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When the main characters in a show are both female, or if there are only Two Girls to a Team, it almost always leads to a case of this trope. The "Girly Girl" will highly care about her appearance, pursue "girly" interests, and is often (though not always) The Chick. The Tomboy, who is often The Big Guy, will be an aggressive Action Girl who's into sports, mechanics, or the like. She couldn't care less about her hair or makeup, but is often an Unkempt Beauty anyway.
The two ladies will have some sort of relationship with each other, whether they're best friends, on the same team, or even explicit lovers. If they're together for reasons outside their control (e.g., part of a team), they might initially dislike or confuse each other with their ways, until the Girls Night Out Episode forces them to put aside their differences and forge a common bond (note: if there are more than two girls in the group, these two must have some kind of relationship over the others).
Subject to Unfortunate Implications if one is portrayed as being "better" than the other and can also lead to Fan Dumb or Hate Dumb. The girly girl is portrayed as shallow, vain, stupidm "less of a strong woman" or even as a whore, for taking a traditional gender role; or the tomboy is portrayed as a bitch, a man hater or even ambiguously lesbian, for taking a less traditional one. Works that involve Values Dissonance are particularly vulnerable to this.
Compare/contrast Bifauxnen and Ladette (the equivalent of this trope, only without said girly girl involved) and Light Feminine and Dark Feminine (the other equivalent, sometimes without the tomboy). Contrast Silk Hiding Steel, Spirited Young Lady, and often Badass Princess, where a female character looks and acts like a girly girl but has the spirit of a tomboy.
Distaff Counterpart to Sensitive Guy and Manly Man, especially if they're the only guys in the group, and no less prone to being an Odd Couple in which Hilarity Ensues.
Important Note: While this is usually a straight forward trope, examples can still get subjective in regards to whether or not one of the girls is tomboyish enough, the other is girly enough, or whether they're different enough. Keep a few points in mind when editing;
- 1. The two girls do not have to be polar opposites of each other to fit this trope.
- 2. The tomboy does not have to be a total man-beast with no feminine interests. She can perfectly be a Tomboy with a Girly Streak
- 3. The girly girl does not have to be a total priss with no masculine interests. She can perfectly be a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak.
- 4. Using #2 or #3 to justify deleting an example invokes the very same negative stereotypes and Unfortunate Implications mentioned above.
- 5. If you post an example that may not be so obvious, be sure to explain how one is a tomboy and how the other is a girly girl.
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- The Burger King Kids Club: Boomer (tomboy) and Snaps (girly girl).
Anime & Manga[]
- Azumanga Daioh: Nyamo and Yukari are grown-up versions of this, and acted it out in their high school days. One could argue about Yukari being "grown-up," though. Sakaki and Kagura could fit, but they don't get the chance to act it out, as Kagura only sees Sakaki as a tall, intimidating Worthy Opponent and doesn't see her true, very girly self, at least not until the end of the series.
- Axis Powers Hetalia:
- Parodied/inverted with Russia's two sisters, Belarus and Ukraine. The girly Belarus is a frightening Yandere, whereas the tomboyish Ukraine is a motherly Fragile Flower.
- Vietnam (tomboy) and Taiwan (girly girl) certainly look the part. When they finally are seen interacting, the trope is subverted: Vietnam is tomboyish-looking but very shy and modest about her good looks, and Taiwan is a dainty-looking but very energetic and stubborn Genki Girl.
- Fanwork usually gives these dynamics to two ladies who haven't met in canon (aside of a request sketch), but still have the looks: Hungary (Hot Amazon, Ninja Maid) and Liechtenstein (Proper Lady). Or Hungary and Belgium (Action Girl, Cool Big Sis).
- Fanon also tends to peg Belgium as the Tomboy, especially when drawn with Liechtenstein or Monaco.
- In regards to genderflips, we have many examples. Among the more obvious, we have Girl!Korea as the tomboy to Girl!Japan's girly girl.
- Female!Prussia and Female!Austria? Anyone?
- The Hetaween event gave us Seychelles and Monaco.
- During an extra in the fourth volume, Hungary plays this to both Ukraine and Liechtenstein.
- Baccano gives us on the one hand Nice Holystone, who wears a vest and tight pants (in 1930's America, no less...) and enjoys blowing stuff up, and on the other, Chane Laforet, who wears long, elegant dresses and fights gracefully with a knife.
- Runo and Julie in the original series of Bakugan.
- Beauty Pop, where Kiri Koshiba, a very boyish girl (to the point that she is often mistaken for a boy when not in school uniform), has a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship going on with girly and feminine Kanako. Kiri is also friends with a genki goth loli (sister of another main character) who has a big crush on her, but those feelings are not reciprocated by Kiri.
- Berserk: Before It Got Worse for her and she became an Apostle, Rosine was the tomboy to her best friend Jill's girly girl.
- Bleach:
- The Bokukko Tatsuki Arisawa and the Cloudcuckoolander Orihime Inoue.
- Rukia Kuchiki and Orihime zigzag this rather interestingly. On one hand Rukia is a very straightforward Action Girl who talks a bit like an old man and prefers to take action unless things are going VERY wrong, but she also loves rabbits and dresses, and Renji always described her in their youth as having "a gentle air". Orihime, on the other hand, is a gentle Barrier Warrior who may be on the way to Yamato Nadeshiko and cries when people get hurt, but she also likes robots and exchanges shonen manga with Ichigo.
- We can't forget Ichigo's sisters, with Karin as the tomboy and Yuzu as the girly girl.
- The Kotetsu sisters are another such pair for siblings; younger sister Kiyone (3rd Seat of the 13th Squad) is the tomboy who gets into arguments with Sentarou and is said to sometimes show up to duty drunk, and older sister Isane (Lieutenant of the 4th Division) is the girly girl who is fairly timid and often has nightmares.
- The two female captains of the Gotei 13 also counts despite not being a duo. Ninja Soi Fon (of the 2nd Division) is the tomboy to The Medic Unohana Retsu's (of the 4th Division) girly girl.
- On the side of the Hollows and Arrancars, the short-haired blonde Menoly appears the tomboy to the Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette Loly's girly girl, and Anime Chinese Girl Sun-Sun is the girly girl to the more tomboyish Apache and Milla Rose. Loly and Menoly are a subversion: the girlish-looking Loly is the more outspoken and aggressive, whereas Menoly is slightly more thoughtful. (She did think twice about their treatment of Orihime, but Loly convinced her to abuse the other again). Both of them are still tomboys, however.
- Lipstick Lesbian and Genki Girl Chizuru is another good Girly Girl foil to Tomboy Tatsuki. Lampshaded when Chizuru says that the reason why she doesn't hit on Tatsuki is specifically because she is too tomboyish for her.
- Bokurano:
- Maki Anou and Takami "Komo" Komoda
- Also, Maki and either Kana Ushiro or Aiko "Anko" Tokosumi.
- Chizuru "Chizu" Honda was the girly girl to her older sister Ichiko's tomboy.
- Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman — a two-part OVA series. Played with by (girly) main character Mari and her affectionate (tomboy) roommate Saori. Toyed with in funny ways in that Mari is the scantily-clad heroine while Saori tends to be the Distressed Damsel.
- Candy Boy: Yukino is more girlish in behavior than her sister Kanade, in perhaps one of the more subtle examples of this trope.
- Candy Candy: Candace "Candy" White Andree is the tomboy and Annie Brighton the girly girl, seconded by Patricia "Patty" O'Brien later.
- Candy herself was the girly girl to the cool-headed Broken Bird Frannie.
- Captain Tsubasa: The Furano managers fit the trope. Machiko Machida is an outspoken Meganekko, Yoshiko Fujisawa is a shy Yamato Nadeshiko.
- Also, the other Yamato Nadeshiko Yayoi and the Shorttank Sanae. While Sanae is the girly girl to her two friends Kumi and Yukari: both girls are quire girlish, but Kumi is very outspoken whereas Yukari is more pragmatic.
- Cardcaptor Sakura:
- Li Meiling and Tomoyo Daidouji , with main character Sakura Kinomoto being a fairly even mix of the other two.
- Also Chiharu Mihara (tomboy) and either Rika Sasaki or Naoko Yanagisawa (girly girls).
- Tomoyo and Sakura's mothers as well. Amusingly, the situation was quite inverted: Sakura's mom Nadeshiko was the girly girl (Yamato Nadeshiko, Dojikko), whereas Tomoyo's mother Sonomi was the tomboy (You Go, Girl!, Shorttank).
- Maruko is the tomboy and her best friend Tamae is the girly girl in Chibi Maruko Chan.
- Claymore has minor characters Audrey and Rachel. Noticeable shades of Les Yay with these two.
- Code Geass:
- Played straight and then toyed with. Cornelia and Euphie are a straight example, then Kallen plays either girly girl (to Milly and Shirley, at Ashford) or tomboy (to Kaguya and maybe C.C., with the Black Knights) heavily depending on her surroundings.
- Despite not being that tomboyish, Kaguya had her own girly girl in the sweet and shy Empress Tianzi.
- In the manga Knightmare Of Nunnally, Nunners was the girly girl to her Tsundere best friend Alice's tomboy and to her Super-Powered Evil Side of sorts, Nemo.
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mitsuri Kanroji is a Girly Bruiser Plucky Girl with a very physical fighting style and Miss Fanservice looks. Shinobu Kocho is a Lady of War and apparent Yamato Nadeshiko who fights more elegantly and is a bit of a Combat Medic.
- Ironically, when Shinobu was younger she was a quite more tomboyish Little Miss Badass and the Tomboy to her Yamato Nadeshiko (only a bit sillier) older sister Kanae.
- Downplayed between Aoi Kanzaki and Kanao Tsuyuri. Kanao looks cuter and girlier than Aoi thanks to having a Custom Uniform that includes a pleated skirt while Aoi uses an uniform with pants and a nurse-like apron, plus Aoi acts much more bluntly than the cute and quiet Kanao - but Kanao actively hunts down and slays demons while Aoi stays behind in the Butterfly Mansion and is in charge of caretaking deals.
- Digimon Adventure: Sora Takenouchi and Mimi Tachikawa. Ruki Makino and Juri Katou from Digimon Tamers. Digimon Adventure 02 kinda-sorta subverts the trope: there's two girls (Hikari Yagami and Miyako Inoue), and, while the series doesn't focus on them much, they are something of an Odd Couple; a better description of them would be The Chick and Genki Girl. Izumi Orimoto is a girly girl and the only female member of the team from Digimon Frontier.
- Dirty Pair: This is practically a given for any Lovely Angels teams. Kei and Yuri almost certainly inspired the Pretty Cure girls, right down to their very similar hairstyles.
- D.N.Angel: Risa (girly girl) and Riku (tomboy) Harada is yet another sibling example.
- Dragon Ball:
- The manga has some fun with this trope. Bulma and Lunch vary on which is the tomboy and which is the girly girl depending on which of Lunch's personalities is dominant. If Lunch is in her blonde form, she's a gun-crazy kleptomaniac and Bulma is a fashion-conscious non-combatant. If Lunch is in her blue-haired form, however, she's a naive ingenue and Bulma is the adventurous Wrench Wench.
- Dragon Ball Z also has Chichi and Bulma, where Chichi is the overprotective Education Mama and Bulma is one of her husband's irresponsible friends.
- In the Buu arc, we have the Shorttank and Tsundere Videl and her Ms. Fanservice best friend Erasa.
- In Dragon Ball GT, Goku's granddaughter Pan is shown as a tomboy, while the daugther of Vegeta, Bulla is shown as a girly girl. It remains to see if they'll enact similar dynamics when tyeyre properly grown-up in the canon storyline.
- In Doctor Slump:
- Akane is the Tomboy. She's treated as a rebel without a cause-like, shameless Tsundere, Book Dumb but good at sports. She also generally wears male fashion or an American style, wears her hair in a Tomboyish Ponytail, often is seen driving scooters and motorcycles, and breaks rules for fun. Even in the remake his father complains that she is not very girly. While OTOH Arale is am energetic, bubbly, loving, ditzy Genki Girl who likes to dress up animals and sgets along with them, has quite the case Cuteness Proximity, considers herself as having feminine allure, wants bigger breasts, wears her hair down or sometimes in Girlish Piftails, and even when causes to others is mostly due to her naivete rather than wanting to do harm to others, therefore she fulfills the role of a girly girl.
- Tsururin Tsun is wears pink and purple, and is the most feminine in her group of friends (but still has its tomboy side).
- Also there is the Teacher Midori Yamabuki (later Norimaki) who is treated like a beautiful woman and of character very well educated and very loving, but also she has shown a sideTsundere, something strict and hard. She later became the girly woman to Tsunoda Tsun's tomboy (Tsuntsunodanoteiyugo Tsun) the mother of Tsukutsun and Tsururin.
- Figure 17 has a mild version of this going on- Hikaru is somewhat tomboyish relative to Tsubasa, wearing more masculine clothes in the opening and being better at sports, but taken on her own she's still quite feminine. The main contrast here is that the Artificial Human Hikaru is outgoing and extraverted, and helps to bring out the shy introverted Tsubasa, who was an only child before her artificial twin Tsubasa was accidentally created.
- Fruits Basket:
- Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima . Uo is a (mostly) reformed Yankee who has been known to bring a lead pipe to school to threaten people who pick on her friends. Hana is a soft-spoken girl with Elegant Gothic Lolita leanings, and the ability to read people's auras. And she can kill you with her mind. Both scare the crap out of their classmates, except for Tohru.
- Kagura Sohma and Tohru Honda also have these dynamics, to a degree. Kagura isn't that tomboyish, though: she's more of a Genki Girl.
- Full Metal Panic:
- Mao (Tomboy) and Tessa (girly). Sure, Tessa is only 16 and a submaring captain while Mao is a soldier and her subordinate but still. They're friends even though their nature is very different.
- Also Kaname (tomboy) and Kyoko (girly); Kaname (tomboy) and Tessa (girly).
- Futari wa Pretty Cure:
- Misumi Nagisa and Yukishiro Honoka respectively. It goes as far as making the symbols on their mascots' foreheads cutesied-up versions of the Mars and Venus symbols. Interestingly enough (and perhaps not done often enough), the girly-girl Honoka is the smartest girl in school and into chemistry. The banner ads would love her.
- This is mostly a superficial example of the trope. Nagisa has short hair and plays lacrosse, but her room is pink and full of stuffed animals, while Honoka's is a fairly plain traditional Japanese style room. And while Honoka's clothes tend to be girlier, she doesn't seem to be noticeably more interested in fashion. Also, Honoka actually seems more gung-ho about punching evil in the face than Nagisa. It's really more of a jock/nerd dichotomy than anything else.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star does the same thing with similar characters (Saki and Mai), except the girly Mai likes drawing.
- Averted in Heartcatch Pretty Cure, with Tsubomi and Erika both being Girly Girls. And then played straight, as Itsuki is Tomboyish enough to cover both.
- Suite Pretty Cure has Hibiki (tomboy) and Kanade (girly girl).
- Future GPX Cyber Formula:
- Miki Jounouchi and Asuka Sugo are tomboy and girly girl respectively in the series.
- Later, Clair Fortran serves as the girly girl (along with Asuka) to Miki's tomboy.
- The Gundam franchise loves the trope.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: in the original, Mirai Yashima was the Yamato Nadeshiko and Team Mom whereas Rebellious Princess Sayla Mass was the Affirmative Action Girl. Of course, Action Girl Ms. Matilda is more tomboyish then ANY of the girls in the show.
- Zeta Gundam: Kamille's love interests fit here despite never having met in canon. The tomboy was Four Murasame, Dark Action Girl and Broken Bird; the girly girl was Fa Yuiri, Team Mom and Type B Tsundere The tomboy dies very tragically, the girly girl is quite broken but recovers and helps Kamille get better from Scirocco's Mind Rape.
- Rain Mikamura (The Strategist, The Medic, Wrench Wench) and Allenby Biarzury (Action Girl, Cute Bruiser, Tyke Bomb) from G Gundam. Maria Louise was an odd case: she looked like a girly girl, but behaved like a tomboy. If Allenby wasn't around, Natasha Zabicov played the "tomboy" part, replacing the boyishness with her Hot Amazon and Colonel Badass credentials.
- Gundam X: Tifa (girly girl) and Paula (tomboy) form a similar dynamic with hero Garrod. And a more mature version happens with Bottle Fairy Toniya and Broken Bird Ennil.
- Turn a Gundam: The sisters Kiel (girly girl) and Soshie (tomboy) Heim.
- Gundam 00: Soma Peries and Marie Parfasy could be seen as a Tomboy and Girly Girl in one body. More traditional examples are Rebellious Princess Marina Ismail and Meganekko Shirin Bakhtiar (even moreso in the second season, after Shirin's Adrenaline Makeover), as well as Bridge Bunnies Feldt Grace (Emotionless Girl) and Christina Sierra (Cool Big Sis); after Chris dies tragically in the first season, she's succeded by Genki Girl Mileina Vashti.
- Arguably, also Kati Mannequin and Sumeragi Lee Noriega aka Leeesa Kujoh in their younger years. As well as Cute and Psycho Dark Action Girl Nena Trinity and Smug Snake Anime Chinese Girl Wang Liu Mei.
- Gundam Wing: Relena Darlian Peacecraft was the girly girl to either Hilde Schbeicker or Lucrezia Noin's tomboys. To a degree, she also had these dynamics with Femme Fatale Dorothy Catalonia. And Une actually predated Soma and Marie as the "duo in one body," what with her Lady personality being the "tomboy" (in a rather psycho way) and the Saint self as the girly girl
- Cagalli Yura Athha and Lacus Clyne, anyone? And for that matter, Lunamaria and Meyrin Hawke?
- Natarle Badgiruel and Marrue Ramius are another adult version of this trope.
- Mora Bascht and Nina Purpleton, too! Mora is a Hot Amazon Wrench Wench, Nina is a Tsundere Hot Scientist.
- Hanjuku Joshi is a yuri manga about Schoolgirl Lesbians Chitose (tomboy) and Yae (girly); Yae is painfully aware that she fits the trope, and dislikes being called "girly" for this reason.
- Helen ESP has this dynamic between schoolfriends Oguri(tomboy) and Helen(girly).
- Hidamari Sketch:
- Yuno and Miyako arguably qualify, with Miyako as the extroverted and boyish type and Yuno being much more introverted and soft-spoken.
- And Sae and Hiro. Hiro's description in the character sketch of the manga is "wife material," while Sae is her tomboyish friend who gets jealous when Hiro mentions getting love letters from guys...
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Mion and Shion Sonozaki try to pass themselves off as this, one a loud and devious Club President and the other a sweet and shy girl who wears Fan Service with a Smile to work. They go so far as to have Mion pass herself off as Shion when her dere side manifests, so as not to damage her reputation - and when Shion gets violent: both in flashbacks and early arcs, she's dressed up as Mion and has the whole town fooled. However, both of them are more complex than this, and both take part in the final battle for everyone's lives and sanity, with 'girly' Shion being the one with the gun. Much of this trope is averted, as Mion early on calls herself the "sweet" one and Shion the "nasty" one.
- Hot Gimmick: Akane Narita is the tomboy to her more girly sister Hatsumi Narita.
- House of the Witch: A short horror manga story, used this trope. The tall, short-haired tomboy is in love with her basketball coach and suspects he fancies her back, but can't act on this because a student/teacher relationship would be improper. Tomboy confides in her tiny, frilly girly-girl best friend, who professes to despise sweaty, muscular men. Come the graduation party, tomboy is thrilled to finally have the chance to make her feelings known, so goes over — to have the coach interrupt the party to announce his engagement and almost immediate marriage to girly-girl, who had apparently been dating him all along. After that setup, well, it was a horror manga. It Got Worse.
- Ice Revolution: Uber-Tomboy Masaki and her uber-girly-girl best friend Yui, as well as Masaki's rival Katakura. Ironically Yui was just as much a tomboy as Masaki, but that was before she was struck by the Power of Love.
- Initial D: Mako (Yamato Nadeshiko... sorta) and Sayuki (Femme Fatale).
- K-On!: has Childhood Friends Ritsu and Mio.
- Kaleido Star: May Wong shared strong traits of both types, dressing and wearing her hair like a girly girl but acting very Tsundere — so Sora would sometimes be the tomboy and later play the girly girl part.
- During the second part, girly girl Layla gained her very own tomboy when partnered with the playwright and Cool Big Sis Cathy Taymor.
- Sora and Rosetta Passel also switched around the tomboy and girly girl roles.
- It's a minor stretch, but the two Action Girl leading ladies of Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran manage to fit in, though each also extends from the stereotypes. Ran fits as the Girly Girl. In spite of being a samurai (her clothes border on Bifauxnen, but she is not underendowed; her robes are simply loose), she prides herself on being a beautiful woman, and she always dresses neat and has good manners, and her fighting style is almost stereotypical samurai: graceful in motion. In contrast, Myao is the Tomboy. She definitely looks like a down-in-the-heels vagabond with her travel-worn outfit (she's definitely a woman, but she doesn't make as much a fuss of it as Ran), yet her wild sense of justice means she's usually the one to talk impulsively and jump headlong into mishaps. Plus as a martial artist, she moves like a blur when she's fighting with lots of punches, kicks, and throws.
- Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl: The love triangle variety gets a lesbian slant when boy-turned-girl Hazumu has to choose between ultra-feminine Yasuna and tomboyish Tomari. Since Hazumu is very girlish him/herself, the outcome is pretty much a Foregone Conclusion — at least in the manga.
- Kimagure Orange Road: Madoka Ayukawa and Hikaru Hiyama started as this, but as teens they switched to Light Feminine and Dark Feminine. Also, Kyōsuke's younger sisters Kurumi (tomboy) and Manami (girly girl).
- Kimi ni Todoke has Yano and Yoshida.
- Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka has Seraphim, who is the girly girl to Maelstrom's tomboy (Seraphim's the Ojou, and Maelstrom's the Shorttank) and the tomboy to Sarasvati's girly girl (Seraphim often, if not always, wears pants, most often dark blue jeans--which is featured in most promotional material she appears in. Sarasvati? Not so much, if at all.).
- Loveless brings us Schoolgirl Lesbians Yamato and Kouya.
- Lucky Star: Konata and Kagami arguably share this dynamic. Konata and Yutaka might have it more.
- Hmmmmmmmmmmm... Konami is a difficult one, because they're both tomboys; Konata is an Otaku Surrogate and Kagami a gender flipped Author Avatar (of the mangaka). It's just that how much of a tomboy they are varies in any given scene.
- If there are any doubts around Konata and Kagami, then Misao (tomboy) / Ayano (girly girl) and Hikari (tomboy)/ Fuyuki (girly girl) must count — the author downright lampshaded that in the character sketches!
- Of the original four central characters, Konata and Kagami are tomboys, whereas Tsukasa and Miyuki are more girly. Konata and Miyuki are seldom paired off together, but twins Kagami and Tsukasa frequently are.
- Konata is a straight Tomboy and Kagami is a Girly Tomboy.
- Macross, like Gundam, also has a thing for this trope.
- The first series gave us Hayase Misa, and Lynn Minmei.
- In Macross II, there was Silvie Gena (Ace Pilot, Badass Driver), and Ishtar (Tsundere, Idol Singer).
- In Macross Plus we have Lucy Mc Millan (Bridge Bunny, Genki Girl) and Myung Fan Lon (Broken Bird, Tall, Dark and Bishoujo)
- Macross Frontier has Sheryl Nome (Tsundere, Broken Bird) and Ranka Lee (The Cutie, Moe)
- Madlax and Margaret Burton (Actually, one person who got split into three. The other part of them is the Lonely Doll Girl Laetitia).
- Magic Knight Rayearth:
- Tomboy Hikaru, Girly Girl Umi, and Fuu having traits of both.
- Tomboy Presea, Girly Girl Emeraude, and Caldina was in-between.
- Tomboy Tarta (to an extent) and Girly Girl Tatra. Like Caldina, Tarta was sexy and aware of it, but very athletic.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
- Those Two Girls outspoken Tsundere of a former bully Alisa and gentle, soft-spoken, former Shrinking Violet Suzuka. After the Time Skip, Alisa even cuts her hair short. Unless they're playing sports, whereupon Suzuka reveals a enthusiasm and strength equivalent to Nanoha in battle, as Fate found out. Suzuka "blows Fate out of the sky" with a thrown dodgeball. Fate is a high speed, close combat specialist. Suzuka and Alisa seem to be slightly more than just close friends as well.
- The third season gives us Subaru and Teana (Teana's the tall one), the former being a Genki Girl and the latter a Tsundere. Subaru and her older sister Ginga may work as well, as Ginga wears more conservative clothing than Subaru (who wears shorts and a white bow on her hair) during battle, wearing pants and a black ribbon on her Rapunzel Hair.
- Signum sometimes plays tomboy to Shamal's girly girl; the former tends to wear shorter skirts or pants and teaches kendo in her spare time, and the latter wears long skirts or dresses (often with a pink apron), and enjoys spending time with neighborhood wives.
- While the two have similar near-emotionless personalities, Numbers cyborg twins Otto and Deed fall into this trope, with Deed having long brown hair and a somewhat feminine appearance and Otto having short hair and being androgynous to the point where viewers and even the other Numbers are unsure of her gender. When the two join the Saint Church, Deed becomes a nun, wearing a typical habit, while Otto becomes a Deacon and wears a male uniform.
- And now we have two examples from the new mangas: Rio and Corona, Vivio's Those Two Guys in ViVid, and Isis and Lily in Force. Tzuki seems to have a thing for this trope.
- In the fairytale-esq hentai Magical Twilight, Chipple, despite her Moe appearence and Girlish Pigtails, is the tomboy to slutty Irene's girly girl.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has the twins variant in Fuuka (tomboy) and Fumika (girly girl) Narutaki, and the friendly ones in either Konoka and Asuna, Asuna and Ayaka (sorta) and maybe Nodoka and Yue. As for the Les Yay, there's Konoka and Setsuna...
- Mahou Shounen Majorian: Lori and Masaru are like this... but subvert it by both being boys. Except in their Magical Girl forms. Yeah?
- Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome have three sets: Haruka (tomboy) and Yukino (girly girl), Natsuki and Shizuru, and Chie and Aoi. All three pairs are Official Couples in the latter (anime version only; the manga version only suggests it with the first two).
- Mariasama ga Miteru has a surprising subversion. Rei Hasekura has short hair but is gentle, reads girly novels, loves sightseeing, cooking, and the word "sincerity" (though she is in the kendo club...). By contrast, after the longhaired Yoshino Shimazu's miraculous surgery allows her to recover from her Soap Opera Disease, she reveals more and more the aggressive, headstrong and tsundere-ish personality that loves thriller stories and kendo.
- Marmalade Boy:
- Miki Koishikawa (tomboy) and Meiko Akizuki (girly). Later, Miki and her ex-rivals in love Arimi Suzuki and Anju Kitahara. Curiously, Anju used to be a spirited Shorttank and grew into a Yamato Nadeshiko.
- In the American arc, Jinny Golding was the flirty Femme Fatale tomboy to Doris O'Connor's mature Cool Big Sis girly girl.
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has Haruhi Suzumiya as the tomboy and Mikuru Asahina as the girly girl, with Yuki Nagato falling somewhere in between. Tsuruya is also the tomboy to Mikuru's girly girl, but being an Ojou she herself is just barely the girly girl to Haruhi's tomboy as well.
- Also, Ryoko Asakura is a girly girl, especially compared to Yuki or Haruhi.
- Hence, Haruhi and Tsuruya are tomboys while Mikuru and Ryoko are girly girls. Yuki is neither, falling right in between.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Hanon and Rina, the secondary members of Lucia's Power Trio.
- My Happy Marriage has the grown-up Spirited Young Lady Hazuki Kudou and the Yamato Nadeshiko in training Miyo Saimori.
- Nana: The two Nanas fit this trope, as one (Nana Osaki) is a punk rocker and the other (Nana "Hachi" Komatsu) an overly romantic young woman who likes to wear cute dresses. This doesn't prevent them from being extremely close, shy of being actually in love with each other.
- Narutaru: The tomboy is Shiina and she's got two girly girls: Akira and Hiro-chan. Mamiko? She's hard to pin down...
- Naruto: Sakura plays the tomboy to Hinata's girly girl, especially as they get to interact more. Still, Sakura used to be the girly girl to Ino's tomboy when they were children.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- Sohryu Asuka Langley and Hikari Horaki, which is the most stable relationship Asuka has in the entire series. Though Asuka isn't THAT much of a Tomboy, being a Hot-Blooded Tsundere, she's still more masculine then Hikari Horaki.
- Also Hot Scientist Ritsuko Akagi and her assistant Maya Ibuki. Who's pretty much in love with Ritsuko.
- Ritsuko and Misato are the grown up version of the trope. At least until It Gets Worse.
- Niea Under 7: Niea and Mayuko have some of this dynamic, although it's perhaps more "Jerkass And Kindhearted Girl".
- Ojamajo Doremi: Aiko and Momoko are presented as tomboys while Hazuki and Onpu are seen as girlys girls, seconded by Doremi and Hana.
- One Piece:
- Nami is the tomboy to Vivi's girly girl.
- In Baroque Works, Miss Goldenweek is the tomboy to Miss All-Sunday's (Robin's) Girly-girl.
- Also Miss Monday is the tomboy to Miss Wednesday (a.k.a. Vivi) among the Whiskey Peak operatives
- Oniyuri-san and Himeyuri-san: A Yuri one-shot (?) manga is about a Tomboy and Girly Girl in a secret romantic relationship. The title says it all.
- Oniisama E has us Tomoko and Nanako, as well as Rei and Fukiko. Rei and Kaoru, however, are other story. And so are Nanako and Mariko.
- Outlaw Star: Aisha and Suzuka.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Panty (tomboy) and Stocking (girly girl).
- In Petite Princess Yucie there is some of this dynamic between rough-edged Beth and her overly cute fairy assistant Belbel.
- Piano: Yuuki Matsubara is on her school's track team and is extremely outgoing. Her best friend and main character Miu Nomura is shy, introverted and prefers playing the piano.
- Pokémon:
- During the few times they interacted together, Misty and May fit fairly well. Also, Misty and Sakura-chan, with their interactions bordering in Romantic Two-Girl Friendship for some.
- The villainesses (and sisters) from Pokémon Heroes, Annie and Oakley.
- Zoey and Dawn. They practically border on Les Yay!
- Psycho Pass: Yayoi Kunizuka and either Akane Tsunemori or Shion Karanomori. Mika Shimotsuki and Akane, too.
- The Prince of Tennis:
- Sakuno Ryuzaki and Tomoka Osakada. To some degree, Sakuno and An Tachibana too.
- In the sisters league, the twins Kurumi and Narumi Iijyuin also shared these dynamics.
- The lead girls in the Doki doki survival dating sims are like this too. Ayaka from Umibe no secret is a Shorttank and the tomboy, whereas Tsugumi from Sanroku no Mystic is a Dojikko and the girly girl (Ironically, the tomboyish Ayaka wears a skirt and sandals whereas the dainty Tsugumi wears jeans and sneakers). And in the story, they're childhood best friends like Tomoka and Sakuno.
- Project A-ko:
- A-ko Magami and B-ko Daitokuji exhibit the rivalry version of this trope.
- Also, A-ko and C-ko Kotobuki (who is probably even more stereotypically feminine than B-ko).
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
- Sayaka and Madoka fit this respectively. And then Sayaka was the girly girl to Kyoko's tomboy.
- Hitomi Shizuki is the girly girl to everyone, and especially to Sayaka.
- Homura Akemi started as the Shrinking Violet Girly Girl, and after being broken once and again, ended up as a Broken Bird Tomboy. Alternatively, she can be seen as Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Homura is "Light" as she's a clumsy and kind Meganekko, then switches to Dark as she becomes a Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Dark Magical Girl.
- The Puella Magi Oriko Magica Spin-Off gives us Kirika Kure (tomboy) and Oriko Mikuni (girly girl). And Kyoko gains another girly girl in Yuma Chitose.
- Ranma One Half:
- Akane and Kasumi Tendō are the sister version, with Akane as the tomboy (who wants to be girly girl) and Kasumi as the girly girl. Curiously, Akane is the girly girl when it comes to rivals-in-love territory and Kasumi is replaced by Ukyō Kuonji, and is back to tomboy status when we go to her other rivals, Shampoo and Kodachi.
- Also, whenever Ranma spends any prolonged length of time as a girl, s/he and Akane naturally end up gravitating into these roles (despite Ranma's accusations that Akane is unfeminine). The girls change which side of this trope they fall on at the drop of a hat, but they still gravitate to the extremes.
- Reimei no Arcana: Nakaba and Lemilia.
- Pictured above: Revolutionary Girl Utena has Utena play the tomboy to Anthy's much more girly character. There is also Utena to Nanami and Wakaba.
- Rozen Maiden: Suiseiseki and Souseiseki, the twins. Interestingly, though, the combative Tsundere is the girly one and the calm mediator is the Bokukko. Revealed to be played straight later on, when it is revealed that Suiseiseki tries to avoid fighting in the Alice Game as much as possible, with Souseiseki being the combative one.
- Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid: Adventurous mermaid Marina and Spoiled Brat Sicily.
- Saber Marionette J: Lime is the Girly Girl to Bloodberry's Tomboy, and the Tomboy to Cherry's Girly Girl.
- Sailor Moon:
- Many shippers apply this dynamic to Makoto Kino and Ami Mizuno. They seem to be split on which is which though. This is because both could be considered their own tomboy to their girly girl. Keep in mind, Makoto (Lita) can beat up grown men, but likes to cook and clean, wears pink, and dreams of either being a florist or baker. Ami (Amy) is shy and ladylike, but is very athletic (she's a good swimmer), dreams of being a doctor, and has a boyish haircut.
- Haruka Tenou/Sailor Uranus and Michiru Kaiou/Sailor Neptune. They're also an Official Couple.
- In the manga and to a degree Crystal, Minako and Rei had this dynamic, with Minako as the tomboyish one and Rei as the feminine one.
- In the beginning of the series, Usagi/Moon was the tomboy to Naru Osaka's girly girl. She later became the girly girl to Seiya/Starfighter's tomboy (whenever Seiya is a girl).
- With Usagi's Social Circle Filler, Kuri was the tomboy to Yumiko's girly girl.
- Sakura Taisen: Maria (Tomboy) and Glycine (Girly Girl), and Ratchet was in-between the two.
- Sally the Witch: The first Magical Girl show. Sally's best friends were Ojou Sumire Hasegawa and the Shorttank Yoshiko "Yocchan" Hanamura. Sally was more or less in the middle most of the time, but was a straight-up tomboy compared to the very girly Princess Selene from the second series.
- School Rumble: Eri (tomboy) and Yakumo (girly) are these besides being the Betty and Veronica.
- Shakugan no Shana used the Love Triangle variant with Shana (tomboy) and Kazumi (girly girl).
- Shamanic Princess has Tiara serve as the Tomboy. But depending on who you ask, the Girly Girl would have to be either Sara or Lena.
- Simoun, unsurprisingly, has several such pairs. Rodoreamon and Mamiina embody this trope to a T, and Neviril is paired with not one but three different tomboyish partners (Amuria, Paraietta, and Aaeru), among others.
- Sorcerer Stabber Orphen: The Tsundere Cleao Everlasting is the tomboy of two different Tomboy and Girly Girl duets. The first one is with her Proper Lady older sister Mariabelle, the other is with Dojikko and Meganekko Licorice Nielsen.
- Soul Eater: Maka is the Tomboy to Tsubaki's Girly Girl. Patty is also the Tomboy to her sister Liz' Girly Girl.
- Starlight Angel: In the Robot Carnival sequence, a Tomboy and Girly Girl duet are seen enjoying a trip to a theme park.
- Telepathy Shoujo Ran has the sporty and short-haired Ran with the somewhat more elegant, long-haired Midori. They both like to wear dresses, though.
- Tenchi Muyo: Ryoko and Ayeka. Also, Kiyone and Mihoshi.
- Tiger and Bunny: Pao-Lin/Dragon Kid (tomboy) and Karina/Blue Rose (girly girl).
- Trigun: Meryl Stryfe (Tsundere) and Milly Thompson (Huge Schoolgirl).
- UFO Robo Grendizer: Hikaru and Maria. Hikaru is a very feminine Yamato Nadeshiko -and later Action Girl-, and she at first wearing dresses, then switched to pants and male clothes. Maria, on the other hand, is a tomboy and a Biker Babe Tsundere constantly and consistently wears dresses and skirts. Not matter what, they are good friends.
- The Virtua Fighter anime. Pai Chan and Sarah Bryant are portrayed somewhat like this, with Pai being quite tomboyish and Sarah being quite the opposite, while both being more or less capable fighters (despite Sarah's beginning as a Faux Action Girl of sorts).
- OTOH, in the original game Sarah was the tomboy and Pai was the girly girl.
- Vision of Escaflowne: Millerna (tomboy) and Eries (girly girl).
- Wedding Peach: Hinagiku (tomboy) and Yuri (girly girl).
- Witchblade. Another adult example is Masane and Reina They are Rihoko's adoptive and biological mothers respectively.
- Yami no Shihosha Judge: We met up with the Tsundere, Nanase, and the fearful wants-to-do-good girl, Keiko Yamamoto.... this would have to be an aversion of Vasquez Always Dies.
- In Yotsuba&!, there's two pairs of these:
- Ena has long hair, always wears cute dresses and plays with teddy bears, while Miura is jokingly called a boy by the other characters. This is subverted in that Ena is much more willing to handle "slimy" animals than Miura, who completely loses it when approached with a frog — and then there was the fishing trip. Also subverted by portraying girly Ena as the Good Girl, with Miura being something of a Jerkass.
- Ena's older sister Asagi is conventionally beautiful, with waist-length hair, while her friend Torako wears short hair and skinny jeans. They're also the couple identified as having Les Yay by some fans.
- You're Under Arrest: We have the feminine Wrench Wench Miyuki and the physically powerful Natsumi as a pair of buddy cops. Poor Natsumi has admitted that Aoi (who is actually a trans woman) is more feminine than she is.
- Yu-Gi-Oh:
- Téa Gardner/Anzu Mazaki is the tomboy to Serenity/Shizuka Kawai's (or Miho Nosaka's in the Toei series) girly girl.
- In the Sequel Series, Asuka/Alexis is the tomboy to her friends Jun/Jasmine and Momoe/Mindy, but the girly girl to Rei/Blair.
- In Zero no Tsukaima we have Louise as the tomboy to any of the other girls, like Siesta, but she's a girly girl compared to Agnes. Also, Agnes and Princess Henrietta.
Comic Books[]
- Batman: Though both are awesome, evil, and hot, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy live this trope. However, only one has Linkara's unending love.
- DC Comics. Beatriz/Fire & Tora/Ice play around with the trope. While Beatriz is much bolder and more extroverted than Tora, she hardly disdains so-called "girly" things; she even had a stint as a musical show-girl back in Brazil. Likewise shy, sweet Tora had no idea many of the "girly" things even existed until introduced to them... by Beatriz.
- Empowered and Ninjette, though both have long hair. The latter having the chest of a boy is a different trope altogether.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Hortense and Matilda McDuck.
- Strangers in Paradise: Francine and Katchoo.
- Tomboy, an obscure 1950s superheroine has the secret identity of "perfect little lady" Janie Jackson.
- Vixen's Keep A furry comic. One of the plot lines is the relationship of two female warriors, one of whom is a feminine vixen whose fighting skills are inadequate and a tough rabbit warrior who disdained traditional feminine pursuits. Eventually, the pair find they can help each other with the rabbit teaching the Vixen to fight more effectively. In return, the Vixen helps the rabbit to dance since she was missing out dancing with the Vixen's brother, and is successful even if she had to describe the moves in terms of combat ("First, your sword arm, then your shield arm and repeat...)
- The New Mutants hairstyles and power sets aside, Dani and Rahne fit this quite well. The romantic aspect is still up in the air.
- Sis and Katy respectively in Katy Keene.
Comic Strips[]
- Dennis the Menace US: Gina and Margaret.
- Peanuts: "Peppermint" Patty and Marcie.
Fanfic[]
- One Piece: Parallel Works: Yuki-Rin and Aki. While Aki loves pretty Chinese dresses, is usually concerned about her appearance, loves to be with her boyfriend, Heathcliffe, and is a weaker fighter, Yuki-Rin is a great fighter with a katana, loves to explore new islands, and fully embraces and supports her pirate lifestyle.
- The Secret Life of the Backyard Kids Shorttank Sam, Achmed's Love Interest, and Smitten Teenage Girl Angela, who is head-over-heels in love with Jorge.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Dragon has a pairing like this, and surprisingly for a "Futari wa" series, only one in the pairing is a Cure--the girly girl, Susan Chan. Her tomboyish counterpart is Rica Watson, who plays the part of Badass Normal to the Cures in several of their adventures. Other Curefics have such pairings as well.
- Lyra and Bon Bon from any My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic.
- Sapporo Afterschool Summoners: Applejack and Eleanor Miller.
Films — Animation[]
- Despicable Me: Edith and Margo.
- The Incredibles: Stretchy badass mother, Helen, and her daughter, the shy, boy crazy inviso-girl Violet.
- Kung Fu Panda: Tigress, the hotheaded leader of the Furious Five, and Viper, the calmest and least aggressive member.
- Strange Magic: Marianne, the tomboyish sword-wielding older sister, and Dawn, the boy-crazy and bubbly younger sister.
- Once Upon a Forest: Abigail the mouse and Michelle the badger.
- The Princess and the Frog: Tiana (hard-working, down to earth Plucky Girl) and Charlotte (giddy, girly, fancily outfitted Spoiled Sweet girl).
Films — Live-Action[]
- Alice in Wonderland: Alice and the White Queen.
- Claude and her best friend Ellen in All Over Me.
- This concept is basically the entire plot of Bend It Like Beckham. The two female leads, Jess and Jules, are tomboys, but their parents want them to be girly girls like their mothers are. While Jess's parents just think it's un-lady like, Jules's mom mistakenly thinks Jules is a lesbian.
- Bratz: The Movie, Cloie and Yasmine.
- The Breakfast Club: Allison and Claire.
- Caddyshack features the rivalry between the super slut rich man's niece, Lacy, and the Tsundere with the Eastern European accent, Maggie.
- Charlie and The Chocolate Factory: Both the original 1971 version and the 2005 remake have Violet and Veruca playing these roles.
- Enchanted: Career woman Nancy with the pantsuits and glasses, versus Giselle who wears frilly dresses, gets Robert's house clean and tidy, and dreams only of her true love.
- Ever After: Danielle is the tomboy to Marguerite and Jacqueline.
- The Girls Room had this as the basis for the tension between two college roomies. One's a girlish uptight southern bell, and the other a tough as nails promiscuous pseudo goth.
- Gone with the Wind: Scarlett O'Hara and Melanie Wilkes. Scarlett's the tough one who shoots enemy soldiers in the face and claws her way tooth and nail to success and wealth, while Melanie's the nice, agreeable "goody goody" who uses kindness and diplomacy to deal with adversity.
- The Goonies: Steph and Andy.
- Hanna and Sophie.
- Hitch has sweet heiress Allegra Cole and the no nonsense gossip columnist Sara Melas.
- Both women in The Holiday are suffering from heartache. Workaholic Amanda is so cold she can't cry when she discovers that her live-in boyfriend has cheated on her, while Iris is distraught when she learns that Jasper Bloom, the object of Iris' unrequited love, is engaged after he announces it at the office Christmas party.
- In Her Shoes has Rose, a plain and serious lawyer who is protective of her younger sister Maggie despite her flaws. Maggie is a free spirit who knows how to entice a man.
- Little Darlings has this, with rich girl Ferris and tough, streetwise Angel.
- Masters of the Universe, the Motion Picture contrasted Eternian war goddess, Teela, with a simple earth girl, Julie.
- Nurse Betty: Rosa & Betty.
- The Olsen twins:
- Billboard Dad: Mary-Kate Olsen plays Tess Tyler, a girl who likes to cook and is the best member of the high diving team. She says it's the next best thing to the ballerina that their mom was. Ashley plays her boy crazy twin sister Emily, who enjoys surfing.
- It Takes Two: Mary-Kate Olsen is Amanda Lemmon, an orphan who plays street ball and resents having to act lady-like to get adopted while Alyssa Callaway (played by Ashley Olsen) is like a little princess, coming home from her boarding school's piano recital competition, expecting to meet her wealthy father at the airport but it's the butler instead.
- The Parent Trap:
- Both the original and the remake contain the twins variant but more so in the Hayley Mills (1961) version.
- In the Lindsay Lohan (1998) version there's the determined American, Hallie Parker, and the proper Brit, Annie James.
- Remember the Titans: Sheryl Yoast and Nikki Boone. While both of their fathers are high school football coaches, Sheryl knows enough about football to coach the team herself, and it's practically all she thinks about, while Nikki is mostly concerned with her nails and dolls.
- Tomboy Selena (likes playing outdoors) and girly girl Suzette (does not want to play drums because "girls didn't play drums").
- Some Kind of Wonderful: Watts and Amanda.
- The Sound of Music:
- Among the adults, tomboy Maria, too hyper to be a nun, while Girly Girl Elsa stays indoors and does not like the Von Trapp children.
- Among the Von Trapp children, there are two sets. Tomboy Louisa climbs a wall with a jar of spiders, while Girly Girl Liesl wears frilly dresses and pines for her boyfriend Rolf. Tomboy Brigitta gets distracted reading a book, while Girly Girl Marta wants a pink parasol. Cute little Gretel seems to be somewhere in between.
- Ten Things I Hate About You: There's the beautiful and popular Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik), who is shallow and conceited, pitted against her sister, Kat (Julia Stiles), who is an ill-tempered school outcast who desperately wants to leave town to go to college and gets accused of being a lesbian because of her boy hating attitude (though she's not much nicer to girls) .
- Times Square: Nicky and Pamela, the teenage runaway protagonists. Nicky's a rough-edged, self-sufficient punk rocker who's been in trouble with the law, Pamela's a cute, rather quiet rich girl who writes poetry.
- Laure, in contrast with her girly little sister Jeanne in the French movie Tomboy.
Literature[]
- After Dark has beautiful fashion-model Eri and her little intelligent sister with short hair and tomboyish characteristics, Mari. This Trope is Subverted Trope, though. They have drifted way apart and "have lived two different lives" in the same house.
- All-American Girl: Sisters Sam and Lucy, though Sam is more artsy than tomboyish. They have a third sister who's a child prodigy, but she's less important to the plot.
- The American Girls Collection has Felicity Merriman (Tomboy) and Elizabeth Cole (Girly Girl). Felicity is a spunky and energetic girl that enjoys horseback riding, climbing trees, and has dislikes of sewing and sitting still having to do any activities that are considered "ladylike" during the 1770s time period, while Elizabeth is more calm-natured and enjoys dresses, sewing, and tea parties.
- Kit Kittredge dislikes the color pink, fairy tales, and frilly fashion, and prefers writing newspapers on her typewriter, playing baseball, and wearing overalls, while her best friend Ruthie Smithens loves fairy tales, romance, dancing, baking, and fashion.
- Julie Albright doesn't mind hanging out with boys, and she is very sporty and has a strong hobby for basketball, while Ivy Ling prefers gymnastics, baking, and making bracelets.
- Twin sisters Nicki and Isabel Hoffman are complete opposites from one another. Nicki prefers rock music, dark colors, skateboarding, and grunge aesthetics, while Isabel prefers pop music, bright colors, fashion, glitter, and parties.
- Molly McIntire is energetic and often wears tomboyish clothing while Emily Bennett is more proper and is into what the English royalties wear during World War II, including Princess Elizabeth and Margaret Rose.
- Maryellen Larkin doesn't mind getting dirty, playing cowgirl, and participates in Science Club, while her friends Karen King, Karen Stohlman, and Angela Terlizzi participate in Girl Scouts and are more feminine.
- Kaya is adventurous and outgoing, does horseback riding, and will take risk, even when it means doing anything to help those she loves, while her younger sister Speaking Rain is more inactive and gentle.
- Caroline Abbott is active and into sailing, fishing, and ice skating, while both her older cousin Lydia and her friend Rhonda (Girly Girls) are more into hairstyling.
- Animorphs: Rachel and Cassie. Interestingly, telling which is which could be difficult to distinguish: On the surface Rachel's a very clothes-oriented mall-rat and is supermodel-class beautiful, and for girl-next-door Cassie, high fashion is socks that actually match for once. What matters thought is how they behave so when it's time to get dangerous, we can see Rachel being a Blood Knight and gentle Cassie being the team's moral center and doing what she must but hating the need to fight.
- The Baby Sitters Club: Kristy Thomas is a loud and bossy girl who couldn't care less about clothes and boys and is more into sports, while her best friend, Mary Anne Spier, is very soft and sensitive and into romance, knitting, and sewing.
- Abby Stevenson is almost as athletic as Kristy and has a strong passion for soccer, while her twin sister, Anna Stevenson, is more gentle and has a passion for playing the violin.
- Battle Royale: Yumiko Kusaka (tomboy) and Yukiko Kitano (girly girl).
- Snow-White and Rose-Red from the fairy tales of The Brothers Grimm:
Rose-Red loved to run about the fields and meadows, and to pick flowers and catch butterflies; but Snow-White sat at home with her mother and helped her in the household, or read aloud to her when there was no work to do. |
- Caddie Woodlawn is the tomboy, while nearly all the other girls in the book, especially her cousin Annabelle, are girly girls.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Lucy and Susan Pevensie. After being crowned they're even given the names Queen Lucy The Valiant and Queen Susan the Gentle — Corin tells Shasta that Lucy fights in wars just like a boy and Susan is more like a gentlewoman, despite both being great archers. Also, Aravis and her best friend Lasaraleen in The Horse and His Boy
With Lucy and Susan, there have been Unfortunate Implications and accusations against author CS Lewis of sexism on account of how this reflects their attitudes later (yet these accusations reek of Real Women Never Wear Dresses). Lewis was accused of portraying femininity, or even female sexuality, as a bad thing because Lucy, the tomboy, always believes in Narnia and Aslan, while girly girl Susan no longer believes after growing up; lines in The Last Battle say Susan is "no longer a friend of Narnia" and interested "in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations". Never mind how Susan's maturity and sexuality are clearly presented as good things in The Horse and His Boy and that there are plenty of strong female characters throughout the series. - Emberverse by S.M. Stirling. The tomboy and the girly girl are a couple: Tiphaine d'Ath and her long-time lover Delia de Stafford. Tiphaine is a Dark Action Girl and the toughest woman — arguably the toughest person — in the male-dominated Protectorate, dresses in male garb (generally forbidden to Protectorate women), wears her hair as short as she can get away with, and doesn't like children. Delia is inept at combat (which she attempted exactly once, to aid Tiphaine), dresses very femininely and fashionably, wears her hair long and lush, and adores babies. They're inseparable.
- The Faerie Queene twins: the Action Girl huntress Belphoebe and the Proper Lady Distressed Damsel Amoret. Although, the two were Separated at Birth and only meet briefly in the poem. Amoret and her Sweet Polly Oliver best friend Britomart might be a better example.
- The Famous Five: Anne was the girly-girl, always cooking and cleaning for the others. George just wanted to have fun like the boys did.
- Emiya Kiritsugu was never part of the Servant-Master dynamic in Fate/Zero. Instead Saber, not just a tomboy, paired up with his wife Irisviel.
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: Idgie Threadgoode (The Ladette) and Ruth Jamison (kind, pretty Sunday school teacher).
- Heidi: Tomboy Heidi liked being outdoors and playing with the goats, snuck some kittens and a turtle into the Sessemann house, and often asked impertinent questions. Girly Girl Klara had no issue with staying indoors, was always prim and proper — and somebody had to motivate her to be outdoors and try to walk again.
- Jennifer the Jerk Is Missing: Brave babysitter, Amy, and bratty Damsel in Distress, Jen.
- Kamikaze Girls: Momoko is a sweet lolita who hates sports, but loves shopping and cake. Ichiko/Ichigo is a tough (on the outside at least), if somewhat childish, Yanki biker girl. They are the "best friends" variety of this trope.
- Les Misérables has hardened street rat Eponine and the innocent Cosette, both vying for affection of the same young man.
- The Little House on the Prairie books have Mary the girly-girl and Laura, self-admitted tomboy who would rather help her father than sew or knit. She particularly wants to help bring the harvest in because it means she gets to leave off her much-loathed corset.
- Louisa May Alcott loves this trope, apparently:
- In the first sequel Little Men: Jo's pupil Annie aka Naughty Nan and Meg's older daughter Daisy.
- Ten years later in Jo's Boys: Meg's other daughter Josie and Amy's daughter Bess, the "Princess."
- Under the Lilacs: Bab (tomboy) and Betty (girly-girl).
- Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom: Phebe (tomboy) and Rose (girly girl). Curiously, Rose was the tomboy when compared with Spoiled Brat Annabelle.
- Little Women: Tomboyish and headstrong Jo March and feminine and proper Amy March.
- Magic Attic Club: Alison McCan and Heather Hardin. Alison wears a vest and jeans as her default appearance, prefers the color blue, and has hobbies of sports and adventures, while Heather wears a dress as her default appearances, prefers the color pink, and has hobbies of dancing and dress up.
- The Mill on the Floss: Tomboy central character Maggie Tulliver, girly-girl cousin Lucy Deane. The original instance of this trope? Or, perhaps, the first case in which this trope is a major plot driver in a long work in which the tomboy is the hero?
- Mistborn:
- Main character Vin actually manages to be this dynamic all by herself. As a spy for the rebellion, she has two distinct personas — Vin the tomboyish Action Girl assassin, and Valette the girly-girl noblewoman — both of which reflect some degree of her actual personality. By the third book she's largely reconciled them, and the result approaches Lady of War.
- Also, in the second book there's a more traditional example, with Vin as tomboy to Allrianne's girly girl.
- The same author's Warbreaker toys with this one- two of the three main POV characters are a pair of sister princesses. Vivenna, the older, is dignified, elegant, and traditional, while younger sister Siri is a wild and rebellious tomboy. As the book progresses, though, the roles are reversed as Siri gets an Arranged Marriage to a God-Emperor and gets tied up in a political intrigue storyline, while Vivenna ends up an outcast on the streets and by the end is well on her way to becoming and Action Girl.
- The Nancy Drew series. Bess and George, at least the originals (ending with Thirteenth Pearl). George has short hair and knows judo, while Bess gets squeamish whenever the girls have to do something dangerous. Nancy is the balance between the two.
- Our Only May Amelia has tomboy May Amelia who dislikes dresses, and girly girl Emma who is always well dressed and very prim and proper.
- Pride and Prejudice: Eldest sister Jane Bennet is sweet and elegant and the Austenverse's resident Proper Lady. Her closest companion is her younger sister Elizabeth, a Snark Knight who engages in more physical exercise than the rest of the sisters put together, thinking nothing of a three-mile walk through muddy fields and not caring a jot for the condition of her petticoat as a result.
- Remnants: Violet specifically rejects modern technology and parts of the culture because she feels it is depriving girls of their girlness, she was a member of a Jane Austen-inspired clique and even dressed the part. 2Face is a hardcore survivalist perfectly willing to let someone else (except possibly Edward) die if it means her own survival, an athlete and it was hinted that she started the fire that caused her facial scars. Whether or not they get along usually depends on the situation; they don't appear to like each other much, but usually end up on the same side inside the larger group. l).
- Serpent Mage, the fourth book of The Death Gate Cycle, has an odd example that adds a third, in the form of the princesses of the Dwarven, Elven, and Human nations, who are best friends. Grundle, the Dwarf princess, is a tough, no-nonsense, pragmatic Action Girl and is the Tomboy (though admittedly, most Dwarf women shown are like this, so she's "girly" by her own culture's definition); Sabia, the Elf princess, is an idealistic dreamer and musician and is the Girly Girl; Alake, the human princess, is a poised, elegant, but strong-willed sorceress-in-training and sits somewhere in the middle. Then Sabia commits suicide after thinking her friends got horribly killed by Always Chaotic Evil dragon-snakes (long story), shifting Alake to the Girly Girl full-time while Grundle stays firmly the Tomboy.
- Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Kathryn Lucas (tomboy) and Yoko Akia (girly girl). Well, actually, just about every female character is a girly girl when compared to Kathryn.
- Slayers: In the fifteenth light novel, oddly enough, the Demon Lords Greater Beast and Deep Sea form such a pair. Greater Beast has short hair and mannish clothes, while Deep Sea has long hair and a fancy dress. Contrary to prior Fanon speculation, they actually seem to get along with each other just fine.
- A Song of Ice and Fire There are the two Stark sisters. Arya's the tomboyish one, eager to fight, meddle with commoners and learn ninja skills; Sansa's the girly one, dreaming about pretty dresses, pretty boys and minding her manners. They bicker a lot as a result... at first. Then It Got Worse for both of them: currently, Arya has joined an assassin guild as a Sociopathic Hero Dark Action Girl, whereas Sansa is the protegée of Petyr Baelish and has to put on a Jerkass Facade to ensure her survival
- Spindle's End Rosie and Peony, though tomboy Rosie is the one who's the princess. At least originally...
- Star Wars Expanded Universe: Jaina and Tenal Ka.
- Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe:
- Kel and her sisters. Kel is going to be the first (legal) lady knight; her sisters are worried that her... unwomanliness will dim their prospects in the marriage market.
- Even before Alanna met them, there's Thayet's bodyguard/sidekick Buri, who's all soldierly business.
- And in the Circle of Magic books, there's Sandry, whose girliness is epitomized by the fact that her magic is sewing-related, and Tris, who has traditional ideas about how a woman of merchant class should act, versus Daja, who's from a very different culture where girls wear pants and fight with staffs, is a muscular blacksmith, and turns out to be gay. Lark and Rosethorn are also a bit like this: Lark is beautiful, graceful, motherly and nurturing, and has sewing magic like Sandry, while Rosethorn is brisk, acerbic, and wears her hair short. An interesting case since they're a couple.
- The twice-royal sisters in the Trickster books could be interpreted this way, despite the fact that they both share characteristics from both sides. Sarai is more athletic, true, but she also enjoys getting dressed up more and has more fun messing with boys, while Dove is quieter and much more of an academic/scientist. Later, after Sarai leaves, we have Aly as the tomboy and Dove as the girly girl.
- Vampire of the Mists: Played more or less straight with Leisl and Katya except that Katya turns out to be Trina.
- Vows and Honor by Mercedes Lackey feature Tarma and Kethry. Tarma is a hard-bitten swordswoman whose vow of celibacy to her goddess makes her completely Asexuality. Kethry is a former noblewoman and a Squishy Wizard. Of course, Kethry's only "girly" in comparison to Tarma; by herself she's in better condition and more suited to rough living than most men. The trope is also subverted in that despite her asexuality, lack of looks, and ability to make Red Sonja look like a chorus girl, Tarma's the more domestic of the two — every time they get near kids she ends up babysitting them and loving it, and she's the better cook. This carries over even after Kethry gets married and settles down, in that Tarma is (among other things) their live-in nursemaid.
- In Warrior Cats, Squirrelflight is the tomboy to Leafpool's girly girl.
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins has this in the form of sweet, pretty, demure Laura Fairlie and her sharp-tongued, resolute and masculine-looking half-sister Marian Halcombe.
- As could be expected with its Loads and Loads of Characters, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time has this covered, especially with Rand's Harem. On the Girly Girl side, Elayne: a Badass Princess, Lady of War, Spoiled Sweet, Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah, Kicking Ass in All Her Finery, and with a bit of a sweet tooth plus pregnant. For Tomboy, her adopted sister Aviendha: ex-Maiden of the Spear and Proud Warrior Race Girl, a Type A Tsundere who nevertheless reads The Flame, The Blade and the Heart, claiming she "likes the adventure stories". Mixing both is Min: prefers pants (although both she and Rand don't mind her habit of wearing rather tight pants and high-heeled boots), short hair, boyishly slim; on the other hand, a Knife Nut, probably the most seductive, and the most affectionate.
- Someone Elses War gives us two pairs: Ruth and Eliza and Jade and Nyumba. Ruth and Eliza are a particulary interesting case of this trope: Ruth is a machete-wielding Sweet Polly Oliver and Eliza wears lots of pink and has never seen combat, but Ruth is the Girly Girl and Eliza is the Tomboy. Jade and Nyumba are a more straightforward example, except that Nyumba's gender is only ever guessed by the narrator.
Live-Action TV[]
- The Amazing Race: Happens from time to time with female teams, notable in that the girly girl is always inept, forcing the tomboy to carry her.
- America's Next Top Model season 7 had Amanda and Michelle Babin, identical twins. Amanda was girlier, whereas Michelle was the tomboy.
- Are You Afraid of the Dark? Tomboy Kiki does not like dresses or shopping. Girly Girl Samantha has the boys crazy for her and tells the more girl-centered stories. Betty Ann has traits of both.
- Babylon 5:
- Ivanova is the Tomboy and Delenn is the "girly" girl. . However Delenn can endure being tortured by Vorlons, direct battlefleets personally, and rewrite the Minbari constitution by right of attempted suicide.
- It seems like most women in this verse can take care of themselves. When Locksley is given command of B5, she proves she's as tough and commanding as any man in her position (which is kinda why her marriage with Sheridan only lasted 3 months). Even Vir's dainty would-be fiancée from a noble family can take on a Narn assassin twice her size.
- The Big Comfy Couch: Loonette the Clown and puppet girl Molly.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy is the chosen vampire slayer who cares about boys, clothes, and cheerleading. When the other slayer Faith shows up, Faith says that killing vampires always makes her hungry and horny contrasted with Buffy who sometimes craves a nonfat yogurt afterwards. Before Faith the other slayer was Kendra, who is seen as the perfect slayer: solemn, respectful, and efficient.
- Burn Notice: Fiona and Maddie
- Caprica: Lacy and her best friend Zoe Graystone are this respectively.
- Carrusel:
- All the girls were feminine, given that this is a Mexican telenovela that aired in 1989-1990. But if you look closely, one gets a bit of a tomboy vs. girly girl vibe with Valeria and Margarita, who happen to be David's love interests. Valeria is adventurous and not afraid of mice- she even caught one and gave it to David. Margarita is very fashionable and dreamt that David gave her jewelry.
- If you want to stretch things more, compare the competitive, tough-minded Maria Joaquina vs. the uber gushy and super romantic Laura.
- And if you really stretch things a lot, compare Carmen having career goals (not just Informed Attribute- they were a big part of her character) and wanting to learn how to swim vs. Marcelina the Shrinking Violet wanting to be housewife and mother.
- The first season of Dark Angel has Max (tomboy) and Kendra (girly girl).
- Degrassi has the romantic pairing of Alex and Paige. Alex being the bitter loner and Paige the one who's concerned about social life.
- El Chavo Del Ocho: Tomboy Chilindrina and Girly Girl Popis. Also with the tough, loud Dona Florinda vs. frilly, solicitous Dona Clotilde.
- The Facts of Life: Jo and Blair, at least in the beginning.
- The Fresh Beat Band: Marina and Kiki.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel Air: The Banks sisters, Ashley & Hilary.
- Hannah Montana: Lilly and Miley for the first two seasons, where it's played very straight. Despite being just as boy crazy and fashion obsessed as Miley, Lilly is a skateboarder, loves sports, is a pig when it comes to eating, and doesn't seem to like dressing girly in school.
- House started out with only two women; people-oriented Dr. Allison Cameron and career-oriented Dr. Lisa Cuddy.
- How I Met Your Mother: Robin and Lily, though they tend to flip flop on which one is which. Basically whichever one makes the situation funnier.
- ICarly:
- Sam & Carly. Though Sam is actually the one with the Rapunzel Hair.
- Also, even more so with Sam and Melanie.
- Jonas: Macy and Stella, although Macy acts girly whenever she's not playing sports.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Den-O: Hana and Naomi. Hana and Airi would also be an example but for the fact that they do not interact. In the latter instance, the Girly Girl turns out to be the Tomboy's mother due to time travel shenanigans.
- Kamen Rider OOO: Satonaka and Hina.
- Kamen Rider Fourze: Although not fitting the tomboy stereotype exactly, Yuki (bold and energetic with a passion for the male-dominated field of astronomy) counts in contrast to Girly Girls Miu and Tomoko.
- Laverne and Shirley are, respectively, a tough-talking tomboy and a stuffed-animal-loving girly girl.
- Leverage: Sophie and Parker definitely qualify, but it's works to fit their roles in their plans, as Sophie's specialty is conning people, often by seducing them, and Parker's specialty is breaking into high-security vaults.
- Maude and Vivian, a rare old-aged example.
- Merlin nicely Averted Trope by Morgana and Guinevere, whom are feminine, with an interest in frocks and flowers, but both are more than happy to don pants, rolls their sleeves up, and get down to work when the situation requires it.
- Alisha and Kelly from Misfits are this. Alisha is a vain, sex-mad Bottle Fairy and Kelly is a loud-mouthed Boisterous Bruiser, and on one of their first meetings Alisha calls Kelly a "chav" (British slang for Lower Class Lout) and Kelly replies with: "If you call me that one more time, I'll kick you so hard in the **** your mum will feel it". They do become friends in the end though.
- Modern Family: Alex and Haley Dunphy, however, while Haley's girly girl is definitely the case, Alex's tomboy is mostly only implied, with the aspects of it, such as her being a lacrosse player, only being mentioned and not shown.
- Myth Busters: Scottie and Kari occasionally give this vibe when on screen together, though Kari is not afraid to get her hands dirty.
- NCIS: Kate and Abby for the first seasons. Ziva and Abby after that.
- News Radio: Lisa and Beth.
- PBS News Hour's Politics Monday segments feature Amy Walter and Tamara Keith.
- Popular: Sam and Mary.
- Pretty Little Liars: Passionate Sports Girl Emily and The Fashionista Hanna. Of course, Emily is no slouch in the fashion department, and Hanna is actually the strongest of the Liars. Alpha Spencer gives Emily a run for her money in the athletic department (and is a frequent source of She's Got Legs), while Beta Aria is the quiet artistic one (who definitely Took A Level In Badass).
- Punky Brewster: Tomboy Punky wants to be an astronaut and loves her big dog, while Girly Girl Margaux loves pink frilly clothes and jewelry. Cherie has both tomboy and girly girl traits. By season three, Punky gave up her tomboy ways after falling for a boy some six years older than she is.
- Ready Or Not: Busy and Amanda.
- Rizzoli and Isles: The title characters, natch. Jane Rizzoli is a no-nonsense cop with an attitude and prefers to be treated equally to the men on the force. Dr. Maura Isles is a brilliant, though eccentric, medical examiner who acts much more feminine than Jane.
- Robin Hood:
- Marian and Djaq. Though they had little to do with each other, they were the only two reoccurring females on the show (for the first two seasons, anyway). In the third series they were replaced by Isabella and Kate, who can also fit the trope.
- A better comparison would be Djaq and Marian (as the tomboys who preferred pants) versus Isabella and Kate (the girly girls who were never seen in anything but dresses).
- Salute Your Shorts: Tomboy, Telly, a champion at sports and hates wearing dresses to the point where she has a nightmare about it, and girly girls, snobby, fashioned obsessed Dina, and Genki Girl ZZ.
- Rei Yagyuu and Kei Yamaji from Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya.
- Seventh Heaven: has three girls in the family. The oldest is an aspiring basketball star, the middle daughter is an insecure mall rat and the youngest jumps between dolling herself up like Lucy and dressing like Simon and the guys.
- Shake It Up: Cece (tomboy) and Rocky (girly girl though has a Tomboyish Name), though they can rotate Depending on the Writer.
- Sister Sister: This was apparently semi-forced (in much the same way as the Olsen twins) on Tia and Tamera.
- South of Nowhere: Ashley and Spencer. The name thing is still similar to Shake It Up.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek the Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager also have two major female characters apiece, and they also avert this trope: Dr. Crusher and Counsellor Troi on TNG are both closer to the feminine side of the scale, while Captain Janeway (notorious for a certain amount of recklessness; a quote: "Sometimes you just have to punch your way through") and B'Elanna Torres (half-Klingon, nuff said) are closer to the tomboy side of the scale.
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Jadzia Dax and Kira might be considered an aversion of this, in that both are tough women who can put up a fight: Kira is a former terrorist and Dax is familiar with Klingon martial arts. Perhaps ironically, given that she was a man in her past life, Jadzia tends to be more comfortable expressing her feminine side: she has long hair while Kira's is short and no-nonsense, Jadzia has to talk Kira into visiting spas and playing princess in the holosuites, etc. Justified with Jadzia. Though her directly previous host Curzon was male, as were three of the others, she also had three prior female hosts. Her fourth host, Audrid, was shown to be very feminine indeed — partly as a joke as her personality was inhabiting Quark's body at the time. Jadzia also refers to her third host, Emony, as being highly emotional. Joined Trill take on personality traits from all of their hosts, the symbiont and the new host to create a new person. In turn Jadzia and Ezri maybe the Tomboy and the girly representatives of the Dax chain.
- Super Sentai: Seen in several series. Often, if a series has two girls, Pink (or White) is a classic case of Kawaiiko or a Yamato Nadeshiko, and Yellow (or Blue) is often more down-to-earth, though not usually a full-on tomboy. Boukenger switched the colors, but gave us Badass soldier Sakura and bubbly, pigtailed Third Person Person Natsuki teaming up to rescue the boys on one occasion. This is also played straight in almost every Power Rangers team with two girls, where Pink (and once, White) would be more feminine than Yellow though color reversals (such as Cassie and Ashley) weren't uncommon. The American blue Sentai were always girly girls. Tori was as big a sports junkie as her friends, but didn't appreciate being told they thought of her as "like a guy-girl".
- Power Rangers Mystic Force is an interesting twist on its sentai counterpart, Magiranger, in its rare-for-PR use of this trope. In Mystic Force, the Blue Ranger, Madison, is the serious, down-to-Earth one, as is her Sentai counterpart... but the Pink Rangers bear no similarities, Mystic Force's being a Hot-Blooded Shorttank (and Madison's sister, at that) and Magiranger's being a sweet Kawaiiko. In other words, Blue remains essentially the same person in both versions, personality-wise... but winds up being the tomboy figure in one and the girly girl figure in the other because of the very different Pinks.
- The female White Ranger noted above, Wild Force's Alyssa, plays both roles in her own show, as she's the girly girl to Taylor's Tomboy and the Tomboy to their mentor, Princess Shayla.
- Dengeki Sentai Changeman had the short haired tomboy Mai contrasting the more graceful and feminine Sayaka. Interestingly though the roles would change depending on who was writing the ep. An early ep had Mai as the serious one who wanted to focus on Ranger work and the fight against the big bad while Sayaka wanted her to blow it off for awhile and do girly things. Then a later ep had the same thing only with Mai as the girly one and Sayaka as the serious one. Ohranger's girls had a similar dynamic with one being the compentent one and one being the Chick varying between the eps.
- Choujuu Sentai Liveman had the team member, Megumi, as the tomboy while the ally Colon (whom herself is a machine) is the girly-girl. Sometimes Super Sentai would have the lone female as a tomboy with a non-member counterpart as a girly-girl. Or vice versa, as in Hurricaneger where team member Nanami is the girly-girl and mentor Oboro is the tomboy.
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger once again inverts the usual trend. Kotoha/Shinken Yellow is much more soft spoken and feminine, while Mako/Shinken Pink... while not outright a tomboy, usually plays the part of a cool, reliable big sister. She's also a horrid cook. Both would be girly-girls in contrast to the later addition of Kaoru.
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has treasure hunter Luka contrasting to Princess Ahim.
- Choujin Sentai Jetman initially had Ako (Blue) as the tomboy and Kaori (White) as the girly-girl, with an interesting role reversal of positions over the series; by the end of the show, Ako has become an Idol Singer and much more looks-conscious, while Kaori becomes less shallow and materialistic and more down to earth.
- That 70s Show: Donna Pinciotti (Bokukko, downplayed Fiery Redhead, and Girl Next Door) and Jackie Burkhart (Tsundere, Lovable Alpha Bitch and Genius Ditz if not a Brainy Brunette).
- To a lesser extent, Kitty and Midge.
- Threes Company: Janet and Crissy
- Thirty Rock: The sensible, casual dressing Liz Lemon and the girly diva Jenna.
- The eponymous Two Broke Girls.
- The Olsen twins series Two of a Kind has Mary-Kate Olsen as Mary-Kate Burke - A tomboy who loves sports and Ashley Olsen as Ashley Burke who is very girly and likes boys and modeling.
- Wizards of Waverly Place: Alex and Harper.
- Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena and Gabrielle, at least in the beginning.
- Yo Gabba Gabba: Toodee (the blue cat-dragon) and Foofa (the pink flower bubble [1]).
- Zoey 101: The first season has Dana who's the most obvious tomboy on the show to girly girl Nicole. To a lesser extent, Quinn and Lola in the third and fourth seasons. Zoey flip-flops between the two Depending on the Writer.
Music[]
- ABBA. Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstadt and Agnetha Fältskog.
- Dschinghis Khan. You also get this vibe from Henriette Strobel-Heichler and Edina Pop, the ladies in the 80's disco band . In the video for "Moskau, Moskau", "tomboy" Henriette wears a red and gold jumpsuit similar to that the guys wear (one of them being her husband) and "girly girl" Edina is dressed in a very feminine yellow dress.
- The Indigo Girls Amy and Emily.
- Puffy AmiYumi. As mentioned, Yumi Yoshimura and Ami Onuki, when they're on stage.
- "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift: "She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts, she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers..." which refers respectively to the antagonist and protagonist of the song.
- t.A.T.u. Yulia (tomboy) and Lena (girly girl). Hardly a surprise, considering the marketing.
- Weird Al Yankovic's song "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch" invokes this trope in the first line. "Some girls like to buy new shoes / while others like driving trucks and wearing tattoos...."
Pro Wrestling[]
- Smokey Mountain Wrestling: Dirty White Girl & Tammi Finch.
- WWE: Trish Stratus and Stacy Kiebler.
- All Japan Womens Pro Wrestling:
- Classic tag team the Beauty Pair are probably the Trope Codifier for this in professional wrestling. Short-haired and athletic Jackie Sato was the tomboy while long-haired and pretty Maki Ueda was the girly girl. It was a formula AJW would repeat later on with the even more successful Crush Gals with Lioness Asuka in the Jackie Sato role and Chigusa Nagayo in the Maki Ueda role, although both girls leaned far more towards the tomboy side.
- And after that, Toshiyo Yamada (tomboy) and Manami Toyota (girly girl). Aside from their physical appearances, Yamada used a lot of stiff kicks, while Toyota focused on speed and high-flying maneuvers.
Puppet Shows[]
- Allegras Window had added rambunctious junk dealer, Encora, to sweet, motherly teacher, Ms. Melody in season 2.
- Fraggle Rock: Red and Mokey.
- Groundling Marsh: Maggie is the adventurous tomboy (who loves swinging on vines, and hangs out with Galileo and Mud/Slinger, and especially Hegdish) and Crystal is the girly girl (who is sweet and beautiful).
- Hallo Spencer: Lisa & Mona.
- Johnny and the Sprites: Ginger & Lily.
- Sesame Street: One of the reasons for adding Abby Cadabby to the cast was that they wanted a girly girl to contrast with the tomboy Zoe. Other female characters like Merry Monster (the tomboy) and Rosita (the girly girl).
- The Teletubbies: Po (Tomboy) and Laa-Laa (Girly Girl). Po is more boisterous and enjoys riding her scooter, while Laa-Laa is more gentle and prefers dancing in pink skirts.
- Tweenies: Bella and Fizz respectively, although roleplaying is another issue.
Theater[]
- Note: This trope can find itself incarnated in musical theater with the Soprano playing the girly girl and the Mezzo/Alto (or, face it, any female with a significantly lower vocal range) playing the tomboyish one, or the girly girl role being the role that requires a lot of singing, while the tomboy role requires more dancing.
- An example of the second would be Roxie Hart (the girly girl/singer) versus Velma Kelly (the tomboy/dancer) in Chicago.
- Cosette the graceful soprano and Eponine the hardscrabble mezzo-soprano.
- In Wicked, Elphaba is certainly the tomboy, being unafraid to express her mind or get her hands dirty, while Glinda is almost ridiculously girly. (Again, Glinda is a soprano and Elphaba is a mezzo-soprano.)
- Into the Woods sees a contrast between Cinderella (girly girl, again, a soprano) and the Baker's Wife (tomboy with a lower vocal range).
- Kiss Me Kate contrasts the tough diva Lilli with Brainless Beauty Lois. However Lilli the tomboy is the soprano singer while the girly Lois is the dancing alto.
- This was based on The Taming of the Shrew with tomboyish "shrew" Katherina and her much more feminine sister Bianca.
- Thoroughly Modern Millie has the mezzo tomboy Millie with her best friend, the girly soprano Miss Dorothy. This contrast is shown by having Miss Dorothy wear her hair long and traditional dress while Millie has a short bob and "modern" 1920s flapper clothes.
- Depending on how the actress plays it, sometimes Laurey and Ado Annie from Oklahoma can come across as this, with Laurey as the tomboy despite being the soprano. Sometimes she's as girly as Annie, just more sensible.
- The Tomboyish mezzo soprano Patrice and the Dumb Blonde soprano Kendra in ThirteenAlthough the alto Lucy and Kendra are an aversion since they're both just as girly.
- Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical is a soprano who wears almost entirely pink, and while Vivienne, a mezzo soprano, isn't tomboyish per se she is way less girly than Elle.
- In Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice is the tomboy (although she prefers battles of wits over physical confrontations) while Hero is much more passive and conventionally feminine.
- In Le nozze di Figaro, we have the feminine and quiet Countess Rosina and her plucky maid Susanna. Both are played by sopranos, but in a variation the "girly" Countess has a deeper tone (full lyric) than the "tomboyish" Susanna (light lyric) since she's the Older and Wiser of the duo.
- Also, in La Boheme there's the Innocent Seamstress Lucia/Mimi and the Femme Fatale Tsundere Musetta (both lyric sopranos).
- All Shook Up has Wrench Wench Natalie and her girly friend Lorraine. Later in the show Natalie's tomboyishness is shown in contrast to the glamorous Miss Sandra.
- Hairspray has Tracy Turnblad playing the Tomboy to her friend Penny Pingleton's Girly Girl.
- As You Like It 's Rosalind and Celia. Rosalind is very feminine in private, but her Sweet Polly Oliver disguise lends her a boyish boldness.
Video Games[]
- Breath of Fire II: Katt and Nina.
- Cave Story's Sue (tomboy) and Toroko (girly girl)
- Chrono Cross: While the game has way more than two female characters, the two potential love interests for Serge are Kid (a tomboy) and Leena (girly-girl).
- Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends: Ayaka and Chika for the japanese pair, Kate (USA) and Natasha (Russia) for countries beyond.
- A Dance With Rogues can have the player as the tomboy and Pia as the girly girl.
- Dead or Alive:
- At least three such duets, like Ayane and Kasumi, Tina and Helena, and Hitomi and Lei Fang.
- There's also Tina and her Black Best Friend Lisa/La Mariposa. Although both are wrestlers, Tina ultimately ends up as the Girly Girl in this situation, as she went on to pursue the American Dream by wanting to become a model, actress, and pop star at different times in her life, while Lisa was a Hot Scientist working for DOATEC who then became a stockbrocker.
- Diner Dash introduced Flo, a pony-tailed former stock broker who eagerly dove into entrepreneurship and waitressing/restaurant management. Spin-off Wedding Dash added her room-mate Quinn, a longer-haired, visibly feminine woman who initially seemed reluctant to work at all... and when she did find — or more accurately, was forced into — a profession she wanted to do, it was being a wedding planner.
- Disgaea:
- Flonne and Etna, Disgaea 2 Rozalin and Hanako Disgaea 3 Sapphire and Raspberyl, non of them are perfect examples as they all have a tomboyish side, but the differences are still obvious.
- Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten has an interesting example in Fuka and her "sister" Desco. While Fuka is fairly violent and assertive, underneath it all she's a dreamer (literally, she thinks the Netherworld is just a dream she's having) and her plans for the netherworld involve a lot of pink. Meanwhile Desco is (despite her appearance) extremely cutesy...but underneath it all she's still a Final Boss in training. Vulcanus (no relation to the person of the same position in the first Disgaea) is a straight up Girly Girl to the two of them.
- Dragon Age:
- The game makes a bizarre example of girly-girl Leliana and her tomboy counterpart Shale, a dwarf turned golem.
- Alternately, Leliana and her love of shoes, fine clothes, and hairstyling can be placed across from a female player character whose lines include "Shoes are shoes. They're there to keep your feet dry." and "It's just hair".
- Dragon Age II has the Aveline and Isabela interactions, but Isabela takes the opposite side of this trope when talking to Merrill.
- Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark has Nathyrra and Aribeth.
- Neeshka and Elanee in Neverwinter Nights 2.
- Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: Ellia and Alexandra Roivas, probably the same reason with the girls of FFVII mentioned down below!
- F-Zero X gives us Jody and Kate. In comparison, Mrs. Arrow, the Hot Amazon wife of Superhero Super Arrow, is a Tomboy to both.
- F-Zero AX brought us Lily and Princia.
- On the Sliding Scale of Tomboyishness Versus Girliness (this most certainly should be a trope): Princia < Kate < Lily < Jody < Mrs. Arrow; Even so, F-Zero ends up ultimately subverting this trope in spirit, as all the women are traditionally feminine at their core. Even Mrs. Arrow, by far the most Vasquez-esque of the ladies in terms of personality and appearance (she's highly self-confident, more enamored with the F-Zero races than most of the cast, is one of the more seasoned and brutal racers on the track, and is a shown to be a muscular--yet shapely--woman who takes up bodybuilding) is said to be a sweet, caring, kindhearted woman with a classy, elegant upbringing.
- The Final Fantasy series has this a lot.
- Final Fantasy V, Lenna and Faris from The former is a well-educated, selfless princess while the latter is a rough, violent pirate captain who passes herself off as a man (although her crew is well aware of her gender and keep quiet to avoid pissing her off.) Even the Job System acknowledges the dichotomy, as Lenna's outfits are stereotypically female while, with the sole exception of the Dancer class, Faris' would be equally appropriate on a man. Meanwhile, the third female on the team, Krile, is more of a child than anything. Furthermore, Lenna and Faris are sisters.
- Final Fantasy VI has Terra (Girly-Girl) and Celes (Tomboy).
- Final Fantasy VII, Aeris and Tifa, in an interesting inversion; the White Magician Girl in the pink dress is the boisterous one, and the Cute Bruiser in the cropped shirt is secretive and nervous.
- In later installments of the FFVII Compilation not involving Aeris, because she's dead, Tifa's calmer and more motherly personality makes her the Girly Girl to hyper ninja Yuffie's more Tomboyish ways.
- Final Fantasy IX, Princess Garnet/Dagger and Freya, definitely more feminine when compared to Eiko.
- Final Fantasy XIII has two pairs, Lightning and Serah and Fang and Vanille
- Fire Emblem, having Loads and Loads of Characters per game, gives us more than one set:
- Fire Emblem Akaneia: Marth's Victorious Childhood Friend Caeda and Marth's big sister Elice, and the sisters Minerva and Maria; later, Linde and Princess Nyna. The new games had either a female Kris, Cecil or Clarisse for Katarina.
- Fire Emblem Jugdral: Genealogy of the Holy War features the twin sisters Edain and Brigid. Younger twin Edain is a soft-spoken White Magician Girl who gets to play Distressed Damsel for the first part of the game. Older twin Brigid is a Badass Sniper and leader of a band of pirates. Quite a contrast, even for this page. Lampshaded in the beginning, where Edain tells Sigurd that she did have the chance to become a knight and even started training, but preferred to be a healer since it didn't suit her. She keeps her kingdom's Sacred Weapon (the Yewfelle Bow) for Brigid, giving it to her when she joins the group.
- The second part has Larcei, Fee and Patty (or their expies Creidne, Hermina and Daisy) as tomboys to the girly girls Julia, Nanna, Tine, Lene and Lana (or their expies Jeanne, Linda, Laylea and Muirne)
- Fire Emblem Jugdral: Thracia 776: Mareeta and Nanna are the best friends version, while Tina and Safy are the sisterly one.
- Fire Emblem Elibe: Binding Blade Dorothy The Archer is the tomboy to Ojou Clarine's girly girl. Also, the Cute Bruiser Gwendolyn and her mistress, Magic Knight Princess Lilina. As well as Rebellious Princess Guinevere and her lady-in-waiting, White Mage Ellen.
- Fire Emblem Elibe: Blazing Blade: Florina is also the girly girl to either Lyn (with quite the dash of Bodyguard Crush Les Yay), Rebecca (who is a Shorttank), Nino, or the Well, Excuse Me, Princess! Serra. Also, Lyn and Ninian.
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Cool Big Sis Tethys and Kuudere Marisa, Proper Lady Syrene and Kuudere Vanessa, then Lady of War Eirika and either Tomboy Princess Tana or Badass Princess L'Arachel.
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Then there's the brassy thief Heather and the quiet country girl Nephenee. Oh yes. Also Lucia with Elincia, Mist with Jill, and Heather with Ilyana.
- Fire Emblem Awakening: Lissa and Maribelle. Sully and Sumia. The Female Avatar and Sumia. Severa and Noire, Cynthia and Severa.
- Fire Emblem Fates: The Female Avatar and Azura or Camilla. Selena and Camilla. Hinoka and Sakura. Hana and Sakura. Soleil and Ophelia. Soleil and Mitama. Selkie or Rhajat and Mitama. Selkie and Rhajat. Nina and Caeldori.
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia: Faye and Silque. Faye and Celica. Delthea and Clair. Yuzu and Shade. Emma and Shade.
- Fire Emblem: Heroes: Sharena and Veronica. Ylgr and Veronica. Fjorm and Gunnthrá. Laegjarn and Fjorm. Sharena and Eir. Sharena and Peony. Triandra and Plumeria. Dagr and Nótt. Seidr and Heidr.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses: The Female Avatar and Dorothea, Flayn, Princess Edelgard, Mercedes or Lady Rhea. Annette and Mercedes. Petra and Dorothea. Ingrid and Dorothea or Mercedes. Hapi and Constance. Leonie and Hilda.
- Fire Emblem: Engage: A Female Avatar and Céline or Veyle. Etie and Céline. Marni and Veyle. Merrin, Jade or Panette and Timerra. Arguably, Yunaka and Citrinne.
- Gauntlet Legends: The Archer (Genki Girl) and the Valkyrie (Lady of War) respectively.
- Hatsune Miku Project Diva 2nd: Kagamine Rin and Hatsune Miku. Rin has short hair, wears shorts as her default look, and has a boisterous-sounding voice, while Miku has long girly pigtails, wears a skirt as her default look, and has a more cutesy high-pitched feminine voice.
- The King of Fighters series. There are many, many duets like this: King and Mai, Yuri and Mai, Blue Mary and Mai, Malin and Yuri, Kasumi and Yuri, Athena and Yuki-chan, Athena and Ill Girl Kaoru, Vice and Mature, Leona and Whip (to a degree), Whip and Kula, Isla and Dolores...
- Kingdom Hearts:
- The redhead Kairi is the tomboy to Selphie's girly-girl tendencies on Destiny Islands. Though Kairi could also be considered this to Namine in the second one. While Kairi's not as much of a tomboy as she was in the original (as Word of God Nomura states it in the "KH Character Report" book), the duo of her and Selphie still seems to fit the trope simply because Selphie is so gleefully girly that Kairi seems less so by comparison. The fact that Selphie has a pink handbag covered with plushies while Kairi has a simple brown satchel also helps.
- On the other hand, you can consider Namine the girly-girl to Xion's tomboy.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Zelda is her OWN tomboy and girly girl when it comes to herself to her aliases. She wears extremely girly/regal clothing and acts rather feminine toward Link, but then turns around and becomes Sheik/Tetra/a Phantom, only the latter of which retains any of her feminine personality traits.
- Wind Waker also has a more immediately obvious one with Tetra, who is a tomboyish, roughhousing pirate leader, and Link's sister, Aryll, who is very sweet and girlish with her pigtails and dress.
- Loco Roco It goes to two entire species. The pink one called Priffy is called "stylish princess" and the violet one called Viole is called "confident tomboy".
- Mass Effect:
- Ashley Williams takes after her namesake, but Liara is a bit more naïve, being the Asari equivalent of an 18 or 19 sheltered girl. A sheltered girl who has spent the last few decades travelling unknown planets on her own, trying to discover reasons to Prothean extinction, often finding herself in fights with native wildlife or pirate gangs... This is Mass Effect we're talking about. The girls have to be Badass.
- Due to the large cast, Mass Effect 2 has multiple women in each category, but the contrast between Jack and Miranda is played somewhat like this.
- In the Neptunia series, IF is the Tomboy and Compa is the Girly Girl.
- In Overlord II the first two mistresses are this (a tough girl from the town the Overlad met as a child in the tutorial and The Vamp who's seducing leaders in the first part of The Empire you conquer respectively).
- Persona 4: Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi. Interestingly, it's the Tomboy Chie who uses Ice based magic, while Yukiko specializes in hard hitting Fire magic. Though Yukiko is also a great healer, while Chie is better used as a physical attacker...
- Persona 5: Makoto (looks rather girly but has boyish tastes in media and a Biker Babe theme) and Futaba (a Playful Hacker and Gamer Chick) are the tomboys to Ann (an Action Fashionista teen model) and Haru (a refined and motherly Ojou)
- Planescape: Torment: Annah and Fall-From-Grace.
- Pokémon
- Diamond, Pearl, & Platinum's female Quirky Miniboss Squad members, Agent Mars (short hair, no lipstick, less sexually provocative outfit) and Agent Jupiter (longer hair, lipstick, slightly Stripperiffic outfit) respectively. The two of them generally don't get along, even though they often tag-team battle together for the sake of their team's goals.
- And in the case of the Pokemon themselves, there's Gothitelle and Gardevoir.
- Project Justice:
- This is the dynamic for the friendship between Akira (motorcycle-riding tomboy) and Yurika (girly girl musician).
- Also, Natsu Ayuhara has these vibes with either Hinata Wakaba or Momo Karuizawa.
- River City Girls has the tough and impulsive Misako and the cheerful and bubbly Kyoko.
- Riviera the Promised Land: we have Fia (girly girl) and Serene (tomboy).
- Rule of Rose: Jennifer and Wendy seemed to have this mechanic in their childhood. These roles seem to be curiously inverted in the game proper, where older Jennifer is extremely girly, while Wendy has crossdressed as a boy for most of the game.
- RuneScape: Korasi (tomboy) and Jessika (girly girl).
- Skies of Arcadia: Aika and Fina.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Tomboy princess Sally Acorn and sexy, beautiful Rouge the Bat.
- Amy Rose and Cream, while Amy has hobbies involving shopping, cooking, and cute things, she's also an Action Girl and a Tsundere with a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- From the Archie Comics take on the Chaotix, there was the more soft spoken Saffron who preferred to wear dresses, and the former Dark Legioner Julie-Su who has always been a bit of a warrior.
- Sonic Rush Series: Blaze and Cream.
- Street Fighter
- Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter V: Sakura Kasugano and Karin Kanzuki.
- Street Fighter III: Third Strike and Super Street Fighter IV: Makoto and Ibuki (relatively speaking at least, the latter wants an ordinary high-school life while the former lives for the glory of her family dojo).
- Street Fighter 6: Marisa Rosetti and Manon Legrand.
- Super Mario Bros:
- Peach (girly girl, though she's developed into one with a tomboyish streak) and Daisy (tomboy).
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Peach and Zelda/Sheik, particularly during their mission together on the Halberd Airship.
- Tales (series) Appears frequently:
- Tales of Phantasia: Mint (girly girl) and Arche (tomboy);
- Tales of Destiny: Rutee (tomboy) and Philia (girly girl);
- Tales of Eternia: Meredy (girly girl) and Chat (tomboy);
- Tales of Legendia: Shirley (girly girl) and Chloe (tomboy)
- Tales of Symphonia: Colette (girly girl) and Sheena (tomboy);
- Tales of Destiny 2: Reala (girly girl) and Nanaly (tomboy, but don't call her that);
- Tales of Vesperia: Estelle (girly girl) and Rita (tomboy).
- Tekken:
- Sisters Nina & Anna Williams. While Nina isn't outwardly a tomboy (she uses tight clothes, has long hair and can dress very femininely if the occasion calls for it), her younger sister Anna is more traditionally seductive.
- Since Tekken 3, Julia Chang (a Badass Native Cute Bruiser with Braids of Action and a knack for tech) and Ling Xiaoyu (another Cute Bruiser who's also a bubbly Genki Girl with Girlish Pigtails, and is in love with a very Troubled but Cute young man).
- Since Tekken 5, Asuka Kazama (very Hot-Blooded Cute Bruiser) and Emilie "Lili" Rochefort (a fearless Ojou and Dance Battler).
- Since Blood Vengeance and 6, Ling Xiaoyu and Alisa Bosconovitch (a soft-spoken and graceful Robot Girl).
- Touhou, has many character pair-ups tend to reflect this trope:
- Marisa tends to play the tomboy to the more feminine Patchouli, Alice, and Nitori.
- Cirno is usually the tomboy to her best friend Daiyousei, mainly due to the title of her leitmotif, Beloved Tomboyish Girl.
- Mokou is another tomboy; her rival Kaguya and her friend Keine are both rather more feminine too.
- Wriggle is also portrayed as a tomboy and contrasted by the somewhat girlier Mystia — it helps that like Mokou, she's one of the few girls of Gensokyo that wear pants.
- Youmu is tomboyish and has a very masculine/chivalrous sense of honour. She serves her mistress, the princess of the netherworld, Yuyuko who serves as the Girly Girl in this pair.
- The tomboyish Reimu and the elegant Yukari, who team-up in Imperishable Night and Subterranian Animism.
- Virtua Fighter: Sarah and Pai are opposites of their anime counterparts, with Sarah as the tomboy and Pai as the girly girl.
- Wrestle Angels: Mighty Yukiko is the pink long haired Waif Fu practitioner while Bomber Kishima is the much tougher with shorter blue hair tomboy. Kishima's finisher is even a torture rack.
Visual Novels[]
- Aoi Shiro: Syouko and Yasumi or Nami.
- Katawa Shoujo has Akira and Lilly Satou. Akira is a Bifauxnen whom Kenji mistakes for a man, is a bad cook and tends to act much less refined than her younger sister. Lilly is a Yamato Nadeshiko who enjoys drinking tea, and speaks more formally.
- Suika: Sayo and Itsuki.
- Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow: Saori Shishido and Haru. (Though Saori is more of a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak passing as a Bifauxnen)
Web Comics[]
- Cinema Bums: Mindy and Del, arguably.
- Fiyora Nya has Berri and Ayako.
- Gunnerkrigg Court:
- Kat and Antimony, with the slight variation that tomboyish Kat is much more open emotionally (and more visibly interested in boys), while girly-girl Annie is quite proficient at lock picking (and judo). They become friends by necessity, as Annie was the New Transfer Student with No Social Skills and Kat was ostracized by her peers for being the rather nerdy daughter of two teachers. It helps that their parents were close childhood friends.
- Also, alchemical symbols are a big deal in Gunnerkrigg Court, and the alchemical symbol for the element antimony should be familiar: ♀, today used as the symbol for "female".
- Homestuck Times four : humans Jade and Rose; trolls Terezi, Vriska, and Nepeta to Kanaya, Feferi, and Aradia. Kanaya is especially notable since trolls lost interest in fashion eons ago. It should be noted, though, that all of the "tomboys" are at least somewhat girly.
- Nay and Amber from Khaos Komix. Will They or Won't They??
- Last Res0rt: A team variant occurs, with the tomboy Team Andromeda (Jigsaw and Daisy are both strong characters, and Daisy's a Mad Scientist to boot) and the girly Team Gemini (Even though Slick's a guy, he's still pretty effeminate, and Addy is... a blonde princess with pink fur.)
- Megatokyo: Erika and Kimiko. Erika is the tomboy and Kimiko is the girly girl, though Erika has undergone a bit of Chickification and Kimiko is moving into a stronger role.
- Misfile: You might be able to classify Ash and Emily as this, though Ash did in fact used to be a boy.... And Emily isn't all that girly, but still...
- My Life in Blue: Vivian and Portia.
- The Order of the Stick Haley and Celia. In addition, their love interests are a Sensitive Guy and Manly Man, respectively.
- Penny and Aggie: The title characters: Penny is Alpha Bitch while Aggie is a Granola Girl.
- Weregeek has Abbie and Sarah.
Web Original[]
- Desu Des Brigade: JesuOtaku and Vixen fit this fairly well.
- Dimension Heroes, the web fiction serial. Brittany and Tami, though Tami appears to be just as much a girly girl as she is a tomboy.
- Quite a few romantic pairs in Equestria Chronicles.
- Sasha and Iphigenie from Greek Ninja. Also Sasha and Eleonora to some extent.
- Kickassia: Marz Gurl and The Nostalgia Chick. Of course, Marz is being a Drill Sergeant Nasty because she likes the power and the Chick is being an epic Bitch in Sheep's Clothing because she wants to rule the micro-nation, so this is a pretty negative example.
- Subverted in Suburban Knights. It starts out Chick (as Arwen) is the tomboy while Obscurus Lupa (as Snow White) is the girly girl, but Lupa gets tired of that crap and picks up a gun, while Chick gets Jaffers in a fairly decent headlock.
- Monster High:
- Lagoona and Draculaura.
- Later, Abby and Torelie.
- Whateley Universe: Roommates Tennyo (Billie Wilson) and Generator (Jade Sinclair) at Whateley Academy. Billie is a tomboy who likes fishing, and was wearing jeans and flannel shirts at the start of the school year. Jade is the kind of girl who still wears Hello Kitty and Barbie clothes and has stuffed animals around. On the other hand, given what she can make those stuffed animals do....
Western Animation[]
- Adventure Time has Marceline and Princess Bubblegum.
- Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Princess Calla and two-episode-only character, Princess Marie. The two start out mortal enemies but become friends by the end of Marie's second appearance.
- The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan has sisters Anne and Suzie.
- American Dad has a daughter/mother example with Hayley and Francine.
- Arthur:
- Francine and Muffy. Muffy is a rich girly girl; Francine not only plays sports, but is often the key to victory in most sports. They started being best friends mainly on the discovery that their middle names are the same.
- To a lesser extent, the outgoing Sue Ellen and shy Fern, who often seem to hang out together.
- Atomic Betty: Betty and Penelope
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Toph and Katara. Katara is a full-blown Action Girl (and has a nasty temper contrary to what you might expect from a girl), but her role as the Team Mom and Lady of War fighting tactics mean that she often clashes with Toph's more laid-back, one-of-the-guys mannerisms.
- The second is Mai and Ty Lee. Ty Lee is an outgoing circus performer who is a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander, and Mai is more akin to an Emo Teen with a fighting style much like that of a ninja — complete with a seemingly endless amount of throwing knives hidden in the sleeves of her robe.
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Militaristic major Ms. Marvel, and perky debutante The Wasp.
- Back at the Barnyard: Bessie and Abby.
- Batman Beyond has the two main female characters, Max and Dana.
- Ben 10:
- An evil version on the Negative 10 with Rojo and Charmcaster. Granted, Charmcaster isn't really super-feminine in personality, but compared to the butch Rojo she certainly seems so.
- The sequel series also has Julie and Gwen, which is interesting as the tomboy is the less action oriented of the two.
- Beverly Hills Teens: Blaze Summers & Tara Bell.
- Bionic Six: Meg and her mother Helen.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids: Steffy and Merilee.
- Code Lyoko has Yumi (tomboy dressing in black) and Aelita (girly girl dressing in piiiink) in the heroes' group. And for a rival (sort of) in love, Yumi has Sissi, the long-haired, fashion-obsessed Alpha Bitch.
- Codename: Kids Next Door: Abigail Lincoln/Numbuh Five is the tomboy to Kuki Sanban/Numbuh Three's girly girl.
- COPS:
- Mirage is the typical girly girl in a necktie while computer wiz Mainframe stands out as the tomboy.
- On the Crooks side, Ms. Demeanor might as well be One of the Boys, while Nightshade is incredibly feminine. Ironically the former wears a dress and the latter usually wears pants.
- The Cleveland Show has Donna and Roberta.
- Daria:
- Daria, even though she hates sports, she's considerably more tomboyish than her sister Quinn, and cheerleader Brittany.
- Even funnier, is that Daria is the one wearing a pleated skirt while Quinn is frequently wearing jeans and wears skirts and dresses for special occasions.
- A more subtle example can be seen with Daria and Jane. Jane is athletic and outgoing, even briefly joining the track team. Daria, sarcastic as she is, is also shy, keeps her hair long, and wears skirts.
- Dora the Explorer: Dora and Isa. Dora wears t-shirts, pants, and sneakers and enjoys exploring and adventuring, while Isa keeps a flower on her head and prefers gardening and flowers.
- Doug: Patti (Tomboy, though she's still rather girly) and Beebe (Girly). Connie is somewhere in the middle.
- Dragon Tales: Emmy (tomboy) and Cassie (girly girl).
- Dungeons and Dragons: Dianah and Sheila.
- The Fairly Odd Parents: Vicky and Tootie, sisters who are polar opposites. Vicky is known for being the most fiery, violent girl on the show, and also enjoys skateboarding, snowboarding, and watching anime. Her little sister Tootie on the other hand is nice, and enjoys playing with dolls and dress up. This is shown in contrast especially in the episode "Timmy's 2-D House of Horror" where the two took over Timmy's bedroom; turning one half into a pink and girly room with unicorns, and the other half into a medieval dungeon. Timmy couldn't tell which side scared him the most.
- Famous Five on the Case has George's daughter Jo and Anne's daughter Allie, who duplicate their mothers exactly.
- Fish Police brought us hard working Fiery Redhead Perl, and slutty lounge singer Angel.
- The Flintstones: Wilma and Betty.
- Franklin: Beaver and Otter.
- Futurama: Leela with Amy. Although if you put Amy next to her boyfriend Kif, she's the Action Girl...
- Hey Arnold: Helga with Olga, Lila, or Rhonda.
- Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Girly girl Ami (Though she's still rather a tomboy) and gothic girl Yumi (But, she had a girly streak).
- Iron Man: Armored Adventures has Pepper Potts as the tomboy and Whitney Stane as the Girly Girl. Unusually for this trope, the Girly Girl is a Badass Action Girl whilst the Tomboy...is not.
- The Itsy Bitsy Spider: Tomboyish city girl Leslie McGroarty and mean, girly teacher Adrianne.
- The Jetsons: Jane and Judy are both girly girls, while their robot maid, Rosie, has more of a tomboyish attitude.
- The Jellabies And Their Friends Show, Amber and Corel.
- Justice League Wonder Woman is a literal Hot Amazon, Hawkgirl has worked in the trenches with men all her life and behaves more like a straight-up Lad-ette.
- KaBlam!: One-shot character Dawn and main character June. While Dawn is into girly stuff, like fashion and make-up, June is the tough-talking, strong tomboy.
- The Legend of Korra:
- The titular character is a Boisterous Bruiser whose life revolves around the study of Supernatural Martial Arts, while fellow teammate Asami is an elegant Spirited Young Lady.
- In the backstory, Lin was the tomboy who worked for the Republic City police force and Pema was the pacifistic temple acolyte.
- Both pairings listed above were involved in love triangles, and in both triangles the girly figure won.
- In The Little Mermaid series, Ariel (tomboy) and her sister Arista (girly-girl.)
- Also, a daughter/mother example with Ariel (girly-girl) and her daughter Melody (tomboy) in the sequel "Return to the sea".
- Little Einsteins Annie and June are the opposite professions of the common theater girls.
- Loonatics Unleashed: Lexi Bunny (the tomboy of the team) and Zadavia (the girly girl).
- The Loud House: All the Loud sisters have varying degrees of masculinity and femininity, but the most obvious examples are the twins, Lana (who loves dirty things) and Lola (who dresses like a princess). Best exemplified in the episode, "In Tents Debate", where the girly girls (Lori, Leni, Lola, Lucy and Lily) vote to spend their summer vacation at the beach, while the tomboys (Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lisa and Lana) vote for an amusement park.
- Played with in the end of "Cover Girls". Lana is ostracized from her group of tomboy friends for looking like a girly girl in her sister Leni's clothes.
- The Magic School Bus: Wanda and Phoebe, and, to a lesser extent, Dorothy Ann and Keesha.
- MASK: Vanessa and Gloria.
- Max and Ruby: Outgoing Louise and softer speaking Ruby.
- The Mighty B Gwen and Portia.
- Mighty Orbots: Boo acts like a girly-girl, while Bo is more of a tomboy.
- Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm had this with Lieutenant Sonya Blade and Princess Kitana. Ironically, during their inevitable Girls Night Out Episode, it's Sonya who asks if Kitana ever misses "being a woman."
- mucha lucha buena girl is tough tomboyish wrestler and penny plutonium are girly girl.
- Muppet Babies: Skeeter was created for the cast to be the tomboy to Piggy's girly girl. However, although Skeeter was the athlete and Piggy liked pink and lace and make-up and tea parties, Skeeter was actually rather nice, and Piggy was super strong, super bossy, and super un-ladylike. What can we say? Beware the Nice Ones.
- In the 2018 Muppet Babies reboot, Summer Penguin is the tomboy to Piggy's girly girl.
- My Life as a Teenage Robot: The Crust Cousins, Brit (girly girl) and Tiff (tomboy). Also to a lesser extent, Misty (tomboy) and Jenny XJ9 (girly girl).
- My Little Pony:
- In the 1980s series, Megan and her little sister Molly. And this is just the start.
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has at least two sets of these characters: boastful and outgoing Rainbow Dash vs. the shy and quiet Fluttershy, and rough-and-tough farmgirl Applejack vs. persnickety fashion designer Rarity (as seen in "Look Before you Sleep"). On the other hand, Twilight is very meticulous and studious, and frequently hangs out with the male Spike, whereas Pinkie Pie is supremely fond of singing, sweets, and parties, though neither of them are really unfeminine in the same way Rainbow Dash and Applejack are.
- There's also a short-haired Scootaloo and long-haired Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.
- Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's duet 'Find a Pet' probably epitomizes their nature as this trope, with Fluttershy constantly trying to find adorable little Ridiculously Cute Critters for Rainbow's pet, while the latter really wants a cool pet who can fly fast.
Fluttershy: How 'bout a bunny? He's cutsie and wootsie and quick as can be! |
- Ni Hao, Kai-Lan: Arguably Kai Lan and Lulu. Kai-Lan has hobbies of sports, roller skating, and adventuring, while Lulu prefers tea parties.
- The Oz Kids: Dot Hugson (fearless, tough, energetic and tomboyish farmgirl) and Andrea (ambivalent, smart and gentle witch girl). See the image above.
- The Powerpuff Girls: Buttercup (short-tempered, aggressive) and Bubbles (naive, gentle)
- Stanley: The twins Marci and Mimi respectively.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Star Butterfly and Jackie Lynn Thomas are both tomboys. Queen Moon Butterfly and Brittney Wong are both girly girls.
- Rainbow Brite: mischievous Patty O'Green and fashionable Lala Orange, respectively.
- Recess:
- Spinelli and Gretchen (who isn't extremely girly but not as masculine as Spinelli)
- And then you have Miss Finster and Miss Grotke.
- Rocket Power: Reggie and Clio.
- The Save-ums Loud, Energenic Jazzi, and kindhearted Third Person Person Foo!
- Sky Dancers: Tomboy Angelica, Girly-Girl Jade, and Camille having traits of both.
- South Park: Tomboyish Wendy and the more girly Bebe.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Sandy Cheeks is the tomboy to Pearl is a girly girl and Mrs. Puff's tomboy
- Stoked. Fin as the tomboy and Lo as the girly girl. Emma is between the two.
- Scooby-Doo (animation): Casual, snarky, and sarcastic detective Velma Dinkley and romantic, elegant, and bubbly Daphne Blake.
- Strawberry Shortcake:
- In the 2003 series, sporty Raspberry Torte is best friends with fashionable Lemon Meringue.
- In the 2009 series, Raspberry becomes a girly girl and a tailor at a spa herself, [2] leaving the tomboy role for sporty Plum Pudding. There's also brash emo girl Sour Grapes and pastry loving Sweet Grapes.
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: Nova and Jinmay.
- SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron: Lt. Felina Feral (tomboy) and Ann Gora (girly girl). On the other hand, other female characters are Dr. Abby Sinian (tomboy) and Callie Briggs (girly girl).
- Tak and the Power of Juju:
- In family, Jeera and Zaria.
- Also in the game, Fauna and Flora
- Teen Titans. Raven (as the gothish tomboy) and Starfire (as the girly girl), though Starfire, being from a Proud Warrior Race Guy, is well capable of Let's Get Dangerous moments.
- Thomas the Tank Engine. Mavis and Daisy, as well as Rosie and Emily
- Thundercats: Cheetara (tomboy) and Pumyra (girly girl).
- Tigersharks: Octavia & Angel.
- The Total Drama series featured several:
- Beth and Lindsay
- Bridgette and Courtney
- Gwen and Heather
- Jo and Zoey
- ToonMarty has Do-Anything Robot Holly and Magical Girl Suki.
- Undergrads: This is pretty well the divide between Jessie (tomboy) and Kimmy (girly girl). No guess as to who the hero prefers, and who the audience does.
- Voltron: Legendary Defender: Katie "Pidge Gunderson" Holt and Princess Allura.
- Wakfu: Princess Amalia Sheran Sharm of the Sadida Kingdom is the girly girl to her tomboy bodyguard, The Archer Evangelyne.
- Wheel Squad: Jessica and Emilie. Jessica is a tomboy and the leader of the Wheel Squad, a young team of wheel aces. Emilie Rotter is a girly girl and the (step)daughter of a wealthy businessman. While Emilie isn't good enough to join the Wheel Squad, she does have the desire to partake in their activities.
- Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego: Countess Cleo is more girly than her partners in the V.I.L.E organization, Coach Brunt (who naturally teaches gym) and Professor Saira Bellum, a mad scientist.
- The Wild Thornberrys: Eliza and Debbie.
- Winx Club: The main characters are seven girls rather than two, but mostly fit into the roles. Bloom, Musa, and Tecna, (along with Latter members, Layla and Roxy) are more Tomboyish, while Stella and Flora are Girly in comparison.
- Wonder Pets: Linny and Ming-Ming. Linny is adventurous and active while Ming-Ming is also adventurous and active but fashonable and more likely to wear dresses and skirts.
- X-Men Evolution: Rogue and Jean to Kitty. Kitty wears pink, sleeps with a Teddy Bear, & sucks at sports, while Jean is a champion at sports, and Rogue is very, very, scary. Somewhat of a subversion however as Rogue's first two sets of clothes have skirts while Kitty never once wears one, though when Rogue gets a third set of clothes in Season 3 like everyone else (which has kneeless jeans) she tends to wear these a lot. There's a rather hilarious lampshade when Rouge uses a bit of her powers to copy Kitty's dancing skills and accidentally adopts her girly girl mannerisms for a second, then realizes what happened and is all "WTF?!"
- Young Justice: Artemis is the tomboy to both Miss Martian and Zatanna.
Real Life[]
- This dynamic applied to the Simpson sisters' respective musical and fashion styles. While Ashlee rocked out in sporty tees and athletic shoes, Jessica was pure pop in blouses and stilettos.
- For the ladies of New Tens Country Music ("Somethin' Bad"), we have carnivore Miranda Lambert, and vegetarian Carrie Underwood.
- Mary Boleyn was considered the more beautiful of the two sisters and became known for her promiscuity with King Francis and his courtiers, before having her affair with Henry VIII, making her an actual Ojou. Anne Boleyn was of course The Baroness.
- Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova count as this. Zig-Zagged in that Evert was cool and collected on court to the point of being called "the Ice Princess" and Martina's emotions certainly came out. Navratilova would state that Evert was the tougher player despite her ladylike image and passive play, and Evert stating that Navratilova is very vulnerable and soft.