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Maybe the way she can handle the instruments. Maybe her skilled hands, the way she blows that oboe or the sound she makes when the song is about to climax. Whichever it is, there is something about playing instruments that really pulls men's strings.
Apparently, men aren't so uncultured if the culture is served by a hottie.
Applies to all female classical musicians no matter what instrument they are playing. It also tends to apply to male classical musicians, who are increasingly portrayed as hot in newer media.
Examples:[]
Anime[]
- Michiru of Sailor Moon definitely counts. The picture above comes form the Updated Rerelease, Sailor Moon Crystal.
- Michiru's girlfriend Haruka counts as well in the first series, since she's seen playing piano alongside Michiru and does it rather nicely.
- Roughly half of the cast of Nodame Cantabile, most notably Miki Kiyoura.
- The other half are guys. And several of them are hot too.
- Nodame herself would probably qualify, if she wouldn't make silly faces while playing. Then again there are many fans who find her silly faces pretty cute in their own way, so...
- Okay, they don't play classical music, but the girls from K-On look very nice playing their instruments. Especially Mio on bass.
- Kahoko Hino of La Corda d'Oro plays the violin with the help of magic, and manages to attract a hoard of Bishounen while she's at it.
- And the Bishonen are music players as well, so they're gender flipped examples.
- Male examples: Choutarou Ohtori and Yuushi Oshitari from The Prince of Tennis. Both are handsome, promising violinists as well as excellent tennis players.
- Many fans consider Tarou Sakaki (who makes double work in Hyoutei as tennis coach and music teacher) to be an older case of this.
- Another male: Haji from Blood Plus, excellent cellist.
- And another - Austria from Axis Powers Hetalia and his piano, anyone?
- As an extension, many fanarts show Austria's wife Hungary as one too, though they tend to make her either a back-up folk dancer or the violin player to Austria and his piano.
- As seen on the official calendar, he can also play the violin. And Germany can play the cello.
- Whenever Austria pays the piano, FUCKING PANTIES HIT THE FLOOR! (And more than one pair of boxers! Stupid sexy Austria...)
- After Eurovision 2009, quite a few fanarts have Norway playing the violin as well.
- The High School AU-themed strips add two to the roster: Ukraine (classical singer) and Estonia (pianist).
- In Clannad (both anime and game), Kotomi Ichinose is a really cute violin player. Even when, well, she SUCKS at playing.
- Another "pretty but sucky player" case: Shirabe from Mahou Sensei Negima. Her music can shatter stone.
- Misaka in episode 19 of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun does a violin solo. Bonus points as it was the opening tune and one of the few time she wears something other than her school uniform; a white flowing dress.
- Quon Kisaragi from RahXephon. Naturally, since she's the Ms. Fanservice of the show.
- Nozomi from the Elfen Lied manga aspires to become one of these (of the opera singer kind), despite her father's objections and tremendous abuse.
- Both main characters (Hiroki and Sayuri) in The Place Promised in Our Early Days play the violin- she plays a certain song for him, he later learns it and plays it himself.
- Henrietta from Gunslinger Girl may qualify. She carries her main gun in a violin case a la the Mafia, and plays the violin quite well. Then again, she's only about eleven...
- Claes loves to play the piano, but being one of Henrietta's kind she is not much older.
- Madoka Ayukawa plays Piano, Saxophone, and Guitar with skill enough to make her a professional musician with any one of them. She's a not halfway bad Idol Singer when in a pinch, either.
- It's In the Blood, actually: Madoka's mother (implied to be a Hot Mom, but never clearly seen) is a famous classical violinist and her father is an equally well-known conductor, so she learned from the best.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion has Shinji Ikari playing the cello. Although it doesn't particularly make him more attractive than usual to the viewer, hearing his performance does elicit some rare genuine niceness from Asuka as she notes he's really skilled with it.
- The first part of Evangelion: Death and Rebirth has several of the Children playing instruments.
- In Rebuild of Evangelion 3.3, Kaworu Nagisa is a pianist.
- A pre-teen version (who is still, uhm... Younger Than She Looks) is Ai Shinozaki from Hell Teacher Nube. At the age of 12-13, she's a genius violin player as well as Tall, Dark and Bishoujo. And a Lonely Rich Kid Stepford Smiler who's possessed by a demon due to her loneliness and emotional turmoil.
- Another male version is Hijiri Minase from Yami no Matsuei, a Teen Genius violinist who is the Distressed Dude from the Devil's Thrill arc.
- One for each gender, in Marmalade Boy: Kei Tsuchiya is a handsome boy that plays the piano, Anju Kitahara is a Yamato Nadeshiko who plays violin.
- The twelfth Detective Conan movie, Full Score of Fear, has two very Tall, Dark and Bishoujo opera singers in the middle of a case where two musicians are killed off. There's also a beautiful Woman in Black who's a violin player. The backstory reveals that a super handsome flute player, the boyfriend of one of the singers, was killed in a Deadly Prank. And his death is the reason why several good-looking musicians are falling dead like flies at the hands of his angry, hurt father.
- Seraphim from Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? plays the violin and later leads her fellow vampire ninjas in closing the gates to the underworld; bonus points for them being in Maid costumes.
- Dimitri from Kurobara Alice was an opera singer in the past. Alice (his beloved Agniezska's body, animated by the soul of a young woman named Asuza Kikukawa) is a talented pianist.
- Trowa and Quatre gender flip it, playing flute and violin, respectively, at the end of an episode of Gundam Wing. This is perhaps just more fuel for fan girls of the pairing.
- Quatre is also a skilled piano player, bonding with Noin over a sonata that he plays in the Sanq Kingdom school.
- Ayane and Kou from Rouge Noir. Ayane doubles as Sensei-chan since she's a music teacher.
- Seika "Mariana" Akishima from Amakusa 1637, a prospect opera singer who's pretty famous in her school as such. Her beautiful voice is showcased when she reunites with Natsuki and Eri in the past, via singing to them from the boat she's in so they can recognize her.
- In The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, Yuutaro Katori is normally Adorkable in his civilian life, but when he plays a lovely song from his home planet in Dr. Amano's ocarina (an ancient wind instrument similar to a flute), he adopts a serene attitude that strongly resembles the trope and makes him look almost Tall, Dark and Handsome.
- Captain Tsubasa World Youth Cup reveals that El Sid Pierre, in addition to being a gifted soccer player, is a talented pianist.
- Rurouni Kenshin has Sayo "Magdaria" Mutou from the filler Shimabara arc, who plays the piano really well. There's a whole scene where she plays Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in an attempt to clear her thoughts.
- In the Saint Seiya anime, Saori gets two scenes where she plays the piano and does so pretty well.
- Seiya may not be a pro player or anything, but in a filler three-part he's seen playing the guitar while in deep thought.
- Pandora is a beautiful Aloof Dark-Haired Girl who plays the harp so beautifully, a picture of her is the main pic in Harp of Femininity.
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics:
- Rapunzel has the protagonist as a skilled musician, and her signature instrument is the lyre. The Prince actually hears her playing and falls in love with her music, then meets up with her. She keeps her lyre after she and the Prince are separated by the Witch, and the now blinded Prince finds her after he hears her play the same song that she played when they met.
- Princess Briar Rose aka Sleeping Beauty is just as good with the lyre, and she even writes her own songs. She's also a bit obsessed with perfect melodies, and the disguised Wicked Witch tricks her into prickling her finger via roping Rose into helping her with her "wool spinning" in exchange for songwriting help.
- Kyouko Sakurami from Taishou Yakyuu Musume is a very adorable-looking piano player.
- Aria Kanbara from Akatsuki no Aria is a protagonist example. She's a very cute singer and a piano prodigy, and she goes to Tokyo so she can become a famous pianist. Then she suffers a Career-Ending Injury on her hand, and has to switch completely to singing.
Comic Books[]
- Virtuosa, the Legacy Villain to Golden Age Flash villain the Fiddler. She plays a magic violin that can control minds and alter matter.
- Ingrid from Yoko Tsuno is said to be a well-known professional pipe organist, which curiously never is brought up again after her introduction.
Film[]
- Kara Milovy (played by the hotty tottie Maryam d'Abo) from The Living Daylights.
- Dana Barret from Ghostbusters
- August Rush: Evan's parents are both definitely this, but his mother, with the fingers, and the strings, and the touching... And look how into it she is.
- Madeline in Electric Dreams.
- Male version: Daigo from Departures plays the cello.
Literature[]
- Fenchurch from So Long And Thanks For All the Fish
- Marianne Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility, a talented pianist.
- Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A male example, but it definitely counts. Vivi's boyfriend attracts the attention of everyone everywhere ever because he just looks and sounds so pretty when playing his fiddle. It's also used to demonstrate what a gentleman he is; there's a very touching scene where he dedicates a song to Vivi's unattractive, unloved mother and nearly makes her cry with happiness.
- A male example with Milton Stephanides in Middlesex; he uses his skills to seduce Tessie. They then go on to take it Up to Eleven, using it in sex, or at least, foreplay.
Live Action TV[]
- Leslie Winkle both plays it straight and lampshades it in The Big Bang Theory.
- Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip has an example.
- Emma from Heroes.
- Frasier had a couple, notably a cellist he meets at the airport.
- If you've watched Wings for more than five minutes, you know Helen is a cellist.
- Star Trek: Voyager. Handsome Lech Tom Paris finds out that his friend Harry Kim is doing music practise with a good-looking female crewmember and derides her as having "cold hands, cold heart". Harry smirks and replies "Not when she's playing the oboe."
Theater[]
- Jane Spofford in The Witches of Eastwick.
- Male example: Thomas Jefferson in 1776. Martha Jefferson's one scene is the song "He Plays the Violin" Hear it here.
Video Games[]
- Helena from Dead or Alive is an opera singer when she isn't in battle.
- House of Rules: Alexis plays the piano and quite well, too. It seems that she learned this from Lady Jane.
- Lunasa Prismriver, by the will of some of her fans.
- Yurika Kirishima, violin-wielding Musical Assassin from Rival Schools.
- Usami Haru in G Senjou no Maou, though she never really gets to play the violin for Kyousuke due to her trauma and desire for revenge against Maou.
- Fire Emblem has several, though they're rarely seen playing onscreen:
- Prince Lewyn from FE: Genealogy of the Holy War is a great flutist. In one of the mangas, he combines this with actual Magic Music.
- Cordelia and her mentor Phila in Fire Emblem Awakening are said to be wonderful harp players (with Phila as the better one).
- Azura from Fates is a gifted dancer and singer, and she gets the chance to perform in public. In fact not only she can use her Magic Music to give more turns to her companions, but uses it to calm down the Protagonist from a Traumatic Superpower Awakening (all paths), try assassinating the King of Nohr who's vulnerable to her magic (Birthright and Conquest), and stop Ryoma and Xander from a Duel to the Death (Golden Path only)
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses has the former opera singers Manuela Casagranda and Dorothea Arnault. Who do get to sing in-story in their supports.
- Miyu Shizuhara from Crescendo is a beautiful and gifted piano player, and in her route the protagonist can go to one of her concerts.
Web Comics[]
- Jigsaw Forte, professional violinist turned Last Res0rt Executioner.
Web Original[]
- Codex from The Guild was a concert violinist, and plays her violin with the door open to try to get the attention of her attractive neighbor.
Western Animation[]
- Octavia Melody, formerly a One-Scene Wonder background pony from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season one finale but has since also appeared in posterior seasons, has garnered several fans for her classy demeanor and her skill with the cello.