Pinocchio Syndrome: Difference between revisions

 

Not related to [[Pinocchio Nose]]. For the sister trope [[Become a Real Boy]], see ''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio]]''.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[Astro Boy]]'' is perhaps the oldest anime expression of this trope.

* This is the entire series basis for ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]],'' with Ed wanting to get his limbs and Al's human body back by finding (or creating) the Philosopher's Stone. {{spoiler|In the first anime, becoming human is also the primary drive for many of the Homunculi, Lust especially.}}

* This is one half (pun intended) of the basis for the Anime, Manga and [[OVA]]s of ''[[Ranma ½]]''—Ranma wants to find a way to stop turning into a girl... Results are evenly split between "it's a fake"/"it's just a legend", finding it, but having to destroy it to save someone and the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] not working as advertised.

* Sara's motivation in ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', especially in the manga, {{spoiler|comes from the fact that Tarou abandoned her out of guilt and, in the manga, sabotage from a well-intentioned servant. Screaming that she didn't ask to be born a mermaid yet alone a princess, she decides that if she can't be with a human, she'll destroy everyone on Earth.}}

* In ''[[Corrector Yui]]'', {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] Grosser claims that he wants to be alive and not just a part of the Com.Net that must be re-booted}}

* [[Robot Girl|Chachamaru]] of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has been known to angst over whether or not she actually has a soul. {{spoiler|She does. Apparently the rule is that if you're capable of that kind of emotion, you must have a soul. Alternately, [[Memetic Sex God|Negi will kiss you so hard that it gives you a soul]].}}

* In the second series of ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'', {{spoiler|Joe Asakura is revealed to have just barely survived at the end of the first series and turned into a half-cyborg by a scientist. He's more powerful than ever, but all he wants is to be human again.}}

* Celia, resident mermaid of ''[[Rave Master]]'' briefly expresses this desire, hoping it will allow her to be with Haru.

* Eureka, the heroine from ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', secretly in her heart wishes to be a human in order to be with her lover Renton. {{spoiler|She was revealed to be an alien life form who had an appearance of a human form with no special powers whatsoever.}} Technically there is no such way known for her kind to turn into a pure human being. Despite having regular human appearance, she constantly feels insecure about the way humanity is going to view her if they find out and fearful of losing the right to stay by her lover's side. In the TV anime version, {{spoiler|She had turned non-human in appearance by growing wings out of her back, which is permanent, but Renton still loves her regardless and they continued to be with each other in the ending.}}. However, in the anime film version, {{spoiler|Eureka mysteriously was shown to be an ordinary human girl (without wings and circular red eyes) appearing naked with long hair alongside her lover Renton who was unconscious during her climatic "incident". (the movie never showed what really happened to her, leaving viewers to ponder about her fate). She also ended up completely losing her memories and unable to speak, like that of a newborn infant. Eureka had become an existence that depends on Renton's survival/memories, meaning if her lover dies or lost his memories, she will cease to exist. (though no solid evidence to suggest whether this is true) Despite these setbacks, she still ended up falling for Renton by kissing his cheek and holding his hands in the ending}}

* Beast in ''Beauty and the Beast''

* "[[The Frog Prince]]" and variations, such as "[[East of the Sun and West of the Moon|East of the Sun West of The Moon]]".

* Subverted in many other fairy tales, especially if the main character is born or was an animal, but it is a "skin" that covers a human body. These characters are forced into permanent human bodies due to people, usually a fiancée, burning their animal skins. It gets so bad at times, you wonder if this is really a happy ending, even though it is supposed to be one, as in one story, a girl who gets her goat skin burned tries to jump in after it, having to be held back by the prince.

* The Chinese [[wikipedia:Legend of the White Snake|"Legend of the White Snake"]], which inspired the movie ''[[Green Snake]]'' below.

* Number/Johnny Five in ''[[Short Circuit]]'', who has gained self-awareness and understands himself to be alive; thus he must fight to prevent being "[[They Would Cut You Up|disassembled]]" (which for him would be "death") and convince others that he does have human emotions and thought processes. Though he is an ''extremely'' fast reader, in the second film, he intends to study the books ''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio|Pinocchio]]'' by Collodi and ''[[Frankenstein]]'' by Shelley more closely, clearly identifying with the plights of both the puppet and the creature.

* [[Robin Williams|Andrew]] in ''[[Bicentennial Man]]''. He's a robot who was accidentally created with a quirk in his hardware that allowed him to feel emotions and learn unlike other robots of his kind. The major plot line involved him wanting to be officially recognized as being human, and involved his many decades of work on inventing artificial organs and other life-sustaining techniques, which he applies to himself in addition to marketing them for general use. In the end, {{spoiler|he's finally recognized by the government as being human, as he dies on his 200th birthday. Having replaced his entire body with his self-invented artificial organs, he has become mortal, a prerequisite for humanity.}}

* The Robot boy Electronic from Russian film ''Electronic's Adventures'' also wishes to become human, which is especially funny given that his human double Syroezhkin envies him.

* ''[[Green Snake]]'': The Green Snake and her sister White Snake are two female ophidian spirits who seek to become human in order to raise their status on the karmic scale and incidentally experience human love.

* A fairly rare example of an animal with Pinocchio Syndrome and a rare example of someone who wants to be human for all the wrong reasons is King Iofur from ''[[His Dark Materials|Northern Lights/The Golden Compass]]'' (depending on which side of the pond you are from). It is also a quite rare example of where a character wants to be perceived of human by their actions but knows that there is never going to be a chance of [[Humanity Ensues|physically becoming human]].

* Several characters from Charles de Lint's [[Urban Fantasy]] novel ''Memory and Dream''.

* Minerva in [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[Time Enough for Love]]''. An administrative computer who learns to be human and falls in love. Eventually has a human body created so she can implant her personality into the body and experience love as a human, and not incidentally become the lover of the man she fell for in the first place.

* ''The Cat Who Wished To Be a Man'' by [[Lloyd Alexander]] is about [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a cat that wants to be a man]].

== Tabletop RPG ==

* The overriding goal of the player's characters in the role-playing game ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' is to complete "the Great Work"—transforming from [[Frankenstein's Monster|dismembered, animated corpses]] into human beings. This is actually possible (if very hard), making this one of the few examples of the trope where the goal can be achieved in the end. Sadly, achieving that goal almost invariably involves creating more of your kind, an endeavor in which success is [[I Hate You, Vampire Dad|immoral]], and failure is... [[Eldritch Abomination|undesirable]].

 

 

== Video Games ==

* This is the goal for most of Organization XIII from ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', although they were humans before losing their hearts. The leader, Xemnas, instead would rather become a "[[A God Am I|great being]]", just like every other incarnation of Xehanort.

* Aigis of ''[[Persona 3]]''. She gradually does become more human as the game goes on in terms of personality.

* Sora in ''[[Ever 17]]'', complete with its very own reference to the [[Pygmalion Plot]]. She's a little worse off than many of the characters here: She doesn't even have a body. {{spoiler|No really, she doesn't.}}

* The goal of {{spoiler|[[Artificial Human|Da]][[Ninja Maid|niel]][[Psycho Lesbian|la]]}} in ''[[Haunting Ground]]'' is to become "complete". Understandable, given that {{spoiler|she's a [[Artificial Human|homunculus]]}}. But in order to do that, {{spoiler|she}}'s got to slice open the protagonist to get her {{spoiler|[[MacGuffin|Azoth]]}} first...

* The villain of ''[[Comix Zone]]'' has liberated himself from the comic book he was formerly a character in, but is still a 2-D drawing. In the [[Game Over]] sequence, the death of his creator embodies him in true flesh and blood, giving him the potential to [[Take Over the World]].

* In the first chapter of ''[[Dragon Quest IV]]'', Healie the ''healslime'' wants to become a human. He reasons that since he wants to become human, if he hangs around humans, he'll become one [[Excuse Plot|so he joins Ragnar]] on his quest. It actually works and he leaves Ragnar to [[Put on a Bus|start his own life]] after Ragnar joins the hero/heroine in the fifth chapter.

* In a very extended version of the ending to ''[[Mischief Makers]]'', Marina is turned into a real girl.

== Web Original ==

* In the ''[[Paradise]]'' setting, humans are randomly, permanently transformed into [[Funny Animal]]s. Pinocchio Syndrome affects most characters after the Change, especially the ones who [[Gender Bender|changed gender]] at the same time. One particularly poignant case affects Christopher Mattiaz, a character from MatthiasRat's stories, {{spoiler|who changed genders six days after getting married and hasn't been able to be intimate with his wife for the past two years at the time the story begins}}.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Jenny in ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'', despite the fact that without her powers Earth would have been enslaved and/or destroyed dozens of times. (But you can't expect her to think rationally, [[Teens Are Monsters|she's a teenager after all.]])

* Spot/Scott in ''[[Teacher's Pet (TV series)|Teachers Pet]]''.

* The four main characters of ''[[Street Sharks]]'' spend some of their time trying to figure out a way to get turned human again. Mostly they seem more concerned with {{spoiler|finding their dad though}}. Also, when they {{spoiler|did find a cure in one episode, they ultimately chose to turn back into sharks to continue to fight crime.}}

* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'' (the first animated series) had an episode where the Turtles found tainted cookies that would've turned them human. [[Fun Personified|Michelangelo]] swipes some because he was sick of being treated like a freak by the people of New York. Of course his brothers had to turn him back because the transformation would've eventually killed him.

* ''[[Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (animation)|Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot]]'', the main character Rusty is turned into a human boy by a villain in one episode. Unfortunately this means he has to deal with pain when trying to fight, when his normal catch phrase is "No pain receptors!" He's glad to be back to full robot at the end of the episode.

 

[[Category:You Hate What You Are]]

[[Category:Shapeshifting]]