Flaw Exploitation in Anime and Manga.
- In Banana Fish, Ash's devotion to Eiji is frequently brought up as a Fatal Flaw and is exploited against him throughout the series, most notably once Blanca, a professional assassin and Ash's former teacher, enters the scene and is hired by characters who want to capture Ash and separate him and Eiji.
- In Berserk, the God Hand exploit Griffith's pride and ambition to tempt him into a Deal with the Devil. Of course, they would probably say that they didn't "exploit" him so much as appeal to his true nature.
- In the Bount Arc of Bleach, Yoshi takes a hostage and pulls off an astounding 16X Multipliernote during her battle against Rukia — by grabbing a little girl who is holding an infant child in her arms... a truly max-powered Dog Kicking, that.
- Aizen also exploits Ichigo's Chronic Hero Syndrome by kidnapping Orihime, which leads to him, Ishida, Chad, Renji and Rukia going to Hueco Mundo to save her. While there, they all get their asses kicked, and have to be saved by four Shinigami Captains. Aizen then uses this opportunity to lock them all in Hueco Mundo while he goes to Karakura Town, leaving the shinigami forces several men down.
- In Code Geass, Nina gets Suzaku to have his robot armed with a FLEIJA bomb by claiming it is the only way to avenge Euphie. She regrets this later when he accidentallynote nukes Tokyo.
- All over the place in Death Note. Light exploits anybody who places trust in him (a pretty serious flaw) for all it's worth. L and company exploit Light's ego, Misa's carelessness, Mikami's strict routine, and so forth. And then Light, at a couple of points, exploits his minions' very exploitability by playing on a deeper level.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- Cell exploits Vegeta's pride by appealing to his desire to fight the most powerful opponent possible. This leads to Vegeta allowing Cell to absorb Android 18 in order to achieve his "perfect" form instead of just killing him when he had the chance; on top of it all, Vegeta knew that's what Cell was doing, but let him do so anyway. Perfect Cell proceeds to trounce him completely, even mocking Vegeta for being stupid enough to help him.
- Which makes it ironic that Goku did the exact same thing to Cell. He knows if Gohan loses his temper his power will surpass Cell. Gohan even warns Cell this will happen. Cell, assure of his power and wanting a great challenge, goes out of his way to provoke Gohan to lose his temper. After crushing Android 16's head he gets exactly what he wanted. And gets his ass beat.Gohan: (in Funimation's dub) "What are you so afraid of, Cell? Isn't this what you wanted? I warned you. I told you what would happen if you pushed me too far. But you didn't listen. You forced me to awaken my hidden power, and now that you've seen it, you're afraid... because you know that I'm going to destroy you."
- Super Buu uses Trunks and Goten's arrogance and pride to trick them into fusing into Gotenks instead of letting Gohan finish him off. Once they fuse, Buu promptly absorbs Gotenks and Piccolo, becoming stronger and smarter.
- Later, Vegetto beats Buu up, but doesn't kill him, pushing Buu to the point of despair and frustration. To maintain his position as the strongest in the universe, Buu absorbs Vegetto, which was exactly what Vegetto wanted, since his plan was to save Gohan, Gotenks, and Piccolo before finishing off Buu.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Edward and Alphonse Elric are taken advantage of multiple times by a cat burglar by the name of Psiren who pretends that she is only stealing to save a hospital scheduled for demolition, and then later a school, and finally a church. All three of which get demolished during their stay.
- During a fight between Edward and Colonel Mustang, the latter begins by trying to blast the former with flame alchemy. Edward tries to avoid it by hiding in the crowd of spectators. Mustang manages to locate him by pushing Ed's Berserk Button, which gets him to act accordingly and make himself visible.Mustang: If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate.
- During a fight between Edward and Colonel Mustang, the latter begins by trying to blast the former with flame alchemy. Edward tries to avoid it by hiding in the crowd of spectators. Mustang manages to locate him by pushing Ed's Berserk Button, which gets him to act accordingly and make himself visible.
- In the Golden Week arc of Hayate the Combat Butler, Gilbert Kent, Sakuya's illegitimate brother, tries to use this and fails, picking Hinagiku (at least, she sees it as a flaw) as Hayate's partner for a beach volleyball match. He thinks that she's the weakest of the girls. Hayate wins against an army of volleyball robots, presumably without even touching the ball.
- Hayate himself also does this to Hinagiku during the Marathon Race earlier in the manga. He sent Nagi on ahead to finish the race while he kept Hina busy...by luring her out onto a rope bridge where her fear of heights effectively rooted her to the spot. This led to Hinagiku switching from "Hayate-kun" to the more distant and formal "Ayasaki-kun", a change which lasted until the end of her Birthday Arc (a period dubbed "the ice age" on the forums due to her giving him the cold shoulder for six months to a year real time).
- In Hellsing, the first villain that appears tries this with a policewoman. Alucard asks the girl if she's a virgin (in the manga) or if she'll go with him (in the anime). He then shoots her right through the chest to kill the vampire. When the mission is over, he turns her into a vampire. Alucard is not exactly a Knight in Shining Armor (except literally, in volume 8).
- In Holyland chapter 129, some envious seniors pressed Masaki's Berserk Button to lure him into a trap.
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the Incubators often exploit humans' flaws to make them contract. Not coincidentally, their favourite prey is young girls- a demographic that is easily manipulated.
- The Incubators themselves all share one flaw: none of them can understand or predict emotion. This blind spot makes it possible for humans to outmanoeuvre them and has been responsible for all of their defeats to date.
- Both fans and characters in Ranma ½ accuse Ranma himself of abusing enemy weaknesses with utter abandon, such as triggering their curses or taking advantage of their near-sightedness. Of course, "anything goes" in his "indiscriminate" school of martial arts. On the other hand, when an enemy exploits his flaws, he calls foul.
- Ah, but their styles aren't 'anything goes'.
- Also if calling a foul (even if it makes you look like a hypocrite) works, why not use it?
- In Reborn! (2004), during Tsuna's fight with Mukuro, the fight between them is prolonged much longer due to Mukuro's dirty fighting tactics that completely exploit Tsuna's kind-hearted nature. (Tactics that include taking over Tsuna's friends' bodies to fight him, making it difficult for Tsuna to defeat them without harming their bodies, and pretending to surrender only to attack Tsuna's back when Tsuna decides to spare him, etc).
- Rebuild World:
- The protagonist Akira's Fatal Flaw is wrath, having a set of Berserk Button issues from trauma during his childhood in the survival-of-the-fittest slums: Seeing friends be threatened, and being stolen from.
- Viola exploits these by using both Sheryl, Akira's partner, and Alna, the pickpocket who stole from him, as The Bait to get him to attack a gang headquarters, as part of a scheme to destroy that gang and its rival. Both Akira and Viola achieve their objectives, but because Katsuya showed up, Akira ends up shooting Viola, albeit non-fatally, employing her after.
- After finding out that Chloe threatened Akira's friends Reina, Shiori, and Kanae to get the white card MacGuffin, Akira refuses to help Chloe take full ownership, prompting her to go I Shall Taunt You with threatening to hurt his friends, getting him to attack her just like she had planned in a trap, with the goal of starting a huge fight as Chloe had guessed (correctly) her boss Alice had wanted.
- The Rival Katsuya has two major flaws, his Pride, and Chronic Hero Syndrome.
- The Guile Hero Sheryl takes advantage of Katsuya's pride and Survivor Guilt to wrap him around her little finger in a Honey Trap to get information out of him for Akira.
- In a Batman Gambit thanks to this from Akira, he throws his guns one after the other spinning through the air in a pre-set firing pattern to shoot at Katsuya’s whole squad, with the second gun being broken. Akira counted on Katsuya prioritizing protecting his teammates, and cuts Katsuya in half while he shoots at the second thrown gun.
- The protagonist Akira's Fatal Flaw is wrath, having a set of Berserk Button issues from trauma during his childhood in the survival-of-the-fittest slums: Seeing friends be threatened, and being stolen from.
- Sonic X: As in the game, Knuckles is Super Gullible and believes in the inherit goodness of people... and Dr. Eggman never misses an opportunity to take advantage of it.
- In Transformers: Robots in Disguise, the Predacons take advantage of Side Burn's obsession with red sports cars to lure him into a trap.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dark Yugi's Shadow Games, particularly his early ones, had him play on his opponent's inherent flaws in order to win, basing the games around overcoming such flaws like Greed. Dark Yugi's final Shadow Game in Duelist Kingdom returned to form with this, with Dark Yugi playing on Player Killer's Dirty Coward tendencies of hiding in the shadows even in Duel Monsters and scaring him as he did to others. As expected, his opponents never win and receive punishment.
