No

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

As I have watched anime and read manga, I have noticed a very interesting pattern that I do not quite understand. Many comedic episodes or serieses have plots that could be easily resolved if a character just said "No". Take, for example, Episode 81 of ZEXAL. Gilag, one of the antagonists, is undercover at the hero Yuma's school, and decides to brainwash two of Yuma's friends so Yuma would lose a tag duel to them. However, when it comes time for the friends to duel Yuma, the plan changes and Gilag is asked to participate in the duel in someone else's place, and is basically coerced by everyone else into doing this duel. Unfortunately for Gilag, if he loses the duel while partnered with Yuma, he will be destroyed, making this a matter of life and death for him. Yet Gilag goes along with it anyways, and one almost feels sorry for him...if not for the fact that he could have simply refused and walked away.
So I am wondering if there is any cultural stigma or taboo in Japan for people to politely decline and not do something they do not want to do? Many of these situations seem to either pop up when a character is in a group, or having to do with hospitality or family. I just want to understand why the Japanese can't seem to refuse something.

[Makο]

More than anything, I think all of these situations happen purely for the sake of dramatic interest. With how many of these situations that exist could be defused by simply talking, they simply can't think we believe a normal rational human would act like that in those situations.

[Fusion X. Denver]

I think that's more just lazy writing. Setting up a situation where Gilag could not refuse to do the duel would have made more sense.

 

For a good example of doing this, in Breaking Bad, Walt makes mistakes that would have been easily avoidable and ended up causing so much sheet. But those were due to his character flaws and decision-making rather than him doing it because the plot needed him to, which is what happened in your Zexal example.