The Hero is, in the beginning, just a normal kid (or at least relatively normal, anyway). However, this character has a powerful destiny, completely unaware of the role they will play in the grand scheme of things. Someone has to break the news, and turn this Muggle into the hero they're meant to be. And that someone is... a talking cat?
Part Talking Animal and part enlightened teacher, the mentor mascot plays the dual role of teaching the protagonist about their destiny and powers, while at the same time adding that little bit of comic relief and cuteness. Even so, the Mentor Mascot takes their job seriously, and tends to accompany The Hero everywhere just in case the Mooks or the Quirky Miniboss Squad show up.
In a show (or other medium) where the Masquerade is of significant importance, the Mentor Mascot will simultaneously be the strictest enforcer and the greatest threat to said facade, since talking animals are usually not normal. This can usually be solved with pretending to be a stuffed animal — after all, Girls Love Stuffed Animals — but will still be used for comedic effect at times, especially if the mascot is mentoring a grown man.
Oftentimes, the mentor is an Old Master who was cursed into a helpless form, serving as a very good justification for why they're shepherding the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits instead of using their great knowledge and power to save the world on their own.
Generally an anime and manga trope (especially common in Magical Girl anime) but still present in other media. In Magical Girl shows, this critter is usually the one who initially gives the girl her powers, and is known as a companion, familiar, or fairy.
Examples
- Sailor Moon, in the guises of Luna and Artemis, also their daughter Diana. In the Manga it is revealed that Rei's crow pets Phobos and Deimos play a similar role.
- Kerberos from Cardcaptor Sakura, a.k.a. the glutton-stuffed animal who is also Sakura's most faithful guide in capturing the Clow Cards. While his gluttony and eccentric behavior can sometimes cause conflict between him and Sakura, he still gives her good advice and will come through for her more often than not.
- Paya-tan from Magical Witch Punie-chan is certainly an adorable mascot, most of the time, but wait till he gets into his "Colonel Paya Livingston" persona.
- Chamo from Negima! Magister Negi Magi is more of a Dirty Old Man in ermine form. He does a bit of mentoring about a particular aspect of the local magic system (a special form of partnership), but mostly so he can collect a hefty paycheck from somewhere or other every time Negi gets a partner.
- Ryo-Ohki in Pretty Sammy and Magical Project S.
- Yuuno from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is a mage boy posing as a telepathic ferret in order to keep things normal. Nanoha quickly outpaces him in power.
- Yoruichi from Bleach, in the early-but-not-the-beginning episodes, she had a very masculine voice in the form of a cat, and in that the rest of the group mistakenly assumed that she was a male. She was grouchy and uncommunicative and seemed to be something of parody of Luna from Sailor Moon.
- Every Pretty Cure series has at least one.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure: Mipple and Mepple.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Flappy and Choppy.
- Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Coco and Nuts (more Coco).
- Fresh Pretty Cure!: Tarte.
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Chypre and Coffret.
- Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Hummy.
- Smile Pretty Cure!: Candy and Pop.
- Doki Doki! PreCure: Sharuru, Raquel, Lance and Davie.
- HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Ribbon and Glasan, the former of whom provides the page image.
- Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Puff and Aroma.
- Maho Girls Pretty Cure!: Mofurun.
- KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Pekorin.
- HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Hariham Harry.
- Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Prunce.
- Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Rabirin, Pegitan, and Nyatoran.
- Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: Laura, who is uniquely not a Talking Animal but instead a mermaid.
- Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Kome-Kome, Pam-Pam, and Mem-Mem (primarily the latter two).
- There's also the cat from Shaman King, Matamune, though he only shows up in a flashback VERY late in the series.
- Arks and Karks, a duck and a cat from Moetan fill this role, when not otherwise distracted
- Each Knight in The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer gets an animal. The male lead gets the lizard.
- A less obvious example, but at the end of the manga, Mokona from Magic Knight Rayearth turns out to have been God all along.
- The Suicide Plushies in Kämpfer.
- Ninufa from Kiss of the Rose Princess is both extremely creepy and cute. Can also shift into an enormous black dragon when distressed.
- Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. He is the one who delivers the call to regular teenage girls to become magical girls who must fight witches and save the universe. He also gives them one wish and plenty of advice. However he has a habit of withholding crucial information from his charges, along with wording things in misleading ways and his motives for creating and mentoring magical girls are... amoral. He turns them into witches to be used as disposable energy generators to prevent entropy. Homura implies he's a straighter example in the Alternate Universe created in the Grand Finale, but...
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, he actually turns out have gotten worse: he's the movie's openly malevolent Big Bad due to his interest in restoring the Witch System, making him an even bigger inversion.
- Nubo and Cato from Hana no Ko Lunlun, a dog and cat duo who are actually fairies in disguise.
- Topo from Magical Emi, the Magic Star.
- The alien kittens Posi and Nega from Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel.
- The dinosaur plushies Mogu and Pigu from Fancy Lala.
- The trio of kappas from Persia, the Magic Fairy.
- Koyemushi from Bokurano wants you to think he's one of these. He is not.
- The President from Wish Upon the Pleiades is a cute blob-shaped alien who serves this role.
- Panda-bu from Sweet Valerian is a small round panda-creature who actually tricks the heroines into becoming Magical Girls.
- Reborn from Reborn! (2004) definitely applies for this, as he is a cute killer stuck in a baby form asked to transform Tsuna in a decent mafia capo.
- Professor Kejiro Isshiki in Vividred Operation started out as a human, but became one after transporting his self into an otter doll. He still provides assistance to Akane, just now in a form more suited to the magical girl nature of the series.
- Madara in Natsume's Book of Friends usually occupies the form of a fat old cat and goes by 'Nyanko-sensei.' He's officially more of a bodyguard than a mentor, and is generally agreed to be an ugly alcoholic greedyguts of a feline, but manages to guide, support, and be adorable anyway.
- Fuu-chan of Otasuke Miko Miko-chan is this to the latest Miko-chan alongside being her manager.
- Wombat (a pink wombat) and Zundar (a green hedgehog) from Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, the former for the good guys, the latter for the bad guys. Both are alien creatures who physically look like unusually colored terran animals. Averted in that Wombat doesn't really deliver the call but he directs it (by controlling the Defense Club). Also averted in that Zundar made the Caerula Adamas believe that they were using powers that he'd given them to create the Monster of the Week.
- In Lady Jewelpet, each lady-in-training gets a Jewelpet that's tasked with helping them through their apprenticeship. They're even called Mentors in-universe.
- Amanojaku in Ghost Stories is a demon trapped inside a cat who serves as a Snarky Non-Human Sidekick, Trickster Mentor, and Token Evil Teammate to the kids. Compare with Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
- Phantom Thief Jeanne has Finn Fish, a pint-sized angel who was the one to give Maron her Mission from God and the ability to transform into Jeanne, and who also becomes an honorary family member to her in light of her Parental Abandonment. She has an Evil Counterpart, Access, who provides similar services for Jeanne's rival Sinbad. Too bad Finn is actually a Fallen Angel working for the Devil who's been using Maron as an Unwitting Pawn the entire time, with her betrayal meant to be the final step in sending Maron over the Despair Event Horizon. Access and Sinbad were the actual ones on a Mission from God.
- In Empowered, magical girl parody character El Soldado de Amor has an animal mentor called Señor Pangolin, who is a pangolin.
- Smaug plays this role to Bilbo (albeit for selfish reasons) in I'll Make a Dwarf out of You! — appropriate, since it is a fanmake of Mulan.
- Helios serves as this to Mamoru in the Cardinal King series.
- I Can't Be a Magical Girl!! You, a Magical Girl, Say: Played with - Handyman serves as Izuku's mentor, but instead of being a cute animal, he's a watch who also serves as a Transformation Trinket.
- In Quirk: Magical Girl Mascot, Izuku's quirk causes him to turn into a talking animal and turn anyone he bonds with into a Magical Girl, as well as giving him a copy of their quirk.
- Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service
- Mulan has Mushu, a tiny, wisecracking Chinese dragon as her guide.
- Star Wars: Yoda plays this role in the original trilogy, where he was this manic muppet hiding in a swamp and mostly just provided a training montage.
- Arguably, Fin Raizel from Willow. She's a powerful sorceress who spends much of the movie in the form of a possum (not to mention a raven and a goat).
- Bob the Skull in The Dresden Files doesn't teach Harry magic, but he does (snarkily) exposit on spells and creatures Harry is unfamiliar with, and helps him design magic items. In exchange for romance novels and "out time". Unlike most mascots he usually stays in Harry's magically-warded apartment, since numerous villains would want to kidnap him for his knowledge if they knew he existed.
- Interestingly, the version of Bob in the TV adaptation did teach Harry magic and fits the "Old Master cursed into helpless form" trope, but that Bob takes human form whenever he needs to speak.
- The title character in Reserved for the Cat is the heroine's father, transformed into a cat by an evil sorceress. Although his magical abilities in feline form are limited, he does what he can to help her.
- The Toad in The Wee Free Men ("I'm not a familiar, I'm just slightly presumptuous.") helps Tiffany understand the worlds of witchcraft, Feegles and elves.
- Race to the Sun has Mr Yazzie, who is a horned toad and used to be a stuffed toy that Nizhoni bought in a museum. Justified, as in Navajo culture, horned toads are believed to be helpful to people.
- In addition to the aforementioned Yoda, the Star Wars Legends series Junior Jedi Knights introduced Ikrit, a Jedi Master who resembled a small furry long-eared quadripedal animal and acted as the Team Pet for Anakin Solo as much as he provided guidance. He would go on to play an important role in the New Jedi Order series, and despite looking uncannily similar predated Kyubey by a whole 17 years.
- Nowhere Stars: Keepers are conferred their powers by [[Messengers]], spirit beings that exist for the purpose. Even though only their Keepers can see them, a few have made art to show what theirs look like, resulting in a wave of toys and plushies based on them. Supposedly their are six of them in total, each of them with multiple Keepers they are responsible for, with Liadain's Messenger, Vyuji, resembling a humanoid dolphin girl the size of a small child. Messengers apparently view their Keepers as their "children" but how they deal with them varies from one to another.
- Some Super Sentai series feature this type of character. Most of the time, these characters will not be adapted into Power Rangers as they kind of feel out of place with the tone Power Rangers is setting.
- In the first episode of Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, sensei Mugensai Hinata shapeshifts into a hamster to escape the initial attack of the villains. He forgets the spell to turn him back into a human, however and stays as a hamster for almost the entire series. Nonetheless, he is still the team's mentor, and still a master ninja - just very, very small. The same goes for his American counterpart in Power Rangers Ninja Storm, who instead involuntarily gets turned into a guinea pig by the villains.
- Mandora Boy in Mahou Sentai Magiranger. He educates the Ozu kids about their powers through song in light of their parents being absent, and provides additional info on the show's spells in a bonus segment.
- Bomper in Engine Sentai Go-onger is the closest thing the team has to a mentor. He's also a small, pink robot.
- Datas from Tensou Sentai Goseiger might be a large arcade machine, but still acts as cute and comical as one would expect from a Mascot Mentor. He is sent as a replacement mentor to the Goseigers, as Master Head, the real mentor of the team, is unable to reach them. Contrary to most depictions of this trope, Datas is able to fight alongside the team by assuming a Humongous Mecha form.
- Kamen Rider
- Kivat Bat the Third from Kamen Rider Kiva combines this trope with Transformation Trinket. He is the partner to Wataru and gives him tips on how to fight his enemies, as well as activate new forms and abilities for him.
- Mr. Belt from Kamen Rider Drive, though rather than a Talking Animal he's a Talking Belt, which doubles as Drive's Transformation Trinket. Otherwise he fits the trope's description quite well, especially the "Old Master turned helpless" part, since he was the inventor of the Drive System, who transferred his consciousness into the belt when he was killed by the Roidmudes.
- Yurusen in Kamen Rider Ghost. Ironically, the final episode reveals that his real form is an ordinary housecat.
- Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a Token Evil Teammate mentor to Sabrina, whose advice varies between good and bad depending on the episode.
- The Chosen One archetype for Paladins in Pathfinder features these heavily. A young Lawful Good person is chosen by a god or goddess to take up the mantle of a Paladin, and are sent a divine emissary that his been reduced to a level-appropriate small animal to guide them and assist them in combat. Eventually they'll be able to shed the tiny animal form and revert to their true selves.
- The Magical Child archetype for the vigilante class comes with a small animal that can transform into a magical creature of the players choice and even change back into a normal animal to disguise themselves.
- Princess: The Hopeful, being a Magical Girl game set in the New World of Darkness setting, naturally has the rules for this kind of set up, drawing on the people within the dream world. Interestingly enough, they don't come to guide the awakened Nobles but instead will come at their call if suitable preparations are set up. Also, they tend to have minor vices like a massive Sweet Tooth in regards to their state as spirits now with a physical form.
- Jubei to Ragna in BlazBlue.
- Ghost is this to the player in Destiny. Granted he's a robot instead of a lil' animal (abit a magical robot), but he's still a textbook example of a mentor/exposition giver that follows the player and guides then through their quests (which usually involve him being a glorified door key.)
- The Owl Sage in My World, My Way. Doesn't follow Elise constantly, but keeps showing up to give her advice.
- The cat in the fangame Memories of Mana.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The owl in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
- Another owl, Kaepora Gaebora, appears in other entries in the series, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
- Persona:
- Teddie starts as this in Persona 4 since he's a cute teddy mascot who's the only character who starts off understanding anything about the TV World, even if he's just as clueless as everyone else about who the killer is. However, as the other heroes begin figuring things out themselves, he eventually becomes a subversion as he begins to question just what exactly he himself is.
- Morgana in Persona 5 is a fairly straight example, being a cat who understands the Palace better then anyone else in the group and the one who leads them into becoming the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. He also does this on a more personal level for the main character, offering him advice in his everyday life whilst accompanying him everywhere in his tote bag. It's revealed near the end that Igor created Morgana specifically to guide the heroes.
- Straynap, the mentor / Exposition Fairy of the Sega Dreamcast Action-RPG Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream, is an odd sort of flower-fairy creature. Despite his appearance, he knows all there is to know about the Dream Land in which the game is set.
- Azurda Xenoblade Chronicles 2, though he doesn't start out this way. Originally a dragon-like Titan the protagonist lived on and affectionately called "Gramps", he is "killed" during the prologue and regressed to his larval form, taking on this role for the rest of the game.
- Omnis from I=MGCM is essentially one of these in Remote Body form. His true name is Tobio Hakari, a guy who got transported to the White Room minus his memories after a very strange happening that he has no damned clue about. He is often as in the dark about what the hell is going on as the girls he's charged with turning into Magical Girls and commanding against the demons seeking to devour people, and has to rely on the strange being known as Kamisaman for answers. Like all Executors, he also has the ability to create and merge alternate realities, which he only discovers after one of the Magical Girls under his command dies horribly and turns into a demon, sending him into a "Groundhog Day" Loop to try to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Flipnote Warrior: Ugo is a spirit of the Flipnote who lives inside Nintendo 3DS and looks like a frog. He also acts as Mome's guardian and teacher.
- Megatokyo: Boo is something of a subversion in that he really does try his best to help Largo, but unlike most of the other examples on this list he has something of a language barrier to overcome. In effect, Boo ends up just squeaking while Largo goes off and causes havoc. It seems that Erika can understand Boo just fine, implying that his ineffectiveness is less due to a language barrier and more to do with Largo being a hyperactive Cloudcuckoolander who doesn't listen to anyone's advice if he doesn't need to.
- Miya from Angel Moxie is a sendup of Luna from Sailor Moon, but is a good deal snarkier. Then there's the whole really-a-Cat Girl and exchanging her life for Alex's thing.
- Magical Mom: Mr. Shogun provided aid to Pailin during her heyday as Magical Luvli. Years later, he is now teaching her son Sara how to be a magical boy.
- Hermod from Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki, though less qualified than some of the others on this list.
- Carl from Soul Symphony is this. He's a mystical spirit who looks like "a cross between a rat and a kangaroo", and while he is very wise in the workings of magic, he's not the most helpful mentor.
- In Hi to Tsuki to Hoshi no Tama, Tipko recruits three magical girls, supplies their first bead, and instructs them in its use and many other things.
- Spiders from Princess Chroma. Shame his advice is rarely ever taken to heart. He's also the number-one victim of slapstick and humiliation.
- A downplayed example in Girl Genius: Krosp I (a talking cat) is Agatha's political adviser, but she learns combat from someone else, and doesn't need teaching in the field of mad science.
- Mechagical Girl Lisa ANT: Io. Alien engineer, in the form of a cute doll-size ant-person.
- Kakkikomy-kun from Kakikomi Magical Girls is a penguin-looking Non-Human Sidekick. He helps Shiori as a Magical Girl.
- Dusty from Sailor Nothing plays this role. He was a normal cat who was made into a magical Uplifted Animal after Himei became a Magical Girl. However, Dusty's know-how only goes so far.
- Played straight and played with in Magical Girl Hunters. The animals in question are almost always outlandishly colored. In case of mass empowerment, a crate full of baby chicks was used. In another case, Sailor H's turn to homicidal mania was prefixed by her animal companion, a purple raccoon, developing rabies.
- The Recruiters from Lambda. Given the nature of the setting, it's only natural to have so many of these Ridiculously Cute Critters running around and serving as walking army recruitment posters.
- Kunapipi, of Magical Girl Policy, is not a Kangaroo Rat, but in fact a Wallaby working for Fate.
- In The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, June's dog Monroe is her Mentor Mascot, assisting her Ah-Mah.
- The entire Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! is this to Chiro, but Antauri in particular.
- American Dragon: Jake Long has Fu Dog, who is sort of a beta Mentor to Jake, after his Grandfather.
- Nibbler from Futurama turns out to be this. In this case, however, he pretends to be a normal animal until events make talking necessary; it's only in the last two seasons that he speaks regularly.
- In Miraculous Ladybug they're called Kwamis, little fairy things that resemble various animals. Each Miraculous has a Kwami that flies inside of it when its bearer transforms; otherwise they offer advice. The main ones are Tikki (Ladybug) and Plagg (Cat Noir), though it's eventually revealed that there are more: Nooroo (butterfly), Trixx (fox), Wayzz (turtle), Duusu (peacock), Pollen (bee) and twelve others based on the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
- Miraculous World: New York - United HeroeZ reveals that there are more Miracle Boxes in existence, and with each, a new set of Miraculous and kwamis, including Liiri, the eagle kwami.
- The My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Spike from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a dragon that was turned into a dog. While this world's Spike is a dog that gained the ability to talk from Equestrian magic.