Shows of strength in times of distress

[BWTraveller]

What are some good examples of shows with individuals who demonstrate impressive strength while "in distress"? Gender doesn't matter; while damsels are the classic, guys can at times be just as cornered and in need of a hero to save them. Male or female, all it requires is that the individual shows defiant strength and steel despite the desperate situation.
While I said gender doesn't matter, the three I know of who've impressed me the most are Iwai from Crime Edge, Asuna from SAO and Satoko from Higurashi.

Asuna has been given some bad press by some as a powerful action girl who suddenly becomes a pure Damsel In Distress later; however, when I watch SAO I just don't see this. Instead I see a girl who, in spite of how absolutely overpowered she is, never stops thinking and doing what she can to free herself.

Spoiler for Asuna:

In the second half of season 1, after escaping one full-immersion VR MMORPG, Asuna is caught in another one by a trusted friend of her father's who acts as GM for said game. She thus knows from the start that she's dealing with someone who can easily gain access to her real body, and who is effectively God within the game world and does whatever he wants. Rather than just sit there and bemoan her situation though, she endures his imprisonment and molestations as long as she has to, playing the half-broken princess until she's able to get a glimpse of the password for the door to her prison. Once she succeeds in getting this password, she escapes at the first opportunity and looks for a log-out terminal. When she finds it she's caught and further molested by one of her captor's creepy assistants, whose appearance and touch is enough to drive her crazy with disgust; despite this, she continues to not only fight the guard and reach for the log-out button, she has the brains to grab an admin key card and hide it before anyone notices. And rather than use it recklessly, she holds on to it waiting for a chance to either use it or get it to someone she can trust to help her. True, once she throws it to Yui and Kirito she's unable to do anything but wait for them to fight on their end, but in such a situation it's still the strategy most likely to succeed. Straight through all of this, even if she looked like a simple damsel in distress, a little examination shows that she never once stopped thinking and fighting with all she had.

Iwai is the weakest of the lot in many ways, having been virtually imprisoned for much of her life and possessing no powers but having to deal with people who possess super-powered weapons. Despite this, she does not give in when captured even if she literally can't do anything.

Spoiler for Iwai:

At one point, a sadistic power-obsessed villain with brainwashing powers uses the same to make a ton of guys try to assault her, including her beloved and regular hero. After frantically escaping them, she's finally captured and briefly tortured physically and mentally, even seeing her hero captured and equally powerless to defeat the villain. Despite this, knowing how completely powerless she is, Iwai continues to stare her enemy in the face, with eyes full of hate and defiance, saying louder than words that she won't be broken.

Lastly, just as even a look can demonstrate strength and defiance, truth be told strength can sometimes even be found in a cry for help.

Spoiler for Satoko:

I challenge anyone to watch the second-to-last arc of Higurashi Kai and tell me it didn't take a lot of strength and guts for Satoko to shout the words "Please help me". She had already been long conditioned to cow before abusers, and her uncle Teppei was one of the worst. She was battered into absolute submission, and had come up with a great number of mental excuses that acted as barriers to keep her from doing anything about it. On top of that, everything she'd seen in the last few years told her that even if she did try to find help, no one would even look at her let alone help her. Despite all the mental barriers and fear and abuse, with her uncle standing behind her ready to beat her possibly to death if she said one thing he didn't like, she finally had the guts to scream for help over the phone. Even knowing as little about abuse as I do I'm impressed by just how much courage and will that must have taken.

[Darthtabby]

Seeking clarification here: when you say "in distress" do you mean "captive"? (That's what your three examples seem to suggest.) Or do they just need to show great emotional strength in the face of soul crushing adversity?

[X207]

Akatsuki No Yona, its a shoujo series where the pampered princess sees her father was murdered in a coup. she goes on the run with allies and eventually becomes a warrior to fight against those that put her that situation and generally standing on the side of justice.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Seeking clarification here: when you say "in distress" do you mean "captive"? (That's what your three examples seem to suggest.) Or do they just need to show great emotional strength in the face of soul crushing adversity?

I'm talking about "distress" the way it's meant with "Damsel in distress", a dire situation big enough relatively that the individual cannot hope to save him/herself and has to instead ultimately depend on rescue for final salvation. This is sort of a midway between the often-hated classic distressed character whose entire character is built around how they need someone to save them to the point that they become nothing more than a MacGuffin and the modern characters who can save themselves. In this case, the individual is indeed captured or stranded or in some way stuck in an extreme situation that they need someone else to save them from, but they still demonstrate remarkable personal strength that more than sets them apart from the old damsels who just sit and sing until their princes show up.

There's an odd contrast in these characters, balancing the strength and courage to face their threat and defy them regardless of the danger with the undeniable weakness relative to the situation that leaves them ultimately powerless to actually escape on their own. Take out the strength and you've got a typical damsel/dude in distress. Take out the weakness and need to rely on others and you've got your typical heroic character, not bad in their own right but not what I'm looking for.

[Darthtabby]

Have you ever seen Full Metal Panic? It's a series about a socially inept teenage mercenary who is assigned to go under cover to protect a short tempered high school girl. The series' main heroine Kaname Chidori should fit what you're looking for fairly well. Though her approach to dealing with adversity is essentially "anger is more useful than despair" so hopefully you don't mind (very) short tempered heroines. (There are reasons why she developed that outlook, though it's only vaguely touched upon in the anime.)

The movie version of Macross Frontier's Sheryl Nome should also fit the bill, at least in the second film. I was going to recommend the TV version (which I personally prefer), but while TV Sheryl shows great strength in the face of adversity, I don't think her situation quite fits what you're looking for most of the time. (Though there was that one incident where she found herself in the rear seat of a valkyrie whose pilot had been knocked unconscious and attempted to fly it to safety herself.)

[RichardFromMarple]

Both Natsu in Fairy Tail & Naruto found hidden strength when people close to them have been hurt.

[SPARTAN 119]

This one might be another character, although he does suffer a bad end, Kara no Kyoukai's Enjou Tomoe still probably fits the bill:

Spoiler for Kara no Kyoukai 5:

To not spoil too much, he is essentially a mere mortal in the Nasuverse (i.e. full of entities with superhuman or even godlike power). Not only does he confront someone who is essentially a nigh-immortal sorcerer alone and charges at him with a knife, He actually manage to break through a magic barrier somehow and even after losing one of his feet, manages to make a final lunge and stab the the main villain in the chest... or course, the main antagonist barely even feels it an proceeds to literally disintegrate him.

[Sackett]

Kaname Chidora (and Tessa too for that matter) from Full Metal Panic fit pretty well.

A bit of an oldie, but Akane Tendo from Ranma 1/2 is known for being made a damsel in distress but still showing resolve and strength in that situation. (More in the manga than the anime, but in the anime too).

Crest of the Stars has the female and male lead trading places in the "in distress" situation. Both show a lot of strength in those situations I think. One of the reasons I love the anime so much.

Not as obvious as a captive, but obviously in distress, and trapped in a situation, but one I think shows great strength is Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion. A lot of people I think are too hard on him for his crying. Shinji has been deliberately abused by his father to make him submissive to his father's plans. It takes a lot of strength for Shinji to defy him.