I mentioned facefaults in a previous post, which are more likely to be seen in anime and manga, than in Western cartoons. That’s not to say that cartoons don’t have them, but anime seems to have a wider variety and uses them across the board to depict standard emotions / scenes / wotnots – regardless of who the anime is actually made by. So, bearing in mind that I’m really a kind of facts and figures and useless trivia kind of guy, I thought I’ve have a scrounge around and see just how many variations on the theme I could find. (Ok, and it was also a fun excuse to trawl through my collection looking for examples. That’s another reason why this took so long – I’d often end up watching 3 or 4 episodes of something I hadn’t watched for ages…)
One day you might get deep and meaningful reviews out of me and I might blather on about artwork and such, but until the rest of the world realises that Picasso was a fraud and anybody who bought his work was a sucker, I’ll remain an artistic philistine and stick to facts and figures and useless trivia.
A facefault is property of cartoon physics (cartoon physics – what a lovely phrase and one worthy of a blog posting on its own methinks… one day… one day), usually limited to comedy anime. Whilst at first glance it should refer to any exaggerated facial expressions, the terms covers the broader spectrum and can be seen as the anime equivalent of “wild takes” which are seen in many American cartoons, and in actual fact the term facefault refers to a character literally falling (normally) face-first to the ground as a result of, or conclusion to, a joke. I suppose in many ways, it’s anime’s answer to the pratfall made famous by people like Fatty Arbuckle.
Oh, I should mention that although I am looking at the various facefaults in isolation below,
they can easily be combined in various permutations, depending on the situation and the emotions the character wants to express at the time. For example, here we see multiple sweat drops, shocked eyes, blushing, slight super-deformation and blowing off steam (yes, she’s rather annoyed at this point…)
Common examples of facefaults
Facefault: As mentioned, a character falling over (usually flat on their face or back, sometimes with their legs sticking up in the air as the only part of them visible on-screen) with a loud thud or crash, as a result of another character saying something anticlimactic or stupid.
A super deformed face, which normally includes the disappearance of the nose, the oversimplification of the eyes, and a mouth bearing a simple triangular shape showing either no teeth (red) or all teeth (white). This is often included with other forms of facefaults and as you can see, can occur alongside perfectly normal looking characters.
Giant sweat drop: May indicate a response to a stupid or insane action or spoken line. It can also indicate nervousness, especially when a character is asked a question they doesn’t want to answer. The sweat drop generally forms above the head and slides down until it largely overlaps the head. Multiple smaller sweatdrops may indicate nervousness or fear.
U-shaped closed eyes: When rightside-up, can often indicate calm, exasperation, shame, or irritation. When upside-down, it indicates joy, nervousness, or pride, but sometimes also indicates irritation. The shape can also be over-exaggerated depending on the level of their emotion and the U’s can switch direction in a millisecond.
Nosebleeds: Indicates lust (based on a Japanese old wives’ tale that a boy would get a nosebleed if he stared at a pretty girl), or seeing someone in the nude (which is usually tastefully covered either by steam or similar in anime, to escape the censors’ wrath). In rare occasions, it can be reversed to a girl getting a nose bleed, but I’ve only seen this happen once so far, so maybe the myths are true…
Normal eyes replaced with circular white eyes (usually with a black outline): Indicates surprise, shock, vacancy, a lack of intelligence or an instance where the character is “struck dumb”. It can also mean extreme pain.
Shock and dismay can be depicted in a number of ways. Either, the character adopts a “The Scream” pose, indicating fear or great anguish, or turns into a cracked stone statue or a sand pillar (having part of the body being blown away), indicating great emotional shock. Another way of showing this, is having the character suddenly become monochrome, normally against a black background. Here’s examples of each:
Blushing of the cheeks or a red, blue, or purple bar across the nose: Indicates embarrassment, love or sometimes even a sense of fear. Blushing is also commonly used to depict drunkenness, spreading across the cheeks and nose, as opposed to Western cartoons, which generally use a bloodshot nose to indicate a character is drunk..
Spirals replacing the eyes indicate that the character is under hypnosis, using hypnosis, or subconsciously attracted towards something as though they were hypnotized. Alternatively, spiraled eyes could indicate that the character is unconscious, but usually after a more trivial or comedic fight rather than a major battle. These are also used if the character is dizzy.
The character’s upper face (from the eyes up) is blacked out. This shadow usually indicates serious sadness or shyness, as well as general irritation. Hair can be used for the same purpose and may be accompanied with the shadow. However, without the shadow, hair slightly covers the face but no eyes are visible behind it, where they should be. Hats or other head wear can be used for the same purpose and may be accompanied with the shadow. Glasses can serve a similar purpose, but they deserve an entry on their own.
Auras have nothing to do with hippy mumbo-jumbo but are used to give us an indication
of how a character is feeling, or the direction their thoughts are taking, even though their physical appearance might be totally different. Colours normally range from pink for happy, through to blue for depressed to black for… well… plain evil I guess… as we see when the cute Miyamiya suddenly reveals her sadistic streak…
One that’s really common to anime and cartoons, is the character’s jaw dropping all the
way down to the floor. Another version of this is when the jaw is detached from the head and falls downs as a separate object after dangling. This can also be accompanied by the eyes standing out on stalks. It’s typically used to express shock or disbelief at something that’s just been said or done.
Pulsating veins form a cross somewhere on the head – usually the forehead. These indicate anger, rage or irritation. If viewed from behind, veins can be viewed through hair, no matter how thick.
Large shining eyes are a dead give away that the character is excited. Actually, n
ot only is she excited, but she’s about to go into hyper-cute (moe) mode too… however, if the shiny bits become fully-fledged flames, then we’re talking immense passion… normally accompanied by flames in the background and a cowering man somewhere nearby.
It’s important to remember that comic anime characters don’t cry – they unleash rivers of tears, usually forming a solid white or blue stripe down their cheeks. Balls of tears also appear occasionally, either dandling from the eyes on what looks like string, or forming in the corners.
Horizontal lines sitting on the top of simplified pupils would indicate an unimpressed character. It is a look also accompanied by sarcasm or stating enlightening information to otherwise oblivious characters. Body posture is often slouched by the character in question.
A large bubble coming out of the nose of the character indicates sleep (from boredom or exhaustion for example). Female characters are almost never shown with nose bubbles, but here’s one anyway, just to mess with that stereotype. It’s also fairly common for sleeping characters to drool…
A little white spirit flowing out out from the mouth of the character normally indicates they are in a state of deep shock, or extreme fear.
Sighs are accompanied by a small, white (mushroom-shaped?) cloud, regardless if the sigh is for relief, boredom, happiness or frustration.
Eating anime curry might not be a good thing. When eating some spicy food, a character’s face turns entirely red. They even occasionally breathe fire and normally end up with burnt, swollen lips. Bunch of wimps…
Then we get glasses. They do serve a function other than to satisfy everybody with a meganekko fetish. When the lenses turn opaque, they generally serve the same function as the shadow over the eyes mentioned above, i.e. the character is annoyed, irritated, embarrassed, etc. However, as we can see from the example, they can also indicate when a character is feeling mischievous or is hatching a plan. Moments like this are generally accompanied by a glint of light on the glasses themselves, much like a villian’s eyes would have an evil glint to them.
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If a character shakes their arms with their hands closed in fists, and they are shown as multiple flesh-coloured balls with motion lines and no arms, they’re invariably irritated, impatient, confused or have completely lost control, a common occurrence where Tomo-chan is involved…
A character’s head may become giant in relation to their surroundings as they scream at, or accuse another character. If an argument ensues, the characters will normally swap giant heads as each has their say.
Ok, that’s it for now. I know there’s some I’ve left out, but this should be a fairly comprehensive list. Besides, I’ve become less and less motivated to carry on with this, the more I do of it. Maybe if somebody begs nicely…
Oh ok, here’s a new one for the collection – a nose that grows. I hadn’t come across this until recently, then as luck would have it, I see it twice in the space of a week in 2 vastly different anime – Lucky Star and as shown here, in Hidmari Sketch x365. Strange thing is, most of us Westerners are probably used to thinking of this as somebody telling a lie, thanks to Pinnochio. However, in anime it seems to convey a sense of accomplishment, or pride, or even boasting. Very odd… will have to find out what the story behind that is…
If you’re really curious, the images are taken from the following anime (in order of appearance): Today in Class 5-2, Doujin Work, Clannad, Aria – Originations, Sketchbook, Moyashimon, Ouran High School Host Club, True Tears, Binchou-tan, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, Bamboo Blade, He is My Master, High School Girls, Hayate the Combat Butler and Azumanga Daioh.
