Post-Kiss Catatonia

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Allergic to Love to the extreme. You think True Love's Kiss is impressive? Hah, all that kiss can do is wake someone up. The most powerful kiss does the opposite: sending a person into a stiff, rigid, frozen state of shock, unable to move, talk, comprehend their surroundings, or remember their own name. Kiss-induced shock is severe enough that a Colony Drop cannot snap them out of it. The condition can last anywhere from 24 seconds to 24 hours after the kiss, during which time they can expect to see lots of imaginary fireworks. An Accidental Kiss or First Kiss will exacerbate the symptoms.

This affliction overwhelmingly favors males.

Not to be confused with Kiss of Death.

Examples of Post-Kiss Catatonia include:

Anime and Manga

  • Peach Girl: When Kairi kisses Momo in the first episode, she reacts by going stiff and staring straight ahead in utter shock. Kairi thinks this means she liked it and tries to kiss her again but just receives a Groin Attack from Momo for his attempt.
  • In Sonic X, episode 45, Rouge defeats Tails in the face-off using this as her secret weapon. Serious contender for Crowning Moment of Funny. I didn't know the bat was a cougar.
    • Which is probably referencing a scene in Sonic Battle where if you lose a fight with Rouge, she kisses you.

Tails: Wh-wha?
Rouge: Aww. You're blushing.

  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji found his and Asuka's First Kiss absolutely... breathtaking. But that was because she held his nose. His breath "tickled". He turns several interesting colors and stands stunned for a good half minute after she disengages, long enough for Asuka to conclude kissing is a bad way to kill time.
    • Or that Shinji doesn't like her, depending on how you read the subtext. Point is, with this as with all other tropes, Evangelion subverts it horribly.
    • Shinji likes Asuka. He even nearly kisses Asuka while she's sleeping the night before the fight with Israfel. Asuka was just suffocating the hell out of Shinji by pinching his nose! During Asuka's Mind Rape it's revealed that the kiss meant a lot to her and she was angry he didn't embrace her during their kiss.
  • When Kurokawa spontaneously kisses Tomoe in Hinako Takanaga's Challengers, the latter is so stunned that he faints, mainly because he and Kurokawa are both men.
  • Sana almost has an Heroic BSOD in Kodomo no Omocha, when Hayama steals her first kiss.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima! uses this for Negi's second kiss with Nodoka, and it lasts at least until he meets up with everyone else again. He does this in several of the other Pactios as well. You'd think the shock would wear out after a little while.
    • Then he induces it on Chachamaru in chapter 263, but that was extreme kissing.
    • There's also Asuna after the Kissing Terminator Incident.
    • It happens to Negi in chapter 340 when Ayaka kisses Negi with so much force, that not only does it leave Negi twitching on the floor, but almost reverses the Pactio!
  • Kakeru goes into this state in Onegai My Melody after he saves Uta from being kissed by Dar-chan—who possesses the Hiiragi brothers—twice; he pushes Uta away and takes the kiss in her place.
  • In Hatsukoi Limited this happens to Megane-kun (can't remember his actual name at the moment) when Dobahshi makes the first move. In his defense, he had just worked up the courage to ask her to hold hands.
  • Nagisa faints just from getting a kiss on the forehead from Shizuma in the first episode of Strawberry Panic.
  • It's perfectly understandable that D.Gray-man's Allen would react like this when Road kissed him; last time they met she stabbed him in the eye.
  • When we first see Urd on Earth in Ah! My Goddess, she's pretending to be the clerk at a drugstore (with a Naughty Nurse outfit on) when Keiichi comes in to buy cold medicine for Belldandy. When the camera angle changes, we see the real clerk on the floor, KOed, with a big grin on his face and a Lipstick Mark on his cheek.
  • Sunako Nakahara of The Wallflower went into severe catatonia after her kiss with Kyouhei, and often doesn't even need another kiss to go into it again, now. All one has to do is mention something that sounds like the word "kiss" to send her into a rampage or a relapse of catatonia.
  • When Ryo Saeba of City Hunter plants a kiss on the forehead of his true love and assistant Kaori during the second series finale, the only reaction that Kaori can muster is for her to blush, with her skin literally becoming RED HOT under the rain to cause steam to literally rise from her skin. Kaori is later bedridden with a nasty cold as a result but when she recalls that "moment", her skin yet again becomes RED HOT with a fever of 107.6.
  • In chapter 75 of the Hajimete no Aku manga, Jiro is seemingly unaffected by Kyoko accidentally kissing him on the cheek. When Kyoko turns to him to demand he tell their teasing friends the kiss was accidental, he is still in the same position. Then, his legs give out.

"AAAH!!! SHE BROKE AKUNO!!"

  • Shichika from Katanagatari not only passes out after Togame kisses him, but also forgets everything he's ever learned about swordplay. Although, this was Togame's intention. He reverts to the same dazed state later when she offers to make him forget again.
  • A rare dramatic occurrence happens with Ryo of FAKE, after the second time Dee kisses him (not counting the Fake-Out Make-Out). This is because Dee was unexpectedly intense, telling Ryo to "Never dismiss [him] again" after Ryo treated the first kiss as a joke and Ryo was taken off guard that Dee was "such a good kisser".
  • In episode 7 of Princess Princess Yuujirou kisses Tooru to drive Sayaka away and after the kiss Tooru is shown to stare ahead with a shocked look on his face.
  • In The Familiar of Zero Queen Henrietta offers Saito her hand to kiss, but Saito misunderstands what is meant by "kiss" and instead sweeps the queen off her feet in a deep embrace and kiss that leaves her stunned.
  • Subverted in one of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels. Nakagawa thinks he has this reaction to seeing Yuki, but it turns out to be latent esper powers causing him to see some part of the Integrated Data Sentient Entity, resulting in him freezing for several hours from information overload.

Comic Books

Fan Works

Films -- Animation

  • WALL-E seems to go through one of these when EVE first kisses him. Of course, her "kiss" is a shock of static electricity...
  • Mickey goes through one of these after he's kissed by Minnie on Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.
    • Generally, Disney has a few instances of these in their older cartoons.
  • Stanley, the title character of A Troll in Central Park, overdoes it in response to a toddler kissing his nose.
  • A hilarious moment in Toy Story 3 when Spanish Buzz kisses Woody twice on the cheeks.
  • A hug-instead-of-kiss variation for Kung Fu Panda 2, when Po hugs Tigress.
  • Hiccup momentarily freezes in How to Train Your Dragon after Astrid's "Shut Up" Kiss.
  • Rango plays with this trope. One of the characters, Beans, has a "condition" that causes her to go catatonic (and amnesic) for a moment whenever she gets angry or scared. At one point, she goes catatonic, and then Rango kisses her on the cheek and quickly leaves, but she comes out of it smoothly and has full memory of what happened, showing that she was faking it.
  • Rio After Jewel plants one on Blu, he completely blisses out for a few moments, his body going on autopilot.

Films -- Live Action

Stef: (Andy has accidentally kissed Mikey) OK, you kissed. Now tell.
Andy: There's something weird.
Stef: What? What is it?
Andy: Does Brand wear braces?
Andy: (Stef bursts into laughter) Why are you laughing? Stef, it was beautiful.
Stef: Next time you kiss him, do it with your eyes open. It's a whole different experience.

  • From In and Out, Peter unexpectedly kissing Howard. Peter even holds his arms for a bit afterward, like he's making sure Howard won't fall over.
  • In Hitch, after Albert and Allegra kiss for the first time, Albert gets this huge grin on his face kind of wanders down the street.
  • Meet Me in St. Louis has a rare female example. After John kisses Esther, she says something stupid and wanders back to her house in a daze with an idiotic grin on her face. When her mother says, "Your ice cream is getting cold," Esther dreamily responds, "Isn't it?" Then when her mother asks if there's something wrong with her, Esther thoughtlessly replies, "Yes, Mama," and then goes to say something, but stops. It takes her two youngest sisters mocking her to snap her out of it.
  • In My Girl 2, the title character shares her first kiss with her uncle's stepson just before she goes home from her visit. Afterward, the boy walks through the airport looking completely blissed out and dazed.
  • In How to Steal a Million, Simon kisses Nicole after she said sarcastically that it'd be the next thing he asked for. (He'd just asked her to wipe away the fingerprints he left while burglarizing her father's house.) She returns home in a daze and cleans up the prints as requested, not noticing her dad's curiosity.

Literature

  • Harry Potter suffers pre-Kiss Catatonia in The Order of the Phoenix, getting scared stiff when Cho comes at him under the mistletoe (he's pretty stunned afterwards, but not so badly that he can't move).
    • This takes on a much more sinister slant with how a person reacts after getting the Dementor's Kiss. Their soul is sucked out forever, leaving them an empty shell.
    • In Order Of The Pheonix Hermione exploits this trope by giving Ron a kiss for good luck before his first quidditch match so he'll be too dazed for a while and won't notice the "Weasley is our king" badges the Slytherins are wearing to psyche him out.
    • In Deathly Hallows, Ron is described as being a bit starry-eyed after he and Hermione have a serious kiss.
  • Piers Anthony has featured some examples of this in some of his series, as a side-effect of the general freak-out effect that exists in some of the worlds he creates.
  • In the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series, Annabeth gives Percy a kiss as he goes off on a presumably suicidal mission. He sits there in a daze for a while until he hears approaching doom.
  • The only account in Arthuriana of a woman donning armor has her pretending to be an attacking knight in order to startle her suitor out of his rapturous contemplation of her beauty.

Live-Action TV

  • In the Doctor Who episode "Smith and Jones", Martha is stunned when The Doctor gives her a kiss—but purely so he can leave some of his DNA on her lips to fool a baddie.
    • The Tenth Doctor himself tends to go glassy-eyed for a few seconds when he's unexpectedly kissed—see "New Earth" and "The Girl in the Fireplace."
  • Louie suffers a version of this in an episode of the sitcom Taxi, guest-starring Danny Devito's real-life wife Rhea Perlman.
  • Done in small in an episode of The Nanny after Fran and Maxwell reenact a scene from Romeo & Juliet. Stunned, Fran stumbles all the way back down the stairs due to weak knees.
  • In a episode of Cheers, Rebecca, in a the-hell-with-it moment (she had no genuine intentions), passionately kissed Cliff Clavin right on the lips. Cliff stood in the bar all night in a catatonic daze, muttering "Thank You" over and over...
  • The Piemaker of Pushing Daisies is particularly prone to this. Not only does he freeze up when his girlfriend, whom he can't touch, manages to plant one on him, but his brain turns off at the mere mention:

Ned: You can't touch me.
Chuck: So a kiss is out of the question?
Ned: (long pause) ... I've lost my train of thought.

  • iCarly: Freddie did this twice in iSaved Your Life, when Carly finally kissed Freddie on his bed, the show abruptly cuts into a commercial break. When the scene resumes, Freddie became stiff and wide-eyed as he and Carly continue kissing throughout the half-hour absence of his mother. In the extended version, Freddie was dumbfounded and even tased himself to prove that Carly had really kissed him.
  • Chuck goes through this when Sarah unexpectedly pins him on the floor and kisses him in "Chuck Versus the Truth". (It was all for the cover!)
  • This happens in one episode of The Practice between characters Helen Gamble (played by Lara Flynn Boyle) and Richard Bay(played by Jason Kravits) which recived the kiss from her.
  • Lois and Clark: Happened to Lois after her first real kiss with Clark. So much so, that it took a frickin' car bomb to snap her out of it.
  • Not exactly romantic: Whose Line Is It Anyway? had Mike McShane plant a big wet one on Brad Sherwood. It probably would've lasted longer had Brad not been buzzed out.

Video Games

Web Comics

Bunni: You've got the 'hero reflex' down pat.
Bunni: The 'gracious acceptance of a maiden's kiss' reflex needs work, though.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • Kim Possible: Ron falls into one of these when Kim first kisses him under the influence of the Moodulator.
  • Code Lyoko: To wrap up the episode "XANA's Kiss,"[1] Aelita gets this reaction when she kisses Jérémie. The others walk off while he's still frozen, since they realize "He'll need some time to get over that one."
  • It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown has the title character finally getting a shot at kissing The Little Red Haired Girl at the school Homecoming Dance. The kiss puts him into a hallucination-filled euphoria which ends with him waking up the next day, with no memory of what happened after the kiss. Linus informs him that, during his blackout, he was the life of the party, amazing everyone with his dancing skills. Charlie Brown is both disturbed by his "split personality" moment, and annoyed by the fact that he doesn't remember what was probably the greatest night of his life.
  • It takes Katara a while to realize her "Shut Up" Kiss has ended on Avatar: The Last Airbender. She then spends several moments gazing after Aang, blushing madly, and has to be reminded they're in the middle of an invasion.
  • And, in a scene that seems to be directly inspired by that one, in The Spectacular Spider-Man Peter stares after Gwen after she kisses him and runs off. After a moment he composes himself enough to whisper "Wow..."
  • Darkwing Duck is so out of it after Morgana kisses him, he drives his motorcycle into a lamppost.
  • In the Phineas and Ferb Christmas special, Baljeet induced this on a female friend named Wendy after he kissed under the mistletoe. This solidified his role as the show's resident Kidanova, despite also being the resident Butt Monkey.
  • Subverted on Sonic Sat AM series. In one episode, it looks like Sonic has fallen to this after being kissed by Sally, but he gets back up and says he was just kidding, and that the kiss wasn't that great. Yeah, Sonic's kind of a dick.
    • He then "shows her what a real kiss is."
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: Happens at the end of "My Dinner With Elmyra". After Elmyra plants a big one on Montana Max, he was left shocked and then went to his limo, saying to himself:

Montana Max: I think I'm in love.

  • One episode of Codename: Kids Next Door had Hoagie turned into a teenager through mad science. Teen enemy Cree falls for him and after she kisses him, all he can say is "N-i-i-i-ice," even while his team mates are being attacked.
  • Sheldon on My Life as a Teenage Robot plays this trope exceptionally well in the Christmas episode, especially since it wasn't even on the mouth, it was just a peck on the cheek. He is frozen in position then slowly and rigidly tumbles down the stairs.
  • Happens to Spike in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic when kissed on the cheek by Rarity.
  • Kris has a version of this after receiving a kiss on the cheek from future wife Jessica in Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. He doesn't go exactly catatonic, but his eyes roll around in his head and he speaks like an idiot for a minute.
  1. XANA, a sentient evil Artificial Intelligence, tries to break up the True Companions by sending a Voluntary Shapeshifting Hard Light "specter" to pose as various member and kiss people in plain sight of their Love Interest