It turns into a regular Macguffin before the maid finally comes out and tells the truth. Instead, Akito clings to it for a decade, even if it's only because she hopes it's true considering that she grew up surrounded by people who are possessed by Zodiac spirits, it wouldn't be that big of a stretch for her to believe in something like that, anyway. She only did it to console her (since Akito was extremely close to her father), figuring that Akito would eventually 'grow up' and realize that the whole idea was silly. She gave Akito a box and said that it held her father's soul. It's revealed towards the end of Fruits Basket that the head maid of the Sohma household tried to do this for Akito when her father died.

The stuffed penguin used by Nodoka in Saki is obviously nothing but a psychological crutch to help her focus on her Mahjong playing.

Even after this fact is revealed, she still buys them, at least for sentimental value (since the granny died). Either way she was still conned into buying old excess stock. Using the pencil on her exams did help her get into the school, but that may have been more due to her practising like hell (enough to completely use up 20 of them) the day before.

In GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, innocent protagonist Kisaragi was conned into buying what she believed was 'God's pencil' from an old lady at a stationary store.

Even more confusing is that he effectively wins because of the afro! Not because it is special, but just because it happens to catch a shard of a mirror that Luffy pulls out later. In short, the Magic Feather that everybody (except Nami, but including Robin) believe. And when he starts to show his Heroic Resolve, it is apparently because 'THE AFRO POWER MADE HIM GO BERSERK!'. and then the entire crowd goes wild when he appears sporting it. Foxy duel, Usopp hands Luffy a giant afro to give him strength.

Pretty much the most awesome example ever: in One Piece, for the Luffy vs.

At the end of Digimon Adventure when the Crests are destroyed by the final Big Bad, the kids need to figure out that the traits which powered their Digimon were part of them all along and they didn't need the Crests in the first place.

The titular shoes are cursed and force the wearer to continue dancing forever, and cannot be removed - the dancer only stops dancing once she has a friendly knight chop off her feet - and the shoes, with the rotting feet, go dancing off into the wilderness on their own. note This episode is in reference to a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Red Shoes, which is a semi-common reference in Japanese culture. When last seen, Miho is physically better, but she's confined in an hospital. Miyu has to bite her friend and exchange blood with her in order to save her life. But they do so by sucking her Life Energy, and worse yet, once Miyu has defeated the Shinma who gave them to poor Miho, they can never be removed again. The titular shoes are given to Miyu's classmate Miho (a Shrinking Violet and aspiring Idol Singer) by her manager, and stated to magically make her an unparalleled singer.

Subverted in the Vampire Princess Miyu episode 'The Red Shoes'.

Said 'elixir' is revealed to actually be tap water and the scrapings from under Happosai's fingernails. It turns him into a Lethal Joke Character, even upgrading his Razor Wind attacks, but it's implicitly at least as much due to the Training from Hell HappЕЌsai put him through (running into occupied women's bathing areas, locker rooms, and other places where they were nude, while trying to evade their attacks and survive being beaten to a pulp).

In a much later episode, HappЕЌsai, ticked off at Ranma interfering with his undie raids, takes KunЕЌ and offers him 'Speed of Light elixir', which he claims will make him super fast.

RyЕЌga, who is not the sharpest spoon in the drawer, believes her and upon taking them gets a psychosomatic boost to his already monstrous strength, allowing him to pull telephone poles from the ground simply because he thinks he is on steroids (which don't even work that way). In a first-season episode, Nabiki gives aspirin to RyЕЌga in the middle of his first on-screen challenge fight with Ranma, and tells him that they're basically instant steroids.

Focus magic bridge batch