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Series Mascot

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I can feel the money loosening from my wallet already.

A character, creature, etc. which is heavily associated with a fictional universe, to the point of being the (official or unofficial) mascot. This can be despite the presence of other creatures, characters, etc. Likewise, it usually features good guys as iconic characters of their franchise. In Video Games, this tends to be a popular enemy (or unit) and can overlap with Mascot Mook or Mascot Villain. In other works, the role can often fall to the Team Pet or another Ridiculously Cute Critter or Sidekick Creature Nuisance.

See Mascot for when this is used to advertise a product.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

"Cute" Series Mascots:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Happy serves as this for Fairy Tail. Notably, unlike his fellow Exceeds, Carla and Panther Lily, he doesn't get a power up at any point in the series. Amusingly, a different version of Happy also serves as this for Hiro Mashima's succeeding work, EDENS ZERO.
  • Black Hayate (a puppy) and to a lesser extent Xiao May (a baby panda) in Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • For Full Metal Panic!, there's Bonta-kun, with the entire second season being named after the sounds he makes, "Fumoffu".
  • Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden gets one in the form of Genbu Celestial Warrior, Namame... who's a lovable 8cm ball of rock.
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has the Tachikomas, the world's cutest giant spider-tanks.
  • Sadaharu and Elizabeth from Gintama. The series also parodies the whole mascot concept with Makoto-chan, the ill-advised, short-lived mascot of the Shinsengumi.
  • Gundam:
    • Haro is this despite not appearing in four of the seven Alternate Universes, as well as the mascot for the company Sunrise. In fact, Haro always shows up on the Vanity Plate for the company in recent titles, making the dotted i in the company name.
    • Invoked in full force for the Gundam Build continuity with the Petitguys, made in every possible color and even colors homaging a previous season, Gundam 00. While they're still in the franchise as of Gundam Build Divers, they're in significantly less numbers, with the load shared by the return of Haro.
  • For Heroic Age it's B-Navi. Be careful though, because it actually transforms into a gun used to fire the Cool Ship's main weapon.
  • Jewelpet has Ruby the white rabbit.
  • Kodocha has a ubiquitous bat/rabbit hybrid, appropriately named Babbit. It probably exists only for this trope.
  • Moyashimon has an unusual example: a cutesy, anthropomorphic Aspergillus oryzae spore.
  • Natsume's Book of Friends: A lot of merch features Nyanko-sensei or Nyanko-sensei's face, since he's easy to draw and recognizable. In fact, since the protagonist Natsume has a pretty generic design, fanart and illustrations will often include Nyanko-sensei if Natsume isn't holding the Yuujinchou.
  • Pen-Pen from Neon Genesis Evangelion is a quirky penguin that fits the mold as a "cute" series mascot, but is marketed far less than EVA Unit-01 and the two female leads, and is even absent from the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie.
  • One Piece: Due to his popularity, Chopper has gradually become an icon for the series, to the point where it seems he and Luffy are the only characters.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pocket Monsters has both Red's Pikachu and his Clefairy. The Clefairy is a reference to how Clefairy was the original choice for the Pokémon mascot.
    • Pikachu is the de facto mascot for the animated series and (slightly less so) for the games.
  • Suzuri from RideBack. Unusual in that she's one of those rare cute sidekick-type characters who not only dies during the series, but dies rather brutally (we don't see her head getting crushed; that happens off-screen. But we do see the blood on the asphalt).
  • Seiyu's Life!:
    • Futaba's stuffed animal acts as one for, explaining to the audience the inner workings of being a voice actor.
    • Futaba herself voiced Pipo, the mascot for Buddha Fighter Bodhisattvon, before they were unceremoniously killed off in episode 2.
  • Shimoneta: Ayame is the (literal) poster girl and face of the series, who also falls under the "hot" classification. She's featured in all marketing material and promotional art, usually in her "Blue Snow" disguise.
  • Tenchi Muyo! has the adorable cabbit (cat/rabbit) Ryo-Ohki, which has the ability to transform into a spaceship.
  • Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! has the "Kuso Cat", a gray cat with a perpetually shocked face that's constantly observing the cast's antics. It also serves as the Author Avatar in omakes and Gag Censor whenever the cast find themselves in compromised situations.
  • Welcome to the NHK:
    • Sato lampshades this trope by saying "Every RPG needs a wimpy mascot character!" while beating up a lookalike for Dragon Quest's Slimes.
    • The series itself actually contains a de facto mascot in the form of that creepy-adorable dancing purple alien that is used as a personification for "conspiracy".
  • Odate Buta is so associated with Yatterman that when the live-action movie started getting posters, the first one just showed him looking out at the viewer. Nothing else was needed — he's that well-known and associated with Yatterman.
  • Yo-Kai Watch has Jibanyan, who is an adorable cat youkai who talks and lives with Nate. Jibanyan has numerous Palette Swap yokai similar to him as a result, such as Sailornyan and Tomnyan.

    Comic Books 

    Film — Animation 
  • Olaf the talking snowman from Frozen is probably the best-known character in the franchise not named Elsa (who is mentioned in the "hot" category below).
  • Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel is the single most iconic character from the Ice Age series, despite having little to no bearing on the plot and seldom interacting with the actual protagonists.
  • The Secret Life of Pets has Snowball as he’s voiced by highest paid comedian Kevin Hart and has been the main promoted character in the franchise because of that. Even appearing on the Illumination logo with the Minions.
  • Trolls has Guy Diamond, the silver glitter troll, being the mascot of the films, though Poppy and Branch are still headliners for being the protagonists. Biggie, Mr. Dinkles and Cooper, being the odd ones out and animal-like, also seem to represent the films and series.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Johnny Crawfish is this for The Noddy Shop, being featured prominently on UK merchandise as well as on the official site. He even has his own song!
  • Eleven is easily Stranger Things' most recognizable character.

    Music 
  • A lot of HoneyWorks' music videos and ads feature a pair of bears with heart-shaped ears, originally appearing on the cover of the album Rokugen Astrology. Their names are respectively Panmy (a panda) and Kumamaru (a white bear).

    Professional Wrestling 
  • AAA, the longest lasting breakaway from E/CMLL, has an entire mascot division, though in practice it's more of a mixed Tag Team division between mini estrellas and non-mini estrellas. As with Zacarias below, the mini is usually the mascot, although not always...
  • Parodied by CMLL with Zacarias, a mini estrella dressed up as a parrot to serve as Rey Bucanero's "mascot", although in function he was more of a Sidekick. Played straight with KeMonito.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Kermit the Frog for The Muppets. He was also the mascot of the Jim Henson Company before Disney bought them out.
  • Sesame Street has Elmo, who is also the mascot for the show's parent company Sesame Workshop. Big Bird used to fill this role before Elmo proved to be a massive merchandising success.
    • Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, Count Von Count and Oscar the Grouch are used as well to represent the show with Grover too especially in the international logo.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The UrbanMech in Battletech is an unofficial (and Ugly Cute) example which gained increasing notice in the later years. Despite being a borderline Joke Character with no official presence in any rulebooks, games, or other expanded universe media whatsoever, the fandom loves the "Urbie" and it's arguably the third most well-known 'mech of the franchise.
  • Goblins in Pathfinder are another Ugly Cute example, overlapping with Mascot Mook.

    Theatre 
  • Young Cosette for Les Misérables, despite only being in two scenes — but the picture of a young, sorrowful girl in rags is a very good way to get the main themes of a play whose name translates to "The Miserable Ones" across. The most common depiction is taken from an illustration of her sweeping◊ from the book, although it's usually zoomed in on just her upper torso and face. The image is so universally associated with the show that advertising for the 2012 movie recreated the poster using the actress playing young Cosette.

    Toys 
  • My Little Pony has many characters, but the major Breakout Character tends to be the mascot of each generation:
  • Sylvanian Families (Calico Critters in the US) didn't have its own mascot for a period between the 80's and 90's. The rabbit families were the closest the franchise had to having a mascot. It wasn't until the early 2010's that Bell became the main mascot for the franchise.
  • The Tamagotchi virtual pet toys have featured a few of the raiseable breeds of Tamagotchi as their mascot, but the most prominent are Mametchi, a yellow male Tamagotchi who wears a black cap of sorts and vaguely resembles a cat, and Lovelitchi, a female Tamagotchi who looks like a White Bunny. Mametchi's other two best friends, the orange Memetchi and the green Kuchipatchi, are also featured alongside him quite a bit in the franchise's various installments and materials.

    Video Games 
  • Missile the Shiba Inu police dog has become this for the Ace Attorney series, despite initially only appearing once in the main series as an optional character.
  • Advanced V.G.: Yuka Takeuchi, who also falls into the "hot" category, is both the heroine and the face of the series; including the OVA adaptation. She's usually featured on the cover of each entry and has even made cameo appearances in other fighting games.
  • Twilly for AdventureQuest in particular and all the other Artix Entertainment games to a degree.
  • Red the cardinal serves as this for Angry Birds.
  • Animal Crossing:
    • Tom Nook, K.K. Slider, and Mr. Resetti, who are respectively the Tanuki shopkeeper, the canine singer, and the cheat-hater mole.
    • The player's Shih Tzu secretary Isabelle from Animal Crossing: New Leaf became another mascot for Animal Crossing thanks to her adorable design and fun personality. Not only did she gain a big following in her debut game, but also thanks to New Horizons.
    • Rosie, a blue, big-eyed cat villager, is an example as well, getting a fair amount of merchandise and promotional appearances.
  • ARMS has two mascots, and Biff is not one of them. However, Biff is the In-Universe mascot of the ARMS Grand Prix, and looks like a cute kid wearing a costume (the English trailers gave him a deep grown man voice, making him seem more like a dwarf, but left the cute costume intact).
  • The Atelier series has the punis, colorful slime monsters with eyes, a smiley face and rosey cheeks.
  • Battlerite has Ashka, who is not as cute as most other examples here, but he is still a small, childish character (who just so happens to be a Pyromaniac). His mask serves as the game's logo.
  • Chickens in Fable. Hell, Fable III starts with a chicken running around the city as an allegory for the rest of the game.
  • Vault-Boy from Fallout, who is a fictional cartoon character in-universe and also serves as the mascot for in-universe corporation Vault-Tec and its products. He also serves as a stand-in for the player character in some respects, almost always having a vault suit with a number matching that of the player character's.
  • Fate/Grand Order uses Fou for this purpose, but it also has Riyo's renditions of Gudako, Mash, and Saber as secondary mascots.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Chocobos and Moogles, and to a lesser extent, Cactaurs, Cait Sith, and Tonberries.
    • The short, cute, big-eyed plant critters known as mandragora have achieved the status of Final Fantasy XI mascot both in official and unofficial works. In-game, there are numerous mandragora-themed equippable items to find, many of which have the ability to change the character's appearance to a mandragora. Mandragora have a prominent place in much of the official promotional artwork as well. The first and most important fan-made wiki as well the unsanctioned third-party windower program both use the mandragora as a mascot as well. Mandragoras have even appeared as the game's contribution to other games in the same company, such as appearing as a summon in Dissidia.
  • Missile the Pomeranian from Ghost Trick, who shares the same universe as the identically-named dog from Ace Attorney above, and who is a major character.
  • Harvest Moon has a cow as its mascot. It used to have the original blue-capped protagonist, Pete, as a mascot, but he hasn't been a playable character in years.
  • Rena is considered the mascot of Higurashi: When They Cry. Keiichi or really, Rika, is the protagonist, but their friend Rena is the one that appears on most box-arts and in much of the advertising.
  • Idolish 7 has two mascots:
    • Kinako is a pet rabbit-like creature who resides in Takanashi Production.
    • King Pudding, which is Tamaki's favorite food brand In-Universe.
  • Just Dance:
    • The Panda, who debuted in "C'mon" and "Timber" in 2014 and has since become a Recurring Character within the series. His likeness is used to promote Just Dance and he's even the protagonist of the All Stars Mode in 2020!
    • The Reindeer from "Make It Jingle" in 2018 has also become a Recurring Character, appearing alongside the Panda.
  • The priring from La Tale, which is so cute that it was made into a pet.
  • League of Legends:
    • Teemo, who has become so recognizable that Teemo-inspired plush hats are commonly vended and worn at competitive events. His success has mostly been from his annoyingly cute design, voice, and his skill set, which is rage inducing to face.
    • Even more than Teemo, the Poros, adorable little critters that look like chubby balls of fluffy fur with tiny stubby limbs, big doe eyes, curly ram horns, and enormous panting tongues. They've made countless appearances as add-ons for certain champion alternate skins, as alternate ward skins, and the card game Legends of Runeterra features a huge number of them as playable units.
  • Mega Man:
    • Mega Man himself from Mega Man (Classic).
    • The recurring Metool/Mettaur/Mettal enemies, who appear in nearly every series in the franchise.
    • Tron Bonne could also possibly count thanks to representing the Mega Man Legends series in crossovers more than any other character.
  • Minecraft has Creepers, who are so adorable that newer players rush towards them and then realize their mistake the hard way...
  • Monster Hunter has the Felynes serve as its cute mascot, especially in Japan.
  • The Dogoos are the most common enemies and most featured monsters of the Neptunia franchise. They even have their own line of merchandise.
  • Overwatch: Pachimari the Tamanegi-Tako is a non-playable icon of the game, and appears to be a Series Mascot of some kind in-universe too.
  • Pikmin has, obviously, the Pikmin; the little cute race of Plant Aliens that the game centers around. Nintendo likes to feature them prominently in portions of their handhelds and consoles UI, most notably with system transfers for both the 3DS and the Wii U (when transferring original Wii data).
  • Plants vs. Zombies has two different mascots from the Plant and Zombie factions respectively: the Sunflower and the Basic Zombie (the latter being kind of Ugly Cute). Crazy Dave (the only human character seen in the games) also tends to be featured in advertisements.
  • Portal:
    • The very friendly Companion Cube, which will not threaten to stab you. It's so popular that Valve's made plushies and fuzzy dice in its image.
    • The iPod-esque turrets might even have a stronger claim to the title, appearing in Valve promotional materials even outside the Portal franchise, and getting a much greater and more varied role in Portal 2.
  • The Rune Factory series has the adorable sheeplike monsters Woolies/Wooly. They're the weakest and least-aggressive monsters of the series. Micah, the main protagonist of the third installment, is able to transform into a Wooly.
  • Shin Megami Tensei:
    • Jack Frost serves as the mascot for both the Shin Megami Tensei franchise as a whole, and the developer company Atlus.
    • Persona 4 and Persona 5 have game-specific mascots in Teddie the teddy bear and Morgana the cat, respectively. Both are the only not-completely-humans in their respective game's party.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic has seemingly adopted Blizz as their unofficial mascot. He's a rocket launcher-wielding, Jawa, tanking companion of the Bounty Hunter class.
  • Kero the frog and Grey the alien in Tokimeki Memorial 2.
  • Trails Series:
    • Poms, bouncing little puffballs with eyes that come in all different varieties. The standout example (and the one that represented the franchise in Alternative Saga) is the Shining Pom, which adds wings and a halo.
    • Mishy the cat, the mascot of Crosbell's Mishelam Wonderland and also considered the mascot of Nihon Falcom overall. A plush Mishy was included as an extra in the Thors Academy Edition release of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III.
  • While trailers for Undertale showed Flowey as the mascot, Toriel, who is nowhere near small (easily over six feet) but is definitely cute and lovable, became the most prominently featured of the main cast in outside media. There are even plushies of her!
  • The World Neverland series has Ihms, vaguely rabbit-like blob creatures that the player can adopt as pets.
  • Jibanyan, a talking Cute Kitten, from Yo-Kai Watch is the Mascot Mook of the franchise. He appears on box-art, has the most merchandise, and has many clones. He wasn't the mascot originally though, rather being just another yokai. However, the anime made him into a Breakout Character. Yo-kai Watch 2 featured him more prominently as a result. The original mascot was most likely intended to be Whisper, the protagonist's yokai butler.

    Webcomics 
  • Lampshaded in Battle Kreaturez with Wally the Platrox, the mascot of the Wyldcard team, a role which he only begrudgingly accepts.
  • Following the completion of Blue Moon Blossom, the frog from that story was commandeered by the author as the mascot of Fifteen Minds as a whole, and began to supplant the cartoon astronaut that was previously associated with their Jaho-12 Tumblr in avatars for their social media accounts.
  • The Order of the Stick parodies this trope as it occurs in JRPGs in a strip where Elan and Thog disguise themselves to get aboard an airship, and Thog dresses up as a Moogle.
    Elan: I'm the famous Treasure Hunter, and this is my marketable (but ultimately useless) recurring mascot character!
  • Twistwood Tales: Loghead is used as the profile picture for the creator A. C. Macdonald and the series on all sites.

    Web Original 
  • Cuddles the yellow bunny for Happy Tree Friends. He's best described as the "Original Happy Tree Friend". Also Toothy, Lumpy, Giggles, and Petunia as well.

    Western Animation 
  • The titular character's pet dog Porkchop from Doug.
  • Cosmo and Wanda, the titular fairies from from The Fairly OddParents!.
  • KaBlam!'s hosts Henry and June. They were even the mascots for their own channel at one point.
  • Kim Possible: Rufus the naked mole rat.
  • My Little Pony:
    • Pinkie Pie, and to a lesser extent Minty, were considered the mascots of My Little Pony (G3).
    • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
      • Derpy Hooves, who is this to the "brony" community to a larger extent as well. She was a background pony the fandom took to. Eventually she began appearing as a recurring character in the cartoon itself.
      • Pinkie Pie is also one to the target audience. She inherited this status from her original G3 counterpart.
  • PAW Patrol has Chase and Marshall being the the main mascots as they are the most popular as well as based on Police Officers and Firefighters. Also Skye the only female and Rubble the Kid Appeal being the youngest and getting his own spinoff.
  • Silmer the green, slimy ghost from The Real Ghostbusters, depending on your definition of "cute".
  • T.J., the leader of the gang from Recess, and to an extent, the tomboyish Spinelli and Military Brat Gus.
  • Rugrats has Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica and Spike and sometimes Reptar representing the franchise.
  • All-star, Casey, Tooter and Occy for The Snorks. As All-Star the Hero, Casey Love interest, and Occy the Team Pet appear in the credit poster while Tooter the odd one out is featured on the opening logo poster.
  • Cartman and Kenny from South Park are used to represent the series, especially Cartman, who fills the unique dual role of having a "cute" design and being an endearing over-the-top jerkass like so many other adult animated sitcom mascots.
  • The yellow, animate sponge who is the namesake protagonist of SpongeBob SquarePants, who has has also been the company mascot for Nickelodeon since his debut in 1999.
  • Silkie, Starfire's pet mutant silkworm of the Teen Titans animated series.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures:
    • Buster and Babs Bunny, who are actually based on Bugs Bunny from Looney Tunes, mentioned above.
    • To a lesser extent Plucky Duck, who is similarly based on Daffy Duck.

"Hot" Series Mascots:

    Anime and Manga 

    Film 
  • The DC Extended Universe's Wonder Woman, being the franchise's Breakout Character and the most buzzed about by fans and critics. Especially considering the fact that she's historically never been quite as famous as Superman or Batman.
  • Snow Queen Elsa acts as an unofficial mascot for Frozen. Almost all merchandise and marketing will work her in somehow.

    Live-Action TV 

    Professional Wrestling (female examples) 

    Video Games 
  • One of the two actual mascots of ARMS is Ribbon Girl. Her mascot status is from being the singer of the game's main theme, from which most of the music is derived, but that doesn't change the fact that she's pretty.
  • Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers is popular enough to be the series' biggest representative in Capcom's various crossover games, surpassing the series' original protagonist Demitri Maximoff (with Felicia coming in a close second).
  • Insofar as any Deception character can be considered "main", Millennia from Kagero: Deception II is often seen in later games as well as any sort of crossover, such as being playable in Warriors All-Stars and available as a costume in various Dead or Alive and Fatal Frame titles.
  • Saber (specifically the one from Fate/stay night) is single-handedly the most iconic Servant due to her historical gender flip and her status as a main character, which guaranteed she was given a lot of development. Proof of this is that she appears in several other installments, either as a major player or in a secondary role. And, when not, some Servant that shares her exact same model (aka, all of the Saber faces) is. She may even be seen as one for Type-Moon as a whole.
  • Final Fantasy has Cloud Strife and the Warrior of Light. The former is the most iconic and popular character in the series and frequently represents the franchise in crossovers, while the latter is a modernized personification of the protagonists from the first game in the series and the "face" of the cast in the Dissidia Final Fantasy games.
  • Fire Emblem:
  • Link from The Legend of Zelda; while mostly known for his "hot" adult forms, his child/Toon forms are clearly "cute" mascots. He's also treated as a secondary mascot for Nintendo as a whole, only behind Mario, and joins Mario as a co-mascot in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Mortal Kombat has Kitana and Sonya Blade as its main females. Mileena also maybe counts - she's probably been seen in the most provocative outfits and swimsuit issues of magazines - except her face is explicitly meant to evoke the opposite reaction, so your mileage may vary.
  • Onmyōji has the handsome protagonist Abe no Seimei on its logo.
  • Overwatch:
    • Tracer is the face of the game, being the character most featured in the animated trailers and the only character featured on the box art. Everyone on the development team loved her, and commented about how cute and beautiful she is.
    • D.Va is also this to a lesser, albeit increasing, extent, mostly due to her explosion in popularity after the game's release.
  • Bella Goth started out as a Morticia Addams expy in The Sims before skyrocketing in popularity and becoming a mascot for The Sims series as a whole.
  • SNK:
    • Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters is pretty much the female face of the company.
    • For male characters, the top candidates are Fatal Fury protagonist Terry Bogard, Art of Fighting protagonist Ryo Sakazaki, King of Fighters protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, and the latter's arch-rival Iori Yagami.
  • Ivy Valentine is easily the most recognizable female character from the Soul Series, with Taki being runner-up.
  • Ryu and Chun-Li became faces of the Street Fighter franchise. Ken, Guile, Zangief, M. Bison, Cammy, Akuma, and Juri also qualify to a lesser extent.
  • Tekken:
    • Nina Williams is undoubtedly Tekken's best known female character, being the only woman to appear in every game in the series so far.
    • The next best known after that is probably Ling Xiaoyu, though she seems to straddle the line between the "cute" and "hot" categories.
    • For more recently introduced female characters, Asuka Kazama and Lili Rochefort count.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Lia Marie Johnson was undisputedly the face of the React series in the first six seasons. Since her departure/sabbatical, each of the shows have had at least one (e.g Mikaela, Chelsea, and Tori for Teens, or Tom and the original Madison for Adults. YouTubers is too much of an All-Star Cast to have one).

"Recognizable" Series Mascots:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Attack on Titan has the Colossal Titan as the most recognizable character from the series, and used in a lot of merchandise and public appearances. Sometimes, it is played straight as a 60-meter skinless horror. Other times, however, it's either an Ugly Cute chibi or a dude in a costume that behaves in a comical fashion (nicknamed "Kyojin-kun" or "Giant-kun").
  • Cells at Work! uses White Blood Cell U-1146. Whether or not he's the main character of an arc, he's on all of the volume covers. He even serves as the Info Dump narration box in the Bacteria spinoff.
  • In Free!, Iwatobi-chan is the protagonists' hometown mascot. It's a distinctive rock-headed bird-like... thing, popular among fans as a decal.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has Jotaro Kujo, the badass protagonist of the third part, Stardust Crusaders, as its mascot.
  • Evangelion Unit-01 is the most prominent icon of Neon Genesis Evangelion, despite its pilot Shinji Ikari being marketed less compared to the female leads.
  • The resident monster Mooks in Symphogear, the Noise, are this.

    Comic Books 
  • Robotman for the Doom Patrol; the most recognizable full-fledged member (not counting Beast Boy, who's more associated with the Titans) and the only one to be in every iteration of the team.

    Film 
  • The titular extraterrestrial creatures from the Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator franchises.
  • Along with Wonder Woman above, the DC Extended Universe also has Superman, as he started the whole thing and is always hyped by the producers and higher ups.
  • Ash Williams for the Evil Dead films, making it one of the few horror movie franchises known more for its hero than its villain.
  • Ghostbusters:
    • The Ugly Cute Slimer.
    • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. In universe, it's explained that he's the mascot for a brand of marshmallows and the star of his own cartoon TV series.
    • The "NO-GHOST" company logo also serves as a mascot.
  • The Tyrannosaurus rex for the Jurassic Park franchise (its skeleton being the franchise's icon proper).
  • Gollum, Gandalf, and the Eye of Sauron are all used prominently in merchandise for The Lord of the Rings movies.
  • The Pink Panther (1963) has an Animated Credits Opening with the titular diamond's flaw visualized as what it's said to resemble — a pink panther. The animated character was so popular that he got his own series of animated shorts in addition to becoming the mascot for the movie series, even as Artifact Title set in.
  • Star Wars:
    • Mainly Darth Vader, though mascot duties have also been passed around to Yoda, the Stormtroopers, and (especially in the franchise's early days) R2-D2 and C-3PO. ​Even the Death Star is something of an icon for the franchise.
    • The original promotional campaign for The Phantom Menace treated Jar Jar Binks as something of a mascot, which the two subsequent prequels backpedaled away from for obvious reasons. Darth Maul is likely the most iconic character from The Phantom Menace and the prequels as a whole.
    • The Force Awakens adds Kylo Ren as its resident Vader counterpart, as well as BB-8.
  • For the Terminator series, Arnold's iconic face has been etched into our collective memories. The metallic skull of the T-800 Terminator would also count as iconic.

    Literature 
  • Aslan for The Chronicles of Narnia, to the point that some editions of the books even use his face as part of the logo.
  • Despite only featuring in one of H. P. Lovecraft's original stories, and being nowhere near as powerful as the likes of Azathoth or Yog-Sothoth, Great Cthulhu is essentially this for the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Rincewind, Death, the Librarian, and Great A'Tuin for Discworld. Granny Weatherwax doesn't quite make it, possibly because she just looks like a Witch Classic, whereas a wizard with a straggly beard and "WIZZARD" written on his hat is more distinctive.
  • Tolkien's Legendarium:
    • Smaug, the dragon who guards the treasure the main character Bilbo is after, is this for The Hobbit.
    • Gandalf is often this for both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, being the character most likely to appear on any of the covers.
  • Even languages and writing systems have these:
    • Spanish has the enye Ńń.
    • German has the umlauted vowels: Ää Öö Üü : and, to a lesser extent, the eszett ß.
    • The Cyrillic script has Ya and I, better known to Latin-script users as "the backwards R" (Яя) and "the backwards N" (Ии).
    • The International Phonetic Alphabet has the schwa /ə/.
    • The Unicode character set used by all electronics nowadays, as a way to fit all of the world's languages into one encoding, has the "replacement character" � - which started out as a Missingno-type Glitch Entity, but later morphed to a Good Bad Bug, and later an Ascended Glitch.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Barry Allen/The Flash for the Arrowverse. He's always front and center in the franchise's promotional materials, not to mention his eponymous show being the most popular and acclaimed.
  • The "Grr Argh" monster from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whom you may remember as the badly-drawn monster that appears after every credits sequence. Not only does Tara quote Mutant Enemy's mascot, it sums up the Tear Jerker episode "Becoming" perfectly:
    "Ooohhh, I need a hug."
  • Doctor Who's sentient Cool Ship, the TARDIS. To the point where when the Metropolitan Police tried to trademark the police box and sue The BBC for infringement, the judge ruled that the rights belonged the BBC, since they had been selling merchandise without any complaints for nearly 40 years!
  • Sitcoms usually have title characters or breakout characters, like Steve Urkel from Family Matters.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Direwolves serve as this; they're the sigil of House Stark and commonly appear in the show.
    • Daenerys is already mentioned above in the "hot" category, but her dragons can count, especially Drogon.

    Print Media 
  • Nintendo Power had Nester, a snarky redheaded teen that starred in the magazine's Howard and Nester and Nester's Adventures comics.

    Professional Wrestling (male examples) 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Battletech has had three over its long run, all three iconic Battlemechs:
    • The beginning of the franchise had the WHM-6R Warhammer heavy Battlemech as the mascot, featuring it heavily on the front pages of the manual and in much of the early press material. Unfortunately, the Warhammer's artwork was originally licensed from an anime, which has caused decades of legal trouble with the litigation-happy US distributor of the anime, so it was dropped like a pile of bricks in the mid 1990s. Following a redesign of the 'mech's appearance that made it physically distinct from its originator, the Warhammer eventually began showing up in official artwork once more, but became mostly superseded by the below two as mascots.
    • Following the release of the Clan Invasion storyline and the MechWarrior video games, and the massive upshoot in popularity for the franchise, the Timber Wolf/Mad Cat heavy 'mech became the mascot for both the game series and for most of the franchise set after 3049 In-Universe. The Timber Wolf is still the iconic battlemech for many of the franchise's fans as a result, and also because it is one of the most powerful 'mechs to drop on the table in a match. (And calling it the Mad Cat among the wrong group of fans will get you labeled a stravag freebirth.)
    • Following the Warhammer being taken out of official artwork, the duty of official mascot of franchise material set before the introduction of the Clans (such as the Star League and Succession Wars era) went to the AS7-D Atlas assault Battlemech, a massive skull-faced, broad-shouldered death machine often depicted ripping enemy battlemechs limb from limb. Its skull-faced visage is part of the logo for the 2018 Battletech video game, with the story mode itself featuring an SLDF Atlas II as Kamea's second 'mech.
  • Warforged fill this role for the Dungeons & Dragons setting Eberron.
  • The Lady of Pain for the Planescape setting; her ominous face with her cold stare is on the cover of every product.
  • Warhammer 40,000: The Space Marines are the main mascots. Especially the Ultramarines, who appear in most of the promotional artwork and the starter set; they are even called "poster boys" by players of other armies.

    Theater 
  • Cirque du Soleil shows often start with a stylized logo in print ads and at their website, but eventually switch to a memorable supporting character (or representative of a memorable character group) to serve as the show's face. This is particularly important with the Las Vegas resident shows, since as many as eight different shows are running there at one time; a well-chosen mascot helps establish the style/tone that makes the production distinct from its sisters.

    Toys 
  • Croco Bile from Flush Force is commonly used as the lead Flushie.
  • Blow Fly and Trash-A-Pillar from The Trash Pack. They're both the main characters of the webseries, too.

    Video Games 
  • The Borderlands series also has the Psycho Bandit, as they tend to be featured on the games' covers. A Psycho is even one of the playable characters in Borderlands 2.
  • Capcom:
    • On the "non-cute" side side of Mega Man mascots, there's Zero and the Sniper Joes.
    • Ryu, who doubles as the Series Mascot for Street Fighter and the face of Capcom's fighting game division.
    • For being the original protagonist, Dante is the main representative of the Devil May Cry series, appearing as the usual Guest Fighter in many Crossover events of other franchises. He's also the original face of Stylish Action games.
    • The Monster Hunter series has the Rathalos as its non-cute mascot. Each game in the series also has a flagship monster that usually plays a significant role in the plot.
    • Resident Evil:
      • Chris Redfield is this overall, though it's downplayed since he doesn't appear in every game, and this role zigzags with Jill Valentine, his sister Claire Redfield, and Leon Scott Kennedy, depending on the game.
      • Jack Baker for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
        "Welcome to the family, son!"
      • Lady Alcina Dimitrescu for Resident Evil Village.
  • Civilization has an unofficial example in Mahatma Gandhi, or more specifically the "Nuclear Gandhi" characterization that appears in the games, stemming from how his AI's attempts at deterring war in Civ I, supposedly due to a programming oversight, boiled down to threatening to nuke anyone who crossed him. So pictures of a wanly smiling Gandhi posing next to ICBMs or boasting how his "words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!" have become a shorthand for the Civ games and their capacity to make some Alternate History.
  • Bad Mister Frosty in the ClayFighter series, who appears on the cover art for every game and is prominently featured in adveertising.
  • The Green Beret for Commandos. Interestingly, he is a rare example of a series mascot who is the main character.
  • David Jones from the Criminal Case franchise, being the most prominent character across all seasons both in-game and among the fandom.
  • Custom Robo has the Ray series of Shining Fighter class robos, one of which represents the franchise in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • Danganronpa obviously has its Big Bad Monokuma.
  • Thorn from Destiny. An unusual example in that it's a gun, not a sentient being. We think? It's appeared on a lot of posters for Destiny and was highly publicized by the devs before the game's release, up to and including some of them carrying a prop of it across Europe. It's easy to see why they'd use it to capture the public imagination — the thing looks weird, and Obviously Evil. Plus, it captures the Cosmic Horror Story aspects of the game rather well.
  • The Cacodemon for Doom, even becoming the official mascot for Doomworld, the biggest Doom fansite.
  • Fulgore from Killer Instinct is the most recognizable from the game, despite not being the main character.
  • The Gas Mask Helghan troopers in Killzone.
  • Nugget is the character featured on most of the merchandise for the Kindergarten games. He wasn't originally designed to be this, but got the role when his amusing Cloudcuckoolander personality made him the Ensemble Dark Horse of the first game.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Link and his various incarnations serve as the face of the series, with advertising often defaulting to the Link from the most recent title.
    • The fairies, Navi and her ball-of-light kin in particular; they tend to be used as menu cursors.
  • Metroid:
    • Series protagonist Samus Aran, who is mainly portrayed as a mysterious masked badass type of character.note 
    • The eponymous energy-sucking, flying, fanged jellyfish aliens of the series as well; very young infants are Ugly Cute, though.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • The spectral Ninja be seen as Scorpion has gradually become the mascot of the series. Sub-Zero is a close second, being the first "ninja" that the developers created. Scorpy and Subby have been the default fighters for player 1 and 2 respectively since Deadly Alliance. As of Mortal Kombat 2011, a Scorpion look-alike also serves as the figure on the logo for NetherRealm Studios, making him a company mascot as well.
    • Liu Kang can also be considered the mascot of the series, being the longest-running protagonist by far. His ability to shape-shift into a dragon evokes the iconic logoa after all, even before said dragon was redesigned from klassic green to chrome black.
    • In many ways, Raiden can be seen as a mascot for the series as well due to his iconic look and status as the Big Good in almost all the games, including the one where he was the counterpart to the DC Universe's own Superman.
  • Mr. Saturn for the Mother series, the race of childish wacky creatures featured first in MOTHER 2/Earth Bound. "Boing!"
  • Tanatos, Alister Dalimar's raven familiar, developed into this for the Ravenhearst Story Arc of Mystery Case Files.
  • Pokémon:
  • The Fiend from Quake, who was also the mascot for id Software in the latter half of The '90s.
  • The Raiden jet from Raiden and Raiden Fighters series. The fifth Raiden game even splits it into various models.
  • Pyramid Head, a giant-knife-wielding monster who stalks the protagonist of Silent Hill 2, is this for the entire Silent Hill series as well.
  • Nightmare for the Soul series, who represents the series' evil sword Soul Edge. Some of this is made nil by the fact that Nightmare is Soul Edge/Inferno's host (and in SCIII and SCIV, Nightmare is literally the living incarnation of Soul Edge). Nightmare, however, was featured on the Project Soul logo from SCIII up to SCV (wherein the logo was redesigned to show a re-imagining of the Soul Embrace from SCIII, which was then changed back to the original logo starting with the SCII HD Online re-release) and is essentially the central antagonist of the series starting in his Soulcalibur debut (Soul Edge/Inferno being the de facto Big Bad), making Nightmare's claims have a bit more weight to them. Ironically, most installments in the series (and all installments featuring Nightmare himself) are named after Soul Edge's heroic counterpart Soul Calibur.
  • Super Robot Wars: The SRX is the mascot of the series and Banpresto in general. It has a head shaped like the company logo, and its Game-Breaker upgraded form is even named Banpreios!
  • Splatoon:
    • While the playable Inklings are highly customizable, in the first game, an orange female Inkling takes front and center in several trailers and pieces of official artwork, with her also representing the series in games such as Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart. She is sometimes accompanied by a blue male Inkling as her rival as well. Each game would continue to have their own represenatives though: Splatoon 2 uses a short-haired pink female inking with a green male rival, while Splatoon 3 uses a yellow Inkling with Fashionable Asymmetry and a purple Octoling rival, as well as an additional bespectacled red Inkling to represent the game's Tricolor Turf Wars.
    • Each game also introduces an idol group who also host a news broadcast detailing in-game events, and collectively serve as additional mascots for their respective games. The first game has the Squid Sisters, consisting of pop singers Callie and Marie; Splatoon 2 has rapper-and-DJ duo Off the Hook, made up of Pearl and Marina; and Splatoon 3 introduces Deep Cut, a three-person band consisting of Shiver, Frye, and Big Man.
  • Team Fortress 2 is represented by The Heavy. He is front and center everywhere in the game. He's the very center in the class selection, he was the first to get a "Meet The" video, with cameos in every single video since, he's right there on the boxart, and his loud, scenery-chewing, BRIAN BLESSED-rivaling presence draws attention to him even more than his massive size. He's also a company mascot, as he represents Valve in most third-party promotions and crossovers.
  • Tekken has the main trio of Big Bad Heihachi Mishima, his son Kazuya Mishima, and Kazuya's son Jin Kazama.
  • Wild Dog fills this role in Time Crisis, taking the role of The Dragon to the Big Bad of each game in the main series, despite every defeat having him seemingly killed by an explosion.
  • Sweet Tooth (Needles Kane) is considered this for the Twisted Metal franchise overall, to the point where he appeared in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale to represent the series.
  • Because of the mysteries revolving around him and the amount of shit you eat in his boss fight, Sans the skeleton became a fan favorite for Undertale fans. The announcement of his Mii suit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overshadowed Terry's full character release!
  • In Warframe, every new warframe (or otherwise) usually gets a turn in the mascot spotlight, featuring in their own promotional or splash screen art when their respective update is released. However, the biggest, most permanent mascot is the Excalibur warframe, which either gets a prominent role or otherwise features in most promotional content (either fully visible or as a silhouette) to show off any non-signature weapons or cosmetics.

    Web Original 
  • Serperior for the Mario Party TV series, because it's Mr. Doom's favorite Pokémon.
  • Newgrounds often advertises with characters from their most popular hosted series, but two faces stand out over the rest:
    • Pico is a creation of website founder Tom Fulp, who also doubles as mascot of his home series. Nene is often used as Pico's female counterpart in ads, while Darnell ocasionally appears as a mascot for various aspects of the site.
    • While the Tankman was originally a simple Mascot, logo designer JohnnyUtah eventually created a series of shorts about them, which became the basis for all future appearances.
  • SCP Foundation:
    • SCP-173, a living statue that kills anyone who breaks eye contact with it. Being the first paranormal entity created for the site, and with a rather distinctive appearance to boot, it's pretty much the (un)official mascot.
    • SCP-682 follows SCP-173 by a close second. It's an unkillable, regenerating giant reptile which (temporarily) adapts to any new form of attack, and who wants to kill all Earth life. The SCP Foundation is constantly trying (and failing) to destroy it with many different methods, which has made SCP-682 one of the most recurring antagonists.
  • The WWWF Grudge Match had Mr. T, who won the honor in a match with Mr. Clean, and then kept it in a match with Jesse Ventura.

    Western Animation 
  • Owen is the primary advertising figure of the Total Drama series, partly because he was the first winner, and because kids (the series' target audience) really love him. Chris McLean, the sadistic host of the show, also counts.
  • Optimus Prime, the leader for the good guys the Autobots, is this in almost every Transformers incarnation. Though after the live-action movie, Bumblebee started giving him a run for his money.

Company Mascots:

    Anime and Manga 

    Comic Books 

    Film — Animation 
  • Disney:
    • Mickey Mouse is undoubtedly one of the most famous mascots of all time, serving as the face of the Walt Disney Company. His friends Donald Duck and Goofy aren't too far behind either.
    • To a (much) lesser extent, Tinkerbell; Walt Disney used her as the mascot for Walt Disney Presents, as well as the original ad campaigns for Disneyland (this was at ABC's insistence; they didn't want the project to take Mickey down with it if it tanked). She's also used in place of Mickey as the mascot of the 1994-1999 Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection of VHS tapes and Laserdiscs, Disney DVD, and Disney's FastPlay.
    • Similar to Tinkerbell, Jiminy Cricket also become a secondary mascot and served as the spokesperson for The Walt Disney Company. Jiminy even hosted occasional TV Specials, albums, shows at the Disney Theme Parks, and hosted a few vacation planning videos for Walt Disney World.
    • Pixar:
      • Luxo Jr. the lamp, which appears in the studio's Vanity Plate.
      • Buzz Lightyear also qualifies, being the most popular Pixar character.
  • Universal:

    New Media 

    Professional Wrestling 

    Toys 
  • Wooser of Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life serves as one for Good Smile Company, with him making frequent cameos in shows the company sponsors.

    Video Games 
  • Amstrad's first-party label Amsoft named its mascot after executive Roland Perry. Roland became the star of eight mediocre to awful games, which never established any consistent model for drawing him.
  • Atlus Corporation:
    • Jack Frost from the Shin Megami Tensei franchise is a recognizable Atlus mascot. While the monsters you meet in Shin Megami Tensei are based on mythologies, possibly because of Jack Frost's status as a mascot, you will meet original Jack Frosts like King Frost, Black Frost, Ichigo Frost, B Hawaii Frost, Lemon Frost, Melon Frost, Mirukin Frost, Frost Five, and Lucifrost. Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army has the dapperest Frost of them all.
    • In later years, Teddie from Persona 4 seems to have taken over Jack Frost as the company mascot. Fitting, considering that Teddie became the in-universe mascot of the local Junes department store.
  • Pac-Man, the face of his own franchise and Bandai Namco Entertainment's mascot for over 30 years. He has had a few redesigns here and there but still manages to be one of their most popular characters.
  • Until he was displaced by Mega Man (Classic) and Ryu, Captain Commando was the face of Capcom.
  • The Japanese mobile game company COLOPL, Inc.'s mascot is Kuma the Bear, who appears in many of their games.
  • Compile's cute mascot, Randar (or Lander), appeared in several of their games before being replaced by Puyo Puyo's Carbuncle during the mid-90's.
  • Kirby can easily be considered the unofficial mascot of HAL Laboratory. Over the years, he also became a mascot for Super Smash Bros., being face-to-face with Mario in the first game and being the only survivor of the Big Bad's attacks in Ultimate.
  • Hudson Soft:
    • The company's primary mascot is a tiny bee. The bee has shown up in several of Hudson's video games, including Adventure Island and Milon's Secret Castle.
    • Aside from the logo bee, Hudson usually treats Bonk and Bomberman as their mascot characters.
  • Humongous Entertainment has its four main protagonists of their Junior Adventure series: Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, SPY Fox, and Pajama Sam (plus Putt-Putt and Freddi’s respective sidekicks Pep and Luther), and Backyard Sports' ace athlete Pablo Sanchez.
  • Konami:
    • They tried in the late 1980s to establish Konami Man as their mascot. He never really caught on, though Konami Wai Wai World gave him the leading part and a Distaff Counterpart, Konami Lady. He still makes occasional cameos in Castlevania games.
    • Solid Snake and Simon Belmont also qualify, due to being the heroes of some of Konami's biggest franchises. After Konami fully absorbed Hudson Soft, Bomberman also served this role to an extent.
  • Unofficially, Max for LucasArts' adventure games.
  • Nintendo: There's Mario, the main character of the Super Mario series and its numerous spin-offs, who is the mascot for Nintendo as a whole. To a slightly lesser extent, Mario is the face of the cast in the Super Smash Bros. crossovers, and is joined by Link in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Other characters from the Super Mario series will follow along, and the theme park Super Nintendo World is solely based on the series.
  • Asagi serves as one for Nippon Ichi (along with the Prinnies mentioned above), as she makes a cameo in all of their games.
  • Unofficially, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong were the mascots for Rare back when it was still with Nintendo, and so was Banjo and Kazooie. In the New Tens, Rash started taking over this role for the company.

    Western Animation 

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