Girl in a Box

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But I ordered a stereo system...

The heroes will occasionally discover a girl who, for whatever reason, has been placed in a box, usually in Suspended Animation (or failing that, a box with airholes). Most of the time, this is part of the introduction of a new major character. Sometimes she could simply come in a box in mint condition.

Possibly related to People Jars, although usually more benign. See also, Packed Hero, a more comedic version. If the girl is dead, it may be a case of Stuffed in The Fridge or Dead Man's Chest. If someone has been taking the Mail Order Bride catalogues a wee bit too literally, see Human Mail. See also Punk in the Trunk.

Examples of Girl in a Box include:

Anime and Manga

• Generally speaking, rather common in Japanese media. It's fallen out of favor somewhat in recent times, however, largely due to over-use.
• Night, of Absolute Boyfriend (Zettai Kareshi) is a robot boy in a box.
• Melfina from Outlaw Star, in what is probably the example that most casual anime watchers will think of when you mention this trope.
• C.C. from Code Geass is a Girl in a Poison-Control Tank.
  • Later on, Mao tries to stick her in a suitcase... with a few modifications.
• Rozen Maiden, which works perfectly. Where do you store porcelain dolls when they're not on the shelf?
  • Similar to the above, May (before she became life-size) in Hand Maid May.
• Nia from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • Male example: according to Word of God, Team Dai-Gurren found Attenborough in someone's luggage. No, really.
• Izumi from Martian Successor Nadesico, presented as a parody. "Where else? In the box."
  • The dub version is funnier: "As Schrodinger would say, the answer is in the box."
    • Yurika becomes on of these too in The Movie.
• Hyatt, Ropponmatsu I, and Ropponmatsu II are introduced to ACROSS members this way in Excel Saga.
  • This only applies to the anime, not the original manga.
• Yakumo from Shinzo.
• Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry from Saber Marionette J are all introduced this way. They're also robot girls with their slavish devotion to the male protagonist pre-installed, so they hit this trope pretty hard.
• Yui from Koharu Biyori, being a robot maid. The Opening Theme specifically mentions this.
• An early example: Fyana from Armored Trooper VOTOMS.
• Mimi from I Dream of Mimi/Buttobi CPU.
• Havoc in Darker than Black.
  • Also, in a later episode, the Doll that the Yakuza acquires and tries to sell as a sex slave.
• Ifurita in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World.
• Reverie in Elemental Gelade.
• In Soukou no Strain, the boxed loli is found by the villain, and becomes his replacement sister and Morality Pet. She doesn't do such a good job of the latter, since, as it turns out, he was already crazy to begin with.
• Chii in Chobits is a girl on a garbage can, all naked but for the bandages she's wrapped in.
• Byakki/Shiro in Wagaya no Oinari-sama., who was delivered in a box.
• Zoids: Chaotic Century starts like this.
• Given a Gender Flip in Axis Powers Hetalia, where Italy is found hiding in a tomato crate.
• Another boy version happens in Kimi wa Petto (or Tramps Like Us in the translation) with Momo
• Misty in Vandread, she's rescued from an escape pod.
  • Lacus Clyne in Gundam Seed has the same thing happen to her, albeit she's rescued by an enemy ship.
    • And later in SEED, the same happens to Flay
• Ginga Nakajima in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was stored in a metal suitcase to be transported to the Big Bad when she was defeated and captured.
• From The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Kyon's little sister hid in his duffel bag so he would take her on vacation with him. Spoofed in The Abridging of Haruhi Suzumiya, as quoted above.
  • Amusingly, Reality Ensues - Kyon immediately notices that his bag is a good 30 kilos heavier than it should be and catches her. In the anime he brings her along anyway, whereas in the light novels he sends her back home.
• While not a box (it's a bag), Choco comes delivered in a present by Santa.
• Lucille Lilliant from Gundam X was a Lady in a Capsule. For worse, she's been locked for 15 years inside of it, and the enemy now wants to get to her to use her considerable Psychic Powers. Poor Lucille is physically indefense, as her body is pretty much comatose, but her conscience finds a way around that.
• Parodied in Colorful with Connie the Consolation Prize, a deliberately two-dimensional girl delivered in a box to a salivating recipient.
• Hako-chan (literally "Box-chan"), from Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo. Her appearance is still mostly unknown due to her not leaving the box yet, though we do learn that she has light skin. There was one point where she almost came out, but then Aleida convinced her that staying in the box was better because "being in the outside world is worse than being in the box". Admittedly, it does seem to be a pretty nice box: it has some sort of camera system allowing view outside, though not from outside in, and text can be displayed on the door of the box like it's a computer screen. Also, it apparently has some sort of hovering/movement device.
• Scary, scary version with Number 28 in Elfen Lied.
• Zia in The Mysterious Cities of Gold, in the "smuggled aboard a ship" variety.
• While not a girl, Ein of Cowboy Bebop originally came packaged in a metal briefcase.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: Utena's coffin scene. And the scene in the final battle.
• Male example: Ciel in a suitcase in the first episode of Black Butler II.
• In the Millennium World arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, we first meet Mana hiding in a large ceramic pot.
• In the third season of Robotech, Marlene is found in an alien egg.
• Rose from Dragon Crisis.
• Chisaya from Onikirisama no Hakoirimusume
• In The Breaker, the protagonist finds a girl in the trunk of a car.
• In Cubex Cursedx Curious the girl doesn't so much come in a box, she IS the box.
• At least one erotic manga has a woman try smuggle herself into Japan by disguising herself as a sex doll. Customs has a lot of fun with her.
• Michiru from Kono Kanojo wa Fiction desu first appeared naked in a large bag instead of a box.
• After she was taken hostage in an episode of Rail Wars!, we see Koumi unconscious in a half-open suitcase.

Comic Books

• Ms. Marvel once featured a plot arc where The Puppet Master was collecting superheroines, mind-controlling them and then selling them. He had teams out catching the women, and they would be shipped to his South American headquarters inside wooden crates.
• The first issue of Jack Kirby's OMAC has the title character learning to his horror that the girl he likes is actually an android, built as part of an evil conspiracy. He learns this by finding her disassembled in a box.
• Junior in Secret Six, due to a severe aversion to being seen, runs a criminal empire from inside a wooden crate, and travels inside a burlap sack.
• In one of the Paperinik continuities, the android Lyla Lay is found deactivated in a box in an old factory. Luckily, the janitor who found her happens to be versed in super-science, and can "revive" her.

Fan Works

• in Walking the Line by Starving Lunatic, Shego finds Kim in a box and keeps her as a pet.

Film

• In the Meet Cute of Just You and Me, Kid, George Burns finds a naked Brooke Shields hiding in the trunk on his car.
• Blood Sucking Freaks: In this low-budget gorefest, one of the villain's many bad habits is stuffing young, blond women into wooden boxes to be sold to men overseas.
• Boxing Helena: Jennifer Lynch made a movie about a trauma surgeon who keeps his bitchy ex-girlfriend in a box... but only after he trimmed her to fit.
• In Sweet Movie, Miss Canada gets stuffed in a suitcase and shipped to Paris from North America.
• The mermaid in the glass case in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Male version: in George of the Jungle, George ships himself back to Africa in a giant UPS carton.
• Ultraviolet: Another male case, a young boy is kept in a suitcase (using space-warping technology).
• In The Cell, Carl Stargher puts his female victims in a glass box and leaves them there to be retrieved later, after they are dead.
• In Shuttle after the protagonist is sold into sex slavery, she's trapped in a box and loaded onto a ship so she can be sent to her new owners abroad.
• Liz in Live Animals is found in a small box, having apparently been kept for some time as a "toy" by the antagonists.
• Tri Couleurs Blanc: A male example is used for comic and dramatic effect simultaneously.
• In The Transporter, this turns out to be what is being transported.
• Bianca in Lars and the Real Girl quite literally comes in a box (although, despite the title, she's not a real girl).
• In the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Dawn Treader, Gael is discovered in a supply barrel after stowing away aboard the Dawn Treader.

Literature

• The Girl in the Box: Jackie, the protagonist of the teen novel. In this case, the "box" in question is a cramped basement, where she's being held after being kidnapped for unknown reasons.
• Wheel of Time: A male example; Rand is captured by Aes Sedai, forced into a trunk and tortured on his way to the White Tower. He's rescued at Dumai Well's.
• E.Veltistov wrote a series of books about the adventures of Electronic, a Ridiculously Human Robot in shape of a boy. The first book is titled "Electronic - a boy from the box"
• Discworld: A scene late in Pyramids evokes the Cleopatra legend below.
• Eva Luna: A bunch of girls who were about to be sold to a prostitution ring are kept in a locked crate with limited air inside. Their ship got stuck due to bureaucracy and the girls suffocate to death.
• Across the Universe: Amy and the other passengers from old Earth are frozen into compartments, resembling boxes. Well, Amy is until Elder unplugs her.
• "Catherine's Quest" by J. S. Le Fanu does this twice. First, a young woman is locked in a chest and left to die by her Wicked Stepmother. Then her Unrequited Lover finds out and immures the murderer in the same chest with the victim's mouldering corpse.

Live-Action TV

• Firefly, Trope Namer:
  • River Tam. The phrase "girl in a box" was used in the trailer.
  • Saffron, though it was less of an introduction and more of 'getting her on the ship without the other characters noticing'. Or possibly keeping her away from everyone long enough for them to work up a plan how to out-con her.
  • A male variant, Tracey was introduced to the show in a coffin. Too bad the episode has Book Ends.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode The Perfect Mate had Picard meet, and have to give up, a woman initially being transported as "cargo" possessed of the power to become anyone's Magical Girlfriend.
  • Later on in the episode The Emissary, K'Ehleyr, Worf's Love Interest, arrives at Enterprise in what is essentially a torpedo casing.
  • And in Enterprise, Trip meets a cargo girl from the same planet as the Next Generation example above, only to find out she's a Well, Excuse Me, Princess!. (Naturally, they make out a lot eventually after the hilarity starts ensuing.)
• The Man Show had a skit where a midget woman in her early twenties was carried around in a suitcase, as a portable stripper.
• Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie was a Girl in a Bottle, but close enough.
• In Pushing Daisies, Chuck is in a coffin when Ned revives her.
• One CSI episode dealt with a body found in a desert where the death pose was in an unusual position; turns out the girl had been attempting to smuggle herself into the country in a suitcase and died in it.
  • Another episode dealt with deaths at a circus, including one man who could contort his body into many shapes who was found in an extremely small box.
• Chuck has a male version when Bryce is found to be still alive... and in a box.
• NCIS had a gruesome twist on this trope in one episode, where the killer was avenging the deaths of three girls in a box. A group of officers, when they learned they were being sent home, arranged to ship their Asian girlfriends back to the States in a locked crate in the storage hold. But when their orders were changed at the last minute, none of them ended up on the same ship with the girls, who starved to death. The killer was the fourth girl, the only one who survived.
• At the end of season three of 'Allo 'Allo! Maria ships herself in a box and gets lost.
• The series five opening of iCarly includes Sam in a suitcase.
• In the Cadfael episode "The Holy Thief", the slave Daalny gets transported in a box.

Music

• Another possible Trope Namer candidate is the Blake Babies' song of the same name. It came out in 1990, long before Firefly.
• Gorillaz
  • Noodle is mailed to in a FedEx box. Talk about your Noodle Incidents....
  • Male variation: 2D got shipped to Plastic Beach in a suitcase.
• Male example with a macabre twist: The Velvet Underground's "The Gift".
• Corey Hart's second album (1985) had "Boy In The Box" as title track (lyrics, video)

Mythology

• From Greek Mythology, Princess Danae and her newborn son Perseus were shut into a box and thrown into the sea by Danae's dad Acrisios, who has been told that Danae's child would kill and overthrow him. With some help of Perseus's biological father, the god Zeus, they were eventually found by the fisherman Dictys in a beach and he took both of them in.
• Happens to Sarah from the Bible, because her husband was afraid she'd be taken by the Egyptians on account of her beauty.

Video Games

• Azel from (Azel:) Panzer Dragoon Saga.
• Sexy Parodius: Players who successfully complete mission 3 face a mission filled with girls in boxes.
• In Apollo Justice, Ace Attorney, the Borginian singer Lamiroir hides in a contrabass case after being very nearly killed by someone who wants her silenced.
• Final Fantasy VII: A male example is Vincent Valentine. Granted, you're replacing "box" with "coffin", but still.
• Pokémon Colosseum: The female character is first seen (er, heard) trapped in a bag.
• In To Heart 2: Another Days Silfa / HMX-17c makes her appearance being shipped in a box to Takaaki's house. She also uses the box as her hiding place.
• One of the fighters in the Capcom Humongous Mecha fighting game Cyberbots is a girl in a jar, who hijacked a robot to escape from the government facility where she was stored. She beats up everyone she comes across due to fear and extreme misunderstandings.
• The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess: Ooccoo, the odd bird-like female, keeps getting herself stuck in crockery inside the various dungeons, and is only seen if Link finds and breaks the particular pot in which she's trapped.
• Sera from Digital Devil Saga.
• Gaia Online has the Sentinel, a demigoddess who accidentally cursed herself into a box to be tortured by demons for a thousand years... and was released by Gaians looking for rare items, crazier than ever. By the same token, we have her counterpart the Overseer, Boy in a Clam.
• Octavia in Tears to Tiara is found inside a box, tied up and helpless. Arawn decides he has enough women hanging around annoying him about how they're his wife or just being ditzy elves, so he decides to seal her back in and pretend he never saw her. Sadly, Arthur catches him and you recruit her instead.
• The bad ending for Haunting Ground has the main heroine trapped in a box at the end.
• Suzy in Killer7. Granted, she's just a head...
• Rief in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, a male example, is kidnapped, trapped in a crate, and abandoned near Harapa in order to force the heroes to rescue him instead of following their original mission to Morgal.
• Fatal Frame 2 had a ghost woman in a kimono box. She hid in the box to escape the Repentence, but died there.
• The brilliant disguise mode for Snake in Metal Gear Solid.
• In one Warriors Orochi 3 side mission, Gracia gets trapped inside a box that is sealed shut by Zhang Jiao's magic, leading Sima Yi and Masamune Date to fight Jiao and his brothers in order to break the spell to free her.
• Analogue: A Hate Story, although due to the flow of the story it's less an introduction than a reconstruction.

Western Animation

• Aelita of Code Lyoko: Jérémie finds his virtual Magical Girlfriend in Suspended Animation in Cyberspace.
• In the DCAU, Superman first finds Supergirl as the last frozen survivor of her homeworld.
• In an episode of The BOTS Master, a few of hero Zid Zoolander's Ridiculously-Human Robots note their creator's crush on villainess Lady Frenzy. So they kidnap her and present her unconscious body in a box to ZZ on his birthday.

Real Life

• This is supposedly how Julius Caesar and Cleopatra met for the first time (she was hidden in a rolled-up carpet, rather than a box, though).
• Hugo de Groot, a Dutch writer in the 17th century was imprisoned in castle Loevestein. Every month the guards would replace his bookcase. Guess how he escaped.
• In the pre-Civil War United States, some slaves managed to escape bondage by mailing themselves northward. The most famous of these was Henry "Box" Brown (not to be confused with a different Henry Brown, inventor of the safe).
• Many refugees have tried to smuggle themselves in ship containers with various degrees of success.
• In 1961 a woman was smuggled from East to West Berlin in two suitcases. They were placed next to each other in the luggage rack with false sides making them one space, with her top half in one suitcase and legs in the other. She made it through.
• A rare male example: in 1957 an abandoned bassinet box was found off a footpath in rural Pennslyvania. inside was the body of a little boy, somewhere between the ages of four and six. That boy has never been identified even today.
• There's an Urban Legend that claims Taylor Swift hides from the paparazzi by entering and leaving her Manhattan apartment by a box carried by a delivery truck. Obviously a rumor fueled by Fanservice.