A cheerful character wears (or is) pink to signify their cheerfulness and optimism.
A cheerful character can be a Genki Girl, a Cloudcuckoolander, The Pollyanna, The Pink Heroine, a Cheerful Child, a Cherry Blossom Girl, a Perky Female Minion or any kind of cheerful character. If they have pink hair, they're the Sub-Trope, Rose-Haired Sweetie.
This is technically done mostly by women, but it also can be done by guys (often a very perky gay guy).
Rule of Symbolism can sometimes apply unless the character consciously chooses pink a lot.
Also, when Princesses Prefer Pink, their personalities are more than likely to be sweet and happy.
Compare Pink Means Feminine and Pink Is Erotic. Contrast Psycho Pink.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Yokosawa from Aggretsuko is an example (justified, because she's an axolotl), persistently upbeat and very talkative (to the point that it actually annoys Retsuko sometimes).
- Bocchi the Rock! inverts this with main character Hitori "Bocchi" Gotoh; she has pink hair and frequently wears a pink tracksuit, but she's definitively the least cheerful member of the cast.
- Kaito Odagiri of Bokura wa Mahou Shounen is an excitable, cheerful young boy whose Magical Boy form has a pink motif. In the scanlations, his callsign is even the trope name.
- Gravitation. Male example: Shindou Shuichi has pink hair and is the poster child for Keet.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Caro is normally happy, if a little shy. She has pink hair, magic, and clothing.
- Downplayed by the ever cheerful Nanoha who, while closely associated with the color pink (as it's the color of her magic, and she can hit you with a lot of it), almost always wears white.
- Symbolically speaking, Fate exchanging her black hair ribbons for Nanoha's pink ones at the end of the first season marked the point where her outlook on life started to improve.
- Lady!!: Lynn Russell is a five-year-old Cheerful Child who tries to befriend everyone, even after her mother is killed in a car accident. Her outfits, hair bows, shoes and preferred flowers are all pink, and she's a Girly Girl to the T. Her gloomy, pessimistic older sister Sarah is blue-coded, but she manages to defrost after Lynn's influence.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Main character Lucia's tail as a mermaid is pink, and her idol form outfit consists of a pink dress, pink gloves, and pink boots.
- Mina Ashido from My Hero Academia. She has pink skin as a side effect of her Quirk and pink hair, and she's one of the most cheerful and upbeat students in her class. Her hero name is even "Pinky".
- The main character of Ojamajo Doremi is a Genki Girl who retains an entirely pink color scheme, even though her outfit undergoes several changes as the show progresses.
- Pollyanna: The titular Pollyanna is a Blithe Spirit who strives to be joyful no matter what by playing The Glad Game, and predominantly wears shades of pink. Lampshaded when she arrives in Beldingsville for the first time, Aunt Polly buys her a beautiful pastel pink sweater and skirt
◊, and Pollyanna praises it and adds it to her list of things to be grateful for.
- In the Pretty Cure franchise, the pink protagonist of each series is almost always a Genki Girl.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure and Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart: Although Cure Black's theme color is, well, ...black, her secondary color is pink and she is cheerful and energetic.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Cure Bloom/Bright begins the trend of having the heroine of the show decked out in pink, with a primarily magenta uniform, and she is cheerful and energetic.
- Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo: Cure Dream has pink hair as well as a pink uniform and is a Genki Girl.
- Fresh Pretty Cure!: Cure Peach has a name that alludes to the color pink (Momozono/Peach), two shades of pink in her uniform, and even pink eyes, while playing the Genki Girl trope straight, unlike...
- Cure Blossom, who inverts this in Heart Catch Pretty Cure. While Blossom does have the pink color scheme, along with the pink hair to boot, she's more of a Shrinking Violet instead. The blue Cure, Cure Marine, is the one who's an outgoing Genki Girl.
- Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Cure Melody has a pink uniform and pink hair (in Cure form), and has the cheerful attitude to match.
- Smile PreCure!: Cure Happy manages to top all the previous heroines by having pink hair and eyes both transformed and untransformed (although it's a much darker pink untransformed), and has the cheerful and energetic attitude to match. Her Cure name even states that she's one of the happiest Cures in the series!
- Doki Doki! PreCure: Cure Heart is the first Cure to get less pink when she transforms, with her pink hair turning blonde (although she keeps her pink eyes), but is still quite cheerful.
- HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Cure Lovely's uniform is comparatively less pink than previous Cures, though it's still her theme color. Her hair and eyes are also pink and she is cheerful and energetic.
- Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Cure Flora has a pink outfit, gets pink streaks in her hair when she transforms, and is an energetic girl who is trying to be more graceful.
- Maho Girls Pretty Cure!: Cure Miracle's outfit is bright pink (except the skirt, which is a lighter shade of pink), she wears a pink bow in her hair, and her hairband has a small pink witch hat. She's also a sweet and cheerful girl.
- KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Cure Whip has pink eyes, her white Cure outfit has a dark pink frill accent, a pink bodice, a hot pink bow on her left hip, pink boots, and a magenta choker, and she's an energetic chef.
- HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Cure Yell has pink eyes and hair in both civilian and Cure form (although her hair is darker as a civilian), her outfit is pink, and she's a Genki Girl - as well as being extremely cheerful, she's also the Cure of high spirits/energy, quite literally the "Cure of Genki".
- Downplayed in Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure - Cure Star has hot pink hair and pink eyes in both civilian and Cure forms, and her outfit is pink, but she's more imaginative and curious than she is energetic.
- Downplayed again in Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure - Cure Grace has a pink outfit, pink eyes, and pink hair, but she's less energetic than other lead Cures due to being ill.
- Subverted in Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure - Cure Summer is a Genki Girl, but her outfit is mainly white, with hints of pink, yellow and blue.
- Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Cure Precious has pink hair, pink eyes, a pink outfit and is a Genki Girl.
- Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: Ageha primarily wears pink, both in her civilian form and as Cure Butterfly, and despite being the Token Adult, she is still very energetic and cheerful.
- The titular character from Puella Magi Madoka Magica has pink hair and eyes and wears a predominantly pink Magical Girl outfit. Her cheerful optimism and kindness is her strongest defining character trait.
- Chibiusa/Rini from Sailor Moon is a pink-haired Cheerful Child, nicknamed "The Pink Spore" by her (mostly Western) detractors. Her pinkness gets dialed up when she gets her full Senshi powers. Her fuku is mostly pink and her attack is even "Pink Sugar Heart Attack".
- Yuki from School-Live! is the perky member of the club and has bubblegum pink hair. She's also a Cloudcuckoolander.
- Ichigo from Seiyu's Life! is always wearing pink and is incredibly upbeat. Then again, with a Stage Name that translates to "Cute Smile Strawberry", what did you expect?
- Yuna from Yuki Yuna is a Hero is a Red-Headed Hero. Her magical girl appearance has pink hair and equally pink attire. Yuna is the most energetic and optimistic of the Heroes.
- Zombie Land Saga: Sakura is a sweet and optimistic girl with a strong association with pink.
Fan Works
- Danganronpa: Komm Susser Tod: The cheerful Sweet Baker Nanae Mochizuki is never seen without wearing a distinct pink apron.
- Glitter Force: Into the Glitterverse opens with a description of a perfect sunny day, which includes a mention of pink flowers blooming. However, this cheeriness is portrayed as a bit more sinister; Honoka realizes it's too perfect, kick-starting the plot.
Films — Animation
- In Beauty and the Beast, Belle starts to think of Beast more kindly during the "Something There" number, and she is wearing a pink dress.
- In The Incredibles, Violet Parr favors clothes in purple and other dark colors, fitting her rather dour personality. After she gains more self-confidence (thanks to superhero-ing), she switches to wearing a pink shirt.
- Unikitty from The LEGO Movie is not only a pink kitty with a unicorn's horn, but she's also the Princess of Cloudcuckooland. She continues to be cheerful in her own series.
- In The Little Mermaid, after Ariel gets her legs, she's given a pink Pimped-Out Dress in a scene, where she can barely contain her excitement at being in the human world (although this continues even when she's in her blue dress).
- Sleeping Beauty's Princess Aurora spends most of the film with her dress coloured blue - and whenever she's wearing the dress, she's sad that she thinks she won't get to see Philip again. In the subsequent Disney Princess merchandise (including spin-off stories), she is wearing the dress in pink when she's reunited with her parents and therefore much happier.
- Plucky Girl Rapunzel from Tangled spends the film in her pink night-gown. Concept art shows she originally had a green dress however it was changed to pink likely to invoke either this trope or Pink Means Feminine.
- Poppy from Trolls has pink skin, hair, and eyes, and has a cheerful, fun-loving personality. In fact, she is described in the prologue of the first film as the happiest troll ever born.
- Turning Red:
- When Mei starts embracing the panda more, she starts showing off the pink polo shirt underneath her red cardigan, and becomes even more cheerful.
- Abby is also another example, having a pink sweater with purple flowery overalls, and is a huge Genki Girl to boot.
Films — Live Action
- 13 Going on 30: Jenna slowly undergoes a Heel–Face Turn as she gets back in touch with her childhood self. This is accompanied by her being seen in soft pink outfits more often.
- Famously in The Breakfast Club when Alison lets Claire give her a makeover. She switches from black and dark colours to pink.
- Carrie sees Carrie donning a pale pink evening gown for her high school prom — which starts out as the happiest evening of her life. This adaptation set the tone, as her dress was red in the book, but all other incarnations have her wearing pink too.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Hermione goes to the Yule Ball (the first date she's ever been asked out on) wearing a pink dress. She has worn pink before, but it has more of an effect here. The dress robes she wore in the book were blue, but the costume designer noted pink looked nicer on Emma Watson.
- Legally Blonde: This is the signature color of Elle Woods, a Genki Girl who goes to Harvard Law School with the intent of getting her ex-boyfriend back. While she, and everyone else, realizes she is smarter than she looks over the course of the film, she never gives up her pink wardrobe, or her optimism.
- Downplayed in The Sound of Music. In contrast to the more abrasive or aloof older siblings, second-youngest Marta establishes herself as a Cheerful Child by excitedly saying she wants a pink parasol for her birthday. Maria - who is the Magical Nanny there to liven up their lives - agrees and says pink is her favourite colour too.
Live-Action TV
- Altered Carbon. Poe decorates the virtual reality safe place he creates for Lizzie's therapy in pink to reassure her. Lizzie's father Vernon (a former combat medic) is unimpressed, saying the color reminds him of human entrails.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Poppy Pipopapo has pink hair in her Bugster form, and naturally is very energetic. Ex-Aid himself is also pink, and definitely the friendliest of the Doctor Riders.
- LazyTown: Stephanie Meanswell has pink clothes, a pink aesthetic, and pink hair, fully and completely dedicated to this trope. She can typically be seen energetically encouraging others to play, and above all, dancing and singing.
- Nori Brandyfoot from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power wears a light pink chemise and a cherry pink long dress for most of Season 1. She is an adventurous and cheerful Harfoot hobbit who wants too see the big wide world and hates the pastoral and fearful existence of her people.
- Pink Rangers in Super Sentai are usually very cheery compassionate. Especially if there's another girl (usually yellow) on the team, in which case girly and tomboy personalities contrast each other.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: Ayane is primarily associated with magenta and is a Genki Girl that enjoys getting intimate with Ann at various instances.
- Bug Fables:
- Cerise is a pink-colored fruity bug that vaguely resembles a cherry, and is not only incredibly friendly and cheerful, but also ridiculously ditzy. When she's first encountered, she's seen taking a nap in a prison cell she accidentally dug her way into and is rather nonchalant about the whole thing.
- Muze, a moth living in the Ant Kingdom, has a body that runs the gauntlet between a bunch of different shades of pink and is very welcoming to Team Snakemouth when they introduce themselves to her. According to Leif, her ancestor, she's a dead ringer for his late wife Muse who was a lot louder and headstrong, but still very friendly.
- The pink-petaled goddess Venus appears to be more of a Foul Flower at first, but once Team Snakemouth has proven their worth to her, she's revealed to be a kind and upstanding goddess who is very chummy with them save for Vi, whose greediness rubs her the wrong way.
- Eastward: Alva is Rose-Haired Sweetie who's known by the citizens of New Dam City for helping them and protecting the city from the Miasma.
- In Ensemble Stars!, Tori is associated with pink - he wears a pink jumper under his uniform, sometimes has pink accents on his idol costumes, and has pink hair. However, this bubbly cuteness is a deliberate affectation to make himself seem cuter. But while he's not as sweet as he first appears, he's still quite childish and enthusiastic.
- Hilda from Fire Emblem: Three Houses has striking pink eyes and matching hair that are bound to immediately catch the player's attention. And while she's lazy to a fault, that doesn't stop her from being perky and playful, as well as damn good with a gigantic axe.
- Galaxy Angel: Milfeulle Sakuraba has pink hair and her Angel uniform has a pink skirt. She's the most cheerful and optimistic among the members of the Angel Troupe in both the videogame and anime continuities, always kind and friendly to everyone.
- Harvest Moon has several characters with pink hair and pink attire who display this trope:
- Nina from Harvest Moon and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is the local florist's daughter. She is by far the most cheerful bachelorette, to almost childish extents.
- Popuri from Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is Nina's granddaughter and inherited her hair color. She's even more upbeat, something that has been exaggerated over time to the point where she is a Womanchild come Harvest Moon DS.
- Lyla from Harvest Moon: Save The Homeland is an expy of Popuri's mother Lillia. She is more downplayed in her cheerful nature but is stated to usually be sweet. It's noted in the manual though that just because she is smiling doesn't mean she is happy.
- Dizzy, the most upbeat and peppy playable character in Iggle Pop!, is an Iggle with bright pink fur.
- In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Nomi-Nomi's Color Motif is deep magenta, as shown in their outfit and hair color, and they're the bubbliest one among their peers.
- Misha from Katawa Shoujo is Shizune's very cheerful and loud best friend. She has bright pink hair. This is an invoked example as Misha's natural hair color is brown and she is hiding her more depressed personality under a mask of sweetness.
- Kirby: Kirby is an adorable pink blob that is cheerful and has a mentality of an active toddler. He can also kick some serious butt. If you live in America, however...
- Zelda from The Legend of Zelda very often wears a pink dress. Due to being different individuals, her personality is never completely stationary however she is usually at minimum a Nice Girl and is optimistic.
- Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: Shinigami, even while wearing a black dress, is even more of a Genki Girl while in her humanoid form that has pink hair.
- Robot Master Bounce Man from Mega Man 11 is a round, rubbery, pink Robot Master with the mentality of a playful, hyperactive child. While he's been reprogrammed by Wily for his evil schemes, he isn't mean or unpleasant towards Mega Man and views their fight as a game. He can even start his fight by joyfully exclaiming "Oh boy, a new playmate!"
- Claris Sinclair from NiGHTS into Dreams… wears a pink outfit (probably intended to be a school uniform) and is shown to be a happy, bubbly teenage girl in official art. Her hair is even pink.
- April May from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney seems like this on the surface: her hair and clothes are pink, and she's very playful, bubbly, and bouncy... in more ways than one. But she's the accomplice to Case 1-2's murderer, and a nastier side (and a scarier face) surfaces when she's sufficiently pissed off.
- Pokémon
- Happiny evolves into Chansey after leveling up with an Oval Stone, which evolves into Blissey when leveled up with high friendship. All three forms are pink and their names hint at their cheerful and friendly nature.
- Cherrim's Sunshine form has pink petals and by nature is very energetic.
- Amy Rose from the Sonic the Hedgehog series is a pink hedgehog and is always cheerful and excited, especially whenever she's with the titular character whom she's in love with, much to his dismay.
- Princess Peach of Super Mario Bros. fame almost always wears pink. She's the sweet and cheerful (though not as much as Daisy) ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Arche from Tales of Phantasia is a perky 17-year-old witch who dresses in pink and has pink hair to boot.
Web Comics
- In El Goonish Shive, when Elliot is transformed into the pink-haired "Mall" form in the "So A Date At The Mall" storyline he is more cheery and optimistic wanting to dance to the mall music.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender brings us Genki Girl Ty-Lee:
Ty-Lee: My aura has never been pinker!
- Molly from Bubble Guppies has pink hair. She is optimistic and nice.
- Among the Care Bears is a pink bear called Cheer Bear. Cheer is a Genki Girl, and often the unofficial leader of the Care Bears (at least, when it isn't Tenderheart). In some installments (notably in the '80s), she is even a cheerleader-type girl.
- Aelita from Code Lyoko has pink hair and wears pink clothes. While not nearly as cheerful as Odd she is often upbeat.
- Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory is a much cheerier person than her brother Dexter and wears a pink tutu as her default outfit.
- Whether intentional or not, Kimber has pinkish-red hair in Jem. She's by far the most friendly major character. She keeps her hair color in Jem and the Holograms (IDW), where she is even more energetic and overdramatic.
- My Little Pony:
- My Little Pony has over two hundred pink ponies, but Pinkie Pie is the most famous example of this trope. Pinkie from My Little Pony (G3) is cheerful and nice, though not to the degree of her party-loving Cloudcuckoolander G4 counterpart (who is actually an expy of the white-and-yellow coloured Surprise from G1). She was upgraded to The Leader during the "Core 7" retool.
- Princess Cadence, also from G4, quite literally has powers over love and was Twilight's favourite foal sitter years ago. She's essentially a surrogate Cool Big Sis and frequent source of care and affection for Twilight.
- Pim from Smiling Friends has pink skin and a pint-sized bundle of joy.
- Steven Universe: Rose's son Steven didn't inherit his mother's pink hair color, but instead inherited her love for pink. His shirt is pink and his powers are, too. He's also a Cheerful Child.
- Starfire's normally red hair is pink in Teen Titans Go!. She is usually the most optimistic and cheerful of the team.
- Villainous: Miss Heed is a pink obsessed heroine whose public persona is usually very cheery and upbeat, but in private is more nefarious than she appears.
- Work It Out Wombats!: Louisa is a happy and cheerful pink tarsier.
