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Stoic Spectacles

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Dr. Kisaragi is a textbook case of this phenomenon.

Bespectacled girls are cute. Bespectacled short guys are book-smart. Bespectacled pretty boys, on the other hand, are cool, calm and collected. It's not uncommon for them to also be intelligent and kick ass in a fight, as this character type tends to be where the opposing viewpoints of "glasses are for nerds" and "glasses look cool" converge.

Most commonly, the glasses in question are of the narrow, thin-rimmed sort to avoid obscuring the bishie boy's pretty face, though they can be prone to shining spookily. Also, God help you if The Glasses Come Off. If you're dangerous even without removing them, they are Specs of Awesome. If you're a cold, sadistic but hot Love Interest type as well as a spectacled guy, then you might be a Kichiku Megane. If you've got the cold and sadistic but not the love interest, you might have Four Eyes, Zero Soul.

Bonus points if the character also has long hair; double if it's worn in a ponytail. See also the "little round glasses" option of Mask Power. See also Glasses of Aging.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • William T. Spears of Black Butler. He's stoic and bespectacled.
  • Uryu Ishida from Bleach fits the "where nerdy and cool converge" part of the trope description, being 1st in his class, a highly skilled warrior, and a dorkily obsessive sewing fanboy.
  • Kunikida Doppo from Bungo Stray Dogs. He is professional and likes to organize and schedule every little detail to the point that it becomes a Running Gag. Double points since he has his long hair in a ponytail.
  • Aion from Chrono Crusade, complete with the long ponytail. However, while he enjoys keeping up an appearance of being stoic, he has several moments where he reveals a more dramatic side—indeed, flashbacks that show him without the glasses have him being much more emotional, and when he loses the glasses in the final battle his motives are revealed and he's much more emotional.
  • Subverted by Hidenori from Daily Lives of High School Boys. While his glasses does make him look stoic, it's just a paper-thin shell that hides his Large Ham tendencies. This is not to say he doesn't wear those for vision purposes; he has 40/20 vision without.
  • Mikami from Death Note appears to be yet another subversion: he comes across as polite, incisive, determined, quiet and intelligent (he also gets bonus style points for his long black hair and smart clothes) - until he's properly introduced and we get to see just how twisted his psyche is.
  • Satoshi in D.N.Angel. In fact, it's hinted that his glasses has something to do with suppressing his emotions to keep his Superpowered Evil Side at bay.
  • Dr. STONE: Kinro was already The Stoic, but Senku eventually makes him some proper glasses to fix his "fuzzy sickness", and they make him look all the more stoic and serious.
  • Kakei from Drug & Drop. Bonus points in that he wears a lab coat, no word on if he's actually a doctor or not. Also very pretty.
  • Lord Il Palazzo from Excel♡Saga, though he wears the small type of glasses that don't cover your eyes. Also, he's not very collected.
  • Takami Ichiro of Eyeshield 21 is a good example of the convergence of nerdy and cool: an intelligent, strategic thinker, and the quarterback of a football team. Maybe athletic glasses aren't the best choice for looking suave, but they're much more practical.
  • Saikawa, the bespectacled butler from Gakuen Babysitters is mysterious, quiet and always keep a straight face even when telling a "joke".
  • Nagato Yuki of Haruhi Suzumiya is female, but gravitates more toward this trope than the typical Meganekko. She loses her glasses near the end of the first book and, from there, goes through Tin Man development.
  • Sugata Eishirou from Heaven's Lost Property fits this well. He generally has the same expression on his face, he's The Smart Guy of the group, and he fights bears on a regular basis.
  • Subversion: Ryoki from Hot Gimmick comes across as emotionally distant in his introduction, but later on develops strong feelings for the female lead in his own twisted way.
  • Kakyoin from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. While prone to outbursts of emotion like his compatriots, he is by far the least prone to them, and is often the straight man to Polnareff's Emotional Bruiser, Idiot Hero combo.
  • K: Reisi Munakata, the Blue King, is distilled essence of this trope. He's bespectacled, Tall, Dark, and Handsome, rational, and coolheaded.
  • Karasuma Kirio of Kamichama Karin is a parody of this character type; he appears to be this for about the first five minutes he appears, and then the Mood Whiplash starts and his true personality comes to light.
  • Soubi from Loveless, complete with intelligence, badass magic fighting skills, and long hair which is sometimes pulled back. Also prone to The Glasses Come Off before wordspell battles.
  • Griffith Lowran from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Also serves as the Number Two to Hayate Yagami.
  • There's a generic Shoujo manga called Megane Ouji (or "Four-Eyed Prince" in the USA) that's built around this trope. The main love interest wears glasses and is quiet, aloof, bookish and generally blunt. However, at night he takes off his glasses, dons an apron and works as a bartender. While at his job he takes on a personality of a flirty, warm and chipper character. He later explains to the main character that as a child he was shuffled around to be raised by several relatives, and took on whatever persona that seemed to please his current foster parents, resulting in the split.
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid has Fafnir, who's the "acts reserved, but would probably kill you and your entire family if you so much as annoy him" type.
  • Rin from Mnemosyne is another female example. The first episode also hints that she's Blind Without 'Em, although she still manages to kick ass pretty well despite losing her glasses every now and then.
  • Naruto: Shino has a pair of stoic shades which constantly cover his eyes, even during side views. It's even become somewhat of a running gag among the fandom that his eyes have never been seen.
  • Takahata from Negima! Magister Negi Magi. He wears thin glasses and his expression ranges from bemused smile to mildly concerned frown even in the midst of combat.
  • Kneesocks from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt wears glasses and never lets her emotions go over-the-top, without a good reason unlike her sister whose anger and impulsiveness is partly the reason why they fail a lot of the time.
  • The Prince of Tennis:
    • Kunimitsu Tezuka and Sadaharu Inui. The latter in particular is prone to a constant state of Scary Shiny Glasses. So mcuh that his eyes are very seldom seen — which is a Running Gag in one of the chibi episodes, where he constantly covers his eyes when he loses his glasses.
    • Yuushi Oshitari from Hyoutei too, and he's got the long hair to go with it. It's even lampshaded when he reveals that he doesn't really need glasses, he just wears them because he's going for this look.
    • Also Hiroshi Yagyuu from Rikkai and Eishirou Kite from Higa, who borders on Kichiku Megane.
    • Subverted in Hyoutei's Hiyoshi, who fits the associated traits for the trope and actually needs glasses, but wears contact lenses instead.
  • Jin from Samurai Champloo, the stoic and coolheaded samurai with a long ponytail. The glasses didn't actually do anything. He'd apparently adopted them as a disguise (seriously ineffective; the only time it fools anyone looking for him was because the searcher had heard Jin wore glasses but he happened to not be wearing them currently), but it's still a serious badass moment when The Glasses Come Off in the finale because it means he's past hiding behind the disguise.
  • Chiga in Seitokaichou Ni Chuukoku, who is one of the best fighters in the dojo but still occasionally blushes.
  • The methodical, quiet monk and writer Seishin Muroi in Shiki fits this extremely well, right down to wearing the small, half-framed style of glasses common with the trope.
  • Spoofed in a Super Robot Wars Yonkoma, where Stoic Spectacles can make even the most Hot-Blooded of Idiot Heroes look like an intelligent bishie.
    Kouji: I can put on a pair of glasses and...Voila! See how intelligent I look?
    Asuka: ...Whoa.
  • Kishou Arima from Tokyo Ghoul. Known as the "God of Death", he is a Ghoul Investigator with a fearsome reputation and an unapproachable air. Upon seeing him for the first time, Kaneki notes that he is an incredibly beautiful man, even standing calmly among piles of corpses. His eyes are often hidden behind his glasses, helping to obscure his expressions.
  • Trigun's Vash the Stampede can wear his specs and remain the lovable goofball. Or he can put them on dramatically, with a bit of shine, and go implacable.
  • Soichi of The Tyrant Falls in Love has long, pale hair, often tied back in a ponytail, is intelligent and wears glasses, but that's about where it stops. Being an extreme tsundere and all. And it only gets worse after the glasses come off (during sex) and the ponytail comes undone (also during sex), both to make him more traditionally uke-ish.
  • The bespectacled gamer Keima Katsuragi from The World God Only Knows only breaks his stone cold stoicism to gush about his dating sims.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • In Turning Red, this is Downplayed, but Priya wears glasses and is the most deadpan out of Mei's three friends.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Juror #4(E.G. Marshall) in 12 Angry Men is a "rational stockbroker, unflappable, self-assured, and analytical" and the only juror who wears glasses.
  • Milo Hoffman in Anti Trust wears glasses to read and work on his computer. Seeing as he's played by Ryan Phillipe, the thick-framed monstrosities just make him look all the hotter.
  • Ballistic Kiss: The main character, Cat, is an elite hitman and killing machine who wears glasses in all his scenes. His character is also The Stoic.
  • Jonathan Crane of Batman Begins. Largely calm and stoic, intelligent, good looking and wears glasses, but he's also a psychopath who gasses people with fear toxins. True to trope, heaven help you when he takes them off.
  • Major Hank Marshall (pictured about to punch his creepy superior officer) in Blue Sky — which makes it all the more heartbreaking that when he does take the glasses off, it's to wipe away tears.
  • Western example: Morpheus from The Matrix, despite having circular pince-nez (no earpieces), is definitely a stoic badass with glasses.
  • Peter in The Room (2003), a somewhat uptight but reasonably intelligent (by this film's standards, anyway) psychiatrist.
  • There is an example of this trope in the third The Thin Man film. The character is a crime boss named Vogel who probably also qualifies as a Smug Snake. What's amusing is that once the glasses are gone, he's worthless in a fight. Against a ditzy blonde.
  • In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, George Smiley wears glasses, and is certainly stoic.

    Literature 
  • In the 1632 series, Jeff Higgins wears Nerd Glasses for normal reasons. However, due to a combination of spectacles being rare in the 17th century and Jeff taking several levels in badass, many down-timers conclude that he is a cold killer who uses spectacles to see his victims better.
  • Henry Winters from The Secret History exemplifies this trope: tall, handsome, hyperintelligent, and rarely shows any emotion, although he does have them.
  • Uesugi of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note is the no-nonsense smart guy of the team who wears glasses. Aya's first impression on him is being cold, but as she find out quite soon after he isn't soulless.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the grand master of stoicism and spectacles. However, he averts the trope in the season 5 finale when he puts his glasses on to smother Ben, the human counterpart to the god, Glory.
  • Dr Harrison Wells of The Flash (2014) wears half-black-half-clear-rimmed Nerd Glasses, and is usually the calm, logical voice of reason on Team Flash, despite his occasional Not So Stoic moments. He's also quite the Badass Bookworm, although being confined to a wheelchair means that his feats of badassery are of the intellectual and strategic variety rather than the physical.
  • Joe Gibken of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger gets these during the Megaranger tribute episode, which involved the core cast becoming High School students for the day. This was in order to gain the Greater Power of the Megarangers who were High School Students during their series, while their representitive has become a teacher at their school.
  • Mythbusters has Jamie Hyneman. He is aloof, stoic, and spectacled.
  • Sherlock Holmes, emotionally-detached Badass Bookworm par excellence, wears little round reading glasses in a few scenes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
  • Mr. Harris, the strangely intense chemistry teacher in Teen Wolf. If this show weren't live-action, you could expect Scary Shiny Glasses to be invoked for emphasis.

    Multiple Media 
  • MonsterVerse: Dr. Serizawa in Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fits this trope with his stoic and intelligent personality and his narrow, thin-rimmed choice of spectacles, though he's a little bit older than most examples. It's even slightly lampshaded in King of the Monsters, when he has his glasses off while mourning Dr. Graham's death, but puts them back on once he recollects his resolve for the time. In the prequel graphic novel Godzilla Awakening, Serizawa's father Eiji has traded his youthful self's Nerd Glasses for a pair of thin-rimmed spectacles which give off this impression. There's also the bespectacled Miles Atherton in the graphic novel Godzilla: Aftershock who rarely loses his composure.

    Video Games 

    Web Comics 
  • Bernard from Angel Down wears a pir of thin rectangular glases, and almost never looses his cool.
  • Liz from Blip. Even though she's female, her glasses and demeanor imply stoicism rather than vulnerability. Bonus points for the fact that, as a shape shifter, she doesn't even need glasses.
  • Chapel, from The Chapel Chronicles constantly wears granny glasses — perhaps she even sleeps with them on.
  • Tarvek of Girl Genius does his best to appear stoic, and is much more stoic than other Sparks, but he still has his Mad Scientist freakouts like all Sparks do and he ends up loosing his composure and yelling at Gill rather often. His chosen pince nez glasses however very much seem to be part of the stoic and cool persona he's trying to present though.
  • Sven Bianchi from Questionable Content wears these and has long, flowing hair. Apart from geeky Wil, he's the only male character to wear glasses, and they certainly don't detract from his appeal to women.
  • Momba Kawunei from The Water Phoenix King. As an Archer it makes sense that he'd worry more about vision than vanity, though he's the first glasses-wearing warrior we've seen so far. His rivals (make that late in one case) may have mistaken them for Nerd Glasses, but not for long. Even more badass for wielding a weapon completely unsuitable for use by someone with lenses, and being good enough to get away with it.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Daria's title character is a Rare Female Example: thick manstopper glasses, and very stoic.
  • Transformers: Animated has Prowl, tall, stoic, he's a Ninja and his eyes(?) make him look like he's wearing sunglasses.
  • Wakfu: Qilby's glasses help give him an old yet wise figure's air which hide what an Ax-Crazy lunatic he really is. He breaks these after merging with the Eliacube and revealing his true colors.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Stoic Glasses

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Kinro's Wireframe Glasses

After learning that Kinro is Nearsighted, Senku creates a pair of wireframe glasses for him to wear.

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