Hotblooded Sideburns

Don't get too close -- you might poke an eye out on them.

"Siiiiiide Buuurrnnnnssss......"

—Spongebob and Patrick, SpongeBob SquarePants

Hot-Bloodedness isn't reserved just for people. It can be applied to many things—hair, for example.

Hotblooded Sideburns are a pair of short, fiery earlocks typically found on passionate Super Robot pilots and Sentai team leaders that usually offer up a quick visual indicator of their Hot-Blooded character. While they don't have to be huge (though they usually are), they are always spiky and noticeable. Usually, they're paired up with some equally fiery eyebrows for added effect.

It should be noted that "sideburn" is a slight misnomer, as Hotblooded Sideburns are rarely actually attached to the face anywhere below the ears. They're occasionally referred to as "Nagaideburns" (after famed Super Robot Genre Mangaka and former Trope Namer Go Nagai) to make this distinction.

Due to its inherent association with Super Robot shows of the 70s and 80s, this is also a form of Seventies or Eighties Hair, and its appearance on female characters to show how badass they were has nearly died out.

Examples of Hotblooded Sideburns include:

Anime and Manga

  • Everyone created by Go Nagai. Everyone. Yes, even Cutey Honey.
  • Pretty much every single Super Robot pilot from the good ol' days. In the 70's, this was mostly because it was a pretty popular hair style, but by the 80's it pretty much became a pre-requisite of being a badass pilot.
    • The most iconic example has to be Ryoma of Getter Robo (Which, in a bit of irony, was not written by Go Nagai as is widely believed, but Ken Ishikawa. He just pitched the concept, although he was a heavy influence on the art style). Armageddon Ryoma, pictured here, sports a pair so huge that they probably warp space-time.
    • Hyoma Aoi from Combattler V also sports a fine pair.
    • And the sideburns of Kenichi Go from Voltes V are bigger.
    • The third pilot of the Nagahama Trilogy, Kazuya Ryuuzaki from Daimos also counts. In fact, a domestic robot comments his hair is absolutely unruly and he only combs it down if he is going to meet a girl.
  • EVERY SINGLE ONE of the five main Bronze Saints in Saint Seiya. Seiya himself is one of the most iconic hot-blooded characters in anime, and has the bushiest ones. So bushy, they poke from out of his tiara-helmet!
  • Every single member of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Condor Joe being the most hot-blooded.
  • Ronin Warriors has a few characters with these. Ryo's are pretty low key, but Syu/Kento's more than make up for them.
  • Gai Daigoji of Martian Successor Nadesico sports a pair of chops that nearly rival Ryoma's, though clearly as an homage to Getter Robo.
  • Meito Anizawa (aka Anime Tenchou) from Lucky Star, who befittingly is a parody of Hot Bloodedness.
  • Not one to let a Super Robot homage get past them, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has Zafira sporting these in his human form.
  • Hikaru Ichijou from Macross (and therefore Rick Hunter from Robotech) is occasionally drawn with a small pair of these, depending on which installment you're watching. Other times, he merely has a small, straight whisp of hair in front of his ears.
    • His mentor, Roy Focker sports a very strong pair of sideburns, as befits his status as an Ace Pilot.
  • Yuji Kaido from Blue Gender
  • Taiki Kudou from Digimon Xros Wars.
    • Daisuke Motomiya from Digimon Adventure 02 looks like he has the start of some potentially epic ones.
  • Van from Gun X Sword
  • Subverted in G Gundam: Argo Gulski has the largest Hotblooded Sideburns and eyebrows, but is the calmest cast member.
  • Jamil Neate, the Amuro/Char/Bright Composite Character from Gundam X, has a rather impressive set of sideburns himself. He's kind of a subversion, as he's more The Stoic than Hot-Blooded. Except when he overcomes his piloting phobia and returns to the battlefield.
  • Guy Shishioh from The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar sports a pair made of batteries. By pulling on them, he temporarily gains a huge boost in speed and agility, as well as turning gold.
  • Leiji Matsumoto is a bit fond of this look. Interstella 5555, for example, has these on about half of the main cast. Susumu/Derek of Uchuu Senkan Yamato/Star Blazers doesn't normally have them, but he looks like he does when he puts his helmet on.
  • Kagura from Azumanga Daioh, despite not being so Hot-Blooded, is a Boisterous Tomboy that sports a pair of Nagaideburns.
  • An omake of Kekkaishi features prototype designs for the main character, one of which sports a rather magnificent set of Hotblooded Sideburns.
  • Heinkel Wolfe of Hellsing. Her (or is it his?) partner Yumie's might normally be considered too long to be true Nagaideburns but their sheer fieryness, not to mention her psychotic berserker rage Hot Bloodedness, are more than enough to make them count.
  • A common trait in characters designed by Kazuhiko Shimamoto. You might recognize him as the character designer for G Gundam and Anime Tenchou.
  • Mikuni from Duel Masters. They are so noticeable, the third season dub renamed his character "Johnny Coolburns".
  • Ryo of Project ARMS
  • In a villainous example, Full Metal Panic!'s Gates sports a pair of these. He seems to believe they afford him some sort of protection.
    • Just before he dies in the final episode, he fiddles with his hair and muses that maybe he had it trimmed a little too short.
  • You would think that a story in the firs love genre, specifically Hatsukoi Limited would not have something like this. You'd be wrong, Gengoro Takei, has these as well as the required Hot Blood.
  • Lordgenome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, who's so Badass his sideburns point sideways. It's probably because he might have been based off of Gendo Ikari, whose sideburns extend all the way to his beard like Lordgenome, and who might or not fit this trope too.
  • Everyone in the movie and OAV designs of Ranma ½. While the manga art gives them only thin lines to separate the ear from the cheek, and Atsuko Nakajima's early anime designs made them slightly more noticeable, her revamped designs for later seasons, movies, and OAVs blew up their sideburns into enormous puffs of hair with intricate detail.
  • Gozaburo Kaiba's 'burns [dead link] are only matched by his Big Ol' Eyebrows and his Badass Moustache.
  • Takashi Kawamura from The Prince of Tennis. He's not that Hot-Blooded tho, mostly a Nice Guy... most of the time.
  • Jouji Gouda from Akane Maniax, though he's an Affectionate Parody of Kouji Kabuto and Go Nagai characters in general.
  • Shin from Space Carrier Blue Noah is an early example.
  • Lee Bailong from Shaman King.
  • Charles Beams from Eureka Seven.
  • Impulsive, tomboyish Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena has them; see this image, for example.
  • Kunio Okawara in Gundam Sousei has a mean pair. He's not, however, even closely comparable to Yoshiyuki Tomino in his hot-bloodedness, and Tomino is entirely bald.


Comic Books

  • Pretty much everyone in Elf Quest. This might just be the time period (the original series was published 1978-1984), or it might being Wendy Pini being unable to draw the bases of those huge elfy ears; the few characters from the original series that DON'T have these (Skywise, Winnowill) instead have some soft of accessory hiding that particular area.
    • Elquest's art style (especially Siege at Blue Mountain), owes a lot to Dagger of Kamui (which was a manga contemporary with Nagai's heyday, though not drawn by him). SABM, also has some of the biggest honking 'burns in series history. Pini must like the look though, her early Law and Chaos Elric work has these on Moonglum (Elric not so much, though she did draw him with a goatee for a few scenes).
  • Though it was Depending on the Artist, Banshee was often sideburned. In the Age of Apocalypse, they were postively epic.
    • Mr. Muttonchops himself, Wolverine is pretty hotblooded, to boot.
  • Scrooge McDuck!
    • Ludwig Von Drake, Donald Duck's other uncle, has a pair of nice ones too. Donald himself sports a pair in the short Crazy Over Daisy.
  • Teen Titans member Jericho sported really long sideburns.


Fan Works


Film


Literature

  • In all his official portraits (rumoured to be pretty accurate in appearance, if not the situation) COMMISSAR Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! always has a pair of pretty impressive 'burns.
    • And quite fitting, him being largely an Expy of Harry Flashman, a fictional Victorian officer, given that Victorian times were the peak of the 'burns popularity. On the other hand, Cain isn't in the least bit hotblooded (at least officially), being in fact a calm, calculating Guile Hero.


Live Action TV


Video Games

  • Both good guy Katsuya Suou and one of the major villians sport these in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and we do see that even in Innocent Sin they both had a pair of these as well.
  • Raidou Kuzunoha XIV. Raidou. His sideburns are so ridiculously long and pointy they haven't been able to escape being joked about in fanart, fanfiction, or even their own game.
    • Kazuma Kaneko seems to have some giant sideburn fetish or something. His character designs for the older Persona games and Digital Devil Saga have some pretty large ones. Including Ellie and Ulala... not even the women are spared.
    • In fact, one possible conversation while recruiting demons has one personality type ask if he could pull off Raidou's awesome sideburns to impress girls.
  • The King of Fighters subverts it twice with teenage soldier Leona Heidern and Mighty Glacier Maxima. The former is an emotionally repressed Little Miss Badass. The latter is a stoic, well-mannered Cyborg, The Lancer and Foil to his Jerkass partner K'.
  • Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories's Adell has a pair large enough to obscure his ears entirely, probably to hide the fact that they're pointed.
  • Played for humor in one Super Robot Wars Yonkoma where Shinji is given sideburns by Ryoma in an attempt to make him look tougher.
    • Did it look anything like this?
  • Xaldin from Kingdom Hearts has some rather large sideburns. Parodied to hell and back in this legendary fic.

He is easily recognized by his muscular frame, his sharp blue eyes, his braids (don't ever call them dreadlocks; do you know what you have to do to your hair to get dreadlocks?), but most people instead choose to pick him out by his sideburns, which are rumored to think and act independently of him.

  • Quite a few characters in Sengoku Basara have these, including Yukimura, Keiji, and Toshiie. The real winner is Hideyoshi, though: he has sideburns on top of his sideburns.
  • BlazBlue's Hot-Blooded Ninja Bang Shishigami has them, but since he's partially a Captain Ersatz of Ryoma, it's to be expected.
  • Ippongi Ryuuta and Doumeki Kai from Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan sport some magnificent, Hot-Blooded sideburns.
    • There are a lot more than that. There are at least seven who have them in the series. This includes girls and Agent J.
      • Though really, it's to be expected, considering so much of this series is a blatant, campy shoutout to the very concept of hot-bloodedness.
  • Due to a bit of Off-Model, one of Arcueid's sprites in Tsukihime has Nagaideburns and (more obviously) Nagaibrows. It made at least one troper do a Double Take when he saw it.
  • Rival Schools has Hayato Nekketsu (yes, his last name means HOT BLOODED) who sports quite an impressive pair of Nagaideburns.
  • Resident Sexist Pig Ninja Andrew of Vanguard Bandits has some pretty nice sideburns of his own. But the real master of the Go Nagai style here is the mighty Duke Logan.
  • Endou from Inazuma Eleven achieves this effect with two long locks of hair, one hanging down each side of his head in front of his ears. Each one curves forward a bit before ending in a spike. They're not exactly sideburns, though, in that they seem to only be attached to his head at around forehead height, since they flap around a lot whenever he moves.
    • Another example is Rococo, whose locks curve around behind and under his ears, then end in a spike that somehow points up towards his eyes.


Webcomics


Web Original


Western Animation

  • In Futurama episode 'Reincarnation', Fry's got a pretty sharp pair of these in the animesque portion.
  • Jackal of Gargoyles has these.
  • Admiral Zhao sports a fairly epic pair of sideburns.
  • Lion-O of Thundercats is occassionally drawn like this. Or at least it appears so, since you never see his ears.
  • Control Freak of Teen Titans has a pair of long sideburns.


Real Life

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