Stoic Spectacles



Bespectacled girls are cute. Bespectacled short guys are book-smart. Bespectacled Bishonen, on the other hand, are cool, calm and collected. It's not uncommon for them to also be intelligent and/or kick ass in a fight, as this character type tends to be where the opposing viewpoints of "glasses are for nerds" and "glasses look cool" converge.

Most commonly, the glasses in question are of the narrow, thin-rimmed sort to avoid obscuring the bishonen's pretty face, though they can be prone to shining scarily. Also, God help you if The Glasses Come Off. If you're dangerous even without removing them, they are Specs of Awesome. If you're a cold, sadistic but hot Love Interest type as well as a spectacled guy, then you might be a Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriend. If you've got the cold and sadistic but not the love interest, you might have Four Eyes, Zero Soul.

Bonus points for the character also has long hair; double if it's worn in a ponytail. See also the "little round glasses" option of Mask Power.

The Anime Fan Speak term for cute guys in glasses is Megane ("glasses").

Anime & Manga
"Kouji: I can put on a pair of glasses and...Voila! See how intelligent I look?
 * Nagayama from Chibi Maruko Chan. Inverted with Maruo.
 * Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion manages stoicism because EVERYTHING IS GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN.
 * Mamoru from Sailor Moon wears reading glasses in the manga, and he's adorable in them.
 * Jin from Samurai Champloo, with the double points for long ponytail (he's a big fangirl draw)..
 * Gilbert G.P. Guilford from Code Geass. And then he goes for stoic Cool Shades...
 * Tieria Erde from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, although his glasses are fairly big.
 * Uryu Ishida and his dad from Bleach. Uryu in particular fits the "where nerdy and cool converge" part of the trope description, being 1st in his class, a highly skilled warrior, and a dorkily obsessive sewing fanboy.
 * Lord Il Palazzo from Excel Saga, though he wears the small type of glasses that don't cover your eyes. Also, he's not very collected.
 * Kyouya from Ouran High School Host Club. He's at his scariest when The Glasses Come Off...because he's at his scariest when he's just woken up.
 * Nagato Yuki of Suzumiya Haruhi is female, but gravitates more toward this trope than the typical Meganekko. She loses her glasses near the end of the first book and, from there, goes through Tin Man development.
 * The rather popular gender-flipped fan project turns her into a full example in that said male variant is an aloof bishonen.
 * Chiga in Seitokaichou ni Chuukoku, who is one of the best fighters in the dojo but still occasionally blushes.
 * Subversion: Ryoki from Hot Gimmick comes across as emotionally distant in his introduction, but later on develops strong feelings for the female lead in his own twisted way.
 * Mikami from Death Note appears to be yet another subversion: he comes across as polite, incisive, determined, quiet and intelligent (he also gets bonus style points for his long black hair and smart clothes) - until he's properly introduced and we get to see just how twisted his psyche is.
 * Takahata-Sensei from Mahou Sensei Negima: Thin glasses, check. Hawt, Asuna is convinced at least so check. Badass, double check. Expression ranges from bemused smile to mildly concerned frown even in the midst of combat, check.
 * Joui in Psycho Busters
 * Rin from Mnemosyne is another female example. The first episode also hints that she's Blind Without'Em, although she still manages to kick ass pretty well despite losing her glasses every now and then.
 * Takami Ichiro of Eyeshield 21 is a good example of the convergence of nerdy and cool: an intelligent, strategic thinker, and the quarterback of a football team. Maybe athletic glasses aren't the best choice for looking suave, but they're much more practical.
 * Kunimitsu Tezuka and Sadaharu Inui of Prince of Tennis. The latter in particular is prone to a constant state of Scary Shiny Glasses. So mcuh that his eyes are very seldom seen - which is a Running Gag in one of the chibi episodes, where he constantly covers his eyes when he loses his glasses.
 * Yuushi Oshitari from Hyoutei too, and he's got the long hair to go with it. It's even lampshaded when he reveals that he doesn't really need glasses, he just wears them because he's going for this look.
 * Also Hiroshi Yagyuu from Rikkai and Eishirou Kite from Higa, who borders on kichiku megane.
 * Subverted in Hyoutei's Hiyoshi, who fits the associated traits for the trope and actually needs glasses, but wears contact lenses instead.
 * Shino of Naruto has a pair of stoic shades which constantly cover his eyes, even during side views. It's even become somewhat of a running gag among the fandom that his eyes have never been seen.
 * Also, Kabuto. Oh, God, where do we start with him? Let's see... long hair. Bonus because it's white. The glasses, obviously... which he often pushes up, and which seem to shine on their own, often with little light. And several cool character traits, but mostly being that he's sadistic.
 * Maiza Avaro from Baccano!! has a pair, which serves as a quick visual note of his position as the Martillo family's bookkeeper.
 * Dr. Itsuki Kisaragi, as pictured above, seems to have been genetically engineered for the purposes of fulfilling this trope.
 * Hirato from Karneval fits this to a T
 * Kakei, from one of CLAMP's lesser known manga, Legal Drug. Bonus points in that he wears a lab coat, no word on if he's actually a doctor or not. Also very pretty (of course, it's CLAMP) and dangerously Genre Savvy.
 * Kairi of the manga Nightmare Inspector is most definitely this, and gets the long ponytail bonus points. ...However, he's also a Cloudcuckoolander.
 * Spoofed in a Super Robot Wars Yonkoma, where Stoic Spectacles can make even the most Hot-Blooded of Idiot Heroes look like an intelligent bishie.

Asuka: ...Whoa."


 * Eriol from Cardcaptor Sakura.
 * His predecessor Clow Reed goes for the glasses-long hair-ponytail trifecta. He's more friendly and not quite as stoic, though. Eriol got all the stoicness, while Fujitaka might as well be filed under Meganekko.
 * Austria from Axis Powers Hetalia.
 * Sweden counts too, though he's more of a Gentle Giant than a stoic character.
 * Satoshi in D.N.Angel. In fact, it's hinted that his glasses has something to do with suppressing his emotions to keep his Super-Powered Evil Side at bay.
 * Aion from Chrono Crusade, complete with the long ponytail. However, while he enjoys keeping up an appearance of being stoic, he has several moments where he reveals a more dramatic side—indeed, flashbacks that show him without the glasses have him being much more emotional, and when he loses the glasses in the final battle his motives are revealed and he's much more emotional.
 * Luna from Helios Eclipse. Slightly subverted as he emotes just fine.
 * Sugata Eishirou from Sora no Otoshimono fits this well. He generally has the same expression on his face, he's the Smart Guy of the group, and he fights bears on a regular basis.
 * Abel Nightroad from Trinity Blood is an aversion. Bishonen? Check. Ponytail? Check. However, he tends towards a rather hyper personality, except for when he goes badass.
 * Badass is almost exclusively when The Glasses Come Off.
 * William T. Spears of Black Butler. Bishi? Check. Stoic? Check. Glassed? Oddly enough geeky, but check. Badass? CHECK. I wonder what would happen if he took the glasses off...
 * Turns out he actually really needs them.
 * Black Butler II introduces new butler Claude Faustus. He's basically William T. Spears with more unruly hair... until The Glasses Come Off.
 * Karasuma Kirio of Kamichama Karin is a parody of this character type; he appears to be this for about the first five minutes he appears, and then the Mood Whiplash starts and his true personality comes to light.
 * Kyousuke Kishi of Yozakura Quartet.
 * Verde from Katekyo Hitman Reborn doubles as a Hot Scientist with a dash of Nerds Are Sexy.
 * Also, Chikusa.
 * Trigun's Vash the Stampede can wear his specs and remain the lovable goofball. Or he can put them on dramatically, with a bit of shine, and go implacable.
 * Griffith Lowran from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Also serves as the Number Two to Hayate Yagami.
 * There's a generic Shoujo manga called Megane Ouji (or "Four-Eyed Prince" in the USA) that's built around this trope. The main love interest wears glasses and is quiet, aloof, bookish and generally blunt. However, at night he takes off his glasses, dons an apron and works as a bartender. While at his job he takes on a personality of a flirty, warm and chipper character. He later explains to the main character that as a child he was shuffled around to be raised by several relatives, and took on whatever persona that seemed to please his current foster parents, resulting in the split.
 * Koganei of The Weatherman Is My Lover fits this to a tee.
 * The methodical, quiet monk and writer Seishin Muroi in Shiki fits this extremely well, right down to wearing the small, half-framed style of glasses common with the trope.
 * Soubi from Loveless, complete with intelligence, badass magic fighting skills, and long hair which is sometimes pulled back. Also prone to The Glasses Come Off before wordspell battles.
 * Barnaby Brooks Jr. from Tiger and Bunny. He even had a fan club back in the Hero Academy based off of them.
 * Soichi of The Tyrant Falls in Love has long, pale hair, often tied back in a ponytail, is intelligent and wears glasses, but that's about where it stops. Being an extreme Tsundere and all. And it only gets worse after the glasses come off (during sex) and the ponytail comes undone (also during sex), both to make him more traditionally Uke-ish.
 * Morinaga's older brother, Kunihiro, would be a better example. At least until
 * Subverted by Hidenori from Daily Lives of High School Boys. While his glasses does make him look stoic, it's just a paper-thin shell that hides his Large Ham tendencies.
 * Keima Katsuragi from The World God Only Knows, who only breaks his stone cold stoicism to gush about his dating sims.

Comic Books

 * Despite being blue and furry, Beast of X-Men is often seen wearing glasses. Expect a sarcastic quote, usually from a work of Shakespeare, when he is wearing these. Never seen when he's pummeling evil mutants.
 * Reading glasses are not needed to punch and kick, and would likely get broken just by the stunts Beast pulls.

Film

 * Western example: Morpheus from The Matrix, despite having circular pince-nez (no earpieces!), is definitely a stoic badass with glasses.
 * Jonathan Crane of Batman Begins is all about this trope. Largely calm and stoic, intelligent, good looking and wears glasses, but he's also a psychopath who gasses people with fear toxins. True to trope, heaven help you when he takes them off.
 * There is an example of this trope in the third Thin Man film. The character is a crime boss named Vogel who probably also qualifies as a Smug Snake. What's amusing is that once the glasses are gone, he's worthless in a fight. Against a ditzy blonde.
 * Pasha in Doctor Zhivago. Even more so later
 * Milo Hoffman in Anti Trust wears glasses to read and work on his computer. Seeing as he's played by Ryan Phillipe, the thick-framed monstrosities just make him look all the hotter.
 * Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the To Kill a Mockingbird.
 * In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy George Smiley's no bishonen, being on the older side of middle-aged and rather ordinary looking, but he does wear glasses, and he is certainly stoic.

Live Action TV

 * Jamie Hyneman. Not bishonen, and definitely no ponytail. But he is one aloof, stoic, spectacled, kickass Mythbuster.
 * No, he's not bishonen, but there are certainly plenty of people who find the man damn sexy.
 * The Tenth Doctor. It's possible he doesn't need them, but they still make him look even more Badass.
 * The Fifth Doctor looked cuter in the specs. And that's where Tennant got the idea.....
 * Dark Angel's Alec as Simon Lehane. See.
 * Or, you know, Logan.
 * People possessed by Urataros in Kamen Rider Den-O (and his later appearances in the Kamen Rider franchise) gain these.
 * Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the grand master of stoicism and spectacles. However, he averts the trope in the season 5 finale when he puts his glasses on to smother Ben, the human counterpart to the god, Glory.
 * Daniel Jackson leans towards this, especially in the first season. He has big round 90s glasses, though.
 * In season 10, some wonderful person got Daniel new glasses with a more angular shape. They took Daniel from cute geek to GUH.
 * Spencer Reid of ''Criminal Minds, though his glasses are, like the Tenth Doctor's, not always present.
 * Joe Gibken of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger gets these during the Megaranger tribute episode, which involved the core cast becoming High School students for the day. This was in order to gain the Greater Power of the Megarangers who were High School Students during their series, while their representitive has become a teacher at their school.
 * Sherlock Holmes, emotionally-detached Badass Bookworm par excellence, wears little round reading glasses in a few scenes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

Video Games

 * Kristoph Gavin in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney,.
 * Jade Curtiss, the resident Deadpan Snarker of Tales of the Abyss. Bonus points for long hair (He has his hair in a loose braid in one of his outfits, and a loose ponytail in another). Also very prone to the Scary Shiny Glasses trope. And The Glasses Come Off? Yeah. About the only time the glasses ever come off is in the final confrontation between the Big Bad and the party.
 * Which is bad news for the Big Bad, since those glasses act as a Power Limiter for the spell that Jade has cast on his eyes.
 * Auron (who seriously should be his own trope) isn't bishonen, but he does have a ponytail wrapped inside that high collar, and he certainly has enough fangirls. As a bonus, we see him in recordings ten years prior, when we was unspectacled and much more emotional. Post-spectacling, he gets emotional exactly once, and that's personal.
 * Kyosuke Kagami from Rival Schools.
 * The Sorrow. He doesn't fight much, but he's easily The Stoic and probably the smartest of the Cobras- at least, he's the most normal. He also has his own creepy version of The Glasses Come Off - when he's about to show someone, he cries blood and his glasses shatter.
 * Citan Uzuki, of Xenogears, lets us know this way that he's both the most intelligent person and best fighter in the world.
 * Roxis from Mana Khemia is this trope all over the place. Intelligent? Check. Stoic? Check? Long hair swept back in a ponytail? Check. Can also kinda throw down: though the storyline likes to suggest that he isn't hugely powerful, in battles he's actually pretty awesome.
 * Jin, the doctor from Harvest Moon: Tree Of Tranquility. He has a ponytail, too.
 * And Lloyd in Grand Bazaar. He doesn't have a ponytail, but his hair is still on the long side.
 * Arcade Gannon of Fallout: New Vegas.
 * Lazard Deusericus from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

Webcomics

 * Chapel, from The Chapel Chronicles constantly wears granny glasses—perhaps she even sleeps with them on.
 * Mordecai, from Lackadaisy Cats. Add points for OCD about symmetry and a partner with only one eye.
 * Liz from Blip. Even though she's female, her glasses and demeanor imply stoicism rather than vulnerability. Bonus points for the fact that, as a shape shifter, she doesn't even need glasses.
 * Momba Kawunei from The Water Phoenix King. As The Archer it makes sense that he'd worry more about vision than vanity, though he's the first glasses-wearing warrior we've seen so far. His rivals (make that late in one case) may have mistaken them for Nerd Glasses, but not for long. Even more badass for wielding a weapon completely unsuitable for use by someone with lenses, and being good enough to get away with it.

Web Original

 * Jeff Andonuts. Bonus points to that he is sometimes depicted with his voice actor's former long hair.
 * Doug Walker's suave Ask That Guy persona.

Western Animation

 * Charles Foster Ofdensen from Metalocalypse. As long as you don't fuck with his bread and butter, that is.
 * Owen Burnett, David Xanatos' right hand from Gargoyles