Anime and Manga with its own page:
- 20th Century Boys: Friend iiiiiiiiissssssss *drum roll* Fukubei! Then comes along second Friend who is implied to be Katsumata.
- Attack on Titan has many of these.
- Some of these examples are Eren being the Rogue Titan, the walls containing Titans, Annie being the Female Titan, Ymir being the Dancing Titan, Historia/"Krista" being related to a secret cult that knows about the walls, Reiner being the Armored Titan, and Bertolt being the Colossal Titan. Or the fact the basement contains proof that humanity was never wiped out and still exists.
- Hilariously, one of the biggest reveals, the identities of the Colossal and Armored Titans, was revealed in just about the most casual manner possible, as part of a background conversation. Many readers (and watchers of the anime once it got that far) admitted to doing a Double Take as it took them a moment to process what they'd just read.
- In Chapter 88, the Name of Eren's Titan is the Attack Titan (or the Shingeki No Kyojin).note The official Translation Attack "on" Titan is not entirely accurate. The translators were probably confused about that.
- Baccano!: The Rail Tracer is Claire Stanfield/Vino, AKA the young conductor supposedly killed in the second episode.
- Each installment of Bee Train's Girls with Guns trilogy is built around a series of reveals concerning the Dark and Troubled Past of its (anti-)heroines, spread across its mid-to-late episodes:
- Noir: "Noir" is the legacy codename passed down by various pairs of female assassins trained from birth by an Ancient Conspiracy to become perfect killers. Kirika was a member of the current generation's Noir before her amnesia. Mireille is a failed Noir candidate, whose parents refused to give her up for training and were murdered for it — by none other than Kirika herself.
- Madlax: "Madlax" was the codename of Margaret's father, whom she murdered in self-defense after he was driven insane by his arch-nemesis. However, Margaret possesses Reality Warping powers, which she instinctively used just before her patricide to create a Literal Split Personality — another seven-year-old girl who pulled the trigger for her, so her primary self would remain "innocent". This other girl grew up to become the Madlax seen in the series, although neither she, nor Margaret retained any memories of these events.
- El Cazador de la Bruja: Ellis is the only successful result of a CIA-funded program to artificially recreate a dying Mage Species. She did not kill her handler and father figure with her powers (as she believes), but was framed for it by the real murderer — the director of said program, who wanted to use her powers for his own goals.
- Berserk: In chapter 364 (which is also the final chapter written by creator Kentaro Muira before he Died During Production), the Moonlight Child is revealed to be none other than Griffith, having to transform every full moon as a side effect of being reborn in the mortal world through Guts' and Casca's child. Unsurprisingly, Guts doesn't take this well.
- Black Butler: There are several regarding the character Angela Blanc. Firstly, they are not human, instead they are an Angel incognito, and a very evil one to boot. Also, a character that at first appears to be separate turns out to also be them, just in another form. Finally, they are responsible for the Phantomhive manor's destruction in the anime, and the deaths of Ceil's parents.
- Black Clover:
- The captain of the Golden Dawn, William Vangeance, takes off his mask in a private talk with Julius Novachrono before his face morphs to that of Patry's, the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
- The devil Zagred was the one who caused the elf genocide, convinced the humans to steal the elve's magic using Lumeiere's Magic Siphon, killed all the elves by copying Lumiere's magic, and cast the reincarnation spell, with Patry as his unknowing pawn the entire time.
- Nero was originally a human called Secre Swallowtail who was the servant of the first Wizard King, who had been sealed as the statue near Hage all this time.
- The demon that attacked the Clover Kingdom and was defeated by the first Wizard King was the real Licht, who turned himself into a demon to prevent Zagred from taking over his body and asked his friend Lumiere to kill him.
- The Wizard King's statue on the top of the slain demon in Hage is the Wizard King himself, being turned into stone to protect him from the after-effects of the above-mentioned fight.
- Noelle's mother Acier Silva didn't die from childbirth, but instead a curse by the devil Megicula.
- The Dark Triad's plan is to form the Tree of Qliphoth, letting devils come to the living world and killing over 90% of the population. The Advent of the Qliphoth requires Yami's Dark Magic and Vangeance's World Tree Magic. Furthermore, the original goal as outlined by the eldest Zogratis sibling was to recreate everyone killed by the devils as immortals.
- Liebe, the devil in Asta's grimoire, was adopted by Asta's biological mother Richita, who was killed by Lucifero when he tried to take over Liebe's body. She sealed him inside the grimoire to protect him, with his goal to kill every devil in revenge for her death.
- Speaking of Licita, she's the reason Asta has no mana and was left at the church after he was born. She unconsciously absorbed mana and life force, to the point she had to live a reclusive life to avoid hurting people.
- After Lucifero is defeated at the end of the Spade Kingdom Raid Arc, Julius Novachrono is revealed to be the fourth Zogratis sibling who planned the events that would lead to him obtaining the Devil king's heart.
- Bleach:
- Aizen didn't die. He faked his death, was the Big Bad behind the Soul Society arc and Tousen and Gin were his accomplices.
- The Quincies still exist and have created a fully functional society living in the shadow of Seireitei. Literally. The two cities share the same space by virtue of a dimensional trick using Seireitei's shadows.
- Masaki being a Quincy had been guessed by the fandom years ago, but she also turned out to be one of Aizen's Hollowfication victims. Ichigo inherited his inner hollow from her.
- The name Yachiru means 'master of all known sword styles' and was taken by the monstrous First Kenpachi, creator of the 11th division, who is these days better known as Retsu Unohana, Captain of the Fourth Division Medical Squad.
- The Quincies in the living world were wiped out in The Purge, The Emperor's attempt to destroy every "impure" Quincy. Ichigo and Uryuu's mothers were both victims of this purge and Yhwach's power flows through every Quincy alive, making all of them vulnerable to his whim.
- Uryuu joins the Vandenreich, and is given the rank of Prince. Yhwach also tried to purge him but failed, making Uryuu the only impure Quincy alive and the only Purge survivor in history. Yhwach makes him his Unexpected Successor because he wants that power, knows Uryuu is capable of surpassing his strength, and suspects Uryuu wants to avenge his mother's death.
- Old Man Zangetsu was only pretending to be Ichigo's zanpakutou. He's Ichigo's Quincy power, has been suppressing Ichigo's real Shinigami power, and is the image of Yhwach from a thousand years ago.
- Hagino's obsession with Mari in Blue Drop gets explained by revealing that Hagino saved Mari from drowning during the catastrophe caused by her space ship.
- Blue Ramun:
- Big Bad Rowan, who is responsible for the majority of the human trafficking in the Silkdeep Empire and the attacks on the Blue Doctors, is revealed to be Dr. Zai Gristen: himself a member of the Blue Ramun tribe and the last Blue Doctor to serve the Lezak District before protagonist Jessie took over the role.
- Later, a deeper connection between Rowan and Jessie is revealed: Dr. Zai was Jessie's father's best friend, but his obsessive research and forbidden experimentation resulted in his exile from the Blue Tribe and the Blue Doctors. When Jessie's parents went to confront him, Dr. Zai nearly killed the three year old Jessie before the young girl's empathy and kindness stopped him. Years later he remains obsessed with Jessie, determined to keep her serving as a Blue Doctor at any cost.
- In Code Geass, the secret behind Geass, as well as numerous other examples of this trope that pop up from time to time. Episodes 14 and 21 of R2 in particular are Infodumps on the nature of Geass and everything involved.
- The true identity of the Red Man being Shiro all along in Deadman Wonderland is going to setup a Bittersweet Ending.
- Death Parade:
- Episode 5 reveals that the dark-haired woman is a human who died and arrived at Quindecim knowing so, and is being kept around because Decim is interested in getting to know her.
- Episode 11 finally gives us her full backstory: she died by suicide.
- The final episode reveals the origin of the Arbiters: they’re created from souls that were cast into The Void.
Episode 5 reveals to the audience that [[spoiler:
- Digimon has several. Hikari being the 8th Child and Tailmon being her partner, the fact that BelialVamdemon was behind everything in 02, Juri, after returning to the Real World, being an ADR, Duskmon being Kouichi, Kouji's long-lost twin brother, Kurata being a jackass and a Magnificent Bastard and that old guy being the head of DATS.
- Although spoiled for U.S. audiences thanks to the fact that Dragon Ball Z almost entirely aired first barring a few episodes, in Japan Dragon Ball dropped a big one. In the manga, after Goku's big defeat of Piccolo, the following chapter features a mysterious character crashing to earth looking for someone named "Kakarot". And in the very last page of the chapter, Kakarot is revealed to be Goku. Then two chapters later it turns out that armored man is Goku's brother and Goku is revealed to be an alien. Piccolo and Kami get this same revelation not long after when they're revealed to be Nameks, which was foreshadowed as early as the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai when the two spoke to each other in a strange language. It's done with Trunks as well. After his first appearance he's revealed to not just be another Saiyan, but a Super Saiyan as well, and just a few chapters later it's discovered that he's Bulma and Vegeta's son from the future.
- Dragon Quest: Your Story: Everything that transpired over the course of the movie was actually a virtual reality adaptation of Dragon Quest V, as revealed by a virus injected into the game by a hacker.
- Durarara!!: Zigzagged all over the place. Earthworm captures Izaya Orihara and keeps his head under a bag. For the entire episode/volume, he does not speak even as she tries to question him. The whole time, we are lead to believe that it is Izaya who's been captured as the captive is wearing his clothes. However, when Shijima and Heaven's Slave go to negotiate with Amphisbaena, both he and Earthworm get a call from someone using a voice modifier. Said person tells them he is Izaya Orihara and begins to allude to the idea that the leaders' shared boss (neither of them know they have the same boss), who they both use as a puppet leader, is actually the captive. Both start to panic and the audience is then under the impression that it isn't Izaya who has been captured. Once the person on the other end starts making references to physical characteristics of the boss, Shijima, afraid he'll be found out by his gang, tries to stab the captive, only for the captive, who should've been bound to use his knife to cut open the bag. Finally, it is revealed that it really was Izaya who had been captured, and that he had orchestrated the entire thing as his own group busts in. Then, we find out the boss is actually Nakura, Izaya's old classmate who started both gangs, however has been under Izaya's thumb since grade school.
- Also, in the first season, there is a girl walking around with what appears to be Celty's head attached to her. Seiji, who was obsessed with the head before it had a body dates the girl after his classmate, Mika, broke into his home while stalking him and was apparently murdered by Seiji after seeing the head. Afterwards, Anri meets the girl that looks like Celty as she mistakes her for Mika, but then runs away after realizing it wasn't. Mikado is put under the impression that Seiji killed Mika and had Namie attach Celty's head to her corpse. When Celty talks to Shinra, he gives her a similar story and says that the head may have tried to find a body. When Celty finally goes to meet with the girl to confirm whether or not it is her head, the girl merely says 'Celty', which causes Celty to think it is her head. However, when Seiji angrily tries to stab Mikado, Celty intervenes and attempts to slice him with her scythe but is stopped when the girl runs out in front to save him. She then confesses that she is Mika Harima and the night Seiji tried to kill her, Namie convinced her to have Shinra do plastic surgery on her face to look like the head so Seiji would love her. She escaped after Namie wanted her to get surgery and do drugs to alter her memories, and had been lying to Seiji ever since.
- Things get a little hectic with Saika, as for some reason, someone has been going around slashing people. Previously, there had been slasher attacks, but they abruptly stopped. One night, a girl named, Haruna Niekawa, in love with the teacher, Takashi Nasujima, pays Anri a visit. She reveals herself as a Saika wielder who has gained control of the blade. She tries attacking Anri and eventually summons a horde of Saika zombies to deal with her. However, Anri escapes the ordeal unharmed. Later, Anri confronts her and shows Haruna she has the original Saika and uses it to cut her and stop the slasher attacks. It is also revealed that Anri's mother was the original slasher and the attacks stopped because she used the blade to save Anri by killing her self and her husband. Anri then took the blade and kept it at bay as she was unable to love anyone. It is then revealed that the reason her mother, Sayaka, obtained it in the first place was because Kasane Kujiragi, who had the blade, had broken into two and then sold one of the swords to Shingen who then sold it to Anri's parents. Later, Kasane makes a deal with Shinra, but it isn't shown until later when he uses the sword, which he had been loaned to sever Celty's head.
- A much more coherent example. When Izaya is in the hospital after being stabbed, the event is broadcasted in the news, telling anyone watching his current condition and where he is. He then spends the entire day wondering who will come to kill him. However, the Awakusu leader, Mikiya, whose daughter had been manipulated by Izaya, completely misses the story. Shizuo doesn’t see it either as he had been working while it was on, and even Shinra doesn't notice and later doesn’t even care. Izaya stays awake all night waiting for someone to attack him until finally, at around three AM, someone enters his room. Izaya gets excited, wanting to see which one of his enemies has come to kill him and watches as... a girl he doesn't remember walks in. She then goes on about how Izaya ruined her life and how she has spent a year preparing to kill him and finally tells him about how Izaya had invited her to kill herself with him and then mocked her desire to die and drugged her.
- In the beginning of the series, it is unknown who the boss of the Dollars is. Kyohei speculates that it's Izaya, however it is actually revealed to be Mikado.
- In the final arc, Izaya spends most of his time waiting around, preparing for something. Celty asks Namie, who refuses to divulge what Izaya is planning and not even Mika knows. Izaya is seen playing with tarot cards and picks a few to represent the 'non-humans', who he says should sit 'it' out and burns them. He heads out and tells Mikage to come with him so she can fight an unspecified opponent who, supposedly should prove challenging. Izaya then goes to a building under construction where he surveys the situation before having the equipment fall onto Shizuo and Vorona. He calls Shizuo who comes up the building after him to kill Izaya and has more equipment rain down on him, as well as lights the floor on fire. Finally, Shizuo is shown on his knees, gasping as Izaya reveals his real plan was to use carbon dioxide to suffocate Shizuo and finally blow it up. However, Celty interferes and Izaya is beaten by Shizuo and shot by Vorona. His fate is unknown until the very end, where it's revealed that he is still alive, but may not be for very long.
- In the light novels, it is confirmed he survived.
- In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Sakonji Urokodaki, the master Water Breathing cultivator who first trained the series’ protagonist Tanjiro Kamando, is always seen wearing a tengu mask, with his face remaining a mystery throughout the entire series, it is never revealed through its course, the only description it is ever given is that Sakonji’s face was so friendly and gentle that he as a demon slayer wouldn’t be taken as a threat by demons, so he started wearing the rough looking tengu mask to change that image. One full year and 5 months after the manga ended, Sakonji’s face is revealed on October 2021, in a art exhibition, his face is just like it was described, too friendly for a demon slayer.
- Ergo Proxy:
- Vincent is the near invincible monster that was constantly tailing him and slaughtering everything in its way, the titular Ergo Proxy.
- In the beginning Vincent was a Proxy, the near invincible monster tailing him was his clone-father's girlfriend.
- Tons of information revealed in Eureka Seven. Eureka's identity as a human Coralian, what really happened to Renton's father and sister, the origin of the 3 kids, the history of the Scab Coral which reveal that all along the planet was Earth which got covered up by a living planet-size alien. Gonzy was another hidden human Coralian.
- Eureka Seven AO, gets its own reveals. There's the fact that Eureka has been Time Traveling, and that Ao was conceived in the future; that the discrepancies with the original series are the result of history actually being altered; the one no-one was expecting happened when Ao met a pregnant Eureka from the past. Most viewers and even Ao himself thought that Eureka was pregnant with him, but it turns out her baby is a girl — meaning Ao may have an older biological sister.
- Fairy Tail:
- Lumen Histoire, Fairy Tail's secret weapon, is a girl encased in crystal. More specifically, she's Mavis Vermillion, the First Guild Master of Fairy Tail.
- E.N.D., the guild master of Tartaros and the strongest of the demons from the Books of Zeref, is the amnesiac Natsu Dragneel.
- Chapter 436: an entire chapter on Zeref's past. His full name is Zeref Dragneel, and he's Natsu's older brother.
- Chapter 444: Emperor Spriggan, leader of the super-militarized magical empire of Albareth, is none other than Zeref under an alias.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- The identity of Pride was revealed to be Selim Bradley.
- Edward's automail arm isn't revealed until he foils an attack that would have destroyed a flesh-and-blood arm.
- The Fuhrer is a Homunculus.
- It's impossible to bring someone back to life. For anyone who sees Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and then either reads the manga or watches Brotherhood, the shock is increased several-fold; in the 2003 anime, they're transformed into homunculi.
- In Game×Rush, Yuuki's Mom/Yuki-san is Memori's presumed-dead birth-mother, who murdered Memori's father and supposedly died in the fire that Memori accidentally started (hence explaining both Memori's adopted status), but Miyuki did NOT die, instead wandering off with semi-amnesia to save a young Yuuki who was then raised as Memori (explaining how he knows so much about the REAL Memori). Bizarrely enough, due to the compressed storytelling and the changes forced by the same, it's possible for this to be not much of a Reveal after all.
- HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! had episode 20 and the reveal that Hime was the one who opened up the Axia Box, releasing the Phantom Empire. Two episodes later, it turns out that Iona's motive for revenge against Phantom was horribly skewed: her sister, a Precure before Iona, had been captured by Phantom only because Iona followed her into battle. And her capture was something she also blamed Hime on!
- Haruhi Suzumiya combines this with The Rashomon, with Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsuki each explaining Haruhi's true nature and their own.
- Hellsing: Dok was actually using the remains of Mina Harker as a template for all of Millennium's vampire soldiers. Turns out that since Alucard wasn't destroyed when he lost to Abraham Van Helsing, Mina wasn't completely purified of Alucard's curse. Thus all of Millennium's soldiers are poor copies of Alucard's power.
- Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen:
- One of the recurring questions is why Kaldus Coendera has returned Aidra to the Tersia Family after marrying her for one year and a half. Another question is what the royal convoy is doing here at this time. It turns out that Joulran is actually Lady Aidra's child with Prince Windellan and not with Kaldus Coendera as believed, and Kaldus let them be on prince's request. Windellan, now the king, asked Kaldus where his son is, which gave him an idea to pass his own son as him.
- What the "Double Whirlpool" is. It's a genetic trend of the royal family. Fingerprints of the people who descend from the first king are often in a double whirlpool shape, and they are used to confirm the heritage of children, as 50 days after they're born, children have their fingerprints taken to confirm their identity. Joulran Tersia has that trait and King Windellan has the scan, which is something Kaldus Coendera didn't know.
- Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love with a Pervert, as Long as She's a Cutie?: The end of Volume 3 reveals Mizuha is Cinderella and is not blood-related to Keiki. While this revelation ends the mystery of searching for the sender of the love letter, it doesn't end Keiki's search for a girlfriend, since he later discovers that Mizuha is just as perverted as the rest of his Unwanted Harem.
- I'm Gonna Be an Angel!:
- In the last episodes, it was revealed that the Big Bad Silky who hates angels, is a 1/3 angel herself and has her fallen halo hidden in the drawer.
- It was revealed that Mikael who was supposed to be an angel-in-training, lost his qualifications to become one and also hid his fallen halo in the boxes.
- In the last episode, it was revealed that the whole plot of the show revolved around Mikael and not Noelle.
- I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: The protagonist's name and the contents of the Disease Coexistence Journal are shown towards the end. In order, his name is Haruki Shiga, and the contents of the diary include a will directed specifically at Haruki for him to read after her death.
- An example exclusive to the novel's epilogue. The protagonist tells a story to Sakura about his First Love, a girl who referred to everything, even inanimate objects with "-san". He later reveals, while visiting Sakura's grave, that he lied (not having the heart to correct Sakura due to seeing her reaction), and the phrasing he uses afterwards heavily implies Sakura was his First Love.
- In Izure Shinwa No Ragnarok, Raika's goal is to take revenge on the gods and rescue his sister from the one that kidnapped her. In the epilogue of Volume 1, it's revealed that his hyperactive classmate, Tenka, is his sister and the current host of the kidnapper.
- Kill la Kill has enough reveals to turn the fandom over its head and then back again.
- Satsuki didn't kill Ryuko's father and played absolutely no role in his death. The real perpetrator is Nui Harime, who not only works for Satsuki's mom, Ragyo, but also killed Ryuko's father with the other half of the scissor blade, which she uses as her own weapon.
- Life Fibers are actually sentient beings from somewhere in the universe and are the reason for why humanity has evolved from typical primates. And while the Life Fibers provide great intelligence and power, it turns out that inserting Life Fibers into a host would kill them painfully. However, the fibers can be worn, leading to the creation of clothing. Now, they are currently at rest under Revocs HQ, waiting for the time they can fully take over humanity and Ragyo has always been working toward that goal.
- Satsuki and the Elite Four are actually working against Ragyo and her plans, meaning that they have been on Ryuko and Nudist Beach's side all along and simply kept to their own agenda.
- Ryuko is actually Ragyo's daughter and Satsuki's younger sister. They both thought she was killed in Ragyo's failed attempt to fuse her with Life Fibers and was literally thrown away as a result. However, it turns out that the experiment did work and Ryuko's heart is completely made of Life Fibers. Not only that, but the reason that Ryuko survived being thrown away was because her and Satsuki's father managed to find her and escape from Ragyo. Ragyo tried to kill him, but he tricked her into thinking he was dead before changing his name and his appearance into the old man that Ryuko and the audience recognize as the father she's been fighting for.
- Nui is also a human who was successfully fused with Life Fibers and her heart is shown to look just like Ryuko's. However, unlike Ryuko, Nui wasn't born in a mother's womb like a regular human but instead came directly from an artificial womb made of Life Fibers. So the reason she doesn't need to wear Life Fibers to be as powerful as she is is because she is entirely made of them.
- In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, there's a relatively minor one, compared to what's going on all around, but a reveal nonetheless. For 99% of the series, the Holy Nightmare Salesmen always appeared on the big screens in King Dedede's palace from the waist up. When Dedede and Escargo(o)n meet the Salesman face to face in Nightmare's fortress, there's the awful truth — All that's at the bottom are just Kirby-like feet, no legs, nothing else.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Protagonist Subaru, who has been a regular narrator ever since episode 1 (where as a little girl she is rescued by Nanoha and decides to become a hero too), finally battles the combat cyborgs but fails to rescue her sister and is seriously injured. Then her arm is seen. Along with the blood, metal and cables are seen. Subaru is a combat cyborg, too.
- Magi: Labyrinth of Magic:
- There were several reveals in regards to Ugo. He was actually Solomon's djinn, not Aladdin's and his head wasn't missing like he had told Aladdin. He was unable to leave the "Room of Solitude". And as the flashback of Alma Torran revealed, Ugo wasn't a djinn at all but a genius magician, Solomon's closest friend and later became one of Solomon's three Magi.
- Ren Gyokuen was the magi that betrayed Solomon. And she was Arba, Solomon's beloved friend and closest thing he and his lover Sheba had to a mother.
- Aladdin is Solomon and Sheba's son.
- Magic Knight Rayearth: Emeraude didn't summon the Magic Knights to save her...she summoned them to kill her.
- In Martian Successor Nadesico, the Jovians are exiled humans victimized by Earth's government and who use the Super Robot series loved by the protagonists to justify destroying Earth. Also, the little girl the protagonist is shown with at the beginning is Inez Fressange, who is older than the protagonist due to a time paradox.
- Master of Martial Hearts:
- According to the Platonic Hearts rulebook, unknown and unmentioned until the very end, all losing contestants have their vocal cords removed and Mind Raped into idiocy before they get sold into slavery. Even the sympathetic ones. And you're shown the whole supporting cast in that pitiful state.
- The almost unseen Cute Mute mom of Natsume? She's actually a Stepford Smiler, and a past contestant in the Platonic Heart martial arts tournament who managed to escape slavery and rebuild a semblance of normalcy before she hatched a complex Revenge by Proxy plan involving her offspring organizing the current edition of the Platonic Heart tournament to lure the daughter of the (still living) past winner and the (now dead) past promoter of the contest so Aya can relive every bit of her experience, including the defeat, maiming and slavery. She's also the daughter of the original organizer.
- Natsume herself, and Miko, Aya's Heterosexual Life-Partner and resident friend in need are actually cousins, in league together with Aya's love interest to get Aya defeated and enslaved in the current tournament.
- Aya's caring mom and her dead loving father? According to Miko and Natsume a sadistic Dark Action Girl and a sadistic rapist who had his way with the Action Girls defeated by his wife..
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has one in Season 2 Episode 14, when the identity of the 0 Gundam's pilot, as well as the reason/s for that scene in the prologue of Episode 1, is revealed to be none other than the Big Bad of the entire series, and that the armed intervention in question helped motivate his plans in the Second Season.
- Monster has a number of them, the biggest one probably being the reveal that the woman in Prague is really Johan.
- My Hero Academia has a couple:
- The revelation that one of the Big Bad villains was the grandson of Nana, the seventh wielder of One For All and All Might’s mentor. She put her son in foster care to protect him from All For One and he grew up to hate heroes and abuse his son, and things got worse when said son’s quirk accidentally killed his parents and resulted in All For One taking him as a student. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero indeed.
- Another Big Bad, Dabi, revealing to Endeavor that he’s Endeavor’s oldest son who Endeavor thought was dead. And he’s much more willing to make Endeavor suffer than Shoto.
- Hints about a traitor in class 1-A had been dropped for a while and the Traitor arc finally revealed it was Aoyama, though he was forced into it by his parwnts getting All for One to give him a quirk.
- Naruto has been rather reveal-happy in recent years: we've gotten the true identity of both Akatsuki's leader and its Man Behind the Man, Kisame and Itachi's true motivations (including the real reason the Uchiha Massacre happened), the identities of Naruto's parents (everyone (and by everyone: the audience) knew about the father-it's the mother and her baggage that shocks everyone), the fact that Naruto is not the first host of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Madara really IS dead and Tobi's impersonating him, Tobi's current Sharingan sharing the same dimension as Kakashi's Kamui due to it being the right eye of Obito Uchiha, etc. And Tobi himself is later revealed to be Obito Uchiha. And now that There is a Man Behind the Man Behind the Man in the form of Black Zetsu, who finally succeeds to revive Kaguya Ootsutsuki, the mother of the Rikudo Sennin.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Once the Magic World Arc starts, reveals are dropped left and right, especially once Kurt Godel shows up. The most important one is probably that Negi's mother is Queen Arika of Vesperina, making Negi a Warrior Prince. This is subverted when the girls discover that the Magic World is Mars and get excited, only to realize that it's just a useless bit of trivia. Then it becomes a double subversion when it turns out to be important after all.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion is loaded with these. The Eva's are alive and cloned from Angels. Rei is a clone of Shinji's mother and there's a whole aquarium full of clones. The Eva's have human souls, specifically Shinji and Asuka's mothers (Unit 00's soul remains a mystery with speculation abound). Ritsuko is not a natural blonde. Kaworu is an angel. Humans and Angels are the same beings. The purpose of The Human Instrumentality Project. And so on and so forth.
- Several in Ojamajo Doremi:
- The Witch Queen is The Faceless until the penultimate episode of the series (and only one or two hints are given to her true identity in the final season). She was watching the girls the entire time as Yuki-sensei, the school nurse.
- Akatsuki is the prince of the Wizard World. This was so secret that even his best friends didn't know.
- Ojamajo Doremi 16/17 reveals that Hana has a twin sibling. On top of that, Majo Rika and Majo Ruka are also twins, which makes their rivalry Sibling Rivalry.
- From volume fifteen onwards, PandoraHearts is just a bunch of reveals.
- The earliest example is the mysterious young man Raven turning out to be Gilbert, ten years older from when Oz last saw him. The reason this is not put as a spoiler is because it's extremely obvious, unlike every other reveal in the series.
- Two dramatic Tomato in the Mirror examples: Elliot, obsessed with finding the true identity of the man slowly killing off the Nightray family, is finally given the answer. It's him. Well, he's one of them, anyway — the other is his older adoptive brother. As for the second example, Oz finds out he's the B-Rabbit, not Alice.
- Jack Vessalius is a lovely, charismatic man dubbed and worshiped for being the hero of the Tragedy of Sablier. Except that he's actually the one who caused the Tragedy in the first place, and he's a manipulative sociopath trying to drag the entire world into the Abyss. This particular reveal made the fandom go berserk.
- Pokémon: The Series does this with Pokemon's genders. For example, Pikachu, after ten years of debating, is proven to be male.
- In Pokémon Adventures, Yellow is revealed to be a girl at the end of the Yellow Chapter (though Red doesn't find out until the Gold/Silver Chapter).
- Pretty Sammy, Magical Project S: The whole show being a parody of the magical girl genre, you wouldn't expect much in the way of plot twists. Cue Episode 19 — Sammy's Shrinking Violet best friend, Misao is really the sadistic Dark Magical Girl, Pixy Misa. More so, Pixy Misa is her default form; the shy and demure Misa was only a result of repressing her negative traits.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica becomes very reveal-heavy (combining them with a Wham Line, usually) from about the 4th-8th episode onvard.
- Queen Millennia:
- Serene and Yayoi admit to accidentally killing Hajime's parents by independently ordering the same spaceship part, which combusts if there's a second one in proximity.
- La-Metal's collision with Earth is a ruse to make Queen Millennia panic and move Earthlings to La-Metal, while in turn La-Metal's population takes Earth for themselves unopposed.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena:
- Anthy and Akio's true nature are major ones: They are in an incestuous relationship that resembles Domestic Abuse. Akio used to be Dios, a heroic prince that fell from nobility and became a Manipulative Bastard. He's also the prince from Utena's past as well as End of the World, the person organizing the duels. Anthy is a witch that was horrifically attacked for denying the world her brother and suffers constant torment as a result. She's an integral part of Akio's plans.
- The castle in the sky where "eternity" dwells doesn't exist. It's an illusion created by Akio's planetarium projector as part of his hook to get people to participate in the duels. In fact, the entire hook is a lie: The duelist who wins the Rose Bride and the duels won't obtain the Power of Dios. The true purpose of the duels is for Akio himself to regain the Power of Dios, which he lost when he ceased to be Prince Dios. He just needs a powerful sword in order to break the seal on it — the winner's sword. To that end, he manipulated the young Utena into wanting to become a prince and gave her a duelist ring, hoping she would one day become noble enough to produce a sword that could break the seal.
- From the Black Rose arc: Mikage/Nemuro's memories are fake — he's the one that burned down Nemuro Hall, not Mamiya. Also, the real Mamiya died years ago — the Mamiya we've seen with Mikage in the present is actually Anthy in disguise manipulating Mikage on Akio's behalf.
- Usagi/Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity. Although it could be made obvious over time — there are glimpses of the princess and she has the same voice actor — the original Japanese manga and anime didn't truly reveal this until well into the first season. The North American DiC dub, on the other hand, revealed this in the very first episode (or figured no one would put two and two together with the identical princess in a bubble and Serena).
- School-Live!:
- It starts out as a fairly run-of-the-mill slice of life show, albeit with a few odd details (who let someone keep their dog at school?). At the end of the first episode, we discover that the characters are in the midst of a horrible zombie apocalypse, and everything we've seen so far has been the product of Yuki's delusional lotus-eating. The strange details and inconsistencies are just side effects, and the other characters play along because they don't have the heart to tell her otherwise.
- The reveal that Megu-nee has been Dead All Along is very different between the manga and anime. In the manga Yuki gets a massive headache and faints after being reminded of sometimes Megu-nee told her before her death. We're shown a flashback to Megu-nee's death and the next chapter confirms she's dead. In the anime the reveal happens chronologically later due to the series being In Medias Res. Miki is confused about who Megu-nee is so she innocently asks. This causes a creepy sequence where the background music is slowly warping and the scene pans out to show Yuki was talking to thin air.
- In the manga Yuuri remembers she had a younger sister and goes hysterical with worry. She ends up risking her life to save a girl from an elementary school full of zombies however over the chapters it's shown that Yuuri is suffering from similar psychological issues to Yuki — the girl is really a teddy bear.
- Scrapped Princess has a final twist reveal based on a single character's name: that Seria's last name is Mauser.
- In Shaman King (at least the anime) the main antagonist is revealed to be the main protagonists Evil Twin.
- Shimeji Simulation: Has too many examples to boot.
- Sis reveals that all of West Yomogi is a literal simulation, given the fact that no accidents and deaths were reported, as mentioned by The Gardener, who was revealed to be the town's overseer.
- The Big Sis that appears in Chapter 38 is revealed to be her rogue clone that was accidentally created by Big Sis' attempts of using the machine code in the Rock World.
- Another bombshell then comes in Chapter 44, when Yomikawa reveals that West Yomogi and the world within it is a simulated reality within a computer. But it was the only first part as mentioning all of it is a big reveal and a massive spoiler. It turned out that the supercomputer was created moments before the Robot War, in order to continue humanity's existence by uploading their consciousness into it and by launching the said device through space with a shuttle that is also revealed to be still flying across space, supported with how Chito and Yuuri saw the flight path of the third shuttle that is successfully flown through space inside the abandoned space station. It was not until the Dénouement Episode, Chapter 48, where this becomes a major plot twist: everything that happened in Girls' Last Tour is canon to this manga.
- Chapter 45 exactly shows the truth of Shijima and Sis' parents, where it is revealed that they never had parents whatsoever, making a much clearer case of Big Sis' words regarding how their town is not for them and they don't even have parents, as they were created by the simulation ("suddenly born") at the grass next to the danchis. There's the revelation that the people in the simulation are not born, but rather transported into it, which is exactly how Yomikawa's reveal played out in the previous chapter.
- Chapter 46 reveals that Majime, after being absent for the past two chapters, is later revealed to be the deity of her new world that she created, which comprises of Talking Animals, with the Chiho (rabbit) tribe being one example. Albeit it is also revealed that she went into self-exile after several of them from various nations warred against each other over wanting more friends of their own, which resulted in her regretfully unleashing a Bolt of Divine Retribution (or rather a rain of arrows) onto them.
- In Soul Eater the killer of BJ was Justin Law. While not affecting the entire plot, it's still a major deal for certain characters, with potentially serious implications (if that one, who else has been overlooked?) in the series.
- In Chapter 72; Kid is said to be a fragment of Shinigami, who turns out to be one of a group of entities called the Great Old Ones. Making the Super OCD boy a Humanoid Abomination (currently) minus the evil and his 'illness' impliedly the result of the fact he/his father is an anthropomorphic personification of the 'madness of the rule of law'. Then in Chapter 108, it's revealed that Asura is also a fragment of Shinigami, effectively making him Kid's older brother.
- A big dose is revealed near the end of Spider Riders when the series Big Bad admits that he's a human. Not only that, he reveals that like Hunter, he was a hero chosen to protect the Inner World before he went nuts after his wife was killed.
- The Distant Finale of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann reveals that the narrator speaking at the beginning of every episode is actually Simon in his forties. And in the second movie, during the fight between the TTGL and the Granzeboma, the Anti-Spiral drops the obvious (to the fans who've watched the anime) bombshell that if the Anti-Spiral is defeated, Nia will disappear. This shocks the Dai-Gurren Brigade and then the Anti-Spiral proceeds to tear the TTGL into many pieces, causes robot blood to spill all over the galaxy they were standing on. They got better.
- In Tona-Gura!, Kazuki remembered that, even as a little boy, Yuuji was playful, and his 'perverted nature' is mainly him still acting like a little boy around his best friend. When he realizes that she * seriously* does not like it, and she stops romanticizing their childhood, things finally begin to move for them.
- Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-:
- First, Syaoran is a clone created by the Big Bad, and meet the real one.
- Fai/Fay has a depressing backstory, he's faking his personality, is working for the villain, and he killed his brother. Then it's revealed that his memories were false, he didn't kill his brother, and he switches sides.
- The whole goal up till that point, collecting the princess' feathers, was the Big Bad's Evil Plan to have her develop "physical memories".
- The princess is a clone.
- The original Syaoran is actually the son of an alternate version of the protagonist and love interest of Cardcaptor Sakura, and is using his father's name as a pseudonym. Then it's learned that the protagonist of ×××HOLiC is a time-travel duplicate of "Syaoran".
- And that the creation of said duplicate messed up the entire space-time continuum.
- Then that "the country of Clow" is really Acid Tokyo in the far future.
- Then that Yuko was Dead All Along, and her revival was the whole purpose of the Big Bad's Gambit Roulette. Then that she was preserved from going to the other side by an inadvertent reality warp from Clow, giving a Reveal as to why he was so desperate to get rid of his powers and set off the plot of Cardcaptor Sakura.
- And then it's revealed that Syaoran is the clone of his biological son, who is the "real Syaoran". This means he took the name from somebody who took the name from him. And at the same time it's told that the mother of Original Syaoran is his girlfriend's clone!
- The Fei Wong Reed is actually Clow Reed's clone (sort of) created from his accidental Reality Warping.
- Then, finally, it turns out that the feathers were actually soul fragments of the clones!
- Both the Syaoran and Sakura's real names are Tsubasa!
- Twilight Star Sui and Neri has the main reveal in Chapter 15 regarding Tetsunagi island, which was populated by a union of humans and sentient animals originating from a research lab before it became a fully-fledged town in the present. It is a Late-Arrival Spoiler to anyone, as it fully explains the reason why talking and sapient animals are common in Tetsunagi and are in union with humans, but not in other cities where it is the very opposite.
- In Umi Monogatari it is revealed that Sedna is formed from the combined sorrow that the inhabitants of the island committed to the sea.
- Midway through Your Name, it turns out that the "Freaky Friday" Flip is not in timed sync, and Mitsuha has been Dead All Along for three years after Itomori was destroyed in a meteor strike, killing five hundred people. The rest of the movie follows Taki and Mitsuha as they attempt to avert this disaster.
- Zombie Land Saga: A show about an idol group called Franchouchou, comprised entirely of young zombie girls. The show starts with only pieces of every zombie's backstory, but slowly reveals more as the show goes on, including how they lived and died, and the nature and powers behind their resurrection.
