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**From the book "Anime Explosion!" (Patrick Drazen, 2003):
--> "Usagi is hardly a role model: perennially late to school, too lazy to study and subsequently always in trouble for bad grades, constantly snacking and arguing with her little brother. In anime's long and rich tradition of 'magical girl' heroines, Usagi would definitely seem to be an unlikely candidate."
--> "True to the tradition, she's told to say a few magic words, which transform her into... a superpowered klutzy crybaby. All of Usagi's flaws stay with her, but somehow she saves the day."
--> "Usagi can't help having been the Moon Princess in a previous life, and now that she's stuck with it, she has to find the courage to do what needs to be done.
--> This is a more realistic object lesson for the audience anyway -- very few of us will inherit superpowers, but all of us find ourselves in predicaments that we're not entirely sure we can get out of."
--> "Usagi is hardly a role model: perennially late to school, too lazy to study and subsequently always in trouble for bad grades, constantly snacking and arguing with her little brother. In anime's long and rich tradition of 'magical girl' heroines, Usagi would definitely seem to be an unlikely candidate."
--> "True to the tradition, she's told to say a few magic words, which transform her into... a superpowered klutzy crybaby. All of Usagi's flaws stay with her, but somehow she saves the day."
--> "Usagi can't help having been the Moon Princess in a previous life, and now that she's stuck with it, she has to find the courage to do what needs to be done.
--> This is a more realistic object lesson for the audience anyway -- very few of us will inherit superpowers, but all of us find ourselves in predicaments that we're not entirely sure we can get out of."
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* ''Manga/EldenRingTheRoadToTheErdtree'': As a representation of the game's avatar, Aseo acts as a stand-in for the average ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' player. He understands nothing about the lore no matter how many times it's explained to him, he can barely fight and would prefer avoiding battles altogether if he can. He gets better at fighting as the series goes on, as one might expect a player to do, but never completely abandons his idiotic traits.
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* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': This is the point of the series. Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's life -- namely, he turns out to be such a loser that his entire family tree is ruined because of it. Contrast with his good friend Shizuka, who is a smart and kind young girl, Gian who is strong and good at sports, and Suneo, who is a genuinely talented artist and designer, as well as being fairly good at science. And then there's Dekisugi, who is the best student in the school and TheAce at everything. It must be noted that while the nature of the "future" depicted changed from time to time, most often Nobita becomes a responsible salaryman, devoted husband, and cool dad. He also manages to bag Shizuka somewhere along the line.
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* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': This is the point of the series. Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's life -- namely, he turns out to be such a loser that his entire family tree is ruined because of it. Contrast with his good friend Shizuka, who is a smart and kind young girl, Gian Gian, who is strong and good at sports, and Suneo, who is a genuinely talented artist and designer, as well as being fairly good at science. And then there's Dekisugi, who is the best student in the school and TheAce at everything. It must be noted that while the nature of the "future" depicted changed from time to time, it is most often that Nobita becomes a responsible salaryman, devoted husband, and cool dad. He also manages to bag Shizuka somewhere along the line.
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* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Usagi Tsukino is a gentle, compassionate, selfless and friendly teenage girl. She's also clumsy, lazy, childish and spoiled. And her friends and love interest, much as they love her, aren't shy about [[LampshadeHanging lampshading the trope]] frequently. Of course, with her being an AuthorAvatar, Naoko Takeuchi might actually be saying "This loser is ''me''."
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* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Usagi Tsukino is a gentle, compassionate, selfless and friendly teenage girl. She's also clumsy, lazy, childish and spoiled. And her friends and love interest, much as they love her, aren't shy about [[LampshadeHanging lampshading the trope]] frequently. Of course, with her being an AuthorAvatar, Naoko Takeuchi Creator/NaokoTakeuchi might actually be saying "This loser is ''me''."''me.''"
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%%* ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'': Akihisa Yoshii.
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%%* ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'': ''Literature/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'': Akihisa Yoshii.
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* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret'': Yuuto is an average everyday dude with average aspects and almost zero personality, till he meets cute Otaku Haruka...
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* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret'': ''Literature/HarukaNogizakasSecret'': Yuuto is an average everyday dude with average aspects and almost zero personality, till he meets cute Otaku Haruka...
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* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'': Yumi is described as being a plain, non-athletic girl of average intelligence, who berates herself constantly for being insignificant. Still, she has one of the most popular girls of her school chase after her and drag her into the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. She befriends most ''everyone'' there, which even culminates in a declaration of love of sorts from one of the coolest persons in the series. Later she is shown to have pretty good people skills, but that still doesn't convincingly explain why everybody chases her.
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* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'': ''Literature/MariaWatchesOverUs'': Yumi is described as being a plain, non-athletic girl of average intelligence, who berates herself constantly for being insignificant. Still, she has one of the most popular girls of her school chase after her and drag her into the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. She befriends most ''everyone'' there, which even culminates in a declaration of love of sorts from one of the coolest persons in the series. Later she is shown to have pretty good people skills, but that still doesn't convincingly explain why everybody chases her.
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* ''LightNovel/ReZero'': Deconstructed to the nth degree with Subaru Natsuki, who embodies all the core traits of this. And with his eventual GroundhogDayLoop levels of suffering, eventually shows how such a person would actually work in real life, culminating into one hell of a [[TearJerker tearjerking]] Self inflicted TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Episode 18. [[spoiler: All the suffering he goes through up till then has been, to his self-loathing and realization, to be the result of his rotten character, a person who has done absolutely nothing productive his whole life, in spite of having all the time in the world, foolishly thinking that all the knowledge he gained from doing nothing but gaming and bingeing on anime, manga and Light Novels, that it could get him a better life in another world simply by being teleported there, only to find this to be not at all what happens. He states multiple times at that point that he hates himself for it.]] Case in point:
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* ''LightNovel/ReZero'': ''Literature/ReZero'': Deconstructed to the nth degree with Subaru Natsuki, who embodies all the core traits of this. And with his eventual GroundhogDayLoop levels of suffering, eventually shows how such a person would actually work in real life, culminating into one hell of a [[TearJerker tearjerking]] Self inflicted TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Episode 18. [[spoiler: All the suffering he goes through up till then has been, to his self-loathing and realization, to be the result of his rotten character, a person who has done absolutely nothing productive his whole life, in spite of having all the time in the world, foolishly thinking that all the knowledge he gained from doing nothing but gaming and bingeing on anime, manga and Light Novels, that it could get him a better life in another world simply by being teleported there, only to find this to be not at all what happens. He states multiple times at that point that he hates himself for it.]] Case in point:
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Neither fit. first of all, if you're gonna mention that there's a famous quote, you should probably actually use it. second of all "maybe the audience forgets War Is Hell" is a completely different message than this trope. Second of all, Saji isn't an audience surrogate as he's not even a main character and all the things listed aren't bad traits that he has, there a list of terrible things that happen to him. "character suffers at the hands of the antagonists and it makes him bitter" is hardly this trope.
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* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' ends on a very famous quote that can easily come across as the director complaining that fans enjoy the robot fights in the series' tragic war dramas ''too much'' for him.
** Saji Crossroad during Season 1 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' only cares about getting a happy life of his own, ignorant of the large causes of the world - [[spoiler:hell! He even blindly hates the Gundams after first [[CuteAndPsycho Nena Trinity]] blasted an arm out of his girlfriend, and then [[IntrepidReporter his sister Kinue]], in her quest for getting info about Gundam, was killed by Ali Al-Saachez. It is not until Tieria Erde delivers him a BrightSlap in Season 2 does he gets better]].
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' ends on a very famous quote that can easily come across as the director complaining that fans enjoy the robot fights in the series' tragic war dramas ''too much'' for him.
** Saji Crossroad during Season 1 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' only cares about getting a happy life of his own, ignorant of the large causes of the world - [[spoiler:hell! He even blindly hates the Gundams after first [[CuteAndPsycho Nena Trinity]] blasted an arm out of his girlfriend, and then [[IntrepidReporter his sister Kinue]], in her quest for getting info about Gundam, was killed by Ali Al-Saachez. It is not until Tieria Erde delivers him a BrightSlap in Season 2 does he gets better]].
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* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
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* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
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** [[CreatorsPet While not actually treated that way by the plot]], Paul from the Diamond and Pearl series comes off of this, as his [[TrainingFromHell cruel and overworking treatment and objectification of his Pokemon]] mirrors the [[StopHavingFunGuys often over-the-top]] competitive and power-oriented teambuilding strategy in the games, since "caring" and "loving" your Pokemon is impossible except in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY two]] [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon generations]].
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** [[CreatorsPet While not actually treated that way by the plot]], Paul from the Diamond and Pearl series ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'' comes off of this, as his [[TrainingFromHell cruel and overworking treatment and objectification of his Pokemon]] Pokémon]] mirrors the [[StopHavingFunGuys often over-the-top]] competitive and power-oriented teambuilding strategy in the games, since "caring" and "loving" your Pokemon is impossible except in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY two]] [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon generations]].
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* Along with TheEveryman, the HaremGenre has plenty of these, the [[IntendedAudienceReaction intention being]] to provide a character that [[LowestCommonDenominator a wide audience]] can [[AudienceSurrogate easily relate to and project themselves onto]].
* ''Manga/{{Aria}}'''s protagonist, Akari Mizunashi, feels this way about herself, but she's actually very skilled and personable and suffering from a lack of self-confidence. CharacterDevelopment and lots of training and practice with her friends snap her out of it by the end.
%%* ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'': Akihisa Yoshii.
* In ''Anime/CardfightVanguard'', Aichi has actually lost more matches than he has won. However, this trope has officially come into effect as of episode 32. Not only does Team Q4 [[spoiler:get knocked out of the nationals]], but Team [=AL4=]'s leader Ren Sugimori proceeds to rub it in his face (and possibly starting him on the path to {{Wangst}}). Then in the next episode, Team Q4 has to watch as Team [=AL4=] completely devastates the other Teams...
* ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'': The main protagonist is a senior high school student who lives in a giant storage crate and is an Otaku who collects female Anime dolls and pretends to have real romantic relationships with them, because he doesn't trust "3D" (real) girls. It's so bad that the whole Anime is based on rather what he sees is real, or part of his disillusions.
* ''Manga/ChoujinSensen'': Tomobiki Rinji represents frustrated youths in all of Japan, if not the whole world: He couldn't get into university, he's stuck with a dead end part-time job, he has an unrequited love interest, and he feels like just about anything pisses him off (including his nonchalant family).
* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': This is the point of the series. Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's life -- namely, he turns out to be such a loser that his entire family tree is ruined because of it. Contrast with his good friend Shizuka, who is a smart and kind young girl, Gian who is strong and good at sports, and Suneo, who is a genuinely talented artist and designer, as well as being fairly good at science. And then there's Dekisugi, who is the best student in the school and TheAce at everything. It must be noted that while the nature of the "future" depicted changed from time to time, most often Nobita becomes a responsible salaryman, devoted husband, and cool dad. He also manages to bag Shizuka somewhere along the line.
* Mayo Sakaki of the ''Manga/FushigiYuugi: Eikoden'' OVA. She was intended as a surrogate for fans who wanted to go into the Universe of the Four Gods, and therefore was designed as an ordinary girl with human weaknesses. Instead she became one of the most widely [[TheScrappy reviled]] characters in the FY universe, probably because she went way the hell beyond "human weaknesses," crossed the MoralEventHorizon, and went straight into unintended VillainProtagonist territory. To the further fury of the fans, [[spoiler:she pretty much [[KarmaHoudini got away with it]] all because all the other characters felt sorry for her.]]
* ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'':
** Shimura Shinpachi is designed to look like a [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy Ridiculously average japanese teenager]] (even the pattern of his kimono evokes a jersey), and other characters will often joke about how his glasses are his only defining characteristic. And he is the one to act the most often as the AudienceSurrogate and OnlySaneMan.
** Even Gintoki Himself, when he is not [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass being badass]]. He is a lazy and [[{{Manchild}} childish]] twenty-something guy living on odd-jobs for cash who [[PerpetualPoverty can never]] pay his rent...and an avid reader of ''Magazine/ShonenJump'', the very magazine in which ''Gintama'' is published.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' ends on a very famous quote that can easily come across as the director complaining that fans enjoy the robot fights in the series' tragic war dramas ''too much'' for him.
** Saji Crossroad during Season 1 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' only cares about getting a happy life of his own, ignorant of the large causes of the world - [[spoiler:hell! He even blindly hates the Gundams after first [[CuteAndPsycho Nena Trinity]] blasted an arm out of his girlfriend, and then [[IntrepidReporter his sister Kinue]], in her quest for getting info about Gundam, was killed by Ali Al-Saachez. It is not until Tieria Erde delivers him a BrightSlap in Season 2 does he gets better]].
* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret'': Yuuto is an average everyday dude with average aspects and almost zero personality, till he meets cute Otaku Haruka...
* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' features personified countries, and most of these countries are made fun of a lot, so it could count as this to anyone from any of the featured countries.
%%* Hatsumi of ''Manga/HotGimmick''.
%%** And by extension, Yura of ''Manga/HoneyHunt'', though to a lesser degree.
* ''Anime/InfiniteRyvius'': Kouji Aiba, who despite having two LoveInterests, never does anything important, gets constantly beat up by his [[AloofOlderBrother Aloof Younger Brother]] Youki or others, and doesn't seem to be particularly skilled and is constantly in the shadow of his younger brother TheAce.
* ''Manga/InitialD'''s Itsuki, not the protagonist but his tolerated sidekick, is an uncontrollably emotional, self-aggrandizing, insecure, lustful, [[{{Gonk}} remarkably ugly]] Everyteen.
* ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'''s title character is an unemployed bum who spends his time drinking cheap beer, losing cheap gambling games, crying over the fact that he doesn't have any money, and slashing other people's tires and stealing car ornaments. To his credit, [[TookALevelInBadass he gets it together once the events of the series kick him into action.]]
* ''Manga/KamichamaKarin'': Karin's ''only'' good feature is her fairly-cute looks. She's ''terrible'' academically, routinely scoring a flat 0 on tests, and celebrating wildly when she got through a test as the 30th-worst in the school (after weeks of [[TrainingFromHell Studying From Hell]]). She's also terrible at athletics, including combat-training. And yes, even when she summons ''the unlimited power of the Goddess Athena'', she continues to [[HowDoIShotWeb suck at using it]]. She's not even good at making friends - before the story started, her only friend was her ''cat''. Arguably, the only reason why she's the central character is that the antagonists wants a Goddess Ring, and she's by far the easiest target. Even towards the end, she never really recovers from her suckitude - she wields ThePowerOfLove, but WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' begins as this trope, being the proverbial "97 lb weakling," but becomes an [[InvertedTrope inversion]] thanks to [[TrainingFromHell hard work]], {{determinat|or}}ion, and [[TheHero strong]] [[MartialPacifist ideals]] begins this series' crash course in CharlesAtlasSuperpower. [[TheHero Kenichi]] and the reader are ''repeatedly'' told that he has zero natural talent for martial arts, [[TookALevelInBadass but he doesn't stay this way for long]].
* ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'': Kinnikuman and his son Mantaro Kinniku are extreme examples of this; at the beginning of their respective adventures, they are both impossibly stupid, hideous and pathetic in almost every way, only ever succeeding through dumb luck. However, due to CerebusSyndrome, this is slowly peeled away to reveal competent, yet silly, characters.
* ''Manga/LoveHina'': While Keitaro is, as mentioned above, undeniably of the "loser everyman protagonist" type, it's pretty evident from day one that everyone else at the Hinata Inn is a mess of problems, and the series is as about much their CharacterDevelopment as it is Keitaro's.
* ''Manga/LuckyStar'': Though obviously not created for an American audience, Patricia is possibly one for American viewers. She is an American exchange student who only understands Japanese culture [[OccidentalOtaku through what she saw in anime.]]
* ''Manga/MarchenAwakensRomance'': Ginta at the beginning but quickly grows out of it around episode 10 (volume 3 of the manga).
* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'': Yumi is described as being a plain, non-athletic girl of average intelligence, who berates herself constantly for being insignificant. Still, she has one of the most popular girls of her school chase after her and drag her into the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. She befriends most ''everyone'' there, which even culminates in a declaration of love of sorts from one of the coolest persons in the series. Later she is shown to have pretty good people skills, but that still doesn't convincingly explain why everybody chases her.
* Jiro "Roji" Kusano, half of the titular ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', despite being assistant to genius executor Muhyo, starts out as a Second Clerk who failed his application exams to the Magical Law School, and is often unable to understand basic texts on Magical Law (he did not even know the difference between Magical Law and Magic). However, he has a large amount of tempering, and as time goes on, becomes very good at using magical seals in desperate situations.
** Also, Muhyo chose Roji because Roji actually cared about spirits, as opposed to other candidates who saw the assistant position as a way to improve their resume.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Naruto starts off as overconfident in his abilities, obnoxious, a poor student and having few usable jutsus. He gradually matures, broadens his arsenal and becomes able to use his abilities better.
** [[TheMedic Sakura]] and [[BadassNormal Rock Lee]] are rare non-main character examples, as WordOfGod even stated that they were suppose to embody human weakness (at least pre-TimeSkip). Oddly enough, Rock Lee is arguably a ''successful'' example, as he manages to be [[EnsembleDarkhorse quite popular]] despite his [[TheWorfEffect general lack of success]], while Sakura manages to be [[TheScrappy decidedly unpopular]] in many circles, no matter how often Creator/MasashiKishimoto tried to fix that.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'''s protagonist Shinji Ikari, believed by many to be a critique of the {{Otaku}} culture, is a fearful, frail, young boy with quite a few social phobias who hates getting involved in conflicts and, rather than facing his problems, prefers to isolate himself and [[HeadphonesEqualIsolation drown out the world with his SDAT]]. [[ClassicalAntiHero And yet he is tasked with saving the world]].
* ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'': Fan reactions seem to point this way towards Tomoko Kuroki, the main protagonist. Interestingly enough, it seems the majority of these feelings come from the [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff western fans]]. However, this changes as the series goes on, as she makes a healthy social circle filled with all types of girls and even manages to mature out of some of her worst flaws, while still remaining a perverted and awkward girl.
* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': Doremi gets terrible grades, constantly screws up spells, is an athletic failure, is greedy and self-centered, and just is an all-around [[TheDitz Ditz]]. So naturally the Queen entrusts her with ''the newborn next heir to the witch kingdom''. In contrast, her five-year-old sister is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears prodigiously competent and mature]], and her friends include a lovable, [[{{Ojou}} rich]] genius, an athletic prodigy, and an IdolSinger. It gets better as the series goes on with Doremi learning to be more mature with both her magic and personal life.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Usopp. How can a shounen fan who joins a shounen team survive against his enemies? [[CombatPragmatist By using random weapons, tricking his enemies and hiding during the battles,]] [[{{Reconstruction}} of course]].
* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'' has the titular character and his 5 brothers. Like their young adult audience, they're twenty-somethings worried about adult life, and each has an interest that might resonate with them (Choromatsu's being into idols, Ichimatsu's unenthusiasm and love of cats, etc.). They're also petty, selfish, egotistical, perpetially horny, and lonely, to the point that it's repeatedly shown that neither of them would find success if they struck out on their own. They deliberately stay at home with their parents to mooch off of them instead of helping them out, and when one of them does try to find a way out of their rut, their plan is either to use slimy tactics to raise themself up (while keeping the others from repeating the same success) or drag everyone else down with them, only looking less bad by comparison.
** Season 2 adds a further dig at both them and their out-of-universe EstrogenBrigade. On one hand, the boys are protrayed as gross, hedonistic jerks who would abuse their fame the second they find out they have fans, making the audience wonder who would ever give them that attention in the first place. On the other hand, the fangirls are portrayed as those exact kind of people, who are either oblivious to how disgusting and exploitative the brothers are or deliberately ignoring those qualities out of manic obsession and brand loyalty.
* ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'': Played depressingly [[YouBastard straight]] with the unnamed {{Otaku}}.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** [[IdiotHero Ash Ketchum]]. Initially, he's completely incompetent in basically every way, with most of his "victories" being the result of either dumb luck or his opponents having pity on him. Ash gets better ''eventually''; now his wins (occasional DeusExMachina notwithstanding) are almost always legitimate (especially if there's [[StrawmanBall another character to screw up instead]]) and sometimes even the result of pretty clever tactics on his part. Though he's fortunately nowhere near as bad as when he started out, it's still noticeable when Ash gets beaten by novice trainers. [[BagOfSpilling Leaving all of his old Pokemon behind except Pikachu]] [[JustifiedTrope partially justifies]] this. Then, there's the fact that [[spoiler:before his big win in Alola]] he's never won a single League (that was canonical to the games, as he ''did'' win the Orange League, ''and'' completed the Battle Frontier, which isn't a League, but is canonical to the games), making him come off as a FailureHero.
** [[CreatorsPet While not actually treated that way by the plot]], Paul from the Diamond and Pearl series comes off of this, as his [[TrainingFromHell cruel and overworking treatment and objectification of his Pokemon]] mirrors the [[StopHavingFunGuys often over-the-top]] competitive and power-oriented teambuilding strategy in the games, since "caring" and "loving" your Pokemon is impossible except in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY two]] [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon generations]].
* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
** PlayedWith; While most pink-type ''Anime/PrettyCure'' leads after her tend to fall into this, [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure Tsubomi Hanasaki]] really took the cake at first. Shy, introverted, not much of an energetic person, and having her first battle (against a Desertian no less) end in a loss on her end, both [[NonHumanSidekick Chypre & Coffret]] had decried her as "The Weakest Pretty Cure In History"...which is admittedly true in Episodes 2 to 4, [[InformedFlaw only for that title to be ironically misleading starting in Episode 5 where her victories outweigh her defeats by a far greater number throughout the series (even before Yuri joins the Pretty Cure team in Episode 34)]]. Aside from the series showing Tsubomi's evolution into a much more stronger person, when we see her in ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars DX 3'', she's busy helping RookieRedRanger [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure Hibiki]] when the teams are scattered.
* ''Manga/Reborn2004'':
** Tsuna Sawada, the main protagonist, is regularly mocked by his peers for being a loser in just about every endeavor. He does get several moments of awesomeness, but only when he gets "touched" by Reborn's MagicBullets. And then things begin to get ''weird''. Of course, as the series goes on, he becomes less of a living incarnation of This Loser Is You and more of a typical optimistic, naive {{Shonen}} hero. Though, he still shows signs of this trope at times.
** Kozato Enma, the leader of the Simon family. Appropriately enough he's basically Tsuna's counterpart, being the same age, nationality, and within the same position in the mafia. They also become great friends.
* ''LightNovel/ReZero'': Deconstructed to the nth degree with Subaru Natsuki, who embodies all the core traits of this. And with his eventual GroundhogDayLoop levels of suffering, eventually shows how such a person would actually work in real life, culminating into one hell of a [[TearJerker tearjerking]] Self inflicted TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Episode 18. [[spoiler: All the suffering he goes through up till then has been, to his self-loathing and realization, to be the result of his rotten character, a person who has done absolutely nothing productive his whole life, in spite of having all the time in the world, foolishly thinking that all the knowledge he gained from doing nothing but gaming and bingeing on anime, manga and Light Novels, that it could get him a better life in another world simply by being teleported there, only to find this to be not at all what happens. He states multiple times at that point that he hates himself for it.]] Case in point:
--> '''Subaru''': Before I got into the situation that led me to all of you, do you have any idea what I did? I did nothing. I've never done a single thing. I had all that time, all that freedom... I could have done ''anything'', but I never did a ''thing!'' And this is the result! What I am now is the result! All of my powerlessness, all of my incompetence, is the product of my rotten character. That's right. I have no character. Even when I thought I could live here, nothing changed. At heart, I'm just a small, cowardly, filthy piece of trash, who's always worried about how others see me. And nothing... '''Nothing about me has changed!''' ...I absolutely hate myself...
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Usagi Tsukino is a gentle, compassionate, selfless and friendly teenage girl. She's also clumsy, lazy, childish and spoiled. And her friends and love interest, much as they love her, aren't shy about [[LampshadeHanging lampshading the trope]] frequently. Of course, with her being an AuthorAvatar, Naoko Takeuchi might actually be saying "This loser is ''me''."
* ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' occasionally makes potshots at society and its readers often making an example out of a one-shot character or someone from the existing cast using their negative traits to describe something you potentially have done.[[note]]Example: Meru Otonashi represents Internet trolls: You may be polite and innocent in person but you are probably a malicious {{Jerkass}} online.[[/note]]
%%* ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'': Makoto.
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': With his obsession with Gundam models and [[ManChild bouts of childishness]], it's not hard to argue that Keroro is a parody of {{otaku}}.
* ''Manga/StrawberryOneHundredPercent'': Manaka Junpei seems to be good for nothing. Low grades, not that athletic and he even fails at moviemaking once (which is his one passion). On the other hand, he is good at making girls fall for him. Panties first.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': Simon is a mild example of this. Having lost his parents (seeing them be crushed when he was seven,) he's pretty meek and doesn't believe in himself. However, he has Kamina to inspire him and it's revealed he has amazing potential. He overcomes adversity and grief to become a very strong and kind young man. Rossiu is pretty close to this before the time skip as well.
* ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'''s protagonist Tatsuhiro Sato is a nerdy social outcast and unemployed college dropout, who spends almost all of his time inside his cramped apartment, with nothing better to do than watching anime and porn all day long. Probably meant as a satirical representation of certain viewers who may be nerdy losers like him.
* ''Manga/{{Aria}}'''s protagonist, Akari Mizunashi, feels this way about herself, but she's actually very skilled and personable and suffering from a lack of self-confidence. CharacterDevelopment and lots of training and practice with her friends snap her out of it by the end.
%%* ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'': Akihisa Yoshii.
* In ''Anime/CardfightVanguard'', Aichi has actually lost more matches than he has won. However, this trope has officially come into effect as of episode 32. Not only does Team Q4 [[spoiler:get knocked out of the nationals]], but Team [=AL4=]'s leader Ren Sugimori proceeds to rub it in his face (and possibly starting him on the path to {{Wangst}}). Then in the next episode, Team Q4 has to watch as Team [=AL4=] completely devastates the other Teams...
* ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'': The main protagonist is a senior high school student who lives in a giant storage crate and is an Otaku who collects female Anime dolls and pretends to have real romantic relationships with them, because he doesn't trust "3D" (real) girls. It's so bad that the whole Anime is based on rather what he sees is real, or part of his disillusions.
* ''Manga/ChoujinSensen'': Tomobiki Rinji represents frustrated youths in all of Japan, if not the whole world: He couldn't get into university, he's stuck with a dead end part-time job, he has an unrequited love interest, and he feels like just about anything pisses him off (including his nonchalant family).
* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': This is the point of the series. Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's life -- namely, he turns out to be such a loser that his entire family tree is ruined because of it. Contrast with his good friend Shizuka, who is a smart and kind young girl, Gian who is strong and good at sports, and Suneo, who is a genuinely talented artist and designer, as well as being fairly good at science. And then there's Dekisugi, who is the best student in the school and TheAce at everything. It must be noted that while the nature of the "future" depicted changed from time to time, most often Nobita becomes a responsible salaryman, devoted husband, and cool dad. He also manages to bag Shizuka somewhere along the line.
* Mayo Sakaki of the ''Manga/FushigiYuugi: Eikoden'' OVA. She was intended as a surrogate for fans who wanted to go into the Universe of the Four Gods, and therefore was designed as an ordinary girl with human weaknesses. Instead she became one of the most widely [[TheScrappy reviled]] characters in the FY universe, probably because she went way the hell beyond "human weaknesses," crossed the MoralEventHorizon, and went straight into unintended VillainProtagonist territory. To the further fury of the fans, [[spoiler:she pretty much [[KarmaHoudini got away with it]] all because all the other characters felt sorry for her.]]
* ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'':
** Shimura Shinpachi is designed to look like a [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy Ridiculously average japanese teenager]] (even the pattern of his kimono evokes a jersey), and other characters will often joke about how his glasses are his only defining characteristic. And he is the one to act the most often as the AudienceSurrogate and OnlySaneMan.
** Even Gintoki Himself, when he is not [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass being badass]]. He is a lazy and [[{{Manchild}} childish]] twenty-something guy living on odd-jobs for cash who [[PerpetualPoverty can never]] pay his rent...and an avid reader of ''Magazine/ShonenJump'', the very magazine in which ''Gintama'' is published.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' ends on a very famous quote that can easily come across as the director complaining that fans enjoy the robot fights in the series' tragic war dramas ''too much'' for him.
** Saji Crossroad during Season 1 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' only cares about getting a happy life of his own, ignorant of the large causes of the world - [[spoiler:hell! He even blindly hates the Gundams after first [[CuteAndPsycho Nena Trinity]] blasted an arm out of his girlfriend, and then [[IntrepidReporter his sister Kinue]], in her quest for getting info about Gundam, was killed by Ali Al-Saachez. It is not until Tieria Erde delivers him a BrightSlap in Season 2 does he gets better]].
* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret'': Yuuto is an average everyday dude with average aspects and almost zero personality, till he meets cute Otaku Haruka...
* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' features personified countries, and most of these countries are made fun of a lot, so it could count as this to anyone from any of the featured countries.
%%* Hatsumi of ''Manga/HotGimmick''.
%%** And by extension, Yura of ''Manga/HoneyHunt'', though to a lesser degree.
* ''Anime/InfiniteRyvius'': Kouji Aiba, who despite having two LoveInterests, never does anything important, gets constantly beat up by his [[AloofOlderBrother Aloof Younger Brother]] Youki or others, and doesn't seem to be particularly skilled and is constantly in the shadow of his younger brother TheAce.
* ''Manga/InitialD'''s Itsuki, not the protagonist but his tolerated sidekick, is an uncontrollably emotional, self-aggrandizing, insecure, lustful, [[{{Gonk}} remarkably ugly]] Everyteen.
* ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'''s title character is an unemployed bum who spends his time drinking cheap beer, losing cheap gambling games, crying over the fact that he doesn't have any money, and slashing other people's tires and stealing car ornaments. To his credit, [[TookALevelInBadass he gets it together once the events of the series kick him into action.]]
* ''Manga/KamichamaKarin'': Karin's ''only'' good feature is her fairly-cute looks. She's ''terrible'' academically, routinely scoring a flat 0 on tests, and celebrating wildly when she got through a test as the 30th-worst in the school (after weeks of [[TrainingFromHell Studying From Hell]]). She's also terrible at athletics, including combat-training. And yes, even when she summons ''the unlimited power of the Goddess Athena'', she continues to [[HowDoIShotWeb suck at using it]]. She's not even good at making friends - before the story started, her only friend was her ''cat''. Arguably, the only reason why she's the central character is that the antagonists wants a Goddess Ring, and she's by far the easiest target. Even towards the end, she never really recovers from her suckitude - she wields ThePowerOfLove, but WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' begins as this trope, being the proverbial "97 lb weakling," but becomes an [[InvertedTrope inversion]] thanks to [[TrainingFromHell hard work]], {{determinat|or}}ion, and [[TheHero strong]] [[MartialPacifist ideals]] begins this series' crash course in CharlesAtlasSuperpower. [[TheHero Kenichi]] and the reader are ''repeatedly'' told that he has zero natural talent for martial arts, [[TookALevelInBadass but he doesn't stay this way for long]].
* ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'': Kinnikuman and his son Mantaro Kinniku are extreme examples of this; at the beginning of their respective adventures, they are both impossibly stupid, hideous and pathetic in almost every way, only ever succeeding through dumb luck. However, due to CerebusSyndrome, this is slowly peeled away to reveal competent, yet silly, characters.
* ''Manga/LoveHina'': While Keitaro is, as mentioned above, undeniably of the "loser everyman protagonist" type, it's pretty evident from day one that everyone else at the Hinata Inn is a mess of problems, and the series is as about much their CharacterDevelopment as it is Keitaro's.
* ''Manga/LuckyStar'': Though obviously not created for an American audience, Patricia is possibly one for American viewers. She is an American exchange student who only understands Japanese culture [[OccidentalOtaku through what she saw in anime.]]
* ''Manga/MarchenAwakensRomance'': Ginta at the beginning but quickly grows out of it around episode 10 (volume 3 of the manga).
* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'': Yumi is described as being a plain, non-athletic girl of average intelligence, who berates herself constantly for being insignificant. Still, she has one of the most popular girls of her school chase after her and drag her into the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil. She befriends most ''everyone'' there, which even culminates in a declaration of love of sorts from one of the coolest persons in the series. Later she is shown to have pretty good people skills, but that still doesn't convincingly explain why everybody chases her.
* Jiro "Roji" Kusano, half of the titular ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', despite being assistant to genius executor Muhyo, starts out as a Second Clerk who failed his application exams to the Magical Law School, and is often unable to understand basic texts on Magical Law (he did not even know the difference between Magical Law and Magic). However, he has a large amount of tempering, and as time goes on, becomes very good at using magical seals in desperate situations.
** Also, Muhyo chose Roji because Roji actually cared about spirits, as opposed to other candidates who saw the assistant position as a way to improve their resume.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Naruto starts off as overconfident in his abilities, obnoxious, a poor student and having few usable jutsus. He gradually matures, broadens his arsenal and becomes able to use his abilities better.
** [[TheMedic Sakura]] and [[BadassNormal Rock Lee]] are rare non-main character examples, as WordOfGod even stated that they were suppose to embody human weakness (at least pre-TimeSkip). Oddly enough, Rock Lee is arguably a ''successful'' example, as he manages to be [[EnsembleDarkhorse quite popular]] despite his [[TheWorfEffect general lack of success]], while Sakura manages to be [[TheScrappy decidedly unpopular]] in many circles, no matter how often Creator/MasashiKishimoto tried to fix that.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'''s protagonist Shinji Ikari, believed by many to be a critique of the {{Otaku}} culture, is a fearful, frail, young boy with quite a few social phobias who hates getting involved in conflicts and, rather than facing his problems, prefers to isolate himself and [[HeadphonesEqualIsolation drown out the world with his SDAT]]. [[ClassicalAntiHero And yet he is tasked with saving the world]].
* ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'': Fan reactions seem to point this way towards Tomoko Kuroki, the main protagonist. Interestingly enough, it seems the majority of these feelings come from the [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff western fans]]. However, this changes as the series goes on, as she makes a healthy social circle filled with all types of girls and even manages to mature out of some of her worst flaws, while still remaining a perverted and awkward girl.
* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': Doremi gets terrible grades, constantly screws up spells, is an athletic failure, is greedy and self-centered, and just is an all-around [[TheDitz Ditz]]. So naturally the Queen entrusts her with ''the newborn next heir to the witch kingdom''. In contrast, her five-year-old sister is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears prodigiously competent and mature]], and her friends include a lovable, [[{{Ojou}} rich]] genius, an athletic prodigy, and an IdolSinger. It gets better as the series goes on with Doremi learning to be more mature with both her magic and personal life.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Usopp. How can a shounen fan who joins a shounen team survive against his enemies? [[CombatPragmatist By using random weapons, tricking his enemies and hiding during the battles,]] [[{{Reconstruction}} of course]].
* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'' has the titular character and his 5 brothers. Like their young adult audience, they're twenty-somethings worried about adult life, and each has an interest that might resonate with them (Choromatsu's being into idols, Ichimatsu's unenthusiasm and love of cats, etc.). They're also petty, selfish, egotistical, perpetially horny, and lonely, to the point that it's repeatedly shown that neither of them would find success if they struck out on their own. They deliberately stay at home with their parents to mooch off of them instead of helping them out, and when one of them does try to find a way out of their rut, their plan is either to use slimy tactics to raise themself up (while keeping the others from repeating the same success) or drag everyone else down with them, only looking less bad by comparison.
** Season 2 adds a further dig at both them and their out-of-universe EstrogenBrigade. On one hand, the boys are protrayed as gross, hedonistic jerks who would abuse their fame the second they find out they have fans, making the audience wonder who would ever give them that attention in the first place. On the other hand, the fangirls are portrayed as those exact kind of people, who are either oblivious to how disgusting and exploitative the brothers are or deliberately ignoring those qualities out of manic obsession and brand loyalty.
* ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'': Played depressingly [[YouBastard straight]] with the unnamed {{Otaku}}.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** [[IdiotHero Ash Ketchum]]. Initially, he's completely incompetent in basically every way, with most of his "victories" being the result of either dumb luck or his opponents having pity on him. Ash gets better ''eventually''; now his wins (occasional DeusExMachina notwithstanding) are almost always legitimate (especially if there's [[StrawmanBall another character to screw up instead]]) and sometimes even the result of pretty clever tactics on his part. Though he's fortunately nowhere near as bad as when he started out, it's still noticeable when Ash gets beaten by novice trainers. [[BagOfSpilling Leaving all of his old Pokemon behind except Pikachu]] [[JustifiedTrope partially justifies]] this. Then, there's the fact that [[spoiler:before his big win in Alola]] he's never won a single League (that was canonical to the games, as he ''did'' win the Orange League, ''and'' completed the Battle Frontier, which isn't a League, but is canonical to the games), making him come off as a FailureHero.
** [[CreatorsPet While not actually treated that way by the plot]], Paul from the Diamond and Pearl series comes off of this, as his [[TrainingFromHell cruel and overworking treatment and objectification of his Pokemon]] mirrors the [[StopHavingFunGuys often over-the-top]] competitive and power-oriented teambuilding strategy in the games, since "caring" and "loving" your Pokemon is impossible except in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY two]] [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon generations]].
* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
** PlayedWith; While most pink-type ''Anime/PrettyCure'' leads after her tend to fall into this, [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure Tsubomi Hanasaki]] really took the cake at first. Shy, introverted, not much of an energetic person, and having her first battle (against a Desertian no less) end in a loss on her end, both [[NonHumanSidekick Chypre & Coffret]] had decried her as "The Weakest Pretty Cure In History"...which is admittedly true in Episodes 2 to 4, [[InformedFlaw only for that title to be ironically misleading starting in Episode 5 where her victories outweigh her defeats by a far greater number throughout the series (even before Yuri joins the Pretty Cure team in Episode 34)]]. Aside from the series showing Tsubomi's evolution into a much more stronger person, when we see her in ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars DX 3'', she's busy helping RookieRedRanger [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure Hibiki]] when the teams are scattered.
* ''Manga/Reborn2004'':
** Tsuna Sawada, the main protagonist, is regularly mocked by his peers for being a loser in just about every endeavor. He does get several moments of awesomeness, but only when he gets "touched" by Reborn's MagicBullets. And then things begin to get ''weird''. Of course, as the series goes on, he becomes less of a living incarnation of This Loser Is You and more of a typical optimistic, naive {{Shonen}} hero. Though, he still shows signs of this trope at times.
** Kozato Enma, the leader of the Simon family. Appropriately enough he's basically Tsuna's counterpart, being the same age, nationality, and within the same position in the mafia. They also become great friends.
* ''LightNovel/ReZero'': Deconstructed to the nth degree with Subaru Natsuki, who embodies all the core traits of this. And with his eventual GroundhogDayLoop levels of suffering, eventually shows how such a person would actually work in real life, culminating into one hell of a [[TearJerker tearjerking]] Self inflicted TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Episode 18. [[spoiler: All the suffering he goes through up till then has been, to his self-loathing and realization, to be the result of his rotten character, a person who has done absolutely nothing productive his whole life, in spite of having all the time in the world, foolishly thinking that all the knowledge he gained from doing nothing but gaming and bingeing on anime, manga and Light Novels, that it could get him a better life in another world simply by being teleported there, only to find this to be not at all what happens. He states multiple times at that point that he hates himself for it.]] Case in point:
--> '''Subaru''': Before I got into the situation that led me to all of you, do you have any idea what I did? I did nothing. I've never done a single thing. I had all that time, all that freedom... I could have done ''anything'', but I never did a ''thing!'' And this is the result! What I am now is the result! All of my powerlessness, all of my incompetence, is the product of my rotten character. That's right. I have no character. Even when I thought I could live here, nothing changed. At heart, I'm just a small, cowardly, filthy piece of trash, who's always worried about how others see me. And nothing... '''Nothing about me has changed!''' ...I absolutely hate myself...
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Usagi Tsukino is a gentle, compassionate, selfless and friendly teenage girl. She's also clumsy, lazy, childish and spoiled. And her friends and love interest, much as they love her, aren't shy about [[LampshadeHanging lampshading the trope]] frequently. Of course, with her being an AuthorAvatar, Naoko Takeuchi might actually be saying "This loser is ''me''."
* ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' occasionally makes potshots at society and its readers often making an example out of a one-shot character or someone from the existing cast using their negative traits to describe something you potentially have done.[[note]]Example: Meru Otonashi represents Internet trolls: You may be polite and innocent in person but you are probably a malicious {{Jerkass}} online.[[/note]]
%%* ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'': Makoto.
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': With his obsession with Gundam models and [[ManChild bouts of childishness]], it's not hard to argue that Keroro is a parody of {{otaku}}.
* ''Manga/StrawberryOneHundredPercent'': Manaka Junpei seems to be good for nothing. Low grades, not that athletic and he even fails at moviemaking once (which is his one passion). On the other hand, he is good at making girls fall for him. Panties first.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': Simon is a mild example of this. Having lost his parents (seeing them be crushed when he was seven,) he's pretty meek and doesn't believe in himself. However, he has Kamina to inspire him and it's revealed he has amazing potential. He overcomes adversity and grief to become a very strong and kind young man. Rossiu is pretty close to this before the time skip as well.
* ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'''s protagonist Tatsuhiro Sato is a nerdy social outcast and unemployed college dropout, who spends almost all of his time inside his cramped apartment, with nothing better to do than watching anime and porn all day long. Probably meant as a satirical representation of certain viewers who may be nerdy losers like him.
