Power causing insanity in anime and manga.
- AKIRA centers around the results of government experimentation on a Japanese gang member with a serious inferiority complex. As a result, the newly created Big Bad Tetsuo runs amok with his telekinetic powers until he mutates, explodes, and forms either a new universe or... something.
- Berserk:
- Guts finds that he can enter into an Unstoppable Rage like never before due to his recently obtained Upgrade Artifact. However, he finds himself Blessed with Suck due to the incredible physical strain it puts on his body, and he could accidentally Face–Heel Turn at any moment and kill all of his companions.
- At the conclusion of the Kushan arc, Emperor Ganishka throws himself into one of his Mook Maker "wombs" in order to turn himself into something even stronger than his usual Apostle form. He emerges as an absolutely gigantic monstrosity, more powerful than ever... but in the process, his mind unravels. Within minutes, he no longer even remembers his own name, let alone what he was trying to do.
- In The Big O, Straw Nihilist villain Schwarzwald is the only known character to figure out the big secret. As a result, he goes batshit insane, wraps himself up like a mummy, and spends the rest of the series raving about philosophy, leaving typewriters lying around everywhere he goes, and showing up in a robot several weeks after his death to chew out another villain who gets killed trying to use it.
- Bleach:
- Ichigo's powers are greatly amplified when his inner Hollow/Zanpakuto spirit, Zangetsu is released, but he suppresses it in order to preserve his sanity. Even then, suppressing him doesn't work in the long run. It takes a major Battle in the Center of the Mind for him to gain control over him. During the third battle, Zangetsu isn't trying to hurt Ichigo, his goal is to make Ichigo accept him as part of his soul instead of suppressing him. Once Ichigo does that, he becomes a Physical God.
- Aizen has never been entirely sane, but his insanity slowly becomes more and more obvious the greater his power becomes. By the time he's fused with the Hougyoku, he's fullblown crazy, which allows Ichigo to defeat him.
- Kouga (from the third anime filler arc) fits this trope perfectly. His power (to force others' zanpakutou to do his bidding) is truly enormous, and he quickly goes insane. Kouga had plenty of external help on that trip to insanity, but his obsession with his own great power made him a little unbalanced even when he was still one of the good guys.
- In Choujin X, only mentally unstable people are able to become choujin, as the powers of any individual choujin reflect whatever complex they have. Furthermore, a choujin overusing their powers will gradually cause their humanity and mental stability to degrade. Perhaps the best examples would be Queem and Zora, two individuals who received the titular moniker of 'Choujin X.' While Queem was always an extremely paranoid dictator, in the later years of the Great Choujin War, his sanity had completely degraded to the point that he'd slaughter random civilians on a whim, particularly those who were openly religious. Zora, on the other hand, was originally a powerful hero who protected the land of Yamato from Queem's onslaught. However as she continued to overextend her powers in service of Yamato, her mind gradually became subsumed by her savior complex, to the point where she's developed an obsessive paranoia with her own prophetic visions. It also doesn't help that, due to the increasing amount of pain one experiences after using too many raises, both Queem and Zora have become completely dependent on opiods to even function in day-to-day life.
- In Chrono Crusade, Joshua Christopher is given the horns of a demon by the Big Bad. The power is too much for the small boy, however — within minutes he's gone completely insane, using his powers to freeze everyone around him in time and destroy the orphanage he lived in. It gets so bad that later he can't even remember his own sister.
- It's even worse than that in the manga. It turns out that a demon's horns, in addition to granting them direct access to the Astral line, are also what connect them to their "mother", Pandemonium. That constant, painful noise that Joshua was complaining about? It was an Eldritch Abomination constantly mind-raping him.
- In the anime, though the horns did damage his mind on their own, the "noise" he complained of was the thoughts of every human around him. In other words, uncontrollable telepathy that forced him to hear what every single person around him was thinking, all at once, all the time. No wonder he went mad if he had to be near people.
- Claymore: A Claymore who activates her demonic powers (i.e. "Awakens") gains great power but stands a chance of losing her humanity and turning into a human flesh-craving demon permanently.
- In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou", a government test subject is given superhuman assassin skills and then goes crazy as a side-effect. Given the methods shown (the fact that no explanation of any sort is given for what, precisely, is being done, it's all the more disturbing), it's not too surprising.
- Contractors in Darker than Black appear to have "complete lack of conscience" as one side-effect of gaining their powers (and their powers are usually destructive in nature). Even the sanest among them are Affably Evil or Anti Heroic at best and have no problems with taking lives, though whether it is the powers themselves that cause it or the result of the extensive masquerade surrounding them and how their fellow humans treat them is up to debate.
- Death Note drops some hints that Light Yagami wasn't entirely well-adjusted before gaining the power to kill anyone in the world at any time, but his sanity and concern for other people certainly takes a nosedive after that. In fact, all the Kiras in the series seem to take a mental tailspin after picking up a Death Note, since it seems to take the major flaw in their personality and magnify it — Light's narcissism, Mikami's fanatical desire for justice, Misa's blind subservience, and Higuchi's greed.
- It even says in chapter 19 that "with great power comes great...evil!?" which is pretty darn close, in Light's case.
- When he temporarily lost his memories of the Death Note as part of a Memory Gambit, he immediately becomes a Nice Guy that has nothing in common with "Kira", to the point that he finds the very notion that he might have once been "Kira" to be horrifying. The light visibly returns to his eyes the minute he forgets everything, and he becomes outspokenly concerned with other people's wellbeing.
- Near casts some doubt on this in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Light, claiming that a sane and decent person would use the Note out of curiosity, be frightened by the consequences, and get rid of the Note out of regret. A sane and evil person would use it for self-interest. In the anime, Light is only seized with guilt very briefly before fully declaring himself a god, and it takes a few weeks of crippling guilt in the manga for Light to move onto unrestrained narcissism, but the end result is the same both ways.
- In Devilman Lady, the entire story centres around evolution and the gaining of vast, beast-like powers by ordinary people, many of whom go insane. The main character, Jun, for much of the series appears to be descending into insanity herself despite her best efforts not to. The climax moment of this aspect of the series is when, having been prevented from indulge her bloodlust by the Human Alliance, she attacks a nurse, but ultimately overcomes her instincts by drawing her own blood.
- Both played straight and averted in Digimon. On the one hand, you have Digimon like Omnimon, who are immensely powerful, but perfectly sane, noble, and benevolent. On the other hand, you have Beelzemon and Diaboromon, who are driven only by their desire to gain power and cause destruction. Myotismon is already incredibly powerful, but becoming his mega form, the colossal VenomMyotismon, turns him from The Chessmaster to an all-devouring mindless monster.
- DNA² has The Rival become the Big Bad when he gained the power to "absorb other people's DNA". Don't ask how that works or why it gave him a Battle Aura and shapeshifting powers, it just did.
- Dragon Ball:
- The Dragon Ball Z movies have Broly, who became a berserker warrior because he was born with immense power. It is also heavily implied that the life-threatening experiences of his childhood also contributed quite a bit to his insanity as well.
- It's all but stated in the manga that reaching new levels of Super Saiyan cause Goku and Gohan to become more aggressive and ruthless, which is particularly jarring to the other characters (Vegeta was already pretty bad, so he just gets more and more arrogant). Vegeta says that to become a Super Saiyan, you must have a pure heart (pure evil or pure good doesn't seem to matter) and be in a state of pure rage, with (except for SSJ3, which is achieved off-screen) the new levels involving them getting more enraged than they have ever been before. While this doesn't last, and any future transformations allow them to stay 'normal' it is still pretty unclear how changed they are as a result of this brief spurt of maddening rage. Basically, at each newer Super Saiyan level, they tend to revert to the typical Saiyan brutality. Vegeta doesn't have any similar problem because extreme brutality is his default state.
- Gohan is truly shocking in his beatdown of Cell as he goes from restraining himself because he doesn't want to fight to torturing Cell in the space of a few minutes. Even Goku is shocked by what the transformation does to his son.
- In Dragon Ball GT, Goku loses his reason and turns into a giant, supremely powerful golden ape when he first transforms into a SS4. This was simply the latest in a long list of giant ape transformations from Dragon Ball and early DBZ, which had the same effect: multiplying the Saiyan's power level by a factor of 10, but causing their minds to become animalistic. Vegeta was the only one to remain sane in this form... presumably due to actually being trained in its use.
- Frieza's reason for using transformations to hide the bulk of his power is heavily implied to be due to losing what little sanity he already had if he went all out.
- Fused Zamasu from Dragon Ball Super. Completely unkillable, and when they do deal with him, his essence becomes the entire multiverse of the Future Trunks timeline. Also entirely irrational, and can do little more than destroy everything he can and laugh. Downplayed in the manga, since he just gains the ability to clone himself indefinitely and remains as sane as before... which really isn't saying much.
- Any Diclonius in Elfen Lied, except Nana. Maybe. It's heavily implied that their murderous tendencies might actually be a result of abuse, particularly at the Institute. Might. It's ultimately left ambiguous.
- Fairy Tail:
- This was the result of Elfman's failed Take Over spell against a monster called The Beast a few years before the story started. In order to save his older sister, he used his magic on a gigantic magical monster, but wasn't quite strong enough to control it. He saved his older sister, and killed the younger ( or so they thought). Out of fear of this happening again, he stopped using full-body Take Over magic (eventually, he becomes able to control his power).
- It's eventually revealed overusing the power of Dragon Slayer Magic has the potential to do this as it matures and the human gets closer and closer to the power of an actual dragon. The final stage involves turning into a dragon and becoming consumed by the god-like power and arrogance it brings. This is how Acnologia went from a Nominal Hero on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to an Blood Knight Omnicidal Maniac.
- In Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night, Berserker-class Servants get Mad Enhancement, a Class Skill that trades one's sanity for added power.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Ed gets a power overload from contact with a huge amount of unfinished Philosopher's Stone and goes full-on uncontrollable with so much power it is described that if this goes on, he can attain enough power to be god-like (even freaking out the Homunculi) until a Cooldown Hug snaps him out of it.
- Played with in Future Diary, where some individuals who're not so mentally sound to begin with are given the ability to predict the future and told by God to kill each other Highlander style. Whether the ability, situation, or just generally being that nuts before drives them crazy is up for interpretation.
- Gasaraki has mecha pilots who were given a cocktail of boosting drugs in order to improve their battle performance (without their knowledge or consent, and said drugs was actually fluid extracted from the muscles of a 1000 year old demon), and the inevitably go berserk from the effects, before either lapsing into a coma or suffering cardiac arrest.
- In Get Backers, Ginji and Kazuki have this as a side effect of their Superpowered Evil Sides. Ginji's "Lightning Lord" aspect is quiet, cold, and utterly ruthless, while Kazuki goes absolutely berserk when he releases the seal on his "Stigma," becoming vicious and blood-thirsty. They're always sorry afterward.
- Getter Robo: In New Getter Robo, Ryouma lets himself get hopped up on Getter Energy, powering him and New Getter-1 to new heights to combat the Four Heavenly Kings. However, Ryouma loses himself and Hayato and Benkei have to try to reel him back in before his actions get them killed.
- Gundam:
- In Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ, all Newtypes are often mentally unstable in some fashion, may have forms of amnesia, or be brainwashed, though in some other cases they're just plain stubborn. This is particularly true of "Cyber-Newtypes", people who originally had no special powers but had their brains surgically altered (almost always against their will) to become Newtypes.
- Gundam SEED plays on this by giving performance-enhancing drugs and treatments to criminals who are doing it in exchange for a full pardon. Naturally, this drives them to insanity in combat... which is what was planned. As a result, they are given drugs in such doses that by the time combat is over, they are having withdrawal symptoms and are manageable again. Withdrawal will also kill them if they are deprived of the drugs for too long, thus ensuring their loyalty.
- In Gundam SEED Destiny, Blue Cosmos has been attempting to create "Artificial Coordinators" through depraved combinations of surgery, hypnosis, insane training, drugs, and other horrors. Of the dozens of children selected for the project, only a few survived, and those seen in the series are all, understandably, raving mad and almost incapable of functioning normally in life. Without routine "maintenance", their bodies break down and they die. The sad thing is that in comparison to SEED's pre-Extended (see above), they're all poster children for Mental Health Week: Stellar Louissier, for example, is a sweet if incredibly childish and still very sympathetic young woman who loves to dance, as long as you don't tell her that either she or her friends will die, in which case an alternate personality emerges that could give even the drug-enhanced pilots of the previous series some lessons in brutality.
- In Gundam Wing, the ZERO System gives the person who uses it incredible reaction times and tactical predictions bordering on prescience. The problem is, without any guidance, the System evaluates everything as a potential threat, and plugs into the user's mind all of the possible attacks that could happen. If he can't focus his mind and give the System the necessary context (which is hard to do when you're conflicted as to why you're fighting), those violent predictions start afflicting whatever he starts thinking about (like, say, his girlfriend, or that nice peaceful space colony over there), and soon enough he's a psychopath slaughtering whatever the System says is his enemy.
- In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, being infected by DG Cells has this effect. Lower-tier Gundam Fighters like Michelo Chariot, Jean-Pierre Mirabeau and Gentle Chapman (a top-tier Fighter in the past, but one who has aged badly and is addicted to painkillers in the present day) all get massive power-ups after being infected by the Cells, but they all lose their sanity to greater or lesser degrees (Michelo, a malevolent man even before the DG infection, is largely unchanged except for becoming more aggressive and less inclined to self-preservation, while Chapman, a Fallen Hero, is reduced to a barely-sentient attack dog).
- In Haruhi Suzumiya, the titular character is kept Locked Out of the Loop regarding the fact that her friends are all examples of the very weirdness she seeks to find for this very reason. Already a Jerkass Tsundere, they're afraid that if she discovers that aliens, espers, dimension/time travellers and other such entities are real, she will manage to make the intuitive leap and realise that she is a Reality Warper of such power that she is, in all practical terms, a goddess. Given how much strain she can put on the fabric of reality even while she's unaware of her power, they naturally fear that allowing someone of her attitudes and ethics full control of her abilities would effectively bump her to Eldritch Abomination status.
- In Helck, the Winged Soldiers are humans that were granted power by the Human King. However, the more they use it, the more of their ability to think logically goes away.
- Inuyasha: The title character's heritage of demonic power from his Greater Demon father is so strong that it is too much for his half-human body to handle. That's why his father created the Tessaiga, to serve as a Restraining Bolt on Inuyasha's demonic power and thus preserve his sanity (while also making up for the power suppressed with the sword's own usefulness). If the sword is taken from Inuyasha or broken, he must refrain from getting too emotionally excited, or he risks unleashing his full, uncontrollable strength. Worse, each subsequent overload renders him more insane than the last, and it becomes harder to snap him out of it. If left unchecked, Inuyasha would eventually be reduced to a mindless monster killing and destroying everything and everyone around him, permanently. Initially, the sword was effective in this role no matter how far away it was, but after it was broken the first time the sealing effect was weakened and even after it was repaired it has to be kept close at hand at all times.
- In Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force, this is happens to everyone who succumbs to Eclipse disease. Aside from Anti-Magic and insane regeneration, the Eclipse seems to have a rather detrimental effect on the victim's mind by stripping them of their morality and turning them into sociopathic assholes. In particularly bad cases, the infectees completely forget who they are, picking up Fake Memories in the process. Finally, once they start abusing their regeneration, it goes haywire and they become nothing but a lump of flesh.
- MegaMan NT Warrior (2001): Both Hub Style and Beast Out MegaMan are so powerful and troublesome to get a handle on that they cause MegaMan to go berserk. Hub Style, being based on Full Synchro, effectively puts Lan in a coma and prevents him from stopping his Navi.
- A few of the characters in the My-HiME mangaverse are given special earrings created using SEARRS technology, which allows them to summon more powerful CHILDs than any of the HiME, and they don't need an emotional anchor to use said powers. However, relying on this ability too much can drive them insane.
- Naruto:
- Sasuke seems to grow progressively more irrational the stronger he gets (as, to a lesser extent, do Itachi and Obito). Eventually, it's revealed that this is part of how their powers work: since the Uchiha clan are very devoted to love and friendship, whenever a member of the Uchiha clan loses a loved one their love turns into hated and the ensuring despair triggers the manifestation of an unique chakra in their brains that awakens their Sharingan; and events of greater emotional trauma awakens the Mangekyo Sharingan... in both cases, with all the brain damage it implies as a side effect. In short, the best way for an Uchiha to become extremely powerful is to Mind Rape themselves into oblivion, a lot.
- The Sage of Six Paths explains that this happened to his mother and Madara when they gained the power of the God-Tree. Not coincidentally, both struck upon the idea of executing an Assimilation Plot where they would effectively become gods because a servant of Kaguya had deliberately planted information to recreate said plan.
- Pokémon:
- Pokémon Adventures uses this in the Ruby/Sapphire arc. The Red and Blue Orbs can be wielded by mortals to control Groudon and Kyogre, but sufficient willpower is required to prevent loss of self. One Magma Elite tried and was driven mad; Archie and Maxie were so consumed by their lust for power that the Orbs wielded them. To prevent the same from happening to their (unknowing at the time) new hosts, Juan, Liza, and Tate used the temporal abnormalities of Mirage Island to temper Ruby and Sapphire's collective resolve. Ruby foolishly coaxed the Blue Orb from Sapphire for his own use, but he turned out to have enough strength of will to calm both titans once more.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Oakley loses it in Pokémon Heroes and tries to destroy the world once she gains control of a machine powered by Latios. Even her partner Annie is startled by the change.
- Korrina's Lucario is unable to control the power of Mega Evolution, and thus whenever it Mega Evolves it goes insane, though it trains up to gain control over itself.
- Ash's own Lucario actually averts this. Ash had gone through a similar test of his bond with Greninja, so he already had the training necessary to sync hearts with his Pokemon (which is implied to be an important factor to Mega Evolution in the anime).
- Pretty Sammy: In an episode of Magical Project S, Misao dreams about having magic powers and the "fun" she would have using them. When she actually gets said powers, she becomes the arguably insane persona of Pixy Misa (who tortures the entire main cast).
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, almost all magical girls lose it in varying degrees due to a combination of having awesome power and still not getting what they wanted, having to fight constantly and lose any semblance of a social life, having their souls sucked out and put in a gem, and then finding out that the enemies they've been fighting all this time used to be magical girls themselves. Prime examples include Sayaka, and Mami in another timeline. More to the point, witches are magical girls that have succumbed to despair and insanity.
- Itsuki's Glam Sight in Rental Magica gives him his Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass ability that makes him just the right sort of leader for his team of mages. However, the more he uses it, the more it eats away at his sanity. Thus, Honami and the others warn him not to use it as much as possible.
- In The Rising of the Shield Hero, the Curse series of the Legendary Weapons tend to provide power boosts and functions not normally available, such as Naofumi's Wrath shield giving him an actual attack. Each Curse is associated with one of the sins and activating it runs the real risk of the wielder's mind becoming overwhelmed with that sin.
- In Rosario + Vampire, being injected with a youkai's blood gives you all of their abilities for a short while. Eventually, the effect starts wearing your body down. One time too many will kill you (if you're lucky) or horribly mangle your body and, if vampire blood is involved, leave you a mindless killing machine. Fortunately, there are ways to counteract the less-than-desirable effects. Subverted with Tsukune, in the fact that he doesn't even have a mind anymore when this happens.
- s-CRY-ed shows this one off pretty well, with most (if not debatably all) of the Alter Power users being completely insane to some degree. Particular samples include Straight Cougar, most of the one-shot villains, and our main Kazuma (whose personality initially flips between Jerk with a Heart of Gold and nice-guy… only for the nice guy to completely vanish by the final battle). It's worth noting that both Cougar and Kazuma are rare heroic examples of this trope. They're clearly bonkers, but they're still the good guys.
- Sailor Moon: Possibly a coincidence, but the three most powerful Sailor Soldiers are the less unhinged:
- Sailor Venus is the most powerful of the 'normal' Sailor Soldiers, a Genki Girl on steroids and a hell of Stepford Smiler.
- Sailor Moon is one of the two candidates to the title of most powerful of the Sailor Senshi, and her personality is extremely similar to Sailor Venus, the main differences being that Venus is a born Drama Queen and Large Ham and Moon's happiness is genuine;
- Sailor Galaxia is the other candidate to the title of most powerful Sailor Senshi (and in the anime she is), and she's an Omnicidal Maniac. Galaxia is a subversion, though. She was perfectly sane and heroic as Sailor Galaxia, fighting on the side of good during the Sailor Wars. It was only after she decided to seal the spirit of Chaos in herself that she went insane.
- In Saikano, this more or less happens to Chise, who loses her sanity as the weapon of mass destruction inside her grows and apparently slowly takes over her brain, turning her into a killing machine against her will. She gets better. But then again...
- In So I'm a Spider, So What?, the Skills corresponding with the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues grant the bearer powerful abilities and Ruler authority at the cost of slowly warping their soul to reflect the sin or virtue. The only way to avoid this is by not activating the Skill or gaining Heresy Resistance, which reduces the damage to the soul.
- In Soul Eater, the characters infected with Black Blood have their strength increased tremendously when they use it, but also run the risk of losing themselves completely to madness. Oops.
- The struggle between power and madness is best depicted with Soul. After he's infected with Black Blood after being struck by Ragnarok, his inner psyche gets a new persona in the form of The Little Demon. The Demon represents the Black Blood, and he's either trying to tempt Soul to use its power (which he sometimes does, but for Maka's sake he always vows to do it on his terms, fighting the madness) or just trying to shove Soul's personality aside and take over.
- Also the result of misusing the Nakatsukasa Purpose, which also drives you mad whilst killing you slowly (it damages your soul).
- This is also the reason why witches are so dangerous in the series. Up till a certain age, they're normal. But then the "Pull of Magic" affects them and causes them to be evil and destructive. However, there are a few exceptions where this doesn't happen due to the witch having their mind on something else other than their magic. In addition, those who possess magic which has little in the way of destructive capabilities are much more resistant, if not outright immune to the Pull: Kim Diehl, for example, has healing powers and is more or less immune.
- Several characters, like Black☆Star and Death The Kid (in the manga) use madness to their advantage, but most do so from outside sources where they are at risk of permanently losing their minds. Even the Nakatsukasas trace their power back to Arachne's experiments because she was the creator of Demon Weapons.
- In fact, Madness is actually not entirely a force of chaos because it is irradiated naturally by the very existence of the "Great Old Ones", and aside from Madness of Chaos (the most common one in the series), Madnesses of Order, Power, Knowledge and Anger exist. Thus, Kid's is a unique case so far because he is an Anthropomorphic Personification of the Madness of Order, albeit a deliberately weakened and incomplete one because of being a 'Fragment of Shinigami' -who is the Great old One of Order-. Likewise, Black☆Star is able to harness the Madness of Power and save Kid thanks to the Great Old One of Power.
- To a lesser extent, Franken Stein invokes this during his fight with Medusa. He was born with an already high affinity for madness, and when he was younger bordered on The Sociopath as a result. He gained more moral compunction as he grew older, but purposely reverts a little while fighting the witch in order to unleash more of his strength and ability. At the end of the fight, due to this and the Kishin awakening, he stands there cackling madly while blood rains down on him. The rest of the series also has him struggling to control his inner Madness, particularly in the anime where he eventually snaps completely (thanks in part to Medusa's interference) and runs off to join the bad guys, before Marie brings him back using her own special ability and The Power of Love.
- In Tenjho Tenge, characters who possess supernatural powers are remarked as always being in danger of becoming insane. A classic example of this is Natsume Shin, Maya and Aya's elder brother who was overwhelmed by his powers and started killing random people. This leads to powers being referred to as "Dragons" that will devour their wielder's sanity. Because of this, there is a tremendous social stigma attached to the possession of supernatural abilities, which naturally only serves to aggravate the problem even more.
- Tokyo Ghoul:
- The Kakuja form is a rare mutation that results from cannibalism. Considered either an urban legend or a forbidden power, it has a tendency to erode the sanity of the user. Kaneki was already walking a thin line when his incomplete form developed, with him suffering complete mental breakdowns every time he uses it. The other primary Kakuja user of the series, the One-Eyed Owl, is shown to mentally regress into a giggling lunatic while using its power in sharp contrast to its normally keen mind.
- Urie from the :re sequel undergoes a surgery to remove part of the frame over his kagune in order for it to access a higher power level. When he uses his kagune after this, he becomes out of control and mad with power. He rants about his hatred of others as he viciously attacks and has a mental breakdown.
- Sensui from YuYu Hakusho would probably count, as he seems to have been at least slightly cracked before he officially went insane on the mission to the Black Black Club. (As a child, he says that he is the "warrior for justice". Wondering why demons only attacked you as opposed to other people, and knowing about the extent of your own power to destroy other living things leads to this trope.)
- Due to metatron poisoning, Radam of the Zone of the Enders OVA Idolo goes completely off the deep end after spending just a moment too long in the cockpit of the Idolo. This does not end well for anyone. The same can be said for Ridley Nohman with his Anubis, from a rather immoral rebel leader (in Dolores, I) into destruction-obsessed guy (ZOE: The 2nd Runner).
