Tall Dark And Bishoujo - Television Tropes & Idioms

She's tall, pretty, and generally attracts quite a following wherever she goes. She usually has waist-length, dark hair.

While it might not be fair to say that trouble follows her everywhere, it's accurate for most cases of the type. This sometimes causes an undeserved reputation as a delinquent.

Often a target of one or more Schoolgirl Lesbians. If she is one herself, she'll have a more-or-less Moe Moe or Shrinking Violet girlfriend.

This character type crosses over rather regularly with the Ojou. Feel free to compare the examples.

Sometimes Tall, Dark and Bishoujo will have a genre-defying quirk, especially in recent anime, as this pattern is starting to be meta-recognized.

On the other side of the spectrum is the Bifauxnen.

The name was originated by the user Starcross in the shoujoai.com forum on June 23, 2004. It is a play on the old description of a man as "Tall Dark And Handsome".

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Mima in Perfect Blue despite having short dark hair.
Azuma Hazuki in Yami To Boushi To Hon No Tabibito. In fact, the term was created when the anime was airing because of her, with the Yuri Fans checking to see if anyone else fits the pattern.
Tenjou Utena in Revolutionary Girl Utena, one of the early incarnations of this character type — except for her hair, which is pink in the anime and strawberry-blonde in the manga.
Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh subverts the trope by being obsessed with cute things, despite her looks and bad luck with cats.
Himemiya Chikane in Kannazuki No Miko.
Shion, Mion, Rena, Miyo, and arguably Rina (although she is hated, and for good reason) in Higurashi.
~~Milly, Kallen, Shirley, C.C., Euphemia, Kaguya, Nina and Nunnally~~ The entire female cast of season one in Code Geass.
Nico Robin in One Piece.
Hinata and Karin in Naruto.
Lucy in Elfen Lied despite being a indifferent murderer.
Akira in ARIA (pictured).
Melfina in Outlaw Star.
Momo in Peach Girl.
Rukia, Neliel, and Orihime in Bleach.
Kuga Natsuki in Mai-HiME.
Zakuro in Tokyo Mew Mew.
Aoyama Motoko in Love Hina.
Lieutenant Kanuka Clancy from Patlabor. Possibly a part of her rivalry with Bifauxnen Lt. Kumagami.
Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road. — Since KOR was over 20 years ago, she is one of the originals
Sai in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer.
Tomoyo in Clannad, who immediately gained fangirls upon transferring and received gifts from them (And if you don't believe, compare on how tall she is compared to the other girls by looking at how tall her life-size teddy bear outfit is). Kyou has also been revealed to be very popular amongst female underclassmen.
Shizuma from Strawberry Panic. She has white hair, but otherwise fits this trope just fine.
Maki Izumi from Martian Successor Nadesico is something of a subversion of this. Physically speaking, she's quite attractive; however she's always cracking bad puns, has a habit for playing the ukelele (terribly) and nobody seems sexually interested in her while she never shows any sexual interest in anyone else. At least not until the episode where everyone's repressed personalities come to the forefront and her sexual side tries to convince both Akito and Akatsuki to have sex with her. Of course, this is also the episode where it's explained that she's repressed her sexual side because both of her fiancees died young and she's convinced if she opens up to anyone they'll inevitably die as well and she'll just be alone and heartbroken again.
Jun Fudo in Devilman Lady.
Rider in Fate Stay Night embraces this trope. And her true Master was actually a Moe Moe girl (unless she snaps...)
Asagi from Yotsuba&!, only the waist-length hair is brown and she's more troublemaker than troubled.
Setsuna Meioh (AKA Sailor Pluto) and Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) from Sailor Moon. (At least Rei is Short, Dark and Bishoujo...)
- The manga version of Rei plays this trope terribly straight, looking much older than her actual age in the process.
Kikyo from Inuyasha
Reki from Haibane Renmei
Akira from Mahou Sensei Negima
Cynthia from Pokemon, despite being blond.
Kotonoha Katsura in School Days.
Ogasawara Sachiko in Maria-sama Ga Miteru.
Ceres in Ayashi No Ceres.
Amatsuka Megumi in Tenshi Na Konamaiki. (She has the wrong hair color, however.)
Kazetsubaki Kuriko in Maburaho.
Caren in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, and later, the other members of the secondary trio.
Karen and Komachi in Yes! Precure 5. Karen best fits the personality part, though.
Konoe Tsurugi in Hanaukyo Maid Tai.
Simone from Shiroi Heya No Futari, the first shoujo Girls Love manga ever from way back in the '70s. Yes, this trope has existed ever since the beginning of the genre.
Kan'u Unchou in Ikki Tousen. To be expected since she's supposed to be a voluptuous schoolgirl version of the resident Genius Bruiser and Gentle Giant of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu.
- Also, Kaku Bunwa (Jia Xu)
Ran, titular character of Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran, is a textbook example of the trope, particularly in that she attracts trouble like a magnet (or is attracted to it?) and has a Moe Moe Chinese Girl following her around most of the time. However, she dresses and acts in a masculine way, despite looking quite feminine; if she were ever taken for a boy (oddly, no one makes this mistake) she would be bounced right over into Bifauxnen territory.
- People are often in the dark about her gender until she starts talking, though.
Hinamori Amu from Shugo Chara wears a public persona that makes her appear as an example of this trope to her schoolmates — in reality, she's plagued by self-image issues and hates acting that way.
Kanae Kotonami from Skip Beat fits this trope—at least the physical description, anyway. Her true personality is a bit more fiery.
Isayama Yomi from Ga-Rei -Zero-. To certain extent, the main character Tsuchiyama Kagura also count.
- The chief of the Environment Ministry special division and her secretary, as well.
- And Natsuki Kasuga from the unfortunate Defense Ministry squad.
- Come to think of it, is there any woman not fitting this trope in Ga-Rei -Zero- ?
Tatsuki from Hyakko, although it's her blond friend Torako who gets the fangirls.
Anego from Dai Mahou Touge is the full-blown delinquent variety, even though she is nothing compared to the protagonist.
Ami from Tora Dora
Takane from Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujo.
Suigintou from Rozen Maiden... as far as miniature dolls go anyway.
- Despite having WHITE hair.
This is a major plot point for Yukari Hayasaka from Paradise Kiss, as she uses her appearance to break into professional modeling.
Akiha Tohno from Tsukihime.
Mio from K-ON, complete with an all-girl fanclub, despite being painfully shy.
Futaba from Amanchu! is rather withdrawn, but as things look now she may score cute Hikari as her girlfriend.
Sae from Hidamari Sketch, despite having short hair and being a pettanko.
Maya from Maya's Funeral Procession, another Girls Love manga from the '70s.

Music

Megurine Luka, one of the Vocaloids, was designed with this image in mind. ... Except her hair, which is pink like that of the previously mentioned Utena.

Literature

Violet Baudelaire from A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Video Games

Tsugumi Komachi in Ever17.
Hatsune in Atlach Nacha.
Saki Tsuzura of Arcana Heart. The fact that she looks like Chikane may just be a coincidence, really.
Shanoa from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, some of the women she rescues flirt with her, even.
Also Tear Grants from Tales Of The Abyss
Uzuki from Akai Ito, something that may have contributed to her popularity.
Kaya from Aoi Shiro as well as a milder version in Ayashiro.
Natsuhi from Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. Would probably be an adult counterpart to The Ojou if she didn't have a tendency to get upset and yell at people so easily.
Sena from Chaos Head.
Mai in Kanon, with the "undeserved delinquent reputation" variant.
Shion in Otome Wa Boku Ni Koishiteru.
Arguably, Hoshiguma Yuugi (despite her blond hair), Mima (green) and Kazami Yuka (also green) would be the Touhou series' closest examples. Of worthy note is Kaguya Houraisan, which has dark hair but unknown physical stature. Fans tend to portray her as short, though.