Top 10 Anime Ass-pulls

Death Note is one of my all-time favorite anime. The chess game between Light and L is some of the most thrilling content to watch. However, L's successor Near is not nearly as entertaining as his predecessor.

While L's moves were surprisingly intelligent, each of them had a logical explanation, and we understood how the deduction worked. In the case of Near, it just feels like lucky guesses that the writer tries to force upon us. The worst and most infamous offender is how Near found Mikami as 'X-Kira'.

This is what happened:

Near is watching worldwide news footage from at least a year ago (in languages he may not even understand) on perhaps 50 monitors at once. No matter how much of a 'genius' a character is supposed to be, you're never going to convince me that a person could simultaneously listen to 50 audio sources in various languages and understand even a single word.

However, even if we imagine that Near is actually able to do that and that he is also able to move across time and space to accomplish the impossible and view hundreds of hours of content in a short period of time.

Even then.

You expect me to believe that out of every person on the planet, Mikami is the only suspicious guy? Near never even considers alternatives. In fact, Near cancels the hunt for suspects when he finds Mikami.

Out of thousands of people Near surveys, he just happens to pick only ONE SINGLE SUSPECT and it happens to be the exact one?

Biggest asspull I've ever seen!

This is probably the best example to explain what an asspull is.

Kirito is in a hopeless situation against Oberon. While the scumbag is touching Asuna in front of an immobile Kirito, Akihiko Kayaba appears out of nowhere (why and how?!) and gives Kirito admin powers that outrank Oberon. Kirito uses the hack to defeat Oberon and rescue Asuna.

In Ash's sixth Hoenn gym battle, Pikachu and Swellow are getting their asses kicked by Tate and Liza's Solrock and Lunatone. Ash notices the clouds and says, "That's it!" What drugs he was on is still unknown.

He commands Pikachu to "use Thunder" (not specifying anything else). Pikachu reads Ash's mind and uses Thunder "on the clouds." The clouds hit back at Pikachu and Swellow with lightning. Swellow, being weak to Electric type, did not get knocked out.

Instead, Pikachu and Swellow are covered in a golden aura named "Thunder Armor," which made them immune to all attacks and increased their speed and attack power, allowing them to break through Solar Beam and Light Screen and defeat Solrock and Lunatone.

I know that the Pokémon anime doesn't follow the game mechanics, but this was absolute nonsense.

Soul Eater is one of the most enjoyable anime out there. But the only reason I don't recommend it to my friends is because of the horrendous ending.

After the protagonists have tried everything and still failed to defeat Kishin, Maka defeats him with a single punch. How did it work? It appears that Kishin is the embodiment of fear, and so Maka's "Punch of Bravery" was able to destroy him.

Completely ruined an awesome anime!

This is probably the laziest writing in anime history! JoJo is a very wacky and bizarre anime where a character can pull a tommy gun out of his ass. However, even in JoJo, this was a completely nonsensical moment.

After defeating different stand users across the world, Jotaro finally confronts Dio. And after realizing the time-stopping ability of Dio's stand The World, Jotaro suddenly realizes that his stand Star Platinum can do the same.

Just try to understand it. In order for Jotaro to defeat Dio, Araki just gave Dio's powers to Jotaro! If this is not an asspull, I don't know what is.

This is the infamous moment when Obito used Kamui after death to return to the world of the living and bestow Kakashi with his chakra, granting him access to Perfect Susanoo.

This is enough to call it the biggest asspull in Naruto. I don't even need to talk about how Kakashi used it and didn't die from it.

Code Geass may be a very smart anime, but this moment made no sense. No matter how amazing the medical technology of Britannia is, we saw Mao get rained on by bullets in a military assault. There's no way he should be alive after that.

The 'glorious' medical technology can heal a random stranger with 40 bullets but not the princess with one bullet!

Sword Art Online, what do you expect? If only ModernSpongeBobSucks were still here...

- Kirito was stabbed.
- His health bar went to 0.
- The game alert said "You Are Dead."
- His avatar disappeared.
- He reappears and stabs Heathcliff to win the duel!

I'm not going to comment. It's SAO.

The Straw Hats suddenly getting various upgrades during the Enies Lobby arc. Nami unveils a Perfect Clima Tact on the sea train, mentioning that Usopp gave it to her before he left, despite using her normal Clima Tact at the Galley-La Mansion. Usopp unveils his Kabuto when sniping the World Government flag, despite having used his normal slingshot on the sea train.

And worst of all is Zoro's Asura form. It was great to see the Straw Hats become stronger, but these powerups came out of nowhere, which is pretty confusing.

Bleach is infamous for asspull moments. In almost every arc, the writer writes himself into a corner and saves Ichigo with an out-of-nowhere power-up. This is probably the worst offender.

This transformation was not foreshadowed at all, and it was too plot-convenient to happen at that exact moment.

Naruto was supposed to be about ninjas, not alien goddesses. This character had no buildup, no proper motivation, no personality, nothing! She just appears out of nowhere to steal Madara's spotlight, which was built up from the start.

I love you, Oda, but this is probably one of the biggest asspulls in shonen anime.

Pell carried a bomb that was designed to destroy an entire city. There's no way he should be alive after that. This is one of those moments which made me say, "Give me my tears back."

First of all, Bertholdt was way too dumb when he lost to Eren and Armin. How in the world did he fall for the Eren slipping from the wall and getting knocked out trick?

But what is even more weird is how Armin, a normal human, after being burnt to a crisp and falling from that height, was alive long enough to get the serum. This was a huge asspull just for letting Armin see the ocean. It's surprising to say, but Isayama was way too soft with Armin. And it was more bad than good as it ruined Armin's great sacrifice in the Battle of Shiganshina.

The mastermind, the supposed 'God' of the new world, was defeated by changing a bunch of pages!

Titans have only one weak point, and this guy just moved his consciousness to his ass! They don't call him the Plot Armored Titan for nothing.

This proved that Isayama, the GOAT, can make anything up and fans will just eat it!

Hiro was about to die, and he nullified the effects of the tumor with the power of love and willpower. BS!

This was probably the most confusing episode in Code Geass, and to this day, it still makes no sense.

Let's try to break things down:

- Charles doesn't actually hate Lelouch.
- Marianne is alive (which is an asspull by itself) and has done a lot of 'Kick the Dog' tasks herself.
- The crippling of Nunnally was planned!
- C.C. knew all of this from the start.
- C.C. wanted to die for a long time, but suddenly she wants to live.
- And the worst of all, Lelouch uses some kind of new power to order God to kill his parents.

This is still so confusing. To me, it doesn't make any sense, and it was an anti-climactic way to finish off a villain built up from the start.

Killua having a sister was never mentioned throughout the series. Her healing ability could have been used many times before, but it was revealed exactly when Gon needed it.

Trained in water breathing throughout the entire anime and suddenly, when he was about to die, gets a flashback about an old dance and instantly masters fire breathing. KNY is so dumb! The only reason people (5-year-old kids) watch it is because of the animation.

Goku Black was looking to be a good arc, but stupid moments like these ruined it.

This was a very bad asspull that greatly affected the climax. Mello knew about the Shinigami Eyes and had absolutely no reason to show his face to Takada.

After kidnapping Takada, Mello tried to check whether Takada had any weapons or pages of the Death Note with her. In that check, he allowed her to use a towel where she hid the pages. If he had to give her the towel (and inform her about it beforehand), what was the point of the check?

What's the point of kidnapping her if he doesn't have anyone monitoring her activities? She didn't even have to use her blood. She wrote his name with a pen! She could even call anyone from inside. This was just a weird set of events that decided the climax without making any sense. People don't hate the second half of Death Note for no reason.

Following Sasuke's fight with Deidara, Deidara uses a gigantic self-destruction technique. Sasuke survives the resulting city-sized explosion by summoning and mind-controlling a massive snake to shield him, when he is explicitly described as being nearly out of chakra just a few panels before. Any one of those techniques would require a vast amount of chakra, never mind both.

Sasuke manages to do all this in the time it takes for the explosion to reach him. After it has already started. Just a few feet from him.