Strange Girl: Difference between revisions

[[File:toriamos_strangelittlegirl2_7230toriamos strangelittlegirl2 7230.jpg|link=Tori Amos (Music)|frame|SHE CONQUERED THE MIGHTY MOON SNAIL!]]

{{quote|''"Live people ignore the strange and unusual. [[Genre Savvy|I myself]] ''[[Genre Savvy|am]]'' [[Genre Savvy|strange and unusual.]]"''|'''Lydia''', ''[[Beetlejuice (Film)|Beetlejuice]]''}}

She's not normal, that's for sure. The only thing you can pin down about the '''Strange Girl''' is that she's hard to pin down (when she isn't doing the pinning, that is). She's visually distinct from her normal peer group, typically in both physical appearance (she's likely to be an [[Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette]]/[[Raven Hair, Ivory Skin]]) and dress, but sometimes only one of the two. As far as demeanor is concerned, she can be anything from [[The Wonka]], a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], [[The Stoic]], a [[Take Over the World|world conqueror]], [[The Messiah]], [[The Ophelia]], an [[Emotionless Girl]], [[My Friends and Zoidberg|Haru]][[Suzumiya Haruhi|hi]]... or [[The Quiet One|quiet]], [[Straight Man|sensible]] and even friendly. Anything goes as long as it stands out from the series' norm.

The unifying trait of all [[Strange Girl]]sGirls is that they are protagonists and most importantly, are ''different'' from their peers (though [[Loners Are Freaks|rarely]] will she be [[Friendless Background|completely friendless]]). Her family or home life will be... ''interesting'' to say the least. Usually she is [[Weirdness Magnet|in touch]] with the supernatural aspects of her setting, even if she doesn't have powers herself. Because of this tendency to experience strange and supernatural adventures, it's not uncommon for their social clique to grow into a veritable [[Monster Mash]] of friends they've helped in various adventures, though they'll likely start out the series with at least one or two [[Unfazed Everyman|Unfazed Everymen]] as completely human friends. Before long she's likely to have [[Seen It All|seen so much weirdness]] little if anything will faze her.

This character is very likely to be a [[Goth]] or show noticeable Goth influences, both in style of dress and in personality. The Goth subculture is particularly well-suited to this character type because it's made up of [[Nightmare Fetishist|people who enjoy strange, morbid things]], on top of the fact that being different from the mainstream is one of the things that defines all countercultural subcultures. That last part means that it would also be quite reasonable for a [[Strange Girl]] to be a member of the punk or [[Emo]]<ref>The actual subculture, not the caricature of it that named the [[Emo Teen]] trope.</ref> subcultures, among others.

Tends to overlap with [[Dark Is Not Evil]]. Compare [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]], [[Rei Ayanami Expy]], or [[The Ophelia]]. Contrast [[The Snark Knight]].

* Urabe Mikoto, the titular character of the manga ''[[Mysterious Girlfriend X]]''. Urabe being really, really, ''really'' weird is pretty much the entire point of the manga -- Urabemanga—Urabe is [[The Stoic|somewhat unemotional]] and unsocial to the point of being a complete outcast, but seems to have some form of psychic powers -- specificallypowers—specifically, she knows without a doubt that she will lose her virginity to the main character, Tsubaki Akira (the thought causes her to enter hysterics out of the blue during class), and shares an empathic connection with him that is initiated by [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|spit]] -- a—a common trick she uses on him when she suspects him of dirty thoughts is to stick her finger in his mouth and suck on it before he can react -- shereact—she then instantly knows exactly what he was thinking. Similarly, Tsubaki is addicted to her spit, and has to have a dose a day or he suffers withdrawal. She can also cut things apart with superhuman speed and precision [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|with the craft scissors she carries around in the waistband of her panties]].

* It's hard to say whether Senjougahara Hitagi from ''[[Bakemonogatari (Light Novel)|Bakemonogatari]]'' is [[Tsundere]], [[Yandere]] or something else altogether, but either way she's unbelievably strange. She considers herself more powerful than [[DragonballDragon Ball|Shen Long]] and [[Improbable Weapon User|carries a entire classroom worth of stationery]] [[Hammerspace|concealed on her person]]. She promises her boyfriend that he'll be the first person she ever murders, and if someone else kills him then she'll avenge him - and she considers this ''romantic.''

* Kousaka Shigure from ''[[Kenichi: theThe Mightiest Disciple]]'' should count. She speaks in monotone. [[Not Good Withwith People|She isn't quite...a people person. In fact she seems better with her pet rat, than anyone else]].It shows when she keeps putting deadly traps around Ryonzanpaku, and doesn't turn them off even with guests (read:non-martial artists). Though her [[Epileptic Trees|possible fondness for Kenichi]] might suggest [[Defrosting Ice Queen|she's beginning to warm up to people]].

* Minori in ''[[Toradora (Light Novel)|Toradora!]]'' even makes all the other characters stop and stare half the time with her [[Chewing the Scenery|refined taste in scenery.]]

* Tsukuyomi of ''[[Negima]]'' is a [[Psycho Lesbian]] [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]] (and more) and pretty much the only girl in the series who is flat out creepy/crazy. Granted that all the girls here are strange, she's strange in a much [[Squick|different]] way.

* Maria from ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'' is on speaking terms with many witches, ghosts, talking animals and other strange beasts, but never seems to have mastered interacting with her fellow human beings. As might be expected of {{spoiler|someone who was [[Dead Person Conversation|mentored by her]]}}, Ange follows suit.

* Quon from ''[[Rah XephonRahXephon]]''.

* From ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei-sensei]]'' we have... Uhm, pretty much the entire friggin' cast? ... Well, except for that [[Unfazed Everyman|one girl]].

* In ''[[Ranma One Half½]]'', pretty much ''every'' girl would be considered unusual in a more real-world setting, seeing as how they include a busty [[Big Eater]] who's really a '''[[Gender Bender|guy]]''', a [[Girl Next Door]] who can jog up a flight of stairs while carrying a fridge single-handed, an [[Anime Chinese Girl]] from a hidden warrior village who [[Baleful Polymorph|turns into a cat when splashed with cold water]] and [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|plows headlong through concrete walls rather then use the door]], and a [[Wholesome Crossdresser|cross-dressing]] okonomiyaki chef who [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|never goes anywhere without a giant spatula strapped to her back]]. And yet, each and everyone one of these girls unquestionably considers [[Lord Error-Prone|Kodachi Kuno]] the weirdest person in town, hands down. While played up a bit more in the manga, in either version she has such traits as hunting down potential boyfriends like animals, even going so far as to paralyze them so she can kiss them, while insisting that they are the ones chasing ''her'', spiking just about any food or drink she makes with paralysis or sleeping powder (even her own brother is hesitant to eat them without testing them first) and [[Noblewoman's Laugh|laughing like a loon]].

* ''[[Rosario to+ Vampire]]'': In a [[Harem Comedy]] filled with [[Cute Monster Girl]]s, Mizore the [[An Ice Person|snow-woman]] stands out. She wears an oversized shirt, striped stockings, and loose belts instead of a school uniform, is [[The Stoic|stoic]], and a not-terribly [[Covert Pervert]] who once put blood in her succubus friend's bed to trick her into thinking she'd lost her virginity so she'd have a love-scene with the [[Chivalrous Pervert]] who was trying to keep her warm ("but why are you shirtless?!"). And I do mean ''scene'': she hid under their bed with a camera!

* Rei Asaka from [[Oniisama Ee...]].

** And judging from [https://web.archive.org/web/20130116204913/http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=1701 some recent news], she may be a partial copy of Rosamond mentioned below.

* Courtney Crumrin, also with her own [[Courtney Crumrin and Thethe Night Things (Comic Book)|series]].

* [[Wonder Woman]] not only fills these criteria in-universe, but is sometimes deemed too strange for many writers to get a firm grasp on.

* Lydia, from ''[[Beetlejuice (Film)|Beetlejuice]]''. She seems proud of it.

* Ladles and gentlethings, give it up for [[The Addams Family (TV)|Wednesday Addams]]! Just don't ask her to [[The Un-Smile|smile]]. Unless it's Wednesday from the '60s show, in which case she's a [[Perky Goth]].

* ''[[Pippi Longstocking (Literature)|Pippi Longstocking]]'' a.k.a. Pippilotta Victualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump. Friendly? Yes. Strange? Oh hell yes.

* [[Harry Potter|Luna Lovegood]]. Tonks, too, a little bit.

* [[Coraline (Literaturenovel)|Coraline]], the protagonist of [[Neil Gaiman]]'s novel of the same name.

{{quote| "My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."}}

* ''Olivia Kidney,'' who talks to dead people. The cute pink cover on Ellen Potter's book is misleading; the book is reminiscent of ''[[Coraline (Literaturenovel)|Coraline]]'' and similar creepfests.

* Isabella Swan in ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' . She is [[The Stoic]], the [[Straight Man]], and [[The Quiet One]] all at once, hangs around [[Everything's Better Withwith Sparkles|sparkly vampires]] and American Indian werewolves, and has both magical blood that attracts magical creatures toward her and a magical mental shield power and a vampire boyfriend that keeps her safe from harm.

* Maggie in ''How NOT to Be Popular'' by Jennifer Ziegler is like this, only not supernatural. Her parents are hippies who move anywhere they want to and don't really believe in material possessions. She has been to 10 high schools, and when she gets to her 10th she decides she's had enough and pretends to be weird so that nobody will like her and she won't have to worry about leaving behind friends when she moves.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* Amy Pond from [[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]] is a grown up strange girl.

** [[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]] is full of 'em. They span the gamut from somewhat odd to downright unearthly.

* [[Elvira, Mistress of the Dark]] has made a career out of this.

* Willow in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', at first (before the producers moved away from the "softer side of Sears" look).

{{quote| "She had a tattoo above her ankle of a Trident submarine <br />

She says it symbolizes awesome power hidden deep within our dreams<br />

And I knew the shoes she wasn't wearing, they fit her just right<br />

{{quote| ''In room 123, she's elusive you see''<br />

''Like the invisible man in drag''<br />

''And when you come to meet her, you'll never greet her''<br />

* The female Malkavian of ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]: Bloodlines'' is by far one of the most bizarre of any Strange Girl characters. Since her lines are unvoiced, the player is left to fill in the sound from their own imagination, yet she simultaneously gives the impression of complete silence. Not only is the content of her lines head-spinningly insane, these impressions of muteness and derangement combine to make it seems as if the voices in her head are communicating with everyone else, an impression supported by other characters' reactions to her.

* Lute from ''[[Fire Emblem: the Sacred Stones (Video Game)|Fire Emblem theThe Sacred Stones]]''. A very skilled [[Black Magician Girl]] who destroys monsters "with love", locks herself in the local library, meets those who go recruit her by check on them to see if they're monsters, etc. Lampshaded if she gets married to [[Cultured Badass]] Kyle, with their common ending saying that Kyle's friends were VERY weirded out by his choice in brides.

{{quote| ''"Did she say something to you? Please forget it. She mumbles strange things from time to time. She can be an odd girl at times."''}}

* [[American McGee's Alice (Video Game)|American McGee's Alice]]. While it should go without saying, one need only remember that the warped, disturbing, just plain ''wrong'' nature of the entire game's world is nothing more than [[Battle in Thethe Center of Thethe Mind|Alice trying to beat her own broken psyche back into submission]].

* Bella of [[TCTRPG|The Colour Tuesday]] looks and sounds like someone out of the 18th century, addresses Kyle as if he were a [[Knight Errant]], and treats Alex like a dirty commoner. The setting is a modern, if [[Dystopia|dystopiandystopia]]n one.

* [[The Last Story (Video Game)|Mirania]] is described as being a deeply spiritual person... by those who aren't straight-up weirded out by her.

* Miku in ''[[A Profile (Visual Novel)|A Profile]]'', contrasting the very normal Miou and the slightly clingy Rizu. While those two are basically normal, Miku has a way of flipping between extremely shy and very cold and dismissive. While this is typical [[Sugar and Ice Personality]] behavior, it really stands out in this context.

* [[TV Genius|Kotomi Ichinose]] from ''[[Clannad (Visualvisual Novelnovel)|Clannad]]''. [[The Wonka|Extremely smart but has virtually no social skills]], to the point where she doesn't even acknowledge people talking to her.

* Ririko in [[Sharin no Kuni (Visual Novel)|Sharin no Kuni]] is ''weird.'' I... she just... Ahem. Her 'interactions' with Touka when she was a child, her apparent ''liking'' of 'teasing' Kenichi, difficulty holding a train of though together and other random bizarre attributes are just the start of it.

* Arcueid from ''[[Tsukihime]]''. Sure, all the girls here seem to have superpowers or secret [[Rape Asas Backstory|tragic pasts]], but she's different in that she doesn't actually seem to ''[[Angst? What Angst?|care.]]'' Plus a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] and a bit of a ditz. Why is the vampire [[Tyke Bomb]] the one that's [[Yandere|usually]] the least crazy?

* Tegan Cassidy in [[Holiday Wars]] is a very strange girl and doesn't fit in with anyone from her high school, as seen in [http://www.th3rdworld.com/web-comic/Holiday-Wars/episode/Holiday-Wars-Episode-6 this strip]{{Dead link}}

* Antimony Carver of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' is a far more "normal" Strange Girl. She's very [[The Stoic|stoic]] and has [[Shell Shocked Senior|deep-seated issues]], but is caring, friendly and ready to lend a hand whether you're a robot, fairy, or ghost. She's visually set apart from her peers by the unusual lipstick and [[Body Motifs|eye-shadow]] she wears.

*** Not to mention what an encounter with her may or may not have done to [[Touched Byby Vorlons|Jack]]...

* Millie from ''[[Ozy and Millie (Webcomic)|Ozy and Millie]]''.

* Fio from ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20170802124754/http://www.revenant-braves.schala.net/ Circumstances of the Revenant Braves]''.

* Toni Ipres from ''[[Hanna Is Not a BoysBoy's Name]]''. She is fashionable, talented, upbeat and friendly, but sports some rather strange behavior due to being {{spoiler|a werewolf.}}

* [[Drow TalesDrowtales]]' [[Fourth Wall Observer]] [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=608 Kiel'ndia] is often [[Lampshade|lampshadedlampshade]]d as this.

** It's almost [[Catch Phrase]] for her and her best friend Naal'suul to have the exchange "you're wierd", and "I know."

* [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Chick]] is a [[Cute but Psycho]] [[Woman Child]]. And even when she's not in that mental state, she's still pretty freakish.

** And to a lesser extent, Rose Lalonde, what with her [[The Stoic|general stoicism]] and love of psychoanalysis, wizard fanfiction, [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|overly elaborate diction]] and [[Eldritch Abomination|the zoologically dubious]].

** Any of the female trolls would qualify as a [[Strange Girl]] were it not for how weird all of the trolls are and how [[Troperiffic]] ''Homestuck'' is in general, but Aradia and Vriska stand out. Aradia spends most of the story as an [[Emotionless Girl|Emotionless]] [[Stringy -Haired Ghost Girl]] who sets the trolls' side of the plot in motion because the voices of the dead told her to. Vriska's a filthy-rich serial killer with a fixation on spiders and a [[Complexity Addiction]] who manages to scare most of the other trolls despite them being a race of bloodthirsty [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]]es. The two of them also [[Extraordinarily Empowered Girl|have the strongest]] [[Psychic Powers]] of all the trolls, not to mention {{spoiler|being the only two trolls to make it to [[Came Back Strong|god tier]]}}.

* Mandy of ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy]]'' is like Emily, planning on world conquest. She's ruthless, not entirely without compassion or standards, but ''cross her and you will '''suffer.'''''

* ''[[Growing Up Creepie]]'' has Creepie, an orphan ''[[Raised Byby Wolves|raised by insects]]''. All things considered, her down to earth attitude is either a flying contrast to her upbringing or a completely logical result.

** Hell, one could even say that's the main reason none of the islanders give a rats ass about there being a shitload of aliens all over the place. After some of the weird stuff Lilo has gotten into in the past, they are just used to strange shit happening on a regular basis.

** Well, that and they're Hawaiians, whether by birth or by locale, and Hawaiians tend to have "hang loose" embedded in their DNA somewhere.