Cuteness Overload



"Man, we're so good about not posting a certain onomatopoeia, and then somebody posts something like this, and the hearts hit the fan."

- An anonymous commenter on the Katawa Shoujo image database.

Cuteness Overload is the state in which a character experiences the immense rush of emotion after seeing (or hearing) something very, very cute, often rendering him/her partly or wholly incapacitated. The sudden charge of feelings could create so effective an incapacitation that the character may have to be woken up by another character calling his/her name or by other means. Depending on the situation, it shares some traits with a Heroic BSOD, but the main difference is an exposure to cuteness rather than a traumatic event.

Not to be confused with Cuteness Proximity (in fact, that one functions more as a subtrope), since this describes the state the character is in, whereas Cuteness Proximity requires the character suffering from the effects of Cuteness Overload to be within a particular distance from the cute thing — and often the cute thing in question must be a physical being or object. However, the former can obviously result in the latter, and the two tropes often do overlap. It may also result in I'm Taking Her Home with Me

Most certainly Truth in Television.

Anime and Manga
"Imagined Chiyo [in a cat costume]: I'm a kitty cat!"
 * Clannad's Fuko Ibuki is this way about starfish. Not stars.
 * Tomoya gets this way when he spends a day with Mei. Specifically, when she calls him "onii-chan." Everyone is concerned.
 * Bokkun from Sonic X.
 * Hanaukyo Maid Tai La Verite: Chief security maid Konoe Tsurugi has a soft spot for dogs, and loves to pick them up and cuddle them when no one else is looking.
 * Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Rena Ryuuguu. All the time. In her case, it almost always ends with a shout of "I'm Taking Her Home with Me"
 * And in the manga, Akasaka gets a minor (um, no pun intended) case upon meeting Rika.
 * Happens frequently in K-On! (what a shocker), such as the "Azunyan Incident".
 * Sakaki of Azumanga Daioh frequently experiences this with imagined cuteness, often involving cats, ("Kitty paddle..." as in the cat version of dog paddling), Chiyo ("Ribbons..."), or a combination of the two. The sight of her holding her head and jittering occasionally elicits concern from Osaka... or alarm from Kaorin.


 * PENGUIN CHIYO. She will cause this reaction to occur in anyone who sees her, except Osaka.
 * And now, the Internet has found a way to increase it.
 * In the Alabasta arc of One Piece, Nami and Vivi nearly experienced this when they saw the way the Kung Fu Dugongs were cuddling Luffy.
 * Invoked by a wild Teddiursa in the Pokémon animé, in order to be able to steal food from trainers and pin the blame on the other Pokémon. Once it evolves into Ursaring, the protagonists let it go, under the assumption that its tricks will no longer work. Once it runs into Team Rocket, however, it still attempts to look cute to ally itself with them. The effort met with confusion by the trio, but they let it join them, anyway, rationalising that such a powerful Pokémon would be a useful asset.

Fan Fiction
"Mikuru: Eh? Suzumiya-san? Are you alright? You look dazed! Haruhi (in a faint voice): S...something amazing happened."
 * In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, the first time Kyon called Mikuru by her first name he "completely blew past her threshold for withstanding cuteness."
 * Also happens to Haruhi when Kanae


 * The Hill of Swords: When Sylphid hits people with her Moe even Emiya Shirou, the hardened veteran of countless conflicts who went through seven different kinds of hell ends up being blown away by her cuteness. She once incapacitated an entire room.
 * In the Mega Crossover fancomic Roommates every male character got KO-d by Frodo's illegal amount of cute... the girls seemed immune though. On the other hand nobody (except Jareth and Javert) can resist Misto.
 * In the Spin-Off Girls Next Door Jareth knows fully well that his owl form has this effect on people and takes advantage of it shamelessly.

Live Action Television

 * In one episode of The State, a skit portraying a grandmother taking her grandson clothes-shopping has this happen. As her overly-adorable descendant models his new suit for her, she flips out (borderline orgasmic-like) and asks the merch-worker who she had been chatting with, "Is there anything cuter than that?!?!" The worker proceeds to push her cute-button up to 11, with a step-by-step escalation, adding items to the boy's ensemble such as a bow-tie, puppy-dog earmuffs, and a little piggy-tail. When the grandmother inevitably reaches her threshold and goes violently berserk on her grandson (hey, it was the 90s), the worker and the store manager are forced to lure her into a bear-trap (a room containing an "emergency bear" that rips the lady to shreds off-camera), in order to "save the child". The worker blames himself for her death, while the manager blames the kid and abruptly pimp-slaps him for being "as cute as 2 little hamsters riding around in a little toy car."

Video Games / Visual Novels

 * In The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, Agatha squees whenever Link presents her a Golden Bug, despite her not (visibly) doing so when in the presence of bugs he already gave her.
 * In BlazBlue, this can happen to Noel in the story mode, to the point where the Cuteness Proximity of Litchi's panda makes her agree to act as her personal dummy.
 * Memetically, Hisao Nakai of Katawa Shoujo has to avoid these due to his congenital arrhythmia.
 * Dwarf Girls from Lineage 2

Web Original

 * In this video. Don't look at the cat if you want to live.
 * The entire point of the website Cute Overload.
 * And a video actually titles cute overload.
 * Cute Explosion by Mr Weebl. NEVER let dogs do science.
 * "I'm allergic to adorableness!" (hit by a kitten) "Aww."
 * Ask Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie: Fluttershy apparently drew a picture of Pinkie (which we never get to see) and shows the party pony. Pinkie collapses with a "HNNNGGG" noise. Bear in mind, this is based on My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic and already Tastes Like Diabetes.
 * A much earlier tumblr had the young Ruby Pinch dress up as a maid. Anypony who witnessed her passed out immediately.
 * Likewise, princess Luna also has a habit of causing heartattacks.

Webcomics
"Lorenda: "Too... much... cute....""
 * Questionable Content has a moment of this that is shown above. It is known as "Kawaii-fugue"
 * Lorenda of Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures goes into this shortly when Jyrras and Deebs both give her Puppy Dog Eyes here.


 * In Girly, this manifests in Lucy the veternarian as a literal explosion of cute. Lucy's head exploded.
 * Gunnerkrigg Court, during Annie's visit to Foley House. She suddenly found herself in the center of a cuddlepile formed from the whole class of cheering ex-fairies, even more cute to the ether sight. And looked a little tipsy for some time after this treatment.
 * This happens in chapter 4 of Love Aquarium when Jwihyung sees a baby penguin all on its own. He doesn't notice the other penguins sneaking up.
 * Weaponised by Spirit the Fox in this Fuzzy Five strip.