Distinctions Without a Difference in Anime and Manga.
- Azumanga Daioh:
- Tomo loses to Sakaki in a footrace, and shouts that she's not the loser, but the runner-up.
- Osaka asks Kaorin if she's gay. Kaorin angrily corrects her ("the correct term is lesbian!"), then tells her she's not a lesbian (she has a massive crush on Huge Schoolgirl Sakaki).
- Bleach: When the Visored show up to fight Aizen during the invasion of Karakura Town, Yamamoto asks them if they are to fight as allies. Shinji immediately declares that, since they were banished 100 years ago due to Aizen's machinations, they are not allies of Soul Society. Before Yamamoto has time to take that as a threat, Shinji clarifies that they are enemies of Aizen and friends of Ichigo. Yamamoto decides that this is good enough for him and lets them do as they please.
- In the manga oneshot, Bullied Girl and Shut-in Girl, a high school girl who's the victim of bullying visits her Shut In friend and calls her a NEET. The other girl says, "Shut it, ugly. I'm not a NEET. I'm a high school girl who doesn't go to school."
- In Call of the Night, Yamori is given an ultimatum: turn into a vampire within a year since Nazuna first sucked his blood or he will be Killed to Uphold the Masquerade. In order for that to happen, he first needs to fall in love with Nazuna, which is easier said than done considering Yamori has no concept of what falling in love feels like. After independent events leave Yamori questioning whether becoming a vampire is really worth it, Nazuna pleads his case to Niko, who is far from amused and angrily demands to know exactly why Yamori's safety is so damn important to Nazuna, who's never made offspring before. Once Nazuna spits out that she enjoys his company and actually sorta likes him, Niko changes the condition for his survival from "turn him into a vampire" to "make him fall in love with you", declaring that the vampires in her clique will support them from now on.
- In Death Note, the vice president of the United States, who became president after Kira forced the previous president to commit suicide, announces that they are not accepting Kira as righteous, but are not going to take any action to capture him. A heckler yells, "It's the same thing, you idiot!"
- Dragon Ball Super: During the Future Trunks Saga, Future Zamasu states that he and Goku Black are not friends, just kindred spirits working together on the same dream. Goku even lampshades that that's basically the same thing, although "kindred spirits" technically does more accurately describe their precise relationship than just "friends".
- Apparently
◊ Futari Ecchi is not hentai, but rather the thinking man's erotic manga. The author insists he's not lying. - Hetalia: Axis Powers:Germany: Your enemy demands that you surrender! How do you respond?
Japan: Like a true Japanese, I shall say "I'll think about it", or "Perhaps next time", or "I'd like to, but...". All of these answers mean no!note - In Lucky Star, after Konata asks her dad, on account of him having loved Kanata and being clingy with Konata herself, if he is a paedophile, he insists that she's got him all wrong; he not only likes young girls but likes more mature, well-endowed women, too, so he is "also a lolicon"... Konata is suitably disturbed.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's:
- Used and lampshaded during the battle between Arf and Zafira.Arf: Are you one of their familiars?
Zafira: In Belka space, we don't call the beasts that serve their masters "familiars"! We call them their fangs and shields! We're Guardian Beasts!
Arf: It's just the same damn thing! - And again in StrikerS Sound Stage X, which is set three years after Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, when Agito visits Lutecia in the latter's Prison Planet, which, to be fair to Agito, really is a pretty nice place.Agito: You know, this place is really great.
Lutecia: You mean you can't see that it's a criminal deportation world?
Agito: That's not what I mean. It's not a penal colony. It's a world that people are currently adapting and developing.
- Used and lampshaded during the battle between Arf and Zafira.
- Maoyu: When the Hero and the Demon Queen arrive at the village they'll be staying at, the Head Maid welcomes them expressing joy about their "marriage". Both of them deny it's a marriage, with the Demon Queen calling it "a mutual possession contract for unlimited time", comparing it to a common clover and a white clover. The Head Maid reiterates both are the same thing anyway.
- In Maria†Holic, when Mariya first comes to the conclusion that Kanako is a lesbian pervert, Kanako insists that he refer to it as "yuri". He of course then points out that that means the same thing.
- Munakata of Medaka Box introduces himself by saying that he does not kill people for no reason. He begins to list his reasons for killing, each flimsier than the last, until finally he just says, "And for no reason whatsoever, I'll kill you." He doesn't kill Hitoyoshi, nor does he intend to throughout their fight, even though his Abnormality gives him an overwhelming desire to do so. Quite possibly his real Abnormality is "self-control".
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Lacus steals the Freedom Gundam from Z.A.F.T. and gives it to Kira. When questioned about this, she says that she did not "provide assistance to an enemy spy" but rather "gave Kira a new and better sword". Kira really isn't a spy but he was registered as an Earth Alliance soldier, so the distinction is moot.
- Naruto:
- When Naruto accuses Jiraiya of being a pervert, Jiraiya replies that he's not a pervert but a super-pervert.
- A much more serious example happens later, when Obito tells Kakashi that Rin's death is not his reason for pulling the entire world into a war. He then goes on to state that Rin's death opened his eyes to the truth that the world is worthless, and so therefore needs to change.
- Pokémon: The Series: After another Team Rocket plot failed, Meowth said to think of it instead as not succeeding.
- Red Garden: At the end of the series, the villain tells the main characters that he isn't killing them, he's destroying them; since they're already dead, it doesn't count as killing.
- School Zone Girls: Tsubaki insists that it's not that she doesn't have friends. It's just that everybody has people they like more than her.
- Snow White with the Red Hair: Mitsuhide takes issue with something Prince Zen says the palace workers call him;Prince Zen: It's for that very reason [...] that people say you're a blunt simple idiot!
Mitsuhide: No one's called me that before! What people say is that I'm stupid!
Prince Zen: It's the SAME DAMN THING! - Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: The protagonist Leon makes some statements like this about gambling, while gambling, such as "I hate gambling, but I love winning". What this really means, is that he’ll only gamble if he can fix the game in his favor.
- Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago: Ibrahim planned to gain social standing and favor with the sultan, so that he could ask to be given his concubine Hurrem as a gift, and then move to a small village and live the rest of their lives in peace there. When Ibrahim gets into an arranged marriage with the sultan's sister, Alvice — a merchant that actually had the same plan, but wanting the sultan's sister — asks him why he doesn't just forget about his plan and elope with Hurrem. Either way, they'd go to some remote village. Ibrahim thinks about it for a bit but then insists that those two things are completely different from each other.
- In Toriko, when the massive Regal Mammoth is falling from above, Komatsu suggests he and Sunny run away. Sunny responds, "I would never be so wretched as to turn tail. I said I'm just pulling back WITH AN ALL-OUT RETREAT!!"
