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The Cutie

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Fluttershy; the embodiment of the Element of Kindness.

Jayne: Captain, can you stop her from bein' cheerful, please?
Mal: I don't believe there is a power in the 'verse that can stop Kaylee from being cheerful. Sometimes you just wanna duct tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month.
Kaylee: [kisses Mal on the cheek] I love my captain.

The Cutie is a character who is known for being sweet and lovable, a fountain of Heartwarming Moments, more comic relief than anything, who likes nothing more than to pet little creatures. They make you adore them, root for them, love them and want to hug them. Or they can make your teeth rot.

They are known for being very idealistic, cute and innocent. Some of them even may act in a childlike manner to emphasize their innocence with an upbeat and positive attitude. They also tend to be genuinely nice, loving, caring, and kind to whoever is with them. They tend to take the most peaceful solution to a conflict and hardly ever (if ever) harm others in any way (though you really ought to watch out if you piss them off sufficiently). They're most often female, though younger boys can also be this.

One of their most common flaws is poor judge of character; their innocence causes them to trust shady or even Obviously Evil characters that their less idealistic contemporaries are quicker to suspect are up to no good. If villains figure this out, expect them to try to take advantage of their trust to unwittingly help them further their plans. This can exemplify how the Cutie's love and innocence isn't always a good thing.

Their innocence and purity draw the sympathy of the audience for them. For this reason, they tend to become The Woobie when bad things happen to them.

Related to Break the Cutie, Kill the Cutie, The Fake Cutie, and Corrupt the Cutie, but if these things happen they don't need to be mentioned here, except when the things go back and Heal the Cutie. Compare Moe, The Pollyanna, and All-Loving Hero. Also referred to as a "Cinnamon Roll" in the slang of some media fandom circles. If the Cutie Took a Level in Badass, they're Badass Adorable.

See also Evil Desires Innocence.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comedy 

    Comic Books 
  • Betty Cooper from Archie Comics, a competitor for Archie's affections. Betty often takes time for caring about others especially nurturing Archie. In an episode, she had to excuse herself as she was tutoring elementary students at the local library. Veronica discovers this as spies on her thinking Archie was cheating on her.
  • Bode from Locke & Key is six years old, Curious as a Monkey, and adorable. Whether he's experimenting with the newest magic Key he's found, looking for treasure in the pond (using a toy fishing rod he "invented himself"), or even wearing a pot on his head as a helmet when he's being attacked by shadow-creatures, he's just so cute.
  • Molly Hayes and Klara Prast take turns being the Cutie among the Runaways, particularly when drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa or Humberto Ramos. The former is famous for her love of adorable little animal-themed hats and Malaproper tendencies, while the latter is almost always sweet and cheerful.
  • A surprising male example would be Kurt Wagner AKA Nightcrawler from X-Men. He has a fun-loving and compassionate personality that helps make him the glue that holds the X-men together. He is, however, still capable of being an excellent fighter.

    Fan Works 
  • Do You Believe in Fairies?: Evelyn's first thought about Renee is that she's "adorable". Renee's big eyes and sweet personality make her quite cute. She's a caring young woman who loves animals.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Pre-Infinity Train Chloe Cerise was no one special: a Shrinking Violet Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life. When she enters the Infinity Trian, we see her with long hair a pretty sea dress and a cheerful outlook and a kind heart that is ready to explore what the Infinity Train has in store for her. Notably, Lexi (a living book whose paper self is an expy of Specter) is smitten with her both for her kindness.
  • Luna Lovegood and the Chamber of Innocence by Jadyne Farrow:
    • Luna Lovegood is often seen this way, tends to act this way, and is somewhat treated like this by so many of the characters in the story, and it's also how she's seen in and out of canon by a lot of the fandom. Her open-mindedness, love for magical creatures, empathetic nature, and her kind heart often make her a fan favorite.
    • Subverted by Dotty Pop. She's supposed to be cute and innocent, but she knows she was assigned to be this way and is only faking it.
  • Ma Fille gives us Katrina Beaufort, daughter of Joseph "Glass Joe" Beaufort. She's known for capturing hearts with her big eyes and baby babble, and her family absolutely adores her.
  • The Night Unfurls:
    • Prim Fiorire of the Seven Shields is a young, pink-haired Princess Classic ready to enter adulthood, with a meek voice and a positive attitude. Even the resident cynic Kyril respects her and treats her cordially — she's really something else.
    • While Hugh is not described to have a "generically cute" appearance, the kid's eyepatch, muteness, and cheerfulness are meant to be endearing qualities that convey a hint of vulnerability. He often shares awkward, comical moments with Sanakan via his gestures and facial expressions.
  • Nutty for Wonka: Daisy Bloom, one of the Oompa-Loompas, is the only one to show any sort of kindness to Matilda; she's the only one who was willing to bring her food, calls her by her first name, and tells her that her father isn't dead as Wonka claimed earlier.
  • Our Eternity Together has a few examples of this.
    • Rosanna Pansino, in particular, is a cute little muffin who does her best to help Mystic and the others feel better.
    • Arguably Mystic has her moments, mostly when she emerges from the Angel Bath in installment 7 and throughout most of installment 8 to a sickening degree. Also described as such by Ivy when the two first meet, as Mystic develops a major crush on her.
    • Played straight with Sugarbelle Hollyheart, yet she's only six, so it's not unexpected.
  • Resident Evil Abridged portrays Rebecca as soft-spoken and so dorky that she starts to apologize when she thought a zombie was standing behind her. She was relieved to see it was only Chris, who soon develops a soft spot for her.
  • In The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy, we have Rosa, a sweet and innocent young girl who believes in romance and love stories and develops a brief yet adorable crush on Luca.

    Films — Animation 
  • A Bug's Life: Dot is an ant version of this. She's a young, innocent, and adorable little ant girl with a genuine admiration for Flik.
  • Despicable Me has Margo, Edith, and Agnes. Agnes, in particular, is the most innocent child to hit the screen in a long time, and she's adorable.
  • Encanto: Antonio is cute, quite sweet and befriends animals due to his magical gift. And he loves Mirabel unconditionally.
  • Frozen: Anna's cheerful attitude and endearing quirks make her rather lovable.
  • Hotel Transylvania: Mavis is very loveable and endearing with how she reacts to the world around her
  • Luca: Luca is a kindhearted and timid Cute Monster Boy who's Constantly Curious about the world outside the ocean.
  • Rock Dog: Bodi is eternally optimistic, happy, and friendly to everyone he meets. He's good-natured and innocent and never questions another animal's character. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body and is never shown getting genuinely angry, and at no point is he snarky, salty, sarcastic or mean to anyone. Bodi is very determined and strong-willed, refusing to give up on his dream no matter the obstacles. However, his life in the quiet mountain village left him naïve and lacking knowledge of the rest of the world, which lead to him being fooled by animals who lie to him, sets his expectations too high, and is easily taken advantage of. When Angus Scattergood apologizes to Bodi for not giving him credit for the new song that they wrote together, Bodi forgives him.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
    • Snow White is very loveable and endearing, and her cuteness is purposefully emphasized nowadays in contrast to some of the more elegant or tough princesses.
    • Dopey was made to be cute. His namesake means he always has a grin on his face is acting silly.
    • Bashful's shyness shows how sincerely he loves people, such as how heavily he blushes when Snow White kisses him.
  • Tangled: Rapunzel is a cute, kind, and playful Genki Girl, and her mannerisms (such as hiding in her hair when scared) and personality make her the one of the most adorable Disney Princesses.
  • Turning Red: Stacy is portrayed as a sweet girl who wants nothing more than to hug and take pictures with the Mei's giant red panda form and buy The Merch of the panda.
  • Zootopia:
    • Judy Hopps is loving, compassionate and idealistic. She's described as cute in-universe because she's a little bunny, but since she has the physical prowess to knock out a rhino, she's probably more Badass Adorable.
    • Benjamin Clawhauser is a rare adult example. He's used mainly for comic relief and has a personality that is extremely sweet and innocent, cheerful, optimistic, and somewhat immature.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • James Bond: Every now and then the women of the franchise fall into this.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has awkward, stuttering Billy Bibbit. He's the most innocent, gentle character in the movie and one of the few non-Jerkasses, which makes his suicide all the more tragic.
  • Pollyanna is all but the Trope Namer of The Pollyanna, an archetype which is used to describe irrepressibly cheerful characters. She lives in a town of bitter and angry people and slowly makes them cheery.
  • It (2017): Georgie, the little brother of Bill, is adorably innocent and sweet and loves his older brother so much he idolizes him. Pennywise killing him just highlights how horrifically evil he really is.
  • X-Men Film Series: This is how Charles is characterized in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Apocalypse. He's sweet, compassionate, naïve, peace-loving and cheerful. His Pretty Boy features highlight his childlike attributes, and he retains the puppyish enthusiasm that he had as a kid. Even the aloof and grumpy Erik melts under Xavier's charm and affectionately labels him as "adorable." Charles is given more comedic lines in Apocalypse than in previous movies to increase his "cute dork" factor. His official temporary emoji is modeled on the gleeful boyishness that James McAvoy brings to the role. The younger Professor X is often called "bae" note  (which is an informal term for "baby") on Tumblr because he's so endearing.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: When Jemma Simmons squees over alien biology or asks Fitz about the sandwich she made for him, it's hard not to Squee along with her.
  • 'Allo 'Allo! has quite an unlikely Cutie, because Lieutenant Gruber is a Wehrmacht officer in occupied France. Yet he's sweet, well-mannered, enthusiastic, a great pianist and has a crush on René, which is unfortunately a case of Incompatible Orientation. He keeps apologizing whenever he's forced to search people or carry out orders he's uncomfortable with, dotes on his "little tank" and the army's "little doggies" and only he can make "Heil Hitler!" sound adorable.
  • Better Things: Duke, being the littlest of Sam's kids, is naturally this. She's the sweetest, an adorable little girl (although she grows over the course of the series, naturally) and is the most lighthearted, innocent character.
  • The Big Bang Theory:
    • Raj, in the early years, was very shy, a Cute Mute around women, and he has been described in-universe as "a cutie-pie".
    • Bernadette is an adorable petite blonde with a squeaky voice. She's usually sweet and polite to everyone, unless you make her angry.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Willow Rosenberg is one of these due to the "shy bookworm" thing she had going on in the earlier seasons.
    • Tara takes on this role after Willow no longer qualified, due to Willow becoming much more powerful and self-confident, and especially once she became the Big Bad at one point. This was very much intentional on the part of the writers, who brought in Tara specifically to fill the cutie niche that Willow was outgrowing.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gypsy is a ridiculously human robot version of this.
  • Annie of Community dots her "i"s with hearts and loves stickers and other traditionally-girly stuff. She and Shirley "Awww..." in unison whenever something cute happens.
  • The Company You Keep: Ollie's a pretty tween whom her mom, grandparents and uncle all adore. She's usually sweet, though she has some occasional mutinous and sarcastic moments, which of course is common for kids her age. Even so, Ollie's the most innocent among her family, and didn't know at first they were con artists.
  • Doctor Who: Vicki, companion to the First Doctor, gave cutesy nicknames to hideous monsters, fangirled out over meeting Nero in ancient Rome and was generally cute as a button.
  • Extraordinary Attorney Woo: Young-woo is an incredibly adorable young woman with autism, which is further complimented by her wholesome appearance and innocent outlook on life.
  • Kaylee from Firefly provides the page quote, and she is bubbly, outgoing and optimistic, though perhaps less naive than standard; she unashamedly likes sex, and goes after the stuffy Simon with a vengeance.
  • Good Omens (2019):
  • How I Met Your Mother:
    • Lily. She's a kindergarten teacher, and very cute, short and bubbly (and she was a Perky Goth in her younger days), but later it's revealed she has a manipulative streak and she is far from innocent.
    • Tracy, the titular Mother. She's sweet, funny, dorky, and always upbeat.
  • Jeannie, the beautiful, sweet, naive genie of I Dream of Jeannie whose two goals in life were to marry her 'master' and to have as much innocent fun as possible along the way.
  • The Librarians 2014: Cassandra Cillian is the most upbeat and adorable of the new Librarians.
  • The Mandalorian has Grogu the Child, known to fans as Baby Yodanote . He's a Force-sensitive alien infant with big floppy ears and big brown eyes, who is very curious and loves pushing the various buttons on the Mandalorian's ship. Several characters in-universe have remarked on how cute he is, and he seems to have become Mando's Morality Pet.
  • Merlin has Merlin and Guinevere. Both are sweet, kind, socially-awkward wide-eyed idealists.
  • Bean Bunny of The Muppets later productions is an in-universe Cutie- it's explicitly stated that Bean was hired to be cute so the rest of the Muppets won't have to be. The other Muppets find his antics more annoying than endearing, however.
  • Murdoch Mysteries: Anna Fulford is a very sweet and very kind young English woman and Detective Murdoch's Temporary Love Interest. Even Julia, who should be jealous of her, says that Anna's lovely and seems to really mean it.
  • Leslie Knope of Parks and Recreation expresses her love of cute things in a variety of ways. One episode's plot was based around her officiating the marriage of two penguins because "it was cute".
  • Pushing Daisies has a cast full of cinnamon rolls, but the crown would ultimately have to be shared between Ned and Olive.
    • You'd think Olive would win this one hands down, being played by Kristin Chenoweth and all, but she's got sharp edges that Ned generally lacks... and possibly the strongest libido among the main characters. (Put it this way, if Wilfred Woodruff had challenged her to a swordfight, rather than Ned, there might not have been enough left of him to arrest.)
  • Star Trek: Picard:
    • Elnor as a boy is so incredibly endearing that Jean-Luc Picard — who is notoriously uncomfortable around kids (even the Qowat Milat nuns are aware of this fact) — not only likes Elnor very much (those are his own words), but they even develop a surrogate father-son relationship. Elnor is quite possibly the cutest child in the Beta and Alpha Quadrants for Picard to overcome his innate discomfort and connect with the boy on such a personal level, and their bonding is one of the sweetest moments on the series. Even as a young adult, Elnor retains a boyish quality (e.g. he longs to see a cat in person) because he had a sheltered existence while living among the nuns, so he's still naïve (e.g. the concept of lying is foreign to him), and he's also fairly ignorant about the rest of the galaxy because he had never left Vashti before. Showrunner Michael Chabon describes the character in terms of purity, innocence, curiosity, and sweetness, plus he would like to squoosh Elnor.
    • Enoch, the Emergency Navigational Hologram on La Sirena, exhibits some adorable, child-like behaviour. In "The End Is the Beginning", he fanboys over Picard and wishes that Rios would react with the same level of excitement. When Enoch greets Raffi for the first time in "Broken Pieces", he enthusiastically waves at her. Because he's always smiling, he informs her that invokedRios threatened to punch him for it. Enoch is eager to share his knowledge of astronavigation with Raffi, and after she kisses him on his forehead, he grins and holds his face like a boy who has been kissed by his crush.
  • Cat Valentine from Victorious and later Sam & Cat is a lovable, ditzy, cheerful Genki Girl played by Ariana Grande. She also can be flirty but in a cute, innocent way.
  • The White Queen: Anne Neville and Richard of Gloucester are endearing, naïve youngsters in the early episodes, The Baby of the Bunch of their respective families, and their Puppy Love adds another layer of sweetness. They are initially the most sympathetic characters, but they both wholly succumb to Corrupt the Cutie by Episode 8.

    Music 
  • Gorillaz gives us an interesting example with 2D; whilst his wholly black eyes and uncanny appearance can make him look terrifying, he's actually a harmless Kind Hearted Simpleton.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Radio 
  • An adult example can be found in New Dynamic English: Described as "upbeat and peppy", Max talks in a more cheerful way than the other men in New Dynamic English. It seems that other characters treat him this way as well, as Elizabeth and Kathy would occasionally copy his way of talking when they talk to him.

    Roleplay 

    Video Games 
  • 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds The cashier at Mcdonalds is almost always described as adorable. It's her defining feature.
  • Advanced V.G.: Manami is meant to appeal to fans of the "moe" character type, despite being 16 years old. That's because she's short and childish, with an insatiable Sweet Tooth and a love for cute cuddly objects (best seen at 0:39-2:12).
  • The "Lazy" class of villagers from Animal Crossing act like prepubescent children, despite being at least young adults. They also dress cute at times, like the villager Bob who wears a cute pink shirt. They also cry a lot and talk about food, sleeping, and playing with you. D'aww...
  • BioWare tends to include one of these as a love interest in each of their games.
    • Aerie in Baldur's Gate II; by the end, you will either want to marry her or strangle her.
    • Tali in Mass Effect is a petite engineering prodigy who becomes adorably flustered if romanced.
    • Leliana in Dragon Age: Origins is a cheerful bard and former Chantry sister who enjoys lightly ribbing her companions. She's cute enough that she can get away with teasing Sten after catching him playing with a kitten.
    • Dragon Age II:
      • Merrill has big, trusting eyes and a kindhearted nature. She's also endearingly awkward.
      • Hawke's sister Bethany is a non-love interest Cutie in playthroughs where she survives the prologue. She's sweet and affectionate, and one of the only two companions to get along with everyone in the group.
  • Princess Aurora from Child of Light is an adorable little girl who mysteriously falls ill and wakes up in an unknown Magical Land. She experiences a lot of hardship and pain over the course of her journey back home, but remains a very kind and sweet person overall.
  • Flonne from Disgaea is so sweet and wholeheartedly lovable that she is a Love Freak.
  • Duel Savior Destiny: Nanashi is the cutest/cutesiest and most innocent character in the story. She frequently uses the third person and has her own verbal tic. She's very hands on and affectionate. She's also undead, so the main character wants nothing to do with her or her affections.
  • Eternal Sonata has the kids Beat and March (Puppy Love and nice hats) but there's also a young teen example in golden haired Polka.
  • Fallout 3: Moira Brown, Megaton's shopkeeper and tinkerer in science. She sticks out for being perpetually cheery and upbeat in a blasted post-apocalyptic wasteland.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In the early game of Final Fantasy IV, seven-year-old Rydia's suffering is the final straw for Cecil and Kain to break with Baron's Evil-Empirish ways, her 3D summon animation is a childish twirl, and it's stated that she's good at summoning because she's so innocent. Then she spends some time in the Feymarch and comes back as Ms. Fanservice.
    • Krile from Final Fantasy V. She has a cheery, teasing personality that keeps events of the late game (which get pretty dire) from getting too terrible, and her job classes are clearly designed to be as adorable as possible.
    • Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII. Reportedly, Tetsuya Nomura, the head character designer for Square at the time, specifically wanted her to give off a "cute" vibe, and built her character around this idea. She pets Anglo when she uses him in battle.
    • Final Fantasy IX: Vivi, the adorable little black mage was so loved by fans, he made a cameo in Kingdom Hearts 2. Throughout the game he acts like Zidane's kid brother and fidgets with his hat when nervous.
    • Final Fantasy X: Rikku, the adorable Wrench Wench Al Bhed girl, has some endearingly cute qualities to her. You just want to hug her on the Thunder Plains where she's absolutely terrified of lightning.
    • Final Fantasy XIII:
      • Vanille all but skips through the game. She's easily the motivator of The Team (along with Snow) and has various moments of Badass Adorable.
      • Serah, a sweet girl and Snow's finance.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • The Cutie is a common characteristic for female units in that starts out feeble but becomes a powerhorse if trained. This includes but not limited to most early obtained pegasus knights like Shanna and Florina, the "heroines" like Caeda and Lilina and "Est" archetypes like Nino and Amelia. Cute and innocent characters tend to make babying units much least onerous.
    • Young male characters are sometimes this too. Dew from the fourth game is a plucky, comical thief, Franz from the eighth is New Meat to Renais' army and on the receiving end of Big Brother Instinct from Forde, and Lugh from the sixth game exists to feed baked goods to Tsunderes and soldiers.
    • While she may act tough on the outside, your Hoshidan sister (actually not related to you) Hinoka is a total cutie on the inside when it's revealed she was a crybaby as a child when the avatar was kidnapped by King Garon, she's also very idealistic and is one of the few characters to not be that angry about your betrayal should the player choose to side with Nohr. Not to mention she is a down to earth nature lover as shown by her coddling her pegasus and especially in some support conversations when she opens up and reveals she's not as mentally tough as nails as she lets on.
    • Also from Fates this time on the Conquest Nohrian side is the young teenage (we think) Elise who all but skips through the game in a manner similar to Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII, extremely endearing and idealistic, affectionately refers to you should you marry her in the Revelation or Conquest path as her "hubby", refers to her children as "gumdrops", and is an all around Nice Girl who is the only one of the Nohrians to not feel betrayed should you side with Hoshido. She even takes a strike meant for you from Xander, her older brother which is especially heart-wrenching.
    • From the Jugdral games, we are introduced with Tailtiu, a young, cheerful and friendly mage girl with slight bouts of insecurity, but overall, she's there to brighten the dark atmosphere of the game, even if just a little. Cue the Time Skip and turns out she was horribly broken due to losing her friends, tortured by her sister in law for lulz and partially to protect her infant daughter, to the point that she died as a shadow of her former cheerful self.
  • Genshin Impact:
  • Zig-Zagged with Hat Kid from A Hat in Time. She looks like an incredibly adorable little girl, and some of her behaviors have a childlike innocence to them. However, there are times where her behavior is not-so-innocent, such as her cheering for the fire spirits to burn in Subcon Forest, and the level of snark in her diary entries that suggests that she is Older Than She Looks, which, given that she is an humanoid alien, is very possible.
  • Honkai: Star Rail:
    • Clara is an adorable, kindly, and gentle child who only wants everyone living in the fortress city of Belobog to get along and be happy with each other. A lot of this stems from the loving care her adoptive father, Svarog, has given her - remarkable considering he's a giant robot.
    • The tiny and adorable Hook can get up to a lot of mischief and trouble in Belobog's underworld as the commander of the Moles, but her earnest desire to help out Wildfire and her being an enormous ray of sunshine to those around her means that very few people can get mad at her.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Sora is idealistic and innocent, a contrast to many other characters in the series.
    • Kairi counts, what with being a Princess of Purest Heart and all.
  • League of Legends has the perfect little bundle of joy in the form of Nunu. Despite coming from a war-ridden wasteland, he's the single sweetest, kindest, and most optimistic little boy you could meet. He's so pure that when he tried to get ancient magic stone from a monstrous yeti, it ended up becoming his best friend.
  • Life Is Strange: Kate Marsh is the one who best fits the description, being she's the school's resident church girl who leads an abstinence campaign. However, she's also socially withdrawn and easily intimidated, which makes her a constant target of ridicule and bullying. She's the primary focus of episode 2, which culminates with Max trying to talk her down from an attempted suicide.
  • Haruka from Like a Dragon is a prime example, being a shining beacon of cuteness, optimism, and cheer in an otherwise relentlessly grim crime narrative. Haruka, unlike most Cuties, is not naïve. She has, over the course of the series, seen pretty much the whole spectrum of the darkness of the human soul, but does not waver in her kind, cheerful and optimistic nature.
  • Pokémon:
    • Both incarnations of Bianca; A Nice Girl that's always running late and has an adorable victory dance.
    • For Pokémon X and Y, Shauna fulfills this role. From the moment she meets your player character, she instantly wants to be your friend and only really wants to go on a Pokémon journey for having wonderful memories.
  • Cream the Rabbit from Sonic the Hedgehog. She's one of the sweetest, kindest, most innocent characters in the whole series.
  • Suikoden V: Mikakis serves as Princess Lymsleia's eccentric bodyguard. At first one might think she's a little young for such a position, but she's actually 22 years old. She just doesn't act like it most of the time (seen at 0:37-1:22).
  • Tales of Vesperia: Princes Estelle is Spoiled Sweet and she adores animals (but the feeling isn't mutual). And since she's been sheltered most of her life, she knows little of the outside world, other than what she's read in books. So she's somewhat Literal-Minded - like the time she actually expected Rita to "eat her words."
  • In The Walking Dead: Season One, Clementine is an adorably innocent child who absolutely trusts Lee when she first meets him. However, this is subverted in future seasons.

    Visual Novels 
  • While the Ace Attorney series is generally comedic with plenty of serious moments, these characters in particular stand out as being adorable and idealistic:
    • Regina Berry from case 2-3. She is a young circus darling beloved by almost everyone in the circus with the naivete of a much younger child. Though it was her father Russell Berry that made her that way by telling her "When people die, they become a star in the sky". She's clueless about a lot of things being sheltered from most of the "real world" and has charmed at least four men older than her (aside from maybe one little Jerkass puppet) and doesn't even realize the gravity of her father's death, or Acro's vengeance until Phoenix figures it out.
    • Sasha Buckler from the fifth game. For one, she's very genki and energetic like Maya and Pearly, has been a Heartwarming Orphan adopted by Jack Shipley at a young age, sings sea shanties with her whale, who she communicates to using an anchor-shaped whistle, and is a Friend to All Living Things much like Acro and the "murderer" of this case. She even wears purple and black arm floaties and all but dances her way through life.
    • Trucy Wright, a 15-year-old magician who turns around Apollo's otherwise bland life with genkiness. Enter Athena Cykes, who she's friends with, and her youthful girliness stands out even more.
    • Pearl Fey, an adorable child who blushes every time she talks about Maya and Phoenix's "relationship". She often shows a lot of excitement when agreeing to do something with those two, and would do anything for her cousin Maya.
    • Vera Misham is a pretty Shy Blue-Haired Girl who rarely speaks due to her disconnection with the outer world. She only shows emotions via smileys in sketches she makes on the spot. Then you find out she adopted this behavior because she was kidnapped as a kid, and she becomes even cuter.
    • Maya Fey: An adorable, burger loving teenager who loves nothing more than to help people. Which is why she is often regarded as the number one assistant. She even likes a show meant for little kids in an endearing way, not a creepy Manchild way.
    • In the sixth game, while Archie Buff's kid "Sargeant Buff" maybe a male Drill Sergeant Nasty at first, when they finally appear in court however, she is an absolutely adorable 12 year old girl named Armie Buff, which really contrasts her militaristic behavior. Even Athena finds her cute!
  • CLANNAD:
    • Nagisa Furukawa is kindhearted, easygoing, sensitive, childlike, naive, and slightly eccentric, making her extremely cute and lovable.
    • Ushio Okazaki, the daughter of Tomoya and Nagisa. Being a sweet, mild-mannered Cheerful Child, she is exceptionally precious.
    • Sanae Furukawa, the mother of Nagisa, is just as adorable as her daughter with her tender, nurturing, childlike nature.
    • Other characters like Kotomi, Fuko, Mei, and Ryou have endearing qualities as well that make them so lovable and sympathetic.
  • Danganronpa has a few characters that count:
    • Kiyotaka Ishimaru is extremely rules driven, but that doesn't detach from his extreme cuteness especially when it comes to his idealism and overall Nice Guy self. He's so friendly and dorky you can't help but love him. The poor young man even has a Friendless Background, and his death is shunted off pretty early making him The Woobie as well.
    • Makoto Naegi is one of the few characters in the game to never kill or even harm anyone and is extremely idealistic and cute. He claims not to be special, but that's technically wrong as he finds out later that he's actually the Ultimate Hope and snaps all the other surviving students out of their Heroic BSoD caused by a Sadistic Choice forced to either vote for Junko as the Blackened and leave the school entering an apocalyptic world, or vote Naegi and remain in the school together forever. It also helps that he can bond with literally anyone with exceptions of Byakuya Togami and Genocide Jack.
    • Chihiro Fujisaki fits this trope to an absolute T. Between her cute appearance, occasional nerdiness, and her shy but ultimately sweet and caring disposition, it's no wonder she has a sizable fanbase in-universe. She even gets compared to small, cute animals like bunnies by other characters often. Overlaps with The Woobie and Kill the Cutie, as most of her tragic backstory, including her big plot twist, is revealed after "her" untimely death.
    • Himiko Yumeno develops into an endearingly sweet girl who cares about her friends, is incredibly idealistic, and the Killing game literally breaks her. She even responds to Kokichi Oma flirting with her with a Luminescent Blush, despite not liking him and genuinely is hurt to see Gonta Gokuhara be executed. Oh, and she cries heavily when her best friends die.
  • Komari from Little Busters! has Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold and Innocent Blue Eyes, adores sweets, is often distracted from conversations by things like dandelions blowing in the breeze, and just plain wants to make the world a better place for everyone.
  • Shiny Days:
    • Kokoro is built around the cute little kid idea and is thus very innocent and energetic, though she can have a bit of a dirty mouth sometimes and her sister finds her annoying sometimes.
    • Main heroine Setsuna is also apparently built to be as cute and sympathetic as possible, especially if you pick the right dialogue options.

    Web Animation 

    Web Comics 
  • El Goonish Shive: Grace zigzags this trope. She's adorable, naive, and idealistic; the naivete is because she was raised in an underground military installation as part of a rogue experiment, and that is buffing off as time goes on. A lot of her Polyanna-style characterization might be a defense mechanism, but the idealism is very real, as seen during the boar hunt.
  • Due to the art style, most of the characters in Cucumber Quest look cute, but the outstanding Cutie in the bunch is the cheerful and friendly Princess Nautilus.
  • Molly in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! is cute and pink and furry and upbeat and sweet and innocent.
    • Nessie the Loch Ness Monster is shy and downright adorable, but she will swallow you if you manage to make her mad enough (in fairness, Bob did get her to spit Slick back out).
  • Sandra on the Rocks: The readership has quickly come to regard Lavali this way; particularly during scenes like these, where she appears vulnerable and frightened. Aided further by her being shy and reserved and just plain cute when she's happy.
  • Sequential Art:
    • Scarlet, and later her sisters are this, despite also routinely being used as the Innocent Fanservice Girl (this is still a Jolly Jack cartoon). They are Cloudcuckoolander Genki Girls who act as comic relief partly because of their naïveté, and partly because of their Hive Mind super-intelligence when they're in the same room together.
    • The Denizens are also this after Jack is defeated, becoming docile, but still curious and silly little shadow people who like watching period dramas.
  • In Slightly Damned, Kieri and Buwaro. both are drawn to look absolutely adorable (except when the other threatened), and Kieri turns into a bunny at random moments.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: Tuuri is tends to be quite enthusiastic about a lot of things she encounters due to being the scholar on an expedition in a Forbidden Zone after eleven years of not leaving her home military base. That time in the military base also makes her much less aware of the dangers that lurk outside it than most of her crewmates, making her relatively innocent and idealistic as well. Her caring side is shown by her being Cloudcuckoolander's Minder to her cousin who's also on the expedition along with her more official duties.
  • Vampire Cheerleaders: The Bakertown High "B" Squad is such an eternal fountain of cheerful support and youthful optimism, that they may as well be called "Team Moe". Which is why the readers adore them.
  • Cute, loving, fuzzy pink Molly the Monster in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!
  • Deconstructed with Ivy Pepper in Lackadaisy. She's a friendly, cheerful young lady, about the only person in the world Victor Vasko seems to like...but Lackadaisy is very much not idealistic about how bootlegging works, and Ivy's adorable optimism and adventurous spirit leave her so out of her depth when it comes to helping out at a speakeasy that the fish have little lights on their noses.
  • Nova 44: the drummer, named RB, is a friend-shaped sentient robot who uses emoticons as facial expressions.

    Web Original 
  • The SCP Foundation:
    • Surprisingly it has this in Cassy, an animate drawing of a sweet and friendly young woman who everyone at the Foundation adores. Unfortunately she found out about her two-dimensional condition and has been in depression ever since.
    • There's also SCP-054 a friendly entity made of water that likes to play with personnel. Unfortunately frequent experimentation on her (mostly by men) has caused her to resent men and be fearful of them.
    • Despite their dangerous effects and general creepiness, most of the "little girl" SCP items, such as SCP-053, SCP-040, and SCP-134 are genuinely sweet, innocent children who don't mean any (deliberate) harm. Even SCP-239, a Keter-Class, is a sweet girl despite her apocalyptic reality-bending powers.
  • Clover of the Whateley Universe. One of the youngest kids at Superhero School Whateley Academy, she's a naive wizardess-wannabe with the cutest puppy ever. And a witch hat she's sure will give her magic powers. She also happens to be a powerful Reality Warper and her puppy Buttons can turn into a monstrous Gabriel Hound the size of a pony.

    Web Videos 
  • Pepper from Dr. Crafty certainly qualifies, what with her being the kindest and shyest out of all the show's characters.
  • Escape the Night displays several examples of this, the majority of them being female.
    • Rosanna Pansino: Caring, amazingly sweet, and absolutely huggable, both in the show and in real life, Ro is THE cinnamon roll of ETN's cinnamon rolls, while also Taking a Level in Badass in episode 4 of season 3. Her genuine sweetness goes so far that her voting Nikita into the death challenge in episode 3 causes her to feel guilty to the point of tears.
    • Sierra Furtado: Sierra is rather quiet for most of season 1, taking a backseat for finding clues for the most part. In episode 5, however, she manages to speak out because all of those who died in death challenges at that point were girls and attempts to make an alliance with the girls who remain to protect them.
  • Film Conscience: Ringo represent the more cheerful, optimistic side of Kinley.
  • The Lizzie Bennet Diaries:
    • Jane Bennet is universally loved and admired. She's adorable and nice to everybody, and genuine in her sweetness. Seriously, she's a sunbeam and a cinnamon roll. How is it possible to be that sweet all the time?
    • Lydia Bennet can also somewhat be an example. She does love her siblings and usually displays an upbeat, sometimes sweet, and somewhat sassy personality, but comes off as rather idealistic and slightly naive, making her easy prey for people to take advantage of her, specifically George Wickham, who threatens to upload a sex tape of the two of them on Valentine's Day. Lydia had no knowledge of this until Lizzie showed her. Thankfully the website he was going to post it on was taken down before the tape was uploaded.
    • Gigi Darcy falls somewhere in between Jane and Lydia (which is really saying something). Several of her finest moments involve very unsubtly trying to set her brother up with Lizzie.
  • Noob has its Kindhearted Simpleton and Manchild Sparadrap and Couette, a mild Kawaiiko who was his Distaff Counterpart before gradual Divergent Character Evolution took place. The two are given child-like designs in the comic rendering of the franchise.
  • Nella from The Nostalgia Chick is friendly and stable to contrast with the other oft-psychotic Broken Bird characters on the show.

    Western Animation 
  • Darwin in The Amazing World of Gumball often qualifies. Usually very optimistic, peppy, always smiling, and slow to anger, it can be surprising to see him break his usual mould.
    Anais: He plans to invade the rest of the world to make it safe!
    Gumball: How do you know all this?
    Nicole: He told us.
    Gumball: Why didn't you stop him?
    Richard: Because, it's Darwin. He's really cute.
    Nicole: He was all like, [cute voice] "All resistance is futile!"
    Anais: [cute voice] "Those who stray from the path will be corrected!"
    Richard: [cute voice] "Today a safer Elmore! Tomorrow a safer world!"
    Gumball: What?! How could you not see he was dangerous-? Actually, now that I think of it, it must have been adorable.
    All: Awww...
  • Animaniacs: Dot is a little girl (more of a Cartoon Creature) in a pink skirt with a flower in her hair, who even has her own "I Am" Song called "I'm Cute".
    Yakko: I'm Yakko.
    Wakko: I'm Wakko.
    Dot: And I'm cute!
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has Ty Lee, a bubbly pink-loving acrobat who loves performing for a crowd.
  • Buddy Thunderstruck: Deputy Sheriff Hoisenberry, a very young, tiny deer who looks like a long-lost relative to Tony Tony Chopper.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • Kuki Sanban/Numbuh Three is a spacey Nice Girl who's always carrying around stuffed animals.
    • Betty Gilligan is a lovably cheerful woman, if a bit oblivious.
  • Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory qualifies owing to her innocent naivety and girly nature.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • Ed is a Cuddle Bug, and by far the most cheerful, carefree, and optimistic of the cast. Though it's downplayed because of his gross hygiene habits.
    • Edd is a polite, shy but kindhearted Lovable Nerd with a high-pitched voice, to the point that even Sarah describes him as "cute" in one episode.
    • Jimmy is a sweet little boy who's In Touch with His Feminine Side, likes stuffed animals, and cries in a very cute manner. It helps he's the youngest of the cast.
  • Futurama: Amy Wong is a girly and slightly ditzy Cute Clumsy Girl. She was once caught in a fire that burnt off most of her hair. Her reaction? "Look! My hair got singed into an even cuter 'do!"
  • Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls is very imaginative, friendly, and bright-eyed.
  • Happy Ness: The Secret of the Loch has Cute Ness. She's so adorable, and she certainly lives up to her name.
  • Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: While both Ami and Yumi are really cute-looking, the former is even moreso this trope in terms of personality, pink attributes, and for being an all-around Pollyanna. Being a Genki Girl also helps matters.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes: Jimmy is so cute due to how he's basically The Pollyanna in a Hellish world.
  • The Legend of Korra: Aang's grandchildren could all count as Cuties, but none more so then Meelo. "Be the leaf!"
  • The Loud House:
    • Leni Loud is sweet, optimistic, bordering on The Ingenue.
    • Luan is an endearing and cheerful Genki Girl.
  • Middlemost Post: Parker is so adorable, happy, and naive.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Any mare or stallion is likely really cute, in appearance if not in deed.
    • Fluttershy is a Shrinking Violet known for her kindness.
    • Pinkie Pie, a Genki Girl known for being very cheerful and positive. Her cutie mark is balloons and her Goal in Life is to make everyone happy.
    • Apple Bloom's first appearance cemented her as a cute little sister. She has a big pink bow in her mane.
    • Sweetie Belle is an adorable Cute Clumsy Girl with a cute face, an amazing singing voice, and adorable voice cracks.
    • Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, and Flurry Heart. They're Ridiculously Cute Critters, being magical baby ponies and all.
  • The Owl House: Luz Noceda is energetic, cheerful, playful, loyal, kindhearted, and innocent, bringing out the best in everyone around her.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Bubbles. The theme song says she is "the joy and the laughter". The burglar robbing the Utonium home in "Burglar Alarmed" even calls Bubbles a cutie upon seeing a photo of her.
  • Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja:
  • Ready Jet Go!:
    • Jet is a cute Amusing Alien who is fascinated with everything Earth-related.
    • Sydney is a comic-book geek and major fangirl of the Commander Cressida franchise.
    • Sean has Innocent Blue Eyes, freckles, and is a dorky Nervous Wreck who wants to be an astronaut, despite having claustrophobia, acrophobia, and an easily-upset stomach.
    • Mindy, with her bear hat and Constantly Curious nature.
    • Mitchell is an amateur detective who wants to expose Jet's alien identity, but he's still an awkward little kid who loves his dog, Cody.
    • Lillian is naive and innocent, plus her soft voice and outfit are so adorable.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Maggie Simpson may be Badass Adorable with a side of Ambiguous Innocence, but who can resist that face?
    • Invoked when Lisa is asked to throw the National Spelling Bee in favor of her main rival, Alex, a younger boy who is genuinely so sweet and innocent that the spelling bee organizer believes having him as their champion would help bring mainstream attention to the competition. Alex is unaware of this and ends up winning legitimately when Lisa accidentally screws up her final word while exposing the attempted rigging.
  • Sofia the First: The titular character, with her cheerful personality, optimism, and selflessness, makes her really adorable.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Tails is really sweet, but can put up a fight when called for, especially when harm is given to Sonic and Sally.
  • South Park:
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob is a good-natured little dude with Innocent Blue Eyes, a Childish Tooth Gap, and selfless demeanor that makes him very likable.
  • Teen Titans (2003): Starfire is a girl that wants to make friends with everybody, sees beauty in almost everything, has a fondness to cute things and has a general Moe attitude. Her sweet voice, innocence and No Social Skills are a good source of humor in the show. She also tends to apologize when attacking enemies, but she is also a brave warrior that would do anything to protect the earth and her friends, so don't mess with her.
  • Timothy Goes to School: Yoko, Lilly and Juanita are all very sweet and kind characters. But Yoko takes the cake due to her being sweet-natured and caring about others. Especially with her best friend Timothy.
  • Total Drama:
    • Bridgette is a Cute Clumsy Nice Girl with a peaceful and compassionate personality who loves animals and surfing.
    • Lindsay is an adorably Spoiled Sweet Brainless Beauty with a childlike voice, a peppy and innocent personality, and big baby-blue eyes.
    • Sierra. She has a high-pitched, sweet, childish voice and constantly comments on things being cute (even a leech on her face), that is, until someone pushes her Berserk Button. Then she becomes Cute and Psycho.
    • Dawn, a mysterious nature lover with an adorably squeaky voice. Dawn appears to be good-hearted and very helpful, although she comes across as creepy to the others due to her supernatural powers.
    • Ella, a songbird dressed as a princess with a personality as angelic as her singing voice. One of the nicest, if not the nicest, character in the whole series.
    • Sammy (or "Samey") is an incredibly sweet, nice Shrinking Violet character who is constantly picked on by her Big Sister Bully and gets no respect from anyone other than Jasmine. This makes her The Woobie as well.
  • Total DramaRama: Bridgette is now an absolutely adorable little four-year-old with an unbelievably sweet and friendly personality who wants to be friends with everyone and make them all happy. In one episode, she sets up her own business for free compliments and hugs!
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Xavier, Yadina, and Brad are all little kids with likable personalities, adorable designs, signature quirks, and great ambitions.
  • Miss Martian in Young Justice (2010) invokes this trope. Though genuinely kind, her mannerism and appearance were constructed from a short-lived cheesy sitcom called "Hello Megan", and her true form is a horrific monster. She almost betrayed her friends to keep the truth hidden, and in the second season develops a very dark tendency for Mind Rape.

 
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"Papa"

After having just adopted her, Loid discusses some terms with his new daughter Anya. She chooses what she gets to refer to him as.

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5 (27 votes)

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Main / ParentalTitleCharacterization

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