Scary Shiny Glasses

It's not Gendo!

Why is Yamazaki winning?

Maybe because he can do the Gendo glasses thing even without a light source?
—Wave Master Megatokyo Forums

These are definitely not Nerd Glasses, although they are sometimes mistaken for them at first. This is a variant of The Faceless.

Traditionally, one's eyes are an indicator of the soul. Large eyes represent honesty and innocence, while smaller eyes indicate darker personalities. Strong-willed girls will have Tsurime Eyes. Moe characters have Tareme Eyes. A trickster will have closed eyes. (Which doesn't necessarily mean they're evil, just that they're sneaky. Of course, many sneaky people are evil...)

If you can't even see their eyes because of the Scary Shiny Glasses, beware—for these are individuals who deliberately wall themselves off from the people around them. If the symbolism is particularly ham-handed, you can even expect the glasses to be non-prescription lenses, easy to break or take off during a moment of epiphany—or death.

The Scary Shiny Glasses can be turned on or off at will by the wearer; they can especially crank it up for intimidation. When they are in effect, the glasses reflect light such that all you can see are two white circles, nothing is visible of the eyes. Often for extra effect their bodies will just be a black outline, with the glasses as the only visible detail.

People with Scary Shiny Glasses never have The Glasses Come Off for just fights. A single flash of the glasses can represent a sudden increase of intention, but to really be Scary Shiny Glasses they need to have an even, creepy glow. A variation is to have the glow complete on one lens, but just a flash or not there at all on the other, allowing the audience to see just how sinister the character is being behind his eyepiece.

The shades worn by The Men in Black are a lesser variant; see Sinister Shades. Characters with Four Eyes, Zero Soul are prone to this. Adjusting Your Glasses—particularly by pushing them up the nose—has an alarming tendency to trigger this trope. Compare Malevolent Masked Men and Opaque Lenses. Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriends, on the other hand, almost never do this, because it's not sufficiently sexy.

Examples of Scary Shiny Glasses include:

Anime and Manga

  • America (of all people) sports these in one episode of Axis Powers Hetalia - granted, it was from the perspective of Canada and he was holding a chainsaw, but we promise it makes sense in context.
  • In times of stress or extreme exasperation, the Scary Shiny Glasses are seen on Yomi in Azumanga Daioh.
    • And Mr. Kimura's glasses are always shiny. Appropriately enough, he's usually creepy.
  • Nice in Baccano!! has these in a scene where she and the rest of Jacuzzi's gang come to save him from a couple of thugs. The scariest thing is that you can see her one good eye over the top of the glasses, and the overall effect of the expression tells the thugs that they are well and truly screwed.
  • Kubo in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu.
  • In the manga Battle Angel Alita/Gunmn, Desty Nova wears spectacles which are essentially opaque, hiding his eyes. Only in moments when his insanity clears does he actually remove them.
  • The Big O episode 18 "The Greatest Villain". Beck's glasses have this trait while he's showing off his hostage Roger Smith.
  • Shingo from Bio-Meat: Nectar. Subverted in that his glasses are shiny when he's trying to seem like a normal human being, or at least refraining from commenting. Goes away after the second timeskip when he's too busy carrying the weight of the world.
  • The only times Undertaker from Black Butler has been shown in shinigami form (in the anime), his glasses do this.
    • All of the shinigami get to do this at least once. Even Grell.
  • Black Cat has a Mad Scientist who has glasses that are occasionally shiny, particularly when he does the other common anime glasses trope: the three fingered pushing glasses up his nose gesture.
  • Roberta in Black Lagoon, whose glasses are fake. She uses them to hide her perpetual Death Glare.
    • Dutch, too. We literally never see him without his glasses.
      • In fact, the only time his eyes are visable behind his glasses is when he has a bit of a crazed look in them.
    • Eda.
  • Bleach:
    • Aizen Sousuke, originally portrayed as a well-mannered and nice guy, occasionally had scary shiny glasses, particularly when Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya learns of his treachery [dead link] . Later, though, his particularly devious plans are revealed, and he breaks his glasses.
    • Uryu Ishida's glasses shine when he ponders something, wants to hide his feelings or gets angry. His father, Ryuuken, is pretty much always pondering, keeping secrets, and being bitter, so his glasses are often shiny.
    • 8th Division lieutenant Nanao Ise in episode 55 when she's angry with her captain for leaving her behind while escaping from Captain Yamamoto.
      • She's actually scarier when she releases her glasses, but this only occurs in the Omake Shinigami Golden Cup. Even someone as sadistic like Mayuri pissed on his pants when he sees her releasing her glasses.
    • Ichigo's zanpakuto Zangetsu in human form.
    • Don Kanonji's glasses often become shiny when he's excited about one of his new ideas (which could be considered frightening). Oddly, sometimes only a quarter of each pane of his glasses glows.
    • Chizuru Honshou: when thinking about Orihime in episode 15, when she sees the beautiful female Arrancar guarding Aizen's floating fortress in episode 214, and while holding Orihime in episode 227
    • The Bount Ugaki while using his doll against the invading Soul Reapers in episodes 89 and 90.
    • The Arrancar named Szayel Aporro Granz, while facing off against Uryu Ishida and Renji in Las Noches.
    • Kisuke Urahara's assistant Tessai Tsukabishi has glasses that sometimes do this.
    • Gyokaku Kumoi in anime episode 181, after he tricks Ichigo and Rukia into interrupting Lurichiyo's wedding ceremony and getting in trouble with the Gotei 13.
  • Serial killer-slash-Yaoi Guy Adrian in the one volume manga Boys Next Door features these in his Creepy Child flashback scenes.
  • In Cardcaptor Sakura, Eriol's glasses go scary and shiny whenever he's being particularly diabolical. Generally occurs when he's creeping on his fellow fifth graders.
    • During the Beach Episode Sakura's friend Naoko tells a ghost story and her glasses go shiny while telling it.
  • As per the description, Aion of Chrono Crusade fame seems to wear these glasses simply to achieve this effect; his eyesight seems to be perfectly fine. Later in the manga when his plans, motivation and backstory are revealed (and he becomes much more sympathetic), he loses the glasses. (The anime adaptation kept him as a Card-Carrying Villain, so he keeps the glasses throughout.)
  • The unnamed Apocryphos disguising as a Cardinal from the church in D.Gray Man.
  • November 11 from Darker than Black boasts Scary Shiny Glasses for a moment during his introductory scene, while he's busy killing some gangsters who tried to double-cross him.
  • Soichiro Yagami does this in Death Note when somebody suggests that Sayu and Matsuda might be getting married.
    • It's also a trademark of the highly unpleasant Demegawa.
  • In Detective Conan, Conan's glasses often go shiny when he's thinking hard, plotting, or experiencing a flash of inspiration.

"Edogawa Conan...tantei sa."

  • Digimon Adventure 02 has Ken. While he's the Big Bad, his villainous outfit is topped off with shades that often do the Scary Shiny thing while he's plotting something.
  • Kurata from Digimon Savers, in which the shiny glasses are used as a label reading " This guy is evil. Really damn evil. So evil we should call him Hitlermon, seriously."
  • Earlier in the Digimon series, Yamaki of Digimon Tamers is almost never seen without his trademark dark red shades (even at night or indoors in a darkened room). Interestingly, while he does take them off to say goodbye to the Tamers and give them a communications device, thereby sealing his Heel Face Turn, he goes right back to wearing them for most of the series even though he's on the good side; in fact, though his intentions have changed, his voice and exterior stay just as menacing.
  • In D.N.Angel, both Satoshi and his (adoptive) father occasional have shiny glasses.
  • Ovan in .hack//Roots
  • Kurama from Elfen Lied to showcase that he is a cold, emotionally tormented individual.
  • In the Manga series Et Cetera, the villain Mr Alternate does this a lot in his first two pages, though mostly an inverted version. The first time, all you can see is a smirk, his monocule, and a spyglass he's useing. Second, both eyes are visible, but nothing else but the outline of his monocule. Lastly, the non monoculed face is covered by a sheet of paper, his face visible. Throughout this, when his pupils are visiible, they are just round circles, not colored in.
  • Dr. Kabapu from Excel Saga does this in his introduction and most of his appearances which covers up his Hellish Pupils. Also occasionally occurs with Koshi Rikdo, Dr. Shiouji, and Lord Il Palazzo (although his glasses are smaller than usually used with this trope).
  • Takami from Eyeshield 21 develops this while using psychlogical warfare in the match between Ojou and Deimon. It doesn't match his personality well, honestly; He's one of the series' most obvious Determinators, and he really cares about all the other players. Bizarrely, this has never happend to him before, even though he always wears glasses. Even when he's playing football.
  • Kuzuki in Fate/stay night's anime adaptation.
  • FLCL
    • Episode "Fooly Cooly".
      • Mamimi gets Scary Shiny Eyes briefly just before rubbing herself against Naota.
      • Haruko gets Scary Shiny Goggles twice during her "run in" with Naota.
    • Episode "Marquis de Carabas". When Naota's father is offering his booklet to Ninamori his glasses glow.
  • Shou Tucker, the "Sewing Life Alchemist", from Fullmetal Alchemist. On the other hand, Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes' occasionally-Scary glasses function entirely backwards, showing his eyes only when a Plan is being Formed.
    • This might actually be more in line with the "concealing one's soul" angle, though - most glasses on the characters are Shiny only during bouts of Obfuscating Absentmindedness, and the effect only subsides when they reveal their true, hypercompetent nature.
    • When he is not busy being a ditzy Cloudcuckoolander, manga Hohenheim switches to Scary Shiny Glasses mode and becomes a competent, badass, and threatening Determinator. Also used to great comic effects to emphasize the weirdness of his body language, as he makes scary revelations and silly comments with an impenetrable face and hidden eyes.
    • Scar did this occasionally back when he wore sunglasses more.
    • An interesting aversion with General Grumann. Normally, his eyes are invisible behind his glasses, which coupled with his smile, gives him a benevolent, harmless look. When his eyes are visible, they are cunning, which reveals his true nature.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: All of the scientists during King Bradley's flashbacks, who have been responsible for training him and other potential subjects to become ideal leaders of Amestris since their births. The light reflected from the scientists' glasses cover their eyes, most notably the lead, gold-toothed scientist. A powerful effect meant to symbolize their descent into depravity and evil, the light in their glasses symolically shuts them off from humanity.
    • The Gold Toothed Doctor embodies this trope. So much so that you don't even see what his eyes look like normally.
  • Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. Shinji Kazama's otaku glasses turn this way when he starts describing the effects of the biological weapon that's been accidentally released in the classroom.
  • Tomu Shirasagi of Gamble Fish often has these.
  • Ayane Isuzu from Gate Keepers 21.
  • Kitagawa in Genshiken does this on occasion.
    • Anybody with glasses in Genshiken, although this is less Scary Shiny Glasses and more either "Hide your Feelings" glasses or "Hide your identity" glasses.
  • Ghost in The Shell has a version of this where not only is the Yakuza boss talking calmly without looking at whom he is talking to, his glasses are shining with the reflection of the porn movie he is watching. (Yes, he is watching a porn movie while talking to the police.)
    • The Major wears these occasionally, usually just to take them off with a cool gesture moments later.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Regene's glasses shine ominously for several moments as he awaits the arrival of Wang Liu Mei and Hong Long, to whom he then leaks Veda's coordinates.
  • In Gundam Wing, Lady/Colonel Une's multiple personality disorder hinges on whether she has her shiny scary glasses on or not.
  • Hanaukyo Maid Tai
    • The Meganekko maid Ikuyo Suzuki.
    • Taro's grandfather in La Verite episode 1.
  • Parodied with Haruko from Hayate the Combat Butler. Light is reflected off her glasses in a manner that resembles a laser. She can use these lasers to burn up pieces of paper.
    • Also played straight in a Shout-Out to Gendo Ikari in the first episode, where Hayate's boss at the bicycle delivery service poses in exactly the same way.
  • Hellsing does this a lot with Alucard, Integra, Anderson, Rip, occasionally Walter, and a few others. It fact, Hellsing thrives on this trope for horror effects. Owning a pair of glasses or shades seems to mark most of the important characters. Admittedly, though, some lesser characters have these.
    • Alucard ditches his glasses for the most part after the first half of the series (people complained that they made him look like a knock-off of similar characters.) Strangely, he can still do this -without the glasses. Admittedly, he may just have glowing pupils.
    • Alucard subverts this in that his eyes are only revealed when he's letting loose. First one, then both, then he becomes a goddamn cloud of eyes.
    • Several others? The Major is actually scarier when his glasses go clear. Because then, you can see the madness behind them.
  • In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, it happens to Irie occasionally. Considering his other personality traits, it's played for laughs.
  • Principal Chieko Sannomiya in I! My! Me! Strawberry Eggs.
  • Parodied with the Genre Savvy Megane Kakeru (whose name is a Japanese pun on "to wear glasses") in Inazuma Eleven. He uses this trope seemingly attempting to look Badass, but fails miserably at it. It doesn't help that he's a short, skinny kid. Nor does the fact that he's been known to cry over someone else stealing his role as Combat Commentator.
  • Murata Ken in Kyou Kara Maou has scary shiny glasses when he's being devious or withholding information from the other good guys. Also Saralegui, who has a shiny moment when he's thinking, but takes his glasses off when he mentally manipulates others.
  • Mikan-Sensei from Ladies versus Butlers!, especially when she's right behind some unsuspecting troublemaker.
  • An early example is Musuka from the film Laputa: Laputa: Castle in the Sky, whose dark glasses display glints of light passing across them, particularly to emphasize when he says or does something particularly devious.
  • Subverted in The Law of Ueki by Kobayashi, who is often arguably scarier (and more badass) when you can see through his glasses. When the Scary Shiny Glasses effect disappears, you know something big is either about to go down, or just did. The subversion is made even stronger by the fact that he's actually quite friendly and easy to get along with (unless your name is Inumaru, of course).
  • Zera from Litchi Hikari Club is not the only character who wears glasses but only his shine omniously as if to indicate that he may very well be a complete monster.
  • In Love Hina, Keitaro's glasses (and to a lesser degree, Naru's) go Shiny at times when they are deep in thought or experiencing intense emotion—a milder version than the scary, sinister usage.
  • Quattro is introduced with these in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and naturally she's the most psychotic of the Numbers.
    • Yuuno manages to pull it off pretty well in season 3 as well, albeit with definite Nerd Glasses traits.
  • In Mahoromatic, both Suguru Misato and his school teacher Shikijo-sensei.
  • Haruna from Mahou Sensei Negima tends to get a humorous version of these on occasion. Usually when she goes on a To the Pain style rant when her friends try to leave her out of something.
  • In My-HiME, Ishigami when he's being evil and Yukino when she's hiding something.
  • Mr. Prospector's glasses on Martian Successor Nadesico go all scary-shiny when he's being a Corrupt Corporate Executive, and lack this feature as he gets more sympathetic. Meganekko Hikaru's glasses are always transparent, because she's both too adorable and too straightforward for this trope to apply.
  • Zack Temple in the anime of Mega Man Star Force, but only for a second. Mainly just to show he's a jerk despite being geeky.
  • Shuichi Takamizawa of Midori no Hibi uses his glasses to hide his figurine Otaku obsession. The lenses will crack to show that his emotions are becoming too much to contain, then appear undamaged when he has control again. When he's being sincere but still scary, one lens will clear while the other is opaque.
  • Kabuto Yakushi, Naruto. What's noteable here is how frequently he pushes them up as if they were Nerd Glasses (sometimes over 4 times in less than a minute) but still maintains his twisted, sadistic, mysterious demeanor.
    • Not to mention Shino, whose eyes (or, according to some theories, lack thereof) are a fairly well-discussed topic among the fandom.
  • Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, who combines this with a Kubrick Stare and clasped hands to devastating effect. (In a pretty obvious thematic nod, his original pair of glasses broke when he rescued Rei, and he took to wearing his sunglasses at all times afterward.
    • In the manga version, the readers - and implicitly Shinji - began to see Gendo's eyes behind his glasses more often as we learned more about him.)
    • The truly frightening part is that Gendo looks even scarier without glasses then he does with them on
    • In Rebuild 2.0, Ritsuko and Mari spend some time doing this too.
    • For whatever reasons, photoshops of Gendo's sunglasses and steepled fingers onto random people and characters became something of a meme, popularly called "The Gendo Pose"
  • Hazuki Fujiwara in Ojamajo Doremi has done this.
  • Eros in the manhua The One. Also Fei Hong as the female version.
  • Captain Kuro on One Piece. Lampshaded when Kaya gives him a new pair for his third anniversary as her butler, and he other attendant says they've been fitted so they won't keep slipping off and reflecting light because of the angle.
    • Sanji also gets one in the Alabasta Arc, in which he dons a pair as his alias, Mr. Prince.
    • In the most recent episode of the anime, Kuma pulls this off too, though in his case it's more like Scary Shiny Focusing Lenses than actual glasses.
    • Admiral Kizaru. He has the power of the Pika-Pika Fruit, making him a "Light Man". That also means he can kick at the speed of light, as well as generally become light and make light-based explosions. Having said that, when he uses his power, his glasses literally become shiny as a the pirate shits his pants for a brief split second before he kicks you. If it even takes that long. Pirates, beware!
  • Kyouya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club.
  • In Overman King Gainer,Gainer does this near the series finale.
    • The bookstore owner in Episode 2 also demonstrates these.
  • Rei from Pani Poni Dash sports these when sufficiently peeved off.
  • Three examples from Patlabor: Officer Shinshi, Mister Utsumi, and Utsumi's henchman Kurosaki.
  • In Pokémon, Max occasionally does this when he's pulling Brock away from a beautiful woman. He's not evil, just really annoyed. And annoying, but that's another story.
    • Later, Conway. Subverted by the fact that Conway is otherwise a pretty normal guy (ignoring the fact that he likes to 'investigate' people - usually girls - and can breathe underwater) and an extremely knowledgeable Pokemon trainer.
      • Well, Conway had some sort of weird device in his mouth to breathe underwater (yes, I'll notice that, and not the fact he's spying on Dawn in a bikini...).
    • Lorelei, though only in the Pokemon Special Manga. In fact, all of her appearances, major or minor, keeps her eyes hidden behind the glare from the glasses, even when standing by the battle between Lance and Yellow. Ironically, the battle is happening in a cave.
      • Note that after her Heel Face Turn during the FR/LG arc, you can see her eyes almost all the time.
    • In the opening of the tenth movie, the first time we see Tonio's face as he is reading the diary, his glasses have a yellow glare, making him look frightening, but then he moves his head and we see him for the kind-looking guy he is.
  • In Prétear, Sasame tends to have his glasses whited-out when he's having a face fault moment...which isn't this trope. However, when he stands on top of the roof, wind blowing dramatically through his clothing and glasses shining as he questions himself about his willingness to attack the woman he loves, then has a Face Heel Turn in the next scene he appears in, it's definitely this trope.
  • In The Prince of Tennis, Inui's already thick Nerd Glasses shine when he's pondering something important, gathers information, or gets mischievous with his Inui Juice. In the manga, the shine is constant; we don't see his eyes, ever, until a good long way in. Other guys with glasses (Tezuka, Kite, Oshitari) also get shiny glasses sometimes.
  • Autor from Princess Tutu is first introduced with a cameo in episode 15, where he appears with whited-out glasses. He has a cameo in every single episode after this up until his true introduction with each time his glasses appearing to glow more and more as he seems to become more and more irate. When he's introduced properly in episode 21 (and we start to get to know him), his glasses barely flash at all—and later, during times of weakness and vulnerability, his glasses actually are knocked off his face.
  • Dr. Ono Tofu from Ranma ½ goes into shiny-glasses mode whenever he encounters Kasumi Tendo, on whom he has (apparently) a deep, all-encompassing crush. He's far from evil, but he spaces so badly during these "attacks" that he can hurt people quite severely, completely by accident.
    • Genma Saotome, of all people, actually pulls this off a couple of times in the anime. And he plays it straight.
  • Yomiko Readman from Read or Die (yes, really). Sometimes Nenene in ROD the TV too. In Anita's flashback, Yomiko's glasses actually glow like headlights.
  • Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
  • In Romeo X Juliet, Lancelot demonstrates this at least once, definitely showing how scary they can be, lurking in the shadows.
  • Dr Jian-yi Nii in Saiyuki is damn good at this. Even when he's backlit, he manages. Now that's talent.
    • Also often used by Tenpou Gensui in Saiyuki Gaiden. Somewhat amusing, since he is actually the past life of good guy Cho Hakkai.
  • Professor Tomoe from Sailor Moon. In fact, we most often seen him as a silhouette with scary shiny glasses.
    • And Ami on occasion.
  • Hypnos from Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas.
  • Lain's father from Serial Experiments Lain does this quite a lot, particularly to depict how alienated Lain gets from the real world. Different from most cases as the effect is more the glow of a computer monitor than the shine of a reflective surface.
  • Dr. Franken Stein of Soul Eater does this; as someone with a Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate; he's pretty much required.
    • Yumi Asuza also does this on occasion, when disagreeing with Stein, and intimidating her colleagues and boss. Also, a few times, Ox Ford's glasses are Scary Shiny.
    • Stein is an interesting case; when he's being incompetent and goofy, his glasses are opaque, but if he shifts suddenly to being serious, one or both eyes become visible. Of course, he plays it straight about as much as he inverts it.
      • When he shifts to goofy, they're not really 'shiny'. They're more Nerd Glasses.
  • Marcoh the X-Law from Shaman King uses this a lot.
  • Itsuki Midoriba from SHUFFLE!, normally only when he's being mischievous.
  • Mr. Stewart from Sonic X
  • Super Robot Wars K uses this to frightening effect, where the screen goes black, and his glasses (the only thing visible) begin to appear and disappear, and each time they get a little bit closer...
  • Yuki Nagato of Suzumiya Haruhi, does this at times.
  • Tasuke Yasuda from Tenshi na Konamaiki.
  • Also occaisionally seen on Yoshou and Noboyuki in Tenchi Muyo!. While it does make them seem briefly intimidating, as they're otherwise very unassuming (especially Bumbling Dad Noboyuki), it counterproductively makes the resemblace between them even more uncanny, which is strange because Yoshou is Noboyuki's father-in law.
    • But still related to him; Word of God says that Yosho has taken more than one wife during his time on Earth, and Noboyuki is his descendant through one of his earlier spouses.
  • Kyoko "Anko" Tohno from Tokyo Majin gets this, usually when a scoop is involved.
  • Kitamura from Toradora! does this on occasion, notably when helping the student council president plan the school culture festival. The effect is often more comical than intimidating.
    • This looked a lot less comical and a bit more sinister, to be honest.
  • Push Vash the Stampede from Trigun hard enough, and he'll put on his Scary Shiny Glasses. If you were the poor bastard who pushed him into this mode, you are absolutely screwed, as this is when he drops his Obfuscating Stupidity and becomes a true force to be reckoned with. The only thing worse than Scary Shiny Glasses mode for Vash is when he's pushed far enough for him to enter "Eyes of the Diablo" mode, in which case you are completely, utterly screwed beyond all hope. Although he still won't kill you.
  • Furoko Tsukumo, mother of Teen Genius Susumu, wears these to show her status as Designated Antagonist on Wandaba Style, or perhaps to hide the fact that her eyes are filled with Shoujo eye sparkles.
  • Brad Crawford from Weiss Kreuz.
  • As mentioned in the page quote, Yamazaki from Welcome to The NHK can indeed do this without a light source. Usually he doesn't have these at all, though.
  • Muraki from Yami no Matsuei; in the anime, it's sometimes coupled with his glass eye glowing when he's about to get nasty with someone.
    • Tatsumi, especially when Tsuzuki is spending too much money on sweets.
  • Anehara Misa from Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou sometimes has this when serious, otherwise she's Meganekko.
  • In the manga Yotsuba&!, Jumbo's glasses sometimes go shiny, but it's more or less inversely to how scary he's being. The one exception is when he forgets himself and accidentally slaps Yotsuba on the back, sending her tumbling across the room.
  • Yoriko from You're Under Arrest does the shiny-glasses routine whenever she tells scary stories or is up to something especially devious.
  • Amon Garam Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, at least after he embraces The Dark Side.
    • Daitokuji-sensei in the second half of season one, coinciding with Eyes Always Shut.


Comic Books

  • For some odd reason, David in the comic book adaption of Shaun of the Dead has this trope, making him look strangely like Gendo Ikari...
  • As an adolescent, Sara/h from The Maxx is often shown in silhouette with only the blank lenses of her glasses visible.
  • The Ax Crazy protagonist of Welcome To Hoxford has this, and he never takes his glasses off.
  • Triple X Ray in Sleeper has this even in the dark. When he finally takes them off it's revealed that his eyes are glowing radioactively.
  • The Corinthian in Neil Gaiman's Sandman always wears reflective sunglasses, but then, that's really preferable to looking at what he actually has in his eye sockets.
  • In "The Hard Goodbye," the first graphic novel of Sin City," the cannibalistic serial killer Kevin wears glasses with lenses that often whited out so his eyes are not visible.
  • Hugo Strange, long-time member of Batman's Rogues Gallery is usually depicted with these.


Film

  • The highway patrolman in Psycho.
  • Godfrey, the road boss in Cool Hand Luke. He's even referred to by several prisoners as the "Man with No Eyes".
  • In The Exorcist, the doctor that initially diagnoses Regan has Scary Shiny Glasses as he scans through the X-Rays looking for something amiss.
  • The airplane pilot at the beginning of Westworld dons a pair.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has Himmler wear these in the brief scene in which he appears. Extra evil points for the glare being the reflection of a pyre upon which books are being burned.
  • In the independent film Ink the bad guys, who are all depicted as usually wearing glasses and glass screens in front of their faces, remove their screens in the climactic battle to reveal that the glasses actually emit their own light.
  • In the film version of The Witness for the Prosecution, the main character has a similar trick using a monocle and a window at the right time of day. The shine is intimidating both to the audience and to those he speaks to, and he claims nobody can lie under its influence. He's wrong.
  • The brutal Knight Templar Big Brother in the Film Noir Sweet Smell of Success J.J. Hunsecker wears these to good effect.
  • Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? wears shiny rimless glasses, as if he wasn't creepy enough. The fact that this Trope is used not once, but twice with those glasses in the film doesn't help us to relax.
  • In the film adaptation of Sin City, Kevin's glasses follow this trope, as suggested by the graphic novel's art style.
  • In Witness for the Prosecution, attorney Sir Wilfred uses his monocle like this for intimidation—and then subverted when the intimidatee pulls the shades down on the window.


Literature

  • In the Dystopia classic 1984, a colleague of protagonist Winston Smith has a hostile spectacle-flash, which is the textual equivalent.
    • Likewise, in Politics and the English Language, also by George Orwell: When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases...one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them.
  • In the C.S. Lewis novel That Hideous Strength, the character of Professor Frost is repeatedly described as having pince nez glasses that would reflect light in such a way as to make his eyes invisible.
  • In John Bellairs' novel The House with a Clock in its Walls, the undead Mrs. Izzard has exactly this sort of glasses which even shine with ghostly radiance during a chase scene, and after her destruction, all that is left of her is her skull and her glasses.
  • In Deathly Hallows, Aberforth's glasses do this at one point when his brother (Dumbledore) is mentioned.
  • Nguyen Seth of the Dark Future novels, a truly terrifying character, has these glasses. At a couple of points he takes the glasses off, and, although his eyes are never described, the characters who see them are never quite the same again.
  • In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Piggy's glasses do this several times.
  • Don't forget William Gibson's Neuromancer! Molly has permanent implanted mirror lenses in her sockets that make her eyes completely invisible.
  • The Major dons these in Stephen King's The Long Walk.
  • In Timothy Zahn's book The Icarus Hunt, it's mentioned offhand that the main character's boss only wears glasses so he can use them to reflect light in the eyes of whoever he's talking to. It's also mentioned that it doesn't work nearly as well over videophone.
  • Dr. Bull from "The Man Who Was Thursday" by Chesterton indulges in this trope, with rather interesting results.
  • Flavia de Luce from "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" doesn't need glasses, but she wears them anyways to invoke this trope.
  • Gideon from Scott Pilgrim uses this effect constantly, in all three media.
  • The Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Moonrunner, has a rather unnerving illustration of a mad scientist character that uses this trope.

Live Action TV

  • Not quite so literal Western example: Mr. Bennet in Heroes wears horn-rimmed glasses, which ramp up his personal creepiness factor.
    • Dramatically. His Fan Nickname during the first season, when he had appeared but his identity was not yet known, was simply "Horned Rim Glasses" or "The HRG."
      • They aren't hornrims, they're browlines—but that hasn't stopped them from referring to him as "HRG" in the show
        • Actually, in the "Heroes Unleashed" commentary that goes with one of the earlier episodes of the first season, it's revealed that in order to keep the twist of his identity a secret, the scripts all referred to Bennett as HRG, making this Word Of God.
  • Self appointed moral guardian Mary Whitehouse is portrayed as having them by the trailers for her upcoming TV biopic, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story. Since the film is made and shown by the BBC, which was one of her most frequent targets, this may be an intentional use of this trope.
  • In one episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron walks around in a pair of motorcycle cop shiny sunglasses, in an homage to the T-1000 in Terminator 2.
  • Admiral Adama's glasses in Battlestar Galactica Reimagined often catch the light and glint ominously when some serious ass-kicking is about to ensue.
  • Rare early Western example: the War Lords in the Doctor Who story "The War Games" (capable of using it to hypnotise human characters).
  • In the Columbo episode "Death Lends a Hand," after the culprit kills his victim, the whole sequence of the coverup (moving the body, etc.) is shown in the lenses of the glasses worn by the actor (Robert Culp), who does not move for the several minutes it takes to play out. Talk about windows into the soul...
  • Top Gear's "tame racing driver," the Stig, wears a helmet with a reflective blue visor which serves the same purpose.
  • The introduction of Simon in Firefly, as part of the misdirection that he's The Mole.

Music

  • The Strange Folk in the music video for Gorillaz' "Fire Coming out of a Monkey's Head" are depicted as pitch black silhouettes wearing glowing red goggles.
  • At one point in his music video for Back and Forth, Doctor Steel's goggles reflect nonexistent flames as he sings about "drag[ging] a burning smile across this nation".

Newspaper Comics

Videogames

  • During the tutorial of Metroid: Other M a scientist says he gave Samus' suit a "polish" and then repositions his glasses causing them to flash, creepy... It turns out this scientist is the reason Metroids still exist.
  • There's one of the most scariest scenes in Condemned:Criminal Origins, where you've been suddently attacked by your recent companion, with a Scary Shiny Glasses effect permanently on. Turns out that this was just a hallucination, though.
  • Latooni Subota from Super Robot Wars: Original Generation is a perfect example. She wears extremely thick coke-bottle glasses that she says are her analyzation glasses; they turn out to be a psychological tool she uses to stay professional at all times.
  • Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog games always hid his eyes behind a pair of round-frame sunglasses, and at one point wore goggles over them. His true eye color (blue) was not revealed until 2006's Sonic The Hedgehog, and even then it was only briefly.
  • In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Kristoph Gavin develops this this when things cease going his way. At one point, you can look through those glasses and see his eyes. It's very, very unnerving.
    • Also in the same game, it is subverted with Winfred Kitaki who LOOKS like he has them (or perhaps very large shadows in place of his eyes), but in reality, they are his eyebrows, and look like glasses because his eyes are always shut.
  • Sparda of Devil May Cry has a one-way purple monocle over his left eye while in his human form.
  • The Sorrow in Metal Gear Solid 3 has glasses that simultaneously blank out and break when he does his ghost routine.
  • Keats from Folklore does this often, like every second scene. He also has scary shiny glasses whenever he's in combat and his Transcendence bar is filling up.
  • It is implied that Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss literally wears his glasses to protect the environment from his eyes. Needless to say, they flash often, especially in the anime adaptation.
  • Played for laughs in Persona 3: FES: In one of the new extra features for the original storyline, Shuji Ikutsuki's glasses do this whenever he thinks up one of his terrifyingly bad puns. This happens a lot. Also, when he goes into full-on Nietzsche Wannabe slash A God Am I territory, his glasses do this too. It abruptly ceases being funny.
    • Players familiar with this trope can spot the twist a mile away, as all but one of his evil mode pictures show up before he reveals his plan.
  • When Mao's glasses start to shine, it's generally a good rule of thumb to get the bloody hell out of there. Usually, it means he's planning to drill a hole in your head to see what's inside the mad science is about to begin, and you're the specimen.
  • Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's infamously creepy Survival Horror freeware game, 1213, features the impatient and batshit-insane Westbury, who torments 1213 through video screens. All that we see of him besides his silhouette are his his huge round glasses. What's more, the shiny glasses are the boss of the second episode, as a pair of giant white circles that fire bolts of lighting at the protagonist.
    • "I saw that, twelve-thirteen!"
  • Beruga, one of the main antagonists in Terranigma. His hometown Mosque is adorned with giant posters of his face, and his eyes hidden behind a pair of opaque round glasses.
  • Professor Hojo from Final Fantasy VII gets a lot of mileage out of this one. Due to the limitations of low-poly models, in-game his glasses are opaque pretty much the whole time. In better-animated Compilation materials, he glints significantly at the drop of a hat.
  • Roxis Rozenkrantz of Mana Khemia. Whenever he's in battle, his idle battle sprite will periodically have an omnimous glare
  • Albert Wesker from Resident Evil does this a hell of a lot. Come 5, it's gotten even worse, as the Virus has apparently done a lot of good for Wesker in this case. He wears mirrored glasses to keep people from seeing his obviously-infected eyes, and the second Jill and Chris open fire, begins teleporting around the room and dodging bullets like he just stepped right out of the Matrix. All without losing the scary as hell shine.
  • Kamek and his fellow Magikoopas from the Super Mario Bros. games all wear identical round, opaque glasses.
  • Iron Tager from BlazBlue: Bringing the Real Soviet Damage with permanent glasses-glow.
  • Aoi-sensei in Aoi Shiro occasionally engages the shine effect, usually when teasing the girls with scary stories.
  • This trope, and a significantly better voice actor, did wonders for The House of the Dead's Goldman when he reappeared in the fourth game.
  • The player can pull this off with Niko in GTA IV, given the right lighting conditions.
  • The clever costume builder can achieve the effect in City of Heroes by combining the glasses costume part with the "glowing eyes" aura.
  • Mr. R of Boy Love game Kichiku Megane uses the common version of this trope from time to time. Is is interesting as it combines with various other features to add to his largely concealed face.
  • The Doctor from Cave Story.
  • In Team Fortress 2, the BLU Engineer has these in the last page of the Loose Canon comic.
  • Ovan from .hack//GU has shiny glasses.
  • In the intro for Worgen, Godfrey shows he has quite an experience when it comes to being scary. Bonus points for the reflection of the worgen's eyes in his glasses.
  • Oswald from The King Of Fighters XI.
  • Michael Thorton's glasses tend to be rather reflective. Sometimes to a ridiculously bright extent.
  • Some of the scientists in Black Mesa in the original Half-Life 1 have glasses like these. Averted, since they're mostly craven cowards.
    • The eyes in the masks of Combine civil protection and overwatch troops in Half-Life 2 shine like this. (CP silver, Overwatch blue.)
  • Batman: Arkham City introduces Hugo Strange with Bruce Wayne's reflection in his glasses. You can even see his eyes under them.


Webcomics


Web Original

  • Secondary villain Mars from Broken Saints sports a pair of glowing red shades, which are appropriately knocked askew when he gets his ass kicked by the heroes.
  • Dr. Horrible, after undergoing his final transformation.
  • While it doesn't appear in game, artwork commonly portrays Hawley Faust from Survival of the Fittest v1 with these.

Western Animation

  • The girl Sarah in MTV's Oddities: The Maxx, a depressed sarcastic lonely girl, who's father turns out not to be dead but the serial killer Mr. Gone. Her thick glasses are not only shiny to the point of opaqueness, they cover almost half her face. The first time you can actually see her eyes (briefly), is when she snaps and threatens to shoot... well, shoot someone, possibly herself, with one of her father's guns. (She doesn't in the end, because she's Genre Savvy and doesn't want to end up as a soppy girl.)
  • In an episode of The Batman, Scary Shiny Glasses were the only sign that Clark Kent wasn't Clark Kent, but Clayface posing as him. That and his terrible acting.
  • The Master in the animated Funny Animal series Road Rovers wears these at all times, though he's the leader of the protagonists. Handwaved at one point, when he explains there's no real reason for his glasses to be glowing like that, it just makes for a cool effect.
    • Considering that the Master doesn't actually wear glasses, it must be a rare case of Scary Shiny Contact Lenses.
  • Curly in Hey Arnold! . Let's just say he's a bit crazy.
  • Seen on Dib in the opening credits of "Invader Zim". Dib's Father and Mrs. Bitters both have eyeless glasses, but their lenses are usually if not always dull, but that likely points to their constant plotting nature.
  • Dale Gribble from King of the Hill is rarely ever seen without his mirrored shades. While he's still a lovably inept doofus, he happens to be the single most devious and untrustworthy character on the show.
  • Cloud biologist Dr. Claude Belgon in the beautiful gothic-steampunk animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (Australia, 2005) is a textbook example of the creepy scientist with shiny glasses. In fact because all the characters have been rendered as layer-on-layer black silhouettes (in the way of Balinesian shadow puppets) with silvery highlights, all you get to see of his eyes are the white circles of his glasses against the black background of his head.
  • Willy Watt develops these in his debut episode of Batman Beyond. The closing, silhouetted scene of him in juvenile hall just makes them scarier, to such a degree that it seems to be affecting the other inmates. (Well, okay, maybe it was really because he made a TV explode, but the glasses played a role in it.) The next time he shows up, he's ditched them because they don't really work with his new tough guy persona.
  • Norman Osborn has these at one point in The Spectacular Spider-Man. During the transformation of Flint Marko into a supersoldier (under the watchful eyes of Norman, Otto Octavius and mob enforcer Hammerhead), the experiment goes terribly wrong, and the view cuts from the screaming Marko to the horrified Octavius to the somewhat unnerved Hammerhead, then straight to Norman, who is watching utterly impassively with light from the experiment reflecting opaquely off his glasses. It was very creepy.
  • Daria gets this when she tells her ghost story on a family camping trip. "... and then the witch disposed of Gretel's intestines for fear of bacterial infection."
  • Played for Laughs on Phineas and Ferb, when Lawrence uses them to win an evil glare competition.

Real Life

  • Becoming a Dead Horse Trope in real life (if it ever actually applied) due to the affordability of anti-glare coating on lenses.
    • Nevertheless can still happen at some angles despite the coating, although never to the extent used in fiction.
  • Lavrentiy Beria (the chief of Stalin's secret police) and Heinrich Himmler (the SS Reichsfuehrer) wore round glasses. These glasses were probably not so shiny... but both guys, no doubt, were scary and creepy!
    • Also see the (still bad, but more Knight Templar) Maximilien Robespierre pimp-glasses. Which might have been shiny, and are occasionally portrayed in fanworks as such.
    • Oh, Beria's glasses were shiny.
    • Himmler's, too.
  • General Douglas MacArthur. Probably not unrelated, he was dismissed by President Truman... because he asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to draw up plans to nuke China, should the necessity arise.
    • Part of that was because MacArthur continually circumvented the chain of command by going directly to the public and making his criticism of the Truman administration known.
  • Invoked by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. The volunteers playing guards were given sunglasses to wear at all times.
  • According to this Cracked article, real life lawyers invoke the trope to help hide the shifty eyes of their clients.
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