< Heroic BSOD

Heroic BSOD/Anime and Manga

Sometimes the pilots crash even harder than the mechas.

  • Oga from Beelzebub experiences a huge one after Hilda lets herself get captured by the Jabberwock and his Dragon to save Oga and Baby Beel. Considering this was primarily a comedy driven manga until almost this very chapter, the readers faces mirror Oga's quite well.
  • In Soul Eater, Maka goes into a brief one (during the remedial lesson in the graveyard that introduces Sid the Zombie and Dr. Franken Stein after finding out from Shinigami-sama that 1) she's been collecting a grand total of zero souls and 2) she will be expelled if she fails to pass the remedial lesson. It takes a full four panels (and for Sid to pop out of the ground, hoisting her into the air and holding her by her ankle) to snap her out of it.
    • Played for laughs when Death the Kid is taking his exam, crying about not being able to write his name neatly enough...and then rips the paper. Fainting and blood ensue.
    • Played more seriously when Maka enters the Envy Chapter in the Book of Eibon, and is reduced to tears upon aknowledging sides of herself that she hates.
  • Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki fame does this when she realizes that, due to the rules of the Future Diary game, she will eventually have to kill Yukiteru, the boy she's been working together with and is hopelessly in love with.
  • In Robotech: New Generation, Scott Bernard spends an entire episode in this state after the heroes go to join a force of over 6000 soldiers (and giant robots) only to find the entire army completely wiped out. He only snaps out of it to save a helpless amnesiac girl (who he then names after his dead fiancé. Yeah...).
    • Considering she's a cloned human/invid hybrid created from the remains of his dead fiancé and dropped in his path explicitly so he'd stop and find her this actually makes sense in a creepy kind of way. She does however get her own name later, Ariel, before gaining phenomenal cosmic powers as she isn't just a cloned human/invid hybrid she's the daughter of the Invid Regis and an Invid Princess.
      • That excuse is averted in the original Genesis Climber Mospeada because Ariel/Aisha neither is named after his dead fiancee nor is a clone of her. This trope is still played straight, though, since Stig/Stick does remain in a shocked state after finding those soldiers completely annihilated and waking only to save her.
  • Takatsuki from Wandering Son seizes up and curls up on the ground when her gym teacher yells at her to wear a bra. Her class thinks it's funny, but being a transsexual, she takes it badly. She gets over it, and does some shopping.
    • Nitori had one of these after he crossdressed to school and got hit with a Double Standard compared to the girls, making him a laughing stock. He got over it eventually. Chiba had these constantly in middle school.
  • Kiba, the protagonist from Wolf's Rain has one, once his humanoid flower/girlfriend and reason for living, Cheza, disintegrates into millions of seeds in his hands after fighting an epic battle with the Big Bad for her safety. This one is a little more intense, as he never gets over it, and dies shortly after. He's also the last thing on earth to die.
  • Peacemaker Kurogane: Quite a lot of characters have several, with Tetsunosuke being the most frequent victim. Also, Suzu after he finds his master Yoshida dead.
  • School Days: Sekai has one after Makoto kisses Kotonoha in front of her, and Kotonoha very likely has a permanent one after she is raped by Makoto's friend Taisuke and then dumped by Makoto.
    • Kotonoha did recover when Makoto hugged her and apologized. Only to 'permanently go Yandere once she finds him dead.
    • Nanami has a brief one when everyone sees the tape featuring her and her boyfriend having sex.
  • Kaede in SHUFFLE! has one after her mother dies and another after Rin starts dating Asa.
  • Usagi in Tail of the Moon after the destruction of her home and the presumed death of her husband.
  • Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach has a brief one after his friends are almost killed by Yammy and he was unable to save them because of his inner psycho. After visiting Orihime in the hospital, Ichigo basically shuts down internally because of his failure. Then Rukia kicks him in the head and forces him to handle his problems rather than freaking out about them.
    • Also when Ichigo transforms back into himself after stabbing Ishida and Ulquiorra pulls the sword out, he majorly freezes up, unable to grasp how he could have done such a thing.
    • Orihime barely manages to get out of an epic one that hit her in full force after she and Ishida witness Ichigo, the first person she has loved since her brother died, being nearly killed by Ulquiorra...only to witness Ichigo turn into that.
    • After accidentally impaling his childhood friend/the one person he has sworn to protect with all his being, Hitsugaya briefly goes into one. He then attacks Aizen in a blind fury and gets cut down for his trouble.
    • In the fourth movie, Ichigo suffers another massive BSOD after Kokuto kills not only several of his friends, but also his little sister Yuzu. And then taunts him with the girl's lifeless body.
    • The X-Cution arc brings one so bad for Ichigo that he almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon after Tsukishima brainwashes his friends and sisters and drives them against him, and then Ginjo reveals that he and Tsukishima are the Big Bad Duumvirate. This reduces poor Ichigo to a complete mess, and it takes a MASSSIVE intervention from the shinigami to get him fixed.
  • In Ichigo 100%, Satsuki has one when she witnesses what she thinks is Junpei out on a date at a movie theatre when he is really showing the new girl the awesomeness that he sees in movies.
  • Yomiko Readman suffers a Heroic BSOD late in the Read or Die manga when she relives the events that led to her lover Donnie's death, and learns that she was the one who was forced to kill him. It gets so bad that she doesn't even want to read books anymore for a good few chapters.
    • In ROD: The TV, all of the Paper Sisters, especially Maggie and Anita more so, suffer from collective Heroic BSODs when Joker reveals that them becoming sisters, their powers, and all of their memories from before their joining were all planned.
  • Chrono suffers from this several times in Chrono Crusade, although the worst is probably after the disastrous battle at the carnival mid-way through the series. In the manga he goes so far as to go into an Angst Coma over it.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, when the title character is confronted by the true form of Graf Herrman, he goes into an Unstoppable Rage that nearly gets him killed.
    • He later has a more traditional BSOD when Jack Rakan reveals how weak Negi is compared to his enemies.
    • And has a more comedic one when a series of stressful events is followed by Nodoka confessing her love for him.
    • Yue has a dramatic one when she finally accepts that she does, in fact, love Negi; believing that she's betrayed her best friend (the aforementioned Nodoka) by developing feelings for Negi herself when she's supposed to be supporting Nodoka's relationship with him. Nodoka, of course, doesn't look at it that way and has to slap Yue out of it. The breakdown is even more pronounced due to Yue mostly being an Emotionless Girl up to that point.
      • She later subverts it, as it looks like she will go into another when her classmate from the magic academy Emily is erased from existence in her arms, but once her other friends Colette and Beatrice are under attack she reacts and joins them in the fight.
      • Negi has an epic one in the Gecko Ending of the anime, after Asuna dies. He manages to hold it back for a short while, but then he finds one of the bells she used to wear in her hair and completely breaks down. He does eventually find a way to save her.
    • In the manga, Asuna has a massive one after Fate undoes her Laser-Guided Amnesia, becoming essentially catatonic for a week before recovering. And even then, we still don't know how 'recovered' she is. It's not as much as she acts towards Anya.
      • Although subverted in that all except for the last few minutes of that was not shown on screen.
    • Negi has yet another one of these when he starts realizing just how many of his students like him that way. Notably, while he BSOD'd at being informed that there were two more besides the one he knew about, there were several haremettes that the person cluing him in had left out.
    • And his most profound one was when the reveal exactly why and who was behind his home town getting Petrified so enraged Nodoka's Mind Reading book turns black with thoughts of "Kill them" and "Do Not Forgive" which requires an Epic Bright Slap from Chisame to slap him out of it.
  • Being as Narutaru is an unapologetically brutal Deconstruction of the Mon genre, lead character Shiina Tamai is rather prone to this trope. The first time it happens is after a painful Shoot the Dog scenario, in which her crazed friend Hiroko is killed by Shiina's mon Hoshimaru right in front of her. Several volumes later, she learns at the worst possible time that Hoshimaru isn't actually hers, but instead belongs to her ally Takeo. Finally, witnessing the Heroic Sacrifice of her beloved father Shunji leaves her in such a terrible state that her friend Akira - a Shrinking Violet - has to slap her out of it.
  • From the same author, there's Bokurano's Deconstruction of the Humongous Mecha genre, and as such it also features more than one of these.
    • When Masaru "Kodama" Kodaka realises that he accidentally killed his father in his battle, he blanks out and starts with a Madness Mantra: "There's no way my dad could've died... there's no way my dad could've died..."
    • Aiko "Anko" Tokosumi has another in the anime when the kids find out that Youko Machi is The Mole, screaming and slapping her around repeatedly, and then letting out a Big No as Koyemshi punishes her by making her the next Pilot. Made worse by her dad being involved in a scandal when caught cheating on her mom; Mrs. Tokosumi has another one, going Lady Drunk at the whole situation. However, Anko reocovers in the nick of time and goes all Plucky Girl, winning her battle and then dying in peace.
    • Jun Ushiro has another in the manga, during his battle. He almost cracks because of the pressure on him and his situation as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and throws up over his clothes. After putting on a Custom Uniform, though, he gets somewhat better and finishes his match, passing away afterwards.
  • This happens with Ayato in RahXephon during episode 19 after realizing that the Dolem he destroyed was directly connected to his friend, Hiroko Asahina, killing her in the process. What's especially brutal is that he realizes this after reading her confession of love and a goodbye written in city lights.
  • The titular character in Ranma ½ all but shuts down when he believes Akane has died. He snaps back to form when he finds out she hasn't, not yet, but is in desperate danger anyway.
  • Half the HiME throughout My-HiME suffer this as their loved ones are eliminated one by one in the "HiMElander" arc (almost the only reason the other half didn't go into Heroic BSOD is because they died. The only ones not BSOD'ing are Yukino and Nao, and even then they don't look good: Yukino is even more of a Shrinking Violet and Nao gets beaten up by the thugs she robbed and humiliated as revenge for her childhood trauma ).
    • Mai Tokiha herself gets quite a few of these, even in situations that aren't really that dramatic, but in which a real person would probably react this way. For example, in the first episode, after becoming an unexpected witness of the fight between Natsuki and Mikoto that wrecks her ship to Fuuka, Mai is so shocked that she wanders aimlessly through the garage, nearly catatonic, until Yuuichi rescues her.
    • Natsuki suffers a mental breakdown, unable to summon her CHILD for a few episodes after she learned that the story about her mother escaping from the First District lab to save her was a lie, and that Saeko was actually going to hand her over to Searrs to continue her research. Another few traumatic episodes later, it takes a pep talk with Mai to snap her out of her funk.
  • Mai-Otome—after the events of the Mood Whiplash Wham! Episode near the midpoint of the series, Arika is virtually catatonic.
    • Shizuru has one in the picture drama "Shizuru Viola Memoirs", when Natsuki rather forcefully rejects her offer to make her one of her room attendants because she thinks of Natsuki as just another Fan Girl. It takes Haruka coming up with a plan to make having Natsuki as a room attendant the stakes of the welcoming duel between them, as well as Natsuki retracting her decision and accepting after talking wtih Mai, to get Shizuru back to normal.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka after being mind raped, and Shinji during most of End of Evangelion after being forced to Shoot the Dog. He spends the entire first half of the story barely able to walk and completely unable to speak, and occasionally curls up into a ball when he hears about more imminent danger. Misato evokes Distracted by the Sexy to get him conscious again: she gives him a "grown-up kiss" and promises "the rest" if he manages to survive. He snaps out of his BSOD and goes to find Unit 01. Of course, as soon as he can't see Misato anymore, she collapses and dies.
    • Shinji sometimes displays another, much more unnerving version of this trope in a form of a berserk rage when he gets pushed past what his rational mind can handle.
    • Let's not forget Misato, who suffered one as a child after her father sacrificed his life to save her.
  • A far less serious version of this is Dororo from Keroro Gunsou, whose "Trauma Switch" (triggered by feeling ignored, or by a reminder of how Keroro took advantage of him in their childhood) would frequently cause him to sulk in the Corner of Woe, on the verge of tears. In one episode this became a plot point, where the Trauma Switch got "stuck", and Keroro, Tamama, and Giroro had to enter Dororo's mind to fix things. Ironically, Keroro can sometimes go through something similar when all the pent-up remorse from being responsible for Dororo's childhood trauma kicks in.
    • In an earlier episode, the Garuru Platoon's invasion is pinned on Keroro at first, and even his best friend Fuyuki doesn't believe in his innocence. Keroro is reduced to an emotional wreck as a result. Cue Giroro's intervention (though it only made Keroro feel worse).
    • New character Pururu gets something like this as well, shutting down as she quietly babbles to herself, whenever anyone calls her Oba-san. The fact that she's Keroro's childhood sweetheart, and he's possibly a few hundred years old, makes her the oldest female in the show...
  • A similar situation happens in Serial Experiments Lain halfway through the series. Lain Iwakura's older sister Mika is shocked beyond description after witnessing all the weirdness caused by Lain. During the rest of the series, she spends most of her time staring into blank space, pretending she's calling someone by phone and murmuring "Bee bee bee... ga ga", imitating the phone sound. If you look closely, this can be explained by Mika's mind slipping into the Wired and getting lost forever.
    • Or even better with that she's an imperfect copy that slowly deteriorates after the original was deleted from reality - the episode ends with Mika coming face to face with herself, and then only the other Mika remains. Lain walks past and briefly sees the original Mika's fading ghost with horrified expression on her face.
    • A much shorter BSOD also happens to Alice after Lain wipes Alice's humiliation from the memories of everyone they know and then talks to and gruesomely kills the self-declared god Masama Eiri. Lain had to hold the poor girl up or she would've fallen, and hitting the floor probably wouldn't have changed her heartbreakingly blank expression. What a friend, though--Lain proceeded to rip reality a new one to fix Alice and give her a normal life.
  • More than once in Soukou no Strain.
  • Yusuke Urameshi during the fight Dark Tournament finals in Yu Yu Hakusho, where Toguro pretends to kill Kuwabara in order to bring Yusuke's Power Level to his own level becoming a Worthy Opponent Interesting though at this time, his Battle Aura becomes the polar opposite of Toguro's own Battle Aura which killed well over a quarter of the stadium's spectators.
    • After Toguro kills Genkai, Yusuke falls into a huge funk for the following episode. Part of the reason is he blames himself for her death, as just prior to this she had transferred her power to him. Yusuke felt that she hadn't done so, then maybe she could have survived against Toguro. Koenma is able to later to get his fighting spirit back with a pep talk.
  • Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh! was plunged into a near-catatonic state after losing a duel to Seto Kaiba on the ramparts of Pegasus' castle. Kaiba played a desperate and cruel Batman Gambit in order to win: he stood on the edge of the castle wall and threatened to jump to his death if Yugi attacked his Blue Eyes White Dragon. Yugi's Heroic BSOD was brought on when he had to stop the Pharaoh from killing Kaiba, which for the first time fully alerted him to the presence of his Knight Templar of an "other self" and made him realize just how dangerous it could be. Anzu half-pulled him out of it after duelling with Mai, but it wasn't until his duel with Mai that Yugi fully recovered.
    • Kaiba, of course, takes awhile to recover mentally whenever he loses a duel: "I lost a card game! I no longer have a reason to live!" One of these duels, however, makes it worse: not only he was fighting to rescue his kidnapped brother Mokuba, practically turned into a zombie after his soul is stolen by Pegasus, but he gets his own soul stolen as well when he loses badly against his rival. He also almost had one when he arrived to ancient Egypt and witnessed the tragedy that surrounded the creation of his Blue Eyes White Dragon.
    • Atem/The Pharaoh has his turn in the Doma arc when he gives in to his inner darkness, plays the Seal of Orichalcos, and loses Yugi's soul.
  • Judai Yuki in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX goes into this state after realizing all the suffering Yubel caused his friends -- including forcing a Heroic Sacrifice out of his new Ho Yay partner Johan/Jesse -- was because of its twisted devotion to him and ire at being launched into space. Not only is Judai stuck in a catatonic state of guilt soon afterwards, but becomes obsessed with finding Johan alone. Judai's subsequent discovery of his Super-Powered Evil Side—the Supreme King—while in this state leaves him in an even deeper BSOD state after his rescue. But unlike Yugi, who recovered within the same arc, Judai never fully recovers until literally the very last episode. Otherwise throughout the fourth season, he's still pissy and emo, even after reconciling with Yubel. Apparently, he's been dueling so long for the fate of the world and/or his friends, that the game isn't fun for him, anymore.
  • Yusei Fudo gets his turn in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's after his almost-lethal duel with Kalin, his former best friend/BigBrotherMentor who has come Back from the Dead as a Dark Signer out to kill Yusei in revenge for supposedly betraying him and causing his arrest and death. The Power of Friendship, Aki as a A Friend in Need, some lecturing from his Apron Matron Martha, and a Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! beatdown from Jack combine to snap him out of it.
    • Jack had his own period of depression and guilt brought on by losing his title to Yusei and realizing the full impact of everything he'd done, all the lies he'd lived by and betraying his friends to get to the top. Carly helps to snap him out of it, and he later pleads Love Redeems in response to the Big Bad's Hannibal Lecture during the Final Battle.
  • When the true identity of Deep Blue is revealed, poor Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew is shocked into a loss of common sense, attacking her teammates and then refusing to fight, until Minto slaps her back to sanity. We wouldn't blame her; after all, it was her boyfriend and ex Mysterious Protector, Masaya.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, after Enishi defeats Kenshin, he fakes Kaoru's death very realistically , causing Kenshin to go into shock and spend a good few weeks catatonic in Rakuninmura (a village for people who no longer have anything to live for), with his sword chained shut. It takes Yakiho almost being killed to return.
    • And it happens to Enishi as well when Kenshin finally defeats him. He eventually regains enough strength of mind to escape from captivity but as Kenshin notes in his current state he's simply incapable of hurting anyone.
    • Also in Rurouni Kenshin, Kaoru has one of these after Kenshin leaves for Kyoto.
    • Same happens to Misao, when Okina asks Kenshin to kill Aoshi for his own good. She recovers when Kenshin says he won't do it.
  • In Revolutionary Girl Utena, Touga defeats Utena, causing Rose Bride Anthy to be engaged to him. Utena ends up wearing a girl's uniform and behaving like a Proper Lady afterwards, until she's called out by Wakaba and recovers her strength. Wakaba ends up being the one to snap Utena out of it and seek a rematch with Touga.
  • Trigun: Vash the Stampede is induced (forced by Legato through mind control) to fire the super-weapon built into his arm, causing a catastrophic explosion that incinerates an entire city and burns a massive crater into one of the planet's moons. The next episode has him disappear, where other characters discover he has assumed a new identity as a simple farmer.
    • Vash suffers a second Heroic BSOD when, for the first time in his life, Vash was forced to shatter his long-held pacifism and kill someone (Legato) to save the life of his friends Milly and Meryl. He spends the entirety of the next episode in an emotional, nearly catatonic breakdown.
      • In the manga, not only does Vash have these two breakdowns, but it's also revealed that he had another during his childhood that wound up later shaping his current day ideals. When Vash and Knives discovered they had a sister named Tesla, the two seek her out in hopes of having another person who understands them. However, they discover that due to the fact that she was the first sentient Plant discovered, the humans experimented on her and eventually dissected her, and the two only discover her horribly mutilated remains. While this leads Knives to having his anti-human Villainous Breakdown, Vash on the other hand falls into a state of shock, horrified at humanity's cruelty, and comes out of it only to try and kill himself with a scalpel. Rem, who has also been looking after the two in part because of her horror at what happened to Tesla, winds up preventing him from doing so and gets cut herself, and in doing so is able to snap Vash enough back to his senses. After this she winds up truly parting to Vash why cherishing life is so important.
  • This occurs in Grave of the Fireflies to the main character Seita before he dies, though it is no wonder due to him losing his entire family and everything that he ever cared for in a horrifically tragic manner.
  • Elfen Lied: Kouta, the male lead, suffers amnesia and spends an entire year in an Angst Coma after watching his little sister Kanae and his father get slaughtered right in front of him by Lucy. Lucy herself suffers some pretty bad ones, like...her entire childhood life.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, Alex Louis Armstrong, known best for being the Plucky Comic Relief, has a complete nervous breakdown during the Ishval massacre, clutching a dead Ishvallan child while crying, and is forced to go home.
    • Barry suggests to Al (just for shits and giggles) that he may actually just be a construct built by Ed. Poor Al got the Cloning Blues until Winry went to town on him with her wrench, complete with angry tears.
    • Ed occasionally gets this too. After the failed attempt to bring back their mother, Hawkeye even notes that he looks lost. Of course, in this series, characters get the BSOD so often, they must be running on Windows Millennium Edition.
    • Hawkeye gets one of her own, after Lust told her that she just killed Mustang, which was a lie, of course, but neither of them knew that until Mustang made his dramatic reappearance.
    • Greed gets an anti-heroic variation after he unknowingly kills the last of his former henchmen, which, along with Ling's accusations on killing a friend, trigger his old memories to come back, ultimately also resulting in a Heel Face Turn.
    • Al goes into one when Ed and Ling are eaten by Gluttony. They all get better.
    • Mustang gets a short-lived one when Bradley plays the Love Is a Weakness card and transfers Hawkeye to his own immediate command. She's essentially a hostage for Mustang's good behavior - Bradley practically says as much, noting that "I know exactly who to use as your weak point."
    • This is spoofed in the 2003 anime version when Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, after getting soundly rejected by an attractive woman, falls into a catatonic state for the rest of the episode with a simple, yet comedic, whistle-like sound playing every time the camera focuses on his blank face.
      • There is a real one in the 2003 series for Roy Mustang, caused by his participation in the Ishval massacre (specifically his orders to kill Winry's parents) as shown in a flashback. It was so bad that he was a few seconds away from eating the barrel of his own gun right then and there, and had to be snapped out of it by Dr. Marcoh.
  • Happens to Kazuma in S-Cry-ed after the death of Kunihiko Kimishima. Rather than making precision strikes against his enemies (often for money) he madly swings his fist at anything with a HOLY logo on it until Ryuhou comes out to stop him. By this point, however, Kazuma had beaten up Scheris and Ryuho's search for him had resulted in Kanami witnessing her and Kazuma's house getting ripped apart, so both of them were pretty pissed, and the restultant fight shakes up the entire Lost Ground. Then they both went into amnesia and BSODs. Kazuma had to be kickstarted with help from Asuka and later Cougar while Ryuho's blackout results in a Heel Realization as he forgets his grudges just long enough to relearn a softer sense of justice.
  • Chief Ikari from Paranoia Agent, after being fired for his and Maniwa's mishandling of the Shonen Bat case, effectively has one of these, retreating into a Lotus Eater Machine based on how he would ideally like the world to be. Maniwa himself went somewhat batty, but this being a Satoshi Kon work, he was actually closer to the truth as a result. He doesn't snap out of it until the death of his wife, as her soul is able to visit him in there just long enough to make him come to his senses.
  • A significant portion of the main cast of Blood Plus experience Heroic BSODs following Diva's mid-series crossing of the Moral Event Horizon ( raping and killing poor Riku), especially Saya (who attempts to cut herself off from the rest of the cast and become an emotionless killing machine) and David (who spends a timeskip and several subsequent episodes depressed and pretty much constantly drunk).
    • Haji had one himself after the events of Vietnam, though it was mostly offscreen. Prequel manga "City of Nightwalkers" reveals that he spent the next several decades slowly starving himself to death, refusing to drink blood out of a combination of fear of losing control of himself and self-imposed penance for having been even momentarily afraid of Saya.
  • Gundam SEED: After the climactic battle between Kira and Athrun where Kira's friend Tolle is killed and he realises he caused the same pain to Athrun by killing Nicol, Kira alternates between unconsciousness and hysterical sobbing until he gets a pep talk from Lacus and thinks things over.
    • Actually, poor Kira goes through PLENTY of these throughout Gundam SEED. The first is after Yzak vaporizes a shuttle that intercepted their battle. Kira's so far out of it that the Archangel must change course to save him from burning up and it allows his Yandere girlfriend Flay to manipulate him.
      • Another one is after Flay is launched out in a lifepod during the Battle of Mendal. Kira tries to save her, only to get blasted away and Flay taken by the Dominion crew. When he comes to, he spazzes out when he hallucinates Flay instead of seeing Lacus. The boy has problems.
    • In the sequel Athrun goes through a slow forming one after he realizes that his plan to help Orb by rejoining Zaft to fight that EA just went up in smoke after Orb joined the EA instead and Kira and Lacus went rogue. His skills in combat continue to get poorer and poorer as he find himself fighting against Orb and eventually Kira as well and comes to head when Kira outright tells him that by staying with Zaft Athrun is only causing Orb and his friends pain and isn't helping them at all. After this Athrun freezes up entirely and basically lets Kira defeat him, causing him to mope around for about 10 eps before finally snapping back.
      • Shinn Asuka also gets one near the end of the series (although in his case it plays out more like the traditional Villainous Breakdown) for... well, no discernable reason. By the end of the Final Battle he is literally hallucinating and this close to landing a lethal blow on his own ally/girlfriend before Athrun forcibly stops him.
  • A slow build over the course of five specific episodes leads to the main character of Ojamajo Doremi, Doremi Harukaze, going into this in the series finale. Her best friends for the past four years are either moving or going to a different school, so Doremi locks herself in the Maho-dou on the day of her elementary school graduation. It takes Hana-chan threatening to reveal her identity as a witch to force her out.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's Simon goes into a big one of these after Kamina dies. However, when Simon reboots, he reboots...complete with several levels in badass.
  • In Gundam 00, Tieria Erde suffers a (literal?) Heroic BSOD after his partner and close friend Lockon Stratos is killed. And before that, he had one when VEDA was hijacked and crashed, making him completely lose their connection.
    • In the second season, poor Louise Halevy has several of those in different degrees, as a side effect of her medical treatment.
    • Not to mention Saji Crossroad, who had his BSOD moment when he realises he's responsible for the death of all the Katharon members.
    • In S2 ep 20 Lyle Dylandy has his own BSOD after his girlfriend Anew Returner is killed right in front of him by no other than Setsuna.
  • Kamille Bidan suffers a massive one at the end of Zeta Gundam, after being on the receiving end of a Mind Rape by Scirocco. He starts babbling like a child and then shortly falls into near-catatonia. It takes him most of Gundam ZZ to recover from this.
  • Banagher Links has one in episode 4 after killing Gilboa Sant, a Neo-Zeon pilot who sheltered him, and crashing the Garencieres into the desert by grabbing it during re-entry. He gets over it by having a good cry shortly afterwards, only for him to have another one after he fails to talk Loni down from her rampage at Torrington.
  • Freesia in the second season of Jubei-chan engages in psychological warfare on Jiyu; By revealing herself as not her best friend, stabbing her, throwing her off a cliff, and then turning her beloved father against her. This causes Jiyu to reject Ayunosuke and go catatonic, which results in Ayunosuke to turn into a tree. It takes some serious Power of Love to get everyone back.
  • In X 1999, Kamui does this after a REALLY rough day in which his childhood best friend turns murderously insane, impales Kamui on assorted objects, molests him, and forces him to watch as he kills his other childhood best friend, who happens to be his own little sister. Team mystic Subaru Sumeragi, who once went through an Heroic BSOD himself after his boyfriend revealed himself to be an evil murderer who never cared for him and then killed Subaru's beloved older sister, is called upon to go psychic-spelunking through Kamui's head to find his reboot button.
  • For being such a Magnificent Bastard otherwise, Lelouch Lamperouge of Code Geass goes into one of these nearly every other episode.
    • Considering the consequences some of his Idiot Ball moments have had, some Heroic BSOD is rather called for. Not to mention the fact that the show's universe is pretty much designed to screw him.
    • Fellow castmate Suzaku suffers one when the Geass command on him causes him to "nuke" Tokyo, killing millions. His response is to stand in the crater for hours, then finally break down in crazy laughter. He gets better... sort-of.
    • In the same episode, Lelouch has one upon believing Nunnally died with the explosion. Nina Einstein too, as she is the responsable for building said nuke. Which, ironically, is what brings her back to sanity and lets her have a Heel Face Turn.
  • Chiko in The Daughter of Twenty Faces predictably suffers this after Twenty-Faces himself is seemingly killed. Given that she's The Littlest Ninja and still intends to take hold of her destiny as per the advice Twenty-Faces gave her, however, she doesn't take all that long to reboot.
  • In Princess Tutu Fakir suffers a brief one after Ahiru digs up the suppressed memories of his parents' violent deaths--that were the fault of his powers.
  • In Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, Rei suffers this when his beloved aircraft is destroyed. Somewhat justified that he is a loner, and somewhat a freak at that. Freak as in, he prefers the company of his aircraft (and the titular AI inside it) rather than anyone else, even his unusually very close commanding major. Thing is, the AI uploaded itself into a new aircraft before the old one got blasted, and it seems that the new AI, in the new aircraft, destroyed the old one in what seems as a Mercy Kill. As a result, Rei doesn't trust the new aircraft, even if it contains his old AI. Better not think about this too much...
    • The titular AI itself goes through a Heroic BSOD as it feels that Rei doesn't trust it, and needs its reassurance before it can work properly in its new mainframe.
  • In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Rika Furude, revealed as the true protagonist behind the scenes of the entire series, goes through temporary BSOD every time she inevitably dies in each arc at which point Hanyū Furude, an ancestral victim turned shrine god, resets her. It takes a while, the aid of Hanyu and events that create deja vu, to spark Rika's memory each time, since she lives her live over each and every time until her memories slowly flood back to her. Hanyu herself has gone through an epic BSOD in which she has lost all hope for changing Rika's fate and just goes through the motions of resurrecting her each time. It takes Rika's changes in attitude (which happens as a result of K1's loyalty and hope) to change Hanyu's attitude.
    • Rika gets a more tangible and obvious Heroic BSOD moment during Minagoroshi-hen. When Satoko's Evil Uncle Teppei returns to Hinamizawa (a sign Rika usually takes as making a lost cause of a particular world), she's inspired to reach out for help, which she at first gets from Irie and Takano. However, when she's told that nothing can be done because the Uncle is already being tracked by the authorities, which forgoes any interference by the "Institute", she breaks down and curses at each one to die (in ways she knows they die by in past worlds), and then proceeds to drink herself into a stupor serious even by her standards.
    • Satoko also suffers through a brief state of BSOD at the end of Yakusamashi-hen, in which she witnesses Rika's horrific murder and later the annihilation of her entire village. She gets better, only to be murdered herself shortly after.
  • In Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Battler goes through such a bad episode of Heroic BSOD upon the revelation that his Missing Mom Asumu is not, in fact, his real mother that he doesn't just stop functioning temporarily - he erases his (meta) physical presence. Don't worry he gets better.
    • Followed by Beatrice's similar, epic BSOD in EP 5. Do worry, she doesn't get better.
      • In EP 6, she actually does get better.
    • Episode 7 has his half-sister Ange suffer a just as epic one, after learning that her beloved mother Kyrie didn't give a shit about her, and that her much-hated aunt Eva preferred to let the girl hate her forever rather than have her find out such a terrible truth.
  • Grovyle in Pokémon has a Heroic BSOD when he finds out his love interest, a cute and motherly female Meganium, is already in a relationship with his rival. It only worsens when he evolves into a Sceptile, yet loses his ability to attack. It takes Ash almost getting killed two episodes later to rescue Pikachu and Sceptile from Team Rocket to make him get better.
  • Subaru in the Ryuusei no Rockman anime has one when the villain of the week informs him that his alien partner whom he fuses with to become Rockman killed his father. The shock of the revelation is enough that his body literally forces itself away from said partner and he reverts to normal. Four hundred feet above the ground. Whoops.
  • Fate of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha got one in the first season after she discovers what she is, followed by a tirade from her mother, Precia, that ends with her stating how much she has despised Fate ever since she was born. The mind of poor, Love Martyr Fate simply couldn't take it and temporarily shut down in despair.
    • She almost had another in Striker's S when Jail Scaglietti subjects her to a cruel Hannibal Lecture about how she is raising Caro and Erio, which in Jail's opinion makes her just as evil as Precia, as he claims that she influenced them to love her unconditionally and do anything she wants because she is afraid of being abandoned. She's luckier this time, though, since Erio and Caro go all "Shut UP, Hannibal" on Jail and reassure Fate that they love her and chose their own paths, which gives her enough Heroic Resolve to defeat Jail.
    • Also in Striker's S, Nanoha has a brief one when Vivio is kidnapped. At first she continues to carry out her duties through sheer willpower, but when she finishes and no longer has anything to distract her, she breaks down crying in Fate's arms. Of course, being Nanoha, she doesn't let her emotions keep her down, and channels them into rescuing Vivio and kicking the crap out of her enemies.
  • Sousuke spends a significant portion of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid in the throes of a Heroic BSOD after he's ordered to cease serving as Kaname's bodyguard and cut off all contact with her. Eventually it gets bad enough that he simply walks away in the middle of a mission and wanders aimlessly around Hong Kong, getting a bottle of scotch and picking up (or allowing himself to be picked up by) a prostitute who looks like Kaname. And then It Gets Worse...
  • Tsukasa suffers one in .hack//sign after Morganna tortures him. In fact, this was Morganna's plan: to build Tsukasa up and make him feel safe so that when it was "BSOD time" it would be more traumatic.
    • To be honest, it's kinda hard not to when you've been Data Drained.
    • In .hack//ROOTS, Haseo has a breakdown, then goes on a rage-driven warpath, throughout the last third of the series after Tri-Edge/Azure Kite puts Shino into a coma.
  • In Dai-Guard, Ibuki shuts down when she learns that her father died in a monster attack, not because he was trying to save the world, but because he was trying desperately to prove his pet theory. Problem is, she shuts down in the middle of a mecha-fight and almost gets her team killed, leading to a Ten-Minute Retirement.
  • Dio of Last Exile goes into one of these after the ship he's on (the Silvana) is captured by his evil sister Delphine and he believes his friend and companion Luciola has betrayed him. He only snaps out of it right before his Rite of the Covenant. And then it gets worse. He gets better, though. Sort of.
    • Tatiana also has a minor one after she freezes up during a mission with Claus and allows her vanship to crash, shaking her perception of herself as a perfectionist pilot.
  • Luffy gets three of these in One Piece, all under similar circumstances. The first is in the sixth movie when he thinks his crew is dead after witnessing them being absorbed into a life force draining plant. The second happens later in the manga when Bartholomew Kuma vanishes his crew one by one before his eyes. In both cases, he gets better after realizing that they are still alive. The third case occurs at the end of the Marineford arc when his brother Ace dies in his arms. This case is by far the worst of them all and this time Luffy was already pushed his body past his limits and doesn't have the benefit of realizing that they're alive (as he's "dead for reals").
    • The sixth movie probably pulls it off the best. The latter two he really just freaked out, no matter how heart-wrenching it may be. In the movie, he loses any will to fight, or even do anything at all, which is a far more serious reaction.
    • The second one is a particularly long-lasting one. In both Manga and Anime, the entire crew gets one of these as they simultaneously face off against an Admiral, the admiral's top subordinate (who Monster Chopper couldn't land a single hit on), and a SECOND Pacifista, after they struggled to beat the FIRST Pacifista, and were more tired than they'd been in recent memory, Then Bartholemew Kuma shows up, and utterly annihilates them. in the anime adaptation, it starts off as this at the BEGINNING of the episode, and by the end becomes one of the most heart-breaking freakouts possible when a hero of this caliber realizes he's failed completely, and never stood a chance.
      • The way he acts after waking up after Ace's death and realizing that it actually happened is even worse, with him attacking everything in sight in order to try to dispel the memories of Ace's death. It's pointed out that the emotional strain of such a tragedy, fighting so hard to save Ace, only for Ace to die saving him would easily break a normal person.

Ikanov: And to think that that same elder brother died in front of his very eyes, so that he would be saved… What God or Buddha would permit that…?! That’s something that could easily crumble one, nay, two minds!!!

      • The latest chapters tell the story of Luffy, Ace, and surrogate brother Sabo and how they came become the men they were, with Ace's promise that they would survive, and Luffy's vow to get stronger and become the Pirate King. By the end, everything that has happened has caused Luffy's dream to come crashing down on him. For a series about chasing your dreams, this is heartbreaking.
    • Is he already the King of the Heroic BSOD trope?
    • While his status as a hero is questionable, a recent manga chapter shows that, Squad seems to go into one after realizing how thoroughly the Marines had manipulated him into stabbing Whitebeard.
    • A variation, Perona's Horo Horo no Mi Devil Fruit power can cause this in a victim artificially via her Negative Hollows. A victim is drained of his morale and self-esteem, feeling worthless. It is possible to resist this power, however, as Usopp did, in which case it was turned back on Perona.
  • Takumi in Initial D goes into one after his Trueno's engine breaks down in mid-race.
  • In Cyborg 009, Francoise (003) suffers one of these when she witnesses the destruction of a whole city with her powers and is unable to stop it, and Joe (the titular 009) has to talk her out of it. Later, Joe has a full one when he lands into an Alternate Universe where the Black Ghost organization, the group he and his people have fought against during the whole series, have actually won the war and now own the world.
  • The Major from Ghost in the Shell has a BSOD at least twice over the course of the anime series. In the first, she's shellshocked after encountering a traumatic memory in Kuze's cyberbrain. Later, she adopts this expression after a rag-tag refugee takes down their super-duper V-22 with fifty dollar's worth of suicide bomb, severely injuring super-hacker Ishikawa and sending Section 9's million-dollar tiltrotor tumbling into a chasm. This is right after a team member has been killed. And all of this occurs in the time span of about one hour. Wouldn't you?
  • Gravion Zwei has three people suffering Heroic BSOD in a relatively close time together:
    • Leele after finding out that Sandman is her father (no thanks to Touga), right after finding out her real name Leele Zeravire, which means she is connected with the invading enemies, was too much in a shock she goes into a frantic walk that got her slipping off the bridge falling to the lake.
    • Then, Touga, based on those events regarding on Leele (and being called out by Eiji), made worse by Eina's Heroic Sacrifice for his sake, eventually fell into one, leaving the castle, hanging in silence in the slums and lets himself be a victim of beating by punks (and here, we speak about some sort of Tyke Bomb with fighting skills)
    • And meanwhile, Sandman, after hearing all the disasters and how his past caught up with him along with how Gravion is losing as well as his brother's coming with Zeravire, finally fell into it. He got reprimanded by Raven or to be exact his lover Ayaka and quickly got back to his composure.
  • Madlax completely lost the will to live after her love interest Vanessa was apparently killed. Nakhl and Elenore pointed out that Madlax had specifically promised Vanessa to live, though, and so Madlax was able to carry on until the series' Mind Screw of an Earn Your Happy Ending.
  • Naruto has one when his mission to find Sasuke fails after Tobi/Madara spirits him away without leaving a trail, and when he hears about Jiraiya's death. Tsunade has one when Pain destroys most of Konoha, leaving her in an Angst Coma of sorts. Naruto also gets one again when Hinata is seemingly killed before his very eyes. He then goes into six-tails mode, skipping the 5-tails mode completely!
    • Also after Naruto goes four-tails for the first time, he has a brief BSOD when Yamato tells him that it was his (Naruto's) fault Sakura was hurt.
      • In Chapter 474 Sai tells Naruto that Sakura and the rest of Konoha plans to kill Sasuke in order to prevent another war. In Naruto's mind we see an image of Team 7 being shattered as a result.
        • Seems like Naruto's recent Heroic BSOD is leading up to an Angst Coma after having all of his reasons to save Sasuke shattered right in front of him.
        • Much earlier before that, Sakura goes through a Heroic BSOD when Sai tells her that Naruto really did love her, and everything he did, all the hell he goes through was to make her happy. Until that moment, she just saw Naruto's affections for her as a childish crush.
    • The Start of Darkness for Kabuto features one when, during a battle, he wounds a woman who had been like his mother and is unable to recognize him.
  • In Death Note, L has one of these and falls off his chair when he hears about 'Shinigami'.
    • And another one after he decides that the Kira power must switch between people, so his investigating is useless. He becomes depressed and loses his will to work. It cumulates in him and Light having a punch-up that breaks vases and overturns couches, and is probably one of the most fangirled-over fight scenes in recent history.
    • Light also had one in the last episode when Near managed to outsmart him.
  • In Angel Sanctuary, Rosiel seems to have one of these when he kills Katan. He turns even more insane than he already was and breaks down completely.
    • That's more appropriately a Villainous Breakdown, given that Rosiel, while he might not be the real Big Bad of the series, is definitely not one of the heroes.
  • In the tie-in manga for the Metroid series, a 14 year old Samus Aran rushes back to her home planet of Zebes upon getting word that Space Pirates have conquered the planet, to find her Chozo surrogate family imprisoned, powerless, and fated to die. A confrontation with Ridley and Mother Brain results in them tag-teaming her with taunts, going on about the circumstances under which her family died, how the Chozo will be killed, and culminating in Mother Brain dropping the bombshell on her that she was never viewed as a person by her and possibly the Chozo, she was designed and trained to be nothing more than the ultimate biological weapon, and that as a result, Samus using her suit and everything she was trained to fight in the war was just playing into Mother Brain's schemes. Samus finally has a breakdown, alternately sobbing and looking utterly dead and emotionless as Ridley and Mother Brain continue to taunt her during her breakdown.
  • Lina Inverse of Slayers undergoes this briefly at the end of season two. In her defense, a dark lord was killing her love interest and all of her friends like they were nothing, and was about to destroy their souls as well in an attempt to get her to destroy the world by casting a particular spell. No win situation, much?
    • ...Of course, one could argue that what happened after she did cast the spell was, in fact, the ultimate Heroic BSOD, as the Lord Of Nightmares completely takes over Lina, pretty much killing her.
    • She nearly had another one a few episodes earlier, when she was attacked by the zombified citizens of Sylphiel's Doomed Hometown, reanimated as puppets by the aforementioned dark lord. In self-defense, she stabbed a little girl who was attacking her with a knife; upon realizing it, poor Lina nearly lost it and started screaming in horror ("I... I killed a child? It was a little girl! It can't be, it can't be, IT CAN'T BE!") -- until Sylphiel gave her a Cooldown Hug and reminded her that the child, and all the people attacking her, were already dead.
      • And in the original series, Sylphiel had two pretty serious BSOD's. One, when her aforementioned hometown was destroyed, and another when she wasn't sure if her powers were enough to save a critically injured Lina, who had taken a huge energy blast for her.
  • Tamaki of Ouran High School Host Club has a pretty epic one during one of Casanova... Bossa Nova... er, Kasanoda's visits to the music room, when he realizes he actually isn't Haruhi's father (and realizes the strange implications that being her father would carry). Played entirely for laughs.
  • Vegeta of Dragonball Z gets one of these in the first Broly movie. Upon realizing what they're dealing with, he goes almost catatonic with hopelessness and actually sits out most of the fight. Then Piccolo grabs him by the hair and tries to insult some sense into him - he just hangs limp, blathering about the pointlessness of it all until Piccolo gives up and tosses him to the ground. He's on his feet and fighting a few minutes later, so apparently it sank in.
    • A canon BSOD happens during the Frieza fight. When Vegeta finally realizes that even with his new powers he's still no match for Frieza, he freezes up and starts crying.
    • Arguably, the violant rampage variant of this happens when several of the characters become Super Saiyans, particularly Goku's transformation while fighting Freiza, Gohan while fighting Cell, and Trunks in the special about his past.
    • Future Trunks has a short lived one telling Perfect Cell to kill him after realizing he cannot defeat the villain as an Ultra Super Saiyan.
    • Piccolo gets a minor one in the anime version of the Buu saga, when Gotenks' reckless fight with Buu blows Kami's lookout to hell and back. He stands there holding a chunk of the floor, gaping at it and rambling until circumstances force him to... y'know, dodge.
      • Piccolo also has a brief one when he first meets Cell. When Cell manages to absorb a human through his tail, Piccolo was staring in shock and horror, and reacts with an even more horrified expression when Cell addresses him by his name, continuously remaining frozen in place as Cell powers up. He gets better, though.
    • Gohan has two simultaneous ones during his fight against Cell - first when Cell prepares to blow up the Earth, which he blames himself for, and then when Goku sacrifices himself to try to kill Cell, which Gohan also blames himself for.
  • Mai Kawasumi from Kanon has her Heroic BSOD when Sayuri is attacked by the demons that she had been fighting. Said demons are actually manifestations of her own denial of her healing powers.
  • Kotomi Ichinose from Clannad has her Heroic BSOD when she thinks that her friend Ryou was involved in the bus accident at the intersection. Justified in that she lost her parents in a plane crash, ansd the memories come back when this happen.
    • Ryou's sister Kyou has a BSOD when the epic Ship Sinking of Clannad took place. Apparently, she had promised herself that she wouldn't cry, but when Tomoya's unconscious actions tell the rest of his harem who he's picked, she, to say the least, does not take it well.
    • Then there's Tomoya himself in After Story. After Nagisa dies, he leaves town for about five years during the BSOD, ignoring his newly born daughter Ushio in the process. He gets better. And then worse. And better again.
      • He didn't actually leave the city, he just left Ushio with the Furukawas for that period in time and didn't do anything. He was that out of it.
    • Don't forget Nagisa's BSOD near the end of the first season, when she found out about her parents's past and what they gave up to raise her.
  • Kouji Kabuto from Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen experiences one of these when he realizes that by fighting in his Humongous Mecha, he has accidentally killed dozens of civilians.
    • In the original Mazinger Z series, Kouji's girlfriend and partner Sayaka Yumi has a HUGE one when her Humongous Mecha, Aphrodite A, is destroyed. It's so bad that the poor girl almost kills herself by drowning, as she believes that Aphrodite is calling her from a nearby lake.
    • She got another way earlier, in episode 7. A mob -enraged at having their hometown leveld by two battling Humongous Mecha- threw stones to her father, landing him in the hospital, and almost broke in the Institute. She was so upset and distraught she considered quitting of battling.
    • And in the original manga, Kouji has another in an early chapter after being forced to kill an Iron Mask. He remained kneeled and shaking.
    • And in Great Mazinger, Tetsuya Tsurugi has one after realizing his adoptive father pulled an Heroic Sacrifice to save his life and it would not have happened if he would not have been so jealousy from Kouji he refused helping him when he was in danger. After the inicial My God, What Have I Done? his reactions varied: in the anime he went into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and after, as he lying down on a hospital bed, he rambled about how it was all his fault; in one of the manga storylines he self-detonated Great Mazinger and himself to blow all commanders of Mykene army up.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: When a Vegan spy reveals to Duke that the Saucer Beasts he's been fighting are powered by the minds of his home planet's slain people (including his own little brother), he flips out completely. Luckily, Kouji and Dr. Umon snap him out of it sometime afterwards.
  • During the Great Eclipse in Berserk, Guts briefly experiences a Heroic BSOD. Casca, on the other hand, thoroughly experiences hers, to the point of being driven completely insane. Those who have seen the Eclipse in action know that this need not be elaborated further.
    • Let's not forget when Guts finishes his assassination on Julius, where he had to kill a kid who very much reminded him of... him.
      • He doesn't actually experience a full HBSD there. He's falling into one, and then the arrival of a pair of guards force him back to the present.
      • ... And then it returned after he got away from the guards in the sewers and stumbles his way back to tavern where the rest of the Hawks were.
    • And Griffith had one when Guts left the Hawks and defeated him, which would soon lead to worse things to come for him.
  • In the Bastard!! manga, Dark Schneider occasionally experiences Heroic BSOD's for a variety of reasons. Some of them are very minor and short (often triggered by a spat with Yoko in the beginning of the series, when Rushe still matters), but a major one (off-screen) when he finds out that Yoko apparently died, then goes to hell. He's promptly snapped out of it by Porno Dianno by virtue of her wandering all over the place pretty much naked. Talk about priority placement.
  • Comedic use in Episode 7 of Haruhi-chan when Haruhi had Kyon go Scavenger Hunting for "A barrier of the heart", and Kyon grabbed Koizumi.

Haruhi: "A barrier to the heart", why him?
Kyon: So, Koizumi. I love you.

Haruhi: Gack! (insert metaphor for her world shattering)

(scene change)

Kyon's Sister: Attention! Haruhi-chan has fainted so we're taking a break!

  • Pokémon Special: When the comments of a blind child make Ruby realize how selfish he's been all along, putting the entire world aside so he can pursue his own goals, he has one.
    • Ruby's pales compared to Crystal's. She has a rather harsh one after not only failing to catch Suicune, but also failing to confirm why it was at the Tin Tower (their confrontation site) in the first place. And unlike most BSODs, hers came with a driver crash; she lost the ability to catch even the simplest Pokemon as a result of her BSOD. It took a Bright Slap from her mother and a trip back to her old training ground before she completely finished rebooting.
    • Silver practically passes out after he finds out Giovanni is his father.
    • White is hit hard after Gigi, her star Tepig actress, willingly decides to side with N, leaving White to fall out of the Ferris Wheel alone. She is left sprawled on the ground, her eyes blank and full of tears.
  • In Fushigi Yuugi, Tamahome goes into the violent rampage variety of BSOD when he comes home to find his entire family - including his younger siblings ranging in age from five to twelve years old - have been gruesomely murdered.
    • He also suffered a more comedic one after Miaka returned to our world, slowly falling into apathy and Cloudcuckoolander behavior.

Nuriko: Tama-chan. That's a dish.

  • At the end of the second episode of Gundam X, Tiffa Addil has a memorable one (screaming and collapsing included), after Garrod fires the Satellite Cannon with her help and she senses the deaths of many people under its powers.
  • Joe himself experiences this in the Viewtiful Joe anime adaption after finding out that Captain Blue is the Big Bad. It takes Blue Jr. and people Joe met through Movie Land to get him out of it.
  • Takato of Digimon Tamers suffers a relatively short, but very intense and Shinji-like one after transforming his digital pet into a ravenous monster and watching it lose to Beelzebumon, though he was pretty much out of it from the moment Guilmon went monster and his digivice shattered.
    • Jeri has one in the same episode after her partner Digimon, Leomon, is killed. Through almost all of the episode after the event, she's staring at her Digivice and not moving, despite the fact that there's a massive fight going on around her that is causing the ground she is standing on to crack in half. She only manages to sort-of react when Takato brings Guilmion back, they merge into Gallantmon, and curb-stomp Leomon's killer Beelzemon. As they're about to kill him, she steps in between and begs them to spare him so no one else will die.
    • Earlier in the franchise (the first season) Tai has one. After having been convinced that he cannot die in the Digital World, his carelessness gets Sora captured. He is then told by Koushirou that he CAN die in the Digital World, and when confronted by a dangerous wall he had carelessly passed through earlier, he BSOD's.
      • Izzy himself suffered a huge one upon accidentally learning that he's an adoptive child. He got better of that, but lots of insecurities remain hidden for a long time, and only halfway through the series he fully can get free of them.
      • And then there's Ryo Akiyama, in the Japan-only Wonderswan games he stars in - in D-1 Tamers, the Digidestined manipulate him via a tournament to get him to train hard enough to defeat Moon-Millenniumon. When they do tell him the truth, it's a bit late to apologize - he closes himself off from everyone else, his blue screen lasting into the next game. You kinda have to wonder what the hell the Digidestined were thinking when they came up with that plan.
      • In their defense (this goes both for Tamers and Digidestined), the oldest is what? thirteen?
      • Also, the children didn't actually know at first. The sovereigns came up with the whole plan and clued them in later. If anyone, be mad at them.
  • Blade/Takaya/D-Boy in Tekkaman Blade starts suffering hallucinations and nightmares that cause him to be unable to fight after his corrupted sibling Saber/Shinya/Evil causes him to overstay his Hour of Power and suffer a Face Heel Turn. While he was brought back to normal, he almost tore apart one of his friends before he snapped out of it, and things come to a head when the military reveals its new Teknosuits and he gets arrested. He is left an utter wreck until Aki/Star slaps and shouts some sense into him.
  • In Yu Yu Hakusho, as Yusuke is getting the tar beaten out of him by Younger Toguro, Keiko, unable to bear seeing her boyfriend go through such unimaginable agony, snaps and becomes completly catatonic for one and a half episodes.
  • Tenma and Nina go through a large number of these in Monster. Nina's goes as far as to verge on suicide, but Tenma thankfully saves her.
  • In Trinity Blood, Abel spends the day/episode in one of these when Noelle dies.
    • There are also a few scenes throughout the series where Abel will come to a screeching halt, usually when he loses control of himself due to the Crusnik Nanomachines and Esther sees him during this time and has a subsequent freak out. The last of these scenes has an... undesirable outcome.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure, Setsuna goes through a depression after Chiffon/Infinity gets kidnapped, and in episode 45 she expresses her fear of becoming Eas again. One can guess she's relieved when, during the scene where the Cures reveal their identities, she becomes Cure Passion anyway.
    • Love suffers one in The Movie when she finds out her doll Usapyon is a part of the movie's Big Bad ToyMajin, making her think that she had the same resentment as the rest of the toys within him. Miki has to slap Love to get her back in the game.
  • Loveless the manga (possibly the anime too if they ever make a second season following the manga): Soubi has a complete and utter Heroic BSOD when he not only discovers that his previous Sacrifice, who had staged his own death, was well and truly alive, but was ordered by said Sacrifice to destroy the windows of the compound he is trapped in so that he can make his escape. (Keep in mind the Sacrifice is a serious bad guy and would routinely torture the sh* t out of Soubi, who was rather powerless to defend himself, given his status as the Fighter unit.) Following the escape, Soubi breaks down to the obvious horror of those who care about him, especially Ritsuka. Soubi says over and over in a quiet voice, "I don't want to," meaning he didn't want to help the Sacrifice escape, but had no choice.
  • Shingo from Bio-Meat: Nectar has not one, but three of these. First is when he's thirteen and leads a group of BM onto a room full of survivors and kills everyone but a six-year-old girl, then a minor one when he fails to keep the BM from escaping into Takachiho, which was hardly his fault anyway, and another one after he fails to keep his more than a little messed-up father from committing suicide. It's even better that he's not technically considered to be the Big Hero.
  • In Et Cetera, Mingchao has one when it's revealed that Mr. Gothic, the terror behind the whole Syndicate and the man who the group has been waiting so long to destroy, is her father and her last living relative. This is followed by a slight Freak-Out. Baskerville also gets one during a flashback when he comes home to find his Ill Girl little sister dead.
  • In Holyland, Yuu suffers one of these after Shin gets beaten up because of him. This does not end well for the bad guys.
  • Black Butler: While Ciel's intentions for the circus children back at the workhouse might not be described as "heroic" so much as "self-serving with a side of philanthropy", Ciel's reaction in chapter 36 upon realizing that the entire workhouse was empty and abandoned, and had been for what looked like years, meaning the circus children had fought—and died—in vain can be aptly described as a BSOD. A very, very frightening one.
    • Ciel has one in chapter 41, after finding Sebastian's body. Whether it was genuine or just a very dramatic act remains to be seen, though.
    • By the end of the chapter, it turns out it was a very convincing act, as Sebastian was faking his death.
  • Chapter's 304 and 305 of Hunter X Hunter have Gon entering one of these after he finds out Kaito is dead.
  • Deadman Wonderland: Ganta after Nagi's death and being in isolation after the battle with Genkaku; he can no longer taste things and has ceased to see the point of going on (he gets better.)
    • Another example would be Nagi after Genkaku caused him to remember the heroic BSOD Nagi went on earlier after his wife was killed
  • In Pretty Sammy, Misao has this after finding out that she is Dark Magical Girl Pixy Misa. She got better, really. How? Sammy telling her that even if she stays as Misa forever, she still loves her.
  • In Eureka Seven, upon realising he has been killing humans all this while without knowing and getting harsh ill treatment from his crew mates and captain, Renton decides to leave Gekkostate in episode 21 which starts a chain of soul searching journey for him til episode 26.
  • In Kitchen Princess, Najika loses her sense of taste after Sora dies after a truck hits him as he's crossing the street, holding vanilla beans he meant to give to Najika. She later loses the competition that he was bringing the ingredient to her for.
  • In Rideback, Rin undergoes a monstrous BSOD (even her friends can't help her out of it) when her friend Suzuri gets killed because the government thinks it's her, and that she's a terrorist.
  • Ah! My Goddess plays this for laughs. Whenever something happens that makes Belldandy jealous, she blanks out, her eyes go wide, and she stares off into the distance. She does this because jealousy is so unfamiliar to her that she can't handle it. Her jealousy also sometimes manifests itself paranormally—nearby glass shatters, the power goes out, pipes burst, and there's sometimes an explosion. Often, this will put a stop to whatever was making Belldandy jealous so she can just snap out of it.
  • Baki the Grappler gets one when his mother beats him and chews him out for not being as strong as his father. He's so bummed afterwards that he doesn't even defend himself when three punks start roughing him up. Fortunately, Hanayama comes along and snaps him out of it.
  • In D4 Princess, the main character gets one when one of her opponents is killed in an accident during battle and doesn't snap out of it until near the end of the series. It didn't help that the rest of her school didn't seem to care that someone had died.
  • In Future GPX Cyber Formula, Hayato goes through this more than once, but especially the one in the TV series when he learned that his father, the person who created Asurada's system, was killed by his former boss. His BSOD over this event was a major factor in him using Asurada GSX's boost in a very dangerous spot at the qualifying round of the fourth race, causing Asurada to crash into the trees, tearing up the car whole. The driver's cockpit, however, remained intact, Hayato came out unharmed and recovers after that.
  • Jyu-Oh-Sei's Thor and Third both go through these; Thor after discovering that he is a bioengineered organism creating from the DNA of past Beast Kings, and Third after learning that Earth, which he has dreamed of seeing for his entire life, was destroyed over 130 years ago. Third does not recover.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sayaka and specially Madoka fall in this state in episode 3, when all of a sudden their sempai and friend Mami is horrifyingly eaten alive in front of them, which goes on to show them that being a Magical Girl Warrior isn't as pretty as it seems.
    • Later, Homura suffers a brief but tearful one when Madoka almost makes the dreaded contract with Kyuubey. After shooting Kyuubey to stop him, she breaks down crying.
    • Sayaka not only suffers one when she starts angsting and realising what being a Puella Magi truly means (isolation, becoming a Lich, etc.)... but she actually goes further and becomes a witch.
    • A cross between fiction and Real Life: Seiyuus Aoi Yuki (Madoka) and Emiri Katou (Kyubey), and also character designer Ume Aoki have a slight case of this upon seeing the script for the third episode.
    • In Episode 10, We find in one timeline that Mami utterly breaks down, kills Kyouko, and would have killed Madoka, Homura, and herself upon finding out that Puella Magi eventually become witches.
  • In Junai no Seinen, Kaoru has a panic attack the first time Daigo leaves him, and then again when Daigo shows up at Ian's farewell party with a date.
  • In The Prince of Tennis, Kaidou Kaoru has a really hilarious one when Inui tells him that they're going on a date just as Kaidou's phone runs out of battery. Inui actually meant that he believed Momoshiro and An are going out, but he couldn't say it for the above mentioned reason.
    • Sakuno has another comedic one when she believes that Ryoma dislikes like her cooking. He actually likes it, but back then he was distracted and said his "mada mada dane" ("you still have to work on") Catch Phrase... referring to something else.
    • A more serious BSOD happens to Ryoma when he loses badly to Sanada in the anime.
  • In the anime of Fruits Basket, Tohru has one after seeing Kyo's true form and getting verbally tormented by Akito, and staggers about in the rain and mud with a blank stare on her face. She later snaps out of it.
    • The former BSOD happens also in the manga, along with an epic one after Kyo coldly rejects her Anguished Declaration of Love because he doesn't think he deserves Tohru's love after not having been able to save her mother Kyoko.
  • Barnaby from Tiger and Bunny experiences one in episodes 18-19 upon discovering that Jake Martinez was not his parents' murderer, and not only are his memories of the incident (which he relied upon heavily during his investigation into the killer's identity) faulty, but everything he believed in and worked for during the past twenty years might be a hoax.
  • In the Tales of Symphonia OVA, Lloyd experiences one after failing to stop Colette from sacrificing her soul to save the world. He drops his swords and falls to his knees, just crying and screaming her name. He quickly snaps out of it, but it is still pretty heartbreaking, considering how optimistic he normally is.
  • Kirby in his self-titled anime had quite a BSOD in the one-year anniversary episode. He wakes up and goes off to play with everyone only to discover that nobody wants to play with him. When he goes to see Tokkori about it, Tokkori just laughs and says to him that "nobody likes him". Kirby suddenly breaks down at that and then packs up some of his things and runs away from home to Kabu Canyon. Feeling lonely and guilty for thinking everybody hated him, Kirby actually cries. It isn't until Meta Knight and Tokkori remind him that everyone was really worried about him and waiting for him to come back home that Kirby boots back up. And to top it all off, he didn't know that everybody was actually preparing his first anniversary party and that they really love him very much.
  • Happens quite a few times in Claymore. Clare goes through one during her two final battles, after having almost all of her commerades killed brutally- Fully [Or almost fully] awakening as a result. Jeanne awakes after being mentally and physically tortured by Riful. And, of course, Priscilla goes through such, after realizing she's about to lose to a Claymore who rebelled against the organization.
  • In Tsukigasa, Azuma has one for months after cutting off Kuroe's arm while under the influence, and is Driven to Suicide at one point.
  • Joe Yabuki from the classic boxing manga Ashita no Joe suffers a huge one when his best rival, Tooru Riikishi, dies of internal injuries right after their match is over. It's actually so bad that for several months he cannot bring himself to punch his other rivals on the face, since that's what caused Riikishi his fatal Heroic RROD.
  • In Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, Yanase shuts down not only because Chiaki rejected him a second time again without giving him a reason why he would choose Hatori over him, but also when Hatori breaks into his place and proceeds to beat the crap out of him. Chiaki prevents anything worse from happening the but the episode leaves him in that state. And this is supposed to be a shonen ai romantic comedy with some drama but not this episode.
  • In Oniisama E, several characters find themselves at the receiving end:
    • The lead Nanako Misonou has a huge one that lasts for at very least two days when her love interest Rei dies, after she falls from a bridge and gets fatally hit by a train while trying to catch a falling bouquet of flowers... on her way to their first date. She had several others in the course of the story, but she put herself back to her feet thanks to The Power of Friendship; this one, however, is so powerful that she almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon. Though she does get better in the end.
    • Also, Fukiko suffers another one almost at the same time, when she and her brother Takeshi are told by the police about Rei's death.
    • In the anime, Mariko Shinobu has four in, oh, around a week. First, when she finds her father Hikawa with his girlfriend in a restaurant, during an outing with Nanako and Tomoko. Second, when her mother Hisako tries to calm her down, only for Mariko to tell her what happened and call her out on how she always hides her feelings in regards to her cheating husband. (Which causes poor Hisako a BSOD of her own, as Mariko locks herself in her room to cry.) This is followed by another after she attacks Aya in class with a boxcutter for mocking her parents's divorce in public. And the final one happens some days after the attack, when she realizes that for all of her hate towards Aya, they're actually Not So Different. (In the manga, only the second and the third one happen.)
    • Takehiko Henmi, Nanako's "Oniisama" aka her Big Brother Mentor, suffers a milder one in the anime when he learns that his girlfriend Kaoru might have a relapse on her breast cancer, which all but states that she will die in less than four years. He recovers relatively quickly, however.
    • In the past, Professor Misonou also suffered a pretty bad one, drinking himself into a stupor for several days after his marriage ends in an horrible note and his wife not only leaves him, but takes their son away -- which, considering Japanese laws on divorce, means that he'll likely never see said son again. And the son? He is then-10-year-old Takehiko.
  • In Heartcatch Precure, Yuri suffers two of them. The first happens before the beginning after suffering a major loss during a Curb Stomp Battle by Cure Dark, leaving her powerless and partnerless. She gets a second, minor one near the end when she finds out that Professor Saabaku, the man who created Cure Dark, was her missing father.
  • In G Gundam, Rain suffers a pretty big one (bordering on Despair Event Horizon crossing) when she finds out that her father basically destroyed the Kasshu family and used her and the last surviving/conscious member of that family (who she just happened to be in love with) in his schemes.
    • Domon himself goes through a couple when Rain leaves him as the result of her BSOD and becomes the core life unit of the Devil Gundam.
    • Out of the other Shuffle Aliance members, only Argo Gulskii did NOT go through an Heroic BSOD after being forcibly infected with DG Cells and being Brainwashed and Crazy. The other three showed their mental and emotional damage in different ways: Chibodee drank himself into a stupor twice in a row, George acted snippy and rude to others while mentally reviving a tragedy from his past, and Sai Saici acted nonchalant at first but heavily hallucinated that Argo was the Devil Gundam when they were face to face.
  • Inuyasha: Just as Sesshoumaru's finally getting used to the idea that Tessaiga was meant for Inuyasha and Tenseiga was meant for him, he learns the truth: Tenseiga is merely a cast-off piece of Tessaiga, separated from Tessaiga so that Sesshoumaru could master the Meidou Zangetsuha technique and then transfer it back to Tessaiga, meaning that the attack form he earned due to his compassion for Kagura's death isn't his to keep - it's destined for Inuyasha's use. Sesshoumaru takes the news badly and goes to Toutousai for confirmation where he concludes it's proof he was the outcast son and that his father was training Inuyasha to kill him. Even Inuyasha and his friends think Inuyasha's father was being far too cruel. Sesshoumaru shuts down so completely over this knowledge that, when Naraku takes advantage of his visit to Toutousai to attack Sesshoumaru's unprotected group, Sesshoumaru simply watches from a distant cliff top and doesn't go to their rescue. Inuyasha's group saves them instead and stays with Sesshoumaru's group until Sesshoumaru finally decides to return. When he does it's to confront the situation with Inuyasha once and for all in a Die or Fly test that not only resolves the issue of the swords but also helps start Sesshoumaru on the road to recovery from his Heroic BSOD.
    • Kagome has some of her own, and the worst of them is the one that comes when she represses her feelings after Kikyou's "death" in the Shichinintai arc and tells Inuyasha to go see if she's alive or not... and then Arago comes and subjects her to a very cruel Hannibal Lecture about the Love Triangle as a whole.
  • Yomi in Black★Rock Shooter after Kagari talks about how she no longer needs Yomi's support now that she's independent.
  • Irresponsible Captain Tylor: You wouldn't think happy-go-lucky Tylor would be the type to suffer from one, but the death of his mentor, Admiral Hanner, hits him hard. He practically sleepwalks through (and right out of) a medal ceremony in his honor, and is later found atop a flagpole by his crew. He reboots, and decides to leave the UPSF, though this doesn't stick.
  • Kurita in Eyeshield 21 lost his will to fight after Gaou breaks Hiruma's arm, sending him out of the game for a quarter and a halftime. He even loses the ability to understand Komusubi, signifying that he was no longer a strong man. It takes Sena and Komusubi risking their lives going against Gaou to snap him out of it.
    • Komusubi at one point felt his lack of height had become a liability especially since the Posideon players and their cheerleaders are exceptionally taller than him. It takes some talk from Sena and the Ha-Ha Brothers (literally) kicking some sense to him to get him back on track.
    • Monta got one when he realized he would be going against Honjou Taka, the son of his lifetime idol.
  • This happened in the backstory for Tsukasa in Kuroneko Guardian. She was raped by a burglar which caused her to stop speaking and responding to people for some time. Even after recovering she's still The Stoic.
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