Creator's Pet/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • In Axis Powers Hetalia, every character who has interacted with Japan seems to likes him, except Switzerland, who is indifferent to pretty much everything.
    • Mind you, apart from their...differences, all the Countries seem to like each other (apart from maybe Sealand, who was an in-Universe Scrappy in Paint It White).
  • Beyblade: Daichi in the the later season. Basically a exaggerated Copy Cat Sue of Tyson with a very irritating voice who gets just as much spotlight, leaving Max, Rey and Kai with less screentime.
  • Bleach: In the Invading Army arc, Nozomi has come to be considered this. She has Rukia's personality crossed with Orihime's healing abilities, which rendered both ladies utterly useless to the plot (they go for entire episodes without any lines). Despite her status as a modsoul, she has a zanpakuto with an ability that's essentially a modified version of Yumichika's Ruri'ro Kujaku. How modified is it? She can one-shot two bankai-wielding captains and absorb multiple lieutenant-level abilities without reaching her limit. What else? She can make the Plucky Comic Relief fall in love with her and become a serious character, she can tell Yamamoto himself how to fight, and fight better than him to the extent of saving his life, she can analyze and instantly defeat Kyoraku's shadow ability... so far, we haven't seen anything she can't do. She even fulfills the role of the Mary Sue of the Heroic Sacrifice type, having obviously been set up as such from the start of the arc. To ensure the perfect Heroic Sacrifice, she actually breaks the arc's own established rules on how swiftly modsouls die to ensure the canon characters can all swoon suitably over her heroism as they focus on how much she meant to them as she slowly fades away.
  • Code Geass has Rolo, who the creators seem to have a massive fondness for over many other better liked characters. Subverted when he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap via an awesome yet heart-wrenching Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Darker than Black: Suou Pavlichenko in the second season. She gets much more attention than the original protagonist, which is particularly jarring since his personality has changed drastically (and not for the better) with the explanation relegated to the OVAs released with the DVDs. Suou herself doesn't have a very distinctive personality and is often used as a vehicle for lolicon subtext and fanservice, alienating viewers who aren't interested. Some go so far as to say she singlehandedly ruined what could have been an interesting story; others just feel some of her screentime could have been better spent focusing on established major characters like Yin, Hei, or Kirihara.
    • And some, missing another recurring female character who gets in on the action, or just someone who actually has to deal with becoming a contractor, like her.
    • Also, just just look at that gun.
      • She also breaks what being a contractor is like as she goes back and forth between being a contractor and a regular girl. Shes Magical Girl in a setting that doesn't have them.
  • D.Gray-man has developed their own Creator's Pet in the form of Johnny. Initially a very minor and forgettable character that would appear among the other members of the Science Department. But clearly through the power of the mangaka's love, Johnny's role in the manga increased tenfold after the arc with Noah's Ark, appearing more in the manga than the second main protagonists Lavi and Lenalee. And while he is supposed to be a normal human, he seems to live through several near death experiences and injuries that are fatal to more minor characters, much to the chagrin to the fanbase. When he isn't nearly dying, he is crying or thinking about Allen Walker (the main protagonist) in a very obsessive way. We're also supposed to assume that Allen and Johnny are close friends, though this friendship was never seen developed on screen even though 80-90% of the manga focuses on Allen's life and experiences in the Order. To find a fan who loves Johnny is extremely rare in the fanbase, most seem to simply wish for him to go away and for Hoshino to remember she has other characters.
  • Dragon Ball gives us Broly. Not so much for his anime appearances (Though he does show in 3 movies, getting more ridiculous on each of them), where he's more of a Base Breaker. However, he certainly qualifies for his video game roles, where he keeps on getting more and more absurd stuff to do (Bonus Boss on a game that covers waaay before he even makes sense to show up in? Sure! Super Saiyan 3 transformation? Why not! And have him in every game!). Note Americans love him, so he doesn't count on there, but on other places, especially Japan (where mocking him is a meme), he's this.
  • Agon of Eyeshield 21 became this to many fans during the World Cup. To elaborate, Agon's original purpose was to be the Heel of the series. While every other antagonist was a lovably quirky Worthy Opponent, Agon was a completely unsympathetic Jerk Jock. Unfortunately, it seemed that Inagaki and Murata found his character to be Faux Affably Evil and was thus promoted to Token Evil Teammate, and the was Character Focus of the arc (sharing the position with Gao). Regardless of whether you hated him, loved him, or loved to hate him, pretty much all fans agree that Agon shouldn't have gotten as much attention as he did (even more then the main character).
  • Jellal from Fairy Tail. It's obvious that the author Mashima likes him, as he's the only character except for Natsu, Lucy and Happy to consistently appear and play a role in every arc of the series. For more details on why he is so hated, check The Scrappy or Broken Base.
    • Though he's not the straightest of examples, since while the author has admited that Jellal is one of his favorites, he also does have about as many fans as he does haters.
  • F-Zero: GP Legend: Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler was considered this by a good deal of the Western half of the fanbase. The show practically pushed the characters from the game into the sidelines to show how cool Rick was, among other things. While the show never got past episode 15 being dubbed in North America, the ending of the series -in which he assumes the mantle of Captain Falcon after the one in the show makes a heroic sacrifice- didn't endear him to fans at all. Nintendo has since scrubbed his existence from record and only acknowledges the F-Zero series up until GX.
  • Inuyasha: Parts of the fandom viewed Anime-only creation Princess Sara as it rewrote canon to happen as a story about the one person who managed to love Sesshoumaru (canon: three people did: Rin, Jaken, Kagura). A pure-hearted girl willingly turns into a demon via Naraku's method (canon: only an evil heart can do this). The demon made stealing Tessaiga look easy (canon: if it was that easy, Sesshoumaru would have succeeded by now). Toujikin can't hurt the demon because it's a hate-filled sword (canon: Toukijin's hate is what makes it a powerful youkai-killer). Kagome's sacred arrows make the demon stronger instead of injuring it (canon: impossible, sacred arrows = purification = youkai death). Only Tessaiga can harm the demon. Sesshoumaru never met the girl before she became a demon (she was a Stalker with a Crush he once distantly heard the flute of), and spent most of the time dealing with the demon's personal vendetta against him (reason never given). The girl randomly starts fighting the demon control, asking Sesshoumaru to save her which Sesshoumaru (randomly compassionate) does by defying Tessaiga's barrier (canon: he can't do this) to injure the demon and free her soul. In short, creator heaven, canon hell.
  • Keroro Gunso: Joriri, an anime exclusive character. An annoying, one note joke, poor role model who apparently taught many lessons to the young Keroro and friends. Did we mention he wasn't mentioned until 150 + episodes in? Fans tolerated his presence in the fan favorite flashback episodes...until he appeared in the present, bumming it in the base. That officially graduated him into Creator's Pet territory.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: Many of the members of the Kirby fandom love the games but absolutely despise the anime, in part because it's only loosely based on the games, and partly because it adds a new character, Fumu (named Tiff in the dub), who essentially steals the spotlight away from Kirby so she can occasionally deliver environmentalist messages, and since Kirby is only a baby in the anime, she practically has to tell him what to do. Had the anime been about Kirby and not this ridiculous new character from nowhere... well, it'd probably be much better off.
  • Macross Frontier: Ranka Lee, and to a certain extent Sheryl Nome as well. The show's director Kawamori is notorious for his love of Ranka, but his enthusiasm only seems to make her more and more unlikeable. On the flip side, the writer Yoshino is a self-professed Sheryl fanatic. His bias has been criticized as the cause of the extreme contrast between Sheryl's favorable portrayal against Ranka's not-so-positive image. As the accusation goes, Yoshino wanted to promote his pet character Sheryl, so he makes Ranka a selfish obnoxious brat, and turns Sheryl into a mature and perfect Mary Sue.
  • Pokémon often has a problem in balancing the screen time of the titular creatures. Ash used to be criticized for his overuse of Pikachu back in the day but Piplup is the most blatant Creator's Pet, being constantly forced as the secondary mascot of the series while Dawn's other Pokemon rarely get a chance to shine. Still, for what it's worth, Piplup's over-exposure on the show has also cemented him as the very definition of the Butt Monkey when it comes to the Pokemon themselves.
    • May's Squirtle in the Battle Frontier arc had elements of this as well. Despite being an untrained baby, it knew moves that it shouldn't, won battles that it shouldn't, and stole screentime away from all of her other Pokemon. And among long-time viewers, it certainly didn't help that Ash used to have a Squirtle of his own, except his wasn't a Mary Sue and had a much more interesting personality.
    • Even if he's been eclipsed by Piplup and Squirtle, the original God Mode Chu still had a bit of this. Being the most overexposed character in the history of the world and not following the rules of the video games rubs many people the wrong way.
    • Ash's Oshawott loves his time in the spotlight and usually tries to take it whenever a chance arises. Like Piplup above, this has a tendency to gloriously backfire.
    • Trainer wise, Paul is seen as this to being a Base Breaker by his haters and for good reasons. This status is mainly obtained because the writer of the Sinnoh arc stated he was his favorite character and as a result, Paul got away with everything from abusing his Pokemon, to showing poor sportsmanship and doing psychological damage to some trainers on the way that rendered the trainer unable to battle for a certain amount of episodes (Maylene and Ash). He's also praised by characters (Cynthia being the most notorious example) with high strength and is told that he has a different training method instead of calling him out on being an abusive trainer. One can easily say that his haters have a huge reason to hate him but his fans will ignore his actions and try to justify them and bash Ash's new rival for replacing Paul.
  • Also Ryoma from The Prince of Tennis exhibits many Mary Sue traits, God Mode Sue and Jerk Sue specially, as many fans of the series aknowledge him as Konomi's pet character.
  • The Slayers has Pokota, a Bratty Half-Pint trapped in a Ridiculously Cute Critter form and who has an angsty backstory. His personality was said to be based on a character who appeared later on in the Light Novels. This might not have been so bad (though he IS still annoying), but Pokota just so happens to be a Black Mage on par with Lina Inverse and a Magic Knight wielding a replica of the Sword of Light. These two things, plus his bratty behavior and the fact that the plot of Slayers Revolution all but revolves around him definitely makes him a contender for being a Creator's Pet. The worst thing is that while many "guest stars" in the Slayers anime do share similar traits (Filia could be annoying and Xellos has power levels equal to that of a God Mode Sue), Pokota largely isn't *funny* in a comedy show and yet gets a lot of screen time, a strong sign of a Creator's Pet.
    • There's also Filia, the Holier Than Thou golden dragon from the third season; all four protagonists were put Out of Focus for her sake (or for the sake of the villains and their mooks). However, she's widely loved by a large portion of fans, particularly in the west, because she more or less replaces the demure Shrinking Violet shrine maiden Sylphiel (see Real Women Never Wear Dresses and Die for Our Ship)
    • Lina herself, at least to the Light Novel illustrator. Because of the prominence of the prequel novels, Lina gets a ton more artwork than her allies do (there are virtually no new art pieces featuring Zelgadis and Amelia, other than a throwaway cameo in the fifth Slayers Smash novel), and recently, the artist has upped Lina's fanservice status to the point that her nipples are visible in every drawing, regardless of how modest her outfit is.
  • Sonic X: Chris Thorndyke. From the second episode onward, Sonic was reduced to a minor supporting character who hardly speaks, while all the attention was on Chris. Characters will only be praised for saving the day if Chris played a part in it, however little (and he'll always be given even praise to the one who did all the work). The way he obsesses over Sonic makes even Amy's attraction look perfectly normal. He also completely usurped Amy's role of Shadow's conscience in the Sonic Adventure 2 adaption, so that he could hog more of the spotlight at the expense of not allowing Amy to show her Hidden Depths.
  • Berry Shirayuki (a.k.a. Berry Sue) from the Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode manga. This was not helped by invoking the very rare instances of replacing a Shoujo series' star character without giving the series an explicit Retool. Not helped was that the manga was not written by the original creator and gelled so badly with the original that most people relegate it to Fanon Discontinuity.
  • Transformers Armada: Alexis, Rad and Carlos lived somewhere between Damsel Scrappy and The Kid with the Remote Control for most of the series, then quickly spiraled into Creator's Pet territory when they used their Super Special Awesome powers of Mini-Con communication to single-handedly bring down planet-eating Big Bad Unicron.
  • Aya in Weiss Kreuz. Most likely because his creator is also his voice actor. It just makes sense! Giving Aya more to do means more shiny spotlights for himself.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Johan/Jesse Anderson was the first undisputed Creator's Pet (not to mention Marty Stu) of the franchise, stealing the spotlight from Judai's friends and becoming the secondary protagonist during the third season. It was hinted that Johan may have known Judai before, and he was The Chosen One of something, however neither point was elaborated on. Thus in essence, Johan became Jaden's best friend in only a few episodes, but there was no real reason given why he was so important. A major part of the season revolved around the protagonists getting sent to an alternate dimension and trying to find a way home. And they did...by having Johan get his ultimate monster Rainbow Dragon. Oh yes, and when he and Jaden dueled the Big Bad, Johan performed a Heroic Sacrifice to send him home. From there on the series focused on Jaden and his friends getting back to the alternate dimension to save Johan who had been left behind. He would return in the 4th season, where once again teamed up with Jaden to duel the main villain again.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds: Crow, commonly hated for being a Canon Sue due to his Common Mary Sue Traits--childhood friend of The Hero and The Rival, Game Breaker deck, a flying D-Wheel, and is adored by the children of the city. His importance to the series and the hatred he got from the fans would only increase as he became the Fifth Signer and got a Blackwing-themed Dragon to go with the position, both events retconning the backstory that is the basis of the entire series. As of the second season Crow was the third-billed hero of the show second only to Yusei and Jack, but his character was nowhere near as explored or developed.
    • To twist the knife more, he's also a Replacement Scrappy to the former third-billed hero Aki, a Dark Magical Action Girl with a much deeper character arc and more interesting backstory. Aki was Demoted to Extra once Crow arrived and her character arc became weaker and lost focus as a result. The end credits are almost mocking of this--in a montage of the heroes Yusei, Jack and Crow are listed as their positions on Team 5Ds (Third Wheeler, First Wheeler, Second Wheeler) while Aki is listed as "Benchwarmer". Furthermore, several of the episodes where Aki got to shine again still somehow involved Crow in their plots.
    • The production crew members' Twitters have shed a bit more light on this: turns out Crow wasn't a Creator's Pet at all! Rather, his deck was a marketing executive's pet. After his first appearance, nobody predicted that the Blackwing cards would sell as well as they did, and when the numbers came in, the card company execs ordered the anime crew to make him a main character. This ended up torpedoing a lot of things the creators intended to do, including a rematch between Rua and Bommer that would've presumably resulted in Rua getting his dragon a season earlier than he actually did as well as a full backstory for Demak, who ended up a Generic Doomsday Villain in the final product. No matter what side of the Crow Broken Base you're on, it wasn't the creators' fault at all; they were probably as annoyed as his haters.
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