- While the Queen of the Crowns is a very big threat to Earth in Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, making a Slaverlord of Zach's wife pushed it into this territory. Fanon will state that the feeling is very much mutual — Zach's been an equal pain in her side, and the only sentient being to have escaped her Psychocrypt.
- Combustion Man from Avatar: The Last Airbender, after letting the Gaang narrowly escape, and later defeat him in "Ember Island" and "The Runaway", essentially does this (though unspoken) in "The Western Air Temple". He persists in going after the Avatar, despite his employer having a Heel–Face Turn and even offering to double his pay to cancel the hit.
- For most of Season 1, Admiral Zhao thought Zuko was little more than an annoyance. Once he learns that Zuko was the one who rescued Aang from his clutches (via the Blue Spirit disguise) he's immediately out for blood.
- Bane's introductory episode in Batman: The Animated Series has him show how much of a threat he is by smashing up the Batmobile with his bare hands. Batman takes this particularly badly:Batman: He trashed my car, Alfred. Between two guys? That's real personal.
- Subverted in Batman Beyond. Terry believes his relationship with Season 1 Big Bad Blight is personal. Blight is ignorant of this.Blight: [being stalked from the shadows by Batman] Who are you?!
Batman: [unseen, pauses] You really want to know?
Blight: Yes!
Batman: [enters] You Killed My Father.
[slight pause]
Blight: Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?
Batman: Sorry, that's all you get.
- Then again, Blight was turned into a "walking meltdown" thanks to a fight with Batman, and Batman kept foiling his various Evil Plans, to the point where Blight visibly lost his temper at even the mention of Batman's name. So in a way it is personal for Blight too... just for completely different reasons.
- In “Dead Man’s Hand”, we learn that this is the reason why the current King of the Royal Flush Gang has come to Gotham. Back when Bruce Wayne was Batman, he seriously affected the operations of the gang, and King (who was Jack at the time) wants revenge for the humiliation.
- Codename: Kids Next Door:
- Spoofed in the episode "Operation: D.O.D.G.E.B.A.L.L.", where the self-proclaimed "Dodgeball Wizard" lures Numbuh Four into a dodgeball match by kidnapping his family. After finding the ransom note, Numbuh Four dramatically declares "This time, it's personal!". When Numbuh Two points out neither of them have ever met this Dodgeball Wizard, Numbuh Four responds he just wanted to use that line.
- Kinda used straight in "Operation: F.O.U.N.T.A.I.N." when it's revealed that Numbuh Five always pursues the Delightful Children, because she can never forgive them for what happened the last time she didn't: making Numbuh One bald.
- A much more serious example crosses this with Broken Pedestal: the fight between Chad (a.k.a. Numbuh 274) and Nigel (a.k.a. Numbuh One) in "Operation: T.R.E.A.T.Y.", stems from the underlying resentment over Chad's betrayal of the KND. Nigel has idolized Chad, and the betrayal stung him deeply, while Chad resents Nigel for being considered the best KND operative on Earth, still believing himself to be the best. The fight, however, proves him wrong, showing that Nigel has indeed surpassed him. All of this irreparably damages their already tenuous relationship, even with Chad being revealed as a Fake Defector.
- Futurama:
- Parodied when giant alien brains are trying to gather all knowledge in the universe.Fry: So they're trying to learn things? The bastards!
Nibblonians: Yes. Then, once it has collected all data in the universe it will open its protective shell, so as to scan itself.
Fry: I'm as mad as I've ever been!
Nibblonians: Then, it will destroy the universe, so no new information can come about.
Fry: Now it's personal. - Also spoofed/Inverted in "Möbius Dick": "It's not personal, that whale ate my delivery. This time, it's business!"
- Parodied when giant alien brains are trying to gather all knowledge in the universe.
- G.I. Joe: Renegades:
- Storm Shadow has made it his life's goal to kill Snake Eyes, because he believes SE betrayed the clan and killed his uncle, the Hard Master.
- Earlier in the series, after Major Bludd loses an eye, he makes it clear to Baroness that the next time she needs him for the Joes he'll handle them for free.
- Kim Possible:
- In the episode "Car Alarm", the tweebs supe up Kim's Cool Car after Motor Ed blows outruns them. Emphasized by the shifty camera angle and the fact that they actually say "This time its personal!"
- Kim herself claims that it's way personal when Ron is kidnapped. And after everything that happens to her in So the Drama, can you blame her for whaling on Drakken and damn near cold bloodedly killing Shego?
- The Legend of Vox Machina: The first season is essentially Percy going on one long Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the people who murdered his family and took over Whitestone. Lord and Lady Briarwood orchestrated the whole thing, Professor Anders sold out the de Rolos for personal gain and takes sadistic glee in seeing his former pupils suffer, Captain Stonefell led the incursion into Whitestone and currently rules it with an iron fist, and Anna Ripley personally killed Percy's father and brutally tortured him and his younger sister Cassandra for weeks.
- The Lion Guard:
- Mama Binturong becomes very vengeful towards Bunga after he ruined her pile of tuliza.
- Megas XLR:
- Coop often lists several offenses (or perceived offenses) as to why he's going to kick the badguy(s)'s ass(s), usually ending with a personal grievance. So, for Coop, nearly every fight is personal. Heaven forbid someone should spill his slushy or scratch his paint...
- The leader of the Glorft also takes their defeats personally and often vows revenge on Coop, even to the point of resigning himself and his crew to being trapped in the past by ordering the destruction of MEGAS (and thus, also its time drive).
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In "Twilight's Kingdom -– Part 2", while Tirek did plenty of evil, horrific things throughout his time as Big Bad, destroying Twilight's home makes her go berserk and attack him with everything she has. She doesn't seem to feel any remorse about sending him back to Tartarus either.
- In "To Where and Back Again –- Part 1", Discord is indifferent to Queen Chrysalis kidnapping the most important figures of Equestria, but when he learns Fluttershy was one of them, Discord gets pissed and decides to come with Starlight, Thorax and Trixie just to save his one friend that cares about (and is cared about by) him.
- The fighting that goes on between The Powerpuff Girls and Mojo Jojo is taken to a new level when it revealed early on (and mentioned several times afterward) that Mojo could actually be considered the girls' true father, since he was directly responsible for their creation.
- The Simpsons:
- An episode has recurring character Sideshow Bob attempting to rig the election for Mayor of Springfield by including the names of dead people and animals as those who voted for him. When Lisa's cat Snowball appears on the list, she angrily declares that "now it's personal!" Bart points out, with some irritation, that "he did try to kill me, you know."
- Another episode has Alec Baldwin use this line (in reference to Homer). When Kim Basinger and Ron Howard just look at him, Alec says, "What? He has our underwear!"
- Another episode subverts with little subtlety — in an episode of Police Chief Wiggum becoming determined to be a good cop (for the episode, of course), he realizes evidence for a case which involves a food. He tells the other cops that they're going to the Kwik-E-Mart. Lou says with exasperation "Chief, you already sent us there two times today.", to which Wiggum answers "Yeah, but this time, it's not personal."
- Plus, another episode parodies this. Marge and Homer invite Apu and his wife to come to dinner, but Apu responds "No no, you hosted our wedding! We will have YOU over for dinner. Yes.... it is payback time, and this time It is Personal." (dramatic music)
- An episode of Skull Island (2023) reveals that the Big Bad, the Kraken, attacked Kong's friend and dozens of other villagers who were under Kong's protection, killing them all. It's no wonder Kong hates the creature so much beyond the fact that it's challenging him for supremacy over Skull Island.
- The Smurfs: While he never really stops trying to get enough Smurfs to make the Philosopher's Stone and with it the ability to make gold, Gargamel at one point admits that he's grown to genuinely hate the Smurfs after losing to them so many times and cares less about the gold than about getting payback.
- This was how the South Park episode "Mecha-Streisand" came to be. In real-life, Barbra Streisand insulted the people of Colorado when the state passed a law that prevented homosexuals from being considered a protected minority; native Coloradans Trey Parker and Matt Stone did not take it well, and they decided to make an episode where they tried to make as many cheap shots at her as they could.
- Spongebob Squarepants: Played for Laughs in "The Fry Cook Games". Spongebob and Patrick have been egged into competing by Mr. Krabs and Plankton, so by the time they reach the final event they're really angry at each other. Patrick then gets Spongebob in a leg hold and says "Forget the Chum Bucket! This is personal!" before taking off Spongebob's shoe and lick his foot.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
- "ARC Troopers": When it turns out the Separatists are planning to attack Kamino, Cody and Rex are quick to point out to Obi-Wan and Anakin that this is personal for not only them, but the entire Clone Army, since it's their homeworld and they have a lot of younger brothers there.
- "A Distant Echo": It is abundantly obvious to everyone else on the mission that Rex takes finding and rescuing Echo, a friend of his that he thought died a long time ago, extremely personally. Both Anakin and Crosshair suggest that Rex is letting his emotions guide his judgement on this.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The longstanding feud between the Hamato Clan/the TMNT and the Foot. The enmity between the TMNT and the Shredder is the one thing consistent among all adaptations — the Utrom Shredder came to hate his turtles so much that in Turtles Forever, he was willing to destroy the entire Multiverse to get rid of every Turtle in existence, even at the cost of both his life and his daughter Karai's.
- Raven from Teen Titans (2003) lampshades it to friend-turned-villain Terra in that subtle, elegant way only she can:Starfire: You attempted to annihilate us!
Raven: Did you think we wouldn't take it personally? - Transformers: Prime:
- Arcee's rivalry with Airachnid is personal since Airachnid had tortured Arcee and killed her partner Tailgate to get her to speak.
- Later, Arcee and Starscream after she finds out that Starscream killed Cliffjumper.
- Wheeljack has a grudge against Dreadwing for killing his friend Seaspray.
- Miko specifically lists this as a reason in "Nemesis Prime" for Agent Fowler to go after Silas after the latter had tried to kill Fowler earlier in the episode.
