September 13, 2011

Cheek-bone cut

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This seems like it ought to be a trope, but I've never found one in the TVTropes site. That wound happens again and again, though.

This is the second time just in Sacred Blacksmith. It also happened to Cecily at one point.

I remember at least three in DBZ. Goku and Piccolo do it to each other simultaneously when they're training just before Androids. And Krillin does it to Nappa when he uses kienzan for the first time in the series.

But I've seen it lots of times in other shows, too. And it's always that same location, a cut just below the eye, right along the line of the cheekbone. What's the deal with that?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:24 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
Post contains 118 words, total size 1 kb.

1 It is understandable from the convenience standpoint. Placing the damage under the hair is not as easy to draw or present, damaging ears is too nasty... Hitting a neck this way is fatal. So they always zoom to it. Cecily got a good flesh wound though.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at September 13, 2011 10:25 AM (9KseV)

2 It's also pretty clearly a defensive wound - that's not what the attacker would be aiming for, so it implies that the defender rolled with it a little (and that the attacker was aiming for the eyes, i.e. is serious).

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 13, 2011 11:19 AM (GJQTS)

3 I have seen the cheek bone cut used to humiliate a lesser swordsman (such as in The Princess Bride) and I have also seen other swordsman (such as Ruronni Kenshin) with a prominent cheek scar. I have also heard of something called the Heidelberg Scar from Heidelberg University in Germany.

Posted by: Bill Hunsicker at September 13, 2011 12:07 PM (SCOvE)

4 Happens with guns a lot too.  Just saw it in Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (Good show for girls in outfits that are virtually bikinis with big guns).

The trope should be there.  With bonus points if a few strands of cut hair are shown floating away.

Posted by: Mauser at September 13, 2011 12:37 PM (cZPoz)

5 The phrase "good show" should not appear anywhere near the name "Daphne in the Brilliant Blue"...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 13, 2011 01:33 PM (+rSRq)

6 Apart from the widely-scattered plot crumbs that are mixed with a chokingly-dry expository lump and left in the sun to harden into an incoherent mass of d'oh, what's not to like?

If you can overlook the pointy chins, though, the ass-cheek sentai is pleasing to the eye.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at September 13, 2011 01:56 PM (fpXGN)

7 Alright, that's enough topic drift. Now, about cheek-bone cuts, can anyone find something in the TVTropes site that covers it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 13, 2011 02:12 PM (+rSRq)

8 No, I couldn't find anything in the main pages or the trope repair shop; Good Scars, Evil Scars mentions the cheek cut, but just as an example of a "good scar"; nothing about the act of being cut.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at September 13, 2011 02:54 PM (fpXGN)

9 Apparently it's known as a Paper Cut http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PaperCutting

Posted by: RickC at September 13, 2011 03:47 PM (VKVOz)

10 I know in real life, there are Mensur scars, or duelling scars that were prominent before WWII in Europe, but I don't know if they have a common history with those found in anime.  I'd suspect that they have at least a similar history, if they weren't outright imported during the Meiji era.

Posted by: CatCube at September 13, 2011 03:50 PM (20436)

11 Seems it's a combo of a "standard bleeding spot" (for location), and the "paper cut" (for the tiny cut created with a weapon designed to behead someone.)

Posted by: Mikeski at September 13, 2011 03:50 PM (GbSQF)

12

The "Standard bleeding spot" doesn't mention the cheekbone (even though it's what they show in the picture). And the "papercut" doesn't list locations.

Probably the cheekbone should be listed as one of the standard bleeding spots.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 13, 2011 06:09 PM (+rSRq)

13 Dammit, are we going to have to ban links to TVTropes?  It took me an hour to escape that time!  Would have been longer but I got sleepy....

Posted by: ubu at September 13, 2011 06:55 PM (GfCSm)

14 Hollywood's equivalent is a bullet in the shoulder.

Posted by: Mauser at September 14, 2011 01:18 AM (cZPoz)

15 "And the "papercut" doesn't list locations."
But it has a picture right on top of a cheekbone cut, and the examples list 9 instances.
Also, I don't know what version of "Standard Bleeding Spots" you were looking at, but I saw "From a neat cut across the cheek" in the list.

Posted by: RickC at September 14, 2011 05:50 AM (TD2AB)

16 I think that there's a Japanese trope about "scarring a maiden's cheek." At least I can remember hearing "How dare you scar a maiden's cheek!" in at least one anime. (Now if I could only remember which one! Darned old age! A-ko, perhaps?)

Posted by: jdonigan at September 14, 2011 09:08 AM (BFWN4)

17 I didn't say it was good for anything else....

Posted by: Mauser at September 14, 2011 12:37 PM (cZPoz)

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