Comical Angry Face

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You see it all the time in anime or manga: During a comical scene, a character may express anger in a way that's meant to incite laughter from the audience.

In such cases, you can expect the character to have enlarged, distorted and oftentimes pupil-less eyes; fangs or otherwise distorted teeth in their mouth; and No Indoor Voice - angry waving of hands or over-the-top violence are optional descriptors. Usually invoked when another character says or does something extremely stupid.

Of course, when anger is displayed in more dramatic scenes, a person's anger will be portrayed (and drawn by the artist) in a much more realistic manner.

Obviously, an Anime Trope and one of the Anger Tropes. Also possible to pull off in live-action works, but also more difficult since the physical distortions aren't as readily evident as in works of animation.

May overlap with Demon Head, where the angry character's entire head expands to large size. Often accompanied by Cross-Popping Veins.

When listing examples, state which characters are most prone to this convention; if it's plot-relevant, note it as such. Western animated works which are inspired by Japanese animation conventions may also be included.

Examples of Comical Angry Face include:

Anime and Manga

  • Happens frequently in One Piece, with even usually-serious characters like Roronoa Zoro not being immune. Among the Straw Hat crew, Nami, Sanji and Usopp are the three who most usually get this treatment in response to some outrageous or idiotic act committed by the others (though they themselves are often not much better). In fact, Nico Robin is the only crew member who doesn't show a Comical Angry Face at any time (she makes up for it by being a Comically Serious Deadpan Snarker, however).
    • Brook, the newest Straw Hat member, hasn't been shown with a Comical Angry Face as yet, either (to the best of this troper's recollection).
  • Kaoru Kamiya, Yahiko Myoujin, Sanosuke Sagara, and Misao Makimachi in Rurouni Kenshin frequently have moments of this among the main characters. This usually accompanies physical violence against the titular character, which is always played for laughs.
    • Interestingly, a flashback during the Kyoto arc shows that when he was still training under Seijuro Hiko, Kenshin himself had bouts of this during the argument that led to him leaving Hiko's tutelage.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Frequently happens among Kenichi's friends, most usually directed toward Nijima. Even Tanimoto isn't immune to expressions like this.
    • Miu oftentimes has this expression toward the Ryozanpaku masters when they do something idiotic. An example is shown here.
  • Rosette Christopher of Chrono Crusade, being a Tsundere, often has this combined with physical violence toward Chrono. Made even funnier by the fact that he's got incredible power at his disposal.
  • Beauty does this often, as in every five seconds in Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo in response to all the Comedic Sociopathy going on.
  • Narusegawa Naru in Love Hina is that series' most frequent offender, accompanying her usual Tsundere tendencies. Poor Keitaro just can't catch a break around her (though it doesn't help that he's an Accidental Pervert).
  • Kuwabara in Yu Yu Hakusho has this expression a lot, often in response to Yusuke or Hiei provoking him (exacerbated by him being ugly). Keiko also has expressions like this, though not nearly so often and usually directed only at Yusuke.
  • Happens a lot in the Tenchi Muyo! series, usually from Ryoko and Ayeka whenever they have their spats.
  • In Bleach, the most frequent users of this trope are Kon, whenever he's inside his lion plushie form and is upset at some circumstance that makes him into a Butt Monkey, or Ichigo and Rukia when they're annoying each other.
  • Any Tsundere-type character in Naruto will have this expression when their being upset is played for comedy. Sakura is one of the most readily-available examples; in her case, it's usually directed toward Naruto when he's done something particularly dumb or annoying.

Film - Animated

  • Toy Story 2: Immediately before leaping into a fight, Mr. Potato Head attempts to switch his normal eyes with his "angry eyes". Instead, he accidentally pops his extra shoes into his eye sockets.

Film - Live Action

  • In the Full Metal Jacket scene in which the Drill Sargent Nasty famously berates the main characters, Private Joker is asked to show his "war face". Said war face consists of the character comically screaming, looking more scared than angry.

Newspaper Comics

  • In recent Garfield strips since the 1990s, this is what a character (especially Jon) would often get when he gets really angry.

Real Life

  • Alabama college student Jack Blankenship became an overnight sensation by sitting behind the backboard at NCAA playoff games, and waving around an oversized cutout of his own hilariously scowling face in order to distract his team's opponents during free throw attempts.

Western Animation

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