Piggyback Cute

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

A cutesy way of showing romantic Ship Tease fanservice for a couple where one partner carries the other on their back. Common element of a "Falling in Love" Montage.

This is an important trope for many Korean Series as a "clean" way to show attraction between two people.

See also Meet Cute and Sleep Cute.

Examples of Piggyback Cute include:

Anime and Manga

• Tear Jerker example in Ayashi no Ceres, where the piggyback rider had been fatally wounded and dies on the back of her crush once they reach their destination.
• In D.Gray-man, Allen receives one from Link, when he's alone and hurt. Yeah. And then he received one from Mana when he was young.
• Ed gives one to Winry in Fullmetal Alchemist (and then promptly drops her on her butt when she decides to reveal she broke open his watch to learn the secret he has written on the inside).
• Similar sequence at the beginning of Happy World, another Moe manga.
• In the manga Living Game, there is a sequence where Izumi faints in a public bath and Fuwa sweet piggybacks her back to her place.
• Further establishing their role as a main couple, Touma of Magical War Chronicle Lyrical Nanoha Force gives one to love interest Lily at the end of the first chapter after he rescues her.
• Early in Ranma ½, Ranma gets one from Akane in one of their "sweet" moments. Because he claims that it's too embarrassing to receive one from a girl, Akane sprays him with cold water from a hose, telling him that that should make it all right now, since they're both girls.
  • In the live action special, a girl Ranma carries Akane on his back.
• Suzumiya Haruhi: Kyon and Mikuru in "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody".
• In Gun X Sword, Van carries Wendy this way when she's sick with a fever. It comes at the end of an episode that was very heavy on character development, but some of the potential cuteness is traded for comedy when he chooses this moment to admit that he doesn't like her mascot pet.
• In Princess Nine, after Takasugi hits Ryo's lightning ball and she actually catches it on the return, knocking her back, he gives her one against her will. And he carries her all the way to her house, calling himself her new boyfriend in front of her mother upon arrival, much to her annoyance.
• Considering that majority of the times the trope is invoked, the male character carries the female character on his back. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! does an unusual case of gender role reversal when Momoyo carries Yamato on her back at the end of episode 5 after his "battle" with Kokoro.
• In Elemental Gelade the character Ren needs to recharge her powers by sleeping, which happens a lot. Since the party usually wants to keep moving, she spends a lot of the series on Cou's back.
• In the Rumic World story Sleep and Forget, Ryohei carries Haruka on his back, giving her a faint memory of the time he carried her on his back in a past life.

Films

• I seem to recall this in The Karate Kid but I could be mistaken.^{[please verify]}

Live-Action TV

• The following Korean Drama shows all use this trope:
  • Boys Before Flowers: When Jan Di is involved with several mishaps, the boys of F-4 are there to rescue her: lost in a blizzard, collapes from overwork, etc. etc.
  • Eun Chan in The First Shop of Coffee Prince carries Han Kyul after he drinks too much soju.
  • In Pasta, a sleepy Yoo Kyung is carried by one of her love interests.
  • In You Are Beautiful, a drunk Go Mi Nam is carried by Shin Woo.
• Scrubs subverts this in one episode with Elliot carrying JD to the finish line of his triathlon.

Video Games

• In Legend of Dragoon, Shana hurts her ankle by getting it stuck in mud and Dart carries her piggyback style through the rest of the area.
• In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall carries Rinoa on his back to Esthar after she falls into a coma after becoming a Sorceress. In an interesting case of Gameplay and Story Integration, Squall's field model is shown carrying Rinoa on his back throughout this part of the game.
• Non-romantic example in Tales of Vesperia: after Karol saves the party from the Baitojoh and passes out from exhaustion, Raven carries him out of the Blade Drifts.

Web Comics

• Soul Symphony: Used as a strategy in battle between Olivia and John to combine their powers. Olivia gets a little flustered with the idea.
• This Drowtales:Moonless Age issue?
• Parodied in Ghastly's Ghastly Comic (they're definitely Just Friends and Chibi Sue is riding due to being so drunk she barely can stand).