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Disney Death / Anime & Manga

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Disney Deaths in anime and manga.

  • In Angel Beats!, Yuri is assimilated by the shadows. Unlike Takamatsu, though, she barely escapes with her soul.
  • The robotic variant is rarely used in Astro Boy — generally, dead is dead, even for robots — but it does crop up occasionally. In one episode of the 1980s anime, three abandoned robots are instrumental in saving a space station in distress... but use all their remaining power and shut down. Since they're still intact, though, they're powered back up and fine by the end of the episode. In one storyline, Astro himself dies... but comes back — although, in something of a subversion, it's not easy, nor is he "good as new".
  • Attack on Titan famously has this happen with Eren early on. He is initially set up as a Decoy Protagonist and gets eaten by a Titan, so Mikasa takes center stage... only for it to turn out a while later that he not only survived, but the experience has awakened the ability to transform into a Titan himself, allowing him to take on the other Titans.
  • At the end of Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature, Ryo stabs Bagi, believing she had killed his mother. Shortly after this, Ryo learns that Bagi had not killed his mom and had, in fact, tried to save her. He then returns to where he thought he had killed her only to find her gone. We then see Bagi running full tilt while the credits roll; presumably while bleeding profusely from a gaping hole in her stomach.
  • Happens constantly in Bleach: if it's not a flashback and the character isn't a Hollow or random nameless mook, their apparent death scene will inevitably be nothing of the sort.
    • An example being Byakuya Kuchiki suffering a major defeat from Sternritter F, As Nodt, believed to be dead until the members of the Zero Division took him to the Royal Palace and he came back in perfect condition with an upgrade in power.
    • Which has lead to the Memetic Mutation of "NOBODY DIES IN BLEACH."
      • ... until it was averted in several other cases in the final arc: Yamamoto, Unohana, Ukitake, Sasakibe, and several of the Sternritter.
  • Several times in Code Geass R2. The show seems to be a series where Anyone Can Die, which does tend to happen, but a few others get what looks like a death scene and may somehow turn up fine episodes later, at most with a couple of bandages.
  • Cross Ange:
    • Episode 21 shows Ange's loyal maid Momoka get shot by Embryo, only for her to stab him with his own sword before using her Light of Mana to direct a car into both her and him: she proceeds to fall off a cliff about a few hundred feet and into a forest. The car explodes, making it look like the fireball finished Momoka off for sure. The next episode, however, shows her alive and well; she had her lucky frying pan underneath her dress to block the bullet that seemed to have hit her in the chest, and it seems the trees caught her fall enough that she wouldn't be killed via fall trauma.
    • Tusk, Ange's Love Interest, also gets this in the same episode: after Embryo respawns, Tusk reveals he's wearing a deadman's vest and is seemingly killed when the bomb on his chest explodes. Amazingly, he too survives, because according to the ending narration, he changed into a flame-retardant suit the instant the bomb exploded... somehow. Either way, he arrives at Ange's side the next episode, pulling Ange off the Despair Event Horizon. She's so happy to see him that just to convince herself he's real, she gives him a Slap-Slap-Kiss, and proceeds to ravish him; Their First Time ends up lasting three days and three nights.
  • The climax of Cyborg 009: Legend of the Super Galaxy sees 004, Albert Heinrich, sacrifice himself against Gallo and several of Emperor Zoa's other goons so that the other cyborgs would live to fight another day. As the others mourn his loss, he comes back out of the blue, and even 009, who had been in the Vortex, was surprised. It's explained that somehow, 009 wished him back to life while in the Vortex.
  • Episode 2 of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School ends with Asahina appearing to be fatally stabbed in the chest with a knife. In the next episode, however, the knife is revealed to be a toy, and the blood is actually tomato sauce. Later in the series it's shown that Kirigiri appears to succumb to her poison, but she survives thanks to an antidote created by Seiko, which put her in a coma and was later revived by Mikan.
  • In Darker than Black, Mao's mind seems to "die" without being connected to whatever kept him from reverting to the mind of a real cat. In the second season however, it's revealed that his mind was kept... In storage, or something like it, and now he's in the body of a flying squirrel.
  • At the end of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's Swordsmith Village Arc, Hantengu is about to kill a group of villagers as the sun rises, but Tanjiro can't give chase, since he has to shield his demon sister Nezuko from the sunlight or she'll burn up. Not wanting the villagers to die because of her, Nezuko kicks Tanjiro away, and he kills Hantengu while fully convinved that his sister is now dead. Thankfully, it turns out that Nezuko has developed the ability to survive in the sun, which is unique for a demon.
  • The various Digimon anime tend to have this trope in effect, as Digimon are data that revert back to Digi-Eggs should they sustain too much damage. If it's really bad, then the Digimon is liable to forget much of its old personality and has to start back up from scratch, making this more of a downplayed trope. There are a few instances where Digimon can get completely Killed Off for Real, such as dying in the real world in the Digimon Adventure continuity, absorbing their data in Digimon Tamers, and the Gizumon in Digimon Data Squad.
  • Dragon Ball is rather notable for this trope, probably even more so than Disney:
    • This is done with General Blue in the original Dragon Ball series, where he survived an underwater cavern collapsing on top of him, as well as survive even being launched all the way to Egypt before finally meeting his end at the hands of Mercenary Tao.
    • Mercenary Tao had a similar fate to General Blue, as it was later revealed that he had survived Goku deflecting his grenade back at him, although he required extensive surgery to become a Cyborg as a result.
    • The Trunks Saga of Dragon Ball Z also had Frieza being rebuilt as a cyborg, similar to Mercenary Tao, although unlike Tao, he ended up being killed for good after he resurfaced.
    • The Cell Saga also had Android 18's survival (as Krillin noted when Cell regurgitated 18 that he thought she was a goner), as well as Cell's "revival" through Piccolo's Cells and Frieza's cells when he self destructs, killing off Goku, King Kai, Bubbles (and in the anime, Gregory) and implicitly Android 17.
    • Majin Buu is blown to pieces repeatedly.
    • Goku succumbed to this in the Piccolo Jr., Frieza, Majin Buu, Baby and Shadow Dragon sagas, where he's presumed dead prior to gaining the upper hand.
    • It's also happened with Movie villains such as Broly and Cooler.
    • If one counts video games, then General White certainly applies in Attack of the Saiyans where he was revealed to have both survived and attempted to create a new Red Ribbon Army.
    • Piccolo himself went through this trope twice: During the Frieza Saga, he either took Frieza's Death Beam for Goku, or was the direct target of it, depending on the Anime or the Manga's depiction, and yet he survived the attack albeit wounded. Similarly, during the Cell Saga, while attempting to get Android 17 to flee and holding off the eponymous villain, he ended up being punched by Cell with enough force to knock him back and apparently break his neck, and then Cell fired a beam clean through Piccolo's torso at point blank range, and then hurling his body into the ocean. When Goku had to save Tenshinhan from being killed by Cell's Semi-Perfect form, he also sensed Piccolo's ki (the little of it he had left, anyways) and saved him as well.
    • Android 17 is seemingly killed defending Goku and Vegeta from Jiren's blast in Dragon Ball Super, he vanishes after his energy shield gives out and a massive explosion occurs, several episodes later when Goku is about to get knocked off the fighting arena and Frieza saves him, Android 17 is revealed to be still alive under the rubble.
  • Elfen Lied (sort of): in the last episode, Lucy apparently gets killed in a Bolivian Army Ending; however, if you sit through all the ending credits, you can see a silhouette standing in a doorway that looks a bit too much like Nyu.
    • The manga plays it straight with Bandou.
    • The nameless Agent also has one, she's surrounded by Diiclonii, and the view point shows a Gory Discretion Shot, but she shows up later, no worse for wear, because the ground had given way and she fell into an underground cavern
      • Nousou is a subversion, he embraces his diiclonius experiment, and then is crushed under a flaming helicopter, but it turned out she protected him, and the previously mentioned Agent, dug him out. when he releases a mind controlled device on the daughter, however, she decapitates him.
    • There's also Nana getting dismembered by Lucy, with the end of the episode implying that she died. A few episodes later, though, she's back, and with a set of Artificial Limbs.
  • In Eureka Seven, Holland's LFO got split into half and exploded at the hands of Anemone in episode 42, but later turned up still alive and didn't suffer any form of injury at all. In the final episode, Eureka was presumed dead by everyone, including Renton. However, Anemone told everyone that Eureka was still alive, which gave Renton hope of saving her.
  • Near the end of the "Fate" route of Fate/stay night, Kotomine attacks the house and leaves Rin Tohsaka seemingly fatally wounded. However, after the final battle, she returns to Shiro, completely unharmed days later.
  • At the very end of Fist of the North Star, where for the most part, Anyone Can Die, Bat has seemingly died after being put through utter hell by Bolge and managing to take him down after a final titanic battle alongside Kenshiro, and poor Lin is heartbroken. But Kenshiro, who has saved him and Lin time and again throughout the manga, isn't going to leave the two without a parting gift — it turns out that he saved Bat's life by pressing his vital points.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, Setsuna is killed by Cline after proving herself useless to Labyrinth one too many times, and Cure Peach and Chiffon use the Akarun to bring her back to life as Cure Passion.
    • 23 episodes later, Westar and Souler push Cures Berry and Passion away from an incoming black hole before being sucked into it themselves. Then they come back two episodes later and... you probably know where this is going.
    • A similar situation happens in Splash Star, with the Kiryuu sisters, Michiru and Kaoru.
  • Fruits Basket has one near the end of the manga, when Tohru is gravely wounded after falling off of a cliff. Kyo finds her laying unmoving on the ground, causing him to have a flashback of Kyoko's death. He tearfully begs her not to leave him. After a while, she gently caresses his face, reassuring him that she is still alive. Then he kisses her.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), this is both proven and subverted. Practically over and over. First, Envy stabs Ed through the stomach, killing him in a delightfully bloody and dramatic manner. Afterward, Alphonse, being the Philosopher's Stone, sacrifices himself to pull Ed's soul back from the Gate and let him live. To fill the role of Heroic Sacrifice as he is required, Ed sacrifices himself to bring back Al, complete with his human body (instead of the armor), and Ed goes to live on the other side of the Gate (a.k.a. our world). They both end up living in the end—even when you swear they're both dead.
  • Played for laughs in the Galaxy Angel anime, where more than once, characters are killed off and restored at least by the next episode; the first instance of this had the ditzy and gullible character in question honestly convinced that she was dead.
  • The Garden of Sinners, seventh movie: both Mikiya and Shiki. Mikiya's Disney Death (though Shiki and us did not know it was the case at the time) finally goads Shiki into killing Lio for vengeance, but she then lays down to die after losing Mikiya (and a large quantity of blood). We then see Mikiya still alive, limping, and then crawling his way to Shiki, and find out that he arrived just in time.
  • Ginga Densetsu Weed: Because of Anyone Can Die being in effect, this is a rare example were this trope is actually pulled off believably for much of the audience. During the final battle with Hougen, after being repeatedly slammed into the ground like a rag doll by the much larger dog (Hougan is a great dane while Weed is just a puppy,) Weed looks very dead laying in the snow, covered in blood and with his eyes wide open. His father and the other characters think he's dead, but he is just stunned, and somehow, he gets up.
  • In the final manga volume of Great Teacher Onizuka, Onizuka was presumed dead in the hospital bed when his heart stopped beating. However, he later miraculously recovered and able to ride a bike to save the principal of his school from a fire.
  • Inuyasha:
    • Has this in the episode with the Peachman. Inu-Yasha (while he is a regular human) and the Peachman are sent over a cliff. Seeing no sign of his body, his companions think that the Peachman must have flattened him. Inu-Yasha wakes up, having landed in a nearby tree, and he wakes up just as Kagome starts shouting how stupid he was (for dying).
    • The Band of Seven arc contains several of these moments as well. Early on, in one episode Kagome, Miroku, and Sango are all poisoned by one of the Seven and the three are in a coma for several episodes. Then it appears that they've all died and Inuyasha and Shippo spend the first half of the following episode mourning them. However, then it turns out they were all saved by Myoga the flea sucking the poison out of their blood. Later on, Inuyasha seemingly sacrifices himself fighting Renkotsu, and as Kagome grieves, he turns up still alive and well. The very end of the story culminates with Kikyo apparently being killed by Naraku, but she turned out to still be alive much later.
  • Used a few times in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
    • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency, Joseph seemingly dies after sending both himself and Kars to the outer space to defeat the latter and was reported to not survive the re-entry. Weeks later, Joseph gatecrashes his own funeral to the shock (and delight) of his family members and friends attending the funeral. It turns out Joseph used Hamon to survive his re-entry and was heavily injured while doing so, spending the time with Suzi Q (and being married in the meantime). Joseph berates Suzi Q for not sending his letter to his family, as she forgot.
    • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Joseph does it again, as he gets a knife to the throat from DIO and then get's most of his blood sucked out (he even gets an Winged Soul Flies Off at Death moment like Iggy and Avdol). He is little more than a dry husk when the Speedwagon Foundation picks him up, but thanks to a blood transfusion from DIO and Jotaro restarting his heart, he was brought back.
    • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Okuyasu gets his abdomen blown up in the fight with Yoshikage Kira, and doesn't wake up after being healed, just like with Josuke's grandfather. However, he gets one last chat with his brother, where he decides It Is Not His Time, and returns just in time to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • In Kanon, both the 2002 and 2006 versions Yuichi remembers near the end of the series that Ayu fell off a high tree and presumably died seven years ago. However, by the very last scene of both versions, Ayu is shown to be alive after coming out of her coma, though the 2006 version ends with her in a wheelchair while she recovers.
    • Makoto doesn't come back, although there's a suspiciously familiar fox in the background of the last shot.
  • It happened to Tsumugi in the final battle of Knights of Sidonia. It didn't take long for her to get reunited with the MC Nagate shortly. In true disney fashion for this trope, the couple is shown standing together with their daughter after ten years.
  • Towards the end of season 2 of Kyo Kara Maoh!, Wolfram has the key in his heart ripped out by Shinou. His heart stops, as it can't function without the key, and he dies. BUT, OH WAIT, WHAT'S THIS? The moment the key returns to his heart, he is magically alive and kicking again, as if nothing ever happened.
  • In Last Exile, during an assault to capture the Guild's Claudia Units, which keep Anatoray and Disith's airships aloft, a character is shot and fatally wounded, and his ally/love interest's reaction is deliberately portrayed to mean that he has died (including a gut-wrenching scream.) Two episodes later, during the epilogue, he shows up perfectly fine, and playing with the love interest's younger sibling, with no explanation whatsoever.
  • Lupin III:
    • A few installments have had the titular thief seemingly get killed, only to later turn up alive and well. In Missed by a Dollar for example, Lupin is apparently shot and dropped off a plane, and is actually absent for a good chunk of it while Jigen, Goemon, and Fujiko attempt to work together in Lupin's memory. Then later on Lupin shows up to bail them out of trouble.
    • Zenigata has also gotten this on occasion.
      • "The Day the Old Man Died" centers on it, as Lupin is blamed for killing him and decides to investigate with the help of Jigen and later steals his not-quite-dead corpus from a blazing incinerator in one of his most daring capers yet.
      • In Island of Assassins, he's shot up, and declared dead upon flatlining... only to come back at the mere mention of Lupin's name.
      • In The Last Job, he gets killed onscreen... or so it seems. Many scenes after his interment, he digs himself out of his own grave, Asuka Kagurazaka having done something that allowed him to simulate death for a short time.
  • Basara Nekki actually DOES die near the end of Macross 7, but comes back to life through The Power of Rock because the Big Bad, in his words, "Needs to listen to my song!"
  • The Wolkenritter of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, who all had dramatic, agonizing deaths that were reversed once Hayate came to power and restored them.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Lafter is revealed to have survived the destruction of her Mobile Suit in Episode 25 along with Azee and Norba. Her cockpit was relatively undamaged and she ended up with a small wound to the chest.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Kira Yamato gets stabbed through the cockpit of his Mobile Suit by Shinn Asuka. The Mobile Suit is more or less completely destroyed, but he survives.
    • The reason he wasn't killed is because Shinn was off target. The Freedom's design is different from the standard (due to the inclusion of a nuclear reactor), and its cockpit is located higher in the chest than normal. Shinn stabbed the Freedom's abdomen, which is where the cockpit is usually located, but not where Freedom's cockpit was. Kira also had the good sense to hit the Suit's SCRAM button before the reactor was breached, and some quick thinking by the crew of the Archangel` allowed them to extract him before it sank into the ocean. Still, it was a miracle that he walked away from that.
    • Shinn himself also fall into this trope at the end when he looses his battle against Athrun and the Destiny is sent careening into the surface of the Moon. While Shinn falls unconscious, he's otherwise okay (physically anyways) and is on his feet a short time latter. Those suits must have some safety features designed to protect the pilot in case of a crash.
  • Patrick Colasour in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 earned the title of "The Immortal Colasour" among his peers simply because he managed to survive numerous battles on multiple occasions, especially moments when his mobile suit explodes & was caught right in the middle of it. His devil's luck is so incredible that his love interest Kati Mannequin at one point asked him to be in the same ship as her for good survival fortune.
  • My-HiME:
    • The anime pulls off over a dozen Disney Deaths in one fell swoop.
    • At least the story worked up to that one. There are also roughly half a dozen spread throughout the series where the character just walks back into the room, resulting in a few surprised looks, but no explanations asked or given.
    • In the manga, Takumi appears to die at one point, but it turns out that he is actually not dead, and is in fact, ascending as the Obsidian Lord. In the final battle, the Obsidian Lord tries to kill Mai, Natsuki and Yuuichi, after Mai turns on him, but they are saved by Mashiro, and Haruka, Yukino and Midori seemingly pull a Heroic Sacrifice, but later turn up alive, at a mock funeral Shizuru is holding for Haruka.
  • This happens to Ruru in Episode 10 of Myriad Colors Phantom World when she apparently lets herself get blown up by fireworks near the end. She ultimately survives.
  • In the final episode of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, the lead character, Jean, falls to his death on account of Gargoyle. After initially grieving over him, Nadia realizes she can revive him if she uses both her Blue Water and Nemo's... and that's just what she does.
    • In that same episode, Nemo sacrifices himself to ensure everyone's escape. (This is actually a subversion.)
  • Naruto does this frequently:
    • The first one is Sasuke in the Land of Waves arc, when he is heavily wounded after shielding Naruto from Haku's ice senbon attack, causing Naruto to tap his Nine Tails power for the very first time.
    • Naruto suffers this in the Search for Tsunade arc. Kabuto critically wounds his internal organs, and Tsunade has to overcome her fear of blood to save him. Notably, we have a brief POV of the Nine Tails slowly losing consciousness, making it the only time in the series that Naruto is truly on death's door.
    • The Sasuke Retrieval arc has two cases of this, as Choji and Neji each get a prolonged, heavily dramatized "death" scene from which they both eventually recover.
    • In the Kazekage Rescue arc, Gaara is killed after having Shukaku extracted from him. After the team successfully retrieve his body, Sakura tries to heal him but fails, causing Naruto to have a breakdown. Then Chiyo offers to trade her chakra for Gaara, saving him at the cost of her life.
    • Another example is Hinata. Pain apparently stabs her to provoke Naruto, seemingly killing her but she is shown as alive in the next chapter and survives her wounds with medical treatment from Sakura.
    • As are every heroic characters killed during the Pain Invasion arc, including Shizune, Kakashi, and Fukasaku, who are all brought back using the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life technique.
    • In the Fourth Ninja World War arc, Naruto has Kurama extracted from him and Sasuke is stabbed through the heart, both by Madara. They both "die" despite the assistance they get. However, they are revived by Obito and Kabuto, respectively, and receive a massive power-boost from the Sage of the Six Paths to boot.
  • Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind pulls this with Nausicäa herself, who dies being launched into the air by a stampede of monstrous insects.. before said insects realize she was trying to tell them she had safely returned their lost baby, began empathizing with her and healed her, inducing a trippy hallucination/resurrection scene in which Nausicäa manages to get back to life.
    • She dies in an attempt to stop a stampede of giant insects from killing off her people. The insects stop their stampede shortly afterward, and restore her to life by using their golden feelers.
    • She actually had a lot going against her. She was hit so hard she flew hundreds of feet in the air, and then hit the ground after falling back the same distance! Then she was trampled (not actually shown, but it's unlikely that EVERY ONE OF THEIR FEET MISSED HER, so the trampling can be assumed) by the giant "ohm" bugs. This all happened before they finally stopped their stampede. She was Deader than Dead but somehow the ohm's power revived her.
  • A story arc at the end of the first Negima! Magister Negi Magi anime centers on Asuna undergoing this. It takes the efforts of Negi and her classmates (particularly Lingshen Chao), including a bit of time travel, to bring her back.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • A subversion when Rei appears to die fighting the sixteenth Angel, but then turns up alive. It is later revealed that she did die, and was replaced by another clone. The fact that the members of the cast who don't know about this can't tell the difference is quite disturbing.
    • At the end everyong gets turned into Tang. How many of them later get better, or whether getting better is an option for those who got straight up killed in traditional ways before that, is left as an open question; there are only a couple of characters (Shinji and Asuka) that we actually see afterward.
    • Rebuild of Evangelion plays it straight, though this time with Asuka, during the doomed Unit 03 test.
  • Many characters are apparently killed in One Piece, only to reappear alive-but-in-bandages at the end of the arc, having mysteriously survived. An ongoing joke people say is that "nobody dies in One Piece unless it's in a flashback." The only characters who don't escape death are the family members of the main characters...
    • This trope is so prevalent in One Piece that when Ace did die, the chapter was titled "The Death of Portgas D. Ace" as if to convince fans "we're serious this time, guys."
  • Penguindrum loved this trope, the most notable example being Himari, who died at least 3 times but was brought back each time and ultimately lived in the end. Masako also died twice only to be brought back both times, and Kanba was severely injured by bullets in episode 21, but was okay with a few bandages by episode 22.
  • Pokémon: The Series, particularly the movies, love pulling these:
  • Mitsumi and Hareta have this happen to them in Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure!, since they're trapped inside a falling building. Luckily one of their friends comes in and saves them. The former's Disney Death was a suicidal version of Redemption Equals Death, since she wanted to stay inside the building.
  • In PriPara, Falulu dies after her friend ticket is snapped, since it contained her system data. In the end, SoLaMi Smile and the fans from around the world are finally able to revive her by giving her their support and making the Paradise Coord shine.
    • Parodied in episode 105, when Gaaruru snaps her ticket to form a team with Aroma and Mikan and falls to the floor. It turns out she was fine the whole time and was just faking it, which angers Unicorn.
  • An example from the Ranma ½ manga, but not the anime. Akane is turned into a doll after having all the water sucked from her body and her ability to come back to life is measured by how open the doll's eyes are. At the climax of the battle the doll's eyes close fully meaning Akane is dead, but Ranma's anguished declaration of love allows her to come back to life anyway.
    • Another sort of example occurs in an earlier arc when Ryōga is throttled to death by a super-strong Giant Mook and is so depressed by what he sees in the afterlife he musters up the Heroic Resolve to come back to life.
  • Reborn! (2004) does this in the very first chapter where protagonist Tsuna is told to "go die" by Reborn and then shot in the head. Tsuna lies motionless in the street for a page, then gets up again, full of energy and resolve. Only then do we learn that he was shot with a special "dying will bullet" which kills and instantly resurrects the victim, and in the process transforms the victim's final regrets into tremendous strength of will.
    • Played more straight elsewhere; many battles throughout the series end with someone lying on the ground, presumably dead. They almost always end up spending several chapters in the hospital before making a full recovery. This is usually what happens to the winner of the battle...
  • In RPG Real Estate, main girl Kotone gets killed by Fa, who under the effects of Mind Control, had transformed into her full dragon form. However, despite dying, Kotone's soul is still committed to her job, and when one of her past clients, a Necromancer who attaches wandering souls into dolls, sees her soul trying to enter the work place, she manages to contain it in one of her dolls, thus enabling it to return to Kotone's body (which was preserved so that way she can be buried in her home region) and her the young witch to come back to life.
  • Both Saber Marionette J and, more blatantly, Saber Marionette J Again appear to kill off characters in the finale only to have them show up in the last minutes, just fine, with no real explanation for how they survived.
  • Slayers:
    • In the final episode of the second season, the results of that have Lina sacrificing herself in order to save everyone by giving herself up to the Lord of Nightmares and then being taken away to its true home. Gourry flat out refuses to lose Lina and follows her there, bringing her back.
    • Much earlier in the same season, Lina has been Brought Down to Normal for a couple episodes and is apparently killed by Kanzel by falling to her death since she can't levitate anymore. However, by this point she's secretly regained her powers and was faking it to get a sneak attack on him. Gourry doesn't take it well though.
  • In Sonic X, the Robot Disney Death is applied to Dr. Eggman's Mecha-Mooks Decoe and Bocoe in Episode 48. Somehow, 4Kids manages to Bowdlerize this into a plain Disney Death by removing the scene where the other characters are mourning them and saying that they "pulled themselves back together" rather than being repaired by Chuck Thorndyke.
  • Tamagotchi franchise:
    • In Tamagotchi: The Movie, Mametchi and Tanpopo can't get their rocket to move and are sucked into a black hole. Thankfully, the black hole is a Tamagotchi called Blackholetchi and is woken up by everyone on Tamagotchi Planet quickly enough to get them out.
    • In Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe!, Hapihapitchi uses up all her energy derived from others' happiness and faints. It takes Happy saying he's the happiest guy on tye planet after working at it for quite some time to revive her.
    • In episode 143 of the TV show, the Tama-Friends and Kizunatchi are working to reverse a curse that is turning everyone into eggs with no personality. Kizunatchi wastes all her energy and falls to the ground, with the heartbroken Tama-Friends all running towards her and saying they Would Rather Suffer by becoming eggs themselves than to see her die. Right before Kizunatchi hits the ground, the Tama-Hearts the gang gathered beforehand not only bring her conscious back, but gives her an evolved form that quickly stops the egg curse without her getting worn out again.
  • Ryoko apparently dies near the end of Tenchi Universe, succumbing to wounds caused by the villain Kagato an episode prior and more that she incurred while flying Tenchi to Kagato's palace for the final battle. She appears in the final episode near the end in front of Tenchi, who has been pining about life returning to normality. All the other characters are implied to have returned to Tenchi as well.
  • In Tiger & Bunny, this happens to Kotetsu at the end of episode 24 when he holds the RN-1 in place so Barnaby can blast it with a laser rifle and fails to duck in time. The resulting scene has it all: Please, Don't Leave Me from Barnaby, Pietà Plagiarism, and final words from Kotetsu while the rest of the heroes look on sadly. In fact, he still seems dead for a significant amount of time into episode 25—until Maverick takes Kaede hostage. He lampshades this when he asks if anyone had ever bothered checking his pulse the whole time he was out.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew. Remember... the anime where everyone died at the end? The manga did the same as well. That Mew Aqua is some powerful stuff...
  • In Trigun: Badlands Rumble, late into the movie Vash is shot and apparently drowns in quicksand. Vash is actually MIA for a good ten minutes, Wolfwood and Amelia team up to confront Gasback, and Wolfwood even starts wearing Vash's trademark sunglasses in tribute to him. Then Vash naturally shows up for a Big Damn Heroes moment. Of course, given how this takes place in the middle of the TV series everyone knew he would show up sooner or later.
  • Araruu's death in battle in Utawarerumono was so dramatic that it awakened a dormant super power in the amnesiac hero, which served as a Deus ex Machina that allowed him to triumph against overwhelming odds. A lot of blood was lost by the little girl. Too much. She even went limp. Some confusing stuff happens and she is soon back to normal again without a scratch and no emotional traumas or scars from the incident.
    • Actually, he is the Deus ex Machina. Or rather the vessel of half of a god. In the beginning, before the game begins, Aruruu is mortally wounded by an earthquake and is saved by Witsuarunemitea after Eruruu pledges herself to him, so this was not unprecedented.
  • Vampire Knight: Aidou's father.
    • Kaname gives his life at the end to become the furnage, but is resurrected a thousand years later by Yuuki turning him human.
  • Vandread's second season: Gascogne rams a Harvester in a Heroic Sacrifice and her ship explodes. The characters angst over it for a full episode, then move on. However, several episodes later, it's revealed Gascogne not only survived but took control of the damaged Harvester. She then... doesn't do anything particularly special for the last two episodes, which even removes the excuse of "we needed her/the Harvester to win the final battle". It did give Barnette an excuse to wear her skimpier outfit again, but that's incidental.
  • Possibly the cheapest example ever was from Witch Hunter Robin. About halfway through the series, an episode ended with a cliffhanger: all but two of the main characters were gunned down, on camera, by the bad guys. In the next episode, it is revealed that the "killers" were using nonlethal weapons, and the only consequence is that one guy is on crutches.
  • Watch Yu-Gi-Oh! and try to keep track of how many times Bakura is beaten and manages to come back somehow. Some of his revivals are justified - most are not.
  • In the Zatch Bell! manga, Kiyomaro honest to goodness dies. But he is revived by the juice of Faudo, which seems to have that effect on people, and takes a level in badass, gaining Answer Talker eyes and a crapload of new spells.

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