Shorttank

Tank top, short shorts, and attitude.

A classic Tomboyish female co-star type in Shōnen Demographic-oriented series. She usually wears a lightly Fanservice-y, sporty outfit such as short shorts and a tanktop (hence the trope name). If she's a bit girlier, she may wear a cropped top or miniskirts on occasion. She often argues with the male lead a lot, in a mild Slap-Slap-Kiss kind of way, although the Will They or Won't They? debate is occasionally subverted.

The character may not even be that tomboyish by Western standards, and may have an extreme weakness for cute things and "girlish" trappings. Conversely, she'll sometimes avoid the latter because she just can't seem to make it work for her; this lack of femininity is often the butt of jokes, even if it's clear to the audience she's very cute. In fact, she often has a soft spot in her heart for plants and animals, making her a Friend to All Living Things. If the living thing in question is a person, she'll probably become a Bully Hunter.

Often overlaps with Bokukko, Girl Next Door or One of the Boys. For the other kind of "short tank", see Cute Bruiser (though it's definitely possible for a Shorttank to be a Cute Bruiser). For the other, other kind of tank, see Tank Goodness. Compare Tomboy Princess and Spirited Young Lady.

---

Examples

Anime & Manga

• Nadja Applefield from Ashita no Nadja. She's a graceful self-taught dancer and can look pretty well in a gown, but is also very straightforward and was really tomboyish in her younger years.
• Barangay 143 has Vicky, who's pretty tomboyish (since she hangs out with the local basketball team all the time and assists in coaching them along with her dad, and knows the game herself quite a bit). Although she rarely wears a tank per se—being more partial to sleeves—indoors, her default outfit does have her in short shorts along with a t-shirt, whilst outdoors, she often wears a (stereotypically urban-style) hoodie and leggings. (Some promotional materials do have her in what looks to be a basketball jersey, a close enough equivalent.)
• Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach can be defined like that. Except she only wears her Shinigami and school uniforms, one piece dresses and kimonos. Anytime she's hiding her usual rough and ready self, she is a Proper Lady to her classmates, Ichigo's family and her Aloof Big Brother. Everyone else is fair game and they get to see either her kicks to the head, or her love for bunnies and shojo manga.
• Candice "Candy" White from Candy♡Candy is very tomboyish, but she doesn't mind dresses and wears ribbons on her hair.

• Kaori Makimura of City Hunter is a combination of this, a Bifauxnen, and a Clingy Jealous Girl. She spends most of the series in unflattering clothing and talks in a very masculine way. It should be noted that while she is a Bifauxnen, she manages to invariably draw the, er, attention of the main character whenever put into feminine clothing and makeup.
• Daimos: Nana toes the line between tomboy and girly girl, loves action and is quite hot-headed. She is nickamed "Candy♡Candy with a gun" by fans because of her appearance.
• Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: After her suit is ruined, Asahina wears a sleeveless top to go with her shorts she's wearing all the time. And for some reason, she undresses her tights, too, despite they weren't covered in fake blood. While her hair looks more feminine than before, her character is still as tomboyish as before. Furthermore, she has become a physical fighter over the years and she is pretty much Naegi's bodyguard and has to carry him on her back.
• Digimon: Another Mons creation of the mid-nineties, Digimon was very much aware of the trope and its codifier.
  • Digimon Adventure: Sora Takenouchi, with her red hair, yellow tank top, and blue jeans, is blatantly an expy of fellow Mons-genre leading lady Misty, though more conservatively dressed and mostly a Tomboy only next to Mimi. She underwent a Girliness Upgrade in 02 after resolving her Mommy Issues.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Kari Kamiya is an inversion; while she wears the shorts and tank top, her hot pink color scheme and gentle personality clearly cast her as the Girly Girl of the group, whose real Tomboy is Yolei.
  • Digimon Tamers: Rika Nonaka is an Expy of Sora, another redheaded Tomboy in jeans with a wealthy background and Mommy Issues. While she's a ponytailed Tsundere like the Trope Codifier, her personality goes to an Ice Queen extreme. Further, Ruki has no overt cuteness or sex appeal to speak of, which is unusual for the trope.
  • Digimon Fusion: Angie Hinomoto is yet another redheaded leading lady in denim, though she was a noticeably modernized example of the trope, being a Genki Girl Gamer Chick in short-legged overalls.
• The main character of Dream Eater Merry. Her tomboyish Little Miss Badass attitude is belied by her slightly girlish choices of clothing — a nice hat, a belly shirt, a miniskirt, Zettai Ryouiki stockings, and chunky boots that add about two inches to her height. Not that she CAN'T kick your ass without breaking a sweat, but...
• Initially, Lucy from Fairy Tail, though she is still a fairly feminine version. This aspect gets downplayed and later disappears almost entirely when Erza and Wendy get promoted to main characters, and Lucy often seems to seek their company and do girly things with them instead of hanging out with Natsu and Gray.
• Wrench Wench Winry Rockbell from Fullmetal Alchemist is frequently referred to as a "gear head" or tomboy. She fits the dress code quite well as she wears a sports bra when working and in public wears a tank top, jacket, and short skirt.
• Mayo Sakaki from the 3rd Fushigi Yuugi OVA. She wears her hair short, and she's on the Yotsubadai High School Girls' Basketball Team. She also has a weakness for her coach, Taka Tsukunami a.k.a. Tamahome.
• Wrench Wench Miki Jounouchi from Future GPX Cyber Formula. She normally wears a mechanic uniform when working and listens to rock music. In parties, she is most likely wearing a nice cheongsam.
• Puria Richardson, of Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu, is a tomboy wearing shorts and a tanktop.
• Haruhi Suzumiya is the closest the series comes to having this archetype; evidence of this includes a passion for sports, which is most explicit in "Boredom", and her wardrobe including cuffed jean shorts, as seen in "Remote Island Syndrome", "Endless Eight", and "Sigh".
• Hayate the Combat Butler: Hinagiku Katsura, though she tries to impress the fact that she is feminine while her friends try to convince her she acts more like a guy. She likes it when Hayate does notice that she's feminine though.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • The Principality of Wy is represented by a pigtailed Little Miss Snarker in shorts and a belly shirt.
  • Belgium counts as a grown-up version of the trope. Seychelles also seems to have shades of this lately.
• Highschool of the Dead: Saya has the attitude, being she's a Tomboy with a Girly Streak and tsundere, set to "tsun" in regards to Hirano. But she doesn't dress the part until chapter 18, where she made it official with her jean shorts and suspenders + T-shirt ensemble.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Vita of the Wolkenritter from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's dresses this way when "off duty", (with a dose of Perky Goth to boot!) and certainly lives up to the brashness requirement in aggression.
  • Subaru Nakajima from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS fits this to a tee: she's brash and Hot-Blooded, but is not actually any less feminine than the other female characters (and even cries more often than her more "girly" partner, Teana). She's also the Lightning Bruiser.
• Luna, the main character from Mujin Wakusei Survive. She looks girlier than the standard, though, since she wears a miniskirt.
• Sakura Haruno, from Naruto wears a set in her timeskip uniform, although she does also wear a vest and apron over it.

• Pokémon: The Series: While Misty set the stage for the trope, overall the trend has been towards the Girly Girl when selecting Ash's travelling companions.
  • Ash's first female companion Misty is the Trope Codifier and set the outfit standard in the anime; she was very much a tomboy and adventurer in her own right.
  • Her successor, May, is a downplayed example; while she still wore outdoorsy clothes, she dressed more conservatively than Misty, had a much stronger Girly Girl streak, and was more frequently prone to Fanservice.
  • Lana and especially Mallow of Alola likewise qualify, wearing sportier clothes and being more tomboyish than resident Girly Girl Lillie.
• Tomoka Osakada and Kurumi Ijyuin from The Prince of Tennis. They're not the main females, but otherwise they fit the trope quite well (Tomoka borders on Bokukko, though).
• Although she tends to prefer either gis or more feminine clothing, Akane Tendô of Ranma ½ certainly qualifies.
• Rurouni Kenshin has Makimachi Misao, a tomboyish Genki Girl who argues with Kenshin (and most other male characters, actually) and whose preferred fighting clothes are shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Even her "civilian" clothes involve shorts.
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Kurin only appears in the manga adaptation. She's basically a kid version of Lara Croft and dresses in similar fashion - from a skin-tight pair of short shorts with twin gun holsters, to fingerless gloves and hiking boots. And you'd best believe she's got attitude to spare, because she's a bounty hunter... at 14 years old!
• Taiga Aisaka from Toradora!, while not tomboyish, is very loud and brash. She also has one hell of a punch (and in the manga, a powerful kick too.)

Fan Works

• Evangelion 303: Asuka, co-protagonist of the doujin, is aggressive, fierce, hot-tempered, passionate and hardly feminine. She often wears tank-tops or shirts and short pants, is loud and blunt and argued with the male lead often until they got together.

Films — Live-Action

• Independent spirited Katherine "Katy" McLaughlin from Flicka doesn't want her hair too short or she'll look like a boy.
• Julie from Flipped will climb a tree, raise chickens and tame her yard, but also says that the boy next door is walking around with her First Kiss

Literature

• Karin Murphy from The Dresden Files probably counts, although she doesn't fit the age group for this trope exactly.
• Little League player Paula Quinn in The Dark Side of Nowhere out pitched ugly, angry, Bully Chambers but right afterwards, to erase his humiliation, asked him out on a date.
• Sally Kimball from the Encyclopedia Brown series, right down to the ambiguously romantic relationship with the protagonist.
• Pepper from Good Omens is more of a straight-up tomboy, but also counts due to being the only female in Them.
• Quidditch playing Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter is somewhat of a tomboy, but is about 75% girly.
• Annie of The Magic Treehouse is Jack's little sister who's always ready to jump into adventure.

Live-Action TV

• Firefly gives us Kaylee. She's a distinct non-combatant, and sometimes Damsel in Distress, but she is an amazing mechanic who happens to have a love for strawberries and frilly dresses. She's often covered in grease and in work clothes, but she's still pretty cute. And has enough snark to keep up with the rest of the crew, and keep her Love Interest hot and bothered. As Simon mentions during a drunken heart-outpouring, she's very cute, especially when she's covered in engine grease.

Video Games

• Reisalin Stout, in contrast with previous Atelier Series heroines with Stock Shoujo Heroine personalities and Cute Witch or White Magician Girl designs, has a more sporty, fanservicey design with shorts and a tank top and a spunky, tomboyish personality, though she still has a weakness for cute things.
• Pokémon Red and Blue's game-version Misty counts just as much as her anime counterpart; she dresses the part, is outright called a tomboy, and gets rather Tsundere in the Johto games.
• Bebe from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl may count, though it's hard to tell from just her in-game sprite.
• Several Touhou Project characters fit this archetype, but the strongest is probably Cirno, the "beloved tomboy" ice fairy.
• From The World Ends with You we have UG!Shiki Misaki — that is, Eri, whose appearance Shiki borrowed for the Game. RG!Shiki Misaki has a different look.

Visual Novels

• In the Doki Doki Survival Dating Sims, the "Umibe no Secret" lead Ayaka fits the trope to a T.
• Mion Sonozaki, from Higurashi: When They Cry. Has a crush on the male lead Keiichi and really wouldn't have minded being given that cute doll...

Webcomics

• Katrina (oddly, also referred to as Kat) McClellan from The Noordegraaf Files is a crossbow - wielding 18 year old girl plays this trope completely straight - and the male characters love her for it.
• Sequential Art features Kat Vance, a oft-smirking Cat Folk who either plays this straight, or puts on a jersey for the winter. She plays a mean game of Street Fighter too!

Western Animation

• Tasha in The Backyardigans, a rare example who wears dresses. Although Uniqua is more heavily tomboyish, Tasha can be really tough sometimes.
• The friendly and adventurous 7-year-old Dora the Explorer who wears pink.
• Leela from Futurama.
• June from KaBlam!.

---