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Breakout Character / Anime & Manga

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Breakout Character in Anime & Manga.

  • Aggretsuko:
    • In the shorts, Fenneko became massively popular for her deadpan comedy delivery. This has since lead her to become a bigger player in the Netflix adaptation.
    • Haida is likely the most popular character of the series since the Netflix Adaptation. His endearing personality, his unlucky romance with Retsuko and the comedy and cuteness he brings to the show have made him gain increasing focus through the seasons, with Season 3 basically putting him in the Deuteragonist role officially.
  • Attack on Titan's Levi is beloved by the fanbase, even more so than the main characters. Thanks to his incredible fighting prowess and ability to curbstomp some of the strongest Titans, along with his monotonic insulting voice, Levi started appearing on just about every piece of AoT merchandise, got his own light novel spinoff, and most likely will stick around as one of the franchise's most popular characters.
  • Heavy Cruiser Takao from Arpeggio of Blue Steel proved so popular that along with Iona she's pretty much the face of the series (from promotional materials, you'd be fooled into thinking she was the main character). In fact, her massive popularity surprised even the manga's creators and they had to radically change their plans for her as a result. It's gotten to the point that she even has her own spin-off (Salty Road), which chronicles her misadventures while she's separated from the main plot.
  • Beastars: Louis the Red Deer was initially intended to be a completely unlikeable Hate Sink who gets killed off in volume 2. However, the editors demanded that creator Paru Itagaki keep him in the story, and he gradually usurped Haru's role as the deuteragonist, though he remains a Base-Breaking Character even now. By the second half of the manga, he had done this so completely that when the final chapter was named "The story of a Wolf and a Rabbit" to signify that although it will continue without us, the story of Legosi and Haru is far from over, it comes across as Blatant Lies more than poetic.
  • Case Closed:
    • Kaito Kid is an interesting example, he was originally the protagonist of his own manga that had no relationship with this series but once Gosho Aoyama decided to add him for a Crossover episode his popularity exploded and became much more popular that he ever was in his original series (which now has Canon Welding with Case Closed), consistently been ranked as the 2nd most popular character in the series behind only Conan himself. The only time he wasn't ranked second was when he was ranked first. Leading to him appearing regulary in the manga since then and being a central character in seven of the movies. His popularity in Case Closed also lead to his original manga getting two anime adaptations.
    • Ai Haibara. Introduced later in the manga than other characters, Ai quickly became one of the most important characters in the series, and gained more screentime as a result. She is also very well-loved by fans thanks to her personality and the Ship Tease with Conan. She consistently outranks Ran, the female lead, in popularity polls.
    • Shuichi Akai was introduced as a Red Herring for the Vermouth Arc but quickly overshadowed the other two more prominent suspects of the same arc in therms of popularity for being a Friendly Sniper with Improbable Aiming Skills and a Badass Strategist. The following arcs expanded much more on his backstory and turned him into a central character of the manga, to the point of a recap movie being made focused on his family backstory. He's also a central character in at least 3 of the movies.
    • Subverted with Natsuki Koshimizu, who quickly became an Ensemble Dark Horse after her debut case which almost lead to her becoming this, enough for talks about her starring a videogame to be proposed. However, given she was the criminal of that particular case, Aoyama refused and never brought back the character again.........that didn't stop him from adding later on the manga the Suspiciously Similar Substitute Masumi Sera and turning her into a recurring character.
    • Tōru Amuro. He was introduced Chapter 793 of the manga but since then gained a huge fanbase on his own. He now has his own SpinOff manga, was turned into a prominent character of Police Academy Wild Police Story and three movies with him as a central character. The first of these in particular, with him as a major player in it, opened at #1 just a week after it premiered in theatres.
  • Code Geass: Jeremiah Gottwald was supposed to die early in the series' run, but proved to be so popular that he was allowed to survive and become a more important character than originally planned.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Muichiro Tokito, the Mist Hashira, had no real presence early in the series, and accordingly for the first official popularity poll in Japan he was ranked very low. Come the Swordsmith Village arc coupled with the Infinite Castle arc, and Muichiro’s popularity skyrocketed in Japan—his fleshed out backstory, character and deeds made him a fan favorite among many (women in particular latched on his cute appearance), resulting in Muchiro growing to become the series' 3rd most popular character in the 2nd official manga popularity pool, being the 2nd most popular Hashira only behind Giyu. With that, Muichiro has gotten plenty of dedicated merchandise ever since, official or otherwise.
  • Doushitemo Furetakunai: Onoda, the best friend of the main characters, was a popular enough character that the author mentions in her notes that it is the reason why there's an entire spin-off focused on him set a little while after Shima and Togawa get together and Onoda realizes he is interested in Shima.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Vegeta was originally supposed to be just the Big Bad for the Saiyan saga, but proved to be so popular among the fans that Toriyama continued using him and turned him into the Anti-Hero as a result.
    • Frieza. He is often cited as one of the best and most important villains in the franchise. His popularity has reached such a point that is remembered on several occasions, including in the film Battle of Gods. He would later take center stage as the villain of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', and then brought back for the Universe Survival arc of Dragon Ball Super.
    • Speaking of Battle of Gods, the movie's antagonist, Beerus, has become a recurring character, with him having an important role in the story of Dragon Ball Xenoverse: the first Dragon Ball Z game to feature an original story in a while. He also plays a role in the next movie Resurrection 'F'. He also plays a role in Super as one of the main characters.
    • Cooler is a breakout movie character, and shares his brother's popularity. He is the first Non-Serial Movie villain to be brought back for a second film and appears in a large number of Video Games and fan work. The fact that he is a Benevolent Boss, a rarity for a Dragon Ball villain, sure helps.
    • Broly surpasses even Cooler in this regard. The non-(manga) canon Monster of the Week in one of the movies proved so popular that not only did he get two more movies as the antagonist, but is now practically guaranteed to show up in every tie-in video game, regardless of whether or not he fits into the story. He eventually became a Canon Immigrant and was made the villain of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. His English voice actor, Vic Mignogna, has a love-hate relationship with this. He likes Broly as a character, but doing the voice is hell on his vocal chords.
    • Bardock, father of Goku, was an anime creation for a special going into detail the events that led up to the destruction of Planet Vegeta. The special was well received, and Bardock was actually so well liked by Toriyama that he actually included him in the manga. Years down the line, Bardock became more heavily featured in the video games and eventually got a spinoff manga and OVA where he got to turn Super Saiyan too.
    • Future Trunks was a well-received combination of badass and Pretty Boy, but was only featured in one arc. To compensate, he was given his own origin story special and allowed to star in several non-serial movies, and Dragon Ball GT had present-day Trunks at the same age as Future Trunks as one of the main characters. He later got his own Spin-Off game Shin Budokai: Another Road, which wasn't very well received, but then became the Deuteragonist of the much more deserving Dragon Ball Online and Dragon Ball Xenoverse, complete with a new sword. In Dragon Ball Super, he gets his own arc and an unique transformation.
  • Mavis Vermillion from Fairy Tail. Right out of the gate from her introduction, she was loved for being a Little Miss Badass with an amusing personality, and frequently being a topic of Wild Mass Guessing in the series (especially with her implied connection to Zeref) only increased interest in her, until she became a central character in the series starting with the revelation that she's a Living MacGuffin in the Tartaros arc. Eventually, she received her own origin story Spin-Off called Fairy Tail Zero, which itself became so popular that it received its own anime adaptation. By the time the Alvarez Empire arc rolled around and her tragic history with Zeref was revealed, she's gotten almost as much screen time as the main characters.
  • Gundam:
  • For Hayate the Combat Butler, Hinagiku Katsura is pretty much the most dominating force in the series. In both official and unofficial popularity polls, she has routinely trounced the entire cast — she was once only a dozen or so votes short of beating second, third, and fourth place combined. It was considered a huge upset when a character in the third official manga poll actually got just half the votes Hinagiku got. In addition to a lot of character development and truly massive amounts of Ship Tease with Hayate, Hinagiku has become more woven into the serious plot of the story and her birthday arc gave her one of the longer and more emotive story arcs of the manga. By now she is considered a main character in her own right and is the go-to character when Hayate needs help.
    • Hinagiku managed to be the most popular character of the first anime as well despite it having little relation to the manga and keeping her in a supportive role with much more focus on the wackier characters of the series. The second anime even returned to the manga story to cover her birthday arc, with her VA Shizuka Itō getting to sing the ending theme. It's since been pretty much a tradition to use Hinagiku and her Will They or Won't They? with Hayate to market for the series, even for the movie and third anime where she was left Out of Focus. Her one episode in the third anime had the characters saying it was the episode all the fans were waiting for. The fourth anime even went so far as to have Shizuka Itō sing the opening theme with the animation essentially billing Hinagiku as the main character, appearing more than the actual main characters and beginning and ending with her, and she was given scenes that weren't in the chapters being covered.
    • Generally, if there is merchandise of a character, Hinagiku's version always comes out first or there only exists a Hinagiku version of it. While every character got one or two image songs for the anime, Hinagiku got that and three full character albums with Shizuka Itō even doing special live performances and doing a full cover of Cruel Angel's Thesis inserted into the episode where Hinagiku had to sing it in the manga. The actual Idol Singer introduced later in the series only got one after Hina's third album came out, and both were given a Crossover album with The World God Only Knows (represented by their Tsundere and Idol Singer Haqua and Kanon).
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Despite the first two Parts of the series not being all that well-known to the general public, Robert E. O. Speedwagon still remains not only the most iconic character of the Parts, but also one of the most iconic characters in the entire series. This popularity eventually led to him returning as one of the main characters of Eyes of Heaven.
    • While Dio Brando may already be the series' quintessential Breakout Villain, his Stand, The World, may actually be even more iconic than he is, largely thanks to the Memetic Mutation surrounding the Stand. This eventually led to it making a return in Steel Ball Run, as well as getting a new form as The World Over Heaven in Eyes of Heaven.
    • Rohan Kishibe from Diamond is Unbreakable is possibly the only supporting character to be more popular than the Part's protagonist, eventually leading to him getting his own spin-off manga.
    • Hol Horse started out as a standard Villain of the Week in Stardust Crusaders (one that underwent severe Villain Decay at that), but became popular enough with fans to costar in his own spin-off story thirty years since his last appearance in the main manga.
  • Mutsumi Otohime from Love Hina. Originally introduced as a one-shot character, she would later go on to become the tritagonist and the one responsible for Keitaro and Naru's Childhood Marriage Promise.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Fate Testarossa. Originally The Dragon of the first series, her interplay with Nanoha after they joined forces proved so popular, the two of them were made equal partners starting from season two, and she is essentially a co-protagonist from then on.
    • Vivio, a Mysterious Waif who was introduced half-way into Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Many of the mostly Yuri Genre loving fandom Squeed at the prospect of Nanoha and Fate having a daughter, while others Squeed at the possibility of Nanoha having a Magical Girl successor. Her popularity and the producers taking advantage of it becomes apparent when you realize that she's the only civilian to get a figure and that she joins the three Aces fielding questions in the third Megami Sound Stage. One and a half years later, one of the two fourth seasons of Nanoha was announced: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, a manga starring Vivio.
    • Nanoha herself was originally a very minor character from Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever. She proved popular enough to get her own game, and soon afterwards — a Spin-Off show. The original concept of the show was a straight up Magical Girl series until somebody in the staff commented about her design resemblance to a Gundam. The creators took the idea and ran with it, packing the show to the brim with Magitek, tense battles that wouldn't look out of place if mages were substituted with Humongous Mecha, and, as the seasons progressed, an increasing number of Military Science Fiction and Space Opera elements. And for Nanoha herself, she is now one of the most iconic and widely recognizable Magical Girls, and by a large margin the most badass. Very few people realize that she was originally a supporting character in another series that they most likely never even heard about.
  • Made in Abyss: Nanachi the snarky genderless rabbit-person was introduced as something of a diversion when the manga's popularity was waning. Their tragic backstory and general quirkiness not only made them a big hit with the fans, but also revived sales of the manga. When the anime adaptation came out, Nanachi got three official figurines before either of the original protagonists got one.
  • Martian Successor Nadesico had Ruri "Former Trope Namer for Little Miss Snarker" Hoshino, a Bridge Bunny whose popularity was such that it was even noted in the anime itself (Ruri figure doll by the in-universe otaku, anyone?). Once The Movie rolled around, guess which character had replaced Akito as the main character?
  • Medaka Box:
    • Kumagawa Misogi is a truly outstanding example of this. Introduced as The Dreaded several chapters before his appearance as the second big bad, he then proceeds to be essentially the biggest, most destructively psychopathic troll the series had seen up to that point. However, through a combination of interesting character traits and fourth wall breaking humor he rocketed to the top of the second character poll, beating out the second place character (Kurokami Medaka, the main character) by several times the amount votes. His pinup in the poll results has him crying tears of joy at finally winning (and, probably, achieving his wish to see all the female characters in naked aprons). He's even getting his own spin-off!
    • Naze Youka also qualifies to a lesser extent. Originally just a member of the Class 13, once it was revealed she was the older sister to the titular character, her significance continued to increase, as well as her popularity. She's now Vice-President of the Student Council.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Plenty of Class 1-A students have become breakout characters, such as Eijiro Kirishima, Tsuyu Asui (see below), Denki Kaminari, Hanta Sero, and pretty much the female ensemble of the class.
      • Tsuyu Asui immediately won over fans because of her cute looks, her blunt personality, and her Big Damn Heroes moment during the USJ Arc. Her popularity gave her a bonus chapter of the manga going into her backstory, gave her some Ship Tease with Deku in the first OVA, and got her a focus episode in the anime's second season, showcasing her internship that was only mentioned in the manga.
      • Hitoshi Shinso, a character who only played a small role as Midoriya's first opponent during the Sports Festival, became very popular thanks to his cool, highly useful Quirk, sympathetic backstory and motives, and his Creepy Good appeal. He placed twelfth and fourteenth in the first and second popularity poll, respectively, despite the fact he's only made a cameo or two since the Sports Festival. Word of God has hinted Shinso will be back in future updates, with a major part to play. This eventually comes to pass when he gets the focus of the Joint Training Arc, as well as play a key role in the lead up to the final battle.
  • Naruto:
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu. The story centers around Shinji, and is told from his point of view. However, Rei and Asuka were popular and attractive enough to inspire a whole bunch of similar characters in anime and manga, and have become the most prominently marketed human characters for the series and possibly for Gainax as a whole.
    • Kaworu Nagisa. In the original anime, he only appears for one episode, and is then killed off by Shinji, however, his heartfelt relationship with Shinji (which to this day has a hold in both Yaoi Fangirls and LGBT Fanbase) which is arguably the healthiest in the Dysfunction Junction of the show, his design, and personality as a charming yet otherworldly boy made him a massive fan-favorite character. Subsequently, he would become a staple of the series, with him becoming a much more major character and getting focus on the movies and side-material of the franchise like video games, as well as getting plenty of merchandise.
  • No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!
    • Yuri Tamura. Introduced as the Only Sane Man of the Kyoto arc she quickly became one of the most popular if not the most popular character of the manga for serving as a very realistic depiction of a socially inept introvert that served as a a contrast to the Creepy Loner Girl of our protagonist, enough for her to become the second most prominent character in the manga besides Tomoko during the 3rd year chapters. In the 10th anniversary of the series she actually got first place in the character polls.
    • Sachi spent nearly the entire series as a Satellite Character to Minami to the point where she had the typical design used for unimportant mob characters. After her prominent role in Minami's own story arc late in the third year her popularity exploded for being a a genuine Alpha Bitch with a domineering and manipulative edge to her that's actually pretty chilling in a manga where most people are generally pretty nice and those who aren't tend to be a Butt-Monkey, and she's gone from a tertiary character at best to having a prominent role in most of the subsequent chapters.
  • In Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, the resident snow girl yokai, Tsurara Oikawa, during the series’ original Japanese run in Weekly Shounen Jump quickly became popular among readers who eventually made sure to get Tsurara to rank high in the magazine’s official popularity polls, going on to become the female character with the most votes by the final poll; all of that can be seen with Tsurara’s presence in the series growing as it went, early on in the manga she was mostly a supporting character, by the end of it she had as much panel-time as several other main characters, which she by then was one of, in fact, by the end of the manga Tsurara is effectively the girl who the series protagonist, Rikuo, has associated with the most.
  • The anime version of Nurse Angel Ririka SOS features an original enemy character, Dewey, and at first the writers intended to kill him off pretty unceremoniously at the end of the first arc. But his fun attitude and pretty looks went over well with viewers and the writers kept incorporating him into stories in the next arc, making him steadily more appealing as they went. They planned more dramatic deaths for him, but ultimately he doesn't die at all. Instead, he does a Heel–Face Turn and becomes a Sixth Ranger, getting a major Redemption Promotion in the process.
  • One Piece:
    • Chopper - most likely due to him being the most marketable character. (So much so, some believe 4kids skipped arcs just to get to Chopper so they could rake in the cash.) What really brought him out was the Chopperman bits - so much so that he now has his own spinoff manga series! He's a relatively mild example, as he was intended to be one of the (currently) ten main characters from the start,but the author probably didn't expect him to become that iconic. And the irony is that in-universe, he is merely thought of as the Straw Hat Crew's pet, only getting a bounty after Enies Lobby of 50 berries, later raised to an equally unimpressive 100 berries, highlighting how unimportant the Marines consider him.note  If only they knew...
    • Besides Chopper, there's also Zoro and Sanji - the two most popular and strongest characters after Luffy; the former has his own movie and the latter was voted 4th most popular character in the first character poll, despite being just only introduced, and shot up to third place soon after. Zoro and Sanji were both popular enough respectively to have one-shot manga spin-offs, Sanji getting a manga prequel by Yūto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki of Food Wars! fame and Zoro getting a manga recreation of his fight with Mihawk drawn by Boichi.
    • Portgas D. Ace, Luffy's older brother, has a disproportionately large fanbase compared to how little actual screentime he has in the main story. He was popular enough from the outset that the Alabasta anime expanded his role and kept him around for longer - and by the time he appeared again, he never failed to make it to the top ten favorite characters. Despite being long since dead after the Marineford arc and having Sabo inherit his Playing with Fire powers, Ace still somehow made it to fifth place in the seventh character poll. Eiichiro Oda, recognizing Ace's popularity, has released a prequel novel series with Ace as the protagonist.
    • The bizarre and funny Wholesome Crossdresser Bentham (aka Mr. 2, Bon Clay) was a big hit for the show, earning him a major supporting role in the Impel Down arc and being spared from his Bolivian Army Ending. His voice actor was also such a big hit, Franky was specifically created so they could keep using his voice.
    • Boa Hancock. One of the Shichibukai and Amazon Lily's empress, she went from an antagonist to one of the most beloved characters of the franchise, mainly because of her appearance and her comical, hopeless, totally over-the-top crush on Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist. Notably, Hancock appears in both J-Stars Victory VS and Jump Force, despite not being a main female character like Nami or Robin.
    • Trafalgar Law, the Surgeon of Death, had a meteoric rise to popularity. When he was first introduced in Sabaody, he was liked well enough for his design, personality, and unique Devil Fruit powers, which earned him the 10-th spot on the character polls. Then he was reintroduced in the Time Skip during the Punk Hazard arc, given greater focus, and with his powers and backstory being explored, he earned even greater love from the fanbase. By the time of fifth character poll in Dressrosa, Law had achieved the unthinkable and superseded Zoro as second most popular character after Luffy, meaning he is without a doubt the Breakout Character of the series. And it's been reflected in his role in the story - usually the Straw Hats' friends who don't join the crew will go their separate ways once a story arc is over. But Luffy and Law's alliance has been the driving force behind the entire post-Fishman Island story, which includes the two longest story arcs in the manga to date.
    • Uta from One Piece Film: Red: only a few months post the original japanese theatrical release was needed to solidify Uta as the most popular One Piece movie character ever made. Toei, Bandai and Shueshia's immense aggressive marketing surrounding Uta actually worked with japanese audiences - she was carefully prepped up as a virtual idol, and coupled with the increasingly popular singer Ado providing all of Uta's songs, it earned Uta a fandom easily surpassing any other movie character in One Piece's portfolio and several mainline characters as well.
    • Yamato ranked as the 11-th most popular character in the entire series (as of the One Piece World Top-100 poll that collected votes globally), and this was before he had even fought with Kaido to any significant degree. Toei Animation took note of this and made a special announcement when revealing his voice actress, and has drawn out his scenes in the anime to draw his expressions more extensively and with greater focus. It was even suggested at a point he would end up invited to join the Straw Hats.
  • One-Punch Man: Tornado of Terror, Tatsumaki is the most popular character in the series aside from Saitama himself. Fan engagement is always very high whenever she appears in a new chapter of both the manga and web comic, with the manga specifically both expanding her role in the story and giving Tatsumaki more depth much earlier on than she received in her original appearances.
  • Osu! Karate Club: Anti-Hero Yoshiyuki Takagi from the manga was originally the mentor of the original main character, Tadashi Matsushita. Takagi became so popular with readers, that the author decided to make him the main character, reducing Matsushita to a supporting role.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica has the witch Charlotte. She only appeared in one episode...but what an episode it was. This, and her general cuteness, made her extremely popular among the fans to the point where she was even included in group shots as an unofficial extra mascot character. The creators noticed this and gave her an expanded role in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion. In fact, she changes back to her original human form and joins the other characters as a Sixth Ranger.
  • The Rose of Versailles was intended to be the story of Marie-Antoinette's life as the Dauphine and later Queen of France, and thus the manga begins with her birth and ends with her death. The female Royal Guard captain, Oscar, originally had more of a supporting role, but she became so popular with the manga's readers that she eventually took over the story's focus as the primary main character, with Marie Antoinette becoming more of a tritagonist. Later adaptations of the manga make Oscar the main protagonist from the start.
  • The Gold Saints, from Saint Seiya, serve primarily as the ultimate obstacles for the heroes in the Twelve Houses Arc but, due to their popularity, their roles started to become more important as time passed by and more prequels where created to the point that they have perhaps surpassed the heroes in terms of screen-time (anime and manga combined) and became the protagonists of their own manga in Episode G (and Lost Canvas to some extent).
  • Yun of Simoun. Originally tripping all of the Sacrificial Lamb flags (not in the OP when the character that's introduced alongside her is, portrayed as a prideful, somewhat antisocial fool who refuses to listen to the wisdom of others, etc.), creators reacted to her unexpected popularity by giving her one of the most important roles in the story.
  • In 2006 Tsuji Santa drew an illustration of a busty pink-haired girl wearing headphones and sporting a guitar, that was just a poster to promote Nitro + Music Festival, nothing more. That poster grew to be immensely popular and Super Sonico was born, Nitro + saw marketing potential in her and started to invest in the character, figures, posters, music, manga, video games and anime were made, Super Sonico became one of Nitro + greatest brands, making her the official mascot for their music festivals, and made Tsuji Santa a more renowned artist who went on to create more characters in the same vein as Super Sonico.
  • The To Love Ru sequel, To Love Ru Darkness, took the secondary character and fan favorite Golden Darkness and promoted her to the co-protagonist position, alongside with Momo (character introduced more later in the first series) the steal the main heroine role to her big sister Lala.
  • Lum in Urusei Yatsura was supposed to be an One-Shot Character, but fans (and Takahashi's editor) loved her so she returned in the third chapter and became a Deuteragonist, love interest, and poster girl for the series. She is often believed to be the protagonist of the series due to her iconic status (even she thinks she's the protagonist in Ataru's place). In the Real Life she is become one of the most beloved and representative characters in the manga world.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!
    • A non-character example: the Duel Monsters card game, which was originally meant as just one of many games played throughout the series, but eventually became so popular that the series was given a Retool to make it the only game that mattered — even the few games played that weren't Duel Monsters were still about battling monsters. This carried over to the sequel series, where there's barely a hint of any other games.
    • For a character example, Seto Kaiba, who was made to be a one use enemy for the Duel Monsters chapter and got to come back as a larger villain due to popularity, then as one of the most important characters after that, tied to the Pharaoh's backstory itself.
    • Pegasus. Despite being dead in the original manga, in the anime he was so popular that they kept him alive. He returns in several cameo appearances in GX, even getting to duel again, he's the Big Bad of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction video game, and he features in two mainstream movies. By contrast, Yami Bakura and Marik tend to get plot-irrelevant fights or cameos in video games.
    • The most famous card is the Dark Magician Girl. She became one of Dark Yugi's key cards, she makes appearances in all the spin-offs in some way or another, and has a lot of alternate art cards and Expies. No other card aside from the Dark Magician or Blue Eyes can make such boasts, and even then, they never got to be a playable character in some of the video games, but she did, and in some others merchants in card store chains dress as her.
  • Hiei from YuYu Hakusho was originally meant to be a one-shot character (this is clear in his first appearance), but he proved so popular with fans that he was given another appearance — and continued to prove popular enough with fans to make him a main character, complete with his own plotlines and backstory.

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