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The One Guy

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The one on the left.note 

"One boy, ten girls, wouldn't trade it for the world!"

That's short for "The one guy associated with an otherwise all-female group". Not in the Harem Genre sense, though. At the most, The One Guy will be in a committed relationship with one of the members — or he wants to be. His membership can range from loose ally to close friend to part of the actual fighting team. Either that or just some guy who rarely ever actually does anything other than serving as a little guy candy. He will usually be involved in plots that require guys, as well as be a non-threatening and harmless crush object for the assorted cast as needed. Could become The Face of the group, should the rest of them lack social skills. May be One of the Girls.

See Chromosome Casting when there are zero members of the opposite sex present in the work. This is also the Spear Counterpart to The Smurfette Principle, although that female may be the main character and still qualify for the trope. Compare to Two Girls and a Guy. Contrast Gender-Equal Ensemble, where the cast has evenly split the gender ratio. No relation to That One Player (who is an experienced player, not necessarily a male) or Those Two Guys (who also don't have to be male; just a pair of recurring extras).

Remember, not all characters who serve as the only male in the group automatically count for this trope. If he is the main protagonist, he does not count as this trope. See Starring Smurfette for such examples instead.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • An installment in 2014's Lily Allen AT&T 3G campaign has Lily extolling a phone plan to a team of businesswomen in power suits with one guy off to the side and not really being addressed as directly as the women. Not lampshaded at all, perhaps to suggest this can and should be a perfectly suitable example of their team.
  • Orangina mostly always have females, with the exception of four species, and in true fashion, they enjoy a Shirtless Scene in the ads.

    Anime and Manga 
  • Akira in Ai Ore! Love Me! is the only boy in an otherwise all-girls band.Ironically, he's the one with the most feminine looks.
  • Makoto from Amanchu!, being Ai's hapless twin brother.
  • Ayakashi Triangle: The protagonist Matsuri was originally male, but was turned into a girl at the beginning of the series. Otherwise, Soga is the only male human in Matsuri's friend group (the others are animalistic spirits) and the only named male student at their school. To Matsuri, he's a combination of rival, mentor, and unnoticed love interest.
    Soga: (beginning a mission with Matsuri, Reo, and Suzu) I’m surrounded by girls...
  • Azumanga Daioh's own Kimura-sensei is the only named male regular who isn't an animal.
  • Yuuji in Bamboo Blade. Considering the only other males around him are Coach Koujiro and Dan, who has a girlfriend, he's mostly ignored, and he does lampshade this fact.
  • In Bloom Into You, Yuu's father is the only man in the Koito family, which consists of him, his wife, their two daughters and his widowed mother-in-law. He's surprisingly welcoming of his elder daughter Rei's boyfriend Hiro, since having him around means that he's no longer the only man in the family.
  • Mackie in Bubblegum Crisis. Sorta joined by Nigel in 2040.
  • BREAK THE BORDER's Sei is a trans boy on an all-girls basketball team, but it doesn't bother him.
  • Kyohei of Burst Angel; official Distressed Dude and Non-Action Guy took a part-time job as the team's chef.
  • Chrono from Chrono Crusade. Somewhat justified, as he lives in and works for a convent.
  • Cross Ange: Tusk is the only male on the side of the protagonists.
  • Mikiya is the only recurring male character among the protagonists of The Garden of Sinners. He's also a Non-Action Guy.
  • Goblin Slayer: Warrior is this to his party, with the other members — Fighter, Wizard and Priestess — all being female. It's noted in the light novel that a party set up like this tends to have suspicions and assumptions cast on the guy's intentions, though this party didn't last long enough to encounter that issue.
  • In Infinite Stratos, Ichika is pretty much the one guy who can pilot an IS Suit. Justified as IS suits are made specifically for females.
  • Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl: After Hazumu is turned into a girl, his friend Asuta is the only guy left in their social circle. Since the series mostly focuses on a lesbian Love Triangle, Asuta is treated as unimportant by the story and cast.
  • Kada is The One Guy from the Koihime†Musou anime. He shows up in handful of episodes during the second and third season and is the only character that is both heroic and male in the series. All other males are villains, mooks, or just not very good at fighting.
  • Komi Can't Communicate starts off with Tadano as the only important male, as Najimi is of Ambiguous Gender and the others are girls. Eventually, the cast expands to include multiple other recurring males.
  • Komachi from Chu-Bra. Thanks to his big mouth, he's the only guy in the Underwear Appreciation Society, and Nayu and her friends are clearly more interested in debating which type of panties fit them best than paying much attention to Komachi.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Erio in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is the only nominal lead male in the entire main group. Yuuno and Chrono were relegated to sidekicks (at best) in A's and only have a couple of cameos in StrikerS, and Zafira had to spend all the third season as a dog.
    • Zafira is The One Guy of the Wolkenritter.
    • Supreme King Claus G.S. Ingvalt from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid is the only named male ruler from the Ancient Belkan history, and basically the only named male character from that era, excluding Zafira. However, the gender of the Thunder Emperor Grünwald, who has to appear yet, is unknown.
    • Kurt Grendel from Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force is the only male member of the Grendel Family. However, he is also the leader of the family.
  • Nekki Basara of Macross 7 is the first and only male singer in the entire Macross franchise in contrast to other Macross shows which had female singers. He is also the first and only singer who is a Valkyrie pilot.
  • There are several men on Martian Successor Nadesico, but only one, Jun Aoi, is a regular member of the bridge crew (as opposed to a civilian who hangs out on the bridge giving Expo Speak or looking ominous). Akito's also the only male member of the kitchen staff and, for about a third of the series, the only male pilot - however, he's the lead.
  • Kaito Doumoto of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch almost does the same thing... almost.
  • My Hero Academia; the hero team Wild Wild Pussycats consists of three bubbly women (Mandalay, Pixie Bob, and Ragdoll) and one muscly guy (Tiger) who still wears the same Minidress of Power uniform his teammates wear. Apparently, Tiger was born female, but then took a trip to Thailand...
  • Non Non Biyori: Suguru is the only male character seen (other than one-scene characters, like the guys at the beach). Hotaru has mentioned her dad, but he's never appeared.
  • Pokémon: The Series
    • In Advanced Generation, it's unclear whether or not May's Blaziken was originally this to her team, as it is the only Pokémon she has whose gender has not been confirmed. Her Munchlax is male, and all the rest of her Pokémon are female. Whether or not this trope ever applied to Blaziken or possibly now Munchlax is thus up for debate. The introduction of gender differences in the fourth generation of games appears to retroactively confirm Blaziken as male, but it's not clear if this was the intent from the beginning.
    • In XY, Serena's Pancham is the only male on her team, with Braixen and Sylveon both being female.
    • Also in XY, Clemont had to leave the group for a short while to train for his upcoming Gym battle against Ash and he leaves his sister Bonnie with Ash and Serena for some reason. First time in the series where Ash is the only male in his circle of friends.
  • Pretty Cure:
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Kyousuke, Sayaka's crush, is the only male character of any importance. Kyubey might be an example; the other characters use masculine pronouns to refer to him, but being a Starfish Alien with No Biological Sex puts him more into the Ambiguous Gender camp.
  • Takara in Rising × Rydeen is the only boy and leader of his superpowered team. This is because the higher-ups for the organization he works for are a bunch of dirty old men. They wanted an all female team, but, for reason's unexplained, Takara is part of their grand plan so they reluctantly added him.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Mamoru aka Tuxedo Kamen, Sailor Moon's Mysterious Protector and official love interest. He's the only major male protagonist (aside from Artemis, who's a cat). Mamoru canonically fills the role of the conspicuously missing Sailor Earth.
    • Dr. Tomoe of Sailor Moon S essentially commands the Witches 5, as well as Kaolinite. In the anime, he turns out to also be possessed, and winds up the only survivor from the Death Busters.
  • Kyoutaro from Saki. He's the only guy in the Mahjong Club and, from what it seems, the only teenage male in the entire series, since most of the schools competing are all-girls, and the mahjong tournament is separated by gender. He's treated more like Yuki's errand boy if anything, especially since he's by far the weakest player in the club.
  • Invoked in Seitokai Yakuindomo, in which Takatoshi Tsuda was shanghaied into the Ousai Academy High School's Student Council "for a male perspective" in a school that's just turned co-ed. Justified as he belongs to the first male intake for a previously girls-only school, and the gender ratio is still extremely skewed towards the females.note 
  • Homura and Mutsu, from Sekirei, are this to their respective Battle Harems by virtue of males being exceptionally rare. Homura's case becomes a little more... complicated later on due to Gender Bender issues. Having been The One Guy and Only Sane Man for the first generation, Mutsu expresses his sympathy to Homura for having inherited that role.
  • Detective Edward from Tetragrammaton Labyrinth. Unsurprising as it is Yuri Genre.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew has Masaya Aoyama aka Ai no Kishi/Blue Knight
  • Akemiya from Whispered Words. He spends a chunk of his screen-time Disguised in Drag in order to attract his lesbian crush (which doesn't work).
  • Wedding Peach: Limone is the only male Love Angel. The anime shows there being more, but we don't see them due to the Law of Conservation of Detail.

    Comic Books 
  • Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man, is the only male chosen by the Fantastic Four to replace them in what's supposed to be a four-minute absence from Earth. He joins She-Hulk, Medusa and Johnny Storm's current girlfriend Darla Deering a.k.a. Ms Thing.
  • Hawk is the only guy in the 2010 relaunch of the historically all-female Birds of Prey. Obviously, it's because Hawk and Dove are a package deal and his bird motif certainly fits in otherwise. In the New 52 Birds of Prey series, Condor joins the originally all-female team in issue 16.
  • In Convergence, the Convergence: Justice League tie-in miniseries has Congorilla as the sole male in an otherwise all-female Justice League team, though he is kept out of the action and doesn't participate in the battle with Flashpoint Aquaman due to staying at home to look after Jesse Quick's infant son.
  • Ghostbusters (IDW Comics): Ron Alexander is the only male member of the replacement ghostbusters team after the original foursome are stranded in another dimension.
  • Harvey Quinn is the only male member of Harley Quinn's Gang of Harleys.
  • Chase Stein of Runaways was the only boy in the group for a short time. Non-powered (after he lost the fistigons); drove the Leapfrog; dated Gert, the girl with the dinosaur.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • During the Golden Age in Sensation Comics and her own title Diana usually worked with the Holliday Girls (especially Etta Candy), Paula von Gunther, other Amazons and Steve Trevor, making Steve the only male to actively participate on her missions as part of her team.
    • In the George Pérez relaunch of Wonder Woman, Hermes acts as this to Themyscira's patron deities (otherwise composed of Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hestia). While not directly involved with the original creation of the Amazons or the creation of Themyscira, he did lend invaluable help to the former, bless Wonder Woman with super-speed, and generally act as the only male Olympian with a shred of sympathy toward the Amazons.

    Fan Fiction 

    Film — Animation 

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Played straight in both film versions of The Beguiled, in which Corporal John McBurney is the only male character in a home occupied by all women.
  • Kevin Beckman in the Ghostbusters (2016) reboot fulfills this role, as the other four main characters are women.
  • Kill Bill: Budd is the only male member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad which was founded by his brother, Bill.
  • In Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton's character is the only stay-at-home dad in the social group of stay-at-home mothers.
  • In The Parent Trap (1998), at the girls' summer camp where the film begins, there is a single boy camper, sent by parents who somehow mistook the camp as a boys-only affair. While he's distraught at first, the other campers treat him as a sort of mascot and he ends up having a great time. (Truth in Television: Adult staff at overnight camps sometimes bring children who otherwise would not be allowed as campers, usually because they are too young; these "staff kids," who sleep in their parents' quarters, are often doted on by campers and integrated into group activities where possible. Presumably the boy was bunked with an appropriate staff member.)
  • The dragons in Reignof Fire all female, but only one dragon is actually male. Killing the single male dragon is the only way to permanently defeat all the other dragons.
  • Ten Little Mistresses: Variation, one of the ten "mistresses" is actually the nonbinary "fairy" Lady H, who is here on behalf of their sister, Valentin's actual mistress.

    Literature 
  • The Afterward: Ladros was the only man in the seven companions.
  • The Baby-Sitters Club has Logan, Mary-Anne's boyfriend. Later books would add Ducky in the California Diaries spinoff series.
  • In A Brother's Price, most men are the only brother in their family, due to male Gender Rarity Value. Jerin, who is lucky enough to have brothers, becomes the only guy when he is invited to a ball along with some of his sisters. He meets Cullen, who is the only guy in his whole family and is excited about getting to talk to another male.
  • The first series of Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic quartet has Briar Moss as the only dude. They even live with two foster mothers, with Niko visiting only occasionally.
  • In the Discworld book Monstrous Regiment, the lieutenant turns out to be the only man in the entire squad.
  • The Gunnery Officer on the ScreeWee ship in Only You Can Save Mankind. Since ScreeWee gender politics are exactly opposite to human ones, he's inclined to over-compensate.
  • Mark is the only boy in the family in the Edward Eager book Half Magic.
  • Damian in The House of Night.
  • The main premise of 19 Girls and Me, in which John Hercules Po is the only boy in his kindergarten class.
  • Book One of MARZENA has MLK, which is pretty much the last man on earth (until the later parts of the book where we finally start meeting more male characters).
  • In many Nancy Drew stories, Nancy's boyfriend Ned Nickerson counts compared to Nancy, Bess and George.
  • In the ninth Night World book, Galen is the only male member of Keller's team. He's supposed to be marrying Iliana, but ends up falling in love with Keller.
  • In Princess Holy Aura, Dex joins the all-girl Steampunk Adventure Club so he can roleplay again.
  • The Steerswoman: There are a total of three steersmen, one quite old, and it's said that's the record number of steersmen in the society's history. There's no ban against men joining, but men rarely settle for the life of a traveling scholar.
  • Xanthous from The Tale Of Magic is the only male at the academy... well, at first.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Army Wives: One of the "wives" was actually an Army husband, who was married to one of the wives in question; it was she who was in the military.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • The Scooby Gang's makeup became increasingly female starting with Season 5. After Spike left near the end of Season 6, Xander was temporarily the only male Scooby in Sunnydale (until Giles returned in the last episode). The male demographic increased in Season 7 with the return of Spike, but the arrival of the Potentials permanently shifted things towards the female side. Xander lampshades this in one episode when he says that the Magic Box is like "NORAD, and we're at DEFCON 1" and the room full of women just stare back at him, prompting him to sigh "I so need male friends."
    • Continued in Buffy Season 8, at which point Xander is pretty much the only guy in the gang — which now includes a whole bunch more women. (Plus Andrew and, albeit temporarily, Dracula of all people.)
  • Bosley in Charlie's Angels
  • Leo from Charmed (1998), sometimes (male police officers were sometimes prominent, and there was Cole whenever he was on the good side of the Heel–Face Revolving Door.)
  • A similar situation subplot of the Cold Case episode "The War At Home", regarding the murder of a female veteran. Her husband mentions that he often had trouble fitting in at the spousal support groups, as he was usually the only man present.
  • Derry Girls has James, who is at an all-girls' school. He is English and considering the climate in Northern Ireland at the time, the school department worried that he'd get pretty much murdered by the Derry boys if he went to the all-boys' school. As a result, he's the only boy in the otherwise all-female friend group which is the focus of the series.
  • Anthony Bouvier of Designing Women.
  • The premise of Last Man Standing is that Tim Allen's character struggles to maintain his masculinity in a house that is mostly women (the only other male being his grandson who is too young to partake in his hobbies).
  • In New Girl, Schmidt is this at his job. Rather than a dream job for him, though, his work is dismissed, he's sexually harassed by his superiors, and is treated as being inferior to all the women at his job. Not played for laughs all the time.
  • Allen Anderson of the regular kids on Punky Brewster. He left at the start of season 3 (and boy, did it break Punky's heart).
  • In Pushing Daisies, out of the main six characters, only two are male (although two of the women are missing from a fair few episodes).
  • In the short-lived mid-90's sitcom The Mommies, about the lives of stay-at-home mothers, one of the "mommies" was a House Husband.
  • In Smallville, interestingly, for some time in the middle seasons - after Lex and Clark's friendship turned sour - Clark becomes this between Chloe, Lois, and Lana. Makes the Beach Episode awkward.
  • As a first in Super Sentai history, Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger has 1 male Ranger and 2 female Rangers.
  • Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort. Subverted in the second season when Jim J. Bullock (Monroe Ficus) was promoted to series regular status.
  • V.I.P. has Quick.

    Music 
  • The current line-up of Visual Kei band Disacode comprises of the female singer and drummer Akira and Marcy with the sole male being bassist Shin. There used to be another male member of the band, Daichi, who joined along with Marcy and Shin in 2010 when original guitarist Satoshi left, but he has since left the band and his position has been occupied by two male guitarists Yanagi and Toshi, who are considered to be support members than official members, so the trope still applies.note 
  • The Breeders consists of twins Kim and Kelley Deal, bassist Josephine Wiggs, and the only male member, drummer Jim Macpherson.
  • The classic lineup of the Britpop band Elastica consisted of Justine Frischmann, Donna Matthews, and Annie Holland, with male drummer Justin Welch.
  • Pop rock band HAIM consists of sisters Alana, Danielle, and Este Haim, and their male friend Dash Hutton.
  • Alternative Rock band Throwing Muses had Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donnelly, Leslie Langston, and David Narcizo. The original plan was for Throwing Muses, but Narcizo was the only drummer they could find.
  • The Corrs consists of four siblings, Andrea (lead vocals, tin whistle, ukulele), Sharon (violin, keyboards, vocals), Caroline (drums, percussion, piano, bodhrán, vocals), and the only male member, Jim (guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals).
  • Australian experimental band Tropical Fuck Storm consists of three women—bassist Fiona Kitschin, guitarist/keyboardist Erica Dunn, and drummer Lauren Hammel—and one man, guitarist Gareth Liddiard. Notably, the band has no set-in-stone lead vocalist, with every member except Lauren taking lead on various songs.
  • Among the Character Vocal series of Crypton Future Media's Vocaloids, Len Kagamine is the only male among the group. It was double-subverted when they announced a new voicebank only known as "CV04" which was supposed to be a male voicebank, but no further news came concerning its development, leaving Len as the sole male again.
  • Kittie have been an all-girl metal band for almost their entire existence, except while promoting their second album, Oracle. After guitarist Fallon Bowman left the band, their guitar tech, Jeff Phillips, filled in for a while. He remains the only male to ever play for Kittie.

    Podcasts 
  • Jon inadvertently finds himself this during season 4 of The Magnus Archives. With Tim dead and Martin isolating himself from everyone else, the Archives end up consisting solely of Jon, Basira, Daisy, and Melanie for most of the season. Before Jon woke up from his coma and Martin started working for Peter Lukas, Martin was this for a little bit.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The WWWA began as an all women's promotion but when it introduced midget divisions, most of those who competed in them ended up being men, resulting in an odd guy sometimes being on a card to represent it even when no midget championship matches actually took place. This carried over to All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling when it took the WWWA titles, with Mr. Buddhaman ending up as the one guy in a few different Joshi feds
  • During WWE's "Attitude Era", the stable Pretty Mean Sisters (Jacqueline, Terri Runnels, and Ryan Shamrock) had "Meat" (aka Sean Stasiak), who was passive and obedient to all three, and heavily implied to be their sex slave.
  • When Marvelous Puroresu came to the USA in 2015, the three wrestlers it chose to represent the country were Renee Michelle, Davienne and Lio Rush. However, it was later decided they weren't ready for a man's division, so only the women ended up going back to Japan with Chigusa Nagayo.
  • Not being ready for a men's division didn't stop Zero 1 wrestler Pandita Nuevo from invading Marvelous, often helping W-Fix wreak havok on shows where he is the only male presence.
  • During the massive NWA Vendetta Pro hosted crossover, Casino Royal 2014, the Canada vs USA match saw Shannon Ballard as the one guy on Team Canada  and Short Sleeve Sampson, who some may know better as little Boogeyman, as the one guy on Team USA 
  • Most nominally all female wrestling promotions have had at least one guy compete in their rings, such as Whipme Spearz in the PGWA and GLORY, Masa Takanashi in Ice Ribbon, TAKA Michinoku in REINA, Rick Cataldo in WSU, Mulato in LLF and El Demasiado in LIF. Bad Boys Of Wrestling, despite not being an all women's organization, ran an angle about this phenomenon, where two guys came into BBOW to attack the women's tag team champions Candie and Alexis Laree after running out of women's promotions to invade.
  • Cute Kip, the only male member of TNA's The Beautiful People
  • When Vickie Guerrero formed an alliance with LayCool, her boyfriend Dolph Ziggler became the one guy of the pseudo-stable.
  • WWE's "Santina Marella" during the "Miss Wrestlemania 25" match.

    Tabletop Game 
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's The Smurfette Principle trope that is more common, but:
    • there's this Moe group of monsters known as "Charmers" that consists mostly of cute teenage witchy girls with cute Familiar sidekicks. The only member that is widely agreed to be male is "Dharc the Dark Charmer", as he's the only one to be referred to with masculine titles in the German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish versions. For some reason (perhaps to keep the names consistent for gameplay's sake), the French version makes him a she. He has the same "Charmer" title just like his female comrades in the English version.
    • Likewise, there are only two males in the "Aromage" archetype: Bergamot and Laurel.

    Theater 
  • The show Love in Hate Nation centers around an almost completely female cast, the only exception being one male actor that plays four roles (all of them very small in comparison to the female parts and one that never even comes on stage).
  • Nathaniel is the third member of and the only man on the team in the Mrs. Hawking play series.

    Toys 
  • Ken is the only recurring male doll in the Barbie franchise.
  • The Ty Girlz series of plush ragdolls by the creators of Beanie Babies has Totally Troy act as the only "Ty Boy" in the entire toyline.
  • Bryant is the only boy character in the WellieWishers line; he was added (much like boy dolls in the parent American Girl line) to allow young boys to have a character to relate to in the otherwise female-focused line.

    Video Games 
  • Fate/Grand Order:
    • Ashiya Douman was the only male Alter Ego Servant until 2022, when Taisui Xingjun was added.
    • Voyager is the only male Foreigner Servant.
    • Oberon is the first Pretender class Servant. As of February 2023, four more Servants have been added to the class, all of whom are female.
  • In Final Fantasy V Bartz becomes this after Galuf performs a Heroic Sacrifice and his daughter Krile replaces him in the party, since Lenna and Faris, the other two members, are both female.
  • Keiichi Maebara from Higurashi: When They Cry is the only guy in the main cast. Keiichi is the Decoy Protagonist for Rika.
  • Galaxy Angel II: Kazuya Shiranami, sort of. He's not the first male in a group of women in the Galaxy Angel franchise, but he is the first male to officially be declared an "Angel," since he takes a much more active role in battles than Tact ever did (Tact gave orders from the Elsior; Kazuya gives orders but also directly latches onto an Emblem Frame to power it up).
  • Genshin Impact features more female than male playable characters generally, but each Elemental Vision still has at least two men associated with it. For two years (from 2020 to 2022, when Cyno was added), the sole exception was Electro; during that time, Razor was the only male Electro character in the game.
  • Hiveswap's Lanque is a Transgender boy in the almost invariably female jadeblood caste.
  • The King of Fighters:
    • The King of Fighters 2001: K9999 is the only male member of the NESTS Team consisting of Kula, Ángel, Foxy and himself. He continues to be the lone male in vanilla 2002 and, as Krohnen, XV.
    • The King of Fighters XI: Eiji Kisaragi is the sole male of the Anti-Kyokugenryu Team, as both of his teammates, Kasumi Todoh and Malin, are girls. Similarly, Ramón is the only male of the Agent Team consisting of himself, Vanessa and Blue Mary.
    • The King of Fighters XIV: With Sylvie and Mian both being girls, Kukri is the only male member of the Official Invitation Team.
    • The King of Fighters XV: Heidern is the only male member of the Rival Team, with the female Isla and Dolores being his teammates. In addition, Haohmaru is the only man in the Samurai Team, as both Nakoruru and Darli are girls. And the aforementioned K9999 returns as Krohnen, once again being the lone male member of his team.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is the only male Gerudo of the era. Only one male is born to the Gerudo every one hundred years and is named king as a birthright. But being the one dude in a race of super hot desert babes who worship him as king wasn't enough for Ganondorf, and he extends his dominance across Hyrule.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Rito children seem to be universally girls, with the exception of Tulin, the son of Teba. Unlike with the Gerudo, this seems to be the result of Law of Conservation of Detail combined with coincidence, considering the adults exhibit a more typical gender ratio.
  • In Mass Effect it is possible to make Kaiden the only male squadmate, if you make Shepard female and don't recruit Garrus and Wrex, leaving Shepard, Tali, Ashley, and Liara, and if Kaiden is left to die afterwards on Virmire then Joker becomes the only important male character on the Normandy. Not possible with Mass Effect 2 what with there being twelve potential squad members, but in Mass Effect 3 it's easy for James to be the only male on the squad.
  • Megadimension Neptunia VII has finally the first playable male character for the Neptunia franchise, though as a DLC character only. This character is Umio. The twist? He is a fish who swims through air and attacks like a Pokémon
  • In Miku Monogatari: Yume to Taisetsu na Mono, Len is the ony male among the cast. He's especially good for boss fights, as his normal attack deals the most damage.
  • In NieR: Automata, the YoRHa androids of which the protagonist 2B is part of is composed of female androids and a 9S, a male android. He's one of the few Scanner units, the only male model that's still in commission.
  • In Night Trap, Danny is the only male guest in the weekend slumber party consisting of the otherwise five teenage girls. Justified in that he's Lisa's kid brother, whose mother made Lisa take him along for the party at the Martins. This is even more so in the 25th Anniversary Edition when he has to be protected from the Augers just like every other guest (although no one even mentioned that he also has to be saved from the Augs in the first place).
  • Emon Five, one of the selectable heroes in Otomedius, is literally the only male shown in the entire game. The other characters on the team don't seem to know why he's even there.
  • Pokémon:
    • In Pokémon Conquest, several of the post-game scenarios use a "beauty contest" plot that's limited to female Warriors... and Ranmaru, because he's easily mistaken for female.
    • In Pokémon X and Y, Xerosic is the only male of Team Flare's five administrators (not counting Lysandre, who runs the syndicate itself).
    • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: If the player chooses to play as Juliana then Arven becomes this to the team that goes to investigate Area Zero during the final storyline. The other characters that go are Nemona and Penny, both of whom are female. If the player chooses Florian the party becomes a Gender-Equal Ensemble instead.
  • The Sakura Wars series has the Player Character being the only male member of a team of demon-fighting mecha pilots. Justified in-universe as it's stated that usually, only females have enough spiritual power to pilot said mechas.
  • Murasame of Senran Kagura is the only playable male character of the series so far. He's also the resident Joke Character of the series.
  • In Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Dietrich can easily become this if you're playing a female decker, as doing so renders the other male party member, Blitz, both redundant and optional.
  • SIGNALIS: ADLR/Adler is the only male Replika model line, and only one Adler is present during the events of the game, making him the only male character period.
  • In Silent Hill 2, main boss Pyramid Head is the only outwardly masculine monster in a horde of otherwise effeminate Humanoid Abominations, which he repeatedly brutalizes. This is probably because Pyramid Head is the only one meant to reflect James Sunderland and his actions, instead of representing his victim/wife.
  • Big Band of Skullgirls is the first male character of the cast as DLC. Played with, in that the pre-match intro cards show the phrase "Ladies and Gentlemen(?)". Subverted once Beowulf joined as a second man, but even then they are heavily outnumbered.
  • Depending on the gender, the New Squidbeak Splatoon from Splatoon can effectively be this. The members are Cap'n Cuttlefish, his two granddaughters Callie and Marie, and the playable characters across the various single-player campaigns. As such, depending on what you choose for your player across each game, Cap'n Cuttlefish can be the only male.
  • "Miss X" in SNK Gals Fighters, who's really just Iori Yagami in Incredibly Conspicuous Drag.
    • SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy gives Terry the same treatment, but unlike Iori, he is magically transformed into a girl. A pretty girl at that. And no, he's not happy about it. The game also put Miss X as a DLC character, who has both a genderbent and crossdressing form.
  • David is the only man among the four main characters of Telling Lies.
  • Touhou has such a powerful Improbably Female Cast that even these guys are marginalized. With over 120 named characters, the only known males in Gensokyo aside from briefly-mentioned background characters are Genji (Reimu's former assistant, is a flying turtle, hasn't been seen since the PC-98 games), Unzan (Ichirin's assistant, doesn't have a single line, is an angry pink cloud), and Rinnosuke (only appears in one Expanded Universe manga). Word of God is that there are plenty of males, it's just that most of them don't fight so the player doesn't see them. Hopeless Masquerade supports this, as a bunch of nameless human men can be seen in crowd shots watching the fights.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: When it comes to the three members of the main team of Agnes, Taion is the only guy, even when Manana and Miyabi are also taken into account. Ironically, when it comes to Keves, Eunie is the only girl in the group. This is just one of the things that connects Taion and Eunie together.

    Visual Novels 
  • Daughter for Dessert:
    • The protagonist is the only man who regularly works in the diner.
    • Subverted with Saul while the protagonist and Amanda are on the trip to Whiskeyville. Kathy stops showing up to work during the trip, and Heidi temporarily hires Blake to replace her.
  • When the protagonist of Melody puts a band together for the title character, Liam is the only male included.
  • Princess Evangile is about a working class student named Masaya Okonogi ending up in a One-Gender School slash Elaborate University High as its first and so far only male student. With every other main and supporting character being female, this is pretty much a given.
  • Highway Blossoms is a Yuri Genre visual novel with five main characters — Amber and Marina (the main couple) and "the Trio." The latter group consists of the Pastorius sisters — Mariah and Tess — as well as their mutual friend Joe, who's the only significant male character who's still alive at the start of the game.

    Webcomics 
  • Amazoness is set in the mythical Amazon city of Themiskyra, where men are not allowed to set foot. The only men who have shown up so far are nameless mooks who exist only to be killed by the Amazons in battle. Then there is the matter of Eutropia who is biologically male but psychologically female, the only "male" in the group.
  • Ayuri: Nilje is the only male in the ship's 7-person crew.
  • Cursed Princess Club: Prince Saffron, a prince who is in the club because he has a mostly malevolent cursed hand that sometimes lashes out violently and sometimes just likes to mess with him. He desperately wishes that more men would join the club, or at least that President Calpernia would change the club name.
  • A Justified Trope in Little Nuns, which is set in a convent. As such, the only male character who plays a major role is Father, a priest attached to the convent. (The only other male character to be more than a one-shot is the father of the Froggy Nun.)
  • J.C. Summerfield from Paranormal Mystery Squad.

    Web Original 
  • Chain of Hearts had a storyline, "The Watchers", where The title organization has about nine members, and only one of them is male. He's the second-in-command and is often teased by the female members for being the only guy. But this is probably the author's subversion and attempted attack on The Smurfette Principle. It seems to go against the themes of previous arcs, but "The Watcher" arc is written by a different author (the other arcs alternate between three other guys). Oddly, the author behind "The Watcher" arc has a tendency to make fun of the other three authors by writing characters that are presented as male at first but turn out later to be female...
  • Noob shows the Girl-Show Ghetto TV channel for which Omega Zell works in real life to have many female employees in the comic and has him complain about being surrounded by many women at work in the web series. The novel reveals he really is the only male employee of the place (long story short, the boss thought his real life Gender-Blender Name would somehow make him fit in perfectly).
  • Whateley Universe has Lancer, the only apparent guy in Team Kimba; however, there are plenty of recurring male characters outside Team Kimba. Phase is another guy on Team Kimba, but most people wouldn't know that looking at him, due to his mutation turning him into an intersexed hot chick physically. He gets almost as much pronoun confusion as the J-Team out of it.

    Western Animation 
  • The Blinkins had Baby Twinkle, the only boy out of the entire cast.
  • Jasper from Butterbean's Cafe is the only boy working at the titular café.
  • Dragons: The Nine Realms has Philip Baker, chief of security at Project I.C.A.R.I.S. and both the only one present at Project I.C.A.R.I.S who is a father of a member of the Dragon Club as well as the only male in the project's management team.
  • Dora's Explorer Girls: Pablo is the only boy in Dora's group of friends.
  • Larry is this in The Newmans, a Rule 63 counterpart to the titular Grojband itself. This also makes him a contrast to Grojband's only girl Laney.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: In the episode "Boys in the Band", the audience at Chip Skylark's concert is made up entirelly of women; Mr. Turner was the only fan who was male. This was lampshaded a few times.
  • In Hilda, David is the sole male in his group with Hilda and Frida.
  • The Loud House:
    • Despite the theme song providing the page quote, Lincoln Loud is the show's protagonist and thus technically isn't this trope.
    • Among his sister Leni's friend group, the only guy is Miguel.
    • Among his sister Luna's band, the Moon Goats, Sulley is the only male member.
  • Molly of Denali: While Tooey isn't the only guy in the show, he's the only one in his friendship group; Molly and Trini are both girls.
  • My Little Pony:
    • My Little Pony 'n Friends has Spike, at least until Megan's brother Danny comes along.
      • In Moon Dreamers, another cartoon based on a toy franchise, Bucky Buckaroo was the only boy in the main cast.
    • My Little Pony (G3) literally only has one male, and he's not even a pony. Spike the dragon is the sole male character. No stallions or colts were ever created for G3.
    • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has another dragon named Spike, being Twilight's assistant and surrogate younger brother figure. He serves to represent the male fans of the show. He does have a fair share of episodes focusing on him (especially since he's the most prominent non-pony character). Other recurring figures do appear, like Applejack's brother Big McIntosh and even Reformed Villain and Mad God Discord. Heck, the three eventually play Ogres and Oubliettes (MLP's version of DnD) together in an episode.
    • My Little Pony: A New Generation has Hitch Trailblazer, The Sheriff of Maretime Bay and the only male character in its main cast.
  • Pinkalicious & Peterrific: Not including Peter, Rafael is the only male in Pinkalicious' friend group, with the others being Jasmine, Pinkalicious, Lila, and (sometimes) Kendra.
  • Rick in Polly Pocket is the only boy among Polly's closest friends.
  • In Pound Puppies (2010), Patches is the only boy in the Super Secret Pup Squad, which he is The Leader of.
  • Ready Jet Go!: While Mitchell isn't the only guy in the show, he's the only male in his friendship group with Mindy and Lillian, both of whom are girls.
  • She-Ra: Princess of Power has archer and Master of Illusion Bow. Bow is one of the only recurring non-villain male characters, aside from He-Man's frequent cameos. The vast majority of enslaved townspeople the Rebellion rescues are male, as are the Sea Hawk and his crew. There is also the cowardly dragon named Sorrowful and the little magical creature named Loo-Kee are male and recurring members of the Rebellion. Kowl and Light Hope are male and significant enough to be mentioned in the opening narration, but neither of them is human nor even remotely likely to be a Love Interest to anyone. And let's not forget Broom.
  • Most of the main characters in Star vs. the Forces of Evil are girls, but Marco is the deuteragonist, being the best friend of Star and her guide on Earth. In "Sleepover" he was literally the only guy. This leads to Marco having Ship Tease with nearly every girl in the entire show.
    • He used to have male friends in the first season, but they were faded out and the writers weren't too fond of having been forced to include them.
    • Tom Lucitor (Star's ex and later Marco's closest guy friend) does become more prominent and there are other figures such as Star's dad.
  • The title character in Steven Universe is the only male among the Crystal Gems, a completely female-appearing species. Justified because he is half human.
  • Huckleberry Pie from Strawberry Shortcake.
  • Total Drama:
  • Vampirina: Within Vee's circle of friends, she only has Edgar. Poppy and Bridget are both girls.
  • Caleb of W.I.T.C.H.: The Sixth Ranger, Badass Normal love interest for Cornelia — and in the comics, for Queen Elyon. Matt takes over this role in season 2 after Caleb sort of gets Demoted to Extra.
  • So far, the Enchantimals toyline has introduced three male characters: Hixby Hedgehog, Redward Rooster and Patterson Penguin. However, Patterson Penguin is the only one of them who has appeared in the one of the animated specials, called "Secrets of Snowy Valley".

    Real Life 
  • If a heterosexual couple only has daughters, the man in the relationship becomes this to his immediate nuclear family.
  • Originally, CLAMP was a circle of 10 doujinshi artists, one of whom was a guy.
  • Gauthier Destenay, First Gentleman of Luxembourg, is the husband of the world's first openly gay head of state, Xavier Bettel. While first gentlemen typically don't seek out the spotlight, Destenay famously has no qualms joining other spouses during international events, even if that makes him the only man in the picture.
  • Very common in female-dominated professions like nursing, elementary school teaching, veterinary medicinenote , and so on, where there could very well be only one man in the entire workplace.
  • Marie Curie had only one brother, Józef (born 1863), the rest of her siblings were sisters, Zofia (born 1862), Bronisława (born 1865) and Helena (born 1866).
  • Most lion prides usually have only one male among a large number of females (excluding cubs)

Alternative Title(s): Token Guy, Token Boy

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