History Main / WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld

* Subverted by ''Manga/DeathNote''. Or possibly played straight. It depends on your moral stance on Light's actions; he definitely believes he's playing it straight as he interweaves his increasingly meaningless social life with his genocide, doing math homework with his right hand while killing people and eating potato chips with his left hand.

** Maybe played straight -- all depending on your [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation interpretation of certain characters]]. There's Lelouch, who seems to [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters fight for freedom]] but also has more selfish motives (revenge for his mother's death, serious daddy issues), Kallen, who actually does believe she's saving the world (okay, Japan), and Suzaku, who's trying to end war and [[StepfordSmiler keep from going insane]]. In R2, Gino wants to save the world and [[BunnyEarsLawyer have fun in the process]], Anya -- [[EmotionlessGirl well, nobody's really sure what Anya wants]].

* Take Violet Parr of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', who fails to have a normal school life, having to deal with being a superheroine in hiding and her crush Tony Rydinger. However, she is totally in her element when donning her superhero persona.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' made some use of this, but ended up [[{{deconstruction}} deconstructing]] it, as the characters soon find that fighting a guerrilla war against an alien conspiracy/invasion is physically and emotionally taxing, and their grades start to suffer. They lose all their friends not in the know and stay in school just to keep up the pretense. Next to the enslavement of humanity, school seems kind of meaningless.

** Near the end of the series the war has escalated significantly, pressuring the kids to devote their entire lives to fighting. Jake notes that none of them get to school consistently anymore, to the point where Jake can't even recall what they're studying in class. They go on missions pretty much full-time, almost every day, and they rarely get more than a couple hours of sleep either.

* ''VideoGame/MarvelsSpiderMan2'' begins with a deconstruction of a ''teacher'' variant. Miles excuses himself to the bathroom so he can be Spider-Man and fight Sandman. However, his fellow Spider-Man Peter is also his physics teacher who ''can't'' excuse himself to be Spider-Man as easily. It takes Miles to make up an excuse to bring Peter along, and ultimately, Peter gets fired for "abandoning" his students during an emergency.

* ''Anime/PersiaTheMagicalFairy'': Persia Hayami follows this formula to the T, but being the WildChild she is, being in school and battle isn't that different for her. In school she's one of the best atheletes, and as a fairy she's even more powerful and kick-assy.

** ''Anime/PersiaTheMagicalFairy'': Persia Hayami follows this formula to the T, but being the WildChild she is, being in school and battle isn't that different for her. In school she's one of the best atheletes, and as a fairy she's even more powerful and kick-assy.

* ''Manga/SupermanVsMeshi'', it's more more like "Clark wakes up, works at the Daily Bugle, saves the world and then eats at a Japanese restauarant". The stressful life of a superhero is mentioned here, and Superman takes his fellow Justice League members out to relax.

* While the original ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' mostly avoided the high-school setting, its successors lean more into that trope: In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries'', Peter has trouble with juggling his high-school life and trying to make things work with his FirstLove Gwen Stacey and fighting the Lizard, a monstrous villain. A fight between them takes even part at Peter's high school. In the sequel, however, he and Gwen graduate from high school in the beginning. The ''Film/SpiderManHomecomingTrilogy'' set in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse dives even deeper into the theme, portraying Peter constantly as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent who has to face the common problems of a teenager as well as supervillains in his SecretIdentity as Spider-Man.

** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' bases both its storyline and gameplay around this concept, requiring you to balance fighting demons with [[DatingSim day-to-day activities]] to succeed. It also subverts it, to an extent -- the characters frequently admit that they find fighting Shadows much more difficult than dealing with school. Played straight in the metagame - while the actual fighting can be quite tough, as is standard for ''SMT'' games, nothing compares to the difficulty of [[GuideDangIt trying to max out all Social Links]] (as in, you can make like three mistakes at most, across '''an entire year''').\\

** As the finalyear involves [[spoiler:the school being run by Death Eaters]] and the student resistance, the multiple requirements for Aurors for that year are replaced by "participated in the battle of Hogwarts and survived".

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' made some use of this, but ended up deconstructing it, as the characters soon find that fighting a guerrilla war against an alien conspiracy/invasion is physically and emotionally taxing, and their grades start to suffer. They lose all their friends not in the know and stay in school just to keep up the pretense. Next to the enslavement of humanity, school seems kind of meaningless.

* ''Series/BigWolfOnCampus'' is a more light-hearted take on this - the main character is a werewolf in high school who deals with a parade of AffectionateParody-style monsters.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1963'' may well have ''[[UrExample invented]]'' this trope, and Peter Parker's constant struggles to keep his life on track while fighting crime shows up in almost every other incarnation and adaptation of the series. In fact, Creator/StanLee and Creator/SteveDitko created Spider-Man around this very premise. They wanted a young superhero who, unlike the then-popular "sidekick" depiction of such a character, had to simultaneously deal with the social and emotional pressures of becoming an adult... and the parade of crazy costumed baddies.

** Peter Parker's [[AffirmativeActionLegacy successor as Spider-Man]] ComicBook/MilesMorales likely falls into this trope, both in the [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]] and the mainstream continuity.

* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou was already doing poorly in school before he got dragged into conflicts of the Science and Magic Sides. Once he starts saving the city or world on a regular basis, his grades and attendance really suffer.

* In ''[[Fanfic/UltimateSpiderWoman Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light]]'', MarvelComics/MaryJaneWatson constantly struggles with trying to make ends meet, keep up her grades as a college student, have a social life and take care of her BrokenBird mother all while having to deal with a massive RoguesGallery of supervillains who all want her dead. The series explores what being a TripleShifter can do to a person, especially when they're also BornUnlucky and suffer from severe SamaritanSyndrome. Mary Jane is constantly stressed out and is incredibly hard on herself, to the point where it takes a serious toll on her mental health.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' may well have ''[[UrExample invented]]'' this trope, and Peter Parker's constant struggles to keep his life on track while fighting crime shows up in almost every other incarnation and adaptation of the series. In fact, Creator/StanLee and Creator/SteveDitko created Spider-Man around this very premise. They wanted a young superhero who, unlike the then-popular "sidekick" depiction of such a character, had to simultaneously deal with the social and emotional pressures of becoming an adult... and the parade of crazy costumed baddies.

* Marvel has tried to recapture this a couple of times with [[ComicBook/NewWarriors Speedball]] and ComicBook/{{Darkhawk}}.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' may well have ''[[UrExample invented]]'' this trope, and Peter's constant struggles to keep his life on track while fighting crime shows up in almost every other incarnation of the series. In fact, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man around this very premise. They wanted a young superhero who, unlike the then-popular "sidekick" depiction of such a character, had to simultaneously deal with the social and emotional pressures of becoming an adult... and the parade of crazy costumed baddies.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': The Amazing Spider-Man'' may well have ''[[UrExample invented]]'' this trope, and Peter's constant struggles to keep his life on track while fighting crime shows up in almost every other incarnation of the series. In fact, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man around this very premise. They wanted a young superhero who, unlike the then-popular "sidekick" depiction of such a character, had to simultaneously deal with the social and emotional pressures of becoming an adult... and the parade of crazy costumed baddies.

** Peter Parker's [[AffirmativeActionLegacy successor as Spider-Man]] Miles Morales likely falls into this trope, both in the [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]] and [[ComicBook/MilesMoralesSpiderMan the mainstream continuity]].

* Marvel has tried to recapture this a couple of times with [[Characters/NewWarriors Speedball]] and ComicBook/{{Darkhawk}}.

* ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' may well have ''[[UrExample invented]]'' this trope, and Peter's constant struggles to keep his life on track while fighting crime shows up in almost every other incarnation of the series. In fact, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man around this very premise. They wanted a young superhero who, unlike the then-popular "sidekick" depiction of such a character, had to simultaneously deal with the social and emotional pressures of becoming an adult... and the parade of crazy costumed baddies.
** While Peter in later comics would become adult in the main continuity, many adaptations would further lean into Peter struggling between being a high-schooler and a superhero. In comic books, the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' would be best-known for showing the concept in the light of the 21st century.

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'' explored what it would be like to be working as a hero by night and weekend while trying to maintain a social life, your grades and hiding your nightly activities from your father in Gotham, to the point that often "Robin"'s issues would take a backseat to Tim's. This element was dropped in the last few issues as Tim had to drop out and focus on heroics as Gotham started to descend into chaos after Bruce's death.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'' pre-Crisis was this, as Clark attended Smallville High along with being a superhero. It stays this way once he goes to Metropolis University (and changes his name to Franchise/{{Superman}}), and shifts to "Wake Up, Go to Work, Save the World" once he graduates college and starts working at the ''Daily Planet.'' In ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'' he thinks he is an outcast and cannot have normal relationships.

* In ''Fanfic/KaraOfRokyn'', both [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal]] and [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] are pretty lousy at personal relationships. Battling beings who can literally punch worlds out of existence? Been done. Handling interpersonal relationships? Can't be done. Superman believes maybe he'd not be so bad at understanding women if the two of them had grown up together.

* Miles Morales in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'' and ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'' is a typical OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent-protagonist who like in the comics gets spider-powers and is than included in multiversal shenenigans. The sequel opens with showing how much trouble Miles has balancing his life as a student at an elite school and his "job" as the crime-fighter Spider-Man.

* While the original ''Film/SpiderMan''-trilogy mostly avoided the high-school setting, it's successors lean more into that trope: In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Peter has trouble with juggling his high-school life and trying to make things work with his FirstLove Gwen Stacey and fighting the Lizard, a monstrous villain. A fight between them takes even part at Peter's high-school. In [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 the sequel]] however, he and Gwen graduate from high-school in the beginning. The ''Film/SpiderManHomecomingTrilogy'' set in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse dives even deeper in the theme, portraying Peter constantly as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent who has to face the common problems of a teenager as well as supervillains in his SecretIdentity as Spider-Man.

-->'''School administrator''': Look, I don't care if you girls are mutants or ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}s or [[Franchise/WonderWoman Wonder Women]] or what, you do not get out of having your parents called when you bring God only knows what kind of {{mon}}sters to school with you. Not to mention skipping out of class.

* While the original ''Film/SpiderMan''-trilogy mostly avoided the high-school setting, it's successors lean more into that trope: In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Peter has trouble with juggling his high-school life and trying to make things work with his FirstLove Gwen Stacey and fighting the Lizard, a monstrous villain. A fight between them takes even part at Peter's high-school. In [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 the sequel]] however, he and Gwen graduate from high-school in the beginning. The ''Film/SpiderManHomecomingTrilogy'' set in the MarvelCinematicUniverse dives even deeper in the theme, portraying Peter constantly as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent who has to face the common problems of a teenager as well as supervillains in his SecretIdentity as Spider-Man.