History Main / SecondYearProtagonist

%%* In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', the main character, Miho, is a second-year student, who recently transferred to her high school because of a bad experience with tankery at her old one. Most of her friends are in the same year.

%%* Majority of the main cast in ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'' are in second year of high school. The exceptions are the freshman Wakamatsu and senior Hori.

* Typically in ''Franchise/{{Persona}} the main character is a second-year student. ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' start off by transferring to a new school, and all three quickly gain at least one male and one female friend of the same age/in the same homeroom. The dynamics are [[PlayingWithATrope played around with in all these games]]:

* In the first two seasons of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'', Hiro and Sae are this. Yuno and Miyako become second years in the latter two. When Hiro and Sae graduate and Yuno and Miyako take their places as third years, Nazuna and Nori then become this trope.

* ''VisualNovel/HighSchoolStory'' involve the main character being this trope. In the spinoff, ''Class Act,'' the first MC is now one grade up to make way for the next MC who's this trope.

* ''VideoGame/{{Amagami}} SS'' has second year Junichi, with the older Morishima and the younger Ai and Sae, both of whom are friends with his sister. The remaining three are in the same year.
* ''Anime/BangDream'' 2nd Season has Kasumi and her bandmates starting in the second year of high school.
** [=CHU2=], who is initially an antagonist of sorts in Season 2, becomes one of the central protagonists in Season 3, where she's a second year middle school student.

* In ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' Usagi and friends are in their 2nd year of Junior High at the start of the series.
* ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'': Ryuuji and Taiga are put in section 2-C.
* ''Manga/LovelyComplex''
* Hayana from ''Manga/TwinkleSaberNova''.

* ''Manga/SchoolRumble'': plays this straight (including the sections 2-C and 2-D).
* ''Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys'''s main characters are in class 2-A.
* In ''Manga/RealBoutHighSchool'', Ryoko is this.
* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire: Season II''...but only because the original covered their first year in high school.

* In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', the main character, Miho, is a second-year student, who recently transferred to her high school because of a bad experience with tankery at her old one. Most of her friends are in the same year.
* Averted in ''Anime/MaiHime''. The high school-age characters are divided between the first year and the third year, with none in the year in between.
* The main characters in ''Manga/ShindereShoujoToKodokuNaShinigami''.

* Ryuko of ''Anime/KillLaKill'' is this.
* Madoka, Sayaka and Homura of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' are this, albeit in middle school instead of high school.
* [[TheHero Yugami]] and [[{{Narrator}} Chihiro]] from ''Manga/YugamiKunNiWaTomodachiGaInai'' are both second years and are placed in [[AlwaysInClassOne class 2-A]].
* Call him a protagonist of a {{Manhua}} than a manga, but Ye Ren is this for ''Manhua/{{Bloodline}}''.
* Majority of the main cast in ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'' are in second year of high school. The exceptions are the freshman Wakamatsu and senior Hori.
* In ''Manga/MissionYozakuraFamily'', Taiyo is a 16-year-old second-year high school student at the start of the story.
* The main 4 girls in ''Manga/LuckyStar'' start out as second-year high school girls, but move to their third year partway through the series.
* The main cast in ''Manga/{{Horimiya}}'' start out as this, but later move on to third year.

* Ryuu and Io of ''Anime/CuteHighEarthDefenseClubLove''. In the first season, they didn't get much of a spotlight though.
* While the main character is actually a teacher (although ten years old), most of main characters of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' are members of Class 2-A at the start of the series. They ''quickly'' become members of Class 3A, though (not even 10% of the way through the series).
* The boys in ''Manga/KimiToBoku'' start the series in their second year of high school.
* Most of the cast of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' (including the two leads) are second-year high school students.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' was bitten by the spider which gave him his powers when he was fifteen, which would probably put him at sophomore age, and all of his classmates were roughly the same age.

[[folder: Fan Fics]]
* Kohaku Yudin of the fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9030904/1/Yu-Gi-Oh-GSTART Yu-Gi-Oh! GSTART]] (as well as all of his friends) starts his second year at Delta High South in Chapter 2.
* [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Hilda]] is a second year student at [[VideoGame/LoveLiveSchoolIdolFestivalAllStars Nijigasaki]] [[Anime/LoveLiveNijigasakiHighSchoolIdolClub High]] in the ''Fanfic/TokimekiPokeLiveAndTwinbee'' series.
[[/folder]]

* Kaname of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''.
* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Issei is in his second year high school when the plot kicks off.
* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Touma is in second year in [[NoNameGiven a certain high school]]. The other protagonists: [[spoiler:Accelerator]]'s year is not given, and Hamazura Shiage is a drop-out.

* ''Literature/SkippyDies'': All the teen characters are second-years at age 14, and most of them were friends the previous year.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', Peter fills this role as a junior, who would be a second-year in Japan. His sister Paige, however, averts this, as every year, there are strips about her entering high school for the first time.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Double whammy in that not only did Buffy come to Sunnydale in her sophomore year, it's implied that it's directly on the heels of her adventures in L.A., which would mean she wasn't even called to action as the slayer *in the backstory* until her sophomore year.

* ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'': Averted. Sam Weir and his buddies were "geeky" freshmen for the television series' very short run.
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls''

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Claire starts off the show as a sophomore.
* The three main characters of ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' are all second-year high school students.
* ''Series/TheOC'' is an interesting case because their first year was originally their junior year, but then their next year was... their junior year, and the previous year was retconned to be their sophomore year.
** The same thing also happened earlier on ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'', where most of the students spent two years in their junior year before moving onto senior year in the show's third season. This was done to sustain the show's longevity as the series became popular. However, the trope is averted with David Silver, who begins as a freshman, and unlike the rest of the gang, ages normally but graduates a year earlier than expected in season 3, with the HandWave being that he took more classes to catch up.

* ''Series/AndiMack'' played this straight with the main characters being seventh graders in a 6-8 middle school as of season 1.
* ''Series/WeirdScience'': In the pilot, Gary and Wyatt are beginning their sophomore year at Farber High School.

* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'': With the exception of the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' duology, all of the ''Persona'' series have their central protagonist be in their second year of high school. In ''2's'' case, the first half's protagonist is in his third year while the second half's protagonist is a woman in her [[TokenAdult early twenties]] who has a day job as a magazine editor.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'', the main character is a second-year student. All three start off by transferring to a new school, and all three quickly gain at least one male and one female friend of the same age/in the same homeroom. The dynamics are [[PlayingWithATrope played around with in all these games]]:
*** P3's lead gets three [[SempaiKohai senpai]] to help guide him; one of said senpai is the leader and founder of [[TheTeam SEES]], and she assigns the protagonist the "field leader" (read: leading the charge in dungeon crawling) position, putting him/her in the middle of the totem pole (which gets emphasized once [[TagalongKid Ken]] joins them).
*** P4's heroes surprisingly lack any senpai; [[spoiler:While there is one at the very beginning of the game, she is murdered, and her death kickstarts the plot.]] The protagonist and three other Investigation Team members are second years, three others are first years, and [[TokenNonHuman Teddie]]. This makes the P4 protagonist's position as the leader of the team much more blatant.
*** P5 begins similarly to the other two, but the school setting isn't as focused on - thanks to the protagonist's record, nobody in school really wants much to do with him. In turn, because the Phantom Thieves all share a background of abuse by authority none of them follow the Sempai-Kohai system to a tee. All of them ignore it and are casual with each other, including third year students Makoto and Haru. This even extends to members who go to different schools ([[StarvingArtist Yusuke]], [[GreatDetective Akechi]]), or to the one member who doesn't go to school at all ([[{{Hikkikomori}} Futaba]], who is also the youngest member). As a result, the P5 protagonist takes a middle ground to his leadership status, taking authority mainly in [[EldritchLocation the Metaverse]], but leaving some more mundane tasks in the hands of his teammates when he himself cannot do anything.
*** P1 is justified in a lack of SempaiKohai - ''all nine'' potential party members are second years, and the majority of them happened to meet one another in passing before the DEVA System began warping Mikage-Cho. The P1 protagonist's status as a leader mainly stems from his ability to [[TheKirk remain calm]] in heated situations, especially when [[TheMcCoy Inaba]] and [[TheSpock Nanjo]] argue over certain crises of consciousness over the course of the story.
* ''VideoGame/TokyoXanadu'' has the protagonist, Kou, in his second of year of high school. In regards to the party, there are two girls in the same grade as him (his [[ClassRepresentative class's representative]] Asuka, as well as the idol-group member, Rion, in another class), with 2 kohai (Sora and Yuuki) and 2 sempai ([[StudentCouncilPresident Mitsuki]] and [[{{Delinquent}} Shio]]).
* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' has its VillainProtagonist, Yandere-chan, taking homeroom on the second floor of Akademi High School and can generally be inferred to be in the second year (though this is not allowed to be officially confirmed due to varying censorship laws that would prohibit [[PantyShot certain things]] in the game applying to minors).

* In ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'', the protagonist and her classmates are second-year students, as is Anghel who is in another class. Nageki is a first-year [[spoiler: for the sixth time]], and Yuuya is a third-year.

* Ash and Emily of are both sophomores (literally second year) at the beginning of ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'', mostly important because until the misfile Emily was a graduating senior. Now she has to repeat her last two years of HighSchool and re-take the driver's license exam.
* In ''WebComic/UndeadFriend'' the main character, Orrick and some of his friends are second year students in high school.

* Ash and Emily of are both sophomores (literally second year)at the beginning of ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'', mostly important because until the misfile Emily was a graduating senior. Now she has to repeat her last two years of HighSchool and re-take the driver's license exam.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' -- In the first season, the show's TitleCharacter and male lead are sophomores in high school. The second season is a little ambiguous, but the third season clearly has them in junior year with ''WesternAnimation/SoTheDrama'' taking place around prom, and the final season covers their senior year and [[GraduateFromTheStory graduation]]).

* {{Subverted}} on ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan,'' which began with Peter Parker's first day of ''junior'' year. {{Justified|Trope}} because it was intended to only be a [[SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon 65 Episode Series]] that [[LeftHanging would have]] ended with him and his classmates [[GraduateFromTheStory Graduating From The Story]].

*** P5 begins similarly to the other two, but the school setting isn't as focused on - thanks to the protagonist's record, nobody in school really wants much to do with him. In turn, because the Phantom Thieves all share a background of abuse by authority none of them follow the Sempai-Kohai system to a tee. All of them ignore it and are overly casual with each other, including third year students Makoto and Haru. This even extends to members who go to different schools ([[StarvingArtist Yusuke]], [[GreatDetective Goro]]), or to the one member who doesn't go to school at all ([[{{Hikkikomori}} Futaba]], who is also the youngest member). As a result, the P5 protagonist takes a middle ground to his leadership status, taking authority mainly in [[EldritchLocation the Metaverse]], but leaving some more mundane tasks in the hands of his teammates when he himself cannot do anything.

* Alice, Molly and Reena in ''ThePoisonApples'' are 15 and in sophomore year (though they are all new at their BoardingSchool). We never hear anything about the freshmen at the school but Reena is shown to be popular by being invited to hang out with a [[InWithTheInCrowd group of cool older students]]. Alice's eventual boyfriend Jamal is considered cool and unattainable for being older (the same goes for Molly's crush Pradeep - Reena's brother).

* ''Franchise/BangDream'' 2nd Season has Kasumi and her bandmates starting in the second year of high school.
** CHU2, who is initially an antagonist of sorts in Season 2, becomes one of the central protagonists in Season 3, where she's a second year middle school student.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shin Megami Tensei Persona}}'': With the exception of the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' duology, all of the ''Persona'' series have their central protagonist be in their second year of high school. In ''2's'' case, the first half's protagonist is in his third year while the second half's protagonist is a woman in her [[TokenAdult early twenties]] who has a day job as a magazine editor.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' -- In the first season, the show's TitleCharacter and male lead are sophomores in high school while the fourth seasons starts of with them finally starting their senior year of high school (and the SeriesFinale ends with them [[GraduateFromTheStory graduating from high school]]). The third season takes place during Kim and Ron's junior year while the second season seems to cover both sophomore and junior year.

* In ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'' Riki, Masato and Kengo are in second year. In fact, with the exception of Kyousuke, all the main characters are in second year.

** P5 begins similarly to the other two, but the school setting isn't as focused on - thanks to the protagonist's record, nobody in school really wants much to do with him. In turn, because the Phantom Thieves all share a background of abuse by authority none of them follow the Sempai-Kohai system to a tee. All of them ignore it and are overly casual with each other, including third year students Makoto and Haru. This even extends to members who go to different schools ([[StarvingArtist Yusuke]], [[GreatDetective Goro]]), or to the one member who doesn't go to school at all ([[{{Hikkikomori}} Futaba]], who is also the youngest member).
** P1 is justified in a lack of SempaiKohai - ''all nine'' potential party members are second years, and the majority of them happened to meet one another in passing before the DEVA System began warping Mikage-Cho. The P1 protagonist's status as a leader mainly stems from his ability to [[TheKirk remain calm] in heated situations, especially when [[TheMcCoy Inaba]] and [[TheSpock Nanjo]] argue over certain crises of consciousness over the course of the story.

* In both ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', the main character is a second-year student. Both start off by transferring to a new school, and both quickly gain at least one male and one female friend of the same age/in the same homeroom. However, while P3's lead gets some experienced sempais to work with, P4's heroes surprisingly lack a sempai [[spoiler: who doesn't get killed before the main plot begins, anyway]]. This also means that while the P3's main is mid totem pole on the leadership scale P4's lead is the leader of their group.
** ''Videogame/{{Persona 5}}'' looks to be following the same trend, with its protagonist in his second year at high school. However the school setting isn't as focused on in 5, thanks to the protagonist's record, nobody in school really wants much to do with him. Likewise because the Phantom Thieves all share a background of abuse by authority none of them care for the Sempai-Kohai system, and all of them ignore it and are overly casual with each other, even the sempai's Makoto and Haru and several members even go to different schools or in the case of Futaba (the only one younger than everyone) doesn't go at all.

* In''WebComic/UndeadFriend'' the main character, Orrick and some of his friends are second year students in high school.

Compare and contrast AlwaysInClassOne

* ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'': the protagonist character Anzu is a second year student transfer, and the idol group with the most focus [[Ensemblecast (in the main storyline, anyway)]] is made entirely out of second-years. This not only allows for [[TasteTheRainbow a wider range of different relationships]], it also makes sense for the plot: the previous year, a 'war' happened in which a number of highly skilled, experienced idols were sabotaged by the student council. As a result, each of the different year levels have a different perspective on it: the third years were either part of the problem or victimised by it, while the first years weren't around and so don't properly understand it. Only the second years have a close enough perspective to know what happened and who was responsible, while largely having escaped from being targeted themselves, and at least initially not coming across as a threat. (And in the case of one of the few second-years who ''was'' targeted, Natsume, the other oddballs went out of their want to protect him because he was younger than the rest of them.)

[[folder: Light Novel]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' -- The TitleCharacter and the male lead start off as sophomores in high school while the second season seems to cover part of both sophomore and junior year, and they're juniors in the third season. They start their senior year at the beginning of the fourth season, and they [[GraduateFromTheStory finish high school]] in the GrandFinale.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' starts with the title character here, but [[GraduateFromTheStory ends with her graduation]]. This also had the benefit of letting her younger sister and {{Foil}}, [[LovableAlphaBitch Quinn]], attend school at the same time.

** The same thing also happened earlier on ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'', where the students spent two years in their junior year before moving onto senior year in the show's third season. This was done to sustain the show's longevity as the series became popular.