Aloof Big Brother / Anime & Manga

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• In Angel Sanctuary, Michael's Aloof Big Brother is Lucifer, though most of this is told in the backstory and we only get to see the aftereffects.
• Suguru Aizawa of Area no Kishi is often cold and aloof with his younger brother, Kakeru, and quite obviously disapproves of his brother's dream to become a professional football trainer. It is hinted, however, that Suguru may act this way because he knows that Kakeru is only truly happy when playing the sport he loves.
• In BanG Dream!, Sayo has this kind of relationship with her younger twin sister Hina, but in a twist, she isn't the more talented one. In fact, the rift between the sisters is because Sayo is jealous of Hina's upstaging her at everything she does, including playing the guitar, which was the one thing Sayo thought was her own. Eventually, Sayo does recognize the error of her ways and starts to be kinder to Hina.
• J Sawaragi in Battle Spirits Shonen Toppa Bashin. It's clear that he cares a lot about his sister Kyoka, as well as Bashin and his other friends. However, his secret personal agenda forces him to distance himself from them.
• In Black Clover, Nozel Silva is this to his younger sister Noelle, who, along with their other siblings, he disparaged for being unable to control her magic. It's later revealed he did so to protect her, not confident that she would become strong enough to become a powerful Magic Knight, and not wanting to lose her due to her resemblance to their late mother.
• Bleach: Byakuya is Ichigo's initial nemesis solely because of two conflicting vows, choosing to protect the law (made to his deceased parents) over protecting his sister (made to his deceased wife). Ichigo helps him resolve this conflict, turning him into a master of Loophole Abuse. His Big Brother Instinct now has full reign resulting in Knight Templar Big Brother violence against anyone who dares injure Rukia, to whom he is now a Big Brother Mentor.
• Bloom Into You: In the School Play that the main characters put on, the main character, an amnesiac high school student who hears three completely different accounts about herself, apparently is one to her younger brother. He says that they had the same mother but different fathers, and tells his sister that she kept her distance from the rest of the family. He's somewhat bitter about it, noting that if she acted that way at home, she probably really was a cold and distant person, but holds out hope that they can reconcile once she gets home from the hospital. On the other hand, the main character suggests that she acted distant in order to keep the peace around her family, and even though her brother doesn't think she remembers his birthday, it's one of three important dates to her that, when added up, makes her cell phone password, so it's suggested that she may have cared more than she let on.
• A subversion of this appears in Bobobobobobobo with Softon, who happens to be heroine Beauty's missing older brother. He initially sided with The Empire before his defeat at Bo-bobo's hands, and he does act very aloof and stoic throughout, even when he pratfalls into the series' regular nonsensical gags. However, he is helpful to the main party, and he is very protective of his sister, albeit discreetly.
• In Brave10, Rokuro is one towards his younger twin, Nanakuma, as Rokuro is far less emotionally demonstrative. He doesn't hate Nanakuma like Nanakuma hates him but in reality Rokuro's cold stoicism only contributes to Nanakuma's insecurities and anger.
• A Bride's Story: Azel is this to Amir; later it turns out that this was partially imposed by their father’s attitudes and even then he shows a fair amount of Big Brother Instinct. He later comes to have a similar attitude toward Karluk.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Though he's missing the aspects of The Rival, Touya Kinomoto definitely fits the personality type, having gifts the heroine doesn't and continually teasing her (he is a big brother, after all). He does, though, care for her quite a bit, often directing If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... subtext at her prospective Love Interest.
• Lelouch vi Britannia of Code Geass is initially an inversion, being warm and caring towards his little sister Nunnally, but later on, he dons a cold facade of a jerk for the sake of world peace. Poor Nunnally only learns his motives when he's dying. He's also an interesting take on this trope since he's the main character.
• Daimos: Richter cared about Erika but was too duty-bound to set an example for his own people. While he disowned her, he was actually grief-stricken that he could only cope by thinking that the Erika he knew was dead. He gets better by the final arc, but he's still very aloof.
• Death Note: Thanks to his sister Sayu, Light Yagami can be considered one, since he is too busy killing criminals to help her do her homework.
• Takeru of The Devil Does Exist is this to Yuzuru. Takeru is athletic, handsome, and popular, while Yuzuru is mostly mistaken for a girl and physically bullied at school. He studies hard to go to his big brother's school and even stalks and blackmails Kayano just to get Takeru's attention.
• As of the 2008 Dragon Ball OVA special, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, Vegeta can be considered one to his younger Nice Guy brother, Tarble.
• The Eccentric Family's Yaichirou tries to be this and mostly succeeds, but he cracks under pressure.
• Subverted in Eyeshield 21 with Agon and Unsui. It's the younger twin that's perfect and gives the older one a raging inferiority complex. In terms of personality though, Unsui is definitely the aloof one
• Zeref from Fairy Tail fits this to T. He is way smarter, refined, and talented than his younger brother Natsu being considered the greatest genius that his academy as ever seen. He is also stronger and faster than him as he is the strongest wizard to have ever live and always has a calm and dignified expression on his face. That said, his entire motivation revolves around Natsu. He became what he is in the first place due to trying to revive Natsu. His later goal is to go back in time so that he can reclaim the happy home life he once had with his baby brother and their parents.
• The ur-example in anime would be Raoh, Kenshiro's older brother from Fist of the North Star. He was even the Big Bad for most of the series but eventually did a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Hyoh, Kenshiro's actual elder brother from the Sequel Series, is a bit of a subversion. While a strong fighter by his own right, he is actually stated to be weaker than both Kenshiro and his former training partner, Kaioh (who just happens to be Raoh's true elder brother).
  • On some occasions, Raoh is shown trying his hardest to keep up this image. He refuses to show either fear or love, even when he knows he's feeling these emotions because he wishes to maintain his pride as the elder brother.
• Kurei from Flame of Recca is Recca's EXTREMELY Aloof Big Brother (well, half-brother). Similar to the Byakuya Kuchiki example, Kurei is unable to openly display the kindness his allies know he has, and it very much stems from the traumatic past he has gone through and having the wrong man raise him.
• Subverted by Takumi Aldini of Food Wars!. Takumi and his younger (by about three minutes) brother Isami are both well aware that Takumi is by far the better chef of them, but Takumi recognises just how good his brother is compared to nearly everyone else and encourages him to stand on his own two feet. The two also get along splendidly well and work like a well-oiled machine during group assignments.
• In Free! Rin Matsuoka is this to his little sister Gou. For the most part, he's as cold and distant to her as he is with everyone else, though he does have moments that show he cares for her.
• Fruits Basket: Ayame's Back Story shows him treating Yuki like this, as he was ten years older and Yuki was very sick as a child. His current wish to help and support Yuki is, he admits, trying to make up for it.
• Pride from the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, the oldest of the Homunculi siblings and always willing to tell his brothers how much they screwed up.
  • He's also willing to eat them as well.
  • Non-blood-related example, but Scar and Mei have a dynamic similar to this as well. Though the 'aloof' is a vast improvement over Scar's previous Serial-Killer Killer occupation.
• Leonard Testarossa from Full Metal Panic!! The Second Raid, though more expressive than most.
• Osamu Sugo/Knight Shoemach of Future GPX Cyber Formula, who is Asuka's older brother. He's actually more of a Big Brother Mentor, but he has this trait on several occasions, especially in the Double-One arc, when he challenges Hayato and the others.
• Game×Rush has Ken, who is Memori's Aloof Big Bro in a somewhat more active sense - repeatedly taunts him, remains completely blank-faced at Memori's protests, but he's really not a bad guy.
• In Girls und Panzer, Miho's older sister Maho appears to treat her coldly with the only thing she says to her in their first on-screen encounter being "I didn't think you'd still be doing tankery." It turns out that this is a facade of a jerkass on her part, brought on by the pressures related to being Nishizumi heiress, and her reason for trying so hard to be a good heiress is so that Miho will be free to live and do tankery the way she wishes.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Char Aznable to Sayla Mass (original names Casval Rem and Artesia Som Deikun).
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: It seems Kyouji Kasshu is a textbook and very cruel Aloof Big Brother...but by the end of the series, we see that he never truly was. His original personality was closer to a Big Brother Mentor, but he was forcefully turned into an Aloof Big Brother Big Bad due to the brainwashing given to him by the Devil Gundam and its DG Cells. He still uses his last bits of strength and sanity to create a clone of himself with some more DG Cells and the dead body of the original Schwarz Bruder (whom the Devil Gundam fought and killed); said clone becomes Domon's Big Brother Mentor, the second Schwarz Bruder.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Zechs Marquise (a.k.a. Milliardo Peacecraft) is so aloof that he concealed his identity completely from his sister, Relena, even as he maneuvered events to push her into accepting their family's legacy. She eventually learns of their relationship from his love interest, Lt. Noin, rather than from him directly.
• Ray Langren in GUN×SWORD, ever since his wife was murdered by the Claw.
• Austria from Hetalia: Axis Powers starts as this, especially to young North Italy. Even in modern times, he's quite aloof compared with the rest of his entourage.
  • The Netherlands is still like this to his younger siblings Belgium and Luxembourg. Poor Belgium still frets about how unsociable and penny-pinching he is.
  • Switzerland seems like this at first glance, but it's very much subverted.
• In Hunter × Hunter, Killua's stoic older brother Illumi seems to give off this impression. The truth is that Illumi is incredibly protective of Killua; so protective, in fact, that he refuses to let him live his own life, believing that it is his job as The Dutiful Son to make sure that Killua inherits the Family Business–assassination.
• Inverted by Yuki Aiba, the Aloof Little Brother of Infinite Ryvius protagonist Kouji Aiba. Yuki is cooler, stronger, taller, smarter, and more competent than his awkward and dopey older brother. He even has a more active love life too.
• Infinite Stratos has Chifuyu Orimura, the big sister of the protagonist Ichika who has won the Mondo Grosso tournament using nothing but the same weapon Ichika's Byakkushiki is using right now. She has taken care of him since he was small after their parents abandoned them. She is also his homeroom teacher and combat instructor, which leads to many comparisons and expectations that he knows he's not ready to fulfill.
• Ryosuke Takahashi from Initial D fits this trope to a T. He's rarely ever seen displaying any emotion even when a ghost from his past, the Shinigami, is actually trying to kill him during a race. He often spends his time either on a computer screen analyzing data from racing or tuning his car and shows no connection to any character that isn't Takumi or his brother, though this might have something to do with his implied Dark and Troubled Past.
• Sesshomaru from Inuyasha. He seems to be the only one better at fitting this trope than Itachi Uchiha. The only one more daunting than Sesshomaru in this manga (including Naraku) is... Sesshomaru's mother.
• Kekkaishi's Masamori is initially more capable than Yoshimori, the main character. He also rarely visits home and is the leader of the Night Troops. Aside from his Manipulative Bastard Anti-Hero tendencies, he really does care for his family.
• Meta Knight to Kirby in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. Subverted in that Kirby's actually more powerful.
• Gwendal von Voltaire on Kyo Kara Maoh!! has this as his default setting, particularly toward his annoying youngest brother, Wolfram, who looks up to him and toward whom he stands in something of a fatherly role. He actually cares a lot, though, it's just that, because of what his mother's like, he's been playing the role of Only Sane Man since he was thirty or so, and over the decades, it's gotten to him. (He currently runs the kingdom for Yuuri, is probably 200 or so, and looks forty-fivish and a lot older than his mother.) His other brother, Conrad, actually gets less support of any kind from him, but they understand each other better and Conrad's a bit of an emotional masochist, so it works out.
  • Conrad has, in turn, wound up doing a very different style of this to Wolfram, who, at the start of the series, resents him heartily and subjects him to racial slurs, though he gets better about that. Interestingly, all the rancor as well as the divide come from Wolfram, who rejected Conrad when they were kids after finding out he was half-human. Conrad is revealed to have, at one point, been an obsessively devoted big brother. The man evidently requires somebody to fixate on, meaning both Julia and Yuuri are essentially Wolfram replacements in his life.
    • He would be the world's most creepy boyfriend after all the ones that might actually hurt you.
  • Yuuri's actual big brother, Shori, manages a little of this, despite the fact that he is deeply concerned with all things 'Yuu-chan', while Yuuri (a Loved by All, Wide-Eyed Idealist who eventually becomes an All-Loving Hero) finds his family annoying and grouches at Shori most of the time. Shori shares with Gwendal the history of being the Only Sane Man in his family since their parents' adorable insanity apparently led to a certain amount of neglect sometimes.
    • On the other hand, when plot-things requiring him aren't happening, Shori is usually either out or closeted in his room playing dating sims, making him aloof enough, and he's the freakishly talented one with a work ethic and ambition, putting Yuuri rather in the shade. The fact that all that ambition is channeled into making Yuuri's life easier is another matter altogether.
    • The fact that their parents always loved Yuuri better, either.
• Lady!!: Sarah doesn't like Lynn at first and rejects all her attempts to get close to her. By the time Lynn arrived to the Marble Mansion, Sarah was fighting a severe illness and had insecurities about never being able to live a normal childhood, and Lynn's refusal to take "no" for an answer further strained their relationship. Sarah eventually destroyed the flowers Lynn picked for her, causing her to cry and run away from home, after which Sarah felt terrible. The girls reconciled later on and Sarah accepted the flowers.
• Cicada from Last Exile, Maestro Delphine's Dragon and Battle Butler, arguably fulfills this in regards to Luciola, the Battle Butler to Delphine's younger brother, Dio. However, they look nothing alike, are only revealed to be brothers in a throwaway line by Delphine, and are only seen onscreen together when Luciola kills him to get to Delphine and save Dio.
• Rikka's big sister Touka in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! invoked and lampshaded this trope. This is also a Deconstruction, as her aloofness results from her inability to handle her sister very well and her own emotional problems. As a result, she ends up hurting her sister more than helping when it comes to her time of need. Even she realizes this herself, and often asks Yuuta, who could connect with Rikka better, for help.
• Aoyagi Seimei from Loveless. His feelings for his brother are... more than a little creepy.
• Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow: While Lucy-May and Kate are ragtaggy-as-hell and love to get into mischeif, Clara is demure and aloof, because she's the oldest and more aware that the Popples are slipping into poverty. She has moments of being a cheerful girl, but she's still distant to her parents and siblings, and is the first to leave the Popple house for good after her marriage with the sailor John.
• In Miss Sunflower, the title character is a gender- and age-inverted case. She's initially rather cold to her older brother, since she's bitter about him trying to discourage her from inheriting the Sunflower Bookstore, to the point of calling him by his pen name. She gradually warms up to him over time as they reconcile.
• Tiger from Monster Rancher is a particularly tragic example as he's one of the primary good guys, a tough, experienced bandit attempting to rescue his kidnapped younger brother, Gray Wolf. Over the course of the series, flashbacks reveal that they had exactly this kind of relationship, and though Tiger's intentions were good (well... he thought his brother was a wimp and tried to beat it out of him), he finds, to his horror, that Gray Wolf has joined the bad guys, pretty much for the sole purpose of being able to beat the shit out of his arrogant, aloof older brother.
  • This is made worse by the fact that Gray Wolf has indeed got stronger, to the point where Tiger is forced to go for a fatal blow in order to win the fight. A grinning Gray Wolf notes that it's "typical of him" before slumping to the ground, leaving Tiger standing over the body of the very reason he joined the fight in the first place. Interestingly, Tiger makes a point of not angsting overly about this, however, considering his brother to have died bravely.
  • And then, in the third season, Tiger's at it again, telling the (Phoenix-resurrected) Gray Wolf that they're not really brothers, only "thrown away in the same box". This turns out to be a ploy to get Gray Wolf mad enough not to hold back in their upcoming tournament match against each other.
• In Moriarty the Patriot, Mycroft seems to dote on Sherlock, but is generally very reserved about it and expresses his affection in silent, distant, awkward ways. Sherlock finds him a pain in the ass. Mycroft is is smarter and stronger, and their first on-screen meeting is when Mycroft barges into Sherlock's apartment, tackles him, then gives him a cryptic warning about "women" before going off his merry way.
• Reito is Mikoto's Aloof Big Brother in My-HiME, although she doesn't know it's him for a good while.
• Naruto:
  • Itachi Uchiha. Kishimoto probably read the page and designed him from it that's how close the description is. Even the "more bishonen" part — Itachi's always had way more real-life fangirls than Sasuke. This has since been subverted all to heck since it turns out that Itachi actually had a huge brother complex with Sasuke, and most of his unkind or distant behavior was because, at age 13, he was trying to cope with his career as a human weapon, his best friend's death, and the fact that his family was planning to betray his village, forcing him to choose a side and kill people he owed loyalty to. Before he started trying to deal with the upcoming coup, he spent a good deal of time playing with his little brother, and he always loved him more than anything.
  • Neji Hyuga starts out as an Aloof Older Cousin of Hinata's, thinking she's too weak to inherit the clan, seeing her determination to improve herself as foolish, and having a long-standing grudge against her side of the family but has a Heel–Face Turn. Hinata even addresses him as she would an older brother (appending "-nii-san" to his name).
  • Ibiki Morino is shown to be one toward his significantly younger brother, Idate Morino, in the Land of Tea filler arc, who, he believes, fails to understand trusting and helping other people enough to be a ninja.
• Keiichi Hiiragi in Onegai My Melody; his younger brother, Jun, always resents that Keiichi is better in every single aspect.
• Surprisingly, in One Piece, it was revealed that Nice Guy Ace was this to Luffy when they were kids. Over time, he developed a Big Brother Instinct and became a Knight Templar Big Brother towards anyone who wants to hurt Luffy.
  • Amusingly, they aren't actually related. Garp pawned off both his son's son and his Worthy Opponent's son, who had come into his care, on the same set of bandits, where they eventually bonded.
  • Ichiji for Sanji but unlike Ace, he's a cruel bullying douchebag on top of being coldly aloof due to getting his humanity removed before being born. Although he is genuinely surprised when Sanji saves his life.
• Ryō Kanzato from Persona -trinity soul-.
• Hachimaki in Planetes is one of these to his brother.
• Reggie from Pokémon: The Series inverts this by being a hell of a lot nicer than his ruthless younger brother, local Jerkass Paul.
• Touga Kiryuu from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
• Kokoa Shuzen from Rosario + Vampire has three of them. Two of them are subversions.
  • Moka seems to be an aloof sister, but Kokoa loves her because Moka is the only sister who treats her as a person. It should be noted that Moka does love all of her sisters.
  • Kahlua also loves all of her sisters, including Kokoa. However, due to Kahlua's creepy nature as a berserk assassin, Kokoa is afraid of her even when Kahlua is cheerful and plays with her.
  • Akua plays it straight since her sisterly love being mostly focused on Moka, resulting in that both Akua and Kokoa arguing with each other about Moka. While Akua does love her sisters, she seems to ignore Kokoa a lot. Additionally, Kokoa is afraid of Akua, too.
• Aoshi Shinomori (to Makimachi Misao) from Rurouni Kenshin.
• Sailor Moon: Inverted with Usagi's younger brother Shingo. He is smart, gets good grades, and does his chores, in contrast to his borderline Loser Protagonist of an older sister whom he often messes with and acts sarcastic to. That being said, he does love his sister deep down.
• Phoenix Ikki from Saint Seiya is an excellent example of this trope: older brother of Shun and the strongest of all the bronze saints by far. Has elements of an Ineffectual Loner in him to boot.
• Saki has her older sister Teru, who stopped speaking to her around the time their parents separated, each taking one daughter, and now denies having a sister, although they were closer in the past.
• Tomohiko Yamada from Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai. Despite (or because of) his reclusive tendencies, his family describes him as having: "no need to work, no need to live precariously. You can survive by watching, thinking, and speaking of what you are interested in... it's as though we are secretly rearing a beautiful creature."
• Slayers: Though she has yet to actually appear in the series, Luna Inverse absolutely terrifies her little sister, Lina. Yes, that Lina Inverse. Just mentioning her sister in Lina's presence is enough to send her into a panic. As she seems content to stay in her home town working as a waitress, Luna doesn't really fill in the "rival" quota, but due to her nature as the Ceiphied Knight, she is incredibly powerful, rivaling even Xellos, one of the most powerful Mazoku in the world, who even Lina doesn't like the idea of fighting.
• From Snow White with the Red Hair, there's Izana, the older brother of male lead Zen. He's not only the heir to the throne, he's also immensely capable. He does seem to care about Zen in his own way, but he expresses said care by testing and questioning Zen's actions as a prince at every turn. He also doesn't approve much of heroine Shirayuki, seeing her as too ordinary and low-ranking to be connected to the royal family.
• Guess Asura from Soul Eater could count as this, as he always seems very calm and contained (except in his occasional freak-outs), compared to the "need to know NOW" attitude of his little brother Kid.
• Racer X and Speed Racer.
• Ralph Werec from Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry was also the Big Bad.
• Sword Art Online has Kazuto "Kirito", the main character as this to his younger sister/cousin Suguha. After learning the truth about his parentage- that he'd been adopted by his maternal aunt and uncle after his parents died in a car crash, he started to distance himself from Suguha, having come to believe that it's impossible to truly know anyone. After being trapped in the eponymous video game for two years, though, Kirito learns that there is no "real" you out there, which means that you should simply trust the people you know, and this realization, along with the fact that he didn't know whether he'd see Suguha again, causes him to work to repair the distance once he's escaped. Unbeknownst to him, though, Suguha has become attracted to Kirito upon learning that he's her cousin (a crush that she's trying to get over), and initially believes that his warm behavior is sending mixed signals to her. They do manage to work things out and repair their sibling relationships, though.
• Takopi's Original Sin: Inverted with Azuma and his brother. While his brother is the more popular and high-scoring of the two, it's Azuma that keeps his distance and sets boundaries.
• In the Tokyo Mew Mew anime, Minto's older brother is this to her, coldly shrugging off her attempts to impress him in the episode in which he appears, although he gets to show that he cares for her by the end.
• This trope perfectly describes Neeba of The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk, who plays the literal Aloof Big Brother to Idiot Hero Jil.
• Doumeki of Twittering Birds Never Fly has an adopted younger sister for whom he cares deeply. However, as a teenager, he started ignoring her after his classmates told him she had a crush on him, hoping that her feelings would go away. He failed to notice his father sexually abusing her as a result. He still avoids her as an adult working for the Yakuza, but now it's out of shame at having failed her. His boss has to intervene to get them to talk to each other again.
• Subverted to hell and back by Clari Net of Violinist of Hameln. In his introduction, he's set up to be this type of character — bishounen (ridiculously so), glasses, badass, haughty, serious, et cetera — and it becomes plucky lad Trom Bone's great ambition to earn Clari's respect. However... then we're introduced to Clari's actual little sister. To say that he fawns over her is a gross understatement. The other characters are left gobsmacked and so is the audience.
• Although he's shown to be a loving big brother in flashbacks, Folken Fanel from The Vision of Escaflowne is a typical Aloof Big Brother by the time the series begins, due to trauma and bitterness. And when he drops the act, it's Redemption Equals Death time.
• Voltes V:
  • Kenichi, in a way. Since he's promoted as Team Dad, Kenichi can be rather uptight and aloof in treating and disciplining his family members, trying to put an emphasis that they have to set aside personal feelings for the sake of defending Earth from Boazan invasion, though sometimes he knows when to relax and joke around.
• In Yowamushi Pedal Shingo is this to the team.
• Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Ryo Marufuji of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX as well.
  • Ryo's a lesser case in the manga adaptation, as he initially thinks that his younger brother, who once throws a duel to spare his opponent's feelings, doesn't have the competitive spirit to be a pro, even if he has the talent. After seeing Sho in action at the school tournament, Ryo is more impressed by his abilities.
• Kurama from YuYu Hakusho to basically everyone on the main team, at first. Hiei from the same show could also be seen as an example, though his sibling is Yukina and he cares a lot about her. He first had his Jagan eye implanted so that he could find Yukina and even stayed aloof after finding her.
  • Shizuru Kuwabara would qualify as an Aloof Big Sister.

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