kenshin: The titular character advises this strategy if you find yourself in a pitched fight against multiple opponents: run away and then turn around to deal with each pursuer as they attempt to catch up to you (or otherwise find some way to create a one-on-one battle). The difference in speed between each enemy will result in them becoming slightly strung out if they all run at full speed to pursue. If you're a master of one-hit kills like Kenshin, you can quickly put on the brakes, kill the guy in front, and dash off again before the rest can surround you (the worst case scenario when you're outnumbered). Yahiko puts his own spin on this; he can't use the "take down one guy at a time as you run" strategy, but he can lure his pursuers into a narrow alleyway where they can't all rush him at once or draw their sheathed swords.
• Completely subverted in the second series of Tekken Chinmi. Chinmi, who is the master of many Kung-fu arts and have done the same gambit many times, tried to lure a pursuing force into a narrow one person-wide pathway to try defeating them one by one. The pursuers, apparently an elite force of warriors, starts wallrunning to charge him all at once regardless.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Variant when the Anti-Spiral forces fall easily to Team Dai-Gurren... up until the Anti-Spiral decides to pull the rug. At that point the cannon fodder Anti-Spiral machines become Demonic Spiders, outgunning and outmaneuvering the now-stunned Team Dai-Gurren; only a handful survive the counterattack but they survive to rip the Anti-Spiral a new one.
  • This happens earlier in the series when Simon seems to be running from a fight like he did in the second episode. Team Dai-Gurren starts yelling at Kamina (who's riding in the same Humongous Mecha as him) to stop him, but Kamina just sits tight and trusts his judgement. Sure enough, Simon ends up luring the enemy to a cliff edge and destroys it, sending the enemy toppling over it.
• YuYu Hakusho: Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara ran away once from a very fast and invisible foe. They cornered themselves into a corridor, then, when the enemy came for the kill, Kuwabara, who could sense his presence but not pinpoint him, told Yusuke to attack and Yu shot a burst of his Shot Gun. In the narrow corridor, the enemy wasn't able to avoid the shots and was promptly defeated.