Attention Whore / Anime & Manga

• Unfortunately, one of the characters from Bitter Virgin (Daisuke's self-proclaimed girlfriend, Kazuki) combines this with Yandere and threatens to claim rape if Daisuke doesn't date her. Later on she does try to (falsely) accuse Daisuke of rape, but fortunately no one believes her.
• Briefly discussed and name-dropped in Episode 4 of Bocchi the Rock!, specifically while Bocchi is in the middle of a nervous breakdown prompted by Nijika and Kita suggesting that Kessoku Band create individual accounts on Isstagram to improve its reputation. Horrified by the very idea of having a social media account, Bocchi claims that someone with as low a self-esteem as herself being forced to maintain one will turn her into an "Attention-Whore Monster", represented in an Imagine Spot as a giant chibi version of herself in a Kaiju costume shouting for her posts to be liked. Luckily, the other girls quickly realize their mistake and tell her they've changed their minds, snapping her out of her panicked state.
• In Brave10, Kamanosuke does not like it when the attention is not on him, and will loudly, violently bring it back if he has to.
• Liang Qi of Canaan takes this to disturbing levels to attract her Onee-sama Alphard, up to wearing skimpy lingerie and literally throwing herself at her feet. Alphard however couldn't care less about her, so Liang Qi takes out her frustrations on her Beleaguered Assistant Cummings with an airsoft gun.
• Unlike her roommate Akane who desperately tries to avoid being center-stage, Hikari of Castle Town Dandelion basks in the spotlight. Lampshaded by Misaki in Chapter 20/Episode 6A as Misaki claiming this is the reason she's running for the King.
• Daltanious: The Idiot Hero protagonist Kento is one. In an early episode, as a result of being famed in-universe for being the pilot of Daltanious, Kento is hailed by the townspeople and treated like a king. Kento doesn't let this go to waste and eagerly absorbs all words of love and acclaim, allowing the crowd to carry him on a tarp while singing his praises.
• The Millennium Earl in D.Gray-Man. In chapter 188, Road and Wisely are seen commenting on the Earl's need to always be the center of attention.
• Demegawa from Death Note. It gets so bad that "Kira" Teru Mikami (though Light Yagami approves of his new understudy's taste and timing) winds up killing him. Considering he was The Scrappy who all sides of the Death Note fandom found annoying, his death was a massive relief.
  • There's also Kiyomi Takada who loves to be the center of attention.
• Mr. Satan from Dragon Ball Z. Note however that this actually works in the protagonists' favor, helping to maintain The Masquerade by claiming responsibility for acts of world-saving or alternately garnering public support for the otherwise unknown heroes. The world has never heard of Goku or Vegeta or even Krillin, but they have heard of Mr. Satan, and will follow his orders without question.
• A creepy and very self-destructive version of this trope is Akito Sohma from Fruits Basket. The more traditional version would be Kimi.
• Happy Sugar Life provides a particularly toxic example of this. The manager of the Princess Imperal restaurant where Satou works for a while believes that she is the queen of her palace (the restaurant) and all her employees should love her. When Satou starts getting the attention of the rest of the staff, she becomes jealous. Mitsuboshi asking Satou out is the nail in the coffin for her, and it drives her to kidnap him and rape him for a week to show him the "superiority of her love."
• Haruhi Suzumiya. Of course, as it turns out, the world really does revolve around her.
  • A subversion: Haruhi's Attention Whore tendencies are due to to the fact that she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her and her eccentric personality.
  • Even when she does grab the spotlight, it's a way of getting what she wants, rather than just for the attention. Promoting her club or one of her projects for example.
  • She doesn't get jealous of attention paid to others for example, although her nature makes it really difficult to upstage her. Nagato manages once or twice, like in Day of Sagittarius
• Yukari-sensei from Haruka Nogizaka's Secret is a big drunken flirt. She'll often make outrageous statements to her class and express disappointment (read: throw a tantrum) if the class doesn't react as she likes or ignores her.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • America, who is not only afflicted with a case of Chronic Hero Syndrome and is obsessed with America Saves the Day, but who has a particular catchphrase: "I'LL BE THE HERO, OF COURSE!" or "I'M THE HERO!" In fact, when he's not the center of attention, he tends to lose the will to act completely.
  • Prussia, too. Not only is he a Large Ham and Boisterous Bruiser who goes around constantly proclaiming his "awesomeness," but he demands that other characters bow to him and worship him for it. One of his goals, as said by Prussia himself, is to "burn the memory of his existence" into the hearts of others, so that he'll never be forgotten. Which takes on something of a dark tone, as one strip implies that he may be beginning to die or fade away as he's no longer a country.
  • Philippines as well. Not only is he a Selfie Fiend, his antics is compared to how America is during meetings.
• Hikari no Densetsu: Megumi Mita is this combined with The Resenter to Hikari Kamijou. She was once the second-most talented student in gym class, but Hikari unseated her and pushed her to third place, and even worse, Hikari's skills are said to be on par with Aikoh's most talented student Shiina Hazuki. Jealous of Hikari's success, Mita tries to show her up any way she can.
• His and Her Circumstances: Yukino Miyazawa, the main character, puts on the facade of being a perfect honor student because she loves being praised and told she's special. Only her parents and sisters know that at home she's hilariously selfish and vain, while devoting herself so completely toward perfecting herself that she doesn't have a social life or any close connections outside of her family. She was like that ever since kindergarten, when she discovered that adults would pay attention to her and her peers would look up to her if she excelled in school. Her Love Interest Arima is the first person outside her family who finds out what she's really like and accepts her anyway, causing her to start dropping her act in front of other people as she becomes more comfortable in her own skin.
• Mayu from Kaguya Hime often pretends to be sick and faints on the spot to get attention.
• Downplayed in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Fujiwara loves being the center of attention and relishes any chance she gets to be in the spotlight to the point that she temporarily defects to Miko's campaign during the reelection arc because of the latter's Hero Worship, but she never actively seeks it or forces others to give it to her.
• The Luchadora Castor, a.k.a. Rachel Stanley, in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, absolutely must be the center of attention of all times. If someone is receiving more spotlight than her, no depth is too low to sink to in order to steal it back. She goes as far as to listen to Ma Kensei's advice on what to do.
  • Early on, Chihiro Takashima, the captain and former ace of the Koryou Gymnaststics Club clearly relished in her status of being admired by everyone, until Miu came along. She spends the rest of her appearances trying (and failing) to regain her former position, even if it means trying to get Miu in trouble or humiliate her.
• The Unused Character from Kill Me Baby was originally going to be a important character, but ended up useless. Ever since then, she always tries to find Yasuna and Sonya in order to take revenge on them.
• Kyouka from Kyouran Kazoku Nikki who wants, no demands, to be worshiped as a god.
• Mazinger Z:
  • Sayaka constantly demanded to be the center of attention. Justified because her father was Married to the Job so she tried to show him that she was capable of helping him, and no one valued her unless she proved her worth.
  • Her younger cousin Yuri was a cranky, loud, attention-seeking brat who wanted everyone to pay attention to her. It's also justified, since her parents were always too busy to look after her.
• Kashima from Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun joined the Drama club because she loves getting attention so much. When not on stage, she can be found cutting practice to flirt with other girls, getting weirdly competitive about things, and acting spoiled and needy whenever she thinks someone is threatening her position as the most beloved figure at Roman Academy (especially in the eyes Club President Hori). A relatively benign example, as she's otherwise a nice girl.
• The titular character of Naruto starts out as one of these as a result of the extreme social isolation he suffered from being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. People would actively try to ignore and avoid him, but by acting out and playing pranks he could bring some attention his way, even if it was negative. He mostly gets over this once he makes real friends.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka Langley Sohryu is desperate for attention due to deeply-ingrained insecurities caused by her mother's psychotic break, subsequent murder-suicide with the doll she called "Asuka", and her father's abandonment. She needs that people acknowledges her existence because otherwise she feels worthless. Her Rebuild of Evangelion self is notably not this, possibly her backstory is significantly different. She doesn't really seem to care if anyone pays attention to her at all and her attempts to show off in battle are mostly to prove she doesn't need anyone's help rather than to show off.
• One Piece:
  • Dressrosa introduces "White Horse" Cavendish, a Bishounen pirate who was all the rage and loved every minute of it. That is, until the antics of Luffy and the rest of the Eleven Supernovas at Sabaody and Marineford overshadowed him. Now he wants to kill them for making him old news. Luffy himself points out how stupid this grudge is. Even possessing a Superpowered Evil Side, normally considered a bad thing, doesn't bother Cavendish because it results in even more attention coming to him. In spite of all of that, however, he's an overall good guy, especially after Usopp saves his life, resulting in him giving up his grudge and becoming Luffy's ally.
  • Charlotte Flampe prides herself in being the most popular of Big Mom's children, and dreams of being praised by Katakuri, the family's most powerful warrior. In an attempt to get his approval, she interferes in his fight with Luffy by shooting the latter with darts while he's trying to dodge Katakuri's attacks, leaving him wide open to Katakuri impaling him. After Katakuri realizes what happened, he skewers himself with his own spear as Flampe tries to glomp him and splatters blood on her face, angrily telling her not to interfere. In response to seeing her brother's mouth on top of all that, Flampe swears to make him pay for humiliating her and for not living up to her standards. Not that either Luffy or Katakuri give a rat's ass what she thinks, if them shutting her up with a clash of Conqueror's Haki is any indication.
• Petralka from Outbreak Company demands constant attention. Often from Shinichi.
• The Ax-Crazy Intention of the Abyss from PandoraHearts certainly qualifies. She gets angry when no one listens to her, and even kills a chain because it INTERRUPTS her while she's talking. At which point, she goes psycho and starts laughing and dancing in the blood. She is conceited and vain to the point where she even tries to lure away the main character from his chain, Alice the B-rabbit, simply out of jealousy.
• Sae from Peach Girl. This is pretty much what drives her to do everything in her power to undermine Momo because she's jealous of Momo for gaining the attention of their sought after Bishōnen classmates Kairi and Toji, and she wants to remain the most popular girl in school. In fact, she gets extremely nervous whenever it appears Momo is the focus of their classmates attention.
• In Pokémon: The Series, Team Rocket's very own Jessie LOVES being the center of attention, which is why she decides to compete in Pokémon Contests and Showcases, and gets really angry when the reflectors aren't on her.
• One of the possible interpretations of Autor in Princess Tutu. Although he comes across as a loner, he sets up a dramatic meeting with Fakir and quickly offers him his knowledge of Drosselmeyer, seeming rather giddy about the chance to get to show off. On top of that, when he runs into Rue and is instantly attracted to her, he flirts with her by... talking about himself and how great he is. He even has several cameos showing him yelling at people in the library to be quiet, and quite possibly making even more noise than the offenders were. He seems to have an inferiority complex, which doesn't help.
• Real Account's Ayame Kamijou reveals she is this when her team has to pacify the giant "Attention-Chan" robot before it explodes. In Ayame's case, she came to rely on her brother's attention excessively when her classmates started ignoring her, even to the point of obsessing about him texting her and constantly clinging on him. She even continues seeking his attention after he essentially leaves her for dead to save himself. Attention-Chan is actually also an attention seeking middle aged man, who started pretending to be a girl online after his wife left him so he felt supported and doted on. Ayame's own 'expertise' proves to be a method of victory, and she admits it is something she needs to work on.
• Both Shiori Takatsuki and Kozue Kaoru of Revolutionary Girl Utena have shades of this. And of course, Nanami Kiryuu.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Probably the motivation behind Nozomu's attempts at suicide every action. There's also Nami Hito, but her Attention Whore tendencies only really show in her first appearance, in which she tries all kinds of gimmicks to gain pity and attention from her classmates (culminating with a threat of suicide). They all fail, of course.
  • This is pretty much proven when it's revealed that everything in Nozomu's suicide kit is designed to not kill him, and that he regularly goes to the gym to strengthen his neck to survive his frequent hanging attempts.
  Nozomu: *after an attempt to save him from hanging himself nearly kills him anyway* What if I had died!?
• Panda from Shirokuma Cafe. Once he heard a magazine was coming to check out the cafe, he starts preening in hopes of getting interviewed and his picture taken. He also tries out different jobs at the zoo and returns to his original job after seeing how many compliments Llama received for portraying Panda, and has gotten angry at how much attention Shirokuma received compared to him when the gang go to the beach.
• Slam Dunk: Hanamichi Sakuragi's biggest flaw is this.
• Black☆Star from Soul Eater. An early chapter has him claiming he's the protagonist, when the actual main character is not an Idiot Hero like him, but Badass Bookworm Maka.
• Spy X Family: <Daybreak>, a rival spy to <Twilight>/Loyd Forger (well, wanna-be, Unknown Rival to be specific) is a complete idiot of an Overt Operative who seeks being recognized as the greatest spy ever above all. His Establishing Character Moment says everything: breaking into Anya's school to sabotage some tests (while Forger is doing that himself) and deciding to sign the sabotaged texts (an act of such blatant stupidity that Loyd breaks his disguise's character to call -or rather yell- it out). <Daybreak> only gets away with these acts because he is a very, very lucky bastard.
• Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note: Wakatake is noted to "like to stand out" in the official character bios. A more specific example would be at the end The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows arc, when he lost the chance to make a press conference over the pork contamination of burger patties (owing to the company in question declared a recall themselves), he ends up in a Corner of Woe...
  Uesugi: The case is solved. What's the problem?
  Kuroki: The problem is Wakatake the Great didn't get his time in the spotlight.
  Uesugi: In other words, the problem is with Wakatake's character.
• Origami Cyclone in Tiger & Bunny (at least, the superhero persona; Ivan himself is more of the shy type.) Because his powers, while useful for more stealth and espionage-related activities, are useless in the world of theatrical heroics, he's unable to do much crimefighting on Hero TV. Fortunately, since Hero TV is as much about corporate sponsorship and Product Placement as it is fighting crime, his sponsors find a different use for him: constant photo-bombing.
• Saki from To Love Ru. It never works, as Lala keeps inadvertently upstaging her.
• Ami from Toradora! is behaving like this for Ryuuji, at the beginning.
• Wasteful Days of High School Girls:
  • Yamai loves being the center of attention. It's been speculated that her Chuunibyou nature is a side-effect of this, as she hams it up to get views and likes on social media.
  • Lily loves being the center of attention, and the manga makes it clear that it's part of the reason why she hangs out with Majime so much (the other reason being that she has a crush on her).
• Misaki from Welcome to the NHK. In the manga, when the self-inflicted cigarette burns on her arm don't impress her schoolmates, Misaki cuts her wrist to get attention.
• Haguro Dou from Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest wants main character Inugami Akira to pay attention to him on a very disturbing level.
• Kanon the Idol Singer from The World God Only Knows is a dramatic example of this who isn't in it for the attention in and of itself, having spent much of her school life being completely ignored, later finding fame and a sense of worth by joining an idol trio, then breaking out as a solo act.

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