Nosebleed - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): The Nose Bleed

Healthy young men that have no other sexual outlet will often suffer nosebleeds upon seeing the naked female body, or even just a pair of well-filled panties. It's probably a side effect of High Pressure Blood.

In recent anime and manga, female characters are increasingly becoming subject to nosebleeds. This typically happens to characters with strong... appetites. The more benign, traditionally feminine version of this is Luminescent Blush.

This happens in virtually every anime with Fanservice.

Note: In Japanese manga, the nosebleed is a visual shorthand/euphemism for sexual arousal, specifically an erection in males (which makes it all the more odd when used with a female character.) When blood shoots from the nose explosively, and in ridiculous quantity, the implication is an actual ejaculation. In female characters, the implications are something NOT to think about.

The concept comes from a Japanese old wives' tale.

Frequently results from a Panty Shot. Contrast with Psychic Nosebleed. Compare Visual Innuendo.

Examples:

Ryoga in Ranma 1/2.
Tenchi in the Hot Springs Episode of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki.
Naruto: Whenever Naruto uses his Sexy Jutsu in front of one of his (male) elders, they almost always have a massive nosebleed that knocks them off their feet. The blood however is completely edited out in the English version.
- Sakura, of all people, gets a nosebleed upon seeing Konohamaru's Oiroke no Jutsu: Otoko no Ko Doushi (Sexy Technique: Guy Companions). Someone really likes the Yaoi Guys.
Mai-HIME: When he spies Kuga Natsuki without panties (due to the efforts of a Panty Thief), a member of the Fuuka Academy kendo team actually passes out because a of veritable pair of blood fountains that erupt from his nose.
In Plastic Little, a character suffers an explosive nose bleed while scuba diving in a tank full of predatory fish. Nothing really comes of it.
In the FLCL episode "Full Swing", a room full of female government agents all get nosebleeds after observing a rather suggestive dialogue between Haruko and Naota.
In a rare female example, Minako in Sailor Moon has a nosebleed after imagining taking a bath with one of the members of the band "The Three Lights". (The usual female equivalent of the nosebleed is the Luminescent Blush.)
- Regular male nosebleeds are seen several times in the Sailor V manga. In one of the Sailor Moon manga side stories, several characters (including Mamoru) have these induced by two half-dressed female elementary school students. Perverts...
Ayaka, in the manga version of Mahou Sensei Negima, nosebleeds upon seeing Negi in a compromising position. This is lampshaded once by Kotaro: "You some kind of pervert?"
- She also gets an especially explosive nosebleed when she sees Negi dressed up in a fox girl costume. It actually knocks her over.
Kudou Yuuichi in Sensei no Ojikan has huge, fountaining nosebleeds whenever he imagines doing naughty things with his male classmate Suetake Kenta.
Master Roshi in Dragonball's tendency to spew blood from the nose was actually a vital part of one battle. As Yamcha fought an opponent who was completely invisible, Krillin positioned Roshi just right at the side of the arena, then removed Bulma's top in front of him. The resulting blood spew coated the invisible man, allowing Yamcha to see him and beat him easily. Afterwards, Roshi first yelled angrily at Krillin over potentially having a heart attack before patting him on the head, saying "Good job". As this plot point was too sexual for the broadcast cut of the dub, they replaced it with some nonsense involving tomato soup.
Subverted in Karin: Karin does have a nosebleed whenever she is near her love interest, but for very different reasons. She is a "Blood Maker" vampire, who produces more blood when she is around depressed people. The result is a literal High Pressure Blood situation, wherein it actually explodes from her veins in a spectacular fashion if she can't bite someone and inject them with the excess blood, which, incidentally, cures their depression. To down the gore factor, the blood is portrayed as flowers exploding from her nose — at least, until it settles and we see the room soaked in blood.
- In the manga there are no flowers. Just blood. So much blood...
Sunako from The Wallflower has such an aversion to anything she considers bright or beautiful that seeing anyone male or female she considers to be a "Bright Creature" causes her to spout torrents of blood out of her nose. The male cast members also inflict nosebleeds on almost every girl they meet.
Love Hina: Keitaro is known by his female friends for his nosebleeds, the usual result of his seeing too much female skin, to the extent that when at one point it fails to happen, Naru becomes suspicious.
Ikuto of Nagasarete Airantou (pictured above) has such explosive nosebleeds that he faints from blood loss multiple times in a single episode.
In the manga Futaba-Kun Change, "Bleeding Man" Chiba earned his nickname from this problem, frequently suffering from explosive nosebleeds, often caused by the main character.
In Full Metal Alchemist, Lieutenant Havoc gets a nosebleed◊ after hearing Colonel Mustang's future plans to require female officers to wear miniskirts.
Happens occasionally, and only during filler and omake in Bleach - usually to Kon, who is a plushie, with no blood... go figure.
Shuichi from the Gravitation manga doesn't even need bare flesh: his aloof love interest promising to take him on a date if his band sells a million records or saying "Yeah" to his question if he loves him is enough to give him massive nosebleeds.
Akira from Gacha Gacha Secret who gets many since he changes into a girl when he sneezes and is ends up seeing his love interest (who as a girl he is friend with) naked a lot. He often passes out from the blood loss.
This trope is mentioned and refuted in the FYI section [1] of the webcomic Otter Soldiers, where it is subverted: one of the main characters suffers from frequent nosebleeds for perfectly genuine reasons.
Bel, the resident Meido of Hale Nochi Guu, is prone to massive Nosebleeds over her master, Weda. They're both female.
In possibly the most sexually questionable scene of Detective Conan (also known as Case Closed), Conan has a nosebleed on listening to Ran relate the events of their bath together. She ignores the suggestion of this trope because he "is still a child".
During the Beach Episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, when Nia emerges in a thin bathing suit, there's a machine-gun edit montage of nosebleeds from the male cast.
The titular character of Soul Eater is very prone to this, which is a source of annoyance to both himself (it ruins his 'cool guy' persona) and his meister Maka.
Raiel from The Violinist Of Hameln suffers from a variation of this. Instead of being triggered by anything remotely lewd, he suffers catastrophic nasal bloodloss just from standing too close to a female. Apparently, he's just that sensitive. Once as a child, a young girl told him she liked him. After being drenched in the resulting high-pressure spray, she suffered a mental breakdown and never smiled again.
Brooklyn Luckfield from Super Robot Wars is easily flustered, thus almost always in danger of getting hit with this trope. Not to mention his teammate is one flamboyant, cheery Ms Fanservice who wouldn't mind teasing him on his nosebleed tendencies.
Vashiel from Misfile can't seem to stop having these after seeing Ash naked. Ash has a female example of the nosebleed here, complete with Ghost Lights, followed by a Luminescent Blush.
In a rare live action example, Heishiro, the protagonist of the film Samurai Fiction (itself an Affectionate Parody of the chanbara genre), reacts to the sight of his love interest with a nosebleed. Twice.
Günter in Kyou Kara Maou has severe cases of nosebleeds rather frequently. Bonus points for the fact that these are caused by Yuri, who happens to a guy as well.
In a rare female example, Sunako from The Wallflower gets explosive nosebleeds in the presence of beautiful males. Considering that four such males are rooming at her home, she tries to stay in her dark room as much as possible, away from these "creatures of the light."
First chapter of Magical Pokaan: while casting a spell, Yuuma summons a magical wind that lifts her skirt... just enough for Dr. K-ko's aide to see her not wearing panties. His nosebleed is so hard he gets sent out flying across the room... multiple times, only to stop after hitting K-ko in the head and knocking her out!.
Mayu from Monochrome Factor is a rare female example. Her severe obsession with anything bishounen causes her to have massive nosebleeds every now and then.
Kokoa, Moka's little sister, in Rosario To Vampire frequently displays nosebleeds at the sight of female fanservice.
And another female example is Jenny from Cosplay Complex, who gets nosebleeds around very young Athena.
And yet another female example is Kaneru from Doujin Work, after she gets afflicted with the yaoi fan girl bug. Maybe it's not that rare after all.
Rare non-anime example in Frasier. Niles gets them around Daphne quite frequently.
In one episode of the Tales Of Eternia anime, Keele turns bright red and falls over with blood streaming from his nose at the sight of Minima clad in only a towel.
This troper once had a nosebleed when being confronted with the naked female body, though it was most likely a coincidence.
Happens to Morinaga in the Boys Love manga The Tyrant Falls In Love when he moves temporarily with Tatsumi who often walks around bare chested and thus causes Morinaga to nosebleed.
This Ménage à 3 comic.
Happens to Jun after his first combination in Genesis Of Aquarion. Interpret that however the hell you want.
Reimi from Bamboo Blade gets these when she becomes enthralled by the victim of her stalking habits, Miyamiya.
Happens to Satou once in Welcome To The NHK. Interestingly enough, despite being linked to arousal, it's a regular, realistic nosebleed instead of an explosive fountain of blood.
In a similar vein, Ron from the comic strip Electronic Tigers will have his explode under these conditions (although it takes more than most other examples on this page).
Kaname in S.S. Astro anytime she sees Izumi in the way she thinks is very cute.
Mikan in Potemayo suffers several massive nosebleeds fantasizing about Sunao, often resulting in her being hauled off to the hospital.
Yet another female example: Andou from Hyakko gets nosebleeds around pretty girls. She also checks out Ayumi's panties at one point and announced loudly that is she is bisexual.
Dead Rising: If Frank takes a picture that the game labels as "erotica" he will have a nosebleed for a few minutes afterwards.
Agent Drake of Protectors Of The Plot Continuum is from an anime continuum, and suffers these on occasion, for example when inhaling the smell of a recent "incident" between two female characters, much to the fright of his co-workers at the scene who were not familiar with anime tropes.
Sanji from One Piece is often seen nose bleeding. But one particular example of this trope in the series when Brook nosebleeds, because he is just a skeleton (with an afro) that has no blood in his entity body.
- Knowing Brook, he would have infinite amusement at this fact.
All the male officers of Bokuto Precinct in Youre Under Arrest, but most notably Ken Nakajima, spring major nosebleeds the first time they meet new officer Aoi Futaba, who is beautiful, kind, highly accomplished and generally everything one might want in a woman. There's just one minor problem: Aoi isn't a woman...
Nakajima: All I have to say is, this whole thing shrivels the morale of the men!
Natsumi: Pervert.
Nakajima: No! All I meant to say is, this whole business is swelling out of control!
Yoriko: Oh, you're one to talk, Mr. Nosebleed...

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