Misused: Meganekko

Meganekko is supposed to be the (primarily Japanese) stereotype of girls (and occasionally boys) in glasses as cute (as opposed to sexy) and Moe / vulnerable, in distinction to the other glasses stereotypes (nerd, Sexy Secretary, Four Eyes, Zero Soul, etc). However, it has vast amounts of misuse; it's become "girls with glasses in anime" and is rapidly become "girls with glasses in anything", or even "characters with glasses in anything". Over in the glasses tropes cleanup thread it was suggested to change the name to Cute Glasses Girl, but I'm not sure that would help much. How can we clean this mess up?

edited 20th Mar '12 11:09:52 AM by lebrel

Can you show the misuse? You know that we want it (the proof) for OPs now.

I knew the wick check would be a PITA, because almost all of the "examples" are "trope name: character name", so you have to actually know the character to know if they're correct. Out of the first 100 wicks, 3 were indexes/phantoms, 71 were either Zero Context Examples or potholes with no context, but of the ones I know or where I could get an idea:

Correct:

• Adjusting Your Glasses - correct
• NinjaPirateZombieRobot.Anime - correct
• WhamEpisode.Anime - correct
• Tsundere.Anime - correct
• SeriousBusiness.Anime And Manga - correct
• BreakTheCutie.Anime - correct, but OMG the All Blue Entry pothole abuse….
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders - questionable, let's say correct
• Expy.Anime And Manga - several examples, one probably correct, the rest Zero Context
• Ascended Extra - several examples, one probably correct, the rest Zero Context
• Ad Of Win Archive 2010 - unclear, let's say correct
• Alteil - unclear, let's say correct
• Characters.Aoi House - Zero Context Example, but correct
• Manga.Aoi House - Zero Context Example, but correct

Misuse:

• A Nightmare on Elm Street - incorrect
• Akatsuki Blitzkampf - questionable, looks more like Stoic Spectacles
• HoYay.Ai Kora - incorrect (fixed)
• Alan Wake - incorrect, Hot Scientist
• Another Cinderella Story - probably misuse ("she doesn't act like it")
• Animesque - misuse, used for appearance
• Anne Freaks - blatant misuse, even noted in writeup
• FanFic.An Unsung Song - questionable, looks more like Stoic Spectacles

Not sure:

• Ace Lightning - dunno
• Characters.A Game Of Gods Infinities Champions - dunno
• Alpha Bitch - pothole, looks wrong (associated with Hollywood Homely)
• Yandere.Anime And Manga - questionable
• Characters.Artemis Fowl - questionable

edited 20th Mar '12 11:58:31 AM by lebrel

Interesting. I thought this trope was about cats (because I seem to recall that Nekko is Japanese for cat).

That's Meganeko. One k.

Wow, talk about an awful snowclone.

Anyway, per Eddie's rule tropes with Japanese names should only have examples from Japanese works, so we should be removing quite a number of examples from both Mega Nekko and Mega Neko.

Some examples, anime or not, are blatant misuse. Also, that picture is bad, because a lot of those are not Meganekkos. Still, no reason to remove anything japanese or Animesque.

edited 20th Mar '12 12:24:55 PM by lu127

Is that "no reason to remove anything that's not japanese or Animesque"?

It's Megane=glasses ko=feminine suffix

Instead of screaming misuse it will better just to accept that many people expect this to be "girls with glasses". In most work only a few characters wear glasses so it is usually obvious that the creator had an idea with it. Sometimes it may even be a plotpoint. The audience will likewise expect the characters to be either clever, cute, clumsy, creative or all of it just by looking at them. Whether they actual are or not is less important as long the glasses stay on.

Also, we already have severel other tropes for characters who don't have a standard look. Glasses is one of the choises a creator have to make a character stand out from the crowd. Just like hair desks or unsual hair colors.

Hair desks....? *fanfic writing8

It's not supposed to be "any girl with glasses". It's also not supposed to be an appearance trope. We could make it that but I suspect that would be an unpopular move.

Yes. "Girls wear glasses" falls under People Sit On Chairs.

No, it doesn't. Sure, it is common but it is not everywhere. Just take your typical Five-Man Band in anime and manga and there will more often than not be excact one character with glasses, neither more or less. But the creators don't just put the glasses on random characters but make sure they also have the expected personality. Which in turn mean that the glasses become a signal about said personality.

anime9 3282: sorry, I mean Hair Decorations.

edited 20th Mar '12 3:53:36 PM by DannebrogSpy

Girl with glasses has no more narrative significance than keychain with keys. Unless there is some connection between the glasses and the personality, it's not this trope. Just because people can't be bothered to get a definition into their heads and feel like shoehorning none examples, that does not mean we have to fit the misuse.

I do think that characters wearing glasses seems to always be significant in some way, but I think they're better off split into their own tropes and indexed on the Glasses Tropes page rather than having a true supertrope. It encourages people to get the meaning faster.

Good point.

(edit) I note that the Spear Counterpart, Megane is not a trope, but simply a definition of an Anime Fan Speak term. I would suggest that Meganekko is also simply a fan speak term, and that any examples belong on the appropriate trope pages instead.

edited 20th Mar '12 4:10:53 PM by Spark9

Well, the point is that meganekko, unlike megane, is an established character type. It's just that it has more qualifications than just "wears glasses". And megane is not the spear counterpart of meganekko, for precisely that reason.

edited 20th Mar '12 4:16:50 PM by lebrel

Thinking about it last night, there are different types of meganekko that are at least partially separable; the shy, self-effacing type, related to Shrinking Violet, vs the studious, responsible student-council type, distantly related to Adorably Precocious Child (in that the intended response is "aww, cute", not "she's admirably competent"). Perhaps we could consider splitting into more stringently-defined types.

Split into subtropes might work.

edited 21st Mar '12 10:45:54 PM by ThatHuman

Anyone else with an opinion? Where are all the people from the glasses thread?

Clocking due to lack of activity.

On the one hand, this really needs a page action crowner. On the other hand, the "we like Japanese words" crowd is big enough lately that we might as well not bother unless Eddie happens to notice this thread.

OK, what are the options that could go on a crowner?

• Make fanspeak, chop examples
• Make subtropes & split accordingly
• Anything else?

Crowner