Unpopular Popular Characters in Anime & Manga.
Note: Although this is subjective, only blatantly obvious or creator-acknowledged examples should be listed.
A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope and examples shouldn't be added until 3 months after the character is introduced.
- Baccano!: Ladd Russo, who's understandably disliked by most characters by virtue of being a totally off-his-rocker Psycho for Hire. To be fair to the viewers, how many characters are so Laughably Evil that they make shooting off a ten-year-old's head * utterly hilarious?
- Berserk: Guts has had this hard from the moment of his birth and throughout his life, considered a curse by his awful adoptive father Gambino and despised by nearly everybody he came across. This only changed when he met the Band of the Hawk who apart from Casca and Corkus accepted him with open arms. This also served as a metaphorical and physical gut punch as they were savagely taken away from him in the bloodiest and cruelest way possible. Which sent Guts off alone again as the infamous Black Swordsman.
- Naturally Guts's eternal pain and struggle, make the heart and soul of the series in the eyes of fans. Who detests the injustice of Guts being accused and hunted during his quest for righteous vengeance and especially against the alleged hero of the kingdom Griffith who is worshipped despite the colossal amount of shit he's pulled.
- An example of this working to the character's benefit is Jeremiah Gottwald, the Ensemble Dark Horse of Code Geass. While legitimately villainous in his first appearance, after getting defeated by Lelouch he gets treated like crap in the first season, both the fans and the show's makers adored him, which inspired the writers to change his story arc from an early death to taking several levels in badass and undergoing a Heel–Face Turn to join forces with protagonist Lelouch before finally receiving one of the few unambiguously happy endings out of the entire cast.
- L from Death Note isn't exactly well-liked in-universe (having literally no friends and no social skills), but he is probably the most popular character with the fandom. Even those who don't like him do tend to have respect for his professional abilities.
- Ditto his Evil Twin, Beyond Birthday, mainly due to the Draco in Leather Pants phenomenon.
- Deltora Quest: Doom the leader of the rebellion against the Shadow Lord is distrusted and outright hated by everyone from the Jasmine in main trio to members of his own revolution, but Doom beloved by the fans and especially those who read books. Knowing full well that Doom is actually Jarred, loving father of Jasmine making her hatred of him beautifully ironic.
- Barda in books and anime is a disgraced guard turned beggar and despite his troubled status is adored by readers and viewers alike. The anime especially makes it very entertaining and gives him some legitimate awesome fights towards the end of the series, complete with Ak-Baba decapitations sadly not present in the books.
- Thaegan the haggard/beautiful sorceress is loathed in the books but is given a more sympathetic portrayal in the anime making her a fan favorite helped by her attractiveness and wickedness.
- Dain was popular before and after he turns out to be an evil backstabbing Ol due to his fangirls, most people were happy when Lief "gave him the belt" however.
- In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Zenitsu is considered to be a loser by almost all of his past acquaintances before meeting the main cast, and even if he has friends now there’s still new people Zenitsu meets who don’t like him, yet he is very popular among the fandom, once scoring 2nd place in an official poll only behind the loved-by-all protagonist Tanjiro himself; his popularity proved to be long lasting, the 2nd official manga poll in Japan crowned Zenitsu with the 1st place in 2020. This is made even more curious by the fact Zenitsu is disliked by many of the girls he tries to impress but is loved by a fandom that has a gigantic female presence in it.
- Kanda from D.Gray-Man. Because of his attitude, not many characters appear to like him at all including Allen. Minor characters, such as finders, hate him and even the characters that do like him have a bit of an issue with his attitude. Only Lavi normally doesn't seem to be bothered by that but gets annoyed from time to time. Despite this, he is quite popular with fangirls...
- Due to the constant demands by producers to make the show more humorous, the dubbed version of Digimon Adventure 02 had a lot of humor that poked fun at Davis' arrogant personality. Despite what you might think, he was still a Butt-Monkey in the original.
- Dragon Ball:
- Vegeta is very popular with fans despite most of the cast, including his loved ones and Goku (and even the author initially), either distrusting him or outright hating him for most of the series.
- Before Vegeta, Piccolo the reincarnated Demon King was the one Hated by All, and for a good while none of the good guys could be around him without at least getting nervous. Of course, he’s a perennial fan favourite, with even Toriyama admitting that Piccolo is his favourite (though he later said it was Goku in another interview).
- Yamcha. In the story he’s a loser who was drastically Overshadowed by Awesome, lost his girlfriend to Vegeta, and is seen as a weakling by most characters. Among the fandom, thanks to smacking Beerus on the back and being extremely fun to play in Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Yamcha has become a Memetic Badass. Even in Japan, Yamcha was voted 15th most popular character (above even Bulma, the series' main female character!)
- Chi-Chi is seen as an unpleasant Education Mama in-universe: her husband Goku is terrified of her, and even Toriyama admits he doesn’t like her very much. While a vocal section of fanbase still dislikes Chi-Chi for “holding Gohan back,” elsewhere in the fanbase she’s a massive Ensemble Dark Horse, being seen as misunderstood and sympathetic and has a massive amount of Fan Art dedicated to her.
- Cell and Freeza have wide followings in the fandom, the former especially the from the American fanbase, but most everybody in-universe hates them, being that they're pure evil.
- Broly in his debut was supposed to be a disgustingly evil Hate Sink who repulses even Goku. Fandom-wise, Broly is absolutely beloved, being the most popular movie villain by far (rivalled only by Cooler). He’s so popular that he became canon to the main story.
- No one in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World likes Jinnai, save for the Bugrom he commands. But he's so entertainingly Laughably Evil that he's one of the more popular characters outside of the show.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Envy is a spiteful, sadistic psychopath who exists to cause discord and revels in being a vile heartless bastard, doing acts as despicable as posing as an Amestris soldier and shooting an Ishvalan child to offset a civil war and gloating about it with a huge Slasher Smile on their face. They're so despised that they end up on the receiving end of Cold-Blooded Torture from one of our heroes. Furthermore, while Envy does have their competent, manipulative moments, they're disrespected by both heroes and villains for their Hair-Trigger Temper and awful fighting skills that result in them getting their ass handed to them and becoming a Dirty Coward. At best, they have a sibling bond with Lust and Gluttony who they playfully banter with, get along with Kimblee who admires their cruelty, and Edward feels some pity for them when he figures out Envy's jealous of humans. Despite all this, Envy is consistently one of the most popular Homunculi (competing with Greed) and the only one to rank in the top 10 on the popularity charts each time. Many fans find their cruelty and inevitable comeuppance extremely entertaining along with their snarky attitude, dramatic expressions, cute androgynous Shapeshifter Default Form, Scaled Up Eldritch Abomination form which is horrifying and disgusting but pretty cool, and their sympathetic death scene in their de-powered Ugly Cute form.
- Envy is an even bigger case in the first anime, where he's even crueler and more sadistic than his manga counterpart with no redeeming qualities, and nobody in the cast has a positive view of him. In the '03 fandom's heyday, he was consistently ranking in the top 5. In this version he's The Dragon and a lot more badass and manipulative, making him a compelling antagonist in a different way and arguably more important, but what really got him so popular was his personal vendetta against Edward and goals of murdering his father motivated by him being the failed transmutation of Edward's half-brother.
- The sadistic, genocidal, Sociopathic Soldier Mad Bomber Kimblee is very much disliked in-universe for these reasons and was one of the few soldiers to be imprisoned for his actions (though in the manga/Brotherhood, this was only because he blew up his superior officers; Mustang had an even higher kill count.) In the fandom, he’s one of the most popular antagonists, especially the manga version for his “unique” philosophy, class, and sense of style. The 2003 version is not as popular as he's more of a one-note psycho, but he's still very memorable and entertaining to the fandom for how gleefully hammy and Ax-Crazy he is.
- Akabane from Get Backers, on the character charts, he's easily the most popular character followed by which of the duo gets the most development at the time of the polls, helped by being easily the most genial character in the main cast. This is in spite of all of the cast fearing or hating him for being a killer as they all have a no-killing mindset and understandably turning on them at certain points.
- Gundam:
- Ali al-Saachez of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is loathed by every single character on the show who is not paying him for something at the time. The fans? They're the ones singing "Prince Ali! Mighty is he!"
- Patrick Colasour from Gundam 00, who underwent a very similar character arc (Butt-Monkey antagonist, hangs on by sheer persistence, eventually gets his happy ending). Unlike Jeremiah, Colasour was never intended as anything but a joke, which makes his eventual fate more surprising.
- Among all the endless debates and disagreements over Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, one of the few things everyone agrees on is Rau Le Creuset is one of the best villains Gundam has ever produced. Obviously, he's very much hated in-universe (such that only two characters in Destiny thought well of him, and both of them still opposed his goals), and for good reason since he nearly succeeded in causing humanity to wipe itself out, but as far as anyone in the real world is concerned Rau is a Magnificent Bastard of epic proportions, being one of the few Gundam villains to be completely evil and nefarious, yet holding a distinctive style and level of badass from those around him. Even fans who hate SEED in general often claim Rau was one of its saving graces.
- In Heat Guy J, the young mob boss Clair Leonelli is easily one of the most popular and well-known characters, but at least initially he's opposed both by the heroes (because he's a violent criminal they have to stop) and by the other members of his crime organization (because he's so young and mentally unstable), and generally surrounded by people who want to screw him over.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers:
- Canada is ignored to the point of being invisible by pretty much all of the other nations. The fandom disagrees and goes a long way to fix this "oversight,"
to the point where fanfic readers can barely recognize the original character. - In-verse, no one really likes Prussia because of his brash, 'Awesome-Me' personality, his childhood friend Hungary can't stand him, and he spends one Christmas pretending to like being alone. In the fandom, he's surprisingly popular for one of the more minor characters.
- England and Russia, which isn't what you'd expect from two of the main characters. In-universe, England's got a long-running rivalry with France, his former-adopted-brother-now-possible-crush America keeps shooting him down, and even his former colonies don't show him any respect. Russia, meanwhile, has it worse; his subordinates are extremely terrified of him, his older sister has too many issues to deal with to spend time with him, the one person who likes him not only happens to be his younger sister, but is also a Psycho Knife Nut Yandere as well, and everyone else either doesn't want him around, or hates him. Both of them only want to have friends, but from the looks of it, they won't be getting any.
- Belarus for that matter definitely qualifies as this. She's aggressive, sadistic and foul-mouthed, and very nasty to anyone who isn't her beloved brother, with who she has an incestuous obsession, so naturally, most of the other characters are scared of her. Lithuania has a huge crush on her, but it's because he's a Horrible Judge of Character and doesn't even seem to notice when she breaks his fingers. In the fandom, however, she's one of the most popular female characters for her good looks and cute outfit and many find her caustic attitude and Yandere tendencies entertaining.
- Canada is ignored to the point of being invisible by pretty much all of the other nations. The fandom disagrees and goes a long way to fix this "oversight,"
- Hypnosis Mic: Doppo Kannonzaka is one of the most popular characters among the fanbase, with many fans seeing him as The Woobie, but the same can’t be said for him In-Universe. His coworkers and boss abuse and overwork him, he’s overlooked and ignored by Matenrou’s fanbase in favor of his more popular teammates, and overall he’s treated with a lot of contempt by the other characters (particularly Dice (who detests white-collar workers) and Saburo (who shows disdain towards just about everyone who isn’t Ichiro)), with many of them finding his profuse apologizing to be insanely annoying.
- Aoi Todo from Jujutsu Kaisen is hated by most of the other students for his erratic behavior, violent tendencies, and obsession with his favorite idol, with only Yuuji somewhat tolerating him. These traits make him beloved by the fandom.
- Ishigami from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is considered to be creepy by most of his classmates due to an incident that happened back in middle school, but one of the most popular characters among the fanbase, especially when the truth of the said incident (he tried to secretly protect the honor of a girl) comes to light.
- Tadano Hitohito from Komi Can't Communicate gets the Chew Toy treatment in-universe, being resented by his classmates for befriending Komi so easily despite being a Ridiculously Average Guy. Despite this he doesn't have trouble getting along with classmates when they're not vying for her attention and he is accepted as her Translator Buddy. The reaction in the fandom has been the reverse, to the point where characters who are more outwardly antagonistic towards him, such as Yamai, get viewed as The Scrappy.
- Medaka Box: Partly justified since he's a former villain, but Kumagawa generally aggravates a good chunk of the cast with his antics. However, he never "wins" in his eyes, and gets a fair amount of abuse. In the fandom, he's indisputably the most popular character of the series, having more than three times the votes of the titular character in one poll.
- In Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Yuzuki Seo is brash, selfish, aggressive, and has a knack for saying exactly the right thing to piss people off without even meaning to do it. Apart from Sakura, just about everyone finds her annoying. Of course, the audience is watching from the sidelines where she is instead one of the funniest members of the cast by sheer virtue of how incredibly obnoxious she is.
- My Hero Academia:
- Katsuki Bakugo is the biggest example. Among Class 1-A, the only ones to show signs of liking him are Kirishima, Uraraka, and Midoriya (and of those, Ochaco basically likes everybody and Deku is his childhood friend), outside of that, he is either the Butt-Monkey or The Friend Nobody Likes, but he has ranked 1st place in three popularity polls in a row.
- Tsuyu Asui is the biggest example next to Bakugo. Within the series she’s supposed to be seen as weird and strange with her frog-like traits straight up freaking people out. Among the fandom however Asui is utterly beloved with countless fans finding her adorable and not creepy in the slightest. In the first US popularity poll she ranked 2nd place, above even Bakugo, Ochaco, Momo and All-Might himself.
- The League of Villains is hated by everyone and even by other villains who consider them childish, such as Stain, and a bunch of overhyped villains, such as Chisaki. They even dislike each other among themselves. Still, characters such as Shigaraki, Himiko, and Dabi maintain a strong fanbase.
- Neito Monoma is arguably the biggest student with bad publicity after Bakugo. His classmates barely tolerate him due to his Irrational Hatred towards Class 1-A causing them to have to knock him out to shut him up, the students of Class 1-A generally still ignore his taunts some of them have outright wondered aloud about if something goes wrong with his mental state, and Mirio nicknamed him "the bad side of U.A." given his obnoxious ways and his tendency for trolling Class 1-A whenever he's around them. Despite this, Monoma is no shortage of loyal fans who adore him for his exceptionally versatile Quirk, being The Chessmaster in battle and his over-the-top Large Ham Anti-Hero personality, turning him into the most popular student in Class 1-B.
- Hitoshi Shinso isn't exactly popular when he's first introduced because of his Mind Manipulation Quirk which causes people to mistrust him and repeatedly comments it would be a useful power for a villain, and he provokes Midoriya into responding to his question by insulting Ojiro - but then we see that he actually wanted to be in the Hero Course and strives to be one despite the discrimination he faces. The fandom loves Shinso, to the point where he's consistently ranked in the top ten of every popularity poll since he's appeared, despite only showing up as a cameo since his debut and some fans even hope Mineta will be kicked out of the Hero Course and replaced with Shinso.
- Gentle Criminal can't seem to catch a break. Whether trying to become a hero in his younger years or being a villain when he got older, barely anyone acknowledged him, other than his only fan La Brava. To put it in perspective, Gentle created an online video-sharing account and uploads video after video, each of which barely gets any views. And the few comments that show up always seem to berate him. Meanwhile, Stain became an overnight sensation without even trying, as a single video featuring him leaked online, where he exclaims his true heroism ideals. Gentle could only wish for that amount of attention. If only he knew how many real-world fans he had who sympathize with him, especially after seeing his backstory. It's to the point that some fans wanted him to defeat Midoriya!
- Fans of My-HiME love the bombastic, loudmouthed, malaproper-prone Haruka Suzushiro for precisely the same reasons that people in universe hate her. Averted with her My-Otome counterpart, Haruka Armitage, who is as loved in universe as she is out of it.
- Naruto:
- Rock Lee might as well be the Trope Codifier among Naruto for this. In-Universe he’s mainly seen as a ridiculous weirdo who trains hard but can’t hope to keep up with the likes Naruto and Sasuke and only a select few people such as Might Guy (his mentor), Tenten and Naruto genuinely like him. Fandom-wise Lee is absolutely beloved, skyrocketed to fifth most poplar character in the first and second popularity polls and among western audiences Lee’s Determinator nature and the fact he’s a Magically Inept Fighter make him truly inspirational with a good portion of western fans actually believing he’d make a better protagonist than Naruto himself.
- Jiraiya in-universe despite being part of the Legendary Sannin is often regarded as a joke and embarrassing loser due his lecherous behavior, both his teammates Tsunade and Orochimaru (former in the latter case) find him annoying. Of course, among the fanbase Jiraiya is adored being one of the popular characters and his death often being considered the saddest in the series.
- Villains such as Zabuza, Orochimaru, Hidan and especially Madara are loathed in universe with Hidan and Madara in particular meant to be Hate Sink to nth degree. Fandom-wise they are all extremely popular and adored.
- No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!:
- The protagonist herself, Tomoko Kuroki. A shy Otaku girl with No Social Skills who gets into many humiliating situations because she, well, as the title may indicate, wants to be popular. Got quite the following on /a/, primarily for how close to home it hits. And how huggable the character is.
- Yuri is, in many ways, even more socially inept than Tomoko, and she definitely has fewer friends in third year. But in Japan, she's far and away the most popular character in the manga, beating even Tomoko in the favorite character polls.
- Sachi is notable for spiking in popularity among readers more or less the moment lost most of the friends she had.
- Minami as well who losed most of her friends in the same incident that Sachi and spended most of the third year chapters isolated and incapable of connecting with her new classmates but since all of this happened at the same time she was getting an strong dose of Character Development she quickly became one of the most popular characters of the series.
- Kotomi is probably the one character in the whole series that has worse social skills that Tomoko or Yuri and unlike them she never improves socially or gains more friends besides Yuu, Hikari and her Friendly Rival Akari with everyone else barely tolerating her or being indifferent to her. Fans however tend to regard her as one of the funniest characters of the series.
- One Piece:
- Similar to the Zenitsu example, Sanji is supposed to a bit of a loser outside his crew despite his talents often being a Casanova Wannabe who gets put in humiliating situations and is frequently rejected by women when they aren’t pretending to find him attractive. When it comes to the fanbase Sanji eclipses 90% of the rest of the cast in popularity being only surpassed by Luffy and Zoro (and Nami world wide) and out of universe his female following is not feigned at all.
- Ace in-universe is absolutely hated across the world of One Piece for being the son of Gold Roger the King of the Pirates and only Whitebeard’s crew, Luffy's crew and a few others who know Ace personally like Jimbei, Tama and Oden like him. Fan-wise Ace is adored being consistently ranked high in popularity polls even after he’s dead and buried and is one of the most celebrated heroes in the series alongside the aforementioned Luffy, Zoro and Sanji.
- Robin has been hated In-Universe since she was little girl even before she became wanted by The Government. Every former ally she’s had has betrayed her and besides her close friends the Straw Hat Pirates and Revolutionaries she’s held in suspicion and considered a cursed woman. Out of universe, Robin is the most celebrated female character next to Nami with her character focused arc in Water 7 and Enies Lobby being an all time fan favourite.
- Buggy for a lot of the earlier series is supposed to be The Chew Toy who is seen as laughable pathetic even by his former crew (who were the Roger Pirates). When it comes to the fans however Buggy is adored and even Oda has admitted Buggy is one of his favourite characters alongside Luffy. Averted in Marineford and onwards when he becomes a Fake Ultimate Hero.
- Spandam is virtually hated by nearly everyone even by his own subordinates, much like Buggy he is easily loved by the fans for being such a Karmic Butt-Monkey and having a Laughably Evil face faults as many just watch as he is being beaten to pulp.
- Caesar plays this straighter than Buggy, being a massive Hate Sink in-universe and understandably loathed by just about everyone for his Would Hurt a Child Mad Scientist actions. When it comes to fans, Caesar has a disproportionately large amount of them who find him extremely funny and endearing to some extent. It speaks wonders of Oda’s writing and art that he can make a man who experimented on children an Ensemble Dark Horse. Although given Caesar has the same Seiyū as the aforementioned Freeza maybe it isn’t so surprising.
- One-Punch Man: Saitama, the protagonist, is very popular with fans of the series, but in-universe is widely seen as a fraud who takes the credit from other, more competent heroes and has done nothing to earn any of the achievements he's accomplished. This is mostly because his strength is simply so unbelievable that whenever he beats an opponent in one punch, the people assume that other heroes must have weakened it first and he cherry-tapped it for the final blow. Saitama himself does little to dispel these rumors since he doesn't want to take away the public's faith in the other heroes out there. There is a small group of people (notably Genos) who have witnessed enough of Saitama's strength to know he's the real deal, but they're definitely a minority and not all of them like him for it.
- Second brother and Butt-Monkey Karamatsu of Osomatsu-san is most often ridiculed, physically abused, or outright ignored (depending on which is funniest) by the rest of the cast, but especially the Western fandom, ironically or genuinely, adores him. This is even mentioned in an episode where Karamatsu himself says that the showrunners have been receiving letters from viewers that feel sorry for him.
- Ichimatsu often causes this reaction too. However, his reputation is not as bad as Karamatsu's.
- Team Rocket from Pokémon: The Series are quite the chew toys in-Universe, and constantly fail, but are quite popular in the fandom.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Sanosuke Sagara is one of the most popular characters in the series (he's placed second in all the popularity polls after Kenshin himself). Within the story, he's often subjected to The Worf Effect, and many characters don't quite respect him due to his Idiot Hero tendencies, as well as being a moocher.
- Kanetsugu Naoe from Samurai Girls can't win the respect of anyone in the show, often being ignored, beaten up, or both. In a poll taken before the anime began, she was the winner, and when the show aired, she earned the love of the fanbase for her delusional persistence.
- Chiri of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is an Ax-Crazy Neat Freak who doesn't receive a lot of in-series affection on account of those traits. Nearly everyone fears her, she's the only student that Nozomu seems to dislike, and in one instance, a public park is shown to have a sign prohibiting her from being there and disturbing the peace. However, she's one of the more popular characters in the series because of how crazy she is.
- Kururu/Kululu from Sgt. Frog is supposedly the most unpopular character in the anime when mentioned in-universe excluding Dororo because no one remembers him, and the narrator nags him occasionally for having a "bad personality". In reality, Kururu is often considered the most outstanding character in the whole show, and the negative in-universe attention has potential to bring in would-be fans/intensify preexisting fan-ism. They all seem to forget that his personality makes it rather just; would you hang out with a perverted, near-sadistic FROG? However, he's only popular outside Japan, making this slightly more justified.
- Soul Eater's Excalibur. Super powerful, downright annoying and loony as far as the other characters think, it says something that he singlehandedly created some sort of "DO NOT WANT" emoticon/meme (ﺧ益ﺨ). However, he's also considered very hilarious in his irritating-ness that even if he's The Scrappy in-universe, the fans and even the producers like him for his hilarity and loonydom.
- In the anime/manga series Tenjho Tenge, poor Masataka, despite being one of the most powerful characters in the series spends several of the early volumes being walked all over and generally mistreated by people, even if he could have beaten them with both hands tied behind his back. Fortunately, he starts to gain the respect of other characters as the series progresses, to the point where it is being hinted that he may be the key to resolving the plot of the entire series.
- In Tiger & Bunny, Wild Tiger/Kotetsu Kaburagi's low popularity as a superhero is something of a Running Gag — a stark contrast to the real world, where he's not only the most popular character of the show, but also of the entire Spring 2011 anime season
. - Rice Shower from Uma Musume Pretty Derby season 2. In-universe, she is much maligned by the general public due to winning the spring Kikkashou instead of Mihono Bourbon, who was about to become a Triple Crown as she already had won the Japan Derby and the Satsukishou note . The next time she participates, everyone fears that she will 'foil' McQueen's expected success on the spring Tennoshou as well. This goes as far as Rice Shower nearly giving up on racing at all, as she's convinced no one likes her around and even pronounces herself as being a Heel. Out of universe, however, she has a sizable fanbase due to her Elegant Gothic Lolita design, the fact that her backstory is explored in-depth and her personality. Things do get slightly better for her as she undergoes a very strict self-imposed training regimen that eventually ends up in her winning said spring Tennoshou. While the public is still disappointed, the ones that do know about Rice Shower's efforts applaud her. Later episodes show that she does earn some fame as the 'Ebony Stayer'.
- It should be noted that the initial reception of Rice Shower on the spring Kikkashou was entirely Truth in Television (as they said that Rice Shower 'got in Mihono Boubon's way'), and the results of the real horse on the spring Tennoshou were met with the same reaction as in the anime. Several fans of McQueen even threw their bets in the air at the end.
- Ataru Moroboshi from Urusei Yatsura is treated as a loser disliked by almost all the other characters. To the fans, he's hilarious and one of the most iconic Japanese examples of Lovable Sex Maniac. It helps that he's a parody of the Unlucky Everydude in the Harem Genre, and all his flaws are acknowledged and emphasized in the story, since he doesn't even try to hide them. And unlike the usual Unlucky Everydude who is always and inexplicably a Chick Magnet for no reason, Ataru actually gets rejected by almost all the girls, which makes him more funny and relatable.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Bastion (Daichi) Misawa on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is fairly popular among the audience, but is continually mistreated in the series. A recurring joke is that the other characters interrupt him without ever bothering to apologize. At one point in the second season, he threw an important duel once promised that he would be treated better if he lost. (Ironically, it was the only time he dueled the entire season, and he was treated even worse afterwards.)
- (Ryou) Bakura gets even worse treatment in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series.
- Also in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series is Jaden Yuki, who just can't catch a break from Yami/Yugi or Yusei, and they also hate his rapping, though that is a well-regarded part of Jaden's shtick by the fans.
- Akari Akaza from YuruYuri. She's constantly fighting against the world to get people aware of her existence (and hopefully not get hurt in the process), with only a scant few supporters, such as Sakurako. As for the fans, she always makes her way into show discussion precisely because of her lack of focus.
