You hate him. But oh my God he just looks oh-so hot. He makes fun of you, is an absolute jerk and there is no one else on the planet you hate more. But still, he looks gorgeous... doesn't he?
But no! You hate him despite all that hotness because he hates you too... or does he?
And there you have the
Handsome Devil. The guy you love to hate or hate to love. Sometimes, it's even both.
The
Handsome Devil is often someone the main character/female protagonist hates for her own reasons. Every other girl is often in love with him. Symptoms of being a handsome devil include being good-looking, rich and a jerk. Often a playboy. May or may not have a relationship gone wrong with the main protagonist's best friend.
Similar but not the same with
All Girls Want Bad Boys. This one is about the fine line between love and hate.
All Girls Want Bad Boys often has main protagonists who just likes bad boys.
May be a
Casanova. Compare with
Love at First Punch. A more fetishized and kinky version is the
Bastard Boyfriend. Contrast
Creepy Good, which is an inversion.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Vegeta to Bulma, full stop. The story, being an action comic, skips their romance and gets straight to their Messianic son, but that only fueled a million fangirls worldwide to write fanfics of "the three lost years."
- Read some Shōjo (Demographic) romance manga. The hero will most likely be this, a handsome asshole. Most notable are:
- Kyou Koi Wo Hajimemasu has Kyouta, who is this to a T, at least for a while, anyway.
- Moe Kare has the Perverted Prince aka Arata.
- Shou from Skip Beat! is an unusual example for shojo because the heroine dumps him in the first chapter and he ends up as her main rival rather than her love interest.
- Ryoki from Hot Gimmick.
- Takeru from Akuma De Sourou.
- Any lead by Mayu Shinjo, with Hakuron from Haou Airen as the biggest example.
Fanfic
- Many stories on Fictionpress follow this trope.
- And Fanfiction.net. Pick a Hero/Rival shipping fic. Any Hero/Rival shipping fic. It will touch on this.
- While Seto Kaiba is not an example of this in canon, any romance-oriented fanfic he appears in will turn him into this.
Film
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Video Games
Western Animation
- After abusing plastic surgery, Peter Griffin of Family Guy becomes an even huger jerkass than he already was, and Lois was willing to accommodate him (at least initially) because he was so attractive.
- Justin on Total Drama Action. Of course the point of the show is that every character represents a Trope.
- Season 3 brings us Alejandro who is an even better example of this trope.
