

It is a circle on the eyes. Often lazily drawn in that is fixed without
reference to lighting. Totally detracts from any quality of the drawing. For
some characters, it used for personality showing but generally it is just of
no value. What I mean is something like this.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fv5hkl.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fv5hkl.jpg)
Why do nearly all human-like characters have it in both eyes?

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tFy5V.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tFy5V.png)
Here is another terrible eye glow. The first example just this looks eye
cancer.

People are giving answer examples for when the animator gave a damn about
drawing eye glow for a point whereas the question is more about the enormous
of examples where the animators added an eye glow for no point- to really
answer the question what is guiding junior animators e.g. is it that senior
animators say you have to add eye glow. Maybe there are better guides to
animation but this particular one doesn't eye glows at all.  
<http://kotaku.com/a-serious-look-at-big-anime-eyes-1737751337>


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question
tropes
Why do anime always have an eye glow arbitrarily drawn in


Because when you look at a person, generally you will see the light from the
environment reflected back _from both eyes_. Even in low light situations,
photographs of people reflect the ambient light sources.

It's there because the absence of the reflection looks more unnatural and flat
than the "lazily" as you call it drawn in reflections. I would suggest that it
would be prohibitively expensive for every frame of every face to be checked
with every scene to accurately depict every strong light source.


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Depending on the series, the _fact_ that these eye highlights appear can be
exploited to add the effect of unhappiness, shock, horror, or any other
emotion outside of "normal" for a stock character. The general trope for this
is called [Dull Eyes of
Unhappiness](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DullEyesOfUnhappiness),
and has prevalence not just in anime, but in other media as well.

For a particularly jarring example, let's take Kotonoha from _School Days_.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IpMHX.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IpMHX.jpg)

In this shot, Kotonoha is at a bare minimum in a "normal" state; she's happy
and in general, relatively in her right mind.

I won't go into the details of that series, but let's just say...she goes
through some things1. And we can tell _due to the lack of eye lights._ 2

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3HEHS.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3HEHS.jpg)

Almost immediately, even those of us who aren't familiar with this story, we
can see that this character is acting or feeling outside of the norm, which is
a strong plot-driving point.

In other cases, it can be used for comedic effect. In the series _Morita-san
is Taciturn_ , the main character _always_ has eyes like this.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WO2ep.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WO2ep.jpg)

However, **very much unlike** any stock example of this trope, Morita is a
very happy-go-lucky person, even with her eyes in this shade (and everyone
else's _without_ ). In this scenario, we could even call this "normal", and if
her eyes were to go suddenly include eye lights, we'd have a similar reaction.

This doesn't even include scenarios in which the eye lights are exaggerated
for a character that is crying, either.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BivC0.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BivC0.gif)

Here, the _overabundance_ of eye lights gives the illusion of tears forming,
which can be either the emotion of sadness...

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GKzvv.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GKzvv.gif)

...and with this example from _Trigun_ , the overabundance of eye lights gives
the illusion of frustration or anger.

* * *

All of this to say that this effect _very much_ has a purpose and very much
has a place. In series that mandate it, the _lack_ of it can (and often
should) shift a person's perception about a scene or the state of a character,
and is used for theatrical effect as well as a plot device.

* * *

1: I'll accept my _Understatement of the Century_ award, thank you very much.

2: Oh, and the tears are a dead giveaway, too.


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