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If you've seen much anime, you're familiar with the male character getting a
bloody nose when he gets sexually excited. For example:

![Master Roshi \(Dragon Ball\)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/v7TF4m.jpg) ![Umino
Iruka \(Naruto\)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Tp8rTm.jpg)

Master Roshi (Dragon Ball) and Umino Iruka (Naruto)

However, when I mentioned this to a Japanese person (someone who was not a big
anime viewer), she was confused, and adamant that a bloody nose would normally
just mean that the person was excited in general, and it would not necessarily
have anything to do with sexual excitement.

This could (and seems likely to be) true for Japanese day to day real life,
but very different in anime, where the connection to libido seems very clear.

Is there someone that can explain this difference? Is the "bloody nose" in
anime just used to signify excitement, and it just happens to often (always)
be sexual excitement because of the plot? Or is it supposed to be just
understood how a bloody nose is interpreted in anime is different from normal
life?


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tropes
Does the "bloody nose" trope necessarily imply a sexual situation?


According to
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime#Facial_expressions):

> Male characters will develop a bloody nose around their female love
> interests (typically to indicate arousal, which is a play on an old wives'
> tale).

It has a reference in the end of this sentence that leads
[here](http://www.umich.edu/~anime/info_emotions.html).

I am not sure if these are reliable source, though...


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The bloody nose gag exaggerates the rise in blood pressure when people are
aroused, to such a degree that blood shoots out of the aroused character's
nose.


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As far as I know, it comes from embarrassment more than arousal. Note that it
tends to not be perverts who get bloody noses (at least not when they're
dealing with someone other than their primary love interest). Instead, it is
the semi innocent/honorable hero/supporting character, the one who is not
actively trying to look at a female's chest.

When presented with this kind of situation, all of a sudden, they tend to
become quite embarrassed. This embarrassment normally leads to the face being
filled with blood (blushing). BUT, to show an extreme case of this
embarrassment, their nose bleeds instead from the excessive blood pressure
buildup.


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Gilles Portras, author of [The Anime
Companion](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1880656329), wondered the
same thing:

> "So I asked a few Japanese and got a variety of pseudoscientific, and
> occasionally embarassed, explanations about humidity and blood pressure. But
> the best response I got was from one fellow who simply recounted that when
> he was a child he was told by his mother that if he stared at a pretty woman
> he would get a bloody nose."

It's basically superstition, like if you sneeze once someone is saying
something good about you. If you sneeze twice they are saying something bad.
If you sneeze three times, you have a cold.


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No actual proof here, but...

I would suspect that the anime writers just use bloody noses when they think
it is funny, not taking actual Japanese beliefs or day-to-day customs into
account.

It is way more funny when heroes get bloody noses when they get an accidental
look than when perverts get a look (all the time).

On the other hand it is also funny when a pervert gets a bloody nose all the
time (in extremes). As already mentioned, Jiraiya is an example of this. Sanji
is even a better example as his bloody nose becomes _life threatening_ at a
certain point!


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According [here](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Nosebleed), in
anime, nosebleed mostly happens to a character being sexually aroused. It is
an exaggeration of having high blood pressure when a real person is sexually
aroused.

> In Japanese media, healthy young men that have no other sexual outlet will
> often suffer nosebleeds upon seeing the naked female body, or even just a
> pair of well-filled panties. It's probably a side effect of High Pressure
> Blood in a body that's Overdrawn at the Blood Bank.

And it is somehow a metaphor to this:

> The nosebleed is, of course, a visual shorthand/euphemism for sexual
> arousal. It is commonly interpreted that way for males and females, with
> little trickles of blood indicating mild arousal, and gushing fountains of
> blood indicating erection/extreme arousal in both sexes. It can also be
> interpreted as shorthand strictly for erections in males. In that case, when
> blood shoots from the nose explosively, and in ridiculous quantity, the
> implication would be an ejaculation.


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As explained on [MedlinePlus Medical
Encyclopedia](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003106.htm):

> Nosebleed can be caused by:
>
>   * Irritation due to allergies, colds, sneezing or sinus problems
>   * Very cold or dry air
>   * Blowing the nose very hard, or picking the nose
>   * Injury to nose, including a broken nose, or an object stuck in the nose
>   * Deviated septum
>   * Chemical irritants
>   * Overuse of decongestant nasal sprays
>

>
> Repeated nosebleeds may be a symptom of another disease such as high blood
> pressure, a bleeding disorder, or a tumor of the nose or sinuses. Blood
> thinners, such as warfarin (Coumadin), clopidogrel (Plavix), or aspirin, may
> cause or worsen nosebleeds.

To answer your question, your Japanese acquaintance is right that in real
life, a bloody nose would normally just mean that the person was excited in
general, and it would not necessarily have anything to do with sexual
excitement. In my experience, though, it's usually due to the causes listed in
the bullet points, not due to high blood pressure. I would go with @ʞɹɐzǝɹ 's
answer that it is a superstition/myth that is perpetuated in anime and manga,
which this [potentially NSFW
video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUS74d4pC2c) debunks (rather
unscientifically) in a light-hearted manner.

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hko3zm.jpg)
![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uDXCnm.jpg)

Screenshots from the video. The big captions read "Verification method: the
woman in front will get naked without warning" and "Will the nosebleed come
out?"


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It's possible that the response of the 'Japanese person' in one of the above
comments, that it's a sign of excitement in general, is probably correct. In
'Black Clover,' the character Gauche Adlai exhibits the characteristic anime
nosebleed over a little girl, Marie - but she is merely his sister, whom he
worships, and nothing more.

In anime, not all nosebleeds are a sign of sexual arousal - but perhaps all
instances of sexual arousal are signified by nosebleeds.


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