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"The seaweed gatherer's weary feet
keep coming back to my shore.
Doesn't he know
there's no harvest for him
in this uncaring bay?"
— Ono no Komachi
A character (almost always male and often a Loser Guy) who pursues another character romantically, despite all evidence his target is probably not interested in him, and won't ever be. However, there is an undercurrent to the presentation suggesting that he merely has to redouble his efforts again and again, essentially wearing her down until she starts to get interested in him.
This very seldom works in Real Life. This is probably because most of the actions typical of this trope are actually disturbingly stalkerish if you think about them. As a result, quite a few platonic friendships have been ruined when people did not learn to take the hint. It is, however, remarkably effective in television and very frequent in movies.
There are several ways to make this less annoying. One way is to make the character pursue an unseen character, so we don't see their reaction. Another is to make the Dogged Nice Guy a Handsome Lech or Leisure Suit Larry, where the trait is supposed to be annoying. A third is to do what many sitcoms do and reverse the dynamic — only after the Dogged Nice Guy gives up his pursuit and moves on to another object of interest does his original love interest suddenly realize what she was missing, almost always (ironically) developing feelings for him in return and sometimes becoming a Dogged Nice, er, Girl herself.
Ironically, while the Unlucky Everydudes and Plucky Girls found in many anime are Nice Guys, they are rarely this brand of Nice Guy. They are victim to being prevented from ever admitting their crushes outright, or simply not being acknowledged. Once they do, there is usually an undercurrent that their opposite number is interested in them. Their rival, however, is likely to be a Dogged Nice Guy.
This trope likely occurs due to a combination of Most Writers Are Male and Writer On Board. Said writer probably had an unrequited crush they never really got over, thus feeling the need to portray a fantasy wherein their Author Stand In manages to win the girl of his dreams simply by virtue of having an unhealthy fixation on her.
Another reason it happens may be that in some audience demographics, a large fraction of the audience are the kind of guy who is doggedly nice or merely thinks he is, in which case it becomes audience wish-fulfillment instead of, or along with, being author wish-fulfillment. Real life Dogged Nice Guys (usually referred to simply as "Nice Guys", with quotes, capitals, and possibly a (tm) symbol) usually are not defined so much by being "nice" as being shy and unconfident. Many are actually nice but simply lack the confidence other males might have (or at least pretend to have). Others are not so nice. More accurately, in real life, this would be called Dogged Shy Guy.
See also The Urkel, Romantic Runner Up. Compare with the less sympathetic Stalker With A Crush and Mad Love, and the female sorta-equivalent, Abhorrent Admirer (although she never wins). Contrast Cannot Spit It Out, where the person is incapable of expressing their romantic interest even once, let alone over and over again, and I Want My Beloved To Be Happy
Examples
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- The titular Naruto over Sakura, at first, before he became more mature.
- Shirai Nagisa in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
- Kitagawa Jun in Kanon. Kaori is very aware of his efforts, but uses it to her advantage, making him her personal bagboy when she goes shopping.
- Winner Sinclair in Karin. Not only does he fail to notice that Karin isn't interested in him, he also doesn't notice that she's a vampire and that her best friend is interested in him.
- Toris/Lithuania of Axis Powers Hetalia is a good example of this... he is a kind person who wouldn't hurt anyone, but the one time he gets to go on a date with his crush Natasha/Belarus, who hates him because her rather "special" crush is {{Yandere]] for Lithuania himself, she breaks all his fingers in retaliation.
- Many fans of Ranma 1/2 regard Mousse to be this as pertains to Shampoo. Others wonder if the guy will get to the point where Shampoo will not be obliged to kill him out of hand once she gets over Ranma and finds someone willing to return her (distinctly non-ambiguous) affection.
- And then there's Ryoga, who is depressed over the fact that Akane sees him only as a friend and nothing more. Or rather, he would be a Dogged Nice Guy if it weren't for his bad case of Cannot Spit It Out. In the manga, he eventually acquires a female admirer (who even likes his curse) and by the end he drops his pursuit of Akane entirely in favor of Akari. (Making him the only character in the series to break out of the status quo... although he never actually confessed to Akane, either.)
- Morinaga in The Tyrant Falls In Love has stuck by Souichi's side for five years in the hope of having his feelings returned someday, despite Souichi being a homophobe. (Granted, he spent most of those five years concealing his feelings because of the homophobia thing, but he's had enough of hiding them by the fifth year.) Souichi even compares Morinaga's behavior towards him to a dog following its owner, though he's showing signs that he actually doesn't mind Morinaga's dogged pursuit of him.
- In Lovely Complex, the main character Risa becomes a Dogged Nice Girl when she realizes her crush on the lead male Atsushi. It doesn't help that all of her friends are constantly encouraging her on in her pursuit of him.
- Megumi "Nodame" Noda from Nodame Cantabile is another female version, after she falls in love with the ridiculously talented Chiaki. She needs no encouragement though...
- Candy Boy has a lesbian variety in the shape of Sakuya, who keeps running after Kanade and even goes so far as to spend money on her and her sister's ticket home, only to still be treated with a fair amount of disregard.
- Youta "Dateless" Moteuchi from Video Girl Ai fits this troupe except that he leans a lot towards "I Want My Beloved To Be Happy." He helps the girl get together with her hopeless crush who is also his best friend, despite that he still has a huge crush on her for almost half the series. After they break up, since the friend was originally uninterested anyway, she does fall for Youta but only after he's already moved on of course.
- Almost every character in this anime has an unrequited love. Youta's and Ai's were real Tear Jerkers.
- Gender-flipped and (possibly) non-romantic example: Sasada Jun from Natsume Yuujinchou, a Muggle who repeatedly attempts to make Natsume admit that he has supernatural powers and generally shows a very large amount of interest in him.
- Mikan from Gakuen Alice behaves like this toward Hotaru.
- Furuichi from Xamd Lost Memories. Does not end well.
- Used rather cruelly in most installments of the original UC Gundam saga. A recurring theme throughout is that of the dogged nice utterly failing in his pursuit because the woman has already pledged herself to a man with a much stronger personality, or one or more participants in the Love Triangle wind up dead. Worst of all is probably the sad, sad tale of 13-years-old Hathaway Noah of Chars Counterattack, who can't even let go after the girl's dead. In the sequel novel, Hathaways Flash, he leads a resistance movement against The Federation to avenge her, fails spectacularily and gets excuted (under orders from his own father, no less!). When he meets Quess in the afterlife he finds out it was all for nothing because she never even liked him anyway. Ouch.
- Ichinensei ni Nacchattara: Touta (~7 year old boy) jumps on Iori (7 year old girl) and tries to kiss her every chance he gets. Being as how Iori is secretly a genderbent highschooler, this attention is very much unwanted.
Comic Books
- David Qin in Strangers in Paradise seeks Katchoo out on a more or less daily basis, even though she explains repeatedly (and violently) that she's not interested in men. It's revealed later on that his sister Darcy sent him to spy on Katchoo and Francine. She relents after he helps her and Francine through some rough times, and he moves in with them.
- Often, Archie towards Veronica, and similarly Betty towards Archie.
- Lu Ann: Brad is this most of the time, chasing crushes Diane and Toni- especially true for the latter. Though at times he's been shown as angry and loudmouthed towards his sister, he's largely completely sympathetic the entire time.
- According to some fanfics, James Potter and Lily Evans from the Harry Potter universe fit this trope well. It seems to be pretty solidly there in canon, though. When we see James asking Lily out in their fifth year, not only does she turn him down, they're both acting like this is hardly the first time she's had to reject him. We're later told that they didn't start going out until seventh year, so that's at least two years of James dogging persistently after Lily, since we don't know when he first started asking.
- The male lead in Chasing Amy refuses to give up on his love interest, even though she's a lesbian which should make his efforts ultimately worthless... except for the fact that she's actually a bisexual who decided she would be more accepted as a lesbian.
- Cloverfield, of all places: It's made clear early on that Hud has feelings for Marlena, even though Marlena isn't particularly interested and brushes him off more than a few times. As the movie progresses, however, they start to get along better, reaching a head when Marlena attacks one of the parasites that was trying to drag Hud away, getting bitten in the process. She starts to warm up to him when he helps treat her wound, but it all ends badly when the bite makes Marlena die in an incredibly disturbing and sudden way. It's driven home and made all the more wrenching that she asked Hud for help first when she starts rapidly worsening, rather than her best friend.
- To a certain extent Knox Overstreet from Dead Poets Society in his subplot with Chris. At least in the film version it is unresolved whether they wind up together or not by the end.
- Say Anything. Who could forget John Cusack standing outside the window of his Love Interest with a boombox playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes"? Is he or is he not the utter embodiment of this trope?
- Debatable. They had already been seeing each other and in fact had already consummated their relationship in the backseat of a car.
- Subverted by Private Zoller in Inglourious Basterds. He acts exactly like a romantic comedy protagonist, as this trope demands, but, of course, there are a few problems. Not least of all is the fact that, well, Shoshanna's (secretly) Jewish, and he's a freakin' Nazi! When she finally manages to get through to him that there's no way in hell that she'll ever be interested in him, he stops being so nice...
- Swayze's main character in Ghost sang "King Henry the eight I am" to his love interest over and over until she agreed to go out with him. I'm not sure, but in real life that behavior is probably more likely to land you a restraining order...
- Subverted in Snow Day; Dogged Nice Guy Hal, after finally getting the girl, realizes how Lane, who had appeared doomed to be an Unlucky Childhood Friend, feels about him, and somehow manages to let the original target girl down without coming across as a massive Jerk Ass.
- Jacob Black Twilight is a very literal interpretation of this principle.
- Both Kenny Showalter (towards Mia) and Boris Pelkowski (toward Lily and Tina) are featured in The Princess Diaries books. Boris succeeds and Kenny does not.
- Joseph Heller's Catch-22 brings us Nately, who is madly in love with a prostitute who couldn't care less for him (and would much rather get some much needed sleep), but sticks around him anyway because, well, she's a prostitute and he pays her to, hoping all the while that eventually she'll come to her senses and reciprocate his affection. Eventually she does, after finally getting some shuteye, and Nately dies almost immediately thereafter.
- Nicely played with in Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. We are not sure whether Moist will get Adora Belle Dearheart. He will - they are engaged as of Making Money.
- Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, though not by any stretch of the imagination a Loser Guy and rather more self-aware than most, otherwise fits this trope nicely in his wooing of Harriet Vane.
Lord Peter: I shall, with your permission, continue to propose to you at decently regulated intervals—as a birthday treat, and on Guy Fawkes' Day and on the Anniversary of the King's Ascension. But consider it, if you will, a pure formality. You need not pay the slightest attention to it.
Harriet: Peter, it's foolish to go on like this.
Lord Peter: And, of course, on the Feast of All Fools.
- Dave Malkoff from the Troubleshooters series, who pines after Sophia, who in turn pines after Decker, who won't sack up and ask her out. Eventually Dave wins.
- William Dobbin, the Nice Guy borderline Loser Guy protagonist of Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray. Except that Thackeray never met a trope he didn't mess with.
- Partially subverted with Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. While Spike's obsessive affection for Buffy does eventually result in her having a relationship with him, it is treated as unhealthy and the affair is short-lived.
- Family Matters' own Steve Urkel who is treated like a fungus for most of the show's run. But he eventually does end up winning Laura's heart.
- Niles from Frasier, although he genuinely was too shy to tell Daphne, and she remained comically oblivious for most of the show's run.
- Chase from House, for a while. That whole 'It's Tuesday and I like you' thing.
- Charlie Pace in Lost.
- Harris Pemberton in Seriously Weird was trying to play this role to the obligatory Libby. The one time he actually manages to
harass convince her to go on a date with him, one of his friends (the female black New Age one) was almost blown to the other side of the planet. This is why you should not date the Weirdness Magnet.
- Skipper in Sex And The City.
- On Sports Night, this is how Dan's relationship with Rebecca begins, with him apparently having asked her out seventeen times offscreen.
- Dr. Julian Bashir in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. He finally succeeds, just not with the Dax he started out with.
- Danny Tripp in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.
- The TV Adaptation of Ten Things I Hate About You badly miscalculates this with the character of Cameron. While in the film he's a genuine Nice Guy, the tv version never actually tells Bianca he's interested in her (he tries once in French, which he knows she doesn't understand, and sends her a note he knows she never received). When she assumes he's gay, he makes only a cursory attempt to deny it. In one episode, she arranges to go to a dance with a Jerk Jock, and he sabotages the guy's car and steals his cell phone to make her think she has been stood up, then offers to go with her in his place. Given that he comes off like a creepy stalker, and she has a really sweet chemistry with Joey (who was a Jerk Jock in the film), the show seems to be writing itself into a corner.
- Harper in Wizards Of Waverly Place is a rare female version vis a vis Justin. Which should make things interesting in thw third season when she moves in with the Russos
Music
- "Just The Girl" by the Click Five.
- Oh sure, keep thinking Cake's "The Distance" is just about a CAR race:
"The arena is empty, except for one man
Still driving and striving as fast as he can
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up
And long ago somebody left with the cup
But he's racing and pacing, and hugging the turns
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns."
- "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift. Except it's a Dogged Nice Girl this time.
Theater
- Alfred in Tanz Der Vampire is like this toward Sarah. Herbert is a less loser-ish version toward Alfred.
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate II features the Violent Glaswegian dwarf fighter Korgan Bloodaxe, who will make advances towards a fellow tiny fighter, halfling Mazzy Fentan, should the player pick both for his party. The main reason Mazzy isn't very interested in him is that he, contrary to the trope name, not very nice guy at all.
Hey, Mazzy! Just so's you know, I've somethin' long, hard, and low t'the ground you're free to touch and fondle if ye wish. No need to glare, girlie: I was talking aboot me axe!
Your sense of humour has no sense in it, Korgan.
- Bang Shishigami in Blaz Blue. A Large Ham Hot Blooded Ninja who fights for justice, and seriously infatuated with Litchi Faye Ling, and considering their age gap, he dangerously skirts on Dirty Old Man. But considering how Litchi looked by herself, can you really blame him?
- Female example: Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury and The King Of Fighters series, who fell madly in love with Andy Bogard.
- Knights Of The Old Republic. The male character's romance with Bastila consists mainly of immature teasing, but once you actually suggest a real relationship to her, she says no. If you want to achieve the romance, you pretty much have to keep pushing her and pushing her, regardless of how many times she turns you down. Though to be fair, she does make it quite obvious that she likes you too, and that it's only the Jedi code stopping her from saying yes.
- Galford D. Weiler in Samurai Shodown. He's really in love with Nakoruru, but the girl is too Married To The Job, though she did recognize his feelings to her. Coincidentally, turns out Galford is also Married To The Job (being a defender of justice)
- In the third game from the Girls Love series Sono Hanabira Ni Kuchizuke Wo, we have a dogged nice girl in Mai. To make things interesting, Mai is chasing a Type A Tsundere.
- Tekken had the sumo wrestler Ganryu, who at first fell madly in love with Michelle Chang, and later for her adopted daughter Julia. This one is actually a subversion, because towards Michelle, Ganryu can be seen as a Stalker With A Crush, since he was a corrupt sumo wrestler during the course of the early Tekken series (this disgusted Michelle). After he reappears in Tekken 5, he seems to have converted into a decent man, thus towards Julia, he adheres this trope.
- The whole point of the Nice Guy
 webcomic.
- Dave and Margaret in College Roomies From Hell form a textbook example.
- Well, they did. These days, it's complicated.
- This Something Positive contains a wonderful deconstruction of self-professed nice guys, and a big part of Mike's overall character development is learning to get rid of "nice guy syndrome"
- This XKCD comic is a
subtle deconstruction showing exactly how creepy/hypocritical this can be.
- Piro in MegaTokyo is a subversion. He appears to be this by most traditional traits, but in truth, his inability to get a girlfriend is mostly self-inflicted by a total lack of confidence. In a more traditional sense, Kimiko was something of a Dogged Nice Girl to Piro.
- Angus after Faye in Questionable Content. He follows her to the point of being asked to leave and THROWN across a bar by Faye. Against all odds, they seem to be flirting despite the creepy beginning.
Web Original
- The character Stalwart at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy, Stalwart is first seen declaring his true love for protagonist Fey. Fey uses her powers to magically throw Stalwart across the campus quad. But Stalwart is a nice guy, and keeps trying, almost to the point of being a Stalker With A Crush. His persistence is rewarded when he becomes the only thing that stops a superpowered ninja from raping and killing Fey.. and he almost dies from doing so. Fey heals him and ends up going on a date with him.
- This Super Mario Bros fan-song portrays Mario himself as one of these, while Bowser is a more open Stalker With A Crush.
Western Animation
- The most famous and deliberately over-the-top example is probably cartoon character Pepe LePew, whose main problem is not understanding that, as a skunk, he smells bad (when he did, he tried to correct it with hilarious results). He is based on Chuck Jones' coworker Tedd Peirce, and has gotten occasional flak from Media Watchdogs. This is likely the main reason his Tiny Toon Adventures counterpart is female.
- Fry from Futurama chased comically after Leela. As time went on Leela returned more and more of his affection.
- Silverbolt in Beast Wars. It helps that he's part dog (well, wolf, but Rattrap calls him "bird-dog").
- Martin in WITCH, constantly shot down in his pursuit of Irma.
- Sheldon functions as this towards Jenny in My Life As A Teenage Robot. However, IIRC, Jenny never returns his affections.
- Subverted in The Spectacular Spider Man. Peter Parker plays this role when trying to get Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant to be his date to the High School Dance. He is thwarted in his efforts by his Aunt May, who frankly tells Betty that, at twenty to his sixteen, she's too old to be dating Peter. Much to Peter's chagrin, Betty takes this to heart, and turns Peter down.
- The titular character of Hey Arnold becomes a mild version of this after he realizes that he like likes Lila.
- Cody on Total Drama Island to Gwen, though he eventually decides I Want My Beloved To Be Happy.
- The Fairly Oddparents has Timmy to Trixie and Mark to Vicky. So far, no luck for either of them.
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