Psychological Projection in Anime and Manga.
- Black Clover: Nacht Faust's hate for the Black Bulls despite being the squad's vice-captain is this. Nacht hates them for being flawed misfits, believing that their recent achievements doesn't make up for their past failures as the worst Magic Knights squad. He's later revealed to have been a no-good delinquent like them in the past until he inadvertently caused his brother Morgen's death when he went through with the devil binding ritual of the supreme devil Lucifugus, with Nacht hating himself for this and vowing to never forgive himself over it.
- Cross Ange: Present between Jill and Ange, with the former being adamant on using the latter as a proxy for her revenge against Embryo and humans, as they were both princesses who were turned on by their nations for being Norma and sent to Arzenal to die, and both became Villkiss' pilots. Ange, being Ange, completely disagrees, and the more Jill tries to force her, the more Ange opposes.
- Domestic Girlfriend: Subverted in the first chapter. When Natsuo looks at Rui, he sees Hina, his teacher he has a crush on. He acknowledges that he's projecting and ignores it. The truth is that Rui is Hina's little sister, and they genuinely look very similar. Natsuo finds this out after his father remarries to Rui and Hina's mother, making them his step-sisters. This is after he had sex with Rui and confessed his love to Hina.
- Dragon Ball:
- During the Cell Saga, Goku ends up doing this to Gohan, automatically assuming that Gohan, in addition to his potential as a fighter, wants a good and challenging fight with Cell purely because it's what he would do in such a situation, going so far as to give Cell a Senzu Bean before the fight. It takes getting a major What the Hell, Hero? from Piccolo (who by this point understands Gohan more than his own father), and seeing the danger he's put Gohan in firsthand, for Goku to realize that this is not the case.
- When you think about it, this is at least partially what Frieza's obsession with fear is all about. Frieza enjoys taking the time to install fear and horror in others, but when we see his actions, such as blowing up Planet Vegeta to make sure no one opposes him, he shows that deep inside, Frieza is nothing but a coward utterly terrified of the possibility someone would grow strong enough to face him on even terms, and in his fight with Super Saiyan Goku, where he blows up Namek in desperation to kill Goku, combined with his frantic attempts to kill him and shamelessly begging for his life when he's bifurcated by his own attack, it's all the more obvious.
- Dragon Ball Super: Throughout the Future Trunks Saga, Zamasu constantly condemns mortals for being warlike, destructive, all about conflict, and sinful with disrespect to everything the gods stand for; when it comes down to it, the only one who's as twisted as Zamasu claims the mortals are is Zamasu himself, considering the fact that, among other things, he cut down an inhabitant of Planet Babari when he could have simply walked away, murdered his own master and stole his Time Rings and Potaras for his plan, and went so far as to kill all of the other gods in The Multiverse of Future Trunks' Alternate Timeline to prevent them from interfering. It's especially jarring since, as a Supreme Kai, Zamasu is supposed to be a Big Good who protects and watches over mortals.
- Goku Black partakes in this just as much as Zamasu, his former and future selves, prattling on about how mortals are violent, destructive creatures who cannot learn from their mistakes and are inflexible in their ways. All of this coming from the person who is fanatically and unbendingly obsessed with annihilating all mortal-kind, completely and utterly insane and a danger to everyone around him barring literally himself, and whose first actions upon taking Goku's body to fulfill his mad quest for power being to gruesomely murder him, his wife and youngest son, just as a final insult to the man for bruising his ego.
- Fruits Basket:
- Akito Sohma treats other women like her worst enemy because she's projecting her demented Abusive Mom onto them. This is especially evident in her cruelty towards poor Rin because the latter's long black hair heavily reminds Akito of Ren, to the point Akito first gave her the nickname "Rin" because it sounds like Ren.
- Yuki's mother says she must decide everything for Yuki because she thinks he's self-centered, selfish, and unreasonable. Considering she views Yuki as nothing but a Trophy Child she can use to get wealth and status, openly calls him a tool who doesn't get to have dreams or wishes of his own, and gets angry to the point she states outright she never should have given birth to him simply because he's not acting like her mindless puppet, those three words are a better description for her than they ever will be for Yuki.
- Maria no Danzai: Maria correctly identifies this as Kumiru Shikimi's Fatal Flaw. Because she regularly indulges in lies and betrayal, she thinks everyone is a liar and a traitor, especially her close group of friends that she regularly hangs out with. Maria uses this trait to sever all her social bonds and let her have a taste of the social isolation she inflicted upon Kiritaka, before moving in for the kill.
- In One Piece, during the Water 7 arc, the crew learned that the Going Merry, the Straw Hats' first ship, had been damaged beyond repair in their previous adventure and Luffy reluctantly decided to replace it. Usopp, who had been in the crew as long as the Merry and had recently gotten curbstomped by a group of bounty hunters whom the rest of the crew managed to beat with ease, started projecting himself onto the ship, desperately and angrily insisting that the Merry could be fixed and that Luffy getting a new ship was akin to abandoning a crew mate for being weak.
- This is part of the reason Kazuki becomes The Kindnapper in Snow White with the Red Hair. Having previously been made a slave and bought as "decoration" by nobles, similar to what Prince Raj initially had attempted with Shirayuki in the beginning of the manga, Kazuki assumes she'd appreciate being taken as far away from nobles as possible and goes about doing so by attacking Obi and drugging her to get her away without even trying to talk to her first.
- In Vampire Knight, Yuuki thought she and Zero were struggling with the same pain and fears, but when Zero denies it, she says, "I guess I was only seeing myself".
- A variant happens in Zoids: Chaotic Century. One episode has Reese trying to screw with Fiine, by showing her visions of Van getting shot and killed protecting her, and telling her that Van will die if she stays close to him. Fiine quickly realizes that those visions are actually Reese's own memories, of when she was a child and a boy she befriended was killed trying to protect her, and she blames herself for that.
