Follow TV Tropes

Following

Slasher Smile / Anime & Manga

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Guts_slasher_smile_7502.jpg
Slasher Smiles in anime and manga.
    open/close all folders 

    Anime 

    Manga 
  • Kunitoshi Joukyuu, the protagonist of AIKI, loves using these.
  • Agito of Air Gear. He has this whole shark fang thing going on.
  • Iwao Washizu from Akagi. The smile gets wider and wider the more time he's on screen.
  • Angel Densetsu's Kitano.
  • Assassination Classroom:
    • Koro-sensei is a Perpetual Smiler, who's almost always seen with a Cheshire Cat Grin. Whenever he's angry or—more commonly—particularly mischievous and breaks out his Game Face, his smile turns into this trope full-force, with his teeth becoming a lot sharper and more menacing. And more than once, his students have been right there with him.
    • There's also Karma. Like Koro-sensei, he usually has either a Cheshire Cat Grin or a chill expression on, but he displays all kinds of terrifying smiles when he's feeling extremely bloodthirsty and devilish.
  • Attack on Titan:
    • Annie smiles like this when she is correctly accused of being the Female Titan. Made even creepier since this is the only smile (or any other expression other than indifference) she's given so far in the series. Take a look at the way it's rendered at the manga. Sweet dreams.
    • This is also the default expression for some of the Titans due to the way the skin on their faces has stretched. Here is an epic specimen. No wonder Reiner, of all people, freaked out.
    • Eren frequently has one whenever he's thinking about killing Titans, or when he threatens to make Reiner and Bertolt's deaths as "painful as possible."
    • Armin of all characters, pulls one while lying to Bertholt about how Annie is being subjected to torture. It's actually kind of jarring.
    • In Chapter 51, Erwin sports one after finding out that Titans were once humans. It was so unnerving that even Levi was disturbed by it.
  • Osaka's attempt to "wake up" Yukari in Azumanga Daioh fell into this from a different angle. Osaka always looks a bit blank, and she was half-asleep when she tried it... which just resulted in her standing in the doorway with a blank, empty smile and a large knife. She had no violent intentions, but she sure looked like someone was gonna get stabbed.
    • Probably her. Earlier in the episode she expressed a lifelong dream of waking someone by banging a ladle on a pan next to their ear. The only thing keeping Osaka from cutting off her own hand was Yukari woke up when Osaka opened the door.
    • A slightly more trope-y Slasher Smile (more of a Slasher Smirk) is here, at about 0:40.
  • When Guts, the Anti-Hero from Berserk, smiles, it is usually one of these. This should be your signal to run, as he's usually in a blood-spilling mood when he's got that grin.
  • Black Butler has a few examples even in the original Manga adaptation:
    • Grell Sutcliff sports these on occasion, especially due to her shark teeth. Made even better and creepier by the fact she had just finished murdering someone a few seconds ago and is covered from head to toe in blood. Too bad it is rarely seen outside of action scenes, because she's too busy being a goofball, playing with safety scissors. But when she does show them, best not to stay around.
    • Surprisingly, Mey-Rin can flash one as well, as evidenced in Chapter 165.
    • Sebastian sports one whenever he gets to tear a roomful if enemies limb from limb, sometimes even cackling as well.
  • Anti-Hero example and a subversion: Revy from Black Lagoon routinely wears this kind of grin when she's busy gunning down bad guys, particularly during the first major shootout of the series, where Rock sees her smile for the first time and is extremely creeped out. However, that's just Revy on a normal day. What you really want to watch out for is when she drops the grin and goes all emotionless and monotone, because that's when she stops pointing her guns at the bad guys and starts pointing them at everyone.
    • In the manga arc El Baile De La Muerte, Roberta, as her sanity continues to spiral downward into Ax Crazyville, starts sporting these. And so came the time when she snapped one of Shenhua's kukris, WITH HER TEETH, while wearing THE slasher smile of slasher smiles. Badass.
    • Creepy Twins Hansel and Gretel take this trope to a ridiculous level. Think vampires.
    • Balalaika's a kid in a candy store during the "Fujiyama Gangster Paradise" Arc. She's ordering hits, snapping necks, and holding a gun to Rock's head with that huge grin.
    • And, more and more, Rock has been showing a Slasher Smile. You first see it right at the beginning, when Revy challenges Rock, a Japanese salaryman, to a drinking duel.
  • Mahiro Fuwa in Blast of Tempest seems to have an emotional spectrum that ranges from 'indifferent' to this. Frighteningly enough, he's regarded as far less of a threat than his best friend.
  • Bleach:
    • This is used to identify characters who fight for the love or madness of fighting rather than higher ideals, such as with Kenpachi, Ichigo's inner Hollow, Ikkaku, Nnoitra, Ginjou, and Unohana. Ichigo sports one in battle sometimes as well, usually when under the control of his inner Hollow.
    • This is used to identify scientists unleashing their chance to experiment on others For Science! or reveal any bizarre inventions they have created. This tends to be as much a problem for their allies as for their enemies. Examples include Mayuri and Szayel..
      • Possibly one of Mayuri's greatest moments with this is in Chapter 593, when he injects a zombified Hitsugaya with a drug that forces him to repeat his past over and over again, asking him if he remembers when he was drugged.
    • It is used to emphasise a character on the battlefield is unhinged and descending into insanity, such as with Tsukishima and Nianzol.
  • Joshua Christopher of Chrono Crusade has a tendency to smile like this, thanks to the demon's horns on his head driving him insane.
  • Riful from Claymore shows one when she first encounters the Abyss Feeders. Made creepier by the fact that there's a large bite out of her head.
    • Ophelia wears one as her usual facial expression because, well, she's what happens when you give The Ophelia a BFS.
    • Taking Ophelia's cruelty to new heights, Roxanne has an arsenal of rather unsettling smiles. In fact, some of her smiles are also her Nightmare Faces: for example, while losing all her limbs by a recently resurrected Cassandra's Awakened Being form she reacts like this.
      • Here is another example, occuring when she pummels Cassandra with her claymore's handle.
  • Go ahead, mess with Shiro from Deadman Wonderland. You're going to wish you never did once the Wretched Egg takes over and unleashes a unsettling grin (complete with a skrkt sound effect, no less). Even moreso without her mask. Chapter 53 takes the best of both worlds and makes an already chilling smile incredibly worse.
  • Death Note: As L dies, before he closes his eyes he sees Light Yagami looking at him with one of these. Higuchi, too, after getting the Shinigami Eyes. One look at that creepy face and death will follow, without the Death Note.
    • Light again, during the finale (at least in the manga), sports one so big he gets cross-eyed.
    • Mikami Teru, one of the most psychopathic of the Kiras, also sports one of these on occasion.
    • The Death God Ryuk also has one permanently etched to his face, along with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. Light showed what a badass he is when he only was seriously freaked out for a few seconds, when Ryuk spontaneously appeared in his bedroom.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, quite uncharacteristic for someone as a kind as Tanjiro, but in a pure rush of adrenaline and satisfaction for finally feeling he and everyone has gotten the upper hand over Hantengu Tanjiro smiles like a mad man; Hantengu's evil disgusted Tanjiro so much that the prospect of winning over the demon really overjoyed him. Then at the very end of the series, when Tanjiro is turned into Muzan's last creation, his successor as the demon king as Muzan is about to die for good, the newly formed demonic Tanjiro sports a really malicious smile to really drive home he became a new being entirely; Tanjiro's time as a demon is short lived though, he is cured by the same vial that helped kill Muzan.
  • D.Gray-Man's Tyki Mikk will do this sometimes. This is a sign that he's about to pluck out your heart. The Millennium Earl is a cross between this, a Stepford Smiler, and a Monster Clown with his perpetual huge, cheery, and absolutely horrific grin. In fact, every single member of the Noah family seems to do this occasionally.
    • Which now includes the Fourteenth, which is downright disturbing considering his host is Allen Walker. Seriously, who expected the kid to ever look like this?
      • And now Allen doesn't even need the 14th Noah to do this. Somehow, he manages to make such smiles even worse.
    • And when the Earl is pissed off, the preexisting smile goes so far off the deep end that hiding under the bed begins to seem like a very attractive option. Meep?
    • For someone who doesn't smile very often (or only smirks), Kanda seems just too creepishly happy when the room collapses on him and everything turns into empty space in the Ark. When he comes back, he starts his day by arguing with Allen rather than thinking about how he could've died.
    • Road Kamelot does this sometimes as well too, especially when she starts to get too much fun out of tormenting the main characters.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Zarbon manages one that's just twisted enough to be freaky, just before transforming into a... rather unattractive salamander-looking thing.
    • Captain Ginyu breaks into one right before he uses his body change ability to switch bodies with Goku.
    • Frieza often has one on his face, most notably when committing genocide on the Saiyans complete with Evil Laugh.
      • Golden Frieza has a particularity ugly one.
    • Who could forget Cell? Imperfect (with no teeth) and Semi-Perfect too
    • And Gohan, Gohan sporting a downright menacing one while blowing Cell away with a one-handed Kamehameha.
    • Vegeta gets a magnificent one after getting possessed by Babidi and becoming Majin Vegeta.
      • Even before that, he sports one after he kills Jeice.
    • Super Buu and Kid Buu smile like this by default since they're both textbook definitions of Ax-Crazy characters (or forms in this case).
    • All the movie villains wear one, but Broly is the strongest example.
    • Super Android 17 from GT deserves a special mention complete with drool.
    • Goku of all people sports one right before he turns Super Saiyan 3 for the first time.
  • Just about everyone in Drifters. It could even be said the heroes do it more than the villains.
  • Dusk Maiden of Amnesia gives us the horror that is Shadow Yuuko.
  • Hiruma Youichi from Eyeshield 21 has one of these, aided by his fang-like teeth and his habit of constantly carrying large guns when not on the field. In fact, he does it so often that he scares his teammates when he DOESN'T have a slasher smile, and uses it to his advantage against his opponents.
  • There's been a few characters who do this in Fairy Tail:
    • The crown for the most disturbing Slasher Smile goes to an all-around psychopath named Jackal, a member of Tartarus, which he sports while slaughtering the Magic Council, as well as forcing a Sadistic Choice on Lucy involving her choosing whether to save the life of a former Magic Councilor... or a pregnant woman, who was crying and trying to reassure her unborn child that everything would be okay. Yes, the Tartarus arc took the Darker and Edgier level of this series to heights unseen.
    • Though a machine manages to give him a good run for his money. The arc's Doomsday Device, Face, a large pillar with, well, a face on top, looked kinda stoic when we first see it. It turns out there's more though,and we see some with...rather creepy smiles on them.
    • That's nothing. Mard Geer, anyone?
  • Fruits Basket: Hatsuharu Sohma's Split Personality, Black Haru, has some pretty disturbing smiles that are nonetheless better than the alternative (in the vein of "I'm going to love kicking your ass" is better than "I'm going to kill you").
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Both Envy and Kimbley have serial slasher smiles.
    • Greed, both his first body and in Ling's, have this. Pride's shadows also usually have this default expression as does his body after he eats Gluttony. Must be a family trait since Father was shown to have one back in the days where he was only a blob in a flask and he can still pull it off as shown When he leaves his 'human form' which is just a humanoid blob with these and eyes.
    • Barry the Chopper has one built into his helmet.
    • Some of the minor characters even have these, such as General Raven, when he's trying to offer someone immortality and in his Eye Catch, and also some of the more unsympathetic State Alchemists that participated in the war.
    • In the manga and Brotherhood, Truth almost always has this expression on his face, because he's a sadistic dick who enjoys handing out ironic but disproportionate punishments to people who try to break the laws of the universe. The only exception is when Ed correctly offers to sacrifice all of his alchemist powers to get Alphonse back, Truth displays a real happy smile as he cheerfully congratulates Ed on choosing the right answer and opens the way for him to retrieve Al and dissolves into nothingness.
    • Wrath from Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) constantly has these, especially when he's fighting.
    • Gluttony adopts a slasher smile after Dante destroys his vestiges of humanity in the 2003 anime.
    • Also in the 2003 series, Lust adopts an eerie one when she attacks Scar in the 18th episode.
  • Yuno Gasai of Future Diary has a smile on her face on a more or less permanent basis. She is... not well.
    • Minene also sports a kill grin as her default expression, though unlike Yuno, she keeps her cool most of the time.
  • Gankutsuou: The eponymous Count wears a rather terrifying example of this when everything is going according to plan (which usually involves a humiliating and/or painful death).
  • Yomi from Ga-Rei puts one on when she's under control of the Sesshouseki. It's even creepier when her eye colour inverts.
  • Kuroudo Akabane from Get Backers's happy face.
  • With Getter Robo, it'd be easier to list the characters who don't have one of these plastered on their faces most of the time. Ryoma in particular seems to have this as his natural expression.
  • Kagura from Gintama gets one when her Yato side kicks in harder than she can control.
    • Also her brother, Kamui.
    • Even Shimaru does this to Katsura while the latter gave him intoxicated tea.
    • Besides the above examples, this trope is usually Played for Laughs.
  • Ryuuhei Sawamura and Bryan Hawk of Hajime no Ippo.
  • The Master of Synapse from Heaven's Lost Property.
  • It's hard to find a minor/major character in Hellsing who doesn't invoke this trope.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers: Russia signature move when he's not being a Stepford Smiler or wearing a Psychotic Smirk.
    • Japan imagines Italy pulling one in the strip where he makes binoculars to read people's thoughts. "I'll touch the back of your head to my heart's content", indeed.
  • Kohta Hirano, from Highschool of the Dead, often dons one when fighting "Them". Contradicts nicely with his usual personality.
  • His and Her Circumstances: there are instances where Yukino Miyazawa sports one of these.
    • In the anime Yukino gets an epic series of different slasher smiles in a rampage after Tsubasa presses her Berserk Button.
  • Tsuchiya gets one in Holyland Chapter 144 just before he turns a fight around.
  • Killua from Hunter × Hunter gets one, holding not a knife, but the still beating heart of his latest victim.
  • This is Koko Hekmatyar's default facial expression in Jormungand. Though she rarely does her own dirty work, the fact that she is a dealer of death makes this appropriate.
    • Also her older brother, Kasper and his bodyguard Chiquita.
  • Akura-ou from Kamisama Kiss, being a Psychopathic Manchild, has this as his default facial expression. One of the main protagonists, Tomoe, also tends to sport one when he is about to do something nasty. Small surprise since he used to be Akura-ou's partner in crime.
  • Half the cast of Karakuridouji Ultimo probably has one. It doesn't matter who it is. Piss off anybody and you'll be greeted with any of these expressions.
  • Kaguro from Kekkaishi almost constantly has one of these, and an endless supply of lethal blades to back it up.
  • In Kimi ni Todoke, when Sawako Kuronuma tries to smile it usually look like this.
  • Warsman, from Kinnikuman, is a cyborg. Predictably, he normally can't smile... unless he's in his batshit psychopathic personality, in which case he sports the Warsman Smile. He did use it once, while normal, to catch an arrow in his mouth, though.
  • One episode of Kyou no Go no Ni mentions how nobody remembers seeing Emotionless Girl Kazumi Aihara ever smile. If the first episode is any indication, it's because her smiles end up as one of these...
  • Mimi of Lovely★Complex wears one of these when threatening Risa.
  • Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Neuro has a psychotic grin most of the time, and then he reverts to a parrot-headed-Eldritch Abomination. There's also the twisted, insane looks of the criminals as they confess.
  • Michiko from Michiko & Hatchin sports one right before she breaks through a police roadblock.
  • In the final page of the Japan only Mega Man 10 manga titled "Rockman 10 -Extra F-", Bass pushes this to the absolute extreme.
  • In Monster, the unspeakably evil Johan Liebert, commits Mind Rape on a former cop who had killed a boy while drunk and is trying to atone, playing on his guilts. He eventually asks him how he would look his estranged daughter in the eyes and then realizes that he's got him, and then makes one of the most unsettling and terrifying smiles imaginable before asking "well Richard, how about a drink?"
    • The likes of Roberto, Peter Čapek, Hartmann, and Christof Sievernich have some quite unnerving slasher smiles in their own right.
  • Shark Fujishiro from My Bride is a Mermaid often pulls off a lot of these right before trying to eat Nagasumi.
  • My Hero Academia: Tomura Shigaraki's face is usually hidden by a disembodied hand covering it. However, when that hand is off and he shows his face, he's capable of making some pants-crappingly creepy smiles. He gets it from his master and adoptive father, All For One, whose scarred visage further highlights his constant, eerie grinning.
  • Akane and Akari seems to do this at least once per chapter in My Monster Secret. Considering the light-hearted tone of the series, the trope is completely Played for Laughs. Later, Karen seems to be playing the trope seriously, until she reveals her Nice Girl side and began saying adorable things while making this face.
  • Naruto:
    • Gaara displays a particularly frightening one of these during his fight with Rock Lee during the Chuunin Exams, after Lee knocks off the sand armor covering his face. It gets worse. Apparently he has that expression 24/7. It's only hidden by the sand armor. After his Heel–Face Turn, Gaara lost the creepy smiles.
    • Here's another exemplary performance from Gaara.
    • During particularly grueling battles, Naruto (or rather the Kyuubi displays this, most notably when Sasuke talks to the Kyuubi in Naruto's mind).
    • Naruto also (by himself) displays two slasher smiles in the 101st episode of the anime.
    • Hidan often wears one in battle.
    • Zetsu seems to have this whenever he's battling someone.
    • Kisame. The only times it usually leaves his face are when he's using a jutsu and has to expel water from his mouth.
    • Kabuto gains one after he absorbs Orochimaru's DNA.
    • Sakura gets one in a comedic fashion after Konohamaru insults her.
    • In Chapter 628, The normally-stoic Madara Uchiha instantly develops an epic one when he feels the First Hokage's chakra. Between him, Sasuke, and Itachi, it looks like terrifying expressions are just another part of the Big, Screwed-Up Family.
    • In Chapter 677, as Madara activates the Infinite Tsukiyomi, we get the wonderful picture of Kaguya gazing over the world with the moon as her Third Eye.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Tsukuyomi doing one of these when she fights Setsuna.
  • Even a nice guy like Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece gets one of these, in the 8th opening for the show after landing on a marine ship. Luffy is full of epic grins.
    • Zoro does this often too, which is suitable for a character who is often accused of being insane…or a demon.
    • Sanji cracks some good ones in series, notably towards the end of his fight with Jabra and later when fighting Oars. But his grin when talking about taking down Big Mom viva cake is the winner.
      • Sanji's brothers Yonji and Niji do this often, Yonji when taunting the Straw Hats and later Niji who gives an especially creepy one when he's about assault Cosette.
    • Gecko Moria has a permanent one, but it's most apparent during his Villainous Breakdown.
    • Donquixote Doflamingo has this as his default look, appropriate for what seems to be One Piece's counterpart to The Joker.
    • Eustass Kidd sports one almost all the time, Funnily enough, his face even looks quite similar to the Joker, but even he isn't quite as psychopathic as Doflamingo.
    • Blackbeard has had a few.
    • This happens to the Straw Hats (minus Luffy and Nami) when Oars has his horns stuck to the ground and unable to move. Cue the Straw Hats' slasher smiles and a nonchalant, epic, off-screen beatdown of Oars.
    • Much like the Oars example, Luffy, Robin and Zoro get slasher smiles (and Glowing Eyes of Doom in the anime) when they reach the cold side of Punk Hazard and see centaurs wearing warm clothes.
    • Trafalgar Law rarely shows any emotion, but when fighting Vergo he lets one slip across his face.
    • Creepy Child Sugar gets one of these in Chapter 758 when she goes after Luffy.
    • Sabo may be Nice Guy but that grin he has when enraged at Burgess oh Jesus.
    • Ladies and gentleman, say hello to Pudding Sanji's blushing bride to be.
  • Two teens of mass destruction of Out Code lapse into this when their real personalities are exposed (Psycho for Hire and Manipulative Bitch, respectively). Interestingly, both of these characters were frail-looking girls. The Mad Scientist who gave them their powers seems to owe his look to Dr. Tomoe.
  • Harry from Outlaw Star gives a creepy one when Gene figures out he's been trying to Mind Rape Melfina and another when talking to Melfina about how they're not so different.
    • Aisha Clanclan is usually found either smiling a mischievous smile or a genuine smile, due to being a bit of a Genki Girl. But when she gets an excuse to fight with the full power of a Ctarl-Ctarl, such as when she realizes her opponent in an MMA fight is also a Ctarl-Ctarl in disguise, her smile becomes considerably more malicious.
  • Lots of characters in PandoraHearts pull one of these at times. Especially the Baskervilles and Will of the Abyss.
    • Break does this at times too.
  • Reborn! (2004): Birds. And Mukuro as well. Hooo Boooy...
    • A few members of Tsuna's harem family do this sometimes too, namely Gokudera, and Hibari.
    • Xanxus too. His smile is terrifying and hot.
    • Bel and his twin. Who also adds Cheshire Cat Grin and evil giggles to the mix.
    • A certain Big Bad named Byakuran.
  • Several characters in Rosario + Vampire pull this off nicely, but the best example would be Aono Tsukune in his "Ghoul Form." Bonus points for grinning at an attack just inches from his face and then proceeding to beat the shit out of everyone in front of him.
  • The various Blood Knights in Samurai Deeper Kyo often have this in their faces while really enjoying a fight. Top dog Onime no Kyo combines it with Red Eyes, Take Warning and the Glowing Eyes of Doom to create a visage unparalleled in its ominousness.
  • Gyororo from Sgt. Frog.
    • We also see Keroro with a manic grin on his face when he learns Natsumi is afraid of slugs.
  • In Soul Eater, Maka gets one of these when she goes completely nuts while fighting Chrona.
  • Legato Bluesummers from Trigun has probably the most nonchalant one ever.
    • His boss, Millions Knives, has quite a few of his own.
  • Kurogane from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- often does this. In fact, that's the only way he ever smiles.
  • Vinland Saga: Thorfinn, when he does smile. Thorkell's is more of a Slasher Grin, with a big thumbs up thrown in there.
  • Robo of Wasteful Days of High School Girls rarely ever smiles, but when she does it's rather unsettling if Ota is to be believed.
    Akane: I haven't seen Robo smile like that in a long time.
  • Haguro and Ryuuko of Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest revel in this.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dark Marik constantly sports one.
    • Dark Bakura often has one as well, even moreso during the final arc.
    • Not so much in the anime, but during the Death-T arc in the manga both Kaiba brothers each get a couple at the prospect of killing Yugi and his friends.
      • Seto actually sports one a lot in the manga, especially when he's about to crush an opponent during a duel.
    • In the early chapters of the manga, when Dark Yugi just awakened from his 3000-year long slumber in the Millennium Puzzle, appearing like he still had a few screws loose, he almost always sported one... especially when he declared to a rival that they would undergo a "Penalty Game" if they lost to him. He sports it from time-to-time in later chapters, but by then he mostly favors the cocky grin and whenever he inflicted a Penalty Game, it was more of an intense, scary frown.
    • Dartz gets one when he uses the Seal of Orichalcos in the final battle against Yami Yugi and Kaiba.
    • Quite a majority of the Duel Monsters themselves sport permanent slasher smiles, especially the more demonic ones. Heck, Slifer the Sky Dragon looks like he has TWO!
  • In Zatch Bell!, we have this little beauty from Zofis.

Top