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Menacing, I know.
Adonis is one of the main characters this thing circles around, but he does have one distressing feature. SILVER HAIR. This means nothing good can come of him. YOU KNOW THE RULE ABOUT SILVER HAIR.
If he's lucky, he's an Anti Hero. He's much more likely to be the Lovable Traitor, a Trickster, or The Rival. But usually he's just a villain, sooner or later.
Despite the wide range and use of Hair Colors for characters, there's an eerie specificity to the use of white (silver works too, but not blonde) hair when coupled with a handsome, vaguely effeminate character. The (usually long and rarely tied back) white hair is very frequently coupled with red eyes. This character will never be as morally set in his ways.
Within Anime, this may have a cultural explanation. White skin is considered attractive in nobility and women, but glaring white is otherwise commonly associated with death.
For some reason this trope applies much more strongly in shows with predominantly male audiences than to something like shojo, where the character will still tend to be aloof, shy, or outright eerie.
White haired guys with dark skin (such as Turn A Gundam's Loran) are typically exempt, because it's often used as a simple contrasting color like blonde or red hair. Occasionally, perhaps to preserve the white=death rule, foreigners are exempt from this too.
Commonly prone to Minor Injury Overreaction. Compare with Blond Guys Are Evil and Evil Albino, which are more western alternatives of this trope. Compare and contrast with the Distaff Counterpart, the White Haired Pretty Girl, who is less likely to be evil and more likely to be magical.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Luke Valentine from Hellsing.
- Possible ur-example: Rei from Fist of the North Star. He actually was mistaken for a woman in his introduction, but he doesn't get the requisite white hair until he's dying from Raoh's attack.
- Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion embodies most of shounen's "creepy guy" traits: an existentialist half-angel albino who whistles classical music and is probably gay.
- Vicious from Cowboy Bebop (kind of a Nietzsche Wannabe and lives up to his name).
- Yukishiro Enishi from Rurouni Kenshin, the title character's last and arguably most dangerous enemy. (In the manga. His role in the anime amounts to little more than a cameo.) His hair was originally black, though — it turned white when he was a boy, from the shock of seeing his sister killed.
- Muraki in Yami No Matsuei (sadist).
- Dilandau in Vision of Escaflowne (totally nuts, though for good reason).
- Sasame in Pretear. In the manga, he's blond and a supportive (if flirty) older-brother type. In the anime, he's silver-haired and betrays his friends for the Princess of Disaster, gets an Evil Costume Switch and tries to kill Hayate.
- Nagi from Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome. His creepy speech and mannerisms (and even creepier appearance in the Mai-HiME manga) should be a dead giveaway that he's not here to shower you with compliments.
- Kunzite from Sailor Moon. In fact, the dub actually has the Sailor Senshi calling him "pretty boy".
- The live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series gave Zoisite white hair. Though, while he is still one of the four generals of the Dark Kingdom, he is also the one to remember his past life and his loyality to Endymion, and the past tragedy; he even goes so far as to briefly team up with Minako to try and keep Usagi and Mamoru separated.
- Sailor Moon also has Prince Diamond and Professor Tomoe, as well as a slew of good guys with white hair. Takeuchi has a thing for white-haired boys.
- Bakura Ryou from Yu-Gi-Oh! has this hair. Though he is a shy, soft-spoken character, he has a Superpowered Evil Side that is the series' longest-running antagonist (despite frequently being Demoted To Extra throughout the series).
- Youko Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho is a legendary demon bandit, and was pretty nasty until recently, and even hired a hit man to kill his own thieving partner.
- Sesshoumaru from Inu Yasha. His brother is a subversion, being the titular hero of the story, although it's interesting to note that when he is in his human form, his default hair color is black.
- Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist was a major antagonist for much of the series, even though he had dark skin (the dark skin was actually a pretty major plot point, really.) In the manga, he looks much more muscular, having been trained as a Warrior Priest.
- Creed Diskenth from Black Cat. Creed is not only white-haired but insane, bloodthirsty and wants to conquer the world; dude even compares himself to Lucifer. He also has a really creepy yaoi crush on Train.
- Leonard Testarossa from Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. His younger sister, Tessa, also has white hair, but she's one of the heroes.
- Ironic, as well, that two "Testarossa"s would be white-haired, as "testa rosa" literally means "red head".
- Ralph of Soukou No Strain actually seems to get a bleach job specifically for the purpose of being evil. In flashbacks to when he was sane, his hair was blond, shorter and more professional-looking.
- Dii from Utawarerumono.
- Gundam SEED had Yzak Joule, part of Athrun Zala's squad of mobile suit pilots, who quite literally was a white haired pretty boy. He also suffered from Minor Injury Overreaction (though given it was the result of shrapnel from his cockpit punching through his helmet and he repeatedly cries out that it burns when it happens, perhaps not so minor at the time), which branched into The Only One Allowed To Defeat You, though it's subverted in that he's humiliated every time he tries and eventually his target is defeated by Athrun instead.
- In Origin Spirits of the Past, Shunack, the main villain, fits this trope. Strangely, the main hero also has stark white hair, both from the same source.
- In Chrono Crusade, Aion is not only a white haired pretty boy, but also the Big Bad in that particular series. His hair is also dramatically long — always good for villains.
- Il Palazzo from Excel Saga is the leader of ACROSS, an organization dedicated to conquering the world. He's also a Visual Kei-wannabe.
- His hair is purple in the anime, and vaguely greenish in the manga...
- Shiny purple is often confused with white or silver.
- Yue in Card Captor Sakura; Though not technically a villain or even evil, his bitterness, pride and stoicism highlight his cold and resentful demeanor. In his first appearance, he is an antagonist, and following his defeat becomes a reluctant ally of the main character, and eventually a friend.
- Griffith, the mercenary Captain from Berserk, fits the physical description to a T, a nice contrast to the Conan-like main character Guts. While officially a "hero", he starts out as a manipulative Magnificent Bastard out for his own purposes, very much like the historical 30 Years War mercenary Wallenstein, who was rumored to have made a Faustian bargain. In this case, though, instead of selling his soul, he sells those of his men.
- Zeno, Zatch's Evil Twin in Zatch Bell.
- While his pasty-white skin and inverted eye colours make him disturbing to look at, Hollow Ichigo from Bleach fits the idea.
- Don't forget Gin Ichimaru! He has many fangirls because of his looks, and some find him vaguely effeminate.
- Ukitake is a subversion of this. You can't find a nicer guy than him.
- Not to mention Hitsugaya. He's in the good guys' side and is quite cute.
- Mytho in Princess Tutu, especially during the second season as he becomes increasingly creepy since his heart has been bathed in Raven's blood
- In the first season he's pretty much a subversion, since he's fairly sweet and harmless. In a way, the second season is almost a subversion of the subversion...
- Kabuto from Naruto, Enigmatic Minion to Orochimaru. Kimimaro, with long white hair, also an enigmatic minion to Orochimaru.
- And now also Hidan, and Suigetsu deserves a mention, because, despite the shark teeth, he is pretty.
- Leon Oswald, brilliant yet embittered acrobat from Kaleido Star. He humiliates Sora verbally and on-stage, wants revenge against Yuri, seriously injures May Wong to punish her bad attitude...
- Masaharu Niou, the Rikkaidai trickster and illusionist from The Prince Of Tennis.
- Eyes Rutherford in Spiral was "upgraded" to a White Haired Pretty Boy for the anime version. In the manga, his hair is light purple — think Trunks from Dragonball Z.
- Arguably the Trope Maker is Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam, the Blonde Haired Pretty Boy Anti Hero, Ensemble Darkhorse, Amuro's Rival, who mentors Camille turns evil, and becomes a Well Intentioned Extremist (obviously not all in the same series; it covers two TV series and a movie).
- Char Aznable was not the first. The trope of the beautiful blond villain began in 1975, with Demon Prince Shahkin
 , from the humongous mecha show Raideen. In fact, Char's character was directly inspired by Shahkin's. Other examples from the "70s include General Garuda from Combattler V, Prince Heinel from Voltes V, and Admiral Rishter from Daimos. It seems that the bishonen bad guy's hair color has migrated across the spectrum of blondness, from strawberry to platinum.
- Zechs Marquise in the Alternate Universe spinoff Gundam Wing then tried to cover all those bases in the same series, often with so little apparent justification that it appeared to be a case of Designated Whatever; one of the more joking theories among fans was that his character motivation was "being a Char fanboy."
- Aizawa Kouichi in Nabari No Ou. While he's not an antagonist (so far) and is usually a laid-back, helpful guy, he's also a ruthless killer, can be very assertive, and he knows suspiciously much about what's going on. Oh, and he's an immortal hybrid of snowy owl and human, which would explain the hair.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has the silver-haired and evil Cytomander.
- As shown in the Parallel Works 8 Lord Genome was one of these as a child, much akin to daughter Nia.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has one of these currently acting as the Big Bad.
- Then even he gets in on the whole "magic-age-up" game, and becomes this. I can hear the fangirls already...
- In a subversion, there was also one among the old heroes.
- There was also one who the old heroes fought, who may or may not be the same person as the current Big Bad.
- According to Jack Rakan, it's the same person (although in a different body).
- I thought he said 'You're more human than the other two were' meaning that he was basically a copy of them, but that they were basically golems.
- The most common interpretation is that it's the same Fate, but he's been "upgraded". He did say that he never actually trained.
- Eagle Vision from Magic Knight Rayearth; he isn't technically evil, but still a villain — he is the head of one of the three groups invading Cephiro.
- Eugene Chaud/Ijuin Enzan from Megaman NT Warrior/Rockman.EXE. He becomes less of an antagonist as the series goes on.
- I don't know if this counts but, while we are on the subject of Mega Man: Grey from Mega Man ZX and Protoman.EXE (Chaud's netnavi) also from Battle Network have white hair.
- Prince Bokar of Sennec from Voltron appeared to be nice at first saving Princess Allura but only later does his true self show as a Robeast that attacks the Voltron Force and kidnaps Princess Allura for Zarkon.
- Trinity Blood averts it by letting a WHPB be the main hero, Abel Nightroad. His brother Cain, on the other hand, is also a WHPB and thoroughly twisted and evil.
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn has Superbia Squalo, a member of the elite assassination squad known as the Varia. He has long, well-conditioned (sort of explained by the fact that the Varia are supposed to be good at everything they do) silver-white hair, even though he's ethnically Italian. It could be another reference to his "shark" aspect (squalo meaning "shark" in Italian), and/or a contrast to his opponent (a black-haired, all-Japanese boy). And he could be good-looking if he'd stop making deranged killer faces.
- It could be argued that the title character of Akagi fits this trope. He's quite the unconventional hero, goes by his own morals, and (depending on who you ask, of course, since this is a Fukumoto series) is relatively attractive. And then there's his body double/rival for a moment Hirayama Yukio. (Ichikawa and Washizu, while they have the hair and the antagonist angle down, do not count because they're old and (again, depending on who you ask) ugly.)
- Dio from Last Exile seems like this at first — especially since he works for the Guild (the main antagonists) — but is soon revealed to be hyper, enthusiastic, and prone to glomping. Oh, and he's terrified of his sister Delphine, who has him brainwashed into a soulless killing machine, thus fulfilling this trope.
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro has Sai, who arguably fits the trope, despite the fact that he can change shape. His real form seems to be that of a white haired Bishounen and there is no doubts that he can be very cruel.
- Buguese from Spider Riders. Initially a villain, but becomes more of an anti-hero once his motives are revealed.
- Sohaku Kago from Tenjho Tenge. Though only in the manga, Sohaku, with his immortal bishounen looks and grand evil scheme is the qunitessential White Haired Pretty Boy Big Bad.
- Ypsilon from Armored Trooper VOTOMS.
- Canute from Vinland Saga starts out as a subversion: he's meek, timid and his favourite hobbies are cooking and reading the bible. After going through some pretty screwed up shit his meek persona starts to crumble, until he transforms into a bit of a Badass.
- Father Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing starts out as this in the anime (though a volume cover image makes him pretty solidly blond in the manga). Given the art style and the fact that he's one of the more batshit members of the cast, though, he quickly starts gaining some facial expressions that ain't so pretty.
- Ohtori Akio from Revolutionary Girl Utena, although his hair is technically pale purple.
- Possibly semi-subverted with Allen Walker from D Gray-Man who is white haired and very pretty, but is so darn nice and kindhearted towards everyone and anything. Including the akuma everyone else wants to destroy, claiming that he'll save them and love them as he would humans.
- Maybe not. He does end up being the host of the 14th Noah and all.
- Arguably, Darkrai from Pokémon. At the very least, he has bishie-hair. In The Rise of Darkrai, he was something of an Anti Hero, or was just simply misunderstood when he was trying to protect the town from Palkia.
- Hakuoh of Duel Masters, The Rival before Defeat Means Friendship took effect. Also one of the bishiest bishies out there.
- Kaitani Riku from Eyeshield 21, is pretty much a nice boy, who taught Sena how to run in the first places. He aims to defeat him, though.
- Taka Honjou, Monta's catching rival, on the Teikoku Alexanders is one too.
- Suzu from Peacemaker Kurogane. Especially after he goes Ax Crazy and turns into a Depraved Homosexual, wearing makeup and revealing clothes — that's when people in the series really start commenting how pretty he is.
- Makubex from Get Backers. Silver hair, creepy reality-bending powers, actually a created being. His presumable creator, Makube-hakase, is a White Haired Pretty Girl with actual white hair.
- Mao from Code Geass is white-haired and pretty decent-looking. He's also a frighteningly sadistic, dangerously insane, creepy stalker type.
- According to some early character designs, Lelouch was going to have white hair as well, but in the end they went with black.
- Haine from DOGS. Also has red eyes.
- Arthas from the Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. In Warcraft III, he was initially blond, at which point he was morally clueless, and also pretty clueless in general, but largely seemed to mean well. His hair immediately and abruptly went white when he took up Frostmourne and became a Death Knight, which is also the exact moment at which he progressed from "well-meaning extremist" status to being clearly and unambiguously capital-E Evil.
- Shirogane from Monochrome Factor
- In Fruits Basket, Ayame is a white-haired guy who turns into a snake. However, he's certainly not a villain, just a very silly Lovable Pervert. Haru, who has a mix of black and white hair, is a bit closer considering that he has a Jekyll And Hyde kind of personality, but his bad side is referred to as 'Black Haru' while his good side is 'White Haru'.
- Karoku from Karneval is one, and although the reader is currently unsure of his intentions, he certainly isn't being kind to the boy who basically sees him as a surrogate older brother figure and is currently seeking him out. He's also either uncaring or hateful toward those who surround the boy.
- Accelerator in To Aru Majutsu No Index. Played with because A. he suspects that it's because his power reflects light away from his skin and hair and B. he pulls a face heel turn and becomes an antihero.
- Rome Ro, the Big Bad in Heroic Age. He's the very last of the Silver Tribe to make a Heel Face Turn, and he tortures Yuti into attempting to destroy the planet Elysium, and with it the power of the Golden Tribe.
Comics
- X-Men's got Magneto and Quicksilver, though some artists draw Magneto to look his age. (He's not supposed to, having been reduced to infancy at one point and later returned to his prime.)
- A Very Special issue of Spider-Man featured Skip, a white haired pretty boy who baby-sat a young Peter Parker. And molested him.
- Superdickery insists Skip resembles Uncle Ben. This is all lies— this troper was squicked by the fact that he honestly resembles an adolescent (and eye-teeth-less) version of the second Corinthian.
- The Corinthian is white-haired, gay, and good-looking when he keeps his sunglasses on. He's also a Serial Killer who likes to eat eyeballs with his own eyeballs. (Also like Lyta Hall, he might just be a very pale blond.)
- Also, Lyta's husband, Hector. Though he's arguably got it even worse than she does, since the artists can't even keep his age straight.
- Hua Yingxiong, the title character of the Epic Martial Arts Manhua (Hong Kong equivalent of Manga) Chinese Hero.
Films
- Silas in The Da Vinci Code played by Paul Bethany who seems to be making this trope a big part of his repertoire, and doing it well.
- In "Harry Potter" movies Lucius and Draco Malfoy both fit this trope to a T.
- Angel Face in Fight Club.
- He's actually bleached blonde.
- ''Hellboy II's Prince Nuada. Sure, the white hair and skin runs in his family, but he's still the villain.
- Captain Love in The Mask Of Zorro. He's actually very light blond, but it's as close as you can get to white hair, given the scenario.
- Cade in Sky Blue strenuously resists Shua's attempt to bring down Ecoban to help the Diggers, and tries to keep Jay away from him. It's later revealed that he was originally responsible for Shua's exile. He does get redeemed eventually.
Literature
- Though Silas in The Da Vinci Code is in no way pretty, he otherwise fills the trope (and Evil Albino) to a T.
- While not pretty, Raistlin Majere of the Dragonlance books fits the other characteristics, including becoming a villain.
- Considering that his twin brother Caramon is considered very good-looking, Raistlin probably would be too if he didn't always look like he was dying.
- When Raistlin is restored to his pre-Testing appearance during his jaunt to the past in Dragonlance Legends, he does in fact turn out to be fairly handsome. The fact that he almost never got laid as a young man probably had less to do with his appearance and more to do with his charming personality.
- In the prequel novels it's actually mentioned that though ugly as a child, he became actually more handsome than his brother as a young man; it was Caramon's open, honest personality that won him friends and female attention, whereas Raistlin was a brooding Deadpan Snarker with a little interest in relationships. Except that one time when Caramon got there first, which probably did nothing good to Raistlin's antipathy towards romance...
- White Mike, the drug-dealing antihero in the book Twelve.
- Ariel from the Obernewtyn Chronicles book series by Isobelle Carmody is a classic example, being described as angelic in looks and satanic in temperament.
- Joren in Protector of the Small, by Tamora Pierce, has white-blond hair, rather effeminate looks, and is Keladry's main enemy in the first book.
- Harry Potter's Draco Malfoy—really made noticeable in the movie adaptations, which is how he got most of his fans. In the book one gets the impression that he's unpleasant-looking. Actually he is described as having a thin refined face. Which is right, and pale eyes, which is also right. Hmmm. I think maybe Ms Rowling doesn't find that handsome, but most people do.
- J.K.Rowling described everything from Harry's point of view and Harry is probably too annoyed with Draco Malfoy to even think that he is good looking.
- Also Lucius Malfoy is quite handsome to look at. Not any worse then his son, in my opinion. And Lucius has even more fittingly long white hair. He is described as being very handsome in the book.
- Cinder of the Chandrian.
- House Tagaryen from A Song Of Ice And Fire are a whole family of these. How? Brother Sister Incest.
- Subverted somewhat in The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Rake and the rest of the Tiste Andii are good guys (sort of).
- Mordred in T.H. White's The Once and Future King, "so fair haired that he was almost an albino," is at first merely self-pitying and creepy in the give-the-poor-kid-a-break way, but ultimately evil.
- Sort of subverted in The Grey King in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series of books, where Bran Davies's odd white hair is used to give him an quality of 'otherness, even though he doesn't turn out to be bad.
- Pollution from Good Omens is white-haired, looks to be in his early twenties, and has a creepily chirpy, somewhat seductive personality. The fact that he's one of the Horsemen Of The Apocalypse should be another warning.
- The whole trend (at least in Western literature) be traced more or less directly to Elric of Melnibone as written by Michael Moorcock. Elric is a weakling albino, often described in terms of effeminate beauty, who comes from a ancient line of powerful, cruel, Chaos-allied people. He is granted superhuman prowess in combat by a cursed sentient sword which eats the souls of opponents, and he tends (often through the interference of said sword) to kill his allies and/or lovers with alarming regularity.
- C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy has Gerald Tarrant, a dark-sword wielding WHPB vampire, who, despite being evil, is still the novel's anti-hero.
- R.L. Stine evokes this with the character Bill Jeffers aka Snowman in the book of the same name. Bill is described as being tall and white haired with black eyes, and is extremely attractive to most women he meets. He's also a murderer who doesn't have much regret for what he did. His father, however, DID bring it onto himself by beating his son and physically abusing him until the kid snapped. Whether he's evil or not depends greatly on who you ask in fandom and how much sympathy you have for abuse victims.
Live Action TV
Pro Wrestling
- Former AWA commentator and WCW on- and off-screen authority figure Eric Bishoff. Averted in kayfabe where his hair is dyed black, but in reality, Eric's natural hair color has been white for almost his entire adult life.
Tabletop Games
- The Primarch of the Emperor's Children chapter, Fulgrim had white hair and was said to be one of the best looking primarchs. Just look at his chapter now...
- The Drow in Dungeons & Dragons games are an entire race of sly, scheming, Always Chaotic Evil White Haired (albeit Black Skinned) Pretty Boys and Girls. The males in particular tend to be underhanded effeminate blackguards. One issue of the late Dragon Magazine gave us the drow demideity Keptolo, who is actually the God of White Haired Pretty Boys.
- In Ravenloft, the darklord of Nova Vassa, Reasonable Authority Figure Tristen Hiregaard's Superpowered Evil Side-cum-Diabolical Mastermind serial killer Malken, is a lot like this (Tristen's normally raven-haired appearance changes when Malken takes control). He even manages to deconstruct (unintentionally by the writers, but that's how this troper always played him) the Yaoi Fangirl tendency to make a White Haired Pretty Boy the Draco In Leather Pants in Crack Fics by having Tristen's misogynistic tendencies represented in Malken by making him homosexual, although here it's protrayed as just another justification for what he does.
- The planeswalker Sorin Markov from the Zendikar set of Magic: The Gathering.
Theater
Video Games
- Reivier from Quintessence - The Blighted Venom.
- Setzer, of Final Fantasy VI is a rebellious elitist whitehaired gambler who kidnaps Celes but inevitably joins the party.
- Setzer is meant to be an albino◊. If you've seen his original character designs◊, he has white skin. For some reason in the game, they gave him a normal flesh tone for his sprites, but if you look at his character portrait in the main menu, you can see the white skin (and the scars, too). For Kingdom Hearts, they redesigned his character and made him a non-albino, though.
- Um, do you have an actual source for the albino thing? Many of the characters have chalk white skin in the Yoshitaka Amano artwork.
- Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII is the quintessential video game White Haired Pretty Boy.
- Yazoo, Loz, and most notably Kadaj from the sequel film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, who are brothers from the same "mother" as Sephiroth. Official materials even name them collectively as "The Silver-Haired Men".
- Weiss from Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus.
- ... whose name, appropriately enough, is German for "white".
- Final Fantasy IX brings us Kuja who is ten times prettier than Sephiroth.
- He's even referred to several times in-game as a "narcissist", which is a rather mild description for someone who dresses like this◊.
- Magus from Chrono Trigger. Well, the pretty part is debatable.
- At least in the game's art. His sprite has distinctly blue hair because...you know.
- From the Kingdom Hearts series we have Xehanort, his Heartless, Ansem and his Nobody, Xemnas, both of which are the final bosses in their respective games. Notably, they avert the corrolary of "Being Ambiguously Brown negates the evil of the white hair," though fans do not always agree on whether this is a good thing.
- In Chain of Memories, the Riku Replica fits this trope to a tee. In fact, Riku himself fits this trope pretty darn well in the first (and even second) games.
- Archer, from Fate/stay night, who may not be considered a pretty boy, but his white hair and cynical anti-hero nature qualify him for this trope... as does his penchant for a red Badass Longcoat. Further, his actions and intent in the Unlimited Blade Works arc of killing the hero — his past self — to end the eternity of fighting and slaughter he lives out arguably grant him Anti Villain status.
- He counts as this trope, as the term "Gar" was literally made for him (at 4chan, of course). And accounting for his cumulative actions/motives, he probably fits under the greater majority of the hero and villain tropes here.
- Wilhelm in Xenosaga is an example of this trope, and chaos (no capitalization) is an example of how dark skinned white haired pretty boys are exempt. Albedo is another example from the same game.
- Orochi from The King of Fighters '97, although he takes this form just for the purpose of manifesting in the real world (his true form is considerably fuglier).
- Magaki, endboss of XI would also fit the trope when he first appears to the player, but he subverts it as his true form is a lanky, bug-eyed, pink... thing who shambles about, and his body is racked with muscle spasms. Not actually pretty at all. He still keeps the white hair though.
- Prince Yumil in Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, and he has silver hair.
- Ayatane in Ar Tonelico, whose evil status is complicated, but does definitely spend at least a portion of the plot being on the opposing side.
- The original Tohno SHIKI in Tsukihime has white, shoulder-length hair. He is also possessed by the Big Bad, inverted (meaning, given up completely to a Superpowered Evil Side), and completely insane.
- Hyo Imawano from Rival Schools, who goes from main villain, to willing ally, to possessed villain to dead all in the span of two games.
- Wild Arms 2 manages to include a White Haired Pretty Boy who, amazingly enough, isn't evil. He acts as Mission Control for the Heroes R Us organization that the Player Character is a part of. Oh wait, he's the boss of the villains too, and it turns out this was all a Xanatos Gambit to mobilize the world against a Cosmic Horror threat. A good goal, but he was ruthless in pursuing it.
- Lunar: The Silver Star has Ghaleon, who is a walking example of a lot of villain tropes.
- In the girl version of Harvest Moon DS, there is a white-haired phantom thief named Skye that you can marry. Or So I Heard.
- You heard right, my friend. In fact Skye/Steiner is pretty much the straightest example of this trope I've ever seen, with particular emphasis on the "effeminate pretty-boy" bit.
- Let's not forget Vaughn from Island of Happiness.
- Dist
the Runny the Reaper 'the Rose' from Tales Of The Abyss. Evil, effeminate Mad Scientist. Alright, maybe not that pretty, what with that loony perma-grin, but otherwise fits the trope to a tee.
- Ramirez from Skies of Arcadia, who is also The Dragon for Galcian.
- Galcian is also white-haired, but is not quite as pretty as his subordinate.
- Solus, The Dragon from Breakdown.
- Tales of Vesperia has Duke. Oddly enough, he also gains dark skin during his True Final Boss form, but here, it's just an indication that he's become a demigod.
- Alexei is one too. In fact, if he grew his hair longer, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
- Psaro the Manslayer from Dragon Quest IV.
- Fou-Lu from Breath Of Fire IV.
- Vergil of Devil May Cry is a classic example, while his twin brother Dante doesn't fit the mold so well.
- No, Dante and Nero would qualify as well.
- Joshua from The World Ends With You is not only pretty and has white hair, but he's also the one who almost UNDOES Neku's Character-development from week one with his prissy and mysteriously behaviour and finally turns out to be Neku's killer (twice), the composer, and the one who wanted to destory Shibuya in the first place. However, he endes up showing "mercy" .
- Sho Minamimoto from the same game, despite having dark skin, also fits the trope well. He runs around declaring himself superior to everyone, showing off his genius, killing people at a whim, and being one of the toughest bosses in the game.
- Sho's hair is gumnetal gray, not white.
- Suikoden V invokes this trope for a woman. After her Face Heel Turn, Lady Sialeeds stops dyeing her hair, revealing the fact that it was white all along just in time for you to fight her for the first time. Given that she doesn't pick up any of the connotations of the White Haired Pretty Girl, while picking up the White Haired Pretty Boy's penchant for antagonism, she probably fits here more than there.
- Nascour, the Dragon from Pokémon Coliseum.
- Also,the protagonist himself.
- Karsh from Chrono Cross looks like one of these at first glance, being the first humanoid boss you fight (not counting Solt and Peppor, who fight alongside him), along with having the standard silver hair. However, he's not evil, just efficient at his job (and ashamed of having to kill his Brainwashed And Crazy best friend), and later he joins the party.
- Specter from Ape Escape. All right, he has white fur, but still.
- Arthas from War Craft III. Sure, he wasn't exactly pretty when his hair turned white, and his hair wasn't exactly white back when he was a pretty boy... but other than that, he fits the trope surprisingly well.
- Lloyd from Legend of Dragoon. He spends most of the game being a huge thorn in the party's side, from beating the pants off of the protagonist in an arena fight to plotting to destroy the world. Only to do a Heel Face Turn at the last second, making way for the REAL Big Bad.
- Then again, like the Drow example above, Lloyd belongs to an entire race of White Haired Pretty People, who, given their history, are not exactly known for being the nicest folks around.
- Sengoku Basara has three of these. First there's Ax Crazy Akechi Mitsuhide, then Zorro-impersonator Takenaka Hanbei, and now newcomer Ishida Mitsunari.
- Derby Harrington, leader of the Preps in Bully. While short-haired, he is decidedly handsome, evil and a rich bastard.
- Jusqua, if not for the SD style of Hikari no 4 Senshi, can be one. Silver hair? Check. Rival to the hero? Check.
- Godot from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney has white hair though it was originally black but changed when he was poisoned.
- The fiend Alexei from Ninja Gaiden 2.
- White Spirits (or Angels) from TearsToTiara are a bunch of Ax Crazy perfectionists. Only 2 of 13 of them were exceptions.
Web Comics
- Loratio from Emergency Exit. He's not really evil (he did save the world from a demon), just extremely disagreeable with violent tendencies.
Western Animation
- Word Paynn and his son, Moordryd, in Dragon Booster.
- It's probably a matter of opinion, but Ben 10's Albedo isn't particularly bishonen, though he was morally dubious enough to build a second Omnitrix against his master's wishes and beat up hordes of Forever Knights looking for Ben, complain directly to a cook how much he loathes the Earth food he finds himself compelled to eat, make a laughably dumb attempt to convince Gwen he was Ben (complete with several instances of "I, Ben Tennyson..."), and try to take Ben's Omnitrix by force. Then again, he doesn't get the white hair until the end of the episode (probably just to look like Ben's opposite), which may indicate an intended reappearance.
- Prince Phobos from W.I.T.C.H.
- Nekron in Fire and Ice.
- Valmont in Jackie Chan Adventures (although he gets rather scruffy after the second season).
- Gregor/Elliot in Danny Phantom.
- An example of a Trickster: Puck, from Gargoyles.
- Teen Titans have one of these boys in the episode Spellbound. Of course it turns out that the dragon Melchior had borrowed the looks from Rorek in the end.
Subversions/Exceptions
Anime & Manga
- Doctor Clive more commonly known as the School Doctor from Haré+Guu. He's not evil though just a lech and kind of a jerk. Also his hair is actually dyed and his natural hair color is brown.
- Prussia and Iceland from Axis Powers Hetalia, though Prussia's Hot Blooded personality keeps him from fully fitting into this trope. Iceland is described as being something of a Defrosting Ice King. Germany might arguably fit the bill, but he's a bit too much of a sympathetic main character (and his hair's a bit too yellow anyway).
- Kuze from Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex has white hair and is quite pretty, even though he is more of an Anti Villain than anything else.
- Tsukasa in .hack//SIGN — Not only is he a good guy (arguably), he's a main character.
- Also, he's not really a boy, so there's that too.
- The same goes for Tôshirô Hitsugaya in Bleach. Little doubt that the trope is probably one of the main reasons behind his popularity (essentially swapping places with Ichigo, who consistently held the #1 spot in Shonen Jump polls).
- Jūshirō Ukitake, from the same show, is another exception. He feels a kinship towards Hitsugaya because he's a fellow White Haired Pretty Boy, and frequently gives him comically large amounts of candy and other presents.
- Bleach has more subversive white-haired pretty-boys than it has bad ones. The baddies only have Gin, who admittedly has silver hair and is a villainous trickster. The good guys: Ukitake is a big innocent lovable sweetie-pie who loves to give presents, and Hitsugaya is clever and capable.
- Kensei of the Vizards has short silvery-grey hair.
- Near in Death Note. It's not as much subversion as one would think; Since Light, the protagonist, is a Villain Protagonist, Near, despite being one of the good guys, is still the antagonist of the show.
- Ren from Karin, in something of an inversion.
- Allen Walker from D Gray-man is a White Haired Pretty Boy, but is not only the protagonist but arguably the nicest character in the series.
- He was also originally a brunette, but trauma turned his hair white.
- Keiki from The Twelve Kingdoms; as a Kirin, he is literally the physical embodiment of benevolence and kindness. (This might not be a true example, as he may merely be light blonde. All of the other kirin — with one notable exception — are darker shades of blonde.)
- It's a really light platinum blonde, but it can be easily confounded with white. This tone is a bit rare to occur on Kirins, but not as rare as black, red, or pink (yes, pink unicorns).
- Kantarou from Tactics is as much a pretty white haired boy as it gets but he is the hero. Although his lazy and materialistic nature occasionally make him the object of censure, Kantarou never comes close to being a villain and is more of a Genius Ditz (as far as his exorcizing/bonding with spirits power is concerned) than anything else.
- Ayame from Fruits Basket, who is... um, "special".
- Yeah, Ayame is definitely not evil. He can be insanely self-absorbed and ridiculously campy but there's no harm in him, and he's way too generous and earnest to be really evil. Yuki has silver hair too, although nobody (except Kyo) would classify him as evil.
- Inu-Yasha from, well, Inu Yasha. Foul-mouthed jerk? Yes, but not evil.
- Gintoki Sakata from Gintama occasionally does questionable things, but none of them can really be considered evil, and he is easily the hero of the series.
- Jamie Jay Adams aka J.J from FAKE. In the first series he was the Clingy Jealous Guy, but gets a love interest of his own in the epilogue and second series.
- Sasagawa Ryohei of Katekyo Hitman Reborn has white hair (once colored light brown in an early color spread, interestingly enough), but is firmly entrenched in the realm of heroes. He's the Hot Blooded one. EXTREMELY hot-blooded.
- On that note, Gokudera Hayato, when he originally came in, seemed to be a villain but quickly turned into the most fiercely loyal subordinate Tsuna could ever want. ("JUUDAIME!!!")
- Shinrei of Samurai Deeper Kyo starts out as the White Haired Pretty Boy, but is revealed to have a bad temper (especially when dealing with his brother, and eventually goes over to the main character's side.
- Also the morally ambiguous Migeira in the anime, who has short white hair, heterochromic eyes, and a Kakashi-like facemask. Subverted by preteen ninja Sasuke, who also has white hair.
- Chouji Suitengu from Speed Grapher. Ginza Hibari is a morally ambigous White Haired Pretty Girl.
- Masaharu Niou from The Prince Of Tennis. Also, Kuranosuke Shiraishi in the manga (he's got grayish brown hair in the anime) and Koujirou Saeki in the anime (he's a blond in the manga. He's also mild a subversion since he's a Rival and a Forgotten Childhood Friend).
- Ginko from Mushishi, although white-haired, is both a nice guy and not especially pretty, although his white hair and green eye do indicate the touch of the supernatural.
- Silver-haired Shi Seiran in Saiunkoku Monogatari is a principled and heroic young man.
- Toki from Fist Of The North Star. White-haired, yes, but due to a spot of aging and radiation sickness that is slowly killing him, he dosen't exactly look pretty. Furthermore, he is the most morally pure of the entire cast, vowing to use Hokuto Shinken only to heal people of their diseases. In battle, he is more of a Technical Pacifist. When he fights and has to eliminate his foe, he uses special verisons of established Hokuto Shinken techniques to ensure that his enemies die feeling immense pleasure. But this IS FOTNS, where Anyone Can Die. Take a wild guess what fate awaits poor Toki.
- It was radiation sickness that gave him his white hair anyway. Originally, it was brown (or black, since FOTNS has... issues with its cast's hair colour).
Comics
- Apollo of The Authority is a gorgeous Superman expy with long, white-blonde hair and the sweetest disposition of anyone on the team. It's nigh-on impossible to even make him angry.
- Daniel Hall of The Sandman, after his transformation into the second Dream. Definitely a good guy; he's noticeably more forgiving than his predecessor, although that admittedly isn't hard to achieve. Also a Man In White.
Films
- Though not exactly effeminate (he's played by Rutger Hauer), Roy Batty from Blade Runner is an Anti Villain example.
Literature
- Alcuin from Kushiel's Legacy is a sort of rival to Phedre, but also definitely a good guy.
- Michael Moorcock's Elric, who ironically might be the root of the trope due to his Anti Hero status. (The novels were published in Japan, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano of Vampire Hunter D fame).
- Rhaegar Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire. He's a Posthumous Character, and it's made pretty clear he was a larger-than-life Knight In Shining Armor. Fanart pictures him as a Bishonen.
- Wraith from the Hex book series by Rhiannon Lassiter is the main sidekick of the protagonist and is revered as a hero. He is also described in the first book as "strikingly attractive" and later on his ex-gang-member status makes people see him as a "romantic figure"(direct quote from the 3rd book).
- Roshaun from Young Wizards. He's described as looking like a living anime character, leading this troper to imagine something like Zechs Merquise in the flesh. He's also very definitely one of the good guys.
- This troper might just not have been paying attention, but she thought he had blond hair.
- Roiben from Holly Black's Tithe trilogy is a faerie knight with long "salt-white" hair and silver eyes. Though he has his sinister side, he's a good guy and the main love interest.
- Averted in Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine, in which the white-haired boy, a beautiful dancer named Aster, is a romantic ideal.
- Thoroughly subverted in the form of Drizzt Do'Urden, a dual wielding drow elf WHPB (albeit dark-skinned), that is the epitome of good and emo of most Forgotten Realms heroes.
- Most of the moon elves in the Forgotten Realms novel series are a subversion of the trope, wherein they are royals, and often described as the most human among their brethren. They are often described as pale in skin, and often having silver or black hair, and a pretty face.
- Elaith Craulnobur from the songs and swords series, is a semi-subversion, as he began as a thoroughly evil WHPB, but in the course of the novels rediscovered his honor and partially redeemed himself.
- J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a subversions on these, particularly the Teleri (grey elves)and their leader Thingol Greycloak, one of the first elves, described to be of great power and unearthly beauty.
Video Games
- The Dark Knight Cecil in Final Fantasy IV is a White Haired Pretty Boy, but we only learn this after he turns into a good guy and takes his helmet off.
- The odd thing is, his battle sprite◊ and world sprite◊ both have purple hair in the SNES original game, so it wasn't obvious Cecil was white haired! Even his save menu portrait◊ had some purple in his hair.
- He looks almost pale blond in the DS version (in-game sprite only, it's white in the FMV and menu portrait). This troper still isn't sure whether his mother is supposed to be blonde or white-haired, since we don't really see them together to compare.
- The Anti Hero Dante from Devil May Cry is a slightly more realistic take on the bishonen; he has white hair and you could call him a pretty boy, but he's also a hunky Badass Longcoat. So are his twin brother Vergil (though being a villain, he definitely fits the trope), the human form of their father Sparda and mysterious newcomer Nero.
- Alucard from Castlevania is a noble soul, always playing for the good guy's side if not being the hero and, somewhat humorously to fans, seems to have spawned the notion that every CV hero since must be a White Haired Prettyboy. Interestingly enough, for his first appearance in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, he sported dark hair◊.
- Soma Cruz from the recent Castlevanias definitely qualifies. He may not be evil, put the potential was certainly there considering he inherited Dracula's "office." He is definitely white-haired and pretty, though you'd never know he was a boy if they didn't tell you.
- Juste Belmont in Harmony of Dissonance, the only known white-haired member of his clan. Let me rephrase: he's a white-haired Belmont.
- Raiden from the Metal Gear Solid series. He does turn out to be working for the Big Bad, but he doesn't have a clue about it. He's not an anti-hero, not a trickster, and certainly not evil, although he does do some pretty morally dubious things. Most of the time he's basically the universe's butt monkey. The creator claims that his pallor was a reference to him being a 'virginal' character — he'd never been in a game in the series before, and was yet to be 'coloured' by audience expectation. (Alternatively, he was also meant as a blank slate for the player to project himself into.) It's also probably a tip-of-the-hat to the eerily pale Peter Stillman in Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, who was an inspiration for Raiden's character.
- Morally dubious? If the player kills a guard, he laments it to Rose, expressing guilt.
- Later in the second game he admits to her that, really, he "doesn't feel a thing", and he was faking concern for her sake.
- And he gets worse in the Fourth Game.
- As an interesting note, Peter Stillman also shows up in Metal Gear Solid 2.
- He's a black guy, though.
- Gray Fox/Frank Jaeger from the same series (at least when he isn't covered in metal), although he's more of a biseinen than a bishonen. He does wind up fighting the protagonist on more than one occasion, but calling him an enemy would be inaccurate.
- Riku, from the Kingdom Hearts series, is a complicated example. While in the first game he's a Rival Turned Evil, who is subject to More Than Mind Control and is possessed by the Big Bad, he spends the sequels dealing with the consequences, trying to make up for it. By the end of Kingdom Hearts 2 he's undoubtedly a good guy.
- Gig from Soul Nomad And The World Eaters. He is evil and silver-haired, but he's neither particularly effeminate or particularly eerie and gets his jollies from causing senseless carnage and suffering on a massive scale, while maintaining all the flair and panache of a pro-wrestling heel. He's also on the good side, if highly reluctantly.
- Geralt from The Witcher game and series of novels: while not exactly being a bishonen he is lacking hair pigments due to the mutation, which renders his hair white. Anti-hero at worst he is, most probably, as real hero as it possible in his grim, harsh world.
- The witcher mutations also robbed him of skin pigmentation, making him a HeroicAlbino (or as much as someone can be heroic in that hellhole of a world).
- Cyrus from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. White-haired (albino, in fact), extremely bishy and willing to risk his life to help the heroes.
- It might be notable that he gets his white hair by being a clone of Big Bad Caulder. Caulder himself is too old to be a white haired pretty boy.
- Oswald the Shadow Knight from Odin Sphere, a tragic but ultimately sympathetic Anti Hero whose soul has been claimed by the queen of the dead.
- Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3, who is a determinator hero with streaks of The Atoner. Takaya, meanwhile, is evil, eerie and white-haired, but not very pretty due to his hippie-like appearance complete with Perma Stubble.
- What! Takaya is very pretty! Look at those gorgeous locks!
- Pretty nothing - he looks like a haggard, tattooed Jesus.
- On the subject of Persona series aversions, there's also the main character of Persona 4, who has only as much personality as you give him.
- Parodied in Super Punch Out with Heike Kagero. His features are exaggerated to the point where he's actually rather grotesque.
- We're not sure what the hell's going on with Joshua from The World Ends With You, but he's certainly got the "effeminate white-haired kid" style down pat. He's the "Composer" of Shibuya, who has gotten sick of his "divine" role and wants to destroy everything. With Jesus Beams.
- Until Neku unintentionally changes Joshua's mind with the power of his magnificent ass.
- Not to mention he's a completely insufferable smarmy jerkass most of the time.
- Senel, the main character of Tales Of Legendia, has white hair and the looks, but fails at being effeminate or evil — at worst he's a little grumpy. However, he also has dark skin, which tends to avert White Haired Pretty Boy Syndrome.
- Silver from the 2006 Sonic The Hedgehog game.
- Sanger Zonvolt of Super Robot Wars is white haired. But he exudes manly qualities, not Bishonen. And pretty heroic at that.
- Also Harken Browning, protagonist of the spinoff Mugen no Frontier.
- Max in Albatross18/PangYa. Despite bearing a striking resemblence to Sephiroth and that some of his outfits allow him to run around topless with a cross necklace or a tattoo, he's not evil, or even magical to begin with; he's an ordinary tennis player who got into a plane accident—one that incidentally landed him on Pangya Island.
- Altos Stratos of Eat Lead The Return Of Matt Hazard is a parody of the trope.
- Also parodied by Helter Skelter from No More Heroes, although he's not really in the game.
- Career Killer Jean Kujo from Virtua Fighter.
- Genis Sage of Tales of Symphonia is twelve year old boy who, like his sister, has white hair.
- Xenogears has a few subversions/inversions. Billy, Sigurd, and Jessie all have silver hair and all are undeniably loyal to the heroes' side. Krelian has many of the other traits of a WHPB, but his hair is closer to gold-brown than silver.
- Behind his scary skull-faced helmet and his intimidating reputation, Urick from Drakengard 2 is not only a good guy, he's also cheerful, friendly, and keeps the party's morale high with a steady supply of jokes. He's also considerably less effeminate than most other WHP Bs ( if you don't count his implied relationship with Yaha, but even if you do, Yaha's way more effeminate than he is) — but he's still damn good-looking, all the same. Of course, his white hair is a pretty solid example of the "death" symbolism associated with the color, considering a) he's made a pact with a Reaper and b) his pact-price was his mortality.
- Lee Chaolan in the Tekken series.
- Purge from Space Channel 5 Part 2. He also has purple eyes.
- Subverted for the most part in Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Al Revis, since Vayne is a white-haired pretty boy who is notably shy and clueless. Well, until his powers go crazy and turn the academy into a living hell on earth. It's a complicated example because his Jekyll and Hyde syndrome turns half of him into a Jerkass.
- Zero of Mega Man X, when he's wearing his Black Armor, had silver hair. He acts like a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, but he's a badass hero.
Web Comics
- Kayndar / Silvah from the webcomic Inverloch.
- Lampshaded in this ADVENTURERS! strip.
- Eikre from RPG World is initially implied to be the Big Bad in disguise, but he turns out to be a good guy. It's later revealed that he went to a school for evil Bi Shonen before doing a Heel Face Turn.
- Lord Sykos from The Wotch. Let's just say the name fits perfectly.
- Red Mage from 8-Bit Theater is sometihng of an aversion. Yes, he has white hair (and also happens to like wearing women's clothing), but he's more of a Munchkin than anything.
- Luka from MyLife in Blue. He fits the stereotype perfectly, being white-haired (he says it's due to "psychic trauma"), effeminate, bisexual, and attractive, but he's a nice guy.
- Artie from Concession is an albino rat with long hair (up until recently, and even now it's long again). Whether or not he's pretty, however, is up to you.
- Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!, laughs at the white-hair-equals-villain dynamics of this thread... Even though he is trying to kill off all sparks in Europa.
- Subverted in the nameless protagonist of HERO. White haired, check. Pretty, arguably. Boy, definitely. But he's about as far from villainous or badass as you can ever possibly get.
- Jurinjo from Emergency Exit. Ok, ok, it's actually grey, and he's a "villain" who's not really evil.
Web Original
- Despite typical regard for standard hair colors shown by Broken Saints, there's still one: Oran's childhood friend Hassan.
Western Animation
- Spoofed in Comedy Central's Drawn Together series with the Xandir character.
- Ren, from The Pirates of Dark Water: he's actually a dark-skinned platinum blond, and is a bit too short and stocky to be a bishie. But he's got the pale hair and pretty face; so, in this troper's opinion, he counts. And he's definitely a heroic example.
- Danny Phantom. Not really bishonen, but that hasn't stopped the fangirls from drawing him as such.
- Chris Moralčs of Code Lyoko is certainly white-haired and pretty, but an entirely sympathetic character.
- Although a little ambiguous at first, the Magus from Gargoyles is an ultimately heroic example.
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