< Butt Monkey

Butt Monkey/Anime and Manga

  • Chitose & her rival Yurika from Goldfish Warning; every episode, several times an episode. It would be the whole premise of the show if Wapiko didn't share the spotlight.
  • Boss from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger: He helps the heroes to save the world, risking his life on a daily basis. What does he gets in return? He gets constantly mocked, ridiculed and berated by everyone -and beaten by Robeasts-, and he is treated like a joke or even a nuisance. He is given absolutely NO respect.
  • Nanako Shichigusa from Amazing Nurse Nanako.
  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion Shinji Ikari is constantly bullied and ignored (even by his father), even though he saves the world. Multiple times. And in the more light-hearted Sitcom scenes in the first half of the series, guess who is the butt of every humiliating joke? Imagine Charlie Brown with a giant robot.
    • That gimmick was still pretty funny for a while... until it turned into all kinds of horrifying and disturbing, though some people say it was still funny, even then.
    • To be fair, Misato Katsuragi has her Butt Monkey moments, too. Mainly when she's on the receiving end of Ristuko or Shinji's snarky remarks.
  • Nearly the entire Fourth Division (the Captain is the only one who is spared, because the bullies are afraid of her) from Bleach, especially Hanataro Yamada, are frequently looked down upon by the Eleventh Division and are given grunt duties because their specialty is healing, not fighting. P.S. Guess who he's voiced by?
    • Sharing Hanataro's birthday and bad luck (April 1) is Ichigo's friend Keigo Asano. Despite his attempts to socialize and be friendly (though admittedly annoying), he is constantly abused, beaten up, or ignored by everyone ranging from Ikkaku to his friend Mizuiro. He is also constantly dragged into unfavorable situations; Ikkaku blackmailed him into letting him stay at his house, and his violent sister forces him to let him stay.
      • Though recent manga events, including his being the first to regain consciousness in Karakura Town, his ability to withstand Aizen's reiatsu without being paralyzed, AND his ability to just pick up someone's zanpakutou and apparently be able to use the thing may be pushing him towards Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass territory.
    • Among the Espada, Yammy. In all his fights with the good guys, he has made a fool of himself. To be fair, the two first times he ended up fighting Urahara Kiskue, and when Uryu attacked him he was prepared, but still.
    • 7th Division Lieutenant Tetsuzaemon Iba gets this quite a bit in the omakes, especially as president of the Shinigami Men's association, which ends up being pushed around and often having its funding cut. He also gets treated somewhat poorly in the potentially last battle, where he ends up running from Poww until Komamura saves him, and then tries to attack Allon, but is blown away by a Cero in a matter of seconds.
    • All of them pales in comparison of the Butt Monkey-ness of Omaeda Marechiyo, Vice Captain of the 2nd squad. Aside of being abused in daily by Soi Fon, he had the honor of being taken out in one punch by Ichigo. Then in the Arrancar invasion arc, he finally did a Crowning Moment of Awesome... only to negate it by reverting into his Upper Class Twit self and the Fraccion he just beat comes back ready to kick his ass and ends up dead by a thrown rock, not by his power. Then he ran off in full fear when Barragan chases him (it's justified, though). Then in the Zanpakutou Tales filler, he didn't get to beat his Zanpakutou Gegetsuburi, Ichigo defeated him first, and then Ikkaku, a third seat officer, belittles him "It's Omaeda. Who cares about him." And then, Mayuri bissects and presumably destroyed Gegetsuburi, but since it's Ichigo who beats him, it doesn't return to Omaeda, now leaving him presumably without Zanpakutou.
      • And now, in the newest filler arc involving copies of the shinigami, after seeing identical (if a little crazy) copies we see....someone new. Turns out he's Omaeda's copy who refused to look like Omaeda, explaining exactly why. The real Ikkaku and Yumichika laugh uncontrollably, agreeing completely.
    • Arisawa Tatsuki. Virtually every single time she has a close encounter with a spiritual being, she is either a) injured severely, b) being crushed by the person's reiatsu, or c) worse. Numb Chandelier and Tsukishima provide an example of c).
  • Keitarō from Love Hina; if it is bad, it happens to him, or he is blamed for it. The worst is almost always thought of him, no matter what he does. With violent results. He gets Character Development, and becomes lusted over by the other women once he starts behaving more competently.
    • This is Lampshaded later in the manga when Keitarō suggests he has some kind of resistance to injury. He tells Naru (after they have fallen off a cliff) that it would be dangerous for Naru to fall but he would have no problem with it.
      • Being around and eventually in love with Keitarō seems to bring out Naru's inner Butt Monkey, and if she is not a victim of his being an Accidental Pervert, then she is a victim of her friends' dubious efforts to "help" the would-be couple. This may also apply to Shinobu, whose own efforts to win Keitarō may have "infected" her. Almost any time she takes the other girls' advice to win their "game", she suffers some mishap, triply so if this help comes from Kaolla Su.
  • Haré from Haré+ Guu mostly due to Guu.
  • Manabu Kuchiki from Genshiken; when he joins the Genshiken, he becomes the frequent recipient of Saki's violence, once simply for being there. The others have him do grunt work at Comifest, leading to him going a entire day buying their doujinshi without food or water. However, unlike most Butt Monkeys, he entirely deserves it, knows that, and accepts it all without complaint. In fact, he seems to like it; early on, he cheerfully declares himself to be a "shameless servant", and his masochistic streak causes him to smile whenever the Genshiken mistreat him. Except when they tied him to a lamp in volume 7 of the manga to keep him from peeping on the girls' bathing. Then he complained... for about ten seconds. And it was mostly acting.
    • He's also highly self-sabotaging; the one time he was shown to be underneath a fairly decent human being, managing to stop a thief from stealing from their stall, his reaction to the Not What It Looks Like that inevitably followed was to... wear the dress. In the middle of the crowded university. And scare off potential members.
    • To be fair, Kuchiki is a complete and utter tool, all the time. Considering how likeable and "well-adjusted" Kio Shimoku makes the rest of the uber-geek Genshiken members, Kuchiki's behaviour is not only annoying, but embarrassing. Despite the Genshiken members acknowledging his creepy behaviour, they still include him as a form of loyalty.
  • Every diclonius and even some humans suffer extreme Butt Monkey effects on the anime Elfen Lied.
    • But nobody does it better than our Nana, though Manga-version Yuka is competitive, often placing herself in ecchi situations, to the point she even stops hitting Kouta for them. Even a primal Tsundere can hit this point, it seems.
  • The title character of the anime Naruto is the resident Butt Monkey at the beginning of the series.
  • Taniguchi (to a minor extent) in Haruhi Suzumiya. In Haruhi-chan It Got Worse. And let's just say it is not good to be the Computer Club president, unless you enjoy flying kicks to the head (and hey, some do).
  • Taniguchi's voice actor Shiraishi "Sebastian" Minoru in Lucky Star.
    • Don't forget Tsukasa from the main part of the show.
  • Yoki from the original manga version of Fullmetal Alchemist is fired soon after he appears after Ed tricked him into selling the coal mines he was in charge of. After he sells out the Ishvalans, they force him to become Scar's slave, he gets attacked by a midget panda, and everyone thinks he's worthless (he is). Envy soon learns that he can't even use him as a hostage as the rest of the cast just say their goodbyes to him (they were bluffing). Of course he totally deserves it as he's an obnoxious loser.
    • Vato Falman also qualifies. First he gets assigned the task of keeping an eye on Barry, which means he's stuck in his quarters with a crazy armored serial killer. His only contact with the outside seems to be Havoc, who just boasts about his new girlfriend. When he's transferred to Northern Headquarters, he does indeed get a promotion, but he has to constantly remind Ed and Al about it, and despite it his whole job seems to be picking ice off the ceiling. And believe it or not, readers who wanted to figure out who Pride was had guessed him. But in fact, Pride has a connection with Selim Bradley instead.
    • Havok gets his far share of suffering. The fore-mentioned girlfriend actually paralyzed him from the waist down and Roy had to burn his wounds to keep him from bleeding to death. I'm pretty sure that was the end of that relationship.
    • How many times has Winry had to build a replacement for Ed's right arm again? Honestly, I'll bet that once he gets his real arm back he'll lose it in five minutes.
      • If you go by the first anime, he does. Actually it's more like 2 minutes.
        • He has it back in the Manga now, and he is doing serious asskicking with it. Still, given his track record of damage to that arm, it's bound to get cut off or paralyzed in the future. Unless his flesh and bone are more durable that steel.
      • To be fair, part of the reason he's so reckless with it is because he knows that it can be repaired if anything happens to it, and it's not always his fault when it breaks.
  • Kawachi from Yakitate!! Japan. Though in the beginning he was a bit of a Jerkass, the series soon began abusing him seemingly for the hell of it. If there was something painful or humiliating happening, it happened to Kawachi. The people that were supposed to be his friends and supporters without fail insulted, dismissed, and derided him behind his back, or sometimes to his face. One entire plot point was even dedicated to him having to be a complete screwup on purpose... after which the characterization was apparently absorbed utterly and his Flanderization was complete.
    • Don't forget Kageto, who is ignored by everyone in the series, despite keeping the store going while everyone jaunts off to the next Tournament Arc.
      • Kageto practically defines this trope. He is so full of suck that he actually gets Yukino, the show's psychopathic Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, to pity him.
  • Sunohara Youhei of Clannad. Even his cute little sister treats him poorly.

Tomoyo: You really are useful for gags.

Tomoyo: You exist for that.

    • He gets redeemed a bit in the After Story when his little sister worried about his future—only to be smacked down hard in the following episodes. Literally.
  • Yamcha from Dragon Ball Z is one of the most extreme examples. He died from a single Saibaman. From then on Yamcha suffers permanent Can't Catch Up, loses his girlfriend of 15 years to the biggest jerk(who was responsible for Yamcha's saibaman death) in their entire circle of acquaintances as the plot demanded another Saiyan baby., almost entirely stops training, and essentially pretty much all but gives up on life. At this point Yamcha, however, almost might as well cease to be. Except, that is, at the moment he does finally decide to do something helpful, he's the first to instantly suffer a near-fatal Dr. Gero salute through the chest. From this point on in the series, if he's ever shown, he's often commenting on the situation or lamenting about his life, having self-admitted later on to have completely given up ever trying to ever even spar again. Even his True Companions aren't really shown to be empathetic to him by this point in the series.
    • Even in Dragon Ball, Yamcha wasn't exactly lucky. He smashed crotchfirst onto his opponent's head once. CROTCHFIRST. Which was made even worse by the fact that his opponent was a nerdy guy in glasses and a pocket protector possessed by God. Hitting below the belt is usually against the rules in that particular tournament, but Kami was acting like it was an accident and he was a nerd in glasses at the freakin' World Martial Arts Tournament. The announcer let it slide.
    • Episode 202 of Gintama lampshades Yamcha's miserable existence.
    • To a lesser extent Krillin is one too. The man's died four times, he Can't Catch Up and his signature attack, likely the most deadly in the manga, just can't score a critical hit. However unlike Yamcha, Krillin continues to receive screentime, and plot importance, and he actually comes through with the occasional cool moment at several critical points.
    • Hell, The Abridged Series even has the Krillin Owned Count (a running gag where anytime Krillin is beaten up, disrespected,[1] or acts like a loser [2]], a little counter appears featuring a silhouette of Krillin with a Band-Aid on his head and the words: "Krillin Owned Count" followed by the number of times he's been owned. As of this writing, Krillin has been owned 26 times—the most recent one being Krilling snapping his own neck while trying to be cool like Piccolo. Also, in the first episode, Goku compares Radditz's power level as stronger than "Krillin's losing streak" (to which Krillin replies: "You know, you guys are the reason I go to therapy").
    • Actually both Krillin and Yamcha are in the same boat. The real cut off is between Krillin/Yamcha and Tien. Three years before the arrival of the Androids Piccolo lampshades that both Yamcha and Krillin Can't Catch Up and points out that acting cool wouldn't protect him from the Androids.
    • And in the Abridged Series, Raditz is treated as a butt monkey for Vegeta and Nappa. They constantly mention how weak he is, and at one point, Nappa compares Krillin to Raditz, saying "He's like the Raditz of their group!" But eventually, Krillin shows he's stronger than Raditz, amusing Nappa.
      • It's just as true even in the series proper. The only reason this is played up in the Abridged is based on the actual treatment of the real character from then on. That is to say, Raditz may as well have never existed. Despite being related, Goku never spares so much as a thought about him until the end of forever. Vegeta dismisses him from memory outright (albiet the same happens with Nappa, at least Vegeta and Nappa share scenes together.) And worst (and most telling) of all, Raditz disapears from even the AFTERLIFE, never to so much as be heard from again.
    • Raditz is shown as one of the villains escaping Hell in GT. Although, it's a very tiny cameo, he was still actually there.
  • Keiichi from Ah! My Goddess. Even in the pilot his life sucks so much that Heaven sends a goddess to grant him a wish to make up for it. Even though he gets a Magical Girlfriend out of the deal, he also becomes target number one for the former most popular girl at his school, Belldandy's sisters, a demon, the queen of Hell, and sometimes even Belldandy herself.
    • On the other hand, he gets better digs (the temple), a job he likes (Whirlwind), a woman's love (Belldandy), and probably a life more interesting and enjoyable than he would have otherwise had. Not an easy one, but worth it perhaps?
      • Now, if only he could just spit it out already...
        • I can't disagree with you on that. Seinen Syndrome is a harsh thing.
  • Eureka 7 starts main lead Renton Thurston as a Butt Monkey, particularly in episode 7, where he's given a completely bogus and embarrassing mission as a joke. (Namely, find an informant in the sauna that wears a toupee and has a legendary animal tattoo while wearing a fake mustache and a helmet.) People thought the comedy died when Renton starts crying from happiness that they trusted him to complete his mission, and gives a 2 minute speech about how much he wants to protect everyone, even if the world turns on him, how he needs to become better to save innocent people, etc. And then they laugh at him. And put an embarrassing picture on a popular magazine. While his girlfriend was present.
  • Geraba, Fatman, and occasionally Blume from Xabungle. Geraba usually does nothing to incite Horra's wrath other than question his orders, but he still gets the crap kicked out of him on a regular basis. Fatman is Elche's loyal bodyguard and mute, but he usually gets shoved aside in times of need and constantly suffers physical abuse without striking back or saying a word. Blume is a much less extreme example, but he still manages to take the occasional bullet or strike without necessarily deserving it, while most of the others remain unharmed.
  • Natsuki in both My-HiME and Mai-Otome. Having one's underwear stolen and eaten? Being forced to Show Some Leg to hitch a ride back to school/town? Falling into an easily-avoidable trap set by a Trickster Goddess? It's funny how the most serious member of the cast is always the one to take the comedic pratfalls.
  • Han-Kyul from Need a Girl!, the guy is nice at heart, is seen as handsome by his classmates, then he became acquainted with a group of perverts, he himself did not change, but his repultation in the other hand. Now Han-Kyul is the Butt of all Punishments for his friends actions: peeping on girls and harassing them, even when he had nothing to do with with, or was outright trying to prevent it; there are some who even credits him as being the group's leader and greatest prevert, the guy's repultation went downhill from thyat point on.
  • Jonathan Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Dio made Jonathan's life absolute hell by burning his dog, stealing his girlfriend's first kiss, turning his friends against him, and killing his father. This is all before he uses Jonathan's own blood to turn himself into a vampire. He almost gets his revenge,until Dio beheads him in the last chapter of his story, while nothing more then a head, and uses his body to kill his grandson, his great-great-grandson's friend, and almost the great-great-grandson himself. On the plus side, the two times he got into a straight-up fight with Dio, he beat the ever-loving hell out of him to the point Dio burst out crying after his first beating. Dio had to ambush him to kill him.
  • The Claymores in the series titled after them are infused with the blood of Yoma, the monsters they are trained to fight and will eventually become them if they exert themselves too much; plus, if they start asking too many questions, the organization will send them on suicide missions to shut them up. The main character, Clare, generally has it the worst, since she started out as a human who was a companion to the most powerful Claymore, only to have her killed before her eyes. Her body is then used to turn Clare into a Claymore herself, except since she's only a quarter Yoma, she's the lowest ranked Claymore and everyone looks down on her.
  • Tamaki from Code Geass. He's not the butt of every joke, but he's disliked by the cast, and can't pilot a Knightmare to save his life, yet never comes close to dying.
    • Jeremiah "Orange-kun" Gottwald started out as one: he starts with a few losses, once to Lelouch, loses face when Lelouch kills Clovis, loses even more face when Lelouch geasses him into aiding in an escape, gets betrayed, then nearly gets killed by Kallen. All of this resulted in an unexpected amount of viewer sympathy, so the writers naturally brought him back as a superpowered cyborg who winds up piloting the most powerful mech in the whole show. And then on top of that he Takes a Level in Badass in Season 2. Or several.
    • What about the main character? Lelouch "One the universe hates" vi Brittania? Everything Lelouch does just gets messed up, even if it's all treated deadly seriously. Save his best friend? Short-term, friend gets court-martialled for insubordination, long-term Tokyo gets wiped out because of the Geass command he uses to do it. Everything eventually comes back to bite him in the ass. The only one that actually goes off without a hitch or a Butterfly of Doom chain of cause-and-effect is the plan where he makes everyone hate him, then dies.
    • And Shirley... Oh my gosh, Shirley... That poor girl cannot catch a break. Her butt monkeyness is both Played for Laughs and Played for Drama.
  • Kaidoh from The Prince of Tennis can be counted as Seigaku's Butt Monkey in some Slice of Life-like anime chapters. Just see episode 22 named "Kaoru's Misfortune": Can't finish his morning lap? Check. Is run over by his rival on a bike? Check. Is stepped on by another guy? Check. Is mistaken for a thief? Check...
    • As the story advances, his Big Brother Mentor Inui is the one who becomes a Butt Monkey. How many times the guy has been punished for trying to sneak out of something and/or has lost his pants? Specially in the OAV, where the punishments he suffers are even more embarrassing and funny
  • Sakuya from Candy Boy gets treated as such, only for being in love with one of a very close pair of twin sisters.
  • The title character in Ode to Kirihito, pretty much from the minute he leaves the hospital. He is inevitably exposed to disease, human cruelty, murder, rape, imprisonment, pretty much everything possible that would destroy a person's faith in mankind. He doesn't even know about what his best friend is capable of as his mental fortitude disintegrates in Kirihito's absence. Here it's played for drama—Kirihito is a good person at heart, but hardens considerably as a result of his experiences.
    • In the end, it's implied that his final visit to Japan led Kirihito to dare to hope again.
  • Chamo of Mahou Sensei Negima is a mild case; he's constantly abused (punched, stepped on, squashed, etc.) by everyone (mostly Asuna), although he probably deserves it. A more recent battle has an opponent impale him on her horn, where he hangs for a while. He's perfectly fine afterward, of course.
    • Also, Chisame seems to be the person most likely to get put into humiliating situations; she's always the first to get caught by Nitta for breaking school rules and seems to always suffer her portion of Clothing Damage in front of the whole class or on stage at a cosplay contest. Not to mention that incident with the clothes eating octopus...
    • Secundum seems to have a habit of being Megaton Punched Across The Room in a very undignified way. So far it happened three times (by Nagi, Takamichi and Rakan) in seven chapters.
    • In the alternate universe series Negima!?, Makie is given the role of the Butt Monkey, especially when it comes to the Baka Rangers segments that appear at the end of a number of episodes.
    • In one of the other alternate universes Negiho (Ito) Bun otherwise known as Mahora Little Girls, Konoka of all people takes this place for Asuna, usually saying or doing silly, childish things which annoy Asuna, who promptly reprimand her for it.[3] Even her bodyguard Setsuna, due to her lack of experience can find herself inflicting this on the girl by accident (attempting to save her from minor incidents but making things much worse)[4]
  • Keiichi from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni seems to be a Butt Monkey sometimes. Though it may be due to his behavior. It may also have to do with the club's general creativity with their punishment games.
  • Flute, from Violinist of Hameln (manga continuity only). Despite being the story's heroine, she's constantly bullied around by Hamel—dressed in embarrassing costumes, forced to dance for change, ignored in favor of more attractive characters and even used as a weapon with some frequency. Luckily for her, when things get desperate or when Hamel gets too mean, she usually triumphs thanks to the Divine Cross of Retribution.
  • Angel Sanctuary has arguably a cast of them as there is probably none who doesn't get at least a Kick the Dog moment. Though the most suffering is probably Katou Yue, who is not only a drug addict in real life because his father hates him. He gets killed no less than four times throughout the series.
  • Dallas Genoard from Baccano!! seems to exist for the sole purpose of getting smacked around by every other character he comes in contact with in increasingly painful and embarrassing ways, starting with Firo effortlessly handing him his ass and ending with the Gandor brothers dumping him off to be perpetually drowned at the bottom of the Hudson River. Though, given that he tends to be a grade-A asshole most of the time, it's hard to feel sorry for him.
  • Pedro from the Excel Saga anime. Practically tormented every episode, usually accompanied by his famous Big No, but not often Played for Laughs, unlike Excel and Watanabe.
  • Patrick Colasaur and Saji Crossroads from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 have had very embarrassing and very soul-crippling things done onto them, respectively. Patrick bounces back effortlessly every time; Saji has to work at it.
  • Mullin Shetland from Last Exile becomes the series' Butt Monkey when he joins the Silvana crew as a mechanic. Basically, he sucks at it, no-one bothers teaching him anything and every woman he falls for rejects him. A former rifleman who survived 19 battles (where riflemen have a 33% survival rate) he's remarkably Badass at other times of the series- after leaving the crew he ends up single-handedly saving the Anatoray flagship with his Heroic Sacrifice (he gets better).
  • Hayate X Blade: Tatewaki does not get any respect whatsoever. Even her profile page consists of a single phrase: "Whatever, really." OUCH.
  • Hanai of School Rumble is usually the first target for pranks. In fact, when he tried to play the recorder to remind Mikoto of when they were kids, Mikoto laughed at how bad he was and had forgotten completely.
  • Matsuda of Death Note. Everyone on the investigative team doesn't hesitate to point out what an idiot he is. L especially treats him like crap. Of course, he does get his hero moments, particularly at the end.
    • Not to mention when he was kidnapped, they kept talking about his belt, never him. And at one point, L says that Matsuda's death would prove the kidnappers to be the second Kira, and so, they should just wait to see how it plays out. Unlike all the other times L gets yelled at for being so casual about human life, no one yells. Even though, y'know, Matsuda, for all his faults, has repeatedly proven his bravery (despite several chances to honourably walk away, he risks his life every day trying to find and capture a supernatural serial killer) and is one of their own. What The Hello Heroes.
      • They didn't call L out on it because he didn't say they should allow Matsuda to die; he suggested a wait-and-see course of action right after dispassionately noting that his death would prove Kira's identity. There's an obvious connection to be drawn, but it'd been pointed out before that L's willingness to see the upside of an otherwise grisly scenario didn't necessarily mean he was advocating it. They didn't know what to make of it, but they didn't see an alternative either, so they gave L the benefit of the doubt—and for what it's worth, he did launch a rescue mission.
  • Rito of To LOVE-Ru. Poor guy.
  • Partially, Dante in the Devil May Cry anime. He says that people "usually leave him a bill instead of paying him".
  • Shungo of Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun.
  • Officer Kuhou of Franken Fran. A perfectly normal cop who managed to be a recurring character in a horror comedy manga. Poor girl had to be temporarily committed to the hospital for psychological analysis after witnessing Body Horror, then later subjected to Cloning Blues by Fran. Each chance meeting with Fran after the first one has her going in sheer hysterics thanks to all her past experiences with her.
  • Nami from Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo gets this treatment from her sisters—with rather nasty consequences.
  • All the Dinoforce in Transformers Victory suffer considerable humiliation, but Kakuryu takes the cake. It's a rare episode where he isn't embarrassed or hurt at least twice.
  • Angel Densetsu's Kuroda seems one, but his Idiot Ball propels too much of the plot to count. Ogisu on the other hand...
  • Medabots gives us Iwanoi (or "Spike" in the dub); while he first enters the series as part of the gang of delinquents and bullies that make the main protagonist's life a misery, he is soon revealed to be a fairly good soul who is more or less bullied into being part of the gang, gets kicked out of it in one episode, and who is so terrible at meda-fighting that he is ranked among the worst players in the world. And the latter isn't just because he's lacking in skill, no, the problem is as much because of his Medabot, the only real friend he has. The Cyandog model of Medabot is a Dog Type Shooting Model, designed to attack from a distance with built-in guns, as is the Crosserdog model he eventually upgrades to. But his Medabot's Medal is a Monkey Type Medal- even without the reference to Japanese mythology of dogs and monkeys being enemies, the Monkey Type Medal is intended for melee models of Medabots, mainly wrestlers. Needless to say, it's no wonder that his Medabot can't fight.
  • The blue ogre from Yu Yu Hakusho. He's so pathetically treated by Koenma, we don't even learn his real name (George) until partway through season 3.
  • Kenichi of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple starts out like this, and tries to learn martial arts so that he won't get picked on as much. He doesn't get it as much later on, but it still applies. Nijima also has his fair share of this.
  • Mousse and Kuno, from Ranma ½, are always knocked around or be played as the fool for laughs. Yes, Kuno is an idiot and sometimes that idiocy is the cause of it, but it doesn't mean that he deserves it.
  • Aoki of Hajime no Ippo gets no respect. He's Takamura's number 1 target of bullying (which means you won't live a good life) and he's the worst boxer of the gym. He is however, the only character in the story who has a girlfriend.
  • Carrot in Sorcerer Hunters is the ultimate Butt Monkey—for basically everyone.
  • Pandora Hearts: Poor Gilbert Nightray. Even the mangaka goes out of her way to abuse him for everyone's amusement.
  • While Yokoshima Tadao from Ghost Sweeper Mikami can be said to deserve a fair amount of the abuse Mikami sends after him (we're talking lust incarnate here...), it seems that misfortune makes a concerted effort to seek him out, even when he's not being that lustful.
  • When reading Yotsuba&!, one will think "Poor Fuuka!" at least once every few pages.
    • One will also wish Yanda got more crap than he already gets.
  • A rare example of a villainous Butt Monkey who nonetheless remains an effective and dangerous villain: Spandam from the Enies Lobby arc of One Piece. Constantly abused by his subordinates, his enemies, and his teammates, his suffering evokes not a bit of sympathy or pity from the audience. Probably because his Establishing Character Moment involves him merrily skipping over the Moral Event Horizon, and he kicks dogs at every possible opportunity. Snapping his spine in two was letting him off too easy, if you ask me.
      • Well, it's lucky then that during CP 9's cover story, Spandam decides to frame CP 9 for the disaster at Enies Lobby. This backfires spectacularly when the Marine force sent to capture CP 9 are brutally curbstomped, and now Spandam has six of the most dangerous assassins in the world out for his head. Nice work idiot.
    • Buggy also qualifies, after his initial defeat by Luffy he suffers long in putting his body back together, trying to execute Luffy only to have the universe intervene on Luffy's behalf, get captured and put in Impel Down, gets abused countless times in aiding Luffy's escape attempt, and is frozen solid and used as a human shield at Marineford, all played for laughs. There's a high chance he's becoming a new Shichibukai, which might make up for it, or lead to yet more hilarious abuse.
    • Luffy was this trope during his childhood. He had a Hilariously Abusive Childhood as a result of his grandpa's training, and even after that he was pretty weak. Wild animals and vitriolic brothers didn't really help either.
  • K-2 in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure is a relatively appropriate example insofar as his defining characteristic is his gigantically swollen rear. Even his name is a pun off a Japanese word for butt. And that butt gets prodded, poked, stabbed, smacked, and generally attacked at every given opportunity.
    • Before it Took a Level in Badass, Ash's Chimchar was this. It was knocked out in almost every battle it participated in, had a Jerkass for its first trainer that called it pathetic even when it won, and nearly died in the Hearthome Tag Battle Tournament. In short, it was not only the butt monkey of the series, but The Woobie as well.
    • Ash started off as such due to his ineptness and impulsive behaviour usually causing him constant problems (keep in mind Pikachu violently hated him initially). It came back a bit in the Best Wishes series, though even he looked good in comparasion to Cilan's Unknown Rival Burgundy, who had bad things happen to her every other minute or so.
    • Out of Ash's many companions, Misty was near equally prone to slapstick and ego-denting humiliation as he was.
    • May is possible runner up due to being most liable to hold the Distress Ball and get endangered, kidnapped or tied up.
    • Dawn isn't too far behind them in Butt Monkey status. She’s easily the least respected main character in the series. Numerous characters (Ash, Brock, and her own Pokémon included) have made fun of and dissed her, is near-widely labeled as an incapable coordinator, and has her hair constantly ruined after being shocked numerous times. Oh, and not to mention that she has to go through a lot of crap.
    • Dawn's Piplup was pretty much the designated slapstick magnet for the Diamond and Pearl series, most notably getting nailed by Draco Meteor from Ash's Gible on a regular basis in the latter half. He's also probably the only Pokémon in the entire series to get curbstomped by a Magikarp.
    • Not to mention the Team Rocket trio in the anime, who have sad back stories, are poor, incompetent, hated by their boss, and, oh yeah: they get blasted off at the end of almost every episode.
      • However, this is slowly changing as the trio is becoming more competent.
      • Their Pokemon aren't much better off either. The best examples would probably have to be Arbok, Weezing, and Seviper. They will always end up taking a lot of beatings from other Pokémon and on the recieving ends of their attacks in every single episode.
    • In the XY series, Clemont has assumed this role. Among other things, he's in poor physical condition and his inventions constantly blow up in his face. One of his most unfortunate moments, however, was in XY018 where the group had to pretend to trade him to Princess Ally for a PokéFlute. They were planning on going back for him, but forgot about him and so he had to make a decoy of himself with his clothes and escape on his own, in his underwear and undershirt!
    • May's younger brother; Max, is sometimes this, due to him being an Annoying Younger Sibling towards May.
    • The Sun and Moon series introduced Team Skull. Basically everyone and their mother (literally in Ash's case) has kicked their asses in a Pokemon battle. They've been curbstomped so many times, that Tupp is ecstatic at the mere fact that he managed to land a single attack on Ilima's Eevee.
    • Bill in Pokémon Special was this for a little while. He seems to become less and less of this as the series goes on (and seems to have gotten Daisy Oak as a girlfriend), but Pika still shocks him for the fun of it.
  • Nagasumi of Seto no Hanayome is one of these, when he isn't being Badass.
    • His father has it even worse, as the only time in the entire show anybody treats him nicely is in the first episode, and even then...
  • Keima's father of The World Only God Knows is this, despite the fact that he has yet to actually appear. When Elsee needs a place to stay, she convinces Keima's mother (using a forged note) that she is the husband's illegitimate daughter. Dear Ms Katsuragi then picks up the phone, dials up her husband and screams that if he ever shows up again, she'll kill him. Keima explains to Elsee that she used to run in a street gang.
    • His position's not helped when Hakua later claims, jokingly, she's another illegitimate daughter.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia: Poor Canada and China. No one ever pays attention to Canada, either not realizing he's there or mistaking him for his brother America. China constantly gets picked on by the rest of the allies, even his own younger siblings.
  • Mao, who's Not Quite Dead, spends most of the second season of Darker than Black being abused in whatever ways the writers could think of this week. He even points out that he feels like he's in an old cartoon.
  • Vincent in Bizenghast tends to be treated like this. He has been shot at, hung for witchcraft, infected with plague, slammed against a wall while airbourne, enslaved, eaten by a giant Venus Flytrap, stuck up a tree, and finally stabbed in the chest with a rigging pin and killed. Edrear has taken over now (knocked out twice in a row).
  • Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki in Yu-Gi-Oh!. They were considered to be the top two duelists in Japan, until the main characters showed up, at least. They never quite make it back to their former glory, even after ulitizing an Artifact of Doom. They end up constantly humilated by the main characters, and even Filler villians.
    • As well as Joey, who is constantly at the mercy of Kaiba's cruelty, ruthlessly humiliating him whenever he has the chance.
    • What about Ryou? He isn't even in control of his body most of the time. Said body is being controlled by an evil spirit trying to kill his friends.
  • Tsuna and Kozato Enma of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
    • Among the Arcobaleno, Skull definitely counts. He doesn't exactly have it easy in the manga, but the anime's Arcobaleno filler arcs abuse him beyond belief.
  • Yukinari of Girls Bravo.
  • Angel Beats!: Much of the SSS members take turns at the role, but Hinata by far is the most memorable.
  • After his Character Development from Jerk Jock, Jun Manjoume in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX tends to have ridiculosly bad luck, from his unrequited crush on Asuka to being the first of the main cast to lose to the new villian. Occasionlly, he'll return to his Badass self, but it always falls apart in the end, until his final steps of Character Development in Season 4.
  • Touma Kamijou from A Certain Magical Index. Virtually every day is a bad day for Touma and nothing ever goes right for him. Some of his miserable moments includes being chased by other deliquents, breaking his own credit card, having his refrigerator break down, losing 2000 yen in a vending machine, ending up in the same hospital and treated by the same doctor in nearly every story arch's end, and losing his memories. Justified though, considering what his Anti-Magic right hand is capable of doing.
    • FUKO DA!!! (Such misfortune!)
    • The only thing he's lucky on, however, is that his life is a Dating Sim where he gets an Unwanted Harem, which is pretty much a good reason why many of his male classmates are jealous of him.
  • Rosario + Vampire newcomer Fong-Fong has taken a lot of abuse since his debut, and generally receives very little respect. His reactions are usually amusing.
  • Agari Yamato from Karakuridouji Ultimo. In the time span of ONE DAY, he had events ranging from having the girl he loves mistake him for a child molester, to being blamed for the earth's destruction. Seriously. Not one chapter can be made without something happening to Yamato.
    • And then even after he hits the Reset Button (because of said earth's destruction), It Got Worse. So far, he has had a gun pointed to his head just because he's the master of the greatest good doji, got stabbed almost numerous times by one of the evil doji, got one of his comrades into a comatose state, failed to prevent his best friend from turning to The Dark Side again, who later attempts to rape him, before Yamato convinces him to come to the Good Side. We later learn that this fails too. And this took place in the matter of about five hours.
  • Before it Took a Level in Badass, Ash's Chimchar (haha) in the Pokémon anime was this. It was knocked out in almost every battle it participated in, had a Jerkass for its first trainer that called it pathetic even when it won, and nearly died in the Hearthome Tag Battle Tournament. In short, it was not only the butt monkey of the series, but The Woobie as well.
    • Ash has become more of this in the recent series, Best Wishes, though even he looks good in comparasion to Cilan's Unknown Rival Cabernet, who has bad things happen to her every other minute or so.
  • Kelly of Transformers: Robots in Disguise is a rare female comedic Butt Monkey. She's not clumsy or unintelligent, just really, really unlucky. She's gone through more fancy cars an episode than some people do in a series (Yet still has enough money to buy more...), and always seems to become involved to the various antics of the Transformers. Even running away into the middle of the Sahara Desert gets her caught up in Autobot/Predacon combat! She's trying to get out of the way, honest!!
  • One could argue Simon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fits this trope well. Early in the series, he contributes to the death of his best friend/brother figure. Then, years later, his wife-to-be is kidnapped, and he has to fight to rescue her, and all of humanity. Once he succeeds, they're married, and she promptly vanishes. The series ends with humans (and Viral, now immortal) going out to explore the galaxy. Simon is, by this point, an old man, alone, and will probably be forgotten by almost everyone before long.
  • Chuck and Brief share this role on Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt.
  • Inuyasha himself has a bad habit of falling into butt-monkey territory, especially if it involves Kikyo. Any time he goes off to see Kikyo, his first love, and having trouble deciding between her and Kagome, everyone will treat him like he's been cheating on Kagome. Kagome herself does nothing to help this, often hitting him with a sit.
  • The list of Butt Monkeys in Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo is quite long. Really, really long. More than anyone else, Jelly Jiggler is the main Butt Monkey, although Don Patch and Dengaku Man are great examples of this trope, too. Hell, even Bobobo is!
  • Nobita Nobi from Doraemon, so much that his ancestor has to send him his robot to help dealing with that. Not that it's getting any better unless when they're going on an adventure.
  • Meiling from Cardcaptor Sakura. She exists primarily to be the overactive idiot.
  • Did I have to mention the genius Sakuragi Hanamichi from Slam Dunk?? He even got a nickname "Red-headed monkey"!!
  • Watanuki Kimihiro of xxxHolic was the unchallenged master of this trope in his early days, now he's gotten a bit better ...
  • Fate Testarossa-Harlaown of Lyrical Nanoha gets this sometimes, being socially awkward and easily embarrassed into adulthood. She gets teasing from Signum about their new relationship (in which Fate is reluctantly Signum's superior officer in StrikerS), is not told about a final mock battle between the captains and forwards that includes her or her daughter Vivio's ability to turn into her Older Alter Ego at will, and occasionally gets subject to loving teasing by Vivio, particularly in the "2nd Mother's Day" one shot.
  • Due to his status as The Comically Serious and as a chimera who desperately seeks a cure for his appearance, which often makes him try to ignore or belie his comrades, Zelgadis is this in multiple filler episodes. One memorable episode from the second season had him being used as an anchor, nearly get killed twice by a Lake Dragon, and almost drown. In the latter scenario, he winds up getting CPR from the elderly (male) captain of the boat they were on instead of Amelia, whom he secretly hoped would do it...
    • Princess Amelia herself is this trope in the Slayers Premium movie; when the movie ends, the others are moving along, while she's stuck on some remote island unable to speak.
  • Bucky from Kimba the White Lion.
  • Zakuro from Saiyuki and sometimes Gojyo as well.
  • Ueda in Japan Inc.
  • Jun Aoi gets this status in Martian Successor Nadesico. Between (multiple!) failed attempts at trying to protect the Nadesico, getting eternally friend zoned by his romantic target, being the only male member Bridge Bunny in the ship, and getting almost no screen time (which may be because the writers themselves forgot about him at some point), it's a wonder he hasn't broken down yet. At the same time, he became a ship captain with a promising future in The Movie, so maybe the weirdness around him just screws him up.
  • Ignoring the fact that all of Keroro Gunsou's invasion plans never work, he is constantly put through tons of abuse, usually from Natsume, even when he doesn't actually deserve it.
  • While Kotetsu experiences his fair share of being put through the wringer, the true Butt Monkey of Tiger and Bunny is Antonio Lopez (Rock Bison). He winds up in last place in the Hero rankings, gets told off by his boss almost every day, has to put up with being shot out of a cannon (as a part of his grand entrance) despite being acrophobic, has a crush on a woman who barely acknowledges his existence, basically serves as a platonic Unlucky Childhood Friend to Kotetsu (who ignores him in favor of Barnaby), is regularly sexually harassed by his other friend Nathan, and is the only HeroTV superhero who doesn't get so much as a single Day in The Limelight episode. The writers say they actually like him quite a bit—which is why they torture him so much.
  • Not played for laughs at all with the protagonist of Life; nothing can seem to go her way. Ayumu's middle school best friend broke ties with her after she got into the high school she was aiming for instead of her and Ayumu started cutting herself due to that. Her first friend in high school, Manami, turned out to be a manipulative bitch. Manami's boyfriend Mind Rape's Ayumu and sexually abuses her, she's the target of bullies due to them thinking she tried to take Manami's boyfriend, her mother doesn't trust her, and that's not even half of her problems.
  • Sasazuka from Ichigo Mashimaro. His teachers love to pick on him, and force him to stand in the hall at the slightest provocation, even before he's even said anything.
  • Anyone who has blue hair in Carnival Phantasm is a butt monkey but Lancer takes the prize followed by Shinji and then Ciel.
  • Akihisa from Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. He gets horribly abused by everyone in the series. Even his love interests.
    • And to a lesser extent, Yuuji
  • The Producer in THE iDOLM@STER, although watered down a little. It's even lampshaded in the final episode by the Futami Twins.

Mami: This place is boring without you to play around with.

  • Lupin III has Inspector Zenigata, especially in the second series. This comes from trying to explain why Lupin is never caught, despite all the chances he gets. He tends to switch between "incompetent Idiot Hero" and plain "Overshadowed by Awesome". Most of the post-2000 Lupin films have him learning Lupin's old tricks (showing him to be competent) and Lupin still making a fool out of him by being one more step ahead.
  • Akari Akaza from Yuru-Yuri. Poor girl.
  • Furuichi from Beelzebub. Seriously, in between being beaten up by Oga (or someone else), electrocuted by Baby Beel, rejected by the ladies, roped into one of Oga's schemes against his will, and caught in compromising situations, he just can't catch a break. In fact, Oga once revealed that part of the reason he drags him everywhere is because he thought it would be funny.
    • An arguably bigger example is the MK5, what with their "talent" of being beaten in the space of one page by protagonists and antagonists alike (Even in volleyball, no less!).
  • In Saint Beast, Shiva's a less-than-stellar example of angelic goodness but he gets a lot of flak from the other characters and rarely gets anything he wants including a coveted position as a Saint Beast. Some fans see him more as The Woobie because he is so unlucky he's empathetic.
Back to Butt Monkey
  1. ↑ in episode 2, Master Roshi told him to shut up after Krillin blamed him for letting Piccolo escape with Gohan
  2. ↑ [in episode 13 from season 2, Krillin gets owned after failing to come up with a witty one-liner
  3. ↑ This could be a consequence of her proximity to a wacky girl like Asuna, and her scheming. Admittedly she brings some (only some) of it on herself
  4. ↑ Her track record includes a bop on the head, being scaffolded, tied to a RTS package, being drawn-on/tickle tortured/forcibly dressed up all at once, dropped into a lake, having ruined cookies left over her desk and being sucked into a vacuum cleaner in the space of 4 chapters.
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