"Now a lot of you might be wondering, why didn't I put Belle on there? Well, it's not that she wasn't beautiful, smart, and a well-developed character. It's just that, well... she didn't show her navel, and on this countdown that earns you, like, 20 more points."
Midriff-baring outfits are popular in Real Life, and have been for centuries, although until recently, it was just in certain cultures and, within those cultures, certain occasions. It's more like 60 years that it's been widely considered acceptable. Even belly-dancing outfits weren't midriff-baring before the "cabaret style" began with the most famous "Little Egypt"◊, a dancer who performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
But since then, they've been a hit, with outfits ranging from tube tops to two-piece swimsuits. So this is a trope about costumes showing the curvy area around a woman's waist.
Note that simply showing the belly and a little skin around it, like a slightly open shirt, does not count. But a dress with a large section around the belly cut out does.
Western Animation in particular seems to love this, since it's an easy form of Fanservice that the radar invariably misses. Within the past decade, the belly shirt seems to have become some kind of visual shorthand for "teenage girl". If someone does this in High School (actually in school), it's a case of No Dress Code.
Need we mention that this is a form of Fanservice and Fetish Fuel?
This is mostly a female trope, but it can sometimes apply to male characters, if their lower torsos are really, really amazing. Bare midriffs on men can also be a sign that the man is Camp Gay or a Wholesome Crossdresser.
Automatically comes with a Fur Bikini, Seashell Bra, Black Bra and Panties. Can come with a Mini Dress Of Power, Chainmail Bikini, or Sexy Santa Dress, if any one of them is a two-piece.
Compare Foot Focus, Absolute Cleavage, Underboobs, Showgirl Skirt, Zettai Ryouiki (has a similar effect, but lower on the body).
Examples
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Advertising
The woman working out in this commercial for Worx Energy.
In this commercial for Washington Sports Clubs: A young woman is being peeped in on by her neighbor. Noticing the man's attention, she opens her shirt, revealing her sexy lingerie-clad body, and gyrates enticingly.
Quite a few advert leaflets and such in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England have a sexy woman in them. In many of those cases, their midriffs are bared.
Prior to Shippuden she subverted the trope. She wore a separate top and bottom that left her midriff exposed... but covered that with form-fitting wraps.
Karin is a partial example: her lab coat hangs all the way down on the sides, but goes up towards to middle to the point that you can see part of her belly.
Sakura bares hers in the entirety of the third Naruto movie, Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom.
Yue's outfit bares her midriff after the fight in the Governor's ball. Reminding you that her ally was written out of existence by a shot that passed through Yue, destroying that part of her shirt along with Emily.
In Sailor Moon, Ves Ves, Cere Cere, and Jun Jun (known better in the anime as Besu Besu, Cele Cele, and Jun Jun) of the Amazons Quartet wear outfits that predominantly bare their midriffs. Only Palla Palla (Para Para) has hers obscured.
The Sailor Starlights and a good chunk of the female Monsters of the Week do this too.
Early concept art which had the original◊ five◊ with more individual costumes, had this for all of them save Mercury. Moon and Venus with shirts that stopped just short of the belts, Mars with a similar one, though the material was long in the front to pass the waist, and Jupiter going all out with basically a halter-top and the V-waistline.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA, the president's daughter Sara wears a high-cut jacket and yellow tube top in the first half, before switching to a midriff-covering wedding dress in the second.
In Galaxy Angel, Ranpha initially wears a Chinese dress with a large section cut out to reveal her midriff. In sequels Galaxy Angel Z, A, etc., however, this section is covered up.
The outfits of both Lily C. Sherbet and Anise Azeat of the Rune Angel Troupe.
Amalla Su from Love Hina: her default outfit is rather revealing tribal garb. Kaolla Su (and later the rest of the girls) wears a similar outfit for her wedding dress.
Misty from Pokémon wears a midriff-baring top in the anime, but shows a lot more skin in one of the manga series, donning a higher-cut shirt and lower-cut shorts.
In Pokémon Special, Misty wears a tube top and shorts as her default outfit as well.
She actually wears so little that during the Beach Episode, her swimsuit covered more skin than her usual outfit. Ms. Fanservice indeed.
Also, Leyte. Her Fan Nickname is even "Professor Midriff".
Kallen Kozuki ~Terrorist Version~ wears this early on in the first series. Complete with giant belts, straps, obvious breasts, and Zettai Ryouki!
Juri from YuYu Hakusho wears a one-piece outfit with a large section around her belly cut out.
Raichou's Magical Girl costume in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki has a big gap, through which she shows off her stomach. In one episode she dresses up Kyouka in a costume that reveals even more in that department.
Another male example: although Fai's default outfit doesn't include this, he shows his belly multiple times in Hanshin and Piffle outfits. If I Recall Correctly, Sakura applies too.
Oh and the Infinity outfit. Let's not even mention the Infinity outfit.
Ahiru in Princess Tutu wears a midriff-exposing sweater when she's not in her school uniform — although on her it has more of a silly effect than a sexy one. The Dark Magical Girl, Kraehe, also has a dress that covers her chest (barely), but not much else, including exposing her navel.
Female Ranma ties the bottom of her tank top into a midriff-baring knot for absolutely no reason in the second Ranma ˝ movie, Nihao My Concubine. Oversized or not (it's sized for her male side) it certainly didn't stop the Gainaxing. She did the same thing twice in the manga, tying her tank top and trousers (or boxer shorts) into the shape of a bikini purely for Fanservice's sake.
Kirara in Samurai 7. As well as a most of the women from their village
Seriously, I bet you could grate cheese on those abs!
Yes, but the smell tends to linger something awful.
Also, Amelda/Alister.
Tea and Mai wear outfits that do this too.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds when Carly Carmine becomes a Dark Signer her outfit now consists of a black midriff top with a skirt and a cape to boot.
That Jerk Ass triple crossing bitch Barbara that Yusei meets in Crash Town. However, bitch or not she's still kinda cute.
Kalin Kessler as a Dark Signer to a lesser extent.
Another male example would be Shugo Chara!'s Ikuto's first Character Transformation.
Also, Amu's Amulet Heart and Amulet Devil
Both Yunyun and Alphard from Canaan dress this way, although in Yunyun's case it stresses her tomboyish nature, whereas with Alphard it is used more to emphasize her extreme badassery.
As often as not, Tina Foster in Ai Yori Aoshi. Miyabi wore a midriff-baring halter top (often under an even shorter "jacket" and with a miniskirt) early in the manga, including her first appearance.
Éclair from Kiddy Grade shows off her midriff through a cross-shaped opening in her costume—which also makes it an example of Impossibly Cool Clothes.
Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail has the ability to change into different armors, many of them showing off her stomach (which some might describe as 'taut').
Sting is really fond of tops that only cover his pecs. His first outfit like this was also tight, and a color similar to his skin.
Somewhat lampshaded in Magic Knight Rayearth: The ship from Chizeta is full of young women wearing such an outfit. When Umi is captured, since her clothes disappear (offscreen, unfortunately), she's given the same kind of outfit, which makes her complain about her bare tummy.
Hellsing's Doktor, who, apart from being a male example, is also a Nazi. What is most disturbing to fans is that he pulls it off remarkably well.
Seras also did this in the fourth episode of the TV series.
The girls of Hidamari Sketch rarely wear outfits that do this outside the context of swimwear, but one time, when they were taking pictures of each other with Sae's new used Polaroid camera, Hiro lent Yuno an outfit that showed her tummy. Sae was surprised she even had something like that (with a skull and crossbones on it), but Miyako guesses that Hiro wanted to be bold, so she bought it, then decided she couldn't wear it.
Yoshinoya-sensei wore a midriff-baring outfit on stage during the opening ceremony in volume 4, and later to her class, helping her illustrate the three elective enrichment classes available to second-year students. She invited the ones who had already decided to touch the part of her that indicated the class they wanted: her tummy for 2-D, her breasts for 3-D (!), and her head for information.
While the girls of Ichigo Mashimaro don't seem to wear these in the main story outside of swimsuits, Nobue and Miu do on some episode pages and interstitial pages.
Misaki Suzuhara did not bare her midriff in the anime, but she bared with her another swimsuit in the official anime picture that shows a group picture of her, Tamayo, Hatoko, Sai, and Kaede in their swimsuits.
The round girls of this anime wore a midriff-baring outfits.
A cameo of Misaki who appeared in the episode 10 of an anime Kobato wore a midriff-baring blue promotional outfit during the end of an exam along with Tamayo. This is the first appearance of Misaki Suzuhara who bares her midriff in the other CLAMP anime.
Urd, Peorth, and Hild's loli form in Ah! My Goddess have all worn midriff-baring outfits.
This outfit◊ worn by Sylia Stingray in the Bubblegum Crisis OVAs, sometimes with a suit jacket over it. The first episode was released in 1987, but with the passage of time her fashion starts looking less and less ridiculous.
In Eureka Seven, Gidget, Hilda and Talho all have outfits that bare their midriffs to various degrees. Talho, however, switches to a full-body costume later on.
Yumekui Merry: Merry, one of the more recent examples. Notable in that they're not trying to "sneak" anything past the radar — in fact, the animators appear to be actively trying to put in as many shots of Merry's bellybutton as they can.
THE iDOLM@STER - A few of the girls' stage outfits, specially Miki's, Hibiki's and Mami's.
Mayor Gathermoon in Gundam SD.
In A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, the woman who plays the bear pianist's human form in the play "The Bear Pianist" wears a midriff-baring tank top normally.
Most female characters on the Gargantia fleet except for the assistant to Fleet Commander in Suisei no Gargantia
Comics
After Jenny Quantam from The Authority aged herself to look like a young woman in her twenties, this became her dress code almost exclusively. At one point she got "tired of menstruating" and de-aged herself to look about 11. The bare midriffs stayed, however.
Powers has Deena Pilgrim, who as a detective is allowed to come up with her own dress code. As she remarks to her pissed-off partner Christian Walker early on, while trying to get him to forgive her for going through his things (she thought he had powers): "And I wear these little belly shirts. That's gotta do something for you, right?" It's far less Stripperific than normal for a comic book, but she wears midriff-baring shirts almost exclusively. Some of the regular heroines of the Powers world go for the more traditional comic book heroine outfits, though.
Huntress in Birds Of Prey bared her midriff despite a full body costume and cape. Hey, if you did 700 sit-ups a day to maintain those gorgeous abs, wouldn't you?
An irritant for many fans who remember the time Huntress got shot four times in the stomach.
The belly window varies Depending on the Writer and artist, and Gail Simone said that her costume was going to be changed to not include it a few issues into the 2010 relaunch. Unfortunately, the title was unceremoniously cancelled mid-story.
The Scarlet Witch wears one during the Kurt Busiek/George Perez era of The Avengers. They attempted to justify it with her saying she was going back to her gypsy roots, yet the outfit would have easily made her ancestors blush.
Stargirl from the JSA has worn a belly shirt since her first appearance in her short-lived solo book.
After nearly 70 years of wearing a one piece bathing suit, the most recent Phantom Lady started doing this.
Several female Teen Titans as of late seem to be going this route.
X-23, the Canon Immigrantfemaleclone of Wolverine exemplifies this trope. Just about every thing she's worn, give or take a few outfits, shows her belly. It came to the point where when the third incarnation of X Force was formed, she was the only girl in the team whose uniform had this. Good thing she didn't inherit Wolverine's propensity for chest hair.
Notably, the few times where she had a uniform that isn't an example of this trope (other than her origin story where she was only about 13 or 14) was when it wasn't her creators Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost writing her (Chris Claremont first and later Christos Gage and Dennis Hopeless) so this might be due to Author Appeal.
Surge is also known for this. Makes for awkwardness when her roommate, a Muslim girl, makes a veiled insult in retaliation when Surge calls her out on her clothing.
The new(er) Scorpion, Carmilla Black has had some form of belly baring in all variations (though the variance isn't much) costumes she's worn.
Callisto of the Morlocks, maybe one of the pioneers of this look...
Elsa Bloodstone, especially her original costume (since it was based off her fathers, but since his bared his chest, and being a Marvel Comic they couldn't really bare hers anymore than they already were, the midriff was left more open seemingly to compensate.).
Dagger, as in: Cloak &, always had that dagger shape in the front of her costume that puts her navel prominently on display.
Notably, when the rest of the Pack team up with the children of the Future Foundation, Julie is back to wearing her old, full-body costume. This is either an art error or an intentional change to appear "classier" in front of the children.
A rare male example is Incredible Hulk's Marvel NOW costume, which is a suit of armor that shows off his abs when transformed.
One of the many unpopular things about the Kelley Armstrong issues of the Angel comics was Kate Lochley's new midriff-baring costume, which was both out-of-character for someone who had previously dressed fairly professionally, and stupid for a non-powered human character in a canon full of hand-to-hand combat using edged weapons and claws.
In the French-Canadian comic book Les Nombrils, as could be guessed from its title, bared midriffs are a definite feature of the title girl trio.◊
Empowered: Sistah Spooky and Ninjette have baring-midriff Stripperiffic costumes. Same thing for Emp's hypermembrane as soon as it start getting shredded... that is, most of the time.
Van von Hunter's perpetually amnesiac sidekick, whose outfit consists of a vest that covers her up top to the diaphragm, low-cut trousers with panty-flash splits, boots, and of course The Gloves of Lifting.
In Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors, Ash's girlfriend Caroline is shown wearing just a bikini, showing off her midriff. Furthermore, a girl getting mugged by a group of men at a railway station is shown wearing a midriff exposing shirt and three of the nightmare warriors (Tina, Rennie and Stephanie) are all shown wearing shirts that show off their belly and bellybuttons. Later, Maggie Burroughs/Kathryn Krueger is transformed into a new outfit by Freddy which shows off her midriff.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel, although that's technically "bra only" — she doesn't seem to wear anything on her fish half.
Melody in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea to a lesser extent. Her full clothes do cover her midriff, but after she becomes a mermaid her shirt turns out to be to short to conceal it without her pants.
Aladdin: Jasmine's outfit, as seen in the picture.
Another rare male example: Gideon the cat in Pinocchio.
Another rare male example: Cody in TheRescuersDownUnder - His belly shows mostly during his flight with Marahute.
And another rare male example: Mr. Smee in Peter Pan. In fact, the pirates always hoist him up by his shirt, exposing his belly. In the scene when he first comes out, a pirate grabs him and starts belly-jabbing Smee with his sword, causing Smee to suck his belly in to avoid the sharp and painful sting.
Shanti from The Jungle Book 2, who is depicted here with a ponytail, a yellow tube top, and a purple skirt (in the first film, she wore pigtails and a strapless purple dress with a pink sash at the waist).
Amidala due to convenient Clothing Damage — when it isn't simply a part of her outfits.
Aayla Secura was pretty famous for this because Jedi are usually known for wearing concealing robes. Her choice of clothing is a balance between Jedi convention and traditional garb for female Twi'leks, which is even more revealing (although Aayla is more modest in personality than most Twi'leks anyway).
This seems to be the only other form of fanservice in Bollywood besides Wet Sari Scene, because anything else would be too controversial.
Crosses over into Real Life, since a highly popular traditional dress in India is the saree, which leaves the midriff partially exposed on one side.
In The Lady Eve Barbara Stanwyck wears a dress like this as she seduces the leading man.
Pharaoh Ahkmenrah from Night at the Museum wears a rather minor version by not showing his navel.
Thelma And Louise: Visual symbolism of Thelma's descent into crime involves her starting to wear a midriff-baring shirt.
In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie Kimberly Hart got stuck wearing a midriff baring skating outfit when Zordon called her and the rest of the Rangers on a mission and she never had time to change out of it.
Also Dulcea wears a bikini like piece of clothing too.
Pretty good looking for a gal that's as old as Zordon.
In Spy Kids 2, Carmen wears a midriff-baring top prior to and during the dinner scenes, and also during the credits.
In the flashback sequence halfway through Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Jen and Lo's Slap-Slap-Kiss phase of their relationship culminates in a passionate love scene that treats the viewers with a lingering glimpse at Jen's bare midriff.
In Yesterday Was A Lie, Chase Masterson's character exposes her midriff through the middle-to-late portion of the film.
In Mighty Aphrodite, Mira Sorvino, as prostitute Linda Ash, bares her midriff in the scene where she and Woody Allen, as Lenny, the adopted father of her child, first meet in the film. In that scene Linda has made Lenny comfortable at her apartment, thinking that he is just another client of hers.
In the Bring It on series, the cheerleaders do this often, in uniform and out of uniform.
In the fourth year anniversary movie for That Guy with the Glasses, To Boldly Flee, due to the plothole, Jesuotaku is changed into Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop and sports Ed's loose Crop top from part 3 onward.
Man Of The House lampshades this during Ranger Roland Sharp's dress code negotiation with the college cheerleaders under his protection, whom he hopes to make dress more modestly. The girls flatly refuse to compromise when he specifies no bare middriffs, insisting that, "...we'll cave on the first two, but we absolutely must maintain navel visibility."
Masha from Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures books aims to prove that one doesn't need a slim figure to wear a bare midriff outfit. Many other characters really wish she wouldn't.
In the first The Kingdom Keepers book, Amanda is noted to dress this way. Charlene's Virtual Magic Kingdom avatar dresses this way as well.
In Animorphs 'In The Time Of Dinosaurs' Rachel discusses the 'bare midriff look.'
Jarlaxle is a male example, for his first couple of appearances at least. It helps that the Underdark has a fairly constant temperature.
Part of Bree Pym's "youthful take on funeral attire" in Aunt Dimity Down Under was a black miniskirt paired with "a clinging black sweater that covered her tattoos but didn't quite cover her tummy."
Jeannie's outfit on I Dream Of Jeannie. (Although, rather infamously, lingering prudery caused creator Sidney Sheldon to have Barbara Eden's actual belly button concealed.)
Sufficiently primitive civilizations would frequently use this kind of costume.
Also sufficiently advanced civilizations.
Famously, Uhura in "Mirror, Mirror".
Interestingly, they got around the Moral Guardians of the day, who didn't allow female navels on TV (like Jeannie) by taking the Guardian supervising the episode out to lunch and getting him drunk. True story.
Also in the same episode, the mirror version of Marlena Moreau.
Hell, try any mirror universe episode (e.g. Star Trek: Enterprise "In a Mirror, Darkly")
Briefly, Tasha Yar in "The Naked Now". She was intoxicated, of course.
Guest character Brenna Odell◊ in "Up The Long Ladder".
Ginger and Mary Ann of Gilligan's Island had to hide their belly buttons, despite wearing bare-midriff clothing. They managed to get away with it now and then.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Season 2 episode "Halloween" had Willow, who up to then was always in very drab, conservative outfits, in a sexy midriff-baring costume as a plot point, and looking quite fit indeed.
Also Faith wears a few midriff baring shirts when she first shows up.
Karone's midriff is exposed the entire time in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy when she takes the place of a fallen ranger. (Plus she's wearing tight leather the whole time.)
Happens rather often on Dance Moms with the girls' practice outfits (which tend towards crop tops and bootie shorts), and many of their competition costumes as well, despite the oldest girl being only 13/14.
Farscape: In "Back and Back and Back to the Future" (only the third episode), Aeryn Sun's outfit is quite midrifferific. More frequently, Jool's second costume. And Sikozu, a lot. And many single-episode characters, most obtrusively the female locals in "Look at the Princess" and "Thanks For Sharing".
Chiana maybe. It's not clear if that really is her midriff or just cloth.
Speaking of Aeryn, how can you leave out the Cher costume from Season 4's "Kansas?"
Smallville covers (or more appropriately doesn't) this a lot with their girls but not limited to the following: Lana Lang, Chloe Sullivan has several outfits like this, Lois Lane, and Star Girl.
A lot of female contestants on America's Got Talent wear outfits like this because two of the judges are males and they hope they can get by by using their toned abs.
The girls of Saved By The Bell did this at various times throughout the series, but Kelly showed her tummy the most often.
In the Danger Island serial on The Banana Splits, Leslie Hayden, the plucky daughter of Professor Hayden, wears a red blouse tied at the bottom of her bust, thus exposing her midriff, along with white slacks that never got dirty despite all the action she was in.
Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess since the second season, Callisto and various Amazons.
In an episode of So Random!, Zora dressed up as some sort of bellydancer.
Sarah Walker wears a belly dancing outfit in Chuck.
In the episode of the PBS current affairs documentary series Frontline called Merchants of Cool, narrator and consulting producer Douglas Rushkoff coins the terms "mook" and "midriff". "Mook" refers to the trend of immature, crass, obnoxious man-children such as in The Tom Green Show and Jackass. "Midriff" refers to the female counterpart, sexually precocious nymphettes who trade on their looks such as Britney Spears and Jessica Biel who well, often wear midriff-wearing outfits in their bid to appear sexy.
Once Upon a Time: Ruby's waitress uniform does this. The irony is that her fairy tale counterpart, Red Riding Hood, is the most conservatively dressed major character in that world.
In Kickin It, Olivia Holt as Kim sort of does this at the end of the episode Kickin' It On Our Own
Princess Sara in the remake of Final Fantasy III. Additionally, Refia's Thief outfit. It's the only job that has clothing for her that fits this trope. So if you find yourself wanting to keep her a Thief despite the availability of statistically-better jobs, well, you're not alone.
Final Fantasy X-2. Most dress spheres contain varying levels of Stripperiffic-ness. Rikku and Paine's default outfits show their navels for all to see.
Final Fantasy XII, it's standard fashion for the party aside from Balthier and Penelo — Vaan, Ashe, Basch and Fran all reveal their midriffs to various extents, Fran going straight for Stripperific. In the sequel Revenant Wings, and Final Fantasy Tactics A 2, Penelo makes up for being left out in the original game.
Vanille, Fang and Lebreau of Final Fantasy XIII. Lightning's uniform usually covers her up, but with suitable posing◊ she not only shows her midriff, but clearly enough to see she has a naval piercing.
Dissidia: Final Fantasy and it's prequel Dissidia 012, Tifa, Kuja and Vaan return. Lightning is also back and her downloadable outfit shows off her midriff more, Bartz and Terra also get in on the trope in their own downloadable outfits.
Ginchiyo Tachibana would be the female subversion. In fact, she's the only female character that wears full chain and plate in the games, which should be noted here if only for the rarity value.
Suzuka from Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier, even so far as it being her only source of sex appeal, because as far as her chest goes... she's got nothing.
Jill's bonus outfit in the original Resident Evil also
"Party Girl" of Echo six in Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City
A number of female zombies in several of the games.
Claire's bonus outfit in Resident Evil 2
Several Neverwinter Nights outfits fit this trope. One community expansion, the Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher/Demon arc, has a female character (Anera for those following along at home) whose favored suit of armor is a ragged scale mail shirt that leaves her stomach exposed.
Jade Empire has Silk Fox, whose civilian outfit exposes her belly.
The King Of Fighters: Athena likes to do this, particularly in more recent games. Also Blue Mary, Angel, Vanessa, Leona, Iori and Benimaru. In fact, in various KOF games, three of them have a special ending picture as "Bellybutton-showing team".
BlazBlue has both Makoto Nanaya and Mu-12 doing this as well as NPC Kokonoe, but the originator was Bang Shishigami, a rare male example.
In Chrono Phantasma, Noel dons a new outfit that shows off her belly.
Male warriors from the first Disgaea game. Second game, they are shirtless.
Hanako wears a white tube top and pink shorts which also prominently display her belly.
Advance Wars has Sami, Lash and to a lesser degree Rachel wearing outfits that show their bellybuttons, as well as a male example in naval commander Drake.
Of course, Drake's belly button has more to do with his paunch and not caring about niceties like tucking in shirts than Fanservice.
Lin in Days of Ruin also shows her stomach off.
The Space Marine player character from Doom is usually depicted as having the abdomen area of his uniform ripped off by demons (same goes for his knee). Because the most well-known image of him is in DOOM's low-res title screen, most people think that his uniform and armor were issued with an abdominal cutout (which common sense ought to quickly identify as a profoundly stupid design for military gear).
Shiki Misaki, as least as long as she looks like her friend, Eri. For that matter, Eri herself. Nao. Some of the female shopkeepers (Tigre Punks at Molco and Edoga the Shop at 104, to name a couple. Many of the other NPCs.
Reid from Tales Of Eternia, as well. Luke and Reid's cases were lampshaded in an extra DVD with Tales of Fandom 2, in which the main characters of various Tales games competed to see which was the greatest hero. Luke suggested the exposed navel as a mark of the best hero (Reid and himself having been noted for it).
Innes in Tales Of Hearts. This is not lampshaded nearly as much as what's immediately above.
Regal in Tales Of Symphonia, too. Apparently you're not a real man in this series unless you show off some part of your manly chest.
In My Sims Kingdom, your character's friend Lyndsay wears an outfit that bares her midriff. Your character, if female, can earn outfits over the course of the game, including a duplicate of Lyndsay's, which does the same for that character. On the other hand, it seems that nobody has navels, which may be something to contemplate.
Talim from the SoulCalibur series. And (considering the series) not in a Stripperific way either, surprisingly enough.
Seung Mina does this too.
Tira in III, as well as Xianghua and Ivy in IV.
Lilica of Arcana Heart, especially in one of her win poses where she whips off her vest/sleeveless jacket thing, leaving her clad only in her sports bra and cycling shorts.
And Scharlachrot from Arcana Heart 3 has a midriff baring outfit.
Most characters in the Golden Sun series don't even show their elbows and knees. Fanservice is probably the only good explanation for Karst's choice in outfit.
Interestingly, in the Fire Emblem series, this occurs not only with female characters but often with males of the Thief or Assassin classes, like Sothe (FE 9-10) and Jaffar (FE 7).
World of Warcraft's armor sets will sometimes alter slightly depending on the gender of the wearer, most often in the case of showing off a little midriff for female characters. Of course, a select few sets of armor take this a step further.
Sakura leans toward crop-top versions of her seifuku in the various Street Fighter games.
Juri wears a half tank top.
Karin shows a little bit of her bellybutton in some of her moves, and official artworks.
Elena wears naught but a bikini.
Rose's DLC gypsy outfit in SF IV.
Ibuki's second DLC costume in SSF IV shows her belly button too.
Darkstalkers has Felicia, who bares her midriff and a WHOLE LOT more.
Morrigan in her mini-skirt and crop top outfit win pose.
Leafos from Viva Pinata. (However, while her bellybutton shows in the manual, it doesn't in the actual game.) The post office worker. The hunter, Gretchen Fetchen. Petula, of Paper Pets.
Yukari and Mitsuru's swimsuit costumes in Persona 3, consisting of a bikini top and either daisy dukes or a sarong, respectively, as well as the High-Cut Armor/Battle Panties.
In Portable, the Female Protagonist has her version, a standard bikini, top and bottom.
In Persona 4 Arena, one of Mitsuru's DLC colors (based on Litchi Faye-Ling has the front of her costume use the same tone as her skin, creating this effect.
Not to mention Flannery, Gardenia, Lucy, Dahlia, Phoebe, Skyla, Shelly (and all female Team Aqua Grunts), Female Swimmers, Battle/Crush Girls, Beauties in Pokemon Ruby And Sapphire, Misty in Pokemon Red And Blue/Yellow and FireRed/LeafGreen, and Karen in HeartGold/SoulSilver.
In Pokemon Ranger we have Pinchers Admin Blue Eyes in Guardian Signs and Sinis Trio member Lavana in Shadows of Almia. Tiffany from the original, however, is a subversion.
Krystal in her first appearance in the Star Fox series.
She also reverts back to this in one of Command's alternate endings but there's a high probability of that game becoming Canon Discontinuity should a new installment of the franchise be made.
Zola in Blue Dragon. Combined with low-level Gainaxing because she wears a tube top without a bra.
In RuneScape, clothes that fit a slightly larger male character slightly loosely used to, when transferred to a slightly smaller female character, suddenly be short of fabric in a way that exposes the midriff. This was changed later.
Aida from Unreal 2: The Awakening. Her outfit combines Bare Your Midriff with Absolute Cleavage. You can see this here◊.
Brutal Legend: Pretty much every female character except the Razor Girls - Ophelia, Drowned Ophelia, Lita, the Zaulia (and how!), even a Male example in Lars.
The Gerudo Warriors in The Legend of Zelda all bare their midriffs, wearing stereotypical eastern-arabian clothes.
From Twilight Princess: Human Midna and Iza, who runs the boat rental shop also wears something exposing her stomach. And there are even male examples of this too. The aforementioned Iza has a brother named Coro who exposes his midriff as well, and while the next example isn't as pleasant, Fyer and Falbi also pull this off.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has the Gerudo as naval amazons, but for another example, there's the Treasure Chest Shop girl. They textured her belly button even though you can only see it if you clip your face through the counter.
If you look closely at Zelda's sprite in the first game, you'll notice that her midriff is the same color as her skin.
Carmelita Fox, in the Sly Cooper games. Note that this is Inspector Carmelita Fox, who is apparently on duty and possibly in uniform — and who has been called 'hag' by more than one NPC, which implies she's no spring chicken despite being the love interest of a guy presumably in his early 20s. Neyla shows hers too, but she's only a constable at the beginning, backstory says she was recruited straight out of university, and it doesn't look like she's supposed to be wearing a uniform.
A minor plot point in Project Origin, where Lieutenant Stokes wears a lightweight tactical vest, and the shirt underneath it doesn't quite extend far enough down cover up her midriff. The plot comes at the end of the game, where Genevive Aristide shoots her in the gut, right at the spot where her armor doesn't cover her.
Phoenix' Peace Officer uniform and her clubbing outfit in Culpa Innata.
Basically every major female character and many minor female characters in Shantae.
Xenosaga: Shion Uzuki ditches her minidress uniform for a high-fashion outfit with a shortish shirt and low-rise slacks in Episode II, then, after quitting in time for episode III, goes straight-out Stripperiffic with her outfit, featuring tight shorts and a very brief top, more emphasised than moderated with a short fur-collared jacket.
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City has several examples, but one standout is the astrologist Hypatia. Like all Zodiacs, she wears a full coat... but hers is inexplicably open in the front, giving everyone a clear view of her bare skin.
In Sengoku Basara, it was originally the guys who were the majority on the chest/midriff-baring front, aside from Kasuga who sports Absolute Cleavage all the way down past her navel. She was recently joined by Magoichi, who adds this to herlistof assets.
In Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth, Kay Faraday wears a T-shirt who shows her navel in case 4. (It's a flashback case, so she's a little bit younger than she was in the rest of the game.)
Solatorobo also provides a male example in Calua, who wears armor over his chest, legs, and tail, but forgets to cover his belly. Then there's the Queen of the Race photo, in which Chocolat drags a reluctant Elh into dressing like a cheerleader, much to Red's amusement.
Alpha Creations Softworks is notorious for its insurmountable levels of Fanservice. Most notably in this variant.
Fighting Champions: Yani, Melissa and, for a male example, Axel
Rumble! @ the Campus: Hell, it seems like all of the females (except Dr. Hikari) are part of this trope, either main or alternate uniform: Kiyo, Jam, Hotaru and a whole lot more...
Ditto that with Yani's inclusion in the first two games.
Oh, and Hayato is a male example too.
WTF?!, do you expect me to count 'em all?
Fight or Die: Same case as above.
Fiora and Sharla's default outfits do this in Xenoblade Chronicles, you can also buy a bikini or just have them take off the armor/shirts and just have them walk around in a bra and whatever else.
Tribes 2 tends to do this with a lot of the female scouting armors, this even applies to Star Wolf's male scout armor, for someone from an ice world...
Terraria has some of this since the 1.1 update, introducing new female shapes along with the rest of the major content, the most particular example being the Hallowed armor.
If you're a female in the Dead Or Alive series, chances are you will have at least one or two outfits that do this. And that doesn't even count the Xtreme games which has all the girls in bikinis.
Vivi the vampiress of Brain Dead 13 wears a black skimpy outfit that not only bares her belly, but also exposes her cleavage of her Gag Boobs, combining it with Impossibly Low Neckline.
The Neptunia series has 5pb./Lyrica and Vert, whose HDD outfit is this plus Underboobs. From mk-2, there's HDD Uni, HDD Nepgear, Falcom and Linda/Underling; and in Victory there is Noire in her regular form and Plutia as Iris Heart.
Both Edison Lighthouse and Eleanor, in Groovy Kinda, favor ultra-low hiphuggers with at least a bit of tummy showing. The drunker Edison gets, the more she shows. She also has a mysterious navel piercing.
Haley's original outfit, although her resistance fighter uniform is more concealing, and her new outfit since the desert arc has been... well, more concealing of her stomach, at any rate.
Several of Zeetha's outfits in Girl Genius fit this.
In Terinu this is Gwen's default condition when she's not wearing her CyberGlider uniform. Though almost every female in the main cast (Joleen excluded) shows their bellybutton at least in the gallery pictures.
Comparatively common in fashion in the Drowtales world along with Detached Sleeves, especially among the Sullisin'rune clan. When both Quain'tana and Ash'waren showed up with bare midriffs in one scene (spoilers!) the fandom nearly imploded from the Les Yay, and a poll was set up to see who had the best belly (Ash'waren won).
Kin from Goblins. It looks like Goblinslayer was forcing her to wear that, because as soon as she practically can she grabs a modest neck-to-waist coat.
Angelika from Our Little Adventure, though lately she's donned a chain shirt that doesn't bare the midriff. She doesn't like the new armor much though.
She 'returned to the classic costume design' when they returned to Huckleton. She now wears a Mithril chain shirt that looks like leather and is brown.
When she's not wearing a painted-on black dress, Miriam from Out There often favors a tank top or T-shirt that extends down to about mid-ribcage. Her friend Sherry, who usually dresses far more modestly, occasionally rocks the belly button as well. [1]
In El Goonish Shive, both Susan and Nanase wore this kind of outfit in early comics. Now only Nanase wears it anymore.
Web Original
Gaia Online got an interesting inversion after the recent Art Shift. Unpopular Island Girl Sasha got a more modest look — and suddenly she has fans.
Most female Gaia characters still play the trope straight.
A subversion comes every year around Halloween these days, though, when little old lady Agatha dresses up as Medusa, including the world's saggiest metallic bra...
The Rappelz online banner ads likely on this page feature plenty of nice tummy shots.
In the Whateley Universe, one of the many problems with the new costume of THE CRIMSON COMET!!!. Granted, she just got the superpowers and the curves a couple weeks ago and she hasn't gotten over it yet.
Avatar The Last Airbender: Ty Lee full time, Mai and Azula in the beach episode, Katara and Suki when trying to blend in with Fire Nation clothes, and most female Fire Nation guards. Player!Ty Lee wears this in "The Ember Island Players" play The Boy in the Iceberg, but it does not work so well because the actress is overweight.
In Justice League, "Task Force X" member Plastique has a midriff-baring outfit. The "skin" is actually a latex layer covering a ring of explosives around her midsection.
Hawkgirl switches to a midriff-baring costume, much like her comicbook counterpart's, in season 2 of Justice League Unlimited. Previously, she had worn a Leotard of Power.
Almost any young female character in Danny Phantom. Sam and Paulina mostly.
Kim Possible did this all throughout her first season, but by the last all of her outfits had changed to avoid this.
Her dad also comments on it in the episode where she gets her new mission outfit (her classic mission outfit being the final piece of midriff-baring clothing to go), saying "It's been my dream to see you save the world without baring your midriff." before revealing a large, cumbersome suit of Powered Armor for her to try.
Kim's mom: As a board-certified neurosurgeon, I've got to say, it's just not possible to swap brains. Ron-in-Kim's-body: Point taken, Dr. P, but how else do you explain my bare midriff?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Ahsoka, which while not quite as abnormal as it might be for a Jedi considering what's worn by Aayla Secura, still stands out, especially when you consider her age.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): April O'Neil's initial outfit includes this, and is in fact apparently considered appropriate attire for her job as a lab assistant.
Either Stockman sees her as a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, or he is too busy being evil to notice.
Yumi Ishiyama and Sissi Delmas of Code Lyoko, in both variants of their usual outfits, their sport gears and some party clothes too. In general, crop tops are popular with the female students at Kadic. This trope is even commented on by Tamiya in episode 5, "Big Bug".
Even Odd falls victim to the crop top... though he wears a shirt underneath. Except when the animators forget to color the shirt.
Winx Club loves this. Nearly every female member of the main cast wears a midriff-baring outfit as either their default clothes, their transformation clothes, or both. This is later commented on by one of their professors, who expresses disdain for the look:
Palladium: Before we can send you, we have to suit you up in the appropriate attire. You see, the weather on Sparx is quite brutal, so I'm afraid open-toe shoes and exposed midriffs simply will not do. Griselda: If I had my way, this would be the year-round dress code. Faragonda: Oh, Griselda.
That quote was only in the 4Kids dub. It's ironic that out of all companies, this one would blatantly address, given that they've tried to cover it up before, notably giving Nico Robin in One Piece an undershirt...
And then the Enchantix went and took the last one who wasn't in a mini-dress, Techna, and did it to her too. And made the others' clothes skimpier than before.
Weird example with Totally Spies! Being the kind of show it is, it had midriff-baring outfits left and right, but the artists didn't think to give anyone bellybuttons until the third season.
My Life as a Teenage Robot: Jenny is designed to look like a teenage girl in a tube top and short skirt complete with an exposed belly and screw-shaped bellybutton.
It's even made a plot point in one episode, "Around The World In 80 Pieces", being that her "belly bolt" is the one piece that holds the rest of her body together; without it, she quite literally falls apart.
W.I.T.C.H.'s Will, Taranee and Hay Lin's Guardian forms have exposed midriffs.
Outside of Guardian form, Hay Lin's Season 1 Outfit sorta counts, although you can't see her navel. In Season 2, the girls give up their Limited Wardrobe and each get a couple of trope-relevant outfits.
Hyena in Gargoyles ended up with a permanently bare midriff after she became a cyborg. Demona and (in the comics) Angela also tend to go around bare-midriffed. Also Queen Titania had an extremely bared midriff, complete with navel gem.
Amy Wong in Futurama. Her default outfit is a sweatsuit with a short-cropped top.
Nearly all of of Leela's outfits, aside from her default tank top and pants, have cut-out windows exposing at least her belly button. Even her formal wear tends to have these.
In "A Tale of Two Santas", Amy wears a midriff-baring Santa suit. In the episode "Cold Warriors", the crew goes ice-fishing, and she wears a parka that exposes her belly button.
In "Crimes of the Hot", Professor Farnsworth wears a see-through bellyshirt for a spot of Fan Disservice.
Several of the female students in Dimmsdale Elementary are like this too; the school has a rather lousy dress code for ten year olds walking around with their belly buttons revealing.
Strangely enough, Beachcomber◊ from Transformers Animated is colorized in a way that makes him look like he's bearing his midriff. Whether this was intentional or not, he's still the only character in TFA to do so. No wonder he has such devoted fans.
Most versions of Arcee have a similar look, though it's less prominent in their cases because, unlike Beachcomber, none of them are drawn to look like they're wearing jeans.
She was then given a belly button in the other show "Sabrina's Secret Life".
In one episode/short/cartoon in Animaniacs called "Belly Button Blues" Katie Ka-Boom wears a midriff bearing shirt that shows off her belly button. Her family all notice it and have different reactions to it, especially her little brother who constantly keeps singing, "I see Katie's belly button! I see Katie's belly button!". It annoys her so much, especially when her DAD mentions her belly button. She becomes enraged and turns to a green monster with an even bigger and MORE hideous belly button!
We also see Doof in a croptop in one episode, though this is more like Fan Disservice. Perry is justifiably horrified at the sight.
Stacy has several outfits like this during the "Disco Miniature Golfing Queen" number from "Put that Putter Away".
Isabella, too, has an outfit that shows off her tummy during the same number from "Put that Putter Away", as well as a Hawaiian Hula outfit, mistaken for a "belly dancer" outfit, in "What Do it Do?".
Many female Trollz in Trollz, as their bellybuttons have magical gems that are the source of their magic.
(referring to why just Jasmine and Ariel were second.)
◊, a dancer who performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
But since then, they've been a hit, with outfits ranging from tube tops to two-piece swimsuits. So this is a trope about costumes showing the curvy area around a woman's waist.
Note that simply showing the belly and a little skin around it, like a slightly open shirt, does not count. But a dress with a large section around the belly cut out does.
Western Animation in particular seems to love this, since it's an easy form of Fanservice that the radar invariably misses. Within the past decade, the belly shirt seems to have become some kind of visual shorthand for "teenage girl". If someone does this in High School (actually in school), it's a case of No Dress Code.
Need we mention that this is a form of Fanservice and Fetish Fuel?
This is mostly a female trope, but it can sometimes apply to male characters, if their lower torsos are really, really amazing. Bare midriffs on men can also be a sign that the man is Camp Gay or a Wholesome Crossdresser.
Automatically comes with a Fur Bikini, Seashell Bra, Black Bra and Panties. Can come with a Mini Dress Of Power, Chainmail Bikini, or Sexy Santa Dress, if any one of them is a two-piece.
Compare Foot Focus, Absolute Cleavage, Underboobs, Showgirl Skirt, Zettai Ryouiki (has a similar effect, but lower on the body).
