Game Faces in Anime and Manga.
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: If Mei’s eyes are open while she’s smiling, you’re in for a bad time.
- Koro-Sensei of Assassination Classroom has a kaleidoscopic array of facial colors to convey his emotions. His game face comes in the form of Pitch Black.
- In Bleach, the Vizards can put their Hollow masks on as a definite Game Face.
- In the anime Claymore it is a special case. The faces of the half-human warriornesses change as they use their demonic powers. The more demonic the face of a warrior looks, the more she uses that power, and the stronger she is. However, there is always the possibility that they will lose control of their powers and turn into man-eating monsters.
- The two vampire queens in Blood+ do it too. When they want to fight, their eyes light up. At Saya they are red and at Diva they are blue.
- In the Darker than Black tie-in manga Shikoku no Hana, Azusa shows Mioka hers while casually breaking his shin and asking him if he was showing his.Azusa: Is that your game face?
- Death Note: Light Yagami does this, having hidden his true personality almost to the very end, he loses what's left of his sanity when he's exposed, and breaks down and confesses, as he'd just got done swearing he'd never do. The scary red eyes are just for us, the audience - but the frightening facial contortions, dramatic gestures, and visible madness? Yeah, they're free for all. What makes it a Game Face is that it liberates him to finally state his case in person. Not that it convinces anyone.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Super Saiyans get a lot of use out of this trope but play it closer to its Truth in Television version. They do gain spikier hair and begin glowing vibrant colors & in addition to this they get a massive power-up. Some later upgrades even include large muscles, hair, and even eyebrows.
- Parodied in Excel♡Saga. The adorable, teddy-bear like Puchuu's faces resemble Golgo 13 when in pain.
- In Fairy Tail, whenever he gets angry, Natsu has two veins that bulge in a diagonal slant above his eyebrows, and his eyes change in to pale yellowish color with slit-like pupils.
- A Full-Body Take Over gives Elfman and Mirajane this effect.
- What occasionally happens to Haruko's face in FLCL during fights could be described as this. She gets huge, alien-like eyes and sharp teeth, which may or may not be closer to her original alien appearance.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, after Selim Bradley reveals his true identity as Pride, he's consistently drawn with sharper features and more menacing eyes instead of the almost chibi appearance he had before.
- Both incarnations of Greed also had a charming, handsome human face (granted, one had pointed teeth), which in a serious fight would be covered by the demonic, armored face. Being rather vain, Greed really hated using that form unless he really had to.
- Future Diary : Murumuru, Deus's and first world Yuno's, and second world Yuki's right hand... demon... gets this when her bracelets are removed. She then gains superspeed and wild ferocity along with this.
- The 2018 version of Neko Musume (the Cat Girl) in Gegege No Kitaro is a lot more capable of fighting, particularly when her eyes turn more cat-like, her nails lengthen into razor-sharp claws, and her mouth turns into a Slasher Smile complete with More Teeth than the Osmond Family.
- A rare heroic case in Humanoid Monster Bem, where all three heroes keep a third of their power locked while in human form.
- In Inuyasha, it is the eponymous hero who is a half-demon. As such, he transforms himself once a month into a human being. But when he is in danger or in great pain, his demonic side gains the upper hand over him, and he gets into a wild frenzy in which he can no longer distinguish between friends and enemies, and indiscriminately attacks everyone. When he transforms into a pure demon, his eyes turn red, his cheeks give him two violet stripes, and his claws and fangs grow longer.
- It is implied that all naturally-born half-demons have this ability, and also show a similar Game Face in their demonic forms.
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Presented more dramatically in the anime adaptation, when Tohru gets worked up or angry her fingers turn into claws, her eyes become even more bestial than usual, and her teeth turn into fangs. Special mention goes to when she came home to find Kanna clinging to Kobayashi and jumped to the conclusion that the latter was cheating on her.
- Naruto:
- Naruto does this when he's sufficiently enraged - his canines elongate into fangs, the whisker-markings on his cheeks become far more pronounced and his eyes shift from blue to red, signifying that the Nine-Tailed Fox is trying to take over.
- Activating the Byakugan causes veins to bulge up around the user's eyes for a rather unsettling effect.
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Literally every criminal has a public face and a true one. Once their crime has been exposed, their face and personality turn completely hideous to match their "evil intent". The only time it didn't happen Neuro correctly deduces they had to be Brainwashed. The New Bloodline members have Evil so strong, instead of changing their face it gives them Elemental Powers.
- Shalltear Bloodfallen in Overlord (2012) normally appears as an Elegant Gothic Lolita, but when she bathes in blood, her glamour breaks and she turns into what can best be described as a humanoid lamprey abomination. This trope and One-Winged Angel are apparently common in heteromorphic races, most of which can shapeshift into more humanoid forms, but receive a stat boost in their true forms. At least Albedo, Demiurge and Entoma are confirmed to have similar transformations. Albedo shifts into something hairy and very large that is apparently reminiscent of a gorilla (very likely a Nalfeshnee
◊). Demiurge can shape his head into a froglike one that is likely a holdover from his Imp race and is stated to have another yet unseen form. Entoma is a vaguely humanoid Giant Spider that looks like a human only because her extra legs are hidden in her dress, her face is concealed behind a mask, and even her cute voice is created by a special worm; without it, she has a raspy Voice of the Legion. - Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt features Chuck, resident Chew Toy that even God himself abuses (granted those lightning bolts are to send messages to the protagonists, but still). Then Panty gives him permission to put on the Game Face, and he turns into a Nigh-Invulnerable giant regenerating hellhound.
- Parasyte has the parasites that infest human bodies and then control them. If they want to fight or kill someone, only their heads change into a monstrous grimace, from which several tentacles with long blades protrude, the rest of the body remains human.
- Inverted and subverted in Queen's Blade with The Swamp Witch, at least in the anime: Her ghostly looks is the real face of the spirit who controls Werbellia, a demon princess she's using for doing all her atrocities.
- Rosario + Vampire: Absolutely everywhere, given that all of the monsters in it can take a perfect human disguise form, and given that a Global Masquerade is firmly in effect. Succubi, Yuki'onna and Gorgons are all good examples of slighter changes (hair turning to ice, lengthening nails and ears or hair turning to snakes) while a great many other monsters show much more drastic change to their true forms. Of course, while they are seldom angered enough to do so, the main characters have all shown the ability to pull some very scary game faces despite their good natures.
- In Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, Chiri Kitsu normally looks like this◊. However, when she shows her Ax-Crazy side, she looks like this◊.
- Sukeban Deka: the villain Remi Mizuchi in the manga and OVA has monochromatic blue eyes when pretending to be a nice girl and changes to vicious looking, predatory eyes when she reveals her true psychopathic self.
- The Ghouls from Tokyo Ghoul look like completely ordinary humans, but when revealing their true nature gain Black Eyes of Crazy with red pupils and Tainted Veins around their eyes. They can also extend their kagune, a specialized limb/weapon that has different shapes and properties depending on location and type. Most generally resemble some sort of tentacle or insect wings.
- Many Bishokuya from Toriko through their "intimidation", often accompanied by the image of a large terrifying beast.
- Urusei Yatsura:
- Lum is normally a beautiful oni girl with Cute Little Fangs. When she gets mad, her mouth gapes wide and those teeth grow much longer, whilst the rest of her teeth are shown to be equally spiky. This is particularly notable in the much harsher artstyle of the earliest volumes.
- Ran has a similar deal to Lum; when her rage overwhelms her, her gaping mouth reveals wicked looking fangs and her ears become noticeably more pointy.
- One-shot (technically two-shot, her story is a two-parter) character Natsuko is the captain of Tomobiki High's female volleyball team. However, when she plays, her over-competitiveness and drive to win causes her normally beautiful features to twist into a gonky visage, with bulging eyes, comedically exaggerated grimace, and flaring nostrils. This face scares her opponents, and caused her old boyfriend to dump her because he couldn't handle dealing with it (as well as her overcompetitive streak). Ironically, although she expects Shutaro Mendo, whom she falls for at first sight, to reject her in the same way, he actually isn't bothered by it.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yugi Muto and Pharaoh Atem dueling.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, whenever Yuya gets angry enough to reveal his Superpowered Evil Side Zarc, his eyes glow red, his hair spikes up, and he gains a dark aura.
