Friend To All Children / Anime & Manga

People who are good with kids in anime and manga.

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A-F

• Mira of Asteroid in Love is very good with children. This is first seen in Chapter 22/Episode 7 and is lampshaded in Chapter 39 when the rest of the Earth Sciences Club notices the kids in a special event seem to like her a lot. Yuu vocally suspects whether Mira is actually One of the Kids, before she is shut up by Chikage.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts: Akihisa mentions at one point that kids really like him for "some reason;" Yuji remarks that it's probably because they can relate to him.
• Frowski the Crimson Bullet, from Beet the Vandel Buster, loves kids and animals... but only at a certain level of cuteness. After that, they're dead meat.
• Berserk, of all series plays with this concerning Guts of all people. Even though he's regularly a dick to anyone and everyone (including kids), it's usually for their own protection because he does not want to see them hurt. Despite (or because of) the emotional scars of his own horrific childhood and his gruff nature, children seem to love him. Unfortunately, considering the nature of the series, Wouldn't Hurt a Child is subverted horribly in the most graphic and heartbreaking way possible.
• Despite being a Fetishized Abuser, Kyo from Black Bird (2006) gets along very well with children. Taro adores him, to start.
• Black Bullet: This trope is one of the main reasons why Rentaro Satomi is well-liked among the cursed children. Unlike how society treats the cursed children, Rentaro treats the cursed children as equals and with kindness. Apparently, this is also one of the reasons why he maintains a good relationship with two of the main cursed children, Enju Aihara and Tina Sprout. When he initially met them, he treated them with kindness and respect and after a while, he was able to bring the happiness to Enju and Tina's lives that they never had.
• Asta from Black Clover. He and Yuno were the oldest kids at the church orphanage where they were raised, and his whole relationship with Rebecca is defined by failing to notice her crush in part because he's too busy playing with her younger siblings.
• In Black Lagoon, one of Rock's few real Berserk Buttons is someone abusing or harming a child. Even when Garcia Lovelace throws food at him or "Gretel" openly propositions him he'll do all he can to help them. Revy herself has this streak as well, particularly later on as more of Rock rubs off on her, but she is definitely not above hurting them if she is sufficiently provoked or thinks one of them has messed with Rock.
• Bleach:
  • Ukitake certainly seems to think he's good with kids but finds himself with stubborn and bad-tempered ones who are Really 700 Years Old — see Lilynette in canon (the Token Mini-Moe Arrancar who is trying to kill him), and the long-suffering Hitsugaya in omakes.
  • Despite him pretending to be a jerk, one of the best ways to get Ichigo really mad at you really fast is to pick on a little kid, and that applies pretty equally to humans, ghosts, and Hollows; witness his protectiveness of Nel in the Hueco Mundo arc. He's also a lot less gruff and snarky than usual around young children.
• Case Closed:
  • Dr. Hiroshi Agasa is the adult that the Detective Junior League gets along the best.
  • Ran Mouri is the Junior League's Cool Big Sis and they adore her as well.
  • Double Subverted by Sumiko Kobayashi, who adores children but due to some problems in her past, she pretended to be a Sadist Teacher and then secretly practiced how to handle them with dolls. Once her front was blown, she plays the trope as straight as it's possible.
• This is said to be Kakine's only redeeming quality in A Certain Magical Index. Half affable, half monster, but the one thing that can be said of him is that he will always help out a child in need.
• CLANNAD:
  • True to her Yamato Nadeshiko status, Sanae (Nagisa's mom) is very friendly and motherly to the kids she teaches at her cram school. She also helps a couple of lost children when on her "date" with Sunohara. She likes children so much, she even willingly bathes with Fuko and Mei.
  • Kyou becomes a kindergarten teacher in ~After Story~, where she gets along with all of her students — including Ushio, the daughter of Tomoya and Nagisa. Her pet boar, Botan, is also very nurturing towards the children.
• Galatea from Claymore is another orphanage operator. After abandoning the organization and blinding herself to make sure that they wouldn't pick up her yoki and find her, she hid in the holy city of Rabona and became a nun in the church. There, she started to take care of the orphans that were under the church's care. After a massive confrontation that revealed her identity as a claymore, who is forbidden from entering the holy city, the priests implored Galatea to stay, since the children loved her so much.  
• Daimos: Kazuya Ryuzaki is good with kids and has many young fanboys who idealize him for being a Super Robot pilot. Harming them activates his Berserk Button, as shown in an early episode when the Baam army kills one right in front of him and his Love Interest, Erika.
• Daltanious: Dr. Earl started off as a belligerent scientist who viewed humans as inferior to Heliosians like himself, but after being forced to put up with the hijinks of Kento Tate's wacky Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, he realizes that deep, down, he loves them, even if every other day he finds himself screaming at them for screwing around in the Adalus Base. One episode has Sanae introduce him to the nieghbourhood children, who have heard of his exploits from Kento, and all of them thank him and tell him they're inspired by him. One boy even presents him with a wooden doll he made of Daltanious, as a memento.
• Death Note's Sociopathic Hero L is presented in the spin-off L: change the WorLd as being very good with kids. Despite the fact he has No Social Skills, he's shown as being protective of the Whammy Orphans, acts a little nicer around them, and is seen talking to a group of kids and answering whatever questions they might have. In the canon continuity, Mello and Near both look up to him as a Big Brother Mentor so it's implied he might have been this to them in the anime and manga.
• Paul of Defense Devil, despite his thuggish looks and generally bad reputation around his town, is a total Tsundere for children, working down at the local daycare and is totally loved by all the children. When the children accidentally shoot and kill the daycare head Alice, he willingly frames himself for it, taking all the blame so that the children will both not feel responsible and also not get in trouble for it.
• Aron, the Sheriff of Planet Pokkoru from Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes, is a favorite among the children of his village, with scores of kids shouting "Aron's back! Aron's back!" and running up to him when he comes back.
• Durarara!!:
  • Shinra Kishitani is very good with small children. Since Shinra has a well-earned reputation of being a kinky pervert, even his friends assume the worst.
  • Shizuo Heiwajima, despite being the most feared man at Ikebukuro, has a very soft spot for children. After being tased by a 10-year-old girl who tried to kill him with a modified taser, Shizuo holds no grudge against the little girl and treats her more like a little sister/daughter instead. Somehow he's able to relate to children more than adults of his age.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Erza. When the titular Fairy Tail forms an alliance with some other guilds to take down a powerful enemy, one of the guilds only send a young girl, Wendy, to help. Most of the alliance members are protesting to have a child help them, however Erza is the only one to say to Wendy that she is glad to have her on their team. Later, when Wendy breaks down crying when realizing that her guild companions are nothing but an illusion, it's Erza who comforts Wendy and invites her to Fairy Tail. And Erza is the resident harsh, stoic badass of Fairy Tail.
  • The guild's drunk, Canna. She used to live at an orphanage run by a priest when she first joined fairy tail as a little girl, and she visits every week to play with the younger children; this is also revealed in an omake were she takes Wendy with her so that the shy Wendy will learn how to interact with children her own age.
  • Master Makarov considers all the members of his guild to be his children, will actually go to war if anyone dares hurt any of them, and he and the guild took in many of the main characters when they were little and raised them. In addition, when he had to banish his biological son Ivan, he took responsibility for raising Ivan's son Laxus. (However, with how Laxus turned out, Makorov appropriately wonders where he went wrong with raising him.)
  • Natsu; Romeo Conbolt looks up to him as a big brother figure and learns rainbow fire magic after Natsu disappears for seven years during the first time skip; he also later starts dressing like him after he comes back. Natsu and Gageel are more or less Wendy's unofficial big brothers, but it's especially prominent with Natsu, who Wendy admired and wanted to meet prior to her introduction; she also secretly admits that she learned how to use her dragon slayer magic by watching and copying him.
  • Natsu and Lucy take care of the child of two guildmates, Asuka, for a day. Later, he helps Asuka shoot down some flying bandits who stole a trinket from her, letting her believe that it was her accomplishment. When Lucy sees Natsu's shooting accuracy, she realizes that despite his earlier bluster, he had let Asuka win the shooting contest.
• Fatal Fury: When Terry Bogard first sees Lily Maguire after many years, she introduces herself to him as a playful and sexy seductress who drinks quite a bit of alcohol offers to stay all night long with the man who catches her favorite red rose. However, he soon sees that she's got Hidden Depths - by catching her interacting with a bunch of Street Urchins, to whom she gives food, money, and kind words.
• Fate/Grand Order: Gilgamesh is shown in the 7th singularity to be very popular with the children of Uruk and every adult iteration of the character is shown to be nice to them. Even in the original Visual Novel Gilgamesh has moments being good with children. Although in true Gilgamesh fashion he has a reason for this.
• A defining trait of any of the heroes in Fist of the North Star. Kenshiro himself is one of the most famous Papa Wolves in anime and manga, but the biggest examples are Fudoh and Shu.
• Makoto Tachibana from Free! is shown to be very good with kids, particularly his younger siblings Ran and Ren. In Episode 8 of the second season, he becomes a temporary swimming coach to a group of children and does a pretty good job of it, even helping one of the children to overcome his fear of swimming.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, the normally stoic Riza Hawkeye develops an immediate affinity for Winry Rockbell and the Elric brothers, and continues to offer them kindness and support throughout the series. This is shown in an especially grim light at the end of the war flashback, when she's shown making a grave for an abandoned Ishbalan child.
• In the Full Metal Panic!: Overload! manga, Sousuke is shown to be a huge child magnet. He doesn't particularly like children (and, being the paranoid Crazy Survivalist he is, always suspects them to be spies of the enemy), but they love him. All of them love his over-the-top way of doing things, and think his Drill Sergeant Nasty attitude is awesome. His ward Kaname, on the other hand, likes children. However, none of them seem to like her.
  • In Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, there was that gang leader's younger brother (who was in elementary school), who seemed to really like Sousuke, calling him an "interesting guy." Sousuke did bribe him for his cooperation, but... the kid really liked him even without all that.

G-M

• Gakuen Babysitters has The Protagonist, Ryuuichi, who is stated through the manga to be the "ideal onii-chan". His talent with children is better shown in a chapter where a crying baby stops crying just because he is being held by him. All children at the daycare also look up to him and consider him their big brother.
• The titular character of GAMERA -Rebirth- is the Trope Namer, and it shows in this series. He goes out of his way multiple times to lead or force any evil monsters away from the children under his protection, even at the cost of taking injuries. This even gets to the point where he catches a crashing shuttle they're in and takes the brunt of the impact for them despite the fact that he's badly injured, putting him in a near death state.
• Gintoki from Gintama definitely qualifies. He busted up the illegal gladiator ring in order to avenge the fallen gladiator, who took in many orphans and was trying to run away from the gladiator ring with those children, and fought against the entire underground city and its boss (who is from one of the strongest races in the universe) so one child could reunite with his mother.
• Gundam:
  • All Princess Marina Ismail has done since the beginning of the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 was comforting and taking care of the (orphaned) children at the La Résistance base. Makes more or less sense, considering that these kids are from her kingdom. Which was swiftly destroyed by Ali Al Saachez.
  • Lacus Clyne and Kira Yamato were running an orphanage in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. Reverend Malchio of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED also counts.
  • For a 20-year-old young man that was raised by wolves and is horrible at socializing with other adults (in a way that doesn't involve punching something), Mobile Fighter G Gundam's Domon Kasshu is surprisingly good with kids ("Domon, since when have you started babysitting?"). Then again, given that he more or less has the social skills of a ten-year-old, maybe it does make some sense. He gets a Papa Wolf moment in the first episode, though he denies caring later. When one of the local thugs tries to mistreat a kid in front of him, the next scene is of that guy flying backwards out of the door at high speed.
• Bean Bandit from Gunsmith Cats, it gets pointed out to him rather abruptly in Riding Bean when the villain turns her own accomplice into a hostage.
  "You have a serious character flaw. What matters to you is not whether it's friend or foe, but whether or not it's a kid."
• Haganai: Yozora, for all of her flaws, actually has a soft spot for children, going so far as to put up with Maria's bratty attitude while she tried to politely ask for her permission to lend her favorite naptime room to the Club before finally losing her patience. She is also shown to be protective of Kobato, and is often the first to try to keep Sena in check.
• Curiously, Haruhi Suzumiya seems to get along very well with children. She adores Kyon's little sister and is also seen playing joyfully with children in the pool during the Endless Eight arc.
• Hayate the Combat Butler's Hayate finds comfort in the fact that kids like him, even to the point of suggesting off-handedly becoming a kindergarten teacher after Isumi states she likes him, despite the fact that the 'kids' are only three years younger than him. This is on top of his Unwanted Harem, since it also includes Wataru. Hayate isn't a Gentle Giant though Papa Wolf tendencies may play a part.
• HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: If she is not busy brooding, Yuri Tsukikage/Cure Moonlight gets along very well with children that're below junior high age and is protective of them, a sign that she's not just your typical Aloof Ally. When she warms up and eventually joins the team, there's also an episode where the team get into a daycare, and Yuri absolutely steals the 'caring' spotlight from the owner, tending and getting along with the children better than her. This unfortunately causes the owner to get turned into a Desertrian.
• The Countess of Wellington from Hello! Sandybell. She befriends Sandybell by giving her a white lily and allows the children of Scotland to help her tend to the garden. One can imagine that if she was still alive, she would be furious to find out her husband was attempting to force her son into an Arranged Marriage.
• Alexander Anderson, from Hellsing, operates an orphanage where he raised some of Iscariot's members, including Enrico Maxwell, Heinkel Wolfe, and Yumie Takagi. In fact, when we first see him in the OVA, he is breaking up a fight between two children, telling them that "Violence is never the right answer, except when used against heathens and monsters."
• Issei Hyodou from Highschool DXD is shown to be an absolute sweetheart when it comes to children and/or his younger friends. He's very protective of his first year teammates Koneko and Gasper, forms a nice bond with the fox girl Kuno while swearing to find her kidnapped mom and he even once stopped by just to sign an autograph to one of his younger fans, despite it being closing hours, all just because he could.
• Infinite Dendrogram: Due to his costume Shu Starling quickly becomes popular with the children in any town he visits and hands out candy when he can no longer play with them.
• Ino-Head Gargoyle: Saejima only interacts with two children over the course of the manga, but is always kind to them, and not just because one is his biological son.
• Inuyasha: Dead or alive, this is one of Kikyo's most defining traits.
• Implied with Shirogane in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. He's never actually shown interacting with any children during the course of the series, though the fact that he wants nine kids of his own implies that he enjoys being with them. One recurring A.U. in the Official Doujin also shows him to be quite adept as a kindergarten teacher.
• Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair: Jeanie cares for the children at the orphanage as if they're her own, going out of her way to meet their every needs and understanding the reasons behind their behaviour. She's ready to risk her life when they're missing. She encourages the rest of the townspeople to similarly treat the children with kindness. She's so beloved that the children beg her not to go when she's finished her job.
• Kaze no Shōjo Emily:
  • Jimmy Murray - when Emily is locked in a room by Aunt Elizabeth, Jimmy helps her out and plays with her, teaching her how to make butter. He also welcomes her friends into the garden.
  • Mr. Carpenter always encourages his students to learn and makes his classes fun. He also encourages Emily to follow her dreams of being a novelist.
• Apachai Hopachai, one of the teachers of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, is often playing with children and is able to be gentle with them despite having been trained to go all out whenever he fights. Because Apachai also goes all out when training Kenichi (nearly killing him more than once), he learns to relate training Kenichi with playing with those children in order to temper that tendency.
• Madoka Ayukawa in Kimagure Orange Road. While she has the reputation of a delinquent and comes across as harsh when someone pisses her off, she's an extremely selfless, kind-hearted Nice Girl, and very good with children. They easily love her, see her as a Cool Big Sis and don't fear her at all, in contrast to many older characters who judge her just based on rumours.
• The Kindaichi Case Files has Yoichi Takato, who is often seen entertaining children in the park with his magic performances and puppet shows, often ending his sessions by giving the kids snacks and other trinkets as gifts. However, given that Takato is otherwise a sociopathic Serial Killer who sees his killing spree as a form of art, it is unclear whether he has a genuine soft spot for children (note that none of his victims are children), or if this is just a crafted persona he puts up to hide under the authorities' radar.
• Kindergarten Wars: The teachers of Kindergarten Noir are all former crooks, but they are genuinely protective of the kids beyond the basic threat of death if they failed in their duties.
• Gwendal von Voltaire in Kyo Kara Maoh!. Goes along with his severe case of Cuteness Proximity; despite being a perpetually-grouchy stoic of the highest order, he has a weakness for anything small and cute, and is shown being unusually gentle toward children on multiple occasions.
• Lady!!: Minor character Sheikh Sharif. Baby Charles tries to climb on top of his head, and he welcomes him, not being bothered by the boy messing up his kaffiyeh.
• Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow:
  • The unnamed Aboriginal Australian man. He lives with a lot of children (it's unspecified if they're his kids or siblings) and teaches the Popple children how to fly a kite. He also saved Lucy-May when she fell into the river.
  • Frank Princeton. After finding an injured, amnesiac Lucy-May, Frank takes her to the Princeton estate and her treated by the family doctor. He allows Lucy-May to work at one of his farmlands, and both him and Sylvia grow attached to her.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Fate Testarossa-Harlaown who has a habit of saving, adopting, and befriending (not in that way) orphaned children.
  • Her Familiar Arf spends most of her time looking after Amy and Chrono's kids, and it's mentioned that she has done so for Erio and Caro in the past. She's also shown playing with Vivio in a flashback.
  • Zafira turned out to be one too. Sound Stage M4 revealed that he plays and teaches kids on his spare time, and used to give Hayate and Nanoha giant doggy rides when they were kids. Hayate was the envy of all the neighborhood kids due to that.
  • Subaru is good at giving presentations on rescue crew work to students, and enjoys spending time with Vivio. She also made friends with Ixpellia and was able to open Thoma's heart.
• Ash from MÄR, despite being a member of the evil chess group, only sides with them because he believes their actions will lead to a peaceful world for kids. He even plays with children when he isn't fighting. He even tries to convince Ginta to give up during their battle because he doesn't want to hurt him. And this is one of the top grade fighters.
• Maria no Danzai: Maria Akeboshi portrays herself as a friendly teacher the students can rely on, encouraging them to come to her office for help no matter what they need. While her act is mostly genuine, Okaya and his gang are the sole exception, being the ones who sent Maria's son Kiritaka to his untimely death two years before she became the School Nurse. Acting like a friendly teacher earns Maria the reputation of a saint among the students, which leaves her Beneath Suspicion when a bully or two go missing.
• Ilulu from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid loves spending time with children, to the point of wanting to get a job at a candy store because she was told that kids often hang out there. This is in part due to the fact that she was emotionally stunted from the death of her parents.
• Monster:
  • Subverted (like all opportunities to Pet the Dog) by Johan Liebert. It looks like Johan has a soft spot for children — he's been shown watching over some on occasion and, when posing as a college grad student, majors in law focusing on children's rights — until we meet one of these kids he's been "caring" for and learn about this fun little game he's been encouraging them to play... Then there was that part with the Red Light District. Needless to say, it's one of the more heinous acts that Johan commits in the series. Considering how they escalate, this is saying a lot!
  • Played straight with Tenma and Grimmer; the former even forgives Johan himself.
• Balsa, the protagonist of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, kickstarts the entire story by becoming the bodyguard of Chagum, a young boy. She swiftly becomes a major Mama Bear to him, as well as a Parental Substitute. Additionally, she met Toya and Saya when she saved them from a group of thugs. Toya seems to regard her as an elder sister, and states that he would willingly "go through fire and water for her."
• Ruijerd of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is fond of children and views protecting them as one of his most important duties as a Superd warrior. Many residents of the Magic Continent misinterpret this due to his reputation as "Dead End" and think he targets children.

N-Z

• Chachamaru in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. When Negi and Asuna followed her in an early chapter, they found her surrounded by a lot of children who're playing with her while she goes around doing good deeds, like handing a balloon stuck in a tree back to the little girl who lost it and saving kittens from drowning. Unsurprisingly, they quickly lost the motivation to beat up Chachamaru since she turned out to be a genuinely good person even though she's a minion of the then evil Eva. Then again, Eva didn't turn out to be as bad as she liked to paint herself either, so it makes sense, all told.
• Mahiro Yasaka of Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! gets along really well with kids, demonstrating a natural Big Brother Instinct. Part of the reason he treats Hasta nicest out of his Unwanted Harem is because he views Hasta as the little brother he never had (the fact that he isn't as destructive or rambunctuous as Nyarko and Cuuko helps too). A villain actually exploits this in the final arc of the first season, making it look like Nyarko's over-zealous fighting style injured a little alien girl in Mahiro's care, in order to drive a wedge between them.
• One Piece:
  • This is a trait shared by several members of the Straw Hat crew:
    • Luffy gets along well with children in general and easily befriends them, probably because he is a slightly childish Idiot Hero. When dealing with Momonosuke, Luffy is most prone to getting into childish arguments with the boy. However, he is also the only one to treat him with the respect due an equal. Luffy also bonded with little Tama in Wano and gets truly pissed whenever she gets hurt.
    • Zoro is this whether he likes it or not. When we first meet him, he killed a dog for attacking a little girl, which got him arrested. Later on, whenever Chopper's in danger, Zoro is usually the one to get him out of it and can get very protective of him. He also 'gently' KOed a 'nun' and a little kid in the Baroque Works village, rather than slashing them (as he does the adult males who attack him). He also takes on Miss Monday barehanded, although this may be out of a need for speed (or to prove a point) rather than gentlemanliness.
    • Nami, especially post-Time Skip, is very protective of children. She acts as a Cool Big Sis for the children in the Punk Hazard arc and absolutely hates Caesar Clown for the way he threatened them. Oda weighs in this also adding that Nami would be a child care worker if she wasn't a pirate.
    • Usopp of course, his first friends in Syrup Village were three boys Ninjin, Piiman and Tamanegi who remain loyal to him for years. In Filler he cheers up a little girl who lost her parents and Usopp is frequently adored by the naive Chopper for his Blatant Lies.
    • Originally a Downplayed Trope with Sanji though multiple Filler arcs had him bonding with kids like Tajio and Chimney, Sanji even invoked Wouldn't Hurt a Child in filler as he stopped Usopp from attacking Lil (despite her being on the bad guys's side) and Sanji held back from genuinely hurting Dream despite the boy taking away the crew's memories. Played straight in post timeskip as Sanji went out of his way to save the kids in Punk Hazard and in Wano gave the last of his Soba noodles to Toko in Wano and gave her a pat on the head.
    • Robin seems quite fond of cute things in general, and she quickly grows attached to Chopper after joining the crew. One episode of the anime even shows her making great effort to befriend him, while he, at the time, feared her a little. Her and Nami are also very caring of Momonosuke, not realizing that he is actually a Dirty Kid. In Wano Robin treats Toko like she's her own child.
    • Chopper is a doctor and kind-hearted person overall, and this extends to children. He is also very childish himself in some ways, which helps in bonding with them.
  • Such a moment is used as Captain, later Commodore, Smoker's Establishing Character Moment. When this muscular, cigar-chomping Marine is suddenly bumped into by a little girl who spills ice cream on his pants, the kid's father is worried to panicking- but Smoker gets down on eye level with the kid, apologizes for his "mean pants" eating up her ice cream, and gives her far more money than necessary so she can go buy a new, bigger cone. This is his introductory scene to the series, and serves to show that he's not corrupt, unlike many of the other Marine officers before and after.
  • His protégée Tashigi as well who, similarly to Nami, acts as a Cool Big Sis for the kids rescued from Punk Hazard.
  • Wapol was originally a cruel tyrant, but after being ousted and hitting rock bottom, he discovered he could make toys using his powers, and kids started to love him. He was able to build up his wealth and power back again from the ground up, even gaining respect from the World Government, by building a toy factory.
  • Kinda creepy example with Charlotte Perospero in Whole Cake Island arc as he shown to be kind to a group of little children to be nice with each other as he offered them lollipops and allowed them to eat the candy escalator he made with his power. This wouldn't be too disturbing if Perospero wasn't based on the goddamn Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
• Okita Souji from Peacemaker Kurogane is often seen playing with children outside the Shinsengumi compound, and gets along very well with Tetsu.
• Mentioned in Please, Jeeves. Bertie comments in the narration, "It's one of my personal virtues that children attach themselves to me. It's inevitable." (The scene in question involved a little girl grabbing his hand in the middle of a crowded fair and sticking by his side, telling him about her new doll. Other than this, it's an Informed Attribute, since other kids in both the manga and the original stories almost universally hate him, and the original story even mentioned that the girl only attached herself to Bertie because she figured he'd be as good as anyone.)
• Pokémon: The Series
  • Ash has shown this in an episode about Trubbish. To get them to listen to their teacher, he was willing to get along well with the little kids and help Pikachu protect them from Sandile. A small advantage when Iris says he's "such a little kid".
  • Pikachu himself also gets along very well with children, whether human or Pokemon. So long as humans aren't too rough, he'll even let them hold him. He plays with Max and Bonnie on several occassions in the anime, he looks out for the younger Pokemon like he's the big brother, and he's even befriended kids not in the group. Once he helped a little boy deal with a bully and even guided the young boy into battling with him the right way.
  • Jessie and James decide to be this to Timmy when he thinks that their Meowth is the same one that saved him.
• The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love: John Pendleton is always kind to Pollyanna and Jimmy, and once offered to adopt Pollyanna. When she injures her leg, he tries to make her feel better by adopting Jimmy, given that he's the wealthiest man in town.
• Project K: The supplementary mangas, novels, and drama cds show that Fushimi Saruhiko, of all people, is adored by small children. The way he grudgingly spoils them hints at his soft heart under those layers and layers of asshole.
• Tsuna from Reborn! (2004). Every child he meets gets really attached to him. Particularly of the deadly, assassin kind. It's even lampshaded that he constantly finds himself babysitting them (which he laments about). However, even though he complains and finds it an inconvenience, he sincerely does like them. In fact, one chapter was dedicated to showing that, out of all the characters, Tsuna was the one that was most fit to raise Lambo. So far, he's been raising Lambo and I-Pin, and Futa was shown to get very attached to him.
  • Subverted with Gokudera. In one chapter, Futa ranked Gokudera as the most fit to become a kindergarten school teacher (out of 82,203 people), claiming that Gokudera is ranked number 2 out of 82,203 people that like kids. Everyone is shocked, and Gokudera himself starts wondering if maybe he unconsciously liked them after all. It turns out that it was because Futa's ranking system went wonky because of the rainy weather...
  • Lanchia, despite having the Face of a Thug, is very nice to children and has Fuuta, I-Pin, and Lambo crawling over him when he visits Tsuna's house.
• If you're a bad guy living in Tokyo and start attacking children for your evil means, be prepared to deal with Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Senshi, which is probably why the kids idolize them.
• Kikuchiyo in Samurai 7 gets along very well with the village children and is seen playing with them in his downtime.
• Irako Seigen from Shigurui is an unusual example. A ruthless killer and manipulator, but whenever he has to deal with children he goes out his way to be nice to them. Notable with the starving street urchin: no one else would touch the kid, but he washed her, gave her food and a place to stay.
• The Secret Garden: Camila. She befriends 9-year-old Mary Lennox when she's lost and helps guide her home. When a sickness infects the village, Camila freaks out, starts working on a cure, and even risks being harassed publicly by going to the Craven mansion and treating Sowerby twins. Notably, the children are amongst the few villagers that don't think Camila is evil and refuse to take part in ostracizing her.
• Starzinger: Hakka loves children (and is a bit of a manchild himself), to the point that when he finds out that the Kingdom of Topaznia has been deceiving it's schoolchildren, he declares that This Is Unforgivable!.
  Hakka: You deceived me, and even innocent children...I can't forgive this!
• Mifune from Soul Eater loves children, and serves people he actively hates simply because it's what he believes is the best way to protect his ward. He also has difficulty fighting BlackStar until the latter proves to him that, as a ninja, he's considered an adult warrior. He blushes when offered the chance to work as a teacher of children.
• Agent Twilight aka "Loid Forger" in the manga Spy X Family has a brief inner monologue heard by Anya where she learns the entire reason Twilight is a spy is to make a better world where no child has to cry at night due to political tragedies. Another brief flashback implies this was how Twilight's childhood was, a lost boy in a war-torn world, and he despised it so much he was motivated to never let it happen to others. Twilight's attachment to children, and thus by extension Anya, is so significant that he, a seasoned Spy of numerous missions, nearly loses his cool during an interview and almost punches one of the interviewers for making Anya cry; all the while mentally trying to talk himself out of punching the guy.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • After she grows out of her Tsundere stage, Yoko becomes a Cool Big Sis to the younger members of Team Dai-Gurren. During the Time Skip, she becomes a teacher, and is well-loved by her students. She's shown to have returned to her job at the end of the series.
  • Kittan as well. He's greatly protective of his niece, and when he misinterprets Yoko's students as her children, he's eager to meet them, and regrets having to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, which means he'll never see them.
  • The mighty Kamina. While he doesn't get a whole lot of screentime with kids he explains at one point he keeps fighting so that the children of the future can live under the open sky, as opposed to underground. The High School AU actually lets him meet Nia and shows that this trope remains true since they get along well.
• Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita has Amanda, The Mother of Demon Children. She's an A-rank adventurer who is the Alessa adventurer's guilds ace, has been running an orphanage since she was young, with many of the orphans being the children of adventurers who died on missions, has the title of "Guardian of Children", and insists that the 12-year-old Fran calls her Mama. Fran finds her annoying at best and creepy at worst, due to her being over affectionate despite barely knowing each other^note Her first words to Fran after apologising for running into her were "I'm your mother!", and Fran having zero-interest in someone trying to replace her dead mother. It's revealed that Fran's parents were actually raised at her orphanage, and she blames herself for their deaths, as she opposed their plan to become adventurers and didn't train them. She recognizes Fran, and wants to make amends by helping and protecting her.
• Whether it's because he's a father or because he's prone to acting like one himself, Tiger & Bunny's Kotetsu T. Kaburagi is rather fond of children. Whether children are fond of him is a different matter.
• Star Saber, the Big Good of Transformers Victory, has a soft spot for human children and adopts Jan.
• Trigun:
  • Nicholas D. Wolfwood runs his own orphanage because he doesn't want kids to grow up the way he did.
  • Vash spends a lot of time caring for / playing with children. He's really good with them. There's also the manga-only character Auntie Melanie, the orphanage lady who brought Wolfwood up.
  • Millie is really good with children, too, being very sweet and having so many nieces and nephews, although she doesn't seek them out the way the guys do, because she's not so needy.
  • Livio after his Heel–Face Turn is shown to be this. He realizes it while recovering from Elendira's nail attack in the presence of several orphans.
• Hana Uzaki from Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! is popular with lots of kids whose mothers often bring them to the café from the kindergarten, since she plays with them while their mothers talk.
• Fourteen-year old Kaori from Your Lie in April. She's playing the melodica with a group of young children when she's first introduced, and later we see she's very good with kids.
  Kousei: She sure knows to get along with kids, I guess her mental age is low?
• Oddly enough, Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Especially orphans, which makes sense, seeing as he was one. It's a package deal with his Hidden Heart of Gold. Lay a finger on his little brother, Mokuba, or any child in front of him, and you're pressing his Berserk Button because he'll really give you hell for it.
  • Seto Kaiba often comes across as a total jerk towards Yugi and company, but he is unbelievably kind, patient, and protective with children, especially his little brother, Mokuba.
  • Crow, from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, who watches over and protects the children of an orphanage. He becomes very angry at the Dark Signers when the children vanish because of the dark curse they cast over Satellite.
  • Crow likely gets this from Martha, the woman who raised him, along with Yusei and Jack. Martha actually runs the orphanage, and was considered a maternal figure to many young children who were orphaned in Zero Reverse.
  • Brave, a member of Team Ragnarok, does the same thing as Crow (and ironically, he becomes one of Crow's rivals during the WRGP.)
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V continues the trend with Yuya despite being only 14 himself. Yuya is great with kids younger than him with Tatsuya, Futoshi and Ayu from the same duel school looking up to him as their hero. He also gets along with Crow's kids Amanda, Frank and Tanner during the Synchro Dimension. He even becomes Reira's surrogate big brother due to how much focus Yuya spent on keeping the poor kid safe.
• Yusuke Urameshi of YuYu Hakusho notes that while he has trouble with everyone else due to his bad reputation, he at least can still make children happy. The whole story begins with him diving in front of a car to save a child.
• Zombie Land Saga: Franchouchou.
  • Saki is quite gentle and kind towards Franchouchou's younger audience. She's also protective of Lily, kicking away who she suspected to be a kidnapper (who of course was actually Lily's father).
  • Yugiri bonds quite quickly with Lily, being a source of comfort and praise for the young zombie. She was also quite popular with her house's young kamuro^note (handmaidens and oiran-in-training) who were heartbroken upon learning she'd be moving away to Saga.
  • The girls develop a large youth audience throughout the series, whom they're all quite kind to. In episode 11 of ''Revenge'', they help entertain the children at their shelter to cheer the kids up after the storm. The children are also the first people to accept the girls after they're revealed as zombies to them.

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