Defrosting Ice Queen/Anime and Manga


Examples of Defrosting Ice Queens in Anime and Manga include:

  • Shirogane of Karakuri Circus is brusque and even insulting at first, but levels out later on.
  • Gundam 00's Colonel Kati Mannequin is this. She's totally serious, hard nosed military officer who happens to have a Dogged Nice Guy in love with her. She originally uses his crush to positively motivate him to follow orders, but he starts growing on her with his Undying Loyalty, and eventually she cries when she thought he died. In truth he survived, and they got married.
    • Gundam 00 has a male version as well in Tieria Erde. He's shown as a cold, reserved Deadpan Snarker with not a lot of regard for others, but after his fellow Gundam Meister Neil "Lockon Stratos" Dylandy saves his life, he starts showing more and more emotions and becomes extremely devoted to Lockon. After the four year time skip, he seems to even enjoy having conversations with his and Lockon's partner Setsuna F. Seiei, someone he often used to imply he wanted dead. So it seems he's pretty much grown out of it unless he has to communicate with Neil's brother, Lyle—then he just frosts up. Understandable, to some degree: Lyle is Neil's twin brother who has taken up the "Lockon Stratos" mantle in Celestial Being... four years after Neil's tragic death, whom Tieria might (or not) have fallen in one-sided love with. As the second season advances, Tieria keeps defrosting and exploring his more "human" side...
    • Then there's Feldt Grace, another Gundam 00 example. She was pretty much the textbook Emotionless Girl (possibly caused by both of her parents dying in a system test of Nadleeh's predecessor unit when she was little) until she started having a crush on Lockon, the defrosting culminating in his death causing the formerly cold and official Feldt to bawl her eyes out while clutching his Haro - the only other person who did that was Tieria. Despite his death, she continued the defrosting and in the second season, she's pretty much a normal if somewhat polite woman.
  • Sara Werec of Soukou no Strain is a main character like this, starting with the second episode.
  • Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina who was probably the hardest shell among the girls Keitaro had to break considering she was always on the defensive. As it turned out she had a good reason. Her attitude stems from her older sister whom she worshiped like an idol till she got married. Since then she blames men as a way to cope with the shock.
  • Eri Sawachika from School Rumble, though slightly subverted.
  • Sesshoumaru of Inuyasha is a male example of sorts, starting out supremely arrogant, concerned only with his own status and power, and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way; by the end of the series he is... still supremely arrogant, but has acquired a Morality Pet and developed into an Anti-Hero with a habit of conveniently just passing through.
    • And also Kagura, who warms up to Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's group, and especially Kohaku.
  • Layla Hamilton from Kaleido Star seems at first to be an arrogant, ultra-perfectionist bitch who loves treating newbies badly at the beginning, but soon we see that she's as hard (if not more) on herself as she is with others and that she loves the Kaleido Stage as much as Sora does. To the point of sacrificing her circus career to gain the Kaleido Stage back from Yuri Killian and foil his revenge on Kalos Eido.
  • Dark Magical Girl Rue/Princess Kraehe from Princess Tutu. Arguably Fakir, as well.
  • Marlene from Blue Gender.
  • Temari from Naruto. She starts out as a pretty cold and scary character who shows no remorse for others. But this was mostly due to growing up in a crazy family with a brother who had no qualms about killing her. As her family life improves, she shows more signs of being a warm and caring person. Her relationship with prospect love interest Shikamaru also seems to thaw her.
    • Sakura also seems to be apart of this trope since she greatly misunderstood Naruto at first, viewing him as a simply an annoying idiot, but now knows the real Naruto and is warming up to him. Her feelings can even be argued to be romantic.
  • Natsuki Kuga from My-HiME, largely the result of being friends with Shizuru, Mai, and Mikoto, as well as Shizuru's love for her. The ice that she uses as a weapon doesn't defrost, though.
    • Her Mai-Otome incarnation also defrosted and opened up to others after meeting Mai at Garderobe.
  • Sheryl Nome of Macross Frontier is the archetypal example. She starts out as the "Galaxy Fairy," an Idol Singer loved by all, tremendously arrogant and haughty. However, her meetings with Alto Saotome (who refuses to take any of her crap) and Ranka Lee (whose innocence and optimism rub off on Sheryl) change her outlook on life, making her a much more sympathetic character. Of course, the series goes one further by giving her a fatal illness and doing everything possible to Break the Haughty, which only makes her even more human.
  • The Wolkenritter of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which Team Mom Shamal mentions as having really changed after meeting Ill Girl Hayate, particularly Signum who used to never ever smile. The Pensieve Flashbacks in supplementary materials show just how much they've defrosted, being cold-blooded warriors in the past.
  • Miss Haruhi Suzumiya, of course. More than an ice cold queen (or, perhaps, what happens when an ice queen defrosts too quickly), though, she's a cheerful but sociopathic Jerkass without any concept of human interaction. Her Character Development is all about having her re-learn what love and friendship are.
  • Ai Shinozaki from Corrector Yui starts as the local Snark Knight, snarky and aloof and really disliking to team work. Slowly, we get to see how she was a Cheerful Child until her dad's death, how her mother's accident affected her, and how Yui's persistence and optimism is slowly thawing her...
  • One Piece: Luffy quite effectively defrosts Boa Hancock.
    • Nami, too. At first, she claims to only want to work with the crew to accomplish her goals, and tries to make it seem she doesn't care about them at all. (Especially when she steals their boat and treasure just before the Arlong arc to free her village.) It took a lot of work and patience on Luffy's part to get her to stay with the crew. ("She's the only person I'll accept as our navigator" indeed.)
    • Nico Robin even more so than Nami. Goes from "betray everyone to survive" to "sacrifice yourself to allow your True Companions to escape".
  • Ruki Makino from Digimon Tamers. She even gets a new shirt to make it official.
    • To elaborate: The classic shirt she was pictured with during the entire series showed a broken heart, possibly to emphasize her "rebellious" or "not willing to take sentimental crap" attitude. After she defrosts, her mom buys her a new shirt - the exact same one except with the full heart. Ruki wears it for the rest of the season.
    • And then we got Nene Digimon Xros Wars, and it was Akari who desfrosted her.
  • By her own admission, Tomoyo Sakagami from Clannad starts out as this... in flashbacks. Due to a screwed up family, she could only vent her anger by fighting and hurting other people (somehow attaining a legendary delinquent status), and distances herself from her family, even her slight Morality Pet of a little brother. When her parents tried to divorce, she couldn't have cared less. After her brother cripples himself by jumping off a bridge into a river (jumping in front of a moving car in the Visual Novel), she and her family make amends to each other and Tomoyo defrosts into someone much warmer... which is the Tomoyo we see in the beginning of the series.
  • Three male examples in Flame of Recca:
    • Mikagami Tokiya, the resident ice/water guy. He starts out as a loner brooding over revenge, cares nothing else than that, or Yanagi (who resembles his Dead Big Sister) and is extremely ruthless. However, with further interaction with his friends and the realization that revenge is getting him nowhere and would eventually kill him empty handed, he becomes a warmer individual, while still snarky.
    • Rasen, a completely pale Emotionless Man who thoroughly believed that he had his emotions erased thanks to his Madogu. Until he realized that he hadn't lost his emotions at all. Then in the epilogue, he could at least talk casually...
    • Kurei, the supposed 'Big Bad', flip-flops between this. Growing up in the village where he is persecuted just for being 'cursed' (turns out they're wrong) makes him cold, this gets carried over when he is sent to the future, until he meets his soon-to-be stepmother Mori Tsukino, in which he starts warming up... until her Complete Monster of a husband Mori Kouran noticed his power, takes away his mother, and promptly freezes him up again. Until a girl named Kurenai arrives in his life, gives him the first slap ever, and he starts warming up again... until Kouran blew her up, prompting Kurei to get cold again. He spends the majority of the series being a huge asshole, but after he got his ass kicked by Recca, he slowly starts to show signs that he has been defrosted, made much more obvious in the epilogue.
  • Umi Ryuuzaki from Magic Knight Rayearth. She starts out as the Rich Bitch, uncaring about Cephiro and just wants to go home ASAP. The situation, however, demands her to mature up ASAP, and she grew into a respectable Lady of War. And this doesn't defrost her strongest spell Ice Blades.
  • This is basically the entire dynamic between Limone and Dominura in Simoun, with the former making the latter realize her repressed emotional side and evolve away from a heartless manipulator she is first introduced as. In fact, Limone's Fan Nickname is "Icebreaker" in recognition of this feat.
  • Nadia from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. She initially comes across as a cold, aloof pessimist with no interest in communicating with other people (except animals, notably her pet lion cub, King). She also has a very vicious and somewhat sociopathic temper and stubborn, unbending views about the world. However, she finds herself falling for Jean, and the unlikely relationship that develops between them slowly transforms her, bringing out her caring side as she learns to trust others. There are a few moments when she sometimes lashes out at Jean, but he always forgives her. Likewise, when Nadia isn't brooding over her relationship with Jean, she goes out of her way to do nice things for him (cooking, encouraging him to build a gyrocopter, and even comforting him about his father's death). In fact, they get married at the end.
    • There are at least two moments in the island/Africa arc which are intended to show their friendship turning romantic (a kiss and later, when she admits that Jean is more important to her than the Blue Water in Episode 31). Unfortunately, the writers quickly press reset on their relationship after said "developments" occur in the filler arc. (Episode 35 acts as though most of these events never happened, which is why it is best to disregard them from the continuity of the story.)
  • Bubblegum Crisis' Sylia Stingray, depending on whether or not you consider Bubblegum Crash! to be canon.
  • In Captain Tsubasa, Carlos Santana and Stefan Levin are Emotionless Boys due to the different traumas in their lives. As they start to heal, they become this.
  • Lala Ru from Now and Then, Here and There starts off hating all of humanity after all she's been through; by the end of the story, she has sacrificed herself to keep humanity alive by restoring water to the dead Earth.
  • Kanzaki Kaori from A Certain Magical Index's light novel gradually warms up to Touma after he saves Index from having her memory reset by Neccessarius.
    • She gets defrosted even further in the novels when Touma helps her get over her past.
  • Setsuna of Mahou Sensei Negima. Started as cold as ice due to seeing herself as a Failure Knight, but after the events of the Kyoto Arc, she opened up a lot more and became friendlier. Lampshaded by Evangeline during their match in the Mahora Festival Tournament Arc, where she told Setsuna to give up her newfound happiness because it made her boring and weak.
  • Another male example: Iceland from Axis Powers Hetalia is shown to be somewhat of a Deadpan Snarker, but he's described as a possible Sugar and Ice Personality in author's notes. Taking in consideration how he interacts with Sealand, it might not be THAT far from canon.
    • England, as well. He's harsh and bitchy, yes, but if he does care for you, he can be surprisingly tender once in a while.
    • Germany was frozen for a while as a result of not having any real friends. When he becomes friends with Italy he softens up a lot, although it's not obvious at first glance.
  • Great Teacher Onizuka's Anko Uehara and Miyabi Aizawa.
  • This is how a young Clare from Claymore formed her relationship with Teresa of the Faint Smile. She initially opened up for entirely pragmatic reasons, because Clare was determined to stay with Teresa to the point of following her for two days straight, and if she died, Teresa would be implied in a possible murder.
    • Claire herself may fit the trope as well. She initially closed herself to Raki, but eventually let him know her true feelings for him, and stopping at nothing to protect him.
  • Mayu Miyuki from Ai Yori Aoshi is introduced as very much this, but almost immediately becomes a softer character when she meets Kaoru at school, and becomes much deeper and sympathetic when more of her Lonely Rich Kid backstory is revealed.
    • The tsundereish Harem Nanny Miyabi Kagurazaki is tsun-tsun to Kaoru and the rest of the cast at first, but shows more of her dere-dere side when she sees how kind they are to her and Aoi.
  • Maria, Shunsuke's girlfriend from Yuria 100 Shiki. You have to wonder why Shunsuke puts up with her. (She only really has a couple of redeeming qualities.)
  • A pre-teen version is Menori from Uninhabited Planet Survive!.
  • Male version from Bleach. Byakuya, oh Byakuya Kuchiki.
    • Byakuya is the definition of Aloof Big Brother to Rukia, mostly because she resembles his dead wife (who is her sister). She doesn't know this and he is keeping it a secret as a promise to the dead wife, which explains his coldness to her, at least. However, this doesn't explain his Ice King attitude towards other characters.
    • In fact, it's treated as a horrifying surprise when he jokes. And god forbid if he smiles. In fact, he rarely expresses any emotion at all and if he does, it is probably surprise of the OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT MONSTER COMING TO KILL ME SHIIIIIIIII- variety.
    • Rukia herself is pretty icy to Ichigo at the beginning, acting the Drill Sergeant Nasty part to a T. She defrosts over time, and the revelation in Ep 23 that he's entered the Soul Society is her own personal Hope Spot.
  • Another male example is Hatori Sohma from Fruits Basket. Like the other cursed Sohmas, he was bound to obedience toward Akito, creating a cage-like feeling; as the Dragon of the Zodiac, he was actually the one who was most imprisoned. When Kana came into his life, she helped to defrost him, and they fell in love. Unfortunately, Akito traumatized Kana to the extent that Hatori had to erase her memory, and he froze his heart more than ever. He defrosted once more upon meeting Tohru, though to a somewhat lesser extent.
    • It was even lampshaded with references to the snow and the spring that it preceded.
  • Mai Kujaku/Valentine from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Kaiba as well, though to a slightly lesser degree.
  • In Shakugan no Shana, Shana begins the series as an ice queen, cold, not caring for anyone. She sees herself as 'just a Flame Haze' and Yuji as 'just a Torch'. After some heartwarming from Yuji she comes to realize that he is more than just a torch and develops feelings for him when she sees a rival for his affections.
  • Shiki of Kara no Kyoukai can be seen as one of these, although most Ice Queens won't hold a knife to your throat during the thawing process.
  • A prime example of this trope is the Tsundere Sakura from Naruto. She was often seen as a Jerkass to Naruto and greatly misunderstood him in the beginning, seeing him as merely "annoying" and "stupid" whose goal in life was to make her feel bad. Though all Naruto wanted/wants was to win her over someday. Over time, she warms up to him immensely and sees the "real" Naruto, taking back her original thoughts. It could even be argued that when she is older, she developed feelings for him but that is unclear.
  • Dr. Atsuko Chiba from Paprika. Her warm and silly side only comes out when she's in dreamland as Paprika, who's modeled on her secret crush.
  • Male and older example: the Pokémon anime's rendition of Mahogany Gym's Pryce. This was because as a young Trainer, he mistakenly thought that his Piloswine had deserted him after a battle they lost, when in reality it was frozen in ice and Pryce never found out. Once Ash and his friends help him resolve the HUGE misunderstanding and he finds his Piloswine again, Pryce cheers up noticeably.
    • His manga rendition, even more so. This time, it's a Lapras that caused the sadness.
  • Sayo Mutou aka Magdaria from the Rurouni Kenshin anime is an embittered, sad Ill Girl who keeps frosting up to anybody who doesn't belong to her Christian circle. In comes Sanosuke Sagara, who forces her to think and feel outside the box and made her rediscover the joy of living. Magdaria still dies, but at least she can go to Heaven with less regrets in her heart.
  • Moka of Rosario + Vampire is an interesting subversion of this trope. She's fairly aware that this has happened to her and greatly dislikes it because, in her opinion, it has a negative effect on her fighting abilities. As of the past few chapters, she's also become a full blown Tsundere towards the protagonist, Tsukune.
    • Slightly justified/subverted/inverted? In that Moka suffers from Split Personality Syndrome.
    • Possibly justified since the manga has startedd to hint towards that both personalities has started to melt together or that it is an effect of the rosario starting to break.
  • Rei Ayanami goes from a seemingly emotionless Creepy Child to realising that she does have feelings to a Sugar and Ice Personality over Shinji.
    • The Rebuild of Evangelion movies take this a step further, even having Rei smile and act more open around Shinji. The other kids even remark how bizarre and seemingly out of character it is when Rei enters the classroom and says "Good morning" to everyone.
    • Initially, Asuka appears to be gearing for this in the original series, and, indeed, opens up a lot more to Shinji. Had she not gone into a deep depression after her Mind Rape, she may have actually gone all the way with this trope.
  • Eva Heinemann from Monster is one heck of a jealous bitch, being the daughter of a Prominent Director who gets murdered at the beginning of the series. It doesn't help that she still has feelings of affection for her ex-fiance and an embittered alcoholic. But after she is targeted by Roberto, she develops some changes in her character, finally culminating only after the death of Martin.
  • Yuriko Star to a certain extent in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. She starts off as being very by the book (since she's in the military) but eventually warms up to the dedicated slacker Tylor (who may or may not be a genius in disguise). It's lampshaded later on when she's transferred and someone under her command is surprised at how polite she is to her subordinates.
  • In some extent, Lucy from Elfen Lied.
  • Yakumo Saitou from Psychic Detective Yakumo is a male example.
  • An interesting example is Octavia from Tears to Tiara. She starts as more of an Emotionless Girl, and is defrosted not by the hero (though he does play a role), but by the hero's childhood friend Morgan. Hello Les Yay! Later in the series, Octavia and Morgan become quite close and Octavia matures into a Lady of War.
  • Sailor Mars in the Sailor Moon manga was easily this, although her character was a hot blooded and bossy Tsundere in the anime.
  • The Witchblade anime has both male and female examples in Reina Sohou and Takayama. Interestingly enough, both turn out to be the biological parents of Rihoko.
  • Kyoko Aoi from Future GPX Cyber Formula becomes this as the series progresses. It started showing signs of it when Shinjyo won his first championship, and comes in full-force when she saw Shinjyo and Kaga fighting and in Shinjyo's race in EP 6 of Zero.
  • Eureka from Eureka Seven. She went from an emotionless girl to an average emotional girl thanks to her lover Renton. Story-wise, this means Renton was "The One" for her.
  • Revy and Rock from Black Lagoon fit this trope well. Near the end of the series, we even see her playing with some kids. She was technically teaching them how to shoot people whilst playing, but still, no one actually got shot; which was a first for her.
  • In Skip Beat!, Kyoko manages to defrost both Ren and Moko.
  • Yukina from Watashi ni XX Shinasai! is slowly becoming as she experiences love for first time, but it's an extremely slow process.
  • In Virgin Love, Kaoru doesn't really like people until Daigo's warmer personality starts dethawing him. Even his subordinates notice he's become nicer, increasing his popularity at work.
  • A male example can be seen in the anime Tiger and Bunny. Kotetsu spends a good deal of time trying to defrost his partner Barnaby - an icy, introverted, Ineffectual Loner. He finally starts making some progress after shielding Barnaby from enemy fire during a fight. But it's worth noting that Barnaby never changes his aloof, distant demeanour towards anyone other than Kotetsu even after being defrosted.
  • Oscar de Jarjayes from Rose of Versailles. She is never mean or snobbish, but she becomes more socially conscious and empathetic as the series progresses- due in part to her friends exposing her to the real world.
  • Used in Hyper Police since Poe seems to ignore Tommy's advances for the entire first half of the manga, turning a cold shoulder to him. Lampshaded by the fact that she actually is an elementalist controlling spirits of ice.
  • Casca from Berserk. While it wasn't his goal, Guts nonetheless accomplishes this when they got stranded together after a battle (during that time he learns about her backstory and he learns that they weren't so different) and he saved her life twice, turning Casca from a serious, aloof and cold young woman who hardly showed any affection other than for Griffith, to a softer, more sympathetic, and open person who is really just a girl who has a nicer, emotional side that she can't show due to her profession. And of course, that hate she had for Guts - turns to love!
  • A male version occurs in Piccolo from Dragon Ball, who originally started as a cold and evil character. He begins to soften when he trains his enemy's son, making a Heroic Sacrifice for the boy and he eventually becomes a second father for Gohan. And for the rest of the series, he Took a Level In Kindness.
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