A popular Asian character type, the bishōnen, or "beautiful boy", is a male character that possesses androgynous or "feminine" physical traits. He is usually tall, slender with almost no fat and little to no muscle, and no body or facial hair. Large, expressive eyes are almost a given, though Tsurime Eyes are also common in more serious examples. In anime, many bishōnen have female voice actors, although those that don't will instead get startlingly deep, sexy voices. It is not uncommon for those at the more feminine end to be mistaken for women by other characters, or for savvier examples of the type to take advantage of such an assumption.
Bishōnen can be found equally distributed between heroes and villains; bishōnen villains often develop devoted followings among fans. Bishōnen with white hair are almost always villains, no matter how they initially seem.
The broader equivalent to this trope would be the Pretty Boy, which covers similar territory in terms of raw attractiveness but can be older and doesn't necessarily cross any androgynous line. Indeed, the Pretty Boy is often an accusation of being too attentive to their own appearance, whereas the Bishonen just rolls out of bed looking like they do.
In the English fandom, the term bishōnen simply connotes "a really, really attractive male", but in its original usage, it refers to a specific type of attractiveness that is found in adolescents. The cutoff for bishōnen in the strict sense is around 20 years old. Beyond this age, the Japanese describe male attractiveness through terms like biseinen or bidanshi ("beautiful man") or ikemen (roughly "good-looking guy"). The affectionate English fandom shorthand "bishie" bypasses the lexical issues somewhat. Examples of both bishōnen and biseinen should be placed on this page. Likely to have drawn on a moe aesthetic when they were younger.
The comparable Korean concept is kkot-minam ("flower pretty boy").
The appearance and behavior of the archetypal bishōnen is often used to explore sexuality and gender norms. Thus, Yaoi Guys have a tendency to be this.
Originally, bishōnen characters were the province of Shoujo and Boys Love Genres, but since the mid-90s, it has become the default style for teenage boys in pretty much any work looking for a cross-demographic audience. Since more modern anime and manga are overwhelming geared towards appealing to both men and women in this respect, a large majority of virtually all mainstream works will feature at least one bishōnen character, if not more. Also, the farther bishōnen characters disseminate from their source genres, the less likely it becomes that there will be in-universe mention of their androgynous looks/attractiveness.
Older Than Print, since The Tale of Genji frequently describes Genji himself as one. Often comes with the Bishie Sparkle. If all the guys are bishōnen without many women to balance them out, you've got yourself a Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
Do not confuse with Dude Looks Like a Lady; while some Bishōnen may be androgynous enough to look like ladies, not all Dude Looks Like a Lady count as Bishōnen. If the boy, in particular, is more girly cute than androgynously handsome, they probably don't count as Bishōnen.
Related to Rule of Glamorous. The Long-Haired Pretty Boy is a standard bishōnen design.
Contrast Gonk, The Grotesque, and Puni Plush. Also, contrast Hunk which can nonetheless cross over with this trope, such as for Vega from Street Fighter. Pretty girls are known as Bishoujo ("beautiful girl"), but the aesthetics of bishoujo are different, typically emphasizing cute, petite femininity rather than sleek androgyny. See Bifauxnen for ladies who conform a bit more closely to the bishōnen aesthetic. Not to be confused with the Bishōnen Line.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
There are so many examples in anime and manga that they're being put in their own section.- +Anima: Husky. He's repeatedly mistaken for a girl.
- Akira from Ai Ore! Love Me! is so bishōnen he can pass as a girl, and Even the Guys Want Him. A majority of the men in the series are bishōnen.
- AKIRA: Kai is short, slim, well-dressed, girlishly faced, and can knock a guy through a window. Being relatively sensitive and apparently crushing on Kaneda in the manga and Yamagata in the anime, he's often perceived as a young homosexual.
- Even if Arata: The Legend is aimed at boys, it wouldn't be a Watase manga without a few of these. In particular, Yorunami's bishieness gets lampshaded by Hinohara.
- Attack on Titan: Eren was always a bishie, which is played up in certain scenes more than others with how he is depicted, with his big green eyes and when he gets older he is even more of an example, becoming a Long-Haired Pretty Boy, and looking almost similar to certain female characters with long hair. Armin also counts, and his pretty looks are enough to turn on a Dirty Old Man when he was disguised as a girl, and he completely mistook him for a girl. Levi also counts in the anime especially.
- Baccano!:
- Huey Laforet takes this to the point of confusing people in-universe (you know you look girly when one of the prettiest women in the series is your nigh-identical adult daughter, and you know you look really girly when you are not mistaken for beautiful women, but beautiful women are mistaken for you). Firo, while never being mistaken for a woman like Huey has, has been mocked by a detective in the Light Novels for skewing quite close to the Uke aesthetic. Claire Stanfield, aka. Rail Tracer, also fits. Jacuzzi also fits, although he has that giant tattoo on his face.
- Graham Specter also definitely qualifies, even if he is a total psychopath.
- Christopher Shouldered is noted in the books to be quite pretty — if you can get past the utterly terrifying eyes and teeth.
- Berserk:
- Griffith is explicitly labeled as "too beautiful to be a man" in about a dozen separate chapters by different characters! His Godhand transformation, Femto, even has purple-shaded lips, making him seem as if he's wearing lipstick.
- Judeau is so pretty, some fans mistook him for a girl.
- Rickert is very much one and just gets more androgynous as he gets older, especially compared to the more boyish Isidro.
- Serpico is as pretty as his own half-sister, Farnese.
- Adonis, the son of Count Julius, is very much so. He would've been a great candidate for one as an adult, but sadly he was offed before he could ever grow up.
- Every male character in Black Bird, but especially Kyo, whom Misao mistakes for a pretty girl upon seeing him as an adult.
- A good amount of the male characters from Black Butler. Except for Baron Kelvin, who realizes this and is obsessed with "becoming beautiful", Georg von Siemens, Jumbo, Lord Arthur Randall, Azzurro Vanel, Fred Aberline, Damian, and Doctor.
- Yuno from Black Clover is a handsome young man, with many noting his good looks. Charmy even calls him her "Meal Saving Prince" after he saves her meal from falling.
- Black Lagoon:
- Rotton the Wizard, to an extent. He basically exists just to look cool and talk fancy. Revy even asks him if he's a man whore.
- Though still a kid, Garcia's beginning to grow into a handsome young man.
- Hansel also shows signs of this. Unfortunately, he didn't live long enough to grow into an adult.
- In an Omake, it turns out that Sgt. Boris used to look like this; he joined the Army to toughen up. All the "de-aged" girl characters wail that he should stay this way.
- Zen from Blank Slate is so bishōnen, even his blind love interest can tell he's handsome just from touching his face.
- Bleach:
- Ayasegawa Yumichika is defined by his connection with beauty, not only in looks but also in lifestyle. He even accepted a lower rank in his squad than he had to because he thought that, in kanji, the number 5 was more "beautiful" than 4.
- Byakuya Kuchiki is very bishōnen and is often voted "Seireitei's Sexiest Male Shinigami" by the Shinigami Women's Institute.
- Ukitake is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy.
- Ishida Uryuu has a very slender, delicate build and an exceptionally fair complexion for a male character. He takes after his father Ryuuken, who is a Silver Fox was his school's heartthrob when he was Uryuu's age.
- Ichigo is also a bishōnen, especially when his hair starts growing.
- In chapter 409, Tensa Zangetsu reveals himself for the first time and he's as bishōnen as it gets. Yes, even Zangetsu didn't escape.
- The end of chapter 670 gives us our young Toshiro Hitsugaya all grown up so he can use the full potential of his Bankai.
- Jugram Haschwalth of Vandenreich is a blonde Long-Haired Pretty Boy with pale skin, narrow green eyes, and a tall, slim build. He looks delicate but he could stand within close proximity of Yamamoto's bankai without flinching.
- Bokura no Hentai:
- Ryousuke is so pretty that he could pass for a girl in elementary.
- Satoshi was originally a Wholesome Crossdresser but hit a growth spurt, started dressing masculinely, and became the biggest bishie in the series. He even has Bishie Sparkles.
- Brave10: Rokuro is so good-looking he gets called things like "the handsome page" "the beautiful lad" and just plain "bishōnen" instead of his name at various points. Rokuro, of course, thinks his features are very manly.
- Chrono Crusade:
- Joshua Christopher is quite thin, even implied to look underweight at one point, has pale blond hair and blue eyes, and looks quite a bit like his sister.
- Aion is actually quite muscular when he takes off his Badass Long Coat, but his long, white hair does a lot to give him an edge of androgynous beauty.
- In Chrono's true form, he's a bit rough around the edges and his outfit goes out of the way to highlight his muscular chest, but in his Sleep-Mode Size, he's got longer hair and looks much younger and thus cuter. However, he still has moments of looking quite pretty in his true form, and a flashback in the manga shows him with long hair.
- Code Geass has character design by CLAMP so it's not too surprising the whole show is full of them with very few more average or even ugly guys (and most of the ugly ones are also unpleasant people). Some stand out examples are Lelouch, Suzaku, Xingke, and Gino.
- Corsair: All the men are very pretty, except Barbossa.
- Cute Devil:
- Akiyoshi is often told that he is "cute" or "pretty", and this caused him to develop an inferiority complex.
- Naruse is also incredibly {{bishōnen}}, to the point of being a Dude Looks Like a Lady.
- Every character who isn't a Mentor Mascot in Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!. Goura, brother to The Hero, is an inversion. There's also a bishōnen monster but this is a zigzag because his original form looks like Takeo and his monster form looks like a 60s version of a bishōnen.
- Benten from Cyber City Oedo 808. Yes, he does wear lipstick and paint his nails. No, he isn't a Crossdresser.
- Death Note:
- Light Yagami. The contrast between him and L are lampshaded a bit in Episode 9, when theyre giving a university entrance speech together:
Girl 1: I sure like the guy on the right [L].
Girl 2: What?! Youre weird. Most people would choose the one on the left [Light].
- Light Yagami. The contrast between him and L are lampshaded a bit in Episode 9, when theyre giving a university entrance speech together:
- Ryuk had delicate features in his original design before the creators decided that his looking more interesting than Light could cause fans to ignore Light's character.
- In Detective Conan, Eisuke Hondou gets an "You would have been a cute girl in a manga" from Sonoko, even if that might be mostly because of his behavior rather than his very feminine appearance.
- D.Gray-Man: Allen is prettier than a lot of the girls in the series.
- Digimon:
- Both Ishida Yamato and Ichijouji Ken of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 fall into this category. Their actual looks are never commented upon, but one figures that this is at least partially why they are fangirl bait, both in and out of the show. Also lampshaded in an Audio Drama. In the series themselves Yamato, notably, had a... considerably older woman try to pick him up when he was eleven, while in one episode of zero two, Gabumon lampshades this by saying "Yamato isn't the only heartthrob here" when Ken was hit on by a very young girl.
- To a lesser extent, Takeru, Yamato's little brother, seems to gain some level of bishōnen in him when he turned eleven himself. An episode of Digimon Adventure 02 showed a fair number of girls—Hikari among them—practically swooning over him when he was showing off his basketball skills.
- In Digimon Adventure tri., pretty much all of the boys have this aesthetic to them. Yamato/Matt and Takeru/TK (the latter is even shown to have invited a couple of female admirers to the former's concert) seem to be the ones who were drawn this way on purpose, but Taichi/Tai, Koushiro/Izzy and even Joe have also gotten quite pretty as well. Mimi lampshades this in regards to Tai and Matt, mentioning that they've grown to be quite attractive (with Sora blushing in response). Heck, even Tai's teacher is pretty!
- Thoma H. Norstein, from Digimon Data Squad has this kind of look to him.
- Several humanoid Digimon themselves have this as an aesthetic, appearing as young attractive human males. Examples are Angemon, his evolution HolyAngemon and Vamdemon from Digimon Adventure and Lucemon Falldown Mode from Digimon Frontier.
- Mainly the main human characters from Digimon Universe: Applimonsters have this trope.
- Dororo (2019): Hyakkimaru is basically a living Asian ball-jointed doll, with glossy long black hair, pale skin, fine features and a slender build.
- Dragon Ball:
- General Blue from original Dragon Ball is similar to Zarbon but takes a step further being an outright homosexual.
- Future Trunks, Zarbon, Android 17, and Jeice of Dragon Ball Z.
- Zarbon, in particular, is The Fighting Narcissist; his true form is not pretty at all, to the extent he dislikes to transform into it, handicapping himself in battle.
- Non-canon Saucer from Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge actually had a rivalry with Jeice over whose stronger and prettier.
- Angela from Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug is a pastiche of Zarbon, in the Team Four Star parody he names himself the "pretty one" of the Quirky Mini Boss Squad.
Piccolo: Ha, six out of ten.
Angela: (in a effeminate voice) You sassy bitch. - Caroni, one of Mr. Satan's two disciples during the Cell Fight, is a drop gorgeous man with long blonde hair. Heck, he even carries roses!
- Jewel from the Buu saga is a classic Long-Haired Pretty Boy and narcissistic ladies man, who is effortlessly defeated by Android 18 after she rejects his advances.
- In the Ocean dub, Burter describes Goku to Jeice this way. "If it weren't for you being short and orange, I'd say he was the better-looking guy."
- Played straight in Dragon Ball Super with a lot of Core People aka Supreme Kais e.g Shin, Anat, Kuru, Elder Kai (before he fused with a witch), Cae and especially Zamasu who's an omnicidal narcissist.
- Some of the male Angels Attendants such as Sour, Korn, Whis and Grand Minister also play this straight being very androgynous. Even the other less effeminate Attendants have the same long eyelashes typically seen on female characters. Whis in particular takes this a step further being Ambiguously Gay.
- Hakuoh of Duel Masters has to be one of the bishiest, with his slender build and long, flowing, silvery-blue hair.
- Durarara!!: Kasuka, Izaya (unfortunately), and Shinra. And then there's Mikado, Kida, Aoba, Seiji, Tanaka Tom, Walker, Shijima, Chikage and...Nasujima-sensei. Also Unfortunately.
- Akira Takizawa from Eden of the East is a prime example of this trope, yet much more realistic than some others.
- Elfen Lied: Nousou. Kurama is a borderline example, but is an older man and later grows a Beard of Sorrow.
- Baskerville and Alternate in Et Cetera are quite pretty, helped by Baskerville's long blond hair and Alternate's slim figure and monocle.
- Il Palazzo of Excel Saga is very pretty and has long, silver hair.
- Although Eyeshield 21 has a good amount of beefcakes, there's also Kisaragi, Kakei, Mizumachi, Akaba, Sakuraba, Harao, and maybe even Taka.
- Fairy Tail:
- Zeref is revealed to be this after they spend 200 chapters building him up as some great ancient evil. Expecting Someone Taller, or at least older looking, is in full swing here.
- We also have Freed of the Raijinshuu, Laxus' second-in-command.
- Bedivere from Fate/stay night looks and sounds so much like a woman in fact that in a series where King Arthur was revealed to actually be a woman in disguise, many fans at first believed him to simply have undergone the same fate. But, no. He's just pretty.
- Lancer of Fate/Zero (aka Diarmuid Ua Duibhne) takes prettiness up to the realm of being a superpower - literally. Unfortunately, supernatural levels of beauty does not mix well with jealous lords and their smitten fiances.
- Mikagami Tokiya from Flame of Recca. He doesn't like being mistaken for a girl, though.
- All the male characters introduced so far in Kyoto Animation's anime Free!. They are more muscular (which is due to their athletic activities) than the standard.
- Fruits Basket:
- Yuki Sohma is the most prominent example, being very popular at school for his good looks. This also applies to all of the male Sohmas, particularly Momiji, Ritsu, and Ayame. Momiji even wears the girls' school uniform with shorts because "it looks cuter on him", while Ritsu wears female clothing because of an inferiority complex the size of Antarctica. Ayame, on the other hand, is...just special. Akito also qualifies in the 2001 anime, although in the manga and 2019 anime Akito is a different story altogether.
- The main character, Tohru Honda, remarks that the Sohmas are a family of "princes". And towards the end of the manga's run, even Momiji graduates to pure bishōnen status with a growth spurt and switch to the boy's uniform.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- May Chang's fantasies about Edward Elric depict him as a dashing, slender Prince Charming. While Ed isn't bad-looking by any means, he's drawn to be more handsome than pretty, having a muscular body and fairly masculine-looking face despite his short height. In the 2003 anime, his design leans closer towards being a bishōnen as he lacks his manga counterpart's more pronounced jawline and has a slightly more slender build.
- Parodied with Major Alex Armstrong. He has Bishie Sparkles, hairlessness, beauty, deep voice, and vanity, but he's also a muscular, oversized bodybuilder, who constantly flexes and lacks an indoor voice.
- Father's final form after absorbing Truth is a slender adolescent Hohenheim with waist-length blond hair and delicate features.
- In the first anime, Roy actually sparkles during his "Flame vs. Fullmetal" duel with Ed - a trait usually reserved for Armstrong.
- Scar in the 2003 anime is younger and more handsome than in the manga.
- Full Metal Panic! brings us Kurz, who was even a former model. Then, we've got Leonardo. And, of course, Sousuke, in an Unkempt Beauty sort of way.
- Just about every male character from Fushigi Yuugi. Most of their brothers from other Yuu Watase manga are bishies as well. It's Yuu Watase, what do you expect?
- GaoGaiGar: The paragon of Hot-Blooded manliness he may be, Gai Shishio is still too pretty to be male.
- Kousaka from Genshiken. The most feminine-looking male club member, he is the only one with a girlfriend in the beginning, let alone a sex life.
- Most of the male characters in Get Backers, but Kazuki takes it to almost painful levels.
- Ghost Hound: the entire male cast for the most part, especially Tarou, who is downright Moe.
- Ghost Hunt: almost all of the male characters. Lin, Naru, Bou-san, even John are bishōnens, pretty boys, handsome, etc, etc...you watch a video of Ghost Hunt on YouTube, scroll through the comments, and you will find a lot of fangirling female users.
- Gundam:
- Even in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Char stands out as a pretty boy, notable because the art style of the time rendered almost every other character Gonk. The only character to rival his bishōnen-ness is Garma.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, in particular, was full of them. And among the Gundam Wing bishie brigade, Quatre Winner deserves special mention. A slim, platinum-blond Berber. Needless to say, you can find a fairly large amount of fanart of him.
- Protagonist Heero Yuy also deserves a mention, since Word of God admitted that his appearance was inspired by a Japanese actress, Yuki Uchida.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam has George DeSand from Neo France, operator of Gundam Rose.
- Kamille Bidan, the main protagonist of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
- Almost all of the male cast in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00, oh ho ho. Apparently, every male under the age of 35 will be absolutely gorgeous in the 24th century, in addition to shrinking their shirts in the dryer to show off their buff figures. Then again, this was pretty well predicted the second they announced that Yun Koga would be designing 00's cast.
- We also need to mention ∀ Gundam's Loran, who was quite possibly one editorial mandate away from being a full-blown woman.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. While he's too old to count as a bishōnen, Char Aznable looks far more like a pretty boy than he did in earlier series, this makes him Biseinen.
- Hakuouki is full of effeminate pretty-boys. The entire series is basically a reverse harem.
- A rare non-human and animal example would be the adult rabbits Rambler and Luna from the Happy Happy Clover manga series. Helps that Rambler is voiced by Takehito Koyasu in the 2007 anime. There is was one attractive looking teenager boy seen twice in the manga, which is the first human Clover encounters and befriends. However, she keeps this a secret to the other citizens of Crescent Forest.
- Itsuki Koizumi in Haruhi Suzumiya. That is, in a Brigade of crazy people, with a cynical Deadpan Snarker who constantly tells him that no one cares about him. He probably just appears to be one, but he sure seems to make most women blush. As Kyon puts it, 'A face I wouldn't introduce to my girlfriend'.
- Hellsing:
- Appearance-wise, Luke is a sophisticated pretty boy.
- Schrodinger appears to be this being an effeminate cat-eared German boy.
- Its shown in flashbacks that Walter was this when he was young. When Walter has a HeelFace Turn to Millennium he artificially regains his pretty looks, Alucard however spites him and this trope saying Walter was trillions times more beautiful as an old man.
- Alucard himself can able to swap gender at will. He is interesting example as he can go from pretty to monstrous in seconds.
- Tamamo from Hell Teacher Nube gets away with lots of things that Nube is beaten up for just because he is a bishōnen.
- Joey from Heroman... well, let's just say that just about everyone mistook him for a girl at first. Psy, too.
- Many characters in Hetalia: Axis Powers are actually mislabeled as this (and the fanart doesn't help); the art style is very Puni Plush, thus the majority of the male designs are simply moe. The ones that aren't moe usually fall more into the hunk category (and even then, there's overlap) and there are even a few bara-type characters, such as Turkey. The purest bishōnen in the series would be Austria.
- Katori, Dom, and the nameless terrorist from the second episode (who is mentioned because his prettiness is a plot point) from Irresponsible Captain Tylor.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Character designs for most men were a bit different at the start, but with Art Evolution this slowly became the standard, with Josuke Higashikata notably beginning as the former and ending his part as the latter.
- Stardust Crusaders:
- Noriaki Kakyoin is only this compared to the rest of the Crusaders due to being the shortest and the least buff. That said, he's just as youthful, slender, and delicate-looking in Araki's new artstyle
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- Similarly, Jotaro Kujo's appearance in Araki's new artstyle is startlingly effeminate; he even sports painted nails and lipstick
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- Rubber Soul, whose good looks are a major factor into his narcissism.
- Steely Dan, which is fitting, considering his Stand is The Lovers.
- Noriaki Kakyoin is only this compared to the rest of the Crusaders due to being the shortest and the least buff. That said, he's just as youthful, slender, and delicate-looking in Araki's new artstyle
- Mikitaka Hazekura from Diamond is Unbreakable is this, especially after Art Evolution kicks in.
- Thanks to Art Evolution, just about everyone in Golden Wind is this, most notably Narancia, whose appearance makes it easy to mistake him for a girl.
- Steel Ball Run:
- Johnny Joestar is probably the most androgynous looking of the JoJos.
- Diego Brando, who's just as good looking as his Original Universe counterpart, but much slimmer.
- Dr. Ferdinand, who's so effeminate in appearance that one could easily mistake him for a woman upon first glance.
- Stardust Crusaders:
- There is a lot of focus on people's looks in Jyu-Oh-Sei, despite the action being set mostly on a jungle planet with vicious plants and a murderous climate that's used as a prison for criminals.
- Kamisama Dolls has Aki Kuga, who also has a tendency to get kidnapped by crazy girls.
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
- Christopher Eclair, a French assassin.
- It's also revealed that Kensei Ma used to be one.
- Kill la Kill:
- Compared to his two male companions, Inumuta has a lighter build and far less muscle, but still possesses a handsome face.
- Aikuro Mikisugi can transform into one at will. Taken to ridiculous extremes as it's always accompanied by stripping and sparkles.
- Shiro Iori is short, slender, and has long, wavy blonde hair.
- Kimi ni Todoke: Kazehaya, and the female side of the school is very aware of this. Ryu and Kento also count.
- Reiji from Kodomo no Jikan, especially in the anime. Of course, he's a seriously fucked-up bishōnen.
- K-On!: There are actually some fairly good-looking male background characters]], considering the cute art style.
- Kyo Kara Maoh!:
- Wolfram is very pretty (he looks almost exactly like his mother), a definite bishōnen. In fact, Yuuri's immediate reaction upon seeing him for the first time is simply to stare in awe and call him exactly that.
- The Legend of Koizumi:
- Pietro, the white knight serving under the pope. He comes complete with accompanying Bishie Sparkles when he first appears.
- Adolf Hitler is such a bishōnen that his Bishie Sparkles have the ability to hypnotize people into worshipping him
◊ He can also (in a pinch) go Super Aryan
◊
- A good amount of the male characters in Loveless. Ritsuka is even stated to be very pretty, like a girl.
- Otani, Kohori, Suzuki, Haruka, and, without a doubt, Maitake and Seiko from Lovely Complex.
- This is a defining characteristic of the darkly influential villain of the short horror manga Lovesick Dead, with his beauty being turned into part of his title.
- Lychee Light Club has a Cast Full of Pretty Boys - with a strong lack of fanservice.
- Macross:
- Maximilian Jenius in both Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross 7 (despite being old enough to have grown children in the latter).
- Lynn Kaifun and Conda Bromco, also from SDF Macross.
- Justified and repeatedly lampshaded in Macross Frontier with Alto Saotome, who is frequently remarked on for his resemblance to a woman (much to his annoyance). He and his father were Kabuki actors who specialized in female performances. A particularly obvious lampshade is his nickname of 'Hime' or 'princess' cause he is just so darn pretty.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha may be directed toward a Seinen demographic, with an Improbably Female Cast, but even it has its share of bishies, such as Yuuno Scrya and Verossa Acous. Yuuno, in particular, was mistaken for a girl by many viewers when he first appeared.
- In Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force, we can add former Cheerful Child Erio to that list. Seriously.
- Aburatsubo from Magic User's Club is tall, has long red hair, and is gorgeous...with the requisite legion of fan-girls expected for any bishōnen. The only problem for the fangirls is that he's gay and in love with the main character, Takeo.
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: Titus Alexius. Lampshaded, when Aladdin ignores his outstretched hand and instead starts to fondle his chest. He then calmly explains that, between his soft voice and butt, he assumed that Titus had to actually be a girl. Unfortunately, it turns out that Titus' feminine appearance is actually his Berserk Button, likely because it reminds him that's he's an Opposite-Sex Clone of Scheherazade.
- Maid-Sama!:
- Usui, when he makes the effort, and his half brother, Gerard Walker, who looks like an older and more polished version of him. One could also make a case for Tora Igarashi and Kuuga.
- Soichiro Kanou, too, if he had any confidence in himself, could likely pull this off. Also: a number of fangirls consider The Idiot Trio to be this, on the rare occasions when they're drawn normally.
- Mamotte Shugogetten: Izumo and Tasuke. Arguably Takashi as well.
- Many characters of MÄR, on both sides of the good/evil divide. Alvis and Nanashi are this, combined with the headband of eye-covering. Every once-in-a-while, they even comment on it in-universe.
- Kei, Michael (anime-only characters), Yuu, Satoshi, and arguably Ginta in Marmalade Boy.
- Adolf Hitler is drawn this way in the manga version of Mein Kampf. It's hard to tell which is the most absurd; Hitler being portrayed as a Bishōnen, or that there exists a Mein Kampf manga.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch provides plenty of bishōnen fanservice. The fact that practically every day is a Beach Episode helps.
- Metal Fight Beyblade: Being tanned doesn't stop Tsubasa Otori from being a bishōnen.
- Takaya Ohgi and Nobutsuna Naoe in Mirage of Blaze.
- Most of the guys from Monochrome Factor, especially Shirogane, Akira, and Kou.
- Kusuriuri/the Medicine Seller from Mononoke. Even his manner of dress combines gender conventions, and characters in the series make note of how attractive he is.
- Johan from Monster is even explicitly stated to be beautiful by a few people. Even Tenma comments on how he has beautiful eyes. It's even more noticeable when Johan dresses up as his sister and nobody can tell the difference, to the extent of making a male, heterosexual policeman infatuated with him.
- Nearly every male character in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun to date, aside from Ken and Nozaki himself. Nozaki is a bit overly muscled by normal standards, to his despair (he can't use himself to model for his manga because he's not the right body type). For Ken, he's fat only when Maeno is in his life; at times he's away from Maeno he can fall into this trope as he becomes a lot skinnier. As to Nozaki's Cliché Storm Shōjo manga Let's Fall in Love, the male protagonist Saburo Suzuki is also a classic pretty boy. In this case, this trope is invoked since it's the norm for the genre.
- Kouichi Hayama, from Moonlight Lady, falls into this description perfectly. Lampshaded with Io Azuma, his wife-to-be's cousin; Suzuna was hoping that Io would grow to be this (partially because of an Arranged Marriage to him). Ultimately averted, as Io grew to be a limp-wristed, wide-eyed, Ambiguously Gay "pretty boy".
- Lint, Ricalna and even Zelik when he was younger from Mother Keeper all fit this.
- Michio in MW.
- My Hero Academia:
- Shoto Todoroki's facial features are a bit more slender than most of the boys. Mina even refers to him as "The Preeminent Pretty Boy of the Class" at one point.
- Parodied with Yuga Aoyama. He has glossy blonde hair, thin eyebrows, glinting eyes, prominent eyelashes, and a slender build. His design is purposefully unusual as it makes him much more disturbing when he's not in his over the top persona, best demonstrated by his blank stare as he watches Midoriya sleep through his dorm room window at night.
- Downplayed with Kai Chisaki/Overhaul. He is tall and an androgynous face, with thin eyebrows, narrow eyes, prominent eyelashes, a short, narrow nose, and a pointed chin. His build, however, is actually large and muscular as seen in his Shirtless Scene, though not to the extent of All Might or Endeavor.
- Chronostasis has softer features and longer hair than those of Chisaki under his mask, making Chisaki look masculine in comparison.
- Nabari no Ou: most of the guys under 30.
- Naruto: Notable examples include Haku (to Dude Looks Like a Lady levels), Benten (Filler Villain to Dude Looks Like a Lady levels), Yashamaru (Gaara's Viewer Gender Confusion uncle), Sasuke (Kushina mistakes him for a girl as baby), Itachi, Kakashi (with his mask off), Deidara, Sasori, Neji, Suigetsu, Kimimaro, Orochimaru (when he is not doing something gross), Kabuto, Sai, Gaara, Shikamaru, Kiba, Utakata, and the titular character himself. Naruto definitely counts, considering that he has his mom's AND his dad's looks, though this trope is mostly appropriate only after the Time Skip. Also, the Fourth Hokage, aka Naruto's dad. Naruto and his peers' kids are quite good looking too.
- Sakura especially finds bishōnen attractive, nose bleeding like crazy when she sees Sasuke and Sai making out.
- Natsume, Tanuma, Natori, Nishimura - in fact, most of the male cast of Natsume's Book of Friends qualify as bishōnen.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
- It gives Negi some magic age-up pills, turning him into one of these. He's also a dead ringer for his father, who was also a bishōnen. Albireo Imma probably counts too. Teenage Kotaro definitely counts as well.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- The character designer wrote that he designed Shinji to be a delicate/vulnerable-looking bishōnen
.
- Kaworu is a bishōnen of legendary proportions.
- The character designer wrote that he designed Shinji to be a delicate/vulnerable-looking bishōnen
- Nezumi and Shion from No6, especially Nezumi, who even dresses up as a girl in episode 5 and is rather convincing, too.
- General Rivan of Nora, and probably Kazuma to certain readers.
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan has lots of bishōnen. Night Rikuo, Young Nurarihyon, Rihan, Kurotabou, Kuromaru, Tosakamaru, Keikain Mamiru, Shoukera, Yanagida, Kubinashi, and revived Seimei.
- Nozomu and Dewey from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS both count. Nozomu is taller and more attractive than the boyish, "normal" looking Seiya and Dewey has long hair and soft features. Nozomu's bishōnen looks get lampshaded when a jealous Seiya calls him "slightly effeminate".
- One Piece:
- Sanji recently has been beating people pretty. His first victim, a hideous Wanze, was rapidly kicked across the face until he became (to his horror) this trope. Later, when fighting his bounty poster look-alike Duval, Sanji does this again much to his foe's joy.
- Played for Laughs in regards to Boa Hancock's massive crush on Luffy. While not usually drawn as such, Hancock's romantic fantasies have him as a tan young boy with a full Bishie Sparkle and brown glinting eyes, as well as speaking with a more mature voice than he actually speaks with.
- Cavendish has a tall, slender yet muscular build, fair skin, armpit length blonde hair in Regal Ringlets, the Bishie Sparkle, and glinting eyes, the last of which is a trait commonly used only for female characters.
- In-Universe, Carrot's drawings have males such as Luffy, Sanji, Pedro and even Brook with delicate features.
- Otomen: the main male characters, especially Asuka, Juta, and Tonomine, whose looks are often commented on. Even Kurokawa can count, if his eyes showed up a lot more.
- Basically, all male characters from Ouran High School Host Club, and one of the females. Tamaki (see picture) slightly subverts the usual cool-headed bishie stereotype by being a blithering (but lovable) idiot, and manages to be both the male lead and comic relief.
- Harry from Outlaw Star even ties his hair with a big, pretty bow. Fred Luo, too.
- PandoraHearts:
- A notable example is Liam; the fact that no male or female pronouns were ever used to refer to him for some time didn't help. They fixed this in the anime, however, giving him less feminine features and a decidedly male voice.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Brief is one of these, once his bangs are slicked back.
- Penguindrum: Most of the guys. Main character Shouma is even one of these despite being teased by others that he's plain looking.
- Jeeves and Bertie Wooster get this treatment in Please, Jeeves; Bertie becomes a Princely Young Man with golden hair while Jeeves is Tall, Dark, and Handsome.
- Pokémon:
- Cilan, who was being subject to Ouran comparisons before Hilarious in Hindsight kicked in.
- Cilan and Chili, Cilan's brothers, as well as Cheren also appear, though their roles are much more minor.
- Like in the games, N also fits on this trope.
- James from Team Rocket seems to be a comedic parody of bishōnen as well.
- The four older knights in Prétear are examples of this trope, particularly Kei. Goh is borderline, but he makes up for it by baring his midriff in his knight outfit.
- A majority of the male cast of The Prince of Tennis, but especially Seiichi Yukimura, Rikkaidai's Knight Templar Magnificent Bastard once ill captain.
- All of the main characters in Princess Princess. Yuujirou, Mikoto, and Tooru being bishies is basically the whole point of the anime. They're princesses because they're bishies.
- Princess Tutu:
- Mytho is slender, has large eyes, eyelashes thicker than Duck's, and thin lips.
- The titular Yakumo from Psychic Detective Yakumo fits this trope to a T. Haruka even thinks he's a "beautiful person" when she first meets him. Also, a good amount of male college students who pop up.
- Psyren: Oboro, Haruhiko, Junas, Miroku, Shiner, Kabuto, and Shao as an adult.
- RahXephon:
- Ayato Kamina from is pretty enough that he'd probably not look out of place in a dress.
- There's also Dr. Itsuki (who bears a suspicious resemblance to the above-mentioned Rossiu) and Souichi Yagumo (who bears a suspicious resemblance to his own girlfriend, Kim).
- Parodied in Ranma ½, Mousse is a strikingly handsome androgynous male, until he puts on his Opaque Nerd Glasses, it's probably the reason he doesn't like to wear them. His personality is that of a clumsy dork either way.
- An anime-only episode featured Sotatsu Kikei'ien, a martial artist calligrapher, who entire crowds of people started admiring due to how bishounen he was. Whenever he laughed, though, his good looks completely vanished, eventually causing all his fans to turn on him.
- Every single male main character in post-Art Evolution Reborn! (2004), plus 99% of the villains and side cast. This is the most common trope on the character page.
- Red River (1995): there are about four male characters in the entire series that don't fit this trope. The artwork is Viewer Gender Confusion incarnate.
- Henry is very much this in Requiem of the Rose King as well several other male characters.
- Miki Kaoru from Revolutionary Girl Utena is mentioned to be one by Utena in the preview of the episode of his first appearance. Also, practically every guy in the cast.
- Rosario + Vampire has Ginei, Hokuto, Kiria, Fong-Fong, and, after Art Evolution, Tsukune.
- Many of the characters from Rurouni Kenshin, especially the titular character, Mr. Pretty Boy Swordsman himself. Depending on the quality of the animation in an episode of the anime, particularly in the later episodes of the series, and you know, just about all the time in the manga, Kenshin is very pretty despite the fact that he's a terrifyingly powerful swordsman who even the manliest of men are afraid of. It doesn't help that, towards the end of the manga and in most of the official artwork, his hair always looks extremely long and flows like a bunch of ribbons. I rest my case. And even more so in the Trust & Betrayal and Reflections OVAS. And then, you know, there's Soujiro, Aoshi, Sanosuke, and, heck, even Hiko qualifies, although he's pretty manly.
- The Shitennou in the first season of Sailor Moon, Mamoru Chiba, Ali of the Doom Tree arc, Prince Diamond and Sapphire in Sailor Moon R, the Amazon Trio in Super S, and the Sailor Starlights...sort of. In the manga, even one of the cats qualifies for this with his long-haired, midriff exposing human form. The cat in question (Artemis) is even named for a goddess.
- Saint Seiya has a Cast Full of Pretty Boys. From Andromeda Shun to Virgo Shaka to Pisces Aphrodite (yes, that's a guy), the place is a bishōnen gold mine. See Viewer Gender Confusion for more details.
- And in Saint Seiya Omega, Dragon Shiryu's son, Ryuhou, is often compared to Shun, and for good reason.
- Many characters from Samurai Deeper Kyo, including but not limited to Hotaru, Shinrei, Hishigi (technically a Biseinen, as he's physically about 30), and Akira.
- Masayoshi of Samurai Flamenco. Fittingly, he works as a model/Teen Idol because he has no other skills besides his good looks.
- Kyuzo in Samurai 7 is tall, slender, and androgynously beautiful; his voice, however, is very male. Shichiroji, too, and Katsushiro is close. Then there is when Gorobei, Heihachi, and Rikichi have to make it to Kanna village... in disguise.
- Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Nozomu Itoshiki and his brother Mikoto. Also, four of his only known male students: Jun Kudou, Kuniya Kino, Aoyama, and Haga.
- Almost every male character in Saiyuki. The four main characters are these, of course, but also Kougaiji, Dokugakuji, Hazel, Koumyu, and Ni Jian-Yi/Ukoku.
- Though the artist's style is such all the male characters in The Secret Agreement look pretty good, in-story, Iori is singled out as being an incredible beauty for a man.
- Numerous guys qualify in Seraph of the End but Yuuji, Ferid, Crowley, Lacus Welt, and especially Mika are particularly notable.
- Most of the males in Shugo Chara! are known for their Bishieness.
- Nagihiko Fujisaki takes the Bishie Ribbon in the world of Shugo Chara. When Hinamori first meets Nagihiko, he is actually posing as his female alter ego, Nadeshiko. Why is this boy posing as a girl? The Fujisaki family tradition is for the males to pose as females to learn the ways of Japanese Dancing.
- During the series, Nadeshiko tells Amu that 'she' and Nagihiko are twins (the rest of the Guardians know about Nagi and Nade, but Amu Hinamori doesn't). It's not until late in the series that Nagi reveals the truth to Amu.
- Nagihiko even has a female Shugo Chara named Temari, which he can Character Transform into Yamato Maihime.
- The entire male cast of Simoun. The younger men — who were girls until age 17 — even still have breasts that haven't been reabsorbed yet (especially the hunky chief mechanic Wapourif), and all of them are voiced by female voice actors.
- Special A: you'd think a beauty contest was part of the Special A qualifying exam, looking at the male cast. The girls, too, unsurprisingly, since a beauty exam is almost mandatory to be part of most Shoujo casts.
- Star Driver: Takuto Tsunashi. "Galactic Bishōnen" isn't a nickname; it's his official title as the Chosen One
- Oh, it's not just Takuto; technically from a certain point on every pilot is called "Galactic Pretty Boy", and it shows. You know you're there when even the main character's father is one.
- None of the main cast of Strawberry 100%, but Junpei's rivals definitely qualify:
- Okusa, a classic pretty-boy, and Junpei's middle school friend. He attempts to steal Tsukasa away from Junpei via a double date with Yui, although his attempts to charm her go unacknowledged, much to his chagrin.
- Higure, the tall, dark, handsome, world-famous pastry chef. His grandmother owns the shop where Tsukasa works. He is the main attraction whenever he returns to work from his travels abroad, and while he has fallen for Tsukasa, he understands that she would rather be with Junpei.
- Surprisingly enough, Junpei has become one in the Distant Finale.
- Kantarou Ichinomiya from Tactics is a white/very light brown? haired bishie, who is annoying and greedy, but overall a good person. He is so young looking, nobody really knows his age. It is implied that he is much older than he appears. Many other guys in it also qualify.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
- While the series is generally remembered for its more MANLY characters, after the Time Skip, Rossiu and Simon are undeniably quite bishōnen.
- Cytomander is arguably a bishōnen as well, depending on who you talk to.
- Kamina is a more masculine version than the standard, but he is undeniably pretty.
- Barnaby from Tiger & Bunny (regardless of what he is wearing, be it his battle suit with helmet off or his daily attire with glasses on)
- Ivan Karelin, Nathan's opinion is final - his face is on par with Barnaby's.
- Tokyo Ghoul and its sequel, Tokyo Ghoul:re, has quite a number of pretty male characters:
- Ken Kaneki himself is a prominent example, whose looks actually attract the (often unfortunate) attention of many other characters, both male and female. In fact, as Haise Sasaki in :re, he manages to pull off crossdressing surprisingly well during an undercover operation.
- Shuu Tsukiyama is one of said admirers, being a vain, high-class ghoul who does his best to keep up appearances. Kaneki actually notes how attractive he is upon their first meeting.
- Juuzou Suzuya is often mistaken for a girl and even mocked in-universe for his feminine looks. Turns out, there's a disturbing reason for this. As a child, he was gruesomely castrated by his foster mother in order to keep him looking "pretty" and weak.
- Kichimura Washuu has a very soft face, even sporting a Beauty Mark. This, however, serves to make him eerier considering his actions.
- Kanae von Rosewald and Tooru Mutsuki, although it's because they're actually physically women hiding that fact for their own reasons.
- Many a Tokyo Mew Mew character, covering types from Stalker with a Crush to Jerk with a Heart of Gold to Mysterious Protector (who wins).
- Trigun: Legato and Midvalley are the most straight examples. Vash also has a very feminine looking face with big eyes, long eyelashes, and a nose that could probably cut a brick, and Knives does too, to a lesser extent. Wolfwood has a somewhat androgynous, youthful face in the manga (which is justified), but is more Hunk in the anime. Livio looks a lot like a Long-Haired Pretty Boy when he debuts, but is more of a hunk after his Good Costume Switch.
- Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- gives us Fai D. Fluorite and Syaoran, especially when he's aged up a bit, and has quite a few famous bishōnen from other CLAMP series pop up as cameos, such as Subaru, Kamui, Yasha, Yukito, and even Watanuki, to name a few.
- In Tsukigasa, Azuma is none too happy about being treated like a girl because of his looks, particularly because he was raped due to his resemblance to his mother.
- Keiki in The Twelve Kingdoms is a bishōnen with white hair, who acts as Youko's Mysterious Protector.
- Tweeny Witches:
- Tiana is tall, slender, pale, and has delicate features, with blonde eyebrows and narrow blue eyes.
- Lennon turns out to be an androgynous boy with sandy hair, smooth fair skin, a red Guyliner, thin lips, and a tall, slender figure. He's so pretty in his disguise as a witch that Arusu and her friends mistake him for a girl until his mother corrects.
- Molza from "Magical Girl Squad Storm and Stress" is a slender young boy with blonde hair, fair skin, and delicate features. Lampshaded when Arusu asks Sheila if he's a pretty boy, making Sheila get a Luminescent Blush.
- Urusei Yatsura. Rei, Lum's (former fiance) is a tall, stoic, green-haired space bishōnen who drives men to despair and women to Squee!. Mendou also qualifies, which is basically his most obvious difference from Ataru.
- D from Vampire Hunter D. Even the Guys Want Him.
- With the exception of the vampire hunter Toga Yagari, absolutely all the male cast of Vampire Knight are bishōnen.
- Canute from Vinland Saga, so bishōnen they needed a girl to be a convincing double.
- Dilandau in Vision of Escaflowne (who is later revealed to have been a magically disguised and brainwashed girl). Let's just say that most of the male cast is bishōnen, especially Allen and Van. Just look at the opening, for God's sakes!
- This is the entire point of The Wallflower.
- Weiß Kreuz gets points for admitting it. Youji calls Omi "bishōnen" to his face in one episode, but he ain't the only one.
- Both Toboe and Kiba from Wolf's Rain look like Bishōnen most of the time, but are actually wolves in disguise. To go further, numerous viewers have mistaken both for girls. Even the mangaka for the manga adaptation originally thought Toboe was a girl.
- Ladies and gentlemen, we would now like to present X-Men: Misfits, wherein even Magneto is hilariously a pretty boy.
- Yamada Taro Monogatari: Taro, which is a large reason why everyone thinks he's Prince Charming. Also, Suguira, who initially views Taro as a rival of beauty.
- Kyubi from Yo-Kai Watch is a long-haired, somewhat androgynous pretty boy in his human form. By youkai standards, he's handsome in his normal form, too.
- Yona of the Dawn is a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, and more than a few would count as bishōnen, but Yun repeatedly refers to himself as one during the series. He's not wrong. When they needed someone who could pass as a beautiful girl to accompany Yona on an infiltration mission, Yun fit the bill perfectly.
- You and Me: Yuki Asaba, Yuta Asaba, and Kaname Tsukahara as well as Hot Teacher Koichi Azuma and his best friend, Akira.
- Several characters in Yu-Gi-Oh!, including at least Yami Yugi, Seto Kaiba, Malik Ishtar (and how!), Ryou Bakura, Yami Bakura, Pegasus, Ryuji Otogi (aka Duke Devlin), and a number of minor supporting characters.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! takes this trope to such ridiculous extents that, chances are, if you're a major villain, you're probably going to be very feminine in appearance! Not to mention, its successors both have this trope in spades as well.
- The Abridged Series is loaded with jokes about this.
Marik: Do I look like an ''[EFF]'ing fangirl to you?!
Florence: You really don't want me to answer that. - This also forms the basis for Content Warnings in the episode introducing Duke Devlin.
WARNING: This episode contains copious amounts of Duke Devlin. Women with heart conditions are advised not to look directly at Duke Devlin. This also applies to women without heart conditions. He's very pretty. See? See how pretty he is? He's very pretty. I'd like to run my fingers through his hair, and I'm just a voice.
- The Obelisk Blue Three Geniuses for starters, as each of them represent a type of popular dere, starting from the Deredere Fubuki , the Kuudere Ryo, and the Yandere Yusuke in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
- Yusaku from Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS is this. Kogami Ryoken, Revolver's real form, is this as well. It doesn't hurt that he was one of the deepest voices in the franchise as well.
- Victor Nikiforov and Yuri "Yurio" Plisetski in Yuri!!! on Ice. Even Yuri Katsuki himself becomes one when he takes off his glasses and combs his hair, although he isn't ugly before, either.
- A good third of the male cast on Yu Yu Hakusho.
- 07-Ghost: Teito, Castor, Frau, Labrador, Ayanami, Mikage...Maybe almost all of the male characters of the entire story.
Other examples
- White Phoenix from Qin's Moon, does not help that he gets prettier each season due to Art Evolution. It was even lampshaded during a mini-documentary. Zhang Liang and younger Wei Zhuang qualify as well.
- ''Roulette Rampage Reloaded': Deconstructed with Kiyoyuki Irino. He is portrayed as handsome and girls do find him attractive for his small frame and pretty boy looks, but he thinks that he's not in his ideal type of body. As an actor, he wants to get more masculine roles to play, but he can't do it with his type of body, so he dived head long into voice acting, which allowed him to play any type of role he wanted. Combine that with his insecurities about his more popular and masculine-looking older brother and his in-game mentor figure, Tetsuo Shingen, and you've got a boy who really needs to find some measure of inner peace.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Both Italy and Japan are this. Germany noticed this, even more, when they both wore kimonos.
- In misakiyu
's illustrations of SilfofinaDragon
's Sengoku Basara fanfics, Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's son Masa resembles his mother with his father's hair color, and is shown to be quite attractive. His Split Personality Sei and adopted nephew Nobushige also fit the bill.
- And his six year old son Tsukitora (fathered by the late Oyamada Nobushige) is a bishōnen of the Raven Hair, Ivory Skin variety.
- Aesir: Cross Wars:
- Azrael wears Guyliner, has Tareme Eyes, and an overall feminine appearance.
- Azazel to a lesser extent as well, with his glaring Tsurime Eyes.
- Quite a few of Miyazaki's male characters, such as Haku in Spirited Away and Howl in Howl's Moving Castle.
- Leafie, a Hen into the Wild features bishōnen ducks. Wanderer has a mysterious allure and long, messy head feathers. Leafie is smitten by him but it's unrequited.
- Mei from Arashi no Yoru ni manages to be this even though he's a non-anthro goat. He's pretty and small, which contrasts with his burly and taller best friend Gabu.
- Death Note: Even though Rem was a female Shinigami in the manga and anime, she was made a male in-voice-only. The rest of her feminine-looking design is kept exactly the same.
- Gohatto: Sōzaburō is a new recruit who joins The Shinsengumi in the 1860s. He is a Bishōnen straight from central casting: young, slender, smooth of chin, and very pretty, androgynously pretty, with long hair that falls over his brow. He's also an Uke. The only way that he deviates from this trope is that, in addition to being a rather feminine pretty boy, he's a badass samurai, possibly the best fighter in the regiment.
- The Beast Player: Damiya is described as tall, slender, and effeminately beautiful.
- Genji in Cloud of Sparrows is described as 'too pretty for a man' — as is the character's Older Than Print namesake, Hikaru Genji in the Tale of Genji.
- Most of the cast in ½ Prince falls into this category. The game world requires your character to resemble you, but lets people beautify themselves, and a lot of people look very lovely in game. Prince, who is actually a girl in real life and the only person playing an opposite gender in game, ends up being the single most bishie thing in existence. Only a few main characters don't take this route, with Wolf having a more mature look in real life and making himself uglier in the game, Gui turning out to be a bishie in real life and not altering his in game appearance. Nan Gong Zui, who makes himself look like a victim of Testosterone Poisoning in game, also turns out to have a very boyish appearance in the real world.
- Alcuin from Kushiel's Legacy has fine white hair and delicate features.
- Serph in Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner outright describes himself as androgynous. The narration mentions how pretty he is on a frequent basis.
- The boys in the starting cast
◊ of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note are good-looking, but not this trope. But the characters added later mostly falls in this trope, in this cover
◊ we have Sunahara (lower right) and Mikado (upper left)—and the latter is officially recognized as "beautiful." The males spinoff series Genie Team G Jiken Note's starting cast
◊ mostly falls into this trope.
- The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The "gay mage" tour companion is described as a long-haired "pretty boy" in beautiful clothing who's indicated to be quite androgynous or effeminate in appearance, and probably Camp Gay (at least implied to be).
- The Metamorphoses: This counts for a great deal of the male cast in the work, the most well known being: Narcissus, Hermaphroditus, Hyacinth, Ganymede and Adonis, and among the Olympians: Apollo, Hermes and Dionysus
- Shichan from Aflame Inferno who models on the side.
- The Breaker: Hyuk So Chun.
- Yoo-min from Cutie Boy.
- Duo Xi from Divine Melody.
- Since the vast majority of the characters in ½ Prince are made in a video game they're all gorgeous (as players often make their characters so). The titular character is noted for being the best-looking character, since they turned the pretty effect as high as it could possibly go.
- Id from Id is the very definition of this trope. Men and women alike fawn over his beauty. Though more often than not, every person he's met has initially thought him a woman.
- Let Dai: Jaehee is explicitly stated in-series to be very literally a "pretty boy", and the artwork makes that abundantly clear. It's one of the reasons that so many girls tend to go after him.
- Magical JxR has a lot of these.
- Dong-whi from Nineteen, Twenty-One.
- Rai, Frank, Shinwoo, M-21 and Takeo from Noblesse.
- Woojae from One has the nickname "Prince Charming" due to his good looks.
- Armand from Priest.
- A HUGE number of the characters in Ravages of Time fall under this category. Most of the Water Mirror Eight Geniuses, Sima Yi, and the young members of the Yuan clan are all delicate-looking and gorgeous. Xiao Meng is the extreme, but well, he's a eunuch, so that comes with the territory.
- Kyu Ra from Rure which fits with his "prince charming" image.
- Junho from The Three Times.
- Twenty-Fifth Bam aka Jue Viole Grace from Tower of God.
- Weak Hero:
- Gray is a beautiful young man, with silky silver hair, purple eyes, and long lashes. The story's inciting incident is Colton groping Gray to confirm that he's not actually a girl.
- Stephen can give Gray a run for his money with his gentle eyes and K-Pop-esque haircut and physique.
- Though not as pronounced as Gray, Alex is a slender boy with bright green eyes and long lashes.
- Jake Ji is quite pretty, with soft eyes and ginger hair, and compliments it with his fashionable style.
- Yoonsung from Welcome to Room #305 is so pretty that rumors spread that he crossdresses sometimes. People mistook his Half Identical Twin sister for him.
- BigBang's G-Dragon (Korean Pop Music) is noted in the fashion world for his androgyny and his proclivity to feminine styles while on-stage. He opens one of his songs with the lyric, "I'm still not inferior/yes, I'm a pretty boy."
- Music/BORNS, aka Garrett Borns
◊, has been mistaken for a girl before, what with the long hair, slim build and flowery jackets. Not that he minds.
- Dong Bang Shin Ki's Jaejoong can very well pass as one. Many people say he's an anime character come
◊ to life
◊.
- In nine* nine, Gackt is shown some pictures of himself when he was younger, to which he responds, "I was a total bishōnen back then...But now I'm a biseinen." The difference being that bishōnen technicality applies to only boys in their teens but biseinen applies to adults.
- Korean Pop Music singer Juniel talks about this trope in her song "Pretty Boy", saying how much she prefers one to a "handsome guy like a movie star".
Short height with a round face
A cute guy who looks good in glasses
Eyes that disappear when he smiles
But a guy who has a child-like smile - Though most members of the K Pop group NU'EST could qualify (excluding Baekho), Ren is the most obvious example, bordering on Dude Looks Like a Lady with his big eyes and long hair.
- Lord Krishna from the Mahabharata is painted as a beautiful 20-year-old with clear dark or blue skin, dressed in distinctive yellow silk, and with a peacock feather attached to his diadem. Despite his bishōnen appearance, Krishna is The Ace - a superb intellectual, scholar, strategist, warrior, charioteer and Chick Magnet.
- Since the Takarazuka Revue is composed entirely of female actors playing both male and female roles, it's no surprise that male roles often look a little bishōnen. Case in point, Wao Youka
as The Phantom of the Opera, or Shizuka Asato (Zunko)
as Der Tod from Elisabeth.
- Sergei from Asura's Wrath. Yasha is to an extent too, though not quite as much.
- Bayonetta 2: The Masked Lumen is an androgynous-looking man under his mask, with flowing, waist length platinum blonde hair, narrow eyes, thin lips, smooth pale skin, and a slender build. The impressive thing is you can tell he's one when just a sliver of his mask gets knocked off, revealing only one of his eyes and the general shape of his features around it. Balder was quite a looker when he was younger.
- Castlevania:
- Alucard is one of the quintessential examples. Though mistaking him for a girl is not likely to be a problem, though, given the loving attention put into his sprite and the fact that his VA has a very, very deep voice. Ironically Alucard from his debut game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse was as far from Bishie you can get
, it wasn't till the non-canon Castlevania Legends that Alucard got a prettier design
◊ which likely served as the basis for his iconic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night bishōnen look
◊.
- Ayami Kojima who did most of the later artwork for Castlevania really, really loves this trope to point where shes responsible for turning every single male protagonist (and even Dracula) into a bishōnen. The only exception being Julius Belmont who is older and rugged.
- Alucard is one of the quintessential examples. Though mistaking him for a girl is not likely to be a problem, though, given the loving attention put into his sprite and the fact that his VA has a very, very deep voice. Ironically Alucard from his debut game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse was as far from Bishie you can get
- Devil May Cry:
- Dante much like Leon from Resident Evil (who he was based on) just barely makes the list because while Dante is a very handsome dude (especially in DMC3 and DMC4) he's still very masculine and even a outright Hunk in his Shirtless Scene, plus he gets Perma-Stubble. At point in the third game Dante even admires himself in the reflection of his sword and both Nevan and Morrigan call him a "handsome devil". The anime plays this much straighter
◊ with Dante compared to the games.
- Vergil Dante's Evil Twin is pretty bishie since he's identical to his brother (especially with his hair down
◊), though other games such as Project X Zone make this trope more pronounced. Other games and artwork downplay this like Dante making more masculine and dignified. Ironically, both Dante and Vergil subvert the Bishounen Line as their respective Devil Triggers make them far less pretty than their base forms.
- Nero plays this straighter than Dante and Vergil being very androgynous
◊ and even more so in the pachinko game
◊. Averted in DMC5 where in line with the game realistic art style Nero is more masculine, though ironically Nero's Devil trigger in the game is closer being bishōnen than Dante and Veril's DTs being a hybrid of Long-Haired Pretty Boy and Gorgeous Gorgon.
- Dante much like Leon from Resident Evil (who he was based on) just barely makes the list because while Dante is a very handsome dude (especially in DMC3 and DMC4) he's still very masculine and even a outright Hunk in his Shirtless Scene, plus he gets Perma-Stubble. At point in the third game Dante even admires himself in the reflection of his sword and both Nevan and Morrigan call him a "handsome devil". The anime plays this much straighter
- Quite a few male characters in the Disgaea series, including (but not limited to) Mid-boss, Seraph Lamington, Fukubei, Master Big star, Adell, and Tink.
- During the intro narration of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, a portrait of Tyrant Valvatorez drawn in a much more semi-realistic, shoujo-esque style than the simpler, more stylized art of the games is shown. This is the portrait in question
◊.
- During the intro narration of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, a portrait of Tyrant Valvatorez drawn in a much more semi-realistic, shoujo-esque style than the simpler, more stylized art of the games is shown. This is the portrait in question
- Dragon Quest has two bishōnen: Psaro the Manslayer (human form) and Angelo, who greatly resembles Future Trunks (Akira Toriyama designed the game's characters).
- In Dragon Quest XI, the main playable character, the Luminary, has long hair and noticeably finer features than previous heroes in the series, and is frequently noted to be handsome and even beautiful by various characters throughout the game. More than one female NPC comments on wanting looks like his.
- Dynasty Warriors has its fair share, with Jin (Sima Yi, Sima Shi, Sima Zhao, Zhong Hui, Xiahou Ba, Jia Chong, Wen Yang) being a certified Cast Full of Pretty Boys. The other kingdoms don't fail to deliver however with Shu (Zhao Yun, Jiang Wei, Guan Suo, Guan Xing, Zhang Bao), Wu (Zhou Yu, Lu Xun, Ling Tong), and especially Wei (Zhang He, Cao Pi, Guo Jia) hosting some impressive examples.
- Yuuto is the only male in Eien No Aselia that could really be described as pretty. On the other hand, he's also pretty muscular by the end, so despite the face, he isn't exactly girly.
- Many of the characters of Eternal Sonata are well-noted for this, including the game's main character Frederic Chopin and the main on-screen avatar character, Allegretto.
- Final Fantasy series: any of the main male characters, at least once graphics became advanced enough to portray it; the official character art shows that the older ones actually were this, too, when not depicted with blocky, low-resolution sprites. Specifically:
- Final Fantasy I: Warrior of Light, Final Fantasy II: Firion, Final Fantasy III: Luneth, Final Fantasy IV: Cecil, Final Fantasy V: Bartz, Final Fantasy VI: Locke, Final Fantasy VII: Cloud, Final Fantasy VIII: Squall, Final Fantasy IX: Zidane, Final Fantasy X: Tidus, Final Fantasy XII: Vaan, and Final Fantasy XV: Noctis. That is every leading male protagonist to date. And the Dissidia Final Fantasy series includes all of them (except Luneth).
Penelo: Personally? I don't believe that boys should be prettier than I am.
- Speaking of Dissidia, Kam'lanaut and Ramza can be added to the bishie roster. Ramza even moreso due to his more porcelain looks.
- Final Fantasy I: Warrior of Light, Final Fantasy II: Firion, Final Fantasy III: Luneth, Final Fantasy IV: Cecil, Final Fantasy V: Bartz, Final Fantasy VI: Locke, Final Fantasy VII: Cloud, Final Fantasy VIII: Squall, Final Fantasy IX: Zidane, Final Fantasy X: Tidus, Final Fantasy XII: Vaan, and Final Fantasy XV: Noctis. That is every leading male protagonist to date. And the Dissidia Final Fantasy series includes all of them (except Luneth).
- Final Fantasy VII:
- Sephiroth. In the original cut of the scene with Sephiroth frozen in crystalized Mako, he was to have feminine curves to allude back to Jenova. Things were scaled back there for the same reason Squall in VIII was made to look more masculine.
- Cloud Strife was handsome originally
◊ but still clearly a dude. His redesign in Advent Children
◊ however, sends him far into bishōnen territory. The FFVII remake balances this trope, Cloud is quite pretty but he's still more visibly masculine compared to female characters such as Tifa
. Though he can still effectively disguise himself as a woman to fool Don Corneo.
- Zack Fair bounces back and forth between handsome but masculine
◊, to being ridiculously pretty
◊ (such as in Crisis Core).
- Also Vincent Valentine in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus:.
- As for Kuja from Final Fantasy IX, he reaches truly Dude Looks Like a Lady proportions. This is even Lampshaded by Queen Brahne, who outright calls him a "girly-man". To be fair, though, he calls her "elephant-lady".
- If you look past the non-human features, Seymour from Final Fantasy X can fit the bill as well.
- Hope Estheim from the Final Fantasy XIII also counts, especially in the Final Fantasy XIII-2.
- The page-top quote refers to Noel Kreiss, one of two playable characters (outside of DLC) in Final Fantasy XIII-2. A popular theory is that his character design is based on early designs of Fang from Final Fantasy XIII when she was a male character. Whether or not it's true, his pretty boy looks fit the trope to a tee.
- And then there's Vayne Solidor of Final Fantasy XII, who even in full armor is still a very slender guy with more hair than two out of the three women in the main party.
- Regarding Noctis from Final Fantasy XV, he is normally bishōnen, but after the timeskip, he starts sporting a Badass Beard and looks far more rugged, but once he's clean-shaven it's shown he's still as pretty as ever.
- Final Fantasy Type Zero has its fair share of bishies, but the special mention goes to Ace.
- Final Fantasy VII:
- Fire Emblem:
- Lucius, the amazingly feminine featured pretty boy monk with long blond hair. Of course, he defends the fact that he is male when confronted by Serra.
- A typical Fire Emblem game will have several bishōnen, at least a couple of rugged manly men, a few good looking grandpas, and a Gonk or two. Few are as bafflingly pretty as Lucius, though.
- When Super Smash Bros. first showed off Marth, most western players were initially quite confused as to whether Marth was a girl or not (hairband and girly name didn't help) . His voice actor cleared this up a bit, though.
- Libra in Fire Emblem Awakening takes this to such ridiculous levels he invokes Stupid Sexy Flanders and Even the Guys Want Him in-universe. Oh, and he has a very feminine voice too.
- Less so than Libra, but the default, Type 01 build for a male Robin is fairly bishōnen, especially if you give him long hair.
- Fire Emblem Fates: Kaze, Jakob, and especially Leo and Takumi all have soft, pretty features. Leo's son Forrest takes it to a whole other level. Azura's son, Shigure, qualifies as well, and his finer features are exaggerated further in his Cipher cards. The default male 1 build for Corrin as well.
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has several, some of which are due to the art having improved from the original. Tobin and Kliff both have soft, pretty faces in the remake, and are fairly slender to boot. Luthier and Leon are the long-haired variety; Leon is said to have a strict routine to keep himself looking nice, and it's accentuated by the fact that he appears to be wearing eyeshadow and lip gloss.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses has four stand out examples. From least to most bishie there's Jeritza, who's frame is wide enough to offset his pretty face and long hair, Male Byleth, who's about on par with Marth in terms of prettiness, Linhardt, who has long hair and slender body to compliment his pretty face, and Yuri, who, similar to Leon above, appears to be wearing eyeliner and lip gloss, in addition to having long hair.
- Granblue Fantasy has multiple examples, in part thanks to its Loads and Loads of Characters. Most notable perhaps are Joel and Summer Albert, both of whom also double as Mr. Fanservice thanks to outfits which reveal a lot of skin (especially abs).
- Testament of Guilty Gear, who, in addition to his long black hair and androgynous face, has an outfit consisting of a man-bra and a skirt that shows a decent amount of leg. And that's not going anywhere near Bridget.
- Ky looks more effeminate than his own son Sin.
- Harvest Moon:
- Hospital Hottie Doctor from Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is one of the earliest examples in the series. He has inspired many equally attractive doctor characters such as Alex from Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, his Identical Grandchild Trent from Harvest Moon DS, and Jin from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility.
- Grumpy rival farmer Jamie from Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is a bishōnen or a bifauxnen depending on what gender you play as. If you play as Amanda, he is a secret bachelor but the game ends if you marry him.
- Skye is the "special" bachelor from Harvest Moon DS and is sometimes regarded as the turning point where the series began making more bishōnen characters. He is a Gentleman Thief that is prone to Bishie Sparkles.
- Will from Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands bears more than a passing resemblance to the above-pictured Tamaki.
- Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility features an entire cast of marriageable bachelors. The prettiest is Julian, who could pass for a woman and worries (in the Japanese version) if his love interest thinks he's a crossdresser.
- The series has gotten an increasing amount of bishōnen starting with Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness and Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. It's likely easier to name bachelors who are not bishōnen.
- Similarly, many of the young males in the spinoff series Rune Factory are bishōnen. The protagonist of Rune Factory 4 barely looks male, which, what with the Hello, [Insert Name Here] nature of the game, can lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments:
"Sophie? What a fine, manly name!" - Harvest Town, a game is inspired by the above Harvest Moon features a number of attractive bachelors. The most obvious example is Lee Yau, the Hospital Hottie whose initial character design looks more like a model than a doctor, and Duke Evans, a suave musician who looks like a typical "popular guy" from a shoujo manga (especially his newer character art). There's also Chris Ford, who isn't explicitly said to be handsome by the in-game bio, but is drawn in a similar enough style with the two aforementioned examples, that it's impossible for him not to qualify.
- Among the attractive male characters in Infinite Space, a few of them fall into bishōnen/biseinen category. Lord Roth is arguably the best example, with his waist-length lavender hair and feminine face. Main character Yuri is quite pretty himself.
- Mitsumoto and Abyss in Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns.
- Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising and his dark counterpart likely qualify also.
- Because of its Final Fantasy influences, Kingdom Hearts not only features bishōnen leads from that series, but its original characters effectively form a Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
- A surprisingly large number of The King of Fighters' main male characters are like this, with Ash Crimson pushing the androgyny to ridiculous levels.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Link, in his older incarnations starting with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Comedy Central did base Xandir on him, after all. One gay magazine voted him "hottest game character"
, to the endlessly amusing horror of the teenage males in the fanbase. His incarnation in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess also places him in Hunk territory at the same time by showing off his body and having him partake in various manlier feats than usual. His The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past incarnation was updated into one in the artwork for the GBA version, in line with his modern incarnations.
- Kafei from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a young version of this.
- Shad from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- Demon Lord Ghirahim from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
- Link becomes even prettier in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to the point where characters of both sexes feel attraction to and openly flirt with Link. Sure, it's been implied in previous entries to the series, but it has never been this blatant. This actually helps Link in one main quest where he has to dress up like a Gerudo in order to get into the female-only town they reside in.
- Link, in his older incarnations starting with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Comedy Central did base Xandir on him, after all. One gay magazine voted him "hottest game character"
- Magna Carta: Tears of Blood kicks the bishōnen up to 11, making its main lead, Calintz, and his apprentice, Azel, almost entirely unrecognizable as male. Chris Arcway manages to dodge the bullet with his open button-up shirt and cocky womanizing attitude, but even Raul, the tall, masculine, goateed swordsman who appears a few times in the game, gets a touch of Bishie thanks to the artstyle (no matter how impossible it seems to be Bishie with a goatee).
- Prince Peasley from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga makes the whole screen gleam - literally - when he tosses his hair.
- Word of God has it that Zero original concept WAS that of being a female robot. The booblights are probably remnants of this concept.
- The majority of Maverick bosses in the Mega Man X series have aggressive looking eyes with thin oval-shaped irises. However, the dragonfly Reploid named Commander Yammark from Mega Man X6 is the only one with big, bright eyes
◊ with pronounced eyelashes
◊. This is why people thought he was female.
- Metal Gear:
- Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 was designed as an androgynous hero who Kojima created after hearing two teenage girls complaining that military games are full of old men. In the game theres even a scene where another character makes a grab for his groin, and is surprised to find he is male. And you have to play as him naked. No, we are not making that up. He was widely reviled for this by the fans, among other reasons. Eventually, Raiden's own game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, buffed him up
◊ to the extreme.
- Naturally, there's also Raiden's thinly-veiled parody in Metal Gear Solid 3, Raikov.
- Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 was designed as an androgynous hero who Kojima created after hearing two teenage girls complaining that military games are full of old men. In the game theres even a scene where another character makes a grab for his groin, and is surprised to find he is male. And you have to play as him naked. No, we are not making that up. He was widely reviled for this by the fans, among other reasons. Eventually, Raiden's own game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, buffed him up
- The Japanese iPhone/Android game My Horse Prince is a Dating Sim about a young woman named Umako meeting the handsome Yuuma on a ranch. Seems like a normal enough game until you learn that Yuuma is a horse with a human head and the game still plays with some Dating Sim tropes despite its weird love interest.
- Pretty much any guy from the NeoRomance series (Angélique, Harukanaru Toki no Naka de, La Corda D Oro). Eisen of Haruka proved to be pretty enough to disguise himself as a girl on one occasion; even the Emperor is bishōnen, though he has the excuse of being Eisen's half-brother. In the La Corda d'Oro anime, one character (Kenichi Shimizu) actually gets called a bishōnen by the lead girl when she first meets him.
- Odin Sphere: Prince Cornelius of Titania, the Shadow Knight Oswald, and Prince Ingway of Valentine. All three young men's physical features (well, in Cornelius and Ingway's human forms, anyway) fit the archetypes of handsome princes and brave knights with slender yet muscular builds. In Ingway's case, his outfit even runs into Mr. Fanservice territory.
- Ōkami has Waka, who FLIES seemingly by virtue of sheer Bishie Sparkle and his improbable headdress.
- A lot of them show up in Onmyōji, but most notable is the protagonist Abe no Seimei who is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy and very much defies the White Hair, Black Heart trope, making it Mystical White Hair in his case.
- Pokémon:
- Pokémon Black and White has N, as well as Cilan, Chili, and Cress. Cheren and Hilbert qualify as well.
- Bishōnen characters in other games include Falkner, Bugsy, Morty, Will, Wallace, Steven, Roark, Volkner, Riley, Aaron, Lucian, and Marlon. Maxie may count as well, even though he's older than the others.
- The male player characters have been trending toward this. Calem, the male player character for X and Y, is probably the most blatant example - especially when compared to Red's original game design. Or for previous gens, compare the remake design of Red to his to original one.
- As of Pokémon Sun and Moon, Red no longer qualifies, instead showing signs of maturing into a Hunk. On the other hand, his rival Blue is edging much more into this now, though granted he had been showing signs of this since HeartGold/SoulSilver
- Resident Evil:
- Leon S. Kennedy makes the cut, but barely. Even at his prettiest, he was still quite solidly built and masculine, and his face becomes a little more chiseled and tough-looking in each new appearance. His haircut, though, remains top-shelf bishōnen.
- Steve Burnside from Resident Evil Code: Veronica plays this trope straighter than Leon, not being very masculine at all. But subverted as you wont find many Steve fangirls since hes considered The Scrappy of Code Veronica being incredibly annoying and whiny.
- From the same game Albert Ashford is so androgynous he can disguise himself as his twin sister, Alexia. He's even accused of being a transvestite.
- Even Chris Redfield (thanks to the art style) is turned into a bishōnen
◊ in Code Veronica contrasting to other games where hes depicted as a rugged Hunk.
- Interestingly William Birkin was originally conceived as one
◊ of these in Resident Evil 2 but later games retcon him into being more scraggly looking, which is more in line with his Mad Scientist character.
- Young Marcus aka the Queen Leech in Resident Evil 0 is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy... until he dissolves into a gross mass of leeches.
- Persona:
- From Persona 2: Innocent Sin, we have Jun, a character so pretty that many female characters look upon him in envy.
- Persona 3:
- Akihiko Sanada from is a borderline example; he's a tall and lean Chick Magnet, but he's also a boxer with a noticeably masculine physique.
- In a less obvious manner, the main character (Minato/Makoto/etc.) may also qualify, having a very slender figure, subtle facial features, and pretty eyes. He's also frequently described as a "pretty boy" or "handsome", to the point where a certain Corrupt Corporate Executive tries to exploit him.
- Persona 4:
- Teddie's human form makes extensive use of the Bishie Sparkle to manipulate women that he comes across. Not to mention, during the crossdressing scene, he was the only one able to pull off looking like a girl. One male commentator from the audience even exclaims "I'd hit that."
- Boyishly handsome Naoto Shirogane is beloved by the ladies...but in a rare subversion, he is actually a she.
- Persona 5:
- Both Goro Akechi and Yusuke Kitagawa are definitely this, both being attractive young men with slender, elegant features. Goro's Thief outfit is even that of a prince's.
- The protagonist from is definitely a bishōnen. Between his looks, outfit, voice, and attitude (bonus points for his evil panty-dropping smirk), he's definitely got a devoted female fanbase and more than a few fanboys. Joker's probably the prettiest Persona protagonist, and is by far the sexiest.
- Samurai Warriors: we have Mitsuhide, Hanbei, Ranmaru, Kiyomasa, Motochika, and Kojiro.
- Sengoku Basara:
- Uesugi Kenshin takes this far enough that fans seriously doubt he's really male. Granted, the games also have Motonari, Keiji, Mitsuhide, and Hanbe, but Kenshin is still the reigning king/queen.
- Keiji is a strange case, as he has a muscular figure but a very pretty face and long, silky hair. And Yukimura also seems to become more feminine looking with each new installment.
- The main character of Shadow of the Colossus.
- Ramirez from Skies of Arcadia seems to rock the "pretty but misunderstood" vibe as hard as he possibly can. Enrique is pretty much his good counterpart. A number of recruitable crew members further the bishōnen appeal, particularly Lawrence and Ilchymis.
- Street Fighter:
- Vega is a narcissist who believes his face to be extremely beautiful, and cannot stand the ugly. Part of it comes from traumatization as a child when his ugly father killed his beautiful mother. He also wears a mask, not to hide his identity, but to prevent his face from being scarred. Evil Makes You Ugly is often invoked for Vega, as several World Warriors point out in their win quotes.
- Remy in Street Fighter III is even more of one (though he's not narcissistic like Vega).
- In the Alpha series, Ken becomes one of these, with long, flowing hair in a ponytail and a younger face (some pieces of art
◊ for the game even show him with pronounced lips, a rarity for Street Fighter characters). However, the other games show him looking older and more muscular, with Perma-Stubble.
- The Suikoden series of games have, quite literally, dozens of bishōnen among the ranks of the Stars of Destiny (108 per game!). Notable ones include and are not limited to: every main protagonist, Flik, Luc and Sasarai, and Yuber.
- In the Super Smash Bros. games, characters of this nature (e.g. Pit, Shulk, Cloud) tend to have all-female crowd cheers.
- The Tales Series is ripe with these:
- Although having more of a fairly (and by that, we mean in the smallest margin, as the game models differ slightly from the official art) masculine face than some other Tales Series bishōnen, Richard from Tales of Graces certainly fits the role, having traditional elements including medium-length blond hair, fancy frilly clothes, and immense popularity throughout the kingdom (in one skit, he mentions his "dilemma" with the sale of Richard-themed items). His seiyuu is even the same as a certain other bishōnen of Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, and he even sports Zelos Wilder's costume as DLC. Doesn't help that his younger self can be seriously mistaken for a girl.
- Zelos from Tales of Symphonia. Yggdrasil, too. Some fans would argue that Kratos is one as well. The game is ripe with bishies. Kratos is a good example of a biseinen, or 'beautiful man' - what a bishōnen becomes when he grows up.
- Several of the guys in Tales of Vesperia: particularly Yuri, who can be mistaken for a woman until he opens his mouth.
- Guy, Luke and Asch from Tales of the Abyss If you count Jade as a verging-on Dude Looks Like a Lady biseinen that's the whole main male cast.
- Time Crisis: The newer protagonists.
- The Trails Series has its fair share of this, but special mention goes to Prince Olivert Reise Arnor, who is fully aware of it and plays it for all it's worth. He'll flirt with anyone he can and his other tropes include the Bishie Sparkle and Say It with Hearts. There's also Kurt Vander, whose pretty-boy look is regularly commented upon and early on in Cold Steel IV is mistaken for a girl by a little girl NPC.
- WarioWare has Young Cricket, who is popular among Japanese female players for being the only bishōnen in the series.
- Joshua from The World Ends with You, complete with a girlish giggle to boot. Being something of a higher plane of existence probably helps.
- Kristoph Gavin and his brother, Klavier Gavin, from the Ace Attorney series. Max Galactica and Matt Engarde in Justice For All, as well.
- Most notably, the effeminate Max Galactica, with his flamboyance, camp, and pure fabulousness. (Because you, too, have stolen one of Max Galactica's many, many hearts.)
- Yukito from Air. As well as a Silver-Haired Tall, Dark, and Snarky Ineffectual Loner, he later shares some traits with The Doctor himself!
- In Akatsuki no Goei, Kaito claims his greatest skill is that he's really hot. He kind of has a point given that he can just sit down and read in public and girls will instantly come flirt with him.
- Asagao Academy Normal Boots Club has Jared, AKA Pro Jared, according to his character description he's the most attractive person in school. He even sparkles!
- Taichi in CROSSCHANNEL has a rather androgynous but attractive appearance. He, on the other hand, is convinced he is horribly ugly for reasons that are never really revealed.
- Dev and Dominic from the Death Room. Evie flirts with Dev, while Dominic is very, very self-aware of his good looks.
Dominic: I know Im the best-looking guy youve ever seen in your entire life, but don't let that intimidate you because I can guarantee that you definitely still have a chance with me.
- The five male leads from Hiiro no Kakera.
- Takuma and Hamaji from H₂O: Footprints in the Sand.
- Kyousuke from Little Busters!!. Mio outright calls him a bishōnen one time. And in the Mask the Saito OVA, at one point he dramatically tears off his mask at sunset and sparkles fly as his hair shakes. (The sparkles being his tears from when he was crying because he was so touched a moment before, but still...)
- In Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! Touma is the most notable contender, but Cap also fits, both of them with fan clubs.
- Monster Prom: The Interdimensional Prince is a parody of this. He has all the traits and even the Long-Haired Pretty Boy look, but he is so unfittingly sparkly to his surroundings that these traits make him seen hilarious.
- Mizuho in Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me. Of course. That being said, he is quite pretty even when not dressing as a girl.
- The Shall We Date? franchise has a lot of these in all of their games. It makes sense; they make otome and other female-oriented games.
- Spirit Hunter: NG:
- Without his perpetual grimace, Akira actually looks quite nice
. If he appreciates Kaoru's gothic lolita style, then she'll reply that he should try it for himself, since his face is pretty enough for him to look good in woman's clothing.
- Seiji is a doe-eyed pretty boy with a gentle smile and slim body. It makes his cruel personality all the more surprising.
- Without his perpetual grimace, Akira actually looks quite nice
- All the boys qualify for this up to some extent in War: 13th Day but especially Arsenik and Night. In-universe, the former more so than the latter.
Brooks: Ive seen that tight blonde youve been eyeing. Now, he is fine.
- When They Cry:
- Higurashi: When They Cry: Keiichi is noticeably pretty, and even sparkles a couple of times, as well as Satoshi, who is a more extreme example than Keiichi and is even voiced by a female.
- Umineko: When They Cry has the absolutely adorable Kanon, not to mention Battler. George was made to be this in the anime and the Updated Re-release for the PlayStation 3, but in the original sound novels, he's rather plain in comparison to Kanon and Battler. Kanon is a complicated example. He is the same person as Shannon. Their true identity, Yasu, is female-identified but heavily implied to have been Raised as the Opposite Gender after she received injuries to her genitalia as a young child. This left her with complicated issues involving her gender.
- Yo-Jin-Bo: Bo is considered so pretty he's practically female by the other characters; he's annoyed when a crossdresser hits on him, but plays this to his advantage and says he should be allowed to guard the Princess during her bath because he "looks androgynous" with his long hair and wouldn't disturb her as much as the other guys.
- In Adventurers!, Khrima's final boss form is described as such, due to the Bishōnen Line.
- Erika and the Princes in Distress : Most men seen in the comic have very pretty and effeminate looks. While part of it (notably their large, expressive eyes) is due to Yatuu's art style, it is mostly a consequence of the inversion of gender roles. Being the "weaker sex" translates to more slender and graceful physiques, and men are shown to be subject to strong standards of beauty; facial and body hair are notably considered "ugly" by most women, and thus the vats majority of male characters don't sport any.
- Yokoka's Quest has Azha, Mao, and all of Copycat's forms shown so far.