History Main / HarshWordImpact

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
** Happens when Chisame, pleading for the existence of at least a couple of {{Ordinary High School Student}}s left in the class, is bluntly told [[spoiler: that Yuuna's father and MissingMom are mages]].
** In ''Anime/NegimaSecondSeason'', Makie gets hit in the head by huge characters for 'Crushed' every time Ayaka yells at her (which is a lot).

* Pictured above is a scene from ''Manga/BambooBlade'' when Miya-Miya makes a convincing argument for Satori joining the kendo club -- ignore her horrible grades and get into college by kendo scholarship.
* Happens a lot in ''Manga/PerfectGirlEvolution''. Sunako, in particular, has a tendency to reel back whenever the word 'ugly' gets bandied about. In one particular episode, when this is combined with guilt, she ends up walking around with a lot of 'arrows' stuck in her... until Takenaga delivers a particularly pointed barb that demonstrates that her thoughtlessness was very similar to the same comment that, years back, crushed her self-confidence and turned her into a withdrawn, horror-obsessed loner... at which point a giant arrow descends from space, obliterating the entire mansion. REALLY painful realization, apparently.
* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'':
** This happens to Tamaki when he first meets Renge and she calls him "stupid, narcissist, incompetent, commoner, [and] disgusting".
** In another episode, Tamaki gets hit with a speech bubble when Haruhi cracks open a crab leg.
** In episode 2, when Toru admits he feels selfish, studying abroad in the hopes that he'll be the kind of man to impress his fiancee Kanako, Haruhi chimes in with "Yeah... [[BrutalHonesty you're right, that is pretty selfish of you]]," and a big red arrow stabs Toru in the chest.
** This also happens to Tamaki in the first episode of the live-action adaptation, when Haruhi calls him "annoying" and sends him flying into the wall.
* In the second season of ''Manga/KimiNiTodoke'', Kazehaya is struck with an arrow after Chizu tells him he doesn't understand Sadako.
* In the manga version of ''[[Franchise/DisneyFairies Vidia and the Fairy Crown]]'', Vidia shouts directly in the ear of another character, causing the (jagged) speech balloon to go straight [[InOneEarOutTheOther through his ear canals and come out the other side]].
* The "speech balloon piercing the ears" variant has also happened in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' when Ayumi uses her Detective Boys badge to transfer a MotiveRant over the phone.

* In ''Manga/HidamariSketch'':
** When Sae is talking to Yuno about wanting to pursue both literature and art in college, but worrying that this would make her work at either mediocre, Yuno bluntly sums it up with the saying "Going after two hares and catching neither." In the same panel, a gun appears by her and shoots Sae in the head.
** In another strip, Yuno is bummed out about how badly she did at the all-school competition, and wonders if she would have done better if she hadn't been tired and nervous. So when Sae (arguing with her editor) suddenly yells "Of course not!" the speech balloon stabs her right in the heart.
** Many of these gags make it into the anime adaptation, replacing the stabbing speech bubbles with arrows (the symbol, not the projectile shot from a bow) peppering the character's body.
* Done a few times in ''Manga/SgtFrog'', such as an early chapter where Tamama wonders why the Keron invasion was suddenly canceled, and Keroro looks awkward as a caption reading "[[NiceJobBreakingItHero His Fault]]" appears, with a pointing arrow poking him in the back of the head.
* Happens in the manga version of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', when Botan informs Yusuke that the boy he died saving from a car accident would have been miraculously unharmed if Yusuke hadn't intervened. Yusuke is hit by falling kana as Botan remarks on how pointless his death was, and how stupid he must feel.

* In ''VideoGame/KungFuChaos'', Shao Ting's special move is to scream criticisms down his megaphone as people, which turns the words into a massive laser beam.
* Tina in ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'' was feeling upset about her [[HollywoodPudgy weight]], and Mayu began taunting her, arrows darting down to skewer poor Tina. And then Taeko commented [[TheDitz innocently]], "Really? When I eat, only my breasts get bigger." Ow.
* A comedic ''Anime/CodeGeass'' manga has Lelouch react this way whenever people talk about his [[NonActionGuy lack of physical fitness]]. Rakshata's out-and-out insulting and Tohdoh's attempt to be polite both affect him like a punch to the face, while Suzaku's unintentionally BrutalHonesty results in actual arrows striking him in the chest and knocking him down.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has this happen when Riza saves Roy from getting killed by Scar when his [[KillItWithFire ignition gloves]] fail to work because of the rain. After she reminds him that he's useless in the rain, he's promptly struck over the head by the word 'useless'.
* ''Literature/LadiesVersusButlers'' has Sernia do this twice to Akiharu in the second episode. One abridged series lampshades (duh) this by having him respond with: "Quit throwing your damn Japanese symbols at me!"
* ''Manga/SilverSpoon'''s Hachiken becomes Vice-President of the Equestrian Club. Later, they adopt a dog... and name it Vice-President. When the girl Hachiken likes scolded the dog, he reacted like her words were physical blows. With blood splatter and, eventually, explosions.

* In chapter 37 of the ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' manga, when Misaka 10032 lists all of Mikoto's lesser qualities as the older sister of the two.
* In the early chapters of ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'', Asahi is occasionally impaled or punched by Youko telling him what a wonderful '''FRIEND''' he is. Also happens when he is bluntly rejected (before he even confessed) by Aizawa before the start of the story. It's a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, though, as this gag is only used in the first dozen chapters.
* In Episode 7 of ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'', the Matsunos visit a coffee shop that Todomatsu works at and are promptly asked to leave. When they ask why, Todomatsu makes a disparaging speech about how embarrassing and lowly they are -- with a barrage of arrows hitting the brothers after each insult. By the time he's finished, everyone's riddled with arrows and [[TheEeyore Ichimatsu]] has already laid down in preparation for death.
* In ''Manga/FoodWars'', [[SenseiChan Jun]] is telling some students about a school program where they are sent out to get actual real-job experience. Soma wonders how tough it must be if someone like Jun passed, and Jun is stabbed by the memory of her days as a CuteClumsyGirl.
* In ''Manga/MagicOfStella'', Minaha's criticism to Tamaki's illustrations in episode 8 made a few of these to Tamaki. These include "(Iris' writing) completely overshadows your drawings," "doesn't even know the basics," and "you think you just have to draw pictures (and hand them in)."
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Buggy and Mr. 3 are stabbed by Luffy's words after he meets them and expresses his sincere happiness from seeing both alive and well, as they had previously abandoned him to escape [[Recap/OnePieceImpelDownArc Impel Down]] by themselves.
--->'''Buggy:''' My heart!\\
'''Mr. 3:''' It hurts!
** During the Whole Cake Island arc, Nami tells [[spoiler:Sanji]] "I will never forgive you," for [[spoiler:him beating up Luffy to convince him and Nami that he'd willingly rejoined his evil family]], resulting in the person in question being impaled by the dialogue balloon before Nami says she'll put aside her feelings.
* In ''Manga/ComicGirls'', Kaoruko has one in the first episode when Ruki [[OlderThanTheyLook mistook her as an elementary school student]].
* ''Manga/LaidBackCamp'' has yen signs stabbing into Nadeshiko when she reads about the price of higher-end camping gear.
* ''Manga/SkipBeat'' features an example when Kyoko is challenged to play out a scene under a very different context. Due to the scene mirroring Maria's own personal issues with her father... Kyoko's presentation of events makes her realize several uncomfortable (though ultimately false) truths about her father's feelings towards her. As they come up, each one comes down on Maria's head in the form of a vast, rock weight, drilling her into the ground.

* ''Manga/NewGame'':
** After Aoba remarks that her arms have recently become a bit flabby, Yun, who secretly worries about her weight, is hit with an arrow that says "Flab."
** Aoba becomes depressed over how [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism she let the joy of becoming Peco's character designer go to her head]], and tried to offer guidance that she wasn't qualified to give. She confides in Hifumi, who says that "of course" Aoba's inexperienced, so it's only natural that there were many things she didn't know, resulting in Aoba being pierced by arrows with Hifumi's words.
* ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'':
** In Chapter 18, Mira and Ao gives Moe some potential designs of refreshments to use in the SchoolFestival, and Moe rejected some of them due to being physically impossible to make. An arrow with the words "Rejected" stabs into Ao's head as she does BlankWhiteEyes, since she designed all of the rejected ones.
** In Chapter 22, Mai recalls Moe was [[HeroicBSOD extremely depressed at her results]] at the SchoolFestival's booth food competition. In her recollection, two arrows, one with "Suzuya Production" and the other with "{{Second Place|IsForLosers}}", is seen stabbed into Moe.
* ''Manga/MolesterMan'': In Chapter 14.5, Molester Man is stabbed by the 2Channel anon comments pointing out how he screwed up.
* ''Manga/LoveMeForWhoIAm'': In Chapter 2, the InnocentlyInsensitive Mogumo asks Suzu point-blank "Are you a homo?", shown as an arrow stabbing through him.
* ''Manga/PeddlerInAnotherWorld'': has Caren Sankareka, the mayor of the town from the world that Shirou's grandmother is from, do this to herself with three speech bubbles in chapter 6.
* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': When Marcille first met up with Laios and Falin on the Island, she had strong feelings about their choice of career. When she demanded to know if they really intended to spend the rest of their lives in the dead-end profession of DungeonCrawling, her speech bubble speared not only Laios but several bystanders as well.

* Capcom considered adding [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] to ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'', with this as a special attack. However, the difference between the catchphrase in both languages ("Igiari!" versus "Objection!") meant that the US version would be a GameBreaker, so they decided to leave him out. It does appear in ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'' in full force; the entire word is contained in a single balloon, thus solving the length problem. (In fact, you ''need'' to hit the opponent with the "TAKE THAT!" balloon to trigger [[SuperMode Turnabout Mode]].)
* In both versions of ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'s taunt spawns a word balloon which damages the opponent on contact. It does [[CherryTapping minimal damage]] but it ''can'' be comboed into.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', a CausticCritic harms you with negative reviews, which appear as inkblots with stock negative phrases in them.
* In ''VideoGame/LollipopChainsaw'', Zed, the game's first official boss, shoots expletives at Juliet that act as projectiles.
* During interrogations in ''VideoGame/LaytonBrothersMysteryRoom'', little arrows with snarky comments shoot back and forth between you and a suspect.
* In ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTheRudra'', this overlaps with WordsCanBreakMyBones; trying to cast a spell with a word that doesn't translate into any other spell will often cause the word itself to fly across the screen or fall from above and smack into enemies, damaging them.

* In the WebAnimation/DevilArtemis Cell Vs. videos, This is how Cell loses to Rex making cell nearly explode by saying "You are poor man's Creator/TeamFourStar."

* In the WebVideo/DevilArtemis Cell Vs. videos, This is how Cell loses to Rex making cell nearly explode by saying "You are poor man's Creator/TeamFourStar."

** [[spoiler:Buggy and Mr. 3]] are stabbed by Luffy's words after he meets them and expresses his sincere happiness from seeing both alive and well, as they had previously abandoned him to escape [[Recap/OnePieceImpelDownArc Impel Down]] by themselves.

''Webcomic/KiwiBlitz'': In one [[https://www.kiwiblitz.com/comic/page-490 Sound Byte]] flashback, Steffi shows off her obnoxiously bright pink hair for the very first time, and Ben [[DamnedByFaintPraise tries his best to complement it]]. When Ben later gets his own hair dyed, however, Steffi [[BrutalHonesty bluntly tells him that it looks silly]], with an arrow from her speech bubble poking into his hair.

* Capcom considered adding [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] to ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'', with this as a special attack. However, the difference between the CatchPhrase in both languages ("Igiari!" versus "Objection!") meant that the US version would be a GameBreaker, so they decided to leave him out. It does appear in ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'' in full force; the entire word is contained in a single balloon, thus solving the length problem. (In fact, you ''need'' to hit the opponent with the "TAKE THAT!" balloon to trigger [[SuperMode Turnabout Mode]].)

* ''LightNovel/LadiesVersusButlers'' has Sernia do this twice to Akiharu in the second episode. One abridged series lampshades (duh) this by having him respond with: "Quit throwing your damn Japanese symbols at me!"

%%* In ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', Skuld is able to do this ''literally'' once her magic develops.

%%* The word "[[VirginShaming virgin]]" does this to Hideki in ''Manga/{{Chobits}}''.
%%* This happened to Natsuru in the manga version of ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}''.

%%* Takamizawa gets this treatment in ''Manga/MidoriDays'', when Seiji says he doesn't remember him.

%%* Someone got stabbed by a speech bubble in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' manga.
%%* Happens to ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' quite a bit, especially in the first [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]] when [[AlphaBitch Rei]] gets angry.

%%* Used in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', usually on Kenichi.

* Tina in ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'' was feeling upset about her [[HollywoodPudgy weight]], and Mayu began taunting her, arrows darting down to skewer poor Tina. And then [[GagBoobs Taeko]] commented [[TheDitz innocently]], "Really? When I eat, only my breasts get bigger." Ow.

%%[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''/''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' has a monster that does this as an attack, sending people flying by using the words that will hurt them the most.

* In ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', Skuld is able to do this ''literally'' once her magic develops.

* The word "[[VirginShaming virgin]]" does this to Hideki in ''Manga/{{Chobits}}''.
* This happened to Natsuru in the manga version of ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}''.

* Takamizawa gets this treatment in ''Manga/MidoriDays'', when Seiji says he doesn't remember him.

* Someone got stabbed by a speech bubble in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' manga.
* Happens to ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' quite a bit, especially in the first [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]] when [[AlphaBitch Rei]] gets uppity.

* Used in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', usually on Kenichi.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'': the word "Love" affects the Blue Meanies--especially the Glove--in this manner.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''/''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' has a monster that does this as an attack, sending people flying by using the words that will hurt them the most.
[[/folder]]

* [[http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/Need_to_hear_good_things This strip]] in ''Webcomic/MenageA3''.

This is mainly a {{Manga}} trope, though it's also used in anime. Someone says something, and the object of the statement is stabbed by an arrow emerging from the speech bubble or legend, because it's almost always an uncomfortable truth or BrutalHonesty. Quite often the person is knocked off their feet. Bonus BlackComedy points if said AnnoyingArrows [[EyeScream go right into the characters' eyes.]] Usage:

They don't have to be arrows. Sometimes heavy rocks, bricks, washbasins, even energy beams with the meaningful words on them are substituted for speech bubbles -- anything that'll leave a physical [[IncrediblyLamePun impact]] on the object of the statement in a MediumAwareness way.

Usually delivered by a MetafictionalDevice. If the speaker is ''actually'' hitting the victim in sync with each word, that's PunctuatedPounding, not this trope. Compare WordsCanBreakMyBones when the words have some literal magic power behind them, and ArmorPiercingQuestion when it is a question with a deep psychological effect on its audience. May be used with ObliviousGuiltSlinging. A [[LiteralMetaphor particularly literalist interpretation]] of ThePowerOfLanguage.

* ''Kid Niki: Radical Ninja'': Big Baldy, the boss of stage 5, uses words as his way of attacking the player. One of his attacks is him yelling a Chinese word that bounces at you. Another attack is him saying "fool" that flies across the screen while dropping letters. You will lose a life if you are hit at all.

* ''Kid Niki: Radical Ninja'': Big Baldy, the boss of stage 5, uses words as his way of attacking the player. He will yell "fool" in a giant word bubble that will bounce at you. He will also spew small bubbles, containing gibberish, at you. You will lose a life if you are hit by any of his attacks.

* A comedic ''Anime/CodeGeass'' manga has Lelouch react this way whenever people talk about his [[NonActionGuy lack of physical fitness]]. [[HotScientist Rakshata]]'s out-and-out insulting and Tohdoh's attempt to be polite both affect him like a punch to the face, while Suzaku's unintentionally BrutalHonesty results in actual arrows striking him in the chest and knocking him down.

* In a Canadian anti-bullying PSA from Creator/CompaniesCommittedToKids [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62945HfhDCA "Words Hurt"]] a trio of female bullies says some hurtful words at another female by calling her a "loser" and "geek". Several "ha" words are then thrown at the girl, causing her to feel overwhelmed and run off, with the word "get lost" being sent to chase and attack her.