Sexy Mentor

Good thing "Chief" is sufficiently sexy, or that outfit might not be permitted.

"I did half a year of French at high school. I don't think I absorbed much beyond 'Je m'appelle David.' You'd think I would have paid more attention to the luscious young Miss P. who was our teacher.
Or maybe that was my problem."

— David Morgan-Mar, Irregular Webcomic! annotations

The Sexy Mentor is when a main character has an intelligent, understanding and informative boss who's a bit older than they are and undeniably attractive. At some point, it's quite possible that they might become an Official Couple. Otherwise it's just wishful Shipping on the viewer's part. Usually there's at least some flirtation or UST. In any case, the viewers often end up whistling, "Man, I wish that were my boss!"

Of course, in Real Life, this kind of behavior is ripe for sexual harassment claims. As a result, this trope contains most of the same Unfortunate Implications as Teacher/Student Romance, since the sexual harassment angle is rarely seriously explored, except as the pursuit of some devious villain.

Usually the Sexy Mentor is a woman; this is probably a combination of two factors. Women have been given more major roles in fiction in recent years, but conversely, there's still an expectation that women on television are supposed to be at least basically attractive, so sex appeal ends up being the way to go. On the flip side of things, where a male Sexy Mentor is concerned, this is usually in a work whose target audience is largely women.

Diana Peterfreund has some good commentary on this topic, as she couldn't help but notice that she had a similar situation in her novel Rampant.

See also Teacher/Student Romance when the mentor's sexiness contributes to a romance with their mentee, and Mentor Ship when the fans read into this. If the mentor particularly enjoys the power she has over the man, it's Mistress and Servant Boy. May include a Hands-On Approach. Compare Hot Teacher.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Coach Maria Momoe from Big Windup!. She is noted to be highly attractive, especially by opposing team members. She has a pretty face and an impressive bosom, which sometimes embarrasses every boy who looks at her. It is implied that several players, from Nishiura and other teams, have a crush on her, most notably Azusa Hanai. All of Nishiura's team members were surprised to learn that Momoe is only 23 years old. Hanai counts the 7 year difference between them and wonders if that is the 'limit' possible, before instantly berating himself for thinking of having a relationship with her.
• Played with in Bleach. Yoruichi trains Ichigo more than once and has absolutely no modesty (to the point that she thinks nothing of walking around nude in front of Ichigo), but she also has a cat form (with a male voice). She also trained both the Sugar-and-Ice Personality Byakuya and the Tsundere Ninja Soifon, before meeting Ichigo. Amusingly, flashbacks show that Child!Byakuya's reactions to Yoruichi's mentoring style were almost identical to Ichigo's.

• A male example in The Case Files of Jeweler Richard. Richard is older, gorgeous, and loves teaching almost more than anything. He teaches Seigi about culture, gems, social norms, queer people, language, and so much more.

• Ur's training of Gray and Lyon in Fairy Tail involved all of them in their underwear in a blizzard. She didn't care because the two kids were about ten and she thought of them like sons, so it's slightly less squicky. Plus, that was only meant for training in order to acclimate to the cold (she wore perfectly conservative clothing on the downtime), while Gray (and Lyon to a lesser extent) taking the stripping to an unconscious habit was definitely not planned.
• Izumi Curtis in Fullmetal Alchemist. Neither Ed nor Al are particularly hot for her, though, mostly because she scares the shit out of them. That, and she's very Happily Married... to a Mighty Glacier of a Gentle Giant.
• Goblin Slayer: The Year One prequel series has the on-going trend of Goblin Slayer encountering attractive women who guide him into becoming a better adventurer arc after arc. The original light novel version of Year One only had Arc Mage as one of those, but with the manga continuing the story far beyond the two volumes of the light novel, Capital Inspector and later Swordstress Elf continue the trend that Arc Mage started. Goblin Slayer learns from each woman something different that help him shape into becoming the adventurer that he will become in the main story. Funnily enough, Burglar his first mentor, who trained him for many years before Goblin Slayer became an adventurer, is the opposite of this trope.
• Sumeragi Lee Noriega from Gundam 00, whose relationship with Allelujah has some romantic undertones. She has some inspiration from Misato below, being similarly a Ms. Fanservice Hard-Drinking Party Girl/The Alcoholic who is also a competent military officer. It's actually canon that they have slept together more than once. The Drama CD has a clueless Setsuna asking Lockon why do Sumeragi and Allelujah lock themselves in a room so often, or something. Curiously, they end up with other people: Allelujah hooks up with his childhood friend Marie/Soma and they become a Battle Couple, whereas Sumeragi gets back together with her New Old Flame Billy Katagiri once he gets over himself.
• When alive, Minako-sensei from Hell Teacher Nube. Tall, blonde, well-endowed, with killer legs and a very short miniskirt... Nube was a kid back then, but even in these days he appreciated how pretty his teacher was.
• Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency: Hamon-master Lisa Lisa was Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli's teacher, who trained them to improve their hamon to fight the Pillar Men. Joesph very much finds her attractive, enough to peak on her bathing as revenge for the Training from Hell she put them through. It's later revealed that Lisa Lisa, or rather Elizabeth Joestar, is Joseph's Missing Mom.
• Shigure from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple to Kenichi. She's a sexy Action Girl (master of any weapons) with no modesty and not bothered if Kenichi sees her half-naked. Miu once wonders if Shigure sees him as more than her disciple. Out of all the masters, Shigure trains Kenichi the least, yet it is implied she yearns to train him, and is disappointed with Kenichi's reluctance (and fear) to use weaponry but often tries to convince him to train more.
• Gleefully exaggerated by Aikuro Mikisugi in Kill la Kill, Ryuko's mysterious and ridiculously Bishōnen mentor, who can't get through a lesson with his protege without turning it into a strip show.
• Kuroko's Basketball: Alexandra Garcia is Kagami's and Himuro's mentor in basketball and a former WNBA player. She's also a blond bombshell of a woman who provides Foreign Fanservice, has No Sense of Personal Space, kisses people without consent, and sleeps and walks around naked in Kagami's apartment, much to his chagrin.
• The titular character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha after the ten-year Time Skip, being a Battle Instructor of the bureau. Fate, Vita, and Signum also count during StrikerS, being mentors for the rookies together with Nanoha.
• Naruto:
  • Anko Mitarashi in the original Naruto. Well, she's technically a teacher, and she's sexy. She is also one of the most recognizable ones in this series to date. Subverted in the Epilogue and Boruto series where she becomes chubby.
  • Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin is the mentor to both Shizune and Sakura Haruno and is very well-endowed and beautiful.
• Played with in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, where Negi's mentor Evangeline McDowell is a Really 700 Years Old vampire with the body of a 10 year old girl. However, she really wants to be seen as mature and beautiful, so she uses an illusion to give herself a more... adult body, at which point she falls into this. She also had a crush on Negi's father, and possibly Negi himself.
• Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shinji's classmates openly envy him for living with a hot babe like Misato, despite the fact that he doesn't think of her that way. At least until their Last Kiss in End of Evangelion.
• Only the Flower Knows: Kawabata, Misaki's tutor (and guardian after his grandfather's death), fit the trope. Then Misaki grew up and entered university, and his role in Misaki's life shifted for the worse.
• Both Aquila Marin and Ophicus Shaina in Saint Seiya, although they did put Seiya and Cassius through Training from Hell.
  • Libra Dohko retroactively becomes one during the Hades arc, when we learn that his old form is actually a mere Sleep-Mode Size cover, which he can shred at will... showing that he's actually a really hot tanned redhead (anime) or Eerie Paleskinned Brunette (manga).
• In Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, The One-Scene Wonder Drill Sergeant Nasty that teaches LLENN the game is a hot, tall blonde woman in a tied shirt and hot pants.
• Yuuko from ×××HOLiC. She toys with Watanuki quite a bit; flirting with him, stroking his face, and once even offering to striptease. Watanuki never once seems a bit pleased by this.
• Victor Nikiforov from Yuri!!! on Ice is a Living Legend of a skater, and can make people of all genders swoon with a single wink. He ends up flying over to Japan to become Yuri Katsuki's coach, after watching a video of him skating to one of Victor's programs. The two eventually become an Official Couple, and get engaged in episode 10.

Comic Books

• Green Lantern: Hal Jordan acted as a mentor to the teenage Lantern Arisa, resulting in a Mentor Ship. It's later revealed that her planet's orbit and her species' lifespan mean that she's in her mid 200's, most probably because someone at DC realised the Unfortunate Implications.
• X-Men: Emma Frost in Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3, she decides to wear a sexy punk-ish outfit when comforting Benjamin after his fight with Scott. It just makes him incredibly uncomfortable since he's only wearing a towel at the time. This is just one example, though. Emma runs around in sexy clothing all the time.

Fan Works

• Child of the Storm has Wanda Maximoff, Sorceress Supreme In Waiting, become this to Harry Dresden in the Chaos Reigns side story, set just before chapter 60, and the two even start dating - though Wanda explicitly states when she makes her double offer (become her apprentice and/or her boyfriend), after giving Dresden The Big Damn Kiss to get through his denial, that it's not an all or nothing offer, once Dresden notes the potential problems with this. She'd be happy if he chose either. He chooses both.
  • Betsy Braddock becomes this to Harry Potter while giving him a crash course in how to use his Psychic Powers. Since he's 13 and she's in her early 20s, this, the crush on her that he develops, and the accompanying epic scale embarrassment (especially since Betsy - who's rather fond of him - is prone to gently teasing him) are Played for Laughs. It is later noted that as a direct result, Harry has unusually good passive psychic shields, to prevent embarrassing thoughts from leaking out.
  • Additionally, while absolutely nothing comes of it, or even looks like coming of it, it's worth noting that in the sequel, Rita Skeeter floats Betsy as one of Harry's potential dates to the Yule Ball, and Betsy stops her prior gentle teasing of Harry, explaining that when he was younger, it was very clear to all concerned that that was all it was. Now, he's older (14 and a half mentally, 15 physically, thanks to some temporal shenanigans, and he looks closer to 18), and looking at girls as romantic partners in earnest, meaning that even harmless teasing could quite easily be interpreted as something more serious (including, by implication, by Harry himself).
• In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Pike Queen Lucy becomes this to Brock while he's in the middle of a Heroic BSoD after his parents' deaths that caused him to drop his performance as a Gym Leader. She trains him to get back to the top of his game, and the two eventually become engaged.

Films — Live-Action

• The Proposal plays with this in that Margaret is Andrew's boss and is sexy, but her personality means that he isn't attracted to her till they get away from work.
• Paul McGann looks quite good playing the protagonist's mentor (who got an Age Lift downward from the novel version) in Queen of the Damned. But since Lestat is around to gawp at, Jesse doesn't seem much fussed about her cute, young-ish mentor or any of his advice.
• The Lookout: Chris has a crush on his case manager (played by Carla Gugino), who used to be a former model. She doesn't think it's a good idea. Due to his condition, this also causes him to blurt out stuff like "I think about fucking you all the time" in public. She does understand, though.

Literature

• In The Wheel of Time, Moiraine serves as this to Rand and the other ta'veren, as a very attractive woman of somewhat ambiguous age (given that all Aes Sedai look more or less ageless after a few years), which both Rand and Perrin notice. Not Mat, surprisingly, though he has a profound mistrust of Aes Sedai (though of all of the White Tower Aes Sedai, he probably trusts her the most). She even considers bedding Rand to keep him on course to oppose the Dark One, but abandons that particular idea before it goes beyond mere speculation once she discovers that it would lead to an utterly catastrophic Bad Future.
• After living as an ascetic, the titular character of Siddhartha comes to a courtesan named Kamala who teaches him how to be a man of wealth. After several years however, he decides that he had wasted his life and sought a different path to Nirvana.
• Dimitri is this to Rose in the Vampire Academy series. Dimitri is seven years older than Rose, and most of the series plays off their troubles in getting together (which eventually happens in the finale. The main reason that they're able to get together publicly in the finale is because Rose has finished her education (both mundane and combat-wise) and he's no longer her teacher. Before this occurs, their illicit attraction is only consummated once, and the subject of blackmail from the Big Bad.
• Molly of The Dresden Files considers her teacher in magic, Harry, to be this. She goes so far as to proposition him after becoming his apprentice; Harry refuses (by dumping a pitcher of ice cold water on her), mainly because she's still only 17 (and thus a minor_, and he's known her since she was a little girl. In the short stories narrated by Molly, set in her mid to late twenties, she's pretty damn sure that she loves him, suggesting that it's more than just hero worship. On his part, he's aware that she's very attractive and eventually tacitly admits that it may be a possibility - if one shortly after taken off the table by Molly becoming the Winter Lady meaning that she can't have sex, ever - but only after in all real terms she is no longer his apprentice, and into her late 20s, but sums up his general attitude of "I can admire the countryside without wanting to go camping in it."

Live-Action TV

• The Middleman. Wendy's roommate Lacey keeps referring to Wendy's mentor as Sexy Bossman, although at Wendy's insistence she switches to Pillow Lips.

• Occurs in an interesting manner in NCIS - Gibbs mentored Jenny Shepard and had a relationship with her. She becomes his boss. So, they're Sexy Mentors to each other.
• Everyone's favorite tweed-y British-y "Sexy Fuddy Duddy": Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whose hotness is remarked upon by Jenny, Faith and Joyce. See his performance of "Behind Blue Eyes" in Where The Wild Things Are for further in-universe acknowledgement, as all three ladies present seem slightly hypnotized by the sexy, and two are lesbians. On the other hand Buffy herself is squicked by the thought when Spike suggests there might be something between them. This is because she herself regards Giles as "boring, old and English" and the subtext that does exist between them is a surrogate father/daughter kind.
• Dexter
  • Lila becomes a sexy NA sponsor to Dexter (while thinking he is a recovering drug addict), although she seems to know considerably more about the sexy part than the whole sponsoring thing, and she's totally off her rocker to boot.
  • Federal Agent Frank Lundy oversees an investigation with Deb working under him, and he takes that opportunity to teach and encourage her. He returns following another case two years later, and he and Deb begin dating.

• Glee:
  • Holly Holiday, the fun, sexy substitute. While working as McKinley's Sex-Ed teacher, she "informs" the Glee kids about safe sex by pulling off a very sexy cover of Do You Want to Touch Me by Joan Jett, in an episode aptly named Sexy.
  • Cooper Anderson, Blaine's Aloof Big Brother who teaches the kids acting while they fawn over his big blue eyes (obviously, it's Matt Bomer)
  • Carl, Emma's hot husband, who teaches the kids about dental health.
  Santana: Can I just say - you're the hottest dentist I've ever seen.
  Carl: [smirks] I get that alot....

• No Ordinary Family
  • Inverted, where Stephanie's mentor is interested in her, but she's Happily Married to her husband.

• Katie herself was in this role, when she had been JJ's tutor temporarily and he had developed a crush on her.

• Sam for Andy in Rookie Blue. As he is her training officer, they are warned several times that nothing can happen. Despite that, and her relationship with a detective at their division, the Unresolved Sexual Tension between continues to build.

• Lord Melbourne in Victoria is this to young Queen Victoria, who develops feelings for him as a result (which are mutual). The "sexy" part is not Truth in Television, however many biographies of Victoria do acknowledge that there was some level of the two being smitten with each other, despite their age difference.

Video Games

• Advanced V.G. II: As seen in the game's box art◊, Yuka's a babe with a bangin' hot bod. Which hasn't gone unnoticed by her student, Tamao, who appears to have a canonical girl-crush on her (seen at 0:27-0:54).
• In the Mysterious continuity of Atelier, Plachta is Sophie's teacher, and is an attractive woman (well, doll) in very revealing attire. Their relationship is on the knife-edge between Les Yay and canon.
• Quistis Trepe from Final Fantasy VIII, at least initially, serves as Squall's instructor at Balamb Garden (despite only being one year older than he is). She even has her own fan club among the students, called "Trepies". She also fights with a whip.

• Soul Calibur III: Seong Mina doubles as both Yun Seong's mentor and his "big sister" figure. Which may be the reason he doesn't seem to notice just how hot she happens to be. Or, it might be because she treats him like a kid.
• Female Shepard in Mass Effect is made of this trope, being the insanely hot commander of a starship. She serves this role to most of her canon love interests, but it's most pronounced with Garrus and Kaidan. Aria T'Loak was also this to Nyreen Kandros, in the backstory of the Omega DLC. It didn't end well.
• Frederick from Fire Emblem: Awakening is a Tall, Dark, and Handsome Battle Butler who is specifically mentioned to also be an instructor for the Ylissean military. You can get him hooked up to Action Girl Sully, one of his old pupils, and also make him the father of Sully's daughter Kjelle.
• Hot Gypsy Woman Scherazard from The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Notably, since the protagonist Estelle is a woman, she serves as Romantic Wingman and Cool Big Sis, while getting Ship Tease moments with Lovable Sex Maniac party member Oliver, who she keeps in check. Sherazard uses a whip and has dominatrix themes, while acting like an experienced middle aged lady who isn't afraid to use Distracted by the Sexy to her advantage in investigations.

Visual Novels

• In Choices: Stories You Play, there are several examples:
  • Sei from The Crown & the Flame is Dom's mentor in using his fire powers and, being a conventionally attractive woman around his age, a potential love interest.
  • Ian/Ina Kingsley from Queen B, a good-looking twenty-something college professor, is the main love interest to Bea.

• In Double Homework, the protagonist and Rachel go back and forth with this trope regarding each other, since they coach each other in preparation for the Olympic qualifier. In Rachel’s epilogue, the protagonist is Rachel’s coach for the Olympics.

• Mia Fey from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney acts as Phoenix's mentor at the start of the game.
  • In the third game, it is revealed in flashback that Mia had her own Sexy Mentor, Diego Armando.
• Rin in Fate/stay night serves as an informal instructor in magic to Shirou.
  • It turns out that Saber had her own Sexy Mentor in the form Merlin, whose appearance and personality more obviously reflect his incubus heritage than do most depictions. Grand Order Character Materials describes him as the sexy version of Gandalf.
    Make way for the Middle Earth Prettyboy!
• The Labyrinth of Grisaia: Yuuji's master, Asako Kusakabe had sex with him on his birthday. She encouraged him to sleep with her best friend as well. However, Asako was Yuuji's First Love and he was heartbroken when she passed away.
• My Vow To My Liege: The protagonist Fuchai can choose to romance her mentor Wu Zixu, who has a bad habit of pulling a mentor sacrifice in other routes.

Web Animation

• Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY qualifies as this to fellow teammate Jaune Arc. At least as far as 'releasing his Aura' goes (before the team formed). He looked quite awkward when the process required her to touch him. Finally becomes this trope properly after Jaune takes her up on her training. Sadly, things don't end well between them.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang was attracted to Katara long before she became his Waterbending master and, years later, his wife. Made possible thanks to the teaching scrolls Pakku had imparted her with, so she could study them herself, then pass those teachings onto Aang.

• Shego in Kim Possible. She tutored Senor Senior Junior in order to teach him to be a more effective villain. She succeeded all the while having her student admit he had the hots for her.
• In Ōban Star-Racers, Rick Thunderbolt (The Ace through and through) ends up as a mentor figure to the surprisingly un-starstruck Molly; an intelligent, understanding and information-giving mentor who is a bit older than Molly and considerably more than just attractive.
• The team in Young Justice has Black Canary as their Fighting Instructor and Team Psychologist. She's sexy enough that Superboy's girlfriend will shapeshift into her and make out with him. (The original was not happy about it.)

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