Harsh Word Impact: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

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:

 

 

 

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.

 

* ''[[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.

** 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.

* 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was very similar to the same comment that, years back, crushed her self-confidence and turned her into a withdrawn, horror-obsessed loner...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.

* 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 {{spoiler|Battler}}, who eventually picks himself up, pulls out the sword and turns it {{spoiler|gold}}, and so on...

* 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.

* ''[[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.

 

== Comic Books ==

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Psychonauts]]'', a [[Caustic Critic]] harms you with negative reviews, which appear as inkblots with stock negative phrases in them.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}