konsento-me コンセント目

In manga and anime, when a character's eyes are drawn simply as vertical lines (I__I), the term for that in Japanese is konsento-me コンセント目.

Character: Hinata Yukari 日向縁,
Anime: Yuyushiki ゆゆ式 (Episode 11)

• Examples
• Terminology
• References

Examples

The konsento-me are eyes that are very simple and easy to draw. Due to this, they're used in a variety of situations where simplicity is needed.

For example, they can be used in background characters, for no reason other than to make them look like simple characters.

Anime: Nichijou 日常 (Episode 1)

• mobu-kyara
  モブキャラ
  Mob character. Background character. (because they often come in mobs.)

They're also used when a character is about to say something silly and cute. When a character is being silly, as in they don't understand what is going on, they're absent-minded.

Or when they're thinking about something silly.

Character: Sakuragi Hinako 桜木ひな子
Anime: Hinako Note, ひなこのーと (Episode 8)

Character: Yuno ゆの
Anime: Hidamari Sketch, ひだまりスケッチ (Episode 1)

• See sudare-me すだれ目 for eyes drawn using multiple parallel lines.

In summary: they're silly, they're simple, they're cute. They certainly aren't used in serious situations, but they're often used in situations when the character isn't tense or anxious at all.

Character: Naganohara Mio 長野原みお
Anime: Nichijou no Zero-wa 日常の０話 (Episode 0, OVA)

• The three yellow lines are a realization mark.

Of course, there are also other situations where these eyes may be used. For example, there are characters whose eyes are konsento-me by default.

Manga: Lulumate (Volume 1)

Note that konsento-me are supposed to be simple eyes drawn as vertical lines. As we've seen above, depending on the style of the series, the eyes can be thicker, thinner, rounder, or more angled.

There are also cases where in principle it's the same sort of eye as konsento-me, but geometrically it's too short to say they're vertical lines, more like vertical ellipses, so maybe you wouldn't call these konsento-me.

Left: Yashiro Nene 八尋寧々
Right: Hanako 花子
Anime: Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun 地縛少年花子くん (Episode 1)

• Maybe "dot eyes," ten-me 点目, is a better word for these.

Terminology

The term konsento コンセント is a wasei-eigo 和製英語 that comes from "concentric plug." It refers to the electrical outlets, wall sockets into which you plug power plugs.

Anime: Yuru Yuri ゆるゆり♪♪ (Season 2) (Episode 4)

In other words, konsento-me means "power socket eyes" or something like that.

pic.twitter.com/ait3EEIUT6

— VinnyVista (@VinnyVista_) January 13, 2018

Note that different regions of the world have different types of power sockets, in all sorts of different shapes, and sometimes the standard socket shape changes over time.

However, konsento-me refers specifically to the vertical-line shaped eyes, and not just to eyes that look like a random electrical outlet.

If the lines are horizontal, they're ito-me 糸目 instead.

By the way, when you look at an electrical outlet and you think it looks like a face, that's a phenomenon called "pareidolia," katakanized pareidoria パレイドリア in Japanese.

• See also: /r/Pareidolia, a subreddit for pareidolia images.

References

• コンセント目 - dic.nicovideo.jp, accessed 2019-01-18.