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You truly want to learn how to make the impossible possible?
This character is the hero's good friend. The hero can fool around with him, go to the bar with him for a drink and talk about some good old man-business with him. Additionally, the character, being older (though mental age matters more than physical age) and wiser than the hero, also acts as a mentor to the hero in times of need or advice.
However, just because the Big Brother Mentor cares about the hero doesn't mean that he can't suddenly break out of his buddy personality and sock him in the jaw if he thinks he deserves it. He only wants the best out of the hero, but won't hesitate to educate him the hard way if the hero shows reluctance to learn or has a tendency to run headlong into danger. And his punches are hard. In essence, he's the ideal big brother figure who knows when to get friendly or strict.
In anime, this kind of character is often addressed as "Aniki" instead of "Onii-san".
Often, this character is doomed to die — both to bring the Hero out of the character's shadow, and to give the character an emotional buildup.
This is a subtrope of The Obi Wan.
Differs from Aloof Big Brother in that the Big Brother Mentor doesn't have to be a literal big brother and actually gives a damn about his "little siblings" (Or shows it quite more often than a merely emotionally repressed Aloof Big Brother). Compare with the Stern Teacher, tough and strict but loved by everyone.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Kuwabara to Yusuke later on in Yu Yu Hakusho.
- Bronco Dino to Tsuna in Reborn.
- Kamina to Simon in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; Simon even calls him "aniki". The dub uses "bro", and Kamina even refers to him them as "Blood Brothers" a few times.
- As Setsuna's sempai, Kira in Angel Sanctuary often acts that way towards him. Yue Katou too to some extent. Sarah calls Setsuna "aniki," but towards his own sister he is more of a... oh well...
- Roy Fokker in Macross/Robotech
- Ozma in Macross Frontier is played almost as a subversion of the archetype. He's an older mentor, and even flies Skull One, but it's usually other characters who give the most advice, he's made lots of mistakes, and he completely fails to die, even when pineapples are involved
- And he's too much of a Jerk Ass, anyway. Mikhail plays the part much, much better.
- An evil example comes from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure with the two mafia members Pesci and Prosciutto. Pesci is the little brother and ironicly like other mentors Prosciutto dies by getting run over by a train and getting lodged in the wheels before Pesci gets how to be a good mafia worker. Then he dies by getting is head unzipped from his body and throw into a lake.
- In the Full Metal Alchemist anime, Hughes is Roy's Big Brother Mentor, he hits pretty much every single qualification for one listed above at some point. He is one year older, but he has a family whereas Roy doesn't, and thus a very different perspective on life. He has one notable moment of snapping out of his easy-going attitude.
- In an evil example of this trope, Pride acts as this towards Wrath, the youngest of the Homonculi. This becomes quite ironic when you learn Pride masquerades as his son, Selim Bradley.
- In the anime version of Planetes, Hakim Ashmead fills this role for Hachimaki, at least until his Heel Face Turn where he was revealed to be The Mole for the terrorist Space Defense Front. Their mentor, Gigalt Gangaragash, straddles the line between a Big Brother Mentor and an actual The Obi Wan.
- 2 prominent pairs on Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Sho adopts Judai as his "aniki," whom he prefers to his biological Aloof Big Brother (until Judai dumps him for Johan). Manjyome also looks up to Asuka's brother Fubuki, who's a much better older brother than the two Corrupt Corporate Executives who disown him in the first season.
- Gotho from Armored Trooper VOTOMS fits this role to some extent.
- The Gundam franchise has several examples as well...
- Mobile Suit Gundam has Ryu Jose, who doesn't actually teach Amuro how to pilot a Gundam, but how to be a man and soldier; he of course performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Liutenant Sleggar Rowe would've been one of these, had he gotten more screentime. He does get the death part, though.
- Zeta Gundam has Quattro Bajeena, aka Char Aznable, as the main character's mentor; however, he neither dies nor holds back from kicking ass himself.
- The closest to a Big Brother Mentor in Gundam Wing would be Trowa Barton, the Genius Bruiser Big Guy of the Five Man Band. His interactions with The Smart Guy Quatre Raberba Winner walk the line between this and straight-up Ho Yay, but he also helped Heero Yuy sort his thoughts after his infamous suicide attempt.
- Don't forget Roy Fokker's Expy, Mwu La Fllaga from Gundam SEED. So much he's the one pictured above.
- He's actually referred to as Kira's Sempai on one occasion.
- Gundam 00's Neil Dylandy aka the first Lockon Stratos was some kind of advisor to not only Setsuna but the most of CB. Even if he's dead he'll probably return as a spiritual advisor. Still, Tieria Erde seems to fit a bit better in the second season, even dealing some Bright Slaps when needed.
- Also, Lyle, Neil's twin younger brother and the second Lockon had some Big Brother Mentor moments as well, specially in episode 18 where he counsels two of his teammates when they had romantic problems.
- Played straight and subverted in G Gundam. Argo Gulskii is the oldest, more mature of the Shuffle Alliance and plays the role straight towards Domon and Sai Saici, whereas Schwarz Bruder subverts it by being Domon and Rain's own BBM... and a clone of Domon's Aloof Big Brother Kyouji, who specifically created him with some DG cells and the dead body of the real Schwarz Bruder to play this role before he was fully brainwashed by the Devil Gundam.
- Big Sister Mentor example: Freya to Kisara in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple. Kisara calls her "Freya-nee", even when they were on opposite sides.
- Yashichi, to his followers Sasuke and Hanzo in Mirumo de Pon!
- Zoro, to Luffy in One Piece. Given that he's the Lancer, and Fan Speak sometimes denotes him as the First Mate of the crew, he often steps in to help Luffy make the tough choices given Luffy's personality. This was especially obvious when Usopp temporarily left the crew and Zoro both supported Luffy's decision to fight Usopp and later forced him to wait for Usopp's apology when it became apparent that Usopp wanted to return to their crew.
- Albert/004 in Cyborg 009. His "little brother" Jet/002 later also has some Big Brother Mentor moments in the Little Psychics mini-arc.
- Subaru Sumeragi becomes this to Kamui in the X 1999 manga and TV series .
- Though Tomohiko Yamada of Satou Kashi No Dangan Wa Uchinukenai mostly subverts this, he has his moments of wise advice for his younger sister... before going back to his room and tuning out the world around him.
Comics
- Due to the nature of it's "legacy" focus on characters, these pop up quite often in the DCU:
- Although it's a bit moot now that they're actually brothers, Richard "Dick" Grayson decided early on to take a more active role in the mentoring of the third Robin, Tim Drake, than he did with the second, and the two developed a sibling-like relationship in the process. This was so well-liked by fans that Nightwing writer Chuck Dixon chose to devote what is normally a landmark issue - #25 - of that series not to a major battle or character death, but to Tim and Dick discussing life, Batman, and Dick's seemingly endless parade of hot girlfriends for an entire issue.
- Although he initially played the role of the older brother who didn't want to be around the younger one, Wally West eventually grew quite fond of Bart "Impulse / Kid Flash" Allen.
- Wonder Woman and Donna Troy refer to each other as sisters, although it's been a while since Donna's actually been mentored by Diana. Much like the Batman / Nightwing / Robin relationship above, however, Donna served as an older sister to the second Wonder Girl.
- Wolverine to practically any younger female character. Most notably Kid Sidekicks Jubilee and Kitty Pryde.
Film
Literature
- Harry Potter has Sirius Black, his godfather, and Remus Lupin. Too bad that both of them die, just like every other father figure the poor kid ever had...
- Seregil to Alec in Nightrunner, and also Micum and Beka to Alec at times.
Live Action TV
- Tom Paris to Harry Kim in Voyager.
- In the Highlander series, Methos falls somewhere between this and a Trickster Mentor to Duncan. The only problem is that Methos has spent hundreds of years avoiding fights and thus is disinclined towards beating a lesson into the overly stubborn and idealistic Duncan, and thus he often has to hope that his points get through Duncan's thick skull on their own merits.
- Toby Ziegler to Sam Seaborn on The West Wing
- Simon Tam in Firefly. He is kind of a doting big brother but he also has to extend that role far beyond what that would normally imply due to the extreme situation. And he never punches her.
- Don Eppes in Numb3rs
- Michael Weston in Burn Notice.
Video Games
- Inverted with Hakuoro playing the big brother to Oboro in Utawarerumono. He even uses 'aniki' which gives Hakuoro pause for a moment.
- Axel is this to both Roxas and Xion in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
Webcomics
Western Animation
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