

When we have scene showing a person (or many people) sleeping soundly, it's
quite common to have one of them saying "I can't eat anymore" 「もう食べられないよ…」 in
their sleep.

According to [this forum
thread](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21670) on
ANN, this trope has been observed in:

  * _Cowboy Bebop_ (by Edward)
  * _Air in Summer_ (by Kanna)
  * _Inu-Yasha_ (by Shippo)
  * _Super Milk Chan_ (by Milk-Chan)
  * _CardCaptor Sakura_ (by Kero, also inverts the joke in one instance)
  * _Sailor Moon_ (by Usagi)
  * _Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu_ (by Tessa)
  * _Gokujou Seitokai_ (by Randou Rino, in episode 24)

Since the forum thread above is from 2006, the examples are quite old. Below
are some recent examples:

  * _Brynhildr in the Darkness_ (by Kotori)

Thanks to [Pawl Rowe](https://anime.stackexchange.com/users/13167/paul-rowe)
for providing the example above

(Feel free to edit in more examples and images showing this trope, preferably
from recent series).

**What is the origin of this trope?**


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tropes
What is the origin of the trope where a person says "I can't eat anymore" 「もう食べられないよ…」 in their sleep?


According to
[Chiebukuro](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1087146595),
an early source is a 落語 ( _rakugo_ ) performance act titled
[「品川心中」](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%93%81%E5%B7%9D%E5%BF%83%E4%B8%AD) (
_Shinagawa[Shinjuu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinj%C5%AB)_, meaning
"Lovers' Suicide in Shinagawa"
[[Shinagawa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinagawa) is a ward of Tokyo])
written in the [Edo era](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period) (between
1603 and 1868) (unsurprisingly, the tale revolves around a double lovers'
suicide). [_Rakugo_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakugo) is a form of
Japanese verbal stage entertainment. A single storyteller sits in [_seiza_
position](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza) and tells a long and complicated
comical story which involves dialogue of two or more characters. The art was
invented by Buddhist monks in the [9th and 10th
centuries](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakugo#History) to make their sermons
more interesting.

Because the work was a live performance so long ago, [conclusive historical
evidence does not
exist](http://www.eurartproject.com/artworks/shinagowa_lovers_suicide/), but
it is generally believed that the story included the following lines of
dialogue:

> 「ほら、あんた、起きとくれよ！」( _Hora, anta, oki to kure yo!_ )
>
> 「ふぇぇー？ もう食えねぇ～．．．」 ( _Fuee~? Mou kuenee~..._ )
>
> 「何言ってんだい、お前さん、時間だよ．．．」 ( _Nani itten dai, omae-san, jikan da yo..._ )

meaning

> A: Hey, you, wake up!
>
> B: Huhhhh? I can't eat anymooore...
>
> A: What're you talking about, hey you, it's time [to get up]...

「食えねぇ」( _kuenee_ ) and「食べない」( _tabenai_ ) both have the [same
meaning](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3016/what-is-the-
difference-between-%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%86-and-%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%B9%E3%82%8B): "can't
eat." The " _kuu_ " pronunciation is used by men and has a rougher sound, and
is also used to refer to animals consuming their food.

The inclusion of this line in various manga indicates that **even to the
present day, dreaming of eating so much food that you couldn't possibly eat
any more is considered a good dream** : such a good dream that you don't want
to wake up from it.


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