One Winged Angels aside (except One Winged Angels that involve the Bishonen Line), everything can be a cute girl.
The Elegant Gothic Lolita wears an outfit that makes her look like a Victorian doll: puffy skirts, lots of frills, bonnets, huge ribbons, mostly black. There's also shades of Alice in Wonderland (though it is beginning to fall out of favor), with the aforementioned dark motif. On occasion, her hair may be in Princess Curls.
Although fundamentally unrelated to the Western sense of "goth", it's a popular way to dress characters who are villains, have icy personalities, possess supernatural powers, and/or use arcane symbols (this is also falling out of favor, as "gothic girl with dark powers" began to become an overused archetype during The Noughties). At other times the clothes just for random cute Cosplay and the character might have a Sweet Tooth. As "Lolita" suggests, characters who wear EGL are sometimes below adult age. When the wearer is in her teens or older it can seem like Age Inappropriate Dress. Either way there's some Awesome Anachronistic Apparel appeal.
Gothic lolita is actually a sub-style of the "lolita" subculture in Japan based on dressing in EGL as fashion, not costume. The specific Trope Namer is Mana, a Visual Kei artist, who uses "Elegant Gothic Lolita" to refer to his own brand of clothing, Moi-Meme-Moitie. So referring to lolita clothing as EGL is like saying "I'm going to play Nintendo" when referring to video games. "Gothic Lolita" is also referred to as "gothic and lolita," "GothLoli" (gosurori), or "loligoth." Western goth fashion is referred to as "goth punk" in Japan. A list of the most prominent sub-styles of lolita fashion can be found here.
Keep in mind that although creators might draw inspiration from lolita fashion or intend to show lolita outfits, they might not necessarily make accurate representations or real-life lolitas.
Can overlap with a Parasol of Prettiness, Fairytale Wedding Dress.
Not to be confused with Original Gothic Lolita◊ or "OGL".
Chobits features several characters with "gothloli" looks, though mostly notably are Chii, with the dresses Chitose gives her.
Freya is a better example, chi is more sweet-loli than goth-loli.
In Code Geass, Mysterious Waif C.C. inexplicably wears an Elegant Gothic Lolita costume in one episode; side materials suggest that Lelouch bought it for her without bothering to check her tastes first. As she was going out in public, it's still less conspicuous than her normal apparel of what appears to be a straitjacket.
A special mention needs to go to the {{picture drama}} where Milly forces the entire student council to cross-dress, and Lelouch gets dressed up like this. He is not exactly pleased, but there's a certain amount of squee from everyone else over "Luluko."
Lala the doll in a few chapters of DGray-Man. The sadistic Road not only dresses up like this, but she also dresses a paralyzed Lenalee as one too, mostly to tick off Allen.
Misa Amane in Death Note was originally styled this way, though her looks became more mainstream after the Time Skip to indicate her maturity and fame.
In the anime, Misa also wears this in the Grand Finale... as she quietly stands atop of a rooftop, after Light's death. It's strongly implied that she threw herself off it.
As a matter of fact, it's possible that her original montage actually takes place directly before her scene in the finale, which may be why she, in the montage, is seen on a rooftop looking forlornly at the horizon. The outfit may have been so distinct specifically to draw us to this conclusion.
Alice from Digimon Tamers. The writer has mentioned on his home page that she may be a ghost.
The manga "Doll" by Mitsukazu Mihara is filled with tons of characters wearing lolita, specifically the Dolls (androids) of the story. Mihara also did the first covers of the Gothic Lolita Bible.
Illyasviel von Einzbern from Fate/stay night. Although, she's more genki than elegant, but still...
In the second season of Genshiken, the males discuss what Ogiue would be like as an ero-game character. The answer: she would be a shy girl in a Gothic Lolita dress who would nevertheless be sexually aggressive even if it was her first time.
Rika and Hanyuu from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni dress this way quite a lot in promo art for Kai and Rei.
Kanako from Love Hina Again; she even persuades Keitaro to dress in a goth-like manner briefly. Check out the credits for that episode of the miniseries, which have the other characters, save Haruka, similarly... modified.
The cover of volume 11, in which Kanako first appears, has all the characters except Keitaro dressed in this style. Keitaro's not on the cover because he happens to be away until the last three pages of the book.
Cosette d'Auvergne from Le Portrait de Petite Cosette
Kuro from Kodomo no Jikan prides herself on her extensive (and costly) GothLoli-wardrobe.
The outfits worn by the girls of K-On!! in the ED, "Don't Say Lazy", and "Fuwa Fuwa Time".
Before changing families Senko Himemiya's (later known as Chika Midarezaki) standard outfit was of this variety in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
There is also the random shots at the end of the opening video where the female family members are seen wearing EGL.
Everyone and everything from Kuroshitsuji. (With, of course, the guys tending more toward Elegant Gothic Aristocrat.) Even grim and steely little Ciel Phantomhive wears tiers of lace and roses spilling off his top hats.
In Loveless, Nagisa's outfits are all traditional gothic lolita. Yes, even when she's at home or eating lunch.
In the shoujo manga Othello the main character Yaya's secret hobby is dressing in EGL as cosplay for her favorite Visual Kei band (the manga has nothing to do with Shakespeare's Othello).
Isabella from Paradise Kiss dresses in Elegant Gothic Aristocrat style, which is basically Elegant Gothic Lolita with floor-length skirts and a more ladylike look. Probably because it's hard to pull off the lolita part when you're a six-foot-tall transsexual.
Miwako Sakurada sometimes dresses in Sweet Lolita dresses.
Hime with heavy emphasis on elegant and Gothic, as well as her younger sister Sherwood.
Quon from RahXephon certainly qualifies, cute umbrella and all.
One of the DVD covers has her dress in a more traditional Gothic Loli outfit. Her facial expression and being taller than most lolis makes it border Uncanny Valley.
Suigintou (Rozen Maiden); the other dolls are also dressed in Victorian fashions, but are generally more colorful.
Souseiseki has roughly the same palette as Suigintou, but wears a style of dress based on Victorian clothing for boys, known as "ouji" or "kodona".
Actually, the all of the dolls could be seen as different types of lolita in general. Hina Ichigo is a Sweet Lolita, Kirakishou is a Classic Lolita (or a slightly more refined Sweet Lolita, take it either way), Suiseiseki and Shinku are Aristocrat-lolitas, and Kanaria is more like mix of Classic Lolita and Aristocrat-lolita.
Hotaru Tomoe (Sailor Saturn) in the second half of the third season of Sailor Moon.
The lead trio in Saint October. They even call themselves the GothLoli Detectives.
Soul Eater: Patti Thompson's outfits when she dresses casually have elements of this.
More explicitly, the maid outfits she and Liz wore in the manga.
The manga adaption of the Suzumiya Haruhi franchise featured this during Kyon and Mikuru's date. They stumble upon Yuki (What was she doing there, anyway?) who got dressed up like this by some clothing-store owners. Kyon remarks that it looks "pretty damn good" on her.
Due to the popularity of the aforementioned, PVC figurines have been released of the female leads in personally-tailored GothLoli costumes.
Silky from Tenshi Ni Narumon, especially in the first season where she poses for a doll.
Venus Versus Virus has one of these as a protagonist. She also has a clothes' store that sells dresses in the same style.
The twins, Layla and Lola, dress in gothic lolita fashion.
In The Wallflower (Or Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge), we are given the "GothLoli Sisters" who are rather less than elegant, not very lolita-ish, and also not very gothic... but that's what they call themselves, and often chant "Goth Goth Loli Loli".
Tsukiyo Kujou from The World God Only Knows counts as this, even while still wearing her school uniform. Her creepy doll Luna fits this trope to a T though.
Cat Street has a lolita character who couldn't fit into a normal public school because of her unusual fashion choices.
The Embalmer, created by Mihara Mitsukaz who has done illustrations for lolita magazines, has two secondary characters who dress in EGL and a short story about a gothic lolita.
Perrier La Mer from Amuri in Star Ocean has this kind of fashion sense but in white. While under the influence of her darker persona, Vernier, she wears black.
Marvel's Live Wires miniseries featured a character actually named Gothic Lolita, who served as the Cute Bruiser of the titular Five-Man Band. To be fair, she is a self-named Robot Girl, and her teammates have equally odd monikers.
Also from Marvel, Runaways leader, Nico Minoru, is explicitly referenced as such in the comics first script.
Kim Pine during the gig in Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness.
Used in Gloomcookie, naturally, as it satirizes a lot of goth tropes.
Fan Works
Tsuruya, in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, gets one of these made for her by Mikuru. It doesn't match her cheerful demeanor at all.
In Tokyo Mew Mew No Hope Left it's mentioned when the main character wears "Gothic Lolita." It does not match the guidelines for the style at all, though, so it's kind of subverted.
Sometimes Live Action Adaptations of manga and anime buy actual lolita clothing for the actors to wear so the live-action characters look more like real lolitas than the original characters.
In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the two vampire sisters are this. Interestingly, we find out they dressed the same way before they became vampires.
Little Miss Badass Latooni Subota finds herself turning into this in Super Robot Wars Original Generation. First by accident, second in order to match her with the Princess she was assigned to guard, and finally ordered into it by one of her superior officers because frankly, she looks so damn cute in it. To be fair, however, every time she wore that dress, she ended up with a fair amount of Character Development, and the officer giving the order actually says as much.
And don't get us started on her giant robot. There's a reason the game's development staff nicknamed it the Gothlolion.
Irui Guneden, is also this in her child form.
Amy from Soul Calibur 3. In the arcade version, at least. Soul Calibur IV even more so.
She's "Ero-lolita" at best, most lolitas value modesty.
And if that's somehow not enough for you, the game's character creator has more than enough frilly, lacy clothing for you to make your own.
Tabitha from Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin. She's more of the Alpha Bitch in personality, however.
Chidori in Persona 3 has both a gothic dress, an icy personality (except when she's busy cutting herself), and a supernatural power.
Yurika Kirishima of the Rival Schools sequel Project Justice dresses in this style (and her profile even lists a like of frilly and lacy clothing) but the colors of her clothing (light blue dress and a bright red ribbon) contrast to the typical dark colors associated with this trope.
Ninon Beart of King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 practically defines Gothic Lolita.
The "Dark Beauty" dress Cordelia can acquire in Shadow Hearts: Covenant is, appropriately enough, in this style. In From The New World, Hilda takes up the fashion.
In The World Ends with You, Lapin Angelique, the store in A-East, carries Gothic And Lolita attire as its main stock.
Virtually the entire Touhou cast is dressed in goth-loli style; even the traditional Japanese outfits seen in the games come with frills and lace.
One gets the impression that the artist (ZUN) doesn't know when to stop adding details. He's once explained the expressive frills as "I don't know how to draw straight lines."
Mountain Of Faith's second boss, Hina Kagiyama, Undefined Fantastic Object's sixth boss, Byakuren Hijiri, and Phantasmagoria of Flower View's Medicine Melancholy are actually some of the few who fully represent this trope.
Also, series protagonist Reimu herself started as a rather traditional Miko whose outfit was progressively wa-lolified.
Cave has two series, Ibara and Death Smiles, which are Shoot 'Em Ups with gothic lolita elements. The latter is more heavily centered on them.
The generic female mage characters in Disgaea all dress this way.
Marley, one of five trainers that you can team up with in Pokemon Diamond And Pearl/Platinum, dresses in this style.
The pilot of the Final Boss craft in Otomedius Excellent is a young female expy for Castlevania's Dracula wearing this style.
Rock Band has a handful of frilly, lacy articles of clothing, thus allowing you to dress a female custom character like this if you want. There are also a few items suitable for an Elegant Gothic Aristocrat.
Web Comic
Miho Tohya from Megatokyo. Largo even believes she's the "Z0MB13 QU33|\|" right after he meets her.
Near the end of Chapter 9, we find out she is, in fact, the Mistress of the Zombies - they refer to her as such.
Chimera, from the 3rd season of Winx Club, is a GothLoli. It has been criticized that Stella should know this (especially since it's a well known fashion style), but she doesn't act that way, calling her look "pre-teen meets goth".
◊ or "OGL".
