"Charm point" (Japanese: チャームポイント) is a term used in Japanese to discuss the physical feature or personality trait that makes a person or character attractive or at least interesting to others: their smile, their biceps, their legs, their sense of humor, their clumsiness, etc. This trope is when a character's charm point is pointed out and discussed In-Universe. If the character themself is the one designating what their charm point is, expect them to do so with quite a bit of pride. This often overlaps with Proud Beauty (if the trait is considered genuinely beautiful in-universe) and, if the trait is specifically their bust size, either Big-Breast Pride or Petite Pride. When other characters are the ones pointing out another's charm point to them, that character will typically be befuddled or reveal they were fully unaware that others find that aspect of them appealing.
For maximum humor, the actual draw of the trait in question may be completely non-intuitive to the audience, but make perfect sense to whatever minor passerby appears on the show. Or a character may designate something as their charm point when it is actually their worst quality or trait. For example, an ugly character with Delusions of Beauty who considers their Gonk face their best feature or a Know-Nothing Know-It-All who boasts about their intellect when they are actually dumb as a box of bricks. Even if it isn't their worst trait, another comedic take is when a character calls a trait that no one else but them cares about or even notices their charm point.
While this is primarily about physical features and personality traits that are innate qualities of a character, it is quite common for items that are worn or carried everyday to the extent that they become part of a character's personal appearance, like a pair of glasses or a headband, to be designated in-universe as a charm point.
A common subtrope is Sexy Flaw, when some kind of imperfection (physical deformity, Speech Impediment, etc.) adds to the character's romantic and/or sexual appeal. Compare Lascivious Beauty Mark for when a beauty spot is both used to characterize someone as being flirty and seductive and to emphasize their In-Universe sexual attractiveness.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Also Played for Laughs in the first chapter/episode of Ace of the Diamond. When Sawamura visits Seidou High for the first time, he spots a fat player named Azuma insulting the pitcher who's helping him train. Sawamura then draws his ire by making fun of his huge belly. Azuma responds by saying "Who Dares? to make fun of my charm point?!"
- The protagonist of Ai Kora has an entire collection of these for his roommates, each one, in his eyes, has part of them that he sees as the feminine ideal (eyes, legs, breasts, voice, etc.).
- Bleach: Hiyori insists her "snaggletooth" is her charm point, to which Shinji vehemently disagrees.
- Of course, there's Major Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist who, believing that his (admittedly stunning) physique is desired by everyone, will take any opportunity to show it to anyone, including Scar in the middle of a battle. Scar was not amused, and neither were any of the soldiers there, or Ed at a later date.
- Free!: At the start of Season 2, the swim club tries to market their club to the incoming freshmen, but they're not quite sure how to do it. Muscle-obsessed team manager Gou decides to have the members show off their signature strokes and what she believes to be their "charm points" (their muscles) by having them strip on stage. It only puts potential hopefuls off and they turn their attention towards other clubs.
- High Score Girl: Many classmates and would-be suitors cite Aloof Dark-Haired Girl Akira's mysterious aura as a major charm point. If Akira had it her way and didn't have to deal with the Oono Zaibatsu's legacy, she'd happily socialize more..
- In the Hunter × Hunter databook, Shizuku's big eyeglasses are stated to be, in no uncertain katakana, a "CHA~MU POINTO" of hers. She's probably unaware of it, though.
- Kiddy GiRL-AND: In one episode Ascoeur points out a small rose on her inner thigh claiming it's her charm point.
- Love Live!: Nice Girl Kotori Minami's Tareme Eyes match her sweet and selfless personality and it's explicitly mentioned in supplementary material that her soft eyes are her charm point.
- Lucky Star: Konata sees Miyuki's Genius Ditz traits and her glasses as part of her charm, explicitly referring to them as "moe points".
- In Chapter 5 of Monster Musume The monster girls currently living with Kimihito all ask what he finds most attractive in a woman while emphasizing their best features; Mia has her hips, Centorea her breasts, and Papi her backside. Kimihito shocks them all by revealing himself to be a leg man.
- My Hero Academia: Uraraka Ochaco has small permanent Blush Stickers, which highlight her cuteness and innocence and they're noted as a charm point in the character descriptions. She inherited the blush stickers from her mother, who also has them.
- Ouran High School Host Club: As the story is about a group of high schoolers running a host club, the concept of charm points is discussed and mocked to hell and back, with each of the main characters having a distinct selling point:
- Tamaki's is his Princely Young Man looks due to his blonde hair and blue eyes because of his half-French ancestry, which he plays up by acting like Prince Charming.
- Kyouya's is being Tall, Dark, and Handsome with an aloof air.
- The Hitachiin twins have each other as part of their Twincest gimmick.
- Hani's is his small stature and cute appearance that makes him come off childlike and cute, making him the Token Mini-Moe. He plays this up by deliberately invoking Cuteness Proximity.
- Mori is an odd case since his charm point is another character, Hani. When the club tries to instruct a delinquent that a charm point can work wonders for one's image, they bluntly point out that without Hani around people would see Mori as just a huge scary thug who barely talks, much to the latter's distress.
- And Haruhi's charm point is her straight-forwardness and lack of any artifice, something that the group rebrands as her being a Clueless Chick-Magnet.
- Atobe of The Prince of Tennis has a Lascivious Beauty Mark on his face that he refers to as his charm point. His voice actor even recorded a song about it.
- In Negima! Magister Negi Magi Asuna's bells were referred to as her charm point.
- The Seven Deadly Sins: The first Fanbook lists the charm points of each Sin.
- Meliodas: His Idiot Hair
- Diane: Her pig tails
- Ban: His fangs
- King: His bed hair
- Gowther: His collarbone, apparently
- Merlin: Her suspicious smile, apparently
- Escanor: His shyness
- In Sketchbook, Kuma states his compact features as his charm point.
- Tiger & Bunny: Agnes points out that Keith's general niceness and slight ditziness are his charm points as they are part of the reason why he's so popular.
- In Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, the main characters each have a physical feature that acts as their charm point, which are emphasized when they transform into Cures:
- Manatsu has her lips, as her most treasured item is her mother's lipstick; when she turns into Cure Summer, she gets bright pink lipstick.
- Sango has her cheeks, as she works at her mother's makeup store; when she turns into Cure Coral, she gains heart-shaped Blush Stickers.
- Minori has her eyes, which are normally framed by her glasses; when she turns into Cure Papaya, she gets large turquoise eyelashes.
- Asuka has her hair, which is the longest and spikiest of the group; when she turns into Cure Flamingo, it becomes even longer and spikier.
- Laura has her nails, which are emphasized when she turns from a mermaid into a human; when she turns into Cure La Mer, she gains nail polish (cyan on her fingers and pink on her toes).
Comic Strips
- In Crock, a comic strip about a misfit crew of French Foreign Legionaires in a desert, the narcissistic Preppie is proud of his prominent dimpled chin to the point of self-love. In one particular sequence, bandits were able to get him talking after threatening to iron his chin flat.
Fan Works
- In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku's spit curl, which he's had since he was a baby, is his single most noticeable trait. He's often referred to as "Spitcurl" when people don't know his name and it's the first thing most people remember about him until they see him in action.
Nejire: [upon meeting Izuku] That's so cool! How'd you—oh, you've got a spit curl! Hey, you ever stick your finger in there and twist it around?
Literature
- In Baccano!, Nightmare Fetishist Lua Klein's hollow, empty laugh and lonely, dull facial expression are considered to be a Charm Point by her fiancé, the Ax-Crazy Ladd Russo.
- Goblin Slayer: A thin white streak in the center of Silver Blaze's bangs is her most distinguishing feature and the aspect of her appearance everyone credits as making her so exceptionally beautiful.
Music
- As part of Band-Maid's maid waitress gimmick, the members have charm points: Mikku's a hyper-active old pigeon, Saiki claims to have none but she's the band's tsundere, Kanami has big eyes and a crush on Saiki, Misa loves her liquor and Akane loves to eat. This gets played up at the bar scene in the video for Don't you tell ME.
- Sakura Gakuin: Su's ears stick out noticeably. It's a family trait – Himeka has a less extreme version – and she invoked it early on as one of her "charm points".
Roleplay
- Trustfell: Aligula is [[Brutal Honesty insultingly honest'' to everyone and actually considers it her best quallity.
Theatre
- Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein): "Stepsisters' Lament" is a song about Cinderella's two stepsisters bemoaning the prince's attraction to Cinderella and wondering just what it is he sees in her. They describe her possible charm points (her daintiness, pale skin, long neck, pink cheeks, and gentleness) in unflattering ways before exaspertedly chanting "What's the matter with the man?"
Video Games
- Ace Attorney: Det. Gumshoe considers his Verbal Tic of ending his sentences with "pal" (in the English version; in the Japanese version, he slurs the ends of his words) as his charm point, to the extent that he gets irritated when someone else even playfully copies him.
Gumshoe: Huh? Hey! You can't just go saying "pal" like that! That's MY endearing character trait!
- In The Battle Cats, Macho Cat's description states that its charm point is muscle definition. Mohawk Cat gains the additional charm point of beautiful hair.
- Katamari Damacy:
- The King of All Cosmos believes that the reason behind We Love Katamari is that his Royal Fans absolutely love his Royal Chin, and can't get enough of it.
- One of the Prince's many Royal Cousins is Ichigo, a Kawaiiko who boasts her 'strawberry figure' as one of her Charm Points. However, she's also a Green-Eyed Monster and a pure Attention Whore, something the King of All Cosmos himself has repeatedly noted.
- Paradise Killer: Crimson Acid's head is considered quite attractive In-Universe, as the Syndicate have weird standards of beauty. It's the main reason they wanted her as a poster girl.
- On the website for Riviera: The Promised Land, it describes the ribbon on Rose's tail as her charm point.
- Milla Maxwell from Tales of Xillia has her sizable and multicolored ahoge. She's very proud of it, and had one of the spirits under her command style it for her. She also explicitly refers to it as "her charm point" in the Japanese version of the game note .
- Super Robot Wars 30: Kanna's Youthful Freckles are considered her charm point by many people but she herself finds them embarrassing and is learning to hide them using cosmetics from Miyu.
Visual Novels
- Little Busters!: Komari Kamikita has her trademark star-shaped hairclip and very long hair ribbons, which she considers to be her charm points.
Webcomics
- Girls of the Wild's: Choi Dal Dal is extremely obsessed with her lips and how kissable they apparently are. Or, at least, she was in her introduction- this particular point hasn't come up often since then, instead focusing on her martial arts skill and her cooking.
- In the Hiimdaisy comic of the Persona series, the narrator stated this in Yukiko's laughing fit, though it's unclear which one is the charm point, the laughing fit or the one thing they mentioned.
Shut up. It's an endearing character trait.
Western Animation
- Rugrats: Chuckie's bright red hair. When his hair gets accidentally dyed black, people suddenly stop noticing him. At first, Chuckie wanted to lose his hair due to it bringing him unwanted attention, but then he realized that he missed being, well, himself.
