False Reassurances in Anime and Manga.
- Used for good in an episode of the 1980s Astro Boy series. In order to avoid putting more stress on a young blind girl, Astro impersonates the destroyed robot True and states "I'm fine! I need to go rescue more people now!" This is all technically true — since robots can't normally lie — but it's not coming from the person she thinks it is. Even better, True spent most of the episode reprogrammed so that he could only lie, rather than only being able to tell the truth.
- Bleach: Ukitake provides a subtle example that only becomes obvious in hindsight hundreds of chapters later: after Ichigo and his friends stop Rukia's execution and Aizen reveals himself as having manipulated everyone before fleeing with his co-conspirators to Hueco Mundo, it is decided that Ichigo is going to be more valuable in the coming conflict as an ally than as an enemy. As such, Ukitake grants him a Substitute Shinigami Badge to signify that he is acting as an agent of Soul Society in the living world. While explaining its purpose, however, Ukitake mentions that the badge is granted to a Substitute Shinigami (a living human with Shinigami powers) if they are deemed to be individuals beneficial to Soul Society. Ichigo doesn't think much of it at the time, but much later, former Substitute Shinigami Kugo Ginjo asks Ichigo to his face if he ever wondered what happens to the Substitute Shinigami not deemed beneficial to Soul Society. He then reveals to Ichigo that the badge is given to all Substitute Shinigami equally, since its true purpose is to serve as a tool to spy on and monitor them. Ginjo says this expecting Ichigo to understand that Soul Society never trusted him and that he was just a tool to be discarded when he was considered to no longer be useful, only for Ichigo to retort that he did think about it, and that he found it strange that Ukitake would bring something like that to his attention through careless phrasing. Ichigo then adds how, at some point, he had realized that Ukitake phrased it that way on purpose, since Ukitake is smart enough that he could've phrased things in such a way that Ichigo would've never suspected anything; he wanted Ichigo to figure out the truth on his own. When Ginjo asks why Ukitake would do that since it makes no difference to figure out the truth like that, Ichigo retorts that he did it so that he could decide on his own, while suspecting the truth, whether or not to be an ally of Soul Society.
- If Piccolo of Dragon Ball says something to the tune of 'Sorry to keep you waiting', it means that he has finished charging his Special Beam Cannon, and he is most assuredly not sorry for what's about to follow.
- Kirei Kotomine has many instances where he utilises this trope, but the most memorable ones are:
- In Fate/Zero, Kirei promises to Kariya Matou that if he goes to Kotomine Church at midnight, Kariya will find his archenemy Tokiomi Tohsaka. Unfortunately for Kariya, Kirei didn't mention that he will find Tokiomi's cold corpse, and the distraught Aoi would arrive right after him and naturally believe that Kariya killed her husband. It only goes downhill from there…
- In Fate/stay night, Shirou informs Kirei about the mysterious Eighth Servant that is an irregularity in the Holy Grail War. Kirei promises to investigate it. What he really means is "I'll ask Gilgamesh why he didn’t stick to the plan and stay hidden until the final phase of the Grail War.".
- In Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Sociopathic Soldier Kimblee was under orders to kill Winry's parents because they treated patients on the enemy side, but they were killed by Scar shortly before Kimblee and co. could get there. When he meets Winry years later, he puts on a charming front, informing her that his squad found their bodies after arriving "a moment too late" (though he's not lying at all when he says that he respected her parents for their dedication to their work).
- Another instance with Pride/Selim Bradley where he tells to Mrs. Bradley that he wants to learn alchemy to help out his father. This is literally true, although he meant a different Father than his listener thought he did.
- In Hellsing's English dub, Rip van Winkle tells the captain who turned over his ship to Millennium in exchange for vampirism: "Don't worry, you definitely deserve everything that's coming to you."
- The first episode of Monster has Kenzo Tenma severely rattled by a widow desperately asking why he hadn't operated on her husband, leading to this exchange over dinner with his fiancée.Tenma: But what does she want from me, anyway? I was just following orders from the Director when I performed surgery on that opera singer. I'm not responsible. [to Eva] Well am I?
Eva: Well of course not! After all, peoples' lives aren't created equal. - In One Piece, Arlong assures Nami that once she pays him the amount agreed on previously, he would give up control over her village as promised, and further assures her that he is a man who always keeps his word. He had already made arrangements to ensure Nami won't be able to make the payment by having a Marine officer confiscate the money that Nami had collected over the past several years.
- Although the intent is fairly benevolent, Nozomu gives one to Kiri in an early episode of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. He tells her, "If you ever feel like you want to die, let me know first." She seems to interpret this to mean "Don't feel depressed, I'm here for you", but immediately after, we see Nozomu's actual meaning — because he likes Kiri, he adds her to his list of potential partners for a Suicide Pact.
- In Episode 2 of Servant × Service, as Yamagami noticed Hasebe is pointing his smartphone lens towards her as she tripped, she asked him not to take a picture... he asked her not to worry as he's taking a video.
- Xelloss from Slayers does this very well. Instances include his assurances that "I absolutely will not use the Claire Bible manuscript for evil purposes", "Lord Hellmaster didn't tell me his plan", and (novel only) "His heart isn't beating". All technically true, and yet entirely misleading: he planned to destroy, not use, the Claire Bible manuscript; Hellmaster didn't tell him The Plan, but he figured it out on his own; and the "he" in question is perfectly fine, as it is really a disguised Mazoku who only has a heart when it wants to.
- In an episode of Speed Grapher, Tatsumi poses as a substitute for Kagura's teacher, Ms. Wakaba. When someone asks what happened to her, Tatsumi assures them she got "A bit tied up", whereupon the scene cuts to Ms. Wakaba Bound and Gagged inside a locker.
