The manga also has a later example, again with the Sailor V Game: as she plays it, Usagi openly wonders why the character is using the Moon Stick, only realizing she was being trained in its use when Luna starts using the machine other functions to analyse objects and, later, the real Sailor V hacks the game to communicate.

A character approaches a situation under the impression that theyre dealing with a prank, a con, or a staged event.

When they eventually find out, expect mighty embarrassment or even Fainting if the situation was dangerous enough.

Sometimes this is a Magic Feather, and its revealed that the character is far more competent than they realize.

May occur after repeated instances of Crying Wolf have desensitised a character to the warning signs.

Compare Real After All, Mistaken for an Imposter and All Part of the Show.

Contrast The Game Never Stopped and You Just Ruined the Shot, where the character thinks events are real, but they arent.

Kansas City Shuffle comes into play when the character sees a con, tries to beat the con, and ends up taken for a ride by a second con (the real one).

He assumes that its just another phone-battle game, which are very popular in Japan.

Of course, the reader knows that his friend was killed, the game is literally one of life and death, and there are others coming to kill him.

The other characters dont bother to mention this fact to him until the last episode.

Suzuo also put on the suit because he didnt take the claims about fighting supervillains seriously, since the suits makers were a toy company.

He realizes too late that toy companies can make weapons too.

When he is finally proven wrong with Wormmons death he suffers a BSOD, triggering his eventual HeelFace Turn.

He still hesitates to go through again on the subsequent rescue mission.

That turned into him leading the forces of the Bagra Army in the war, believing no-ones actually dying.

Near the endgame, because of this he even has no problem with the notion of killing his own sister Nene, one of the generals of the opposition; he even sees ending her as part of the game.

When Taiki explains that its actually not the case, he flips out; Tuwarmon recognises that its important for the Bagra Army that Yuu continue to believe that its all a game, and afterwards makes a point of reassuring him.

As it turns out, Osamu is actually quite good and holds his own against the professional.

He assumes its just Serious Business for everyone and has given no indication of realizing its all for real, even through Time Travel, supernatural weapons and people getting seriously injured and dying.

Either hes just that stupid, or hes been Obfuscating Stupidity all the while, or hes desperately clinging to denial to keep from freaking out.

They agree to skip school and look for him - all under the impression that Lord En and his retainers are from a rival school that simply want to to beat the crap out of the Ishiyama students.

Little do the thugs know that, while playing with En and his maids non-stop for three straight days, Behemoths 34th Pillar Squads are assembling to annihilate humanity in Lord Ens name.

Nira Oni Guide