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 and Schoolgirl Lesbians in particular. The more benign, traditionally feminine version of this is Luminescent Blush. Female characters may also get nosebleeds upon seeing something they think is absolutely adorable.

This happens in virtually every anime with Fanservice.

Note: In Japanese anime and 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... well, okay, some of us may like to think about it, but... yeah.

The concept comes from a Japanese old wives' tale.

Frequently results from a Panty Shot. May also occur from a Megaton Punch to the face. Contrast with Psychic Nosebleed. Compare Visual Innuendo and Something Else Also Rises.

open/close all folders

Examples

Anime and Manga

Ryōga in Ranma ½. Even when he's P-chan the pig. This often confused Akane. Why should Marshmallow Hell arouse a pig?
- Notably, he's immune to Ranma's naked female body (except in the anime), because he considers his rival to be nothing if not 100% male. Any other naked woman will have this effect, regardless of his feelings for her.
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 TV broadcast version, although it is still intact on DVD.
- It also happens to him when Sakura knocks him out with a Megaton Punch.
- 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.
- "Impressive!"
A rare female example (and even rarer heterosexual 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". And in the Sailor V manga she has a explosive nosebleed (and faints) after being kissed on the lips by a bishounen villain she has the hots for. Also in the Sailor V manga, regular male nosebleeds are seen several times.
- 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...
Another heterosexual female example has Rena of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Rei having a nosebleed after she imagines ripping off Keiichi's swimsuit and exposing his furry seal. Although she doesn't have another nosebleed after she actually sees it, blushing instead (just like the rest of the girls).
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.
- Negi himself is apparently too young to get nosebleeds. However, he's not above a Spit Take through the nose.
- Chamo gets one when Haruna creates Dark Nodoka. Oddly, it seems to be not a result of sexual arousal, but because of the Squee that occurs when he thinks that Nodoka is getting serious with Negi.
Kudou Yuuichi in Sensei no Ojikan has huge, fountaining nosebleeds whenever he imagines doing naughty things with his male classmate Suetake Kenta.
Dragon Ball: Master Roshi's a 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.
Bell, the resident Meido of Haré+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", not knowing who Conan really is...
- The worse or best thing (Your Mileage May Vary) is that you can't help laughing, since thanks to the dialogue and the absurdity of the whole situation... the scene is that hilarious.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Kanako, the female protagonist of Maria Holic is extremely prone to these whenever she sees a cute girl.
- Nosebleed is also the name of the anime's OP.
This happens in the Ouran High School Host Club manga to Tamaki when he sees Haruhi in a dress. Hikaru and Kaoru notice this and call him a pervert. However, because Tamaki doesn't actually realize that he's in love with Haruhi, he thinks he just hit his nose. Honey then tries to administer "first-aid" by hitting him with a karate chop, which just makes it worse.
Played with in To Aru Majutsu No Index. Touma suffers a normal nosebleed in the middle of the night, and while stumbling around for a tissue accidentally wakes up the half-dressed girl sleeping nearby. Quickly realizing that this seems somewhat incriminating, Touma hastily points out that the whole nosebleed thing is an old wive's tale and that he wasn't actually ogling her. Then he gets beat up for not being attracted to her.
Kanokon usually averts this. Despite Kouta having a girlfriend whose favorite activity is seducing him with her body and a would-be girlfriend who refuses to be outdone, he almost never nosebleeds. He passes out, runs away or gives in instead.
Ninin Ga Shinobuden has a weird example in episode 7. The gang of ninja has a group nosebleed...in response to Onsokumaru shapeshifting to completely cover Miyabi's body, and generating a pair of Gag Boobs.
This happens to schoolgirl lesbian Mitsu from Honey Crush. She gets bonus points because she's a ghost and shouldn't even have blood in the first place.
Happens a lot in Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts.
In the Rumic World short story "Excuse me for being a dog!" the protagonist (and his father) changes into a dog whenever he bleeds. Unfortunately for him, he's a boxer, and his nose is his weak spot. His father tries to train him not to bleed (or punishes him) by showing him centerfolds from nudie magazines.
Most of Nube's male students in Hell Teacher Nube have high-pressure nosebleeds upon seeing their classmates (or any other woman, really) either nude or nearly there. This caused Minki some distress, as she first appeared to Katsuya and Hiroshi in a Stripperiffic outfit... without panties. The resulting fountain coated her in blood.
- Nube himself is also prone to this. In his defense, he only reacts this way upon seeing the amazingly-endowed Ritsuko-sensei in the nude or in lingerie. Seeing his female students, Yukime, or Hayame naked only causes him embarrassment for the girls, unless he's outright scolding them (read: Miki) for their shamelessness (read: Miki's.)
A lot of Girls Love series have females getting this reaction because of other females. Examples include Sakuya from Candy Boy, Sumika from Sasameki Koto, Yuu from Otome Kikan Gretel, Mamiya from Kurogane Pukapuka Tai, Julia from Strawberry Shake Sweet, etc.
A rather amusing example happened in Pastel; the protagonist's sexy stepmother went to their school to bring him his lunch. One thing led to another and she inexplicably decided to be the class's swimming coach. This led to alot of the boys getting nosebleeds that the pool itself was stained in blood! Soon after the protagonist realized that his stepmother still hadn't left the school as evidenced by all the blood stains in the school corridors!
Tasuke Yasuda (and his equally perverted little brother) gets these all the time in Tenshi Na Konamaiki, altough the blood is for some reason pink as are occasionally full body blushes.
Hideki Motosuwa, the protagonist of Chobits, has so many nosebleeds during the series while seeing Chii tumble about that one would think he'd need a transfusion.
How has no one mentioned Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu yet? The Onsen Episode features two particularly bloody (and hilarious) examples: while listening in to the girls' conversation through the dividing wall, Kazama, the more naive of the series's Those Two Guys, has a full-on explosive nosebleed, while the more experienced Kurz merely gushes about a quart per second from both nostrils.