Harsh Word Impact

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I think she gets the point


This is mainly a Manga trope, though it's also used in anime. Someone says something, and the object of the statement is stabbed by an arrow emerging from the speech bubble or legend, because it's almost always an uncomfortable truth or Brutal Honesty. Quite often the person is knocked off their feet. Usage:

Aerith: (to Bob) "You're clumsy ("Clumsy" appears—stab), stupid ("Stupid"—stab) and you won't ever have a chance with me!" ("No chance" appears—pierces Bob right through his chest)

They don't have to be arrows. Sometimes heavy rocks, bricks, washbasins, even energy beams with the meaningful words on them are substituted for speech bubbles—anything that'll leave a physical impact on the object of the statement in a Medium Awareness way.

Usually delivered by a Metafictional Device. If the speaker is actually hitting the victim in sync with each word, that's Punctuated Pounding, not this trope. Compare Words Can Break My Bones, where the words have some literal magic power behind them.

Examples of Harsh Word Impact include:


Anime And Manga

  • D.Gray-man features this with a sidearc-relevant character admits his mistakes and asks to redeem himself by taking care of the boy he wronged. Cue a collective “No Way!" from the rest of the present cast and some multi-piercing.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima uses this when Chisame, pleading for the existence of at least a couple of Ordinary High School Students left in the class, is bluntly told that Yuuna's father and Missing Mom are mages.
    • In Negima Second Season, Makie gets hit in the head by huge characters for 'Crushed' every time Ayaka yells at her (which is a lot).
  • Keitaro of Love Hina, when Su asks if it's true he can't get a girlfriend, gets stabbed by Su's speech balloon.
    • Strangely, in the French translation, the sound effect makes it sound like he's slapped by the balloon. Though to be fair, we don't have a sound/unsound effect for stabbing.
  • As seen above when Miya-Miya makes a convincing argument for Satori joining the kendo club—ignore her horrible grades and get into college by kendo scholarship.
  • Happens a lot in Perfect Girl Evolution. Sunako, in particular, has a tendency to reel back whenever the word 'ugly' gets bandied about. In one particular episode, when this is combined with guilt, she ends up walking around with a lot of 'arrows' stuck in her... until Takenaga delivers a particularly pointed barb that demonstrates that her thoughtlessness was very similar to the same comment that, years back, crushed her self-confidence and turned her into a withdrawn, horror-obsessed loner... at which point a giant arrow descends from space, obliterating the entire mansion. REALLY painful realization, apparently.
  • In Ah! My Goddess, Skuld is able to do this literally once her magic develops.
  • In Ouran High School Host Club this happens to Tamaki when he first meets Renge and she calls him "stupid, narcissist, incompetent, commoner, [and] disgusting".
    • In another episode, he gets hit with a speech bubble when Haruhi cracks open a crab leg.
    • This also happens to Tamaki in the first episode of the live-action adaptation, when Haruhi calls him "annoying".
  • The word "virgin" does this to Hideki in Chobits.
  • This happened to Natsuru in the manga version of Kämpfer.
  • In the manga version of Vidia and the Fairy Crown, Vidia shouts directly in the ear of another character, causing the (jagged) speech balloon to go straight through his ear canals and come out the other side.
  • Takamizawa gets this treatment in Midori Days, when Seiji says he doesn't remember him.
  • The "speech balloon piercing the ears" variant has also happened in Case Closed when Ayumi uses her Detective Boys badge to transfer a Motive Rant over the phone.
  • Sasuke telling Sakura "You're as bad as Naruto." At which point a huge rock labelled "AS BAD AS NARUTO" crushes her head. ...then Sasuke realizes -and tells her- that she's actually worse. At which point a massive rock lands on top of the other.
  • Someone got stabbed by a speech bubble in the Disgaea manga.
  • Happens to Sailor Moon quite a bit, especially in the anime when Rei gets uppity.
  • In Hidamari Sketch When Sae is talking to Yuno about wanting to pursue both literature and art in college, but worrying that this would make her work at either mediocre, Yuno bluntly sums it up with the saying "Going after two hares and catching neither." In the same panel, a gun appears by her and shoots Sae in the head.
    • In another strip, Yuno is bummed out about how badly she did at the all-school competition, and wonders if she would have done better if she hadn't been tired and nervous. So when Sae (arguing with her editor) suddenly yells "Of course not!" the speech balloon stabs her right in the heart.
    • Many of these gags make it into the anime adaptation, replacing the stabbing speech bubbles with arrows (the symbol, not the projectile shot from a bow) peppering the character's body.
  • Done a few times in Keroro Gunsou, such as an early chapter where Tamama wonders why the Keron invasion was suddenly canceled, and Keroro looks awkward as a caption reading "His Fault" appears, with a pointing arrow poking him in the back of the head.
  • Happens in the manga version of Yu Yu Hakusho, when Botan informs Yusuke that the boy he died saving from a car accident would have been miraculously unharmed if Yusuke hadn't intervened. Yusuke is hit by falling kana as Botan remarks on how pointless his death was, and how stupid he must feel.
  • At around Episode 4 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni, the battles of red truth and blue truth become this Played for Drama. So we have Beatrice stabbed by giant blue spikes when she can't counter Battler's theories, Dlanor and her red and blue swords, a giant red sword falling from the sky and piercing Battler, who eventually picks himself up, pulls out the sword and turns it gold, and so on...
  • Variation in Ranma ½. When a scheming guest leaves Soun with a ton of bills to pay, whenever a new debt is mentioned it manifests in the form of an arrow striking him in the back. Eventually, Soun has over a dozen arrows in his back, leaving him paralyzed and twitching on the floor.
  • Used in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, usually on Kenichi.
  • In Kung Fu Chaos, Shao Ting's special move is to scream criticisms down his megaphone as people, which turns the words into a massive laser beam.
  • Tina in Ai Yori Aoshi was feeling upset about her weight, and Mayu began taunting her, arrows darting down to skewer poor Tina. And then Taeko commented innocently, "Really? When I eat, only my breasts get bigger." Ow.
  • A comedic Code Geass manga has Lelouch react this way whenever people talk about his lack of physical fitness. Rakshata's out-and-out insulting and Tohdoh's attempt to be polite both affect him like a punch to the face, while Suzaku's unintentionally Brutal Honesty results in actual arrows striking him in the chest and knocking him down.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has this happen when Riza saves Roy from getting killed by Scar when his ignition gloves fail to work because of the rain. After she reminds him that he's useless in the rain, he's promptly struck over the head by the word 'useless'.
  • Ladies versus Butlers! has Sernia do this twice to Akiharu in the second episode. One abridged series lampshades (duh) this by having him respond with: "Quit throwing your damn Japanese symbols at me!"
  • Silver Spoon's Hachiken becomes Vice-President of the Equestrian Club. Later, they adopt a dog... and name it Vice-President. When the girl Hachiken likes scolded the dog, he reacted like her words were physical blows. With blood splatter and, eventually, explosions.
  • Sanji is stabbed by something Nami said in volume 85 of One Piece.

Comic Books

  • Empowered is kidnapped (again) by a random schmuck so he can wear her super suit; he kicks a wall to try it out only to break his leg, because it only works for Emp. For bonus points he wets himself in the suit, so she has to wear his t-shirt. When she calls the ambulance, the paramedic asks if she'd like to ride in the back because, "He's your boyfriend, isn't he?" Cue arrow - SHONKK.
  • Happens in volume 2 of Scott Pilgrim. When Knives admits she's in love with Scott (who is trying to break up with her), the world "love" forms a cloud that smacks Scott in the face.

Live Action TV

Newspaper Comics

  • Western example: When Jeremy from Zits accidentally says something callous to his girlfriend, the word bubble hovers between them until he's apologized sufficiently.


Video Games


Web Animation


Web Comics


Western Animation

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