History Main / ReturningTheHandkerchief

* GenderFlipped in ''Anime/BlueExorcist''--[[{{Tsundere}} Izumo]] and her friend are attacked in the changing room, and [[AntiAntiChrist Rin]] is the first one to hear and come help. Since Izumo is in her underwear and freaked out by her inability to fight off the threat, Rin [[YouMustBeCold gives her his shirt]] so that she can quickly leave before anyone else sees her. She later returns it, freshly laundried, along with some complaints about how hard it was to clean.

* {{Averted}} in the [[AnachronicOrder chronologically last]] episode of ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'', ''Someday in the Rain'': Kyon returns soaking wet from a walk in the rain and Tsuruya cheerfully lends him a handkerchief in passing, but neither of the two thinks anything of it, and the handkerchief is never mentioned again.

* Genderflipped in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY''. Ash left Serena with a handkerchief years ago and [[ForgottenFirstMeeting completely forgot about her]]. When she sees him on TV, she starts her own journey to find him and return it. She joins his crew afterwards.

* Genderflipped in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. Ash left Serena with a handkerchief years ago and [[ForgottenFirstMeeting completely forgot about her]]. When she sees him on TV, she starts her own journey to find him and return it. She joins his crew afterwards.

* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' plays out what would be a StrictlyFormula version of the trope, if not for two exceptions: there are no romantic overtones whatsoever ([[ShipTease maybe]]), and the "handkerchief" is Edgeworth's ''cravat'', which he was still ''wearing'' when [[spoiler: young Kay]] blew her nose into it.

%%* Inverted, subverted and combined with an IndulgentFantasySegue in ''LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokuroChan''.

* {{Averted}} in the [[AnachronicOrder chronologically last]] episode of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', ''Someday in the Rain'': Kyon returns soaking wet from a walk in the rain and Tsuruya cheerfully lends him a handkerchief in passing, but neither of the two thinks anything of it, and the handkerchief is never mentioned again.

%%* Done by DoggedNiceGuy Takahara in ''LightNovel/TaishoBaseballGirls''.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': The start of Keith's route in ''Fortune Lover'' involves him finding Maria's handkerchief and holding onto it until he meets her again. Within the story proper, he instead returns it to her immediately since Katarina conditioned him to be a gentleman.

* Occurs in ''Shenmue: The Animation'' between Ryo and Nozomi, although their budding relationship is put on hold as Ryo pursues Lan Di in his quest to clear his late father Iwao’s name.

* Occurs in ''Manga/LuckyStar'' between Yutaka and Minami. As Minami was the Girl B, this trope was {{inverted}}.
* {{Averted}} in the [[AnachronicOrder chronologically last]] episode of ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', ''Someday in the Rain'': Kyon returns soaking wet from a walk in the rain and Tsuruya cheerfully lends him a handkerchief in passing, but neither of the two thinks anything of it, and the handkerchief is never mentioned again.

* In ''Manga/{{Imadoki}}'', Tanpopo ended up cutting her leg when she [[CrashIntoHello raced her bike over the closed school gate and crashed into Kouki]] and Kouki ties his handkerchief around the wound. She later washes the handkerchief and thinks of returning it, with Kouki telling her that he's surprised she made such a big deal out of that.
* Inverted, subverted and combined with an IndulgentFantasySegue in ''[[LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokuroChan Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro Chan]]''.
* This is how Ikki and Karin meet in ''Anime/{{Medabots}}''.

* Done by DoggedNiceGuy Takahara in ''LightNovel/TaishoBaseballGirls''.
%%* Happens between Usagi and Mamoru in the manga version of ''Manga/SailorMoon''.
* In ''Manga/HekikaiNoAiOn'', Tatsuya starts to weep when he believes he'll never be a "man of high caliber" and Seine gives him a handkerchief. Later, he tries to invoke this trope just to talk to her because she says to him to stay out of her way.
* Occurs in episode 12 of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' between [[LesYay Utena and Anthy]].

* Parodied and discussed in ''[[Manga/LoveLab Love Lab]]'', where Maki has embroidered her contact info and a sob story about her grandmother onto a massive handkerchief in hopes of picking up boys.
* Parodied in a ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' OVA, where Sig returns the bear carcass (!) that Izumi drops.

* GenderFlipped in ''Anime/BlueExorcist''--[[{{Tsundere}} Izumo]] and her friend are attacked in the changing room, and [[AntiAntiChrist Rin]] is the first one to hear and come help. Since Izumo is in her underwear and freaked out by her inability to fight off the threat, Rin [[YouMustBeCold gives her his shirt]] so that she can quickly leave before anyone else sees her. She later returns it, freshly laundried, along with some complaints about how hard it was to clean.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': The start of Keith's route in ''Fortune Lover'' involves him finding Maria's handkerchief and holding onto it until he meets her again. Within the story proper, he instead returns it to her immediately since Katarina conditioned him to be a gentleman.
* Played with in ''Manga/KenganAshura'', where Kaede goes to meet Wakatsuki after the latter's first match and offers him a handkerchief to clean the injuries he sustained from the match, after which he promises to clean it up and return it. The scene is played less as a ShipTease moment between the two, but to establish them as old acquaintances despite working for different companies. Wakatsuki himself has more ShipTease with Kaede's sister, Sakura, whom he asks about during this encounter.

* ''Film/PrideAndPrejudice2005'', Lydia attempts to do this with the soldiers marching through town but it fails as they don't even notice.

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' the male beaver returns Lucy's handkerchief, which he got from Tumnus, to demonstrate that he can be trusted.
* ''Literature/ADarkerShadeOfMagic'': Lila first gives Kell her handkerchief as a sleight of hand to rob him, which he later uses as a magical focus to find her. She then gives it to him to link them together when they travel between worlds, and he once again uses to find her when they're separated. When they part at the end of the first book, he keeps the handkerchief as a memory of her, and wonders on more than on occasion if he could use it to find her again.

* Parodied as a symptom of the "Love Sim Syndrome" in [[http://www.tsunamichannel.com/index.php?date=2003-04-23&comic=ExCoKo this]] ''Webcomic/TsunamiChannel'' strip.

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[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: {{Literature}}]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Theater]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* In Metal Gear Solid, the character Sniper Wolf gives Hal "Otacon" Emmerich her handkerchief, which he later passes on to Solid Snake. [[spoiler:Following Solid Snake's second encounter with Sniper Wolf, where she is fatally wounded, Snake places the handkerchief over Wolf's face after she dies.]]

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* In the Czech film ''Kristian'' (1939), an older guy invents yet another variant how to meet ladies in this fashion. He drops his own handkerchief, picks it up and forces it to the lady, insisting she must have dropped it. Sometimes the lady is confused, but the heroine Zuzana insists that it's most definitely not ''her'' handkerchief. At the end of the movie, the guy steps on a handkerchief that really was lost by a woman who this time is more or less of the same age as the older gentleman, and they seem to have a chance to hit it off. He's pleased that his scheme finally worked out, even though a bit differently than he had expected.

* Inverted on ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}, when George tries leaving his keys and then his hat at a woman's apartment so as to have an excuse to call her again.

* There's a mutant, and averted, version of this in ''Manga/VictorianRomanceEmma''. Realizing that a well-to-do caller on her mistress has genuinely forgotten his gloves, she rushes out to return them. Initially, she fails, but manages to actually do so later. A further mutation of this occurs when she and the man in question begin to start up a friendship, which looks to be very quickly heading for romantic territory when Emma tells him she's always wanted a silk handkerchief for her own. He buys it for her on the spot.

%% NOTE: This image is from ''Aneimo'', a hentai anime.
%% The image is allowed, but the work itself is not allowed per the wiki's content policy.
%% Please do not pothole this work or create a page for it.

[[quoteright:176:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aneimo-returning_the_handkerchief-4koma.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:176:All there is to it.]]

* In ''Aneimo'' {{hentai}} anime, which is an example of the handkerchief-as-MacGuffin variant: it isn't seen after that last screenshot, but the encounter quite firmly cements the relationship between the two.

* This is how Ikki and Karin meet in ''Manga/{{Medabots}}''.

* The trope image comes from the ''Aneimo'' {{hentai}} anime, which is an example of the handkerchief-as-MacGuffin variant: it isn't seen after that last screenshot, but the encounter quite firmly cements the relationship between the two.

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* {{Averted}} in the [[AnachronicOrder chronologically last]] episode of ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', ''Someday in the Rain'': Kyon returns soaking wet from a walk in the rain and Tsuruya cheerfully lends him a handkerchief in passing, but neither of the two think anything of it, and the handkerchief is never mentioned again.

[[folder: {{Film}}]]

* Desiree Dubarry from ''Film/DontLoseYourHead'' tried this to get close to Duke de Pommefrites, except he picks it up and throws it away. When she tells him she dropped her hankerchief he refers to it as a smelly old thing.

* In a Czech film ''Kristian'' (1939), an older guy invents yet another variant how to meet ladies in this fashion. He drops his own handkerchief, picks it up and forces it to the lady, insisting she must have dropped it. Sometimes the lady is confused, but the heroine Zuzana insists that it's most definitely not ''her'' handkerchief. At the end of the movie, the guy steps on a handkerchief that really was lost by a woman who this time is more or less of the same age as the older gentleman, and they seem to have a chance to hit it off. He's pleased that his scheme finally worked out, even though a bit differently than he had expected.

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' the male beaver returns Lucy's hankerchief, which he got from Tumnus, to demonstrate that he can be trusted.
* ''Literature/ADarkerShadeOfMagic'': Lila first gives Kell her handkerchief as a slight of hand to rob him, which he later uses as a magical focus to find her. She then gives it to him to link them together when they travel between worlds, and he once again uses to find her when they're separated. When they part at the end of the first book, he keeps the handkerchief as a memory of her, and wonders on more than on occasion if he could use it to find her again.

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

* ''Webcomic/TheBugPond'': Played with. Leodegrance the assassin bug intentionally drops his hankerchief for Kid Katydid to pick up for him. She proceeds to stomp it.

* An old ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny'' short has him advise his victim to start courting. He then dresses up as a woman, drops his handkerchief, and promptly freaks out (in his female persona, as if the guy had done something lewd) when the guy returns it and gets clobbered by a police man.

* When Richard is forced to impersonate a notorious womanizer with an incredible reputation for being really good in bed in the ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'' episode "Princess", he complains about how many women in the Margrave's palace are dropping handkerchiefs in front of him.
* In the Music/SmashMouth music video for their cover of "I'm a Believer", the trope is subverted; the lead singer spends the video chasing after a woman who dropped her keys, only to return them without comment, even when the woman attempts to flirt with him.
* ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'' subverts this in the Season 5 episode "Blood Drive"; after lightly flirting with a woman at the blood drive, he finds she left her glove behind. As the people running the blood drive are restricted from giving out personal information, Michael runs a Valentine's Day mixer at the office, advertising the missing glove in an attempt to attract her. But she never comes.