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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 genuinely 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.
Standard issue for the Hot Librarian or Sexy Secretary. May or may not be a Shrinking Violet as well.
Wikipedia suggests we see also "glasses fetishism". Reason suggests otherwise. Rule Thirty Six kicks reason to the curb.
Or, if you prefer that, dose of Product Placement can be suspected as well, since simple exercises, then contact lenses, and now eye surgery all compete with glasses. While somehow no other kind of crutches managed to incite widespread fetishism, Rule Thirty Six or not.
Not to be confused with Mega Neko, also known as "really big cats".
In Western countries this type of character is rarely popular; when she appears, she is often commanded that The Glasses Gotta Go!
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.
- Don't knock the Christmas Cake.
- Is it okay if I hit it instead?
- Oddly, her looks haven't changed at all since her first manga appearance, when she stated (honestly) that she was 23.
- Naru Narusegawa after the first few episodes of Love Hina, when her Nerd Glasses transform into "pretty girl" frames.
- Chisame Hasegawa from Mahou Sensei Negima— when she's not being net idol Chiu.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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) ILIKEGIRLSWITHGLASSES, 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.
- Subverted in Code Geass with Nina Einstein, who looks nice on the surface, but can get downright nasty in a hurry.
- Well, she did start as a more classic one. Guess it went away with her sanity. She might get it back now that she seems to be a bit more sane.
- 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.
- 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.
- Everyone in Dennou Coil.
- Parodied in FLCL with Ninamori Eiri. "They're fake."
- 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.
- Ikki Tousen has two Meganekkos: 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.
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.
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.
- 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
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 Rape The Dog 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.
- 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.
- Another Fate Stay Night example: When she's not in her usual Servant outfit, Rider dons a pair of glasses, apparently magical to prevent her eye power gone out of control. Officially used in Hollow Ataraxia, but... well there are tons of fan arts out there about it.
- 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.
Web Comics
- Parodied in It's Walky!: when Billie gets glasses, not only does Danny find her even more attractive than before, but several guys who didn't care about her before (Joe and Howard in particular) begin hounding her until she threatens to get contacts.
- She's started wearing them again in recent strips.
- Amber O'Malley from Shortpacked.
- Yes another Walkyverse example is Walky's high-school sweetheart Dorothy.
- Agatha, the title character of the webcomic Girl Genius.
- Yuki from Megatokyo wore these when she became a Magical Girl; being Largo her mentor, however, they're quickly replaced with Cool Shades.
- Detestai of defunct webcomic RPG World is a catgirl who was given magic glasses by her ex-boyfriend, the villain, that turn her from a gentle kitten to "evil to the glasses." Also, she's rather tall. Does that make her a Mega Neko?
- Tedd from El Goonish Shive, at least when he's turned himself into a girl.
Western Animation
Real Life
- Folk-rock singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb.
- Also 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).
- Sarah Palin.
- Are you sure now?
- Her lack of experience was one thing, but it turns out that a lot of her stupid comments made offscreen where completely made up. Irony is that FOX, the first network to air these, Did Not Do The Research.
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