Deadpan Snarker/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"I'd sorta like to know what you consider 'normal,' but I'm almost afraid to ask."
  • Keaton Yamada, the narrator of Chibi Maruko Chan.
  • The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
    • Kyon fits this perfectly, as well as being the main character and the Narrator. We aren't always sure if he's keeping a running commentary in his head or saying it out loud. However, the other characters reply accordingly. Kyon is the king of sarcasm! Just Listen to him!
    • It appears that in the novels, Koizumi is developing into one .
  • Norway from Axis Powers Hetalia. Whenever speaking with Denmark, he'll fit in as many insults as possible, but with his emotionless attitude and Denmark's obliviousness, they don't really get through.
  • Gourry in the original Slayers novels. With a healthy dose of Obfuscating Stupidity as well. Applies more to Zelgadis in the anime. Gourry is deadpan, but that's usually because he's serious and there's no hint of snark.
  • Karneval 's worst offenders are Gareki and Hirato, but Tsukumo can start drilling it into cheerful Yogi's skull when he starts irritating or astounding her with his quirky actions
  • Key Visual Arts LOVES this Trope.
    • Kanon (2006 Anime) has Yuuichi Aizawa. Many comparisons are made between Kyon and Yuuichi, especially because of a few similarities in appearance and having the same seiyuu. However, both characters are vastly different; whereas Kyon makes such comments to himself, or intends only himself to hear, since he is usually bored or silently shocked at the "stupidity" around him, Yuuichi openly states such comments to tease his friends. Yuuichi's snarky commentary usually translates into good-natured fun and flirting rather than disdainful commentary.
    • Yukito from AIR also demonstrates snarkiness but it may just be that since he is quite mature, his attitude of common sense and practicality contrasts even more when he is surrounded by childish females.
    • Tomoya Okazaki of Clannad likes playing pranks on anyone gullible enough to fall for them (Sunohara in particular - it's implied he does it just to see if he'll fall for them). He does this with a completely straight face, which makes it all the funnier. However, he seems to make such comments aloud only to mock others, once again differentiating himself from other Kyo Ani leads. He's not above making wry comments either:

Sunohara: When the time comes, Okazaki, I trust you to watch my back.
Okazaki: (Enthusiastically) Lucky! I'll be sure to stab you well.

Kaiba: Anyone who is late to my tournament will be disqualified. Mokuba, make sure Wheeler's late.

    • Or...

Gozaburo: I treated you better than my own son!
Kaiba: Thanks for nothing.

Aster: Something's happening. (as a massive beam of light explodes from the sky)
Zane: You think? What gave it away, genius?

Kakashi: Naruto, you can't kill the client. That's not how it works.

    • Tenten has shades of this too..
    • Gaara becomes one in the Five Kages Conference responding to the Tsuchikage:

Tsuchikage: The makeup of the Five Kages sure has changed. It's hard to believe someone as young as yourself can become a Kazekage. Your father must have trained you very well, but you seem to be lacking in manners, boy.
Gaara: You're right. And yet here I am, as the Kazekage.

  • Kai Shiden from Mobile Suit Gundam likes to do this to either ruin everyone's moods, or make a bad situation feel worse. He gets better.
  • Caren in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, until she joins up with Lucia for good.
  • Hiroyuki Fujita, the Main Character, from To Heart seems to fit in this category, although it seems to be a result of his laziness and the fact that he wants to "eat, play arcade games, and sleep the rest his life away". Despite his dry attitude, laziness, and tendency to tease girls who annoy him at times, he shows his sympathy through his actions rather than his words, no matter who it is.

Nagase: In any case, if she does come out, we'll have to do something.
Lemmy: Okay! The Astral Busters are on the job, right?
Hiroyuki: Why do you have to attack her? When she appears we're going to talk to her.
Lemmy: Is that so?
Hiroyuki: Were you even listening to us before?

  • Domeki in ×××HOLiC, who seems to have the unusual ability to always maintain a deadpan and monotone expression no matter what happens in order to add to his snarking ability. Unless, that is, Watanuki is actually being serious and introspective, at which point he can't think of anything to say. Such as when Watanuki stupidly trades his eye away to help him or announces that he is taking of the shop until Yuuko (presumed dead, but there's reincarnation and stuff) returns.
  • Okara from Samurai 7.
  • Helen from Claymore.
  • Terriermon from Digimon fits this Trope, but in Digimon Tamers, like whoa.
  • Jin from Samurai Champloo.
  • Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop is an unusual example in that he is a Deadpan Snarker given the role of the Main Character of an action show and is a defining Badass in Anime. He retains his hero status despite his snark because Faye fits the role of Lancer in most episodes.
  • Kurama and Hiei in Yu Yu Hakusho, with Hiei being an out-and-out jerk and Kurama being a bit more subtle. They're at their best when they're snarking at each other.

    In the manga-only ending, when Kurama is mistaken for a female several times, then asked to help with a case at an all girls' school, and he asks if he need to do something as a disguise (Yusuke was already snuck in once) or just go as is, Keiko remarking to Yusuke about how scary Kurama was. Each time you can't see his face, making the mood even weirder.
  • Ruri Hoshino of Martian Successor Nadesico does this so often that she, just like the examples in Western Animation and Live-Action TV, used to have a trope named after her.
  • Tsuyuri from Doujin Work keeps a straight face while saying the most outrageous things, mostly to pit other characters against each other and see what comes forth out of all the confusion she causes.
  • Alice from Aria tends to fulfill this role, especially in the first season.
  • Ryoma Echizen from The Prince of Tennis is a preteen version of this (and arguably, one of the few male examples of Little Miss Snarker). Sadaharu Inui also exhibits Deadpan Snarker traits sometimes.
  • C.C. from Code Geass. Her caustic remarks are about the only thing which can rein in Lelouch's overinflated ego.
    • Lelouch himself dishes out the snark as well towards C. C.'s more insouciant tendencies, among other things.
  • Magari Kazuma: model student, all-around athlete, Student Council President, surrounded by freaking idiots.
  • Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist. A high-ranking aide to Roy Mustang, she acts as both his conscience and the voice of reason on his staff, despite sometimes seeming to exist only to keep the other characters (including Mustang) in line and point out their shortcomings. She does snark in the manga, but always politely.
    • Ed gets his share of snarkiness as well, often towards Mustang.
      • And vice versa.
  • Akira Takano from School Rumble tends to be the voice of reason among her girl squad (with Tenma, Eri and Mikoto), and is able to make astute observations about the romantic hijinks of her friends while keeping a straight face the whole time.
  • Conan Edogawa and Ai Haibara from Detective Conan. Does APTX-4869 always make Teen Geniuses to act like this?
  • Sven from Black Cat is the Deadpan Snarker in Train's group.
  • Fujioka Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club is a magnificently brutal snarker, especially where Tamaki is concerned. It helps that she often doesn't seem to realize that the things she says tend to hurt people's feelings. It also helps that she's apparently unaware of how fond the rest of the host club are of her.
  • Chisame of Mahou Sensei Negima! acts like this a lot, as she's one of the only girls in her class who lacks a Weirdness Censor.
  • Kiyomaro Takamine tends to fill this role often in Gash Bell due to his genius and the outright oddity of other characters' plans (usually Folgore's) that somehow work.
  • Arguably, the (almost) eternally-deadpan Kobushi Abiru of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. She usually wears a neutral, bored expression on her face (or as much of it as can be seen under the bandages), occasionally uttering a cutting line to another of the students in her class while they're talking about something. In chapter 19 of the manga (volume 2 in tankobon), when Kotonon the heavily-photoshopped net idol is outraged over being called a fat-ass and nobody-has-ever-been-so-mean-as-to-call-me-that, Abiru quips "What? Not even once?" with a perfectly straight face (and tone of voice in the anime, IIRC). Many of her lines can be interpreted as being snarky; occasionally Nozomu-sensei receives some of this snark too, though more recent episodes have depicted Abiru to be more often smitten with him.
  • In his image song, Keiichi from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni plays this role. In the actual series, he's more of a comedy person than a Deadpan Snarker. Rika plays the role in the series, when her persona isn't showing.
  • Fran from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It's even funnier since his teammates are all complete Snark Bait. He's also Genre Savvy.
  • Although in the first season of Princess Tutu Fakir was much more of a Jerkass, in the second season he calmed down a bit and started to swing into this Trope.

Ahiru: Good morning, Fakir! You're up early!
Fakir: Early for you, anyway.

  • Misaki Matsuya from Excel Saga manga is a powerful example. Once she renders Iwata and Watanabe into howling fits of laughter with a single deadpan sentence. It's made pretty clear that under her stoic exterior lies the heart of a master humorist. Unfortunately her anime counterpart didn't get a chance to test her skills in this field. Excel herself also shows signs of this trope.
  • The manga version of Ranma from Ranma ½ is a Deadpan Snarker; his Anime incarnation is not really one. Nabiki from the same series has her moments, though it is a much larger trait for her in Fanon than Canon and in the Anime than the manga.
  • Ash's Pokédex from Pokémon, at least early on, such as in the first episode when a Rattata tries to steal Ash's food.

Ash: What is that doing here? This isn't a forest, it's an open field!
Pokédex: It also comes out into open fields to steal food from stupid travelers.

Jessie and James (wearing ridiculous dance outfits): This has to be our greatest plan yet!
Meowth: Dat's what worries me.

    • And now in Best Wishes Ash's new rival Trip is a very snarky individual. However, most of his comments goes toward Ash only and given Ash's personality, it's no wonder he makes them.

Trip: "That voice can be heard on the opposite side of the street..." (after Ash demands that he battle him completely ignoring the comment made)
Trip: "Humans usually don't try to capture themselves in a Pokeball." (after Ash gets in the way of him trying to catch a Palpitoad causing Trip to accidentally hit Ash in the face with said Pokeball)

    • Ash himself actually has a lot of Snarky lines throughout the original series.

Misty (about Snorlax): It looks like it's going to be sick!
Brock: Well how would you feel if you got kissed by Meowth?
Ash: I'd get a new mouth...

Dai-Gurren begins filling up with water
Leeron: So much for the quick fix...

Vivio: I am a normal third grader! Not "Your Majesty"!

Otto: If I may say so, I do not believe there are any other normal third graders with the title librarian at the Infinite Library.

Misa: We catch Kira! I can't imagine a world without Light!
L: Yes, that would be dark…

  • Rukawa Kaede from Slam Dunk.
  • Most of the time it's hard to tell though the biggest snarker in Spider Riders is. Shadow, Magma, Lumen, and Hunter get in on the action. Honestly I think Shadow is number in that regard.
  • Saito from Rurouni Kenshin has plenty of these moments. Kenshin himself often fits this trope; more so in the manga than the anime, as the anime is often dangerously close to overusing his oblivious act.
  • There are three types of characters in One Piece: Deadpan Snarkers, Complete Monsters, and Total Idiots. Sometimes characters will wear different hats (e.g. Usopp, who occasionally plays the fool, or plays snarker to Luffy's idiocy). Many characters share multiple roles, switching back and forth between them, and there are very few characters who are completely serious such that they display neither any ounce of stupidity or some snarker tendencies at some point.
  • Kanamemo has Hinata and Saki.
  • Dragon Ball franchise:
    • Vegeta fits this trope better than the rest of characters, with Piccolo most likely being 2nd.

Vegeta: Welcome to the end of your life... and I promise it's going to hurt.

  • Or...

Vegeta (to Android 18): If you give up now I promise to turn you into something practical, like a toaster or a washing machine.

Vegeta (to Krillin and Yamcha): Whatever. Just stay out of my way when I tear Cell apart.

Yamcha: This coming from the guy who was beat senseless by Cell?

  • Tien too. When Android 18 came to Kami's Lookout Yamcha tries to scare her off (While keeping his distance).

Yamcha: Gohan's here, and he's stronger then Cell so why don't you get out of here.
Tien: Um... why don't you come a little closer and say that?

  • Speaking of Android 18, her sarcasm is one of her most defining traits. When asked if her real name is legitimately "No. 18", she responds "My father was pretty dull". (In the original version, she replies "It doesn't matter" before tossing the number at the World Tournament Announcer). She was kidding, by the way, her birth name (Lazuli) had not been revealed at the time.

Kanji: Sempai, didn't you accept me!?
Yu: Not at night.

    • Actually, most of the humor involving Yu comes from the fact that it's hard to tell when he's kidding or being serious.
  • Kuroko, the eternally deadpan titular character of Kuroko no Basuke, is this.
  • About half the cast of Bleach trade off doing this. Especially Ichigo.
  • A good number of characters in the Monogatari series. Hitagi is seemingly incapable of speaking in a manner other than this.
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