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New Transfer Student

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It's only a coincidence that the Idol Singer whom Shu is a fan of transferred to his class.

Jerri: Speaking of cute, there's this new kid at school...
Sara: New? I don't like the sound of that.
Jerri: He's really nice!
Sara: Most new people are, until provoked. And then they turn out to be... different.

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 and deal with his struggle to make friends. This will always happen around mid-semester, so the other characters can exposit at them, showing them the cliques at school, the teachers to favor, and the nuances of the plot.

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.

Sometimes, the new transfer student will get a Pre-Meeting, usually in the form of the main character bumping into them before school starts, one way or another.

Note how long they wear their old uniforms tells whether they assimilate. Especially if the new school doesn't have uniforms. Someone Expelled from Every Other School will likely end up as one of these.

Subtropes include:


Examples:

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  • Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess had to go through some shenanigans so that she wouldn't be revealed as a fake student at Keiichi's college.
  • Angel Densetsu: After finally being accepted in his old school, Kitano's family moved out of town and he has to transfer to a different school, where he's yet again feared just because of his face. He accidentally becomes the school's banchou in no time and lots of people challenge him due to rumors of him being very strong or because he looks like a villain/monster/etc. While more and more characters figure out that he's actually a Nice Guy from the beginning, it takes a lot of time for the other students to realize his true nature.
  • The story of Ao no Fuuin begins with Kiryu Soko transferring to a new school after just having moved into the area.
  • Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery-san and Itona Horibe from Assassination Classroom. Since Koro-sensei is not allowed to harm his students, those two are special assassins are thrown in by the government to use advantage of that rule. Kaede Kayano is also a transfer student, as she transferred to Class 3-E before the start of the series, a detail that simply serves as Foreshadowing.
  • 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.
  • Babibubebobubobu!! Sapp-kun by Hidemitsu Shigeoka revolved around a Foreign Exchange Student, Bob Sapp, who grew giant when becoming angry and became friends with Akebono.
  • In Bad Company, Ryuji starts the story as a new transfer student, and immediately starts picking fights to establish dominance among the delinquents.
  • Strangely enough Black Butler pulls this off with Ciel and the Weston College arc. He joined the school recently after... he and Sebastian made sure there was room for a new student. The whole school thing is so out of place for the manga that the chapter beginning with Ciel in school actually lampshades this by having a note on the side saying that this is indeed Black Butler.
  • Bleach: Shinigami seem to enjoy this as a method of remaining in contact with Ichigo. Rukia, Hitsugaya, Renji, Matsumoto, Ikkaku and Yumichika have all attempted it. Even Shinji tried it when the Vaizards decided to make contact with Ichigo. The anime takes this even further in filler arcs, to the point where a filler character "transferred" to Ichigo's class who was clearly far too young for the class age group. This was noticed by other classmates (Hitsugaya had also drawn attention in the canon, although not as much).
  • Kuroha in Brynhildr in the Darkness, who transfers in to prevent the psychically-foretold deaths of two students, and ends up sticking around. Ryouta is baffled as to how she got into the school with so little education (she knows nothing about multiplication tables and can't read basic kanji).
    • Then, later on, she's joined by Kazumi (who fiddled with the records to get Kuroha in in the first place) and Kotori, both of whom are also magic users. Ryouta actually lampshades it by pointing out how suspicious it looks for so many students to be transferring in at once.
  • Buso Renkin: Due to her age, Tokiko Tsumura has twice transferred into a school on a mission for the Alchemist Army. The first time, told during flashbacks, was to investigate the miraculous healing power of a relic at Newton Apple Academy for Girls that turned out to be a kakugane. The second time was at the beginning of the series when she transferred to Ginsei Private Academy to search for the student who was creating homunculi, and keep an eye on Kazuki.
  • Captain Tsubasa:
    • In his elementary school days, the Ohzora family moved away and Tsubasa joined the Nankatsu SC, which started the plot of the story. During the yearly Nankatsu vs Shuutetsu match, Tsubasa manages to bring his underdog team their first victory.
    • Tarou Misaki later transferred to Nankatsu as well. He transferred to a lot of schools due to his father's job as an artist and Misaki even played for Meiwa FC and Furano FC at some point. He eventually would move to France with his father and he has been staying there while keeping playing soccer.
    • Tsubasa's friend Yayoi Aoba transferred to another school herself, not long after Tsubasa moved away. She became the Cute Sports Club Manager of Musashi FC and she would encounter Tsubasa during the National Championships.
  • Variation in Cardcaptor 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.
  • Case Closed:
    • Conan himself is an example; however, he actually gets transferred back to Teitan Elementary... because the last time he attended was seven years prior to the series. Also subverted in the anime, when the scene where he was transferred was in the stinger.
    • Ai Haibara 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.
    • 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.
    • Eisuke Hondou is like this, too. He transfers into Ran's class and he has some connections to Rena Mizunashi, a.k.a. Kir, who looks very similar to him. A good portion of his story involves him figuring out how connected Mizunashi is to him and why she looks like his sister Hidemi. It's because she is his sister.
    • Masumi Sera gets transferred to Ran's class at the end of her introductory case, and similar to Eisuke who resembles Mizunashi, Sera heavily resembles Shuichi Akai and she's the second of the three suspects believed to be Bourbon. After Bourbon's identity is revealed, she still shows up in later chapters due to other reasons, and she actually had a Forgotten First Meeting with Shinichi and Ran (Sera didn't forget, but those two did) while other members of her family are slowly introduced.
    • Maria Higashio transferred to Conan's class sometime off-screen. Unlike Conan and Haibara, Maria doesn't stand out and she initially has trouble finding friends. This is until Kobayashi-sensei creates a game that heavily integrates her and fellow student Takuma Sakamoto, giving them the chance to become friends with their classmates.
    • Rather than a transfer student, Conan's class gets a transfer assistant teacher in volume 91, Rumi Wakasa. While it is initially assumed she is simply there to help out because with three transfer students the class has become too big, she's actually Obfuscating Stupidity and seems to test Conan's deduction skills for unknown reasons. She's also one of the prime suspects believed to be Rum.
    • A filler case starts with a handsome boy named Tamanosuke Itou transferring into Teitan Highschool. He even shows up in a gakuran uniform, contrasting with the school's blazer-type ones.
  • In Charlotte, Yu and his younger sister Ayu both get transferred to Hoshinoumi Academy by the end of the first episode, so that Nao can keep tabs on him.
  • Code Geass:
    • Suzaku transfers in early on in Code Geass. It's 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.
  • Corpse Party: Blood Covered inverts this with Mayu: when the story opens, it's her last day at Kisaragi Academy before transferring out. Plot developments put a hold on that plan, however...
  • The Curse of Kazuo Umezu: Rima of "What Will the Video Camera Reveal?". The teacher reveals that she has returned from Mexico and finds her beautiful.
  • Subverted in Dear Brother, where Nanako and Tomoko hav several typical traits (Naive newcomers, have just arrived to class, are shown around by other students, etc) but they did not transfer, having entered Seiran High via normal admission tests. This is because Seiran in itself is an Elevator School, so almost all the other girls have been there for years, and having new students arrive in high school is a very rare thing.
  • Ryu Amakusa and Megumi Minami have to act the part in Detective School Q by enrolling in a Boarding School to investigate a girl's disappearance, supposedly caused by the nasty online bullying coming from the Class Representative. He ends up murdered, and we find out that another girl was the target of his constant and cruel insults.
    • Later, a student of said highschool (Kuniko Touya) transfers into the Dan Detective School. She's the girl who was bullied to the point of emotional breakdown, actually.
  • At the start of DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything an attractive, tall boy named Taebin transfers to the school.
  • 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 Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: This is a favorite way to introduce a new secondary character, to the point where the class actually starts to get sick and tired of it after a while. Reita Toritsuka the spirit medium was first (Saiki thought it was cliche even then), he was quickly followed by Aren Kuboyasu the ex-gang member who's terrible at hiding his past, Metori Saiko the spoiled rich kid, Imu Rifuta the prettiest girl in her old school who's now firmly in second place behind Teruhashi, Mikoto Aiura the fortune teller who transferred because her fortune said that Saiki is her soulmate, Touma Akechi, Saiki's former classmate who correctly suspects him of being a psychic, and finally Hii Suzumiya. By the end the class is so crowded that Saiki lampshades how only a handful of the named characters are ever shown to be in class at once, depending on the plot of the episode.
  • Dissolving Classroom begins with new transfer student Yuuma Azawa introducing himself to the class, and then immediately apologizing, for no apparent reason. He continues to apologize to people every chance he gets, which gets him bullied and eventually kills the entire class except for one girl who escapes with only brain damage.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicles of the Moon Exploration has a new student named Luca transferring into Nobita's class, who is the new Ace in sports, studies, and quickly makes friends with the entire gang, even Suneo and Gian who tried bullying Luca earlier on. But then, it's revealed that Luca is actually a millennia-old alien from the moon who's fleeing from a genocidal alien dictator.
  • In Dragon Ball, after the 7-year time-skip, Son Gohan enters Satan City's Orange High School for studying purposes. While the school setting is barely touched upon in the manga, the anime extends his high school life a little bit to give some more focus on his newly created superhero alter ego, the Great Saiyaman. Gohan's transfer also leads him to meet Videl, the daughter of Mister Satan whom he would marry much later.
  • Lampshaded in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA when Illya shows just how Genre Savvy she is for Magical Girl tropes:
    Illya: That Girl seemed to be about the same age as me, didn't she?
    Ruby: Seems to be. What about it?
    Illya: According to the pattern...
    [the next day...]
    Illya: I knew it'd turn out like this.
    Ruby: I see. The transfer student development, huh? Quite the cliche.
    Taiga-sensei: Take the seat all the way at the back by the window. Right behind Illya-chan's seat.
  • The two lead characters Takaki and Akari from 5 Centimeters per Second transfer schools several times, which is crucial to the plot.
  • Food Wars!: Souma Yukihira technically enrolls Tootsuki the normal way by passing the application exam, so he starts his first high school year like everyone else. The thing is that everyone else has been in Tootsuki since middle school and they have been using the elevator system. Thus everyone treats and calls Souma a transfer student and he's the only one to have passed the exam in the first place.
  • Veronica's role in more than one chapter of Franken Fran, due to Fran desiring her to socialize and the like. It doesn't have a high success rate of finding normalcy.
  • "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 nearly has a total breakdown ensuring she comes to no harm.
    • There's also, of course, Sōsuke himself, who managed to botch his introduction so spectacularly—getting caught with a gun in his bag, reflexively introducing himself as Sergeant, announcing a long string of active warzones as his prior residence instead of North Carolina as per his cover story, and going on an extremely nerdy tangent about military tech magazines—that everyone assumes he's just a very Chuunibyou military otaku who's making half of what he says up.
  • Kakeru Okikura, from Glasslip, transfers to the high school Tōko Fukami attends, in his third year.
  • Goodnight Punpun starts with Punpun being enamoured with the new transfer student, Aiko.
  • GTO: The Early Years: Eikichi and Ryuji start the series as this, though they claim they were kicked out of their old school. Abe is introduced in a chapter titled "Transfer Student".
  • Guilty Crown has Inori popping up in Shu's class, right after he rejected the rebel group Undertaker's offer.
  • Hatsukoi Zombie features one in the very first chapter with Ririto Ibusuki, the girl the protagonist Tarou was smitten with as a small kid. So he's not too happy to learn that "she" was a guy all along.
  • Eric in The Heart of Thomas, with the catch that he looks exactly like Thomas, a student of the school who died just one week prior.
  • Noriaki Kakyoin from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders claims to have transferred to Jotaro Kujo's high school the day before he was introduced. He even has a transfer student uniform that's dark green instead of black like the other boys' gakurans. This may have just been a ruse to avoid Jotaro's suspicion as he was there to kill him due to being under the influence of one of DIO's flesh buds.
  • In Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Maki's twin brother Mikado (who had previously been attending a public school because he wanted to play soccer with his friends) transfers into Shuchi'in on the first day of senior year.
  • 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.
  • Ryuko Matoi of Kill la Kill, in an example where the transfer student is the main character. She arrives at Honouji Academy after having started fights at every other school she's gone to in the Kanto region. Luckily, she fits right in at her new school.
  • Kiniro Mosaic begins with Alice, a girl Shinobu befriended while the latter was homestaying in England, transfers into her class. Alice's best friend, Karen, who is also from England, followed Alice and transferred into her school as well, albeit the parallel class.
  • Kitsune no Yomeiri:
    • At the beginning of the series, Kyouka transfers into Ousake's class. Although she initially pretends to not know him, this is only so that she can make a big reveal about the fact that she is his Magical Wife.
    • In Chapter 18, the Tanuki Kanon transfers into Ousake and Kyouka's class so that she can continue her rivalry with the kitsune princess.
  • Haruka Kotoura, the main character of Kotoura-san, does this as an attempt to change her cutie-breaking environment. It works.
  • Loveless: Ritsuka Aoyagi begins as a transfer student both in the manga and the anime.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • 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 (they had already known about her from the video mail that Nanoha and Fate had been exchanging for the previous six months). Hayate transfers in during the spring after A's, having become well enough to attend.
    • Parodied in the Magical Girl Fatal Fate one-shot set about a month after the first season when Fate dreams about being a transfer student after watching too much Magical Girl anime.
    • Invoked by Lutecia in ViVid Life when she's caught wandering around St. Hilde in a middle school uniform and claims to be a transfer student to save face. She's immediately placed in Einhart's class... much to Einhart's confusion given that Lutecia is 2 years older than her.
  • Hikaru from Major 2nd is the new transfer student at Daigo's school. He was born in New York and his parents recently moved back to Japan. Hikaru happens to be the son of Goro's childhood baseball rival from Major. As a result Hikaru and Daigo become rivals too.
  • 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.
  • In the Mazinger Z series:
    • Kouji -the main character- transferred to Sayaka's high school after his first battle in order to live closer to the Base.
    • In Shin Mazinger Zero Minerva arrived at Kouji, Sayaka and Boss' school shortly after waking up in the final time loop.
  • 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.
  • Kanna starts attending elementary school in chapter 13 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. The fact that she's a dragon from another world with no legal identity gets solved by Tohru using magic to create the necessary paperwork. While the school setting rarely shows up in the main series, her new (girl?)friend Saikawa ends up becoming a recurring character.
  • Happens thrice in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. First, Heero transfers in and out of Relena's high-class boarding school, hacking around a little to make up some fake credentials. Then he and Duo transfer to a public school, with Relena keeping watch (of sorts). Later, Heero and Quatre transfer to the Sank Kingdom's school run by Relena, and they meet another transfer student... Dorothy Catalonia.
  • In the short titled Murasaki (collected in the first volume of Short Program), Mitsuru Adachi with a Creator Cameo noted that whenever your plot is heading to a dead end, simply introducing a transfer student will help move it along.
  • Both My Bride is a Mermaid 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 Mermaid, it helps that San's family has effectively taken over the school by the third episode.
  • My-HiME:
    • Mai Tokiha and her brother Takumi are such. Their arrival at the school was planned well ahead of time, however.
    • In the My-HiME manga, Yuuichi transfers in at the start of the series, and later on, Shiho and several students from Searrs do so as well.
    • In the fake movie trailer, Arika transfers in this way. She is also seen discussing enrolling at Fuuka Academy with Mashiro and Fumi at the end of the manga.
  • Arika's enrollment in Garderobe Academy in My-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.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Negi Springfield 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 happen only in high school or university. So it's only her 2nd or 3rd time in junior high for that 15 years. And she can change visible 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.
  • 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, worshipped, and beaten 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 Germany or the USA most likely), and has never lived in Japan. It immediately becomes clear that Asuka doesn't care anything about "fitting in", academics, or dating any of those star-struck boys. She only cares for Shinji and makes friends with Hikari.
  • Nisekoi comically abuses this trope: new girls keep getting introduced either as transfer students (Tachibana, Tsugumi) or high school freshmen (Haru Onodera, Paula). This series ticks a lot of cliche boxes, but it definitely got carried away with this trope.
  • Nurse Angel Ririka SOS begins with Nozomu's Fanclub greeting him when he arrives at school for the first time. He's from England, or so he says. He's actually a Human Alien from another planet.
  • Aiko and Onpu came in to the first Ojamajo Doremi series as transfer students. In Motto, Momoko would come in this way as well.
  • Haru from Ojojojo kept on having to transfer schools prior to the series beginning, since her Rich Bitch personality kept on alienating her from her classmates. At one point, she was only at a school for a single week.
  • Himari in Omamori Himari, with a little help through Undead Tax Exemption.
  • Ma-ri in Orange Marmalade has been at her school for around a week before the story starts. Later Si-Hoo transfers to her school as well.
  • Parodied in Ore-sama Teacher. The main character Mafuyu Kurosaki is a new transfer student at Midori Ga Oka Academy, but she is such a Cloud Cuckoolander that everything associated with this trope is turned upside-down. She's so excited that she dons a new school uniform a day before the school starts, her well-practised introductory speech is so out-of-character that her homeroom teacher bursts out laughing, and when ordinary classmates (non-delinquents) talk to her she is deeply moved. Her Friendless Background is only her imagination; in fact, her friends from Higashi High appear from time to time and have their own subplots.
  • Otogi Matsuri: Shortly after Yousuke and his friends meet Yomogi Inaba, the strange new priestess of the town's temple, they discover that she will be the newest member of their class.
    Teacher: We have a new student joining us. She came to town on some family matter. Please introduce yourself.
    Yomogi: I'm Yomogi Inaba. Pleased to meet you!
    Yousuke: Such a predictable development...
  • After travelling through six different regions with friends, Satoshi/Ash takes a vacation with his mother in Alola when the Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon anime begins. After a couple of events, Satoshi/Ash decides to stay there and goes to the Pokémon School and joins the class of the people he has met during his vacation. Due to that, the series changes from the longly-known adventure setting to a school setting.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • 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 GO!GO! 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. And later on, we would get Setsuna and Tsubomi, albeit the former is another villain turned good, then Ellen, Miyuki, Makoto, Hime, Towa, Riko, Ciel, Hana and Ruru, Lala, Nodoka, Laura, and then Sora. Of those seventeen, four are formerly evil and ten come from other worlds (there's a bit of overlap there).
    • There's also something of a Running Gag since Kurumi arrived — the size of their name in their introduction and the state of panic they're in. Kurumi, Ellen, and Hime wrote their names large, Tsubomi wrote hers teeny-tiny, Tsubomi and Miyuki suffered Stage Fright, Ellen passed out from lack of sleep and Hime passed out from sheer fright.
    • In Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage, the film's protagonist Ayumi moves with her family to the town where the film takes place. Her transferring to a new class is one of her many worries she suffers from moving to a different town. Fuu-chan, a piece of the Big Bad Fusion which she befriends, attempts to fulfill her "wish" of getting rid of the school and town as part of their friendship. During the run of the movie, Ayumi gets to learn more and more about how to deal with her worries and manages to tell Fuu-chan her feelings straight. By the end of the movie, she starts befriending her new classmates.
  • Homura Akemi in Puella Magi Madoka Magica is one, although she doesn't transfer for educational reasons, but rather to keep an eye on and protect Madoka.
    • In the beginning, though, she was transferred for a legitimate educational reason— she has been previously hospitalized long-term due to heart disease and was in the process of mainstreaming.
    • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, after Homura separates Madoka from the Law of Cycles and rewrites the universe, the roles have been reversed — now it's Madoka who is the transfer student.
  • The Quintessential Quintuplets: The Nakanos transfer to Fuutarou's school in their second year, but only Itsuki is in the same class as him.
  • 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.
    • Ukyo Kuonji transfers over from her (boys-only) school to Furinkan while chasing Ranma down.
  • Reborn! (2004)'s Inheritance Ceremony Arc begins with seven new transfer students to Tsuna's school. It turns out that they are members of the Simon Family, sent by the Vongola as guests.
    • The Arcobaleno Trials Filler Arc also had two new transfer students (they were actually Belphagor and Mammon from the Varia). After the arc is over, they leave and nobody questions what happened to them.
  • Sailor Moon used this plot point several times:
    • Makoto, a main character, is introduced to the cast as a new transfer in the first season of the first anime. This corresponds to a similar introduction in the manga. In both stories, she's considered a frightening and intimidating person due to her intimidatingly large height and naturally light and wavy hair (which in Japan is normally the sign of a delinquent student). In fact, she wears her old school's uniform because they didn't have any in her size. In both storylines, she is quickly revealed to be a kind and easy-to-approach person and joins the cast as Sailor Jupiter.
    • In the DiC dub only, Amy was introduced like this. In all other dubs, she was already a student at the same school, just in a different class from Usagi, and only drew her attention conveniently when the plot needed to add another heroine to the cast.
    • Al and En in the "Makaiju" Filler Arc effortlessly masquerade as normal middle schoolers.
    • While the Sailor Starlights are already known to the cast due to being super famous Idol Singers, they join the cast proper when they transfer in. The manga had already introduced them much sooner, however, which doesn't quite match this trope (they transfer into Juuban High to stay close to Usagi), but the anime plays it almost completely straight (where they're simply searching for Princess Kakyuu.)
    • In the manga, Koan poses as new student Koan Kurozuki in order to harvest students at Rei's school - and later to capture Rei as well.
    • The first chapter of Chibiusa's Picture Diary starts with Chibiusa having her first day of classes at Juuban primary school, after time travelling from 30th century to 20th century. She was mocked by her classmates due to her name, pink hair, weird haircut, big head, and being small (it is a 4th year class). The chapter's Monster of the Week also joined her class a few days before Chibiusa.
    • Likewise, Tin Nyanko is introduced to the cast posing as a student, Nyanko Suzu, trying to get close to Usagi and also to harass the Starlights (as she knows their true identities as Wholesome Crossdressers.)
  • Umino, the transfer student deuteragonist in Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai, is the oddball daughter of a formerly popular singer who keeps on insisting she's a mermaid.
  • A Silent Voice starts with Shouko Nishiyama transferring to Shouya Ishida's elementary school. Not soon afterwards she starts getting bullied (mainly by Shouya) due to her deafness. It became so bad that she transferred out of school. Afterwards, the manga skips ahead to her as a high schooler where she reconciles with Shouya, who has learned sign language to apologize to her.
  • So, I Can't Play H! begins with Lisara coming to the human world in search of a fabled being of immeasurable power, who may be able to save Grimwald. She has reason to believe he may be hidden among the students at Ryosuke's school, so she enrolls in his class the day after forming a contract with him.
  • Chihiro in Spirited Away is on her way to becoming the new transfer student, and plays it as it might happen in real life: she is unhappy about parting with her friends and nervous about meeting new ones. Defeats the trope, however, because the story ends before she even reaches the new school. However, within the context of the bath-house, she fills the role the transfer student could have served had the bath-house been a school; she has to fit in, acquires a uniform, makes friends, learns the ropes, etc.
  • Sara in Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry, who managed to get into military school under a false name and raise no eyebrows.
  • In Tamagotchi, this is how Himespetchi is inducted into the main cast... twice.
  • Happened to Tenchi, the "main character", in Tenchi in Tokyo, after he moved to Tokyo.
  • Basara does this in episode 2 of The Testament of Sister New Devil, in order to stay closer to Mio to help protect her against demons trying to kill her. Unfortunately a childhood friend of his also attends the school, and her giving The Glomp to him in front of their entire class and Mio, stirs some jealousy in the latter, and she tries to forcibly separate the two.
  • The Tokyo Ghoul Prequel JACK focuses on a teenaged Kishou Arima going undercover at a high school as one. The Class Representative, Minami Uruka, is also noted to have transferred into the school earlier in the year and quickly become popular. This turns into a plot point, since Minami is actually a Ghoul, and the Big Bad of the story.
  • Tatsuma Hiyuu from Tokyo Majin. Subverted (a bit), however, as the series begins In Medias Res, following up with How We Got Here. Not so for the game though as this trope firmly applies since Tatsuma is the protagonist of the game and appears right at the beginning as a transfer student. Later on, however, a prologue can be unlocked which tells of Tatsuma's past at his previous school but this was omitted from the anime.
  • 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.
  • Tsuritama's plot kicks off with Yuki's transfer to Enoshima.
    • ...and Haru a couple minutes later.
    • ....and soon after Akira, who is 25 years old.
  • Several examples in Unlimited Fafnir:
    • Yuu in the first episode, as he has a D marking like the girls at the Midgar school he transfers to. This allows him to summon anti-matter to create weapons with.
    • Tear and Honoka transfer to the school in episode 4. Both girls also have D markings on them as well and were sent here to help them understand their powers more, and protect them from unsavory people who may try to exploit them.
  • In Vividred Operation, Akane, Aoi, and Momo transfer to the same school as Wakaba, Himawari, and Rei. Mizuha also joins, but as a teacher.
  • At the beginning of Wandering Son the protagonist and her sister are transfer students to an elementary school.
  • Witch Craft Works: At the end of the first episode, five show up at once. One of them is the girl who'd just spent half the episode trying to kill Honoka, and it's a safe bet that the other four are after him as well.
  • Chihiro Watanuki from Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai. First chapter covering her first day at school? Check. Friendless Background? Check. I Just Want to Have Friends mentality? Check.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: This happens a lot throughout the series. There is also the general rule of thumb that a transfer student has to enroll in the Osiris Red dorm, albeit this seems to apply only in season 1.
    • Rei Saotome transfers to Duel Academia, but soon her age is figured out, and she has to leave the school. She joins the school the normal way in season 3.
    • After Manjoume left Duel Academia, he enrolls in North Academia, but switches back to Duel Academia, but with the consequence that he has to go to the Osiris Red dorm rather than any of the higher ones (he initially started as an Obelisk Blue). [[He keeps his coat from North Academia for the rest of the series.
    • Edo Phoenix and later Takuma Saiou transfer to Academia in season 2, but not as Osiris Red students, likely due to abusing their power. Edo prefers to reside inside his yacht, while Saiou brainwashes everyone in Obelisk Blue and some of Ra Yellow. And Manjoume. They leave Duel Academia after season 2.
    • The third season introduces four exchange students (Johan Andersen, Austin O'Brien, Jim Crocodile Cook, and Amon Garam) and a new teacher (Professor Cobra), all of them being given special privileges. And they are a Spotlight-Stealing Squad, being better than most of the old cast and having more screentime than them.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Lucciano disguises himself as a rich transfer student for a single episode, so he could duel and possibly kill Luca. He's shown to be pretty popular with the girls, including Luca, and Lucciano goes so far as to create his own mansion to make his disguise work better (with Placido as his butler). In the next episode, after he has defeated Luca and Lua, but failed to kill any of them, nobody from the twins' school (except the main characters) can remember who Lucciano was and his mansion disappeared into thin air.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: In the first episode of ZEXAL II, Rei Shingetsu transfers to Yuma's class and introduces him as a very enthusiastic Fanboy. Yuma and Shingetsu become friends over the course of the series and he eventually reveals that he's a member of the Barian Police, a group of people who fight the evil Barian Emperors...except it's a huge lie because he's actually one of the Seven Barian Emperors himself: it's him — Vector!
  • Karin from Yuki Yuna is a Hero uses being a transfer student to explain her presence. In reality, she is a Hero specially trained by Taisha who is meant to supervise the others. She says that she transferred because of her parents' job, however in reality Karin doesn't even live with them.
  • 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.
  • Zatch Bell!: Shion is introduced as a transfer student to Kiyo's high school. When her mini-story-arc is completed, she exits with the excuse that her transfer stay was over, and she didn't want to stay around 'cause she might start relying on Kiyo and Zatch too much.

    Comic Books 
  • Allergic: Maggie is starting fifth grade at Golden River Elemntary; school boundaries have changed, so she has to go to a new elementary school where none of her friends attend.
  • Kid Sherlock: "The Smell" introduces Watson as the new kid at Baker Elementary School.
  • In Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Felicia Hardy (Black Cat in the mainstream universe) is introduced near the end of the first volume, having rumors of her being expelled due to being violent and confrontational.
  • In W.I.T.C.H. Will Vandom and Taranee Cook starts out as this, transferring to the Sheffield Institute on consecutive days.
  • Supergirl:
    • In Adventure Comics #397, Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor is transferred to Stanhope College, where Linda Danvers alias "Supergirl" takes classes, as part of a plan of her uncle Lex Luthor to lure Supergirl out and kill her. Although their plan failed, 'Nasty' was a pain in the neck of Supergirl for the rest of that run.
    • At least three ongoings -Supergirl (1972), Supergirl (1982) and [[Supergirl (Rebirth)- solo books start with Supergirl being transferred to a new college or school.
    • In Many Happy Returns, Kara gets enrolled in Linda's school as a way to try to blend in. Unfortunately, her schoolmates think she is a freak.
    • In the first issue of Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Kara enters Stanhope Boarding School.
      Principal Pyckelmeyer: Now, even though we're so very early into the school year, we already have a new transfer student... One who apparently couldn't be bothered to enroll in a timely manner, and instead has managed to disrupt my entire afternoon.
  • Robin (1993): Tim Drake was a new transfer in perpetuity, attending a long list of High Schools including Gotham Heights, Brentwood Academy, Louis E. Grieve Memorial, John Wayne, and Gotham City before dropping out of school altogether.

    Fan Works 
  • Ace In The Hole (Persona 5): Ken Amada transfers to Shujin Academy around mid-June to look into the Phantom Thieves on the behalf of the Shadow Operatives.
  • All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if they all went to Hogwarts?", Tobias has just transferred from Ilvermornynote , and the other Animorphs decide to welcome him into their group that investigates Imperious curse victims.
  • Asuka & Shinji's Infinite Playlist begins with the titular couple, Hikari and other characters arriving in Tokyo to take the entrance exams for Myojo Academy.
  • In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Naruto has transferred to Konoha High School, in Konoha Town, from Uzushio High School in Whirl City. It's later revealed that transferring was one of two options he faced after a fight with a gang that caused a great deal of destruction to Uzushio High (the other option was being expelled and arrested by the local police on suspicion of being a Kyuushingai).
  • Advice and Trust: At the end of episode 8, Kaworu Nagisa is transferred to Shinji's school. Rei sensed he wasn't human and took a dislike to him right away. For his part, Kaworu found her fascinating... and scary. Very fascinating and very, very scary.
  • Rise of the Minisukas: Lampshaded. Upon Mana's arrival, Toji and Kensuke why so many people (Shinji, Asuka, Kotone, Mat, and Mana within a few weeks) are transferring, and why so many of them are redheads.
  • RWBY: Scars: In chapter 20, Penny transfers to Beacon Academy mid-semester because she wants to experience life outside of Atlas.
  • The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.: Liv Krustofsky. She was homeschooled through kindergarten and first grade so her showbiz career could continue unimpeded, but her mom then realized she had no friends her own age and decided she needed to be sent to an actual school so she could make friends. And since she was banned from Springfield Preparatory School for life after pulling a nasty prank on them, she was sent to the significantly-less-glamorous Springfield Elementary.
  • Son of the Sannin: Tamaki, Karin and Haku all transfer into Naruto's class at the Konoha Ninja Academy after the events of the Uchiha Insurrection.
  • Steal the Truth, Reach Out For Your Heart has a teenage Nanako Dojima transfer to Shujin along with Ren Amamiya, having followed him to Tokyo to make sure he was okay.

    Films — Animation 
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
    • Twilight Sparkle actually arrives at Canterlot High School through a Portal Door that connects to a Magic Mirror in Equestria. But of course, she can't tell people that. So she uses this trope as her cover story. Even Principal Celestia accepts this, despite not having seen any transfer paperwork.
    • Sunset Shimmer, who arrived at the school in the same way several years earlier, presumably used the same cover story.
    • As of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, the other Twilight Sparkle, the one native to this world, takes up this trope, deciding to finish her studies with her new friends at Canterlot High rather than stay at Crystal Prep.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The "transfer students" in Battle Royale are two guys voluntarily participating in the game. For Kazuo Kiriyama, this only applies in the film version, with the character being a gang leader (the role assumed by Numai alone in the film) in the novel and manga. For Shogo Kawada, he's a transfer in all three versions, though he'd been with the class for a couple of months prior in the novel and manga.
  • Charlie Bartlett is about a rich but troubled boy (the title character) who is kicked out of every private school he attends until he has to resort to a public school. The film opens with him transferring.

    Literature 
  • In A Lullaby Sinister, the main character, Satoshi Yoshida, is the new transfer student. He'll soon wish he'd transferred elsewhere.
  • Bella Swan transfers to Forks High School to open The Twilight Saga.
  • The Caster Chronicles: Lena Duchannes in Beautiful Creatures starts out this way. She had also been to many other different schools before finally landing in Gatlin.
  • In Enid Blyton's Malory Towers sextet, every new character who enters Darrell Rivers' form in the second and subsequent books. Arguably also Darrell herself, as some of the girls she starts with already seem to know each other and are familiar with the school (the series at times shows severe continuity issues). The one exception is Zerelda Brass, who's a Foreign Exchange Student (from the United States).
  • Les Voyageurs Sans Souci starts out with eleven-year-old Sébastien moving to Saint-Isidore after his parents' deaths, transferring to the local school and meeting Agathe, who will become his partner of adventures.
  • In the original The Magic School Bus books, this is how Phoebe was introduced in the second book, The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth. In the later TV series, she's in Ms. Frizzle's class from the first episode but constantly says "at my old school" as part of her Mad Libs Catch Phrase.
  • Scobie in Don't Call Me Ishmael!. At first he seems slightly weird and a perfect target for bullies, which is why Ishmael, who is regularly bullied himself, is reluctant to spend time with him. However, it turns out that Scobie isn't afraid of fighting back by snarking at Barry Bagsley.
  • In The Ruby Red Trilogy, Gideon's younger brother Raphael transfers to Saint Lennox from his old school in France midway through the series. He's not happy about having to wear a school uniform and is bothered by the British Weather, but other than that he doesn't seem to mind the transfer too much.
  • Another: Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to a new school at the beginning of the series, but is hospitalized the day he was supposed to enter. He's completely unaware of the class's curse and its history and he has to ask the creepy classmate Mei Misaki to find answers. A girl whose existence is ignored by everyone except him and she tells him why.
  • Sage from Almost Perfect moves from Joplin to Boyer and starts high school there in November of her senior year. Logan is surprised because people almost never move to a small, poor town like Boyer. He finds out later that it's because she's trans. After years of homeschooling, she finally turned eighteen and told her parents that they couldn't stop her from going back to public school, and they responded by moving to another town where no one would know what happened to their "son."
  • The Name Jar: Unhei and her parents moved to the United States from Korea.
  • Gracefully Grayson: When Amelia moves from Boston to Chicago with her mother, she becomes the first friend Grayson's had since second grade.
  • Slug Days Stories: In Slug Days, Irma, a transfer student from Sweden, joins Lauren's class and becomes her First Friend.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 21 Jump Street: Uses this in about every episode (at least during the earlier seasons, when the episodes more consistently took place at schools), due to the premise: the show was about young-looking cops going undercover in high schools. Every time they went undercover into a school, they posed as a high school student that just had transferred. Discussed explicitly in episodes including Season 4's "Out of Control" when Tom Hanson is filling out a transfer student form, and in "Research and Destroy" when Tom says he transferred to the college from M.I.T.
  • Chyna Parks, the main character from A.N.T. Farm, transfers into Webster High School to become a part of the gifted "Advanced Natural Talents" program. Since she otherwise would've been a Middle School student, fitting in with the older students becomes an overarching theme from time to time (and a major reason why she's antagonized by the school's Alpha Bitch).
  • Junior in Blackish goes from private to public school partway through high school, quickly finding his way to an entire clique of blerds.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Buffy starts the series as the New Kid at Sunnydale High after being expelled from her old school in LA. Several students are seen gossiping about her arrival in part because a new student is a rare bit of exciting news but also because she got kicked out of her old school for fighting and arson.
    • In "Lie To Me" one of Buffy's friends from LA shows up claiming to be a new student at Sunnydale High. It eventually turns out he was lying and never actually enrolled. He just moved to Sunnydale in search of vampires who could turn him into one and spare him a painful death from brain tumors.
  • Lots of examples in Degrassi: The Next Generation:
    • Peter transferred in in season five when his mom became principal and gained custody of him.
    • Mia transferred from Lakehurst Secondary School in season 6 hoping for a fresh start regarding her and her daughter, but then the entire Lakehurst student body (Damian, Johnny, Jane, Sav, Anya, and Holly J.) transferred in the following semester in season 7 thanks to the school burning down.
    • Jenna transferred in season 9 and immediately told Clare that she was known as a "boyfriend stealer" at her old school - and sure enough, partway through the season, she'd stolen Clare's boyfriend K.C.
    • In season 10 Drew mentions that he just transferred to Degrassi, and his presence throws a wrench into Riley's football plans since he's competition for the quarterback spot and almost outs him as gay.
    • Season 12 has the formation of the Toronto Ice Hounds, a junior hockey team operating out of Degrassi. Campbell and Mike transfer from other schools in the city, but twins Luke and Becky Baker are brought in all the way from Florida.
  • Gilmore Girls: The pilot involves Lorelai Crossing the Burnt Bridge with her parents in order to pay for the fancy new prep school Rory has just been accepted to attend. The second episode, "The Lorelais' First Day at Chilton," is about Rory's struggles, academically and socially, being a mid-semester transfer student at a private school with much higher expectations than her previous public school.
  • Ginny and Georgia: The series starts with Ginny and Austin starting at a new school after moving. According to Ginny, it happens a lot because her mom has moved them around so much. She resents this, as it's prevented her getting friends and she's had to be the "new girl" so often, forced to adjust in yet another school.
  • Glee had several over its run.
    • Sam Evans joined the school in the second season due to his dad getting a job and the family moving to Lima, then left between seasons 2 and 3 because his dad got a new job in Kentucky, then transferred back partway through season 3 thanks to Finn and Rachel tracking him down and Finn offering to let him stay with his family.
    • Blaine transfers to McKinley at the beginning of season 3, though it's a subversion because he was a well-known character by then anyway.
    • Joe transfers to McKinely from his house, as he was homeschooled until his arrival in season 3.
    • Unique appears in two episodes of season 3, and in the second one hints that she might transfer to McKinely instead of putting up with her poor treatment at Carmel. Sure enough, she joins the New Directions at the beginning of season 4.
    • Jake and Marley are also transfers at the beginning of season 4 thanks to their parents getting new jobs in the area.
    • Jane transfers from Dalton Academy to McKinely in her first episode because, even though she managed to attend an all-boys school, they still wouldn't let her join the Warblers and she wanted to find a place where she'd have a fair shot at getting to sing.
  • Hardball: Mikey moves from New Zealand to Sydney when his father gets a trial with a Sydney rugby league team. The first episode has his first day at his new school in West Sydney, where he is inadvertently thrust into the Serious Business of schoolyard handball.
  • While the details of her past aren’t disclosed, in the first episode of The InBESTigators Maudie is new to the school and to Ezra, Ava, and Kyle’s fifth grade class. Ezra is tasked by the principal to look after her as his “special project.”
  • Gentaro Kisaragi, the protagonist of Kamen Rider Fourze, kickstarts the series' plot after he transfers to Amanogawa High School. Notably, he still wears an old-fashioned uniform after transferring, and only wears the AGHS uniform a few times during the show's run. Ryusei Sakuta aka Kamen Rider Meteor also transfers to Amanogawa mid-series from Subaruboshi High School, and like Gentaro keeps wearing his old uniform as well.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "Straight and Narrow", Rusty Dobson is enrolled at the Milgram Academy and discovers that it brainwashes its students. He and another student, Charlie Walters, are immune because of the ulcer medication that they take.
  • Strangers with Candy had the entire student body, teachers, and parents ostracizing the new kid to the point of almost lynching him for being seen talking to Jerri at the school dance.
  • Teen Wolf has characters in high school, and thus commonly uses this.
    • Allison is introduced this way at the start of the first season. Though Scott eyes (or should it be, hers? Both?) her before she's even introduced to the class. Her family had come to town because they were werewolf hunters, and she's mentioned to have moved around a lot prior to the events of the show.
    • Aiden and Ethan, twin Alpha werewolves, join the student body as part of their pack's master plan (although, like Malia, they were introduced prior to their transfer). It is not clear who among their fellows passed as their parental guardians.
    • Kira's family moves from New York to Beacon Hills and she transfers in as well in Season 3 before becoming part of the group. Like Allison's family, her parents have a supernatural agenda as well: hunting the Nogitsune.
    • Liam transfers to Beacon Hills High School in season 4 after being expelled from his previous school due to anger issues.
    • Malia is introduced to the characters before transferring in but doesn't become part of the group until she does.
  • Victorious: Tori Vega is an unusual example. Not only is she the main character, but the whole reason why she transfers to Hollywood Arts (a school for the talently gifted) is that she's pressured to do so by the school's students after she substitutes for her sister (also a Hollywood Arts student) for a song number and gives a stellar performance. Most of the first episode revolves around the described events and how quickly she fits in.

    Podcasts 
  • In Sequinox, Sid starts at Vertumnus High in the first episode. Yuki was one of these earlier as she and her mom moved to town last semester.

    Radio 
  • Our Miss Brooks: The titular "New Girl in Town". Harriet Conklin is jealous because the new girl is after Walter Denton. Things don't become serious until Miss Brooks finds out that the girl's mother has eyes for Love Interest Mr. Boynton.

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • Mayu Suzumoto of Corpse Party is an inversion. She's transferring out of Kisaragi Academy. The festival is supposed to be her last day. If only she'd transferred out sooner...
  • Appropriate for the school setting of Disgaea 3, your Player Mooks arrive in your classroom as transfer students upon creation. Princess Sapphire is a main character example, though she didn't transfer with the intent of being a student.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Selphie Tilmitt from Final Fantasy VIII spent most of her studies at Trabia Garden, but she has to transfer to Balamb Garden for the SeeD exam. During the Slow-Paced Beginning, Squall can give her a tour of Balamb Garden. The party eventually goes to Trabia Garden after it's destroyed in a missile strike, where they can meet many of Selphie's old friends.
    • Marche from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a new transfer student from the beginning of the game, so he was called "New Kid" at first. "New Kid" is also the name of his job class exclusively during the Snowball Fight.
  • In Hogwarts Legacy, the Player Character is a teenage wizard who's Welcomed to the Masquerade late and enters the titular Wizarding School in their fifth year. Part of the story revolves around them trying to catch up to their peers with a head start on them while also having to Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World.
  • Persona:
    • Happens three times to Gekkoukan High in Persona 3. First with the main character, second with party member Aigis (implied to have been done by the company in charge of the school, given that she's a Robot Girl built by them), and a third time with plot-important character Ryoji (whose powers allowed him to manipulate the relevant records and memories, though he himself has forgotten having done so). By the time this happens, the homeroom teacher for said students is beginning to get a little suspicious.
    • Then it happens again to Persona 4's Yasogami High. However, whereas his predecessor was transferred from the country to the city, Souji Seta/Yu Narukami went the opposite way. Rise and Naoto also transfer to the same school over the course of the plot, while Yosuke transferred to Yasogami the previous year.
    • Persona 5's Protagonist gets sent away to Tokyo after a Miscarriage of Justice lands him on probation. You assume control of him on the first day of his exile, as he's forced to transfer from his local school to Shujin High.
  • Sig from Puyo Puyo is introduced as a transfer student in Puyo Puyo Fever 2, explaining his absence in Puyo Puyo Fever. The fact that he joined his class late is used as an excuse why other characters are unaware he wasn't born with his prominent trademark beastly, red left arm.

    Visual Novels 
  • CLANNAD: Tomoyo Sakugami is a second-year who transferred to Tomoya's school due to her violent behaviour in previous schools. She tries to become the school's council president to save the yard's cherry blossom trees.
  • Danganronpa: Technically all students enrolling Hope's Peak Academy are this since one of the requirements for entering the school is that they have to be already enrolling in a different high school. The respective cast usually enter their new class at the same time and they all are from different schools and wear different uniforms (if any uniform at all), even though the school actually provides its own uniforms. Although, all games reveal that they either have been in school for a couple of year and have their school memories stolen. Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles follows a similar principle but has a limited student body count of 16 and the plot twist is similar but different from before. It is also a prison school from the get-go, while Hope's Peak genuinely started off as a school for talented people and researching talent.
  • In Date A Live: Rinne Utopia, the eponymous character, Rinne Sonogami, transfers back to Shido's class in a What If? ending.
  • In Dies Irae, Kei and Rusalka both show up as transfer students at the main character Ren's school. This is on the day after they almost killed him. Their goal is mostly just to keep tabs on and "motivate" him if he doesn't go along with their demands. And given the group they belong to pretty much control every aspect of the city, getting them in was easy. And as one of the side stories shows, this is not the first time the group has done this either.
  • The dragon transfers into the protagonist's school in Dra+Koi after they get in a fight at the park. People somehow overlook her obviously not being human for the most part, even when she starts firing beams.
  • 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.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry:
    • Keiichi counts, although, at the start of the story, he's been there for about a month. Being the Naïve Newcomer to town either causes many misunderstandings or gives him an insight others don't, depending on the arc.
    • Rena used to be one. She was born in Himamizawa, moved away a few years prior, but recently moved back with her dad. She transferred to the school one year prior to Keiichi.
    • A better example would be Hanyuu. She drops in during the final arc and is immediately taken home... three times. She isn't a new character to the player as she's been a ghost for the entire series and has been a major character for the last few arcs, but to everyone besides Rika she is.
  • Hisao from Katawa Shoujo; after having a heart attack, his doctors decided it would be best for him to go to Yamaku Academy, and he transferred in early on in his third year. All the other characters, however, most likely have attended Yamaku since they entered high school.
  • Majikoi! Love Me Seriously!:
    • Chris is a transfer student from Germany, early on in the storyline.
    • This is also how all of the sequel's new characters are put into the game. Yoshitsune, Benkei, and Yoichi transfer into 2-S, Seiso transfers into 3-S, Monshiro and Battle Butler Hume transfer into 1-S, and Tsubame drops into 3-F shortly thereafter.
  • The protagonist of Missing Stars, Erik, is a new transfer student to St. Dymphna. It's a specialized school to help teens with mental health problems. Erik was sent there to help with his PTSD recovery.
  • Nerine and Sia's transfer gets the ball rolling in SHUFFLE!! Later on, Primula transfers into the school as well, one year below the others.
  • In True Love Junai Monogatari, one of the potential love interests is a transfer student: Ryoko Shimazaki, the local Idol Singer.

    Web Animation 
  • The first episode of DC Super Hero Girls starts with Wonder Woman transferring to Super Hero High.
  • hololive ERROR:
    • This series is yet another case of the protagonist being the transfer student... however, this is explicitly not a good thing, as the way that transfer students must be treated in Aogami High School turns out to be a very delicate balancing act that could either make the students look like total suck-ups or in the worse case, earn the ire of Shino Misora. Things turn out to be a good bit more complicated than just that, with Shino and the transfer being the same person and all.
      Inari: "Transfer students must be treated well, or bad things will happen."
    • The Retro protagonist is also a transfer student, and one that catches a lot of attention... most notably from the at-the-time living Shino, and recently-turned-Alpha Bitch Nanase Furukawa, who is quite insistent on her and the protagonist being left alone together...
  • Manga Angel Neko Oka: Claire is a girl from the United Kingdom who transfers into Eiji's school to reunite with him because he saved her when she was lost during the time they were children.
  • Deandra is introduced as the new girl in the first episode of The Most Popular Girls in School.
  • Shishihara: There is a student named Belladonna-Lily Tanaka who transferred to Sota and Yurika's classroom.
  • Tsuki Desu has Chitose Miyamoto, blue-eyed blond transfer student who moved from America. Tsuki is instantly attracted to him.

    Web Comics 
  • In The Adventures of Shan Shan, Cassiopeia's arrival happens with a lot of other events. Not to mention that she's quick on the uptake.
  • Bastard: Kyun Yoon transfers into Jin's school, saves his life... and then promptly becomes Dongsoo's latest target.
  • In El Goonish Shive, this is presumably Ellen's cover story when she starts high school. Being Elliot's Opposite-Sex Clone with all his memories until her creation plus having the memories of an Alternate Universe version of herself up to the end of high school means from a knowledge standpoint she is effectively a transfer student twice over despite having only physically attended school for one day (while impersonating Elliot).
  • 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.
  • Gunnerkrigg Court:
    • Alistair spends a week at the Court in Chapter 13. He doesn't even bother with a uniform, as he's only there until his parents collect him to transform into birds.
    • The protagonist Antimony is sent to the Court partway through first year after the death of her mother. For quite a while, her Only Friend is the deuteragonist Kat, who introduces herself in Chapter 2.
    • Many of the Court students (such as Zimmy and Gamma) are brought to the school to be studied for their powers or conditions, or on an exchange program with Gillitie Wood, leading to several students coming and going.
  • Mieruko-chan: At the end of Chapter 39, a famous teenage model joins Miko's class as a transfer student. Miko is more concerned that the transfer appears to her, and her alone, as a horrific ghost.
  • My Impossible Soulmate: After getting sent to another world, Chiaki signs up to become a student at the Grand Arcane Library.
  • Nicole and Derek starts with the arrival of international transfer Nicole Adams.
  • Rain:
    • The comic begins when the titular protagonist transfers to St. Hallvard High School, so she can attend as a girl.
    • In Chapter 15, two new students, Ana Rubina and Brett Desrocher, transfer to the aformentioned school after Christmas break.
  • In UC, Kelsi is a transfer student from an as yet undisclosed location. Her parents wanted her to experience American high school, so she starts the comic by joining the high school of the three other main characters.

    Web Original 
  • Weird school rules in Hong Kong: Used to illustrate one such titular "weird" school rule; Episode 3's final skit is set in a boys' school, where two students discuss how strange it was to have a no-dating rule in place in such a setting. Then, a female student named 'Fian' is transferred to the school and introduced to the class; when the two boys comment that having a girl in a boys' school is awesome, the teacher reprimands them for "talking about romance" in class, which was against the school rules.
  • In the Whateley Universe, Bladedancer and Carmilla and Heyoka all started at Whateley Academy late in the fall term, at different times. Then Seraphim started winter term. Justified in that Whateley is specifically a school for young mutants, whose powers may spontaneously manifest and necessitate a sudden transfer from whatever school for "baselines" they previously attended at any point in the school year. It would have to be a pretty atypical semester in which no new transfer students showed up for a change.

    Western Animation 
  • One episode of Arthur titled "Arthur and the True Francine" had a Flash Back to when Mary Alice "Muffy" Crosswire was a transfer student. Sue Ellen Armstrong is introduced later this way.
  • Penny is introduced as one in the ChalkZone episode "Rudy's Story". When she originally debuted in the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "Rudy's Date" (which was edited into the second episode of the show), she never got a proper introduction. When the shorts became a series, it's explained that she had recently moved to town in "Rudy's Story", possibly to avoid Remember the New Guy?.
  • Code Lyoko:
    • Odd is the transfer student in the prequel, "XANA Awakens".
    • Taelia No Name Given only shows up once in "The Girl of the Dreams" and never shows up again.
    • Theo Gauthier transfers in "Claustrophobia" and becomes a permanent mainstay background character in the series.
    • Aelita becomes one in "False Start", which becomes a permanent part of the series in Season 2 Opener "New Order", under the guise of being Odd's "cousin".
      • William Dunbar becomes one in "New Order" and becomes a secondary character who elevates to The Dragon to XANA in the Season 3 finale.
    • In the second Code Lyoko novel, The City With No Name, Eva Skinner/XANA transfers into Kadic Academy with the goal of murdering the Lyoko Warriors. Yeah.
  • 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.
  • In the Davey and Goliath TV special "School, Who Needs It", a boy is introduced into Davey's class on the first day of school. Davey and his friends at first make fun of him behind his back for being the only kid who actually likes school, but eventually accept him into their club when they find out how intelligent and artistic he is.
  • DC Super Hero Girls starts with the two lead characters transferring to the same high school: Barbara Gordon moved from Gotham with her dad while Diana ran away from home.
  • Mandark is introduced to Dexter's Laboratory this way. Like many examples, he's revealed to be similar to our protagonist, being intelligent, well-liked by the teachers... and he also has a laboratory.
  • Doug begins the series as a transfer student.
  • The protagonists of Galaxy High, Jerk Jock Doyle and Academic Alpha Bitch Aimee, transfer to the eponymous Galaxy High thanks to his sports prowess and her book smarts respectively. Their situations get completely flipped: the formerly super popular Doyle turns into the Butt-Monkey whereas the once isolated Aimee becomes a "late bloomer".
  • Invader Zim: 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.
  • Milo Murphy's Law begins with Zack as the Supporting Protagonist, waiting for the bus on his first day at a new school and meeting Milo. Being new, he stands next to Milo and doesn't understand why no one else will. Then the two start are nearly crushed by construction equipment.
  • Miraculous Ladybug has a few in the form of Alya, Lila Rossi, and Zoe, who move to Paris over the course of the series.
  • From Mixels, royal children Camillot and Mixadel are transferred to the public Mixopolis Middle School to learn about "mixing with the common folk". Camillot is eager to make new friends, while Mixadel only looks down upon them, and even uses the principal as a servant.
  • Daemona Prune from Phantom Investigators had just recently moved to San Francisco and began attending Lugosi Junior High shortly before the events of the series.
  • Rick and Morty gives us Bruce Chutback, who even has a theme song detailing how unknown he is to the rest of his new school, making him fair game.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Mary Jane counts even though she was introduced several episodes before she transferred to the main characters' school.
  • Will Vandom in W.I.T.C.H. starts as this. In the comics Taranee is another one, having moved a few days earlier (in the cartoon she moved a year before the series). Interestingly, in the comics we see that Taranee was actually born in Heatherfield, as the burned-down house of Taranee's real parents is on the city's outskirts and moved out when she was adopted.

Alternative Title(s): Mysterious Transfer Student

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Kotoha Hanami

Kotoha enters regular school.

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