Orphanage of Love

"We never called the place an Orphanage because we never felt that it was an Orphanage. It was our home."

— Itzchak "Itzchakele" Belfer on the Krochmalna Street Orphanage run by Yanusz Korczak

It's tough being an orphan. No parents, no home and a large chance you'll be placed in the horrible Orphanage of Fear. But some fictional orphans get lucky, and go to the Orphanage of Love instead.

At the Orphanage of Love, there's enough food for all, and it tastes good. The rooms are spacious and well lit, the beds are soft and laundry is done frequently. The staff genuinely care about their charges and competently take care of them until good foster homes can be found for their precious angels. (Because no matter how wonderful the Orphanage of Love is, actual parents are even better.)

Mind you, employee screening isn't perfect, and sometimes a Child Hater will somehow get on the staff and abuse the orphans until he can be exposed. Also, money is generally in short supply, so the heroes will often have to raise a bundle of cash to keep the place running or avoid having it foreclosed on by a Dastardly Whiplash land developer. Expect the heroes of the story to try Saving the Orphanage through whatever wacky means necessary. Expect the orphans themselves to get into the same act.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Blue Ramun: The Lezak District Orphanage might be run by a hardass, but the children are well treated — and most importantly, the Orphanage pays the medical taxes that enable their wards to be cared for by Lezak's Blue Doctor. The orphanage becomes a point of focus in Chapter 5, when a young girl from the Salaam slums goes to desperate lengths to get the orphanage to take in her terminally ill little brother, despite the fact that their good-for-nothing father is still in the picture.
• Same to the one Nadja lived in at the beginning of Ashita no Nadja. When Miss Applefield dies in an accident, however, it's dismantled.
• Pony Home, the orphanage that Candy of Candy♡Candy grew up in alongside her friend Tom and Annie, is one. Managed by Miss Pony and Sister Lane, it's a place where Candy often drops by when she's tired or dispirited.
• This is how red bone marrow is depicted in Cells at Work!. A chapel-like structure where blood progenitor cells are lovingly tended by Macrophages, depicted as maids, and White corpuscles, depicted as stark-white policemen.
• Rosette and Joshua Christopher from Chrono Crusade grew up in one named Seventh Bell after their parent's deaths. It's very understaffed (seeming to only have a single aging woman named Ms. Jean watching the kids) so the orphans seem to end up doing a lot of the chores, but they're well taken care of and seem to be spoiled rotten. It seemed like the ideal place for them to live, until Joshua went insane when he put a pair of demon's horns on his head, destroyed the orphanage and froze all of the orphans and Ms. Jean in stone.
• In Combattler V, Hyouma Aoi was raised in one that was run by a kindly nun. It certainly explains how badly he takes seeing children in risk.
• In Cowboy Bebop: Ed was raised in one of these. Her father is actually alive, but is such a flake that it really was the better living situation for her.
• Death Note: Whether Wammy's House is this or an Orphanage of Fear zigzags depending on which way your Fanon leans. Whichever way, the place cranks out Tyke Bombs like it's manufacturing them... While Mello, Near, and L seem to have been content with the place, others (like A and Beyond) are not so fortunate. It seems to depend on what level of Tyke Bomb you are.
• While not an actual orphanage, the majority of the wizards in the title guild of Fairy Tail are teens or young adults without family ties, who have come to look at the guild as their family. A lot of them have even been there since they were small children.
• Dee from FAKE was raised in an orphanage like this, It was nearly destroyed by a developer who wished to build on it and the orphanage's owner who raised Dee, a nun, is nearly killed.
• In Future Diary the orphanage that the 8th runs seems to be one of these, considering how far her kids go to protect her. And she seems willing to fight for the sake of the kids as well.
• Despite how much of a Crapsack World the story holds to, Goblin Slayer consistently shows the various temples dedicated to gods that take in orphans to be happy and loving places, with the ones raised there going on to be happy and well-adjusted people, with them only having bad experiences once they leave to experience the world. Priestess maintains great relationships with her fellow Earth Mother clergy, and while Chosen Heroine's rambunctious personality meant the God of Trade's priestesses had to be a bit stern in raising her, she still has fond memories of her childhood.
• Hana no Ko Lunlun has the heroine running across one in the South Italian countryside (not exactly mentioned where in Italy, but considering she had just left Sicily, it could be anywhere in Calabria), run by a nun named Sister Mariana and with kids from the age range of 5 to 15. The eldest children, lead by the Hot-Blooded Emilio, fret over cute little Lucero's condition and desperately seek for the money they need for her operation, so they're overjoyed when there are rumors about a hidden treasure coming from World War II. It wasn't a treasure... but an old bomb.
• It's implied that Father Anderson is the head of one of these in Hellsing. Since for most of the series we see him being a monster-hunting Blood Knight zealot, seeing him treat the children with actual gentleness and kindness is something of a shock. The kids at the orphanage, in turn, seem to love him dearly, and some of the members of his Iscariot Organization are people who grew up in his orphanage.
• Najika of Kitchen Princess had one of these in the Lavender House, which the director of her school tried to shut down, in order to blackmail Najika into losing a cooking contest. It didn't work.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Tohma from Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force was sent to one of these after his hometown was destroyed. He would have gone on to be Happily Adopted if the plot hadn't come along.
  • Rinne and Fuka from ViVid Strike! spent their early years in an orphanage run by the Saint Church, though both have left by the time the story starts.
• The Maxwell Church from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing was very poor, but otherwise it did well and was run by the kind Father Maxwell and his assistant Sister Helen. Pity it was blown up in the war and the only survivor, Duo, was quite traumatised.
• Kabuto of Naruto ended up in one after his original home was destroyed in a war and he lost his memory. While by no means perfect, the children and one of the caretakers accepted him as family. Even years since last seeing them, his fellow orphans think of him as a brother. Also offers a much grimmer example of protecting it from closure: while still a child, Kabuto became a spy for Konoha to prevent Danzo shutting off the aid.
  • It's also part of his Start of Darkness, when said caretaker ends up in a fight against Kabuto and doesn't recognize him due to brainwashing.
  • After he reconciles his identity issues, Kabuto becomes the new caretaker of said orphanage.
• Subverted in One Piece: Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin spent some time in one run by the famous Badass Preacher Mother Carmel... but in reality, Carmel was a slave trader who took in unwanted kids to then sell them to pirates and the Marines. She wanted to pawn off Linlin to the highest bidder, so she took the incredibly big and powerful little girl in and pretended to love her while enabling her worst habits... and during Linlin's sixth birthday it bit her and the other orphans in the ass. Literally.
• Epsilon of Pluto runs one of these for human war orphans.
• In Pokémon Adventures, Earl's Pokémon Academy doubles as this. As the place was low on funds and falling apart, Crystal decided to work for Professor Oak to pay for everything the kids needed. Her selfless attitude inspires Emerald to become a Pokedex Holder.
• Subverted in The Promised Neverland: Grace Field House seems to be this, with thirty-eight happy children and a loving caretaker whom they all call "Mom." However, the First-Episode Twist reveals that the facility is actually a human farm, and all the kids who get "adopted" are actually eaten by demons.
• In the Saint Seiya anime, the title character and his older sister Seika spent some time in one of these before Seiya was forcibly taken in by the Kido Fundation and Seika disappeared in search of him. It's featured once in a while since Seiya's Unlucky Childhood Friend Miho still lives and works in it, so in his (almost nonexistant) free time Seiya tends to hang out there, sometimes with Saori and the other Saints joining him. This is a plot point in one of the non-serial movies: Eri, the newest worker at said orphanage, is at the receiving end of a Grand Theft Me by Eris the Goddess of Revenge.
• Yurii Orhanage, the former home of the heroine Spirits in Shy.
• Tsukipro's Issei and Ichiru grew up on one of these, more or less. The people there were kind, and took the kids on picnics with octopus hot dogs, that they nicknamed "tako-tako-kun". When the twins star in a play after moving to Tokyo and becoming idols, the caretakers from the orphanage come to see their play, and are happy for them.
• Trigun - Wolfwood grew up in one of these... which is ironic since it is a Tyke Bomb group, in the anime, at least. The manga plays it much straighter, as the Tyke Bomb organization is an entirely separate entity. We even get to see Wolfwood go back and see them, except the kids haven't grown up as much as he has.
• In The World God Only Knows, Keima is surprised to find that his partner Elsie grew up in one. After the war, many young devils lost their parents, so she was at a government-sponsored home with five hundred other children. She's as upbeat about this as she is with everything else, and even notes that the biological daughter of the patron was like a big sister to all of them.

Comic Books

• In the New 52 reboot of Batman, the ultimate Talon, Bruce Wayne's self-claimed brother Thomas Wayne Junior was seriously injured in his youth and sent to a prominent children's hospital by his parents to recover in secret. Thanks to the Waynes' funding, the hospital fit this trope. Sadly, when they were killed the funding dried up and the hospital became an Orphanage of Fear. Talon wants revenge on Bruce for their parents' deaths which lead directly to his life becoming a living hell. At least, that's his story, Batman points out several flaws in it, but never learns the truth either way.
• Midway Orphanage in Batman/Superman: World's Finest (1990 miniseries), at least once a crook stops being a co-manager.
• An example can be found in the World War I serial "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill"- after selling off the jewelry and miscellaneous Plunder she "reclaimed" from the German officer who tried to shoot her, Golden Eyes finds she has "enough and more in [her] small fist to provide for around hundred French babies—orphaned by War!" The next paragraph finds her at a "beautiful chateau," far from the front lines, surrounded by happy children who call her "petite maman." It's unclear whether or not Golden Eyes founded the orphanage or if she's just a generous benefactor, as the war orphans are never mentioned again.^note  The installment functions as a sort of a Breather Episode (and a chance for Golden Eyes to Pet the Dog even more than she usually does) after her capture by the above-mentioned German officer, which resulted in a combination I Have You Now, My Pretty/ Go-Go Enslavement/ Captive Date arc, followed by a Just in Time rescue from Golden Eyes' sweetheart and their Canine Companion when she's moments away from being executed for espionage.
• ORPHANIMO!! is all about an orphanage of love. The last five orphans living there love the place and its owner so much, they sabotage every attempt of the owner to find them adoptive parents. A rich and powerful industrialist however wants to buy the orphanage to use the ground for his latest building. The orphans, of course, try to prevent this in every way possible.
• The Vasquez' foster home in Shazam! (2012) technically qualifies since they're considered a group home by the state. They consider themselves a Family of Choice though.
• Superman:
  • In the Pre-Crisis era, the Smallville Orphanage (where the Kents left baby Kal-El at, before returning to formally adopt him) was usually also shown as such.
  • The Supergirl From Krypton (1959): Although Superman was dickish enough to put his cousin Supergirl in an orphanage after her arrival, at least he cared enough to make sure the Midvale Orphanage was really nice. Nonetheless, it was retconned in Supergirl (1982) that Kara hated the place.
• When Wonder Girl Donna Troy finally learns her what her past was prior to being rescued by Wonder Woman and raised on Themyscira in Who Is Donna Troy? she finds out she was placed in an orphanage that managed to combine this with Orphanage of Fear, as the loving atmosphere and kind caretaker were taken advantage of by a lawyer who used the facility to sell children into slavery. The elderly matron who ran the place was heartbroken by the revelation, but still cares for all the orphans she cared for.

Fan Works

• In the sixth chapter of the Miraculous Ladybug fic "The Legend of Royal Blue and La Sylphide," it is revealed that, before going to live with his grandfather, Gabriel spent three years in one of these called Schaeffer's Home for Children^note "Le Foyer de Schaeffer pour Enfants" in French. Run by the same family for generations, Nicole the Apron Matron devotedly cares for the kids and raised her own son alongside them without any signs of favoritism. The otherwise antisocial Gabriel is so fond of the place that he comes to Nicole's birthday party every year, and is furious when the Monster of the Week dares to attack it.
• Soren from The Night Unfurls was raised in one of these, named Little Angel's Orphanage. Accompanied by Lily, Soren later visits the old building that was once his childhood home to reunite with the caretaker and the children. It turns out that this place was once in dire straits, which motivated Soren to obtain money via thieving to support the orphanage.
• Downplayed in The Outside in that it's a group foster home instead of the usual orphanage that Ryuuko gets sent to, but, nevertheless, it's nice place and the staff genuinely cares for the kids. However, Ryuuko didn't much care for the idea.
• Skyhold Academy Yearbook: Skyhold Academy, a Boarding School in Thedas, is actually something very much like this, but they keep it secret from most people. The students who board there during the school year are either orphans or come from abusive backgrounds, and the school is on a mission to rescue them and give them a safe place to grow up.
• The orphanage Tanya von Degurechaff was raised in is identified as this in A Young Woman's Political Record and A Young Girl's Delinquency Record. In the former, despite starting out as a sociopath, Tanya acknowledges the nuns were always devoted to the children and makes it a point to either send gifts or drop by herself when she has the time; in the latter, an investigation is briefly launched into their finances after the immense success of the film Arene, which depicts the brutal conditions of the orphanage, until the nuns produce the financial records and show how little money they had to work with and that everyone helped in every way they could.

Films — Animation

• The Care Bears Movie has as its framing device a man named Mr. Cherrywood telling a bedtime story to kids at an orphanage. From what little we see of it, the children seem to love the staff.
• The orphanage in Meet the Robinsons where Lewis and Goob grow up appears to be one of these, complete with kindly matron Mildred Duffy. Interestingly, the DVD commentary says that Mildred is careful to not coddle the children too much, since they need to be able to leave when adopted without emotional hang-ups. The biggest problem at Lewis's orphanage is, well, Lewis himself, though he gets better.
• My Life as a Zucchini follows Icare/Courgette being sent to a foster home called Fontaine's after his abusive mother dies. Fortunately for Courgette and the other kids, who are all victims of traumatic experiences, Fontaine's is a safe place with friendly staff.
• The orphanage where Tim lives in Nocturna doesn't really feature too much in the movie, but it appears to be more or less this trope; children are given the run of the place during the daylight hours and there are plenty of toys to keep them amused. The only hitch is that Tim tends to be given rather a rough time by the other children because of his noisy bedtime ritual.
• In The Rescuers, what little we see of Morningside Orphanage where Penny lives seems to be this. The children are well clothed, have toys and other belongings, and are given cookies with their meals. Also, after Penny is kidnapped, the Message in a Bottle she sends is addressed to the orphanage (although the mice find it first), indicating that she trusts the staff to come to her rescue.

Films — Live-Action

• St. Gabriel's Home for Orphan Girls in the original Angels in the Outfield is definitely this.
  • So is the foster home in the remake, run by a kindly woman named Maggie.
• The main plot of Blossoms in the Dust. Activist Edna Gladney, appalled by the thoughtless treatment of orphaned and abandoned children, founds an Orphanage of Love dedicated to taking care of such children and matching them with adoptive parents.
• St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage is, despite being run by The Penguin, a pleasant place. It must be, because The Blues Brothers wouldn't have risked everything to save it otherwise. They also found out that their mentor, Curtis, would be thrown out on the street once the sale of the orphanage was final.
• Boys Town is fictionalized account of the founding of a real Orphanage of Love aimed specifically at troubled youths, though it also deals with boys who aren't orphans as well.
• Dead Again: It's implied the orphanage Grace ends up at when she loses her memory is this; Mike Church actually grew up in the orphanage, and he took the case of trying to find out what happened to Grace as a favor to Father Tim, who runs the orphanage, because he credits the priest for helping straighten him out. Of course, that's Tough Love, but Mike seems to have nothing but fond memories of the place.
• Escape to Witch Mountain: The orphanage the siblings stay at has a polite and caring owner, lots of kids happily playing around the place and comfortable-looking rooms. The only person with anything bad to say about the place is The Bully.
• The orphanage in Love Affair, run by a kindly headmaster who hires Terry to teach music and singing to the children.
• Madame Rosa: Madame Rosa runs an unlicensed orphanage in her own apartment. But she plainly loves her little charges, as shown by how tenderly she tucks them in.
• The orphanage in Mighty Joe Young seems to have been one of these, a kindly, concerned staff and a large, well kept building. Unfortunately, it catches fire. Luckily, Mighty Joe Young is there to ensure all the children are saved.
• Nothing but the Night: Oddly enough, despite being an orphanage in a horror film, Iver House seems to be an extremely well run institution, and all the children there appear very happy. Of course, they do not know what is going on behind the scenes...
• Relative Fear: Linda's real son is being kept in an orphanage with a decent facility that resembles a normal school, and an administrator who shows genuine concern for him despite his supposed relation to a Serial Killer.
• The UN refugee camp for displaced children in The Search, run by hardworking, kindly Mrs. Murray, who is trying to find homes for children displaced by World War II.
• The Three Stooges: The Movie: The orphanage Moe, Larry, and Curly are brought up in, Sisters of Mercy, is depicted as this, in spite of the Stooges' trademark antics causing the sisters, Sister Mary-Menglele in particular, plenty of injury and grief. When the orphanage is threatened with foreclosure, the Stooges head out to raise the $830,000 needed to save it, with results atypical of the trio.
• Also implied in Untamed Heart, at least as far as where Adam is concerned. The nuns take care of him all the time because he's sick, and read to him the story of how he (supposedly) got his heart.
• X-Men Film Series: Considering how they live in a world where they're hated or feared, many mutant kids are thrown out or run away from home once they develop their powers. As such, Professor X turned his home into a school and safe haven for mutant kids and teens (like Rogue), though he also willingly takes in and helps any adult mutants who come along (such as Logan). His first students are loyal enough to him that they remain at the school and act as teachers.

Literature

• The orphanage in Adopt A Ghost certainly applies, to the point at which the children love the matron and other orphans so much that they try to avoid being adopted if possible.
• Rani from Born Behind Bars ends up in one, run by a woman who goes by Viji Aunty. Because being indoors makes her feel trapped, she's allowed to sleep in a tent in the yard with other kids like her and have her lessons under a tree. The adults are kind, and there's enough food for everyone.
• In Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey, the protagonist's backstory features such an orphanage:
  It was a very good orphanage; a great deal happier than many a home he had seen in passing since. The children had loved it. They had wept when they left and had come back for visits; they had sent contributions to the funds; they had invited the staff to their marriages, and brought their subsequent children for the matron's approval. There was never a day when some old girl or boy was not cluttering up the front door.
• The orphanage at Abbot's Holme in Number Seven Queer Street The Case of the White Snake is run by Miles' cousin Jane Ormond, who has dedicated her life to making the institution as comfortable and loving as it can be. She led the charge to see the dreary 1870's building renovated with cheerful murals of Disney cartoons painted on the walls, sprawling green lawns planted for the children to play on, and a gymnasium built for the children. Their gray uniforms were replaced with colorful clothes at Jane's insistence, and even the caretakers wear brightly colored dresses instead of drab habits. Jane's first priority is to make sure the children know they are loved and cared for, and she is clearly beloved by her charges.
• In John C. Wright's Chronicles of Chaos, the boarding school straddles the line between this and Orphanage of Fear. On the one hand, they are treated affectionately and given an excellent education. On the other hand, the teachers are under orders to kill them if they start remembering things.
• The foundling hall in Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra is run by a caring and fiercely protective Leontine woman who treats the orphans as her own and does everything she can to keep them well fed, well clothed, and well educated.
• The Cider House Rules had a loving, if shabby around the edges and low on funding, orphanage-and-abortion-clinic.
• Jean Webster's book Dear Enemy is composed of letters written to various people about the goings-on after the heroine takes on the responsibility of an orphanage, which used to border on Orphanage of Fear until she came along. The "Enemy" of the title is the doctor with whom the heroine cannot get along (for most of the book, at least). The orphanage suffers from a lack of staff and money, but at least manages to get some community support when a fire burns the place down and the orphans get sheltered with various townsfolk for a while.
• Numerous implied ones in the web-novel Domina. With the exceptions of Derek, Laura, and Akane, pretty much everyone born in the city is an orphan (and even those three are missing one parent each), so orphanages are discussed in the same way parents are discussed in normal cities. The kids complain about their patrons and matrons, but clearly feel safe enough to go back to them at the end of the day. It probably helps that the local Reasonable Authority Figure has a habit of completely annihilating anyone who harms children.
• In the Dreamblood Duology, there's the Hetawa's House of Children. Everyone seems to come out of it as Happily Adopted, as it provides for and educates children who would otherwise have had to grow up in poverty and on their own.
• Deconstructed a bit in Dresden Files. Harry, who lived in one, points out that no matter how kind the people in the system are to you, it is still a system with lots of people to deal with.
• In the Girls Of The Good Day Orphanage series, the eponymous orphanage is one of these. They do have to deal with a stingy financial manager who tut-tuts at what he sees as "frivolities" (things like good food and toys), but the women who are actually in charge of caring for the girls are basically surrogate parents to them. In one book where the two women both have to be away for a while, the woman they bring in as a substitute caregiver is equally kind and loving, notably helping one girl who has low self-esteem realize that You Are Better Than You Think You Are by making a point of recognizing the things she does right (for example, when the girl makes some mistakes in a spelling test, the woman still praises her for getting seven out of ten right rather than criticize her for not getting all ten).
• In Hours (2012), Bethel Woods Orphanage is well run and well funded, even providing an allowance for performing extra chores. Just don't talk about "shimmerings", the mysterious program that children are randomly selected for when they reach a certain age.
• In Jane Eyre, Jane gets sent off to Lowood - a boarding school that is basically for orphans and poor children - which goes from an Orphanage of Fear to Orphanage of Love over time.
• In Kushiel's Legacy, Imriel grows up in a temple of Elua, and although his mother is alive he doesn't learn this until much later.
• When Aunt March dies in Little Women, she bequeaths her enormous estate of Plumfield to Jo. Jo and her husband Fritz turn it into Plumfield Estate School, a boarding school for young men in need (some of them orphans), and it forms the setting of the sequel novel Little Men.

• "In an old house in Paris, all covered in vines, lived twelve little girls, in two straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline". Though it's technically a boarding school, Madeline herself is an orphan (in the live-action movie, anyway^note In the original books, she at least has a father, as revealed in the very first one.) and the other kids' parents never really figure into the plot.
• The Yorkburg Female Orphan Asylum in Mary Cary Frequently Martha would qualify, especially after the arrival of Miss Katherine, who comes to live there and work as a nurse without a salary and makes a lot of changes: better food, nicer Christmases, and improvements via some donations s from her rich brother.
• In The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Mma Potokwane's orphan farm is run by a caring woman who firmly believes that a child needs love.
• Natalie Savage Carlson's twenty Orphelines lived happily in a small private orphanage run by Mme. Flattot and her assistant Genevieve. There were several books about these little girls, who regarded themselves as a family and didn't want to be adopted.
• In Rose in Bloom, the sequel to Eight Cousins, the now-grown Rose decides to use a large portion of her inherited wealth to establish the Rose Garden, which is one of these.
• Sharpe: In Sharpe's Prey, the orphanage at which Astrid works is this. Sharpe, who grew up in an Orphanage of Fear, takes a while to actually understand the concept.
• Mother Karen's home in Spellbent and Shotgun Sorceress by Lucy Snyder is one of these. Mother Karen herself rivals Fred Rogers in the "Friend to all children" category and is unfailingly kind even when monumentally stressed out. What she can't do, she relies on the teenage orphans (raised under her sterling example, of course) to do.
• Downplayed in Steve Berry's The Third Secret. The Romanian orphanage is... a Romanian orphanage. But the nuns and priest who run it are very kind. There just isn't enough money. Fr. Tibor's holding the place together with Scotch tape and rosary beads before he's murdered. But Fr. Colin is inspired to make the orphanage his life's mission, and he's bringing his considerable personal fortune with him.
• Which Witch?, at the end when the old matron-turned spider is replaced by a sweeter woman.
• You Can Be a Cyborg When You're Older by Richard Roberts: Ms. Understanding's orphanage is full of love despite the fact it is underfunded and barely keeping above water. The fact it is one by one of the few sane AI left in the world helps make it a place of love as she is literally programmed to give the children unconditional love in a Crapsack World.

Live-Action TV

• The A-Team: Face was raised in an orphanage from a young age. While he was a bit upset that he never had a real family growing up, every time he reminisces about the orphanage it's a happy memory. We even get to meet a couple of the nuns who raised him in one episode and the kids under their care look fine.
• Played with in Argentinian soap-opera Chiquititas. It starts as a true orphanage of love, all the girls get to eat good food, sweets, a nice place to sleep and go to school. However, as soon as the plot starts marching on and the real reason for why the orphanage was built on the first place is revealed to both the characters and the viewers, it slowly descends into an Orphanage of Fear. Then, when the Big Good finally gets full control of the orphanage by the third season, it goes back to orphanage of love again.
• Jeremiah: The series finale features a school/orphanage for children who were born out of Teen Pregnancy in the aftermath of the apocalyptic Big Death and are well-educated and cared for physically and emotionally.
• Million Yen Women deconstructs the idea from the orphan's point of view. Midori was abandonned by her parents at a young age. She ended up in an orphanage run by a couple who made it a rule to be called "mom" and "dad" by their wards and asked them to treat each other as siblings. Possibly due to her history, Midori never liked the setup, considers it to have been an abnormal upbringing and wanted to get out as fast as she could. The only other orphan she considered anything close to an actual relative was an older boy who was asked to show her around upon her arrival.
• Sister Kate features a bunch of kids who are living quite happily in an orphanage with the titular Sister Kate, who is hired to look after them after they ran off the home's last caretaker.
• When Hope Calls centers upon two sisters in their mid-twenties who start an orphanage in early 20th century Canada. As they lost their own parents when they were very small, they are determined to provide the best life possible for the children in their care.

Tabletop Games

• In the Champions supplement Allies, the tokusatsu-inspired Zen Team operates out of such an orphanage as part of their cover. The children weren't fooled for long.

Video Games

• Jade from Beyond Good & Evil operates her Lighthouse Shelter, specifically for war orphans. They run a little low on cash sometimes, but there's warm beds, plenty of food, a Big Friendly Dog, and, you know—lighthouses are inherently cool.
• In Demonbane, Sister Leica runs one in the church she's in charge of, taking care of three orphaned kids. They all adore her, and she treats them as though they were her own children.
• The entire playable party (plus Seifer, minus Rinoa) in Final Fantasy VIII grew up in one. GF-induced amnesia made everyone except Irvine forget.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Libra the War Monk builds and mantains one of these in all of his endings ^note Save the one with a girl Avatar, since those are generic. (Though nothing says they couldn't have done so anyway.). If he's married, his wife (and presumably their child) will help him out take care of the orphans — with different results, depending on who his lady is: Miriel is a bit stand-offish, both Lissa and Nowi become One of the Kids, Tharja is Tsundere to them, Sully is the local Cool Big Sis, etc.
  • Before Awakening took place, there was the orphanage in Genealogy of the Holy War where Patty and Faval (or their expies Daisy and Asaello) used to live. Either Patty or Daisy will become a thief to help feeding the kids, while either Faval or Asaello will be hired by the enemy nobleman Bloome under the promise of getting enough money to sustain it. Both can be recruited into the group.
  • In Thracia 776, Misha works for the Silesse army to help feeding and raising the children of one of these. She can be recruited into the main group, however.
  • In Blazing Blade's epilogue, Lucius (who Libra above was based on) also opens an orphanage, what with him being a war orphan as well. It's implied to be the same one that Nino's children, Lugh and Raigh, grew up in between that game and Binding Blade, which unfortunately doesn't bode well for Lucius, since that orphanage was destroyed during Bern's invasion. (The closest to a subversion of this bad ending would be his shared one with his master Raymond aka Raven, in which Lucius remains as Raven's vassal as they go Walking the Earth.)
  • In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the White Magician Girl Tatiana tells Alm that she was raised in one belonging to the Church of Rigel. She became a Cleric/Saint as thanks to the church staff that was so kind to her.
• Hatoful House, in the backstory of Hatoful Boyfriend, was a bit short on money. There were thirteen birds and a caretaker there, and medicine cost much more than food. Older orphans would contribute by working and bringing their salaries back. Still, the Ill Boy worried about being a burden aside, they were happy. Everyone there was a war orphan, their parents killed by humans. It's human terrorists who came and killed most of them.
• In the backstory of Jade Empire, there was one in Tien's Landing. The monstrous Emperor decided to flood the town while the orphan-keeper was out buying food. He tried to save his orphans, but failed to get them all out. Ten years later, the ghosts of the orphans want peace and the old man is still beating himself up and drowning his sorrows at the tavern over his failure. Your Spirit Monk can allow him to be killed by the angry ghosts, or earn a heartwarming moment by allowing the old man to make amends by giving the tots a proper burial.
• Hanako Ikezawa from Katawa Shoujo lived there until she came to Yamaku. It's more of a downplayed example, however: while the staff treated Hanako kindly, she was kind of a Parental Substitute for the youngest children in her last days there and she got to enjoy the place's small library, she still couldn't make friends, and it didn't keep her from being bullied outside of it in her middle school years.
• Like a Dragon:
  • From Yakuza 3 onwards, series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu runs one in Okinawa. His kids have a loving father figure who feeds them, gives them shelter, educates them and overall is one cool dad... and if someone messes with them, he'll savagely beat them til they puke their sternum out.
  • Established in the first game, Kiryu, along with Nishiki and Yumi, among others, were raised in Sunflower Orphanage, which seems to be regarded fondly by all of them. That it was evidently a caring environment is especially surprising considering it was founded/run by a yakuza hitman to house the children he orphaned in the course of his business.
• The third world in Mystic Ark could essentially be summed up as this ( Even though they never had parents to begin with and Cecille (the caretaker) created everything from the ground up with the help of the Wisdom Ark), though for a good half of the time you spend in that world, Chimera, influencing Cecile, turns it into the opposite, especially during the final part of your visit there when the orphanage is overrun by monsters.
• In MS Saga: A New Dawn, the hero and his cowardly sidekick were raised in one, complete with the kind, matronly caretaker. Of course, this being Gundam-related, it gets attacked by Zakus and burned down with everyone but the two of them inside.
• Persona 3 implies that Akihiko Sanada and Shinjiro Aragaki also grew up in one; in Akihiko's Social Link in the PSP release of the game, he mentions that the orphanage lacked good food and toys, but everyone was well-taken care of.
• This is in Kou Ichijo's backstory in Persona 4. This causes him to be looked down by some members of the family who adopted him.
• Milla Vodello in Psychonauts has a backstory where she worked in one of these. Until the orphans tragically died in a fire, an event that haunts her subconscious to this day.
• Rutee Katrea of Tales of Destiny grew up in the Dunamis orphanage, and her desire to help them out financially drives her money-seeking ways. After the events of the game, she and Stahn get married and eventually take over running it— their biological son Kyle even takes "Dunamis" as a surname so that the other orphans don't feel left out.
• Court Seim from Wild ARMs is a village full of orphans who are clearly loved and cared for, while doing their best to keep things running. It turns out to be the real reason Jane is so focused on getting as much money as possible. She's the orphanage's breadwinner and she sticks with the job because the orphans see her as a Cool Big Sis.
• In World of Warcraft both the horde and the alliance both have an orphanage in their capital cities for children who lost their parents due to the war. Both are run by caring and loving women, and they all seem to have lots of fun there. And once a week every year they host a holiday event whee players take a kid on a world wide trip to give them a perfect day out.
  • Unfortunately, the Lord British Postulate extends to these kindly matrons. When they relocate to take their charges trick-or-treating, some of the less desirable elements may target the matrons.

Web Animation

• Shrapnel: Reznya works at/runs/helps out an orphanage, and is very loving and motherly towards the children there.

Webcomics

• In Disney High School, several characters (Aladdin, Flynn, Peter Pan) live at the Good Home for Lost Boys, run by Cornelius and Franny Robinson. It hasn't been seen on-page yet, but they're dishing out money for their kids to attend a fancy private school, so it's clearly a nice place.
• minus.: One is portrayed◊ after minus sends a little girl back in time (to the beginning of the 20th century).
• The title character of Selkie was adopted from one, and it continues to be an important setting throughout the story.

Western Animation

• The San Lorenzo orphanage in The Adventures of Puss in Boots: Señora Zapata might seem strict and bossy, but she genuinely wants what's best for the kids, and Dulcinea is there to soften her sharp edges. Taken to extremes in "Lost and Foundlings": the first time someone actually wants to adopt one of the orphans, Zapata and Duclinea are in tears at the thought of losing one of them, while doing a hilariously bad job of showing a brave face for the sake of the children. None of them want to leave either, and in the end the prospective parent moves into the orphanage!
• The Animaniacs episode "The Big Candy Store" features an orphanage lovingly run by a sweet Irish nun. The mean candy store owner Mr. Flaxseed's refusal to donate candy to the kids for Easter sets him up for karmic retribution from the Warner siblings — and when the Irish nun and her fellow sisters see him mistreating the Warners, they unleash some serious Mama Bear payback of their own.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, but with imaginary friends whose owners have grown-up and left them. It has a surprisingly very very very small staff for such a one-of-a-kind place, but everyone there generally enjoys their stay. Madame Foster and her granddaughter, Frankie Foster, along with Madame Foster's own childhood imaginary friend, Mr. Herriman, are essentially administrators. Many of the orphaned friends do a lot of work to keep the place running, though Frankie has to take up the slack.
• The Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium from Futurama is as close as it gets to this trope, operating in a Crapsack World on a shoestring budget. All of Leela's memories of the place are good (save for the teasing about her eye), the director genuinely cares about the kids and he generally works hard on making them happy and finding them new parents. Of course, this being Futurama, it's more of a Hilariously Abusive Childhood that Leela has fond memories of in a manner similar to Phoebe (and some other folks) in Friends, complete with much of the humor coming from her talking of it as if it were great fun. For one example of what it's really like, they didn't have any books... because they ate them to avoid starvation since they didn't have any food. Leela also remembers genuinely fondly of how the warden used to tell her "You're worthless and no-one will ever love you!"
• Jem: Starlight House isn't an orphanage, it's a foster home, but the same principle applies. How amazing it is is lampshaded when three of the girls run away and get called out for leaving such a positive place to live on the streets.
• In My Little Pony Tales, Patch used to live in one of those before being adopted, and she seems to have pretty fond memories of the place, as she still has friends there and loves to help other orphan ponies.

Real Life

• The Children's Home in Warsaw run by the Friend to All Children Janusz Korczak appears to have been this. The children had their own court, they were treated fairly, and the two heads worried themselves silly if a child refused to eat. Despite offers from virtually everyone (Jewish Council, Polish Resistance, German Police) to keep him safe, director Korczak went with the 192 survivors to Treblinka. He didn't want them to be worried, so he kept them oblivious to the facility's purpose for as long as possible, and he didn't want to live without them.
• The Coram Hospital, revolutionary in its day.
• The Palmer Home makes an effort to be this.

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