Balloon Belly/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • This happens to Mugen in Samurai Champloo, on the few occasions when he gets to really stuff himself. Fuu takes it one step further - her entire body changes shape, making her look quite obese for the next scene. In one episode, two thugs specifically looking for her didn't even recognize her because of it.
  • Used without anything edible in Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo, involving a giant toilet. Whoever falls in, they swell up, and at one point, Jelly Jiggler (who fell into the toilet with Gasser) blows up into pieces. He got better.
    • Don't forget Suzu, who once ate an entire coelacanth fish as part of a gag; in the anime she looks heavily pregnant, while in the manga her stomach bloats to at least five feet in diameter and forces her onto her back.
  • Naruto has Choji, whose fighting style is somewhat based around this.
    • Happens to Naruto himself a couple of times, and to Naruto, Kiba, Shino, and Sai during the Shippuden episode 95 omake.
  • Happened to Negi in chapter 56. Makie had prepared food for him knowing he was training for Evangeline's Apprenticeship Test. And overdid it. Then she brought out the "secret" diet technique of the gymnastics club, which went too far the other way.
  • In Episode 13 of Urusei Yatsura, Ataru, the main character, and two minor characters, Cherry (an old man) and Sakura (his niece, a very shapely and attractive woman) participate in a beach restaurant's eating contest. Ataru and Cherry quickly get "Balloon Belly" and give up, but Sakura literally eats the restaurant out of business, even after consuming diet pills. And she's still hungry afterward, yet she somehow manages to stay looking completely normal. The reason why she's capable of this is never explained for comedic purposes.
    • The ending of that story was changed from the manga. In the manga version, everything's almost the same... but then she lies down on an inflatable pool float... which instantly sinks, dumping her in. In other words, while the food doesn't affect her body shape, she still gets heavier.
    • There was another Urusei Yatsura story where Ataru eats alien food on a spaceship. His friends tell him it may turn him into an alien, which he scoffs at. It doesn't... but it does make him instantly get such a big belly that he can't get out.
    • Also in Episode 23 (possibly the same as the above) where Ataru, Lum, Shinobu and Mendou all dine on tins of alien food after getting stuck in a spaceship. It doesn't affect Lum, but the three humans all end up with Balloon Bellies, with Shinobu suggesting the food has expanded inside their stomachs and Lum noting that it mustn't be suited for human constitutions.
  • Happens often to Luffy in One Piece, being both a Big Eater and a Rubber Man allows him to literally become spherical after a particularly large meal (Curiously, it is sometimes averted, logic be damned). Also, once in the anime, Usopp also ate so much that he rivaled Luffy in size.
    • Also done by Kumadori, when Chopper temporarily takes him out of the fight by locking him in a fridge. He consumes all the food in it and comes out very fat. Then he uses a special technique to immediately absorb all his fat and get skinny again.
    • Lily from the Z's Ambition Arc (anime only) was depicted this way in one scene, although she was just daydreaming.
  • Usually averted in Dragon Ball despite the ludicrous amount of food consumed by the Saiyans; but once, early in the series, Goku ate all the food in Master Roshi's fridge and his stomach became visibly bulged.
    • Happened to him again during the first tournament arc: he ate a ton of food, and his belly bulged a bit, to the point where his shirt couldn't completely cover it and his belt/sash was off.
    • Yajirobe suffered from a severe case of balloon belly when he ate a handful of senzu beans. They're meant to keep a person full for ten days.
    • Krillin also does this with his Tenkaichi Boudokai fight with Goku by sucking in a lot of air to make himself float.
  • In one chapter of Futaba Kun Change, two characters swell up like balloons after eating a lunch made by Misaki. Her Sweet Tooth somehow crammed tens of thousands of calories into that one tiny box. Later, another character has his face expand into a beachball after one bite.
  • Gundam SEED Character Theater has this happen to Yzak Joule, played entirely for laughs.
  • In Hell Teacher Nube, Miki once came across the wish-granting Kesaran Pasaran, and she (unknowingly) called up the "good luck" to run into a restaurant with a huge surplus. She walked away about four to five times her ordinary size, but recovered by the scene change.
    • In a more serious instance, Kyoko was possessed by the spirit of a hungry child, which caused a ravenous mouth to appear on her nape. Insatiable, it ate everything in sight, and when food ran out, it started going for other things until Nube exorcised it. Unfortunately for Kyoko, she gained as much mass as Miki did in the comedic example, only she had to work it off (with Hiroshi as drill instructor.)
    • In another chapter, Kyoko and Miki are possessed and they eat huge rice bowls getting big bellies at lunchtime.
  • Many characters in Pokémon. In particular, Ash's stomach often rounds out after a big meal in later seasons.
    • May's Munchlax tends to swell up every time it eats a special Pokéblock.
    • Team Rocket had huge bellies in the episode after the Summer School arc, which was a part of their Villainous BSOD.
    • Jessie looked like she was pregnant after she, James and Meowth stole a bunch of food and Dawn's Cyndaquil egg in the Johto Festival episode.
  • The titular character of Potemayo during her regular eating binges.
  • Hanaukyo Maid Tai episode 10. Happens to Taro after he's stuffed with food during breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  • Stocking receives this treatment in "The Diet Syndrome", and even saying it like that is an understatement.
    • Unlike most examples, her initial Balloon Belly was caused by a lack of eating.
    • Both girls in "Nothing to Room", where their stomachs bloat up to colossal proportions after stuffing their faces on a bunch of fast food.
  • In episode 11 of Kidou Shinsengumi Moeyo Ken, I'm only saying it thrice, but it happens to everybody in Kyoto (spare at least five people) who is hit with a nikuman with cursed medicine that blows people up if directly contacted. Not even a bite. Just a poke, or a simple thunk on the head or wherever on the body.
  • In the extra episode for Angel Beats!, after the SSS is ordered to spend the entire day in "high-tension" mode, Fujimaki and Ooyama decide to go for high tension eating.
  • During the ending credits of each episode of Inukami!, Tayune can be seen sporting a bloated belly as a result of gorging herself on candy.
  • Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann gets one of these after gorging himself in the Hot Springs Episode.
  • Princess Chiyo ends up with a pregnant-looking gut in one chapter of Uratarou after eating a ton of food. In an amusing interaction, the titular hero dismissively calls her a fatty, only for her to reply with "Feels good being fat..."
  • This happens a lot to Kagura in Gintama. Whether it's her devouring an entire monster's worth of meat, eating herself huge and being forced to work all the weight off at a makeshift bootcamp, or nearly killing herself from embarrassment when she's mistaken for pregnant after a huge binge, Kaguya's often-stuffed belly is definitely a Running Gag for the character.
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