Examples of this trope in Anime & Manga
- Tetsuya Tsurugi from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger is serious, grim-looking and moody, and he seldom smiles. So when he grins, everyone freaks out and dons Oh Crap stares. Mainly Warrior Monsters, since it usually means they are about of dying horribly and painfully.
- Inverted in Soul Eater - if Death starts acting in character, you know you're in some serious shit. He does occasionally put on his old scary voice just to scare his staff into paying attention, and is even more likely to treat the most dire of circumstances (Asura's resurrection, Kid's abduction) casually, even jokingly.
- Also played straight: if Black*Star is not yelling and Death The Kid is not OCDing over symmetry prepare for an asskicking.
- Kid's an interesting example because the occasions he faces disorder and doesn't have a fit over it tend to be when he instead fixes on another inherent characteristic, that of him being a Shinigami (e.g Mosquito, minor point in his second fight with Black Star).
- Also played straight: if Black*Star is not yelling and Death The Kid is not OCDing over symmetry prepare for an asskicking.
- Angel Beats: The Ninja (who is The Quiet One) says something in the 10th episode. Everyone is shocked by this.
- Bleach
- Gin Ichimaru never opens his eyes. When he does, expect the fandom to react. It goes double for when he stops smiling.
- Then there's seeing Isshin Kurosaki as anything other than an Overprotective, Bumbling, Pervert Dad.
- Shunsui (or Syunsui) Kyoraku never loses his temper, and his general demeanor never really elevates beyond "mildly concerned" - even when fighting his mentor who is implied to be thousands of years older than he is. However, when his Heterosexual Life Partner appeared to have been killed, he lost it. For extra emphasis, even in the context of that story arc, his reaction was pretty extreme.
- Chizuru Honsho is the local Genki Girl and Plucky Comic Relief. She has only cried twice in canon... when It Got Worse: the first happened when she and others were subjected to Body Horror and forced to attack Tatsuki and Orihime thanks to Numb Chandelier, and the other was during her Heroic BSOD when Aizen was chasing her, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro and Mahana through Karakura Town.
- When Ichigo decides to murder Tsukishima on the off chance it will reverse his Fullbring's effect on his friends and family, you know he's pissed.
- In Digimon Adventure 02, while Arukenimon and Mummymon serve as comic relief (but still efficient) antagonists, BlackWargreymon's question regarding his own existence does this to them: Mummymon being serious in his conversation with Arukenimon about "what they do supposed to be", with the latter also being civil with the former question instead of beating him up as usual.
- At the ending of Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou: The student council member who always says "guga", said something else than guga.
- Mahou Sensei Negima
- Again like Gin, when Xellos from Slayers opens his eyes, stops smiling, or volunteers unambiguous information, things have already gone completely downhill.
- There are exactly two moments in Monster where Johan isn't smiling softly, and you will crap your pants both times.
- The show has a habit of doing this with drink orders - for instance, the workaholic decides against ordering a coffee, because he's chosen to vacation in earnest.
- The phenomenon is examined with a "scientific experiment" in Cromartie High School.
- In an episode of Samurai Pizza Cats, space-cadet Emperor Fred (who normally communicates by saying "Fuh-red!" and scat-singing) catches a nasty cold, and apparently upgrades from The Unintelligible to Talkative Loon ("This is to certify that kung pao chicken containing MSG may cause your BMW to have a headache...") This leads Al Dente to conclude that the emperor is very sick.
- Pippin, the Gentle Giant of the Band of the Hawks in Berserk, never speaks and is never seen with eyes open. He only opens his eyes and speaks for the first (and last) time when the world goes to hell around him during the Eclipse.
- One episode of the Ranma ½ anime has Happôsai, the resident Dirty Old Man, acting extremely despondent and unlike himself. It culminates when Female!Ranma is forced by the fathers to put on a swimsuit and give the Old Master a show in order to raise his spirits... and he just tells her to Please Put Some Clothes On. At this point, everybody know there's something very wrong with Happôsai.
- In the Sinnoh seasons of Pokémon, how can you tell that Team Galactic is coming? Croagunk does nothing but stare at the door, and doesn't even move when Brock hits on Nurse Joy.
- Kenshin of Rurouni Kenshin has a couple versions of this. The most obvious is that his entire demeanor changes, but more subtly he'll drop the use of the extremely humble "sessha" and use the aggressive masculine "ore", which is when you know what the Hitokiri Battousai is present. Also, any time Kenshin the Thou Shalt Not Kill Martial Pacifist seems to be seriously out for blood is cause to be very, very worried.
- Trigun. Vash's reaction to Monev the Gale's wholesale slaughter of a small town in the anime is a definite example of this. Vash is usually a goofball and kind to the point of preferring to be injured himself rather than hurt anyone else, even when people are actively trying to kill him, but after seeing what happened to the town he puts a gun to Monev's head gets this close to just blowing his head off.
- In One Piece, as the result of a massive Despair Event Horizon, Luffy becomes so depressed that he admits his own weakness and renounces his worthiness for the title of Pirate King.
- In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, it's clear that Fay's mental state has taken a turn for the worse not because he grows his hair out after losing his eye and takes on a generally more gloomy disposition, but it's because he drops the cutesy nicknames and actually calls Kurogane by his name. Later on when he starts using them again it's a huge relief to everyone since it indicates that he's getting better.
- In Bakuman｡, Hiramaru, infuriated over the reasoning behind putting Detective Trap on hiatus until Mashiro graduates, storms off to work on his manga.
- In Mai-Otome, Arika's friends take note of how she isn't eating sweets when she's thinking about love, and become worried about her.
- Shinryaku! Ika Musume: Similar to the Bleach and Negima examples - when Chizuru opens her eyes, you're screwed.
- There is just ONE time in which Goku from Dragon Ball refused a meal. When he sensed that his best friend Krillin was in danger and rushed to help him. It was too late: Krillin had already been murdered.
- A more humorous instance regarding Goku was in the beginning of Cooler's Revenge: when Chi-Chi discovers Icarus outside and tries to ward him off due to being a distraction from Gohan's studies as usual, Goku ends up interjecting and telling Icarus to get away from Gohan and let the latter finish up his homework, which based on Chi-Chi's stupefied reaction was not something Goku was known to do. It's later revealed that he wanted Gohan wanted to finish up his homework so he could go camping, at which point he ultimately decided to just have Gohan postpone homework, presumably due to running out of time.
- There's only a few times that Goku has been enraged to the point where he's genuinely wanted to kill someone. Mercenary Tao, Tambourine, King Piccolo, Nappa, Freeza, Cell and Kid Buu all managed to accomplish this... and they died for it (or in the case of Tao ended up having to be rebuilt), either directly or in the case of Nappa, Frieza, and Cell he played a role in what caused them to die.
- In Mawaru Penguindrum, Shouma is a sweet and kind male Yamato Nadeshiko and kind of The Klutz. But the few times he does not attempt to solve problems via words, It Gets Worse. Specially the as-of-now last one.
- Similarly, his penguin #2, a Big Eater Extreme Omnivore, only once decided to share his meal with his "sister" #3. She refused it and left him all dejected - a Foreshadowing of her and Himari leaving the Takakura family home.
- This is a general (but important) plot point in Darker Than Black. Contractors are completely emotionless and self-serving, so when some of them aren't, people always make note of it. Likewise, Dolls are so completely empty that they won't even eat without proper programming. At one point, one uses her specter to call for help, which is about the same as your cell phone calling to tell your friend you're getting mugged.
- In the season 1 finale of Code Geass, the typically whimsical Lloyd freaks out when he notices Nina ready to detonate a sakuradite bomb. Rakshata, knowing full well he's serious by his sudden change in demeanor, calls for a ceasefire.
- In the second Rebuild of Evangelion movie, Rei Ayanami enters the classroom and says a simple "Good Morning". The entire class flies into a panic in one of the most grin-inducing moments in the entire movie.
- In Aquarion Evol, there's one way to make even the seemingly unflappable Zen Fudo go stiff in horror: the sight of Mykage killing off Jin, supposedly his ally, for pulling off a Heel Face Turn.
- In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Reborn always pushes Tsuna to succeed in any given situation and never gives him a break because he knows that Tsuna has the potential to pull it off. So it's a huge shock to Tsuna when Reborn tells him that he has no chance of defeating the strongest member of the Vindice.
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