Instant Fanclub

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"Ahh, fan clubs. Sweet, innocent, restraining-order-inducing fan clubs." —Strong Bad, Homestar Runner

A character is considered so awesome that not only do they have notable admirers, but their fans become so organized that they are also the character's personal assistants, chauffeurs, and army. They will follow their idol 24/7, always available whenever there is need, but otherwise politely remaining just off-screen.

If the character is sufficiently cool this may happen practically overnight (i.e., within a few episodes of them being introduced), although the subject of admiration typically has mixed feelings about the entire affair.

If an ojou or an Alpha Bitch has an Instant Fanclub, these are typically her minions (and may form a Girl Posse). This points out a major feature of the fan club; they don't necessarily have to be close friends, and the idol may not even like them.

Note that this is in fact an aspect of Japanese culture—fan clubs of this type can and do form spontaneously around particularly popular and/or successful students in Japanese high schools. Contrast The Paid for Harem.

Not to be confused with producing a Paper Fan of Doom from Hammerspace.

Examples of Instant Fanclub include:

Anime and Manga

• SHUFFLE! parodies this rather sharply. The fanclubs have even carried over into real life, with all the seriousness of Ship-to-Ship Combat - their object of affection might be a psycho, but don't say this in front of members of Kitto Kitto Kaede!
• In Mayo Chiki Subaru has an all-female one. It undergoes a schism as some members don't object to Jiro's (alleged) relationship with Subaru, while others do.
• Motoko Minagawa's "Prince Yuki" Club in Fruits Basket.
• Mitsuki's Fanboys in He Is My Master.
• The all-male fan club that worships a pretty nurse on the Nautilus, in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
• The second episode of Paranoia Agent, "Golden Shoes," revolves around a sixth grade boy's Instant Fanclub and the pressure he feels to keep up appearances.
• Megumi attracts an Instant Fanclub in Tenshi na Konamaiki, much to her disgust.
• Lum's Stormtroopers and Mendou's army of fangirls in Urusei Yatsura.
• The Zuka Club in Ouran High School Host Club, especially Benio Amakusa ("Benibara"), have their own legion of screaming fans, who are organized, drilled, and kept disciplined (with the threat of massive violence) by officers of the Benibara Society.
  • A less obvious but more prevalent example: the fans of the Host Club itself. Perhaps they were once a loosely-related group of fangirly teenagers, but they organized fast, especially once Renge took the lead. She even made Host Club doujinshi.
• Haruto Sakuraba from Eyeshield 21 is frequently harassed by mobs of girls who are members of his fan club. After he gives up being a teen idol to focus on football (and, in the process, abandons his clean-cut pretty-boy look by growing a beard and getting a buzzcut), most of them drop out.
  • Aaand then comes back. With some guys to boot.
• Rukawa's admirers in Slam Dunk, complete with bandanas with his name, and the propensity to transform into an instant cheerleading club when in actual games.
• The males at the school in Seto no Hanayome (pictured above) are divided into two militant, warring fan clubs over San and Luna. Luna personally leads her club in efforts to take over the school. Mawari is left leading an equally-violent third club comprised of the girls, united under "restoring order" with the motto "All men are beasts."
• Fuuko's fanboys in Clannad, whom she gains when Tomoya and Nagisa teach her how to make friends.
• Daichi and Kouichi in Hime-chan no Ribon get one. Daichi's club causing direct trouble for Hime-chan when the rumours of them dating start spreading around. At least the main leaders of said group have badges with his face on it.
  • Sei gets a fan club the very same day he transfers to the school, with members from the other clubs instantly switching to his.
• Used straight and subverted in The Prince of Tennis. Subverted: Tomoka Osakada does her best to create and form a fanclub for Ryoma Echizen but in the end she and Sakuno are pretty much the only stable members. Played straight: Wakato's fangirls from the Jyousei Shounan arc and the Rikkaidai cheerleaders. And there's no forgetting Atobe's army of fangirls, who can become even violent towards the main girl of the Dating Sim Gakuensai no Oujisama if you have her befriending Atobe.
• In Ranma ½ we even have a mini-arc dedicated to Kuno's biggest fangirl: Cheerleader Queen Mariko Konjou. She uses cheerleading pretty much as a fighting style, too, and yes - Ranma (as a girl) and Akane have to "fight" her, if not for Kuno, for their sports teams.
  • Much to Akane Tendo's despair, she also had a fanclub in the beginning of the series. After Tatewaki Kuno said that the Furinkan guys would have to beat her in combat to date her, many guys from the sport teams would wait for her every morning at the school gates to try beat her up, and she had to defeat every single one to go to class. They didn't give up until they learnt that Ranma not only was Akane's fiancé, but he had defeated Kuno in a fight.
• Sakaki acquires one at the beginning of her second year in Azumanga Daioh, but they don't really figure into the plot beyond a quick scene. On the other hand, Kaorin might constitute a "Sakaki fan club" all by herself.
• In the first episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, we're treated with the Instant Fanclub of the titular character, who proceed to clobber the male protagonist for chasing her, even though it's just to clear up some misunderstanding.
• About half of the school instantly becomes Nagi's fanclub/bodyguards in Kannagi.
  • She even has her own webpage and a good balance of male and female fans! Her good looks and comical personality wouldn't be enough to explain this ordinarily, but it may be a Justified Trope if you add in the speculation that a goddess would naturally, subconsiously draw followers.
• Rosario + Vampire's first season has Moka, Kurumu and Yukari having three "fanclubs" made up of lame fanboy stalkers who cause more harm than good. By the second season, they (and Mizore) have developed large, screaming mostly female fanclubs.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena shows that Utena is extremely popular for her Bifauxnen qualities and all of the female students address her as "Utena-sama". To the point where photos of her acting feminine (due to a Body Swap with the extremely feminine Anthy) start selling like hot cakes.
• There's one for Tsukasa in Ichigo100%, who won't even allow her one-time-and-possibly-again-depending-on-how-the-plot-unfolds semi-boyfriend talk to her without him disguising as one of them and slipping through the crowd. It's a rather organized fanclub at that, complete with identification numbers and hierarchy.
• Kamen no Maid Guy has an even more specific variation. Naeka has fan club for her breasts. Not her, her breasts.
• While not prominent, both Arima and Miyazaki develop them early on in Kare Kano. One arc deals with what happens when Yukino's turns against her.
• In Kamichama Karin, both Kazune and Micchi have fanclubs like this.
• In Mahou Sensei Negima pretty much half of Negi's class turns into this as soon as they see him. Then when he goes to the magic world, he and Kotaro enter a tournament and become celebrities, complete with legions of fangirls.
  • And in the magic world, Nagi and the members of Ala Rubia have their followers.
• In K-On!!, Mio gets one after a minor incident during a concert.
  • Another Mio get one too just for an entirely different reason.
• Misaki of Kaichou wa Maid-sama gains one for an episode. She finds it difficult to keep her secret life from them.
• Duke Devlin gets one in his first appearance in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and three of them become his cheerleading squad for the next few episodes. They disappear when Duke joins the True Companions.
  • They seem to be quite fickle; they were previously seen hanging out with Bakura.
• High school sports start Aizawa Suguru in Area no Kishi is nearly always hounded by throngs of squealing fan-girls whenever he's at school.
• Gary Oak of Pokémon fame had an Instant Fanclub in the form of a group of cheerleaders who followed him everywhere in the first season.
• In Kämpfer, there is the "Mistress Shizuku, Please Violate Me" club, which is briefly mentioned but never shown.
• Fakir and Mytho of Princess Tutu also have been mentioned to have their own fan clubs. Pique is part of Fakir's fanclub and Lilie is presumably part of Mytho's group.

Comic Books

• In the Silver Age, Jimmy Olsen had a club of bowtie-wearing dweebs who hung on his every word. As creepy as it sounds.
  • Besides the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club, there was also (in Bronze Age comics) the Clark Kent Fan Club, consisting of female fans of Clark (from his WGBS evening newscasts).
• Also pre-Crisis, Robin, whilst attending Hudson University as Dick Grayson, had his own on-campus fan-club, and occasionally attended meetings of the self named (at least one hopes so) Robin-Rooters, whose members were mostly female, but not exclusively so. They even designed new costumes for him, which they then had made up for him to wear, which he did.

Fan Works

• The Ranma ½ fanfic Girl Days has fun with this. When Ranma starts attending Furinkan High as a girl as part of the Girl Days training, a bunch of fan clubs almost immediately break out. One, the Ranma-chan club, is a group of girls devoted to Ranma remaining a girl; another, the Ranma-kun club, are girls who want their male Ranma back, no matter the cost. A third, a group of guys, have deluded themselves into thinking Ranma will go out on a date with them. Ranma and her friends simply call this club 'The Idiots'. And once Shampoo starts attending school as well, she gets her own fan club.

Film

• This is the function that the Blue Blaze Irregulars serve in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.
• Deconstructed in The Magnificent Seven—the mob of kids who follow Bernardo O'Reilly around everywhere end up getting him killed as they wander out into a gunfight and he tries to get them into cover.
• Toy Story: "You have saved our lives! We are eternally grateful!"

Live-Action TV

• A one-episode character of The 4400 gets an extreme version of a fan club, who actually worship him, as part of being the Monster of the Week.
• Doctor Who combines this with several other tropes but the cult of Saxon is dedicated to resurrect their former prime-minister through human sacrifices.
• In Kamen Rider Decade, in one of the worlds the group visits, Tsukasa is scouted while walking down the street and becomes a male model, gaining a following of fangirls with screen-printed clothing and signs. While this sort of thing isn't unusual for a handsome celebrity, it's implied that this took place in a day or two.
  • Even worse, since this is the Nega World, all the fangirls are actually monsters in human form, which makes the cold and jealous way they glare at Natsumi when Tsukasa says he knows her all the more scary.

Video Games

• Final Fantasy VIII featured this with Quistis Trepe, the youngest instructor in the history of the school. In the American translation they are called "Trepies."
• Persona 3 has two senpais in the main cast. Akihiko, the male senpai, is shown early on to attract squealing hordes of fangirls with minimal effort (or desire). Mitsuru Kirijo's otaku are a lot more subtle, but the player can find any number of NPCs that all fantasize about attracting her attention, especially one that just plain fantasizes about anything Mitsuru does or could potentially do to her.
• After winning the S.T.A.R. Game in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link ends up with one.
• The Pokémon games will give you your own personal fan club after meeting certain requirements like beating the Elite Four and catching all Pokémon.
• Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica provides something just a touch more realistic. It takes time for Reine to build the Cloche fanclub but otherwise they fit perfectly. They tell people how great Cloche is, protect her in battle, and provide the energy for Replakia.

Web Comics

• Megatokyo's Kimiko suddenly acquires an enormous horde of fanboys when she mouths off on public radio in their defense. Erika also has a fanclub so obsessed that they stay loyal to her even after she disappears from the public eye for years. The series goes deeper into exploring the phenomenon than just using it for comedy, portraying the fanboys as everything from sympathetic losers (Piro) to immoral, pathetic perverts (Kuro).
• Shion gets one of these in Experimental Comic Kotone.
• Wiglaf gains one of these pretty much whenever he goes out in public.
• Everyday Heroes: Goldie had a good-sized following during her senior year. The following year, Jane followed in her footsteps before dropping out of school.
• In Taiki: The Webcomic, Kai has one.

Web Original

• In the Whateley Universe, teenager Fey is horrified to find out that she has a fan club of girls her own age. Her teammates on her super-team tease her about it now and then.
• In Survival of the Fittest V4, Reiko Ishida got one of these due to her success in ice skating, often referred to as her "entourage". Bit of a subversion, though, as, unlike most characters that have found themselves in this trope, she's actually quite close friends with them.

Western Animation

• The Three Js (Joey, Jeffy and Jamie) who hung on Quinn Morgendorfer's every word in Daria.
• Supergirl attracts one of these during a trip to Japan in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Chaos at the Earth's Core", which makes Stargirl extremely jealous.
• In Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Beast Boy gains a literally instant fanclub when the Titans go to Japan after he wows a horde of Japanese school girls at a local arcade.
  • The one he's after, however, turns out to be an evil catgirl ink monster.
• The three girls obsessed with Gaston in Beauty and the Beast.
• In The Princess and the Frog, Prince Naveen takes all of three seconds to acquire a(n all-female) fanclub upon stepping in New Orleans.
• Speaking of sexy princes, Prince Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender gets a sudden audience of blushing girls (complete with floating hearts!) when he takes off his shirt in the Beach Episode.
  • Aang gets one when he visits Kiyoshi village for the first time.

Real Life

• The faculty at Whitwell Middle School wanted to teach the students about tolerance, so they decided to start a project on the Holocaust. The students then took it Up to Eleven by deciding to collect six million paper clips to represent the Jewish people killed in the concentration camps. Once word got out, the school was flooded with paper clips, and a rail car from Germany was brought to the school and turned into a permanent memorial.