Apparently this girl breathes helium rather than oxygen.
Greaper: He's sleeping.
Dry Bones: Boy, he sure is.
The Big Boo: Check those bubbles coming out of his nose!
Dry Bones: Boy, he sure is.
The Big Boo: Check those bubbles coming out of his nose!
— The 3 Musty Fears, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
A trope particularly common in Japanese media and works that imitate it directly. When sleeping, a character, whose primary thrust is comedic, develops a bubble of snot from one nostril that inflates and deflates in sync with their breathing or their snoring, especially if the character chooses to fall asleep during a very inappropriate time (usually during class or while studying). Basically the anime equivalent of the 'Zzz' used in Western cartoons and comics. While usually considered a pretty gross concept in the West, Japanese media tends to portray it as cute. Sometimes multiple, smaller snot bubbles come out in succession while the character is sleeping, reminiscent of Catching Some Z's.
The bubble bursts upon awakening. In some cases, it is shown that you can awaken the character by popping it.
See also Catching Some Z's for the more western version of sleep representation.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Deserted Island Diary: One of the main human quartet, Guchan, is a Sleepyhead who has a large snot bubble. He's able to form words and objects with the bubble, and use it to balance himself when he surfs.
- Black Cat: One scene features Creed using Shiki's insects as spy cameras to watch Train as he sleeps. As he's sleeping Train does this.
- Digimon Adventure: In episode eleven, Gomamon says that a snot bubble means that the digimon is easy to fool. He proceeds to throw a rock at it to pop it, rather than at the Digimon itself...
- Doraemon: A common occurrence with Nobita. There's even a gun-type gadget that can suck out "sleepiness" bubbles and transfer all the sleepiness to someone else.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure: Mepple has one while he has a nap on the mountain trip.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Sloth drops off to sleep for a few seconds and instantly develops one.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: In the Omake Tachicomatic Days, the Tachikomas often get snot bubbles, despite being completely mechanical and not having anything resembling a nose.
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Kotengu gets a snot bubble in the OAV "Omoi no Arika". He wakes up when the bubble bursts.
- Miracle Wanda: Yumemin, a Promin with the power to manipulate people's dreams, has a fitting sleepyhead-looking character design that features a snot bubble constantly coming out of his nose.
- Nichijou: Nano, sometimes, despite the fact that she's a robot.
- One Piece:
- In the Enies Lobby arc, when Usopp as Sniper King, is trying to get the key from Jabra without waking him up, Jabra gets a Snot Bubble, and even when it pops, he still doesn't wake up.
- On the other end of things, popping Gekko Moriah's is required to wake him up.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Panty and Chuck are seen with these the most often, especially in "Pulp Addiction" when they're bored out of their minds.
- Pokémon: The Series: Throughout the series, some of the characters have this. In one episode, Ash's Pikachu gets this after falling asleep due to it being hit by a Hypnosis attack, and a Snorlax also gets one in a Pikachu Short.
- In one episode of Pokémon the Series: Black & White, when Ash battles Alder, Alder gets this when Alder falls asleep in the middle of the battle, which angers his Bouffalant, resulting in Bouffalant to knock out Alder instead of Ash's Pikachu.
- Also, in one episode of Pokémon Best Wishes Decolora Adventure!, a Metapod also gets one several times before evolution. Just look at this.
- Powerpuff Girls Z: Mojo Jojo has one of these in the second act of the second episode. Momoko/Blossom pops it with a pin, causing him to wake up.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: Fuutarou sometimes falls asleep with his eyes wide open, giving out one of these to reveal it.
- Ranma ½: Tatewaki Kuno, his father Principal Kuno, and Genma Saotome are all shown asleep with snot bubbles during the fourth season.
- Reborn! (2004): The titular character does this often, along with his pet chameleon Leon. He also falls asleep at the most inappropriate times. Colonnello also does this (it helps that he and Reborn knew each other when they were kids, well... before they became kids) and Tsuna does this occasionally.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: Chu-Chu, the comic-relief mascot critter, frequently has these while sleeping—it is played for cuteness and occasionally grossness. Besides being the Team Pet, Chu-Chu is the series' number 1 source of Toilet Humor.
- Street Fighter: Oro, one of the most powerful martial artists in the world, taunts by temporarily falling asleep with a snot bubble.
- Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God: Seen in the Eye Catches for Episode 4 and 6, with Bastet, Thoth, Medjed and Anubis. The second time around, Medjed is shown floating up into the air with his own bubble. Also seen with Wenet as he sleeps off, popping as he wakes up.
- Washio Sumi Is a Hero: Sonoko has a bubble while sleeping near the start of the second episode.
Asian Animation
- Happy Heroes: In Season 9 episode 1, Big M. fakes sleepwalking to avoid catching Doctor H.'s suspicion. He produces a snot bubble from his nose to make it convincing.
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: It's not uncommon for characters (particularly Paddi) to have snot bubbles when they're asleep.
Fan Works
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- Naruto does this when he's eating ramen while sleeping. Later on, he does it again when he's waiting at the hospital for the results regarding some thieves that are seemingly Jiraiya and Asuma.
- Tayuya wakes up, only to find Mina sleeping right next to her and having a snot bubble.
Live-Action TV
- Ultraman Taiga have an episode featuring Takkong, a benevolent guardian kaiju who's introduced crawling from the sea and immediately taking a nap near an oil refinery. Complete with a giant snot bubble (larger than trucks!) coming out his nostrils.
Video Games
- Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: The Boat Shop Caretaker Yanni Yogi in the fourth case falls asleep on the witness stand with a snot bubble every single time someone stops talking to him.
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: Cammy Meele does this, when she falls asleep with her hair covering her face. It's shown later that it's actually caused by a bubble pipe.
- Bomberman Jetters: The Loading Screen depicts Bomberman with a snot bubble which bursts when the loading's over. From the Let's Play:
BigTUnit1: What's it coming out of? He has no holes! "It's coming out of my cheek!"
- Chrono Trigger: The old man at the End of Time is always asleep with a snot bubble when the party visits him.
- Cubivore: All the player-controlled critters develop a snot bubble when they sleep, even retaining it for a few seconds after they wake up.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Chiaki Nanami is seen with one of these whenever she is sleeping... which is often.
- Deadpool: Happens to Deadpool whenever he takes a nap on his apartment's couch, or in the middle of two really chatty party girls.
- Deltarune: In Chapter 2, Lancer joins you as a Live Item, and viewing your key items where he is without doing anything for a while will have him eventually fall asleep with a snot bubble. At the end of the chapter, Susie also has one when she falls asleep.
- Drawn to Life: Almost all scenes with a character sleeping include this.
- Final Fantasy: The Sleep Standard Status Effect is shown like this in the SNES games, in addition to the character being stuck in the "crouched" pose like with most status ailments.
- Jitsu Squad have a cutscene where you're inevitably caught in a Runaway Train - thanks to an incompetent mook falling asleep at the controls, complete with a huge bubble coming from his nose, and his hands accidentally pressed on the accelerator.
- Just Dance 2: One of your avatar character's idle animations has them sleeping complete with this, before waking up in surprise.
- Kill Time in Your Office: One of the minigames in this Flash game has the plater press the arrow keys in rapid succession to pop a snot bubble from the napping protagonist. When the bubble pops, she will wake up.
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land features this as a secondary move for the Sleep ability, not only it wakes Kirby up pretty quickly, but it also destroys nearby enemies who came across it. It also became a secondary move for Sleep in future Kirby titles.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: The Maku Tree spends most of the game sleeping in this manner; to talk to him, you have to pop the bubble and wake him up.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Sleeping Bokoblins, Moblins and Hinox produce transparent bubbles from their piglike snouts, which blow away and pop in a steady stream.
- Little Nemo: The Dream Master: The animals that can be bribed with candies fall asleep with snot bubbles, even those that have no nose, like a bee or a hermit crab.
- Makai Kingdom: Overlord Babylon, a huge dragon who once had enough power to rule the universe, often falls asleep with a snot bubble.
- Metal Slug: From the second game onwards, if your character is left idle for a while, they'll doze off (while standing!) with a bubble coming out of their noses.
- Miitopia has snot bubble enemies. They spawn from harmless, sleepy puppies and bear Mii facial features. They burst when defeated, waking the doggie up.
- Ōkami: Sleepy sleeps while showing a snot bubble. The most surprising detail is that he's sleeping while standing onto a ball, and never falls down.
- Pokémon X and Y: Sometimes, upon launching Pokémon Amie, instead of the Catching Some Z's trope, you will find your Pokémon in a different sleeping position. With Froakie, though, the left bubble on its nose is treated like a snot bubble.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Mario & Luigi:
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: One of the enemies, the Naplock, can actually attack you with its snot bubbles.
- Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: The Japanese and Korean box arts have Luigi with a snot bubble, while the international equivalents simply have a "Zzz" instead.
- Mario Golf: This is Yoshi's animation on the mode select screen.
- Mario Party 2: In the minigame "Sneak 'n Snore", the Chain Chomp has this while he is asleep and it pops just before he wakes up.
- Paper Mario:
- The first three games have a Running Gag of showing Mario with one when falling asleep listening to the overly long stories told by Merlon and his family.
- Paper Mario 64: The Clubba enemies in Tubba Blubba's Castle produce large snot bubbles while napping, which serves as a tell for whether or not they've detected you.
- Super Mario 64:
- The Piranha Plants are usually asleep with a snot bubble, until you wake them up.
- Yoshi is seen sleeping on the roof of Peach's Castle with a snot bubble in the opening cutscene for Super Mario 64 DS. The camera Lakitu wakes up Yoshi by popping the bubble, after somehow managing to move him from the roof of the castle to the ground without waking him. Leaving his Idle Animation on for too long has him fall asleep with one as well.
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Some Goombas are sleeping with a snot bubble.
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: Seen whenever one of your characters (except Princess Peach) was affected with the "sleep" status. This was Lampshaded in a scene where three ghosts visit Mario while he's asleep. They argue over whether he's truly asleep, until one of them points out the bubble coming from his nose.
- Mario & Luigi:
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: While not present in-game, King K. Rool is asleep at the start of Banjo and Kazooie's reveal trailer. He is woken up by Diddy Kong popping his snot bubble after a Jiggy bounces on screen.
- Them's Fightin' Herds: All of the Predator mooks have one of these while they're asleep in the overworld. A snot bubble like this is also a wearable pixel item for the player's avatar.
- WarioWare: Twisted!: One of the minigames involves timing a button press to pop a snot bubble. In the international versions, it is changed to popping a blown bubble from chewing gum.
- ZeroRanger: In Stage 1-4, the Old Monk boss is sleeping when you get to him and won't start the fight until you attack him and wake him up. But if you just shoot down his snot bubble without damaging him, he'll instead give you some exposition and let you skip his boss fight.
Webcomics
Web Original
- Hard Drive: Parodied in "Sleep Study Finds 40% of People Produce Giant Inflating Snot Bubble During REM Cycle". The article asserts that this anime trope occurs in real life, and is illustrated with a side-by-side photo of a sleeping man, compared to a still from One Piece.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In a non-sleeping example, Jimmy, Carl and Sheen have Carl blow a gigantic snot bubble for a school talent show and actually fly on it. Until it pops, that is.
- The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: King Koopa does this in an episode when he's trying to take a nap.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: On one occasion, a sleeping Ed produces a bubble so big that he floats away.
- Kaeloo: In Episode 80, Mr. Cat is seen sleeping like this for a few minutes before he is woken up.
- Kappa Mikey: In "Mikey Impossible", Lily falls asleep and does this during Ozu's Long List of restrictions.
- Paper Port: In "Everyday Matilda", Matilda's grandfather Curlybeard sleeps with a green-colored one in a Cutaway Gag after her dad mentions that he is "really fun". Later in the series he and other characters occasionally get this as well.
- SpongeBob SquarePants gets one with a Nightmare Face in "WhoBob WhatPants?".
- Totally Spies!: In "S.P.I", Clover briefly sleeps with this when Jerry lists off the same old gadgets; it pops when he mentions the new spy gadget for the episode.
