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Token Human
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Token Human (trope)

Fry: So, who's that weird-looking guy?
Bender: That's a human.
Fry: What's he do?
Bender: Eh, the usual human stuff. He laughs, he learns, he loves.
Fry: Boring!
— Futurama, "I, Roommate"

Much like the Token Non-Human, with a slight twist; in this case, almost the entire cast consists of non-humans, leaving only a single Token Human to round things out. He (or less commonly she) will be among a cast of Rubber-Forehead Aliens, Robot Buddies, Starfish Aliens or other, similar beings. Sometimes, the cast will have to make allowances for their Token Human friend's human failings; at other times, some human ability (such as the ability to reach the top shelf, or to immerse oneself in water safely, or simply an immunity to a deadly alien poison) will come in very handy at some point in the plot. These characters often tend to be The Hero (fantastic variant of All-American Face) or The Load (or in particularly bad cases, both); however, some works put them in the role of the villain to convey that Humans Are the Real Monsters. Sometimes they're only Ambiguously Human.

Generally results from the fact that Most Writers Are Human.

If they're in a Five-Man Band, it's probably a Five-Token Band.

See also Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes and Not Quite Human. Compare and contrast Token Non-Human and Token Minority, as the situation in these universes is more or less the same as those tropes would be in ours. Compare The Man Behind the Monsters, if the human is the villainous leader of the non-human monsters. May or may not be an Unfazed Everyman, depending on how they react to their circumstances. Can easily serve as the Audience Surrogate, as being the same species makes them more relatable to us by default. If the nonhumans are animal-like, may be a case of Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!. On the Sliding Scale of Animal Cast, works featuring a Token Human fall on level 4 or 3, depending on whether the human is the protagonist or not. Tends to be either The Load or a Badass Normal.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Pasqually P. Pieplate in Chuck E. Cheese.
  • In the world of Olympic Mascots, Lillehammer's Haakon and Kristin are the first, and so far only, mascots to be fully human.
  • All the mascots of software company Salesforce are anthropomorphic animals, except for two humans: Astro and Einstein.

    Anime and Manga 
  • In Blood+, French Jerk Van is this in Diva's group.
  • In Delicious in Dungeon, Laios is the only human member of Team Touden left after they lose his sister Falin in the first chapter. The other members are a halfling, an elf, a dwarf and a beastkin.
  • Digimon downplays this with Gankoomon of the Royal Knights. While some of the other Royal Knights such as Crusadermon and Craniamon have very humanoid builds, Gankoomon is the only one whose features aren't concealed by armor and he looks human with no frills aside from his bright red hair. This makes him the most human-like of a very visibly non-human group. Notably, he's also had the fewest appearances in Digimon media, only showing up in the Digimon Chronicle X storyline and various video games when the others have all appeared in at least one of the anime.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: In Greedling's gang, Edward is the sole full-on human, a fact he complains about on occasion.
  • Inuyasha:
    • Sesshomaru, who moves through the country. He is a yokai, and there are two more youkai in his company. But later, the young human girl Rin comes along, and accompanies the three youkai until the end of the series.
    • In a villainous example, Kohaku is over most of the series, accompanied by Naraku and his descendants. And he is the only human among them.
  • Kemono Friends is populated entirely by Little Bit Beastly animal girls...and a single human character on a Quest for Identity. The story later introduces a second human, but only via video journal entries left behind on the Robot Buddy.
  • Subverted with NME Customer Service from Kirby: Right Back at Ya! where it's revealed in the show's final episode that he is actually the same height as Kirby, and in place of legs just has the same feet as all the other characters. He's a monster created by Nightmare.
  • Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force:
    • Downplayed, where among the 24 named Special Duty Section Six members only nine of them are human, with four of them being not mages. The 15 non-human characters are nine Artificial Humans (two Clones, four magical living programs and three Empathic Weapons in human form), five Cyborgs and an Eclipse Driver. And then they add six to twelve heroic Mecha-Mooks to the section.
    • If you count Human Aliens as non-humans, Nanoha and Hayate would be the only humans from Earth. Funny enough, they are the foreigners since the setting is mostly on Mid-Childa or elsewhere outside from Earth.
    • The trope is inverted if you look the Special Duty Section Six as a whole. There are actually more human members than non-humans.
    • The Hückebein Family seem to have Sonica Lilian as the only non-Eclipse Driver.
    • Hayate is the only real human of the Yagami family. The others are four living programs and two Unison Devices.
    • And finally, regarding Nanoha, Fate, and Vivio as the Takamachi family, only Nanoha is the normal human, with Fate and Vivio being clones.
  • Kobayashi from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is the only human in her household, with the rest being shapeshifting dragons or a sentient sword.
  • In Monster Musume: Ms. Smith is the only major recurring female character who isn't a monster girl.
  • In the anime Parasyte, mayor Takeshi Hirokawa is the only person who sympathizes with the parasites and works with them.
  • This is half the premise of Rosario + Vampirenote : A human gets enrolled in a school for monsters (although they are Cute Monster Girls). Though Tsukune becomes less human as time goes by, gaining a Superpowered Evil Side and eventually becoming a vampire.
  • Shirokuma Cafe has Sasako, the cafe's sole waitress and Mr. Handa, the zookeeper. The cafe is run by a polar bear and the zoo employs the majority of the cafe's animal patrons.
  • Chris Thorndyke became this in the second series (third season outside of Japan) of Sonic X, which had Sonic and his friends visiting planets populated (for the most part) by non-human aliens, and left the human cast from the first series behind (with the exception of Chris and Dr. Eggman).
  • Tweeny Witches: Arusu is the only human member of the Magical Girl Squad, the other two being native humanoid witches.
  • Underworld Academy Overload!!: Shion is noted to be the only human in the non-human cast, being a witch.
  • Sensei/Modern Lit is the only significant human in Upotte!!. All the other characters are anthropomorphized guns.
  • UQ Holder! has Shinobu Yuuki, the only mortal human working at Fairyland Hall (a hot spring resort staffed by and catering to various immortals, demons, and Demi Humans). She got the job because she happened to be friends with the boss' adopted son.
  • Kuwabura is this for Team Urameshi in YuYu Hakusho. Once it's later revealed that Yusuke is a descendant of a demon and is therefore half-demon himself, Kuwabura is indeed the only true human of the team. In fact, this was one of the main reasons he was Put on a Bus in the final season.
  • In Samurai Deeper Kyo, Taihaku of the Goyosei is the only member of the quintet who's not Mibu or related by blood to the Mibu clan, but rather a normal human being who received an extremely long lifespan from the Crimson King.
  • In Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun the titular Iruma Suzuki is this. The series starts with him being sold off to a demon by his Abusive Parents, instead of being eaten or having his soul taken he is instead adopted as the grandson of said demon. He is the only human in the netherworld, and only a handful of the demons there even know that.
  • Tomomi from Tamagotchi! is sent to Tamagotchi Planet by accident and becomes the only human in the cast of aliens known as Tamagotchis for the part of the show where she appears.

    Animation (Eastern, Asian etc.) 
  • Dada is the only human among the mainly animal cast in Duda And Dada.
  • In Masha and the Bear, there are other humans than Masha occasionally, such as her cousin Dasha, but the majority of the cast for most episodes is made of animals besides Masha herself.

    Audio Plays 
  • In Starboard the hero Reginald Barrington is the sole human member of the crew of the outlaw ship Taranau, and indeed had to betray Mankind's oppressive, xenophobic stellar kingdom to join the pirates.

    Comic Books 
  • All Ghouls School (2011) is about Becca Norman, a human student attending an All-Ghouls School.
  • Annihilators: Quasar is the only human on a team consisting of various humanoid aliens and a telepathic dog.
  • "Audition (1954)": Phil Vitale's All-Girl Orchestra, also known as Phil Vitale's All-Ghoul Orchestra, is an orchestra that exclusively accepts ghouls. The one exception is Phil Vitale himself, who gives no indication to be anything other than a human.
  • Willy DuWitt in Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars! and its Animated Adaptation, a kid from San Francisco who crossed over into the Funny Animal Space Opera universe.
  • Kamandi is about the last remaining human in a world of highly evolved animals. (The gritty reboot "Kamandi: At Earth's End" does not apply here)
  • In Micronauts (Image), Ryan Archer is the sole human member of the Micronauts, with the rest of the team consisting of robots Biotron and Microtron, native of Boraya Acroyear, Vaerian Knave and Forlian Koriah.
  • In Tom King's Omega Men, Kyle Rayner takes on this role, since the comic is set in the Vega system light years away from Earth.
  • Rankorr from Red Lanterns is very much a Token Human — the comic even openly declares "The first HUMAN Red Lantern!" Of course, after Guy Gardner's admittance into the corps, this is no longer the case.
  • Secret Wars (2015): Howard the Human is set in a World of Funny Animals, in which the title character is the only human, and he hates it. A Just the Introduction to the Opposites version of Howard the Duck.
  • In Sillage, a giant convoy of spaceships traversing the galaxy has only encountered one human being: Navis, who is the main character of the story.
  • IDW's The Transformers comics have Verity Carlo develop into this. She is initially introduced as part of a human sidekick trio of comprised of her, Hunter O' Nion and Jimmy Pink. As the relationship between the Autobots and Earth is strained, Hunter dies and Jimmy drifts away, she remains totally supportive of them and effectively becomes an Autobot in all but name. Deconstructed, as it's implied she does this because of her Dark and Troubled Past; she sees the Autobots as basically being the family she never had growing up, and seems to identify with Transformers more than she does with other humans.
  • The Ultimates (2015): Played With. While most of the team is technically biologically human, Black Panther is the only one who could reasonably be called human.
  • The Big Bad of Usagi Yojimbo, Lord Hikiji, is the only human in the setting. He's only been shown unmasked once, right at the start of the series, and creator Stan Sakai has since said he regrets making him human. (Since that time, barring a couple of brief flashbacks where he turns up so heavily armored that his species cannot be discerned, the character has only been alluded to.)
  • Ultimate X-Men (2001): Doug is the only named human student in Frost's Academy, though it is specifically noted that the Academy does not distinguish between humans and mutants.
  • Vagrant Queen: Isaac is the only human in the cast, as it's A Galaxy Far Far Away, which he had been transported into.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): That time some aliens tried to enslave Wonder Woman only for her to become a space pirate and start a revolution that toppled their current form of government and freed all the slaves the only human for the entire arc was the Russian astronaut she'd been trying to save when they both got grabbed.
  • Inverted in X-Men (2024), as prior retcons established The Juggernaut as not a mutant after all. As a result, he's the token human for Cyclops' new team despite looking like the second-least human member (first being Beast). In issue #4 he's called out for not being a mutant by one of the Upstarts, with him plainly stating that he doesn't care and he'll still kick ass on their behalf.

    Fan Works 
  • Justified with Lieutenant Commander Jaleh Khoroushi from Aen'rhien Vailiuri. She's a human Starfleet officer serving aboard a Romulan Republic ship as a liaison officer, and is explicitly the only human on the entire ship.
  • In Apex Predator, Hermione basically qualifies as this; with the Delacours establishing their "authority" among other Veela by essentially using Harry as a breeding stud (with his permission), Hermione is explicitly stated to be the only human woman who will be allowed to have sex with Harry in her role as a vessel to the Delacours, to the extent that Harry is shown even submitting to Hermione after refusing another Veela's attempt at seduction. By Chapter 37, Hermione reflects that it's become easy to see things like a Veela would after spending a month immersed in their culture, even if certain traits are still jarring such as the Veela view on incestuous relationships between Veela and their fathers.
  • Bait and Switch (STO): The USS Bajor's command staff contains only one human, the chief medical officer Warragul Wirrpanda, and he's not even from Earth. The rest of the command crew are two Bajorans (captain and ops officer), two Andorians (first officer and chief engineer), a Trill (science officer), and a Pe'khdar (security chief).
  • In Chronicles of the Siren War, Commander Thorson was initially the only human among Azur Lane, an organization mainly comprised of kansen. However, more humans do join under various circumstances.
  • Flynn from The Queen's Consort is the King of Thieves, Rapunzel's human husband and the only human member of Fey royalty as a result.
  • Many Human in Equestria fanfics.
    • Many authors, when creating these types of stories, like to include something unique to distinguish their idea from other HiE fics. For instance, The Non-Bronyverse features a token human who does not want to be in Equestrianote  and in My Family and Other Equestrians the protagonist, along with his family, are transported to Equestria.
  • The Twilight fic "Bella Hale" puts a new twist on Bella's history when she's adopted by the Cullens after her parents are killed in a car accident when she's six years old, the Cullens being the first on the scene and Alice seeing a future where she stays with them. She is soon informed of the Cullens' vampire nature but accepts them regardless, and by the time the Cullens return to Forks when Bella's sixteen, although Bella is still human she confidently informs the Quillettes that she is part of the Cullen family and considers herself such. Most notably, she explicitly asks Billy Black to allow the Cullens to make one exception to the rule against them turning any other humans so that she can become a vampire and join them.
  • In The Lost Kingdom, after Bo, Merlin and Morgana have relocated to the fae kingdom, Bo starts to assemble an unofficial personal guard in her role as the princess of the kingdom and heir to the Blood King. While most of her guard are fae from Light and Dark, Gwaine- who decided to join Bo and the others on Kenzi's suggestion after their trip into the Perilous Lands- is notable as the only pure human in the group, but he is soon accepted as a relative equal by other fae guards in his role as part of Bo's personal protectors.
  • In The New Teacher, until chapter 40 most of the X-Men assume that Peter Parker has been hired as the Institute’s first purely human teacher, with only a few aware of his true identity of Spider-Man. After Peter starts working at the Institute, Mary Jane is invited to join some of the female X-Men on nights out.
  • Riding a Sunset: While the Autobots have regular interactions with humans, Charlie is the human who spends the most time with them, to the point that some of them consider her an Autobot in everything but name (and species, of course). She earns that trust by standing by them no matter what, and being the one who can most easily smooth out any misunderstandings between them and the government.
  • "Spiderman: A Way Back Home" sees Peter Parker (post-Spider-Man: No Way Home) discover that Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man Series) and Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man Trilogy) were also displaced, as well as both their world's versions of Harry Osborn. When the girls meet Michelle Jones and restore her memories of Peter, the three of them and Peter work together to find a way to cure Gwen's version of Harry of his disease and his various other issues, with Mary Jane qualifying as the "human" in this context as the least scientifically-inclined one of the group, mainly helping the others keep everything in order while they put the details together and actually create the cure.
  • Of the various members of The Invaders shown in Sixes and Sevens, only Pat, Robby, and Gisele are fully human (and Pat gets a hold of some alien technology in a later story).
  • In Spider-X, May Parker serves as this for the X-Men as a whole when she starts working at the Xavier Institute. Arguably Peter can be considered another example of this, as he is a member of the X-Men despite not being a mutant himself, but he is still an enhanced human.
  • Discussed in Turnabout Storm. Phoenix gets summoned to Equestria, and becomes the first human to have ever laid feet on Ponyville. Twilight assures him this is an honor; Phoenix... doesn't think so.
    Phoenix: I've never felt like such a minority in my life!
  • "The Uncanny Spider-Man" opens during the Krakoan Age, with Emma Frost appointing Peter Parker the head of SpiderCorp to help assist human/mutant relations. When Emma is killed by an initially unidentified partner, she leaves a recorded message declaring that, until her resurrection, Spider-Man will sit in her seat on the Quiet Council despite him not being a mutant, and he also assists in the subsequent investigation of Emma's murder.
  • The only major character to not be an Ultra/Ultra Host or alien in Ultraman Moedari is the reporter Anna. A Voice Among the Strangers' token human is Jessica, a Filipino mix that got sucked into Equestria by a book. She also doesn't understand the language at first.
  • Hamato Clan Kunoichi: Out of everyone in the Hamato Clan, Tang Shen is the only one of them who wasn't mutated, her husband becoming the rat man Splinter and their daughters being four mutant turtles.
  • In Metamatronic's Cryptid AU for Danganronpa, Hope's Peak Academy is reimagined as an All-Ghouls School that admits humans to the Reserve Course specifically so they can act as this for the various monster classes in order to better teach the non-human students how to blend in with humanity. Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda each act as this for their respective classes (the author's logic being that the Ultimate Lucky Student is human by default).

    Films — Animation 
  • Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven, David in All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, and Martha in An All Dogs Christmas Carol.
  • In Animal Crossing: The Movie, the main character — a girl named Ai — is the only human in her town. There's also Yu, a human boy who visits from another town, but they're still vastly outnumbered. This is true to the games it's based on.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Drifts in the Universe: Doraemon and friends meet the Space Knights, whose members consist of the human Lian, hulking alien brute Goro-goro, the fairy-like Freya and Robot Buddy Log. Naturally, Lian is the leader of the crew.
  • Roshan, the human baby the animals must return to his family in Ice Age 1.
  • Mowgli from The Jungle Book is a human child who was literally raised by friendly wolves while being friends with a black panther and sloth bear. Most of his adventures deals with facing off against apes who want to be powerful as mankind, a python who wants to devour him, and a tiger who wants to kill him to suit his hatred for mankind. Shanti and Ranjan (Mowgli's adoptive brother from the Man Village) would later count as well in the sequel.
  • Ju-li from Lost in the Moonlight is a human girl dragged into the Korean underworld inhabited by spirits, though she does get rescued by Won who's Ambiguously Human.
  • The Magic Pudding: In a cast full of anthropomorphic animals, Bill is the only human, although other historical figures are mentioned in song.
  • Boo from Monsters, Inc. 1 is a human child who ends up in a world inhabited by monsters.
  • Ginormica in Monsters vs. Aliens counts as both a monster and a human. (As does Dr. Cockroach, although he's closer to the monster side of the scale.)
  • Chuck Baker in Planet 51 is a human astronaut who lands on an alien planet where he's seen as... well, an alien. No other humans are shown, not even aboard the command module Odyssey.
  • Penny in The Rescuers and Cody in The Rescuers Down Under.
  • Edmund and his family (who are live-action humans) from Rock-A-Doodle, especially if you consider that the city nearest their farm is populated entirely by cartoon animals...
  • Spirited Away: After the titular event happens, Chihiro Ogino is the sole human stranded in a Spirit World inhabited by various Yōkai and netherworld oddities. Which makes things difficult for her, because she's a stranger in a strange place... whose denizens thinks she is the strangest of them all.
  • Storks: Tulip is the sole human at the stork run Cornerstore company. She's there because she was a baby that had to be adopted by the company when her homing beacon was accidentally destroyed. The company hires other types of birds, but they've got an otherwise strict no human policy.
  • Tanpopo from Tamagotchi: The Movie is a human among the alien species known as Tamagotchis. Justified; she was sent to Tamagotchi Planet by accident.
  • Cale, Akima and Korso from Titan A.E., which seems like a bit much to count if it weren't for the fact that humans are almost extinct thanks to Earth getting literally blown up.
  • Treasure Planet has the protagonist Jim Hawkins and his mom in Sarah as the only humans a cast of aliens. The only other human we see is in flashback and from a distance - Jim's father who abandoned Jim and Sarah when Jim was still a child.

    Films — Live Action 

    Literature 
  • In early Arthur books, the Tibble Twins and their grandma (and possibly their parents as well) were humans. Averted in the TV show and later books, where they are animals like every other character.
  • In Chakona Space, humans, especially main characters, are very much in the minority in these stories. Though they are still a major fraction of the Federation's population. Captain Foster is the only human on the folly. His status as "Token human" is lampshaded in the ongoing rewrite of chapter 3.
  • Several times by C. J. Cherryh:
    • Tully in the Chanur Novels. Not only is he a Token Human, but he's a non-viewpoint secondary character with hardly any dialogue. In spite of all that, though, his presence is the catalyst which drives the story.
    • Bren Cammeron from the Foreigner (1994) series. Being a diplomat who's the only human allowed off the human enclave of Mospheira, he spends most of his time in the company of the alien atevi.
  • Discworld: In The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the title characters are a cat and a group of rats. Keith and Malacia are the only two main characters who are human. Keith because the Rat Piper scam needs a human who can play a flute, and Malacia because she attaches herself to the group when they arrive in Bad Blintz.
  • Dante is the one of two human characters in The Divine Comedy, with every other character either being a disembodied soul, an angel, or an infernal monster. The second human, Jesus, only appears in the last hundred lines of the poem and Dante finds it hard to distinguish him from the rest of the Trinity.
  • While humans are prevalent in The Fallen World, Allya is the only human among the main cast. Others include transhuman dungeon core Alexandra/Crystal, vampire Emilia, and elf Pyn. Outside of the antagonists, the story mainly focuses on the inhabitance of Alexandra's dungeon over those of Allya's city.
  • Her Majesty's Swarm: Unlike the spiders of the Swarm, Grevillea is completely human aside to the telepathic ability of the Hive Queen, making her extremely vulnerable. When scanned at the Adventure Guild, all her stats other than Intelligence were below average, a point she gets really salty about.
  • Rachel Elizabeth Dare is the only human in Camp Half Blood in The Heroes of Olympus, where otherwise are demigods.
  • Herr Korbes is the only human in the tale, everyone else is either a non-human animal or an Animate Inanimate Object.
  • Her Wolf in the Wild: Christiana is welcomed in by the Hounds of God, Micah's biker club. She is the only human among them it turns out, with the rest all being werewolves.
  • In/Spectre: The Protagonist Iwanaga Kotoko is the current "Goddess of Wisdom" to all the Yōkai of Japan - a woman of great intelligence who was selected as a child to become their chief advisor, mediator, detective and Masquerade enforcer, and whom they all treat with great respect. Played With in that Iwanaga has some subtly uncanny traits (including cold impartiality, a missing leg and eye, and looking younger than her actual age) and seems so born for her position that she's been posited as a sort of "reverse youkai" - a human born from the wishes of supernatural beings in the same way that they are born from the belief of humans.
  • In some stories from The Jungle Book, such as "Mowgli's Brothers", "Kaa's Hunting" and "Red Dog", Mowgli, the child Raised by Wolves, is the only human interacting with a cast of animals. In other stories, other humans (most notably the kindly woman Messua and the villainous hunter Buldeo) are also prominent characters.
  • In Little Bear one of Little Bear's friends is a girl named Emily, while the others are talking animals.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, once Boromir dies, Aragorn is the token human of the fellowship. Or maybe Boromir is the token human of the fellowship period, since Aragorn himself is only mostly human (there are several elves and at least one Maia among his ancestors).
  • "The Louse And The Flea": The little girl is the only human among the rest of characters, who are either a louse, a flea, or an Animate Inanimate Object.
  • In The Mortal Instruments Simon starts like this. He is the only human in a group full of shadowhunters, a werewolf and a warlock. But in the middle of the second volume of the books, he becomes a vampire.
  • Shadows of the Empire: Black Sun starts out with nine Vigos (lieutenants) of Prince Xizor (himself a Falleen). Only one Vigo, Green, is Human, and he soon dies after Xizor reveals he's a spy (with Guri summarily killing him). Guri is taken as Human by most people too, but is really a Human Replica Droid who can pass for one almost perfectly.
  • Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger novels have only two (three, if you count the Son of Spellsinger) major human characters, including The Hero Jon Tom. All others are anthropomorphic animals.
  • Christopher Robin from Winnie-the-Pooh is the only human in the Hundred Acre Woods. All his friends are Talking Animals that are mostly based on his stuffed toys. Darby, who replaces Christopher in My Friends Tigger & Pooh, is also a token human.

    Live Action TV 
  • Every so often, the cast of Being Human picks up one. They tend to not last, though. The most prominent would be Nina (until she was turned into a werewolf) and Lucy (until she was murdered).
  • Every now and then, Doctor Who has a situation like this.
    • For most of the Fifth Doctor's era, his TARDIS teams had two/three Human Aliens (including the Doctor himself) and one human. And a shapeshifting alien android who only made a couple of appearances.
    • There's also the Paternoster Gang, a crime-fighting team in Victorian London that comprises Madame Vastra (a Silurian), Jenny (her human maid and wife), and Strax (a Sontaran), with the Doctor occasionally joining them as well.
    • In Series 10, there's Bill Potts accompanying the Doctor and Nardole, who is an unidentified species of Human Alien and a Cyborg.
  • John Crichton in Farscape. Though it eventually turns out that the Peacekeepers evolved from Transplanted Humans; it depends on how much the divergence counts against them.
  • During Grimm, depending on whether Grimms like Nick and Trubel are just enhanced humans or as distinct a species from humans as the wesen, Hank Griffin is the only member of the regular cast who remains human from the beginning of the series right to the end. Juliette Silverton and Drew Wu start out that way, but are eventually turned into a hexenbiest and a lycanthrope, respectively.
  • Stephanie from LazyTown. She's the only human child, and the only female human, even though her uncle and every other townsperson is a puppet. The other two humans are the hero and the villain. Extra points for being the new kid, totally unfamiliar with the puppets' weird ways.
  • Marilyn in The Munsters has the look of a beautiful human woman in a family of monsters. The running gag in the series is that her boyfriends don't know that and get scared when they meet the family and that her family thinks she's ugly. Nevertheless Marilyn looks human but is probably a vampire as she's the biological granddaughter of Grandpa and the daughter of Lily's twin sister and is shown to have some of the vampiric behaviors of her kin.
  • The Muppet Show usually had one (or, on rare occasions, two) human guest and all frogs, bears, chickens, pigs, dogs, rats, penguins and... whatever. Otherwise, though some Muppets are human-like Muppets.
    • In the Harvey Korman episode, Korman explained his discomfort being this trope, so Kermit and the others dressed him up in a chicken suit.
  • Mike/Joel/Jonah on Mystery Science Theater 3000, not counting the various crazy people sending him movies. All of them spend most of their time surrounded by highly neurotic robot "friends", occasionally leading to jokes (typically in the host segments) about the 'bots not understanding a human custom or vice-versa.
  • Odisea Burbujas: Profesor Memelovsky is the only human in the group alongside a Toad, Bee, Lizard and Mouse.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "Think Like a Dinosaur", Michael Burr is the only human permanently assigned to the Tuulen Transfer Station, which is run by the Hanen, on The Moon.
  • For most of the series run, Dave Lister in Red Dwarf was the only human character (and possibly the last human left alive) accompanied by a man who looks human but is actually a highly evolved cat, a hologram simulation of a dead guy, a talking computer and a robot. Series VII brought in Kristine Kochanski, a human woman from another dimension and Series VIII resurrected a load of others but the status quo was later restored with no real explanation.
  • Saturday Night Live: Defied for Black Comedy in the sketch "Bear City". The Opening Narration of the sketch mentions that two young kids survived the apocalyptic event that killed all humans in town and evolved the bears into being anthropomorphic. The bears kill them before the narrator finishes his sentence.
  • Super Sentai:
  • Teen Wolf: Stiles is this as of season 4 (not counting the adults), after the death of Allison and the reveal that Lydia is a Banshee.
  • Two Sentence Horror Stories: In "Teeth", Cara turns out to be the only human in the episode, as her girlfriend Olivia's a vampire while the men the two meet are all werewolves.
  • With Ultraman Geed's Hero Secret Service Alien Investigation Bureau (AIB), Moa Aizaki is the only human agent in an organization consisting otherwise entirely of alien species from previous series.
  • Adam Strange in Krypton is the only Earthling of the main cast, as well as the only human among a cast of Human Aliens.
  • Wednesday is set at Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for “outcasts” - vampires, werewolves, sirens, gorgons, and so forth. There is only one “normie” on the school’s staff: botany teacher Ms. Thornhill.

    Music 
  • For a while, Mr. Reed was the only "human" member of Steam Powered Giraffe, until the addition of drummer Sam Luke and sound engineer Steve Negrete. Following the departure of Mr. Reed and drummer Matt Smith, Steve Negrete fills the role. (The jury's still out on the Walter Girls.)

    Pinball 
  • Gottlieb's Asteroid Annie and the Aliens has the titular Annie playing space poker with a table full of tentacled, insectoid, scaled, furred, and otherwise non-human opponents.
  • In Pinball Quest, the King, the player, and the other citizens of the pinball realm resemble round metal balls. However, Princess Ball looks like a human female. Whether she actually is a human or not is never specified.

    Podcasts 
  • The crew of Mission to Zyxx consists of sentient spaceship Bargie, droid C-53, lurd Nermut, whatever Dar's species is, and token human Pleck. Pleck is frequently mocked for being very pink and fragile.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Can happen in about any fantasy/sci-fi roleplaying game where humans are only one of the playable races.
  • Despite coming out in 1977, Cosmic Encounter never got humans as a playable race until the 2008 edition.
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has Bladefender and Flowerknight, two of the monsters among the ranks of the Sylvans. The Sylvans are nature spirits taking the form of plantlife (or in the case of their strongest monsters, plant/animal hybrids). Bladefender and Flowerknight are exceptions to this, being completely human in appearance, instead wearing clothing and weaponry made of flowers and leaves. Despite this they are still classified as plants, meaning they're not actually human, despite looking the part.

    Toys 
  • Piratix:
    • The Abyssal Crew consists of sea creatures, save for Diver Dan, who is a human obscured in an old-fashioned diving suit.
    • Captain Goldstar, leader of The Far West Crew, is the only human in a team of desert animals.

    Video Games 
  • Aarklash Legacy from Cyanide Studios features a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, and nearly all of them are monsters and fantastical creatures. The party includes, but is not limited to, a velociraptor/kangaroo cyborg mutant lady, a rat-worshipping goblin Gentleman Thief, a psychotic cannon-wielding dwarf, a Caribbean Orc wise-man healer, and a Lich. The only exception is the leader of the party, Nella, a human Hot Witch.
  • Amber Isle: Originally, as seen in the 2021 trailer and several early screenshots, the player character was the only human in a world of anthropomorphic animals. This was changed around 2024 because so many people asked the developers if they could design their own paleofolk.
  • The player characters in Animal Crossing are the only humans in a town of anthropomorphic animals.
  • Banjo-Kazooie:
    • Rubee the snake charmer is the only named human in the first game, but there's also a curvy blonde in a red bikini visible in the game's ending sequence. It's speculated that Mumbo Jumbo used to be human prior to Gruntilda cursing him with his current appearance.
    • Humba Wumba, Blackeye, and Sabreman in Banjo-Tooie.
    • Humba Wumba again in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
  • Battle for Wesnoth: Spectre of Fire is a dwarf-focused campaign and Alanin is the only human among the main characters.
  • In Bonnie's Bakery, Bonnie is the only human in a town full of Funny Animals, and the owner of a bakery.
  • Andi of Geometry Blaster is the only human protagonist in the Blaster Series prior to 1999.
  • Breath of Fire:
    • Karn in the first game.
    • The protagonist comes closest in Breath of Fire II but is at least half-dragon.
    • Breath of Fire IV averts this, as there are no humans in the player's party. The protagonist looks like a human but is actually the second half of an ancient dragon god and the others being a wyndian, woren, sentient armor, anthropomorphic dog and a humanoid with kitsune-like features.
  • Carmen Sandiego herself is the only human character in Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego?. Everyone else is a wacky alien of some description.
  • Neo Cortex and the other scientists in Crash Bandicoot, as well as Papu Papu and the villagers from N. Sanity Island (who don't really appear much after the first game).
  • In Cuphead, Captain Brineybeard, Sally Stageplay, and Dr. Kahl are the only human bosses. Notably, none of them have transformations of their own (though Kahl has a giant robot and Brineybeard's ship turns into a monster). Baroness Von Bon Bon looks human, but can detach her head, throw it as a homing projectile and regrow it, and Hilda Berg seemingly starts off as a human before quickly inhaling and transforming into a blimp as the battle starts.
  • BB Hood in Darkstalkers. Strangely enough, despite being the only human in a game full of bona fide monsters, she's arguably the most monstrous one of them all.
  • In Deltarune, Kris is the only human living in the monster town of Hometown.
  • Mike in Drawn to Life. There's a horrible, horrible reason for this.
  • Eradicator, a 1990s FPS with a sci-fi setting, allows you to choose between two characters, the aliens Eleena and Kamchak, and the human Dan Blaze.
  • Possibly the case in Final Fantasy IX. Zidane is a genome, Vivi is a Black Mage, an artificial life form, Garnet is a Summoner, Freya is a Burmecian, Quina is a Qu, and Eiko is a Summoner. Amarant is never said to be non-human, but he has blue skin and rather strange hair, and there are plenty of unnamed but clearly non-human races around in world in the form of NPCs. It's possible that Steiner is the only outright human in the group.
  • The player character in Hatoful Boyfriend, the only human at a school for... sapient birds.
    Yuuya (paraphrased): You stand out like a poppy in a field of rye.
  • The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: The 2nd Scenario route reveals that Nozomi Kirifuji is the only human member of the Special Defense Unit as the rest are actually artificial Human Aliens.
  • Kirby: Ado and Adeleine, a pair of artist girls who aren't native to Dream Land and whose creations can come to life, are the only human characters in the entire series, barring some guest cameos like Mario, Samus, and Yuyuki's Chao. They're possibly the single human character if they're considered the same person, which the developers refuse to clarify. Both of the characters were created by Shinichi Shimomura, a prominent director in the franchise who disappeared after 2002, leading to Adeleine's absence in the series in the 18-year gap between Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby Star Allies.note 
  • Mass Effect 3: depending on your choices earlier in the series, your squad in 3 can potentially consist of only one human besides Shepard, that being James Vega. The other members of the squad are Liara (asari), Tali (quarian), Garrus (turian), EDI (gynoid), and Javik (Prothean). There aren't any new human squadmates in the expansions either: Omega adds Nyreen (turian) and Aria (asari), while Citadel adds Wrex (krogan). You can also do a lot of Mass Effect 2 with the only human on the squad being Shepard if you save all or most of the sidequests for after the Suicide Mission, as you can get any combination of characters on that mission killed (say, all three to five humans dying but all the alien squadmates living) and go on with the game.
  • Mega Man:
    • Dr. Cain in Mega Man X series is one of the very few "living" humans shown in-game.
    • For a franchise where robots and their effect on human society is a major theme, many of the series in the Mega Man franchise are pretty sparse on humans. Mega Man (Classic) only has Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, with Dr. Cossack and Kalinka only playing a major role in a single game, and Mega Man Zero has Ciel and series Big Bad Dr. Weil, though he's barely human by the time he's introduced, though Zero 4 eventually introduces an entire convoy full of humans to the cast.
  • Monster Girl Quest, as its name would suggest, has its cast made up almost entirely of Cute Monster Girls. Even among the non-monster characters, there are more angels than humans. The only human major character is Luka, the main character, and it's eventually revealed that even he isn't an example, being half-angel.
  • Rosario from the the interactive romance novel Moonrise is the only human in a main cast full of werewolves and vampires.
  • While NomnomNami's universe does contain a healthy population of humans, their games feature witches, animal folk, and demons much more prominently. Currently, the only games set in that universe to introduce named human characters are Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet (Syrup is a human, but her best friend Pastille is secretly a witch), Sex Advice Succubus (Chloe is a human girl who became a ghost), and Lonely Wolf Treat (Trick's human master is first brought up in chapter 4, but his name and appearance are not revealed until chapter 8).
  • Rogue is the only (currently) human playable character in Nuclear Throne, with the rest being a bunch of mutants, a robot, an energy being and a Gun God. Since she's human, Rogue needs to wear a gas mask on the bottom half of her face, as the post-apocalyptic atmosphere is apparently toxic to normal humans, as also demonstrated by the I.D.P.D. forces.
  • The only playable humans in Petal Crash's roster are twins Penny & Deony and Guest Fighter The Baz, the rest being a Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
  • Crazy Dave is the only (living) human character to be seen* throughout the Plants vs. Zombies games, though spin-offs introduce a few other human characters.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
    • The player is usually the only human ever mentioned, though you've been transformed into a Pokémon.
    • Averted in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity; other humans turned Pokémon were mentioned but were never interacted with and were only seen as balls of light returning home, having failed the same mission you were summoned for.
    • Subverted in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team. It seems like the protagonist was Gardevoir's abusive trainer however it turns out that it was Gengar.
  • Rayman Legends has a downplayed example. The only human out of the main four heroes is Barbara. As you progress, you'll unlock the ability to play as other characters. They each have their own names and descriptions, but are really just Palette Swaps of the main four. This makes sense for the other three heroes, as they're each a common species in the Glade of Dreams. The same can't be said for Barbara, whose Pallette Swaps are supposedly her siblings, but have the exact same face, body, and voice as her, with only the colors for their hair and skin changed. Meaning Barbara is basically the only human character, as her "sisters" are practically just unlockable outfits.
  • The title character from Sable's Grimoire is one of only two humans at Anadronia Academy during the game. Given that the other human operates with a hefty dose of Fantastic Racism Sable avoids him, preferring to hang out with with his various Cute Monster Girl friends.
  • The Black Baron from Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves appears to be the only human character in the entirety of the Sly Cooper series, which is populated by animals. Although the Baron's face is obscured by a large mustace and aviator goggles, thus making it hard to tell if he is truly human, he otherwise possesses no obviously animalistic features at all (tail, claws, fur, etc). Ultimately averted, as it's revealed that the Black Baron is simply a disguise for Penelope, a mouse who was originally thought to be the Baron's mechanic, meaning the Black Baron was never actually a human.
  • Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog series until Sonic Adventure (except for Witchcart), when many human characters were introduced. However, since Sonic Colors, most Sonic games have been set out of Sonic's world, resulting in Eggman being the only human main character in them.
  • Star Ocean
  • Downplayed in the Super Mario Bros. series, where the only humans we ever usually see being the main cast (Mario, Luigi, Peach, et al), heavily suggesting that they're a minority species in at least the Mushroom Kingdom. This is made even weirder by Super Mario Odyssey seemingly making a distinction between more cartoon-y humans like Mario and more realistic ones like the residents of the Metro Kingdom.
  • While it's implied that the world is inhabited by plenty of humans, the main character from Undertale is the only one we are able to see during the entire game. Not counting the faceless ones that appear on the introduction, the First Child or the human souls.
  • Hakuoro in Utawarerumono is apparently the only human in a world full of beast people. With no memories, he can't even question if this is normal or not, but he has an instinctive reaction of confusion upon seeing people with animal ears and tails. They are, in fact, a hybrid species descended from humanity that supplanted them after humanity... had a bad time. He's also not entirely human anymore either.
    • In the sequels, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth this role is instead taken up by Haku, who again doesn't have any memories but feels out of place. Even more emphasis is placed on his status as an outsider because beast people are much stronger than humans with even their children being as strong as a fit adult male and living twice as long as humans, which he recognizes as being odd. Unlike Hakuoro, he really is just a human and likely the actual real last survivor of humanity. Though it's at least feasible than others remain in stasis, they wouldn't be resistant to the Tatari curse like he is anyway.
  • Village Monsters: The Player Character is the last human in the world after his kind was all but wiped out in a war.
  • Yume Nikki has an implied example of the trope with the player, Madotsuki. She's very nebulous as a character, but definitely looks like a normal human, and there's nothing at all in the game which suggest she isn't one. This is unlike the beings you can meet in the dream world, who are mostly Eldritch Abominations. Out of the exceptions, only four seem to be human, but each one of them reveal one or two traits about themselves which are remarkably un-humanlike:
    • Monoe is a young girl, but her skin is solid white, and if you walk up to her and press the interact button you get a close up view that reveals her eyes to be a creepy, unnatural cresent shape.
    • Similar to Monoe is Monoko, who also looks like a young girl with solid white skin, except her eyes are fully white with no pupils, and using the Stoplight effect near her reveals three additional hands on her body and a gaping maw on her stomach.
    • Mafurako is remarkably more human-like, looking like a normal young girl with her Eyes Out of Sight, who wears winter clothing. However, this isn't her default state. She appears this way only with the Stoplight effect active. Normally, she is completely invisible except for her hat and scarf.
    • Poniko looks like a teenager or young woman with blonde hair that's tied into a ponytail. Every time you interact with the light switch in her room, there's a tiny chance of her turning into a large monster known as Uboa, which looks like a deformed Scream mask with long black hair. It is unknown if this event is an (in)voluntary transformation, or her simply being replaced.
  • Zenless Zone Zero: Zhu Yuan, Yixuan, and Yuzuha are the only playable Agents of the Criminal Investigation Team, Yunkui Summit, and Spook Shack respectively who are human, as every other playable member of these factions is either a Thiren (an individual who's either a Little Bit Beastly or a full-on anthropomorphic animal) or an Intelligent Construct.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Last Chance in Xollywood, Randy is the only human character in the main cast.
  • In Tavern Talk, Archie is the only full-blooded human among the heroes who regularly visit the tavern.

    Web Animation 
  • AstroLOLogy: Out of the entire main cast, Virgo is the only one who isn't Ambiguously Human, based on an animal or mythical creature, or an abstract shape, though she still has no nose or ears.
  • Depending on how you see it, David in Battle for Dream Island. He is a stickman in an Object Show where everyone else is an Animate Inanimate Object of some kind. The series would later introduce a second token human, Dora, in its second season.
  • Vegeta in Ducktalez, as he's the only Human Alien in a Newgrounds cartoon where everyone else in the main cast is a duck.
  • Melancholy Hill from The Gaslight District is the sole human of the show. In this case, it's because she's the Black Blood Prophesized Human born from an angel's egg destined to end the eternal life of the Rotlings and she must keep her humanity a secret or else she'll face death.
  • Downplayed in HFIL. Cell is very clearly not human (even if he does have human DNA from Tien, Krillin, and Gohan), but he is the sole Earthling in HFIL among a cast of aliens and demons. This leads to him getting frusterated with his fellow MCM's habit of tacking "Space" onto the beginning of every concept.
  • From hololive:
    • The first generation of the English branch consists of five women: Calliope Mori, a friendly grim reaper; Kiara Takanashi, a phoenix restauranteur; Ina'nis Ninomae, a Lovecraftian Humanoid Abomination; Gura Gawr, an Atlantean shark girl; and Amelia Watson, a completely human Private Detective (who also happens to be a Time Traveler).
    • Hololive Indonesia's 3rd generation is the first debut group in the company's history to be comprised entirely of humans. Jokes about Zeta being a cat and Kaela being a penguin notwithstanding.
    • The DEV_IS branch is dedicated to singing and musical activities, with the supernatural lore common to the rest of the group de-emphasized. As such, all of its members are human.
  • Homestar Runner: Though Word of God states all of the main characters (save The Cheat) are human (despite the "Dumb Animal Characters" Running Gag), the recurring extra character Crack Stuntman is the only one who really looks like one.
  • Lobo (Webseries) has Darlene, the only human where the rest of the characters are aliens.

    Webcomics 
  • Dr. Man is the only human doctor in Awful Hospital.
  • The Boy Who Fell: Ren is Dragged Off to Hell by a Tentacle Rope, tricked into thinking he's dead and forced to the only human in a deadly tournament with demons to get home. Ren is told that there used to be humans abducted to Lower Hell before it was outlawed and if a demon find's out his true name or species it will end in him getting eaten.
    • Before Ren there was the man known as the last human, who managed to survive multiple demon attacks. He's sadly dead by stories start having been slain by a blood demon but the friendships he had with demons and nondemons still affects the plot, it's one of the reasons Sorian helps Ren on his journey.
  • Furthia High: Not only the sole human in the cast but possibly the sole human in the world.
  • In Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name, Lamont and Worth are basically the only normal humans.
  • Billy the Bell Suit Diver from Squiddles.
  • At first glance, Francis Fennec in Kevin & Kell looks like this, the only human in a world of Funny Animals. The truth is a lot more complicated. In the first place, Francis was born a Funny Animal as well, albeit of indeterminate species, and spontaneously turned human later. And the other thing is, Domain is the parallel dimension of the human world. Francis's mother Danielle originated from there and turned into a Funny Animal when she crossed the portal into Domain. It's strongly implied that, despite genetically being a rabbit, Danielle's origins as a human enabled Francis to become a human. The implications are not lost on Lindesfarne, another former human, who noted in her blog that it's entirely possible the same thing will happen to any children she may have. Thus far, her daughter's a hedgehog-bat hybrid.
  • Hannah Teal of RankAmateur, although Word of God says another human will appear later, a Security Forces operative called Liam Jericho.
  • Tip, token human of Skin Horse, is just as eccentric as his friends, being a Wholesome Crossdresser. Though the rest of the team consists of a transgenic superdog, a crazy zombie, a clockwork killer robot, a swarm of bees, and a helicopter with a human brain in a jar.
  • Emmit the shuttle pilot in Station V3.
  • Tamberlane: The main character, Tamberlane.
  • The adventuring party in The Far Travelers is made up of a variety of oddball species (Such as a Morlock and a Living Shadow), but features Daedr Fiamo'r, the only human, as The Leader
  • In Yokoka's Quest, Grace is the sole fully human member of the cast shown in the world of Cisum until chapter 13, though it was mentioned earlier that many humans lived in the Metals Clan. She is still the only human shown so far to have come directly from Earth.
  • In Zoophobia, Cameron is the only human in a cast of shapeshifting animals and demons.

    Web Original 
  • Critical Role
    • Gunslinger Percy de Rolo is the only human among the half-elven, goliath, dragonborn, and gnomish members of Vox Machina. Taliesin even jokes about this in a Q&A session. During the Slayer's Take quests, in which the party was split into two groups and joined by guest players, Percy briefly loses his token status due to being put on a group with Lyra the human wizardnote . In the other group, guest party member Kashaw the clericnote  is the token human in a group with two half-elves, a dragonborn and a dwarf, and it comes up when he's the only one who can't see in a dark tunnel without extra light.
    • Season 2 has two humans in the Mighty Nein: the wizard Caleb Widogast and the monk Beauregard Lionett. The others are two tieflings, a half-orc, a goblin later transformed into a halfling, and an aasimar, with later additions of a firbolg and a drow.
    • Season 3 has two humans in the form of the party's sorcerers, Imogen and Laudna. However, Laudna is a Hollow One and therefore technically undead, which means that Imogen is the token regular living human, next to the other members of Bell's Hells: a halfling, a faun, an earth genasi, an aeormaton, and a gnome werewolf.

    Western Animation 
  • Jason, Michelle, and Grandmum are the only humans who appear in 3-2-1 Penguins!.
  • 64 Zoo Lane has Lucy as the sole human among a cast of talking animals.
  • There were two in Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Cavin the page and Princess Calla. Also the Big Bad, Duke Igthorn, whose castle is otherwise inhabited by ogres.
  • Adventure Time
    • The show stars Finn the Human, who was long thought be the last real human in the world of strange fantasy/sci-fi creatures (some of which are descended from humans, according to Word of God). The Ice King used to be human, though, while Marceline was originally half human-half demon. Finn later discovers a thriving human society on an island chain far from the mainland of Ooo, where he was originally born. He remains the only true human left on Ooo up into the last episode, when humans immigrate back to Ooo.
    • In the episode "Susan Strong", Finn discovers what he thinks is another surviving tribe of humans living underground, led by an individual named Susan. However, at the end of the episode, they take off their animals and hats and it turns out they were all Fish People. Except for Susan herself, who simply runs away, leaving it ambiguous. Up until the episode "Dark Purple" confirms that, yes, Susan is the only actual human among the "Hyoomans".
  • Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force...who interestingly enough is the neighbor of the Aqua Teens.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Most characters are Funny Animals, Animate Inanimate Objects or humanoid Cartoon Creatures, but there's a few exceptions (mostly, live-action humans seen in photos or videos). Some notable ones:
    • Carlton and Troy look (and act) like they're from some crappy '80s cartoon. As does everyone at Richwood High, actually — the crowd at their school stadium is a Faceless Mass of flat cutouts of people.
      Gumball: How do they clap without moving?
    • Kip the news reporter is a human in most of his appearances. However, when he got his own episode all about his news program, two versions of it were made — one with human actors, and one where everyone was some sort of puppet (in Kip's case, a humanoid newspaper). The "human version" only aired in Latin America and Africa.
  • Amphibia has Anne, Sasha and Marcy in the titular world, populated with anthropomorphic frogs and various beasts.
  • Babar has Madame, Babar's mentor and friend from the human world, moving into Celesteville and becoming a permanent resident and only recurrent human character.
  • Blaze and the Monster Machines has AJ, the titular character's driver, and Gabby, the mechanic.
  • The Bubble Guppies are the only merpeople in a city of entirely sea creatures.
  • In Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Buzz is Ambiguously Human (the top of his head is never uncovered and his planet of origin never revealed), but his three teammates are clearly not human at all.
  • Camp Lazlo has Santa Claus as a human man in a World of Funny Animals. His elves also look like humans but elves are not human.
  • Chowder has the Author Avatar.
  • Ranger Woodlore from the Classic Disney Shorts.
  • Danny Phantom: Although humans exist and some of them fight ghosts, they do so because they consider ghosts a threat to society. Freakshow is the only human character to be a genuine villain who uses humans and ghosts in his evil schemes.
  • During the Grand Finale of DuckTales (2017), it's revealed that Violet is the only one of her immediate circle of friends to be an ordinary Funny Animal. Her adoptive older sister Lena has been known to be a Living Shadow since the season 1 finale while their mutual best friend Webby turns out to be an Opposite-Sex Clone of Scrooge.
  • Elliott from Earth has the titular character and his mother living on an intergalactic alien space station.
  • Mac, Frankie, and Madame Foster are the only three humans who frequent Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Goo shows up occasionally.
  • According to this, Carbunkelnote  in the Franklin's Big Adventure stage show is human, making her the only human ever seen anywhere in the Franklin franchise, which consists of a wide range of books, two TV shows and several films.
  • Doyle and Aimee are the only human students in Galaxy High School.
  • Elisa from Gargoyles, for a time, until other human characters become engraved in the story.
  • Professor Schneider in Gravedale High is the only human in an All-Ghouls School. This makes him victim of Fantastic Racism from at least one other member of the faculty (Coach Cadaver), though his students and most other fellow professors come to accept him. His characters is esentially an avatar of his voice actor Rick Moranis.
  • The titular character of Jimmy Two-Shoes. The only other human shaped character is Heloise, and the fandom wonders...
  • Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Wolf turns out to be a deconstruction. She was briefly the sole human of a wolf pack and thought she truly belonged there... but it turns out she was only taken in so she could be a proper test of the cubs' hunting skills.
  • Blythe Baxter from Littlest Pet Shop (2012).
  • Eddie in Lloyd in Space is a human among aliens in an outer space community and is treated no differently due to the Melting Pot Sci-Fi Setting.
  • Mamemo: Mamemo is the only human character in the entire show, since all the other characters are anthropomorphic cows.
  • My Gym Partner's a Monkey: Thanks to a clerical error involving a misspelled surname, Adam Lyon ends up attending a school filled with Funny Animals / Talking Animals.
  • Megan's the only human around for miles in My Little Pony, and even lives in Another Dimension. In My Little Pony 'n Friends, two other humans from her world were added, Molly and Danny.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic largely averts this:
    • Humans themselves have been alluded to (such as with Groucho Glasses), but the show's producer even went on record stating that humans will never be put in the show. Of course, turning the ponies into humans, and having them travel to a "human universe" is entirely different - especially since those are the movies (and later web series), not the show.
    • Sandbar fits the spirit of this, being the token pony of the "Student Six" alongside a changeling, a yak, a dragon, a griffon, and a seapony/hippogriff.
    • After King Sombra's destruction in the Season 9 premiere, Cozy Glow serves as an Evil Counterpart of this to Sandbar above, but for Grogar's Legion of Doom; Her co-conspirators include a magically powerful blue ram, an unreformed changeling queen, and a magic-absorbing centaur.
  • The OWCA Files stars a team of Animal Superheroes consisting of a platypus, a macaw, a cat, a hyena, and a human who was raised by ocelots in his youth.
  • The Owl House has Luz, though outside the Pointy Ears and having an organ that lets them perform magic, most of the show's cast is effectively just as human as she is. It later turns out that there were no less than four other partially human characters already present before she got to the Demon Realm (with Emperor Belos being a Transhuman Abomination and the Clawthorne family being distant descendants of his older brother), though Luz remains the only actual human on the Isles until her mother arrives in the penultimate episode.
  • PAW Patrol: The titular team consists entirely of dogs and exactly one human.
  • The forest ranger and his family in The Raccoons, who were the original owners of Broo, though not long after the humans were phased out entirely. Though since they never actually interacted with the anthropomorphic animals they may not count for this trope.
  • Pocoyo: Pocoyo is the only human until meeting Nina in season 4.
  • In Possible Possum, the only recurring human character is Mr. General, proprietor of the General Store.
  • Rayman: The Animated Series has Betina, the only human in the whole show.
  • Although not the token human among the main set of characters, Margaret's father among her family in Regular Show.
  • Smiling Friends: When it comes to the titular business, the four main workers are all colorful Cartoon Creatures, while their boss, Mr. Boss, is a middle-aged man.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (not counting the human characters in The Movie). Why are they the size of fish? Well, Mermaid Man has a shrink ray, doesn't he?
    • Played with regarding The Flying Dutchman. He’s a ghost pirate, but still largely humanoid.
  • Steven Universe:
    • Connie Maheswaran and Steven's dad Greg are the only full humans that regularly associate with the Crystal Gems, with Connie eventually becoming an actual member of the team. Ronaldo Fryman briefly joined the group under the alias of Bloodstone, though he eventually quit, thinking that he's better off on his own.
    • Circumstances eventually cause Lars Barriga to join a group of outcast Homeworld gems trying to make their way to Earth, though by this point Lars's biology wasn't entirely human.
  • Chiro from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! is the only human member of the Hyperforce.
  • Lampshaded in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) when Fishface mockingly calls Casey Jones the team's "obligatory human." In the show proper it was played straightest in season 1, where April was the main human on the side of good. That said, April turns out to be a sort of Half-Human Hybrid, so Casey really is the only ordinary human on the team. Incidentally this has happened with the Foot Clan as the show went on. Many members were mutated, either as punishment by Shredder or as part of an accident, over the course of the show; Tiger Claw was mutated years before he even joined the Foot; and the main foot soldiers are robots. It's implied most lower members quit or were abandoned once the robots became common. As of Karai's mutation, Shredder is the only human left. And even he gets mutated in the end.
  • Robin is the only vanilla human member of the Teen Titans (2003). Cyborg and Beast Boy started as humans, but nowadays the former is, well, a cyborg and the latter is a green-skinned shapeshifting mutant. Raven is half-human, half demon lord, and Starfire is a flat-out alien.
  • In Toot & Puddle Christmas Special I'll Be Home for Christmas, the character who appears to be Santa Claus has his face mostly covered by a scarf. Nevertheless, what little can be seen of it appears human, which would make him the only human character ever seen in any incarnation of the series. The franchise is otherwise a World of Funny Animals and the main characters are anthropomorphic pigs.
  • Transformers always have a couple of these, at least in stories set on Earth:
  • Uncle Grandpa is the only human on the RV, though most of the kids he helps are also humans.
  • We Bare Bears: Chloe Park was this of the primary cast until Lucy and Ranger Tabes joined them. The bears interact with humans on a very regular basis, though.

 
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The "Gardener's" of the Galaxy

The still nascent Guardian's find themselves in the custody of Nova Corp where their pasts are read out from a not quite accurate profile.

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Establishing Character Moment

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The "Gardener's" of the Galaxy

The still nascent Guardian's find themselves in the custody of Nova Corp where their pasts are read out from a not quite accurate profile.

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The "Gardener's...

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