History ComicBook / LesNombrils

* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Karine accuses Vicky of not knowing what it is like to fall in love. [[spoiler:Turns out Karine was right, [[RightForTheWrongReasons if not correct on the reason.]]]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: All the members of Albin and the Albinos have this to some extent, as the band consists of people who have been victims in the past.

* TheBore: James is not that bad a guy, really, but he has ''zero'' personality. His only interests are blockbusters, Top 50 music and fiscalization (like his daddy). It doesn't help that [[ArmoredCloset Vicky]] isn't even as attracted to his good looks as she'd like to be.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Jenny may have some kind of learning disability or she could just be stupid. She does occasionally make some clever observations.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Karine, Vicky and Jenny form this trio.

* ChildrenRaiseYou: Between the mother being TheAlcoholic the older sister bordering on TooDumbToLive, and the brother being a toddler, Jenny's little sister is the only mature one, and the one who keeps the household afloat.
* ChivalrousPervert: Gary, the drummer for Albin and the Albinos, is perfectly open about at least partly having gone into music because it was a good way of scoring with a lot of girls. Unlike 90% of the male characters in the comic, though, he's amiable, respectful and, yes, even chivalrous.

* FormerlyFat: Vicky, according to her sister.

* HateSink: Jenny's RichBitch parents. Not even losing all their fortune deprives them of their repellent, self-satisfied and bigoted attitude.
** Mégane's parents and brother are just as bad, if not worse.

* ParentalFavoritism: Vicky's parents have favored her older sister for years, going as far as leaving Vicky at French camp every summer where she was bullied even after losing weight and getting a makeover, and taking her sister with them on their extravagant vacations. Vicky's sister doesn't treat her well and her parents do little to deal with it. Things come to a head when their mother tries to give Vicky's sister a necklace she inherited after she gets into a relationship with their equally affluent neighbor's son. [[spoiler: When it turns out that Vicky caught him on the rebound, they actually take the necklace from her and give it to Vicky, and start to spoil Vicky in ways that not even her sister enjoyed. Her sister even breaks down when Vicky gets a car for her sweet sixteen, as she was only allowed to borrow the family car a small number of times.]]

* ProgressivelyPrettier: Karine becomes notably cuter over the course of the series, even before her radical makeover at the end of album #4 reveals that SheCleansUpNicely.

* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: An interesting case. True to the title, most of the outfits the three protagonists wear show their bellybuttons, though as they go through CharacterDevelopment they start to cover up more. It's most noticable with ButtMonkey Karine, after getting a Goth type makeover and learning to stand up for herself, pretty much stops baring her midriff, but it's also very clear with BrainlessBeauty Jenny, who after an album-long HumiliationConga has forced her to face some unpleasant truth about herself, gets an entirely new style that signifies that she's matured and become a better person -- the first time in the comic where she ''doesn't'' bare her midriff. As of the end of album 8, only Vicky (who tragically ''starts'' CharacterDevelopment but regresses) still bares her midriff.

* AnythingThatMoves: Lara, Vicky's new number two in volume 8, she has no real loyalty to anyone and will instantly move from one lover to another, male or female, as long as the next person is of a higher social status then the previous.

* HeelRealization: Repeatedly parodied and subverted with Jenny, who every so often realizes that she's behaved badly and tries to make amends... only to to reveal that she totally misunderstood exactly what she did wrong and why it was wrong, so attempts at making amends end up not even addressing the issue or even making things worse. [[spoiler:And then finally played straight towards the end of Volume 8. It took an album-long TraumaCongaLine of BreakTheHaughty, and a TheReasonYouSuck speech from ''Murphy'', of all people, but she finally comes around to realizing just what a terrible person she's been, especially towards Hugo, and ''truly'' changes for the better.]]

* PeekABangs: Vinko has long hair covering half of his face [[spoiler:to hide a large disfiguring burn]].

* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: True to the title, most of the outfits the three protagonists wear show their bellybuttons. Vicky and Jenny start out as a pair of shallow {{Alpha Bitch}}es who are [[ToxicFriendInfluence a poor influence on Karine]]. Karine starts stops using so many midriff revealing clohtes after she gets a makeover and learns to stand up for herself.

* TooMuchInformation: In Murphy's first scene in volume 6, he tells Vicky he was thinking about her last night [[ADateWithRosiePalms while finishing his box of Kleenex]].

* DoubleMeaningTitle: In French, the title isn't just about the preponderance of BareYourMidriff for the protagonists, but also allude to the French expression "believing you're the bellybutton of the world," which is said about someone being extremely self-centered, fitting perfectly with Jenny and Vicky.

* ItsAllAboutMe: The title refers to both BareYourMidriff and this, "''le nombril du monde''" being a French expression for people thinking everything is about them (as if they are the bellybutton of the world). Jenny and Vicky are the epitome of total self-centered behaviour, albeit in slightly different ways: Jenny is just too narcissistic and oblivious to realize that she isn't the center of everyone's world, while Vicky gets jealous and malicious as soon as anyone takes attention away from her.

* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: True to the title, most of the outfits the three protagonists wear show their bellybuttons. Vicky and Jenny start out as a pair of shallow {{Alpha Bitch}}es who are [[ToxicFriendInfluence a poor influence on Karine]]. Karine starts stops using so many midriff revealing clohtes after she learns to stand up for herself.

* BareYourMidriff: True to the title, most of the outfits the three protagonists wear show their bellybuttons. Although Karine starts stops using so many midriff revealing clohtes after her makeup.

An English version of the series, with its title directly translated to The Bellybuttons, was introduced in 2009 by British publisher Cinebook.

* PoisonousFriend: It would be shorter to list the people around Karine who ''aren't'' this.

* TraumaCongaLine: [[spoiler:Jenny, of all people gets subjected to this in Volume 8, courtesy of Vicky. The latter sabotages her trademark appearance, making Jenny believe this will make Hugo interested in her again. Not only does Hugo gets even more upset she's missing the point of his rejection, she loses all her fanboys immediately ''and'' her family now shuns her, to the point of refusing to be seen with Jenny. Since Jenny has no friend besides [[PoisonousFriend Vicky]] and Karine, who is away with her band, she ends up incredibly isolated and miserable, so much that she is at one point seen asking ''Murphy'' for advice on Hugo.]]

* GeniusDitz: Jenny might be dumber than a sack of bricks, devoid of logic and LitteralMinded like you would not believe, but she can show some serious emotional intelligence and know how her friend think... When {{Flanderization}} does not make her TooDumbToLive that is...

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Karine, Vicky and Jenny respectively.

* {{Buttmonkey}}: Karine, Karine, Karine. People respecting her and not walking all over her can be counted on one hand, and her family is not in the list. Also a nasty case of TheChewtoy, due to the anguish it causes her.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Karine, after some serious CharacterDevelopment. How she deals with the BitchInSheepClothing and later TheRival shows this clearly.

* HateSink: Jenny's RichBitch parents. Not even losing all their fortune deprives them of their repellent, self-satisfied attitude.

** Albin seems to genuinely believe his controlling behaviour over Karine is justified.

%%* TheAlcoholic: Jenny's mom.

%%* BatmanGambit: These start showing up in volume 3.

%%* BewareTheNiceOnes: Karine, after some serious CharacterDevelopment.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Mélanie. So very, very much.]]

%%* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Karine, Vicky and Jenny respectively.

%%* {{Buttmonkey}}: Karine, Karine, Karine. Also TheChewtoy.

%% Zero Context Example, how was the confession engineered? * EngineeredPublicConfession: [[spoiler: How Karine gets back at Mélanie.]]

%%* BareYourMidriff: If the title hasn't clued you in...

* HornedHairdo: Albin seems to deliberately cultivate his own satanic imagery. Possibly as part of his stage persona.

''Les Nombrils'' ("''The Bellybuttons''") is an ongoing French-Canadian series following the misadventures of [[TheChewtoy long-suffering]] Karine and her two "[[ToxicFriendInfluence friends]]" Vicky and Jenny. Starting off as a gag strip it quickly became a dramedy about the daily lives of the three with Karine learning to stand up for herself while Vicky and Jenny learn that there is more to life than hanging off the hunkiest boy in school.

* PygmalionPlot: In the seventh book, [[spoiler: Albin's ex reveals to Karine that Albin has an habit of dating an insecure girl then turning her into a gothic. Karine is #12]].

* ExtremeDoormat: Karine's primary character trait. At least for a while. There are implications that Karine is still a doormat -- it's just that the only one walking over her is Albin, and he's such a master of manipulation she doesn't realize it.

* IgnoranceIsBliss: Jenny's homelife is in a terrible state, but she's too stupid to realise it.

* AnythingThatMoves: Vicky's new number two in volume 8, she has no real loyalty to anyone and will instantly move from one lover to another, male or female, as long as the next person is of a higher social status then the previous.