Distressed Dude / Anime & Manga

• In Akame ga Kill!, Tatsumi finds himself captured and imprisoned by one of the most powerful, cruel, and sadistic human beings in existence, Esdeath, a woman with extremely deadly powers who has slaughtered hundreds of thousands without mercy. That's not the problem though. The problem is Esdeath is hopelessly in love with Tatsumi and fully intends to make him hers. Hilarity Ensues.
• Shokupanman, frequently, in Anpanman, by everyone. Even though he's also a superhero and one of the Power Trio.
• Eren from Attack on Titan. Whenever he's separated from Mikasa or Levi, he gets eaten or kidnapped, sometimes both. Justified, as Eren is a MacGuffin Super-Person desired by multiple factions.
  • Jean, for all his budding leadership qualities, has shades of this. He's been saved by Connie, Annie, Marco, and thrice by Armin.
• Furuichi from Beelzebub was kidnapped twice during the manga, both times used as bait to lure Oga into a trap. As the best friend of the main character and being the only one with zero fighting skills, this was bound to happen.
• Yuki from Betrayal Knows My Name often qualifies. Most of the time, the other characters are protecting or saving him.
• Ciel of Black Butler is quite the chessmaster, but he's also a scrawny thirteen-year-old with asthma and winds up having to be saved rather a lot, usually by his Battle Butler Sebastian or his fiancée Elizabeth.
• Rock in Black Lagoon. Revy at one point makes a sarcastic quip when his latest kidnapper turns out to be a Japanese high-school girl.
• Bleach
  • Used in an Omake to Ichigo and Uryuu when Orihime and Rangiku want them to test a boiling purple thing. Ichigo also seemed to get restrained a lot at the beginning of the series.
  • In the Filler Bount arc, Ishida was whacked with the Distress Ball due to his temporary power drain and ended up this way.
  • In the filler Zanpakutou arc, the shinigami and Ichigo have to come up with a plan to locate and save Captain-Commander Yamamoto who has been captured by the Arc Villain and sealed behind a very powerful kidou barrier from which he cannot escape. Subverted; Yamamoto sealed himself away to escape Muramasa's power. Muramasa led the shinigami to believe he had captured Yamamoto so that Ichigo would use his full power to break the barrier. Muramasa's plan succeeds, allowing him to steal Yamamoto's zanpakutou power.
• Brave Raideen: Poor, poor Ichiro Hibiki. The indignities he suffered included being turned to stone and tied to a cross (not at the same time). All because his son is the pilot of the Earth-defending Super Robot, and the baddies use Ichiro as bait to lure him out.
• Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto has The Watson Angelo da Canossa, a commoner Scholarship Student from Florence who meets the titular Cesare Borgia as his classmate in the University of Pisa. In chapter 1, they have a Meet Cute where Cesare saves Angelo from his runaway Moody Mount. He rescues him about five more times just in the first few volumes, before Angelo finally returns the favor and takes a dagger for Cesare.
  • Cesare himself, as well — his main character flaw is his habit of reckless self-endangerment, and he tends to do things like ditching his guards to run around a festival in disguise with Angelo, in order to draw out the hired killers he knows are following him. He gets rescued by Miguel da Corella, his real-life right-hand man.
• Change 123: Played straight in Chapter 2 where Hibiki eventually rescues Kosukegawa. A variation happens during the "Zero revealing" plot arc where Kosukegawa's kidnapping serves only as bait for HiFuMi to lure them into a trap.
• Mikagami Tokiya in Flame of Recca, despite being a competent fighter and a ruthlessly efficient The Smart Guy, actually doubles as this. He gets tied up TWICE in the series, both probably as an effect of picking up the Distress Ball, or maybe because Good Is Dumb, since this happens once he lets go of his Revenge tendencies and lessened his ruthlessness. In his defense though, after all that, he goes to beat down the most feared member amongst the enemy ranks.
• Azusa Mizutani from Gakuen Ouji is this at the beginning of the manga. The female lead had to rescue him twice from being gang-raped by all the crazy, horny girls at their school.
• Naoyoshi from Gamaran. And rescuing him is actually one of the main plot motive of the series.
• Mamoru Amami from GaoGaiGar, specifically in its epilogue OVA, FINAL. When trying to make the preparations that would allow 3G to win against the 11 Planetary Lords of Sol, Mamoru created a replicant of himself to use as a decoy so he could get to the G-Crystal without being caught by the Sol Lords, said replicant is...very gut-wrenchingly chained and given mind-altering drugs by Palparepa.◊ It's pretty scary, honestly, and adds more to Mamoru's woobie factor.
• Arslan from The Heroic Legend of Arslan often needs someone, usually Daryun, to come help him get out of being cornered/attacked by the enemy. Justified in that he is young and inexperienced and while he can hold his own in a fight, he is frequently targeted because he is the prince with a price on his head.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Parodied with North Italy, who often gets in trouble and derails his partners' plans.
  Italy: [over the phone] Germany! Germany! I'm in North Africa right now and I CAN'T TIE MY SHOELACES!
  • This reaches a new level of absurdity when Italy needs rescuing from falling into a pit dug by "that jackass Britain". It wasn't an elaborate or hidden trap, it was just an ordinary hole dug in the ground.
  • His brother South Italy plays it a bit straighter as a child when Turkey kidnaps him. His boss/caretaker Spain goes Papa Wolf on Turkey. In return, Spain falls gravely sick in another strip and the adult South Italy searches for a "cure", even having recourse to The Mafia to try help him.
  • As a child, North Italy's Team Dad Austria played it straight and had to be bailed out by Switzerland. Ironically, the one who "bullied" Austria the most was Hungary... who would become his Ninja Maid, and later his wife.
  • Two recent strips feature England as a parody of this trope, trying to escape from Germany and the Italies and hilariously failing.
  • In Paint It, White! most of the heroes find themselves immobilized after they are turned into Pictonians. Ironically, it's Italy who saves them at that time.
  • In the third Hetalia Fantasia CD Canada is captured and starts to get Brainwashed by "the Black and White Knight of the Dark Night" AKA Prussia. It is a computer game though, so it can be debated how much distress he actually is in.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Rohan Kishibe from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable where he falls into a trap by Highway Star and gets held captive until Josuke hunts down and defeats the Stand user.
  • Koichi was earlier taken captive by Keicho Nijimura. Likewise, Josuke also had to rescue him. He also gets kidnapped by Yukako but frees himself after defeating her.
  • Josuke himself needed rescuing when he and Koichi were captured by Terunosuke Miyamoto and his Stand, Enigma. Interestingly enough, the one to do the rescuing was Yuya Fungami - the one who actually held Rohan captive previously.
  • While every single one of the main characters in Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders periodically needs rescuing, Polnareff is the poster boy for this trope. Even during his personal quest to avenge his murdered sister, Advol takes a knife to the back and a bullet the face just to protect Polnareff from being tag-teamed by Hol Horse and J. Geil. Then Kakyoin has to stop him from attacking the two enemy stand users without knowing how their powers work against Advol's wishes.
• Kindergarten Wars: The series' male lead, Doug, frequently needs to get saved by Rita, the series' main protagonist. Given that Kindergarten Wars is a Romantic Comedy, this almost always gets used as a Ship Tease between Rita and Doug.
• Lantis from Magic Knight Rayearth gets captured by Nova near the end of the second season.
• Kaito Doumoto of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch should really stop going overseas for surfing tournaments. The first time, he was kidnapped by his long-lost brother Gackto, had his power almost stolen, and got used to blackmail Lucia. The second time, he had his memory wiped by Michel and was used to draw Lucia out of hiding and blackmail her again. Thankfully, though she may be The Ditz, she's smarter than that.
• While he doesn't get caught every single episode of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing... well, if there's a boy liable to get captured, that's Duo Maxwell. Flanderized to death by fandom via Ukefication.
• In My Hero Academia, Bakugo becomes this twice: the first, when he is taken hostage by a sludge villain, and the second when he is kidnapped by the League of Villains.
• Tragic from Mythic Quest is threatened in exchange for Aramusha's good behavior so often that the one time someone claims to have kidnapped her, he knows they're bluffing, because that's not how things work. Usually this is just an excuse to have Tragic and Aramusha agree not to use their Game-Breaker powers for the duration of a fight, but once John is actually kidnapped and Anaya has to go rescue him.
• Done a lot to the title character of Natsume's Book of Friends. He gets captured by youkai and the Matoba clan on more than one occasion. Special mention to his first encounter with the head of the Matoba clan. Natsume is abducted and told that if he tries to run, it will be made so that he can't run, and if he tries to yell, it'll be made so that he can't yell. Special mention also goes to Season 4, Episode 6, which plays with the trope before playing it straight: Natsume is trapped in a jar by an ayakashi that wishes to use him as an offering. Initially, the only issue is getting out of the jar since his guardian Nyanko-Sensei protects him, but the ayakashi does eventually make off with Natsume. The episode ends as Natsume's friend runs off trying to save him. Slightly justified in that Natsume isn't necessarily weak — he's actually pretty strong for a non-exorcist human, and the fact that nearly everyone wants him (no, not like that!) leads to him getting kidnapped quite often. That he can scatter ayakashi just by punching them is considered quite impressive. Still doesn't save him from this trope, though.
• Negi Springfield of Negima! Magister Negi Magi once got held captive by his fellow mages who wanted to turn him into an ermine and deport him to the Magic World for failing to maintain The Masquerade. He managed to get out of his cell, but his True Companions (mostly Action Girls) had to bust into the enemy base to get him out.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Yeah, Shinji's a pretty easy target who cries and whines compared to his two female companions (a Stoic Woobie and Fiery Redhead). Yet he deserves mention for one episode where he takes charge, gets in trouble, and screams for help from the main female characters.
• One Piece:
  • Portgas D. Ace is definitely this trope; an entire war is done to save him from the Marines. Except that his younger brother Luffy is the one rescuing him, not a girl. Luffy succeeded in freeing him. Unfortunately, it was in vain as soon Ace took a lava punch from Admiral Akainu to save Luffy and actually died.
  • Trafalgar Law goes through this in the Dressrosa arc. He gets knocked out, bound in Seastone chains, and interrogated by the arc's Big Bad. Then Luffy rescues him... but doesn't have a key for the chains, so he has to carry Law all over the island, through multiple battles, until they finally get the key and Law can (somewhat) participate again.
  • Koby gets captured in the beginning of the Egghead arc. Following the failed attack on Amazon Lily, Koby is kidnapped by Blackbeard.
• Oz from PandoraHearts was being one twice. First when he was captured by the Baskervilles in the Lutwidge Academy, and then he was saved by Elliot. Second was in Yura’s Mansion, and Gil goes to rescue him (Elliot happened to be in the rescue team, too). Oh, and he didn’t show much of a resistance in both incidents, especially the first one.
• Mytho in Princess Tutu. Extreme Doormat due to his lack of a heart, with Chronic Hero Syndrome thanks to the nature of the story he came from, and a Dark Magical Girlfriend? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• Meowth fell under this trope in "Volcanion And The Mechanical Marvel" after he was kidnapped by Alva, leaving his teammates Jessie and James to follow Ash and his friends in order to rescue him.
• Subverted in Episode 88 of Ranma ½. The Amazon sisters say that they're holding Ranma captive, but it turns out that they simply gave him a meal to keep him busy.
• Sailor Moon: Mamoru Chiba, a.k.a. Tuxedo Kamen started off as helpful and slightly badass, but after he and Usagi entered into a relationship, the poor guy descended rapidly into Distressed Dude territory. This also had some Worf Effect crossover just because the most common method of the villains to demonstrate their evil was to chuck the powerless guy in the tuxedo across the room and make off with him... or, in at least two cases, reprogram him.
  • The manga tried to reduce this effect by giving him useful powers, and he took care of a few villains by himself, but he'd still get kidnapped/killed/brainwashed whenever the plot needed to kick up the drama a few notches. The Stars manga storyline even started off with Galaxia effortlessly killing the poor kid in front of Usagi.
• Shun in Saint Seiya. Though he's not completely incapable of fighting, Ikki routinely bails him out of tough battles. Note this becomes routine only in the filler episode of the anime and in non-canon movies where he is subject to Adaptational Wimp.
• Genjyo Sanzo of Saiyuki gets abducted and restrained by baddies quite often in the anime. Doesn't stop him from being a badass, though. Then again, his original counterpart from Journey to the West got this treatment way more than Saiyuki Sanzo, without being badass the rest of the time to make up for it.
  • Not that that's hard given his original counterpart was pretty much a complete wuss compared to Saiyuki's loud, violent, arrogant, chain-smoking, gambling, foul-mouthed, violent version who on average threatens to kill his companions at least twice a chapter. Oh, and did I mention foul-mouthed and violent?
• Goto in Samurai Flamenco becomes one near the end to lure Masayoshi into a final confrontation with Haiji. He managed to get out from his cuffs.
• Kyrie from Sands of Destruction, so many times it's not funny. It's to be noted that he has the potential to defend himself but he never does.
• Seraph of the End gives this role to Mika and especially Yuu. Both state how they want to rescue/save the other and it's lampshaded by Ferid. Ferid calls Yuu by the Terms of Endangerment "precious princess", "lovely Yuu-chan", and "precious angel". Mika makes it his life goal to save Yuu from the vampires/humans out to use him and carries him in a Bridal Carry a couple times. There's even fanart of Mika dressed as a prince carrying Yuu who's dressed as a princess.
• She's My Knight: In Chapter 10, Ichinose is kidnapped by Sakurako, a delinquent who also likes Mogami and wants to get her attention.
• Slayers: Gourry gets slapped around enough and used almost to the point of a Plot Coupon due to being both The Team Normal and the wielder of a powerful sword, but it comes to a head when Monster lord Hellmaster Fibrizo kidnaps him in the second season of the anime/eighth light novel in order to be used to provoke Lina. It takes the summoning of the Guardian of the Multiverse to save him (and her other friends, who also get taken).
• In one arc of the Soul Eater manga, Death the Kidd seems to be playing this role after a Collector of the Strange decides to add him to his collection. He manages to break out by himself, but only after a fight with Black Star which snaps him out of insanity.
• Tokyo Ghoul:
  • The Gourmet Arc sees Kaneki become one twice, thanks to Tsukiyama. The first time, he's nearly served for dinner at a Nasty Party, before Tsukiyama decides he'd rather not share and saves him. The second time, Touka comes to rescue him when Tsukiyama lures him into a trap with the intention of eating him.
  • The Aogiri Arc centers around Kaneki being captured by the titular organization. The staff of Anteiku and several allies mobilize to rescue him, though he ends up escaping on his own. Unfortunately, it's only after enduring 10 days of Cold-Blooded Torture and crossing the Despair Event Horizon, leaving him a changed person.
  • In the sequel, this role seems to have fallen to Mutsuki. He's briefly kidnapped by Torso, and rescued by his comrades — experiencing major feelings of doubt over his Non-Action Guy status. He's later used as The Bait during a major operation and ends up as the Living MacGuffin being fought over by various parties. He manages to escape on his own, and reunite with the team. Later, Torso manages to capture him again and says they are going to get married while dressing him up in a white dress, putting a wedding ring on his finger, and cutting off his limbs. Mutsuki manages to save himself by mutilating Torso to death.
• Sideswipe in the Transformers: Armada episode "Past II", when he is abducted and chained up in a burning industrial complex by Wheeljack. Hot Shot rescues him.
• Yuuen from Wild Rock is small, weak, and looks like a girl, and basically helpless against most giant prehistoric animals. Luckily for him, Emba's the opposite.
• Honoka Takamiya from Witch Craft Works. Interestingly more damsel-er than most.
• Taki from Yellow gets this a bit, although it happens to Goh at least once.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • The young Mokuba Kaiba is a chronic hostage because his wealthy brother has attracted so many enemies.
  • Astonishingly averted in Yu-Gi-Oh! R, where nobody even considers grabbing Mokuba Kaiba.
  • If soul-stealing counts as kidnapping, Yugi's grandpa qualifies in the Duelist Kingdom arc. Both the Kaiba brothers eventually get added to the list of people Yugi has to save.
  • Happens to several characters in Season 4, including Yugi himself.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX continues the tradition. Edo Phoenix, for one, gets captured in a Hostage for MacGuffin situation in the Season 2 finale.
  • Yugi's Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds successor Yusei gets captured by Out Of Context Villains during the WRGP arc. Aki, his Violently Protective Love Interest with psychic powers, busts him out.
• Kuwabara in the Sensui arc of YuYu Hakusho where id kidnapped by the Big Bad that want his power of cut dimensional barrier.

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