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A lot of anime contain characters with a snaggletooth - typically a fang-like
tooth that is displayed on its own. I found it odd as snaggleteeth (misaligned
teeth) are rarely ever shown in any other media. Here are some examples :

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qvIi2m.png) ![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tWcoSm.png) ![enter image
description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/q6clKm.jpg)

[Lucky Star, Oreimo & Slayers Revolution]

I'd like to know how recent this trope is and why it's used so often - does it
serve a specific purpose?

Who was the first character to have a snaggletooth?


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tropes
How old is the snaggletooth trope?


> Who was the first character to have a snaggletooth?

I don't have any source for when historically in anime/manga this was used.
But the earliest that I can think of is Lum from the [Urusei Yatsura
manga](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=2419) and
that was published in the late 70's. From Chapter 1:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0cojU.png)

and also seen, for various circumstances, throughout the run of the manga and
anime. So it's possible that Rumiko Takahashi may have popularized it. You can
see these snaggletooth in a lot of her later work (Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, etc.)

As for the meaning/purpose, the TV Tropes site has [a page for this under
"Cute Little
Fangs"](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CuteLittleFangs), and this
excerpt sums it up pretty well:

> Most often, as suggested by the trope name, the character sports enlarged
> canine teeth. For maximum cuteness, at least one fang will be visible at all
> times, even when the character's mouth is closed, and especially if they
> have a Cat Smile. These indicate, generally, that the character is
> **mischievous, slightly hostile, or a trickster, but not actually "bad."**


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The snaggletooth trope started in the manga [GeGeGe no
Kitarō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeGeGe_no_Kitar%C5%8D), which was first
published in 1960, with the first monster-cat girl Neko Musume, making this 6
years older than the magical girl trope and preceding anime by 4 and regular
cat-girls by at least two decades.

[![Neko
Musume](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wD1ob.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wD1ob.jpg)

Its original purpose was to remind you that Neko Musume had a mouth full of
dangerous monster-cat fangs that could rip you apart.


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