In manga and anime, a "light bulb," denkyuu 電球, is sometimes used as a symbol when a character has an idea, an epiphany. In some cases, other sorts of lamps and electric lights are also used in parody.

• Examples
  • Sound Effect
  • Idea Hand Gesture
  • Other Idea Lamps

In manga and anime, a musical note symbol, or onpu 音符, literally "sound symbol," is sometimes used when there's music in the air. That is, when someone is playing an instrument, or when they're whistling.

In Japanese, tenbyou 点描 means "pointillism," which is the art technique of drawing using only dots, points. In manga, tenbyou 点描 means "stippling," a monochrome shading technique often used to render lighter backgrounds by drawing dots with ink.

This technique has a lower black-to-white ratio than kakeami カケアミ, which makes it preferable to shade softer things, like sand and soap bubbles.

• Examples

In manga and anime, sometimes light circles are used as a background effect to make a picture prettier, creating a calming or endearing mood in romantic or moe 萌え situations, or in panning fanservice shots (stitches). In manga, they're often drawn using dots, while in anime they often accompany sparkles and other effects.

• shabon-dama
  シャボン玉
  Soap bubbles. A term for this effect in Japanese.^{(tonbi.jp:シャボン)}

In manga and anime, sometimes lilies are used as a background effect in panels, behind or in front of characters, and, sometimes, these white flowers are a visual pun on a romantic relationship between two girls.

• yuri
  百合
  Lily. (the flower.)
  Lesbian fiction. Girls' Love. (in manga, anime, etc.)

For the gay counterpart, see rose background.

In manga and anime, a lightning is used as background effect in panel behind a character, meaning that they're shocked, as in, startled, dumbfounded, astonished.

In Japanese, this is called inazuma furasshu イナズマフラッシュ, "lightning flash," or kaminari furasshu カミナリフラッシュ, "thunder flash." The word "flash" refers to the sparks along the lightning, which are instances of Beta Flash.^(tonbi.jp)

In manga, unifura ウニフラ, or "uni flash," uni furasshu ウニフラッシュ, is flash of light with a black outline that looks like a "sea urchin," uni 雲丹.

The uni flash is drawn like the beta flash, using focus lines, except that instead of a black background they're placed on just any background.

Typically, they're used as speech balloons, or rather, as thought balloons.

• Examples
• References

In manga, betafura ベタフラ, or "beta flash," beta furasshu ベタフラッシュ, is a white flash of light in a black background.^(tonbi.jp) Traditionally, it's rendered by drawing focus lines and then filling the outer area with black ink.^{(dic.pixiv.net)} The term beta ベタ refers to the black areas in manga.

In manga and anime, sometimes roses are used as background effect in panels, behind or in front of characters, and, sometimes, these red flowers are a visual pun on a romantic relationship between two guys.

• bara
  薔薇
  Rose. (the flower, not the color.)
  Gay fiction. (from the name of a gay magazine, bara-zoku 薔薇族.)

For the lesbian counterpart, see lily background.

In manga, line effects, or kouka-sen 効果線, literally "effect lines," are lines drawn in the background or the foreground of manga panels, and in anime, that represent some sort of effect, like the emotion of objects or the mood of characters and places.

In manga, sometimes lines are drawn emanating from a character when that character is emanating positive energy. When they're happy, bright, cheerful and so on.

• akarui
  明るい
  Light. Bright.
  Cheerful.

• Context: Nami ナミ cheers up.
• honto!?
  ほんと！？
  Really!?
• hontou 本当 with the long vowel shortened.

They're drawn sort of like focus lines, but their function is closer to laughter lines.

In manga, nawaami ナワアミ, "rope net," is the term the ropes drawn in the background of panels.

They're also called kake-nawa カケナワ, "thrown rope," guriguri グリグリ, and hebinawa ヘビナワ, "snake rope." Some of its names come from the fact that they're drawn using the same technique as kakeami カケアミ.

• Examples
• References

In manga, kakeami カケアミ is a cross-hatching pattern used to shade objects and backgrounds using lines that form "webs," "nets," ami 網, which are "thrown over" each other, kake 掛け.

For example, in the panel below, the top part of the background features a single kakeami pattern, while the boat is shaded using a gradation of increasing layers of kakeami.

• Design
  
  • カケグラ
  • ナワアミ
• References

In manga, odoro おどろ are lines drawn on the background of panels that look like an ominous dark smoke, or shadow-tentacles, coming out from the edges of the panel into whatever bizarre thing is in the panel, or into a character who feels all weirded out or angry, pissed off.

They're also called odoro-sen おどろ線, "odoro lines."

• Usage
• Examples
• References

In manga and anime, "focus lines," shuuchuu-sen 集中線, are lines used to give focus or emphasis to an element. They're drawn coming from the corners and edges of a manga panel or screen, and go toward the focused element, which is usually at the center.

• Light Streaks
• Usage
  
  • Directionality
  • Importance
    
    • Emergence
    • Relevancy
  • Impact
    
    • Action
    • Prominence
    • Outburst
  • Muster
    
    • Concentration
• References

In manga and anime, lines are drawn surrounding an object when it's supposed to be wobbling, trembling, or shaking, or, alternatively, lines drawn around a character when they're quivering or twitching because they're afraid, startled, shocked or excited.

In Japanese, they're called yure-sen 揺れ線, "wavering lines," or furue-sen 震え線, "trembling lines."

• Usage
• Styles
  
  • Smooth Curves
  • Stiff Straight Lines
  • Segmented Lines
  • Shaky Lines
  • Flickering Lines
  • Spiky Lines

In manga and anime, "motion lines," dousen 動線, are lines used to show the motion of an object. They're particularly used in manga to make otherwise static panels appear dynamic.

In manga and anime, taresen タレ線, "dripping lines," or tate-sen 縦線, "vertical lines," refers to parallel vertical lines drawn on the background or on a character's face when the character feels down, feels sad, feels disgusted, among other negative feelings.

It's also spelled taresen 垂れ線, because it "drips," tareru 垂れる.

• zuun
  ずーん
  (sound effect used when a character suddenly feels down.)

In anime, these are often rendered blue, but blue lines can also be used in a number of other ways. See the article on Blue Lines for a complete list of meanings.

• Examples

In manga and anime, when a character has a "nosebleed," hanadi 鼻血, it's often because they're thinking something perverted, lewd, indecent, sexy, and so on.

In Japanese, seiteki na imi de 性的な意味で, literally "with the sexual meaning," or "in the sexual sense," is a handy phrase used to clarify a possibly ambiguous statement, making sure a double entendre is understood with its indecent meaning, as opposed to its innocent meaning.

In Japanese, Peko-jita ペコ舌, literally the "tongue," shita 舌, of Peko, refers to drawing characters with a tongue sticking out at the corner, and sometimes with eyelashes, resembling or parodying the iconic candy character Peko-chan ペコちゃん.^{(dic.pixiv.net)}

The word shita した becomes jita じた as a suffix due to rendaku 連濁.

In manga and anime, a character is drawn with a snot bubble coming out of their nose when they're sleeping, taking a nap, or just dozing off, sleepy.

This is called hana-chouchin 鼻提灯 in Japanese: hana 鼻 means "nose," and chouchin 提灯 means "paper lantern."

• Examples

In Japanese, chouchin 提灯 means "paper lantern," because it's a lantern made out of paper, also known as "Chinese lantern," because often you'll see it as the iconic red one.

• Meaning
• Examples

In manga and anime, sometimes a character's soul comes out of their mouth, as if they had just died and were about to go to heaven. This expression is used when a character figuratively dies of something, like dies of shame, or dies of shock, or dies of exhaustion, dies inside, and so on.

• tamashii ga kuchi kara deru
  魂が口から出る
  [Someone's] soul leaves of [their] mouth.
• kuchi kara tamashii ga nukeru
  口から魂が抜ける
  From [someone's] mouth [their] soul comes out. (in the sense of being cut loose, separated, extracted.)

• Examples

In manga and anime, when a character's hair is suddenly drawn disheveled, with strands sticking out of their hair, it generally means the character is overwhelmed, at loss, stupefied, or not knowing how to deal with an incredible situation.

Not to be confused with ahoge アホ毛, which is when the hair strand sticking out is part of the design of the character.

• Examples

In manga and anime, sometimes smoke is drawn coming out of a character's head or ears when they're thinking too hard, when they're embarrassed, or when they're angry, fuming.

• Examples

In Japanese, tameiki ため息 means a "sigh," like a sigh of relief or a weary sigh. In manga and anime, these are generally rendered as a little cloud of smoke coming out of the character's mouth.

It's also spelled tameiki タメ息, tameiki 溜め息, or tameiki 溜息 without okurigana.

• "To Sigh" in Japanese
• Examples

In manga and anime, when a character realizes something, notices something, is surprised by something, or has their attention directed at something, a mark is drawn banging away from their head or eye to symbolize their sudden realization.

The exact mark varies. It can be an impact mark, three or more lines, a flash, or a lightning flash, depending on the style and situation.

• Impact Mark
• Lines
• Flash
• Lightning Flash

In manga and anime, a segmented arc crossed by perpendicular lines drawn over a character's head means they're having fun, laughing, or just being cheerful and lively in general.

In Japanese, these are called niko-sen ニコ線, "smile lines."^{(tonbi.jp:ニコ線)}

On the internet, orz (or OTL, OTZ, szo, among others) is a pose: someone on all fours, fallen on their knees with their hands on the floor. It's used when someone feels defeated, dejected or hopeless about something.

• In Japanese
• Examples
  • Spotlight
• Similar Poses
• References

In manga and anime, sometimes parallel horizontal lines, typically blue lines, are drawn coming out of a character to look like they're casting a shadow.

This is used when the character feels alienated, dejected, sulking in a corner, or dumbfounded, speechless, or burned out.

• Examples

In manga and anime, parallel black or blue lines on a character's face, forehead, eyelids, under their eyes, or in the background, typically vertical and downwards, but in some cases horizontal, are used when a character is distressed, anxious, vexed, unwell, depressed, dispirited, despondent, alienated, gloomy, nervous, disgusted, disconcerted, disappointed, apathetic, shocked, dumbfounded, or something along those lines.

Basically, all sorts of negative feelings.

• Rendering
• Usage
  
  • Shock
  • Uneasiness
  • Apprehension
    
    • Frown
  • Gloom
    
    • Defeat
    • Shadow

In manga and anime, sometimes mushrooms start growing on a depressed character's head, or the character starts growing mushrooms in some dark, lone corner.

• atama ni kinoko ga haeru
  頭にキノコが生える
  Mushrooms sprout on [someone's] head.

In manga and anime, sometimes a shadow is drawn over the character's forehead, covering their eyes and going all the way to their nose. This shadow appears out of nowhere, regardless of the illumination of the scene.

It's a symbol to represent the character's mental state, and may be used when they're angry, devious, terrified, disgusted, among other situations.

In some cases, only the eyes or the nose is shadowed. In other cases, the forehead is drawn blue instead.

• Usage
• Examples
  
  • Anger
  • Disgust
  • Fear
  • Shock
  • Despondency
  • Deviousness

In anime, sometimes a character's face turns blue due to shock, fear, disgust, or other sort of distress, discomfort or sickness. The reason for this is mostly that when someone seems unwell, we usually say that they're "pale" in English, but in Japanese they're said to be "blue" instead.

• Explanation

In manga and anime, sometimes sweat drops are drawn shooting away from a character's head in waves.

In comics, these sweat drops would be called plewds, and would mean the character is tense or anxious, among other things. However, while normally only a few plewds are drawn, sometimes waves of plewds are drawn instead, forming multiple layers flowing away.

In manga and anime, circles or sweat droplets drawn flickering erratically around a character's head mean that they're panicking, flustered, or agitated.

They're specially used when the character is worrying about something, or trying to explain something hard to explain to someone, or when they're caught red-handed doing something and someone is currently angrily walking toward them.

In comics, plewds are one or a few sweat drops drawn spilling away from a character's head. In manga and anime, this can symbolize worry, vexation, impatience, or relief, and it's drawn more commonly in manga than in anime.

• aseri
  焦り
  Anxiety. Impatience. A feeling of urgency when things aren't going the way you want.
  • aseru
    焦る
    To feel anxious. To feel impatient.

In manga and anime, sweat drops used as symbols are normally drawn appearing and staying at the same position on a character's face. However, in some cases the sweat is drawn dripping, like real sweat.

When this happens symbolically, it's typically because they're in panic, sweating profusely, faced with a sudden and extremely complicated situation, nervous, frozen with intense fear, and so on.

• Examples

In manga and anime, a small sweat drop, typically drawn dripping on the cheek between the eye and the ear, is a symbol used when a character is apprehensive, flustered, tense, weary, or excited about something. It's also used in situations where characters are actually physically sweating.

Often, it's shaped like the shi し hiragana.

See large sweat drop for the teardrop-shaped anime sweat drop.

In manga and anime, a large sweat drop, shaped like teardrop, dripping from a character's forehead or hair, is a symbol used when a character is perplexed, bewildered, confused, or otherwise at loss of words.

It's also known as the "anime sweat drop." In Japanese, it's called ase-maaku 汗マーク, "sweat mark (mark as in a symbol, icon)."

See small sweat drop for a similar but smaller symbol.

In manga and anime, characters are often drawn sweating. This can happen for various reasons, with the sweat drops being drawn in various ways. Most of the time, the characters aren't physically sweating, the sweat merely symbolizes their mental state, like anxiety.

• Vocabulary
• Types
  
  • Large Sweat Drop
  • Cheek Sweat Drop
  • Multiple Sweat Drops
  • Spilled Sweat Drops
  • Flickering Sweat Drops
  • Shooting Waves of Sweat Drops

In anime, the "anger mark," or ikari maaku 怒りマーク in Japanese, is a symbol used when a character is angry, mad, or irritated. It's shaped as a concave triangle or quadrilateral drawn with red lines that don't connect, symbolizing the contour of a popped vein.

Basically, the anger symbol pops up when a character pops a vein.

In Japanese, doyagao どや顔 refers to someone's facial expression when they're proud of themselves, of their own ability or work. It's generally a smug, triumphant grin of self-satisfaction.

It's also spelled doyagao ドヤ顔.

• Meaning
• Examples

In manga and anime, diagonal lines drawn across a character's face, over their cheeks, nose, and sometimes ears, symbolize blushing, and are used when the character is embarrassed, flustered, or any other time they're red-faced.

In color, the blushing lines are normally drawn red. In black and which manga, they're black, but even so the black diagonal lines symbolize a reddened face.


In text, ///, three or more slashes, can refer to this sort of line to mean blushing.

• In Japanese
• Examples
  
  • Exceptional Examples
    
    • Permanent Cheek Lines

In Japanese, ///, three slashes or more, may mean someone is blushing, red-faced, probably embarassed. For example:

• minaide///
  見ないで／／／
  Don't look [at me]. *blushes*

Naturally, this originates in the parallel diagonal lines used in manga to render blushes. See blushing lines for details.


These slashes may also appear in manga text balloons when the character that is talking isn't visible in the panel where their text balloon appears.

In Japanese, sekimen 赤面, meaning "red face," refers to someone's face as it's red with embarrassment or something like that. It's how you say "blushing" in Japanese.

• Rendering
• Vocabulary

In Japanese, mune-kyun 胸キュン, or mune ga kyun to suru 胸がキュンとする, is an expression used when someone falls in love or finds something adorable, cute, moe 萌え, and so on.

Literally, it means for one's "chest," mune 胸, to "tighten," with kyun キュン being a phenomime for that *tightening.*

It's also spelled kyuun キューン, with a long vowel, as if it were an onomatopoeia with a longer sound.

• Examples

In Japanese, nakigao 泣き顔 means somebody's "crying face." That is, somebody's "face," kao 顔 (gao is rendaku 連濁), when they "cry, "naku 泣く (naki is ren'youkei 連用形).

Not to be confused with nakigoe 鳴き声, which is the sound an animal makes.

• Vocabulary
• Examples