Angry Cheek Puff

Clockwise: The Owl House; Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon; Frieren: Beyond Journey's End; Citizen Kane

Having a character pout by puffing up and inflating their cheeks is an exaggerated facial expression used to convey annoyance, anger, frustration, stubbornness, or displeasure. Symbolically it's meant to illustrate how one's emotions are boiling and about to erupt. It's considered a type of Manga Effect called fukurettsura (ふくれっ面, lit. "inflating face"), and is usually associated with anime and manga, though it can show up in other mediums.

This type of expression is considered to be cute, adorable, and comical and rarely used in a serious situation with high stakes. It's associated with characters who are young, childish, stubborn, or emotionally immature, who are pouting/sulking with this expression over something silly and inconsequential, thus adding a touch of humor or playfulness to a scene.

If a character does this often enough it can be considered to be a type of Character Tic. An annoyed groan, moan, or whimper can also be expected. Due to the cuteness factor, this facial expression is more commonly used with female characters. It's especially common in archetypes like The Cutie, Clingy Jealous Girl, The Ditz, Genki Girl, Kuudere, Manchild, Bratty Half-Pint, Tiny Tyrannical Girl, or a Tsundere.

This is sometimes accompanied by the character's cheeks (or entire face) turning red and/or the sound of a whistling teakettle. It can also be combined with other visual effects such as Blank White Eyes, Blush Sticker, Cross-Popping Veins, Dull Eyes of Unhappiness, Frustrated Overhead Scribble, High-Pressure Emotion, or Luminescent Blush.

See Crocodile Tears, Resort to Pouting, and Puppy-Dog Eyes for when the pouting is used to garner sympathy. See Comical Angry Face, Demon Head, and Goblin Face for other exaggerated facial expressions meant to convey anger and frustration. May overlap with Breath-Holding Brat, Palm on Cheek Pose, Quivering Lip, or Painful Pointy Pufferfish.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: In Chapter 134, Shizuka puffs her cheeks to try and convey that a character in a story is feeling hostile towards his opponent, but Nano mistakenly thinks she’s conveying that the character was "swallowed up by bottomless cuteness", which confuses her.
• BanG Dream!: In one of the 4koma strips, Himari is angrily stomping and puffing her cheeks when Ran doesn't reply to a series of text messages, as Ran has a bad habit of keeping her friends "On Read" or giving only one-word replies.
  Ran: I got here on time, didn't I? What's the big deal?
  Himari: [angrily] That doesn't excuse you for ignoring my texts!
  Ran: [genuinely confused] It doesn't?
  Himari: No it does not!
• Chihayafuru: During their second time at the National Karuta Tournament, Tsutomu scouts the other teams in advance. He warns them that one member of the team they're facing stands a lot to disrupt momentum if his opponent is winning. He gets paired up against Kanade. Forearmed with Tsutomu's information, when the guy stands once too often, Kanade puffs her cheeks out and looks up at him. He apologizes, and Kanade, with flashing eyes, smugly thinks to herself that he won't be pulling that again any time soon. She wins her match, as well.
• In Crayon Shinchan, puffed cheeks are a visual shorthand for characters getting angry. It usually happens to the titular character when denied a snack by his mother Misae or when his neighbor Nanako (whom he had a Precocious Crush on) starts paying more attention to his kid sister Himawari, but this can happen to Shin-Chan's classmates and other supporting characters too.
• Date A Live: In "Despair Comes Crashing Down", Miku gets so mad when she thinks Kotori is insulting Natsumi that she puffs up both her cheeks, accompanied by a Blush Sticker and Blank White Eyes.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: When Tanjiro and the Butterfly girls try to stop Tengen Uzui from kidnapping Aoi and Naho for a mission, Tengen demands respect because he's a Hashira, which leads Tanjiro to declare that he won't acknowledge him as a Hashira as he angrily puffs up his cheeks.
• Do It Yourself!!: Purin has the habit of puffing her cheeks whenever she gets annoyed by Serufu's antics.
• Domestic Girlfriend: After Rui and Natsu become step-siblings, she introduces herself as his "older sister", only for him to correct her by revealing he's a few months older than her, causing her to puff her cheeks in annoyance.
• Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro: Nagatoro tends to puff her cheeks and groan when she's annoyed and doesn't want to show it, such as during the art club exhibit where she got jealous that some random girls were talking to Senpai.
• Fairy Tail:
  • While first arriving at Tuly Village Natsu fires his fire dragon slayer magic between Lucy’s legs, Lucy is understandably less than happy by this (and unaware that Natsu did this in order to help a guy who was having his stuff stolen several miles away) and promptly puffs her cheeks out in response showing her displeasure over the act.
  • In the 3rd OVA, where the main cast are thrown back in time, child Erza is searching for Natsu and Gray after lashing out at them for eating her cake. When adult Erza predicts that she's going to apologize, her younger self audibly puffs out her cheeks while refusing to admit that's her intent.
• Food Wars!: Several characters pout while puffing their cheeks (Frequently combined with Blush Sticker and Blank White Eyes), like Soma, Erina, and Megumi, but Alice is one for does it often enough for it to count as a Character Tic, due to her being an immature and spoiled Ojou whose pride is easily offended and often tries Resort to Pouting when she doesn't get her way.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Fern tends to puff her cheeks whenever she's pouting or sulking (usually due to something Stark or Frieren did). This comically contrasts with her usually serious, stoic, and mature personality.
• Gakuen Babysitters:
  • In episode 10, Midori gets mad when Satoru mistakes her for a boy and puffs her cheeks in anger at him.
  • In one episode, Midori, feeling frustrated, puffs out her cheeks as she tugs on Usaida's pant leg, where she shouts out his name as her first word. The next day, her mother Yukari does the exact same thing when she's cross with Usaida because she wanted Midori's first word to be "Papa" or "Mama".
• Gather! Mystery Research Club: Suzu is a high schooler who looks so young and small that people mistake her for a middle schooler. This greatly displeases her and makes her liable to pout by puffing her cheeks, which ironically makes her look even more like a kid.
• The Helpful Fox Senko-san: Senko puffs her cheeks when annoyed as a Character Tic, which shows off how immature and childish she is despite being a 800-years old Asian Fox Spirit.
• Himouto! Umaru-chan: The selfish Bratty Half-Pint Umaru tends to inflate her cheeks like a balloon when she gets upset or angry.
• Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu: When Shrinking Violet Hitori ends up in a class group different from her friends, she gets so distressed gets teary-eyed. When Sunao orders her to to quit it and put on a strong face, the best Hitori can do is puff up her cheeks while adopting a determined expression.
• How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend: The Tsundere Eriri puffs her cheeks in anger when Tomoya calls her out for bringing and drawing her lewd art in his house.
• HuGtto! Pretty Cure: In episode 15, Ruru puffs both her cheeks while having Dull Eyes of Unhappiness after she gets into an argument with Emiru's sexist older brother.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Fugiwara's cheeks puff up at one point, while her whole body glowed red with fury at Ishigami.
  • Kaguya's cheeks puff up to such a ridiculous degree that her eyes are barely open (her face also glowing red) in frustration that Shirogane won't fess up his birthday (which she already knows) for a horoscope reading, believing that he won't celebrate his nor hers.
• Lucky Star: Yutaka rants to her cousin, Konata, while puffing out her cheeks and with little puffs of steam coming off of her, distressed by the fact that everyone kept referring to her as "small" (which she is) "adorable" or "cute", as she was a high-school student now! She's also red with fury and waving her fists in the air as she goes on about it.
• Mega Man NT Warrior: In Episode 38 of Stream, after Lan and Mayl defeat the Monster of the Week, Lan once again acts oblivious to Mayl's feelings about him when he mentions Jasmine is able to see Duo's comet, annoying her enough to puff up her cheeks and deliver a slap.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Tohru tends to puff one of her cheeks when she's angry or pouting. In episode 5, when she spies on Kobayashi working via invisibility, she gets so jealous of seeing Kobayashi and Takiya interacting that she puffs up her face so hard that smoke starts to come out.
• My Dress-Up Darling: When Kitagawa discovers Shinju came over to Gojo's house so he could help her with a cosplay, Kitagawa starts to puff her cheeks in jealousy. Since they're on the phone, Gojo can't tell, but he guesses something's wrong since she stops talking.
• Muromi-san: In episode 4, Muromi-san puffed up her cheeks super big when Takkun didn't want to go to the Kamo river with her and Yetchi.
• Myriad Colors Phantom World: In episode 8, Haruhiko begs for Mai to be The Bait for a perverted monkey ghost. She reluctantly agrees but remains upset at Haruhiko for making her do it by pouting at him with puffed cheeks.
• Naruto:
  • Naruto would occasionally sulk while puffing his cheeks in his younger years to show how much of a brat he was. He stopped doing it after the Time Skip in Shippuden as a sign he got Older and Wiser.
  • Boruto: Naruto's kids, Boruto and Himawari have inherited his tendency to puff their cheeks when they pout.
• New Game!: When Aoba assumes Ko's age to be over 30 years old, she gets so distressed that she inflates her cheeks while pouting.
• No Game No Life: In episode 6, Stephanie puffs her cheeks in displeasure due to Sora using her as a decoy and getting her killed in a game.
• Doremi frequently does this in Ojamajo Doremi when she's being slighted. Hana picked this up from her as a toddler, and does it when she doesn't want to do something.
• One Piece: In Chapter 953, Kawamatsu offers to let Hiyori ride on his back since the snow is so deep, but Hiyori gets offended and refuses, stating she's not a child while puffing out her cheeks like a blowfish in a very childlike pout, which Kawamatsu immediately lampshades.
• Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat: Due to the show's more cutesy style, the characters will puff out their cheeks when they get frustrated, most commonly Dejiko.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Recurring character Jigglypuff is a cute, pink, round Pokémon that tends to puff up like a balloon whenever it gets upset (with an audible "honk"), which is usually due to people falling asleep to its singing, as it's an Attention Whore and sees it as an insult, seemingly unaware that its singing causes Forced Sleep.
  • In "Yo, Ho, Ho! Go, Popplio!", Lana tells her classmates the story of how she met her Popplio. In flashback, when Lana sees Popplio (then wild) being bullied by five Team Skull grunts, she puffs up her cheeks angrily before ordering Lapras to freeze the grunts solid with Ice Beam, then throwing out her fishing line to catch Popplio and bring it to safety.
  • In "Turning over a New Bayleef!", Bayleef repeatedly puffs up her cheeks after getting angry at Ash for yelling at her.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Miku Nakano is a Clingy Jealous Girl who tends to puff her cheeks in peeved anger whenever other girls get too close to Fuutaro for her liking. Her other sisters (primarily Itsuki) aren't above doing this either, albeit to a much lesser extent.
• Record of Lodoss War: In episode 5, Deedlit tries to get Parn to pay attention to the Pimped-Out Dress she's wearing for the party but he fails to notice it, causing her to get so upset she puffs both of her cheeks so hard her face starts to get red.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero: During her teenage years Raphtalia tended to pout in a cuteish manner by puffing her cheeks whenever she got upset (such as when Naofumi wouldn't let her sleep with him), as she was still young but growing to have a backbone.
• Rozen Maiden: In episode 5, Hinaichigo (the youngest of the dolls) gets into a fight with Suiseiseki and later Jun finds her moping in bed with her cheeks puffed and her face red with anger.
• Saikyou Juzoku Tensei: Zolomonia puffs up her cheeks in anger when Peter asks her about Abel, to illustrate how much she still thinks about him despite her denying him being her 'business'.
• Saki: Risa is a Tsundere that is so perpetually angry that her default face seems to be a puff-cheeked pout, which she does even as a high-schooler.
• Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie: Shikimori puffs her cheeks when she's mad, adding to her "cute" appeal despite her assertive and aggressive personality. Ironically she does a big puffy pout the very first time Yuu mentions she's sometimes "not cute at all".
• Student Council's Discretion: In Episode 8, Ken and Elise both pout with puffed cheeks during their Staring Contest before realizing how awkward they're being.
• Three Leaves, Three Colors: When Impoverished Patrician Youko tries to make yakisoba, she ruins it by putting the sauce before the boiling water. She gets so embarrassed and distressed when her friends point it out that she starts sulking by puffing her cheeks and getting teary-eyed.
• Undead Unluck: When expressing jealousy under the assumption that Fuuko and Andy are a couple, Gina briefly pouts before shouting to Fuuko that she fell in love with Andy first.
• Usagi-chan de Cue!!: Miku twice develops bloated cheeks in frustration. The first occurs in class, as two of her classmates observe the bubbly, bouncy (and breasty) Mimika cuddling the serious and studious Haru. One girl wonders if this will trigger jealousy in Miku, and when the two girls look, Miku is seething: her hands are balled into fists, her cheeks are puffed out to the maximum, and a cow's mooing is heard. Yeah, she's jealous, for sure. The second instance occurs on the school's rooftop, where Haru keeps a rabbit hutch. Miku tries to get Haru to take her to a new burger shop in town, but Mimika appears and says that she and Haru can go home and eat the goodies they'd bought the day before. When Mimika looks at Miku, she wonders if Miku has gained weight, since her cheeks are once again puffed out in frustration.
• WATATEN!: an Angel Flew Down to Me: Miyako's bratish little sister Hinata tends to puff her cheeks when she gets mad, which usually happens when her beloved sister is paying attention to the other girls and not her.
• We Never Learn: It's a Character Tic of Rizu to inflate her cheeks when she gets irritated, often accompanied by Blank White Eyes. Fumino and Uruka also occasionally puff their cheeks when they get mad.
• WORKING!!: Popura will frequently puff out her cheeks in anger, often with little puffs of steam coming off of her, when she is A). Mocked about her short stature by Satou, B). Praised for her short stature by Souta, or C.) Satou rearranges her hair (literally and figuratively teasing her) when he's in a foul mood about his unrequited crush on Yachiyo.
• Yankee JK KuzuHana-chan: It's a Character Tic of Hanako to puff her cheeks when she is frustrated/jealous.

Comic Books

• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): In issue #2, Amy puffs her cheeks while blushing when Sonic calls her out for being a Stalker with a Crush towards him.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: In "Mukrezar's Return", it's verbally described, and done by the youngest/most childish, of a set of sisters:
  Camilla sputtered, her cheeks puffed up in anger.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles: Chapter 130 has a flashback where Yuko fought a trio of rogue ninjas. At one point, one of those rogue ninjas said that "she's not much fun". In response to that, Yuko puffed her cheeks, had some Cross-Popping Veins on her forehead, and complained that what he said was "just downright rude!"
• In Star Of Wonder Star Of Night, Chiffon’s cheeks puff up from anger after Hime throws a snowball at Tarte.
• One Touhou Project fancomic has Mystia (a bird youkai known as the Night Sparrow) puff up like this on learning her yukata has been tied with a knot called "fat sparrow".
• Viridescent: Nejire puffs her cheeks when she's unhappy as part of her Manchild characterization.

Films — Live-Action

• Citizen Kane: Herbert Carter starts puffing out his cheeks as he gets increasingly exasperated by Kane's yellow journalism methods. This gets heavily exaggerated in the 4-minute trailer for the movie, where several of the characters in the story are asked over the phone for their opinions on Charles Foster Kane, and all Carter can do in response to the question is angrily puff his cheeks out over and over all while spitting out borderline Angrish (which the trailer cuts to repeatedly between the responses from the other characters).

Literature

• Ascendance of a Bookworm: While Myne, Benno, and Mark are on their way to the temple, Mark pokes fun at Myne's inability to hide her anxiety. She reacts by puffing her cheeks angrily, causing Benno to start poking one of her inflated cheeks.
• Gate: High-elf Tuka Luna Marceau has been known to puff out her cheeks in irritation at Itami, particularly when he's paying attention to one of the other girls.
• Gosick: Played for Laughs when Kazuya finds Victorique sulking with her cheek puffed, but assumes the inflated cheek means she has a tooth cavity. This only makes her more upset which causes her face to get even more red and inflated, and he thinks she's getting worse so he hurries off to find a dentist.
• Outbreak Company: The young queen Petralka is an Attention Whore with a Hair-Trigger Temper and has the habit of puffing her cheeks when upset, usually due to getting jealous at Shinichi paying attention to other girls.
• Re:Monster: Rubellia puffs up her cheeks in jealousy when she learns about Rou's with a Dryad.
• An inversion in The Silver Chair: while the comically pessimistic Puddleglum contemplates the quest of finding the lost prince, he sucks in his cheeks, until they are hollower than one would have thought possible.
• Spice and Wolf: When Holo is Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like, she puffs out her cheeks and turns her back on Lawrence. He manages to calm her anger a bit by asking her if she is, in fact, unharmed, to which she shifts an eye to look at him, then nods once to affirm.

Live-Action TV

• El Chavo del ocho: Quico puffing up his cheeks is his trademark facial expression, befitting him being a Spoiled Brat.

Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street: Kermit's reaction to anything annoying him was the puppeteer scrunching up his face in a way that looked like his cheeks were puffed out, as best seen in this failed attempt to recite the alphabet.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: One of Ayane's expressions has her with puffed up cheeks whenever discussing about details that annoy her.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt Series: Joule in the second game tends to puff angrily whenever she sees Gunvolt and Quinn getting close together.
• Guilty Gear -STRIVE-: If Faust uses his "Bone-Crushing Excitement" — where he accidentally rams a wheelchair into the opponent's shin — on Jack-O', her cheeks will puff with air as she looks like she's trying not to scream in pain. It's a lot more hilarious than it sounds.
• Love Nikki - Dress Up Queen has Debbie do an angry puff out of her cheeks when she's upset or irritated (such as in events where you can deny gifting her what she's asked of you).
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: In one moment when Kurumi sees Yuma holding hands with Fubuki, she annoyingly puffs her cheeks after Yuma tries to explain it's Not What It Looks Like.
• One of the player icons in Paladins is a chibi version of Zhin cutely puffing out his cheeks in annoyance. This is an Evil Overlord Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who has put entire villages to the torch and killed countless people and is in no way cute in-game.
• Parodius Da!: In the Volcano Valley stage, the volcanoes' tell for when they erupt is angrily puffing up their cheeks and turning bright red.
• Pokémon Sun and Moon: When Lillie gets annoyed (such as when you choose the more flippant dialogue options), her cheeks puff out with noticeable blush stickers.
• Story of Seasons:
  • Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life: Special Edition: If you decide to have a daughter, you will see her during her teenage years do this whenever she's angry or upset.
  • Story of Seasons (2014) has Elise, the rich girl, do this when angry (though it's on the subtle side). Your babies also do this in the crawling stage.
  • Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life has Lumina do this when she's upset or irritated.
• Super Mario 3D World: The Blue Sprixie Princess is shown with her cheeks puffed and an angry look on her face.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: One of Cute Bruiser's Arizona's dialogue portraits has her cheeks puffed up when she's annoyed.
• Undertale Red: Red will often puff up her cheeks when she gets agitated.
• Yandere Simulator: In the video "Yandere-chan's Childhood", Ayano mentions that as she grew older, she realized that her peers were more emotive than her. One of them is a younger Osana with puffed-out cheeks and Cross-Popping Veins.

Visual Novels

This is an actual character tag on the Visual Novel Database: "Puffy".

• Ace Attorney: One of Maya's sprite poses has her puffing both of her cheeks while glaring, which is used whenever she's angry at Phoenix, fitting with her young, Genki Girl demeanor. She still does it even when she's a 28-year-old woman by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice.
• Chaos;Head: At one point Takumi talks about how his Annoying younger sister Nanami has the habit of "puffing her cheeks up in a big pout" when she's mad, although ironically her in-game sprite doesn't do it.
• Danganronpa:
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: One of Chiaki Nanami's sprites has her puff out her cheeks in frustration, befitting her cutesy appearance.
  • Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls: Kotoko's annoyed sprite has her puffing her cheeks, complete with a Blush Sticker, which is appropriate since she's The Cutie.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Despite being a cold, Aloof Dark-Haired Girl Maki has the habit of pouting when she gets embarrassed (usually due to Kaito), comically puffing her cheeks to show she's Not So Stoic.

Web Video

• Third Rate Gamer: Parodied. As part of the show's Stylistic Suck, the Third Rate Gamer's way of looking angry amounts to him puffing out his cheeks and staring at the camera.

Western Animation

• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "We Got Hacked", Enid puffs her cheeks in indignance and starts stomping her feet in a tantrum when Dendy tells her she only acts cool to hide how she's "internally struggling with her identity".
• The Owl House:
  • In "Lost in Language", Edric demonstrates to Luz how worked up Amity gets by puffing his cheeks until his face turns bright red, before catching his breath and remarking that he almost passed out. A few moments later, Amity does indeed puff her cheeks and turn red.
    Amity: Whew! Almost passed out.
  • "Clouds on the Horizon" reveals that It Runs in the Family, as Amity’s father Alador makes almost the exact same face when he gets mad.
    Odalia: There you go, making that face.
• Totally Spies!: In the early seasons, Alex has done this one at least two different occasions when she got angry at someone; however, this gag disappeared as the series itself gradually got less Animesque.

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