About

Anime Glasses, also known as Scary Shiny Glasses, refer to a common trope in anime and manga to depict intelligent, plotting or villainous characters with their glasses giving off a bright reflection and obscuring their eyes. In memes, a photograph of an individual wearing a real-life replica of the glasses has been used in reference to narrow, but deep expertise.

Origin

While the exact name of the first manga or anime to use the trope is unknown, some of the better-known examples of characters having their eyes fully obscured by light reflecting on their glasses include Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Aizen from Bleach and Professor Souichi Tomoe from Sailor Moon.

The trope commonly indicates that the character whose eyes are obscured is either intelligent, villainous or is plotting something. Additionally, in many examples the "anime glasses" trope is accompanied by the character fixing the glasses by pressing their index finger on the bridge.

Spread

On May 6th, 2006, a TV Tropes entry for "Scary Shiny Glasses" was created by an unknown user.^[1][2]

Traditionally, one's eyes are an indicator of one's character. Large eyes represent honesty and innocence, while smaller eyes indicate darker personalities. […] If you can't even see their eyes because of light reflecting off their glasses, beware -- for these are individuals who deliberately wall themselves off from the people around them.

On June 15th, 2013, Tumblr user Lalatula (abosl) posted a photograph of themselves fixing glasses on their nose, with the glasses photoshopped as if shining brightly.^[3] The post and several responses to it gained over 889,000 likes and reblogs in six years.

On March 6th, 2017, YouTuber Benimetrix posted a sketch with a reference to the trope which gained over 57,900 views in two years. On March 16th, 2017, YouTube channel Anime Compilation posted a compilation of scenes in which anime characters fixed their glasses.

On September 24th, 2018, Twitter user @dekantsu made two posts containing images of hand-made "plotting glasses" and photographs of himself and his friends wearing them.^[4][5] The tweets gained over 186,000 and 24,000 retweets in six months.

Following the post, one of the photographs has gained spread as a meme format in reference to narrow, but deep expertise, with several notable examples appearing on Reddit.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References