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alt title(s): Glasses Girl
...fanboys make passes at girls who wear glasses.
— Neil Sinclair, alt.fan.bgcrisis, 15 September 2004
Just because you don't need glasses doesn't mean you shouldn't wear them.
Literally, "glasses girl" — one of the classic "sweet girl" stereotypes in anime. Cute enough without going overboard or posing the threat that a more conventionally beautiful girl might, the meganekko is usually pleasant, smart, and clever. And something about the fact that she needs glasses seems to imply an endearing vulnerability that makes her far more accessible to the average guy. After the Yamato Nadeshiko, she's the second-best girl that a boy can bring home to meet his parents and probably the more realistic of the two. Naturally, as with any stereotype, the meganekko can inverted or subverted, but the vast majority in anime are sweet, smart and — when found in a major role — usually more than a challenge for a male lead to keep up with. Occasionally she's an unpopular character within the story, but not with the fans.
The glasses are the important part, though. Whether she's Blind Without Em or not, they are key to her appeal. This is one girl who doesn't need a " Beautiful All Along" transformation; in fact, taking her glasses away might is an almost surefire way to reduce her attractiveness!
Sometimes the presence or absence of glasses shows a change in personality, while other times they're a way to give a character a more realistic costume prop.
In Western countries this type of character is rarely popular; when she appears, she is often commanded that The Glasses Gotta Go!
Wikipedia suggests we see also "glasses fetishism". Sanity suggests otherwise, although this trope can be a form of Fetish Fuel.
Standard issue for the Hot Librarian or Sexy Secretary. May or may not be a Shrinking Violet (or perhaps just a Seemingly Wholesome Fifties Girl) as well.
Not to be confused with Mega Neko, also known as "really big cats".
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Yomiko Readman in Read Or Die.
- Somewhat unique among "cute girl" stereotype-types, as during ROD the TV it's mentioned that she's over thirty.
- Nenene Sumiregawa in the same series is also quite the Meganekko herself.
- Naru Narusegawa after the first few episodes of Love Hina, when her Nerd Glasses transform into "pretty girl" frames.
- Haruna Saotome, Satomi Hakase, Chisame Hasegawa from Mahou Sensei Negima— when she's not being net idol Chiu. Kazumi Asakura and Evangeline A.K. Mc Dowell sometimes wears glasses. The same goes for Nodoka's cosplay form in the Gag Series Negima!? and the mostly manga-only character Tsukuyomi.
- Negima tends to subvert the "sweet girl" part. Haruna is downright scary, and as for Tsukuyomi...HOLY SHIT.
- Marie from Sister Princess.
- Parfet, the Wrench Wench from Vandread.
- In Revolutionary Girl Utena, Anthy's gentle and objectively intelligent nature seems to fit the role, though her apparent ditzyness is explained in a dark and extreme subversion later on.
- Seiji's cantankerous delinquent big sister in Midori No Hibi is also a bit of a subversion, although her glasses are better explained by her Office Lady outfit.
- Emma in Victorian Romance Emma. Interestingly enough the series is set in age where it was rare for even the middle class to wear glasses, much less a servant girl.
- Chiyoko in Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki, lampshaded with her surname "Mega."
- Kaimu in Simoun.
- Yomi in Azumanga Daioh is also Tomo's calmer, more mature friend.
- Subverted (and lampshaded) with Yuki Nagato in Suzumiya Haruhi; when she loses her glasses, Kyon comments that he "doesn't really have a glasses fetish" anyway and refuses to explain what the term means when she asks.
- Looking at the character design for the anonymous female classmates suggests that the character designer might have had a glasses fetish.
- Or that he lives in Asia.
- Subverted in Nagasarete Airantou, where Chikage initially seems to have the proper personality but ends up having Scary Shiny Glasses and is as crazy as the other girls on the island.
- Played with in Hellsing, of all places. The Iscariot nun Yumiko is a simple, sweet, shy girl with her glasses on. Take them off and she becomes an impossibly psychotic, enraged killing machine.
- There are three other Girls With Glasses of note in the series, but while they may be cute none of them have even a nodding aquaintance with "sweet".
- Subverted in High School Girls, where the sweet-looking glasses girl of the group is the dimmest and most perverted out of all of them.
- The shy, tormented Midorikawa Retasu of Tokyo Mew Mew, who loses her glasses after her Transformation Sequence into Mew Lettuce. Might have something to do with her water-based powers, but might also be that she's strongest in a fit of blind rage, quite un-Yamato Nadeshiko.
- Noel of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch has reading glasses, which she appears to need only for effect when she says smart things.
- The fanservice-clothed, voluptuous wolfgirl Ouka of .hack//tasogare no udewa densetsu is a meganekko in the real world, with associated personality traits.
- Lampshaded in Lucky Star when Konata comments that Miyuki's glasses are part of her Moe Moe appeal.
- Konata also blurts that her email adress is (translated) IXTRALUVGIRLSWITHGLASSES, while in a crowded bus, earning some odd looks.
- Also included as a visual gag in the Ah My Goddess TV series. Originally Skuld is able to see gremlin-like "bugs" via specialized goggles. In the show, she and the others wind up wearing 'goggles' that obviously just a stylish set of tinted glasses.
- Later a genuine Meganekko, Hasegawa Sora (see picture), showed up in the cast.
- Mizuno Ami in Sailor Moon is an interesting example, though they were an obvious metaphor for Ami's introvertedness and fear of making friends. In the original manga, she just used them for reading occasionally, and the anime rarely showed them at all. However, in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, she seemed to have caved to fan appeal, and wore them more or less all the time in the earlier episodes.
- Lady Une in Gundam Wing is a good example of glasses indicating a personality change: with her glasses off (and her hair down), she seems like a nice, sweet lady; with them on (and hair tied up), she becomes quite nasty, easily capable of killing anyone, along with other nefarious deeds.
- And old joke amongst fans of the series was that Une could go from 0 to Bitch in the time it takes to put on glasses.
- Fruits Basket Lampshades this when Tohru and Yuki go to Ayame's shop and meet his assistant — a glasses-wearing girl in a maid outfit who proceeds to explain the long tradition of Meganekko to HeroicBSODing Yuki.
- Toujou Aya of Ichigo 100%, while arguably Beautiful All Along, is no less of a cutie with her glasses in place.
- Nina Einstein from Code Geass was like this for much of the first season. She appears this way for a good portion of season one because she barely says anything. But then she gets weirder, and weirder, and weirder. And then worse. And in the end, she gets better. Wow.
- Yukino Kikukawa from Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome, whose shyness provides a perfect balance for her very outspoken best friend Haruka. Her Mai-Otome Expy, Irina, also wears cute-girl frames, but they're smaller and rounder.
- On the other hand, Chie from the same series seems like she'd be a meganekko, but turns out to really be a Bifauxnen.
- Yuriko in Futari Wa Pretty Cure, and one of the class reps (whose name escapes this troper at the moment) in Splash Star.
- Yes! Precure 5's Mika has the brains, but most Meganekkos tend to be somewhat... calmer than she is.
- In the fanfic Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy, Hanae sports red-lensed glasses (only taking them off for ballet sessions) and loses them everytime she turns into Cure Tangerine.
- Nako Kagura of Steel Angel Kurumi 2 is the meganekko at her most Moe Moe.
- Hikaru in Martian Successor Nadesico. One character specifically notes that she's cute with her glasses off, as if she weren't cute enough already. It's debatable.
- One is also suspicious, given how Genre Savvy she (and most of the rest of the crew) is, that she might just be wearing them for effect, especially since all the other glasses on the show are of the Scary Shiny variety, while hers aren't.
- This combined with Magical Girl is pretty much the whole premise of the anime G On Riders.
- Poor poor Tetsuko from Dai Mahou Touge, who is also the Straight Man for everyone else's madness.
- Fuu from Magic Knight Rayearth.
- Let's not forget Tsutako Takeshima from Maria Sama Ga Miteru.
- Everyone in Dennou Coil.
- Parodied in FLCL with Ninamori Eiri. "They're fake."
- This troper thought that the ones worn in the play were only a prop rather than her real ones. It really isn't made very clear either way...
- She really does need glasses, which she hides by wearing contacts. The ones she wears for the play were fake, though.
- Subverted by Quattro of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. She looks and acts the part, but all of that hides a Smug Snake who's nasty to the core.
- Played straight with Nanoha's elder sister Miyuki.
- The glasses were apparently Quattro's Plot Armor. Once they came off, well...
- Ikki Tousen has three Meganekkos: Rikuson (Lu Zun), Ryuubi Gentoku (Liu Bei) and Kaku Bunwa (Jie Xu). Kaku is also a subversion, since she's a sensual, ruthless tactician as well as a Manipulative Bitch.
- Two of the main six girls in Pani Poni Dash: Rei and Miyako. Ichijou has a theory that their glasses are the reason they do well on tests. (Suzune tries this out as a joke in the manga, but Ichijou is dead serious.) Behoimi later becomes a meganekko when she quits being a Magical Girl.
- Trying to put the word "sweet" anywhere near Rei is liable to induce explosive reactions.
- Clannad was mostly lacking in Meganekkos, but Sanae delivered in spades with her disguise in After Story. Tomoyo at one point starts wearing glasses as well.
- Rinko Jerrad from The Law Of Ueki. Mori Ai also has glasses—and her powers are based around them—but she wears them atop her head rather than over her eyes.
- Cocoloo is the resident meganekko in Petite Princess Yucie, although in one episode all the girls wear glasses as part of their librarian outfits.
- Shizuku of Hunter X Hunter has the look down. The "sweet" aspect is diminished somewhat by the fact that she's a remorseless murderer.
- Miu Fuurinji of Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple subverts this trope by being an inversion of The Glasses Gotta Go. She wears glasses for the stated intention of toning her appearance down.
- Sakura Yamazaki of Blue Seed is a subversion, only donning her oversized Nerd Glasses to fight demons.
- In Rizelmine, Papa C's daughter has a thing for the main character, and is usually wearing glasses. When in glasses, she's shy and unsure. Take off her glasses and she becomes a horny little predator. Considering the nature of the anime, it is likely Genre Savvy.
- There are several male Meganekkos in Axis Powers Hetalia, but the ones who resemble the archetype more closely are Estonia, Austria, Canada and upcoming nation-tan (introduced per Himaruya's blog) Thailand.
- Sweden has the looks and some personality traits, but his HUGE height and his perpetual Death Glare rest him Meganekko points.
- Same goes to America, whose glasses represent Texas and are less for vision purposes... and not to mention, he's far too childish and hyper to fit in the archetype.
- Likewise, in The Prince Of Tennis we have at least five males playing up the Meganekko type. Three of them are Oshitari, Inui and Tezuka; their seiyuus even have a musical trio named "Meganes".
- And they're all predated by Kiminobu Kogure from Slam Dunk, the male Team Mom from Shohoku.
- Doesn't have the typical meganekko personality, but Karin of the Hebi has to be mentioned, if only because it's one of no less than four fetishes covered.
- Played around with in One Piece. Tashigi has displayed most, if not all, of the typical traits associated with this trope, and yet she's also a gutsy swordsman marine. (Smoker's words, not mine.)
- The younger twin sister in Candy Boy,Kanade,wears glasses. However,in most of her appearances,she is without them.
- Ninin Ga Shinobuden gives this concept a shoutout in episode 10, where Shinobu is taken by the "Curse of the Girl With Glasses".
- Kiddy Grade: Mercredi and Vendredi.
- Adachi Hana, aka Megane-chan, from Flunk Punk Rumble (Yankee-kun to Megane-chan in Japan) tries to cover her past being a Delinquent by becoming a Meganekko and Class Representative. And it works.
- Sheska/Sczieska of Fullmetal Alchemist even works in a library.
- At one point in the story, Riza pops out the lenses from Fury's glasses and parades around in them, as a (somewhat ineffective) disguise. She also wears glasses in several omakes and a videogame. The "reason" for all this seems to be she just looks hot in them.
- Kirihara from Darker Than Black, though she's more "cool" or "noble" than "sweet". Maybe borderline case with The Glasses Gotta Go: these glasses tweak her appearance, but she looks quite well both ways.
- Chitose the landlady of Chocotto Sister wears thick glasses and is very self-conscious about it. A boy calling her a "four-eyed dog" in high school is a major emotional hurt of hers and Haruma's complimenting her on how she looks wearing them is a large part of why she falls for him.
- Yukari from Ai Kora, who even has a fangirl of her own with a glasses fetish. The mangaka even devoted a whole chapter to this topic: when Yukari feels insecure about her looks, thinking that her glasses make her ugly, the aforementioned fangirl takes her to a cafe full of glasses fetishists, who make her model different outfits and glasses and repeat that the glasses enhance the look. They even teach her 'glasses techniques', like peering over the glasses, etc. Of course, when she meets the protagonist and tries it out, he doesn't notice, because his fetish ain't her glasses.
Comic Books
- A western example, in the first The Dresden Files comic, Welcome to the Jungle, Harry ends up working with and protectnig Willamena "Will" Rodgers, an assistant zoo ape handler who is equal parts Meganekko and Moe Moe.
- Both Batgirl and Wonder Woman's secret identities have used glasses. Barbara Gordon is the quintessential Hot Librarian.
- Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. Her phasing prevents her from using contacts... awww, too bad!
Film
Live Action TV
- One could argue that in The X Files, Scully's glasses, which are only worn when she composes her reports to her boss on a computer, are put in for the sole purpose of this effect. Especially because they appear to have no optical qualities at all, and are just clear glass.
- Agent Young in Eleventh Hour has a similar pair of glasses that appear whenever she and Hood are looking at computer screens.
- Lampshaded in Maid in Akihabara: Maid cafe waitress (see Fan Service With A Smile) Saki falls over and her contact lenses come out, so she reluctantly puts on her glasses. The otaku customers are all immediately smitten with her, thanks to her new-found Moe Moe-ness. (This is also a direct inversion of the Beautiful All Along trope of the girl taking off her glasses and magically becoming pretty.)
- Dr. Cameron of House occasionally puts some specs on. And frankly looks way hotter in them.
- Definitely. So does Dr. Montgomery (formerly Sheppard) from Greys Anatomy.
- Bailey Quarters of WKRP In Cincinnati
- Ms. Fairweather from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. Always wearing glasses, very hot AND presented as very hot - rare for Western television. The Green Ranger was particulary smitten with her, and they eventually hooked up and got married. (one of the very few actual romances in any series of Power Rangers).
- Kendrix from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is considered a Meganekko by some...emphasis on the some, as most fans consider her to be pretty homely with or without glasses.
- Deirdre in Coronation Street was known as "Miss Sexy Spex" when younger (back in The Seventies). Her actress doesn't need glasses.
- Lilah in Angel once wears glasses as part of a general "Fred" costume in order to seduce Wesley. It works. Wesley even asks her to leave the glasses on during the sex. On that note, Fred herself counts when she wears glasses.
- The classic Diana Prince...as a Secret Identity it wasn't too concealing, but the glasses did make her look like a different person, leaving viewers to obsess over who was sexier: Lynda Carter in glasses, or Wonder Woman.
- Sue Landers, the Living Lie Detector of Heroes... er... never mind. Darn it, Sylar, this is why we can't have nice people!
- The already ridiculously hot Colonel Samantha Carter of Stargate SG-1 appeared in the alternate time-line episode "Moebius" where instead of being a Colonel Badass and a Hot Amazon, she was a Hot Librarian type, complete with the coke-bottle glasses. This troper had to will himself to not get excited. To no avail.
- Divya Katdare (Reshma Shetty) of Royal Pains. Definitely hotter glasses-on than glasses-off.
Radio
- Katrina Shanks from Adventures In Odyssey. Medium notwithstanding, she fits the mold of a meganekko, she acts like a meganekko, and just to dispel any remaining doubt, the official artwork (only seen in the older, less stylized pictures for good measure) depicts her as a reserved, bespectacled meganekko.
Video Games
- Lucca in Chrono Trigger.
- Emily in Time Hollow. To be mean, you can take her glasses. She gets in a horrible accident off-screen.
- The website Hardcore Gaming 101 once defined this word by using a picture of Fiolina "Fio" Germi from Metal Slug. Three guesses as to whether she qualifies, the first two don't count, and you have five seconds.
- Many of the Harvest Moon games have a character like this whom you can score as a potential wife: Maria in the Flower Bud Village saga, Mary in the Mineral Town saga and Flora in Forget-Me-Not Valley.
- Li Kohran from Sakura Taisen.
- Ritsuko from The Idolm@ster.
- Mitsuki Konishi from The World Ends With You would be one... If she wasn't an ur-TheBaroness who will happily commit great evil to play a mean joke on Beat.
- According to official artwork Shiki's real form is a straight example.
- Ciel from Tsukihime to be mentioned, though she probably has better eyesight than most.
- Rin wears glasses in Fate Stay Night when she's in teacher mode — with sexy results. In the Omake sequel, Rider has a more functional pair that she wears when she's in civvies.
- There's a classic FSN doujin ("Beat Your Fate") where we see Sakura give Rider the glasses, secretly thinking this will make sure Shirou doesn't fall for her — at which point he turns out to be a "glasses man". The rest of the harem immediately start trying pairs on. Sakura has no choice but to do the same... and Shirou tells her she looks more plain with glasses. Isn't it sad, Sakura-chan?
- Emma Emmerich from Metal Gear Solid 2 admits that she simply wears glasses for show, and because her step-brother Hal wears glasses. And Hal, thanks to those Moe Moe "Sweet Snake" figurines that have recently popped up, can qualify for being a male example of this trope.
- Quistis Trepe from Final Fantasy VIII.
- Western example: Ariel Hanson from the upcoming sequel to Star Craft has been described by Blizzard as "a doctor lady with glasses who looks really cute".
- Shion Uzuki of Xenosaga counts, although the glasses aren't always on.
- Tsugumi Takakura from Super Robot Wars. Latooni Subota was once like this, but has dropped it. The recent Super Robot Wars K also features a Meganekko named Angelica Shartill.
- Misato Miyasumi in Nanaca Crash
- Persona 3 has Chihiro Fushimi, the adorably shy and meek class treasurer, as one of the Main Character's social links, and a datable one at that (woo!). She makes a cameo in Persona 4 - two years older, more confident, and somehow even cuter, leading every one of your characters to feel swoony or envious at her all-encompassing awesomeness.
- Blaz Blue's Litchi Faye Ling, a Chinese Hospital Hottie.
- Yoriko of Arcana Heart.
- "Merchant"-type characters in a few Nippon Ichi games, namely Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom.
- Elizabeth "Fire Eyes" Ruffleberg from Secret Of Evermore.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- Susan and Mary Test from Johnny Test.
- Although Scooby Doo had Daphne to (ostensibly) fill its sex appeal quotient, others preferred Velma, who is pretty much synonymous with those glasses of hers.
- Dr. Lucy Suzuki from Transformers Cybertron
- Gwen Stacy in The Spectacular Spider Man is a prime example of this. This troper has heard of very few fans who dislike her, and the ones who do are rabid Peter/MJ shippers or bitter because she looks just like Deb Whitman from the comics.
- Not anymore! *whistles* Hubba Hubba!
- Another Western Animation example, Talking Animal division: Myra, the friendly, intelligent Adventurer Archaeologist from the Tale Spin episode "In Search of Ancient Blunders."
- Marilyn Piquel from Bonkers.
- Rhonda in Hey Arnold is forced to get glasses in one episode due to her waning vision. At first, she absolutely hates them because it drops her to geek status. However, she later comes to accept them, and gets a new, sleeker pair of glasses at the end of the episode.
- Ms Dr. Anne Possible of Kim Possible fame.
- Daria
Real Life
- Folk-rock singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb.
- Pop singer Anastacia was once known for her glasses, although she stopped wearing them after getting laser eye surgery.
- Former SNL head writer and current star of 30 Rock Tina Fey.
- And her 30 Rock character Liz Lemon, who, according to Jenna, doesn't even need those glasses (presumably she likes the smart writer look they give).
- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin according to some, though some don't consider her nice or clever.
- Others get more of a Church Lady feel. Still others get a sort of kindly, motherly nanny type feel, so it varies.
- She's a social chameleon, she changes her persona to match her target audience. It doesn't always work.
- Comedian, actress and pundit Janeane Garofalo according to some, though most don't consider her nice or clever.
- Look at the picture of Marilyn Monroe in glasses on the Dumb Blonde trope page. Go on, look!
- Part of Stacy Keibler's getup as Miss Hancock is a pair of sexy glasses.
- Angela Aki
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