Big Fancy House - Television Tropes & Idioms

Wait, wait, wait! Tomoyo-chan lives THERE?!

A big, well-appointed home is a symbol of wealth and status almost anywhere, varying based on facets including its location and relative opulence.

In Japan, it takes a meaning well beyond what it does in the US or UK. Japan is a very-densely populated nation — equivalent to packing half of the USA's population in a space roughly the size of Montana — which results in some of the highest real estate prices in the world. This is doubly the case in Tokyo and other big cities where even the smallest homes can cost 100 million yen ($1 million US) and up. Consequently, a large home with a lot of space around it is fantastically expensive, and indicates its owner has more money than the rest of the cast combined.

If the front door is more than a few feet from the street, if there are more than four or five rooms, if the rooms are bigger than the typical American walk-in closet... you are looking at the residence of somebody with wads of cash. If it looks like a French chateau and is surrounded by an actual estate, then we are well out of filthy rich and into Impossibly Cool Wealth.

A family that is extremely traditional will invariably have The Thing That Goes Doink somewhere in the yard of their Big Fancy House. It may also be found on Middle Of Nowhere Street.

This is not so much an Anime Trope as a fact of Japanese economics, but it makes for a great visual shorthand when the animators want to let the viewer know someone is outrageously wealthy. The same premise usually applies to characters mentioning their family has a summer home somewhere.

On the other hand, the indication of wealth is not always solid if the home was vacated or offered cheaply for obvious reasons.

While the same effect can be and is done in American series, the impact is nowhere near what is in Japan; a character would have to have an estate comparable to Monticello or San Simeon to be as impressive to suburban American audiences as a relatively modest house would be to Japanese viewers. This doesn't stop manga-ka from driving the point home by giving their characters homes opulent beyond Versailles, however. Curiously, this is actually less effective in the yet smaller Great Britain, where a massive estate is often a sign of hereditary nobility rather than sheer wealth, though this is less the case than it was in the past. It occasionally shows up in pre-20th century works; in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet jokingly claims that she started to fancy Darcy when she first saw his Big Fancy House.

It's curious that in Russia, a Big Fancy House evokes the same feelings as in Japan, despite Russia's vast size and diametrically opposite demographic problems. There are two causes for it, the first being that Russians mainly come in two flavours, filthy rich and starving poor, with a not very numerous middle class; the second is exorbitant real estate prices artificially raised by monopolization, so even an upper-middle class Russian cannot afford anything more than a three to four room apartment, let alone a Big Fancy House. Note that it only applies to houses near cities and with modern conveniences; a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, with a restroom... err... crap pit in the backyard and possibly even without electricity is still dirt cheap, even if it is fairly large.

There may be another reason for the Russian example, one having more to do with the actual climate than the economic climate. Canadians tend to choose much smaller houses than Americans even given the same income and family size. Part of that is due to Canada's much more stable mortgage market where it's hard to buy more home than you can afford, but part of it is that big, rambling homes with huge rooms and towering ceilings are difficult and expensive to heat.

If a house is awe-inspiring for reasons other than size, it might be a Cool House. Contrast Friends Rent Control, where a character has an inexplicably large home.

Examples:

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Anime/Manga

In the Sailor Moon manga, Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury) brings her friends home to a place they immediately call an example of a millionaire's home, with a marble foyer she tells them not to worry about when it accidentally gets cracked. While the anime and live-action series don't play this up as much, her mother remains a doctor in all versions, the ostensible source of the wealth.
Honoka Yukishiro's home in Futari Wa Pretty Cure is a traditional Japanese dwelling with a garden and walled yard, but is also located in the middle of a city; upon just seeing the gate Nagisa realizes that she's way out of her economic stratum. Same goes for Komachi's digs in the fourth series.
- Karen, from the same series as Komachi, could probably buy Honoka and Komachi's combined assets with her pocket change. Not only is her home positively huge even by American standards, but it's not all. She has a smaller house just sitting around completely unused, which she just gives to Coco and Nuts to live in like it's nothing. At the start of the second series, that house is unavailable... so she gives them another one. And she has a summer home. On her island. Are you getting the picture here?
  - Just in case you weren't getting the picture, the second season later also shows us her mountain villa.
Sanzenin Nagi in Hayate No Gotoku has a massive mansion, plus tall walls that surround the grounds, that is about the size of downtown, so ridiculously large that a lake, space center, and theme park can fit into it. This is especially to the shock of Hayate, who has been living a poor life prior to working for Nagi. And Nagi says that, as not many people live here, it's SMALL. Then, when they visit Nagi's grandfather, when Hayate sees HIS mansion, he's convinced he's no longer in Japan.
The Kurata home in Kodomo No Omocha.
Ayaka's family home in Mahou Sensei Negima could have been built by Louis XIV. But Konoka's home in Kyoto trumps it — it's not just a Big Fancy House, it's an entire temple complex staffed by priests, mages, and a dozen or more maids/shrine maidens who treat her like a princess. And then there are Evangeline's numerous estates, which consists of at least a castle, a summer resort, a hot spring, as well as other areas used for Negi's training. Impressive considering that before it became as it is today it is implied she dug them from her real land.
The estate where Midori and her mother live in Midori No Hibi is almost as large and impressive as Ayaka's.
Similarly, the Tendo home in Ranma ½ is a positively huge traditional-style Japanese complex featuring a two-story house and a detached training hall surrounded by a large yard and bordered by a stone wall. The Kuno estate is even bigger, being almost a medieval Japanese castle. Both of them supposedly exist in the center of the resolutely middle-class Nerima district of Tokyo...
- Of course, popular Fanon has it that the Tendo and Kuno family homes are simply old family-owned homes that just haven't really changed with the times (it certainly seems likely for the Kuno's).
The Mendo estate in Urusei Yatsura actually is a medieval Japanese castle, somewhere in the middle of Tokyo.
- ...as heavily fortified as Fort Knox; land mines, watchtowers with spotlights, secret passages, vaults with timed locks, etc.
The Himemiya family home in Kannazuki No Miko, complete with maid staff.
The Tohno mansion in Tsukihime.
The main house of the Gowa family in Gasaraki, a very traditional place indeed.
Chiyo-chan's spacious, walled-and-gated, far-off-the-street house in Azumanga Daioh is a source of much wonderment for her friends, who had no idea she was so wealthy until they visited. And she has a summer home.
The Awayuki residence in Pretear.
Yoshitaka's house in He Is My Master is positively enormous, taking up what seems to be a hundred city blocks on a side, with its own small lake and stream, as well as a very large house filled with expensive treasures. What gets broken each episode would pay for a decently-sized house.
The residence of Shin Sawada's family in Gokusen
Momoka on Keroro Gunsou lives in a huge mansion with an on-site shopping plaza and other absurdly luxurious accomodations. Dororo's family also had a Big Fancy House on his home planet. The Hinatas also have a reasonably large home, but for an obvious reason.
- The Momoka estate has apparently been granted sovereignty by the Japanese government. It even maintains a heavily armed private security force to defend against all manner of conventional and supernatural threats.
- On a side note, Hinatas house is olso in Inner Tokyo, which adds the impact.
Given the nature of the protagonists of Ouran High School Host Club, it's no surprise that all of them except Haruhi live in enormous European or Japanese-style mansions.
Isabella from Paradise Kiss also lives in a Big Fancy House.
The Mishima estate in All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.
Most of the houses in Ai Yori Aoshi.
Many characters in Card Captor Sakura have big houses, the less fancy one belonging to the Kinomoto family. Sakura's dad is a famous archaeologist, her Missing Mom was a famous model... however, they weren't always that well-off, having lived for some years in a cosy but small apartment.
- Pictured above: Tomoyo Daidouji, being the daughter of a toy-company CEO, lives in a classic Big Fancy House; Tomoyo's bedroom is bigger than the entire second floor of Sakura's house. And then are the mansions in England and Japan where Eriol lives, and, in the first movie, the big state of Shaoran's family in Hong Kong. And don't forget Great-Grandpa Masaaki's HUGE own European-style country mansion, either!
In Tenchi Muyo! GXP, the unlucky hero Seina discovers that his family was able to afford a new Big Fancy House by the time he returns to Earth after being shanghaied into the Galaxy Police. Fortunately for his self-esteem, it's as much because of the money he'd been sending home as their not having to deal with him jinxing their store.
- The Masaki home is nothing to sneeze at, either, although being moved wholesale onto the grounds of Yosho's shrine and rebuilt several times since doesn't hurt...
The home shared by the Koshikawa and Matsuura families in Marmalade Boy is large enough for the six of them to live together comfortably, but the house Meiko Akizuki's family lives in dwarfs even that, and Miki herself says that when she spends the night there. Miwa and Suzu also live in rather fancy houses, understandable since their fathers are famous architects.
Mint's got one in Galaxy Angel. In the games, you get to see the inside.
The mansion in Hanaukyo Maid Tai is so big, they're able to park a blimp in the driveway. With plenty of room to go around it.
Midoh in Asagiri No Miko lives in a comically exaggerated Big Fancy House that puts the Palace of Versailles into shame - it has individual rooms whose back walls disappear into the horizon.
Minto Aizawa in Tokyo Mew Mew has one.
As does Shinobu in Triangle Heart 3; so does Alisa in the spinoff, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
Yurika from Sugar Sugar Rune.
Kazuharu Fukuyama from "Girls Bravo" owns a Big Fancy House so large that it has an elevator. Along with that, his family also owns a multi-billion dollar stadium, an entire gaming company, and an entire mountain range.
Atobe's ridiculously HUGE state in The Prince Of Tennis. Aside of this, both Echizen and Tezuka live in traditional-style Japanese complexes.
Kekkaishi has more than this editor cares to count.
Kotonoha's huge, fancy home◊ in School Days. Kotonoha's bedroom◊ is at least twice the size of Sekai◊ and/or Makoto's◊ own rooms, and this is considering Makoto's bedroom is quite large.
The Sohma family in Fruits Basket has an enormous gated compound with multiple roomy houses. The house that Yuki, Shigure, and Kyo share doesn't seem especially big, but it is in the middle of a huge plot of undeveloped land.
What little we see of Madoka's house in Get Backers implies it to be very large; she has room for all of Shido's animals on her lawn, and Akutsu Shunsuke, the man Shido was working for when he met her, definitely applies. Flashbacks show Kazuki's family's home to be even bigger and fancier.
Ruki's house in Digimon Tamers and Touma's in Digimon Savers.
- Note that Ruki's mother does not own the Big Fancy House; it more exactly belongs to her mom, Ruki's maternal grandmother.
Ren Mihashi's and his mothers house in Ookiku Furikabutte.
The Hyuuga and Uchiha households in Naruto; Very big, to the point of almost being a town within a town in the Uchihas' case, very traditional, The Thing That Goes Doink sounding off in the background. Used to convey power and tradition more than loadsacash We eventually learn there was a reason the Uchiha were kept in one area.
The non-canon Street Fighter manga depicts the Kanzuki Estate as so large, it doesn't just have its own rivers, mountains, and savannas, it has its own climate. Even though it's in the middle of Tokyo, visitors don't arrive by car, they arrive by chartered plane and land at the private airstrip.
In LivingGame Raizo briefly has the opportunity to date someone living in a huge mansion. His regret on not marrying into money is tempered by finding out she uses most of the house to house her pet snakes, though.
Sachiko's mansion in Maria Sama Ga Miteru is remarkably big. Interestingly enough, her summer house is much smaller, Sachiko remarks that she prefers it as it gives her a feeling of comfort because it is cosy. Sachiko's fiance also lives in a very large mansion.
Tsuruya's villa in Suzumiya Haruhi. Apparently, there is nothing it doesn't have. Kyon's first line in the anime upon seeing it is wondering what evil he has to commit to be able to live somewhere like that.
Kyou and Asu, in Binbou Shimai Monogatari used to live in one.
In the episode ¥€$ of Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex, the team visits an eccentric billionaire's mansion to save him from a hitman. It's absolutely ginormous, with a large estate around it. Another sign of his wealth is the wall-to-wall stacks of gold bullion in his bedroom.
The Student Council in Code Geass has its own entire fancy house, and then there's the rest of the academy.
Youta Moteuchi from Video Girl Ai lives in a house that is both this and a Cool House. Sort-of justified in that Youta's dad is a very well-known architect, and Youta himself wants to follow in his footsteps and become an artist.
In Mars, Rei's father lives in a more realistic version of this; Rei and Kira move into it after Kira runs away from her place. It's full of flashback fodder for Rei's childhood, such as the room in which his mother hanged herself and the room still crammed with his dead brother Sei's paintings. Consider then, that Rei's dad has been living in this huge house alone with all of these reminders about his family's tragedies.
The Armstrong manor in Fullmetal Alchemist. Later it gets used to hide the forces of Briggs which turns into a Crowning Moment of Awesome
In the second live action series of Gokusen, Yankumi tries to track down a chronic absentee student only to find he lives in a ludicrously large house, and his neighbors apparently feel the need to speak about his family in exceedingly obsequious Keigo.
In Yamada Taro Monogatari, after one of the students found out about the fact that Yamada is actually poor and planned to prove that Yamada is truly in poverty. Thankfully Deux Ex Machina saves Yamada from certain disaster as his dad's best friend owned many holiday homes and planned to let them stay there free of charge. Yamada isn't too happy living there though, prefering the cramped home.
Einzbern Castle in Fate Stay Night only has four inhabitants, nevermind that Berserker is one of them. Has its own forest too.
- Actually, except for during the Grail Wars (of which there have been five in about 200 years, and which last at most two weeks), it has no inhabitants. The Einsberns own the castle for the sole purpose of providing a base for whoever is representing them in the war, and Ilya only moved there from Europe a few weeks ago, at most. Yes, they're that rich.
- The houses of the other three main (human) characters (Shirou, Rin and Sakura) are also rather large. In Rin's case, however, she's implied to have rather little actual spending power, because she spends any spare money that she has on jewels (for her magic).
In Death Note, Yotsuba Group's Shingo Midou has one of these with a large front yard. His living room was redecorated in the anime but his TV remained tiny. The Yagami family house also qualifies, as does the HQ/apartment Light and Misa live in later on.
- Did anyone else notice that Mido's Big Fancy House's front stairs went missing in the manga?
Whenever the action is in a private home in Oishinbo you can be certain that it is in one of these.
In Eden Of The East, amnesiac Akira Takizawa is quite surprised to learn that he apparently has a fully stocked supermall to himself. To be fair, it's assumed that its property values were unusually low thanks to its proximity towards a missile disaster zone, but still - fully stocked supermall.
When the gang of Code:Breaker needs shelter for the night, the apparently homeless Yuuki suggests a bench, then a park, then the big fancy house that envelopes the park. Naturally, it's his house (big imagination + The Nicknamer + a country that loooooves collectible toys = (mega) profit!). When Toki suggests that Yuuki is just being used to make a profit, Yuuki shows that he's also really good at reading the stock market not that any of that helps with what he really wants: friends :(

Comics

Film

Wayne Manor in Batman Begins is one of these, what with the Batcave in the basement/surrounding caves. However, it burns down, forcing Bruce to move to just a Cool House — though considering that it's a penthouse floor with an express elevator to another Batcave, it may qualify as another Big Fancy House.
- Actually the new Batcave is in a different part of the city, in a run-down industrial district, and you need to take a car to get there from Bruce's penthouse, but there is a hidden room in the apartment which contains a spare batsuit and equipment.
The mansion in Eyes Wide Shut that Bill bluffs his way into once he gets the password from a friend. Of course, the fact that it's gigantic isn't as impressive as the Black Mass-esque ceremony culminating with an orgy in every single room.
Frank Lucas, drug kingpin, buys one for his mother in American Gangster:
Mrs. Lucas: ...And whose house is that, Franky?
Frank Lucas: That is your house Mama!
Mrs. Lucas: My house! ...and who else's?!
Michael Douglas's character in The Game has a palatial residence that he presumably inherited from his father, and he is also fabulously wealthy. Apart from his servants, he lives there alone.
Jodie Foster's character in Panic Room buys a big, brownstone rowhome in Manhattan for her daughter and herself while she goes to study at Columbia. It's a bit of a spooky place, large for two people, and featuring the title safe room. The real estate agent seems curious about how she expects to afford it and it's revealed that she was formerly married to the chairman of a pharmaceutical company.
In A Good Year, the aggressive London stockbroker Max Skinner inherits a beautiful vineyard-estate in Provence from his uncle. Acting on his normal instincts, he prepares to sell the place and make a pretty penny but eventually falls in love and gives up his old lifestyle in favor of a quieter life in France.
The title country estate of Sir William McCordle in Gosford Park.
The title mansion of Brideshead Revisited.
The mansion of The Haunting. The massive sets were appropriately housed in the hanger for the Spruce Goose, the largest wooden airplane ever built.
Tony Stark's pad. If this doesn't count, this whole page is a lie.
Xanadu from Citizen Kane.
The Corleone houses in The Godfather. The most luxurious being the one at Lake Tahoe.
- Also the film producer's California mansion in the first Godfather.
Tony Montana's Florida mansion in Scarface.
Tara Plantation in Gone with the Wind.
- Mostly averted in the book, where the house is described as a graciously decorated but somewhat haphazard structure valuable mainly for the farmland it sits on, and important mainly because of the emotional connection the protagonist feels toward it.
The plantation in Song of the South.
Adam Kesher has one of these in Mulholland Drive — a road famous for its Big Fancy Houses.
Iley, home of the Hulmes, in Heavenly Creatures.

Literature

Pemberley in Pride And Prejudice. Curious, however, in that while by modern standards it's quite flash, by the standards of the time it's quite a restrained and tasteful property, which is one of the things that indicates to Elizabeth Bennet that Mr. Darcy's Hidden Depths reveal him to be a more modest, humble and decent man than first impressions indicate.
- Rosings Park, the home of his aunt Lady Catherine de Burgh, also appears; in keeping with his aunt's overall foolishness, snobbery and lack of decorum, it's a lot more gaudy and show-offy.
Manderley, in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, is the Cornish country estate of the wealthy Englishman Maximilian de Winter. It features heirlooms, a full staff, and is open to the public on certain days.
The Grosvenor Square mansion of the outrageously wealthy financier Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now.
A number of extravagant "old money" homes appear in the Jeeves And Wooster stories by P.G. Wodehouse. Their owners are frequently some relation to Wooster, who is a model Upper Class Twit.
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram's titular mansion in Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen.
Hercule Poirot frequently provides his services as a detective to upper-class residents of big, fancy houses.
Thornfield Hall, the Gothic estate of the wealthy Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre.
The wealthy Mr. Toad, of The Wind In The Willows, lives in his family seat called Toad Hall.
The villain in Hugh Laurie's book The Gun Seller lives in a huge mansion with attached grounds within easy commuting distance of London - the protagonist mentally notes the vast wealth this implies.
Jay Gatsby's mansion in The Great Gatsby, which is supposed to impress Daisy.
Hell Hall, the ancestral home of the De Vil family in The Hundred and One Dalmatians.
Misselthwaite Manor in The Secret Garden.
The Mouse World equivalent: in The Rescuers books, Miss Bianca is a pampered pet whose cage is a porcelain pagoda.
Darlington Hall, in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.
The increasingly decrepit Hundreds Hall in Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.

Live Action TV

In As Time Goes By, Lionel's father gives him a country house in Hampshire complete with a full-time housekeeper, however most of the time he lives with Jean in her nice London home. Lionel is practically Land Poor, however, and at one point suggests they sell the infrequently used house, which leads to an awkward situation where his father offers to buy it back from him.
- Alistair, Lionel's highly successful publisher, hints several times about his prized penthouse overlooking the Thames, but little of it is seen.
Collinwood Mansion featured in Dark Shadows is also known for being haunted.
Niles Crane, in Frasier, is shown living in two Big Fancy Houses: Maris's mansion and his later apartment at The Montana. Various jokes are made about the ridiculous size of his place at The Montana, especially for one single man, with Martin once getting lost on his way to the bathroom. It has at least three floors, a study and a library, and a gift-wrapping room.
The Banks' mansion in The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air - which in addition to the mansion, features both a swimming pool and a poolhouse that characters use as an apartment in later years.
Francis Urquhart, in House Of Cards, has a very nice house in London, and an impressive estate in the countryside, where he shows off some of his Conservative "Old Boy" values.
The Scottish estate Glenbogle plays a significant role in Monarch Of The Glen. Its owners, though, are Land Poor, which is a source of struggle in the stories.
Andrew Hartford's mansion in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has a Zord bay beneath the house, 27 bathrooms on the first floor alone, and yet he can't make a security system to keep the villains out.
- Maybe the sheer size IS the reason it's such a nightmare to secure.
The comedic tension in To The Manor Born focuses on Grantleigh Manor, which the Land Poor Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton sells to the wealthy Self Made Man Richard DeVere.
Southfork Ranch in Dallas.
Drummond's Manhattan penthouse in Diff'rent Strokes.
Jed Clampett's mansion in The Beverly Hillbillies.
The beachfront Robin's Nest estate in Hawaii in Magnum PI.
On The Sopranos, a female friend of AJ's is reluctant to invite him to her home. When he finally goes there, he sees a house he thinks is normal-sized, if a bit smaller than his own. Turns out that was just the guard shack out at the gate; the house, set well back from the road, is orders of magnitude bigger than his own. It's kind of an eye-opener for him, as he had always believed his family was wealthy.