Snap to the Side

"I ONLY LOOK AT PEOPLE THROUGH THE SIDE."

—Chip Cheezum, Xin, Session #7

Very prevalent in Anime, whenever a person's opponent gets behind them, instead of turning around, their eyes will snap sideways. As anyone with any common sense will tell you, it doesn't work. However, it just looks so much cooler this way.

This is often accompanied by a close up of the persons face, or even the outside eye. There is also a calmer version used to demonstrate the fact that the observant character is well aware that the spy or stowaway is there. Yet another variation is used when the character is talking to someone with his/her back turned to them. If this happens, pay attention to what was just said, because it's probably important. Not that you can tell from behind.

This trope is almost never played for comedy. If it's the Aside Glance, then it's not this. Compare Look Behind You!.

Examples of Snap to the Side include:

Anime

Naruto is fairly fond of this.
- It happens multiple times in Gaaras fight with Rock Lee, after Lee removes his training weights.
Bleach uses this fairly often as well, often during a CMOA.
- Justified, considering all the Teleport Spam that goes on in that show.
- If a fight scene with Ichigo goes by without one of these, then something is seriously wrong.
  - Well, either that, or Ichigo is in for a Curb Stomp Battle.
Raditz does this when Idiot Hero Goku manages to grab his tail.
- Hell, Dragonball Z lives off of this trope.
  - Not so much "lives off of", but same as Bleach, it's use is fairly common because of the Teleport Spam.
  - Any show with lots of teleport spamming is pretty much guaranteed to have this.
- Gohan does this when Videl starts following him.

Video Games

On the cover of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, there is a pair of Hunters sneaking up on Gordon and Alyx. They seem to be aware of their presence, but are looking to the side instead of behind them.
- Alyx's head is slightly turned towards the Hunters, so it's possible that she can just barely make out the closest one peripherally. No such luck for Gordon, though. If anything, his head is turned slightly away, and his eyes aren't even nearly as far to the side as they could be; so it really just seems like he's looking at someone who's in front of him and 45 degrees to his left.
In Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne; The Demifiend does this when He fights Dante in the Labyrinth of Amala