Third Person Person / Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Kusuri, Momiji, Mai, Suu, and Tama all refer to themselves by name, though it's not always carried over in translation.
• Hagall from Ah! My Goddess has referred to herself in the third person a few times.
• Sara from Ai no Shintairiku refers to herself by her name.
• Yuzuyu in Aishiteruze Baby does this, as she's five-years-old.
• Mayu, Aoi and Chika from Ai Yori Aoshi, though Aoi usually only uses it with Kaoru.
• The ghost girl Menma from Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.
• Assassination Classroom: Koro-sensei often refers to himself as "sensei", probably to be cutesy, though the official subtitles don't make note of it and just translate it as "I".^note It's apparently not that unusual, at least In fiction, for teachers to use "sensei" as a pronoun when talking to their students, although his are probably a little old to be addressed like that.
• Sengoku Nadeko in Bakemonogatari constantly speaks in the third person, at least in the original Japanese. In the first season, this is clearly because she's the stereotypical moe character. In Otorimonogatari, we learn that it's actually because she's so mentally detached from her day-to-day life that she doesn't even have a sense of self.
• BanG Dream!: Moca from the band Afterglow often refers to herself in the third person when she's trying to be cutesy, or play up her status as The Gadfly.
  Moca: Moca-chan is a genius, after all.
• Momose from Bloody Cross talks like this.
• Kero from Cardcaptor Sakura uses this at times, calling himself "the great Cerberus".
• Another Ayumi does this too: the one from Case Closed. In her case, it's justified because Ayumi Yoshida is just six/seven-years-old.
• The 20,001 MISAKAs in A Certain Magical Index not only talk in the third person, but narrate what their emotions are. In a deadpan voice, "'I did not detect any irregularities in your brain,' suggests MISAKA with a bit of anxiety." Last Order, who ups the moe, announces herself as the subject of her narration twice, that is, "... says MISAKA, as MISAKA...," etc. No-one ever seems to react or care. When talking amongst each other, they refer to both the MISAKA number spoken to/about and the MISAKA number speaking. Aloud.
• Ayumi tends to do this in Charlotte.
• Chi(i) from Chobits graduates from Pokémon Speak to Third-Person Person as she learns to communicate.
• In Code Geass, Lelouch gives his orders in the form "Lelouch vi Britannia orders you" (the last episode is probably the only one featuring this without using the Geass).
  • Jeremiah Gottwald has his moments.
• Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop does this often, although she does occasionally use first-person pronouns.
• The Dangers in My Heart: Moeko Sekine, or "Moe", refers to herself like this for cuteness factor.
  • Anna Yamada is also shown to speak like this when at home with her parents... and avoids doing it anywhere else out of embarrassment because she wants to be more grown up. Her face turns red when Ichikawa finds out and brings it up.
  Yamada: Keep it secret!
• In Dad, the Beard Gorilla and I, Michiru—who is a kindergartener—occasionally refers to herself by name.
• DearS:
  • Ren does this regularly, to demonstrate how childish she is.
  • Natsuki zigzags between referring to herself by name and referring to herself as "I".
• Misa from Death Note slips into Third-Person Personage when she's in her cutesy Idol Singer mode.
• Digimon Tamers:
  • I, Dukemon, spoke in a construct based around this, but only in the original Japanese. It carries over from his base form; Guilmon did use some pronouns like boku from time to time, but most of the time he spoke in a standard third person way. This also applied when he evolves to Growmon. Of course, it's a bit different with his Ultimate form: Guilmon is a rather childlike character, Growmon is rather a Manchild, and Dukemon is a royal knight, so it's going from "Me Guilmon not know pronouns!" to "I, Dukemon, shall smite thee!" This also reinforces that Dukemon has shades of its own personality, supported by having a very different-sounding^note except not actually any different voice to Guilmon. It should be noted that while most subtitles render his pronouns as "I, Dukemon", it carries a slightly different connotation to his actual pronoun in Japanese speech, "kono Dukemon"^note this Dukemon, showing his specific reference in the third person is more of a humble servant, befitting his standing as a knight, especially in later media where Dukemon actually served a master, rather than the grandiose and self-important sounding "I, Dukemon".
  • Culumon follows a similar pattern with some 'culus' thrown in.
• In the Japanese version of Dragon Ball, the egocentric Professional Killer Taopaipai often refers to himself as "this Taopaipai".
• Fat Buu does this in Dragon Ball Z, but only in the FUNimation dub.
• Pan of Dragon Ball GT.
• Damaramu from Dragon Half. Probably to emphasize that he's not all there. "Damaramu's brain is very compact!" — to explain how he survived stabbing himself in the head with his own sword.
• Dungeon Toilet: Gigi doesn't use first-person pronouns, and only refers to herself by name...but only in the first chapter. She drops the speech pattern in later chapters.
• Elfen Lied:
  • Nana, young teenage girl with the mind of a six-year-old.
  • Although it's not subtitled, Mariko speaks this way in the original Japanese version.
  • The Manga also gives us Anna.
• Pino of Ergo Proxy is a cute little Robot Girl. Though it's grammatically correct to use your own name in Japanese, so she uses "I" in the English dub.
• Excel♡Saga:
  • Pedro does this all the time in the anime, and Excel and Hyatt do this in the anime from time to time, too. Excel when she's feeling hyper, Hyatt when she's about to die again.
  • Hiyoko, a minor character from the manga version, always talks this way, while Elgala, a major character, does when by addressing herself as "I, Elgala".
• Fairy Tail:
  • Juvia the water mage, though this gets lost in the English dub of the anime. The French dub, on the other hand, never misses it.
  • Mard Geer of Tartaros does the arrogant version.
• Samejima Mamimi from FLCL.
• Nessa does this in Fractale, makes sense since she is a doppel and the original Nessa is a bunny plushtoy.
  Nessa: Nessa loves love.
• Envy in the manga/Brotherhood version of Fullmetal Alchemist refers to themself as "this Envy" in the original Japanese. This serves to enhance their extreme narcissism while also making their speech pattern androgynous. Envy in the 2003 anime doesn't do this, probably because he's a man and much more serious as a villain.
• In the Fruits Basket manga, Yuki's fellow student council member Kimi does this, apparently to make herself more Moe.
  • In the sequel, Haru and Rin's daughter Sora often does this as well.
• In Girls und Panzer, Katyusha likes to refer to herself in the third person, often "Katyusha-sama" when she's feeling particularly egotistical.
• Gundam:
  • Stellar Loussier of Gundam SEED Destiny would do this, in a way that sweet and innocent. There's just ONE scene in which she uses first person: her Dying Declaration of Love to Shinn Asuka. "Shinn, I love you".
  • Nena Trinity of Gundam 00 would also do this on occasion.
  • As would Mileina Vashti, probably to emphasize her youth compared to the rest of the cast.
• Kagura Hinata in H₂O: Footprints in the Sand. She used normal pronouns as a child, and only started once she was forced to assume her sister's identity. Once she outs herself to the town as Hotaru, not Hinata, she still speaks in the third person, but with the right name.
• Rena of Hand Maid May does this all the time.
• Haruka and Yuuto from Haruka Nogizaka's Secret tend to do this to each other.
• Kind of a plot point in an episode of Hell Girl. Haime and Tsugumi meet a Lonely Rich Kid who talks like this and says that "Mina's Daddy left her". It turns out she is the mysterious Mina, and she's a Creepy Doll...
• Heterogenia Linguistico: Susuki refers to herself in the third person, though this might be due to Werewolf language lacking a first-person pronoun.
• Riser Phenex does this for some reason in the dubs of High School D×D, though not in the original Japanese.
• Imaizumin-chi wa Douyara Gal no Tamariba ni Natteru Rashii: ~DEEP~: Ruri addresses herself in third-person.
• I'm In Love With the Villainess: Lily talks in this manner.
• Natsuki in Initial D.
• Inuyasha:
  • Sesshômaru is fond of referring to himself as "this Sesshômaru", a common idiom for arrogance which is often translated into "I, [name]" in English. It was actually explained in a subbing note: Japanese traditionally had a certain "noble" way of speaking, so they'd tend to refer to themselves in third person, or similar.
  • Rin, meanwhile, does the "cute and childlike" variant.
  • Naraku occasionally does the arrogant version.
• Ruby of Jewelpet ordinarily doesn't refer to herself in the third person, but in Jewelpet: Magical Change she does. It doesn't go unnoticed either; in one episode of Magical Change, Luea pretends to be her rival Ruby to infiltrate the Kiraras' house, and the other Jewelpets immediately notice "Ruby" referring to herself with normal pronouns.
• While many characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure do this once in a while, Big Bad Dio Brando always refers to himself as "kono Dio", roughly meaning "this Dio" and translated as "I, Dio". For instance: "You thought your first kiss would be JoJo, but it was I, Dio!"
• K's Neko has her moments.
  Neko: Neko wa Shiro no neko de...Shiro wa Neko no Shiro da yo~~ (Neko is Shiro's cat and...Shiro is Neko's Shiro!
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
  • Apachai (more pronounced in the English dub).
  • Also the Elegant Gothic Lolita Rimi in the same manga.
• The nekomata Adeba from Kitsune no Yomeiri speaks in the third person at time. This habit, coupled with her sometimes stilted sentence structure, seems to indicate her unfamiliarity with human speech.
• Murasaki from Kure-nai refers to herself in this way. In this case, it serves as making her be both cute and humble.
• Kyouka the Cat Girl from Kyouran Kazoku Nikki does this a lot.
• Manami from Life (2002) refers to herself as "Mana". She uses it to seem cute, but it's also used in the more Western idea (it foreshadows her manipulative and egotistical ways).
• Yuiko Hawatari of Loveless. Although Ritsuka helps her get over this habit.
• Nico Yazawa from Love Live! often speaks like this whenever she's in her cutesy persona yet whenever she isn't, she speaks normally. This also applies to the English dubbed version.
  Nico: Nico Nico Nii! Nico will always be in your heart! Hi there I am Yazawa Nico-Nico! Don't leave me, cause I Nico-need you! (from the NIS America dub)
  • Yoshiko Tsushima from Love Live! Sunshine!! calls herself Yohane whenever she is in her chuunibyou mode
  • Ruby Kurosawa would also do this, although many fans seem to think that creators did this on purpose to add onto her cuteness.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Though she does use first-person pronouns, the childlike Reinforce Zwei has a tendency to slip into third-person.
  Reinforce Zwei: Uweh? Rein was an adult from the beginning!
  • Arf does this in the second sound stage of the original series, in which Fate creates her, but she switches to using first-person pronouns by the start of the series.
  • Vivio does this from time to time, possibly to indicate that despite being a clone of the Sankt Kaiser, she's still a child at heart.
• Aoko Nakamori from Magic Kaito, who is 17-years-old and talks like a little girl. It's hinted, though, that this comes from her rather low self-esteem: Aoko views herself as childish, so she acts accordingly.
• Mazinger Z: Big Bad Dr. Hell occasionally refers to himself in third person when he is ranting, angry or uttering Badass Boasts. Go Nagai's Great Mazinger manga offers a good example:
  Dr. Hell: "Destroy me? How arrogant. A tiny island country intends to destroy Dr. Hell, the future ruler of the world? Alright! I swear I shall crush Japan in merely ten days! And the whole world shall witness the true power of Dr. Hell!"
• Heintz's daughter Emily from Magnetic Rose speaks this way because she's depicted as a little kid.
• Monster Musume:
  • Papi sometimes speaks like this. It adds to her childlike image.
  • Suu does this once she starts talking normally.
  • Tionishia does this occasionally, apparently just to be cute.
• My-HiME manga:
  • Shiho rarely ever uses personal pronouns when referring to herself or other characters.
  • Fumi also occasionally uses Third-Person Person around her mistress, Mashiro, presumably in the humility sense. ("Fumi will always be Mashiro-sama's servant!")
• My Little Sister Stole My Fiance: Luna keeps referring to herself by her name, a hint that she is extremely childish and self-centered.
• Freyr from Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok.
• Naruto:
  • Other anime characters who call themselves "this [person]" are Zabuza and Madara. Of course, for Madara it could also be to cast doubt upon his true identity, especially when he talks about his past. Particular with one line one translator is equivalent to saying "I am the Uchiha Madara".
  • Jiraiya also once refers to himself as "kono Jiraiya-sama" in his flashback episodes.
  • A young Hinata does the cute/humble version once in a flashback in Episode 166 of Shippuden.
• Justified Trope in Nobunaga Concerto: Nobunaga seems to talk that way, but since Nobunaga is actually Saburo, a time-traveling Identical Stranger it makes sense from Saburo's point of view while everyone else is completely confused.
• Nodame, in Nodame Cantabile. It indicates her eccentric, often childish personality.
• Hana-chan in Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan, a two-year-old with a Plot-Relevant Age-Up. Subverted slightly in that the first time Hana refers to herself as "Hana-chan" in class (and referring to yourself with a -chan Honorific is about as babyish as you can get) she gets cruelly mocked by the class Alpha Bitch.
• One Piece: Captain "Black Cage" Hina has a habit of occasionally referring to herself in the third person, in short expressions such as "Hina's disappointed" or "Hina's surprised".
• Echo of PandoraHearts often says such things as: Echo is Echo, although she will also refer to herself as I.
• Jessiebelle from Pokémon: The Series speaks this way in the Japanese version.
• Uzura from Princess Tutu combines this with a Verbal Tic to make Uzura seem young and cute-zura! (Which means she says things like "Uzura is Uzura-zura.")
• C-ko Kotobuki from Project A-Ko does this often in the Japanese version.
• Yuma from Puella Magi Oriko Magica. She's the Token Mini-Moe.
  • A drama CD for Puella Magi Madoka Magica reveals that Kyoko's little sister, Momo Sakura, was one too. Fittingly, she's the local Token Mini-Moe.
• Spoofed by Poemi in Puni Puni☆Poemi. She not only speaks in third person, but refers to herself as "Kobayashi"... which is the name of her voice actress.
• Ranma ½:
  • Shampoo does this in the English dub (in Japanese, she uses "watashi" instead). In her case, of course, it was to point out that she was a foreigner.
  • And Azusa Shiratori too, as typical for a Kawaiiko.
• A few characters from Reborn! (2004) tend to do this, including Haru (girliness), Lambo (arrogance), and I-pin (foreigner).
• Nanami in Revolutionary Girl Utena talks like this quite a bit, especially around Touga.
• Rurouni Kenshin. This is also Kenshin's usual way of addressing himself (since it conveys humbleness)... Except if he's in Hitokiri mode.
• Palla Palla in Sailor Moon, the anime.
  • "Rei-chan" occasionally too.
• In the Italian dub of Saint Seiya, due to the more archaic-sounding speeches, it's not rare for characters in combat to speak of themselves in third person as they boast. A notable example early on in the Asgard arc with Thor, where at one point both Thor and his opponent Seiya engages in this.
• Amae Koromo of Saki, who fits both the cute anime and villainous Western types. Depending on her mood, watching this Insufferable Genius of a little girl speak in the third person can be adorable, intimidating, or both.
• Maria in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. This, along with her similar aversion to shoes and general strangeness is why many people compare her to Ed from Cowboy Bebop.
• Serial Experiments Lain. Lain does this near the end of the series. However, the twist is that she should be using second person to talk about herself.
• In the original Japanese dubs off Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō, Mimirin has this verbal tic. Torippii on the other hand speaks normally but regresses to the verbal tic if he's overly excited or perplexed.
• A number of the sisters in Sister Princess do this, including the younger ones (Hinako, Aria), but also Karen, one of the older sisters.
• Anya Forger in Spy X Family, a telepathic little girl who is reportedly six years old and likely younger, speaks in third-person.
• Nagisa in the Strawberry Panic! manga and light novels. Thankfully, this "cute" habit didn't make it into the anime. (The official manga translation ignores it, too.)
• Mafuyu in Student Council's Discretion.
  Mafuyu:*interpreting a character suffering from amnesia* Where's Mafuyu? What's Mafuyu's name?
  Ken: I think it's Mafuyu.
• Amber from Tales of Wedding Rings occasionally refers to herself in the third-person.
• Tamagotchi: Hapihapitchi, Telelin, and Kizunatchi all refer to themselves in third person instead of using pronouns like "I" and "me". The first of those characters uses pronouns normally in the English dub.
• Niche from Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee often refers to herself as such.
• Sasami from the Tenchi Muyo! series, in the Japanese version.
• In a variation of this, in the English dub of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Kamina would refer to himself in the third person on occasion when making some sort of declaration (which is based on the original's use of occasional "ore-sama"):
  Kamina: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Listen up ya walking faces! Having left his homeland, he never yields, never retreats, and never regrets! He faces forward, and never looks back! He's manly! He's tenacious! Kamina of Team Gurren is here to take you on! Let's go!
  
  Kamina: Just who the hell do you think I am? I'm Kamina! And Kamina would rather die than do something he doesn't want to do!
• Bu-ling / Mew Pudding in Tokyo Mew Mew, and Akaii Ringo from the Playstation game based on it.
• The German girl Tina from Tonari no Kashiwagi-san uses a rather childish language, including using her own name instead of pronouns, and she's described as unused to speaking Japanese.
• Ami Kawashima from Toradora!. In her case, she is all the above. She uses it to when she believes she is too cute and sexy, but never in front of people who don't know about her split personality. She definitely has psychological issues.
• Minami Asakura from Touch (1981) does this pretty often. However, she makes it flow with her speech and doesn't try to be cutesy, making it hard to notice if you don't pay attention or don't know Japanese.
• Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-: Mokona is wondering where Mokona is on this list, as Mokona is Mokona. (Yes, this is because pronouns have gender in Japan, and it's a Running Gag that Mokona's gender is unknown.)
  • Turns out, thanks to them outright stating it in Horitsuba when the uniforms for the school festivals Maid Cafe come up, that White Mokona (Soel) is female and that Black Mokona (Larg) is male. That Mokona is Mokona doesn't change, and Soel will always be everyone's favorite Shiro Manjuu.
• In Ushio and Tora, Guren certainly fits the arrogant part to a T. Makes sense when you think about it, as he's a literal Black Sheep among the Azafuse, and while most Azafuse are either nameless or go by many names such as Tora/Nagatobimaru, Guren proudly shows his name to everybody.
• Dita Liebely from Vandread, a young and naïve apprentice pilot who daydreams about UFOs. Then there's Jura, whose habit highlights her childish and self-absorbed tendencies despite her Statuesque Stunner appearance.
• Wagnaria!!: Yamada Aoi refer to herself as Yamada. This is obviously not her real name, and at first she didn't answer when people called her by it, so she probably did it initially to remind herself that she was Yamada.
• Utako Nakamura in Wasteful Days of High School Girls refers to herself as "Utako". Then Baka showed up and reminded her of her past and she let it slip, and referred to herself in the first person for a moment.
• Nanami/Tot from Weiß Kreuz, who's a teenager but acts like a five-year-old girl. Well, a five-year-old girl who likes to kill people.
• Whisper Me a Love Song':
  • Kaori Tachibana, one of Yori's bandmates, calls herself, "Tachbana-san."
  • Aki Mizuguchi, another bandmate, once calls herself, "Mizuguchi-sama."
• Cheza in Wolf's Rain always refers to herself as "this one". She seems to be more prone to this in the show than the manga, however. The manga appears to be an Alternate Continuity Spin-Off, so it's not required to be consistent.
• Zeno from Yona of the Dawn talks like this. It's later revealed to have tragic origins: his wife suggested it to remind himself of his own name, since, living forever and mostly alone with no one to talk to him, he is in danger of forgetting it.
• Yotsuba&!: Yotsuba does this a lot (in Yen Press' translation, but not ADV Manga's translation).
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
  • "The Chazz always rides alone!" (Only in the 4Kids. He uses ore-sama in the original version.)
• YuruYuri: Akari Akaza speaks like this, to emphasize her childish naivete in comparison to the other characters.

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