A protagonist character who is short, wimpy, and brunet. Tend to be in
Coming Of Age Stories, particularly shonen. Common traits of this protagonist:
- Timidness, low self-confidence, and lack of decisiveness, which is often mistaken for cowardice
- Short, scrawny, and boyish (Similar to a Adorably Precocious Child without any of the in-universe cooing and doting)
- A lack of friends and acknowledgment, prior to the beginning of the series
- A bully magnet, as they're too timid to fight back
- Being mostly unremarkable and lacking anything meaningful in their lives
- A secret ability that doesn't seem very useful till they find their calling
- A strong need to be of use to others, with the above traits being a big factor
- Will always be the Butt Monkey despite frequently saving the day
- Will be completely unassertive in romance, despite how obvious the love interest's feelings are
- Although they will initially dislike being The Hero (and make a few attempts to run away), they will continue to put themselves in harm's way because the only thing they fear more then the antagonist is letting down their new allies
- When push comes to shove, they can become quite the determinator
Essentially, this character is set up to be an inversion of the classic
Hot Blooded shonen lead and be the last person you'd expect to be the hero. Tend to have dark colored hair, such as brown, blue, or black. In more traditional shonen, this character will eventually become the hero they were expected to be from the beginning, if not outright
Hot Blooded. In deconstructions, such as the series
Evangelion, the stress will ultimately lead to
breaking the cutie rather then coming of age.
This character will almost always be introduced to their (future) calling by a character who is their total opposite, a spirited chaotic good or chaotic neutral who desires an ally that shares a similar goal to theirs. They will
always form an
Odd Friendship, the timid protagonist being the chaotic character's
Butt Monkey.
Compare with the
Unlucky Everydude (this trope's cousin) whose unassertive nature makes makes him a chick magnet rather then a hero in the works, though the two can cross over. Also compare with the
Shrinking Violet who tends to be a girl and is never a shonen protagonist, the
Nice Guy who is similar but usually less shy and the
adorkable boy will often be short, wimpy, and brunette.
Contrast with
Hot Blooded (although they may become it occasionally), the
Jerkass who would pick on this character, and
Rated M for Manly, which is the inverse.
Examples
Manga & Anime
- Shinji Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion is a deconstruction of this trope.
- Simon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann starts out as one.
- Sena Kobayakawa of Eyeshield 21 begins as this, but eventually develops into a very driven and brave football player. Comically, while he may be a Hot Blooded hero on the field, he quickly reverts back into a spineless wimp when it comes to everything else.
- Ippo of Hajime No Ippo, though unlike most examples, he took to his field of expertise pretty quickly.
- Mihashi of Big Windup! cranks this trope up to eleven, due to the serious bullying he faced in middle school, he's incredibly insecure about his abilities as a pitcher, shrinks whenever someone yells at him, and in the beginning, couldn't stop bursting in to tears over his supposed "uselessness".
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple's title character Kenichi Shirahama starts out here. The entire manga is basically documenting his shift from this to the world's greatest determinator. He still clings to several aspects of his original self, though.
- Kenji of Summer Wars.
- Tsuna of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, though unlike the other examples, he didn't even have a secret talent until he met Reborn.
- Yukiteru Amano of Mirai Nikki.
