Voodoo Shark / Anime & Manga

• It is revealed in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You that Hakari’s mother gave birth to her at 13, because her boyfriend had a terminal disease and thus she underwent in vitro fertilization so they could have a family before her boyfriend died. But this just raises a bunch of questions, like how she got parental consent for this as a minor, what happened to her parents, what kind of doctor would perform this procedure on a 13-year-old, how she acquired a sample of her boyfriend’s sperm to be inseminated with, and what the point of all this even is if the sperm was for a different donor. Considering that Teen Pregnancy is a thing that happens, Occam's Razor would mean there is no necessity for Hakari to have been a test tube baby for the plot to work.
• Attack on Titan attempts to 'fix' the somewhat downer ending in the manga by making the buildings in the ending futuristic, thus changing the ending from Eren's plan failing within a few decades to Paradis surviving hundreds of years before getting obliterated by enemy forces. But this itself creates further plot holes The anti-aircraft defenses and planes shown of a WWII-era design, whilst the buildings are vastly beyond anything in the real world. The tree, which in the original manga is just not hit by conventional bombing, survives what is presented as weapons of a similar strength to nuclear bombs. Paradis is getting annihilated when it was a Titanless society for centuries, and thus no real reason exists for such utter annihilation (when the original implied heavily that it was so brutally targeted for its genocide in recent memory).
• After School Nightmare: It's revealed at the end of the manga that all of the students are unborn children and that the reason they become Unpersoned after graduating the special class is because they're being born in the real world. In addition, it's revealed that Mashiro's struggles with their gender identity are actually because they're a pair of boy-girl twins struggling for possession of one life (with the boy ultimately dying so the girl can be born). This the question of how Kureha could've been raped as a child or how Sou could be in an incestuous relationship with his sister if neither of them had been born yet, or what those events could actually represent.
• Arachnid:
  • The protagonist wields a knife attached to a pistol with spider thread that never runs out and that she can control with her mind. About six chapters before the end of the series, a flashback half-explains that it can do all that because it is a Living Weapon. No word of how it even got made or where it came from, it just exists. This is after several other instances of flimsy explained sci-fi, paranormal and mutant quirks on everyone else ("steel-plated heart", for one), though, so readers were long under the MST3K Mantra by then.
  • In the beginning, Alice's master, Kumo, forced her into a Duel to the Death. She wins, but is left homeless and with assassins targeting her after she refuses to work for them. Midway through the series, it is shown Kumo had actually hired a fellow assassin, Kabutomushi, to take care of Alice after his death. Despite being a selfish woman, she made a point of honoring his request due to how he genuinely trusted her. The problem here is that Kabutomushi takes several weeks to go meet Alice, for no explained reason. The author actually jokes about this plot hole in one omake.
• Bleach: When Gin betrays Aizen near the end of the Arrcanar arc, a flashback reveals his reasoning for doing so was because he witnessed Aizen steal part of his childhood friend's (Rangiku Matsumoto) soul to feed to the Hōgyoku. Some viewers were confused by the scene though, as it doesn't get referenced in the manga again, and it never is made clear why Aizen would steal part of Rangiku's soul, making it look like a dropped plot point. Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World would reveal that Rangiku was actually a fragment of the Physical God of the setting, the Soul King, and Aizen stole part of her soul to feed to the Hōgyoku when he discovered this. This created even more plot holes however, because such a reveal would seem to warrant her being more important, but she is mostly a minor character at the end of the day. Despite being one all along, and despite living in the slums with Gin, she was never found earlier; no reason is given for how Aizen learns she has a piece of the Soul King; Rangiku doesn't seem to remember having such a large part of her soul removed; and it's never explained what part of the Soul King she was, given others who carry part of him are explicitly tied to some body part.
• Burn The Witch (2018) reveals that the story's setting is the Western Branch of the Soul Society. While this answers the question of why the afterlife seen in Bleach is predominantly if not entirely Japanese (also implying there are other branches we don't know about), it raises the question of why none of the other branches got involved in the Karakura Town or Blood War conflicts, since both of these could have resulted in the world of the living being completely destroyed.
• Danganronpa:
  • The Remnants of Despair in the second game was a group of Brainwashed and Crazy followers of the Big Bad of the first game. How they got to this state is never completely explained, other than it involving the death of a friend, implying this was traditional brainwashing. Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, tasked with actually showing this event and the events leading up to it went with a rather different approach. What's that approach? The Big Bad has a brainwashing anime created by copying the talent of a previously unseen classmate whose life work was to make the most emotionally moving anime of all time via subliminal messages and mind control, although he never considered the moral implications of this. The ability to create this brainwashing anime by copying his talent is done in less than 30 seconds, when it took him a decade to get as good as he was. What was previously unexplained murder-based brainwashing now created a new plot hole: despite Junko apparently having had brainwashing anime this entire time, she never uses it again. Sure, some instances can be handwaved via the explanation of she's too horny for despair to care about logic, but the stated point of the entire first game's live broadcasting is to plunge the bits of humanity still alive into despair. Which is what the brainwashing anime already does.
  • Furthermore, the anime implicitly reveals the Big Bad's secret true talent, which had been alluded to before, is the Ultimate Analyst, which can copy any talent. Only, if the Big Bad can do that, they should be remarkably more overpowered. One canon character has every talent, and he's presented as a science-made demigod which took almost eighty years of research to create, but the Big Bad could become just as powerful by copying all the talents at will. Despite this, it is shown that character outclasses the Big Bad, including in combat, despite him having amnesia and the Big Bad also copying the talents of Mukuro Ikusaba, the Ultimate Soldier, who was said to be so good in combat that she went into active war zones without getting a scratch. Especially considering that Junko is Mukuro's sister and spent her whole life by Mukuro's side. Junko's even shown displaying that she can copy Mukuro's abilities by mere observation, or even just having Mukuro yell what to do. While Mukuro is also heavily outclassed by him, one of their classmates is the Ultimate Mixed Martial Artist, which should actually put her above Mukuro in combat skill. But she gets taken down in one second by a man whose sum total of memories are sitting in a room. She's also beaten one-on-one in the first game by Kyoko Kirigiri, the Ultimate Detective despite this, which isn't seen but is a plot point. It's never said that the ability is temporary, and if it were it would put a further plot hole in Junko's motives. Basically, if the Big Bad really did have "every talent", it opens up another plot hole as to why they aren't on the giving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Among the more infamous moments from the anime is when Nagito Komaeda meets Izuru Kamukura and is nearly killed by him, in spite of the flashback set just before the events of the second game explicitally being when the the two first met. The final episode handwaves this away by explaining that Izuru wiped the classes memory of him (with plans to do so to himself as well) so that their next encounter would be "more interesting". Except... he had no reason to do that when he'd never even met them for an extended period of time. He would have nothing to gain by wiping his own memories, because he wouldn't have an encounter to compare to. And he shouldn't even want to meet any of them when the only one of the class who mattered to him was Chiaki, as a result of his past life as Hajime.
• In Death Note's second rewrite special, the mafia are cut and Mikami and Takada kill the SPK in their place, with Light's meetings with them moved to earlier than occurred in the manga. This fixes a plothole present in the original anime, wherein SPK member Ill Ratt is never revealed as a spy for Mello (providing no explanation for Mello's crew knowing their names and thus being able to kill them with the Death Note), but with the mafia plot's removal, another is created: Soichiro Yagami making the trade for Shinigami Eyes and his subsequent death are also omitted, leaving his absence and Light's knowledge of Mello's true name unexplained.
• Digimon Adventure 02:
  • The out-of-story reason why the main characters of Digimon Adventure are no longer able to Digivolve to Ultimate or Mega forms is that they can't upstage the new kids. This was weakly patched by the kids claiming halfway through the season that they'd gone back to the Digital World at some point and released their inner Crest powers, claiming it was necessary to create a barrier or shield to maintain the world's balance. The problem is that said barrier or shield never actually seems to matter outside of that explanation. Another problem is that the series had already introduced a ninth Crest, still with full power, so they didn't even have the power of all the Crests. And the other other problem is that the world was already reborn with restored balance at the end of the first season. And the kid's Crests were already destroyed, with it being explicit that they no longer needed the crests to pull off higher Digivolutions...
  • When this explanation didn't go over well, the writers tried for a different one: the crest powers were used to awaken and free the Harmonious Ones that were sealed away by the Dark Masters. Not only does this explanation have the same problems as the first one, it has a whole host of new ones. To wit: the Harmonious Ones were resealed almost immediately after they were freed, making the sacrifice of the Crests pointless. And once one Harmonious One is freed again, he does exactly two things (besides exposition): create more Destiny Stones (which wouldn't have been needed if the original kids could still Digivolve past champion, as they would have never been destroyed), and give the older kids the ability to evolve again (fixing a problem he created). In addition, they never mention seeking out the other three, nor do they ever mention them again. And despite being a supposedly super powerful god, he never attempts to actually help the kids fight anyone. And one would have to wonder how Physical God-tier Digimon were all bested and sealed away by the Dark Masters, who last season were thoroughly beaten by the Digidestined, and then resealed by the Digimon Emperor, who at the time couldn't even control MetalGreymon.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) ended with a No Ending situation, leaving many questions and plot points unresolved. To fix this, a movie was made to wrap up the story called Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, where in the big twist of the anime was that the Gate of Truth connects to our world during the events of World War 1. This reveal infamously fractured the fandom for years and has become a major negative point of the fandom due to how many questions it raises that could never be explained, as well as the sheer Fridge Logic forcing people to have to guess on what any of the implications even mean, such as how Alchemy even works if it's connected to another world.
• In Katanagatari, the magic swords that form the basis of the plot are eventually explained away as technology from the future, which a soothsayer imported using his (magical!) gift of foresight. A character explicitly says that this is the logical conclusion, because magic is impossible.
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999) has a scene explaining that "Sheik" is a separate persona from Zelda because Zelda's mind was locked away for seven years. Outside of this explanation, nothing in the manga supports this. Zelda is still foreshadowed as a Tomboy Princess (even more than in the games) and the manga otherwise treats Zelda as if she did everything herself.
• My-Otome attempts to handwave the Virgin Power of Otome by explaining that a chemical in sperm destroys the nanomachines that are injected into an Otome's body to give her her powers. This raises a couple problems:
  • No one seems to have heard of a condom. The series is implied to have occurred in a Lost Colony of Earth, implying humanity somehow retained knowledge of advanced robotics but not birth control, which real-life humans have used for thousands of years. Even though condoms can break if used improperly, they're better than nothing. Even if Otome are sworn to chastity while active, a lot of the stress caused by the premise could be solved if non-virgins were allowed to become Otome in the first place.
  • No one seems to think to weaponize this weakness. While rape is an obvious drawback to any Virgin Power (which the series itself references), it would be easier to isolate the chemical, slip it into an Otome's food or drink, and neutralize them discreetly. No one even discusses this.
  • Nobody ever brings up just re-dosing the nanomachines if they get knocked out. The chemical in sperm can't possibly stick around in the body that long.
  • Nobody tries to work to counter the chemical in any way. If people are willing and able to consider the Otome as walking weapons to the point that there's a version of SALT for them, then someone would have figured out that finding a way to counter this chemical would give an advantage.
  • There are several openly lesbian Otome seen during the series and no-one seems to care about their presence, and Situational Sexuality is considered perfectly normal among the trainees, yet they never actively recruit gay or asexual women. Even if all the Otome aren't ace or lesbians, having a few with no interest in sex with men can help assure that they won't come in contact with the chemical.
• One Piece:
  • The zombies created by Gecko Moria's Devil Fruit power can be purified by feeding them salt. Fair enough, that's a weakness of zombies in folklore. But the series explains this as being due to salt's association with the sea, which is the weakness of Devil Fruit powers. No other Devil Fruit power is counteracted by salt in any way.
  • Someone connected to Luffy was thought to be dead for the longest time, but turns out to be alive and with the Revolutionary Army. This brings up the question of why they didn't look for Luffy as he started gaining notoriety. This is explained by the character in question gaining amnesia and forgetting about Luffy until Ace's death. However, this raises even more questions. Sabo never looks for Luffy in the two-year time skip after he gets his memory back. It's also strange that Sabo is believed to be dead in the first place, when as an increasingly high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Army, his identity and bounty should've been public knowledge before Luffy even set sail. Furthermore, it's demonstrated that a lot of people connected to Luffy know about Sabo, and that Sabo is Luffy's sworn brother. Sabo would absolutely talk to Robin about Luffy, knowing that she's on his crew. Garp knew the two were sworn brothers, and he almost certainly knew Sabo as one of Dragon's closest confidants. And Ace kept up on world events far more than Luffy does, so he must surely have either have heard about or met Sabo at some point. Which just brings up the biggest plot hole this reveal introduced: none of these people ever just tell Luffy that his brother is still alive.
• Sonic X:
  • Unlike the contemporary games which take place on Earth, Sonic X has Sonic's World as a separate dimension/planet from Earth, explaining why no plot-relevant Funny Animals appear in the games. This is fine until Shadow is introduced. It's never explained how 50 years ago humans were able to create an anthropomorphic hedgehog, that just so happens to look like Sonic's species at that, without knowing that Sonic's world existed.
  • In order to explain why Eggman is the Token Human in Sonic's world and allow Gerald and Maria to still exist in Shadow's backstory, they reveal Eggman was actually born on Earth and lost his memory after coming to Sonic's. How this happened is never explained in the main series, but the Archie Sonic X comics would attempt to explain it was because Gerald sent him there. How exactly Gerald sent his grandson to another dimension, and why he didn't do the same for himself and Maria, is never explained. This is made worse when it's later revealed that Sonic's world functions on a Year Outside, Hour Inside system relative to the human world, which would mean less than five years passed relative to Maria's death and Gerald's imprisonment... meaning Eggman either is far Younger Than They Look, or he is inexplicably several decades older than his cousin Maria for no given reason.
• In the relatively obscure OVA Virgin Fleet, one of the key plot points is that the main character and his girlfriend cannot get married due to her being a part of the titular Virgin Fleet, which relies upon Virgin Power. This is in spite of:
  • It is possible for one to be married and still be a virgin, as virginity is connected to sex, not marriage — while it's true that it's relatively common for couples to have sex on their wedding night to consummate their relationship, the MC had not explicitly expressed a desire to have sex, only wanting to get married.
  • The MC's girlfriend herself states that Virgin Energy is just a myth, despite the fact that in story, said Virgin Energy is what allowed Japan to force Russia into a ceasefire in the Sino-Japanese War.
• The explanation for why the Witches in Strike Witches spend all their time bottomless except for a pair of panties (or maybe a School Swimsuit) is that using the Striker Units that attach to their legs requires contact with bare skin to function, and the Witches need to be combat ready at a moment's notice (and from there it simply became fashionable). None of this explains why A) wearing shorts or short skirts wasn't considered, since the Striker Units only go up as far as a pair of stockings normally would, or B) why two Witches can operate their Striker Units while wearing pantyhose. The Big Damn Movie attempted to explain this as well by saying that witches in the setting's history have always worn their clothes like this, even in the past when they fought with more regular human soldiers, and it did in fact become a long-lasting fashion trend. The Striker Units were later designed around this, instead of the other way around, to keep the visual image intact. This then raises the question of how running around in your panties on the battlefield became a fashion trend to begin with, especially while the witches were hanging around a bunch of horny male soldiers — which we were never going to have a good answer to, because the real one is just that Strike Witches is an Ecchi.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In Duel Monsters, the manga villain "The Ventriloquist of the Dead" is replaced with "The Imitator of Death", who disguises himself as Seto Kaiba's ghost. In the Japanese, it's never really stated whether or not he's a Shapeshifter, or just a Master of Disguise. The English dub by 4Kids Entertainment tries to explain this by him actually being Kaiba, more specifically, his evil side, created as a result of Yami's "Mind Crush" penalty game, whom Pegasus freed from the Shadow Realm... which just creates more plot holes: He shouldn't have come to life in the first place if the whole point of Yami's Mind Crush on Kaiba was to destroy his evil side; he shouldn't have been sent to the Shadow Realm if he's just a Literal Split Personality of Kaiba; nothing like this ever happens any of the other times Yami used Mind Crush; and there's no reason he should have a separate form, much less one that looks nothing like Kaiba.
  • Most shows use either the excuse of friendly competition or ancient dark magic to explain why people feel the need to partake in the franchise's local Absurdly High-Stakes Game, but Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds takes place in a Cyberpunk future, and mostly had neither for its first few arcs. To facilitate the traditional "hero evades the Dirty Cop on a motorbike" situations, they came up with the idea that the protagonists and cops ride D-Wheels, the series's infamous motorcycles; if a person begins a Duel, the D-Wheel locks itself to a given speed depending on the state of the Duel, and losing causes the D-Wheel to forcibly come to a stop. This means the cops can catch a person by challenging them to a Duel and beating them, and the person can escape by beating them... which creates a massive pile of plot holes. Just for starters, a motorbike that pulls the brakes whenever it loses a game would be incredibly unsafe; criminals could just remove the D-Wheel's ability to play the game and make themselves uncatchable; this means the cops design their own motorbikes to stop, making it quite arbitrarily more difficult for them to do their job; if winning the game lets cops catch criminals, cops could just make cards that just instantly win the game; and if they can reduce the speed of a criminal's motorcycle, they could just make it stop dead. For the most part, fans just shrug it off with Rule of Cool.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has its AR Vision concept. The idea isthat instead of the projected hard-light holograms of earlier shows, the monsters are shown on an eyepiece worn by the characters that is linked to an Augmented Reality network, for something more realistic than the earlier approach. Unfortunately, this one causes even more plot holes than the old holograms, largely because the writers treat them the same way—among them being that people still flinch when these immaterial monsters are hit, and that the AR projections are visible to people like the Barians and Number Guardians, who have no possible way of being linked to the wireless network that lets people see them. It also raises the question of why seemingly everyone in the world (even Rokujuro, whose whole personality is being old-school) has switched to a new system that's much less technologically impressive than the old one—and if you consider later shows to be in the same canon as ZEXAL, why everyone in the whole world then switched back.

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