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Shuichi knows how to lighten up the mood.
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"I get tired just watching him."
—Suezo, on Genki from Monster Rancher
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Best described as the human equivalent of a parakeet: small, cute, colorful, hyperactive and really loud. A hyperactive character who is extremely cheerful. The Keet is often a male surrogate for female audiences.
Pops up here and there, especially in Shojo and shows with Boys Love Genre overtones; if he is the star, he is usually paired off in some form with his polar opposite. This character is born out of an enduring and surprisingly strict design plan for characters in Boys Love Genre manga commonly called the Uke. A more manly version is the Boisterous Bruiser, who is often a seme in Boys Love Genre.
Often subject to a crossdressing escapade.
Anime and Manga[]
- Haiji from Ai Kora is a hyperactive, always-cheerful girly Love Freak. Naturally, he just had to have Maeda's ideal arse.
- Akito from Air Gear.
- Feliciano/North Italy from Axis Powers Hetalia mixes this with The Ditz.
- Poland too, if in a different way (more teasing and playful than cute and hyper), gratuitously mixed with Cloudcuckoolander.
- While not necessarily colorful or small, Korea and America are definitely hyperactive and loud.
- And Japan at one point thanks to Italy.
- How is Sealand not on this list?
- Isaac Dian from Baccano! is quite the Keet. And since his partner Miria Harvent is a Genki Girl, well . . .
- Ladd Russo, Graham Spector, and Claire Stanfield appear to be evil versions of this trope.
- Toru Nanamine of Bakuman。 is constantly enthusiastic, even when his one-shot, "Classroom of Truth" doesn't get an award. It turns out to be an act, as he is actually quite smug and manipulative.
- Finnian in Black Butler. Prince Soma, too.
- Bleach:
- The Sogyo no Kotowari twins from the Unknown Tales arc certainly fit the bill.
- A very early installment had Yuuichi, a boy who fit this trope who had literally been turned into a parakeet after he and his mother were killed.
- Yuushirou Shihouin is maybe the best example in the series, as he's a very cheerful and battle-capable young boy who adores his sister Yoruichi and does his best to keep up with her and the rest of the cast.
- Chico from the second Boku no Pico OVA. Even though he's a Cute Shotaro Boy, he's the most outgoing and cheerful in the third OVA. Pico even gets annoyed with him for a bit.
- Lavi from D.Gray-man is every bit as genki as any Genki Girl.
- Kanda Yuusuke from Devil and Her Love Song tends to act pretty genki at times. He's not small or hyper-active, but seems to be the cheeriest out of the bunch. He holds a bright personality & tends to be overly friendly, which annoys his best friend Meguro sometimes.
- Takeru Takaishi from Digimon Adventure.
- V-mon is a Genki, well, Mon. It's why V-mon's such a great match for Daisuke. — while Takeru's busy not quite being his usual affable self in Digimon Adventure 02, Daisuke takes Takeru's place as the Keet.
- Tagiru Akashi of Digimon Xros Wars the Young Hunters Leaping Through Time. Dear god, Tagiru. Steam blasts out of his nose when he's really excited, for god's sake.
- Son Goten of Dragonball Z.
- Mizumachi Kengo from Eyeshield 21 is 203 cm of sheer moxie.
- JJ Adams in FAKE, who spends most of his on-panel time gleefully flinging himself at Dee.
- Momiji Sohma from Fruits Basket is the embodiment of this trope and seems to be in love with Tohru. He grows up at the end and stops being as much of a Keet, though he's still rather genki.
- Gash Bell himself.
- Shuichi in Gravitation (see above picture). Ryuichi, however, is unarguably the show's biggest Keet. There's another side to him, however....
- Micchi of Kamichama Karin takes this to whole new levels. His interaction with the rest of the main cast comes dangerously close to flirting (both with Karin and Kazune). This is even though he's a year older and One Head Taller than either of them.
- Yogi from Karneval can be overdramatic and flamboyant one moment, then more serious than his "rival" First Ship's female fighter the next. He's not small and cute, though; just loud and cheery. It annoys the heck outta Ineffectual Loner Gareki when his sunshiny personality is directed at him.
- Kuranosuke of Kuragehime, while not as small or shrill as your average Keet, still fits the bill.
- Yuri in Kyo Kara Maoh!. Most of the time.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga, Red Link is this, much to the annoyance of the Blue Link.
- Otani from Lovely Complex is this quite often... awww.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, a good portion of the male student body falls under this. The final event in the previous year's Mahorafest was a game of tag. Which they aren't repeating this year because there were too many injuries.
- Negi also qualifies when he's able to get away from his Training From Hell and responsibilities as a teacher. When he acquires a time machine during the festival arc and realizes he has enough time to do everything, he goes right into adorable-kid mode. His first impulse was to use the time machine to go back and see the dinosaurs.
- Nagisa Shiroi in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
- The aptly-named Genki in Monster Rancher.
- Nabari no Ou: Gau, who is hyperactive, passionate and regularly loud. Yukimi's nickname for him is "Tenpa-kun," which is derived from the slang term "tenparu" (lit. "about to blow a fuse").
- Naruto in Part I. Not so much in Part II, where he matures. This is lampshaded in the Shippuden anime when Naruto and Sakura do an Omake beside their younger selves, and Naruto can't believe how hyper he used to be.
- Akatsuki member Tobi is also hyperactive, especially in the Anime version. When he reveals himself to be Madara Uchiha, though, he drops the act.
- Not to mention Rock Lee and Guy, who are so energetic it even makes Naruto pause at times.
- Tony Tony Chopper from One Piece to a certain extent.
- Also Luffy. Bright red/orange, prone to yelling, way too much energy...
- And he's extremely short and drawn in a sorta "cute" style with big round eyes. So he's a very straight example...
- Also Luffy. Bright red/orange, prone to yelling, way too much energy...
- A good 25% of the cast of Ouran High School Host Club, but especially Hunny.
- Oz of Pandora Hearts at times.
- Mira from Papa to Kiss in the Dark.
- Tetsunosuke in Peacemaker Kurogane.
- Eiji Kikumaru from Prince of Tennis, though he evolves more into a Bunny Ears Lawyer as his character develops through the series. Arguably, people like Jiroh Akutagawa and Gakuto Mukahi from Hyoutei Gakuen and Kintarou Tooyama from Shitenhouji fit more into the archetype.
- Jun/Barry from the Pokémon anime.
- Ash Ketchum himself too, though not as extreme as Barry.
- Hareta from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure and Gold from Pokémon Golden Boys.
- Cooro from Plus Anima.
- Hanagata from Saber Marionette J is also a Camp Gay.
- Son Goku (no not that Son Goku) from Saiyuki. He's this...OH.SO.MUCH!
- Son Goku from Saiyuki is often described as this, especially by fans who have only watched the anime. In the manga, he slowly grows out of it.
- Ushijima in Shikabane Hime is another hetero example.
- Mizushiro Hizumi from Spiral is "the Devil"... a very, very cheerful and cute one. When he isn't being murderous and/or unbearably angsty, that is — he'll switch between all three moods in a matter of seconds.
- Takuto from Star Driver. However, his gender is definitely in question.
- Trigun: Vash the Stampede falls into this mode as a part of his Obfuscating Stupidity, but he also seems to take some comfort in the act, especially while enjoying his donuts, which is a sure trigger for it.
- Haru from from Tsuritama. Cute, eccentric, and least a third of his dialogue is yelled.
- Uta no Princesama heroine Haruka Nanami's singing idol Hayato is this. Or rather being keet is his image for the fans.
- Amasawa of The Weatherman Is My Lover.
- Nava of Wild Rock as he gets older.
- Kimihiro Watanuki in XxxHolic is so Keet that eventually Doumeki stops bothering to tell him to quit being so loud and simply covers his ears when Watanuki inevitably gets overexcited. Or annoyed, which happens more often in Doumeki's vicinity.
- He grows out of it due to Character Development though.
- Asato Tsuzuki from Yami no Matsuei waffles back and forth between being this and The Woobie.
- Jin from Yu Yu Hakusho This is not helped by the fact that he has the same Japanese voice actor as Ryuichi Sakuma.
- The concept itself is horribly, horribly deconstructed by Kiyoshi Mitarai, though.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yugi, particularly after finding friends.
- Judai of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX started out as this.
- For Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Leo/Lua appears to fit this role on occasion.
Comics[]
- Bart Allen, or at least when he was Impulse and not Kid Flash. He's now regained all of his hyperactivity as Kid Flash after coming Back From the Dead in the Legion of 3 Worlds arc.
Film[]
- Dash from The Incredibles, partly due to his Super Speed, can be one of these at times. Needless to say, his sister usually doesn't take it well.
- Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreivich in Star Trek (2009) can do zat.
Literature[]
- Tasslehoff Burrfoot from the Dragonlance series. In fact his entire race is pretty much this. The kender as a race never experience fear without massive magical power. Even dragons don't bother them.
- Colin Creevey, Colin Creevey, good Lord, Colin Creevey. A extremely hyperactive, and extremely persistent Fan Boy of Harry's.
- Sometimes, Miles Vorkosigan. Very short, hyperactive, doesn't know the meaning of "impossible", charm on overdrive, and if not handsome exactly, manages to attract various tall, beautiful women through sheer personal magnetism. He does have troughs that match the peaks, unfortunately for him.
Live-Action TV[]
- Andrew from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" embodies this trope.
- Bud from “Nina and The Neurons”.
- David Arquette, who always seems to be freebasing sugar. He's fully capable of playing serious roles, though he's more famous in the "hyper" persona.
- The Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who.
- And Captain Jack "Anything that moves" Harkness.
- Ten, when he isn't sulking about Rose or anytime around someone dies.
- Jonathan Mangum from Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza is a good example of this trope. Despite being 40, he is often thought to be the youngest performer due to his constant usage of this trope.
- Boober Fraggle, Fraggle Rock's resident Eeyore, has an alter-ego named Sidebottom who is a textbook example of this trope.
- Kido Shinji from Kamen Rider Ryuki is almost certainly the Keet-iest of all the Kamen Rider main protagonists. (Probably for the best considering that he resides in a Crapsack Black And Gray Morality World that has a very high death quotient up to and including Shinji himself).
- Ky Lee from The Librarians.
- Nobuta wo Produce has the hyperactive touchy rich-boy Akira as its Keet.
- Pee-Wee Herman embodies this trope.
- Ziggy from Power Rangers RPM fits this rather nicely, as well as Cloudcuckoolander.
- JD from Scrubs. One of the personality traits Dr. Cox likes to mock him for the most.
- Ban from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger takes the standard anime personality for The Hero to galactic proportions. He's ultra-loud and ultra-hyperactive 24/7. He doesn't appear to be shorter than his teammates, but it's hard to tell: he never stands still long enough for one to compare height.
- Jan from Juken Sentai Gekiranger. He's the purest example of this trope (that's not Shuichi). Ever.
- Hanto/Go-on Green in Engine Sentai Go-onger
- Wizards of Waverly Place has Zeke. He was once compared in-show to a hummingbird.
- Don't forget "Bouncing Chipmunk."
- Jeremy from the Korean drama "You're Beautiful" fits this trope to the letter. Unfortunately, he's not always as happy as he seems.
Music[]
- Electric Six One-Man Band Dick Valentine is... interesting. Even more so in his songs.
- Kai Hansen qualified on the first two Gamma Ray live videotapes (later released on DVD) where Ralf Scheepers was singing, giving Kai free rein to bounce around like he's high on crystal meth, grin maniacally at the camera, and generally act goofy and silly. Unfortunately he's much more restrained these days.
- Brendon Urie in the video for "Nine In The Afternoon". He was basically running around in pajamas for a good portion of the video and kept picking up random objects like an alarm clock and a vacuum.
- Iron Maiden's guitarist Janick Gers is noted for being reallyhyperactive on stage.
Video Games[]
- The titular character from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg has some qualities of this, fitting his role as savior of Morning Land.
- In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Tidus feels like this. But it's a different play on this trope — he is not overly upbeat, but when you put him with the rest of the game's cast, he is a damn good machine of mood-lightening. Unless you bring up his Father, in which case he becomes a Ball of Angry Angst.
- Zidane, as well, though he can occasionally get serious.
- And Bartz rounds out the trifecta of cheerful FF heroes.
- Zidane, as well, though he can occasionally get serious.
- Parry Gotha in Dragon Quest V, mostly as the effect of the party talk system. He even think of his uber legendary sword as a toy.
- Zack Fair, the thoroughly Adorkable protagonist in the Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core, is enthusiastic, bouncy, and friendly to the point that people start sticking him with the nickname "puppy."
- Snow Villiers from Final Fantasy XIII.
- Fire Emblem:
- Genealogy of the Holy War: Deu.
- Sacred Stones: Ewan.
- Tellius games: Kieran (despite being in his 20's) and Tormod.
- Awakening: Henry is a weird example, as he's very cherful but also very creepy. Also, a Male Morgan and arguably Owain.
- Fates: Male Kana has some traits, but Kiragi fits in much more. Odin may be older than the standard, but is actually quite of a Keet if excited enough. Because he is an Older and Wiser Owain.
- Inazuma Eleven, Endou Mamoru is probably the happiest of the major heroes in the Raimon Academy and Inazuma Japan National. His happy trait and Heroic Spirit are what drive the team to victory. Moreover, he almost never angst after the first game.
- Kid Icarus: Surprisingly, Pit.
- Sora, of the Kingdom Hearts series can be relentlessly cheerful. He pretty much has to be to be able to keep up with a pair of classic Toons as his sidekicks.
- Ventus is just as adorable and cheerful as Sora, but in a completly different manner.
- Cloudcuckoolander Ellis from Left 4 Dead 2 is a Keet, though a toned-down, Southern version.
- Arguably Louis from the original Left 4 Dead is another, perpetually optimistic flavor of keet, always hopeful, trying to keep the team's spirits up and looking at the bright side of things in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse.
- In most of his incarnations, Legend of Zelda's main protagonist, Link, is a rather serious young person. By contrast, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker's Link is cheerful, upbeat, and downright silly at times. He can still go toe to toe with the baddest of the bad, but he was also once turned into a human pancake.
- Morenatsu: Hoo Boy! Let me give you two words... Shun Kodori. Nuff' said.
- Claus from Mother 3. Until he gets brainwashed by the Pigmasks, that is.
- Yes-Man of New Vegas.
- More so then his anime counterpart, Barry/Pearl/Damion from Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Charmy Bee fits perfectly into this trope, as he is often energetic, playful, and very scatterbrained. Of course, his constant buzzing can be annoying sometimes.
- Long before him, we have Miles "Tails" Prower.
- Griff Simmons from the SSX Series fits well into this.
- Super Mario Bros: Mario definitely fits as one of these, with his cheerful YAHOOs and WAHAHAHAs.
- Mao from Tales of Rebirth is a Cute Shotaro Boy who seems to be always ready to lighten up the mood.
- Fast talkin', skull bashin', cola swillin' Scout, from Team Fortress 2. Short, shrill, and hyper to the point of infuriating? You betta believe it pal! Obviously, he is also far more violent than most Keets — a trait that gets lost when he's subjected to Wimpification, as he frequently is.
- Cadet Ellis (No relation to the above) from Vindictus. Makes it all the more of a Player Punch when he eagerly runs off to prove himself and gets brutally killed by a giant goblin.
Webcomics[]
- Cat from Cat and Girl is a major one.
- The eponymous character of Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name. Complete with Gender Blender Name, natch. Notably, he is seen in an official guest strip making a face more commonly seen on SpongeBob SquarePants ("FREEEEEE"), doesn't narrate the comic because he's too hyper, and has a Tall, Dark and Snarky sidekick/Heterosexual Life Partner who does narrate (and is more than One Head Taller than Hanna). Hanna is not quite 5'3", has almost-fluorescent red hair, often dresses fairly colourfully, is quite the Motor Mouth, and is Older Than He Looks: as his bio says, he's "best described as an overly enthusiastic, obnoxious child in the body of a twenty four year old man."
- Kazuki from Kenshiro no Tabi, who upon imbibing triple-sweetened strawberry-milk released enough energy to create a nuclear explosion.
- Rocky from Lackadaisy. A skinny sugar addict smartmouth, Rocky's boundless energy combined with poor impulse control regularly gets him into trouble.
- Pretty much deconstructed in The Quick and Dirty Life of Fritz Fargo. Fritz is five-foot-nothing, very emotional, very loud (he's a vocalist in a rock band), and very, very energetic. He also has a Heterosexual Life Partner who's One Head Taller than him and twice as broad as he is, a missing tooth that makes him look younger than he probably is... and a really serious cocaine habit, which is why he's so hyperactive.
- Taisei from Sakana does fit the "hyperactive", "cheerful", and "loud" part, but he's not exactly small.
- Jan also qualifies.
- T-Bob from Something Positive, described in an early bio as "the living embodiment of caffeine."
- Selby the spaniel from Woods for The Trees.
Web Original[]
- Zack from Echo Chamber is enthusiastic, chipper, and loud.
- Keiji Tanaka of Survival of the Fittest, whilst not exactly small, fits the rest of the criteria for Keetness to an absolute "T".
- Chris Davidson and Albert Lions of v4 are this as well.
- Kate Modern's Lee is yet another Western example, particularly in season 2.
- Timmy from Gaia Online. Yeep!
- That Guy With The Glasses and Blistered Thumbs have their fair share of keets.
- As convention-goers can attest to, Doug Walker is a smiley, bouncy, hyper flirt who likes his glomps. His character also descends into grins a mile wide, running around excited and super-sonic Squee when he's enjoying himself.
- Any and all of the Bums.
- Our favorite "sexy French space lumberjack", Benzaie. His catchphrase is yelping "BUT WAIT!", he's known to get into compromising positions with Spoony and had a sweet, violent, and hilarious rivalry with That Dude in the Suede, and he's prone to randomly cross-dressing. He's also really, really pretty. Benzaie seems to be the French example of this trope. And we love him for it.
- Film Brain, in Kickassia, Suburban Knights and real life. In his own words he "laughs like a girl" in his outtake videos.
- Especially his crossover with Sad Panda, Masoko X, Welshy and Mike J. He starts laughing hysterically and can't stop for over five minutes. In the end they have him cover his eyes and pretend he's crying so they can keep filming.
- Lewis Lovhaug is apparently this in Real Life, according to Spoony, who said that during the filming for Kickassia he still had energy for shooting videos after a day in the desert outside Reno, while Spoony himself was wiped out.
- Every Angry Joe Show is a continous 20 minutes adrenaline rush. His personal favorite games are dancing games.
- The Mighty Morphin' Midget Gnomes.
- 1-Up in the 20X6 universe of Homestar Runner. This also applies a little bit to present-day counterpart Homestar Runner himself, although he is more of a Cloudcuckoolander and most any behavior he exhibits that falls under this trope is as a result of it.
- Hank Green of Brotherhood 2.0. This is a particularly good example.
- Fred. Oh so very much.
- Fidget, one of the Kid Hero speedsters at the Hyperion Academy is hyperactive, loud, constantly cheerful, and utterly irritating.
- Arella in MSF High Forum has been T Ged. Her personality has not changed.
- Egoraptor.
- Bubble Berry in the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Colt Versions. Of course, he's a genderswap of Pinkie Pie...
Western Animation[]
- Shifty Dingo from The Adventures of Blinky Bill. Especially when he's in a good mood. "I'm going to a party! I'm going to a party!" *bangs drum repeatedly*
- Sheen from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.
- Gumball and Darwin from The Amazing World of Gumball.
- Daggett from The Angry Beavers as shades of this.
- Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender certainly qualifies, particularly in the earlier episodes. He does undergo some serious Character Development, though, once he discovers the gravity of the circumstances he and his friends are in.
- Bolin from The Legend of Korra has shades of this as well.
- Freddy the ferret from Back at the Barnyard.
- Star from Balto.
- Mr. Whiskers from Brandy and Mr. Whiskers.
- Dog from Cat Dog.
- Rusty from Chucklewood Critters.
- Code Lyoko: Johnny, starting in Season 3.
- Stuffy the blue dragon toy from Doc McStuffins.
- Skeeter Valentine from Doug.
- Doug himself had some shades of this when he was a little kid. In the show itself he's more of an Adorkable Cute Shotaro Boy.
- Wooldoor Sockbat from Drawn Together.
- The Fairly Odd Parents: Timmy Turner is this arguably. He has No Indoor Voice and is very very energetic. He, in fact, is the center of a Toy Ship, several in fact.
- Any character played by Gilbert Gottfried, including his nightclub stand-up act.
- GIR from Invader Zim.
- Keef too.
- Sniz from Ka Blam! Also Henry, well, sort of.
- Tommy Gilligan from Kids Next Door is this and a Large Ham.
- Braeburn of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has shades of this and Motor Mouth. He's enthusiastic, usually quite cheerful, can only be stopped talking by his cousin Applejack, and has a rather large fan-base, despite being in only one episode.
- Mr. Tickle, Mr. Happy and Mr. Messy from The Mr. Men Show. And how!
- Pym from Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.
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"Maybe he was the Knight! Or the Pixie!" |
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- From Phineas and Ferb, Phineas Flynn. Dear GOD, Phineas Flynn.
- T.J. Detweiler from Recess
- Gus when he was in kindergarten
- Miguel from The Road to El Dorado.
- Scaredy and Dave from Scaredy Squirrel.
- The titular SpongeBob SquarePants.
- The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight from The Tick, who is constantly rattling off conversations about his evilness to no one in particular and has severe trouble not bursting out phrases like "Down with government!" during normal conversation.
- Blurr from Transformers Generation 1. Voiced by that Micro Machines guy.
- Russell from Up.
- Happy from 7D.
Real Life[]
- Ed Wood, in real life and as portrayed by Johnny Depp in the Tim Burton film. In addition to possessing childlike levels of innocence and enthusiasm, he was also a Wholesome Crossdresser. And not only did he have no idea how bad his movies were, but he didn't think that cardboard tombstone props falling down required a reshoot.
- Darren Criss, tiny, loud, hyper. Wears pink sunglasses a lot.
- This picture says it all.
- And, in a similar vein, we have Daniel Radcliffe.
- Aerosmith's lead singer Steven Tyler. While not particularly tiny [he's 5'11.5" according to some sources], he's still hyper and loud and gets extremely excited about certain things he's passionate about.
- Love him or hate him, Justin Bieber is this trope.
- Back when he was on Freaks and Geeks, John Francis Daley definitely qualified as this. In the behind-the-scenes videos, he attempts to scare the cast by hiding in the set and launching himself at them, runs around a parking lot flailing his arms in between takes, and proclaims to the camera "Watch how quickly I can eat!" before downing a bowl of noodles in ten seconds.
- John Barrowman, being six feet tall, doesn't qualify for "small" but makes up for it by checking off "cute," "colorful," "hyperactive,", and "regularly loud" in an as over-the-top fashion as he can possibly manage.
- Adam Savage. Again, not in terms of size so much as personality.
- Richard Simmons.
- Carrot Top.