Cute Bruiser/Playing With
Basic Trope: A cute young character who is much stronger than they look.
- Straight: Miki is a cheerful, peppy youngster with Girlish Pigtails, infectious laughter and a knack for Good Old Fisticuffs.
- Exaggerated: Miki is an absolutely adorable little kid who totes around a plush bunny. She's also a Pint-Sized Powerhouse capable of taking out literal giants while barely breaking a sweat.
- Justified:
- Miki has Super Strength, and has been learning how to use it ever since her family first recognized her talent.
- Miki is Artificial Human with Super Strength. Her creator designed her to be cute so people won't suspect her.
- Inverted:
- Homura is a Badass Grandpa.
- Mark is an incredibly burly man that uses magic rather than resorting to physical combat.
- Subverted:
- Miki is actually a Robot Girl.
- Miki's strength come from Applied Phlebotinum.
- Double Subverted: But without the Phlebotinum she's still incredibly strong.
- Parodied: Miki sees Godzilla and wants to take him home, by picking him up and taking him home.
- Deconstructed:
- After seeing Miki's strength, Agata assumes she'll be able to handle anything that gets thrown at her despite her youth and inexperience. Lemina, on the other hand, isn't so sure, but chafes at having to look after some dumb brat. And Cecil sees her fighting ability as Troubling Unchildlike Behavior...
- And the fact that she's so strong for her size makes the team forget that there are things stronger that her. They have her try to deal with Grik. No-Holds-Barred Beatdown ensuses.
- Alternatively, Miki starts off as cute yet weak, but by becoming stronger she gets a rougher exterior.
- Reconstructed:
- Miki firmly believes that her cuteness gives her physical strength. It turns out her confidence in her appearance and her confidence in strength are directly proportional to one another.
- Daniel helps them get along by reminding Agata that she's still younger than them while assuring Lemina that she doesn't need babysitting and helping Cecil cope with her nerves. All the while encouraging Miki to do her best.
- Once Miki recovers she adds Waif Fu and some kind of projectile to her arsenal
- Zig Zagged: Miki's fighting ability seems to differ from day to day. One day,she's as strong as most adult fighters,another she's able to take down giants,the next she's just a normal kid,and the day after that she's at adult strength again.
- Averted: Miki is a completely normal kid.
- Enforced: Since Miki is very popular among fans, the author decide to give her more screentime. However the story is focus on battle and there is very little room for character without combat skill, so he made her a Little Miss Badass as well.
- Lampshaded: "How the heck can a little kid punch that hard?! I can't even do that!"
- Invoked: Miki's father groomed her as a fantastic fighter, but also encouraged her interest in 'normal', cutesy things, both to give her a relatively normal childhood and to ensure others might underestimate her.
- Exploited: When looking for teammates, Agata tries to find the smallest, cutest girl around, because he knows she'll be the toughest too.
- Defied:
- Agatha looks for the biggest and roughest and ugliest guy around to be his Big Guy because he can't imagine that cute little girl could be any help despite impressive strength.
- Alternatively, Miki decides to be a Child Mage instead of this trope because she sees it as more realistic or more practical in the long run.
- Discussed: "Cute kid. So what do you think her angle's gonna be: Cute Bruiser, Child Mage or Waif Fu?"
- Conversed: " Are they trying to appeal to guys that like fighting girls?
- Played For Laughs: Miki is cheerfully oblivious to how she keeps inflicting Amusing Injuries on the ever-sarcastic Leon.
- Played For Drama: Nobody was aware that she was stronger than she looked, not even Miki -- this only came out when she and her friends were about to die and the frightened girl flew into a berserker rage, attacking savagely and desperately.
Back to Cute Bruiser.