Snot Bubble



When sleeping, a character whose primary thrust is comedic invariably develops a bubble of snot from one nostril that inflates and deflates in sync with their breathing or their snoring. Basically the anime equivalent of 'Zzz' used in Western cartoons and comics. While perhaps considered a pretty gross concept in the West, Japanese media tends to portray it as cute.

The bubble bursts upon awakening. In some cases, it is shown that you can awaken the character by popping it.

See also Catching Some Zs for more universal version of sleep representation.

Anime

 * Louie in several episodes of Rune Soldier Louie.
 * Chu-chu in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
 * Tatewaki Kuno, his father Principal Kuno, and Genma Saotome are all shown asleep with snot bubbles during the fourth season of Ranma 1/2.
 * Charmeleon/Charizard in Pokémon
 * In one episode of Pokémon Black and White, when Ash battles Alder, Alder gets this when Alder falls asleep in the middle of the battle, which angers his Bouffalant, resulting in Bouffalant to knock out Alder instead of Ash's Pikachu.
 * Oro, one of the most powerful martial artists in the world of Street Fighter, taunts by temporarily falling asleep with a snot bubble.
 * Common occurrence with Nobita in Doraemon.
 * In the Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex Omake Tachicomatic Days, the Tachikomas often get snot bubbles, despite being completely mechanical and not having anything resembling a nose.
 * In Digimon Adventure (episode eleven), Gomamon says that a snot bubble means that the digimon is easy to fool. He proceeds to throw a rock at it to pop it, rather than at the Digimon itself...
 * Kotengu gets a snot bubble in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou OAV "Omoi no Arika". He wakes up when the bubble bursts.
 * In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, the titular character does this often, along with his pet chameleon Leon. He also falls asleep at the most inappropriate times. Colonnello also does this (it helps that he and Reborn knew each other when they were kids, well... before they became kids) and Tsuna does this occasionally.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist, Sloth drops off to sleep for a few seconds and instantly develops one.
 * Mori in episode 13 of Ouran High School Host Club.
 * One scene in Black Cat featured Creed using Shiki's insects as spy cameras to watch Train as he sleeps. As he's sleeping Train does this.
 * Ginga did this in the earlier episodes of Metal Fight Beyblade.
 * France does this when he fell asleep during an Allies meeting in Axis Powers Hetalia.
 * Koizumi of Lovely Complex does this in episode 1 during the entrance ceremony.
 * This trope's been in use for a long time. Happened in at least one episode of the 1960s Gigantor series.

Comic Books

 * The Super Mario World comic series that was featured in Nintendo Power during the 90s had Luigi make use of this phenomenon.

Video Games

 * Tails will get this if you press Up in Sonic Advance 2.
 * Overlord Babylon in Makai Kingdom, a huge dragon who once had enough power to rule the universe, often falls asleep with a snot bubble.
 * Gaspar, the Guru of Time from Chrono Trigger, is always asleep with a snot bubble whenever the party visits him at the End of Time.
 * In Little Nemo the Dream Master, the animals that can be bribed with candies fall asleep with snot bubles, even those that have no nose, like a bee or a hermit crab.
 * One of the minigames in Wario Ware: Twisted involves timing a button press to pop a snot bubble. In the overseas version, it was changed to popping a blown bubble from chewing gum.
 * Seen in Super Mario RPG, whenever one of your characters was affected with the "sleep" status. This was Lampshaded in a scene where three ghosts visit Mario while he's asleep. They argue over whether he's truly asleep, until one of them points out the bubble coming from his nose.
 * The Maku Tree from The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons spends most of the game sleeping in this manner; to talk to him, you have to pop the bubble and wake him up.
 * Sleep was shown like this Final Fantasy V. Final Fantasy VII used Z's instead.
 * The appropriately-nicknamed "Sleepy" in Okami pretty much always has one.
 * The Piranha Plants in Super Mario 64 are usually asleep with a snot bubble, until you wake them up.
 * Yoshi is seen sleeping on the roof of Peach's Castle with a snot bubble in the opening cutscene for Super Mario 64 DS. Leaving his Idle Animation on for too long has him fall asleep with one as well.
 * One of the enemies in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, the Naplock, can actually attack you with its snot bubbles.
 * The Boat Shop Caretaker in the fourth case of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney falls asleep on the witness stand with a snot bubble every single time someone stops talking to him.
 * Cammy Meele in Investigations does this, when she falls asleep with her hair covering her face.
 * All the player-controlled critters in Cubivore develop a snot bubble when they sleep, even retaining it for a few seconds after they wake up.
 * Sleeping characters in Loco Roco have that kind of bubble.
 * 1-up's Idle Animation from Stinkoman 20 X 6.

Web Comics

 * Tailsteak explains it all.

Western Animation

 * Beast Boy in the Animesque Teen Titans could constantly be found snoozing in this manner.
 * Dutch cartoon Boes has the starring lazy Oxen do this every time he falls asleep.
 * Has happened to Ed in Ed, Edd n Eddy on at least one occasion, it causes him to float away.

Real Life

 * Watch this.