"Aren't you scared?" "Oh, yeah. But while I'm mouthing off, I'm Feisty Heroine. Nothing bad happens to Feisty Heroine."
— Wisdom # 6
'Plucky' means brave and optimistic.
You might be able to pile life complications onto this young woman/girl, to the point where the audience would forgive her if she just refused to go on. She might even have an episode or so where she doesthrow in the towel, because human beings can only take so much of what the universe is handing out for her. But the Plucky Girl always comes back. That's the bravery part.
The optimistic part is the rest of it. This character leans toward the sane version of The Pollyanna, blending the agency of the Action Girl with the sweetness and wise charm of the Spirited Young Lady, while exhibiting a strong sense of optimism and an unassailable spirit that differentiates her from the grimness of a Determinator. You can beat her, but damned if she'll let you break her.
Male versions exist, but they tend to be closer to Determinator territory instead, because men always have to beMANLY.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
This trope is a staple of shoujo manga, especially Magical Girl shows. So the heroine is Book Dumb, ultra naive, a Butt Monkey or is just starting with her mission and/or training in magic? The Powers of Love and Friendship will ultimately give her strength to keep on going! The Ur Example, obviously, is Usagi from Sailor Moon.
Candace White "Candy" Andree from Candy Candy. She has her breakdowns, but as soon as she's back to her feet, she comes back stronger than ever.
Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket still is optimistic despite being orphaned, temporarily homeless, and living in a tent, bullied in the past, and helping a whole Dysfunction Junction with their trama.
Elenore Baker from Madlax is pretty much this the entire series.
Sayaka Yumi from Mazinger Z: Her mother was dead. Her father was Married to the Job and nearly never was there for her. the guy she liked was a sexist jerk (okay, Jerk with a Heart of Gold). One of her classmates was a Stalker with a Crush. And her country -and the whole world- was under attack of a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and Mad Scientist who took lessons from Hitler. And she still was brave, hopeful and optimistic, not allowing anything got her down for long -she had several Heroic BSOD moments, but they did not last long-, and trusting they would win and things would get better, not matter what.
Sora Naegino from Kaleido Star practically embodies this trope. No matter how much Training from Hell she is put through or what sort of abuse she receives, she always manages to pull through using sheer optimism and determination. And if she feels her strength sapping away, she will soon recover it.
May Wong becomes this once she gets over her Jerk Ass phase.
Also Yoko, who went on and stayed as a cheerful, reliable and protective Cool Big Sis despite all the shit that happened to the Dai-Guren Brigade.
Keiko Yukimura from Yu Yu Hakusho. While she's pretty much a Neutral Female, it's pretty amazing she pulls through after all the traumatizing events her boyfriends' life/career puts her in. In the manga, she didn't even hesitate to ask to be taken to the Dark Tournament when she found out Yusuke had gone there. She may be a bit frailer in the anime, but she still does her best to be there for her friends when needed.
To different degrees there's also Yukina, Shizuru, Botan, Ayame, Hinageshi from The Movie, Kokou, Natsume, the Lady Doctor aka Yuusuke's ancestor and Mukuro.
Naruto: Hinata Hyuuga. No matter how the Fan Dumb denies it for "feminist" and "shipping" reasons, her other theme aside of her crush for Naruto is her self-improvement and shredding her Fragile Flower side. She's one of the first people to adopt Naruto's ninja way: knowing that he's watching, she refuses to give up against Neji despite severe injuries, even standing up one last time after the referee ends the match to keep her from getting killed.
And she reaffirmed her pluckiness by doing what she could to protect Naruto from Pain, fully knowing that this might be her last stand. While the manga made it both awesome and heartbreaking, the anime made it doubly awesome as before Pain can take her out, she manages to land a hit on him.Here it is. (Spoilers, obviously.)
Also Sakura. No matter how the Fan Dumbalso denies it for "How weak she is" and "shipping" reasons. See her fights vs Ino (where she deliberately pressed Ino's Berserk Button to avoid getting sympathy and broke Ino's Mind Switch Jutsu) and Sasori (where she got serious injuries and kept fighting anyway).
Relena Peacecraft, Hilde Schbeiker, Sally Po, Cathy Bloom, Long Meiran and Lucrezia Noin from Gundam Wing.
A lighter example is Mileina Vashti, almost always plucky and happy despite being caught in the middle of a war. She lives to tell. Also Mileina's Onee-sama and fellow Bridge Bunny, Feldt Grace. She gets very broken in season 1, then some more in season 2, but also pulls through and lives.
Cleao Everlasting from Sorcerer Stabber Orphen will not let Orphen go kill himself before he returns her the Sword of Baltanders that her father gave her before dying, and which he needs for a very important quest. So what if she has to tag along with him and his apprentice Majic despite all the dangers it'll bring to her? She will follow them, become the Team Mom, and pull through no matter what.
Most of the girls in Axis Powers Hetalia. These're be comfirmed in their profile especially:
Belarus is described as one by Russia. But he quickly adds: "Inabadway".
Resident Lady of War Vietnam is one too, as her profile says she's "a very headstrong woman" and that "there are many strong women in her history".
Taiwan gets her profile in the fourth manga volume ("An island girl nation with a headstrong and easygoing personality!") She shows it via cheering up Vietnam, teasing her brothers, and interacting with all of them as an equal. "It's okay, us Taiwanese don't believe in bad fortunes!" It's confirmed by her Image Song, "Poipoipoi". 'Poi' means "poof", and it's used in-context as "making problems and bad luck go POOF!"
There's also Seychelles, who tries hard just to get people to know her name. She keeps doing it, and also manages to keep both England's arrogant behavior and France's lechery at bay.
Even Monaco, the resident Ojou has shades of this with sketches of her in armor and having her profile describe her as someone who worries a lot, but gives off a proud impression. She also has an attitude like this when it comes to poker.
THE Plucky Girl in the series, however, is Hungary. Shown clearly not just in the profile, but in her interaction with pretty much everyone: she takes her Meido position in stride despite how it's not exactly easy, fights the aforementioned Prussia without hesitation, refuses to stay put when someone she dislikes is around...
Maya Kitajima and Ayumi Himekawa from Glass Mask. The first decides to fulfill her dream of being an actress despite how odds always go against her, the latter refuses to have things handed to her and wants be famous for her own merits.
Winry Rockbell and May Chang from Fullmetal Alchemist. Riza Hawkeye and Izumi Curtis are adult versions.
All of the girls in Bokurano have their plucky moments, specially Anko Tokosumi, Kana Ushiro and Youko Machi.
Fatal Fury: Despite being helpless in combat and painfully knowing it, Sulia Gaudeamus keeps going on and doing her best to help Terry, Joe, Andy and Mai stop her evil brother, Laocorn, and save him from himself. And if she has to commit suicide to save him... she will.
Mai is this too, despite her bad luck in battles. More noticeable in the games, tho.
And Kim's wife, Hot Mom Myenungsuk. In a subtle Crowning Moment of Awesome, when Kim was in the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle, she kept her cool and her trust in him, refusing to cry and break down for the sake of him and their kids as well as herself.
Code Geass: Kallen Kouzuki When faced against the now practically superhuman Suzaku, she fights him to a standstill, reducing * both * of their machines to scrap before finally destroying Suzaku's machine with the very last blow she has left before her machine shuts down. Suzaku even wonders aloud how he can't beat her, even with his "live" Geass.
Euphemia li Britannia and Shirley Fenette also count. Doesn't work as well, though.
Saori Kido aka Athena, Miho, Aquila Marin, Shunrei, Princess Flair and little Helen (the two last from filler anime arcs) of Saint Seiya.
Many girls from Mahou Sensei Negima! qualify, but Nodoka surpasses them all. Every time she's encountered an enemy, despite having no combat skills whatsoever, her first reaction is to get out her artifact and fight, even when up against opponents completely out of her league, even when everyone else is panicking, lost in despair, or running away, even when she only just figured out that magic even exists. In the middle of the battle between Fate's party and Ala Alba at Ostia instead of retreating with the rest of the party she forced Kotarou to take her right in front of Fate so she could get his true name and then interrogated him as he was attempting to petrify her. And of course, when everything went wrong and several of her friends were erased from existence right in front of her by one of the most powerful characters in the entire series she gets up, steals HIS artifact, downloads the instruction manual from his brain, and teleports away so she can tell the rest of Ala Alba they're taking the battle to the enemy.
Katsuhiro Otomo's early manga Domu: A Child's Dream gave us Etsuko, a little girl with immense Psychic Powers she uses to battle a Psychopathic ManchildSerial Killer. All the while she is spunky and headstrong, first responding to seeing him psychically manipulate a baby to fall off the roof ot the apartament complex with, "What an awful brat you are! Really now?!" and scaring the old man by using her powers to rattle the bench he is sitting on.
Nadja Applefield from Ashitano Nadja. Sweet Lords, Nadja is some plucky girl and then more.
In Pokémon Special, when told that the boy who rescued her two years ago has gone missing (and hasn't seen since), Yellow immediately agrees to go out and look for him despite the fact that she barely knows anything about Pokemon battling.
Blue could also count. She's usually upbeat and optimistic despite having some of the worst luck ever. Especially at the beginning of the FRLG arc, where her parents disappear right in front of her.
Wendy Garret of Gun X Sword has all the stubbornness of the Determinator combined with a sometimes inordinate amount of optimism. The introductory narrative to the second episode explicitly indicates that Wendy symbolizes hope in opposition to the despair of her partner, Van, but it wouldn't be hard to figure that out without the narration.
Aura of Corsair boisterous, opinionated, and quick-tempered, and remains so even after she is kidnapped and threatened with execution.
Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess. Behind that soft and caring exterior lies a will of iron and a girl who will stand up to the devil herself for the sake of those she loves.
Sayaka does get to play this straight in Puella Magi Oriko Magica, though, specially via protecting herself and Hitomi during the witch attack on their school. Too bad they can't save Madoka.
Hitomi is referred as such by her seiyuu Ryoko Shintani, as well as by Aoi Yuki (Madoka) and Chiwa Saitou (Homura). She's an interesting example in how this trope has both strengths and flaws: she always smiles and tries to be there for her friends, but THE time Hitomi tries to directly resolve a conflict via making both Sayaka and herself face their shared feelings for Kamijou, she commits a huge mistake.
After many, many ordeals and Break the Cutie episodes, both Rukia Kuchiki and Orihime Inoue from Bleach end up graduating into this at different times.
Other plucky girls in this series are: Karin Kurosaki, Tatsuki Arisawa, Chizuru Honshou, Yoruichi Shihouin, Sui-Feng, Yachiru Kusachiji, Nanao Ise, Rangiku Matsumoto, Hiyori Sarugaki, Lisa Yadomaru, Mashiro Kuna, Tia Harribel and her Amazon Brigade (whose Villainous Valor was praised by Yamamoto before he nearly killed them), Senna from the first movie, Homura from the third movie, and recently Jackie Tristan and Riruka Dokugamine. As an Older and Wiser version, we have Hikio Kirifune.
As of episode 21, Kaede Kaburagi has graduated into this. So her beloved father was framed and she has just found out he's a superhero? Kaede immediately decides to go help him with her budding powers. And this is a ten year old girl.
All the females in Fairy Tail: Erza, Lucy, Mirajane, Ur, etc..
Ohana Matsumae, the main character of Hanasaku Iroha, is an interesting take on this Trope in that her pluckiness is presented as both a weakness and a strength. On one hand, her optimism and sincere desire to help people lets her accomplish some good things, but on the flipside her tendency to dive headfirst into something without a solid gameplan does backfire on her from time to time.
Sakura Kinomoto of Cardcaptor Sakura to some extent. While she is rather determined and frequently shows little concern for her own well being, her disposition better resembles that of a real child under such situations, as such she does actually show fearand break down at times, relying on her friends' support to recover her strength.
More straight up examples: Canon Foreigner Li Meiling and specially Sakura's best friend Tomoyo Daidouji.
Ringo Oginome and Masako Natsume from Mawaru-Penguindrum. Himari graduates into this on episode 18, which also shows us exactly how indomitably plucky the deceased Momoka was.
Kyouno Madoka from Rinne No Lagrange, going so far as to sing in the cockpit during a mecha battle... the same battle in which she deliberately tries to keep collateral damage to areas she knows to be empty of bystanders (such as the lot of a recently demolished house or a shop that had gone out of business the week before). Considering the genre she's in, she angsts remarkably little - and even when she does, she shrugs it off quickly and jumps right back to the other extreme on the optimist-realist scale.
It is later revealed that she wasn't always like this: after her mother's death, Madoka was a depressed wreck until her cousin inspired her into the energetic girl always ready to help everyone regardless of what needs to be doing. Truly, Madoka's motto in life is Jumped at the Call: she doesn't pilot because she has to, she pilots because she wants to help.
Nanami Momozono from Kamisama Kiss. Her defining character trait, besides Chronic Hero Syndrome, is that she likes to see other people happy and will go out of her way to make them happy. Even if it means that she has to get hurt or sacrifice something to make it so.
Batman: Stephanie Brown, the third Batgirl. Her ex-con of a father is starting to cause trouble again? Her mother's an addict? Her dad's trying to kill her? The father of her baby abandons her and she almost dies during delivery? The boy she's got her eyes on and who happens to be Robin's not interested in her? Batman tries to get her to quit being a crimefighter again and again - then fires her as Robin? She gets tortured, humiliated and almost killed and is forced to leave Gotham to heal? ... C'mon, you don't actually think that's gonna stop her, do you?
Scrooge McDuck's most popular love interest, Glittering Goldie.
May Parker aka Spider-Girl. Also her mom, Mary Jane Watson.
Annabelle Lennox in the Transformers fanfic Black Crayons. She's sweet and friendly, but she can be as brave and stubborn as her parents (or Ironhide) when she needs to. She sneaks her way into a warzone because she thought she needed to be there. Keep in mind that she's six years old at the time.
Then there is Rainbow Dash, who isn't afraid to tackle any kind of challenge, believing fully she'll be able to handle it.
Film
Giselle from Enchanted is this trope to the letter. When faced with the wildlife of New York City - gnats, pigeons, and cockroaches - she forces herself to smile and admit "Well, it's always nice to make new friends!"
Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck It Ralph. She's probably this trope PERSONIFIED, because after all the bullying and abuse she's been through, she's still optimistic and happy. Wow.
The girl Micha from a German film Stahlnetz: PSI. She is kidnapped for ransom which her family cannot pay as it's not actuall rich and cannot escape on her own, but she still holds herself with dignity until the very end, (though she slowly begins to resign, but in her situation, it's hard not to; and she still doesn't break).
The title character of The Journey Of Natty Gann is bound and determined to find her father, and nothing is going to keep her from doing it, no matter how many people tell her that he abandoned her. She hops trains and hitchhikes from Chicago to Seattle, with little idea of exactly where her father is beyond "somewhere in Washington".
Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) in Labyrinth won't give up her attempts to solve the Goblin King's seemingly-impossible maze and retrieve her baby brother
Vanellope from Wreck It Ralph has enough spirit to power a jet fighter, reacts to her circumstances as The Pollyena and is The Determinatorpersonified in her dream of becoming a racer.
Tortall Universe: Daine is probably the most obvious example. Her house was burned by raiders, her family killed and she survived only by accident, she was almost raped/murdered by an ex-suitor of her mother's, and was Raised by Wolves — all before the book starts. She then proceeds to demonstrate a great deal of ass-kicking, particularly so in the later books; in the third one, after she is told that the Emperor killed Numair, she proceeds to wake up an army of fossilized dinosaurs and rip the everloving shit out of the palace. She's not done. In the fourth book, after even more tragedy occurs, she kills Ozorne with only a badger claw, naked, and entirely out of magic. Yeowch.
Sandry, from the Circle of Magic universe by the same author, tends to come across as the sweet, optimistic one of the four, but she survived several days alone in a dark, concealed room, with only a basket of embroidery thread for company while half the city died of plague around her, and when once again trappen in the dark (by an earthquake, no less) she is the one who figures out how to get herself and her friends out (though they all participate.)
Roald Dahl's Matilda is ignored by her parents and terrorised by the awful Miss Trunchbull, and just 6-7 years old. So what's a little super-smart girl to do? Obviously, play some 'subduing' pranks on your boastful, corrupt father to take him down a peg, then develop your latent psychokinetic powers to help that nice teacher who recognised your genius.
Maree Mallory of Deep Secret has "sheer if not-always-nice pluck" as one of her defining character traits. How much of a fighter is she? At one point, she permanently loses half her soul. Most people die within hours of this happening. Maree not only fights back, she walks miles to recover in Babylon. To put things in perspective, the only other person to survive this that we know of? A powerful and charismatic emperor who once conquered eleven different core universes and untold others.
Mavra Chang from Jack Chalker's Well World series absolutely refuses to give up despite all of the Body Horror inflicted on her — seemingly cripplng mutations and body modifications only seem to make her even more determined. Hell, Mavra's probably ar her most dangerous when she doesn't even have any hands.
Lia in Skinned by Robin Wasserman. Despite getting in a car accident, having her brain put in an android, her friends abandoning her, her sister sleeping with her boyfriend, and people believing she doesn't deserve to exist, she still keeps going.
All of the important female characters in Sword of Truth, but especially Kahlan, Cara, and Nicci.
Enola Holmes is the definition of this, eventually. It does take her running away from home with her brother, Sherlock Holmes, hunting her to force her into finishing school, and finding that she's a great detective herself at the age of 14. At the end, Sherlock and Mycroft are agape at how capable she is for her age.
Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire. This becomes less appealing and more creepy as the story goes on though, as the goals Arya persists in achieving pretty much amount to mass murder. Her sister Sansa, too, who manages to stay cool even when life seems more and more persistent to break her.
Don't forget the eponymous Momo in the novel of Michael Ende. The evil men actually take over the world, but she still attempts to save it. She even dares giving one of the grey men a Care Bear Stare while she's left by all her friends.
Josephine "Jo" March, as well as her younger sister Amy once she gets over her Spoiled Brat phase and her pupil Annie aka Nan. Too bad the fandom refuses to see Amy as such and pegs her as a Mary Sue out of Die for Our Ship butthurt.
And also Rose Campbell from the Eight Cousins books.
The Chalet School is full of these, to the point where you wonder if it's a requirement to get into the school. Joey Bettany - who shares more than a few similarities with another Jo mentioned above - is but one example. Childhood illness, running away from the Nazis, war, her husband Jack being temporarily MIA, the deaths of friends, a shedload of children...nothing will keep her down for long. And then there's Corney Flower, Biddy O'Ryan, Daisy Venables, Mary-Lou Trelawney, Carola Johnstone, Len Maynard...the list goes on.
In C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, Istra, aka Psyche, is this. To the extent that she angers her older sister, Orual, for not being worried about being offered to a local god as a "bride", saying the god might actually be nice. It turns out Istra is right, and everything works out in the end.
In Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia we have Polly Plummer, Lucy Pevensie, Jill Pole and Aravis Tarkheena.
Stephanie Plum from One For the Money and the following books by Janet Evanovich. Faces down homicidal rapists and madmen with pluck, snark, and heavy coats of mascara. Interestingly enough, she's not entirely plucky - pretty much every time she's in direct danger, she's a terrified, blubbering wreck. She deserves the Plucky Girl moniker because, even when she's out of her depth, terrified, and facing fates too horrible to consider, she doesn't give up.
Ninevah "Nin" Redstone from Seven Sorcerers by Caro King. Her Motto is "Have Courage and never give up!" She confronts a Bogeyman while armed only with a toohbrush and goes insane lengths to rescue her brother, along with everybody else needing help
In Smallville, as much as we love to see one of Chloe Sullivan's manyBreak the Cutie moments, she always pulls herself together to help Clark at the end of the day. Season eight, Abyss, Bride and Legion, for instance. She has her memory slowly destroyed, making her gradually forgetting everything and everyone, attacked at her wedding, Jimmy almost dies, she is kidnapped by Doomsday to be possessed by Brainiac, and the Legion is about to kill her before Clark rushes in. She is up and about almost unnaturally quickly after the ordeal. And that isn't even half of it.
Audrey Parker Of Haven: A young FBI agent who is sent to the small town of Haven, Maine to capture a killer but stays to solve the terrifying "Troubles" that afflict the town and to find her long lost mother and learn to be a "small town cop." Being cocooned alive, almost driving off a cliff and dealing with super powered freaks of nature only makes her pissed and/or more determined. Also a very capable Action Girl but could be considered a Broken Bird at times because of the emotional distance she keeps from people.
Veronica Mars of Veronica Mars, the unflappable young PI who is roofied and date-raped, best friend is killed, family splits up, ostracized by her old friends, yet somehow trudges through and comes out mostly on top. And her relationships? Suspected murderer of best friend, and also a man who could possibly be her biological brother (he's not). Well, let's just say she's incredibly determined.
Any female Doctor Who companion, by definition. Any of The Doctor's companions turn into a Plucky Girl or Determinator if they've spent enough time with him, to the extent that he introduces Donna Noble as "the plucky young girl who helps me out" in one episode. Heck, he gets Doctor Malcolm from the episode Planet of the Dead into a Determinator willing to become a martyr to save The Doctor (and the bus full of people he's on). This isn't the first time he's an effect on people he barely knows, either. In fact, Davros lampshades this, rather darkly:
Davros: "You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time transformed into murderers. How many have died in your name?"
Djaq from Robin Hood originates from the Holy Land which is being torn apart by war in which she lost her father, mother and twin brother. She was then enslaved and brought to England in chains, all the while hiding her gender from her jailers. When she's rescued by Robin Hood, her fellow prisoners abandon her while she's helping out the outlaws. Yet she joins the gang, contributing her skills as a scientist and a medic to the country that is at war with her own, overcoming race and gender prejudices, and proceeding to kick ass all over the place whilst keeping her rather wicked sense of humor, resulting in one of the few times in which a character with obvious Mary Sue qualities manages to be imminently likeable.
Miki Momozono/Goggle Pink from Dai Sentai Goggle Five. She gets hit massively with a fatal bomb that nearly killed her, yet she still dragged her body to get up so her friends and Kid Sidekick won't worry about her. Then she gets trapped in a devil diary, is tied up and the diary gets burned from the outside (which would burn her eventually), and her friends can't get her out, only able to watch as she burns. Instead, she escapes from the book on her own using just her wits and brains, delivers a condemning speech to those who trapped her (and dozens of innocent kids), then proceeds to kick ass.
Subverted by Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess. She starts off plucky, but in season 4, she joins the church of the One True God, throws in the towel, her staff and her joy. she becomes a determinator and never comes back.
Lampshaded in an episode set in modern time. Mad Scientist raids Xena and Gabrielle's tomb and clones them. Gabrielle is plucky, Mad Scientist turns her into a determinator. Fan complains, Mad Scientist says you will only ever see plucky Gabrielle in the repeats of Seasons 1-3 - "Only in the re-runs."
The titular character in Dong Yi never gives up on, or breakdown over whatever she is doing, even when the odds are completely against her.
Carmen Carrillo from Carrusel. She may not have the best family situation at first (though It Gets Better). But she always makes sure to study and do well in school, so that someday she can go to college and obtain a career. Plus she is always nice to everyone. She is very prim and proper- while always remaining determined, so her being ladylike and staying out of trouble may be a not so obvious way of remaining strong so that she can achieve her goals.
Princess Aurora in Once Upon a Time, who is even called this by her kidnapper, Cora, when Aurora flatly refuses to play along with her games.
Religion and Mythology
Antigone from Greek Mythology, who refuses to abandon her father Oedipus even after learningthe truthof her birth. She also defies her uncle Creon when he orders to not give burial to her brother's corpse, and prefers execution rather than renouncing to her beliefs.
Many Christian martyrologies have tales about young girls who choose torture and death rather than worshipping non-Christian Gods, and many of them are described as plucky to the extreme.
For that matter, the Blessed Virgin Mary is this to Catholics, oh so very much.
Theatre
Arguably deconstructed in Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage And Her Children. The main female's pluckiness, perseverance and resourcefulness were supposed to show how dehumanized Mother Courage had become thanks to her sucky life (the deaths of her children included), as a detestable personification of the evils of capitalism. The audience embraced her instead.
Juliet Capulet, believe it or not, and especially considering the time period it's set in. She disobeys her parents, follows her heart, takes the initiative even more than Romeo, braves disownment and being trapped in a tomb to stay true to the man she loves (or at least believes she loves - give her a break, she is a teenager after all) and chooses to die with him rather than just bow to her elders.
Video Games
Chell from Portal. She never, ever gives up. It's official. It's on her record!
Almost every female from The King of Fighters, with special mentions to Athena Asamiya, Mary, Momoko, Malin, Leona, Whip, Bonne Jenet, Kula Diamond, May Lee, and any membress of the Women's Team.
The KOF: KYO manga adds Kyo's girlfriend Yuki, specially when she stands up to Iori in the middle of a Go Through Me. Not halfway bad for a Barrier MaidenGirl Next Door.
Fatal Fury, aside of all the girls who double as King of FightersAction Girls, adds ladies like Tsugumi Sendou and Hotaru Futaba. In The Movie, Kim's wife Myeungsuk also qualifies as such.
Linde from the Fire Emblem Akaneia games. Alongside Maria, post-Heel Face Turn!Minerva, Yumina, Lena, Elice, Tiki, Feena, etc. Gaiden adds Cellica, Sonia, etc.
Seisen's first generation: Adean, Briggid, Tailto until she's broken, Ferry, Mahnya, Raquesis, Sylvia and Ayra.
Seisen's second generation: Lana (and Mana), Patty (and Daisy), Fee (and Femina), Nanna (and Janne), Altena, Larcei (and Radney), Leen (and Laylea). On the enemy side, we have the Anti-Villain Ishtar.
Fire Emblem Thracia 776: The aforementioned Nanna alongside Mareeta, Tanya, Karin, post-Heel Face Turn!Olwen, Sara (who mixes this with Strange Girl), Safy, Lara, Tina, Eda, Linoan, Misha and Princess Miranda, with Evayle or better said, an amnesiac Briggid, Machyua, Selphina and post-Heel Face Turn!Amalda as older versions.
Nino the Mage/Sage from Fire Emblem. Oh poor little innocent, sweet, freaking determined little Nino.
Lyndis/Lyn, Louise, Priscilla, Serra, Farina, Fiora and Rebecca, too. A good part of Florina's Character Development comes from her doing what she can to become one.
In Fuuin no Tsurugi, set 20 years later, Princess Lilina is this and some more. Makes sense since her dad is Lord Hectorand her mom can either be Lyn, Farina or Florina. Other than her, we have: Clarine, Ellen, Princess Guinevere, Thany, Thite, Lalum, Sue, Milady and Fir. Adult versions include: Echidna, Igrene, Cecilia and Niime. "Mayfly" versions include the dragon Fa
Princess Tana from Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones. So plucky that she refuses to stay on the sidelines even when her brother Innes demands her to do so, helps both Eirika and Ephraim as much as she can despite her limited battle experience, can convince the very distraught Cormag to defect with words aloneand hook up with him if they have an A support, and pulls Ephraim out of his Heroic BSOD after he sees that he can't bring Lyon back and loses one of the stones to him.
Eirika, too. Despite her naivete and seeing her kingdom and others go down, she keeps going on.
And L'Arachel, too. So plucky that she can bring Eirika out of an Heroic BSODwhen she has to assume that Lyon's too far gone to be truly saved, after his Superpowered Evil Side uses him to steal the MacGuffin from her.
Also Natasha and Amelia. Both young ladies come from Grado, an Empire that is starting to invade and threaten other countries, but they decide to fight back and join Eirika and/or Ephraim's groups.
Fire Emblem Tellius: Mist, most prominently. Also to some extent Mia, Jill, Lucia, Elincia after her Character Development, Sanaki, Laura, Micaiah, Heather, Eda and others.
Fire Emblem: Awakening gives us several too: a female Avatar (default name: Robin), Sully, Lissa, Maribelle, Nowi, Tharja, Cordelia and the grown-up Tiki. From the second generation there's Sully's daughter Kjelle, Sumia's daughter Cynthia, Nowi's daughter Nah and Chrom's daughter Lucina.
The title character of the freeware action/adventure Iji is a teenage girl who wakes up six months after an alien attack kills her family to discover that scientists have implanted nanotech in her to combat the invaders, but her only support is her little brother Dan, who has grown bloodthirsty, cynical and emotionally distant. Even after she discovers that humanity is on the brink of extinction and the earth is a charred husk, she presses on with the mission Dan gives her. This first quest fails miserably, the second makes the situation even worse, and, depending on the player's actions, Iji fails to save her brother from an assassin, which traumatizes her horribly. And yet she still carries on. The player can choose to play her as an Action Girl or pacifist; regardless, the final boss is awed by her determination.
Sigrun of Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is unusually cheerful for being a member of a group of Death Seekers with the goal of achieving a Heroic Sacrifice, joking that she'll try harder next time whenever she gets through a battle. During party banter with Nathaniel, she states that being Wangsty about it doesn't really help her much, and demonstrates that it would just get annoying really fast.
Leliana in Origins lives through a tremendous amount of nastystuff, yet comes out of it stubborn, courageous, and possibly the sweetest girl you will ever meet.
Krile from Final Fantasy V. She's already an orphan when you meet her. Then watches her grandfather die right in front of her. Then his spirit tells her she needs to take his place in defeating the warlock that just killed him. And she does, while still being cheerful enough to poke fun at the hero and pioneer the Plucky Girl role that would appear in every numbered Final Fantasy after her.
Tifa Lockhart, Aerith Gansborough and Yuffie Kisaragi from Final Fantasy VII, but specially Aerith.
Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII. Her original home was destroyed, many of her friends were killed, the world was about to end, and she still maintained her plucky attitude and sense of humor. Worryingly, she's also always the first one to propose an excessively violent solution to a problem, such as skinning a Moomba to use as a disguise for escaping captivity.
"Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher! BOOOOOM!"
The female protagonist route added to Persona 3 in the PSP version turns the player character into a Plucky Girl. The darker the game's plot gets, the more determinedly upbeat her dialogue options become.
All of the Persona 4 girls show different shades of this after their Shadows are dealed with. Special mention goes to Rise Kujikawa, who took control of her Persona, Himiko, right after the Shadow Rise fight.
And beating them all out is Maya Amano from Persona 2 who's catchphrase is "Let's think postitive!" She remains upbeat throughout the game, serves as a Team Mom for the group, and gets promoted to Protagonist in Eternal Punishment.
Maria Renard from Rondo Of Blood, doubled as a Badass in Distress. Right after being freed, you can control her all the way from where she's held captive to beat up Dracula all by herself and her pets (which is a case for most people anyway, since she's stronger and faster than Ricther.)
Lynne gets brutally murdered five times in one night but she'll be damned before that will keep her from laughing it all off with her cheerfull theme tune every time you have to go back in time to resurrect her. And then there is the bravery she displays when she get's trapped in a sinking submarine with Camila.Camila couldn't wish for a finer protective older sister surrogate even if she wanted to try.
Chun Li. Oh my, Chun Li. The first Action Girl in fighting game history simply can't be less. Followed by Cammy White, "Rainbow" Mika Nanakawa, Sakura Kasugano, Karin Kanzuki, Elena, Ibuki, Maki Genryusai, Makoto, Rose, Ingrid...
In regards to non-fighting female charas, Yun's Hot Blooded "non-girlfriend" Houmei is this; considering how calm she is when around her, her little sister Shaomei might count too. Eliza Masters can be considered to be an Older and Wiser version: we don't see a lot of her but she's almost always smiling and patient, and the mere fact that she's Happily Married to a dude who's very often fighting out there implies that she's got quite the patience.
While a number of BlazBlue girls qualify for this in some shape or form, Makoto Nanaya clearly stands head and shoulders above the rest. If she can stand to rebuild a positive outlook on life in the wake of a lifetime of wall-to-wall Fantastic Racism, you're going to need some heavy ordinance to break her down - physical injury, financial woes, mind games, a trip through the Boundary, and YuukiTerumi'smentalpenis don't work.
To a much lesser extent, Noel. At least she is after the events of Continuum Shift and leading up to Chrono Phantasma, where she seems to have taken a few levels in badass.
Kairi from Kingdom Hearts. She was prepared to take on Saixunarmed at one point, and Axel commented on her guts.
Quite a lot of the female characters from the Soul Series. Nearly every female character who has ever appeared in a Soul game is either this trope, or an Ice Queen. Cassandra, Xianghua and Talim are this big time, Sophitia and Seung Mina were this in their earliest incarnations but grew out of it to eventually become othertropes, and in the most recent game Soul Calibur V, Pyrrha (specially when she manages to pull herself together after years of Break the Cutie) and Yan Leixia (who runs away to both refuse an Arranged Marriage and to seek for adventure)
Emi Ibarazaki from Katawa Shoujo, a young woman who lost her legs and her father in an horrifying accident, but around a year later she had already relearned to walk, and is the star of Yamaku High's track team. Once you pursue her route, though, it's a Deconstructed Trope. Emi knows that loss of a relationship is normal, and it is best to be strong and move on. However, at the same time, the same stubbornness that enables her to deal with her issues prevents Emi from growing close to anyone because she is afraid that the pain of loss will prevent her from moving onto the future. This prevents anyone from helping her when she does need it.
Nothing gets Hiyoko Tousaka down for long. Not even being unintentionally killed by her best friend/love interest and then cut up into pieces by a mad doctor keeps her from taking an active role in the plot and helping Ryouta when he needs it the most.
She did know. She was not in the least afraid. She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the contract and rattle in time for her to move. The one characteristic an Irishman admires in a woman, above all others, is courage. Freckles worshiped anew.
Princess Sissi, the plucky farm girl who deals with danger and tribulation after tribulation to get married to her sweetheart, Prince Franz, all the while believing that she can bring peace to Austria and Hungary and helping who she can on the way.
Korra from ATLA sequel The Legend of Korra takes this up as well, Lin Bei Fong is an adult version as befits her for being Toph's daughter, and recently Asami Sato has joined them.
Princess Ilana in Sym-Bionic Titan. She's fairly cheerful, something of a Granola Girl and passionate about school-related activities. Although she is shown to worry about the state of the people on her planet.
Real Life
LaToya Jackson. She was in an abusive relationship for a decade and has recently suffered the loss of her brother. Yet when you watch her in interviews, she's the happiest she has ever been.
