Ordinary High School Student - Television Tropes & Idioms

Peter Parker, which was revolutionary at the time. A sidekick-aged protagonist?!
- Inverted in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, however, in which Mary Jane — the protagonist — actually is an ordinary high school student.
Doug Ramsey was a kid from suburban New York who was good at languages, and didn't know any different until he was informed by an acquaintance from the odd boarding school nearby that he was in fact a mutant with powers of... comprehending languages... and dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to come establish communications with a potentially hostile alien.
The Runaways were all normal teenagers... who in the course of a night watched their parents kill a young woman, discovered superpowers/super gadgets/a telepathic dinosaur, fought off their parents, and ended up becoming runaways living in an underground mansion.
Jaime Reyes, the current Blue Beetle in The DCU. One day he's just hanging out with his friends, the next he gets bonded to an alien symbiote, helps Batman save infinite universes, and goes missing for a year, yet he still manages to come off as more of a normal kid than 90% of other teenage superheroes in comics.
- Give it time, they'll kill his parents off too.
  - They decided to kill off his comic, instead.
Mineko from Helios Eclipse.

The film and book of Stephen King's Carrie, and the film sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2.
Sam Witwicky was just an Ordinary High School Student until he bought his first car. Turns out it was an alien robot. Who knew? His special quality is just being the great-grandkid of the man who found Megatron. Sari Sumdac from Transformers Animated actually asks the Allspark why it chose her. It had an answer too, albeit a vague and ambiguous one.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — not the show, the movie which preceded it. Unlike in the show, Buffy is completely unaware of her destiny as the Slayer until her Watcher shows up.

Arguably inverted in Harry Potter, as everyone knows that he's special from the start — except him.
Battle Royale
Subverted in Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, in which the protagonist essentially becomes the heir to the the House (the so-called "epicentre of creation", the denizens of which give our universe about the same casual interest as a rather exciting zoo) simply because he almost died on the right day.
- That's right kids. This kid essentially becomes God by nearly dying.
Bella Swan in Twilight. Until she falls in love with a vampire.
- Well, the girl is far from ordinary, even if Meyer wants to pretend so. Her special power is being completely irresistable and supremely perfect for no defined reason. But yes, it still fits the trope mostly.
In the lovely juvenile novel Wings by Bill Britain, the main character is an Ordinary High School Student who inexplicably develops a huge pair of fully functional bat-like wings.
Mia from The Princess Diaries is an Ordinary High School Student who turns out to be a Princess of a minor European Principality. Unfortunately, it is not the case that Everythings Better With Princesses.
Jerry Renault, unexpected instigator of The Chocolate War.
The Animorphs. Ordinary middle/high school kids whose lives are changed forever when they decide to take a shortcut through a construction site.

Claire Bennet of Heroes.
The title character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most of her allies, too.
- True of the allies, not so much Buffy herself; she knows at the start of the series that she's the Slayer. The film on which the series was based more accurately fit the trope.
Nickelodeon's The Troop plays this straight and hard with Jake.
Joan Of Arcadia.

Tenchi Masaki in any of the incarnations of Tenchi Muyo!
- Notable among these incarnations is Kazuki Yotsuga from Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual, who is also the Humongous Mecha Zinv.
- And then there's Sasami, who tries to become one of these in the manga volumes. Being that she is an alien princess, it doesn't quite work out. She should just be glad that the goddess she's symbiotically fused with didn't decide to show up.
Momiji Fujimiya in Blue Seed.
Ayato Kamina in RahXephon.
Tsukino Usagi in Sailor Moon.
A good quarter of the cast in El Hazard The Magnificent World (the ordinary Earthlings who develop extraordinary abilities).
Kei Kurono and Masaru Katou (and in fact all high school-aged characters) in Gantz are bona-fide Ordinary High School Students until they get hit by a train and resurrected to play the Gantz Game. They're still technically Ordinary High School Students after that, they just have superpowered combat suits and deadly weapons — and Kei is extremely good at using them.
Miaka Yuuki, Yui Hongou, Suzuno Oosugi, Takiko Okuda and Mayo Sakaki of Fushigi Yuugi all started out as examples of this trope.
Aya Mikage in Ayashi No Ceres.
Kaname Chidori in Full Metal Panic.
- And Sousuke, being a militaristic nut. At least that's what she thought until it turned out that he's actually a mercenary working for an anti-terrorist organisation. His age made him a perfect candidate for being a bodyguard, even though he had no idea how an ordinary student behaves at all.
Tohno Shiki in Shingetsutan Tsukihime, who even went so far to claim he was an ordinary high school student, when, naturally, he was anything but.
- Arcueid even comments on it as in the quote above. The best thing about Arcueid; she's being completely earnest without a trace of irony.
Kurusugawa Himeko in Kannazuki No Miko.
Azuma Hazuki in Yami To Boushi To Hon No Tabibito.
Tomokazu Mikuri in Yumeria.
Shikimori Kazuki in Maburaho.
Kagome Higurashi in Inu Yasha
- In fact, this trend was specifically mentioned in the Anime. "It's been a while now since this every day average school girl has been crossing back and forth between the warring states era and modern times!"
Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara in Yu Yu Hakusho
Yusuke: Guy saves the world, still has to do algebra. Makes sense.
Not exactly a high school student, but Urashima Keitaro from Love Hina falls under this trope.
Kyon from Suzumiya Haruhi is actually certified as totally ordinary, as reported by Itsuki. If it weren't for Haruhi's liking him, he wouldn't be worth looking at twice. Some fans have different theories, however, and there is some support for them in the novels.
- Ordinary or not, he has leashes on two of the most powerful beings in the area and can destroy the universe at will - or rather, holds the keys to the molly guard over the nuke button, as it were.
Kyo Kusanagi in The King of Fighters, although as the series went on his high school student image was dropped entirely (it's also been implied that he never attends high school at all due to his constant fighting).
Nanami Lucia in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, although she already had a Secret Identity — she just didn't know half her own secret.
Mahou Sensei Negima seems to have 28 Ordinary Eighth Grade Students at the start (out of 31 — Zazie and the robot need to practice their Masquerade a bit, and then there's the ghost, who does it all too well...) but, by the current point in the manga, there are only two left who fit the criteria, and they're set to go abnormal at any moment.
- The animes didn't wait as long, being only one season each (compared to the Long Runner manga), and made all the Muggles abnormal in the season finales.
Amu Hinamori from Shugo Chara, though in elementary school, is a good example. After she obtains her guardian characters, she ends up with a couple of friends and a somewhat reluctant membership of the Seiyo Elementary Guardians.
Koyomi Mizuhara (Yomi) from Azumanga Daioh is a subversion, in the ironic sense that not only is she really and truly normal (even — or rather, especially — compared to her friends), she actually gets to stay that way.
The main characters of both Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh GX, although in the latter case the high school is actually a training school for professional Duel Monsters players, changing the standard of "ordinary".
Subverted in Bleach. Main character Ichigo Kurosaki protests frequently in the beginning of the series that he's an Ordinary High School Student... who just happens to be able to see ghosts. This, of course, proves to be a crucial distinction.
- Ichigo's more-ordinary friends do have an unusual tendency to turn out to be not so ordinary after all, including a girl whose hairpins can raise the dead, a huge foreigner with a demonic arm, the last remaining member of an ancient order of magical warriors, and the secret concealed by Ichigo's father's Obfuscating Stupidity he's a Shinigami.
  - Also, in recent episodes, a random classmate seems to have developed the ability to sense the spirit world, after showing no such ability before.
  - There is a reason for this. Other than the mystical warrior, Ichigo's classmates actually gained power from proximity to him. He gained it from his father.
Takumi from Initial D delivers tofu in an old beater; and in the process, has learned drifting techniques that racers take years to master.
Sakai Yuuji of Shakugan No Shana. All extraordinary traits he has he owe to an artifact he received out of luck. Unusually, we never learn how long he's had it.
Saito Hiraga of Zero No Tsukaima was one of these until he was summoned by Louise to her world.
Emiya Shirou from Fate Stay Night. Or so he likes to think.
- He knows about his powers, that his adopted father is a magus, and that there are other magus. He just didn't know that he has a Reality Marble or expect that he could get that strong.
Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion is an ordinary student.
- Of course he is. Just like everyone else in that series.
Shibuya Yuuri from Kyou Kara Maou is completely ordinary student... who is chosen to be the next demon king. The Big Bad throws this in his face during their confrontation later on.
Light Yagami from Death Note is a perfect example of this trope, until it's derailed by the fact that he's both incredibly smart and megomaniacally insane.
Yasuhara of Ghost Hunt puts an unusual twist on this trope. He was a relatively normal high-school student until the rest of the main characters showed up and kind-of absorbed him into their group. Out of the eight main characters, Yasuhara is one of only two characters who has no powers at all. though the other 'normal' character is actually just hiding his identity and amazing powers, though we don't find that out until the last episode. The twist? The series does not focus on him. In fact, he doesn't even show up until halfway through the series. He's there more to do the off-screen research for the group, which means that the assholish-yet-somehow-charming character who had been doing the research previously now gets more screentime.
To Aru Majutsu No Index: Touma's passive negation power certainly makes him look like an ordinary student compared to people like his lightning-wielding Unknown Rival Mikoto under most circumstances. In their first onscreen confrontation, Touma protests to a sparking Mikoto that he's "just a Level 0" esper. Mikoto makes a compelling rebuttal in the form of a giant blast of (ineffectual) electricity.
The title character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was an ordinary elementary school student, which shocked her students in the third season when they visited her home planet during the first Sound Stage and discovered that the legendary mage Nanoha had a completely unlegendary past and civilian life.
Almost all of the HiME from Mai-HiME start out at this stage (although a few of them are dead set on staying that way). Those that aren't (Midori and Sister Yukariko) were Ordinary High School Teachers.
Saya from Blood+ is an ordinary high school girl on the surface, but thanks to almost a lifetime's worth of amnesia, she has no idea of her vampiric abilities... until a Chiropteran shows up at her school and starts messing things up, and she's forced to kill it.
Rin Tsuchimi from Shuffle!, who just happens to be liked by five girls all at the same time.
Hiroyuki in To Heart.
- And so is Takaaki in To Heart 2, also an Unlucky Everydude with an Unwanted Harem consisting of Manaka Komaki, Yuma Tonami, Tamaki Kousaka, Sasara Kusugawa, Karin Sasamori, Yuuki Kusakabe, Ruuko Kireinasora, Konomi Yuzuhara, and Sango Himeyuri.
Kanzaki Hitomi from Vision of Escaflowne.
Kaede of Ninin Ga Shinobuden was one of these. Until a Highly Visible Ninja attempted to sneak into her room to steal her panties.
Kira of Gundam Seed averts this trope — he's actually a genetically-enhanced superhuman who wants to be a normal high school/college student.
Tsukune from Rosario To Vampire is a normal high school student, at a distinctly not normal high school, with not normal high school friends. He eventually becomes not normal himself.
Rito from To Love Ru wishes he was still an unremarkable Ordinary High School Student instead of the center of a complicated Love Triangle with at least half a dozen points on it, including three or possibly four Alien Princesses — Lala, Run, Lala's little sister Momo, and maybe Momo's twin Nana.
Toki from Amatsuki wouldn't even have become the hero if his school hadn't sent him to the museum for failing history class. And just when he finally gets a fresh new start in life after being dragged into the past against his will, he's given phenomenal cosmic powers that ruin his life! His friend and fellow victim Kon could also qualify, however there is evidence to suggest he's not all he seems.
Subverted in Code Geass. Lelouch is an ordinary high school student...who is an outcast prince, genius military strategest chessmaster, and all around Magnificent Bastard biding his time to jump at a chance to destroy Britannia.
Towerof Druaga. As Kai said about her hero king husband who slew a god and united two warring nations under one rule: "Even Gil was just a ordinary boy in love."
Nagasumi of Seto No Hanayome. Then he was rescued and engaged to a mermaid Yakuza princess, whose family promptly takes over his school. Hilarity Ensues.

Soma Cruz from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. The game specifically says he is a high school student on a foreign exchange trip to Japan.
Kazama Jin from Tekken started out somewhat ordinary, but things haven't been exactly going well since. Ling Xiaoyu is a milder example. The Tekken 5 ending for Kazama Asuka suggests she might be more than just a brawler, too.
Kasugano Sakura seems like a typical schoolgirl enamored with a rough famous fighter. Aside from the fact that instead of trying to date him, she prefers mirroring his moves as best she can. Including martial-arts fireballs.
- Hell, pretty much everybody in Rival Schools.
Ethan Kairos in Time Hollow is completely ordinary. He just happens to be the latest in the line of his family to receive the power to adjust history via a special pen.
- Hell, the English manual quotes this trope exactly, describing him as an "ordinary high school student".
Fei from Xenogears plays almost every part of this troupe. Yeah, he knew martial arts but he thought it was just "normal" martial arts. Besides knowing martial arts that can destroy God and giant robots, he's also the only one that can pilot a special gears, which turns out to be the super ultra special titular one. He is also secretly one of the most powerful beings in the game's universe, whom "God" gave his power to.
- And while he is utterly oblivious to all or this at the beginning, he also has several split personalities. One of which has shut himself off from the world, and another which is an utter sociopath who makes full use of his godly power.
Many (though not all) recent Shin Megami Tensei games feature Ordinary High School Students as protagonists. Of course, something usually happens to make them considerably less ordinary, such as finding a computer that can summon demons, learning to call forth entities from the inside of their mind, being forced to share their body with a Devil Summoner, or being turned into a demon after witnessing the end of the world.
Lan Hikari and Geo Stelar, but the latter fits better the description. None of them are high-schoolers, but close enough.

Mike Cosley from Bardsworth.
Kanzaki Kei from Circumstances of the Revenant Braves, more so than any other character.
Sarah from El Goonish Shive is the only member of her group of friends who isn't a shapeshifter, witch, mad scientist, or martial artist of some kind.
- Give her time. At some point the demonic duck will be the most ordinary character in the strip.
  - Elliott probably fits the trope better, though. For most of the first story arc, he does indeed seem to be an ordinary student with a weird friend, but it's progressively revealed that he's far more unusual than that.
Ash and Emily from Misfile until Rumisiel got stoned while in charge of the Celestial Files. Wackyness Ensued.
Divided Sky, like so many other tropes, lampshades it.
Uma from Everyday Heroes. To everyone else, she's perfectly normal.

Yuri Mikagami in the round-robin story Dark Heart High. A bit of a subversion as its revealed in the very first scene that her father is a retired Evil Overlord. (A non human one at that!)
As far as Survival of the Fittest goes, it would be easier to list exceptions, since just about everyone in the entire cast is an Ordinary High School Student. For example, Johnathan Michaels of V2 was a world champion boxer and Renee Valenti of V3 a burgeoning movie star.
Nick Reilly, Bill Wilson, Tony Chandler... A lot of the kids who become mutants and then go to Superhero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe.
Eliot in El Goonish Shive is probably the only ordinary one who could qualify. Even after he gets a alternate gender clone and we find out he has chi-blast style kung fu skill, he's remarkable ordinary. Anyone standing next to Tedd would have to be just to keep the universe in balance.

Danny Phantom
Ben10: Ben was an Ordinary Elementary School Student, but was the star of the (apparently hugely popular for high school JV) soccer team at the end of the Time Skip.
Code Lyoko: Every member of the group is an Ordinary Student, though Jérémie is the only one who can use the Supercomputer, Aelita is the only member who can deactivate towers, and the other three are her protectors.
- Aelita's status is a lot more complicated; she didn't start out ordinary in any sense.
- Oddly enough, William is an actual Ordinary Student until Season 3. Debate has been going on for quite some time on several fan forums as to whether he's still a Warrior or an Ordinary Student in the series finale.

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