# Anime Nosebleeds
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 27, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956 "2003-08-27T12:38:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/1 "2003-08-27T12:38:57Z")
OK, I’ve seen a few “adult” animes, and it seems that every time some young boy sees a naked woman for the first time, or the possibility of sex arises, he invariably seems to get a vicious nosebleed. What’s this all about?
Is this a common Japanese reaction? Or is this some stereotyped response that viewers have come to expect (like the “running water = suicide by slitting wrists” thing in Western moies)? I certainly never had a nosebleed at moments of high stress or pleasure, sexual or otherwise, and have never seen or heard of this anywhere else.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/2 "2003-08-27T12:41:48Z")
Well, yes, in this context it’s one of those “visual shorthand” kinds of things. It probably has some sort of “the blood is rising” association.
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### Author:  [@owlofcreamcheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlofcreamcheese)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/3 "2003-08-27T16:59:09Z")
its an exageration of blushing… they always draw people as blushing so heavly that blood just squirts out. also it often works to ‘knock them on their backs’ which is a reaction to seeing naked people.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/4 "2003-08-27T19:59:42Z")
If you can grab a copy of Scott McCloud’s **Understanding Comics,** he has a page or three in there demonstrating how the “visual language” of emotions differs between Japan and the West.
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### Author:  [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/5 "2003-08-27T21:32:24Z")
**JRDelirious** has it right. As I understand it, since they can’t show the blood rushing, ahem, elsewhere, they show it gushing out the nose. Funnier than an erection in its own way, I suppose. 🙂
Also, I’m curious what anime your example was from. Most hentai that I’ve watched (which isn’t much - I’m not a pervert or anything 😉 ) doesn’t have the nosebleeds. Since, you know, the need for metaphor has gone straight out the window…
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/6 "2003-08-27T22:56:16Z")
Isn’t that why they have so many betentacled monsters defiling young girls (possibly school girls, in sailor costumes?) You can’t show an erect penis so why not show a large erect prehensile limb probing where men cannot be shown probing?
I saw an example of the nose bleeds, some boys diving come across some unlikely underwater women and blood comes gushing out of one guys nose so furiously it must be arterial, bizarre.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anime-nosebleeds/197956/7 "2003-08-27T23:44:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Pushkin \*
> Isn’t that why they have so many betentacled monsters defiling young girls (possibly school girls, in sailor costumes?)
Not quite – the ban on showing genitals in Japanese art was due to decency laws imposed by Americans on the Japanese after WWII.