Winged Humanoid - Television Tropes & Idioms

Rozen Maiden season one's Big Bad, Suigintou, has a pair of black wings on her back.
Every Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch villain introduced from Michel on had wings. Michel himself has white angel wings; Lady Bat's were, well, batlike; Lanhua/Ranfa/whatever had butterfly wings and Alala was a fairy (or a dragonfly?). Fuku's, as befitting a Small Annoying Creature, were tiny and lacking any detail that might align him to a particular animal.
The Onkamiyamukai in Utawarerumono are a race of angel-winged humanoids, who all have white wings except for the cutesy-ditsy princess Kamyu, who has black wings.
The Harpie Lady cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! Although their wings were actually attached to their arms rather than coming from their backs.
In Haibane Renmei, the Haibane of the title are humanoids who hatch full-grown from mysteriously appearing eggs. They have small, non-functional wings, and are given metallic "halos" that float over their heads by an unknown force. In addition, certain Haibane's wings get darker or entirely black, the mark of a rather nebulously defined "sin".
Virtually everyone in Angel Sanctuary fits this trope. Some even have three wings.
Angels Feather. Given its title, it is not surprising that there should be plenty of winged people.
The "angels" in Mnemosyne are actually mindless killing machines and the male counterparts to the always female immortals.
The goddesses' angels in Ah My Goddess, like Holy Bell, have permanent wings.
The people of Mt. Phoenix in Ranma ½ posit a bizarre case: for generations, they have used Jusenkyô water in which birds (and only birds) have drowned, for their everyday chores and consumption. The current generations, therefore, not only have flight-worthy wings, but also scaly, hawk-like talons instead of hands or feet.
Subverted (and possibly lampshaded) in the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind manga. Legend has it that a white-winged humanoid, clad in blue, would rise to lead the people to their salvation, as shown in an elaborate tapestry. However, Chikuku (a young acolyte) strongly insists that such a creature would be a monster. Instead, he says that Nausicaa's "wings" are represented by her pure-white Möwe glider.
- Played straight in the On Your Mark video, where the winged girl (who looks a lot like Nausicaa) is held prisoner by a cult.
The phoenix and dragon-based Machine Gods in Magic Knight Rayearth have the appropriate style of wings despite being humanoid in appearance. Upon combining with Rayearth, the composite mecha has very deliberate-looking angelic wings and a smaller set of dragon-style wings underneath.
Card Captor Sakura: Both Kerberos and Yue have angel-like wings, tinged gold and silver, respectively.
- Spinel "Suppi" Sun and Ruby Moon, too. Subverted with Kero and Spinel because Kero is a winged lion and Spinel is... a panther, maybe? Some sort of big black cat with wings. Yue's wings are angel-like, and Ruby's are like a butterfly's.
Yayoi of Koi Koi 7. This appears to be her only cyborg ability, though it has its occasional uses.
The Balmlings in Toushou Daimos is practically a race consisting of this trope.

The Hawkmen alien race, led by Prince Vultan, were the allies of Flash Gordon, whose original comic strip started in 1935. Noticable in that they were big, muscular men, which would make flight more difficult. Their leader was memorably hammed by BRIAN BLESSED in the 1980 movie.
- Which inspired the Thanagarians from The DCU, including Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who use the Applied Phlebotinum of "Nth Metal" to provide antigravity. That metal is usually carried in the belt, the wings themselves are typically attached to a harness and are only used to steer in flight. In some continuities, however, the wings are a part of their body.
Archangel of the X-Men is a mutant with white feathered wings. He was later RetConned into having super-strength and unbreakable, ultra-light bones, to explain away the biological improbabilities. (He also has eagle-keen vision, though no one seems to remember this.) When transformed into the Horseman Death by Apocalypse, his previously amputated feathered wings were replaced by razor-sharp mechanical ones that shot poison-tipped feathers. His white-feathered wings returned eventually, having grown back underneath the metal ones.
Marvel also has the Bird-People, a technologically advance race of winged humanoids who live on their floating Sky-Island. The Golden Age hero Red Raven was a regular human adopted into their civilization.
Komodo of the comic "Nocturnals" used to have wings, but when he tried to escape the evil laboratory he was raised in by flying, his creators removed them. While taunting a guard who tries to re-capture him, Komodo indicates that he doesn't miss his wings, as they "itched like hell."
Cross Gen's Sojourn had a race of winged humanoids, who were depicted as black people with red wings, dressed in a vaguely Ancient Egyptian theme.
The latest volume of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles introduced Raptarr, a winged super-hero in the mold of the X-Men's Angel.
ElfQuest has Tyldak, who may be a bit of a subversion in that his whole body was (painfully) reshaped via magic so he could fly where most of his fellow Gliders would simply use their powers of levitation to float; for example, his batlike wings are clearly his former arms.
Sigil, from the shortlived Bar Sinister comic, was a humanoid artifically evolved from a vampire bat who had, of course, bat wings.
Dawnstar from The Legion of Superheroes.

The Monkeybirds of Mirror Mask, nearly all of whom are named Bob.
- If This Troper recalls correctly, the monkeybords had gorilla-shaped bodies and only their faces were remotely bird-like. I don't think they had wings at all.
- They were able to glide with flaps of skin under their arms.
The Boy with Wings; an obscure movie (I'm having trouble even confirming its existence in IMDB) about a boy born with feathered wings. He spends most of the movie hiding it and not doing anything cool, and at the end of the movie, the CAMERA flies around and it's IMPLIED that he learned to fly, but... well the whole movie is somewhere between So Okay Its Average and So Bad Itshorrible. Probably "So OK it's Bad" or something.
Angel in X-Men 3.
Michael and Gabriel in Legion.
The John Travolta movie Michael is about an actual angel(albeit a Jerk Ass angel), complete with wings.
Huey Driscoll: Can I just pull on your wings to see how they're attached?
Michael: Why don't you pull on your pecker to see how it's attached?

The title character in the book Skellig is noted to have a number of physical properties, aside from wings, that would have once allowed him to fly, such as having hollow bones like a bird's.
The "bird kids" in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series, including the title character, Max, are said to be the results of what happens when one splices hawk DNA into orphaned human children. On top of this, the character Angel has New Powers As The Plot Demands that have nothing to do with birds or mammals ("Guess what? I can breathe underwater!")
- It's worth mentioning that the kids are based off characters in a earlier novel, When The Wind Blows. The kids there, however, have been extremely reformed to allow flight as well, creating a disturbing winged human-looking thing instead of a Winged Humanoid. Among these changes, as Max proudly declares, is that the bird-kids are oviparous. (They lay eggs.)
- Also worth noting is that this trope is pretty much the reason the series exists.
All of the Awians in Steph Swainston's Castle Circle series have wings, but only one character can use them to fly.
The extinct natives of Resurgam in Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space were originally descended from birds, but a group of them did re-engineer themselves for flight and were found to have structural changes like a larger sternum for the wing muscles to anchor to.
The Icarii in Sara Douglass's Wayfarer Redemption universe.
In the Discworld novel Discworld\Going Postal, Terry Pratchett made an attempt at depicting a Winged Humanoid while also managing a nod towards real-life physics: a flying banshee character has a slender light-weight frame, enormous flight muscles across his chest, and leathery wings that attach to his very long arms, rather than sprouting out of his back.
The Garuda from Perdido Street Station by China Mieville are humanoid avians, though much more bird-like than person-like. A major character in the story is a garuda whose wings were cut off; he visits the city of New Crobuzon with the intent of finding someone to grant him flight again.
The Council Wars series has incredibly advanced genetic engineering that allows for two types of winged-humans. The first type look like normal humans with wings and can't fly without an outside power source. The second type can fly on their own but this is a much more significantly modification so they look less human.
Gaia, the ring-like artificial world of John Varley's Titan trilogy has the angels, winged humanoids designed by the sattelite's decidedly off-kilter "god". Needless to say, they come out looking a lot less human-looking (their wings have been moved to their center of gravity, for instance) than the angel-like creatures she desired, and they can only fly in low gravity.
Peregrine of Wild Cards fame. Interestingly, it's a form of telekinesis that lets her fly — her wings and hollow bones are a useless deformity, making her as much of a Joker as an Ace.
Icari in Meredith Ann Pierce's Darkangel Trilogy have a dozen black-feathered wings, which are attached by their witch creator at the age of sixteen.
In the lovely juvenile novel Wings by Bill Britain, the main character is an Ordinary High School Student who inexplicably develops a huge pair of fully functional bat-like wings.
Some of the Half Human Hybrids in Dragons in Our Midst.
In Samantha Henderson's Heaven's Bones, a mad doctor in the 1860s uses radical surgery and clockwork to turn kidnapped women into Winged Humanoids, obsessively convinced that he's "making angels". Believe it or not, this one's justified, as he's being manipulated by a gypsy escapee from Ravenloft, and the Dark Powers are supernaturally ensuring his "creations" will survive and function, so he'll be pulled into the Land of Mists and drag this wayward Vistani back with him.
How about the Winged Monkeys from the Oz books and film? Assuming Winged Anthropoids count.
Derk creates two of these in Dark Lord of Derkholm, though we don't see them till the sequel.
David, protagonist of Edmond Hamilton's Tear Jerker short story "He That Hath Wings," is explicitly stated to have both hollow bones and a skeleton adapted for flight.
There is a race of winged people in Maggie Furey's Aurian books. They were considerably shorter and slighter than humans.
Caitlyn in Broken Angel.

The early Zoroastrians depicted a winged sun-disk called a farahavar. This later developed into the modern representation of the fravashis; the fravashi has the same "Assyrian" look as the angels of Byzantine iconography. Speaking of whom, the Assyrians depicted both gods and devils with four wings in a "fairy" or "butterfly" configuration.
Early Mesopotamic cultures had imagery of humanoids and animals (of non-winged species) with wings. Ancient Greece took that feature and incorporated it into its own iconography, resulting in various gods, personifications and creatures with wings in Classical Greco-Roman Mythology and Imagery. The wings depicted are usually feathered bird-wings, with the notable exception of Psyche's (Eros' lover) butterfly wings. Among the winged persons are among others: Nike (goddess of victory), Pegasos, gryphons. The Erotes Eros/Amor (love), Anteros (requited-love), Himeros (desire), and Pothos (longing) are usually depicted as young winged boys of various ages. Same as Thanatos (death).
Tengu from Japanese folklore.
Angels from the Abrahamic religions. When they aren't being multi-eyed, four-headed horrors, or normal looking joes.
The Badass Garuda from Hindu Mythology.

Warhammer 40000, The Eldar Swooping Hawks have mechanical wings which generate an anti-gravity field, allowing them to fly. Dark Eldar Scourges have similar wings but they are batlike instead of feathery. Chaos Space Marine jump packs are sometimes wing-like in design, and they also sometimes use biomechanical wings (justified because Chaos doen't give a damn about what's physically feasible). In adition, there's two examples of humanoids with actual wings. The Primarch Sanguinius, known as "the Angel", has perfect white wings, and the Battle Sisters' Living Saint manifests them as part of being a saint. Of course, this being 40k, the Angel is a vampiric demigod who fights giant blood daemons, and the saint is spouting lines like "By my light, we shall purge this wretched, tainted land."
- Although describing them as "humanoid" would be a massive stretch, many of the huge winged Tyranids fit the spirit of this trope.
- Kroot of the Vulture kindred also fall here, though whether the wings are feathered, webbed, or just feathers extending off their arms depends on portrayal. Only good for short-distance jungle-jump, anyways.
Certain demons in Demon:The Fallen have wings in their apocalyptic forms, usually either eagle, owl, or raven wings. Notably, they can't actually fly, but can glide.
- Well, no, some of them can even fly. To quote the Player's Guide, At the cost of one extra form point, the demon can take off from standing position and actually gain altitude by flapping her wings.
The Avariel, or winged elves, in Forgotten Realms D&D, who have feathery and very much flight capable wings. This aside from the typical divine and demonic humanoids, who we could fill far too many pages listing.
- Many years earlier, a race of winged humans (called simply "winged folk") were described in a Dragon Magazine article, as an optional new race for 1st Edition AD&D.
- Aarakocra have been described as a possible flying PC race, for Dark Sun in 2E and for any sort of campaign in 3E. Their arms are feathered wings, so they don't fit the most common image for this trope, but are a lot more plausible.
The German RPG Engel features these as the protagonists. It does at least try to accomodate physics by equipping angels with the physical appearance of 10-year-olds and 10 metre wingspans with massive flight muscles powered by nano-tech. The problems arising from these wings are also explored in the system — entering a common peasant's hut is difficult when the wings can at most be folded to occupy 3 metres, as is simply lying down.
GURPS Fantasy Folk has the Winged Folk (Exactly What It Says On The Tin) available as a playable race.
The Winged template in the "Savage Species" splatbook lets anyone or anything have wings for a mere +2 level adjustment. It's actually one of the better templates for P Cs to take.
Talislanta has the Gryphs and Stryx as winged humanoid races, complete with HUGE wings that actually look like they might get them off the ground. It also acknowledges the implausibility of this trope with the Aeriads, a race of bird-people who have lost their ability to truly fly (though they can still glide) in the course of adapting to a ground-based life.
The People of the Air in Exalted. The extreme improbability and impracticality of humanoids developing wings is both Lampshaded and justified by the fact that the titular Exalted created them with the secret arts and Lost Technology of the First Age, basically just to see if they could. Wyld mutants can also develop functional wings; in this case it's justified because, well... it's the Wyld.
Ravenloft features Diamabel, darklord of Pharazia, whose winged appearance is a gift - and curse - from the Dark Powers.

Breath of Fire
- In Breath of Fire 2, Nina is looked down upon by the rest of her race because she has black wings, which are a bad omen. The females of the Dragon Clan (which the hero belongs to) possess wings as well, dragon-style of course.
- In Breath of Fire 3, the Wyndians have long since lost their wings — Nina wears a fake pair.
  - Also in Breath of Fire 3, using the genes to turn Ryu into his Warrior Dragon or Myrmidon forms cause him to become a gargoyle-like Winged Humanoid.
- And in Breath of Fire V, Nina has bright red abstractly wing-shaped appendages, but they're not actually wings.
Kid Icarus
Disgaea
In early 2007, City of Heroes added both feathered and bat-style wings to the character design options available to players. Oddly, these wings are not functional unless and until the player takes flight as one of the character's powers.
- Since then the game has also added smaller versions of the bat and feathered wings, as well as dragon wings, insect wings (bee and butterfly styles), burned and bone wings (they have holes in the skin), and the cybernetic tech wings.
  - The wings were made to flap for any action which causes the player to leave the ground (I.E. Jumping, falling) by a later update.
Angels of the The Lowest Cosmic Denominator variety appear in several of the Heroes of Might and Magic games.
The bird Laguz in Fire Emblem have these while in human form; all but one character can fly using these.
- Fa and Myrrh from The Binding Blade and The Sacred Stones respectively are dragons who normally take the form of little human girls with wings to conserve their energy.
The (arch)angels in the Diablo series are agents of Heaven with a rather unusual appearance. E.g. Tyrael's wings are actually tentacles made of light.
The chivalrous, winged Balmung is one of the iconic characters of .hack.
Tabuu from Super Smash Bros. Brawl has an odd, technologically inspired evil kind.
- Don't forget about Pit.
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings introduces the aegyl, a race of winged creatures living on a Floating Continent (or rather a floating archipelago).
- Although the real life implications of having wings do seem to come slightly into play here, because it's stated that having the wings puts an incredible strain on the aegyl's bodies, so they only end up living to around the age of 40.
The Black Waltzes that the Queen sends after Garnet in Final Fantasy IX have navy blue-feathered wings, matching their cloaks. The child Eiko wears a pair of tiny, decorative wings on her back, which are actually a hindrance due to the villains' fondness for catching her by them. Then, in possibly the strangest occurrence of the trope, the gigantic living castle, Alexander, grows shining white wings that it uses to defend Alexandria from Bahamut's attack (although these wings molt and rot when Garland attempts to corrupt Alexander.)
Kaelyn the Dove in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.
- Any level 9 or above Dragon Disciples in Neverwinter Nights had small useless wings, these disapeared by the second game. Oddly any half dragon above medium size has wings and can fly in other D&D material. Even more oddly Dragon Disciples in other material all get functioning wings regardless of size.
In the Legacy of Kain series, we have the ancient vampire race, who are mostly humanoid in appearance (with the exception of blue skin and three-clawed hands and feet), only with large feathered wings sprouting from their backs. The Hylden have leathery wings with no "finger bones", kinda like a pterosaur's. Raziel also gains a pair of bat-like wings in the prologue of Soul Reaver but has them ripped to shreds by Kain immediately after growing them and spends the rest of the franchise with the torn remnants of his wings on his back (which are still pretty handy to glide around with).
Mildred from Arcana Heart has angelic wings, but she's Evil with a capital "E".
- Lilica as well.
The Reapers from The World Ends With You have abstract wing-shaped appendages coming out of their backs. While they CAN fly if needed, the wings don't really help with that, and are instead a symbol of their status. The Stinger shows that Hanekoma has a pair of angelic wings as well.
- Beat gains the wings upon becoming a Reaper, and thus the character sprite both in-battle and in the cut scenes display them.
  - This is foreshadowed cleverly in the games artwork. Take a look at the tire marks on the pavement behind Beat. What do those look like?
Millenia from Grandia II.
- Justified in that she's the Wings of Valmar. Strangely enough, despite being a fragment of Valmar, she's not a Cosmic Horror (actually mighty sexy).
chaos from the Xenosaga series utilizes the white winged option. A couple of his Tech attacks in the first game involved taking flight with two small wings, and while not shown, even the third game had a tech called "Angel Wings". Of course, he is essentially God's failsafe.
Members of the Featherfolk race in the Star Ocean universe have wings, as well. The third game's dictionary handwaves this by explaining that, being descended from birds, they have hollow bones, and at some point in their evolutionary history, the humerus bone split in two. The vast majority can only fly for brief periods. A very small number can't fly at all. Although the only one we see that can't fly eventually learns.
Since everyone in Touhou can fly without wings, this is largely moot. But the few people who actually have wings also have advantages associated with flying; most notably the Tengu being the best speeders and masters of the wind.
- Though it should be noted that in the PC-98 games, or rather pre-ContinuityReboot, various characters gained wings as part of their EX forms — however, to date, there has only been one character with an EX form in the Windows series (Keine, whose were-Hakutaku form has no wings), and only four characters from the PC-98 games have been seen since the reboot outside of fanon.
The Winged Ones of King's Quest VI are white-winged, but their pomposity and cowardice belies their angelic appearance.
The Zenithians in Dragon Quest IV, like Orifiela.
- Also, the Lefa Clan of Gorges in Dragon Quest VII.
Tengu Man, from Mega Man 8 and Mega Man & Bass. His are thin, spike-like jets. Shademan in 7 has bat-wings. Bass fits the trope even further when using the Treble Boost. Mega Man himself has had the Jet and Super Megaman armors, with squared-off jets.
- The Mega Man X series has Storm Eagle and Storm Owl.
Aerie from Baldurs Gate 2 was apparently a Winged Elf at one point, before being captured and caged made her wings atrophy and become infected, requiring amptutation. The major result of this crippling confinement to the ground seems to be a tendency to bitchiness and whining.
The aptly named Wingers of Suikoden.
Serene, Ledah, and a few others from Riviera The Promised Land.
Wings are common among demonic races in the Warcraft series. Dread Lords and Succubi both have wings, although they're never actually shown flying at any point in the games. Pit Lords also have wings, but they're only vaguely humanoid.
- Paladins in World Of Warcraft will sprout wings of light as the result of a cetain spell.
Sadie, the Breeze Witch in Luminous Arc 2.
The robot Angelg from Super Robot Wars is practically this trope in Humongous Mecha.
Two of the Dead Apostle Ancestors in Tsukihime are some sort of hybrid bird creatures. They haven't appeared in anything but supplementary material yet, though.
Star Craft's Kerrigan has wings but they are useless for flight; instead they're just wing bones with armor-peircing clawson the ends.
The Grias from Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 has dragon wings, complete with a horn and tail.
The Siren race from Startopia are attractive human-looking winged people. Two things are unique about them: first, the Baywatch Babes are actually the males, and the Chippendales Dancers are the females. Secondly, their "wings" are their sex organs.
Inverted in the Metroid series with the Chozo; rather than being humans with wings, they're birds without wings!

Last Resort has the Celeste, which basically are a hybrid species effectively characterized as being "anything with wings on it". Only the ones with the largest wings (naturally, on their back) are useful for flight.
Celia from The Order of the Stick, as a sylph from the Elemental Plane of Air, has dragonfly-like wings. The various Celestials, inspired by the D&D templates, have feathery wings.
Aki of The Dragon Doctors has pixie wings, explained as working by magic instead of physics.
Consciences in Mega Tokyo.
Firne of Linburger have bat wings. They aren't evil though, and so far they haven't shown any ability to fly.
Marsha of College Roomies From Hell develops wings after being bitten by a "batato" that developed in the guys' horrendously filthy kitchen.
One of Aylee's transformations from Sluggy Freelance is mostly human, but with a set of leathery wings coming out of her back. When these wings aren't in use, she wraps them around her body so they form the shape of a dress.

Protectors of the Plot Continuum has Agent Dustin O'Grady, a anthrozil, and Honesah Hoononee Keemo, PPC ally from the mirror multiverse.
- The Official Fanfiction University of Cats is run by a being called an Ironwing (on account of the metallic feathers in her wings), named Miss Minnaloushe. Her cousin Kihr also shows up.
Arcana Magi and Arcana Magi Zero feature naturally winged humanoids. Alysia Morales in Arcana Magi sprouts a pair of misty magical wings after becoming a Sentinel.

Gargoyles are a subversion of the "batwings are evil" variety. They only glide via their wings, and have the ability to tuck them around their necks like cloaks when not in flight. The series' creator openly admitted that he invented this ability because, otherwise, "staging scenes where many of the major characters have big, crazy wings would have been a right pain in the ass." The one exception is Lexington, whose wings are under his arms like a flying squirrel.
- It should also be noted that feathered wings appear just as much in Gargoyles as bat wings do. In fact, Bat wings seem to be the exclusive feature of Scottish gargoyles, which is why the main cast has them. Gargoyles from England, Guatamala, and Japan show an even mix in wing type.
- Notably, in an episode where Xanatos expresses his desire to create his own race of gargoyles, the myriad problems that make it nearly impossible for a human-size creature to fly are explained to him (and thus the viewer).
The main characters in WITCH have tiny wings on their backs which enable them to fly (in the cartoon. In the comic, only Hay Lin could fly until a power upgrade gave everyone the ability much later). However, these are just for show, and the flight is explicitly magical.
- The second arc introduces the Knights of Destruction, a four-member Quirky Miniboss Squad. One has bat wings, one has white bird wings, and the leader has black bird wings.
Star Trek The Animated Series featured an race called the Skorr in a few episodes who, unlike most winged humanoids, were far more bird like than normal. Oh, and their feathers were yellow.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Avians are a race of winged humanoids genetically engineered by Y'Lyntians as slaves. Now freed, they live in an undetectable city in the sky. One of these, Raptarr, is a recurring character in the series, and a member of the current Justice Force.
- The Inawashi Gunjin from Fast Forward also qualify.
The title character of Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law has (mostly unused) wings. Other characters such as Peanut and Birdgirl have metalic wings (that still do nothing).
Justice League's Hawkgirl (the animated version) is a member of the race of Thanagarians, who all have wings. (Word Of God has said that these wings are a result of genetic experimentation and are not natural otherwise. Or So I Heard.)
Talon, from Static Shock, has wings on her arms and talons for feet.
She-Ra: Princess of Power has Harpies. Harpies in general tend to be an aversion of the Good Wings Evil Wings trope because, although they're evil and look it, they have Avian wings, like angels, as opposed to the bat wings of most evil Winged Humanoids.
In Exo Squad, the Bat and Avian forms of Neo Warrior naturally have batlike and feathery wings respectively. The Neo Lords have rather small mosquito-style wings.

Subverted somewhat in Busou Renkin in that the hawk homunculus can transform his hands into giant metallic wings sprouting from his arms, which is a bit more realistic. He does not have any feathers, he doesn't really use them for flying in his humanoid form, and his morally grey nature is not indicated by the wing type. The author explained that he hates usual winged humanoids, so this was his compromise.
Yagami Hayate, who first appears in the second season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, sprouts 6 grey "Seraphim" style wings after her Transformation Sequence. This comes from her "unison" power with Reinforce, who also sports them in her original (evil) form. She seems to have given the wings to Hayate completely after her transformation into Reinforce Zwei, although she can still fly around.
Van from Vision of Escaflowne is a Half Human Hybrid of the Draconian race, and has wings that he can "summon" when he needs to. His Aloof Big Brother also sports a pair.
Likewise, Setsuna from Mahou Sensei Negima! is a Half Human Hybrid of "the Bird Tribe" demons, which resemble traditional Japanese Tengu, but nobody says that outloud. Like Van, she can summon her wings at will. She has a sort of albinism, which makes her feathered wings white. While anathema to her demonic ancestry, her human friends think she looks like an angel.
Athena in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer sprouts big white wings in some battles for little reason, other than it looks cool. In Hikaru and Athena's battle, Hikaru also sprouts wings, without any previous indication that she was able.
In Neon Genesis Evangelion and its follow-up movie End of Evangelion, various Angels are shown extending multiple pairs of energy wings.
- The Mass Production EVA units from End of Evangelion are a particularly messed-up case. They enter their scene gliding on enormous, gliderlike wing-and-tailfeather sets. Upon landing, they retract their entire several-hudred-foot wingspan into a pair of small plates on their backs. At the end of the fight, they take off again and use their wings like actual birds, all the while in Perpetual Molt.
  - Not to mention Rei and Unit 01 who each sprout the What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic set of twelve wings the size of the moon.
Chise from Saikano has metallic wings that sprout from her back, causing her large amounts of pain, whenever she becomes the "ultimate weapon".
Mew Mint from Tokyo Mew Mew has lorikeet DNA, and therefore sprouts lorikeet-sized wings from her back. Despite their tiny size, she can fly with them.
Some of Corrector Yui's battle forms have wings of sorts.
Sailor Moon's "Eternal" form costume seems to have purely decorative ones that cause nothing but inconvenience, like letting her be pinned to walls and squeezing through narrow doorways. However, in the final episode, Sailor Moon was stripped of her costume, but attained real (and realistic-looking) wings that allowed her to fly. The season's Big Bad, Sailor Galaxia, got red bat-like wings in the final episode, as a result of the transformation into her black "evil" form.
Fumika and Chiaki from Shigofumi use their talking staffs to sprout wings and fly. They have a limited time in which this function can be used though, after which they return to normal.
Howl in the film version of Howl's Moving Castle occasionally turns into a bird-like creature.
- The markings on his wings are probably a Shout Out / Continuity Nod to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, as they are the same as those on Nausicaa's sleeves.
The Crusniks in Trinity Blood have wings when the nanomachines in their bodies are at eighty and one hundered percent, although we don't get to see them use them until the last episode of the anime. In an inversion of the traditional colour coding of wings, good guy Abel has black wings while his psycho twin Cain has white ones.
There is an angel in Chrono Crusade but he is wingless, while the Apostles, though initially human, grow wings from time to time.
The final form of Monad Proxy in Ergo Proxy is that of angelic Re-l. Don't ask. It's a Mind Screw.
Sakura in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle does not have literal feathered wings, but more fluid-looking wings which, we are informed, are composed of her collective memories from her birth and have the power to travel across the various dimensions without limit. When the wings are broken, they scatter into feathers of astonishing power, which do not look at all like they should comprise the wings themselves. However, the very first few panels of the first chapter seemed to indicate that Sakura's wings do allow her to fly, but that she does not control them, nor when they sprout from her back.
Weiss Kreuz Glühen: the OP features the main characters with wings on their backs. Black ones, to boot. But feathered, not bat-like.
In Card Captor Sakura, the Fly card initially puts wings on Sakura's staff, which she would ride on, broom-like. In a later arc, she modifies the card so that it gives her the wings (appropriately angelic and in Perpetual Molt) during a situation that requires her to both fly and use her staff as a sword (using, of course, the Sword card. Clow Reed was nothing if not straightforward in naming).
Dark of D.N.Angel. Black and feathery ones. But they actually are his shape-changing pet, With. (Conviniently axplains why they're not always there.)
- Don't forget about Krad, who has white, feathery wings. These are apparently real in the sense that they're not shapechanged anything. These two also have an inverted colour-code, because Krad is the bad guy, and Dark the good one.
Kanna of Air, whose wings are central to the story's plot.
Shinigami in Death Note have rather ragged wings of the retractable variety.
In Bleach, Hitsugaya's bankai gives him a pair of ice wings, though they seem to be just for show, as most Shinigami of that strength can hover in midair with or without aid of wings.
- More recently, Uliquorra's resureccion includes bat-like wings.
In ef: A Tale of Memories, Chihiro is shown sprouting wings during the highlight moment of her story arc. It's likely just symbolic, although with that series you can't take anything for granted.
Goddesses like Belldandy in Ah My Goddess can sprout wings — apparently, "borrowed" from their angels.
The unnamed girl from On Your Mark.
Nue in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de could achieve humanoid form and sprout wings in that form at will.
Shana in Shakugan No Shana, who grows flame wings during her second fight with Margery Daw.
While this troper can't remember anyone actually using them to fly, the Tenchi series and Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual have the Light Hawk Wings. They are implied to be the same artifact, but Dual's version only appears on a mech.
The Tengu in Black Bird have wings, but they do not appear when they are disguised as humans.

Swift of The Authority can grow both wings and bird claws.
Shy Crazy Lolita Canary, DC's sendup of magical schoolgirls. An interesting case, she's the size of an actual canary.
The Wasp of The Avengers has insect-like wings that sprout when she shrinks.

Sometimes the possession of wings can be gender-specific: In The Dark Crystal, male humanoid Gelflings have no wings, while females have a pair of well-hidden fairy-like wings they can use for gliding.
Several major characters in Dogma are angels who generally go around with wings in Hammerspace, but bring them out to impress mortals or go on aerial killing sprees. Notably, in this film, cutting an angel's wings off turns him into a mortal human, subject to things like death and plenary indulgence...
- Interestingly, the Keanu Reaves starring remake of the comic book, Constantine — which is basically the bearded Spock version of Dogma — uses pretty much the same system, right down to their removal rendering the (former) owner mortal.
  - That was in the Hellblazer comic too, long before the movie.
  - Where he used a chainsaw. Film or comic, John Constantine does not like angels.

In the childen's book, Black and Blue Magic, the protagonist gains the ability to grow fluffy white wings at night by using a magic potion, losing them in the morning. Interestingly enough, even though A Wizard Did It, some attention is paid to the energy requirements necessary with the protagonist both having to eat substantial amounts of food to fuel himself, but also developing very impressive chest and back muscles in the process.

There are probably god-knows how many ways for a Dungeons & Dragons character to get themselves a pair of wings, but the two that spring to this troper's mind are the Dragon Disciple Prestige Class, which allows the character to unlock latent draconic abilities including leathery, draconic wings at the 9th level of the class. The second is the Favoured Soul class from Complete Divine, who gain wings on their 17th level in the class, the style of which is determined by the character's alignment and, thus, Color Coded For Your Convenience.

Most of the inhabitants of the world in Baten Kaitos have "Wings of the Heart" — retractable wings of all different varieties that apparently respond to emotion. (Early in the game, one young woman's wings come out involuntarily when she's lost in a daydream.) The citizens of The Empire don't have these, and use mechanical wings instead; the hero has one real wing and one metal one. Notably, these wings aren't used for actual flight, except for short distances; long-distance travel is done in flying boats.
Quite a few Final Fantasy villains (and a few protagonists) sport wings representative of their status:
- In Final Fantasy VI, the ascended Kefka gains two angelic pairs of wings and one pair of demonic ones.
- The One Winged Angel trope-namer, Sephiroth, in Final Fantasy VII. He actually has seven wings in his final form, but only one is on his torso where it replaces his right arm. It reaches uncomfortably absurd levels in the prequel, Crisis Core, where several other characters gain angelic wings mostly as symbols of their rank. Said wings are always only on one side, and are white for the "good" character and black for the "bad" one.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, Sorceress Ultimecia has black-feathered, frazzled-looking wings, whereas the heroine Rinoa can sprout angelic ones during her "Angel Wing" Limit Break.
- Rinoa also has white angel wings painted (or sewn) on the back of her sleeveless duster garment ... thing.
  - Also, Leon(aka Squall) has red angel wings shaped just like Rinoa's stenciled or sewn onto the back of his jacket in Kingdom Hearts.
In Tales of Symphonia, the organization Cruxis, which runs the Church of Martel, is made up mostly of angels, which are believed to be the Goddess' messengers. They're actually half-elves (most of them) with extra powers, most of whom have no souls, and their leader Yggdrasill is the game's Big Bad. The whole thing is a massive Xanatos Gambit dedicated to getting his sister Martel a new body.
- Lloyd also gets a pair at the very end of the game.
Jak from the Jak and Daxter series gains wings in the third game, as a Light-based power. It's also the only power that doesn't force you out of the mode when the gauge runs out — they'll wait until you land.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker features the Rito, bird-like people who gain wings after receiving the scale of a dragon. In Link's Awakening, Marin grows wings and flies away after the credits if you didn't die any time.
In Neverwinter Nights, when a character reaches 9 levels in the Red dragon disciple prestige class they gain a pair of red dragon wings.
Summoner has the Sudani, who in the mythical past lost their wings. They are the ancestors of all humans. Thus, almost every character in the games is a Winged Humanoid by descent.
The Hawkmen from Ogre Battle, among whom Canopus is the most well-known.
Eddie gains a pair of demon wings halfway through Brutal Legend. They can only be used during strategic battles and simply vanish into his back when not in use.

Rumisiel, Vashiel and Cassiel from Misfile all have the standard feathery angel wings of the Hammerspace storage variety. They only pop out when they are wanted or needed, needs apparently include flying, though they seem stationary.
In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Princess Voluptua's true form is a vaguely humanoid butterfly creature with a beautiful pair of huge multicolored wings.
Sabine from The Order of the Stick has bat-like wings in her true succubus form, which she can make disappear at will by shapeshifting into a human.
- Celia the sylph also has translucent butterfly wings.
Mega Tokyo's "Dead Piro Day" sketches, as well as the "Circuity" omake, all feature the women of the comic with various styles of wings, including the haunting "Broken Miho" poster, featuring Tohya Miho with what look like broken mechanical wings with only a few feathers strapped to them. Fred Gallagher has said he is a big Haibane Renmei fan...
Zebra Girl: Definitely the evil wings variety, although it isn't really her fault.

In Arcana Magi Zero, Alysia Perez and Megumi Miyazaki sprout a pair of wings after they transform into their magical outfits.

Transformers often have these, depending on how they transform and what they turn into. If their alternate mode flies, their wings may let them do it in robot mode too. Otherwise, these "wings" are purely decorative, and generally an artifact of transformation. One of the most common is car doors projecting from the back, seen in virtually every series since the original (those that included vehicle transformations, anyway).
- Incidentally, the running theme is Jets versus Cars, with the Decipticons having the Seekers and Megatron flying, no matter gun or jet as his alt-mode. Shockwave and Soundwave also fly; no idea how a giant gun and a Walkman manage that.
  - One piece of Fanon is that anyone who becomes a Decepticon has to undergo a painful and dangerous augmentation, which not only makes them physically mightier but fits them with anti-gravity generators allowing them to fly even when in Humongous Mecha mode.
- Transformers Armada Starscream, the perpetual jet of the series, has one of his wings turn into a sword.
In Code Lyoko, Aelita's virtual avatar eventually gains wings of the white feathered sort, though apparently made of Pure Energy. She can fly with them, but realistic physics are not required in a virtual world anyway.

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