Follow TV Tropes

Following

Uke

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Minitokyo_Male_Scans_Okane_ga_Nai_3_9285.jpg

"Suddenly the ukulele is hot again. But please don't play 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips.'"
Mark Frauenfelder, "My Sweet Embraceable Uke" (June 2001)

A character associated with the Boys' Love Genre, the Uke (or "Neko" in Girls' Love works) makes up the "receiving" half of a relationship (whereas in real life, sex roles are generally not as rigid as that portrayed in Yaoi and are also not "assigned" according to perceived masculinity). Typically the polar opposite of the Seme, the Uke is sometimes more feminine than his counterpart; just how much "more feminine" this can be varies, from simply looking more childish or "beautiful," or being more emotional and/or blushy or just less overtly macho than his partner, to, on the other end of the spectrum, having outright crossdressing habits. Almost always, the Seme is One Head Taller than the Uke (or at least a few inches). So prevalent is this custom that a well-known (and oft-derided) process in Slash Fic is Ukefication, or feminizing one half of a slash pairing to fit this character type regardless of canon characterization. A major draw of the Boys' Love is that you get two hot guys for the price of one, so in the more explicit titles expect to see lots of his cute little bod.

His personality can vary from:

And in Bara:

See Boys' Love Notes for a list of standard seme and uke types.

There is a trend of making the Uke more outwardly emotional than the Seme; even an angsty Uke will be more vocal in his angst than an angsty Seme who will just hide it all behind a stoic mask, and emotionless Ukes are relatively uncommon. This is due in large part to the fact that Seme/Uke relationships customarily exhibit a frequently flustered Uke — something much more difficult to pull off if the Uke is the stoic type.

Additionally, the Uke is almost always the more inexperienced one of the pair, if not an outright virgin, to fit with his traditional role as the "receiver" and is often Oblivious to Love, requiring the more experienced Seme to make the first move. However, more sexually experienced ukes are a growing alternative.

Shōnen fandom has popularized another type where the All-Loving Hero or Stock Shōnen Hero functions as the uke, at least physically, where his sheer niceness and adorableness wins over other characters.

Another take on the character, often more common in Bara Genre or fusions between yaoi and bara, is the Ojou uke — a princess-styled male/prince/royalty/other character of wealth and power outside of the bedroom that is the sexually submissive partner in it and who is often known for the "topping from the bottom" and diva approach.

A Lipstick Lesbian, in the [1], who is openly attracted to someone can also take this role. The irony is, a female character who acts or looks openly masculine is actually more likely to be the uke, since this is usually equated with tomboys and immaturity.

Any main character in any anime, movie, TV series, book, or the like can easily be transformed into a helplessly depressed uke by killing off everyone they know and love or putting them through puberty.

For all you baseball fans out there: he's the catcher.

Uke and Seme are more or less the modern version of the historical trope, Lover and Beloved. Related to Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple. Western equivalent is The Twink, although while the twink is more effeminate, he is not necessarily either younger or less experienced. Indeed, the twink will often be the more experienced (at least with men) of the two: sometimes in more cynical works because he was forced out of the closet at an early age due to his effeminate mannerisms/dress sense.

He may also be Keet or In Touch with His Feminine Side.

Has nothing to do with a slang term for the ukulele (a Hawaiian guitar-like string instrument) or with a slang term for people of Ukrainian descent.

Note that this usage of the word originated in the Boys' Love Genre fandom; among "regular" Japanese people it just means "defend." It is also a term used in the Japanese martial arts (especially those based on holds and throws such as judo and aikido) to indicate the person doing ukemi — allowing themselves to be thrown/held by the tori or nage (the partner doing the throwing) and doing so safely. Japanese gay men won't necessarily know the BL meaning of the term (remember, BL is primarily intended for straight women; actual gay people often avoid this literature because they know it is fetishizing them). Even the Boys' Love Genre itself has evolved and diversified enough with time that even many BL fans these days will simply use "uke" to indicate who is the receptive partner, with little implication regarding their personalities or physical builds (which may diverge heavily from the norms described here). Non-otaku English speakers won't know what it means at all, unless they do judo. English-speaking gay men occasionally find the use of the term as a blanket replacement for the more general "bottom" out of the context of the BL genre obnoxious, feeling that their native language has got that concept covered already.

Just list examples of characters who, if they are ukes in the original work; if the original character is strong, and/or if the original work isn't yaoi, it should go to Ukefication instead.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Nabari no Ou:
    • Miharu is a good example, being a short, rail thin, stoic young boy surrounded by a bunch of tall slender Bishōnen. It's not a Boy's Love series, but it comes pretty damn close.
    • Gau is also a good example, being feisty, temperamental, and sometimes angsty.
    • Nabari no Ou is an interesting example in that Miharu and his not-quite-love-interest Yoite both have a lot of common uke traits. Miharu has the aforementioned physical qualities plus being withdrawn with a lot of angst; Yoite is similarly delicate, withdrawn, and troubled. Yoite generally gets labelled as the seme because he's older than Miharu, a bit taller, and more violent, but on his own he's a textbook uke (and if their relationship were ever to move into sexual territory, Miharu would almost certainly be the initiator).
  • Ryo in FAKE is a borderline case; he's considerably less experienced and more sensitive than his boisterous partner (and Seme) Dee, but he's also much more reserved and prone to keeping his feelings bottled up, and he's not appreciably smaller, prettier, or more feminine than the rest of the main cast.
  • Shuichi Shindou of Gravitation is often presented as the de facto example of an uke. Since his love interest Yuki is a cold fish, he does diverge from the trope a bit in having to be the more aggressive and persistent partner, though Yuki still makes the first sexual moves.
  • Lampshaded in Lucky Star during a dodgeball game where Hiyori said that she is the "uke", Japanese term for a defender when practicing martial arts, in an unintentional Double Entendre and Freudian Slip. She should have said mamori, the correct term in context.
  • In Genshiken, Ogiue writes and draws yaoi doujinshi about her fellow club members, casting Madarame as the passive uke and Sasahara as the aggressive seme. Though she is mortified when Sasahara finds out, he accepts it as a work of art, not a projection on him. He also mentions he got....a man reaction...
  • In The Tyrant Falls in Love, the uke Souichi is a walking bucket of homophobic rage who doesn't hesitate to punch Morinaga at the slightest provocation.
  • In Clamp's classic Tokyo Babylon, there is Subaru Sumeragi. Where to begin? At sixteen, he's androgynous with big green eyes and raven black hair that frames his face. Emotionally, he's shy, serious, and soft-spoken. While he is a very powerful onmyouji, he is also altruistic and deeply kind. He also loves animals.
    • Later on in X1999, Subaru is twenty-five and painfully depressed thanks to Seishirou. While he is more stoic, he still retains his core personality. Not to mention he's as beautiful as ever.
    • Not forgetting the main character of X1999 Kamui, who is super pretty, short, and emotionally wrecked. Even CLAMP refers to the boys as "sisters" due to how similar they are. And in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, their alternate universe versions are twins - being chased, of course, by alternate-universe Seishirou.
  • In Code Geass, Schneizel has Kanon, his assistant, "public and private". They fit very well into seme/uke types, in contrast to the more equal relationship between the series' two leads.
  • Lampshaded in Strawberry Marshmallow, where Ana and Miu are yelling childish insults at each other and Miu yells "UKE!" The rest of the episode has the characters (sans Miu) asking Nobue what the word means, with obviously little success..
  • The definition of "angsty uke" above nicely fits Takaya/Kagetora from Mirage of Blaze. Particularly in the the first OVA.
  • Ayase from Okane ga Nai to a massive extent. He's practically the embodiment of the uke stereotype.
  • Just plain ignored in Kyo Kara Maoh!, as the main character is still literally the only heterosexual in the world, and no relationship has even gotten to the 'holding hands' stage. Though what passes for an Official Couple has lost support from a surprising number of fans because "they're both ukes”. It really doesn't help that the main character is a catcher on a sandlot baseball team.
  • Sengoku Basara:
    • When it comes to Sengoku Basara, Sanada Yukimura is pretty much the designated Uke (albeit usually a very Hot-Blooded one). We can't exactly blame the fangirls though; not only is he archaically polite, naive, and eager-to-please (not to mention a total Bishounen), he's also usually paired up with the pinnacle of GAR that is Date Masamune.
    • The manga adaptation, when Keiji tells Yukimura there is more to life than war, most notably love. Yukimura turns into a shaky, blushing mess and insists that he would never be caught in such "lewd" behavior, and has no need for love.
    • Mitsunari and Motonari are also often portrayed as this. Helps that those two are even more girlier in terms of physical appearance than Yukimura, albeit different in terms of personality. Mitsunari is often perceived as a very violent Tsundere type A in the fandom, and Tsundere is often perceived as an uke characteristic. In short, he is a mix of type 3 and 4. Self-obsessed is also one of Motonari's defining trait, and often combined with the trope Vanity Is Feminine in the eyes of fangirls, resulting him to be viewed as type 5 in the eyes of Yaoi Fangirl(s). Also, with his many Kick the Dog moments, not to mention he have heels in his boots, makes him often depicted as a Dominatrix uke in the fandom. Not power bottom uke, dominatrix uke.
  • Both Sunao/Ran and Nanami in Sukisho. Nanami is a bit of an unusual example, in that he's a Wholesome Crossdresser.
  • In Venus Versus Virus, though it tends to move around, Lucia is the seme, and Sumire the uke. It may be an inversion. Sumire appears to be an archetypal Yuri Genre uke (always blushing, younger, cute, admires her seme, etc) but she actually seems to be closer to being the seme.
  • Played for laughs in the comedy Boys' Love series Neko Samurai ("neko", or "cat", is another word for "uke"). Yamato is a wandering samurai and 30-year-old virgin who longs to find a man to be Seme to him, and constantly offers to pay for things with his body (nobody's interested), or offer himself up to be ravished by whoever can beat him in a swordfight (nobody can, and if he tries to throw the fight, they just get annoyed). The one time he comes close, with a bandit leader who just about matches him in fighting skill, it turns out that the other guy is also an uke...
  • Played for laughs in Ouran High School Host Club (of course) with the twins. Hikaru even goes so far as to ask why "Kaoru was cast as the 'pitcher'." In the original Japanese, they actually use "seme" and "uke".
  • Despite giving the impression of being a Seme, Setsuna in Negima! Magister Negi Magi is one of these. Setsuna is a trained swordswoman who acts as the bodyguard to her childhood friend and crush Konoka, Setsuna's more serious and reserved attitude sharply contrast the cheerful and bubbly Konoka and Setsuna is also one of the tougher Action Girls in the series while Konoka is the resident White Magic user. However, when it comes to their romantic relationship, Setsuna is very awkward, easily flustered and shy, while Konoka is the extroverted and aggressive one.
  • Junjou Romantica provides three different types of ukes. Misaki is type 2, Hiroki is type 3, and Shinobu a mix of both*.
  • Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, by the same creator of Junjou Romantica, also provides three types of ukes. Onodera being type 4, Chiaki being a mix of 1 and 2 and Kisa also being a mix, 2 and 4.
  • Subverted in Fumi Yoshinaga's What Did You Eat Yesterday?, where Kakei is more than annoyed that straight people think that being the uke during sex has anything to do with who the "girl" in the relationship is.
  • Doesn't actually happen but heavily implied in Neon Genesis Evangelion that if Shinji would return Kaworu's advances, he would end up as the uke.
  • Jonathan in Legend of the Blue Wolves. Refreshingly, he's as solidly built as his seme and only slightly shorter.
  • "Don't Worry Mama" averts this all over the place. Imakura, the uke in the relationship, is not only Yuichi's boss — he's phimotic and severely overweight. At least at first.
  • Yumi is the uke to Sachiko's (and Sei's) seme in Maria Watches Over Us, though the series typically avoids the archetype and it keeps it on a Hide Your Lesbians case. Yumi helped codify the way an uke should be in a yuri series. She's shorter than both Sachiko and Sei, wears Girlish Pigtails, and is prone to bouts of awkwardness.
  • Ginji of Get Backers is this when paired with Ban.
  • If there were such thing as a heterosexual uke, Momo from You're My Pet would be a perfect example. A cheerful, kind, innocent professional dancer who agrees to become the literal pet of a driven and successful (but emotionally closeted) journalist? Who happens to be both significantly shorter and younger than his love interest, and who depends on said love interest for his daily needs (such as food and shelter)? The only thing stopping this from being a stereotypical Boys' Love romance is that the Seme figure is a woman.
  • You can also make a case for Kouta from Kanokon He's an innocent, friendly country-boy who finds himself thrown into enough sexual situations by his girlfriend Chizuru to have him labeled as the Great Erotic King. Note that Chizuru is taller, older, and far more aggressive in her pursuit of Kouta. Most of these pursuits, however, are played for laughs.
  • Saida Nika’s Raubritter features Neneko Karamaru, a college-aged girl who seeks out cousins Shinobu and Yokana to assist in searching for her missing older sister. Though she’s attracted to both women, she’s unaware as to how attractive the friendly, yet lustful cousins find her. Particularly her innocence, small body, and naivete. That is, until she finds herself in a threesome in the bath with them (Which is implied to have happened more than once) … and later on forms an Official Couple with Yokana.
  • Zoisite in the 90s anime of Sailor Moon is an interesting case in that his actual personality is anything but submissive, but around his older lover Kunzite he becomes totally smitten and demure, even going so far as to call him "-sama" at all times in the Japanese version.
  • Yuureitou has Taichi playing this to Tetsuo. Unlucky Everydude Taichi is commonly a Distressed Dude, can be rather awkward, is Hollywood Homely, and has Lovable Coward aspects. Tetsuo, on the other hand, is a confident, mysterious, and Bishōnen Byronic Hero. It becomes even more noticeable when Taichi is Disguised in Drag and he finds himself liking the idea of being Tetsuo's submissive crossdressing lover. At one point, Taichi imagines him and Tetsuo sleeping together and at first sees himself crossdressing and on the top, since Tetsuo was assigned-female-at-birth, however Taichi comes to the conclusion that it wouldn't work like that.
  • The oneshot Watashi To Osananajimi No... has the more sexually submissive Rina be this to Mizuki's seme.
  • In Episode 3 of the Hentai The Boundary between Dream and Reality, Futaba ends up as this to Neika's, her teacher's, Seme; the pairing looks like it's straight out of a stereotypical Boys' Love, only gender-swapped.
  • Subverted with Bloom Into You. Yuu is a young high school girl with Girlish Pigtails and her senpai Touko is her First Love. However, Yuu has a Deadpan Snarker personality far difference from the stereotype.
  • Invoked in Ayakashi Triangle, where Matsuri's mother, of all people, figures her child is more of an uke, and thus advises Reo to be a seme (the English version translates the term as "aggressive" and "passive"). Matsuri really is implied to be sexually submissive to girls, though a lot more action-oriented than the stereotype. Given Matsuri identifies as male but spends most of the story with a female body, one could consider him the neko to Suzu and Reo's tachi, fitting the aforementioned tendency for tomboys to be portrayed as subs.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • The Legend of Korra has Korra, who is often the shorter and tomboyish Uke to the tall and alluring Asami.
  • Any male Elven character from The Lord of the Rings is considered this. No thanks to their slender features and feminine appearance. Legolas gets it worse, especially when paired up with Aragorn.
  • This is usually inverted in Big Windup! fanworks. Mihashi is a literal baseball pitcher and Abe is a catcher. Mihashi is a Nervous Wreck who Apologizes a Lot, is constantly blushing, and has self-confidence issues while Ace is a bossy Perpetual Frowner who is Younger Than They Look. Abe is usually presented as the uke in romantic situations.
  • Pokémon:
    • Despite being a Memetic Badass with a lot of Self-Fanservice, Red is this to Blue in fanworks. His fanon stoic personality is changed to make him seem kuudere. In later fanworks, however, it seems to be the other way around. Not without justification, seeing as in Pokémon Sun and Moon, we see Red and Blue as adults, and Red has become a not-quite-but-almost Hunk while Blue is a Bishōnen.
    • Touya/Hilbert and N Harmonia from Pokémon Black and White are weird examples as they tend to zig-zag this trope when paired together—while N is older, he's also much more naive and innocent (traits that the fandom likes to exaggerate to absurd levels) due to his sheltered upbringing. Hilbert is more worldly, but also younger and smaller. The two of them tend to play one role, the other, both or neither in fanworks as a result.
    • Dawn is this in both her game counterpart and her anime counterpart, as she is a short Girly Girl compared to several of the other girls she's paired with.
    • The shy, pacifist Lillie often becomes this whenever she's paired up with another girl, such as Selene.
    • In the anime-related side, Ash is the go-to uke in gay ships involving him. He's an All-Loving Hero and a keet so most fanworks put him in this situation, especially when paired with Gary or Paul. An exceptions seem to be Cilan and Clemont, despite both being older and much taller than Ash they are often presented as more uke-ish due to their less-masculine nature.
      • When Goh came along with Ash they became a fan favorite ship. Plus, Ash being seme became popular. Goh grew up alone with neglectful parents and no friends, giving him social issues. He can be emotional, depressed, and have abandonment issues. He's also naive due to social issues. All things that make him fragile. Unlike certain ukes, Goh is the sane one most of the time, though it balances out Ash's craziness. Also, unlike ukes Goh is less affectionate and willing to admit he cares. Though, that makes him more of a tsundere uke too. Like ukes he can worry about Ash. He's not very masculine being androgynous and a science geek. Plus, he's usually protected by Ash, his seme. Complete with Goh and Ash being the Sword and Shield, a knight refrence, which knights and warriors are known for having gay subtext in literature.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • Italy is this when paired with pretty much anyone. Japan and Canada are too, as is China.
    • This also tends to happen to his brother, Romano, as fanon tends to make him into a raging Tsundere.
    • There's also Finland being the Uke to Sweden's Seme.
    • America, who is seme often, is usually the uke when he's paired up with Russia, though at the same time, they are one of the more "switchable" couples (though even then, Russia does most of the topping). If America is paired up with Germany, it could go either way - even when they're uke, neither of them are stereotypically "uke"; they just happen to bottom.
    • Austria. Dear god, Austria suffers the most from this *especially* when paired up with Prussia or Spain (both of whom he tops...less than 1% of the time.) Not to mention, it doesn't help than in canon, Austria sews, loves to bake, is by nature "prissy and refined" and would rather play his music than go out and fight wars. The fandom almost always has a field day with this and tends to really play up his "girly" side to outrageous levels (making him shorter, more slender or just going all out and putting him in a tiny maid dress). Even when they don't, he's still uke to everyone - even Hungary, his "ex-wife".
  • Ivan Karelin had already struck many Tiger & Bunny fans as an uke, being a timid Bishōnen that is much shorter and slimmer than his more heroically built compatriots. Then the fourth drama CD came out (read: the one where Keith cheerfully volunteers Ivan and himself to fill in as hosts for a gay club) and said, "Yep, pretty much."
  • Sena of Eyeshield 21 is an uke along with being the fandom's little black dress. Considering he's a dorky, cute little boy who quickly impresses every manly football player he encounters, it's no surprise that he's considered the ultimate uke of the series. So much, that sometimes he's portrayed as an uke even with his somewhat-canon girlfriend Suzuna, who is much more assertive than he is.
  • Kuroko from Kuroko's Basketball is this in most fanworks.
  • Gilbert Nightray from PandoraHearts is often treated this way. Sure, he's taller, and significantly older, but he still bottoms.
  • Allen from D.Gray-Man is the Shōnen fandom Messianic Archetype. Being the shortest male in the main cast doesn't help his case. He's also very scrawny, and has a pretty baby face. Funny thing is how, even when paired with the women in fandom, a lot of cases still have him being the submissive one. Poor Allen doesn't get many chances to wear the pants in relationships.
  • Naruto:
    • Iruka is this in near always any ship involving him, whether it be the stoic Kakashi or even the boisterous Anko.
    • Naruto is usually the uke when paired with Sasuke, though some fans invert the cliche. This often includes Ukefication and exaggerating his keet-ness.
    • Neji's Long-Haired Pretty Boy looks usually turn him into this in yaoi fan-works (and occasionally Neji/Tenten ones too).
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • This is how Sora winds up in fanfic pairing him with Riku.
    • Same deal with Roxas when paired with Axel.
    • Ventus usually gets this bad with Vanitas.
  • South Park:
    • Soft and effeminate Butters is invariably this in any pairing, straight or gay.
    • Stan is often made into a uke due to his sensitivity and his Pretty Boy-looking design. The main exception seems to be with Kyle, who is near always a uke in ships (with his personality often being changed to seem tsundere).
    • Tweek Tweak when paired with Craig Tucker in the fanfictions.
  • An example of a perfect uke is Sawada Tsunayoshi from Reborn! (2004). C'mon, you know he's a bigtime uke when he's paired with 1-year-old Reborn and still bottoms. It doesn't help matters that the girl he has a crush on, who is supposed to be super-effeminate and "beautiful," looks like his identical twin...
  • Disney Animated Canon:
    • Princess Aurora of the Sleeping Beauty fame is often portrayed as this in f/f works.
    • Unusually, Elsa from Frozen is usually portrayed as one of these in femslash works (especially Elsanna ones). It could stem from her somewhat anxious and awkward personality, the stereotypes about people in power, or Anna being more aggressive and boisterous. Though occasionally Anna gets this as well.
  • Edd from Ed, Edd n Eddy is almost automatically this in every pairing (and he has a lot of them), including him and girls. He's the softest boy, besides Jimmy, and has some stereotypically feminine qualities in canon.
  • Kirby has a lot of fans who ship Kirby and Meta Knight (usually with Kirby aged up). Kirby invariably becomes a cute, androgynous keet while Meta Knight is the tall, bishonen seme.
  • Yukito of Cardcaptor Sakura and Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- fame is the uke to Touya Kinomoto in most fan works.
  • Ben 10: Slash fanfictions and fanarts typically have Ben being the Uke while Kevin assume the Seme role. It sure helps that Kevin is taller than Ben and has a typical bad boy attitude, while Ben have become quite of a Bishōnen after becoming a teenager in Alien Force. In canon, the two of them started out as Arch-Enemies, and while they are now best friends, they both have girlfriends now.
  • In slash Danny Phantom fanfics and fanarts, Danny is typically the Uke while either Vlad or Dash are the Seme.
  • K-On!: Mio, whenever she's paired up with Ritsu.
  • Osomatsu-san: The younger trio of the brothers (Ichimatsu, Jyushimatsu, Todomatsu) is more susceptible to be uke compared to the older trio of the sextuplets (Osomatsu, Karamatsu, Choromatsu).
  • Lucky Star: Expect a higher chance that Kagami will be this if she's paired with Konata. Part of this reasoning comes from the Animal Motifs scene in the anime with Konata being a fox, and Kagami being a rabbit, and another part is because Konata is tease while Kagami is tsundere.
  • Steven Universe:
    • The frail, feminine Pearl will typically be the uke to the more tomboyish Garnet or butch Mystery Girl. She's more of a switch if paired with Amethyst, though.
    • Peridot will often become this whenever she's paired up with Amethyst or Jasper. She's more of a switch if paired with Lapis, however.
  • Sound! Euphonium: Kumiko is this to Reina's or Asuka's Seme.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In Bad Education (2004), this is the role Juan plays in most of his relationships. He's submissive and compliant to Enrique in a Casting Couch situation where Juan agrees to sleep with Enrique in exchange for a role in Enrique's film. Juan's relationship with Sr Berenguer is similar, since Berenguer is his Sugar Daddy, but Juan is more of a Tsundere in this case. Although subverted when it's revealed that Juan is manipulating both of them to get what he wants.

    Jokes 

    Literature 
  • Ai no Kusabi: Riki while being a very masculine, feisty, angsty and brooding biker.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In a strange turn of events in Conan, Conan and Andy Richter end up slowdancing (imitating the inauguration dance of the Obamas) while LaBamba sings a song behind them. The lyrics end with They'll probably get married and adopt a baby / Andy's the man and Conan's the lady. Andy pumps his fists while Conan protests, demanding to know why he's the lady, but eventually just throws his hands and says "Alright, I'm the lady."
  • Reid from Criminal Minds. Slight compared to the others, begins as The Ingenue, is pretty much always the Damsel in Distress, pretty... in short, a submissive personality. However, the series pretty strongly implies that he is gray-asexual and he is only shown having romantic relationships with women. Unlike a typical Uke as well, Reid is unquestionably a badass. In addition to being a highly skilled martial artist, and knowing his way around a large variety of weapons from ancient swords to modern firearms, he is extremely good at talking down perpetrators even including a few who have multiple personalities. In large part because of his non-threatening appearance and submissive manner Reid is actually the agent on the team capable of handling the most highly sensitive tasks. Criminals think they can push him around, until they find out the hard way that they can't.
  • Fellow Travelers: Pretty Boy Timothy Laughlin, though still a Straight Gay, is a somewhat shyer, gentler man than his Tall, Dark, and Handsome lover Hawkins Fuller, and nearly always bottoms when they have sex.
  • Another male het example is Niles Crane from Frasier. He was more of an Extreme Doormat Love Martyr towards frigid Maris, but still acts incredibly submissive (but in a far more romantic way) towards Hot-Blooded Daphne, and in one episode it's implied that she often roughs him up during sex, and that he enjoys it.
  • On Grey's Anatomy, Seme Dr. Nico Kim is a tall, athletic, extremely handsome and self-confident orthopedic surgeon who is also a mentor to his Uke boyfriend, the short, boyish and nerdy intern Dr. Levi Schmitt.
  • Ste in Hollyoaks, pretty much. What the pre-watershed show is allowed to show in regards to actual sex usually seems to end up with him being pushed against a wall/onto the nearest available surface. Also doubles as a Love Martyr, given that his two relationships thus far have been with cheating Club Kid Noah and emotionally closeted Fetishized Abuser Brendan.
  • On How I Met Your Mother, it's implied more than once, with more than one girlfriend, that Ted (another rare het example) usually bottoms.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022): Louis de Pointe du Lac is the more submissive, placid, and prettier note  partner in his relationship with Seme Lestat de Lioncourt, and is usually the bottom when they have sex. While Lestat is more masculine-looking with a square jawline and broad shoulders, he's only slightly taller (178 cm / 5'10" vs. 175 cm / 5'9"), but power is denoted in other ways. They're vampires, and Lestat is Louis' maker (the vampire who turned him) who chooses to be his mentor. Since vampires get Stronger with Age, Lestat is much more powerful than Louis. Lestat is a white man in early 1900s New Orleans, while Louis is a black Creole, so when they go on a fancy date to the opera and want to avoid conflict, Louis performs as Lestat's valet.
  • A rare, male het version: Seth Cohen from The O.C. is the uke, his girlfriend Summer is the Seme. This quote even lampshades it:
    Summer: I wanna be on top this time.
    Seth: But you're always on top...
  • Tobias Beecher of Oz when he's with Chris Keller.

    Video Games 
  • Due to the dynamics between Lamia Loveless finding a Cool Big Sis in Excellen Browning, The Tease who just happens to be a Ms. Fanservice, fanon for Super Robot Wars runs with the notion that in any Excellen/Lamia pairing, Lamia ends up the uke, due to the case that Excellen will do anyone, placing her as the seme.
  • Raiden-Expy Major Raikov in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater can't be anything else than this to his lover Volgin. His patronymic, Raidenovitch, is even a Japanese pun meaning "thunderbolt's bitch", with thunderbolt referring to Volgin.
  • Joshua from The World Ends with You. Though, Joshua is more of a subversion. He may be effeminate, sure, but he is also manipulative and very emotionally closed off.
  • Persona 3 Protagonist Minato Arisato. He's noticeably quite uke-ish in terms of appearance with petite body and androgynous face. Try to line him up with the majority of males in his game, he will look very uke-ish. Even grown-up Ken will be more seme-ish than him. Try to line him up with the other protagonists of Persona games, and ironically he is trapped between Tatsuya and Yu, making him even more uke-ish. His uke-ness is clearest in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, where you can say you will protect him as Yu and he will blush. Even when playing as him and going to the chapel with Shinjiro he will still blush anyway.
  • Lucius of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Soren from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance are both magic users with effeminate appearances (the latter less so) and attachments to big muscly mercenary men.
  • Fenris of Dragon Age II is implied to be this. His looks and tragic backstory are common reasons for people seeing him as such. But it gets reinforced with him telling Hawke "I am yours", how he tends to look at him with "sad puppy eyes", Uncle Gamlen commenting how he doesn't even need to guess which one of them is "the girl" in the relationship, and a Snarky!Hawke having the option to tell him how "it can be a lot to take in" after they had their first time.
  • The Bartender from Strange Flesh is usually a seme through and through, easily dominating and corrupting many Joes all throughout the latter's brain. When drunk, however, he prefers to bottom instead.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Marik is very much the oblivious uke to Bakura's frustrated Seme. This is especially obvious in the spin-off fanfic Marik & Bakura Go to Censored Town, which deliberately panders to yaoi fangirls (for charity, of course). Subverted in the end when Marik seduces Bakura, not the other way around. Another fic that he wrote for charity again shows that Marik tops - it seems like Bakura is instead an Aggressive Submissive and actively enjoys being the bottom.
  • The Nostalgia Critic eventually became the uke to every other Channel Awesome producer (male and female) except the much younger Kinley and Film Brain.
  • This whole site exists to classify the reader as one of ten varied uke or seme types, complete with compatibility guides.

    Western Animation 
  • Parodied in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien episode "Duped", where Ben Tennyson use his Echo Echo powers to duplicate himself in three in an attempt to be in three places at the same time, so he can fight the Forever Knights with Kevin, attend Julie's tennis match and watch the new Sumo Slammers movie. He ends up divided into three Bens with different personalities: one who is sweet and sensitive, one with a bad boy attitude and one who is seemingly normal. The sensitive one ends up going with Kevin, and, while they are waiting for the knights to show up, start delivering a speech about how close they have become, in a typical yaoi way. Kevin is not amused at all:
    Kevin: BEN! You have always been kind of girly, but now, YOU'RE REALLY CREEPING ME OUT!
  • In Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", Stimpy is explicitly stated by Ren to be this, while Ren states himself to be Seme (Well, he doesn't exactly say that, he says "I'm the pitcher, you're the catcher").

Top