History Main / CutenessOverload

Cuteness Overload is the state in which a character experiences the immense rush of emotion after seeing (or hearing) something [[{{Moe}} very]], [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter very]] [[{{UsefulNotes/Kawaisa}} cute]], often rendering him/her partly or wholly incapacitated. The sudden charge of feelings could create so effective an incapacitation that the character may have to be woken up by another character calling his/her name [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan or by other means]]. Depending on the situation, it shares some traits with a HeroicBSOD, but the main difference is an exposure to cuteness rather than a traumatic event.

There is a slang term with similar traits, [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Moebetes moebetes]], formed from the words {{Moe}} and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes diabetes]]. This is more for anime and/or manga where the audiences are exposed to such great amounts of moe cuteness that they end up with constantly high moe levels, similar to how a diabetic has high blood sugar.

* ''Anime/AngelBeats'' features a rather dangerous example in Episode 2, when Shiina sees a [[spoiler: toy]] puppy in a cardboard box about to be swept over a waterfall. She finds it so adorable that, despite the fact it's obviously a trap, she immediately rushes in to save it...and doesn't quite manage it. Luckily this is the afterlife so a 200-foot fall is only a temporary hitch.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1m2_3bCUCk And now, the Internet has found a way to increase it.]]
* The heroines from ''Anime/DokiDokiPrettyCure'' get this reaction very often when they see Ai-chan.
* In ''Anime/ExcelSaga'', the Puuchuus are darling little teddy-bear critters; their main strength is their ability to enchant nearly everyone with their cuteness. Too bad they go severely [[{{Gonk}} Gonk]] when injured...
* Not as big as in ''Doki Doki!'', but the heroines from ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'' get this reaction a few times with Chiffon.

* Itsuki from ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'' is prone of doing this when she sees something cute and forgets (or if she's not trying) to hide her girlish persona.

** Kaguya and Shirogane both suffer from this when they see each other wearing cat ears.
** Kaguya spends an entire chapter frozen in place after Shirogane [[SleepCute leans on her shoulder]] when he passes out due to [[MustHaveCaffeine a lack of caffeine]].
* In ''Manga/TheKawaiComplexGuideToManorsAndHostelBehavior'', hero Usa has several moments like this with his personal crush Ritsu.
* Happens frequently in ''Manga/KOn'' ([[{{Moe}} what a shocker]]), such as the "Azunyan Incident".

* In ''Manga/LoveSoLife'' the twins, Aoi and Akane, manage to shut down Shiharu, an experienced childcare worker, with their antics on a fairly regular basis.
* In ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', Riko Saikawa tends to experience this whenever Kanna Kamui does or says literally ''anything'' slightly adorable. It's just as potent when Kanna touches Riko, and she grows into a love-struck wreck. Whenever it happens, she puts her hands to her cheeks and squeals loudly, a little red heart displayed on her tongue. Sometimes she even passes out from the sheer adorableness, like that one time that Kanna was selected to play the Little Match Girl for a Christmas play...

* When Sharo from ''Manga/IsTheOrderARabbit'' sees her crush Rize trying on a junior high uniform, something inside breaks, leaving her sitting on the floor moaning for an unknown length of time (long enough for the uniform's owner to take a bath and come back).
* In the Alabasta arc of ''Manga/OnePiece,'' Nami and Vivi nearly experienced this when they saw the way the Kung Fu Dugongs were cuddling Luffy.
* Invoked by a wild Teddiursa in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' animé, in order to be able to steal food from trainers and pin the blame on the other Pokémon. Once it evolves into [[BearsAreBadNews Ursaring]], the protagonists let it go, under the assumption that its tricks will no longer work. Once it runs into Team Rocket, however, it ''still'' attempts to look cute to ally itself with them. The effort met with confusion by the trio, but they let it join them, anyway, rationalising that such a powerful Pokémon would be a useful asset.
* ''Manga/SlimeLife'': Darul, at pretty much anything Slime does. There are probably more panels of her blushing than there are panels where she is not.
* Bokkun from ''Anime/SonicX'' [[spoiler:especially with the addition of his being in love with Cream]].
* Akane of ''Manga/CastleTownDandelion'' had one in Chapter 13/Episode 7A when [[TokenMiniMoe Shiori]] gives her a get-well kiss.
* Sora of ''Manga/HowToKeepAMummy'' suffers this frequently due to Mii-kun's childlike displays of affection. He turns into a blushy, gibbering mess when Mii-kun gives him a note saying "always together", and he and Motegi both suffer from overload when they see Mii-kun and Isao waving goodbye to each other.

* In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', the first time Kyon called Mikuru by her first name he "completely blew past her threshold for withstanding cuteness." [[spoiler:She couldn't help herself from kissing Kyon while saying it's forbidden at the same time.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheHillOfSwords'': When [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Sylphid]] hits people with her {{Moe}} even Emiya Shirou, the hardened veteran of countless conflicts who went through seven different kinds of hell, ends up being blown away by her cuteness. She once incapacitated an entire room with it.

* In ''FanFic/ATeachersGlory'' Sakura modifies Naruto's Sexy jutsu into Cute jutsu and ''weaponizes'' this. She uses it in combat against an older, more experienced genin to make him give her a hug, and knocks him out with pressure points. Even his teammate, who saw her do this, thinks she's like the cute little sister she always wanted.
* In ''FanFic/QuotesBadHairDayRatedRForRetellingOfCaveStory'', nearly every single thing Toroko does evokes this reaction from other nearby characters...naturally, since, after all, she is ''[[RidiculouslyCuteCritter the absolute cutest of the absolute cutest characters in the whole damned game.]]''
* in ''Fanfic/UniverseFalls'' this is Mabel's initial reaction upon meeting Lion.

* ''Fanfic/BornOfHellsKitchen'': Every adult in seven-year-old Peter Parker's entourage just can't believe how ''adorable'' this kid can be. Right after reproaching Karen her (seemingly) excessive use of heart emojis, Luke is exposed to a video of Peter's dad rocking and singing him to sleep. He immediately uses heart emojis.

* In one episode of ''Series/TheState'', a skit portraying a grandmother taking her grandson clothes-shopping has this happen. As her overly-adorable descendant models his new suit for her, she flips out (borderline orgasmic-like) and asks the merch-worker who she had been chatting with, "Is there anything cuter than that?!?!" The worker proceeds to push her cute-button up to 11, with a step-by-step escalation, adding items to the boy's ensemble such as a bow-tie, puppy-dog earmuffs, and a little piggy-tail. When the grandmother inevitably reaches her threshold and goes violently berserk on her grandson (hey, it was the 90s), the worker and the store manager are forced to lure her into a bear-trap (a room containing an "emergency bear" that rips the lady to shreds off-camera), in order to "save the child". The worker blames himself for her death, while the manager blames the kid and abruptly pimp-slaps him for being "as cute as 2 little hamsters riding around in a little toy car."

* Andy in ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' is prone to this. She goes into fits about Beanie Buddies, and issues squeals of delight on seeing Creator/PeterJackson and - thinking he is a fantasy creature from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' - wants to know if they make plushies of him.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', Agatha {{squee}}s whenever Link presents her a Golden Bug, despite her not (visibly) doing so when in the presence of bugs he already gave her.

* Sakuya from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is often portrayed as being overloaded and {{nosebleed}}ing whenever Remilia and Flandre do something cute. The greatest example of this is the song ''[[http://youtu.be/sT53ccTxcqI Such Adorable Scarlets Can't Possibly Be My Mistresses]]'' ([[http://youtu.be/Ycs4aodpbrk translated Walfas version]]), where the Scarlet sisters are so cute that Sakuya ''dies'', as may the viewer.
* In the ''Metal Gear Online'' portion of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', [[DistractedByTheSexy Playboy Magazines]] were taken out in favor of super-adorable wolf pup plushies. Walk too close to one, and your character will walk to it, kneel down, and stare at its cuteness for some time, leaving you completely open to an enemy attack.

* [[MemeticMutation Memetically]], Hisao Nakai of ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' has to avoid these due to his congenital arrhythmia.

* In this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax1-PYBGzJ0 video.]] Don't look at the cat if you want to live.

** A much earlier tumblr had the young [[FanNickname Ruby Pinch]] dress up as a maid. Anypony who witnessed her passed out immediately.
* Cecil from ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' suffers from this in the episode "Visitor" after discovering a small, unidentifiable furry creature has wandered into the studio. He spends about half the episode gushing over how adorable it is. He really overloads whenever it makes noise (which he described as "a mouse squeak, mixed with a bike horn, mixed with a sincere question about love"), or when it hugs his leg, and is completely willing to adopt it as a pet like he did with Khoshekh, the cat hovering at a fixed point in the men's bathroom. [[spoiler: [[KillerRabbit That didn't]] [[DownerEnding work out so well for Cecil or Khoshekh...]]]]

* In an animation titlesd [[https://youtu.be/oyjw0ZLyzpE The Colors of Evil]] this is how a demon summoned by the protagonist deals with her bully.

* ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' has a moment of this that is shown above. It is known as [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1412 "Kawaii-fugue"]]
** [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2188 Go get the little hats ...]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Girly}}'', this manifests in Lucy the veternarian as a [[http://girlyyy.com/go/329 literal explosion of cute]]. [[YourHeadAsplode Lucy's head exploded.]]
* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', during Annie's visit to Foley House. She suddenly found herself in the center of a cuddlepile formed from ''the whole class'' of cheering ex-[[FairFolk fairies]], even more cute to the [[SpiritWorld ether sight]]. And looked a little tipsy for some time after this treatment.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' every male character got KO-d by [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Frodo]]'s illegal amount of cute... the girls seemed immune though. On the other hand nobody (except [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} Jareth]] and [[Theatre/LesMiserables Javert]]) can resist [[Theatre/{{Cats}} Misto]].
** In its SpinOff ''Webcomic/GirlsNextDoor'' [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} Jareth]] knows fully well that his [[OminousOwl owl]] form has this effect on people and [[InvokedTrope takes advantage of it shamelessly]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMagiswords'': Prohyas suffers from a variation on this in the episode "Land Before Slime," when dealing with their client Goomer, a little round slime ball who wears glasses and communicates in adorable gibberish. When Goomer is reunited with his lost ankylosaurus and they promptly frolic together, he just [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere checks out]].
-->'''Prohyas''': Nope! Too cute! Can't do it! ''walks away''
* Word for word used in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' in the Season 11 episode "Spot Returns". Karen is so overwhelmed by the combined cuteness of Spot's babies that she spends the rest of the episode "reboot'n" until the end where Plankton is crushed by the giant puppy and says the same thing.

* In ''Manga/BokuraWaMinnaKawaisou'', hero Usa has several moments like this with his personal crush Ritsu.

* In the ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11854331/1/Money-To-Burn Money To Burn]]'', Judy, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness who usually objects to being called cute]], uses this as an interrogation technique to get information out of a timberwolf mercenary, who is [[CutenessProximity a sucker for rabbits]].

* In ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy suffers from this when she falls for Finnick's act as Nick's elephant-loving son and later when she discovers that Fru Fru is pregnant and planing on naming her daughter after her. Benjamin Clawhauser, the {{Adorkable}} ZPD front desk officer, also has one of these when he first sees Judy, [[BunniesForCuteness for quite obvious reasons]].

* ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'': Henrietta suffers a CutenessOverload due to the pajama party, thus GivingUpTheGhost.

* ''Manga/AngelBeats'' features a rather dangerous example in Episode 2, when Shiina sees a [[spoiler: toy]] puppy in a cardboard box about to be swept over a waterfall. She finds it so adorable that, despite the fact it's obviously a trap, she immediately rushes in to save it...and doesn't quite manage it. Luckily this is the afterlife so a 200-foot fall is only a temporary hitch.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'''s Fuko Ibuki is this way about starfish. [[InsistentTerminology Not stars.]]
** Tomoya gets this way when he spends a day with Mei. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p0ztVSeJEY&feature=related Specifically, when she calls him "onii-chan."]] Everyone is concerned.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry''. [[GenkiGirl Rena Ryuuguu.]] ''[[{{RunningGag}} All the time.]]'' In her case, it almost always ends with a shout of "ImTakingHerHomeWithMe"
** And in the manga, Akasaka gets a minor (um, no pun intended) case upon meeting Rika.

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Video Games / Visual Novels ]]

* [[MemeticMutation Memetically]], Hisao Nakai of ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' has to avoid these due to his congenital arrhythmia.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Word for word used in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' in the Season 11 episode "Spot Returns". Karen is overweled by the combined cuteness of Spot's babies that she spend the rest of the episode "reboot'n" until the end where Plankton is crushed by the giant puppy and say the same thing.

** And later learns that a teammate is a were-cheetah [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair with pink fur]]. Her {{Squee}} is [[NotHyperbole literally]] [[http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2373 ultrasonic]].

* In ''BokuraWaMinnaKawaisou'', hero Usa has several moments like this with his personal crush Ritsu.

* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaWaKokurasetai'':

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5JiRa4LqLU PENGUIN CHIYO]]. She will cause this reaction to occur in anyone who sees her, except [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Osaka]].

* In the ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11854331/1/Money-To-Burn Money To Burn]]'', Judy, who [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness usually objects to being called cute]], uses this as an interrogation technique to get information out of a timberwolf mercenary (it helps that said mercenary is [[CutenessProximity a sucker for rabbits]]).

->''Man, we're so good about not posting a certain onomatopoeia[[note]]HNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG![[/note]], and then somebody posts something like [[http://shimmie.katawa-shoujo.com/post/view/828 this]], and [[SayItWithHearts the hearts]] hit the fan.''
-->-- [[http://shimmie.katawa-shoujo.com/post/view/828#1000 An anonymous commenter]] on the ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' image database.

Cuteness Overload is the state in which a character experiences the immense rush of emotion after seeing (or hearing) something [[{{Moe}} very]], [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter very]] [[{{Kawaisa}} cute]], often rendering him/her partly or wholly incapacitated. The sudden charge of feelings could create so effective an incapacitation that the character may have to be woken up by another character calling his/her name [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan or by other means]]. Depending on the situation, it shares some traits with a HeroicBSOD, but the main difference is an exposure to cuteness rather than a traumatic event.

-->'''Prohyas''': Nope! Too cute! Can't do it! ::walks away::

** And later learns that a teammate is a were-cheetah [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair with pink fur]]. Her {{Squee}} is literally ultrasonic.