Fragile Speedsters of Anime and Manga.
- Angelic Layer: Hikaru, Athena, and most of the Angels. It's never explained why so many people choose to construct Angels this way, but possibly it's to emulate The Champion Athena. Also possible is the fact that every heavyweight angel except for Shirahime looks absolutely hideous and unnatural. Case in point: Vasquez.
- In Attack on Titan:
- The Anti-Titan troops use an advanced system of ropes and grapples to gracefully Building Swing around, and being teenagers, they're quite light on their feet as well. However, they're teenagers going up against giants, so if a Titan manages to get a solid hit on one, or God forbid actually get a hold of one... Goodnight Vienna.
- By Titan standards, Ymir's Titan form is smaller, faster and more acrobatic than normal Titans, but when caught out goes down quickly.
- Berserk:
- Casca, while not the physically strongest of the Band of the Hawk, is still capable of taking out mooks twice her size thanks to her agility. She can easily be deemed the acrobat of the Hawks, since she does some crazy flips and always lands on her feet even after she goes crazy from the Eclipse, but when she does get hit, she goes down. Casca is the opposite of her Lightning Bruiser lover Guts and Mighty Glacier comrade Pippin.
- After acquiring the wind cloak and sword from Flora, Serpico can run, jump, and even fly, but he has very little defense against physical attacks — when a troll hits him in the side with a spiked mace, he's down for at least two days.
- Isidro, being a child, is a fragile speedster by default. He wants to be as strong and tough as Guts, but Guts advises him to use his speed and small size to his advantage instead, advice which Isidro grudgingly takes. While still not the most competent fighter ever, Isidro is still alive after numerous battles with demonic monsters, which in this series is a feat in and of itself. When Casca gets her sanity back she actually trains Isidro herself, who's delighted to find someone whose fighting style is akin to his own.
- In Brave10, Kamanosuke is one of the fastest Braves, but he's not tough.
- Buso Renkin: When using his Motor Gears in their Sky Walker Mode, Gouta can greatly increase his speed and agility. Unlike many of his fellow Alchemist Warriors, however, Gouta’s stamina and physical abilities are no greater than a regular human teenager, so he is far more vulnerable than his comrades.
- Lessar from A Certain Magical Index is fast but hasn't really shown herself to be too durable. Her job during normal missions is basically to run around as a scout and gain accurate information.
- Darker than Black: Poor, poor Burger-Kun from the second season. Super speed with none of the Required Secondary Powers. His opponent makes it rain, which at his speed, immediately turns into buckshot. Makes you wonder what his plan was since he didn't carry a weapon of any sort and using his fists would destroy his own arm.
- Shinobu in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is the fastest Hashira but lacks toughness and strength. Her swordsmanship is based around quickly cutting into demons’ flesh and poisoning them with her katana, before using her superior agility to keep out of their way (and maybe add the odd extra injection here and there) as the poison incapacitates and kills them.
- Digimon often has this dynamic: In Digimon Frontier, Zoe's evolutions cannot take a hit. They are also the fastest, at least until Takuya and Koji reach other evolutionary levels. They also have martial arts skills to make up for their low physical stats, meaning they double as Weak, but Skilled.
- Dragon Ball Super:
- Cabba is very fast and can pack a punch that can knock Vegeta back, but tires easily and seems to have a hard time against Vegeta's more brutish fighting style. One gut-punch from a Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta knocks him out entirely.
- Dyspo of the Pride Troopers has such immense Super-Speed even the likes of Goku and Hit (who is a Time Master) have trouble hitting him. Physically however, Dyspo is on the frail side, even Gohan (who at the time fell behind his father and Vegeta in terms of godly power) could tenderise Dyspo when he got his hands on him.
- The Elusive Samurai: Tokiyuki is quick and nimble, and his uncanny ability to dodge attacks with ease is his defining trait. But during the first two years of the story, the manga goes to lengths to emphasize that if he gets hit even once during battle, it would be the end of him. This is unsurprising, given he's only 9 to 11 years old during this time period.
- Eureka Seven — The Alleluia IFO from the sequel is very quick and agile, but its armor and armament aren't worth a damn, as it was designed primarily as a EAW/EW platform. It plays the role of spotter for Kyrie.
- Eyeshield 21:
- Sena was very fast before the series began to avoid getting beat up by bigger kids. Hiruma recruits him to become the runningback for the football team, promising that if he was fast enough, he wouldn't get tackled. Later in the series, Sena toughens up defensively, enough to shake off linebackers trying to tackle him.
- Panther is not as fragile as Sena, but he can be taken down relatively easily... provided you can even come close to touching him.
- Of Teikoku Taka and Karin. Taka could freaking fly and, presumably, finish the 40-yard dash in less than 5 seconds, but when compared to Yamato, he seemed to be (relatively) frail. Karin is a fragile girl with good quaterback ability, but she couldn't take a hit.
- Fullmetal Alchemist has Wrath, who is horrifically fast and agile, more than any character in the series aside from Sloth the Indolent, dodging bullets left and right and casually slipping past every defense to slice his enemies to pieces. Unlike the other Homunculi, he lacks any special defensive power even a Healing Factor, but he doesn't need one.
- The High Elf Archer in Goblin Slayer uses speed and agility to keep her from dangers, while she decimates her opponents with a bow and arrow. But even a single goblin can knock her to the ground.
- Gundam:
- The Kampfer, a Zeon commando-strike mobile suit from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Lightning fast and well armed, the Kampfer is demonstrably able to outrun mobile suits and destroy a team of six Federation Elite Mooks. It even manages to demolish the Alex's resilient Chobham Armor. Unfortunately, it buys this speed and firepower at a high price — no armor of its own to speak of. It is torn to pieces by a single burst from the Alex's 90mm Gatling cannon.
- The Correl, a mobile suit from After War Gundam X, is a Humongous Mecha example of the trope. It's so delicate that it can't use any weapons other than a beam knife, but it's so fast that it can inflict Death of a Thousand Cuts on most enemy mobile suits it fights, and it nearly totals Garrod's Gundam. The downside is that it doesn't have any armor either, and Garrod destroys it by using a Gundam's weakest weapon: vulcans.
- From Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Union and AEU mobile suits are known to be fast and fragile. Graham Aker souped up his Overflag and GN Flag. By stripping the armor from the suit and installing progressively larger engines, Graham was able to increase his Flag's performance to the point where it was a match for the Gundams in terms of speed and maneuverability, if not armor (not that armor really mattered, as even heavily-armored suits get shredded by Gundams). The GN Flag was the logical conclusion of this process having no armor, one beam sword as a weapon, and a freaking Gundam engine rammed into the back. Yes, Graham stuck a Gundam engine into a Mook suit. Needless to say the result practically has Super-Speed, at the cost of absolutely no defense.
- This really applies to many of the Mook MS, particularly in MS IGLOO. Despite being 60-ton armored giants, Zaku are actually pretty vulnerable to attack by missile-equipped infantry and tanks due to poor situational awareness (like what tank crews have to deal with in real life, also being an 18 meter tall robot just makes you easier to hit). Due to this, the survival of most Mobile Suits seems to hinge around dodging cannon fire and missiles despite them being gigantic robots that dwarf all the weapon systems shooting at them.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: The MS-06R Psycho Zaku from the first arc is an exceptionally fast and well armed machine with a ton of verniers to easily dodge attacks and the space debris that litters the sector it operates in. While it does have more armor than the average Zaku, the Federation's heavy ordinance and beam weaponry make that a moot point. This contrasts it with the Lightning Bruiser FA-78 Full Armor Gundam; the Psycho Zaku evades attacks while the Gundam's heavier armor and extra shields allows him to tank more punishment than the Zaku. This comes to a head in the end where both heavily damaged suits launch one last mutual attck; the Gundam loses its head and arm but remains intact while the Zaku loses its head, all of its limbs, and explodes soon after.
- The Earth Forces' Windams in Gundam SEED Destiny combine this with Death from Above. They're fragile and blow up with alarming frequency, but are armed with beam rifles (thus all but guaranteeing one-hit KO's), and can fly, giving them a massive advantage over ZAFT's slower, earthbound ZAKU's.
- Astray from Gundam SEED and their successor Murasame from Gundam SEED Destiny is even more fragile speedster than their Alliance counterpart, Daggers and Windams. Notably, Murasame is even more of a Glass Cannon than any other grunt mech in this verse and could go toe to toe with Gundams since they pack immense firepower for Mecha-Mooks. There's a reason their armor is called Foaming Metal though...
- The Eternal is a ship variant. It's the fastest spaceship in the series and can outrun every other type of ship. However it can't even take on a single Zaft mook ship by itself and win, as opposed to Archangel and its many weapons. Instead it's reliant on its mobile suits to protect it, and it's specifically designed to support and deploy the Freedom and the Justice, two of the most powerful mobile suits in the series.
- Most of the Mobile Suits from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam trade on not getting hit instead of tanking shots, due to the growing prevalence of beam weapons in the storyline. The epitome of this is probably the Hyaku Shiki, Quattro's distinctive gold mobile suit. Incredibly high speed, good firepower, but very easily damaged due to the fact that it weapons layout omits a shield. While the gold skin is actually a coating meant to protect against beam weapons, in practice it proved ineffective and thus the Hyaku Shiki is only barely more resistant to them than any other machine while also lacking a shield to block projectile and explosive weapons.
- Chronologically later Universal Century stories like Mobile Suit Gundam F91 and Mobile Suit Victory Gundam continue this trend, making nearly all mobile suits physically smaller and lighter with even less armor than before. This allows them to be faster and more agile, but also means that even human-sized bazookas could cause actual damage if they score a hit. Yet also zig-zagged in that the introduction of beam shields mean that mobile suits finally have a capacity to block beam cannon shots (previously only mobile armors enormous enough to have room for an I-Field generator could do this), so long as they can position their shield properly.
- The EMS-10 Zudah of Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo is another example of a Zeon design focusing too much on one trait. Originally a production competitor to the Zaku I, the Zudah features reasonable firepower but far less armor — it is noticeably less hefty than the standard Zaku I and has less armor coverage overall as well. It was also exceptionally fast as a result, but had the unnerving tendency to disintegrate completely if their engines were pushed to the limit such that the sheer thrust tore apart the frame. As such they were much, much faster than even the Zaku II, but so fragile that their own engines could kill them. Of the four Zudahs seen, two overtaxed their engines and exploded, taking their skilled pilots with them. A 50% loss rate with no enemy hits scored consigned the Zudah to the Flawed Prototype junkheap of history.
- The infamous RB-79 Ball, while small and lightly armored, was fast, highly maneuverable, and hard-to-hit, which combined with their hit-and-run tactics made the quite a problem to deal with.
- Hajime no Ippo:
- Itagaki Manabu's skills are graphed in the manga, where only his speed is truly outstanding.
- Saeki Takuma relies on his extremely high speed and reflexes to win fights; a few punches from Ippo were enough to take him down. He, Manabu, and Karasawa Takuzou were even considered the fastest boxers in Japan (Miyata wasn't in the running because he was focused on being the fastest IN THE WORLD), aptly named "Speed Kings" and fought for who was truly worthy of the title. Itagaki won in the end.
- Inuyasha:
- The horse youkai Entei is very fast, one of the fastest youkai in the anime. In a real fight, however, he is quickly defeated by Inuyasha.
- This is the typical fighting style of wolf youkai. They are very fast, but not very strong and resilient compared to other youkai, although there are exceptions like Koga.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Fate's Sonic Form allows her to move at Super-Speed at all times, but at the cost of defense. Her opponents always note that, in that form, one hit is all it'll take to kill her. What they usually fail to note is that to land a single hit on Fate, you have to move faster than her — and no living canon character so far has even come close to that. Except Erio, once, while she was distracted and, as shown in Force, Fate seems to have gotten even faster since then.
- Chantez from ViVid has Super-Speed as her personal skill. However, her defense are very weak compared to her speed.
- Micaiah from ViVid has a Barrier Jacket (or Knight Clothing) called Storm Armor, which is designed to give her immense speed but low defense. Due to her extremely strong sword attacks, Micaiah is specialized as a fast sweeper, but her low defense became a lethal disadvantage against Lightning Bruiser Miura, who has melee versions of Nanoha's Starlight Breaker.
- The Numbers Tre, Nove and Deed are very fast and strong. Tre has Ride Impulse as her Inherent Skill and can compete with Fate's speed, Nove is faster than Lightning Bruiser Subaru, and Deed is shown using Flash Steps. However, like most Numbers, they have weak defenses.
- Vivio lost most of her power in the Grand Finale of StrikerS. She has much weaker defense, but she's still very fast and her Counter Hitter skill allows her to strike immediately back, even if she can't dodge an attack. Thanks to her training, she has improved her defense skills, but if she miscalculates the opponent's attacks or misses the timing, Vivio will get a lot of damage.
- Naruto:
- Haku has shown to be fast for age, as he was able to quickly close the gap between Zōri and Waraji and take their swords from them before either of them realised what had happened. This is taken up a notch with his Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals technique. But during his fight against Naruto and Sasuke, he couldn't take one punch from either one of them.
- Rock Lee and Might Guy can be considered a variation of this overlapping with Glass Cannon, thanks to utilizing the power of the Eight Gates they're both very, very fast as well having the strength and power to back it up; being the strongest Taijutsu practitioners in the world. But due to nature of the Gates, their bodies actually become much weaker, Lee and Gai have their muscles fibers ripped to shreds when opening the Gates, and if anything or anyone touches them it will cause immense pain. So The Eight Gates can ensure that opponent won't get the chance to land a hit on you and give you a major damage output, but if opponents do succeed in catching and injuring you the effects will be severe and even lethal.
- Konan has to be among the fastest Akatsuki members. Considering her power is paper, this isn't too much of a surprise. Unfortunately for her, she decided to battle an opponent with one of the most broken and overpowered abilities within the series. A sad fate to one of the most beloved characters indeed.
- Using Magia Erebea in Negima! Magister Negi Magi allows one to gain various buffs by absorbing various spell types. Fire, for example, increases offensive power an incredible amount and defense a reasonable amount but leaves the user a bit too slow to be an effective threat. Lightning, however, gives great speed but only so-so offense and truly pitiful defense. The most potent form seen allows Negi to pinball Rakan around the stadium, but does no meaningful damage. The lack of defense can be partially compensated for with the intangibility granted by an upgraded form of the ability but one good counter is devastating.
- One Piece:
- Kuro can move too fast to see; so fast, that apparently even he can't see who he's attacking. Once Luffy manages to catch him, however, the fight is over rather quickly.
- Nero the failure member of CP9 is a Fragile Speedster; he trained in Rokushiki, but only in Soru, Geppo, and Kami-e (the speed styles); while he lacked training in Tekkai and Shigan, which made him unable to block powerful strikes and pierce opponents. Thus, an advantage in speed and disadvantage in defence and offence meant when Franky actually got a hold of him, the fight ended quickly.
- Brook the Undead Swordsman Musician of the Straw Hats is classified as a "Speed-Type" Swordsman in contrast to Zoro who is a "Power-Type", and Oda confirms that Brook is indeed the fastest crewmate thanks to his very light frame. However, Brook's skeletal physiology also works against him as any strong blow can literally knock his head off, and he has attempted to subvert this being able to get up several times after receiving powerful attacks from Big Mom who’s a Yonko (an emperor of the sea). Regardless, Brook just lacks the physical strength and power to deal with strong enemies in prolonged battles without breaking apart.
- Sugar of the Donquixote Pirates is very quick, able to use her powers against the several attacking Tontatta dwarves (who are too fast to be seen by regular humans). But when she was defeated twice by Usopp, only one hit (or rather, one showing of a Nightmare Face) was needed.
- Carrot the Rabbit Mink who unofficially joined the crew in Zou is very fast in her first scene: she effortlessly dodged Zoro's slash and she can also jump extremely high. In Whole Cake Island, Carrot assumes her Sulong form, which makes her even faster to the point she can Speed Blitz an army and do some Deadly Dodging to Charlotte Daifuku's Genie. However, physically Carrot is a lightweight; Charlotte Katakuri overpowered her by just stepping on her, and when she ended up exhausted by using Sulong she was nearly sliced by the Genie before Sanji saved her.
- Strangely, King becomes at this as well as a Glass Cannon once the fire on his back goes out. As explained Lunarains are almost invincible Lightning Bruisers with their flames on and gain a further boost in speed and power with their flames off — but as trade-off are far more vulnerable to attacks which is how Zoro ended up defeating King.
- In Pikaia, Vince uses a BMS with the emphasis on speed, which still puts him in danger if he's to be caught by any of the dangerous creatures chasing him. The "fragile" part is dealt with when Parker combines it with abalone biomimetics.
- In Popcorn Avatar, Lisa observes that Kurando has "no toughness" when using the Deva's wind powers.
- Psycho-Pass: Shogo Makashima. Makishima is fast and strong enough to fight and defeat an admittedly-wounded Shinya, in addition to previously quickly and easily taking down three armed thugs, but Akane knocks him out with a single surprise helmet-strike to the back of the head.
- Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace: Akechi uses speed to startle his enemies before he attacks with his karate skills but breaks bones after hitting tougher and older opponents.
- Following tradition from the games Ibuki in the comics is this, having quickness and speed that even Ryu had troubles hitting her and is how she was able to stay in battle with the much more powerful Oro but she is defeated by Elena after she lands on her rump hard, then gets defeated in 1 hit by Ryu in another comic, and then gets defeated in one shot by Gill in Unlimited.
- In Sk8 the Infinity, everything about Cherry's S persona seems to be a play toward this, including his ninja get-up. He nearly reaches The Dreaded Adam's level of speed, and shifts his style to be more rough against his opponent...but, when he least expects it, his holding onto emotional connections with the antagonist of the series shatters him, specifically with a blow to the head.
- In Tokyo Ghoul, this is the defining characteristic of Ukaku Ghouls. Their wing-like kagune gives them incredible speed and mobility, as well as a long-ranged projectile attack. However, they are noted for their poor stamina and cannot typically handle a drawn-out battle or physical punishment.
- The Horse Girls of Uma Musume. Based on real-world horse racing, it carries the same risks of major injuries while running at extremely high speeds. It's mentioned that a Horse Girl running at 40+ mph could be killed by a fall, and other forms of breakdown are a serious risk. Silence Suzuka ends up breaking her leg mid-race from the strain of running at top speed.
- Vinland Saga:
- Thorfinn son of Thors is a Child Soldier who specializes in dagger fighting and assassination. As a result of his small size and training he's extremely fast and agile and tends to kill most opponents by getting inside their reach as they attack him, but his light weight also means that any hits he takes, he takes hard.
- Garm is even faster and more skilled than Thorfinn. In a series where even the Mighty Glacier types like Thorkell can move faster than the eye can track, Garm might very well be the fastest and most agile warrior in the Viking world. Combining his speed, dexterity, and superb acrobatic ability with a custom-made spear that can split into Dual Wielding blades, Garm has been set up to be the most dangerous opponent Thorfinn has ever faced. Thorfinn is able to take him down though; since Garm has a slim build and doesn't wear any armor, all Thorfinn needed was a well-placed headbutt to knock him out.
- Jakotsumaru from Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon was a very fast and agile fighter who could easily flee from Setsuna and Towa, and Moroha easily dodged in combat. But at the same time he was weak and fragile for a demon (but still stronger and more durable than a human), so that Moroha could easily defeat him in battle.
- YuYu Hakusho: Hiei is capable of delivering 20 sword strikes in the blink of an eye. This is in a world of demons and martial artists where most are at or barely above realistic speeds. The only problems are that he can't take a hit and that in a few rare cases, his sword simply won't cut them. Almost every fight he's involved in is a Curb-Stomp Battle, the only question is which side of the curb stomping he's on.
