Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury

A common trope in Manga and Anime (but also in other media) where when a character is injured, no matter what kind of damage he/she has gotten, will hold one of his/her shoulder with the opposite hand.

They may be have been burnt by an explosion, they may have fallen from several meters high, they may have been electrocuted... they will always grasp their shoulder.

Probably due to the Law of Conservation of Detail, or Rule of Cool. Or whatever.

Examples of Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury include:

Anime and Manga

• In an episode of Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus has done this too, even though there was no hint of her being hit in the shoulder.
• Happens from time to time in Sonic X.
• In Rebuild of Evangelion, Shinji does it after being hit by the abrupt landing of a parachuting girl.
• In the very last episode of Death Note, Light Yagami was shot in the hands, but he still holds his shoulder as he tries to escape.
• Whenever the nigh-indestructible Inuyasha is injured, he holds his shoulder. In fact, the only time he doesn't hold his shoulder is when he is literally too injured to move.
• In Berserk Casca holds her shoulder after victorious battle against Adon, where he shot her in said shoulder with a poison dart, so it's justified.

Video Games

• Zero in Mega Man Zero does this when being in a critical low level of health.
• No matter whether tackled, shot, burned, or exploded, your rudie in Jet Set Radio will skate at their fullest until they're at 10% health, in which they're hunched over with a hand on opposite shoulder.
• Commonly used as a shorthand way of saying you're in serious condition in the Resident Evil series.

Western Animation

• In The Legend of Korra, Bolin does this after taking a hit during a pro-bending match. Justified, however, since he did get hit in the shoulder.