Characters who never seem to lose their optimism regardless of whatever hardships they face in Visual Novels.
- Ace Attorney:
- Maya Fey rules this trope. Her mother disappeared when she was very young because the murder case she was called in for to channel the victim didn't go in the way of public opinion, and it disgraced their clan so badly that she left in an effort to keep the negative attention off of her daughters. As a teenager, she's framed for her sister's murder. She's kidnapped, starved, and held for ransom, her life being used as a bargaining chip so Phoenix will be compelled to get a guilty man off the hook in court. Her aunt tries to frame her for murder on two seperate occasions so she'll be executed and leave a power vacuum in the clan for her younger sister Pearl to take. Her cousin Dahlia Hawthorne both possesses her and tries to kill her in the second murder plot by her aunt, and to top it all off, her mother is killed while trying to protect her from the murder plot — and if that's not bad enough, Maya didn't even recognize her during the few hours in which they spoke, because she hadn't seen her so long and her mother was using a pseudonym. And yet, despite everything, she does her damnedest to keep a smile on her face and crack a joke when she can. After all's said and done in the final case of the third game, after Maya has been through absolute physical and emotional hell, Franziska just marvels at her optimism and wonders aloud how she manages to stay so strong.
- Kay Faraday, seeing as her childhood friends Edgeworth and Gumshoe at first don't remember her, her dad was murdered when she was young, leaving her an orphan, and Calisto Yew turned her father's proud secret legacy into nothing more than a murderer and thief. Sure, she gets upset, but she always bounces back.
- As for Pearl Fey, let's see... Her dad left her when she was tiny, and in a span of less than ten years one of her cousins dies, the other is framed for murder twice and kidnapped once, her mother is sent to prison for framing said other cousin, she meets her favourite author who turns out to be her long-lost aunt, who then dies, she finds out she has two older sisters, one who's an evil, murdering spirit with no love for her and one who is suspected of killing her aunt and is later sent to prison for her part for covering up a murder. Despite all that, Pearl still remains an optimist with a belief in fairy tale endings, though she is quite emotional and open about her distress.
- Regina Berry leads an incredibly sheltered life in a traveling circus, innocently sets up a prank that goes horribly wrong, causing her friend Bat to fall into a coma which he'll most likely never wake up from and rendering his brother Acro wheelchair-bound for life, which leads directly to the death of her father. And yet she still doesn't fully understand her situation until Moe takes her to watch Max's trial and forces her to realize the consequences of her actions.
- Maggey Byrde has, in her own words, suffered every kind of accident, caught all sorts of illnesses, failed nearly every exam she's ever taken, and been framed for murder thrice, each time losing her job. Still cheery, though.
- Trucy Wright has, by age 15, lost both parents, had to share with her adoptive father the responsibilities of running a talent agency, and found out her biological father died and was partially responsible for ruining Phoenix's career. Of course, she's a Genki Girl. Although Trucy might be closer to a far less drastic version of a Stepford Smiler since Phoenix reveals that her Pollyanna persona is, in some ways, just a front.Phoenix: Because I'm the only one who knows how she really feels... on the inside.
- Ambassador Colias Palaeno is somewhere between the drama and comedic versions. While his near-constant grin may be fake, he is a genuinely good Nice Guy who happens to have an amazing tolerance for stress (of which he goes through a lot during the case he appears in).
- Athena Cykes continues the tradition, having repressed the awful memory of her mother's death and her own possible involvement, using the tragedy to motivate her to exonerate the person who took the fall in her place. She puts up a strong front of an outgoing girl with a lot of energy and enthusiasm to mask her internal problems. Even at her darkest hour, being led into custody, she insists on sending her congratulations to the person she was replacing (whom she had helped defend in court), even though he says her eyes were still puffy and red from crying on the bus ride over.
- Air's Kamio Misuzu. The girl knows that if she ever makes any friends they're both going to get sick and possibly die, and yet all she wants to do with her summer is play with a stranger at the beach. It's not that she knows such bad things will happen, it's more like she just can't seem to connect with others because her optimism and personality are just so...odd.
- CLANNAD:
- Nagisa. She finds a very small and old apartment with almost no furniture "a very nice place".
- Yukine also fits, seeing the good in disreputable gang members and becoming something of a Morality Pet for a good percentage of the town's criminal population.
- Despite her circumstances, Ushio (the daughter of Tomoya and Nagisa) mostly remains upbeat, optimistic, and affectionate, although she does naturally cave in when things become dead serious. Even in near-death, she is still determined to have some fun one more time.
- Danganronpa:
- Makoto Naegi sees his exceptional optimism as his one redeeming trait. And with all the crap he goes through, the fact that he still has it is amazing enough. He's been trapped in a situation specifically meant to break his spirit, had a potential love interest betray him, been framed for murder twice, nearly murdered multiple times, nearly executed, dropped in a garbage dump, nearly trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine, been tried for treason, and stuck in yet another killing game. And throughout it all, he maintains a steadfast faith in people and a belief that things can be made better. This makes him the perfect counter to Junko Enoshima; no matter how much she tells him his situation is hopeless or what Awful Truth she dumps on him, she can't break him. Even when all his classmates are about to cross the Despair Event Horizon after learning about the apocalypse that happened while they were trapped in school, Makoto remains firm and convinces them that they can handle whatever's out there.
- Aoi Asahina is a sweet and bubbly girl who's second only to Naegi in terms of optimism, and bounds ahead of him in terms of enthusiasm. She takes any chance to do what she loves (sports, mostly), and trusts deeply in her friends, to the point where she and Makoto are the only ones to stand by Sakura after she's revealed as The Mole. Her optimism does have limits, as seen when she thinks Sakura killed herself out of despair and when the Awful Truth of the outside world is revealed, but she only needs a little encouragement to steady her resolve and return to her kindhearted self.
- Fate/stay night: Emiya Shirou has had a rough life: He lost everything he held dear in a giant fire caused by the destruction of the Grail and was only barely saved by Emiya Kiritsugu who adopts him... and then dies 5 years later due the curse of the Holy Grail, having to live alone as a 13-year old with no friends or family, with only a guardian in the form of Fujimura Taiga, who doesn´t even live in his house. Despite that, he´s always friendly to anyone he meets.
- Ceren from The House in Fata Morgana's fandisk is a case of this but the cause of it is revealed to be a form of mental illness.
- Hershey in Illusionary Trauma is full of this. An attempt at deconstructing this was made by his inverted self showing him the corpses of his friends, though Hershey managed to hold it together because Kei was still barely alive when they escaped.
- Ayu Tsukimiya in Kanon.
- Komari and Kud from Little Busters!. Komari's route was something of a Deconstruction, revealing the darker side to her idealism and involving a happy conclusion that she was now able to accept that sometimes bad things happen, but Kud was able to go through her entire route holding on to the belief that there are no bad people in the world, even while she was being chained up as a human sacrifice.
- Sayaka in Suika, who is hated by virtually everyone in town for being too perceptive. Mie is horrified at how people normally treat her when they become friends because Sayaka is way nicer than everyone thinks.
- Tanomura from Swan Song is another male example. He acknowledges when a situation goes south and reacts accordingly, but expect him to be cheerful in every other situation you encounter him in.
- Shiki Tohno from Tsukihime had his family slaughtered (although he doesn't remember this) and survived a fatal accident. He then started seeing lines everywhere and if touches them, he will destroy whatever object that line is on. He was about to go insane until he met Aoko who helped him cope with his problem. Because of that, he appreciates life more. Enough that the one thing he will not tolerate are monsters that take lives from others.
- Maria from Umineko: When They Cry. She's constantly abused by her mother who essentially wishes she was never born and thinks having a child stands in the way of her finding romance and living a happy life, and feels that her 'creepy' hobbies are an embarrassment and reflect on her poorly as a parent. Couple this with being constantly bullied by her classmates and looked down on by teachers and it's no wonder why she retreats into a magical world where she's surrounded by friends and happiness. Even when she watches her various relatives, in some cases including her mother, get brutally murdered right in front of her, she remains (albeit creepily) optimistic because she's friends with the Golden Witch supposedly committing these murders, and has been promised that even in death she'll be brought to the prosperous Golden Land, and even find a version of her mother who loves her unconditionally and always has time for her waiting there. Once you realize this and go back to the older story arcs, Maria's status as the resident Creepy Child lessens as it becomes apparent that this occult interest is the only thing keeping her from breaking down entirely from how horrible her life is.
