The Only One Allowed To Defeat You / Anime & Manga

Kaiba: YUGI LOST!? Yugi gave his Duel Monsters championship crown to some nobody!? No one deserves that title but me!
Yami Yugi: Hold on...
Kaiba: I don't want to hear another word! You're a disgrace to the game, Yugi!

— Yu-Gi-Oh!

The Only One Allowed to Defeat You in Anime & Manga.

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• In Afro Samurai, the hero is, literally, the only one allowed to defeat the main villain. In contrast, for the sake of multiple action sequences prior to the climactic battle, just about everyone and his uncle is allowed to challenge the hero. The reason: the main villain has the "Number 1 Headband", while the hero has the "Number 2 Headband". Only the Number Two can challenge the Number One, but anyone can challenge the Number Two.
  • Based on the final fight between Justice and Afro it would seem in reality that the only one who should've been allowed challenge the Number 2 was the Number 3, Number 10 being the one anyone and everyone could challenge. Given the other 8 headbands had been lost/collected by Justice and nobody knows about them, Afro is the one left dealing with the irritating hoards of wannabes.
  • And in Resurrection, the villain Sio commits Loophole Abuse to snag the Number 1 Headband without actually having the Number 2 to formally challenge Afro: She just steals it when he's not wearing it.
• After God: Orokapi tries to stop Alula from killing Vollof for betraying her, due to having the exact motive himself.
• In Android Kikaider: The Animation, Hakaider/Saburo's main objective is to destroy the titular android. He resolves the existential crisis of that being his only reason to exist by destroying any other Monster of the Week that comes close to killing Kikaider while pushing him to his limits so he can get his money's worth out of his goal when the time comes.
• Suzuhara Misaki in Angelic Layer has Hatoko, and in the anime, Oujirou and Shuu have the same relationship.
• In Baccano!, while Ladd Russo and Lua Klein are not rivals, Ladd does promise to be the one to kill her and will let no one else do it. He gives a similar response to Graham Spectre, stating, "I like brazen, impudent guys that only I can kill." Graham may as well have taken it for a love confession.
• Kai felt this way for a short time early in Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, the manga much more so than the anime. He was furious the Shell Killers had tried to best Takao and kicked the Shitennō out of the group for it.
• Banana Fish's Dino Golzine frequently has to remind his staff and any authorities to capture Ash Lynx alive... so that Dino can kill him. His justification for this is that he was the one who "created" Ash (in that he nurtured Ash's talents) and thus has the right to destroy him. Dino is killed by a third party before he manages to get to Ash. Ash is also killed by a third party at the very end of the manga.
• In Battle B-Daman, Anti-Hero Enjyu is obsessed with defeating The Hero Yamato Delgato and ends up secretly helping the main gang because doing otherwise would let Big Bad Marda-B defeat Yamato.
• Black Butler: Especially Season 2, Sebastian contractually owns Ciel's soul and will kill anyone who tries to kill Ciel before he can eat his soul, even other demons. In the anime, he actually does try to murder Ciel.
• Both played straight and averted in Black Cat. Train and Creed seem to have a mutual attitude along these lines, although neither of them actually go out of their way to help the other. Also, in volume four of the manga, an assassin appears who believes that killing is an art. After witnessing Train shoot bullets out of the air, the assassin ignores his current target and leaves, before flat-out telling Train (paraphrased) "You'd better stay alive, so I can kill you myself." Averted, in that the character never makes another appearance.
• Pops up a couple of times in Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail:
  • Revy and Shenhua are about to ambush a group of US special forces when Balalaika's soldiers intervene and shoot them in the limbs, declaring that they alone will deal with the Americans. They don't actually get the chance, as the Americans hightail it out of Roanapur almost immediately afterward, so Balalaika instead settles for a "demonstration".
  • Played with at the climax of the arc. Garcia shoots and seemingly kills Shane, the leader of the special forces, enraging Roberta. This is less to do with Roberta wanting to be the one to kill him, however, and more to do with her not wanting Garcia to kill anyone. It turns out Garcia only shot Shane with a blank, but the sentiment remains.
• Bleach:
  • Ichigo and Zaraki Kenpachi, although it's one-sided on Kenpachi's side since Ichigo wants nothing to do with that fight. Zaraki tends to want to go to the Human World whenever Ichigo's involved with anything there so he can fight him again. Though it's not so much that he wants to kill him, he just wants a sparring partner who can actually challenge him.
  • Later, Ichigo with Grimmjow, to the point where there is not one rematch, but two. Also, Grimmjow gets inordinately pissed when he finds out other rival Ulquiorra's been going after "his prey".
    Grimmjow: I'll show him what you get when you mess around with someone else's prey.
  • Loly pulls out the stops for this one. She wants to kill Orihime twice, but when Orihime's threatened by Yammy, even though Loly clearly stands no chance, she calls on her released form to defend the human.
  • Yhwach invokes this against Yamamoto as a matter of practicality: he is quite literally the only one who can defeat him. When some of the Sternritter try to assist him and get roasted by Yamamoto, Yhwach calls them fools.
  • Yhwach also enforces this on the Captains who had their Bankai stolen during the first invasion, declaring that the Sternritter responsible are the only ones allowed to kill them. When Bazz-B moves to kill Hitsugaya after flooring him, Cang Du interrupts him and declare's that he's the one who will finish him off since he's the one who stole Daiguren Hyorinmaru. Bazz-B tries to protest this since Hitsugaya is practically dead already, but Cang Du has none of it and tells him to leave, reminding him of the consequences of defying Yhwach's orders.
• In Boy's Abyss, there are a number of people who are quite determined to commit a double suicide with Reiji, among them are two who make it their mission to "sink him further into hell." Reiji's childhood friend Gen attempts to strangle Reiji's mom Yuko, declaring that he would be the one to show him real hell. He gives up when she says that Reiji was unaffected by Gen killing Reiji's dad, that she birthed him for the sole purpose of dying together, and that the only one to drag him to the very bottom is her.
• In Brave10, this is Kamanosuke's reason to help Saizou and join the Braves. He fell in love with Saizo's carnage when they first fought and wants to stick around so that he (and only he) can fight To the Pain with Saizo until Saizo kills him. Saizo neither understands, cares, nor appreciates this.
• Buso Renkin: Papillon is single-mindedly obsessed with ensuring that nothing and no one else kills the protagonist Kazuki Mutou before he can get a rematch with the Stock Shōnen Hero. He takes this obsession so far that he eventually becomes one of the heroes' most valuable allies despite technically being a villain.
• Casshern Sins: Lyuze tells Casshern that "You're not allowed to die until I kill you." She wants revenge for her sister and the world in general. Eventually she has a different reason.
• A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun:
  • Mikoto Misaka wants to beat Touma Kamiou in a fight and is displeased when he runs away from common street thugs. She says that if he can beat her yet runs away from them, it will make her look bad as it implies she's weaker than the thugs.
  • Shizuri Mugino steps in and saves Shiage Hamazura from soldiers, as she wants revenge for him previously defeating her, and she feels the only way to restore her wounded pride is to kill him herself.
• Hilariously subverted in CLANNAD ~After Story~ episode 2, where Sunohara wrongly imagines himself and Tomoyo to be this:
  Youhei: It's got nothing to do with you.
  Tomoyo: Exactly. See you. [begins to walk away]
  Youhei: No! You're supposed to say, "I don't want to see you lose to anyone other than me."
• Suzaku is this to Zero (and, indeed, whoever he feels is "wrong") in Code Geass, though somewhat subverted in that he does not go out of his way to protect them from others who decide to take the opportunity. He will complain, but that's about it.
  • This is pretty much his role in Zero Requiem.
• A really weird inverted example in Corsair, where assassin-trained Kanare is only happy once he has repeated assurances from his lover Master Swordsman Ayace that if he goes on a killing spree Ayace will kill him. Uh-huh. Suuuurrre.
• Rather explicitly used in Cowboy Bebop with Vicious and Spike, with Vicious even telling Spike in the final episode: "I've told you before that I am the only one who can kill you." Unlike most examples of this trope though, Vicious never rescues Spike from any other opponents who might be able to off him. His attitude seems to be not so much that no one else is allowed to kill Spike, but that Vicious genuinely believes no one else can.
• In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School Side:Future, this is why Juzo Sakakura hates Makoto Naegi so much. After Junko Enoshima beat the shit out of him, used his unrequited feelings for Munakata to emotionally blackmail him into letting her off the hook, and destroyed the world, Sakakura had to live with the guilt of failing to stop her ever since and swore to be the one to kill her. However, Naegi defeating Enoshima in the Mutual Killing Game put a wrinkle in his plans, causing Sakakura to develop a grudge against him.
• Somewhat inverted in Death Note where Light Yagami seems to feel that L ought to be the only one allowed to defeat him, and he's very bent out of shape when somebody else takes over and does it instead. This is also one fan explanation for why Light sees L as he's dying, though there are other theories.
  • Similarly, L loses a lot of his motivation to investigate Kira when the Second (Misa) and Third (Higuchi) Kiras take over, and is really pissed whenever they are about to outmaneuver him, because he considers Light his only worthy opponent.
• In The Demon Girl Next Door, this is the defining basis of Yuko's relationship with Momo. At the beginning, Yuko — the titular demon girl — saw Momo, the local Magical Girl, as a genuine adversary, out of the desire to take some of Momo's blood to break the curse on her family. Then she succeeds in breaking a part of it, entirely by accident. Even when they develop a genuine friendship, Yuko is still determined to get the better of Momo to show that she's a Worthy Opponent deserving of respect. She even worries that some other demon is going to beat her to it and take Momo away. It's still the case much later on when they have essentially become sisterly Heterosexual Life-Partners with both of them willing to die for the other. She just can't be honest with her feelings.
  Yuko: Momo has been my mortal enemy ever since the moment I first laid eyes on her. I'll chase her to the ends of the Earth until I can finally claim victory over her!
• Oogami Souma and Tsubasa in Destiny of the Shrine Maiden. In an odd, twisted way, also Himemiya Chikane and Kurusugawa Himeko.
• In The Devil is a Part-Timer!, this is the default attitude of Emi Yusa, hero of Ente Isla, towards her arch-nemesis Satan, or Maou Sadao as he goes by on Earth. Unfortunately, because neither one of them can use their magic for very long and Maou appears to be a regular human due to his lack of magic, to Earthlings she just comes off as a Clingy Jealous Girl and Stalker with a Crush who hasn't gotten over her breakup with Maou.
• In Chapter 213 of D.Gray-Man Kanda tells Link "If your mission is to assassinate bean sprout (Allen), I'll cut you down where you stand. I'm the one who'll kill him."
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • Vegeta has this attitude towards Goku, and has saved Goku's life (repeatedly, counting the non-serial movies) just so he can have the chance to take him down someday.
  • Also Goku and Piccolo (Junior) early on, which is why they teamed up against Raditz in the first place. After Piccolo got to kill them both, his motive for being a villain dried up — he claimed that the revived Goku would be next if they could beat the Saiyans, but the Heel–Face Turn had already taken hold by that point.
  • In one of the non-canonical movies, Vegeta shouts "Kakarotto wa ore no mono da!!!" ("Kakarot is mine!") when Android 13 is beating his rival to death, and charges in to protect Goku. Obviously in context, it's something like "he's my prey, screw off," but it was all too easy for Yaoi Fangirls to squeal "Ho Yay!"
  • Likewise (but without the Ho Yay potential), when the main series, Goku (weakened by disease) is being trounced by Android 19, Vegeta comes to his rescue. He then informs 19 that "Nobody kills Kakarot while I'm around! Destiny has reserved that pleasure for me!"
  • Of course in Dragon Ball Z Abridged there's both of Vegeta's dynamic entries, which involve him flying in yelling "...mineminemineminemine mine mine mine mine MINE MINE MINE MINE!"
  • Done yet again in Fusion Reborn, where Goku is backed into a corner by the newly-transformed Janemba. Just when Janemba is about to deliver the final blow, Vegeta rescues him in the nick of time and pretty much re-iterates this trope.
  • There's also Android 16, who is programmed by Dr. Gero to kill Son Goku. And by kill Son Goku, we mean only Goku. He's completely uninterested in killing, or even fighting, anyone not named Goku (and Cell, because he had some of Goku's DNA). Even after he became a Friend to All Living Things, he's still obsessed with killing Goku. 16 then happily exploits the loophole that Cell is made partially of Goku in order to fight him as well since Cell is a threat to all of the life that 16 wants to protect. Naturally Abridged amps up this bit, to the point when Dr. Briefs tries to check what is inside 16's original programming, he is greeted with this image◊ and Dr. Gero chanting "Kill Son Goku!" over and over.
  • Frieza develops this attitude towards Goku in Dragon Ball Super, now seeing him as a Worthy Opponent rather than (just) a filthy monkey like he did in the Namek saga. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, when Paragus and Broly attempt to get revenge on Vegeta over his father's treatment of them, Frieza allows it on the condition that Goku is left alive.
• In Fate/Zero, after Saber and Lancer's duel was interrupted by the other Servants getting in on the action, Lancer developed a major case of this towards Saber, even going blatantly out of his way to save her on numerous occasions. Given that, in said duel she received an incurable wound that will only go away if she defeats him, the feeling is probably mutual.
• Kirisawa Fuuko and Hanabishi Recca, Ishijima Domon and Recca, and Kurei and Recca (mutual) in Flame of Recca.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Colonel Mustang invokes this after finally tracking down Envy, Hughes's killer. The other characters leave him to it, but soon realize that he won't be coming back from that path, and come back to stop him.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Envy literally bases his entire existence on killing his father/creator, Hohenheim. Then he throws a floor-destroying temper tantrum when he thinks Dante beat him to it.
• Hayato and Kaga in Future GPX Cyber Formula, as Kaga sees his rivalry with Hayato as this, In fact, he doesn't anyone else to be his rival, and he even beats Hayato in his final race in SIN.
• In Genshiken, Kasukabe saves the club for precisely this reason. She hates otaku but doesn't want anyone else to shut them down (and later mellows out about ending the club).
• Gintama: Kamui gets excited watching Gintoki fight Hosen. He declares Gintoki is his (prey) and that he won't allow anyone else to touch him. He even leaves Yoshiwara alone so that nobody will come after Gintoki, and to a lesser extent Kagura. He also thinks the same thing of Takasugi after meeting him.
  • Gintoki and Takasugi both think this of each other, to the point that Gintoki would stand up to defend Takasugi against an enemy, while himself severely wounded.
• Variant: Golgo 13 has been known to stop other people from killing his target and even stop his target from committing suicide, so that he causes the target's death himself.
• Yajirou towards The Jester in Grenadier after he finds out who he really is.
• GTO: The Early Years: Kamishima is determined to kill Akutsu for trying to burn him to death, and will fight anyone else who gets in his way. Unfortunately, Ryuji also has a good reason to want to take down Akutsu, and later on, so does Eikichi.
• The reason Van and Ray are opposed to each other in GUN×SWORD is because both are determined to be the one who kills the Claw.
• This is pretty much Aptom's raison d'etre in Guyver, his sole goal in life is to defeat Sho in combat.
• In Haruhi Suzumiya, Ryoko Asakura invokes this when she protects Kyon from Kuyo Suou, calling him "her prey", and drives the point home by holding a knife at his throat while fighting.
• While the overall franchise usually averts this to promote The Power of Friendship, Heart Catch Pretty Cure plays this shockingly straight through and through as both Cure Moonlight and Dark Pretty Cure has this attitude towards each other, with Moonlight wanting to avenge the death of her fairy partner and Dark Pretty Cure wanting to Kill and Replace Cure Moonlight to prove her superiority. It's telling that Dark Pretty Cure immediately drops whatever she's doing the moment Cure Moonlight gets involved in the current scene, with Cure Moonlight usually not giving the rest of the villains and mooks the time of day to put all her focus on fighting Dark Pretty Cure. Things get dicer when Professor Sabaku (who is Cure Moonlight's father) reveals that Dark Pretty Cure was an Evil Knockoff of Cure Moonlight the entire time as she was made using her DNA, which brings a whole new layer of issues to their rivalry.
• Iscariot is this to Hellsing, to such an extent that Anderson's squad of Church Militants actually go out of their way to save Integra from the clutches of a squad of Millennium soldiers, declaring that they, not some creatures of the night, will be the ones to defeat the Hellsing organization.
  • Well, that is because of this trope and the fact that Iscariot is a rival vampire-killing organization anyway.
• Inuyasha: When Sesshoumaru initially enters the story he doesn't seem to care who, if anyone, kills Inuyasha, as long as he gets possession of the sword that their father bequeathed to Inuyasha. As the plot goes on, however, his behaviour becomes much more complicated; it becomes increasingly common for him to aggressively enforce his claim on Inuyasha's life whenever a situation occurs that could involve Inuyasha losing his life to others. It becomes increasingly clear it's a face-saving excuse to step in whenever Inuyasha and even any of his friends are in trouble without Sesshoumaru having to admit that he's not Just Passing Through. Eventually, even the excuses stop when, during a fight, he openly admits he's protecting them all.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Golden Wind: Instead of hiring a hitman, Diavolo had Trish sent to him so that he could kill her himself. This leads to Team Bucciarati betraying him and leading to his downfall.
  • Stone Ocean: Once his memories are restored, Weather Report declares that he'll be the one to kill Pucci. Despite being killed by Pucci, Weather's goal is fulfilled when his Stand is passed onto Emporio, who uses it to defeat Pucci.
• Kaitou Saint Tail has the titular Phantom Thief and her Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist Asuka Jr. form a mutual agreement that he's the only one allowed to catch her, to the point he exclusively gets her calling cards and will deliberately overlook certain things to prevent anyone from getting in the way. The initial reason is him needing to satisfy his complex over being teased at school in favor of Saint Tail (and his very poor physical skills), but she finds herself rather drawn to his passion about her and doesn't want anyone but him to do the honors. After a certain incident, things get complicated when he starts suspecting that Saint Tail might actually be his classmate and budding Love Interest Meimi, sharply swerving his motive into a refusal to let anyone else touch this before he figures this out himself, and the more he starts sympathizing with Saint Tail and becoming increasingly concerned about Meimi's mental health, the more their agreement actually turns into a Declaration of Protection: catching her means that he can choose to protect her and not hurt her, and preventing anyone else from doing it means preventing anyone else who wouldn't be nearly as kind from touching her.
• Hermit to Kenichi in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple.
• Kiddy Grade: Un-ou to Éclair.
• From Liar Game, it appears that Yokoya is heading towards this path in regards to both Nao and Akiyama. At first, it seemed that he only wanted to crush Nao in an attempt to defeat Akiyama. But after the Pandemic Game, he's got his sights set on defeating Nao as well.
• The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer: "Princess" Sami is determined to save Earth from a mage bent on cracking it open with a gigantic hammer... so that she can destroy it herself!
• Lupin III:
  • Goemon and Lupin is one of the classic examples of the Heel–Face Turn variant of this trope in Anime. Goemon is a samurai assassin, who after an encounter with Lupin that ends in a stalemate, becomes determined to be the one to kill him. Their second encounter also ends in a stalemate, and such ridiculous circumstances the two of them end up laughing over things and becoming friends, with Goemon joining the gang officially at that point. The fact Goemon believes he is the only one able to kill Lupin has since come up periodically, most recently in Part 5, where he is manipulated into demanding his final showdown with Lupin. A battle ensues, which Goemon wins and immediately regrets, since he gravely injures his longtime friend.
  • Detective Zenigata is absolutely determined to be the one to catch and arrest Lupin, firmly convinced at this point he is the only one capable of doing so. He's Genre Savvy enough to know when others catch Lupin, the master thief is up to something and has let himself be caught... and he's always right. On one occasion, when he was removed from the case in favor of an assassin, he actually joins Lupin's gang because he thinks the thief deserves prison, but not execution.
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, the protagonists and antagonists both constantly forsake team combat and outside intervention in favor of fighting the same opponent they faced in the first episode one-on-one. This most notably produces the Fate/Signum rivalry, for which the Heel–Face Turn, Mirror Character, and Antagonist in Mourning options are all realized.
• Pixy Misa in Magical Project S often talks about how she will be the one to defeat Pretty Sammy and nobody else.
• Medaka Box: Pretty much invoked word for word by all of Medaka's former enemies, including the Plus in support for her against Kumagawa.
• Rau Le Creuset in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED believes he is the only one who can kill... everything. Especially Kira.
• Graham Aker of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 believes that he's the only one allowed to defeat Setsuna F. Seiei (or more to the point, Setsuna's Gundam). Setsuna has more important things to do.
  • In the side stories, this trope is how Fon Spaak's relationship with Celestial Being begins. In 00P, he manages to put together some clues and begins to suspect the existence of some sort of secret organization. He then organizes an ambush and has his ass promptly handed to him a Gundam, but Celestial Being's supercomputer orders the pilot to let Fon go, because he's too good to just kill off and won't leak the information anyway because... well, see the page title.
• Monster subverts this in that Johan handpicks Tenma to be the one to kill him, but it is also played straight in that he will not let anyone — the police, random Nazis, or sundry criminals — lay their hands on either Tenma or Nina without aid to the two and swift retribution to their enemies.
• Inverted in My Hero Academia with Hero Killer Stain, who declares that only All Might (the only hero who has his respect) has the right to kill him.
• Naruto:
  • Naruto and Sasuke eventually develop into a mutual version of this. Tobi also intends for Sasuke and Naruto to fight as he wants them to settle an old ideological grudge between the Uchiha and Senju clans, with Naruto symbolically representing the Senju. Which ultimately ends up happening in the end of the manga after Madara is defeated.
  • In a strange inversion, Itachi Uchiha basically says that the only one allowed to defeat him is his younger brother, Sasuke. In Itachi's case this is all part of a larger plan: he intentionally died, making Sasuke think he won, to make Sasuke strong enough to survive Madara and redeem the clan's honor. That...didn't exactly go as planned.
  • Gaara at one point declares a statement like this, marking Sasuke as his prey. It's a subversion as Sasuke is brushed aside rather quickly, not being up to snuff to play with monsters, and Gaara eventually gives up on the idea altogether.
  • Also, the sound ninja Dosu wants to be the one to fight Sasuke in the Chunin exams, so he tracks down Sasuke's assigned opponent, planning to kill him. Unfortunately, that opponent was Gaara, who murders Dosu in about five seconds.
  • Plus, Raikage wants to be the one who defeats/kills Sasuke. He abandons it after he learns that Killer Bee, his little brother and the guy Sasuke captured, actually trolled Sasuke and the whole village to take a vacation.
  • Deidara had it out for both Itachi and Orochimaru, for being the reasons he got stuck in Akatsuki in the first place and then Sasuke happened...
• Chapter 290, as well as chapters 310+ of Negima! Magister Negi Magi shows that Fate really just wants to fight and defeat Negi above all else. He takes it up a level in chapter 314, to the point of attacking one of his "brothers" about to finish off one of Negi's students.
• In Noir, Chloe decides to go for a walk with her assassination target (who knows perfectly well why she's there). She then kills a group of men that was also sent after him. When he expresses his gratitude, she reminds him that she is still going to kill him — she only saved him because if the other group killed him, she wouldn't be able to fulfill her mission.
• One Piece:
  • This is Trafalgar Law's stated motivation for saving Luffy despite frequently denying that he and Luffy are friends. He considers Luffy a Worthy Opponent and thinks it would be "lame" for Luffy to die prematurely. There are hints, however, that there's a bit more to it than that...
  • Gold Lion Shiki fancied himself as Gold Roger's rival when the latter was still alive, believing that only they had the right to kill each other. That ended up not happening (Roger was captured and executed by the Marines, and was terminally ill anyway), and Shiki has since become deeply jaded with the current Pirate Era, seeing all the pirates that came after Roger as nothing but treasure-mongering losers. He's also developed a major hate-boner for the East Blue sea and its residents because Roger died there.
  • Roronoa Zoro has this attitude towards Dracule Mihawk, the current World's Greatest Swordsman and his eventual mentor during the Time Skip. Interestingly, Mihawk also has this attitude towards Zoro; at the end of his first appearance in the Baratie arc, Mihawk declared to Zoro that he would keep his title for however long it took for Zoro to reach his level so they could have a rematch.
  • In general this often tends to be the reason (beyond secret genuine care) that Headbutting Heroes Zoro and Sanji save or protect each other from enemies due to their rivarly. Usually something along the lines of “That idiot better not die, if anyone is gonna take him down it’s me”.
• Suzuka and Gene Starwind in Outlaw Star (The Heel–Face Turn variant again, and probably a Homage to Lupin III).
• Suzu and Tetsunosuke in Peacemaker Kurogane (though Suzu later feels this much more than Tetsunosuke).
• Until their promotion in Pokémon the Series: Black & White, the only reason that the Team Rocket trio continued to exist in the show was for the sole purpose of capturing Pikachu, giving it to their boss, and becoming ridiculously wealthy, according to their fantasies of how well their boss will reward them. They take serious exception to anyone else beating Pikachu because if Pikachu can be beaten then where does that leave them?
  • Even in Best Wishes Team Rocket pulled one of their most badass Enemy Mines to protect Pikachu from Team Plasma. Meowth in particular randomly became a fighting machine and took down half their army.
  • Also, if you think about the movies, Team Rocket often helps out Ash and company because, as Meowth put it in the dub of the third movie, "If anything ever happened to you, we'd be out of show biz!"
  • In XY&Z the trio warn off Team Flare, declaring Ash and Co. as their prey and nobody else's. Team Flare is unimpressed.
• As revealed in chapter 4 in Pocket Monsters BW: The Heroes of Fire and Thunder, N, having taken over the Pokémon League, knows very well that no one is allowed to battle N...with the exception of Shin. As such, he sends Alder to ensure that the Light Stone chooses Shin as the Hero of Fire so that he can battle N.
• Atobe Keigo's attitude towards Tezuka Kunimitsu in The Prince of Tennis. In the manga, it's more like the most prominent of several rivalries that Atobe has with several players (Sanada and Echizen are the other two), while the anime (and the fandom) exaggerates it to the point of almost stalkerish obsession.
• Ramen Fighter Miki: Played for Laughs Almost invoked word by word:
• Ranma ½: Ryōga's Villainous Rescue against Ranma's other enemies during the Moxibustion Arc.
• In Risky☆Safety, Risky decides to try and rescue a young girl from burning to death, and prior to that, yells at her to not go into her father's burning workshop. Why? Because Risky's supposed to take her soul, and she can't do that if the girl dies by someone/something other than Risky herself. Or so she claims, anyway...
• In Rozen Maiden Träumend, the first season's Big Bad Suigintou gives an entire speech about how she will be the one to ultimately defeat Shinku while taking a fatal barrage of crystal arrows, shielding Shinku from harm and dying in her arms.
• Hajime Saitou and Kenshin Himura in Rurouni Kenshin. Also, to a lesser extent, Aoshi Shinomori and Kenshin Himura.
  • And Sanosuke Sagara and Saitou, though that is one-sided on Sanosuke's part.
• Jin and Mugen, mutually, in Samurai Champloo.
  • Becomes the main theme throughout the show, especially with the main characters: Jin and Mugen each live this trope in their friendship and ardently believes that they are only ones to kill each other. This also is the only thing that keeps them with Fuu throughout the show as they promised her that they would not kill each other until they help her find "the samurai that smells of sunflowers". Additionally, Fuu spends the entire show trying to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers so that she can exact her revenge against him for abandoning her and her mother when Fuu was little. She is robbed of this pleasure when she finds him dying in the last episode.
  • Also, the secondary and tertiary characters follow this trope with many of Jin's former dojo partners hunting him down so they can exact their revenge against him for killing their master, all while believing that none should rob them of the opportunity to do so. Mugen too was betrayed by his friend in the past and thus thought that he would be the only one to kill him too. Sheesh, this show must believe that revenge is a dish best served by yourself.
    • Created an interesting situation in which one of Mugen's old partners shows up and subsequently betrays Mugen, seemingly killing him. Jin proceeds to kill him for killing the man he was supposed to defeat, but when Mugen shows up alive, he is extremely angry at Jin for killing the other man he thought only he was allowed to kill.
• Kyuzo embodies this trope with regards to Kambei in Samurai 7.
• Kyouko, the main character of the manga Skip Beat!, views her relationship with Shou in this way.
• Rukawa and Sakuragi to Sendoh, and later Rukawa to Sawakita in Slam Dunk.
• In So, I Can't Play H!, Ilia gets pissed if anyone interferes with her rivalry with Lisara, as she feels a victory over her would be meaningless unless she defeats her herself.
• Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry: Sara and Lottie's initial roadblock to being True Companions is that they both claim to be the only one that can or should defeat Ralph. Lottie eventually relinquishes her claim to Sara.
• Sheila of Superior claims, repeatedly, that this is why she won't let anyone else kill Exa. She also claims she won't kill him herself because she's not done toying with him yet. (It becomes obvious pretty quickly that she just likes him too much to want him dead.)
  Unknown Rival: Onimaru Miki! How could you have a showdown with someone else without letting me know, nya? The one who will defeat you is me, Nishiyama Kanku- Knocked Out Mid Sentence
• Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online: A justified example. In the second Squad Jam tournament, Pito has decided that if she dies in the game, she'll kill herself in real life. However, earlier she promised her friend LLENN that if LLENN managed to defeat her in a duel, they could meet up in real life. So LLENN has to be the one to kill Pito to save her life.
• Nagi and Ryoko in the 1st Tenchi Muyo! TV series. Nagi joins in the heroes' effort to save Jurai from the usurper Kagato, just to make sure nobody else gets a chance to kill Ryoko.
• Yami from To Love Ru acts this way towards Rito, to the point of saving his life repeatedly so that she can kill him. Of course, she's had dozens of opportunities to off him, but never actually does, so it seems that the whole "only I can kill him" thing is just an act to justify saving him all the time.
  • Or it is because, as Yami justifies it, so that she can stay on Earth since she likes it there.
• The Tower of Druaga blatantly uses this in its first episode (which is a dream sequence/wild parody of video game and anime tropes) with the Black Knight and a random innkeeper declaring this to the main character. Unfortunately, in the main character's dream world, this phrase (along with "When this is all done I plan to return to my homeland and get married.") is taboo, as both of them die seconds after saying it.
• Trigun: Knives tends to have this attitude towards Vash The Hero and his twin brother. Him trying to hurt, use or kill Vash is simply a family matter between two Plants, any “filthy” humans including his own subordinates the Gun’ Ho Guns that try and kill Vash in front of him however are promptly punished. As The Dragon Legato unfortunately discovered the hard way, as his beloved master crushed every bone his body after he ordered the crew to fire on Vash.
• In Ushio and Tora, the titular Tora, seemingly only biding his time before he can kill the protagonist, uses this reason for helping him (although taking the def out of defeat for his intentions).
• Variable Geo: Just as Yuka's on the cusp of being defeated by Jun, she recalls the oath she and her best friend, Satomi made to each other: that they wouldn't allow themselves to lose to anyone until they had the chance to face each other in the VG tournament. Which gives Yuka the impetus she needed to defeat Jun.
• In Vinland Saga, main character Thorfinn has sworn a blood oath to kill his raider band's leader, Askeladd, for killing his father and repeatedly (and irrationally) protects his own father's killer from harm in order to be able to kill him in a "fair" fight. It becomes a deconstructed trope as it's made clear that ten years with this attitude has more or less ruined Thorfinn's life and he wouldn't know what to do if he ever killed Askeladd, which he's unable to do anyway because Askeladd pretty taught him how to fight in the first place and can beat Thorfinn effortlessly every time he's challenged. Askeladd eventually calls Thorfinn out on his entire attitude and calls him an idiot. He is stabbed fatally by Canute on the following day and Thorfinn finds himself unable to even give him a Mercy Kill, instead going into a Heroic BSoD and attacking Canute.
• Played with in The Wallflower. Earlier in the manga, Sunako states this to be her reason for saving Kyouhei from anyone who tries to hurt or kill him. As the series progresses, however, it becomes a very obvious excuse.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Seto Kaiba and Yugi Muto, or rather "the other Yugi". In Season 4 of the anime, Yugi loses to The Dragon. When Kaiba hears this, he throws what can only be described as a "temper tantrum".
  • In Season 0, Kaiba defeats the three Hekate for Yuugi as Yuugi's puzzle was stolen and thus he could not transform. The final words of the episode were him saying "And don't forget! The one to defeat you... Has to be me."
  • Bakura also, as he wants Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and thus will allow no one else to claim it before he does.
  • Yugi Muto and the pharaoh, actually, when it comes time for the Ceremonial Duel. Even in the anime when Kaiba strangles Yugi, Yugi refuses to let anyone else fight his other half. And then Yugi totally wins.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Gauche desires to be the one to defeat Yuma (because Yuma has what he believes is "the original Number") so much that he allies himself with Yuma when it looks like there is a chance that someone else will beat him to it. Unfortunately for Gauche, while Yuma does lose a couple of duels, he isn't the one who defeats him. (Note that Gauche really isn't a bad person... He's just very competitive.)
• Kuwabara is like this to Yusuke in YuYu Hakusho, at least for the first few arcs. It doesn't come up for a while afterward, but then, in the Chapter Black storyline, when Yusuke's about to die, Kuwabara reveals that his only dream is to one day defeat him, and basically, for him, mostly everything worthwhile about his life has been getting there.
• In Zatch Bell!: Sherry is adamant that nobody will defeat Zofis except for her. At first, it seems like It's Personal because Zofis's partner Koko is Sherry's best friend, whom Zofis brainwashed from a kind, hardworking girl into a malicious, sadistic puppet. But when Sherry finally succeeds, it's revealed that it wasn't just because of what Zofis did to Koko, but what he would do; she had correctly predicted that Zofis would return Koko to normal but not erase her memories of her time being brainwashed and evil, ensuring she would suffer from guilt for the rest of her life as a final act of spite to Sherry. Sherry had to bring him down herself so that she could ensure Zofis erased Koko's memories before his book was burned. Ultimately, Sherry can't coerce Zofis into anything...but Brago can, promising that Zofis will live in fear for the rest of his life if he refuses, which terrifies Zofis into obeying.
  • In something of a lesser example, when Zatch and Kiyo earn Sherry's respect even in defeat, she spares them and tells them not to lose to anyone else. And it ends up being the four of them in the final battle for the throne.

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