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The Sinister Glasses
Why is Yamazaki winning?
These are definitely not Nerd Glasses, although they are sometimes mistaken for them at first. This is a variant of The Faceless.
In anime, one's eyes are an indicator of the soul. Large eyes represent honesty and innocence, while smaller eyes indicate worldliness. A trickster will have closed eyes. (Which doesn't necessarily mean they're evil, just that they're sneaky, of course, many sneaky people are evil...)
If you can't even see their eyes because of the Scary Shiny Glasses, beware - for these are individuals who deliberately wall themselves off from the people around them.
The Scary Shiny Glasses can be turned on or off at will by the wearer; they can especially crank it up for intimidation. When they are in effect, the glasses reflect light such that all you can see are two white circles, nothing is visible of the eyes. Often for extra effect, their bodies will just be a black outline, so the glasses are the only visible detail - this effect is at times accompanied by a Noblewomans Laugh, regardless of their wearer's actual gender. Failing that, they may actually have Audible Sharpness.
It's often revealed that the person doesn't have any eye problems at all, the glasses are just non-prescription lenses. Someone opening up to others or dying can result in the glasses symbolically breaking or being given up. The Glasses Gotta Go!
People with Scary Shiny Glasses never use The Clark Kent Effect. A single flash of the glasses can represent a sudden increase of intention, but to really be the Scary Shiny Glasses it needs to be an even, creepy glow.
The shades worn by MIB are a lesser variant; see Sinister Shades.
If you are a total badass, or want others to think you are such, during a break in fighting adjust your glasses by pushing them farther back on your nose. There is a 99% certainty this will cause the Scary Shiny Glasses phenomenon, virtually guaranteeing your victory.
Examples:
Anime
- (Top picture) Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion. (In a pretty obvious thematic nod, his original pair of glasses broke when he rescued Rei, and he took to wearing his sunglasses at all times afterward. In the manga version, the readers - and implicitly Shinji - began to see Gendo's eyes behind his glasses more often as we learned more about him.)
- Yuki Nagato of Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu, until Kyon tells her she looks better without them.
- Hellsing does this a lot with Alucard, Integra, Anderson, Rip, occasionally Walter, and a few others. It fact, Hellsing thrives on this trope for horror effects. Owning a pair of glasses or shades seems to mark most of the important characters. Admittedly, though, some lesser characters have these.
- Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- Yoriko from {{You're Under Arrest}} does the shiny-glasses routine whenever she tells scary stories or is up to something especially devious.
- Professor Tomoe from Sailor Moon.
- Ayane Isuzu From Gatekeepers 21.
- Muraki from Yami No Matsuei.
- Yomiko Readman from Read Or Die (yes, really). Sometimes Nenene in ROD the TV too. In Anita's flashback, Yomiko's glasses actually glow like headlights.
- Itsuki Midoriba from Shuffle, normally only when he's being mischievous.
- Tasuke Yasuda from Tenshi Na Konamaiki.
- In times of stress or extreme exasperation, the Scary Shiny Glasses are seen on Yomi in Azumanga Daioh.
- And Mr. Kimura's glasses are always shiny. Appropriately enough, he's usually kinda creepy.
- Captain Kuro on One Piece.
- Subversion: Dr. Ono Tofu from Ranma 1/2 goes into shiny-glasses mode whenever he encounters Kasumi Tendo, on whom he has (apparently) a deep, all-encompassing crush. He's far from evil, but he spaces so badly during these "attacks" that he can hurt people quite severely, completely by accident.
- Brad Crawford from Weiss Kreuz.
- Shou Tucker, the "Sewing Life Alchemist", from Full Metal Alchemist. On the other hand, Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes' occasionally-Scary glasses function entirely backwards, showing his eyes only when a Plan is being Formed.
- Kabuto Yakushi, Naruto. What's noteable here is how frequently he pushes them up as if they were Nerd Glasses (sometimes over 4 times in less than a minute) but still maintains his twisted, sadistic, mysterious demeanor.
- Kyouya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club.
- Three examples from Patlabor: Officer Shinshi, Mister Utsumi, and Utsumi's henchman Kurosaki.
- Roberta in Black Lagoon.
- Principal Chieko Sannomiya in I! My! Me! Strawberry Eggs.
- Shuichi Takamizawa of Midori No Hibi uses his glasses to hide his Otaku obsession. The lenses will crack to show that his emotions are becoming too much to contain, then appear undamaged when he has control again. When he's being sincere but still scary, one lens will clear while the other is opaque.
- Push Vash the Stampede from Trigun hard enough, and he'll switch to shiny glasses mode (once referred to as "The Diablo"). Needless to say, if you ever push him into this mode, you are completely, utterly screwed beyond all hope.
- An early example is Musuka from the film Laputa: Castle in the Sky, whose dark glasses display glints of light passing across them, particularly to emphasize when he says or does something particularly devious.
- In Love Hina, Keitaro's glasses (and to a lesser degree, Naru's) go Shiny at times when they are deep in thought or experiencing intense emotion -- a milder version than the scary, sinister usage.
- In Detective Conan (Case Closed in the U.S.), Conan's glasses often go shiny when he's thinking hard, plotting, or experiencing a flash of inspiration.
- Bleach:
- Aizen Sousuke, originally portrayed as a well-mannered and nice guy, occasionally had scary shiny glasses, particularly Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya learns of his treachery. Later, though, his particularly devious plans are revealed, and he breaks his glasses.
- Uryu Ishida's glasses shine when he ponders something, wants to hide his feelings or gets angry. His father, Ryuuken, is pretty much always pondering, keeping secrets, and being bitter, so his glasses are often shiny.
- 8th Division lieutenant Nanao Ise in episode 55 when she's angry with her captain for leaving her behind while escaping from Captain Yamamoto.
- She's actually scarier when she releases her glasses, but this only occurs in the Omake Shinigami Golden Cup. Even someone as sadistic like Mayuri pissed on his pants when he sees her releasing her glasses.
- Ichigo's zanpakuto Zangetsu in human form.
- Don Kanonji’s glasses often become shiny when he’s excited about one of his new ideas (which could be considered frightening).
- Chizuru Honshou when thinking about Orihime in episode 15.
- Kitagawa in Genshiken does this on occasion.
- Anybody with glasses in Genshiken, although this is less Scary Shiny Glasses and more either "Hide your Feelings" glasses or "Hide your identity" glasses.
- Murata Ken in Kyou Kara Maou has scary shiny glasses when he's being devious or withholding information from the other good guys.
- Kurata from Digimon Savers, in which the shiny glasses are used as a label reading "This guy is evil. Really damn evil. So evil we should call him Hitlermon, seriously."
- In Pokemon, Max occasionally does this when he's pulling Brock away from a beautiful woman. He's not evil, just really annoyed.
- Lain's father from Serial Experiments Lain does this quite a lot, particularly to depict how alienated Lain gets from the real world. Different from most cases as the effect is more the glow of a computer monitor than the shine of a reflective surface.
- Kuzuki in Fate Stay Night.
- In Mai-HiME, Ishigami when he's being evil and Yukino when she's hiding something.
- In Gundam Wing Lady/Colonel Une's multiple personality disorder hinges on whether she has her glasses on or not. I forget if they ever actually "Shine" but I think this counts.
- This troper says they do shine several times, so yeah.
- Digimon Adventure 02 has Ken. While he's the Big Bad, his villainous outfit is topped off with shades that often do the Scary Shiny thing while he's plotting something.
- Akihiro Kurata from Digimon Data Squad. Several times in multiple episodes he pushes up his glasses (that seem to always slide down when the camera isn't looking), and almost every single time he has a Scary Shiny Glasses effect.
- Ovan in .hack//Roots
- Zack Temple in the anime of Mega Man Star Force, but only for a second. Mainly just to show he's a jerk despite being geeky.
- Kurama from Elfen Lied to showcase that he is a cold, emotionally tormented individual.
- In the manga Battle Angel Alita/Gunmn, Desty Nova wears spectacles which are essentially opaque, hiding his eyes. Only in moments when his insanity clears does he actually remove them.
- Parodied with Haruko from Hayate The Combat Butler. Light is reflected off her glasses in a manner that resembles a laser. She can use these lasers to burn up pieces of paper.
- Autor from Princess Tutu is first introduced with a cameo in episode 15, where he appears with whited-out glasses. He has a cameo in every single episode after this up until his true introduction with each time his glasses appearing to glow more and more as he seems to become more and more irate. When he's introduced properly in episode 21 (and we start to get to know him), his glasses barely flash at all--and later, during times of weakness and vulnerability, his glasses actually are knocked off his face.
- Quattro is introduced with these in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and naturally she's the most psychotic of the Numbers.
- Ghost In The Shell has a version of this were not only is the Yakuza boss talking calmly without looking at whom he is talking to, his glasses are shining with the reflection of the porn movie he is watching. (Yes, he is watching a porn movie while talking to the police.)
- Mr. Prospector's glasses on Martian Successor Nadesico go all scary-shiny when he's being a Corrupt Corporate Executive, and lack this feature as he gets more sympathetic. Meganekko Hikaru's glasses are always transparent, because she's both too adorable and too straightforward for this trope to apply.
- Soichiro Yagami does this in Death Note when somebody suggests that Sayu and Matsuda might be getting married.
- In The Prince Of Tennis, Inui's already thick Nerd Glasses shine when he's pondering something important or gathers information. In the manga, the shine is constant; we don't see his eyes, ever, until a good long way in. Other guys with glasses (Tezuka, Kite, Oshitari) also get shiny glasses sometimes.
- Amon Garam Yu-Gi-Oh GX, at least after he embraces The Dark Side.
- Serial killer-slash-Yaoi Guy Adrian in the one volume manga Boys Next Door features these in his Creepy Child flashback scenes.
- Dr. Franken Stein of Soul Eater does this; as someone with a Morally Ambiguous Doctorate; he's pretty much required.
- In the manga Yotsuba&!, Jumbo's glasses sometimes go shiny, but it's more or less inversely to how scary he's being. The one exception is when he forgets himself and accidentally slaps Yotsuba on the back, sending her tumbling across the room.
- Takami from Eyeshield 21 develops this while using psychlogical warfare in the match between Ojou and Deimon. It doesn't match his personality well, honestly; He's one of the series' most obvious Determinators, and he really cares about all the other players. Bizarrely, this has never happend to him before, even though he always wears glasses. Even when he's playing football.
- Also occaisionally seen on Yoshou and Noboyuki in Tenchi Muyo. While it does make them seem briefly intimidating, as they're otherwise very unassuming (especially Bumbling Dad Noboyuki), it counterproductively makes the resemblace between them even more uncanny, which is strange because Yoshou is Noboyuki's father-in law.
- Dr. Kabapu from Excel Saga does this in the first episode he's introduced. Also occasionally occurs with Koshi Rikdo and Lord Ilpalazzo (although his glasses are smaller than usually used with this trope).
Western Animation
- The girl Sarah in MTV's Oddities: The Maxx, a depressed sarcastic lonely girl, who's father turns out not to be dead but the serial killer Mr. Gone. Her thick glasses are not only shiny to the point of opaqueness, they cover almost half her face. The first time you can actually see her eyes (briefly), is when she snaps and threatens to shoot... well, shoot someone, possibly herself, with one of her father's guns. (She doesn't in the end, because she's Genre Savvy and doesn't want to end up as a soppy girl.)
- In an episode of The Batman, Scary Shiny Glasses were the only sign that Clark Kent wasn't Clark Kent, but Clayface posing as him.
- The Master in the animated Funny Animal series Road Rovers wears these at all times, though he's the leader of the protagonists. Handwaved at one point, when he explains there's no real reason for his glasses to be glowing like that, it just makes for a cool effect.
- Dale Gribble from King Of The Hill is rarely ever seen without his mirrored shades. While he's still a lovably inept doofus, he happens to be the single most devious and untrustworthy character on the show.
- Cloud biologist Dr. Claude Belgon in the beautiful gothic-steampunk animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (Australia, 2005) is a textbook example of the creepy scientist with shiny glasses. In fact because all the characters have been rendered as layer-on-layer black silhouettes (in the way of Balinesian shadow puppets) with silvery highlights, all you get to see of his eyes are the white circles of his glasses against the black background of his head.
- Dib from Invader Zim is shown with these (and in silhouette to boot!) in the title sequence- however that's the only time his glasses are shiny.
- Willy Watt develops these in his debut episode of Batman Beyond. The closing, silhouetted scene of him in juvenile hall just makes them scarier, to such a degree that it seems to be affecting the other inmates. (Well, okay, maybe it was really because he made a TV explode, but the glasses played a role in it.)
Film
- Kevin, the cannibalistic serial killer from the graphic novel and movie Sin City.
- Possibly inspired by "The Man With No Eyes" from the prison drama Cool Hand Luke.
- In the Coen Brothers' film O Brother Where Art Thou? there is an evil sheriff who wears shiny, reflective goggles. These reflect fire at every possible opportunity, one of the many suggestions that he is Satan in disguise.
- The Terminator always wore sunglasses, even when he did a Heel Face Turn in the second one. The villain of that film often wore biker goggles, which - since he needed to be even creepier - reflected fire at every possible opportunity.
- The T-1000's goggles were never half as scary as his eyes, though.
- In The Silence Of The Lambs, Buffalo Bill wears night vision goggles in a few scenes.
- Morpheus from The Matrix often sports a pair. A firm good guy, though.
- Just Morpheus? Everyone in The Matrix, all the time.
- Hey, it's hard to model eyes in CGI!
Videogames
- Latooni Subota from Super Robot Wars: Original Generation is a perfect example. She wears extremely thick coke-bottle glasses that she says are her analyzation glasses; they turn out to be a psychological tool she uses to stay professional at all times.
- Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic The Hedgehog games always hid his eyes behind a pair of round-frame sunglasses, and at one point wore goggles over them. His true eye color (blue) was not revealed until 2006's Sonic The Hedgehog, and even then it was only briefly.
- In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Kristoph Gavin develops this when things cease going his way. At one point, you can look through those glasses and see his eyes. It's very, very unnerving.
- After his Heel Face Turn, Sparda of Devil May Cry was never portrayed without a one-way purple monocle over his left eye. Note that this only occurred after his change to goodness, though.
- The Sorrow in Metal Gear Solid 3 has glasses that simultaneously blank out and break when he does his ghost routine.
- keats from folklore does this often, like every second scene.
- It is implied that Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss literally wears his glasses to protect the environment from his eyes.
- Played for laughs in Persona 3: FES: In one of the new extra features for the original storyline, Shuji Ikutsuki's glasses do this whenever he thinks up one of his terrifyingly bad puns. This happens a lot.
- When Mao's glasses start to shine, it's generally a good rule of thumb to get the bloody hell out of there. Usually, it means he's planning to drill a hole in your head to see what's inside.
- Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw's infamously creepy Survival Horror freeware game "1213" features the impatient and batshit-insane Westbury, who torments 1213 through video screens. All that we see of him besides his silhouette are his his huge round glasses. What's more, the shiny glasses are the boss of the second episode, as a pair of giant white circles that fire bolts of lighting at the protagonist.
Webcomics
Live Action TV
- Not quite so literal Western example: Mr. Bennet in Heroes wears horn-rimmed glasses, which ramp up his personal creepiness factor.
- Self appointed moral guardian Mary Whitehouse is portrayed as having them by the trailers for her upcoming TV biopic, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story. Since the film is made and shown by the BBC, which was one of her most frequent targets, this may be an intentional use of this trope.
- In one episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron walks around in a pair of ridiculously oversized shiny sunglasses.
Literature
- In the Dystopia classic 1984, a colleague of protagonist Winston Smith has a hostile spectacle-flash, which is the textual equivalent.
- In the C.S. Lewis novel That Hideous Strength, the character of Professor Frost is repeatedly described as having pince nez glasses that would reflect light in such a way as to make his eyes invisible.
Web Original
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