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Luminescent Blush

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Why is Kagami so nervous?

Amalia: Come on, tell me, what happened? Did you dream about Sadlygrove?
Evangelyne: Uh... what? Sadlygrove? No. And why would I dream about that Iop brain anyway?
Amalia: [giggles] You're red as a tomato.
Wakfu

When embarrassed or otherwise deeply affected emotionally a character will exhibit a dark red blush just under her eyes, usually crossing the bridge of their nose. In more humorous works, their entire face may turn red, to the point that it's glowing hot. Turning away from the object of said blush and putting their hands to their cheeks is optional, as is playing with your fingers. In addition to/instead of a blush, a character may nosebleed, which has a more lustful connotation.

The character in question is usually (but not always) female. The typical medium for this is anime, manga, and other works that are animesque. Additionally, the background may become a glowing pink colour, with little hearts, clouds, flowers or the like. Hentai (and, to a lesser extent, Ecchi), use this as a sign of sexual gratification or arousal of some sort.

This is most likely to occur with characters who are more or less innocent. Occasionally, a brighter red blush may be used to show a character is angry. In times of severe effect, they may tuck themselves into a little ball while blushing. In times of even more severe effect, their whole skin may turn into a luminescent glow the color of molten iron.

For some reason, it makes well for Fanservice. Bonus points if the blushing character in question is a Tsundere.

In Real Life, blushing is something completely out of one's control. Hence why this is rarely portrayed in live-action media.

Often pops up Through a Face Full of Fur. Compare Blush Sticker and Crush Blush — other tropes about blushing. See also Sickness Equals Redness and Drunken Glow, where the redness is caused by illness or drunkenness.


Examples with their own pages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • A turtle does give off one of these in this commercial for a Korean Love Hotel when she's flipped over, which is accompanied by a vibraphone sound.
  • In the Dancing with the Bars ad, promoting Rice Krispies Squares, Snap blushes when he notices that the viewers are watching him dance.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Happy Heroes, Doctor H. sometimes has luminescent blushes when he is admiring his crush, Miss Peach.

    Comic Books 
  • Benoit Brisefer: When Eglantine sits next to Benoit, her father teases her by saying she found a fiance. Eglantine flatly denies it while Benoit couldn't help blushing.
  • In Superman vs. Shazam!, Mary Marvel's cheeks turn red when Supergirl makes her realize how silly she looks when she is drooling over Superman.
  • Bone: Fone Bone blushes around Thorn, most notably when she takes off her clothes to bathe right in front of him.

    Film - Animated 

    Film - Live-Action 
  • Sugarpuss has a revelation monologue about her growing love for Bertram in Ball of Fire, which mentions all of the dorky little character quirks he has that she likes about him, mentioning that he "blushes right up over his ears". This is more of an implication because the film is in monochrome, so the audience has no clue how and when she found out this, but there are several moments during Sugarpuss' flirting that could've caused Bertram to blush around her, meaning that he could've done it more than once as his crush on her grew.
  • Parodied in Top Secret!: Hillary is flushed with relief(and possibly desire) to see Nick emerge safely after the climactic battle. Her face doesn't light up, but her breasts do, to the point that they're glowing under her sweater.

    Literature 
  • Ty from Dark Life has the literal version of this — when he blushes, he glows. (All of the sea-floor settlers have a 'Shine' from eating bioluminescent fish. Ty's is particularly strong, since he's the first person born and raised on the ocean floor.)
  • In Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte, Lieselotte's face positively glows when she's called out on doing something nice despite her harsh words. Or when her fiance Sieg gets close to her.
  • In The Famous Five, some characters (always female ones) give their feelings away by blushing.
  • Lord Jim from the eponymous novel by Josef Conrad is often embarrassed and often blushing, which is always described in detail.
    The quote from the beginning:
    ‘I looked at him. The red of his fair sunburnt complexion deepened suddenly under the down of his cheeks, invaded his forehead, spread to the roots of his curly hair. His ears became intensely crimson, and even the clear blue of his eyes was darkened many shades by the rush of blood to his head. His lips pouted a little, trembling as though he had been on the point of bursting into tears. I perceived he was incapable of pronouncing a word from the excess of his humiliation.'
  • Shadow of the Conqueror:
    • Played for Drama. Lyrah notices Daylen staring at her face when he realizes that she's a Broken Bird and questions him about it. Desperately fishing for a lie, Daylen tries to cover what he was really thinking about by saying that he was staring because she's beautiful, remembering belatedly that this is one of her trauma and berserk buttons. Cue Lyrah blushing with mingled embarrassment and rage, and Daylen mentally cursing himself with gusto.
      "It had been a profoundly stupid thing to say."
    • Sain has a much more humorous outbreak of blushing when Daylen guesses that Sharra seduced him, with jealousy turning him even more red when he finds out that she tried (and failed) to seduce Daylen, first.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Those who remember The Secret World of Alex Mack will remember that one of the side effects of the main character's powers was that, whenever she blushed, she glowed gold — of course, thus further embarrassing her and compounding the problem (though this side effect was only shown in the pilot. The telekinesis, electrical powers, and ability to morph into liquid powers stayed).
  • In Kamen Rider Double, Shoutarou's shown to be blushing brightly after making a rather heartwarming comment after closing a case, except his are a bit more computer generated.
  • Kamen Rider OOO has Eiji showcase a more natural blush (via proper makeup) in episodes #23 and 24 after falling madly in love, courtesy of the Monster of the Week's spell.
  • In episode 14 of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, this is Insarn's immediate reaction when she takes a better look at Kyosuke: the entirety of her lower face glows red.

    Video Games 
  • One rather off-putting moment in Shadow Hearts: Covenant comes at the Fountain of Sukune, when Saki asks Karin if she has feelings for Yuri. A luminescent blush blinks on and off her face.
  • In the Tales Series, although not shown on characters' faces, blushes show on their speech balloons as red slashes.
  • Taken to extremes in Sengoku Basara in the form of Kasuga (AKA Venus in Devil Kings). She has her priorities straight, but if Uesugi Kenshin is nearby, or complimenting her, she goes completely dazed, blushing and swooning hard with this trope painted on her face. This gets even worse if Kenshin is about to embrace her, which he does often.
    • The anime once again exaggerates one of its source tropes: In it, Kasuga basically climaxes if Kenshin touches her.
    • New character Tsuruhime also goes bright pink whenever her "saviour" Fuuma is around, complete with Love Bubbles. Unlike Kasuga, she merely goes into soliloquies rather than swooning.
  • Happens in Persona 3 in conversations with many female characters. Their faces literally glow bright pink.
    • Same thing with the guys in Portable when playing as the Female MC. Most notably, Akihiko's and Ken's cuteness appeal increases. (Especially Ken)
  • In Golden Sun, due to the small screen size, characters' entire faces turn beet-red.
    • In one scene in The Lost Age, when Sheba is teasing Jenna about her and Isaac being "an item", Jenna first flushes as normal (i.e. her face). Then, when Sheba teases her again, it's not just her face that turns red, it's also her hair and clothes.
  • Valkyria Chronicles is an anime-styled Japanese RPG that features a romance subplot; the blush is a must.
  • Interjecting a quiet and quick "Is it getting hot in here?" is shorthand for blushing in both Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age II.
  • In Breath of Fire III, Silent Protagonist Ryu's whole face turns a bright red and he tries to look to the side when Bleu awakens. It especially isn't helped by her deciding to talk to him by standing right in front of him.
  • In the Tokimeki Memorial series, and its Spiritual Successor Mitsumete Knight, this is a staple feature. If the girls you are dating show up with a blushing face, it's a good sign that your relationship with her has reached a "deeply in love" stage and thus you have a high chance of ending with her, special requirements for the particular girl not taken into account. In Tokimeki Memorial, this feature is officially called the "Tokimeki State", and in some parts of the Western fandom the "Blushing Stage".
  • The rather soft-spoken male lead of Farland Saga 2 is called to judge a swimsuit contest. He starts the contest in a state of embarrassment, graduating in a full-face flush when protagonist (and Love Interest) Karin takes the stage.
  • Every monster you raise in Monster Rancher DS gets one of these when you praise it for something, from the mighty Dragons to the cute Pixies.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ruto gets does this at one point during her rescue by Link.
  • In The Kingof Fighters XIII, King gets one during the Art of Fighting's team ending, thanks to Yuri, who knows damn well how she feels about her brother, Ryo.
  • In Kid Icarus: Uprising, whenever Pit is shocked or embarrassed, his touch-screen portrait changes to this with a rather funny accompanying facial expression. When Phosphora flirts with Pit, she notices him blushing deeply and finds him even cuter because of it.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, if one of the characters on-screen is in love with another, their in-game portrait will sport a nice blush. Also, whoever confesses his/her feelings to the Avatar will be blushing heavily in the Love Confession CG... including such people as Miriel, Vaike, Lon'qu, Henry, Frederick, Nah, etc. It's so damn cute.
  • You can invoke this trope in Arc Style: Baseball!! 3D by giving some blush (it doesn't have to be red) to a character in the Team Customization feature.
  • Tomodachi Life: Tapping a Mii's face and waiting for a couple seconds sometimes results in them blushing and saying "Don't stare! It makes me nervous!"

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY:
    • Happens to Nora when Jaune mistakes her relationship with Ren as romantic. What sells it is that Nora is known for always carrying a Blush Sticker but, during this particular moment, her blush is so visible even her ears get red.
    • When Team SSSN win their first tournament match, Sun and Neptune begin doing a silly victory dance in the middle of the stadium. Sun suddenly stops dancing, locates Blake in the watching crowd, and directly acknowledges her. Blake responds by blushing furiously.
    • Ilia is something of a variation. Being a chameleon Faunus, her body changes colors according to her mood. When she confessed that she was in love with Blake, the spots on her face turned bright pink.
    • When Team JNR and Oscar train against Team FNKI in Volume 7, Neon is full of compliments after the session is over. When she winks at Oscar and mentions how the "cute little farmboy" had a few surprises for them, Oscar's cheeks turn bright red and he responds with a nervous laugh.
    • Played straight when Blake and Yang confess their feelings to each other in Volume 9.


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Tekken Walks on Kaguya

When Kaguya takes off her clothes, they go flying in the air all at once... just as Tekken comes inside her room.

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