Cute Mute



The Cute Mute has an appearance that's innocent to a fault. Whatever situation that causes their inability to speak probably also gives them that clueless, childlike demeanor. Unlikely to know or grasp social conventions, they will often be found innocently doing incredibly awkward things that will wind up spelling trouble for the other characters.

Lack of speaking alone does not qualify a character for this trope. Someone who can't speak but otherwise doesn't fit the trope is The Speechless. Someone who can speak but is never shown to do so onscreen is The Voiceless.

Anime & Manga

 * Chii from Chobits. She learns to speak soon enough, but is still an exemplar of the trope (her first word aside from "Chii?" is "Panties").
 * A little subversion, however, occurs when one rather mean spirited character comments on Chii's being named after her Verbal Tic, accusing Hideki of degrading Chii by naming her in the same way someone names a dog 'Spot', for instance.
 * Lucy's "Nyu" self from Elfen Lied.
 * Clare from Claymore starts out this way.
 * Mone from Yumeria.
 * Chibi Chibi from Sailor Moon, named for the only sound she could produce. She literally was otherwordly, in the sense of Not of This Earth. She was actually a child, though. (Well, in the manga, she was older than she seemed. And in the anime, she was... well, let's not get into how drastically her origins were changed.)
 * Suzuho Hasegawa from Macademi Wasshoi is completely mute when her Midnight Blue Vampire personality is dormant.
 * Rin from Inuyasha had been mute since the trauma of losing her parents, but she grew out of this quickly when she became Sesshoumaru's Morality Pet.
 * Cynthia from Hanaukyo Maid Tai.
 * Oshino Shinobu, the tiny ruined vampire from Bakemonogatari is supposed to be voiced by Aya Hirano. Whether or not this is true we have no idea, as she still hasn't uttered a sound. She spends most of her time sitting in a corner, apparently sulking. She's adorable, especially when drinking blood.
 * As of episode 4 of Nisemonogatari, she breaks her silence and reveals herself to be really talkative. Oh yeah, she's voiced by Maaya Sakamoto now.
 * Hatsumi from Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito. Subverted; she actually can talk at times, and is nowhere near as innocent or cute as she first appears.
 * Poor Casca from Berserk went insane after  during the Eclipse and was reduced to having the mental capacities of a two-year-old. Interestingly, "mental capacities of a two-year-old" extends to more than just her speech; she has a tendency to put things in her mouth, like pearls... and Puck.
 * She also has a bad tendency to wander after anything that catches her eye, making her former lover's task of protecting her much more difficult, though as Guts learns in the Millennium Falcon arc,.
 * Might depend on what translation you read, but Casca seems to only be able to say one coherent words: "no".
 * Subverted by Meru Otonashi from Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. Innocent-looking and too shy to talk, she communicates by using her cellphone to send people horribly abusive text messages. On one occasion when her phone lost its signal, she began jabbering in a way that another character interpreted as Demonic Possession.
 * Shion, the lead character of Shion no Ou, lost her voice after her parents were killed in front of her, communicating via a notepad and pen she carries around with her.
 * Rita Rossi from Ashita no Nadja.
 * Lirio from El Cazador de la Bruja. She only talked in one scene, and in that she was possessed by a witch so that the witch could communicate with the heroes.
 * Elaine from Genocyber was the mind of a feral animal and therefore can't speak. She is very friendly and protective towards those who show her kindness, at least in her human form.
 * Mizuna Kuraki from Moonlight Lady apparently cannot speak, although she tries mouthing her name.
 * Kisa Sohma from Fruits Basket is mute for a bit when she first appears in the story, as a side effect of school bullying. Soon, she recovers from this with the help of Tohru and Yuki.
 * Moeka from Steins;Gate. She is very uncomfortable speaking to people directly, and prefers to use her cell phone to communicate.
 * Len from Tsukihime speaks a grand total of twice (one of those a single word) in the 2 games she's been in.
 * Pokémon Heroes: Latias in human form fits this trope much better than any other Pokemon. She's very pretty, acts strange and childlike, and doesn't speak at all (not even Pokemon Speech), Though she does make crooning and trilling noises and occasionally says "la" in Pokemon form.
 * Egypt from Axis Powers Hetalia is often mistaken as one by other nations, since he's very quiet. (Which is illogical to anyone who's studied the history of the country, but there you go...)
 * Potemayo's vocabulary mainly consists of "Honi, honi", but she picks up a few words as the series progresses. This is better than Guchuko, who can't form words.
 * Fujino from the H-manga and anime Hatsu Inu Strange Kind Of Woman is a bit of a subversion of this trope in that she isn't mute, nor particularly shy, just strangely quiet by nature. Parts of the manga delve into how difficult it is to have a relationship with her given how quiet she is, but given that she's a full-blown nymphomaniac too, it quickly becomes a moot point. It doesn't stop her from being insanely adorable, though.
 * Nill from DOGS Bullets and Carnage. Her being mute is the result of being genetically engineered tp have features attractive to fetishists for the purpose of prostitution (her pair of tiny wings), but the method to engineer such things is inexact and often leaves the subjects missing something (in her case, her voice).
 * Saya from Peacemaker Kurogane.
 * Flandre of Princess Resurrection only says "Huga", but Hime seems to understand what she is saying. Likewise with the rest of Flandre's "siblings". Played straight wither a "Mermaid" character (No name given, she simply called that) who lost her voice and got stuck on a ship until she turned into a Blood Warrior after saving one of the characters (she could only use her voice once and would've dies afterward).
 * Subverted in Cyborg 009. 0013 is a chubby but still kinda cute-looking boy with Hidden Eyes who speaks through telepathy and acts cheerful and innocent... until he has to fight 009 and reveals himself as a Kid with the Leash of a HUGE robot.
 * Chane Laforet from Baccano!. Her fiance,, even lists her muteness as one of her Charm Points -- though he does manage to carry some impressively long conversations with her regardless, thanks to the frequent use of yes/no questions.
 * Lily Strosek of Magical War Chronicle Lyrical Nanoha Force, a Mysterious Waif that appears to be something similar to the first Reinforce. Seems to only be capable of communicating through telepathic thoughts. Flashbacks later reveal that she used to be able to speak, but the trauma during her time confined as a lab experiment rendered her mute.
 * Tama from Omamori Himari. However, she brutally subverts this trope.
 * Lin from Fist of the North Star begins the series as this, having witnessed her parents being murdered by bandits right before her eyes. Kenshiro restores her speech by using a Hokuto Shinken healing technique.
 * Rose from Fullmetal Alchemist, after, refuses to speak until near the end of the anime. She thankfully doesn't suffer this in the manga and Brotherhood.
 * Princess Rena from Onihime VS never speaks. However, she does get by with Talking with Signs.
 * You'd hardly believe it, but Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion spent some time like this after the Second Impact
 * temporarily becomes one in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime,.
 * Ren from DearS is on the same approximate wavelength as Chi from Chobits, above.
 * Celty from Durarara is an interesting take on this one. Because she doesn't have a head, she of course can't speak or communicate using facial expressions, but she can communicate well enough by typing things out on a cellphone or computer. (Her roommate Shinra can tell what she's thinking or trying to say just from her body language, though – as Celty puts it, he "can read the expressions on the face I don't have.") Celty also thoroughly averts the "clueless or childlike" stereotype; she's very intelligent and fully understands what's going on around her, and her twenty-odd years spent in Japan have given her a pretty thorough understanding of Japanese social norms. She is very cute, though, just not in the innocent, childish way you would normally expect.
 * Lycoris from the .hack novel AI Buster is mute when she first appears.
 * Anna Mouri from Devil and Her Love Song. Slightly a subversion, because, as commented by the main character, she's bold enough to use her inability to speak as a weapon.
 * Mayu Morita from Morita-san wa Mukuchi rarely speaks. She's also cute and has some ditzy moments.
 * Ohri from Gestalt. A manic slave girl, she's cute, ditsy and unable to speak: instead, she lampshades her fantasy origins by making a text box appear straight under her bust and making some accompaning noises to catch the main character's attention. She also plays on her condition to get enrolled in the main cast, convincing Oliver (the protagonist) that she's too cute and helpless to survive on her own, and likely to be sold to a less caring individual. However.
 * Natsume's mother from Master of Martial Hearts. Your average MILF, caring and lovely. Mute due to an unspecified accident in the past, she communicates by sign language, using her kids as a proxy. Subverted as.
 * Played for Drama in Bleach, when  As years pass   begins to talk normally, but the psychological consequences have completely screwed   up...

Comic Books

 * Batgirl Cassandra Cain.
 * Also DC-related is Jericho from the Teen Titans. Though male and fluent in American sign language, he is quite adorable. His role on the team is much bigger in the comic than the cartoon, where he only joins the Final Battle with the other classic Titans. But in the comic, he is the son of Deathstroke (Slade, who actually loved his son like a normal father), and had a relationship with Raven. Sadly, his cuteness eroded after he underwent a Face Heel Turn, driven insane by his mutant power of possession.

Film - Animated
"Snow White: You mean he can't talk?
 * The title character of The Little Mermaid is one of these (magically-induced) for much of the story and film. In Andersen's original story, the loss of her voice is permanent.
 * Boo in Disney and Pixar's Monsters, Inc. Through the movie, she learns Mike Wazowski's name.
 * Dumbo, the eponymous character from the Disney movie, is a mute protagonist. It works surprisingly well, since he's particularly expressive and he has talkative friends. It also helps that the little guy is essentially an infant/toddler for the whole movie so it makes a bit more sense for him to be The Voiceless.
 * Dopey, the cutest of the (Disney) Seven Dwarfs. It's noted that they aren't sure whether he's actually mute.

Happy: We don't know -- he's never tried!"


 * 3 and 4 of 9. They never talk, but they seem to communicate to each other in clicks and flashes from their eyes and at least one of them can use their eyes as a projector. 9 himself also starts out as one of these.
 * WALL-E can manage only a few sounds and words, and is indisputably cute!
 * Tack and the Thief from The Thief and the Cobbler was this, at least in the original story. When the film was purchased by another company before the original creator could finish it, it was turned into a musical and Tack along with the Thief were given voices. Most fans of the original tend to think that's one of the worst edits the new company made.
 * In Disney's Peter Pan, Tinkerbell doesn't speak, but only jingles like, well, bells.
 * It is later revealed in her own movies, Tinkerbell does speak, but to humans it sounds like the jingling of bells It's actually quite clever if you think about it - we actually don't know her language, that and there are is a lot of comedic potential for her miming as well. It's a Running Gag in Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson's adaptations.

Film - Live Action

 * Adorable little Max from Orphan, justified by the fact that she is born stone deaf.
 * Calvin from the movie Scrooged fits. He hasn't spoken since he saw his father killed. But at the end of the movie he reminds the reformed Frank Cross to say "God bless us, every one."
 * Bumblebee from the Transformers Film Series. Also, the hilarious(-ly nasty) Frenzy, though he did get subtitles when speaking Cybertronian.
 * Zetha from Mystery Science Theater 3000 fodder movie The Phantom Planet fits this one to a "T." At a young age, Zetha's family was murdered in front of her eyes by an evil alien. Rather than become Batman, though, Zetha simply became mute for at least a decade until the main character of the movie bumbled into her life... oh, and that same alien tried to kill her again. Because that helps, apparently.
 * Madeline/Frigga of Thriller - A Cruel Picture, AKA "They Call Her One-Eye".
 * Fon, Nicolas Cage's love interest in the 2008 version of Bangkok Dangerous.
 * The Guns of Navarone. Anna, the Resistance fighter who's also.
 * Burt Lancaster had a childhood friend, Nick Cravat, who appeared in several of Lancaster's movies. Cravat was never able to get rid of his thick Brooklyn accent, so he communicated by mime when in a movie where the accent would be inappropriate. He often seemed on the verge of stealing the show -- one review described him as miming his way into the audience's hearts.
 * Harpo Marx, pictured, most notably in Duck Soup. He can't talk at all, and instead talks in horns, which leads to probably the most clever scene he's ever done where he is able to carry on a phone conversation by honking horns in such a way that it sounds like replies.
 * Edward in Veronika Decides To Die (probably in the book as well, but I haven't read it).
 * Helen, the protagonist of The Spiral Staircase. Which really is a problem because there's a Serial Killer on the loose who targets disabled women.
 * Nova from Planet of the Apes.
 * The Ice Cream Lady in Kung Fu Hustle, who also
 * Rocky from The Rocky Horror Picture Show has no spoken dialogue, though he can sing. The stage version sometimes has him speak, at one point telling Frank to "Piss off".
 * A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has Gymnasia, a beautiful and quick-witted slave from the Island of Silent Women. (She's pretty handy with weapons, too.) Pseudolus knows her sign language because his childhood nanny was a Silent Woman.
 * Used in Love Potion no. 9. When the female lead, Diane, gets a sample of the Love Potion no. 8, she receives the power of a Compelling Voice, of a sexual nature and working only with the opposite sex. Upon entrancing a rich mook, to avoid the potential hassles of being chased, harassed or desired by every single man at her speaking distance, she cleverly puts the mook under the assumption she just enjoys "play the mute game", that is using a simplified form of sign language while in public, and letting him graciously act as her mouthpiece
 * In the little-known Jackie Gleason film Gigot, the title character is a fine example.

Literature

 * Fengxia in To Live becomes mute after suffering from a fever.
 * Subversion in the sci-fi Greatwinter Trilogy. Darien is a strong-willed, incredibly intelligent, powerful, competent woman, who simply happens to be unable to speak. One character seems to see her as this kind of character, though, and she uses it to her great advantage.
 * In Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits" / "La Casa de Los Espíritus", female lead Clara del Valle goes mute at the age of nine, traumatised after her older sister Rosa's death (which she blames herself for). Even when she gets over said trauma, Clara voluntarily refuses to speak from then on - until she announces, during her eighteenth birthday party, that she wants to marry Rosa's former fiancée, male lead Esteban Trueba.
 * Allende also wrote the novel-biography of Zorro, in which Bernardo (Zorro's best friend/sidekick) went mute after his mother was raped and murdered. Diego can understand him without words, and sometimes fills in his dialogue. Somewhat justified as Bernardo was mute in some of the original Zorro stories.
 * Errand, the little boy in the Belgariad, is initially capable of only saying the word "Errand", which is why the party takes to calling him that. It's explained that when Zedar found him, all he said was "I have an errand for you, boy"; Errand repeated the one word and followed him. Over the next two books, he learns more words, but he can only say one-word sentences. After the Time Skip between the Belgariad and the Malloreon, he learns how to speak properly.
 * Subverted by Flute in the Elenium trilogy; she appears to be one of these at first but is really
 * in the Malloreon his real name is revealed to be
 * Lise Acquin in the French novel Sans Famille by Hector Malot (and the media coming from it, like the movies and the two anime series). Remi, the vagabond child protagonist, who becomes close to her, learns that it's not permanent and she'll eventually recover if she's, for example, faced by a violent emotion. They get separated a few months later as the Acquins is scattered after her father is put in a debt prison, and Remi going back to wandering as none of Lise's uncles and aunt can take him with them..
 * The title character of George MacDonald's novel Wee Sir Gibbie of the Highlands.
 * Miette from Malevil. A birth defect made her mute and she is young, beautiful, and exceptionally kind. She doesn't know any sign language so all of her communication comes from pantomime.
 * Seoyun from The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

Live Action TV

 * Marina, the amphibious humanoid girl from Stingray, is mute but highly resourceful. (In an official original cast audio episode, originally issued on vinyl and available on the DVD release, it is revealed that .)
 * The eponymous humanoid alien woman in Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Empath."
 * Raj from The Big Bang Theory isn't actually mute, but he can't talk to women unless he's drunk. Women seem to think this is endearing.
 * The slave girl Eirene from Rome is this in her first few episodes. Justified because she doesn't speak Latin (yet) and is understandably terrified of her masters pretty much all of the time. The trope probably plays a big part in Titus Pullo's attraction to her, and may be the reason why he doesn't treat her like he usually treats women.
 * Cassie Chan, the Pink Ranger from Power Rangers in Space. Usually your average Action Girl and Asian Airhead, she turns into that in the aptly named Silence Is Golden episode, because she's forewarned that her enemies and trope namers Psycho Rangers are pursuing her, tracking the sound of her voice. A weird and long series of unfortunate events force her to keep communicating by pantomimes and cutish expressions, until a falling Baby Carriage forces her to break her self-imposed vow of silence.
 * A brief example in Cassandra from Stargate SG-1, who first appears as the only survivor of a plague unleashed by the Goa'uld Niirti. Once she spends some time at the SGC in the company of Dr. Frasier and Samantha Carter, though, she gets over the trauma enough to start talking again. Ever since, she's been able to talk just fine. No arguments on the cute part, though.
 * Kankoo, one of the lead characters in the Indian telefilm Shorr. The youngest member of a traditional Indian family, Kankoo is a young adult woman, cute as a button and mute. Not voiceless, but she uses only a lot of Voice Grunting and made up Hand Signals to get along.

Music

 * Noodle from Gorillaz, who knew only one English word when she first arrived (guess which one) but later recovered English along with a bunch of other unpleasant memories.

Theatre

 * Susan in Finian's Rainbow can dance, but can't speak.
 * Toby from Gian-Carlo Menotti's The Medium.

Video Games

 * 'Lady' from Shadow Hearts: From The New World is about as direct a subversion as you're gonna get. She never speaks, is an Emotionless Girl, can inspire love in the heart of a sociopathic psycho named 'Killer', and was not so much Raised by Wolves, as not raised at all. She can also kill you with a flick of her wrist, and probably will, just because you happen to be there.
 * Yone from Suikoden Tactics plays it fairly straight, being both cute and otherworldly.
 * In Suikoden II, Pilika is rendered mute when Luca Blight slaughters her entire town.
 * Not true. Pilika was shut away at the time and didn't witness the slaughter - only the aftermath, which left her rather traumatized. ...Then Luca came back, cut Poll in two from chest to neck in front of her, and then seemed to be seriously considering doing the same to her before the fort exploded around them and the main characters pulled her out. That little experience, on top of her still pretty fragile state, rendered her mute right up until almost the end of the story. Did I mention Pilika's what? Eight? And then Shu distracts a squad of crossbowmen by lobbing her across their line of sight, just as they're about to fire on the main characters....
 * Pilika is actually five.
 * Nina from Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.
 * When the hero asks for her name, it takes all of Nina's strength and energy to squeak out "Ni...na." Makes sense when you realize
 * Mila in Hotel Dusk: Room 215.
 * Amy Sorel in Soul Calibur III, though it's probably not intentional. As a playable character, she only says "Amy." This is because when she appears in Raphael's ending, the only other part of the game she appears besides being playable, that's all she says. Apparently her voice actress was too lazy to record any more lines...
 * It's mentioned in Raphael's biography in II and III that Amy tends to be extremely quiet, so she's more like a young, female stoic in that case.
 * In Soul Calibur IV, however, she actually has lines... and sounds rather like Wednesday Addams meets Lydia Dietz (the movie version, not the cheerier cartoon version). Considering that she's been depicted as a Loli-Goth in both III and IV, it fits.
 * Garnet/Dagger from Final Fantasy IX becomes mute for a time after  However, while she doesn't speak during this part of the game, the player is still treated to her endless internal monologues.
 * It should be noted that this even affects her gameplay. As one of the game's two White Mage/Summoners, her inner turmoil sometimes prevents her from concentrating and makes her skip a turn. At least it wasn't treated like the 'Silence' ailment.
 * Midori from Xenogears, who is Citan's adorable little daughter, is not technically mute, but she is extremely sparse with words. One theory is that she carries out most of her communication telepathically.
 * Primera, Billy Black's little sister is also mute
 * Keria from Harvest Moon DS (and DS Cute) is mute. She communicates by writing messages on a sign (in the English version, she writes in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe). However, one event between her and the Witch Princess lets her speak briefly; in his Internal Monologue, the hero remarks, "It's nice to know Keira talks like that."
 * Pleinair, the mascot of the artist from the Disgaea (and most other Nippon Ichi) games.
 * Meute the mermaid from Riviera the Promised Land.
 * Astral in Ghost Hunter. Lovely astral form dressed only in a thin sheet.
 * In Mitsumete Knight,  gets hit hard by this trope near the end of the game, as  . She can get partially better if the Asian stays by her side and visits her each week-end at the Hospital : she'll then get her voice back, but won't be able to sing as her voice is too rough and low..
 * Marc, Ed Brown's adopted white son in Policenauts, was traumatized after his real father, a drugged-up ex-cop, murdered his mother in front of him.
 * In Alpha Protocol, Sis, who is Albatross' personal bodyguard.
 * Sona from League of Legends is completely mute, but communicates with her summoner via telepathy. The muteness is only really noticeable when you try using emotes.
 * Claudia, from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Cute and innocent as the trope allows. She can't speak, but she can use telepathy to express herself. And she does. A lot.
 * Dark Souls has Anastacia of Astora, one of the world's important firekeepers. For unknown but likely horrible reasons, her tongue was cut out. There is a way to restore her ability to speak, but even then she considers it sinful.

Visual Novels

 * Shizune from Katawa Shoujo is an aversion, while she is cute and mute. She has a very forceful personality and is even the Ms. Fanservice of her game.
 * Evidence seems contradictory on whether or not Shizune is actually, physically mute (as the developers claim) or merely would rather avoid speaking since it'd probably make her sound bad (being deaf), as some scenes seem to hint at her being able to vocalize after all.

Web Animation

 * Several episodes from Neurotically Yours featured a character who never said a word, but is one of the few characters that Foamy actually does not have a problem with.
 * Not to mention her first appearance, oddly enough titled Cute Mute.
 * "Mime" from Happy Tree Friends.

Webcomics

 * Dawn of Time: The titular Dawn is a slight variant, in that we rarely understand what she's saying when she does speak. Her Speech Bubbles are simply filled with Peanuts-like tick marks.
 * Emm from The Wisdom Of Moo. The title "character" is the cow hand puppet she uses to do all her talking.
 * Little Dee from the eponymous comic. She's young, but not that young.
 * Faye Eolande from Amya Chronicles is so much this that she must carry paper and pen with her, and apparently loves visiting the odd stationary shop to get more.
 * Glory from Desparate Angels.
 * Violet from Voices only communicates by projecting text with her ability.
 * Bittersweet Candy Bowl, Amaya never talks for us. Apparently, she can talk, though. Still cute.
 * The main character from Snuggleninja never talks. There are captions but they are simply his thoughts.
 * Mim of Webcomics United was simply born mute. She usually gets her point across with either gestures, expressions or a precision strike kiss(on her boyfriend, that is).

Web Original

 * Dawn Beckworth from Survival of the Fittest, mute and most certainly cute. Although not particularly supernatural.
 * Tasakeru:
 * The Nostalgia Critic has been traumatized into silence a few times. As for him being cute, Spoony certainly seems to think so.
 * Magibon.

Western Animation

 * Gadgeteer Genius (and Genius Cripple, actually) Bernardo from Zorro: Generation Z, named for a character by the same name in old-school Zorro, like many characters. He communicates via actual sign language, though he rarely uses it with Diego - they know each other so well it's not needed, and it actually takes a couple of episodes to realize that Bernardo can't talk, as opposed to there simply being a Running Gag of Diego answering his own questions and not letting Bernardo get a word in.
 * Phineas and Ferb had Meap who was the cutest thing ever, was an alien, and could only say Meap. But at the end of the episode, he gains a mustache that allows him to speak English or any other language in the universe. Somehow, saying Meap over and over is an actual language somewhere in space.
 * Clearly you've never seen The Tick, or else you'd know that the Heys and the Whats have equally efficient languages.
 * In Transformers Prime, Bumblebee takes after his movieverse counterpart. However, while movie Bumblebee speaks in canned sound clips from TV, radio, etc., Prime Bumblebee speaks in electronic sounds in a manner similar to R2-D2 (or perhaps a Mini-con.) The genius 12-year-old can understand him.
 * Game-changing character Bit in We Are Our Avatars started out as one of these, then . Tails Doll is only able to be understand by a small list of people, considering he speaks in Mmphs.
 * Horace the ferret from My Gym Partner's a Monkey.