The Nose Knows: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A common superpower, especially among characters with [[Animal Stereotypes|animal themes]]: super-powerful [[Super Senses|smell abilities]].

** Him and his clan are really only the most outstanding example, as both the Third Hokage and Kakashi have shown to have rather acute sense of smell, the latter of which became critical to finding Akatsuki member Sasori.

* In what can only be described an... odd variation, [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] has Chamo and Jack Rakan locating an enemy in an enormous barrier dimension... by tracing the scent of [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v25/c226/11.html her] [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v25/c226/16.html panties] which Rakan [[Panty Thief|stole]] earlier. With alarming precision.

** Mai's ability to identify 60 or so cards apart by different perfumes is pretty impressive itself.

*** [[Truth in Television]] - Veteran perfume-makers are often cabable of recognizing hundreds of different scents.

* Inoue Orihime from Bleach can figure out where Ichigo is because she can find him by scent.

* [[Inuyasha]] makes use of this, occasionally having him track enemies by scent and be able to tell that there's trouble in a nearby village because he can smell human blood. [[Fridge Logic]] sets in when it cuts to a pillar of smoke and you wonder why he didn't smell ''that'' first. This is used as a [[Weaksauce Weakness]] almost as often as a strength, as strong odors knock Inuyasha out. Pity serious villains never take advantage of it.

*** They also use this to fight Gluttony and Pride when the lights need to be turned out to make it easier to fight Pride.

* Sapphire in ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' as part of her [[Wild Child]] nature. She is, for example, able to detect the location of a trapped Pokémon and long-forgotten hidden entrances by smell alone. She can also figure out the health of a Pokémon based on the smell of their excrement, something Ruby teases her about in the Emerald Arc since her tendency to do this leaves a bit of fecal matter on her nose.

** It also caused poor Goku to collapse on the floor when he met [[The Pig Pen|Bacterian]], since the stench was so horrible that Goku's very sensitive nose couldn't stand it.

* In one episode of ''[[Sasami Magical Girls Club]]'', Sasami and the others are lost in an underground labyrinth, until Amitav arrives. He tells Sasami that he recognized her scent, causing the other girls to wonder if he has a really good sense of smell or if Sasami just stinks.

* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', the Dragon Slayers Gajeel Redfox, Natsu Dragneel, and Wendy Marvell all have a very good sense of smell due to being raised by dragons. [[Gonk|Ichiya]] has a good sense of smell as well, probably because of his perfume magic, but his extends all the way to being able to [[Detect Evil]] by scent alone.

* Tsujido, Suitengu's [[The Dragon|right hand man]] from [[Speed Grapher]] has a super sense of smell as his euphoric power.

* It's been stated that [[Toriko]] has a nose better than a bloodhound's.

 

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Crocodile Dundee]]'', he can smell aftershave when no one else can, and changes his plan accordingly.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Childcatcher]] of ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'', whose powerful nose lets him enforce the [[Child-Hater]] regime of Vulgaria.

 

== Literature ==

* In William King's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[Space Wolf]]'' novels, Ragnar relies heavily on his sense of smell to judge things, to track, and to determine how people feel.

** In Lee Lightner's ''Wolf's Honour'', at the end, {{spoiler|Berek}} smells {{spoiler|Ragnor}} and tells his men not to ready their weapons.

* The heroes of Robert Lynn Asprin's fantasy novel ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth-ing Persons]]'' bring in a werewolf tracker to help them find the fugitives they are chasing.

* In E.W. Hildick's ''McGurk'' juvenile mystery series, Willy the Nose is one of the [[Kid Detective|kid detectives]], with a super-sensitive sense of smell that his leader puts great store by. The narrator is a little dubious about this, but it does seem to come in handy more times than not.

* [[Evie Scelan]]'s main ability is to track anything, mundane or magical, by scent.

* The main character of Salman Rushdie's ''Midnight's Children'' has the ability to smell things no one else can smell, such as lies or oncoming disaster.

** Lance Constable Sally has a similar ability, but she senses blood, and it is in some cases more useful than Angua's nose, which irks her.

** Unfortunately for them, once the criminals realised there was a werewolf in the watch (although they don't know who, exactly, it is) they started carrying around scent bombs to muddle their trail.

* This takes two different forms in [[The Wheel of Time]] series. Wolfbrothers are characters with an unnatural affinity for wolves. Among several other abilities, their sense of smell is enhanced so much that they can tell the emotional state of people around them even without any visual cues. They can even detect such things as deception and madness, which is immensely handy. [[First Episode Spoiler|Perrin is one]]. In case you're wondering, such an ability is biologically impossible, but since this trait is believed to be [[A Wizard Did It|caused by magic]], that's all right. Also, there are "sniffers", a kind of people with an inborn ability to [[Violence Detector|sense violence as a smell on people or places]]. Sniffers are rare and maybe even nonexistent south of the Borderlands, but still more common - or at least, more socially accepted - than Wolfbrothers.

* In the ''[[Women of the Otherworld]]'' series by Kelley Armstrong, a werewolf's sense of smell is incredibly strong to the point where werewolves find it necessary to use specifically ''non''-scented hygiene products if they want their sense of smell to work at full capacity. [[Action Girl|Elena]], a female werewolf, can't even stand to use scented hand soap, as it severely interferes with her ability to smell anything else. She herself has the best nose of her Pack, and once she catches a scent, she'll be able to remember and hunt the person down by it even years later. It's shown in ''Bitten'' that newly-bitten and inexperienced werewolves will likely still use scented products if they did so as a human, having not yet learned to rely on their nose just as much as their eyes and ears, which puts them at a distinct disadvantage against other werewolves.

* Willie “The Nose” Sandowskey from the [[Mc Gurk]] Detective Agency book series by Edmund Wallace Hildick had a keen sense of smell. He was able to smell things others couldn't, and identify the scents.

* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' had the protagonist meeting a rich and optimistic eternal student with this ability as one of the victim of [[Monster of the Week|magical monster incident of the tenday]]. Secret Investigations recruited him to help in the same case and then permanently. Later it turned out that obviously useful nose is not his only talent: he's surprisingly good with [[Secret_Art|Invisible Magic]], and his mother was a talented witch who taught him some amusing child games... such as magical legerdemain. One of the prequels revealed that he was an eternal student out of necessity as much as out of habit: Sniffers either distract themselves from sensory input all the time, or get distracted from most other mental activity, thus usually have problems with development, especially as this sense undermines the incentives to think by supplying ready answers about places, things and people. Thus when he was slow to start talking, his mother decided that best defense is good offense and taught him to learn constantly, as well as some disciplines that were hard to herself - without telling him that it's hard, that it's magic, or anything but fun games at all. As a little twist, this ability covers not only "smell" in the usual sense, but something close to [[Aura Vision]] - it can detect "smells" of dreams, curses and [[Layered_World|Dark Side]] just as well.

'''Nancy''': Really? Is that why it's...Do your ears have special powers too? }}

** The Doctor has sometimes claimed to be able to identify the ''year'' by smell. But more often he has to use [[Newspaper Dating|other]] [[What Year Is This?|means]].

* [[Psych|The Supersniffer!]]

* Napoleon LeNez and Oscar Vibenius in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]''.

** [[Dhampyr|Connor]] either has a better version, or has been given [[Training From Hell|more incentive to get good at it]].

** Oz, a werewolf who usually seems completely normal when in human form, manages to smell Willow while driving around in a van. He can even tell she's afraid. Later Oz is clued into Willow's relationship with Tara because he can smell her scent on her.

* P.T., from ''The Kids from CAPER'', had this.

* Rachel Pirzad has this on ''Alphas''.

 

== Webcomics ==

{{quote| '''Niomi''': How good is that nose of yours? <br />

'''Florence''': Ever hear about people trying to train dogs to detect the onset of epileptic seizures? <br />

* Brelvis from ''[[Magellan]]''.

* Happens sometimes in ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', especially with Kell.

* ''[[The Dreamland Chronicles]]'': Nicodemus.

* ''[[Bob and George]]'' [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040621c Tracking Star Man. Allegedly]

* ''[[Impure Blood]]''. [http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Chapter001/ib005.html How he realizes that someone is coming.]

* ''[[Unsounded]]''. Sette's sense of smell borders on supernatural. She seems able to [[Supernatural Sensitivity|smell magic]].

 

 

{{quote| Wait, I can smell a cake...frosting says "Farewell...and...''*gasps*'' BEST WISHES!"}}

* In ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', a [[Catgirl]] and a Snakeman were able to take on an invisible Batman this way.

* [[Scarily Competent Tracker|June]] of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has Nila, a giant [[Buffy-Speak|mole-creature-thing]] that she rides around on that can follow anyone's scent.

* Candace is apparently so obsessed with her brothers [[Phineas and Ferb]] that she can ''smell'' them. When one character quips "what do they smell like" she replies;