Those Two Guys / Anime & Manga

Remember them! Or don't, they don't matter much.

• Osamu Tezuka had the same two guys in nearly ever manga he did, a pair named Tic Lamune and Tucker Calpis who were deliberately designed to resemble Abbott and Costello. Tamao, Ken and Shibugaki, the boys from Astro Boy's class, also fit the bill.
• Aggretsuko has Gori and Washimi, who are almost always seen together in the workplace or at yoga class.
• Tamiya and Otaki, the heads of the Nekomi Tech Motor Club, from Ah! My Goddess; in a mild subversion of the trope, both of these characters actually manage to take the spotlight from time to time in the manga, though this is less true in the anime series.
• Suzuki and Sato, the heads of the Photography Club, from Ai Yori Aoshi.
• Kazu and Onigiri from Air Gear. Least at the start of the series, they're upgraded to main characters later on. On the female end, Emily and Yayoi who are generally Team Kogarasumaru's cheerleaders and sometimes backup members.
• In Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Anaru has Aki and Haruna.
• In the Area 88 manga, Benson and Randy are two mercenary pilots who offer commentary while observing events at Area 88.
• Assassination Classroom has two pathetic Smug Snake Gonks (Takada and Tanaka), who believe (like everyone else) to be superior than Class 3-E. Of course, they don't know that the whole class is full of asssassins who are trying to kill their alien-like teacher who can move with a speed of mach 20. These two are so pathetic that they fear to drop into this very class because they are sucking in school now, and later it is shown that Class 3-E is already on the level of the elite, Class 3-A, in terms of academics.
• Attack on Titan has Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover, a pair of childhood friends that befriend Eren during basic training. There's also Jean Kirstein and Marco Bott. Ymir and Krista Lenz are Those Two Girls. Unlike most examples, the series subverts this in that all of them turn out to be more important than we initially think. Marco's death spurs Jean (previously determined to join the Military Police) to join the Survey Corps. Krista's real name is Historia, and she's the illegitimate child of the Noble Reiss family and may be privy to the secrets of the Walls, Ymir is a Titan Shifter like Eren. As for Reiner and Bertolt? They are, in fact, villains. Both of them have been Becoming the Mask to different effects, with Reiner actually undergoing Sanity Slippage as a result, while Bertolt is able to conceal his feelings better.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • Chiyo's two friends, Miruchi and Yuka, from before she was sent up several grades, looked like miniature versions of the two main female teachers. They even have similar names: Yuka looks like Yukari, and Miruchi looks like Minamo, a.k.a. Nyamo.
  • There was also a That One Girl in the class: Chihiro, who had a grand total of one memorable scene. When another ordinary student was needed, it was usually Kaorin.
  • There were also Two Guys who had speaking roles in the first episode and then were barely ever seen again. Only one was given a name (Masaaki Ohyama). The other's main attribute was looking like a male version of Nyamo.
• In Baccano! we've got—
  Miria: Hey, Isaac!
  Isaac: Yeah, Miria?
  Miria: I found this page about Those Two Guys! Do we know anyone like that?
  Isaac: Hmm? Can't say that I do!
  • Erhm. Yes, well, Isaac And Miria Unintentionally Spread Happiness Around Them.
  • Even so, they fit the bill; being more like observers than major protagonists.
• Suzuki and Saito, Mashiro's two friends, in Bakuman。. They fade remarkably quickly even for this trope, and only show up again at a reunion.
• Yuka Hanazawa and Ryouko Asuka from Beelzebub function as this originally. Though Yuka has gone on to become more prominent, leaving her former TTG spot to a never before mentioned, purple haired Red Tail.
• That One Girl Ayu from Best Student Council is a big subversion. Hint: There's two silhouettes used to show the Covert Squad agents in the Opening. Examine the shape of the one on the left.
• Kyōju and Hiromi are this in the anime version of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade in the second season, and remain so in the third season even though the arrival of Daichi changes their dynamic a little. In the second season, they are the observers of the whole team, while in the third they're focused on Takao. Hiromi doesn't exist in the manga and there, especially in Rising, Kyōju and Daichi are a set as the ones who aren't the primary bladers.
• Bleach: Keigo and Mizuiro are two of Ichigo's oldest friends and are always together. Keigo is the outgoing funny-man while Mizuiro is the quiet, introverted leader of the pair. They initially look like a subversion, as the local Trickster Mentor Urahara mysteriously tells them that it is time for them to get involved when they follow Ichigo to Urahara's shop... but Urahara ultimately meant that Ichigo needed to tell his friends the truth about what was going on. Other than saying hi to the big bad as they briefly show surprising bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, they have very limited role in the main plot and serve to remind the reader about the ordinary school life Ichigo originally had before he became Karakura Town's protector.
• In Bloom Into You, Touko and Sayaka have two female friends, Midori Igarashi and Manaka Yoshida, who mainly show up to show us that Touko and Sayaka aren't each other's only friends. The four girls are grouped together for the Class Trip to Tokyo, but Midori and Manaka are often pushed to the side for Sayaka's Love Confession to Touko, and the conversations that follow.
• In Brave10, Mitsunari and Naoe primarily show up as a set in the story, always gossiping about the other lords and plotting their uprising against Tokugawa.
• In a somewhat unorthodox example, Li Syaoran of Cardcaptor Sakura managed to be both the straight man in a Those Two Guys combo (his partner is Yamazaki), a major recurring character and the Love Interest.
  • And when Eriol appears, he takes Syaoran's role of the straight man in his duo with Yamazaki.
  • Yamazaki and Chiharu, a male and female pair, fit into the more standard Those Two Guys roles, although they're much more memorable than most, specifically amongst Sakura and Syaoran's group of friends.
  • Yuki and Toya could qualify to a certain degree. They subvert it later, though, when it turns out that both of them (Yuki, or should I say Yue, in particular) are very involved in the plot indeed.
• Corrector Yui has both female (Reiko and Akiko) and male (Ichitaro and Hideto) examples of this trope.
• The three old men from Cowboy Bebop.
• Digiko's two otaku from Di Gi Charat are essentially this... except that they're saddled with the unfortunate but memorable collective nickname "Bukimi" (literally "Creepy" or "Eerie").
• Digimon:
  • In Digimon Tamers, Takato's friends, Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri. At least, at first. Instead of fading, they're brought into the mix eventually. (Now, Kazu, Kenta and Jeri each have a set of three friends who will fill that role.)
  • Digimon Frontier has an example with Digimon: Bokomon and Neemon.
• Kinro and Ginro from Dr. STONE are pretty much always seen together, by virtue of being the village guards, though they do appear to be close friends as well.
• Subverted in Durarara!!, where it turns out Those Two Otaku are just as involved in the Mob Wars as everyone else is. Also, they're Torture Technicians.

• Drafted basketball players Satake and Yamaoka of Eyeshield 21, who mostly show up to remind readers that yes, the Devil Bats do have enough players for a full football team. On one hand you have the basketball volunteers who are only there to hit on the Cute Sports Club Manager and play it as a straight as can be (their only relevant scene was in the third chapter). On the other hand you have Ishimaru, whom which the series and the characters never fail to acknowledge as "boring and insignificant", to the point that those qualities actually make him memorable and important to the team (everyone forgets to block him).
  • Also, Muro and Miyake from the soccer team periodically show up to be obnoxious and end up humiliated for their effort.
• Fairy Tail:
  • The most obvious example of this is Jet and Droy. In the anime, this is even lampshaded by Master Makarov, when they switch bodies as an effect of the Changeling spell.
  Makarov: I don't think anybody's gonna be able to tell the difference with you two.
  • Macao and Wakaba fall into this category as well.
  • Max and Warren, and especially their Edolas counterparts, where even though it's a Bizarro Universe, they're virtually the same as their Earthland equivalents, plus they even serve as Mr. Exposition to explain to the viewer how everybody else's counterparts are so different than what we're used to.
  • Sting and Rogue are a particularly important pair. Consequently, the same applies for their Exceeds, Lector and Frosch.
  • Zatou and Gatou, brothers from the Dark Guild Naked Mummy, who both consider the other to be the older brother.
• Drake and Ted from FAKE. Subverted in FAKE II with their promotion to the team.
• In FLCL, we have Gaku (a.k.a. Mr. SMOOOOOOOCH~!) and Masaki, two Odd Couple/ Red Oni, Blue Oni classmates of Naota who, when they show up, also serve the unique dual-role purpose of being the Greek Chorus, as they comment on the truly bizarre events of the series.
• Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato from Food Wars! are the only two members of the Polaris Dormitory who aren't given names (which are only revealed in extra materials), cooking specialties, or much characterization. They're usually sitting in the background bickering with each other or cheering on their roommates at the Fall Classic tournament.
• Those two guys from Fruits Basket. They are literally so unimportant to the main plot that the poor guys aren't even given names, despite them showing up various times, mostly to make fun of Kyo.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Maria Ross and Denny Brosh seem headed this way at the beginning of the manga, but then Ross gets unpredictably swept away by the plot and Denny is left to fend for himself as that one guy. He and Maria do remain as Those Two Guys in the Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Denny especially. Maria at least has some plot relevance as she gives Edward a Cooldown Hug and has a crush on his father later.
  • Kimblee's chimeras also seem to have this going (not completely, since they do mix and match a bit near the end of the story, but the majority of their appearances are in these pairs):
    • Jerso and Zampano are persuaded by Al to make a Heel–Face Turn, end up traveling with Scar and his group, and decide to travel with Al when he wanders the Earth at the end.
    • Darius and Heinkel, after being betrayed by Kimblee, save Ed after he saves them and decide to stick with him since they have nowhere else to go, and end up forming a four-person group of True Companions with him and Greedling.
• Full Metal Panic! has Shinji and Kyoko, best friends of Sousuke and Kaname respectively and often pair them up as a Greek Chorus. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu expands the roster using (the pre-existing but very minor characters) Mizuki and Onodera to give Kaname (Kyoko and Mizuki) and Sousuke (Shinji and Onodera) each a pair of their own Those Two Guys.
• Usokawa and Ketsukuma from Gakuen Babysitters, who are two male classmates of Ryuuichi and Kamitani that are seen the most and basically serve as as commentary for the other, more mundane aspects of the two boys lives outside of the babysitting club and their statuses as Chick Magnets, the latter in which every male in the class jealously chimes in on.
• Chikara Ennoshita and his fellow second-year bench players in Haikyuu!!, along with first-year Tadashi Yamaguchi. While Ennoshita and Yamaguchi respectively develop into a future captain and the team's pinch server, the other second-years are just kinda there. One hasn't even been named in canon.
• Hilariously lampshaded in Happy Lesson, where Those Two Guys introduce themselves and are listed in the credits as Student B and Student C, complete with romaji letters showing which one's which on their forehead. They primarily spend time harassing the class president, who they swear is the leader of their trio (hence 'B' and 'C'). Though they do visit the gravesite of "Student A".
• Kyon's two friends Taniguchi and Kunikida from Haruhi Suzumiya. One's tall and lecherous, the others baby-faced and timid. Taniguchi wound up being a sort of Ensemble Dark Horse after getting a few good scenes (and an Image Song CD for the second season), while poor Kunikida is just kinda there.
  • Kunikida does have SOME fan following, as evidenced by his unofficial Hare Hare Yukai version, the genderbent version of which is utterly adorable.
    • Kunikida gets a little bit of character development in The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, where he reveals his crush on Tsuruya to be the reason why he chose to go to North High. He also mentioned noticing an inhuman presence from Yuki Nagato and Kuyou Suou. Whether or not this will go anywhere later on in the plot is anyone's guess.
  • Taniguchi eventually underwent a massive amount of Memetic Mutation, much of which his voice actor Minoru Shiraishi referenced while playing himself in Lucky Star.
    • Taniguchi actually serves a significant function in the novels and the anime — he's the one non-SOS Brigade character that has the most important interactions with Kyon. His role is in fact similar to Koizumi's, in that he continuously confronts Kyon with all sorts of uncomfortable facts; and because of this, he is, along with Itsuki, the biggest recipient of Kyon's Obfuscating Stupidity. This comes out more than anywhere else in "Sigh".
    • Lampshade Hanging: Koizumi eventually ends up as the lead in the school play. The production? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
• In the Hayate the Combat Butler anime, no less than five girls from the Absurdly Powerful Student Council fit into this category. Three of them — Hanabishi Miki, Segawa Izumi, and Asakaze Risa — are more regular in anime appearances and are very rarely found apart. Aika and Chiharu appear much less in the anime and they lampshade this in one episode.
  • In the first season, it's mostly because Aika and Chiharu hadn't yet even been introduced officially.
  • Chiharu has gotten a much improved role more recently and Aika has been given foreshadowing for becoming much more important, the trio don't even seem to be interested in gaining any more focus.
• Naho and Kyoko from Houkago×Ponytail are also two female examples. Both of them are quite normal girls and wants their friend, Natsuki to be normal and spend her money on other things than manga. When Natsuki finally falls in love are they overjoyed, expect that they don't really like the guy she likes.
• Masaru and Saiki in I'm Gonna Be an Angel!.
• The two unnamed guys from Tokyo in Initial D who drive a Nissan Silvia S15. The fat guy who drives the car uses a technique called "SUPER ULTRA LATE BRAKING!!!" which only ends up screwing over his chance of victory.
• Inuyasha:
  • Kagome's friends from school (Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi in the anime and unnamed in the manga) who try to help Kagome sort out her romantic entanglements — blissfully thinking she's dating a delinquent when in fact she's hanging out with a half-dog-demon.
  • Also, anytime Koga showed up, he would invariably be followed by his two lovable lieutenants, Ginta and Hakkaku — or, in one memorable instance, preceded by them, as they hunted down Inuyasha as the only person they could think of who could beat some sense into their packleader while Koga was being mind-controlled by Big Bad Magnificent Bastard Naraku.
• Jubei-chan has two sets of these, of both sexes — Maruyama Shoko & Sachi Toyama are Those Two Girls for Jiyu, and Kozaru & Ozaru are Those Two Guys for Ban.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has several sets, though some are more well developed than others:
  • Karen and Erika start off this way as little more than fangirls for the student council, but they get a lot more development in the spin-off series We Want to Talk About Kaguya where they're cast as the main characters and are shown to have had a hand in several major events in the background.
  • Go and Saburo do have established backstories given in the volume 10 extras, but in-series they're never shown as anything more than friends of Shirogane whose personalities are more or less interchangeable.
  • Hinokuchi & Suruga get no development beyond being friends with Hayasaka and their parents' professions. It wasn't even until the volume 18 extras that they actually had their names given, and even then it wasn't specified which name is for which girl.
• Kaitou Saint Tail:
  • Ryouko and Kyouko for Meimi.
  • Asuka Jr. also has his own pair, Yasuhiro and Chiba, whose names aren't used onscreen until episode 39. Keep in mind that the anime is 43 episodes long.
• Kaze no Stigma has Ayano's two friends Yukari and Nanase.
• Komatsu and Hatta from Kimagure Orange Road are a standard indistinguishable perverted pair of best friends of the main character Kyousuke.

• Kimi ni Todoke's own Hirano and Endo tend to just stand around, occasionally commenting on the situation at hand. Other than that, though, they usually blend into the crowd, especially in the manga.
• Sword Knight and Blade Knight in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, complete with a Lower-Deck Episode.
  • There's also Tiff and Tuff, King Dedede and Escargoon and Sir Ebrum and Lady Like.
• Tonpai Toda and Chinkichi Chida from Kochikame, who are two childhood friends of Ryotsu Kankichi that often join the young Ryotsu on his adventures. They mostly appear only in Ryotsu's childhood flashbacks, but do show up occasionly in the present day for a few episodes. One notable example being the three of them visiting their old school before its demolition and meeting with a girl who strongly resembles their now deceased childhood classmate who is revealed to be said classmate's daughter.
• Furihata, Kawahara, and Fukuda from Kuroko's Basketball, the three Seirin freshman who are almost always seen together, and rarely do much besides cheer for the team from the sidelines.
• Haitani and Shirai from Love Hina (pictured above). The pair is so mundane that Keitaro and the other characters routinely forget who they are. Lampshaded, as both seem frustratedly aware of this.
• Misao and Ayano from Lucky Star. At one point, Misao even bemoans that she and Ayano are essentially part of the background, completed with them suddenly turning into watercolor still versions of themselves. However, just like what happened with Taniguchi and Kunikida above, Misao has become an Ensemble Dark Horse of sorts, even getting her own solo character song album. No such luck for Ayano, though. Ayano now has an image song... but so does basically everyone else. Their official label: "Haikei (Background) Combination."
• Each of the Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth has her own backup duo, with whom she becomes more and more estranged.
• Alisa and Suzuka from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Alisa had a much bigger role in the Triangle Heart universe, but she was jaded, traumatized and undead, though her current incarnation keeps insisting on involvement in the action.
  • They're both upgraded to main characters and Magical Girls in INNOCENT.
    • On the other hand, in this manga, we have Lindy and season 1's Big Bad Precia, who is changed into a Doting Parent and an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent. Also, Amitie and Kyrie have two friends.
  • Two of the three Bridge Bunnies, Alto and Lucino in StrikerS. It's subverted, though. Despite seeming to appear often together, it's not really the case. They don't know each other that well, they interact with different people rather than with each other, and they work in different branches after StrikerS.
  • Subverted in ViVid. Rio and Corona start the series looking like Vivio's versions of Suzuka and Alisa, but then we find out that they're both mages, and pretty damn good ones too. Though both of them were reduced to this role in ViVid Strike! due to the season focusing purely on hand-to-hand combat (both of their fighting styles involve magic usage and ranged attacks).
    • On the other hand, Harry has her gang which consists Linda, Luka and Mia. They are mages and Inter-Middle Championship participants, but they are never seen fighting someone, instead they are just Harry's cheerleaders.
• Shiratori's three art school classmates in Mahoraba, two girls and one guy, are so ordinary they don't even get get named until the final chapter. One of the Drama CDs revolves around trying to find their names.
• Mahoromatic has Kawahara and Hamadi who, in the first season, exist mostly to procure and share porn with Suguru. In the second season, Hamadi goes beyond simple Two-Guys-hood when he develops a crush on Minawa. Kawahara still mostly stays in the background. In the manga epilogue, Hamadi is shown to have married Minawa while Kawahara is with Miyuki.
• Mazinger Z: In this series and the sequel we have Nuke and Mucha, best friends and tag-alongs of The Rival and Butt-Monkey Boss long before the start of the series. Before meeting and befriending Kouji Kabuto they were two average, ordinary high-school students, but after meeting him their daily life includes battles between Humongous Mechas, fighting or fleeing from armies of Mooks, sneaking into enemy secret bases and basically surviving. Often they get -unwillingly- dragged -by Boss- in Kouji's adventures, and they provide with the rational counterpoint -and lampshading- to any stupid stunt Boss has come up with. Later in the series Boss got himself a Made Of Junk Humongous Mecha and required that they helped him to pilot it -much to their chagrin-. In Great Mazinger their situation did not get more normal, that with the monsters from Beneath the Earth invading the surface world bit and Boss demanding they help him to fight them like part of an absolutely helpless plan to woo Tsundere Jun Hono -Love Interest of The Hero Tetsuya, whom Boss can not stand-. In other series (Mazinkaiser, Shin Mazinger, Shin Mazinger Zero) of the Mazinger franchise they are given the same role.
• Minami-ke: Each of the Minami sisters have two friends who hang around for most of the time, but not always. Kana's school has even two pairs of them.
• Two unnamed girls can be seen regularly hanging out with Kanna and Saikawa in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kanna's Daily Life. Neither of them ever appear (or are even mentioned) in the main series.
• Yoland and the other guy from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
• Minoru Mineta and Denki Kaminari from My Hero Academia are Those Two Perverted Guys. Oddly enough, this is only when they're together; when not together, Kaminari is a friendly Butt-Monkey who gets along with the rest of his class, while Mineta is... well, he's still just Mineta.

• My Monster Secret has Okada, Sakurada, and Shimada, the three friends of main character Asahi. They are the only named characters to be Locked Out of the Loop about the supernatural secrets of the rest of the casts. Fortunately, they still regularly appear and later chapters give them the spotlight more often, especially Shimada.
• Naruto:
  • Izumo and Kotetsu. Up until their involvement in the fight against Hidan and Kakuzu, they were always the ninja Those Two Guys, even to the point of remaining unnamed in the manga through multiple character popularity polls.
  • Additionally, Homura and Koharu, the two village elders, seem to be pretty inseparable. Although they work together as the only two members of the Konoha Council, which demands that they spend time together, they are never seen apart from one another. However, it is later revealed that they, along with Danzo, orchestrated the Uchiha Clan massacre.
  • Konohamaru's teammates Udon and Moegi. They are just there to be Konohamaru's teammates. While Konohamaru himself isn't that important to the plot, he impressed the audience by taking Jigokudo Pain down with a small Rasengan and later becomes the sensei of Naruto's son and Sasuke and Sakura's daughter. Udon later gets more screentime as an adult in Boruto.
• Kitamoto and Nishimura from Natsume's Book of Friends.
• Natsu e no Tobira has Marion's friends Lind and Jacques, who comment on everything that happens around them and their chats often serve as "frame" to the action. Until everything goes to shit, that is.
• Neighborhood Story has Pii-chan on Mikako's friends' side, and Jiro on Tsutomu's. They never get an important role because Pii-chan is apparently just an excuse for Yazawa to draw sweet lolita outfits due to Author Appeal, and Jiro is always busy with his part-time jobs.
• Touji and Kensuke from Neon Genesis Evangelion, perhaps the first real friends the main character got. However Touji suffers a severe injury from getting involved in Shinji's lifestyle, and both disappear by the end of the series because Tokyo 3 gets evacuated and they have to move away. Along with Class Representative Hikari, they're often the comic relief trio in spin-offs, sequels, fanfiction, etc.
• Nurse Angel Ririka SOS has two men that are patients at the hospital Seiya's dad works at. One is a long haired poet while the other is a muscular man who is always lifting weights.
• Kouta and Haruhiko from Nyan Koi!. The latter is an otaku who regularly lampshades the harem elements going on around Junpei.
• Ojisan And Marshmallow has two employees from Tabekko as semi-regulars, but mostly because Hige-san enjoys the marshmallows their factory makes so much.
• One Piece has these in spades! On the Marines' side, it's usually Smoker and Tashigi or Hina with Django and Fullbody but most notably Coby and Helmeppo.
  • The Impel Down/Whitebeard War sagas gave us the Newkamas, several of which appear as distinctive background characters, such as a guy dressed as a reindeer and another wearing a bunny cowl.
  • Shachi and Penguin of the Heart Pirates (Trafalgar Law's crew) are a good example. They're two of the only five crew members so far who've been named, who've received dialogue, and who appeared in the crew's first appearance in Sabaody Archipelago, with the other three being Bepo (distinctive for being a talking polar bear), Jean Bart (a very tall man and former slave whom Law freed onscreen), and Law himself. They also frequently speak in unison.
  • Played straight with Yosaku and Johnny also probably the earliest example of this trope in the series. They're two of Zoro's old bounty hunting friends, and the most they accomplish is by lending Zoro their swords for his fight with Hatchan.
    • Ironically, Johnny and Yosaku are actually fairly important during the start of both arcs they appear in, where they each get their turn to be Mr. Exposition (Johnny in the Baratie arc and Yosaku in the Arlong arc), but when the action begins, they get demoted to this trope, especially when they get defeated off-screen by the Arlong Pirates.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Misty and Brock were similarly demoted to cheerleaders for Ash in their later appearances. Most later supporting teammates are Put on the Bus after their own arcs to avoid being reduced to this, though still often play this dynamic in episodes where Ash is the main focus.
  • Ekans/Arbok and Koffing/Weezing were this for the Team Rocket trio, having basically the same personalities and they weren't nearly as quirky as the other Pokemon Jessie and James caught. They also weren't giving Lower Deck Episodes like Team Rocket's other Pokémon. Both of them were introduced in the same episode, both evolved in the same episode at the exact same time and both were released in the same episode.
• Pretty Cure has many of them:
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure has Nagisa's friends Rina and Shiho. And then, there's Honoka's friend Yuriko.
    • The Zakenna butlers.
    • Natsuko and Kyoko, the two girls who tried to copy Cure Black and Cure White, respectively.
    • Hikari's two friends: Nagisa-fangirl Nao (no, not that Nao) and Honoka-fangirl Miu.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star has Saki's softball friends Hitomi and Yuuko, then there Kenta, Manabu and Kayo.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has the OP & ED singers Mayu Kudou (the Fairy Tone's seiyuu) and Kanako Miyamoto (Cure Sword's seiyuu) who have a cameo in episode 40.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure! has Miyuki's (no, not that Miyuki) dance groupmates Reika (no, not that Reika) and Nana.
    • Miyuki's brother Daisuke has his two friends Yuuki and Kento.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has the other fashion clubmates Rumiko, Naomi, Toshiko and Nanami.
    • The two kindergarden girls Rumi and Haruka.
    • Mayu Kudou (again) and Aya Ikeda have a cameo in episode 36.
  • Waon and Seika from Suite Pretty Cure ♪ are a subversion brought on by the creator playing with fan expectations. They were teased as Pretty Cures, but that never became true and they never interact in the show.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure has Nikaido and Momota.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure! has Kana Katsuki and Mayumi Nagase.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure is the franchise's king of this trope by boasting three: Fumito Chise and Hinase Amato; Junna Tokura and Aki Momoi; and Takumi and Jinjin.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure combines this with Big Good with the Gemini Star Princess duo.
• Sakuno Ryuzaki, Tomoka Osakada, Satoshi Horio, Kachiro Katou and Katsuo Mizuno in The Prince of Tennis are These Five Kids for the Seigaku team. In a sense, also Arai and the other second years aside of Momoshiro and Kaidoh.
  • The Yamabuki doubles pair known simply as The Jimmies epitomizes this trope, not the least because "Jimmies" is a Japanese term for distinctively average people.
• The three girls that hang around Izumi Himuro in Princess Nine. After Izumi joins the team they just vanish from the series. Names were given in the credits, but were never spoken.
• Interestingly, this applies to the main character of Princess Princess. Although Torhu is initially a transfer student who stands out, after he meets his best friend and roommate Yuujiro they soon become very close and even start acting in sync. By the last couple of books the storyline focuses primarily on the trials of the secondary characters while the two leads act as Those Two Guys.
• Duck/Ahiru's two friends Pique and Lilie from ballet class in Princess Tutu. They mainly gossip and get into wacky hijinks with her at Gold Crown Academy, and don't have much of a role beyond that (although Pique does get her own A Day in the Limelight episode in the second season).
• Ranma ½ has two sets of these: Ranma's friends Hiroshi and Daisuke, and Akane's friends Yuka and Sayuri. They're also basically the only people without overly complicated Meaningful Names, just very common ones, indicating how normal they're supposed to be. In the original manga, they didn't even have names. Technically, Akane has four female friends gravitating around her, both in the anime and the manga. Yuka and Sayuri are just the most prominent — semi-fanonical names for the other two: Asami and Hiroko. They tend to often comes in pair, though, fitting the trope most of the time. Nabiki also has her two cronies, seen mostly in the anime.
• Reborn! (2004): Kyoko and Haru had a bigger presence in the daily life arc, but when the genre shifted to become more serious they hardly participated in major events. All of their screen time is shared and they are often seen hanging out together, they even have a Genki Girl and Nice Girl foil.
• Those Two Guys are never seen on screen in Revolutionary Girl Utena but still manage to get a lot of focus, and even cosplayers. All the audience ever sees of them is their shadows projected onto a wall as they act out bizarre skits that are a commentary on what's happening in a particular episode.
• Sailor Moon:
  • Naru Osaka and Umino Gurio, Usagi's classmates. Featuring quite prominently in the first season, they become less and less important over the course of the series and have disappeared by the last season. It's even worse in the manga, where they disappear almost immediately: as soon as Ami appears, they're gone.
  • In the anime, we also had Usagi and Naru's classmates Yumiko and Kuri. They stick around for some episodes of the first series and then disappear.
• Serial Experiments Lain: Juri and Reika, Lain's only school acquaintances/friends apart from Alice. Reika is outspoken, while Juri is kinda childish, for example suggesting that Alice should date a boy for the sole reason that people wouldn't make rumours about her crush towards a teacher. Neither of the two ever learn about the massive, terrible phenomenon going on right under their noses, even when Juri was the one who first alluded to it in-series (she was seen crying her heart out after receiving an e-mail from Chisa Yomoda, who had just killed herself.. right after Chisa's death).
• Slam Dunk: Hanamichi Sakuragi's gang, Yohei Mito, Yuuji Okusu, Ichiro Noma and Osamu Takamiya. Yohei is the one who stands out the most since he usually takes charge when Hanamichi isn't around, but for the most part they're there just to cheer on Hanamichi and make fun of him when he messes up. Oh, and lend a hand whenever he's in trouble.
  • To an extent, Shohoku's bench players. Some of them don't even get the chance to play once the titulars take over.
• Sgt. Frog has Natsumi's classmates Yayoi and Satsuki, who actually come very close to discovering the Keronians' existence on several occasions.
• The two girls in Amu's class in Shugo Chara!. One wears glasses and the other, who is later revealed to be named Manami, wears her hair in two buns.
• The guards Kai Ulkir and Shiira Eigan Snow White with the Red Hair who are usually stationed as the gatekeepers of the Poet Gate at Wistal castle. This being the gate Shirayuki enters the castle through they end up fond of her and tend to be shown whenever the gossip in the castle becomes a plot point since they gossip quite a bit when they're off duty.
• Harvar and Ox from Soul Eater, although this is a subversion in that the manga actually increases their roles alongside other pair Kim and Jackie, which formed a subplot for the recent arc. Though none of them possess the unusual qualities of Maka's team, they are more than capable meisters and Weapons, earning the two-star rank alongside the that group.
  • Now they're all part of Spartoi and playing some role in tracking down Noah and Medusa. Cue rather awesome moment with Kirikou using four Weapons at once.
• Colin and Mary in Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry looked completely set up for this role... until they died in the first episode.
• Umanosuke Tsuchida and Kazuhiko Amagasaki from Tenchi Muyo!.
• Shinichi and Daijirou from This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. A standard pair of perverts.
  • Sakurako and Amika are Those Two Girls. They keep egging on the Takeru/Hikari/Mari Love Triangle. They also get a couple of Les Yay moments and an Accidental Kiss in episode 7.
• Moe and Miwa, Ichigo's friends from Tokyo Mew Mew, whose names aren't even revealed for several episodes.
• To Love Ru:
  • Saki is almost always accompanied by her friends/servants, Rin Kujou and Ayako "Aya" Fujisaki.
  • Mio and Risa, Haruna and Lala's classmates and good friends, are a pair of inseparable friends. Just a chapter has Risa as main character with Mio appear only in a scene.
  • Minor examples. Zastin occasionally is seen with his aides, Maul and Smutts.
• Toradora! has Noto and Haruta, as well as Those Two Girls Kihara and Kashii.
  • Subverted: they all become more significant later on.
• Daniel and Raymond in Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs fill this role - helping Leon serve tea at his cafe, courting girls together, etc. They got bullied into wrecking his room but Leon forgave them, since that's just how things go at the Academy. Daniel is the sturdy one, Raymond the refined bishonen.
• Ishtar's bodyguards Jill and Krai from Vampire Game.
• Daigo's high school friends in ...Virgin Love, who show up to comment briefly on how Daigo's relationship with Kaoru is going, and then immediately get brushed off by Kaoru.
• The ADs of The Weatherman Is My Lover qualify as this, and even get a brief omake to themselves.
• Reina's delinquent underlings Eiko and Biko from Yandere Kanojo. They rarely appear, and when they do it's usually just to remind us that yes, Reina is still a delinquent. Their names even translate to "Girl A" and "Girl B" (from A-ko and B-ko, which is how their name sound). Although A-ko has gotten a single A Day in the Limelight episode.
• Honda/Tristan and Otogi/Duke in Yu-Gi-Oh! fit this role later on in the series. In the original manga, Jounouchi/Joey and Honda were 'those two guys' who still got to do something cool and useful once and a while, but as Jonouchi became one of the main secondary characters in the Duel Monsters arcs, Honda was demoted to being a cheerleader for the most part. He often ends up together with Otogi during the scenes that don't focus on ancient Egyptian prophecies and "children's card games.
  • We have also Insector Haga (Weevil) and Dinosaur Ryuusaki (Rex), who started as kinda-villains then faded into has-been background characters. However, when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh!, they are about as normal as anyone ever is.
• Asuka's friends Junko and Momoe in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Their main purpose seems to be falling madly in love with every handsome dude in the school (especially Manjoume, Fubuki, and Edo).
• YuYu Hakusho; Kuwabara's gang. Keiko also has two friends who hang out with her in the first story arc.
• Yamanaka and Iwashima generally serve this role in Zatch Bell!, although Iwashima's U.F.O. obsession often goes into weird places.
• Zombieland Saga has the Metalheads, a pair of, well, Metalheads who end up being Franchouchou's first fans after their highly unorthodox death metal debut.

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