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After 30 long years, finally, the two of us meet. The brother of light...and the brother of dark.

Metal Gear Solid

In real life, siblings hardly ever act the same. Fiction sometimes takes this to an extreme.

Enter Sibling Yin Yang, the occurrence of siblings that are nearly polar opposites. If he's cool and reckless, she's responsible and thoughtful. If she's a spiky-haired hooligan, he's the nerdy wimpy one. If he's an immature brat, she's... well, you get the picture.

The even more extreme form leads to Different As Night And Day, or even Evil Twin. When this leads to complete antagonism, it becomes Cain And Abel.

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Examples

Anime

• Al and Ed from Full Metal Alchemist.
  • The anime and light novels also have Fletcher and Russel Tringham, who present many parallels with the Elric brothers.
    • So much so that not only do they impersonate the Elrics at least twice, there's a certain amount of Sibling Yin Yang between respective imposters-the Tringhams fulfill a certain amount of the expectation of what you're going to get with the Elrics, which is quite different from what you actually get. Aside from the fact that each Tringham has an ego that matches his respective Elric.
• Tiff and Tuff in the Kirby anime.
• Kyou and Ryou in CLANNAD; Kyou is a violent tsundere, Ryou a shy Class Representative.
  • Interestingly enough, Kyou is also class representative in her class.
  • Same deal with Kagami and Tsukasa (respectively) from Lucky Star
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch uses it repeatedly. Caren is a brooding, grudge-holding Broken Bird, while her twin sister Noel is a forgiving, self-sacrificing Yamato Nadeshiko. When Caren got nicer and, as a result, dropped Out Of Focus, she became a loud party girl to keep the opposite dynamic going. There's also Kaito and Gackto, of the Cain And Abel variety, as well as one being a friendly joker and the other a White Haired Pretty Boy. Lucia and Nikora, though only posing as sisters, fit it too with The Ditz versus the Team Mom. In fact, it's even lampshaded in the Black Beauty Sisters, who are also definitely not sisters.
• Miki and Kozue from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
• Kagami and Tsukasa in Lucky Star.
• Light and his sister in Death Note. Their only common points are that they are both good-looking and respected. She is a nice ordinary person (and somewhat dumb compared to Light), he is a freakishly intelligent Well Intentioned Extremist with sociopathic tendencies.
• Twin examples: Risa and Riku in DNAngel; Vash and Knives in Trigun; Abel and Cain in TrinityBlood; Metatron and Sandalphon in AngelSanctuary; Chrno and Aion/Ion in Chrono Crusade; Suboshi and Amiboshi in Fushigi Yuugi. Also note that as is often the case for the twin archetype, which some scholars view as a sub-category of the hermaphrodite archetype (seriously), one twin is gendered more 'feminine' (Risa, Vash, Abel, Chrno, arguably Metatron) and the other more 'masculine' (Riku, Knives, Cain, Aion, Sandalphon). (This has nothing to do with sexual orientation!)
  • This trope is even lampshaded by the twins in DNAngel:
  Riku: We have absolutely nothing in common!
  Risa: Nothing at all!
• Yoh and Minatsuki in Deadman Wonderland are an interesting case: both are liars, cowards, and opportunists, but Yoh may be fundamentally a caring guy while his sister is a Yandere.
• Jun Ushiro and his sister Kana in Bokurano. She is sweet, shy and forgiving, he is violent and brooding.
• Yoh and his sister in Koukou Debut.
• Tetsunosuke and Tatsunosuke in Peacemaker Kurogane.
• Hansel and Gretel in Ludwig Kakumei... somewhat.
• Anna and Johan in Monster. Anna is outgoing, helpful and an idealistic humanist. Johan is quiet, introspective, manipulative and an utter sociopath.
• Yuki and Ayame in Fruits Basket. Ayame is the Always Camp Aloof Big Brother, while Yuki is the White Prince with an Instant Fanclub. Yuki doesn't find Ayame very bearable, while Ayame insists he's showing support for his younger brother. He really doesn't get it.
• In Hajime No Ippo, there's Kumi Mashiba, Ippo's main love-interest and a Yamato Nadeshiko to boot. And then there's her big brother, Ryo 'The Executioner' Mashiba, an angry and brooding boxer who eagerly uses intimidation-tactics and fouls to beat down his opponents, and just generally comes across as a borderline psychopath. About the only person who's NOT scared of him is Kumi, who have been known to slap him to the floor when he got out of hand. There's also the fact that Mashiba practically raised Kumi ever since they were orphaned in an accident, so only she and one of his bosses know how hard Mashiba has worked to take care of her. The scene where this softer side of his' was shown was quite the Tear Jerker in the anime.
• Yuma and Yuna Kashiwagi from Pani Poni Dash. Yuma is an extreme extrovert (and borderline Yandere), Yuna is an extreme introvert. Yuma goes so far as to actively sabotage Yuna's attempts at being more accepted just to keep eyes on her.
• The Chizeta princesses from Magic Knight Ray Earth: Tarta the younger is loud, rude, and aggressive while Tatra the elder is quiet, polite, and a total pushover, which is probably why the younger sister seems to be the leader.
• Ikki and Shun in Saint Seiya
• In Axis Powers Hetalia, North and South Italy fit this trope; North Italy is ditzy, cheerful, and friendly, while South Italy is more reserved and unfriendly, especially towards North Italy's partner in crime, Germany. Switzerland and Liechtenstein also fit this trope, with Switzerland being moody and gun-happy and Liechtenstein being gentle and kind.

Comic Books

• Charles Xavier and Cain Marko in X-Men. And that's before you get into how they are, respectively, the most mentally powerful an the most physically powerful people in the world...
  • Xavier also has Cassandra Nova, who literally exists to be his polar opposite in absolutely everything.
• Suntop and Ember in ElfQuest.
• Hawk and Dove from Justice League, who are also as different as Red and Blue.

Film

• Dash and Violet in The Incredibles.
• Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in their movies.

Literature

• Connor and Grace of Vampirates
• Every sibling pair in The Moomins
• Jake and Tom in Animorphs. One (Jake) is fighting to save the world and one (Tom) is a Controller whose Yeerk is trying to take over the world, though the real Tom is probably more Jake-like.
• Sansa and Arya in "A Song Of Ice And Fire". They even look completely different (Sansa is a beautiful redhead like her mother, Arya is longfaced and darkhaired like her father.)
• Similarly, princes James and Thomas in Eyes of the Dragon by Stephan King (James is fit and raven-haired like their mother while Thomas is chubby and sandy-haired like their father).
• Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility.

Live Action TV

• Claire and Lyle, as well as Nathan and Peter and Sylar , from Heroes.
• Chuck and Ellie in Chuck.
• Betty and Hilda and of Ugly Betty.
• J.D. and Dan in Scrubs.
• Sam and Dean in Supernatural.
• Lee and Toe in KateModern.
• Aunts Lily and Vivian in Pushing Daisies are both eccentric shut-ins, but the similarities end there.
• The Booth brothers from Bones - Booth the elder likes his comfort zone while Booth the younger is flashy and much more upwardly mobile.
• The Girls and the Boys from Jon And Kate Plus Eight (the somewhat bossy Girls take after their mother while the more laid-back Boys take after their father)

Video Games

• Mario and Luigi of Super Mario Bros, thanks to Luigi's increased Luigification as a coward over the last 10 years.
• Crash and Coco of Crash Bandicoot
• Stafy and Stapy of the Japan-only Densetsu no Stafy series.
• Palom and Porom from Final Fantasy IV.
• Edgar and Mash/Sabin from Final Fantasy VI.
  • Edgar and Sabin are hardly polar opposites... they are both supremely confident extroverts, for one thing. The only difference is how devoted to duty they are.
• March and Salsa from Eternal Sonata, due to the game's light/shadow mechanic in battles, they are quite literally Different As Night And Day.
• Lucas and Claus from Mother 3
• Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Yun is loud and outgoing, while Yang is quiet and introverted. Also, Yun focuses on the strength of his attacks, while Yang focuses on the number of hits.
• Twin example: Hisui and Kohaku from Tsukihime. Hisui is an introverted maid who is skilled at cleaning, but lousy at cooking. Kohaku is an extroverted maid who is skilled at gardening and cooking, but terrible at cleaning.
  • Also from the Nasuverse, Shinji and Sakura in Fate Stay Night. Subverted in that they're not blood siblings. Sakura and Rin are, though, and also fit this trope.
• Hector and Uther in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword. Though this can probably be chalked up to the fact that Uther's functioned as Hector's father figure since their parents died.
  • The three Pegasus sisters are a rare trio example. Quiet, serious Fiora butts heads with boisterous Farina, who in turn gets a kick out of teasing both her and shy, sensitive Florina.
    • In Fire Emblem 6 we have another sibling trio... also of Pegasus sisters. Yuuno is a sweet Action Mom, Thite is a stoic Defrosting Ice Queen and Thany is a hyper Genki Girl. And there's also a set of twins: the cheerful mage Lugh and the snarky shaman Rai.
• Unusual triplet variant, from Metal Gear Solid - Solid and Liquid Snakes are extremely diametrically opposed; reserved, guilty Solid lacks his brother's ambitious, manipulative nature, and passionate, vengeful Liquid lacks his brother's wisdom and emotional clarity. This is complicated by the arrival of the third triplet, the calculating, focused Solidus, who considers himself a 'perfect balance' of his brothers' traits - he's wise and manipulative at once.

Western Animation

• Steve and Hailey in American Dad.
• Bart and Lisa in The Simpsons.
• Doug and Judy from Doug.
• Dexter and Deedee in Dexters Laboratory.
• Carl and Chloe in Carl Squared.
• The aptly named Yin and Yang from Yin Yang Yo.
• Danny and Jazz in Danny Phantom.
• Katara and Sokka in Avatar The Last Airbender
  • Zuko and Azula are as different as red and blue.
• Starfire and Blackfire of Teen Titans.
• Ben and Gwen on Ben 10. Cousins, but close enough.
• Riley and Todd from The Replacements.
• Hex and Megabyte on Re Boot. Ironiclly, both are the Evil Twin... in the beginning.
• Huey and Riley in The Boondocks.

Truth in Television

• This troper is quiet and introverted; his brother is noisy and extroverted to a ridiculous extent.
• This troper and his brother look fairly similar (allowing for age difference), but this troper is a brainy techno-geek who is polite in person yet somewhat introverted, while said brother has mild learning disabilities, is a carpenter, can be deliberately rude at times, yet is more of an extrovert. It sometimes astonishes this troper that we grew up in the same household and have similar genetics. This troper's sister is somewhere in between the two extremes of her brothers.
• This troper's cousins are fraternal twins: Twin A is tall, broad, ruffly-haired and outgoing; Twin B is small, slight, straight-haired, and introverted; the dissimilarity is so drastic, they don't even look the same age.
• This Troper has a 3-person Yin-yang. My sisters are fraternal twins and look nothing alike. One is blond, blue eyes, and in general, Aryan poster girl. The other has brown hair, brown eyes, tanned and looks like the Italian poster girl. They also act completly differently, which causes quite a bit of strife. Me, I look like my Italian sister, and act like my German sister, which makes a nice little balancing act.
• This troper is quiet, intelligent, fashion-unconscious, frugal, and rather nerdy, while his brother is loud, shallow, stylish, a spendthrift, and apt to make fun of anything remotely geeky.
  • You just described this troper and his brother to the letter. Not even inverted.
• This troper is shy, intelligent, prefers books and video games, and physically frail. His sister is outgoing, is always attached to her cell phone or IMing, often struggles in school, and is highly athletic. Yes, that's right; even the genders are different. And yet, we're still so similar...

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