These are visual art tropes that originated in Japan. This covers all aspects of drawn and rendered art styles and tropes that originated in Japan, regardless of whether they stay there or not. Things that are Animesque are purposely invoking these tropes.
Subindex:
- Japanese Animation Tropes: where the trope in question is visual art, but requires animation or attached sound.
- Manga Effects: Visual tropes originating in manga.
Tropes
- Airplane of Love: A flying object symbolising unrequited love.
- Anime Hair: Drawn characters have spiky, exotic, or improbable hair.
- Beam of Enlightenment: Bright light on dark background symbolizes a "Eureka!" Moment
- Big Anime Eyes: Big, sparkly eye-design typical of Japanese Media.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Characters with huge eyebrows look tough, serious, or somewhat comical.
- Bishie Sparkle: Pretty people sparkle.
- Blank White Eyes: A character's eyes become iris-less and pupil-less if scared or disbelieving.
- Blush Sticker: Blush is a patch of solid color.
- Cat Smile: Someone mischievously or playfully goes :3.
- Comical Angry Face: Funny, over-the-top, Art Shifted angry face.
- Corner of Woe: A character retreats to a corner due to feeling upset.
- Cross-Popping Veins: So angry their blood is grimacing.
- Drop the Washtub: A washtub on the head instead of an anvil.
- Drunken Glow: Blush on the cheeks and nose to convey drunkenness.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Eyes losing their luster due to the character experiencing a grim moment.
- Empty Eyes: Eyes going pupil-less due to shock or an abnormal state.
- Face Fault: An instantaneous collapse as a reaction to something absurd.
- Frilly Upgrade: Powering up adds pretty accessories to the costume.
- Giving Up the Ghost: A ghost pokes out of an unconscious person. No death, Near-Death Clairvoyance, or Out Of Body Experience involved.
- Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Large sideburns are used to indicate a character is Hot-Blooded.
- Instant Cosplay Surprise: Someone doesn't react to clothing they're made to wear until it's all the way on.
- Inverted Portrait: A full character's portrait, but upside down.
- Kamehame Hadoken: A surge of ki fired from the character's cupped, outstretched hands.
- Kewpie Doll Surprise: People pose the "Y" with their arms when excited.
- Kishōtenketsu: Traditional East Asian four-actnote plot structure without a driving conflict.
- Love Bubbles: Bubbles pop up during a romantic scene.
- Luminescent Blush: A visible blush coating under the eyes when feeling embarrassed or shy.
- Mukokuseki: Deliberate lack of ethnic features in drawn characters.
- Nose Bleed: Nosebleeds equal sexual attraction.
- Paper Cutting: Weapons grazing their targets, causing superficial wounds.
- P.O.V. Cam: The Fourth Wall is a character's eyes.
- Puni Plush: Drawing everyone round and cutesy.
- Quivering Eyes: Eyes or irises quiver during an emotional moment.
- Rainbow Puke: Technicolor vomit to downplay grossness or indicate non-humanness.
- Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Blind eyes don't reflect light.
- Shonen Hair: Big, messy, spiky hair denotes a Hot-Blooded rebel from works aimed at young boys.
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl: A timid/anxious character with blue hair.
- Sleep-Mode Size: Characters look cute and Super-Deformed when depowered.
- Snot Bubble: A bubble of snot that appears in a sleeping character's nostril.
- Split-Screen Reaction: Showing multiple character reactions in fractions of the screen.
- Sprouting Ears: Growing an extra pair of ears due to a mood change for laughs.
- Standard Bleeding Spots: Characters always bleed from the same spots regardless of injury type.
- Super-Deformed: Art Shift to small babyish forms with large heads and eyes.
- Sweat Drop: An overly conspicuous bead of perspiration on the head's back/temple.
- Tareme Eyes: Eyes that droop or sag at the corners which symbolize soft emotions such as sympathy, kindness, or docility.
- Tsurime Eyes: Eyes that slant upwards, which symbolize strong emotions such as arrogance, pride, or snarkiness.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Objects launched out into the sky and beyond disappear with an Audible Gleam.
- Visible Sigh: A little cloud expelled from a sighing character's mouth.
- Waterfall Puke: Vomit streams from a disgusted person's mouth.
- World of Technicolor Hair: A setting where having unnatural hair colors is the norm.
- Yonkoma: Four-panel comic with a Kishōtenketsu structure.
