Covert Pervert - Television Tropes & Idioms

Can you spot the phallic symbol?

"Leave me outta your sick fantasies, okay?"

— Ranma Saotome, Ranma ½

"Polygyny, huh? That's some vocabulary you got there, little miss. (You do read a lot.)"

"I never expected you to come up with something so naughty!"

— Chamo and then Haruna, to Nodoka, Mahou Sensei Negima

Uncharacteristically suggestive comments and thoughts from a character usually considered pure and innocent. Sometimes this is played straight and shows that a character is mature or smart enough to notice subtle themes their friends don't. Most of the time it's a trait given to a shy character to show they're not quite as mousy and meek as we think. Usually cued by fantasy segues becoming more and more lewd.

This will always be fiercely denied by the character, especially if they're cantankerous and dismissive. The more comedic princess-like types often get this too, until it turns into a more overt Running Gag.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Momo in Peach Girl, arguably. Probably got it from Kairi.
Ami in Sailor Moon sometimes had shades of this, with the excuse she really is the smartest of all the girls. Despite horrible reactions to love letters, she was worldly enough to assume alien-turned-villain Fiore was actually attracted to Usagi's boyfriend. The joke gained more fodder with the introduction of Haruka and Michiru, where Ami is the only character not completely nonplussed by the situation and quite frankly understands the nature of their relationship. Similarly, a much later gag with a handsome young man and a short towel has all the girls shocked... save Ami, who seems to be peeking between her face-covering hands. and let's not forget she's got Starlight fan stuff that the other girls (much more open fangirls) don't...
The otherwise motherly and elegant Cherry in Saber Marionette J fell victim to these, with her embellished daydreams about Otaru becoming increasingly lewd over time, sometimes ending in a pile of squee right in front of a very confused and squicked Otaru. Hanagata did the same towards Otaru and at least once in Saber Marionette J Again, Luchs did towards Faust.
Shinobu in Love Hina, more obviously with her Expy Nodoka in Mahou Sensei Negima and Negima!?
- An example from Nodoka: When caught in a Love Triangle involving herself, her best friend, and Negi, her mind reading artifact inadvertently reveals to her other friends her first solution to the problem: "Have a threesome/Saishoudoukin."
  - According to the official Love Chart for the series, Nodoka has a higher Ero rating than Evangeline. That's pretty perverted.
Lucia Nanami in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch gets blushy and angry at the more overtly dirty-minded Hanon, but take a look inside her mind...
Ebisu in Naruto
Nori in Rozen Maiden is a gracious, kind older sister to the horribly antisocial protagonist Jun. You'd think she's just patient, but she also talks in her sleep, and says some really odd things.
Kanako Ohno from Genshiken is usually rather shy... until her otaku side is triggered, whereupon she turns into (in Saki's words) "a Dirty Old Man". Among those triggers: cosplay outfits, bald and muscular men, and steam baths. In the manga, she's shown to own a truly epic yaoi collection, which she is just as devoted to and proud of as any of the males of Genshiken, if not more so.
- Chika Ogiue is just as bad, though she's more ashamed than innocent. Beneath her little paintbrush topknot lurks an active and filthy imagination. You have to wonder how bad the manga she drew was when they couldn't show any without fuzzing the page.
  - We have a metric now, thanks to the second series — Angela's favourite part◊. Safe for work; not safe to read while eating. Note that she says this in English, and the Japanese subtitles censor out part of it. Lucky for the non-English-speaking viewers, not so lucky for Americans... "SPERRRRRM!"
Mirei Shizuoka of Umisho is viewed by her peers as being pure, innocent and shy. Yet she wears lingerie that's extremely sexy beneath her clothes, has expressed interest in seeing the bodies of her male team-mates on the swimming team, once suspected Kaname and Amuro of doing This And That, and has expressed interest in buying a large, phallic antique (pictured above).
Akane Tendo from Ranma 1/2, who seems to think of the most perverted outcome of any given situation involving her fiancé right off the bat (she is, however, short-tempered and insecure to the point of jealousy, so this usually leads to a Megaton Punch). At one point in the manga, she had an elaborate Rescue Romance dream involving Sir Ranma saving her from evil overlord Kodachi's bed cover torture, followed by impromptu surprise sex.
- Attempted surprise sex, Akane interrupts the dream with "You must not be so forward" and a thwack to Ranma's head.
- Ryoga Hibiki is, at least during the earliest part of Ranma 1/2, a more literal interpretation of this trope: thanks to his Jusenkyo Curse, he can enjoy being doted on and fussed over by Akane Tendo, who's oblivious to the fact her pet is actually a transformed human, which includes being allowed to sleep in her bed and routinely being cuddled to her breasts... which is actually shown nuzzling a few times. One of the big debates amongst fans of the series is whether or not allowing this to happen (and occasionally seeking it out deliberately) makes Ryoga a pervert. This troper will note that Ryoga has never been seen looking at Akane naked while a pig... but also that he suffers Nosebleeds, which would be rather suspicious coming from a pig.
Kyouko Houin of Kodomo No Jikan gets off to Aoki showing some kids how to milk a cow (which shares her first name) during a class trip to a petting zoo. Bad time to not be wearing a bra, Houin-sensei...
Tsuyuri from Doujin Work acts like an emotionless girl most of the time and has a very youthful, sweet appearance. Still, she is one of the most perverted characters around, as evidenced by the extremely sadistic erotic doujinshi she produces. She also projects her fantasies on her friend Najimi, who she firmly believes to be a masochist.
Yoshika from Strike Witches develops a thing for big breasts, probably because she practically becomes surrounded by an amazon brigade consisting of scantily clad, buxom young ladies—her best friend first and foremost. Of course there is nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but Yoshika tends to act on her attraction at the most awkward moments.
In recent chapters of the Kekkaishi manga, Kagemiya and Shu seem to have an inordinate interest in discussing the shortness of Tokine's skirt, going as far as calling her "short-skirt girl." This does not go over well with Yoshimori, someone with a long-standing crush on said girl.
- Covert Perversion is pretty much confirmed in Kagemiya's case in chapter 220 of the manga since he basically admits to having copped a feel of Tokine and possibly the Vice-Chief of the Yagyou.
Once upon a time, in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's very first sound stage, Nanoha's older brother Kyouya stumbled across a Jewel Seed that created a water monster based on his desires and interests. The monster's modus operandi? Removing the swimsuits of any female it comes across. Must be his history as the main character of the Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever H-Game.
Shuuyu Koukin from Ikki Tousen denies very often that he's got romantic feelings for Hakufu, his gorgeous female cousin. Of course he does, how did you know?
- In Great Guardians, Kan'u acts like this towards her crush Ryuubi, when a Mac Guffin starts acting its magic on her. When she realizes that, Kan'u has a Freak Out and must be talked out of killing herself.
It is a common Fanon joke among the Naruto fandom that Hinata or Neji (and by extension the rest of the Hyuugas) are covert perverts due to the Power Perversion Potential of their Byakugan ability allowing them to see beyond walls and clothing.
- More in keeping with the canon are Sakura (who whips out her Yaoi Fangirl ID's due to a, ahm, certain Jutsu) and Ebisu-sensei (who gets knocked out by someone using that same one).
A whole Axis Powers Hetalia strip has local Lovable Sex Maniac France accusing the Tsundere England of being just as perverted as he is. When England tries to deny it...
France: Masturbation maraton? The world's horniest city? (...) In the end, you're just like me! Ease your suffering! (strips England naked)
- To say nothing about Hungary and her photos that feature her very handsome and straitlaced ex-husband and best friend, Austria, being undressed and/or molested by other males...
  Korea: I invented erotics, so you have to join!
  France: You're one of us now!
  Spain: Wow, a girl! Yay!
  Hungary: (blushing profusely) You're mistaken! My love is platonic and pure!
- A quite more subtle example of the trope is Japan. It's shown in the strips as well - like praising 2D over 3D, and casually having confidence-stealing erotic woodblock prints in his art book collection, which Italy mistakes as a Porn Stash. Fandom takes it and runs away with it, of course: some fanarts have Japan nosebleeding as he either imagines or watches his partners Germany and North Italy, having sex.
- Germany himself isn't much better. Italy says he's Too Kinky To Torture... and to prove it, he mentions strange magazines and DVDs in Germany's house.
  Italy: "The latest one I found featured dogs!"
  - This is all while Germany's been tied up, and is now breathing heavily.
Sayoko Shinozaki's hilarious exploits as Lelouch's Body Double in Code Geass R2 reveal her as one of these. That includes stealing a kiss from Shirley Fenette, a girl who has feelings for Lelouch.
- Long before that, there were her DVD insert diaries, which reveal she's this mixed with Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
- Nunnally, of all people, gets this treatment in the Picture Dramas
Kyon from Suzumiya Haruhi (especially in the novels). While he doesn't necessarily comes off as "pure" on the outside, he is considered to be a fine guy. His thoughts however, are often rather perverted or (hilariously) deifying regarding Mikuru. Interestingly, one could say that his thoughts are rather realistic and represent what a real teenager with a crush or attraction to three beautiful young girls (Mikuru, Haruhi, Yuki) would think in his mind.
- In the Super Deformed parody spinoff Haruhi-chan, this role is taken by Yuki, who plays H-games in the club room on her laptop, stating that they are "interesting" while keeping her adorable deadpan expression.
Akikan's Najimi, on the outside, appears to be a childish, innocent girl who honestly believes in trash monsters and other silly superstitions. When we get inside her head by her Inner Monologue (and out loud when she's drunk), she's been thinking some very dirty things about protagonist Kakeru.
- Drunk on SODA mind you.
Lucky Star's Hiyori Tamura often imagines Yutaka and Minami as Schoolgirl Lesbians, and has even sold yuri doujinshi based on them at Comiket.
Hiyori: I mostly write based on personal experience.
Yutaka: Oh... *blushing*
Hiyori: She (Konata) showed them to you.
Louise of Zero No Tsukaima, especially in the light novels. She beats up Saito at the first sign of his pervertedness, yet whenever we are shown her fantasies, it's rather... saucy. At one point she attacks a large crowd for waking her up from a dream of her and Saito that was "just getting to the good part".
To someone who didn't know better, Yuria of Yuria 100 Shiki would appear to be a Covert Pervert. In fact, she is a Ridiculously Human Robot specifically programmed to be such and one of her features is she will instantly imagine the indecent side of anything.
Ken Nakajima from Youre Under Arrest. So much that he's nicknamed "Mr. Nose Bleed" by one of his co-workers.
Nana To Kaoru's eponymous Nana Chigusa, who finds out that she has a hidden taste for S&M, thanks to her friend Kaoru's very open taste for it. She even has an facial tic to show when her perverted side is showing through: she blushes furiously and licks her lips.
Rena from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni shows a lot of interest in Keiichi and cute things, especially in the first Rei arc.
- "Hauu... Keiichi-kun's sea bear! Cute!" *blushes with accompanied hearts
  - In that same ova, Rika and Satoko. Yes, they're both nine years old. Though, with Rika, you could already notice that by the fact she groped Rika in two manga omakes, and she did the same to Mion in an anime ova, for different reasons though.
Asami of My Wife Is A High School Girl constantly feels frustrated by the fact that she can't get it on with her teacher husband, thanks to her father's forcing a "Jail Bait Wait" on the couple.
Tomoyo in Cardcaptor Sakura is another sweet and motherly example. Calm, mature and refined in most situations, she also has a passion for dressing Sakura, the perpetually oblivious target of her affections, in a vast array of fetish-tastic outfits while she records her... and watching aforementioned recordings repeatedly... alone...
Back when Yu-Gi-Oh! wasn't about children's card games, protagonist Yugi was a really good example of this trope. Most of the time, he is sweet and innocent... but, once his classmate Anzu was telling him about a game of basketball she was playing with some boys. As it turns out, the boys were only playing basketball with her so they could peek up her skirt. Sweet little Yugi then pictures Anzu's underwear, while blushing and smiling oddly. ALSO, during the obligatory Beach Episode, Yugi once saw Anzu in a bikini. He became starry-eyed and almost fainted.
Darker Than Black has an OVA that reveals that resident Yaoi Fangirl Kiko has introduced Yin, of all people, to the world of slash fanfic. Really dirty slash fanfic, at least one of which involved doing something unmentionable with an elephant.
Azumanga Daioh has the legendary scene in which Minamo, usually one of the more sane and stable characters (especially in comparison to Yukari), drowns herself in a bottle of sake and proceeds to lecture her students on the intricacies of relationships.
Mai, who works for Pilaf in Dragon Ball. When Pilaf said that they needed to find the "balls", Mai simply responded, "Perhaps between that man's legs." Pilaf and Shu didn't take it well.
Takeo Takakura in Magic User's Club is plagued by his own perverted thoughts, usually directed at his female club members.

Literature

In the book Behaving Bradley, a high school boy gets nicknamed "Microdick" after the other boys see him putting his bathing suit on in the locker room. Hopie, a sweet, naive girl, asks the main character what the nickname means, and he tells her it's because the boy wants to be a disc jockey and use a microphone. She responds "Oh, I thought it was something about his penis."

Live Action TV

Kaylee of Firefly, minus the covert part for anyone who actually gets to know her. Childish and sweet-hearted in her personality, but will say things like "Have great sex!" (in an adorable tone).
- In Serenity, we learn that she's had a long-standing relationship with things battery-powered.
  Mal: Oh, God, I can't know that!
  Jayne: ...I could stand to hear a little more.
  - Additionally, when Simon tells her he wants to be "with" her, she says "I want to live!"
  - Furthermore, the recording of Inara leaving, declaring that Inara entertained men in this very bed. River meanwhile (see below) actually pauses to sniff the sheets.
- And let's not forget her introduction via flashback in Out of Gas. "Engines make her hot."
- Also, in "Heart of Gold", she expresses enthusiasm that the whores include men.
- River plays this for laughs in the comic Those Left Behind. Wash and Zoe make love on the bridge, and then suddenly have to call everyone else up to the bridge when they find something important. No one says anything as the two are straightening out their clothes... until River blurts out "It stinks like sex in here."
  - Not to mention in Serenity at the very end, when Kaylee and Simon are, well, taking the "unresolved" out of their UST, River is seen spying on them from above with a curious look on her face. For bonus points, Simon's her brother.
  - Ceiling River is watching you procreate.
  - And one can't forget River's, um, "reaction" to Wash and Zoe making out on the bridge in "Objects In Space."
  - And her "cockney comeon" to Badger.
This is the most obvious character trait of Tobias from Arrested Development, who never seems to consciously think or care about sex at all.
There's a rather startling scene in Pushing Daisies where Chuck, in an attempt to prove that she's not as sheltered as she seems, talks about her aunt's collection of erotica.
Mindy from Mork And Mindy. In the pilot, she asks Mork to test his voice by reading from a book she has. Turns out it's a steamy romance novel. And later in the series when it's revealed that Orkan ears unscrew, she says "Gee, I'm afraid of what else comes off!".
Lily from How I Met Your Mother, despite, or possibly because, of the fact that she'd only been with one man.
- Of course, that's almost every main character Alyson Hannigan has played since Buffy (see below).
In early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Willow was known to do this.
- Might be Unfortunate Implications due to the fact she becomes a lesbian later in later seasons. Could just be something about Allison Hannigan.
In Frasier, the normally reserved and refined Niles was frequently driven to distraction by his crush on Daphne, often given to either dreamily smelling her hair, admiring her rear end or wistfully interrupting a conversation with some highly suggestive Non Sequitur before managing to catch himself.
- In a later episode after they got together, Daphne is looking through photos and is mildly scandalized to realize how much time Niles spent covertly looking at her butt. She turns around and demands that he tell her the colour of her eyes. He is, of course, distracted by her butt.

Film

American Pie has one of the classic ones (although it's more of a reveal that the relevant character is not that innocent): "This one time, at band camp..."
- At least, it would have been The Reveal, had it not been in every commercial.
- And she is of course played by Allison Hannigan.

Web Comics

The somewhat Animesque webcomic It's Walky! played this with Joyce, who had gone so far as to wipe her own memories in an attempt to remain pure. The result was the development of an alter ego, Anti-Joyce, which would surface whenever she needed to do something 'pure' Joyce couldn't; when this alter-ego was physically separated from her, the original murdered her.
- Wouldn't the fact that pure Joyce just beat the crap out of her dark side mean she was reintegrated into pure Joyce? She's feeling dark and evil enough to kill...
A rare male example: Onii-chan from Tsunami Channel has shown hints of secretly being a little more "hentai" than he usually acts.
Alex/Murfs of Khaos Komix always blushes around his love interest Tom. In the other characters' stories, the impression is that he's blushing because he's shy and embarrassed about his attraction to Tom. In Alex's own story, however, it's revealed that his constant blushing is due to the incredibly dirty thoughts he has about what exactly he'd like to do with Tom.

Web Original

"Summoning Sweeties", a Whateley story, reveals that the character of Molly is one of these. Pity her girlfriend.

Video Games

In Shadow Hearts 2, the way Anastasia reacts at the end of the Man Festival shows how perverted the Russian princess really is.
- Not to mention in the main storyline, when spying on Yuri and Karin in Japan, the princess starts saying some perverted (for her age and looks, anyway) things for Yuri to do. And what she says she wants to do as Kurando's "wife".
In Blaz Blue, otherwise childish and innocent Cloudcuckoolander Taokaka has a very prominent obsession with large breasts. She refers to Litchi as "Boobie Lady", and, in arcade mode, comments that she "always has nice, comfy airbags." Meanwhile, in both arcade and story mode, she's dismissive of Noel for her comparatively small chest. Litchi, at least, completely fails to take the hint that the Cat Girl may be more perverted than she first appears.
A rare non-comedic example of this trope is James in Silent Hill 2, who initially appears to be a relatively normal (if rather dense and insensitive) individual until it's revealed the majority of the twisted abominations that have been attacking him over the course of the game are the personifications of his sexual fetishes.
- It's more his sexual repression than his fetishes, but this still qualifies, especially considering the mannequin rape.
In Tomoyo's route in Clannad she thinks Tomoya is being perverted and tells him not to think dirty thoughts, at which he innocently asks 'like what?' and she freaks because now she's thinking them instead. Nooooo!
In one segment of Terra's chapter in Dissidia, Onion Knight accidentally makes a Double Entendre by suggesting Terra "check out the enemy's equipment before each battle". Terra chuckles to herself in appreciation.