Token Good Teammates in Anime & Manga.
- Wave, and to a lesser extent Run from Akame ga Kill!. Wave especially could write the book on this, as he's essentially the Token Good Teammate of The Empire as a whole and in some ways is even more heroic than the heroes themselves. Even Tatsumi notes he's not evil and actually moral, something rather lacking among the Empire's troops. Wave eventually defects from the Empire in order to take care of Kurome.
- Albegas: The Dellingers are a faction of fascistic aliens that want to colonize the Earth and frequently send malicious attacks on the humans, but Julia is a sweet girl who doesn't share their bigotry and views the Earthlings as equals. She even pursues a romance with one of the pilots of Albegas, Tetsuya....and her death enrages both him and her father, General Dally. Her father also counts as after her passing, he was plagyed by Hallucinations of Julia and believed it was her spirit guiding him He would defect from the Dellingers, and died after saving Hotaru from being held hostage.
- Rock to the Black Lagoon Company, at least at first. Rotton the Wizard to Shenhua and Sawyer.
- Coyote Starrk and Tier Harribel of the Espada in Bleach could count. While for the most part, the Espada's members are arrogant, violent, and thoroughly evil followers of Aizen, Starrk and Harribel are both Martial Pacifists that don't like fighting but believe in True Companions and The Power of Friendship.
- Coyote Starrk ends up being a deconstruction as his fight with Shunsui Kyoraku shows that even though he was a noble person, he was still fighting on the wrong side. Nevertheless, Shunsui makes a point to say that he's not in the right for fighting Starrk, either.
- Also, Riruka Dokugamine, the only one in Xcution who doesn't want Ichigo's powers and tries to reject it. It helps that she actually befriended Ichigo and Orihime genuinely.
- As revealed eventually in the latter stages of Brave10, Hattori Hanzō's group seemingly consists of people who are only in for simple megalomania and conquering the world. The only exception is Anastasia, just fresh after betraying the Braves, as her motive of serving Hanzo was only to reclaim her family heirloom that Hanzo held. Despite being an Nominal Hero (Anti-Hero subtype) herself.
- A Certain Magical Index:
- Acqua of the Back, the only truly noble member of God's Right Seat, who genuinely wants to help and protect the world. The other members are corrupt and/or have secret agendas.
- Misaka is the only one out of the known Level 5s who is considered publicly presentable and becomes something of a mascot. Accelerator and Kakine are antisocial murderers. Mugino appears normal but not when she gets angry. Misaki is paranoid and tends to abuse her power. Gunha is convinced he is a superhero. The remaining Level 5 apparently doesn't appear in public.
- Code Geass:
- Euphemia li Britannia for the Britannian royalty, being a saint compared to the others and accepts the Japanese as equals. It doesn't end well for her, sadly.
- Of the Britannian military, General Andreas Darlton fits the bill, being A Father to His Men who also views the Japanese as equals. He also meets a tragic end.
- In R2, it's Nunnally who falls into this trope.
- Both Seiko and Chisa fill this role for the Radicals in Danganronpa 3 though it was revealed that the latter was a subversion of this trope due to her being a Remnant of Despair pretending to be a Nice Girl.
- Daimos:
- Gurney Halleck initially opposed Kazuya, but after seeing his code of honour in battle (and how it resonated with his own), he was touched and admitted to Richter that he could see why Erika found him so appealing. Gurney was sentenced to Execution for praising him, but Erika and Margarete helped him escape.
- Balbas. While Admiral Richter and General Raiza are both gleeful sadists that take joy in killing humans, but he is nicer and more humble. He treats Erika with care after she was rescued from Earth (in contrast, Richter and Raiza screamed at her angrily and took it as a personal humiliation). He also later defects to help Kazuya and dies protecting him.
Balbas: "Remember, the fate of a Billion Balmites is in your hands now." - Daltanious:
- The Heliosian Generals from the Catine arc all initially appeared friendly to Kento, until they were informed of a rumour that his father, Prince Harlin, was a clone and General Kloppen is the real Heliosian Prince. Enraged, the Generals show their true colours as a bunch of racist bigots and start spewing abuse at Kento, with one of them even spitting at him. They then opt to take the side of the Galactic Conqueror Zaal Empire. The only one of them to call out their behaviour and remain on Kento's side is Gascon.
- Prince Harlin is this to the Heliosians after the Awful Truth of the Helios Empire is revealed, being the only reigning monarch to put an end to it's anti-clone discrimination.
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue:
- There is Maia, who is kind to everyone, even her kidnappers. Thus she is a contrast to gun obbessed Gloria, property damage causing Yu, and ruthless Rena.
- Before Maia joined, Shizuka might count since she doesn't cause the same damage as the above. However, she never has a problem with what they do, either.
- In Death Note, Rem on Team Kira is about as nice and morally pure as anyone on that side gets.
- Digimon:
- Digimon Tamers: Antylamon of the Devas. Where the other eleven Devas despise humans and attempt to kill or capture them, Antylamon, though initially loyal to Zhuqiaomon, is never aggressive to Suzie, the first human she meets, at worst telling her to leave, and quickly becomes friends with her, to the point of not only defending her from Makuramon when he tries to capture her, but even becoming her partner.
- Digimon Fusion: Subverted with Apollomon for the Dark Generals, as the true Dark General is his dark side, Apollomon Whispered, which acts as a separate entity from him. However, Olegmon is noticeably less evil than the other Dark Generals, which Mikey takes note of and, during a confrontation with the revived Dark Generals, convinces him to switch sides.
- Doraemon: Out of the main characters, Shizuka is the only constantly sweet and nice person (she has her Berserk Button though). Doraemon is a Deadpan Snarker and can be quite moody and stubborn, and the other boys are sort of jerks.
- Dragon Ball:
- Android 16 from Dragon Ball Z, unlike his two buddies who regularly cause destruction as they slowly work towards their mission of killing Goku (to say nothing of their future selves), is strictly in it to kill Goku and only for the sole reason of he's been programmed to. Otherwise he's a Nature Lover who sits quietly, is even friendly towards the Z Fighters, and is probably more kind and pacifistic than even most of the good guys. So much so that he actually grows beyond his programming and targets Cell instead of Goku in order to defend the Earth and its life from an Omnicidal Maniac. Supplementary materials explain that 16 was modeled after Dr. Gero's late son and intently programmed to be a non-violent and gentle soul because Gero couldn't bear the idea of the android dying in combat.
- Gine, Bardock’s wife and Goku and Raditz’s mother was this for Bardock’s Squad as revealed in Dragon Ball Minus-Dragon Ball Super: Broly as well as supplementary materials. While the rest of the team including fellow female Saiyan Fasha had absolutely no qualms about taking over entire planets and killing entire races off for King Cold as Punch Clock Villains, Gine however being gentle-hearted like her youngest son did hate it and her reluctance towards violence and killing led to her getting captured and needing to be saved by Bardock repeatedly. She eventually quit the squad and became a meat worker on Planet Vegeta instead. Spin-off media like Dragon Ball: Fusions show that Gine is totally willingly to help others when the circumstances allow it, displaying a great amount of altruism for a Saiyan.
- The Shadow Dragons in the last arc of Dragon Ball GT are spawned from the negative energy of the Dragon Ball wishes throughout the series. Sixinglong/Nouva Shenron, being spawned from the only truly evil wish, ends up being a Martial Pacifist Noble Demon who believes in Honorable Duels, and goes as far as to put off his fight with Goku when he's temporarily blinded. Also significant is that he was created from the 4-Star Dragon Ball, the one that Goku held onto for much of his childhood and of which he attaches great sentimental value to — Goku's desire to always fight fairly and treat his opponents with the utmost respect rubbed off on the corresponding Shadow Dragon.
- Maria of Eyeshield 21's Hakushuu Dinosaurs is this to Marco, Gaou, Kisaragi, and Tengu. She actually tries to slip information to other teams in the interests of preventing casualties. Unfortunately for her, Marco's drive to win (in order to impress her, might we add) outweighs anything she might try to do.
- Nice Guy Panther of the Pentagram, where he plays alongside showboat Bud Walker, Dumb Muscle Tatanka, Jerk Jock Clifford, and the thoroughly monstrous Mr. Don.
- Though everyone from the Sabertooth guild in Fairy Tail is cocky, Rogue is the only one to actually voice his distaste at how they humiliated and expelled one of their members over a single loss, and not even cracking a smile during Minerva's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Lucy. It's an incredibly stark contrast with his close companion Sting's amusement over the poor girl's weakness, and laughing out loud while Lucy's was tortured.
- After Master Gienma and Minerva, the two evil members of the guild left Sabertooth and Sting took over the master position, the guild loses its Jerkass attitude, but Rogue has the potential to become evil like his future self.
- Mikiya Kokutou from The Garden of Sinners is a really decent guy and a devout Zen Buddhist. The people he hangs around with are... neutral at best. He comments on how he'll just have to share the karma of Shiki's sins to be with her. Miraculously, he does this without sounding like a jackass.
- To some degree Togusa in Ghost in the Shell counts. The rest of Section 9 is fighting terrorism and organized crime, and government corruption at times, and are devoted to protecting the citizen from major threats. However, Togusa is the only one who would risk the trouble of apprehending armed criminals alive and see that they are properly tried. Everyone else strikes first and starts looking for any survivors that can be questioned after the dust has settled.
- In Haruhi Suzumiya, Sasaki turns out to be the only decent person in the Anti-SOS Brigade. She even joins up with Kyon to stop her nominal teammates.
- That is, until Kyouko pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Kitty Shearer of Hello Sandybelle is a terrible Rich Bitch with parents that never say no to her whims, but when her father hears out Marc's dream of wanting to be a painter (instead of being married to his daughter), he understands and even encourages him to pursue it.
- Hellsing:
- Seras Victoria, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, is the only character with a fully functional moral compass. Kouta Hirano lampshaded this in an interview saying Seras is the "light that stands out from the darkness".
- Anderson plays this role for the Vatican side- he may love fighting monsters, including Seras, but he does stick to his sense of right and wrong even as his faction reaches new lows — culminating in his destruction of Maxwell's anti-zombie shelter when he realizes the latter has gone around the bend.
- Also, The Captain is this for Millennium.
- Kisui from Kingdom — in a seinen about the Warring States Era, filled with morally ambiguous warmongers, he is a chivalrous, caring general who puts his people first, and personally takes the time to meet and care for them. He is also a general of the Zhao. His good heart ends up costing him a major battle.
- Dieci of the Numbers Cyborgs in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, who was the only one amongst them who questioned the rightness of their terrorist actions prior to their arrest (ironically, she ended up having one of the longest sentences among the ones who had a Heel–Face Turn). Resident Smug Snake Quattro, naturally, looks down at her and sees her conscience and empathy for others as a weakness.
- Maria no Danzai: Kinugawa is the only one who actually cares about his so-called "friends", becoming devastated to the point of tears when it becomes obvious that Kowase and Shikimi are dead. On the other hand, it becomes a Subverted Trope when you remember that Kinugawa and his friends are a gang of sociopathic, sadistic bullies and realize that he's only "good" when interacting with the rest of the gang; to everyone else, he is a hyper-violent brute with a Hair-Trigger Temper. Finally, the fact that he wants to avenge his dead friends by murdering the one responsible makes him a massive hypocrite when he was responsible for Kiritaka's death two years prior, something he refuses to take responsibility for.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Garma for Zeon and especially the Zabi Family. Even if he's a Zeon officer, he's an unambiguously good person who goes out of his way to avoid civilian casualties in battle, and holds no prejudice against Earthnoids whatsoever (his lover is even the daughter of an Earth politician, and he vows to quit the military if his father doesn't approve of their marriage).
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Mouar Pharaoh is easily the most moral of the Titans, and one of the few among them to show any concern at all for civilian lives.
- Lunamaria Hawke of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny is an unusual example, given that her teammates aren't really villainous. Still, Luna maintains her sense of perspective and avoids crossing the line, even when most of her allies generally fail at that.
- Masa and Ren are both this to the entire Seto syndicate in My Bride is a Mermaid. They're the only two members who support Nagasumi and Sun's engagement and don't actively try to kill the former on a regular basis.
- Gau Meguro of Nabari no Ou stands out amongst the Kairoshuu for not being malicious or screwed up. His teammates consist of Raikou, guilty about the hand he had in his family's death, Yukimi, an aggressive Deadpan Snarker, and Yoite, a quiet Death Seeker. He believes the Shinrabanshou can be used for genuine good. He ends up Taking the Bullet, causing Raikou to begin a Heel–Face Turn as does the others.
- Naruto:
- Jugo qualifies as this most of the time. While his Superpowered Evil Side has allegedly caused a massive amount of destruction in the past, Jugo's dominant personality is a calm, level-headed and non-violent man who would rather not have the incredible superpowers that drive him insane from time to time. He acts as the Token Good Teammate given that his friends are: Suigetsu, a Blood Knight Serial Killer; Karin, a Yandere scientist and willing former servant of Orochimaru, and Sasuke.
- Tobi seemed like this at first — a complete Cloudcuckoolander even next to Mad Artist Deidara, he was at least as interested in having dango with his partner as being evil. Then the entire thing turned out to be an act.
Kisame: Don't get me wrong, I liked Tobi. He managed to lighten the mood of this rather gloomy organization. - One Piece:
- We have Hachi, who was the least cruel out of Arlong's pirates. Unlike the others, he didn't seem to hate humans, and merely followed went along with the Arlong Pirates because they were his friends. He would in fact become an ally to the Straw Hats later.
- Though later chapters would show more good (or at least not corrupt, an arrogant Jerkass or a fanatical Knight Templar) Marines, Smoker and his partner Tashigi are the very first named Marines to be depicted as such in almost 100 chapters.
- From Crocodile's Baroque Works, Miss All-Sunday/Nico Robin was a Dragon with an Agenda who was more-or-less Good All Along, and after Baroque Works crumbles, she joins the Straw Hats. Similarly, Mr. 2/Bon Clay was at worst a Punch-Clock Villain and happily becomes an ally of the Straw Hats due to them believing in the power of friendship as strongly as he does.
- Jinbe of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, being the only one of the original seven that isn't cruel, out of his mind, a prick, or
not caring about anyone, aside from Kuma, who turns out to be a Good All Along Stealth Mentor to the Straw Hats. Eventually, Boa Hancock would become a decent person, and taking the four later appointees to the Warlords into account, Trafalgar Law proved to be an Unscrupulous Hero, but with the other seven being at least some flavor of terrible, the organization is still skewed heavily in favor of the dark side. - While not exactly a "team" in a traditional sense, for the Four Emperors it's Shanks ever since Whitebeard's death.
- The Nefertari family turns out to be this among the Celestial Dragons as they were the only family to not proclaim themselves to be gods after founding the World Government.
- So was Saint Homing and his wife, who are the only known kind nobles seen so far. His son, Doflamingo doesn't share the same sentiments, though his other son, Rocinante, did.
- Donquixote Mjosgard, a relative of Homing, eventually grew into becoming this after getting saved on Fishman Island. It's even noted by other Celestial Dragons he doesn't use slaves.
- From the Donquixote Family, Baby 5 was the least cruel member, who really only fought for Doflamingo because of her chronic desire to be needed by someone (something that the rest of the Family encouraged rather than corrected because it made her useful). She later finds out that her comrades only care for her because she's convenient, and when her opponent (one of Luffy's allies) promises to marry her and treat her with respect, she turns against the Donquixote Family and is the only member who is not arrested, even celebrating their defeat together with Luffy and the rest of his allies.
- Reiju is the only Vinsmoke and Gemma 66 commander who is capable of empathy and the only one of Sanji's siblings who treats the latter with some form of kindness. Later on, we see she genuinely cares for Sanji and disapproves of their other siblings, even if circumstances don't let her say it out right.
- Among Big Mom’s children, while not all of them are as sociopathic as Big Mom herself, most of them are very much not good people. Three exceptions exist: Defector from Decadence Charlotte Lola, her twin Charlotte Chiffon, and Charlotte Praline of the Sun Pirates. Eventually, with her Heel–Face Turn, Charlotte Pudding brings the number of heroic Charlotte children up to four.
- There’s a general lack of decent members of the Beast Pirates, with even the ones who have redeeming qualities ultimately having morality in the hard negatives. The closest thing to an exception is Speed; while Tama had to use her Devil Fruit to make Speed and many other Beast Pirates turn against Kaido, Speed makes it clear that she believes Good Feels Good and intends to remain on the side of the angels once Tama’s ability wears off.
- It turns out Whitebeard was this for his original crew the Rocks Pirates. For reference, this crew besides Whitebeard consisted of well established Ax-Crazy psychos such as: Shiki, Big Mom, Kaido and their captain Rocks D. Xebec; Arch-Enemy of the Pirate King Gol D. Roger himself!
- Kaku of CP9 is the only member to not go out of his way to antagonize the Straw Hats, even going as far as to voluntarily give up his key after being defeated by Zoro. He's also the only one of the four infiltrators to express remorse over betraying Galley-La and the people of Water 7. Later on in the Egghead arc, he takes a moment to try to comfort Sentomaru after they're seriously injured by Lucci, one of Kaku's own True Companions.
- Of the Admirals, Akainu is a sociopathic Knight Templar, Ryokugyu even more so, Kizaru is totally obedient to the World Government because he simply doesn’t care about the atrocities they commit, Aokiji seems to be a Reasonable Authority Figure at first but eventually proves to be a far worse person than he initially appeared to be, and while Sengoku is well aware of the Government’s corruption, he hasn’t really tried to fight it much, and hasn’t tried to find alternatives to the atrocities he was ordered to commit. Admiral Fujitora is the only one who can be truly and unequivocally described as a decent man.
- Ainz Ooal Gown, Satoru Suzuki/Lord Momonga's old guild in Overlord (2012) is shown to be made almost entirely of evil monsters with the exception of "Touch Me" who decided to be a Knight in Shining Armor who believed in honor and justice.note
- Among Momonga's subordinates, we have his Battle Butler and leader of his personnel team of ninja maids Sebas Tian, who unlike the other more evil guardian's at Nazarick, has been shown willing to give a helping hand to those weaker than himself and is one of the few in Nazarick that is accepting of humans.
- Also of note; Cocytus is by far the least evil of Nazarick's floor guardians and often praises the courage and skill of his opponents, even if they're significantly weaker than he is.
- Rebuild World: The Rival Katsuya, a Satire of the Stock Shōnen Hero, has a Battle Harem of other Private Military Contractors in Drankam who are in love with him. While Katsuya is The Resenter, Lilina is Jerkass with a Hair-Trigger Temper, and Airi is a selfish and bitter Kuudere, Yumina is a Nice Girl and the one who most tries to bridge the divide between them all and Akira.
- Heracles from Record of Ragnarok is this among the gods. He may be fighting on the gods side of Ragnarok, but unlike the other representatives, who, while Affably Evil at best, are all seemingly completely fine with wiping out humanity, Heracles is a genuinely heroic character who openly opposes humanity's extinction despite his allegiance. Fittingly, his opponent is the Token Evil Teammate of the humans, Jack the Ripper.
- The Rising of the Shield Hero: Although he has his own flaws, Ren is the most heroic and least problematic out of the Three Cardinal Heroes in comparison to Motoyasu's dimwitted lecherousness and Itsuki's overbearing egomania. Unlike them, he actually gives Naofumi, who has been severely mistreated and wrongly accused several times by the heroes and the capital who summoned them, the benefit of the doubt and offers sympathy, feels incredibly guilty over the mistakes that Naofumi has to correct and doesn't take advantage of his party instead of making them his own harem or fanatic Yes-Men. However, that doesn't stop him from falling to Toxic Friend Influence and making the same Lethally Stupid decisions as Motoyasu and Itsuki did.
- Sgt. Frog: Dororo is less interested in taking over Earth and more interested in protecting its environment. Far more obvious in the manga, and pointed out several times.
- In an excellent example of having both a Token Good Teammate and a Token Evil Teammate on the same team, the Black-and-Gray Morality world of Slayers has Amelia and Xellos respectively. The rest of the team tend to be selfish jerks (especially Lina), but Xellos admits to being evil and tags along because a.) he's under orders to, and b.) it's just fun. Amelia, on the other hand, is Wrong Genre Savvy and thinks she's in a Magical Girl show, even going so far as to trying to cure Xellos of being evil through the power of love. The rest of the team swings back and forth along the spectrum of good vs evil.
- Mametchi from Tamagotchi is the only member of the main trio to not consistently be an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist.
- Tweeny Witches: Sigma's father was the only decent member of the warlocks affiliated with Grande. As Grande's Honest Advisor, he advised Grande against using dark magic, resulting in his tragic death at Grande's hands.
- Psyche (The Goddess of Soul) from Osamu Tezuka's Unico is the only goddess who genuinely loves Unico and serves as his owner. Compared to the other gods (especially Venus) who all grew to dislike the unicorn due to spreading love and kindness to everybody he encounters. The gods eventually summon The West Wind to separate Unico from Psyche and his mother to a far away place. Psyche makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the 1979 pilot Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather by Sanrio Animation.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: While all of Dartz's elite minions have tragic backstories that explain their Start of Darkness, Raphael is distinct in that he seems to genuinely believe that Dartz is saving the world. He has so much respect for and connection to his cards that he successfully uses the Heart of the Cards against Yami Yugi. He also successfully fights the influence of the Orichalcos, something only Mai had previously done (with The Power of Love) and subsequently rescues Mai and Valon's comatose bodies from an earthquake. In fact, it's outright stated that the Orichalcos could not take his soul because he had no evil in his heart.
- YuYu Hakusho:
- Kurama in an early arc. Not surprisingly, he does a Heel–Face Turn, but unexpectedly, so does Hiei (who then becomes the Token Evil Teammate for the good guys.)
- As the show and its characters become more morally ambiguous, Kuwabara becomes this for the main four.
