Ensemble Dark Horse / Anime & Manga

Most anime are well-known for their large casts, especially when they are Long-Runners. Sometimes those characters weren't meant to be all that special, and sometimes, they can't even be considered part of the main cast. Whatever the case, they ended up fan favorites.

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Example Subpages:

• Attack on Titan
• Beyblade Burst
• Chainsaw Man
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
• Dragon Ball
• Gundam
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
• Love Live!
• My Hero Academia
• Naruto
• One Piece
• Pokémon
• Sword Art Online

Other Examples:

Examples A to D

• Ah! My Goddess:
  • Love Goddess Peorth has quite a following.
  • All of its antagonists are Ensemble Darkhorses, to a degree, because of how badass and/or sympathetic they are: Sayoko, Mara, and Hild. Unfortunately, Hild has more or less displaced the other two as of late.
• Makoto of AKB0048. She easily has the least amount of screentime of the main understudies, alongside Linda, yet she still manages to rank 3rd on the official popularity poll, behind the two mains. She's very popular among the western fanbase, as well.
• For reasons that can't really be explained to outsiders (in part because we don't even quite know), the AKIRA fandom has a good-sized faction of obsessive Kai fans. Despite the fact that he gets about five lines in the film, never becomes more than a minor character in the manga, and most of the more casual fans don't even seem to notice him at all.
• Amagami SS has Miya Tachibana, the sister of the protagonist himself. Fans on both sides of the continent love her more than the other characters themselves. There are more squicky reasons as well.
• Angel Beats!:
  • TK is a one-dimensional side-character with almost no dialog, but in a popularity poll shortly after the start of the series he was one of the only two characters (the other being the Moe antagonist) who got hundreds of thousands of votes, while the main viewpoint characters got just a few hundred. Of course, what with speaking almost entirely in silly Gratuitous English CatchPhrases and acting like a cross between an action hero and Michael Jackson, he may be an intentional example.
  • Though not so much as TK, Shiina seems very popular as well. Her Aloof Dark-Haired Girl qualities along with her obsession with cute things seemed to have earned her a lot of points with the fans.
• Angel Sanctuary has in a cast of dozens (or even hundreds) at the very least one character who didn't live to the end (damn, he didn't live through the first arc) but when he was finally killed got a whole chapter dedicated to him and his awesomeness (even the side bar was all about how Kaori felt for him to die and the fans were worried about what would become of him afterwards so it was included in the last chapter's epilogue). Meh, talking about Katou Yue here, of course.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • The Japanese otter that appeared in chapters 56 and 88. It's placed 7th in the first popularity poll with 71 votes.
  • Isogai, who ranked sixth in the popularity poll of volume 12, making him the most popular character outside of the main trio of students and teachers. Besides this, both him and Maehara are the only other two students who sing the two opening themes with the main trio for the anime.
  • Kurahashi ranked 8th in the popularity poll, beating Kayano by 2 votes, making her the most popular female student among the cast despite not having as much panel time as most of them.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts has Hideyoshi Kinoshita himself. There's a reason why he's popular. On one of the polls, he's ranked THE MOST popular Light Novel character, beating out Araragi, Touma, and Ken. Just like Taniguchi and Misao, Hideyoshi also got his own solo Image Song after the series. All three series were produced under Lantis, so this may be the case for any future Ensemble Darkhorses from a series they sponsor.
• In Bakuman。, Hiramaru, a side character who does not interact with or impact the main characters much, reached third in the popularity polls, past Takagi and Azuki, while Eiji Nizuma took first place, also surpassing Mashiro.
• Battle Royale has Takako Chigusa. Her Moment of Awesome was when she stopped Kazuhi Niida from raping her by stomping his nuts. In the live action movie, it was taken up a level when she stabbed him in his junk. Probably why Quentin Tarantino chose Chiaki Kuriyama to play Go Go Yubari.
• In Battle Spirits Shonen Toppa Bashin, there are far more fansites devoted to Numbers Elite than there are to the main kids. In particular, The Dragon Smile/Number Four is adored by the fans, becoming a Launcher of a Thousand Ships.
  • From the second series, Battle Spirits Shonen Gekiha Dan, comes Hideto Suzuri, who was popular enough to be getting fanart before the show even began airing. While he gets the least screentime out of the Bearers of Core's Light and appears rather infrequently by the time of Brave, he still remained even more popular than Smile was with the artists.
• Beastars
  • The characters introduced in the second half of the manga are very hit or miss for most readers, but one character pretty much everyone can agree is impossible to hate is Gosha. He's just a nice old man and Retired Badass who wants to do right by his family, even when said family is self-destructive to a cartoonish degree and will kill themselves at the drop of a hat if it will help them achieve their goals.
  • Pretty much everyone enjoys it when Sebun gets screentime, even though she's only relevant for about 20 chapters out of the manga's almost 200-chapter run.
• Judeau from Berserk has only a limited role yet he is one of the most popular characters of the series due to his "average joe" stance and his genuine kindness that stands out in comparison to the often assholish main characters. It's up to the point where he's even one of the eight available playable characters in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk.
  • The Skull Knight despite his sporadic appearances, is about popular as Guts and treated as the Big Good, his mysterious past as potentially the former king helps too.
  • Other examples include Slan, the female Godhand that often elicits fetish, and Luca, the Hooker with a Heart of Gold of the Convictions Arc with Plucky Girl undertones, one of the few genuinely good characters of the series.
  • If you looking for a literal dark horse in Berserk look no further than the memetastic Rape Horse who only appears in one chapter where he is immediately wrecked by Guts but somehow this sexual violent horse found his way into the video game and anime.
• Black Butler:
  • Undertaker was probably never supposed to be as popular as he is. His voice in the anime might have something to do with it.
  • Also: Grell Sutcliff in her^note Grell is male-to-female transgender according to Word of God shinigami form, hoo boy. She had maybe a chapter in the manga, and she got so popular that she became a recurring character in the anime.
  • There's an in-universe example in one of the OVA. Some children are bored when they watch the play Hamlet but they all love a character in particular, a seaweed played by Ran Mao.
• Roberta from Black Lagoon easily qualifies. It's not hard to see why as the moment she shows up in Roanapur the body count skyrockets. This in a town where murder is only a crime if you haven't paid off the police chief or are interrupting his golf game.
  • Sawyer The Cleaner is a goth body disposal expert with a throat scar, voice synthesizer and a huge freaking chainsaw. She only appears in one arc in the anime but it's pretty obvious why she's become so popular with the fans.
• Bleach: Tite Kubo has admitted the popularity of Gin, Hisagi and the Espada was unexpected and did cause him some problems: Gin was designed to be creepy but the character experienced Draco in Leather Pants to a degree the author hadn't anticipated; Hisagi was a bit-character with no character expansion, so the author felt the fans jumped the gun in attaching themselves to a character they knew nothing about; The Espada were supposed to be quickly killed off in Good vs. Evil battles, but the unexpected popularity of Ulquiorra, Grimmjow and Starrk led to Executive Meddling that generated Arc Fatigue.
  • More recently, the original Thirteen Court Guard Captains all became very popular with fans despite the minor appearance they received. Furoufushi Saitou and Batsu'unsai Katori in particular became quick favorites due to their attractive designs.
• Blue Comet SPT Layzner: Gosterro, in a Love to Hate kind of way. Let's see, in Shin Super Robot Wars, he's the True Final Boss inside the Devil Gundam, and gets his own theme called Heavy Blow for Super Robot Wars OE. Not bad for a low-level starter villain-turned-miniboss.n
• Blue Exorcist: Renzou Shima for his Funny Moments and interesting character development starting after the Illuminati Arc. His brothers, Juuzou and Kinzou are pretty popular too.
  • Amaimon, who even managed to out-rank Rin (you know, The Hero) in the popularity poll.
  • Reiji Shiratori, and the demon that possessed him in the anime, Astaroth, have quite a bit of fanart despite being only a Starter Villain that hasn't appeared again after the first episode.
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: Pickles, a designated Butt-Monkey one-off character, won a "which character would you like to see again" popularity poll in Japan, and was thus given an integral role in the final arc of the series.
  • Torpedo Girl herself was also on that list; she and her Evil Counterpart OVER are among the many darkhorses of the franchise.
  • Jelly Jiggler was originally going to be a one-off character (similar to Pickles), but fans clamored for him to appear more during the early days of the manga. Yoshio Sawai then made him a part of the main cast.
  • Rice is extremely popular in the western fandom, despite only fighting two major battles in the entire series.
• Lucy of Bungo Stray Dogs is fairly popular for someone who's only had a few appearances of note.
  • Chuuya could have easily fallen into obscurity, had he not been attached to fan favorite Dazai as a former partner. Due to his popularity, he's the only one to have a "true form" of his ability and he's one of the most featured characters in merchandise (alongside the more obvious picks Dazai, the protagonist Atsushi and first-introduced-antagonist Akutagawa).
• Shizuku from Candy☆Boy manages to nearly completely overshadow her lovey-dovey older sisters, even though she has only been around for about three episodes.
• Case Closed is full of these! Which isn't surprising, considering how long the show's been running:
  • Since being imported into Detective Conan, Kaitou Kid (from Magic Kaito) has consistently been ranked as the 2nd most popular character in the series behind only Conan himself. The only time he wasn't ranked second was when he was ranked first.
    • The Kaitou Kid's rival, Hakuba Saguru, despite being something of an ensemble Dark Horse within Magic Kaito itself, still has a rather large fan following among Detective Conan fans, despite having only appeared in two DC story arcs and sort-of one movie.
  • The trio detectives of Yamato, Uehara and "Koumei" Morofushi are pretty popular as well for being one of the more interesting characters introduced in the filler cases. The fandom generally agree that the filler cases are generally more bearable if these three appeared instead of Yamamura. The case that they introduced in is one of the more interesting and dramatic cases also doesn't hurt.
  • For a one-shot character, Natsuki Koshimizu was surprisingly popular in the Detective Koshien case. It helps that she was a female Amateur Sleuth with a tomboyish nature. There was even plans for a video game starring her. However Aoyama declined on the grounds that she was the special's Sympathetic Murderer, therefore a criminal. Although she was the inspiration and basis for future character Masumi Sera.
  • Reiko Kujo, a prosecutor attorney anime original character, also became this for her interesting relationship with fan-favorite Eri and especially after her Hidden Depths is reviewed in her A Day in the Limelight episode. She is today the only anime-exclusive character who continuously appeared more than one episodes and played a major role.
  • Matsuda Jinpei, Satou's ex-half-boyfriend, appeared only in flashbacks for about three episodes, having died years before the events of the manga began, yet he got his own keyhole appearance on the back cover and is sometimes considered one of the (admittedly numerous) main characters.
• Casshern Sins has Sophita, a one shot character who shows up on a surprising percentage of fanart.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • An old fan favorite is Kaori Kanzaki. She even got her own spin off novel.
  • Thanks to the A Certain Scientific Railgun anime, Saten and Harumi are very popular too. Saten has even taken over Mikoto herself on sites like Nico Nico Douga.
  • Due to her many appearances in the light novels and the anime Itsuwa is rather popular also.
  • Accelerator's got a pretty big fanbase due to how Ax-Crazy Awesome he is. He managed to get two spinoffs starring him (albeit one is a parody that has him as an Idol Singer).
• Thanks to the So Bad, It's Good, meme-spawning nature of the show, Chargeman Ken! has many of these. The most notable case would be Hoshi - he only appeared in the 4th out of 65 episodes, and still has more fanart and time in MADs (Japanese YTPMVs) than the main character.
• Tomoyo Sakagami from CLANNAD. She is one of the main heroines (including Kyou, another cast darkhorse) that doesn't have a dedicated arc for her in the anime (unlike Fuko and Kotomi). And the result? A special episode set in an alternate universe where Tomoya ends up with her instead of Nagisa. And then there's the sequel to her Visual Novel route, Tomoyo After...
  • A second Tomoyo-centric manga named Clannad - Tomoyo Dearest◊ just got released, and said to be taking around After Story, not some Tomoyo After re-interpretation...
  • The same could be said for Kyou. She's backed by her army of rabid fanboys.
    • Especially after that gym locker scene....
    • Note that Kyou also got her own AU special where she ends up getting with Tomoya.
  • The reasons why Tomoyo and Kyou don't have an arc in the anime is because their arc is romantic and completely conflicts with Nagisa's. It just wouldn't work even if you have Tomoya cheating on everyone since it would ruin everything, especially "After Story."
  • Besides, we all know what happens when a guy decides to boink all the girls...
• Claudine: Rosemarie is quite liked by fans. Although she behaves quite stupidly in some scenes, she's still the only person after Claude's father who fully sees Claude as male and is ready to give him any support. Moreover, she sincerely loves him, even when he refuses her and shows interest in other girls. The last chapter implies that she never married, instead remaining faithful to Claude even after his death.
• Code Geass:
  • Jeremiah "Orange" Gottwald is one of the poster boys for the Ensemble Darkhorse. Initially little more than a racist minor villain, the soul-crushingly humiliating way in which Lelouch bests him turned him into both The Woobie (or the Chew Toy) and an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain — with a fan-following big enough that the producers rewrote his entire storyline, preemptively sparing him from an ignoble early death and bringing him back for the Season 1 finale as an awesome cyborg, who then goes on to level grind in badass, pulls a Heel–Face Turn and eventually gets one of the happiest endings. His first full appearance in the second season even seems to include a tip of the hat to the fans, as his last line of dialog seems to be directed more at the viewers than the person to whom he is speaking. This was picked up on by the English dub and he was voiced by fan favorite Crispin Freeman, who delivered that Reality Subtext line perfectly.
  • Given the fans' negative reaction to her death, Euphemia counts as well. Further supporting this is that, Nunnally aside, she was the only unambiguously good person among the royalty in the show until the appearance of her sister Marrybell.
  • It may be hard to remember, but Kaname Ohgi was originally something of a fan favorite amongst the Black Knights, being a Voice of Reason and his belief in Zero as lampshaded at the end of the Battle of Narita. This was all of course before he stage dived into scrappydom the following season after several rash decisions culminated in him and the Black Knights betraying Zero. The movies even try changing some details so he acts more like how he used to be, such as not actually wanting to go through with the betrayal until they actually hear the truth out of Zero, attempting to stop Schneizel's men from shooting him anyway, and even attempting suicide for what ultimately happened before Lelouch stops him. Having him go back to what originally made him one of these is understandably appreciated.
  • One of the few Black Knights who have remained on the good side of the fickle fandom is Shinichiro Tamaki, Zero's #1 fanboy. Tamaki dodged either death or serious injury so many times that fans eventually warmed up to him and were ready to mourn the guy when he faced Suzaku. Once again, Tamaki's luck didn't run out and he lived to talk about it, so his fans rejoiced.
  • Mao as well, sensational three episode wonder that he is, with all those fanclubs he has scattered over popular websites. And the sheer amount of fanmade media of him. And the memes associated with him. And his status as a Base-Breaking Character and a Draco in Leather Pants. And his own fanlisting. And his appearance in URBAN DICTIONARY. And then there are all those fan girls who still demand more of him, and at least one critic has compared him with Lelouch and found Lelouch wanting. In fact, one of his fans has now written a Perspective Flip version of Code Geass with Mao as the protagonist, the aptly named Code Geass: Mao of the Deliverance.
  • For being characters that serve little purpose other than to look cute and die quickly and unsympathetically after less than a minute's worth the screentime (or less than 5 seconds in the case of the former; see: mooks), Valkyrie Squadron, as well as Monica Krushevsky of the Knights of the Round, have more fan art than many of the other female characters that are relative mainstays.
    • Part of this may be due to their minor but significant role in the novel: serving as Cornelia's squad-girls in combat, they're also used to provoke discussion with Cornelia, doing a great deal to flesh out Cornelia's nature. It may be because of being popular from this appearance that they were permitted to appear in the animation at all.
  • Glibert G.P. Guilford has a decent fanbase, being one of the more down to Earth Britannians, and for anyone who ships him and his charge, Cornelia.
  • Kosetsu Urabe, the first of the Four Holy Swords to bite it in R2, for sacrificing himself in order to buy Lelouch and the rest of the Black Knights in Babel Tower enough time to escape, and kill Viceroy Calares. That he proclaimed his belief in and willingness to sacrifice himself for Lelouch was not lost on the fans, particularly after most of the remaining Black Knights later turned on Lelouch after being manipulated by Schneizel.
• Mad Pierrot of the twentieth episode of Cowboy Bebop has no relevance to the over-all Myth Arc, appeared in all of one episode, and was never spoken of or mentioned again. Yet, outside of the main cast, he is easily one of the most popular characters in the series.
• Crayon Shin-chan has Happiness Bunny and Action Bastard.
• Cross Ange has Momoka Oginome. No, not ''that'' Momoka Oginome. We're talking about the inverse of The Team Normal, who possesses Undying Loyalty to her Fallen Princess and who can effectively resist the mind control of the Big Bad, who has inflicted extreme Fantastic Racism onto her kind. Even getting a Moment of Awesome of killing the Big Bad (at least for once) and surviving against him with a frying pan.
• Kanda of D.Gray-Man is so insanely popular that he's even managed to beat out Allen (a gorgeous, adorable man) in popularity polls on occasion. Once it was when the anime had him briefly Put on a Bus, even.
  • Despite receiving less attention as time goes on, Miranda's popularity has increased with each successive popularity poll, and by the fourth one she reached fifth, surpassing the consistently popular Krory.
• Daily Lives of High School Boys:
  • Yassan the Literature Girl is very popular due to her hilarious and (failed) romantic relationship with Hidenori.
  • Toshiyuki Karasawa and Habara are also very popular thanks to them sharing a past, particular because of Habara's backstory as Archdemon. They also tend to take the top spots in popularity polls.
• Daltanious: Kento's older sister. Even though she's unnamed and only appears in his flashbacks, many fans adore her and wonder how the anime would be like if she survived. Fanon often depicts her as a Cool Big Sis who acts more responsible than her idiotic little brother, and a wholly dedicated Alien Princess of the Helios Empire.
• While Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School ended up having a huge Broken Base, Seiko manages to be with one of the few things that is met with universal praise in that anime. Fans love her for her Creepy Good personality, her surprisingly tragic backstory, being the sworn enemy of Andou, and her talent. Not even her contribution to Kyoko's divisive resurrection stopped the love; people who dislike it don't hold it against her, seeing it as Seiko finally getting to save someone as she always wanted, while those who do like it see it as just another point in her favor. The official character poll on western places her as the most popular character introduced on the installment and 6th favorite character overall.
  • On the same vein of Seiko, Kizakura got a lot of fans for his Mellow Fellow vibe as well as being The Smart Guy and caring towards both Kyoko and her father. He got 8th place in the popularity poll.
  • Juzo Sakakura started out as one of the most hated characters in the franchise, but his continuous suffering both emotional, psychological and physical during the events of DR3 led fans to start feeling sorry for him. His popularity came to it's peak with The Reveal that he was in love with Munakata all along, making him the first openly gay character of the franchise. He got redeemed to such a level he was called "SHSL Redeem". It certainly helps he saves everybody else by making a Heroic Sacrifice and then proceeds to die with a smile on his face because he was able to save the man he loves. He got the spot of third favorite character introduced in DR3 placing 15th in the popularity poll.
  • Similarly to Seiko and carrying over his status from the visual novels, Izuru is praised as one of the best parts of Side:Despair, despite not even appearing until it was halfway done. He sealed the fandom's love by continuing to be a Memetic Badass, being one of the few characters in a Flanderized cast to receive Character Development, said development clearing up his Ambiguously Evil nature for the better while still keeping him complex, and his touching but tragic relationship with Chiaki.
• Goran, a Russian (well, the name itsef is Serbian, but it's at least somewhat plausible) contractor from the second season of Darker than Black, who apparently got himself killed with less than half-episode of screentime, managed to acquire a hugely active Instant Fandom seemingly just by eating hamburgers cutely.
• Ask any Date A Live fan which character would they like to see more of and chances are that their answer is Kurumi. How good is she? She's literally the difference between a bottom tier 12-Episode Anime and a top tier one. People hated the first 6 episodes but loved the next 3 episodes for a reason.
• Matt from Death Note has a huge amount of fans despite only appearing for a few panels. Probably because he's badass, gives a snarky one-liner before getting killed, drives a Cool Car, fires off a smoke bomb so Mello can kidnap Takada, plays video games and is good with electronics, seems to be pretty well-adjusted compared to the other Wammy's kids, is quite handsome under his goggles, and has a rather ambiguous relationship with Mello.
  • Matsuda. Starts out as the Butt-Monkey, only to get progressively more and more awesome, including his Day in the Limelight where he kicks major ass. By the final episode, where he shoots Light multiple times while calling him out for what he did to his father, he's firmly catapulted into this status.
  • Aizawa has a sizeable fanbase. He's smart enough to know what's going on without being a super genius, he's committed to catching Kira while also calling L out for his extreme methods, and... the afro. Can't forget the afro.
  • Also Naomi Misora, who not only got a spin-off prequel novel focusing on her, but a bigger role in the Live Action movie. The director of those films flat-out said he felt the character was terribly wasted in the manga. Also Beyond Birthday, the villain of that novel, is also an Ensemble Darkhorse.
  • And Linda, who is mentioned once in the anime (and not by name), appears for a single panel in the manga and is mentioned one other time, and despite this appears in a decent amount of fanfiction and fanart. All that's known about her is that she was from the orphanage Wammy's House, and that she became a successful artist.
• Delicious in Dungeon has Tade, the infectiously adorable Nice Girl Oni from Shuro's party.
• Descendants of Darkness's highly enthusiastic scientist, Watari. In spite of only being a secondary character, he has a ton of fangirls.
• Digimon:
  • In Digimon Fusion, Blastmon is essentially a fan-favorite. His child-like behavior, his nonchalant approach to his duties, and his Large Ham way of speaking made him an instant favorite.
  • Nene Amano is also very well-loved by many. And from the sequel series, we have Airu, the cute and often hilarious Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who is sole lead female.
  • T.K. and Patamon from Digimon Adventure are very popular with fans due to their Magikarp Power, to the point where The Character Ice Cream Bar was of Patamon rather than Agumon and the duo were given near equal billing to Tai/Agumon and Matt/Gabumon in marketing for the 2020 reboot.
• Badou in DOGS, in the original graphic novel before the manga was picked up for serialization, was a one-off character in a gag side-story who became so popular that by the time the manga was serialized, he was added to the main cast and even given a Day In the Spotlight issue. To a lesser extent, Enfants Terribles twins Luki and Noki were also like this, again introduced in a one-off side-story but eventually added to the regular story as semi-recurring villains due to their popularity.
• Yukikaze Panettone from Dog Days fits the bill. Notice how she becomes more prominent as the series progresses. If fan art is any indication, then her popularity is second only to the female lead.

Examples E to M

• Eyeshield 21 has Rui Habashira of the Zokugaku Chameleons, a slimy delinquent who proved ridiculously popular with the show's fandom despite being at best a minor supporting character. Fans' prayers were answered when he was revealed to be the mystery player on the World Cup team. In an even more baffling example, Gokuu of the Shinryuuji Nagas is an extremely minor character who has a decent-sized fanbase (well, in Japan).
• Fate Series:
  • Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA:
    • This manga's depiction of Illyasviel von Einzbern has managed to gain popularity even among more casual Fate fans, thanks to being an absolutely adorable yet badass depiction of a usually rather creepy character.
    • While many feel he overstayed his welcome, it's hard to deny that Miyu's brother is one of, if not the most beloved depiction of Shirou in the series, thanks to being an absolute badass who embodies many of the best traits of the previous depictions of the character.
    • Angelica Ainsworth became popular from the moment she first appeared with the Gilgamesh Install, which quickly grew thanks to her awesome fight against Chloe and Miyu's brother. Her Heel–Face Turn that soon followed also helped.
  • Fate/Prototype can be considered this for the franchise as a whole. It started out as a short OVA simply detailing the original idea behind Fate/stay night before it was reworked into what it is now, but has steadily grown into one of the most popular entries in the entire franchise.
    • Saber, aka King Arthur, is one of the most popular characters in the series, mostly for combining traits of both Shirou and stay night's Saber. It eventually led to him becoming playable in Fate/Grand Order, where he acts as a major character.
    • Archer, aka Gilgamesh, is popular for... well, being a less dickish version of the already extremely popular character that is Gilgamesh.
    • This OVA's depiction of Merlin doesn't even appear, yet the knowledge that there's a Gender Flip version of another already well liked character led to her quickly earning a fanbase. When she finally did receive a design in 2020, the fans were ecstatic.
  • Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia:
    • Siduri was already a fan favorite in the original game, but the anime adaptation of this chapter caused her popularity to explode. This is largely in part to actually being able to see her emote and speak, rather than simply being a single portrait with no voice, and the her death scene is considered to be one of the saddest moments in the story.
    • Similarly, Leonidas and Ushiwakamaru were already well-liked, but thanks to seeing their battle against Gorgon fully animated, their popularity exploded.
• Fairy Tail: Naturally, there's quite some. Notably:
  • Laxus and Gildarts seem quite popular among the western fandom.
  • Mirajane is quite popular for her bubbly personality and being on par with Erza as one of Fairy Tail's premier Action Girls. In light of the growing controversy surrounding Erza's fights, many have pushed to see Mira in action more often.
  • Gajeel is this for many after his Heel–Face Turn to the point that you would hear of fan disappointment for not getting treated on the same level as his fellow Dragon Slayers, Natsu and Wendy; to the point that many are actually very forgivable of his Ass Pull moment against Rogue, because its actual screen-time for Gajeel!
  • Ultear. She was the first established villain that went beyond just a one-off Arc Villain, and the fact that people tend to forget about how much of an evil biatch she was before Gray knocked some sense into her just goes to show how engaging her character turned out to be overall. She also brought Fairy Tail a vast majority of reasonable fan-service before Mashima went overboard after the Time Skip.
  • The Oracion Seis overall (sans Brain), likely due to the fact they were the first dark guild that posed an actual threat to the heroes as well as being evil but also tragic figures given their past as slaves. They were so popular that they not only got a second arc as the villains, but also became good guys with Jellal and Meredy]].
  • They're joined by Azuma, the single most badass member of Grimoire Heart.
  • Millianna, who became a more popular in fanart after the timeskip, no thanks to her new outfit.
  • Rogue, pretty much the only member of Sabertooth who isn't a MASSIVE DICK.^note Yukino sorta counts, but her allegiance with Sabertooth is an odd case, and while Sting does get better later on, people see his character as a missed opportunity anyway for his failures throughout the tournament.
  • Silver, an Anti-Villain who's spawned a TON of Wild Mass Guessing, has an amusing personality, and a badass capable of instantly freezing the spirit of a dragon MADE OF FLAMES and later Natsu, cutting off a rather obnoxious streak he had going on. Indeed, after The Reveal, his status only grew, despite the fact that not only was he Evil All Along, but Silver wasn't even his original name — it's Deliora. Many are calling it the single greatest plot twist in the last hundred or so chapters... at least before he decided to reveal that the plot-twist was all a lie.
  • Seilah has reached this point, too. She had quite a fair number of fans right out of the gate (mostly because her relationship with Kyouka was perhaps the most well done villainous romantic relationship yet), many fans refused to believe she could have possibly gone down because of one punch to the back of the head in one of the biggest Ass Pull victories in the entire arc. It reached the point where fans were lobbying Hiro Mashima over Twitter, demanding she come back... and she did, in perhaps the most badass way possible, giving her the send-off many fans believed she deserved and had been previously denied. This might explain why Mirajane now can take on her form in the Albareth Empire arc.
  • Brandish is easily the most liked of the Spriggan Twelve. An intriguing backstory connected to Lucy, as well as just being a fun character to watch, had many hoping that she will perform a Heel–Face Turn somewhere down the line, and much to a many's joy, she ultimately did.
  • August of the Spriggan Twelve has also gathered himself a sizable fanbase primarily for curb-stomping Jellal's guild all on his own. His "The Reason You Suck" Speech that deconstructed Crime Sorcière's rigid belief that Dark Is Evil and Light Is Good with zero room for nuance definitely helped. There's also the fact that he is the only member of the Spriggan 12 who didn't succumbed to Badass Decay, making him one of the most dangerous antagonists in the series. The Reveal about his true identity in Chapter 526, served with an extra helping of Heartwarming Moments and Tear Jerker, only intensified this, now tying him with if not surpassing Brandish as the most popular member of the Spriggan 12.
• Fist of the North Star has a good example in the form of Mr. Heart, the Giant Mook who works for Shin. Despite many of the other colorful martial artists in the series, he got to be a playable character in the PS2 fighter and has been featured as a boss in other games as well. The series as a whole has tons of these, such as the Mad Colonel (who was a design inspiration for Rolento of Final Fight), Rei (who got his own Spin-Off series), and Raoh (who is getting his own series as well and was the focus of an OVA series). Raoh even got the rare distinction of being one of the few fictional characters to have a real-life funeral held for him, in recognition of his incredibly manly death in the series.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End:
  • Himmel dies in the very first chapter of the story, with most of his screentime throughout the story being flashbacks to the party's ten year journey. Despite this, he still grabbed first place in the series' first popularity poll with Frieren herself following right behind.
  • Mimics as a whole are loved as a Running Gag of Frieren always ending up stuck in one's mouth, and one appears in every dungeon. They're popular enough that there are plushies of one eating Frieren and they took the number three slot in previously mentioned poll.
• Fullmetal Alchemist
  • Maes Hughes, the friendly competent Badass Normal whose death becomes an important part of Roy Mustang, still consistently scores very high in popularity polls, even 20 volumes later. Another is Jean Havoc, The Woobie who can never get a girlfriend who isn't a homunculus, and gets paralyzed before helping out the coup with supplies.
  • Though the series is full of likeable people, Lan Fan is very popular among the Brotherhood fandom, despite only being a secondary character.
  • Ditto Sheska, who many fans lament the disappearance of in the manga, where she simply goes "poof" plotwise. The fact that she looks like a female Kensuke Aida doesn't help matters at all.
  • Being an Ensemble Dark Horse has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations!! Both the Major and his sister are definite favorites of the fandom.
  • Amongst the bara fans, Scar is a big time example. Darius and Heinkel were also popular enough in fanart to get a doujinshi.
  • Greed is probably the most popular Homunculus behind Envy, especially considering how minor of a character the former is compared to the latter.
    • In the manga poll, Greed I and II were ranked the 12th and 13th most popular characters respectively (the highest ranked Homunculus, only behind Envy). If they were both ranked as a single character (since they are the same person), then Greed would have scored higher, maybe even higher than Envy.
  • Barry the Chopper has quite a fan following despite being a minor character who dies less than halfway through the series, mainly due to his Ax-Crazy and Crazy Is Cool characteristics.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)
  • Lust's expanded role and backstory in this version and eventual Heel–Face Turn made her far popular in the 2003 fanbase.
  • The one-shot background Stock Character Sheska was brought back into the first anime several times before being fully incorporated into the cast, becoming Affirmative Action Girl and Lovely Angels with Winry and finally writing the Epilogue Letter at the end.
  • The first anime!Sloth is also very popular, probably for being the homunculus version of Trisha Elric.
• Fushigi Yuugi character popularity polls usually result in Nuriko, Tasuki and Chichiri taking the top three spots (in varying order), often winning handily over Miaka and/or Tamahome.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula: Bleed Kaga, who despite making a few appearences in the first half of the TV series, is so popular with Japanese fans that he becomes a regular in the series, has number of CDs about him and he eventually is made into the main character in SIN, the final OVA.
• In Gakuen Alice, Kokoroyomi, with the Alice of telepathy, definitely qualifies.
• We have several from GaoGaiGar; Mic Sounders the 13th (to the point where he was the only survivor of his Red Shirt Army brothers), HyoRyu, EnRyu, and Volfogg too.
• Ghost Sweeper Mikami‘s Luciola. Being Yokoshima's first real love — as in, not the primarily-lust he held towards Mikami — helps a lot, it seems.
• Takasugi Shinsuke in Gintama. He's only appeared in a few manga chapters and episodes, he's the only one in the series not to have some sort of hilarious appeal — and he still managed to place high in the popularity polls.
  • Similarly, Shinsengumi member and badminton fanatic Yamazaki Sagaru ranked high among fans, but creator Sorachi Hideaki has stated he will never be featured on the cover of any of the manga volumes. One can only hope he'll change his mind. There's even A WHOLE STORY ARC ABOUT IT!
  • And now, Kamui who only has been in one arc has been in the top ten polls ranking at 7th.
    • Kamui has since moved up to third place in the most recent poll despite only appearing in two chapters during the gap between the surveys.
• Girls und Panzer has Saki (maybe better known as "autism-chan"), a popular joke character with no lines (save one occasion in Episode 12) who's often seen staring off in weird directions. Many explanations have been given for this, from looking into alternative timelines/dimensions, to being a tank tracking device, to being aware of the 4th wall and looking at the viewers.
  • There's also Jagdpanther-chan, an nameless commander of a Jagdpanther in the finals, who gets detracked more than once and desperately races to repair her tank.
• In GoLion, the black-shirted, original Blue Lion pilot, Takashi Shirogane, was intended to be nothing more than a Sacrificial Lamb, Killed Off for Real in the 6th episode. But he proved to be enough of an Ensemble Darkhorse in Japan, that Toei studio tried to bring him back more or less, through the awkward method of creating a Backup Twin who showed up later to avenge his brother. When World Events Productions adapted GoLion into Voltron, in an inspired stroke of Woolseyism, the two bothers were combined into one character, Sven, who was severely injured in that 6th episode, but later recovered. As Volton's popularity skyrocketed around the world, so did Sven's, a Badass Normal with more impressive credentials than either of of GoLion's two brothers could've had individually.
  • It's reached the point where he's become The Leader and (arguable) protagonist of Voltron: Legendary Defender.
• Guilty Crown has Colonel Dan Eagleman, who was one of the only nice members of the otherwise Obviously Evil GHQ organization. Many a fan found his cheerfulness, honesty and giving credit where it was due to be very endearing. Just as many were dissapointed that he was killed off not even halfway through the series, only a handful of episodes after being introduced.
• Bunji Kugashira from Gungrave (both anime and game) is a supporting cast and shows up later in the anime, but he is more popular than Harry MacDowell, one of two main characters and the Big Bad in the anime and the original game. He is only less popular than Brandon 'Beyond the Grave' Heat, the main character. This may be justified since behind his badass smoking Cool Shades-wearing cold-blooded gangster exterior, he honors rules and promises and hides a streak of gentleness within. In the game series, he makes a return in the second game and is revealed to be Juji's (one of the playable characters) older brother.
  • Despite not having much screen time, Bear Walken is fairly popular as well. This may be justified because he is both a charismatic leader to his squad of hitmen and a loving (if perhaps, overprotective) father to his daughter, Sherry.
• Haikyuu!!: With its large cast and the sentiment of "the best thing about Haikyuu, you love all the teams. the worst thing about Haikyuu, you love all the teams." being shared by the big part of the fandom, there are several examples:
  • Karasuno's main rival in the first two seasons, Aoba Johsai is an extremely popular school, along with its frontman Oikawa. What's more surprising, however, is the popularity of less-explored members of the team such as Iwaizumi.
  • Similarly, the love for Karasuno's friendly rivals Nekoma is big in the fanbase. The most prominent character of the team, Kenma, is deeply fleshed-out and justifiably loved and again, his less-developed teammate Kuroo is also very popular.
  • Fukurodani Academy and their captain and ace Bokuto is a highly welcome presence anytime he is on the screen. His setter Akaashi has his fair share of popularity, too.
  • Miya twins and their team captain Kita also became fan favorites.
• Aoki from Hajime no Ippo. He's a massive buttmonkey, but that doesn't stop him from continually ranking high on popularity polls.
• Hamtaro has quite a few of them:
  • Of the official members of the Ham-Ham Clubhouse, Panda and Cappy have appeared the least often in the series, making them considerate dark horses.
  • Jingle, the wandering ham poet.
  • Oxnard's girlfriend, Pepper, stands out quite a bit.
• Wholesome Crossdresser Watarase Jun in Happiness! was so unexpectedly popular that he not only was he given a path in the game, he was the star of the first OAV for the show. In fact, the game was rather bland and forgettable and wouldn't have had much publicity were it not for Jun. The other characters combined don't get as much fanwork as he does.
• Tsuruya from Haruhi Suzumiya practically embodies this trope, especially the megas internet meme point, nyoro~n!
  • To a lesser extent, Taniguchi (one of Those Two Guys) also applies, especially after his voice actor's success as an Ensemble Darkhorse on Lucky Star. In fact, Taniguchi and Minoru Shiraishi could be said to be one single, transcendental cross-series Ensemble Darkhorse. One word: "Wawawawasuremono."
    • Now he has a Character CD coming out for the second season (as well Tsuruya).
• The female characters from Hetalia: Axis Powers, despite having quite sporadic apparitions in an almost all-male cast (some having considerably more screen time than others), have gained quite the following, such as Hungary (Otaku Surrogate and Ninja Maid), Belarus (whose over-the-top Yandere traits have been embraced by a fandom that would normally bash her for them), Ukraine (Belarus's older sister, a mix of Shrinking Violet and Bokukko whose boyish beauty makes some female fans wet, hot and bothered) and lately the Anime Chinese Girls Vietnam and Taiwan. And that's not yet even getting to the Nyotalia versions of the characters...
  • O, Canada. (No, he really doesn't appear with the Allies as much as fanfic might make you think.)
  • In the LJ based fandom, Bulgaria (who briefly appared in two panels and a very recent anime episode, as a brunet boy who looks a bit like a shorthaired China) and Thailand (recently introduced East Asian male Meganekko) are starting to get this fame as well. Hot-Blooded Prussia is already there, tho.
    • Prussia, especially War of Austrian Succession Prussia, shows up at incredibly high levels of representation at any event involving Hetalia cosplay.
  • Scotland. He's appeared once as a reference to England's miserable childhood (and only recently appeared in person in 2021) but is still extremely popular with the western fandom.
  • Let's not even go into the huge amounts of love towards the mochi with America's face that appeared once or twice in Himaruya's blog, known as "Mochimerica" or "Ameri Blob". It's so popular that the Japanese fanartists often use it as a Censor Box in their porny fanarts involving America.
  • The Nordics are gaining more and more popularity lately, specially Denmark and Norway.
  • The Baltic Trio ended up with some element of this, particularly after the strips of Lithuania's scars, Latvia's Yandere potential and Estonia in Bloodbath 2010.
  • And did you guys forget about Holland? Ever since he finally stopped being The Faceless, the fandom has fallen all over him.
  • "Herr Stick" and the Flying Mint Bunny, thanks to the dub.
    • Flying Mint Bunny became popular enough to get a plushified form.
  • From epic 2010 Christmas Bloodbath, England's secretary Workbitch Bartholomew, who's really quite good looking.
    • Also thanks to the Bloodbath, Iceland's started getting quite a lot of attention from fans for his unique combination of suaveness, awkward moe cuteness, and beautiful appearance.
  • It's a safe bet that as of 2012, a good chunk of the massive cast have become this. And it's pretty clear that Himaruya is also aware of this as well.
• Nene Andou, the cheerfully bisexual class representative from Hyakko, is being latched onto by a large group of fans, due to her ability to out-quirk the already very quirky lead characters of the show.
• Hinagiku Katsura from Hayate the Combat Butler. She is so big an Ensemble Darkhorse, the last popularity poll landed her with a few dozen votes short... Of having as many votes as the ones ranked #2, #3 and #4 combined, those three being the main characters. In the second season of the anime, the entire first ED is entirely devoted to her, and the Relax-o-Vision shots are all fanservice shots of her as well. This from the female support character with the least screen time in the first season.
  • Athena has been placed here by fans as well, even non-fans agree that she could put contention on Hinagiku for top-spot in the next character polls. And she didn't decide to even show up for 50+ chapters and didn't get serious character development for 150+ .
    • In the 3rd popularity poll (the first one she was eligible for), Athena came out 2nd with 2168 votes, while Hinagiku won in a landslide (again) at 4089 votes. The other placements haven't been published yet.
  • Izumi is an interesting case of responding to the popularity. After she ranked so much higher than Miki and Risa, she started getting appearances independent of them as well as an implied crush on Hayate as well as meeting him when they were both kids.
• Tenza from Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku is a Sacrificial Lion who gets the misfortune of encountering Tensen and is killed off shortly after being introduced. Yet he still ranks highly in the manga's official popularity polls (being ranked 5th in the first poll, and 7th in the second one), both of which took place after his death.
• Higurashi's Big Bird, Kuwabara Biker, Hitler Stache, and Swastika Biker all became ensemble darkhorses in some circles after their appearances.
• In Ikki Tousen, Kan'u Unchou (Guan Yu) has a lot of fan support despite not being the main character, being admitted as the sexiest of the bunch (for a series with that much Fanservice, that's saying a lot), her very sympathetic backstory (especially her Bodyguard Crush on her childhood friend, Ryuubi) and, of course, her status as one of the strongest Action Girls in the series. Even though her character was this close to be completely destroyed through Flanderization in Great Guardians (the third season), her fandom still remained as strong as ever. Being the Generation Xerox of one of the Ensemble Darkhorses of Romance of the Three Kingdoms does help a lot...
• Inuyasha: Despite being a one-shot antagonist early on in the series, sultry Yura of the Hair became a fan favorite even though her role was only a momentary one. With a stripperific outfit like she has and her attractive human appearance on it's no wonder.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Kobachi Osaragi quickly gained a lot of fan approval after Chapter 85 which showed her as one of the only people outside the student council who doesn't ostracize Ishigami due to the rumors about him because she witnessed him being secretly kind to Iino, even though he and the latter can't stand each other. She even checked on him without prompting, quietly wishing his efforts to break out of his shell well. Her Deadpan Snarker and not-entirely Covert Pervert tendencies revealed in chapter 80 had already made her fairly popular as Iino's Hayasaka equivalent, but chapter 85 was what really cemented it.
  • Shirogane's dad started to grown on fans with his hilariously awkward personality in chapter 83. This only grew when he trolled Kaguya into revealing her deepest feelings for his son in chapter 86.
  • Maki Shijo has become very popular since her proper debut in Chapter 98, due to the Running Gag of her saying things that make herself realize about her terrible luck in love, along with her being a very comedic example of a Tsundere (almost bordering on parody) and being genuine Vitriolic Best Buds with Shirogane and Ishigami.
  • Rei Onodera has almost zero focus, but she remains a popular shipping option for Ishigami due to her laid back attitude.
• Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama features Yurano, the purple catlike Straytama. Fans have posted plenty of fanart of her on Pixiv, and she is sometimes paired with Tokumaru in some dom/sub situations.
• Kichikujima- Has Ami Murata for her cute design. Anna and Kanna are also popular despite not getting much screen time compared to their relatives.
• Kinnikuman has done this more than once, with characters introduced by the creators as one-off villains taken from fan submissions who end up becoming popular enough that they gain expanded roles later on. Examples include Ramenman, who ultimately got his own spin-off anime, and Buffaloman, who got himself promoted to leader of the Seven Devil Choujin over Black Hole because the creators recognized this trope in action.
• Kirby: Right Back at Ya!:
  • Sirica, the daughter of the legendary Galaxy Soldier Garlude, who appeared in Episode 60. Many fans came to love her so much that a lot of fan art of her can be found all over the internet. Sirica herself was so popular that she even later appeared in the final two episodes alongside Knuckle Joe, Sir Arthur and his three knights (Sir Percival, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Galahad).
  • Garlude and Knuckle Joe's Father also got the same treatment as Sirica herself. And even the rest of the Star Warriors and Galaxy Soldiers, and even the traitor Yamikage.
  • Chilidog/Wolfwrath is also quite popular, as a lot of fan art for it can be found across the internet as well. Some people would even draw a scarier version or a cuter version, or even a baby Wolfwrath puppy.
• From K-On!, there's Nodoka, whose popularity is helped by her being the most mature and normal of the series' very quirky cast.
• Lady!!:
  • Sarah Frances Russell is either your favourite character, your first crush, or someone who your heart has skipped for at least once. She's more well-liked than Lynn.
  • Sophie is also well-liked by many fans for subverting the typical Alpha Bitch formula and having a reason for disrespecting Lynn when she actually does like her. She's also one of the reasons Lynn goes through with defying Mary in the finale.
• Love Live! Superstar!! has Shiki Wakana, one of the additional idols introduced to the group in the second season. She became popular even before said season premiered. Case in point: On her birthday in 2022, the Japanese hashtag for Love Live made the top 50 trending tags in Japan, and sometimes showed up on people's worldwide feeds.
• Minoru Shiraishi in Lucky Star is one of the most popular characters, at least in-show, despite being one of the few male characters. In Lucky Channel, he explains this as a odd tendency of fans to attach to characters who barely appear in a show.
  • Misao Kusakabe, who started as one of Those Two Guys and whose screentime in the anime amounts to around a total of 15 minutes, has gotten so popular that she had her own figure made, and was given her own Image Song CD! Helped in no small part to her non-animated, more developed roles in the 4-panel comic. Like being the other tomboy of the series.
• Macross has the Destroid Monster, a mecha whose immense firepower endeared it to the fanbase to the point it appears in some form in every animated entry of the franchise.
  • In a more traditional example, Klan-Klan from Macross Frontier seems to enjoy consistent popularity with the fandom, even though she is a bit player at most. It certainly helps that she is both a busty giantess and a cute Tsundere (depending on whether she is macronized or micronized), but what firmly cemented her as a fan-favorite is the heartwarming Childhood Friend Romance with Mikhail.
  • Kaname Buccaneer from Macross Delta. Despite being the Supporting Leader of Walkure and only getting one solo song (AXIA), in a 2017 poll she placed fifth in a popularity poll across the entire franchise, beating out not only the main characters of her own series, but almost every other character in the franchise, including the main characters of the original series and the aforementioned Klan.
• Machine Robo:
  • In a rare protagonist example, Rom Stol is this thanks to his appearances in Super Robot Wars
  • For Japan at least, Leina Stol, much of the show's promotional art features her heavily and the fact that she was the central focus of the OVA's that continued the story after the show ended pretty much solidifies this. Leina also gets plenty of fanart on pixiv and the sudden death of her voice actress, Yuko Mizutani in 2016 drove this home even further.
• Cinque of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, she was taken out one episode after her introduction, giving her one of the least screentime amongst the Numbers. She's also an older than she looks white-haired Little Miss Badass wearing an eyepatch and trenchcoat and wielding a set of throwing knives that she could make explode and she speaks in an old-fashioned tone and greatly cares for her younger sisters. She quickly became the most popular of the Numbers amongst the fandom and Seven Arcs noticed this. Not only did they let her be the only one amongst the older Numbers to pull a Heel–Face Turn, but she was also adopted by Subaru's family and was appointed the squad leader of the N2R Nakajima Sisters, the Sibling Team made up of former Numbers.
  • Vivio is so popular that she got her own spin-off.
• The Occult Research Club President of Mahoraba, despite being a rather minor character compared to everyone living in Narutakisou, took third place in a character popularity contest. Or depending on your view, second place, since first and second is Kozue, due to her multiple personalities.
• Hoshino Ruri of Martian Successor Nadesico, who was eventually made the star of the series' movie.
  • There's also Gai Daigoji, the Large Ham Ascended Fanboy who befriends Akito and openly espouses the values of the Super Robot Genre, only to be suddenly and unceremoniously killed off early in. It's no surprise that Super Robot Wars lets you save him, or at least gives him a cooler death.
• How popular is Kumogawa Misogi from Shonen Jump's Medaka Box? In the most recent popularity poll he received more votes than second place (Medaka, the Main Character), third place, fourth place and fifth place combined. Don't believe it? See for yourself. Slightly NSFW on account of all the Hadaka Apron.
  • All the more remarkable for this character originally being a villain.
• Western fans of Monster Musume have taken a liking to the unnamed, high-strung policeman (AKA "Bike Cop") who is a Recurring Extra at best. In fact, artists and fanfic writers have started developing his daily life with monster girls, specifically the ones from the most harmful or troublesome subspecies. Here are some examples.
• Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun:
  • Tomoda is an example both in-universe and out-of-universe. In universe, he's the Mr. Exposition of a dating sim game which Nozaki and Mikoshiba play, but because of his unending support for the game's protagonist, the two end up focusing on him instead of either the protagonist or the love interests, to the point that they write a comic where Tomoda and the protagonist get together, in order to give Tomoda the story he deserved. Out-of-universe, even though all of this takes place within the span of a single chapter/episode as a one-off gag and is not mentioned again, Tomoda's gained a lot of popularity with the fans due to how funny the scene is.
  • Another In-Universe version with the men of the shoujo manga Nozaki draws. In chapter 113, Nozaki despairs that male lead Suzuki is regularly outclassed in popularity polls by minor male characters (even though he dislikes writing for him), landing in fourth (behind heroine Mamiko) at the highest. his When he asks Sakura's friends what they think, they all favor side characters Nozaki can barely remember over Suzuki for various reasons, to his horror. By the end of the chapter, Nozaki writes a story for minor character Oze that charms readers so thoroughly Oze leapfrogs over Suzuki in the polls, keeping Suzuki in third.
• In Muhyo and Roji, Panza only appears in Volume 6 and dies at the end of the volume, but ranks sixth in the popularity poll.
• Shizuru Fujino from My-HiME was popular enough amongst fans that it likely contributed to her upgrade into a major recurring ally and part of one of My-Otome's Official Couples.
  • Similarly, her Unknown Rival Haruka Suzushiro was also incredibly well liked and received a notable upgrade in Otome.
• Among My-Otome characters (at least those original to the series), Erstin Ho was merely a secondary recurring character who died a tragic death halfway through the anime, but her status as The Woobie has made her almost as popular as main characters Arika, Nina and Mashiro. To the point where, in the manga, not only does she not die, but she even Took a Level in Badass, got a Deadly Upgrade and was vital in defeating the Big Bad. And she was even kept quite in-character, to boot!
  • The Republic of Aries has quite a few of these, including the boisterous general Haruka Armitage (the new version of the aforementioned Suzushiro), flirty upperclassman Chie Hallard, and outlandishly-clothed #1 Otome Pillar Sara Gallagher (the last of whom only appeared in the final three episodes of the main series before being given time to shine in the OVA).

Examples N to T

• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Zazie Rainyday did nothing of note for over three hundred chapters or in either anime production and just as little background information. That seems to be part of her charm as the extreme lack of information has the fanbase clamoring for any info they can get. Word of God even stated that she wouldn't be getting her story revealed until closer to the end of the SERIES. And then the series ended way too early...
  • Evangeline, thanks to her ability to kick ass and complex characterization.
• Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion. He only appeared in one episode, with about fifteen minutes of screen time — counting all the freeze frames — but being his optimistic, charming self, he managed to become one of the show's most popular — motivating Gainax (who originally had intended him to be creepy and inhuman) to licence spin-offs and games putting him into a more prominent role compared to the series, along with Asuka and Rei themselves.
  • Mari, from Rebuild, seems to be on her way here as well, though she still has many haters to overcome.
  • While not as popular as the above two, Maya Ibuki has a dedicated following which her small role would not attest to — her two fellow technicians, Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba, aren't nearly as well-liked. The fact that she's not nearly as screwed up as some the main characters probably helps.
  • Rei is essentially a minor Darkhorse considering that early on she was hailed as the series' Breakout Character by Japanese media and has reached legendary levels of popularity, with the industry going so far as to call her the Premium Girl due to her high merchandise sales, all the while creator Hideaki Anno by his own admission thinks very little of her.
  • Mana Kirishima, from the first Girlfriend of Steel game, was also quite popular for a while (though her extremely fanservice-y nature probably means this was intentional), and also appeared in some other Eva media, like the Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga and the game it is based on. She is absent from the Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days manga however, which adapts the second Go S game.
• Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan had a few surprises in the first popularity poll, namely when side character Tsurara Oikawa the Yuki-Onna wound up only eight votes behind second place, leaving the designated love interest far behind her Body Guard Crush.
• Mumen Rider from One-Punch Man has a huge following for his You Shall Not Pass! moment against the Sea King, despite knowing full well that he's just a guy with a bike against a hulking monstrosity who already took out multiple S-class heroes. There's also the fact that he's the perfect Foil to Saitama: a hero with no power but all the heroic drive in the world, versus a hero with all the power in the world but no heroic drive.
• Atobe Keigo and his Hyoutei Gakuen team from The Prince of Tennis. Atobe attracts a ridiculously high quantity of fangirls both in story and outside of it, thanks to his over-the-top Magnificent Bastard behavior and his Jerk with a Heart of Gold background.
  • Although no other character can rival Atobe in this sense, as a team, Rikkai also qualifies as Ensemble Dark Horse(including Delicate and Sickly Yukimura, Aloof Big Brother Sanada, Troubled, but Cute Kirihara, and the Platinum Pair of Yagyuu and Niou).
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • The witch Charlotte is seen for all of two minutes and is also quite popular. Probably because she's adorable. And there's not really anyone else to ship Mami with. It's probably no coincidence that when the official Madoka Magica video game was announced, Charlotte was the first witch to appear in the preview images. Like Kyubey, she's a strange example since she devours Mami alive yet much of the fanart revolves around her cute, innocent appearance.
    • And Charlotte has now become an Ascended Extra and Breakout Character in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion. However, this did damper the shipping with Mami since we got to see exactly what Charlotte looked like as a human- and she's only ten years old.
  • In one scene, all of Madoka's classmates are seen using laptops for their schoolwork, except one girl who's using a good old-fashioned paper notebook. This background character was dubbed "Poorfag-chan" or just "Poor-chan" by fans (especially on 4chan).
• Jonathan Wolff in the Robotech series. He made one memorable appearance in the New Generation (Mospeada) segment where a big deal was made of him being a legendary hero. Then he was spun off into the aborted prequel Sentinels and a large number of comics and stories, all despite the fact that (in that Robotech episode, he is shown to have sold out to the enemy and almost gets Scott Bernard killed)
• The Quintessential Quintuplets:
  • For the 1st popularity poll (titled akin to who's your preferred bride), the biggest of them all is probably the inclusion of Maeda^note placed 7th with 68 votes after Fuutarou's 81, the quintuplets have a total of about 8000 votes, a character who only had speaking roles in 3 chapters at most before the poll and barely appears after that.
  • Among the sisters, Miku gets the most love, especially from anime-only fans. Many people like her quiet and geeky personality and it helps that she's the first of the sisters to get on good terms with Fuutarou.
• Considering how popular they are in Ranma ½ fanfiction, you'd think Tsubasa, Konatsu and Pantyhose Taro were part of the regular cast. However, Tsubasa appeared only once in the manga (and in just one other episode, plus a couple of cameos in the anime), Konatsu twice (never in the anime), and Taro was in just three stories.
• Reborn! (2004):
  • Kyoya Hibari has been voted numerous times as the number one popular character in the series. Not to mention being voted and ranked the third most popular anime character in '08 from Animedia. He's one of Tsuna's guardians that initially had a very small role, only appearing once in a blue moon. However, it appears the mangaka has decided to give him a larger role in recent chapters to please the fans.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe Rokudo Mukuro had become very popular and had been voted many times as the most popular villain (and in a rather recent poll, the third favorite character in the series). The author seemed pretty surprised how popular he had become, and it's very likely that due to this, she decided to give him more screentime by making him Tsuna's very unlikely guardian.
  • The only female Vongola boss Daniela is also insanely popular sixth in the latest polls and being the only female character in the top 10 ) considering that she's only been in ONE panel of the manga and LESS THAN FIVE SECONDS of the anime.
  • The Acrobaleno Fon's adult form which has only ever appeared on a poster in the manga and the FillerArc of the anime but still managed to rank in the top 20 in the latest poll. Looking identical to a fellow Ensemble Darkhorse probably helps.
  • Enma Kozato almost immediately had a huge fanbase after his first appearance, even though all he did was get bullied, called a loser and had his pants stolen. Despite this, everyone fell in love with him. He was even assigned the standard Reborn fandom number within just a couple of days.
  • Squalo ranked number 6 in the sixth popularity poll, rising above Xanxus, who had always overshadowed him in all the previous polls.
  • Hell, the entire Varia remained surprisingly popular after their stint as the bad guys in the Ring Battles Arc. So much that they were brought back in the TYL arc, with chapters completely dedicated to their battle against the Millefiore in Italy.
  • Fran has made it to this position, being ranked 4th most popular in the latest poll.
• Record of Ragnarok:
  • Among the gods not set to fight in Ragnarok, Hermes is the most popular, due to his cool design, providing knowledge of the fighters and their abilities, and the implication that he's stronger than he looks. Many fans are hoping to see him fight at some point despite him not being set to participate in the tournament.
  • Aphrodite's over-the-top design has resulted in her going memetic and gaining fans even outside of the series' core audience, resulting in her becoming extremely popular for a character who's an otherwise fairly minor spectator. It's likely for this reason that the series' anime adaptation beefs up her role a bit.
  • Eve is quite popular among fans despite being a fairly minor character who's only relevant for a single fight, due to her attractive design and her absolutely adorable relationship with fellow fan-favorite Adam.
  • While all of the Valkyries have some form of popularity, Hrist is by far the most popular, due to her entertaining Split Personality, attractive design, and the fact that her and Kojiro end up giving humanity its first victory in Ragnarok.
  • Anne, in spite of her brief role, is rather popular with fans, due to being the only person to treat Jack with kindness when he was a child, as well as being one of the few people to root for him during his battle against Heracles.
  • Jesus Christ makes a brief appearance cheering on Buddha during the sixth round. He instantly became popular among the fandom, due in part to having already been a character many have been wanting to see in the series, so much so that his appearance pretty much overshadowed anything else that happened in the chapter. To further this point, he ended up placing 14th in the series' first popularity poll, placing above actual main characters like Göll and Zeus.
  • Chun Yan is only relevant for a single round, but is still fairly popular among fans, due her attractive design, kind personality, her role in Qin's backstory, and for being an Action Girl in a series where the majority of fighters are men.
• Invoked in REDLINE. After two contestants for the title race drop out, for fear of being shot at, JP is immediately voted in. Firstly, because of his epic and Improbable Hairstyle. Secondly, as the only modifications he adds to his Cool Car are an escape pod (well, that only appears in the 2nd part of the movie) and a booster system that makes most speed powerups in video games look like baby aspirin, the odds of him just surviving in a race full of cars mounted with every weapon under several suns are 25000 to 1. A mafia type group exploits this little fact through race fixing by having him stay in last place until the final quarter of the race, then rocket up to pole (by which more people will bet on him) and then have him lose.
• Creepy Stalker Mizore Shirayuki is the overwhelming favorite for most Westerners in Rosario + Vampire.The anti-social yet earnest and sincere girl struck close to home for many of the more... socially awkward anime fans. The manga seems to be latching onto this, as an arc in the second season has focused on Mizore, giving her significant character development and a serious storyline.
  • The driver of the bus between the human world and yokai world has gained much popularity with fans even though he has only appeared a few times. Although he does have an important role, as revealed later in the manga.
  • Kokoa has also been quite well-received since her introduction, and there's a lot of fan art of her.
• One may not believe this, but The Rose of Versailles started as a biography of Marie-Antoinette with her as main character, but a certain Oscar François de Jarjayes outpaced her in popularity and stole the main status from her.
• One of the main reasons people know of Rozen Maiden is because of eccentric trickster Suiseiseki and her addition of the "desu" copula to everything she says.
• Sailor Moon:
  • Somehow or another, Hotaru is one of the most popular characters, getting good results even when being the non-villain sailor to get the least screen time. Could be due to tropes The Woobie, Moe (for which she is possibly the trope namer) or just being adorable.
  • Thetis, a Monster of the Week from the first anime's twelfth episode, proven to be rather surprisingly successful in the fanbase, mainly because she's actually attractive in both human and monster forms, and she has an implied relationship with Starter Villain Jadeite.
  • The Remules Pooko/Puko/Fuko the balloon woman from episode 132, mainly due to having more personality than other monsters of the week and was rather attractive when deflated.
  • Sailor Iron Mouse is one of the most popular Sailor Moon characters on Japanese fanart sites, despite being just another member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad from the final season.
• Token Mini-Moe Yuki from Saki managed to gather quite a fanbase, even though she acts primarily as a comic sidekick.
  • Momoko also has got her share of followers later in the series, perhaps due to her interaction with Yumi. Heck, she's popular enough to become the cover girl for Vol. 5, even though she only appears briefly there and has had very limited screentime beforehand. She only started appearing during the second half of the second to last match of the finals, 11111literally.
  • Hisa is also quite popular because of her competency and generally cool demeanor.
• Samurai Deeper Kyo brings us Hishigi, a gorgeous Anti-Villain, whose badass and Iron Woobie traits, along with a truly impressive level of Ho Yay with Fubuki, turned him from a fairly minor character into this.
• From Sarazanmai, Tooi's older brother Chikai Kuji is worth a mention. While he only appeared in four episodes and is also the only character to die permanently, his fraught relationship with Tooi was considered one of the heartbreaking highlights of the show. Once the series ended, his popularity was significant enough that he started being featured in an increasing amount of merchandise, and over a year later even got his own birthday event with exclusive goods.
• Joe Asakura in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman was initially not planned to be a major character, and instead would have taken a backseat to Ken, Jun, and Jinpei (who were to be the main characters). The original production art of him even shows that he was to be the third in rank, with Jun being second-in-command, but their numbers got switched last-minute in production. His popularity with fans caused Tatsunoko to make him more of a feature character as the show went on, and extended to the sequel series where the previously "dead" Joe returns with cybernetic enhancements and gets even more screentime. This popularity even got him into the American port (And Japanese Expansion) of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
• Servamp has Watanuki Sakuya, who unexpectedly bagged third place in the popularity poll. There's even a side part from the Manga with Tsubaki being extremely mad at losing to Sakuya, his own subclass.
• Faust VIII from Shaman King is well-liked by the fandom as one of the more popular members of Team Yoh alongside Ren and Horohoro despite having a more minor role compared to them both. What really sells it all for them is his Creepy Awesome tendencies, his unique fighting styles compared to other shamans, and his tragic backstory. And don't even get us started on the infamous battle scene where he tortures Manta in front of Yoh the first time they meet...
• Simoun's "ore-onna" Yun instantly became very popular with fans, much to the surprise of the producers, which may have taken a Red Shirt off of her. She later became very important, picking up a Story Arc meant for another character.
  • Yun's best buds Rodoreamon and Mamiina are also fan-favourites and their subplot had many fans even more invested in it than in the main plot.
• As soon as Kate appeared in Sketchbook ~full color'S, she immediately pushed the other characters off stage—including Sora, the original protagonist. In the manga her role soon got relegated to word jokes, but her introduction halfway through the anime made sure that she is likely the most-recognized character from that series.
• Slayers: Among the less-major characters, Sylphiel's replacement in the third season of the anime, Filia, has become extremely popular because of her status as an adorable, headstrong, and mighty Golden Dragon with a lovely human form. Her being paired with Xellos is more or less one of the most popular pairings of the franchise.
  • Xellos himself is also well-loved: an allmighty demon who loves to tease and is probably the biggest mastermind of any character, even moreso than some of the gods and demons that are stronger than he is. In the original light novels he only appeared in one arc, but he proved so popular with fans that he's appeared in every anime for the series after his first appearance.
• Anice Farm is this for Sonic Soldier Borgman, as evidenced by the fact that much of the show's promotional art features her and sometimes ONLY her, she still gets shitloads of fanart to this very day ^note the series first aired in 1988 and she's one of the first things you see when you Google search this show in ANY capacity.
• Excalibur in Soul Eater has become a meme on that imageboard. His legend began in the 12th century.
  • Stein is also very popular in fandom. The professor is a secondary character.
  • Soul's older brother, Wes, is fairly popular, particularly with fanfiction writers. This is surprising given that every scene he appears in is either a flashback, or an illusion, that Soul is having. He never makes a proper appearance in series, and so what little we know of him comes from Soul's, most likely, skewed perception. But even so, he is more than often used in several fanworks.
• Space Battleship Yamato:
  • Shiro Sanada (Sandor in Star Blazers) was unusually popular. Unusual because although he wasn't as old as Okita or Tokugawa, he was still considerably older than Kodai, Shima, Yuki, and the other young characters. This usually means that he would be in line to get killed off (along with the other older characters) so that the story can focus on the younger characters development. This did not happen and he went on to become, after Kodai, the most longeval character in the Yamato Saga. In the most recent installment, Space Battleship Yamato: Resurection, Sanada (now head of the EDF) now outranks his old captain, Kodai
  • Saburo Kato (Conroy in Star Blazers) was also unexpectedly popular that the producers regretted killing him off in the Yamato II series. They made up for it by introducing his younger brother Shiro Kato in the next installment. Star Blazers viewers won't notice the difference, however.
  • Desler/Desslok was an Ensemble Dark Horse because he was so good at being bad. And because he was quite a Woobie when his planet was destroyed by the Star Force.
• Space☆Dandy:
  • During the initial launch of the show, Almost all of the fanart found on Pixiv was of Meow exclusively. Even though other characters are getting their own pics, Meow still has the most in general.
  • Meow's family from Episode 10. Only his mother and father get more extensive speaking lines, while at least three of his siblings (two younger brothers and a teenage sister) get small lines, but all of them are quite well liked by fans thanks to their cute appearances (of note, his teenage sisters are wearing Sailor Fukus, and one of the non-speaking siblings looks like a total Bookworm) and general likability.
  • While Space Dandy has a lot of one-shot characters, Adelie, Prince, Pine-Pine, and Johnny stand out the most. A lot of fans really want to see them return in future episodes.
  • Many of the alternate cast members from Episode 1 of Season 2, especially Emo Dandy.
• In Spider Riders, Lumen's childhood friend Noia is very popular, especially with the Japanese fans. This is factoring in that the character only appeared for a brief scene. The character who seemed to be her was really just Beerain in disguise.
  • Also, Igneous' friend Grey/Slate, who is a cool character who can fight on even ground with a Spider Rider but is rather underused.
• The North Maiden from Star Driver became very popular with parts of the fandom, even though she only appeared for 8 episodes. So much that it surprised the creators.
• Chikaru from Strawberry Panic!, with her cosplay outfits, Quirky Miniboss Squad, and casual indifference to the girl-on-girl action taken to ridiculous extremes, Wangst, and overall insanity quickly won her a spot in the fans' hearts.
• Boof from Suzy's Zoo: Daisuki! Witzy seems to get more merchandise than the lead character of the show, Witzy, or any of the other characters for that matter.
• Why is the almighty Bruce Ironstaunch from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann so awesome? Because of his BICEP. POLISHING. GESTURE, that's why.
  • Also there's Beam Spam Mc Muppet, also occasionally known as Attenborough. He's mainly known for being the king of the Worf Barrage.
  • Of course, they both pale in comparison to Guame; The Dragon of the first half.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero:
  • Out of the other three Legendary Heroes, Ren Amaki is by far the one who is the most liked, having the most altruistic qualities of the three and being a Token Good Teammate of sorts. It also helps that he's been memetically compared to Kirito and even sharing the same voice actor.
  • For someone who was only in an extra chapter, Rino is very popular. The fact she is the one truly noble member of the Spear Heroes party and a very sympathetic person helps. Having her join Naofumi after being sold into slavery is a very popular plot in fanfic. The fact she later returns and kills Malty herself definitely helps her popularity.
• Keith Goodman a.k.a. Sky High from Tiger & Bunny. Biglobe ISP conducted a character popularity survey of most of the shows from the spring 2011 anime season. Behind the title duo (Kotetsu T. Kaburagi and Barnaby Brooks Jr.), Sky High was the most popular character in the series...And the entire season.
• To Love Ru: Yui is far and away the most popular girl in the cast. Momo also has a rather large fanbase in proportion to her screentime (which isn't that much), but nowhere near as much as Yui. Not surprising, since tsundere characters are usually always popular and Yui is pretty much a textbook example of a Type A tsundere.
  • Mikan also is very popular, especially outside Japan.
• Shun Kuroeda from Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidou Kyuukyuu Keisatsu. Although he doesn't show up until the 19th episode and only appears now and then, he is absolutely beloved by the fans, especially adult female fans. Likely because many find him attractive, he gets plenty of awesome moments, and he serves as a cool older brother figure to the main four drivers.
  • Saionji as well, again due to his large amount of fangirls. On Drive Head News Channel, the live action Q&A Variety show, they actually had to confirm that yes, he's still single.
  • Dr. Karigari, who shows up only occasionally like Kuroeda, but is adored by most fans, sometimes referred to as the show's "true main character". He has an Awesome Ego. Also probably helps that despite some of his earlier actions, he ends up doing some rather noble things and has endearing traits as well.
  • Many fans would be thrilled to see Sala Manda again, who was absent from both the web series and movie. Especially those who ship her with Jin.

Examples U to Z

• Arguably, Lum in Urusei Yatsura, to the point where Rumiko Takahashi was forced to retool the Official Couple from Ataru and Shinobu to Ataru and Lum. This is probably the reason for Takahashi's backlash against unintended fanon pairings in later series, as a safeguard against this kind of situation happening again.
• Askeladd of Vinland Saga is much more popular then the main character. Thorkell as well, though not to the same extent as Askeladd.
• Ask any The Vision of Escaflowne fan who their favorite character is, and chances are it'll be Dilandau, the white haired, red-eyed, squeaky voiced, absolutely Ax-Crazy Blood Knight Jerkass Psycho for Hire Pretty Boy who spends his days Bright-slapping his Dragonslayers, getting revenge on The Hero Van Fanel for scratching his face, disobeying his superiors, and setting things on fire For the Evulz. The fact that he has the wildest, craziest, and wackiest facial expressions in the series and that he's voiced by Minami Takayama in the Japanese version only cemented his popularity. Folken and Jajuka also get a lot of love too.
• In Whispered Words, Kiyori's dry humor garnered her a significant fanbase, which got propelled by the way she is presented in the anime. This is an impressive feat for a straight female character in a yuri series, although her cute, laconic laugh ("ha-ha-HAAA") may have a lot do do with this.
• Eri and Yakumo's love triangle with Harima have caused them to eclipse Tenma as School Rumble's most popular female characters.
• Witchblade: In a series full of scantily-clad women duking it out, it might surprise some that the fan favorite is typically Rihoko, the main character's adorable 6 year-old daughter.
• Danboard (Danbo) in Yotsuba&! is a mere cardboard robot suit and a one-shot character in Volume 5, however when it comes to merchandising, various Danboard action figures (primarily manufactured by Kaiyodo, Kotobukiya and Sen-Ti-Nel) are prominently used for photography, notably "365 Days of Danbo" by Arielle Nadel. Today, Danboard has spawned a huge variety of merchandises, from bags, USB hub to wireless LAN routers.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!
  • Thee character Tetsu Ushio, who before was known only as the first person to lose to Yami Yugi in a Dark Game, got a shot in the arm as a villain-ish character in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. To top that off, Ushio has now started running around with the main characters as part of the group.
  • Team Taiyou, both in and out-of-universe. Everybody roots for the underdog, but Taiyou pulled it off with such aplomb — a group of reasonably-skilled players from the countryside, named for the rising sun of hope, saddled with Decks full of Com Mons not worth their paper and the living embodiment of Awesome, but Impractical for an ace card, riding a D-Wheel held together with tape and force of will. Not only did they match the main characters at every turn through superior tactics and teamwork, but they did so using a Stall/Burn strategy, in a season where Attack! Attack! Attack! was the order of the day. Though the WRGP Arc is often regarded as a sufferer of Seasonal Rot, Taiyou's arc is basically the only thing everyone agreed to be fantastic, with the only common complaint being that they lose.
  • Carly Nagisa is well-loved by the fanbase for being a dorky Love Interest to Jack Atlas not only by fans who ship them but also a full-fledged female character who perform her role as a Dark Action Girl quite well ^note Considering the franchise reputation for their treatment of females, it says a lot. It got to the point that her drastically reduced screentime and role as just another fangirl widely reviled.
  • Of the four new students introduced in the third season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Jim "Crocodile" Cook is generally the most well-liked. This is partly due to the others having major Base-Breaking Character and Spotlight-Stealing Squad tendencies, and partly because... well, he was just a Nice Guy. It's pretty clear that nobody expected him to be a popular character: he dies first, only two of his cards were ever released in real life, and he vanishes altogether from the fourth season. To the fandom, though, he ended up being an incredibly likeable and slightly Crazy Is Cool character (he carries a crocodile on his back at all times).
  • Anna Kozuki is quite likely the most popular character from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL despite making a grand total of about four appearances in the entire series. It's partly due to her fiery personality making her stand out as a badass Action Girl, and partly for the Crazy Is Cool appeal of her deck, which focuses on churning out huge train monsters with even bigger drawbacks that somehow still manage to work, while also letting her easily put together massive Rank 10 monsters.
• Yuri!!! on Ice has several:
  • Mila Babicheva and Sara Crispino, the two female ice skaters of the show actually have quite the fanbase. They are beautiful, funny, intelligent and offscreen, quite the badasses, as they are ranked 3rd and 4th in the world. Not only that, but Sara/Mila is actually quite the popular ship.
  • Phichit, Yuri's best friend from Detroit, who is a dorky Nice Guy. His popularity was upped even more when he was confirmed as a Shipper on Deck for Yuri/Victor.
  • Leo de la Iglesia is popular with American fans for not being the typical blonde, blue-eyed and bombastic American commonly seen in anime, since he's Mexican-American and pretty down to earth.
  • Christophe was initially quite divisive, but episode 10 showing him as Victor's Only Friend and confidant, as well as another Shipper on Deck for Yuri/Victor upped his popularity. Before that, he already had his fair share of fans for his sex appeal, personality and hilarity.
  • Otabek's popularity skyrocketed, even though he was the last ice skater introduced. His sweet friendship with Yurio, as well as his cool guy looks and being The Comically Serious helped a lot to fall in the fans' good graces, who started to jumping ship from J.J./Yurio to Otabek/Yurio.
• The Legendary Tae Yamada from Zombie Land Saga. Her almost-instant memetic status, combined with her antics as a semi-feral Revenant Zombie and the hilarity of Kotono Mitsuishi (aka the VA for Sailor Moon) being hired to do twelve episodes of zombie noises, lead to her being one of the top two candidates for the show's best girl. (Ultimately losing to Lily Hoshikawa.) Interestingly, she's one of these In-Universe as well, where she is fondly regarded as Cucco-kun from the Drive-In Tori commercial.

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