Dull Eyes of Unhappiness/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: In Anime, the eyes of a character who is in great distress become a lifeless color.

  • Straight: After it's revealed that Takashi is cheating with Chikako, Arisu's eyes become that of a lifeless color.
  • Exaggerated: After the reveal, Arisu become unable to see with her eyes, which are now lifeless.
  • Justified: Arisu's eyes have special condition that is affected by the hormones in her body, it's reflecting her unhappy feeling.
  • Inverted:
    • After the reveal, Arisu's eyes become livelier, because she's a Yandere.
    • After the reveal, Arisu's eyes glow red with anger.
  • Subverted: After the reveal, Arisu's eyes become a lifeless color... but it's because she's wearing new contact lenses.
  • Doubly Subverted: ...which she does to subtly show the world around her that she's unhappy.
  • Parodied:
  • Deconstructed: After the reveal, Arisu's eyes become lifeless, but it's actually a manifested physical condition of serious mental breakdown. And as she spiral downward into insanity, her eyes become more and more lifeless.
  • Reconstructed: After therapy and proper medication assisting in a beneficial spiral where she regains her mental health, Arisu's eyes are shown to become more lively over time (or in specific circumstances after therapy, like the healing power of kittens)
  • Averted: Despite the anime extensively use the eyes of the character to express their feelings, no character have Dull Eyes of Unhappiness even when they're in Heroic BSOD.
  • Defiled: "I'm pretty sure bad eyes would be the last sign of an impending breakdown."
  • Invoked: Arisu gets dull contacts in order to get sympathy from others.
  • Enforced: "We don't have enough budget to show subtle character emotions, so just give them Dull Eyes of Unhappiness."
  • Played For Drama: The characters know that Arisu's lifeless eyes are indicator of her nearing snap, so they do their best to prevent it from happening. Arisu is a known Yandere.
  • Played for Laughs: Jamememba sees Arisu's eyes and attempts to use an eydropper to cheer her up.
  • Lampshaded: "Arisu-chan, your eyes are scarily lifeless.", said Chikako.
  • Discussed: "You know Arisu from the next class? After she caught Takashi cheating with Chikako, her eyes become lifeless. Scary!"
  • Conversed: MST 3000 comments that "Arisu should REALLY get some visine about now."

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