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In Nichijou, characters sometimes make this kind of face when something
frustrating or very stupid happens:

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LQ2Pr.jpg)

Is this a reference to some other popular animated character, or is it a
unique way of expressing an emotion in Nichijou?


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2014-04-22T18:13:35.620
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2015-04-16T16:51:37.433
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tropes nichijou
What's with this face in Nichijou?


I think it's just Nichijou's art style and how it expresses the fact the
characters are gone past surprise at strange happenings and have come to
accept it, the glazed over eyes and straight-line emotionless mouth indicate
this quite well.

In cases where it's something stupid, it gives the impression that the
characters can't even justify a response, because the joke or suggestion was
just so stupid that it's not even worth the effort. So they give blank
expressions and try to move the conversations on. This is usually accompanied
by an awkward silence. This is common outside of anime as a ['tumbleweed
moment'](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/122986/whats-a-word-that-
means-the-same-as-tumbleweed-in-a-desert-symbolizes)

I'm pretty sure that it isn't a reference to any other animated characters and
is just Nichijou doing its own thing :)


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2014-04-22T18:44:39.203
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2014-10-06T21:40:40.160
2017-04-13T12:38:45.803
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Another possibility, although slight - is that it could be a reference to the
series Initial D.

I don't have much information to back this up, but I noticed a distinct
similarity between the faces that Yuko and the other characters make, and some
screen captures and manga sections of Initial D.

The vacant neutral stares of the characters in Initial D seem to reflect a
similar sense of 'not getting it' or being unsure of what to make of a
situation, which is pretty similar to the reaction of the girls.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YuFJJ.png) ![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MU8xR.jpg) ![enter image
description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sREZNm.png)

That being said, I haven't watched the show in its entirety, so it might be a
baseless speculation. There are also better examples of this, I just couldn't
find them again


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2015-04-16T15:41:59.187
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