Bromantic Foil

This is a male character common in any media with a romantic plot. He serves as a foil to the male lead, both for the audience and for the potential Love Interests in the work. Often he has an outwardly abrasive personality. Despite that, he is the main character's primary male companion. Common developments for the character include some sort of falling-out with the main character, often over a very serious issue. He is often a Chivalrous Pervert or Loveable Sex Maniac, and meets with the disapproval of the female cast members in various ways, from exasperated sigh to Megaton Punch. Sometimes this is taken to the point of being a Butt-Monkey. If the work has an Official Couple featuring a stereotypically attractive female, he'll probably publicly and futilely lust over her right up until the main character's interest comes out in the open.

As the main character's foil, his function is to show by example what the main character is NOT. Often, by contrast with him, it is no surprise that the main character has an Unwanted Harem. If he does end up in a relationship, he's probably part of the Beta Couple. If he gets together with the main character, it's through a Gay Option. Often he is also the Plucky Comic Relief.

Sub-Trope of Foil. See also The Lancer, Sidekick, Those Two Guys.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Akame ga Kill! isn't a harem series (at least, not officially. . .), but it does play the trope straight with Lubboc. He's a Chivalrous Pervert, but most of the women on his team find his antics annoying. By contrast, Tatsumi seems to just naturally attract female attention. He does have a Love Interest of his own, Najenda, the leader of their entire group in fact, but she's not really considering a relationship until after their war is over. He ends up dying anyway, so nothing ever comes from it sadly.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts - Yuuji is the best friend, but Kouta is the pervert.
  • Baka Test is an unusual example in the the lead guy, Akihisa, is the Butt-Monkey and the best friend, Yuuji, is the one abusing and using said butt monkey. Then again, it is also unusual in that Yuuji is only a few steps short of being the lead guy himself; it wouldn't be a stretch at all to say that Akihisa and Yuuji are both the protagonist.
    • Not to mention, Yuuji has a love interest of his own: Shouko Kirishima. Though Shouko is, well, a Yandere...
• Furuichi of Beelzebub plays it dead straight. He lusts after all the girls, and is quite jealous of the attention Oga gets. He has an admirer of his own, though: The Manly Gay demon Arandron.
• In the first season of Code Geass we get the cool protagonist Lelouch and his more awkward best friend Rivalz.
• Masomi Kida of Durarara!! seems like this compared to the (sort of) protagonist, Mikado. While Mikado is fairly shy and reserved, Kida is a keet and Chivalrous Pervert constantly obsessed with hitting on girls. Ultimately subverted though, as Kida's personality and general cheerfulness is largely Obfuscating Stupidity, and he's actually pretty melancholic. As for Mikado, while he is shy, he hides his inner badass.
• Tadashi Teruya from 11eyes, Kakeru's best friend (somehow) and constant subject of derision by Shiori. Curiously, in Story of another side, he actually gets a chance to show that he's more than just the Butt-Monkey.
• Haiyore! Nyarko-san offers an unusual example with Yoichi; since the male lead Mahiro is Tsundere and high-strung thanks to his Unwanted Harem's antics, Yoichi plays the Foil by being cheerful and unflappable, which means he gets along well with the rest of the cast. He also has moments of Not So Above It All, such as when he believes Nyarko's Fake Pregnancy lie.
• In Haruhi Suzumiya, Taniguchi is a friend to the protagonist, Kyon, and is a Casanova Wannabe and a Small Name, Big Ego, whereas Kyon himself is a snarky Covert Pervert.
• Eishirou Sugata from Heaven's Lost Property. While he's a lot more reserved than Tomoki, he's also completely bonkers.
• Mugio in Kujibiki Unbalance (both versions).
• In Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, there's Makoto Isshiki, Yuuta's back-seat classmate who has a hobby of profiling girls in their class.
• Mahou Sensei Negima! has Chamo sort of filling this role early on, being a sort of Jerk Ass and Dirty Old Man to contrast with Negi's Adorably Precocious Child. Later on, Kotaro is introduced, being a Mouthy Kid to contrast with Negi's maturity.
• Yamato Kurose from Mayo Chiki! is this, though since the female lead pretends to be a man he teases the main character for being gay instead of lusting after her in his turn.
  • It also doesn't help that Jiro's friend, after seeing his fearful reaction from being touched by a female student, loudly questions in the middle of a crowded hallway if he is gay.

• Tatsukichi Hayama of MM! plays this straight, though he has someone who admires him.
• In My Bride is a Mermaid, Saru, though Nagasumi isn't as friendly with him as most examples.
• Nobunaga from Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. Yuuto's best friend who's very open about his fanboy tendencies, when the point of the series is to keep Haruka's own love of anime hidden.
• Otaku no Musume-san's titular otaku father has the added issue of his foil being a lolicon. The friend's admirer, who is totally oblivious to his taste, assumes that since he's clearly not attracted to young women, he might just be gay.
• Hyosuke from Please Teacher! is an interesting case in that he has a love interest of his own and yet he continues to act the part. Also, within the show itself, a character accused the main character of Ho Yay with him.

• Haruhiko Nezu from Princess Lover!! is the show's perpetual punching bag.
• Ryoga performs this role for the title character of Ranma ½: lawful, wrathful and guarded where Ranma tends to be chaotic, arrogant and trusting. Notably, he is outwardly much more shy and polite to pretty much everybody except Ranma, who is a major Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• In Seitokai no Ichizon, Ken has the bluntly stated goal of turning the entire (female) student council into his harem, and draws analogies to a main protagonist in ero-games that he plays. Kurimu, the President, responds that his actions are probably closer to this trope instead.
  • It's also a Shout-Out to Clannad: Ken states that his name can be written like "Okazaki" in kanji, and Kurimu answers "You mean Sunohara, right?".
• Edogawa from Sora No Manimani. In comparison to reserved bookworm Saku, he's loud, crazy and not even technically a member of the Astronomy Club.
• Saruyama from To Love-Ru. He's there just to be the envious friend that is jealous of Rito's ever growing harem. His Casanova Wannabe antics are also the exact opposite of Rito when it comes to trying to impress girls. Don't help that, in the sequel dDarkness, he gets pushed to the background.
• Wolfwood and Vash from Trigun have the bromance and the foil part going, including the dramatic fight, but not the rest. Wolfwood is about as cool as Vash, with a bonus of brooding, dark looks, and they use similar varieties of Obfuscating Stupidity.

Film

• Kevin Smith films are renown for their lancers, who, more often then not, serve as this.
  • Randal in Clerks and Clerks II
  • Brodie in Mallrats
  • Banky in Chasing Amy
  • Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is an inversion. Despite being the more obnoxious one of the pair, Jay is the romantic lead and Bob is his wingman.
• Dead Poets Society: Todd is this to Neil. Both trapped by controlling parents, the latter is outgoing, confident and seen rebelling and taking charge of life, while the former is quiet and shy and appears rather timid. In a surprise twist Neil is revealed to be the Decoy Protagonist, and Todd is the real hero.
• Sherlock Holmes (2009) has Sherlock and Dr. Watson, with the twist that Sherlock, the main character, is pretty much the foil.
• In Shaun of the Dead, Ed serves as this trope for the titular character Shaun. While Shaun may fail to impress his girlfriend, his step-father, and his younger co-workers, at least he has a girlfriend and a steady job. Ed, on the other hand, lives on Shaun's couch, plays video games all day, sells marijuana, can't be trusted to write down phone messages, and is prone to silent but deadly flatulence to break the tension of emotional moments.
• Men in Black had Buddy Cop variation with Agent K, The Stoic, and agent J, the Cowboy Cop.
• Roman from The Fast and the Furious franchise was this to Brian in the early movies, and the Smart Guy Tej in later installments.
• Star Wars had Lovable Rogue Han Solo and Farm Boy Luke Skywalker.
  • R2-D2 and C-3PO are a robotic take on this trope.
• Pirates of the Caribbean had Straight Man Will Turner and Wild Card Jack Sparrow.
• X-Men: First Class focuses mostly on the friendship between Badass Bookworm, Good Samaritan Charles and Byronic Hero turned Visionary Villain / Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Erik.
• Forrest and Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump eventually develop this kind of friendship.

Literature

• In Animorphs, Marco to Jake.
• In Over the Wine-Dark Sea Menedemos is a Jerk Jock, a Handsome Lech, and a Magnetic Hero. Sostratos is more austere and less charismatic but he is Good with Numbers and aspires to be The Philosopher. Naturally they can't stand each other.
• Harry Potter often contrasts between Harry, The Chosen One, and Ron, his Butt-Monkey best friend.
  • Remus Lupin is the Blue Oni foil to Broken Ace Sirius Black.
  • Dumbledore and Grindlewald were described as this as teenagers. Played with, seeing as Word of God says Dumbledore's feelings for Grindlewald weren't strictly platonic.
• Ford to Arthur inThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Live-Action TV

• Mack to Fitz in Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an interesting example: rather than opposing but complementary character traits, the two have polar opposite views of Fitz's Love Interest Simmons: Fitz is still desperately hung up on her despite the undeniably shabby way she treated him after his Dying Declaration of Love at the end of Season 1, while the usually affable and easygoing Mack openly dislikes her for the same reason and is the only character to really call her out on her behaviour.
• Beverly Hills, 90210 had Brandon, The Ace, and Troubled, but Cute Dylan. Brandon was also foiled to another friend, Steve - the Book Dumb Big Guy.
• True to form, Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory was this to Leonard in earlier episodes.
  • Howard. But probably in a different way...
• Buddy cops Andy and Darryl from Charmed, of the Agent Mulder and Agent Scully variation.
• Dogged Nice Guy Dawson and Rebellious Spirit Pacey from Dawson's Creek.
• In the earlier Degrassi seasons when Jimmy was the star athlete and his relationship with Ashley was center stage, Spinner's job was to be everything Jimmy wasn't.
• Will and Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Friends: Joey, Ross and Chandler all provide foils to each other in different ways, being an Ensemble Cast none of them are technically The Hero. Joey is The Casanova while Chandler and Ross are Hollywood Dateless. Ross is uptight while Joey and Chandler are relaxed. Chandler is Blue Oni to Ross and Joey's Red Oni. Interestingly Ross and Joey contrast the most but both interact with Chandler, who falls roughly in the middle, more than each other.
• Brian to Zach, and Zach to Dave in Gilmore Girls - a variation on the Rock Trio.
• Glee.:
  • The Lovable Jock Finn and Bad Boy Puck.
  • Seasons 4 and 5 also featured Dogged Nice Guy Ryder and Jake, The Casanova. They were direct expies of Finn and Puck, as Jake was Puck's younger brother, and Finn served as a Big Brother Mentor to Ryder. Word of God also said that their triangle with Nice Girl Marley was supposed to echo the popular Finchel/Puckleberry triangle from season 1.
  • In later seasons we have Blaine, The Ace, and Sam, The Ditz.
• Chuck Bass was originally this in Gossip Girl, with an abrasive personality, sex mania, disapproval from female cast members, and a falling out with best friend Nate (the male lead from the books). However, because of his popularity with fans, his affection for Blair (Nate's girlfriend and Love Interest) stopped being futile and they're now the Official Couple of the series.
• House and Wilson from ''House : the Stepford Smiler and the Snark Knight.

• Seth and Ryan in The O.C. - of the Sensitive Guy and Manly Man variation.
• Pretty Little Liars had Bash Brothers Caleb and Toby - on is a Tall, Dark, and Snarky Playful Hacker, while the other is a brooding, Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold.
• Star Trek has one of the more famous examples - Spock and McCoy.
• Dean to Sam on Supernatural.
• Adorkable Eric and Bad Boy Hyde from That '70s Show.
• Two and a Half Men inverts this. The Casanova Charlie Harper attracts girls with his loads of money and obnoxious behavior while (relatively) Dogged Nice Guy Alan is Hollywood Dateless.
• Narm, Fully-Embraced Fiend Damon to The Comically Serious, fettered Stefan in The Vampire Diaries.
• Lovable Rogue Logan and Nice Guy Duncan from Veronica Mars.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist Sam and Grumpy Bear Toby from The West Wing.

Theatre

• This is Older Than Steam: William Shakespeare did it.
  • Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet is this to a T. Benvolio has his moments too.
  • Also Graziano from The Merchant of Venice.
  • Iago from Othello is this trope deconstructed and then rebuilt, but Gone Horribly Wrong.
  • Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, technically part of the Beta Couple but usually thought of as the male lead.

Video Games

• Masaki "Maki" Edo from Gift ~eternal rainbow~. A master of crackpot inventions.
• One of the earliest examples is Yoshio Saotome from Tokimeki Memorial, the main chara's best friend as well as the older brother of Yumi, one of the possible love interests.
• The Persona series has a tendency to do this with characters of the Magician Arcana:
  • Persona 3 has two, Junpei and Kenji, the latter of which has you help him in a doomed attempt at love. Junpei's shot at love doesn't end much better, at first. Chidori dies after doing to Junpei what Wolverine did to Rogue in the first X-Men movie, only in reverse.
  • Yosuke fills the same shoes in Persona 4. His attempt at love is even more doomed: Not only is Saki murdered (and he later discovers she hated him all along), but her death is actually what gets the plot rolling.
• Alistair can act as one to a male Warden PC in Dragon Age: Origins.
• Mass Effect, Garrus serves as this to a male Shepard, especially if Paragon, where he's The Cowl to their Cape. In the third game, he even ends up hooking up with Tali, if Shepard didn't romance her.
• ''Xenoblade Chronicles: Reyn, the Boisterous Bruiser Dumb Muscle, plays this to the main character Shulk, The Engineer Chosen One. Reyn is a big, bulky guy with a crush on the Team Mom Sharla that is still mourning her missing past lover and looking for him, while Shulk is a much more introvert guy who is in love with his childhood friend Fiora, who reciprocates his feelings for her, while also having Melia fall for for him.

Visual Novels

• Kaine in A Profile acts as a foil by... being a largely normal person with normal human reactions, which is enough when compared to Masayuki. He also happens to be a female-to-male Transgender man.
• Possible subversion in Eien no Aselia. Kouin comes across as rather perverted and isn't as pretty as Yuuto... but he's also more intelligent, competent and even stronger than he is. He just lacks charisma.
• Uzuki from Sharin no Kuni counts as one, but he is definitively amongst the odder examples of this trope: Even the main character usually ends up as plagued by his antics as the Unwanted Harem. He's also Ambiguously Gay and shows little if any overt interest in any females on top of it.
• Kenji Setou of Katawa Shoujo is notable for lacking the usual perversion of this trope - he's a paranoid misogynist instead. Possibly a deliberate subversion, considering the dev team's origin. He also calls the main character "bro". In the first act no-girl route, he is the main character's companion during the School Festival.
• Sumiyoshi of Snow Sakura (eroge) is a very typical example, heavy on the Keet and perversion.
• Masayoshi does this to the protagonist Junichi in Amagami. Interestingly for a female variation, Kaoru does this as well whether she's the love interest of the arc or not.
• The Sociable, popular, hard working chick magnet Asino who is of average ability contrasts against the protagonist antisocial genius Chris from Symphonic Rain and is basically his only male friend. Though not perverted at all, if you go down Fal's route, it ends up with a Love Triangle between him, Chris and Fal.
• Youhei Sunohara from CLANNAD (both Visual Novel and Anime) is an example played straight, heavy on the Butt-Monkey. It was even lampshaded by Tomoya after he was ogling Tomoyo.
  He's one of those people who can never be the main role for anything.
• Suginami in both Da Capo and Da Capo II. Despite the large gap of years separating the two series, there will always be a Suginami, and he will always be there to serve as the protagonists' foil.
• Torahiko Ooshima from Morenatsu, a gay furry visual novel. Subverted, however, in that he's very tsundere-ish and is the game's canon route (when it gets released), also making him a homosexual example. It's further subverted: He's certainly got the outwardly abrasive part, and fits that part of the trope, but he's also Mr. Fanservice of the game, making it something of an act. It ends up reaching Stepford-y points, particularly during emotional parts of the game.
• Arihiko from Tsukihime is Shiki's only normal friend, as well as being a comic-relief slacker, pervert, and all-around failure.
  • Seorin's Let's Play lampshades the Ho Yay between the two and ramps it Up to Eleven.
  • Shiki doesn't really have "normal" friends. As pointed out in Kagetsu Tohya, they became friends because they've both had an encounter with death that is way too close for comfort. Satsuki isn't normal either; the Nanaya gland don't work on normal girls.
• Issei Ryudou from Fate/stay night, Shirou's only normal friend, comedic example of He-Man Woman Hater and the Unknown Rival of Rin, one of the heroines.
  • Of course, Issei is also the respected Student Council President, so he's a bit of a subversion.
• Taisuke Sawanaga from School Days, also Kotonoha's Dogged Nice Guy and the Plucky Comic Relief. Though he's more of a deconstruction, considering what he does to his crush in the anime and at least one game route...
• Steins;Gate has Daru, an otaku Lovable Sex Maniac and the worst guy Okabe could possibly get dating advice from.
  Daru: Excuse me, have you considered giving the wisdom between these pages a try?
  Okabe: That's a hentai game strategy guide, jackass!
• Kazuhiko "Kattchan" Miyoshi in True Love Junai Monogatari.
• Played straight by Aizawa Eiichi in G-Senjou no Maou and lampshaded in one of the many times he breaks the fourth wall.

Web Comics

• Konstantin from Tsunami Channel: Experimental Comic Kotone. Bonus points for constantly calling the unnamed protagonist "my brother" and being the Gay Option.
• Steve from Questionable Content. When he can get off the bus, that is. At first, this was about all there was to him, and he was prone to disappearing from the story for stretches of time. (Less than it seemed, though) Recently, he's been developing into his own character.
• Largo had shades of this, especially his characterization in the dating sim imagine spots earlier in the comic.
• Ja Wangnan, the actual main character of Tower of God's second season, to Chick Magnet Jyu Viole Grace aka 25th Baam, the main character of season one. It works, since Tower of God is mainly an action adventure with only a little romantic spice at the sidelines, but the foil and developing bromance as well as the complete opposite effect on women are there. It's also quite funny because Ja might actually not be into women.

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