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Token Wholesome

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Litchi: I mean, those clothes you had on! They covered every last inch of skin, and well, you know. Also, you seem so reserved. For a young single woman such as yourself, being so chaste and demure can be both a blessing and a curse, you know? A girl such as yourself needs to show just enough to pique a man's interest, but mustn't show too much. It's a tightrope, dear, a freakin' tightrope!
Tsubaki: Um... That isn't very convincing coming from you, Litchi...

The Token Wholesome is found in works that show off the flesh of other characters as if they were in a meat market. This character is the only one to hold himself or herself aloof from the general debauchery. They tend to wear the least scandalous, least revealing, or least fanservice-laden attire. They also seem immune to attempts, and sometimes even plotlines, to show off any embarrassing moments — though they may be embarrassed by the embarrassing moments of other characters.

This arises from several different concepts:

  • The character is meant to be attractive but wholesomeness is their most appealing trait. Going against this, though momentarily enticing, will ruin the appeal of the character.
  • Their wholesomeness is an important aspect of their personality; making them too sexy would be Out of Character for them.
  • Sometimes it's better when certain aspects of a character's beauty are left to the imagination.
  • The writers genuinely find no sex appeal in the character.
  • The character is the lead character, the one we are supposed to sympathize with, and we are meant to know it quickly. Having the Token Wholesome take this role is older than The Hays Code and codes like it but became entrenched during that era. On the other hand, Pure Is Not Good, and just because a character dresses more conservatively does not in of itself have to mean that she's the good girl.

The Final Girl is almost always this trope.

Contrast Ms. Fanservice, Mr. Fanservice. Also contrast Reluctant Fanservice Girl, who wants to be this, but the universe has it out for her.

noreallife


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
    • Cute Mute Shizuka is usually presented as an object of Moe rather than Fanservice; during the beach episode, she's initially embarrassed to have been the only girl to arrive in a school swimsuit, but Rentarou tearfully declares that this innocence and pure-heartedness is precisely what makes her so endearing. However, she has been known to show a Covert Pervert side from time to time; though she was the only girl to object to peeping on Rentarou in the bath, she's ironically the only one to actually end up seeing him naked, and while they both merely blush and avoid the subject, she's later seen thinking to herself that while she likes giraffes, she likes elephants more...note 
    • Mei's primary appeal is being a flawlessly perfect, proper, elegant Meido, complete with Prim and Proper Bun and long, full skirt, so she is very rarely depicted in a sexualised light, despite being one of the few adult members of the cast. However, it does happen sometimes; when her skirt was lifted in one chapter, it's revealed that she wears some borderline lingerie-like underwear.
    • As the easy youngest member of the harem, Chiyo is almost never included in the fanservice; in fact, once she was introduced to the family, she initially took angry issue with the group's shameless pervertedness and banned all kissing on school grounds (though she did recant this after her own chaste kiss with Rentarou). Exactly one panel once depicted her caught up in bondage; the other characters immediately protested in fear that the manga would get cancelled for depicting such a young girl in that position.
  • Elfen Lied: Almost all of the girls are depicted in their underwear or naked at least once. Despite its status as being horror-violence anime, it also sometimes dips into Harem comedy, so fanservice abounds with many girls/women of different ages. The Agent, however, always appears professional, wearing a suit and jacket all the time, and keeping a serious military nature. She's a Bifauxnen and her gender is only confirmed at the end.
  • Saboru in .hack wears a loose-fitting green maid's outfit, covering most of her body, including some cloth around her hair. She doesn't wear the battle bikini, nor the stockings that the others wear. her player is a male, but the PC body came from another woman who fits the description of Stripperiffic.
  • Tomoe in Queen's Blade. She's a Miko (and a Mamiko Noto character), her outfit covers almost her entire body except for her hands and head. This is a series in which the main character only wears leather straps to cover the most essential parts of her body. Clothing Damage still leaves her naked on several occasions.
  • Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force: Unlike the other two adult women of the Hückebein, Cypha's normal outfit is a fully-covering bodysuit. But Pure Is Not Good, and despite her conservative clothing, she's the most outwardly vicious of the lot.
  • In Fairy Tail, Levy is the only flat-chested woman and she doesn't wear Skimpy clothing (unless she's at the beach).
  • Monster Musume:
    • Aside from occasionally being subjected to Male Gaze, Ms. Smith is almost never used for fanservice outside of a few comparatively modest scenes in the first volume.
    • Manako is possibly the only recurring adult female character who doesn't have any fanservice scenes, probably because her appearances are usually mined for cuteness rather than lewdness.

    Comic Books 
  • Dust of the X-Men wears strict hijab clothing on a team of spandex exhibitionists. She kinda stands out.
  • Klara Prast of the Runaways dresses more conservatively than any of the other girls on the team (justified due to her being a former child bride from 1907), and is the only non-snarker, though she is not considered off-limits for embarrassing moments - arcs featuring her tend to have at least one moment where she says something that might be considered inappropriate, like when she mistook the X-Men for demons or mistook Tigra for a prostitute.
  • In the ElfQuest series, there are very few actually monogamous characters. Moonshade and Strongbow are the most prominent ones in the first couple of books. One can only guess why they're there, but it may be to appeal to those audience members who are a bit weirded out by the extremely open attitude most of the elves have about sexuality.
  • In Requiem Vampire Knight, most female characters tend to dress provocatively whether its for titillating effect (like Claudia and Rebecca) or disturbing effect (like Mitra and all female ghouls). The only exception to the rule is Queen Perfidia, who is never shown nude or in any fetishistic outfit, preferring to dress in a modest white Pimped-Out Dress. Given that she is heavily implied to be Elizabeth I, also known in life as the "Virgin Queen", it makes sense she would stand out as this.
  • In Super Buddies, Mary Marvel's sweet and innocent nature makes her stand out from the rest of the team, who are much more cynical and jaded.
  • In Thunderbolts, teenager Jolt was the only member of the initial team who didn't have a previous criminal history.

    Fan Works 
  • In The Power of Seven, when Harry Potter learns he has to basically form a harem of seven witches to save his life and destroy the horcrux within him, Susan Bones is the most inhibited of the girls, to the extent that she wears a full nightgown during the group's end-of-term orgy where the others were just in T-shirts and lingerie.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Lorraine in X is a subversion. She's the audio technician on the film her boyfriend RJ is filming, and also a devout Christian who's rather peeved with RJ because he didn't tell her that the film he brought her onto was a porno. However, she eventually gets fed up with being seen as the "church mouse" and decides to do a scene in the film herself. Right in front of RJ, who has to film the entire thing. She's also not the Final Girl, instead being the last to die, with the Sole Survivor instead being the coked-out porn star Maxine.

    Live-Action TV 
  • True Blood: Lafayette Reynolds is not exactly wholesome, but he's the only character to not appear in a sex scene and is generally aloof to all the debauchery. But it's hard to tell if it's this trope or But Not Too Gay disguised as this trope.
  • Charmed had Piper as considerably less sexualised than her sisters. She only had one overt Fanservice episode and was rarely turned into a Cute Monster Girl as often as the others. Even when the sisters were collectively put in sexy costumes - superheroes, Valkyries, goddesses, etc - Piper's was normally more modest. Holly Marie Combs was also pregnant for two out of the eight seasons, and the character herself was pregnant in the fifth; meaning there were three seasons where she essentially had to be modest by default.
  • Kate Jackson's character Sabrina in the original Charlie's Angels usually dresses far more conservatively than her colleagues. Even when she wears more revealing clothes, they don't reveal very much, and in a few scenes, you can even tell that she is wearing a bra under her shirt (which the Angels otherwise were famous for never doing).
  • The L Word: In a show that has at least two sex scenes per episode, Tasha is surprisingly tame. She's in a committed relationship with Alice when they date, and has only one sex scene, which is the lowest of all the lesbians.
  • A justified example with Naevia from Spartacus: Blood and Sand. In a world where everyone is a violent, cursing Jerkass, and the women are just as sexual as the men, Naevia is defined by her innocence and kindness. This is partly because her virginity has been preserved so that she can be used as a reward for "a man of worth". Lesley-Ann Brandt also felt that, because of this, the character would be more covered up than the other slave girls; only getting one brief topless scene and any other nudity being Toplessness from the Back.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Molly Holly
    • She entered WWE during the Attitude Era when all the Divas were sexualised in some way, but she told the higher-ups that she wouldn't do risque storylines or dress too skimpily. Molly's initial character was of a sweet country bumpkin with fairly modest ring attire. She still attracted plenty of comments from fans and commentators such as "Good Golly, Miss Molly". She received a romance storyline that was fairly chaste - she herself described it as like Disney.
    • In 2002, Molly picked up a villainous gimmick where she used her modesty for heel heat, considering herself above other Divas who flaunted their sexuality. To tie in with this, it was revealed that her character was still a virgin, apparently confirming the chastity of her prior relationship in kayfabe.
  • Gail Kim also managed to avoid this during her time in WWE. She was rarely placed in Fanservice matches. She actually commented on this in an interview, saying it was surprising how she rarely got put in Bra and Panties matches. She says she feels it was because she was sexy "in my own way". Her ring gear isn't exactly modest but its attractiveness is never brought up.
  • Bayley is essentially a dorky Cloud Cuckoo Lander with a mild midriff-baring outfit. As she's also a Kid-Appeal Character, her breasts are actually strapped down (which is something of a rarity in WWE). Even as a heel, Bayley is hardly known for having a sexualized look. Her image has changed (notably cutting her hair short to signify the turn), but her gear itself mostly stayed the same over the years through different designs.
  • Alexa Bliss initially on NXT. She portrayed a Cute Bruiser who wore a tutu and blew glitter everywhere. She too was presented as more cute than sexy. Upon a heel turn, she adopted a sexier look.
  • Ember Moon felt that her character, as a Dark Magical Girl (and still playing Dark Is Not Evil) catered more towards children in comparison to more glamorous Ms Fanservices like Mandy Rose - and even left WWE partly over management trying to pressure her to be sexier.
  • On Total Divas, JoJo was presented as the innocent of the group, up against others and their more outwardly sexual images. Possibly due to all of them being grown women in their late twenties or early thirties, while she was only nineteen.
  • A.J. Lee debuted on NXT Season 3 as a shy nerd, portrayed as a very innocent character alongside the more glamorous Divas - Maxine the Femme Fatale, Jamie Keyes the Proud Beauty, Naomi the Sassy Black Woman, Aksana the exotic foreigner and Kaitlyn (who was closer to a goofy Lad Ette but still had an affair with Dolph Ziggler). This was continued onto the main roster, as a wholesome babyface...until she was broken by Daniel Bryan's cruel treatment of her and snapped to become an unstable 'crazy chick' who was known for playing several men against each other.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Of the initial Pathfinder iconic characters, all the women but one had at least some Fanservice going on in their designs; Amiri has a bare midriff, Merisiel has a Cleavage Window, Seoni's dress is straight-up Stripperiffic, and while Lini and Seelah are armored, both have a Breast Plate that shows off their shape more than necessary. The exception is Kyra, who is covered head to toe in practical chainmail and robes. Merisiel finds this even more alluring than the alternative.
    Merisiel: [Humans] can be super sexy and intriguing, especially when they worship Sarenrae and wear so much armor that you can't make out the details but just barely.

    Video Games 
  • Soul Series: In a series that began to receive criticism for pimping out its ladies in increasingly strange outfits — Ivy being a mainstay, but even newer ladies like Setsuka and even the previously (relatively) well-dressed, unambiguously wholesome, fifteen-year-old Talim — Soulcalibur IV newcomer Hilde was described by the designers as "the most alluring." Unlike all the other girls, Hilde's outfits bare almost no skin: she has a full suit of plate armor and a long flowing dress. This continues into SCV (although most of the other ladies do a better job of covering up this time around) and SCVI (where they don't).
  • Ashrah from Mortal Kombat: Deception is notable for being the first female combatant to be modestly-dressed in the franchise, showing about as much skin as Raiden.
  • Tekken:
    • Ling Xiaoyu, a Genki Girl introduced in 3, usually ends up with a "pants and shirt" costume each game, and even her more "revealing" outfits will often have shorts and no cleavage. One exception is her schoolgirl outfit, which shows underwear during high kicks or any other move likely to raise her skirt. But generally Xiaoyu is presented as bubbly and child-like.
    • Other ladies that could also qualify include Jun (who was the main hero of 2 and mother of the series' successor protagonist, Jin), Michelle, Kunimitsu, and Angel; funnily enough, all four are the only other females from the first two games outside of the Williams sisters. Like Xiaoyu, their racier outfits aren't that revealing (Jun's P1 outfit showed off her midriff and came with Zettai Ryouiki; the former applies to Michelle's P2 outfit in 2 and Tag and she wears Daisy Dukes by default; Kunimitsu seems to have taken some inspiration from Taki with her P3 attire in Tag, a skin-tight jumpsuit with a Cleavage Window; and Angel wears a modest white ensemble). Some of their Tag 2 redesigns (particularly Michelle and Kunimitsu) are more fanservicey, although still modest in comparison to the remainder of the female cast.
    • Lili also counts. Aside from more revealing attire as alternatives, the worst she gets, much like Xiao above, is panty shots in that elegant white dress of hers. Otherwise, Lili adheres to the utmost standards of primness, as should be expected of a spoiled Ojou.
    • The same could be said of Leo, albeit retroactively; Harada didn't reveal Leo's gender until a few months before Tag 2 was released. As a Bifauxnen, Leo typically covers herself up in men's clothing, with only a swimsuit in Tag 2 providing any hint to what she's hiding underneath her clothes.
  • Dynasty Warriors:
  • Mass Effect:
    • Tali doesn't have much choice in this regard. She's a quarian, a race that has to wear environmental suits at all times due to weak immune systems.
    • Ashley, wearing full armor. If you date her in the first game and then date Miranda in the second, she'll bring it up in the third game by reminding you she doesn't fight in a swimsuit.
  • Yurika Kirishima of Project Justice. Her Elegant Gothic Lolita-inspired outfit shows the least skin (even her arms and legs are covered up, by long gloves and opaque pantyhose/tights respectively), the skirt on her dress goes down to at least her knees and her behavior typically tends to be prim and proper.
  • Tytti Noorbuck from the Masou Kishin series is conservatively dressed, and while she has a large chest, most games don't show it bouncing in her pilot cut-ins. Nonetheless, she remains as one of the beauties of the franchise, which is chock full of ladies/girls with big boobs that do bounce. Probably that sisterly attitude helps.
    • There's also Glacies of Super Robot Wars Destiny. When compared to Cliana Rimskaya, who bared her arms and legs, Glacies is fully covered with kimono when she's evil, and with a covering jacket-jeans combo when she's good.
  • Kyrie from Devil May Cry 4. Compared to previous Devil May Cry female leads Trish, Lucia, and Lady, Kyrie—being a songstress for a Sparda-worshipping religious order—opts for a modest ensemble that covers her completely. It's perhaps a little form-fitting in the chest area, but that's about it. For bonus points, both Trish and Lady received a Fanservice Pack in Devil May Cry 4, making Kyrie's modesty stick out even more by comparison.
  • BlazBlue:
  • Leila Vergerius from Rusty Hearts. In contrast to various other Stripperiffic Ms. Fanservices, including her own older sister, she wears an ankle-length Elegant Gothic Lolita dress with full sleeves. Angela is a slightly lesser example in that her blouse while full lacks sleeves and her skirt is only knee-length. It's still more modest than the rest.
  • League of Legends was rather infamous in its early days for Fanservice-y and Stripperiffic female champions, though it should be noted they've toned it down considerably over the years, and sensibly-dressed, serious or at least modest women have become less of a "minority." Some examples before this era, however:
    • Luxanna Crownguard was originally going to be as midriff-baring as many of the others but received a costume revision after widespread mockery from the fanbase that left her sensibly covered up. Even with her modest outfit, it's still form fitting, and she has the same big boobs, narrow waist, and wide hips that all the early female champions have.
    • Leona wears perhaps the least revealing feminine clothes in the game. It's worth noting that, in a poll done to find who was the most attractive champion, she came out third, behind Ahri and Sona.
    • Kayle is usually covered from head to toe in the same vein of Samus Aran that people mistake her as a man. She also receives extra skins that reveal at most just her head and face, she'll not reveal any other further, and no skin-tight inner clothes either.
  • While Little Busters! in general isn't hugely fanservicey, there's far less fanservice for Mio than any of the other girls — she has a skirt down to her mid-thighs while all the other girls have miniskirts, she doesn't have a bath with the other girls in the sleepover because she already bathed beforehand (Riki notes that it's like her to not be caught off guard so easily), we never see her in her underwear like the other girls in the Mask the Saito OVA, and she has far less fanservicey merch than the other girls. In this case, it's probably because Mio's stoic, seemingly pure and delicate image makes her more attractive if she's usually modest. Her mini character bio in the Perfect Edition book even states that she is a "long skirt character." On the other hand, the trope doesn't apply to Token Mini-Moe Kudryavka Noumi, who gets as much (or little, depending on edition) Fanservice as the other characters, as well as ero scenes in the Updated Re Release called Ecstasy. She also gets her own 18+-rated spin-off of sorts called Kud Wafter.
  • Charlotte in Trials of Mana has the least revealing outfits out of the three female protagonists. Compared to Angela's Stripperific outfits that are little more than leotards with half-skirts and Riesz's short dress or Fur Bikini, Charlotte usually wears attire that covers her whole body and exposes nothing but her hands, feet, and head. This fits her innocent and childlike personality.
  • Melia in Xenoblade Chronicles 1's outfit selections are this compared to the mildly revealing Fiora and the Stripperific Sharla. Her swimsuit is also a stylized one-piece compared to the other girls' bikinis.
  • Lin in Xenoblade Chronicles X's non-Japanese versions. All of the games' Chainmail Bikinis are much more modest on her. Undoubtedly due to her age, clocking in at 13 years old.
  • In Lost Eden, Eve, leader of the Tammnians, is the only female in the entire game who doesn't wear a Stripperiffic outfit.
  • Flan Nougatt from Banzai Pecan is the only female character who doesn't work anything fanservicey at all.
  • In Fire Emblem, the Dancer class often have the skimpiest outfits out of any other class with the women (and Seadall) frequently dressing like belly dancers. The only exceptions to this rule are Ninian in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Azura in Fire Emblem Fates, who dress like medieval noblewomen.
  • Spartan-458 aka Nicole from Dead or Alive 4. In a franchise known for female characters whose outfits tend to show off their very curvaceous figures, Nicole bucks the trend by wearing full-body Powered Armor with her real name and voice as the only evidence of her being female. In Dead or Alive 5 and Dead or Alive 6 this role is filled by Mila whose most revealing costume is a sports bra that doesn't go much further than baring her midriff, and even then it makes sense that she wears it, being an MMA practitioner. Her alternate costume consists of jeans, t-shirt, and a plaid shirt. That said, she can still be outfitted with the DLC bikini costumes like the other female characters.
  • Haru Okumura from Persona 5 fills this role in both the original and Royal versions of the game. Her Phantom Thief attire is the only one among the female Thieves that isn't either form-fitting or shows skin, and each of her alternate costumes bar her Shadow Operatives outfit follow this pattern, including her swimsuit.
  • HuniePop is a porn game, so of course every visible character gets shown in a sexual context eventually. However, each of the two main games includes a character who is clearly designed to represent a more modest and innocent personality (until the player levels up in their Match 3 skills, anyway) in contrast to the rest of the cast, who tend to be much more forward. The first game has Beli, whose first scene has her hesitant to buy a very skimpy bikini that her very experienced friend Jesse is encouraging her to buy, and who often admits to feeling insecure about her body. The sequel has Lailani, whose nervousness over sex extends to even her Baggage, which can allow her to refuse overly-sexual date gifts out of embarrassment, or become upset at any matched Sexuality tokens directed at her during the first half of the game.
  • Among the three female playable characters in Dragon's Crown, you have the Ms. Fanservice duo of the Amazon, an Amazonian Beauty in a Chainmail Bikini with massive thighs, and the Sorceress, who boasts a huge bust complete with Jiggle Physics. Then there's the Elf, who wears much more sensible clothing, has a small chest, and generally lacks any exaggerated sexy traits, making her stand out among the two other ladies.

    Webcomics 
  • The cast page for Something*Positive explicitly comments that Vanessa is the "only innocent" character (or at least adult) left in the comic. Played with in that she is still a bisexual Covert Pervert, but somewhat less crude about it than other characters. Also, while she is the most innocent character in S*P, that still makes her enough of a Deadpan Snarker to rival the snarkiest characters of less cynical comics.
  • Among a cast of sexy ladies who usually aren't shy about showing off, Morgan from Nerf NOW!! tends to wear the most conservative clothing, is the least likely to dress in anything sexy, and be the most likely to disdain any fanservice. This hasn't stopped her from showing off, but it's much more rare than with the other girls and is usually because she was coerced, or unaware. This came to a head with a reader's poll to determine if the fans wanted to see Morgan in a conservative cosplay outfit or Anne-Marie in a sexy cosplay outfit. (Morgan won.) In the only known occasion where Morgan averts this, she only goes nude to defy the Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females trope, in a strip where everyone is drawn as Sonic-style Funny Animals.
  • Kirsty is arguably the most wholesome character in Ennui GO!, even more so than resident nice girls Tanya, Sarah, and Bella because even they indulge in the same sexy, drug-fueled antics as the rest of the cast. To wit, she's strictly monogamous, completely straight, refuses to have sex before marriage, doesn't swear, and leads an active, healthy, presumably drug-free and alcohol-free lifestyle. However, after her wedding, it's revealed that she carries Izzy and Adelie's constant horniness when she wishes to have sex with her husband Lucian... in the middle of their reception.
    Lucian: So when you said you wanted to wait until after we're married, you meant RIGHT after.
    Kirsty: Well... *popping off the top of her wedding dress, showing her breasts and giving a lecherous smile* I AM still Izzy's clone after all.

    Web Original 
  • Exploited in Pantheocide where the infiltrator at DiMO(N) is spotted by her overly conservative clothing.
  • The Onion's mini-series Sex House parodies this trope with Erin, a recently graduated high school virgin whose wildest party experience was a church dance. She is the only character of the promiscuous bunch to actually have sex aside from Frank, her partner and a middle-aged married man.
  • Tokino Sora of hololive is generally considered to be the one traditionally pure person in the whole group. This is even counting in the time she said "motherfucker" during her time as a guest in Coco's meme review, as she didn't understand what it meant and only parroted Coco. Other people were once thought to be this, such as AZKi and A-chan, until they showed that they were Not So Above It All, with the latter in particular sharing to Kiara in HoloTalk that she was confused when non-Japanese fans labelled her seiso.
  • Shu Yamino is one for Luxiem. While his fellow Luxiem members never shy away from making crude or risque jokes and playing up their sex appeal, Shu actively censors profanity and keeps his streams family-friendly. One of the very few times that he has sworn led Mysta, who has one of the dirtiest senses of humor in the branch, to have a Heroic BSoD.

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