Meganekko

This page needs some cleaning up to be presentable.

This trope is Always Female by dictionary definition. The male examples need to be moved to Megane (which, despite some people's misconception, is not a fanspeak term).

Take your pick, we got these girls in many different flavors![1]

"...fanboys make passes at girls who wear glasses."

—Neil Sinclair, alt.fan.bgcrisis

Literally, "glasses girl"—one of the classic "sweet girl" stereotypes in anime. Cute enough without going overboard or posing the threat that a more conventionally beautiful girl might, the meganekko is usually pleasant, smart, and clever. And something about the fact that she needs glasses seems to imply an endearing vulnerability that makes her far more accessible to the average guy. After the Yamato Nadeshiko, she's the second-best girl that a boy can bring home to meet his parents and probably the more realistic of the two. Naturally, as with any stereotype, the meganekko can be inverted or subverted, but the vast majority in anime are sweet, smart and—when found in a major role—usually more than a challenge for a male lead to keep up with. Occasionally she's an unpopular character within the story, but not with the fans.

The glasses are the important part, though. Whether she's Blind Without'Em or not, they are key to her appeal. This is one girl who doesn't need a "Beautiful All Along" transformation; in fact, taking her glasses away is an almost surefire way to reduce her attractiveness!

Sometimes the presence or absence of glasses shows a change in personality, while other times they're a way to give a character a more realistic costume prop.

The Other Wiki suggests we see also "glasses fetishism".

In Western countries this type of character is rarely popular; when she appears, she is often commanded that The Glasses Gotta Go!, although the Shrinking Violet or cute nerd sometimes invoke this trope.

Glasses on a Hot Librarian or Sexy Secretary are a completely different thing. The Seemingly-Wholesome Fifties Girl may use glasses to pretend to be this trope.

Boys with glasses are called Megane, and do not fit into this trope by dictionary definition. Boys cannot properly be called "meganekko"; the term refers specifically to girls.[2] However, girls who wear glasses can be called "Megane", as seen in Azumanga Daioh.

When glasses result in sex appeal rather than Moe, they've got Sexy Spectacles.

Not to be confused with Mega Neko. You know, really big cats. Or Megatokyo.

Examples of Meganekko include:

Advertising

  • Any print ad for eye wear will most likely feature one.
    • Any other ad will most likely not.
  • A recent State Farm ad shows guys wishing up things they want. One wish is for a girl that lives in their apartment building. Instead of being a token hot blonde, she's actually more cute than sexy, and wears (*gasp*) glasses.
  • The OS-tan version of Windows 2000 has this look, which overlaps with both Hot Librarian and Sexy Secretary, given she's a personification of an operating system.
  • The Rhapsody banner ads on various sites(ie. this one [dead link] ) feature a highly Adorkable woman, apparently named Molly.
  • This Pearle Vision commercial.

Anime and Manga

  • Ah! My Goddess: Also included as a visual gag in the TV series. Originally Skuld is able to see gremlin-like "bugs" via specialized goggles. In the show, she and the others wind up wearing "goggles" that are obviously just a stylish set of tinted glasses.
    • Later a genuine Meganekko, Hasegawa Sora, showed up in the cast.
  • Ai Kora: Yukari, who even has a fangirl of her own with a glasses fetish. The mangaka even devoted a whole chapter to this topic: when Yukari feels insecure about her looks, thinking that her glasses make her ugly, the aforementioned fangirl takes her to a cafe full of glasses fetishists, who make her model different outfits and glasses and repeat that the glasses enhance the look. They even teach her 'glasses techniques', like peering over the glasses, etc. Of course, when she meets the protagonist and tries it out, he doesn't notice, because his fetish ain't her glasses.
  • The titular character of Amuri in Star Ocean wears glasses and has the typical personality. She even wears them while in her Super Mode.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia: There are several male Megane but the ones who resemble the archetype more closely are Estonia, Austria, Canada and Thailand. America does not fit the stereotype, but his glasses represent Texas; Sweden, meanwhile, looks like the Stoic Spectacles type, but he almost fits because of his Huge Schoolgirl-like personality.
    • Finally, a Meganekko is introduced in the person of Monaco.
      • England's and Sweden's Nyotalia versions also have glasses. Strangely, America's and Austria's don't. Canada's kept them.
    • Among the Japanese prefectures, we have two meganes and one meganekko. The boys are Touyama and Ibaraki, the girl is Fukui.
  • Blue Exorcist: Konekomaru Miwa is a male version of this.
  • Azumanga Daioh: Yomi is also Tomo's calmer, more mature friend.
  • Bakemonogatari: Hanekawa Tsubasa. Another example of the personality change, as her glasses fall off whenever she tranforms into a white-haired psychotic catgirl. Apparently she can only be either a Meganekko or a Neko at any given time.
  • Berserk: Cute Witch Schierke could count, since she wears a pair of rounded glasses when she draws seals on Guts's and Casca's brands.
  • Black Lagoon: Possible subversion: Greenback Jane wears glasses and is very smart in certain areas. She's also yappy, bitchy and full of herself. She is also the only character to have panty shots. Roberta on the other hand plays with the trope in that she is at her core an Ax Crazy implacable woman Determinator, but also tries to be Garcia's loving and gentle "Roberta," which she can only be with her glasses.
  • Blue Seed: Sakura Yamazaki is a subversion, only donning her oversized Nerd Glasses to fight demons.
  • Brigadoon Marin and Melan: Marin, the female lead, wears glasses most of the time.
  • Candy Boy: Kanade, the "younger" twin sister, wears glasses. However, in most of her appearances, she wears contact lenses instead.
  • A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun has Tsuzuri, Mii and Hyouga. Subverted with the Dorm Supervisor of Tokiwadai and Therestina.
  • Chocotto Sister: Chitose, the landlady, wears thick glasses and is very self-conscious about it. A boy calling her a "four-eyed dog" in high school is a major emotional hurt of hers and Haruma's complimenting her on how she looks wearing them is a large part of why she falls for him.
  • Chrono Crusade: Shader, although she's much more of a Genki Girl than the typical stereotype.
  • Clannad was mostly lacking in Meganekkos, but Sanae delivered in spades with her disguise in After Story. Tomoyo at one point starts wearing glasses as well.
  • Code Geass: Nina Einstein was like this for much of the first season. She appears this way for a good portion of season one because she barely says anything. But then she gets weirder, and weirder, and weirder. And then worse. And in the end, she gets better. Wow.
    • She also has elements of Beautiful All Along in episode 9 of R2 when she attends the wedding banquet for Tianzi and Prince Odysseus as Schniezel's date, in a pretty gown and without her glasses. Although whether this actually makes her more attractive or not is up to personal taste.
  • D.Gray-man: Rohfa is an exceedingly cute example.
  • Subverted by Yanagin in Daily Lives of High School Boys, who is one loud-mouthed hothead. When asked about her deviation from the archetype, she's Genre Savvy enough to claim the glasses were only for vision purposes (and threatened to rape her friend that made the question).
  • Dai Mahou Touge: Poor poor Tetsuko, who is also the Straight Man for everyone else's madness.
  • Darker than Black: Kirihara though she's more "cool" or "noble" than "sweet". Maybe borderline case with The Glasses Gotta Go: these glasses tweak her appearance, but she looks quite well both ways.
  • Detective Conan's Eisuke Hondou is a Rare Male Example, coupled with Cute Clumsy Girl and Dude Looks Like a Lady.
  • Dennou Coil: Everyone, but especially Yasako, since she wears ordinarily shaped glasses instead of goggles. Her personality fits as well.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Miyako Inoue, who while very much on the hyper tomboyish side at least wants to be something of a Yamato Nadeshiko.
  • Doctor Slump: Arale Norimaki, the main character. In fact, her glasses became such a distinguishing feature that in Japan, she was the inspiration behind the phrase "Arare Megane" (Arale Glasses).
  • Doki Doki School Hours: Shizuka "Iinchou" Nagare the Class President.
  • .hack//Legend of the Twilight: The fanservice-clothed, voluptuous wolfgirl Ouka is a meganekko in the real world, with associated personality traits.
  • Durarara!!: Anri Sonohara.
  • Elemental Gelade: Viro.
  • 11eyes: Yukiko Hirohara. Turns out she wears the glasses to keep her cold-blooded other side in check.
  • Fruits Basket lampshades this when Tohru and Yuki go to Ayame's shop and meet his assistant—a glasses-wearing girl in a maid outfit who proceeds to explain the long tradition of Meganekko to HeroicBSODing Yuki.
  • FLCL: Parodied with Ninamori Eiri. She really does need glasses, which she hides by wearing contacts. Even when her part in a school play calls for her to wear glasses, she uses lensless ones over her contacts to preserve her secret.
  • Flunk Punk Rumble (Yankee-kun to Megane-chan in Japan): Adachi Hana, aka Megane-chan, tries to cover her past being a Delinquent by becoming a Meganekko and Class Representative. And it works.
  • Satellizer L Bridget from Freezing is a particularly good example, as her Moe factor is most obvious when she has them on.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Sheska/Sczieska even works in a library.
    • At one point in the story, Riza pops out the lenses from Fury's glasses and parades around in them, as a (somewhat ineffective) disguise. She also wears glasses in several omakes and a video game. The "reason" for all this seems to be she just looks hot in them.
    • Discussed Trope in the movie's extras when the director Mizushima and Kugimiya Rie (Al) talk about glasses for three minutes and invoke the popularity of the meganekko.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Yuriko and Kayo Andou, one of the class reps in Splash Star.
  • Gakuen Prince: Okitsu Rise.
  • G-On Riders: This combined with Magical Girl is pretty much the whole premise of the anime.
  • From G Gundam we have Natasha Zabikov (Argo's warden) and Bunny Higgins (one of Chibodee's Gals).
    • Thing is, Natasha isn't exactly what you'd call sweet.
  • Gunslinger Girl: Claes doesn't need to wear glasses, but does so anyway as a memento of her previous handler.
  • Haibane Renmei: Hikari. In contrast to Kana and Kuu, both of whom dress rather Bifauxnen, Hikari with her glasses looks the most like a smart young lady.
  • Hamtaro: Kana Iwata.
  • Hanaukyo Maid Tai. Head maid of the Technology department Ikuyo Suzuki, at least some of the time.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya: Subverted (and lampshaded) with Yuki Nagato, when she loses her glasses, Kyon comments that he "doesn't really have a glasses Fetish" anyway and refuses to explain what the term means when she asks.
    • Looking at the character design for the anonymous female classmates suggests that the character designer might have had a glasses Fetish. Since we're talking about Noizi Ito here, that may not be too far off the mark (and glasses are one of her more modest fetishes).
    • Haruhi seems to be quite familiar with this trope. One of her more plot-related molestations of Mikuru featured her borrowing Yuki's glasses, perching them on Mikuru's nose, and proclaiming that poor Mikuru is now the perfect Moe blob.
    • In terms of personality, Stoic Spectacles fits Yuki much better.
  • Hellsing of all places plays with this. The Iscariot nun Yumiko is a simple, sweet, shy girl with her glasses on. Take them off and she becomes an impossibly psychotic, enraged killing machine. There are three other Girls With Glasses of note in the series, but while they may be cute none of them (including Integra Hellsing herself) have even a nodding acquaintance with "sweet".
    • Integra embodies this trope when she was a teenager.
    • Rip Van Winkle was this as a human. She gives an air of it, before being violent, now.
  • Hidamari Sketch: Sae, who's generally pleasant, consistently described as "beautiful" in the manga's character profiles, and is called "a walking encyclopedia".
  • Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni: Marie Moriya and the school nurse.
  • High School Girls: Subverted, where the sweet-looking glasses girl of the group is the dimmest and most perverted out of all of them.
  • Hunter X Hunter: Shizuku has the look down. The "sweet" aspect is diminished somewhat by the fact that she's a remorseless murderer.
  • Ichigo Mashimaro: Matsuri is kind and studious, if easily fooled. She's a cute kid with or without glasses, but as she's Blind Without'Em, and kind of clumsy at the best of times...
  • Ichigo 100%: Toujou Aya, while arguably Beautiful All Along, is no less of a cutie with her glasses in place.
  • Ikki Tousen has three Meganekkos: Rikuson (Lu Zun), Ryuubi Gentoku (Liu Bei) and Kaku Bunwa (Jie Xu). Kaku is also a subversion, since she's a sensual, ruthless tactician as well as a Manipulative Bitch.
  • Junsui Adolescence: Nanao breaks the sweet cute girl bit of this by being a Tsundere.
  • Kämpfer: Akane gets the extreme personality makeover when her transformation trades her glasses for guns. She goes from Shrinking Violet Covert Pervert to Remy-lite.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Miu Fuurinji subverts this trope by being an inversion of The Glasses Gotta Go. She wears glasses for the stated intention of toning her appearance down.
  • Kiddy Grade: Mercredi and Vendredi. Strangely, though, Mercredi demonstrates that she actually doesn't need them at all, when she puts them down as Alv and Dvergr invade HQ. Later, she shows up again, but in her real form, Pfeilspitze, with a different costume and no wig nor glasses, showing that she either wears contacts or doesn't need them at all.
  • Kimagure Orange Road: Manami Kasuga is one of the earlier embodiments of this trope. A cute, sweet, responsible girl (with significant shades of Yamato Nadeshiko), she keeps the Kasuga household together. Be warned - she can't see anything if she loses her glasses or contacts.
  • Kokoro Library: Aruto.
  • K-On!: Nodoka is pretty calm and friendly, and like everyone else, mostly gets annoyed with Ritsu. Mio shows she can pull off the look by borrowing(?) her glasses temporarily, leaving her with 3s for eyes.
  • Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service gives us designer frame-wearing Ao Sasaki, who is even called a Meganekko in the notes at the back of the English-language volumes of the manga. Even when she's talking to another character in a spiritual form, she still has her glasses on
  • Shattered Angels: Himiko is a pretty straightforward example.
  • The Law of Ueki: Rinko Jerrad. Mori Ai also has glasses—and her powers are based around them—but she wears them atop her head rather than over her eyes.
  • Love Hina: Naru Narusegawa after the first few episodes when her Nerd Glasses transform into "pretty girl" frames. Thing is, she was doing it for the same reason as Miu Fuurinji above: to avoid attracting the attention of boys.
  • Loveless has so many meganekko and megane it's believed that the author has a fetish for it. Some female examples are Shinonome-sensei, Kouya, and Nana.
  • Lucky Star: Miyuki. Lampshaded when Konata comments that her glasses are part of her Moe Moe appeal. She also blurts that her email address is (translated) IXTRALUVGIRLSWITHGLASSES, while in a crowded bus, earning some odd looks.
  • Lyrical Nanoha: Played straight by Nanoha's elder sister Miyuki and the Wrench Wench Shario "Shari" Finieno in Nanoha Striker S.
  • Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi's Mune-mune. She is the series's Ms. Fanservice after all.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth: Fuu.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima: Haruna Saotome, Satomi Hakase, Chisame Hasegawa when she's not being net idol Chiu. Kazumi Asakura and Evangeline A.K. McDowell sometimes wears glasses. The same goes for Nodoka's cosplay form in the Gag Series Negima!? and the mostly manga-only character Tsukuyomi.
  • My-HiME and Mai-Otome: Yukino Kikukawa, whose shyness provides a perfect balance for her very outspoken best friend Haruka. Her Mai-Otome Expy, Irina, also wears cute-girl frames, but they're smaller and rounder.
    • On the other hand, Chie from the same series seems like she'd be a meganekko, but turns out to really be a Bifauxnen.
  • Mariasama ga Miteru: Tsutako Takeshima.
  • Martian Successor Nadesico: Hikaru. One character specifically notes that she's cute with her glasses off, as if she weren't cute enough already. It's debatable.
    • One is also suspicious, given how Genre Savvy she (and most of the rest of the crew) is, that she might just be wearing them for effect, especially since all the other glasses on the show are of the Scary Shiny variety, while hers aren't.
  • Medaka Box- Kikaijima Mogana is one of these when she gets out of her swimsuit. Onigase Harigane is one too.
  • Megane Na Kanojo: This trope probably is the reason the manga was created.
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Noel has reading glasses, which she appears to need only for effect when she says smart things.
  • Midori no Hibi: Seiji's cantankerous delinquent big sister is also a bit of a subversion, although her glasses are better explained by her Office Lady outfit. Played straight by Seiji's first crush Yukino, even if she did grow up to be a Yaoi Fangirl.
  • Nagasarete Airantou: Subverted where Chikage initially seems to have the proper personality but ends up having Scary Shiny Glasses and is as crazy as the other girls on the island.
  • Nanaka 6/17: The titular character.
  • Manga//Naruto: Karin of Hebi doesn't have the typical meganekko personality but has to be mentioned, if only because it's one of the no less than four fetishes that she covers.
    • The personality is played straight with Shiho but the Nerd Glasses and frizzy hair detract from the personality to a degree.
    • Oddly enough, this trope is probably played the straightest with Chojuro, who is male.
  • Nichijou: Subverted with Mai who's The Gadfly.
  • Ninin ga Shinobuden gives this concept a Shout-Out in episode 10, where Shinobu is taken by the "Curse of the Girl With Glasses".
  • One Piece: Played around with. Tashigi has displayed most, if not all, of the typical traits associated with this trope, and yet she's also a gutsy swordsman marine. (Smoker's words, not mine.)
  • Ouran High School Host Club has a rare Bifauxnen example in Haruhi Fujioka, who wore glasses during the first half of chapter 1 and returns to the glasses in recent chapters.
  • Pani Poni Dash!: Two of the main six girls Rei and Miyako. Ichijou has a theory that their glasses are the reason they do well on tests. (Suzune tries this out as a joke in the manga, but Ichijou is dead serious.) Behoimi later becomes a meganekko when she quits being a Magical Girl.
    • Trying to put the word "sweet" anywhere near Rei is liable to induce explosive reactions.
  • Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt: Kneesocks embodies the sexy librarian type of this trope.
  • Petite Princess Yucie: Cocoloo is the resident meganekko although in one episode all the girls wear glasses as part of their librarian outfits.
  • Prétear: Sasame might count as a male example, since he's known as the "sensitive" knight, but he can be more flirtatious and outgoing than the typical stereotype.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • The glasses-wearing Cures didn't really start until Heartcatch Precure with Tsubomi Hanasaki and Yuri Tsukikage. Interestingly, Tsubomi only wears her glasses sparingly after Erika gives her a makeover in the first episode while Yuri wears hers all the time.
    • Tsundere Ako of Suite Precure wears them as well.
  • The Prince of Tennis: We have at least five males playing up the Meganekko type. Three of them are Oshitari, Inui and Tezuka; their seiyuus even have a musical trio named "Meganes".
    • And they're all predated by Kiminobu Kogure from Slam Dunk, the male Team Mom from Shohoku.
  • Princess Tutu: Malen. There's also a Megane named Autor, although his glasses are more Stoic Spectacles with a side of Scary Shiny Glasses.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Shockingly, Homura was one. Adorkably cute with her glasses, but the glasses came off when she decided to get serious.
  • Queen's Blade has Cattleya, who plays the trope straight with her sweet, motherly personality, but also subverts stereotype by being the biggest fighter (in more ways than one) and the most physically powerful.
  • Ranma ½: The first two times Ranma Saotome disguised himself as a different girl, rather then just using his female form and trusting to the sucker's lack of knowledge/wits to disguise him, he pretended to be one of these as part of the disguise. One might almost think Ryoga was attracted to Meganekkos, given how easily he fell for these disguises, but considering the ease with which he also fell for Ranma's rudimentary disguise (Ranma in girl form wearing a volleyball uniform), and when Ranma claimed to be his maid, and when Ranma claimed to be his ister, well...
  • Read or Die: Yomiko Readman.
    • Somewhat unique among "cute girl" stereotype-types, as during R.O.D the TV it's mentioned that she's over thirty. Oddly, her looks haven't changed at all since her first manga appearance, when she stated (honestly) that she was 23.
      • Those aren't her glasses anyway.
    • If you search Google Images for Meganekko, it suggests Yomiko Readman as a related search.
    • Nenene Sumiregawa in the same series is also quite the Meganekko herself, though her personality doesn't fit the usual stereotype.
  • Real Drive has Secretary-General Erika Takanami and the android modeled after her, Holon.
  • Rebuild of Evangelion: Mari Illustrious Makinami appeared to be this when the first pictures of her were released (to the point where her Fan Nickname was Glasses Girl). It turns out that she's an Ax Crazy Blood Knight almost as insane as the rest of the cast, constantly talking and even singing to herself. She's also oddly fixated on her sense of smell to the point of spontaneously walking up to Shinji to sniff at him, and she actually likes fighting bizarre Eldritch Abominations, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom, a huge grin on her face, and a secret password to give her mecha a fitting new look.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena: Anthy's gentle and objectively intelligent nature seems to fit the role, though her apparent ditziness is explained in a dark and extreme subversion later on.
    • Also subtly lampshaded in that the finale reveals that Anthy doesn't even NEED to wear glasses, and was seemingly wearing them at Akio's order, most likely to make her look more submissive and timid. When she finally breaks ties with him, she illustrates this by taking off her glasses and leaving them on his desk, and heading out into the world without them.
      • This is hinted at in one of the next episode previews much earlier in the series where Anthy casually remarks that she can see better WITHOUT her glasses.
      • Not really. It refers to the Freaky Friday eposiode where Anthy and Utena switch bodies, and as such Anthy is using Utena's eyes during the preview.
  • Rizelmine: Papa C's daughter has a thing for the main character, and is usually wearing glasses. When in glasses, she's shy and unsure. Take off her glasses and she becomes a horny little predator. Considering the nature of the anime, it is likely Genre Savvy.
  • Rosario + Vampire: Shizuka and Ririko.
  • Sailor Moon: Mizuno Ami (Amy in the English dub) is an interesting example, though they were an obvious metaphor for Ami's introversion and fear of making friends. In the original manga, she just used them for reading occasionally, and the anime rarely showed them at all. However, in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, she seemed to have caved to fan appeal, and wore them more or less all the time in the earlier episodes.
  • Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo: Subverted by Fumio, the protagonist, who is not particularly smart or clever. She certainly doesn't qualify as pleasant, especially when you get on her bad side.
  • Saki: All four teams have one. Kiyosumi has Mako, Ryuumonbuchi has Tomoki, Kazekoshi has Miharu, and Tsuruga has Kaori. They all somehow ended up facing one another in the second round.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei: Harumi Fujiyoshi is a meganekko, and sees her teacher's wearing of glasses as one of his most attractive traits. In fact, when one day he loses his glasses and comes to class wearing contacts, Harumi promptly slaps them out of his head, forcing him to procure a new pair of spectacles.
  • Sekirei: Matsu.
  • Seto no Hanayome: Iincho. 'Nuff said.
  • Shattered Angels: Himiko is a pretty straightforward example.
  • Shoujo Sect: Honda Shinobu has bad eyesight. Within the story itself she wears contacts, but a short series of throwaway gags features her wearing her specs as she, Kirin, and Maya discuss how a girl in glasses should go about kissing another girl in glasses (the series is essentially a lesbian Hentai). Maya worries that if one of the girls removes her glasses it will eliminate her Moe Moe factor, but Kirin assures her that a true Meganekko is always a Meganekko in essence, even if she isn't wearing glasses.
  • Simoun: Kaimu.
  • Sister Princess: Marie.
  • Sorcerer Stabber Orphen Revenge: Licoris.
  • Soul Eater: Yumi Azusa
  • Steel Angel Kurumi 2: Nako Kagura is the meganekko at her most Moe.
  • Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki: Chiyoko, lampshaded with her surname "Mega."
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Kinon, one of Kittan's three younger sisters, and Wrench Wench Leite.
    • Yoko does this too, during her time as Hot Teacher Miss Yomako.
  • Tiger and Bunny's Tomoe Amamiya (aka, the woman who's implied to have become Kotetsu's wife) was one of these, at least in high school. Kotetsu used to refer to her as Ms. Glasses before they switched to First-Name Basis.
  • Thriller Restaurant has Anko, but she, while usually is shy and soft-spoken, can also lash out when too angry.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew: The shy, tormented Midorikawa Retasu who loses her glasses after her Transformation Sequence into Mew Lettuce. Might have something to do with her water-based powers, but might also be that she's strongest in a fit of blind rage.
  • Transformers Cybertron: Dr. Lucy Suzuki.
  • Vandread: Parfet, the Wrench Wench.
  • Victorian Romance Emma: Emma. Interestingly enough the series is set in age where it was rare for even the middle class to wear glasses, much less a servant girl.
  • Wife and Wife: Sumi, who is shown to be the more book smart and responsible one between her and her partner, Kina.
  • Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou: Anehara Misa. She has a nice and playful personality, but lacks common sense.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Carly Nagisa has this. She also has a dose of Nerd Glasses as well. Of course she is really Beautiful All Along.
  • Zombie Loan has Michiru, though in more later chapters, she begins to stop wearing them as often.

Comic Books

  • Alpha Flight: A long-defining trait of Heather Hudson. Unfortunately, she got laser eye surgery when she became Vindicator and no longer wore them.
  • Batgirl has used glasses as her secret identity. Barbara Gordon is the quintessential Hot Librarian.
  • The Dresden Files: In the first comic, Welcome to the Jungle, Harry ends up working with and protecting Willamena "Will" Rodgers, an assistant zoo ape handler who is equal parts Meganekko and Moe.
  • Empowered in her Hot Librarian disguise.
  • Gina Diggers from Gold Digger.
  • Fables: Goldilocks. Subverted: she's batshit insane - violent, sexual, and a political extremist.
  • Galacta, the daughter of Galactus, wears a cute pair of glasses as part of her "Galli" identity.
  • Scott Pilgrim: Julie Powers and Lynette Guycott.
  • W.I.T.C.H.: Taranee, both in the comic books and the animated series. She even wears glasses after transforming!
  • Wonder Woman: Similar to the Batgirl example, she has worn glasses as her secret identity, Diana Prince.
  • X-Men: Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. Her phasing prevents her from using contacts... awww, too bad!

Fan Works

  • Guardians of Pokémon: According to the author, Mitsumi is based on this archetype.
  • Skin: For some reason, during the time before 'going blind' became too serious, Shizuka Kawai was one for a short period of time. After her blindness took a nasty turn and surgery was required, this quickly stopped.

Film

Katherine Johnson: "I will have you know, I was the first negro female student at West Virginia university graduate school. On any given day, I analyze the binomial levels air displacement, friction and velocity. And compute over ten thousand calculations by cosine, square root and lately analytic geometry. By hand. There are twenty, bright, highly capable negro women in the west computing group, and we're proud to be doing our part for the country. So yes, they let women do some things at NASA, Mr. Johnson. And it's not because we wear skirts. It's because we wear glasses. Have a good day."

Literature

  • Friday the 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat: An FBI agent mentions his new partner suddenly goes from hot to absolutely adorable when she briefly puts on a pair of reading glasses.
  • Bernice in This Present Darkness. In her introductory scene, she's mentioned as being very attractive and wearing glasses in the same sentence.


Live-Action TV

  • The Big Bang Theory: Bernadette, Amy, and Leslie. Also, Leonard is a male version.
  • Burn Notice: The episode "Partners in Crime" had Fiona donning a pair in order to pose as a CIA Agent, placing her nicely into this trope.
  • Chuck: Sarah frequently wears glasses for her various aliases and covers, while Chuck himself could certainly be considered a male version when he does the same. And then there's Jill.
  • Coronation Street: Deirdre was known as "Miss Sexy Spex" when younger (back in The Seventies). Her actress doesn't need glasses.
  • Criminal Minds: The adorable Penelope Garcia. She actually ditches her glasses for an episode to try and look more professional, but goes back to them when she's told to be herself.
  • Daddy's Daughters: Galina Vasnetsova.
  • Degrassi the Next Generation: For the students, there's Liberty, and then later, Clare, before she got her laser eye surgery, another bane of glasses fetishists. For the teachers there's Mrs. Oh.
  • Dollhouse: Bennett which is actively lampshaded by Topher, who out and out says she's almost perfect. Except for the whole "violently seeking revenge on Caroline's body" thing...

Victor!Topher: Glasses?
Topher: Glasses on a chain!
Victor!Topher: For the Win!

  • Eleventh Hour: Similar to The X-Files example below, Agent Young has a pair of glasses that appear whenever she and Hood are looking at computer screens.
  • Gilmore Girls': Lane Kim. Lampshaded when she used contact lenses in an episode and both her mother and her boyfriend criticized her decision.
  • Grey's Anatomy: Dr. Montgomery (formerly Sheppard).
  • Hannah Montana: The episode, "You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Zit Is About You revealed that Lily wears contacts, and when her dog eats them, she has to wear glasses. Even though she hates them, they put her squarely into this trope.
    • Also, Miley wore a pair while she was Lily's "lawyer" in the episode "You Are So Sue-able To Me".
  • Heroes: Sue Landers, the Living Lie Detector... er... never mind. Darn it, Sylar, this is why we can't have nice people!
  • House: Another medical example, Dr. Cameron occasionally puts some specs on. And frankly looks way hotter in them.
    • Dr. Park is almost never seen without her glasses.
  • How I Met Your Mother: Robin, played by the already smoking hot Cobie Smulders, actually managed to get more gorgeous in the show's sixth season by donning a pair of specs.
    • Also, Abby, who appeared in two episodes, played the already hot Britney Spears, made hotter by the glasses.
  • iCarly: Ms. Fielder, Carly's art teacher in the episode iMust Have Locker 239.
  • Law and Order Special Victims Unit: Assistant DA Alexandra Cabot.
  • Lizzie McGuire: Jo McGuire, Lizzie's Mom.
  • Made: One episode had a slacker jock failing his classes wants to graduate. To help him study they get him a tutor, a hot female college student with glasses.
  • Maid in Akihabara: Lampshaded. Maid Cafe waitress (see Fan Service with a Smile) Saki falls over and her contact lenses come out, so she reluctantly puts on her glasses. The Otaku customers are all immediately smitten with her, thanks to her new-found Moe-ness. (This is also a direct inversion of the Beautiful All Along trope of the girl taking off her glasses and magically becoming pretty.)
  • Magnum, P.I.: Adelaide, in the first season episode of the same name.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: A pre-iCarly Jennette McCurdy played a tween version of this trope in the episode The Buseys Take a Hostage.
  • The Middleman: Referenced in the show's podcast, when the creator is asked why Wendy Watson doesn't wear her glasses more. The response given is that she generally wears her glasses in civilian mode, and removes them in crime-fighter mode as a Clark Kent/Superman reference.
  • Modern Family: Alex Dunphy.
  • In New Girl, Zooey Deschanel has several scenes of this trope.
  • NCIS: Director Shepard would occasionally put on glasses.
    • The episode "Singled Out" featured a Navy lieutenant as a kidnap victim who fit the trope, and in the same episode, Ziva falls into the trope when she goes undercover as a geek resembling the Navy lieutenant.
    • Male example; Jimmy Palmer. Agent Lee definitely thought so.
  • The Office: In the US version this trope was brought up in the episode "Did I Stutter?" While aleady the show's eye candy, Pam gets even hotter when it's revealed she wears contacts and has to wear her glasses when she forgets her solution. While Michael doesn't like them, she finds herself the object of Kevin's advances after he reveals he has a glasses fetish.
  • One Tree Hill: Millicent Huxtable
  • Portlandia: Lampshaded in the opening song: "Dream of the 90's"

All the hot girls wear glasses yeaaaahhh!

  • Power Rangers
    • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Billy, a male version, was the earliest example in the series.
      • Don't forget Billy and Kimberly switched in the Freaky Friday Flip episode. That episode served as fetish fuel for many a preteen and young teen troper (such as myself).
    • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: Ms. Fairweather. Always wearing glasses, very hot AND presented as very hot - rare for Western television. The Green Ranger was particulary smitten with her, and they eventually hooked up and got married. (one of the very few actual romances in any series of Power Rangers).
    • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Kendrix is considered a Meganekko by some...emphasis on the some, as most fans consider her to be pretty homely with or without glasses.
      • More like Hollywood Homely, since responses I've seen range from "she's not as hot as the other pink rangers" to "she's the hottest girl I've ever seen" to "I had the biggest crush on Kendrix as a child/teen".
    • Power Rangers Wild Force: Danny Delgado, another male version.
  • Quintuplets: Penny Pearce.
  • Royal Pains: Divya Katdare (Reshma Shetty). Definitely hotter glasses-on than glasses-off.
  • Stargate SG-1: The already ridiculously hot Colonel Samantha Carter of appeared in the alternate time-line episode "Moebius" where instead of being a Colonel Badass and a Hot Amazon, she was a Hot Librarian type, complete with the coke-bottle obviously fake-lensed glasses.
  • Thirty Rock: Liz Lemon, played by Real Life meganekko, Tina Fey.
  • Torchwood: Toshiko Sato, the resident tech geek, frequently dons geeky reading glasses, just to add to that doe-eyed, earnest Asian geek/unnoticed-but-insanely-good-looking thing she's got going on.
  • Victorious Tori in the Helen Back Again Episode. She just happens to have glasses on when she receives bad news, however she is working out. Who needs glasses to workout. It just screams feel sorry for me.
  • The West Wing: CJ would sometimes need glasses and would look much better when she did.
  • Maddy Ferguson, in the first season of Twin Peaks. Not so much the second season.
  • WKRP in Cincinnati: Bailey Quarters.
  • Wonder Woman (the 70's TV series): Like her comic book counterpart, the classic Diana Prince...as a Secret Identity it wasn't too concealing, but the glasses did make her look like a different person, leaving viewers to obsess over who was sexier: Lynda Carter in glasses, or Wonder Woman.
  • The X-Files: Scully, whose glasses are only worn when she composes her reports to her boss on a computer, are put in for the sole purpose of this effect. Especially because they appear to have no optical qualities at all, and are just clear glass.
  • Zoey 101: Quinn Pensky.
  • Brazilian actress Tania Khalill at the novela "Fina Estampa".
  • Angel. Gibbering Genius Winifred 'Fred' Burkle wears Nerd Glasses on occasion to highlight her braininess. Lampshaded when Lilah Morgan gets jealous over Wesley pining over Fred and dresses up like her to taunt him. As they're stripping off to have sex, Wes tells Lilah to keep the glasses on.

Music

  • Guitarist/vocalist Sheena Ozzella of the indie rock band Lemuria definitely qualifies when she's wearing glasses. Just look at her!
  • Taylor Swift. In the video for the song "You Belong With Me", she plays dual roles as a cheerleader and as a nerdy neighbor girl. For the nerdy neighbor girl part she dons a pair of glasses, which not only fail to make her look unattractive but actually make her even more beautiful.
  • ZZ Top. The video for "Legs". The featured girl in the video, in addition to having the great set of legs the title describes, she also wears a sexy set of glasses for the first 45 seconds of the video.
  • Lisa Loeb, folk-rock singer/songwriter, helped along by the fact that she's both legally blind without her glasses and allergic to contact lenses. Her biggest hit, "Stay (I Missed You)", could be the theme song for meganekkos everywhere.
  • When younger, Greek singer Nana Moskuouri.
  • Not a musician herself, but '90s MTV Alternative Nation VJ Kennedy (aka Lisa Kennedy Montgomery) definitely fit the bill.


Newspaper Comics

  • Peanuts: Marcie.
  • Zits: One strip reveals that Sara wears glasses and ends with Jeremy saying, "Just when I thought she couldn't get any hotter."


Radio

  • Adventures in Odyssey: Katrina Shanks. Medium notwithstanding, she fits the mold of a meganekko, she acts like a meganekko, and just to dispel any remaining doubt, the official artwork (only seen in the older, less stylized pictures for good measure) depicts her as a reserved, bespectacled meganekko.
    • Lucy Cunningham-Schultz, the resident Intrepid Reporter for the Odyssey Owl, is another example.


Video Games

Snake: Do I need to clear things with Otacon before I ask her out?


Visual Novels

  • CROSS†CHANNEL: Misato Miyasumi.
  • Fate Stay Night: Rin wears glasses when she's in teacher mode—with sexy results. In the sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia, Rider has a more functional pair that she wears when she's in civvies.
    • There's a FSN doujin ("Beat Your Fate") where we see Sakura give Rider the glasses, secretly thinking this will make sure Shirou doesn't fall for her—at which point he turns out to be a "glasses man". The rest of the harem immediately start trying pairs on. Sakura has no choice but to do the same... and Shirou tells her she looks more plain with glasses.
  • Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo: Played with by Kaede, who is shy and kind and is the Class Representative but is really only an average student. Lampshaded by Sara, who asks if Kaede is an honour student, and admits that she only thought she was because her glasses and plait gave off that impression. However, while Sara doesn't have any particular feelings about Kaede's glasses, she dislikes the personality they give her, preferring a more masculine, Bifauxnen type of personality, which Kaede only reaches when she removes her glasses and undoes her hair.
  • Tsukihime: Ciel, though she probably has better eyesight than most.


Webcomics

  • The Dreamland Chronicles: Nicole is one of these. Glasses are a little smaller than the usual fare, but she certainly fits the trope.
  • Eerie Cuties brings us Cloe, the Meganekko Moe succubus.
  • El Goonish Shive: Chika, the newly introduced colleague and sane partner of Amanda. Or at least looks like one most of the time.
    • Much to his chagrin, Tedd gets this at times when he's wearing his glasses. (Has he been transformed with them on?)
      • Dan commented that he's been doing this more and more lately with random female background characters.
    • Rhoda wore glasses before joining Diane's Girl Posse and reverts to this look as a disguise after becoming famous.
  • Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twelve Artifacts gives us Felicia, who double-subverts the "sweet, modest girl" part of this: She manages to hold up on her own against thieves, but when confronted with Lionel "the Lucky", she almost immediately goes back to being this.
  • Girl Genius: Agatha, the title character.

"Homeless Blog": The loneliness is only magnified by the attention I do receive. Somehow I have a "quiet, nerdy thing goin' on" that some guys find attractive. This scares me.

  • Homestuck: Jade Harley is a classic example. In what could probably be attributed to Author Appeal, half the main cast wears glasses, so she's not the only one - other examples present include Vriska Serket and (arguably) Terezi Pyrope and Feferi Peixes. Jade's brother John Egbert is a male example. Also present is Jane Crocker, John and Jade's genetic mother.
  • It's Walky!: Parodied when Billie gets glasses, not only does Danny find her even more attractive than before, but several guys who didn't care about her before (Joe and Howard in particular) begin hounding her until she threatens to get contacts.
  • Magiversity: Minna Galford, the main character.
  • In Sinfest, Fuschia poses as one.
  • Megatokyo: Yuki wore these when she became a Magical Girl; being Largo her mentor, however, they're quickly replaced with Cool Shades.
    • Ping also experimented with glasses at one point in a vain attempt at making herself less attractive. Sadly, it backfired, due to this trope.
  • Questionable Content has Faye, Penelope and more recently, Marigold.
    • Faye just happens to wear glasses; Marigold's are more fitting with the greasy nerd image. Penelope's the only one who really fits the bill, due to her bookishness and being one of the least brash characters. They're all too snarky to fit the "sweet, charming girl" description though.
    • Marigold looks better without her glasses (Blasphemy, I know) so she's the opposite of this trope. Or maybe she just needs different frames.
      • Your Mileage May Vary on the attractiveness issue... And as for the snarkyness, in the Questionable Content universe, everyone's snarky.
  • Raine Dog: The title character.
  • RPG World: Detestai of the defunct webcomic is a catgirl who was given magic glasses by her ex-boyfriend, the villain, that turn her from a gentle kitten to "evil to the glasses." Also, she's rather tall. Does that make her a Mega Neko?
  • Sabrina Online: The title character.
  • The Wotch: As of a long-term Gender Bender with accompanying memory alterations for everyone else, Ivan "Yvonne" Bezdomny has apparently been thrown headfirst into Meganekkodom. Compounded with all of the transformation's other consequences...
  • Emily the witch, from Our Little Adventure.


Web Original

Western Animation

  1. ↑ (From left to right, top to bottom: Yuki, Akane, Kinon, Fuu, Nina, Nanao, Tashigi, Sheska, and Retasu.)
  2. ↑ "Me": eye. "Mega": glasses. "Megane": wearer of glasses. "Meganekko": female wearer of glasses.
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.