< Papa Wolf

Papa Wolf/Anime and Manga

  • Just try and hurt a kid in front of Captain Harlock.
  • Kenzo Kabuto from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. It is arguable if he was or was not a good father. It is not arguable when his older biological son was about of being killed he sent a Humongous Mecha after the people was attacking him, and when his adoptive son was about of being killed, he blew his assailant and himself up. Therefore, althought his parental skills left much to be desired, you DON´T try to hurt his sons.
  • Henry Maaka from Karin is usually a weak-willed wuss, but when his daughter Karin is in trouble, he will literally let himself burn to rescue her from the hospital people who think she's an Ill Girl, but could potentially discover that she's a vampire.
    • Most people try to kill vampires with stakes. Henry uses uprooted trees.
  • Hon Arkraptor from Tower of God is a Papa Wolf who failed to protect his daughter. As a result, he is overcautious whenever it comes to Miseng, who resembles her. This includes trying to fail her so she gets out of the inner section of the Tower and beating up the creeps that get too close to her. Their relationship is rather shaky, to say the least.
  • Hell Teacher Nube - You do NOT mess with Meisuke Nueno's, a.k.a. Nube's, True Companions. "Leave (insert names) ALONE!" is his Catch Phrase and signifies that he's about to open a can of serious whoopass.
  • Negi Springfield of Mahou Sensei Negima. Threaten his students, and he will pull the spear you impaled him on out of his chest and beat you half to death with it.
    • Takahata is this way as well, but to Asuna in particular he's an adoptive father. Although only because his self esteem is too low to be her boyfriend.
  • Oga from Beelzebub seems to not care for Beel, but, if you put a finger on the baby...
    • In chapter 107 he openly declares himself to be Beel's parent, emphasizing this trope even more.
  • Isshin Kurosaki from Bleach is this in spades when it comes to his daughters. They don't appreciate it. Slapstick ensues.
    • And in the latest chapters to Ichigo, while the latter faces Aizen alone.
    • Kenpachi Zaraki subverts this during the Arrancar arc, when Nnoitra threatens Yachiru. He also did so in the past when Ikakku did the same thing. Granted, Kenpachi is already a Blood Knight and Ax Crazy, but threaten Yachiru, and you might as well have signed your own death warrant.
    • Stark is a less notable example of this. Lilynette, his fraccion, is like a daughter to him, and he becomes noticeably upset and less focused when she is in danger. Fittingly, his Animal Motif is the wolf - his zanpakuto is called 'Los Lobos', and he summons a pack of explosive wolves.
  • As Seto Kaiba of Yu-Gi-Oh! tries to inform people, it is a big mistake to threaten his little brother Mokuba, to whom he's been a father since they were ten- and five-years-old. [1]
  • In the second sequel series Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Crow goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when he returns after the appearance of the Dark Signers' evil fog to find out the kids he's taken in have all vanished.
    • Also Jeager (to an extent). You may not be able to tell when you meet him, but he'll do anything for his son.
  • Konzen's (Sanzo's pre-incarnation) Character Development in the Saiyuki Gaiden manga is maturing from a spoiled, bitchy, bored bureaucrat into a slightly less spoiled and bitchy Papa Wolf for Goku. The man has high-heeled sandals and no athletic abilities, yet he jumps off a stories-high stairwell/elevator shaft, catches the falling Goku, and clutches the severed elevator cable in mid-air. All to save his boy! The fact that Konzen's gonna die before the end and Goku will be locked away in a mountain without any of his memories of being so devotedly loved makes this all the more heartbreaking.
    • For that matter, in the present timeline, Sanzo's furious response and following Heroic BSOD when Goku was shot and almost died fits this trope to a T.
    • Also, Hakkai. Don't threaten or hurt his comrades. Just DON'T!
  • Whenever he learns that his daughter Ran Mouri and/or his charge Conan Edogawa are or have been in danger, Detective Conan's Kogoro Mouri is definitely not pleased. And you do NOT want to provoke a man who looks and acts like a slob, yet is a National-level judoka and acts at his most competent when It's Personal. More than one suspect has been at the receiving end of a powerful judo throw for this.
    • He also acts a lot more professional when he knows a child's life is at stake; this is seen in the kidnapping episode.
    • Inspector Juzo Megure is also very protective of the kids who hang out with Mouri and of his own subordinates. Better shown when he goes It's Personal mode in a case involving young women being attacked: he refuses to let Action Girl Satou act as a decoy once his Berserk Button was pressed, and later took a metal pipe to his head while protecting Sonoko from the culprit. It's explained that this comes from one of his first cases, where he failed to protect a schoolgirl posing as a decoy and she almost died. Fortunately, the girl got better... and then they got Happily Married.
    • While there are many Papa Wolves and Mama Bears among the Sympathetic Murderers, there was a specially dark take on this trope during a two-part anime only episode. A businessman had contacted Kogoro to locate an assassin whom he had hired to kill him, having backed off the deal but not being able to find him and tell him so. It turned out that he was using Kogoro and others in a Batman Gambit destined to find and kill said hitman with his own hands, since one of his assassinations jobs led to the accidental death of the tycoon's beloved daughter. Conan had to beg the grieving and very pissed off father to not exact said revenge, but he also made sure that the hitman's threat was neutralised and he was taken into custody.
  • Dragon Ball and its sequels have a lot of dads, but the grand master of this trope is Piccolo, to the point where his constant and epically badass rescues of his pupil Gohan become something of a Running Gag.

"How could I let this happen to my son? He has sacrificed everything for me and I have done nothing but ignore him. I won’t give up on him! There is still time to change things. Cell has crossed me for the last time! He has tricked me in battle, mocked my Saiyan ancestry, but this! This time he has gone too far! He will pay the ultimate price for what he has done to my son!"

    • The Non-Serial Movie Bojack Unbound has Goku, despite being dead, attacking Big Bad Bojack for trying to Bear Hug Gohan to death. And he succeeded, giving Gohan the encouragement and strength he needed to win.
      • Throughout the movie, Vegeta appeared to have lost his passion for fighting since Goku died, not even watching the competition. But when Trunks was in danger, he immediately sensed something was wrong and headed to the battlefield, making a Big Damn Heroes moment to help Trunks out of a tight spot.
    • An old man in the episode "Free the Future", while Android 18 was blowing things up after getting angered with Android 17 for killing a boy she thought was cute, attempted to shoot Android 17 (as that boy was in fact his son). It failed, because Android 17 was resistant to gunfire, and needed saving by the time Trunks arrived.
  • Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho is a subtle example. Harming/killing at least one of his loved ones gets mad, but if it's Keiko or Kuwabara, he will kick their ass!
  • One Piece has Captain Whitebeard, formerly one of the four most powerful pirates in the world. An attack on one of the Whitebeard Pirates is never forgiven and his reactions are legendary-when the World Government sentenced his adoptive son and lieutenant Ace to death, everyone involved knew immediately that it was effectively an outright declaration of war.
    • After Ace's death, instead of going insane with rage like most had expected, Whitebeard in a frightful and calm way defeated his very powerful murderer Akainu in two blows and, in the same blow, split the entire Marine island in half... despite being stabbed, blown up, gutted and with half his face burnt off. All to avenge poor Ace's death. And you thought Whitebeard on a rampage was bad?
    • There's also Chef Zeff, who was like this towards the young Sanji. When they didn't chew each other up, of course. This *is* the ex-pirate who either ate his own leg so child Sanji would have enough food to survive in the manga or had the same leg cut off to rescue the kid from drowning when the shp he worked in was sunk in the anime, after all.
    • Shanks, when Luffy is threatened. There is a reason why he lost that arm of his...
    • Luffy himself is a version of this trope, as any attack on the physical or emotional well-being of his crewmembers is taken personally and likely to result in an angry and violent beatdown, like he did when Nami had a hertbreaking Heroic BSOD once her efforts to save her village were thwarted by her Bad Boss and he epically beat up and defeated said boss. Prior to the Time Skip, however, he was just a fledgling, made clear from the fact that he isn't quite strong enough to back up this fierce protective instinct yet. He found that out the hard way in Shabaody, where the entire crew was more or less beaten half to death and scattered to the four corners of the Earth by Bartholomew Kuma and he was helpless to stop it. But especially, considering the fact that Kuma was on their side, that was nothing compared to when he went to The Alcatraz and then the World Government's headquarters to rescue his older brother from execution, only to have him die in his arms. Seriously, if he hadn't had Jinbe there to knock some sense into him, he wouldn't have been able to Take A Level In Badass to transcend pretty much all the limitations he had, and then some.
      • Zoro too. He's normally not the type to take revenge. But Ohm made him reconsider that when he set traps that brutally injured Chopper. Also, when Robin was almost killed by Enel, he caught her before she fell (despite his earlier distrust against her) and furiously attacked Enel as a result. In fact, any member of the Straw Hats will beat up anyone who dares to hurt their True Companions, as proven when the Franky Family beat up Usopp, and the remaining male members returned the favour and destroyed their house in retaliation.
    • Garp is a Grandpa Wolf who would have killed Akainu for killing Ace if Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral, hadn't stopped him. He even tells Sengoku to keep him down or he would have tore Akainu to pieces.
      • Also, Luffy's actual father Dragon the Revolutionary has appeared only once or twice, but one of these apparitions puts him squarely here. When Luffy was about to be executed by Smoker... a lighting fell from the sky and Dragon showed up. He went to Smoker and spoke to him... and Smoker nearly pissed in his pants due to that, and let Luffy go.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia's Antonio aka Spain goes from Doting Parent Team Mom to Papa Wolf as soon as his protégé, Romano/South Italy, is kidnapped by Sadiq/Turkey.
  • Rurouni Kenshin gives us the tragic deconstruction of Yukyuzan Anji from the Juppongatana. There was a peaceful, gentle Buddhist monk who sheltered the children of rebels against the Meiji Government. The villagers didn't like it, so they ambushed the monk, injured him and burnt the orphanage along with the children, killing them all. Poor monk snapped, subjected himself to Training from Hell for five years and bloodily killed all the villagers responsible with his own bare hands. And that's how Anji joined Makoto Shishio, since the very Genre Savvy Shishio let him have credibility to spare lives if he wished so in return for recruiting him. And he did it, saving Misao from Usui's stab In the Back at one point.
    • Kenshin, however, manages to reconstruct the trope and play it straight. When he fell through the Despair Event Horizon due to believing that his girlfriend Kaoru had died, when brought him back to his senses was Yahiko's girlfriend Tsubame telling him that he was fighting Enishi's group alone. Few later, Kenshin pulls a massive Big Damn Heroes to save Yahiko.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: "Don't EVER mock my son." Screw with Hohenheim's kids and you're in trouble.
    • Maes Hughes also counts, telling several party-going toddlers not to "try anything" with his daughter. Complete with Scary Shiny Glasses and Dramatic Gun Cock. It's Played for Laughs, but you know that if anyone ever really did threaten his beloved Elicia, there'd be hell to pay.
  • Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star. Anyone threatening, never mind hitting, Bat or Lin is to endure a rather slow and painful and explosive death.
    • There's an interesting straight use and subversion of this trope, pulled off by the same character (a villain). He's the leader of a wolf-themed gang, and one of their raiding parties gets their asses handed to them by Kenshiro. When he finds the bodies, he howls for vengeance, taking the rest of the pack with him to hunt for Kenshiro. The subversion comes from the fact that when they are utterly defeated by Kenshiro and Rei, one of the midgets in his gang comes up to him and asks for help. He tells him to get lost, that he can start a new pack anytime he wants. Then they all die.
  • In the second OAV based on the video game Fatal Fury, titled FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE, lead hero/fighter Terry "The Wolf" Bogard has lost his will to fight and live after being beaten by Wolfgang Krauser, only to have a street kid named Tony tag along with him. Tony, who lost his father in a street fight and works as a shoe shine-boy to support his Hot Mom Elsa, worships Terry's reputation as a fighter and wants to be his disciple. After the defeat, Terry spends half the special getting drunk and not caring about anything... It is only after Axel Hawk, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, orders his sparring partner to beat Tony within an inch of his life in a bar (after Terry drunkenly refused to fight Hawk when challenged), does Terry rise out of his funk...and drops Hawk with ONE PUNCH. Even Hawk can't believe it (as his inner narration mentions).
    • In The Movie, Kim Kaphwan gets to show off his Papa Wolf credentials as well. When a Brainwashed and Crazy Cheng Sinzan steps into a party he's attending with the main cast and his family, Kim offers to fight him so his two kids can see him kick ass. His rival, however, soon starts wiping the floor with him, so much that Joe has to be stopped by Andy from breaking in... but the very moment one of the Kim boys begs his daddy to not lose, Kim brings himself back and completely curb stomps his enemy.
  • Tendo Soun of Ranma ½ isn't as Badass as most of the cast, but disrespect any of his three little girls and you'll realize that he hasn't forgotten much of Happosai's Training from Hell. Saotome Genma, on the other hand, is cursed to transform into a literal "Papa (panda) bear". See the opening statement on why this trope is named "Papa Wolf" and not "Papa Bear" and you'll understand the Fanon that Jusenkyo curses are Personality Powers.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Clone/Father Syaoran. Big Damn Heroes with his Mama Bear wife.
    • Kurogane is like this. Though he has an initially calm attitude when Seishiro "kills" Syaoran in Oto, you can just tell there's the hint of death in his dialogue and in his face. Though it's hard to tell if he's more mad about Syaoran's "death" or Fai's. Either way, don't mess with anybody in his party.
  • Zettai Karen Children's Koichi Minamoto is basically just a normal guy who tasked to watch three powerful girls with insane psychic power. But when he gets pissed off enough, such as if someone harms his girls or they're harming themselves, you'll understand why they made him guardian of those girls.
  • Otaru from Saber Marionette J to X. Granted, he was a father for only episode and half, but he surely proved to be quite a Papa Wolf!
  • More of a Babysitter Wolf than a Papa Wolf, but coming close enough, because in Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, Dante never failed to protect Patty.
  • Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha usually doesn't get too excited about much. Threaten Rin, though, and a beatdown like none other will commence. The best example comes from the manga... when Rin is taken to the underworld by a hellhound, Sesshoumaru follows and kills it. When she is already dead, whoops the King of Hell's ass to get her back. When this doesn't work, he actually shows the closest thing to human emotion he's ever done in the series, purifies the souls of the dead as an afterthought, then rips a hole back into normal reality. After all of this, his youkai queen mother acknowledges this and uses her powers to resurrect Rin since Sesshoumaru, of all people, is clearly unhappy about her death. He goes from Aloof Big Brother to a combination of John Creasy, Jesus, and Spawn in a Crowning Moment of Awesome and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming unparalleled in the other 500+ chapters of the manga.
  • Kou Shouka in Saiunkoku Monogatari is mostly a Retired Badass who prefers to employ Obfuscating Stupidity and play the role of Bumbling Dad. When his children are threatened, however, he goes out for blood.
  • Despite being the hero of Lone Wolf and Cub, Ogami Itto averts this trope - if anything he's an Underprotective Dad. Mainly because his toddler son Daigoro is a Samurai too, and though he he does love his kid... if he should be killed, that's a risk that comes with the job.
    • However, Ogami has pulled more than one You Shall Not Pass for his clients either in the process of getting the job done or to repay a debt of honor: once, he stopped by a village whose men had all been drafted for war and helped them till a field, even to the point of cutting down anyone who tried to pull him away, because he'd been asked to do so by his last assassination target.
  • Despite being the youngest (male) of the group, Mobile Suit Gundam 00's Setsuna F. Seiei is quite the Papa Wolf for his teammates in season two. This is so pronounced that sensing his comrades all on the brink of death pissed him off to the point that he unknowingly initiates the "Trans-AM burst mode", completely turning the tide of the battle.
    • An ironic example is Sergei Smirnov, who has been called Papa Bear (because in-universe he's nicknamed "the Wild Bear of Russia") by fans with the description of Papa Wolf in mind. He did fit the Papa Bear description given above regarding his treatment of his son Andrei, but with Soma Peries he was Papa Bear all the way.
  • In one of the Gundam Wing mangas, King Peacecraft performs a badass You Shall Not Pass in the middle of a burning palace, so his butler and his Number Two can take his daughter Relena to safety. He doesn't make it alive, but the others manage to reach safety with the little girl, who later becomes a key player in the story.
  • Spirit Albarn/Deathscythe from Soul Eater would like to think of himself as a Papa Wolf and certainly steps in whenever his daughter Maka's in serious trouble, but he's a little too much of an unrepentant womanizer for her to take seriously. He still had a pretty goof Papa Wolf moment with his Dynamic Entry when defending her and Soul from Crona.
  • Black Lagoon's Ginji Matsuzaki. Do not even look at his protégé Yukio wrong, or this Badass swordsman will cut you down. Ask about what he did to Chaka, to start...
    • Rokuro Okajima aka Rock. As seen with Gretel, Garcia, and later, Yukio, he'll go to great lengths to shelter children and teenagers from harm. Kidnapping and then molesting and abusing Yukio is a good way to make this usually mild-mannered, diplomatic and well-spoken former Salaryman angry enough to actually cuss you out and physically assault you.
  • You can do anything to him, even completely destroy his guild and Makarov will only get irritated, but if you hurt any of his guild members, there's a very good chance he will make you stop breathing.
    • No. He will crush you if you so much as think about hurting any member of Fairy Tail. So much, that he will flat out start a war with another guild if they hurt a guild member. Also, pretty much everyone in the guild will turn into a Papa Wolf or Mama Bear if you hurt another member of the guild, particularly Levi...
  • Don't so much as think of threatening Pinoko or Black Jack will cut you to ribbons. Then sew you back up. Then charge you everything you're worth for the trouble... Yeah, it's just that kind of story.
  • While not a biological father, Sousou/Cao Cao from Ikki Tousen is this towards his friends. So much, that his Super-Powered Evil Side took full control of him whenever he saw them in danger. It first happened with his Unlucky Childhood Friend Chuukou (he thought the bullies at their judo club were attempting to rape her), and later with his Bash Brothers Kakouton (who lost his eye while shielding him)). And in the anime series, he also recruited Myousai by protecting her from a rapist and offering her a chance to be his subordinate and fighter instead of a Child Soldier.
  • They may have marital problems in Macross 7, but don't ever think of threatening any of their children or their city or their ship; coz when Mama Bear Milia and Papa Wolf Max Jenius team up, you are definitely screwed. Especially emphasized on their killer combo attack in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 as seen here.
  • Minato Namikaze aka the Fourth Hokage from Naruto. In fact, the whole deal with the Kyuubi has just recently been revealed as the struggle between him and Madara Uchiha, with Complete Monster Madara using Minato's love for his wife/partner Kushina (then-host of the Nine-tailed fox) and their newborn son Naruto (future host of the same Fox) for his advantage. And we already know how THAT ended...
    • Chouza Akimichi also deserves a mention for throwing himself in front of his son Chouji to protect him from Pain, almost getting himself killed in the process. He does it again against the undead Asuma.
    • Hizashi Hyuga deserves a mention here, as the mere realization that his son Neji is a member of the Branch Family sends him into a murderous rage (which is stopped before it can begin courtesy of Hiashi activating his curse seal - and doing so is the first step in causing Neji to spend at least nine years of his life afterward as the inversion of this trope!)
    • Also Hiashi for killing that Cloud ninja for attempting to kidnap Hinata.
  • In Pluto, love for his child broke through a robot's aversion to killing, and was then used against him to kill him.

Gesicht: Even if the world ends, I won't let you go.

  • One of the weirdest (and that's saying it NICELY) examples ever is Dr. Shingen Kishitani from Durarara!!. In the novels, we learn that Shingen was the one who cut Celty's head off and sold Saika's sword off to the Sonoharas... but he did it in order to protect his young son Shinra from Namie Yagiri's grandfather, who threatened to kill Shinra if he didn't.
  • Black Cat. Have some nefarious scheme for Eve? Want to study the nanomachines that she uses? Feeling compelled to dissect her just because you can? Pray to the god of every religion you've ever known that Train and Sven don't find out about it. Especially the former of the two.
  • In Fruits Basket, we have Kazuma Sohma, foster father to Kyo Sohma. In one chapter of the manga, Kazuma proclaims his intent to protect Kyo single-handedly from the entire Sohma family if he must.
    • There's also a sketch in one of the later volumes, where Kazuma meets with Kyo's Jerkass of a father, cheerfully telling him that now that the Zodiac curse has been broken and Kyo is free, it's time they had a little talk about Kyo's future. Kyo's father looks like he's pissing himself in fear. It's Played for Laughs, but given the psychological abuse the father heaped on Kyo (at one point he accuses Kyo of trying to kill him for standing too close to him), it's very much a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • In How I Became a Pokémon Card, a Dragonite goes on a wild rampage when he thought his son was kidnapped by humans.
  • Not even a freaking typhoon could stop Kenzan Takakura from getting medical attention for his ill daughter Himari. And he still had enough pluck to shield one of his sons, Kanba, from a falling lamp. And had his other son Shouma been there, he would've protect the kid too.
  • In Happy Yarou Wedding, Yuuhi is very much one. Because his own childhood was so lonely he wants to give Shouta the best childhood he can and is fiercely protective over him.
  • Kotetsu T. Kaburagi of Tiger and Bunny may have a strained relationship with his daughter, Kaede, due to his job as a superhero (which she isn't aware of) meaning that he has to spend a lot of time away from home, but he's not about to let anything harm his little girl. This is showcased when he lifts a collapsed tree to save Kaede from a collapsing shrine even when his powers run out, and later, when Maverick has a gun to Kaede's head, Kotetsu reveals himself to be Not Quite Dead and punches Maverick in the face.
  • James of Pokémon fame is rather protective of his Pokémon in the Sinnoh arc, especially Mime Jr. (which is a baby Pokemon, by the way). Sometimes he goes as far as teaming up with Ash and company just to keep them safe. Oh, and when Jessie and Meowth refused to help out one of those times, he attacked them.
    • Ash himself counts too. Countless times, he has put his life on the line without hesitation to save his pokemon.
  • The titular Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka who goes through great lengths to protect his students. In fact, you don't even have to be his student. He will rescue you anyways. This includes getting shot multiple times in an attempt to rescue a school girl (who happened to be trying to discredit him as a teacher) he saw being kidnapped while on his way to take an exam.
  • Sai Nanohara from Jubei Chan is almost always a Bumbling Dad, but once he learns that his daughter Jiyu is the reincarnation and Soul Jar of Yagyu Jubei, he decides not to stay aside and does what he can to help her. In fact, his first Papa Wolf act was calling out Yagyu Jubei himself upon his treatment of Jiyu. To Jubei's very face. And in the Grand Finale of the first season, Sai also manages to give Jiyu/Jubei a Cooldown Hug to dispossess her from Jubei's influence, putting himself at great risk to do so.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple gives us a number of examples. The most prominent ones are Hayato Furinji, who's a Grandpa Wolf for his biological granddaughter Miu and also for Kenichi to a degree; Sakaki Shio and Apachai Hopachai, two of the Ryozanpakou masters who train Kenichi and will go all-out to protect him if he's in serious trouble; and most recently the Big Bad himself, Saiga Furinji, who joined Kenichi's group in disguise to rescue the kidnapped Miu, his daughter.
  • Guts from Berserk acts like this toward the Cute Witch Schierke, and toward his True Companions in general. Ironically, he doesn't act too much like this toward his insinuated son, the mysterious Moonchild, but most likely because Casca won't let Guts near the little boy or because whenever the Child does appear, larger than normal battle shit happens and they never spend any "quality" time together. However, when the latter happens, the roles get switched.
  1. ↑ And yet people do it again... and again...and again...
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