"You Said You Would Let Them Go!" moments in Anime and Manga.
- Played with in Bloody Monday — the villainess releases the hero's sister after he does what she wants, then immediately turns around and kidnaps her again. She believes this will make him think she keeps her word.
- In Chrono Crusade, Azmaria promises to go with a demon as long as Chrono and Rosette aren't hurt. He happily takes her—then sends a blast of energy towards them in an attempt to kill them anyway. Azmaria's horrified response is "No, YOU PROMISED!"
- It is implied in Dragon Ball Z that Vegeta suffered this trope as a child from Frieza. Frieza takes Vegeta from his father when he was just a little boy in what was implied to be a deal forced upon his dad, and Frieza also threatened to kill his father should Vegeta disobey him or fail. Despite Vegeta doing everything Frieza told him, Frieza ended up reneging his end of the bargain by killing his father anyways, and then committing Genocide against the Saiyans.
- A Heroic example in Jojos Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind where Giorno states that he'll let Cioccolata live, only to lie and secretly create a stag beetle from a bullet in his head to eat his brains out. When Cioccolata tells him this, Giorno states that he'll never let a rotten piece of shit get away with what Cioccolata's done, giving him a beatdown lasting 7 pages in the manga/30 seconds in the anime.
- In Mary and The Witch's Flower, when Mary brings the Fly-By-Night flower to Endor College, she demands "Where is Peter? You said you would let him go!" They only want to capture her to "study."
- In One Piece, as the Straw Hats came to rescue Nico Robin in Enies Lobby, Smug Snake Spandam gloats that Luffy charged headfirst into the island and the 10,000-strong forces of the island and those forces have captured or killed him by now. The following lines ensue.Robin: Wait... this isn't what you promised!! My terms for cooperating with you were that you let them escape safely!!!
Spandam: What's all this fuss for? Lucci, state the precise terms of the agreement.
Lucci: "For the six members of the Straw Hat Crew, excluding Nico Robin, to leave Water Seven unharmed."
Spandam: Yes... that's right. They left Water Seven perfectly unmolested... And came here, didn't they?!- He tries to justify it this way. The Straw Hats attack Enies Lobby after being spared, so sparing them anew would be quite stupid, as would be expecting someone to do so. But the fact that he was not going to let Robin go anyway, and also his Breaking Speech about how marines have no obligations to keep promises to pirates don't help his cause much.
- Arlong promises to free Nami's village if she gives him 100 million Berries. She gets close to that amount, but Nezumi, a corrupt Navy Captain, comes to confiscate Nami's money hoard, and accidentally reveals that Arlong sent him by mentioning the specific amount. Nami confronts Arlong, who feigns ignorance and tells her to start again. It's a case of Exact Words. Arlong said he'd free her village if she brought him the money, but he never said he wouldn't prevent her from upholding HER end of the bargin...
- During the Marines' attack on Ohara, they promised to let a ship full of citizens to go free, but Akainu blew it up, justifying it by saying that if a scholar was on board, the entire operation would be pointless. Though it was shown that the other Marines on other ships were horrified with what Akainu had ordered. Notable people include Spandine(Spandam's father), former Vice Admiral Jaguar D. Saul, and soon the soon to be Admiral Aokiji, the latter are the only reason Robin gets out of Ohara alive.
- In PandoraHearts, Vincent promises to give Break the antidote to the poison killing Sharon (who was poisoned by Vincent) if Break destroys Alice's memories (it sounds more complicated than it is). When Break destroys the memories, Vincent drops the antidote off the balcony.
- In an episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, Pikachu offers to surrender to Team Rocket if they let a Buneary that had taken a liking to him go.note They decided to take both Buneary and Pikachu anyway.
- In The Rising of the Shield Hero a group of Tact's followers, including Malty, are told that if they denounce him during his execution they will be allowed to live. They do so freely only to be executed after him. When Malty protests they were promised freedom, Naofumi mocks her for believing such an obvious lie.
- In an early anime movie adaptation of the Samurai Shodown franchise, Earthquake has his men attack a village, after being told where the village was by a villager who acted as a spy for him in exchange for his own house being spared. However, Earthquake's men burn all the houses, including the house that belongs to the spy. The villager shouts at Earthquake, "You said you wouldn't burn my house!" Earthquake casually responds, "Oh, that shack was yours? I didn't know."
