Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises

aka: Wide Eyes And Tiny Pupils

As Pooh would say, "Oh, bother."

Calvin: What do you do, wait until you see the whites of my eyes?!
Hobbes: Boy, you should've seen them! They were as big as dinner plates!

— Calvin and Hobbes

A good sign that a character is absolutely terrified is if their eyes are bulging wide open and the irises and pupils are visibly shrunken, or even absent. This gives the impression that the character is screaming inwardly, even if they're speechless with shock. It comes across as striking and, if done well, can even be scary. Often a warning sign that the character is about to freak out. May also involve Tears of Fear.

Can also happen if a character is badly injured, with bonus points if the scene cuts away to a Scream Discretion Shot. On the flip side, it can also be used when a character is very, very angry.

A very minor case of Artistic License – Biology: while the pupil inside the iris can indeed shrink due to fear, the iris itself does not. Regardless, most artists consider it an Acceptable Break from Reality (see Open the Iris for reasons why).^note That being said, a lot of examples feature cartoon characters whose eyes are only white circles with a black spot in the middle; and for them it's unclear if they have only a pupil and no iris at all, or very small irises the same color as their pupil.

Frequently overlaps with Oh, Crap!. In Anime, this may be replaced with Blank White Eyes instead.

Contrast Open the Iris, the trope's physical opposite. If this effect only happens to one eye and not the other, it's a case of Mad Eyes. Not to be confused with Sphere Eyes, which always look like dots. Nor has this anything to do with a Wide-Eyed Idealist.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In the first chapter of the Asteroid in Love manga, Ao gets this when the other new member says she wants to find an asteroid. Downplayed when it is adapted in the first episode of the anime, when her irises only shrinks a little when that other member's companion calls her "Mira". This is a benign example, however; the reason Ao gets this is because she had The Promise of "finding an asteroid together" with this Mira many years ago, but soon parted due to her family Really Moves Around.
• Bleach:
  • Happens on a regular basis in the anime, usually when one character is impressed by another character's power/abilities.
  • Arisawa does this in chapter 410 when Aizen states he intends to kill her and draws his blade.
• Accelerator of A Certain Magical Index does this quite a lot (because of his insanity) but the most prominent is when Amai Ao is about to shoot him in the head and he knows he won't be able to deflect it.
• Most Code Geass characters do this, resulting in some pretty disturbing faces.
• Happens to Vicious in the Cowboy Bebop episode "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)" when Spike shoots him during their final duel.
• Death Note:
  • Light does this several times - most noticeably after he realizes the titular notebook is for real.
  • Also, Light gets them when he's starting to go insane.
  • Mello also does this all the time.
• In Digimon Tamers, Guilmon is a childlike, friendly dinosaur Mon. He's also crazy powerful by Rookie-level standards^note Actually common in Tamers, where Rookie Digimon are quite capable instead of Sleep-Mode Size; even Terriermon, who is the size of Digimon Adventure rookies, is a Pintsized Powerhouse who can clobber you with a frikkin' tornado. and when in a battle mindset can be feral and scary even to his friends. The signal that you should stop d'awwing over him and get out of his way in a big hurry is when his pupils suddenly shrink to pinpoints.
• Part of an Oh, Crap! moment for the villain of Domu by Katsuhiro Otomo. Reaches epic levels insofar as it is a silent panel the size of an entire two-page spread.
• Early in Doraemon: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi, Doraemon had this expression after hearing Nobita's suggestion to build their own amusement park on an iceberg.
• Dragon Ball Z already has most characters displaying proportionately small irises/pupils, but when they're frightened or under stress, their pupils shrink to pinpricks &/or go white.
  • As a side note, Super Saiyans lack pupils, arguably, this makes them really scary.
• Most Fairy Tail characters invert this for their pupils are usually invisible unless shocked or angry.
• Shinji in the 2010 movie adaptation of Fate/stay night sometimes looks like he crept his way straight out of the Higurashi anime. Not surprising, since both are Studio DEEN productions.
• Edward Elric does this a lot in Fullmetal Alchemist.
• Future Diary:
  • Yuno Gasai has some horrifying examples in the anime version. Bonus points when she's smiling or laughing maniacally.
  • Also in the anime version, Marco Ikusaba sports a pair of these in his backstory. A perfectly understandable reaction to witnessing your girlfriend being gang-raped.
• This happens on occasion in Hetalia: Axis Powers, such as when Germany sees that the invading aliens have rendered his tanks useless in The Movie.
• Higurashi: When They Cry:
  • Most characters do this when they're really scared, but Satoko has a habit of giving particularly haunting moments. One of these is Satoko's reaction to Keichii standing by her best friend's corpse in Tatarigoroshi-hen. Satoko freaks out, believing that Keichii was responsible, and while doing so, gives a picture perfect demonstration of the trope. Her reaction upon getting out of the river and returning to her school and finding her friends dead elicits this reaction from her as well, and it is also the expression her classmates are wearing. Gives a truly ghoulish impression. Keichii does it a few times as well.
  • It's also used fairly often to show a character is going Ax-Crazy, to the point that most instances of Nightmare Face in the series include this.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Onodera's irises shrink in disbelief when she sees that Ishigami has joined the Culture Festival committee. Ishigami agrees that he really doesn't belong there.
• In Kill la Kill, Ryuko Matoi has this reaction when Nui Harime, whom she literally just met, reveals that she owns the other half of Ryuko's Scissor Blade, and is by proxy the one who murdered Ryuko's father, Isshin Matoi. She also gets the absolutely pissed version of this, coupled with a furious scream of "YOU BITCH!!!", when she flies into an Unstoppable Rage towards Nui in response to this revelation. And it is terrifying to behold.
• In a flashback of Kotoura-san, this is used to show Yuriko's horror when she found her mother Driven to Suicide.
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, we have Quattro(see the anime image for Oh, Crap!), who has a very good reason to be terrified.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, it happens to Relena when Heero raises his gun to her at the end of Episode 2. Of course, she's saved from his Ineffectual Death Threats by a Duo Ex Machina.
• The OEL Manga My Cat Loki features this whenever the titular cat Loki is scared.
• In My Hero Academia, All Might himself develops these after hearing from All For One that Tomura Shigaraki is the grandson of All Might's mentor; Nana Shimura. What follows is All Might suffering a huge Heroic BSoD during the fight.
• Naruto:
  • Since most of Kakashi's face is permanently hidden (usually just the one eye is left clear), this is what allows us to notice he's having an Oh, Crap! moment.
  • Naruto himself gets a noteworthy set of these when Hinata gives him her Anguished Declaration of Love just before almost getting killed by Pain. Notable in that they are not momentary; he is so shocked, he has them for the ENTIRE SCENE. And then he, quite understandably, goes berserk. Oh boy, does he.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion has some moments with this trope, especially when Shinji freaks out in End of Evangelion, upon seeing Asuka's dismembered Eva Unit . Epic Freak Out ensues, and again shortly after upon seeing the Giant Naked Rei/Lilith.
• Occurs often in One Piece- in Oda's art style, the shrunken irises are often split into two half-circles with a tiny dot in between for the pupil.
  • Most others get a mix between anger and fear, but Luffy's is almost always rage when this happens.
    • This notably happens only for the male characters. The female characters (and sometimes Chopper) avert this trope, because even though their eyes widen, their irises (which gain thicker outlines) and pupils stay the same size. In addition, their irises become white (only in the manga. In the anime, their irises gain a lighter shade of their regular eye color) and lose their shine. For example, here's an image of a very angry Nami.◊
• An understandable reaction◊ from "Speed O' Sound" Sonic running junk-first into the fist of the titular One-Punch Man in the anime. Yes, it's Sonic's fault because he's the belligerent loony while Saitama comes off as sharp as his smooth, bald head.
• Popuko of Pop Team Epic naturally has wide eyes, but when she gets angry (which happens very easily), her irises shrink to the size of periods.
• Pretty Cure:
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Nagisa and Honoka, realizing there's a monster behind them.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Saki, freaking out about Flappy's glowing ears, and later in the same episode, realizing that she's about to have her favourite meal, hamburger curry.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: Tarte, realizing that Love's mother has spotted him.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Sasorina, shocked at Tsubomi's transformation into Cure Blossom.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Hummy, realizing the Notes are missing.
  • Smile PreCure!: Played for Drama: All five Cures, when Joker's influence gets the better of them and they become engulfed by Bad Energy.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Ai-chan, upon hearing Mana's comically bad singing.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Ichika, freaking out when running into Himari.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Prunce, after eating a jalapeno and realizing how hot it is.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: Manatsu, getting way too excited about exploring the city.
  • Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: Sora and Mashiro, realizing how close the Sky Jewels really are.
• Saionji does this in Revolutionary Girl Utena during a duel, not to indicate fear or shock, but focus on defeating his opponent. The quick shift makes him appear deranged and potentially murderous.
• In Sgt. Frog, this is Tamama's default expression whenever someone pisses him off.
• Shaman King characters tend to do this, along with sporting white-colored irises for that instant.
• In Soreike Anpanman, Baikinman does this when in shock, and his irises can become particularly small. You almost can't even see them!
• Inverted by Maka and sometimes Black☆Star in Soul Eater; their pupils are invisible unless they're particularly shocked or angry. Everyone else in the series plays this straight.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has this happen both with human and Beastmen characters. This usually happens when someone is really shocked, horrified or furious. Simon ends up Locked into Strangeness after Kamina dies, with his eyes in a constant state of this combined with them turning white.

Comic Books

• In Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search, Azula is still more than a little crazy, which is shown with her eyes constantly being in this state.
• Calvin and Hobbes: As noted in the page quote, this happens to Calvin frequently when Hobbes attacks him.
• Qwackerjack in the Darkwing Duck comic, after the Crimebots mention Negaduck.
• In a Ghost Rider tie-in to World War Hulk, Doctor Strange gets these when the Ghost Rider spirit takes over from Johnny Blaze. Blaze might have defeated the Hulk and saved the Illuminati, but the Ghost Rider decides Hulk is in the right and rides away.
• This happens in Godzilla: Rulers of Earth when Godzilla sees a Destoroyah juvenile kill a man in front of him.
• Shang-Chi villain Zaran shows an exaggerated version of this once, i.e., with no irises◊.
• Shadowcat busts this expression out for a full four panels in X-Men Forever after Wolverine, who is supposed to be dead, ends up impaling her with his bone claws from the back.

Fan Works

• In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, Nova Shine does this when Twilight confesses her love to him. He has crippling Commitment Issues, and had been trying to keep her at arm's length while he sorted his own feelings for her, causing him to freak out.
• In Glitter Force: Into the Glitterverse, Cure Moonlight gets these after Joker, whom she had previously brutally murdered, has been brought back to life, and is not very pleased with her.
• Pokémpanions: Growing Apart: Carla gets this reaction when she's told she's betrothed to her school bully Carnivine.
• Sword Art Online Abridged makes good use of this trope, along with other eye animation edits, to spice up character interactions.
  • In Episode 5, a whole crowd of players planning a raid (with the exception of Asuna) reacts this way when Kirito walks off-screen to "say hi" to an NPC who doomed his guild.
  • Kirito prior to his Character Development is sometimes seen with this expression, but not for the usual reasons. If his eyes are like this, especially if combined with a grin and/or laughter, it's a clear sign that someone has pressed a Berserk Button and is about to regret it.
  • In Episode 14, Leafa ends up with this when Kirito belatedly introduces himself, and she realizes that the player she just spent an evening roleplaying with - and who she complimented for his "sweet patootie" - was her hated older brother.

Films — Animated

• In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, this is the giant turtle island's reaction when Genie enters inside it as a distraction.
• All Dogs Go to Heaven: Charlie has these after Itchy, having seen him get hit by a car earlier that night, screams in his face.
• The Big Bad of The Bad Guys (2022), Professor Marmalade, has an absolutely priceless reaction of this sort when Mr. Snake blows up Marmalade’s mansion with the Love Meteor, proving that Marmalade stole the meteor and embezzled his own charity funds and outing Marmalade to everyone as the manipulative conniving schemer that the character truly is.
• Balto: This happens to Balto when he is about to vomit all the water in his lungs when he is revived after nearly drowning.
• The Black Cauldron: Whenever facing something frightening, Taran's eyes go wide or his iris shrinks. Examples include the Witches threatening to eat his friends (Orgoch saying "Nice and tender" as she pinches the skin on Taran's arm) as well as the final confrontation with the Horned King.
• Flik does this in A Bug's Life when he figures out his 'warriors' are really just circus performers. Thumper does this too in his Oh, Crap! moment when Dim roars at him.
• Cats Don't Dance: Darla Dimple does this at the end when she sees that her attempt at sabotaging Danny's show actually improved it.
• Dinosaur: Aladar when he sees the monster cloud closing in on him though unlike most examples, only one of his eyes is seen doing this.
• In Donald's Tire Trouble, after all four of his car tires go flat, Donald's eyes briefly shrink before spinning wildly into spirals — and then, as he is wont to do, he goes berserk and simply drives off with flat tires.
• Happens to Goofy himself in An Extremely Goofy Movie, after he takes a considerable fall in his daydream and hits the pavement hard.
• Meowrice does this a couple times in Gay Purr-ee first when Juane Tom catches up to him while he's making his get away with the kidnapped Mewsette on a train, then later when Robespierre bites his tail.
• In Help! I'm a Fish, Fly's eyes do this just as a crab slashes one of its claws at him and slices his side open.
• In Hercules, the title character is a wide-eyed individual. Even when frightened or scared, Hercules eyes grow wide or bulge out.
• The Jungle Book (1967): Mowgli when Kaa tries to get the man-cub to look at him, and when Shere Khan first tries to attack the boy.
• Kim does this in Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama when her boyfriend reveals that he's actually an evil synthodrone created by Dr. Drakken and tasers her.
• In The Lion King (1994), Simba does this just before a stampede rains down on him (it's the page image◊ for Oh, Crap!), as does Scar shortly before he is eaten by hyenas.
• Happens to Mickey Mouse in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers when he is trapped in a dungeon that begins to flood and fully realizes the danger he is in when he sees an inscription high up on the wall reading "You Must Be This Tall to Survive This Dungeon".
• Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas:
  • Mickey Mouse does this during the Disaster Dominoes sequence of Pluto wrecking his decorations.
  • Louie does it during the "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop, then all three nephews have this before crashing into a cartload of Jailbreak Bobs.
• Happens in Monsters, Inc. when Mike and Sulley see Boo running through the restaurant.
• In Oliver & Company, Bill Sykes shows these eyes just before he gets killed by an oncoming train.
• A rare realistic depiction in ParaNorman. Norman gets a vision of the famous witch trial of Blithe Hollow, in the position of the accused. Norman tries to defend himself, until he hears someone behind him, crying. His irises narrowing◊ in shock is a nice touch to The Reveal that the "witch" was a little girl who talked to ghosts.
• Pinocchio does this when he discovers that Lampwick has turned into a donkey and then starts to turn into a donkey himself.
• The Princess and the Frog: The leader of the frog hunters does this after Ray flies up his nose and when he gets the crotch of his pants blasted off, as does Facilier during the Dark Reprise of "Friends on the Other Side".
• This occurs to Clayton in Tarzan, just as he falls from a tree while trying to untangle a vine coiled around his neck. As he tries to desperately save his own life, his eyes grow wide and bulge out while he also delivers a bloodcurdling scream of absolute terror before the vine stretches taut, hanging him and killing him.
• This happens to the Thief in The Thief and the Cobbler when he realizes his hands are about to be chopped off, and to Zig-Zag when he enters One-Eye's tent.
• Toy Story:
  • Mr. Potato Head does this in Toy Story right before RC slams into him. Other characters in the movie do this (notable being Woody)
  • Stinky Pete from Toy Story 2 has these eyes when Buzz and the gang flash him with cameras and when Woody points to a young girl's backpack for his friends.
• Frequently seen in Turning Red, with some examples being:
  • Mei, when she's about to snap from the embarrassment of her mother coming to school to bring her pads.
  • Miriam, Priya, and Abby, seeing Mei's panda form for the first time.
  • Mei, realizing that Stacy had caught her in her panda form (and Stacy, reacting to Mei's panda form).
  • Mei, realizing that Tyler had put up embarrassing posters of her crush on Devon all over the school.
  • Tae-young in the closing photo of all the cast together, when Abby jumps on his back.
• Winnie the Pooh:
  • Providing the page image, Rabbit's memorable freakout scene during The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which was fittingly animated by Don Bluth.
  • When everyone notices the avalanche in The Tigger Movie, Eeyore reacts this way, and even Tigger's Black Bead Eyes are briefly replaced by wide, horrified eyes.

Films — Live-Action

• This happens to the animated Cruella DeVil in the video game Roger made in the live action 101 Dalmatians (1996) movie when a keg of dynamite is thrown at her.
• The Great Muppet Caper: At the end of the "Happiness Hotel" number, Gonzo takes a picture, and the flash from the camera leaves everyone, even Muppets who normally don't have eyes, in this state from being blinded.
• In Muppet Treasure Island, Captain Smollet (Kermit) eyes bulge and get tiny irises as he grabs Benjamina Gunn (Miss Piggy) and keeps her from plummeting off a cliff. In this case, it's less from fear and more from the physical strain of catching and holding up a pig twice his size — and all the more jarring because he's a puppet whose eyes otherwise don't change at all.
• Large Marge's Nightmare Face from Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
• It's an easy to miss moment in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but it's done by Elizabeth when she first sees the crew of the Black Pearl under the moonlight.
• Psycho: Marion Crane's eyes do this, though in an Artistic License – Biology moment.
• Happened in the American version of The Ring with a very good close up of Rachel's eyes when viewing the cursed tape for the first time.
• It occurs in ¡Three Amigos! during the duel between Ned Nederlander and that German guy.
• This happens to Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, in the only scene where you really get a good look at both her eyes ("Oh my God, it's DIIIIIIP!"). And, indeed, her face looks more childlike (symbolizing her fundamental fear of Dip), and loses its more mature look, much like how many other toons do when faced with an instinctual fear. Judge Doom also has this look when he sees the Dip nozzle pointed at him was just turned on.
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Mrs. Teavee gets this look when her son, Mike, attempts to travel via Wonkavision.

Literature

• In Dragon Bones, Oreg, who is magically bound to Ward, gets increasingly uncomfortable when Ward is too far away. After they have been separated for a considerable amount of time, Oreg's pupils are described as "small as the points of needles", and he's in a state of shock.
• Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite):
  • Randy taunting "If I knew this emo lookin' fucker was going to be like this I would've pushed him instead." pushes Jeff into a trance-like state of rage. He stops suddenly in his tracks and his change in expression is described as "eyes widened, as his pupils and irises appeared to shrink."
  • Some drawings show characters with widened eyes and shrunken pupils in moments of shock, or otherwise in Jeff's case. Randy and his gang wear the same horrified reaction when they accidentally burn Jeff alive. As Jeff's sanity weakens, his smile looks manic as his pupils get smaller, which eventually carries into his Slasher Smile. When Liu discovers Jeff's bloody smile, he has the same shrunken irises as his brother, but from terror instead of insanity.
• Summer Knight: Upon being told that a man named Ronald Reuel was murdered, Bob the Skull's Glowing Eyelights of Undeath shift from candleflames to pinpoints.

Music

• Murdoc is seen sporting these in the Gorillaz' music video for "The Lost Chord," as him and the rest of the band watch from a lighthouse as Plastic Beach crumbles down around them. Understandable, especially considering that Plastic Beach is a source of rather... complicated emotions for everyone involved.

Video Games

• Vincent from Catherine pulls off a spectacular example◊ for one of the promo arts of the game.
• Dragalia Lost has this happen to Euden in Chapter 15 when some damning revelations come out. He learns from Nedrick that the man in front of him is the ACTUAL Euden who was said to have died of wyrmscale as a baby and the one that the main Euden is a Replacement Goldfish. To prove his claim, Nedrick shows him the book that will only glow for those of Alberius's bloodline. It glows for his twin sister, Zethia, but when it's Euden's turn...it doesn't!
• Epic Mickey: Splatter the Shadow Blot with paint. No seriously, do it, it's priceless.
• Eternal Senia: Hydrangea After The Rain: Little Fairy has such an expression, but with no iris at all, she's the character in the Start Screen and tapped, when she says:
  Ahh! Careful Senia! You almost hit me!
• The "Shocked" expression for characters in Final Fantasy V have notably small eyes with wide open mouths.
• When Toy Bonnie attacks the player character in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, his irises are noticeably smaller than normal.
• The intro cinematic for Jazz Jackrabbit 2 shows the titular Jazz wreaking havoc on a few helpless mooks... before coming face to face with one three times his size. Cue the Oh Crap Face, before little brother Spaz bails him out.
• This happens a lot in the Joe & Mac series. It occurs whenever Joe, Mac, the enemies, and even the bosses receive damage. It's especially funny in Joe & Mac 2 considering that the dinosaur bosses in that game look more realistic compared to the other entries in the series.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
    • Link does this in his Nightmare Sequence at the start of the game when Ganondorf is about to blast him with magic.
    • Ganondorf does this after he is defeated and sealed away.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link does this whenever he is hurt or surprised.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Zelda does it in the scene where she learn the Demon King plans to possess her body.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, when Midna discovers the Mirror of Twilight has been broken, her eyes do this.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Gorons get these kinds of eyes when startled or shocked. It's notable because their eyes otherwise lack visible irises.
• Thane's eyes in Mass Effect end up looking a bit like this while he's having a flashback - it likely just has that effect due to the fact that his flashbacks are the only times his irises are easy to make out.
• Ollo in The Sunny Valley Fair: Ollo's first reaction to seeing the prize-winning tomato.
• The Final Boss of Resident Evil 2 (both the original and the remake) does this immediately before dying.
• In Street Fighter IV, activating a Super Combo or Ultra Combo will make the screen darken and the action slow down. This is not terribly different from conventional 2D Fighting Games using 2D graphics, which usually darken and go slow-motion/pause for super moves as well. A nice touch that is different in this game (which uses 3D graphics) is that you often get to see the other fighter’s eyes slowly do this as they get that gut feeling that their opponent is about to open a biiiiig can of whoop-ass...
• Used to hilarious effect by Ludger in Tales of Xillia 2, after he tests out a mind-reading device on Musee and learns that she's a lot wackier then she lets on; the accompanying dumbfounded facial expression making it all the more priceless. However, it's also used in a serious fashion throughout the game, often as a result of a mortal wound.
• Male characters in the original Tales of Phantasia on the Super Famicom spot funny popping eyes when they take damage.
• Kaguya from Touhou Project does this at 02:15, but it's not out of fear.
• World of Warcraft Cataclysm: Deathwing gives an absolutely beautiful example when he sees Thrall holding the Dragon Soul. Deathwing ''created'' the Dragon Soul, he knows perfectly well just how much damage it can do. It's probably the first time he showed anything besides rage in the game.
• Used to varying effect in Yandere Simulator. In the case of Yandere-chan, they slowly shrink when the player gets a Game Over by way of Senpai rejecting her or a teacher expelling her. For everyone else, they appear in the same fashion when they see something bad happen (either you killing someone or happening across a corpse). If they see you commit a murder, but you get away with it, their irises remain shrunken as a way of saying that they know you killed someone and they're going to damage your reputation continuously by spreading the word of your crime around the school.

Visual Novels

• Doki Doki Literature Club! has two examples:
  • Yuri develops a habit of making her eyes look like this as she undergoes Sanity Slippage. Occasionally she throws in a nice big grin for good measure.
  • At the end of Act 2, Natsuki gets these when she sees Yuri's decaying body, upon which she vomits and runs out of the room.

Webcomics

• In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, the main character does just this when he is very, very angry. Lampshaded in the Alt Text.
• Black Mage does this a few times in 8-Bit Theater, though given the fact that his eyes glow like two little lights under his hat, its hard to really say if he's a true example, even if his eyes do visibly shrink.
  • Also, the current page picture◊ for Puff of Logic.
• In Blip, Hester's irises are normally the size of saucers, so seeing them shrink to pinpricks really sells that she's in a state of shock.
• Dragalia Life can have this happen on a regular basis with some of the slapstick that goes on.
  • #103 has Cibella lifting weights to get stronger which prompts the resident Armsmaster Celliera to offer to put her through a workout. Euden overhears it and goes wide-eyed remembers having a nightmare of her taking his friend Luca out and coming out super tall and buff, then worrying if she does it to Cibella, the same would happen to her, prompting him to try and break it up.
• When Tanna of Ears for Elves first sees Rolan (who is moving at high speed), her widened eyes, tiny irises, and high arched eyebrows indicate her surprise/shock. The black and white explosion-style background also shows suddenness.
• A pair of jerks in El Goonish Shive get such eyes after learning that Tedd (on whom one of them had clumsily hit) is not, as they thought, a girl.
• Frequently used in Everyday Heroes; for example, here when Mr. Mighty is scaring off the homeless guy who came to rob a convenience store.
• Everyone Is Home: The end result of King Dedede, Young Link, and Zelda encountering Godrick the Grafted: they respawn at a Site of Grace, clearly traumatized by their off-screen deaths at his (many, many) hands.
• Mark, of FreakAngels, exhibits classic tiny, tiny irises as he goes into his furious, terrified rant in Episode 0134.
• Girl Genius: Bang's reaction after Agatha paralyzes her and threatens to kill her if she ever hurts her friends again.
• Gunnerkrigg Court had Kat eyes doing this when she was told about certain Power Tattoo. Repeated in a later scene that ends in a triple Beat Panel and deserves it.
  • Annie gets her turn on the last page of chapter 36.
  • In 751, Kat's eyes go from Black Bead Eyes, to this, to Blank White Eyes within three panels.
• Homestuck gives us some of◊ the◊ best◊ reaction◊ shots◊ ever,◊ courtesy of a few trolls.
• Souls in Jack have teeny irises, if they are unjudged or hellbound. Once they are judged ready for heaven, or if the hellbound seek redemption, the characters' irises get even bigger and more expressive than when they were alive. Corpses' eyes look like this as well.
• In Kill Six Billion Demons, the Master Swordsman Auntie Maya gets these while parrying a bullet. Rather than fear, it pairs with Dissonant Serenity to extremely unnerving effect.
• In Last Res0rt, while still used as an expression of shock, these eyes along with a slightly agape mouth are the telltale sign that someone's under the Compelling Voice of a Celeste.
• The expression The Order of the Stick characters make when they're scared sort of evokes this. Including for Xykon himself: the skeleton with Glowing Eyelights of Undeath suddenly gains Expressive Orbits.
• In The Other Grey Meat Pretty much every other strip.
• Pixie and Brutus: Randal the raccoon's fear after hearing Brutus threaten him for threatening Pixie comes across clearly thanks to very big eyes and pinpoint irises.
• Happens in Questionable Content, with lampshading by the author at least once.
• In Savestate, Riley has this reaction when she first meets Harvey.
• In Sequential Art, this often happens to Kat, who as Cat Folk normally has massive irises.
• Strays here
• In TwoKinds when the recently bed ridden and assumed dead King of an Asskicking Leads to Leadership people asks if you are challenging her decision, stand down.
• Zebra Girl: Crystal has this look when she is (presumably) falling to her death after being told that Sandra herself asked the vampires to kill her.

Web Original

• The Gmod Idiot Box episode 9 has Alex react this way when driven over the edge. As he stares motionlessly, one of the widened eyes actually falls out of his head, revealing his normal eyes underneath.
• Happens often in Happy Tree Friends during its many Oh, Crap! moments.
• In Larry: The Little Knight, Pup the wardog does this when Kickit feeds him alcohol and then bursts at over 60 miles an hour with Larry onboard.
• The infamous statue Momo has this.
• On The Edge: Shigeo's irises shrink to show his resolve to punish criminals.
• In the animated short Sonic: Night of the Werehog, a tie-in to Sonic Unleashed, when Sonic notices the full moon, the camera pans in close to his eyes, and we get a shot of his pupils shrinking in both fright and shock... you know, before the painful transformation into a werehog kicks in.
• Sword Art Online Abridged frequently employs this as an edit to portray characters as either insane, violent, or both. Case in point, Kirito (and also Asuna once she is revealed to be just as crazy as him) often sports this expression when he's angry.

Western Animation

• In the episode of American Dad! where Roger tricks Steve into joining a drug manufacturing operation by telling him it's Hogwarts, towards the end of the episode Roger gets knocked face first into a pile of some unspecified drug. When he pulls his face out, his pupils first dilated rather large, and he proceeded to disarm and kill every thug attacking him, and shoot a bunch of rounds into the ceiling because we was wired. Then, with one thug left, Roger realizes he has run out of ammo to use against the last armed thug, which causes his eyes to shrink to a pinpoint, and him to touch the TV in the room and call "Ah, TV is safe!"
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Inverted with Jet when his Manchurian Agent brainwashing is triggered.
  • Cleverly done when Azula first hears of the solar eclipse — her eyes stay the same size, but her irises suddenly shrink. Other than this, she gives no outward indication of fear.
• Daria uses the angry version. When Brittany meets Tommy Sherman and tells him that her boyfriend, Kevin, worships him, Tommy barely acknowledges this before propositioning her. Brittany's pupils shrink to pinpricks in response.
• Mr. Herriman of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends gets this way at the mere mention of dogs. Somewhat understandable considering he's, well, an anthropomorphic lop-eared rabbit.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes uses this in similar situations.
• Kaeloo: In Episode 92, this is Mr. Cat's reaction to seeing The Grim Reaper when he opens the door.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • Tahno does this as Amon is taking his bending away, as does Korra. Yakone also does this when bloodbending.
  • Korra also gets this reaction when the Red Lotus captures and poisons her.◊
• Happens pretty often in Life With Loopy when the characters are scared.◊
• One of Chuck Jones' trademark gags in his Looney Tunes shorts, some notable examples are in "Operation: Rabbit" before Wile E. Coyote gets hit by the train and Marc Anthony the bulldog when he fears for Pussyfoot's safety in "Feed the Kitty".
• Miraculous Ladybug often uses this, usually whenever Marinette has a Freak Out. It happens almost Once per Episode.
• Frequently seen as part of the heavy eye animation of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, sometimes combined◊ with Open the Iris to express sinking terror.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Bubbles's pupils shrink in "Bubble Boy" when the Rowdyruff Boys try to force her to eat a roach.
• Used in Recess during a few Oh, Crap! moments, mostly in the earlier episodes.
• South Park has used this trope a few times.
  • In "Stunning and Brave", one of the PC Bros falls off the balcony and hits his head during the fight against them, when he hits his head and dies his pupils become very dilated.
  • In "Wieners Out", when Sheila walks in on Gerald in the bathroom at night, he hisses at her with light shining on his face and very small pupils.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Gary does this when SpongeBob tells him he's going to take a bath.
  • Anchovies... ANCHOVIES!
  • Mr. Krabs does this in "Imitation Krabs" after SpongeBob tells him that he supposedly gave Squidward the day off.
    Mr. Krabs: [irises narrow to pinpricks] Day... ooooooooooffffffff?! I don't know the meaning of them horrible words!
  • Squidward's eyes bulge out as his nose and lips shrink back to his face after Squilliam Fancyson plans on visiting the Krusty Krab tonight in "Squilliam Returns".
    Squidward: T-t-t-t-t-t-tonight??
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil is usually known for its characters drawn with Large Pupils. But as an artistic style or storyboarder/character design choice, the character's eyes are drawn very small or with just small dots for the irises as a moment of worry or any weird expression.
• Steven Universe: Future: In "Rose Buds", Steven's reaction to seeing three duplicates of his dead mom had his irises shrink. Amethyst has a similar reaction when she sees Steven surrounded by three duplicates of his dead mom.
• Teen Titans (2003): Beast Boy when he transforms into the Beast.
• Many Total Drama characters have big, expressive eyes, with irises that tend to shrink visibly during Oh, Crap! moments. Heather is the most prominent example, partly because she has the most expressive eyes of the entire cast and partly because she simply has more screen time than most.
• Used a lot in VeggieTales, especially during the Oh, Crap! moments.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: The characters get these sort of eyes in extreme emotions like fear, anger, etc. This is just one example.

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