Follow TV Tropes

Following

Tomboy And Girly Girl / Anime & Manga

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e481266fc98bd4b67ecd8551dcc2fe9e.jpg
Examples of Tomboy and Girly Girl in anime and manga.
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Rentarou's first two girlfriends are Hakari, a sweet-natured and well-endowed Covert Pervert who puts on an air of feminine charm to try and seduce Rentarou into letting her have her way with him, and Karane, a Tsundere who is Stronger Than They Look and is the most recurring butt of A-Cup Angst jokes in the manga.
  • Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says has an In-Universe case. One of Toda's hentai one-shots, Ashen Oil, is a Yuri Genre work whose main couple starts off like this, comprising the tomboyish Japanese Delinquent Sumiko, and the girly model student Kayu. Of course, since their relationship eventually becomes sexual (or else this won't be hentai), they have moved into Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple.
  • Akuma no Riddle: Tokaku is a stoic Professional Killer and Haru is a cheerful Ordinary High-School Student with a Dark and Troubled Past.
  • In Aoharu × Machinegun, the female protagonist Hotaru is a tomboy to her friend Kanae's girly girl. Hotaru is a Passionate Sports Girl with short hair who plays airsoft and is very athletic. Kanae has long hair and cares more about her appearance; she's also trying to make Hotaru more feminine.
  • Attack on Titan:
    • Butch Lesbian Ymir and conventionally attractive Krista Lenz, who are seemingly polar opposites in every possible way. Both are highly-skilled soldiers, but Ymir uses masculine speech and dresses like a man out of uniform while Krista desperately attempts to be seen as The Ingenue and wears long skirts off-duty.
    • Annie Leonhart and her roommate in the Military Police Brigade, Hitch. While Annie barely owns more than a few plain hoodies and spends her off-days working out, Hitch is noted to enjoy wearing makeup and dressing up in fashionable clothes on her days off.
  • Azumanga Daioh:
    • Kagura and Sakaki are the junior version, with Kagura being a cross between a Boisterous Bruiser and Lovable Jock, who initially befriends Sakaki in the spirit of competition. At least, until she discovers that Sakaki isn't what she and others thought. Instead, she's painfully shy with a love for cute cuddly objects.
    • Minamo Kurosawa and Yukari Tanizaki are the adult version of the trope. As the school's PE teacher/swim instructor, Minamo is easily recognizable by her short, dark-colored hair, while Yukari is the English teacher and has a more traditionally feminine appearance. Though her abrasive manner and childlike behavior are a stark contrast from what you'd typically expect.
  • Baccano! has on the one hand Nice Holystone, who wears a vest and tight pants (in 1930's America, no less...) and enjoys blowing stuff up, and on the other, Chane Laforet, who wears long, elegant dresses and fights gracefully with a knife.
  • Barakamon:
    • Naru is a little girl who dresses like a boy, is extremely energetic and outgoing, and loves to catch and collect bugs. Her best friend Hina is a little girl who is usually seen in skirts, is a cripplingly shy crybaby, and is afraid of bugs.
    • Tama and Miwa form another pair. Miwa is energetic and athletic girl with short hair, and play softball, while Tama is a bit of a bookworm, and a Meganekko.
  • Beauty Pop, where Kiri Koshiba, a very boyish girl (to the point that she is often mistaken for a boy when not in school uniform), has a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship going on with girly and feminine Kanako. Kiri is also friends with a genki goth loli (sister of another main character) who has a big crush on her, but those feelings are not reciprocated by Kiri.
  • Berserk: Before it went From Bad to Worse for her and she became an Apostle, Rosine was the tomboy to her best friend Jill's girly girl.
  • Bleach:
    • Rukia and Orihime subvert the trope, initially appearing to have Rukia as the tomboy and Orihime as the girly-girl. Behind Rukia's rough attitude is someone who loves rabbits, plushies, dresses, romance stories, and cutesy artwork. Behind Orihime's nurturing personality, pacifistic nature, and ability to heal and shield, is a black beltnote  karate expert and a lover of robots, boys comics, and sci-fi. Played straight, however, with Orihime and her best friend Tatsuki, who is a Bifauxnen tomboy to the core.
    • Karin and Yuzu's are Polar Opposite Twins. Karin is the Deadpan Snarker with an interest in sports and whose friends are all male. Yuzu is more taken with domestic duties around the house, such as cooking and cleaning, gentle, compassionate and loves dresses and plushies.
    • Kiyone (3rd Seat of the 13th Squad) is boisterous, argumentative and will go out drinking, whereas her big sister, Isane, (Lieutenant of the 4th Division) is gentle, feminine and very timid.
    • Subverted with Loly and Menoly. Loly wears short dresses and ties her hair in bunches, but is outspoken, argumentative and violent. Menoly is a short-haired, trouser-wearing girl who is thoughtful, passive and subdued. Both are still tomboyish, regardless, especially compared to Girly Girl Orihime.
  • Marika and Akane from Bokura no Hentai. Akane has short hair and is more boisterous while Marika has longer hair once she begins living as a girl, is more feminine, and is more subdued. It was even more noticeable when they met as kids, as Akane hated skirts (though she seems to like them now) while Marika hated shorts.
  • The protagonists of the one-shot, Born This Way, play up the Lipstick Lesbian and Butch Lesbian version of this trope. The unnamed lead is conveniently feminine while her wife is androgynous and dresses in a masculine fashion.
  • As Talas is travelling with Smith in A Bride's Story, she becomes either depending on the region they're in. In Persia, a much more religiously conservative country, Talas is practically a wild woman, who doesn't hide her face and acts like a man. In the area around the Aral Sea, Talas seems like a delicate princess who has beautiful clothing as her everyday wear. Smith himself sees her as a bit of a tomboy, being in awe of how easily she does the strenuous tasks of her day-to-day life without breaking much of a sweat.
  • Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman — a two-part OVA series. Played with by (girly) main character Mari and her affectionate (tomboy) roommate Saori. Toyed with in funny ways in that Mari is the scantily-clad heroine while Saori tends to be the Damsel in Distress.
  • The Bush Baby: Kate is the girly girl to Jackie's tomboy. Kate likes wearing pink and reading, while Jackie plays in the mud and joins her father and brother in their safari adventures. In spite of being polar opposites the girls are best friends and Jackie often invites her to see the vast array of animals under the Rhodes' care.
  • Candy☆Boy: Yukino is more girlish in behavior than her sister Kanade, in perhaps one of the more subtle examples of this trope.
  • Captain Tsubasa:
  • It's a minor stretch, but the two Action Girl leading ladies of Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran manage to fit in, though each also extends from the stereotypes. Ran fits as the Girly Girl. In spite of being a samurai (her clothes border on Bifauxnen, but she is not underendowed; her robes are simply loose), she prides herself on being a beautiful woman, and she always dresses neat and has good manners, and her fighting style is almost stereotypical samurai: graceful in motion. In contrast, Myao is the Tomboy. She definitely looks like a down-in-the-heels vagabond with her travel-worn outfit (she's definitely a woman, but she doesn't make as much a fuss of it as Ran), yet her wild sense of justice means she's usually the one to talk impulsively and jump headlong into mishaps. Plus as a martial artist, she moves like a blur when she's fighting with lots of punches, kicks, and throws.
  • Case Closed: One may think Sonoko is Ran's girly girl and her older sister Ayako's tomboy but Ran thing is more complex than that. Sonoko is less physically active and more boy-crazy/fashionista than Ran, but is also more outspoken and straightforward than her (Unless Ran's in tsuntsun more, yeah.) In fact, their friendship started when Sonoko protected Ran when they were children!
    • Also difficult with Ran and Kazuha. Both of them have similar personalities and practice martial arts. However, Kazuha is a type A tsundere, who was introduced as a Clingy Jealous Girl, while Ran is a type B tsundere. Ran is usually much calmer than Kazuha who has a Hair-Trigger Temper. So Ran can be considered as the less boyish girl.
    • Miwako is the tomboy to Yumi's girly girl. Both are policewomen, but Sato is a short-haired Action Girl and grown-up Shorttank while Yumi is a long-haired tease and traffic cop.
    • Miwako is the tomboy to Kobayashi-sensei's girly girl. Both are Identical Strangers to each other, however, and that's why Yumi was surprised when she met the soft-spoken and girlish Kobayashi-sensei, who she confused for being Miwako, for the first time.
    • Of the Detective Boys, snarky Little Miss Badass Haibara is the Tomboy, while sweet and innocent Ayumi is the Girly Girl.
  • This trope is played with in A Certain Scientific Railgun and by extension its parent series too with Mikoto Misaka and Kuroko Shirai. The former is a Tomboy with a Girly Streak that is more aggressive, keen on fighting and likes to wear shorts, however some of her interests are rather childish with an extreme obsession with cute things particularly a series of cartoon frogs. The latter however is something of a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak, she looks far more physically frail than Mikoto and chides her on her childish interests, striving to be more like a fine lady with far more feminine interests, she is however in the local law enforcement agency Judgment and doesn't think twice about taking on fully grown criminals with a combination of kicks or her array of sharp needles.
  • Fiore (the quiet, submissive maid) and Shader (the loud techie that wears men's clothing) in Chrono Crusade. In the manga version the two are friends (and are seen together at the end), in the anime Shader has a crush on Fiore and appears to be jealous of her relationship with Joshua.
  • In Cross Ange, Ange is the tomboy who engages in lots of fights, while Momoka is the girly girl who takes care of Ange.
  • The humor in Dekoboko Girlish revolves around this. Oriko is tall and masculine looking to the point where most people mistake her for a boy. Her friend Natsuo is cute and girly but looks far younger than twenty.
  • Dear Brother has Tomoko and Nanako, as well as Rei and Fukiko. Rei and Kaoru, however, are another story. And so are Mariko and Nanako. Mariko and Kaoru fit in here as well.
  • Digimon Adventure: Of the original two girls, Sora is a soccer player who appears to be One of the Boys (though she also functions as the Team Mom) while Mimi is a lover of fashion, cute things and the color pink. The third female protagonist Kari is a mixture of the two, so it becomes Town Girls after she joins. Averted for the two main females in the sequel series Digimon Adventure 02 with both Yolei and Kari, both have a mixture of tomboy and girly traits.
  • Digimon Tamers: Rika is initially somewhat of a Blood Knight when it comes to Digimon and even after mellowing out on her more aggressive tendencies is still tomboyish, especially compared to Jeri, who has more feminine interests, though she has some shades of being a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak. Later on, Suzie helps fulfill that role as well, being a Cheerful Child.
  • Digimon Fusion: Angie is shown as somewhat of a Gamer Chick and has a more blunt attitude. Meanwhile, Nene, while having a bit of an Action Girl streak, is more reserved and later becomes an idol singer.
  • Dirty Pair: This is practically a given for any Lovely Angels teams. Kei and Yuri almost certainly inspired the Pretty Cure girls, right down to their very similar hairstyles.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The manga has some fun with this trope. Bulma and Lunch vary on which is the tomboy and which is the girly girl depending on which of Lunch's personalities is dominant. If Lunch is in her blonde form, she's a gun-crazy kleptomaniac and Bulma is a fashion-conscious non-combatant. If Lunch is in her blue-haired form, however, she's a naive ingenue and Bulma is the adventurous Wrench Wench.
    • In the Buu arc, Shorttank and Tsundere Videl and her Ms. Fanservice friend Erasa.
    • Bulma and Chi-Chi also play with this trope. In the middle of the series, after Lunch has been chucked out, Bulma is the adventurous wrench wench while Chi-Chi is mostly concerned with being a good wife and mother. However, later on in the series, Bulma settles down and doesn't change much otherwise, but Chi-Chi has relaxed a lot and is much more comfortable with reminding everyone that she's an extremely skilled martial artist in her own right. Videl is a straight out Tomboy to both of them. She prefers a boyish appearance and training in martial arts. Android 18 would fall in the middle as she was initially a rebellious teenager who never wore dresses, yet shops and dresses nice. This makes Bulma a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak and Chi-Chi a Girly Bruiser with Videl as the Tomboy who gets a Girliness Upgrade and 18 as a Tomboy with a Girly Streak.
    • Caulifla and Kale, the local Smash Sisters Saiyan delinquents of Universe 6, share this dynamic respectively. Caulifla is an overconfident, pragmatic tomboy who doesn't shy away from leading her gang or an itch to fight. Kale, on the other hand, is her passive Straight Man subordinate with a tendency to get dirty when her confidence clings to the opportunity while wearing a crop-top and mini-skirt combo.
  • Eyeshield 21 plays with this in the form of Anezaki Mamori and Suzuna Taki. On the field Mamori is the sweatpants wearing, calculating team manager who makes calls alongside quarterback Hiruma, while Suzuna is a cheerleader. Off the field, however, Mamori is the girly-girl and Team Mom all dressed up in frilly clothing, while Suzuna is the Deadpan Snarker and rollerblading enthusiast who hangs out with Sena and Monta.
  • Figure 17 Tsubasa & Hikaru has a mild version of this going on. Hikaru is somewhat tomboyish relative to Tsubasa, wearing more masculine clothes in the opening and being better at sports, but taken on her own she's still quite feminine. The main contrast here is that the Artificial Human Hikaru is outgoing and extraverted, and helps to bring out the shy introverted Tsubasa, who was an only child before her artificial twin Tsubasa was accidentally created.
  • Fruits Basket:
    • Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima . Uo is a (mostly) reformed Yankee who has been known to bring a lead pipe to school to threaten people who pick on her friends. Hana is a soft-spoken girl with Elegant Gothic Lolita leanings, and the ability to read people's auras. And she can kill you with her mind. Both scare the crap out of their classmates, except for Tohru.
    • Kagura Sohma and Tohru Honda also have these dynamics, to a degree. Kagura isn't that tomboyish, though: she's more of a Genki Girl.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure:
    • Misumi Nagisa and Yukishiro Honoka respectively. It goes as far as making the symbols on their mascots' foreheads cutesied-up versions of the Mars and Venus symbols. Interestingly enough (and perhaps not done often enough), the girly-girl Honoka is the smartest girl in school and into chemistry. The banner ads would love her.
    • This is mostly a superficial example of the trope. Nagisa has short hair and plays lacrosse, but her room is pink and full of stuffed animals, while Honoka's is a fairly plain traditional Japanese style room. And while Honoka's clothes tend to be girlier, she doesn't seem to be noticeably more interested in fashion. Also, Honoka actually seems more gung-ho about punching evil in the face than Nagisa. It's really more of a jock/nerd dichotomy than anything else.
    • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, outgoing and energetic Genki Girl Love is the tomboy, and her friend Setsuna, one of the most popular at her school and the occasional Damsel out of Distress, is the girly girl.
    • Averted in HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, with Tsubomi and Erika both being Girly Girls. And then played straight, as Itsuki is Tomboyish enough to cover both.
    • Doki Doki Pretty Cure has the Genki Girl Mana and the Straight Girl Rikka. It helps, that Rikka (and a boy) describes her friend as a prince, while Rikka herself is described as Mana's wife.
      • Mana is the girly girl to Makoto. Makoto is the least overtly feminine of the Cures outside her Idol Career, with a tomboyish dress-sense, short and butch page-boy haircut and attitude to match. Mana is an Ambiguously Gay Fangirl for her and jokes that Makoto's is Ai-chan's father and she's the mother. That happens even in the same episode as Rikka was called Mana's wife.
      • Mana and Regina who is possibly the girliest girl in this series. There is even a scenario where Mana rescues Regina from the latter's father and his henchmen, while Regina is de-powered.
    • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! is an oddity in that the roles are given not to individual Cures but to their Form Changes: upbeat and energetic Lollipop Hip Hop (who prefers bombing Choiarks with physical music notes) is the tomboy, and serene and peaceful Macadamia Hula Dance (whose dancing summons flowers and gets most everyone in the vicinity doing it) is the girly girl. In The Movie, the role of tomboy once again goes to Megumi, who ends up being a knight-in-shining-armor type to Tsumugi-chan, a ballerina princess, who is the girly girl.
    • Downplayed in Go! Princess Pretty Cure between Haruka and Minami; Haruka may represent strength, but her being gung-ho about tennis stems from her belief that tennis is a sport fit for a princess, and Minami is decidedly a girly girl, representing grace.
  • Future GPX Cyber Formula:
    • Miki Jounouchi and Asuka Sugo are tomboy and girly girl respectively in the series. Miki is the chief mechanic and Asuka is the acting owner who also serves as the mascot girl of their teams. In addition, Miki likes listening to rock music and Asuka likes shopping.
    • Later, Clair Fortran serves as the girly girl (along with Asuka) to Miki's tomboy. She has hints of both of the tropes, as she is the machine designer of the Sugo team.
  • In Great Pretender, the sweet and feminine Team Mom Cynthia contrasts with the violent and strong Abbie. They actually use this dichotomy to their advantage in the second arc, where they pose as a female racing pilot (Abbie) and her manager (Cynthia). They're well aware of the dynamic they have, and they know it will make them a hit with crowds precisely because it hits this trope.
  • The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All: Mitsuki dresses boyishly when not in uniform, such as preferring pants over skirts, which results in her being mistaken for a guy. Aya, on the other hand, is a fashionable gyaru who dresses in a girly manner and wears makeup.
  • Hanjuku Joshi is a yuri manga about Chitose (tomboy) and Yae (girly); Yae is painfully aware that she fits the trope, and dislikes being called "girly" for this reason.
  • Early on in Hayate the Combat Butler, Hinagiku is the tomboy to pretty much any girl she is paired up with (the possible exception being Nagi who seems to be even more of a tomboy and less self-conscious of it than Hina). With character development, Hinagiku has since become much girlier, but still tends to be the tomboy when compared to the other girls she hangs out with.
  • Helen ESP has this dynamic between schoolfriends Oguri (tomboy) and Helen (girly).
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Hi-Speed Jecy: As of episode 4, Anita and Tiana have settled into these respective roles, with Anita being the Action Girl and Tiana being the frequent Damsel in Distress.
  • Hidamari Sketch:
    • Yuno and Miyako qualify, with Miyako as the extroverted and boyish type and Yuno being much more introverted and soft-spoken.
    • And Sae and Hiro. Hiro's description in the character sketch of the manga is "wife material," while Sae is her tomboyish friend who gets jealous when Hiro mentions getting love letters from guys...
  • Highschool DXD introduces two Church Militant girls Xenovia and Irina. The former is pretty much a serious Action Girl with a short hair and a deeper voice while the latter is a chirpy Genki Girl sporting Girlish Pigtails with the English dub outright giving her a valley girl accent. Ironically, Irina started out as a tomboy to the point where her Childhood Friend, and main protagonist, Issei thought she was a boy growing up, only to discover, to his delight and shock, that she was a girl upon reuniting. Xenovia for the most part stays tomboyish though she does loosen up and desires to become a mother as a goal both "feminine" and serving of God in a traditional woman's role.
  • Hime-chan's Ribbon:
    • Himeko is an impulsive Genki Girl who is good at sports and has Boyish Short Hair. Her Alternate Universe counterpart Erika is a near-mirror image of Himeko, except that she is a long-haired girly princess.
    • Another foil to Himeko is her sister Aiko, a calm, soft-spoken, domesticated girl who is considered very beautiful. Himeko would like to be more feminine like her.
  • House of the Witch: A short horror manga story, used this trope. The tall, short-haired tomboy is in love with her basketball coach and suspects he fancies her back, but can't act on this because a student/teacher relationship would be improper. Tomboy confides in her tiny, frilly girly-girl best friend, who professes to despise sweaty, muscular men. Come the graduation party, tomboy is thrilled to finally have the chance to make her feelings known, so goes over — to have the coach interrupt the party to announce his engagement and almost immediate marriage to girly-girl, who had apparently been dating him all along. After that setup, well, it was a horror manga. It went From Bad to Worse.
  • Ice Revolution: Uber-tomboy Masaki and her uber-girly-girl best friend Yui, as well as Masaki's rival Katakura. Ironically Yui was just as much a tomboy as Masaki, but that was before she was struck by The Power of Love.
  • Initial D: Sayuki is the the sassy Femme Fatale Genki Girl, while Mako is the Cute Bruiser Nice Girl.
  • Jewelpet:
    • Jewelpet (2009): Protagonist Rinko's best friends Minami and Aoi. The former is a sporty girl who beats up bullies and criminals, and the latter is a cultured and shy girl.
    • Jewelpet Sunshine: Foils Hinata and Shouko. The former is motherly and sensible, while the latter is a motorcycle-riding delinquent.
    • Jewelpet Happiness: Protagonist Chiari's best friends Nene and Ruruka. The former is a Proper Lady, while the latter is a rough-talking jokester.
    • Lady Jewelpet: The secondary pair of Petit Ladies, Mizuki and Charon. The former is a tough girl who loves the outdoors, while the latter is a meek bookworm who wants to write romances.
  • Kaleido Star:
    • May Wong shared strong traits of both types, dressing and wearing her hair like a girly girl but acting very Tsundere — so Sora would sometimes be the tomboy and later play the girly girl part.
    • During the second part, girly girl Layla gained her very own tomboy when partnered with the playwright and Cool Big Sis Cathy Taymor.
    • Sora and Rosetta Passel also switched around the tomboy and girly girl roles.
  • Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl: The love triangle variety gets a lesbian slant when boy-turned-girl Hazumu has to choose between ultra-feminine Yasuna and tomboyish Tomari. Since Hazumu is very girlish him/herself, the outcome is pretty much a foregone conclusion — at least in the manga.
  • Kaze no Shōjo Emily: Ilse is a brash Tomboy who loves to rough-and-tumble play and skate, while Emily is the sweet and joyous Girly Girl who loves reading and writing books. Ilse also predominantly wears blue and has short hair, while Emily often wears pink and has long hair. This is lampshaded when Aunt Elizabeth tells Emily that Ilse isn't a good influence as she wants Emily to grow up to be a Proper Lady.
  • Kill la Kill:
    • While Mako plays the role of the friendship-obsessed and good-natured character, Ryuko has a tougher image, doing lots of fighting, being of a gruffer nature and cursing frequently. The two are very close and spend a lot of time together and their contrasting views help them grow throughout the series, particularly with helping Ryuko let go of her anger in her quest for vengeance.
    • There's also Ryuko being the Butch Tomboy to Satsuki's Moderate Girly Girl. Surprisingly, they turn out to be sisters.
  • Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku: Hime purposefully invokes this by wearing the boys' uniform, to take attention way from Akira and make her appear more feminine by comparison.
  • Kimagure Orange Road:
  • Played with in Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl with Mizuki and Moe, respectively runner and manager of a tracking team. Mizuki cut her hair to give this effect when she is seen with the "cute" Moe, but the latter is actually much more blunt and shameless, while Mizuki is quite shy and easily embarrassed.
  • K-On!: Childhood Friends Ritsu and Mio. Especially in the flashback to elementary school, with brash, Shorttank Ritsu and shy, dress-wearing Mio.
  • Love Live! Sunshine!!: Passionate Sports Girl You Watanabe and Elegant Classical Musician Riko Sakurauchi. You is boisterous, headstrong, an excellent high-diver, and aims to be a ship captain like her father (although she’s also one of the group’s costume designers and is perfectly fine with wearing dresses), while Riko is shy, modest, seems to like shoujo manga, and is associated with the color pink.
  • In Macross II, there was Silvie Gena (Ace Pilot, Badass Driver), and Ishtar (Tsundere, Idol Singer).
  • In Maetel Legend, the twins Maetel and Emeraldas have this dynamic going on: while both are decisively feminine in appearance, Emeraldas is taciturn and combative, while Maetel is compassionate and generally passive. In fact, despite the OVA being named after Maetel, it's Emeraldas who is the major plot-driving force between the two of them.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Those Two Girls outspoken Tsundere of a former bully Alisa and gentle, soft-spoken, former Shrinking Violet Suzuka. After the Time Skip, Alisa even cuts her hair short. Unless they're playing sports, whereupon Suzuka reveals a enthusiasm and strength equivalent to Nanoha in battle, as Fate found out. Suzuka "blows Fate out of the sky" with a thrown dodgeball. Fate is a high speed, close combat specialist. Suzuka and Alisa seem to be slightly more than just close friends as well.
    • The third season has Subaru and Teana (Teana's the redhead), the former being a Genki Girl and the latter a Tsundere. Subaru and her older sister Ginga may work as well, as Ginga wears more conservative clothing than Subaru (who wears shorts and a white bow on her hair) during battle, wearing pants and a black ribbon on her long hair.
      • Subaru and Teana play with it a bit. Despite looking like the tomboy of the pair, Subaru tends to act girlier, being much more expressive, emotionally open, and prone to Tender Tears. Teana, meanwhile, despite looking like the girly one of the pair (and sounding the part, too, with a higher and softer voice), shows more stereotypically boyish/tomboyish emotional responses - emoting less, reacting to hardships and annoyances with more overt anger and stubbornness while Subaru is more prone to go sad and quiet (usually), and crying a lot less than her shorter-haired partner, as well as having more "boyish" interests like guns and motorcycles, compared to Subaru's affinity for rollerblading and cooking.
    • Signum sometimes plays tomboy to Shamal's girly girl; the former tends to wear shorter skirts or pants and teaches kendo in her spare time, and the latter wears long skirts or dresses (often with a pink apron), and enjoys spending time with neighborhood wives.
    • While the two have similar near-emotionless personalities, Numbers cyborg twins Otto and Deed fall into this trope, with Deed having long brown hair and a somewhat feminine appearance and Otto having short hair and being androgynous to the point where viewers and even the other Numbers are unsure of her gender. When the two join the Saint Church, Deed becomes a nun, wearing a typical habit, while Otto becomes a Deacon and wears a male uniform.
    • Rio and Corona, Vivio's Those Two Guys in ViVid, and Isis and Lily in Force. Tsuzuki seems to have a thing for this trope.
  • In the fairytale-esq hentai Magical Twilight, Chipple, despite her Moe appearance and Girlish Pigtails, is the tomboy to slutty Irene's girly girl.
  • Mahou Shounen Majorian: Lori and Masaru are like this... but subvert it by both being boys. Except in their Magical Girl forms. Yeah?
  • Maria Watches Over Us has a surprising subversion between two cousins. Hasekura Rei has short hair but is gentle, reads girly novels, loves sightseeing, cooking, and the word "sincerity" (though she is in the kendo club...). By contrast, after the longhaired Shimazu Yoshino's miraculous surgery allows her to recover from her Soap Opera Disease, she reveals more and more the aggressive, headstrong and Tsundere-ish personality that loves thriller stories and kendo.
  • Marmalade Boy:
    • Miki Koishikawa is a lively and outspoken Passionate Sports Girl (tomboy). Her best friend Meiko Akizuki is an Ojou and member of the literature club (girly).
    • Miki is the tomboy to her romantic rival, the graceful and proper Arimi Suzuki.
    • Miki is also the tomboy to another romantic rival, Anju Kitahara, a sweet and soft-spoken girl who plays the violin. Curiously, Anju used to be a Shorttank as a kid.
  • The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has several pairings like this:
    • The most explicit such pairing is of boisterous, sporty and boyish Genki Girl Haruhi Suzumiya (who actually leads a sports team at one point) and sweet, shy Girly Girl Mikuru Asahina. Everyone else falls in between these two spectrums.
    • Later on, Haruhi becomes part of two other pairings, once again on the tomboyish side of the spectrum with each; the girly girl in one of them is Sasaki, who has no desire to take charge of the Anti-SOS Brigade and is in fact a supporting character in its downfall, and in the other pairing, Haruhi is considerably more boisterous and less moe than her intended successor in the role of SOS Brigade leader, Yasumi Watahashi (who turns out to be a product of the branching that takes place during the Dissociation/Surprise arc).
  • Miracle Girls: The main characters are Polar Opposite Twins Toni (a spunky Passionate Sports Girl with Boyish Short Hair) and Mika (who is intellectual, unathletic, has long hair, and wears frilly dresses which are often pink).
  • Mischievous Twins: The Tales of St. Clare's: Between the twins, Patricia is more tomboyish while Isabel is the girly-girl. Isabel is quieter, demure and assimilates to St. Clare's quicker, but Patricia is wilder and often gets in trouble for her behaviour.
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kobayashi and Tohru. Kobayashi is the tomboyish salarywoman who is considered to be One of the Boys by her coworkers and Tohru is the girlish bubbly maid.
  • Seo and Chiyo in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. Seo is sporty, not at all graceful and uses a rough manner of speech, while Sakura has The Cutie look, prefers cute feminine clothes (especially ribbons) and has an appreciation for romance (especially if it's related to Nozaki).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans has this with its two female leads. Atra is a poor girl who grew up in the slums of Mars and splits her time between working as a store clerk, farming and cooking food for the CGS boys. By contrast, Kudelia is an elegant young upper girls who's politically active in the Mars Independence movement. Despite this difference, the two get along quite well and develop a close bond as the series progresses.
  • My Hero Academia: Kyoka Jiro is a snarky rock musician with Boyish Short Hair. Momo Yaoyorozu is a sweet Yamato Nadeshiko with long hair.
  • My-HiME and My-Otome have three sets: Haruka (tomboy) and Yukino (girly girl), Natsuki and Shizuru, and Chie and Aoi. All three pairs are Official Couples in the latter (anime version only; the manga version only suggests it with the first two).
  • Nana: The two Nanas fit this trope, as one (Nana Osaki) is a punk rocker and the other (Nana "Hachi" Komatsu) an overly romantic young woman who likes to wear cute dresses. This doesn't prevent them from being extremely close, shy of being actually in love with each other.
  • Naruto:
    • While they haven't had many opportunities to interact until recently, Sakura plays the tomboy to Hinata's girly girl.
    • Sakura used to be the girly girl to Ino's tomboy when they were children, however Ino eventually ended up the girly girl to Sakura's tomboy. This is accentuated in Shippuden by Ino being more into fashion than Sakura and having longer hair than her. As adults Ino is one of the few kunoichi to wear much-if-any makeup (pre-time skip Sakura wore eyeliner and nail polish in the manga but stopped post-time skip).
    • Adult version: Princess Tsunade a.k.a. the Fifth Hokage and her apprentice Shizune.
    • In the Spin-Off Sequel Series Naruto Gaiden and Boruto, the 'roles' go to the tiny-Sassy Black Woman Chouchou Akimichi (Tomboy) and the quiet Meganekko Sarada Uchiha (Girly Girl)
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Konoka and SetsunaLes Yay, with a twist that the girly girl (Konoka) is actually the extroverted romantic partner and tomboy (Setsuna) the shy one.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Sohryu Asuka Langley and Hikari Horaki, which is the most stable relationship Asuka has in the entire series. Though Asuka isn't that much of a Tomboy, being a Hot-Blooded Tsundere, she's still more masculine then Hikari Horaki.
    • Misato and Ritsuko are the grown-up version of the trope.
    • Ritsuko and her assistant Maya Ibuki.
  • Niea_7: Niea and Mayuko have some of this dynamic, although it's perhaps more "Jerkass And Kindhearted Girl".
  • Oniyuri-san and Himeyuri-san: A yuri one-shot (?) manga is about a pair in a secret romantic relationship. The title says it all.
  • Otherside Picnic has Toriko (the Girly Girl) and Sorawo (the Tomboy). Toriko is described as being unbelievably beautiful, with long blonde hair, indigo blue eyes, a stylish dresser, and a cheerful personality (at least when dealing with people she knows. She's hopelessly shy otherwise). Sorawo is an anti-social young woman with short cut black hair, glasses, and if it weren't for her interest in net-lore concerning "Real-life Ghost Stories" and her accidental discovery of the Otherside, she'd almost be a hikkikomori.
  • Otome no Teikoku (known as Virgins' Empire in English) has two yuri versions of this:
    • Ai is a tall, athletic member of the track club. Her girlfriend Chie is very curvy, girly, and feminine.
    • Yuu is an elegant, feminine, tsundere ice princess. She is involved in a BDSM relationship (well, the "B" hasn't shown up yet, but the other letters are all there) with Mari, a dedicated submissive, who is also a member of the track club.
  • Ouran High School Host Club has Renge Houshakuji, the resident Large Ham (on par with Tamaki Suoh, if not more so) and Cosplay Otaku Girl, as the tomboy, and Haruhi Fujioka, the gender-neutral and somewhat reluctant Bifauxnen undergoing a Twelfth Night Adventure, as the girly girl. However, they tend to switch roles with each other rather frequently and straddle the line more often than not. This particularly shows in one scene when Haruhi is showing Renge how to make cookies, and while Renge ends up screwing her batch up, Haruhi's batch is done just right. As a flip side example, Chapter 5 shows Renge acting more like a hopeless romantic in a cameo appearance, and at the end of the chapter it takes Haruhi putting her foot down hard for the twins to stop fighting.
  • The title characters of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
  • In Petite Princess Yucie there is some of this dynamic between rough-edged Beth and her overly cute fairy assistant Belbel.
  • Piano: Matsubara Yuuki is on her school's track team and is extremely outgoing. Her best friend and main character Nomura Miu is shy, introverted and prefers playing the piano.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • May was actually a girly girl in her own arc, compared to the tomboyish Misty, however when she appears in Diamond & Pearl she is this to Dawn. It's just that Dawn is girlier than May. The contrast in their designs - sporty shorts and short hair for May compared to a skirt and long hair for Dawn - emphasize it.
    • Dawn is the girly girl to both her main rival Zoey and her eventual replacement Iris, although in Zoey's case they have the same goal.
    • Serena is this way with her mother Grace. Grace is a spunky, short-haired woman who is a famous Ryhorn racer. While she wanted Serena to become a Ryhorn racer like her, Serena ended up leaning towards the Idol Singer-esque Pokemon Performer career instead. Serena has a more feminine look than her mom as well, though she did end up with an Important Haircut halfway through X&Y.
  • The Prince of Tennis:
    • Sakuno Ryuzaki and Tomoka Osakada. To some degree, Sakuno and An Tachibana too.
    • In the sisters league, the twins Kurumi and Narumi Iijyuin also shared these dynamics.
    • The lead girls in the Doki doki survival dating sims are like this too. Ayaka from Umibe no secret is a Shorttank and the tomboy, whereas Tsugumi from Sanroku no Mystic is a Cute Clumsy Girl and the girly girl (Ironically, the tomboyish Ayaka wears a skirt and sandals whereas the dainty Tsugumi wears jeans and sneakers). And in the story, they're childhood best friends like Tomoka and Sakuno.
  • Project A-Ko:
    • A-ko Magami is the powerhouse daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, while her rival, B-ko Daitokuji is a mega Rich Alpha Bitch, who's just as strong, despite her feminine appearance and mannerism. In "Cinderella Rhapsody" she even briefly fights A-ko, without Akagiyama-23!
    • C-ko Kotobuki is also girly when compared to A-ko, and shifts between being her constant companion, and Damsel in Distress when the plot calls for it.
  • Ranma ½:
    • Akane and Kasumi Tendō are the sister version, with Akane as the tomboy (who wants to be girly girl) and Kasumi as the girly girl. Curiously, Akane is the girly girl when it comes to rivals-in-love territory and Kasumi is replaced by Ukyō Kuonji, and is back to tomboy status when we go to her other rivals, Shampoo and Kodachi.
    • Also, whenever Ranma spends any prolonged length of time as a girl, she and Akane naturally end up gravitating into these roles (despite Ranma's accusations that Akane is unfeminine). The girls change which side of this trope they fall on at the drop of a hat, but they still gravitate to the extremes.
  • Ronin Warriors: Lady Kayura was the Dark Action Girl, brandishing twin swords and rushing in to kick the boys' butts. Mia Koji is the Team Mom who enjoys shopping and cooking.
  • Rosario + Vampire:
    • Inner Moka is a girly tomboy, compared to her Girly Girl counterpart who is sweet, polite, and bubbly which contrasts Inner Moka's cold, Action Girl personality.
    • Mizore isn't a tomboy, but plays the Tomboy to flirty Girly Girl Diva, Kurumu who prioritizes in finding a boyfriend.
    • The two lolis are Moka's brash sister, Kokoa, a Tomboy, and the more sweeter Yukari as the Girly Girl.
  • Rozen Maiden: Suiseiseki and Souseiseki, the twins. Interestingly, though, the combative tsundere is the girly one and the calm mediator is the bokukko. Revealed to be played straight later on, when it is revealed that Suiseiseki tries to avoid fighting in the Alice Game as much as possible, with Souseiseki being the combative one.
  • Saber Marionette J: Lime is the Girly Girl to Bloodberry's Tomboy, and the Tomboy to Cherry's Girly Girl.
  • Sailor Moon:
  • Sally the Witch: The first Magical Girl show. Sally's best friends were Ojou Sumire Hasegawa and the Shorttank Yoshiko "Yocchan" Hanamura. Sally herself was the middle ground, being a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak.
  • School Days:
    • The two main love interests has the brash, outgoing Sekai as the Tomboy and the shy, quiet Kotonoha as the Girly Girl. Tomboyish Sekai wasn't as hesitant with Makoto like Kotonoha was. She and Makoto were close friends while the shy Kotonoha couldn't approach him without Sekai's help.
    • Sekai also plays Tomboy to her quiet and helpful best friend, Setsuna's Girly Girl.
    • Sekai's two friends are sporty Nanami, a Tomboy, and bratty Hikari, a Girly Girl.
    • The sporty Tsundere and Alpha Bitch, Otome plays the Tomboy to her gossipy trio's Girly Girls.
  • School Rumble: Mikoto Suo is essentially 'the guy' among her group of friends. She's the most athletic girl at the school, given she's trained in Kenponote , since childhood. Eri Sawaichika comes from a distinguished and wealthy family, thus, is more concerned with appearances and dresses accordingly. Also, while generally kindhearted, she's tsundere (default mood, dere-dere); especially when it comes to Harima (where she usually switches to "tsun-tsun".
  • Shaman King actually inverts this somewhat, with Anna as the more feminine one appearance-wise but far more aggressive and assertive than Shrinking Violet Tamao, who could easily be mistaken for a boy depending on what she's wearing.
  • Shiki: Kaori, who has plain brown hair and is never seen wearing any dresses besides her school uniform, plays the tomboy to Rose-Haired Sweetie Megumi, who's interested in fashion and boys. Of the adults, there's tomboy Kanami, a woman who lives alone except for her mother and generally wears pants, and girly girl Motoko, a housewife with several children who is always shown in dresses.
  • Simoun, unsurprisingly, has several such pairs. Rodoreamon and Mamiina embody this trope to a T, and Neviril is paired with not one but three different tomboyish partners (Amuria, Paraietta, and Aaeru), among others.
  • In Slam Dunk this is seen with the two main female characters. Ayako is a lot more assertive and tomboyish than other examples of a Cute Sports Club Manager, contrasting a lot with the sweeter and more demure Haruko.
  • Starlight Angel: In the Robot Carnival sequence, a Tomboy and Girly Girl duet are seen enjoying a trip to a theme park.
  • Strawberry Shake Sweet plays with the trope: tall, slightly androgynous Ran has a sweet and gentle disposition: Julia is the energetic, aggressive one despite her long hair and overall feminine looks.
  • Telepathy Shoujo Ran has the sporty and short-haired Ran with the somewhat more elegant, long-haired Midori. They both like to wear dresses, though.
  • Tenchi Muyo! has Ryoko and Ayeka, with the former being The Lad-ette, who used to be the Galaxy Police's "Most Wanted" Space Pirate. While Ayeka is the crown princess of Planet Jurai which is reflected in her mannerism. Needless to say, their personalities often clash, especially when it comes to Tenchi though they eventually set aside their differences and become close friends.
  • TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy-: In their human forms, Tomoe acts and dresses as a samurai who loves her name because it comes from a female samurai in Japanese folklore. Mio wears a more feminine kimono and is a Yamato Nadeshiko. Mio also attempts to be a good housewife by learning to cook meals for Makoto, though this is hampered by her Extreme Omnivore nature making it hard to tell what other people can actually eat.
  • Tweeny Witches: Eva is a gentle Proper Lady in training and the Team Chef with long hair. Her friends, Arusu and Sheila, are brash and outspoken girls with Boyish Short Hair, but the similarity stops there. While Arusu is a Fiery Redhead, Sheila is relatively calmer and has greyish purple hair. In terms of the Japanese Pronouns, Arusu uses the gender-neutral "watashi" instead of the assertive masculine "ore" used by Sheila. Unlike Sheila, who almost always wears a black minidress, Arusu wears a tank top and pants before her Significant Wardrobe Shift as part of her Going Native. While Sheila is not particularly athletic, Arusu rides a Flying Broomstick like a skateboard, with which she is skilled enough to have been nicknamed "the Skateboard King" back in the Human Realm. While Arusu opposes the idea of violence, Sheila is quite willing to fight the warlocks as a Child Soldier.
  • The titular Tomo from Tomo-chan Is a Girl! is such a massive tomboy she has to be balanced by two girly girls: the Eastern Silk Hiding Steel girly girl Misuzu, and the bubbly, air-headed Western girly girl Carol.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: Hikaru and Maria play the trope, subverting it slightly, in one of the Mazinger Z sequels. Hikaru is very feminine -and later a still kinds girlish Action Girl-, and she switches from flowing dresses to pants and miniskirts as the story progresses. Maria, on the other hand, is a tomboy and a Tsundere biker constantly and consistently wears dresses and skirts. Not matter what, they are good friends.
  • In Urusei Yatsura we have Lum's friends Benten and Ran, Benten is a tough, trigger happy, biker girl who loves a good fight, while Ran is very feminine and prefers girly activities, but she does have a vengeful side to her and will behave violently when angered, Lum herself and her other friend Oyuki are somewhere in between.
  • Ushio and Tora has the hot-headed, athletic and tomboyish Asako and her best friend the girly, gentle and sweet Mayuko.
  • In the Virtua Fighter anime, Pai Chan and Sarah Bryant are portrayed somewhat like this, with Pai being quite tomboyish and Sarah being quite the opposite, while both being more or less capable fighters (despite Sarah's beginning as a Faux Action Girl of sorts).
    • OTOH, in the original game Sarah was the tomboy and Pai was the girly girl.
  • Chizuru from Wandering Son is boisterous and loves screwing with gender roles. She has a more feminine best friend named Momoko.
  • Witchblade: Another adult example is Masane and Reina. They are Rihoko's adoptive and biological mothers respectively.
  • Yami no Shihosha Judge: We met up with the Tsundere, Nanase, and the fearful wants-to-do-good girl, Keiko Yamamoto.... this would have to be an aversion of Vasquez Always Dies.
  • In Yotsuba&!, there's two pairs of these:
    • Ena has long hair, always wears cute dresses and plays with teddy bears, while Miura is jokingly called a boy by the other characters. This is subverted in that Ena is much more willing to handle "slimy" animals than Miura, who completely loses it when approached with a frog — and then there was the fishing trip.
    • Ena's older sister Asagi is conventionally beautiful, with waist-length hair, while her friend Torako wears short hair and skinny jeans. They're also the couple identified as having Les Yay by some fans.
  • You're Under Arrest!: Between the series' star duo, Miyuki is the long-haired feminine one, despite being an avid and highly skilled mechanic. Whereas her partner, Natsumi, has short hair and is well-known around the precinct for her boisterous nature and superhuman strength.
  • Your Lie in April: Tsubaki is a sporty, short haired girl who boys used to make fun of and call a "gorilla" in elementary. Kaori is more feminine, has long hair, and is a violinist.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Téa Gardner/Anzu Mazaki is the tomboy to Serenity/Shizuka Kawai's (or Miho Nosaka's in the Toei series) girly girl.

Top