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If a show has scenes featuring a school, the easiest way to drop a new character into the cast is to have that character enter as a transfer student. This is usually done by the Second Episode Morning. If the transfer student is the main character, the series will usually begin on his or her first day at the new school. This will always happen around mid-semester, so the other characters can exposit at them.
Often this ignores the inherent problem of characters with no credentials or information (since a lot aren't even human) being able to sign up for a school within a week or so after getting the idea. See Undead Tax Exemption.
This is a common way to introduce the mysterious stranger who'll become a character's Magical Girlfriend. Conversely, it's a way to have a character who is initially severely irritating to another to force them to deal with each other. In both cases, they'll end up sitting next to each other.
Note how long they wear their old uniforms tells whether they assimilate. Especially if the new school doesn't have uniforms.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Mone in Yumeria is registered and attending Tomokazu's high school almost within minutes of exiting the dream world and showing up in his bed.
- Eiru and An in the "Makaiju" Story Arc of Sailor Moon effortlessly masquerade as normal middle schoolers.
- Makoto and Ami were also new transfers in the first season; Ami wore the new uniform, Makoto did not because they didn't have any in her size. She stays this way the entire series until they finally graduate to high school near the end and their high school carries uniforms she can actually wear.
- You must be confused with fanon. Ami has been going to the same school as Usagi since the start. Just no-one liked her because she was "too smart".
- Also, in the last season all three Sailor Starlights transfer to Usagi's school.
- In the manga, Haruka and Michiru transfer to Juuban High since their old school was blown up at the end of the Death Busters arc. They both have to wear their new uniforms — and Haruka isn't allowed to wear the boy's uniform there, to her chagrin.
- More Fanon. In the manga she dresses in male and female clothes, and wears both uniforms in the manga's run.
- Arika's enrollment in Garderobe Academy in Mai-Otome isn't exactly a transfer, but it has all the other symptoms of the trope, including having the one student who knows (and dislikes) her being assigned as her roommate and guide around the school.
- Mai-HiME's Mai Tokiha and her brother Takumi, on the other hand, are. Their arrival at the school was planned well ahead of time, however.
- Nerine and Sia's transfer gets the ball rolling in Shuffle!
- Belldandy from Ah My Goddess! had to go through some shenanigans so that she wouldn't be revealed as a fake student.
- In Zatch Bell, the character Shion (partner to the momodo Nia) is introduced as a transfer student to Kio's high school. When her mini-story-arc is completed, she exits with the excuse that her transfer stay was over.
- Shattered Angels more or less depends on this trope to get the story started.
- The ever-Genre Savvy Haruhi from Suzumiya Haruhi goes looking for a "mysterious transfer student" to complete her club — and latches onto Koizumi, who's just tickled pink to join the SOS-dan. Even if he hadn't exactly been planning to transfer in until Haruhi decided she needed a transfer student.
- Rukia did this on the Second Episode Morning of Bleach. This one's more plausible than normal, as she has no problem altering the memories of others to suit her purposes.
- Including the new characters in the filler arc, eight more Shinigami have since posed as transfer students, though many of them are clearly too old to be in Ichigo's class.
- Hirako Shinji did this in order to recruit Ichigo to the ranks of the Vaizards. When he finally succeeds, he disappears from school and nobody ever wonders where he went.
- Or too young. It's Lamp Shaded with Hitsugaya when others ask him why an elementary schooler is hanging out with Ichigo's crowd.
- There was also a flashback episode about Ichigo and Chad transferring to their current high school, and meeting with Keigo and Mizuiro.
- "Tessa" Testarossa from Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, a Whispered prodigy and submarine captain, decides to take a holiday as a transfer student at Sōsuke and Kaname's school. Sōsuke (himself an ostensible transfer student) nearly has a breakdown ensuring she comes to no harm.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's didn't even show the school that often, but Fate transferred in and became friends with Nanoha's groupies effortlessly anyway.
- Happened to both Bakura and Kaiba in the manga and first series of Yu-Gi-Oh!. (Kaiba is already a student at the beginning of the second series)
- Happened to Tenchi, the "main character", in Tenchi In Tokyo, after he moved to Tokyo.
- Kanon, Yuuichi — another main character.
- Sara in Soukou No Strain, who managed to get into military school under a false name and raise no eyebrows.
- Aiko and Onpu came in to the first Ojamajo Doremi series as transfer students. In the Motto series, Momoko would come in this way as well.
- Negi Springfield from Mahou Sensei Negima is essentially a New Transfer Teacher.
- Many of the students refer to Evangeline as a transfer student, even though she's been stuck in that class since before any of the other students (or the teacher, for that matter) were even born.
- It never was stated that she was in junior high all time, which would be highly visible... Actually opposite was stated as Takamichi was her classmate, which could be happend only in highschool or university. So it's only her 2nd or 3rd time in junior high for that 15 years. And she can change visble age and appearance. So for the sake of masquerade she is a transfer student.
- Yue herself becomes a transfer student, as she joins another school late in the manga.
- This particular trope is a major plot device in Gakuen Heaven. Not only is Keita Itou a transfer student as there is a lot of speculation concerning his particular transfer to Bell Liberty.
- Strawberry Panic hinges on the experience of a new transfer student, Nagisa Aoi, at a prestigious academy. Which is pretty much an excuse for Schoolgirl Lesbians to rule supreme.
- Azumanga Daioh starts with two transfer students. Chiyo is introduced right away, but Osaka's entrance is delayed until the first episode afternoon to give Chiyo some screen time.
- Both Seto No Hanayome and Sumomo Mo Momo Mo feature new students transferring in without delay throughout the series, as the main cast slowly accumulates not just into the same school, but also the same class.
- In the latter series, Koshi wonders how a dimwit like Momoko passed the entrance examination. Turns out she went to an interview with a school official and her Battle Aura frightened him so much that he admitted her immediately.
- In the first episode of Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star, Mai is the New Transfer Student, having just returned to the area after leaving years ago. Until Urara a year later, and Kurumi from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo the year after that, Mai was unique among transfer students in the Pretty Cure franchise in that she does not start out with a bad attitude, gradually improve while becoming friends with main characters, suddenly turn out to be evil (though the audience knew this all along), fight the main characters, change affiliations during the fight, head off to apparent death, and then reappear near the end of the season.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion subverts this trope, while touching all the normal bases with impressive grace. Each of the children/pilots has a different "first day" and covers a different "transfer student" plot.
- Shinji gets the "main character is starting a new life bit". He's ignored, worshiped and beat up by turns on his first day. Most conventionally, he becomes friends with Those Two Guys.
- Asuka's first week of school is played and shot like the "hot new girl in school" from countless romantic comedies and love sims, more specifically a "returned overseas student" (someone who lived abroad because of daddy's job). Actually, she was born overseas (given her citizenship, in the USA most likely), and has never lived in Japan. It immediately becomes clear that Asuka doesn't care anything about "fitting in" or academics, and all those star-struck boys are just dirt under her shoes. Interestingly, the story never tries to make this an Aesop. She does show a little humanity by making friends with Hikari.
- Rei doesn't get her transfer day until Shinji's dream in the last episode. This time it's the "love triangle from out of town" bit (with Rei moving in between Shinji and Asuka). This lets Gainax show how much broader they could have played some of their already broad humor and let Megumi Hayashibara really cut loose. She's also the only one to wear a different fuku.
- Loveless: Aoyagi Ritsuka begins as a transfer student both in the manga and the anime.
- Ai Haibara in Detective Conan is introduced as "the first transfer student since Conan arrived". It's not a coincidence. Conan seems to have picked up on this as he is immediately suspicious when he hears of a new exchange student in Ran's class who soon becomes the focus of his plot investigations.
- Conan himself is an example; however, he actually gets transferred back to Beika Elementary... because the last time he attended was seven years prior to the series.
- In the parent series Magic Kaito, Saguru Hakuba enters the classroom the same way (interestingly, both he and Haibara have English mothers). This may be a subversion, as he only transfers at the end of the chapter... after having already been established as a teenaged detective going after the eponymous thief. Needless to say, Kaito has a headache.
- Masayuki from Ghost Hound.
- Both Yasako and Isako from Dennou Coil.
- Suzaku transfers in early on in Code Geass. Not the first time the viewers have seen him, though.
- He does it again in the second season, and there's a marked difference in how the students treat him, since he's gone from being "that Eleven who they say killed Prince Clovis" to "ace pilot and war hero".
- Also in R2, Gino and Anya transfer in to Ashford, just to see what civilian life was like.
- Variation in Card Captor Sakura: Syaoran (and in the anime, Meiling as well) presumably has all the documentation an innocuous transfer student would need, as he's a human with a past and a family; the most unusual part from a bureaucratic standpoint would be how he joined the class in the middle of the school year. Played straighter with Eriol; while he joins the class at the beginning of the summer session, he's the reincarnation of Clow Reed, and in the manga is explicitly said to have been a child for years, so not much chance of legitimate records from his former school helping his transition.
- In the first episode of Digimon Adventure 02 Takeru (TK) transfers to the school where Hikari (Kari) and most of the new Chosen Children are enrolled.
- The pilots are constantly transferring in and out of school as they need to in Gundam Wing. Heero does some hacking to establish his "credentials".
- Subverted in Kemeko Deluxe!, in which a Cloudcuckoolander predicts the arrival of a transfer student, and sure enough, a new character bursts onto the stage (through a window) moments later. However, the actual transfer student turns out to be a named extra unrelated to the main plot.
- Keiichi in Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni counts, although at the start of the story, he's been there for about a month.
- Both Cab and Minerva in ''Transformers Super God Masterforce, though in their cases, it was revealed soon after they were introduced that arrangements had been made to send them to the International School. In fact, Cab was initially reluctant to attend until he met Shuta.
- Himari in Omamori Himari, with a little help through Undead Tax Exemption.
- Largely averted in Ranma ½. Even though Ranma himself is a transfer student, nothing is ever made of it after season one/volume 2.
- Gosunkugi becomes a New Transfer Student in the anime, while in the manga he was present from the start.
- Completely subverted in Manabi Straight when the new transfer student Manami Amamiya becomes Student Council President on her very first day at her new school, before even being introduced to her new homeroom class.
- Midori Days with Lucy, an American transfer student who has as much of an idea of Japan as your typical anime fangirl. Acts like one, too, not surprisingly.
Fan Works
- This a very common way for authors to insert their new character (often a Mary Sue) into their Harry Potter fanfics, usually having just transferred from America into the fifth, sixth or seventh year and will of course, be in either Gryffindor or Slytherin. Apparently J.K herself got tired of this and claimed that Hogwarts officially does not accept transfer students. Not that it stops the fanfic writers one little bit.
- Where did she say that? Because if she did, it contradicts Goblet Of Fire, which had a reference to Bill not being able to afford a student exchange program with someone in Brazil. And does Rowling really read enough fanfiction to get annoyed by its clichés?
- In Britain, a "student exchange" is normally where two schools have links, and their students visit each other for a brief period. Bill would have been going to Brazil for a week or two at most, and then the Brazilian would visit him for the same length of time. Usually it's done just to give the students a holiday, or to help them practice foreign languages. This trope references the idea of students who come to another country for an academic year, to get an education.
- This is pretty much a given for any series centered around school-aged characters.
- We present a Chinese publisher's unauthorised attempt to cash in on Harry Potter with: Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
 .
Films
- The "transfer students" in Battle Royale are two guys voluntarily participating in the game.
- This was only the case in the movie, however. In the novel and manga, Kiriyama was always in the class, and was a gang leader. Kawada remains a transfer student in all three versions, however.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Kori Twelves in Time Hollow. Interestingly, she actually is from that school, just decades in the past.
- Happens three times in Persona 3. First with the main character, second with a party member (implied to have been done by the company in charge of the school), and a third time with another plot-important character. By the time this happens, the homeroom teacher for said students is beginning to get a little suspicious.
- Then it happens again in Persona 4. However, whereas his predecessor was transferred from the country to the city, he went the opposite way.
- Literally the catalyst for Bully.
- Too many visual novels to list have transfer student heroines: Princess Waltz, Muv-Luv, Da Capo...
- And probably even more visual novels have transfer student protagonists: [[Kanon]], Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, [[Sumaga]], Katawa Shoujo...
- Arthur Chen from Backyard Sports.
Web Comics
- Alistair transfers to Gunnerkrigg Court... for a week. He doesn't even bother with a uniform.
- It's mentioned in passing that Antimony also came to the school late. (Word Of God puts the time at about halfway through the first year.)
- In Everyday Heroes, Summer starts at her new high school in the middle of her freshman year. Uma just started a few weeks before her, so they're paired in biology lab. Nice to have somebody normal to hang out with.
Web Original
- Survival of the Fittest... where do we begin? Adam Dodd, Ken Lawson, Erick Rischio, Dacey Ashcroft and Kallie Majors, among others. (and that's only V3)
- In the Whateley Universe, Bladedancer and Carmilla and Heyoka all started at Whateley Academy late in fall term, at different times. Then Seraphim started winter term.
Western Animation
- Invader Zim slips seamlessly into Dib's elementary school despite having a Paper Thin Disguise that doesn't even change his skin color from its normal green; claiming it's a skin condition and also why he doesn't have ears. Or a nose, for that matter.
- In Code Lyoko Season 2, William is such a transfer student. Aelita pretends to be one once she is no longer forced to stay on Lyoko. Odd is the transfer student in the prequel, "XANA Awakens".
- Bolbi from Jimmy Neutron.
- "Slap-Slap-Slap! Clap-Clap-Clap! Slap-Slap-Slap! Clap-Clap-Clap!
- Daria moved to a new town and started at her new school in the first episode of her own series, mainly to literally distance the show from the stylings of its parent show, Beavis And Butthead
- One episode of Arthur had a Flash Back to when Mary Alice "Muffy" Crosswire was a transfer student. Sue Ellen Armstrong is introduced later this way.
- In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Mary Jane counts even though she was introduced several episodes before she transfered to the main characters' school.
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